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Hm... I don't really feel like blogging about school stuff. I tend to get carried away, then I waste too much time typing too much. Let's just say school has been really fun so far. Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating. It's been fun at times, and not so at others. There. Short and sweet.
I can't remember if I've mentioned this in my blog before, but since somewhere around the middle of last year, I sustained some sort of injury (I'm no expert) in my right shoulder. I think it occured during softball training. Probably the first training after a few months of no-training that followed the nationals. Being the lazy (or heck care) person that I am, I usually don't do warm ups. It happened quite long ago, but I remember I was throwing ball for warm ups (ok, sounds contradictory here, but this "warm up" is throwing ball warm up, not the overall body warm-up). I must have strained something when I tried to throw hard. Then some part in my right shoulder started hurting. Not the sharp pain felt with a cut or slap (ow), but a kind of, um quite sharp pain? Anyway, it just hurt.
I was gonna do the summary of the five days of school this week yesterday, but I came back really exhausted from CIP. I never knew CIP could be tiring, lol.
Well. After writing the two posts (see above two posts), I don't really feel like I can continue. And this is supposed to be the longest of the three, 'cos it's about the 5 days of lessons. I don't think I'll describe each day in detail. Just the essence of the whole week. Brand's Essence of Chicken. Yum. Ok, I digress...
Ok... I've decided to make a post on my hair, just to keep this blog alive, otherwise I'd have started an unofficial blogging hiatus, haha. But before I start, lemme just add that I've been really busy (still am), and I've been coming back really late these few days, so that's why I haven't been blogging/haven't had to mood to blog everyday. Let's start...
So, first day. Combined flag raising again. Very fun. Back at the terraces again.
Sigh... school officially starts tomorrow. I'm still in holiday/orientation mode. Aargh. I don't feel like studying. I don't know what to pack in my bag. I don't have the timetable. I don't know what to expect tomorrow. I don't feel ready. Sigh...
Note: This post is meant to be read as if it's been posted on Friday, not Saturday. And if you're planning to read this whole post, be forewarned- it's one HUGE post. Longer than my MRP, lol. Just over 3100, not including the 1400-word script, which was not written by me. Spent almost 3 hours on this... Some opening music plays) Host: Hi! Welcome to “Live with Calvin”, your favourite relationship help line show! Let me take my first call tonight. Host: Hi, you’re live with Calvin! Caller: Hi Calvin! I am Ah Boy ah. I am very shy one lor. I want to find some one to pak tor, but like tah pai cannot get the right gal lor. Can you give me some advice? Host: Well. There is a general rule when it comes to dating women. The type of women you should avoid like the plague. Type 1 – the possessive freak, or stalker. Scenario 1: Possessive girl Narrator: It is one in the afternoon, on Friday the thirteenth. Stalker: Hello honey! What are you doing now? BF1: Having lunch with my colleagues. Stalker: Male colleagues? BF1: Yes, male colleagues. Stalker: Are you sure? I thought I heard a girl’s voice. BF1: Honey, that’s the waitress. Stalker: Well, to be sure, I should talk to her. BF1: Honey, don’t be silly! How can I hand my phone over to a waitress? Stalker: Well I don’t care. Do it NOW. BF1: Honey, PLEASE. Stalker: Fine. Say you love me. Blow me a kiss. NOW. BF1: What? Sorry? Stalker: Dear, I’m not joking here. BF1: Fine, fine, I love you. Stalker: (Act cute tone) I love you too, honey! Bye! (Scene changes, now a shopping trip) (Stalker is talking, BF1 looks around) Stalker: Hey, how come you aren’t listening to me! BF1: Huh? Stalker: (Grabs BF1’s head and turns it towards her) I want you to look at me throughout this entire shopping trip. Me me me! Me ONLY! (BF1 shrieks in agony) (Scene changes back to Live with Calvin) Host: Hard life, that one. The second type of girl you should never date is none other than the bimbo. Scenario 2: bimbotic girl (Scene changes, now BF2 and bimbo are in front of Wisma Atria) Narrator: It is 10 in the morning right in front of the doors of Wisma Atria. BF2: (Tries to hold bimbo’s hand, but gets shrugged off) Don’t you want to hold my hand? Bimbo: (Grumbles) Oh honey, I just had a manicure! (Stares at nails, then suddenly becomes very pleased) Oh honey, don’t you think they’re so PINK? BF2: Oh, ok. (Stares weirdly at audience) Bimbo: You know the other day; there was this guy on the road who asked me, “How do you get to the other side?” Then I told him, aren’t you already on the other side of the road? Don’t you think it’s so funny??! (Starts laughing hilariously) (BF2 forces a laugh) Host: Now, the final type of girl you should never date is the chor lor girl, or hen pecker. (Scene returns to Live with Calvin) Scenario 3: Chor lor girl CLG: Oi! You listening to me or not! BF3: Er, yes I am. (Pretty girl walks past, played by Yeong Chyn) CLG: Eh, that girl pretty or not? BF3: Ok lah. CLG: What ok lah! She prettier or I prettier? (Points umbrella at BF3’s neck) BF3: Err. Erm. Different kind of pretty. CLG: What different kind of pretty!? BF3: Just different lah! CLG: I don’t care, I want an answer! (Jabs BF3 with umbrella) BF3: Err you prettier you prettier. CLG: Good. Next time when I ask a question, I want a definite answer. (Puts umbrella down) BF3: Ok. CLG: Anyway, if one day, your mother and I fall into the river together, whom will you save? BF3: Huh I don’t know leh. CLG: Liar! How can you not know? BF3: Erm (hesitates). My mother I suppose. You can swim and she can’t. CLG: (Shrieks) What?? (Hits him with umbrella) Host: Time for commercial break. Be right back. (**Applause!!) Commercial break: COURTS First board: We apologize for this low budget advertisement Second board: But for what we lack in, we make up with high quality performance Third board: Low budget ad, high quality skit Courts, serving you better.(people rush out) (Back to Live with Calvin) Host: Welcome back to Live with Calvin. So much for the girls. Let’s take our second call. Caller: Hello, Calvin ah. I am Ah Girl ah. I am trying to find a date lor, but Hwa Chong boys got like so many types, how to choose? Host: Well, like women, there are some men you should avoid like the plague. The others would be fine. The first type – the mama’s boy. (Scene changes: HCJC, where MB and GF1 are preparing to go out.) Scenario 4: Mama’s boy GF1: Hey, where do you want to go today? MB: Er, I don’t know leh. GF1: Come on, you’re a guy! You should make a decision! Be a man! MB: Huh… (thinks for a while) Oh I know! We can ask my Mummy. She knows everything. GF1: (Xian diao) Oh ok forget it forget it. We’ll just walk around. (MB shrugs) (Walking, walking, GF1 tries to hold his hands, but MB jerks away.) Hey! What’s your problem? MB: Err, my mummy says we cannot have physical contact until after marriage. If you want to touch me, let’s get married first! GF1: Not even holding hands? (MB shakes head guiltily, GF1 totally exasperated) GF1: Eh, why don’t we go to the beach? MB: (Panics) Huh! Cannot! My mother says there might be tsunami! Cannot cannot. GF1: (ARGH!!) Go marry your mother then! (Storms off) (Back to Live with Calvin) Host: So much for obedience. Type 2 is the fickle minded, flirtatious guy, otherwise known as the playboy. Scenario 5: Fickle minded (Scenario changes: PB walks in with GF2, holds a comb, licks it, and runs it through his hair) (Meiling walks past with Rachel, and PB stares at them with a REALLY flirtatious look) GF2: What are you looking at? PB: Oh, nothing, nothing. (GF2 turns back, PB continues to stare) (GF2’s phone rings, and she goes over to the other side to answer it) (PB goes over to Wangye, who is reading a magazine) PB: Hey babe, looking good tonight. (Wriggles eyebrows) (Wangye gives a forced smile, edges away) PB: Hey, at least tell me your name! (Wangye rolls eyes, continues reading) PB: Come on, I just want to be friends. Could I have your phone number? (PB stretches his palm to her and gives her a pen, Wangye writes. Meanwhile, GF2 turns around and see him) PB: (reading phone number) 9…99?! (Wangye whacks his head with the magazine and walk off. GF2 comes forward and pulls him by his ear off the stage.) (Back to Live with Calvin) Host: The last guy is perhaps the worst of them all – the irresponsible one. Scenario 6: Pregnant girl Narrator: GF is currently carrying pai kia’s baby but… GF: 我 有 了 你 的 孩 子 。 怎 么 办 ？ So are you going to marry me? You promised! Pai kia (looks happy): huh? Since when? 你 不 要 自 作 多 情 啦 ！I’m sure that your baby is not mine. GF: 这 是 咱 们 合 作 的 结 晶 啊 ！ How can you say that! Pai kia: haiya! You don’t come and cheat me. I know you are desperate to marry me cause I have lots of $$$. GF: how can you do this to me? 我 们 不 是 说 好 有 难 同 当 , 有 福 同 享 吗？(then faint) Pai kia walks away heck care. (Back to Live with Calvin) Host: Well, so much for love bringing happiness. Now, let us listen to what our two callers have to say. Caller (male): The examples were really classic! I'll watch out in the future. Caller (female): Me too! Host: So, do you all want to do some self introduction and list down some of your expectations, so that people interested can write in for your contacts? Caller (female): Oh okay. I’m a quiet girl looking for a humorous guy. Simple as that. Host: What about you XXX (male caller)? Caller (male): Oh, I am a guy who jokes around, looking for girls who will listen to me. Host: Aren’t you two fitted for each other then? (whatever lightning or spark thingy) Host: Well, I’m glad we have managed to match-make people. That’s all we have this week! See you next week on Live with Calvin! Bye! JoeChee: This show is proudly sponsored by McDonald’s. (Second Advertisement: I’m jamming it) Cashier: Good evening sir, may I help you? Guy: Can I have a fan-tastic burger please? Cashier: There you go, three dollars twenty cents. (Guy bites into burger, music starts and everyone runs out and says imjammingit) END
So, on to the good stuff. Erm, well my main purpose of this post is again for the sake of my loyal readers, lol. I'm just gonna crap. I do have one important thing to talk about though- my first official blogging hiatus. 5 days. 'Cos I'm going to Malaysia for Chinese New Year, as I've always been doing (every year, except for one year, long ago). My grandma (paternal side) lives in M'sia. The northern-most state. And we drive up (car) there! 10 hour trip. So fun. Sit in car do nothing. Two more years and I can help drive for part of the trip, haha.
Anyway, it's been a real dilemma this year. 'Cos I've gotta skip a day or two of school, otherwise there'd be no point going (go for 4 days only, including 20 hours of travelling time?). So it was either skip Friday, the celebrations, or skip Wednesday, the day which our Econs lecturer felt was a perfect day for a quiz, which would contribute (albeit only a really small %) to the final overall grade. I really didn't wanna skip any day. But I had to, or else I had to stay behind.
So I used principles of Econs and weighed the EMC (costs) and EMB (benefits) of either choice. LOL. I heard that the CNY celebrations at HCI are "legendary". Sigh... but I really don't wanna miss the quiz, the "easiest quiz to score", according to the Econs lecturer when I went to ask her what happens if I missed the quiz (apparently the weightage will be snowballed to the other two quizzes and two assignments). CNY or quiz?
I decided to forgo Friday, the "legendary" Chinese New Year celebrations. I can always go next year (decided to give next year's trip to M'sia a miss if this happens again). Besides, we probably have to dance the fac dances, and probably the mass dance too! I don't mind giving that a miss, haha. And it's not just the quiz that I'd rather not miss. It's the lessons. Not gonna be that easy to catch up. No CNY celebrations for me then...
Sigh... there's also a STJ after the CNY celebrations. Senior(class)-Treat-Junior(class). Too bad they had to choose that day for the STJ. I want a free meal! haha. Anyway, even if I decided to stay on for the celebrations, I still wouldn't be able to go for the STJ. So I can't do anything about that. Except just listen to the rest about how good (or bad, lol) the food was when school reopens next week.
Aargh. I think my arm's not fully healed yet. I felt some pain just now. Dammit.
10.42 already. Gonna go sleep. Here's to all my loyal readers: 新年快乐！
Oh, and remember- no new posts for 5 days. Don't complain in my tagboard about my stagnant blog. That means YOU, lok.
EDIT: Apparently there are a lot of language errors in this post. I changed a few obivious spelling errors, but I'm not in the mood for a tedious editing of this post. So there. Live with it.
hyperxi's life @
1/25/2006 10:13:00 pm
Sunday, January 22, 2006
My Shoulder
I didn't really give much thought about the pain. "It'd probably go away after a while" was what I said to myself. It sort of did. For a while (maybe 'cos I didn't really notice the pain). Then a few weeks after that, when I was doing PT at home, my right shoulder started hurting again when I did push ups. It was really frustrating. After only around 10 push-ups, I couldn't do anymore 'cos it hurt. But even then I didn't do anything about the pain.
Fast forward to now. Or rather, to yesterday. It still hurts. It doesn't in resting position, only in some orientations of my arm. So I finally decided to do something about it. My aunt brought me to see some sinseh today (in case you're confused, "today" means today- Sunday). I saw that sinseh twice before. Once for my injured little finger (also from softball training. It's ok now, but doesn't seem as straight as the other, haha), and another time for my knee (sharp pain in joint). Today that sinseh did the usual stuff again. He did that "vacuum in a bottle" thing on my shoulder. Ow. And he wrapped some "chinese medicine" stuff on my shoulder. Irritating thing. Obstructs my right arm's movement. And some quite smelly (not really that smelly. It's getting quite pleasant, lol), fluid from the herb stuff keeps seeping out and staining my white (but now spotted at the right shoulder) shirt. Hopefully it washes off. If not.... well, there's nothing I can do about it.
Please let my right shoulder be ok. I've been tormented by the pain for half a year. I can't do push ups properly. I wanna get back to my normal PT regimen (lol, makes me sound so exercise-crazy. I'm not. Really).
[EDIT @ 8.52pm: OWWWW. Now the part (some bit of muscle or something) right about my right elbow hurts. A LOT. A lot more than my shoulder. I think it's cos I haven't been moving my right arm much. I just realised I've been 'subconsiously' lifting up my right shoulder the whole tim, and not relaxing it like with my left shoulder. Maybe that puts extra strain on the elbow region. OWW. ]
Note: There are TWO other posts for today, you ignorant fool. Scroll down. Please? Ok, you're not a fool. Happy? Fine, you're not ignorant either. *Mumbles something*.... Huh? Alright already, you're not an idiot too! Go read the other two posts!
hyperxi's life @
1/22/2006 04:47:00 pm
Yesterday's CIP
So, here's basically what happened yesterday. See the previous post on the five days of school (scroll down).
Had to meet in school at 7.45. So I set the alarm for 7. My brother tried to be smart and turned off the alarm without telling me. I didn't know. I adjusted the alarm from 6 to 7, but didn't check the "alarm on" indicator. Luckily, for some reason I woke up at 6.54. I lay down for a few minutes of extra 'sleep', before the alarm rang (cos I thought it was on, are you following?). In what could be called "even more luckily", I 'woke up' again at 7.04. Realising that the alarm hadn't rang, I check the clock, and finally knew what happened (that my brother turned of the alarm the night before. You seriously aren't following).
Anyway, I reached school exactly on time- 7.45. So we boarded the bus to West Coast CC. Slacked around before the briefing started. There were some people from other schools. River Valley Sec and NJC to name a few. But we (Artemis J1s) made up the bulk of the "volunteers". What were we doing? Oh, right. Um, basically the West Coast CC was organising a "collection of old stuff" thingy. We were supposed to help karang gunis collect the 'stuff'. I think they give the CC money for the 'stuff' before reselling to dunno-who, and the CC uses the money to buy (new) stuff for "old people". Something like that. They didn't really explain in detail what the whole initiative was about. And we didn't really bother to ask. LOL.
Our class (16 of us, the rest "couldn't make it") was supposed to be the collection ICs. Two people in each collection point (don't act smart and say there were 8 collection points. There were more. We weren't the only ones being collection point ICs. But 8 is close... quite.) But they also needed 4 "collectors". They asked for "4 strong macho guys". lol. I don't usually volunteer for such things. But in my class, I suppose I can be considered one of the "4 strongest", haha. Maybe. Dunno la... but I volunteered. The 4 of us were supposed to follow the lorries/trucks (by hitching a ride, of course, not by running after the lorry!) to the various locations and help load the lorries. Then we went back to the unloading point to, well, unload, obviously.
Everybody else (collection point ICs and the collection people) headed off to the various locations first. The four of us played capteh in the hall in the CC, haha. My capteh skills still not bad. I think I actually improved! And I haven't played in ages. 开窍, lol. It was fun while it lasted. One of the people in charge then came to bring us the the lorries.
We were each assigned to one karang guni, with his lorry. So after a short bit of decision making (like who goes where), we set off.
The rest of them may have had 'slack-y' jobs, but us four slogged it out, man. I think I made about 5 trips to various collection points. Each time I had to help load the stuff and unload the stuff. Loading wasn't that difficult, 'cos the collecting people were there to help load the stuff onto the truck. Except for the last collection point, where I think they got tired of waiting (some points had to wait much longer than others for us collectors to arrive) and left. Slackers. Anyway, as I was saying, it was the unloading that was difficult. It was only, me, the karang guni guy and his indian helper. Of course, at times there were other people around to help, but for the most part, especially at the beginning, there were only three of us. We had to separate the paper stuff from the cloth stuff (clothes, bags and shoes) from the electrical appliances.
One word- tedious. Another word- tiring. Yet another word- time-consuming. So in other words, you could say it was tedious, tiring and time-consuming. Or tedious, time consuming and tiring. Or tiring, tedious and time-consuming. Or tiring, time-consuming and tedious. Or time-consuming, tedious and tiring. Or time-consuming, tiring and tedious. You get the picture.
It was supposed to be all over by 1pm. (We started at around 8 or 9). The ended only at around 3pm. Oh, forgot to mention. Zhiyong and I (the two of four collectors) were the only ones who didn't stop to eat lunch. Everyone else (including the other two collectors had some lunch break or something. Crap. I got a bit irritated at around 1pm when I realised everyone else had eaten lunch except me and a few others. But actually, I didn't really feel hungry. Even after it all ended, and I went back to the CC to have the packed food they provided, I didn't feel hungry. Hm...
Got back at around 4 or 5. Can't remember.
CIP was never this tiring. Good exercise though, lol. I just hope not all the CIP done through school is like that. Slept from 11pm last night until 10.40 today. Almost 12 hours of sleep. That's how tired I was. But of course, it wasn't just yesterday. It was the whole week. Lack of sleep.
here's another reminder- there's yet another post today below. Scroll down.
hyperxi's life @
1/22/2006 04:46:00 pm
First week of real lessons
Hm... gotta refer to the timetable to remember what happened. Um, still can't remember. Most tutorials and lectures were quite slack, especially for the first part of the week, 'cos they were mainly introductory lectures and "get-to-know-students" tutorials. My subject tutors are all quite ok.
Chem- Mr Teo seems quite dull. But I can see he tries to smile sometimes. Lol. But he seems to know his stuff well.
Physics- See previous post. I think I already blogged about the first day of this week. It's in there. Which post? Look for it yourself.
Maths- Really weird/funny guy. Mr Koh. He looks like he's PRC, but he's not. And apart from his very slight slur in speech, he's quite ok. Apparently, from a 'very reliable source' (bio tutor), he's really funny. Once when he went to a classroom for a tutorial, and realised there were still people from the previous tutorial inside, he squatted down and peeked through the small glass panes at the wall. Gave the student near the wall a scare. LOL. And he also jumps up and down when his students don't understand what he's teaching. "Why *jump* can't *jump* you *jump* un-*jump*-der-*jump*-stand?" LOL. He hasn't done anything particularly "funny" in class yet though. But I'm looking forward to it, haha. Oh, apart from his apparent eccentricity, he's supposed to be really good at Maths. That's good, I guess.
Econs- Can't remember the tutor's name. Oops. She doesn't really seem to stand out (from the rest of my tutors, haha). Um, quite old. That's all.
Bio- During the lecture she seemed like the "very strict/act strict" kind. But during the tutorials Ms Wang was a totally different person. She almost seemd to be trying very hard to be likeable. For the first (and only, 'cos it's H1) tutorial of the week, we spent the hour or so (let us off early) laming. Lame trick questions, lame jokes. I got quite hysterical towards the end, haha. Fun. Hopefully she's really a fun person. Time well tell... *strokes imaginary beard*.
GP- Miss Yeo. Our Faculty (Artemis) teacher-in-charge. I was quite surprised when she first stepped into our GP class. I guess I'm just not used to having a fac head as my teacher. Yeah, I know this is the first year I'm in a faculty. But the past four years, in the high school, we had the consortium system (which is quite similar), and the Ortus teacher-in-charge never taught me.
Is that all? NO!!!!! AAAARGGGGH. There's Chinese! Crap. ^%&*. I thought I'd never have to take Chinese lessons again. But we at HCI have to take a compulsory 1 Term's worth of lessons, regardless of our HCL grade or our choice to take CLL or not. This sucks. And to top it all, the lecturer said we have to take an exam/test at the end of the whole course! She'd better be lying...
PE was slack. First aid course. Bandaging. I'm looking forward to normal PE lessons.
Oh, and I had my first 3 choir sessions this week. Monday Wednesday Friday. Well, two only actually. The third day we had a farewell "party" for the teacher-in-charge, who is going away for something (further studies? can't remember). Choir's quite fun. I get a (slight) rush in adrenaline when singing loud. I can only sing loud when in a group, haha. 'Cos I'm shy, lol.
Have some problem with my piano lesson time. After four years or so of piano lessons at 4.30pm on Tuesdays, I think I have to change the time, 'cos on Tuesdays my lesson end at 4pm.
Hm.. what else, what else... I guess that's about it. Not that long after all. You are lucky. No mega post this time.
hyperxi's life @
1/22/2006 04:45:00 pm
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
My hair
My hair has usually been quite short. How short? Well, just after I go for a haircut it's usually around 2cm on average in length. Ok, maybe 3. I'm not good at estimating lengths. And it grows quite fast. I have to cut my hair every month. So anyway, the last time I cut, which was two weeks ago, I decided to have a very slight change in hairstyle. Told the barber not to cut too short.
So after two weeks, my hair is really long. Really long compared to previous years. I think maybe 5 cm? Looks quite nice, haha. I've never had hair this long for a really long time. I can use water to style it! haha. Came up with some funky hairstyles! Still not long enough to make the fin though... at least not a tall fin. And strangely enough, after 'styling' it with water, my hair stays like that the whole day! I don't even need to use gel or wax or anything else, haha. [EDIT: gotta clarify- these 'hairstyles' I am making are only for fun, for just a short while. In no way am I planning to sport a fin outside. lol]
Maybe a little while more and I can even comb my hair again! Woah. Since end pri 4, after my first short haircut (a.k.a. "botak", but not really botak la), which was done reluctantly, I never looked back. But I think I'll go cut my hair just before my hair stops being able to stand up on its own. Short hair is the way to go man. No need to comb. Easy to wash. Easy to dry. Feels nice (when you rub the back of your head with your hand). And did I mention it looks nice?
hyperxi's life @
1/18/2006 10:08:00 pm
Monday, January 16, 2006
First day of lessons.
The whole day was quite slack. All introduction stuff. And we finally got our timetables. According to some teacher, the timetable committee stayed back until 9pm for many days to get out the time tables. Even so, they didn't really do a very good job. A lot of classes have a lot (too much) free periods in between lessons. My class timetable isn't that bad though... Mondays end at 2.30pm, Tuesdays end at 4pm, Wednesdays end at 2pm, Thursdays 4.30pm, and Fridays 3pm. Not too late. Although my Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays are taken up by choir. 4.30 to 7.30pm!
I feel like recounting the whole day's events. I never really did that, until orientation came. Should I continue? My posts will be very long if I do, and take very long to write. I think I won't. Otherwise I'll feel obligated to describe every day in detail for the rest of the year. Wasting time.
Just some highlights then.
The first econs lecture was crap. Intro to econs. Might as well have fallen asleep. But I didn't anyway. Next was Chem. Tutorial. Before the lecture, haha. So it was just our chem teacher talking to us in a classroom. He gave us a "diagnostic test" at the last 20 minutes. Took us by surprise! There were only five questions... but I took a look at the first question, and was stunned. Not 'cos it was difficult, but I just blanked out. Dunno why. Only for a while though. I skipped that question, did 2 and 4, and went back to 1. Didn't know how to do 3 and 5 though. Never came across questions that were phrased that way before. "...experience contraction of 20cm3...", something like that. It was supposed to be "nothing that we haven't learnt". Hm...
An hour's break, then Chem lecture. Chem lecture and tutorial in same day, but tutorial before lecture. That's not that good... that means we have to wait a whole week after the lecture before the tutorial. At least that's how I think it works. They went through SPA. Aargh. SPA. I don't like SPA. Gives me stress. I'm quite good at practicals, but under assesment conditions I don't do as well. Practice, I guess...
Last 'lesson' of the day was Physics. Lab session. I almost forgot our Physics teacher is Mr Thomas, our CT. Anyway, we didn't do anything in the lab. He just talked to us. Showed us two physics problems. The "rolling ball does not slow down 'cos of friction, only 'cos of air resistance" one, and the "marbles tied to string" one. He let us off an hour early (lab session is 2 hours). So we had quite a lot of time. Went to coro for lunch, as (almost) a whole class, and then I went back to school to wait till 4.30pm, when Choir started.
Wth. I'm in bass. Hm... Anyway, after today's first practice, I'm pretty sure I have interest in choir. It's quite fun singing in a choir, even though I'm in bass. Bass is fun too. I wonder how low I have to sing though. So far it's ok...
Oh man, tomorrow's really busy. End at 4, and then I have to rush to my teacher's house for piano. Aargh. I don't think I'll make it. And I haven't really practised this past week! Oops. To top it all, I haven't done my theory homework. Crap. I don't feel like doing it now. Wanna sleep. Gonna try and do it tomorrow in school.
hyperxi's life @
1/16/2006 10:24:00 pm
Sunday, January 15, 2006
No more Orientation...
All I know is that the first lecture tomorrow at 8am, which is also the first of my entire JC life, is Econs. Crap. I really wanted PCMG. Now I'm stuck with Econs. I guess I'll just have to make the best of it.
I wonder when we'll have PE. I don't mind PE. Just not the "swimming modules".
Still a little sunburnt. My neck hurts a little when the collar of my shirt rubs against it. My arms and face (the only other parts that turned red that day) seem fine though. It's only my neck.
It's already 15 days into the new year. Everyone keeps saying time flies. Time doesn't fly. It seems to crawl by slowly, yet it also seems to teleport (ok, lame metaphor). Seems like just yesterday when I first wore the college uniform in Sec 4 last year. But it also seems like a very long time ago. The end of this year seems to be so far away, but very soon, I'll have taken the promos, turned 17 (wow), and will be welcoming yet another new year. I always thought an entire lifetime (70-80 years?) is a really long time... but almost a quarter of mine is gone. Hm... now what's my point in saying all this? Forgot....
EDIT @ 10.25pm: Ok, I think I've managed to generate some enthusiasm for school tomorrow, by... erm... telling myself to feel enthu. Oh shit. Forgot to write the Angel-Mortal letter. Crap. Don't feel like writing...
hyperxi's life @
1/15/2006 08:46:00 pm
Saturday, January 14, 2006
Orientation- Last Day (MEGA post!)
That was it. Last Day of Orientation. Friday the 13th. Ironically, I spent 15 hours out of home today.
The first part was the "Legendary War Games". I don't think it's as "legendary" as they (war games IC) made it out to be. Anyway, it was supposed to be a clash of the faculties (Ares vs Athena vs Artemis vs Apollo). So after a short briefing at the hall, the four facs went to various locations for the pre-War Games faculty session. Artemis stayed in the hall (yay). Mark, our Fac Head, told us his strategy. We were supposed to ally with Apollo, and focus on attacking Ares. Our 'war chant' was "Artemis, *clap clap*, rape (I'm quite sure it's "rape". wth is "rip red"?!) red (Ares), *clap clap*, heck green (Athena),*clap clap*, we will win". Hm... I wonder if the fact that Artemis and Apollo are twins, according to Greek Mythology, had anything to do with our choice of allies.
Oh, almost forgot to describe the game itself. Well, the war games is held at the school field, which is divided into four sections, each section being each faculty's territory. At the extreme ends of each fac's territory, there's a structure made up of tables, three tables high, with a chair on top. The fac shirt is tied to the chair, and two bottles are put at the sides of shirt. Basically, other facs have to throw water bombs at the, um shirt (forgot what they called it), and the water will then drip into the bottles. So at the end, the fac with the least amount of water in their two bottles won.
There were supposed to be three kinds of people.
The "forgotwhatnametheygaveit" (only 3 of them), who hold deflectors, which are long sticks with some panel at the other end. They stay at the fortress to try and deflect incoming water bombs.
The defenders, who stayed in the territory, trying to destroy or steal water bombs from invaders, before they threw the bombs at the... shirt.
And finally the attackers, who go into other fac's territories (WHAT IS IT with me and "territory"? I keep spelling it as "terrotory") to try and hit the other fac's... shirt with water bombs.
Oh, Mark, being the joker he was, added an unofficial type of person. The berserker. Don't think that needs explaining, lol.
Anyway, most of us didn't really care about distinctions about the three roles. We just did what we wanted to do.
After a long wait, everything was ready. We got off to a slow start though. But just for a short while. At first everyone was just walking, then we all realised what we had to do, and then it really begin. I remember holding two water bombs and going into Ares' territory, trying to hit their shirt. Some of their defenders tried to get hold of my water bombs, but I managed to evade them. Missed both of my shots though.
Ares cheated. They weren't supposed to cross our 5 metre boundary of the shirt-structure thingy. Many of them just came in and threw their bombs from the back. We couldn't really tell the Ares people from Artemis people. There were coloured armbands, but most of us didn't have them, and some were impersonating other fac's people by wearing other armbands anyway. Some bloody Ares **** even went pass the boundary and stepped on a lot of our water bombs! And to top it all, some just poured water into our bottles! What the heck. That was downright against the rules. It was really frustrating, seeing so many people massing the shirt structure and we could do nothing about it. Fortunately, the games ICs realised what was happening (not as soon as I hoped though), and put a stop to that. But not before we got scolded for using our flag to shield the shirt thingy. They started breaking the rules first. I think they also poured out some of the water from the bottles.
Oh, I forgot mention- the benches from the canteen were used to separate the four fac territories. And we were supposed to crawl under the benches, not just go over them, or we'd get slapped with wads of starch, courtesy of the "trigger" happy councillors with their buckets of starch patrolling the borders. Yes, starch. The white sticky stuff (some water was added, so it's not powdery) that harded after a while. Most of us just ran over the benches anyway. There were just so too many of us. The councillors couldn't get us all, haha. And there was also a starch pool in the centre of the whole 'battlefield'. That was where we could get more water bombs ('cos to quote Mark, "obviously 1000 bombs are not enough"). To get the bombs, we had to go into the starch pool and do forfeits, ranging from push ups, acting like monkeys, to singing songs. And while doing the forfeit, councillors would rub starch into our heads. After completing the forfeit, we'd be given straws to exchange for empty water bombs. One straw per person, btw. It didn't really seem worth it, haha. But it seemed fun. I didn't get into the starch pool though. I was still quite clean then, except for my really muddy sandals and feet. Gave people who were edging me on a lame excuse- "My watch might spoil with the starch". Oh well.
My "trying to stay as clean as possible so I won't have to wash up" mentality all changed when Yong Keong came up to me and gave me a "facial" with starch. Aargh. It was so sudden. I saw him with a weird face, walking towards me. Just when I was about to comment on his funky starch hairstyle, he put his two starch 'drenched' hands on my face! Crap. But after that I just didn't care about getting dirty anymore. Still didn't get into the starch pool though. But starch is fun, haha. People were using it to 'style' their hair, or smearing their faces with it. Of course, the only source of starch was the councillors patrolling the borders, so we had to 'steal' starch.
There was a mass shortage of water bombs at one point. Partly 'cos everyone was an attacker, and I think also 'cos facs were sabotaging each other's stockpile of water bombs. So they had to pause for ten minutes to re-issue empty water bombs for us to fill.
After that pause, though, I just stayed in my territory, walking around, looking out for invaders. It's quite fun to chase them, haha. A few times, when I spotted one, I just walked up slowly to them, and squeezed their water bombs before they even realised what was happening.
The last few moments of the war game ( they announced, "five minutes left"), was the most crazy. Almost everyone became a 'berserker', haha. And some of us put clenched fists under our shirts and ran into the enemies' territories, pretending to have water bombs hidden under our shirts. It was really funny when they came up to us and tried to squeeze our 'bombs', only to find that it was just our hands. One particular enemy defender was quite dumb, though. She kept squeezing my hand over and over until I went away. Can't they tell the difference between a hard fist and a soft water bomb? I suppose they're just over-zealous when it comes to defending their fortress, haha.
I was really hoping our fac would win when the war games stopped. I heard Ares' two bottles were over flowing with water, haha. All the facs were sort of ganging up on Ares, I think. And I think our bottles were quite empty. As it turned out, Apollo won. Apparently the most untouched fac was Apollo. Maybe it was 'cos their fac's territory was the most muddy, so no one dared venture into the area, haha. Well, at least our 'twin fac' won. Btw, on our way to the gathering point for the announcement of the winning fac, I took a look at the starch pool. It was borwn in colour! It was white at the very beginning. Yuck. All the mud from our sandals and shoes...
Cleaning up wasn't as tedious as I thought it'd be. I didn't really do much. Just gathered some broken water bombs and threw them away. Washing up was just a little difficult. Each fac had their own washing up point, where they hosed our feet to get rid of (some) mud. But even then, it was still 200 over people queueing up for one hose. After that, I went into the toilet at the CCA (almost wrote EP3 instead, haha. It's only called EP3 in the high school) block for a quick shower, to get rid of the harderned starch on my face, neck and, arms and in my hair. Starch is soluble, so it's quite easy to wash it off.
I was quite clean, I think, after the quick shower (with my clothes on the whole time, haha). But our class decided to go to the high school's swimming pool to shower (at the showering facilities there, of course! Not in the swimming pool itself). Some of us (the girls, mostly) didn't want to use the showers at the CCA block. Some even tried to just pick the hardened starch of their hair, lol. Anyway, on our way to the swimming pool, we saw that alot of other people were heading there too, so we changed our minds and decided to go to someone's house. Most of the girls went to Li Ting's house, 'cos hers was the closest. Maybe I was still 'high' from the games, but I volunteered my house for the guys. Well, my house was quite close... So the 9 (4 others went elsewhere) of us headed to my home. It almost an hour for all of us to shower. 3 toilets- two in my home, and one at the 'swimming pool' downstairs.
When we got back, the girls were already there. Lol, we took longer to shower. Well, Li Ting's house is walking distance... Went to SIM for lunch. The food's not that bad... though I prefer the western food at Coro. No one wants to go coro though. Dunno why... they all say "sian". I guess I didn't go there for meals as regularly as most of us did in our secondary school years.
I was already feling quite tired, but there were still over 8 hours left to the day! We went back to the college side to do a final rehersal of the skit. Went to LT5 for Faculty Judging. They were only gonna choose the best class item and best class flag from each fac for the Campfire. LT5 was really small. Why did other facs get the hall and Audi, while we were stuck in lousy LT5? There weren't enough seats for all of us, and our class went in late, so we sat on the steps. It wasn't that uncomfortable, I guess. Only the air conditioning didn't seem to work. All of us were feeling really hot. But it was probably also 'cos we were all sun burnt from 'warring' under the hot sun. Most of our faces were red.
So anyway our class item went first. There was a large table in the center of the 'stage'. It wasn't even a stage, actually. Crap. Our fac was the only fac that didn't have a location with a stage. %^&*. But I guess it wasn't that much of a problem. For our class, at least. We were doing a skit. Some others weren't as lucky- dancing.
SCRIPT: LIVE WITH CALVIN 
I was really nervous when it came to the announcement of the results. I really wanted our class to win the skit, so we could perform in front of the whole school. Not all of the class shared my enthusiasm though, probably cos my part was easy, haha. I really wanted our class to win something. There were three 'categories'. Overall winner, best flag and best class item. Mark announced the overall winner first. He started from the 5th best. When it got down to the last two, and our clas still wasn't mentioned, my heart was thudding like mad. We had a chance. "Zero Six Ess Six.... One!!!" Oh yeah! We all got up and started cheering! Yeah! Our hard work had payed off. I think we did a cheer, can't remember. But then not long after I realised something- overall winner meant nothing (well, if you don't count the pringles, gummi worms, and oreos that came with the title, haha). Only the best flag and best class item got to represent our fac at campfire. So... we still had to win. And we did. The best flag. Not the best class item though.
Well, Dawn put it quite aptly- "they can't let us sweep everything". And true enough, acccording to one of the judges, who is in our senior class, our class item was second. I think they didn't want to let our class be first. I really think we deserved to win though. We really put a lot of effort into it. And we made the audience laugh. A lot. Our class is really efficient. On the day we first got to know each other, a yahoo group was set up. The next day, a class blog was set up. by Tuesday, our banner was done, and by wednesday, most of the skit was finalised. Not like some class which did everything last minute. Our class spirit is really great... SIX ONE!
Anyway, we were behind schedule, so there was no time to grab dinner before campfire started. Speaking of "campfire", there wasn't really a fire. Not the whole time anyway. It started with some performance by the "Hwa Chong Band". No, no the school band. Our very own 'rock' band. Not too bad, though I'd have preferred if they got a guy to sing. And so 'campfire' started, with the fac's representative classes performing the class items and presenting their flags. The performances were quite good, only our class right at the back, so we couldn't really see much. They tried projecting 'live feeds' onto the walls, but 'cos of the lighting, the screen was quite faint. Our class represented Artemis with our class flag. I thought we'd win. Most other flags paled in comparison to ours. And I'm not just saying it cos it's ours. But Apollo's won. It looked quite nice, I think. More colourful. And ours was more of a banner than a flag... Oh well. At least we got to present it to the whole school.
After the class items and class flags part, and the fac dances by the council member of each fac, there was something going on which required volunteers, I think, judging from what I managed to hear. But our class wasn't watching, haha. We sat in a circle, right at the back, and played started to play murderer. Before we even finished a game, though, we stopped. 'Cos Chee Yang was singing! Can't remember what songs he sang.
Next was the light-up of the "Let's Jam!" sign! Jamie, the orientation overal IC, ran from one end to the other with a torch and set the pile of firewood alight. Then we watched as the fire slowly made it's way up to the sign, and burned the words. Our class was smart. We smelled the kerosene and spotted the sign long before it happened, and had already gathered right at the back. We got the best view! At first, only "Jam" was burning, We were all chanting "Let's, let's, let's, let's.....", waiting for "Let's" to catch fire too. And it did. Everyone cheered. Hm... now I wish I'd taken a photo.
Anyway, after the lighting up, we sang the songs "that our school traditionally sings". While the rest of the school was singing, our class got together with our senior class and started swaying. And jumping, at the chorus parts. It was really fun, haha. Then at some point, we decided to do a 'caterpillar', forming some sort of 'train' by putting our hands on the shoulder of the person in front of us and running around the compound, squeezing through the crowd. Sometimes they ran too fast and we broke off, haha, but it was fun. We ended by running into a male toilet, so the girls couldn't follow!
And then came the part that wasn't fun at all for me. The mass dance. Aargh. It's not like I didn't want to dance. I didn't have a partner. I know my class has a 1:1 ratio, but I think some of the girls paired up by themselves. And the girl that I danced with that other day didn't wanna dance at all. She claimed she forgot everything. Hm... So I ended up just dancing the one that didn't really require a partner with Isaac. Then when it came to the partner dances, we just stopped dancing altogether and watched the rest. Felt really left out. Sigh...
The whole thing ended with the four fac heads running around above us, in the buildings, with spotlights shining on them, before the reached the 'bridge', the center part in front of us. Jamie asked us, "What the theme of this year's orientation?!" for the last time, and it ended. We went back to the class bench to collect our bags. Decided to go for supper as a class, cos we didn't eat dinner (except for some pringles, gummi worms and oreos).
Went to Adam Road Food Centre. But it was still really crowded (at 10pm!), so we decided to da pao and go to Serene Centre. Most of just bought drinks. Only a few of us (including me) bought food. So we went to Serene Centre. Most of us sat on the steps. The few who bought food arranged some of the tables outside and sat together to share our food. stingray, char kuay teow, and beehoon goreng. Didn't really eat much. But I guess 'cos it was that late already, I didn't reallly feel hungry. Dunno what the girls talking about when they were huddling together, but some of us were playing a few 'lame' games. Like ji go pah, only weirder an less common. There's also this game that's unique to our class, haha. So at around 11pm, most of us started to leave. I left at around 11.30. It was a short ride home from Serene Centre. Oh, and before we left, our class rep Calvin passed us our first notes of our 2 years at college- "Economics Lecture Series #1-3". Aargh.
Fatigue.
hyperxi's life @
1/14/2006 01:27:00 pm
