The Thirty-Eighth Parallel

2005-05-21T22:02:00.000+08:00

whee packed and MOVED

relink please at

http://rememberedwholesale.blogspot.com

change your links please haha

2005-05-20T21:45:00.000+08:00

(Your Name Here)

This is what I have learnt not to do this founder's day.

1. do not play with hot hcl. *rubs chemical burn on side of face*
2. do not wear 3 layers of shirts during a parade. dressed top to toe in black, long-sleeved shirt, siberian coat *passes out like zhikai*
3. do not win academic prizes because all you get is a piece of paper. *recalls long line of ronaldchan-julian-guocong-lu*
4. if a teacher, be nice to students so they will applaud you when you receive a long-service award. *compares kelwyn ng with sharon xu*
5. do not play with super glue *looks for other half of fingernail*
6. do not waste platinum

2005-05-19T20:50:00.000+08:00

The thing she's holding is a ratemeter. It reads 763 millirems per hour. Exposure of 2 rems or more in 2h is fatal

Chernobyl Plant lies behind.

from here

I'd like to go there one day. Buy my own motorbike/bicycle, ride out and look for one last time at Man's perpetual monument on Earth. The topless towers of the world's great cities may crumble and fail, but the festering wound of Chernobyl will remain, silently pouring its poisons into the world.

There is a 'Zone of Exclusion' of radius 80km around the plant, within which no sane people live. Entrance is technically forbidden, but they don't place guards at the boundaries for obvious reasons. Inside, hovels and communist palaces decay, overrun by the wolves, the grass, and the silence.

They say that if you step off the road the dose of radiation received triples instantaeneously. Asphalt and concrete do not retain radioactive dust. Grass, trees, wildflowers do. The wolves, the boars do not forget the indignity of Man's intrusion. Nature takes its revenge in myriad ways.

They say that there is a town called Pripyat that lies just four kilometres from the plant. It formerly housed the workers in the plant. Now there is only silence, the silence that comes of being forgotten, the silence of death. They organised tourist visits here, but they all ran away after the first fifteen minutes. They couldn't stand how quiet it was. Canned food is as fresh as the day it was made, while Stalin's poster still hangs from the town hall. His right hand, arrogantly uplifted, used to point at the space station Mir in the skies above. His left eye has has been replaced by a tattered hole staring blankly at Chernobyl.

They say that a statue of Prometheus stealing fire from the gods used to lie at Pripyat's town centre. It has since been moved, and now stands proudly in front of the sarcophagus of Reactor No. 4. The heavens have a sense of humour, I guess.

I got drenched in the rain today walking to the bus stop. To think that the dust might have blown all the way here to rain down on me... *shudders*

2005-05-17T23:30:00.000+08:00

people i love

2005-05-17T22:19:00.000+08:00

*whinemode*

I think we're paying too much. In one week I fork out 23 bucks in 'miscellaneous' expenses for workshops to fall asleep in. There's something seriously wrong when we pay about 100 more each month for everyday inane stuff. It's seriously going too far when they make it compulsory for us to go then charge us for the privilege.

Three days to friday
Ten more days to the day of truth
Eleven more to salvation and happiness

oh pass fasterfasterfaster stupid time, i don't want to sit in class and go through more of those papers.

They should have this day specifically for sleeping. Report to school at 7 as normal, then go to school to sleep the entire day off. I mean, since we can't get sleep at home the only place left is in school =/ Then we'd mark the sleeping habits and award grades that count towards GPA. Then people'd start mugging and worrying. Those people wouldn't be able to sleep and thus they would fail! Whereas those who don't really care would just fall asleep like 'normal' and pass or something like that. Moderation exercise.

Aaron chee is going to hobnob with the bigwigs in China and taste their 'exotic delicacies' at state-organised banquets. Too bad he's going in the middle of summer, and only has bob, lam and chaolun for company. Not considering, of course afasffefaafas

bl4h bl4h bl4h

mebbe i shud go slp now

2005-05-17T22:04:00.000+08:00

the joys of staying into the wee hours of the night in school:

Coop 4 students up in a classroom with aircon
Provide in large quantities chocolate
Give computer(s)
Force work with teacher and crazy deadline
Hear the gentle whirr of the keyboard, punctuated by occasional inane remarks from alankoh

Click send in gmail and watch the work go off into lalaland. The message punctuated by =)s every other word or so

Worry about dinner

crap i missed dramafeste auditions. damndamn

my chinese is like a pig's. damndamn

ggy wants to teach us murder:

"For high powered air cannon, a 2 metre barrel (minium) will be used with a huge air tank pumped to at least 100psi. This can be done using several good bicycle pumps because some good racing bikes require 120psi tire pressure. With longer barrels, larger air tanks and higher pressure, higher velocities can be achieved. I have personally achieved 110m/s with my air cannon at 80psi so I'm sure we can reach at least 150m/s with a much larger setup. This can be constructed either using pressure rated PVC (the walls are *thick*) or steel (heavy).

For explosive powered cannon, i can synthesize acetone peroxide with detonates at almost 6km/s IIRC. Of course the cannon will be loud and will be constructed using steel. There is danger not only for the operator but with the law as well due to legal issue. Muzzle velocities in excess of mach 2 is easily reachable. This requires an all steel construction.

The third would be the use of an electromagnetic linear accelerator. I've done extensive research and experimentation on such an accelerator (as well as having done a project for ISEF) and have successfully accelerated a 25g steel projectile to around 40m/s with 700J input with abour 2.85% efficiency. It is surely possible to acheive larger muzzle kinetic energies but this kind of set up will be expensive and run into hundreds of dollars. Hypervelocities acheivable. Pegasus railgun achieved accelerating a 1kg projectile to 3km/s. Sandia's acclerator accelerated a small projectile to 20km/s. Cost is huge."

20km/s. I think we can go to the moon on the cheap

"Of course we take safety seriously."

2005-05-15T20:24:00.000+08:00

urhm you know that incredibly hot girl from the acjc quiz?

I saw her again at ORA xD

2005-05-14T20:58:00.000+08:00

autobiography

22/100
just 10 more bullseyes and i'd have gotten the zen micro -.-

ora was damn fun. come to school and get rained on, so everyone is forced into the canteen to mingle and buybuybuy.

1st. freelancing for rico. nothing to do so helpted them to sell their colourless jellies. walk around with this great big tray laden with goodies begging people to buy. rjc people were seriously damn dao... go up to them and smile and they just stare at you with this twisted look... until you go away or something like that (the kind of stare goes right through you). some string girl was ALSO selling jelly, so got some crazy competition... go around together "PLEASEPLEASEBUYMINEDONTBUYFROMTHATIDIOTNEXTTOME!!!" =p

rico sold out, so when to work for ripb. sell fruit juice sell fruit jelly three for two dollars one for one dollars cheap cheap cheap. again rjc people are damn dao except for the band people i went to... most of the the time i go and ask them

"hiwanttobymyfruitjuicethreefortwodollarsverycheapverycheapyoucansharewitheachotherplease?"
then they usually buy... unless its someone you know then you shove the tray under their noses and look cute xD

zach wanted me to go guailan with his friends in blue t-shirts =" wahlao i'm not the kind to guailan and tokkok...

i carry tray for 30min nobody buys. i get walter to come with me and he sells half the tray in 15 mins >< i go to one group they dao me like siao. i go to another they buy the whole tray xD

then this girl in green t-shirt sold me a flower, which bent when i held it, at least got a new one from salima

i spent two dollars at rgssb stall and they go and tell hanxin "nooo he wasn't here before" pwnzed ><

then the last minutes... stand at ripb stall and make up corny cheers to promote FRUITJUICEFRUITGELLYTHREEFORTWODOLLARS. the judokas opposite look at us like we're pregnant xD

2005-05-13T23:35:00.000+08:00

experiences on the bus.

1. old lady gets on, sights a seat and strides (hobbles?) determinedly towards it. boys just behind her push past and plonk themselves firmly and pretend not to notice (just like a chinese compo...)

2. boy from *coughcoughcough* gets a phone call from some really pissed girl. she shouts at him through the phone until everyone on board stares at him, in addition to hearing every single torturous word. poor boy. she was shouting very loudly

3. i get on, fall asleep, wake up at night (still on the bus) miles away from home. i panic and get off at once, then find out that i took the wrong bus in the first place.

4. this guy gets on and sits next to me and falls asleep. he leans his head on my shoulder and drools >< and he just won't wake up

5. the same thing happens, to another boy >><

2005-05-13T20:25:00.000+08:00

1. Fitter Happier (Radiohead, OK computer)
2. With or Without You (U2, The Joshua Tree)
3. Paris Train (Beth Orton, Daybreaker)
4. Hotel California (The Eagles, same name)
5. Where the streets have no name (U2, The Joshua Tree)
6. One (U2, Achtung Baby)
7. Smooth Operator (Sade, Diamond Life)
8. Hunter (Dido, no Angel)
9. Wonderwall (Oasis, (What's the story) Morning Glory)
10. The Scientist (Coldplay, a rush of blood to the head)

I resolve never to eat mee rebus/mee pok again. until the sauce and my shirt stop it -.-

2005-05-12T20:23:00.000+08:00

go and read the forum page today. the one about the culture of fear.

fear it is.

2005-05-11T23:20:00.000+08:00

Founder's day was actually quite fun.

I mean, the drum major has this great big mace to whirl around and push people with while blabbing incoherent orders in bahasa (and club clever people senseless with). The other uniform groups see this and all go "ME! ME! I WANT ONE TOO!" Unfortunately the mace shop ran out of sticks, so the groups had to make do with small skinny batons which they stick under their armpits. With no small degree of embarassment

These batons have been passed down from batch to batch along with the bodily fluids of Very Important Persons (or maybe not. ccals only leh). No wonder they're all dying of STDS (ok i made that up. no glass here) (get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see the things thou dost not)

The drum major's uniform looks even better with the tassels and medals and ribbons and shiny buttons and chevrons on the shoulders. Plus that coolio beret with the red feather. Luckily I don't wear it haha xD Found it on some old album they gave out

I did 16/30 questions in the maths quiz yay! that beats zou long, ronald chan, other coolio maths people. They should learn to use the method of random letter generation like this: BBBBBBBBB (or shade all As and be a hero)

Stayed back after band for until 7 to talk kok with richard lu. He's so friendly and willing to talk to juniors, unlike every other senior here. I mean in jc lah. sze han's girlfriend actually changed classes to be with him. and sits next to him all the time during concert (whispering sweet nothings/vile innuendo) into his ear. how sweet! i mean, the constant BBBBBB in his ear.

aha you can spot the veiled references to the boys' brigade (ok sorry ><)

arrgh must offer contra subject in jc. i wonder if i can get phy chem maths lit. or if econs is a humans, then that over lit.

okok jap script memorisation needs to be done or else we erhm. do badly for japanese (duh)

2005-05-10T21:06:00.000+08:00

Walk home late again and what do i see.

Same coffeeshop as before. 2 rgs girls (no doubt there, raffles splayed across the back) with 2 ri fellows. the ri people sec 2s. they were making fools of themselves. dammit (and also how come i never notice before leh? =p)

Today was quite interesting, 'cause i finished 250 pages of the eye of the world. I mean, no lessons, cooped up in AVT, sitting in dark corner with book while the trainer goes on about job interviews. Jap was also pretty wasted, sit in auditorium and watch groups present their products. Marco's group was damn good, a world apart from the CHS people who wrote their script on the back of the whiteboard -.-

In short, no lessons, nothing to blog home about (so why am i doing this. ha.)

Had dinner, then walked around with friend. She can probably kill me blindfolded and with one hand tied behind her back haha.

I got 78 for chinese ca, which means i pray and pray that my ct gets more than 85 to get me an 80 average (for the first time in history. ha again.) Hold on, i don't pray, so i will roll the dice until i get six-pair six times in a row. Honestly, i don't understand the hooha about the casinos (no crap about the euphemism "Integrated Resort". differentiate it and you get "Resort". ha again again. I mean, the name doesn't mean A THING! sounds like a kind of handphone)

Apparently the libel suits against Singapore bloggers have aroused the attention of the world's newspapers. Articles in financial times and wall street journal respectively, with each strongly opposing (lambasting?) the paranoia underscoring such action. Don't treat an outspoken student/undergraduate like chee soon juan, 'cause we aren't out to destroy the PAP. Heck, we don't care much for the opposition anyway, and after all we are merely expressing opinion, not trying to score political points

. We aren't communists (quote malaysian taxi driver "we should shoot them like communists") All that hype generated about 'debate' and 'public consultation', then you smack down the first sign of dissention that appears. No wonder they (including the government itself) complain about Singaporeans being apathetic and apolitical. You don't want us otherwise.

How's this for the PAP's vision of Singapore

Fitter Happier
by Radiohead

Fitter, happier, more productive,
comfortable,
not drinking too much,
regular exercise at the gym
(3 days a week),
getting on better with your associate employee contemporaries ,
at ease,
eating well
(no more microwave dinners and saturated fats),
a patient better driver,
a safer car
(baby smiling in back seat),
sleeping well
(no bad dreams),
no paranoia,
careful to all animals
(never washing spiders down the plughole),
keep in contact with old friends
(enjoy a drink now and then),
will frequently check credit at
(moral) bank (hole in the wall),
favors for favors,
fond but not in love,
charity standing orders,
on Sundays ring road supermarket
(no killing moths or putting boiling water on the ants),
car wash
(also on Sundays),
no longer afraid of the dark or midday shadows
nothing so ridiculously teenage and desperate,
nothing so childish - at a better pace,
slower and more calculated,
no chance of escape,
now self-employed,
concerned (but powerless),
an empowered and informed member of society
(pragmatism not idealism),
will not cry in public,
less chance of illness,
tires that grip in the wet
(shot of baby strapped in back seat),
a good memory,
still cries at a good film,
still kisses with saliva,
no longer empty and frantic
like a cat
tied to a stick,
that's driven into
frozen winter shit
(the ability to laugh at weakness),
calm,
fitter,
healthier and more productive
a pig
in a cage
on antibiotics.

MUST listen to the track itself, the whole song's 'sung' by a macintosh with appletalk xD (with piano ballad in background)

2005-05-09T22:10:00.000+08:00

People are stressed out over pts. what are pts? *is totally clueless*

Literature is over. I wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote until my right index finger got a blister. The blister formed after the second page, burst after the fourth page (when i finished). Nomatter... must... push... on. another case of too much to write, too little time, as opposed to nothing to write, too much time (like ss)

Then went for board outing at some grassroots club (not just the grass, but the roots, too). Lunch was revada-ish. Fried rice with coloured stuff, fried bee hoon, pasta with coloured stuff, other unnamed stuff (as usual) (for eight bucks? damn we were CHEATED). Bowling was pretty fun though, even if I scored a grand total of

21

that's right, 21 (half of 42 haha). Considering that there are 10 bowls and each can get up to 19 points... i feel humiliated. Then zenn chua was all "ooh i cannot bowl" and got 64. damn i am humiliated =p

flop home, sms a bit, read a bit, nap, basically DO NOTHING. that seemed wrong

damn i need to start my

2005-05-08T23:43:00.000+08:00

the most common name in the world is xiao ming. everytime we write compos or zaoju we invoke his name. there's always one of them for any purpose, be it saving the world, passing/failing exams, helping old grannies cross the road, stopping evil terrorists, moralising, making out with girls...

or maybe he's some great demigod-like figure, and he's actually ONE person who's done all those things, and we're historians recording his great deeds for posterity

xiao ming, the Everyman. his wife/girlfriend/fwen xiao li, his buddy/gang member/boyfriend xiao hua -> The omniprresent Trinity. occasionally he has a dog xiao gou or a cat xiao mao, but that's quite rare and they usually die early in the story

He can run for elections, and probably beat even LKY. i mean, LKY wasn't a pwefect, LKY didn't get full marks, LKY didn't capture osama, LKY wasn't a war hero, LKY didn't vote for john kerry

Maybe he can write self-help books. Put up giant communist posters with his brooding face staring down at the masses below, his index finger pointing upwards and his mouth seeming to say "all your base are belong to me".

Unleash the xiao ming within you

2005-05-07T23:24:00.000+08:00

oh no they started playing Singapore Rhapsody. Ran away quite quickly after that

arghnohelpkeepthatthingawayfrommenoooo (hear that at least 50 times now)

but I want to play time to take back the knights. it sounds good. oh i realised oura gave it to us and i tried to sightread the first four bars then gave up after that

2005-05-07T21:09:00.000+08:00

gragh the world is strange. when we sell tap water.

went to the stadium again. ran too quickly, was knocked out after running the last lap. meh geoff is never free =/ then he can come and see the girl at the stadium too... so my mouth was hanging open and gasping and my eyes closed, like some sort of divine revelation (or something else xD)

does anyone have led zeppelin 4?

who wants to go to senoko (the incineration plant) to dump their stuff. after we won't _ever_ need them again. especially all that chinese stuff =/

shall send email to chee soon juan to tell him to go to china too... then he can visit his great-grandmother and collect her report card too

can't wait for band trip! xD


science is love
brought to you by the isLove Generator

ph34r me haha

2005-05-07T00:30:00.000+08:00

I just had another attack of missing-you

I just realised that after i saw how all my friends have gone elsewhere. i type but receive only hollow responses, therefore i myself talk without speaking

Its not that I have no friends, its that I don't consider anyone 'special' anymore. And I am no longer part of the ranks of 'special' friends, merely that of 'tution teachers'

Forgive me, because I still love you

2005-05-06T21:17:00.000+08:00

I suppose I could rant about by maths paper

nah.

Decided that today marked the end of the significant part of CT, and went to HMV today. No regrets after buying (What's the story) Morning Glory by Oasis (none at all). Binggy spent 7o+ bucks, the liquid person he is ><. Anyway from the number of people you see there, 75% of people who patronise are HMV, 25% from the raffles schools, 25% from deyi secondary, 25% from acsi (and very very few people spend more than 50 bucks at one go).

Mos burger beckoned with pretty packaging, small portions and inappropriate prices (how japanese =/). Went to the library to pay my fines since that's the only library that allows payment by ezlink; the singapore government earned $6.30 of my money...

yes, lit does count. why else the 'special' passages (so cleverly marked)

Singapore is a nation of perpetual air-conditioning. We awaken in refrigerated rooms and the cold blast of reality deals a glancing blow to the collective mentality (no, alarm clocks don't work either). Semi-comatose, we travel in rectangular hearses, confidently carving out ever-deeper ruts. They say all roads lead to rome but they never left rome in the first place; similarly the maze of our imagination expands exponentially while the world shrinks to a naked singularity (that's why one can be awakened in the night by a call from an ex-lover and yet feel merely mildly surprised). Like a kitchen blender gone haywire we revolve in ever-shrinking orbits.

Angular velocity is inversely proportional to radius
We accelerate thinking it progress
Ballerinas do that too,
Chemically ecstatic (QED)

We would see the universe spiralling into entropy (Newton was wise) if not for apple in our hands, apple in our ears, apple in our hearts. Similarly, I wear a latin motto by my heart but it is dead. The latin, I mean. There are faces beyond the window, thousands of faces bowing and praying to the neon idol they made, seized by the rapture of enforced self-fulfilment.

On closer inspection I see a mirror.

This is where I get off. Oh, you too? Don't stare like that. How do you tell the difference between the hexagons of a honeycomb if not for the people? What do you mean what people? You aren't going to enjoy it, this happiness I've found. You'd rather stay for the air-con eh? Its free. Pick up your brain as you leave.

On closer inspection I see a mirror

Well baby, you're gonna be the one that saves me.

2005-05-05T20:04:00.000+08:00

arrrh

come on, repeat after me

ARRRH

Chemistry was unpleasant. I got a hydrocarbon with 922% carbon (dark matter =/ not likely). I got Na(-3) ions and oxygen radicals with 17 valence electrons.

Physics and mathematics tomorrow, but I don't really know what's going on.

vee equals eff lambda?
eff equals one over tee?
enn one sine theta one equals enn two sine theta two?
one over eff equals one over vee plus one over yuu?
more or less.

(my entries are all short because i don't have any idea what to write... that happens when you come back at 2 everyday during ct week and see absolutely nothing. promise more interesting ones after cts =) )

2005-05-04T17:26:00.000+08:00

ohno even primary school kids (excluding sister, of course) read my blog. I have to get out of here...

chinese was gut.
bio was expected (why does david court teach nothing? because nothing relevant comes out in the test anyway)

then we went to look at wee kim wee's corpse. He looks like my grandfather, except with less hair. I kept thinking of Madam Tussaud's statues there ><

Damn I am irreverent. I know I'm supposed to be all nostalgic and wipe an imaginary tear from the corner of my eye as I remember how good he was, but for me wee kim wee = nonperson.

Ah well.

Chem tomorrow, physics and maths on Friday.

Time to play mechwarrior.

2005-05-03T20:04:00.000+08:00

Do not fail your mathematics, aaron chee. Or else i do a paraphillic forfeit.

Then again, who was I to trust the effects of a double expresso?

Contemplate this scene:

Two boys sitting at a table in a cafe adjacent to a community library. One goes up to the counter and asks, arrogantly, for "the strongest coffee you have". He is met with laughter and *nudge nudge wink wink* among the staff, but they serve him nevertheless. Milk? Yes, please. He adds two packs of sugar and returns to the table. There is a single taste and a sense of inadequacy. Three more grams go in and float around lazily before winking out of existence. The smell is overwhelming now, laden with wakeful promise. He takes a long sip and lets out an unrestrained sigh of relief.

Five minutes later, the trembling starts.

A minute after that, the spiders came.

There wasn't a seventh minute, of course.

SS + english = dead hand. 3 pages for english (before i saw the word limit), 8 pages for SS =/The worst is over now.

Poor wee kim wee

2005-05-02T20:49:00.000+08:00

The mugging I have done:

a bit of chinese

The mugging that I should do

lit
ss
bio
chem
maths
physics
more chinese

The mugging that I'm probably going to do

lit
ss
chinese

Enough said xD

What a radical change!

I can't seem to concentrate now... only thinking of the stuff I'm going to do in 7 days time. For once, I will sleep at 11pm, I will NOT turn on the computer.

2005-04-30T22:16:00.000+08:00

zach is a wise man... he says wise things, that's why

people who say mysterious things addressed to unknown people are just trying to be cute (and make people think they're scandalous) (ohno that's me ><) (i don't want to be scandalous ><) (should have heard what sakhar said about alan koh =p)

same thing to those who take out their handphones in public and pretend to be engrossed in smsing...

arrgh "typical teenage angst and sentimentality" (yet sometimes i just want to wallow in it up to my eyebrows)

its not emotional maturity that drives me *shudders* its the fun. i mean, its really fun. and it makes people happy =)

let's talk about real now xD

Real thing one: when you run, you should tie your shoelaces (unless you don't have shoelaces)
Real thing two: when you use chopsticks, you should use both at the same time
Real thing three: when you debate, you should speak english
Real thing four: when you take a bus to go out, you should have enough money for coming back
Real thing five: when you go to restaurant, you should have money
Real thing six: when you try to do maths, be sure that you know how to do maths or else you kena jack
Real thing seven: when you want to cross road, you shouldn't have be listening to mp3 player

Trust me. From prior experience =p

2005-04-30T00:01:00.000+08:00

Long story short - acs won their fifth final over us.

Let's see... flit through the day. LDP symposium was an utter waste of time (always is if you sleep through it), then went with zhiwen and daryl to srjc in remus's car. Arrived there so early there was nothing to do but stone and try and find dinner.

First one was third-fourth placing match between UWC and MGS, wagered 2 bucks on UWC (yay), but the third speaker of MGS was pretty good (and the uwc third speaker looks like she's ziguang's sister =p) "THBT reality TV has gone too far" Simple answer yes. Until that guy came out and told us all about sex during floor debate ("all of us guys want sex, right?")

Final round was (duh) against acs. "THBT the war on iraq was a mistake". I guess acs deserved their win since they were uniformly better than we were, doesn't make it any less disappointing nevertheless.

Coming back, I walked my usual route from the bus stop to my home. Usually I will pass a park on the left, a coffeeshop on the right, then a basketball court on the left. The coffeeshop was closed, except for one table occupied by three uncles, the kind about your father's age. ten bottles of tiger lying around, but the shocker was the two chij girls sitting at that table and generally acting like sluts. In my estate. I guess that proves the uwc guy right =p

Then in the park, there was this bench with rj girl and boyfriend. They were not very discreet. There was a lot to be discreet about ><

The basketball court, these crazy bunch of fellows playing (what else) basketball. They (2 guys + 2 girs) seemed stoned, like they were on drugs (or lots of caffeine). A lot of loud screaming, laughing for no reason and jumping around. They saw me and shouted uncomplimentary things.

Man becomes an animal in the night

2005-04-28T22:25:00.000+08:00

U2 - Vertigo Tour 2005

Bono and chums scale the heights of stadium rock with their latest album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb.

City of Manchester Stadium & Regional Arena, Rowsley Street, Manchester
Huge venue, used for 2002 Commonwealth Games and presently host to a who range of sporting and cultural events. Man City play there too.
dates: Tuesday 14th June - Wednesday 15th June
times: Jun 14 & 15, 5.30pm • cost: £50

Who wants to go? Only 50 pounds! If only they would come to Singapore... impossible, given that there's only me. Or is there? U2 fanatics, show yourselves!

2005-04-27T21:14:00.000+08:00

I have a funny way of walking - bernard reminded me of that

Normal people go step-step-step

I go step-shift-lurch-step-shift-lurch-step-shift-lurch. Add my squeaky shoes and it goes step-squeak-shift-squeak-lurch-squeak for one one complete cycle =p. I love my shoes though, they have soles as thin as insects' wings are as comfortable as... going barefoot.

Hence people can spot me from 100m off...

Went to rjc today for some briefing on what they call 'RECAS-CAQ'... apparently the whole team was supposed to be there, but the rest were 'busy' and left me there to be dao and feel awkward ._. help me!

Now we have to write commentary on tsunami crisis...

What is it with authority and blogs? I mean, do you actually go around reading your students' blogs to ferret our dissention and resentment? Psychoanalyse all statements and consider possible action to take? We are independent beings, with above all the way to say whatever we bloody well please without fear of retribution. The universe is firmly divided into a section saying 'work' and a section named 'life'. Things from one section do not interfere with the other, otherwise we would all be driven across the edge. Right now what you do take OPINION and interpret it as socially abusive comments, when all we were doing was expressing our point of view.

To summarise: do not hold what we say on a blog against us. You read it of your own discretion; we do not coerce readers. If you should so choose to view our thoughts, then please leave your ego, your mental barriers, your rules at the door, or else do not enter. Treat the experience as surreptiously peeking into someone's personal diary - this is the 21st century equivalent.

This goes out to the teachers who come here. No disrespect intended.

2005-04-26T20:18:00.000+08:00

The one thing you want is that you can't get. The one thing you own is the one you'd rather not keep. The one thing you lose is the one you can't live without.

And you can't get more than you already have.

So leave it all behind.

(Over my dead body)

yeahyeah lalalim took it... my stupidity ><. The secret, realised today, is to do it UNDER the table. OUT of sight. Not in BROAD DAYLIGHT. ah well... i go beg and plead and cringe for it tomorrow.

At least i passed my jap test... fear the power of SYF!

2005-04-24T22:33:00.000+08:00

Differentiation made easy:

the function dy/dx can be cancelled to become y/x, cutting through ten thousand years of mathematics; this applies for d/dx also

today was good. why?

1. i broke 10.45 for 2.4
2. i did more than 10 pullups
(most importantly) 3. i got the phone number of the girl at the stadium xD

however good the good was, the bad was badder. why?

1. last minute rushing of chinese project on curriculm revision
2. reading portfolio woes
3. rushing of mugging for cts
4. noone wanted to go to rp doublebill with me =(
5. the feeling of carrying documents proving your existence in broad daylight. there are people about. (ic lah)
6. the realisation that, with 5 mins to go, you are not going to make it to the finals

i have gotten inspiration from the mighty royCE, and shall reform my life. More specifically, sex it up, like what tony blair does to intelligence reports (and what seng teck does to his assignments). i spend my entire life in school. therefore my life is mostly boring... arrgh.

what i want to do:
1. get 3As. you know that child prodigy who got his maths a level? i'm going to beat him with two more =p must mug a lot then...

2. learn how to play music. This means learning (arrgh) theory, and especially transposing, notes other than those on the bass clef, instruments other than the trombone (parts other than the slide positions). I want to play the saxophone... who can teach me? justin says i should join sywo, but i'm definitely below that standard

3. physical training. musical group (throw it out the window)

4. learn to play the guitar and start a band and become a rock god (it does happen =p)

5. do community service (where can i go?)

6. learn how to speak. this means not stuttering at all, not even when confronted with the most distracting of situations. this means weaning myself off msn messenger and (potentially) smsing... which leads to

7. know more people. i have a seriously constricted social network... must know many more people, and not just girls xD (mostly)

8. be pro at trombone.

8.5. be pro in science club

9. be nicer to people.

2005-04-22T21:27:00.000+08:00

I shall be happy today!

dusted off my mechwarrior cd and played a game. i suck now, but that's what you get when you stop for two years =p. but it was strangely releasing - the way you send 6 ER PPCs into the central torso of a mech and cause it to fold up nicely and explode with a satisfying thump ... before the one beside him does the same thing to you.

After 3 years of being around singapore, i must admit that the school with the worst uniform is sengkang secondary. vertical stripes? the girls look pregnant. the boys look like they're in primary school...

and i found out that my estate is chockful of students, only because i came back slightly earlier at 6. let me see:

rj girl 3 doors down on left
hcjc girl 2 doors down on right
koay on jarak
xinming girl somewhere near the park
2 bowen sec people near the provision shop, always see them playing soccer
vs fellow, (probably) brother of rj girl
dhs fellow, somewhere...
another ri fellow, somewhere...
this pair of girls always seen in the park
and one rgs girl, somewhere...

plus a crapload of primary school students

I just bought a pair of books weighing 3kg total. Not bad for 5 bucks, eh?

maths test was crazy. i think i'm going to fail.

and (happiest) of all, THE JAPAN TRIP IS ON!
Which means 7 days in japan for one hell of a holiday (2 days exchange with a school over there haha) plus (probably) one performance at tdl. not to mention the performance in july in vch.

i need to find a razor

2005-04-21T20:24:00.000+08:00

Any big exrosythians?

Shenghao
JHeng
Anne Joseph
(ngiam isn't exros, but ne'ermind)

let's go to vj tomorrow and talk to wong chun han! =D

bring teh water bottles and traffic cones. the very small ones used for 2.4km run. And a basketball if you want. Hecklah, bring the bassoon too...

Don't forget the camera

2005-04-20T22:37:00.000+08:00

There are a darn lot of people with bicycles in vjc... but elangor is the only one who rides one over here.

But we are thin anyway. Being deprived of recess and lunch probably has something to do with it.

Somehow it all seems like wasted time. It's been four months since the beginning of the year, but I haven't done anything worth remembering to anyone yet. It seemed so easy... now it's slightly further away than the dark side of the moon. Jupiter's moon.

When you came, you anchored my life. The sheer inertia, immutability of your presence was like a small star about which my thoughts orbited in neat ellipses. Comfort derived from familiarity yet remaining strangely exhilirating. Every word, every smile, every toss of your head that would send your hair flying, they were all that I lived for. That I would have liked to live for (men have died for far worse). Nevertheless happiness enforced by rule stronger than physical law cripples the spirit and leaves it to wither and die.

The sun is just a big ball of hot gas. I think you were much more. The sun will explode in four billion years. (need i say more)

i need you i want you i love you i belive in you i had you i can't reach you i lost you i don't know why

i want you back yet i've had enough of you

Always the "i" getting in the way. Imaginary quantity interfering with reality.

and at night (morning actually) i repeat to myself: the past is dead, the past is dead, the past is dead. oh if it would just DIE!

2005-04-19T21:52:00.000+08:00

Thanks to all those who wished me a happy birthday in any form! xDxD

and to you, too ^^
(and the one who did it 24 hours apart) xD

I got a brand new pair of SPEAKERS, something hefty to take up lots of space and create mind-blowing sound. Now for the thing to provide the music... =p Sister gave me another U2 album, their first one (the one i didn't have haha)

Actually really didn't do anything about it in school - don't really want to be stripped and *censored* (i have a feeling they will do it anyway soon) =p

Went to SMP, to find that our mentor supposedly spent one third of our grant money on drinks and stuff (for all who come into his lab)><. david lu got 2 more victims, though he processed them much faster (and they didn't leave running)

Then he broke our brand new frame when cleaning the sand out of it...

got the mute back (glad that's over -.-)

I want to apologise to royce, for having to bear the consequences of my forgetfulness. I sincerely hope that he will forgive me, and want him to know that I am greatly in his debt.

We get to skip a bit of learning journeys day tomorrow... that doesn't sound like a bad thing at all (not at ALL) Going to VJC for geog quiz

Leaving:
RJC current affairs quiz
Japan trip for band (yay xD)
IH maths quiz
NUS open house
NAP amphibious boat challenge
(plus whatever i've forgotten)
(not to mention CTs and reading portfolio)

2005-04-17T20:31:00.000+08:00

Finally going for smp again tomorrow ^^ after a 2 week hiatus. Michael is going to kill me (us)

Went out for poshposh lunch, at a deserted restraunt with a funny waiter (funny as in harhar, not eww). Then flop home and try and do reading portfolio - futility as usual. You CAN'T just sit down and piah them - must read and read until you get insipration from an article (any article, whether brochure or advertisement or spam or whatever). Then, trawl the itunes music store for something like it and listen. If song = you like, then get the lyrics and do the whole thing in half and hour.

CTs in 2 weeks - finally sank home. This means mugging like crazy (as usual). Wish i could do it the way chee does it.

Must run again tomorrow evening... after the chendol and green bean soup and the tiramisu and everything =p

It seems as if letting go is usually the hardest thing to do. The pull-up bar isn't that nice to hang on to, especially when its slippery (with the sweat of all who have gone before you). You have to do it, but you don't want to. Nevertheless, do what you have to do. Then let go. Walk away.

If not you get cramps and die

And hang there forever from rigor mortis

2005-04-16T17:44:00.000+08:00

Why we should not go to casinos:

1. Take a die
2. Guess a number from 1-6
3. Throw the die
4. The number you guessed will not be the one on the die (no it WON'T. Look carefully. Look reeeallly carefully)

What about the odds for games that need more than one die? or a pack of 52 cards?

Met a total of... 8 people today
Alan, on the mrt
Phang zhangsheng, going the other way (he didn't recognise me, der ID10T!)
Aaron
Brian
Theseira
Zhi
Yong

2005-04-16T00:10:00.000+08:00

"sleep well"
"pleasant dreams"

I don't know why I always say that at the end of every conversation... to sleep well, of all things

Its like some prayer, something to cling onto. I wish upon you the single thing that I will never obtain for myself. I'm afraid to fall asleep, in case I do not wake up the next day.

2005-04-15T22:19:00.000+08:00

Addictions:

Chendol
Bak kwa
U2
Late nights
Talking about stupid random stuff (with anyone)
The rush you get after a run
zabo/chiobu (looking at, talking to)
The rush you get after that too
The rush you get from beating sengteck
The rush you get from getting gold with honours
The rush you get from solving sadistically set questions
The rush you get from yet another headshot
The feeling of loving and being loved
Sleeping
Dual pendulum systems
Second order differential equations
Some few people

Coffee

Aversions:

Smokers
Drug consumers
Hypocrites
Chinese lessons
Physics questions involving fiendishly accurate calculations
People with no gravy
The necessity of hate as a social lubricant
Being headshot
That sinking feeling every saturday afternoon when you've got nowhere to go
Failure
The necessity of listening to things i'd rather not listen to
The necessity of saying things i'd rather not say (contradict with 3?)
"Goodbye"

OCj read the deadline for CHAOS submission as midnight, april 15. it was actually midnight april 14. Some begging bought us 16 hours, which means we tyoced 3 whole pages in 3 hours ... there's a rush in that too.

Then yiyuan went berserk and started piling chairs up so that they would crash down upon the parents in tomorrow's PTM

Somehow a meal always seems like a social 'situation'. Guard your talk, especially if you speak to seniors (SL excluded, of course). Totally unlike dinner with band people. How come people act differently around different people? tis unhealthy, it is.

I've forgotten all about primary school already. Don't want to remember it anyway, given my... situation there. Few contacts with anyone from rosyth anymore, limited to chee, gaokong, bing, edlyn and (rarely now) zhi. Occasionally andre asks me to come down to PH and admire the chiobus (sorry we have none here ><). My boss, wenhao, former (and still a) golden boy.

That's all, really. It's actually better now, when you have more friends.

When you talk to any student, the first thing you note will be the secondary school. ri boy does not talk like acsi boy does not talk like hci boy does not talk like cat high boy does not talk like PH boy does not talk like chong boon sec boy. rgs girl does not talk like nygh girl does not talk like sngs girl does not talk like ijtp does not talk like tkgs girl does not talk like scgs girl does not talk like chong boon sec girl does not talk like peirce sec girl

Then, if you listen very closely, you will notice the vestiges of speeches patterns ingrained through 6 years of immersion while they were still malleable. rosyth does not talk like nanyang does not talk like rgps does not talk like hpps does not talk like acsj boy does not talk like anyone else

Just something i noticed =p

2005-04-14T20:27:00.000+08:00

Thursday night is my least favourite time of the day.

Stayed back with bing, hwee and soh after 3rd lang to thrash out our script for the japanese project thingy: Toilet culture. Its a 3-part drama involving fun stuff to tell people why you need to go to the toilet often:

person rushes to toilet and gets stopped along the way. karukunalemasune!

nevermind... japanese toilet humour doesn't translate well xD

It seems as if all the work piled up before syf comes crashing down with a vengeance. for the first time (in sec. school) i took a test with absolutely ZERO preparation. can make it lah...

or not

i'm going to skip half of school tomorrow -.-

2005-04-13T19:14:00.000+08:00

"Raffles Institution..... Gold with Honours."

Five words.

And they make it all worthwhile.

4 months of practice, countless screwings by oura, hours upon hours of practice, many late nights, much lost sleep

blood, sweat, tears, toil (4 ulcers, 1 big mouthpiece mark)

All for this one sublime moment. When we leap into the air in pure ecstacy. (disregard yesterday's post =p) I live for such moments; when you feel as if you have, for once in your lifetime, actually done something worthwhile

I love my section. I love the sec 3 batch. I love oura. I love rimb. That's some love i can't ever do without.

I felt so good I passed my umbrella to a primary school fellow at the bus stop today and walked in the rain instead xD

We played well. Isn't that all that actually matters? COP(per), bronze, silver, gold, gold with honours are just symbols (mere shiny metals). Nice to have, nice to keep, but just dead weight in the end. Play well, enjoy your playing, love your bandmates. If you can do that, then its all that you really need. It doesn't change anything if you got something unexpected.

Now for:
CHAOS
mug for jap test
mug for CTs
friendship week stuff

and that's for the rest of the week.

2005-04-12T23:03:00.000+08:00

2005-04-10T20:42:00.000+08:00

I LOVE THIS BOOK

Its surprising how much one smile, one word can do to you.

I think I'm going to work up the guts to talk to that girl at the stadium (its going to be a lot of guts) xD

2005-04-10T11:22:00.000+08:00

If you know you are insane, then you are not insane, merely waking up.

It is the nature of the great to be inhuman. Take a cosmic view of things; not 'john' or 'peter' or 'mary', but vast empty abstractions, 'race', 'power', 'people', 'honour'. Lenses that diminish rather than magnify - you must sacrifice resolution to take in the universe. They look beyond its chitinous surface to the unchanging reality just 2cm underneath.

Just balls of hot hydrogen, vast clouds if interstellar gas drifting complacently. Kepler's laws hold great Jupiter in their thrall, yet a man may kill ten million and receive a medal.

They know this, and embrace it within the spirit of doublethink.

The wheel time of moves on, crushing all products of quantum uncertainty with democratic compassion. The flux will be equalised, the wrinkle in spacetime smoothened out in a perfect example of negative feedback. Our existence is only a temporary reprive from the otherwise unending boredom of enforced uniformity.

They know this, and push the wheel along.

Gods great and small fall from the sky as they beat the heavens in their inarticulate fury. New ones ascend upon budget airlines and are throne themselves on machines. Myopia is caused when the cillary muscle of the eye contracts and does not relax. Likewise frustration tainted with cold logic coalesces bends incoming insight to an focal point slightly two feet the left; it is surprising how differently things look from there.

They know this, and wear glasses to counteract their deficiencies. It plugs the hole of the heart but lesions of the brain remain unfilled. No wonder we get it from cows.

Teach me the words that would set me free. Otherwise kill me.

2005-04-08T19:45:00.000+08:00

I saw the 156 pervert again *shudders*. It seems as if everyone who takes that bus knows of this guy and his habits with young boys (the hci fellow, the cjc girl, even the recently-moved rjc girl). Sure, he may be just this innocent little man going about his usual business, but who believes that?

Not when he cranes his neck to stare at you through those thick square glasses, not when he has shows up regularly at all your favourite places to do absolutely nothing but sit and stare. Not when he gives you a certain kind of smile that reminds you of michael jackson. He really has nothing to do, eh?

Its also irritating when your astroturf, field, canteen and band room are taken over simultaeneously by rjc people (how can you resist 'lending' it to them when a chiobu (or two (or three)) asks you nicely with that killer smile on her/their face(s)? I swear you can hear zhong ye and his gang from across the field (what if they're practicing right outside your classroom then? >.<)

My home is a place to eat, sleep and use the computer. Otherwise there is usually very little trace of my existence.

Yaksy just bullied me into taking another competition. At least its just next door haha

At least I passed my chinese xD

2005-04-07T23:39:00.000+08:00

ohnomy NAPFA

A, A, A, B, D (standing broad jump)>.<
gold is still out of reach haha... there's always next year.(and rhe next, and the one after that, and the one after that...)

the super-racist gang - gaokong, tuckheng, geoff and me. Jokes on demand, while stocks last. Order in advance for maximum quality and laughability. Humour not included

What do you do if you see seng teck (or insert person/group/denomination) writhing on the ground in pain?

Stop laughing and reload

still doing CHAOS... i can't believe that it takes me one week to do one physics question >.<

The chendol store is always open 24 hours... how comforting when you feel hungry

2005-04-07T21:49:00.000+08:00

Strange what just talking to a friend can do... thanks michelle

I guess I'm just numb... can't feel anything yet. Its as if all that I yearn to say is bottled up somewhere in my left hand, just waiting to explode out in this ecstacy of carthasis.

But I can't, something's holding me back. Maybe its the gut feeling that once i start brooding about it, it'll consume me like this gigiantic scarab beetle. The past is the past, it was BOUND to happen, some part of me probably wanted to be free, I keep telling myself.

Liar

I don't want to let go, but I don't want to hold on to you either. It's not worthy of you.

But whatever. It's over. So be it. I'll cry after SYF.

I love you

2005-04-06T21:16:00.000+08:00

lalalim nearly confiscated my phone today. hope it learns a lesson... DO NOT BEEP DURING HER LESSON. any other lesson fine, but not hers

whatever.

Some people are just lucky

Luckily, not me

Luck doesn't matter anymore, not for another 6 days

6 days
6 days
6 days

good luck to everyone else, in this band, in other bands, or anywhere else

you won't be needing it
You can't see the fall of dice 'up there', but they fall anyway. Good or bad roll, you bear the brunt of the responsibility. That's why people 'up there' gamble so much. Assume they hate you, and work accordingly to thwart them.

But sometimes it gets TOO much.

How do you tell someone you don't love her anymore?

2005-04-05T23:22:00.000+08:00

Prove that monkeys are intelligent.

The clones of comrade stakhanovich churn out work

whirrrrrrrrrrrrrr goes the collective rattle of ten million keyboards every night.

What are they making? Shakespeare, of course

Ten million pages a day, so in ten million years we'll get the "et tu, btreu?" done. After that we only have to wait for the sun to explode before it all gets spitten out in Hawking radiation, which we will concentrate with parabolic reflectors to boil water for our instant noodles. Then we eat and become wiser, of course.

Stakhanovich always wins in the end.
Having one of him is a statistic. Ten million of him is a tragedy
(QED)

Productivity rates up! Time to start mugging for CT1...

2005-04-04T22:39:00.000+08:00

No I do not want to have sex with you. stoppit please -.-

Spent less than 3 hours in school today haha... and 4 hours going to and fro NTU, but that doesn't matter - 4 more hours of sleep is always good. Ask chee about that anyway

Michael (Dr koh) was rather nice to let us eat lunch

So we assembled our experimental set-up, requiring:
1 polythene bag
2 chairs
1 ladder
1 weird v-shaped thingum
lots and lots of masking tape
Force plate
Iron shot
lots and lots of sand

Idea is to put the v-thingy on top of the ladder and roll the iron shot off it. The shot will fall onto the force plate, hitting the sand which is enclosed in a polythene bag attached to the legs of the chairs. Measure the reaction force to quantify shock-absorbency.

David lu's one was more interesting... he went out into the NTU canteen to snare helpless subjects for cruel and sadistic experiments. He got this poor girl to come, started straight off by measuring her weight to 14 decimal places (47.12441257239401 kgf). If this wasn't enough, he made her walk for 45 minutes on the treadmill IN HIGH HEELS all the while he was videotaping her and the movements of shiny stuff attached to her joints. She practically ran out of the lab afterwards.

Then took a cab back to sneak in 5 mins before band prac ended ><

2005-04-03T20:57:00.000+08:00

went running today again, this time at the stadium

It feels so good after a run. Of course before you go its the hardest thing to get started, but once you're there it becomes much easier.

and I haven't seen NUS High in any competitions yet. something tells me they're going for the VJC thingy

hehe BRING IT ON

2005-04-02T23:13:00.000+08:00

I have suddenly be struck by the insatiable urge to write. That's not a good thing >.<

RI boys are hermits, period. I was once one of those. I still am. The difference is that I DON'T want to be one. I want to go out and party and have fun and forget about work or other unpleasant stuff (read - girls). Who's with me?

Don't throw that crap about studies and all at me. You can mug all you want and score top for everything but I will laugh at you and say that you haven't lived yet if you are content to live within those walls that bind you five plus one days a week. Padded walls, with soothing designs to calm frazzled minds. Walls with windows of thick shatterproof glass, so that you can look down on creation in all its glory and revel in your vast knowledge of it but never be able to reach out and grab it. The glass is curved like a thin lens, but the viewer is far from the focal point and receives a distorted image. Walls of the mind, prefabricated and endlessly replicated in crania Singaporewide. The Engineers will not rest until we are comfortable within our heads that we no longer bother to venture outside.

They say that inbreeding will kill off the species. RI = premier institution alright. So insular, so narrow, so dead. The present mates with the dead past to bear the bastard child of the future. Feeding, always feeding on the glories of the past, skulking beneath the cool comforting shadows of ancient monoliths. Fear that these statues will reanimate and "express their disappointment" at us is omnipresent but we eat anyway

When the food outside is gone, we turn inwards and feed upon each other. Gorgegorgegorge, another ego is full for the moment, satiated with the satisfaction of a hollow victory over the a weaker member of the species.

2005-04-01T21:26:00.000+08:00

Weekend! Can sleep now!

stupid coffee machine broke down... just... exploded when i tried to use it last night... ohnowhatamigoingtodo...

Stayed back after band to practice, Matthew joined me later. When you're sticking around the 3rd floor area after 6.30 or so, the place is usually utterly empty, except for some loners near the staff rooms. Its just so quiet, so serene. It must be a trick of the light, how things look differently under the tagential rays of the extinguished sun. Its the sort of feeling you get when you look at a deserted street, no sound, no life, no existence. Just the memory of what was there, and what could have been been there, in stark contrast to what will most probably be there.

It seems so weird, to think that I was walking exactly these same corridors yesterday, the day before, the day before that, in fact pretty much every single day of my life for the past 2 1/4 years. Schoolbagged, chalkshoed, mechanically I prowl bound by cruel gravity. And I haven't left a single recognisable impression. How inconsistent when I can sit at a desk for 10 mins and make it forever identifiable as my own.

n1sini=n2sinr (i dunno... eunice tay's frog keeps popping into my mind) The past is closer than it seems, closer than I would like to keep it. It's just 35 steps outside the band room.

It made me forget, if only temporarily, about everything. Oblivion is bliss.

Then it gets darker and darker, and suddenly the place becomes rather scary. Strange monsters scuttle to fill the unseen corners as the light flees. (there're a lot of cockroaches in school, i found out >.<)

Of course I'm practicing a trombone and fill the rafters with cracked notes. Then this indian cultural club guy comes up to me and tells me gently, but nevertheless with unshakeble firmness, to kindly shut the fuck up. I went home after that.

Its Zen!

2005-03-31T22:11:00.000+08:00

Oh yes today was good xD I shall give a blow-by-blow account

Physics. expected. don't even let us use 1/f = 1/u + 1/v wtf. draw diagram like pri 3. her lessons are actually pretty boring

HCL. expected. chinese test. what can i say? actually, what could I have written? not that i wrote much anyway, but nevermind. i studied 8 hours, if i fail, then that's just too bad.

Maths. lalalim wasn't here, so slack and tokkok and do geoff's worksheets for him.

Rest of the day. nothing to talk about. fell asleep and slept for a long time. *light on but noone at home* CIP organisation stuff. generate masses of paperwork

Had lunch with bing and sean at long john's. Stupid cashier conned me out of 30 cents. "you want regular sprite sir? *nodnod* that'll be $3.90". Apparently 'regular sprite' needs you to pay more, which makes me wonder - what's the one that you don't have to pay extra for?

I was cold the whole day, shivering a lot, then decided to cut through the in-between stuff and just fall asleep (3 hours of sleep + air-con + rain xD)

Bing and I have temporarily recovered our interest in japanese! shogun is a VERY good book. VERY long, but VERY good. Learn how to abase yourself and elevate the superior. How typically japanese.

Science club was unusually quiet. Actually i should say kiaboon was unusually quiet.

Should I go for the HCL investiture? it's immediately after SYF... forget it lah. i'll just beg someone to take my place. I want to go to TKGS again...

2005-03-29T20:41:00.000+08:00

There is the inevitable tendency to slide downwards into barbarism.

Do not argue with the Second law of Thermodynamics; entropy will increase to a maximum given sufficient time.

Occasionally, very occasionally, there are brief spurts of a miraculous climb towards enlightenment. Too few, too weak, too random. Heisenburg is cruelly thwarted by statistical reality. No sooner do we start the agonising upwards climb do we slide down again on a surface of slick oil. Of our own creation.

Now we live like its the last night on Earth. A self-fulfilling prophecy, cast by nations bound in collective blindness and apathy. All while the clocks tick slowly towards midnight. A new day beckons, fresh and free from the scourge of Man.

What are we waiting for?

2005-03-29T20:18:00.000+08:00

Reality hits with a hard bang... school has started

Actually its a step downwards, its upwards. I've been sleeping more (emphasise more), eating better, exercising more, socialising more, becoming generally healthier, more reasonable, more willing to wake up each morning.

Yes. ilearning was that bad. thank goodness IT IS OVER. for slightly less than a year. Its miserable to see all your friends happily going to school to lead carefree lives, instead of being cooped up 24/7 before a too-small array of electroluminiscent dots, drilling a hole through your retina, right through the skull to emerge from the other side. To a focal point at infinity.

hmm... to be done within these two weeks

1. SYF
2. CHAOS
3. IHSC
4. Friendship week stuff
5. chem stuff
6. SS stuff
7. SMP stuff

to be done after that
nothing

they are going to be fun

2005-03-27T23:26:00.000+08:00

Bored? ((Over 100 questions))
Created by xSwtLilAngel666x and taken 79166 times on bzoink!
[x] Part 1 -- The Basics [x]
What's your name? ::	michael lim
Birthplace ::	somewhere rather far away from here, across a big pool of water
Age ::	14 - 15
Age you act ::	14 - 15
Current location ::	the land of red fish
Eye color ::	black
Hair color ::	none to speak of (ruggerisation is thorough)
Right, lefty or ambidextrous? ::	righty
Zodiac sign? ::	ebola virus
Height? ::	1.78m
[x] Part 2 -- Describe... [x]
Your heritage/nationality ::	chinese fellow
Your hair ::	non existent
Your fears ::	not getting anything done before i die
Your perfect room ::	with my cd player, my speakers, and soundproofed windows
What you practically do in a day ::	exist and talk
[x] Part 3 -- What is/are... [x]
Words you overuse ::	'and', 'the', 'what?'
Phrases you overuse ::	'we're screwed', 'i'm screwed', 'good night'
Your first thought when you wake up ::	why is there a ceiling there?
Your greatest accomplishment ::	none worth speaking of yet
Something you want to do ::	become monastic and live on top of a low mountain
[x] Part 4 -- This or that [x]
Pepsi or Coke ::	coke
McDonald's or Burger Kings ::	BK
Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera ::	neither
Chocolate or vanilla ::	chocolate - goes well with chendol
Adidas or Nike ::	nike - they make good drivers
Black or white ::	black
Bills or Coins ((Think $$$)) ::	coins (don't you pay bills?'
Burgers or hot dogs ::	burgers
Egypt or France ::	egypt
Rock or rap ::	rock (duh)
[x] Part 5 -- Do you...[x]
Smoke ::	when certain people say certain things
Cuss ::	i try not to
Sing well ::	yes! yes!
Sing in the shower ::	yes! yes!
Talk to yourself --a lot-- ::	yes! yes!
Believe in yourself ::	most of the time... except when the coffee loses effect
Like taking these longass surveys? ::	actually i do!
Play an instrument ::	trombone
Want to go to college? ::	of course
Want to get married? ::	yes
Want to have children? ::	three of them
Think you're a health freak? ::	the exact opposite
Get along with your parents ::	haha i do
Get along with your siblings? ::	not exactly (at all)
Think you're popular ::	nope
[x] Part 6 -- In the past month have you..[x]
Gone out of state ::	when the coffee wore off
Drank alchohal ::	when i drank too much coffee
Smoke ::	when HE said THAT
Get high ::	when ...that girl looked at me like... that (omgomg THAT look melts)
Done any drugs ::	ventolin
Eaten an entire box of oreos ::	i don't like oreos
Been on stage ::	yeah
Gone skinny dipping ::	nope
Been dumped ::	... nope, sorry ^^
Dyed your hair ::	dyed what?
Stolen anything ::	someone else's food
[x] Part 7 -- Your friends! =D [x]
Craziest ::	WAH LAU WE'RE ALL PERFECTLY SANE
Loudest ::	me (bass trombonist you know)
Most shy ::	guocong
Blondest ::	none
Smartest ::	aaron chee (nonono AMYAS THE MINUATURE GOD)
Kindest ::	royce
Best personality ::	bing!
Most talented ::	royce. girls find him irresistable!
Best singer ::	i don't know
Most ghetto ::	sengteck
Drama Queen ((or King XP)) ::	sengteck (jerome comes a close second)
Pain in the ass ::	see above, former
The one you just want to strangle to death ((Homer Simpson style))::	see above
Funniest ::	see above
Best person for advice ::	geoff
Dependable ::	jeremy (wong)
Trustworthy ::	geoff
Druggie ::	noone does drugs here, man
Most likely to end up in jail ::	alan
Person you've known the longest ::	guocong (actually shenghao)
[x] Part 8 -- The Last... [x]
Last dream ::	last night... where the pink elephants were
Last nightmare ::	the night before... where the elephants were grey
Car ride ::	12 hours ago
Last time you cried ::	primary 6
Last movie seen ::	mononoke hime... stole a VCD of it
Last movie rented ::	none
Last book read ::	shogun, by james clavell
Last word said ::	'bye'
Last curse word said ::	to recruits - "pushup position down!"
Last time you laugh ::	2 seconds ago (actually just before i die)
Last phone call ::	53 minutes ago
Last CD played ::	POP, U2
Last song you listened to ::	if god will send his angels, see above
Last annoyance ::	CHAOS question 3
Last IM ::	with GK
Last weird encounter ::	the 7th hole with the voodoo green
Last person you hugged ::	...someone ^^
Last person you yelled at ::	recruits
Last time you wore a skirt ::	last year... rgs pinafore for our play ^^
Last time you've been evil ::	to recruits (come on... am I evil at all?)
Sarcastic? ::	to recruits
Last time you fought with your parents ::	can't remember
Last time you wished upon a star ::	i saw betelgeuse, and wished for aliens to come (green ones!)
Played Truth or Dare ::	in der 2p tent... obs
Spent quality time alone ::	never
[x] Part 9 -- I swear this is the last one! -- Randomness [x]
Are you talking to someone on AIM ::	yes
Do you feel lonely ::	nope haha
Ever TP'd someone's house ::	TP?
How about egging someone's house ::	egging?
Do you not like dislike not like me? ::	i've fallen in love with you
Ain't Eminem and 50 Cent just fine? ::	can you say "rat's ass"?
Yo Momma ::	blum
Ever been so hungry you felt like you could eat the person next to you? ::	when i sit next to a sec 1 (bitesized portions)
What do you think of George Bush? ::	can you say 'rat's ass'?
Any secret fetishes? ::	shoelaces, and power adaptors (240VAC to 19VDC, 3.16A ooh)
Do you like to wear chains? O_o ::	nope
How many languages do you speak? ::	3
Damn.. are your fingers tired? Cause mine sure are! ::	mostly
Glad this is over? ((Say yes and I'll stalk you =P)) ::	yes
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2005-03-27T21:21:00.000+08:00

Congrats to edlyn for getting into CAP! ^^

Don't take what i said so seriously lah... remember to make lots of friends and have fun!

2005-03-26T23:59:00.000+08:00

happy birthday to you! haha have something good happen to you this year okay?

I have ruggerised myself... ventilation! she didn't cut enough of the top away though... will do it myself.

and my ilearning is DONE. no need to function anymore in a semi-comatose stupor, animated only by judiciously spaced shots of caffeine.

i feel happy now.

2005-03-25T20:55:00.000+08:00

17 unique solutions of x wtf. I smash my calculator with its 'SOLVE' function very hard on the desk (and it goes kaput)

Then she takes a look at it and... ah... its 9-8, not 9+8

Oh well... too late
This is this the stuff that gets people killed.

So much for "schnell! schnell!"

Today was Good Friday. It was also a good Friday. Got more than 6 hours of sleep finally... and woke up in a bed of my own choosing. Then tried to learn the chapter on rotation (given up on ilearning already). Emphasise tried.

Found out that my BMI is way way low... about 17 or so. I'm as thin as a rail. No, half a rail. At least I can eat as much as I want. Actually the actual BMI isn't really accurate, as it doesn't take into account the er... biceps, triceps and six-pack that I got from my chendol.

Speaking of chendol.... The shop across my house makes the best some of the best around here. They use real gula melaka, not that horrible brown sugar. The only thing that makes the one in penang better is the fact that this one puts expired coconut cream in theirs. But a heap of ice, beans, chinchow and chendol for $1.50 is stuff good enough. Plus I gain weight from it, so it must be good for me.

And then I got 5 more CDs... Parachutes, daybreaker, Pop, Queen Greatest hits III, American Idiot (finally). Pop is good stuff... not as good as Joshua Tree and nowhere near Achtung Baby (nothing gets near that), but its still the most underrated U2 album. It makes you smile. Isn't that all its supposed to do?

If god will send his angels

It seems that everyday we get further apart. I don't know why. I am afraid.

Going running at 6 tomorrow. I need to complete my complement of... muscles xD

2005-03-24T21:54:00.000+08:00

Hah - i realised our SYF date is three days before my birthday... not that it matters, but it would be nice to be happy on my birthday.

I can remember when I went to SYF in sec 1. I didn't actually watch it, but had to er... guard instruments instead. Anyway I can still remember this one thing - as they came down after the announcement of th results, those who didn't do well were crying. All of them.

I think I would, too if we don't get what we (I) want. I think I know what I want.

I don't want to cry anymore.

Yellow is a hypnotic song... but not as bad as the CO choice piece.

Yellow
by Coldplay

Look at the stars,

Look how they shine for you,
And everything you do,
Yeah, they were all yellow.

I came along,
I wrote a song for you,
And all the things you do,
And it was called "Yellow."

So then I took my turn,
Oh what a thing to have done,
And it was all "Yellow."

Your skin
Oh yeah, your skin and bones,
Turn into something beautiful,
You know, you know I love you so,
You know I love you so.

I swam across,
I jumped across for you,
Oh what a thing to do.

Cos you were all "Yellow,"
I drew a line,
I drew a line for you,
Oh what a thing to do,
And it was all "Yellow."

Your skin,
Oh yeah your skin and bones,
Turn into something beautiful,
And you know for you,
I'd bleed myself dry for you,
I'd bleed myself dry.

It's true, look how they shine for you,
Look how they shine for you,
Look how they shine for,
Look how they shine for you,
Look how they shine for you,
Look how they shine.

Look at the stars,
Look how they shine for you,
And all the things that you do.

2005-03-23T22:38:00.000+08:00

Haha we rock

OWNAGE

ACJC geog quiz belongs us, 16 to 14 to 0 to -8 (ACSB). First shiny thing of year.

Which is quite weird, 'cause I don't take geog and tycoed everything in the prelim round. So sengteck, juanhe, alan and I went up... and we got a positive score! Their econs questions were quite easy haha

We will rock yall (stamp stamp ja)

Anyway that girl from rgs is seriously HOT (whew!)... Can you spell chiobu? (right, alan? xD)

And coming back was bad. Convenient that 156 goes straight home, but I would rather have taken something else if THAT guy was on it.

He was sitting next to me. And he fell asleep. When you fall asleep, you... droop and... oscillate back and forth. His head would have been on my shoulder the entire journey (interchange to interchange - WAY too long). Until I got disgusted and pushed his head away, which... oscillated back to its original position. Then I got off and stood instead. And that ny girl was laughing every agonising metre of the way (yarh yarh, what if you were in MY place)

it still irks me when i think of it...

2005-03-22T21:15:00.000+08:00

Day two of that thing they call i-learning

now i understand what 'lag' means...

Anyway tomorrow ACJC geog quiz. same old same old. do not lose to rgs... or anyone, for that matter.

I'm trying now... don't judge me yet please. I know it looks rather... ugh... but it i didn't make those dents. Its still quite shiny =p

Why is it when our batch comes along, things start to screw up? Hullett loses first place t and f. RI hasn't won first place in any quiz/competition. RIMB is 'teetering on silver'. All the seniors agree - we have fallen quite a bit. Look at the people on top - aaron chee, bing, (eugene neo?), (auyong, maybe?). We have no focus, no clear aim in mind, rather than 'don't be the first to lose *insert name of competition here*.'

There is still hope. (is there? with 3 weeks?)

We've had enough of mediocrity. We are getting out of this self-imposed mould. We are going to do things, for once, instead of having things done to us.

Who's with me?

2005-03-22T10:26:00.000+08:00

haha, got all the angst out of my system now.

Anyway Ilearning is surprisingly easy this year... I only have to do the chinese and chem parts now... and is there anything for bio?

Plus mug for chinese, of course xD

2005-03-22T00:14:00.000+08:00

It is late at night, and thinks float through my head.

I think first of all: what am i?

Person of many faces. Or maybe I just think I am. Michael the mugger, michael the buaya, michael the stupid prefect, michael the awkward adolescent. Why? Why so many? Why can't I just be Michael, rather than having all these labels pinned onto me? I'm used to them by now, the way I act depends the expectations that people have of me in that situation. Exam/competition coming up? Michael should be uber mugger. Girl within 15 metres? Michael the super-buaya takes over.

Why am I being forced into these moulds of behaviour? Why can't I just do what I want to do, be who I want to be? Why predict what I will do, then enforce such prediction through that oh-so-convenient tool of peer pressure.

What was I going to do in the first place? I've already forgotten. I can't remember what its like to be myself, what its like to act without regard for consequences. Always the calculation, observation, long thought before action. Gone is the spontaenity, the life. Michael has been taken over by a badly-programmed robot, almost identical but not quite. Michael has forgotten who Michael is.

Am I happy? I don't know. What's it like to be happy? It is not ignorance - I shall never go down that slippery slope again. Is it love? Probably not. Love, (my) love is painful. It amplifies the experiences rather than changing them. Happiness is made more wonderful, but so is the suffering.

Or maybe its simple: I just want to be myself... whoever that guy is.

I'll be happy if someone loves me.

With or without you
U2

See the stone set in your eyes
See the thorn twist in your side
I wait for you

Sleight of hand and twist of fate
On a bed of nails she makes me wait
And I wait without you

With or without you
With or without you

Through the storm we reach the shore
You give it all but I want more
And I'm waiting for you

With or without you
With or without you
I can't live
With or without you

And you give yourself away
And you give yourself away
And you give
And you give
And you give yourself away

My hands are tied
My body bruised, she's got me with
Nothing to win and
Nothing left to lose

And you give yourself away
And you give yourself away
And you give
And you give
And you give yourself away

With or without you
With or without you
I can't live
With or without you

With or without you
With or without you
I can't live
With or without you
With or without you

SYF rehearsal was good. I wish I could play like that more often. I wish I could get a new instrument with fewer dents and less rust. I wish we can get gold with honours.

2005-03-20T14:15:00.000+08:00

That actually felt better

2005-03-18T09:08:00.000+08:00

Good morning.

That's what it was =D. The first day of the holidays I got to wake up at a time of my own choosing, in a bed of my own choosing. And take a leisurely hour-long breakfast, with coffee, papers and all, unlike the madcap cramming of food into my mouth which usually happens on school days. I'm starting to enjoy this. Slept at 11.30 last night 'cause my head was giving me trouble; it's still giving me trouble.

And today is the day
And today is the day
And today is the day

2005-03-17T00:12:00.000+08:00

The ideas are pouring out...

God, it seems as if the hardest mugging i've done yet isn't for an exam at all =p (astro quiz lah). Its seriously fun, as in the mugging itself. The ones I hate mugging the most are the rote-memorisation ones (chinese), or those you know most of but lack the nitty gritty details (bio, chem). The most fun ones are those you know (maths, physics) or don't know at all (astronomy)

Anyway...

mustnotlosetoquahsisters mustnotlosetoquahsisters mustnotlosetoquahsisters mustnotlosetoquahsisters

It seems (to myself, and everybody else) that there is far less time to sleep during the holidays

2005-03-16T18:19:00.000+08:00

We're always waiting, aren't we?

Just sitting there and stoning, waiting for the day something happens to us. Opportunities arrive like late buses and sit there begging to be boarded, but the lead weight at the back of our head holds us back in perpetuity. Fears of failure, humiliation, hurt all conspire to block our path, and so we wait. The bus departs as unexpectedly as it arrived, but we do not chase it. Still we wait, for better chances, better prospects, better probabilities, better excuses to stall. They don't exist, but we expect that anyway. We have perfected the skill of differentiating between the desire for a thing from the taking of necessary action to grasp it. We have perfected the art of delusional satisfaction.

So we sit on that cold stone bench for eternity, waiting for the bus that goes where we're heading i.e. the one that never comes.

GET UP AND GRAB IT BY THE BALLS, MICHAEL!

I'm still waiting.

2005-03-15T22:31:00.000+08:00

some things are inevitable, this is one of them

Welcome to the sixth incarnation of my blog!

2005-03-15T18:40:00.000+08:00

I find my earphones kinky because my sister played with them, and they have all these kinks now. ok enough. ENOUGH!

Seriously, lame jokes are funnier than real ones. Why do people tell them if they aren't?

Anyway I apologise for whatever I've done.

I just got reminded of what holidays are truly for.

Somehow band just seems so different now... the whole mood of the band is tied in with how well we play. When we play as we always do (so-so), there's always this great lethargy and restlessness hanging over the band room, manifested in all that yawning and sighing, ultimately in our poor perfomances. People check their watches every five minutes, as if anxious for band to finish so that they can get the hell out of there as soon as possible.

But not today. Perhaps it was magic, perhaps it was that tongue-lashing by rizaal the previous day, but whatever it was, it sure had a miraculous effect. I think that's the best ever vogelhandler we played (it was the best I played, anyway), and this was certainly shown in the post-band situation. It was the first time i heard oura say "good". Ever. A lot more smiles, laughing, general happiness. The spirit that makes you want to come back tomorrow to train, the kind that makes me willing to lug my mini-coffin home to practice, the kind that makes us feel like a band.

We need more of this. Maybe I'm just hallucinating, but it certainly seemed real to me. I hope it was.

2005-03-14T21:33:00.000+08:00

We don't seem to have much homework... just reading portfolio, some chinese stuff and done!

or at least until ilearning week.

and the mugging for the NYP astro quiz, and ACJC geog quiz (i don't even take geog, what the hell!)

Today was super slack - just go for band, do usual band things, watch an incredibly old movie (still good), 'eat' dinner with some people and come home straight

WHEN WILL I HAVE TIME TO DO THE THINGS I WANT TO DO? I HAVE OVERDUE OBLIGATIONS YOU KNOW!

anyway... i need more time. it has all gone to the land of red fish

2005-03-14T12:50:00.000+08:00

Blogging from the band room now, with a stolen connection and a borrowed laptop =D

I've realised that I can't fit 5gb of sec 1 camp video onto 1 CD-R... unless i make it into a powerpoint slideshow

8-6 band practices should be held more often, more chances to talk crap with people... My sec 1s are really interesting sometimes *cough* and i see how i raise my instrument 15 degrees above the horizontal

I met her at the bus stop today...

Have to fall in now... blog later

2005-03-12T23:04:00.000+08:00

I see your words
Have denied you food
and I am afraid

Economic pragmatism is a wonderful thing.

2005-03-11T23:39:00.000+08:00

There we go... 6 years and ending. Not the end of the world - the killer combos (Gaokong, kiaboon and me for senior, amyas for junior) will win back at least a few points.

Enough of that... the future beckons.

RI is divided into two camps - not GEP and express, but muggers, poseurs, losers and kings, ever to war against other in unending strife.

You know the first two, so i explain the last two.

Loser - people who either don't know what they want to be, and consistently strive to be something they're not. No examples here

King - Someone who does everything well. I mean EVERYTHING. Not in the sense of schoolwork (who cares about schoolwork?), but in the sense of getting things done. Or maybe i give you a list: koay, aaronchee, bingwen, auyong

I'm not a mugger, if mugger means concentrating on schoolwork. Oh NO, I am most definitely NOT. Its like Ender's Game - the 'work' is challenging and supposed to do you good and blahblahblah, but in the end it doesn't matter. It is irrelevant, it is a distraction. Do it because you have to, but remember that its not the only thing in the world. When I leave school, I won't (I won't want to) remember all the work. I'd rather remember happier things. Like talking cock with geoff and maggot, like shouting myself hoarse, like being addressed as senior, like getting screwed by oura, like all the girls. Losers don't realise that.

JC is a time for havoc and party - wise words ^^

I polarise the communities I join, I realise. I come in, and I instinctively know who to hate and who to like. Likewise for the other people - they know whether to hate or love me. If I get off on a wrong footing with someone, that impression will remain forever. All those missed opportunities. What's worse is that these people are like me. Or rather, they are who I once was. Do I hate my past so much that I take it out on these people?

Seng Teck, Alan and Jeremy, I'm sorry.

And I can't get you out of my mind, not even when I think of other people. I know you've got O levels and I don't, but does that matter? Its just time. Just a matter of time. The future is a long way ahead, live for the moment. I don't really care whether you go to rj or not, as long as some bastard doesn't try and hit on you there =p I'll still love you too.

2005-03-11T21:05:00.000+08:00

The sec 1 camp was... completely unexpected.

I mean, they seriously aren't that bad. Sure, 75% of them are overweight, 25% obese, they're clumsy and stupid (incredibly), but they aren't bad. Just innocently cute. If they do something wrong, its not because they're deliberately doing it but because they don't know how to do better.

Seeing them so enthu makes me faintly guilty...

Was incharge of the video, so got about 2 hours of low-quality footage, which i have to cut to fit onto a CD -.- plus the ibook i got holds at most 2 gb... long time going

Let's see - holidays. Workworkwork. Band camp is cancelled, replaced with mon-wed 8-6 practices (more than there would have been at camp =p) Competitions on wednesday and friday, friday's one on 'advanced astronomy' (I don't know anything about astronomy =S plus it involves calculus)

Then there is the inevitable ilearning with enough work to need a forklift to bring back to school.

2005-03-06T17:19:00.000+08:00

whew... what a two-day.

Saturday - Flop to school for some band workshop - ended up being the only one there younger than 16 (rjcsb thingy). Didn't want to go home, so hung around doing random stuff to people. Joined auyong, bing, chee and hweehwee in mr lim's apartment in the boarding complex to mash out the campfire programme for S1GEPcamp. His place is seriously cool - gamecube, PS2, xbox, dvd player, 100+ DVDs, lotsa books, lotsa CDs and other stuff - imagine having your home at your workplace, never leaving school. Home is just a place to put all your toys which you can't bring to work =P

We decided that we were going to light it with a fuse i.e. my sort of thing.

After that went to Romeo and juliet performance at indoor stadium - turns out that yixiang wasn's supposed to come but came anyway, and took my ticket. So a bit of judicious begging and stealing got me another free ticket =p (actually someone else didn't come, so i took his ticket) Play was rather... unimpactful. Probably because we were sitting 50m away from the stage, could neither hear nor see a thing - zhiwen was sleeping, marc and benedict were playing handphone games behind me ^^.

Flop home and do logarithms stuff - how logarithms apply to a chef

Sunday - do baozhangduhougan (1300 words! a new record!), then lunch before going to aaron's house to erm... test out the fuse for the campfire. His house is located a way from the main road, there's a small road that goes in with little on either side; we picked a patch of concrete, which incidentally happened to be right next to the road (bad choice >.<) Then twist 8 strands of string to form a 1m long rope, soak in kerosene. Put kerosene-soaked newspaper at one end to simulate a 'campfire'. Light one end.

Watch and sweat (1m of rope burns through in 1 minute; the sweat partly due to the heat, partly due to the curious [and not so curious] stares of people (many) who pass. I think I'm in trouble - there was one man in a car who stopped right next to us, stared at us for a long time (a very unsettling stare), then drove off. I saw him taking out his handphone as he was driving off... We decided to run after that. ("Mr Lim! Can you get us out of the police station?")

Now I have to do:
philo journal
english rp - 1 more poem
lit review, which I hope geoff will get us an extension for

S1GE camp coming up soon on tuesday, so expect nothing from me until friday -> T and F

2005-03-04T20:42:00.000+08:00

I picked my first lock today... after leaving my wallet in class, I forgot about it until about 5+ when the doors had already been locked. Put the... skills learnt from my mentor to use, with a screwdriver and straightened out paperclip, took about 9 minutes to open the 3L door. Cut down to 7 in closing it... should get it to under 30 seconds flat. Maybe I'll expand into safecracking and padlock-forcing. Imagine the implications - I could get into any room in the school, any gate leading anywhere, open any locker with nary a hindrance.

Hehehehe WATCH OUT, certain PEOPLE who keep STUFF and INTERESTING THINGS^^

We trust our safety of mind to inanimate objects. All that protects your belongings and your life is a simple closed loop of metal. All that's inside a lock are these small pins of brass, barely 2mm in diameter, which hold the bolt and prevent anything but the right key from turning them... rake them the correct way and they open. Do you really have so much faith in it?

2005-03-01T22:30:00.000+08:00

It all makes sense in the end...

You know Jerry Ang and his demonstrations of short circuits? nothing compared to what i'm going to do. You know those lead-acid cells in the science lab? series connect 7 of them and short-circuit them to start the campfire of sec 1 camp. "The wires will melt, the battery casing will melt, and you'll see people crying and running"

sorry, just had SS test >.< style="font-style: italic;">pa everything on that paper and marks will inevitably come your way

I finally quit my tution class, after finally getting that 4.30 to 6.30 slot after 3rd lang filled up by quiz team trainings. Amyas chew is god. Now I can't see that sngs girl anymore... >.< VJC science competition coming up - should I participate?

With the crushing of that SS test, I am free of tests for T1, leaving time for:
Band camp
Logistics for s1camp
Read the hamlet and macbeth and othello and anything else i have to read
Mug chinese - a never ending uphill struggle
Dialoguesessionreport
Throw chairs around and run about

Integrate teh equation sin^2 x - cos ^2 x, and win a prize (no, you don't count, linky)

2005-03-01T00:07:00.000+08:00

BlardyhellSStesttomorrow(today)soIrecounttheanswerbeforethetest:

LeegoodLeegoodLeegood
LeegoodLeegoodLeegood

Thenimodifyabitwhenneeded:

LeegoodLeegoodLeegood
LeegoodLeegoodLeegood

Twopointsalreadyneedonemoreforcounterargument:

LeebadaLittlebitonlyLahLeegoodLeegood
LeegoodLeegoodLeegood

Then to conclude:

LeegoodLeegoodLeegood
LeegoodLeegoodLeegood

2005-02-27T23:58:00.000+08:00

I will Kick You Out Of Trombones if you persist in your total absence of Committment and Effort.

Be Warned.

2005-02-27T17:12:00.000+08:00

I've discovered another good artist - Coldplay.

Very similar to U2 in terms of subject matter and treatment, but totally different in method. Mechanical, like a duck

I like clocks

2005-02-27T15:24:00.000+08:00

hehehe - I passed!

Yeah, yeah, so you got more than me, I don't really care =P

Band exchange yesterday was a flop - nothing more than a small performance, then a spastic concert (not even a concert - just played and left). ACSI was so ashamed at their pathetic playing that they ran away after their first crappy performance =D. No sectionals, no form of interaction whatsoever. What was the point of bringing four bands together to do nothing, I don't know. So nothing from there...

Zhikai has a crush on that girl? the sec 2 prefect... (also trombonist!).

A review of trombone section:

Daniel the SL - really?
Zhikai the slacker - he cannot even play a single good note. NOT A ONE
Matthew the tall
Charles the fat
Me

Anyway I have decided that I don't really want to run for council in jc anymore. I'm,tired of having people point at me with their index finger and go in that bloody irritating tone "PREEEEEEEEFECT!", for some minor or non-existent transgression. For god's sake, read the rulebook first okay? What the rules DO NOT SAY, they HAVE NOTHING TO STOP YOU WITH. Just because we're prefects doesn't mean we have to function mechanically with absolute obedience and homogeneuity. It doesn't mean I can't use bittorrent, doesn't mean I can't swear, doesn't mean I can't talk to girls. It just means I obey the rules, and do whatever I feel necessary as part of my duty to make your lives better (read: dialogue session).

Anyway I think the rules are really flawed when they prosecute you for doing things that do not affect other people. How does wearing ankle socks or or wearing non-white shoes harm others? Blahblah about school image and so on, but I think the distressingly high socks of the sec 1s damage our reputation more than their opposite. A friend of mine has great disdain for RI boys. To quote "see them on the bus, damn mugger-like". A great reputation we preserve here...

Enough of that angsting already... I found out that SS is actually fun - the ISD won't arrest you for saying anti-establishment stuff. I will make the most of this.

2005-02-25T21:28:00.000+08:00

DIALOGUE SESSION!

Turnout better than expected, no stuttering during introduction... better than I could have asked for... If only I didn't fudge up at that time.

Thanks to those who turned up today!

2005-02-24T22:38:00.000+08:00

I don't seem to have a class.

a. none of my form teachers actually teach me
b. I can go into any class and sit anywhere
c. I can sit anywhere in class anyway
d. I can do anything in class, including - messaging, talking, sleeping, scribbling random crap, reading under table.

Really, 3Q means as much to me as 3A or 3B. Might as well say it doesn't exist, for it is only formality that holds us together, rather than actual companionship. It definitely isn't 2P - too guai for that. I don't like that.

I must do something

2005-02-24T22:07:00.000+08:00

I must be carrying a sink in my backpack, 'cause that's where all the time goes.
Most of it, anyway.

At least the science club trainings are starting... gives me an excuse to quit tution once and for all.

Oh yes - a new concept - your Algebraic sum. I'm not telling you how it works - here are some examples

Geoff = 2x + 2
Mark = x + 1
Tuck Heng = 0
Richard Lu = 0
Kovan Kok = x
Me = 1 (not telling you the x terms)

I must learn to keep my elbows to myself - and not knock rjc girls sprawling again... don't want to think about that... >.<

For the final time: COME FOR DIALOGUE SESSION AND ASK THINGS. PLEASE. PLEASE! m(__)m (jap teacher's teaching =p)

Oh yes. And I love you. Too.

2005-02-23T23:30:00.000+08:00

Sit down comrades, let us discuss... democracy.

Why democracy - in theory because it empowers the people, motivates them to contribute actively and intelligently to the benefit of the State. No matter how capable the five people at the top are, the collective mass of humanity in the middle and bottom will always trump them from sheer volume and concentration.

But it is not so. Firstly - it assumes an informed and rational population. This is the goal of education, and is mostly accomplished in developed nations. Don't try to apply in undeveloped nations, or you just end up with a coup de'etat replacing your elected leader with some tribal dictator who intends to govern for eternity.

Secondly - Collective opinion is always the result of processes less intelligent than the mean intelligence of individuals. Simply put - the majority is stupider than the individual. Always. They are an inert mass, responding only to gross errors or miscalculations. Otherwise they prefer to live unfettered by such concerns. Some take conscientious interest, but the terrorism of majority opinion drowns out all variations, below or above the mean.

2005-02-22T22:57:00.000+08:00

Two tests tomorrow, the most yet. I don't feel nervous, maybe because they're of bio and physics.
I think I must stop sleeping in class...

My attention level goes as follows:
Low - Early morning, jap
Lower - Chinese
Medium - English, SS
High - Lit, Bio, Chem
Higher - Physics

Everything else I fall asleep. Maybe that's what I need second most - sleep. Two consecutive days when I can sleep whenever I want, and wake up whenever I want. Just that, and still impossible to achieve.

1 , 1.30 , 1 , 2.00 , 12.30

These are the times at which I slept at last week.

I hope james miao and bensen are happy...

2005-02-20T20:21:00.000+08:00

well, that's a screwup... nicole and cheryl add me to their MSN, and I respond with shocked incredulity... whoops... sorry >.< There are people who dislike seng teck...

2005-02-20T15:15:00.000+08:00

A fatwa:

GO FOR DIALOGUE SESSION ON FRIDAY. IT'S GOOD FOR YOU. HM WILL BE KIND AND REASONABLE AND FUNNY

DON'T MAKE ME LOSE FACE... it was our idea okay?

2005-02-19T17:11:00.000+08:00

Well, next Friday's dialogue session (after being pushed back 3 weeks) so mr lim's concerns are essentially moot. dammit dammit dammit... why me?

Speaking of disappointments: PLAY '05

Let's see: One long day of nothing but moving instruments around, bring chairs to and fro and setting them up, punctuated by brief traumatic episodes of performing. To quote zhong ye/brian neo/whoever "The rgs girls aren't strong enough to carry chairs, so you guys have to do it". Bloody hell. Playing was dismal too. Rushed this part and blasted at the wrong moment, obvious as hell. What's the use of playing the best ever vogelhandler during rehearsal if you can't play it again during the actual performance?

not even the presence of rgs was sufficient - only two
At least i got to hear rjcsb play mononoke and time to take back the knights...

On demand - Electrical Storm

Listen/download

"Electrical Storm"
U2

The sea it swells like a sore head and the night it is aching
Two lovers lie with no sheets on their bed
And the day it is breaking

On rainy days we'd go swimming out
On rainy days swimming in the sound
On rainy days we'd go swimming out

You're in my mind all of the time
I know that's not enough
If the sky can crack there must be someway back
For love and only love

Electrical Storm
Electrical Storm
Baby don't cry

Car alarm won't let you back to sleep
You're kept awake dreaming someone elses dream
Coffee is cold but it'll get you through
Compromise that's nothing new to you.
Let's see colours that have never been seen
Let's go places no one else has been

You're in my mind all of the time
I know that's not enough
Well if the sky can crack there must be someway back
To love and only love

Electrical storm
Electrical storm
Electrical storm
Baby don't cry

It's hot as hell, honey in this room
Sure hope the weather will break soon
The air is heavy, heavy as a truck
We need the rain to wash away our bad luck

Well if the sky can crack there must be some way back
To love and only love

Electrical storm
Electrical storm
Electrical storm

Baby don't cry
Baby don't cry
Baby don't cry

2005-02-17T23:10:00.000+08:00

NEW, REVISED LIST OF THINGS I WANT

1. GIGABYTE GV-3D1 (Dual GeForce 6600GT graphics card, plus the seven fans needed to cool it). Even more hellishly expensive, but what the hell. I want to run HL2 at max settings (as in Deep Blue vs. Kasparov sort of performance, at the expense of a. 20 years of current and future life savings b. risk of igniting the motherboard and anything 3 feet around it)

2. $42.50 more for you-know-what (starts with an i, ends with a d)

3. Snaiperskaya Vintovka Dragunova (Dragunov sniper rifle) - To kill cute little fawn deer (and rabbits) with

4. To beat Seng Teck in everything

5. Lamborghini Murcia

6. A fellow who will carry my trombone around for me for free

6.5. A new mouthpiece

7. Limitless supply of print cartridges (fat hope)

8. New shoes. Doesn't have to be expensive or anything. Just fewer holes and patches (and less green)

9. The Complete U2 (itunes music store doesn't work here)

10. Limitless (or at least a lot of) inbox space in my handphone

11. Love - still the same here (Even though I still haven't found what I'm looking for)

2005-02-16T20:48:00.000+08:00

LJ Friends Meme by

• You must tell 2.71 people about this game.
• Gua Khee is the one that you love.
• Nicole is one you like but can't work out.
• You care most about Senthilkumaran S/O Sabapathy.
• Aaron Chee is the one who knows you very well.
• Geoff is your lucky star.
• Electrical Storm is the song that matches with Gua Khee.
• Bohemian Rhapsody is the song for Nicole.
• Sunday Bloody Sunday is the song that tells you most about YOUR mind.
• and One is the song telling you how you feel about life
Take this quiz

Something very very wrong... I care most about senthil... I must tell 2.71 people about this quiz.. The songs are distressingly accurate though

2005-02-15T20:26:00.000+08:00

Dear boy. if you cannot stand me, then why do you mention me many many many times? There is something seriously wrong here. CNQ will not be impressed.

But enough already...

Chinese test was... surprisingly easy. For the first time in my secondary school career do I know at least half the hanzi on sight. The 8 hours of mugging must have paid off... Aaron Chee (as usual) achieved the same effect from half an hour the previous night.

Our mentor is fun! His card reads:
Dr Michael Koh Teik Hin
PhD, B,Sc. (Hons, Cl. I), PCGE
Diploma Programme Co-ordinator
Lecturer (BioMechanics, Gymnastics)

I wish I could have so many indecipherable letters after my name...

Need to do the IHScience Quiz finals questions... hard to set them for Amyas, the sec 2 who got second in the ranking quiz, 1 point behind xinyang. How do you test a person more pro than you
are?

I am free for the first time in... 3 months... I must have done something wrong... I should be spending this free time with other people... Haven't been to town for a long time... need to go to kino and HMV... dying of cultural deprivation... Thursday, then =D

A belated happy valentine's day to you... sorry i couldn't go on monday >><< sorry!!!

2005-02-14T23:25:00.000+08:00

Where were YOU when the great DOG came from its heavenly kingdom and said unto the peoples "Lo, I am DOG, king of kings! Let the hypocrite, the blind, the truth-seeker come unto me, and i shall smother them with wings of wax"

more pictures of my room!

the desk and associated clutter =P

hell of a lot of wires, yes

the instrument of maximum power

2005-02-13T12:19:00.000+08:00

gaah - my golf is getting worse. have to get my handicap below 18 by april...

I hope you like your valentine's day gift - I had to kill to get it =p

Flopflopflop go the tanks as they roll over the landmines - but maybe they're schoolbuses

Seeing our mentor tomorrow - Michael Koh... This should be interesting

2005-02-12T19:40:00.000+08:00

Border Guard

more pictures!

The sign has always been there, whitewashed galvanised zinc, painted with that cheerful welcome "You are entering the Soviet Union". The words have long since faded, leaving a faint outline of yellow, punctuated by spots of grainy rust. The barrier stands next to it in pinstriped glory; it had better be, or Boris will shoot you. This checkpoint has been in existence for a hundred years; it will exist for a hundred more.

Everyday you report for work, carrying a thermos of hot tea and the newspapers. You sit on that careworn stool in the guardhouse, your back ramrod-straight, and you wait. A poster droops behind your back as Lenin salutes the loyal sons of the Motherland; it means nothing to you now, but Boris will shoot you if you take it down. A symbol of power rests in front of you in the form of a large red button, worn right through the centre. You press it, and the barrier raises; you release it, and it falls back to bar the path.

You were once a captain in the Army, a model Comrade of the Soviet Union. Nadya fell in love with you and married you before bearing you Alexei and little Grishka; you earned your stripes quickly as a tank commander, even the treasured "Hero of the Soviet Union". Wounded on the banks of the Volga, you were deemed "unfit for combat" and shipped back home. But Comrade Stalin rewards loyal servants, and you were given the job of Border Guard. You ought to be happy, you know.

Everyday countless people submit to you for judgement, but you remember no faces, only their hands. Careworn and callused, pale and slender, four-fingered, buried beneath layers of mink, all clutching tattered papers in hopeful trepidation. Names, addresses, occupations all fade into irrelevance as your hands fly to the last line and affix a blood-red star. The barrier rises. The barrier falls. Some smile at you, some scowl, but you studiously ignore them - the NKVD are out to get you.

Occasionally you see little boys who remind you of yours. Your face then softens into happy recollection as your mind wanders into the happy sections of the past. Memories of flaxen-haired Grishka laughing and running free in the farm you used to own with Nadya, before the time of Stalin and Hitler. Memories of him listening in quiet rapture as you told him stories of distant lands, ommitting the necessary details. Memories of kissing him as you tucked him into bed. He left to go to Moscow, promising to write. Paper must be scarce in Moscow.

Today was no different. Boris shows up and hands you your monthly thousand-rouble note, which you finger greedily. You imagine the small fortune amassing in the pocket of your greatcoat, with which you will buy a small dacha upon retirement. You smile as you imagine bringing Grishka back from Moscow (hopefully with children!) and living happily with him for ever after. Oh, the stories you could tell him! Boris delivers something else; a letter! A crisp white rectangle, full of promise; Yeltsin waves at you from a corner. You slit it carefully and read the contents with trepidation, your aged eyes struggling with the tiny characters.

At first there is great excitement at receiving a letter from Moscow; this is slowly replaced by stark horror as your sluggish mind struggles to encompass the message. You break into a cold sweat, hands trembling as you read and reread the letter, hoping your eyes have been in error - in vain. The fatal words echo in your mind, "Cause of death: Suicide. Drug Overdose." Typewritten by an inhuman faceless bureaucrat. A predictable change occurs; the trembling stops, your back straightens. Sixty years fall from your face as an expression last seen on the face of a Captain of the Red Army reappears - iron discipline.

Your hands reach out for that drawer underneath the desk, and they withdraw a Luger. It is a good pistol, and good hands once wielded it. Yes indeed, your left kneecap seems to twinge in agreement, as you thank a dead officer of the Wehrmacht. It was last fired sixty years ago on the banks of the Volga, but it will work equally well in the North Caucasus. Your arm is surprisingly steady as you mechanically raise the pistol, prepared to carry out your duty. There is a crack, then blessed silence.

Opinions, please =p

2005-02-12T17:43:00.000+08:00

flop! back into reality after CNY

I can't think of anything to say, so I'll just recount.

Somehow it just seems to get better each year (except fot the jams)

Let's see... dashed to rosyth for a quick look around (noone anyway), dashed back home and piled into the car for the drive up north. Flopped out of the car at grandparents' place in KL, just in time for reunion dinner. Usual crowd of very old and very young people. People my age: Wei Wen, Wei Li, Wei Shen, Wei Cai (I'm Wei Lun). Slept in uncle's house. The people I wanted to see didn't come though.

Next day, piled into the car to go further north to Penang, for mother's side reunion. Usual crowd again... usual incomprehensible dialects. Drove back down to KL to play fireworks. Fireworks not only meaning the small things that go pop, but FIREWORKS meaning those that shoot upwards like artillery shells and explode into varicoloured abstract designs. Accidentally tipped over one of them while it was shooting, causing it to fire into the opposite neighbour's driveway. Highly unpleasant.

Flop into car, drive back down, get stuck in usual massive jam before getting back home.

Again: why must my hongbao be in ringgit?

2005-02-07T20:55:00.000+08:00

I don't like being lonely... it reminds me of my mortality, of how it will be like when I'm dead.
Maybe that's why I chalk up tremendous phone bills.

Seng Teck has high aims indeed... good luck to you and the prodigial twins!

Writing a lit essay now... relating einstein, heisenburg and copenhagen to Oedipus Rex... running out of names now.

I realise I need to value what I need... confusion is a tempting drug

2005-02-07T20:28:00.000+08:00

It is one thing to be insane, and one thing to think that you are when you aren't

Binggy is a genius... take a look at his writing

Lit classes just seem to get sicker and sicker...

Hongbao money shouldn't come in ringgit

Chinese should speak Chinese, no?

My phone has finally disintegrated... not a moment to soon

Radio waves ionise my memory of her

The prodigial twins destroy my self-image

Gong hei fatt choy!

2005-02-06T14:02:00.000+08:00

in the crowded marketplace
i drift from face to face
plastics and a switch
i close my eyes and clench my fist
and i wait for paradise
and i wait for paradise

ascent upon a plume of red
entropy like shattered glass
i need your blood, your soul
god has claimed it for my own
and i wait for paradise
and i wait for paradise

2005-02-05T23:11:00.000+08:00

Imagine a portable black hole, reduced to the size of a proton

Formula for Schwarzchild Radius

Rsch = 2GM/c^2
Proton radius about 2 x 10^16 m

Hence M = R c^2 /2 G
= (2 x 10^6) (2.998 x 10^8) / 2 (6.67 x 10 ^ -11)
= 4.49 x 10 ^24 kg

(consider that our sun's mass is 1.99 x 10^30 kg)

What to do with it? Use it as a limitless source of propulsion. Place it in a long evacuated tube, and fire particles at it. Either they are accelerated by the black hole's gravitational field to unimaginable velocities (an appreciable fraction of the speed of light) , or the black hole swallows them and expels their mass-energy (think einstein and e=mc^2). Either way a lot of stuff comes out the back very fast. Zoom goes the spaceship as it accelerates like a school bus.

What to shoot at it? Hydrogen, the most abundant 'thing' in the universe by far. Scoop it out of the atmospheres of the gas giants, pipe it from the sun, stick out your hand and catch it, hydrogen is everywhere. You don't even need that much of it to power the blackhole engine for an appreciable thrust, just a few grams a second. Guzzles far less fuel than any combustion engine, any nuclear reactor.

Hydrogen is the future!