Satie's Gymnopedie no 1

I think contemporary dance is pretty cool. The movements seem so intuitive and fluid, yet complex and emotional. Cool.

But I don't know whether I'm sick

Dry eyes... headache... ugh.

Banana Phone is a very cute flash cartoon.

My week is made up of the entire season 1 of One Tree Hill, Moulin Rouge, My Big Fat Greek Wedding and music that I like listening to but can't play. Grr!

An article about Periodic Male Tension.

Graduation Night

The tables are all set...


... the banners are finally up and ready...


... and the lights shine brightly for you tonight.

Months of planning have paid off, our imaginations materialized. The food was alright, the program was smooth enough (for a dinner, we were only about 30 minutes behind schedule). I took a cab home and reached safely. And to think it was only last year when I wondered how it felt to see seniors graduate. Not as sudden as death, but as inevitable and vacuous.

stupid stupid stupid!
I'm have to be at 2 places at the same time tomorrow. I'll have to rip myself apart into 2. And then perhaps I'll become a martyr for the rest of the students who feel like me and henceforth bring greater understanding between students and teachers. Or I also could also go for one activity and anger the other people in charge of the other activity. Either way I lose. I need some time machine of sorts and then I can truly feel more at peace with things.

God, I know you're in control. Help me.

Shower addicts, mosquito bites, teriyaki boyz, and PSLE trauma

I'm back from the P6 Camp!
First and foremost, this was my first time leading a group in a camp like that, with primary school kids calling you 'cher cher' which I eventually found exasperating, and to have to listen to every single random thought that they would like to share with you. I mean, I've passed the age of fascination for repetitive monosyllables ('ba-na-na', 'pa-pa-ya', 'ah-ha-ha-ha') and deliberately slapping on slander in front of an annoying kid who happened to accidently let an insensitive remark slip through. I've stopped spending every bit of my time in front of a screen, and I actually can sit still for half and hour.

But that's being shallow and self-centred. Because amidst the pain (and loss of blood from my 42 mosquito bites) and the frustration (and shock) of having to shush loud people up, of having to get them to stay at one place and prevent dispersal, of having to deal with their insensitivity (are all P6 guys so dense and recalcitrant? eg. my sister's classmates), I realize that I was one of them when I was young too. Small, skinny/fat, myopic both optically and mentally, and probably whiney. The thought horrifies. However, I also realize that kids have an infectious personality. (well, most of it has its charm in one way of another) And I've grown to love their incessant babbling and high-pitched squeals, or the cheeky grin on their faces when they do something really wrong and win you back with their childish ways that you wished you still saw everyday. (girls usually grow up much much much faster at 12. which can explain my sister and her indie-emo-screamo obsession and slight animosity towards anything eastern, including anime. 'but sushi's OKay') Sometimes they may frustrate, but they're lovable lil guys anyway.

And I've made many new friends too! There's John, who took many many many showers in 3 days and found the scent of my body wash quite fascinating, and there's Jun1 and Jun2 who shared the same names as many other children in Singapore :P, Leonard and his Teriyaki Boyz song in his phone that's stuck in my head now, Ali and his funky hair and Ee Meng the really really chubby guy who looks like chicken little. (and wears his chicken little sleeveless top too.)

So yes. I've learnt alot, and I don't really mind the 42 mosquito bites anymore.

And now to survive Grad Night tomorrow! I hope it works out great for everyone. (and hopefully i'll be able to get transport home)

All your stupidity are belong to us

Quite happy: got into 1A3 stream. Life of megaloads of homework, here I come!

On a sidenote, I have come across a blog aptly named AdVerbatims. (it sounds like a brand of aspirin eh?) and I can totally relate. And I have tons too, eg. "Can you make your design less 'red'?" (and at that point I was rolling my eyes because apparently a million colours smooshed into a T-shirt is better than one. And apparently I wasn't caught up in the I Want To Wear My Blogskin faze. And apparently the people preferred something black and jersey-like, ya know, cuz it's like so w@y k0oL worxx. But it wasn't such an annoying situation.) and the less subtle "I like the colour, but I never said I liked your design" which was, I thought, an interesting statement. Quite interesting.

And what is it about babies? I only find them cute when they are sleeping; I can't stand the sound of a baby wailing. Even when I was a baby I might have hated being one too, because I was trying to will myself to grow up faster. I believe in keeping babies safely stowed at home, instead of exposing them outside to a world where materialism, consumerism, and strange people with the long fringes, gold hair and multiple ear piercings lurch about with hunched shoulders and acne on their faces.
(ok. something happened on my way home from Vivocity which sparked once-more, an old animosity towards babies.)

urgh

It was a bad day today.

(i) I woke up late; had to go for the meeting 30 minutes behind time.
(ii) Went to J8, was immediately bombarded by other teenagers trying to make a quick buck by getting people to donate for a 'charitable cause'. I'm not sure 'charitable' referred to the organization they were touting for. Lost $5 dollars in the process.
(iii) Bought chicken from Shihlin. They cleverly refried a burnt piece and paraded it as freshly made with freshly fried batter.
(iv) Was crossing road (with traffic lights). Nearly hit by maroon Mercedes (which I found quite attractive actually). Oh why didn't it actually hit me harder? It might have made me happier. But anyway.
(v) Went home, it started to rain.
(vi) Read newspaper. Oh... fuck, the gahmen has done it again. Stupid 7% GST. Clever diplomacy and model use of nonspeak by PM Lee.
(vii) No one will laugh with me when I watch Spongbob Squarepants :(


Spheres and helium by *kisskornel on deviantART

I want to live by the lake and release balloons periodically to celebrate the passing of time.
Just kidding

I believe

Heh that was our dance item from last week's SL Intensive. (sort of)

Chalet!

Also, I have just arrived home from my class chalet. Same place as last year, only in a different unit that was much further from the pool than before. Hmphf.

The Movie





I arrived on the second night with shaojie, and together with andrea, we watched The Guardian (which was very touching and quite meaningful) at GV Tampines. I had an NY hotdog and Long John Silvers' Meal A. (the one where everything on the plate looks the same, it's only a question of the microportions of fish of chicken or potato that they serve. But they still taste like flour and salt, anyway.)

The movie we watched was roughly about the US Coast Guards and it was sad. But inspiring, despite rather mediocre less art-house-y cinematography. The movie was long! And so we ended at 12 am and had to catch a cab back to the chalet.

The Barbeque
I think we should have set up the grill much earlier beforehand! We ended up starting to cook at around 7.40 after a frustrating round of trying to stack charcoal and handle stubborn fire-starters.



Yeah and we managed to get the fire ready after a while—



and could barbeque our food. I loved the satay. I have always loved satay.



We took lots and lots of photos after that. All our three form teachers came! Miss Ong (our very first sec 1 form teacher), Miss Kuck and Ms Lim! I'll have to bug my other classmates for the class photos we took with them. So we were trigger happy most of the time and my eyes and limbs still hurt from looking at the flashes everywhere and having to strike some 'natural' pose when one thinks one is in the picture. How strenuous!



I took photos of people taking photos. Har-har.

The Movie Marathon

Ours was on-the-spur, because we started out watching House Of Wax (while I and some people were hitting each other while playing that I've-got-peace-like-a-river game which is not for a chi dun soul like me.) and then we got interested so everyone gathered in front of the telly and screamed at a gruesome parts (that were real gruesome) (but it was fun to see Paris Hilton's head being impaled by a rod. Ok. Must stop evil thoughts.)

After that, we watched The Park (that was in Cantonese i think). I'll never look at theme parks the same way again. But it wasn't that scary as I thought it would be, and the ending when everyone's photos were taken to 'help spirits to reincarnate' looked like a cheesy National Day video.

And I've finally watched Click! Hollywood is getting so vulgar and tasteless in comedy nowadays, it seems. Good thing Click could pull it off without annoying me. But I thought Morty (or was it Marty?) had a creepy face and when he said he was the Angel of Death I felt very scared, for a funny reason.

I loved Dark Water. It was very psychological and confusing at first, but once everything becomes clear you start to feel really awfully terrified. I think the part that sent the most chills and goosebumps was when Dahlia was alone reading to her daughter Ceci after her bath (wearing a sinister hooded sweater), or so she thought, when she suddenly heard the bathtub tap turn on and realized that Ceci was bathing and the girl with the hooded sweater wasn't her daughter. That feeling of sudden realization and dread.

I forgot what the titles of the other shows were because I was slowly switching off but I woke up to find a woman shouting on the television. heh.

Intensives

I stand corrected— it wasn't an SL camp I went for. It was an Intensive, ie. no games all planning til at least 2 AM. But it was enjoyable, for most parts of it. I went to school thinking that I hated things like these but I left the Intensive enriched and encouraged.

And yes, the bigger picture. Sometimes we always fail to see that. It's always the case of putting too much focus into planning that we fail to see the more intangible results that we want.

I think the most memorable part of the camp, for me, would be my family group! The fun and effervescent BABA-rians!—Beh beh Minghao, Bu bu Sandra, Bibilaine, Bibigigi, Bibilana, Bibi Ruimin (and Bibi Samuel. That's me) and our BI BI BA BI BU! cheer. (I have to admit, I love that senseless but funky nonsense) At the last day of camp, we all hugged and cried. Nothing like that has really happened in a camp I've gone to. I guess it shows that we weren't ready to break so soon, I would have loved to spend another few days with them! Really! I love our whimsical sheep drawings on every mahjong paper we attacked, the strange conversations we would carry out during meal times, everyone's laughter when I lose in that hand-clapping-on-table game again (esp. when I made a mistake twice in a row while telling alanna that I would not lose. So we broke into this explosive laughter that people get when they are laughing at two things at the same time), our quirky dance moves and catwalk poses (posture!) and our passion for strawberry jelly.

Our lack of sleep turned us into zombies, especially after playing the Electric Fence activity. And then we had about 8 hours to prepare for a camp presentation, inclusive of coming out with a professional-quality dance item, group presentations and a few individual sharings. When I was up there giving my short speech, I tried to sound natural and sincere as possible. (and I was staring at the spaces above their heads, heh)

After our the camp presentation, we had dinner at close to 9 PM (there were only chicken wings left for non-spectators). And there was this impromptu mentor-mentee gathering at the swings outside the canteen suddenly. Which was evocative of other experiences under a starry sky in previous SL camps.

I must allude to the buffet-style meals we had throught the Intensive. It taught us teamwork and empathy towards the needs of others.

Annoyed Grunt

Packing lists come with subtle hints to the less-than desired program. Eg. extra set of clothing means: (a) a trip to the beach (which is good) or (b) waterbombs and shooting water with plastic water guns ha-ha (which is retarded); however coloured pens and pencils might mean the Warm Fuzzies Corner. Which is not so bad. Until someone starts bragging about the amount of warm fuzzies they have to the extent that the amount of yellow post-it notes we get become a measure of one's worth (much like what happened to Friendster testimonials).

And with the torchlight, I do anticipate waking up in the middle of the night getting pissed-as-hell after being shouted at and starting to hate camps all over again. And the viscious cycle continues. (at least they didn't have a fire drill or anything during the last camp i went for) (which is a good thing).

I hate camps.
(is miserable)

(a) SL camp is tomorrow
(b) I haven't packed my bags for anything yet.
(c) Because I haven't receieved the packing list.
(d) and I have to go for choir and at the same time, SL camp.
(e) and I'll be going back to school on all the full days that I'll be at my class chalet.
(f) which probably means I wouldn't have time to go with everyone to, i dunno, have fun at escape theme park?
(g) so what's the point of paying for class chalet if you're probably not going to sleep and most likely end up moonlighting as a cleaner when you come back from school?
(h) what's the point of anything, really, when things beyond my own choice swallow up my own time?
(i) I want the right to spend my time the way I want it. I know it comes with responsibilities but at least I do get some control over vital aspects of my life?
(j) So, I've already decided. I need to give up something in order to concentrate more on studies next year. I don't want to waste my time on doing things that I don't enjoy. I enjoy debating. I enjoy singing. I might enjoy planning for things or ushering or shush-ing people up when they talk in the hall. I'm unsure whether I enjoy juggling with too many things.

Funny Random Thing

Crahh-p.

I was looking at my e-learning account and the wikipedia article about elections and I accidently fell asleep! So I missed that princess hours show (i think) that Xinyi was raving about during choir today, and I CAN'T GET BACK TO SLEEP NOW!!

Argh. It also means I have to postpone my haircut to tomorrow instead having it this evening. Argh. Argh. Argh.