Takoyaki!

I really should stop this...

It's Still Raining!

I want to watch The Science Of Sleep!



It looks like the kind of movies that makes one go hunting around Wikipedia for further insight, like Edward Scissorhands maybe. But anyway, I seem to have an apparent bias towards films with an un-painful soundtrack, like Pride and Prejudice.

Today's sports day was cool! I was the emcee/compere/commentator, together with another teacher and Vanessa, and the three of us had the best seats in the stadium. And today I've realized the difficulty of keeping a running commentary of the races, and instead, giving short spasmodic bursts of sub-par eloquance. I think Chee Kit makes a much more enthusiastic and lovable compere than me!

Right now I'm coming up with ideas and designs for the 301 stall flyers/shameless publicity on my blog.



As you can see, I'm still at the experimental stage. Boo hoo.

(My nerves are still shattered by yesterday's debate results! In a good way.)

Photos!

I am so going to flunk my bio test. I just know it. I studied for stuff like secretory vesicles and energy release from mitochondria and everything that came out were on the nucleus and differences between a plant cell and that of some other random micro-organism that has flagelli. And totally missed out red blood cells and their circular biconcave shape with a high surface area to volume ratio. (At least I attempted to say it was concave to have a higher surface area, which is so stupid I know.) So I was walking outside school and passed by the two teachers of my worst-scoring-subjects-that-i'm-supposed-to-score-in who could only manage sad, weak smiles to acknowledge my humiliatition and sheepishness.

Oral presentation today was frustratingly so-so. Only an A2 though; I was SO sad about it during recess since it was so painfully ordinary and mediocre but then I realized that life isn't about chasing A1s and the only shallow one was me. Besides, it was my fault that I panicked during the question-answer session and switched to debate mode, where my teacher, perhaps out of contempt/desperation, questioned my thesis, or lack thereof, forcing me to spit out things like Individuality for the sake of Individualism and whether Alternative Music also meant sad, depressing music, whether the message conveyed about social issues were suitable for younger children, or that commercialisation caused alternative bands to develop an ethos of DIY in order to prove musical authenticity. Which was rubbishy and made the audience increasingly restless.

I'm not looking forward to running through the humidity tomorrow, nor will I be eagerly anticipating the dreaded biology test results. I'll be overjoyed to just obtain 5 marks. And yet I admired the Malaysian students who could take 21 subjects for their O levels. I also dreamt that Xinmin was old and designed much like the backstage of an old theatre like Kallang, and the former principals were all walking through the corridoors and the debaters were hiding from them, and our teacher made us sit on the sofas outside the door of the plush conference room with an old iBook inside to debate. It was weird.

Oh yes. I'm blogging now because Andrea's demanding photos.




Yes that's not a cut-out of Eunice Olsen we're standing next to! My sister was marvelling at the slenderness of her calves.




Pictures of The Mr. Bean Movie Outing:

In which I enjoyed the poking fun at of typical art house films at the Cannes film festivals. I quite like the Mr. Bean concept of getting into trouble, and then resolving it by coming up with something else more original, a la the first Mr. Bean movie. This time he travels around France to the French Riviera and makes French friends with exotic accents. Oh yes, the videos that he took with his videocam was so raw yet sincere in its dishing out of emotions.






And 2 more photos of Andrea's birthday cake:




I had to distract Andrea by apologizing and lying about feeling bad about not getting him a cake when he spotted Angeline and Mingting running hurriedly in the distance carrying his cake. So we gave the excuse that it was for another girl whose birthday was the day before. OK I thought he would fall for it but he didn't -.- must have been the fish soup.
Anyway, we were annoyed enough about the nonchalency about 'oh you got me cake? so many people got me a cake today too like etc. etc.' (or something to that effect) but really I wouldn't know how to respond in that situation too. (Actually when SL presented me with a cake on my birthday at cafe cartel I had to act dumb. Like, 'oh ya, it's my birthday, haha')

And since this was such an inevitably Andrea-centric post, I shall have to neutralize it with other random images.



Domokun's dream after overdosing on panadol.

Small dilemma

I'm supposed to order pizza for an event in church later so I've gone home to wash-up first.

And I'm torn between Canadian, Pelican and Sarpino's, since they are all so close by.

But it's not like everyone would appreciate Sarpino's, therefore, I'll have to rule it out.

And Pelican offers a 12" for about $28.90, and a Canadian's 12" is... also $28.90.

This is so traumatizing.

(I'm top in level for EL :D YES.)

Relative stupidity

Ohhkayy

something really funny (in a stoopid-duh way) happened to me during lessons today. Christine caught the lame bug and asked us what 'ni' was pronounced as, and subsequently, what 'ne' was pronounced as. I was busy wondering whether 'ne' was pronounced as in 'nemesis' or in 'nemo'. So anyway, she asked us what those two monosyllables put together would sound like. (I can't blog the actual combination of sounds since it would be so obvious.) Everyone was laughing when they finally realized the joke and close to a minute later when everyone was doing their own thing, there was a sudden flash of realization and I began to remember how slow I could get. I have to be cryptic here since by blogging about it, I'm spoiling the fun.

The stupidity doesn't stop there; during physics a while later, I began to panic after the sub-teacher told us to start completing our 'dynamics' worksheet (yes those were the actual words) so I got really worried because I thought that they had completed a whole chapter on 'dynamics' when I was gone and had started to go on doing worksheets even, so I was asking the people around me and they all said, Yes we've all finished learning that. So I got really panicky and He Xiang and Jun Hao told me that it was in the Physics textbook so I started flipping the pages feverishly but nope no chapter on dynamics. (At this point I was confused because I had never heard of such a chapter.)

And then after a while I asked someone about dynamics. And she said the teacher was referring to the stack of physics notes and worksheets that we use every physics lesson. Yes, that mundane pile, that collection of bad jokes that physicists love cracking, to the horror of their students. Oh how I groaned in supreme annoyance.

There's more. During Chinese lesson in the computer lab, I was supposed to access the culturetalk forum, but the right forum didn't appear for me so I had to use Andrea's account and I couldn't figure out how to post a response because everything was in Chinese. Then I realized I had been clicking the right button (in frustration) all along so I'm quite worried that I had posted multiple responses. But I don't think so anyway. Sigh...

A few minutes later, when Andrea when to Elizabeth's blog to check out that extensive namelist about the dinner thingy, he kinda got scared and intimidated by the initials that were 10 letters long. Haha

I feel so
stupid

Grass

My goodness. Is it Saturday already?!

My parents are experimental-dessert crazy-happy now! As in, blending honeydew with ice and then puring it over mango ice cream with sago. It kinda makes everything slightly better.

You know...

When you're having a tension-type headache and nothing is working, the only desirable thing to do is read trashy magazines with more pictures than words (since reading adds to the pain) and curl up and sleep wearing lots of layers.

Ugh, I've been getting frequent headaches these days, especially now that SYF is drawing near...
And my mum took me to a neurologist when I was in P3 but he said it's normal for children to have headaches since it's due to stress. In which I question angrily now: can't the stress be reduced? how does it make everything 'normal'?? I know he shrugged and mentioned something about it not being a head injury and that's good enough, but there's no tangible cure for stress-related illnesses dammit. Sometimes, I would rather they slice my head open and fiddle with my brain to make the headaches go away.

Oh yes. Tomorrow shall be a sort of chill-out day for me in which I shall do nothing but practise on the piano. I'm going to switch off any communication device and kill anyone who tries to disturb me.

Mr Yong mouthed 'not bad' after conducting See the Gipsies today! I wanted to scream with relief and joy but it would be rather inappropriate since we were performing (and also it would be just weird if we did that during a practice). See what a compliment can do to us? We kept yakking about it after the performance, since we haven't heard something like that for about a year and a half, mind you. (Actually, the teachers were gushing about Hikariga last year but it doesn't count since we've been singing that over and over again for the past 5 years)

And then I popped 2 paracetamols, courtesy of Marcus. He was like my saviour for that hour! Shortly after, Cat High went on stage to perform their pieces and someone screamed in the middle of the second piece (it was part of the performance) and I felt my headache getting better. However, the pain started to once again permeate from my temples to the rest of my head so I silently writhed in pain in that auditorium.

Interestingly, that was also the 2nd time I've been there. The first was during the Mayor's Shield last year in which some poor spectator's water bottle fell from the cursed auditorium chair-tables, starting at the top of the auditorium, rolling all the way to the bottom rows where the reserves, Angeline and I, sat. And there was this sound of a longsuffering and tortured soul groaning from the top that accompanied its embarrassing thuds. And it kept on rolling on and on for about 10 decks. It was so awkward and funny!! I tried to muffle my laughter using my canvas bag to avoid scaring Angeline whom I didn't really know very well then. I'm rambling.

On songs

I think sometimes song preference is closely linked to how it evocates a particular emotion or atmosphere in a listener. For example, I like listening to 'I'm Just A Kid' by Simple Plan occasionally because it reminds me of the times in Perth with the choir (normally, I would shun punk rockers).

And then again, sometimes it takes the form of 3rd party emotion, like when a particular character in a TV show experiences something and that music is playing which adds a certain je ne sais quoi to the whole feel of things. E.g. when Lorelai Gilmore sits in the hospital as she's getting into labour in 1984, she puts on her walkman and 99 Luftballons by Nena is playing. Which gives everything a coating of nostalgia and further intensifies the eighties vibe.



My sister seems to have inherited my penchant/curse for becoming too 'helpful'. In a sense.

It's Not Raining!

No, actually it did; for about 10 minutes. That's only counted as a passing shower.

OK I've ditched the whole 'I'm too cool for imeem' club mindset but it's not like I'm going to impose my music on unsuspecting readers by ticking 'autoplay'. Rather, I'll respect their Freedom of Choice. Or something. Anyway.

Here's a random composition I did on GarageBand. (What? oh don't you know, that cool thing that's part of iLife that comes with all macs?) Sorry I'll try to refrain from sounding too evangelist.


So I cheated. It's a mash-up of GarageBand tracks. But hey I was only 13 when I did that.

I'm craving self-expression now because you have to follow a strict set of rules and conform to everything in choir, and it's not like I can substitute Visual Arts for A Maths, right? Right. Also, as part of my grandmother's Get-Grandson-Fat-And-Healthy scheme, I'm force fed Cod Liver Oil now every morning. I think she doesn't realize that I'm not 5 anymore. And I'm just tricking myself into swallowing it because it's supposedly vintage which means it's super-trendy and everything. Or I might also come up with a French name for it, since something spelt in French sounds tres yummy. Le Pétrole de Foie de morue. Tres exotique. Serve chilled with a side of caviar.

I made mushrooms for dinner. With raspberry vinaigrette. I need like, more gastronomic inspiration.

It's Raining!

Happy belated birthday, Elgin!
Elgin's the most efficient guy that I've ever known.

Parents are flying home today from HK!

I wonder if they heeded our advice and bought anything from the new H&M that opened there. Then again, it's not like they love shopping for clothes all the time. Perhaps my dad's younger and, by default, chic-er colleagues would be able to influence and persuade them. Perhaps, as teachers, they would advise against liberal clothing houses and forgo trendy high-street brands altogether. (I can hear my sister screaming in terror at the thought of that.) That said, I hope that they didn't get me any school bag because I want to choose one myself, and (after some thought), I've realize it's all along the duty-free chocolates that I'm after.

I missed the class gathering yesterday. (T_T). Andrea's short but somewhat meditational post rather contrasted with Marcus' enthusiastic ravings about it after choir practice, which may have been an overstatement since Marcus is always so happy, but surely wouldn't every class gathering be memorable and convival? Maybe something tragic happened (with him being the point of reference, since minor tragedies are often relative to the person experiencing it and other people may view it as amusing and to their benefitblahblahblah), or maybe he didn't win the wet t-shirt contest (ok, I jest).

Upon further dissection, we can infer that the time of posting (11:13 PM) was probably right after the BBQ. How many people would still log on to their blogger accounts just to type out a mere sentence (10 words!) after a whole day out, BBQ-ing and sticky from all the perspiration and ash. Furthermore, the lack of proper punctuation, in this instance, a missing full stop at the sentence, may indicate a subconscious but supressed desire to want to type more to further elaborate and explain. Perhaps the blogger may have drafted a longer post, only to reconsider the negative ramifications, leading to the cuts that resulted in the cryptic nature of the post.

The sentence also ends off with the '=(' smiley which suggests sadness and disappointment. Interestingly, the last time that '=(' was used in any regular post was on 15 Feb (which goes by the title: mood-pissed. It was, however, 4 paragraphs long.)

This kind of post is rare, in that it goes against the grain of the recent trends leaning towards significantly longer posts (ave. of 450 words) with about 5-7 paragraphs each. Also, a point to take note is the fact that the last one-paragraph post (March 04) was 95 words long, which is 89.47% longer than this particular post. Content-wise, this post fails to explain or at least offer some reflective thoughts and comments.

Bearing in mind the anomalities and considering the overall mood and tone indicators, the purpose of this post is to, perhaps, let the blogger have the post explain itself. Generally, this post is avant-garde in relation to retrospective pieces due to its minutely descriptive and highly cryptic style of informing, its minimalism in word selection ("didn't really enjoy") and the 'newness' of it in relation to previous word counts.

On another level, it just shows how bad I am at analysing texts and consequently, how bad I am at Literature. -.-

Vacation envy

I'm shell-shocked, now that i've realized that there is little hope in applying for the CAP in my secondary school life. But i guess it's just a necessary sacrifice to make. Though i have already made numerous, but it's not like anything's coming out of being longsuffering and being stupidly loyal.

OKAY. It's no use pretending it didn't happen right :P But Ruimin you still have to pretend you don't know!! Like when you recieve gifts from your warm fuzzy you're supposed to act surprised, ok? :) (a la Elizabeth and the convenient valentine's day gifts!)

I feel so dimwitted but it's in a funny ha-ha way.

Ugly Betty just now was interesting. But I'm amazed that the Fashion Channel seems almost Big Brother-like. It's not that scary though, but seeing the fake plastacine faces with their spray-on bronzers was pretty scary. (In a not-so-pretty way.) However, I've totally lost the overarching plot (about the dad-son business empire thing and strained relationships in between with some complicated murder plot), so when this guy picked up a music-box as a photograph burned in the fire, I felt no sense of linkage or sudden flashes of enlightenment (the 'aha!' that one gets from watching Desperate Housewives) and could only let my mind wander away to the subject of alternative photography and photographic alteration involving heat to produce chemical reactions on the photographic paper that causes the colour to turn a pretty amber-brown shade darker than sepia to evoke a sense of nostalgia. That sort of thing.



Domo-kun is sooooo furry and fun!! I want a domo-kun handphone accessory thingy!!

Movies

I need to watch a movie!! Because the world is large and most of the wholesome thought-provoking indie films don't make it past the M18 cut due to whatever stigma the Board of Film Censors might have, movies that deserve compulsory screening in schools slip past too easily. I mean, isn't everyone tired of guiltlessly CGI-ed flicks or plots that feel recycled and almost deja vu after a few seasons? Etc.

Anyway here are the films that I want to watch (if you happen to ask me out or something) and I apologize for being so picky.

1. Paprika
It's an anime about research psychotherapist with an alter-ego codenamed Paprika. I find myself more interested in anime movies rather than anime series because I find that I can't commit to all the downloading on bittorrent and the twists in plots that occur only at stretches spanning like, 50 long dreary episodes. Anyway, I think it's a cool film. Albeit the R rating it was given.

2. The Science Of Sleep
In which Stephane cannot disassociate dreams from reality and where all the characters speak with an exotic French accent. Tres chic.

3. Little Miss Sunshine
Poor me, I still have not watched it yet.

4. Edward Scissorhands
I want to watch it again this Christmas, preferably in a ski lodge with friends and a cup of steaming chai tea. Also, I look forward to watching the stage adaptation but I don't have my hopes set so high about it coming to Singapore.

5. Eraserhead
It's a surreal arthouse-type flick that has little meaning but cult following. I borrowed it from the library@esplanade but I never found the time to watch it.

6. Garden State

7. Art School Confidential
Interesting to see how Art School may be perceived, and especially how coughSOTAcough might be like.

Please don't read this

I'm starting to miss not having to walk through Hougang in the dark first thing in the morning. I think change is so refreshing, and what more if we could change our venue every week? (just a crazy random thought) And I actually prefer the environment in hci. (well obviously anyone probably would have, too, I guess)

And gah I'm kind of disappointed in the guys from choir. But not in an I'm-demoralizing-you-for-the-sake-of-gratifying-myself kind of way, but more of the well-you-should-have-listened-to-the-teachers-right? kind of way. Is immaturity so contagious? Does it spread around, just like cancer? I think the choir needs to believe in itself before anything can be done. And before we can so confidently believe in ourselves, we have to feel some sense of bond among ourselves, right?

Bonding. What an annoying word. What's even more annoying is how we haven't had a camp for 1 year and about 3 months, and we can't do any more to encourage them.

I sometimes feel like hollering,
Hello? Where's your sense of urgency, people?
but we've done that. It didn't work. Stupid smirks, and people who dare to flirt around and fiddle with their phones and hair during choir practice; it all makes SYF sound like a death call. Isn't singing supposed to be fun? How are we supposed to encourage friendly competition when all we do is sing among each other, get intimidated and demoralized by other choirs and get scolded all the time, and no one of authority is doing anything when the situation escalates?

If, like in 2003, it takes SARS to cancel the thing and at the same time, instill a sense of common purpose and concern for each others safety, then I say hey I won't mind the bird flu pandemic if that is what it would take to unite everyone's hearts as one.

I'm just so disappointed with the MOE (like everyone else). Or rather, the world. There are people in this generation who are saying they hate their life, that they are too stressed to cope, that they are confused and wondering whether they can cope with their life. And these are just their personal messages on MSN. The world's all crap now, and the happiest moments are only when we forget what's happening around us, beyond our own little bubbles of comfort. I'll never be a teacher when I grow up because the pressure of trying to prove that the world can be a happy place is too difficult a task to handle. I'd rather be a journalist and show the world for what it really is. And whether it is worth it for people to sacrifice relationships, families and friends to pursue their selfish little money-making schemes.

Oh yes! My throat's feeling much better and I can take chocolate now! :D And when my parents come back from Hong Kong, they'll bring back a tonne of stuff! :D

I need to get neuroimage-ed

Feeling headache-y yet again. The weather's warm and the humidity is starting to form an unpleasant sticky layer over one's skin, and the warm weather makes everyone's faces shiny and pimple-prone. Did I mention that I have a headache? I'm having a sore throat now as well, but it only comes as a dull but intense pain when I swallow. I don't adapt well to environments like this.

The American Embassy was fortress-like. We were hurried in person by person by a temperamental security guard, and during the 4 seconds that passed when I was ushered into the screening room, I noticed the cold, office-like quality of this room, and how the metal scanners juxtaposed the soft cream wallpaper (or perhaps it was a blur of colours that was a result of my having litle time to stop and appreciate... I dunno, quirky and patriotic patterns?). I felt ushered into a world of maximum security and paranoia, and minimum free-time, since I saw officers rushing around, only stopping for split-seconds to look intently at the trolley at the side of the corridoor as a faster means of transport.

And today, I had encountered the heaviest door in my entire life. It was metallic and shiny, even resembling the MRT platform doors in a way. I pressed the lever to open it but the door was so unusually heavy, I had to use both my hands and body weight. (I think that's why the staff around here have unusually muscular arms.)

This was followed by a hour-and-a-half-ish-long talk by the diplomats there. I have to allude to the ergonomic and thoughtfully-designed chairs in the small auditorium; their springy back-supports were so original. I think Xinmin should be getting a truckfull of these (that is, once we get a budget of like $50 million from the MOE, though that sort of windfall only happens in our dreams of course). I think the questions raised for the diplomats were very thoughtful and relevant (though not particularly ingenious but I was still an appreciater of their ability to expound on sensitive topics, like FTAs and conflicts between self and working for the nation's interest.)

OK I'm addicted to the chocolate pastry rolls from the high school's canteen but it is not doing anything for my throat, sadly. And this morning, I was too much in pain to voice out the rejection of a sardine-puff for breakfast.

I have to look for all my teachers tomorrow to explain why I can't perform on Friday and how I can't go for Maths Olympiad on Thursday and whether I can reschedule all my tests on later dates. Dare I sit for all of them at one painful shot?

I need to look for a pepper-spray.

In Memoriam

untitled destination by `equivoque on deviantART

It was shortly after dinner when I found out.
Pneumonia is tedious and cruel; death is short and sharp. I wonder how it feels like to hover between consciousness and unconsciousness, and in a fleeting moment, one is no longer alive. But, the intrinsic concept of existence amidst death transcends understanding.

The hole in the IC.

The uselessness of everything material.

Oh well. I wonder, too, how it feels to see someone lie helplessly on a spartan, utilitarian bed, watching organs fail one by one, watching gentle twitches, spasms; eyes that watched you grow up every week, rolling, closing; the eventual shutting down of the body, system by system. It feels, somehow, less violent, more peaceful. More 'right'. We know where he is now.
Bon Voyage

Poetic Spirit

The sun has long set
yet I feel renewed, refreshed
but what difference would it make
if the very sparks of life
still should remain reserved for the day?

etc.

ANYWAY, there's this gorgeous version of Ave Maria by Javier Busto that I wish we could sing. It's very Ms Jennifer Tham meets Mr Yong, no? (since she has a tendency to use mostly sacred pieces and Mr Yong picks songs that have a very distinct musicality and melody).

Sing sang sung

I have an exciting week ahead:
I'll be spending all my mornings in HCI for the week-long Student Leader 'Sabbatical'. I perceive we'll be visiting the American Embassy and the IDA, which should be pretty cool and enriching. Then I'll be visiting Drew & Napier on Thursday, and one of the directors will be showing us around. And, finally, on Friday, I'll be performing with XM Chorale at the NTU concert at VCH—Cantemus 2007. oh hey, they have a trailer too.



And I'm so bummed that I can't be at the second round of the JGs now. Time to prep!

My sister and I were watching Hope Is Emo. It is so. Sad.

Random Meme

Big IFs meme

1. If I were a jellyfish, I would enjoy...
Zapping the stupidity out of Spongebob and Patrick at the jellyfish fields.

2. If I were an enzyme, I would be...
ptyalin, for no reason whatsoever. Or rather because I want to pay homage to this enzyme that everyone calls by a different name now because it might have been difficult for the kids to grasp the concept of a silent 'p'. Poor ptyalin.

4. If the only food left on the planet were pink radioactive turnips, I would pair them with...
a pink radioactive milkshake.

5. If I meet my Geography teacher wearing a hideous pant suit along the passageways of Ngee Ann City, the expression I would wear would be one of...
amusement but also amnesia

6. If I had to eat nothing but stale guacamole for the rest of my life...
I would sculpt them into the strange but wonderful coral reef formations of the Belize Barrier Reef and bake fish-shaped taco shells.

7. If I had to wear a hideous flannel shirt to the esplanade, my shoes would be...
a bright shade of yellow to match the flannel shirt's charming but precocious personality.

8. If an angsty mob of stressed P6 kiddies decided to burn me at the stake, I would like them to...
sing 100,000,000,000 bottles of beer on the wall. With atonal harmonics and cutesy actions for every word.

9. If I ended up sitting next to an unhappy fashionista about to bitch-slap me on the train...
I would throw my Sprite at her stupid Gucci handbag.

10. If I ended up sitting next to the school's resident faggot on for the rest of the term, I'd might as well...
read up more on homosexuality and gay politics. As well as arm myself with a mace.

11. If I was an A Maths teacher about to spring a surprise test on my class, I would, with a devilish glint, insert...
Binomal theorem, differentiation and integration, and I'll pop in the Poincaré Conjuncture just for fun.