When everyone else is in trouble, I help every single one of them. I do not miss out anyone - I make sure everyone is ok. I make sure they stay happy, help to push away their troubles, reach out all my hands to help them.
But when I fall, I fall alone.
Keep your head up high and never look behind.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Quiz!
| Your Kissing Purity Score: 83% Pure |
 But the kisses you've given are very missed |
| You Are 70% Psychic |
 |
http://www.blogthings.com/areyoupsychicquiz/">Are You Psychic?
| You Are 84% Burned Out |
 |
http://www.blogthings.com/areyouburnedoutquiz/">Are You Burned Out?
| You Are a Fun Flirt |
 |
http://www.blogthings.com/whatkindofflirtareyouquiz/">What Kind of Flirt Are You?
| Your Personality is Somewhat Rare (ESFP) |
 Only about 7% of all people have your personality, including 9% of all women and 5% of all menYou are Extroverted, Sensing, Feeling, and Perceiving. |
http://www.blogthings.com/howrareisyourpersonalityquiz/">How Rare Is Your Personality?
Monday, August 13, 2007
Put your head up high
sian. die already. cannot talk liao. haiya why everything must like that...
Haiya!
eh how come I wrote three posts and I never posted anyone of them.
Anyway I would like to thank everyone who's been behind me for the start of my semester at YST.
These people include Fiona, Jonathan (Koh), Audrey, and my dad.
Although my mother still does not understand why is that so, it is because you need company and support from friends to make it. We are social beings, and we need each other. It's not the case of whether they distract me or not, it's just that when I'm feeling down or bad there's somebody to talk to.
So there. Lately I've not been smsing much to people or msning because apparently. No wait, not apparently. They just got deleted by who-else and of course I'm irritated.
But heck. I have lots and lots of work to catch up on and I don't think I can handle them all.
But I shall. Put your head up high!
Haiya!
eh how come I wrote three posts and I never posted anyone of them.
Anyway I would like to thank everyone who's been behind me for the start of my semester at YST.
These people include Fiona, Jonathan (Koh), Audrey, and my dad.
Although my mother still does not understand why is that so, it is because you need company and support from friends to make it. We are social beings, and we need each other. It's not the case of whether they distract me or not, it's just that when I'm feeling down or bad there's somebody to talk to.
So there. Lately I've not been smsing much to people or msning because apparently. No wait, not apparently. They just got deleted by who-else and of course I'm irritated.
But heck. I have lots and lots of work to catch up on and I don't think I can handle them all.
But I shall. Put your head up high!
Thursday, August 9, 2007
NDP day, mah-de
I'll be performing at Marina Bay later, so do catch me!
I think it's possible to catch me on TV, probably on the big screens, but maybe it will last for about 10 seconds. It's rather late/middle in the show, which is probably bad news for some of you, but good news for anyone who is watching the entire show.
And I'm super happy because can-you-believe-it-or-not I completed another song!
I hate my mum. She intrude in other peoples' privacy. She opens my MSN contact list and sees what is inside my conversations, which do not reveal anything at all. And she doesn't want me to talk to any girls. What, she wants me to turn into some gay? Loser.
Sometimes mums just don't get it, right?
Right?
;)
I think it's possible to catch me on TV, probably on the big screens, but maybe it will last for about 10 seconds. It's rather late/middle in the show, which is probably bad news for some of you, but good news for anyone who is watching the entire show.
And I'm super happy because can-you-believe-it-or-not I completed another song!
I hate my mum. She intrude in other peoples' privacy. She opens my MSN contact list and sees what is inside my conversations, which do not reveal anything at all. And she doesn't want me to talk to any girls. What, she wants me to turn into some gay? Loser.
Sometimes mums just don't get it, right?
Right?
;)
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Pop Music
So I've actually written about 9 songs already, and recorded 4 songs (one isn't mine) for my greenwave project with my RE mates. Then the rest include 'Pretty Girl', 'When the Sun Shines', 'If Monday never came' and the last one I can't remember.
I would like to collaborate with more people though. Maybe now I know why double gender bands do not really work. But some do though (ABBA, Black-Eye Peas). Usually when there's single sex bands, it is easier to communicate, and probably share jokes. Besides, there are really very little all girl bands anyway. (Pussycat Dolls, Spice Girls)
So I've actually done one album in my life already! Green Crotchets -.-
Which is good ok. At least there's something called PROGRESS. (:
Oh i'm doing it this way now (: not this way :). I've been INFLUENCED! :O
But it's ok. (:
I would like to collaborate with more people though. Maybe now I know why double gender bands do not really work. But some do though (ABBA, Black-Eye Peas). Usually when there's single sex bands, it is easier to communicate, and probably share jokes. Besides, there are really very little all girl bands anyway. (Pussycat Dolls, Spice Girls)
So I've actually done one album in my life already! Green Crotchets -.-
Which is good ok. At least there's something called PROGRESS. (:
Oh i'm doing it this way now (: not this way :). I've been INFLUENCED! :O
But it's ok. (:
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Chemistry. DIE....Ensemble FUN!
Oh so I did finally say it. That takes a huge load off my mind.
In any case I have to find a teacher who can teach me Chemistry. Here are my choices:
1) Mrs Kuah (my chemistry teacher - she's good, but my chemistry mind is a little bit slow)
2) Matthew Chua - brother of Andrew Chua, GPA 4.0 Chemistry
3) Audrey Ng - topped class for Chemistry, teach cousin Chemistry, GPA for Chemistry most certainly 4.0, had me confirmed as a total crap for Chemistry
(but a little inconvenient)
Then I have to ask all of them the tuition fees. Anyway, I just don't get it. Why does everyone seem to excel in Chemistry? I most definitely think that the Sciences have never been appealing to me, and I would be better off doing English, Humanities, and Music. Languages and Arts.
What I should do for my music career:
1) Be a good student conductor
2) Play wonderful music
3) Set up a permanent quartet where I can go to for rehearsals every Sunday
4) Do well in university, basically survive
Considering what Adi said this afternoon, his idea has lots of potential. Just that he does not really know how unpolitical it is. But I have harboured (heeheehee) thoughts of it - a full-sized orchestra evolved from RISE.
Imagine how much trouble Mr Sze has to go through, trying to get members from band, to come in, MEP.
Bureaucracy matters.
And looking at human emotions and feelings, it's not surprising to see politics starting to appear. After all, politics is almost based entirely on human emotions, feelings and relationships!
In any case I have to find a teacher who can teach me Chemistry. Here are my choices:
1) Mrs Kuah (my chemistry teacher - she's good, but my chemistry mind is a little bit slow)
2) Matthew Chua - brother of Andrew Chua, GPA 4.0 Chemistry
3) Audrey Ng - topped class for Chemistry, teach cousin Chemistry, GPA for Chemistry most certainly 4.0, had me confirmed as a total crap for Chemistry
(but a little inconvenient)
Then I have to ask all of them the tuition fees. Anyway, I just don't get it. Why does everyone seem to excel in Chemistry? I most definitely think that the Sciences have never been appealing to me, and I would be better off doing English, Humanities, and Music. Languages and Arts.
What I should do for my music career:
1) Be a good student conductor
2) Play wonderful music
3) Set up a permanent quartet where I can go to for rehearsals every Sunday
4) Do well in university, basically survive
Considering what Adi said this afternoon, his idea has lots of potential. Just that he does not really know how unpolitical it is. But I have harboured (heeheehee) thoughts of it - a full-sized orchestra evolved from RISE.
Imagine how much trouble Mr Sze has to go through, trying to get members from band, to come in, MEP.
Bureaucracy matters.
And looking at human emotions and feelings, it's not surprising to see politics starting to appear. After all, politics is almost based entirely on human emotions, feelings and relationships!
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Ants and Blogskins. No Cs, sorry
There has apparently been an ant invasion happening right on my desktop, and I still cannot find the source of it. Might be a crumb of Oreo behind the table, or a dead lizard in the middle of the books, but I'm not really sure.
I don't know how it will look like if I find the source. The source. Probably all the ants will be like "??? Who's that!" and then start scrambling around, looking for the nearest paperclip to launch at me or the largest book to hide in.
After all, they don't have to worry because I'm not planning to find it. If I do find it, then they will have to build their civilisation one level down.
I've been over the months trying to find for a new blogskin, but Blogger does not accept anytime, either because one of the wordings don't seem to fit, or they just don't want their own blogskin to be replaced.
LOTS of work to do, which includes practising piano, doing homework, talking on MSN, going to CCA etc.
How stressful can life get? Very.
I don't know how it will look like if I find the source. The source. Probably all the ants will be like "??? Who's that!" and then start scrambling around, looking for the nearest paperclip to launch at me or the largest book to hide in.
After all, they don't have to worry because I'm not planning to find it. If I do find it, then they will have to build their civilisation one level down.
I've been over the months trying to find for a new blogskin, but Blogger does not accept anytime, either because one of the wordings don't seem to fit, or they just don't want their own blogskin to be replaced.
LOTS of work to do, which includes practising piano, doing homework, talking on MSN, going to CCA etc.
How stressful can life get? Very.
Saturday, August 4, 2007
My WEEK
We'll see about that, audrey.
Right here goes my blogspot. It's going to be longer...but no pictures.
Maybe there will be pictures, but I don't know! We shall see about that.
Monday was the piano majors barbecue. Did I mention that? At the gathering were all the piano majors (duh), Julie (owner of Music Essentials, where we all get our scores), her husband, Mr. Albert Tiu, Dr. Hecht, and some other adults who contributed in the cooking or were part of the faculty.
And then the food was wonderfully cooked I tell you. There was beef, chicken, stingray, durian and manjo cake, plus spicy stingray!
But I skipped the stingray in any case. The rest was absolutely fantastic, really. Imagine beef so tender and soft...the taste that melts into your mouth...I had 3 slices of it, and that was all I had for dinner. I skipped the chicken also, because I didn't feel like getting my fingers oily. But it surely surely looked good.
And sounds good ;)
Before the eating though there was a briefing of this semester's happenings, and the exams and blah.
Once again I saw Clarence, someone I knew for 2 years already. He's really someone I respect, not because he's my senior but because of his skills. Then after that there was Tarin and Akkra and Andre, and the girls too. Imma? and then there was Eng Han. Freshmen, but me and Aidi are part-timers.
Then there was graduate Lee, who was the cook of the day...thank you for the food.
Did I mention fresh salad? Lettuce, tartar sauce, tomato... just to clear out the oily stuff.
Perfect.
Then there were the games - Taboo. Ok fine, game.
I was with Clarence, Tarin, Aidi and all the other adults. Basically it's a game where the person goes up there and acts out a word (or alternatively some other words) and the group he belongs to will start guessing the correct word.
I collected all together 10 points, in the whole game. Dr. Hecht did 11 in one go, the record of the day. And Clarence was a pretty good actor too...then we realised Tarin was having a fever. But in any case I went back at about 10pm. 3 hours of fun!
On a side note thanks Mr. Sze for letting me off early, but I have to buy him a tub of Haagen-Daas, when I have not even tasted a single DRIP of it.
How about a mamashop one? Just kidding.
Some of the thoughts that came into me while I was in the shower/practising cello/basically doing other things:
I only grow on Saturdays and Sundays.
(Because I get to sleep early and wake up late, which means ENOUGH time to grow in my sleep. Not more)
And then from Maximillian Viera.
"Are you tired?"
"Yes"
"No, you're Jonathan Shin."
"(THE look) "
"What!"
And then from me, this time in class.
"When you're Norman you know who to call..."
(after 6 seconds of silence)
Norman, Enghan, Clement - "...?"
Me - "...?"
then we started to ROFL...
Right here goes my blogspot. It's going to be longer...but no pictures.
Maybe there will be pictures, but I don't know! We shall see about that.
Monday was the piano majors barbecue. Did I mention that? At the gathering were all the piano majors (duh), Julie (owner of Music Essentials, where we all get our scores), her husband, Mr. Albert Tiu, Dr. Hecht, and some other adults who contributed in the cooking or were part of the faculty.
And then the food was wonderfully cooked I tell you. There was beef, chicken, stingray, durian and manjo cake, plus spicy stingray!
But I skipped the stingray in any case. The rest was absolutely fantastic, really. Imagine beef so tender and soft...the taste that melts into your mouth...I had 3 slices of it, and that was all I had for dinner. I skipped the chicken also, because I didn't feel like getting my fingers oily. But it surely surely looked good.
And sounds good ;)
Before the eating though there was a briefing of this semester's happenings, and the exams and blah.
Once again I saw Clarence, someone I knew for 2 years already. He's really someone I respect, not because he's my senior but because of his skills. Then after that there was Tarin and Akkra and Andre, and the girls too. Imma? and then there was Eng Han. Freshmen, but me and Aidi are part-timers.
Then there was graduate Lee, who was the cook of the day...thank you for the food.
Did I mention fresh salad? Lettuce, tartar sauce, tomato... just to clear out the oily stuff.
Perfect.
Then there were the games - Taboo. Ok fine, game.
I was with Clarence, Tarin, Aidi and all the other adults. Basically it's a game where the person goes up there and acts out a word (or alternatively some other words) and the group he belongs to will start guessing the correct word.
I collected all together 10 points, in the whole game. Dr. Hecht did 11 in one go, the record of the day. And Clarence was a pretty good actor too...then we realised Tarin was having a fever. But in any case I went back at about 10pm. 3 hours of fun!
On a side note thanks Mr. Sze for letting me off early, but I have to buy him a tub of Haagen-Daas, when I have not even tasted a single DRIP of it.
How about a mamashop one? Just kidding.
Some of the thoughts that came into me while I was in the shower/practising cello/basically doing other things:
I only grow on Saturdays and Sundays.
(Because I get to sleep early and wake up late, which means ENOUGH time to grow in my sleep. Not more)
And then from Maximillian Viera.
"Are you tired?"
"Yes"
"No, you're Jonathan Shin."
"(THE look) "
"What!"
And then from me, this time in class.
"When you're Norman you know who to call..."
(after 6 seconds of silence)
Norman, Enghan, Clement - "...?"
Me - "...?"
then we started to ROFL...
Sunday, July 29, 2007
NDP
ok i finally post after so many days.
Our RE group really did a stunt as what jinghui said. 6 pop songs in 4 weeks. Can you believe it? I seriously cannot imagine.
Anyway yesterday was NDP preview and I performed! I think my face was on the 2 big screens but I'm not really sure because while I was playing my back was faced towards the screens and the main floating platform.
Anyway the whole thing was very very cool. DJs...blah
right. so I finally touched this blog post after 1 week. how stupid can this get!
Very.
Our RE group really did a stunt as what jinghui said. 6 pop songs in 4 weeks. Can you believe it? I seriously cannot imagine.
Anyway yesterday was NDP preview and I performed! I think my face was on the 2 big screens but I'm not really sure because while I was playing my back was faced towards the screens and the main floating platform.
Anyway the whole thing was very very cool. DJs...blah
right. so I finally touched this blog post after 1 week. how stupid can this get!
Very.
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Harry Potter - Spoilers
Just watched harry potter last night at Junction 8, but didn't really enjoy it.
The aircon was so cold that me and Nigel (my ACS cousin) periodically gave each other my jacket.
And the movie itself is so ???.
Ya, gives you a little of that ??? feeling. Some parts are seriously damn funny, but the rest of the show is of mr. potter dreaming and predicting, and of course two wizard fights.
A little Spoilers start here.
One wizarding duel between Voldemort's Army and the Order of the Phoenix, and another one between, of course, Dumbledore and Voldemort. Yum Yum.
But oh mine Sirius Black died just an anti-climax death. No wonder Aveda Kedava is hopeless. The person just turns pale and fade away. Dang...
But I didn't know Black was so good in casting spells and fighting, seriously. I mean, his costume is so cool, and it just makes him a Jack Sparrow wizard, cunningly twisting and turling the wand, pushing and pulling, punching and kicing.
Of course, it isn't real. Anyway I spotted almost the whole class of 3F, and Angela from St Nicks String Ensemble.
THe coolest thing was of course me and my 5 cousins, the youngest being p4 (that's 9 years old) and the oldest being 18. Imagine us wondering around at what, 10pm, and afterwards 1am.
Thanks guys. :)
Oh, Spoilers end here. Or just now.
Yesterday afternoon we had a instrumental workshop from 3.30-6.30. 3 hours of fun and good knowledge, probably for future quartermasters.
During the holidays I might go and be an assistant there, but I might as well be a piano tuner...$50 a day!
The aircon was so cold that me and Nigel (my ACS cousin) periodically gave each other my jacket.
And the movie itself is so ???.
Ya, gives you a little of that ??? feeling. Some parts are seriously damn funny, but the rest of the show is of mr. potter dreaming and predicting, and of course two wizard fights.
A little Spoilers start here.
One wizarding duel between Voldemort's Army and the Order of the Phoenix, and another one between, of course, Dumbledore and Voldemort. Yum Yum.
But oh mine Sirius Black died just an anti-climax death. No wonder Aveda Kedava is hopeless. The person just turns pale and fade away. Dang...
But I didn't know Black was so good in casting spells and fighting, seriously. I mean, his costume is so cool, and it just makes him a Jack Sparrow wizard, cunningly twisting and turling the wand, pushing and pulling, punching and kicing.
Of course, it isn't real. Anyway I spotted almost the whole class of 3F, and Angela from St Nicks String Ensemble.
THe coolest thing was of course me and my 5 cousins, the youngest being p4 (that's 9 years old) and the oldest being 18. Imagine us wondering around at what, 10pm, and afterwards 1am.
Thanks guys. :)
Oh, Spoilers end here. Or just now.
Yesterday afternoon we had a instrumental workshop from 3.30-6.30. 3 hours of fun and good knowledge, probably for future quartermasters.
During the holidays I might go and be an assistant there, but I might as well be a piano tuner...$50 a day!
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
why am i staying at HOME?!
And so we did RE for about 2 and half hours.
We managed to complete 3/4 of a new song today, and progress is generally ok, except that there is definitely room for improvement, we don't stop trying!
I visited Nigel's blog and I have reconfirmed my hypothesis - that blog pictures indeed boost your visitor ratings.
Unfortunately I'm not fond of taking photo, neither do I have the skill to operate connecting the camera to my computer quickly. The camera. Not the phone camera.
And considering how unlikely I'll bring my camera to school everyday/at all, the chances of me posting photos are very little.
I don't even know how to connect my phone to the computer! How stupid can things get for me.
Anyway today our first period was Chinese, Chinese was pretty normal - the mood was relaxing and she didn't understand much English. When teachers don't understand English, insulting the teacher with words seem like a huge treat. But we don't do that, because she's a good teacher. Old, but experienced, and like a grandma to us. She's quite caring man!
And then I had a free period, AND Norman's history class was also having a free period, which meant that I stayed for that one whole hour to play volley-balloon.
Volley-balloon isn't really something like a party, it's basically taking a balloon and playing it like how you play tennis/volleyball. Quite tiring, considering everyone was jumping for the ball, blocking, setting, smashing.
Woohoo. After one hour all our uniforms were wet with sweat. Probably should have a youtube.com video to go with it. But some other time.
Perhaps tomorrow ;)
Physics next, then recess, then Maths.
Maths was as per usual, meaning that me and Benyap at the back could have stood up on the chair for 2 seconds plus without her noticing.
Imagine students standing up and sitting down at the back of the class. Childish, but come on, considering my childhood has been lost, it's my only chance of OBTAININg it back man.
Today's my mum's birthday. Happy birthday mum, may you guard your prison better.
And then we had the famous RE period, where we literally composed 5 songs in 3 weeks.
We were slacking for the first half of the entire year. Or the entire first half of the year. So we suddenly found our spark of inspiration, and wrote the songs!
Yeah, we're going to get $6000 man. $5000 goes to the school, $1000 to us. I'll take 100 of 250 and donate it to charity. :)
As per usual!
We managed to complete 3/4 of a new song today, and progress is generally ok, except that there is definitely room for improvement, we don't stop trying!
I visited Nigel's blog and I have reconfirmed my hypothesis - that blog pictures indeed boost your visitor ratings.
Unfortunately I'm not fond of taking photo, neither do I have the skill to operate connecting the camera to my computer quickly. The camera. Not the phone camera.
And considering how unlikely I'll bring my camera to school everyday/at all, the chances of me posting photos are very little.
I don't even know how to connect my phone to the computer! How stupid can things get for me.
Anyway today our first period was Chinese, Chinese was pretty normal - the mood was relaxing and she didn't understand much English. When teachers don't understand English, insulting the teacher with words seem like a huge treat. But we don't do that, because she's a good teacher. Old, but experienced, and like a grandma to us. She's quite caring man!
And then I had a free period, AND Norman's history class was also having a free period, which meant that I stayed for that one whole hour to play volley-balloon.
Volley-balloon isn't really something like a party, it's basically taking a balloon and playing it like how you play tennis/volleyball. Quite tiring, considering everyone was jumping for the ball, blocking, setting, smashing.
Woohoo. After one hour all our uniforms were wet with sweat. Probably should have a youtube.com video to go with it. But some other time.
Perhaps tomorrow ;)
Physics next, then recess, then Maths.
Maths was as per usual, meaning that me and Benyap at the back could have stood up on the chair for 2 seconds plus without her noticing.
Imagine students standing up and sitting down at the back of the class. Childish, but come on, considering my childhood has been lost, it's my only chance of OBTAININg it back man.
Today's my mum's birthday. Happy birthday mum, may you guard your prison better.
And then we had the famous RE period, where we literally composed 5 songs in 3 weeks.
We were slacking for the first half of the entire year. Or the entire first half of the year. So we suddenly found our spark of inspiration, and wrote the songs!
Yeah, we're going to get $6000 man. $5000 goes to the school, $1000 to us. I'll take 100 of 250 and donate it to charity. :)
As per usual!
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
The Girl's Sorrow
My love, my dearest sweetheart,
How you are to me like a flower's bloom,
Beautiful fragrance, nature's art
Yet by your fires my body consumed
You whisper the sweetest nothings into my ears,
I can only surrender with soft reply,
My eyes are wet with happy tears,
Why would our love ever die?
The birds sing of your arrival,
and I can embrace your's.
The light kisses those petals,
My heart opens its doors
Gentle lips upon gentle lips,
Fingers inter-twining fingers
Softly in your arms like in a baby's crib,
It is with you my heart lingers
Sweetheart, my darling
You know I love you,
Sleep tight, my darling,
I'm always with you.
But that day you brought it down
My mind was brought senseless,
My feelings astound
I felt my life was hopeless.
When I ran my fingers through,
Your hair, that golden colour of hay,
When I asked whether you love me,
And you told me you were gay.
How you are to me like a flower's bloom,
Beautiful fragrance, nature's art
Yet by your fires my body consumed
You whisper the sweetest nothings into my ears,
I can only surrender with soft reply,
My eyes are wet with happy tears,
Why would our love ever die?
The birds sing of your arrival,
and I can embrace your's.
The light kisses those petals,
My heart opens its doors
Gentle lips upon gentle lips,
Fingers inter-twining fingers
Softly in your arms like in a baby's crib,
It is with you my heart lingers
Sweetheart, my darling
You know I love you,
Sleep tight, my darling,
I'm always with you.
But that day you brought it down
My mind was brought senseless,
My feelings astound
I felt my life was hopeless.
When I ran my fingers through,
Your hair, that golden colour of hay,
When I asked whether you love me,
And you told me you were gay.
Sunday, July 8, 2007
She is so addicted to Korean dramas, watching them for at least 10 hours a day for the past few weeks. I hope the portable DVD explodes someday. She plays it at such a huge volume that...wth I can't believe it hasn't exploded yet.
Anyway she left the aircon on for 16 hours, hows that. My heart aches like nothing else - it's money wasted! Gosh...
I have been reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay for this entire week, and I seriously find it very good and exciting. Go read up on it on the Internet. You should read it too, imagine a novel on comic book heroes and their writers.
Fun!
Piano Lesson later, nothing to talk about.
For guys go play the Miniclip game 'Rifleman' it's 3D and something like counterstrike but can only move in a space of 3m. Sniper.
Anyway she left the aircon on for 16 hours, hows that. My heart aches like nothing else - it's money wasted! Gosh...
I have been reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay for this entire week, and I seriously find it very good and exciting. Go read up on it on the Internet. You should read it too, imagine a novel on comic book heroes and their writers.
Fun!
Piano Lesson later, nothing to talk about.
For guys go play the Miniclip game 'Rifleman' it's 3D and something like counterstrike but can only move in a space of 3m. Sniper.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
The mind, body and soul
Damn! Studying for Math TA now, and confidence level is 60/100. How many times did Sally(not her real name) mention to use the substitution method in logarithms? How many people have already fallen asleep only in her lessons? How many people, when questioned, understands what she is talking?
And I don't think it applies only to our class.
Ask any other class that Sally teaches. So I don't think it's just our class.
Proposed solution: The school has this system for teachers to check and improve themselves. Probably salary will be affected, but all I'm asking for is a better student rapport and also more movitating teachers please!
I'm not attacking or anything but just a plea for school admin to update teachers on recent student feedbacks.
And then I don't know why but my mum is in her moodswings, not me. She's one minute nice the next moment freaking nasty. Freaking nasty = pull hair, pinch, slap. Not the scoldings. Oh, and of course the scoldings are included. I should think normal conversation being 60 decibels, her shouting should go to about 90. It's louder than you imagine it can be, but that is it.
Anyway the last. Aiyah crap I just hate to hear my mum's voice. I should record and put it online for people to sell to eBay titled "Voice to make you cry"
Anyway the last Lisztomania concert i went to was totally crazy. Second best concert I've ever been in my life - 6 encores and a standing ovation. 6 freaking encores - La Campenalla, Minuet by Chopin, Polanaise by Chopin and still got some more. Imagine 2 hours of playing strong melodies, completely made of octaves, trills, runs, scales, emotions, imagery, strength, both mental and physically. Being pianists, we have to use all - the mind, the body, and the soul.
It all applies - we all start with the body - honing and training the technicalities and skills of our fingers, the usage of our shoulders, the hand to leg coordination, training our ears to listen for every note, its tone, texture, quality and depth.
And then comes the mind - we strengthen it, memorising scores, tons and tons of them, concentrating on the music, coordinating the hands and feet,
Then comes the soul - we develop it from the beginning - we've never experienced the true feeling of losing someone close, neither have we understood the power of anger, of true love, and of the depths of despair.
As pianists we train ourselves for it, the mind, the body and the soul.
So being a pianist isn't that easy after all...
And I don't think it applies only to our class.
Ask any other class that Sally teaches. So I don't think it's just our class.
Proposed solution: The school has this system for teachers to check and improve themselves. Probably salary will be affected, but all I'm asking for is a better student rapport and also more movitating teachers please!
I'm not attacking or anything but just a plea for school admin to update teachers on recent student feedbacks.
And then I don't know why but my mum is in her moodswings, not me. She's one minute nice the next moment freaking nasty. Freaking nasty = pull hair, pinch, slap. Not the scoldings. Oh, and of course the scoldings are included. I should think normal conversation being 60 decibels, her shouting should go to about 90. It's louder than you imagine it can be, but that is it.
Anyway the last. Aiyah crap I just hate to hear my mum's voice. I should record and put it online for people to sell to eBay titled "Voice to make you cry"
Anyway the last Lisztomania concert i went to was totally crazy. Second best concert I've ever been in my life - 6 encores and a standing ovation. 6 freaking encores - La Campenalla, Minuet by Chopin, Polanaise by Chopin and still got some more. Imagine 2 hours of playing strong melodies, completely made of octaves, trills, runs, scales, emotions, imagery, strength, both mental and physically. Being pianists, we have to use all - the mind, the body, and the soul.
It all applies - we all start with the body - honing and training the technicalities and skills of our fingers, the usage of our shoulders, the hand to leg coordination, training our ears to listen for every note, its tone, texture, quality and depth.
And then comes the mind - we strengthen it, memorising scores, tons and tons of them, concentrating on the music, coordinating the hands and feet,
Then comes the soul - we develop it from the beginning - we've never experienced the true feeling of losing someone close, neither have we understood the power of anger, of true love, and of the depths of despair.
As pianists we train ourselves for it, the mind, the body and the soul.
So being a pianist isn't that easy after all...
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Liszt and Mozart
Lisztomania - the Singapore Piano Festival - which has stirred the musical scene in Singapore alive once again.
I've been to all the performances in this year's Piano Festival - as the name suggests the programmes mostly consists of Lizst. Briliant, especially when I'm playing Lizst's Sonetto 104 del Petrarcha currently.
I enjoyed Mr. Katsaris's and Mr. Albert Lin's performances the most - Mr. Katsaris's perfection on the 'transcendental technique' is almost otherworldly. I remember fondly another performer of Liszt's works from the last Piano Festival - that of Mr. Valerie Kuleshov. He got a standing ovation by the way. A very very rare occurence from the audiences of Singapore.
And anyway of course we musn't forget the man behind the scenes - Dr. Chang Tou Liang, and his team for giving us such a dynamic yet smooth Festival!
Today will be last performance of the event - I can't wait to see this rendition of Balakirev's Islamey - yumyum!
And I'm proud to say the RE group has been doing very well and efficient. Our last 2 meetings have given birth to 2 new songs - unfortunately/fortunately without Zhiyi.
Just love the songs by the way, and will love composing the next few songs.
Met a few people yesterday - Miss Koh, my theory teacher whom I've not seen for quite a few months. She's getting married in August! Then I saw Selina at the VCH door but was damn nervous then run off already -.- and then some random guy said he knew me, shaked hands with him, he said he was 16 and he watched me play...and I think Azariah's mum whom I talked to for quite a while, and a woman in her 50s with all her friends watching Mr. Albert's concert giving me some advice - try playing more Mozart.
Which I realised I haven't in 4 years or more, and she told me that there's this special touch to find in Mozart. I probably haven't found it yet, but I will. Probably by next year I can rediscover the magic of Mozart!
I've been to all the performances in this year's Piano Festival - as the name suggests the programmes mostly consists of Lizst. Briliant, especially when I'm playing Lizst's Sonetto 104 del Petrarcha currently.
I enjoyed Mr. Katsaris's and Mr. Albert Lin's performances the most - Mr. Katsaris's perfection on the 'transcendental technique' is almost otherworldly. I remember fondly another performer of Liszt's works from the last Piano Festival - that of Mr. Valerie Kuleshov. He got a standing ovation by the way. A very very rare occurence from the audiences of Singapore.
And anyway of course we musn't forget the man behind the scenes - Dr. Chang Tou Liang, and his team for giving us such a dynamic yet smooth Festival!
Today will be last performance of the event - I can't wait to see this rendition of Balakirev's Islamey - yumyum!
And I'm proud to say the RE group has been doing very well and efficient. Our last 2 meetings have given birth to 2 new songs - unfortunately/fortunately without Zhiyi.
Just love the songs by the way, and will love composing the next few songs.
Met a few people yesterday - Miss Koh, my theory teacher whom I've not seen for quite a few months. She's getting married in August! Then I saw Selina at the VCH door but was damn nervous then run off already -.- and then some random guy said he knew me, shaked hands with him, he said he was 16 and he watched me play...and I think Azariah's mum whom I talked to for quite a while, and a woman in her 50s with all her friends watching Mr. Albert's concert giving me some advice - try playing more Mozart.
Which I realised I haven't in 4 years or more, and she told me that there's this special touch to find in Mozart. I probably haven't found it yet, but I will. Probably by next year I can rediscover the magic of Mozart!
Sunday, June 24, 2007
New York
Back from New York/Washington finally!
Photos are not yet uploaded, and I'm still getting used to typing - I've not typed in a week. Anyway I also need to practise my piano, because if I don't, I will get very very screwed. The last thing on my mind is surprisingly homework, but I seriously can't be bothered. I've done my Mathematic TA, but not my Chinese homework. I can't stand to do it. Ok technically I didn't DO the Math TA, because Andrew mostly did the work. Sorry Andrew -.- Punishment: No more grouping with him anymore...
I brought back with me presents, experiences, and memories. Wonderful memories.
We actually had a standing ovation at the Carnagie Hall!!! When Mr Sze got to the stage with the other conductors, he looked a little vertically-challenged. Definitely not that much but it got some of the Secondary 2s laughing. Lol.
Day 0
The aeroplane flight took like a few days. Crap. Almost one week later I still don't know how I survived the plane flight. It was like, how long, reaching New York. The only thing I enjoyed, was most definitely the food. :) SIA food rocks my world. You get what, in the morning wonderful hashbrown, huge eggs coated with cheese and egg yolk, heavenly bacon, a bun, honeydew, rock melon, yoghurt, YUM YUM YUM.
Day 1
Upon reaching New York via Frankfurt, we started walking around after checking in into our hotel. We went to the Museum of Modern Art.
After a voting session, we had a undisputed decision - get out of MoMA. I mean, Modern music - intolerable.
Modern Art? - Forget it.
We went to Rockefeller Centre and viewed New York from the 50th storey. Very nice. :)
Times Square was like the same as in the movies, the huge billboard with MnM's world behind it, and lots and lots of shops and people.
Basically New York was as it was on TV, those sewage holes with smoke coming out of them, quite some rubbish around the dustbins, lots and lots of black marks on the floor of chewing gum, and yep, basically New York. If given a chance, I would actually live in New York. Just love it's busy attitude. :)
The main part at Carnagie Hall was a complete success. One of the best concerts in my life, and probably RISE's. A brilliant standing ovation, lots of cheers, and good audience. Just what Singapore lacks. Haiz.
AUdiences from overseas are much more open. Or rather people. Look at the girls in disco night. We had a disco in the cruise, and the American girls were all dancing like mad, with us Singaporeans basically being the shy people we always were and standing at one side. There was once where we actually joined in, almost a takeover, it was quite a couple of cool damn songs.
Just goes to show for me why listening to too much Beatles or Beegees is bad. I couldn't even stand or recognise ANY music, except for those classic ones. And one Beegees song actually played when I was leaving the boat with everyone - More than a Woman
But yep, after Carnagie the next day we went straight to Washington, visited Lincoln Memorial, the place where Martin Luther King made his famous speech. Very solemn place, although Haotian entirely made a fool of himself by laughing and falling onto the floor.
Please reflect, Haotian.
Moving on, I learnt many things in this trip. Adriel commented something which I agree, "The best way to know somebody is to travel with the person."
Quite true. No wonder there is a need for a honeymoon...
So, yep, we kicked ass for Singapore, and we did Singapore proud.
Of course, that's one for Singapore, one for RISE, and of course, one for Mr Sze.
Cheers!
Photos are not yet uploaded, and I'm still getting used to typing - I've not typed in a week. Anyway I also need to practise my piano, because if I don't, I will get very very screwed. The last thing on my mind is surprisingly homework, but I seriously can't be bothered. I've done my Mathematic TA, but not my Chinese homework. I can't stand to do it. Ok technically I didn't DO the Math TA, because Andrew mostly did the work. Sorry Andrew -.- Punishment: No more grouping with him anymore...
I brought back with me presents, experiences, and memories. Wonderful memories.
We actually had a standing ovation at the Carnagie Hall!!! When Mr Sze got to the stage with the other conductors, he looked a little vertically-challenged. Definitely not that much but it got some of the Secondary 2s laughing. Lol.
Day 0
The aeroplane flight took like a few days. Crap. Almost one week later I still don't know how I survived the plane flight. It was like, how long, reaching New York. The only thing I enjoyed, was most definitely the food. :) SIA food rocks my world. You get what, in the morning wonderful hashbrown, huge eggs coated with cheese and egg yolk, heavenly bacon, a bun, honeydew, rock melon, yoghurt, YUM YUM YUM.
Day 1
Upon reaching New York via Frankfurt, we started walking around after checking in into our hotel. We went to the Museum of Modern Art.
After a voting session, we had a undisputed decision - get out of MoMA. I mean, Modern music - intolerable.
Modern Art? - Forget it.
We went to Rockefeller Centre and viewed New York from the 50th storey. Very nice. :)
Times Square was like the same as in the movies, the huge billboard with MnM's world behind it, and lots and lots of shops and people.
Basically New York was as it was on TV, those sewage holes with smoke coming out of them, quite some rubbish around the dustbins, lots and lots of black marks on the floor of chewing gum, and yep, basically New York. If given a chance, I would actually live in New York. Just love it's busy attitude. :)
The main part at Carnagie Hall was a complete success. One of the best concerts in my life, and probably RISE's. A brilliant standing ovation, lots of cheers, and good audience. Just what Singapore lacks. Haiz.
AUdiences from overseas are much more open. Or rather people. Look at the girls in disco night. We had a disco in the cruise, and the American girls were all dancing like mad, with us Singaporeans basically being the shy people we always were and standing at one side. There was once where we actually joined in, almost a takeover, it was quite a couple of cool damn songs.
Just goes to show for me why listening to too much Beatles or Beegees is bad. I couldn't even stand or recognise ANY music, except for those classic ones. And one Beegees song actually played when I was leaving the boat with everyone - More than a Woman
But yep, after Carnagie the next day we went straight to Washington, visited Lincoln Memorial, the place where Martin Luther King made his famous speech. Very solemn place, although Haotian entirely made a fool of himself by laughing and falling onto the floor.
Please reflect, Haotian.
Moving on, I learnt many things in this trip. Adriel commented something which I agree, "The best way to know somebody is to travel with the person."
Quite true. No wonder there is a need for a honeymoon...
So, yep, we kicked ass for Singapore, and we did Singapore proud.
Of course, that's one for Singapore, one for RISE, and of course, one for Mr Sze.
Cheers!
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
First Day of Camp
After 3 days and 2 nights of RISE annual camp, I'm back, and I'm tired but in a fantastic mood.
RISE camp always gives me the same feeling, the way one whole bunch of us walk to j8 to eat, how we play soccer in the morning (8am-9am) and also sometimes in the evening (5-7pm). And how we would stay up so late in the night (1am-4am) to talk, chit-chat, play cards, play soccer in the classrooms and of course a night of wonderful softball in class at 1am :)
Day 1
I slept at about 1am the day before, considering how long I stayed in my Secondary 1 ACS cousin, JC 2 RJC girl cousin, and Maris Stella cousin's house. I went there at about 2pm and stayed till about 10.30pm. Crap man. I rushed home and started putting together the scoreboard that would stay in use throughout the entire camp, and my mum was busy packing for me. So that's one thank you.
Then a few hours after that I was in RI, and we were assigned our rooms at the S. Rajaratnam block. The feeling was still the same, AND the people were still the same, just that there were the extra Sec 1s. Because almost ALL of the Sec 4 2006 (currently JC 1 now) were in this camp. Shows how united we are. Seriously.
And so we cleaned up how rooms, because we would be staying there for the rest of camp.
Mr Sze started the room checks, to find bags which were unlocked and bags without locks. The EXCO swept through the rooms in S.R block while the rest and me were in the LT1, our rehearsal room for the rest of the camp.
Indeed they brought almost half a dozen bags, unlocked, no locks. So luggages were emptied, and the owners were humiliated -.-
John Lee actually opened up one of the suitcases and throwing out the underwears. Haiz, Sec 1 nowadays.
Rehearsal the rest of the time, soccer, more soccer, mcdonalds, and finally Night Games.
Day 1 Night Game was created by our conductor, Mr. Trevor Sze. And thinking about it like 5 days later, it's still really cool. It's called:
AROUND THE WORLD IN THREE HOURS
And aronud the whole RI campus in 3 hours, it was. Now there are seven continents in all, and the entire RI campus was divided into seven. He gave us this travel flight plan, this sheet of paper which has seven continents on the left, and seven continents on the top. So what is this for? It states the cost of going from one continent to the next.
For example:
Antartica Oceania Asia Europe North America South America Africa
Antartica X 10 20 40 55 10 15
Oceania X
Asia X
Europe X
North America X
South America X
Africa X
Heck you get the drift. Which means Antartica to Antartica zero cost. DUH.
Antartica to Asia, 20 bucks.
Yep, I forgot the entire travel plan and I can't place all the figures, so here goes. But anyway, our tribe, Green Team 2 got second in this Night Game. We started at the LT1 at exactly 8.00 and ended at 11pm.
Mr Sze gave us the clues as to where each continent where.
Antartica - Down South
North America - Up North
Asia - Residential
Africa - Savannah
Oceania - As the name suggests
South America - Learning
Europe - Inventions
The 'Ups' and the 'Downs' actually were for real. Down-South referred to the Lower Level of Dining Hall and Up-North referred to the Second level of Admin Block, all the way at the very top of RI. Which means the backgate there, with the busstop.
But anyway since the first continent we went to was for free, we immediately rushed to Oceania - the Swimming Pool, where the gamemasters Mr. Sze and Jonathan Liang from VJC were there. We were in fact third team, but our entire team was there, second team was sad-case.
First Challenge was to see who swim one lap of the Swimming Pool, 50m. Adriel (Sec 4) clocked faster than ShangXuan (Sec 3).
Second Challenge was to see which team dries the person up the fastest without using any clothings. So we used our hands and squeezed the water out of ShangXuan's clothes. We won on the second challenge thanks to our team spirit.
Third Challenge of Oceania was to do the Easter Island challenge. We divided ourselves into Male and Female crabs, and we had to climb down the stands of the Swimming Pool SIDE-WAYS, wet our heads in the water for the male, wet the butts for the female. I was one of the female crabs and I tell you, squatting down on the swimming pool is damn difficult.
Fourth Challenge was to tick the correct islands that can be found in Oceania. Mr Sze gave us a card with all the islands on it, and Jonathan Liang was kind enough to let us skirt through. :) There was one - Rovert Islands. Then we were like, possible, so we named it, but we screwed up. It's Trevor spelled upside-down.
The last Challenge was to finish up three cans of tuna, which we did delightfully. Yum yum. :) Fish.
We rushed next to Antartica, where Shawn Chang was the game master.
First Challenge was to eat ice-cubes - one whole carton of them. He poured the ice-cubes into one plastic box, where we stuffed our mouths with it. Ice-cubes to me tasted horrible. I mean, yuck, ice-cubes. Who wants to eat ice-cubes. We finished it.
Second Challenge was a total game of luck, we played for 15 minutes, before finally getting the correct card we wanted.
But alas, 15 minutes was too much. At 8.50, Shawn Chang received an SMS from Mr. Sze to say all those at Antartica will face bad weather because of the unforeseen circumstances. So anyone who is there 9.50 also gets it.
We waited for 10 minutes, 10 antagonizing minutes, before we headed for our next destination - South America.
Lizheng was Game Master there.
So we lost all first Challenge immediately - he asked all of us to take out our wallets and see how much money there was - we had a grand total of $180 in our pocket. Points deducted from that.
"Mr Sze told you'll not to bring so much money, now you're robbed because you're in South America."
And robbed we were. Our points were deducted by three I think.
The next challenge we had was the cheering one. We were supposed to form a cheer - we saw the other group do it - Hongrui's group, and they were like deciding for a while.
We already had a group cheer early in the morning - we formed on while we had a meeting with Yi Yang, our tribe leader.
We cheered the Greendian Cheer, and we got the full 10 points plus 2 for bonus, because it sounded good. :) And racist.
Our next destination was North America, where we had Remus and Samuel Lim as our Gamemasters.
First Challenge of North America was to drink Coke - The Land of Coke. I sipped a little, and suddenly it kind of like, tasted quite nice. Yunfei gulped the whole thing down, with Shangxuan and John Yu having similiar portions. Being a health freak I am, I didn't drink much.
Next was the Chicago Dog Dragging thing, where the two dogs were supposed to sit on newspapers while the humans dragged them. I volunteered to sit on the newspapers because I felt I wasn't really doing much, so I did, and Zhiyuan and Zhiyi were dragging me. Zhiyuan did a great job, but Zhiyi was rather lacklustre in performance thanks to the fats hanging down on his belly. My entire back was totally black thanks to the construction dust and more dust on the floor. I was dragged like about around the entire second level surrounding the LT1, which is probably about a 100 metres.
The third Challenge was to eat apples - the Big Apple. So Remus and Samuel took out one carton of apples, in which Zhiyuan readily bit one whole apple, and ShangXuan was basically OWNING, like literally owning the apples. He was like...don't know some pro apple eater, just basically finished two in less than a minute. I couldn't eat the apples thanks to my front tooth, and just a few weeks ago the dentist told me to almost totally avoid eating apples or rather use my side teeth (between the canines and the molars) to eat.
We got 6 points for that, while most teams only got 2 or 3.
THe last Challenge was to name and match the initials of the state to the state name itself - LA - Los Angeles, and much harder ones. Can't remember.
We went to Europe after that, and the GameMasters were JC2 JIngXun and JC1 Sam Tho.
Being EUrope - Science Block, we had to listen and identify music at the Austria section, smell and identify Perfumes in the French section, and match silhouettes of bats and bats in the Romanian section, and lastly identify capitals in the Misc section.
We rushed on to Africa - School Field - where we had to take off our T-shirts, and mummify ourselves. We got a terrible 2 for that. We then had to line up, 4 of us, and sing note-by-note the Queen of Sheba, one note for each of us. We got a 3 for that I think. Horrible.
THe third Challenge was for the flip-the-cards-n-match one, that one we scored 6.
And lastly, we had the Battle of the Colours, we had to produce a certain colour on our body when stated. So it was like, "yellow" - then everyone finds a certain colour on their body.
The very last continent was Asia, where I had to do a Geisha Face Painting, my whole face was covered with white, and then followed by Vietnam Tunnel Crawl, where we had a row of chairs and all of us had to crawl under the chairs. Damn tough. Like seriously. Then the final challenge was the Dart Blowing one, where we had to blow bean seeds and try to reach a distant target.
Then the entire team had to rush back to the first continent that we went to, and that was Oceania at the swimming pool. Once approved by Mr. Sze, we rushed back to the LT1 where we had a bonus 4 minutes to spare. That's four bonus points.
But at the end of the day, they calculated the points the next day, and we got second. Good job, Greendia 2!
And that's only the first day -.-
RISE camp always gives me the same feeling, the way one whole bunch of us walk to j8 to eat, how we play soccer in the morning (8am-9am) and also sometimes in the evening (5-7pm). And how we would stay up so late in the night (1am-4am) to talk, chit-chat, play cards, play soccer in the classrooms and of course a night of wonderful softball in class at 1am :)
Day 1
I slept at about 1am the day before, considering how long I stayed in my Secondary 1 ACS cousin, JC 2 RJC girl cousin, and Maris Stella cousin's house. I went there at about 2pm and stayed till about 10.30pm. Crap man. I rushed home and started putting together the scoreboard that would stay in use throughout the entire camp, and my mum was busy packing for me. So that's one thank you.
Then a few hours after that I was in RI, and we were assigned our rooms at the S. Rajaratnam block. The feeling was still the same, AND the people were still the same, just that there were the extra Sec 1s. Because almost ALL of the Sec 4 2006 (currently JC 1 now) were in this camp. Shows how united we are. Seriously.
And so we cleaned up how rooms, because we would be staying there for the rest of camp.
Mr Sze started the room checks, to find bags which were unlocked and bags without locks. The EXCO swept through the rooms in S.R block while the rest and me were in the LT1, our rehearsal room for the rest of the camp.
Indeed they brought almost half a dozen bags, unlocked, no locks. So luggages were emptied, and the owners were humiliated -.-
John Lee actually opened up one of the suitcases and throwing out the underwears. Haiz, Sec 1 nowadays.
Rehearsal the rest of the time, soccer, more soccer, mcdonalds, and finally Night Games.
Day 1 Night Game was created by our conductor, Mr. Trevor Sze. And thinking about it like 5 days later, it's still really cool. It's called:
AROUND THE WORLD IN THREE HOURS
And aronud the whole RI campus in 3 hours, it was. Now there are seven continents in all, and the entire RI campus was divided into seven. He gave us this travel flight plan, this sheet of paper which has seven continents on the left, and seven continents on the top. So what is this for? It states the cost of going from one continent to the next.
For example:
Antartica Oceania Asia Europe North America South America Africa
Antartica X 10 20 40 55 10 15
Oceania X
Asia X
Europe X
North America X
South America X
Africa X
Heck you get the drift. Which means Antartica to Antartica zero cost. DUH.
Antartica to Asia, 20 bucks.
Yep, I forgot the entire travel plan and I can't place all the figures, so here goes. But anyway, our tribe, Green Team 2 got second in this Night Game. We started at the LT1 at exactly 8.00 and ended at 11pm.
Mr Sze gave us the clues as to where each continent where.
Antartica - Down South
North America - Up North
Asia - Residential
Africa - Savannah
Oceania - As the name suggests
South America - Learning
Europe - Inventions
The 'Ups' and the 'Downs' actually were for real. Down-South referred to the Lower Level of Dining Hall and Up-North referred to the Second level of Admin Block, all the way at the very top of RI. Which means the backgate there, with the busstop.
But anyway since the first continent we went to was for free, we immediately rushed to Oceania - the Swimming Pool, where the gamemasters Mr. Sze and Jonathan Liang from VJC were there. We were in fact third team, but our entire team was there, second team was sad-case.
First Challenge was to see who swim one lap of the Swimming Pool, 50m. Adriel (Sec 4) clocked faster than ShangXuan (Sec 3).
Second Challenge was to see which team dries the person up the fastest without using any clothings. So we used our hands and squeezed the water out of ShangXuan's clothes. We won on the second challenge thanks to our team spirit.
Third Challenge of Oceania was to do the Easter Island challenge. We divided ourselves into Male and Female crabs, and we had to climb down the stands of the Swimming Pool SIDE-WAYS, wet our heads in the water for the male, wet the butts for the female. I was one of the female crabs and I tell you, squatting down on the swimming pool is damn difficult.
Fourth Challenge was to tick the correct islands that can be found in Oceania. Mr Sze gave us a card with all the islands on it, and Jonathan Liang was kind enough to let us skirt through. :) There was one - Rovert Islands. Then we were like, possible, so we named it, but we screwed up. It's Trevor spelled upside-down.
The last Challenge was to finish up three cans of tuna, which we did delightfully. Yum yum. :) Fish.
We rushed next to Antartica, where Shawn Chang was the game master.
First Challenge was to eat ice-cubes - one whole carton of them. He poured the ice-cubes into one plastic box, where we stuffed our mouths with it. Ice-cubes to me tasted horrible. I mean, yuck, ice-cubes. Who wants to eat ice-cubes. We finished it.
Second Challenge was a total game of luck, we played for 15 minutes, before finally getting the correct card we wanted.
But alas, 15 minutes was too much. At 8.50, Shawn Chang received an SMS from Mr. Sze to say all those at Antartica will face bad weather because of the unforeseen circumstances. So anyone who is there 9.50 also gets it.
We waited for 10 minutes, 10 antagonizing minutes, before we headed for our next destination - South America.
Lizheng was Game Master there.
So we lost all first Challenge immediately - he asked all of us to take out our wallets and see how much money there was - we had a grand total of $180 in our pocket. Points deducted from that.
"Mr Sze told you'll not to bring so much money, now you're robbed because you're in South America."
And robbed we were. Our points were deducted by three I think.
The next challenge we had was the cheering one. We were supposed to form a cheer - we saw the other group do it - Hongrui's group, and they were like deciding for a while.
We already had a group cheer early in the morning - we formed on while we had a meeting with Yi Yang, our tribe leader.
We cheered the Greendian Cheer, and we got the full 10 points plus 2 for bonus, because it sounded good. :) And racist.
Our next destination was North America, where we had Remus and Samuel Lim as our Gamemasters.
First Challenge of North America was to drink Coke - The Land of Coke. I sipped a little, and suddenly it kind of like, tasted quite nice. Yunfei gulped the whole thing down, with Shangxuan and John Yu having similiar portions. Being a health freak I am, I didn't drink much.
Next was the Chicago Dog Dragging thing, where the two dogs were supposed to sit on newspapers while the humans dragged them. I volunteered to sit on the newspapers because I felt I wasn't really doing much, so I did, and Zhiyuan and Zhiyi were dragging me. Zhiyuan did a great job, but Zhiyi was rather lacklustre in performance thanks to the fats hanging down on his belly. My entire back was totally black thanks to the construction dust and more dust on the floor. I was dragged like about around the entire second level surrounding the LT1, which is probably about a 100 metres.
The third Challenge was to eat apples - the Big Apple. So Remus and Samuel took out one carton of apples, in which Zhiyuan readily bit one whole apple, and ShangXuan was basically OWNING, like literally owning the apples. He was like...don't know some pro apple eater, just basically finished two in less than a minute. I couldn't eat the apples thanks to my front tooth, and just a few weeks ago the dentist told me to almost totally avoid eating apples or rather use my side teeth (between the canines and the molars) to eat.
We got 6 points for that, while most teams only got 2 or 3.
THe last Challenge was to name and match the initials of the state to the state name itself - LA - Los Angeles, and much harder ones. Can't remember.
We went to Europe after that, and the GameMasters were JC2 JIngXun and JC1 Sam Tho.
Being EUrope - Science Block, we had to listen and identify music at the Austria section, smell and identify Perfumes in the French section, and match silhouettes of bats and bats in the Romanian section, and lastly identify capitals in the Misc section.
We rushed on to Africa - School Field - where we had to take off our T-shirts, and mummify ourselves. We got a terrible 2 for that. We then had to line up, 4 of us, and sing note-by-note the Queen of Sheba, one note for each of us. We got a 3 for that I think. Horrible.
THe third Challenge was for the flip-the-cards-n-match one, that one we scored 6.
And lastly, we had the Battle of the Colours, we had to produce a certain colour on our body when stated. So it was like, "yellow" - then everyone finds a certain colour on their body.
The very last continent was Asia, where I had to do a Geisha Face Painting, my whole face was covered with white, and then followed by Vietnam Tunnel Crawl, where we had a row of chairs and all of us had to crawl under the chairs. Damn tough. Like seriously. Then the final challenge was the Dart Blowing one, where we had to blow bean seeds and try to reach a distant target.
Then the entire team had to rush back to the first continent that we went to, and that was Oceania at the swimming pool. Once approved by Mr. Sze, we rushed back to the LT1 where we had a bonus 4 minutes to spare. That's four bonus points.
But at the end of the day, they calculated the points the next day, and we got second. Good job, Greendia 2!
And that's only the first day -.-
Friday, June 1, 2007
Dental, Kindness, and Team Spirit
And yes how I seriously wish MEP Camp could go on...and on without the workshops.
Special thanks to these people:
From the MGS camp - Marisa, Hilary, Cheryl
From the ACS camp - Timothy, Chuanxi, Kapilan, and Jackson
From the RI camp - Zhiyi, Zhiyi, Zhiyi
Probably among the best days I had!
Today I went for a dental check-up. My gag reflex kicked in during the 3 X-rays I had. The male nurse placed this blue plastic spiky straw in my mouth to keep it open, then asked me to bite very hard, and "don't open! Close your eyes!" He ran behind this shield wall and the machine went "BEEP!"
So the whole process repeated three times, and by the third time my eyes were filled with tears from the gagging. But I knew how to control the reflex already though.
After the whole talk with my doctor Dr. Andrew and the nurse I went outside for the confirmation of my next appointment. Then I had a long debate with my mother in full view of the receptionist and the other patients.
"Can't have it on Wednesday! I have my rehearsals!"
"Where got rehearsal on Wednesday one huh? I need proof of your rehearsal!"
"But no, not Monday Wednesday Friday. Nurse, can you give me on 2 and 4s only"
"No Nurse, anytime also can"
"No Nurse, 2s and 4s. Yes, Tuesdays and Thursday. No Mondays Wednesdays Fridays"
"..."
"No Mondays Wednesdays Fridays"
Meanwhile the Nurse turns head to and fro from me to my mum.
We finally settled on September the 6, which was quite amusing for the Nurse because it's so far away.
Happens to be my mom and dad's wedding anniversary!
Then we proceeded to OG, when upon noticing the guy's badge at the entrance upside-down, I felt disturbed.
We continued walking around People's Park for satin, but it was SOOooo boring, and almost everyone I saw were old people. Excluding my mum.
I went back to the entrance guy and I told him that his badge was not correctly placed. He had this to say.
"I know, I just don't want people to see my name or else they will complain about me."
"Huh?" (Music of Beegees's Nights on Broadway plays)
"Later people see my name then complain about me."
...SO this guy has complaints against him? Weird.
He continued in a not-so-jokingly tone. "No lah, just kidding. Thanks anyway"
"Hey ok no problem."
FOllowing that I got a scolding from my mum about being so kay-poh. What? Was I doing any wrong? Besides right beneath his name tag was a "Be Kind Singapore" orange circular badge. Around those lines lah. But anyway, how ironic.
Now I know why ACS(I) beat RI in rugby, or in any other sports. That's because in ACS(I), they're camaradarie is very strong. In case people don't know what camaradarie means, it means team spirit. Probably like espirit' de corp.
To all Rafflesians: We're too focused on acheiving our own goals till we do not bother about the feelings of others anymore. We must strengthen our friendships, our team spirit, our school spirit. There is no more Rafflesian Spirit, only the Thinker, Leader, and the Pioneer.
This is the only thing we must improve before we can go on to triumph over other schools. The technique is there, the spirit is not!
Rafflesians, let's rise to the call!
Special thanks to these people:
From the MGS camp - Marisa, Hilary, Cheryl
From the ACS camp - Timothy, Chuanxi, Kapilan, and Jackson
From the RI camp - Zhiyi, Zhiyi, Zhiyi
Probably among the best days I had!
Today I went for a dental check-up. My gag reflex kicked in during the 3 X-rays I had. The male nurse placed this blue plastic spiky straw in my mouth to keep it open, then asked me to bite very hard, and "don't open! Close your eyes!" He ran behind this shield wall and the machine went "BEEP!"
So the whole process repeated three times, and by the third time my eyes were filled with tears from the gagging. But I knew how to control the reflex already though.
After the whole talk with my doctor Dr. Andrew and the nurse I went outside for the confirmation of my next appointment. Then I had a long debate with my mother in full view of the receptionist and the other patients.
"Can't have it on Wednesday! I have my rehearsals!"
"Where got rehearsal on Wednesday one huh? I need proof of your rehearsal!"
"But no, not Monday Wednesday Friday. Nurse, can you give me on 2 and 4s only"
"No Nurse, anytime also can"
"No Nurse, 2s and 4s. Yes, Tuesdays and Thursday. No Mondays Wednesdays Fridays"
"..."
"No Mondays Wednesdays Fridays"
Meanwhile the Nurse turns head to and fro from me to my mum.
We finally settled on September the 6, which was quite amusing for the Nurse because it's so far away.
Happens to be my mom and dad's wedding anniversary!
Then we proceeded to OG, when upon noticing the guy's badge at the entrance upside-down, I felt disturbed.
We continued walking around People's Park for satin, but it was SOOooo boring, and almost everyone I saw were old people. Excluding my mum.
I went back to the entrance guy and I told him that his badge was not correctly placed. He had this to say.
"I know, I just don't want people to see my name or else they will complain about me."
"Huh?" (Music of Beegees's Nights on Broadway plays)
"Later people see my name then complain about me."
...SO this guy has complaints against him? Weird.
He continued in a not-so-jokingly tone. "No lah, just kidding. Thanks anyway"
"Hey ok no problem."
FOllowing that I got a scolding from my mum about being so kay-poh. What? Was I doing any wrong? Besides right beneath his name tag was a "Be Kind Singapore" orange circular badge. Around those lines lah. But anyway, how ironic.
Now I know why ACS(I) beat RI in rugby, or in any other sports. That's because in ACS(I), they're camaradarie is very strong. In case people don't know what camaradarie means, it means team spirit. Probably like espirit' de corp.
To all Rafflesians: We're too focused on acheiving our own goals till we do not bother about the feelings of others anymore. We must strengthen our friendships, our team spirit, our school spirit. There is no more Rafflesian Spirit, only the Thinker, Leader, and the Pioneer.
This is the only thing we must improve before we can go on to triumph over other schools. The technique is there, the spirit is not!
Rafflesians, let's rise to the call!
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
MEP camp
Just came back from MEP Camp! The MGS girls and ACS(I) guys rocked!
The lessons were boring - I only attended 3: Dance, IT, Music Therapy.I thought Dance was the most intersting one, followed by Music Therapy. Talked to lots of ACS(I) guys, they are in fact just like RI guys, just that there are I think, more gays.
Then MGS there was Hilary and Marisa and Cheryl, damn fun lot. Cheryl and ChuanXi are both some jokers lah but the whole thing was quite fun especially when the whole group tell very lame jokes. :)
Zhiyi was quite a laughing point in my group throughout the 2 days - the Laughing Machine as named by the ACS guys. I didn't really bother to defend Zhiyi, considering during group meeting he was eating chocolates and reading newspaper and sucking lolippops, and he got Ben Low pissed for the first time :)
Then ya, we did a lot of fun stuff, gotta change my view of ACS students.
I'll give the camp part a 7/10, the meeting friends definitely earn a 9/10.
Unfortunately I didn't talk much to the other TKGS people, they were basically like...bo chap I think, and I didn't even see a single st. nicks girl in our group.
Passed Tiffany the Czerny book that carved me into a technique person, asked her to practise Hanon, I'm teaching her FOC, but we're still finding a place for lesson.
Going to practise piano, be back at 10 to watch Planet Earth, 12 to watch Inuyasha.
The lessons were boring - I only attended 3: Dance, IT, Music Therapy.I thought Dance was the most intersting one, followed by Music Therapy. Talked to lots of ACS(I) guys, they are in fact just like RI guys, just that there are I think, more gays.
Then MGS there was Hilary and Marisa and Cheryl, damn fun lot. Cheryl and ChuanXi are both some jokers lah but the whole thing was quite fun especially when the whole group tell very lame jokes. :)
Zhiyi was quite a laughing point in my group throughout the 2 days - the Laughing Machine as named by the ACS guys. I didn't really bother to defend Zhiyi, considering during group meeting he was eating chocolates and reading newspaper and sucking lolippops, and he got Ben Low pissed for the first time :)
Then ya, we did a lot of fun stuff, gotta change my view of ACS students.
I'll give the camp part a 7/10, the meeting friends definitely earn a 9/10.
Unfortunately I didn't talk much to the other TKGS people, they were basically like...bo chap I think, and I didn't even see a single st. nicks girl in our group.
Passed Tiffany the Czerny book that carved me into a technique person, asked her to practise Hanon, I'm teaching her FOC, but we're still finding a place for lesson.
Going to practise piano, be back at 10 to watch Planet Earth, 12 to watch Inuyasha.
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