It is the last day of 2004. A year I would probably never forget. Or at least remember for a long time.

A year where I watched many good movies and read many good books: Spiderman 2, Kung Fu Hustle, Matrix: Revolutions, Shrek 2... The Da Vinci Code, Assassini...

A year where I started this blog, and wrote endlessly about many things: friendship, selfishness VS selflessness...

A year where I made new friends. Nikki, Dawn, Maddie, Meiwei...

A year where I learnt many things, including new jokes, and a good motto for life.

A year where everyone was frantic about Secondary 4 and then when I saw everyone working so hard for the mid-year exam and the preliminaries, I couldn't leave myself out.

A year where we took our 'O' Levels, found an error in the Biology paper, and cheered in unison at the end of the last paper.

A year where I stayed up for nearly 40 hours after the last 'O' Levels paper, staying in a chalet at Changi playing Mahjong, gambling, eating Nasi Lemak, watching transvetites and laughing at Bee Khim for being so afraid of cats.

A year where we, all the graduates, said our goodbyes at graduation night, and hugged each other, some crying, some not, and us guys spent our last night together as a bunch watching European soccer.

Those memories would be hard to forget, probably, but even if I do in the future, the mention of it will snap it all back.

And besides, I have this to remind me. That's why I'm writing it down.

*******

New Years' Eve, people!

What's the first thing to do on New Years' Eve? It's to wake up and get out of your bed, not the countdown, stupid.

The countdown is the last thing you do. Sheesh.

I have plans... If you don't, too bad.

See you on New Year's Day! Ciao!

Ah....

Basketball only after a long while really takes the toll on your body. I'm dead tired, and it's not even midnight yet.

Charles is going to London tomorrow. Not that it makes me sad and all, but he's one of the better guys in the class.

I just remembered something. I still the class mag to do. ARGH! I'm going to school to get some photos from Mr. Wong, some day when I'm free.

Any suggestions on how the mag should look like? 4E1 people contact me.

I like making so many paragraphs because they make my points look clear and simple. I hate it when people clump everything they have to say and make people hard to understand when they veer straight into another point.

But sometimes you have too much to say, and have bigger paragraphs. But still, no clumps please.

I'm running out of games to play. I just played Gunbound again for like a month, and I'm glad I haven't totally lost it. Half-Life 2 screwed up my com several times. Either that, or it screws up by itself.

Crap.

Yes, "Crap." is one point. It signifies as one universal statement about all the bad stuff that's happening right now, especially the Asian tsunamis. Although "Crap." may be an understatement.

An estimated 85,000 people were killed by the magnitude 9.0 earthquake, centred in Sumatra. The quake caused giant tidal waves, submerging several islands in the Indian ocean, and the quake caused Sumatra to move. It's now positioned differently, so maps could have to be updated to reflect this change. And it doesn't stop there.

The tsunamis hit the shores of Sri Lanka, Penang and Phuket, causing lost of homes, property, not to mention tens of thousands of loved ones.

I took a brief break. It's past 12 now, and all of a sudden I don't feel so tired anymore. Maybe it's the food I ate.

Anyway, I'll be going out New Years' Eve for a small gathering with my friends, see you during New Year's Day.

Au revoir.

And she weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeel bee luuuuurrrrrved oh oh oh ohhhhhh....

Ok, enough of Moron 5.

And we're another day closer toward School Opening! Well, for some of us...

I've completed Half-Life 2, and I must say even though the game was great and all, the ending was *pft*. Thumbs down. Double that.

*SPOILER*

Highlight to read!

I should say I expected at least a final boss fight or something, like Half-Life, where you fought that big dude in Xen. This one involved solving a very simple building puzzle to get to the top, and kill off the power, destroying the city in the process, and the G-Man stops time and space and tells you "Mission Accomplished". The credits roll, and we get Lamarr jumping towards the screen.

My first reaction? "What the hell!" There must be some kind of a mistake! But being the linear game Half-Life is, I couldn't do anything about it.

And man, Ravenholm still haunts me. Or at least the Leaper Zombies. They are damned scary. Really. And you should hear the sound zombies make when they get burnt. Makes you wanna lose your lunch. Antlions are cool. Soldiers are dumb. Striders are impossible. I almost gave up when I had to fight off half a dozen of them.

*END OF SPOILER*

I bother to do this because I know some people would rather experience things for themselves. Aren't I thoughtful. Highlighting isn't so tiring.

Well, now I'm in search of the songs requested by Esther for her CDs.

Ciao!

A minute ago, something incredible happened to me.

I'm incredibly out of date. I have forgotten about other blogs.

I don't read them anymore, and then when I go visit some of them, I have no idea what they are talking about. I'm not going to do revision though, it'll take up much of my Half-Life 2 time. In fact, I want to end this as quickly as possible so I can get into the game.

So why write this, you ask.

Well, I only want to say... Happy Boxing Day! Good thing nobody's around to bite your ear.

I'll be starting school in a week, and it's kinda stressful for me. I mean, here I am, stranded in some new place again.

Wish me luck.

It's Christmas, everyone, and that reminds me: doesn't anyone think that Saddam Hussein looked suspiciously like Santa when he was captured?

[img]http://pub.tv2.no/multimedia/na/archive/00127/saddam_hussein__arr_127201c.JPG[/img]

Anyway, Christmas Eve went on great, and I had turkey and ham and beef... Heavy stuff. Makes me very full, you know. Jiawen and Joseph came over at different times, and I ate twice too. So I'm a glutton. I look like one anyway.

Back to Christmas.

This year's Christmas was very different from the previous ones, because we weren't doing the eating at my uncle's condo. That's why I had it at home.

I got a present from my mom. It was a Fossil keychain, and it's very nice. It came with a box, and I love metal boxes. Love 'em. Yup. I also love notepads, by the way, so you are officially informed.

But let's not cut down more trees or suck the earth dry of its natural minerals, shall we?

I've gotta go. I'm playing Half-Life 2, finally! Yay! Wish me luck.

And again, Merry Christmas, everyone.

I feel tired.

What's that? It's only 1.32 AM? And it feels like 5 AM here. Gosh. Wow, I said "gosh". That's new.

I'm in a dilemma. Because even though I have gotten this new DVD drive and I can play two games I had previously been unable to. Where's the problem, you ask.

I've got Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance, which is the PC version of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty in the PS2 console, but the whole game hangs whenever I reach a point in the game.

The other game, Impossible Creatures, is simply as its names suggests, impossible to beat. I found cheats and none of them are useful enough for my small little critters to beat those mammoths. I've found a trainer and I'm going to try it later. Later, when I've gotten something to eat.

I wasted nearly an hour on this space doing other Naruto-related stuff. Now, I'm gonna get something to eat, and then try the trainer.

Merry Christmas.

I had a briefly nice day. I shan't talk too much about it, it's going to be boring. Let's talk about friends.

What are friends for?

It's a rheotorical question, so nobody answers it. In fact, nobody can answer it because friends can be useful in so many ways...

It's such a thin line between "helping a friend" and "being used by a friend" that sometimes everyone gets confused and in one example, believes that taking the rap for a crime is helping. So what are friends for? Many would argue "to be there to celebrate with you when you are happy, and to save your ass when you're in a mess", but seriously, how many of your friends can you actually claim to be so? Will they come to your rescue if something happens to you?

Okay, maybe you haven't been in a sticky situation before, or you're one hell of an ego and claim that you don't need help. But let's consider this: you see, this is the selling point of all the gangs and secret societies. Loyalty. They say they will come to your help when you get into trouble. One day, a group of people armed with sticks come to you when you weer alone. You make a swift call, and your gang comes right away armed with knives and solves your problem. Ah, but wait: what caused that trouble?

Friends are the most influential people in our lives right now. As much as I hate to admit it, these people will affect you more than what your family does in this period. Look around. Are any of your friends bad influence? A few might be, but you probably wouldn't admit it.

Every person hungers for aknowledgement, especially those who are youngest in the family, who have been treated like they are: juniors. Then these people you meet treat you as equals. As an individual, not as someone's brother or someone's sister. You feel better around them, you give all your trust, and then...

You fall into the ultimate pit.

That is inevitable. Ultimate can mean anything at any age. It can mean little things, or big things like expulsion from school if you're a student, getting fired from your work or even getting punished by the law for a crime. Whether be it in a week, a month, a year, or even ten years. Some day you'll fall because of this wrong choices and you will regret it.

I've fallen once, and the pit wasn't very deep, and fortunately for me it was early enough for me to realise my mistake and my inability to judge. Now I can proudly say most of all my new friends since then are good influences and I can safely say I have learnt many things from all of them.

Just yesterday I was talking to a friend of mine about my school changing experiences. Since Primary school I have switch schools twice, including promotion to Secondary school. Each time I was transferred I was put into an environment where I knew nobody, and everybody else knew somebody. This puts me in a great disadvantage, don't you think? I never thought about that.

I've acted as a social reject for many years now, and I have learnt that there is no greater pain than loneliness. However, I still must consider how worthy someone is a friend. My father told me about his past, and I understand that he doesn't want me nor my sister to go the same way. I'm 16 now, and my pattern of friends is set.

However, my sister is in the period of time where friends become your life's biggest priority. You struggle for a standpoint in the great social circle in your school, and you make friends everywhere, regardless of worth.

Emotionalists might argue that friendship has no worth. If there is no worth, what are friends for? To just sit there and be claimed as a friend?

Animal instinct enables us to judge what is beneficial, and what is not. However, the great social matrix that it is today does not allow the instinct to function properly. That is why friends can be good or bad influences. That is the worth.

Friends are us to learn from, to teach, and to save us from loneliness, the greatest pain. But even though I have my family, and so many people I claim to be friends, there is one person I lack. The person that will truly free me from the greatest pain. But what kind of a role that person is going to play, I have to see. But I'm still waiting. I'll probably know when I meet that person, but it'll be difficult for someone like me.

I've been told I lack conifdence, because of me being overweight and don't exactly look good. This isn't pessimism, this is realism. As much as how everybody says "it's what underneath that counts", nobody wants to be seen with a monster. That is not due to a lack of confidence nor a pessimistic ideal. That is reality.

And I've grew to learn that reality sucks.

My life back, I think. I'm starting to feel less... Bored.

Maybe because it's the weekends.

Guess who I met at the Woodgrove today? My man, Jyaas! He's there grocery shopping with his sister and brother, I found his brother loading up his basket with packets of milk. We greeted, did some small talk about the possible gatherings for the 2E1 reunion and Debate.

Why was I there? I was, of course, doing the same thing, but I bought a variety of products.

Hey, I changed my Blog template! How's it look? Comment on the right.

Now a lot of us are waiting for the results of the PAE. If I'm lucky enough (or unlucky, depends on how you look at it), I'll be attending either Science or Commerce at MI. It's due on the 17th, this Friday.

I'll see you guys around.

Sorry, but you can't be a part of my life unless you have received Level C clearance from Sector 46 of my brain. Please get clearance and try again, sucker.

I always wanted to say that.

So my life hasn't exactly been most exciting.

Yesterday I finally went out of the house, because there was going to be a power cut for a while. The cut came in, and I waited for a while before finally making the decision.

The power recovered by the time I came out of the shower. The irony.

I went out anyway, and went up to Timezone to look at the new arrangements there. The machiens were all moved, rearranged, added, taken away... Anything. And they put the gameshow game back. I won quite a few times, including once with all 6 players chipping in.

I made many mistakes, like answering that Tan Tock Seng was in Force 136 instead of Lim Bo Seng, the correct answer. My greatest moment was when I answered this question correctly: "Which personality had the habit of recording his thoughts in a little red notebook?" The answer? Chairman Mao.

So I played others and then got bored and decided I could go to Bishan and see if Joseph was there. As I got up the escalator, guess who I met.

Esther.

After much conversation, I ended up riding on the NE line for my first time, going all the way to Boon Keng to pick up something. We ate there (because I was hungry) and then went home.

So then I watched TV, and then played some games (boring) and then (boring) I slept.

I'm bored.

Today I woke up to loud and irritating drilling from up and above, and it drove me nuts. I looked for games to play, tried and failed, realised I forgot to save or there was a flaw in my plan, and then I gave up. I went out for TV, and it was only satisfactory for a while.

*****

Dear readers,

Want to read about more interesting things? Help me look for a job! Or you can mail me some money. But most likely you can just pass it to me when you're free.

Good news, people!

Guess what?

Our first Singapore Idol is none other than...

TAUFIK BATISAH

Yes! Cheer! Celebrate! We have plenty of reason to do so.

I might not be doing that tomorrow.

I hope I would.