Another Monday.

School wasn't so interesting, as usual.

Except during GP, where we had our own little debate. Motion: The place for women is in the home. (or something like that)

Ivon wasn't here today, so guess who took over.

=/

I think I sound like an arrogant asshole. Well.

And as suggested my new pal here, a music change! Hope you guys like it. Go Go Naruto!

I tried the LAN thing last night.

It worked.

Anyway, today was boring, lol.

I slept for 3 hours from noon, don't know why. Just felt tired.

And then I felt like making my own icons. I made a few, yay.

I wanted to make more for the "My Computer" and "My Documents" and stuff. Alas, I don't know to change the icons. The fatal flaw of my plan.

School tomorrow again. *sigh*

Wish me luck.

Speed.

Now I have 2 computers at home.

Massive upgrade. According to my mom, now I don't have to fight with my sister for the com. Now, when did we ever fight? (I've been a sarcastic asshole a few times, but that's that)

And we linked up the coms so both could use the internet at the same time.

I just tried sending over a file a while ago. The speed was beyond my once limited apprehension. Over 5 megabytes of data zipped from one computer to another in less than a couple of seconds.

Unbelievable.

Wait patiently as I continue to marvel at the technology of LAN.

............

There. Done.

It's not as if I've never used this technology before. I remember almost ruining my life in Primary 6 hanging out at LAN gaming shops everyday after school.

Ah, the memories. Not very nice.

*****

I wanted to format my computer after burning about 5 CDs worth of data, but then I couldn't find the recovery CD anywhere. I think I lost it.

Fine. Might as well use the time scanning for adware, spyware, whatever-wares, and viruses.

Next thing I want to try?

Home LAN gaming.

Oh................ YES.

When the world closed its eyes...

He opened his arms.

*****

ROGER EBERT / December 22, 2004

You do not believe you can kill them all?

Why not? We are halfway there already.

In 1994 in Rwanda, a million members of the Tutsi tribe were killed by members of the Hutu tribe in a massacre that took place while the world looked away. "Hotel Rwanda" is not the story of that massacre. It is the story of a hotel manager who saved the lives of 1,200 people by being, essentially, a very good hotel manager.

The man is named Paul Rusesabagina, and he is played by Don Cheadle as a man of quiet, steady competence in a time of chaos. This is not the kind of man the camera silhouettes against mountaintops, but the kind of man who knows how things work in the real world, who uses his skills of bribery, flattery, apology and deception to save these lives who have come into his care.

I have known a few hotel managers fairly well, and I think if I were hiring diplomats, they would make excellent candidates. They speak several languages. They are discreet. They know how to function appropriately in different cultures. They know when a bottle of scotch will repay itself six times over. They know how to handle complaints. And they know everything that happens under their roof, from the millionaire in the penthouse to the bellboy who can get you a girl.

Paul is such a hotel manager. He is a Hutu, married to a Tutsi named Tatiana (Sophie Okonedo). He has been trained in Belgium and runs the four-star Hotel Des Milles Collines in the capital city of Kigali. He does his job very well. He understands that when a general's briefcase is taken for safekeeping, it contains bottles of good scotch when it is returned. He understands that to get the imported beer he needs, a bribe must take place. He understands that his guests are accustomed to luxury, which must be supplied even here in a tiny central African nation wedged against Tanzania, Uganda and the Congo. Do these understandings make him a bad man? Just the opposite. They make him an expert on situational ethics. The result of all the things he knows is that the hotel runs well and everyone is happy.

Then the genocide begins, suddenly, but after a long history. Rwanda's troubles began, as so many African troubles began, when European colonial powers established nations that ignored traditional tribal boundaries. Enemy tribes were forced into the same land. For years in Rwanda under the Belgians, the Tutsis ruled and killed not a few Hutu. Now the Hutus are in control, and armed troops prowl the nation, killing Tutsis.

There is a United Nations "presence" in Rwanda, represented by Col. Oliver (Nick Nolte). He sees what is happening, informs his superiors, asks for help and intervention, and is ignored. Paul Rusesabagina informs the corporate headquarters in Brussels of the growing tragedy, but the hotel in Kigali is not the chain's greatest concern. Finally it comes down to these two men acting as free-lancers to save more than a thousand lives they have somehow become responsible for.

When "Hotel Rwanda" premiered at Toronto 2004, some reviews criticized the film for focusing on Paul and the colonel, and making little effort to "depict" the genocide as a whole. But director Terry George and writer Keir Pearson have made exactly the correct decision. A film cannot be about a million murders, but it can be about how a few people respond. Paul, as it happens, is a real person, and Col. Oliver is based on one, and "Hotel Rwanda" is about what they really did. The story took shape after Pearson visited Rwanda and heard of a group of people who were saved from massacre.

Cheadle holds his performance resolutely at the human level. His character intuitively understands that only by continuing to act as a hotel manager can he achieve anything. His hotel is hardly functioning, the economy has broken down, the country is ruled by anarchy, but he puts on his suit and tie every morning and fakes business as usual -- even on a day he is so frightened, he cannot tie his tie.

He deals with a murderous Hutu general, for example, not as an enemy or an outlaw, but as a longtime client who knows that the value of a good cigar cannot be measured in cash. Paul has trained powerful people in Kigali to consider the Hotel Des Milles Collines an oasis of sophistication and decorum, and now he pretends that is still the case. It isn't, but it works as a strategy because it cues a different kind of behavior; a man who has yesterday directed a mass murder might today want to show that he knows how to behave appropriately in the hotel lobby.

Nolte's performance is also in a precise key. He came to Rwanda as a peacekeeper, and now there is no peace to keep. The nations are united in their indifference toward Rwanda. In real life, Nolte's bad-boy headlines distract from his acting gifts; here his character is steady, wise, cynical and a master of the possible. He makes a considered choice in ignoring his orders and doing what he can do, right now, right here, to save lives.

How the 1,200 people come to be "guests" in the hotel is a chance of war. Some turn left, some right, some live, some die. Paul is concerned above all with his own family. As a Hutu, he is safe, but his wife is Tutsi, his children are threatened, and in any event, he is far beyond thinking in tribal terms. He has spent years storing up goodwill and now he calls in favors. He moves the bribery up another level. He hides people in his hotel. He lies. He knows how to use a little blackmail: Sooner or later, he tells a powerful general, the world will take a reckoning of what happened in Kigali, and if Paul is not alive to testify for him, who else will be believed?

This all succeeds as riveting drama. "Hotel Rwanda" is not about hotel management, but about heroism and survival. Rusesabagina rises to the challenge. The film works not because the screen is filled with meaningless special effects, formless action and vast digital armies, but because Cheadle, Nolte and the filmmakers are interested in how two men choose to function in an impossible situation. Because we sympathize with these men, we are moved by the film.

Deep movie emotions for me usually come not when the characters are sad, but when they are good.

You will see what I mean.

Felt stupid...

Yesterday, as I completed my entry, my mom came back with a blanket for me!

What's so exciting about that?

Because it looks like this:


Haha, nice. My animal. I saw another design with a lion on it and said she could buy the lion one, and then cut half from each and sew the two pieces together.

So we get Polalion.

Anyway. For those who are new to my nick, that was a brief explanation of it. It's basically Polar + Lion = Polalion. I prefer to pronounce it po-lar-lee-un. As in SingaporEAN.

So today I went to a coffeeshop outside school with Terence and Calvin for lunch, and then we split three ways.

I randomly took a bus, it was 985, and it went towards Choa Chu Kang. It took a long time before I saw anything familiar in the Choa Chu Kang/Bukit Panjang area, and then there was one stop where I could get off for a 187 trip to Woodlands, but no... I couldn't get off because my ego said "no, you should've pretended you knew in the first place".

I hate my ego.

So I ended up in Choa Chu Kang anyway, and took the MRT back to Woodlands.

Then I came back from a bus ride.

*Major Spoilers For Naruto Anime Watchers Only*

I came back and I went around Naruto forums again, looking for a possible announcement of Chapter 245 of the manga, which will take about 5 to 7 weeks after Chapter 244. There's a rumored (now proven) timeskip, so I'm looking for forward to changes in clothing, and of course any new skills and techniques taught by Jiraiya and Tsunade to Naruto and Sakura respectively.

There was some info in bits and pieces which involved Naruto's Kyuubi Kitsune and Gaara's Shukaku, about Gaara being kidnapped by Akatsuki or something. Then there's this part where Itachi was supposed to go kill Orochimaru for betraying Akatsuki, but refused and had someone else go instead.

All in all, very exciting. I heard it was long chapter.

Hey, I just got the chapter raw (as in untranslated, still in Japanese form), and it was nice.

I'll be waiting for the translated ones now.

Ciao!

Nice day... I suppose.

I think almost everyday can be summarised by the title of this entry.

And then the rest are either just plain bad, or perfect days.

Today was okay, like I said.

The lessons went on, blah blah blah, until Chinese where everyone turned sarcastic bastard mode against the teacher. No idea why, but it happened, so it kinda annoyed me.

Kinda.

After school went to this "Marketplace" for lunch with Calvin, Terence, Liang Yu, Patricia and Cheris. Ok lunch, Terence and Liang Yu were crapping all the way and me, being me, just took the job of dishing out the cold stuff.

After that we went home, and I took 961 back to Woodlands from the bus stop opposite Bukit Timah Shopping Centre with Patricia. She lives somewhere else, but she was there to meet someone.

So we got onto the bus, and we sat at the back. Before I sat down, I noticed something interesting: A lone bag on the seat in front of us. It didn't seem to belong to anyone, and after a long hesitation, I picked it up and checked its contents.

The bag belongs to one Jacob Ang, a Primary 5 student I presume, who studies in Riverside Primary. Poor guy, I thought, he's gonna get it when he gets home. He only got the books this year after streaming and now he loses it, along with some money (all $2 and some coins) and his stationery. Hope the poor kid gets it back.

After that I asked Patricia who she was meeting in Woodlands. She just gave me this wide-eyed stared, seemingly implying that I should know. Hey, would I?

Then we got off, after handing the bag to the driver, and then we split after I got caught by a person asking me to buy a charity ticket. I saw my sister with some people I know and a FSOB, and then I bought the ticket to shoo her. I rushed to get a copy of today's New Paper (no, Cal, don't frown), and then went down to get a bus home.

Ah, then I came back and slacked. I played some Flash games. Slacked some more.

Nuahed.

And then now I write this entry. I love it.

See you all.

Another quiz result...

You Are a Hunter Soul

You are driven and ambitious - totally self motivated to succeed Actively working to achieve what you want, you are skillful in many areas. You are a natural predator with strong instincts, and more than a little demanding. You are creative, energetic, and an extremely powerful force. An outdoors person, you like animals and relate to them better than people. You tend to have an explosive personality, but also a good sense of humor. People sometimes see you as arrogant or a know it all. You tend to be a bit of a loner, though you hate to be alone. Souls you are most compatible with: Seeker Soul and Peacemaker Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?

******

I found it very accurate, except maybe the first line. Any Seekers or Peacemakers out there?

Today we had PE, and it wasn't so tiring because it's basketball. After and before were just lectures, boring.

Somebody gave me attitude today.

I wanna say... If you have anything against me, say it. Don't give me all these subtle sarcasm, and then blame me for not knowing any of your pet peeves.

******

You give a different brand of humour, and you get ostracized. It's not just me, okay? One of my primary school classmates got the same treatment when we went for the reunion last year. And then, over here, the teacher gets it.

I don't know what the hell the problem is.

******

Maybe I should quit my job as class rep.

Maybe I should get a personality overhaul and not be a cheeky ass who volunteers to do everything.

Maybe I should just quit school.

Maybe I should just shut up and live with the above.

Maybe.

In addition...

The last post was brief. Too brief. I was too bored, thus the "wa la la la"s.

First day of school again after a long weekend didn't feel so good.

At least I got a seat on the bus.

Today was a pretty good day, though, with regards to the class. Today I got to know some people better. That's nice. Two Riverside guys, Guo Sheng and Kevin, and Jian Heng from, erm, I don't know what school he's in, but the four of us talked a lot about soccer.

Then there's Terence and Ivon, we spent a lot of time joking and talking during the breaks (after I ate, for the first one).

However though, there was a conflict. No names in bad stuff sorry. Guy #1 was talking a lot at the back with his group. So the Maths teacher told him to get out and do a sum. So he was giving the teacher attitude and then Guy #2, who sat in front, was saying (joking?) about how lousy he was (mainly due to the attitude) and then Guy #1 was saying all the sarcastic stuff like "you come up and do lah" and then I don't know how it freaking ended.

After Maths was Physics, and the teacher had a habit of calling numbers instead of names (because he doesn't know them), so when he happened to call of one of Guy #2's friend, they went straight for Guy #1. (From here on I'm writing based on what I think most likely happened) The poor guy didn't even know what hit him.

I'll stop here. I need my sleep

Enjoy.

Day was boring.

Wa la la.

Huihui said she wanted to see the forehead protector and the shuriken, but she wasn't in school.

Wa la la.

Going off now.

Wa la la.

Answer away...

Today we went down to Lucky Chinatown. Me, Roy and Jiawen.

We found the place in the end, and the shop.

And we got our forehead protectors! Yes. I got the Leaf one, Roy got the Sand one. Also, I got a Shuriken and he got a Full Metal Alchemist chain and pendant.

This is what it looks like:


When I got home it was only a while before we went out for dinner.

And the day passed like that.

School tomorrow. I still have a headache to shake off.

Anyway, I'm sure some of you are dying to know the answer.

Question:
What is the purpose of the alphabet behind our Identification Numbers?

Clues given:
- It's a precaution!
- Sometimes people make mistakes.

Answer:
When we go pass the checkpoints when we enter or leave the country, our numbers would be entered by the immigration officers. However, sometimes 3's and 8's or 1's and 7's are mixed up, and the wrong number is entered. Then the alphabet comes in.

If the wrong number is entered with the alphabet, the system would reject the entry and request for re-entering.

If your number is S1234567A, all other numbers that differ by a digit, no matter which one of the 56 possible numbers, will not have the letter A at the back.

Kai1 Wu1 !!

Today was Open House Day! I went to two of them Nanyang Polytechnic and Ngee Ann Polytechnic.

I went to Nanyang first, with Ruo Ying and Hui Xin. We met Jeremy, Jason, Yu Jun, Jeffrey and Ben on their way to too. So we went together, and blah blah blah...

This is boring.

You know what's exciting? We went to the food court there for lunch, and I queued up with Jeremy at the Japanese cuisine stall. And we saw the most amazing thing.

Cosplayers. Naruto cosplayers. Two of them. One was playing Tsunade, made obvious with the Chinese character for "gamble" on the back of her shirt. Jeremy was saying how good the girl who played (I don't know who, we forgot to ask) a random girl ninja was, but I was staring at her forehead.

I saw this:


And I thought "Where did she get it?" and eventually we asked and found out about it. Yay! I wanna check it out tomorrow.

I don't know, I think I just acted cute back there. Go puke and come back.

Welcome back.

Well, if you still haven't figured out the answer to my question(see previous entry), here's another clue, and it makes the answer even more obvious:
>sometimes people make mistakes<

Anyway, good luck trying. Enjoy.

Are you pondering what I'm pondering?

First of all, this post has almost nothing to do with the title. I just liked it because it reminds me of Pooh. Silly old bear.

I say "almost" because you will need to do some pondering.

Before reading further, I need you to consider this:

All of us Singaporeans know that our Identification Numbers are in this format S1234567X, where X is an alphabet (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J or Z).

We have our unique numbers already, why have the alphabet?

The question: What's the purpose of the alphabet behind our identification numbers?

******

Yesterday was the last day before the extended weekend, and my sister's birthday. And some people took the liberty of extending further by not coming to school at all. Jolly.

After school I just headed home, after browsing through the VCD rental shop and found nothing. I came back, and downloaded this week's Naruto fansub, episode 119. It was quite a disappointing episode, with some parts already shown in episode 118. And the animation and use of music were bad, too. Overall not very good. While it downloaded I went out with my parents for lunch, and they dropped me off back here after lunch and they went shopping.

I was on the com until they came back, and I watched the episode. I fell asleep on my bed after that, and woke up as my sister prepared to go out to party with her friends. I had dinner with my parents, and decided to defragment my hard drive. Took me a long time, and I fell asleep again. I managed to turn off the computer when my mom woke me up though, she was watching the VCDs again.

The only thing I could think about all day was eat and sleep. I wasn't even interested with the computer. It was all in all quite a boring day, and I just came back from dinner.

I'm thinking about using my own pics to make a skin. Any objections?

*****

Anyway, got the answer to my question yet? If you haven't, think harder!

If you need a clue, highlight the text below:
>It's a precaution!<

Enjoy! The answer will be shown on Sunday.

It bodes ill...

Last night....

Me: I don't want to go to school.

Mom: Why? Owe a teacher some homework?

Me: No, I don't feel so good.

Mom: Just sleep.

Later....

Me: Brrr... I didn't know my fan was this powerful... It's cold in here. Ah, forget about it, maybe it's the weather. It must be morning by now... (looks at handphone) It's not even midnight yet? (shivers) Man, this cold is too much. (gets off bed, goes outside, sees Mom and Sis watching VCDs) Hmm. (goes to get a glass of water, and joins them)

Mom: What's the matter? (reaches over and feels my forehead) Hmm. You're running a fever. (pauses VCD player) Come, take a couple of Panadols. (goes to kitchen, gives me two Extra tablets, washed down with water)

Me: ........

Mom: (goes to my room, takes out a blanket) Here, cover yourself with this if you're cold.

Me: Ok.

One and a half hours later...

Me: (wakes up) Now it gets hot. (takes off blanket, goes out of room for more water, saw that Mom was still watching the show, and joins her as she finishes that disc)

Mom: (feels my forehead again) You're still quite hot. Go lie down even if you don't want to sleep. You can get the CD player from your sister. (goes into Sister's room, and brings out CD player)

Me: (sets up player in room, plays a CD)

Mom: Not going to school?

Me: Hmm.

Mom: Goodnight.

*****

This morning I felt slightly better, but I needed an MC for my absence. I went out in the morning to the Polyclinic, where I spent 2 hours, getting an MC, some Panadol tablets, and a letter of referral to the Skin Centre for my scalp problem.

I got lunch to go, and ate at home, while I chatted on MSN. Many of my classmates who skipped school asked if I did too. No, I was sick.

After that, I just slacked. Really. I did nothing, and lied down on my bed. I got up when I felt like doing some computer stuff. Like updating my class contact list, and doing this.

Ephraim (one of the nice guys in my class) told me I didn't miss much in school, it was same old boring school.

My sister just came back, and guess who she met at Causeway Point:

Well, I'm not very proud of her. But still, she got to meet a celebrity (by today's standards, of course).

Gotta stop here. See you all in a while.

There's something about SD...

PE: Physical Education.

I had that this morning. It was not good. Push-up position while waiting for the slowpokes to get in line. Nearly ten minutes doing that. Not fun. After that we did running, and then some more running, then stretches and stuff.

After PE I played some basketball. By some I mean long enough to sprain a pinkie and get knocked about (even for a guy my size) a couple of times. After that I went for the break and ate something, then I went back and changed and lessons continued, blah blah blah.

We took half an hour to finally set off from school, and ended up in town again. We went to Heeren at first, and the girls took a Neoprint. Then we went to Cineleisure for some food at the Long John Silvers there.

The first thing I noticed was this:


Those are pigeons, by the way, picking up scraps from the plates. They ate and then I couldn't resist the temptation and ate too. Pft, well.

After that we went up, and took a Neoprint.


I know, I look silly.

After that, we finally got to go home. I returned The Bourne Supremacy, and came back.

Whew, and then I had dinner and I busied myself with this entire post.

*****

Ok, to explain about the title of this entry: 05SD is my class. What about it?

It sucks.

Why? Erm, I don't know, maybe because there're a bunch of selfish, immatured, sarcastic bastards.

Am I in position to tell them off then? Maybe. Perhaps.

Guy #1: He's just great. First he pretends to be a friend, and then he sniggers at me all the time. Seriously, if we all knew the dates just like that, there wouldn't be a need for calendars.

Guy #2: He's got this sick laughter I hate, and his behaviour in class is the worst.

Girl #1: Reminds me of some other girl in my Sec 3/4 class. Ultimate critic, and doesn't even want to make it her way.

Girl #2/3: I don't know about them, but they're kinda similar to Guy #1.

Call me sensitive, paranoid, whatever.

Enjoy.

I came back early today, and rented The Bourne Supremacy! Yes. Part two of the great story of Jason Bourne. It was great, although the chase scenes tend to make people go giddy (anybody remembers Blair Witch?).

My sister came back with stuff from Mr. Wong. I won't tell you guys what it is, but it's got to do with the class.

We went out dinner to celebrate my sister's birthday! But it's not today, it's on the 20th, but we weren't gonna be free that day so we moved it up to today!

Nice dinner, with probably the best soup I've ever had.

And then we came back. Yeh! Now I'm blogging, and slacking, and considering whether I want to do my homework or not.

Various Quizilla results

Indulgence is not a bad word as far as you're concerned, your confidence in being yourself is what matters more than all that.The most loyal of friends and always good fun to be around, everyone needs someone like you in their life.

Which Pooh character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla


Morpheus

?? Which Of The Greek Gods Are You ??
brought to you by Quizilla


Your Heart is Red

What Color is Your Heart?
brought to you by Quizilla


Compassion: Compassion is your prime instinct. You have a truly beautiful soul, it belongs to Heaven. It makes you sad to see how life became
so cruel, but you always hope that the best will happen. Don't stop being yourself, cuz your friends need you.Your Evanescence song is >>>> Forgive me
What is your prime instinct?
brought to you by Quizilla

I've been curious lately (all of the last ten minutes), whether some typos were done in purpose. Especially all the "haha" typos that become "ahha" or "ahah" or "gaga" or a combination of both types and become "agag".

I have too much stuff to do. Homework, class stuff (05SD) and the class mag (4e1) among other stuff.

I am so. Hosed. Well, who can say anything anyway? I'm off to do my stuff now.

This is about yesterday. And then today.

I fell asleep last night, because I was too tired. So I'm only blogging about yesterday now.

Lessons went off earlier because it was Friday, and we all met up after my class comm meeting with the teacher. All of us met, and went off to Lido together.

I had mentioned that I was deeply against horror movies, so no London Voodoo for me. So ok, we agreed on The Aviator, that's fine.

In the end, it turned out to be a movie a lot of people didn't like, so...

After that we walked around, and walked around a lot, and people started leaving. Then in the end I was alone on the way home from Orchard.

I returned the Bourne Identity, and went home. After dinner and some TV, I was waiting to use the com at around 10 plus until I fell asleep. Really.

And then this morning I woke up at 9, after getting up like twice to go to the toilet.

The day was mainly nice, boring, and peaceful. We went out to Woodgrove to get some stuff for dinner, and came back. Adi SMSed me all of a sudden and told me he couldn't get tickets for the Tiger Cup Finals after all.

That's bad, but whatever. I can watch it live at home.

After dinner I watched some soccer, and then now I'm blogging after linking some of my new friends.

Enjoy.

No Desription Available. Pending...

Today we started our first day of lectures without going to the LTs, and stayed in the classroom throughout the day.

I had needed to take attendance for every period, that's very troublesome.

Well, after school I went back straight, after renting "The Bourne Identity". Came back, watched it while downloading Naruto episode 118, and ANBU's episode 116-117.

So after watching it, I had dinner. After dinner I watched 118. Nice episode.

Then I did the contact list. Did it in a jiffy, and printed a copy out. Not bad.

Now I want to sleep. Bye.

A day worth mentioning... Maybe.

Ok, I'm gonna have to make this a quick one.

The day was fine and all.

Lectures and stuff. During Home period we selected our Class Comm.

No prizes for guessing who the Supreme Chancellor is. Well, they call it the Class Rep. there, but whatever. Asst. Class Rep.'s an RV guy who lives at the Woodgrove condo. Treasurer's this guy I barely know, but seems friendly. Env. Reps are two cute girls, one from Fajar and one from... I forgot her school name, it's so long. And the PE rep.'s this guy who looks Malay but is a Chinese. Maybe he's a Paranakan. Maybe.

Went back to Woodlands after school and had some BK for lunch. After that I went to WGS to see some people, and to drink the ice tea.

There was basketball and netball training, and I went around, watching both. I stayed there for like 2 hours just watching and ocassionally running around abit, and then went home.

I'm like running out of sleep time here. Good night, people.

Wish me luck.

If you can see me raise your hand...

I remembered about titles. Post titles say alot of themselves, in case you wondered. It's like the soul. The post itself is the flesh and bones.

Weird analogy, weird, but logical.

Our first official PE lesson today. I can only wish it was less torturing. I'm very thankful for the teacher for not catching me doing what he said not to do (or risk more of these, etc) and let the whole thing flow very smoothly. Overall I would say it was okay.

Today I decided to not go out with my new friends (pool again? I'd rather not), and had some fun with an old friend.

I met Joseph at Bukit Batok MRT Station after school, and went back to Woodlands together. I changed back into my class T-shirt (which I wore for PE, and it stank), and went for some LAN gaming. He's treating because he works, and he has money.

And then we came out and went around, and he met up with his mom and her friends, and I went home. Should've stayed longer. Not going to tell you why.

Well. I guess the day was nice. Praised by the Physics lecturer a couple of times because I muttered some stuff some people generally knew but had shut up about.

And Naruto rocks. You should watch it some time. Or you can read the manga. Really.

Today was, I could say, the most boring fun day I've ever had.

How so? Well, I have no idea.

I have a really nice song to share. It's The Moffatts' "Miss You Like Crazy".
-------
I used to call you my girl,
I used to call you my friend,
I used to call you the love,
The love that I never had.

* When I think of you,
I don't know what to do,
When will I see you again...

(Chorus)
I miss you like crazy,
Ever more than words can say,
I miss you like crazy,
Every minute of every day.
Girl, I'm so down,
When your love's not around,
I miss you...
Miss you...
Miss you...
Miss you like crazy. *

You are all that I want,
You are all that I need,
Can't you see how I feel,
Can't you see my pain's so real?

(*)

(Chorus)

I miss you like crazy. (x5)
--------

Isn't it nice? Well, I went out again. With my OG people. Fun people. Really fun people. Unfortunately, parents don't appreciate such fun. Better not go out so often.

We basically hung out. Nothing much. Fun as a group. Funny, I've never tried that. Ever.

Maybe I want to try it more.

Hey, everyone, I've finally set for a simple midi on my blog. It's titled "Hokage's Funeral", first heard at the 3rd's funeral. It's actually Naruto's Main Theme slowed down, in piano, to give it a sad feeling. Nice.

First week of Pre-U life... Let's just say if every week was going to be like this I'd only be too happy.

Well, we had the national minute of slience today at 6 PM, and I was relatively quiet, reading The Sunday Times in the living room.

Like I said before, I'm not going to keep thinking and saying about how sad the whole disaster is. It's been very bad to a lot of people, I aknowledge that, and that's all.

Okay! Day 5 was great. Definitely. First of all, I've gotta stop numbering my days.

Ok. The morning was supposed to start with PE, so everyone went to the courts and sat on the stone steps. Then the PE teacher came and told us we should have gone to the hall. It was so many people.

We had a PE lecture. Strange, but true, and not uncommon for a first lesson.

After PE was Physics, and we went back to the ultiamte bore of Chapter 1, about units, measures and other stuff. Seriously sucks.

After that was break, and I went down. I tried cutting pass the crowd by the side, and got scratched by the plants with thorns. It hurt, but I wasn't bleeding. Great.

I went to get food, waited for my friends, and ate together. As I finished I felt an itch from my arm. I looked at it and just forwned. The scratches eventually bled and had scarred already. That fast.

So now I have scars on my right arm. Not that it bothers me, but in case anyone thinks I was a sadistic bastard...

After the break was Econs all the way, and the quiz was fun. We're having a test next week! That's so bad.

After school I met up with the guys eventually, and set off on bus 77 to town. We caught a movie, and talked as we walked as Hui Hui shopped. And then we found out Alex has the same birthday as me! We were grouped by our birthdays, so all of us were either June or December babies, except Daryl, whose birthday is at the end of November.

We had Mac for dinner, and we separated. End of story. But it was fun, though, really nice.

Day 4 in school was short.

We were into the lecture stage already, and started the day with GP, then Econs, then a break. After break was MT, and then Physics.

All of them were in the introductory stage, so there's nothing to talk about except I was doodling Naruto related stuff all over the paper.

After school, I went to Woodlands, and decided to go back to Woodgrove.

And all you other people who hasn't been there for as long as I did, you really should go check it out.

I was mostly greeted with "come back for what?" and I was busy explaining the whole idea to the people.

I saw some teachers, my ELDDS juniors, some friends, Mr. Chang, Mr. Chua, Ms. Judith, Mr. Ivan Lee, Mr. Wong, Ms Ang, and the canteen aunties.

I went to check out the orientation programme they had for the Sec 1s, and it was a concert. There was Band, CO and Choir. Then ELDDS had a short presentation.

I went to the library for a while. You can wear your shoes in now...

The new Sec 3s look so much different. The white blouse, the long pants...

I had fun. But the changes in the school... You should see it for yourself.

Check back tomorrow for Day 5.

Orientation is over, thank you very much, I can't stand anymore of all these anymore.

Day 3 went better, I suppose, but not as tiring.

We started with the mascot preparations, and got our favourite local small St. Pat's guy, Daryl, to have his face be the canvas while the girls painted.

We got a short break, and this time I sat with the people in my OG, and went up.

I've forgotten the order of events. Let me think...

A small group of us behind were showing each other card tricks, and then went down for the telematch, which was about transporting water. And then we went up to the hall after lunch and had the prize presentation ceremony for different categories. Ours didn't win any, but I don't care. It doesn't look big enough to share among an entire OG (there were 30 OGs and about 1057 people in total, average 35 people in one).

After that the Student Council danced for us, and then our own OGLs went up as this year's council, and performed an introductary skit like the original SC did on the first day.

Then we went down to take a group photo before leaving.

Well. It went well.

*****

Day 1

Highlights: First day of school, knew a few people, came up with everything except the cheer, didn't have company for lunch, learnt the MI dance, unfortunate encounter of Evergreen man-b****.

Rating: 7.5/10

Day 2

Highlights: Second day, got a little tired. Transport was smooth, finalised the cheer, took on the Ligo raisin identity, handed in subject combo forms, didn't have company for lunch, didn't have dance partner for continuation of the learning of the MI dance.

Rating: 5/10

Day 3

Highlights: third day, a little less tired as body started to get used to it. Mascot, Telematch, lunch with company this time, had fun in the hall, took group photo.

Rating: 8/10

*****

Overall rating of orientation period: 6.8/10 - Good, but not great.

Fact: The train to Bukit Batok this morning had plenty of seats.

Fact: I was practically first on queue for the first bus.

Fact: The queue in the canteen during recess was short, and there were nobody who was going to buy food for her two hundred and seventy-five friends.

Fact: The train back to Woodlands just now had some seats, one of which was mine.

Fact: The bus home from Woodlands Interchange was practically empty.

I had a bad day.

Why? I don't know if I should say it. I mean, I've said stuff about whiners, so I think I shouldn't complain. And look above, it's all good. So technically I should have had a good day, right? Well, maybe. Nah, I don't want to talk about it.

I don't think it'll do any good even if I told the whole world that I ran the most in the group and found nothing in the treasure hunt.

I mean, why tell people that I was still alone for lunch on the second day? To gain sympathy?

And so what if I had no dance partner even when there were more girls than guys? It wasn't just me.

So be content with "I had a bad day". Don't ask me why. I don't want to say.

First day of school.

And I thought I was out of this. *sigh*

First thing that happened in the morning, where nobody knew nobody (okay, I knew nobody, everybody else had friends to go with them) and the student coucnil put a skit about orientation and stuff.

Have I mentioned that we were seperated into Orientation Groups, or OGs? I'm in OG 17. After a talk from the principal Mrs Ong with a comment I love so much because it sounds so Naruto-ish, the scary discipline master Ivan Lim (why do all of the names sound so familiar?) went through the rules (or what he prefers to call 'guidelines') and punishments for breaking those rules.

After which we went up to a classroom, where we were supposed to do icebreaker activities. We sat in a circle and gave our names, secondary schools and CCAs. There were a few from band, about half a dozen from uniformed groups, a few from sports, and a couple from choir. But almost everyone was from a different school.

I got to knew a few guys and girls, but couldn't really get their names because I couldn't hear them when they introduced themselves, and I forgot to ask.

We played some games (ask me if you want details, I'm lazy to type everything out), and then went down for lunch after we decided on the OG name(I came up with it, and nobody had better ideas), Ligo. The rationale was OG17 upside down. '7' became 'L'. '1' is 'i'. 'G' became 'g'. And 'O' was 'o'.

After lunch we went up to the hall for the subject talks. Long, informative, but long. I swear I must have felt my legs go numb twice.

After all the talks we went back to the classroom again, and this time we had to continue to come up with an OG cheer, and an OG identity, something to identify other OG17 people. Me, this guy called Alex and a girl (who was in basketball, apparently) came up with the cheer after much discussion, and the identity was suggested by me again, to use the actual 'Ligo' logo from the raisin brand.

We chose a male and a female 'in-charge', and practiced the cheer a few more times before going down to the hall again.

All the guys lined up in single file, with a line of girls beside them, then a line of guys, a line of girls, so on, and it was done for a purpose.

A dance. And not just any dance, it was like a chacha remix.

I had the opportunity to learn the dance with this Bedok View girl beside me, and I got the first two parts pretty quickly, but always got confused at the 3rd part. She forgets to turn in the 4th part.

It was fun, and we stopped at the 4th part. We got to go home, after another reminder to sign our forms tomorrow. I went out to the Bus 77 stop, and waited for nearly 15 minutes before the bus came.

I got the New Paper at the Bukit Batok MRT station, and came back to Woodlands on the MRT. On the way this Evergreen *spit* guy was talking to this SCGS girl, and no, it wasn't just talking.

They were bitching about everything that happened in the school. I cursed the guy under my breath, because he reminded me of Mr. Wong because of how he looks, and Mr. Wong is not a bitcher.

So I came back on another bus, all tired, took a shower and remembered I had to share my wonderful experiences with all of you.

I'll come back with Orientation Day 2. Bye!

Pearlyn, go back to my old post where I talked about Half-Life 2's crappy ending. The one with the big blank.

The second day of the year, and it was great. We had an early celebration for my grandfather over here, and had everyone over while my parents busied in the kitchen.

We had a lot of food, and that was nice and all, but sometimes it's too much.

School life restarts for me, at the institute. I'll report back on any ambushes that might have been planned by the senior. I'll try to avoid all of them, if any, and then, brag about it and get hit by the final blow.

Here's something from Naruto.

***

"Why do people risk their lives for others?"

"When one person dies... He disappears. Along with his past, current lifestyle, and his future. Many people die in missions and wars. They die easily and in surprisingly simple ways. Those who die have goals and dreams. But everyone has something as important as those. Parents, siblings, friends, lovers... People who are important to you. They trust and help each other. The bond between the people important to you since birth... And the string that binds them becomes thicker and stronger as time goes by. It's beyond reason. Those bound to you by that string would do that. Because it's important."

***

To be honest about the tsunami disaster, I'm not affected by it. I'll be surprised every time the number of confirmed casualties go up, but I'm going to tell everyone how sad I am, because I'm not. I had fun during New Years' Eve. That's it. I'm not going to be sad and depressed about it, because the last thing you want now is the whole world to start mourning on their asses.

So organisations like the Red Cross are going out to get donations to help these affected people, and I'll be glad to help out. So if you are seriously in empathy toward the affected people, do something about it. Or you can start behaving positively so people can get on with their lives.

Catch you all tomorrow.

If there's any word to describe Orchard Road in its last night of 2004: Slippery.

Probably thousands of cans of foam sprays (presumably leftovers from Christmas) were sold, confiscated (illegal vendors) and especially, used in the countdown activites along the road that lasted nearly four hours.

To be honest, our bunch weren't in the best of moods when we reached New Year. We were searching for the Cineleisure complex frantically, blocked and assaulted (by foam) by several mobs of people.

Let's begin from the start of the day, shall we?

I woke up around 10, from a call from Krishanth, saying he couldn't come because the weather was simply too bad. I fell asleep again, woke up two hours later and prepared to go out. I ate something and left my place and reached the MRT station at 2.10, the designated time.

I met Christel, and then waited for Catherine. They got some food, and we left for Pasir Ris on the MRT. When we switched trains at City Hall and got to Bugis, we found out Asri was also at Bugis. They went "okay..." and then spotted him in the next train car.

We continued together, to Pasir Ris, and took a bus toward our original intended destination, Escape Theme Park. Why 'original'? Because it was still raining every other half hour and stopping and raining again so we decided Escape was simply not the way to go.

Where then? Escape's cousin, Wild Wild Wet. I had to get a pair of pants because I didn't bring extra clothes. We had fun there, and it tired me out. Seriously.

By the time we left, it was 7.45, and Christel had to reach church by 8.15. We made it anyway on taxi, and we took a short ride home. I came back and took a shower, rested and went out about another hour later, to meet Kaiyun and Wanshi to meet Joseph and Esther at Orchard. Joseph took us from the MRT station to Paragon, where Esther was working.

We bought drinks while Esther withdrawed some money, and went for McDonald's at Shaw House when we couldn't find our way to Cineleisure. We ordered take-out, and continued to go in wrong directions for a few more times until it happened.

We managed to find Cineleisure anyway, and went to get tickets for the show we were watching, Meet The Fockers. The next show with 5 tickets far enough from the screen was at 4.35 A.M. Not good.

We got them anyway, and went around searching for something to do. So we walked out of the complex and went towards Hyatt. We sat on the curb at the side of the hotel's lobby, and dodged each time some person sprays his friend.

Somebody got foamed by a group of people, but he didn't seem happy. And I realised, "Ah, so they're strangers". Profanities exchanged aren't meant to be here. If you wish to hear them you can ask me personally. A car emerging from the lobby was mobbed, leaving its windshield white and really messy.

We sat for a while longer before something happened. A car ran over a can in the middle of the road and "Boom!" it burst open. The next time a car went past, Joseph threw a can in its path and it barely rolled out of the wheel's way.

"Oh!" we shouted in disappointment. We tried a few more times. And a few more. Until the cans on our side were gone and we went towards the other side of the road - with more cans. We kept trying and trying and laughed when one of the drivers thought he had punctured a tyre.

Ultimately we got bored of it and got back to Cineleisure. We found a nice spot on the 5th floor and sat down. We killed time by talking, playing cards and trying to get some sleep. Note 'trying'.

We got up to the 6th floor where our theatre was around 15 minutes before show time, and waited for 10 before they let us in.

The movie was great. No other comments. Asssss. Hoh!

When we got out from the movie we walked to the nearest 7-11, and got some milk. I got this massive headache I still can't shake off, and went home on the MRT.

Took a shower, ate a tuna sandwich I made myself, and got some well deserved sleep after nearly 20 hours of activity.

The New Year adventure ends here. I hope you had as much fun as I did.