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Thursday, September 29, 2005
Wait, wait, let me try and redo the last entry. Reading back, I sound totally incoherent. That'll teach me to rush out a post.
Correction: Its 3 points for foothit, not 1 point.
Has anyone attempted to touch Promo 2002 maths? It happened that I had to do Question 15 during tuition. The result is stunning. Go look. It combines 3 of the worst possible topics (for me).
Right. Today was full of aches and pains. Leg ache, neck ache, back ache. I am definitely out of shape for fencing... So irritating. But it can't be all down to fencing anyway, cos I also had a headache. And yesterday I didn't get hit on the head at all at FM. Somemore a most persistent headache. Sleeping in the evening doesn't seem to have done much, but a hefty (but safe) dose of panadol seems to have numbed it a little.
So little work done today cos of this... Don't tell me GP really has such long lasting effects.
Anyway a few more pictures... predominantly of my cats, but there are a few others too..
The new tree houses in VJ. Interesting, and surprisingly water-tight too... I guess it also serves as a precaution in case the reclaimed land we're on suddenly to sink... It gives a nice view too... of the boundary fence.
The anti-dengue efforts in VJ.
How many cats are there in this picture? Look carefully... such is their placement that you could draw a best fit line through them..
I was getting ready to go fencing yesterday when I realised that I didn't have my epee wire... I ran back into the house to get it and in the 30 seconds I was gone, Kit came and plonked himself on top of blade. Lazy feller.
Thats where he should be actually. In the box. He seems a little peeved that I moved him.
Another shot of Kit and Tybalt on the bench.
Are you blind when you're born?
Can you see in the dark?
Can you look at a king, would you sit on his throne?
Can you say that your bite is worst than your bark?
Are you cock of the hop when you're walking alone?
When you fall on your head, do you land on your feet?
Are you tense when you sense theres a storm in the air?
Can you find your way blind when you're lost in the street?
-[extract] Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats
"Cats" the musical.
Nice song. I like the description... heh. Maybe next time I'll post about the superiority of cats... then I'll run away from ChuaH... x)
Correction: Its 3 points for foothit, not 1 point.
Has anyone attempted to touch Promo 2002 maths? It happened that I had to do Question 15 during tuition. The result is stunning. Go look. It combines 3 of the worst possible topics (for me).
Right. Today was full of aches and pains. Leg ache, neck ache, back ache. I am definitely out of shape for fencing... So irritating. But it can't be all down to fencing anyway, cos I also had a headache. And yesterday I didn't get hit on the head at all at FM. Somemore a most persistent headache. Sleeping in the evening doesn't seem to have done much, but a hefty (but safe) dose of panadol seems to have numbed it a little.
So little work done today cos of this... Don't tell me GP really has such long lasting effects.
Anyway a few more pictures... predominantly of my cats, but there are a few others too..
The new tree houses in VJ. Interesting, and surprisingly water-tight too... I guess it also serves as a precaution in case the reclaimed land we're on suddenly to sink... It gives a nice view too... of the boundary fence.
The anti-dengue efforts in VJ.
How many cats are there in this picture? Look carefully... such is their placement that you could draw a best fit line through them..
I was getting ready to go fencing yesterday when I realised that I didn't have my epee wire... I ran back into the house to get it and in the 30 seconds I was gone, Kit came and plonked himself on top of blade. Lazy feller.
Thats where he should be actually. In the box. He seems a little peeved that I moved him.
Another shot of Kit and Tybalt on the bench.
Are you blind when you're born?
Can you see in the dark?
Can you look at a king, would you sit on his throne?
Can you say that your bite is worst than your bark?
Are you cock of the hop when you're walking alone?
When you fall on your head, do you land on your feet?
Are you tense when you sense theres a storm in the air?
Can you find your way blind when you're lost in the street?
-[extract] Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats
"Cats" the musical.
Nice song. I like the description... heh. Maybe next time I'll post about the superiority of cats... then I'll run away from ChuaH... x)
~JcZw~ at 9:44 pm
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Reassurance for a difficult day.... I recall this song from my old church's Sunday School
In God's green pastures feeding
By his cool waters lie
Soft in the evening walk my Lord and I
All the sheep of his pasture fair so wondrously fine
His sheep
And
I
CHORUS:
Waters cool
In the valley
Pastures green
On the mountain
In the evening walk my Lord and I
Dark the night
In the valley
Rough the way
On the mountain
Step by step, my Lord and I
Surely goodness and mercy ever shall follow me
All through my days the Lord my shepard be
In the house of the Lord I shall forever be
His sheep
And
I
Today was a bad day. Except a few incidents that left me smiling quite happily, today generally left me zonked and winded.
FIRST. If I HADN'T caught up on the newspapers before I came to post, I would flame someone. And I would flame so hard that he/she would not melt. Not would he/she vaporize. He/she would simply sublime. And not just from the surface outside. He/she would disappear in the blink of an eye. But honestly, such nice advice that person gave about certain aspects of my PW.
SECOND. GP was a disaster. It left me and most other people with the feeling of being rolled over by a Sherman tank. It was so CHEEM and CHEEMEFYING and CHEEMEFIED. I had absolutely no CHEEMology with which to answer this thing. Feel really worn by the paper and I won't recover in a hurry. I think I need CHEEMotherapy. Somemore we had already gotten through one CHem skill A and one paper 1. Like those weren't bad enough, this was the final nail in the coffin. If I got more than 6 out of 16 for summary and AQ put together I'll be happy. Thats how bad it was. I was totally utterly incoherent.
What else happened today... oh yar, Gerry brought Victoria n I to Dayton at Paya Lebar to take a dekko at our shirts, which, hopefully, will be processed smoothly. I realised I have almost no flair for aesthetic appeal and will go for the most practical thing (whether it looks good or not). Whether thats good or bad... I guess it depends on the situation, but for appearance-conscious teens, I guess its not good...
Also went fencing today. I can't believe I can't even survive 1/2 hour of foil training! How did I do it the last time??? Not many people were there..... Beat Maurice twice (but he was fooling around) and lost to Ron from SMU. The new rules are interesting.... 2 points for hand hits and 1 point for foot hit....
I only did two good fleches and 1 good close quarter.... die man. How to win novices??
ANw its totally been a long day (only got back at 10.35 and ate both lunch AND dinner).. I'm for bed.. good night!
In God's green pastures feeding
By his cool waters lie
Soft in the evening walk my Lord and I
All the sheep of his pasture fair so wondrously fine
His sheep
And
I
CHORUS:
Waters cool
In the valley
Pastures green
On the mountain
In the evening walk my Lord and I
Dark the night
In the valley
Rough the way
On the mountain
Step by step, my Lord and I
Surely goodness and mercy ever shall follow me
All through my days the Lord my shepard be
In the house of the Lord I shall forever be
His sheep
And
I
Today was a bad day. Except a few incidents that left me smiling quite happily, today generally left me zonked and winded.
FIRST. If I HADN'T caught up on the newspapers before I came to post, I would flame someone. And I would flame so hard that he/she would not melt. Not would he/she vaporize. He/she would simply sublime. And not just from the surface outside. He/she would disappear in the blink of an eye. But honestly, such nice advice that person gave about certain aspects of my PW.
SECOND. GP was a disaster. It left me and most other people with the feeling of being rolled over by a Sherman tank. It was so CHEEM and CHEEMEFYING and CHEEMEFIED. I had absolutely no CHEEMology with which to answer this thing. Feel really worn by the paper and I won't recover in a hurry. I think I need CHEEMotherapy. Somemore we had already gotten through one CHem skill A and one paper 1. Like those weren't bad enough, this was the final nail in the coffin. If I got more than 6 out of 16 for summary and AQ put together I'll be happy. Thats how bad it was. I was totally utterly incoherent.
What else happened today... oh yar, Gerry brought Victoria n I to Dayton at Paya Lebar to take a dekko at our shirts, which, hopefully, will be processed smoothly. I realised I have almost no flair for aesthetic appeal and will go for the most practical thing (whether it looks good or not). Whether thats good or bad... I guess it depends on the situation, but for appearance-conscious teens, I guess its not good...
Also went fencing today. I can't believe I can't even survive 1/2 hour of foil training! How did I do it the last time??? Not many people were there..... Beat Maurice twice (but he was fooling around) and lost to Ron from SMU. The new rules are interesting.... 2 points for hand hits and 1 point for foot hit....
I only did two good fleches and 1 good close quarter.... die man. How to win novices??
ANw its totally been a long day (only got back at 10.35 and ate both lunch AND dinner).. I'm for bed.. good night!
~JcZw~ at 11:42 pm
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Pictures today. I don't feel inclined to study chem. If you're not compelled to read the post, you can scroll down and look at pics.
_____________________________________________________________________
Imagine you got hit on the head.
With an epee
Without your mask.
Thats what it felt like to me after I completed two SPAs in a row today. I admit that for an instant I regretted being an S1.
Sure there was an adrenaline rush for Bio Skill A in the morning, but by the time Physics CD came I was mentally worn and I couldn't remember any of the errors... in the end just made up my own phrases and blah.
Oh yar. I also didn't blend my potato. Mr Chong will throw a blue fit if he hears about it. Happily the disaster that I'd contemplated (Refer to 13th May 2005) did not materialize. Thank God.
So. The hot weather has been done much good, except to denature the proteins in my brain. It is definitely over 40 deg. C. Or maybe not.
These few days, happily, my load to carry to school is much reduced. In fact, I was contemplating cycling to school today, after all, it was early, supposedly cool, and no one would be at the traffic light to laugh at my helmet. But when I stepped out of the room, the blast of hot air nearly suffocated me. I decided against it.
It did rain last night. I was doing my bio when suddenly my cat came running through the house. I was wondering if he wanted to listen to the "Cats" musical which I was (and am) playing on my computer. But the thunderclap told me otherwise. Cats don't appreciate music. I know cos i've tried to let my cat listen to "Eat It", "American Pie", and so on besides others. The only effect was for them to turn 180 deg and go back to sleep with their tails to me.
This morning I was just talking to Kit when I put on my shoes. I told him how lucky he was that he didn't have SPA, he didn't have to go to school. He just had to sit and wait for the food to come to him. If he was bored he could go climb a tree or something. Lucky guy.
Right. The pictures then. First up, the pictures from the "Suicidal Magnetic Penguins", the videos of which has been shown to more than one person.
"Its going to be okay! Don't..."
"...Jump"
This part of the "you're driving me up the wall" video I didn't capture too well.... But oh well, it was funny anyway.
____________________________________________________________________
The fierce feline predator
Tybalt and Kit who were waiting for me when I came home =)
"Black and Orange stray cats sitting on the fence" - Stray Cats' Strut, by the Stray Cats
____________________________________________________________________
My blue epee. If I say so myself, this was a well taken picture, cos it didn't capture the remainder of the room (which looked as if a paper mill had exploded... there were bio notes flying everywhere).
Yup thats it for now then...
Happy Birthday Dawn!
_____________________________________________________________________
Imagine you got hit on the head.
With an epee
Without your mask.
Thats what it felt like to me after I completed two SPAs in a row today. I admit that for an instant I regretted being an S1.
Sure there was an adrenaline rush for Bio Skill A in the morning, but by the time Physics CD came I was mentally worn and I couldn't remember any of the errors... in the end just made up my own phrases and blah.
Oh yar. I also didn't blend my potato. Mr Chong will throw a blue fit if he hears about it. Happily the disaster that I'd contemplated (Refer to 13th May 2005) did not materialize. Thank God.
So. The hot weather has been done much good, except to denature the proteins in my brain. It is definitely over 40 deg. C. Or maybe not.
These few days, happily, my load to carry to school is much reduced. In fact, I was contemplating cycling to school today, after all, it was early, supposedly cool, and no one would be at the traffic light to laugh at my helmet. But when I stepped out of the room, the blast of hot air nearly suffocated me. I decided against it.
It did rain last night. I was doing my bio when suddenly my cat came running through the house. I was wondering if he wanted to listen to the "Cats" musical which I was (and am) playing on my computer. But the thunderclap told me otherwise. Cats don't appreciate music. I know cos i've tried to let my cat listen to "Eat It", "American Pie", and so on besides others. The only effect was for them to turn 180 deg and go back to sleep with their tails to me.
This morning I was just talking to Kit when I put on my shoes. I told him how lucky he was that he didn't have SPA, he didn't have to go to school. He just had to sit and wait for the food to come to him. If he was bored he could go climb a tree or something. Lucky guy.
Right. The pictures then. First up, the pictures from the "Suicidal Magnetic Penguins", the videos of which has been shown to more than one person.
"Its going to be okay! Don't..."
"...Jump"
This part of the "you're driving me up the wall" video I didn't capture too well.... But oh well, it was funny anyway.
____________________________________________________________________
The fierce feline predator
Tybalt and Kit who were waiting for me when I came home =)
"Black and Orange stray cats sitting on the fence" - Stray Cats' Strut, by the Stray Cats
____________________________________________________________________
My blue epee. If I say so myself, this was a well taken picture, cos it didn't capture the remainder of the room (which looked as if a paper mill had exploded... there were bio notes flying everywhere).
Yup thats it for now then...
Happy Birthday Dawn!
~JcZw~ at 3:22 pm
Sunday, September 25, 2005
Hmm I guess the situation is almost the same with everyone whom I've asked, exception being a few individuals in the class:
Everyone seems to want to just get promos over and done with, and not really caring how they do. Not really true lar, I'm sure everyone wants to do well, but the value of promos, to me, simply pales in comparision with the AO Chinese paper and PW. But if there's one thing I dread, its getting retain. That would really be unbearable. I wouldn't mind one more year in VJ, but I would hate one more year with people whom I dunno while everyone else goes further up. And if I fail my Chinese again, I'm NOT going to retake. It'll be done, finished, fertig, finito.
There's so little time to do your own stuff now. And there are so many things piling up. I'm beginning to appreciate lunch and dinner more cos at least I can read other things besides my notes. For goodness sake, its been about 7 months and I'm still blur about Kinetic Theory! Although I'm beginning to make headway in Thermodynamics.
Just now I was reading The Lord of the Rings during dinner, and after I finished, to maximise my leisure time I walked to the sink holding the plate in one hand and reading the book which was in the other.
I found out to my cost that its not smart to do that when you live in a house with 4 cats. Kit (the brown and white one) intercepted my foot while I crossed the doormat to the kitchen and nearly sent me flying. He, of course, flew in the opposite direction, to avoide a falling volume of LOTR.
But a few happy things happened to take my mind off the stress. First, the shirt design was approved by Mr Tan. After Victoria and I loitered outside the General Office for 5 min wondering how phrase our sentences, we went in and managed to get the request out. It was simpler than we thought, wahaha.
Second, several of my prayers for myself as well as for other people have been answered, thank God. Yup, thats a good thing... haha... Today's church service was good too... Someone prayed for me to have more wisdom and discernment (however you spell it) when treating other people, something which I sorely need. It came at a time of my life when I was feeling sorely let down by my need for visual signs from other people before I can tell whether they're happy or not. Most other people, it seems can just tell simply at a glance.
There are still many questions about personality, the way one treats others blahblah which I still need to find out for myself. But we'll settle SPA first yar.
Happy belated birthday, Tintin!
Happy early birthday, Alon!
Everyone seems to want to just get promos over and done with, and not really caring how they do. Not really true lar, I'm sure everyone wants to do well, but the value of promos, to me, simply pales in comparision with the AO Chinese paper and PW. But if there's one thing I dread, its getting retain. That would really be unbearable. I wouldn't mind one more year in VJ, but I would hate one more year with people whom I dunno while everyone else goes further up. And if I fail my Chinese again, I'm NOT going to retake. It'll be done, finished, fertig, finito.
There's so little time to do your own stuff now. And there are so many things piling up. I'm beginning to appreciate lunch and dinner more cos at least I can read other things besides my notes. For goodness sake, its been about 7 months and I'm still blur about Kinetic Theory! Although I'm beginning to make headway in Thermodynamics.
Just now I was reading The Lord of the Rings during dinner, and after I finished, to maximise my leisure time I walked to the sink holding the plate in one hand and reading the book which was in the other.
I found out to my cost that its not smart to do that when you live in a house with 4 cats. Kit (the brown and white one) intercepted my foot while I crossed the doormat to the kitchen and nearly sent me flying. He, of course, flew in the opposite direction, to avoide a falling volume of LOTR.
But a few happy things happened to take my mind off the stress. First, the shirt design was approved by Mr Tan. After Victoria and I loitered outside the General Office for 5 min wondering how phrase our sentences, we went in and managed to get the request out. It was simpler than we thought, wahaha.
Second, several of my prayers for myself as well as for other people have been answered, thank God. Yup, thats a good thing... haha... Today's church service was good too... Someone prayed for me to have more wisdom and discernment (however you spell it) when treating other people, something which I sorely need. It came at a time of my life when I was feeling sorely let down by my need for visual signs from other people before I can tell whether they're happy or not. Most other people, it seems can just tell simply at a glance.
There are still many questions about personality, the way one treats others blahblah which I still need to find out for myself. But we'll settle SPA first yar.
Happy belated birthday, Tintin!
Happy early birthday, Alon!
~JcZw~ at 7:39 pm
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Its been a tough week... sorting out work, obsessive compulsions to slack, as well as analysing my own actions and making sure I don't annoy people accidentally (sometimes I annoy people deliberately), which, in certain cases, I can hardly be called successful.
The school did it again. Mrs Chan told me that if our money problem continued to be bad, she would shut down the club next year and leave me, daniel and maurice to carry on privately. Which again proves that although she's nice enough, she's, at the end of the day, still a teacher-teacher, not a cca-teacher. The good thing is that we've been threatened with closure so many times its becoming normal already.
We've been struggling to get our armband and shirt out by open house... Thanks Gerry for all the details on the procedure =) The school is great man... at this point of time when we're undertaking this project they conveniently REMEMBERED that we were a sport so we have to go to the PE Dept for approval of our shirt. If in January next year they "forget" that the Novices is a sports competition.... ah well, whats the point worrying anyway.
OGL application came out on tuesday. After a lot of deliberation, I decided not to apply cos Novices is in January and what with Zone-Comp training for St. John and the training camp for fencing I'll be swamped. Not to mention being an OGL and planning CCA walkabout at the start of the year. No, I'd rather train and attempt to give VJ a fighting chance in foil next year (and epee also I guess). After all, who knows, unless we get some guy from SJI next year, I'll be the only foilist for dunno how long. I'll content with being a first aider during orientation..
___________________________________________________________________
Anyway, with all the unhappy stuff out of the way, I need to find a few things to be happy about... here they are:
1. My leg is healing well. I can now do a balestra-lunge without much pain. Been practising disengages with my epee in front of my mirror too, trying to get the point to describe the full circle. That day went down to FM to discuss open house things with coach. He was training Maurice, who is now going to be a terror to fence, he's so fast since I've last seen him. The thing about this guy is that not only is he fast and his arm wayy long, but he's also very calm during bouts and is generally emotionless, an invaluable asset. I'll soon be able to continue, maybe next week (if I really find myself in a sore need for a break) or after promos =)
2. My PW group. I admit I had doubts with how well I could work with my PW group when the groupings were announced. But PW has built up better relationships with them. I'm blessed to have a relatively peaceful and happy group who's members are generally quite sacrificial (xunai and her pie charts... waha XD ) Yup. As work has progressed I find that I can be more and more confident for the project, and not to worry so much. Although its quite annoying that almost all of us take chinese, which comes just before OP, but oh well, I guess we can slog through also =)
3. Teachers. In this case it should be Mr Chong, who has, on three occasions, stayed back after classes to help me with genetics. I CANNOT UNDERSTAND how other people can get it so fast! I always have to think a lot before I can think of what test to use, or whether something is homozygous or not. Well, at least more than the average person. Yeah, happily he had the time and patience to help me out with this yeah... haha.... If there's any subject I can do well in, it has to be Bio. n it has to be partially thanks to him I guess =)
Yup, of course, thank God that he has brought such people my way. I guess sec. 1 and 2 was my learning experience huh.... haha well better I learnt it then than now.
Yup thats it... Must get to studying or I'll just die... Pray that SPA goes well tomorrow!! Nuts to Murphy
The school did it again. Mrs Chan told me that if our money problem continued to be bad, she would shut down the club next year and leave me, daniel and maurice to carry on privately. Which again proves that although she's nice enough, she's, at the end of the day, still a teacher-teacher, not a cca-teacher. The good thing is that we've been threatened with closure so many times its becoming normal already.
We've been struggling to get our armband and shirt out by open house... Thanks Gerry for all the details on the procedure =) The school is great man... at this point of time when we're undertaking this project they conveniently REMEMBERED that we were a sport so we have to go to the PE Dept for approval of our shirt. If in January next year they "forget" that the Novices is a sports competition.... ah well, whats the point worrying anyway.
OGL application came out on tuesday. After a lot of deliberation, I decided not to apply cos Novices is in January and what with Zone-Comp training for St. John and the training camp for fencing I'll be swamped. Not to mention being an OGL and planning CCA walkabout at the start of the year. No, I'd rather train and attempt to give VJ a fighting chance in foil next year (and epee also I guess). After all, who knows, unless we get some guy from SJI next year, I'll be the only foilist for dunno how long. I'll content with being a first aider during orientation..
___________________________________________________________________
Anyway, with all the unhappy stuff out of the way, I need to find a few things to be happy about... here they are:
1. My leg is healing well. I can now do a balestra-lunge without much pain. Been practising disengages with my epee in front of my mirror too, trying to get the point to describe the full circle. That day went down to FM to discuss open house things with coach. He was training Maurice, who is now going to be a terror to fence, he's so fast since I've last seen him. The thing about this guy is that not only is he fast and his arm wayy long, but he's also very calm during bouts and is generally emotionless, an invaluable asset. I'll soon be able to continue, maybe next week (if I really find myself in a sore need for a break) or after promos =)
2. My PW group. I admit I had doubts with how well I could work with my PW group when the groupings were announced. But PW has built up better relationships with them. I'm blessed to have a relatively peaceful and happy group who's members are generally quite sacrificial (xunai and her pie charts... waha XD ) Yup. As work has progressed I find that I can be more and more confident for the project, and not to worry so much. Although its quite annoying that almost all of us take chinese, which comes just before OP, but oh well, I guess we can slog through also =)
3. Teachers. In this case it should be Mr Chong, who has, on three occasions, stayed back after classes to help me with genetics. I CANNOT UNDERSTAND how other people can get it so fast! I always have to think a lot before I can think of what test to use, or whether something is homozygous or not. Well, at least more than the average person. Yeah, happily he had the time and patience to help me out with this yeah... haha.... If there's any subject I can do well in, it has to be Bio. n it has to be partially thanks to him I guess =)
Yup, of course, thank God that he has brought such people my way. I guess sec. 1 and 2 was my learning experience huh.... haha well better I learnt it then than now.
Yup thats it... Must get to studying or I'll just die... Pray that SPA goes well tomorrow!! Nuts to Murphy
~JcZw~ at 5:10 pm
Monday, September 19, 2005
Life is a struggle. And sometimes it looks meaningless. In fact, when I'm left alone, the more I think the more I feel that sometimes life is not very worth living, just slog n slog and study study, compete compete. But no, I'm not suicidal. Cos there are still a few things that we can look forward to. Plus the fact that friends are along the way to cheer you up and stuff.
I wish I could do the same though. Is it unreasonable and unrealistic to worry about someone else then? Its something which, when out of control, can make you worry for undue reasons and irritate those around you. How does one unobtrusively show your concern for another without appearing obnoxious and kaypoh? I don't know... I've never been the high EQ type that can sense other people's feelings well, like others so easily can. Whatever it is... it appears I don't seem able to ease the other's discomfort or anything... sighz...
Chem SPA B is this friday. If I foul up again (nuts to Murphy and his law) then I don't know what I'm going to do. I CANNOT AFFORD to fail again. The fact that it was easy didn't help me the last time. May God give all of us the skills we need.
I wanted to write initially what Si Hui has written on her blog... Good entry there, I recommend people, esp SJ-ers to go n read.... =) Nice one Si Hui.
So
I'm going to do something long overdue: Post the pictures from the St. John heritage trail and a few other things:
Outside Raffles Hotel
BoonKai, our OC, who, for those observant ones, is wearing a flower behind his ear, courtesy of mdm teo
Group 3 rulez! The cadets from the group (including JunHao who evidently survived his encounter with a car travelling at high speed 90 deg to his own velocity)
W. Li Ting on the left and Adeline, outside the Registry of Marriages. The building in the background, incidentally, contains my church =)))) on the 6th floor.
Coincidentally there was the open house at the Central Fire Station. Here Jun Hao and Wang Miao innundate a concrete block.
The firefighters displayed their drill of flying down the emergenct poles for us. Pretty impressive...
Fort Canning, where the cadets had games
____________________________________________________________________
Okay. next up.
Do not progress beyond this page if you do not like to see parts of the human anatomy very close up.
Right. You asked for it. Don't sue me if you get traumatised. Haiyar you know me one... I won't put anything too scary up. Anyway Photobucket would delete my account if I did.
Anyway... Here are 7 eyeballs which I have collected. If anyone can name the owners of all 7 of them (write on the tagboard, or tell me=D ) then I'll give that person a prize.... hehe... But I seriously doubt that there is any one person who can tell me the owners of all of them
Anyway thats all for now. I'll post some time soon. Good bye, and take care!
I wish I could do the same though. Is it unreasonable and unrealistic to worry about someone else then? Its something which, when out of control, can make you worry for undue reasons and irritate those around you. How does one unobtrusively show your concern for another without appearing obnoxious and kaypoh? I don't know... I've never been the high EQ type that can sense other people's feelings well, like others so easily can. Whatever it is... it appears I don't seem able to ease the other's discomfort or anything... sighz...
Chem SPA B is this friday. If I foul up again (nuts to Murphy and his law) then I don't know what I'm going to do. I CANNOT AFFORD to fail again. The fact that it was easy didn't help me the last time. May God give all of us the skills we need.
I wanted to write initially what Si Hui has written on her blog... Good entry there, I recommend people, esp SJ-ers to go n read.... =) Nice one Si Hui.
So
I'm going to do something long overdue: Post the pictures from the St. John heritage trail and a few other things:
Outside Raffles Hotel
BoonKai, our OC, who, for those observant ones, is wearing a flower behind his ear, courtesy of mdm teo
Group 3 rulez! The cadets from the group (including JunHao who evidently survived his encounter with a car travelling at high speed 90 deg to his own velocity)
W. Li Ting on the left and Adeline, outside the Registry of Marriages. The building in the background, incidentally, contains my church =)))) on the 6th floor.
Coincidentally there was the open house at the Central Fire Station. Here Jun Hao and Wang Miao innundate a concrete block.
The firefighters displayed their drill of flying down the emergenct poles for us. Pretty impressive...
Fort Canning, where the cadets had games
____________________________________________________________________
Okay. next up.
Do not progress beyond this page if you do not like to see parts of the human anatomy very close up.
Right. You asked for it. Don't sue me if you get traumatised. Haiyar you know me one... I won't put anything too scary up. Anyway Photobucket would delete my account if I did.
Anyway... Here are 7 eyeballs which I have collected. If anyone can name the owners of all 7 of them (write on the tagboard, or tell me=D ) then I'll give that person a prize.... hehe... But I seriously doubt that there is any one person who can tell me the owners of all of them
Anyway thats all for now. I'll post some time soon. Good bye, and take care!
~JcZw~ at 5:35 pm
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Can't do a very long one now... got a nasty mess of chem, EOM and Written Report to do.
The airmen sat under their 5-man bomber as dawn broke, waiting until it was light enough. It had been a bad week. In their last mission, the aircraft endured 45 minutes of anti-aircraft fire as it proceeded through its mission. The bomber was shot up badly, even forced down short of safety, but the crew considered themselves lucky they had survived the intense trial by fire.
The last week had been spent making repairs to their aircraft. Even the night before, members of the crew had worked late into the night to get everything repaired before they could make it back into a secure area. Everything not needed was stripped out to cut down on weight, to increase their chances of making it. Crew members tweaked various parts of their craft to try and make it work more efficiently, anything to cheat the onslaught which they would inevitably encounter again on the way home. By the early hours of the morning, the captain of the aircraft pronounced everything as best as it would go. By then, most of the crew members were already asleep, preparing for the next day.
So it was that they watched the sun rise. "Give it a little longer." Come 8.40 am, the crew was ready to depart for safety when there came the drone of another aircraft. In this part of the border, it could only be an enemy aircraft. Sure enough, swinging round the clearing came another plane, bearing the wicked looking insignia of the opposition.
"Right, on with the engines and we'll be out of here"
Switches flipped on as the engines thundered into life. Everything looked so good then. But..
"Captain, she's not answering, we're still too heavy!"
"Too heavy? We just took out everything we could! What else is there that is non-essential?"
There was no time to respond. A gunner let loose one ineffectual burst from the mounted light machine which barely scratched the paint of the enemy machine before the bomber was torn apart into flames and hurtling metal by the heavy weapons systems on the fighter.
Using a bit of imagination, you will be able to see this is an analogy of what happened to my group's second draft of our Written Report. It didn't get off the ground before WSW blew it to its constituent atoms before we could mount an effective defence and told us it was still too long.
And yes, we're still wondering which non-essential part can be cut to the annexe.... Darn it, it still looked so good man...
____________________________________________________________________
Its been a hectic week... Stuff pouring in from all over... stressful to say the least. WSW was nice enough to remind my group today that we'll have less time for OP preperation cos 4 out of 5 members have chinese... Oh well... Li Ling's group is also in the same boat, so I guess I shouldn't complain too much... But it doesn't help to dispel my disillusionment with our beloved MOE. As if I could pass this Chinese paper which has nothing to study, but relies on your luck when I couldn't pass the HCL one.
And no matter how well I can do, whats to prevent them from raising the standard again? Best.
I found an interesting site which talks about character types... I got the same thing that I got when I took the test in backwoodsman, which is not surprising considering that time my traits were very distinct... It was kinda freaky, the character description seemed to understand me more than many of my friends... This website can be found here...
Anyway thats all for now... Hope everyone stays healthy as the promos approach...
The airmen sat under their 5-man bomber as dawn broke, waiting until it was light enough. It had been a bad week. In their last mission, the aircraft endured 45 minutes of anti-aircraft fire as it proceeded through its mission. The bomber was shot up badly, even forced down short of safety, but the crew considered themselves lucky they had survived the intense trial by fire.
The last week had been spent making repairs to their aircraft. Even the night before, members of the crew had worked late into the night to get everything repaired before they could make it back into a secure area. Everything not needed was stripped out to cut down on weight, to increase their chances of making it. Crew members tweaked various parts of their craft to try and make it work more efficiently, anything to cheat the onslaught which they would inevitably encounter again on the way home. By the early hours of the morning, the captain of the aircraft pronounced everything as best as it would go. By then, most of the crew members were already asleep, preparing for the next day.
So it was that they watched the sun rise. "Give it a little longer." Come 8.40 am, the crew was ready to depart for safety when there came the drone of another aircraft. In this part of the border, it could only be an enemy aircraft. Sure enough, swinging round the clearing came another plane, bearing the wicked looking insignia of the opposition.
"Right, on with the engines and we'll be out of here"
Switches flipped on as the engines thundered into life. Everything looked so good then. But..
"Captain, she's not answering, we're still too heavy!"
"Too heavy? We just took out everything we could! What else is there that is non-essential?"
There was no time to respond. A gunner let loose one ineffectual burst from the mounted light machine which barely scratched the paint of the enemy machine before the bomber was torn apart into flames and hurtling metal by the heavy weapons systems on the fighter.
Using a bit of imagination, you will be able to see this is an analogy of what happened to my group's second draft of our Written Report. It didn't get off the ground before WSW blew it to its constituent atoms before we could mount an effective defence and told us it was still too long.
And yes, we're still wondering which non-essential part can be cut to the annexe.... Darn it, it still looked so good man...
____________________________________________________________________
Its been a hectic week... Stuff pouring in from all over... stressful to say the least. WSW was nice enough to remind my group today that we'll have less time for OP preperation cos 4 out of 5 members have chinese... Oh well... Li Ling's group is also in the same boat, so I guess I shouldn't complain too much... But it doesn't help to dispel my disillusionment with our beloved MOE. As if I could pass this Chinese paper which has nothing to study, but relies on your luck when I couldn't pass the HCL one.
And no matter how well I can do, whats to prevent them from raising the standard again? Best.
I found an interesting site which talks about character types... I got the same thing that I got when I took the test in backwoodsman, which is not surprising considering that time my traits were very distinct... It was kinda freaky, the character description seemed to understand me more than many of my friends... This website can be found here...
Anyway thats all for now... Hope everyone stays healthy as the promos approach...
~JcZw~ at 6:31 pm
Saturday, September 10, 2005
This is a long post, so I encourage you to endure if you intend to read it through...
I don't know why, but recently I've been having really bad nights.... Insomnia can keep me awake till 2 or 3 whilst tossing and turning in bed, or rather, on the mattress. I don't have a bed since I roll in my sleep and propelled myself off the bed with alarming frequency. There was once I dreamt that I was in a firefight and got shot through the elbow. Reality was that I had knocked myself off the bed and landed smack on my funny bone. The part of my brain that supresses the instinct to ACT out your dreams doesn't work on this organism. The Force is too strong in this one.
Last night was the worst though... Due to a church activity in which I drank a large packet of strong black Nescafe (We were playing shi zi lu kou), hence an excess of caffeine, a blocked nose, a nocturnal near-nosebleed, and due to worry about certain things, I think I slept for a grand total of 3 hours, from 3-6 am. Such was the strength of the caffeine that I'm still quite alert now, thank you, albeit tired from kicking around the Heritage Trails with my juniors earlier today.
Don't ask me why I thought about such things as I will write out now, but lying very much awake in a darkened room illuminated by the indicator lights of the air-conditioner and battery charger makes you think funny things. Add to that an over-active imagination (hence the dreams) thats probably stimulated by thinking too much all the time anyway.
I was mulling over the problems that we were facing now, our promos, preperations for open house, then chinese paper, which, but for some crazy red-tape kicker at the MOE, I wouldn't have to take, and hard on its heels, our PW Oral Presentation. What was all this struggling for position for anyway? After this would just be competition for S-papers, then A-levels... NS, university, who knows? Life wasn't very fair was it. There were too many variables, more than we could cope with at a single given moment. Then as one thing led to another, maybe in retropect, though our problems were hard, they were still not so bad.
Then I thought about about Typhoon Katrina's assault on New Orleans, as I stared at the unblinking green light of my air-con. It occured to me that there were children over there the same ages as us, probably down to the same birthdays. They would be like us, living relatively peaceful lives, never seen danger or been exposed to dire calamity. Like us, they would be studying (maybe not as hard and kiasu as us, but studying nonetheless), playing games etc. What was it like for them to be cast out of their comfort zone then? To be evicted from their homes by so merciless a natural force? What cruel trick of fate was it that the lives of people who live so similar lives as us could be so savagely ravaged whilst we remained unscathed?
It really isn't my place to be thinking such funny things at 2 am in the morining, but the thing about New Orleans that struck me, was that I bet a year ago these children. like us, wouldn't have dreamt that their daily routine would be disrupted just a short while later. For example, I assume one year from now I'll have handed over all my CCA responsibilities and be prepared for Prelims, but whether I WILL be doing that 365 days from now remains to be seen.
Coupled with a few other incidents these few days, it occures to me that life is so fragile and impossibly fraught with hazards toward ourselves and our friends. But a passage from the Bible that I read with my little devotional book did some good in allaying my worry. Its amazing how God could predict that the night that I would read this passage would be the night that I had such thoughts.... Regarding a tree in Lebanon (Ezekiel 31), it was talking about how it stretched its roots to the point that it could reach water. This implied (as written in the devotional book)that if the soil was dry, for example, in a drought, then the roots would go far into the ground, and thus when it found water, not only would it be able to thrive, but also it would be firmly anchored and unlikely to be swayed by the elements further along its life.
In other words, although many people condemn God for the trials and difficulties that we go through in life, they do in fact make us stronger, and if we turn to Him for our providence, putting in our roots further, then we would be able to be more "firm" and not so easily toppled by difficulties further down the line.... not only because we had experience, but also because we had God himself. I'm not masochistic, and I won't go bumbling through life looking for trouble to have a deeper relationship with God (Thats not faith. Thats stupidity. God doesn't want us to hurt ourselves needlessly), but this teaches me to go through life with God as a guide and trust that he would provide when I meet with obstacles (See the diff? Clearing obstacles you encounter as you meet them versus LOOKING for obstacles to clear whether they're in your path or not). Yup... so it was encouraging to read that.
So with all that thinking sorted out, the thing that kept me awake was then the caffeine...
___________________________________________________________________
Everyone who visits this blog will notice that on 8th September at 2351 hrs (look at the tagboard), Jonathan Chua-H of 05S15 requested that I write I segment on him. I told him I shall oblige, with the liberty to write off my own free will.
Unfortunately he threatened to, in effect, bring his metacarpals into high velocity contact with my mandible, or even between my mandible, or to puncture certain areas of my bloodstream such as the aorta, superior vena cava, carotid artery or femoral artery if I was a step out of line. So rather than take the risk, I'll keep my thoughts to myself for now (although it may interest him to know I've got it written out already =)
____________________________________________________________________
One last thought. The school song should not change. Look at how much mayhem changing the school song has caused in AHS, not to mention VJ.
Also, a diplomatically neutral "Victoria thy genetic offspring are we" lacks considerable poetic flair.
I don't know why, but recently I've been having really bad nights.... Insomnia can keep me awake till 2 or 3 whilst tossing and turning in bed, or rather, on the mattress. I don't have a bed since I roll in my sleep and propelled myself off the bed with alarming frequency. There was once I dreamt that I was in a firefight and got shot through the elbow. Reality was that I had knocked myself off the bed and landed smack on my funny bone. The part of my brain that supresses the instinct to ACT out your dreams doesn't work on this organism. The Force is too strong in this one.
Last night was the worst though... Due to a church activity in which I drank a large packet of strong black Nescafe (We were playing shi zi lu kou), hence an excess of caffeine, a blocked nose, a nocturnal near-nosebleed, and due to worry about certain things, I think I slept for a grand total of 3 hours, from 3-6 am. Such was the strength of the caffeine that I'm still quite alert now, thank you, albeit tired from kicking around the Heritage Trails with my juniors earlier today.
Don't ask me why I thought about such things as I will write out now, but lying very much awake in a darkened room illuminated by the indicator lights of the air-conditioner and battery charger makes you think funny things. Add to that an over-active imagination (hence the dreams) thats probably stimulated by thinking too much all the time anyway.
I was mulling over the problems that we were facing now, our promos, preperations for open house, then chinese paper, which, but for some crazy red-tape kicker at the MOE, I wouldn't have to take, and hard on its heels, our PW Oral Presentation. What was all this struggling for position for anyway? After this would just be competition for S-papers, then A-levels... NS, university, who knows? Life wasn't very fair was it. There were too many variables, more than we could cope with at a single given moment. Then as one thing led to another, maybe in retropect, though our problems were hard, they were still not so bad.
Then I thought about about Typhoon Katrina's assault on New Orleans, as I stared at the unblinking green light of my air-con. It occured to me that there were children over there the same ages as us, probably down to the same birthdays. They would be like us, living relatively peaceful lives, never seen danger or been exposed to dire calamity. Like us, they would be studying (maybe not as hard and kiasu as us, but studying nonetheless), playing games etc. What was it like for them to be cast out of their comfort zone then? To be evicted from their homes by so merciless a natural force? What cruel trick of fate was it that the lives of people who live so similar lives as us could be so savagely ravaged whilst we remained unscathed?
It really isn't my place to be thinking such funny things at 2 am in the morining, but the thing about New Orleans that struck me, was that I bet a year ago these children. like us, wouldn't have dreamt that their daily routine would be disrupted just a short while later. For example, I assume one year from now I'll have handed over all my CCA responsibilities and be prepared for Prelims, but whether I WILL be doing that 365 days from now remains to be seen.
Coupled with a few other incidents these few days, it occures to me that life is so fragile and impossibly fraught with hazards toward ourselves and our friends. But a passage from the Bible that I read with my little devotional book did some good in allaying my worry. Its amazing how God could predict that the night that I would read this passage would be the night that I had such thoughts.... Regarding a tree in Lebanon (Ezekiel 31), it was talking about how it stretched its roots to the point that it could reach water. This implied (as written in the devotional book)that if the soil was dry, for example, in a drought, then the roots would go far into the ground, and thus when it found water, not only would it be able to thrive, but also it would be firmly anchored and unlikely to be swayed by the elements further along its life.
In other words, although many people condemn God for the trials and difficulties that we go through in life, they do in fact make us stronger, and if we turn to Him for our providence, putting in our roots further, then we would be able to be more "firm" and not so easily toppled by difficulties further down the line.... not only because we had experience, but also because we had God himself. I'm not masochistic, and I won't go bumbling through life looking for trouble to have a deeper relationship with God (Thats not faith. Thats stupidity. God doesn't want us to hurt ourselves needlessly), but this teaches me to go through life with God as a guide and trust that he would provide when I meet with obstacles (See the diff? Clearing obstacles you encounter as you meet them versus LOOKING for obstacles to clear whether they're in your path or not). Yup... so it was encouraging to read that.
So with all that thinking sorted out, the thing that kept me awake was then the caffeine...
___________________________________________________________________
Everyone who visits this blog will notice that on 8th September at 2351 hrs (look at the tagboard), Jonathan Chua-H of 05S15 requested that I write I segment on him. I told him I shall oblige, with the liberty to write off my own free will.
Unfortunately he threatened to, in effect, bring his metacarpals into high velocity contact with my mandible, or even between my mandible, or to puncture certain areas of my bloodstream such as the aorta, superior vena cava, carotid artery or femoral artery if I was a step out of line. So rather than take the risk, I'll keep my thoughts to myself for now (although it may interest him to know I've got it written out already =)
____________________________________________________________________
One last thought. The school song should not change. Look at how much mayhem changing the school song has caused in AHS, not to mention VJ.
Also, a diplomatically neutral "Victoria thy genetic offspring are we" lacks considerable poetic flair.
~JcZw~ at 4:46 pm
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Let me indulge in some wu liao stuff in my penultimate-to-100th blog post.. this got triggered while filing all the piles of fire hazards in my room, that is, all the worksheets, lecture notes and blah a few days ago. I collected many an old memory in the progress.... lets see...
The document that made me happiest:
This would have to be the letter approving the application to VJC in March. its not the O-level result slip cos its what led up to the application going through. Actually its sort of a combination y'know.. cos the day when I read those words on the computer screen was a day of mixed emotions...
The document that triggered the most trauma:
There has only one document this year which has caused me to shed tears (no matter how unlikely that might seem to the reader). It IS the O-level result slip, for obvious reasons, no doubt you'd have heard me complaining why on length. 'Nuff said.
The song/s that evoke/s the most memories:
There are 3 of them actually... "When you say nothing at all" and "Hero" remind me of my class in JC, because they were played / sung at very crucial junctures of my time then. I can remember how bonded the class was, and how everyone could get along well, before any conflicts blew up.
"Love love love", that chinese song, reminds me of St. John, as squad 4 '06 danced to its tune during my squadron's farewell last year. Now I can still review those memories by watching the video tape of them in the green night vision of the video cam. Sorry guys, I tried to upload to comp but the file was too big and couldn't be accepted...
A route that evokes the most memories:
Its not the route to the bus stop at AH, nor the route to tanah merah, cos I still use those routes now, so I'm still building on it... I think it would be the route from SJ HQ to Lavender MRT. We walked there from since sec. 1 going for BFA (where a passing bird chose to s*** on my half u), sec. 2 when wei lun, xuan cheng and I walked back and forth every weekend for NDP practise. Sec. 3 was uneventful cos of SARS, sec. 4, escorting Clarice and y. Li Ting to the army market, HQ training for N-comp. JC1.... well there was the recent AGI. It was also the route Dawn and I took back after the soccer final.
A day this year that I would like to live through again:
14 February (Friendship Day), 8 February (CNY) or 21st January (JTS). Reason being for the feeling of having friends, something that only St. John could replicate before that. This time it was contributed, of course, by my class for the former and latter. The central date, it was contributed by 4F when we went out to cartel at TM for lunch following a crazy mass dancing and cheering session in AHS by ppl from VJ, TJ, NJ, MJ and so on.
A day this year that I would live through again over my dead body:
This is hard to say, because the year has been quite good, thank God... there has been no totally bad day yet... but if I had to pick, it would be 27th February or 13th May. The former was the night before the release of O-level results. I can't say its all bad, because we could make a trip to Greg's house to play mahjong before going to Marche to eat with the seniors, as well as talking and praying in the park after that with the other S15 people.... but the worry and tension of that day was something that I could happily live without y'know... Couldn't sleep until 1.30 that night...
13th May was the date of the Chem SPA B, for which, until now, I have totally no aptitude for. It was traumatic and saddening alright, but God sent good friends that talked, that called, even teachers who sent consoling messages. I can't thank them enough yar =)
A day this year that I had two extremes of emotion:
9th April, Zone Comp. From elation that we won all four championships, the adrenaline rush to see AHS coming out on top, to severe anger when a senior-er senior made a disparaging remark to me that her member had won 2 Adult Championships already while my team only had one. I think its one of the few times when a few of the cadets saw me when I was not remaining cool. When the facade of an NCO gets penetrated. It could be the unforgivable sin, showing your true self in a CCA in front of the cadets. I couldn't care though. The insult was bad enough, thank you.
What I'm proudest of:
Two things: Belonging to ossis. And the two competition teams I helped, AC2 and NC. Both of them did me proud, and after the let-down losing the foil individual, it was a real morale booster to get the messages from soo yee and wei quan telling me that NC had gotten second, that Joyce had gotten best leader.
What I'm least proud of:
Well, I dunno... there are a lot of them actually...Some jokes I've told were really quite inane. Showing emotion in CCA i guess, when I should be remaining cool... Or in class, as the chem rep, when I should be more patient.
Well thats that for the moment.... Any ideas what to put as my 100th post? haha.. anyway everyone take care and God bless, happy studying yar =)
The document that made me happiest:
This would have to be the letter approving the application to VJC in March. its not the O-level result slip cos its what led up to the application going through. Actually its sort of a combination y'know.. cos the day when I read those words on the computer screen was a day of mixed emotions...
The document that triggered the most trauma:
There has only one document this year which has caused me to shed tears (no matter how unlikely that might seem to the reader). It IS the O-level result slip, for obvious reasons, no doubt you'd have heard me complaining why on length. 'Nuff said.
The song/s that evoke/s the most memories:
There are 3 of them actually... "When you say nothing at all" and "Hero" remind me of my class in JC, because they were played / sung at very crucial junctures of my time then. I can remember how bonded the class was, and how everyone could get along well, before any conflicts blew up.
"Love love love", that chinese song, reminds me of St. John, as squad 4 '06 danced to its tune during my squadron's farewell last year. Now I can still review those memories by watching the video tape of them in the green night vision of the video cam. Sorry guys, I tried to upload to comp but the file was too big and couldn't be accepted...
A route that evokes the most memories:
Its not the route to the bus stop at AH, nor the route to tanah merah, cos I still use those routes now, so I'm still building on it... I think it would be the route from SJ HQ to Lavender MRT. We walked there from since sec. 1 going for BFA (where a passing bird chose to s*** on my half u), sec. 2 when wei lun, xuan cheng and I walked back and forth every weekend for NDP practise. Sec. 3 was uneventful cos of SARS, sec. 4, escorting Clarice and y. Li Ting to the army market, HQ training for N-comp. JC1.... well there was the recent AGI. It was also the route Dawn and I took back after the soccer final.
A day this year that I would like to live through again:
14 February (Friendship Day), 8 February (CNY) or 21st January (JTS). Reason being for the feeling of having friends, something that only St. John could replicate before that. This time it was contributed, of course, by my class for the former and latter. The central date, it was contributed by 4F when we went out to cartel at TM for lunch following a crazy mass dancing and cheering session in AHS by ppl from VJ, TJ, NJ, MJ and so on.
A day this year that I would live through again over my dead body:
This is hard to say, because the year has been quite good, thank God... there has been no totally bad day yet... but if I had to pick, it would be 27th February or 13th May. The former was the night before the release of O-level results. I can't say its all bad, because we could make a trip to Greg's house to play mahjong before going to Marche to eat with the seniors, as well as talking and praying in the park after that with the other S15 people.... but the worry and tension of that day was something that I could happily live without y'know... Couldn't sleep until 1.30 that night...
13th May was the date of the Chem SPA B, for which, until now, I have totally no aptitude for. It was traumatic and saddening alright, but God sent good friends that talked, that called, even teachers who sent consoling messages. I can't thank them enough yar =)
A day this year that I had two extremes of emotion:
9th April, Zone Comp. From elation that we won all four championships, the adrenaline rush to see AHS coming out on top, to severe anger when a senior-er senior made a disparaging remark to me that her member had won 2 Adult Championships already while my team only had one. I think its one of the few times when a few of the cadets saw me when I was not remaining cool. When the facade of an NCO gets penetrated. It could be the unforgivable sin, showing your true self in a CCA in front of the cadets. I couldn't care though. The insult was bad enough, thank you.
What I'm proudest of:
Two things: Belonging to ossis. And the two competition teams I helped, AC2 and NC. Both of them did me proud, and after the let-down losing the foil individual, it was a real morale booster to get the messages from soo yee and wei quan telling me that NC had gotten second, that Joyce had gotten best leader.
What I'm least proud of:
Well, I dunno... there are a lot of them actually...Some jokes I've told were really quite inane. Showing emotion in CCA i guess, when I should be remaining cool... Or in class, as the chem rep, when I should be more patient.
Well thats that for the moment.... Any ideas what to put as my 100th post? haha.. anyway everyone take care and God bless, happy studying yar =)
~JcZw~ at 1:36 pm
Monday, September 05, 2005
For 4 years of my life the St. John annual general inspection, or, as its more popularly known among its members, AGI was just 3 hours of waiting, getting yelled at, before having to stand on the field at parade rest until one's feet became numb. But this year was different I guess
Please forgive my ramblings while I talk about my experience this year.
On friday OCC managed to collar me to be his flag orderly, whatever that meant (something to do with the colours I supposed, since he was carrying our zone flag). Like a nut I volunteered, or rather, JiaYan and SiHui sabo-ed me since none of them wanted to go. OCC tossed me a cummerband and told me to bring my white gloves... I was like "huh, so formal?"
Sunday morning at 9.30 found me at HQ in the Brigade Room looking at the strange assortment of people. I've never had to interact with people from other zones before, not even during National Competition. But here there were at least 3 people from every zone. From Zone 2 was me, OCC and his escort, a Malay SNCO by the name of Bambang, one year my senior (although, as I found out later, he was one rank below me, not that it really mattered).
Two chaps from the Navy came to teach us how to case and uncase the flags... Sounds unimportant? Actually it was quite interesting... seeing all the drills with the flags. They also told us the significance of the formation colours... Apparently SJ sets the same store on flags as the SAF does. Briefly, traditions included:
Only officers are allowed to touch the flags.
They cannot touch the ground. Once out of their cases, the officer and escort must guard them with their lives. Although as Bambang whispered to me, what was he supposed to do? throw the flag stand at potential agressors?
We uncased the flags in the boardroom in half uniform. It was quite an awe-inspiring to see the 12 flags standing sentinel in the room.
The red and white National Flag, and the 11 St. John flags each embroidered heavily with a white eight-pointed cross and the golden edges, and the lions and unicorns. Every flag had its zone also embroidered in roman numerals above the cross
First of course, was the sable-black flag of the St. John then
Crimson flag of Zone 1
Bright Green of Zone 2 (waha, AH coloured)
Maroon of Zone 3
Ochre of Zone 4
Dark Blue of Zone 5
Maroon of Zone 6 (goodness knows why there were 2 Maroon flags)
Scarlet of Zone 7
Dark Green of Zone 8 (ermm... this one was more of an RJ colour)
Bright Blue of Zone 9
Bright yellow of Zone 10
In each case, the flag escorts stood saluting behind each flag. The flag orderly and RSM stood one on either side of the flag bearer, better known as the Flag Ensign, who lowered the flag between us. As Zone 2's flag came down I caught the brass tip of the shaft (I'm not allowed to touch the flag). The OCT acting as the RSM folded the flag reverently around the shaft and secured it with the tassel, then I slid the casing home over the flag.
The SAF people also told us that "if you make a mistake, then correct it sharply and quickly, then people will think its part of the programme".
After lunch we went to the stadium, which I discovered, was the one almost next to Li Ling's house... In the midst of the rain we scrambled into the stadium with all our stuff, uniforms, flags, stands, blah. And much to my annoyance, I was not allowed to bring my bag, cos it meant I'd have to return to HQ later on. Furthermore it contained Fruitips, a bottle of water, and Chemical Bonding and Chemical Equilibrium, which I had intended to study.
What can I say, we stoned for 4 hours not doing anything... although Bambang and I talked a while. He was complaining about the muddy field... haha...
4 hours later, I felt totally bored, irritated, and a severe temptation to spontaneously combust. The audience started coming in, and off we went to unfurl our flags.
This time it was more grand. With the Guard of Honour at attention and all officers adorned with cummerband, medals, gloves and holding salute, the 11 orderlies marched in (yes, in an orderly manner). This time, as before, the RSM marched to us one after another, and it was with considerable pride and emotion in which I slid off the cover of the green flag, draped the cover with the brass tip over my left arm, and held the tip of the lance while the RSM dressed the colours and left OCC to snap the pole back to the vertical. After that we turned and marched off.
I saw the AHS division come in... haha.. it was good to see them after all the boredom. I so wanted to join them... but I had to stay at my position.
Decided to talk to the other orderlies... Most of the them were staff sergeants, or sergeants like myself. All wore the Adult Cap Badge though. The one next to me was a cadet corporal, a Malay by the name of Fitri... Friendly guy, sec 3 and a zone 1. HE WAS FROM PASIR RIS CRES! the first thing I asked was "Your school has a good fencing team right?" We talked, and through the ceremony we counted the number of people that fainted (38). We wer wincing for the Flag Ensigns of Zones 7, 8 and 9 who were standing in the middle of a mud puddle. The mud flew whenever they had to bang.
We happily ate the buns given to us. Bambang had eaten 3 before going onto parade. i asked him what if he suddenly needed the toilet. He replied "its okay, just do it sharply and quickly and people will think its part of the ceremony".
It was a moving sight when the colours marched past, and all officers young or old held their hands rigidly to their caps. The Ensigns flicked their palms as they moved past the stage, letting the flags fly freely as they went past. A great moment indeed
By the time the march past ended, we were back in the carpark casing the flags to transport to HQ. OCC and Bambang escaped the mud, but the above-mentioned Flag Ensigns had quite literally brown pants.
The trip back to HQ was a hyper one... Cos all the officers were yelling and singing at the top of their voices.
Yup, after uncasing the flags back at HQ, (which was quite painful... Had to salute and hold for the duration of the time which whineywhiney can be played 3 times. I know cos I was dancing mentally to keep my mind off the ache) I headed to Bedok to find Jiayan, SiHui and the other Jonathan. Yeah, fine whatever Jiayan... the toilet auntie is NOT attracted to me.
Yup... I've been far too long alr... thats all then... g'night!
Please forgive my ramblings while I talk about my experience this year.
On friday OCC managed to collar me to be his flag orderly, whatever that meant (something to do with the colours I supposed, since he was carrying our zone flag). Like a nut I volunteered, or rather, JiaYan and SiHui sabo-ed me since none of them wanted to go. OCC tossed me a cummerband and told me to bring my white gloves... I was like "huh, so formal?"
Sunday morning at 9.30 found me at HQ in the Brigade Room looking at the strange assortment of people. I've never had to interact with people from other zones before, not even during National Competition. But here there were at least 3 people from every zone. From Zone 2 was me, OCC and his escort, a Malay SNCO by the name of Bambang, one year my senior (although, as I found out later, he was one rank below me, not that it really mattered).
Two chaps from the Navy came to teach us how to case and uncase the flags... Sounds unimportant? Actually it was quite interesting... seeing all the drills with the flags. They also told us the significance of the formation colours... Apparently SJ sets the same store on flags as the SAF does. Briefly, traditions included:
Only officers are allowed to touch the flags.
They cannot touch the ground. Once out of their cases, the officer and escort must guard them with their lives. Although as Bambang whispered to me, what was he supposed to do? throw the flag stand at potential agressors?
We uncased the flags in the boardroom in half uniform. It was quite an awe-inspiring to see the 12 flags standing sentinel in the room.
The red and white National Flag, and the 11 St. John flags each embroidered heavily with a white eight-pointed cross and the golden edges, and the lions and unicorns. Every flag had its zone also embroidered in roman numerals above the cross
First of course, was the sable-black flag of the St. John then
Crimson flag of Zone 1
Bright Green of Zone 2 (waha, AH coloured)
Maroon of Zone 3
Ochre of Zone 4
Dark Blue of Zone 5
Maroon of Zone 6 (goodness knows why there were 2 Maroon flags)
Scarlet of Zone 7
Dark Green of Zone 8 (ermm... this one was more of an RJ colour)
Bright Blue of Zone 9
Bright yellow of Zone 10
In each case, the flag escorts stood saluting behind each flag. The flag orderly and RSM stood one on either side of the flag bearer, better known as the Flag Ensign, who lowered the flag between us. As Zone 2's flag came down I caught the brass tip of the shaft (I'm not allowed to touch the flag). The OCT acting as the RSM folded the flag reverently around the shaft and secured it with the tassel, then I slid the casing home over the flag.
The SAF people also told us that "if you make a mistake, then correct it sharply and quickly, then people will think its part of the programme".
After lunch we went to the stadium, which I discovered, was the one almost next to Li Ling's house... In the midst of the rain we scrambled into the stadium with all our stuff, uniforms, flags, stands, blah. And much to my annoyance, I was not allowed to bring my bag, cos it meant I'd have to return to HQ later on. Furthermore it contained Fruitips, a bottle of water, and Chemical Bonding and Chemical Equilibrium, which I had intended to study.
What can I say, we stoned for 4 hours not doing anything... although Bambang and I talked a while. He was complaining about the muddy field... haha...
4 hours later, I felt totally bored, irritated, and a severe temptation to spontaneously combust. The audience started coming in, and off we went to unfurl our flags.
This time it was more grand. With the Guard of Honour at attention and all officers adorned with cummerband, medals, gloves and holding salute, the 11 orderlies marched in (yes, in an orderly manner). This time, as before, the RSM marched to us one after another, and it was with considerable pride and emotion in which I slid off the cover of the green flag, draped the cover with the brass tip over my left arm, and held the tip of the lance while the RSM dressed the colours and left OCC to snap the pole back to the vertical. After that we turned and marched off.
I saw the AHS division come in... haha.. it was good to see them after all the boredom. I so wanted to join them... but I had to stay at my position.
Decided to talk to the other orderlies... Most of the them were staff sergeants, or sergeants like myself. All wore the Adult Cap Badge though. The one next to me was a cadet corporal, a Malay by the name of Fitri... Friendly guy, sec 3 and a zone 1. HE WAS FROM PASIR RIS CRES! the first thing I asked was "Your school has a good fencing team right?" We talked, and through the ceremony we counted the number of people that fainted (38). We wer wincing for the Flag Ensigns of Zones 7, 8 and 9 who were standing in the middle of a mud puddle. The mud flew whenever they had to bang.
We happily ate the buns given to us. Bambang had eaten 3 before going onto parade. i asked him what if he suddenly needed the toilet. He replied "its okay, just do it sharply and quickly and people will think its part of the ceremony".
It was a moving sight when the colours marched past, and all officers young or old held their hands rigidly to their caps. The Ensigns flicked their palms as they moved past the stage, letting the flags fly freely as they went past. A great moment indeed
By the time the march past ended, we were back in the carpark casing the flags to transport to HQ. OCC and Bambang escaped the mud, but the above-mentioned Flag Ensigns had quite literally brown pants.
The trip back to HQ was a hyper one... Cos all the officers were yelling and singing at the top of their voices.
Yup, after uncasing the flags back at HQ, (which was quite painful... Had to salute and hold for the duration of the time which whineywhiney can be played 3 times. I know cos I was dancing mentally to keep my mind off the ache) I headed to Bedok to find Jiayan, SiHui and the other Jonathan. Yeah, fine whatever Jiayan... the toilet auntie is NOT attracted to me.
Yup... I've been far too long alr... thats all then... g'night!
~JcZw~ at 9:36 pm
Saturday, September 03, 2005
Remember how we said that St. John gave us a lot of life lessons? As I was lazing about in my room wondering whether I should do chem first, bio first, or just give up and polish my shoes for AGI (For the record, I decided to do chem, since periodic table is probably the least mind-blowing.... The topic, mind you, not the teacher), it suddenly occured to me that fencing also gives a lot of practical aspects on life. The first time my coach gave us lessons, he in fact did mention that. "You can use fencing for many things, including finding a job and getting into a romantic relationship." Naturally, we were like, huh, alright. But it is kinda true. Although I'll wait a few more years before getting to the romantic relationship part.
Never show your true self too fast, or you will open yourself out to attack
How true. If only I had understood this when I was in sec. 2, maybe lower sec. life would have been that much more fun. Unfortunately I still lapse into this from time to time, as Dory's blog says, sharing your heart with someone too fast. Maybe somehow my life was too secure, or I had friends all along that were loyal, and it did not penetrate the haze of naivety that some people might just take your personal feelings and throw it around. On the other end of the scale, being paranoid about how other people view you also ain't good.... it just makes you worried (especially if you're the kind of person that thinks too much). Yup, I guess the best is to start out slow, not to open up too fast (a method which I completely ignored when I entered VJC, despite knowing that I'd been an introvert for 16 years) and then choose your friends well. If there was ever a painful lesson to learn, it would be that not all friendships last, and indeed some friendships can even turn nasty.
If your first attack doesn't work, see how your opponent defends, see which parry he favours, then go in again.
This doesn't fit into life quite as clearly as I'd like it too, but the gist of it is this. Instead of battering yourself to pieces on a problem, and causing considerable harm to yourself (it ain't healthy to throw yourself on the point of an epee travelling in the opposite direction at twice your velocity, or to worry about the same problem over and over) as well as your friends (lets say, in a team event, or a project). Instead, one should stop, take a break, look, identify what is the thing thats obstructing you, then try and solve it from there "bunker by bunker, pillbox by pillbox, instead of simply bombing okinawa down to the ground". And above all, keep calm. panicking and trying to proceed even faster rarely gets anyone anywhere. Its something that we hear all the time, maybe till it becomes cliche, but I guess there has to be some truth in it.
Of course, this becomes harder when your problem is trying to find a real person to talk to in the midst of the maze of electronic automated voices of the Ministry of Manpower.
Don't counterattack. Parry. Remember, right of way is like an argument.
Useful for argument situations. If someone argues with you about something, instead of counterattacking back at him, maybe it would be easier to settle his doubts and answer his questions. Otherwise either you'd come off worst, because its not credible to counter a quarrel by bringing up another argument of your own, or neither side wins, because both just end up with their questions unanswered and with emnity brewing nice and hot. For VJ fencers reading this, I'm refering to something from foil and sabre, so i'm sorry, its not in epee.
An easier way of putting this is, view an attack as anger. Meeting anger with anger doesn't get anything done. But blocking anger with calmness and reasoning is a better way. Argh, this is a hard point to explain, I don't really know how to say it.
Yup, just 3 things for now... They're kinda common sense actually, but I thought it was kinda interesting... I dunno if my opinions are valid or not, so if anyone has any comments, theres the tagboard...
____________________________________________________________________
Just a few photos to brighten up the blog...
The 6 representatives of the Red Cross Humanitarian Network (MJC), First Aid Unit (TJC) and First Aid Club (VJC) during our combined activity
____________________________________________________________________
Memories of a few weeks back... Mr Chong brought in some pipe cleaners and had us contruct sister chromatids and chromosomes.. At the end of the session mine looked something like this:
If I had this kind of chromosome, it explains my choice of CCA in sec. sch
ChuaH's one looked like this:
Its like to causing aches n pains in the cell though... considering all the poky ends sticking out...
____________________________________________________________________
My PW group working in my house... One of the rare days when the third computer was actually working. This was our historic first meeting.
____________________________________________________________________
The St. John people having sandwich making competition... the last time I saw one I was a titchy cadet not more than 150m tall in sec 2.. Admittedly by the end of the competition, none of us seniors felt like sampling the products..
One of the end products
Yup, thats about it for now.... Happy studying everyone! Derek, see you at AGI tml =Pp
Never show your true self too fast, or you will open yourself out to attack
How true. If only I had understood this when I was in sec. 2, maybe lower sec. life would have been that much more fun. Unfortunately I still lapse into this from time to time, as Dory's blog says, sharing your heart with someone too fast. Maybe somehow my life was too secure, or I had friends all along that were loyal, and it did not penetrate the haze of naivety that some people might just take your personal feelings and throw it around. On the other end of the scale, being paranoid about how other people view you also ain't good.... it just makes you worried (especially if you're the kind of person that thinks too much). Yup, I guess the best is to start out slow, not to open up too fast (a method which I completely ignored when I entered VJC, despite knowing that I'd been an introvert for 16 years) and then choose your friends well. If there was ever a painful lesson to learn, it would be that not all friendships last, and indeed some friendships can even turn nasty.
If your first attack doesn't work, see how your opponent defends, see which parry he favours, then go in again.
This doesn't fit into life quite as clearly as I'd like it too, but the gist of it is this. Instead of battering yourself to pieces on a problem, and causing considerable harm to yourself (it ain't healthy to throw yourself on the point of an epee travelling in the opposite direction at twice your velocity, or to worry about the same problem over and over) as well as your friends (lets say, in a team event, or a project). Instead, one should stop, take a break, look, identify what is the thing thats obstructing you, then try and solve it from there "bunker by bunker, pillbox by pillbox, instead of simply bombing okinawa down to the ground". And above all, keep calm. panicking and trying to proceed even faster rarely gets anyone anywhere. Its something that we hear all the time, maybe till it becomes cliche, but I guess there has to be some truth in it.
Of course, this becomes harder when your problem is trying to find a real person to talk to in the midst of the maze of electronic automated voices of the Ministry of Manpower.
Don't counterattack. Parry. Remember, right of way is like an argument.
Useful for argument situations. If someone argues with you about something, instead of counterattacking back at him, maybe it would be easier to settle his doubts and answer his questions. Otherwise either you'd come off worst, because its not credible to counter a quarrel by bringing up another argument of your own, or neither side wins, because both just end up with their questions unanswered and with emnity brewing nice and hot. For VJ fencers reading this, I'm refering to something from foil and sabre, so i'm sorry, its not in epee.
An easier way of putting this is, view an attack as anger. Meeting anger with anger doesn't get anything done. But blocking anger with calmness and reasoning is a better way. Argh, this is a hard point to explain, I don't really know how to say it.
Yup, just 3 things for now... They're kinda common sense actually, but I thought it was kinda interesting... I dunno if my opinions are valid or not, so if anyone has any comments, theres the tagboard...
____________________________________________________________________
Just a few photos to brighten up the blog...
The 6 representatives of the Red Cross Humanitarian Network (MJC), First Aid Unit (TJC) and First Aid Club (VJC) during our combined activity
____________________________________________________________________
Memories of a few weeks back... Mr Chong brought in some pipe cleaners and had us contruct sister chromatids and chromosomes.. At the end of the session mine looked something like this:
If I had this kind of chromosome, it explains my choice of CCA in sec. sch
ChuaH's one looked like this:
Its like to causing aches n pains in the cell though... considering all the poky ends sticking out...
____________________________________________________________________
My PW group working in my house... One of the rare days when the third computer was actually working. This was our historic first meeting.
____________________________________________________________________
The St. John people having sandwich making competition... the last time I saw one I was a titchy cadet not more than 150m tall in sec 2.. Admittedly by the end of the competition, none of us seniors felt like sampling the products..
One of the end products
Yup, thats about it for now.... Happy studying everyone! Derek, see you at AGI tml =Pp
~JcZw~ at 4:31 pm