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Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Technically, the executive officer of a ship handled the routine responsibilities concerning the crew, all internal matters, leaving the captain free to think strategically and concern himself with more global matters. The way that usually played out, however, had the exec playing the villan, the guy who handed out the unpleasant news and details, the officer the men could freely hate
- The Silent Service: Virginia Class, by H. Jay Riker
(NB: Executive Officer = Second-in-Command, usually of a Navy vessel)
Before St. John farewell I was kicking about in Bedok Library trying to find 4 books with which to occupy myself. I read this paragraph about 3 nights back at about 1 am in the morning and nearly laughed out loud.
It struck me that in almost all leadership cases, the leader is the one concerned with "more global matters" while the Second-in-Command was the proverbial "bad guy". Take for example, Mr Wang and Mr Lim. The latter always was the one doing the nagging.
To strike closer to home, Soo Yee was always the fiercer one when we were still JNCOs. Hey once a junior batch even complained (via a senior) that the VOC (Vice-Overall Commander, for those non SJers) always overulled the OC (Overall Commander). My response to that senior was "how many times do you see Mr Wang scolding the school population?"
On the other hand, it could be that I was one of the few male OCs that was shorter than a female VOC. Bleah.
But its true... Soo Yee always did the internal stuff.... training schedules, chasing the cadets blahblah... while I was tangling with Mdm Teo and the odd senior... Oh well, at the end of the day both of us got 4 CCA points for leadership anyway, which is probably deserved, since by LTP (Leadership Training Programme, again for non SJers) the VOC has 26 specific jobs, while the OC has 11 general ones.
Haha... So I'm vindicated =)
____________________________________________________________________________________
Right, last 3 days class chalet... Quite fun lar...
First day, went only for about 1 1/4 hours? Cos rushed from SJ to chalet then to church... 15 min late n I still made it for the rendevous... whoo...
Second day... supposed to meet my namesake (since there are up to 5 people I know with my name, this one refers to the one from my class) at Pasir Ris MRT at 1.30. But then something happened LOR n I had to wait. and wait. Oh well...
Shopped for food for BBQ.... we were like super-budget, but hey we managed to get a lot of food.. Went home to cook spaghetti... Didn't know one small pack of spaghetti could swell to about 6 times it volume. Absolutely shocking.
Back for the BBQ... Skewered chicken... Skewering chicken is like conducting an injection. You NEVER want to hit the bone of the patient.. My goodness...
I also found out that it is VERY unhealthy to:
1. Step on satay sticks while barefooted
2. Poke yourself with hot skewers while trying to run a chicken through.
The highlight of the day? It rained. Lionel and I tried at first to keep going under an umbrella (like the church BBQ) but when the rain picked up we just decided to scram. Smart of me to leave my shoes in the rain. Left me with wet shoes for the rest of the chalet. We continued after the rain stopped though.. our fire was so strong it didn't even go out... Derek and I resuscitated it then we could go on.
At night after everyone had left, the remaining people were playing majong... watching soccer highlights (Petr Cech is a really good 'keeper!)... Then there was this SEA games MTV showing all the games and I was waiting and waiting for the fencing one... N just as it appeared Mursjid called me n distracted me and I missed it!!! ARGH!!! oh well... then after midnight we played polar bear from 2 to about 5.30 am... whoo...
It was super cold at night... I was curled in one corner at first to keep myself awake so that I could wake phoon without my alarm waking the rest of the people... Then after that I crawled under the bed to get out of the fan's windblast... Super cold... bleah...
Morning.... everyone had to be dragged or kicked or pulled out of bed. Thanks Xunai and Keefe for not stepping on my head =) Had breakfast at Mac then came home..
Hmm the chalet... was quite fun... But oh man do I miss the hyper-ness of the first 3 months!! =/ Things are just different now... The change has been so slow the transition is unnoticeable... but its there...
N I realised I only have 3 types of home clothes... Black, white or blue. Shades of St. John camp. hoho..
Yeah anw I'm off to sleep off the rest of my sleep debt now... I'm gonna be missing most of the free fencing this week to go to this church thingy... but its quite worth it lar... haha...
Just a song to end off... It reassures me, and I hope it reassures other people who might feel hemmed in by circumstances.
Above All
Above powers, above all kings
Above all nature and all created things
Above all wisdom and all the ways of Man
You were here before the world began
Above all kingdoms, above all thrones
Above all wonders the world has ever known
Above all wealth and treasures of the earth
There's no way to measure what you're worth
Crucified
Laid behind a stone
You lived to die
Rejected and alone
Like a rose
Trampled on the ground
You took the fall
And thought of me
Above all
God's in charge yar... n that is comforting to know..
- The Silent Service: Virginia Class, by H. Jay Riker
(NB: Executive Officer = Second-in-Command, usually of a Navy vessel)
Before St. John farewell I was kicking about in Bedok Library trying to find 4 books with which to occupy myself. I read this paragraph about 3 nights back at about 1 am in the morning and nearly laughed out loud.
It struck me that in almost all leadership cases, the leader is the one concerned with "more global matters" while the Second-in-Command was the proverbial "bad guy". Take for example, Mr Wang and Mr Lim. The latter always was the one doing the nagging.
To strike closer to home, Soo Yee was always the fiercer one when we were still JNCOs. Hey once a junior batch even complained (via a senior) that the VOC (Vice-Overall Commander, for those non SJers) always overulled the OC (Overall Commander). My response to that senior was "how many times do you see Mr Wang scolding the school population?"
On the other hand, it could be that I was one of the few male OCs that was shorter than a female VOC. Bleah.
But its true... Soo Yee always did the internal stuff.... training schedules, chasing the cadets blahblah... while I was tangling with Mdm Teo and the odd senior... Oh well, at the end of the day both of us got 4 CCA points for leadership anyway, which is probably deserved, since by LTP (Leadership Training Programme, again for non SJers) the VOC has 26 specific jobs, while the OC has 11 general ones.
Haha... So I'm vindicated =)
____________________________________________________________________________________
Right, last 3 days class chalet... Quite fun lar...
First day, went only for about 1 1/4 hours? Cos rushed from SJ to chalet then to church... 15 min late n I still made it for the rendevous... whoo...
Second day... supposed to meet my namesake (since there are up to 5 people I know with my name, this one refers to the one from my class) at Pasir Ris MRT at 1.30. But then something happened LOR n I had to wait. and wait. Oh well...
Shopped for food for BBQ.... we were like super-budget, but hey we managed to get a lot of food.. Went home to cook spaghetti... Didn't know one small pack of spaghetti could swell to about 6 times it volume. Absolutely shocking.
Back for the BBQ... Skewered chicken... Skewering chicken is like conducting an injection. You NEVER want to hit the bone of the patient.. My goodness...
I also found out that it is VERY unhealthy to:
1. Step on satay sticks while barefooted
2. Poke yourself with hot skewers while trying to run a chicken through.
The highlight of the day? It rained. Lionel and I tried at first to keep going under an umbrella (like the church BBQ) but when the rain picked up we just decided to scram. Smart of me to leave my shoes in the rain. Left me with wet shoes for the rest of the chalet. We continued after the rain stopped though.. our fire was so strong it didn't even go out... Derek and I resuscitated it then we could go on.
At night after everyone had left, the remaining people were playing majong... watching soccer highlights (Petr Cech is a really good 'keeper!)... Then there was this SEA games MTV showing all the games and I was waiting and waiting for the fencing one... N just as it appeared Mursjid called me n distracted me and I missed it!!! ARGH!!! oh well... then after midnight we played polar bear from 2 to about 5.30 am... whoo...
It was super cold at night... I was curled in one corner at first to keep myself awake so that I could wake phoon without my alarm waking the rest of the people... Then after that I crawled under the bed to get out of the fan's windblast... Super cold... bleah...
Morning.... everyone had to be dragged or kicked or pulled out of bed. Thanks Xunai and Keefe for not stepping on my head =) Had breakfast at Mac then came home..
Hmm the chalet... was quite fun... But oh man do I miss the hyper-ness of the first 3 months!! =/ Things are just different now... The change has been so slow the transition is unnoticeable... but its there...
N I realised I only have 3 types of home clothes... Black, white or blue. Shades of St. John camp. hoho..
Yeah anw I'm off to sleep off the rest of my sleep debt now... I'm gonna be missing most of the free fencing this week to go to this church thingy... but its quite worth it lar... haha...
Just a song to end off... It reassures me, and I hope it reassures other people who might feel hemmed in by circumstances.
Above All
Above powers, above all kings
Above all nature and all created things
Above all wisdom and all the ways of Man
You were here before the world began
Above all kingdoms, above all thrones
Above all wonders the world has ever known
Above all wealth and treasures of the earth
There's no way to measure what you're worth
Crucified
Laid behind a stone
You lived to die
Rejected and alone
Like a rose
Trampled on the ground
You took the fall
And thought of me
Above all
God's in charge yar... n that is comforting to know..
~JcZw~ at 11:17 am
Sunday, November 27, 2005
On Friday I did one of the craziest things possible. I was walking into the AHS hall with Kiaboon and Sihui n there was this banner hanging in the doorway. I thought it was for people to walk through so i thrust out a hand to sweep it aside.
Unfortunately for me, there was a door underneath, which my hand hit with a very sharp crack. Nicely done too, right above the joint. Well done Jonathan, well done. It didn't help that the two of them had a good laugh over it =Pp heheh... N I just realised such things are actually quite unhealthy... A large impact can detach your retinas apparently.
Oh yes, it was Squad 4 '05s farewell that night, why else would we be kicking about in school... I think some of the new songs that have been integrated into SJ are actually quite nice... haha... I recall that if it weren't for SJ, I'd probably not be listening to any Chinese songs even now.
Farewell... it didn't really bring back memories to me (cos I've still been active for the past year)... just realised that I don't know a number of the Squad 2s yet... I know them by sight, yes, but not by name... Just like my squad had diff people who's names started with "Wei ---" and "Xuan ---" this squad has many who's names are " --- Ling" and "Wan ---". Okay.
But even worst from Peng Siang and YiYang, who didn't know about 3/4 of the people there.. haha...
Well, the things the seniors said during the singalong are true.... Especially those from Di Jun... haha... If I had to name one of the best instructors, it would be him... Sure, we kena-ed a lot of pumpings from him, but he had a way of inspiring you to do better n earn your respect. He pushed us right to the limit, punished us when we couldn't past our limit, and this made us push out our limits even more. Little would we have known that the titchy short little Ambulances that he trained would one day actually make it to N-comp.
N yeah, with KiaBoon and Sihui's blogs, the whole world knows that a) Weiquan and I like to read storybooks at the most inopportune times n b) candle blowing was fun... heh
___________________________________________________________________
Received a phone call from Mr Ho Wei Kang on can't-remember-which-day... think it was wed or thurs... He was asking me whether I wanted to take a second S-paper... Part of the convo went something like
Mr Ho: So why not?
Me: Errr... I had one E... that one E neutralized everything
Mr Ho: (laughs) Wait. What was that E
Me (Covering mouth piece): Oh darn
Me: Errr... maths
Mr Ho: WHAT? MATHS! HELLO? HELLO?
Me: Errr yeah I know... oops...
Hahah... quite amusing... maths seems like one of those subjects you can either do really well or really badly in...
Mr Ho: Well, since you've given your reasons, I won't recommend you to do anything, but you still may like to consider. [Some text omitted]
Me: Oh ok, thank you.
The convo then turned to fencing
Mr Ho: I think at the moment you aren't doing too badly... a number of your members are enthusiastic
Me: Yeah, I know.
Mr Ho: But I hope your successors are as enthusiatic as you all, or I may have to close down the club
Me (Here-we-go-again): Err? But..
Mr Ho: Because its quite a strain on the teacher. No other teacher is willing to take up fencing as their CCA
Me: Oh ok...
Actually I didn't think it was ok, but well
Mr Ho: Anyway you all are doing quite well now, keep it up yeah
Me: Yup, thanks
Anyway at the end of the day I guess the convo was more of a encouragement than a discouragement =)... At least he conveyed that he was hoping that everything would go well with us, instead of the oft-experienced impression that we were just a nuisance. Aiyar, wish he could be our teacher!!!
Btw, the point about "strain" ain't valid, cos I'm sure many sports end their training past 7 o'clock.
N oh yar! The dates for the Selangor Open next year are out!! I hope we can go... haha... must do well in Novices first!
Anw yeah thats it for now... Class chalet for the next 3 days.. To stay or not to stay, thats the question... think I'll see who stays first.. cos everyday also got St. John anyway...
Unfortunately for me, there was a door underneath, which my hand hit with a very sharp crack. Nicely done too, right above the joint. Well done Jonathan, well done. It didn't help that the two of them had a good laugh over it =Pp heheh... N I just realised such things are actually quite unhealthy... A large impact can detach your retinas apparently.
Oh yes, it was Squad 4 '05s farewell that night, why else would we be kicking about in school... I think some of the new songs that have been integrated into SJ are actually quite nice... haha... I recall that if it weren't for SJ, I'd probably not be listening to any Chinese songs even now.
Farewell... it didn't really bring back memories to me (cos I've still been active for the past year)... just realised that I don't know a number of the Squad 2s yet... I know them by sight, yes, but not by name... Just like my squad had diff people who's names started with "Wei ---" and "Xuan ---" this squad has many who's names are " --- Ling" and "Wan ---". Okay.
But even worst from Peng Siang and YiYang, who didn't know about 3/4 of the people there.. haha...
Well, the things the seniors said during the singalong are true.... Especially those from Di Jun... haha... If I had to name one of the best instructors, it would be him... Sure, we kena-ed a lot of pumpings from him, but he had a way of inspiring you to do better n earn your respect. He pushed us right to the limit, punished us when we couldn't past our limit, and this made us push out our limits even more. Little would we have known that the titchy short little Ambulances that he trained would one day actually make it to N-comp.
N yeah, with KiaBoon and Sihui's blogs, the whole world knows that a) Weiquan and I like to read storybooks at the most inopportune times n b) candle blowing was fun... heh
___________________________________________________________________
Received a phone call from Mr Ho Wei Kang on can't-remember-which-day... think it was wed or thurs... He was asking me whether I wanted to take a second S-paper... Part of the convo went something like
Mr Ho: So why not?
Me: Errr... I had one E... that one E neutralized everything
Mr Ho: (laughs) Wait. What was that E
Me (Covering mouth piece): Oh darn
Me: Errr... maths
Mr Ho: WHAT? MATHS! HELLO? HELLO?
Me: Errr yeah I know... oops...
Hahah... quite amusing... maths seems like one of those subjects you can either do really well or really badly in...
Mr Ho: Well, since you've given your reasons, I won't recommend you to do anything, but you still may like to consider. [Some text omitted]
Me: Oh ok, thank you.
The convo then turned to fencing
Mr Ho: I think at the moment you aren't doing too badly... a number of your members are enthusiastic
Me: Yeah, I know.
Mr Ho: But I hope your successors are as enthusiatic as you all, or I may have to close down the club
Me (Here-we-go-again): Err? But..
Mr Ho: Because its quite a strain on the teacher. No other teacher is willing to take up fencing as their CCA
Me: Oh ok...
Actually I didn't think it was ok, but well
Mr Ho: Anyway you all are doing quite well now, keep it up yeah
Me: Yup, thanks
Anyway at the end of the day I guess the convo was more of a encouragement than a discouragement =)... At least he conveyed that he was hoping that everything would go well with us, instead of the oft-experienced impression that we were just a nuisance. Aiyar, wish he could be our teacher!!!
Btw, the point about "strain" ain't valid, cos I'm sure many sports end their training past 7 o'clock.
N oh yar! The dates for the Selangor Open next year are out!! I hope we can go... haha... must do well in Novices first!
Anw yeah thats it for now... Class chalet for the next 3 days.. To stay or not to stay, thats the question... think I'll see who stays first.. cos everyday also got St. John anyway...
~JcZw~ at 10:58 pm
Friday, November 25, 2005
Roy Orbison: In Dreams
A candy coloured clown they call the sandman
Tiptoes to me room every night
Just to sprinkle stardust, and to whisper
Go to sleep, everything is alright
I close my eyes, then I drift away
Into the magic night, I softly say
A silent prayer, like dreamers do
Then I fall asleep to dream
My dreams of you
In dreams I walk with you
In dreams I talk to you
In dreams you're mine, all of the time we're together
In dreams, in dreams
But just before the dawn, I awake and find you gone
I can't help it, I can't help it, if I cry
I remember, when you said goodbye
Its too bad that all these things, can only happen in my dreams
Only in dreams
In beautiful dreams
Nice song. I've been having really weird dreams again the past few nights... Happily, not about DNA, gravitation, ionic equilibrium, trigonometry or otherwise.
The first literally had me waking up in cold sweat (and a blocked nose), so vivid it was. Time and again I had promised myself never to lose my temper since the last incident in sec. 2. But to have it happen, even in a dream, to a group of people whom I could never have vented my anger on in real life and gotten away with my self-respect.... Well it sure kept me awake for some time. I admit I was infinitely relieved to find that it WAS a dream..
The second... not terrifying... but equally vivid... how to say.. I almost wished that the situation in the dream was real, n the feeling of let-down when I woke up wasn't pleasant... But it was only a dream... life is never ideal anyway...
Yup incoherent post I know... but just felt like writing it...
Random comment: It is gratifying to know that there is one teacher out there that cares about fencing... Thank you =)
A candy coloured clown they call the sandman
Tiptoes to me room every night
Just to sprinkle stardust, and to whisper
Go to sleep, everything is alright
I close my eyes, then I drift away
Into the magic night, I softly say
A silent prayer, like dreamers do
Then I fall asleep to dream
My dreams of you
In dreams I walk with you
In dreams I talk to you
In dreams you're mine, all of the time we're together
In dreams, in dreams
But just before the dawn, I awake and find you gone
I can't help it, I can't help it, if I cry
I remember, when you said goodbye
Its too bad that all these things, can only happen in my dreams
Only in dreams
In beautiful dreams
Nice song. I've been having really weird dreams again the past few nights... Happily, not about DNA, gravitation, ionic equilibrium, trigonometry or otherwise.
The first literally had me waking up in cold sweat (and a blocked nose), so vivid it was. Time and again I had promised myself never to lose my temper since the last incident in sec. 2. But to have it happen, even in a dream, to a group of people whom I could never have vented my anger on in real life and gotten away with my self-respect.... Well it sure kept me awake for some time. I admit I was infinitely relieved to find that it WAS a dream..
The second... not terrifying... but equally vivid... how to say.. I almost wished that the situation in the dream was real, n the feeling of let-down when I woke up wasn't pleasant... But it was only a dream... life is never ideal anyway...
Yup incoherent post I know... but just felt like writing it...
Random comment: It is gratifying to know that there is one teacher out there that cares about fencing... Thank you =)
~JcZw~ at 2:03 pm
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Ah I'm blogging quite late about this but then yesterday I was super tired... Shouldn't have gone fencing in the evening... I was like fencing any-old-how, but at least Wei Yang gave me some tips so it was somewhat fruitful.
Finally! I went to watch Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire with Evelyn, Wei Lun and Xuan Cheng (who's still vegetarian despite purportedly losing his halo at the mock comp some years back xD). Well, spoilers, so don't read on if you haven't watched n want to surprise yourself.
What I didn't like about the show:
They cut about 2/3 of the details from the book. I think this is cos many chapters were spent with people talking to each other without much action (such as the Veritiserum or however you spell it), which wouldn't have been too good on the show, and also cos too many flashbacks wouldn't appeal to children
They cut out the world cup. WHAT THE! At very least they should have shown why Krum was the "best seeker in the world". Come on, Harry Potter desperately needs a reminder of what Quiddich is like, considering we've only had fleeting glances at it since the second movie.
They cut out a lot of the pensieve bits.
They added in uneccessary scenes. As stated by Sihui, the dragon bit was totally uneccessary.
Voldermort looked stupid. Not even remotely frightening! He just looked like some white skinned guy who'd taken a running leap into a wall nose-first. I mean, he didn't even have a proper hood and cloak! What sort of bad guy is that! But ok, the acting was great.. heh...
They cutout the explanantion of Priori Incantatum (Or however you spell it) that is, the bit about how Voldermort and Harry's wands could join together.
Why is Cho Chang scottish! Is it too much to ask for a Chinese person to act? (I'm talking about the accent bit, in terms of appearance, yeah she's okay)
Bad language. In the book Harry never said "you are a d***"
They left out Ludo Bagman. I don't like him, but he was quite a major character in the book.
I can't remember the rest, cos I haven't touched the book since primary 6 when it came out.
What I liked about the show:
Well, my aesthetic sense may be low, but I still reckon the girls who are meant to be pretty are and the guys who are meant to be handsome are also, so either good casting or good makeup.
They made Cedric's death look better. At least here he died trying to defend Harry instead of being taken by surprise. It gives a new meaning to the end when Dumbledore mentions that he "was loyal to the end" or something like that.
The ending was so sweet... When it showed the three of them walking towards the balcony... Vaguely like the end of Empire Strikes Back (Star Wars Episode 5).
Aerial effects very impressive. Brings on how majectic Hogwarts is. The roof is gonna need some repairs after the dragon though
They left out the house elves! Thank goodness for that... I like them almost as much as I like Jar Jar Binks.
They can say "avada kedavra" very fast. They must have practised for ages.
Generally very exciting and inspiring movie (although the situation doesn't really apply to me... I don't believe in magic, for one thing).
Yup... generally quite a nice show to watch, although for book-readers, you might find it somewhat lacking in many parts.
I've found a loophole. If the killing curse does not leave marks, yet it could be deflected by a suit of armour in Order of the Phoenix, then you wouldn't be able to kill someone wearing very thick clothes. That means, what the Ministry of Magic needs, is not Aurors, but riot police.
____________________________________________________________________________________
On monday night I went out with my Primary School people... haha.. the effect you get on people when they ask "who are you going out with" n you tell them "my primary school class" is like !!!!!!!!!!
Not bad, about 1/3 to 1/2 of the class turned out! Everyone looked different, although I'd seen a few of them earlier this year also. Hmmm... I'm now the second shortest in class, not the shortest =D
Pity I was being plagued by a cold, and stomach problems, cos of the after effects of eating lozenges. Anyway we went to Marche at Suntec n had fun... heh...
6/2
Following that we walked around and finally planted our roots in front of the Esplanade.
Before relocating to in front of the Marina Mandarin.
Yup, it was great being around them again... Its amazing we've been able to squeeze in at least one outing per year since Pr 6. Haha... how we joked, laughed, got scolded, got our books flung out of class when we were still in Kong Hwa. I can remember... The chinese projects at my house.. the occasional birthday party... the nice teachers, the unreasonable teachers... so on n so forth.. Ah those were the days... but I wouldn't want to live through them again... haha... JC life is much more fun, n P school was terrifying when I went through it..
_____________________________________________________________________________________
My hospital attachment at CGH seems approved.. heheh... It sounds scary though... must wear formal clothes for 5 days... Where am I gonna get a tie from?!
Yup so thats it for now..
Cheers
Finally! I went to watch Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire with Evelyn, Wei Lun and Xuan Cheng (who's still vegetarian despite purportedly losing his halo at the mock comp some years back xD). Well, spoilers, so don't read on if you haven't watched n want to surprise yourself.
What I didn't like about the show:
They cut about 2/3 of the details from the book. I think this is cos many chapters were spent with people talking to each other without much action (such as the Veritiserum or however you spell it), which wouldn't have been too good on the show, and also cos too many flashbacks wouldn't appeal to children
They cut out the world cup. WHAT THE! At very least they should have shown why Krum was the "best seeker in the world". Come on, Harry Potter desperately needs a reminder of what Quiddich is like, considering we've only had fleeting glances at it since the second movie.
They cut out a lot of the pensieve bits.
They added in uneccessary scenes. As stated by Sihui, the dragon bit was totally uneccessary.
Voldermort looked stupid. Not even remotely frightening! He just looked like some white skinned guy who'd taken a running leap into a wall nose-first. I mean, he didn't even have a proper hood and cloak! What sort of bad guy is that! But ok, the acting was great.. heh...
They cutout the explanantion of Priori Incantatum (Or however you spell it) that is, the bit about how Voldermort and Harry's wands could join together.
Why is Cho Chang scottish! Is it too much to ask for a Chinese person to act? (I'm talking about the accent bit, in terms of appearance, yeah she's okay)
Bad language. In the book Harry never said "you are a d***"
They left out Ludo Bagman. I don't like him, but he was quite a major character in the book.
I can't remember the rest, cos I haven't touched the book since primary 6 when it came out.
What I liked about the show:
Well, my aesthetic sense may be low, but I still reckon the girls who are meant to be pretty are and the guys who are meant to be handsome are also, so either good casting or good makeup.
They made Cedric's death look better. At least here he died trying to defend Harry instead of being taken by surprise. It gives a new meaning to the end when Dumbledore mentions that he "was loyal to the end" or something like that.
The ending was so sweet... When it showed the three of them walking towards the balcony... Vaguely like the end of Empire Strikes Back (Star Wars Episode 5).
Aerial effects very impressive. Brings on how majectic Hogwarts is. The roof is gonna need some repairs after the dragon though
They left out the house elves! Thank goodness for that... I like them almost as much as I like Jar Jar Binks.
They can say "avada kedavra" very fast. They must have practised for ages.
Generally very exciting and inspiring movie (although the situation doesn't really apply to me... I don't believe in magic, for one thing).
Yup... generally quite a nice show to watch, although for book-readers, you might find it somewhat lacking in many parts.
I've found a loophole. If the killing curse does not leave marks, yet it could be deflected by a suit of armour in Order of the Phoenix, then you wouldn't be able to kill someone wearing very thick clothes. That means, what the Ministry of Magic needs, is not Aurors, but riot police.
____________________________________________________________________________________
On monday night I went out with my Primary School people... haha.. the effect you get on people when they ask "who are you going out with" n you tell them "my primary school class" is like !!!!!!!!!!
Not bad, about 1/3 to 1/2 of the class turned out! Everyone looked different, although I'd seen a few of them earlier this year also. Hmmm... I'm now the second shortest in class, not the shortest =D
Pity I was being plagued by a cold, and stomach problems, cos of the after effects of eating lozenges. Anyway we went to Marche at Suntec n had fun... heh...
6/2
Following that we walked around and finally planted our roots in front of the Esplanade.
Before relocating to in front of the Marina Mandarin.
Yup, it was great being around them again... Its amazing we've been able to squeeze in at least one outing per year since Pr 6. Haha... how we joked, laughed, got scolded, got our books flung out of class when we were still in Kong Hwa. I can remember... The chinese projects at my house.. the occasional birthday party... the nice teachers, the unreasonable teachers... so on n so forth.. Ah those were the days... but I wouldn't want to live through them again... haha... JC life is much more fun, n P school was terrifying when I went through it..
_____________________________________________________________________________________
My hospital attachment at CGH seems approved.. heheh... It sounds scary though... must wear formal clothes for 5 days... Where am I gonna get a tie from?!
Yup so thats it for now..
Cheers
~JcZw~ at 12:32 pm
Sunday, November 20, 2005
While I was attempting to find my maths papers for tuition tomorrow, I thought of the unnamed fencer who did a split (he was... well, a he) to siam an attack during the U-17.
Just a random thought... had he been practising splits for a crucial moment like this, or did he just spontaneously do it on a rush of adrenaline? If its the later, I only can say "ouch". Maybe the next time he'll have to take part in the ladies' event... But yeah... that was a really brilliant counter-attack anyway... heh.
Anyway.. pictures of the Changi General Hospital sortie we made on saturday... heh...
Its not often I post about FAC... usually its complaining abt fencing or st. john... but well here it is...
We went to CGH to help out with their graduation cum concert thingy of the kids in their childcare centre. There were 5 of us from VJ (4 girls, one guy. Guess who was the guy) and 5 from TJ's first aid unit, the same people we had our combined activity with (4 guys 1 girl). Wei quan was there! wahah.. Anw yeah...
Xuanyi and I had to help to get those children into their graduation gowns... Admittedly, they were really very cute... haha... although there was this little boy who kept whacking me with a plastic lobster... Xuanyi was great with them! I think she was less awkward and less intimidating... I bet they couldn't hear half of what I was talking about (low frequency).. But yeah they were very friendly n all...
Then wei quan and I came across a set of words in the classroom wall. Mind, this is a KINDERGARTEN class.
AND we didn't know what some of the words were! What is xi shuai?! Later found out that it was "cricket" or something... but oh man! So demoralizing!
Later we went down to help set up the stalls... Since Xuanyi n my stall had already been set up by the hospital people.. So went to help the TJ people fold balloons...
Wei Quan, Elaine and Chuck from TJ FAU... folding balloons... Hey now I know how to fold a dog!
Pity there are no cat balloon sculptures... Cats are just too good to be accurately depicted =D
Then again, luckily there are no spider balloon sculptures.
The host of balloons folded by hospital staff and JC students... haha...
Well I was kept busy at this "bowling station" picking up pins, retreieving balls, almost being hit by flying balls thrown by children who didn't know the meaning of "throw only when the lane is clear". I had to bend over so many times I thought my knee was going to give way. No time to take pics though.... sad
The children's songs they played were so nice! Very pleasant... Some I thought were already out of date, like "I Saw Three Ships Go Sailing By" but no, they are still playing... I wouldn't mind owning a children's CD.. =)
Well left at 7.45...
What I learnt? Well, it takes a certain skill to work with little children... Xuanyi gets along fine with them, and she wants to be a pediatrician next time.. I think she'll be fine in that... me, I can't talk to more than 3 people at one go (she could talk to 6) and I can't sustain a long conversation with even one of them. But yes, I still learnt how to talk, endure being hit, help them put on shoes, socks, EQ, blahblah...
Anyway a few more pictures...
I was stunned to find, when I went back for training, that many of the flats behind Anglican had been levelled! Now its one big patch of brownery... you can see all the way to the bus stops at food centre... I remember that once after sports day, to avoid an *ahem* birthday celebration from over-enthusiastic St. John people (which consisted of various parts of one's anatomy being slung against various objects) I ran from outside school to the 4th floor of one of the flats and hid there until everything was over... heh...
Some of the scouts we trained... They took us at our word that "the team leader doesn't have to be big sized or good in first aid". Consequently, their elected leader was this short little sec. 1 chap (who was STILL taller than me when I was in sec. 1) who was very amusing... haha...
A cat and his bed. Kit likes to sleep on my father's car. My father says its cos the warm engine is very comfortable for him... Once I was washing the car on sunday when our domestic helper walked past n told the cat "He's cleaning your bed" haha...
Even more recently, my father just came home after driving through the rain. After the engine was shut down, Kit cam leaping outof the darkness, sprang onto the bonnet and immediately slipped off again, unable to get a hold on the slick surface... oh man.. amusing.. wahaha... But of course, he landed on his feet =)
Anyway, I've decided to think over my problems for a while... realised that it could be much worst.. n that people are in more difficult situations than myself. I hope we all can endure through whatever is thrown at us...
We will cos we must
Just a random thought... had he been practising splits for a crucial moment like this, or did he just spontaneously do it on a rush of adrenaline? If its the later, I only can say "ouch". Maybe the next time he'll have to take part in the ladies' event... But yeah... that was a really brilliant counter-attack anyway... heh.
Anyway.. pictures of the Changi General Hospital sortie we made on saturday... heh...
Its not often I post about FAC... usually its complaining abt fencing or st. john... but well here it is...
We went to CGH to help out with their graduation cum concert thingy of the kids in their childcare centre. There were 5 of us from VJ (4 girls, one guy. Guess who was the guy) and 5 from TJ's first aid unit, the same people we had our combined activity with (4 guys 1 girl). Wei quan was there! wahah.. Anw yeah...
Xuanyi and I had to help to get those children into their graduation gowns... Admittedly, they were really very cute... haha... although there was this little boy who kept whacking me with a plastic lobster... Xuanyi was great with them! I think she was less awkward and less intimidating... I bet they couldn't hear half of what I was talking about (low frequency).. But yeah they were very friendly n all...
Then wei quan and I came across a set of words in the classroom wall. Mind, this is a KINDERGARTEN class.
AND we didn't know what some of the words were! What is xi shuai?! Later found out that it was "cricket" or something... but oh man! So demoralizing!
Later we went down to help set up the stalls... Since Xuanyi n my stall had already been set up by the hospital people.. So went to help the TJ people fold balloons...
Wei Quan, Elaine and Chuck from TJ FAU... folding balloons... Hey now I know how to fold a dog!
Pity there are no cat balloon sculptures... Cats are just too good to be accurately depicted =D
Then again, luckily there are no spider balloon sculptures.
The host of balloons folded by hospital staff and JC students... haha...
Well I was kept busy at this "bowling station" picking up pins, retreieving balls, almost being hit by flying balls thrown by children who didn't know the meaning of "throw only when the lane is clear". I had to bend over so many times I thought my knee was going to give way. No time to take pics though.... sad
The children's songs they played were so nice! Very pleasant... Some I thought were already out of date, like "I Saw Three Ships Go Sailing By" but no, they are still playing... I wouldn't mind owning a children's CD.. =)
Well left at 7.45...
What I learnt? Well, it takes a certain skill to work with little children... Xuanyi gets along fine with them, and she wants to be a pediatrician next time.. I think she'll be fine in that... me, I can't talk to more than 3 people at one go (she could talk to 6) and I can't sustain a long conversation with even one of them. But yes, I still learnt how to talk, endure being hit, help them put on shoes, socks, EQ, blahblah...
Anyway a few more pictures...
I was stunned to find, when I went back for training, that many of the flats behind Anglican had been levelled! Now its one big patch of brownery... you can see all the way to the bus stops at food centre... I remember that once after sports day, to avoid an *ahem* birthday celebration from over-enthusiastic St. John people (which consisted of various parts of one's anatomy being slung against various objects) I ran from outside school to the 4th floor of one of the flats and hid there until everything was over... heh...
Some of the scouts we trained... They took us at our word that "the team leader doesn't have to be big sized or good in first aid". Consequently, their elected leader was this short little sec. 1 chap (who was STILL taller than me when I was in sec. 1) who was very amusing... haha...
A cat and his bed. Kit likes to sleep on my father's car. My father says its cos the warm engine is very comfortable for him... Once I was washing the car on sunday when our domestic helper walked past n told the cat "He's cleaning your bed" haha...
Even more recently, my father just came home after driving through the rain. After the engine was shut down, Kit cam leaping outof the darkness, sprang onto the bonnet and immediately slipped off again, unable to get a hold on the slick surface... oh man.. amusing.. wahaha... But of course, he landed on his feet =)
Anyway, I've decided to think over my problems for a while... realised that it could be much worst.. n that people are in more difficult situations than myself. I hope we all can endure through whatever is thrown at us...
We will cos we must
~JcZw~ at 11:05 pm
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Its no wonder I'm perpetually feeling tired and irritable if I'm posting so late at night (or early in the morning, to be optimistic)... I was just looking through the two orientation proposals and wondering if I had missed out any points... I bet I have, I haven't done proposal work for so long..
I think that in St. John we should be primarily first aiders (that is, practical training) instead of spending so much time pen-pushing... But all this paper work is ineveitable, so, oh well...
This has been one busy week.... Fencing on tuesday, wednesday, thursday for at least 4 hours (from 6 to 10 pm), more today (probably 10am to 2pm after st. john) and so on... My left knee is taking a hammering from particularly energetic bouts with Maurice and Kuhara yesterday... (For the record, I lost both).
But oh well its been fruitful... I did my best second-intention attack so far on Kuhara... But my goodness he is so tall and always aims for the arm... As Maurice put it, I cannot stop hit due to "obvious physical limitations" I'm so gonna get him for that....
Coupled with having to train the scouts this week... We trained their first aid two years ago n they won champion in their first aid category... So this year they asked us to train them again, specifying OUR BATCH. But why our batch? We haven't done competition first aid for 2 years (and the last case I attended to was... oh, myself at sentosa, but that was such a simple injury).
Anyway its really sian n tiring... Not that they're bad... they learn fast... But must wake up at 6.40 to reach school to teach them, repeat over and over, fight an incessant urge to sleep, miss lunch, blahblah... coupled with the exertion after THAT to conduct a swift (very swift) migration from AHS to fencing... its really whoa...
Haiyar that accounts a lot for my irritability these few days... I just don't get the kick in coming back to SJ like I did before... sianess and fatigue combined is such a pain. I think the main reason is cos I don't have time to stay back n talk with them like last time... Now its always rush rush and rush somemore..
At least I could go out with Soo Yee, Evelyn n Wei Quan yesterday... hoho... like old times... When we would sit in macdonalds and just laugh, gripe, encourage, joke and so on... haha... As I discussed with Soo Yee that day, its true that we co-ed school people don't get as much school spirit as a single sex school (hey we don't even have a school cheer!), but boy the CCA spirit is super strong... Never mind that St. John is a co-ed CCA...
Well we'll see how things develop as the holidays go by...
And for the record, although I still have faith in myself and even more in God to pull through the situations now, I have given up on inspirational media material such as quotes from shows, success stories from Readers' Digest and so on. I have realised that for every one of these stories, there are maybe 99 that didn't turn out so well
I'm not saying I cannot be that "rare breed of cat" (quote, General Spaatz) that makes it, but its time I stopped trying so hard and trusted more in God (thanks for the reminder yeah? you know who you are =D)
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow
I think that in St. John we should be primarily first aiders (that is, practical training) instead of spending so much time pen-pushing... But all this paper work is ineveitable, so, oh well...
This has been one busy week.... Fencing on tuesday, wednesday, thursday for at least 4 hours (from 6 to 10 pm), more today (probably 10am to 2pm after st. john) and so on... My left knee is taking a hammering from particularly energetic bouts with Maurice and Kuhara yesterday... (For the record, I lost both).
But oh well its been fruitful... I did my best second-intention attack so far on Kuhara... But my goodness he is so tall and always aims for the arm... As Maurice put it, I cannot stop hit due to "obvious physical limitations" I'm so gonna get him for that....
Coupled with having to train the scouts this week... We trained their first aid two years ago n they won champion in their first aid category... So this year they asked us to train them again, specifying OUR BATCH. But why our batch? We haven't done competition first aid for 2 years (and the last case I attended to was... oh, myself at sentosa, but that was such a simple injury).
Anyway its really sian n tiring... Not that they're bad... they learn fast... But must wake up at 6.40 to reach school to teach them, repeat over and over, fight an incessant urge to sleep, miss lunch, blahblah... coupled with the exertion after THAT to conduct a swift (very swift) migration from AHS to fencing... its really whoa...
Haiyar that accounts a lot for my irritability these few days... I just don't get the kick in coming back to SJ like I did before... sianess and fatigue combined is such a pain. I think the main reason is cos I don't have time to stay back n talk with them like last time... Now its always rush rush and rush somemore..
At least I could go out with Soo Yee, Evelyn n Wei Quan yesterday... hoho... like old times... When we would sit in macdonalds and just laugh, gripe, encourage, joke and so on... haha... As I discussed with Soo Yee that day, its true that we co-ed school people don't get as much school spirit as a single sex school (hey we don't even have a school cheer!), but boy the CCA spirit is super strong... Never mind that St. John is a co-ed CCA...
Well we'll see how things develop as the holidays go by...
And for the record, although I still have faith in myself and even more in God to pull through the situations now, I have given up on inspirational media material such as quotes from shows, success stories from Readers' Digest and so on. I have realised that for every one of these stories, there are maybe 99 that didn't turn out so well
I'm not saying I cannot be that "rare breed of cat" (quote, General Spaatz) that makes it, but its time I stopped trying so hard and trusted more in God (thanks for the reminder yeah? you know who you are =D)
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow
~JcZw~ at 12:57 am
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Why didn't I think of this before! To make photos load faster, resize them first BEFORE uploading to photobucket! Argh! Lag! Blur! Alright...
I hope the new picture is aesthetically appealing... I find it quite nice... haha... I used the same song before Christmas last year when I first set up the blog ahaha... I've managed to personalize it quite a bit in the elapsing year yar xD through downloading skins, or looking at people's sources and editing HTML. Yay
Incidentally... the picture is that of a star going supernova in some galaxy... The pictures at the website are simply awesome...
Looking at stars, two hymns come to mind. One is already there, "Do you hear what I hear"... One of my favourite Christmas carols.
The other, I'm not sure its name, but it sounds pretty much like Psalms 8
Oh Lord my God
How excellent your name is
How excellent your name in all the Earth
Your glory fills the heavens
Beyond the farthest star
How excellent your name in all the earth
When I think about the heavens
The moon and all the stars
I wonder what you ever saw in me
But you took me and you loved me
And you've given me a crown
Now I'll reign with you throughout eternity
.
.
.
.
There's a second verse also I think, which I cannot remember.... bleah... But its nice! Its a simple song, like something out of Sunday School! Thats why its nice... haha...
Stars are such pretty objects actually... I won't forget the time on Mount Kinabalu, climbing to the peak at 2 am and the guide asking us to turn down all our lamps. We saw stars literally... From one horizon to the other, and as they say in the books, "looking like diamonds on black velvet". Really regret not having a camera that could have taken a nice photo of them....
Oh well
Hmm fencing... Personal training going ok, but club training's not good.... Oh man... I wish more people would treat CCA as their main CCA n not as sort of a filler CCA...
Met an RJ foilist, a girl by the name of Candice, who's converting to epee... She's coming on tuesday so I think I'll be fencing against her... Hope I act epee-ist enough.... I move, parry and attack too much like a foilist already... haha...
On saturday, she, Jonathan Tay and I were sitting talking and much to my envy, I discovered that very few people have mispelled Jon. Tay's name as "JoHnathan"!! So good!!! aiyo!! Mine has been mispelled more times than I can count! haha... The ultimate insult was when in primary 3 I had my name engraved on my watch as Johnathan by a teacher under the Crime Prevention Scheme for scouts...
Sighz... stress from all over. I feel like giving up on optimism... Thanks Eileen for your encouraging reply though... 7 more weeks to go...
I hope the new picture is aesthetically appealing... I find it quite nice... haha... I used the same song before Christmas last year when I first set up the blog ahaha... I've managed to personalize it quite a bit in the elapsing year yar xD through downloading skins, or looking at people's sources and editing HTML. Yay
Incidentally... the picture is that of a star going supernova in some galaxy... The pictures at the website are simply awesome...
Looking at stars, two hymns come to mind. One is already there, "Do you hear what I hear"... One of my favourite Christmas carols.
The other, I'm not sure its name, but it sounds pretty much like Psalms 8
Oh Lord my God
How excellent your name is
How excellent your name in all the Earth
Your glory fills the heavens
Beyond the farthest star
How excellent your name in all the earth
When I think about the heavens
The moon and all the stars
I wonder what you ever saw in me
But you took me and you loved me
And you've given me a crown
Now I'll reign with you throughout eternity
.
.
.
.
There's a second verse also I think, which I cannot remember.... bleah... But its nice! Its a simple song, like something out of Sunday School! Thats why its nice... haha...
Stars are such pretty objects actually... I won't forget the time on Mount Kinabalu, climbing to the peak at 2 am and the guide asking us to turn down all our lamps. We saw stars literally... From one horizon to the other, and as they say in the books, "looking like diamonds on black velvet". Really regret not having a camera that could have taken a nice photo of them....
Oh well
Hmm fencing... Personal training going ok, but club training's not good.... Oh man... I wish more people would treat CCA as their main CCA n not as sort of a filler CCA...
Met an RJ foilist, a girl by the name of Candice, who's converting to epee... She's coming on tuesday so I think I'll be fencing against her... Hope I act epee-ist enough.... I move, parry and attack too much like a foilist already... haha...
On saturday, she, Jonathan Tay and I were sitting talking and much to my envy, I discovered that very few people have mispelled Jon. Tay's name as "JoHnathan"!! So good!!! aiyo!! Mine has been mispelled more times than I can count! haha... The ultimate insult was when in primary 3 I had my name engraved on my watch as Johnathan by a teacher under the Crime Prevention Scheme for scouts...
Sighz... stress from all over. I feel like giving up on optimism... Thanks Eileen for your encouraging reply though... 7 more weeks to go...
~JcZw~ at 11:25 pm
Friday, November 11, 2005
Hooray! PW is over for good! Happiness - until march next year that is =) But now we've two months to do....
Work (who asked my phy n maths to be so horrendous... n to apply for bio s-paper...)
Fencing
St. John
And again! Fencing n St. John just mayyy clash in january. Irritating! Oh well, I really really hope not, cos I won't miss the Novices for the world.... =D
Well, wednesday was quite a tough training session with coach... Learnt how to hold back the blade in foil for an hour, which meant moving the whole arm instead of just the forearm, and thus consuming more energy =( After that had another hour with my brother.
1 hour 15 min after my training started, after saluting my brother n putting on my mask, an object fell from the top my mask. I was mildly surprised, cos although it was not unknown for pieces of paint to fall from the interior, my mask was fairly new and not yet used very much.
I removed the mask and shook out the object. What was it?
A little lizard
Oh sure, it was little alright, but I'd rather note that it was a full-blown, alive-and-kicking lizard! Ewwww disgusting! It must have grown a little too hot for it in there, hiding in the top flap of the mask, but its like, barely two inches from my eyes, less than 1 cm to the top of my head... I'm so not gonna leave my mask at my coach's place again!!!
Then the next day, when I went back to school to submit I&R, I had another close encounter with a cockroach. The description is probably not appropriate to put here, but basically it consisted of me being forced to keep very still while it explored the walls about 30 cm from myself. For the first time I notice how extremely hairy cockroaches are... yuckz.
okay. Anyway... some pictures of the past two weeks...
My penguin observing the multitude of Chinese notes the night before the exam.
My PW group's historical last home meeting on the Saturday before OP... Here Xunai hadn't come yet, so we were entertaining ourselves first playing Battlefield: Vietnam...
The decorations at Parkway before lunch yesterday.. Very pretty too
Equipment for Epee: Mask, wire, glove, as well as suit (hanging on chair) and plastron.
Foil fencing at 9 am in the morning on saturdays... When everyone's still sleepy and all...
Jon Boon's epee before training.... I reckon his guard wouldn't be so shiny after training =D
Mark Ortega's first training session (using the practise plastic blades). One of the few gratifying things of fencing is seeing members such as him, Jon Boon, Maurice and Daniel trying to do better and aiming to do well in Novices.
Yup!
Work (who asked my phy n maths to be so horrendous... n to apply for bio s-paper...)
Fencing
St. John
And again! Fencing n St. John just mayyy clash in january. Irritating! Oh well, I really really hope not, cos I won't miss the Novices for the world.... =D
Well, wednesday was quite a tough training session with coach... Learnt how to hold back the blade in foil for an hour, which meant moving the whole arm instead of just the forearm, and thus consuming more energy =( After that had another hour with my brother.
1 hour 15 min after my training started, after saluting my brother n putting on my mask, an object fell from the top my mask. I was mildly surprised, cos although it was not unknown for pieces of paint to fall from the interior, my mask was fairly new and not yet used very much.
I removed the mask and shook out the object. What was it?
A little lizard
Oh sure, it was little alright, but I'd rather note that it was a full-blown, alive-and-kicking lizard! Ewwww disgusting! It must have grown a little too hot for it in there, hiding in the top flap of the mask, but its like, barely two inches from my eyes, less than 1 cm to the top of my head... I'm so not gonna leave my mask at my coach's place again!!!
Then the next day, when I went back to school to submit I&R, I had another close encounter with a cockroach. The description is probably not appropriate to put here, but basically it consisted of me being forced to keep very still while it explored the walls about 30 cm from myself. For the first time I notice how extremely hairy cockroaches are... yuckz.
okay. Anyway... some pictures of the past two weeks...
My penguin observing the multitude of Chinese notes the night before the exam.
My PW group's historical last home meeting on the Saturday before OP... Here Xunai hadn't come yet, so we were entertaining ourselves first playing Battlefield: Vietnam...
The decorations at Parkway before lunch yesterday.. Very pretty too
Equipment for Epee: Mask, wire, glove, as well as suit (hanging on chair) and plastron.
Foil fencing at 9 am in the morning on saturdays... When everyone's still sleepy and all...
Jon Boon's epee before training.... I reckon his guard wouldn't be so shiny after training =D
Mark Ortega's first training session (using the practise plastic blades). One of the few gratifying things of fencing is seeing members such as him, Jon Boon, Maurice and Daniel trying to do better and aiming to do well in Novices.
Yup!
~JcZw~ at 8:14 pm
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Yayness! OP is done, n it went fairly well, may I add, just that I stumbled a little, forgot to say one point in the Q&A, and did a bit of fumbling with the slides cos xunai's laptop keys were of a more unique configuration =D (or actually just cos I didn't read the labels properly lar).
Funny lar, as predicted, the project was so water tight they had nothing to ask us... They just went through all the things that Tinyau said at the back of the presentation, n we all started our replies with "As mentioned earlier..." blah
It was scary to see the other groups.... Their Q&As vaguely resembled a foil match... Attack, parry, riposte, counter parry (and for people like Pei en, their riposte consisting of a rhetorical question must have been absolutely devastating to the examiners). No wonder the people from S12 and S23 had such different responses when I asked them... Q&A can be so different from group to group...
Very tired throughout the day... Slept really late last night and woke up so early! Heard that Dory and ChuaH did some mouth exercises in the morning... haha... mine consisted of yawning a lot. Just came home and took an hour long nap... Don't think I could have afforded the time to go with them to Dory's house... Would have arrived there in time to start coming home for fencing.
Foil lesson tonight at 8 pm... Going to reach by 7 to get some Epee in as well... Man, I feel just a little bit demoralized by my teacher who came to look for me to tell me to stop those people who's results were bad to go down too often. I don't think people like Mr Tan, Mr Seet, Mr Wee or the other PE teachers would excuse their members cos of bad results.
I wish she cared just a little about how the club fairs, instead of just treating us like "just make sure you get yourself home safely, have a fun time at fencing, and by the way if you can win a medal then its a bonus". Compare to the other sports where its like "Since you're an established, you should be going all out to do our best" blahblah. 0
On the other hand, to be fair, it could be that fencing is an individual sport, so it doesn't really matter, but believe me, one unskilled member in a team event can be absolutely disastrous.
Also heard from Alvin that the CCA report should have been done by the teacher! Not the CCA leader! Feel sooo cheated! Although I don't mind having to do it for her, but every little thing like that, is one more drop of demorilization leaking into Victoria and I.
Oh well... Anyway I've shot at the foil indiv. novices next year to fight for... time to continue preperations!
Funny lar, as predicted, the project was so water tight they had nothing to ask us... They just went through all the things that Tinyau said at the back of the presentation, n we all started our replies with "As mentioned earlier..." blah
It was scary to see the other groups.... Their Q&As vaguely resembled a foil match... Attack, parry, riposte, counter parry (and for people like Pei en, their riposte consisting of a rhetorical question must have been absolutely devastating to the examiners). No wonder the people from S12 and S23 had such different responses when I asked them... Q&A can be so different from group to group...
Very tired throughout the day... Slept really late last night and woke up so early! Heard that Dory and ChuaH did some mouth exercises in the morning... haha... mine consisted of yawning a lot. Just came home and took an hour long nap... Don't think I could have afforded the time to go with them to Dory's house... Would have arrived there in time to start coming home for fencing.
Foil lesson tonight at 8 pm... Going to reach by 7 to get some Epee in as well... Man, I feel just a little bit demoralized by my teacher who came to look for me to tell me to stop those people who's results were bad to go down too often. I don't think people like Mr Tan, Mr Seet, Mr Wee or the other PE teachers would excuse their members cos of bad results.
I wish she cared just a little about how the club fairs, instead of just treating us like "just make sure you get yourself home safely, have a fun time at fencing, and by the way if you can win a medal then its a bonus". Compare to the other sports where its like "Since you're an established, you should be going all out to do our best" blahblah. 0
On the other hand, to be fair, it could be that fencing is an individual sport, so it doesn't really matter, but believe me, one unskilled member in a team event can be absolutely disastrous.
Also heard from Alvin that the CCA report should have been done by the teacher! Not the CCA leader! Feel sooo cheated! Although I don't mind having to do it for her, but every little thing like that, is one more drop of demorilization leaking into Victoria and I.
Oh well... Anyway I've shot at the foil indiv. novices next year to fight for... time to continue preperations!
~JcZw~ at 6:03 pm
Saturday, November 05, 2005
Ahh sweet relief at last! Yesterday's church did give a respite from all the pressures around... Quite refreshing, just being able to sort of relax you know.. n be reminded that God is there for us.. yeah...
Also great to be among church friends again.... Well, the youths maybe, especially the few that are around my age.. Although our youth group is still new, and its sometimes very hard to juggle youth group and other activities, the other teenagers there are still fun to be around.
Yup this post will largely centre around my friends among the youths in our church.. probably none of them will ever come across this blog, but yeah, they're a good bunch n definitely as worth writing about as my class or my squad.
During the post service refreshments I was talking to Chee Keen and Yen Chin. Both are year 2s, the former in RJ while the latter is in VJ, 04A51. They were discussing their upcoming exam, mainly econs, for its one of two (the other being maths) subjects they had in common...
Chee Keen: You know if you look at your palm, you can see an e^x curve and a ln x curve
Yen Chin: Where where?
Chee Keen: There! *traces lines with hand*
I was choking on my cereal drink watching them studying their palms with deadly earnest. After a long pause
Yen Chin: Hey this is useful. But what if theres someone who's curves aren't correct?
Chee Keen (peering over): Hey, your e^x curve is kinked!
Yen Chin: Kinked? No its not!
Chee Keen: Yes it is! Its discontinuous! You cannot refer to your palm already!
Well, you get the idea.
The other youths mainly center around the table tennis gang. That is, the youths that spend most of their free time playing table tennis in the little office across the corridor. The table tennis table has long been a source of entertainment since it made its appearance last year...
These include:
My brother with his flat trajectory smashes, aggressive in a match, and generally very cool with the occasional flash of humour =)
George and Ritchie, two brothers who play a really good game.. George can score by hitting the ball even with his back turned to the table. Their sister Shirley (from Swiss Cottage, with their legendary St. John division... haha) occasionally joins in..
Shawn and Gabriel. Shawn is a tennis player from VS (we spent one conversation talking about the whole co-ed thing... haha.... ) while Gabriel is a member of ACS (I)'s star rugby team. When paired together in a double's match they totally dominate.
Wilfrid is one year younger than me, but was from the same primary school... He's from NCC but isn't really loud and flamboyant like others i've met.. Quite a nice guy.. should be doing his Os about now I guess. His brother Wilbur is a Scout and sometimes the three of us can have a hobnob on various uniform group issues...
Chee Keen, whom I've mentioned above, was from RI and it was he that advised me not to come to RJ actually.. He was from Boy's Brigade in his secondary school and can empathize a lot on various leadership issues in uniform groups. He was also from my old church and, I think, was one of the only sensible nice people there.
Chee Kit is his younger brother, also from BB... He's small and funny and very enthusiastic in everything he does... He plans a lot of the games during youth group... Obviously, age doesn't matter in this community.
Yen Chin is probably the "closest to home" aside from my brother and Chee Keen. He, like my sister, was from Writers' Circle in VJ, and is always around to give advice on various stuff like "Aiyar! Mid years aren't that important, just pass, but make sure you do really well for promo" and "OP arh! Just rehearse and rehearse and rehearse..." haha...
The last of the youths are Delfilia and Stephanie, two sisters who are from Indonesia, albeit Chinese Indonesians. Delfilia is from Cedar Girls' (not in choir though) Youth Flying Club! I mean, thats like so cool, she got to ride on a C-130! haha.. Stephanie is one year younger, in Kuo Chuan Presbyterian I think... taking her O-levels now... Yup, they don't play all that much table tennis, but they do talk, especially about school, CCA and especially during wedding dinners (yeah, there have been three weddings this year alr... hoho)
Ooops... I almost forgot... De Zhi is the last member of the 4 JC members... He's a kayaker from NYJC n Chee Keen's friend... He's the one was once said "They found a body in the Kallang Basin, at the same time I get a skin infection after training..." He n Chee Keen do most of the skits and "live-ads" for the youth groups. Yup
Yup, so thats about all of us... not a big group for sure, but hopefully the group will become more established, and maybe one day in the very near future I'll find out what is it about Youth Groups that seem to give some of my Christian friends so much to do and talk about =)
Also great to be among church friends again.... Well, the youths maybe, especially the few that are around my age.. Although our youth group is still new, and its sometimes very hard to juggle youth group and other activities, the other teenagers there are still fun to be around.
Yup this post will largely centre around my friends among the youths in our church.. probably none of them will ever come across this blog, but yeah, they're a good bunch n definitely as worth writing about as my class or my squad.
During the post service refreshments I was talking to Chee Keen and Yen Chin. Both are year 2s, the former in RJ while the latter is in VJ, 04A51. They were discussing their upcoming exam, mainly econs, for its one of two (the other being maths) subjects they had in common...
Chee Keen: You know if you look at your palm, you can see an e^x curve and a ln x curve
Yen Chin: Where where?
Chee Keen: There! *traces lines with hand*
I was choking on my cereal drink watching them studying their palms with deadly earnest. After a long pause
Yen Chin: Hey this is useful. But what if theres someone who's curves aren't correct?
Chee Keen (peering over): Hey, your e^x curve is kinked!
Yen Chin: Kinked? No its not!
Chee Keen: Yes it is! Its discontinuous! You cannot refer to your palm already!
Well, you get the idea.
The other youths mainly center around the table tennis gang. That is, the youths that spend most of their free time playing table tennis in the little office across the corridor. The table tennis table has long been a source of entertainment since it made its appearance last year...
These include:
My brother with his flat trajectory smashes, aggressive in a match, and generally very cool with the occasional flash of humour =)
George and Ritchie, two brothers who play a really good game.. George can score by hitting the ball even with his back turned to the table. Their sister Shirley (from Swiss Cottage, with their legendary St. John division... haha) occasionally joins in..
Shawn and Gabriel. Shawn is a tennis player from VS (we spent one conversation talking about the whole co-ed thing... haha.... ) while Gabriel is a member of ACS (I)'s star rugby team. When paired together in a double's match they totally dominate.
Wilfrid is one year younger than me, but was from the same primary school... He's from NCC but isn't really loud and flamboyant like others i've met.. Quite a nice guy.. should be doing his Os about now I guess. His brother Wilbur is a Scout and sometimes the three of us can have a hobnob on various uniform group issues...
Chee Keen, whom I've mentioned above, was from RI and it was he that advised me not to come to RJ actually.. He was from Boy's Brigade in his secondary school and can empathize a lot on various leadership issues in uniform groups. He was also from my old church and, I think, was one of the only sensible nice people there.
Chee Kit is his younger brother, also from BB... He's small and funny and very enthusiastic in everything he does... He plans a lot of the games during youth group... Obviously, age doesn't matter in this community.
Yen Chin is probably the "closest to home" aside from my brother and Chee Keen. He, like my sister, was from Writers' Circle in VJ, and is always around to give advice on various stuff like "Aiyar! Mid years aren't that important, just pass, but make sure you do really well for promo" and "OP arh! Just rehearse and rehearse and rehearse..." haha...
The last of the youths are Delfilia and Stephanie, two sisters who are from Indonesia, albeit Chinese Indonesians. Delfilia is from Cedar Girls' (not in choir though) Youth Flying Club! I mean, thats like so cool, she got to ride on a C-130! haha.. Stephanie is one year younger, in Kuo Chuan Presbyterian I think... taking her O-levels now... Yup, they don't play all that much table tennis, but they do talk, especially about school, CCA and especially during wedding dinners (yeah, there have been three weddings this year alr... hoho)
Ooops... I almost forgot... De Zhi is the last member of the 4 JC members... He's a kayaker from NYJC n Chee Keen's friend... He's the one was once said "They found a body in the Kallang Basin, at the same time I get a skin infection after training..." He n Chee Keen do most of the skits and "live-ads" for the youth groups. Yup
Yup, so thats about all of us... not a big group for sure, but hopefully the group will become more established, and maybe one day in the very near future I'll find out what is it about Youth Groups that seem to give some of my Christian friends so much to do and talk about =)
~JcZw~ at 6:55 pm
Friday, November 04, 2005
7.51 am. I should be on my way to AHS for SJ now, but was feeling quite sick this morning. My digestive system's not working properly sighz. And I don't feel particularly inclined to have to run to the toilet continually during training.
Probably something that I ate yesterday, combined with a lot of unhealthy habits, of which lack of sleep is definitely one of the more significant ones. Yeah, I had another poor night last night.
I stayed up quite late talking to friends and talking to my mother... There seems to be an overwhelming number of things to worry about...
There's PW, planning out our video n stuff, but at least here everyone has something to do, so thats alright.
There's fencing. No training this week, last week or this coming week. Call me sadistic, but something makes me feel uncomfortable each time my classmates have to rush for training after PW, cos even in this period their CCAs can find time to train. But for us, with members who are not committed, a teacher who's main concern is that we get home safely and such a high cost, to have training now would simply mean people wouldn't turn up, and with each person that doesn't turn up, the cost increases by almost $2. More admin headache.
There's nothing I can do that can seem to curb this. But with my one year in VJ fencing almost up, it seems that I have managed to get the club to progress little.
There's St. John. Their absymally poor showing on wednesday had me more that disappointed. It made me genuinely scared for St. John's future. When I was still a cadet, St. John was acknowledged as one of the best uniform groups in the school... We were the envy of the other groups in drill, in discipline, in our bonding. What I saw on wednesday couldn't have come from the best uniform group. It was more like a showing from a club. There is no way St. John can continue functioning like that if pumping continues to be banned.
4 people falling out within 6 minutes of training when your only physical activity is running from the classroom to the parade square? Come on, 6 minutes?! That kind of physical level is worst than that of as performing arts group! Shame on you all man! n whats worst is that some of you weren't genuine. Some of you faked injury. You think that after almost 5 years my squadmates and I can't tell the diff between a real and fake sickness? Such people are worst than lazy, they are disgusting. They deserve to be shot (by the way, that's what happens to such people in the army during wartime).
And still there is little I can do also. But I am super disappointed. Yeah, I know some of you, especially several NCOs are doing your best, yup, keep at it! Its only cos of these few that make coming back to St. John for training worth it =) But the others, I have nothing to say to you all. Maybe just this: Don't keep apologizing for being AP when you evidently don't mean it.
To cap it all off there was a terrific lightning storm last night. I was sleeping when suddenly the room lit up like a photo negative and the subsequent thunder clap sounded as though an artillery shell had gone off. I couldn't go back to sleep after that... The thunder kept me awake for almost an hour. Sighz.
But at the end of the day, why do I still care about fencing and St. John? What is it that makes it worth it to continue struggling against what seems inevitable? Or maybe I should have just left everything and gone to join air rifle or hockey at the start of the year. A smart person does not take a cruise on a sinking ship.
"Ain't nothing but a heartache, ain't nothing but a mistake"
-I want it that way, Backstreet Boys
(yeah in fact, I do listen to music thats really outdated)
Probably something that I ate yesterday, combined with a lot of unhealthy habits, of which lack of sleep is definitely one of the more significant ones. Yeah, I had another poor night last night.
I stayed up quite late talking to friends and talking to my mother... There seems to be an overwhelming number of things to worry about...
There's PW, planning out our video n stuff, but at least here everyone has something to do, so thats alright.
There's fencing. No training this week, last week or this coming week. Call me sadistic, but something makes me feel uncomfortable each time my classmates have to rush for training after PW, cos even in this period their CCAs can find time to train. But for us, with members who are not committed, a teacher who's main concern is that we get home safely and such a high cost, to have training now would simply mean people wouldn't turn up, and with each person that doesn't turn up, the cost increases by almost $2. More admin headache.
There's nothing I can do that can seem to curb this. But with my one year in VJ fencing almost up, it seems that I have managed to get the club to progress little.
There's St. John. Their absymally poor showing on wednesday had me more that disappointed. It made me genuinely scared for St. John's future. When I was still a cadet, St. John was acknowledged as one of the best uniform groups in the school... We were the envy of the other groups in drill, in discipline, in our bonding. What I saw on wednesday couldn't have come from the best uniform group. It was more like a showing from a club. There is no way St. John can continue functioning like that if pumping continues to be banned.
4 people falling out within 6 minutes of training when your only physical activity is running from the classroom to the parade square? Come on, 6 minutes?! That kind of physical level is worst than that of as performing arts group! Shame on you all man! n whats worst is that some of you weren't genuine. Some of you faked injury. You think that after almost 5 years my squadmates and I can't tell the diff between a real and fake sickness? Such people are worst than lazy, they are disgusting. They deserve to be shot (by the way, that's what happens to such people in the army during wartime).
And still there is little I can do also. But I am super disappointed. Yeah, I know some of you, especially several NCOs are doing your best, yup, keep at it! Its only cos of these few that make coming back to St. John for training worth it =) But the others, I have nothing to say to you all. Maybe just this: Don't keep apologizing for being AP when you evidently don't mean it.
To cap it all off there was a terrific lightning storm last night. I was sleeping when suddenly the room lit up like a photo negative and the subsequent thunder clap sounded as though an artillery shell had gone off. I couldn't go back to sleep after that... The thunder kept me awake for almost an hour. Sighz.
But at the end of the day, why do I still care about fencing and St. John? What is it that makes it worth it to continue struggling against what seems inevitable? Or maybe I should have just left everything and gone to join air rifle or hockey at the start of the year. A smart person does not take a cruise on a sinking ship.
"Ain't nothing but a heartache, ain't nothing but a mistake"
-I want it that way, Backstreet Boys
(yeah in fact, I do listen to music thats really outdated)
~JcZw~ at 7:51 am
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
I went back for SJ today. After an insomniac night punctuated by blocked nose and coughing fits... Hope I'm not falling sick.
Things are so different. Not the same, not a little bit.
Then: Our area was that of jagged rocks and sand.
When we were punished, our hands (and for the girls, knees also) were lacerated on the sharp edges of the asphalt or seared in the pockets of hot air trapped in the sand. But we never complained. No. Respect for our seniors, or at least for their rank kept us in position
Now: The parade square is level and doesn't retain as much heat.
Don't fidget (and you're not supposed to) and you'll be okay. But they never last. No. Casualties left right and everywhere. They barely last. They complain. Some rebel. Some fake.
Then: We ran everywhere. Our ICs had to order us to stop running after lunch cos we ran no matter what the physical cost.
Now: Who cares about running, when walking is more economical. Who cares about your senior's instructions? Who cares about discipline?
Then: We greeted our seniors, didn't drag our feet, moved tables n chairs quickly n quietly, we were always on our toes, to NOT be pumped was a rarity
Now: Its all opposite.
BUT some things stay the same.
Oh yes they do
There are STILL slackers. There are STILL people who are needed to sacrifice to cover for them. Squads STILL split. Rifts STILL open up between those that used to be friends. They asked me "Why do we have to do it?"
I didn't have the heart to tell them "Its like that. I had to do it too"
I didn't have the heart to tell them "To get a high post in St. John almost ineveitably leads to this"
Cos maybe I never tried to persuade my own guys enough.
Cos the situations changes all the time.
Cos I'm no longer part of the NCO-cadets sector of the division.
As a SNCO, you can do so much more, yet so much less.
Things are different, yet the same.
Things are so different. Not the same, not a little bit.
Then: Our area was that of jagged rocks and sand.
When we were punished, our hands (and for the girls, knees also) were lacerated on the sharp edges of the asphalt or seared in the pockets of hot air trapped in the sand. But we never complained. No. Respect for our seniors, or at least for their rank kept us in position
Now: The parade square is level and doesn't retain as much heat.
Don't fidget (and you're not supposed to) and you'll be okay. But they never last. No. Casualties left right and everywhere. They barely last. They complain. Some rebel. Some fake.
Then: We ran everywhere. Our ICs had to order us to stop running after lunch cos we ran no matter what the physical cost.
Now: Who cares about running, when walking is more economical. Who cares about your senior's instructions? Who cares about discipline?
Then: We greeted our seniors, didn't drag our feet, moved tables n chairs quickly n quietly, we were always on our toes, to NOT be pumped was a rarity
Now: Its all opposite.
BUT some things stay the same.
Oh yes they do
There are STILL slackers. There are STILL people who are needed to sacrifice to cover for them. Squads STILL split. Rifts STILL open up between those that used to be friends. They asked me "Why do we have to do it?"
I didn't have the heart to tell them "Its like that. I had to do it too"
I didn't have the heart to tell them "To get a high post in St. John almost ineveitably leads to this"
Cos maybe I never tried to persuade my own guys enough.
Cos the situations changes all the time.
Cos I'm no longer part of the NCO-cadets sector of the division.
As a SNCO, you can do so much more, yet so much less.
Things are different, yet the same.
~JcZw~ at 8:57 pm