Tuesday, 20 June 2006

Apparently this is what I do online instead of studying.

1. WHAT WERE YOU DOING LAST NIGHT AT MIDNIGHT?

Trying to solve maths sums. I'm on integration now.

2. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING NOW?
A red tee. Got it when I volunteered for Singapore Pools for some exhibition during Clean & Green Week.

3. HAVE YOU EVER MADE OUT WITH ANYONE?
No.

4. DO YOU HAVE "A THING" FOR ANYONE?
Oooh funky. I'll never tell you.

5. HOW MANY PEOPLE ON YOUR LINKS WHICH YOU KNOW IN REAL LIFE?
All of them.

6. DO YOU HOLD GRUDGES?
Not really.

7. HAVE YOU EVER HAD YOUR HEART BROKEN?
Yes.

8. DO YOU HAVE A GOOD RELATIONSHIP WITH BOTH YOUR PARENTS?
Yep.

9. MOST RECENT MOVIE THAT YOU WATCHED IN THE THEATER?
Cars, with the Dale Carnegie people.

10. NAME 3 THINGS THAT YOU HAVE ON YOU AT ALL TIMES.
Erm the clothes that I wear? My phone, cash, and keys.

11. WOULD YOU RATHER GIVE OR RECEIVE A MESSAGE?
Give. I live for such thrills.

12. NAME A TEACHER YOU HAD THE HOTS FOR.
Nah they're either married or too weird.

13. HOW MUCH CASH DO YOU HAVE ON YOU RIGHT NOW?
$37 and 65 cents in my wallet.

14. WHO'S THE 4TH PERSON ON YOUR RECEIVED CALL LIST?
Jingjie, called me during Famine camp to ask for budget for Greenlink camp.

15. WHAT'S YOUR MAIN RINGTONE ON YOUR PHONE?
It's just a single beep, then the phone vibrates nonstop. But most of the time it's on silent.

16. WHAT TIME DID YOU WAKE UP?
10am, my mum tickling my toes to get me up.

17. WHAT WERE YOU DOING AT MIDNIGHT TWO NIGHTS AGO?
Blogging about Famine camp.

18. HOW MANY EX'S ARE ON YOUR FRIENDS LIST?
Never had a relationship.

20. FAVORITE CITY?
Singapore! I'm feeling patriotic.

22. NAME SOMETHING YOU CAN'T WAIT FOR.
My 93rd birthday.

23. LAST TIME YOU SAW YOUR MOM?
Five minutes ago.

24. DO YOU GET ALONG WITH YOUR SIBLING(S)?
Hell yeah.

25. THE ONE THING YOU WANT MOST ?
My own farm.

26. IF YOU HAD $250,000...HOW WOULD YOU SPEND IT?
Spend $10, 000 to go travel round the world. Donate some of it to some green movement or animals or poor people. Then I'll hoard the rest to myself and curse all thiefs.

27. HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN AT YOUR CURRENT JOB?
Teaching Hai Hao? 6 months.

28. IS TOM ON YOUR FRIENDS LIST?
No Toms in my life.

29. LAST THING YOU SAID OUT LOUD?
"I'll feed you tomorrow morning" to my hamster.

30. LAST PERSON YOU HUGGED AND/OR KISSED?
Last hugged Annie after Famine camp. My mum kissed me an hour ago.

31. LAST THING YOU SPENT OVER $100 ON?
Eh can't remember. I rarely spend that much on a single thing.

32. WHAT KIND OF SHOES ARE YOU WEARING?
I'm barefoot now.

33. WHAT'S THE LAST PIECE OF CLOTHING YOU BORROWED?
Eleanor's jacket, returned her two weeks ago.

34. DO YOU REALLY WISH YOU COULD DRIVE?
If it were a monster truck, yes.

35. MOST VISITED WEBPAGE?
Gmail.

36. LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?
Chiew Yee last night, asking about jet streams.

37. DO YOU HAVE AN AIR FRESHENER IN YOUR CAR?
Don't even own a car.

39. LAST E-MAIL RECIEVED
Some friendship mail from Zi Hao.

40. CURRENT PAIN IN/ON YOUR BODY?
My feet! I have 3 mosquito bites, one scratch mark and one cut that appeared mysteriously.

41. LAST TAXI RIDE?
From Zouk to Toa Payoh with Yurong two weeks ago.

42. LAST ALCOHOLIC DRINK?
Don't drink.

43. IF SOMEONE YOU HATED DIED, WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
Nah I don't hate anyone.

45. DO YOU OWN A CAMERA PHONE?
Yea.

46. WHAT IS YOUR ZODIAC SIGN?
Some scorpion I think.

47. FAVORITE STARBUCKS DRINK?
Mocha Frappuccino!

48. FAVORITE PIZZA TOPPING?
Pepperoni

49. IF YOUR BF/GF CHEATED ON YOU, WOULD YOU GIVE THEM A SECOND CHANCE?
Depends. Probably.

50. MOST RECENT TIME YOU WERE UPSET?
Now.

Sunday, 18 June 2006

THIS IS MY 300TH ENTRY ON THIS BLOG!! MY EXTRAORDINARY LANDMARK!

Just reached home from 30 Hour Famine camp. I spent my weekend camping 'under no roof' at St Andrew's JC, and whoppee it was an absolute blast for me! Okie I'm tired and sleepy and absolutely worn out now, cos I haven't slept for more than 8 hours in total in the last 3 days. But I really can't resist another one of those detailed accounts of the camp experience!

The email told us to report at SAJC by 10am, but I was waay earlier than that. I slept for 2 hours the night before cos I was doing jet streams, and woke up at 6am just to have breakfast with my parents! And even though I dilly-dallied as much as possible, I reached Potong Pasir MRT at 9.15am. Guess who I met? Delin! He's going for the camp too, so I hung out with him till Ruth and Rhoda arrived and Cheryl's dad fetched us there. Qiling, Alfred, Chiew Yee and Annie met us there after we reached.

That makes it 8 of us from NJC, of which 7 is from A01. Haha it's almost like another class outing! And I've never spoken a word to Alfred before even though I knew him, so I'm glad I was able to connect nicely with him. There you go, I don't just get along with girls only! I'm equally outgoing with guys too!! Anyway after registration and collection of shirts and whatever, us NJCians headed down to Plaza Singapura for lunch. Figured that we were probably the furthest travelling group! Haha.

After lunch, of course, will be the opening launch of the entire 30 Hour Famine at 2pm. Fasting of food begins. And I'm glad I'm in environmentalism, if not I'll never know who is Dr Amy Khor. But confetti is a serious waste of paper!

The first day's activities was a stimulation of 3 days where we are supposed to explore poverty and shelter issues. We were all split up into different families with different identities, and the storyline involved a tsunami disaster, so all of us were lost and we're supposed to find our family members. Well okay this sounds like what I would do for a Fellowship project, but there's 600++ people and of which 13 is supposed to be your family!

My name was Unenburen, and one of the children in the Kiowa family. Had to proceed to some evacuation centre to register myself so that whoever's my father can look for me. Me and Chiewy were in the same Kiowa family, so we queued up for registration for almost an hour and no fathers came to claim us! It was totally chaotic cos there were 3 evacuation centres at the same time and 20 different families, and each family is further divided into 4 smaller families. Haha Chiewy was eventually claimed by her own small family, while I'm still wandering around aimlessly.

Shifted to one of the evacuation centres where they told us to fold paper cranes while waiting. Met this girl named Diana, who was also alone and waiting. Now I understand what Shakespeare meant about misery acquainting a man with strange bedfellows. I have no idea how to fold a paper crane, and Diana didn't either, so we might as well sit there and cry.

But finally my father turned up to claim me. And eventually our family is complete with one dad, one mum and ten assorted kids. Kids were me, Xin Yuan, Deej, Lina (another one of them in my life), Sarah (yet another one of them in my life...), Anthony, Eugene, Joan (another...), Jocelyn and Priya(another...), while mum was Sui Fun and dad was Samuel (another...).

The next activity was to get enough cash to build a house, and there were several job opportunities to get money. There was bead-picking, beans-separating etc etc. And there was this prostitution house where you can sell yourself for money. Blooiee. And I was randomly chosen to be HIV-positive and contracted AIDS!! The lousy reason was because "I was gang-raped". EEYER! But Samuel helped me change it to "I gang-raped". Whee. Had to wear this thrash bag over me with my arms half-immobile.

Basically us as a family, we had to spend our money wisely by buying materials for our house, and there was a black market where they trade 10cm of hair for money. Lina sacrificed her hair! Later on we got caught by the police for visiting the black market, and lost half that amount we earned. And the house that we built out of thrashbags and raffia string was simply marvellous! Huge and wide and spacious for a slum-house... Haha I was the tape dispenser.

Think the worst was me contracting AIDS for some stupid reason! Annie said I was AIDed. Obviously you get ostracised by everyone, restricted movement, stigmatised. After a while I even got resigned to that fact that I just volunteered myself for prostitution. Yeah I mean, I've never met any AIDS victim in my life yet, but it sure is tough being one. Going through life with everyone treating you as an outcast. And prostitution just involved hugging a pole, while the rest of the family have to support each other with limitations, so the girls ended up sitting on us guys a lot of times.

Had talks too on what World Vision and Habitat for Humanity does for the poor people, and had a reflection time as a family as well. We moved in and out of SAJ's Cultural Centre so many times that I'm treating it like NJ's LT5 now. Theirs can seat a thousand! Bedtime: the girls had to squeeze at the parade square, while us guys got all the space at the track. Me and Anthony slept under our slum-house that we built earlier on, sleeping under the stars and cosy under thrashbag-flimsy shelter. Haha good thing it was a superbly clear night.

The next morning, they had a short worship session and message, cos after all World Vision is a Christian organisation. The programme for the day was to collect old newspapers and clothes from Tampines. On the bus trip there I found out that Eugene is good friends with Shi En! And along that way I knew more about him, like he's a Christian too and blah blee. See! Another example to prove that I hang out with guys too!

Newspaper collection was just, well, collection. We did 7 blocks of HDB flats in total, somehow energised even though we haven't ate for the last 20 hours. Helping each other out despite knowing each other in the same time that we haven't ate. Lina's house was in the area, so she brought Uno cards down for us to play after we're done collecting. 13 of us (including our facilitator Hwee Hoon) huddled for one round of Uno, and we took more than an hour and still couldn't determine the loser! Priya and Sarah were just caught up in their own war! Haha.

Went back to SAJC, cleaned up the school, tore down our beloved house, then bummed around to play somemore Uno! Eugene lost twice and had to shift boxes or join in other group's games looknig really stupid. Me and Eugene sneaked out of the school to go buy drinks! Their school compound was so easy to climb out; so we took a long walk talking about politics in Potong Pasir. Haha! Came back and played Snap with our family. I couldn't win the cards more than once, and I think girls have better eye-to-hand reflexes than guys.

And to end the camp, there was a Famine concert, of which Eunice Olsen was one of the emcees! There's Joi Chua, whoever she is, and bands and dancing groups. But the biggest was probably Ronin! We decided to behave crazily and go 'mosh-pitting' them in front of the stage. Lina, me and Eugene were probably the most out-of-place kids there, cos everyone was jumping and screaming while we were just clapping. BLEE. Rock music is sooo not me and Eugene's. Lina was worse; the lead singer of Ronin sang in front of her face and she just stared, while everyone behind us screamed and shouted.

We had burgers and buns to break the fast. 30 hours of not eating didn't really leave me very hungry, and it didn't even add to my tiredness from all the physical activities. And eating didn't feel as if it were some huge satisfaction as well. Hmm maybe if I really want to experience hunger I should try 50 hours!

All in all it was a great and meaningful camp. Didn't get to spend a lot of time with the A01 people cos they're all girls. But I had a funky family of new friends to hang out and play games with, which just totally reminds me of Orientation. Haha! I saw a lot of old Catholic High people too! And the experience of going through what disaster victims face, the awareness of people less priviledged than us; it's a humbling experience.

Okie I'm going to get a long night of sleep.

Friday, 16 June 2006

I decided to take on the role of a tourist and go tour Singapore today! Haha actually it's just Little India, and later on I went to Bras Basah Complex. It was kinda fun! I just went from shop to shop trying to interest myself with all that Indian heritage, and trying to mingle with the shopkeepers. My conclusion is that the Indian population in Singapore are generally very very nice!

Gosh I didn't even buy anything to remember my tourist visit. Haha okay actually I was more interested in interacting with the people than wanting to go shopping. There was this Indian woman who was super persistent trying to get me to buy one of her bangles or bracelets. She kept saying I can get it for my girlfriend or for my mum! And I tried to haggle for a 25% discount on a Hindi CD! The shopkeeper got annoyed with me and he said he "just cannot do business with me". Oh well I didn't buy anything in the end either...

And I walked into one of those jewellery shops to have a look. One of the guys showed me their elaborate navarathenam, however you spell it, which had 9 different stones that's supposed to represent the nine planets of the solar system. Haha I would have bought it for Hai Hao, but I didn't dare ask what the price would be cos it'll probably be too costly. I had a prata at one of the shops, but the curry tasted so stale that I just ate it with sugar.

Oh oh and I met a REAL tourist from England! Her name was Hannah; she's a year older than me and she came to Singapore to backpack on her own. She was getting a henna when I met her, and after that we went to have lunch together at Macs beside Bras Basah Complex. Had a good lunch experience with her, talking about our interests and general stuff like that. And gosh, she was one really lame and bimbotic girl! She laughed at herself saying that "Hannah has got a henna", and she laughed at my shirt which had a dog and the words "down boy!", and she told me a lame joke! Who is Antarctica married to? UNCLE ARCTICA! Hee hee I messaged Atiqah immediately.

Hannah's gone to Malaysia already, and her next stop is Indonesia. Wow I love her spirit. I wanna go backpacking at some country after my A'Levels and before my NS, but I have no idea where yet. BLAHH.

On the way back to corps, there was this kid who sat beside me on the bus. The kid's like 8 or 9 years old? But the way he talk to his dad (who was standing) was a betrayal to how old he looked. His thoughts were so mature! Here's an example. The kid told his dad that he gave his friend a piece of advice after his friend made a big fuss over one point in a badminton game. What he did was he placed his badminton racket on the floor and demanded that the racket come to him at once. Obviously, the friend retorted that the racket has no hands, no legs and no mind of it's own, so how could it move? And (hold your breathe) the kid told his friend that unlike the racket, he has hands, legs and a mind of his own, so fight like a champion and don't get upset by trivial matters.

I'm... astounded.

I'm going for a 30 hour famine camp over the weekends. Sounds silly to starve myself, but it's for awareness on the poverty of Third World countries and to experience what is true hunger for the kids without food.

Thursday, 15 June 2006

I went for a movie yesterday!! Haha it's an achievement cos the last time I hit the theatres was Chinese New Year with my 06A01 juniors. I can't even recall offhand when was the last time I watched a movie! But strangely enough even Atiqah remembers that outing, despite her not being part of it and I told her once only.

Anyway, I watched Cars with the old Dale Carnegie crowd at town. The movie was quite alright I guess, typical Pixar. Helped Benedict smuggle his Burger King meal into the theatre! Haha I'm sure this is the most exciting thing that I've done this whole week. THIS WEEK IS SO BORING.

After the movie we watched Hong Bin and Malcolm thrash it out on the pool table, then all of us headed back to the Dale Carnegie course! Hong Bin, Malcolm and Ben signed up to be a GA (Group Assistants), so they have to go back anyway. The rest of us (me, Fong Kay, Yun Zhen and Jean) just went back for fun to visit Jenny and wanted to stay for the course and meet new people, but the 4 of us went nuts and decided to go have lunch instead. Haha I feel odd hanging out with them cos they're all waaay younger than me and they're all girls.

Tuesday, 13 June 2006

Went to Woodlands Library with Khairi, Beets and Linus yesterday. Yep yep LINUS!! Haven't seen that boy since last year, so it was a welcome break for us to catch up and talk rot. I got lost while going to the library! I've never been there before, and I have no idea where is it either. I thought it was in Causeway Point! But anyway I managed to finish studying Glass Menagerie while I was there! And I met tonnes of people. Woodlands was never my hangout area... Haha!

Busy studying. I think I study better outside home, cos I keep getting interrupted by my sister. Then I'll chase her around the house trying to decimate her toes, and waste time in that process.

I received an email from Hong Yi all the way from Germany! Haha most of the newspapers now have their reporters in Germany to cover the World Cup. I have my own correspondence there too!! Haha okay this is so lame. Oh gosh how I wish I'm somewhere overseas now.

Saturday, 10 June 2006

Okie a while ago Jon tagged me with some weird message, but I have no idea what it meant until I re-read his past entries. Gosh I think I'm totally lost in my own world, probably left my mind somewhere in Mexico. Was watching Lonely Planet on TV that day and Mexico's going to be on my tourism destinations soon. That's another story.

So anyway, what am I supposed to do? Write 10 random facts about myself? Oh whee this is going to be a breeze. Must it be about myself? Why can't I just write 10 random pointers which don't necessarily have to be about myself? It's easier that way. Oh shoots I'm such a fuss.

10 Random Facts About Guan You. Be blown away.

1) I eat absolutely everything and anything as long as it is edible. The only things that I absolutely will not eat are grapes and fried/live insects. I don't eat grapes because I detest that small purple stinking round fruit to it's very core. It's rubbery and tasteless and utterly gross. And I don't eat insects cos they are of fascination to me, and I don't think it right to eat them. I don't mind going up on Fear Factor cos I hold nausea well, as long as it's not grapes or insects.

2) I have the same birthday with at least of my friends. There's Royston Phoon who was in my secondary 1 and 2 class, and there's a guy named Jun Hao I think, whom I know somehow. And of course my uber funky twins Luke and Mark, who are the most crazy pair of twins that I know at the moment (Last I saw Mark he went gothic, and Luke's shaking his ass at me).

3) I have a weakness on girls with curly or wavy hair. Forget dreamy eyes or nose or whatever; it's curly hair that attracts me. I have a big crush on my neighbour who has curly locks and an absolutely charming face, but the lousy thing is she's only 8 or 9? My wife is prefably one with curly hair, or at least she must have wavy hair on the day we get married. And I think all girls should go perm their hair.

4) I have a very long list of animals that I like. I like DUCKS, cats, caterpillars, worms, snails, goldfishes, eels, snakes, tigers, gorillas, birds, camels, frogs, dugongs, dogs, penguins, pigs, lambs, bats, kangeroos, sharks, all bugs and insects and blah blah blah.

5) I have an elaborate family plan. Ideally, I want 4 kids! The youngest will be a boy, then the eldest will be a girl, and I want a pair of twins. The youngest boy will be named Jason, the eldest will be named Ruth or Sarah. And the twins: if they are both girls, they will be Feather and Heather; if they are both boys, they will be Gareth and Garrick; if one is a boy and the other girl, I'll let my wife decide.

6) My favourite words are "enigma" and "ambivalence".

7) My favourite colours are soft baby pink and hot pink. Although recently my list of favourite colours have expanded to green, orange, red, purple, black and blue. If I see something that's baby pink in colour, I'll be transfixed for 7 seconds as my eyes try desperately to take in every single hue of that soft pinkiness.

8) I don't do anger very well. Rarely get angry at people or stuff, although I admit I'm irritated a lot more times that I am angry. Chances of you catching me in a good mood is quite high, unless I decide to be morose that day and I'm in totally no energy to be jumpy.

9) I'm allergic to paracetamol. That means I can't touch Panadol or fever medicine. The last time I took paracetamol for my fever, I had a huge eye infection that won't go away for 3 days. But I have no idea whether my allergy is still alive, cos eye infections were more than 8 years ago. The fortunate thing is I don't get headaches and fevers often, and even if I do, they normally go away on their own in one or two days.

10) I'm pretty good with kids below the age of 10 and above the age of 3. It's just the right range of age where the kids are old enough to discern what's right and what's wrong, and just young enough to still listen to you and not give you major trouble like premarital sex or something. I mean, I didn't realise that I connect well with kids until someone told me so. Kids just like me for some reason.


There you go there's my 10 random facts, but I'm in such a random mood now that I can write another 10 more!

10 More Random Facts About Guan You. Be blown away yet again.

1) I don't smoke, and I don't think I will ever smoke.

2) I've got my carreer dreams as well. I want to be a teacher at a secondary school level, though I might contemplate one in a primary school level since everyone's telling me that I should. Then by the time I hit 45, I want my own ice cream parlour! And when I retire, I want to stay in the countryside and probably be a farmer.

3) I cannot stand small repeated patterns. I don't like tiles that come in small weird shapes and cemented to the floor in tessellations. I don't like small identical things that are crammed together, like a bee hive or the patterns on a snake's skin. They make my skin crawl.

4) I'm a premature baby, by about 2 weeks. My respitory system isn't excellent, and I'm quite prone to flu and coughs and colds.

5) Much as I keep denying, I think I probably stopped growing taller since I was in Secondary 4. My height is still 165cm after 2 years. I THINK I'M TALL ENOUGH. RAWR.

6) I'm a semi-vegetarian! I don't really like eating meat and fried stuff, so I eat mostly greens for most of my meals and consume very little meaty stuff everyday. But I don't mind the occasional meat party or KFC outing...

7) I care for planet Earth and Mother Nature! Environmentalism is my in-built passion. I'm quite into botany and symbiosis and stuff like that. I don't really do a lot for animals, although somehow animals can recognise their fellow greenies. I don't do a lot for plastics as well, but I like to be involved in recycling campaigns and environmental awareness campaigns.

8) I know and understand the feelings of losing someone you love very dearly.

9) I'm a sucker for lyrical, structured poetry. One thing that's a pity is that 20th and 21st century poets are not really into poems of a regular rhyme scheme or of metrical orderliness. I don't really appreaciate poetry that's just slapped together with disjointed thoughts into irregular lines and proclaimed abstract. But I realised that I'm guilty of doing that too. Oh hell let's just say that I like lyrical poems but I don't have the tenacity to write them.

10) I make my life interesting by doing stupid things all the time, like watching moronic shows like Power Rangers, or watching pre-school shows like Sesame Street and Powerpuff Girls and Barney and Teletubbies. Or I create my own fashion identity by carrying weird bags or containers as my wallet. Or I go to weird places and explore. Or I just be totally stupid and idiotic by pretending I'm in a TV sitcom and saying stuff that only I find lame or funny. Or I pretend I'm a really charming superhero.

Friday, 9 June 2006

I'm up for a long entry tonight. Today's a day when I feel like my writing juices would really flow. And heck, no other time is better than now.

I stuck at home to study yesterday. Did my revision for Glass Menagerie, and boy I'm really captivated by the play! Yeah it's definitely way easier than King Lear, and the dialogue between the characters flow so naturally that you have to keep reminding yourself that it's scripted. I like Amanda Wingfield! She's completely lost in her own world, eternally hopeful, bright like a tomato, stubborn like a boulder... Amanda sure reminds me of a certain PRUDE that I know of!

I was supposed to pack my O'Level stuff for Tammy yesterday, but I kinda got lazy and didn't feel like touching them at all. There's one huge stack of papers and at least 8 thick files waiting to be sorted through. To think I've managed to procrastinate successfully for one-and-a-half years... Give me 3 more days and my mum's gonna scream at me for being her messiest kid (Err she only have two children) and allowing the cockroaches or silverfish or whatever to nest in that paper hive.

Oh great some weird uncle just called me to tell me to bring in the clothes. And I didn't have the heart to tell him he got the wrong number, so I said OK and hung up. Hopefully whoever that he wants to contact will bring in the clothes. I don't know, now I'm getting the guilty pangs. Should I call him back?? Oh what the hell. Who asked him to be some weird uncle.

Okie my ramblings about today. Was supposed to be at Joel Tan's house by 10am. Yurong, Clarissa, me and Joel kinda fixed this meeting weeks ago to finalise everything that we're going to do for 40 Days of Community. And guess what time I woke? 9.35am. It's a frantic rush to get out of house, and it's a miracle that I reached J8 at 10.05am, having showered, ate breakfast and travelled on a slow bus.

Anyway, the plan was to do potato salad for lunch, so I went grocery shopping and bought broccoli and cauliflower and mayonnaise. Haha I felt so auntie carrying that NTUC basket and trying to choose the best brocolli. And I had to explore the entire store twice just to find the mayo that was tucked in some discreet corner.

Flirted with these 2 girls at the counter while queueing to pay for my stuff. They look secondary school-ish, and they play basketball. Girls who play basketball freak me out. Ask Christiane. Okie I'm supposed to call her Chris. I think she's the reason why I think girls should stay off basketball. Anyway, back to the 2 girls. They made cracks at my Mickey Mouse watch, and I insulted their hairdo resembling some termite nest. And yada yada and they start giggling. Nah they look so sporty that I'm way out of their league.

Got onto bus 156 opposite J8, and Joel says call him when I reach Yio Chu Kang Road. Well I did, and he told me to stop at the next 1 or 2 bus stops. He even told me he's going to wave like a maniac at the bus stop. Well okie I zoomed past 3 bus stops and no waving maniac, and at the fourth one the bus didn't stop, so I had to walk back one bus stop.

And guess what? I ended up at the exact same bus stop when I was visiting at Cheryl Sim's for Chinese New Year last year. If Joel had said Cheryl's house's bus stop, I'd know where it is, but then that is quite impossible because Cheryl didn't know Joel and Joel didn't know Cheryl. So anyway, I figured Joel's estate was 5 blocks away from Cheryl's?

There were only me, Joel and Clarissa for the morning. We did great, cos in slightly over an hour we fleshed out details of what we want to do for 3 of the 6 themes. And I think writing minutes for a meeting is so redundant!! It's mostly for show and I don't think people really read them, well unless you want to know about what transpired at the meeting. Reminds me of my sickening PW minutes where you have to be so nastily meticulous and pretentious and whatever.

Anyway Yurong came at around lunchtime, and we all went down to escort her. Did the potato salad, had so much leftovers cos we boiled 8 potatoes in total. And we had chicken nuggets and sandwiches and broccolli and cauliflower too! After last time's soggy broccoli at Jon's house, this time it was much crunchier! Haha.

Finished the discussion by around 4pm? The one that had the most headache was the Fellowship theme. Watched Rick Warren on DVD doing his spasmodic laughter, fast-forwarded him, and learnt that "there are 56 'one another' in the Bible". We played Monopoly after that! It's centuries ago that I last played Monopoly, maybe because I never saw that game in the same light ever since I took (and dropped) Economics. Horrible concept. And I went to jail like 3 times and kept paying rent to Yurong because she controlled half the board.

Went home first for dinner before getting out for youth service again. Chris (Chris as in Christiane) turned up in this retro outfit, and Andre in some formal suit. Haha I think my cell group has the most interesting bunch of wackos. Somehow I got Charmaine and Rachel Tan as my phone wallpaper now, and some wise Socrates changed the profile name to I LOVE MY BUTT.

Oh absolutely I think I've got the hottest buns in the entire world.

I think I'm quite tired actually. More drained out than tired out from physicalities. Is there such a word? Never mind. If I snap at you or something, it's not intentional. And if I just sit there looking glum, I'm not necessarily disagreeing with whatever that you're saying. And if I have this awful grimace on my face, I'm just trying out my weird expressions to portray to people.

Why is it that people normally assume me with certain identities that I've never known myself to be one? Heck I don't even know how to describe it. It's supposed to be hovering on the side of craziness, with a bit of funk and wildness, and childish elements and colourful and weird and lame and nerdy. I think my socks are great! My fashion sense is so unique that no one can carry it off effectively unless they are ME!

Cherrie saw this photo on Friendster, and she happily decided to show me how stupid I look. Some flowery pose with my classmates at URA Gallery.

Thursday, 8 June 2006

My snail poem which I wrote for fun. I don't even know what to make of it.

Snail

House on her back,
She treads on.
Tireless and relentless.

While other creatures dart and dash
At the slightest noise,
She marches on.
Oblivious to her surroundings;
Poised for grace.

She hates physical contact.
At the slightest touch,
She retreats into that structure.
Yet she is made for contact;
Sharpness, roughness
They are not an obstacle.

Towards the herb
She unhurriedly moves;
Her food would not run away.
She devours
That which she respects.

Moisture
Is essential.
Taste, sight, smell
Her vision far exceed others.

Her grime
And slime
But not lime.
Ragged leaves.
The trail she leaves determines her trial
And her punishment?
The duck gobbles.

Tuesday, 6 June 2006

GreEn Tea aDverTiSemenT

I came across this advertisement on youtube. I shall do a "Shi Hui" and post it up here... Caterpillars are awesome!

Been going back to school for the past 2 days for Literature lectures. And going out for lunch with some of my classmates after that. Yesterday was Pizza Hut at Bukit Timah Plaza with Janvin, Khairi and Beets. Today was at town with Khairi. I MISS KHAIRI AND HIS HOT BUNS! Haha I gave him 2 purple hair clips and he went nuts with them.

I'm supposed to adopt a "very straight-laced, old-fashioned and conventional" character for 40 Days of Community. Oh gosh that is sooo not me!! Della got the "young fashionable, unorthodox and free and easy" one. Okie at least that suits her. Nerdy werdy.

Sunday, 4 June 2006

I only just realised that I haven't volunteered for any green or environmental exhibitions since last November or December. The last one that I did for GVN was Clean & Green Week last year. Well partly because there hasn't been much green exhibitions since the start of this year. And also partly because I was busy with school activities and church stuff and Earth Week. Okie maybe I can count Earth Week as a green exhibition, but it's only in my own school!

I think one of my highlights of environmentalism is doing exhibition booth work. It was where I really learnt how to be a social butterfly and bring forth my environment message to someone whom I've never met before in my life. I mean, in terms of activity, nothing compares to nature guiding or trekking in the forest or planting stuff. Or even planning for activities and events. But I think booth work allows a platform for me to really mingle with the crowd and understand things from their point of view, while at the same time educating my point of view.

I had EnviroFest at Toa Payoh HDB Hub today. I remember at the start of this year, me, Zhen Rong and Boon Wah from NTU Earthlink sat down together to propose collaboration for EnviroFest. And I remember handing most of the responsibilities to Hui Min cos I was sick and tired of things. I remember the subsequent crazy meetings to map out our club's activities for the first half of the year. I remember spending late nights preparing for Earth Week and Recycling Week, while Hui Min did the EnviroFest stuff.

Well what can I say? Hui Min and the excos did a superb job. They came up with sponsorship worth more than $2000 from Senoko, coordinated the entire photography competition, and still found time to incorporate guessing number of can tabs for the Fest. And I can almost imagine all the hard work they put in for this event as well... In a sense I'm glad I didn't have to go through crazy schedules since I threw all the work to them, but I feel weird cos I'm missing out on another learning opportunity. Blah actually to be totally honest I don't think I'll be as dedicated as them, so I'm just happy to be a figurehead.

Okie EnviroFest. The total number of can tabs we had in that 20cm diameter, 1.5m tall cylinder was about 33, 000, and the top prize for the closest guess of the can tabs is $100. For the photography competition, it was public voting and the winner gets $500. IT'S EASY PEASY ROLLY POLLY MONEY. So anyway, the public were all attracted by the cash prizes and we had loads of votes/guesses.

Got the chance to meet up with all the usual green people; met Adeline and Joe (GVN), and I saw the other Joe from NSS, and Alvin and Zhen Rong and all the gang. I even saw Genevieve Chua, who was my NParks nature guiding trainer back at Catholic High. Camillus Kang is in VJC's Earthwatch!

Haha one thing good about booth work is that you have an almost-perfect excuse to flirt with girls! There was this really really good-looking girl who came to see the can tabs and our eyes just keep meeting for some reason. AAAAHH I should have gone up to talk to her!! Haha then me and Wang Mo went to flirt with this bunch of girls from Haig Girls' Primary. Okay maybe it's only me that's flirting with them. Anyway they gave me sweets, and later on they even came looking for me in the middle of nowhere just to give me biscuits. Simply adorable!

Wang Mo and me played the throwing games designed by Singapore Poly. We won sweets! Haha! Catholic High Primary did a "vegetarian sharks' fin soup". Basically it's just alternative ingredients mixed together to form something like sharks' fin soup. Blee if you ask me, you might as well just call it vegetarian soup! Haha but I saw Mrs Anne Goh!

After lunch at about 2.30pm, I left the Fest and went down to J8 to meet up with my usual church people. First time I've seen Rachel Lim since last year! Anyway, me and Yurong decided to go all the way down to Zouk to visit Annie and Ginny's flea-market stall, while Adriel and Andrew went town.

Told everyone that I'm going clubbing at Zouk. YEA RIGHT as if anyone will believe me. So the two of us stomped into the crowd; Yurong and Annie had a "reunion" cos they were primary school friends. Met Ruth and Wei Hao! We bought Spongebob stickers and I got a shirt. Then we bumped into Yurong's friends and went all the way up to their stall. Blah the place was super crowded and most of the stuff on sale are all those girly things. Haha but it was fun!

Had to take a taxi down back to Toa Payoh because I was supposed to give out prizes to the winners. It was totally dumb, cos Hui Min for some reason didn't want to award the prizes, so I have to wear my school uniform just to look good on stage. BLEE. I think I look absolutely dorky la! And only like 3 prize winners out of 9 were there at the venue, so for most of the time I was standing onstage smiling like an idiot. Or whispering to Hui Min to let me get offstage. And the emcee pronounced my name as Low Wen Yeo initially! Then later on I became Mr. Guan You, and I'm the NJC Earthlink club president. IT'S GREEN LINK NOT EARTH!!

Hilarious! Took photos with the prize winners; there was this guy who guessed 35,000 for can tabs, and he got an easy $100. And this girl named Yi Hui who was from NJ also, won second for photography competition. And another guy walked away with lucky draw vouchers. After everything was over, we packed up and dumped everything at Rong Yao's house, then came out for dinner. Liyong really talk a lot of crap. Agnes looks really blur all the time. Haha okie okie we all went home at 9pm.

I'm so tired out. It's been a long long day, and there's still Literature lecture tomorrow.

Friday, 2 June 2006

Geography lecture this morning, from 8 to 11am. I think it was the first time in a long long time that I got approval from Ms Ting for a question which I answered. "Different levels of responsibility". Blee. And Ms Koh's last lecture with us. Went out for lunch and shopping with Atiqah at town after lecture.

I've just got 3 little random bits to share:

1) Being messy is part of my life. My stuff are all over the place in my room, and the Green Link storeroom under my charge became some disaster-stricken area full of debris.

2) I think all girls should just be content with wearing a bra. There really isn't a need for any more extra underwear.

3) Skubalon really happens, especially when you spend most of your time brooding about the past. Forget it and move ahead.

Wednesday, 31 May 2006

Ahh okie I’m back from Kuantan! Left off from Singapore on Saturday morning, and came back at 11pm last night. Yep it’s a Geography field trip with some of the IP3s joining in, so there were 26 of us in total. Okie here’s a recount of my activities in the past 4 days.

Had to be in school by 6.30am on Saturday. Normally I’m in school by 7pm and that’s stupidly early already. And it turned out that I brought along the least number of bags and luggages. Haha I packed all my clothes into a backpack and a shoebag, while someone else like Karen brought along one huge luggage. The bus came and took us all to the customs which had long queues that took so darn long to clear, then we took a 7-hour bus ride all the way into Kuantan. Well okie we stopped for lunch at some restaurant, and we stopped at Yong Peng. Gosh the place used to be my favourite pit stop everytime my family travel to Malaysia by bus, and now they renovated and upgraded the place into a nice foodcourt. Jaslyn was my bus partner for the day. As if seeing each other everyday for all the tutorials and lectures in school isn’t enough...

Reached Swiss-Garden Hotel in Kuantan sometime in the afternoon, then me, Benny and Basil checked into the same room. Basil’s in IP3 now, and he used to be my Catholic High junior! First thing we did after checking in was to hit Batu Hitam beach to go look at the basalt outcrops. The entire beach was really filled with grey basalt rocks that extended in columns down into the earth all over the place. I adopted a pet rock over there! And there was this tabby cat at the beach!

Dinner was at the hotel, and my goodness it really brought out the meaning of ‘sumptuous’! There were so many variety of food stacked out in buffet-style, and the best bit was they have macaroni with cheese!! Desserts was equally amazing; they have cakes available in 4 different flavours and cupcakes and pastry and whatever... Benny ate till he could barely walk.

And they have a live performing band from Philippines in the dining area. Me and Shermin wanted to go sing a song for everyone, but the hotel management didn’t allow us. The singers were funky, especially the 2 female singers. They were dressed in black leather and super short skirts or blouses with a very plunging neckline; caught up with them after their performance to talk to them. Then me, Benny and Shermin went around the hotel to explore. Before we slept, Karen and Kai Jie came over to our room to play cards till late. And Kai Jie looks cute in his pyjamas! Haha.

The next day, breakfast was equally filling. I miss eating cereal and milk for breakfast! This kitten jumped onto my lap and left behind two claw marks while I was eating. My bus partner for the day was Chiew Yee, and our first activity for the day was to visit some old quarry to see the granite rocks. Weathering at work! The rocks were so weathered that they simply crumbled when you just chip at them. Then we took the bus down to Panching Caves, which was a tropical karst with a limestone cave. Had to climb 20 feet of uneven, winding and steep stairs just to reach the caves. And boy the view was simply amazing. I’ve never been in a cave before, so it was great seeing all the stalactites and stalagmites (whichever is which) and bats! Yea the bats were great! And there was a huge Buddha statue right inside the cave. Maybe after trekking all the slippery mud and uneven ground in Malaysia forrests, I think I’m not that afraid of trekking or climbing on harsh terrain anymore, much less stairs.

Anyway, the next activity for the day was river mapping! We got to the other side of the karst, got into the river and we’re supposed to determine the width and depth and cross-section and whatever. My group had Ginny, Jaslyn and Chiew Yee, and we had the longest section of the river with so many bars. But it was fun! After a while all of us got used to all the measurements and intervals, Chiewy’s pencil got lost in the river, and her rotten orange could barely float.

Walked further upwards the river and eventually we saw the waterfall. Atiqah was quite a disaster, cos she slipped so many times while trying to enter the mini pool. The waterfall looked small when compared to the one I saw last year at Taman Negara, and there were so many tourists there that it lost its natural charm. But it was still majestic enough...

Lunch was at some Chinese restaurant somewhere; Basil ate 4 bowls of rice while I got to finish all the onions. Then we had time to go shopping at some Kuantan mall. I bought a Mickey Mouse watch! After shopping, we headed down to Telok Chempedak. It was supposed to be a popular beach thronged with tourists, but it was raining at that time, so all we got were the pasar malam stalls which had so many pairs of sunglasses and shades that the girls just refused to budge. The beach was really white and sandy and there were a bunch of granite rocks again.

Had dinner at some seafood restaurant. When we returned back to the hotel, we had to map out river details with the measurements we took that day. my group laughed and giggled most of the time rather than doing work, cos our data were a bit inconsistent, but when all of the groups combined all the different parts of the river together, almost everything fitted nicely! Karen and Shermin came over to our room to play cards again, and we fell asleep watching some trashy horror movie that just had some monster killing everyone.

The next day, we checked out of the hotel and headed for Kuala Lumpur. My bus partner alternated to Jin Jen! The bus took about 4 hours to reach KL. First thing we did was to get all the way up the KL Communication (Menara) Tower, and we had a 400-metre high view of the city. Petronas Tower is simply magnificent.

Had lunch at Berjaya Times Square at some Harts Chicken restaurant that served mostly chicken dishes. Then it was time for urbanisation study of KL! Ms Koh split us all up to take the KL monorail to different parts of the city to observe the activity in that part of city.

Me and Jin Jen travelled all the way to the outskirts, KL Sentral. Upon alighting from the monorail, there was this crazy fellow that just came up to me and shook hands with me! He kept saying that I was good to not reject him, cos he looked really unkempt and dirty. Haha okie me and JJ eventually did our traffic and pedestrain count, and she kept insisting that the city was dirty even though it was squick clean to me.

We got to shop at Times Square! That place is at least 4 or 5 times larger than Suntec City! Me, Kai Jie and Benny trawled the entire mall for gifts and presents, and there was even an indoor theme park with a roller coaster! I really wanted this cool-looking clock but it was over 300RM. Blah. Had dinner shortly after shopping, then checked into Grand Seasons Hotel for the night.

The hotel had yellow murkey water out of its taps! But it soon cleared out after we made noise about it. And Benny’s hilarious! He lost his voice on the second day, so he couldn’t even laugh at all. But when he saw the hotel beds, he jumped on them for at least ten seconds. And I so badly wanted to steal the painting in the hotel room! But we had a good view of the Petronas and Merana Tower from our room.

At breakfast the next day, me and Basil saw a guy secretly smuggling bread out of the restaurant. Blee it’s really ugly. Anyway, we checked out of the hotel and started our journey out of KL. Stopped for a talk on the rice agriculture in Malaysia, then later we got to visit Tanjong Karang padi fields. The expense of the land available was simply humongous! It was kinda ironic to see all the padi, and then reflect on all the rice we’ve eaten on the trip.

For the rest of the day it was mostly travelling; Jaslyn was my bus partner again. Lunch was at another seafood restaurant, and this time there were crabs!! The crabs were delicious! By night time we were all high, customs took so darn long again, and we didn’t reach school till 10pm. Me and Lina (IP3 girl) were the last ones left at the NJ bus-stop after alighting from the bus. And I met Avalene on the bus on the way home! Haha.

Well okie this was a really long recount. I think on the overall the trip was really great! And I realised that Singapore’s really very small. The Malaysians can afford to turn an area of land thrice as big as Bishan to plant pineapples alone! The natural landscapes was enough to astound me already. And we ate so much food! And it was my first time seeing Ms Ting smiling so happily. And I had a great time with my bus gang!

Photos from Jaslyn.


Basalt outcrops.


At the quarry.


Arts faculty geog students at the cave! I think I was trying to kiss Kai Jie.


River mapping group!


Petronas Tower in the background.


Bus gang! My alternating bus partners.


Padi rice field. I like this photo cos it’s so pastoral.

Friday, 26 May 2006

Haha I watched just finished watching The Stepford Wives! Borrowed it from Siew Peng, who borrowed it from Ms Yap. I don't know my first impression after finishing the show was SO BIMBOTIC! Okie maybe it wasn't, but I just found it that way. I still remember Ms Wan doing the "good wives guide" thingy in GP back in my first three months. "You have no right to question. A good wive always knows her place." Hee hee!

The movie was quite funny, and Nicole Kidman can really act. I like the washing machine dance! And do I really want my wife to be totally subservient, or do I want her domineering and overpowering? Maybe somewhere in between: slightly docile, but not afraid to speak up her mind too. And I wouldn't mind one of those remote controls. If she gets noisy, I'll just shut her up. Whee!

Today was a rather nostalgic day. It was Ms Stella Koh's last tutorial with us, and it was Ms Yap's last GP class with us too. Ms Koh was delighted to see the Hello Panda that Rhoda bought, and I so very wanted to steal it and sneak out to enjoy soma with Khairi. Ms Yap let us watched The Green Mile during her double GP lesson, and when I had to leave early, she gave this really long gaze at me. Gosh why has it got to be both my Green Link teachers that are leaving??

And speaking of which, I'm beginning to get irritated with the association with Green Link. The library people donated a huge stack of books and magazines to us, Shaun's class dumped us bags of empty bottles to recycle, and this morning Ms Teo blamed us for the air-con malfunction. It's got nothing to do with me!! Okie sure at least this proves that we're doing our environmental thing and there's some semblace of awareness in the school. But gosh we're not extreme tree-huggers.

I think for all my environmental nut whatever, I do very little for plastics. I mean, I'll gladly recycle paper and use less electricity and take care of plants and cuddle animals, but I just don't really like plastics. Yea I know that plastics are non-biodegradable and stuff, but I just don't feel the need to do anything with them. The only exception is plastic bags.

Went out for lunch with Atiqah, at one of the Malay eateries opposite Beauty World. Played badminton for PE. Green Link meeting at 4.30pm. (Shu Fen said we should form a Green Link Camp Committee, and the Comm will include everyone in the exco. Brilliant.)

I need to start packing for Kuantan. Everyone else seems to have done so except me.

Wednesday, 24 May 2006

Somehow or rather I think the world is just out to get me. I don't know why, but I feel as if life is slowly encircling itself around me such that my existence is limited to that of a shell only. Don't get me wrong, I had a wonderful day today, it's just that I'm feeling as though the world is out to get me.

It was Sports Day in school today. And interestingly, it was Council Investiture in the morning as well. The seniors who used to lead all the cheers and be all enthusiastic gave up their authority to the juniors. First day at work for them. Haha I think one-quarter of the school population probably sneaked out of school, another one-quarter hid somewhere in the college, while the remaining blokes sat stony at the grandstand.

Well okie I did try to be rah-rah by cheering a bit. Or maybe I was more grudging than that, since I didn't want the new house captain to go home and cry about how the Aerius people are all so dead. Oh heck Aerius got last anyway. But Han Dong won his 100m again! And when the mass dance songs came on, Rhoda and me just went nuts even though we can't remember the steps.

I'm going to watch The Stepford Wives later. Siew and me borrowed the DVD from Ms Florence Yap.

Monday, 22 May 2006

No school today cos it was College Day on Saturday. My class actually planned to go on a movie outing, but then I did something really stupid last night. I showed my mum my study timetable for June holidays, thinking that she'll be impressed and proud of my ambitions. Haha well okie she was indeed impressed, but when I told her I wanted to go out this morning, she just reminded me of my study timetable and told me to stay home to study. BLAH. You see, my timetable is really hectic and maybe a bit too ambitious too... Like how I plan to study Brave New World in 6 days flat.

Haiz I think sometimes my plans to make my mum happy just backfires and bites me in my back instead. They're going to watch Da Vindi Code I think. But anyway, I did manage to revise my Geography and do a bit of Maths, and my mum apparently thought I did a lot of work (cos I sort of pretended to look very busy) for the whole morning.

Yurong messaged me at around 3pm? Invitation to go ice-creaming with her and Matthew. My mum said yes, so I went down all the way to Island Creamery just for ice cream. Saw Alicia there. And tried out some new flavours I've never tasted before. After that we headed down to Jericho, I tried to do more Maths, then tuition with Hai Hao.

I watched Sesame Street today! Haha yesh I grew up with the Sesame Street people and Teletubbies and Powerpuff Girls! And now I'm thinking back, incredulous that I was once so fascinated by those puppets. Like today, this group of characters were arguing whose pets were the "best pet in the whole wide world". THEY ARGUED FOR 20 MINUTES. Oh my gosh.

Cookie Monster's still my favourite character. And of course, there's that weird Elmo's World. Yeah I quite like Elmo too, but I think Cookie Monster is much more good-looking. I like watching Mr Noodle clowning about and being all dumb and stupid. I like the little kids that speak all kinds of weird experiences.

AND I LOVE ELMO'S GOLDFISH! It's name is Dorothy. In my whole life so far, I've only known one Dorothy and that's Mdm Dorothy Chua. But don't you think Dorothy is such a nice name? It makes the person sound like a dot, but it's completely lovely! I want my daughter to be named Dorothy! Or maybe I'll flirt with the next Dorothy that I know of!

Okie. I sound like a doofus.

Sunday, 21 May 2006

I just watched Singapore Idol on television. The auditions were hilarious! But it becomes repetitive after a while, like you'll start predicting when the judges start getting moody, or some horrible singer comes along or some attention-seeking fool clowning about. But what really got me sitting up was when Paul Twohill's face appeared on the screen. Okie I don't actually know him personally, but he was my Catholic High junior. Think he graduated already, and he grew his hair so long that it looks like a mop on his head. Twohill got through though, and well at least someone I can recognise in the finals.

Had a short leaders' meeting in the afternoon again, debating how we should use the new material. Well at least we could come up with a common approach that almost everyone agreed on. After that meeting, Joel, me, Yurong and Clarissa headed to J8 for lunch to discuss somemore about how we should go about doing the weekly sessions. Bought ice cream back to Jericho to continue with the discussions.

I think it's really difficult for anyone to lead effectively in any committees. Too many viewpoints from different people, disagreements, negativity, skepticism. But when the bright people starts to contribute the finer points, things just brighten up significantly.

I suddenly realised that I have just passed on a significant bit of my life experiences to younger people. I'm getting old. Haha... Just relinquished fellowship committee to Joel, and soon Green Link to the juniors. I mean, this has got to happen sooner or later cos I can't posibly stay in charge forever, but in a sense I'm still reluctant cos I've done memorable stuff in those committees. Planning games, winning awards, campaigns, activities, social interaction etc... Lessons and experiences that I've picked up along the way... Blah. For all my whining that I can't wait to handover to juniors, I realised that another part of me is getting nostalgic as well.

Yurong is truly a disaster. She spilt the drinks in Long John's and the poor guy working at the counter had to mop up the place and get rid of all the liquid everywhere. Then later at Jericho, she overturned another can and sent it to the floor. The link? Both drinks were mine (or hers). Both drinks were Coke/Pepsi (they're the same). Both drinks were spilt near me. Conclusion: she's quite a hazard to me.

And yes, I don't like people who get all sanctimonious on me. And strangely enough, this extends even to literature. I can't stand it when poets or authors just get all didactic and dictate the arguments. I want ambiguity. I want ambivalence. Unless, of course, you are in a position of authority and you've contributed enough to earn that respect.

Is styrofoam more harmful to the environment, or is plastic?
I have no idea why I'm so sleepy this entire week. I haven't got the energy at all to stay up past 11pm each night, and I've been sleeping early this whole week! Yet I'm still so dreary and tired in school, at home, wherever.

Had to sweep the corridors and prepare the tables and clean the glass and shift plants and wipe the floors. All in preparation of Funtasia. Had to stay back in school for 3 hours just to do all these crap. Seriously, common sense will tell you that you can never get rid of dust completely. And wiping the glass till it's sparkling, when no idiot will give it more than a cursory glance, much more scrutinise it for fingerprints. Blah if you really want to impress the guests, why not go spend money freely and restructure the school into a palace? Add in 20 more flower gardens and an ice-cream parlour too. And it's time you install light motion sensors in the toilets to save electricity. While you're at it, plant 200 more trees with every LCD television screen that you buy. Save the earth. The guests will be bowled over.

The last time I did something equally stupid was to clean the entire linkway during Orientation, because the teachers were afraid of small little bits of flour getting stuck in between the bricks. Seriously, big and visible litter can really mar the impression on the school, but small and near invisible specks of dirt??

But hey, the school really brought in loads of flowers and plants just to beautify the school! I went crazy trying to hug them all.

To be honest I couldn't really care less about sweeping corridors, so I just swept the dust into the gutters and drains when Kai Jie or Rhoda or Jaslyn weren't looking. Don't get all environmental on me, cos nothing in my Green Link job criteria says I have to sweep the school corridors, and nothing too that I can't choke the drains.

I hate people who get all sanctimonious on me. Just because I did something wrong once, it doesn't mean that you must constantly refer to it as though I'll commit some heinous crime again. Hell, you still can turn that meek cheek and claim that it was stress that led you to scream at the whole class and that it was unlikely of you to flare up and whatever nonsense you have for us. And quit acting all fuddy-duddy right after you were angry moments before. Ugh.

Led worship for youth service yesterday. I guess maybe with each session that I'm leading, I'm getting less nervous about having to sing onstage in front of the entire youth group. We celebrated Andre's birthday during cell group time, and Biru led lesson for this week. Invariably the subject drifted to ghosts and spirits again, then people screaming and whatever. WHY IS IT THAT ALL OUR CELL GROUP TIME BECOMES A SPOOK-AND-TELL SESSION??

I ate macaroni with cheese last night. Leftovers from the adults from somewhere. It's very cheesy, but it was delicious. Especially the cheese crumbs that melts in your mouth. Way better than pizza, but in my opinion cheese fries is still the best!

And today is NJC's Funtasia! It's just some dumb ol' funfair that's supposed to tie in together with College Day. Was supposed to be in school by 10.30am, but I woke up at 10.20am... So needless to say by the time I got to school it was horribly late. Strolled around the food stalls, then me and Kai Jie and some A02 people decided to go play Laser Quest at the gymnasium. Haha yesh it's just some real-life shooting game with futuristic-looking weapons. I'm on the green team with Shu Fen, Sheryl and Kai Jie, and we won! The other team had Judith, Kurt and Jeff by the way. By the time the game ended, I had 4 or 5 vibrations from the headphones thingy that I had to put on...

Then walked through all the games stalls and couldn't find a single fishing game (me and Yurong's favourite funfair game), then sat in the amphi watching people fighting with oversized clubs. Well I can't use chopsticks to pick up marbles at all, or maybe Huai Ying added too much soap in the water. Bought a tropical milkshake from my junior class, it tasted milky? Haha I declined their slice of cheesecake cos I had too much cheese in the last 12 hours. And I told Christine that she can go Adam Road to buy nasi lemak instead of slogging in order to sell it in school.

Watched the Aerius people spend millions of their money trying to dunk Tran, cos they kept missing the target. Plotted with Kai Jie to sabotage the haunted house. Saw Sera in her Hwa Chong uniform. Met Madeline, since the last time she was frog-hopping at the school gate.

Met Siew Peng at around 3pm cos we made a schedule to discuss Herbert, but we sort of got lazy and decided to go home instead. Siew and me got into another one of our weird arguments on the bus ride back, then giggling at our warped logics. And I was in time to watch Lost!

Gonna sleep now.

Tuesday, 16 May 2006

Two pieces of literature impacted my life in the last 3 days.

The first one is An Arundel Tomb by Philip Larkin. The poem was a Lit assignment from Mr Whitby for critical appraisal. To me, it was one of the most impactful poems that I've done so far in my Lit classes. It had so many themes packed into 6 stanzas and gosh it was simply captivating! I love the way how Larkin remains so irritatingly ambivalent and ambiguous throughout. Haha I guess maybe I don't like people telling me what their take on a subject is. I would much rather they present all sides of the arguments and just leave the person to respond. And Larkin infused elements of transcience and permanence so seamlessly that it becomes the engine of the entire poem. Transcience cannot stand up to permanence (that's my take), and indeed: What will survive of us is love. When you can't distinguish between the eternal truths that you believe in, I guess there wouldn't be any purpose in trying to structure that life into an axion by itself.

The second one is Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. Whimsical, farcical and utterly impossible. The story has no visible structure; Alice just wanders everywhere and meet weird characters. I guess the story really appealed to me cos it has always been my secret fantasy to derail my life into nothing but a set of ridiculous, random rubbish where I'll just do everything and anything that sounds stupid to me. I especially love the chapter on that mad tea-party! Everyone just starts to argue about nonsensical issues and weird ideas... Something like the chaos in King Lear's mock-trial. Hee hee! For all the hype over her, I think Alice is one big irritating prick who's too inquisitive. But I like to picture her going all indignant, cos I'm sure that would be a funny sight! AND THE ENDING IS SO BATHOS. My favourite character is the Mock Turtle!

"Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise."

On a lighter note, Kai Jie and Benny were remarking how different I was when compared to Jun Ying, and were wondering how in the world did we manage to work together as Green Link presidents in charge. Kai Jie came up with this analogy: "If Ms Ting is asking a question on climate change, Jun Ying will tell you something interesting that you didn't know about climate change, but for Guan You, when Ms Ting is asking the question about climate change, Guan You will ask something else like DO YOU LIKE BUTTERFLIES?"

On another even lighter note, Samuel and Benny and me played with coins today. We were having a free period, and Sam came up with this stupid game that involved us getting our individual coins between 2 other coins, or something like that. And so for half an hour, three 17-year-olds were huddling together at the table flicking at coins. Benny was the overall loser. Samuel was the overall winner.

And below is what I got when I matched my photo on MyHeritage.com. I look like goofy old Einstein. Compliment or sarcastic joke?

OH PUH-LESE. How grossly inaccurate. I don't think they even bother to clarify what they mentioned before they publish their pack of lies. And even if they did, I guess it would make little difference cos you can't resist anything that bloats that inflated head of yours. Sickening, horrible jerk.

Bahh what can I do anyway? You can go on deceiving the world while I'll just sit here and watch your feeble, pathetic attempts.

I should take a leaf out of Janvin's. "I told her the truth! She was the one who ignored me! Well as long as I know I'm right, nothing else matters." Indeed, it takes true humility to give up the plume.

Yea I should.

Saturday, 13 May 2006

My cousin came over from Malaysia again! Haha it was her birthday last April, so she's 8 years old now. Anyway I brought her to river-keeping with the Green Link people today. The last time she tagged along for the combined river-keeping with NTU Earthlink and Ngee Ann Poly, so she's experienced! Hee hee! There were only a few of us today; Hong Yi was the only junior, and Jun Ying brought his friends along. Hui Min, me, Liyong, Hong Yi and my cousin ended up slacking more than we picked litter, then amidst lunch we prepared the letters to be sent to all the schools in Singapore for the EnviroFest. Reminiscience of me and Shu Fen's folding letters and sealing envelopes after Bekok last year.

My cousin's blowing up balloons and releasing 5 of them at one go. I've got balloons zooming over my head now.

I fell sick AGAIN on Thursday. I think it's the 4th time this year. And this year is barely half way through. Oh what the hell. I think it's throat infection. And that means fever. Okay I was feverish on Thursday, but am no longer now. It's just a terrible sore throat now.

For disturbing statistics:-

Lost my voice 2 times this year (and soon, 3 times)
~During station games, second week of Orientation 2006.
~The days leading towards Good Friday's worship night.

Fever 3 times this year
~During Orientation.
~Two days before Maths and Geography Common Test (Term 2).
~Last Thursday.

Flu 2 times this year
~Orientation.
~Common Test.

I'm so unhealthy that I'm sickening. UGH.