Finale

Just when I thought I would get some slack, I'm wrong. OBS Singapore next week. Five days of outdoor activity. I'm not sure I'm really excited about it. The enthusiasm about things have been disappearing recently. Not good... Anyway, I only got my AMath result today. 1/2 more mark to A1. It's a good improvement since Mid year when I only got 50 something. Furthermore, I studied that dang subject all by myself. No need for tuition, no need to go through the trouble of having one "trial lesson" after another. Honestly I'm sick and tired of it. Loads of practising really helped. Hope that other subjects can compensate for my EMath which is a confirm GG gone case. 10+ marks gone.

I'm learning some footworks for my breakdance now. I only know the 6-step and the 4-step, combined with some random stuff that I add in along the way. I hope my nike freeze is better than the last time, I have been trying and trying and trying, and viewing tutorial videos until I got sick of it. I hope to break with Selva and Matthias next time if I have the chance. Esplanade looks like a good place to practise. Arghh I need more muscle to do all those moves.... Training time!

Exam Fever

Mugging, Mugging, Mugging. It's driving me up the wall. The only thing I would be looking forward to is my B'day next Saturday. although mom and dad had already gave me my early B'day present, The MotoKrzr. Cool phone with a really small screen. Haha. Love it. At least it has bluetooth as compared to my 2.5 year old Nokia 6020. Before I leave to continue with my mugging I shall entertain you all with my attempt at Nike. Here it goes:



My face looks really screwed. Arghh I need some professional help for my Nike... It's driving me crazeh. The passion for learning has met with strong resistance.... Shoot. Wish me luck for the upcoming Common Tests next week. Ciao.

Happy 100th Post

Happy 100th post blog. It's the first time my blog ever reached 100 posts. My previous one was about 50+ or 60+, but I deleted it because I felt confused and my blog was full of shit and vulgarities. Dark times, those were. And I never want to look back at it again. Not one single bit of it.

Anyway, life's been really busy right now. Exam is two weeks later, and thankfully my B'day falls on a saturday 16/08/08 instead of a wednesday where I usually have exams on that day. This gives me more time to celebrate it instead of mugging my butt off at home. I tried to de-stress on friday by playing soccer and touch rugby all afternoon on friday. Was quite tiring and relaxing even though I sucked at soccer. But it was a surprise though that I realised that I can do half a nike. Only half. Selva said it looked kinda like one. I have half a nike more to learn. Haha. Difficult stuff. It's hard to balance on one hand while your feet is in a "nike" shape. Gotta practise more handstands and two-handed nikes before going on a one-handed one. Meanwhile I'll just practise how to do swipes.

Alright... back to mugging. Update you all later.

BlogQuiz

I've been tagged by Liyi to do this. This is the first time I'm doing quizzes like this.

A) People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blogs and replace any question that they dislike with a new question formulated by them.

B) Tag eight people to do this quiz and those who are tagged cannot refuse. These people must state who they were tagged by and cannot tag the person whom they were tagged by. Continue this game by sending it to other people.

1. What are your reasons for having a LJ?

I have a blog because I want to use this blog as a place where I am free to say whatever I want to say. It is also a place where I can see my growing up as a person when I read my archives. Besides all the basic textbook answers, I have a blog because I feel like it.

2. What do you do before bed time?

Shower, Read a book.

3. What would your dream wedding be like?

That's a difficult question. Actually I want my dream wedding to be held in a place near the sea during sunrise. It should be a good time to exchange vows under the beauty of nature with the heavens as your witness.

4. What is the city of your dreams and why?

Copenhagen. Definately Copenhagen. I love the lifestyle and the whole city architecture. It's a place where everything is not as fast-paced as Singapore, and the breathtaking views complimented by the small cottages and canals makes your body feels very relaxed. I still miss that place after my last visit in P6

5. Are you an introvert or an extrovert?

I'm more of an introvert I guess. There are somethings which I usually keep to myself despite me talking alot and trying to socialize with the people around me.

6. Which is more blessed; being loved or to love someone?

I have to say being loved feels blessed because you know that there is someone out there who can accept you for the way you are and also the fact that you can be her keeper and someone whom they trust to even tell them their secrets. Loving someone isn't really blessed as it sucks to know that the someone whom you love does not appreciate that.

7. Do you trust easily?

Definately. I trust people too easily.

8. What person, dead or alive, is your role model?

Role model? I don't really have one, surprisingly. My role model is values and principles and optimism.

9. Is there anything that has been making you unhappy recently?

Yes. Freaking TA3

10. When's the last time you had fun?

Kindred Spirits Concert. I got so bored by school life that this one little concert make me wake up at 3am in the morning due to adrenaline.

11. Is being tagged fun?

Yeah. It's nice to know that you're on someone's mind and they decide to tag you.

12. How do you see yourself?

Me? I see myself as someone who always have room for improvement.

13. Who are currently, the most important people to you?

My parents, relatives, friends.

14. What kind of person, do you think the person who tagged you is?

Someone who is a very good friend of mine. Somone who erm... stuck with me and didn't just fade away.

15. Would you rather be rich but single? or poor but married?

Poor but married. I would rather live in happiness than die of loneliness. Actually I would take option 3 though. I want to be rich AND married.

16. How many children would you want to have, if any?

Two. I want my kids to know the importance of sharing.

17. What's better? To give or to receive?

I would say to give. Although giving stinks, it makes you feel happy to know that you've brightened up someone else's life. In the process you receive something as well.

18. If you fall in love with two people simultaneously, who would you pick?

Whoa, hard question. I would think about that for a very long time.... But usually I would fall in love with one person only.

19. What would you do if you (or your girlfriend) became pregnant unexpectedly?

What can I do but to marry her? Although in situations like these my thoughts would be another option. I hope that will not happen.

20. What are you waiting for right now?

Time to pass and waiting for sleeping time and mugging session tomorrow.

8 people? Allright.

1. Michael
2. Glen
3. Hillary
4. Saiful
5. Lizzi
6. Edmund
7. Joshua
8. Eugene

ZB Sports Day

Well, I just came back from Zabao SSC Sports Day. It was a freaking exhausting day, albeit a fun one. We had to play a total of:

3 matches of handball
3 matches of basketball
3 matches of street soccer
3 mathces of frisbee

That's a total of 12 matches in 10 hours. Trust me, the matches are all dang exhausting as majority of the other team members go all out, even if its a game of frisbee. It was physically exhausting, but I still managed to endure the 10-hour exercise with only an hour or so's break. No cramps or muscle aches yet, but rest assured all these will come when I wake up tomorrow. I will be walking to school while limping on one leg, clutching my thighs as if someone hit my *ahem*. However, it was all worth it as I tried my best. The results were quite satisfactory though:

I scored a goal in street soccer. I would just like to make it a point that I have not been seriously playting that sport for three years now. The fact that I can still do so impresses me. Haha. I also scored more than 5 goals in handball. Handball is actually a very difficult sport to play as it is very difficult to score. Your objective is to throw the ball between the goalposts. Since the ball is really small, you can't really throw with that much force. I managed to score more than 5 I think.

Even though we got last this year, it was still fun nevertheless as we all stuck together as a team. Thanks to Xuchang, Muquan and Hanjie for scoring majority of the goals in street soccer, Iris, Felicia, Jieling (not sure of spelling) for playing like all stars during the basketball match, and Tongyao, Yingying, Liyun, Lixue, Aonan for giving their best during every one of the matches. Majority of my shots would never had made it without all of you, thanks alot for the encouragement. Xulong Rockz!

Lord, What Fools These Mortals Be!

I simply love Midsummer Night's Dream. Although it is written in an english so old that some words don't appear in dictionaries anymore, it is still one of my favourite book. Probably because of the fact that the whole book is based on the theme of love, relationships and the "Dream-Reality" concept. I'll just give the sypnosis of the story adapted from Wikipedia:

The play features three interlocking plots, connected by a celebration of the wedding of Duke Theseus of Athens and the Amazonian queen Hippolyta, and set simultaneously in the woodland, and in the realm of Fairyland, under the light of the moon.^[2]

In the opening scene, Hermia refuses to comply with her father Egeus's wish for her to marry his chosen man, Demetrius. In response, Egeus quotes before Theseus an ancient Athenian law whereby a daughter must marry the suitor chosen by her father, or else face death. Theseus does not want this young girl to die, and offers her another choice, lifelong chastity worshipping Diana as a nun. (The word 'nun' in this sense is an anachronism.)

Hermia and her lover Lysander decide to elope by escaping through the forest at night. Hermia informs her best friend Helena, but Helena has recently been rejected by Demetrius and decides to win back his favour by revealing the plan to him. Demetrius, followed doggedly by Helena, chases Hermia. Hermia and Lysander, believing themselves safely out of reach, sleep in the woods.

Meanwhile, Oberon, king of the fairies, and his queen, Titania, arrive in the forest outside Athens. Titania tells Oberon that she plans to stay there until after she has attended Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding. Oberon and Titania are estranged because Titania refuses to give her Indian changeling to Oberon for use as his "knight" or "henchman," since the child's mother was one of Titania's worshippers. Oberon seeks to punish Titania's disobedience and recruits the mischievous Puck (also called Hobgoblin and Robin Goodfellow) to help him apply a magical juice from a flower called "love-in-idleness" (a.k.a. pansy), which makes the victim fall in love with the first living thing seen upon awakening. He instructs Puck to retrieve the flower so that he can make Titania fall in love with some vile creature of the forest. Oberon applies the juice to Titania in order to distract her and force her to give up the page-boy.

Having seen Demetrius act cruelly toward Helena, Oberon orders Puck to spread some of the elixir on the eyelids of the young Athenian man. Instead, Puck accidentally puts the juice on the eyes of Lysander, who then falls in love with Helena. Oberon sees Demetrius still following Hermia and is enraged. When Demetrius decides to go to sleep, Oberon sends Puck to get Helena while he charms Demetrius' eyes. Due to Puck's errors, both lovers now fight over Helena instead of Hermia. Helena, however, is convinced that her two suitors are mocking her, as neither loved her originally. The four pursue and quarrel with each other most of the night, until they become so enraged that they seek a place to duel each other to the death to settle the quarrel. Oberon orders Puck to keep the lovers from catching up with one another in the forest and to re-charm Lysander for Hermia, to prevent them all from killing each other.

Meanwhile, a band of lower-class labourers ("rude mechanicals", as they are famously described by Puck) have arranged to perform a crude play about Pyramus and Thisbe for Theseus' wedding, and venture into the forest, near Titania's bower, for their rehearsal. Nick Bottom, a stage-struck weaver, is spotted by Puck, who transforms his head into that of an ass (donkey). Titania is awakened by Bottom's singing and immediately falls in love with him. She treats him like a nobleman and lavishes him with attention. While in this state of devotion, she encounters Oberon and casually gives him the Indian boy. Having achieved his goals, Oberon releases Titania and orders Puck to remove the ass's head from Bottom. The magical enchantment is removed from Lysander but is allowed to remain on Demetrius, so that he may reciprocate Helena's love.

The fairies then disappear, and Theseus and Hippolyta arrive on the scene, during an early morning hunt. They wake the lovers and, since Demetrius doesn't love Hermia anymore, Theseus over-rules Egeus's demands and arranges a group wedding. The lovers decide that the night's events must have been a dream. After they all exit, Bottom awakes, and he too decides that he must have experienced a dream "past the wit of man." In Athens, Theseus, Hippolyta and the lovers watch the mechanicals perform "Pyramus and Thisbe." It is ridiculous and badly performed but gives everyone pleasure regardless, and afterward everyone retires to bed. Finally, as night falls, Oberon and Titania bless the house, its occupants, and the future children of the newlyweds, and Puck delivers a soliloquy to the audience.

Shakespeare explains a key concept of love which struck me. In the play, where Demetrius is still under the effects of the love potion while everything goes back to normal again. He said "Are you sure we are awake? It seems to me that yet we sleep, we dream". Think about it. Isn't love like a dream to you? When you are in love, nothing else matters except the one you love. I had similar feelings like that. Nothing, not even your best friend mattered to you. You're living in a world of your own, a world where you and whoever you love are the only residents there. It feels fantastic. It's a great feeling to love and be loved.

However, when that someone breaks up with you or you decide that you don't love that someone anymore, it brings you back to reality. And you come down crashing. Hard. Suddenly you're back in a world where everything seemed so crystal clear to you again. Don't believe me, think about what I've written when you're in a relationship and if it falls apart (Hopefully not), after the relationship. Then when you fall back in love again, the whole process repeats itself.

The amazing thing is, MSND is timeless. It does not just wear away with time. What Shakespeare wrote still happens in our lives. I don't know how Shakespeare does it, but what he wrote shocked me, despite it being simple quotes such as:

"Love is perjured everywhere"

"Love looks not with the eye but with the mind"

"Love is said to be a child, because in choices he is so oft beguiled"

"The course of true love never did run smooth"

A few hundred years down the road, all of these which I mentioned still revolves around our lives. People change throughout the ages, I think, but these priniciples and points of view still stands. All these questions and themes about Love intrigues me everytime I read it. Love is such a mysterious thing, and we humans often tend to fall deep into her traps. If only I can put all of these into my lit essays. It would do soooo much help.

Kindred Spirits!

EDITED

Well, what can I say? Kindred Spirits will be one of the most memorable concerts I have ever been to. The performance was awesome, there were surprises, there were moments where you wish they would have an encore performance and there were moments that you wish that time would freeze at that particular moment. The emcees were brilliant and funny, with Emu, Mahdi and all. The dance crew that performed had so much energy, especially the breakers. I felt damn jealous as I'm also trying to learn but I'm still at the basics. It would take a really long time before I can do all those freezes and stuff.

Sat with Max during the first half of the show as I was late and I almost sat beside this old lady before Max called me. Saw TY, Brij, Karthik and Shant and other familiar faces. Oh yeah, the CHIJ dance was sexy. Really sexy. Those dancers are freaking flexible and I realized that my mouth was half open after their item. Haha. Met up with Samantha, Lizzi and Peter during the interval and sat with them on the 2nd level.

The performance during the 2nd half was not as good as the first half, but I had loads of surprises. Firstly, I didn't know that my RME teacher can sing pretty well and my HOL is a guitar god. Haha. Jerome's singing is fantastic but the other band's performance was a little bit boring. The concert ended on a high note and I was pretty much high from the concert and the people whom I met there.

It's been a really busy week with me studying for common tests and stuff, I was doing Geometric Properties of Circles until I went crazy and wanted to just throw my freaking math textbook out the window. I'm not really good at Geometry as it's this topic where you have to really stare at the diagram until you get sick of it. And DT said that video games make teenagers violent... Wait till I really go bonkers during her math class and start throwing calculators around. Studied Geography and Biology this week too. Sigh... I hate the new timetable. You have no breaks/ slack lessons from wednesday to friday. Why can't we have a 10 minute break after every 50 minutes of lessons just like St Paul's in HK?

Thank god there is the concert to help me relax. In fact, this concert got me so hyped that I couldn't sleep well at night. I woke up at three a.m with a million thoughts in my head. This shows that school is really taking its toll on me. And on one of the million thoughts that appeared in my mind was this girl, one whom I met during the concert. I shouldn't name who, but you know my heart was beating like crazy when I saw her. I'm not sure what to do, or what I can do. However, I know that something must be done because it stinks to feel this way. As much as I want to date a girl, there's always this voice inside of me that says "Study first" or "What is it that you have which will make someone fall in love with you? Better learn something that will impress the girls first". All these thoughts are rushing through my head and I don't know what to do. You try to ignore it but it just keeps coming back.

I'll end this post with something good that happened to me this week. I actually got level 10 for my HSK exam. I can even go to this top university in Shanghai for 10 days with the other top scorers. The expenses are all paid except for the tickets. Big bonus for me. The highest level that someone can get is level 11. Furthermore, this exam is taken back to Beijing for marking and the results are then emailed back to Singapore. With this certificate, I can become a primary school chinese teacher. Lolz. Anyway, I'm really satisfied with my results and this is a booster for me to study even harder.