lol, its 1h 30mins from my birthdae and yet I am here writing for u ppl out there, how sad can I be? Firstly, thank you to all those reading my blogs and I promise you that there would be one long one after my birthday, too busy these few daes. Heres a recollection of some events.

Nike Fearless 5
Haha, a bunch of 5 ppl, from 4 diff schs, had only 2 trainings together, yet had the audacity to go up against the best in sg. Obviously, it was a futile attempt but 1 thing for sure, it was an invaluable experience. Qualifying rounds was a "Sink your Fears" competition, shooting basically. Our team "untitled" only managed a 27 when the qualifying mark was 60. lol, can't really blame us, a no. of factors was responsible as well. First, the weather, raining, ball was wet, board was wet, floor was wet. Second, they gave us a stupid rubber ball. lol, i mean u got see anyone of us there using rubber balls. Thirdly, they insistently placed us in court D, when the outside courts the hoops are larger and shorter, courts are smaller. lol, but at least we can be sure that we bagged the most 8-points shots, a little dist. further away from 3 point. Alvin, our team's pt guard, actually shot 2 in a row when we never saw anyone sink 1 in the whole qualifying rounds. The crowd was like cheering, damn shoik...So, the next day, we came back for the 3 on 3 competition. lol, after a walkover and a win, we were supposedly in the finals, yet due to some unforeseen circumstances, we in end lost the semis due to some team joining in the middle of the competition. lol, at least we beat the team Fusion, they were featured in Newpaper I think. lol, claim to be best in Marine Parade and come in jerseys yet lose to us wearing home clothes "rojak" team. haha, after that stayed to watch slam dunk comp and the first rounds of the fearless 5. The under 20 was damn nice to watch, a lot of action and pro basketball. Not to forget the girls category where the champs i think could beat many of the guys flat. They actually chalk up 95 pts for the qualifers lor.

HCCO interaction
lol, this yr, they decided to include water and mud as well. The talenttime was normal, nothing much lar. The games that came afterwards were to some extent, sadistic. Explicit details shall be left out but I must say that the organisers are really creative and okae i have to admit the games are fun, but I maintain the stance that they are sadistic. Well...in the end, my group won due to some cheating by our super-enthu group leader. We actually found like 95% of the stuff needed for the scavenger hunt. lol, last yr, my group won also. Seems as if luck is with me as I did not actually contribute much to the team's winning. Final point of interest, HC seems to be practising the billingual policy and implementing it much faster than any other institutions. Their students seem to have a keen sense of billingualism that they must flaunt their ability in every sentence, notwithstanding that it turns out as "rojak". Such intelligence must be invaluable to the ministry, with them trying every way to make ppl learn chinese and yet failing terribly.....(if u take me seriously on this point, you are more loser than I am)

Back from O's, what i'm feeling is somewhat strange for it no different from a normal holiday yet ppl around me are going on and on as if they had a hormone overdose. Lol, after the last paper, went to Swensons to have a good dinner, ate fish and chips and shared a topless five, then went home to slack.

This week is a real busy one for me coz Mon i was out buying grad night stuff. Tues is grad night. Wed got PAE briefing. Thurs and Fri taking part in Nike Fearless Five competition. Lalala, there goes my first week of hols. Now I'm comtemplating between RJ and MJ. I just need the final push from anyone to completely take RJ out of the picture. The open house and their talk by their teachers and principal were bad enough, somehow they are still in the picture due to I suspect my forged relationship with RI. So, any takers?

Sometimes, not having a choice is better

In my spare time while preparing for the last 1/4 of O'levels, I took up a book and read it, titled "Sing to the Dawn". I missed the musical production by our sch and I thought it would be nice to see what the book is about.

After reading it, I was pleasantly surprised, though again like most other literary works that have themes on feminism, the message was just a tad too exaggerated. Nevertheless, it was quite a refreshing experience. Its a story about a girl who won a scholarship in her local school to go to the city to study. Her father opposed strongly against this and when he found out that his son, or her brother had came in second in the exam to win the scholarship, he tries to force the girl to give up her place to her brother. He brother was at first on the side of the father, but as the story proceeds, he was persuaded to take the side of his sister. Finally, after much struggle, the girl was able to go to the city, for the better or the worse, no one knows....

Anw, will jus type out my favourite part in the book, its rather philosophical though... Her goes: A conversation between the girl Dawan and the head monk. Dawan tries to convince the head monk to speak to her father to convince him to let her go to the city.

Monk: But he realised after a long search that no one can stop suffering; one has to go beyond it.
Dawan: How do you go beyond sufferings?
Monk: You learn to stop wanting things. First you realize that nothing that we touch, or see or hear or smell or feel will last forever. Things we perceive will only pass after a while. Flowers fade, parents die, the sun sets.
Monk:Well then, once you realize that things of this world don't last, then you also see that they are not really important. So you learn to stop wanting ordinary things, and are able to concentrate on the higher truths. You...
Dawan: Wait, if ordinary things aren't important, what is then?

The monk talks about Nirvana, the concept of the highest stage in Buddism, where man is freed from the wheel of life, of being reborn, of suffering, or pain. He experiences nothing, nothing at all.

Dawan: No happiness or joy either?
Monk: That's the point child. What's the sense of being happy? In the end you only lose the thing that makes you happy anyway. Nothing lasts forever, you know.
Dawan: Nobody was talking about it lasting forever, sir. But what is wrong with just trying to make it last a little longer?
Monk: A little longer? What for child? What's the sense of going through life always dreading the end of some fragile happiness?

I especially like the last part, evokes a lot of thoughts. Will leave you with a parting thought: Who's right? The monk or Dawan? Why?
Uploaded a new song still from X Japan, this time it is World Anthem(Prolouge), v nice also:)

hmm...time for a update I guess...Halfway through the O's, more than halfway really, with most of humanities and languages done. Anw, not harbouring too high hopes for the papers esp higher chinese and english. Both because of paper 1, situational writing, but, i'll be glad with an A2 for HCL and hope desperately for an A1 in English. The rest of the paper were sort of a breeze, cept for maybe Lit. It was in the afternoon and I was damn worried as I usually hit borderline A1 for it and I dropped to A2 during prelims. However, Mrs Koh's magical lesson 3 hours b4 the paper saved me to a certain extent, esp for twelve night. Anw, she was so pro, all three topic questions of PDD were gone through in depth in her class b4. Childhood, Campsite and Crab, Embankment. We spent a lot of time on each and I'm sure that the whole class would have no problem handling them. Embankment even came out in prelims...So, yes, thank you Mrs Koh and we definitely owe you a pizza:P I am rather confident of an A1 for Lit now if my unseen section don't screw up. Guess for the most of RI, the rest of O's would be a breeze, where we get our striaght As. Maths and Science are supposed to be the male gender's forte, so jia you...The worst is over, only better things could come.

With this window of time I have here, will just try to blog out some of the events I've missed before the exams.
A Tribute to Headmaster
27th Oct 2004
9.30a.m.
Albert Hong Hall

The Sec 4s were on study break and there was no need to return to school. It was the last the of school for sec 1-3s though. On reading Bjourn's email on Tuesday and Mrs Koh's appeal, I've decided to go back to pay a tribute to the great man. For the first time, the sec 4s were treated like guests and were allowed to seat at the gallery while the rest of the school were on first storey. It was a heartwarming occasion, similar to Grad ceremony. Headmaster made a speech, followed by a few others, representing the students and staffs. Finally, Headmaster was presented with a gift and the whole hall gave him a standing ovation, taking the lead from the teachers. The whole thing was just so natural and spontaneous and I finally understood after 4 years how a school becomes a family. It was certainly a tear-welling moment I would never forget. After all that, RV sang "Amigos Paras Samperes"(Friends for life) and I never knew they sang so well, showing their range as they sang both the soprano and bass parts. Not wanting to be outdone, Mrs Lim Jee Nee and Mr Paul Lim sang Auld Lang Sang. I never knew Mr Lim could sing so well, so kudos to him. Then Headmaster started on his ceremonial departure of the school. THe whole school got into two lines, creating a pathway of glory for Headmaster as he strides off. The whole human chain stretched all the way from within the hall to the tracks to the clock tower, into the carpark and all the way down the driveway to the main gate. At the clock tower, Headmaster got into a silver sports car with Mr Chow as driver. Students were flooding him with well-wishes as we followed him all the way to the gates of R.I. There, we did a Raffles cheer and Headmaster formally thanked us and put a full stop to his journey in R.I. What a great man! I'll never forget him and his stories. What do I gain from this experience, you may ask? Well... I gained nothing much. I wanted to wish him well so I went down. Though I was the insignificant one in the whole school's population and he might not hear my voice nor receive my well-wishes, my presence made a difference, if not to him than to me. If you ask me, I was glad that I heeded Mrs Koh's advice to go down and it was a decision I will never regret nor forget....