A lie can run around the world before the truth has even got its boots on......

2007-09-08T19:43:00.000+08:00

I've made some mistakes here. The link to my new blog (which I've been using for quite a while now) is this http://www.xanga.com/Stifler_leonheart .
Please visit that site. This would probably be the last post on this blog.

Thank you for your support.

2006-12-12T15:16:00.000+08:00

Moved backed here. lol Xanga doesn't give me as much control over it as I would have like. All the crap with HTML. So I'm back here.

As a sidenote, I've started up a blog solely for anime and games. Woohoo. So go check it out.

2006-11-24T21:53:00.000+08:00

I've moved to Xanga, main reason being that it easily allows me to upload my music. "Stupid reason?" Yeah, I suppose so, but it can be useful at times.

http://www.xanga.com/private/yourhome.aspx?user=Stifler_leonheart

2006-08-13T17:57:00.000+08:00

The Game.Instructions:`Take a look at your friends, then list up to 10 things you want to say to 10 different friends.`DO NOT state who these people are.`DO NOT confirm or deny any "comment speculation". Then tag 5 people.

To the Defender of Justice: lol Life was fun back in Secondary School. Time passes so quickly, don’t you think? If the world were full of people like you, the world would be a nicer place to live in. But its not, so that’s just too bad. Lets meet up again for Teacher’s Day, yes? Study hard for your As, you hear?

To the Singing Diva: Without you sitting in front, life in class isn’t as exciting as it used to be. And now I don’t have a ready person to turn to for advice. Haha. Good luck for your As!

To the little dude (both figuratively and literally): lol Don’t play Winning Eleven lah, NBA Live is so much more fun. I still owe you your S.H.E CD…Will be returning it to you as soon as I can. Haha. Good luck for your poly studies!

To the retired Black Hole: Sorry about your grandma, dude. But I’m sure that she’s in a better place right now. Miss the times when we used to play LAN and Naruto along with the rest of the guys. Work hard, yeah?

To Aimless: Dude, look me up if you have any trouble with your maths. You know I will always be here to help you, except for the times when I will not be there to help you. Haha. Lets go for a game of Battlefield after the As.

To Lordono: Hurry up and watch my Tsubasa Chronicles already! Lol. Its too nice a show to be put off for so long. I miss the days we had in IT club. Playing LF was fun. Too bad they didn’t have a national tournament on it. We would have owned.

To the Fish: Life in school would be even more of a bore if it weren’t for you crapping around with me. Stay fun as always.

To the Wushu-er: I have said it once and I will say it again – you must sleep earlier man. Sleeping at 2 and coming to school at 7 isn’t really healthy, you know. Haha. Stupid crapper who usually craps along with me.

To the Tennis dude: Another one of my crappers in school. Haha. Lets work hard for the As, shall we?

To my opponent in Slam Dunk: I could search the world over, and probably never find anyone who could give me as much of a challenge as you do. See you in Uni.

2006-07-31T21:17:00.000+08:00

Well, I was just reading the Sunday Times article about blogging, and I felt that I should give my two cents worth on it. Actually, I would have posted about it had I read it on Sunday itself. As it is, I receive my newspapers a day late, due a nice little arrangement that my family has with the neighbors. Well, enough about that, lets get down to the post proper (Its kind of ironic, huh? How an article about blogs is being talked about in a blog. That's life for you, I suppose.)

One of the first things that strike you as you first gaze upon the article is "i want to be famous.com"...no, that's not right. That is how I would write it. Instead, the article puts it as "iwant2bfamous.com", in a vain attempt to imitate standard SMS short forms (which I personally do not use. The SMS is mocking the English language! There's a GP question on that if I'm not mistaken.)

All at once, you know where the article is going. It is, as you probably already know, talking about how bloggers are narcissistic, and that their blogs are all about "me, myself, and I". Okay, granted that. That is the way most blogs are orientated anyway. In fact, the article even goes so far as to present statistical information to you. In their own words, “…73% of them said their blogs were personal…the remaining 27% wrote non-personal blogs.” (I hope that I do not get into trouble with the ST for writing that. After all, I am ignorant of the laws governing intellectual piracy in Singapore, but that won’t help me, as I can envision the judge saying this “Ignorance isn’t a good excuse.” So, ST, if you are reading this, try not to sue me.)

Not that I have anything against that. On the contrary, I actually agree with them. It is easy to see that the so-called “Age of the Self” has fallen upon us. You do not need to have millions of blogs sprouting like mushrooms to tell you that. No, indeed. I mean, just look that Singaporeans! Its only been some time back that we have been ranked among the worst courteous countries in the world in the recent Reader’s Digest survey (not that you needed one. It is common knowledge that Singaporeans are not courteous, to say the least. Haha.)

There are some who would say that this (meaning the whole blogging craze) would have an unsavory effect on the world’s teenagers. They worry that the over indulgence (for lack of a better word) of oneself would only serve to make them more self-centered, in an increasingly selfish society. After all, if you think about yourself all day, sooner or later you would stop caring about other people.

If you read most self-orientated blogs, you would notice that most of the posts are blasting at their school (if the poster is a student), blasting at their boss (if they are working), blasting that the last bugger to pissed them off, and basically blasting anything in general. Not very healthy for the poster’s psyche, if I can say so myself. These are angry folks, people.

However, by posting all their frustrations on their blogs, they might be removing this anger from their systems, so to speak. Which might be good their they physiological well-being. But wait a minutes – didn’t you just say that such a doing isn’t good for one’s mind? Yes, I did. My answer is this: I do not know.

But what I do know is this: Through the many postings on the blog, the poster might acquire a host of loyal fans. When the poster is down, the fans (if they can be called that) can post comments to cheer the poster up. Just knowing that someone is on their side, that someone know what you are going through (of course they do – they read your blog!), that you are not alone, can do wonders for oneself. It is like having a friend, only that they are not actually there.

Another thing about blogs, and today’s’ kids in general: We have no qualms about giving out personal information. How often do we give out our birthdays, email address etc. etc. without second thought when signing up at websites? All sense of privacy is gone. But this is another topic for me to rant about some other time. For now, I will have to close up this post soon.

So, what is my point for this entire post? Its simple: I don’t have one. Yup, that 700 odd words you just read are basically useless. They are fit for the bin. If I pass that up to my GP tutor, I probably won’t get anything higher than an F (not that you can get much lower than an F). But in my pointless essay, lies my point (Okay…think that through. Take a deep breath. Read that again. Then move on.)

Most blogs online right now are pointless. People in general do not want to read about your daily ramblings. It is boring. The few who stand out do so because they are controversial. They go against the norm, what we have come to expect of blogs. (Example: That blog about the gay couple. Bet you that you know about it and will remember few months down the road). In that sense, my blog isn’t much different, only that instead of posting about myself, I post about events that I feel like picking a bone with at that time. It just so happened that I just read this article in the Sunday Times, and so it got chosen.

Some Singaporean bloggers posts in very bad English, eg. Singish. If you come across any of such blogs, do us all a favor and send them a DoS attack. It is to save the entire of civilization from being polluted by their language. Thank you.*

*this is said tongue in cheek. On no accounts should you actually do a DoS attack on such sites. Good luck anyway.

2006-07-31T10:21:00.000+08:00

92 more days to the A levels. Time to really start work. Haha. About time too. Spent the last few weeks slacking and playing this really cute game "Pangya". Its a golf game, for those of you who don't know. "Golf???" I hear you saying? Yes, that's right, golf. And its actually quite fun too, helped no doubt by the fact that the characters inside are so darnedly cute. Haha. Yeah, I'm playing it only for the cuteness factor.

I'm typing this in school now, while the rest of my friends are studying. Kudos to them. Hard workers one and all. So unlike me. A true born slacker, that I am. Well, not any more. Bwahahahahaha!

A short little post. I won't be posting for quite some time now, but you can keep checking back every now and then to see if I have anything new. I will be posting my views on the Middle Easten crisis some time soon, if I am able. After that, I probably won't touch this blog till after the A levels.

Till then.

2006-07-15T22:03:00.000+08:00

Well, July the 14th has come and gone, and suddenly I’m one year older. Not that I wish to be reminded of it. So much time has passed. Why, I still remember all the good old days, as if it was only yesterday. So much time, so much time…

First, I would like to thank those people who has supported me in my 18 years, and have made me to who I am today.

To my oldest and best friend, Chao Liang:

It has been a good 11 years, dude. Yes, I read your post, and it made me recall a whole load of memories. Lol Yes, I got that astronomy badge, but I can’t remember where it is for the sake of me. The three of us, you, Eric, and me – we were always together back in the old days. Lol Yes, we made our own newspaper. I can remember us running around the school looking for things to put in it. It was so much fun. And our own encyclopedia – we did so much research for that thing. All of it on A4 paper, handwritten and drawn. I remember I did the drawings. Lol
Ah, and we made our own comic too…Its on one of our favorite games back then – Worms 2. Too bad production stopped after the 2nd issue.

Lol So, 50 years down the road, I will be awaiting you with a copy of Slam Dunk. No one else is playing it anyway, and even if they do, they won’t be much of a challenge for us. I will be waiting for you then. Its like you said, I won’t find a worthier opponent other than you.

To my other best friend, Sheng Hui:

Well, well, we did get off to a rocky start, didn’t we? And look at us now, the best of chums. How things can change. I won’t know how I could have gotten through sec school without you, man. Your sense of honor, your responsible nature, your determination to do the right thing even in the face of opposition – they all impressed on me greatly. You are a good man, Sheng Hui, and may you never change. Its my privilege to have a friend like you.

To people big and small:

I would also like to thank my sister, Amie. Being around you is fun! You always have a good word to say whenever we are feeling down, and you always do the right thing to bring us back to our feet. Thank you for everything.

To Jun Liang: First got to know you through IT club. What fun days we had back then. Playing LF2 on the computer while looking over our shoulders to make sure that Mr. Lim doesn’t catch us in the act. Yeah, that was fun, dude. Glad to have a friend like you.

To Wei Chan: Book-smart, eloquent, “nerdy” and downright annoying. A man after my own heart, if I can say so myself. Haha. Glad to know you, man.

To Jing Zhi: The first friend I made at GM. Saw you sitting lonely at the back row, so I popped behind and said hi. And now, 6 years has passed. Ah, how the time flies.

To Jing Jing: Though I’ve known you for only a short 1 and half years, you have been a good friend to me. It was great fun hanging out with you.

Thank you everyone. The Alvin Chua of today won’t be here now if it won’t for all of you.

2006-06-02T22:45:00.000+08:00

My body was getting thinner and had become bent into a stooped position. I was not able to stretch, and felt paralyzed. All my strength was gone. It was hard to move even one finger, and opening my eyes was not easy. Even conversation got on my nerves.

For obeying God’s Law I had been confined in prison. I had a sudden craving for apples, but I could not get even one and I wondered why. “Those who disobeyed the Lord not only had apples but were able to eat to their heart’s content. But here in prison, I could not even eat the rotten beans and decayed millet they gave us. The smelly and unnutritious soup was made of weeds and looked like dirty water used for washing feet.

However, my desire for apples became stronger. “O Jesus, I would like to eat an apple,” I prayed honestly. “You know my body system. You are the only One who can cure this painful desire. Please grant me one whole apple.”

I could not help but think of apples. If I had a fortune, I thought I would be glad to give it up for one whole apple. But if somebody were to bring me a barrelful of delicious apples and say, “Eat them and worship the Shinto gods,” I would have kicked over the barrel and said, “I don’t need them! I don’t need them for the rest of my life!”

“O Jesus, You must be planning something wonderful for my future,” I prayed. “Please give me one whole apple, even if You have to give up the Plan. Maybe it is impossible because of the time and place, but You satisfied 5000 people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. Now I must really depend upon Your Promise. You said that You would grant every desire which is asked in Your name. Trusting your promise, I am praying.” After praying, the pain that had twisted my nerves began subsiding somehow, and an indescribable warmth filled my heart.

One day during the change of shifts I overheard jailers Jue and Kuriyama talking. “At this time of the year, apple rations are being distributed, but all the apples are rotten. Maybe the section chiefs have taken the good ones.”

When I heard this, I jumped up in my excitement. The word “apple” made my mouth want to water, but no saliva came. I called to Jue immediately. “Mrs Jue, Is it true that apples rations are being distributed?”

“How many do they give?”

“How many? Why?”

“Mrs. Jue, don’te you see our food? Its nothing but decayed, smelly things. Rotten apples are much, much better than what we are eating. Can you get those rotten apples?”

“Now I know what you mean.””Will you get them for me?”

“Even though they are rotten?”

“I don’t mind, I want to eat those rotten apples.”

“Alright, that is easy to do. I will bring them to you.”

Hearing this, I was so happy I almost danced and jumped for joy. When Kuriyama came for the change of shifts, I asked her to bring me some apples also.

Jailers Kuriyama and Jue went for the rations. Many of the other jailers did not want the rotten apples, so they each received a bagful. As the night advanced, Jue brought the soggy apples and put then through the meal hole. Oh, what an aroma! I was so overwhelmed by the fragance that I almost fainted. “O Lord, this aroma is sufficient.” I prayed. “How splendid it is! God still lives! God is the God of promise.”

I praised God and worshipped Him with all my heart. As soon as I got hold of an apple, I put it into my mouth. It was like an apple that had been boiled. It was so soft that it melted in my mouth right away. The fruit of Heaven must be like this. I thought. The hard, frozen apple, melted by the warmness of spring, had become juice. A tap on the apple would produce juiece. Every prisoner ate at least one. What a wonderful world it was! The prison became a paradise.

Jailer Kuriyama brought us a lot of apples in a sack too. We ate them all. My stomach, shriveled and dehydrated, was filled with the nutritious apple juice, like a soft spring shower poured onto a dry lawn during the night. The ache that had been piercing my body stopped, and my entire body functions recovered. Even my twisted nerves calmed down.

“What a wonderful world God has created!” I exclaimed. “Oh, what a wonderful prison this is! What a lofty road of the Lord! O Lord, You are faithful to Your promise. I will tell this to people in Heaven and in the world.”

My waist straightened. I could use my voice again. I explained to my fellow prisoners why God gave me soggy apples instead of firm, smooth ones. Because my teeth were weak, I wouldn’t have been able to bite into a firm apple. I had to add that God had given me 50 apples instead of just one because my dehydrated body needed many soggy apples rather than one freash apple which I could not have chewed. The apples were truly tasty, and their sweetness and delicacy were the best I had ever tasted.

The next day, one of the prisoners looked at me seriously and wiped away her tears. I asked her why she was crying. “I have always eaten good food, but never acknowledged it by thanking God as you have, even for rotten apples.” Then she wept even more, and I cried with her for joy.

-By person unknown.

2006-05-22T20:59:00.000+08:00

Had a great week last week. A little late in posting this, but on Thursday, I got to see Sheng Hui again for the first time in a really long time! Yay! Its quite the chance encounter, really. Was walking to school on Tuesday when Amie caught up to me (she was looking really down, and as usual, I didn't know quite what to do in situations like that, so I behaved normally and tried to give forth a positive attitude. As to why she's down, only those who have the right to know would know.) She told me that she would be meeting up with SH on Thursday to collect money from him (oooo, a loan shark). Of course, I jumped at the chance.

However, as things turned out, fate has other plans for me. My chemistry teacher jumped into my class and told us that we would be having remedial lessons on Thursday. And quite out of the blue too. Thought that I would miss the chance, but as it appears, Lady Fate is quite the devious one. She plans wheels within wheels within wheels, and has all of us running round Her little finger like rats after a chunk of cheese. It appears that Amie and SH has changed their plans to meet up at the Expo (which is not very far at all from TPJC), instead of City Hall (which is very far indeed...for me anyway). So as soon as my lesson ended, I hopped on bus 12 managed to get there in time to pick up SH. Had a good time catching up with him and Amie, talking about past times (helped in part by SH's not-very small collection of past letters and stuff). Met Amie's friend there too, can't remember her name now for the sake of me. But that's just me, I can't remember names and faces very well. They just go right pass me. After all, everyone looks alike - two eyes, one nose, one mouth, and so on and so on. You know what I mean.

A few days after that, managed to have a fruitful QT session with Amie, JL, and WC. Actually, I was quite surprised that Amie showed up. Wasn't expecting her to. Anyway, after the boring College Day we had (made not so boring by the amazing performances of the Fusion band led by Chang Yu and the dance performance at the end {Ardi sure can dance well}. Without these two events, the crowd would probably have died from boredom. Now that is something that I would like to see. Headlines: TPJC students found dead in their seats during presentation. Police have ruled out foul play, and are pending investigations.), went over to EEFC for Foundation. Wanted to come home to study after that, but WC and JS tried to stop me, with annoying lines like "Oh, which is more important, your As or God?" and "How far can your As take you?"

Look, its our final year alright? If we don't start working hard now, we would get good results, and where would we be then? I do not wish to come out from JC with grades like C,C,E. That would get me nowhere, and I would have wasted 2 years of my life for a mindless pursuit for a piece of paper that is worth next to nothing. Where's the sense in that? If you want to do well, you've got to start work. Like, now? Hello? I don't see how you can get good grades if you spend every waking hour at church (unless you plan to quit school and join a Bible school like Ai Zhu, but that's another story altogether). You win some, you lose some. For now, getting my As is the main goal at this point in my life. And you aren't going to stop me from getting them. Nothing will stand in my way. Haha.

Well, I don't have a topic to talk about today. Will be posting one tomorrow. I will be talking about globalization and stuff then.

2006-05-17T13:54:00.000+08:00

I have been conducting a small social experiment around school lately. Everytime I'm near the library door, and i see someone heading towards the door, I open it for them and see what they do. At this time, the person in question usually has 2 chocies, to either thank me (awww, how nice) or just walk through the door. You would think that most people would thank the person opening the door for them, yes?

WRONG! That is what my social experiment of about 20 people proved. These people were tested at different times of the day, and on different days as well, so as to ensure fairness and that there's no random mean streak going round in the school population. All efforts were taken to ensure that the result of each individual observation are indepentant of each other.

Here are my results: of the 20 people I opened the door for, I had 17 who just walk right through without giving me a 2nd look, as if it is their right for doors to be opened for them. That's like having a 85% failure rate! The other 3 were kind enough to thank me. :) I would be sure to thank those who open the doors for me, through the students in school don't really give me a chance to, as they open the door just wide enough for them to squeeze through and let it swing shut in the faces of those behind them.

If you say that the results of my experiment is unqiue only to the students of my college, you are wrong too. It seems to be something that is prevalent all over Singapore. I once tried standing at the doorway of a Mac and opening the door for those coming in or out. Didn't do it for long, as it sure is embrassing to have so many people looking at your strangely. But I got the results I wanted.

Of the 7 people who are unknowing victems of my experiment, only 2 said thanks, nodded at me and acknowledged my being. The other walked through the door as if it opened on its own.

Another thing I've noticed through my experiment: Those who thanked me while I was opening doors at MacDornals were old people, those above 60. The others, whos age ranged between 15 to 45, walked right through. This has led me to conqude that the older people in our society are more polite and probably had a better upbringing, as compared to the younger members of our society, who mostly led a pampered life and are used to having things done their way, for their benefit.

Just gives you a warm fuzzy feeling aboutSingaporeans, huh?

2006-05-16T09:34:00.000+08:00

Lol Alright, alright, I’ll post some stuff just for the sake of it. And you’re welcome for everything, Amie. See you around in school!

Didn't post last week as I was studying, and when I was done, all the computers up here in the library were already booked, so I can't accesss the Internet. Bugger. Oh well, nothing I can do about that. Ha.

Started watching FMA, which I had borrowed from a friend of mine, who also shares my interest in anime watching. For those of you who don’t watch anime, FMA stands for Full Metal Alchemist, one of the best animes that was released in 2005.

Won’t be posting a review here. Instead, I would be posting my review, as well as a summary of each episode over in my upcoming anime blog, which would be set up soon after the A levels. So do wait for it.

As a sidenote, it is my belief that the music section here is getting a little dry, yes? As such, I will be changing the songs here to some of the newer songs I’ve gotten. Of course, that would be done during the June holidays, when we have time aplenty…Or we would have if we didn’t have 2 exam papers right after the holidays. Well, at least it gives us the whole month to study, something that we won’t have if the folks on top didn’t plan it out that way…But its stupid, I think.

Hmmm…Started on my first book attempt. Coming up with a reasonable fantasy storyline isn’t easy, but I think I have the basic idea now. The general storyline is in my head, and now all I have to do is to transfer it to paper, and to add in the details. Now that’s the tough part. The devil’s in the details, as they say. Remember that 2500 words short story I wrote a little while back? Yeah, that took me about 2 weeks to finish, and its only 2500 words. How about a novel? The time taken is going to be immeasurable. O.O But sooner or later, its going to be completed. And then I will pass it to my GP teachers for reviewing and improvements! Yay! Lol

Don’t really have a topic to discuss today, so I guess I will just end it here. After all, I have other things to do, such as working on my novel. But rest assured, I will be posting here again soon enough. Till that time.

2006-05-02T09:36:00.000+08:00

Well, one week has passed again, and once again I am posting in school. Not that I have anything else better to do. This is becoming a habit, really. Haha. Well, I suppose that that is a good thing for you, since now you don't have to check every day to see if I post, since I will be posting on Tuesdays. Ha.

The long weekend has come and gone, and I must say that it didn't turn out as well as I had planned. Orginially, I wanted to spent those three days fruitfully, studying for my upcoming mid-year exams. Though I cannot deny the fact that I have studied (somewhat), its not as productive as I had hoped...Mainly due to the fact that there are other thing on my mind. Like the computer. And anime. And music. Can't forget that. Torrenting totally rocks, I tell you. Know the correct sites, and you can get whatever anime and music and games that you want. But be careful - you won't want to end up on the wrong side of the law. Only torrent things that are not licienced yet.

lol I think that I should heed my own advice. After all, I am torrenting Bleach everyweek, and a whole host of other anime as well. And they are licienced, or at least in America anyway. Of course, there is no way for you to get any of those show in Singapore. And even if you can get them, the quality would suck. The Chinese dubbing doesn't sound good, the subtitles are way off, and sometimes the dubs totally mess up the show. Ask Jun Liang about it. He has bought for himself a couple of Naruto VCDs, and he claims that there are some dubs which totally remove all background music. That stinks, man. So until they are able to produce something that is halfway worthwhile, I will keep torrenting. Take that, evil liciencing companies.

Well, let me now get to the post proper. This week, I will be talking about the upcoming Singapore elections. As you know, the Singapore 2006 elections will be held this friday, the 6th of May. Walk about on the streets, and you will be able to see any posters and adverts calling for people to vote for their respective parties. And most promeiantly, you will be able to see the PAP's adverts everywhere. Like, turn round a corner, and you see PM Lee smiling and waving at you, with all the other *coughlowlycough* followers standing behind him. Or you see the faces of your respective PAP representatives of your area. And if you compare them to the posters of the WP, you notice one thing. The PAP's adverts are very big. o.O

Yeah, like that has to do with anything. So its bigger. Big deal. Being big is not everything. I know that I am using the word "big" alot here, but who cares? Haha. Its my blog, and I can very well type whatever I like. :P

But one thing it does show, or at least that's how I feel, is that it shows just how much money the PAP has. Just imagine how much it would cost to print all those cardboard photos. Its not cheap, I tell you.

I don't know about you, but there's alsot this annyoying lorry that's being going around my area this past few days. And its always playing the same irritarating message via its loudspeakers. "For an honest and blahblahblahblah...vote PAP. Thank you." And then it goes on to play the same message in Chinese, Malay, and Tamil (I think). And it does that every hour. Every day. Like we can't get the message. I have half a mind to vote for the WP's just to spite them. Haha.

Sure, I know that the government (aka the PAP) has been calling for the populance to vote for those who they think will being the nation to greater heights. Easy to say, but difficult to do. Speaking as a youth, I must say that I have NO IDEA WHAT THE OTHER PARTIES ARE TRYING TO DO FOR SINGAPORE!!! GET IT? Haha.

Okay, that was uncalled for, especially more so since I didn't brother to read the newspapers for what the other parties are saying. That's my own fault, really.

Anyway, I must say that the PAP's pretty confident of having a landside victory (as usual) again this year for them to say something like that. After all, they have quite the impressive track record. Reducing unemployment, providing food and water and what not.

That is not to say that the other parties can't nuts. They just haven't had the chance to be in power yet. The PAP has been sitting on the hot seat for years. Ever since 1965 (correct me if i'm wrong). So the other dudes can't really prove themselves. What they need is an area which they are able to run. Then (if they are any good) they would be able to show to Singapore just how capable they area.

Of course, they would have to win themselves a GRC or a consituatancy first. The only team I think i capable of doing that is the WP. The other guy, the SDP, sucks. I won't vote for someone like Dr. Chee. He's just making himself look bad, IMO. And I think that all that talk about wanting to share the truth is him justifing that he is doing. Continuing to sell that newspaper is utter folly. He's going to get his whole group into trouble if he keeps this up. Better for a part of the body to go then for the whole body to die, that's what I say. Haha.

Well, now, look at the time. How it flies. It really goes by very quickly when you are having fun blasting your policital parties. You really should try it sometime.

As a disclaimer, this post here is not meant to promote any party. Nope, not at all. If you read it, you would be able to tell. So don't go around saying that I am promoting anyone. I won't want to get in trouble with the law, and you are not going to get me in trouble with the law. Ha.

Well, time to study now. Till next week, or maybe earlier, if I happen to have the mind for it.

Oh, wait, before I forget, do come over for our TPJC's concert, probably happening in late May. For more details, give Amie a call. Really miss her much. Even though we are in the same school I can't get to see her, or any of my old friends, often. Kind of sad, huh? Well, that's life. You just have to deal with what you get.

2006-04-23T22:10:00.000+08:00

Today, we have a 2500 word short story written by me, inspired and adapted from Tanya Huff's "Sceleratus". With any luck, she won't sue the hell out of me. :P

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Even after three weeks of torture, she was still beautiful to him. He cut the rope and caught her as she fell, allowing her weight to take him to his knees. Holding her to his chest, rocking back and forth on a floor slick with gore, he waited for the grief to come.
She had been dead for only a few hours when he had finally found her. Her wrists had been tightly bound behind her back, a coarse rope threaded through the fraying and used to life her up in the air. They had started off with whipping, and threw in other…persuasions… as time went by. Finally, her flame winked out in the face of the pain.
She had brought light into a life which had none. And now it was gone.
He brushed away the charred remains of her once flowing blond locks and pressed his lips to hers. His grip tightened. He wanted to rage, to weep, to mourn, but he did nothing. The light of his life had gone, and there was only darkness to take its place.
His heart as cold as hers, Mikagami laid her body gently down. When he got up, his hands were covered in blood.
There would be blood enough to wash it away.

*

He found the animals in a nearby inn, feasting happily in a small room. Cleaned and fed, they nevertheless reeked of her death.
“…And you wouldn’t believe how loudly she screamed when I took the candle to her hair. Why, I was afraid that the windows would shatter.”
The other man laughed. “I can imagine. But answer the question, did she or did she n…Who are you?”
Mikagami bared his teeth – a twisted parody of a smile. “I am vengeance,” he said, bolting the heavy oak door behind him. The younger man stood up with his sword drawn, confident in his own powers, and moved towards him.
Their eyes meet. The soldier, who had stood calmly by as he watched countless innocents suffer torments beyond all reasoning, paled.
“And I am Death.”
They died begging and screaming for their lives as she had died.
It wasn’t enough.
Her memory demanded more.
*
A wave of death swarmed the city. A high ranked officer was found dead in his bed. Three died while on patrol. One fell as he was addressing his squad, which would only remember a flash of colors and blood.

*
“What is the meaning of this?” the Arch Duke thundered. “Six of my men were murdered one after the other, and you have no clue as to who did it? I want this man found, and I want him found now!”

*

With a soft cry, Ino jumped wide awake in the ornate bed, holding the covers close to her breast. The skylight was open, drowning the room with silvery moonlight.
A sound came from her left. Thinking she had woken her husband, her reached out and said, “I had such a bad dream.”
Her screams brought in the palace guards.

He had killed the Duke’s chief torturer quickly and cleanly and left him lying in the filthy pallet that was his bed. After all, he detested dragging out an animals’ suffering.
It still wasn’t enough.

*

“More wine, mister?”
Without lifting his head, Mikagami waved the man away and continued staring over the river at the lights of the city. One of them belonged to the Arch Duke of the land, the one who allowed his army to arrest any traitors and spies, be they actual or not, and had grown fat on the possessions of the traitors. He was the one who allowed her to be killed.
In all probability, he knew that he was coming. Rumor spread fast, and he was only one man.
“Here, drink with me, partner!” Reeking of alcohol, a badly shaven man staggered beside Mikagami till the boat’s rocking threw him into his side. Stumbling back, he raised an empty mug halfheartedly. “Oh? Out of booze…”
Mikagami caught his gaze and held it. Continued to hold it as realization caught on, continued to hold it as fear gripped him, continued to hold it as sweat broke out on his skin. When he finally released it, he caught the mug that fell and watched the broken man crawl away, his mind refusing to acknowledge the darkness that it had seen. “Empty, huh?” he said, tossing the cup overboard.
It had been a simple thing to board a ship that would take him to the Duke’s domain. Once there, he would hunt down ones responsible for her death. It would be easy enough to find what he was seeking after. They would beg and plead and cry, but they would die. Every last one of them. Only then would the stain of her blood be washed off.
*
“You said he was ready to talk.” His robes lifted out of the gore, the interrogator fixed his glare on the torturer, hardly sparing a glance at the living corpse on the rack. “He is unconscious!”
The burly man in the blood-red leather jacket shrugged. “He certainly wasn’t when I called for you.”
“Do I have to do everything around here?” The interrogator threw his hands up in aspiration. “Get him off that thing and toss him back into the cell with the others.” Boots sticking to the floor, he stepped out of the room. “I am exhausted. We can leave the rest till morning, for pity’s…”
Even as his robes turned from white to red to black, Mikagami appreciated the irony of his last word. A man…No, a monster who knew no pity had actually died with pity in its mouth. The torturer, who had pushed men to their limits and beyond, screamed and choked on a crimson flood as a black blade embedded itself into his chest, cleaving his still beating heart out of the cavity.
Doors of solid iron and shielding spells kept a dozen men each in a dank, small cell. Removing the bars and undoing the spells, Mikagami opened the doors and faded into the shadows. He had since learnt that the prisoners would gladly undergo more torture if it meant that they did not have to look into his face. Still, he always watched them leave, a small, foolish part of him hoping to see Rhapsody among them, alive and free.
One by one, they shuffled out of their cells, hands raised to block their eyes from the unfamiliar light, bits of straw clinging to their hair and clothing, those who are able to walk helping those who cannot. They would have no trouble leaving the compound – all the guards had already been taken care of.
A sound drew his attention back to the fallen bodies. An old man, obviously one of the freed prisoners, was kneeling there, closing the unseeing eyes of the former torturer and interrogator. With one hand on the rack, he pulled himself painfully to his feet. “You can come out from there now. I know you are here, and I know what you are.”
“Do you really?”
“You think not?” The old man undone the clasps holding the body to the rack taut, and caught him as he fell. Lowering the barely alive figure to the ground, he said “You are the Death that haunts the Duke. You began in a small, backwater village, and now you have made your way here, to his capital.”
“Since I am Death, you would do well to fear me.”
“I have not feared Death for a long time. No, in fact, I have not feared many things for quite some time.” He turned and swept the shadows with a rheumy gaze, looking for any sign that Mikagami was there. “Are you afraid to face me then, since you have yet to reveal yourself to me?”
Tightening the grip on his blade, Mikagami detached himself from the shadows and moved into the light.
The old man frowned. “Move nearer.”
Snarling, Mikagami kicked aside one of the bodies, splattering the man with droplets of blood. Former prisoner or not, he would know fear. He turned the full power of his gaze on him, and to his surprise, found an equally strong will looking back at him with unflinching eyes.
After a long moment, the man sighed and broke away. “I know you now. You are not evil, although you have stared evil in the eye and now wear its mask. You have no anger, nor joy when you carry out your judgment. No one should ever have to suffer as much pain as you do.”
Mikagami staggered back, shocked by the man’s words. Raising his swords, he took a step forward. “I feel nothing!”
“So you keep telling yourself. What happened there, assassin? Who did the Duke’s men kill that you try to wash away the blood with theirs?”
Over the roaring in his head and the pounding in his chest, Mikagami heard himself say, “Rhapsody.”
“You loved her.”
“Yes.”
“You should kill me now, you know. I have seen your face. I can report you to the Duke, and he would come down upon you with all of his army’s might behind him. For your own safety, you should take my life now.”
His logic was flawless.
What was one more death anyway? Kill one man, and you are a murderer. Kill a thousand, and you are a hero. The people were already singing praises about the enigmatic assassin who has been killing corrupt officials and saving prisoners from the hands their oppressors. He would kill him, and return to the work he had come here to do. There were many other holding centers in the capital, and finally there was the Duke himself. He lifted up his sword, and brought it down in a quick slash.
The blade stopped a hair’s breath of breaking the man’s skin. “No. I do not slay the innocent.” He sheathed his sword. “Go. Leave this place now, old man.”
“Before I leave, let me ask you this: Who do you think Rhapsody really loved – the man you are now, or the one she knew? She would not have wanted to see you to have stained your hands so.”
“What do you know, old man?”
“Nothing other than what you’ve told me and what I’ve figured out for myself. There are two paths for you to take now. One, you can give yourself fully over to the darkness that has been enveloping your heart this many, many months. Or, if you would, stop killing, and start making amends for all the life you have taken.”
“Amends? Ha!” He turned round and gave the corpse another kick, adding yet more gore to the blood socked ground. “You expect me feel sorry for the deaths of these…men?”
“No, not yet. You must first find it in your heart to forgive them. While it is true that these men have done many unforgivable things, not all of them are evil. Fintlock here, for example, has a family out of the palace, and is well loved by his children. Never raised a hand against them, even through he has pushed many others to the brink of madness before. Even though he was good at what he does, he had never loved what he did.” The old man turned the body upright and straightened it. “As for the Duke…Yes, he might be a tyrant, but he is a fair lord, and a capable one. Because of him, many of our people are able to have food on the table and a roof over their heads. His purges may have caused great pain to a few individuals, but he has the admiration of the people. If you remove him from the throne, the entire country will, without a doubt, be put into a state of chaos. Are you sure that is what you want?”
“What I do is none of your concern, old man.” He said, and slipped back into the shadows. “And what happens to this country when I have finished my business is none of my concern.”

*
Mikagami stood within the shadows on the roof of the palace, watching the procession take place below. The Duke was having a parade, walking among his people. Through heavily guarded, one stab is all it would take. One stab would spill his blood to the ground, and finally wash his stained hands clean.
“While it is true that these men have done many unforgivable things, not all of them are evil…”
The angle of attack was perfect. Neither the Duke nor his royal guards would be able see it coming till it was too late.
“…but he is a fair lord, and a capable one.”
“Shut up, old man.” He said, summoning one of his 7 rainbow swords to his side. All it would take now is a flick of a finger to send the blade piecing through the Duke’s black heart.
Down below, a small girl ran up and presented a small ring of flowers to the Duke. The burly man laughed, and lifted the girl up to his shoulders, causing her to squeal in delight.
“If you remove him from the throne, the entire country will, without a doubt, be put into a state of chaos.”
“SHUT UP, OLD MAN!”
A patrol leader stepped out from one of the walls. “Who’s there? Halt, before the name of the la…” He felt more than saw a shadow slip pass him. When he turned around, all he saw was an open door swinging silently on its hinges.

*
“So much for bringing the whole might of the Duke’s army down upon me.”
“Not much of a hiding place, if that’s what you thought.” The old man put down his lantern and sat against the wall, the light from the lantern making him a gray shadow in the darkness of the crypt.
“Why didn’t you?”
He gave an enigmatic smile. “The same reason as to why you gave up the prefect chance to kill the Duke. I was there, down in the crowd, and I saw you standing on the roof. I saw you raise your blade…and I saw you put it down. And besides…” Clutching the lantern, he heaved himself to his feet. “…I hate to lose a chance for you to redeem yourself.”
“Redeem myself? For the number of lives I’ve taken? For the number of families I’ve wrecked?” Mikagami smiled sadly. “Not only do I have Rhapsody’s blood on my hands, I now have the blood of all those I have slain.”
“This Rhapsody…You loved her, yes?”
“My love killed her. If it won’t for me, the soldiers would never have looked her up.”
“Perhaps.” Setting the lantern on the tomb, he took Mikagami’s hand in his. “Did she choose to love you in return?”
His voice was less than a whisper. “Yes.”
“Then don’t take that choice away from her. She has lost enough as it is. You have blood on your hands, assassin. But not hers.”
He looked down at his hands. “Not hers.”
“Yes, not hers.” He gently closed Mikagami’s fingers. “Not hers.”

*
Mikagami sat bolt upright in bed. “A dream about the past…Rhapsody…Les.” His body lost its tension, but he continued to stare at his hands. “Redemption…”

The End

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Well, that's it. What do you think? Feel free to post your comments.

2006-04-18T09:27:00.000+08:00

Well, its that time of the week again. ONce again I have nothing to do for the remaining few hours. Sure, I have a test coming up later, but i'm that I will do just fine. After all, I have all the formulas stuck in my head. Possion and Bionomal distribution is pretty simple. All you have to do is just...understand the question and apply it. Simple enough.

As you may know, this saterday is our college day - a day where we do pretty nothing expect try to impress anyone who's coming and try to get them into our college. Ha. Well, because of this day, we get to go off early on Thursday and Friday...Some bonus. We would still have to stay back on those two days to prepare for our games booths, which has something to do with projectiale motion and water bombs. Basically, what we will be doing is that we would be having our players throw waterbombs at us (yes, you read that right - US!) while we try to defend our *king* with sticks. Doesn't sound too bad, does it? I certainly hope that it would turn out well, especially since I would be helping out. Will be working on an advert for the project soon. I think it will feature the Bleach Captains and have them saying "Think you can take us on?" It looks quite good in my mind...Now all I have to do is to transfer that to pixels.

If you are in college, you would have gotten your PW grades back. Most of Singapore got at least 1 or 2, and those are pretty good scores, if I can say so myself. However, for us, most of our students got band 3, with the other half getting mostly 2s - way way below the national standard. Well, that has nothing to do with me, since I got a two. Haha. However, now most of the students who got a 3 and below are shouting, screaming, yelling, ballowing and what have you at their tutors, asking why they got such grades. Of course, the tutors here aren't replying, no, it appears they are going to let the storm calm down on its own first. That, of course, isn't exatly going to appease the student population here,so they are going to start a riot soon. ha.

Well, I must say that the main reason you guys didn't do well would be that you didn't put in enough effort. In my PW class, I can see it for myself. There are students who come for one week, and skip the next 3 weeks of lesson time - time that their group could have used to plan and improve on their project. Sure, it would be easy to push all the blame to that guy, but it is possible to still score a good grade even if you are practically one guy short. I had a useless group member too, and my group still got a 2. No reason why you can't do the same. In fact, the only reason I can think of (besides blaming the teachers for not helping us enough and reviewing our manuiscripts as many as the other groups) is that your own attuide to the PW is lacking. Simple as that. Sure, when the deadline is coming, your whole group may have woken up and started to work seriously, but by then its already too late. PW is a continuous thing. As the group leader, I made sure that my group worked well together and as a team, answering agreed deadlines and stuff. This is why we managed to be the only few people in class to get a 2. I agree that if the ST had decided to review our project more, we could have gotten better marks, but they can only help you so far. The main work still has to be done by you. Period.

Well, now that that's out of my skin, I find that I have pretty much forgotten what I wanted to say here in the first place. Orginially, I ha.....Ah, okay, it came back to me now.

A few days ago, I completed reading the Celestial Zone 2, and I must say that it isn't as good as the Celestial Zone 1. TCZ2 has a huge cast, but unlike TCZ, it didn't manage to expand on each one fully. In TCZ, we were able to go into the minds of the characters, to understand them and know what they are thinking. We are even able to feel for the members of the Dark Side, and to see them develop in character. One highlight of TCZ is that we can see how Xing Ling grow from a strong human fighter into the most powerful and skilled person in the Celestial Zone, on par with Chi Xue herself. But in TCZ2, she is already god-like. No development there whatsoever. Sure, we have new characters, like that guy...Can't remember his name now, but he's the one who became the new Green Dragon. It was nice to see him become one of the 4 Celestial Cretures, but after that, we didn't see much of him at all. Also, the villians in TCZ2 are basically weak. The Twin Stars are total weaklings, no match for anyone whatsoever. Zi Yan would have been able to defeat them with one hand behind her back. And we have the Demonic Dragon, also another weakling, and so is the Butterfly, who lost so many times to so many people. Moreover, all the members of the Rightous way are overpowered. We have Xing Ling, Chi Xue, Wang Chan, Wei Qi and Xue Wu, arguably the strongest in the Celestial Zone, and we didn't get to see them fight very often. There is also a lack of suitable villians that are able to hold a candle to them, unlike what happened in TCZ, where we had Blazing Sun, Moon, and that other guy. We only had the Great Evil, and his character design didn't look very nice. Its totally ugly if you ask me.

Well, I still have a great deal to say, but i have got to go study for my test now. I might decide to update this page later, maybe.

Till next week.

2006-04-11T09:47:00.000+08:00

Was tagged by Sheng Hui about this....Personally, i don't really like chain games like this, but I shall do this one for you, SH.

Instructions:The tagged victim has to come up with 8 different points of their perfect lover. Specify the gender of the target. Tag 8 victims to join this 'game' and leave a comment on.

Gender: Female, of course. What else did you expect? A male? I'm not from Brokeback Mountain, you know.

Point 1: Idealy, she will have long hair (Yeah, i know, i have something for long hair. In fact, you probably already know that I intend to have long hair too. Looks real cool when its floating in the wind.) and process a kind of inner beauty that shines through her physical features. She doesn't have to be another Helen of Troy, but I would like her to be attractive (I mean, come on, who doesn't?)

Point 2: She would be innocent, shy, and has a kind personality. With any luck, she would be like Hinata. I totally love her character.

Point 3: She would love me for who I am, not for what I can give her, and likewise I will love her for who she is. Awwww....That's so sweet. :P

Point 4: T o be there for me whenever I need her, and likewise.

Point...Nevermind, I think I have all of that now. I don't need her to be prefect. After all, I would love her, flaws and all.

Well, now that's done, let us get into the post proper, shall we? Haven't been blogging much these days, and I think if you are looking at the frequency of my posts, you would know that for yourself. Having a college education is a real bugger. It takes up so much of your time that you are unable to do much of anything else. All you can do is study...study...study...And even then, there is the possibility that you might not do well, and that all your work will go to waste.

Personally, I wonder why we even came to college in the first place. I mean, all the stuff we learn here will be obsoule in, at best, 5 years. And that is not counting the fact that most of the things we learn here won't be used when we enter the workforce. Tell me, how is learning about the charge-mass ratio of an ion going to help you when you are in the business industry?

But that's the thing, isn't it? We entered the JC because we are putting off our decision about what we are going to be in the future. Those in the polys - they probably already have a good idea of what they would like to be when they grow up, otherwise, why else would they be there? Sure, there will be a few expections in the poly who are just there because they can't go anywhere else (poor losers) and might be stuck with doing courses that they might not like, but I believe that they are the exception to the rule.

Moreover, those in the polys are able to enter the workforce right after they come out. We can't. We have to go to the unis. And getting a cert isn't much worth in this day and age. After all, its just a piece of paper, and that is cheap. I tell you, if you take a stone and throw it in the street, you are more likely to hit a uni grad than anyone else.

But I have to admit, that single piece of paper would deternmine your future. Poly grads would earn more money than us at first, but after promoutions (I so need a spellchecker at the school library), we would more likely earn more than them (haha, poor losers). Research has shown that uni grads can climb further up the company ladder than poly grads (dunno where they got it from, but it might be true...or that it might be just something that uni grads throw around to make themselves feel good).

Heh, I had spent enough time typing here already. There's still work to do....Like CRD. How the hell is that going to help me in the future? I wonder. And so here I am, logging off to do something that might or might not affect my job in the days to come...

2006-03-27T21:46:00.000+08:00

2nd post today, what a surprise!

The reason I'm posting again is that I just got an amazing lecture. Its by this guy from the Sterling Group over at the UK. Its a talk on how to make fighter jets fly faster (the Need For Speed is paramount) and cooler (always useful for avoiding heat seeking missiles). Its really interesting.

But what i'm most interested in, and what I will be talking about today, is about the new engine that they are coming up with over at their research lab. Unlike conventional jet engines, which is powered by combustion, the new engine is powered by something that is known as the "Pulsed Detonation". In other words, it is a "Pulsed Detonation Engine (PDE)".

Allow me to give you a bright overview as to what it is. Basically, it is an engine which explodes many, many times a second. Unlike combustion jet engines, which are continuous, the PDE does not have a single, continuous flame coming out of it. Instead, it releases a huge number of thrusts per second. According to the speaker, when the engine is finally completed, it would bring flying to a whole new level.

The reason behind this is that detonation, unlike combustion, is said to be a “supersonic” reaction, meaning that it takes place at speeds greater than the speed of sound. The whole reaction has been measured to take place at Mach 10. Blink and it is completed. This means that the plane would be able to fly much faster than current jets – in my estimate, it should be able to play at Mach 5 easily. That’s twice as fast as jets are today.
But it is not complete yet. As of now, the prototype is only able to fire off pulses at 15 times per second. The goal is to get it up to 50, and more if possible. It would be interesting to see how this turns out in the future.

2006-03-27T10:08:00.000+08:00

Fine, fine, I will post here just for the sake of it. Not that I have anythign to do here anyway. Currently, I'm slacking inside the library, waiting for my lessons to resume for 2 periods, before I get the chance to slack for another 5 periods. My timetable is seriously screwed up on Mondays, I tell you.

Creative writing isn't as easy as you think, you know. I've tried writing a story, and to come up with words that represents the image you have in your head down to every last detail really isn't easy. I have it all planned out, the moves the character would use, what he would say, but to put it all down in words isn't that simple. Here, let me give you a few examples of the posts I have made while role-playing a Shinigami at this forum I visit:

“Curses be!” The sandstorm ignored the low mutter, and continued to whip mercilessly at the three Shinigamis traveling through the desert, bombarding every inch of exposed skin with innumerable tiny particles. “The desert truly is an inhospitable place to be in. Unpredictable, dangerous, it is hostile to all forms of life in the Real World – and it would seem, to us as well.” Soundless thunder shook the ground, and a spider-web of cracks appeared in the sky. A vast multitude of Hollows emerged from the breach in the boundaries of the world. The Earth itself seemed to scream in pain at this desecration of its domain, ghostly lightening flashed, and the world trembled.

“Well now, this could prove interesting.” Lifting both his hands, Mikagami raised himself above the raging sandstorm. Noticing the figure in the air, a majority of the Hollow turned towards the Vice Captain, while the rest floated down to the surface.Throwing back his shimming cloak, he loosened his blade from its sheath, readying it for combat. The first of the Hollows came at him reckless, spittle dripping from its mouth, eager to have a taste of a Shinigami’s soul. A flash of light, the ring of steel, the spray of blood, and it was no more. The Hollows stopped briefly in their tracks, stunned at the sudden decimation of their comrade. “Any other takers?” He threw the question at the Hollows, a smirk dancing on his face. Infuriated by the strangely dressed man’s apparent disregard for them, they surged forward in a wave of fangs, claws, nails, and who knows what else. “I figured as much. And now let the dance…begin.”

Sidestepping the slashing of a scythe, Mikagami swung his blade up, decapitating it promptly, and jumped into the heat of combat. Forward-down slash, straight thrust, side slash– every movement was not wasted, every swing of his blade yielded blood. He stood alone in an increasing mountain of carnage, Hollows falling faster than their bodies can be dissipated into the ether. His robes dyed red, his blade dripping more blood than can be absorbed, the red lines on the length of his sword shone with a light to rival the sun, leaving bright afterimages in the air. He was a whirlwind, a living storm of ferocity and metal that matched the storm that is raging on the surface. Sidestepping, evading, parrying, slashing, slicing, he dealt swift judgment to those who faced him. Just as he dispensed death, so was he death. He was Death.

************************************* ******************************

Dropping to his kneels, he brought his sword round in a wide arc, disemboweling two Hollows, and, rising up, found himself alone. The Hollows, their numbers reduced by more than a factor of ten, were falling back towards the rift in the world. “Oh no you don’t…I was just getting warmed up.” Drawing his blade along his left hand, Mikagami allowed the sword to soak up his own blood. The red lines, which were just beginning to dull, flared up again. The sword was sheathed, his hand on the hilt.“From the fires were our blades born,to pierce through the darkened night.From the flames they were taken,So shall every enemy they face be broken!Battou-jutsu technique: Hama Genohjin!”Whipping the sword from its sheath, he slashed at the retreating backs of the Hollows. A wave of fire flowed out from the direction of the slash, raging forward and engulfed the Hollows, burning them to dust in an instant. The flames, burning with all the pent up aggression and energy of all the blood the sword has absorbed, torched the rift and wielded it together, sealing the gap between worlds for now.

Sheathing his sword once more, Mikagami allowed himself to float back to the ground. He was breathing hard, and his sword arm burned like fire. “I am seriously out of practice, if killing those Hollows could take so much out of me." Looking around, he noticed that the sandstorm was over, and that Captain Sendo and Riven were missing. He removed the glove from his hand, exposing the skin to the four winds and raised it above his head. Threads of air appeared to flow between the fingers, which were plucking lazily at them. The space around him pulse, and Mikagami clenched his fist. "There they are, at the town. Guess I should be meeting up with the Captain and Riven soon." He said, replacing the glove.Just as he started move towards the Moroccan town, he stopped dead in his tracks. “This feeling…This reisutsu…It can’t be.” Turning around, he saw a solitarily figure standing on a nearby sand dune.

“Impossible…this cannot be! You are dead! He told me so himself!” Mikagami gasped at the black clad figure.“Dead? Ha…I’m afraid that rumors of my death are greatly exsarcerated. But you would want that, won’t you? After all, you have been living pretty comfortably ever since I’ve…disappeared, haven’t you, dear brother?” He hissed, every inch of his face hiding under the cover of his hood.

“What? No, that is not the case! Ever since that day, I have spent every waking moment searching for you. I only stopped when I heard that you were dead. You got to believe me, Sa -”

“Stop!” A ripple of air spread out from him, blowing sand in an ever-increasing circle. Such was the power behind that word that Mikagami stopped talking. “I will be known by that pitiful name no longer. Henceforth, you shall know me as Jin.”

“Very well…Jin. This is not exactly the kind of reunion I had expected. Regardless, I am glad that you are aliv…”

“Lies, lies, and more lies! You would never stop lying, would you? You have always lied to me, even when we were just children. You would always protect me…Ha! You would always be there for me. Where were you? WHERE WERE YOU! When I needed you the most you weren’t there! No, I called and I cried, but you never came. You took everything away from me. No, you betrayed me – you and our stupid clan!” Each word grew in tempo, each one louder and stronger than the last. Mikagami, stunned into silence, could only stand there as every word drove a sword through his heart. “Father, he had always treated you better. Mother, she had always loved you more. Everyone always looked up to you, and I had to scurry for scrapes of their attention. Not that I ever got any. And at the end of it all, you had to rob me of my family.” The sand at his feet started to stir, his robes beginning to flutter in the windless air, providing glimpse of the pale, veined skin beneath.

“No…No…I never intended any of that...” Mikagami sank down to his knees, tears streaming from his bloodied face, creating clear channels on his cheeks.“I wanted to die with them, damn you! I wanted to die fighting at their side as we defended our land! At least that would earn me the recognition I’ve always wanted. At last Father would look at me. At last Mother would take me into her arms. But NO! You had to carry me away from there. You had to rob from me the last chance I have of earning my parent’s love.” The words softened, getting quieter. The sand was positively in frenzy now, and the robe was whipping about so fast that it made a constant buzzing noise. Black streaks of energy was leaping from his body, grounding itself on the sand, melting it to glass. The pressure of his reiatsu till it you could almost see it vibrating the air, though it certainly can be felt. A bird flying through the field promptly closed its wings and died.

“And now draw your swords, Tokia Mikagami, heir to the legendry clan of double bladed assassins. I shall pay you back for everything you have taken from me – and more.” Jin said, throwing back his hood, to reveal a pale face, veins appearing on the taunt skin. His hair was long gone, and two slits for a nose. And he wore a broken mask. A Hollow mask.

And yeah, that's what I've written so far. Its a fanfic based in the world of Bleach, and it follows my character, Mikagami. If you don't watch Bleach, you probably won't be able to understand anything that I've said up there. And how long do you think it took me to type all that? An hour? Ha, it took me at least 4 - thinking, planning, and looking for the proper words to use. Its not easy I tell you. But it is fun...Writing a book would be interesting some time.

Reccess now...Off to munch...Be back later.

2006-02-18T23:43:00.000+08:00

Today, my family and I went over to celebrate my cousin’s 21st birthday party. And man, was it big. Well, my cousin (who will be called Daphne henceforth) is currently working in a buffet company, and she called her company (which is a pretty high-class one) to provide all the food. And let me tell you, the food is great! It’s far better than anything that you can get from an ordinary buffet company. And the display and design is marvelous too – nothing short of a 4 star hotel. They even set up flowers and tablecloths and everything.

And when’s all said and done, we had a great time. I met Yi Fen there as well, really didn’t expect to see her there. Who knew that she was a friend of Daph? Certainly not me. Which is why when I saw her there, we were like both:

“Yi Fen?”
“Alvin?”
“What are you doing here?”
“What are you doing here?”

Seriously, what a coincidence.

And to top things off, the Little Mermaid come to visit. She’s a friend of Daph too. I even got some photos, which I would upload just as soon as my relatives send them to me. Its not everyday that you get to see a celebrity up-close and personal.

But the happiest person there must be Daphne. About 60 of her friends – ranging from those in her primary school days to those in her CCA to those in her Uni – she’s the center of attention there.

Of course, the highlight of the whole thing is the cutting of the cake, which our family paid for (a whopping $150…Now that is not small money). You won’t believe the number of photos that were taken during that time…I even have some saved on my phone (the quality of which leaves much to be desired…But it will have to do, I guess).

All in all, I would say that it’s a pretty successful and enjoyable party for Daphne. May all her wished come true this year and may she enjoy success and live a blessed life.

The third part of my on-going epic on social manners should be up in a few days…Once I can find the time to sit down properly and type it out – time which would be hard to find, seeing how I have tests coming up pretty soon.

Well, that’s it for today. I will see you around.

2006-02-06T21:22:00.000+08:00

On the lack of social etiquette among the young and people of today, or, Why the hell people nowadays are so freaking inconsiderate????? (Part 2)

First off, I would like to assure my friend Sheng Hui that the events stated below did not actually take place. They are just my way of making a point. Of course the events are highly blown up, and probably do not actually happen everyday in real life. But it could. That’s my point. Everything I have said down there could very well happen the next time you take the MRT, the next time you take the bus, the next time you walk down the street.

And so what is it actually that brings our society down to this level – a level where the people do not appear to care about the strangers about them, or for that matter, their friends and family members. Well, allow my to share my views on the matter.

As I have said many times before in the past, we are living in the Age of the Self (self as in selfishness). People nowadays do not really care about the people beside them while they are walking down the street. How many times do you actually see someone holding open a door that they have just walked through to allow someone behind them to pass through? Not very often, I would say. Why, this very thing happened to me just as I was making my way out of the LT. A few of my female friends were walking on ahead of me, with me walking just a few steps away. So naturally, they opened the door first to allow themselves to pass through – then let it close shut in my face. And after I make it a point to keep the door open for them (or for anyone else, for that matter) should I know that they are about the go through the door.

I mean, how difficult is it to keep the door open to allow others to pass through? All it would take is a few seconds and a few joules of energy to keep the door from closing. But that is exactly my point. It just goes to show how caring we are towards our fellow man. And us living packed in blocks like sardines fishes in a can isn’t really helping matters much. If anything, it is making us even more selfish than ever.

That ends part 2 of my rant on the lack of social etiquette among the people of today. Stay tuned for final installment of my ongoing rant on this topic that concerns all of our lives.

2006-02-05T18:40:00.000+08:00

On the lack of social etiquette among the young and people of today, or, Why the hell people nowadays are so freaking inconsiderate????? (Part 1)

Okay, so you were in the MRT, about to get off at City Hall. The door opened, and you try to step out, only to find that you could not, as you are trying (and failing) to swim upstream against a raging, fast flowing river of people, each and everyone of them desperate to get on board the train. You push, and you squeeze and you push again, but to no avail. Quietly the door closes, and you are still trapped on board the already over-crowded train…only that it’s not as over-crowded as you think. Twisting your head to the left (the only part of your body that you can still move without touching someone in someplace you would rather not touch) you notice that there is a strange lack of people towards the middle of the train. You try telling people to move into the center of the car, but your voice is drowned out by the hordes of teenagers chatting on the latest Razr phone as if they were the only ones on the train. Raffles Place. You try to get out, but the influx of people pushes you back into the train again. Rolling your eyes (now the only part of your body that you can move – and just barely that), you sign.

Day 2: So now you’ve learnt your lesson, and you’ve stopped taking the MRT during rush hours, and instead opted for the next best option – the local bus service. As you board the bus, you spot an empty seat, and took it. A quick scan of the area reveals a group of teenagers sitting near the back, and people occupying the outer seats of the two-sitter sits(I so need to get a thesaurus). Upon closer inspection, you notice that they have placed their bags on the inner sits, thus preventing other people from sitting there. Closing your eyes, you try to take a nap – only to be interrupted by a loud “Kao bae ah!” streaming from the back. Jerking awake, you turn to see what happened, and see the gang of teenagers fooling around, sprouting curse words at each other as if it was the most ordinary thing in the world. Cries of * beep *ing, * beep-a-beep-a-beep *, * beep-a-ding* fills the air. Suddenly, one of the young punks turns and look in your direction, and yells “Look what look, never see before ah?” You shake your head and try to get back to sleep, but now the gang has turn its sights on you. Like coyotes surrounding a lion, they started to curse you, your parents, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, grandfathers, grandmothers, grand-uncles, grand-aunts, etc etc etc…You try to keep your cool, but their childish taunts are slowing inching its way under your skin. The bus reaches the next stop. You get off.

To be continued…

2006-02-01T19:12:00.000+08:00

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! Here's me wishing that you have gotten lots of money via your Hong Baos. If you have gotten them via other means, such as blackjack, poker, marjon (however you spell it) or by other...less legal means...Don't tell me about it.

Well, my family and I went out to watch Jack Neo's newest offering, "I Not Stupid Too". And let me tell you, it really isn't all that bad. Its a very thought provoking movie, if I can say so myself.

Do take note: In the upcoming review, there will be spoilers aplenty, so unless you don't mind having your story spoiled so bad that you might as well don't watch the movie, feel free to read on. Otherwise, do watch the movie first before you read my review.

First off, Neo has done it again. We all know that he has a talent for picking out topics that is close to the hearts of Singaporeans (the education system --> I Not Stupid, our 4D craze --> The best bet and a whole host of other movies which happen to slip my mind right now). This time, he has picked a topic that concerns the relationship between parents and their children, and I feel that this movie exposes a number of characteristics that I feel is quite prevalent in our society today.

The movie starts off with a very memorable scene, which i am sure happens all the time. The parents were talking to their children, and all you see are brightly colored symbols coming out of their mouths in great torrents, moving through the ears of the 2 kids (Tom and Jerry, funny enough) and coming out from the other side - your "one ear in, one ear out". Now, don't laugh. And don't say that this isn't happening in your house right now. Be true to yourself. It happens all the time, even when your parents are talking to you about important subjects...Especially when your parents are talking to you about important subjects.

And so the story carries on from there. You see the children been systematically ignored by the parents, and the parents not focusing on the child’s merits, but instead concentrating on the child’s flaws. Jerry is an award wining blogger (don’t ask me how you can win awards from blogging), but instead of praising Jerry for his writing talents (I mean, you got to be good at writing to blog well, don’t you? And be very good at it to get awards, don’t you?), his mother instead reprimanded him, saying things like “Why do you spend so much time blogging and not studying?” and other things like it. All that’s normal and well to the parent, but it really hurts the child, and I think the movie managed to capture this aspect reasonable well.

One scene that stuck me during the movie was the part where Tom’s dad’s computer had a breakdown (it has a big ERROR sign flashing on the screen…That doesn’t happen normally. But at least it showed the famous Blue Screen Of Death that we see so often.). The next day, he forgot to bring the notebook to work. Tom, being the nice guy, decided to fix it and bring it to his dad at work. And what did he get for his efforts? A quick telling off by his father for touching his things. And even when Tom tried to explain matters, his dad just brushed it over by saying a line that’s going to become famous throughout the movie “Eh? Still want to talk back ah? Blah Blah Blah…” and so on and so forth.

In a subtle way, the movie also shows to us that little words said without thinking can have a huge impart on the mindsets of children. Jerry wanted his parents to come over to watch his play, but his parents are too busy to pay him any mind. But he did hear his dad saying “See? They are paying me $500 to buy 1 hour of my time to lecture them…” And wanting his parents to come watch his play, he sold away his prized pokemon cards, and even stole money, all to buy an hour of his parent’s time for them to watch his play. It’s so touching that I could just cry.

And from there, the story continues…It shows us Cheng Ming being expelled from his school, Tom being caned, Cheng Ming and Tom falling into bad company and joining a street gang, extorted by fake cops, and so on and so on.

But well, every movie has its flaws, and “I Not Stupid Too” is not an exception. First off, Tom’s Chinese isn’t too good in the movie (Hey, that’s just like me! Weee!) But, he blogs in Chinese. Wait a minute…Isn’t his blog an award winning one? How can he have an award winning blog in Chinese, when his Chinese stink? But well, this is just me nitpicking at the little loopholes in the story…Its not really that big a flaw anyway. But Neo does have a way of shifting viewpoints a rather abruptly that would cause viewers to experience disorientation. While I must say that it is an effective way for Neo to inject some much needed humor into the darker scenes of the movie to brighten the story, it does disrupt the viewers somewhat.

At the end of it all, we have a touching and meaning story with a strong message for children and parents alike. Teenagers will see a lot of themselves in the characters Cheng Ming and Tom, and this might cause them to look at their parents in a new light as Cheng Ming and Tom did at the end. Parents would be able to recognize elements of their way of handling their children in the different parents portrayed in the movie, and realize the importance of having a strong bond with their children.

I would rate this movie 4/5 upon the Alvin Scale.

2006-01-09T13:08:00.000+08:00

Well, I'm posting from school now, seeing how that I have 5 free periods of doing nothing and there's no one using this computer, so I took the liberity of helping myself to it. Its not like that anyone's going to come ask me to go away...There's no one here! And even if they do, well, I can just finish this post, and leave. Simple as that.

You know, I was walking around in the MRT a few days ago, and I saw hordes of people who are plugged in, as in, plugged into their MP3 players (Hail the iPod!). Now this is a very common sight. We see these people wandering the streets everyday. So why am I starting my rant on them now? Well, its something my teacher told me once...Have you ever noticed that the moment you plug yourself into your MP3, no one comes to bug you? Its like, the very act of putting those plugs into your ears create a magical wall around you which no one can get through. Try this out. Insert the earphones of your MP3 into your ears and, while grooving to your favourite songs, waltz into a stall and start to look helpless. See how long it takes for some one to come help you. Now take out your earphones, and walk into another stall and, once again, look helpless. See how long it is before someone comes offering help.

Got that?

Good. Now, compare the different timings. I'll bet you that you won't be approached no matter how long you stand there with your earphones in your ear, but when you aren't wearing them, someone would come to help you before too long (that is, if you are in a stall with good service. If you are in one without SC, you are just wasting your time). Its like I said - You gain an invisible barrier around you. Just try it out.

And of course, this is having an effect on our society. Living almost totally in this wall would result in isolation, because you would be too busy listening to your songs to bother about other people, and people won't want to bother you because you are listening to your songs (round and round the wheel goes). This would result in people becoming more self-centred, and probably more selfish.

We are living in the Age of the Self. If you haven't noticed that by now...You proabably won't be reading this anyway. People are not as caring as they were in ages pass. Let me ask you this question - How many of you actually know your neighbour's name? Or their family background? Or their history? Anyone?

Speaking for myself, I have to say that I do not know anything about my neighbours, other than their living beside me. I only know them by their looks, and am clueless about their names (I make a terrible neighbour).

Compare this to just about 50 years ago (not too long a time...really...If you compare it to the lenght of time the Earth has be around) where everyone in the area knew everyone else. Doors aren't closed at night, secerts can be shared and life was good (in general...they didn't have TV or the computer then, so I prefer this time era.) But today, you can be sued for just about anything (if you live in the States. Here in Singapore, at least we know we won't be sued over something like falling down in front of your lawn), and be killed for something as simple as money. Really, times have gotten worse. Human culture has gotten worse even as technology improves.

Well, that end the rant for today. I have to go now.

2005-12-29T00:33:00.000+08:00

Today, I went out with the gang to watch The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It was pretty well done, and so I decided to do a movie review on it. For every movie that I watch in the future, I shall do a review on it. Besides, it would come in handy when I have to pass up work for GP. :P

Now, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (which shall hereby be known as Narnia) is set in the period of time known as World War 2. It is about 4 kids who were sent to the house of a professor for their own safety, and stumbled through a wardrobe to enter the magical land of Narnia. Their coming has been prophesied to save the world of Narnia from the iron rule of the White Witch, and to herald the coming again of the previous King of Narnia, the Lion Aslan.

Visual effects (aka eye candy) 8/10: I’ve read somewhere that the movie had a budget of about 150 million, and it shows in the brilliant scenery and CGI creatures that you see. Everything, from the first time we glazed upon the land of Narnia, to the time when the movie closes, is downright beautiful. Not that I expected less from the works of Industrial Lights and Magic, the same company that came up with the graphics of the Star Wars series (hey, it was started by Lucas, alright? Of course he would use his own company to make his own film). However, there were some parts that didn’t look quite up to par as the rest of the movie…Maybe they ran out of budget? In any case, there is enough eye-candy here to please even the nerdiest person watching.

Sound 6/10: A grand movie like this would have a memorable and powerful score to go with it, won’t you think? Not so. The background music played in most scenes didn’t stay with me, and…well, that’s that. Even though I’ve just stepped out of the cinema not too long ago, I can’t remember the songs that they played. Compare this with the songs that the Lord of The Rings had. Now that is a fine example of a memorable score. I was humming the Breaking of The Fellowship for days after watching the Fellowship of The Ring. Narnia just doesn’t stand up to par in this area.

General 9/10: I thought that it was directed pretty well. The pacing is just fine, though my friends told me that it was dull in some parts, but I didn’t think so. The acting was quite well done, producing certain memorable characters like Lucy. The few gags it had in it were also sophisticated enough for my taste, consisting of small puns and smart talk. Take this for example:

Mrs Beaver: You could have given me five minutes to get ready.
Mr Beaver: I won’t have given you a week if I thought that it would help.

lol That really made my day.

They had the whole range of fantasy creatures, such as satyrs ( I think they are tree creatures), centaurs (lower body of a horse, body of a man. Can’t miss them), fauns (remember the demigod Pan? This is his race), goblins (Orcs. Enough said), giants (looks more like humans made really big using the technology to make hobbits small in LoTR). But no elves. Get that: No elves. And the cyclopses look as if they were missing of growth hormones. According to legend, they are supposed to be as big as giants (just read Jason and the Argonauts). Well, they are real small here.

Altogether now 8/10: This is a movie fit for the whole family. Gather up everyone and get your tickets now.

Okay, the official review is now over. Now for my thoughts on the movie. You can read it if you want to, or just leave the site. I don’t really care. But if you do decide to read on, do note that there will be spoilers. So if you don’t want your story spoiled, I would strongly suggest you to leave now. :P

As you all may know, C.S. Lewis, who was a Christian apologist, wrote Narnia, and it shows in the movie. There are many Christian elements that you can find, for those of you who are sharp enough. For example, the Lion King Simb…Aslan gave his life to save that of the traitor (well, technically) Edmund aka Jesus style. Meaning a pure, innocent life (Jesus/Aslan) was given to redeem that of one who doesn’t deserve it (Man/Edmund) Oh, Edmund also plays the role of Judas (hence the traitor name) by betraying the location of his family to the White Witch, who I think plays the role of the Devil. I mean, she tempted Edmund with sweets (Snake, Fruit, and Eve, anyone?) and turned him to the Dark Side for a little while. And oh, did I tell you that Aslan came back again? Yeah, he did too, also aka Jesus style. There are many others that I would point out, but where’s the fun in that? Go look for it yourself. Here’s a hint: read up on the crucification of Christ.

And now, on the battle tactics used by the forces of the Free Animals of Narnia. I only have one question: What idiot planned the battle for the good guys??? That’s probably the worse battle plan I’ve ever seen. Yeah, I know that battle plans usually goes to hell the moment the first arrow is fired and the first sword drawn, but a plan is all you have when you are outman-ed, outgunned, and outmaneuvered.

First, let us take a look at the terrain. The forces of Aslan had their backs against a cliff with a ravine. The forces of the White Witch has her army on the open plain. Consider the map below (which is not drawn to scale):

--------------------------- )
Good guys ----------------)
--------------------archers )
----------------------------)
--------------------------//
------------------------//
********************* Whole collection

********************* of mounted forces ........................................Bad guys
-----------------------\\
-------------------------\---------------------------)
-------------------archers )
---------------------------)
---------------------------)

If you know anything about medieval tactics, you should be able to tell that the good guys have an overwhelming tactical advantage. All they have to do is hold out in the ravine and have their archers rain arrows down on the baddies as they try to force their way in. But no.

Another point…With archers stationed up on the cliffs, their range should be a lot further. They are also centaurs archers, so their range should be further than that of a humans, so they should be able to hit the forces of the White Witch before they can reach their mounted troops. But no – All they do is stand there and pose. Although I admit that the griffins dropping rocks on the enemy forces is a nice touch. And the use of griffins for airborne recon missions isn’t something to be dismissed lightly…At least someone there knows something about his battles.

Another point: You do not fight with the enemy on the open field unless you a) have superiority in numbers b) have someone coming up on them in a ‘hammer and an anvil’ move and c) suicidal. If I were Peter, the guy leading the army, I would have let the archers and the griffins take down whatever they can before charging. But no, all Peter did was let the griffins do their run, and charge. Though he did attack in a wedge formation – arguably the best attacking formation for mounted shock troops. But remember, he’s outnumbered.

Okay, after fighting in the open with inferior numbers, Peter suddenly found himself on the losing side, and so-called for a tactical retreat. And while we are happily running back to the ravine, enemy archers appeared on the cliffs and started shooting at them. What happened to the archers up there in the first place? And how on earth did the White Witch manage to get those archers up there? Stranger and stranger.

Well, I could go on on this all day long, but this post is already more than a 1000 words long, and I do not wish to bore you with all the details about the epic battle at the end. If you wish to discuss with me about the tactics use in the battle, I would be more than welcome. You know where to find me.

2005-12-26T11:58:00.000+08:00

I've updated the songs as promised. This songs are just some of my favourites, and I hope that you would like them too. Now, for a review of each song...

The first track is sang by Yui, the same person who sang Life, the 4th ending theme for the popular anime Bleach. Its quite good, don't you think? The track title is "Crossroads".

Now the next track is called "Fuuka Academy School Song - Crystal's Protection" It is, as you can tell, the school song for the Fuuka Academy, also known as the Fuuka Gakuen Academy. The song is from one of my top 10 animes, Mai HiME. They played the instrumental version of this beautiful song at the end of the series, when the school is being rebuilt.

The next song, also by Yui, is known as "Tomorrow's Way".

Ah, the next one..."Chocobo Racing - Diamonds in My Heart". The ending theme of the popular PS game, Chocobo Racing. I have fond memories of this song. Yup. Fond memories indeed...

Now, the other two songs are sang by the choir of Tomoeda Elementary School, the school where Sakura Kinomoto (or Sakura Avalon) studied while trying to get back all the missing Clow Cards. It was sung in a Christmas special album...I didn't manage to get the album, but I have this two songs, thanks to the gendou.com...They have over 3000 anime songs in their database. Truely amazing. The first song is "Kureyuku Hitotose", followed by "Maria no komoriuta".

This post is just to let you know the names of the songs and where they came from. Do not try to enroll yourself in the above-mentioned schools. They do not exist, except in the wonderful world of anime, which is much more interesting than the dull, dark world we live in.

2005-12-25T13:08:00.000+08:00

Two thousand years (actually, its more like two thousand and eight years) ago, or so the Holy Bible says, Jesus Christ was born in a manger cold and dark, thus bringing salvation to those who believe in Him. It wasn't too long ago that Christmas was a day where we remember Christ's birth. Now, it has just become another day, another part of the festive session.

While watching "A Blessed Christmas" on Channel 5 yesterday, I noticed how commercialized Christmas has become. For those who have watched the show (it was very badly done, if you ask me…What a waste of my time), you would notice that it contains nothing but appearances of characters from various serial shows (mostly bad ones…I have lost faith in Singapore’s ability to produce good programs) and various Christmas songs dropped in here and there. I suppose that that’s all well and good, but contrary to what the ad says, that is not the true spirit of Christmas.

Let me tell you a story. A little boy’s birthday was round the corner. All his friends were overjoyed, and made plans to celebrate it in the most extravagant way possible. When the day came, his friends gather round for the party and had a great time. End of story. Notice something wrong with the story?

For the faster ones out there, you would notice that I did not mention about the birthday boy at all, besides mentioning him in the opening line, the reason being his friends were so busy making plans and enjoying themselves that they forgot to bring the boy over for his own birthday party. That is basically what is happening to us right now. We are celebrating Christmas, but to whom are we celebrating it for? What are we doing besides having a great time in our own way while ignoring the occasion?

I suppose that it can’t be helped. After all, no one can deny the power of the market. The people in charge of the economy saw the marketing potential of Christmas and set round to milk every cent they can out of the human herd. Ads and presents galore. Over the years, we slowly forgot why we are even celebrating Christmas in the first place. It is not to make little disabled children wishes come true (although that is a nice touch by Tork Kong, PCK, and the other characters that just happened to slip my mind…Heck, I got so sick of that show that I turned it off halfway through and went on to watching Mai HiME…I think that I would post a review on that sometime soon)
Anyway, I hope that this little essay here is enough to make you think on your preconceived notions of Christmas. Christmas isn’t really a time to give presents around (although, if you want to give me presents, I won’t mind :P), nor is anything else (okay, okay, I’m as much a victim of commercializing as you are. I want my presents and everything else. So there.). It is a day when we remember the greatest (well, second greatest…Try figuring out which is the greatest) event in human history. I hope that you would keep that in mind while you go on your mindless shopping and fun-making…Not that I have any false conceptions that you would…Well, see you.

And have a Merry Blessed Christmas.

XD

2005-12-17T23:58:00.000+08:00

Ah! The last post was like so long ago. And I promised myself that I would give this old blog a revamp...As you can see, it did not happen. lol Score 1 for putting things off till another day.

Hmmm....I wonder if anyone is still reading this waste of memory space. Probably not...Except for my dear friend Sheng Hui. He's probably the only one who would want to come over and read whatever nonesense that I brother to throw onto this site. Come to think of it, I wonder why I even set this thing up in the first place? Sure, it was back in 2004 ( not too long ago) that this little blog was thrown up. Back then, blogs was THE in-thing. Everyone had one. Brad Pitt had one. Heck, even the Queen probably has one (to any British who might be reading this {highly doubt it} I have nothing against the Queen. I highly respect her and hope that she would live a hundred years more )

Yeah, as I was saying, it was when it looked as if that everyone had one. And one by one, the people around me also fell prey to the growing thrend of blogging. Even though I pride myself on not following trends, well....It is still hard to resist when you see your best friends telling each other about what they have read in each other's blogs. And so I started one.

And well, you can see the result here. Apart from the banner up there, everything here is right from the template provided by blogger.com. I didn't learn much from making this blog, aside from learning how to create banners. Nothing about HTML coding, though I will pick it up when I have the time. Nothing on creating my own wallpaper for the blog. Nothing at all. None. Zip.

But of course, I won't say that this blog didn't serve any purpose. It provided an easy place for me to vent whatever frustrations that I had at that moment (come to think of it, I didn't do that alot). It also allowed me a small little corner for me air my views on whatever it is that I had on my mind at that moment (think of it as my own private Speaker's Corner, where I don't have to ask the PAP for permission to say anything), as well as a place recount the events of my day. Looking around, I see that that is what most of my friends do with their blogs. Recounting the events of their day, that it. But is that the real purpose of a blog?

Most of the blogs of my friends are just places where you can read details of their day. "Oh, I went down to the store, met Shawn along the way, and chatted with him on yadda yadda till I forgot what it is that I wanted to buy" or something like that. Just details, no thinking through or no human thought process evident in their writing. For all you know, their blog might be writen by little robots who follow their master around and enter the key events into their blogs for them. After a while, they tend to lose interest in their blogs. The number of updates slow, and stop altogether, something not unlike that which is going on here.

Personally, I believe that a blog should be a place where, if you are talking about your day, a place where you allow your thoughts on the key events of your day to run free. It may be a rant on the bugger who stands in front of the door when the MRT comes like a huge wooden post ( to those of you reading this, you know who you are) or on how you felt when a total stranger came by and helped you in your time of need. The point is, I don't think that a blog should be just a timeline for the things that happens in your day ( A followed by B followed by C). A blog should contain your thoughts (hopefully insightfull ones) and your feelings on the matter.

Now that was quite the long rant. Clearly, you can see that it is coming from a deranged mind...If you point a gun to my head and ask me to put the blame on someone, I would blame the subject of GP. After doing 56 reading articles throughout the holidays, I now find that I can see ideas where perviously before saw none, gain insights in places where previously before had none...Or maybe I'm just getting older. Oh well.

Ah, before I forget, we would be having a Christmas party on the 23rd of December. To anyone reading this, I do hope that you would come. We will be meeting at 3 at Bishan MRT. There will be food provided, of course. And carolling too, by yours truely. And if your are on the 2000 batch of GMSS, a nice little skit staring your friends. So I hope that you would come. *looks around* *A dustball rolls by* Oh well, no one's here. *walks away into the glorious sunset*

2005-11-22T22:01:00.000+08:00

Team3D won! Yeah, I went over to the WCG on Sunday. And let me tell you, those guys are Good. With a captial G. They can shoot headshot as fast as I can read. They can shoot headshots on the fly. But k23 isn't bad either. I mean, being up against the defending champs, they did reasonable well. k23 managed to win 3D 5 times in the first round, before the former showed why they are the champs and won 10 rounds, in de_inferno. In de_dust 2, the next map, there was no fight. k23 got owned that round...Probably cuz their morale fell from the first round.

And I saw this really cool Paine cosplayer at the WCG. I wish I had a camera right there and then. The first time a saw a cosplayer in real life, and I didn't take any photos. What a waste.

Hmm...I think its about time I changed the songs here, seeing how Christmas is coming up. Stay tuned to see what songs I'll put up!

2005-10-23T14:38:00.000+08:00

Well, it has been a long three months. The dust on top of my blog must have evolved into bunnies and have started building cities. I have to stop them before they get started on space travel.

Anyway, the promo is now dead, and here are my results:
Econs: E
Math: C
Physics: C
Chemistry: F (can you believe it???)
GP: B4 (Bugger...I was aimming for a B3..Missed by a few marks...)

Yeah, those are my amazing results...Total crap. Haiz...Played too much during the exams, and didn't study much at all. And I even failed Chemistry...So now I have to drop a subject, so there goes Econs! *Throws it out of the window* I knew that I should have started with three subs right from the start. Grrr.....

Oh well, when one problem goes down, another pops up. In a few days, we will have to deal with 2 A level subjects, namely the PW and Chinese. Good luck everybody on this two subjects! Study hard for Chinese, and we don't have to take it next year. Now don't that be fun? XD

Oh yeah, on the light side, I went to play Dota with my friends the other day...And can you say ownage? 2 noobs (meaning me and my other friend) trashed 2 pros (meaning my other friend and his friend). Amazing. lol And that was only my 5th game of Dota.

Nothing much now....Ciao.

2005-07-15T22:23:00.000+08:00

Hmm....another year has passed. In the blink of an eye, I went into a JC, meet some new friends, and learnt some new things. One year older, one year wiser, and as some people would say, one year closer to death. :P

lol JJ gave me this cute little Mr Bean teddy bear. So nice. lol Be careful later I put its head into a drawer and try to close ah. lol And she also gave me this bookmark to replace my broken kangeroo...But I won't change it just yet....Not for some time, at least.

And speaking of books, I didn't do too well for my exams, I might say. C for Math, E for Physics, and F for Econs and Chem, and surprise surprise! I got a D7 for my Chinese [At least I passed] But for the rest of my subjects...They are a total letdown...But the Lotus of Konoha blossoms twice! I shall do better when the promos come! You will see! I beat you all! Bwhahahahahahaha! Ahahahahahahahahahah!!!!!!

In any case, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will be released tomorrow at around 7. Be sure to get it! Lets just hope that it will live up to all the hype surrounding it. I won't want to buy a highly rated book and find it to be a boring story...But knowing Rowling, I think that that would not be the case this time round. But oh well, we shall see...

"And travelers now within that valley
Through the red-littrn windows see
Vast forms that move fantasically
To a discordant melody;
While, like a rapid ghastly river,
Through the pale door,
A hideous throng rush out foirever,
And laugh - but smile no more."

-Edgar Allen Poe, The Haunted Palace

"Call the rower of big cigars,
The muscular one, and bid him whip
In kitchen cups concupiscent curds.
Let the wenches dawdle in such dress
As theyare used to wear, and let the boys
Bring flowers in last months's newspapers.
Letbe be finale of seem.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice cream.

Take from the dres of deal,
Lacking the three glass knobs, that sheet
On which she embroidered three fantails once
And spread it so as to cover her face.
If her horny feet protrude, they come
To show how cold she is, and dumb.
Let the lamb affix its beam.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice cream."

-Wallace Stevens, The Emperor of Ice Cream

Intersting poems today...I find the first one by Poe to be frightening. Its easy to see why Poe is regarded to be one of the greatest horror writers around. The guy is dead, by the way. The Emperor of Ice Cream is supposed to be a poem about death, but i can' really get the feeling from it. Maybe because I don't take Lit..Oh well, my loss. Ciao.

2005-06-17T15:56:00.000+08:00

Death Pleading with the Mother of a Dying Child.

DEATH:Mother, let me have your child. I will hold her—oh, so gently—so you can rest awhile.

MOTHER:No! You can't have her. Her fever's high. Her poor heart's pounding. She needs me. I'm her mother. I best keep on holding on.

DEATH:But you need rest, and so does she. I'll croon sweet lullabies while angels chorus for eternity.

MOTHER:I am tired, and she's in such pain. But I must hold on. You can't have her. I love her. I won't let her go.

DEATH:I know you love her. But I'll soothe away her pain. I'll cool her fever forever so she'll never suffer again. Please, mother, let me hold your child.

MOTHER:She is my baby-child—she's in such pain—and I love her so. I have to submit—I have to let her go. Here, you can have my child.

DEATH:Thank you, dear mother. You'll know—in time—what I ask is right. And, I promise, you'll hear the songs of love I sing for her, you'll hear them every night.

MOTHER: Yes, I know each midnight as she suckles, each time she's at my breast, I'll hear those songs of love till I join her at her rest.

DEATH: Thank you, dear mother.

2005-06-17T00:36:00.000+08:00

Yay! With the help of Jing Jing, I've gotten a couple of songs up playing! Once again, using the very useful program Goldwave, I've compressed the songs so that they are small enough to be loaded quickly without losing much of the quality. Here are the songs that should be currently playing, each chosen from the large number of Japanese anime songs that i have in my collection: 1) Tooi Kono Machi (a Cardcaptor favourite of mine.)
2) Anata to Ireba (Another Cardcaptor song, kind of cute, catchy tune)
3)Fields of Hope (Theme song of the ever beautiful Lacus, from GSD. Very peaceful)
Then it skips a few songs, but a window should come up, asking you if you want to download them. They are quite nice songs too.
4) I wanna go to a place (3th ending theme of GSD, sang by Rie Fu.)
Skips again, i think. Is is skipping because I'm pressing the next button? I won't know.
5) Mizu no Akashi (Song sang by Lacus in GS. Peaceful too. Lacus is the greatest)

Yeah, so that's all. Exams are coming up, and what are you doing here? Go and study, you baka! bwahahahahahhahaaa!

"The shadow by my finger cast
Divides the future from the past:
Before it, sleeps the unborn hour,
In darkness, and beyong thy power:
Behind its unreturning line,
The vanished hour, no longer thine:
One hour alone is in thy hands, -
The NOW on which the shadow stands."

The Sun-Dial at Wells Collage, by Henry Van Dyke.

"I read a yarn the other day -
A crazy concept, I must say.
It states that objects have extension
In what is called the 'Fourth Dimension.'

In hyperspace one could, no doubt,
Make tennis balls turn inside out;
And from a nut remove the kernel
And not disturb the shell external.
A crook could pilfer bonds and locks;
One step in this direction queer,
And presto! He would disappear!

Let's hope, in planning new inventions,
They'll give us cars with four dimensions.
When searching for a parking place
We sure could use some hyperspace!"

Bob Olsen, The Four Dimensional Auto-Parker.

"What the hell am I looking at? When does this happen in the movie?"
"Now! You're looking at now, sir. Everything that happens now, is happening, now."
"What happened to then?"
"We're past that."
"When?"
"Just now. We're at now, now."
"Go back to then."
"When?"
"Now."
"Now?"
"Now."
"I can't."
"Why"
"We missed it."
"When?"
"Just now." [The henchman then sets the video to rewind.]
"When will then be now?"
"Soon."

The evil Lord Helmet and his chief henchman looking at an instant videotape of their own movie, instand videos being available beofre the movie is finished. Perplexed at watching on a television screen everything that he is doing as he does it (the screen is showing an infinite regression of television screens, each being watched by a Lord Halmet), Lord Hamlet then initiates the above rapid-fire exhange. Quite funny, is it not?

2005-05-07T17:47:00.000+08:00

Haiz...today is Saturday...Didn't go to YF. lol Spent the day playing GB and Diablo...Sigh...Got to study...Haiz..

2005-05-01T23:20:00.000+08:00

Its the Month of May! Yay! As you probably noticed, I've switched the blog's HTML back to its orginal form. In the days to come, I would turn it back to the way that it is used to be, before i messed up the HTML.

Today, a great event happened to all anime fans. Naruto, one of the most propular anime of all time, as recently released a movie...Like last year, I think. When the movie was released, many people, me not being one of them, begged for the movie. And not, finally, the long awaited day has come at last. Naruto the Movie was released in DVD format less than 3 days ago, and thanks to the great people at DB, it has been subbed in english for the viewing pleasure of anime fans around the world! Yay!!!!! :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D And of course I'm downloading it right now. At the time of this typing, it is at 60%. If you want the movie, just drop me a message. You know where to find me.

And so once again, I shall revive the posting of a funny quote at every post i make. Goodbye guys!

God does not play dice with the universe: He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players [i.e. everybody], to being involved in an obscure and complex variant of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.
-- (Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good Omens)

2005-04-18T20:57:00.000+08:00

Haiz...something went wrong with the messing around of the HTML. Now everything's messed up. Oh well, I'll work on it some other time.

2005-04-18T20:22:00.000+08:00

lol Its been just more than two months since I last blogged. You people probably have already forgotten all about this small little site of mine, and even if you did, i don't really care. Bwahahhahahaaaaaaaaaahahahahhaaa!!!!

Gundam Seed has run its course in Kids Central. Strangely enough, the folks of Kids Central with the almightly knife did not cut out the touching scene bewteen Fllay and Kira, even through it contains slight nudity. Phew. And there we were, trying to guess how Kids Central would react to that scene, seeing how they went through all the trouble to cut out the all the intro theme and to replace everything with the now outdated Invoke. Sure, Invoke is nice, but it is nothing compared to the some of the other songs in the series, like Believe or Realise.

Oh well, Seed is gone now, and so leaves one of the better animes of today. At this point in time, we can only say this...Goodbye Gundam Seed, Hello Gundam Seed Destiny! Bwahahahahhahahahhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!
If you want to watch Gundam Seed Destiny too, just give me a call. You know where i am, and how to find me. Bring your own disks, or if you don't want to, I shall charge a small fee for the disks.

There is this new anime that has just started its run in Japan...goes by the name Tsubasa Chronicle. If you have visited any manga shop in the last few months, you would have come across it. So I've downloaded the first episode. Not bad...HTe first episode is quite nice. Some familiar faces are seen, such as Sakura *Woot! Woot! Go Sakura!!!*, Syaoran, Chii from Chobits *what is she doing here???*, Tomoro (Yay! She looks better now...More regal) and many others, all from different manga series from Clamp. Quite nice, really. Go give it a try. Hopefully it won't be like Xenosaga, an anime in which every single episode was nice till episode 7 came out. >.< Episode 7 is really lame, let me tell you. However, the rest of the 12 part anime was nice, and it ended off with a nice touch in episode 12. But still, that doesn't cover up the huge mistake the the producers made with epsiode 7.

Hmmm...long post today. Have work to do now, and downloading Tsubasa Chronicle episode 2. Till next time.

2005-03-21T22:09:00.000+08:00

In honour of the TV premire of the Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, I've decided to upload the song May It Be by Enya for your listening pleasure. Enjoy this song, for it is beautiful.

Tomorrow, we will be getting back our posting results. May it be that all of us goes to the schools of our choice, and that we will be happy there.

2005-03-01T20:46:00.000+08:00

Because of changes to Tripod's policy on blah blah Remote Hosting blah blah, the links don't work. Thus, you can't listen to this beautiful songs. T .T However, I've edited it so that if you click on the links, you would be taken to a page where you would be able to listen to the songs. However, you won't be able to read my blog at the same time cuz you would be at a DIFFERENT WINDOW!!! lol In any case, I'm now trying to find ways to go round this problem, but it would take a while. In the meantime, just enjoy this songs. :D

2005-02-27T12:44:00.000+08:00

Yah! The links are up now. If you look to the left side of the screen, you can see the links to the background music and, as an add bonus, links to other blogs. Been wanting to do this for a long time but never had the chance. If you click on the links to the background music, your computer will open up windows media player and play the songs. Next time, I'll change it so that when you click the links, it will open up a window which will then play the songs. Yeah.

The O level results will be out tomorrow. May all of us get the results we want, and for those of us who does not...Well, accept it. Everything will be alright in the end, you'll see.

2005-02-22T21:13:00.000+08:00

I'm back!!!!!! Didn't blog for such a long time, even though I'm online for like most of the time, "most of the time" in this case, meaning the time that I'm not in school. Anyway, I'm now revamping the background music section of my blog. In a few days...or weeks...or by next month, you would be given a choice as to what type of music you can hear on my site, instead of being forced to hear whatever it is that I'm uploading. Yeah, so stay tuned for it.

2005-02-03T22:18:00.000+08:00

Recently, I've came across this new anime that's being aired in Japan. Its based on the highly popular PS game XenoSaga: Episode 1, and so the anime’s called XenoSaga: The Animation. In my opinion, its not a bad show. Especially the music…Can’t forget the music! :D XenoSaga: The Animation has one of the nicest ending themes I’ve come across in the past few years. The vocals is totally beautiful, and in the background music is of the classical type. Unlike some other songs I could name, the music does not overpower the vocal, rather, it boosts the already beautiful voice, making it heavenly. And thus this song, In this Serenity, puts itself into the ranks of some of my favorite songs, which includes Diamonds in My Heart, Harmonia, If we hold on Together, and At the Beginning. There are many more such songs I like, but to state them all would take more time than I am willing to spend typing.

Yesterday, we, meaning the students from TPJC, had to go for our so-called “Annual Road Run”, which simply put is an event where we had to run. Well, duh. We boys had to run 5 km. And so I ran the first 2.5 K, ran out of stamina, walked till my stitch went away, and ran again. And so it came to be that I’ve came in 364, which is quite a useless position. Haiz…Could have gotten so much better if I had kept on running.

After that, JL and I met up with Amie, and we walked along the beach to pick up – of all things – SEASHELLS!!! lol Quite fun, and I’ve found this nice little stone. Triangular, it is. You don’t find natural stones in such a shape often. We came across some nice seashells too. There’s a really pretty, tiny, pink one. Shiny too. Too bad we didn’t stay to watch the sunset, cuz its getting, should I say, late? Yeah, it was getting late. And what do you know? Its getting late over here as well. So I shall just give a little quote, a collage joke, and off I go.

The Student's Psalm :

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not flunk;
He keepeth me from lying down when I should be studying.
He leadeth me beside the water cooler for a study break;
He restores my faith in study guides.
He leads me to better study habits
For my grades' sake.
Yea, tho' I walk through the valley of borderline grades,
I will not have a nervous breakdown;
For Thou art with me;
My prayers and my friends, they comfort me.
Thou givest me the answers in moments of blankness;
Thou anointest my head with understanding,
My test paper runneth over with questions I recognize.
Surely passing grades and flying colors shall follow me
All the days of examinations;
And I shall not have to dwell in this university
Forever!
Amen!

"Kill because we have been killed, and getting killed because we have killed......Is this anyway to get peace?" Lord Uzumi Athha, Gundam Seed

2005-01-27T21:44:00.000+08:00

Which Naruto Character Are You?
Test by naruto - kun.com

Uchiha Itachi!!! Yay! One of my favourite characters from Naruto. lol. Nothing to say, just logged into to show the result of this character test from naruto-kun.com. Yeah, so that's all...

Fun things to do in school:

Take a matchbox, roll up a piece of paper and put it in the matchbox. Set the rolled up piece of paper on fire and throw it in a wastepaper basket. Walk away as quickly as possible.

Here's something i've found on the internet.

Fun Things to do in a Final Exam

1)Bring a pillow. Fall asleep (or pretend to) until the last 15 minutes. Wake up, say "oh geez, better get cracking" and do some gibberish work. Turn it in a few minutes early.

2)Get a copy of the exam, run out screaming "Andre, Andre, I've got the secret documents!!"

3)If it is a math/science exam, answer in essay form. If it is long answer/essay form, answer with numbers and symbols. Be creative. Use the integral symbol.

4)Make paper airplanes out of the exam. Aim them at the instructor's left nostril.

5)Talk the entire way through the exam. Read questions aloud, debate your answers with yourself out loud. If asked to stop, yell out, "I'm SOOO sure you can hear me thinking." Then start talking about what a jerk the instructor is.

6)Bring cheerleaders.

7)Walk in, get the exam, sit down. About five minutes into it, loudly say to the instructor, "I don't understand ANY of this. I've been to every lecture all semester long! What's the deal? And who the hell are you? Where's the regular guy?"

8)Bring a Game Boy (or Game Gear, etc...). Play with the volume at max level.

9)On the answer sheet (book, whatever) find a new, interesting way to refuse to answer every question. For example: I refuse to answer this question on the grounds that it conflicts with my religious beliefs. Be creative.

10)Bring pets.

11)Run into the exam room looking about frantically. Breathe a sigh of relief. Go to the instructor, say "They've found me, I have to leave the country" and run off.

12)Fifteen minutes into the exam, stand up, rip up all the papers into very small pieces, throw them into the air and yell out "Merry Christmas." If you're really daring, ask for another copy of the exam. Say you lost the first one. Repeat this process every fifteen minutes.

13)Do the exam with crayons, paint, or fluorescent markers.

14)Come into the exanstructor is looking that day.

15)Come to the exam wearing a black cloak. After about 30 minutes, put on a white mask and start yelling "I'm here, the phantom of the opera"

Written by: Jeremy M. Toeman

That sure brought a laugh. Ciao.

2005-01-23T18:58:00.000+08:00

Man, those Japanese really have to much free time on their hands...They have nothing better to do than to come up with this homemade video on Naruto. Those people who actually watch or read the Naruto manga would be able to fully appreciate this clip. http://killerzero911.myweb.hinet.net/naruto.wmv

And so our first three day weekend of the year has passed...Slacked throughout the three days...Spent my time playing the computer, mostly LF2ing with Jun Liang online. Or I would be downloading Naruto and Gundam Seed Destiny and watch them. Oh, the joys of having a broadband Internet connection. It opens the door to all kinds of worldly entertainment. But it does have it bad points...It is able to corrupt the soul...Make it do it dark desires. But that isn’t it…An internet connection is just like fire. It is just a tool, and takes on the form of good or evil depending of the user. If the user’s soul is dark, then he would use the internet to do things which should not ever see the light of day. But, if the user’s soul is pure, then the internet would hold no temptations over him. It would merely be something to further his purposes.

Haiz, talked so much crap. Nothing to do now, except prepare myself to face another week of sleeping with my eyes open. Oh, the agonies of school. Only one thing in this world is vile enough, bad enough, so downright disgusting that they ( meaning the guys upstairs) had to pass a law to make us attent it. No prizes for guessing it right - That's SCHOOL!!! lol :P

Then again, school can be quite fun, what with all your friends being there and so on and so on. But still, its natural for us kid/teenagers to deslike going to school...You can say that it is inbuilt into our system. Oh well, youth does not wait...Life goes on. And speaking of youth, school is cutting out more than 20 years of our life which could be better spent in letting us enjoy ourselves. lol Try to get your teacher arrested for destorying the minds of the young. That would show them. Brawhahahahaha! Ahahahahahahaha!

Hmmm, here's a nice thing which you can try doing in school:

At 12 everyday, start humming really loudly. Should your teacher or anyone tell you to keep it down, look at him/she/it in the eye, and say "Do you have a problem with my religion, sir???"

lol That should be fun, I guess. And for the quote of the day...

"The power to believe in yourself. That is the power to change fate." Shiranui Genma, Naruto

Yeah all for today. Till next time.

2005-01-17T21:00:00.000+08:00

In the blink of an eye, three weeks of school went by. Many of us has made new friends(maybe), taken up a new CCA, and for those who aren't going for the first three months, are maing a lot of money. :P Anyway, don't have much to say here. I just wanted to clear off the dustbunnies that must be coving the server which blogger has given me. Yeah, so.......lets move on to more fun stuff. ;)

SINGAPORE WON THE TIGER CUP!!! If you don't know that by now......Under which rock and in which cave have you been living in? I bet that Sheng Hui had jumped up and down for joy when he watched the match yesterday, if he was watching the match and not doing his JC homework. I've never believed that Singapore would win the Tiger Cup. The last time they won was in......19-something....Probably before I was born, cuz i don't remember Singapore ever win the Cup in my lifetime. I hope that this great change of luck that has befallen our team wouldn't go away anytime soon...Maybe we could keep on winning, even though i think that that is unlikely. lol Whatever.

Nothing much to say people. Good luck in your JC, and for those who are working - work hard, and make more money! :P

"No, that conflict won't end, therefore power will be neccessary." Chairman of ZAFT, Gundam Seed Destiny

2004-12-27T15:55:00.000+08:00

AAARRRRGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!! Run for your life! The sea is coming to get us! In case you haven't been reading the news or watch TV, an earthquake, measuring 9.0 on the Richer (or whatever-you-call-it) scale, caused tsunamis to hit most of Asia, killing more than 21 000 people. Singapore, of course, has been spared, else i would not be here typing this now. Its lucky that we are surrounded by many countries, which took most of the damage. Look at a map and you will know what i mean.

It just so sad......So many people died just overnight. Some of them went to sleep and woke up to see a fish swimming in front of their eyes ( I think). Millions more are homeless, hundreds of thousands are hurt. Sigh...the world's in a mess.

Though it may be a bit late, I'll still say it......Merry Christmas!!! Maybe we will think about the good times in the darkness and gloom that is this world of ours.

2004-12-21T17:07:00.000+08:00

Hey people! I've changed "1000 Words" from Final Fantasy X-2 to this beautiful song from the hit anime, Gundam Seed. Its called "Silent Night", sang by Tanaka Rie in person, but in the anime, it is sang by Lacus Clyne aka Rakasu Klein. Using a usful little program called "Goldwave", I've encoded the mp3 format of this song into a wma format, thus enabling it to be looped - something that i wasn't able to do with the swf file I was using the play "1000 words"
Yeah, so that's all......Nothing much to add, unless you want to talk about Gundam Seed or Naruto, then we can talk all day...... ;P

Here's something for you peeps to read before i go...

'You have been tried by twelve good men and true, not of your peers but as high above you as heaven is of hell, and they have said you are guilty. Time will pass and seasons will come and go. Spring with its wavin' green grass and heaps of sweet-smellin' flowers on every hill and in every dale. Then sultry Summer, with her shimmerin' heat-waves on the baked horizon. And Fall, with her yeller harvest moon and the hills growin' brown and golden under a sinkin' sun. And finally Winter, with its bitin', whinin' wind, and all the land will be mantled with snow. But you won't be here to see any of 'em; not by a damn sight, because it's the order of this court that you be took to the nearest tree and hanged by the neck til you're dead, dead, dead, you olive-colored son of a billy goat.' "

-Some guy......The site i took this from didn't give the name. lol

2004-12-20T20:58:00.000+08:00

Sigh......Life's getting more boring nowadays. There's nothing new to do...All tha games have been played, the books i have read, and online games have gone p2p. Only anime's keeping me hanging on the the edge of sanity...That, and JS's PS2. lol *sigh* Life without games......There aren't that many PC games around now...All the new games are on the PS or the Xbox, which we don't have emulators for. Oh brother...

Last Friday, I've been invited to go over to a performance put on by Renee and Shane. They were to play the keyboard, and I'm not kidding when I say that they played unbelievably well. Music was just flowing out of their fingertips, filling the air around with the symphony of the Ages. I wish that one day i could play as well as them, but that would probably be many lifetimes away. T.T

Sigh......I'm so bored. If anyone has any good games to play, please post them at the comments page. Thanks! Anyway, here's a nice creed to live by:

A creed to Live by

Don’t undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others.
It is because we are different that each of us is special.
Don’t set your goals by what other people deem important.
Only you know what is best for you.
Don’t take for granted the things closest to your heart.
Cling to them as you would your life, for without them, life is meaningless.
Don’t let your life slip through your fingers
by living the past or for the future.
By living your life one day at a time, you live all the days if your life.
Don’t give up when you still have something to give.
Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.
Don’t be afraid to admit that you are less than perfect.
It is this fragile thread that binds us to each other.
Don’t be afraid to encounter risks. It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave.
Don’t shut love out of your life by saying it’s impossible to find.
The quickest way to receive love is to give love;
the fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly;
and the best way to keep love is to give it wings.
Don’t dismiss your dreams.
To be without dreams is to be without hope;
To be without hope is to be without purpose.
Don’t run through life so fast that you forget
Not only where you’ve been, but also where you’re going
Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored each step of the way.

-Nancye Sims

That's it, everyone. Till next time.

2004-12-03T15:25:00.000+08:00

Which Naruto Character are You?
quiz by

Hey! I'm a Sasuke! lol Go Sasuke! Too bad that he turned to the dark side and followed Orochimaru . Sigh.....Who knows what will happen three years later in the storyline. I can't wait! lol

Hmmm...a few days ago, my friends and I went over to Sectec to listen to Renee and her friends perform. There was a stall there which allows us to take part in an XBOX racing competition, where the 50 fastest racers goes over to the finals at Funan the IT Mall. And so me, Victor, JS and Ping Wu took part. It so just happened that we managed to make the top 50. o.O And here we were think that we don't stand a chance. lol Or maybe only 50 players took part...Either way, we are in, and that's all that matters. lol :P

Bored now...playing RO, and there's no one to join me.*hint hint* lol. Bye.

2004-12-02T22:38:00.000+08:00

Hey everyone! Didn't update for a really, REALLY, long time. Sorry about that, but I had to cope with the O levels...Even though its over for like 3 weeks now. Furthermore, I've been busy gaming on the internet, playing RO and stuff. lol

Sigh....So many things have happened during those three weeks that I have no idea where to start - and so I won't. :P Aren't I the lazy one now. Anyway, I'm going to play my game now...So push off! Bahahahahahahhahaha!

Anyway, this blog will be updated more often now that I have the time. So keep watching this space. Ciao.

2004-10-04T18:34:00.000+08:00

Haiz, got back my results today...Have to say that I've not done as well as i've had hoped...Those of you who were around me at that time would know what I'm talking about. As for the rest - Bugger off! :P But really, the past does not equal to the future...History is not set in stone. The future lies in the actions we do right now. Tomorrow is ever changing...As most Star Wars freaks would know, even Master Yoda wasn't able to see far into the murky depths of time. "Ever changing, the future is." he said. ( Or something to that extent) And I believe that he is right. Besides, the Prelims aren't really all that important, it's the O levels that count. So even if you've messed up your entire Prelims, it does not matter. Just do well for the O levels, and everything will be fine. The sun will shine for you again, as it will always do no matter what you've might have done.

Haiz, yeah nothing much to say lah. (Singlish! Mr Chia's gonna skin me alive! *Yikes* O.o) Here's a quote, and I'm off:

WHO KNOWS WHAT EVIL LURKS IN THE HEART OF MEN? The Death of Rats looked up from the feast of potato. SQUEAK, he said. Death waved a hand dismissively. WELL, YES, OBVIOUSLY ME, he said. I JUST WONDERED IF THERE WAS ANYONE ELSE.
-- (Terry Pratchett, The Truth)

Yeah, keep watching this space. Ciao.

2004-09-29T19:06:00.000+08:00

lolz. First update in a really long time. Hopefully, you would be able to see the Yuna and Leene banner up there...Spent about an two hours working on that thing and getting the banner to show on the blog. Its the result of my blood and sweat. lolz. I'm such a Final Fantasy Fan. Bawhahahahahahahha :P

Haiz, first day back at school! Yah! But, as usual, some parts of the day still sucked. >.< For example, it rained just as we were about to have our PE lesson. The result: we played basketball in the rain. Got my shoes and socks all wet...My feet went all wrindled up like the feet of a human prune. lolz. Could try pull a quick one on some kids, like telling them that I've gotten an incureable, high contagious skin disease from playing about in the field. With any luck, that would keep them off it, leaving the field all to us. Bawhahahahhahahahhaha. :P

Then good old Mr Chia sprang another unwelcome surprise on us, telling us that we have "extra lessons" today. Apparently, he'd forgotten to come up to our class to tell us about it, and we only found out when some of us met him along the hallway. Of course, not eveyone met him, thus resulting in some of us knowing about the lesson and some not knowing. And what's worse, we won't given the time to go and eat. And to top it all off, we were given homework! ( hmmm, starting to sound like a crybaby....T.T ?) Oh well, i suppose that he did all this for our "own good", so I will forgive him just this once. (Richard, you reading this?) lolz. just kiding, just kiding. (Like you couldn't tell. :D)

K, have to go eat liao. Here's a quote before I go:

A man owns nothing but his life. He holds items briefly in his hand. If they are made of stone or metal they will surely outlive him and be owned by someone else for a short time. If they are cloth he woill - with luck- outlive them. Look around you, at the trees and the hills. According to Kydor law, they are mine. You think the trees care that they are mine? Or the hills? The same hills that were bathed in sunlight when my earliest ancestor walked the earth. The same hills that will still be covered in grass when the last man turns to dust.

Hero in the Shadows, David Gemmell.

This wise words were spoken by the Waylander, from David Gemmell's books. And so I'll take my leave now. Blessed be.

2004-09-05T23:47:00.000+08:00

HAPPY SWEET SIXTEEN AMIE!!!

So, today's Amie's birthday. Didn't get to celebrate it with her or anything...So sad! T.T Some other time, maybe. Like next year or something. Haiz...Oh well.

After my tuition today, I went over to the Popular sale at EXPO...Brought a lot of stuff...More stuff than I would usually buy at any one time...I think its worth the money, really. Came back, watched "The Heavenly Sword and Dragon Saber", did some work, watched "Kum Kum" and updated. So boring... Nothing to do except study and study. So sian...Nothing to do.

Haiz...Its time to work again. I suppose that update would be less often now...At least till after the Os or something...Haiz, I hate the life of a sixteen year old student in Singapore. But what can I do? Nothing...Just have to sallow this bitter pill and force it down. Arrrggghhhhhh.

Anyway, here's a quote:

The Battle of Koom Valley is the only one known to history where both sides ambushed each other.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms)

okay, that's it. Bye.

2004-08-28T17:59:00.000+08:00

Sorry people, been kinda busy lately, so updates have slowed. With perlims and the O levels just round the conor, I suppose that this is to be expected. So, please forgive me if I don't update for a few days...or weeks....or months...or years...or ages...you get the idea. :P

Well, we had our Chemistry Mork Exam again today, and this time we had a full paper. I suppose that I should be able to do okay for this. With any luck, I might even get an A1. Now won't that be a sight to see? lolz.

After the test, we had to go for another one of our long series of bio lesson. We had bio lessons for everyday of this week already! But I suppose that it can't be helped...what with us not completing the syslibus and all...Haiz, and we still have quite a long way to go till we finally complete the book. Looks like we will be in for a lot of remedia lessons to come. Woe is to me! :P

Yeah, nothing much to talk about. So I will just give you a quick quote and log off.

"There must be a hundred silver dollars in here," moaned Boggis, waving a purse. "I mean, that's not my league. That's not my class. I can't handle that sort of money. You've got to be in the Guild of Lawyers or something to steal that much."
-- (Terry Pratchett, Wyrd Sisters)

Yeah, that's all. Ciao.

2004-08-23T18:28:00.000+08:00

Oh boy...who would have thought that JiaWei would lose to both North and South Korera...I mean, how could anyone who won 11 - 0 with 2 matches in her bag end up losing the entire game? Haiz...Oh well, it can't be helped...Maybe we are just not fated to bring back a medal this year...But in 2008, at China, Singapore shall arise from the ashes of defeat, and pummel the unworthy into the dust! And in the process bring back tons of medals. Bawhahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!! o.O

Anyway, our new PM, Mr Lee gave his first National Day Rally Speech yesterday, which strached from 8 pm to 11:15 pm. And it was supposed to end at 10, mind you. The man stood in front of the whole nation for about 3 hours and 15 minutes, give or take. Won't his legs get tired...? I mean, what with him being 51 years old and all...He should at least be given a chair...But I suppose that that would wouldn't be good for his image, so it can't be helped.

I must say, I really agree with some of the policies that Mr Lee pointed out yesterday - some examples: less homework, 5 day weeks, yadda yadda, making me the next PM...Okay, so maybe he didn't say the last 2 points, but one can always hope, can't he? Mr Lee has also pointed out that some student had proposed to their principal to buy them a few Xboxes and PS2s, reason being that students were mixing around with bad company at the nearby video game center, so they were planning to come up with their own video arcade in school to prevent this. And what was most surprising was that the principal agreed!!! And so the video arcade was set up in the school, and voluntary parents made sure that no X-rated games are played, while at the same time keeping things going. I wonder how they handle things in there. In all likelihood it would be something like this:

Ah Soh: I wonder if this wire plugs into that hole?
Ag Gong: Don’t care lah, just plug it into holes randomly.
Student coming in: Excuse me, I would like to play Final Faaagggghhhhh!!!!

And the student is seen coming out, dragging his butt on the floor with a long black cable behind him. He is then last seen at the E&A room. :P

Maybe someone could try the same thing on Mr Lim...There's no point in my doing the asking...Besides, I'm leaving next year, so in all likelihood I would not be allowed to take/abuse this privilege if it is granted...What can a guy do? Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww........

Its another boring day...nothing much to do at school...Personally, I would rather stay at home and study...And if you believed that, I've got a bridge to sell you. :P Haiz, but i suppose that school has its usefulness too...It gets us to study when we otherwise won't, and you know that we need this one feature of school, we being the slackers that we are. Ah, lets study hard now, shall we?

Here is another quote to round things up.

Using a metaphor in front of a man as unimaginative as Ridcully was like a red flag to a bu-- was like putting something very annoying in front of someone who was annoyed by it.-- (Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies)

Okay, its about time for me to go. Blessed be.

2004-08-17T22:32:00.000+08:00

A lots of things have happened in the last few days, but I haven't got the time to type them out fully. I will try to do that now, but no promises. You see, it is 10:30 now and in a half an hour, I would be lying soundly in my bed, dreaming whatever it is that I would be dreaming. lolz.

First of all, my little sister enter this National Story Telling Competition, and for some strange reason, actually came in first. After think about this unlikely incident, I have come to a few conclusions: 1)Her school bribed the judges. 2)There was a mixup in the prize department and the top prize was given to them by mistake. 3)She really was that good. O.o Go on, take a wild guess as to which is the correct reason. :P In all likelihood, you would be able to read about her in the newspapers in the days to come, so do keep an eye out. :D

Aww, darn! I'm almost out of time! So here is a quick quote, this time taken from Scott Adams, the author of Dilbert.

" I don't know why everyone says poverty can't be eliminated. The solution is obvious to me. All it takes is what bankers call the :"miracle of compound interest."
This requires a long-term approach to the problem, but its fairly foolproof if you're patient. All you do is give each poor person a dollar. There are only about 5 billion poor people, so this is quite affordable as a percentage of the worldwide GNP. That dollar is deposited in a special bank account for each of the poor people with the idea that it stays there for generations collection interest. The number of poor people doubles every twenty years, but the value of money doubles every ten years, assuming it is well invested, so the gap will close.
In 4000 years, the descendants of the poor people will be allowed to go to the bank and asked for their money. The bank will inform them that the dollar was taken in fees 4000 years ago, and the balance of all their accounts is zero. At this point, the poor people will kill the bankers and steal all the money in the bank, thus ending poverty completely."

-Scott Adams, The Dilbert Future.

Okay, its now 11. I got to go now, but should come back soon in order to tell you all about the days events. Bye for now.

2004-08-14T22:50:00.000+08:00

Hello people! A lots of things has happened in the last few days, and I'm really glad about it! On Friday, I went to watch "The Spook Show" with Mark. A most unexpected person came along too - Renee! I was really surprised that she was there. Anyway, back to the show. "The Spook Show" isn't bad to watch...The tricks the magician made were quite predictable, but nonetheless entertaining. There is, of course, always a trick involved, but yet we humans still watch a "magic" show to see a trick done well. It is just one of those things that humans do...Even if you have seen lots of magic shows and are able to tell what the next trick's going to be just by looking at the props on stage. :P

After watching the show, I went back home to sleep. Well, duh. Did you expect me to sleep in the streets? Ha.

Well, today we had our mork test on Social Studies and History. I hope that I would do well...I really do...It will show just how good I am....Or how bad I am, depending on how you look at it. lolz. Haiz, my brother is telling to move away, so I will not give you a quote today. Quite a short post, but i suppose that there is a first time for everything. :P

2004-08-12T21:46:00.000+08:00

Its been a while since I've last updated...The reason being that I've just reformatted my computer, and I had to spent time to update Windows and reinstall all my files and what not. Its a tough job, but somebody got to do it. :P I would advise you to reformat your computers at least once every 6 months...It helps clean up your com of any crap that you might have collected over time. But be sure to back up all your important stuff first! You wouldn't want to lose all your work. :P

Hmmm, its been a long day, and lots of things have happened. First and foremost, the release of the 2004 O level Mother Tongue results. *gasp* O.O I'm not sure what you got, but I've got a 6! I passed! Can you believe it? Bawhahahahahahahaa!!! Ahahahahahahahahaa!!! Me, Alvin C., actually passed! I'm on top of the world! *looks down* *gasp* O.O *falls*

Me:"AGGHhhhnonononononononopleasepleasenononourharrrggghhhh.........Splat!"

lolz. Yeah, that's lame. Yes, indeed. *ahem* Okay, lets carry on. It doesn't what grade you got...Try to look at the bright side of it. If you did well, that's fine and good. Try to work harder and score higher next time. And for those who didn't...Weellll, try to harder too. Remember this phrase from dear Mr. Adem, "I am gifted, so are you!" You would be able to do well, I'm sure. Just give it everything you've got, and best of luck.

And now the next important thing of the day...So important that it affects the whole nation of Singapore. It's a day of great joy, one in which our country would receive a new leader...If you haven't guessed by now, it is the signing in of our new Prime Minister, Mr. Lee Hsien Loong...Well, I've just told you, so you have gotten it. If you've watched the live telecast of the whole event, I suppose that you would have noticed that Mr. Lee was extremely nervous when he beening sworn in...So nervous that he placed his hand down before it was done! I imagine that he must be so embarrassed! lolz. But, when he came up to deliver his speech, he did it with such grace and tact that even I would be hard-pressed to outdo him....Why are you looking at me like that? Was it something I said? *ahem* Right. I just hope that Mr. Lee would be able to led Singapore on to a bright new future, one where everyone in Singapore would be happy, at ease will themselves, and most of all, rich. :P Lets hope that Mr. Lee would be able to job as good a job as Mr. Goh...Only time will write the story, and history will tell it.

Okay, this is one very long post...I would love to type more, but i have to study for my SS and History test on Saturday. So here is a quick quote, and I'm signing off:

Natural selection saw to it that professional heroes who at a crucial moment tended to ask themselves questions like "What is my purpose in life?" very quickly lacked both.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Interesting Times)

Okay, I'm signing off now. Ciao.

2004-08-09T17:54:00.000+08:00

Ahhh....I've just finished watching Gundam Seed...It's quite a nice show...Gets really touching at the end...So many ppl died...Felt like crying. Those who shouldn't die died, while those who should die also died. As it were. Hard to believe that the almightly Freedom Gundam would be so badly damaged in battle. Really a nice show...The begining is a little boring, but it gets better as it progresses. Long live Gundam Seed!!!

Ahhh, didn't do much today...Spent the whole day watching Gundam Seed. The are a few loopholes though. For example, when the Aegis Gundam attached itself to Strike and blew itself up, how did Kira get to Lucas's house at PLANT? And the ArchAngel...It was able to defend itself so well in the begining of the series...Then, after it was repaired at Orb, its hull could be torn apart by a single missile. lolz. Oh well. :P

Today is National Day!!! Yah!!! I love National Day...Cuz I need not go to school for today and tomorrow. lolz. Try to catch the fireworks, people. If the reports are to be trusted, it will be a sight to behold...Maybe. :P BTW, happy birthday Jun Liang! May all your wishes and dreams come true in the following year. :D

As for Mr. Anonymous...Yes, is possible to load your own songs from your computer to your blog. But first you must find a server which allows you upload your song to your site so that it can be played. I'm using Tripod to upload mine. Then you must decide on which file format your want your song to be...I've converted 1000 Words into a Flash file using LAME software. Then by messing around with HTML, I've placed the file into my blog. Yup, that's about it. Yeah. Hope this helps....The URl from which I uploaded the file is http://stifler-leonheart.tripod.com/jade-words.swf.

And here is the quote of the day:

Ridcully was to management what King Herod was to the Bethlehem Playgroup Association. His mental approach to it could be visualised as a sort of business flowchart with, at the top, a circle entitled "Me, who does the telling" and, connected below it by a line, a large circle entitled "Everyone else".
-- (Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent)

Yeah, nothing much to type liao. Blessed be.

2004-08-07T21:52:00.000+08:00

Due to popular demand, I've decided to update my blog! Yah! Joy to the world! Yeah, nothing of interest happened during the last few days, so I have not been updating. Alvin Inc. apologies for any inconvenience caused by this lapse in duty. :P Right! Yesterday, my school celebrated National Day. Mostly what we did was watch the uniformed groups march into the quadrangle, after which we sang the National Anthem. Then the uniformed groups marched off, after which the Girls Brigade performed a complicated drill. They pulled it off quite well, though a few missteps did pop up here and there. I suppose that this is to be expected. After all, they are only human. :P Now take a wild guess as to what happened next. Yup! Got it in one. We started singing the national day songs. Every year it is the same old story. Every year we do the same thing on National Day. Won’t it ever change? Oh bother…. Anyway, we had our Thanksgiving Festival today. All in all, its not bad…Though it got quite boring in parts. :D The band played really well, in my option. Shuyi did a great job singing in the choir. I can’t even begin to imagine the amount of guts it took for her to stand there and sing like it is nobody’s business. Nicely done, Shuyi!

Haiz, next week we would be having another mock test...This time it is Social Studies and History...Again! Apparently, the school feels that we aren't good enough at our combined humanities, so they are trying to give us lots of practice before the Prelims and the Os. Haiz...

Another thing I've noticed...Why do we always say "The school" this and "The school" that when what we really want to say is that the people in charge of the school is the ones who came up with the decision. The school is just a building, a pile of bricks and mortar all placed in a fashion which would allow it to support the weight of all the students. It is not a sentential being. It does not think. So why do we always say that it is the school which came up with the decision? Even I am guilty of doing this. I don't know...I suppose that it is just one of those things.

Okay here is the quote of the day:

In fact, the mere act of opening the box will determine the state of the cat, although in this case there were three determinate states the cat could be in: these being Alive, Dead, and Bloody Furious.
-- Schrodinger's Moggy explained (Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies)

Ah, too bored liao. Ciao.

2004-08-03T23:13:00.000+08:00

Ah, bloody hell...My com gave up on me while I was typing out my blog...Lost everything I've typed...And it was just a long peice too! Moreover, it didn't happen once, it happened twice! Oh Gawks...

Anyway, the song that i assume you are hearing now is sang by Jade, from Sweetbox, and it's called "1000 Words". Its one of my favorite songs of all time. And like any most of my favorite songs, it is an FF song. Final Fantasy X-2, to be exect. I just love the way it starts off slow at the begining and builds up to its climax at the ending. Isn't it beautiful? No? Oh well, that's too bad. One man's meat is another's posion, as they say.

Haiz, I got back my A Math test paper today...Didn't get as high as I wanted...I'm so bloody lazy that I'd might as well put as apple in my mouth, spread some hay on the floor, and start napping with my arms and legs out to the side. No insult meant to certain members of the animal kingdom and the human race. *ahem* As it were.

Man, I've so got to start working hard...When I compare myself to the pupils from 4/5, I feel somewhat inferior, even though I am a Homo Sapien Superiorlis. :P Their sense of motivation and will to study astounds me. If I could be just as hard working as them, maybe i could....Ahhh nevermind. No way I'm letting the 4/5ians beat me! Going to work hard! Yeah! This is the last lap of the race on this path of daggers, let us all run upon it together...We can make it! And we will make it!

Haiz, I've been asking Victor to pass me a little for, say, about two weeks now. And everyday he will say something like, "Tomorrow, tomorrow! I will bring it!". But when the next day comes, it is nowhere in sight. Makes you even wonder what the little mass of gray matter we have behind our eyes are for...

Okay, here is another quote:

It is a universal fact that any innocent comment made by any recently married young member of any workforce is an instant trigger for coarse merriment among his or her older and more cynical colleagues. This happens even if everyone concerned has nine legs and lives at the bottom of an ocean of ammonia on a huge cold planet. It’s just one of those things.

-Terry Pratchett ( Witches Abroad)

And here is some interesting stuff to know:

Correspondence of Demons to the Seven Deadly Sins
(According to Peter Binsfield, a Jesuit, 1589)
Lucifer- Pride
Mammon- Avarice
Asmodeus- Lust
Satan- Anger
Beelzebub- Gluttony
Leviathan- Envy
Belphegor- Vanity and Sloth

BTW, did you know that the name Lucifer really mean Bringer of Light? Its kind of strange that such a nice name is changed to mean the same as that of the Devil himself. Well, its a weird world. Truth is usually stranger than fiction.

Ah well, nothing to type anymore. Lets all study hard now. Blessed be.

2004-07-31T23:32:00.000+08:00

Haiz, had English and E math Mock Exam today. So sian...The English paper was quite tough, but I believe that I would be able to get at least a B4. Maybe. Hopefully. In all likelihood. *ahem* Anyway, the E math paper was kind of easy...Which is good, cuz I spent the whole Friday night gaming. lolz. Aren't I great? :D

After the papers, we took a class photo. Everyone all like don't want to take one...All just stand around. Then the girls started shouting and yelling and everything, and finally the dudes gave up and fell in line. Dear Jun Liang decided to help us take the picture, otherwise we would have a small problem on our hands. Of course, by this time we were supposed to be down at the AVT attending Ms Lam's bio lesson. She got really angry...Or as angry as she could get, which I don't think is a lot...She's quite the nice teacher, really. And she told us that Mr Adam Koo has decided to give us his special training or something to that extent. But it is not finalized yet, so don't go jumping for joy. It might or might not happen. So just cross your fingers, and prey that it does. :P

As of today, I would be talking about stuff from the occult. Here's the first issue of Alvin's Occult Compilation:

Species of Demons, as Described by Alphonse de Spina (1467)
Fates, who alter destiny
Poltergeists, who cause mischief
Incubi and Succubi, who stimulate lust and perversion
Marching Hordes, who bring about war
Familiars, who assist witches
Nightmares, who disturb sleep through bad dreams
Demons formed from Human Semen
Disguised Demons
Demons who Assail the Saintly
Demons who Instigate Witchcraft

(Thanks to http://www.djmcadam.com/)

And here is the quote of the day:

The Yen Buddhists are the richest religious sect in the universe. They hold that the accumulation of money is a great evil and a burden to the soul. They therefore, regardless of personal hazard, see it as their unpleasant duty to acquire as much as possible in order to reduce the risk to innocent people.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad)

Okay, that's it. Been playing Ragnarok Online a lot lately, so if you see me online and talk to me, and I don't type back, don't get insulted or something. :P
See you around.

2004-07-29T22:08:00.000+08:00

Another boring day at school...when will this ever end? Can't wait for school to be over...Well, nothing much happened today...Eric spent his entire lessons just trying to get us to understand this really tough question...And I'll be betting that more than half the class still doesn't know what he is talking about. lolz.

Nothing much to talk about...So here is another quote:

Ridcully was to management what King Herod was to the Bethlehem Playgroup Association. His mental approach to it could be visualised as a sort of business flowchart with, at the top, a circle entitled "Me, who does the telling" and, connected below it by a line, a large circle entitled "Everyone else".
-- (Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent)

Yeah, whatever. Be seeing you.

2004-07-26T22:29:00.000+08:00

Hey people! Nothing of much interest happened today...Just like any other Mondays...Oh yeah, Mrs Lam didn't come, but that studpid Mr Lim just had to come over and take over her lessons. Add that to the fact that we ere to have another two periods of Physics later in the day, that makes three periods of Physics in a day! Its so boring...Really feel like sleeping...

Today, we had our audition for our teacher's day celebrations. I wonder how the teams are faring...In any case, all the best to everyone taking part! Just do your best. It does not matter if you are choosing or not, the important thing is to have fun. That sound like something an old person would tell you, doesn't it? I don't know, I find that it is a good philosophy to live by...

BTW, here is something interesting I've read...Hope you like it too:

"The seasons, in fact, teach us two lessons that both steady and chastise: all things must pass, and all things shall return. They tell us that every new beginning brings us closer to an end, and every elegy has withing it the echo (and the promise) of a future celebration. They say that love that seems eternal now may soon be a distant memory; and that a new love may come along to revive our sense of eternity. They teach us that suffering is inevitable, and in that inevitability is a constancy that helps take the edge off suffering. We cherish flowers more than evergreens, precisely because they do not last.

Season instruct us, then. In a subtler way of being; they initiate us into a process more universal than the New Year and more flexible than moons. All of us have our own calendars, and all of us think in terms of spring cleaning or fall fashions, But seasons induct us into a world of divisions that are never hard and fast (soft and slow, rather); they offer lessons about constancy and flux, and show us that there are some things- for all our fears of global warming and a nuclear winter- we cannot much affect. Seasons teach us about transitions, for winter elides into spring as gently as remorse into regret, or adolescence into youth. And just when we assume that winter is gone, an unseasonable blizzard will come down to remind us we were wrong."

There, that's it. Quite a long piece. Those Lit pupils should be able to understand it better, I suppose. Anyway, its time for the quote of the day:

People have believed for hundreds of years that newts in a well mean that the water's fresh and drinkable, and in all that time never asked themselves whether the newts got out to go to the lavatory.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man)

lolz. Nothing to type anymore. Till next time.

2004-07-24T20:22:00.000+08:00

Its been quite some time since I've last posted...Mostly I was too lazy or just too darn tired. Haiz...A lot of thing have happened during the past week...I would rather not say anything about it, else certain people might feel insulted...

Because of those events, Amie has beening feeling down in the dumps lately. How i wish that I have the guts to just talk to her...she looks so sad...So very different from her usual happy, shouting self. Glad to hear to she's gotten over it...I mean, she a great friend and all, always there when you need her...I just wish that we could be there when she needs us...

Anyway, I've came across a great song. It's by Steps and its called "It's the way you make me feel." here are the lyrics

It's the thing that you do
So physical
It's the thing that you say
So flammable
You know I can't resist
Boy it's such a shame
Do you belong to another
I don't wanna hurt nobody
but my heart just can't hold back
It's the way you make me feel
(Make me feel , make me feel)
Spinning my world around
Tell me how can I walk away
I don't care what they say
I'm loving you anyway
It's the way you make me feel
I'm going to make you mine
It's not impossible
Got to let you know
I'm irresistible
Baby can't you see
You're the one for me
But you belong to another
I don't wanna hurt nobody
But my heart just can't hold back
It's the way you make me feel
[ The way you make me feel ]
Spinning my world around
Tell me how can I walk away
I don't care what they say
I'm loving you anyway
It's the way you make me feel
(Make me feel , make me feel)
(Make me feel , make me feel)
When I look into your eyes
Everytime you smile at me
Oh I go weak inside
Baby I just can't hide my love
It's the way you make me feel
[ The way you make me feel ]
Spinning my world around
Tell me how can I walk away
I don't care what they say
I'm loving you anyway
It's the way you make me feel
(Make me feel , make me feel)
(Make me feel , make me feel)
Tell me how can I walk away
I don't care what they say
I'm loving you anyway
It's the way you make me feel
It's the way you make me feel

I will try to get the song up on my site...Yeah, that's about all. Bye.

2004-07-17T22:02:00.000+08:00

Ah...Appearently, Blogger has decided to add a few new functions to, as it were, Blogger. We are now able to upload pictures, use coloured text, add bullets, blah blah blah, and what have you. I expect to see more stuff from Blogger...it could very well have a bright future in the web industry.

Well, we had our Social Studies and Chemistry Mock Exam today. I should be able to pass my SS paper, and i hope to be able to score at least 30+ in my Chem paper. Right...Renee and Jon didn't come to school today...wonder what's wrong with them? To miss out on such an important thing...Moreover, Renee said that she would be coming...Haiz, don't know them lah. lolz.

Right, I've forgotten talk about a very important/humourous event that happened on Wednesday. I was clearing out the bin as usual after class. The sun was shining down on me, the wind playing its little games with my hair, the birds were singing and flying gracefully in the air...In short, it was a perfect day! What was not perfect was that Victor and Jon Cho was having a blaw outside the class. Its the fight of the year! Jon has Victor in a deathgrip. Blam! Pow! Try as he might, Victor is unable to break free from the Ramboesque hold that Jon was using. "No way out," Victor thought."Looks like I would have to use my ultimate move - Hiten Mitsurugi Style, The Dragon's Rages!" And with that, he unleashed the innate power inside his body, and spun around in the air, causing his foot to move at exactly the right speed, occupy exactly postition in time and space, and processing exactly the right amount of force to bring the foot into sharp contect with the bin in my hand, thereby causing it to fly up into the air, spin around twice and land onto of Brenden's head. Right. *ahem* So, of course, Brenden was covered with dirt and drenched with the unknow liquid present in the bin. And of course Brenden went to the toliet to get cleaned up, and he got his shirt wetter than it already was in the process of getting it cleaned. Right. As it were. This whole event has nothing to do with me. lolz. Just doing my duty ~ keeping the class clean. *ahem* :P

Ok, so now its time for the quote of the day:

They say the heat and the flies here can drive a man insane. But you don't have to believe that, and nor does that bright mauve elephant that just cycled past.

-- (Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent)

All that's all. Till next time.

2004-07-14T17:30:00.000+08:00

And another year has passed for Alvin, Sacker of Cities, The Final Grave of Hope. I'm one year older, in all likelihood wiser, and maybe smarter. Many people in class wished me a happy birthday...That really made my day, though i could have died under all the embarrassment. Love F4/2 lots.

It was another boring schoolday, daydreamed though everything...I wonder how I've managed to even get back home...lolz. During A Math lesson I was drawing away, not following the lesson. lolz.

Oh right...Yesterday, Mr Adam Khoo came to talk to us. He's a great guy, really animated and humourous...But I think that he is trying too hard, as if you listen carefully, you can hear that he is straining his voice. :P Oh well, since he is paid to do that, i suppose that it is alright. Hmmm, learnt quite a lot from that talk...

Anyway, here's another quote:

This is very similar to the suggestion put forward by the Quirmian philosopher Ventre, who said, "Possibly the gods exist, and possibly they do not. So why not believe in them in any case? If it's all true you'll go to a lovely place when you die, and if it isn't then you've lost nothing, right?" When he died he woke up in a circle of gods holding nasty-looking sticks and one of them said, "We're going to show you what we think of Mr Clever Dick in these parts..."

-- (Terry Pratchett, Hogfather)

Don't have anything much to write anyway. Signing off now.

2004-07-10T22:40:00.000+08:00

Ah, I was too tired to blog last night so here I am! We had our school musical yesterday. Its not bad, considering that this is the cast's first musical. The band played well, the cast show high levels of professionalism ( at least they didn't laugh when it came to a hugging scene), and the vocalist did an outstanding job. Who would have thought that GM would be able to come up with something like this? Certainly not me. :P

As for the people there, most of them were well behaved, except of a few lowlifes who kept talking during the show. I wouldn't have minded them, but they were not even making the effort to whisper. Of course, I would not take this lying down, so I hit them on the elbow and told them to shut up. That got did the trick. Finally we, the superior beings that we are, could enjoy the show in peace without the interference of sub-humans. :D

The guys told me to meet them at Raffles MRT at 5:15. So I got there at 5:15. The dudes were not there yet, or so I thought. Okay, that's alright. I could wait. And so I waited. And waited. And waited some more. The dudes still did not turn up. Eventually, I got tired of waiting, so I went over to the VCH myself. They weren't there too. lolz. To make a long story short, I've waited 2 hours in all before I've finally found them ( or your could say that it was the other way round. They found me.) And I've finally met the must esteemed cousin of Amie. She's one hot chick, I'd say. And Amie looked downright stunning that night. Its amazing what enough makeup can do to change one's image. And I've seen Jes and Amie's so-called boyfriend. *laughs* All in all, I've had a great time.

Now for the events of today. Nothing much happened, but Xin Yu, Zhao Qi and I went over to TM to buy a birthday present for yours truly and Zhao Qi. After which we took a trip over the E-Zone and had a gala time blasting away at the first person shooter games. Had a lot of fun.

And now, for the quote of the day! Here goes:

Supposing an emperor was persuaded to wear a new suit of clothes whose material was so fine that, to the common eye, the clothes weren't there. And suppose a little boy pointed out this fact in a loud, clear voice...

Then you have The Story of the Emperor Who Had No Clothes.

But if you knew a bit more, it would be The Story of the Boy Who Got a Well-Deserved Thrashing From his Dad for Being Rude to Royalty, and Was Locked Up.

Or The Story of the Whole Crowd Who Were Rounded up by Guards and Told "This Didn't Happen, OK? Does Anyone Want to Argue?"

Or it could be a story of how a whole kingdom suddenly saw the benefits of the 'new clothes', and developed an enthusiasm for healthy sports* in a lively and refreshing atmosphere which got many new adherents every year, and led to a recession caused by the collapse of the conventional clothing industry.

It could even be a story about The Great Pneumonia Epidemic of '09.

It all depends on how much you know.

-- (Terry Pratchett, Thief Of Time)

All right, so this is quite long for a quote, but it sure is funny. I don't know about you, but i find it funny. lolz. Oh well, till next time.

*Mostly involving big, big beachballs.

2004-07-08T18:20:00.000+08:00

Another day has come and gone! And now we are one day older. One day wiser. One day less to live. How I wish that we would never have to grow old. But, you know the old saying: If wishes were fish, there would be no room for the water.

It was another productive day at Alvinville! First, i wasted the entire E Math lesson away by doing what I do best - slacking and daydreaming! For Chinese today, we went down to the AVT to watch this old movie that's even more long winded than all those Taiwanese sitcoms that you see on TV. Almost feel asleep watching it. Borriinngggg......But it has its nice points. It prevents the teachers from really giving us a proper Chinese lesson, and we get to watch a movie! Abiet a boring one, but a movie nevertheless. :P

Took my Chem test today too. Passing shouldn't be a problem, but scoring well is another thing all together. lolz Man, I've should have studied harder......Been slacking too much liao. lolz. BTW, Rice Matters is tml! I wonder how good - or bad- it would be. Just can't wait for tml.

Anyway, here is another quote:

Nature abhors dimensional abnormalities, and seals them neatly away so that they don't upset people. Nature, in fact, abhors a lot of things, including vacuums, ships called the "Marie Celeste", and the chuck keys for electric drills.

-- (Terry Pratchett, Pyramids)

In case you are wondering, the Marie Celeste is a 1870 ship which was found drifting about in the sea without a crew. What made this more than a simple abandoning of ship was that there was no sind of any struggle on board. This was no waterlogged, derelict ship. Its sails were set and its timbers were undamaged. As far as the eye can tell, there was nothing wrong with the ship. The cargo, supplies, and personal belongings were still on the Marie Celeste. Evidence aboard showed that the Marie Celeste had clearly been abandoned quickly. The last entry in the ship’s log gave no clue or indication that anything was wrong, neither was there any cause for concern. The only items missing were the chronometer and sextant. Till today, no one knows what really happened on that ship.

Ha, nothing to write liao. Till next time.

2004-07-06T17:35:00.000+08:00

We had chapel today! We had this band jumping around on stage singing songs as usual, nothing special, but what is special is that RCC waved his hands about when told to do so like a little girl! The sight alone caused many of us to break out in peals of laughter.

Nothing much happened today. Mrs Loh didn't come to school, something which I've never remembered her doing. There's a first time for everything, I guess. :P Arrgghh, I've spent all my money on mangas. Don't have any money now. Oh dear. lolz. I just wish that there can be a free web hosting service with an unlimited data transfer rate. But oh well. Beggars can't be choosers.

Anyway, here's another quote:

"Let's just say that if complete and utter chaos was lightning, he'd be the sort to stand on a hilltop in a thunderstorm wearing wet copper armour and shouting 'All gods are bastards'."

-- Rincewind discussing Twoflower (Terry Pratchett, The Colour of Magic)

Till next time.

2004-07-05T18:50:00.000+08:00

Ah, finally got the music thing going on. It is Streamside, from RO......now all i have to do is find out how to loop it...if anyone knows, please inform me. Thanks!! :D And i would have to find a way to get the music at Amie's blog going...Don't know what's wrong, i seem to have done everything right, yet i don't seem to be hearing anything. Ahhh, well. Will work on it. Ciao.

2004-07-03T23:18:00.000+08:00

My friends and I went to watch Spiderman 2 today!!! Its a great show! Really! No kidding. You just have to watch it. Harry is as usual obsessed with taking revenge on Spider-Man, Mary Jane is engaged to some guy, and Peter Parker's confused over what he should do with his life, thereby causing him to......I mustn't say, it would spoilt the movie. :P I can't wait for the 3rd movie to come out sometime in 2007. Got to watch the Garfield movie too. lolz.

I also had my Chinese O Level Listening Compre today! I'm guessing that i should be able to get at least 16 to 20, if i'm lucky. :D HA, now my chinese O lvl is completely over! YAH!!! BAAWWHAHAHAHHAHAHA! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA! *cough* *cough* Ahem, excuse me. All of you would still have to sit through days of painful waiting and worry about if you would be able to make the grade while I don't have to! BAAHAHAHAHHAA! AHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!

Okay, now that the evil side of me has had its fun, here's the quote of the day:

There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who, when presented with a glass that is exactly half full, say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!

-- (Terry Pratchett, The Truth)

Okay, that's it! Be seeing you.

2004-07-02T20:23:00.000+08:00

I had my O lvl Chinese Oral today!!! Did quite badly, i think, didn't know how to read lots of words and i've skipped by as many as three words at a time. lolz. But i think that i should be able to pass, albiet getting marks like 15,16......you get the idea. :D BTW, i'm taking my Chinese O lvl listening compre tomorrow. I hope to get around 16,18, 20. Wish me luck! :P

AHH, don't have much to say, so i'll just give you another quote:

"I know about people who talk about suffering for the common good. It's never bloody them! When you hear a man shouting "Forward, brave comrades!" you'll see he's the one behind the bloody big rock and the one wearing the only really arrow-proof helmet!"

-- Rincewind gives a speech on politics. (Terry Pratchett, Interesting Times)

Again, this is quite true. You see it happening all throughout history, exspically in wars where the USA is involved. The guy at the top is always at the rear where he is safe from everything while the footsoldiers are at the front getting shot, stabbed, cut, crushed, burnt, blown to bits, posioned and what have you. And in wars nowadays, the soldiers have to obey the guys above them even though the overmentioned people are totally useless. And at the end of everything, it is those same morons who gets all the glory and honour and medals and Purple Hearts and what not. All this while the people who risked their lives get hurt - even dead! - and they don't get much of anything unless they get wounded, in which case they just get a worthless Purple Heart! Those guys've lost arms and limbs and watch they friends die just to protect their country and the people living there, and when they come back, they get looked down on and spat at by the very people they've laid down their lives for. And this is because the bloody civilians are trying to get the war to stop but they have no idea what goes on in the fields of fire.

Haiz, those poor soldiers...lets now have a moment of slience for the warriors who have fought and have fallen in battle.....

Well, i've sure typed a whole bunch of stuff without intending to. lolz. Yeah whatever. See you around.

2004-06-30T21:54:00.000+08:00

Awwwww crap! Typed out a long post just now, then my computer blew out on me again. Haiz...lost everything. What a waste of time. I would just have to type everything out again.

We had our first PE of the term today. It was fun, even though all I did was run around and make a nuisance of myself. Personally, I would rather be playing basketball. :P

RCC had told us that he would be checking our holiday homework today. But did he do it? NOOOOOO...caused me to stay up till 1:30 last night all for nothing. RCC is such a great guy, really. So great that it makes me wish that i could just curl my hands around his puny neck and break it. But I can't do that, can i? Not when we are living in good old Singapore, where we can't even buy guns and go spray the streets in a killing spree. :P If only we were living in the States...The States is a nice place, no kidding.

Hmmmmmm, it appears that Rice Matters would be starting next week. For anyone going on Friday, we could met up and go over together. For those who are still in the dark, Rice Matters is a musical created by my school, GMSS. From what I've heard, it should be a nice play, so come along and buy a ticket. It only costs $15. I can assure you that you may have the time of your life there. (Keyword : May) :P

Oh right! Did i tell you that i would be taking my Chinese O lvl Oral on Friday? OK, i just did. :D Whatever. Anyway, its so close! And we would be having our listening Compre on Saturday...But looking on the bright side, i could get this whole mess over and done with quickly. lolz. Wish me luck.

Here is the quote of the day:

You did something because it had always been done, and the explanation was "but we've always done it this way." A million dead people can't have been wrong, can they?

-- (Terry Pratchett, The Fifth Elephant)

Its kind of true. Just think about it. We do this every year. One good example is the Chinese New Year, Christmas etc. Well whatever. Have to get back to doing my homework now. Till next time.

2004-06-27T18:59:00.000+08:00

Hello everyone. As i'm sure, most of you know that school is starting tomorrow. Oh dear......lolz. Ah, i guess that I should be happy about it. It would be nice to have some direction in life again, instead of hanging around all day playing games or listening to mp3s.

I just had a terrible wakeup call while working on my A math test today......I had always thought that my maths was good, but I was wrong. So what if i got 91% for my A math during my Mid-Year? It doesn't mean anything. In fact, for such an easy paper, i'm surprised i didn't get full......It doesn't matter how well you are in your school. What matters is how good you are on the national level. I don't think that i would do well for the test......Arrgggghhhhhh...i've let everyone down.

Dear Alvin:

You sux.

Yours Sincerely,
Alvin.

Haiz......Anyway, here's your the quote of the day:

It's a sad and terrible thing that high-born folk really have thought that the servants would be totally fooled if spirits were put into decanters that were cunningly labelled backwards. And also throughout history the more politically conscious butler has taken it on trust, and with rather more justification, that his employers will not notice if the whisky is topped up with eniru.

-- (Terry Pratchett, Hogfather)

If you notice, all of the quotes are from Terry Pratchett. He is a great guy, really. Writes very funny books......You should try reading them someday...

2004-06-26T00:22:00.000+08:00

YAH! i've finally completed my versatile essays!Just about done with my English homework now......Just about done with everything now. :D

Haiz, life is getting more boring by the minute. Just can't find anything nice to do.Bored, Bored, Bored.Sianz. Read this:

The shortest unit of time in the multiverse is the New York Second, defined as the period of time between the traffic lights turning green and the cab behind you honking.

-- (Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies)

oh well, nothing to type anymore.lolz. Adios!

Darn! School starting in 2 days, and i've not even cut my hair......

2004-06-25T15:25:00.000+08:00

Me and my buddies went eating at Seoul Garden today! Not a bad place, but a tad too expansive. Really not my cup of tea......But oh well, what's done is done!Besides, it was good to catch up with old friends. :D

Haiz....School is starting in two days, and i've not yet completed my homework. This is bad......i have been slacking so much that my studies are taking a back seat! And we are taking our O lvl later this year...And I'm not ready yet!AARRGGHHHHH!!!!!

Oh well, got to get on with work now. Try reading this; its kind of funny......

It was funny how people were people everywhere you went, even if the people concerned weren't the people the people who made up the phrase "people are people everywhere" had traditionally thought of as people.

I will leave it at that.