The Pomos

And so it goes. I’m sure I’m not alone in this – on the first night before the GP paper, as you lie sleepless in bed (you think that you are sleeping earlier, but in fact you only really sleep after 1) you begin to visualise yourself finishing the exams. Or at least you try, but it’s all just a blur. Then the next few days of exams come and go, and each day you find it exponentially difficult to visualise yourself doing the next paper.

And today: math, then lit. I went into the exam hall feeling slightly confident, then the decline in morale was palpable in the air. Lisa complained about my periodic slamming episodes of my correction “applicator” (serious – that’s what they call it) coupled with the shuffling of papers beneath my pencil case. I couldn’t believe when I entered the Lit exam hall – the feeling was emptiness, but peaceful emptiness. So I did the lit paper, as one should, and our class went to island creamery.

But it wasn’t the usual “boomz” exuberance I would experience right after the exams. (and yes, I wrote “boomz” for a geog volcanoes question, part of the dare between the A13A geoggers) Instead it was a gradual realisation that the examinations were over. I attribute this to perhaps me not being able to do well for Math: in the aftermath of an exam, you think nothing of everything, and this vacuum is filled by the negativity that remains.

The real question is, what am I going to do for the holidays? I’m starting a list in which you are expected to continue, so do so:

1. Finish up all my unread Economists and TIME, or the equivalent of a mountain on my now-barren desk landscape.
2. Read Hamlet and Revenger’s Tragedy, next year’s lit texts.
3. Just stare blankly at the screen and re-listen to Mariah’s, Whitney’s, Reba’s latest albums.
4. Have an intense 4D3N stayover attempt at Aaron’s, Vincent’s and my house (together with wenjie and if it doesn’t impose on too many people, 4C), including creative sandcastle contests, random bicycle riding, badminton, movies, cards, board games, more cards, and swimming
5. Midnight cycling. (approach if interested and have lots to talk.)
6. Run weekly or bi-weekly. (but this is already happening)
7. Borrow and read books from the library. (This is likely.)
8. Meet up with my beloved and dearly missed 4am Gang
9. <Help the poor: leave a comment>

I love bridge.

I missed school and all my friends. For an entire period of 2 weeks, I completely missed school – first, I was ill, then there was AYC. That obviously means that I have to blog.

The Asean Youth Convention was an inaugural event, involving students from 4 countries in the ASEAN+3. As a Facil (facilitator), my job was to facilitate group discussions and bond the group together. Robyn helped me out as my admirable co-facil, and we were in charge of Group 5 and Vietnam Hai (2). It was quite an experience – seeing people from different worlds and so on.

But this post isn’t about that. It’s about the bonding that the facils – and especially the ones from A13A – had. I would dollop a little doubt that AYC would have been even half as fun without Lisa (Boy-lovin’ bitch), Sally (Korean ah-mah!), Robyn (9-inch what?), Matthias (energiser bunny), Claire (my “closest” friend), Jingyi (makes a loud huh noise during math lecture), Nghi (give me a neck and tie now).

A little shout-out here to all the facils too – Lyn, Charm, Yi Tong, Joyce, Hong Yan, Weng Keong, Linxi, Kai Li, Zi Le, Jess, Glendon, Zan, Phoebe, Zheng Kai. And our cute, pretty SLOs – Jaren and Joelle (uh… respectively). Oh and Zhong Ming, Clarence, and those people who made it a great experience for us.

But still.

We stayed over at YMCA Metro in the basement bunks till about 2.30 am. The Monopoly game was quite hectic, and we were joined by Zhong Ming, the alternative chair, who was quite fussed over by the girls for his oh-so-unique concoction of geeky intellect and boyish charms. Clarence also came, and he got similar treatment, but more for his Aussie accent. The monopoly game began to devolve into senseless chaos until I valiantly (and admittedly, quite brilliantly) negotiated deals with the players on the board. Alas! My invocations toward a more playable game were crushed when they decided to play a mix of truth or dare.

“Let’s go in the next round, okay? Guys?”

I was quite bored (those around the table apparently weren’t, given Lisa’s impressive ability to invent truths and dares you wouldn’t realise could even exist in a somewhat decent mind), until we decided to play Bridge. The game is quite, quite intriguing and I found I had a very decent appetite for risk. The obsession with Bridge lasted throughout the convention – occasionally we would slip out of lectures and play it on the tables besides the theatrette. Robyn memorably commented on the addict-like nature with which we played the game. Then we would sneak back in just in time for Q&A. The Organising Comm obviously wasn’t too pleased and they made that known, after which we the decent facils sat through the entire lecture.

Another time we played at J8 before that night’s performance. For some reason we had 4 folds in a row. Statistically speaking, we reduced the chances of another group of 4 bridge players getting that. Oh! The sacrifices I make to make this world a better, happier place!

Stayover #2

Stayovers always excite me. There’s something magical about not returning home to do something – a project, a movie marathon, or just plain cards. But I simply don’t dig the immense enthusiasm where bathing and brushing teeth are concerned especially during camps. People just can’t wait to go and take a brush (cool) or take a bath (even cooler) and it’s almost like an uncontrollable urge. I’m going to hypothesise that it’s a communal thing that deepens the sense of community.

But we stayed over at Lisa aunt’s house! It was wonderful stuff. Before that we had the closing party, in which we performed a very phail version of the batch dance, which ended at 10:30. By the time we reached her house it was midnight, and we stayed till 5:30 with gaga gossip and blessed bridge. It was très cool. The entire convention experience was wrapped up very nicely like that, and at 6 the “next morning” we headed back to YMCA metro for breakfast.

My most important takeaway from AYC?

I love bridge.

And now it’s back to reality for me. It’s going to be a real hectic 2 weeks for me – planning and executing a tournament, finishing an overdue PW report draft, catching up on 2 weeeks of Geog, GP and Lit. If you see me down the corridor, ask me how I’m doing.

Hopefully we’ll get to catch up – unless I give a hurried smile and rush down the corridor, buried in my busy little existence.

the last day of school

The last day of school always holds some special significance. In A13A, it meant that a quarter of our JC life had finished. That held some form of significance. I hope A13A gets to bond more. It’s going to be a pity if a bunch of nice, genuine, and thinking people are trapped by divisions.

In any case, here’s a peak into an extraordinary day into my life (otherwise I wouldn’t have posted it here, would I?). I waited for about 2 hours for debates. I didn’t get to debate, i.e. I’m not selected into the ACJC I/C debates team. I am beginning to be quite immune to such disappointments, especially in debates. It’s hardly new – because you are lacking, therefore you should not enter the team. Because you do not enter the team, you are lacking. Because you are lacking, therefore you should not enter the team. Because… ad infinitum

But the purpose of this post is not for such banal things like competitions and selections – people who aren’t selected for anything, get over it! If people think you don’t matter, don’t make yourself matter to them. Be someone else altogether to someone else. You don’t need to be good for causes or people which demean you as a person. Don’t degrade yourself. So what if you aren’t good in that field? Don’t encourage yourself with the “you weren’t selected because the team requires synergy.” It’s only hasty, oops-i-can-think-of-anything-else-to-say-therefore-i’ll-say-this-feel-good-crap dialogue your ears should hardly bother about. Coaches use that often. It means i’m-sorry-but-you-suck. (Haha don’t you even think of labelling me a cynic, because you are thinking just that too. Own up to it – you aren’t good, so do something else. Be someone to who really matters.)

After being mildly worn out during debates of not doing anything, I deliberated, then went to AstroNight. The stars weren’t important; the people there were. I met wenjie, who went out with me for dinner. (teehehee, wenjie. better hope someone doesn’t read this!) I realised they – aaron, renyong and him – were going to aaron’s house for a competition the day after. So I decided to tag along for a stayover, with everyone else – after all, it was the last day of school.

It was 11:30 when they ended the Night officially, and packed up. So the four of us went to his house. The attic was large, and comprised two rooms. (For those who haven’t been there, it’s quite a treat. There’s childhood toys, music CDs, X Boxes, and even a drum set.) They were having a little trouble captioning their photos, so I started playing videos on Youtube. Music, Live performances, Vlogs. It was entertaining, though I admit I was initially quite a distraction.

Later aaron collapsed in fatigue, so wenjie and I stayed up with the Mac. We started to listen and sing pop songs – mainly the divas – and began about two hours worth of singing. Obviously only the divas featured in our playlist – Celine, Leona, Mariah (a pity no Whitney this time) – I’m positive that only they can sing, and sing well. Wenjie has perfect pitch, but he occasionally “over-estimates” the vocal latitude of the singer. So he is consistently about a semitone away from the note. (This is a problem which consistently plagues a good deal of guys when singing songs sung by ladies. The pitch goes high, the notes waver, the voice lacks punch. Transposing the song an octave or another lower is less of a sin than losing the power and tone, I realised. )

So anyway renyong joins us and it’s about half an hour before we sleep. I couldn’t go down and retrive my bottle, so I was left thirsty in the attic. It was really because of Snowball, aaron’s dog, who barked incessantly at the sound of our voices and footsteps down the stairs. It’s not wise to wake your host’s family up, but it is especially foolish to do so at 2:30 in the morning.

So we wake up at 8 the next day. They do their rehearsals and mock-ups. (They used a very considerable amount of effort and time – that much was evident.) I do my youtube. A little more singing resumes. But the mood is serious. We have brunch at 10. They leave for their competition, and I leave for home.

What has yongy been doing?

I have gotten that question more than just a few times.

The holidays are long, the school work is (arguably) little, singapore’s economy is growing (duh), and taxi fares have just increased plenty! Under such a unimaginably joyous occasion where these amazing occurrences concur, we have to ask,

What have I been doing?

If you were to ask me this question on the street, I’d be at a loss of words. Because I’ve done more than just mug! Woohoo!

I believe this holidays were one of my most varied and productive ones. Of course you get different opinions, ranging from “mugging collegephysics day in day out” to “yay. you’ve become more emo”.

goneplaces!

For one, I’ve finally been to East Coast beach. We built a little sandcastle. Ooh!

The Botanics:

Istana (guess who works in this building?):

Changi Airport T3 (fancy and spacious, and the fancy flappers make it an architectural should-go place )

Seletar – The treetop walk provides a surprisingly soothing ambience.

And here’s my personal favourite (the lighting isn’t nice though)

writin’shortshorts!

Ever since I picked up the book by Roberta Allen, I started off with some playful “short-shorts”. In bursts of 5 minutes, write a short story. I did, and some turned out (as she suggested) into longer, more meaningful stories.

With (of course) my anarchic comrade Conan passing me some of his recent writing – which has a divine descriptive flair – I got rather inspired to write my own short stories, and I’ve written more than a few these days. I hope to post some soon.

buildin’lego!

It’s an ongoing project. I’ve loved Lego since a very long time, and although some might be shocked at this immaturity (shingbo, for eg, said famously “watching tv is more fun than lego”), I’ve built a little “project” with no purpose at all.

In fact I included a little tour of AstroBoy (second pic) but due to space constraints, I shall not post it up today.

riskin’!

I love this game. It’s darn strategic, requires a considerable bit of planning, and extreme caution. To give you an idea how  I’m addicted to this game, talking about it makes me excited, and if I could, I’ll sing Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” to the creators.

Actually, I was owned big-time the first time by the computer, then I became quite determined to defeat this evil force.

I’ve had a number of priceless victories after that, which I have screenshot-ed and humbly enclosed for your viewing pleasure.

(If you’d like to know the ultimate sure-fire secret to winning in Risk, MSN me.)

muggin’!

Darn, I really didn’t like to include this section, but oh well, here goes.

I’ve finished hongloumeng!!! *drumroll**fanfare**cymbals**keyboard**celine dion’s voice*

It is indeed rather dry at times, but if you were to convert it into a chinese serial, I believe there is some selling potential there. The plot’s straightforward and the book is rather easy to digest.

And, as wenjie would defiantly assert, I have indeed read a little of collegephy. Just a few pages.

_______

I’ve given you a little idea of what I’ve done these holidays, but the above descriptions naturally couldn’t describe my other activities, such as sleeping at 3am and waking at at noon.

I love my holiday lifestyle. I love my holiday.

Really, I do.

Really!!!