2007

2007 = Horrible year in terms of work and stress and crap. Memorable year in terms of trips, band and non-work related stuff.

Before entering ACJC this year, I swear life was 1 million times better. During the Barker days, there was time to while away the afternoons and watch anime/play dota everyday. Saturdays and Sundays were lazy days to stone and sleep and enjoy life until "O" Levels came. Compare that kind of life to now: full of band practices, tutorials, projects, research, fill up retarded and long scholarship forms but never got any, long school hours (waste a hell lot of time)... you know that I wouldn't prefer the latter. Never in my life have I felt so stressed until I faced 2007. It was such a horrible year. So horrible that I shall not continue to elaborate further.

In the midst of the negative atmosphere of work, there was surely something to motivate me. Ironically, it's band. Band provided me with something to look forward to at the end of each tiring week. I know it was tiring, but at least I enjoyed band. Every band practice, it's nice to see the clarinet section people and other band friends. I'm not that close to that many people, but I always feel good when I see the band. Though the soon-to-be J2s in band may not be bonded as a batch, I hope that next year, after the overseas trip, we will be.

Thank God, that in the midst of the piling work, I always managed to keep myself within the top 10% of the school. SA1-ers, thanks for being there to pressure me to study. Thanks for the wonderful memories in the void deck, the canteen, the lecture theatres, the classrooms and the places we go for PE. Thanks for my project work group, who made our event such a special one. Thanks for my circle of good guy friends in the class... rmd, darren, shaun, kok, david, tim, allan, zaneth. It is my only hope that as a class, we bond together and organise class outings with better attendance.

Vietnam OCIP people. Thanks for all the memories. We really bonded as one huge family. You guys were great. Those were the best 10 days of the year.

ACJC Band.. Gold With... cheers, tears of joy, delirium. Memories of the 10 second glorious B-flat, D (a bit flat), F chord in SCH still linger. I remember the enjoyment we had playing Feste Romane. This was the SYF which I never felt nervous at all. This was another great moment of 2007.

Thanks goes to the staff at NTU, who willingly helped to make my NRP project possible. Special thanks goes to Professor Law and Hongtao. They were the ones who made countless sacrifices.

Thanks goes to the physics teachers at ACJC, who taught me to tackle physics olympiad which no one got to the second round. They were the people who stayed on till late to teach us the difficult concepts.

Give all thanks for this year to God. This year was truly a challenge. It was a year which made my faith in God become such a roller-coaster ride.

Of course, I need to make some new year resolutions.
In 2008, I shall:
1. Continue my faith in God
2. Be disciplined in my studies
3. Save more money
4. Pack my stuff properly everyday
5. Be optimistic and be a true friend to others

Let me tell you the plain truth. 2008 will surely be worse than 2007. That is why I don't want 2008 to ever come.

solving the cube for the first time

After what seemed like hours of frustration and getting used to. I finally solved a Rubik's cube. So proud of myself. But sadly, I wasted an obscene number of hours.

Here goes:

The scrambled cube

The white cross

Completed 1 side and the 1st layer

Completed inserting in the edges of the 2nd layer

The yellow cross on the last layer

About to complete...

YAY! COMPLETED! :D

the saturday without band

To start off, this was a freaking huge white rabbit I saw at a pet shop in Great World City. 10000 times bigger than my 2 rabbits.

SSEF sucks. My teammates and I are dying under our own self-torture. The freaking computer takes 1 year to take 100 received signal strength samples from 5 access points. Every time, the 2 computers we're using goes wonky and hang a bit when we run the perl programming script.

The computer got stuck...

Edmund tries to solve the problem, but to no avail ):

Imagine the pain when you realise that you have to repeat this process for 324 times. (It could have been be more!) Estimated time needed to spend at NTU: at least 24 hours. And we have to hand this project up by January 9 2008. gg guys. I shall have to pon school on 1 or 2 days when it reopens. CRAP.

Guess what? I swear it's rubik's cube season! I'm not the only one trying to solve this colourful block of frustration which you can only observe RI/RJC or NJC or any nerdy/chao mugger secondary school guys fiddling in any science competition. Cos today I saw a man in the MRT trying to solve a 4x4x4 rubik's cube. To think I'm having trouble solving the original 3x3x3 at present... D: Oh, and Sheree saw another person doing it in public 2 days ago.

Yeah man! Doing a 4x4x4 in the MRT.

After the ride from Boon Lay, I met the clarinets at the Hong Kong Cafe at Marina Square. It serves good food such as milk tea and some mango ice kachang. The cheese baked rice never tasted so good.

Samantha, me and yel at HK Cafe.

We then went for the SparkWinds concert at VCH. Dorance and Cynthia were playing for the band (made up of RV alumni, Yuhua alumni, PJC). All the clarinets were there to support our fellow clarinetists. :D And some of the J2s. We kept shouting nonsense like: "Nice solo, Dorance!" when she was obviously in 3rd Clarinets. We refrained from "Woo, Peck Suan!", otherwise we would have been flamed by the crowd haha. (That's the conductor!)

Dorance, the "soloist".

We were damn bad to leave the concert just before the encore. lol. And went to walk around and blah.. boring... went to Ben and Jerry's at Raffles City and sat at their tables and drank up their water but never bought anything. Damn retarded.

Soon-to-be J2 Clarinet guys with an exception to Melvin. yel suddenly realises he's gonna be in J2. Better late than never.

We wondered why this water fountain at B&J's is so constant in its flow. Even my supposedly pro-ed physics couldn't explain it.

I went home and then watched football from 11pm, only to see Man Utd losing to West Ham 2-1. D: If only Ronaldo scored the penalty, perhaps the result would have been very different. Oh well, a sad ending to a sad day.

i am legend

I just only watched this. It's still fresh.

In this kind of 1 man movie, you need a kind of charisma to keep the audience interested. I thought Will Smith's acting was awesome. He did capture the emotions. I must say that he was damn emo in some parts. I could feel that he was damn scared. But there was still a tinge of his usual humour.

The director freaking used a lot of loud noise and sudden movements as shock tactics. Suddenly, this weird zombie person come out from nowhere accompanied with lots of noise. I was half expecting this kind of thing, so I didn't jump in shock like I do if anyone poked me. :D

Damn sad that lots of things die in the story. After a damn long character development, then suddenly this character dies, it feels very "wah lao, just die like that". Yup, that's the bitch called Samantha. Nice dog leh. She adds a lot of interest to the story. But without her death, the story would not have developed.

Smith's character, Robert, had a final act which was like what justified the name for this movie. Yeah, good man.

I would give 4 stars out 5 stars for this. Because I thought that Robert was acting too insane for his own good haha.

That's my 2 cents worth and no more spoilers already!

let me share some stuff

I found a damn funny photo album of animals and anime characters. The thing is, it's damn vulgar.
Here's the link:
http://http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a55/pagyu/

vietnam reflections

WARNING: BORING POST

I have to hand up my official Vietnam trip reflections for the school today and I think I shall show it here, starting from question 5.

5. Responsibility / Contribution:
(a) Photographer for workshop and competition
(b) Danced and modelled for concert items/ Led a group for the SOS Orphanage
(c) Contributed the chemistry practical used in the workshop

6. What did I expect of the trip/programme?

I expected the trip to be arduous and tiring but fulfilling at the end. This was because of the large number of activities that I heard that we were doing for the trip within a short span of 10 days. As a result, I did not expect the trip to be generally fun, but instead, I thought of it as serious hard work. I had expected a country which was very backward in development, not expecting the accommodation and food to be of a high standard. As personal development, I expected my leadership qualities, interpersonal skills, intrapersonal skills and photography skills to develop to some extent as a result of practice throughout the duration of the trip. As I thought that the preparation for the trip was a rather precipitate as many tasks were done at the last minute, I had expected a workshop and concert of just only an acceptable standard. In general, I anticipated the programme in Vietnam to be fairly successful.

7(a) What did I actually experience/see?

I actually experienced a trip which was truly more than once-in-a-lifetime. Although during the trip I was physically tired, I was never mentally tired because I enjoyed what I did in Vietnam. As such, the trip never felt as if it was hard work. In fact, I felt that everyone in the trip had put in effort in some or another way in making the trip a success.

It was fun to interact with Vietnamese students and they often surprised me with their mannerisms and culture. With my interaction with the students, I saw a side of Vietnam that not many foreigners would experience – that is, the mutual relationships that form the tight community. I also saw the inquisitive nature of the Vietnamese that may one day bear fruit for the already booming economy. The students were hospitable and tried their best to communicate with me in English, but it was still difficult to break down the language barrier.
I experienced Vietnam to be a place brimming with history and culture from the visits to places which were related to Ho Chi Minh and other places such as the Temple of Literature. These visits have made me understand more about the beliefs and ideology of the Vietnamese.

Food and accommodation were better than expected, but accommodation could be considered as far below par in luxury standards. Vietnamese food was generally appetizing, but the daily cuisine could get repetitious after a few days. Perhaps our group missed out on what the typical Vietnamese ate for his or her meals.

7(b) What did I see/learn that is new?

As this was one of the few times that I worked with people as a team to work out something practical to apply in real-life, I gained a more realistic approach to working as a team. For example, when I voluntarily joined the English conversation programme team on the night of discussion before the workshop, I had to keep in mind the limitations of their resources to come up with ideas to help the team.

From a viewpoint of a photographer, I learnt several methods that photographers use to capture a defining moment. The trip gave me an opportunity to experiment with taking pictures of people as the main subjects and this allowed me to learn different approaches to making shots more interesting.

(For more, refer to question 10)

8. What could I have done to make the trip/programme better?

(a) Before the trip

I could have signed up for more responsibilities before the trip to fulfil my potential. This could have possibly reduced the workload of others. Perhaps I could have proposed a new responsibility such as welfare to take care of everyone involved in the trip and keep them in good spirits. I could also have learnt more of the Vietnamese language so that I could hold a simple conversation in Vietnamese. Furthermore, I could have contributed more by volunteering to help others who needed help in their jobs to reduce their workload because I was not part of any workshop programme. With my help, it could be possible for certain parts of the programme to run better. Moreover, I could have done my job of interviewing Mrs Chan earlier to make the first video presentation more interesting.

(b) During the trip

I could have brought my laptop to save all the photographs that I had taken before giving them to my partner and for more efficient distribution to the others in the group. Furthermore, I could be more resolute in my ideas for the video presentation so that the other parties are more agreeable to my ideas.
I could have been more intrepid and proactive in helping others to solve problems in some areas of the programme which required ideas and help due to the almost completely new situations that some workshop programmes have been put into.

9. What could I/we do better if there is another trip/programme (or if somebody asked me/us for advice)?

Rigorous planning with multiple back-up plans is required for a successful trip. Try to find a balance between planning and spontaneity in conducting activities for the trip to keep yourselves open to new ideas that may improve your activities. Always be prepared to think on your feet. Look out for each other and never leave anyone behind, especially in a foreign country. Do not strive for perfection, but strive for passion to achieve perfection. Be wary of the working style of your group members to avoid or mitigate internal conflicts. Employ a passionate photographer who is willing to do photography for the sake of the people and photography for the sake of his/her job as a photographer. At the end of everyday, gather everyone to take 20 minutes to write their reflections of the day in point form to aid in the process of writing the post-trip reflections. Know how to speak the native language of the place that you are in to prevent communication breakdowns with the locals. Organise some bonding sessions with the group members prior to the trip regardless of the time left for preparation for the trip.

10. How can I apply what I experienced/learnt in the future?

I learnt that it is difficult to get things the way you want things to be due to certain limitations and it is always best to arrive at a compromise which results in a win-win situation for all parties. I can apply the skill of coming to a compromise in the future by asserting my views but also considering the other party’s view and this can avoid or mitigate any major conflict . I also learnt that I should be lavish in praising people because this breeds motivation and everyone can do their job much better and I can be in a better position to influence people. In the future, I can apply this learning point so that I can work better with people and keep people more positive in their attitude. After doing the photography for the more important events during the trip, I gained invaluable photography skills that I apply in the future. I learnt that hard work is an important component of success, and I can definitely use this learning point in my academic pursuits. When working in a team in the future, I learnt from the trip that it is important that we form a strong bond with one another and avoid conflicts so that we can be successful in our main jobs. It is the interdependency between the team members which contributes to success.

merry christmas

Merry Christmas to all of you out there! It is a time to remember about the birth of Jesus Christ, not just about giving and receiving and basking in the Christmas festive mood.

I'm not going to blog much because I have already killed off my fingers by playing the piano for so many hours today and have already drained my "musical energy" by doing endless sightreading of SATB parts of Christmas songs. I have to say that today's 8am Christmas Service at St Andrew's Cathedral wasn't so special because I felt that something was missing. Now I have figured that out already: I didn't perform with Barker Band this year at Barker Road Methodist Church, and I don't think there's even a Christmas performance this year since there's the One ACS Esplanade performance tomorrow.

Christmas is also a time for my extended family to visit the colombarium in Hougang. And yeah, I know it's one place that one wouldn't normally visit in this season but I can't help it because it is family tradition.

Yes, I can't wait for tomorrow, the ACS Bands are going to rock Esplanade down with Christmas songs and other songs. Then, after that it's section supper! Yay!

christmas shopping

Went Christmas shopping after church today in Takashimaya. Met Timothy and met Emily. Timothy dunno how come he was in Orchard and he called me when I happened to be around the same area. Either coincidence or something I don't know. So we met and I did him some favour. I met Emily in the department store but I swear she never even noticed me even though she was looking around my direction until I tapped her. lol, what's wrong with her?

Christmas shopping was not good because of the big big big crowd throughout Takashimaya. I was carrying some big bags of things and people just keep on coming and I found it hard to move about. If not for the big crowd everywhere, shopping would have been more enjoyable.

The next post will probably be on something on Vietnam. Perhaps I shall talk about the home visit, the orphanage and the visit to Dang Tham Mai Secondary School. Stay tuned.

the last christmas band practice

It was bad... at least for me. Every one of the conductors had to pick on me! Mr Tan, Ms Tan and Mr Wong. Damn retarded. So I walked out. And so my msn nick reads "ian felt that he was hated by all the conductors and so he left band practice early to prevent further upset".

So you think I'm so easily pissed off? Well, this is only half true. I left early to attend my neighbour's wedding (Huan Xin got married). The ceremony started at 6pm and dinner was at 8pm. So draggy... that's why I wouldn't like to attend weddings of people I don't really know.

I shall go back to the picking on me crap. Dr Lee didn't pick on me today, which is good. But on the previous day, he had to over tuning in the last part of Les Miserables and the starting of the first note of the "let us hear the people sing" part of the piece. Stupid lah. My B-flat clarinet playing has turned damn loud and tone improved a lot after changing to using the 56 rue lepic reeds that I bought. Every time I play loud sure damn loud. And my fortissimo can overpower everyone. Since the resistance is quite high, it is also quite hard to control the clarinet to play soft now. This is probably the reason why Dr Lee keeps picking on me when I play the B-flat clarinet. For my E-flat clarinet playing, Dr Lee is always full of things to say. He keep praising me for my ability to play damn loud in Armenian Dances and running notes in Charming Asia. Which is good haha. All I got to say that the E-flat clarinet is damn easy to play damn loud and overpower almost the whole band.

So second came Ms Tan. She was ok, with a little bit of picking on me. But I can't remember haha. So I shall skip this part.

Mr Wong started the main part of the picking on me for today. In particular, the first note of Christmas Festival. First, he said that I was playing the wrong note on the first note. Then he said that he did not have my E-flat Clarinet part on his score and he came over to my stand and looked at my score. He saw the high D and asked me use the tuner to tune my D. I tell you, it was perfectly alright since it was at the green light. Since the key was transposed on mine to B-flat major, D should be flat but that doesn't matter because I was pressing the right key anyway. Anyway, when he heard the high woodwinds every time on the first bar, he acted damn weird and asked the band repeat again and again. But somehow, he did say most of his comments on this in my direction although I was certain it was me as I was playing the D (or concert F). Furthermore, the starting section he commented so much on the loudness and roughness of the woodwinds leading the melody. I dunno whether it was me because I was only clarinet playing the actual melody. Crap lah, feel damn bad. He probably said more things than this.

When it was Mr Tan, the worst came to worst. First, he said that my tuning was sharp. I accepted that comment anyway. Later on, in Sleigh Ride, in the swing part, he told me that my rhythm was wrong and then asked me to practise solo in front of the band while he conducted me. By this time, I was laughing inside, cos I was unlucky to get picked on by all the conductors to play some notes in front of the band. I didn't like it.

So this ends my unlucky band day and I left early to put my instruments in the viewing gallery and left the college.

So as I reached the Holland Village bus stop, I spotted the 48 bus at the opposite side. So I ran out of the 74 bus I was in and dashed across the road and chased the 48 bus. As I was about to reach the bus stop, the bus started moving. I ran on while the bus was still moving - it just didn't want to stop for me. I ran till half-way between the previous bus stop and the next bus stop and stopped running because the bus was moving quite slow until then. Stupid bus driver, more blind than a bat. So I walked over to the next bus stop and waited damn long for the next 48 bus.

DAMN SUAY TODAY. But so happening.

even more of vietnam

Photographs of Jia Jun in the Vietnam OCIP trip makes me laugh so hard that my tummy hurts. Somewhat like the first 2 lines of Photograph by Nickelback. He is so lame and retarded to purposely look like a retard or look away from the camera and smile at other things when everyone is facing the camera. Please refrain from NPNT unless you don't have facebook to search for Loke Jia Yi's Vietnam photo album or Tessa Goh's albums.

Tell you something interesting: There is no minimum age for drinking or smoking in Vietnam. Which meant, drinking in Vietnam was legal! Yay! Anyway sorry, I don't smoke, too smelly or a waste of money if you smoke. I still got a life worth living. If this was the case, we surely had to drink in Vietnam.

So Zaneth was looking at some liqeour in the supermarket to bring home, and I joined him. The vodka over there was damn cheap. Vietnam made ones cost 42500 Dong and the one I bought was about 100000 Dong. It was some German vodka called Caprice and it was mixed with kiwi, so it looked green. It was a mere 16% alcohol content. So Zaneth and I bought the same thing. I invited some people to drink that bottle I bought that night (the last night).

Drinking together in the room was great but the drink sucked because the vodka wasn't that good. I kept eating oranges because I didn't want to get a hangover. Zaneth was damn on, Jia jun too. Both of them turned red. I drank 8 shots but didn't turn red. Dunno why. Tessa, Yong Xin and the other girls in the room had some. I could have had more to drink haha. I only experienced partial highness, and my movement a bit slowdown, but other than that, I was quite alright after we finished the bottle. Then, Tessa and Yong Xin thought I was drunk, because I entered the bathroom while offering people to drink more and kept spamming the oranges. Then I went to sleep because they asked me to haha.

Meanwhile, while I was sleeping, I heard that Jia Jun was playing cards, and he kept throwing the cards everywhere. Then, Yong Xin, even though she drank relatively little, she kept mixing up the suits in bridge. I mean like how come they so easily to succumbed to the influence of alcohol?

So that's the end of today's post. I will talk about more random things in Vietnam next and I shall keep jumping about the events that took place. In other words, not in chronological order.

more of vietnam

I'm feeling a bit sick as I'm writing this, but I'll probably go for band.

I proud for my ACJC Band Sec 4 juniors who are coming into the school after the appeals. Congrats to all of you!

I still miss Vietnam. It was so fun. It was probably 10000 times better than JC Band Fest. Since none of you readers experienced it, you never know how much I enjoyed it.

Our group comprises 3 teachers and 19 non-Vietnamese and 4 Vietnamese, of which one of them, Hang, was from SAJC. Before the trip, some of us probably didn't know each other. We stuck to our own cliques or rather, group of familiar friends. After the trip, all of us bonded; we knew each other. I could sense it because I knew the feeling, reminiscent of my Sec 4 class, as if we went through thick and thin together. I can even say that I knew the teachers quite well. 10 days together as a group worked its magic. From mere strangers to a tight group in 10 days. Quite a feat.

Even my class or the current ACJC Band has not managed to do this yet. Perhaps after the very final trip to Switzerland, Vienna and Hong Kong, ACJC Band will bond together as a tight family. Perhaps at the very last part, there is hope.

During the Vietnam trip, I really must applaud and praise the Vietnamese in our group, Hang, Quynh, Phuong and Han, for their translation and help in all things Vietnamese. The teachers must be thanked too, for their behind-the-scenes support and organisation. Everyone did a great job, especially the non-Singaporeans, who took up the main leadership positions and did wonders with their jobs. I'm so happy for everyone, who has at least put in effort to make the trip a success. As for myself, I thought that I tried my best to do a good job with the photography, however, the fate of the photographs remains dubious. I just hope that they come back in one piece.

One thing still bugs me, which is my underutilization during the trip. At the end, I may have been tired, but I still felt that I could do more. Improvements could be made, such as actions to prevent the end-trip reprimanding of the Singaporeans by Mrs Soong. As a point to note, we were just following orders, so the best way is to give more responsibities to us, the Singaporeans.

On a more positive note, many of us never believed that the trip would be a huge success. Many of the ideas we put into use during the workshop were still in their untried and untested status, fresh from the preparation period. New challenges sprung up everywhere and old plans were rendered useless. Impromptu arrangements were what carried our group along. Yet, it was a success. As I was the photographer, I could read from the Vietnameses' facial expressions that they were joyful when the group did it's stuff. From their joy, we obtained fulfilment.

From our fan clubs, we also obtained fulfilment. The more prominent ones were mine and all the guys' except Zaneth, Adeline's, Han's (all the ones I can think of for now). The best fan club is Aditya's, arising from the fact that he is probably the first Indian in Vinh University. People do touch him to see whether he's real. During the powerpoint picture presentation, a picture of him sent the crowd into laughter as they recognised him. He got his hands shaken, e-mail addresses given to him, multiple pictures taken with him and a lot of what you 'd expect from a fan club. Mind you, I wasn't spared from these fan club stuff. I'm probably the only one who saw every of the 6 groups in rotation everyday, unlike the workshop people who saw 2 groups a day and never taught the same group ever again. From this view, I felt so special.

Everyday, I walked along the corridor and from the classrooms, I would see like the whole class who were not involved in the workshops staring at me. On the first day, there was this group of girls on the corridor and I walked past them. They giggled. You get the idea, do you? In a foreign land, you get treated like someone damn special. So weird. Suddenly, from a nobody, everyone turned into somebody, even people get headhunted to specially take photos with a certain group.

When it was time for home visits, the worst came to worst because two boys were fighting over who gets Jia Jun. I kept thinking that Vietnamese guys are gay because they can get very touchy with me but this matter was way blown over the top. Mdm Lim has a video of this intense argument and it's probably in Aditya's computer. Actually, the fact is, I have to think that Vietnamese guys are not gay, otherwise, I have think I'm actually gay because I'm forced to touch them if they touch me, which is so not true. Let's say that they are just hyper-metrosexual, which is a highly evolved form of the metrosexual male type.

If you want to talk about the girls, perhaps guys who are unable to get Singaporean girls can try looking to Vietnam. By looks, most of the girls CMI but there are hot ones out there, like one of them during my home visit (basically, it was a 12A5 class party). I think the girls over there will be less demanding and more caring towards guys haha. They surely know how to cook and the ones from Vinh High School come from good families. Good Vietnamese brides are not in short supply but I won't be looking for one though. :]

That's all for now. I will continue another time.

vietnamese students

Today was the day I finally stayed at home the whole day and I finally completed The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess in like 60 hours, minus the fishing game and poe soul quest. Yay! So now I can concentrate on SSEF and study for J2.

This is my view on the Vietnamese students in Vinh High School for Gifted Pupils in Mathematics, Physics and Informatics.

They are a friendly bunch. Whenever I entered a classroom to take photographs, a handful of them would say hi. Some of them would stare at me, expressionless, some will swoon in delight and disbelieve as if a normal Singaporean was a superstar. Not to mention that they have a passion for learning and they are extremely enthusiatic, judging from their high noise level in a language that I fail to decipher. When they are split into groups, they compete with one another wholeheartedly, expressing their competitive nature. Their standard of English is poor, but good enough to understand some of everyday speech, thus one would find it difficult to express complex ideas in English to them. Their English vocabulary is in fact quite exceptional for their level, inferring from the play they could play the forming the words from a larger word game or hangman. Never underestimate their ability in the sciences. Tell them something scientific, and they would question your claim. Language is their only barrier to a world of possibilities. Give them something to do, and they would give you more. For instance, tell them to build a bridge with a simple design, and they would construct a bridge which is more than just a bridge - it is their hard work and dedication. Most of them may be poor, but they are satisfied. Whenever you see them, they emanate joy, and you too, will be joyful. Not to mention that most of them are cam whores, bringing their cameras wherever they go and requesting people from our group to take photographs with them. Most of them are not camera-shy, instead they stand as intepid subjects in front of the camera, with a victory sign included. Playing football with them was an forgettable experience. We were pitted against their best, and we lost 4-1 without a tinge of regret. We shook hands and exchanged jerseys. Everyone cheered for each other. When the final day arrived, they gave presents without our request. We hugged and we exchanged e-mail addresses. We gave our school badges and we received their school cloth logo. We gave away our collegiates and they asked us to sign on it. They never fail to surprise us with their hospitality and concern. They are brimming with optimism and hope for a better future. They are indeed the embodiment of passion in the pursuit of perfection.

a summary of the vietnam trip

Today I went to school at 10am and everyone was told to write reflections for the Vietnam OCIP trip. I'd rather blog about it but I was told to write down and not type it, and then give it to Mrs Soong. Not my kind but it was fun to share my views and hear everyone else's view towards the OCIP.

After that, we took 92 bus to somewhere and went to Haato, which is something like Settler's Cafe, for lunch and played Taboo. Jiajun was some pro at Scrabble and helped me when I was at a loss for words. Some people met some unknown people there and everyone stayed till after 4pm, then went home. I took 156 bus with Huimin, and I dropped off at Copthorne Orchid (must remember how to go there next time).

THE END. Boring day. Doing the damn Maths tutorial 21 now.

In any case, I miss Vietnam. Now, life is back to boringness and band and studies and SSEF and crap. I shall talk a bit of Vietnam here.

Anyway, my DSLR photos will be missing over the next ___ days because Aditya ran away back to India with the photos I took during the workshop. The Vietnamese are probably going to harrass me for it. Help me!

Summary

Vietnam: friendly and enthusiatic Vinh students + nice weather + new ACJC friends + new Vietnamese friends + strengthened existing friendships + legally drinking + cards + brilliant place for photography + many life-skills learnt + visit to the SOS orphanage where there are really happy children + very accommodating Dang Thai Mai Secondary School students + cultural exchange concert + mostly nice food + expected quality of accommodation + football with official referees and shirt-exchanging + giving to and receiving gifts from the Vinh students + buying gifts for Christmas + secretly buying fake but real-looking Crumplers at night + Ha Long Bay boat ride + last minute spending of Dong at the airport + attending some communist propaganda youth celebration thingy at Vinh U + other memorable experiences = very unforgettable and memorable trip; once in a lifetime

Yes, I never regretted joining this OCIP and ponning Band Fest. Truly, it has been a great experience that I will never forget.

Over the next few days, I probably go through it in detail. (:

back home

Welcome back to the land of stress and more stress, Ian!

After I arrived in Singapore, I rushed from the airport to Esplanade to attend the JC Band Fest Concert with Irvin and missed the Man Utd vs Liverpool match. (OK, he left early to watch it with his friends haha) Anyway, generally, Honour Band sounded good. To be honest, the two other bands, Holst and Fennell, were generally lacking volume (loudness) and feel/musicality and I thought that Fennell was the better of the two (cos of better ACJC help, I think). Hmm, every band could do with a better tuning of chords. But not bad for a concert that was prepared in 4 days.

Okay, time to start some Vietnam recollections.

If you are a Vietnamese reading this... Xin Chao! Spread this blog to your other friends too. Cam On! Photos will be up in some days' time, so do not fret.

When I was there, I loved my job man, and so I thought I wasn't stressed there. I was the photographer with a Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) camera, which means I looked damn professional. Using the DSLR to take pictures was so awesome that I fell in love with it. But too bad it wasn't mine, but nevermind that - it's the experience that matters.

As the photographer for almost all the important events of the Vietnam Overseas Community Involvement Programme (OCIP), I feel that I have the most comprehesive coverage and knowledge of what goes on everyday. This means that what I whatever that I will blog about will encompass my wide scope of the events.

SPOILER: I now have a fan club in Vietnam.

Okay, I'm going off for now, another day I will start cos it's late and today there's a reflection meeting in school at 10am.

sorry, emo time!

Tomorrow I'm leaving for Vietnam, but I shall write one more post before I leave.

Anyway, I'm especially damn low today, which is the opposite of high. Yeah, you get what I mean. The feeling of sian sian the whole day, feeling depressed for nothing, except that I don't tell people why...

Actually, the reasons are so mixed, I don't know what to say. Some people think I got external H3, research attachment, better grades than others mean I must be damn ownage. I don't know what to say, but I feel like going into hikikomori, if you know what that means. No, I won't be lah... joking only. My life is still worth living, I'm alive and well. Maybe the things I worry about all the time are just an illusion.

So like there's band, which I am damn passionate about but damn demoralised all the time since today. Dr Lee thinks I played a lot of wrong notes today, which is like wtf, since I know that I didn't play so many wrong notes as he said. Then Ms Sng kind of brought the band back to reality, that next year will be damn tough. Then, there's SSEF to finish, which I ever talked about in other posts. There's a whole load of homework and studying for me to do.

Then there's a feeling that I'm being underutilized, kind of underemployed as I know my capabilities are much better than slacking around everyday mindless doing things without a real purpose, feeling so empty and useless. I want to be used! Furthermore, the thing is, almost everyone in my class is some sort of leader in their CCAs. How about me? Who am I? I am a proud member of SMC and Band. Haha, dream on. Damn sad lah. Do you think I'm a happy-go-lucky person now? NO! I've changed! Ever since the day Mr Kayden Lim gave me a talk on getting a damn leadership position because I was denied a scholarship cos of this very reason, this underemployment problem has been recurring. I did say to him that I pretty much wanted that SMC vice-president position, but now I know it's unattainable. If I could now, I would plead with Mrs Soong about getting it. I feel that she would say: "How can you contribute?" I know I can contribute greatly in many things, but I've not been given the chance, or I let my chances fly by. Perhaps I could contribute by initiating change and making existing processes more efficient. Yeah, that's my forte. I know it's difficult being a leader, but looking at myself, I say, why not? I'm passionate, I have fire. My dream: "I want to lead people. I am a visionary. I envisage better days ahead."

God, please answer my prayer, I am Your useless servant, give me something to do. Or perhaps You do have a greater plan for me out there.

Maybe I should withdraw from having mundane worries such as being a leader in some sense. Whatever I do now, may not even affect what happens in my future working life. Let me forget them all and cherish the things I have.

the last one before the TRIP

Note: The large post that I'm currently writing will appear after my trip to Vietnam of OCIP (after 16 December 2007).

Hey, you all won't be seeing me for JC band fest because I'm in Vietnam for OCIP and having fun/self-torture from 7 December 2007 to 16 December 2007. Yeah, I'm leaving this Friday at 2.10pm for Hanoi on a SQ flight. I'm going to Vinh, which is south of Hanoi, for some science exchange programme with Vinh University and teach English at the SOS Orphanage. I'm the photographer btw, dunno why though, but expect me to flood facebook with pictures after the trip.

Anyway, today was a nice day cos I received my external H3 acceptance letter for NTU's Contemporary Physics. Yay! Thank God and must praise Him. Because I thought that I was not going to get it as it was very very late already, but I did get it eventually. The situation was that the General Office sms-ed me a notification but I really did not get it... until today, they called me up, and apparently I was in school for OCIP preparation and I rushed down to get the letter. It sounds amazing because I'm still allowed to sign up and accept the place by tomorrow, 6th December despite the dateline being on 30th November.

After OCIP preparation today, I went to buy 2 sets of school uniform, new shoes for Vietnam trip and collected my funky spectacles. But it's damn retarded cos the idiot shopkeeper at BIbi&BAba packed in the wrong pants and gave me acs(i) bermudas, argh, I had to ask my mum to change for me tomorrow.

My new Adidas shoes I bought from Queensway, and the shopkeeper actually discounted the shoes from $111 to $78. Huat ah! Cheap already! Woo hoo! Yeah, if you guys are looking for shoes, get the best bargains at Salem & Sons over there. I swear by the store because I bought my soccer boots from there once at $50 flat. DAMN CHEAP!

My spectacles is plastic lol, and it looks as if I'm going to army. And the frame, I think, is quite big. I really look damn different and it's good to look different for a while. Don't NPNT please.

This concludes my final blog post before the Vietnam trip. Please tag and read my other posts. If you are not interested, fine lah.

Bad Press

I did receive bad press about the last post saying that Zi Shen looks like Pei Shi. Don't ask me anything about it. Ask Ryan Wan, he suggested it first, I 人云亦云 only. Perhaps everyone needs a picture of Pei Shi first, which I currently don't have.

Anyway, I'm in the middle of writing a large blog post. Should be quite interesting for all ACSians. haha.

Leave everyone with a long joke:

A: I've heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life; is this true?
Doctor : Your heart is only good for so many beats, and that's it... don't waste them on exercise. Everything wears out eventually. Speeding up your heart will not make you live longer; that's like saying you can extend the life of your car by driving it faster. Want to live longer? Take a nap.

A: Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables?Doctor : You must grasp logistical efficiencies. What does a cow eat? Hay and corn. And what are these? Vegetables. So a steak is nothing more than an efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to your system. Need grain? Eat chicken. Beef is also a good source of field grass (green leafy vegetable). And a pork chop can give you 100% of your recommended daily allowance of vegetable products.

A: Should I reduce my alcohol intake?
Doctor :No, not at all. Wine is made from fruit. Brandy is distilled wine, that means they take the water out of the fruity bit so you get even more of the goodness that way. Beer is also made out of grain. Bottoms up!

A: How can I calculate my body/fat ratio?
Doctor : Well, if you have a body and you have fat, your ratio is one to one. If you have two bodies, your ratio is two to one, etc.

A: What are some of the advantages of participating in a regular exercise program?
Doctor :Can't think of a single one, sorry. My philosophy is: No Pain...Good!

A: Aren't fried foods bad for you?
Doctor :YOU'RE NOT LISTENING!!! .... Foods are fried these days in vegetable oil. In fact, they're permeated in it. How could getting more vegetables be bad for you?

A: Will sit-ups help prevent me from getting a little soft around the middle?
Doctor : Definitely not! When you exercise a muscle, it gets bigger. You should only be doing sit-ups if you want a bigger stomach.

A: Is chocolate bad for me?
Doctor :Are you crazy? HELLO. Cocoa beans! Another vegetable!!! It's the best feel-good food around!

A: Is swimming good for your figure?
Doctor :If swimming is good for your figure, explain whales to me.

A: Is getting in-shape important for my lifestyle?
Doctor :Hey! 'Round' is a shape!Well, I hope this has cleared up any misconceptions you may have had about food and diets.And remember: "Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways - Chardonnay in one hand - chocolate in the other - body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO, What a Ride" Like Eng Loong... haha
AND......For those of you who watch what you eat, here's the final word on nutrition and health.

It's a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting nutritional studies.
1. The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
3. The Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
4. The Italians drink a lot of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
5. The Germans drink a lot of beers and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
CONCLUSION:Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you.

update update!

Here I am, responding to my dead blog.

The past few weeks were quite hectic, containing one new matter that could destroy time to do any proper schoolwork in the holidays.

Overview:
1. Lots of Band
2. Tune-in 2
3. Band Chalet
4. NRP Presentation
5. Singapore Science and Engineering Fair (SSEF)
6. 4A1 Class Party (1 of 2) (1st one for Zi Shen as he's leaving for army)

1. and 2. Band. At Tune-in 2, there were so little Secondary 4s as compared to yesteryears. Our dear ACJC Band is so dead. Zhi Wen said yesterday that appeals amounted to 10 as compared to the usual 20. So sad. I swear I must do something. *secret for now*

Band practices are becoming a normal part of life again after promos (this statement is a bit wols). After a year in band, the band pieces I have now are becoming much much much easier to learn; a testament to the amount of improvement to my clarinet skill since coming from my dreamtime Barker band days which hindered my improvement. Dr Lee's selection of pieces are nice: Rhapsody of the Theme of Paganini, Armenian Dances (Part 1), Charming Asia and lots more. Ever since switching to E-flat Clarinet, I've been getting some solos and duets with the piccolo. It's quite a challenge as the E-flat Clarinet is such a small instrument so it's hard to press the keys.

3. Band Chalet. It was fun. I shan't go into the details here. To summarize: BBQ, soccer, frisbee, red house, night cycling to esplanade and bedok resevoir (I didn't do this), pool, watching YEL and kenneth get high and making confessions, disgusting at YEL's puke at the sink, cleaning the chalet with the responsible Sathis, card games, long conversations in the room at night over ghost stories and the likes, stoning in the morning and afternoon, going orchard to meet kenneth, eating at seligie beancurd and banquet across the road thereafter, daytona, being amazed at Zhan Wei's skills at time crisis, YEL forever trying to bring Sarah closer to me kind of actions, the list goes on...
Check out Shaun Tay's or YEL's blog for more opinions on the chalet.

4. NRP Presentation. I didn't quite like it though. Let me describe the two assessors. One is an Indian (I'm not racist, I got Indian friends too you know!) who got damn bored during my poster presentation (he kept looking elsewhere and closing his eyes) and retardedly asked dumb questions cos he probably never listened to my presentation. He kept saying he got no time to assess my other project mates and like an idiot, quickly left, leaving my 2 other project mates without a 2nd assessor. This caused a lot of problems as I had to contact the student help desk and get another assessor for my mates.

The other assessor was a Chinese (I'm not racist, I'm a Chinese too!) who asked the worst kind of questions one would expect. He asked me could I assume this and that crap... So, never had I faced such a tough time in answering questions. My two other project mates were seriously owned by him. This arrogant guy kept disagreeing with their projects. He kept saying "This cannot work in Singapore" and "No... No..." , shaking his head. I ask you, have you ever met a pessimistic assessor with so much subjective things to say about other's projects? And of course, they were also owned my his questions. I must say we hated him, so much that I talked with Hongtao (the 29 year-old phd student who guided us in the project) literally and figuratively behind the guy's back when he was assessing Evelyn, my project mate.

5. SSEF. Oh cool. This is called self-torture. I actually proposed to Edmund, my project mate that we 3 people should merge our projects and sign up for SSEF. This means that we have to get a lot more experimental data at a different and much bigger location. In case you don't know what I am talking about, part of my project is to take the signal strength from many access points in the wireless network at many loacations within a place. This is horribly tedious work if you ask me. No more holidays. D:

6. 4A1 Class Party. This occurred yesterday. It was fun, like all the previous 4A1 parties this year (This was the 3rd one). Before I went to Jon Ngiam's huge house from band, Ryan Wan said that Zi Shen looks like the Sec 4 Pei Shi who DSA-ed through ACJC band. So when I reached there, I saw Zi Shen and seriously, I thought that Zi Shen and Pei Shi were separated at birth. He really resembled the girl which the band went ga-ga about. I had to take photos of Zi Shen, so I went on to do it. The photos will be uploaded soon on a photosharing website. Anyway, the purpose of the 4A1 party was to give Zi Shen a party before he leaves for army soon, so in a way, it's like taking a "before army" photo of Zi Shen haha.

So, we ate KFC and pizza. Everyone was in a good mood. We played pool, monopoly, piano-ed a bit. Btw, I played Brahm's Intermezzo No. 2, Op. 118. Woohoo, I already can perform it. Yeah, it's the piece I took from Youtube in an earlier post on this blog.

Oh, there's another class party on 12th December, to celebrate Bryan Chen's return to Singapore. Too bad, I won't be there as I'm going to Vietnam for OCIP from 7 Dec to 16 Dec. Anyway, the way Mrs Soong described the itinerary sounded like it is going to be exciting and full of surprises. Yeah, I looking forward to it! :D Nvm that JC band fest takes place during this time.

Thinking of class parties, I feel that my present class ACJC SA1 '07/'08, is seriously lacking in this department. Man, I feel like I shall be the one to bring them all together this holiday for some fellowship as no one has ever done that since the PAE days. Time to take action! But, too bad, I'm almost out of time to do anything this holidays.

Hey, SA1ers, if anyone of you reads this, will you be the one who will organise a class party? I shall see.

Update:
Click below to see my friend who looks like Pei Shi
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21432555@N05/