Now that's showbiz!...

The title shall be explained in due time.

Today was Founder's Day Rehersal, and boy was it hard. The Prefects and Student Council were mobilized throughout the compound, and as a Crowd Control for Year 1, I had to be high on heels to make sure every Year 1 student made his way to the corect patch of (fake) grass in the astro turf, correct stairway to go to the New Audi, correct line of chairs to sit on in the Audi and much more. And the real thing would be even tougher! Oh, well...

Okay, maybe I'll just explain things now. You see, the last lesson for today was Lang Arts A, and we were suppose to do a role play for Act 2 Scene 1 of A Mid-Summer Night's Dream, and these were the actors chosen:

Puck - Justin
Fairy - Faraaz
Oberon - Shiladitya
Titania - 'Darkness' (He asked for his identity to be kept secret. But rather obvious, ain't it?)
Demetrius - Michael
Helena - Raemiguel

Yup. I was chosen for Helena. To tell you the truth, as an ex-Act 3 Academy member, I'm always excited whenever there are role plays but after watching fellow classmates act out Act 1 in their 'dull' manners, started loosing hope in the fun of acting comedy to a live audience. Then this day just had to involve me into the play! I placed a Poker Face on the outside, trying to hide the joy-screaming jumping melting boiling hyper-active soul inside me. For those who don't know, MSND is suppose to be a comedy, or rather an old-fashioned sitcom of the Elizabethean Era. And the particular period which Demetrius and I had to act out in the scene was rather humourous, especially with the fact that both actors are male.

So the play begins: The first part of the story was rather normal - plain and simple reading-from-the-book storytelling. The middle part spiced things up a little with 'Darkness' acting as Titania. Both characters do not match each other too greatly that the irony of him playing the role sent the class roaring in laughter! Not to forget the moments when he had to say things like:
What, jealous Oberon! Fairies, skip hence:
I have forsworn his bed and company.

Or

Then I must be thy lady

Or even the part where he had to read a total of 37 lines! Rather hilarious, I must say again. Priceless.

Then came my part with Mike. For those who don't know, our scene involved the entrance of Demetrius and Helena into the woods. Demetrius' intentions to enter into the scene was to search for his promised fiance Hermia and her lover Lysander, who've ran away from Athens to escape from the forced marrige that would seperate their love lives. Helena told Demetrius about the plot in the attempt to be wooed by him and gain his affection. So here goes:

Enters DEMETRIUS, HELENA, following him

DEMETRIUS (Michael)
I love thee not, therefore pursue me not.
Where is Lysander and fair Hermia?
The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me.
Thou told'st me they were stolen unto this wood;
And here am I, and wode within this wood,
Because I cannot meet my Hermia.
Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more.

HELENA (Me)
You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant;
But yet you draw not iron, for my heart
Is true as steel: leave you your power to draw,
And I shall have no power to follow you.

DEMETRIUS (Michael)
Do I entice you? do I speak you fair?
Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth
Tell you, I do not, nor I cannot love you?

HELENA (Me)
And even for that do I love you the more.
I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius,
The more you beat me, I will fawn on you:
Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me,
Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,
Unworthy as I am, to follow you.
What worser place can I beg in your love,--
And yet a place of high respect with me,--
Than to be used as you use your dog?

DEMETRIUS (Michael)
Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit;
For I am sick when I do look on thee.

HELENA (Me)
And I am sick when I look not on you.

DEMETRIUS (Michael)
You do impeach your modesty too much,
To leave the city and commit yourself
Into the hands of one that loves you not;
To trust the opportunity of night
And the ill counsel of a desert place
With the rich worth of your virginity.

HELENA (Me)
Your virtue is my privilege: for that
It is not night when I do see your face,
Therefore I think I am not in the night;
Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company,
For you in my respect are all the world:
Then how can it be said I am alone,
When all the world is here to look on me?

DEMETRIUS (Michael)
I'll run from thee and hide me in the brakes,
And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts.

HELENA (Me)
The wildest hath not such a heart as you.
Run when you will, the story shall be changed:
Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase;
The dove pursues the griffin; the mild hind
Makes speed to catch the tiger; bootless speed,
When cowardice pursues and valour flies.

DEMETRIUS (Michael)
I will not stay thy questions; let me go:
Or, if thou follow me, do not believe
But I shall do thee mischief in the wood.

HELENA (Me)
Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field,
You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius!
Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex:
We cannot fight for love, as men may do;
We should be wood and were not made to woo.

Exit DEMETRIUS (Michael)

I'll follow thee and make a heaven of hell,
To die upon the hand I love so well.

Exit HELENA (Me)

Just imagine lots of drama and humour, and that was how we performed. The class was laughing off their socks, and we were so good they even asked Mdm for an encore of our part of the play, and even Mdm agreed! So Mike and I gave them something even better: Him with a Scottish accent, I with a more 'seductive' character. Everything went very well, with Mike's impressive replication of a Scott and I acting bits of humour into my parts like

Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me,
Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,

where I literally kneeled down and acted as if someone was slapping me while discribing the ways Demetrius could torture me, and also when I said,

The wildest hath not such a heart as you. (Seductive "Meow!")

and also this part:

Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field,

You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius!

Your wrongs do set a scandal on my...

(Seductive pose)

...Sex!

Oh, the good ol' days are back again! Just like the times whe I was known as 'Mr. Bean' back in my Upper Primary-Nanyang dayz! I shall now see how far I'll be chosen to volunteer for other role plays...

To keep this post short, I'll just limit what else that happened today to Michael's request for me to make a logo for our 'company' in BizWorld. Here's what I created:





Like it?

Alpha and Omega...

The sadness is now gone.

It's literally gone! YEEEAAAAAY!!! God has finally saved me from the depression again!!! I praise Him greatly for this! Thank you Lord!!! Oh, life looks so fun and colourful again!!! Well, enough of the celebrations for now. Let's look into what happened today, shall we? Wait. Why not I highlight the things which happened today that made me see the colours again? Okay, then. Event that made me happier and reason for making me happier. Now on with the post!

Today's a 2-in-1 paper day. Language Arts (A) + Mathermatics. What a combination.

To start off the day, we had PE. And we had a NAPHA 2.4km trial for our programme, so we made our ussual formations: The front composing of Arjun, Ting Wei, Me, Toj and Tim, the back being composed of Kirby and Justin, everyone else in the centre. So in the end, The first five was literally Arjun, Ting Wei, Me, Toj and Tim in the precise order. When they were recording down my timing, I looked at the back of my numbering slip and I found a portion of the school crest. Qurious if anyone else had the same patern, I checked Toj's paper, and true enough he had another portion of the crest! Toj and I started asking for more numbering slips to see if we can put the papers together to form a picture of something, only to be stopped half-way by the teacher as she wanted us to hold our own slips to ease the process of recording our timings. The cheap-trills in life that are just worth it...

After this was Recess, of which I didn't want to go for any recess as I needed to finish off a CL'B' assignment. Pity. Why? Well, last night, Shil showed me a website containing loads and loads of piano scores. But then I told him that they would all be of no use to me as I can't even read the notes at all. So thus, Shil wanted to dedicate today's piano lesson for note-reading. He told me to print out any piece I found interesting and that today, he would teach me how to read the score so I can learn the piece by myself. I found Marvin Gaye's 'Ain't no Mountain High Enough' and decided to give this piece a shot. Unfortunately as stated earlier, I was trapped in the classroom, forcing myself to find a way to at least attempt the assignment. I failed to do so, and so recess felt rather wasted. Ah, well. Can't cry over spilt milk. ("Morriel, put that carton back in the fridge!")

Next was Life Science Practical, which involved the first part of a three-part practical session on Genetic Fingerprinting. As the class was preparing to move to the lab, I searched for my stuff and found out that 1) I forgot to bring my towel for Land Training and 2) I forgot to bring my L Sci textbook! AAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! Solving one thing at a time, I asked the class if anyone brought a mini towel to school by any chance, and by the grace of God Shil could answer with a "Yes!". Some people who heard his response told me to not take the deal as the towel may give me his, erm, 'nasal-invoving characteristics'. If I didn't have a towel, I'd either not be permitted to enter the gym at all or would have to pay a penalty of the following formula's worth of push-ups:

[5(T-O-W-E-L) x no. of people who didn't bring their towels]

And in Canoeing, they always multiply the verdict number by 10.
So I wasn't going to take my chances (This seems to be a new catchphrase of mine...) and took the towel and thanked Shil by a lot. Besides, the towel doesn't even smell like, erm, 'what-you-think-it-should-smell-like'. It smelt so fresh, but I think I'm moving too far from the main point.
I still had to find a way to get a subsitute for my L Sci Textbook, esspecially when my activity today involves the book very much and that after the activity there would be a lecture of which Sir would 'appreciate' the courtesy of the students to copy down notes into their TEXTBOOKS. I panicked more and more as we went up the stairs to the lab, and it even got scarier when Sir lined us up outside the lab to inspect us one by one and make sure we had our books. But in the nick of time, a textbook mysteriously slidded into my hand, and it appeared just in the right timing such that Sir didn't notice and so allowed me into the room. I turned around to see who helped me out, and lo and behold, it was Shil. Apparently, he went to the neighbouring class to ask for a textbook from a friend of his while we were making our way to the lab. Another day saved by Shilster! (Playing: Theme Song - Shilster) Comes to show that there will always be friends, or at the least a friend, who will be there behind you whenever you need them (or him/her).

In the lab, each pair was suppose to collect a sample of cheek cells from a willing partner using a scratching piece of plastic, and being interested in knowing what I consist of, I volunteered in my pair. I scraped my left cheek for a few minutes, but I could only collect half the required amount. So I decided to move over to the next cheek. Big mistake. I couldn't sustain the same scraping posture on my right cheek, and as such my sample was literally being smeared back into my mouth! ARGH!!! You should have seen the look on my face when I found out that my sample suddenly dissapeared in the same amount of time as collecting the sample.

Mdm then told me the correct posture to collect the sample again, and so I tried a second attempt on my right cheek. But the collection rate on this cheek was somewhat slower, so I thought I should instead move over again to my left cheek. Another big mistake. I was so addapted to my right cheek, I couldn't remember how to position the instrument in my mouth, thus smearing most of the sample back into my mouth again. When I found out what happened, I was so frustrated and desperate that I quickly moved back to my right cheek and kept scraping onto it as fast as I could.

After a minute or so, I took out the tool and checked how much I had gathered. Yet another big mistake. True, I did collect just 1mm from requirements, but noooooooooo. Mdm wanted me to collect that remaining 1mm of sample before she could allow me to proceed. And so I quickly placed the sampler into my mouth in the wrong fashion that after scraping with the same velocity... I think you know where I'm going.

Well, it's a good thing I didn't loose that much this time, and so Mdm had pity over me and immediately asked me to stop. She even took over for the rest of the steps till the part where we had to 'boil' the samples. Well, we were off schedule - 9 minutes to be exact - and the rest of the class was waiting for my pair, literally. The scares of it all. But I guess this can show that some (for me, all) of the bad things in life can actually turn out to be 'bad' so as to be at your advantage in a later time. After the whole experiment, we were given back our Common Test papers, and I'll share the marks once I get my Report Card back, thank you.

Next was Language Arts A. Well, not exactly. It was the exam of it, rather. We were greeted by the stern version of Mdm (As always...) and the test was basically an essay based on the question flashed onto the whiteboard. You know, how many students in Singapore can actually say that a question was "flashed onto their whiteboard"? But anyway, yah. We did an essay based on the question shown and had to complete it in an hour's time. The thing was based on Act 1 Scene 1 of A Midsummer Night's Dream, a portion of the story I can easily remember all because I re-wrote it in an earlier post (Midsummer Night's Dan). The things in life that appear useless may turn out to be useful afterall in due time. I think I did fairly well. Jesus did say that if we believed, miracles would happen, and I've gone through that many times already, so I'm just going by faith that everything turns out fine.

Then was ISO, of which half was spent on discussing on what we've done for the past 9 weeks and a warning that the next week is Oral Defence, while the other half was a 'free-period' since my group's supervisor had to attend to something else. We could only spend it in the library, though, but that's good enough for me! So I kept walking around the shelves while trying to imitate the ways of the Ninja, searching for a book about my research topic - The Sense of Humour. Shil followed allong to find books for himself while Raam was just trying to annoy the both of us, Shil in particullar. Sheesh. Shil found a book of questions about the Bible, and so he tested me with it. I answered most of the questions correctly, and I can graefully say that I'm getting to know my Bible better! I used to think I'd never reach even this stage of knowing that even countries like Spain and India were in the Bible, but now I even know the story of Esther very well! And all glory be to God for saving me from my, erm, 'dead self'!!! Yay!!!

Then was Mother Tongue, or a quarter of it in this case. Just the right amount of time for me to go to the classroom, collect my stuff, make my way to the Pastoral Care room to meet with the teacher, tell her you have an exam in a few minutes' time, walk back and enjoy a generous serving of Math. How nice. Maths was rather straith-forward, as long as you know which formula to use for which equation. Although now that I think back, I think that there were a few shortcuts I could have used. Gasp. At least now I know how to do better in the next paper...

Then came Land Training, of which I brought my towel! Yay! To make sure that other schools don't copy our tatics so they can own us in a competition, I shall say that "everything was status quo". We even managed to pack up as early as last week! After training, I bought a bottle of H-two-O, which somehow dissapeared a few seconds after purchase. I lamented over the bottle and it's $1.20 worth of suppliments, but later remembered the words of Denzel Washington, "If you know your Source, you'll never worry about the supply.", which basically meant that if you know God well and understand that He supplies, you'd never be fearfully concerned about thethings in your possesion. And so I moved along, asking God to bless the person who found my drink.

Went back home, drank lots and lots of water and started on my CL'B' project. Well, I started printing the photos some time ago already but the writing part was unknown to me for a while.

Anyway, better not sleep too late tonight - Have to report at the Prefectorial Boardroom by 6.55 a.m. tomorrow for Founder's Day Rehhersal. Bound to be exciting, esspecially for the Prefects and Student Councilers. Wonder what's gonna happen...

Time to get Physical...

Today was the Physical Science Paper.

But before that, Chapel was rather short today. I couldn't catch which parable the speaker was talking about, but I can easlily guess she was trying to get a few morals from it. Then there were a few more 'creative' announcements made:

~The Black Comedy trailer had bad diction, despite the fact that it did originate from the UK. But the clip was nevertheless entertaining in a few scenes.
~Chinese school paper is now in a better digitalized format (Wonder who re-formatted it...). But the presenter for the product didn't really have good IT skills, and it took him a couple of minutes to figure out how to start his Powerpoint Presentation without shutting the presentation off. Humourous watching him figure it out.
~Mr. Bongard gave a short briefing on when to go where to do what under the orders of whom(s) during Founder's Day/(Rehersals). Everuyone had a rough idea of what was going to happen, but after Chapel, the Prefects and the Student Council were given a very detailed describtion of the whole event, so much so detailed as to even the specific location of every chairman in the school during the March-Pass. So whatever happens on either days, we'd have known about it before hand.

Dismissed, we prefects made our way back to class to be greeted by, well, the class. It was suppose to be P Science, but Mdm apparently never came. I spent the time revising the first 20 elements of the Periodic Table (Being Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, Berrylium, Boron, Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Florine, Neon, Sodium, Magnesium, Aluminium, Silicon, Phosphorous, Sulphur, Chlorine, Argon, Potassium and Calcium. I didn't look in my notes while typing the elements, which may also explain spelling errors if any.). This irritated Zeng Rong as I was reading it aloud and got it wrong from time to time. Him being the 'elementary' genius, my childishness annoyed him and thus he fleed away. It also irritated Tim, but the other guys in the class tried to help me out at moments. Esspecially Wei Yang, for the fact that he helped me memorise where Silicon belongs. ("Fake boobs!")
That does not need to be mentioned in the paper, folks.

For the first half of Computer Science, the Mdm was also not present, and we continued studying/being cheeky until the teacher suddenly apeared at the door. We were then informed by her to create a food-related company's brochure, the company alowed to be real or fake. Many people had inovative ideas, like teh Khoo Khafe [Khoolest place to be!] and Teck Seng Services [Teeeeck SENG!!!]. I called mine La Crate de California (I know it's a mix of Spanish and French! Stop bugging me!) and "we have the best services in food-catering, having an advantage that we can easily blend the styles of the East with the styles of the West". Figures.

After that was Recess, in which the norms went on: Food, Piano Lesson, Class. My piano skills have improved, I must say. Praise the Lord! Now I'm trying to play 'He's A Pirate' with two hands. I can play Bass and Treble of the song, butI can't seen to play them both simutaneously. So far, I can only go as far as a few notes before I get stuck on a key with both hands. But I've got a lot of time to learn; not like as if the world will fade if I don't learn the score before midnight.

Then in Language Arts B, I found out my results. I don't really want to share my score for now, but I can say that I did badly for my standards. Just above borderline. But nevertheless, I shall praise the Lord with all that I do in His name! May glory and honour and praise be with Him forever and evah! I am dissapointed, but as long as God's happy that I did all I could for His name, I shall cheer up. But anyway as the phrase goes, 'Sometimes the bad things in life can be made bad to your own advantage.', and who knows what a bad paper can do? Ironic question, but after going through my life, it feels rather sensible.

After that was Maths, of which Sir also didn't come for the first few minutes or so. But when he came, he distributed the same CD he gave us last Friday: the one about the monkey hunter who became a monkey and can only turn back into a human if he solves the maths formulae in the forest? Yah, that one. It better be able to helpme out in my paper tomorrow...

Next was suppose to be Art, but since the paper intruded into the lesson, Mdm gave us most of the time to revise for the paper and prepare for what was about to come. When the paper came, I was close to growling aloud when I found out that there was a Periodic Table staplered to every paper. And so I wasted my time forcing myself to remember the first 20 elements. (Steaming) Let's just say it was rather simple if it wern't for the fact that there was a question about interpolation. Ghah. I'll just keep praying...

So in dedication to the teacher who thought my class the subject the paper was about, let's have another song, shall we...

Get Down

by Ms. Lydia Ho, The Chairman (Timothy Goh), Jaira Koh and Class.

(Sung in the tune of 'Shut Up' by The Black Eyed Peas, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBTWAmQ4EdQ)
Get down
Just get down
Get down [3x]

Get it down

Just get down

Get down

Get down
Just get down

Get down [3x]

Get it down

Just get down
Get down

[Chorus]
You walk here very slow
Make my anger loose control
There's Recess after PE
How you change up, don't ask me
So much anger

For being your instructor
I'm getting so much angah'

Ma'am, me and you were just flow (you know)
We throw and blow
All them things that people use in P Sci (you know)
Stunts that you shouldn't try (you know)
Things that turn to red or blue
I love a boom, I love it too
I burn a lot, I burn it even more
That's why I ran out
When it fell on the floor
But then something got out of hand
You start yellin when I'm late with my friends
Even though I had legitimate reasons Worksheet?
Recess is never easy when it ends Worksheet?
How could we change up every Thurs, Ma'am
After PE and Recess
Just quit this lecture

Get down

Just get down
Get down

Knock it down

Just get down

Get down

[Chorus]
You walk here very slow
Make my anger loose control
There's Recess after PE

How you chang up, don't ask me
Boy, there's anger

For being your instructor
I think there's lot's of anger

Why don't the class move a little more fast
Ensure that our teacher's patience always always last
Why do you like it when she lose control
Every time you agree on walkin it slow
So why does it got to be so damn tough
Juz tryin to get y'all out of class and run (run run run)
Showin her respect you should be givin
So we can admit 'en
That we all did the runnin
Ma'am, its a mission tryin to get them to listen
Walk after the bell has become our tradition
They yell, I yell, everybody yells
Got classes across the school sayin
"Who the bell?!?"
Who the bell?
What the bell's going down?
Too much of the bickering
Kill it with the sound and

Get down
Just get down
Get down
Get it down

Just get down

Get down

[Chorus]
You walk here very slow
Let my anger loose control
There's Recess after PE
How you change up, don't ask me
And there's anger
For being your instructor
There's really so much anger

Ma'am, our pumpin's over
Permission to recover
I never want'd this order
But I do deserve betta
Believe us we are sorry
Let's forget the past
And let's start the Theory
Why? Cuz it's the same old routine
And then next week, you'll do 15
Ma'am I know you're tired of the things they say
You're damn right
Cuz I heard them lame dame excuses last Thursday
That was a different thing
No it ain't
That was a different thing
No it ain't
That was a different thing
It was the same darn thing
Same thing as ever

Boys, recover!!
Woooaaahhh!!!

Get down
Just get down
Get down [3x]

Get it down

Just get down
Get down

Get down
Just get down
Get down [3x]

Get it down

Just get down

Get down

Start the lesson Mdm

Just quickly start the lesson [repeat]
Is that all there is [repeat till fade]

Paranoial Syndrome...

Also traditionally known as The Blues, Spiritual Warfare and Timothy's Sorrow.

Bad news is, I can confirm that I've been suffering from it since Tuesday. So many things that I've been getting myself paranoid about. From the time that I was called a 'law-obeyer' to the moments when I feel as if being a Prefect makes me an outcast. I'm still doing all I can to cling on the 'mustard seed's worth of Faith', but things are really looking downhill for now. I'm facing depression as it stares at me in the face, and me staring back. Can't believe I'm writing a dramatic post, or as my friend would call a 'emo post'. This just makes me feel like playing 'Unfaithful' on any instrument I can get my hands on, but unfortunately I'm still having trouble with the piano. Here's the lyrics anyway:

Story of my life
Searching for the right
But it keeps avoiding me
Sorrow in my soul
cause it seems that wrong
really loves my company

He's more than a man
and this is more than love
the reason that this guy is blue
the clouds are rolling in
because I'm gone again
and to him I just can't be true

and I know that he knows I'm unfaithful
and it kills him inside
to know that I am happy with some other guy
I can see him dying

[Chorus]
I don't wanna do this anymore
I don't wanna be the reason why
Everytime I walk out the door
I see him die a little more inside
I don't wanna hurt him anymore
I don't wanna take away his life
I don't wanna be...
a murderer

I feel it in the air
as I'm doing my hair
preparing for another date
A kiss upon my cheek
He's here reluctantly
as if I'm gonna be out late

I say I won't be long
Just hanging with the girls
A lie I didn't have to tell
Because we both know
where I'm about to go
and we know it very well

cause I know that he knows I'm unfaithful
and it kills him inside
to know that I am happy with some other guy
I can see him dying

[Chorus]
I don't wanna do this anymore
I don't wanna be the reason why
Everytime I walk out the door
I see him die a little more inside
I don't wanna hurt him anymore
I don't wanna take away his life
I don't wanna be...
a murderer

Our love
His trust
I might as well take a gun and put it to his head
Get it over with
I don't wanna do this
Anymore (anymore)

[Chorus]
I don't wanna do this anymore
I don't wanna be the reason why
Everytime I walk out the door
I see him die a little more inside
I don't wanna hurt him anymore
I don't wanna take away his life
I don't wanna be...
a murderer (a murderer)

No no no no

Yeah eah eah...

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KIK-rDvwA8 - Music Video)

I don't want to write much about the misery, cause I know very well that the turning point of it all is just so close. All I have to do is just believe it's there. Don't ask about what situations I'm in: I can make it through in one piece with the help of the Lord.

Their heading on water!...

I'll just talk about today as convieniently as possible. Make sure you open the link in another window. Enjoy.

Boarding School Bleachers

By Raemiguel Lee

(Sung in the tune of Copacabana by Barry Manilow)

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XJvAXnEw-4]

I woke at 5 plus, arrived at 7
Walked to the SAC piano
Played 'He's A Pirate' and so

Then I met Zheng-Wei! He was quite early
We journeyed to the balcony
Of the boarding school to see

Across the half-filled floor
For our classmates and more.
We found Shil and a few more classmates
Who could ask for more?

[Chorus]
At the Boarding, (Board) Boarding School Bleachers (Boarding School Bleachers)
Just above the swimming pool features, (here)
At the Boarding, (Board) Boarding School Bleachers
Heat and the tention was all they could mention
At the Boarding .... we found our class

Everyone soon came, 'cept for a couple.
It was just Faraaz and Kirby
There is nothing much to see.

And when we started, the heat came over
The sun was glaring in the sky
Light was blazing through our eyes

The Boys' Brigade arrived
Sold Pringles at sales price
Their strategy was obvious.
But what could I do?

At the Boarding, (Board) Boarding School Bleachers (Boarding School Bleachers)
Just above the swimming pool features (here)
At the Boarding, (Board) Boarding School Bleachers
Heat and the tention was all they could mention
At the Boarding... [crunch] I bought my lunch.

(Boarding, Boarding School Bleachers)

Then there was Ice-Cream, and there was chocolate
Then came the can drinks: Very cold
The Boy's Brigade were very bold.

During Inter-class, the class cheered wildly
Reuben and Wei Yang were the stars
Mike and Alex wasn't far.

Competitors were fast
We came in second last
But then they were our fellow comrades
Who would then make a fuss?

At the Boarding, (Board) Boarding School Bleachers (Boarding School Bleachers)
Just above the swimming pool features, (here)
At the Boarding, (Board) Boarding School Bleachers
Heat and the tention was all they could mention
At the Boarding .... dismiss the class.

Dismiss the class
(Boarding School Bleachers)
(Boarding School Bleachers)
(Boarding School Bleachers)
(Boarding School Bleachers)


{End of Spoof}

The rest of the day, I slept till dinner. How typical.

The times in random order...

Today was rather standard.

Before Assembly, I went to the Gym to do a few chin-ups. I also asked if Mr. See had taken us Year 1/2s out of tomorrow's swimming meet. Mr. See apparently couldn't find the teacher in charge of the swimming meet, so in other words, no. I did a 12-10-9-8-9, then made my way back to class. But then I arrived in the classroom looking panicked as I quickly slammed the door behind me. Some people asked me what happened, and after trying to catch my breath, I muttered,

"Darren..."

Immediately, Tim got up, grabbed Faraaz's hockey stick and moved out, assumably towards 2.11. I have no idea how Tim finds endurance against that guy. Darren just creeps me out, and I know very well that my 'pervert' tatic will never work on him, even if I tried.

First there was E Sci, where Spain (Matt Ch'ng), Madagascar (Michael), Egypt (Niranjan), Nigeria (Peter Isaac) and Romania (Kirby) presented their population-related problems. Madagascar did something very different today. Instead of stating a problem directly related to the population, he touched on the dropping ecconomy of the country and then linked the low finances with the population. Smart move. Romania was rather more of himself. He did do the research, and located himself out of Europe, but his presentation skills weren't that discriptive. I assume it was partially intended for comic-relief, and we all laughed along during the presentation. But at momments when I couldn't hear what he was trying to say, I used my Sonic Flare. Now my Sonic Flare is hated by Peter as well. Figures.

CL'B' was a free-period today as the teacher had to go for a competition, so I took the time to go to the library and read a couple of books. And when I say "a couple of books", I mean an arm's thick a documentation of World War II, and an even thicker Atlas.

After that was recess, and I can now say that today, I've attempted to try The Egg Sack. It's basically a small plate of rice coverred in scrambbled eggs and sweet sauce. I saw Jai eat it very often and so wanted to try it out for myself. As I lined up at the shop, I searched the menu pannels for the Japanese delicacy, but couldn't find even the term 'egg' on any of the food items. I didn't know if the thing was really called 'egg sack' at that point and was slightly afraid of embarrassing myself in front of the food auntie. But I trusted Jai, so I just queued along. When it was my turn to order, I told the auntie, "One egg sack." and was ready to change my order to an eel rice set if she ever frowned her eyebrows in confussion. But surprisingly, she nodded her head and went off to prepere the food. I froze there in slight amazement, but at least everything was still going sanely.

The stuff was standard. Literally. It would have tasted better if they fried the rice with some of the egg, but it was still good quality food, just that it was borderline-good quality. Not filling either, but I wouldn't mind eating it again for lunch one of these days. Once done, I went to return the plate to the stall, coming back to my table to find Shil sitting at the same seat I sat. I wanted to laugh at the irony, but with control I reduced it to a smile, and so I moved along to the piano to do my ussual rehersals. It felt so much like an exam with your teacher staring at you from behind, so I decided to play the entire score that I've mastered so far first. And I've basically mastered the entire piece with my right hand. So after the 'test', I was thought what my Left hand had to play. Shil also recomended a software called PianoHero, which can help tell me where to place my fingers during a song.

Then others joined in like Junn Kit, Matthew and even Darren Tay. Junn Kit played some 'English' pieces, while Matt was just practicing a couple of notes in a theme song. Let me repeat the phrase 'a couple of notes'. Darren just showed me another stanza that was PotC related, jabbed me a few times, and ran off. Scary. I was still distressed that learning the piano with two hands would be harder that how I learnt with only the right hand, but then when I got back tot he classroom, Matt showed me how complex 'He's A Pirate' was suppose to be using his computer. Each hand was suppose to play 3 fingers each everytime they touched the piano, and 2 hands was hard already. Gasp.

Lang Arts B has nothing much to say, just that I now have a second chance to raise my marks for my Term total. Let's just say I did 'lower than expected' for the Common Test.

Maths was also quite small, except for the fact that Sir is now introducing a computer game to us for us to learn algerbraic fomulas with. The CDs came from Kinderland, so I think you should have a rough idea how, erm, 'childish' the games felt to us. Rather 'facinating' plot of a hunter who goes into the jungle to shoot down a few monkeys, which angers a monkey idol that then turns the hunter into a monkey, and the only way he can turn back into a human is if he completes the maths problems in the jungle. Kirby also found a character in the CD who sounds like Mr. Kevin Ng. The scares of it all.

After school, we had to stay back for 5 minutes to tidy up the classroom, then we had to stay back a little longer to collect our Physical Science assignment worksheet. After that, I quickly rushed back home to prepare for tution. While waiting for the tution teacher, Auntie Florence came to send Wen Lin to the house for tution under my Mom for science, along with my younger sister. Auntie Florence and my Mom were chatting for a while before the tution teacher came, and while I was waiting in my room, I heard as the three women were discussing a bit on how guai ('obeidient') I was. My teacher was talking about the time when I helped walk her to her car with an umbrella one stormy day a month or so ago. Interesting to hear this behind their backs.

After tution, I downloaded the PianoHero Shil told me about, and tried it out with 'He's A Pirate'. Nice feature, and now I'm learning how to play the piece with my left hand. In fact, since the thing plays MIDI files, I can also surf the net for other songs. And let's just say Shil helped me out in "finding 'The Power of Passing Time', a power strong enough to repel Kirbeleons".

Gonna practice more. Gota wake up tomorrow for the swimming meet.God bless!

Does that answer your question?...

Today was suppose to be Scouts Day. It was suppose to be their day to celebrate for themselves and for the rest of the school, population to salute them in their honours. But apparenly, Ben fainted hal-way through the Scout's Day speech, and a group of Scouts had to stretcher him out off the Parade Square. Selfless at a day of your own. But that's not the point.

Ben fainted. The sub-line between a coma and sleep. I don't really know much of the details as I was at the other end of the class row when the thing happened, but as I've heard, he left Toj tramuatized and a whole class missing him, so I guess this then answers his Miggy-inspired question: What would happen if I die in the presence of my love ones?

Fainting is a good way to start off the results with. But seriously speaking, I pray he's okay. Wonder what caused him to faint. But as I've noticed, many people were concerned about Ben, esspecially the Henry Park Boys. They really showed the most enthusiasm in this area and were truly concerned about their un-contious friend. But before I get too emotional/inaccurate, I should leave this for a while and wait for the second half of the experiment: what happens when Ben returns back.

And another thing about today: Tim was restraining his 'beast' form coming out again. Dr. Jeckle and Mr. Hyde, just that in a rather more controlled form. I assumed that he was sparked off by how Kirby made a teacher conficate Tim's thumbdrive. And she was an IT teacher, so you never know where she may peak into the thingy. And with Tim's 'private' stuff inside, I doubted he'd forgive Kirby within less than 12 hours. During recess, Tim's silence was as creepy as ever. Coming from a full-time stoner like me, that's really something. When I went down to recess to practice the piano with Tutor Shil again, I saw him standing there, next to the pillar. I didn't dare ask him to come over, as I never knew where his boundaries were being laid so far, and if he could attack Junn Kit what makes me any different?

When I got back, some of the guys in the class were asking me about how I felt Tim's 'containment process' was going. I said that he was giving the same stare he'd ussually give when he's angry. The same kind I saw him do when we were informed of the banning of games in our tablets. The same that was used when I once commented on his surname. The one that he used the morning after his declaration of grounding during the December Holidays. But before I could add in the other details, I noticed that Tim was actually in the storage compartments, and I immediately stopped, appologising as I walked off to attend to someone else's call. He really looked like as if he was trying to prevent himself from turning into the Hulk, and even when he started smiling again at the later parts of the day, I felt like keeping my distance for the moment.

There's also another side on what I felt about today in general, but if I wrote it down I might be 'misunderstood'. So if the future Raemiguel wants to know what happened on this day, just go to the Tablet PC you used to work with during your days in ACS(I) and search for a Word Doccument by the name of 'Just that one voice'.

So that I don't waste a post, I'll spend it on another track from the musical my imagination keeps bugging me with. Please forgive me if you think the song is too corny to look at. This song is in dedication to the Keymasters out there. If I ever offend anyone, please feel free to comment in my cBox and I'll do what I can to edit it towards our needs. Enjoy.

Lock It up by the Keymaster and Company (Sung in the tune of Wind It Up by Gwen Stefani, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3ycR4JQeRw)

The Parade Square we must all be gathered, lad-od-lad-od-lad-he-hoo! Quickly before Mr Dave Tay finds us, lad-od-lad-od-low!

Lock it up
Lock it up, uh, uh, uh, uh
Yodellay, yodallay, yodal-low

(Yeah)
This is the key that helps us lock up
When the voice comes on, the boys all line up
And the boys all look, but no, they can't move
And this is the reason why our neck aches improve

They like the way we stand, they like the way we froze
They like that way that bee is going 'cross my nose
They like the way my pants, it compliments my crest (They're crazy, right?)
They like the way we react every time we say the pledge

Every time the bass plays, realize it's in Malay
Let the beat lock you up, and don't stop till your time is up
Get in line now

Lock it up, uh, uh, uh, uh
Lock it up, uh, uh, uh, uh
Yodellay, yodallay, yodal-low

You've got to let Chapel get under your skin
You've got to open up, and let 'Nouncements in
But see, once they get in, cheesy jokes begins
And then you find out, why all the boys stare

They're trying to bite our style
Trying to study our approach
They like the way we do it, so original
I guess that they are slow, so they should leave the stage
The stillness makes us mad, and makes us go ra...

Every time Ms. Tan fans, realize it's like her name
Let the beat lock you up, and don't stop till your time is up
Get in line now

Uh, uh, uh, lock it up, uh, uh, uh, uh(Ya'll ready)

Lock it up, uh, uh, uh, uh
Lock it up, uh, uh, uh, uh
Yodellay, yodallay, yodal-low

Uh huh, one more moment
Uh huh, come on guys, just keep endurin'
Uh huh, you know my key does the unlockin'
Hell yeah, and you know they're watchin'

Stand it guys, stand it, stand it guys
Stand it guys, stand it, stand it guys
To the font, not the side,
To the back, but don'tcha dare hide

I'm goin' now, it's my hour
To unlock our class door
I know you want the key and stuff
But do you know how to lock it up?
(Come on)

Lock it up, uh, uh, uh, uh
Lock it up, uh, uh, uh, uh
Yodellay, yodallay, yodal-low, hey!

You are guilty...

Today started the first Water training since the CNY celebrations. After a month and three weeks of Start-of-Year raining, the water level of MacRitchie's finally back to where it should be! The Concrete is underwater again, and the legs of the Pontoon aren't exposed anymore! Capsized half-way in my programme, that I can tell you. And the adventure of trying to get back on board isn't a pleasure cruise, I assure you. For me and Jedd's case, we capsized out at the 250m Mark, within Lane 3. My deduction for the cause: the boat was totally unbalanced. I was literaly paddling the whole length with my right bottom cheek not touching the seat at all. Jedd has a lot to work on right now...

So we had to watch out for canoe traffic before crossing the lanes (Remember to look to your left and right...), and once out, we had to make our way to the nearest shore, still making sure we wouldn't colide with another boat on the way. Once at shore, we had to empty water quickly, then find an area shallower than our knees to climb in (This was really tricky, esspecially to the fact that spiders and snakes abound both in the branches above and on branches that protrude just on top of the water surface, and that it'sa very steep slope from the waterbed to dry shore.) and make sure that we don't colide into anything else when we reverse backwards to get out.

Then after Water training, we did a little Land training: Sprints x6 (Juniors; 4). Then we did the 10 push-ups that we all owed Mr. Goh for our bad performance last Thursday. When I say "10", I mean 100 normal push-ups. It was tough, and some of the new people wern't that good in their sustaining, so time after time we had to stop at the last ten-digit number we stopped at. Somewhere in the duration, I was bitten on my right pinky by a sand bug, and boy did the pain hurt. But I had push-ups to do, so I tried my best to ignore the pain. Once finished, we still had 15 to owe to Nick Low. Ouch.

After being dismissed, I found out from Kirby that the preview of 'Ghost Rider' that the ACPS Boys were supposed to have done last Friday was going to be done today. Trying to take my chances, I decided to ask if I was allowed to join in. So Kirby called Tim and asked him for me while he was also settling his arrival time at ACPS to meet some ex-teachers, and so I was welcomed. But looking at the attire I brought to change into - Cooperate T-Shirt and school bermudas - I felt maybe I'd be better if I went home to wash up first. By now, my right pinky was swollen from the bite, and I could barely bend my finger without feeling as if my finger was about to burst. Wondered how long this would stay.

Anyway, I went back home, finished off my homework, ate lunch, bathed, changed into one of my favourite clothing combinations [Teal T-shirt + French jagged long pants + Boots] and made my way to the bus stopin a duration of less than 2 hours. While waiting at the bus stop, Tim called to check my arrival status, and apparently I only felt the vibrations till half-wait. So the first thing I heard when I answered the call was an emergency-related shout to change my waiting tone. Not my fault SingTel shoved a French jazz singer into my phone! But you've got to admit, the song's quite nice. Unless of course, it's not the song I think it's playing.

Took a fairly filled 700 (The best bus to take to the city in my area, since it's the only one that uses the expressway), dropped off at Far East Plaza and made my way to Lido. Honestly speaking, this is the first time in my school social life that I went to watch a movie at this theatre which I highly reguard. True, it's kinda old and the furniture is quite close to Old CPA quality, but the audience who come here are the best! Least likely to be disturbed by an annoying quarrel between youngsters, almost not possible for me to be disturbed by a handphone and everyone laughs the loudest here! I take the laughing point as the most important as it makes any movie, weather be comedy or horror-with-slapstick-sarcascim, very sucessful and comfortable for the audiences to watch.

But moving back to meeting the people, I met then at the section of the compound where the old 'James Bond' posters hung. 'Them' refers to:
~Tim
~JKit
~Matt
~Kirby
~John Lim
~Aik Leng
~Han Jie
But the moment I stepped close to them, Tim suddenly said, "Why did you have to wear green?!" Apparently, he was also drinking a green cup of green bubble tea with green pearls using a green straw. Ironic. The we spent the next hour-or-so chatting about random stuff and so on. John kept telling me how much I should have gonet the CNY celebrations the ol' Del-Care people were celebrating yesterday. How the people were playing Twister and so Stanley ended up farting directly at Lynette's face. How Lynette made weird moves in one of the poker card games they were playing. How I missed out on the 60 cents Lynette still owes me. The thing was this: I couldn't join the party cause NOBODY TOLD MY FAMILY!!! URGH!!! HOW MANY MORE EVENTS MUST MY FAMILY MISS BEFORE SOMEBODY REALIZES THAT WE ARN'T EVEN THERE??!!! GRAWWRR!!! GUILTY!!!!
But anyway, once we only had a few more minutes left to wait, we decided to go buy some snacks and walk around to do a little Poster Observing. Yay! A favourite activity of mine! Especially in a movie theatre! We looked around at posters, from the perfectly 'normal' ones like 'Number 23', to the standardly creepy ones like 'Mr. Bean's Holiday', to the plainly disturbing ones like 'Morbit'. Ah. The sights of it all! Poster Observing to me is like Portrait Observing to an art lover. It's just entertaining, and you never know what you can notice in every picture, every corner, every detail!

While we were walking around, JKiet appeared out of nowhere, which was apparently due to Kirby's 'un-official invitation' that was meant to be a joke. There were a few problems we had to settle with an extra crew member on board, but as they always say, "The more the merrier". While we were still moving about the compound, JKiet suddenly asked if I was angry with him or something as I was stoning again. Now I know how great an extent my unintentional stoning can drive others nuts. For any other victims of my momments of sheer quietness that I've never noticed, I sincerely appologise. When the timimg was right, we began to queued up at the snack stall to buy somemore combos to share out in the movie. If you've forgotten, the movie was 'Ghost Rider'.

The cermecials at the begining were nice. Sometimes out of context, but still nice. Then in a matter of minutes, the lights went out, and the movie started to play. The show's quite good, I must say. Frankly speaking, I thought it was going to be a rather frightening horror movie at first before I watched and was not certain if I could make it through the movie without having to stain my pants with yellow. But I guess I survived this movie very well. The plot of the movie wasn't that much disturbing to me after all: As a Protestant Christian, I believe that the devil has no power, no power at all, except the power, or should I just say skill, of persuation. Either than that, the devil does't even have the authority to touch you, and only the human lack of faith causes the downs of life to look more frustrating than its suppose to be.

Getting back, I was proud that I could get out of the theatre without expecting nightmares to follow. Praise the Lord! After being 'dismissed', I pretended to walk along towards my own form of transportation. Once I knew the coast was clear, I made a little round-a-bout to the basement of Lido to do a little something I always make a point doing after every visit to Orchard Road.

More Poster Observing!!!

I endulged myself into the many posters available and stared at each one in great detail before moving along to others! Blood and Chocolate was interesting; I doubt many people would notice that the woman's hand was transforming into a paw. Epic Movie was entertaining; fun to play 'guess' on which character plays a spoof to which real character. Mr. Bean's Holiday is, erm, you'll see. Now I've learnt three of his movie's slogans: 1) One of them has the brain the size of a peanut. 2) Disaster is just a step away. 3) Disaster has a passport. After a good (And I mean goooooood) scan of all of the posters, I went off and caught the next bus to my Mom's tution center. Once there, I stayed at the waiting area and read a few magazines (About the creepy side of the insect world) while waiting for my Mom to finish off with teh remaining students of the day. The buisness seems to be improving, and now she's got 8 teachers in the center. I'm impressed; this outlet started off with 2 throughout last year. Thank you Lord!

Then once everyone except me, my Mom and my Dad (Who visits the center to help out whenever and in whatever he could) was out of the center, I helped my parents shut down the computers, lights and air-cons and made our way out of the place, calling it a night. So I guess that of the group who were present to watch the movie, I stayed in Orchard Road the longest. That's what you get when both your parents work on opposite ends of Orchard. Dad wanted to ta pao ('take away') some fried kuay teow and mutton soup for supper, but by the time we arrived at the hawker center, both shops that soldthe stuff respectively were closed. The side-effects of 15-day Chinese New Year celebration custom.

Now to prepare for school (And canoeing [And push-ups]) again...

Weapons of Mass Deduction...

Miggipedia Mannuals: Nanyang Customs - Traditional Weaponry

Introduction
Weaponry in Nanyang is most often used as a form of entertainment and re-creational art rather than for pain-intended causes or for self-defence, although the later cases are possible. Instead, people ussually 'fight' with each other in peacful intentions and plainly for the record. But nevertheless, competitors in weaponry-involving sports, whether it be Swordsmanship or Firearms' Battle, fight with the determined mind to win, or be his/her 'death'.

Due to the fact that this Mannual covers a broad spectrum of the weaponry field, it shall be divided into three Volumes: Volume I - Swordsmanship, Volume II - Firearms and Volume III - Traditional Minor.

Volume I - Swordsmanship

Chapter 1 - Types of swords
Swords are well known for their physical ussage, being that it takes a lot of movement(s), in addition to the strength applied, to fight with them. There are basically three types of swords to fight with, as listed and introduced below:

The PointerPen
Length: 62cm
Weight: 2.5g
Best advised for: Free Fencing, Fourth Desk Fencing, Light Fighting.
Least advised for: Heavy Fighting.
Additional comments: The PointerPen is really just a pointer stick that can somehow be used as a pen. But this presentation tool is also well-reguarded in the school as a sword of its kind and is concidered precious. It's even convenient with its ability to be assembled from a pointer to a pen, thus allowing it to be stored in pockets and pencil boxes. Besides the cost (Price: $3.~~), the lightweight weapon is well sought after and concidered the best sword for Light Fighting. Also can be used for Stunt Proceedial, but be cautious: the PointerPen is slightly fradgile and if too much force isapplied, the sword may break.

The Metallic Ruler
Length: 31-32cm, depending on the brand.
Weight: 3-3.7g, depending on the brand.
Best advised for: Free Fencing, Fourth Desk Fencing, Heavy Fighting.
Least advised for: Stunt Proceedial.
Additional comments: Made of hard alluminium or titanium, depending on the brand, the Metalic Ruler is a hard-based sword that is best for those who want to use full strength in a battle. The sword is also flat, thus it has a rather good grip, another characteristic required for Heavy Fighting swords. It is concidered fair to fight with two Metallics instead of one to substitute for the shortage of length and it's opptional if you want to sharpen the sides of the Ruler. With great experience and practice, the Metallic can also be used as a musical instrument.

The Icecrond (or The Candlestick)
Length: Not generalized, average is 67cm
Weight: Not generalized
Best advised for: Practice, Stunt Proceedial, Light Fighting.
Least advised for: Free Fencing, Fourth Desk Fencing, Heavy Fighting.
Additional comments: The Icecrond (say EYE-seh-KROND), also known as the Candlestick, is really just a trainee sword and can easily be reguarded as a 'baby weapon'. The weapon is heavy in relation to the other types of swords and is made of ice-cream sticks bundled together by rubber bands to make a sword-like figure that ussually spans to an average length of 67cm. Both features, Heavyweight and Cheap-material Content, makes the Icecrond perfect for practicing the right strokes with other opponents in a friendly match. It is not advised to use such a sword in one-arm sword battles (e.g. the Fencing fights) as the weight may harm the arm and shoulder muscles over a long duration.

There is also the acception of a shield, commonly known as The File. This shield is basically worn by closing the file ontothe non-dominant arm. The file is not used often in battles, as it has been reguarded as an item that 'drains the fun of it all'.

Chapter 2 - Ways to Fight
As you may have already noticed in the previous chapter, there are many types of ways to battle. Here is a list of the most famous versions (Note: Fencing=One Arm Battle, Fighting=Double Arm Battle):

Free Fencing
Permitted Weaponry: PointerPen, Metallic Ruler
Target Areas [Points]: Heart [3], Lower Abdomen [2], Genitles [2], Arms [1], Legs [1].
People Involved: 2 Fencers, 2 Observers
Terrain: Free choice
Steps:
1) The fencers stand about 2 meters away from each other.
2) Imagining that there's an imaginary line between the fencers, the observers stand on either side of the line, ensuring that they don't stand in the way of the swords.
3) The match starts at any fencer's first strike.
4) Fencers fight normally and are free to move around in the terrain.
5) Observers observe a fencer each and alerts the group if either one sees that his/her fencer is hit in a target area.
6) Once hit, the opposing fencer wins the amout of points required.
7) Game point: Free choice

Fourth Table Fencing
Permitted Weaponry: PointerPen, Metallic Ruler
Target Area [Points]: Heart [5], Upper Abdomen [2], Lower Abdomen [4], Genitles [3], Legs [1], Arms [2], Upper Head [1], Lower Head [3]
People Invloved: 2 Fencers, 4 Observers
Terrain: Forth Table Terrain
-Mark out a strip 1 classroom width long, 3 desks wide.
-At both ends of the strip, place two desks 4 desks away from the edge of the strip.
-It should look like this:


Steps:
1)The fencers stand about 2-3 meters away from each other.
2)Each left table of each end of the strip stations an observer while the remaining two observers stand on either side of the strip.
3)The match starts at any fencer's first strike.
4)Both fencers can only stay within the strip area and are not allowed to move pass their apponent.
5)One fencer can enter his Border zone (Border line to edge of strip) but is not allowed to enter his/her apponent's, as the same for his/her apponent.
6) Standing observers observe a fencer each and alerts the group if either one sees that his/her fencer is hit in a target area. The stationed observers ensure that an apponent doesn't cross the stationed observer's fencer's Border line, and also makes sure that his/her fencer stays in his/her Border zone for only up to 8 seconds.
7) Once hit or forfieted for staying in one's Border zone beyond 8 seconds, the opposing fencer wins the amount of points required.
8) Game point: 15.

Light Fighting
Permitted Weaponry: PointerPen
Target Area [Points]: Same as Free Fencing
People Involved: Same as Free Fencing
Terrain: Same as Free Fencing
Steps:
Same as Free Fencing.

Heavy Fighting
Permitted Weaponry: Metallic Ruler
Target Area [Points]: Same as Forth Desk Fencing
People Involved: Same as Forth Desk Fencing
Terrain: Same as Forth Desk Fencing
Steps:
Same as Forth Desk Fencing.

Chapter 3 - Sign of Respectful Defeat
Since these battles are after all friendly, it's a custom for the defeated player to perform the Sign of Respectful Defeat after every match, just to show that there are no hard feelings between both players.

How to do the Sign of Respectful Defeat
1) The Defeated kneels down in front of the Defeater, bowing his head down.
2) The Defeater taps his/her sword on the Defeated's head, then swings it to his/her side.
3) The Defeater then strokes his/her sword along the Defeated's arm, which ever is closer to the sword (e.g. Right-hander would stroke left arm, and vice versa.).
3b) If it's the final match, the Defeated does an extra step of softly tapping on the Defeated's neck.

Next Volume > Volume II - Firearms

A glimpse of the Dragon...

Instead of typing out anotehr novel of what I did last nigh, I'll just show three simple pictures with sub-notes.

Food! Glorious food!

And with good flavour, I must say.

After the meal, me, my cousins, nephews and nieces went to the neighbourhood playground to uphold our well-appreciated tradition - to make 'fireworks'. Ussually, Wei Wei (My cousin)'s in charge and he makes sure the right amount of 'sparkler gunpowder' is harvested, the right packaging is used and the safety of everyone is ensured. But since Wei's in Hong Kong now, looks like the responsibility of General has to be passed to the Major today.

In other words, I was in power this year! It was facinating comanding the full opperation, and at times when I tried to help out in the breaking off the 'gunpowder' from the sparklers, my Corporal(s) told me to relax and started to take over from where I left. After inspecting the final product, I did a few minor corrections and dismissed the explosive to Ground Zero (The sand playarea). Ensuring that the full army was within safety radius from the bomb, I gave the command to "Open Fire!" (literally) and so General Ben Hoston(Nephew) went to light the fuse, and ran off for safety.

Our first attempt failed at first, and the thing barely burned when the fuse was burnt up. I was ready to give the order of 'Plan B' (A real sissy plan, trust me...). But then my Lieutenant (Not sure which one) was determined to not waste the work of art since it was still burnable, and requested another fuse. Not wanting to turn things down, I granted him a fuse from my pocket, and he immediately set up a new configuration, lighting it up before running for safe grounds.

And this time, he was sucessful.

"Gentlemen, we've done it!"

The explosion was beautiful compared to last year! Back then, the explosion was smashing with its great height and sustaining power. But this year, the flame wasn't tall, neither was it able to hold after 3 seconds. To substitute for these, the flame 1) covered a 1.5m radius on the ground, 2) made an obvious 'mushroom' smoke about 5 meters tall and 3) could whistle! It was so spectacular, my platoon wanted to make a second bomb! I allowed, but restricted the number of sparklers used to just 3 packets. The first bomb required 6.

We then went through the same proceedures and this time, instead of me giving the command to "Fire!", I allowed my Lieutenant to start the explosion in reward for his persistance to light the first bomb. And under his command, my Major ran to the bomb, lit it and came back. The Lieutenant ordering the Major. Ironic, isn't it?

But anyway, it was also a sucess, and it was just as beautiful as the prior explosive! So to commemorate the two bombs, I gave orders to 'construct' a memorial for the two bombs, and in due honour to Former General Fong Wei Heng. Here's how it looked like:

If you can't see it clearly, here's a rough drawing of what it looked like:

Notice that at both Ground Zeros, I placed a flower.

But anyway, when I got everyone back, we all relaxed and chilled off in my Uncle's house with the elder relatives. Or at least that's what everyone did, except me and Ben. Ben and I were at the back of the house building the set for us to tell this year's ghost story, which later we would find out was made too late as everyone was soon leaving. But all the better: we'll be working on how to improve on the props, and trust me - we'll scare the living daylights out of them kids.

Just as long as they see what's flying out of the window...

G'dnight...

Edit: About today, the family went out for a wooping Japanese dinner. Basically the only thing worth mentioning so far.

Gong Xi Fa Cai!...

Ang Bao Na Lai!
Mei You Hong Bao?
Gei Ni Black Eye!

(Happy New Year!
Give me my Ang Bao [Red Envelope]
No Ang Bao?
I'll give you a black eye!)

Ah, that time of the year again! The streets are red, my name is placed upside-down on every doorway, and everyone is distributing money in ang paos! But now that church would be held at the Singapore Expo today, a real hard place to reach from here, and since me and my Mom's Worship Sunday has been used up this fortnight, I guess there's no Church for me today. But since I did dedicate this blog to the Lord, and since I promised Him that I'd use every Sundays' posts to preech about Him, I shall attempt to make a sermon of my own. So before I leave for my Uncle's house to celebrate tonight, I shall do a little message about Christ. Here goes:

Does Christ Make Sense?

By Pastor RaeMichael Plum Prosvictor

(That's my name if it's translated fully into English...)

Today, I'd like to share about how 'impossible' Christianity and explain the difficulties faced by fellow Christians around the world.

Now, borothers and sisters of Christ, we all know the tough difficulties in life, and sometimes these difficulties feel so disasterous that we wonder if God is actually up there watching us, ever bothering to come down and relieve us from the burdens. In fact, with everyday happenings and new discoveries madein the fields of science and technology, miracles of Christ start appearing to loose their value. We sometimes ask ourselves, "What if this isn't real? What if I'm just part of a ultra-large fan club of a 2000 year old book? What if all the miracles in my life wern't by God at all? What if they were just by chance?"

"What if Christ doesn't exsist at all?"

Well, I shall now try my best to explain your doubts. In the doubt of how God seems so impossible in comparrison to the ways of the world, here's what I've got to say. Christ IS suppose to be 'Impossible'. It's just so 'ridiculous', so 'weird', so 'foolish', that it's just too crazy to be true. I mean, God made man out of dirt, flooded the globe, splitted the Red Sea, raised dry bones to life, defeated Judah and Israel at alteernate times and brought his Son back to heaven full and alive with holes in His hands and feet, and yet He can't do such miracles now? What happened? The evidences of man keep piling up against God.

I'd say we're just not believing enough. I know many people who believe God lives but can't seem to trust that God has it all under control in their lives. Read 1 Corinthians 1:21-25. It says there;

21For God in his wisdom made it impossible for people to know Him by means of their own wisdom. Instead, by means of the so-called "foolish" message we preach, God decided to save those who believe. 22Jews want miracles for proof, and Greeks look for wisdom. 23As for us, we proclaim the crucified Christ, a message that is offencive to the Jews and nonsense to the Gentiles; 24but for those whom God has called, both Jews and Gentiles, this message is Christ, who is the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25For what seems to be God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and what seems to be God's weakness is stronger that human strength.

God made sure that He exsisted as an 'impossibe being' so as to test your faith in Him. He wants to know that His creations trust in Him and that they know He's in control. Let's take a look in Job.

Now, Job was a very God-fearing man; a very good example for fellow Christians to follow. He was a sucessfully rich man, 'the richest man in the East', with a big family, large amounts of properties and a splendid lifestyle! Even his sons took their turnHe praised the Lord in whatever he did, gained or celebrated, and God was so ever as proud of him. Then one day in heaven, when the heavenly beings were doing a council meeting with God, Satan decided to drop by. God then saw him and ask what he's been up to lately.

"Oh, nothing much," said the devil. "Just roaming about the world walking here and there."

"Have you checked out My servant Job?" asked God. "There is no one on earth as faithful and good as he is. He worships Me and is careful not to do evil."

"Oh, really?" questioned the devil. "I think that's just because You're blessing him too much. I bet if you took away all that he's got, he'll curse You to Your face!"

"Suit yourself," the Lord replied. "Everything he has is in your power: destroy his life anyway you wish. But you shall not lay even a finger on Job himself. I shall prove to you once and for all that he loves me that much."

"Yes, yes, yes. I get it," assured the devil, as he went off to do all he could to forfill his side of the bet. He want to destroy hs life stocks and kill his children, and Job was definitely grieving. But he still never blamed God for anything, praising Him while lieing down with his face on the floor instead.

At another council meeting in heaven, Satan dropped by again and God boasted to him about how Job still continued to worship Him. But then Satan said, "Yah, sure. But That's just because I could only take away his belongings. I bet if I could hurt his body, He'll swearat Your face like never before!"

"Fine," said the Lord. "His flesh is in your power. But you are not to kill him."

"Yah, yah," said the devil, as he made his way to start the torture. He made sores break out all over Job's body, which were so bad, Jod had to go get a piece of broken pottery just to scratch them. By now, his wife was very dubtful of the happenings and even advised Jod to just curse God and die. But Job, still as faithful as ever, told her that she was foolish to think of such intentions.

"When God sends us something good," explained Job, "we welcome it. How can we complain when he sends us trouble?"

Even Jobs friends visited him when they found out how much he's been suffering and so wanted to comfort him. This continued for many days until finally, Job broke the silence and complained to God for almost 34 chapters. But when God see him so angry and deprived, He counter-argued with Job for the next 4 chapters, making His point to Job that He knew what He was doing, since after all, everything in the world is His doing. Then Job prayed for forgiveness, and God answered his prayer, blessing him later with twice as much as he had before his suffering (Double properties, double finance, double family, ect.). He also a life long enough for him to even see his great-grandchildren.

So what I think the moral of this senario is: When life seems very difficult, dont blame God. He's probrably boasting to Satan on how proud He is over you, so just praise the Lord, give it your best shot and prove Satan wrong!

And don't worry if you thik the situation is to tough for you to face. God ensures that you'll always pull through, just as long as you know Who's in charge. In Isaiah 43:1-5, it says;

1Israel, the Lord who created you says,
"Do not be afraid - I will save you.
I have called you by name - you are mine.
2When you pass through deep waters, I will be with you;
your troubles will not overwhelm you.
When you pass through fire, you will not be burnt;
the hard trials that come will not hurt you.
3For I am the Lord your God,
the holy God of Israel, who saves you.
I will give up Egypt to set you free;
I will give up Ethiopia and Seba.
4I will give up whole nations to save your life,
because you are precious to me and because I love you and give you honour.
5Do not be afraid - I am with you!

So God really loves you, and He'd do anything to keep you safe. So just have faith in Him and trust that He'll bring everything together. And if you feel so insignifcant and failure-prone due to the things that life toss onto you, just remember 1 Corinthians 27:

27God purposely chose what the world concidered nonsense to shame the wise, and He chose what the world concidered weak in order to shame the powerful.

And that makes feeling worthless worth it, 'cause if you trust God, you'd know that one day God will use you as a testimony to His glory. And the best thing is, He never discards his works of art! You will enjoy His blessings for as long as you live, and all you have to do is just believe!

My final attempt to help illustrate God's reasons for allowing misfortunes in life is this;

Imagine a whiteboard, with a very long mathermatical equation written across it. Now, let's say the whiteboard is covered with a curtain, and the curtain is slowly being pulled to the side to reveil what's written. When you watch what appears so far, you may end up seeing something like: [7 x 12] + 2, with the rest of the equation still covered. It makes sense at first, until more is reveiled. You can now see: [7 x 12] + 2 = 6. This equation appears to be incorrect and, being the maths fan you are, can get rather offended by the mistake. You then give up waiting for the resat of the equation and stomp out of the lecture, only to miss out that once the curtain was fully pulled, it'll show: [7 x 12] + 2 = 6 - [15 x 6]. You've justmissed out on the correct equation, thinking it was an unfair one.

Now int he same way with life, God reveils your life to you as time goes by. But when the things in life somehow look wrong, you think it'll stay that way and don't trust that the 'equation is correct'. But if you still believe in the Lord, and push true along with Him, God will soon show you the later half of the equation, showing to you that the whole things was actually balanced.



That's all I can say for now. Will be leaving for dinner at my Uncle's this evening, so wish me good luck! Happy Chinese New Year to one and all, and may the God of Heaven and Earth be with you through your times of suffering and pleasure!

Oh yeah, baby, yeah...

Nothing much to report for today. Went swimming in the late afternoon and felt both the fear of water and fear of the dark colide together. Technically, I'm not that frightened of the dark and I'm certainly enjoying the risks of capsizing out at MacRitchie, but once the two fears came together, they somehow made themselves larger. I guess that really proves that two negatives multiplied together bring a positive.

But anyway, since there's so much free space, I want to try to cover a) The Reason Why I Love to Wear the School Tie, 2) Explaination on Why I Can Tend to Sound and Appear Sick in the Mind.

Answer for Question 1:

Have you watched Ghost Whisperer? Notice how the dead characters have to go to every set in the same costume, whether it being a cowboy, a rugger, a pilot or even a teenager from the 60's. It's just so ironic that they have to go around in an outfit that somehow doesn't suit the surroundings. And I find that irony very ammusing. And thus I keep it a point to wear my tie from the time I go to school to the time I reach back home (except, of course, before and after canoeing training. You'll definitely find me without a tie after any training session.)

Also in the Prefect Regulations, I'm suppose to keep my tie on at all times as long as I'm within the school compound, unless instructed otherwise by people of higher authorothy or when during PE. But that's just 40% of my reason. The 'Ghost Whisperer' pont is the main one.

Answer for Question 2:

You see in Nanyang, many 'perverts' abound. Basically, they tell sick jokes and discribe horrifying details to others in their attempt to freak them out. So how did I learn to cope? I used counter-attack. I just pretend that I think they're serious in what they say and play along until the 'pervert' himself freaks out from his own medicine.

e.g. _____ comes in front of me and says at my face with a 'seductive' voice, "Come on, sexy. Let's go and have gay sex with each other. I know you want to. It's just fun..." I act as if I think he's serious and also act 'pervertic' myself, telling _____ back, "Why, sure hot-stuff. Come on and give me what you've got." I then go towards him as if I want to hug him and make 'tired grunts' as if I'm really serious. The guy freaks out and runs away in disgust just in time before I push him onto the table to 'make love', saying, "Ew! Ew! Ew!" as he tries to get the mental images out of his head.

While I still have my sanity proper and unmoved. Mig 3-Pervert 0.

Going to McDonald's West Coast for supper. Seeya tomorrow, and blessed Chinese New Year's Eve!

Reunited as a School...

Gong Xi Fa Cai!
Hong Bao Na Lai!
Mei You...

Wait a minute. This isn't really Chinese New Year. Ah, well. Save the song, then...

Anyway, today was the school's (Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)) Chinese New Year celebrations.

Notice that I didn't end off with an exclamation mark back there. And you know why? 'Cause overall, it dissapointed me. I mean overall dissapoint - of corse there were the fun parts of the celebrations. But nevertheless, a dissapointment.

It started off with all of us 2.10ers gathering in the classroom before school, sorting out our History files while we still can. Remember that today's the deadline. Oh, and remember when I said I had an idea of what to draw for my front page last night? Well, I really did. I did a sketch of World War II - Attack on Pearl Harbour. The thing was, I was so determined to make the sketch so detailed that it took me till 3.15 this morning to finish it! And that includes research on how the weaponry looked like, draft after draft on what went where and the fact that I also had to print out my History notes. Figures.

Also found out that some of the ACPS boys were going to Tim's house. After hearing that Tim never opened his house to them before, I thought this would have been rather entertaining. But I promised that I'd go back to Nanyang today to 'reunite' with fellow Nanyangers, and had to hold back my question of invitation.

Anyway, after Assembly, we were suddenly informed that lessons today were going to be cut down to 3 periods! Reason being, 1) We will have a CNY Concert at 9.30am and 2) Since our Year 4s (last year) earned us a 100% passing rate for the 'O' Level exams last year, Dr. Ong was convinced to make today a half day. And since both points have effect on each other, "... today is going to be a quarter day!" Yahoo!

So the only lesson for our class would be Mother Tongue! And thats not all: the Express people were having an exam today, so for Chinese 'B', there was nobody to ruin the freedom of the lesson! Yippe! Peacefulness in class; at last!...

Or so I thought.

The remaining people, being me, Junn Kit, Joel, Ting Wei, Kirby, Justin and Shil (Shil came in because his teacher wasn't present today, and Mdm allowed him in since she wasn't going to teach a half-class), played Truth or Dare, and they made up many dares and composed akward questions. But I'll upload the photos another time: they'll help sum up the story.

The after Cl'B' was suppose to be the concert, but we were dismissed early and decided to goto the SAC for a while. The others went to buy stuff to eat/drink, but I think I was the only person who went for the piano, first things first. I only had enough time to rehearsed 'He's A Pirate' in one go bfore the others came in and started to play their specialities. But I'm not complaining; in fact, it's an honour to watch my fellow friends play in front of me. A great pleasure, indeed. But time took its toll and we had to move out very soon. According to Shil, I missed a presentation of a "beautiful" piece by Kirby after fleeing off to class. Darn.

Then we all met in class, packed our bags and made our way to the New Audi. We had to sit right behind the Senior Admin as ussual, so expectations of our class were high. Real high. If memory serves, the order of content was:
-Chinese Drum Performance
-Wushu Demonstration
-Instrumental Performance - 'Sound of Heaven'
-Fashion Show
-Singing
-Lion Dance
~Performance
~Exchange of Mandarin Oranges/Ang Pao between performers and Senior Admin
~Ang Pao Distribution to the student cohord.

Then that was it. We were dismissed. I must admit that the drums were rather smashing and the instrumental programmes were beautiful, but the other things were just, well, childish. But anyway, I quickly scurried off to hand in my half-complete file, eat a quick lunch and take the next bus to Coronation. (74.) But when I was onboard, I wasn't certain if the others were really going back to Nanyang. After all, the two days that were suppose to be used for this 'reunion' was either today or this coming Wednesday. So I asked Tim when his 'warming' would end, just in case the 'gathering' wasn't today and I still had enough time to drop by. But I think due to that question, I made some confussions in the guys' arrangements. I assume they were held back because with the news that I could possibly come, they wanted to go as a group since they didn't know I knew the way to Tim's house already. So I just told them to go without me.

When I arrived at Coronation Plaza, I saw many other students from different Secondary/any power greater meeting there. I even saw Nick Ng waiting with another (girl) ex-classmate for other people from their class at the bus-stop. It was interesting to watch as people who've been seperated for a whole year or more finally meet up and hug each other with loving arms. I was moved by the sights, but I doubt that the same would be done to me. I didn't need it so badly anyway.

I suddenly recieve a call from Winston, who told me that he was with Kevin Heng and to meet the both of them at the MacDonalds next to the Police Station. Willing to meet up with them so we can enter Nanyang as a group, I made my journey to the joint. Once there, I looked through table by table until I found the two of them. I joined them in their lunch and bought a cheeseburger, even though I already had my fill. We then went over to Coro (again...) and they met up with some others that they knew, and some that I knew. But I think I ended up spending more time looking through the shops of Coro Plaza, noticing what shops have gone and what shops have replaced them. As a Nanyanger back then, I'd never imagined going here in a Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) Prefectorial uniform. It was facinating seeing the effects of time, but soon we had to go to Nanyang to finally do what we all came here to do. So here's the pictoral version of what I saw:

The Clocktower. A rather promising sight, although the numbers have apparently rusted their marks onto the clock face...

Gate A. Closed because visitors are only allowed in after 1.30pm. And it's still 12.30. Time to go back to Coro... (Urgh...)

Once 1.20, the croud was too strong that they had to let us in. Yay! We all gathered around either at the Sports Area (Will show later) or in the Hall (Up). This was also where I saw another dramatic scene: two girls were screaming with tears as they finally saw each other for a very long time. They were jumping up and down in great excitement as they recited their sides of their lives. A real touching scene, I must say.

I feel so superior! Even the water coolers require me to bend down half just to get quarter-mouthfuls of water. And the P6s were just slightly above my chin! The cheap-trills of it all...

All that remains from the Original Campus of the school left for the Primary School's use. The other 4/5th of it was given to Nanyang Kindergarden. Notice the garden in the centre: it wasn't there last time I was here. In fact, it was suppose to be a barren plot of land where students practiced shot-put.

The Curvey Staircase. A famous landmark to the students of the school.

View from 5th floor Curved Corridor. You can actually see Orchard Rd from here...

Clocktower upclose. Powerful creature, ain't she?

Overview (Right).

Overview (Left)

Me hanging out at my most favourite place to hang out at during recess: The Work-out Area. But I didn't go there to work out back then. Instead, I went there back in my Primary Days to test my flexibility skills on climbing on top of the monkeyu bars and chin-up bars. Here's me on top of the monkey bars...

...And me on top of the chin-up bars. Oh, the good ol' days...

The Canteen. Unlike the one in ACS(I), we had no air-con in the canteen and had to eat in the open, with crows time after time trying to swoop in to get our food. The misery of it all.

But I must say, they do serve quite nice food. Although they don't have Fried Food Day, their food here is good enough.

'The Giant Steps'. Another famous landmark here in the school, both to students and teachers. This place has been used for many meetings, and the irony of it all is that you can enter the place either via the front, (1st Level) or the back (2nd Level) and the one at the bottom says 'Remove your shoes' while the one at the top says 'Observe silence'. Weird, huh? By the way, this is also another good spot for Nanyang-style Fencing, but I'll explainb that in another post.

Notice that the walls of the Giant steps are made of tiles? Well, when I was Primary 5, the school asked us to paint tiles for them to paste on the walls, and they asked my class to paint the theme 'Winter'. So now my name will be in that school for a very long time. Pity it's in Chinese - Not as unique as 'Raemiguel Lee'...

Front view of the Giant Steps.

Back in the canteen. This is the front of the canteen, and as you can see, they provide a huge-screne TV and two pianos. Ha! Beat that...
Outside the Staff Room. This is the side where they display the pictures of all the staff members so you know who they are at a glance. Nice to see that my favourite teachers have been promoted in ranks, but some others somehow missing. Don't tell me they were fired...
Me at the Original Flagpoles. Once they realised that the Courtyard that this stage was on was too small to accomodate the whole school during Assembly, they decided to move us down to the Sports Area, and thus they placed another two poles down there, leaving these originals abandoned but remembered.

What is left of the 2nd Campus. This used to be the place where the P1 and 2s would be while the school was two seperated campuses. Now, the Sports' Field has been taken into the territory of St. Margrets Secondary next door, and the main building (Photo) has been renovated into a hostle. Feels funny that someone's sleeping in my classroom, that the people-in-charge are working where two staircases used to be and that one of the music rooms is now a food mart. Even the Library has been ripped off: it used to be located in front of the blank wall on the left of the picture.

I think now's also a good time to demonstrate how the Teacher Scouting system in my class worked...

If you can't see what I wrote, still curious of how the system works and are my classmate, save the pictures into your Tablet and I'll explain when we meet up again in school.