The results are out.
The points have been collected.
The subjects are at your mercy.
This - is Mid-Year Idol! *audience scream*
*theme song starts playing*
Hello, and once again welcome to Mid-Year Idol! This year, we've got 9 subjects on the line and it's up to our candidate to see if he will make it to the next round. First up, we have Language Arts! *audience cheers*
L.A., you sang about An Astrologer's Day by Malgudi. The Marker said that candidate tends to lose focus but that it was a good attempt at literary devices. The Teacher claimed that it would probably be just a good pass. The Candidate said it was a little shakey, but it should have covered the whole scope. The Examinors have voted, L.A.... you're in the bottom 3. *audience jeering*
Please sit over there at the stools. After her was Introdction to Human Societies! *cheers* I.H.S., you sang about weather Economic Hardship is the Greatest Resultant of Conflict. The Marker thought that it had a problematic layout and that validity wasn't touched on strong enough. The Teacher declined comment and allowed the class to watch The Mummy and The Mummy Returns after the Performance. The Candidate said that the best results could not be obtained as it was only found out at the last 20 minutes that there was yet another page of documents to concider on the exam booklet. The Examinors have voted... you're joining L.A. at the stools. *jeers*
Next is Physics! *cheers* You sang about momments, forces and formulas. The Marker didnt give much approval and said it just didn't seemed finished. *jeers* The Teachers said more time should be spent with the excersize books bought from the school. The Candidate said that the paper wasn't complimented with enough time. The Examinors voted... *points to stools* you're with them. *jeers*
Well, at least we now know that the rest of the subject are safe. *cheers* Let's see who's in the Top 3. Core Math, Marker caught a handful of careless mistakes in calculations. The Teacher carried on teaching about Alpha and Beta. The Student thought that it was a fun performance and that win or loose, things will still be fine.
Advance Math, Marker saw careless mistakes only in the toughest questions. The Teacher was glad that Goal 7 was achievable. The Candidate felt that the paper was reasonably fun. Examinors voted... you're both in the Top 3! *cheers*
Chemistry, the Marker commented that Section C was poorly handled, but the rest of the paper was rather decent. The Teacher said that it could have been done better, concidering that it was an easy paper. The Candidate thought that there was no real problem witht ehpaper and that it was one of the more straightfoward papers.
History, you performed about the French Revolution. The Marker said that points were rather vague and could have had more emphasis. The Teacher said that the flipsides of documents were not analyzed fully. The Candidate thought that there was enough relevant factors to write about in the essay.
Examinors voted... History... You're in the Top 3! *cheers*
And from the Top 3, winning by 13 marks, Mid-Year Idol 2008 is...
... A. Math!!! *intense cheering*
Yeah, finally that's over with. Overall agrigate points send me achieving the school target for this semester, glory be to God! Now to start thinking about my holidays. Recieved all my projects and assignments for Term 3 this week. The complete list would be;
A. Math Questions
C. Math Questions
Language Arts Coursework
Physics Coursework
Chemistry Experiment Proposal
Art (preparation for) Term 3/4
History Rebellion Research
I.H.S. (reaserch to prepare for) Model U.N. Confrence
Additonal things to do would be trainings at full blast for Canoeing Inter-School in July, as well as Project Reno with the prefects.
But looking at it from another angle, project works are to my advantage, and there's definitely fun for my end in this field. Project Reno's gonna be fun too, since renovating a room is reasonably the first step before taking on designing one. And StingRay's a fun boat to be with (Arguably the fastest rudder in our K2 Wave) so thank God I'm gonna be spending my birthday with her!
Speaking about my birthday, I'm concidering weather to celebrate it with friends or not. Based on my habits, I only organize birthday gatherings if I knew my current class for over a year. But this year, I guess I'm willing to make an exception. I won't ask directly, but if anyone is interested in watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull on the Saturday Night, do feel free to contact me. If I get a response of over five people (i.e. six people and above), I guess I'll go ahead and watch the movie, and I'll call it a party. If not, then I'll just celebrate it with God (but both ways, He's always invited, and He's always there!).
Ah well, better turn in for the night. Luke 6:35!!! God b;ess y'all!!!
Showing posts with label StingRay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label StingRay. Show all posts
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
What reputation....
Ghah!*sigh*, Raam B., for the last time NO we're NOT reviving the Detectives' Case! No one is interested and almost everyone has played a villan already, so there's more or less no point to it. Just leave it to the past and concider it a treasured memory once and for all, I say.
Apparently, Raam was going around blogs like Tim's and mine under the name of 'Nobody' and posted a few odd-structured sentences in the cBoxes. For Tim, he had;
13 Aug 07, 21:07nobody: oh yah found ah kong's blog
13 Aug 07, 21:07nobody: any1 wanna kno ask me this old ah ah
13 Aug 07, 21:08nobody: not realllly old tho13 Aug 07, 21:08nobody: but rather at an age similar to those who post as thy lamenting song of the sea (or of thy girlfriend)
13 Aug 07, 21:09nobody: does thee has 1? referring to lament master goh timothy?13 Aug 07, 21:14nobody: aaaahh tim i thot u didnt have any, d= so how could u guys have wacked part Cs with ur ball???xdld)::()
And for me, I had;
13 Aug 07, 20:59nobody: this is nobody here. nobody is sending this message in Leemiguel Raefusheng's message cbox. This is nobody here reading these blog posts. This is nobody here doing nothing.
I wasn't online last night, so I only found out about this this morning during P.E.. Tim was telling me he suspected it to be one of the Detectives due to the way the messages were typed out. And true enough, the common guess of Raam was right. I don't know if this was part of a plan to revive the Detectives, but NO NO NO we are NOT starting up again, and that's that. (Hmm, maybe I should post about the Detectives one of these days...)
*sigh*
Anyway, on with the post. I've been having doubts on myself, so I shall just type it out like a journal to relieve a bit of the stress. Please don't mind philosophical text.
Recess
I've come to discover why I go through sudden emotional changes during Recess, why I could have sworn I felt happy a minute ago, but at another momment during the Recess period I can suddenly feel somewhat sad. It's because of culture shock.
For the first half of Recess, I'd ussually make my way down to the canteen to buy myself a snack to last me for another quarter of a day. It's during this time that, after buying my food, I get a chance to go sit around with friends and classmates at a table and chat with them. Or even if I can't get involved in the topic because of no prior background knowledge of the subject, I can still rest in the thought that I am welcome to listen and see if my pinion can have a stand the moment I know a particular aspect in the conversation.
In other words, this is the only time in Recess where I can socialize with my schoolmates. Take a seat. Chill out. Have a talk or so. Invite more people so as to raise the variety of the chat. A few laughts here, a few points there. Overall, a nice social conversation to relax with, to show that you still have good friends indeed.
Then once I finish my food, I slowly place the plate back in the collection bucket, or crumble the paperbag into the bin, and make my way back to class. As I walk back, I may meet up with more friends and we'd probably tell each other a few comments on current affairs like training and duty schedules or how life's been to us. If there's no one, then I'd just smile to God and thank Him for the satisfying chat I've had in the SAC.
Then comes the sad part. The moment I step into my classroom, I here the shouts of people engrossed in their computer gaming in their PCs, telling each other how impressive the other's moves were and how their moves could have actually been better. Time after time, I hear opposite corners of the class reminding the main party their reservations for their next game. Time after time, I hear the screams of harshly-defeated gamers that regreted giving their opponents that tiny chance that meant their own downfall. Time after time, I even hear mini-fights which spark off due to these disaterous dissapointments.
And how do I join the club? Well, basically put, I don't. Or at least I can't.
True, it's partially because of how, as a prefect, I follow the rules. And yeah, it's also partially because I don't want to jam up my computer with all those space requirements. But take note when I said partially.
My main reason is more of my incapabilities with computer games. For one thing, I never got use to games that required me to press a series of keys to unleash a special force a number of times within a limited time frame, ussually limited because the opponent is also attacking you. I ussually find myself whacking the keys/joystick buttons randomly in great despair and hope that I could survive under the grace of God, and half the time it works for me.
Then there's also the fact that games get more and more complicated as time passes. Even though it's been about four years since I've started playing Worms, I only have the trial version. Eeryone else has the full version, some even with the 3-D version, and so they've got more experience on new weapons and features I never heard of. In the end, I'd still be averaged out as a person with no experience of the game and tossed aside.
Rise of Nations? Bah, everyone's taling about Command and Conquer II already. No point going around saying, "I play Rise of Nations!" when everyone else has something even more advance.
And how about the point that I still have this 'side-effect' with playing computer games.
Basically, once I finish paying a very complex computer game after a few hours or so and leave the screen, I feel rather dizzy and sometimes loose my grip on the meaning of life at times. As in, life suddenly looses its meaning and I seem to loose track of where it started or left off. I just loose direction until my mind regains contienceness within an hour or less, most of the time sped up if I quickly read my Bible. This effect doesn't really happen for simple games like Solitare or Pinball or even Diamonds; it happens more on games which are, well, 'complex' - Rise of Nations and anything beyond, as far as I've tested.
Now, obviously I can't spend hours on a computer game during a minaturely-compared recess, but for the situation in school there are a couple of problems I'd still face. One, well, there IS no Bible in the classroom, and unless there's a signifigant important reason I don't think I want to risk bringing my Bible to a class terrain. Two, I mentioned that it takes an hour or less for the 'life-is-meaningless' mindspell to wear off. And how long is recess? 40 minutes. Take away the half I use in the SAC, and we get 20 minutes. Take away the time that will be spent to play the game, and we'll be left with, well, nothing.
No time for me to ease my head before the next lesson starts. I may loose my optimism. And it's my optimism that keeps me working through the lesson. No optimism, probably no survival. Christ IS my optimism, and I think I'll keep Him in my mind as constantly as possible, especially during school hours when I need it well.
Don't get me wrong at that point: school isn't miserable to an extent that I'm struggling to strain out the joys in it. In fact, I think it would be if I introduced computer gaming to become a part of recess life. It would make things harder for me to cope in my studies, so I thinkit's best if I never try starting.
So all that was said in the last 8 paragraphs could be sumarised to one simple stand: I can't and won't play majorly complex computer games during class. And wha does this result to? Me having to stay in a restricted solitude of muteness, while the rest of the class carries on staying 'busy' on their tablets. Solitude that I can only spend on homework and (when I don't have anymore homework by memory) draw things on the Homework Board.
It's here where teachers miss the phinomenon where pictures 'miraculously' appear on the Homework Board to astound their eyes, changing their themes once every week. The one of the Kraken. A couple about Castles. Another couple about Ships. And even another about the Class Flag I composed a couple of weeks ago, which apparently Chairman Tim finds high interest in and demands the creation of more flags for the different clans of the class, something I'll get to once I can switch off the 'Philosophy' in my typing.
Yes, all of those pictures that ended up on the board were there because of me. Or more accurately, because of my loneliness. People drop by once in a while to critic, providing comments from how accurate my art is to how I can improve on some details to even what I can add or erase to make it more interesting.
True, it's those moments when I can talk to someone, and maybe from there spark another conversation that involves other topics, and maybe from there invite more people to join in and increase the fun in the chat, and maybe from there we even go so engrossed in the conversation we end up singing to the tune of 'We're All In This Together', which for some reason is playing in the background.
(*walks to Living room* "Morriel, turn it down!" *walks back to computer*)
Now, where were we? Ah, right. Yes, my actions of drawing on the Homework Board may result to an easier and more enjoyable recess that doesn't involve the misery of watching others play Marvel vs. Capcom while I stand there thinking hard for the next theme to put up. But I promise you, that is NOT my main intention for doing so.
I guess this period of silence is good for me - I can reflect on what I've done in the past few hours or so, I can finish up on work before hand, I can sit down and spend time with those who don't feel like gaming for reasons more emotional than practical, I can practice my drawing skills in hopes that I can start drawing comics again like how I tried back in Nanyang, I can even rest along side the window and draw its curtains to see the sunlight streaming through and praise the Lord within the silence for the fact that He'll always accompany me wherever I go, and will 'never leave you nor forsake you'!
I can't change others' lifestyles just so that mine feels a lot more comfortable. That would just be concidered a non-socialized decission, which would then be a greed, which would then be a sin, which would then circle around to mean one thing: I didn't trust God.
Well, overall I'll say I trust Him with my heart. And I'll also say I trust Him in how he handles my heart. And that, in my terms, would include a comfortable recess worth having before begining another half of the school hours. Besides, the drawing tips are coming really handy! Yay for drawing! :P
I guess all I can do is cherish those moments in the SAC, and after that walk back up to class, upright and dignified, with the mindset that everyday's a gift from God, even if it means you wouldn't spend it with others you really feel like spending it with. Maybe God's got something for them, and it doesn't rquire me as of the time being. I shouldnt interfier with His plans, for they're the best of the best of the best of plans. (For those who haven't believed, you have NO idea how awesome these plans have been to many Christians around the world and time...)
Or maybe it's because God wants me to pay more attention to someone else in the classroom, maybe someone sitting at the back corner of the room, sitting by his desk head in arms and waiting for God to help him out in a problem. I'll never know, or at least until God tells me so since He always instructs in many ways pre-hand.
Whatever the case, I'll always be thankful that Christ is still there beside me and is still listening to anything I'm concerned about in His plans. He's probably preparing a way to prove me wrong that my recess always have to be half-gloomy right this very moment!
Lunch
Say, it's during these second-halves of recesses which I wonder why people would actually want to friend me so much that I even end up being asked day after day wether I could go for lunch with them. I have a rough idea how God's changed me so much that I've become a good friend to others. I'm friendly, flexible and willing to go the extra mile for the satisfaction of pure intentions. But what is it from these that make me so, well, 'friend-attatching'? I know it's got something to do with my friendliness, but what exactly, I do not know.
[End of ePOM (Yes, for once this really IS an Extended Essay.)]
Well, to think it takes so many paragraphs just to write 'Recess' and only a couple for 'Lunch'. Very ironic, indeed.
Now on with archiving. For yesterday, painting in Art was cool, as I've leart how to paint shading! (Yay, art!) Kept singing the theme song of Pinky and the Brain with Tim and ZWei 'cause either Shil, Raam or ZRong made a special shade of pink. The singing annoyed ZRong to extents, let's just say. Raam was certainly playing around with the rest of the colours, I remember, and so he ended up with an entire tray of brown, of which the rest of us almost sang the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory theme song (chocolatey goodness, mmm...).
It was also around this time when my picture of the Flag of the Dan Empire was drawn onto the Homework Board for display as written somewhere above. Tim asked what the different elements in the flag meant, but another class started before I could say anything. Well, I never did write an explaination about the flag, so here's my say;
The White Cross: 1)Unity within all corners of the classroom. 2)The Roman Numeral of '10'
The Red Thirds: 1)Distinctly different variety in student population despite unison. 2) We're on the Red Level.
The Green Third: 1)Peace within the heart of the class. 2)Path for the snake [see Red Snake].
The Red Snake: 1)Read Genisis 49:16-17, and it says that the tribe of Dan 'will be a ruler for His people' and that 'Dan will be a snake at the side of the road, a poisonous snake beside the path, that strikes at the horse's heel, so that the rider is thrown off backwards'. 2)It faces upwards to show the class' progression towards a better class environment and our strive for the best.
Hopefully, that answers the questions. Tim also asked for another two side flags to be drawn at the sides of the flag. Hmm, I'll take it the two flags would be the Royal Standard and the flag of whichever cluster in the class is the greatest. Will see...
For today, PE was a fun round of Tennis, besides the 'Nobody' investigation. Paired with ZWei, but eventually had to move to the grouping of Shil, Raam and ZRong. Half-way through the game, I helped Shil with his NAPHA on Sit-ups, of which he gave up on because he was shagged from the Tennis, especially one with Raam and ZRong (because you always had to run an extra mile to catch the misguided ball). Had a practical test later in the Life Science Lab with Justin, and I guess things went pretty smooth (good job, Justin!).
Also had a rough estimate of how Mr. Ang found my group's documentary after hearing his splitting comments. Hopefully they were accurate enough, my predictions I mean. ISO was good since the new mentor was giving me more tips on how to improve my presentation, although he said it that there was nothing he found bad about it - it's only that it can do a lot better, that's all. For Maths, we wer told to do a lesson plan on Trigonometry, which got me praying 'cause I, along with a large portion of the class, had no head or tail on the topic. And glory be to God that Tim, the guy who kept complaining that his tution centre gives him 500-odd questions of Trig for homework, nudged my leg and asked me to be his partner! Praise the Lord XD!
Training is still standardly confidential, but let's just say that Kenneth and I have improved in our strokes! We're still crossing our arms, but at least our catch is more or less balanced! Now to work on co-ordination...
That's about it for now. If it'll thrill, the first person to tell me how many times I said 'time after time' gets a sweet from me XP! Mark 13:11! God bless y'all!!!
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
No, I Wasn't...
No fair.
They all had a chance to run cross-country and excert their strengths, and what do I do? Duty.
And even worse, I get blamed for being a slacker.
The first four sentence circulated my head as I left Turf City after Cross-Country Run today to go eat at a MacDonalds before leaving for training at MacRitchie. But let's just say God was able to thrill me back to my happy mood after the lunch. (God, You never fail to amuse me...)
Now on with what happened today, from the top. Starts with me sucessfully waking up at 5.30! After weks of oversleeping, I finally got myself to wake up early with the help of an annoying alarm clock! But sadly, the momment I switched off the alarm, I woke up to realise I knocked off the momment I switch off the alarm. And when I checked my watch, I found out it was already 5.55!
And I needed to reach Turf City for Prefect Duty at 6.30! And to get there in time, I needed to leave at 6! Alarmed altogether (har, har...), I rushed out of my room to eat a quik breakfast. My Mom then got out of her room, all ready to send me to the venue, only to find me still dunking a chocolate sandwitch in a cup of Horlicks.
She then told me I was really stretching myself too far, of which I responded by gulping down the remainder of Horlicks and rushing to my room to gert changed into my co-operate T-shirt. There were no lessons but training today, so I didn't have to pack much of a bag except a small one for my water bottle. For training attire, I just did the ussual thing I'd do - wear it underneath my uniform (or for this case, my co-op T).
Once finished with settling this stuff, I, along with my Mom, rushed down to the car and drove off. When we arrived at Turf City, the place was still in moderate darkness, and Mom had doubts on whether there was even an event at the time. I got off at the drop-off point and checked the area, later finding another cluster of prefects and so I called Mom to tell her all was fine and she could go.
After some more waiting, all the different clusters combined to form one group along with the Student Council, and we all had a combined briefing on the duties we had to do. For me, I had to do parking, basically guiding parents' cars (and subsiquently student that are lost on the roads)to the round-a-bout we're forming in the carpark.
I ran with Calvin and Andy to the main road areas to help students andteachers to cross the road, and also to secretly keep watch for the Senior Administration and other VIPs. For the first hour, it was rather exciting to gather the students bundle by bndle and then running in the middle of the road to risk your life in front of cars just to help them cross.
Then came a subsiquent half an hour, where the traffic, along with the number of students coming in, were dieing down. Easing off, but still maintainable.
Then came the next half hour. There were rarely, if not barely, any cars on the road, and we were literally stoning there and doing nothing. It was miserable, and so we were thankful when the people back at Turf City called Andy to tell us to head back. We walked back and gathered with the rest, later to be told that we were going to the shopping center's interior to chase out loitering students.
We tried to chase them out, but many have already lined up at 7-ll. It was somewhat funny to watch them all compressed inside the stall, but we had to try to get as many people back in the tracks as possible. We then moved towards the tracks to get the student assembled for the remaining races, making sure we had a controlled path for people who needed to go to the toilet.
I was told to guard one of the exits and make sure no one goes in or out from that way, telling anyone who wants to do so that tey needed to go to the controlled path. I was able to do it for the next hour or so, with the help of listening to the music being played. (Heh, there were some funny songs played, like one which kept on singing, "Chocolate Rain!")
But after that, I was starting to get tired standing still. I was watching all the racers on the track as they were finishing off their runs, and I looked down to watch how my feet were screaming at me to start joining them. I sighed and stayed at my spot, soon allowing students to pass through me if they wanted to. And when I saw that the senioors were moving away from their posts, I got my bag and went to their direction.
Loosing track of time, I sat on a railing, watching the runners walk pass me to go to the toilet. They were well-exausted from the run, and seemed to have enjoyed themselves. I knew I was missing out on a lot, and so I stared don again.
Finally, the announcement was made for people to report back to the grounds for prize presentation. All the prefects went down to chase the students out of the building, assisted by a couple of teachers or so. But once it was done, we had a debrief on the opposite side of the building.
After the debrief, we saw the students flooding through the building and knew it was time to get dismissed. Finally! I could walk again at free will, and so I went off to the bus-stop to eat at MacDonalds at Coronation. A quiet meal by myself, and I was off for MacRitchie for training.
I was suppose to report to the chin-up bars at 1.45, but it was still 11.55 when I got there. So I decided to walk around MacRichie to visually entertain myself. And I must tell you, MacRitchie looks beautiful in the afternoon! Walking past the food stall, the countless benches, the 'zig-zag' bridge and even Lim Bo Seng's grave, it was good enough for me to say, "What a wonderful world!" I should have taken photos, but there were many timeless locations around the reservour perfect for group outings, such as picnics and re-creational activities!
As of now, the only four places I know are best for picnics would be Bukit Timah Hill, East Coast Park, West Coast Park and MacRitchie Reservior.
MacRitchie is if you're with an artistic group and want a peaceful meal in a beautiful landscape.
Bukit Timah is somewhat similiar in beauty, just that this is suited for those who want an adventure just to get to their breakfast.
West Coast is for those who want adventure, but in a more convenient and simplified (playground) manner.
East Coast is more towards re-creational activitise like fishing and cycling. There's also a great variety of food to feast on throughout the stretch, so meals aren't a problem.
Back to where we left, I later found a spot up a hill and sat down to get a good view of the reservior, then taking out my MP3 to listen to some jazz and country music to enhance the mood. My annoyance of not being able to run was long gone, and I was praising the Lord for saving this momment for now.
"Lord, You never fail to ammuse me!..."
After a while, I tried to sing along with one of the songs an octave higher to train my vocal cords, just as Tim had been advising me through the past couple of weeks or more. But I could tell I was sounding annoyingly squeaky, so I decided to stop and pause my MP3 for a while. Just then, I saw from the corner of my eye that someone was walking past. I turned to look, only to bite my tounge to see that it was, well, Mr. See.
"You should have sat somewhere over that area," he told me smiling as he pointed out a bench a few meters away. "You'd have a better view of the water there, and it'd have shaded out the sun."
I quietly followed him as he walked down the hill, biting my tongue even more with the thought that he might have heard me singing squeaky if I wasn't careful back then. We then talked about the cross-country run, which lead to him telling me about how it was like when he was once Assistant Prefect Master, which lead to the story of how he was somewhat against the double-CCA policy in ACS(Independent) when it came to application back in 1999, about the same time Canoeing started in the school.
We then met up with Michael at the Carpark toilet. Mr. See then remembered that Winston lost his spectacles somewhere in the bushes in the area, so he asked us to help him do a brief search. By the Grace of God, I found them seated beside a tree, and so I passed them to Mr. See, who later called Winston to tell him to buy 4-D and that any punishments he'd give me would go to Wins for the next week or so.
We then ran up to the Bags Shed, except Mr. See who can't run because pof his leg injury. He called for me, then took out the keys from his bag and toss them to me, later giving the 'opps' face when he over-shot me by a bit. I unlocked the shed and we placed our bags inside, while Mr. See told us about how rental fees for these sheds were increasing, yet still worth it.
We then went to the chin-up bars behind the Paddle Lodge to, well, do chin-ups. Mr. See left us there while he searched for more canoeists from our club. After doing a few sets, more fellow canoeists came, and soon the group was alrge enough to justify us to get back to the sheds to get out our boats.
For today, I took StingRay with Kenneth after we bargained with Mr. See and a couple of Juniors. We launched off and did our sets, although in the middle of sets Kenneth would swear in anxiety that his strokes were somehow wrong. Through the programme, I was praying to God for peace in my boat, and soon enough it came around the last two sets of 2K.
Basically, what is wrong with our strokes is more of our timing together, and that we need to stop crossing our arms too far over the opposite sides of the boat. Individually, Kenneth is apparently pulling beyond his waist (I don't know if that's true 'cause he's Backman so he's obviously not in my view) while I'm still punching too high and, as quoted by Mr. Goh, "You're too stiff in the boat. Relax."
Well, at least we were able to keep pace with Derek and Ryan. It feels nice to paddle sets alongside another friendly boat. Once finished with our sets, we packed up and got the boat to Upper Shed. Kenneth then made a dash for the toilet, while I got the sheds unlocked and the life jackets and blades brought down to the Lower Shed. Soon, the rest of the team came over with their boats, and within 10 or so minutes we packed up everything.
Only to find out that there's a missing blade.
After a short debrief, the Sec 2s went to comb the entire grounds of the launching area to search for Derek's paddle, only to find nothing. Mr. See then told us that we'd have to share the cost of the $700-odd paddle. Ah, well.
After changing up and catching a bus home, I got back home by about 5.45 or so, of which I went to sleep the moment I sat on my bed. When I woke up, I somehow had a few random doubts about life in my head, and they went around until I knew something was wrong so I quickly called out, "Good evening, Lord!"
And instantly my mind was calm again. Heh, comes to show you can never start a day right without starting it with God.
Well, since tomorrow's a sub-holiday in many schools, Dad said he'll permit me to watch TV late tonight! Yay, CSI and Criminal Minds! Well, I've just finished watching the shows, so I better turn out now. Can't be late for tomorrow's (sorry, today's) duty at the OneACS thingy. G'nite and God bless y'all!
They all had a chance to run cross-country and excert their strengths, and what do I do? Duty.
And even worse, I get blamed for being a slacker.
The first four sentence circulated my head as I left Turf City after Cross-Country Run today to go eat at a MacDonalds before leaving for training at MacRitchie. But let's just say God was able to thrill me back to my happy mood after the lunch. (God, You never fail to amuse me...)
Now on with what happened today, from the top. Starts with me sucessfully waking up at 5.30! After weks of oversleeping, I finally got myself to wake up early with the help of an annoying alarm clock! But sadly, the momment I switched off the alarm, I woke up to realise I knocked off the momment I switch off the alarm. And when I checked my watch, I found out it was already 5.55!
And I needed to reach Turf City for Prefect Duty at 6.30! And to get there in time, I needed to leave at 6! Alarmed altogether (har, har...), I rushed out of my room to eat a quik breakfast. My Mom then got out of her room, all ready to send me to the venue, only to find me still dunking a chocolate sandwitch in a cup of Horlicks.
She then told me I was really stretching myself too far, of which I responded by gulping down the remainder of Horlicks and rushing to my room to gert changed into my co-operate T-shirt. There were no lessons but training today, so I didn't have to pack much of a bag except a small one for my water bottle. For training attire, I just did the ussual thing I'd do - wear it underneath my uniform (or for this case, my co-op T).
Once finished with settling this stuff, I, along with my Mom, rushed down to the car and drove off. When we arrived at Turf City, the place was still in moderate darkness, and Mom had doubts on whether there was even an event at the time. I got off at the drop-off point and checked the area, later finding another cluster of prefects and so I called Mom to tell her all was fine and she could go.
After some more waiting, all the different clusters combined to form one group along with the Student Council, and we all had a combined briefing on the duties we had to do. For me, I had to do parking, basically guiding parents' cars (and subsiquently student that are lost on the roads)to the round-a-bout we're forming in the carpark.
I ran with Calvin and Andy to the main road areas to help students andteachers to cross the road, and also to secretly keep watch for the Senior Administration and other VIPs. For the first hour, it was rather exciting to gather the students bundle by bndle and then running in the middle of the road to risk your life in front of cars just to help them cross.
Then came a subsiquent half an hour, where the traffic, along with the number of students coming in, were dieing down. Easing off, but still maintainable.
Then came the next half hour. There were rarely, if not barely, any cars on the road, and we were literally stoning there and doing nothing. It was miserable, and so we were thankful when the people back at Turf City called Andy to tell us to head back. We walked back and gathered with the rest, later to be told that we were going to the shopping center's interior to chase out loitering students.
We tried to chase them out, but many have already lined up at 7-ll. It was somewhat funny to watch them all compressed inside the stall, but we had to try to get as many people back in the tracks as possible. We then moved towards the tracks to get the student assembled for the remaining races, making sure we had a controlled path for people who needed to go to the toilet.
I was told to guard one of the exits and make sure no one goes in or out from that way, telling anyone who wants to do so that tey needed to go to the controlled path. I was able to do it for the next hour or so, with the help of listening to the music being played. (Heh, there were some funny songs played, like one which kept on singing, "Chocolate Rain!")
But after that, I was starting to get tired standing still. I was watching all the racers on the track as they were finishing off their runs, and I looked down to watch how my feet were screaming at me to start joining them. I sighed and stayed at my spot, soon allowing students to pass through me if they wanted to. And when I saw that the senioors were moving away from their posts, I got my bag and went to their direction.
Loosing track of time, I sat on a railing, watching the runners walk pass me to go to the toilet. They were well-exausted from the run, and seemed to have enjoyed themselves. I knew I was missing out on a lot, and so I stared don again.
Finally, the announcement was made for people to report back to the grounds for prize presentation. All the prefects went down to chase the students out of the building, assisted by a couple of teachers or so. But once it was done, we had a debrief on the opposite side of the building.
After the debrief, we saw the students flooding through the building and knew it was time to get dismissed. Finally! I could walk again at free will, and so I went off to the bus-stop to eat at MacDonalds at Coronation. A quiet meal by myself, and I was off for MacRitchie for training.
I was suppose to report to the chin-up bars at 1.45, but it was still 11.55 when I got there. So I decided to walk around MacRichie to visually entertain myself. And I must tell you, MacRitchie looks beautiful in the afternoon! Walking past the food stall, the countless benches, the 'zig-zag' bridge and even Lim Bo Seng's grave, it was good enough for me to say, "What a wonderful world!" I should have taken photos, but there were many timeless locations around the reservour perfect for group outings, such as picnics and re-creational activities!
As of now, the only four places I know are best for picnics would be Bukit Timah Hill, East Coast Park, West Coast Park and MacRitchie Reservior.
MacRitchie is if you're with an artistic group and want a peaceful meal in a beautiful landscape.
Bukit Timah is somewhat similiar in beauty, just that this is suited for those who want an adventure just to get to their breakfast.
West Coast is for those who want adventure, but in a more convenient and simplified (playground) manner.
East Coast is more towards re-creational activitise like fishing and cycling. There's also a great variety of food to feast on throughout the stretch, so meals aren't a problem.
Back to where we left, I later found a spot up a hill and sat down to get a good view of the reservior, then taking out my MP3 to listen to some jazz and country music to enhance the mood. My annoyance of not being able to run was long gone, and I was praising the Lord for saving this momment for now.
"Lord, You never fail to ammuse me!..."
After a while, I tried to sing along with one of the songs an octave higher to train my vocal cords, just as Tim had been advising me through the past couple of weeks or more. But I could tell I was sounding annoyingly squeaky, so I decided to stop and pause my MP3 for a while. Just then, I saw from the corner of my eye that someone was walking past. I turned to look, only to bite my tounge to see that it was, well, Mr. See.
"You should have sat somewhere over that area," he told me smiling as he pointed out a bench a few meters away. "You'd have a better view of the water there, and it'd have shaded out the sun."
I quietly followed him as he walked down the hill, biting my tongue even more with the thought that he might have heard me singing squeaky if I wasn't careful back then. We then talked about the cross-country run, which lead to him telling me about how it was like when he was once Assistant Prefect Master, which lead to the story of how he was somewhat against the double-CCA policy in ACS(Independent) when it came to application back in 1999, about the same time Canoeing started in the school.
We then met up with Michael at the Carpark toilet. Mr. See then remembered that Winston lost his spectacles somewhere in the bushes in the area, so he asked us to help him do a brief search. By the Grace of God, I found them seated beside a tree, and so I passed them to Mr. See, who later called Winston to tell him to buy 4-D and that any punishments he'd give me would go to Wins for the next week or so.
We then ran up to the Bags Shed, except Mr. See who can't run because pof his leg injury. He called for me, then took out the keys from his bag and toss them to me, later giving the 'opps' face when he over-shot me by a bit. I unlocked the shed and we placed our bags inside, while Mr. See told us about how rental fees for these sheds were increasing, yet still worth it.
We then went to the chin-up bars behind the Paddle Lodge to, well, do chin-ups. Mr. See left us there while he searched for more canoeists from our club. After doing a few sets, more fellow canoeists came, and soon the group was alrge enough to justify us to get back to the sheds to get out our boats.
For today, I took StingRay with Kenneth after we bargained with Mr. See and a couple of Juniors. We launched off and did our sets, although in the middle of sets Kenneth would swear in anxiety that his strokes were somehow wrong. Through the programme, I was praying to God for peace in my boat, and soon enough it came around the last two sets of 2K.
Basically, what is wrong with our strokes is more of our timing together, and that we need to stop crossing our arms too far over the opposite sides of the boat. Individually, Kenneth is apparently pulling beyond his waist (I don't know if that's true 'cause he's Backman so he's obviously not in my view) while I'm still punching too high and, as quoted by Mr. Goh, "You're too stiff in the boat. Relax."
Well, at least we were able to keep pace with Derek and Ryan. It feels nice to paddle sets alongside another friendly boat. Once finished with our sets, we packed up and got the boat to Upper Shed. Kenneth then made a dash for the toilet, while I got the sheds unlocked and the life jackets and blades brought down to the Lower Shed. Soon, the rest of the team came over with their boats, and within 10 or so minutes we packed up everything.
Only to find out that there's a missing blade.
After a short debrief, the Sec 2s went to comb the entire grounds of the launching area to search for Derek's paddle, only to find nothing. Mr. See then told us that we'd have to share the cost of the $700-odd paddle. Ah, well.
After changing up and catching a bus home, I got back home by about 5.45 or so, of which I went to sleep the moment I sat on my bed. When I woke up, I somehow had a few random doubts about life in my head, and they went around until I knew something was wrong so I quickly called out, "Good evening, Lord!"
And instantly my mind was calm again. Heh, comes to show you can never start a day right without starting it with God.
Well, since tomorrow's a sub-holiday in many schools, Dad said he'll permit me to watch TV late tonight! Yay, CSI and Criminal Minds! Well, I've just finished watching the shows, so I better turn out now. Can't be late for tomorrow's (sorry, today's) duty at the OneACS thingy. G'nite and God bless y'all!
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
The Perfect Storm...
As the StingRay sinks defeated into the dark waters, the Mosquito sets voyage at yonder for her avengence...
Yup, Hao Qing and I didn't make it to the Finals. 4th place at the Heats didn't get us much. But hey, the fact that we got 4th compared to other pro rowers says a lot by itself already. And besides, even if I don't get my name in the papers or a trophy of sheer colours or a fake scroll at Honours' Day, I feel like that doesn't matter as badly. And why?
Because God and my parents came to watch.
And that's all I needed to be satisfied. Even if they saw me lost, they were still there. And after that, I rushed back to school to help out in Inter-Class Debate which we won, so I didn't loose everything today! But enough with the mushy-mushy, let's get into the action...
It all starts early in the morning. I recieved an SMS last night telling me to report to Bedok at 7.30 for briefing and warming-up. A quick rice-based breakfast and I went to my room to pack my bags. I checked my time-table to estimate what lessons I might miss, and so packed accordingly. I ended up with two sling bags across both sides, and soon set off with my paddle to the reserviour. Once I got there, I walked alone the rubbled path towards the newly-installed boat sheds about 400 or more meters away.
Just then, I almost startled in shock when I heard Mr. See's voice. "I see you, Raemiguel," he said in a calm tone. Looking towards whereer the voice came from, I saw Mr. See beside a still electricity generator, looking at his phone. Observing the other bags in front of him, I assumed we were to gather over there, so I went over to place my bags and paddle down.
Monkeys then started appearing around the sheds and were making a slight racket in the place. "If you want, I can do a live disection in front f you," said sir, who took his eyes off the phone just when the monkeys were reaching our school's shed. I mumbled a soft laughter, then got down to my bags to check that everything was there.
Mr. See saw that I brought my tablet bag, so he wondered why I'd be bringing my laptop all the way here. I explained to him that they were my files and that I was going to return to school after this. He nodded with a firm, "Hmm." and went back to his phone. He the told me that Daniel and the others who were already here were further up the path to search for the 500m Mark, and adviced me to check it out.
For those who haven't seen/notice Bedok's tracks, they're not the kind that's convenient to paddlers around here. For one thing, the buoys aren't at specific intervals, so you have to commit to memory which particular buoys of the entire set are the 500 buoys. I agreed, and ran off to Daniel to see where the line was, after that returning back to the generator to wait for others to come.
Slowly, but surely, they came one by one or pair by pair or cluster by cluster, and soon most of the 'C' Division, along with much of the 'B' Division, were present. By around this time, the staff in-charge of the equiptment around here were starting up the generators, so Mr. See told us to move further up the road so we didn't get dosages of carbon monoxide before our races.
He later gathered us close and pointed out a few things we had to take note of in the race, using twigs and his pen for lanes, starting/finishing lines, boats and etc.. Another thing he pointed out was that the racing course wasn't the typical rectangular shape, but more of the inconvenient parallelogram shape.
At MacRitchie, we have our very own Mr. Goh to help us straighten the lanes and maintain it time after time. But in Bedok, not many people give as good attention to it as in MacRitchie, and even those who'd bother aren't in charged or permitted to be in charge of Bedok. Thus, as time goes by the buoys may loosen and end up twisting the shape of the course.
And as a result, you can never be certain that your bow had passed the finishing line yet by just looking left and right. Mr. See highlighted a mistake Abraham made yesterday. It was a tight match for third place in the heats between Chinese High and him, and AB was just at the lead of the two. But just as he was about to reach the finishing line, he looked left and right and thought that he made it through first already, so he slowed down thinking that he had already finished.
Well, he did finish before the other boat IF you were looking at it from the perpendicular view. Unfortunately, thoguh, the judges would only take the finishing line itself as the rough measurement of who came first and the sort, and that means the parallelogramic view. And it so happens that the tilt of the line alowed Chinese High to pass through first before Abraham did, even though AB was supposed to have crossed the perpendicular line first.
And which would the judges take? The parallelogram reading, of course! Why, they only have one camera to tell then who came first, and that camera is only in-line with the slanted finishing line, thus after watching the video over and over and over again, the judges decided to make Chinese High win over AB.
"So always make sure you sprint through the finishing line, gentlemen," noted sir. "If you want to be safe, wait till the boat is one-third through, then you can slow down. In fact, even one-fith through is good enough. Just one-fifth."
"In other words, till the line reaces you or your front rower," said Daniel, who was trying to help out as Captain.
"Yes, just one-fifth in, gentlemen. And then we also have wind conditions to settle. You all better have learnt your draw-strokes well, because here is a good place to use it."
Winds at Bedok are rather wild at times, especially in the afternoon. They always blow from the right of the lanes, and with the stern's greater exposed area this causes the boat to turn towards the right if you're not careful. Thus while you're lining up for your event, you shoudl always observe if you're drifting, and if you are then respond to where and at which direction you are drifting to - correctiong your direction while starting a sprint can cost you up to 3.5 seconds.
Soon, the organisers came to the area and unlocked the metal fence that protected the sheds which held our boats, of which canoeists of all schools of life rushed towards the area to collect their boats for warm-up. Right behind Saint Joseph's Institution, ACS(Independent) huddled towards the gates and went for our shed to grab out the lifejacks, seats, footrests, wingnuts, paddles and most importantly, boats.
After searching for where our items were within the scattered stack of equiptment, Hao Qing and I carried out the StingRay and assembled it somewhere nearby, later launching off for a rough warm-up. As can be seen as we walked closer to the shore, the wooden dock which was temporarily built along the shore was removed, so launching was going to be a lot harder and longer.
As a K2, we both went to this special pontoon which floated off the shore by a bridge. The only problem getting there was that the organisers haven't brought the key for the bridge yet, so with the help of coaches from other schools we had to climb over a fence with the boat securedly on our shoulders. A little funny tackling our way through the fence, but once that was over we paddled a couple of laps before returning to shore.
By now, the pontoon we launched from was already crouded with tonnes of other K2, so we had to pack up at a concrete slope near by. The problemS with this place is that on the slope, I may be able to feel the ground with my paddle, but Hao Qing may not AND that even if I wanted to paddle towards the slope, there were tonnes of boats also tryign to get out the same way. In our attempt to try getting on land, we ended up capsizing but quickly got the boat out of the way before the waves made it drift towards the rough concrete surface.
Back at the sheds, we gave Mr. See ezLink cards for registration. Placing the boat at a rack somewhere nearby, we proceeded to warm up along the coast as the first events began on the water (Go Ming Sheng, GO!). Mr. See later chased us away to another end of the coast when he saw that we were too close to the generator, which was producing enough gases to give Mr. See headaches on end.
Event after event went by. We watched, we cheered, we estimated. And in due time, I went to my bags to get my handphone just in case my parents SMSed me, which they apparently did. They were wondering if the competition was still on because it was raining moderately at their area, but I reassured them that the races were as normal where I was.
And around this time, it came to our event. Nick Ng just left, so now our turn is just around the corner. Event 14 could be called any minute now. Soon, Mr. See gave us the 'go' sign to launch off for our event. But as we bought the boat down from the racks, it began to drizzle. The winds were picking up, and the rain was increasing by the minutes. But haven' being told not to stop, Hao Qing and I continued to go launch.
As we were carrying the boat towards the pontoon, we had to tilt ourselves to the right to make sure the wind didn't blow us away along with the boat. I was giggling slightly with all the irony around and with the fact that rain meant a lot to me. Especially at a time like this. But as we went down the pontoon, the coaches were telling us to turn back, signaling that it was too dangerous to paddle now.
By now, the sky was extremely grey, and one couldn't speak without having 50ml of water going into the mouth every three sylabuls one says. It was rather scary - something like The Perfect Storm just that reduced to the scale of canoes - and so we turned and headed back for the sheds. When we arrived, we saw many canoers trying their best to hold down the boats onto the racks with their lifejacks or bare hands.
Not realising how strong the winds were, HQ and I placed StingRay on a close rack, only to realise 4 seconds later that it was just about to fly off. Nearby to the bow, I quickly ran back and caught the bow just in time to keep it from slipping off. Unfortunately, the stern was still free and it flew off by a couple of meters towards the neighbouring rack. At least it wasn't as bad as another boat which flung off and barely missed Mr. See by an inch or so, or the SJI rack that collapsed in the middle of the storm.
Thankfully to God, the rudder didn't have contact with the ground, so it didn't snap off. A couple of people rushed for the boat and slightly lifted it to allow me to slide the bow off the racks, then slowly release it onto the ground so the wind can't effect it anymore. With lots of people helping to keep the equiptment safe, Mr. See told the remainder of us to go to the ol' Pavilion just a little sprint away.
We all ran there, and soon the Pavilion was crouded with loads of ACS(I)an rowers trying to brave the cold temperatures (water freezes faster than air, so having both elements together...). Time after time, we would imitate the penguins in Happy Feet, saying lines like, "We remain!" or, "Keep your eggs warm!" or even, "Nah, I know you like it!". But despite whatever jokes were said, our skins still felt like 14 degrees or so and goosebumps were the norm.
After half an hour, te rains were starting to calm down, and we were greatly merry that the temperature was rising again! Soon, rain was back to a normal drizzle, and Nick Ng, HQ and I were called back into the water.
While Nick was getting to his event, HQ and I kept paddling around the 500m Mark of the tracks to wait for our turn. And as soon as ever, our time was up. We slowly paddled towards the Starting Line. After an entire year and three months worth of training, it all came down to this. This was it.
I could faintly hear the commands of the started at my farthest right.
Sadly, we didn't make it for even 3rd place, but just 4th place. Somewhat dissapointed, I held water and looked down in slight defeat. But then as I paddled towards the packing-up area, I noticed two distinct people within the slight croud. They were smiling at me, and one was holding a camera towards me. It was my parents.
I assumed that after that delay from the storm, they might not have stayed longer for my event. But they actually came, and in my presence! The momment I saw them, I lighted back up again, still defeated but nevertheless still loved. The feeling of being appreciated by your family no matter what you get is an honourable feeling, and that satisfies a medal hands down.
As we got out of the water, I carried my boat along the muddy path (and posed a bit for my parents to take photos) before arriving back at the sheds. At the shed, we placed g'd ol' StingRay back on the rack she was placed originally before reporting to Mr. See for debrief. He stated that "this was your whole year's work summed up, and it equals you both to 4th place. There is no disgrace in that, as long as you did your best."
We were then permitted dismissal, of which I searched for my bags and later found at the Pavilion. Over there, I decided to stay a little longer to cheer on Joon Sin and Kenneth for their K2 500m event. Might as well cheer on my avengers. They had a third placing, and after so I headed back to the shed to take my shoes and leave for the bus stop (which was a looooooooooooooooooooooooooog walk away).
If you've forgotten, I now needed to go to school for the Inter-Class Debate Finals. The fate of the class rested in my hands, since after all the replacement was Kirby (Hey, I'm quoting from others, so don't blame me for being blunt!). So my original plan to get there was to take a 67 to Bedok MRT Station to take a train to Dover, then take a bus/walk to school.
But just as I was about to board the 67, I realised that my ezLink card was still with Mr. See! I quickly got off the bus and stomped my way back to the shed, which mind you was the same looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooog walk away. This time I didn't care: I walked through all the grassy patches in the park and didn't follow any roads. My main objective was to make a straight line for the sheds, and no roads were gonna stop me in the state I was.
Once back at the shed, Mr. See didn't need to look up to see I was there, and immediately got out my card with a sarcastic, "And I was wondering when you would've realized." I responded with a soft, "Opps." and collected my card before making my looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooog way back to the bus stop again. By now, I didn't think I'd arrive at school early enough for the debate, so I decided to take Plan B! And what is Plan B?
Take taxi, lah!
I hailed a cab at the bus stop, and I hadf a friendly conversation with the driver in Mandarin (Yay! The fact I could hold a 10-minute conversation with the guy without any mess-ups is a great miracle! Praise the Lord Almighty!) Later, I also asked if I could change in the cab, which he willingly allowed (or at least he sounded like as if he was willing). I first stripped of my shirt and replaced it with a uniform shirt, then worked my way down until everything I wore for the race was replaced with a uniform's item (exception being the watch, 'cause it's practically under both categories).
To cut the story short by half an hour or more, we won! By 2 points, but that's besides the point! When it was all over, we told the joyful news to Mr. Tay, who in response started laughing here and there, and later treating each of us with a dollar each for a drink down the SAC. We all thanked him, and he thanked us in return for our efforts, also legalising the Class T-Shirt again.
The whole team went down to the SAC to celebrate our victory, whole team being;
1st Speaker (Me)
2nd Speaker (Tim)
3rd Speaker (Niran)
Stand-by Speaker (Kirby)
Supporter (JKit)
And since I'm already out of the competition, I can now break embargo! Woohoo, feasting the anti-embargo way rocks! Haha, yeah the good times! We then chatted around before leaving for our own homes. And now here I am typing into my blog what happened today: I may have lost the Canoeing Inter-Schools, but I've won the Debate Inter-Class. Whether that's a fair exchange, you be the judge.
I'm just happy Mom and Dad were there to see me race.
G'dnite, and God bless!
Yup, Hao Qing and I didn't make it to the Finals. 4th place at the Heats didn't get us much. But hey, the fact that we got 4th compared to other pro rowers says a lot by itself already. And besides, even if I don't get my name in the papers or a trophy of sheer colours or a fake scroll at Honours' Day, I feel like that doesn't matter as badly. And why?
Because God and my parents came to watch.
And that's all I needed to be satisfied. Even if they saw me lost, they were still there. And after that, I rushed back to school to help out in Inter-Class Debate which we won, so I didn't loose everything today! But enough with the mushy-mushy, let's get into the action...
It all starts early in the morning. I recieved an SMS last night telling me to report to Bedok at 7.30 for briefing and warming-up. A quick rice-based breakfast and I went to my room to pack my bags. I checked my time-table to estimate what lessons I might miss, and so packed accordingly. I ended up with two sling bags across both sides, and soon set off with my paddle to the reserviour. Once I got there, I walked alone the rubbled path towards the newly-installed boat sheds about 400 or more meters away.
Just then, I almost startled in shock when I heard Mr. See's voice. "I see you, Raemiguel," he said in a calm tone. Looking towards whereer the voice came from, I saw Mr. See beside a still electricity generator, looking at his phone. Observing the other bags in front of him, I assumed we were to gather over there, so I went over to place my bags and paddle down.
Monkeys then started appearing around the sheds and were making a slight racket in the place. "If you want, I can do a live disection in front f you," said sir, who took his eyes off the phone just when the monkeys were reaching our school's shed. I mumbled a soft laughter, then got down to my bags to check that everything was there.
Mr. See saw that I brought my tablet bag, so he wondered why I'd be bringing my laptop all the way here. I explained to him that they were my files and that I was going to return to school after this. He nodded with a firm, "Hmm." and went back to his phone. He the told me that Daniel and the others who were already here were further up the path to search for the 500m Mark, and adviced me to check it out.
For those who haven't seen/notice Bedok's tracks, they're not the kind that's convenient to paddlers around here. For one thing, the buoys aren't at specific intervals, so you have to commit to memory which particular buoys of the entire set are the 500 buoys. I agreed, and ran off to Daniel to see where the line was, after that returning back to the generator to wait for others to come.
Slowly, but surely, they came one by one or pair by pair or cluster by cluster, and soon most of the 'C' Division, along with much of the 'B' Division, were present. By around this time, the staff in-charge of the equiptment around here were starting up the generators, so Mr. See told us to move further up the road so we didn't get dosages of carbon monoxide before our races.
He later gathered us close and pointed out a few things we had to take note of in the race, using twigs and his pen for lanes, starting/finishing lines, boats and etc.. Another thing he pointed out was that the racing course wasn't the typical rectangular shape, but more of the inconvenient parallelogram shape.
At MacRitchie, we have our very own Mr. Goh to help us straighten the lanes and maintain it time after time. But in Bedok, not many people give as good attention to it as in MacRitchie, and even those who'd bother aren't in charged or permitted to be in charge of Bedok. Thus, as time goes by the buoys may loosen and end up twisting the shape of the course.
And as a result, you can never be certain that your bow had passed the finishing line yet by just looking left and right. Mr. See highlighted a mistake Abraham made yesterday. It was a tight match for third place in the heats between Chinese High and him, and AB was just at the lead of the two. But just as he was about to reach the finishing line, he looked left and right and thought that he made it through first already, so he slowed down thinking that he had already finished.
Well, he did finish before the other boat IF you were looking at it from the perpendicular view. Unfortunately, thoguh, the judges would only take the finishing line itself as the rough measurement of who came first and the sort, and that means the parallelogramic view. And it so happens that the tilt of the line alowed Chinese High to pass through first before Abraham did, even though AB was supposed to have crossed the perpendicular line first.
And which would the judges take? The parallelogram reading, of course! Why, they only have one camera to tell then who came first, and that camera is only in-line with the slanted finishing line, thus after watching the video over and over and over again, the judges decided to make Chinese High win over AB.
"So always make sure you sprint through the finishing line, gentlemen," noted sir. "If you want to be safe, wait till the boat is one-third through, then you can slow down. In fact, even one-fith through is good enough. Just one-fifth."
"In other words, till the line reaces you or your front rower," said Daniel, who was trying to help out as Captain.
"Yes, just one-fifth in, gentlemen. And then we also have wind conditions to settle. You all better have learnt your draw-strokes well, because here is a good place to use it."
Winds at Bedok are rather wild at times, especially in the afternoon. They always blow from the right of the lanes, and with the stern's greater exposed area this causes the boat to turn towards the right if you're not careful. Thus while you're lining up for your event, you shoudl always observe if you're drifting, and if you are then respond to where and at which direction you are drifting to - correctiong your direction while starting a sprint can cost you up to 3.5 seconds.
Soon, the organisers came to the area and unlocked the metal fence that protected the sheds which held our boats, of which canoeists of all schools of life rushed towards the area to collect their boats for warm-up. Right behind Saint Joseph's Institution, ACS(Independent) huddled towards the gates and went for our shed to grab out the lifejacks, seats, footrests, wingnuts, paddles and most importantly, boats.
After searching for where our items were within the scattered stack of equiptment, Hao Qing and I carried out the StingRay and assembled it somewhere nearby, later launching off for a rough warm-up. As can be seen as we walked closer to the shore, the wooden dock which was temporarily built along the shore was removed, so launching was going to be a lot harder and longer.
As a K2, we both went to this special pontoon which floated off the shore by a bridge. The only problem getting there was that the organisers haven't brought the key for the bridge yet, so with the help of coaches from other schools we had to climb over a fence with the boat securedly on our shoulders. A little funny tackling our way through the fence, but once that was over we paddled a couple of laps before returning to shore.
By now, the pontoon we launched from was already crouded with tonnes of other K2, so we had to pack up at a concrete slope near by. The problemS with this place is that on the slope, I may be able to feel the ground with my paddle, but Hao Qing may not AND that even if I wanted to paddle towards the slope, there were tonnes of boats also tryign to get out the same way. In our attempt to try getting on land, we ended up capsizing but quickly got the boat out of the way before the waves made it drift towards the rough concrete surface.
Back at the sheds, we gave Mr. See ezLink cards for registration. Placing the boat at a rack somewhere nearby, we proceeded to warm up along the coast as the first events began on the water (Go Ming Sheng, GO!). Mr. See later chased us away to another end of the coast when he saw that we were too close to the generator, which was producing enough gases to give Mr. See headaches on end.
Event after event went by. We watched, we cheered, we estimated. And in due time, I went to my bags to get my handphone just in case my parents SMSed me, which they apparently did. They were wondering if the competition was still on because it was raining moderately at their area, but I reassured them that the races were as normal where I was.
And around this time, it came to our event. Nick Ng just left, so now our turn is just around the corner. Event 14 could be called any minute now. Soon, Mr. See gave us the 'go' sign to launch off for our event. But as we bought the boat down from the racks, it began to drizzle. The winds were picking up, and the rain was increasing by the minutes. But haven' being told not to stop, Hao Qing and I continued to go launch.
As we were carrying the boat towards the pontoon, we had to tilt ourselves to the right to make sure the wind didn't blow us away along with the boat. I was giggling slightly with all the irony around and with the fact that rain meant a lot to me. Especially at a time like this. But as we went down the pontoon, the coaches were telling us to turn back, signaling that it was too dangerous to paddle now.
By now, the sky was extremely grey, and one couldn't speak without having 50ml of water going into the mouth every three sylabuls one says. It was rather scary - something like The Perfect Storm just that reduced to the scale of canoes - and so we turned and headed back for the sheds. When we arrived, we saw many canoers trying their best to hold down the boats onto the racks with their lifejacks or bare hands.
Not realising how strong the winds were, HQ and I placed StingRay on a close rack, only to realise 4 seconds later that it was just about to fly off. Nearby to the bow, I quickly ran back and caught the bow just in time to keep it from slipping off. Unfortunately, the stern was still free and it flew off by a couple of meters towards the neighbouring rack. At least it wasn't as bad as another boat which flung off and barely missed Mr. See by an inch or so, or the SJI rack that collapsed in the middle of the storm.
Thankfully to God, the rudder didn't have contact with the ground, so it didn't snap off. A couple of people rushed for the boat and slightly lifted it to allow me to slide the bow off the racks, then slowly release it onto the ground so the wind can't effect it anymore. With lots of people helping to keep the equiptment safe, Mr. See told the remainder of us to go to the ol' Pavilion just a little sprint away.
We all ran there, and soon the Pavilion was crouded with loads of ACS(I)an rowers trying to brave the cold temperatures (water freezes faster than air, so having both elements together...). Time after time, we would imitate the penguins in Happy Feet, saying lines like, "We remain!" or, "Keep your eggs warm!" or even, "Nah, I know you like it!". But despite whatever jokes were said, our skins still felt like 14 degrees or so and goosebumps were the norm.
After half an hour, te rains were starting to calm down, and we were greatly merry that the temperature was rising again! Soon, rain was back to a normal drizzle, and Nick Ng, HQ and I were called back into the water.
While Nick was getting to his event, HQ and I kept paddling around the 500m Mark of the tracks to wait for our turn. And as soon as ever, our time was up. We slowly paddled towards the Starting Line. After an entire year and three months worth of training, it all came down to this. This was it.
I could faintly hear the commands of the started at my farthest right.
"K2 500m Heats 1, alert!"
I looked straight towards the Finishing Line, making sure I had a straight route."Starts within 10 seconds!"
All paddles were raised in one swift move, and we were ready to launch off at the sound of...*air horn*
Here we go! All the boats burst out in a rage of fury as we raced for those three chances to make it to the Finals. We padddled our hearts out, but I could tell that my boat was already burning out by 250m. Nevertheless, we paddled on.Sadly, we didn't make it for even 3rd place, but just 4th place. Somewhat dissapointed, I held water and looked down in slight defeat. But then as I paddled towards the packing-up area, I noticed two distinct people within the slight croud. They were smiling at me, and one was holding a camera towards me. It was my parents.
I assumed that after that delay from the storm, they might not have stayed longer for my event. But they actually came, and in my presence! The momment I saw them, I lighted back up again, still defeated but nevertheless still loved. The feeling of being appreciated by your family no matter what you get is an honourable feeling, and that satisfies a medal hands down.
As we got out of the water, I carried my boat along the muddy path (and posed a bit for my parents to take photos) before arriving back at the sheds. At the shed, we placed g'd ol' StingRay back on the rack she was placed originally before reporting to Mr. See for debrief. He stated that "this was your whole year's work summed up, and it equals you both to 4th place. There is no disgrace in that, as long as you did your best."
We were then permitted dismissal, of which I searched for my bags and later found at the Pavilion. Over there, I decided to stay a little longer to cheer on Joon Sin and Kenneth for their K2 500m event. Might as well cheer on my avengers. They had a third placing, and after so I headed back to the shed to take my shoes and leave for the bus stop (which was a looooooooooooooooooooooooooog walk away).
If you've forgotten, I now needed to go to school for the Inter-Class Debate Finals. The fate of the class rested in my hands, since after all the replacement was Kirby (Hey, I'm quoting from others, so don't blame me for being blunt!). So my original plan to get there was to take a 67 to Bedok MRT Station to take a train to Dover, then take a bus/walk to school.
But just as I was about to board the 67, I realised that my ezLink card was still with Mr. See! I quickly got off the bus and stomped my way back to the shed, which mind you was the same looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooog walk away. This time I didn't care: I walked through all the grassy patches in the park and didn't follow any roads. My main objective was to make a straight line for the sheds, and no roads were gonna stop me in the state I was.
Once back at the shed, Mr. See didn't need to look up to see I was there, and immediately got out my card with a sarcastic, "And I was wondering when you would've realized." I responded with a soft, "Opps." and collected my card before making my looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooog way back to the bus stop again. By now, I didn't think I'd arrive at school early enough for the debate, so I decided to take Plan B! And what is Plan B?
Take taxi, lah!
I hailed a cab at the bus stop, and I hadf a friendly conversation with the driver in Mandarin (Yay! The fact I could hold a 10-minute conversation with the guy without any mess-ups is a great miracle! Praise the Lord Almighty!) Later, I also asked if I could change in the cab, which he willingly allowed (or at least he sounded like as if he was willing). I first stripped of my shirt and replaced it with a uniform shirt, then worked my way down until everything I wore for the race was replaced with a uniform's item (exception being the watch, 'cause it's practically under both categories).
After changing, I took out my Debate notes and read through them over and over again so I knew by scratch what I needed to say. And within minutes, the uncle alerted me that we were near by, so I had to help direct him to ACS(I) instead of ACJC (both are near-by each other, for those who don't know). I told him to drop me off at the school's bus stop, placed the finishing touches onto my uniform and made my way down and up the ramp to school, slinging my large water bottle from the handle like it was a Western pistol.
I seemed to have blended in rather fast, like as if I had always been in the school during the morning. Or did I just have a Sportsman's Immunity which repelled the security guards or something, I don't know. From the Space Frame, I met up with most of the class, which was making their seperate ways to their respective Enrichment Programmes. They informed me that the classroom was lcked, so I had to place my bags in my locker for the time being.
On my way, I met up with Ryan, who was shocked to see me at school, when he knew very well I was suppose to be at a competition, or else already dismissed and headed home. I explained to him I had somehtings to attend to in the school, so he teased me as a workaholic. He then asked what I got, so I said I didn't make it to the Finals. He was shocked again that I wasn't afraid he'd do something because of admitting my failure, but nevertheless went back to his lessons later.
I kept my stuff in my locker and made a dash for the 'unkown-area-somewhere-in-the-boarding-school' room (man, I still don't know the name of that room...) for my EP of Billards. When I arrived, the Mdm in-charge was just about to take attendance, with her back facing the door. Perfect! While she was still talking to the rest of the students that were surrounding the pool table, I quietly took off my shoes and quickly tip-toes towards the table, slowl leaning against the edge in a relaxed position as if I had been there all this while.
After she went through whatever she needed to go through, we queued up for our ques (har, har) and got our balls ready (har, har, heh). With alert instincts fresh from a race, I caught a triangle or two before it fell on Mdm from the top of the shelves. Man, race instincts feel good.
For me, I tried Billards first, then a simple game of Pool. Well worth the hour, even though I couldn't score that much. Yet. When we were done, I went back to class with Raam to class for LAA, and boy was Mdm Kavita angry. She mentioned a few dissapointments she had on this class, then turned to the Chairman (Tim), the Language Arts Rep (Me), the Favourite Student (Jai) and the Worst Student (Kirby) in one go, saying that she was dissapointed in our roles.
Those were just some of those moments when saying, "You're fired." isn't far from the subject at all.
After the dragged lesson, Tim, Niranjan and I were about to go to the class of 6.2 for the debate when I discovered that I had just lost my debate notes! Thankfully, Niranjan leant me a piece of fulscap, along with his own set of notes for me to copy with. We then went to the venue, permanantly registering in our heads that if the finals are post-poned one more time, we're gonna quit.To cut the story short by half an hour or more, we won! By 2 points, but that's besides the point! When it was all over, we told the joyful news to Mr. Tay, who in response started laughing here and there, and later treating each of us with a dollar each for a drink down the SAC. We all thanked him, and he thanked us in return for our efforts, also legalising the Class T-Shirt again.
The whole team went down to the SAC to celebrate our victory, whole team being;
1st Speaker (Me)
2nd Speaker (Tim)
3rd Speaker (Niran)
Stand-by Speaker (Kirby)
Supporter (JKit)
And since I'm already out of the competition, I can now break embargo! Woohoo, feasting the anti-embargo way rocks! Haha, yeah the good times! We then chatted around before leaving for our own homes. And now here I am typing into my blog what happened today: I may have lost the Canoeing Inter-Schools, but I've won the Debate Inter-Class. Whether that's a fair exchange, you be the judge.
I'm just happy Mom and Dad were there to see me race.
G'dnite, and God bless!
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Give it a try...
Or should I? I don't know. It's just over there, and I can just take it. But shoudl I? Would it do any good? What can I get from it all? What can others get from it all? What would God get from it all?
Tim raised the point about a re-newed ClassCommittee for the class, and I've heard that he wanted to resign as Chairman. When he asked if anyone wanted to take over any roles in the committee, the class was all silent.
I was seated at the back of the class, lookng around if there was anyone willing to inherit other positions. There was no one. This was my chance. I could be entrusted with a class and take responsibility over it. Tim was willing to give up the position, and the class seems to trust me very much. Five years after being told once that I could not be trusted with the role of a group leader, I could just get the post of an overall class leader.
And all I had to do was just raise my hand, and the authority was all mine.
With nothing to loose, I was just about to raise my hand when suddenly, a thought was raised in my mind. I then wondered if my decision to get the title was a bit far of the charts of responsibility. What if it wouldn't be necessary for me? What if a little greed was involved? I searched across my mind to see if there was anyone or anything that I would effect in a negative aspect if I took that title.
What about Tim?
Oh, yah. For one thing, you only get even the least of one LEAPS point (Leadership Enrichment Achievement Participation Service) if you get the minimum of a year of service in a class committee. If I take away Tim's role at this stage, his counter will stop and will continue on me. Through this, I'll end up recieving the one point in my report, probably without any spared for him. That was just unfair.
I was aware that last year, I also had a chairman for each semester, but I think they left with Mrs. Sharon Woon closing one eye. I wasn't sure if Mr. Dave Tay would do the same thing.
And besides, all Tim has to do is just to endure another two terms (or more like 1-and-a-half, since a half of Term 4 would turn into a holiday) of doing the job and he'll get the point. It couldn't be that bad for him, it's just registering classes, attending meetings, organising events and the sort. Not like as if he'll be making treaties with other classes, declaring war on others, negociating trade with the senior levels or colonializing the juniors.
Comparing this with my determined will to get the 'throne', I decided it'll be better for Tim to get the point first. I could probably wait another 3 years for my next chance to get Chairman. So I slowly placed my hand back on the table before anyone saw my previous decision. Tim looked around. No hands. He sighed, and scrooled back into his chair, fine with the decision and allowing Mr. Tay to continue with the rest of the administration matters our class had to settle this morning.
I looked down. 'Did I miss a good chance?', I asked myself. But it was done, registered, archived, noted. I guess I'll just stand back and stay as Language Arts Representitive still. Which brought me to another point: who would want to be LA Rep when I leave in the first place? I can't leave unless someone takes over, just like the same situation as Tim. So like I said, I'll just have to stay here for the rest of the time here.
Just as simple as that.
Now, wasn't that sad-sounding or what? Let'scontinue the day with some (shortified) liveliness!
P Sci, we had the chance to play around with illusions and all, basically circulating the topic of ME! Yes, it's a topic on me! And why do I say so? Because it's a topic about light! And light involves rays(raes)! So as we've always learnt, anything that blocks a Rae, creates a Shadow! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!! I never knew I was involved in such a bright topic! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!! Man, I now feel so light-headed! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!
*sigh* This is fun!
After seeing how my path can be altered with the help of blocks of glass (wow, a bending discovery! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!), we also... erm...er...we also...
...man, I can't recall so much but just P Sci. Can't be that corny, can it? Ah, well.
Anyway, for training, since Hao Qing went for the interview/test to enter another school, I'll be rowing on my own for today. And with that, it means rowing the Bluenellow. Let's just describe the training in four simple words. Here we go;
"Ouch, my abdomen hurts."
Well, that's all I need to say. I'm just happy Hao Qing is still my partner for the competition, and that I'm not going to row in a K1 for the race. And if the test he took today really was an entry test, then I better enjoy Hao Qing as a partner now while I still can. If he'd like to go to wherever school he's being test by, may God be with him as well! I respect HQ for being such a socialble guy, even when he's so new to the team :)
Now, if you'l excuse me I'll have to go to sleep early to recover my abdomen or I'll fall apart tomorrow in the middle of ACS(I)'s Youth Day celebrations....
God bless y'allzzzzzzzzzzzzz...........
De-stress during holidays
Owning ('being better than') Lenin-Stalin documentary
Campaign skills (leadership)
Unslackable (majorly)
Memoriable project
Educational
Navigation improvement
Timothy's average-score problem
Accounts for whole of Term 3 (History)
Real world (training for)
Young ambition
(Just to answer those who've been asking on why I've placed so much effort on the project - always answer it the 'Mr. Ang' way.)
Tim raised the point about a re-newed ClassCommittee for the class, and I've heard that he wanted to resign as Chairman. When he asked if anyone wanted to take over any roles in the committee, the class was all silent.
I was seated at the back of the class, lookng around if there was anyone willing to inherit other positions. There was no one. This was my chance. I could be entrusted with a class and take responsibility over it. Tim was willing to give up the position, and the class seems to trust me very much. Five years after being told once that I could not be trusted with the role of a group leader, I could just get the post of an overall class leader.
And all I had to do was just raise my hand, and the authority was all mine.
With nothing to loose, I was just about to raise my hand when suddenly, a thought was raised in my mind. I then wondered if my decision to get the title was a bit far of the charts of responsibility. What if it wouldn't be necessary for me? What if a little greed was involved? I searched across my mind to see if there was anyone or anything that I would effect in a negative aspect if I took that title.
What about Tim?
Oh, yah. For one thing, you only get even the least of one LEAPS point (Leadership Enrichment Achievement Participation Service) if you get the minimum of a year of service in a class committee. If I take away Tim's role at this stage, his counter will stop and will continue on me. Through this, I'll end up recieving the one point in my report, probably without any spared for him. That was just unfair.
I was aware that last year, I also had a chairman for each semester, but I think they left with Mrs. Sharon Woon closing one eye. I wasn't sure if Mr. Dave Tay would do the same thing.
And besides, all Tim has to do is just to endure another two terms (or more like 1-and-a-half, since a half of Term 4 would turn into a holiday) of doing the job and he'll get the point. It couldn't be that bad for him, it's just registering classes, attending meetings, organising events and the sort. Not like as if he'll be making treaties with other classes, declaring war on others, negociating trade with the senior levels or colonializing the juniors.
Comparing this with my determined will to get the 'throne', I decided it'll be better for Tim to get the point first. I could probably wait another 3 years for my next chance to get Chairman. So I slowly placed my hand back on the table before anyone saw my previous decision. Tim looked around. No hands. He sighed, and scrooled back into his chair, fine with the decision and allowing Mr. Tay to continue with the rest of the administration matters our class had to settle this morning.
I looked down. 'Did I miss a good chance?', I asked myself. But it was done, registered, archived, noted. I guess I'll just stand back and stay as Language Arts Representitive still. Which brought me to another point: who would want to be LA Rep when I leave in the first place? I can't leave unless someone takes over, just like the same situation as Tim. So like I said, I'll just have to stay here for the rest of the time here.
Just as simple as that.
Now, wasn't that sad-sounding or what? Let'scontinue the day with some (shortified) liveliness!
P Sci, we had the chance to play around with illusions and all, basically circulating the topic of ME! Yes, it's a topic on me! And why do I say so? Because it's a topic about light! And light involves rays(raes)! So as we've always learnt, anything that blocks a Rae, creates a Shadow! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!! I never knew I was involved in such a bright topic! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!! Man, I now feel so light-headed! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!
*sigh* This is fun!
After seeing how my path can be altered with the help of blocks of glass (wow, a bending discovery! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!), we also... erm...er...we also...
...man, I can't recall so much but just P Sci. Can't be that corny, can it? Ah, well.
Anyway, for training, since Hao Qing went for the interview/test to enter another school, I'll be rowing on my own for today. And with that, it means rowing the Bluenellow. Let's just describe the training in four simple words. Here we go;
"Ouch, my abdomen hurts."
Well, that's all I need to say. I'm just happy Hao Qing is still my partner for the competition, and that I'm not going to row in a K1 for the race. And if the test he took today really was an entry test, then I better enjoy Hao Qing as a partner now while I still can. If he'd like to go to wherever school he's being test by, may God be with him as well! I respect HQ for being such a socialble guy, even when he's so new to the team :)
Now, if you'l excuse me I'll have to go to sleep early to recover my abdomen or I'll fall apart tomorrow in the middle of ACS(I)'s Youth Day celebrations....
God bless y'allzzzzzzzzzzzzz...........
De-stress during holidays
Owning ('being better than') Lenin-Stalin documentary
Campaign skills (leadership)
Unslackable (majorly)
Memoriable project
Educational
Navigation improvement
Timothy's average-score problem
Accounts for whole of Term 3 (History)
Real world (training for)
Young ambition
(Just to answer those who've been asking on why I've placed so much effort on the project - always answer it the 'Mr. Ang' way.)
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