Yay I have a new laptop! I love the mega huge size, 100 GB and the RAM which is 1 GB (:

I might even be able to play The Sims 2 on it, I think.

The display was very bright though, and it took me a while before I could adjust it, so I have a brightness-enduced headache now.

I also just realised I can now type without looking at the keyboard anymore! WOOO. Hahaha screw touch typing, it took me more than 6 years before I could use the com without looking at the keyboard.

I <3>

Hai I had another nightmare about the O levels last night.

This time it was about the English exam. In every 'nightmare' I dream that I run out of time during the exams because I've been doing something weird. Like for the 'lit' exam one I dreamt I was almost late for the exam because I went to find a toilet -.- Then for the SS one I dreamt I was doing some sewing for Project Runway - in the middle of my exam!

Last night's one I dreamt I was running around looking for lunch, so I went to Pepper Lunch and they were out of everything I wanted! Then I ran back to the examining room, there was no one else but me being tested there and Kunalan was my invigilator :/ I also had to do everything on those weirdo 'kiddy' computers. It was yellow.

I also had another weird dreamn about my History class and some zombies afterwards too.

Oh well, Project Runway up next, this time it won't interfere with my SS exam!

Hello, back from Malaysia! Lots of weird things happened - it being Malaysia of course and I'm still around, none the worse from the trip (:

Anyway update on the Anna thing, I have ended correspondence with 'despo', because he's not really doing much harm, nor was he really amusing/funny/peverted. Anyway I told him and he was nice enough about it. So yup. End of him.

I'll update about the Malaysia trip later or something. Don't really feel like typing up a long entry now :/

I wish I was a monkey.

Anyway I will be going away tomorrow till maybe Monday? to Malaysia, so no updates till then. Bye.

No Anna today since I was out in the afternoon and had no time to talk to our dear AZN freak boy. Maybe he misses Anna or something. Anyway I went out for lunch with my grandparents and then went down to MOE because of the messed up PAE thing.

It was damn freaky! Like I hate talking to people and being out of my element. So anyway I was really scared and unsure of myself. I followed the directions to the customer service centre and I tried to walked past this guard and then he stopped me and said I couldn't go through and then my eyes were open really big in fear because I was afraid I had done something wrong. Ugh . I was also half afraid he'd tackle me to the ground and yell "Intruder alert!". Like what the hell? The thing was not clearly labelled and he saw me walking from afar but decided to stop me only after I had passed the 'entry' point.

Anyway he pointed me towards the guard post and by then I was super flustered and they asked for my IC so I took it out. Then I was waiting these two boys, also applying for PAE I guess came and stood next to me (the next lane) and they kept smiling at me and giving me the look (ie: the 'eh look at her!' look). I think it was because they could see my school name and all (I brought along my report book) added to the fact I felt damn malu. So anyway I ignored them and pretended I didn't notice them.

Then I passed the 'entry point' (Like WTF? Someone wants to kill all the MOE people over a mess up in the PAE? SIAO!) and I was about to walk into the centre when ths group of 3 men stopped me and asked me what I was doing there. Oh dearie, my plans to stab all you MOE people in cold blood has been foiled again -___________________-

Anyway I said "I'm here for the PAE?" and then one of them went "Eh look! She's from MGS (report book again)!", cue all of them gathering in a huddle and muttering unintelligible stuff to each other, making me go "?!?!?!" as I stood there watching them. Then one of them turned to me and went "Oh, please go in!" and pointed towards the door. Right... I was going to enter there before you stopped me.

I went to the girl at the counter and she was really nice (: Made me feel better after the first 2 weird encounters I had. Anyway she directed me to the right and after about 30 secs my number was called and woo hoo! I had this really hot look guy helping me ;) Hahaha anyway he looked a little young so I was surprised. He had a Chinese name so I forgot what it was. Anyway he was nice too but then the whole "MGS" thing started again with some other dude and some older woman being thrown into the fray. Wa lao, what is with this and MGS?!? So cue huddle - again. Bah.

Then the other guy came by and helped me instead and hot guy got whisked away to do something else. Anyway my math mark came up and filled out my form.

Last night I was trying to figure out what the heck to put because I only had a few options I wanted to choose. Then Chan told me to 'have fun' and Ianthe said she was going to add Hwa Chong to her list, so I did the same. LOL.

Anyway on the form it was all numbers and letters, so I figured it'd be okay. I filled out the form and gave it to the guy and he punched in all the numbers, then he showed it to me to confirm before printing out the sheet and to my horror the school names were there! Then he said "Is this all correct Melodie?" then I laughed at the school names being there and he was really confused and went "did I pronounce your name correctly?" Anyway the list was as follows:

1) Anglo-Chinese Junior College
2) Pioneer Junior College
3) Catholic Junior College
4) Yishun Junior College
5) Serangoon Junior College (last of normal choices)
6) St Andrew's Junior College
7) Victoria Junior College
8) Temasek Junior College
9) National Junior College
10) Anglo-Chinese School (I)
11) Hwa Chong Instituition
12) Raffles Junior College

LOL. So anyway I signed it trying to maintain a straight face. I don't think the guy noticed at all, HAHAHAHA!

Anyway when I was done I turned to leave and to my surprise I saw Shabana! I thought the only other person from our class who wanted to apply was Eleanor :/ Anyway I talked to her for a little and apparently she had the same 2 expierences as me before (security and huddling guys), hahaha.

Then I walked to Buona Vista MRT station and took a shuttle bus to NUH -.- Thanks to a certain Mr Lin I took the wrong bus and ended up at the Kent Ridge Wing and got lost for a while till I found my way to the correct ward.

I ended up spending most of my time playing with Amanda (the youngest child) and Ian so that Amanda would stop bothering her mum so Mrs Lin and Deb could get some peace. It was kind of fun and I did get to see Deb. She's in a lot of pain and has to use a lot of morphine :/ Poor kiddo! Pray for her alright? Even if you don't know her. She had an operation on her back because of her severe scoliosis.

I've been meaning to do this blog post for a long time, so hopefully I'll remember everything I wanted to blog about! Anyway for the longest time, I used to listen to mainstream music. That included Linkin Park (though I still don't think they're very bad), Michelle Branch to The Darkness, though I guess those are pretty alright compared to the rest of the shit that's on mainstream now.

I think what really made get fed up with the increasing frequency which rap and hip hop was playing on radio. I already disliked the genre enough without the shift to 'urban' music (HMV's name for it). Almost everday I would wake up to some shitty rap music being played. Ugh. What a way to start the day!

So towards the end of last year I started listening to jazz music. I always liked jazz, just that it never before took up such a large percentage of my listening time, so anyway towards the end of last year Ange also introduced me to Rilo Kiley's Portions for Foxes. At first I didn't really like it that much but after a while it grew on me. Also Suat introduced Adam Richman to me, which I was really crazy about too (:

Then I think beginning of this year, Stephanie introduced me to Mae's Embers and Envelopes, Jack's Mannequin's Dark Blue and some others which I didn't quite like as much as those above. Then when I was in a bad mood one day, Ange sent me Paramore's Brighter. Since I knew Steph and Ange both liked Panic! at the Disco and Ange liked OK Go I also went to listen to them. More recently I've been listening to Sterophonics, also partially recommended by Stephanie. This is of course such a change from the things I listened too last year.

I also went to the Kings of Convenience concert with Ange (: I still haven't bought their disc though, not enough money.

I also found some bands by myself like The Cardigans which I really adore, Silversun Pickups and The Afters! The song that keeps sticking in my head now it Silversun Pickup's Little Lovers So Polite

This year I also picked up Jap music, influenced a lot by Gundam Seed, hahaha! I downloaded the songs by the artists I liked the most like T M Revolution, HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR, Rie Fu, Mika Nakashima, See Saw and Nami Tamaki. Of course HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR is my favourite band (:

Anyway I guess this blog post is mainly to give some credit to Ange and Stephanie for introducing me to such good music (:

The songs I love the most now are:
Mae
Suspension
The Everglow
Soundtrack For Our Movie
Ready and Waiting to Fall
Silversun Pickups
Little Lovers So Polite
See Saw
Kimi ga Ita Monogatari
Kimi wa boku ni Niteru
Anna ni Isshio datta no Ni
Rilo Kiley
Love and War
With Arms Outstretched
Capturing Moods
The Cardigans
And Then You Kissed Me
For What It's Worth*
Live and Learn*
You're the Storm
Good Morning Joan
Godspell
T M Revolution
Zips
Ignited
Invoke
Paramore
My Hero
Brighter
Never Let This Go
HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR
Pride (HAHAHA!)*
Enrai tooku ni aru Akari
Mizutama Ramune
Notice
A Place to Go
Run Run Run
Kuroageha Mau Oka
Tsumi
Here I Am
Houko Kuwashima
Shinkai no Kodoku*
Mica Arisaka
Life Goes On*
Nami Tamaki
Prayer
Reason
OK Go
Here it Goes Again
Hello My Treacherous Friend
A Million Ways to Be Cruel
Panic! At The Disco
I Constantly Thank God For Esteban
The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide is Press Coverage
There's a Good Reason Why These Tables Are Numbered Honey, You Just Haven't Figured it Out Yet

Okay I can't really think of anything else. Rah. The five songs I love the best are those with a '*' next to it (:

Thinking about the future scares me.

I just came to this conclusion about my subconscious mind (if you can call it that): I hate being told I am wrong. Worse still, if the person who tells me I am wrong or am doing the wrong thing (irregardless if he is wrong or right) is male, I get even angrier and I want to yell back that I can do the same things that he does.

Dunno why I just thought of this incident that happened last year which led to this conclusion!

I am sleepy though.

The O levels are over!

I feel really weird, like something is missing in my life :/ Also this marks the end of my time as a MGS girl. Ack ack ack! It was like, all exams exams exams, no time to reminiscence about the great 10 years I had in MGS nor feel sad. Ay but we all have to move on with life, life goes on!

Anyway I've been out for the past few days and I'm going out tomorrow to send Kim off at the airport, I think I'm going out on Monday and Tuesday too. Wa I feel beat.

I really can't wait to get my results back, just to get it over with. Ack. Pointless worrying - start!

Today was Lit! For the first part I did the Anthem for Doomed Youth and The Solider poems. The Second part was on Snakecharmer and for the last opened ended question, I did on Pike. Wooo. My favourite poems! (Minus The Soldier). I wonder how I'll do since time was a huge constraint. Wasn't this paper 1hr 30 mins last time? Why is it 10 mins shorter now? Huh?

Anyway as usual I was majorly weak and in pain before the paper, tummy aches and all.

So this paper today really marks the end of all my major papers, the super stressful ones. So I went out. Um. Yes. I am insane. I still have Geog 1 and History on Wednesday and Friday respectivlely. I went out myself because my older friends would have scolded me, the ones my age would be studying and I doubt Vicky would like the watch the movie I watched. Anyway the movie was Days of Glory, the film I had earlier complained about not seing.

It was really good! Of course I wasn't just the only female around my age in that cinema (It was NC-16), I was the only female in that cinema. During the course of the movie I kept thinking of The Soldier and Anthem for Doomed Youth. Lit lit lit! The sound system at The Picturehouse was pretty good too, during the motar attacks I could see the legs of my jeans vibrate.

The movie was quite sad and tragic. Like in their entire platoon? of men, only 1 guy survived. The French also censored letters from this character to his French lady because well, he was muslim. I thought that was really tragic too :/ There was also this 'cute' looking guy who played the only White guy in the platoon. He looks better without that shaggy 'do. He died sort of early. Also tragic - for me! Hah.

Anyway the movie lived up to it's expectations and the shitty 'review', if you can call it that, simply doesn't do it justice! Of course urging you guys to see it is pointless because 1) It's a War movie and 2) It's nearly ended it's run at The Picturehouse.

Man. I just realised Anna attracts real weirdos :/

When I was younger, like all kids, I used to watch cartoons on Kids Central (or channel 12 as it was called that time). I remember submitting some weird ass drawing for the hippo and friends(?) show. It was some weird Singapore produced show with this furry purple hippo. Blah.

Anyway of all the cartoons I used to watch, the shows that were most significant to me, were also the hardest to find, and by that defintion, I mean online.

For instance I just went throughout the entire Wikipedia animated page and could not find the other show that I wanted.

The one I was was called Starla and the Jewel Riders! Aha, after how many years of hopeless recalling I finally got the name! MUAHAHAHA. I used to remember watching this when I was about 6 years old. I loved it! I imagined I was Starla or something and go off on quests with my PINK heart stone. I used to love pink till I was P2 or something.

The next one is more tragic, simply because I can't find it and can't remember the name either. All I remember was the show's main character. He was this super suave (ah faint faint faint!) guy, and by suave I mean totally mysterious. He was seemed like some detective of some sort and wore a trench coat. He hardly spoke, had either dark red or brown hair. And the weirdest thing was that he kept doing good things, then running away because some detective was chasing him. Every single episode ended with him running away the the dectective guy (chasing him) saying "Damn you xxx!" or something to that effect.

I think he was my first crush! Also around the 1996 time period. What I remember about the show was that it seemed to be made by some European animation studio. It's obviously not made by the mainstream studios or I would have found it by now. I seem to remember it being French for some reason :/

FAH! I hate not being able to remember things.

^_^ for Math!

I found this funny comic online about the RJC girl and her 'elitist' blog entry, you know, the entire controversy. Anyway this comic was started in response to it and this particular one really struck me, because hey, as MGS girls, most of us really have been living sheltered lives, apart from the 'normal' Singaporean life. Just some food for thought.

Okay so I'm going to Japan.

I told my parents last night. Note I didn't say 'apologised', because I sure as hell didn't. The reason I was so angry was because of my mum's hypocrisy in her words, and my tolerance of her bullshit reached boiling point because of what she said when she was scolding me. To quote Jacinth, "Pot call the kettle black!", except the funny part is I have probably done more kinder things than her in her entire life -.-

Family's still family I guess.

SS and Math 1 tomorrow, not sure if I'm prepared :/ I've been doing loads of essays and some SBQs ever since the end of the pre-lims and for E Math I've also been doing a lot from the TYS, plus in the last week I went back and re-did all the Paper 1 questions for all the topics. Oh well. All in God's plan I guess, since I half feel like I've done a lot of preparation for the Os.

I remember in Sec 2 I got 27% for Math O.O Thanks goodness since then, especially in Sec my results have gone really high up, like some y=x^3 (exponential) graph. Falalalala lalalala.

I had a huge fight with my mum over the Japan trip. I really don't want to go anymore, so I'm supposed to pay $1600 for the plane tickets.

I also found $5 on the ground, so that means I'm $1595 in the red now. HAHAHAHAHA.

I am also extremely furious with her.

OH MY GOSH :(:(:(

My relatives from my mum's side are coming along for the Japan trip! The one that was supposed to be after my O levels as a reward for me. Eeeek.

It's not like they're not nice people or anything, they're just, you know, typical Singaporeans :/

And I don't really want to have to go with them! I wanted it to be just the 3 of us, my dad, mum and me. If I wanted to hang around typical Singaporeans we would've signed up for a tour group.

Sigh :/ As if I won't have a tough time trying to read japanese off those guide books and look really lame.

If you read the entire thing, you win a prize!

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What I like about An Enemy of the People

I remember when I first saw the book list for year 2005, under full literature the text was ‘An Enemy of the People’. I also remember thinking it sounded like some Hollywood movie and has visions of this refugee child (?!) escaping in some train. Go figure. Now back to 2006 and my O level exam is tomorrow!

Most people hated studying An Enemy of the People (EOTP). It was something they just didn’t feel for, couldn’t understand. Compared to the other text of The English Teacher, I was one of the few who preferred EOTP in a poll taken by Miss Bong the beginning of this year. I didn’t understand a man reduced to weirdness by his wife’s death, but I sure as hell understood the passion and desperation showed by the protagonist in EOTP.

The issue at the heart of the text was that newly opened Kirsten Springs, a spa sort of tourist attraction with a medical aim, had poisoned water. In order to replace the water intake system, the plumbing would have to be redone over 2 years, “costing three hundred thousand crowns”. Imagine Singapore’s IRs having to be rebuilt again, and you’d get an idea of how much it would cost. (Play was back in the early 1900s). Dr Stockmann finds out that the water contains biological wastes and tries to press for change.

What I enjoyed about the text was the underlying theme of moral courage, the idea of such courage and strength to stand up and fight against the opposing odds for a good and just cause. Despite all the betrayals from his brother and his ‘friends’, the media men, not once does Dr Stockmann bow to their desires. In Act III, when the mobs are closing in on him and his family, their lives possibly in jeopardy, he is still defiant saying “and the strong must learn to be lonely!”

The text also featured the oppositional ideas of money vs morality. As a Christian, this issue is often brought up, so it was nothing new to me. However the way it was presented in the play, that in the people’s desire for money, to improve their impoverished circumstances, they were willing to forfeit the health and safety of others. Yes it was reprehensible that they made such selfish choices, but the idea of “fine carriages”, “schools bigger and better”, “first class stores” a better standard of living was such a strong motivating factor and not many posses this ‘moral courage’.

Abuse of democracy was also another issue brought up. The town is supposedly “democratic”, yet the essentials of the political system like voting and free speech are clearly abused by the people. Things like voting are used by the people to quash free speech and to turn a “talk” into a “meeting” as seen most clearly in Act II Scene 2, which is of course, highly ironic.

Suppression of truth is also by the media’s refusal to print the truth under threat of monetary loss to the “meeting” where the truth is not allowed to be said. Many like Peter Stockmann and Morten Kill, not to mention the ‘overwhelming majority’ all go out of their way, to suppress the truth. Truth can be manipulated by selfish means as seen from Act II Scene 1 where the main purpose of the media’s alignment with Dr Stockmann was to publish the “controversy” in order to sell more papers.

The power of the media is also a theme of the play, albeit a minor one. I read somewhere once that newspapers often take the political slant of the owner, which is very true. Fox News in the USA often takes the Republican side and makes the Democrats seem insipid – their owner, Rupert Murdoch, is a Republican. Unfair editing, one sided reporting, all corruptions of the basic principles of journalism are all used, but I digress. In the play the media men, Hovstad, Billing and Aslaksen switched sides from Dr Stockmann to his brother, the mayor, Peter Stockmann because they feared a backlash from the readers. Peter Stockmann has threatened to install a municipal loan, for which the citizens would be taxed for. The media “print(ed) the Mayor’s statement and not a word about (Dr Stockmann’s) report”, which is of course one-sided. This led to the people being prejudiced against Dr Stockmann even before hearing what he had to say.

The power is again shown in the last Act when Aslaksen and Hovstad appear once again. They go to Dr Stockmann, pandering for money. I quote Hovstad exactly: “The People’s Messenger (the paper) can put on such a campaign the in two months you will be hailed as a hero in this town” and “without a paper behind you, you will end up in prison.”

The tyranny of the majority is also seen clearly. They abuse democracy in Act II Scene 2 and coerce others to conform to their wants based on threats. The glazier refuses to come, a petition to not call the doctor is passed around and not “a single family will dare refuse to sign it.” Petra and Capt Horster are both fired from their jobs as well. Towards the end of the play then even turn into an unruly mob which throw stones and surround the house of the Stockmanns, calling out ‘enemy enemy!’

Also the play features my favourite kind of ‘bad’ guy, the amoral, ruthless man. In this play it is Morten Kiil, Dr Stockmann’s father-in-law. Out first encounter with him sees him stealing apples and tobacco from his son-in-law and declines his daughter offer of the pilfered items later on, presumably to save face. He also states the only reason he dropped by that day was because “the butcher told me you bought roast beef today”. The introduction to his character is “the man with the rat’s finely tuned brain” and “likeable because he is without morals”. He is also quite miserly. He first offers to donate “a hundred crowns, right here”, to charity during a discussion with Dr Stockmann but in the next line changes it to “fifty crowns, by Christmas”. In the last Act he too, betrays Thomas by using his daughter’s intended inheritance to blackmail his son-in-law into dropping the fight for the truth in order to “preserve my family’s good name”.

While there were some other aspects of the play that I enjoyed, the above are the main points and things that most struck me during my study of the play, helping my truly enjoy what I felt, was a political play.