I survived Nike 10k.

I ran the first 5k continuously (give or take some people walking and blocking my way, so I had no choice but to walk too) and then for the rest of the remaining 5k I ran and walked. In total I took about 1 hour 35 minutes to complete the entire course.

In my defense for not running as well as I'd have liked to (I'm making goods friends with this thing called dissatisfaction):

1) Wrong time of the month for this female
2) I'm anaemic
3) I was actually feeling really sick earlier in the day, around 12. I was dizzy and light headed, also feeling very weak and vaguely nauseous. I suspected it was a migraine and staggered about and took Panadine - left over painkillers from when I had my operation
4) I'm asthmatic
5) Too many people. There were bottlenecks and people walking all over, hence I couldn't run properly
6) No pacer
7) No mp3 either

After the run I went to eat dinner with JC, JLC, Elliot, Shao Xiong, Ted Kin, Clarence, Gerald, Nicholas and Jim at a food court in Raffles City. Patrick went back after the race. Then the lot of us minus Shao Xiong and JC headed back to watch The Great Spy Experiment at the race area. Nic and I left to go catch My Little Airport at the Esplanade before Boys Like Girls came on, and Jia Hui joined us later. Then JLC and Clarence joined us to wander about and we ended up listening to 4 Imaginery Guys with a cute in an older way DJ and diseased music - a Singapore based French acoustic musician. Clarence then left to catch Caracal and the lot of us headed to Raffles City with the hopes of finding supper, but everywhere else was closed. So then we left for home.

End of story!

"I was trying to make it bigger for you!" - Joash, on why he and Justin were simultaneously molesting and mutilating my papaya slice.

-----

Yesterday was another odd day. I first woke up in total darkness at an unknown time. This is because when I woke up, the air conditioning was out (which led to me waking up) and the display of my menacing red digital display of my clock was gone. In my sleep muddled mind I took approximately 0.1 nanoseconds before I started cursing the realisation that 1) something in the house had tripped therefore there was no power, 2) I didn't know the time, 3) I might be late for school.

I ended up heaving my self out of bed and walking to the circuit board on the second level. As an afterthought I went to my parent's room and realised my father was awake - so I reminded him that the power was out. He started giving me multiple excuses and to go back to sleep. Instead I returned to the circuit board to try and dig up the dregs of my sucky intro course to electricity. I started flipping the large switch at the end and it flew back down instantly. Realising that this was the cause and I didn't know what else to do, I went downstairs to the main circuit board.

I grabbed a chair from the living room and switched on the light on my way out of the house door. They turned on and I glanced at the clock, it was 5:10 am. I stood on the chair to reach for the circuit board and groped about till my fingers felt the downturned switch and I flipped it back up. Then, I went up and tried the lights again. Nothing. I went to the circuit board and the switch flipped back again. By now my mother had woken up and was afraid I'd get electrocuted to death, so she pushed my father out of bed to go help me. Then he did his Daddy Magik and the lights came on.

I ended up resetting my clock and alarm and went back to sleep for the remaining 35 minutes.

-----

When I came into class in the morning, I was greeted by a camera toting Jono. I had missed yesterday's phototaking session because I had a doctor's appointment and didn't go to school. I was horrifed because I looked awful and felt awful. I ended up scampering to the bathroom where I met Sarina. Then I returned to get two really bad shots taken of me before I returned to the bathroom again where I now met Cheryl talking to Sarina. Finally after some studying of how I looked in the mirror, I returned to get the final shot taken of me before rushing off to change to corporate tee. As you can imagine, this took a lot of time.

When I returned to class almost everyone was still there. Then a Y5 councillor popped his head in and told us to go for assembly, so we started filing out slowly. As we walked towards the staircase, I noticed how empty the place was. Then up ahead Song Yeong and Patrick stopped walking, turned back and said 'SHIT ASSEMBLY HAS STARTED!' The lot of us froze.

After the pledge was said, we quickly raced down the stairs. All throughout Cheryl was panicking, afraid that we'd get in trouble for being late. But nothing happened, not even a reprimand from WTY. So marked the first time I was ever late for assembly in ACSI.

Then it was time for the ACES day walk. I ended up walking mostly with Elliot, Justin, Ted Kin, Jim and Malcolm. It was rubbishy. Towards the end as we walked through a muddy path, our shoes got wet as we walked into puddles and sank into soft mud. Not pleasant at all -________-

During the Teacher's Day celebrations, I met Josh Hoe and Oli lingering about the entrance and blocking my path out to the bathroom. When I returned, they were still there, so I tried to lead them to some seats. However just as they sat down, the item ended and the celebration ended. FAIL -_______________-

Everyone then returned to class to celebrate Matthew's 18th birthday with some yummy cake. Then we dispersed and I went off with Shao Xiong to give the Indian Preacher his requested Teacher's Day present - November 2007 DBQs. Shao Xiong left and I went to join the remaning class people in the SAC for lunch before going to study with JLC, Gerald and Patrick.

As usual I had trouble concentrating. I kept thinking of a manner of many random things. So I walked about taking breaks in between. One time I found myself walking past the empty Audi. All the doors were flung open, illuminating the otherwise darkened hall. I felt strangely drawn inside by the feeling of something forbidden - so I entered.

I walked to the stage and sat there, facing the empty and dim hall. I felt a feeling of fear. I couldn't help but recall the hall as one of the first few places I had first entered in ACSI, one where I later spent a few afternoons doings school related rubbish in like emceeing, where I took some of my past few exams and especially where in the near future I'd be facing my moment of reckoning. So I closed my eyes and prayed out loud. Prayed for the future and for the strength to face it head on.

Afterwards I walked about on stage and felt a little silly. So I started singing. I pretended that there were people in the hall, that I didn't have a fear of people hearing me singing. But then I saw a Year 4 boy walk past and I quickly ducked to the side to hide, lest he discover me inside. At the side I two pieces of paper and a pair of beaten up red spectacles. Then I walked out of the hall clutching my newfound treasures. I actually contemplated keeping the pair of glasses, just like how I still keep random rubbish like the flowery umbrella casing I found on the floor of City Hall MRT one rainy afternoon, but instead opted to take a picture of it before returning it to the Estate Office.

I would upload the picture, but then there's something odd with the connectivity. So perhaps another time.

Tomorrow is the Nike Human Race. I find it unfair that I've actually been training for it but due to biological factors will be unsable to run at my peak tomorrow ): Hopefully! It doesn't rain.

Haaaah. I just realised I better get very good predicted grades/good IB results, or else I'll spend a year kicking my heels about because all the courses I have applied for have a very small intake with slim admission chances (you'd think a niche field like History/Politics would translate to less people applying, but noooooo.) I am also simultaneously obsessing about material things in my head even though I've chalked up some debt (to be fair I never spent any of my money that I earned last year).

I just hope all of this translates into a better, happier and more satisfied me and the end of all of this.

Today during dinner I leaned over and picked up by father's Hypercol pill which he takes to reduce his blood pressure. Grasping the capsule with both hands on opposite sides, I started tugging at the ends to try and extend the length of the capsule without actually spilling the inside contents. I have since concluded that the length that a capsule can be extended is not very much and less than half of the excess capsule area.

This experimental result has been reinforced by me experiencing the same thing when I was playing around with my own capsule of medicine last week.

I should write a paper on the physics of extending capsules.

-----

I got a copy of Lime magazine today. It was snuggled rather contentedly in the race pack that I picked up today for the Nike 10k race on Sunday. I suppose I was lucky in this aspect because at least it's in English because the bag where I shoved JLC's shirt and tag into turned out to be containing I-Zhou-Kan. But then again it's Lime. Years ago I used to read this rubbish. I was like what? Primary 6? Then I Sec 1 even this stuff got too bad for me and I moved on to reading The National Enquirer. Now I get my random celebrity gossip for free courtesy of The Superficial and use either Archie Comics or Time as toilet reading.

Anyway in summary: I haven't touched Lime in years. Now some 6 years after the last time I read Lime magazine, it has not actually changed by getting any better. This is made worse by the fact that as I have grown older, I have gotten more critical and cynical. Hence, this magazine sucks more than ever.

For instance this letter to the editor (this is the July 2008 issue): "Thanks for opening my eyes with the Indie-Mand story. I've has enough of all that manufactured pop bullshit some people call music. Give me the Ting Tings, MGMT and Kaiser Chiefs anytime! - Indie Snob, Braddell"

For the sake of this idiot, I hope it's a troll. Ahem! 'Manufactured pop bullshit'? You don't get to say that till you STOP READING LIME MAYBE. And the Kaiser Chiefs? Not indie. That's like calling Panic! indie. Maybe they were, like perhaps 3 years ago or something. Not now. Furthermore signing off as 'Indie Snob' makes you seem like an utter idiot. How are you remotely 'indie'? You killed it by saying such tellingly stupid things in your letter. Then you have the cheek to add 'Snob' like OMG LOOK AT ME I AM SO IRONIC I TAKE THE PISS OUT OF MYSELF THEREFORE I AM SO INDIE.

What the hell are there so many damn posers around -____________- Firstly, it's not that hard to learn to actually immerse yourself in a subculture. Sure, there's a learning curve, but if you're passionate enough you'll eventually become part of it. Secondly, what the hell gives people the idea that certain things are 'cool'? Why the hell is listening to 'indie' music cool now? Why the hell is going around proclaiming Lord of The Flies is non-fiction the most sensible thing to do to your pathetic mind? God, posers disgust me.

In order to get rid of this idiocy I vow to listen to random Jpop and '90s pop tonight. Just because not all music other than 'indie' is shit. JUST BECAUSE I CAN. Screw you damn posers.

-----

Today's SL2 and TOK periods were spent rushing around trying to get the right Biology pracs photocopied and the PSOW done. I also discovered that my grade got bumped up from 43 to 46 upon 48 for the pracs, so whew, all the damn work and hair pulling I've been doing over the lot of rubbish is FINALLY OVER and FINALLY PAID OFF (I think?).

After school today we held the last ever !nk meeting. It was also the handover. This marks almost exactly one year since I've joined !nk, from randomly popping up during the previous handover and then staying for good. Since then !nk has been one mass whorl of rubbish and bad sex jokes. And complaining. Especially when I had to do stupid shit for Brendan like dress up to infiltrate the teacher's staffroom (which is as boring as it seems).

During the meeting I realised that I would miss the lot of people, especially those that I had gotten to know exclusively through !nk. People like Yihang the sexgod, Brendan the fail, Jiayun the Arty, Wee Loong the Com guy, Arjun the Naidu, Kaijun the Mac boy. Then there are those I've known from outside that enriched my !nk experience, people like Gen the Bear and Daryl the Hierophant. Today was just like the rest of the other meetings. As we gathered at the back warily watching our successors, bawdy random jokes flew about and Gen started parading about reluctantly in his tootight (free) Bomber Jacket. Then we did the planning for the final Graduation issue, coming up with random but still relevant rubbish.

Wow. I'll really miss !nk. And ACSI.

The first day of the very last week of school began rather oddly. However as experience has unfortunately proven many times over the past two years, odd days were a common occurrence. In fact it would be an even odder day if nothing odd had happened. So perhaps today was not that odd after all.

Anyway today first started off with a cup of milk. This is weird because there has been no milk in the house since I first got lactose intolerant at the beginning of this year. However in my sleepy haze I remembered that I had bought a carton of lactose free milk from Cold Storage the other day. So I had milk with breakfast, for once in many months.

Then today the bus came late. This was unusual because the bus usually materialises just when I'm putting on my shoes every morning and I end up rushing like hell. That was the usual routine for the past few weeks. But today this routine was disrupted and I ended up waiting.

Chapel was odd because instead of the usual random people leading worship, it was random students. Unfortunately, the quality of the worship service did not change. The sermon was weird too because it was on Globilisation and Christianity - eh? I ended up going to sleep and later was treated to Chun Wui and Gen repeating what the speaker had said - in utter disbelief. Sounds like I didn't miss very much.

PE was spent (most of it anyway) sitting around because there was a lack of rackets and available courts. I ended up talking to Mai and Cheryl, and watching the showoff between Elliot and Chun Wui versus Cielo and Gen. After a while Mong and I went to ask JLC and Jim if we could play, and so we did for a minute or two before Cheryl wandered over to join my side. So on the last PE lesson ever, I ended up playing a suck game of badminton because I am a bad player.

After school I stayed back to do work and managed to get some Econs reading done. Then I left at about 5:30 and decided to change bus at Clementi interchange. In the middle of my second bus ride back, I felt a tap on my right shoulder, so I turned around. I saw someone I didn't recognise, decked out in army uniform. I instinctively lifted my left wrist to look at my watch so I could give the unknown person the time when he said "Hey are you Year 5 or Year 6?"

Eh?

I too surprised to be suspicious in the least, so I replied that I was Year 6. What followed next was a conversation in which he said that he was a Year 7 who used to be from 6.11 and various questions about school. His name was written on a patch on his uniform, so I knew him name - but he didn't ask for mine. Which is just as well because I found him freaky. His mannerisms also reminded me of this other person from my Japanese class last time who I didn't really like. Still, I talked to him till the bus came to my stop where I got off.

On one side there is him being weird and doing something unusual. On the other there is the idea that even when one is away from ACSI, one still manages to hold strong bonds with the school. Students past and present, even total strangers, are able to have a passable conversation on the school and it's activities and people. This links up again with the idea of how sad it is that this is the last week of school.

After this week ends, for the rest of my life, I will never be in a proper classroom setting with a teacher, regimented work and uniform. This week is the last week of what began in MGS some 11 years and 9 months ago, as a young girl squirming in her neon pink and blue power rangers bag and a uniform that was too big - which will now end as a young woman (dare I think of myself that way?) with a LILAC bag and a uniform which is sometimes uncomfortably tight and short. From many pairs of Bata shoes over the years to a random pair of Adidas shoes that fell apart on me, I now will leave the School Life shod in black converses. My hair which was short when I was in primary school, was longer as I got to upper primary, was then short and allowed to grow every year from Sec 1 to Sec 2 and Sec 4 and Year 5. Now as I prepare to leave, it's grown really really long.

This all feels so scary.

I have recently been assailed by odd dreams and odd anxieties popping up in my head. They come to me in random thoughts, like "what if I die at this very moment?", "what if I cry?", "what if I get engaged to someone I don't love?". I've also been sleeping nights filled with dreams that I remember. When this happens to me it usually means that a strong emotion has been triggered by that dream, and I remember it vividly - and have a disturbed rest where I wake up tired. For instance last night I dreamed that on my way to the IOC examination room, I dreamed that someone came out and molested me, and that I was so traumatised that I couldn't do my IOC.

Nyeh.

-----

I got bloody 12th Night. Of all things to get I got 12th Night. This makes me think about to how I gravitated towards the central envelope, but then changed course halfway and took the envelope at the top left instead. I have no idea why I changed course, but I did. And then I ended up with 12th Night. On the upside it was Act 1 Scene 1, the best of all the 12th Night extracts - but then again I studied so hard for King Lear and Poetry! It all seems like such a waste, I would have done better even if I got Lear's Death Scene even thought that was the worst bit of Lear to comment on!

When I reached school today, my heart was thundering away even as I hopped out of the car. It was thundering away like nothing I've ever felt before, worse than that of any examination I've ever sat through. I did the only thing that I thought would alleviate the pounding of my heart - I started listening to the loudest music I had possible. In my very limited ipod this meant Quiet Riot's Bang Your Head and Disco Ensemble's Drop Dead Casanova even though I was really thinking about Eye of the Tiger or The Final Countdown.

In class I talked to Song Yeong briefly before closing my eyes and listening to music. When I opened my eyes I saw Ted Kin and Daryl. Before rushing off, I took out my inhaler and took two puffs - then I walked out of class. As I hopped down the stairs, I had to suppress the urge to start running like hell :x

At the examination centre, I realised I forgot what room I was supposed to report to - so I started pacing around outside the Music Rooms. Then I got a call from Sir Weeaboo. I ended up running down to the Old Boardroom instead where I was met by a frantic MNathan. Then I picked up the wrong envelope and started annotating away. The rest as they say, is history (thank God!).

After school I went out with Stephanie and Arjun to Holland V. to bum. We went to NYDC and had tea there (not literally) before wandering about. Then after I got back home I watched 4 episodes of Season 3 Grey's Anatomy. What a nice way to bum after IOC :D

the chartreuse tiger; mamihlapinatapai says:
yeah i know
:/
i will
i'm still summarising stuff now
hahaha
gosh.
joash. says:
lol kk all the breast!
the chartreuse tiger; mamihlapinatapai says:
um.
joash.
should i wait for that freudian slip to sink in?

-----

Aye aye aye oh see!

Here's to hoping I survive the next 12 hours while still keeping a sane and lucid mind :x

*Drinks self-confidence potion*

+5 self-confidence!

Would you like to:
a) Go North
b) Go South
c) Go East
d) Go West
e) Use something else from your inventory?

Once again I am awed by Sharanya Manivannan:

"Anyway, sometimes I think maybe I don't love you, I only love the way it feels to think I love you, so maybe that feeling should make love to me. And ever since I decided that I love mouths, their shapes and the shapes they make, I think that people's voices should make love to me. So should the city of Rio de Janeiro. And the Yangtze river and each of her tributaries."

Here's to hoping I survive the next 72 hours of Disabledapologiamendingwallthewoodpiletelephoneconversationbackgroundandfriezeskingleartwelthnight. Eeeeek.

I really ought to be doing work now, but I've decided to blog about this little tidbit that came to me about a minute ago.

I was listening to Summer of '69 by Byran Adams (youtube here), and I started thinking about my life and class in ACSI as a whole. (69... 6.9! Get it? HA HA HA -___________-)

"Oh when I look back now
The summer seemed to last forever
And if I had the choice
Ya - I'd always wanna be there
Those were the best days of my life"

Completely taken out of context of course. The song is about a guy reminiscing about his teenage years and well... I'm a teenager reminiscing about my teenage years.

Another event that precipitated this reminiscing was the announcement this morning by the 2nd student council about the submission of things to put in our yearbook. I was actually a little shocked because now thinking about it, I realise we only have about one and a half months of school left :x

And to think this morning I woke up in an utterly thunderblack mood, cursing everything about school.

OMG. I just had a very weird dream. Normally in such circumstances I'd write it in my own personal diary, but then today I'm at my Mama's house so I have no diary. I am sad.

Anyway in this dream I was supposed to get married to this person with the initials A.L. (I actually know who he is, but I'm not sticking his name here.) In this dream it was present day time, that is we - and everyone else - were still IB students stuck in Term 3 Week 8/9, yet for some really inexplicable reason we were supposed to get married there and then.

The dream gets stranger because even though the feeling was that the wedding date had been planned months in advance, the day before the event itself nothing was ready, not even my bridal gown. Then it got odder because the wedding was supposed to take place in a pool so I was going to wear my old swimsuit under this green sundress I bought in real life in Bintan. I remember feeling horrified at the lack of preparation and started to get stressed (a common theme in my dreams), running about trying to get things ready.

Then there was the matter of the groom. I didn't love him at all. Not even in real life, not even in the dream... so WHY DID I DREAM ABOUT HIM OMG ): Anyway when faced with each other, he ran off to do weird irrelevant things even though we were under prepared while I kept stressing out. I also got the distinct feeling that he treated the entire thing like an ordinary everyday occurrence, and he didn't love me either. Yet somehow I remember thinking that I had to marry him, that there was no way out of this.

So in the end of my dream I ended up pleading to everyone and our parents to please please please postpone the damn wedding to after the IB exams. We could use the time in the interim to get to know each other better, do with better wedding planning and could still have a honeymoon in December before he started NS.

Oh and another thing besides me not wanting to get married to him because I didn't love him. I kept thinking that I was too young to get married, too irresponsible and too unprepared. Nyeh. What a horrifying dream.

Then I woke up and dreamt another weird dream of me going to Song Yeong's house to play with the garden hedge maze that he had.

"If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now, even if we don’t speak often, please post a comment with a memory of you and me. It can be anything you want — good or bad. When you’re finished, post this little paragraph on your blog and be surprised (or mortified) about what people remember about you."

- A meme from Sir Brythain

Hmmm.

I'm glad I skipped school today. I was so tired I slept all the way till 11:15 am, sleeping through what must have been ten thousand phone calls (I usually wake up when I hear them) as my grandmother tried to contact me about lunch today. In the end I finally only woke when my grandmother was banging away at my room door. Note the word "banging", not "knocking" or "tapping", but full on when-I-bash-down-this-door-I'm-going-to-rape/kill/torture-you kind of frantic strong handed banging. Yes my grandma is no weakling, and evidently this granddaughter needs a lot more rest.

This is so strange that it must be documented in all it's face palm-ness in order that I may recall this event one day and laugh at the great comedy of errors that it is.

-----

Readers of this blog will remember about last week I mentioned an ex that I had seen on Facebook, who is also doing the IB now even though he is one year older. His name is Joel K-h (damnit this better not pop up on google). His e-mail is his name @hotmail.com.

Anyway last night as I was minding my own business, he randomly messaged me asking me if IOC was over. This made me freeze up a little and sent my head spinning. We hadn't talked in 5 years (K, I feel old now) save for the random scant contact on Facebook, so why was he messaging me now?! Despite my misgivings however, I replied (I seldom ignore people online anyway). This led to a conversation about the number of people in school and regular IB stuff. However the first sign that something was not quite right, but still easily dismissed, was when he asked if 6.1 was still Chinatown or Macau. Joel was from AC Barker.

I thought it was weird, but thought that maybe he visited the school before or had friends here, hence his question. So I answered. The conversation then went on till it finally died. As usual I did my best to avoid an awkward moment (or as awkward as a MSN convo can ever be) and asked him why he was doing IB this year. His next reply surprised me: "who said I was doing IB this year?"

Ordinarily I might have further put it down to me being mistaken about him doing IB, but I had gotten it straight from the horse's mouth - so why did he suddenly say that he wasn't doing IB? My mind raced and my eyes flicked up to stare at the e-mail address. OH MY GOD, THE E-MAIL WAS NOT -k*h@hotmail.com! It was -kh*o@hotmail.com. Who the hell is Joel Kh*o? OH WAIT. It's the random guy that added me on Facebook and MSN that I accepted because I am a nice person.

I really died inside -_________________________________________________-

-----

Today after school, Elliot, Lex, Patrick, Song Yeong, Gen, Malcolm, Gerald, JLC, Daryl and I stayed back to do IOC preparation in room B3-06. We covered Lear extracts 19 and 20, taking a break in between. During the breaks I ate two bananas, one dispenser mashed potato, one packet of soybean milk and shared two packets of chipsmore and a packet of pocky with everyone else. After extract 20, Patrick and Gen left and we all wandered down to the SAC to gossip about people and other random rubbish (C & J, C & Y anyone?). Then we went up and covered The Wood Pile, with Elliot leaving in the middle.

As the sun started to set and the air started to grow more florescent light filled, I took a moment to think on a macro level about everything (or alternatively stoning when everyone else was discussing Wood Pile, depending on how you look at it). I saw them erupt into laughter at something amusing that was invariably said during the course of discussion, felt the smiles and the shared joy. And then I thought to how in a few months time, this would all end. There would be no more late afternoons shared doing work together, no more random bawdy jokes and shared sniggering at unfortunate targets because we would all be separated and sent in a thousand different directions.

I felt sad. Then someone said another inane absurd thing and as I joined in the laughter, my thought was quickly forgotten.

Sometimes I feel time slow down to a crawl. I feel the very beginnings of thoughts forming in my mind, setting off a thousand nerve impulses of tiny jolts into my soul. It travels faster than anything I have ever experienced, and half a nanosecond later I feel my finger twitch. This is when I have become aware that my soul and mind have separated from my body and I am no longer mistress of it's every action or reaction.

It is a terrifying yet comforting thought - I can nestle in the knowledge that it's not me but merely the shell I inhabit, but at the same time I cannot help but fear the next time I separate again.

こ゛めれさい

Last night I went out with Chun Wui, Lex, Malcolm, Elliot and Patrick to eat Sakae Sushi buffet at the very odd and highly stylised icon village in the heart of Tanjong Pagar. I daresay the only money Sakae Sushi made off that night was from me - eating a buffet with 5 teenage boys was quite an enlightening experience as they kept ordering and stuffed themselves silly.

Afterwards we wandered off to the main road (I forget the name) to try and get a bus to Holland V. At the first bus stop we came to, we realised that there was no 75, so after leaving Patrick there we trekked off toward Cantonment and found a bus stop with 75.

At Holland V. we then went to Hog's Breath where the guys had a beer which made them even more bloated and tasted like water - Victoria Bitter. I had a Vodka Lime, which to my relief did not give me a massive headache (does this mean it's okay for me to drink alcohol now?), but at the same time managed to make my head feel a little heavy yet light at the same time. Thankfully however, this sensation disappeared by the time I got back to my grandma's place around 12... where I was faced with a handphone filled with 9 missed call notifications :/ I even twirled about trying to convince my grandma I was not drunk.

Anyway... looks like there's going to be an Anna update tonight. And to think I expected and wanted a slow night.

On Friday I bought Blonde Redhead's 23. Since then I've been reluctant to actually open it and since I have the songs on my itunes and ipod already, there is little a need to do so. Another reason for me putting off the actual opening of the CD is that the cover, coupled with the red insert, look amazing together. The red insert will fall off when I take off the cling wrap ):

This is how the album looks:


I was initially a bit horrified when I saw it online last year. It made me think about bad fan fics about gay minotaurs (they're always male for some reason, so much for gender equality). On Friday night however as I ripped off the price tag off the back, I realised that if I used my fingers to cover any 2 of the legs, the girl would look normal no matter which 2 legs I covered - just as long as 2 legs were covered.

Because my camera has been stolen by my mother for her wonderful week-long vacation in Hokkaido, I am stuck with my scanner. Here is the rubbish I've been up to:

Girl in normal pose, standing attentively and poised to smash the next ball that comes her way.


Girl poised waiting to hit back ball, leg raised in anticipation of running.


Girl waiting to hit back ball and leans back to stretch for ball (she also looks a little like she is falling).


Girl in very unglam pose, legs stretched wide open so that she can smash the incoming ball.

I would insert a mathematical formula here for the number of possible permutations of leg covering, but then I realised I have forgotten how to. She has 4 legs, of which 2 must be covered... So does this mean there are 16 possible combinations? (Advise me o fellow Math SL and HL people)

Today in the afternoon when I was really bored I went back to read my blog. I clicked on the screenshot I posted yesterday and realised I left the douche's name on my startbar. Then I realised I didn't care about offending such a person and decided not to edit it. Also I went to do some further research about the books in question and Naipaul's is (surprise!) non-fiction. However this little saving grace of his is negated by it appearing in both the fiction and non-fiction sections.

Still fail.

-----

On Monday and yesterday during the National Day celebrations rehearsal and rehearsal itself, among the remixed shit songs by Asha (it's Singapore's own version of Usher! Get it? AHAHAHA.), a song that I haven't heard in years played. It was Singapore Town (which was also remixed incidentally...).

Hearing that song and the familiar lyrics brought me back to a time when I was still (vaguely) innocent. The year was 2000 and we'd all just survived the y2k bug, and I was again stuck in the shittiest class of the lot, 4.1. We had to do some sort of item for the National Day celebrations in MGS as an inter-class competition and we chose that song to sing and dance to. We made a bus out of many pieces of vanguard sheets. It had windows and was painted. I remember being very proud and happy during that time, but now thinking back I feel an aura of wtf.

Thinking back about my classmates now, I realise I don't actually remember who was in that class who went to MGS Secondary. I'm sure they were definitely the majority because at 200 points for PSLE, almost everyone could go in - but their faces and names escape me now. Ah what a shitty class.

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I watched a bit of the National Day Parade just now when I was having dinner. Here are some snippets of the things I observed and thought:

1) Last year at this time I was sick and at my grandmother's place, the planes flew overhead her house
2) During one of the shots, the view changed to that of a rag running across the camera's lens. I found it profoundly amusing.
3) It was raining. What a shitty day for marching
4) Jacintha's singing was bad and off key, she also sounded very uncertain
6) What life would have been like if I did marching for NDP in 2006
7) They played Lifehouse's Blind during the Black Hawk Aerobatic Stunts. Someone up there has a very cruel sense of humour (don't bother googling the lyics, this is more as a note to myself)

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This reminds me again of a point I keep forgetting to blog about: I very often have thoughts that begin with "In a parallel universe..."

In them, I proceed to think of every decision making vaguely defining moment of my life, and then think about what would have happened had I taken the other route. (Damnit, I just thought about Frost's poem The Road Not Taken which was my favourite poem by him) I imagine that somewhere on parallel universe #23, Melodie who chose not to reject Chinese in K2 is off living a happier life because she is better at Chinese - or even mundane parallel universe #707 where Melodie who chose to take a shower at 6 pm today is now reading Lear in bed - and then there are the downright vaguely sad ones where on parallel universe #313 Melodie is still happily attached to the people she was attached to. And then I think about this parallel universe I am on, and wonder if they think of me as being on a parallel plane too.

Then my brain explodes because it is thinking in a loop. Ha.

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I finished reading Su Tong's Madwoman on the Bridge last night. I must say it exceeded my expectations of it. The plots were haunting and insightful, giving me a glimpse into the life on present day modernising China and it's varied effects. While I think the setting could have had extra work done on it (it helped a lot that I was in China last year and saw the less shinier city of Guangzhou), the characters were wonderfully fleshed out and they struck a chord with me. The plots ran the gamut - from the creepily supernatural to rather negative views of present day society. It is also a very China Chinese book in that it does not really centre on Chinese traditions per se, but the new culture that has been created in the wake of the Culture Revolution and the general displacement of things that only such a great social upheaval could have caused.

I would rate this book above that of Zadie Smith's The Book of Other People and Yoko Ogawa's The Swimming Pool, and at par with Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting. However as with all translated stories, the prose should be taken with a pinch of salt. All the evocative English words used are due to the craftsmanship of the translator - he might have enhanced what might possibily have been a duller prose. Still, Su Tong puts together a fine prose.

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"We have a role in life
But only a few people
Dare to rewrite the script"

And finally for the last section break, a wonderful advertising campaign by Kenneth Cole promoting diversity. Do check it out. If you're interested in finding out more, check out http://www.kennethcole.com/.

This person here, is an idiot. Please click on the image, all my comments have already been added to the image in question. Name and other major identifying elements have been removed to protect the hopelessly pretentious.

I really cannot stand pretentious people. I may not actually have read Naipaul, Greene, Golding and Rushdie - but I sure as hell know that they are known for their fiction work, not non-fiction, so what the hell (especially Golding and Rushdie!) are they doing on that person's 'non-fiction' list? The quote is also so holier-than-thou, OH LOOK AT ME I AM BETTER THAN YOU ARE, YOU JUST DON'T GET IT. Sorry kiddo, you've been exposed for the fool that you really are, did you really think you were so awesome that everyone else around you is stupid? GTFO please (AND what the hell are you doing in my !nk photo, get away from me, I've never seen you at any meetings before).

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I spent most of National Day Celebrations today taking pictures using Elliot's dslr, which was quite an eye opening experience because I had to operate under low light conditions + zoom which meant my shots were more susceptible to camera shake. This meant I had to find all sorts of angles to prop my body up against so I would shake less when taking pictures. I have also discovered that the two things on my torso are a hindrance when it comes to propping one's arms up. Dodgy :x

Afterwards Daryl, Arjun and I went to Vivocity. We ate at Superdog and Iordered chili cheese fries, which tasted really great, but I couldn't finish. Then we wandered off to Page One. After browsing about and picking up and putting down books like The Return of the Native and White Teeth, I bought 5 books using the $60 voucher my uncle gave me for my birthday. They are:

Kiran Desai - The Inheritance of Loss
Mohsin Hamid - The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Marisha Pessl - Special Topics in Calamity Physics
Elie Wiesel - The Night Trilogy
Haruki Murakami - Kafka on the Shore

The first three books came in a set from penguin, and cost me about $30. What a steal! That's like $10 a book. I'm glad I never got around to buying Desai individually. Wiesel was the most expensive of the lot at $30, but after picking it up many times over many trips to Kino, I finally decided to get it. The last one I bought because it was on 20% discount, and it's a book Nic really recommended.

Daryl bought Henry James' Portrait of a Lady.

We then wandered over to Harbourfront Centre and bummed at McDonald's before heading over to Orchard to go to Borders so Arjun could spend his birthday book vouchers. He kept asking me for recommendations, but I felt really useless. Nothing there really jumped out at me either except this book I saw about giraffes and a James Frey book. There, we made a pact that if he read Soul Mountain, I'd read A House for Mr Biswas even though I dislike Naipaul. So he bought Soul Mountain, and I just added Biswas to my Amazon shopping cart.

From the books section, we also drifted over to the music section. I was very very impressed to see the music ("indie" anyone?) they had there, selling at ridiculously cheap prices. They even had Blonde Redhead's 23 for $23.95. I wasn't sure if I should buy it so, and so went about clutching it and scanning it into every music listening station I passed, like about 10 or so - so they all played 23. Yay. In the end I borrowed Daryl's card to buy it, but I only had $17 in cash. Oh no :o

This meant that I had to use my ATM card. Except I had no idea how to. Arjun had to prep me. "Just say 'I'm paying by nets' and look confident, like you know what you're doing". In the end I almost reached over and grabbed the wrong console, and started trembling slightly when I keyed in my password into the machine lest I get it wrong. What an adventure. What a lousy adventure. This reminds me of the time I was mildly stupefied when out with Daryl, Chong Wee, Arjun and Kaijun. They had to prep me on how to use an ATM machine to take out money. I am so fail.

Anyway I survived my first Nets incident! Hooray.

Happy National Day.

PS: CAMERA OBSCURA IS COMING TO THE ESPLANADE ON THE 29TH OCTOBER! I WANT TO GO. TICKETS $39.

Facebook is a very evil tool. It allows me to look at pictures of my ex-boyfriend (oho! Dodgy dodgy) and laugh at his popped collars and rather obnoxious wealth (Mustang anyone?) while being simultaneously surprised to learn that he is doing the IB exams in Nov. 2008 as well, even though he is one year older than me. This also means of course, that he also gets to see all the 10,001 stupid pictures I have of myself on Facebook and all the other rubbish there is there. That's the problem with Facebook, it makes people who would ordinarily not have kept in contact 'keep' in contact.

This means people like ex-boyfriends, ex-best friends, ex-friends and even the random crazy guy who used to follow you around obsessively - people who you'd have wanted quite badly to forget and move on with your life - are there at the click of a mouse. I would daresay there is something a little unhealthy about this for the simple reason it means that it is quite impossible to escape from one's past completely. Sure, I could always have opted to not click on his profile and I could have opted to not accept him as a friend, but let's face it, how many times have random people from Zimbabwe added you on facebook as a friend - and you accepted out of common courtesy? What more someone that you actually know?

This of course does not apply to people you actively have a distaste for. Like I just blocked someone from my profile the other day when he tried to add me as a friend. When I tested the system to search for him later, it gave me a 'no results found' notification, so in short he's been completely erased from my facebook life. Yeah, I'm nice that way.

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I've been hearing from my friends often enough that they have the notion I have a very interesting life. This is completely wrong. I have no idea where you people get such ideas really! To prove you people wrong once and for all and expose how loser I really am, here is a rough summary of my entire day yesterday.

0930 - wake up, lie around bed
1030 - finally get up and switch on computer. Go to facebook and play Crusades
1100 - bathe
1130 - wander downstairs, parents appear with lunch
1145 - throw a soybean at my father because he's taunting me to
1200 - read newspaper
1230 - watch martin mystery
1300 - go to room and bum online
1400 - watch Gundam Seed Destiny
1500 - mother comes into room and lies about
1501 - resolve to start doing work
1530 - open up biology powepoint 5.6 on homeostasis and start typing notes on Fokker
1531 - mother wants to buy a coach bag online: does not actually know how to shop online
1532 - open up Amazon.com and search for coach, leaving her with Saoirse
1550 - get frustrated and search for IB SL Biology syllabus online
1555 - find awesome Bio notes website, stop typing notes, mother leaves my room
1600 - attempt to read Fairbank/end up bumming on internet
1700 - wander down to eat a salad and an apple
1730 - read Fairbank
1800 - text Cheam to ask if he wants to go running later
1805 - Cheam replies saying he wants to run now
1815 - run to Cheam's place
1830 - reach and start stretching while waiting
1835 - Cheam appears
1840 - start running
1845 - start feeling like dying
1900 - finally stop running, sit at pavement to catch breath, watch the sunset and toy planes and real planes fly about
1930 - reach home and eat dinner
2000 - use computer
2030 - bathe
2100 - use computer, wander about and join the parents to watch a bit of entourage
2330 - com freezes up and dies, restart
2340 - com cannot connect to the internet, get annoyed
2345 - decide to clean out cupboard
0045 - start packing up clothes
0100 - eat supper, joining brother who is awake for no apparent reason downstairs, watch Veronica Guerin which for some reason is showing at a shitty hour with no apparent advertising. Curse mediacorp for showing shows like Elektra and Hell Boy at popular timeslots instead.
0130 - wash up
0150 - finish reading A Man of Property
0200 - sleep
0201 - get woken up to go clean up after brother
0210 - wash up again
0215 - sleep

What a useless day.

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On Thursday after PC, WTY called Darren and I to stay back. When we met him, he claimed that he ran our EEs through Microsoft Word and that we were both above the word limit, mine by 70 words. So, he wanted us to count our words. Manually. Nice.

Thankfully Daryl and JLC were still around, and amidst much cursing and tediousness we finished counting the words only to find that they formed a total of an inexplicable 3,969 - short of my declared word count of 4,000 and short of WTY's count of 4,070. *$(C@$^D@*$&

On Friday, JLC, Gerald and I met up to do more Lear extracts at my grandmother's house. After Gerald left, John and I stopped doing work and wandered off to Island Creamery where I had a Brownie and Cookies and Cream Ice Cream. I think he had an Apple Pie and Cookies and Cream Ice Cream. Then we walked off to explore Botanic gardens, admiring the many dogs that were out and about.

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And to a certain Mr Hadi who complains I have not updated in a gazillion years, I can be found here sometimes.