nilsinelabore

live high.

2008-10-20T23:50:00.002+08:00

i figured i should sneak a post, since leaving the previous one on top gives the impression that i'm in perpetual depression.

the past month or so has been pretty uneventful, save a few knock ups here and there. but now ain't really the time to ponder and worry over such issues. shall just keep it for post november 20th

which reminds me, i think this is probably the first year i'm spending my birthday in the midst of the examinations. haha random thought of the day.

well i guess there ain't much to do, except study real good and leave no room for regrets. i shall work toward that goal. whether the As come by would be a different story altogether.

cleared my cube in the range today. how time flies. hahaha okay now's not the time to emo potato and reminisce. i doubt i'll be touching this place for a month, or forever for that matter. should be switching to a different URL. we'll see.

all the very best to everyone in the middle of Os, and those who will be taking their As soon!

when the going gets tough.

2008-09-24T20:13:00.003+08:00

today was a day of setbacks.
and painful realisations of the complicated.

my grades are not up to par, and i lost my earphones which are probably a month old at best. i had a head that hurt so much i asked my mum to pick me, as ridiculous as it sounds considering where i live.

three knocks to the head, stab at the heart. break his spirit.

for a day at least. hopefully nothing more.

mraz was here.

2008-08-03T22:42:00.001+08:00

and i was nowhere near :(

i don't want to wake the sleeping bag up.

2008-06-18T23:39:00.001+08:00

muttons and the adventure of ping and pong make me happy :)

anyway, here's a quick update.

sunday was terribly scary. we beat NUS by 1 point for third, and they were eyeballing NUS shooters' cards to double check their score. for 20 minutes that day i was totally immobilised and my heart was pounding cause i was so worries the recount would result in NUS beating us by like 1 point and us losing the medal. but luckily, it turns out we won by 3 points! cabbed down with zhang yang to get our medal. wheeeeee. even though it's a terrible colour, i'm still proud of us haha. took some photos, shall post them up.

speaking of photos, i realised that my blog is weird. i'm a photographer and i don't show any pictures. i shall attempt to put up more photos from now on (assuming i have the time haha

monday - finals. first final was crappy with a 92 i think. second one was better with a 95. had to shoot off with this jillian tay (if i'm not wrong) from sjc. ended up shooting 3 shots for the shootoff because we both shot tens for the first two. it was super nerve wrecking. coach came to announced my score before hers, so everytime i heard she shot a ten too i was like "noooooo i have to shoot againnnnnn" and drooped my head against the rifle. which was pretty bad cause i looked like i was pissed that she shot a ten according to shengy and jun han. so if you're jillian or her friend and you see this, please let her know that i didn't mean it that way hoho. anyway to end it off, i shot a third 10 and she shot a 9, ending the agony haha

tuesday's test - emotional roller coaster, as seen by my scores. 99.91.97.87(pw this year).95.97. can only blame myself for shooting the 87 and 91. really dragged my average down like mad. oh well, do better next time.

today's finals - first one was a hahaha finals again. shot six or seven consecutive nines, ended with a 91? was quite sian-diaoed even though i wasn't nervous at all. had to shootoff for 4th i think. second one was better at 94, but still quite bad in general. had to shootoff again, ended 5th. can't believe my luck seriously. shoot 4 finals kena 3 shootoffs. 75%

brought jeannel, deng chao and huiyuan (i think that's how they are spelled) to vj to have a look around cause they're interested in coming over. although i thought that the tour we gave them was terribly boring because nothing was going on in school, they actually thought it was quite fun. haha hopefully they really think so and didn't say so just to make us feel good ^^

tomorrow's the last day at gombak. kinda sad to leave, it's a great place to be training, but oh well. good things always come to an end. training's in the morning, but the bus back to vj to ferry the weapons is only at 9.15pm after the others train. probably bring my work and guitar so i can chiong math and relax when i have to.

terribly long post for a quick update. heh.

CLIC + NUSIS

2008-06-14T09:17:00.003+08:00

well well, it's been a while, and i reckon it's time to drop by for abit and do a little update.

CLIC has been over for about 2 weeks now. it turned out to be a pretty successful camp, and the participants really enjoyed themselves. more importantly, they learnt alot as well. hopefully they'll take back all the lessons that they've learnt and bring it back to their CCAs :)

on the facilitators part, i think we're really glad that all our efforts have finally paid off. all the facil-led activities were a blast. icebreakers, station games, cluedo, bash night, leadership forum etc. oh and i'm really glad that cluedo turned out the way we wanted it to, even though there could have been a little more emphasis on the peer counselling bit. it was funny to see all the facils dressed up and role-playing.

i was totally melting while wearing the policeman's uniform and hat and patrolling the hilly landscape of halls 10 and 11. all the resident's thought i was a real policeman and some of they were so scared that they when they saw me, they immediately stopped flopping down the stairs noisily and started to walk real silently. it was hilarious. oh and i accidentally walked into a wrong room in full police uniform thinking it was nazri's and kenji's room, and scared the shit out of the guy ^^ haha.

well to the facils: calvin, jarren, eirene, nazri, hannah, dhilshad, kenji, phoebe, xianglin and darren. thanks for being such great people and making this whole experience soooo uber wonderful, fun, enriching and memorable. all the efforts that we put in together, all the late nights we had finalising the little details, making sure that the activities would run smoothly, have finally paid off. also, thanks for all the LOSER moments that made the camp all the more hilarious! it was a great camp and i'll cherish the memories of this chapter in my life forever!

and to my dearest and most awesomest group asymptote: you guys are totally amazing. honestly, i was unsure about how you guys would turn out. i'm really glad that you guys took everything seriously and made the effort to take ownership of your own learning. reviewing your group goals at your own initiative and also actively seeking to improve yourselves constantly during the activities. although there was quite a bit of pushing from me on the first and second day, you guys rose to the challenge, i really did not have to intervene much after that. you guys were second for the station games on day 1, and first for mona lisa's code, balloon sculpture, and night cluedo. that is truly imba, and it is something only you guys can do. keep up the attitude, and i'm sure you'll all do good to your CCAs :)

right then, on to shooting

after CLIC, i started my training at HTNS in bukit gombak after a break of about 3 weeks due to the planning of CLIC. the initially feeling was great, and i felt pretty stable. the first test was on my second day of training and i fired a 756/800. second test on the 4th day was much worse, probably around 746 or so, never really counted. there were a lot of fluctuations, namely due to 2 issues, stability/controlling the gun and not being able to let go

these 2 problems continued on till this week, and i was starting to feel really uptight about them. trainings were poor, and when i was put on the SCATT system, i was absolute rubbish. i didn't train on wednesday and thursday, and i told myself that for NUSIS, i'm just going to do 2 things, maintain my stability, and LET GO.

first series was poor. i was still controlling a little and my shots were jerking. hit my poorest series of a 92. things were much better after that. i shot a 99 for my second series. although the first shot of my third series was a 7, i had no problems letting go at all, and i went on to hit a 9 and a 10 after that, third series ended as a 93 due to the first shot, but that's okay. last three series were 96,96 and 93. i was a little shaky on the last series, but i think it was still o-kay. so i ended the comp with a 92.99.93.96.96.93 - 569

kenneth and zhang yang underperformed yesterday with a 563 and 565, but we're all more aware of our problems now, so NUSIS was a really great stepping stone for nationals. hopefully with added awareness in our training we'll all do much better for nationals.

common test is coming in 2 weeks. i'm finding it real hard to juggle between studying and training, mainly due to the travelling time involved in training. i guess i'm too used to walking to school in 10 mins that 90 mins of bus and mrt is really killing me. having to scope three people yesterday meant that i didn't really touch math at all again. (i have a bad feeling about math again doh)

scoping is actually pretty fun, especially when you have kenneth by your side. i was scoping this xiao xuan from dhs at that time, it was probably the 4th detail i think. kenneth was scoping a jian ya from TJY school (actually it's her initials, don't really know what school she's from haha) we didn't know her name at first and concluded that it should be tan jia you! kenneth was giving a live commentary of every single shot and was being damn animated. and he kept bitching about how she was faking him by pretending to aim and putting the gun down halfway, leaving kenneth peering through the scope for the longest time. haha loserrr!

mega uber long post. haha. cheers

update.

2008-05-22T22:44:00.003+08:00

haven't been to this place for a long long while, until jek just alerted me that there was someone flaming me on the tagboard.

it went something like this "well well well, so this hypocrite has been emoing on this blog for quite some time now." as well as something about not being able to practise what i preached in the forum. oh and this part is interesting - "watch your dirty mouth daniel ong wei liang"

looking at the last few posts, it's easy to understand where that person is coming from. in fact, i've been wanting to put up a happy post for quite some time now just to show that i'm not such a dull person lol.

but honestly, the times when i feel truly motivated to blog is when i'm feeling down and i need some form of output just to feel a little better. other times, i'd rather be spending my time doing more productive stuff heh.

well to the person who tagged, i think you don't really know or understand me that well, so it's little wonder why you said that. i don't documment my life here, these are just bits that i feel like talking about to relieve the stress :) oh and do let me know what you mean by my dirty mouth. i'm still quite puzzled why you said that ^^

anyways, if you don't mind revealing your identity, you can stop me in school and we can chat eh? haha cheers.

on a more serious note, let me talk about the soccer guys and the final on wednesday.

i remember 3 years ago, we were in the finals at the national stadium. we eventually lost on penalties, which was a real pity. we cried at the players at the end of the match, it was heart-wrenching.

having watched many of our matches this year, i really feel that it was the best team we've fielded in the 4 years i've been in VJ. there were no inflated egos to maintain, the way the team connected was really awesome and it was wonderful as a supporter to see the team spirit that they displayed. i was extremely confident that we had a very good chance of lifting the trophy again.

in the end, it was a shaky first half that led to the eventual scoreline. however, the second half was a completely different story. it was the team that we had seen all season, dominating on the opponent's half and creating numerous chances for each other. unfortunately, as gavin said, we were unable to convert the chances into goals.

i felt really sad when the whistle was blown for full time. MJ could not even get a shot on target during the second half, while we were constantly battering their defences. nonetheless, i was extremely proud of the soccer guys' determination and persistence, and they are truly champions in their own right. kudos to them all!

urgh.

2008-03-31T21:52:00.002+08:00

i'm actually dreading school tomorrow. if not for the forum thingy we're doing for the year ones tomorrow, i probably would just not go to school altogether.

i fell asleep numerous times in class today. i just feel...weak. sigh.

took a break and watched the match before going for tuition. it was scary with sr opening the game, but by the end, it was obvious that the scoreline should easily be something like 7-1 rather the 3-1 it finished as.

mock skill b tmr. essay question 1a. math tutorial. oh and i haven't prepared what i'm going to speak about tomorrow for the forum.

gosh. i'm starting to get really jaded about life again.

the lifeless weekend.

2008-03-30T20:10:00.002+08:00

i'm ill again. it's becoming a monthly affair now. felt totally off during training yesterday, took a short nap in the afternoon hoping things would improve.

woke up with a really sore throat and flu. wasting the weekend away really. i feel too weak to do anything. i wish there wasn't school tomorrow. ah enough ranting.

haven't touched this place for nearly a month now. air rifle camp was pretty well done it seemed. after all those late nights planning, doing and worrying, it all seemed worth it hearing that the members really enjoyed themselves. a big thank you to pflug, penguin, faizah, kenneth and zhang yang for their efforts in helping to organise the camp, without which it wouldn't have been so successful.

in the midst of selecting the new exco now. will talk more about it soon, hopefully in the near future.

my tank came two mondays ago. as i was filling it up with water on tuesday, i discovered a few deep scratches in the front panel of the glass. called the tank maker who came down on wed, and told me that i would have to wait another two weeks. you can imagine an energy level diagram. there was me with lots of energy at the beginning, eager to start the tank up. then there was me after that, lifeless (exagerration). if i may add, the reaction was highly exothermic, with the huge loss of energy coming in the form of dreading the two weeks of anticipation that i had to endure before the replacement would arrive.

pardon the chunk of rubbish above. just felt like it.

ct1.

2008-03-05T00:36:00.003+08:00

tomorrow (today) may be the first time in jc that i walk into a biology exam feeling unprepared.

i suppose i cannot expect too much, considering i spent a lot of time training for NTUNIS which only finished last friday.

94.96.89.95.93.92 - 559.

was an okay shoot, managed feelings relatively well. apart from the third series, i kinda felt that the tens were not coming, especially in the last two series.

i guess looking on the positive side, i've progressed immensely. from shooting rubbish like 7.0 in my first nationals comp to now, shooting 9.3 and thinking that i shot below average.

ahh. evolution beckons.

sleep dreprived.

2008-02-22T21:07:00.001+08:00

i sent out a message, then the phone to my ear and waited for a ringing tone without realising it.

falling asleep during tutorials like never before.

my shooting’s been terrible. i can just cheek in and fall asleep.

monthly on sun, bio spa on mon, chem spa tue, ntu on fri. cts.

haha. life.

i wonder.

2008-02-18T22:26:00.002+08:00

cts are coming up. in two weeks in fact. but.

i have a competition this sunday, and next friday.
march camp has to be settled.
i am bloody tired.

i know there's alot more to the above but i just don't want to continue thinking about it. i'm really doubting CTs now. i somehow wish NTUNIS isn't next friday. that effectively leaves me only the weekend to actually mug full time. oh wait there's training on sat.

it doesn't help that i'm falling ill. the last time i fell ill was just a month ago. apparently my body isn't taking this lifestyle very well. lifestyle's too nice a word anyway.

i really wonder what it would be like if things got worse. oh well. i guess life's like that. the good times, and the bad times. and the terrible ones, which tend to last terribly long.

jan ssa monthly.

2008-01-31T23:00:00.000+08:00

i realised i haven't talked about this, so here it is.

94.94.96.94.95.95 - 568.

overall, it was a good shoot. despite shooting two eights in my first series, i still managed to control my emotions and finish the series with a 94. there was also consistency throughout the shoot, as can be seen by the small deviation of the series scores. i didn't think too much about unecessary stuff, and made sure that i did not force shots that i were not confident of.

so yep. that's jan ssa monthly. no sure if i'll go for feb htns monthly, will see.

stressed.

2008-01-24T22:09:00.000+08:00

tired. and demoralised and jaded.

the past week has been really tough for me. late nights, endless tutorials, trainings etc.

my coach has advised me to go for every ssa monthly shoot from now on, to try and get myself ranked such that it will be much easier for me to join safsa in NS.

my first competition is on this sunday, and judging from today's shoot, i'm in a horrible, disgustingly bad position. it's demoralising.

requesting to play badminton for pe was a huge mistake. my muscles are currently in coma and that's not helping me shoot either.

i suppose when times are tough, you have to look forward to the bright side. but with the amount of catching up to do, i feel like i'm far from catching up with the light at the end of the tunnel.

who knows, i may even be tumbling further and further away. i suppose, it's time to get used to the fact that, well, i have no life. in a personal sense, that i have no leisure time anymore. it's hard really, but i guess the truth hurts.

oh well. i hope things turn out good soon.

I'm too hard at work.
Have you ever heard of anything so absurd
ever in your life.
I'm sorry for wasting your time.

orientation.

2008-01-06T00:02:00.000+08:00

has been getting more and more fun as the day progresses.

from a shy, stone thesifer, to a crazy, hyper thesifer, i'm glad that we've managed to turn the tables around.

i just really wish my throat would clear. just finished suntec, it was a blast. the rain was reminiscent of two years ago when we danced in the rain. really cool atmosphere. but i kinda stoned towards the end. my throat was just sian.

lame games under the escalator was fun. but the journey home was bad. i coughed so bad i gagged. i thought i was going to puke. it felt so. but i managed to come home without doing a merlion.

looking forward to sea regatta, but not wanting orientation to end. i want my voice back, and a normal throat so i can enjoy food again.

jetlag.

2007-12-28T05:30:00.000+08:00

this is crazy. i can't sleep.

today i woke up at 3pm and had my macdonalds breakfast which was ordered since nine.

and i can't sleep.

argh.

leaving on a jet plane.

2007-12-10T20:18:00.000+08:00

in about an hour or so. kinda weird knowing you're going overseas. the very thought of it. haha.

will be going to europe this time, till the 26. it's easily my biggest trip ever. would be hyper over it if not for the fact that i know that i won't pass math R paper. ah wells, let's just see what happens.

take care you all.

ocip `07 - Photographs.

2007-12-06T23:01:00.000+08:00

hi all, i've picked out about 100 shots and uploaded them on flickr.

here's the link for the slideshow:
http://flickr.com/photos/shutterspeed/sets/72157603376323617/show/

comments are most welcome. in fact, please do, that's the best way to improve.

thanks, enjoy. :)

ocip `07

2007-11-24T22:18:00.000+08:00

warning. extremely long post.

it's been a helluva trip in my opinion, and i'm so so glad i managed to go on the trip in the end.

well, i figured i shouldn't procastinate and start talking about the trip while it's still fresh in my head. i suppose i'll make it a little commentary-ish with thoughts in between and all.

first off, thanks for all who wished me. and special thanks to yanni and jenny and all the others who chipped in to do that muffins celebration thingy, it was really cool yep.

well the first thing we did when we hit chiangmai was to go for breakfast, where we were introduced to joe, tom, za, penn, and beau. joe's like our guide, while the other 4 were faciltators, who pretty much took care of all our meals and stuff. then we dropped by the Big C supercentre to get supplies the village. following that, we popped by the Park Hotel for a pretty nice buffet lunch, then went on to the hilltribe village museum, which was pretty boring, so shaun, zeri, jian han and i pretty much sat at a table and shared jokes.

it was a long ride to the village in the toot-toot, but it was made shorter guessing murder stories with just yes-no questions. going through the dirt path was madness as the dirt was flying everywhere and all the toot toot except the first were covered in dirt after a while. it was weird dusting soil off your jeans and bags, but funny to a certain extent. we stopped halfway to transfer to the villagers' pickups, and began the steep bumpy rollercoaster-ish and thrilling ride up the mountain, which was uber fun in a bumpy, funny way.

when we reached the village, i remember some of us being rather surprised with the actual place. we were sorta expecting a flat ground kinda village, but then again, it's a hilltribe village no? accomodation was equally shocking, with nazri, shaun, chun han, zonghe, manraj and i squeezing in one of the rooms. the girls had it much better, but who's too complain during an ocip trip?

well to be honest, i did think to myself, gosh. i'm not too sure if i can survive 8 days out here. it's probably because electricity seemed like such a scarce utility, and the toilets seemed really unpleasant in the beginning. heh. looking back i feel really stupid thinking like that.

dinner was pretty nice. i remember the uber nice and juicy bean sprouts that were so juicy and nice that when you bit them juice came out and it was nice. i think the meals were great in general, save for one or two meals. special mention goes out to the egg with cucumber, the tom yum soup, the hardboiled then deepfried egg, and many more. gosh you made my stay there so much better. special thanks also to tom beau za and penn for cooking and helping to wash the dishes and mentoring us when we had kitchen duties.

the next day, building started. it started with the local pros using really simple tools to mark out the positions of the pillars. and i just realised i didn't take any photographs of it. argh. this has been a terrible trip in terms of photography. maybe i'll talk about it later.

well the majority of the work involved us preparing and mixing cement, as well as pouring it and levelling it out. there was a little bit of patching of walls too. the roof was left to the pros, as well as the unpleasant job of rectifying everything that we made a mess of.

i was on kitchen duty, so i spent most of my time at the eating area plucking veggies, cutting veggies, deboning chicken and washing dishes. i did pop by the site now and then, and by now the children had started coming out to play with us. this sorta carried on for the rest of the trip, and they became a large part of our stay there.

the days there were pretty relaxed. life there is relaxed in general, away from the oh-so-polluted city. a typical day would be something like, waking up at 3, then falling asleep again, waking up at 5.30, light-sleep all the way to 7.30, then chiong to breakfast and realise there are people later than you still. start work at 9, lunch at 12. chiong provision shop. resume work at 1.30 or so till 4.30, playing with kids in between all the work. taking a shower in the bloody cold water, then dinner at 6.30, followed by reflections at 8. of course, the heart 2 heart sessions till ten. heh.

well i have to talk about this. the chickens there are extremely irritating. they crow at the most ungodly hours and you can't do a shit about it. we, or at least the guys, get up everyday at like 3 or 4 just to hear the cocks crowing like a crow. worse actually. the most irritating chickens are those that go under hut and crow right below us. perhaps that's how kentucky was inspired to make friend chicken. i don't know. oh, and right next to us there's this pig sty with two grotesquely overweight pigs. they stink. they snore. what more can you ask for.

throughout the time there, most of the interaction with the locals were with children. the teens and adults seldom came out, or were seldom there. the kids there were really super super fun and nice to be with. they seemed to be really happy just running around barefoot, playing with their old school wooden tops and broken toys. it just goes to show that materialism may not be that ideal after all. some of the kids that left a deeper impression were kids like atitaya, songsup! chong rui, shan chai, and who can forget the uber adorable chaklit. why chocolate when you can have chaklit? okay that doesn't exactly fit but he's super cute so i don't care.

i'm kinda glad i'm in educomm. okay i'm actually really glad. On the 5th day we went down to the school to do some teaching. in a nutshell, they learn the alphabets and the alphabet song, the head and shoulders knees and toes song, making paper shakers and teaching the older kids how to play the recorder, and making friendship bands. oh and i did a mini magic show courtesy of yirui's props, which i think they really enjoyed. while teaching, it sorta hit me about how fortunate we are to be able to teach them (not that it didn't hit me before, but really hard this time). they were really simple things, but to see the huge smiles on their faces, to see the enthusiasm and happiness in their eyes, it's something that really touched me. even though it wasn't planned as well as i had wanted it to be, i still consider it a success judging by the response. so thanks to educomm and all the helpers, for making it a successful session :)

cultural night was pretty cool too. the little dance by atitaya and gang, the show and tell, the dance, lighting up those traditional hot air balloons, the krathongs, the fireworks. it was a really nice atmospher with all the villagers around in their traditional tribal costumes. ah. nostalgia.

okay i shall talk abit more about thoughts now, rather than just commentary.

first up, joe and the 4 facilitators. their selfless attitude really got my attenton. joe was constantly looking out for us and making sure that we didn't have anything to complain about. the 4 facilitators became our chefs and dishwashers of sorts, and didn't really give us jobs unless we asked to give us some. they made sure we finished eating and all the dishes were washed before they began eating. pretty much the entire day was dedicated to these two duties, and they did them without any complaint whatsoever. really appreaciate their help.

i also thought that we weren't efficient enough. there was too much idling time between preparation of batches of cement, and in the end even though the structure was completed, we didn't have time to furnish and decorate the place. i think if we managed to get another container for mixing cement, things would have been much more efficient, and we would definitely be able to finish the job faster so that we can do the furnishing. but like what mr najib said, we shouldn't be disappointed with what we accomplished. the actual laying of the pillars, making the floors, curbs, steps, walls. despite the drizzle, cultural night was able to continue due to this little library cum community centre that we built.

life there is really nice. i'm missing it. time isn't much of a concern, and you do what you like. if i had to make a choice between life there and here, i would probably choose life there. however, it's only a practical choice when you are born there. after being exposed to modern life, it's kind of hard to make the switch over, perhaps only if you're old and retired. you don't think about making it bigger than all the other modern rats in the modern rat race. life is slow and nice. and peaceful. i'm going in circles.

leaving the village was a sad thing. i really miss the folk and the kids there. i was actually expecting lots of tears, but there wasn't. i have to admit, the moment the village was out of sight, i felt like crying. i didn't want to leave the place at all. but i guess we all have to move on, whether we like it or not. i want to go back there someday.

after that, we went for bamboo rafting before watching the elephant show, then went for lunch, where we rode the ox cart to the place to ride the elephant. basically, the rafting was boring, but it was fun imagining the entire journey was fake with shaun, zeri, tracey, audrey and zong. we tried to convince ourselves that we were actually travelling on a rail, and that the stones and waterfalls along the way were fake. oh and the fact that the song of the birds were played by hidden speakers.

as for the rides, and show, i really didn't enjoy them. i felt that it was really inhumane. it's weird to sit on top of this wooden cart pulled by 2 oxes that aren't that big, getting pulled up a hill and the trainer just slapping them on the back. i kinda wonder how you're actually supposed to enjoy it. i felt that it was a little bit more reasonbale on the elephants, and it was pretty fun to be honest, but somehow i still think that it isn't right. the show was the most "wrong" for me, as it started off with me seeing a trainer whacking an elephant with the bullhook. ah screw it.

the orphanage was slightly emo for me. the breaking point was when i saw this volunteer who was giving out those little explosive tadpoles that make a sound when you toss them on the floor. when he was giving them out, a group of kids just surrounded him, and were desperately reaching their hands out to him, yelling, papa! papa! it was at that point in time that i realised the reality of it all. all these children have no parents, have no one but each other and the workers/volunteers. it made me realise how lucky i am to have a family.

went to have dinner in the end, and ended up sitting with a table of girls with shaun. turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as the guys table had a serious shortage of food. losers! heh. emo time as joe and the 4 facis said the emo thank yous and stuff, some tears as well.

hotel was cool. i bunked with shaun. shopping was sorta fun as well. i don't shop, i confess. it was fun doing it in a foreign country though. i bought mainly shirts, about 3 of them. oh including the big bird shirt that's 4. zong and xingzhong can seriously bargain. for eg, xz managed to bargain a 300+ baht slipper to 170 baht. when shaun wanted to buy from another store, he just told the lady: hey i bought mine at 150 baht. my friend wants to buy. you want to sell him or not? and guess what, the lady said yes! doh. champion.

went back to ms chia and ms wu's room for a final reflection. shaun was wearing his new tuna shirt, while i wore my coma shirt (basically spoofs of puma) and people thought we were gaying. i didn't care, i was uber happy with my buy. ah. thinking back, the reflection sessions aren't THAT reflective. or perhaps i took it in the wrong way altogether.

later on, the teachers went out to ta pao macs for us, and we went to zeri and zong's room to eat. watched some shitty dog horror movie. fell asleep and woke and decided, gg. go sleep. think i only slept 3 hours. same for the night before, the last night in the vilage where we had the real heart 2 heart heh. oh something funny happened. shaun had a dream and ended up knocking the lamp over. i semi-woke up and found a lamp on my shoulder. so i put it back up and slept again. when i woke up the phone was on the floor upside down and it was separated from the dock. (i have a feeling i did this). the lamp covering was on the floor and the wiring inside sorta snapped. no we did not do anything to each other, if that's what you're thinking

went down for a quick breakfast, then headed off to the airport. TPJC's OCIP was on the same flight. we sorta knew as we met them the previous night at macs. apparently they were in Laos, where they took a 17 hour coach ride down to chiangmai for the retreat. madness. at the airport, za, tom, pen and joe were there to see us off. it was a pretty rushed farewell, as they tried to usher us in quickly. apparently there was a VIP arriving in Singapore about the same time as us, so they wanted us to board on time so we can fly of quickly and arrive on time. unfortunately we couldn't, and ended up waiting for an additional 25 minutes before taking off.

one thing about tiger airways is that the air crew are so easy to talk to. we could have little conversations with them, and shaun even managed to tell them lame jokes, which made the malay guy slap his forehead and go omg twice. rather funny IMO. i decided to try one of their meals, which was rather silly as it was 8 dollars, but i thought ah for the heck of it. it was pretty good actually. but not worth 8 dollars for sure.

well then we arrived in the airport, got our bags, took some photos, and that pretty much sums up the whole of ocip. pleas be patient with the photos, i have 881 to QC as well as to process those that pass QC. it'll only be ready at best on friday.

i miss Ban Pha Mon. to the max.

ocip `07

2007-11-14T23:43:00.000+08:00

wow. it's quite hard to imagine that i'll be in the airport in like 4 hours.

ocip's here! haha hope it'll be a good, fruitful trip with lotsa good photographs to add to my portfolio.

sorry in advance if i cannot reply to any messages and stuff, it's quite expensive to message back to singapore.

well yep. hope all goes well. gotta keep this short cause zeri and shaun are waiting to sleep. actually they are kinda forced to sleep, so i feel kinda bad.

okie doke. cya on the 23rd!

emo.

2007-11-07T22:13:00.000+08:00

i get sad when i pay for a meal and it turns out to be horrid.

and the feeling is worse when you know there's cheaper, or at least more value for money food around.

cheating me is one thing.

cheating me about food?

how could you?

dhilshad.

2007-10-31T23:42:00.000+08:00

`FAIZAH: [: says: (11:35:59 PM)
OH UR POST IS ABT SEEKER

`FAIZAH: [: says: (11:36:00 PM)
LOLLLLLL

`FAIZAH: [: says: (11:36:07 PM)
k i think i still havent gotten ur post

`FAIZAH: [: says: (11:36:07 PM)
HARHAR

you were right ar. ^_^

woodcock.

2007-10-29T23:35:00.000+08:00

what's with this sudden drought of good films?

woodcock - 6.50
seeker - 9.50!

i feel so cheated. and poor. can't afford to watch another movie for the whole of november.

AND i should stop spending so much on food, and really go on the diet i so often speak of. i've put on so much weight it has affected my shooting, for the simple fact that:

i can't buckle my shooting pants.

fatass.

seeker: the dark is rising.

2007-10-28T22:21:00.000+08:00

watch the above only if.

1. you have quite a bit of spare cash.
2. you've never been able to successfully guess the plot of a movie correctly, and you're dying to do so to feel intelligent.
3. you're intelligent enough not to believe me.

only a thousand.

2007-10-22T21:54:00.000+08:00

random updates.

my series on uncle leong the cobbler was published in the asian geographic magazine, along with all the other circadian works. it was really cool to see my own photographs published in a prestigeous magazine as such, and equally inspiring :)

canon photomarathon was a rather bad experience for me. i guess i prefer having time to work with my subjects, planning the shots and all. three hours per theme including travelling time was really tight, especially if you have no car and have to travel to your location and back to suntec. i'm officially sick of citylink.

wrixon passed away. though we never really knew him, jarren, calvin, maho and i went down to mandai for the service, just to pay our respects to a victorian. sadly, by the time we reached, the service had finished. just wish we had managed to get there earlier. rest in peace.

i learnt an important lesson today. not to run long distances if you slept at 3 the previous night.

i realised i havent talked about grades. ACES for BCEM, with an E for GP.

i need sleep. then i can train proper, and take photographs proper. next series shall be on breakdance, with wei an's help if all goes well.

i hope the college approves the purchase of strobes for next year. studio lighting. that's where the fun begins.

i swear.

2007-10-06T20:26:00.000+08:00

i've never felt so sleep-deprived in my life. ever.

quick update.

2007-10-01T00:11:00.000+08:00

promos were relatively okay. chem and bio was alright. econs i dunno. math fail. kinda miss studying with the gang.

post promos are not that good though. sleepy. headache. lack of direction. yea it's quite weird.

the entire promo/circa thing has got me seriously considering photography/marketing/design stuff as a profession. gotta start building up my portfolio.

but before that comes learning. i've just arranged a shoot with wyemin and arkar and zeri on facial expressions. should be really fun. the whole series will be shot in black and white film, and i'll be going down to tp so sharon can teach me darkroom stuff.

suddenly post promos has a new meaning to it.

don't really know what else to talk about now. i guess i'll be talking quite a bit about my thoughts on my future from now on. heh this is rather summarised. funny.

oh yea. i'm searching for a makeup artist for future shoots. anybody interested?

untitled.

2007-09-16T22:58:00.000+08:00

sometimes when i think about it. i really don't know how it ended up as such.

sometimes when i think about it, i really feel like crying my heart out.

maybe not 'sometimes'.

perhaps it's stupidity on my part.

yea that's probably it.

you're stupid.

no it's not promos.

circa07.

2007-09-10T22:52:00.000+08:00

well. it's finally done.

all the time and effort and stress has finally paid off. my series on the cobbler turned our pretty well, and i can safely say it's the best photographic work i've done in my life.

the circardian workshop was really cool and enriching. NTU art design and media school is a pretty cool place to be i must say. anyway, i must really thank my fellow participants, ian, sharon, marcus, sarah, adeline, chee teng, damien as well as the organisers and helpers fo circa for making the workshop such a wonderful one. people like chris, daniel, diana, robert, the NTU photo major students and john cosgrove.

oh i must talk about john. i first heard of john from the magazine photo I, and never thought i'd meet him in person. if he hadn't taught me what he had about photoshop, my photos would enver have turned out so well in terms of consistency. really cool stuff.

the entire workshop was really an eye opener, and it got me seriously considering going on the path of a photographer, designer and whatnot. who knows?

anyway went down on saturday to raffles city to sorta setup the exhibition area, which is one of those display panels that face the pavements outside raffles city. you have to access it through one of the ulu doors, and it's really uber hot in there. we were getting roasted alive while pasting the ribbons and all. ah but eventually chris replaced the ribbons with printed red lines which was just as well cause it wasn't that pretty at first heh.

went down today for the first time and saw the end product. pretty cool i must say. oh i must really thank all those who went down with me, calvin, jarren, matt ho, yirui, darren, shannon, chiawei, faizah, siew hwee and ivie. i really wasn't expecting so many people and i'm glad for the support. and although the fact that they kept saying loudly on the bus "CIRCA 2007 YOUTH PHOTOGRAPHER" was rather embarassing and annoying, i guess it was rather funny haha.

and that reminds me that i finally have a photographic achievement to my name. out of the few hundred people who initially submitted, i was selected as one of the final 8, and won one of 2 possible awards - circa 2007 youth photographer. the other being circa 2007 singaporean singapore photogrpaher. i won a nikon d40x kit, which i promptly sold three days later for $950 =) will use the money to buy more equipment in future.

well enough said, i do urge you to visit the exhibition as we have put quite abit of effort into this, and yes, support local productions! this is the only photography event in the entire singapore art show, so why not show your support!

refer to the image below for the details yep.

well to sum it all up, i'm really glad for this entire experience. if you do drop by the exhibition, give me a ring so i can explain the photos and everything to you yep.

oh and before i forget, thanks to maho and calvin for following me to buy my shoes despite the urgent desire to mug. my old pair was tearing apart and the soles were all worn out after two years of walking to and from school, so it's about time =)

doh.

2007-09-03T16:10:00.000+08:00

i'm a forgetful person. i always tell myself to stop being so forgetful. but somehow i'm still so forgetful.

i just went to re-shoot the cobbler for circa. i personally feel the shots were rather good.

BUT.

i forgot to shoot in RAW.

i just messaged chris (organiser of circa) and he went "Uhoh...I hope you're exposure's good. Talk later."

oh man i hope i didn't screw my entire project up and render all the effort i put into it useless just because i forgot to push a few buttons and spin the dial.

PLEASE.

update.

2007-08-31T22:34:00.000+08:00

i was eventually allowed to apply for ocip.

it's just that while asking about ocip, alot of other issues, problems surfaced.

thinking back now, i can't really believe i actually broke down and really said everything that i've been keeping inside all this while.

i suppose it's a good thing, to a certain extent.

it's good to get it all out isn't it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

okay here's about today - teacher's day celebrations and circa.

teacher's day celebrations was great. i particularly enjoyed the videos, and brownian motion =) dance and choir were pretty cool as well. i was thoroughly traumatised by the getai performance by our dearest watermelon and grape sisters. disturbed. yea. disturbing.

more about circa.

i must seriously thank matt ho and nick for accompanying me today. especially nick, who was with me all the way up to seven pm. i was initially scheduled to make a visit down to the singapore children's society, but when i called them today they suddenly told me that i'm not able to go down anymore due to sensitivity issues.

that got me feeling extremely lost and stressed out. i really didn't know how i was gonna find the people i'm looking for, or where to go in the first place. luckily matt and nick agreed to go, and without their support i wouldn't have managed to get such a successful photography outing today.

met up with chris and the other circardians later on in the evening, and saw the stuff that the others came up with. some had pretty nice stuff.

actually, my main aim is to thank them. shall not talk more about what i actually managed to come up with. i hope this would encourage you to make a trip down to raffles city once the exhibition is up and running.

i'm extremely tired from walking about the entire day. i've even suffered butt abrasions. happens when you walk so much and your butt keeps rubbing against each other. too much detail. goodnight.

tried.

2007-08-26T21:18:00.000+08:00

once the paper is crumpled, it will never be perfect again.

perhaps.

2007-08-23T23:09:00.000+08:00

so what if the college provides excellent opporunities for development?

you can't go. it's too dangerous.

even if you've been looking forward to it. having high hopes and thinking what a wonderful experience you'll be having.

you can't.

cause OCIP's gonna be in thailand. north thailand to be exact. peaceful countryside.

oh but wait. south thailand is in thailand too!

hmm. then you can't go.

j: tell ur mum...(or parents) that its a really ENRICHING experience. once-in-a-lifetime thing...u get to expose urself to meaningful stuff and get to know more about in a personal sense and i think most of all, you get to find out more about others and yourself. i found out traits about myself along the way..

i did. "it's a once in a lifetime thing"

"what once in a lifetime?"

i made myself clear today, and i'm glad i did. if i were to apply and not make it for the forty places available, i can't help it.

but if i'm not even able to apply. i can't accept that.

three more days to try and turn the tables around.

perhaps by some miracle. they'll see what i see.

hello.

2007-08-21T14:47:00.000+08:00

popped home to take my laptop. thought i'd sneak a post. just to destress.

things were pretty alright today, until just a moment ago. apparently, the chemistry lecture test was engineered to twist and mangle the minds of poor seventeen year olds.

i feel demoralised now. in more ways than one, not just chemistry. i suppose that i should take comfort i the fact that i can do the questions in the chem TYS, and that the A levels is my ultimate goal, not just VJC lecture tests or Promos.

oh well. back to college.

cease-less.

2007-08-12T22:33:00.000+08:00

my schedule seems to be permanently loaded with work and programmes. it's getting stressful, with circa, PW, shooting and promos all coming soon. at least shooting's gonna stop from 22 august. then again it doesn't help that much i suppose.

i was quite stressed about circa for the past few days. after the chinatown shoot, i was afraid that my idea cannot be carried out in a single day. but after clarifying with the organisers today, they said that the photographs that i take during this period of time can be used as well. plus i suppose the stress just makes it an even better learning experience.

never thought that holding an exhibition can be so tough. haha but i really hope i do a good job. to me, what i intend to do is quite meaningful, though in my opinion really difficult, just hope i can pull it off. will talk more about my idea next time when i'm sane.

i realised i'm typing weirdly. the way the sentences are falling into place in my head seems weird and all. haven't done tomorrow's tutorials, oh well.

lalala.

untitled.

2007-08-09T20:32:00.000+08:00

today was largely dedicated to photography. went to take some photos for tfc in the morning, before heading down to chinatown around 1 or so.

it was quite a different experience shooting alone, at least for me. i felt excluded from the world, in a sense. i just went about doing my stuff, observing how people did theirs.

unfortunately i couldn't find what i was looking for at chinatown, so i just took photographs of things that i found interesting. i guess the best place was the area outside the temple, where there was a congregation of elderly folks playing checkers and chinese chess. there was this really cool artist sketching out the scenes at the place as well.

i think i have quite a few okay shots from today, but still nothing exceptional. may also have to rethink my theme. it doesn't seem easy to do in singapore.

didn't catch the starting of NDP as i went out for dinner, which is quite a pity. i think the parade is so much more interesting than the concert segment, especially with the aerial displays. heh.

oh and i do feel the need to comment about this year's NDP song, or songs for that matter. the main one i've been hearing is kit chan's "there's no place i'd rather be", and i can't help but feel that it carries a very generous assumption that everyone has the ability to travel so freely. i know that's not the point, but still? as for the other song, i can't comment cause i don't know it at all.

oh well. it's been a rather long time, things haven't changed, unfortunately. i wonder if it ever will.

i'll post up the pics i like once it's done. cheers.

circa 2007.

2007-08-04T22:29:00.000+08:00

it sorta dawned on me that this event is going to take up a lot of my life in the coming month and a half, so i've decided to talk more about it.

here's what it's all about -

circa2007 City Exhibition
6 Aug - 30 September 2007
library@orchard
(Ngee Ann Shopping Centre, Takashimaya)

Kicking off on 6 August will be the circa2007 City Exhibition, at the library@orchard. This exhibition will showcase the print submissions taken by Singapore students between the ages of 13 to 19. The exhibition is specially curated by Professor Isaac Kerlow, Dean of the School Art, Design & Media at Nanyang Technological University and assisted by Mr Chris Yap, International Photographer, Master Printmaker and Director of Light Editions. It will take place within the intimate settings of our very own library@orchard and promises to be a refreshing display of our youth’s perspectives and personal reflections. Come celebrate with us the artistic expressions of our youths and the success of this first ever photo-outreach program, circa2007.

Do join us for the opening event for the circa2007 City Exhibition on 6 August, Monday, at the library@orchard from 5 - 7pm.

also in the email -

During the opening, we will be announcing the 10 participants for the fully sponsored 3-day workshop - circadian2007. Taking place from 3 to 5 September. These 10 specially selected participants will receive mentoring with established photographers on how to improve their craft. And they will also be working with the Photo Major students from NTU. These ten students will then go on to exhibit their work at a later exhibition - circadian2007 in the month of September at the Raffles City Shopping Centre. Do look out for that!

well the initial shock of getting shortlisted is over. i'm really looking forward to the workshop, mentoring as well as working with the Photo Major students. it should be an excellent opportunity to improve my photography, which i feel has started to stagnate at a certain level.

i'm still feeling uncertain about the exhibtion though. i'm don't shoot regularly, or as often as i would like to, which is why i'm not confident of churning out exhibition quality photographs in a single day.

basically, my next task is to come up with my interpretation of the theme "Singaporean Singapore" and shoot images before the workshop, so during the workshop they can be evaluated and stuff. then on the second day i have to go out to shoot all my images for the planned series.

this is the worrying part. the last time and only time i did a street shoot was last november. i suppose one could argue that the fact that i managed to get shorlisted based on the photos from that one and only shoot means that i'm capable enough to do it again, but whether or not i actually do is another thing.

i'm just hoping now that after the mentoring and all that i'm gonna see the world (or singapore, in this case) and photography from a new perspective and be inspired to make good images. oh well.

i've decided to upload the photographs that i submitted for circa here. you decide if they're up to par or not. critiques are certainly most welcome.

all photographs were taken in little india.

and before i end off. i just want to say how much i miss being at the biopolis, playing with genetic stuff and frogs (okay maybe not so much frogs), doing experiments like PCR and what not. oh and how could i forget suanning foong about how short he is, watching ray attempt to beat genie's minesweeper timing, hanging around and exploring the biopolis during our 2-hour lunch breaks, and not to forget, the fish facility!

-the illusionist.

of transgenic frogs and surprises.

2007-08-04T00:05:00.000+08:00

the past three days have been a real eye opener for me.

went down to imcb for an attachment of sorts. it's more like an outreach/awareness programme for them actually. was attached to the transgenic frog department.

on the first day we went to the frog labs. it was rather cool, with two rooms filled with tanks and tanks of the froggies. they were pretty ugly i must say. fed them before we went on to more serious stuff. they had actually injected some female frogs the previous night with HCG, a hormone that induces them to lay eggs. so the next day, before we started our experiment, they actually squeezed the eggs out of the froggy and dejelly-ed the eggs and stuff so as to facilitate microinjection.

oh then we went to collect the sperm nuclei from this room filled with freezers maintained at -80 degrees celcius. the entire place is filled with high-tech equipment. went back and prepared the sperm for injection into the egg. we sorta did in-vitro fertilisation for the eggs. with this ultra tiny needle that's only like sixty micrometres or sth. pity i don't have much pics. was too amazed by the stuff there to take pics.

oh and i visited one of the zebrafish facilities there. for me, it was like stepping into a playground. it was an entire room filled with racks and tanks over and over, all linked by a barrack filtering system. and they hatched brine shrimp in tall huge tanks just to feed the tens of thousands of fish they had there. it was really great. had a good conversation wtih one of the staff there, ben if i remember correctly, about courses and attachments and stuff. he asked me to ask peiwen about attachments, which i did today, and she gave me her namecard and told me that i have to go through my teacher to get to her. it'll be super cool if i manage to get an attachment there.

well other stuff we did during the 3 days there included PCR and extracting plasmids and extracting particular genes from this plasmid and stuff like that. i'm too lazy to type much anymore at this time, considering i had training. i'm just glad i had the opportunity to go for this workshop as, it confirms that i wouldn't mind working in the field of science as a career, and it's really got me thinking more about my career and associated issues.

well enough on that, on to the surprise.

received a call from the circa crew. apparently the judges looked through the photographs i submitted and decided to shortlist me for the workshops and mentorship thing. i'm one of ten lucky participants out of hundreds, but i'm thinking i must be the luckiest of them all, since i sent in my photographs for the sake of sending them in. was really surprised that i got shorlisted, but i guess it'll be really good exposure for me.

basically circa's a photography exhbition consisting of photos that youth like me have submitted about Singapore. so now as a "circadian" as they call the shortlisted people, we have to interpret the theme "Singaporean Singapore" and then go for a workshop during september and based on what we've learnt produce a series of photographs, which will be then be exhibited.

i admit i feel kind of pressurised now. the entire thing is uncomfortably close to promos. plus it's part of the singapore art show, and the email keeps mentioning how there will be press who will want to interview us and an actual press conference before the launch of the second exhibition. i'm afraid i'll fall short of the standards due to the lack of time, and end up talking nonsense or what not.

ah well, perhaps i shouldn't be thinking so negatively. or perhaps it's this fatigue that's making me feel really pessimistic. right off to bed then. goodnight.

goodness.

2007-07-23T21:02:00.000+08:00

i actually nodded off during bio lect today. it was probably the first time i ever fell asleep in a lecture. not that it was boring, but i guess i was just too tired.

had a good nap in the range before going for a run. introduced benjamin jia neh neh to the exhilartion of completing a six click run. today's run was particularly easy for me, the breeze was wonderful. perhaps i'll go eight soon?

and what a way to end the day. i challeneged mr chow to a pistol final, since he has been training pistol and i shot a 85 for interhouse, which is rather respectable considering i've never trained that weapon before.

it was quite dramatic, we were neck to neck for much of the 10-shot final. that was until i blasted a 5 on the 2nd last or 3rd last shot. after our ninth shot mr chow was leading by 2 points.

so it came down to the tenth. i was taking the shot when he i heard him fire the shot, then yell shit and held his arms around his head in despair. evidently he had shot a six. i couldn't help but laugh for abit, then went back to take my shot. i fired off and it felt good. we rolled back our targets.

ten.

i ended with an 83 and mr chow an 81. it was hilarious cause he was proudly proclaiming on the ninth shot "sure win already la". oh well. too bad. now he owes me fruit juice. aha.

SLEEP beckons.

what is it?

2007-07-18T22:12:00.000+08:00

it's disturbing. it's like you don't realise what you're doing. it's like you don't realise what you're supposed to be doing.

do you know what's involved?

i realised i didn't talk about my grades, so here goes, BDEEE. B for bio, D for GP, E for econs, math and chem. it would have been BDDDE if i had gotten one more mark for both econs and chem. oh well.

i guess it isn't very good per se, but considering i was training almost every single day during the june holidays, it's easier to accept them. time is so precious, at least for me, since my schedules are always packed back to back.

yet sometimes i wish i could take a step back, and simply rest. i bet everyone wishes for something along these lines. what is education? to ensure you can lead a stable life? what is life?

i once saw a quote on television. it read: life is a journey to death.

pessimistic as it may be, i see truth in it. what are we doing? we're letting people die everyday for the bloody stupidest reasons like terrorism, racism, differences between you and me.

who gains?

how many of us lead fruitful lives? i have a soft spot for the elderly, the not so fortunate. everytime i see them toiling, sweeping the streets, washing the toilets, clearing up after people, i feel extremely sad for them, and this world that does nothing about it.

i don't care about how flawed the above argument or stand is or whatever. it is subjective, and i choose to reserve my rights to feel for people.

the middle class is caught in the rat race. the rich push the poor down. the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and the middle class keeps running. they'll never outrun the spin of the Earth.

environmentally, i think we are screwed.

i think i'm too screwed up now.

goodbye.

those invisible footprints, have they faded?

victoria challenge + updates.

2007-07-16T23:06:00.000+08:00

and so VC has come to a close, excluding the fact that we probably have to meet up this sunday to mount everything and stuff.

i think that we have done a really good job, and can safely say the project was a successful one. despite the hiccups along the way, we managed to pull through and raise something like $1700 in just a few hours, which is a feat in my opinion.

what we did was to sell red and yellow tiles for ten dollars each. the tiles would make up a frame around a photograph, each depicting one of the 8 core values. i must say that it has been really fun shooting the photos, especially the strategic alliance and compassion photo.

i'm also really happy with the way the photographs have turned out. the printer that mr tan recommended me is really professional, and thanks to my link to mr tan he charges me the normal price for the super express service, which means i pay only $6 for a service that normallly costs $14. i'll upload the pictures when i take a proper photograph of the end products on sunday.

speaking of photographs, i'm extremely disappointed with the way the class pics by adam photo turned out. looking at the final sample image i really wonder if they put any effort into taking and processing the photos. there are instances where only the front row is lit by the flash, and they didn't do a shit to rectify it, not even in photoshop. needless to say, i boycotted and didn't order any in the end.

ah.

today was a good day. i managed to complete a 6km run in probably my best time yet, about 35 mins. this despite almost giving up when i was going around the lagoon, where there were no trees to shield me from the scorching sun. somehow i managed to press on, and eventually finished rather strongly. unlike previously where i'm reduced to a slow jog, i almost sprinted into school. felt really good after that, knowing that my determination has improved quite a bit.

vita `07 was good, except the lime squash was uncomfortably sour, and mr darren had to pour lime squash into my food while i was away. the chicken was really nice though, pity it ran out rather quickly. the lt session was kinda cool, seeing how so many people were doing so well. the feedback session was okay as well, although it would have been nicer with mrs cheng back with us.

went out with the class to siglap in the evening, which i seldom did cause i was always so busy. well partly i had to draw money really desperately cause i only had something like $6 left in my wallet for the entire month after spending $80 on the prints, and faizullah hasn't settled the accounts yet.

i think vita `07 was really nice and brought back fond memories, like how zheng chen seems to be able to finish a standard meal in 2 minutes, how eric is in love with zheng chen, how jek and shu like hiding zheng chen and eric's belongings, how nick always tells us about his *dingdingding*, how we can talk rubbish non stop etc.

ah well. those were the days.

2 EOM, Econs Essay, Math Assignment x 2.

that's what i owe.

2007-07-10T21:57:00.000+08:00

somehow i can't type a title.

i have diarrhoea.

OMG ITS EFFING PAINFUL.

shouldn't have played soccer. i think it got worse when i came home. confirm can't go school tmr morning. try and go in the afternoon for PW and rifle GM.

ah somebody save me. my stomach seems like a faulty washing machine. it's spinning terribly, on and off. sigh.

nationals `07 + update.

2007-07-05T22:20:00.000+08:00

my fourth nationals, and my worst.

i lost to myself, and upon reflection, it was something that was meant to happen. my mental isn't strong enough. i shot a 540. i can easily hit a 570. but i shot a 540. why?

cause my mental isn't strong enough.

after the first shot of my second series, coach pulled me out. she said, daniel, your score for the first series is too bad already. i want you to give up this competition.

that line sorta blew my brain apart.

all i want is for you to be daring enough, to get back to your training standard.

i went back to the lane, and continued. i understood that that line was meant to tell me not to focus on the competition, and more on myself.

all in all, im utterly disappointed with myself, and i cannot forgive myself for pulling the entire team down. kenneth shot 558, zhang yang shot 578, his personal best i believe.

i had a good long talk with coach after the shoot. ultimately i,'m going to have special training from now on. back to basics, if you may. shooting without the suit, and with the 603 rifle.

i don't want to talk too much about this i guess. like coach said, in ten years time this will be but a memory for me, albeit a tad painful. but ultimately i'll just laugh it off.

i'm also kind of glad that this happened. in the sense that, it's really time to rectify this problem.

"i have a firm belief that every shooter no matter how good or bad when asked to go for a competition will definitely try his very best. if you win, good. if not, go back, train, try again. what's important is that you have the spirit of a shooter."

not the exact words, but the meaning is there. this is what i got when i apologised to coach for letting her down.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

i went back to college after that for the odac/ct/sc vs teachers match. the first half, the students team lost 7-2 or something. in the 2nd half, we won 2-0. but considering the teachers have been playing for a bloody long time, they are seriously fit.

i on the other hand am seriously unfit. i could only last 20 mins or so for the second half. pushed myself today during the 3 rounds that we had to run for PE today, and i could feel myself dying out as i finished the third. ran 4.5 with calvin later on in the evening but couldn't finish the run into a school cause of a stich. "i'm lilo. i'm stitch's friend." okay normally i would have burst into fits but i was already half dead so i couldn't really laugh.

tomorrow's a pistol guys and a rifle girls, the last 2 events of this nationals. will be going down to support immediately after making the announcement in vs with calvin about victoria challenge. just shot one of the photographs this afternoon about compassion, which turned out rather well in my opinion. it was quite funny, with shannon screaming away from the heat of the day and stuff. perhaps i'll post the video up soon.

saturday's the other photoshoot, involving alot more people this time round. hope it turns out well as well. after that have to go for the CSC scholarship talks thingy. I think this is the first time i'm actually going for a scholarship related event, and i really have absolutely no idea what to expect. perhaps i shall join the guys for a game of soccer after that.

oh when i got my math result from mrs ang today, i got a surprise. 48. i kind of expected such a mark so that's not the surprise. i actually got a slip saying that i'm a prize recipient for college day. i don't think i've ever gotten a prize in such an event before. i'm not sure if it can be counted as three though, they are all cca service awards for rifle, photog and council. i showed it to my mum earlier and she sorta laughed that it was a cca service award and not some academic award. i guess she doesn't realise how proud i am to actually finally receive awards for what i'm passionate about.

i haven't made such a long post for a long time. if you made it here, thanks for bothering. cheers.

hello.

2007-07-04T22:46:00.000+08:00

I shall talk about Nationals only tomorrow, when I've reflected enough.

the road up to nationals.

2007-07-03T20:31:00.000+08:00

started training again on saturday, and it was pretty okay considering i was really ill. so that marked the end of training at hometeam, as well as the hour-over journeys there and back.

anyway my nose was expelling that horrible viscous fluid so badly that i had to attach a plastic bag to my shooting stand. at the end of two hours,
i had a bagful tissue. and yes that red thingy is blood. apparently my nose isn't used to extensive blowing, so after a while when i blew my nose it started bleeding. the coaches were rather amused by it as well.

sunday and monday's training were bad, in the sense that the school range is hot and humid. today was much better. i controlled my emotions well and handled my training better. tomorrow's nationals, the competition that we've been training so long for.

scores don't improve overnight, and the last thing i should do is expect myself to shoot unusually well. i'll just go about doing what i normally do and see how it goes.

i wish my nose officially stops running tomorrow, though its rather unlikely. i'm glad i took the time off chem lecture to grab a much needed nap to rest and recuperate. time hasn't been on my side, and as i type this now i'm yawning slightly.

well well, i guess i'll sign off here. goodnight. hopefully in 18 hours i have good news to share =)

oh the bloody irony.

2007-06-28T23:47:00.000+08:00

woohoo! the exams are over!

i celebrated by visiting the doctor!

needless to say, the accumulated lack of sleep and intense mugging finally broke me. i had a throat and ear infection and now im down with the flu.

well the flu wasn't that bad, so i went ahead with training instead. by the time i got there, my head was hurting again and i started sneezing and coughing.

thankfully my dad sent me home, otherwise i wouldn't be home yet.

chem was inevitably bad for me. i thought i studied enough when i didn't. i was so tired i couldn't focus throughout the entire paper.

math was not testicle shrinking as i thought it would be. it was probably doable, just that i didn't practise enough.

bio was fun, but we'll see when i get back the paper.

econs was. i seriously don't know how i did for econs. we'll see.

gp was okay. i hope.

doubt i can go for training tomorrow, will see if my condition improves. nationals next wednesday, got to recover by then. oh and i hope i wake up in time tomorrow. have to drop by vs to settle victoria challenge stuff.

oh yes and mr yang's wedding photos have to be processed. he's really understanding and didn't hurry us for the photographs knowing we had mid years to worry about, although his friends and relatives are probably hounding him for the photographs.

woohoo. the exams are over.

what a marvellous time to fall ill.

i quote.

2007-06-26T23:33:00.000+08:00

the vjc paper is testicle shrinking.

-student who attempted the vjc mid year 2006 math paper.

i guess we'll find out tomorrow.

update.

2007-06-15T23:57:00.000+08:00

well. i shot 93 for finals today. compared to my 97 a week ago, it's nothing much to talk about.

the good thing is, after finals, i consulted coach about my shooting. she talked to me abit, and i learned more stuff.

when i went to dry fire after that, i finally found a position that works for me.

the feeling during those dry shots was wonderful.

well it's good that things are starting to look good. ahaha. and to keep to the supposedly happy mood of this post (though i think it isn't evident), i shall refrain from touching about preparation for mid-years.

but there's something i really need to bring up that isn't that happy.

it's about my shooting glove.

it stinks.

i mean it's two years old and i train really often so it has to stink or it wouldn't be normal.

but it still stinks.

i couldn't take it, i poured 95-degree-celcius-hot water into it earlier while washing it.

in fact i did it twice.

now i'm drying it with the hair dryer, but it doesn't seem to help.

it stinks.

*at this point i realised i've seem to taken a liking to hitting the enter key every so often and wasting space. as such i shall put an end to this nonsense from this point on.*

coach mentioned that she changes her glove every year, and i probably should change my soon. okay wait. i have to change it. but not now, probably after nationals. argh there 95 dollars. got to start saving up now. maybe when i get my new glove i'll buy a huge barrel of alcohol and rinse the glove with it after every training to kill all potential nasty bacteria whatever nonsense ding dong i don't know what i'm saying.

training in the morning, else i'll be staying over with the gang in VS for a study-overnight-whateveryoucallit camp thingy. i realise i'm rather lousy with words.

goodnight. oh wait it's a happy post.

goodnight! =)

reflect.

2007-06-14T23:46:00.000+08:00

things have not been going smoothly recently.

in the shooting sense of it.

today was a sixty shot test.

92.91.94.89.94.95 - 555.

i've been stuck in the 550+ region for a while.

that's not what's frustrating.

the frustrating thing is i've been averaging consistent 560+ before that.

so what's wrong?

am i over analysing things? maybe.

am i too caught up with my underperformance? i think so.

am i wanting the score too much i'm neglecting the little technicalities? probably.

do i have enough discipline when i'm shooting? no.

am i lacking sleep? terribly.

today's a disappointing day for me.

let's hope it ends with tonight.

wait. it must end tonight.

nusis + mr yang's wedding.

2007-06-11T23:55:00.000+08:00

nusis.

i left early to prepare for mr yang's wedding and only saw my result online just.

91.85.89.95.96.96 - 552

well to keep it short and sweet, i was thinking way too much about aiming for the first two series. i shot sevens and eights. sevens! i haven't shot sevens in competitions for a rather long time.

coach pulled me out in the second series. talked some sense into me. i went back and things started to get better only towards the end of the third series.

by the fourth i was shooting tens as per normal. sadly it was pretty late. my team score of 1685 ( kenneth shot 570, zhang yang 563) only managed a fifth placing in the open category. i could have done much better, but there's no point regretting.

mental discipline. that's right on top of the list of things to improve.

just move on, and conquer nationals. my team has a good chance, and we can definitely do it.

just focus and do it right.

covering mr yang's wedding was a really great learning experience for me.

i think it's wonderful being a wedding photographer. capturing and celebrating the union of the couple. unfortunately i feel i didn't do a very good job for mr yang's wedding.

both walk-ins, i couldn't capture anything. the first, my camera couldn't shoot cause it was too dark. this is a huge error on my part, i didn't go about doing it properly. second walk-in, my battery grip screwed up and couldn't draw battery to take the shot.

this is exactly why i called jek and shu to help me. i knew shit like that would happen at my level.

table photographs were rather well done i guess. i probably could have interacted with the people more to make them feel more at ease and comfortable, and the lighting/flash control could have been better. but the photographs turned out relatively well and there's still processing to be done and i guess it'll be good.

i think im very sure that i will want to do wedding photography in future, be it as a full-time job, or as a freelancer.

i've been frequenting clubsnap again, seeing how the local professionals do it. tsang studios, jOhO, william chua, iamasaint, just to name a few. amazing stuff.

i met this gentleman called yew beng at mr yang's wedding. apparently he's quite a photograph enthusiast too, and recently got his wedding photos taken by tsangstudios. (i saw his bridal shots on tsangstudio's thread the next day, they were taken in cambodia. amazing stuff.)

anyway yew beng told me that tsangstudios is a really friendly guy, and that i should just pm (private message) him on the forum and ask him to teach me. i think i'll probably do that after nationals, when i have abit more time.

well it's late. and i'm supposed to meet the gang tomorrow morning @ ten in VS to study. i went back today after john told me to, and i was surprised to see the same people i was studying with last september there again. calvin, john, yane, jarren, naresh, jun heng etc.

then it's off to training at six. but that means i have to leave VS at four. cause it takes me nearly 2 hours to get to bukit gombak. training there is four hours.

that kinda means eight hours off. every tuesday to sunday.

hello mid-years. i hope you're nice.

nusis.

2007-06-08T22:00:00.000+08:00

nus invitaitonal shoot tomorrow. as well as mr yang's wedding

kinda excited about nusis. last major competition i shot in was ntuis, in february. that was when i shot my personal best of 570.

i don't know. i may perform better under pressure. ntuis gave me my personal best. when coach conducted finals in the range a few saturdays ago i shot 98/100.

in case you do not know finals is supposed to be a highly stressful event where all shooters fire off a total of ten shots one by one following the command of the official and the score of every shooter is read off after every shot.

then just on wednesday, they conducted finals for everyone training in hometeam. and for the first time in my life, i topped the detail, firing a total of 101.8 over a possible score of 109. (scores are calculated to one decimal place accuracy.)

here's the scoresheet, courtesy of daphne =P

for the first time in my life i have a number one next to my name. it was nice to see. it was a exciting shoot as well. after every shot my heart was pumping. somehow i managed to ensure it didn't pump while i was taking the shot. it was cool =)

nusis tomorrow! lol. after nusis will shower nearby, then meet yee jek and wen shu to prepare to take photos for mr yang for his wedding dinner. jek and shu would have covered the ceremonies in the morning, whil i'll be preparing for nusis. pity i can't do it full day, but oh well!

oh and i realised that just over a year ago i was in UK with all the IP people having fun. UK's a great place, but if i were to study marine biology it's probably out of the question, sadly. no holidays this year, decided to devote more time to nationals and studies.

oh just got the email from mr yang with the schedule. time to plan with jekster. shu's still climbing walls it seems. oh well. tomorrow'll be a long day. hope all goes well =)

when you fill the bottle.

2007-06-07T22:54:00.000+08:00

you have to stop somewhere.

before you start overloading the poor, fragile bottle.

before it shatters, taking you along.

so i learn.

sigh.

2007-06-06T00:24:00.000+08:00

sometimes i just wonder.

perhaps if i had a little more freedom. hey. it's not like i'm a punk who's wasting his life away.

i'm disciplined enough to say, during this holiday i'm only going to eat sleep train study. of course there will be exceptions, like mr yang's wedding. but still?

i do agree that the schedule's extremely tight. finishing training at ten. coming home at twelve. waking up at eight tomorrow just to go back to the other side of the island for training again.

but if i'm going to achieve something great, sacrifices have to be made.

and not many are willing to sacrifice as much as i do.

which brings me to how grateful i am for my teammates. kenneth and i were complaining about how the range was closed on mondays, even though we're already training from tuesday to sunday.

zhang yang just came back from US today. he called me at 11.30 earlier, and asked me what time is training tomorrow.

such is the dedication they have.

maybe its time i let them know i'm the chairperson, and that i do have added responsibilities, like setting a good example.

it's not that im setting one for the sake of doing so.

it's just me. and what i'm doing. there's no facet.

anyway it's only once a week that the schedule so happens to be as such, night training followed by morning training the next day.

ah. i should stop going on.

all shooters were given a 40 shot test today. i dare say i managed this shoot pretty well, averaging a 9.4, although if i'm not this tired, i'm sure i would have performed much better.

i took the best shot of my life today. the feeling was perfect. the sight just hovered around the sweet spot, and i just squeezed the shot off effortlessly.

coach gave me a lift home, and she mentioned that my technical skills are all there. i just have to be daring enough to pull the trigger at the right time.

i believe on top of that i have to work on my mental and emotional resilience as well.

well, the weeks ahead will be tough, but i'm enjoying it.

i just wish i didn't feel like i'm being watched all the time.

that was quite a mouthful.

i'll make this quick.

2007-05-26T23:14:00.000+08:00

for i have a competition tomorrow, and i've yet to finish packing for clic. and i have a headache -.-

there's much to say about how i felt during soccer girls finals, but i'll leave that till when im back.

intensive training at bukit batok will start next week. i'm going to give it all my all.

mugging has to start. or i'll just flop everything.

and i shall end this post. cya ppl in a while.

hands held high.

2007-05-23T23:32:00.000+08:00

nice song from linkin park and meaningful lyrics in them. i'm not sure about the extent of its biasness, but i personally see some truth in it.

and so, today was air rifle phototaking as well as the handing down ceremony as the senior exco (or sexco as i call them) passed the baton down to us.

i guess now i have to be more pro-active in doing things. anticipate stuff that will happen, work towards solutions before the problem even starts. that'd be ideal. i forsee a few rough months ahead, but if things get settled the way i intend them to be, then the subsequent months will be smooth sailing, and that would free up alot of our minds for nationals next year.

but for now, it's the nationals this year.

ssa monthly this sun. will head off to clic immediately after my shoot. i hope my headache will go away by then. it's been haunting me on and off for the past 3 days now. i can feel the severe lack of sleep taking its toll on me.

and what am i doing online now -.-

update.

2007-05-20T22:12:00.000+08:00

i'll make this quick i hope. i'm having a headache.

yesterday's training was fun. coach gave us a game, where we had to complete ten different levels. at the end of it all, i only made it to level 7, together with zhang yang and kenneth. i'm sure we'll all complete all 10 levels soon.

after that, coach gave us a ten shot competition, which we had to complete in seven minutes. like pandora the penguin (or maybe it's penguin the pandora) tagged, i hit a 98 for that competition. i was very satisfied with myself, because by this point i had been training for 3 hours in the sweltering heat of the range and seemed like it was threatening to buckle up any moment. to hit a 98 in such conditions, was a feat.

i guess i really maintained my emotions pretty well, except the last shot, which i jerked but miraculously hit a ten as well. everytime i hit a ten, i just let it go. last thursday after that horribel shoot i talked to siew peng(another coach) who told me a few things, among them were:

1)hitting a ten is 对的, it's correct. it's what you're supposed to do. just let it go after that.
2)don't force a shot.

i did both and clearly my efforts paid off. i brushed the two nines off after i fired them. it was a well managed ten shot comp. all i have to do is manage it this well for all sixty shots, and i'll definitely break 580. 98 multiplied six times is a 588, which would a rather pretty score for nationals.

on a side note, clic camp is coming up. i'll probably have to miss part of it on sunday, since there's the ssa shoot this sunday.

oh. last friday mr yang called me. i was having trials and when i returned his call the conversation went something like this.

mr yang: i was wondering if you could take photos for my wedding on the 9th of june.

me: yea sure, but you have a professional right?

mr yang: actually, no.

and with that i sorta froze up. anyone would know that being a wedding photographer is a huge responsibility. then he assured me that he wasn't looking for extremely high end shots, and asked me to just take it as an opportunity to build up my portfolio.

i roped in jekster and shu and thankfully they both agreed. although this means that i'll have to split the money with them, it is hardly a concern. getting the best shots of the wedding for the couple to remember for life, that's paramount.

gosh. this took much longer than i had expected. hope the headache will go away tomorrow. goodnight people.

urgh.

2007-05-14T21:16:00.000+08:00

i was too tired to update about shooting on friday night. and saturday. and sunday. not that i'm not today, but i figured i should force myself before i forget all about it.

i ended with my best shoot of the week on friday, having good control over my mental state. although i only produced a 565, it was a relatively enjoyable shoot, and it gave me confidence of doing much better.

there are so many things i want to talk about. but i don't have the time. i just want to say that i wish i had more sleep so i can get my studies in place so i can shoot in peace. studying in the council room these days usually ends up with me rolling over and falling asleep. i'm in a terrible state now. or at least i think so.

nil sine labore.

it's all in the mind.

2007-05-10T22:57:00.000+08:00

it really is. it determines the execution of each and every shot.

my highest series was a 97, lowest was a 90. the deviation is just way too much.

2nd series was the 97. i shouldn't have thought about the score. my last shot of the series was an 8, and things went downhill thereafter. today is easily worse than tuesday, considering how i just lost the mental aspect and fired close to 10 eights. goodness.

immediately after the shoot, went to siew peng for counselling since coach wasn't around. okay maybe counselling is too strong a word, but i was rather disappointed with myself.

i guess it's a rather good learning experience, today's shoot. gonna do better tomorrow. i know it.

六十次的比赛，不是六十发的比赛。
every shot is a new one.

day 2.

2007-05-09T22:59:00.000+08:00

jeffrey came back today to collect something from the range, so the two of us together with zhang yang went to hometeam together. since he was collecting his pay for conducting a basic course, he kas kind enough to cab us there free of charge. feel kinda bad, cause although we reached around 5.20, he could only train round 7.

i think i had my longest training ever today, at a measely three hours. i dry fired for quite a bit, then fired 50 shots of grouping and a 100 of singles. i must say that there was a significant improvement over yesterday, and i hope to keep this up for the tomorrow and friday's trials, if not improve further.

came home even later today, even though my dad was kind enough to drive down to give zhang yang and i a lift home. there was some miscommunication so he went to the wrong place, and had difficulty finding hometeam later on as well. bio spa tomorrow, as well as chem and maths tutorial. i'm starting to feel rather guilty not doing any tutorials at all.

having dinner now since i can't eat before my training. i think something about not eating dinner on time gives me weird stomachaches, as well as lots of gas in my tummy, which inevitably finds a way out from behind. it was like that yesterday as well. i guess it can't be helped.

oh well. guess i should be sleeping now. think mr chow is right, shooting is mentally draining. i woke up today feeling more tired than i ever have for a long long time. ended up sleeping quite a bit in the council room, where lay peng conveniently doodled on my arm with a pink marker. and somehow i can't wash it off. -.-

omg. i just realised i didn't bring my cylinder back to refill.

nil sine labore.

2007-05-08T22:44:00.000+08:00

trials this week for the rifle a div boys. coach wanted it to be held at the hometeamNS range.

in case you didn't know, it happens to be at bukit gombak.

in case you didn't know, i live very near college.

in case you didn't know, college and bukit gombak ain't very close.

rant aside, i hope all my tutors will not slaughter me for not doing my tutorials. truth is, there is absolutely no time to do anything. unless i sacrifice my sleep time, which i'm strongly against, and you'll see why a few paragraphs below.

today was the first of three trials, the other two being on thursday and friday. tomorrow's training, but it's just as important.

i only managed 560 today, ten points below my personal best. i do not have the scores of my individual series now, will probably update tomorrow.

i would say this shoot is below average. then again, i realised that it is me below average. kenneth shot a respectable 578 today, and that really inspired me. to have shot 570 during NTUIS and 560 today, already proves that i have broken my previous limits, hovering around 540.

now i want more. a few weeks ago i set my targets at 582/600 for nationals.

i'm gonna get it.

my technical skills are nearly there. i just need some polishing up on triggering, and probably a little on positioning as well.

my mental skills are not there. i'm easily distracted, and that usually spells trouble.

let's take today for example.

i shot a six.

the last time i shot a six was...erm...

erm.

i can't remember.

i shot quite a few eights as well. i had a good fourth series, hitting a score of 97. i know what i'm capable of. i'm just now able to reproduce it for all six series. yet.

for now, i think one of the most alarming issues that requires immediate rectification is the amount of sleep im getting. i've been extremely tired for the past few weeks, and it's really killing me. who can focus with a tired mine like mind?

the next three days isn't going to be smooth sailing either. i'll be reaching home near 11 everyday. thursday and friday are gonna be real bad with the long school day followed by trials.

i think i should stop, apart from those few paragraphs of serious reflection, i think i'm ranting too much when i can be recovering my sleep.

nothing without labour.

the legacy continues.

2007-05-02T23:18:00.000+08:00

and so, the chapter closes. the council term of the 23rd students' council may have come to an end, but for us 23rds, it is just the beginning.

the beginning of a friendship that will last for a very long time.

everything has gone by so quickly. it was just a year ago when we were officially invested as the 23rd students' council. now we have stepped down, made room for a fine batch of 24ths to carry on this legacy. i have great faith in them, and i believe all the 23rds share the same sentiments.

in the past year, there have been really good times, as well as really bad ones. i'm just glad that i have the 23rds around me, supporting me like how i've been supporting them. it's truly an experience of a lifetime, and evidently i'm having great difficulty stringing my words together to describe this journey that has been like no other.

to my dearest 23rds:
i love you guys. i really do. all the things we do..like talking absolute rubbish, creating scandals from the most trivial matters, making fun of one another, having random meals and outings etc, it just makes the entire experience so much more fun and interesting. you guys are like family to me. i dare say that a year ago, i never expected myself to be so into council. you guys are really special. so here's a special thank you, to all you special people who have made the past year so darn special to me.

oh. and please do visit me next year. i'll be the only 23rd left in college.

photographs -
pardon the quality. phone cameras are disgusting.

emo-ing before it all began.

darren and i.
zara and i.

pengkai.me.andy.ricky

mansoor and i. he had to move!

lubin.me.laypeng

jireh and i.

darel.me.terence.darren.shuhua.carene

feco "guys" and feco guys!

*AHEM*

peizhen and i.

nugraha and i. he just found out 2 days ago that i'm J1 -.-

me.shuhua.beertini who appeared from nowhere!

jafnie dropped by! he's actually tip-toeing quite abit =P

shuhua trying to give britney a smooch ^_^

shuhua and britney and shuhua.

shu hua and shu hua.

the cake. it was so darn thick and rich i could only stomach two pieces.

sheena made me act like a polar bear!

peizhen.me.george

dennis and leanne. too bad no pic of ricky and jeanne!

dennis and i.

ardent liverpool supporters benjamin, george and jireh showing the initials LFC!

leanne and i.

and of course, the man himself. marc and i.

more photos to come...

the echo.

2007-04-25T21:32:00.000+08:00

i just had one of the worst trainings ever this year. my mind was filled. i struggled to clear it, but i just couldn't.

i hope this isn't the beginning of another rough patch. if it is so be it. i think i'm pretty used to it by now.

i couldn't help but feel that the rain seemed to mirror my feelings perfectly. now as i'm walking home i don't exactly see much in life. i forsee more mobile entries soon. it's extremely conveient to put your thoughts down immediately. i'll just add the paragraphing online.

that aside, i have to wonder and reflect. perhaps it's just silly. stupid. to be troubled by issue that probably aren't worth being troubled about.

i'm almost home.

and for the millionth time, i need inspiration.

victoria is something more.

2007-04-18T23:03:00.000+08:00

just returned home a while ago from the forum in vs that the ova organised. it wasn't particularly productive in my opinion, especially since there was no proposal to begin with.

i think the opinions and thoughts and questions that were put across were mostly very coherent and even impressive ones, save the few that seemed rather weird. i did feel that the principals were skirting the issue, but then again there isn't a particular proposal to being with to really debate about.

well here's a particular story that i feel i must share, especially after hearing it from mr low earlier on. it nearly brought me to tears, and i had to control myself. so here it goes:

at today's x-country championships, a victorian by the name of thomas was running in the b div race. he was in third position, coming into the finishing line. just 10m from the finishing line, his knees gave way. he collapsed. the teachers and supporters screamed and shouted for him to get up. there wasn't any response from him, but after 5 seconds, he began to pull himself up and staggered forward. he collapsed again just before the finishing line, and pulled himself across.

mr low, our principal, went to check on him after that. apparently he was on a stretcher, delirious, with ice on his forehead. when he opened his eyes and saw mr low, immediately, he asked, " Sir, how did we do?"

then he apologised.

"Sorry. I fell."

i'm not sure if you are feeling what i'm feeling after reading that short paragraph. good for you if you do, and sorry for wasting 3 mins of your time if you didn't.

shall do my math tutorial soon. don't remember doing tutorials at such a time before. then again if my life is going to be so jammed with activities, i guess it can't be helped.

well speaking of shooting, i had a competition in school today. i can feel myself improving, breaking through the previous barrier. although the first series was bad, the other 2 were great and all i have to do is to focus and fine tune some stuff here and there.

so it's time i set a target for myself. i figured i haven't really set a goal down in black and white. so here i go.

580/600 by june.

nil sine labore.

i'm sick.

2007-04-02T21:28:00.000+08:00

and i'm getting worse as time goes by. my throat is fuzzy. my nose is blocked, it's hard to breathe. i couldn't shoot properly during training -.-

someone should invent a pill. something that can cure people immediately. then i can taste my food again.

interval.

2007-03-30T23:03:00.000+08:00

there are many things to blog about. but im too lazy to right now. so here are the delayed videos.

cemerong waterfall.

the waking.

okay i think i'll blog about arts day as well. basically im rather inspired by the photographs that the "lawyer dancer" person showed us. if i remember correctly, the photographer's name was ken seet. the photographs taken by the medium format camera were stunning. it's little wonder he charges like 2k.

another thing that really inspired me was kinetic advertising. i'm so glad i popped over to LT1. the kind of ideas that they could come up with are really awesome and out-of-the-box. i'm sure i'd love to work in a company like that, even though the working hours may be long.

some of us had a chat with the Pann, the creative director who gave us the talk. he mentioned about how when he gets his hands on a cd album for example, he'd be looking out for better positions to arrange the text around, rather than reading the text itself. i could so understand what he meant. everytime i see advertisements, i can't help but hop into my advertisement critique self and start commenting on almost everything about the poster, short video or whatever.

i asked him how to develop this "skill" further, and he said that it's something that's already in me. i think he used the word innate. that kind of gave me some sort of reassurance that i'd at least do OKAY in this area. i also asked him what kind of qualifications are required, and he said that all he needs is just a solid portfolio.

i'm glad i went to speak with him after the talk. i kind of have a clearer idea of what i want to do with my life. or rather, it reinforced the idea that i may go into the advertising-cum-photography kind of job.

the next step - to build a solid portfolio.

paka river camp.

2007-03-18T19:08:00.000+08:00

goodness. a photographer doesn't know that there's a tool on blogger that allows him to upload photos directly onto blogger. now i know.

THIS POST IS PICTURE INTENSIVE.
compared to all my previous posts of course.

paka river camp was totally enjoyable. as much as i would have preferred a proper toilet that could flush, i guess after a while you get rather used to it. it's sad to note that this is probably the last time our IP cohort will be overseas together as a cohort, but i guess all good things will eventually have to end.

well, we started the trip assembling in school and boarding the bus to johor, before switching to another coach to take us all the way to the camp site. our bus was like a brothel bus. it had these bright pink curtains, so when the sun shines through the entire coach is bathed in this red hue. even the driver had his dashboard covered with leopard-print velvet. it was funny. anyway the journey there was rather dry, as compared to the bus journey back.

on the bus!

the birthday boy!

brothel bus!

arapaima gigas at our first stopover.

halfway through the trip i woke up to a funny sight. here it is! pardon the quality of the photos. they're really horrible, taken with cameras from our phones.

sleeping beauty! my waterbag lifesupport system.

THE KISSERS.

finally after about ten hours on the bus, we reached the campsite. it was more run-down than i expected, but that added to the fun factor of it all. one of the first few things that you see when you walk in is the communal bath for guys. it was rather bad cause it wasn't difficult to see through that black cloth/mesh thingy especiall at night. we finished the day up by pitching tents and having dinner.

communal bath.

instructors bunk.

day 2. we started with a hike up the nearby hill to the three trees (haha doh.) called persist persevere and prevail. basically it was an orienteering exercise, and there were people doing pacing and compass reading. i don't remember doing anything. oh i did collect firewood!

orienteering trek.

collecting firewood.

when we got back from the hike we saw persist and started laughing at them nyahahhaha. apparently they were doing raft building and the last time i checked a raft was supposed to float well...

persist. nyahahahaa!

oh and nicole developed this nasty rash on her harm after orienteering, which we later found out were sandfly bites. quite a few others got bitten by the end of the cam as well.

the ewwness to rule them all.

backwoodsman cooking was really fun, especially gutting the fish and cutting it apart with my leatherman. it's the first time i used it for such a dirty job but it was fun nonetheless. of course we had fun with wilbur's blowtorch as well. oh and we musn't forget how his pants melted after putting his hot blowtorch into his pocket. salutes!

all the firewood we collected.

persevere getting briefed by khai.
wilbur's blowtorch.
fire!
me + head. aaron + body. nicole + WOMD.
fish fillet.

reviving the fire.

sweet potato + rice = starch overload.

tents.

campsite.

spiritual leader harnessing energy.

as it turned out, three of us brought the same daypack to the camp. we went around shouting at each other "HEY YOUR DAYPACK IS NICE MAN" and "I LOVE YOUR DAYPACK" but oh well i guess the pictures say it all =)

the chosen ones!

"as they rode off in the sunset..." (no sun but nvm)

after lunch, it was raft building and kayak capsize drill for us. okay maybe it was wrong to laugh at persist cause we didn't do to well either. but at least we had some cool funky shape of a raft. capsize drill wasn't really a capsize drill. it was more like a "do what yirui does!" drill cause he was my partner and that says everything. haha.

day 3. climbing up cemerong waterfall. it was a hell of a sight at the first rest point, where you can look up and see the whole waterfall. it was a rather challenging route that we took, and evidently it took its toll on some people, but i'm glad that we all made it up at the end.

dipping in the upper pools was a big mistake. the water was just freezing. maybe i'm getting old and i can't take cold temperatures anymore but that's besides the point. my clothes were wet and when the wind came i was just chattering away. it was cold. period.

going down was abit challenging for me. it was getting late and the sky was turning dark so the instructors had to hurry everyone to go down really fast. it's really taxing on the knees and back, and it was particularly hard on my knees cause my cartilage is not as thick as it should be, so i could feel the strain on it. but after scrambling down together and crossing two rivers we finally made it out of there alive.

oh. nightwalk was a bitch. i got freaked like hell by that guy and i was haywire after that. got lost. met tristan. met ms chiam. found our way. yay the end. doh.

before hiking up the waterfall.

before the hike up.

pretty mossy plants all over.

hike.

yy.

mini waterfall.

view of waterfall from lower pool.

wenshu and subra gaying with my phone.

yirui and i.

jovena tristan yirui.

another shot of the waterfall.

lower pools.

khai @ river crossing.

mini waterfall @ upper (and freezing) pool.

day 4. kayaking. started off with a solo kayak. solo kayak + kayaking against current + no drive = lag behind. so yea lag behind i did. got towed like twice. lolness. it was nice being on the boat and just enjoying the scenery though, even if you pretty much see the same thing througout.

at the first checkpoint, the instructors paired me up with simram and put me on a double. by this time the current had begun changing and was starting to be in our favour, so it was much easier to paddle. i ended up pushing myself and challenging myself to paddle non-stop to the next checkpoint and i did, which is a great feat considering simram found it physically challenging and had to rest quite abit. haha she kept turning around to apologise which made me wonder if i was going too fast, but i told her that she could rest whenever she wanted and i'll just keep paddling. physically draining, but fruitful =)

oh. and at the first checkpoint, when the instructors told us to get into the water, something poked/cut/grazed/whatever the left side of my tailbone and it hurt very badly. i didn't know how bad it was until when i got home and looked in the mirror (stop imagining how i did that.) it was a rather bad wound and no wonder it hurt so bad. funny thing is i have no idea how it could have been possible since there was no hole in clothes. could it have been a fish with sharp teeth? i dunno.

at the second checkpoint, i paired up with desmond. hohohoho. it was a breeze. the two of started from the back and ended up third, just behind yirui and wilbur. it was fun hitting the waves and bumping up and down, getting saltwater all over you and stuff. really enjoyed it. we reached the third checkpoint, which was literally just next to the south china sea. hung around there and took some pics. got a dip. saw the 14 guys peeing and farting into the sea. saw yy become a popsicle. haha it was fun. from there we kayaked to the final checkpoint, loaded the kayaks, got changed and went off to the resort!

well it isn't a resort per se. more like a getaway kind of chalet/apartment. i bunked in with yirui, tristan, aaron, martin, zong and allen zhang zhang yang. we put our stuff down and went off for the supposedly luxurious dinner and the campfire. xx, nicole and prema came to join us and we took one table and ended up talking nonsense throughout the night. ah it was really fun =)

me tristan zy.

cheers! i love the rose syrup with tadpole eggs =)

the food. (which wasn't fantastic.)

yixiang without pants.

campwater. well the campfire was postponed from the original night, so we had a campwater instead by the poolside. the performances weren't great as far as i remember, but the instructors did well for their item, hyping up the crowd and doing the cha chiku cha dance together. i'll definitely miss all the instructors!

campwater.

the villa.

my roomates.

day 5. we boarded the bus for a quick breakfast nearby, before coming back for reflections and boarding the bus again back to singapore.

breakfast!

the bus journey was filled with fun and laughted. we sorta had this "back-of-the-brothel-bus clique" as nicole puts it, which included tristan yirui xx aaron martin nicole prema and myself. we chatted and gossiped and yakked and did stupid stuff and ate food and had lotsa fun together.

halfway through the journey i blew a bubble and put my face right in front of jonathan's and woke him up. on hindsight it was quite an evil thing to do and i felt really guilty, but later on i forgot about that and attempted to claim tristan as my next victim, this time by using pringles lips. fortunately he woke up just in time, so nicole did it to xx instead. check out the video below! oh and we tried eating pringles without our hands. it isn't that difficult actually, i got it the first time. but some people struggled and struggled and finally got it after four tries. don't worry nicole i won't say who yep!

oh yes and tristan infected us with his funny accent and by the end of the trip most of us spoke in that funny accent once in a while without intending to. ahhh it was fun fun fun fun fun FUNNNN!

xx unglamness.

some people just can't blow bubbles with bubble gum!

(don't worry tristan and xx i won't say who.)

we stopped over at a shopping mall for lunch, where we had pizza hut. the meal for six people only cost like 50 ringgit! i went off to watson's to get some after-sun lotion thingy for my sunburn which was hurting really badly. even on the bus when tristan's sleeve kept brushing against my arm it hurt like doh. oh i remember while we were waiting to cross the road the sun was up and i was burning up so i squat down and nice people came and surrounded me and sheltered me with thei shadow. i was really greatful for that!

dinner was horrendously cheap as well. we had stuff like fish, prawns, sotong, chicken, vegetables, tau gua, watercress soup for just 12 ringgit. where on earth can you find that in singapore?

the dinner place!

dinner time!

waiting for the food.

oh halfway through the dinner the rest somehow managed to grab hold of nicole's ez-link card. she pasted a penguin sticker on it to prevent people from seeing her primary six self. of course, we couldn't resist, and aaron took the sticker off. and to our greatest horror...

we saw something we never thought possible...

we saw...

her primary six self!

haha just kidding. i'm nice enough not to post the real thing =P

took photos with the "back-of-the-brothel-bus clique" on the final leg of the journey back. thanks guys for making the journey back seem much much shorter. in fact, it was too short, but it was good while it lasted =)

(you can see how roasted i was in the photos. in fact the next day when i went for elects camp all the councillors were shocked. names like lobster and roasted polar bear started popping up.)

martin and i.

aaron and i.

me nicole xx prema.

yirui and i.

tristan and i.

"back-of-the-brothel-bus clique!"

on the whole, i'd say that the trip is a truly enjoyable and fruitful one. the experience and memories are worth so much, and i'm willing to fail all upcoming tests and exams just to experience it again, which isn't difficult at the rate things are going.

i hope there'll be a day where we can all go back to malaysia and just chill and have fun. oh and maybe we can all return to paka river camp as instructors! hahaha i think that'd be really nice.

okay i'll stop here for now. blogger ate half my post just now. it was really frustrating. there'll be more photos up in subsequent posts, so look out!

ntuis.

2007-03-01T22:27:00.001+08:00

ntu invitational shoot.

new personal best
96.97.92.93.97.95.
total - 570
average - 9.5
rank - 5th in open category

the 1st and 2nd both shot 575, and the 3rd and 4th both shot 573. i missed a medal by 4 points, and missed first place by 6 points. but to be fair, i wasn't expecting such a high score. either the scorers were too lenient or i was too strict with my predictions (or both).

3rd and 4th series was nonsense, especially 3rd series. i shot a EIGHT and a SEVEN. oh my tian. if both of them were tens, i would have gotten at least a silver medal. shows how much each shot counts doesn't it. 4th series, full of nines. just convert a few more to tens and i would have gotten first place. hahaha stupid boy.

well i guess it was a good shoot. had fun having lunch with all the top notch sports people, meeting them, talking cock as usual etc =D will update about wednesday's dinner with them at BUKIT BATOK tomorrow, when i process the photos. which means i have to process the JTS photos first or i'll be slaughtered.

train harder daniel ong! you're 20 points from national standard!

untitled.

2007-02-28T20:36:00.000+08:00

it's quite shocking really. that a life can just...go. just like that. whoever thought that such a thing can happen to a teenager. it was really silly for me not to realise that something was wrong when i walked pass the plasma screen outside the GO in the morning and seeing "All (including those taking SPA) - Hall"

i can't help but think about it. i was there when it happened. on the 2nd level, outside the council room, a bird's eye view of a view that wasn't pretty in the least bit. it was scary, shocking, stunning. yes it was stunning. i just stood there with mansoor. silently hoping that the paramedic would stop the CPR, and that the girl would come to. it was obvious how severe the situation was, especially when they wheeled her out of the track and onto the ambulance. it was serious.

hope that everything will eventually go back to normal for the family (is it possible?), and that she'll rest in peace.

ntuis tomorrow. haven't had enough sleep recently, haven't trained as consistently as i should be especially after the CNY period. won't demand too much from myself. we'll see how it goes. update about last night's gathering another time. today isn't appropriate.

watermelon!

2007-02-18T01:10:00.000+08:00

happy birthay jireh yew char kuay. okay actually that was yesterday considering it's 1.10am now. thanks for smacking me with bits of watermelon on friday and making my uniform uber dirty. but i guess it's nothing compared to what we did to you. nyahahahahaha! at least it was worth it for me to lug the watermelon from parkway to home to school =)

ahh finally im gonna finish ryan's photos. they've turned out rather pretty, and i'm satisfied with the results from the shoot. maybe with his permission, i can post it up here. oh and that explains why i haven't been able to process jts photos...paid shoots have to come first for obvious reasons. to satisy the client!

happy new year all =)

friendship day.

2007-02-14T22:03:00.000+08:00

thanks so much to all the people who showered me with gifts today. sorry i prepared nothing ^_^ but i shall give a stupid excuse like "hey i'm a guy" and attempt to get away with it.

my rifle is fixed! haha.

ah. inspiration needed for the *secret* terrible. hopefully we can whack and finish it by tomorrow or something.

the summer is really freezing. really.

save meeeee.

2007-02-13T22:20:00.000+08:00

i'm stuck to serials again. now every night from 9-9.45 i shall be glued to channel 55. which isn't good cause that means i only have from 8-9 to do my work. after 9.45 i slack off. ah doh.

and i lost my shooting glove. i'm hoping someone took it by accident and realised that "hey my glove isn't this smelly, this must be daniel's" and bring it back to me tomorrow. ah it's so weird to use a different glove. it's not the same.

i need inspiration.

haha

2007-02-09T14:30:00.001+08:00

c5.

err

jts.

2007-02-03T23:25:00.000+08:00

jts was at fish and co yesterday. i think it was quite okay, apart from the fact that we were too noisy and i couldn't eat much cause of my throat. ended up ordering the mussels in lemon and butter sauce. i ended up coughing so badly that my voice disappeared.

i think our senior class is a rather nice bunch of people. partly cause i know a few of them rather well. like matt and joshua and deon cause we're in shooting. and hoon kuey and his killer smile. oh and thanks to my angel for giving me that birthday surprise yesterday. i was in like a state of shock. rather funny. i'll post the pics up soon. (i sincerely hope so)

on a side note, i had my most wonderful dream ever yesterday. hahaha.

cough cough.

2007-02-01T21:55:00.000+08:00

okay i've quite a few things to whoa about so here goes.

tuesday:
whoaaaaaa. like seriously. i never ever dreamt that i could complete 4.8km at one go without taking a break. yet somehow i managed to complete a 6km run nonstop - thanks to george jireh sheena shuxie. thankfully mr goh excused me from 3rd period PE after that or i would have just fainted and fused with the wooden floor or something.

whoaaaaaa. singapore survivor was really cool. everytime i watch things like that i wanna write my own script and stuff. i shall keep it at the back of my head if one fine day i really get the time to do it. most memorable line - "and mickey mouse doesn't even have a kidney!" i stomach muscle cramped and it was really painful. hahaha

wednesday:
whoaaaaaa. i realised how much i love darren jared and clara. i realised i love the council many many a while back, but i never knew that them stepping down prematurely could be so painful not just for them but for me as well. would be nice to go with them and run a second term together, as the 4 IP councillors, but some sacrifices have to be made. i was emo again and dehydrated myself. as did many of us. nevertheless, all the best to the three of you. see you back in the 24ths real soon. =)

thursday:
whoaaaaaa. being sick sucks. being sick and running 4.5km sucks more. being sick and training is plain stupid (as i have learnt the hard way). ended up getting a headache as well on top my horrible throat condition. it's painful even to swallow saliva. JTS tomorrow. i'll probably sit at the corner and sulk about how i can't eat the food at fish & co. (actually i'm more likely to just go - screw it! and indulge in the food). i haven't done tutorials today.

i feel horrible. i need to sleep. goodnight people.

ssa monthly - jan.

2007-01-28T22:19:00.000+08:00

93.90.94.89.94.96 - 556

just a lil background info for you guys - competition consists of 60 shots divided into 6 series of ten. each series upon 100, total upon 600.

sad to say this is my personal best for an official external competition. i think it's quite okay, except for the 2nd and 4th series. i was simply having a mental war with myself. i was on fire on the 6th series. could have easily hit 100 if not for my sight relation error.

i guess for the 2nd and 4th, my focus drifted to the front sight and not on maintaining my position. i learnt that focusing on maintaing your position does not necessarily mean you are stable. your basic position must be right in the first place. 1st series was okay. 2nd series gabra. 3rd also gabra but scrape through. 4th can go slap myself. 5th was good. 6th on fire. it was like ten. ten. ten. nine. ten. nine. ten. nine. ten. ten. nine. and all my nines were just a millimetre short of a ten. haha gotta work on converting those nines to tens.

my gun is sorta screwing up. for a start p700s have this silly manufacturing screw up that prevents us from using the dry firing mechanism after a while. just yesterday the ball bearing that controls that mechanism fell out. today i fired a pellet and it got stuck in the barrel. i suspect the mechanism was in between live mode and safe mode and only half the gas got released when i triggered. the chief range officer was really nice, he just told me to put another pellet in and he triggered it off for me. normally it would mean that i would have 2 out of my sixty shots disqualified.

i was ranked 11th for my detail (out of 32) with my score of 556. alot of people got that score, about 4 or 5, but i was ranked in front of all of them due to countback (my 6th series was higher than theirs at 96) quite okay i suppose. i know i could have shot much better, probably a 565 or something. we'll see next month. 25th is feb monthly, 28th is NTUIS. that's gonna be a busy few days. which means no tutorials get done again.

okay so i gotta do my report by wednesday. ahh i have so little time. sorry if you don't really understand this post. if you want to understand it, join air rifle =)

iTango jts.

2007-01-26T23:25:00.000+08:00

today was a weird day. a confirmation that i'm soon going to be part of what we term an ageing population.

gone are the days where i have skin as thick as a bull. where i roam freely in temperatures below 10 degrees celcius with just a t-shirt on.

suddenly during econs today i was super cold. just damn cold. it just felt, weird. then just after maths i went to grab my pe shirt to keep myself warm. but after a while suddenly i felt extremely warm. it felt like a fever and i was just feeling so abnormal i wanted to just faint and go unconscious or sth.

didn't train much today. partly because of the above. partly cause we had trouble with the compressor (which meant i couldn't pump my cylinder/shoot). partly cause we had to lock up early. shot a 10 shot grouping. was alright. feeling still there. tomorrow's the last training before monthly shoot on sunday. should be okay i guess.

popped by to yongsheng's house after that, where we had iTango jts. they ordered pizza for us and i guess it was really nice chatting with each other and all. this is probably the closest OG i've ever had. some lao kok koks(year 3s) came also. jing yuan is botak. chi heem and kaixiang both haven't go tekong chalet. alan and ashvin just booked in today. hahaha time flies. oh well. it was fun talking cock and having fun and taking photos and hearing stories about the army (not the ghost ones). it was good fun.

walked to dunman food centre to eat dessert after that. then i sorta came home after that and so here i am typing. i realise i've been blogging more than usual recently. oh well. i think i'll go sleep now so i can train well tomorrow. cya all.

and so it begins.

2007-01-25T21:35:00.000+08:00

after seven months, it's time to start competing again.

sunday's the first of many to come. ssa's(singapore shooting association) monthly shoot.

feb ssa monthly shoot on 24th of feb
NTU invitational 28th of feb

ssa march monthly

HomeTeamNS april
ssa april monthly

ssa may monthly
NUS invitational

june train like siao.
ssa june monthly

july NATIONALS

august (singapore shooting festival?)

haha oh well. i just have to train hard and we'll see how it goes.

random fact of the day: i really wish i have more agile hands.

OG bbq.

2007-01-20T21:10:00.000+08:00

ah. og bbq was fun. apart from trying to finish 300 sausages and fighting for the sting rays, it was reallly good =) thanks sooooo much to iTango for the wonderful gift. i'll take a picture of it once i stick the letter 'L' back! hope you guys liked what i had for you too =D

haha stayed over in school, like super impromptu cause mayyee only told me at the bbq. quite surprised my parents let me stay over with such short notice. haha well we ended up scavenging the hall area for shuttlecocks. managed to get up to the gallery area and pick the shuttles that were left on top of the air conditioners lol.played badminton, ate instant noodles (ramen!) and snacks then talk cock. at first only mayyee peizhen chris and i. then @ about 3+ denise and gang (joel, qi chao, zeri, jireh) came back.

by that time i realised that i really should go sleep especially since i had training at 8 the next day. haha so i went up to council room to make my bed which somehow turned out to be much more comfortable than the previous time (open house). oh before we slept peizhen and i were talking about how hamsup a particular someone is. (oi. you know who you are. you hamsup king!) he's been 'terrorising' some people and he thinks its funny. abit weird. haha then after a while jireh came in then we all just peng already. jireh pengs damn quickly. he just came in then deliberated whether to sleep for a while. once he made his bed, a few minutes later no sound already.

waking up at 8am was a horrible experience. cause you are so freaking drowsy and you just wanna sleep somemore. but i kinda forced myself out of bed and to the toilet to wash up. then along the way think some ppl were laughing at how horrible my hair was. well the truth is it looks like a clump of grass in the morning, all messy and in all directions, which is why i have to gel my hair which is a pain in the lalala which is why i wish i had no hair. (okay maybe not) training was good today. juniors came down for their first actual training. and i don't feel like typing anymore cause i'm tired so goodnight people.

bleagh.

2007-01-03T21:37:00.000+08:00

this is a i feel so sick so im posting post but i can't help it cause i need to rant so if you don't want to read it please close the window now.

why! why on orientation! this morning i woke up worse than yesterday. the headache was so horrible i had to drag myself to college. luckily jek got 2 panadol for me, and i guess it worked. but during lunch after eating a fish burger and a cup of milo pearl i totally felt puke-ish. giddy and stuff. but being the nice person i am i taught my OG whiney and la bamba. that's when the trouble began.

i felt uber horrible during my station game. seeing apples didn't help really. haha but i guess everyone was having fun so it took my mind of it abit. just when i thought things were getting slightly better. my nose had to bleed. doh. ahhh now i feel better. i hope i don't wake up worse tomorrow.

orientation so far is rather good i think. if anyone of you feel the same way, or think otherwise, do tell me more yep. thanks in advance. cheers and enjoy the remaining three days!

urgh.

2007-01-02T22:04:00.000+08:00

not sleeping enough and being busy with orientation has certainly taken it's toll on me. at the most unfortunate time as well. i had my worst sleep ever last night. had a very light sleep, and i remember feeling feverish. woke up this morning feeling giddy and tired. went to college to help out abit before coming home and hitting the sack. took a panadol and now im feeling much better. gonna take one more now and go to bed. hopefully tomorrow's orientation will be a wonderful one yep.

hi kids!

2006-12-19T22:50:00.000+08:00

i'm back. and im going to bed now. photo journey of my trip will be up soon.

stay tuned!

overseas.

2006-12-12T21:49:00.000+08:00

hey guys, i'll be going to japan early tomorrow morning, will only be back next tuesday night. i'll be bringing my phone along, call only if urgent okay? if not my phone bill will just die.

my flight's at like 8am i think, but i think we have to be there like by six, so i have to get up around four plus? haha oh well hopefully this will be a wonderful trip. hope to get real nice shots this time. i've recently gotten my wide angle lens, EF-S 10-22 F3.5-4.5, and a tripod for this trip. quality control will be high as usual =P

meanwhile, hope all of you take care back here. holidays are ending, treasure them yep! alright i'll go continue with my preparation now. take care and have fun! =D

sdd `06.

2006-12-09T20:25:00.000+08:00

well it started off in school, packing the goodie bags onto the buses and all. i must say the goodie bag this year is attractive, with a tumbler and a photo frame that says victoria junior college, just to name a couple. then george and i popped by cocoa trees to collect the chocolates and hampers for the lucky draw.

the room in ritz carlton is rather nice. actually the one we were in wasn't the nicest, i've seen one with a nicer view before. the only ding dong is that the toilet doesn't have a lock. i guess it's alright if you're staying alone or something, and not with eight others. got changed and went down to get ready for sdd!

firstly, the packet dinner we got was plain horrible. the only thing nice about it was the tofu. i didn't have much appetite anyways so i gues that didn't matter. i was doing doorman with darren, playing around with UV lights and scanning people's wrist.

basically sdd should be renamed like, photo whoring night or something, cause that's what everyone was doing. even i who was supposed to be on duty took pictures too. oh well.

sdd was generally okay in my opinion. things that could have been improved on was the placement of the strings ensemble at the start as it sorta formed a barrier preventing people from moving away from the registration, resulting in a traffic jam. i also heard that the emcee was a tad rude. i don't really know cause i was outside most of the time eating the kit kat displayed at the registeration counter which no one bothered about. i think i had ten. ah anyways i just hope everyone had their fair share of fun =)

after sdd was over we had a little debrief in the salon, that kinda took us all the way till 2.30am. we packed up the place, went up to the room, lazed around, then tried going out to find supper. apparently everywhere was closed, so we had no choice but to sleep. i only had 2 hours of sleep, which explains why i was so groggy.

next morning we went to macdonalds, where we i fell in love with the hotcakes again hahaha. also bought 2 slices of cake to celebrate mansoor's and isabella's birthday! we checked out and went back to school. jireh, peizhen and i went back in a cab with all the logistics first. since we had so much time i ended up playing with the remaning box of dry ice. we ordered 30 kilos i think, but only used 1 of the 2 boxes.

i put some dry ice in a bottle with water and capped it. after a while it sorta seemed as if there was no more reaction so i picked it up and released some gas and suddenly the whole thing exploded on me and my left ear was buzzing. if that's not stupid enough i put a bottle of apple soda into the box and somehow fell asleep. suddenly there was this boom sound and i remember saying that sounds familiar. the glass bottle totally cracked and the apple soda was just a piece of ice. doh stupid boy.

after that we went to send mohan, or emperor momo off. he's back in India now, but he promised to be back next april. then i went popeye's with phu and wai kin, before going to send wenny off. oh starbucks was giving out free drinks as part of a christmas promotion. sadly i only had 1 fifty dollar note with me and i couldn't donate anything to the charity pot or something like that. felt rather bad =(

actually i don't know why im typing such a long commentary post. it's so unlike me. haha but i figured i haven't blogged for a while, so here you go, if you actually made it this far anyway. cheers ppl =)

sdd `06.

2006-12-07T19:53:00.000+08:00

okay let me keep this brief since i can hardly think now.

sdd was yesterday. went to settle goodie bags, collect chocolates, got to ritz carlton, got dressed and ready and doh why am i typing this now. ah okay i need to sleep desperately, will update again soon.

ouchies.

2006-11-26T21:37:00.000+08:00

i've been shooting slightly better, but at the cost of my back.

my position was off, putting a significant amount of stress on my lower back. been feeling the after effects the past week, or even two, but never really took a step back to think. my coach saw it yesterday and was like o.0

quote
"i worry for your back."

that was rather scary. now i have to readjust everything. but before that, i've decided to give myself a break tomorrow. my back still kinda hurts.

i'm too lazy to update what i promised the last time. i'll do it in my next post.

hohoho.

2006-11-15T23:50:00.000+08:00

thanks to everyone, especially those on this little list i compiled, fastest to not so fastest =P

those who wished me at prom
rhesa
calvin
jon
maryann
melanie
pei fang
charissa
sihui
goh xiao xian
chun han
nick
zhen iang
auntie selina
jek
samantha
zeri
bimin - thanks for the cake too =)
su leng
min ning
tan xiao xian
chay him
jastine
matt ho
shannon
pei zhen
tan family
councillors for the song this morning haha

thanks guys, appreciate it!

update on last night's prom + zoo trip today soon (i hope!)

an update of sorts.

2006-11-08T23:46:00.000+08:00

i know i shouldn't feel down cause i'm shooting like a 5 year old, considering the fact that there was a period of 3 months during which i didn't touch my rifle. but i can't help it. i hope i get my form back soon.

my dad just went overseas. i only found out 5 mins before he left the house. i don't even know where he's gone to. haha. this is weird.

life may be full of buts, but...

one hundredth post.

2006-10-29T20:19:00.001+08:00

i'm really really sad because it's my hundreth post and blogger ate what i typed twice. now i have to retype everything for a third time.

i figured i'm getting old. been going out a lot recently, cause it keeps my mind active and prevents it from rotting or thinking about silly stuff. there is an old lady in this documentary who is rather well to do, but works in macdonalds for the very same reason. haha ah going out's nice, but not when you're too broke =P

ahh in just a few hours ill be free from chinese. not that i hate chinese, i think it's a beautiful language, but i just dislike the way we are made to study for it and the way we are tested. oh well at least i'll only have one last test on it. i'm not expecting much, or rather i'm not expecting anything at all, but my mum is expecting a b3. unfortunately the highest I got is a b4, but we'll see how things goes eh? haha

i think it's true that your appetite grows when you study. i recall how much i ate while i was studying for EOY, and how my appetite dropped after EOY. then today my appetite went up again and i got my mum to order pizza and chomped it all down. i guess the pizza wasn't that big anyways. i love meat. meat is nice. nyahahaha =)

Clockwise, from Hand: Slice of Pizza, Slice of Pizza, Slice of Pizza, Slice of Pizza, Slice of Pizza, Slice of Pizza, Buffalo Wings (Not Pictured).

oh here's a nice little line from one of the practise papers i did.
“ 梦就是期望，有期望才会有激情，才会努力拼搏，守住自己的梦，勇敢地走下去，你就会到达成功的彼岸。”

cheers to all =)

note: this post is 27 hours late. blogger didn't let me publish yesterday =(

random blabberings.

2006-10-24T13:59:00.000+08:00

i figured i haven't blogged for a while. haha. well i'll talk about my results some other time, don't feel like doing it now.

i've been studying everywhere but home before the exams, and i figured i can't study at home cause, home's like. enclosed. i dunno. kinda suffocating and stuff. like it's just this empty space with not much life. rather dead and boring? haha. i need to go out and breathe some fresh air. like how we went fish shopping lots yesterday. haha.

oh yesterday night just before i went to bed, i was at the side of my bed looking at my tank. then i think i sorta lost balance or something and my last two toes on my left got sliced by the cupboard. it looks rather serious and but isn't really i think. rather interesting too. i just stuffed tissue paper between the toes and went to sleep. haha aight i think i'll go vs to do chinese. cheers people, and selamat hari raya to all muslims =)

okay. this is bad.

2006-10-09T14:51:00.000+08:00

i thought bio was manageable. which isn't really that good a thing, considering i only went to airport to study at 1, left at 3+ and slept till 8pm. after which i msn-ed till 10 and studied till 11 before sleeping. something's not right.

update 1743hours: no wonder bio was okay. it's nothing compared to how screwed i am for physics.

update 2245 hours: daniel hasn't started electricity yet. daniel hopes to scrape through and pass physics tomorrow. daniel would be happy to do so considering the state he is in. goodnight people =)

yayness.

2006-10-08T11:43:00.000+08:00

i'm officially sick. i can't smell or taste my food, my throat feels like sandpaper and i feel as if i'm on a boat sailing through choppy waves. woohoo. i think i'm getting really old. like ageing. oh and my nose started bleeding cause i blew my nose a little too hard or sth last night. see. i'm gettin real old.

i dunno how im gonna stuff bio stuff into this mind that's like going round and round haha. at least i have an excuse if i don't do well for bio i guess. =)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PSI - Please Sue Indonesia. rawr.

what?

2006-10-02T22:43:00.000+08:00

you didn't even know?

shame on you.

i'm tired.

2006-09-29T20:27:00.000+08:00

it's like this damned viscious cycle. which gets you all demoralised and stuff. then you gotta waste precious time getting back some sleep. which includes falling asleep on the canteen bench while studying. argh.

thank you calvin's stress ball. you've been nice to have around.

ahh. tomorrow must wake up early and chiong airport. did nothing today. study hard guys.

steve irwin.

2006-09-27T23:05:00.000+08:00

i miss you like hell. rest in peace mate.

argh.

2006-09-20T19:58:00.000+08:00

i'm so tired. i wonder how many times i've mentioned this already. i'm getting more and more tired by the day. today during lit i decided to screw LA summary and just went to sleep. i didn't even want to go for SS lecture. but i guess it's good i did since i haven't started studying for SS.

i wonder how im gonna finish revising with this physical and mental state. i still have to START on sip today and finish it TOMORROW. well i asked for it. just wonder how late i have to sleep. that's if i get to sleep. ahhh then again i'll fall asleep anyway just a matter of time.

three more weeks. i wonder how im gonna cope. i need inspiration.

today in victoria school.

2006-09-10T23:02:00.000+08:00

"lunch."

untitled.

2006-09-09T23:16:00.000+08:00

ahh another day of unproductive studying. it was productive till about 2p.m. when suddenly i felt seasick. like my head was super giddy and spinning around. so i slept for 20 mins and had a game of carrom. i thought i was well again.

but for some strange reason when i started studying again it started. ahhh i must buck up tomorrow.

oh i saw alan yue today. those of you who went to UK would remember him as the guy from UCL. had a mouthful of old chang kee when he tapped my back and waved to me. so embarassing. apparently he's back to train the selected few NPCC cadets for NCO course or something. i think it's quite amazing that he was the head prefect here at VSPB, and president of the SC over at VJ. shows something.

oh remember this photograph of my cousin?

well she's now this =D

well her name's victoria. and believe it or not i had NOTHING to do with my aunt and uncle choosing this name. i dunno why they chose it either. anyway this photograph was taken by my brother today. i still haven't seen her in person =( ahh well sacrifices have to be made now i guess. well hope you guys have had a good holiday yep. cya!

Family 3 + VS130 Dinner.

2006-09-03T22:13:00.000+08:00

hohoho. family 3 was rather fun. the super top dancer right was like. haha it was very fun! partly cause we sat on it for free on friday? hahaha sorry to all you ppl who had to part with six dollars to sit on it. but then again i must say six bucks is quite worth it la. sure you guys enjoyed the ride. =)

i guess everything was good on the whole. apart from the fact that the mini viking is too mini and the lucky draw system was pretty screwed up at first. i guess there was a tad too little people around too, but oh well, the organising comm already made $13,000 or something, so i guess that's quite good.

i had good fun helping to man the ride as well as one of the stations in the amazing race. the poor kids had to transport marbles with chopsticks from station to station. the chinese families had difficulty in doing so, can you imagine how the rest struggled? haha in the end we just let all of them play cheat =X

went home to shower after that and went to VS for the VS130 dinner. the dinner's meant to raise money for the talented but needy Victorians. i sat with the prefects, namely mansoor, shu xie, jsam (the guy who programs my cboard =p), farand, shirley, oops i meant cher li, jafnie, zul, sharaf and justin from MC. had good old fun talking cock. nothing is better than just sitting down and talking serious cock with VS guys.

oh the president was there. but yea i'm not really wowed anymore =X haha in sec one during our ceremonial move as we stood by the red carpet to see him off, he came to us and shook the ushers hands. he came to me to shake my hand. came to me can. not i go to him hor. haha you must be thinking: wah big deal ^_^. you sour grape. haha just kidding.

saw lotsa ex teachers, had a chat with some of them, like mr maran, mrs poon, ms loo. oh. when i was talking to ms loo, i suddenly taught of mr tay, since both of them were once my air rifle teacher in charge. it's sad that mr tay isn't with us anymore. would have loved to chat with him one last time. rest in peace, sir. we all miss you alot. i remember how farand told me how you used to smile and walk into his class, cause you enjoyed teaching his class as much as his class enjoyed learning from you. pity i didn't see you smile much. i'll shoot well. i promise.

i read yesterday's new paper today, the article about the dinner. i wanna quote this small little part of the article.

Said Mr Lim, whose three sons are also VS boys: " It is something about the Victorian spirit. You will bond with each other no matter how long you've not seem them. It is a special bond that doesn't die."

i can totally relate to what he just said. it's like how i met sehsuan, a photographer from the forum, yesterday at the dinner. it was the second time i saw him in person(he didn't know me the first time), and we just chatted as if we knew each other since long long ago. there are still many of such incidents but im tired and lazy so i shall stop here. sorry if my post doesn't make sense to you. VS guys will know what i mean. cheers. nil sine labore.

i'm really tired.

2006-08-30T22:37:00.000+08:00

i just want to shut my eyes and pretend i never existed.

do you even care?

2006-08-27T22:43:00.000+08:00

course not.

this was supposed to be a happy post yesterday, but now it feels like its gonna be a sad one.

eoys are coming. i'm in chem remedial class. thank goodness for it. mrs koh wants us to do last year's o level paper by wednesday, but i' still doing the topical exercises. gotta rush like mad. been going to VS to study. well lotsa funny things happen there, but i'm in no mood to talk about them. oh here's something i did while studying chemical bonding.

tetrahedral structure of diamond using milo cereal

another view -

and my supper for that night

ahh screw it. you know what. just forget it. it's late and i just want to faint and die. goodnight.

a day of mugging.

2006-08-20T22:51:00.000+08:00

i kinda woke up late today. wanted to finish my overdue hw but i guess i didn't really do it in the end. i still have one gong han not compelted. arhhhh.

so i basically finished the rest, and headed down to VS to study. well i was there, followed by matt ho, before naresh and firdaus came back from airport. lucky naresh and firdy are staying in the hostel now. good choice to make before the o levels.

well while studying we realised that the nearest water cooler was a minute's walk away. so we called zhang yang and asked him for drinks. but he had no drinks, so we settled on the vending machine. however, he did bring reinforcements.

and altogether, this is what we got - (including another packet of hello panda that was already in my tummy)

so we continued studying. and no we didn't finish everything you see there, we only took two packs of biscuit from zhang yang since it seemed like he uses them as pillows and sleeps on them (all of them were crushed). matt ho went home for dinner (and came/bladed back later), firdaus went home for dinner, naresh ordered hokkien me for mee. or mee for me. haha -.-

anyway the hokkien mee was so little. so what to do? call for reinforcements again lo.

mcdelivery! though it was a tad late. better late than never.

20 nuggest and 6 mcdippers plus three cokes. i remember eating alot (including taking naresh's share while he was desperately trying to solve the problem i gave him).

matt ho.

_____(insert whatever you want here)

no pic of naresh as he was still trying to figure out that problem. happy studying ppl. start soon, rather start now. or you'll be in deep shit, as deep as mine (if that's even possible).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*serious + omg i dunno how to do face* (i.e. normal face -.-)

d: eh. how to find class mark ar?

m: har?

d: class mark.

m: oh i think you take the upper class boundary minus the lower one and to get the class mark.

d: har really? i thought you just go into 05v13 and look for mark?

m: ...