haven't been posting for a while.

but the week hasn't been particularly noteworthy anyway.

other than what happened on friday.

which i've thought about before, and still continue to think about now.

oh saturday evening was good too.

you can't fail to love some people sometimes.

so there we go. another week goes by in fast-forward mode.

only 23 weeks left.

Two roads diverged,and I-
took the one less taken...

school is the best antidote to anyone who feels sad.

or maybe it's just that i mix around with ncc people.

to celebrate, how about some videos of one of the best ever comedy shows?

honestly these comedians are some of the best you will ever see. particularly because it's all improv.













edit: how about more? a sick one too, for those of you who love it that way.

Two roads diverged,and I-
took the one less taken...

the big "ra vs rp" debate is on again.

people are telling me that i have a right to fail because im in maths ra.

on the other side of the coin is the fact that i'm bottom in class, 11% behind the next highest guy.

and then if that wasn't enough my parents act as some kind of countercurrent multiplier.

i only have to say 5 words, any one of which are "school", "math" or "test" and 50 words get thrown back at me with layers of any negative emotion you might care to think about.

result? not a happy boy.

so if you want me to smile and i don't, now you know.

oh and the meeting next week with mrs lai (during swimming carnival. wow. now hullett has NO free exco members on duty for swim carn. absolutely brilliant timing. apparently the school believes ra-ers are only good at dayindayout mugging, without time to care for things such as an OFFICIAL MAJOR SCHOOL EVENT which mind you is worth 18 points.) is not helping.

grah.

i think i'm becoming disillusioned by these things again.

and i was just about to post something nice and happy too.

Two roads diverged,and I-
took the one less taken...

so thats that.

rugby b division finals today. i think there were at least 800 rafflesians around, possibly even more than 1000.

during the match we basically lived and died, cheered and cried with the rugby team.

unfortunately it didn't quite happen for us.

it ended acs(i) 15 ri 11.

and we conceded the winning try in the last 10 minutes. painful to take really.

at the end of the match it was quite emotional for a while when the school crowded around the rugby boys and cheered them on. some of the rugby boys were crying, and the school was crying with them, and i shed a few tears myself.

why? well it's been 17 years since we last won, that's one. we were 10 minutes away from doing it again.

the rugby boys played their hearts out. i don't think we could have asked for any more from them.

it's just sad that there could only be one winner.

but we have nothing to regret, nothing to be ashamed of. and i guess today marked the rebirth (somewhat) of the spirit which we have seemed to lack in recent years.

rugby is probably the biggest sport in ri. i think sending 16 classes down for the final made that quite clear. and the additional people who came down numbered in the hundreds.

so maybe that's what gets us going. support for something which has been starved of glory for so long.

but although they didn't have any trophy to show for it, they did the school proud today. they earned the respect of the supporters.

good job to all you ruggers.

and it was good to see that there was a healthy respect between the acs(i) and ri students. the cheering for each other and just respecting the other school's space.

and on the way home it was further evidenced.

as i got off at tanah merah there were 2 acs boys as well. one of them walked up to me and congratulated us for a intense match played in good spirit.

i felt rather ashamed that i didn't reciprocate the favour enough really.

oh well so that's the rugby finals. the softball semifinals didn't go too well either - we lost that one too.

maybe the 185th batch of raffles institution isn't fated to deliver sporting excellence.

our b div rugby team was pretty good. we may not have a team like that for years to come.

in 3 b div finals this year, we've won gold only once - in tennis, losing in hockey and rugby. and our 2 losses were close ones.

oh well there's always another year. perhaps not for our batch though.

Two roads diverged,and I-
took the one less taken...

ok today was a nice relaxing day.

ora day was a good way to get out of the more-hectic-than-usual week. things like a session at the tennis court, meeting up with old friends - pity we couldn't chat for too long =( - and of course the dunking where i spent most of my time (in the water for a part of it too). the day in all was quite relaxing and fun i guess. =)

especially for guan lin, who's now 15 years old! happy birthday once again! (last time you dedicated one whole post to my birthday so i guess i should mention you here) ok i've run out of things to say to you (non-random sounding things that is) but it's the thought which counts. =) oh and sorry for re-dunking you. next time when i'm near the water you can push me in. or tell me then i can go jump in myself.

ok while ora day was a nice change of atmosphere and all, i guess it was rather average. (hey i haven't been to previous ora days so i can't really tell) oh wells i still have 2 more years to go for them as a student so we'll see how those go.

and after ora day it was back home for some rest and relaxation (more of the relaxation part with my xbox 360) before doing my work for tuition.

oh well shall take it easy tomorrow too (except there's math cct on monday. damn.)

and i am suffering from a slight cough/sore throat just as rugby finals are around the corner. wonderful.

and i'm under the weird impression that it's late april already.

wishful thinking i guess.

Two roads diverged,and I-
took the one less taken...

i have officially become a citizen of singapore!

(like jianxiong who became one a while back.)

yes, for those who don't know, i was malaysian (explains the surname "tiong") but really i've lived in singapore all my life so it's just a change in the nationality on my ic.

ok you might be able to tell that i didn't rank it really highly on my "highlights of the day" list.

because the work is back. and in style too.

you'll probably see me up until 2-3am today (as per normal i guess. it feels weird going back to sleeping so late.)

chaos litessay mathsta ftw!

oh and rugby squash softball cricket ftw too! good luck guys.

Two roads diverged,and I-
took the one less taken...

it feels so weird going back to something which happened over a month ago (39 days to be exact). but yes i guess i will.

now if you're a maths genius you would have already figured out what day the 39th day before this one was. 100% of my readers, unfortunately, are not.

39 days ago it was...

the 29th of february. =)

now it does seem very late to be doing a follow-up on your birthday (or early, given mine is in another 1400+ days only).

but still my birthday card (which i just received today. no hard feelings.) rocks. =D

i've read it three times already and it never fails to bring a smile to my face each time.

so once again thank you to everyone who was involved in my birthday somehow or other!

Two roads diverged,and I-
took the one less taken...

something just occurred to me.

and i happen to think about it a lot.

people sometimes say to me, "aaron, you should be this and that, and anything else you might care to know about."

well perhaps i should. and then again perhaps i shouldn't.

ever wondered why?

well i guess it's just the world.

because it wasn't meant to be this way.

and when it's the way it is now, sometimes it's better.

it wouldn't have worked out as we thought it would if it wasn't the way it is now.

the world doesn't work in logical, straight-line reason.

the world works in mysterious ways, sometimes for you, sometimes against you.

maybe that's what makes us sad.

that we don't know why things happen the way they do, and think back to the time when we thought we had a choice, or hope it would turn out better, or wish we could turn back time, and suddenly are filled with regret.

well thoughts, hopes and wishes are nice things to hold on to.

albeit being otherwise fated and just a figment of our imagination.

****************

on to a dream i had yesterday now.

i heard before that dreams are somewhat a reflection of what happens in real life.

well i hope this dream has nothing to do with my life.

there were people (my friends from school) staying overnight at some house. there was a big room which everyone could fit in easily, and so everyone decided to sleep there.

well the first night came and passed, and the second morning came.

all was good, and we were ready to start our day.

before we realised that one of us was missing.

we searched the entire house, high and low for him.

but to no avail.

we all wondered what could have happened.

then suddenly, i saw something.

a man had entered our room last night, and killed that missing person.

i didn't know how i knew about it. i guess i just felt it.

we were scared all right.

that day we decided to move on to another house, with an equally big room, strangely enough.

here my soul just seemed to split into two: half of me was doing some work on a computer (in the same house), and the other half had fast-forwarded to the second night.

having realised what had happened the first night, we were all scared of sleeping now. it was as if there was no way to stop this man from entering and murdering someone else, and so we knew that someone would have to die.

we all positioned ourselves such that we thought we could escape him. and then we went off to sleep. i remember i was sleeping behind a pillar, with plenty of people around me. we all reassured each other that we would protect each other.

if possible.

my other half was using the computer at around evening time, with the sky darkening. i felt strangely alone, like there was no one else around me.

and then it happened to my entire soul at once.

both parts of me felt this evil, deadly aura.

the half using the computer didn't dare to use it any longer, and decided to go out to the living room to sit down.

still all alone.

the evil aura seemed to have chased me to the living room. i didn't dare to turn back, but when i did...

then it switched over to the half which was sleeping.

i felt the door to the room open. and the light from outside streamed in.

i couldn't see any man at all. nobody seemed to be there.

but the aura was there, and it floated around the room.

i don't know whether it had spotted me as its victim, but i remember tossing and turning violently...

before waking up and returning to the real world.

there were other more chilling bits to it, but i can't remember them now.

but it was really really frightening.

i was sweating all over when i woke up.

and i believe it was one of my best friends who was killed the first night.

and it felt so real. like i was really going to die.

i've always liked to think about death for some reason.

maybe it makes me more human.

oh well or maybe the dream really doesn't mean anything.

hopefully not. i'm getting a bit too dark for myself anyway.

Two roads diverged,and I-
took the one less taken...

over the last few days i've been very busy setting records (actually more like season bests).

unfortunately they're not at swim carn.

i set a record yesterday.

for the first time this year i did not sleep in any class in school.

this was due to another record - i slept before 12 the previous day.

and then yesterday night i slept before 12 again. setting a record for sleeping before 12 on successive days.

and then today i didn't fall asleep during any of the lessons!

(ok granted today i had pe and 2 lab lessons, in which one rarely ever falls asleep, but still. i only slept during my free period which doesn't count because i always do it anyway. =D)

ok i think you're getting the hang of this.

yes i am going to sleep early again tonight.

it's a welcome relief from the fast-paced (that's the best word to describe it) events of term 1. especially since i was busy for its whole duration with psgm. i think i can safely say it's been by far the busiest term of my ri life.

i remember there were times when i reached home in term 1 at 8, turning on my computer at 8.30 and faced work from all directions.

schoolwork psl cec ncc slo/rl (i hesitate to put this down but i shall; ripb!)

i think there was a point in time when i was just sending and reading emails for half an hour every day to all my organisations, one after another, leaving little time for schoolwork.

but i pulled through. with less than acceptable results, it must be said, but i have long believed that schoolwork is not the only yardstick to measure one's times in school. especially when it comes to finding meaning in school life.

and as you can see from my previous post i did find a lot of it.

ok on the emails bit i remember a very funny event which happened in our psl e-group.

there was a time when there was just a spammage of emails.

like 24 emails on the same subject in 3 hours.

i think the record is like 5 emails in 15 minutes (my public convo with mrs maas about the names of my comm members. ><)

it was fun in a way. of course we gave way to rationality and stopped it, but the flurry which came after the main camp (when everyone was high) was quite heartwarming.

haha it's a bit stagnant now though. the last act shall be the dunking (soon enough i hope) and the after action reviews (aar. isn't it nice how it half-spells my name? =D)

ok shall go off to sleep soon. term 2 hasn't gotten into full swing yet; i'm glad there's still some time for a breather before we go back to normal.

and ryan i swear i shall beat your sleeping time one of these days. even if it means i have to sleep at 9.30. it's good for me anyway. =)

Two roads diverged,and I-
took the one less taken...