in conjunction with the eoys (which i personally think of as a guillotine hanging over our heads) i think a break is in order.

apparently we didn't do too well for lit dramatisation either - a bit of a letdown, but sometimes things don't really go your way.

that's not the reason for not blogging though, so don't worry. not that i won't be sad, of course - it's just the machine-like, almost cruel efficiency we need in these next 3 weeks that needs my attention more.

but i thought as a "final" post, a nice touching song would be... nice.

i really, really, really love this song.

it's beautiful just listening to it.

back in 3 weeks, then. although if i feel bored (unlikely) i might just write a little something.

















I Want You Back - Jackson 5

Uh-huh huh huh huh
Let me tell ya now
Uh-huh

When I had you to myself
I didn't want you around
Those pretty faces always made you
Stand out in a crowd
But someone picked you from the bunch
One glance was all it took
Now it's much too late for me
To take a second look

Oh baby give me one more chance
(show you that I love you)
Won't you please let me
(back in your heart)
Oh darlin' I was blind to let you go
(let you go baby)
But now since I see you in his arms
(I want you back)
Yes I do now
(I want you back)
Ooh ooh baby
(I want you back)
Ya ya ya ya
(I want you back)
Na na na na

Tryin' to live without your love
Is one long sleepless night
Let me show you girl
That I know wrong from right
Every street you walk on
I leave tearstains on the ground
Following the girl
I didn't even want around
Let me tell you now

Oh baby all I need is one more chance
(show you that I love you)
Won't you please let me
(back to your heart)
Oh darlin' I was blind to let you go
(let you go baby)
But now since I see you in his arms

Uh-huh
A buh buh buh buh (2 times)
All I want
A buh buh buh buh
All I need
A buh buh buh buh
All I want
A buh buh buh buh
All I need

(Jermaine):
Oh just one more chance
to show you that I love you
baby (6 times)

(I want you back)

(Jackie):
Forget what happened then
(I want you back)
(Jermaine):
Let me live again

Oh baby I was blind to let you go
But now since I see you in his arms
(I want you back)

(Jackie):
Spare me of this cause
(Jermaine):
Gimme back what I lost

Oh baby I need one more chance ha
I tell ya that I love you
(Jermaine):
Baby
(Michael):
Ohhh (repeat 3x)

(Michael):
I want you back

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

i think i'm fairly incapable (also substitute: inept, amateurish, incompetent, horrendous... the list could go on, but don't forget the suitable complementary preposition) of blogging.

confirmation will come once you exit this sad place.

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

looking back at the two oip trips to hue and changchun in the last month, just made me feel one single thing.



i only wish i had cherished my own experience more.




i still remember when i asked ms chang about going for the oip trips during the apcg youth summit.

and then a few weeks later i was delighted when she said she could put me in either of the two groups (likely to be changchun together, since i went there in 2007).

then, the next week, she said that there was no need for any sec 4s to go for the september ones.

and since i couldn't go for the november ones, i was pretty disappointed.

and now i'm wondering.

from what i've heard everyone had fun overseas. haven't found anyone who disagrees yet.

but it just makes me wonder:

if they, in 10/11 days, can achieve so much, then what exactly did i, in 14 days, gain?

why was i relieved that our trip to changchun had been delayed one day?
why was i apprehensive in interacting with my chinese counterparts?
why was i seemingly untouched when we had to leave changchun for singapore?
why was i not committed to overseeing the programme when they came over?

why am i still unable to fully recall, make sense of and articulate the entire experience?

and why am in not able to answer any of these questions satisfactorily?

i won't deny that for me, and our group, going to changchun was fantastic.

but what was it fantastic for? more of the right or the wrong reasons?

...





oh well. on a lighter note now!

if you're reading this blog...

welcome back nitya and chngyan! haha didn't know you went to changchun!

haha heard about plenty of interesting experiences too.

the heartbreaker advice seemed to be pretty handy though. =)

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

my parents said they do read my blog - horror of horrors. this also shows you the intelligence (or lack thereof) of putting your blog address in your msn personal message 24/7, and having your mother as a contact.

but since they do read my blog, perhaps it's time i said something, to them.

if you're an environmentalist, humanitarian or just anybody with a heart and a bit of common sense, i should think you would agree with what i'm saying.

the thing is that i don't believe i have to say this to my parents.




_____________________________________________________________






i don't really understand why we need to waste resources the way we're doing now.

one clear example is the amount of food we buy.

to me, i don't really see the point in buying 5 packs of rice for 4 people (which we can barely finish), a large bowl of soup (which, on a really taxing, no-lunch day, we might just be able to finish) and to top it off, adding some dessert or other food, which invariably has to be chucked into the fridge.

oh, and about the fridge. some of the food in the fridge have been around for weeks. months, even. and what do we do at the end of it? throw half of it away, having eaten half of it when we actually realised that we should not waste it a few weeks ago.

that doesn't come around too often, by the way. our microwave and toaster seem to be terribly underused.

i don't understand why our fridge has to be filled to the brim 90% of the time, the other 10% being the transitive time between meals and shopping trips. isn't it much better to have a spacious fridge where we can actually see the back of the drawers and can rummage around freely without any fear of knocking over or spilling something with just a slight twitch?

fine, maybe we'll not focus on the fridge anymore.

back to the meal then. we actually didn't include the fruits which you so often advise us to have in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

how much of those do you think we can have without (trying to) dump some dinner into our 2 packed fridges?

more than a few things irk me about this whole issue.

for one, we waste hundreds of dollars every year buying all these unnecessary items - not including things such as clothes, household items which we buy regularly, but use rarely.

it's especially bad when it comes to food.

imagine how many hungry children around the world you could have fed if you had donated the money to charity, or better yet, donated the actual food items to these causes.

it also doesn't help that i'm the one who, most of the time, plays "hungry scavenger" on weekends in order to not waste the food which may seem to us like nothing more than a daily necessity, but yet, to the millions of famished across africa and parts of latin america and asia, is a gift from heaven.

if i didn't do all this, we might as well have donated our rubbish bins to these poor people.

"that's fine." you might say.

but NO. our rubbish bins do not go anywhere near solving famine.

instead, they go to incinerators and landfills, taking up vital energy and resources to dispose of things which really could have been put to better use somewhere else, putting ever more strain on the frail back of mother nature.

the last, and perhaps the point i find most incredulous, is that you go back on your word, time and time again.

you tell me and my brother not to waste money, because "we don't know how hard it is to earn it" and "there's no point buying things we don't need", among many others.

we accept that. so we don't spend excessively, unless it's absolutely necessary, or on rare occasions which call for such celebrations.

but let's put these words in a different light.

granted, "we don't know how hard it is to earn it", and you do know - and i don't doubt it, having scrimped and saved and grown up from poor family backgrounds to continuously provide for us. i appreciate that, really.

but you say "there's no point buying things we don't need" - so why do you do the exact opposite of what you preach?

we don't need to consume anywhere near upwards of 3,000 calories a day, because we don't expend that much energy (leave that to top-draw athletes like michael phelps), and because other people need it more.

just look at the 80-20 principle, and you'll know what i mean.

if we could even reduce this to a modest 75-25 or even 70-30 in the next 10-20 years, think about how many people will be so much better-off.

does the 80-20 principle not demonstrate the developed world's selfishness and greed? and simply because we arguably live in the 20% who siphon 80% of the world's food for themselves - does that justify our desire for more to eat?

some people out there are nothing more than a pile of bones, for crying out loud.



yet we over here need to deal with obesity and related diseases? why?

the entire situation, and what you said, just smacks of hypocrisy.

i'm sorry if it's harsh, but there is no way, and no point, to soften the blow.

and if you thought that photo was familiar, here's why.



it almost sounds typical of what we might do. and that's the truly scary part.

perhaps after all this, the main point really is that we're wasting resources.

what the world has to offer us is limited, but yet what we want is unlimited.

the thing is that i don't really want to live in a world where we can no longer live life the way we used to - comfortably.

for once, i would like to live without the worry of an unsustainable future.

call it selfish, but perhpas being the older generation, you might not really see what is in store for the earth in the next century, and you might not really care, because you don't really need to.

but i do. and the world is, slowly, perhaps even not at all - but eventually it must.

so let it stop. even the smallest step is a step nonetheless in the right direction.





_____________________________________________________________






to end off, here's a video of a speech given by a girl of only 12.

this is the kind of people the world needs more.

but you just have to wonder whether the leaders of the world present were really listening to what she said, whether the applause was mechanic and instinctive, whether the serious looks were merely facades for dismissive ones.

but still, it's a truly remarkable and impactful speech.



here's some food for thought:

this speech by Severn Suzuki was delivered in 1992.

it's been 16 years since it was heard.

but has anything really changed?

don't waste this food for thought at all costs. if not, we will pay the true costs.

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

poetry dmp happened last week (on 11 sep, of all days) and this week (18 sep).

and i was really glad that i took it, even if it took away 2 thursday afternoons and many people decided not to go for it.

it proved to be the motivation, but more importantly, the spark which i needed to start writing again, after a hiatus of months, only writing sporadically for school submissions and all.

and it helped me write poems like this.

this is dedicated to all rafflesian runners, and by that i don't just mean the rugby, cross-country or athletics people -

but simply anybody who runs and feels that sense of carefree-ness and peacefulness as you take both your mind and body to a higher place.

it may not be the best piece of literature you'll see, but it was pretty heartfelt.

and sometimes that's all that really matters.




Intangible

The Raffles field -
A vast expanse of
Green plastic blades
Black rubber bits
White painted lines
Stretching beyond
The limits of the human mind.

As the wind gently caresses my back,
Whispering in my ear,
Beckoning for me to follow,
I look again at the space
Between myself and the endless horizon.
And it is only then that I realise
As I start to run
Limitlessly, tirelessly -

This, is where men can fly.
This, is where my spirit belongs.
This, is where I call home.
This,
Is freedom.




and it really is something intangible.

spirit.
running.
freedom.

never choose between any one of them.

choose all three.

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

first answer's usually the most telling. so that's what i wrote.

does it show something about me that i took 1 hour to do this?

1. shanzhi, jianxiong.
2. zongyi.
3. aaron goh, charles. =)
4. theodore and kengchee!
5. jeremy tan.
6. nicchee.
7. isaac chay.
8. yuanjun, juanmin.
9. daniel chander and shayne.
10. isaac chay.
11. benyong and boontiong.
12. amanda.
13. biquan. =)
14. ernest wong / joho! xD
15. ernest again.
16. juan!
17. nicchee.
18. daniel tay?
19. aaron goh.
20. shoujian.
21. junyong! (oh no i'm gonna get owned)
22. erm.
23. shanzhi.
24. bryan by that picture.
25. isaac chay.
26. erm... clement tan? (a case of damned if i do, damned if i don't.)
27. theodore.
28. ZONGYI. xD
29. chrisanda popped up first! but all of you would make good answers too. =)
30. haha i'd love to see your reactions when you see what you're the answer to.

oh man that was pretty tough. and to be honest there's more than one answer to every question.

haha but at last my curious mind has been relieved.

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

apcg outing!

before that i actually had a camp (the last one i'll ever have in ri) and a maths cct (which i passed. barely. but i think you've heard enough of me rambling about lousy academics in previous posts already) so it was nice to end the week with a relaxing, fun outing.

well it nearly proved to be a bit of a downer. if my sandals hadn't given way about 100m before i reached j8 (and went for the outing at east coast park) i might just have went through the outing with a pair of broken sandals. ><

and the rush to buy a pair of sandals also allowed me to "accessorise my ash ketchum look", with my apcg cap and a miniature pikachu (which sits on my desk currently). xD

and once we got to the beach it was all fun!

everyone still remembers the yuanjun joke, how nice of them.

yay for beach volleyball and beach soccer and just walking about in the waves. but my exertions at camp and at cct meant i was unable to go cycling. as evidenced by my 30-minute nap while everyone was away at changi. =(

and while we're at beach volleyball, it seems like all the funniest things in the entire week happened at the apcg outing. more specifically at beach volleyball.

what joy.

what happened after dinner was the most eventful though.

well during dinner at burger king we saw these crown things, and so being the thick-skinned boys we are, 5 of us asked for them (imagine a 16 year-old boy asking for what looked more appropriate for a happy meal) and of course, we had to put them on in all sorts of weird styles during dinner.

haha and amanda and jeanhui with truth or truth also! =D

oh oh but the =( part of the outing (which happened when nobody else was around, thank goodness) happened when i was leaving for home.

being in a rush to get to the car, i was walking really hurriedly across the east coast carpark.

FLASHBACK: 2 january 2007. secondary 3 orientation. first day of school. around 12pm.

having completed a station game at the newly refurbished tennis courts, i was walking through the doors closest to the design centre through the basketball court, when all of a sudden -

my right foot felt no ground beneath it. and it plonked straight into the coverless drain. the shin hit the covered drain in front of it (oh, the irony of it all) and subsequently got even more injured.

in fact that was the only injury spot. given that i wisely chose not to walk any further after literally walking into the drain, thus not putting my ankle or the rest of my right leg in any danger. (or rather, i couldn't really move anything because i was in a lot of pain. it ain't a nice feeling to be walking straight into 50cm-deep drains without prior knowledge.)

i believe i saw the white stuff inside (and i am ashamed to say that as a bio ra student, i have never bothered to check it out.) which was a bit unnerving. plus i also went into a bit of shock/delirium. just ever so slightly. not enough to transform into our favourite "look at me and my mood-swings suan your ass off you" chinese teacher.

FLASHBACK TO PRESENT. apcg outing. 5 september 2008. 9pm.

what happened next, not many people know, but unless you didn't bother reading what was above, you might be able to guess.

at least the drain wasn't so high this time (at most 30cm?), but because i fell forward onto the covered drain (MY MY LOOK AT THOSE SIMILARITIES/IRONIES) i ended up giving my left foot a few more scratches than it should have had.

the gash on my left toe was particularly unsightly.

and another difference was that this time nobody was around to help me (although i could swear i felt eyes trained on me from behind). so after sitting there for about 30 seconds i had to get up myself and hobble to my parents' car. with 3 separate injuries to my left leg and a shaken-up right hand.

and then there was still enough time to say hi to charles' parents on the way.

all in all it wasn't as bad as the 2007 injury thank goodness, but it did prevent me from doing any activity involving my legs (other than walking) for 1 week. i tell you, it was highly tempting to just whack a soccer ball when it came within range, but because i'm left-side dominant (right-brained --> left hand, left leg) and i tend to toe-poke the ball a lot, it would have been highly unwise (and bloody) if i didn't stop myself in time.

but now i'm fine! 1 week was all it took (compared to about 4-6 weeks for the massive wound the size of 2 ri badges and going pretty deep. never really measured that, so don't ask.) to recover.

and that ends the massive backlog of blogging!

looking forward to dmp. =) had the two courses i chose out of my own free will today, and i guess the english one with mrs nathan proved to be a throwback to the good old days of sec 3 english.

must improve on my long vowel pronunciation (meeeeeeeeeeeeeekly!) though. ><

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

ok here's the other interesting bits of the mckk trip!

opening ceremony and cultural exhibition, 25/8:
this was one of the things we weren't exactly looking forward to, given that we had scrapped and came up with our finished product on sunday, before realising we should spice up our booth with some videos and had to rush down to an internet cafe in town because youtube was blocked by the malaysian moe. but in the end it worked out all right!

i think i quite like doing this kind of stuff. i explained things about singapore over and over again until i needed a drink (of tea. more on that later), which is pretty good, given that i've been a malaysian for more than 90% of my life.


our cultural exhibition. sorry for the poor quality of photos - i took everything using my lousy 3.2mp phone camera.

oh and here's something i couldn't resist posting. (bryan, if you're reading i'm sorry, but i couldn't help myself)


bryan's look is classic. OMG. i just couldn't resist laughing whenever i saw this picture for some reason.

ok moving right along before i get owned for posting that picture.

homestay programme, 27/8-29/8:
I felt a strange charm about the Malaysian way of life in the villages – it is hard to explain in words, but I know I had grown emotionally attached to my foster mother, even though the homestay had only been for 2 days. Seeing the joy on their faces as they welcomed us, and the sadness in their eyes as they waved goodbye, welcoming us back to their home anytime, I couldn’t help but feel sad as well that we were leaving them.
(that was taken from my formal reflection)

and yes although the living conditions aren't necessarily as good as singapore's, it was still a really homely place. the cats in the house were nice, but even nicer was aunty daabaayah, my foster mother! she's a really wonderful lady, and she has my number so we can keep in touch! =)

oh the place we went to for the homestay was ulu kenas. and we were based in the ulu kenas primary school (sekolah kesebangsa'an ulu kenas. yay for my malay.)


the area around ulu kenas, complete with morning fog.


the (seemingly) endless road leading to and from ulu kenas! o.0


aunty daabaayah with hassan, fauzan and me.


cultural exhibition and merdeka celebrations, 30/8:
ok this was the real crunch time. we only finalised our performance 2 hours before the actual thing, and our slides were only completed 10 minutes beforehand (according to abhinav). it's times like that which really leave you feeling a little dumbfounded and wanting to give up, but i guess my experience in getting stressed (look no further than my white hair) paid off.

and brian mcknight's "win" helped too.

it truly is rather inspirational for those willing to be inspired. that's all i'll say.

and in the end, with help from lame jokes such as:

"which is more talkative, bread or coffee?"
"which MRT station used to be a TV star?"

we did it. with a few pokes here and there at singapore's non-existent "dominant culture", or rather things such as singlish and kiasuism.

and afterwards was the celebration of national day in malaysia!

being 90% malaysian i decided to take up a malaysian flag and wave it frantically as national songs were being belted out on stage on the rugby field.

and there were fireworks right in school exploding right over our heads! cool. singapore might want to consider having something like that in schools such as the oldest one in the land.


fireworks.


and again. given the 2 second lag my phone camera has, managing to get something like this feels like an achievement actually.



ok now time for random pictures!


spectacular fail at taking an emo picture from my apartment.


trying to be artistic yet again. this is at the mosque near the palace.


ex-president of india, dr. a. p. j. abdul kalam in the house. and getting mobbed. i tried to take his picture but once again failed.


in the end this was the only picture i got of him. what a fail.


zulikhwan! imba organiser! somehow reminds us of sadikin! (according to stitch)


syafiq! participant and good friend! =)


rezza! another good friend (and your shirt is on the way!)


aiman! the kangjie lookalike, again according to stitch.


syafiq (coco)! named as such because his father works at nestle. =D


the interior of changi airport's spanking new terminal 3.


it is rather beautiful, even if currently rather underused.


attempting one last time to take a nice looking photo.


ok so that's finally everything about mckk out of the system! next on the list: apcg outing! and that was really eventful too, so stay tuned. =)

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

ok mckk reflection time, as promised, although slightly later than originally planned.

it's hard to reflect when you also need to study for eoys.

and mr teo, if you're reading this by any chance, you can consider this set of posts a reflection. ^^



saturday, 23/8:

we left for mckk, with our two hastily done cultural posters in hand. since singapore didn't really have a dominant national culture (if we did decide to say it we might just get blasted for posting hurtful remarks about singapore's multiracial society) we figured it would be best to talk about things such as singapore's scenery, or if we wanted to talk about the races at all, all 4 at the same time.

resulting in 2 posters, lots of paper, even more colours, and few words.

but other than our fretting over our cultural exhibit and, at that point, a non-existent cultural performance, everything was going very smoothly indeed.

so after a pretty uneventful first morning (and spending half of the travelling time from penang airport to mckk talking to abhi about rafflesian spotlight stuff - hope you haven't forgotten what we said, abhi) we eventually reached the college at around noon.

the first thing which struck me was the location of the college. it seemed to be located just away from the centre of a sleepy little town called kuala kangsar, a departure from singapore's hustle and bustle, but it gave the place a feel of serenity and peace, which of course was soothing to the 4 minds so well drilled in singapore's stressful and always-on-the-go way of life and school.

the next thing was of course the size of the campus. i believe it's about 2 times the size of ri's campus, although a good chunk of it seems to be boarding. still it was pretty huge, and the school tour on monday would certainly verify that.

but the main question on my mind was where we were going to stay. not surprising, since the basketballers had gone on at length about the living conditions of the dormitories, and their stories, while colourful, left a few niggling doubts in my mind.

haha but all those were dispelled once we entered our living quarters.

our apartment was sparsely furnished, yes, but better than the scene i had imagined given the b-ballers' words of encouragement. anyway it was a good experience, since my parents had always talked about how living conditions were bad in their time and how they needed to strive to get to where we are now - i think i fairly took a few steps back in going through what they experienced.

for one there were squatting toilets only (which resulted in an indescribable feeling every time i stood up again. i believe my legs became slightly stronger after this trip. =D) and there was no shower head in the bathroom - just good old-fashioned buckets of cold water. refreshing indeed.

still, i'm not complaining. anyway i take colder baths than the rest of my family so it's not too much of a change.

and to ryan, elias and weekuang, thanks for your words of wisdom, but i'm afraid they weren't too useful this time around. xD

there was one other thing we hadn't yet experienced about this apartment - but we soon did.

august is the time where rain cascades down on malaysia/singapore like ri teachers dumping homework on students. it just keeps coming every day.

and so it did, big time in kuala kangsar. and halfway through this rainstorm (and i swear this has nothing to do with my being in hullett) we experienced a blackout.

so basically we were shrouded in darkness for about half an hour (before we went out for dinner) but the other half of the school was still lit, because the palace is on that side of the town and so naturally they don't have as many blackouts (read: better power line) over there.

haha but it was rather fun using candles in the apartment to get around. reminds me of my old flat in bedok reservoir where we used the same candles when it went dark.

but luckily enough the power came back after we returned from dinner (treated by mr fairuz at the rest house in kuala kangsar), so we could sleep in peace! (not that we need lights to sleep but still it feels more secure)


the blackout and the candle we used in the living room.



sunday, 24/8:

today was when the international participants were supposed to come in, but they would only arrive in the afternoon, so we had the morning to ourselves.

oh i nearly forgot to mention carrey hall. it's the oldest building in the school (it's an original, which means 103 years old) and they have a really special system, where about 15 students are chosen every night to eat on a raised platform Western-style, with cutlery and chairs and all. the rest eat with their hands at normal tables.

we had the luxury of eating there twice, and we were seated on that raised platform. haha a little scary, even though none of the students were around.

so after breakfast it was off to the town for some sightseeing!

kuala kangsar is the royal town, which means a really important sultan calls it home, and so none of the buildings in town can exceed the height of his palace (4 storeys). which might explain why it felt so different from singapore, where if you don't see a building more than 4 storeys within 500m, someone will probably feel compelled to build something there.

the sunday market in town is really big! a few streets long and all kinds of things on sale (from food to clothes to accessories - you name it) and a bit like a pasar malam.


the sunday market.

nothing interesting really happened until the afternoon, where the participants started to come in - as always we weren't really very familiar at all with any of them and so stuck together in a singapore group for quite some time - and we got to know our apartment- and room-mates! i had 11 people in my 3-room apartment, and 4 in my room, all of different nationalities.

after interacting with them in the afternoon, it was time for dinner, a welcome briefing and icebreaking games!

shan't say too much about anything except the icebreaking games, that's where the fun was all at. =D

the first "game" we had was to draw our own face and write one characteristic about ourselves. and this was also the time i realised i can draw faces using more than 3 strokes! (yes juan! this is a major improvement!) xD

haha it still looks rather unprofessional though. but given my history of drawing my way to a near-fail, i'd say it's a pretty good effort, no?

the other game was a mass playing of musical chairs! they would remove 5-10 chairs every round so it was a mad scramble for the participants! abhi went out after 3 rounds, and i followed suit after the next round. =(

but rashidi, a.k.a stitch (this was also the first time i knew about his nickname) and syafiq a.k.a coco stayed in pretty long (last 6 people in the game)!

unfortunately they both lost and a girl won. how magnanimous of the gentlemen.

ok i'm starting to write rather incoherently so i'd better wrap up for the first two days!

i'll be picking out main events from now on so it's less taxing for me and for you. yay getting there! =D

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

OMG I SO NEED TO UPDATE.















and so i will!

in chronological order, starting from thursday night (21/8) where things started getting interesting until friday night (the next post will cover the summit).

ok reflection time.



thursday (21/8):

thursday was really pretty stressful! had to start clearing all of my frontlog of homework so i could be a little more relaxed during the malay college youth development summit (mcyds) organised by malay college kuala kangsar (mckk).

but still i managed to find time to go watch what i expected to be the highlight of the night... the sec 3 drama challenge!

unfortunately, it didn't really live up to my expectations.

while not being a fantastic actor myself, having the outside eye and looking in on these productions as half-audience, half-critic allowed me to see what exactly went wrong in the plays.

for me, some basics of acting weren't observed, shockingly. things like voice projection and clarity, not turning your back on the audience (unless the situation absolutely requires it), and the delivery of lines was rather substandard.

the delivery of lines was significantly bad. some people weren't audible or clear enough, some just plowed through their lines as though they wanted to finish their job and get off-stage, and even when the delivery was ok, it wasn't milked for all it was worth with suitable pauses and intonation.

i don't even know whether some of the performances constituted a parody.

i did expect a good show from it (as did the secondary 4s who went for it, i'm sure) but i left feeling rather disappointed. and the teachers didn't look impressed.

the sec 3 batch seems to be less thoughtful and thought-provoking when inducing their laughter. easily a sizable chunk of the jokes had sexual innuendos to them, which is a good way to get a laugh, and everybody is entitled to use them, but it really was over-employed, to the extent i felt rather turned off by all of it.

steadily it became a chore for me to sit through it (and ms johnson was none too impressed either, especially with joshua's little filler, which i guess was the only way he could really get the atmosphere going again).

of course i'm not saying that all of them were rubbish. the top 2 plays were not too bad (nice use of the cast, good ideas that could have been taken further) and i guess it was a good reward for the effort they had put in. especially macbluff, whose group i saw almost every day in the week leading up to the performance, hard at rehearsing and refining.

but something which really hit home to me was that if this is the standard of the supposedly top 5 groups in secondary 3, what's the standard of the rest?

and where was the support from the sec 3 lit students? the lt was half-full, and even then i think a good number were acting later on.

it makes me wonder whether the beauty of literature, of prose, poetry and play have been lost somewhat on the sec 3 batch.

so anyway that was parody night.

and after that was something absolutely massive - my showcase portfolio.

up to that night i had done 2 pieces of reflection, and each one had taken me about 2-3 hours. i wanted to do 9, and i only had (given no sleep) 8 hours to complete 7 more.

all the more i felt parody night was a bit of a letdown, although i must say i did develop a more critical appreciation of drama.

but laments aside, i also had many other pieces of work to finish - primarily because i chose to complete them before i went to mckk, not after.

and so came a night of little sleep (eventually i dozed off for 2 hours, waking up very fortuitously at 4 and leaving me some time to scramble and finish some work), just sitting through the night and typing away at the keyboard.

and then came friday morning, when everything started to fall apart.



friday (22/8):

before i start, although you may point out that friday should have started 2 paragraphs ago, my showcase portfolio took way longer than a morning to complete. it really is a big thing not just to me, but almost all students. which would mean a sleepless night or two for most of them. ><

firstly, i barely remembered to bring my showcase portfolio file (since i had promised ms kuang i would hand it in that day, if i forgot i would have been skinned alive) and other files to submit. close shave, that one.

then, after coming to school, i realised something absolutely horrible -

i had left my worksheets and papers at home (in it were buried chem notes for the oba i was to take later that day, and some homework), and left my handphone in the car.

what a time for a double whammy.

it didn't help that the day was jam-packed (careers forum took up the whole afternoon, which would have otherwise majorly aided my predicament), even by some things non-academic (li jiawei was playing zhang yining for another guaranteed medal during recess).

and because i didn't complete all my work, i had to spend recess in the library, chionging my showcase portfolio and watching bits of the match.

in the end, though, the match gave me some kind of an excuse to be late (when i actually took the time to finish up the portfolio), so that was another close shave.

at this point, you may have noticed that i've talked about my showcase portfolio a lot, and that i was really focused on completing it.

well i am really proud of what i've done, and the lengths i went to in order to complete it. in the end i exceeded the requirements, and i easily could have barely met them, but that would not be a complete picture of what i did, especially in this last year. it's really been a blast.

...

well being without a phone for that day made me scramble to sort out my mess (probably caused due to stress and lack of sleep), and in the end i had to stay in school until 7.30 to file all the stuff and organise my homework and dump it into the correct places.

and i hadn't even started packing or doing my testimonial write-up.

but thanks to some new-found efficiency (which i didn't have the previous night/that morning) it was all done by 12.30! yay me =D

and then on saturday it would be off to malaysia for mckk! but that's for another post! =D

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