On the Neptune ;

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

~ 8/20/2008 11:42:00 PM ~

A couple of days back, 16th Alpha and Beta HC had their first combined non-sports function of Mexican food and Piñata whacking games. And then I learnt one thing. What is the phrase? Over dependence of technology. Yeah, that is right, because within less than two hours, the stove which was supposed to heat up the cheese began a strike. But this has nothing to do with the working class. What is more, the can opener has sacrificed itself for the greater good. I could not remember what we did to open the last can of cheese. Scissors, long knife were used to saw and cut the lid. Eventually, we screwed up the lid and rescued the cheese. I think it was Phay Key’s effort.

Tiong Wei has got to leave half-way for the Outward Bound India interview. Unfortunately, he could not remember the venue, and was looking everywhere for Miss Ang. I helped to call my P.E. teacher but no one was on the other end. Hence we knocked on the door of the P.E. Department but it was to no avail. We checked out the Leadership Centre, and it was confirmed that she was there, but Tiong Wei’s stuff was in the HC room…

The cleaning up was quite swift. I do not wish to describe the procedure, which could possibly be: bending down, using fingers to grasp the litter, straightening up and throwing the litter into the bin. Anyway, we all eventually went back to the HC room and snapped photos and most of the Alpha and Beta went to the KFC near Bedok Interchange together. And most of us ordered food. Right, Theen Yew? xD. Bernard seemed to be very fascinated by a chao da portion of his fries. He did not leave it along but put it into his mouth. We stared while he was chewing the seemingly enjoyable chao da. That was really funny. I bid adios to the rest at 9:00 PM and took the bus with Crystal. My maths tutorial was waiting for me.

And here came Friday, on which I had my TMUN from 3:30 PM to 6:00 PM. I admit that, this particular Friday was seriously a tiring day. I have nodded off before GP lesson, and rushed to the lesson venue, dazed, without realising that I had left my TMUN material in the HC room. So I have got to return and fetch it. I was supposed to report at 3:15 PM for TMUN. But I really did not intend to miss half of the GP lesson because Ms Thangam was explaining comprehension skills. Hence I left at about 3:30 PM, and within my expectation, the TMUN has not started. Schedules can never be put into reality.

So I was in the history room, being a “delegate of Myanmar” who was supposed to involve in a debate of Third World Debt. Jun Yang came a bit later and hence the “delegate of Afghanistan” joined me. During the debate, we presented two facial expressions alternately: sian look, and tensed look. Sian while we were listening to the “Russian’s” sarcasm towards the “American”, and Miss US’s rebuttal. Tensed when we were called. Jun Yang was making an attempt to draw a link between drug trade and debt, and I was caught off guard when my name was called, as I was reading a note passed by “Japan”. So I said something that seemed to make sense and quickly sat down. Soon all of us proceed to LT2 to tackle an “Iran Oil Crisis”. Since “delegates of Myanmar” present were only Fangxiong and Fangxiong, I was in a disadvantage comparing with many other “countries”. “President Bush” was beating about the bush as usual, and there were also Russian’s splendid rebuttal and sarcasm as always. Jun Yang got a point. They kept repeating themselves. Hence I dozed off when Friday’s TMUN session approached to the end.

The second day was a replica of the first day in terms of interesting level. I was enjoying myself in reading the Lord of the Rings, and was wondering how exactly Gandalf lifted the curse on King Théoden, the Lord of the Mark. I took my leave at 12:00 PM due to official excuse, and inhaling hungrily the cool air of that rainy day.

Yesterday there was P.E. I took that good opportunity to go to gym and had a very short training. Jun Xiang and Siva were there as well. Siva was concentrating on the super heavy dumbbells and vowed to lift them up. Jun Xiang was focusing on the stomach muscles’ training. I was following my regular training procedure. And then we started talking about Bedok Gym and the machines there, and then Jun Xiang asked me when I intend to go there, and then there was a recalling of timetables and there was no matching of time slots. Then off we went.

Whoa, it is too much for today. Time to grab shut-eyes. Adios.

Friday, August 01, 2008

~ 8/01/2008 09:31:00 PM ~

Memories worthwhile to recollect

I finally got rid of the hardship of the E-Learning Week this week. But the ramifications prolonged. Gravitation assignment was an example. More than half of the class reported that they have not completed it, and complained how much work we needed to do during the cyber-week. The teacher gave in and postponed the deadline.

And so began the Napfa Test. Our class was to complete 2.4k first. I did not feel right when we started running. My legs felt as weak as jelly, and I had to be much focused in order to maintain my pace. Usually I need not much effort to cover the first two circuits. But to the heck with the hunch, I pressed on, and I got it over and done with.

Thanks to Napfa, a tutorial was cancelled on Thursday. And the Test lasted for about two hours. The items themselves were not exhausting, but the process of queuing did. Especially for the Pull-ups Station. Haggy sounded very bored when he learnt that even our class had not taken the test. “Oh, it’s a long queue.” He sighed. Somehow I pictured a situation whereby people were queuing in the M1 shop to pay their bills or ask for information. Five, that was all I could do. Maximum six so far. I know it is very few, but last year I could only swung two. Not did two, but swung two. And because of my age, I need to re-take the test of broad jump. I jumped as far as what I did last year, but, oops, there was one problem: I had another birthday.

I was not paying attention at all during this week’s Physics Lectures. And I do have sound reasons. Okay, maybe the teacher was recapping old topics, maybe my mind was preoccupied with PW file submission, but most importantly, let me phrase it this way. Sometimes I do not understand all those offspring of Anglo-Saxons or Byzantines is because of their speed of speaking as well as their accent. But curiously, this Physics teacher sounds like none of them but I still do not understand what he is talking about. Talk slowly and do not mumbling lah, you are in the lecture theatre, not debate team.

And finally, I reiterate that really am delighted that the New Berlin Wall had collapsed. Okay, perhaps Mr Hasim can comment if this comparison is appropriate. He witnesses the history happened after all, as Liew Xun has mentioned. But maybe you have realised the idea that I was trying to convey behind the lifting of the Iron Curtain. Okay, okay, no more history. I am just ecstatic since I can picture the playing basketball and going gym scene again which happened at the start of year during the Orientation II period. Do not forget that, dude, okay? And this is such a good memory that I can never forget. That is why I felt so lost during the non-nuclear Cold War. And yeah, now I am just glad.

When you read TIME in which journalists enjoy twisting sentences in such a way that nothing is logical, your last paragraph is just not going to make all the sense, but there are some after all.