On the Neptune ;

Sunday, June 29, 2008

~ 6/29/2008 09:10:00 PM ~

We were mugging for JCT.

The Alpha Warrior Icon.

Trinity and Teck Kian were playing with the sparklers.

So concluded the June Common Test. I did well in Mathematics Test, and I was really in a good mood on Friday. I had a House Committee meeting, which followed by having lunch with Ben. I took my leave at around 1 PM and went back to watch Transformers again. It still gave me the splendid sensation, and certain scenes were still incredibly hilarious. At about 5 PM, I left for gym which was not far from the Bedok Swimming Pool. It felt brilliant to train after not having any exercise for more than one whole week. And it did have some effect, because after one hour my muscles were all bulged. But I knew it would not take more than a few hours for the muscles to return to their initial states, unless I train everyday. But I did not have the American time. So be it. I went back and watched a Hitchcock movie Dial for Murder. Hitchcock was one of the most successful directors in the film history and his movies were famous for suspends created.

Junior Treat Senior (JTS) Day was on Saturday. We were told to meet in school at 12:30 PM. I got up at 10:00 AM. Since I did not have many things to do on that day, I went to school straight away and waited at the stage. I brought a book so I would kill the time. I met Theen Yew soon, and we went to the school gate to meet Adrian. When we reached Pasir Ris Park, we had five people: Theen Yew, Adrian, Crystal, Tiong Wei and me. We prepared the first activity by pumping sea water into balloons at the beach. I was tanned during the process, and I wore a sleeveless T-shirt.

The Ten united at 4:00 PM, and we started to take a glance at each other’s presents for the seniors.

Here came the seniors. Our star Trinity Teo Jia Wei also came. We thought he could only come after dinner. But it was wonderful that he could join us earlier. Now, we were walking towards them. The path was narrow. The 16th was in one line. The 15th was gathered in a group. We tried to greet them, but they did not stop when the two groups of people met. They marched pass us and continued walking. Perplexed, we spun around and noticed that they had switched their House Committee jerseys with each other. For example, Annabelle was wearing Trinity’s jersey. “Trinity is smart today.” Annabelle declared later. But no matter what the prank was, we were half way through the first game ten minutes later. And half of the balloon burst even before the game because the seniors took them to play around. The captain water ball (“It sounds damn wrong eh!” Trinity chuckled) did not seem to work out, the evidence was that I, a defender, was still chatting with the captain Ashwin when the game had continued for ten minutes and had nothing else to do. Forget it, now came the water bomb attack, and we ran out of ammunition in 15 seconds.

Trinity left after the activities. Zul joined us with her new hair cut. We changed before dinning and we led the seniors to a restaurant near the beach. It was a low wooden building. A combination of pub and café. Everyone dined in the open. At about 7:00 PM the restaurant turned from premises of tranquility into a domain of cacophony, especially when there was a couple who got married in a bizarre way in the restaurant adjacent to ours. They arrived by a motorboat, and the band performed from afternoon to 10:00 PM at night. But that was the minor episode that I cared about, because Ms Thangam had come. All of us stood up, and she quickly gestured us to sit down. There were naughty grins on our faces. Theen Yew and I left when they were still eating. According to the plan, we were supposed to pretend to leave in order to prepare for them the surprise.

It was drizzling. And we feared that a heavy rain awaited us. So we quickly abandoned to have the surprise on the beach and switched to the wet weather plan. We transported the sands under a shelter and started drawing the Alpha Warrior Icon. It was hot in the shelter as wind could not reach here. And out of desperation and anxiety, we perspired profusely. Large drops of sweat trickled down, blurred my sight. We continued working on the Icon. I tried to make the Icon perfect. Theen Yew informed me that it had stopped raining. But both of us did not regret, because the shelter was actually a better place than the windy beach. The candles that we lit around the Icon could have gone out very easily there. Theen Yew also used a Chinese proverb which made me chuckle. A fine horse does not eat the grass behind it. That was the spirit.

But the thing followed was frustrating. Theen Yew rejoined the dinner while I had to wait under the shelter. This was not the plan. Aren’t both of us supposed to stay? I was really upset and bored. And what would the seniors say about my sudden departure? Only I “left”, and Theen Yew returned. I remained at the place for a damn one hour in solitude, with the candles in the darkness, walking around the Icon again and again. I worked on the Icon to kill time. But it did not work. It was almost perfect already. I chatted with my parents over the mobile so I would not bore to death. But since my mobile was running out of battery, the conversation was adjourned very soon. Signed, I stared at the flickering candle lights. Shi Yan and Krystal happened to walk pass, and I talked with them for a short well. They told me that the seniors thought that I had left. It seemed that our plan had withstood seniors’ scrutiny. But Shi Yan and Krystal could not stay long because the seniors might grow suspicious about it. I was disappointed as we bid adios.

Eventually, as reconsideration to my message, Theen Yew sent my good friend Tiong Wei to the shelter. Or maybe I was mistaken, he decided to come himself? I knew not. The conservation was short as well due to the same reason, but I was cheered up a bit by the irregular visits of people. At last, Mat, Phay Key and Krystal returned with bags of presents and cooked Tang Yuan. I helped them for preparation, and the seniors, accompanied by their juniors, arrived.

Eyes closed, the seniors stopped in front of the Icon. Trinity had returned. I led him to the very front of the Icon. The rest stood at other three sides. Still eyes closed, Theen Yew began his speech, and we fed the seniors Tang Yuan, and gave them presents. Then, we held their hands which had been gripping a sparkler, given by me, and lit the sparklers by the candles. Only by now, the seniors were allowed to open their eyes. They were ecstatic about the surprise, and for the following hour, all of us played with sparklers, tried to swish them with lightning speed and took photos of the patterns. We had successfully formed “SPORTS”, “DCP” and “α”. Ms Thangam watched our naïve deem in calm. Perhaps with half-closed eyes, indicating lameness.

We caught the last bus to Pasir Ris Interchange and parted there. Crystal was playing with her new toy dog on the MRT train. We had a good laugh. And then, Crystal was finally bored about it, while Teck Kian was trying to strangle Safwan’s Kung Fu flat faced monkey. Crystal let the dog lay on her lap, making me to think of “Let the sleeping dog lie”.

The train came to a halt. Bedok.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

~ 6/21/2008 10:57:00 AM ~

Physics has been boring huh?

Hound of Baskervilles, by Arthor Conan Doyle

And Then There Were None, by Agatha Christie

Mug. Now it is for real. I am not going to take any chances. Like last time, I did not revise Atomic Structure at all, because it is such a piece of cake. But the outcome? I regretted for that. This time it would not happen, though my GP is still not there. Alas. So as I have said, I have studied for another week. The last week. My juniors were starting to return. So we came down to study room and revised together, and sometimes, we got hungry halfway at night. My brother Tianyu went to the KFC at Siglap to buy us supper, after that we mugged again.

During a few breaks of my revision, I read Agatha Christie's crime stories. Erm, I think you should have heard of her, because she was supposed to be more popular than Arthur Conan Doyle. But it seems that more people know about Sherlock Holmes than Hercule Poirot. Anyway, I like both of the authors' books. And they are spectacular.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

~ 6/12/2008 09:11:00 PM ~

Edgar Allen Poe’s “the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens” suits Wednesday’s weather.

I woke up early. At about eight o’clock, then I got everything ready and was on my way to Ben house. I ate at Macdonald’s at Bedok MRT, a cup of morning tea to sharpen my mind, and a piece of morning newspaper, for GP, of course. But there was nothing fascinating though. It rained then, so I stayed in the fast food café for a bit longer. Followed by a long journey to my destination. Ben and I studied “Graphs” until lunch time. It took me quite long to figure out one of the past year JCT questions (our school’s question!) after testing out Ben’s suggestion, though he did not believe his method would work. We covered more questions after I dined with his family. And when evening fell, we had already gone through the whole chapter of Graph and had a heated discussion about the essence of Calculus, first derivative and second derivative. I was surprised I could actually explain it because I had never done it before, and the tangled chapter was becoming clearer to me. So the whole day was quite fruitful. Ben helped me with some GP stuff as well.

And, I agreed to play basketball with Ben’s brother, but since the court was full, we dismissed this idea and returned to Ben’s house, when Ben was sleepy and I was drained. So I decided to take my leave.

Today, I started studying a bit later than the previous day. I read about GP essay techniques and worked on Physics, when I realised I need some help from teacher. In the afternoon, I got the query clarified, and Qi Long rung me to ask me come to Cathay to watch Kung Fu Panda. He and my other friends were already there. So I rushed there, thirty minutes’ late. The ticket checker told me the Hall was closed. But then, she scrutinized my ticket and let out an “oops, it is the movie that is playing. Oh my god, you are late” and in I went, a dark Hall, full of fidgeting silhouettes and people’s loud, staccato laughter. The movie was ready action-packed, especially the part when the malevolent would-be-dragon-warrior breached the prison (an abyss actually), and Panda fought for a bao zi (dumpling) with his Shi Fu (master). And Panda actually used a tactic that was similar to Shi Fu’s when they were combating for bao zi to fight the would-be-dragon-warrior, which was spectacular.

After enjoying the movie, we guys bid adios with the girls (they probably were going to have some shopping) and went down to eat. Qi Long, Yifan and I bought take-away Burger King and went to the basement food court to join Xiaolei and Shihao, who were eating Korean cuisine. I immediately bought kimchi from that stall. After that, we went to Zara and helped Xiaolei to choose a garment. I was attracted by a jeans wear, but gave up because of the price. We had a great fun there because we could make fun of each other when we tried out clothes. Xiaolei kept commenting that Qi Long looked like a policeman when he was trying out a particular outfit. But I put that as “a security guard”, which was worse. LOL! Then we took bus home.

Monday, June 09, 2008

~ 6/09/2008 06:22:00 PM ~

Half of the holiday has gone without being realised. And what did I do over the last two weeks? Besides entermainment, I was only working on "Chemical Kinetics" this single chapter. No revision of mathematics and physics. Just "Chemical Kinetics". And shockingly, I have not finished it yet, when JCT is only two weeks away. For goodness' sake.

So, recently, I started my revision on mathematics and physics. I must ensure that after all these revision, I will still have time for the differentiation part that is not tested. Like Maclaurin's Expension. If I do not do it during the holiday, I will never catch up when the school re-opens, when more homework awaits me. And yes, it is not going to work if I do not have enough physical exercises. And I will continue going gym. Actually, I had a scheduled time for gym this morning with one of my friends. Unfortunately, the computer games, or to use an allusion - Pandora's box, caused him to stay up at night again. So when I was half-awake this early morning, I got his message. After a few rounds of discussion in my state of half consciousness, I drifted to my dream very quickly, as I was at the very edge of dream and consciousness, until ten o'clock this morning. So we could only hope next time he will be able to overcome his Achilles' heel (but at least this earned me three more hours' sleep), if you happen read Greek stories. Or a Troy movie will do. All right, no more literature, I am going back to mathematics.

Sayonara.

Saturday, June 07, 2008

~ 6/07/2008 11:11:00 AM ~

I chose not to go back to China during June holiday in order to study better for JCT. Many of us did the same. However, the boarders in the hostel did not share the same sentiment. By yesterday evening, the hostel was empty to some extent, giving me a chill of loneliness. And the home-sickness struck me when my friends who decided to travel back swooned with air tickets in their hands, humming pop songs of Jolin and told me what they wish to eat in China.

I found the means to overcome home-sickness was to stay away from hostel. Go to gym to have some aerobics, eat something heavenly outside, have a pleasant time with relatives at my cousin’s house or enjoy the environment at school which is conducive to study. As long as I was away from the place of gloom, I was happy.

Start from next week, many of my friends will be back from holiday vacations. And hopefully some of the others will be less busy, so we can study in school. And I have asked my junior’s friend to call for a basketball game next week, too. Pity that my junior himself is not able to present, as he has left for China.

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

~ 6/04/2008 02:07:00 PM ~

Two of my most favourite Goosebumps stories

I had my PW meet-up in Tampines Regional Library today. It was really astounding of our effectiveness. We completed our pilot planing, sample letter, survey planning, interview planning within two and a half hours, along with revision of our GPP. Yay! And I saw Zul in the Library, sitting just besides us. She said she recognized my voice first, then "Ms Thangam" was mentioned, so she was sure that was me. We had a pleasant short chat, and I resumed to our PW discussion.

To my amazement and astonishment, when I checked my e-mail today, I found out that R. L. Stine, the author of Goosebumps, Fear Street and The Nightmare Room, has replied my messege. I jsut dropped a note in his official website on Monday. And - yes, I read Goosebumps, though they are supposed to be for children - I was euphoric. Here it is:

Title: Hello from New York

Thank you for your messages, Fangxiong. I am glad you are enjoying Goosebumps. I'm looking forward to my trip to China. Your English is very good! Best regards, R.L. Stine

Haha, and I guess this is the finale of my today's update. I am going to gym later.

Cheerio.

Monday, June 02, 2008

~ 6/02/2008 07:23:00 PM ~

The most notable contradiction in history, Prince Caspian, from a race by name of Telmarine, which was the archenemy of the Narnians, saved Narnia.

To Zanarkand -- Final Fantasy

The most emotional time came when,
an investiture was going on,
Trinity shouted “Alpha”, (meaning seniors have placed trust and future upon us),
Ashwin told me the HC badge has been passed on for five generations,
music To Zanarkand was played,
and all these was happening at the same time.

Has watched Chronicle of Narnia: Prince Caspian. The movie was pretty good, in terms of complexity and visual effects. The duel between High King Peter, the Magnificent (“You can save the second part,” King Edmund, the Just, had said.) and The King of Telmarine was a bit funny, though it might not suppose to be. But that was not the problem, I enjoyed it. My general opinion was that the second Narnia movie was a bit bloodier than the first one. “You may find Narnia is a more savage place now.” That was the line, and I agreed with it.

Hong De and I did not choose the right time to view this film. It has been 7:00 p.m. when we reached the cinema in Suntec City. And the movie started then. The next round would be played at 9:30 p.m. Since we were starving, we went down to the basement to dine. One set of Korean cuisine (Parkway one was much better) was not enough for me. So I had to order 8 fried dumplings and 8 streamed dumplings (Yummy!). Hong De and I chatted about vampires after dinner, but there were still one and a half hours to kill. We strolled back to Citylink and walked back. That was not exactly window shopping, neither had we the interest and money. Perhaps we lingered a bit longer in MPH, where I browsed through Narnia, as in the book, so later I could follow. Plots were always getting ambiguous in movies.

When we finished watching the movie, it was five to twelve. We had missed the last bus, and got to flag a cab. But actually there was no such necessity to flag a cab. There were a plethora of taxis traveled around the heartland. The taxi driver did not know where our hostel was. We had to guide him. Oh, well, who was the driver anyway? And we ended up at the front gate of Victoria JC. Smart wit he was, huh?

I turned up in school today, again. With my friend Junya. It was hard to find someone to study with this week. Kirk has been away for holiday, so has Ben. Clarence and Haggy were rather busy, Kah Chin had Chinese Orchestra Camp, and Tiong Wei also could not make it. But Junya was glad to go to school with me today, no matter how early I got up. Impressively surprising. Usually he had problem of getting off his cozy bed. But he was determined this time. Econs students…Glad I did not take that subject.

And we regretted. The school library had stock check for the whole week and was not open for students. So we ended up study under TRC, roasted by the hot air of a never-ending summer. But I did not study much. Instead, I was engrossed in reading Eragon. The book was much more fascinating than its movie version, which seemed to be a replica of The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers. Just not as influencing. However, before we were off for lunch, I clarified all my questions regarding Chemical Kinetics with Mrs Low. So I had a sense of accomplishment even though I barely turned the pages of Chemical Kinetics Notes.

Shall work harder tonight. The schedule is tight…