Survivors on Shore

Waiting For The End (Part 1)

2011-12-23T17:51:00.032+08:00

This is my story of my first half of my upper secondary life... I'll try to be as honest as possible. Or should I say, 'ATTEMPT to include as many private parts as possible'...

PART ONE

Long pants. The sign of professionalism and absence of carefree fun.

It was probably time to emulate the true Gentleman, Professional and Sportsman. With my success of becoming a Redshirt (promoted Junior Leader) from the school leadership camp, VELOCI-T, I was ready and confident to tackle the challenges of upper secondary; my previous password to Facebook was 'veloci-tchangedmylife:)'. Well on my way to meet the Vision of the school: the ideal Victorian.

We (i.e. most of the Redshirts) did not start off upper sec like how the rest did; we were busy helping out at the Sec 1 Orientation camp. I wasn't supposed to be there (really, my leadership skills were not good back then), but since Jing Wen (VS 2I 2009, 4F 2011) had a volleyball competition to train for, I replaced him in the camp to be in charge of Class 1C, my PSL class, alongside Bryan Ong (VS 2I 2009, 4D 2011). It was hard to forget the times I spent there. I never knew I could lead a class so easily. Or maybe it was their ability to bond together quickly... I remember on the first night of the camp they started to call me unusual, totally irrelevant names. Thank goodness I forgot what they called me. At least they still had the decency to still address me as 'PSL' most of the time. But there was one thing, though. They were always moving so slowly from one place to another!

Being able to lead a PSL class was a confidence booster for me, and I was determined to lead this AVERAGE class along with Bryan, Jing Wen and Hariz to the best of our abilities over the next two years.

And so I thought.

//
And so finally I started off in the 9-subject combination class of 3D, on the 4th day of school, with me and Bryan Ong as the only two from our Sec 2 class, 2I. Yeah, Bryan again! But Bryan fell ill the next day and so I was the only one from my lower secondary class in this new smart class. Not that it actually mattered much to me:

On the 4th day of school, I stepped into the classroom through the back door and found a new classmate seated at the back of the class. For some reason, we could tell that we just returned to school from the Sec 1 Orientation Camp, and started a conversation as soon as we noticed each other. So this is the Isaac Chia people were talking about. 6th in level in Sec 2. Ah good, I have a smart person to sit with in class, I thought. Someone to compete with.

Soon enough, this familiar looking, boisterous guy entered the class and I recognised him at once. Pritesh. Expectedly, he started making the most amount of noise in the classroom. Talking to people around him, talking with himself, laughing at others, laughing at his own jokes... Yup, I remember MY first day of school alright. Soon, since Pritesh was seated close to us, still noisy, and there were more of our classmates entering the classroom, Isaac and I decided to move around the class to get to know more peeps. Not just to prevent ourselves from feeling left out, but to socialise and feel comfortable. But since most of the class was from 2 top classes of the previous year, 2A and 2D (Isaac from 2D), I had much 'social work' to do.

And so I thought.

//
Melvin Chua is, still, by far, the most random person I have met on Facebook and the closest random person I got to know in my secondary school life. It all started off with him commenting and 'arguing' a lot on Athanasius' status updates and me doing the same. Coincidentally, but not directly, the comments merged to go against Athanasius' and so I went to add him as a friend on Facebook. And naturally there came this thing about wanting to know each other more, doing so by continually going against AK :P Here's one example:

That was an introduction. And it had it's purpose, for I found him in my class. And it was odd to begin with though, after much communication online and very minimal face-to-face communication. But given our previous background and the current situation, I found myself having to chat with this 2A dude a lot to not feel like an outsider while I increased my social circle in the class. As I got to know more people in the class, and having gotten to know Melvin better, I was satisfied with the way things were.

And so I thought.

//
Before I forget to mention, there was one group that enabled me to blend into the 3D scene well. Our co-form teacher, Mdm Ow, put us into groups and called them 'English groups'. Yeah what a name. Since we Sec 1 Camp people (Dev, Bryan, Isaac and I) were the last to be put into groups, we were 'thrown' into the remaining groups with vacancies. I was quick to know my fellow group members (Shabab, Melvin Ng, Nicholas (Lee), Nicholas (Yuen) {During that introductory period I only knew them as the two Nicholases and me would be the eventual third}, Vietnamese scholar Loi... that's about it). I recall Nicholas Lee calling me what, 'Beyonce voice', after I was called up to present and was awarded 'extra points' for having a 'nice-sounding' voice with my opening sentence? Oh the memories... I was a major contributing team player then, and I would say openly that by the end of Sec 4, I was merely someone giving support to the them. Yeah, I became a mugger. AGAIN.

Alright back to the point. No digressing. (Oh right, Mdm Ow says that during each of her lessons!) And so our first main 'project' was to contribute to the class. We chose the quick way out, which was to create a Class Blog. And so the group placed Nicholas (Yuen) and I to man the blog and include updates of homework, announcements and whatnot. Little did we know that by the end of February, the blog would be very dead. I don't know what made me not do my best to save the blog from drowning with Nicholas, but I guess Nicholas was too busy with his NPCC Campcraft Competition training and me with BB. And trying to figure out why the heck I was struggling with my academics so soon! So here's what he posted on the now-already-dead 3D'10 Facebook Class Group:

And I'm sure you'd want to see what he posted ABOUT the now-already-dead 3D'10 Facebook Class Group xD:

That first image you see there signified that our two-month long teamwork on this 'project' has come to end. We were to busy with our own busy-ness. If only I could get to see that class blog again!

Little did I know that it was only the beginning of a great friendship...

//
The Class of 1C was crazy! The moment I stepped into the classroom for our first PSL session in the classroom, they started chanting the nickname I made for me for no apparent reason, and clapping and screaming as if I was some idol or something. So I decided to let them down, and chose to ignore them. Just not continue with the lesson until Bryan, Jing Wen or Hariz arrived, since I was the first PSL there.

It was amazing to see them just change from a quiet, soft-spoken group of people to a noisy class of Victorians in just one week. Not gentlemanly Victorians. It was a tough time to get them to quiet down and SHUT UP AND LISTEN, and I'm glad Bryan was able to captivate the class with his spooky stories that would make them go 'woo...' and 'woah...'. Jing Wen was good in making important information known to the ENTIRE class, and I was fine in pushing the progress of the lesson forward. And Hariz was... well, the best person to move around the class and tell people to not do their homework... and... SHUT UP AND LISTEN! :D

This class eventually became the top class for CA1. Here's their acknowledgement:

I've got to thank VELOCI-T once again. With the leadership skills and knowledge I've acquired, I have actually seen myself getting more and more comfortable with my peers, especially my new classmates. In a week, I already knew all my classmates! Despite the fact that many of them seemed to congregate in their cliques.

One significant one was the jokers. Led by the all-famous Pritesh Armani, laughing all the time! Then another clique was named by Mr KKY as The Smurfs. Which was odd because most of them looked 'smurfy' but did not act 'smurfy'. They were not popular in class but talked a lot to one another, and were from 2A. The other 2A peeps were later known as the Soccer Dudes. And I was comfortably seated in the group known as 'The Rest'.

Well this success was also partly due to the fact that I used Facebook much, and to a very suitable extent. Communicating with them, the online style. Time management was on the problem then, not to worry, though yeah, I didn't have much time. Then something on Facebook hinted to me that I was using it too much. It seemed to tell me that I am a Facebook addict:

By Mid-March, Melvin thought that I was stalking him, and he informed me in a way that made himself look big. As if he liked the attention he was getting from people and yet bragging about it. And I was 'oh c'mon are you that childish to jump to conclusions like that?' And of course, that made our friendship weaker. We were awesome friends, we were. Then again, looking back at it, I was quite not-so-mature as well.

Little did I know that the worsening did not just stop right there...

Stayed tuned for part 2.

A Thousand Suns

2011-12-18T22:59:00.014+08:00

"Here are my Top 50 Most Played Songs from May to December 2011.
This is the most odd-looking Top Played Playlist I’ve ever seen:
Notice how high the frequency is of the songs from a particular artist…"

This was what I wrote for my 23rd post on my Tumblr blog. Yup, I recently made it just 2 days ago, and didn't take me long for me to get really used to blogging and reblogging on it.

Yeah I probably had nothing to do, since I can't walk for now.

In the 2 days, I got myself 21 notes (reblogs and likes, 4 of them for THIS post), found 14 people to follow, and gained ZERO FOLLOWERS. Haha mind the caps, I guess things like this just need a little patience. I'm blogging without much focus anyway...

My upper sec school life blog post will have to wait~ xD

Bleed It Out

2011-12-16T14:43:00.006+08:00

Yeah, here I am, back here again after 684 days of busy-ness. Hope you like the new template design of the blog, I decided to add a bit more colour.

I'm afraid I would have to start off with a not-so-good incident that happened yesterday (Thursday). It was actually a last-minute arranged trip with my parents' friends (part of their tai-chi gang) to tour just some parts of Malaysia for just one day. The first stop was the Kota Tinggi Waterfall Resort, which enabled us to swim and relax around some fishes (many ugly ones who only wanted to take a bite at your feet) and rocks (large, slippery ones).

As I was leaving the natural pool of water, I stepped on a rock that seemed to not allow anyone to make contact with it from the top; you would slip and fall regardless of how carefully you stepped on that rock. Argh, algae... Suddenly, I felt a sharp, unusual pain in my left foot. Since my bum was rested nicely on that rock (I suppose the rock prefers by bum to my feet), I immediately lifted my left foot, only to notice a neat slice in my feet. A rock, did that? And what, I could open my feet up? And then,

Blood gushing out. Ok, something is terribly wrong. Instinctively, I closed that eerie gap and called for help. My dad bought along some tissue paper while his tai-chi teacher scrambled to find some leaves that could help. One of them searched for a plaster. Others just looked in a state of shock and confusion.

My brother, who was behind me, was obviously freaked out. Initially he simply said, 'Shit! That's an incision!' (wow he was using what he learnt in his First Aid Course from CCA) and later on, 'Oh I'm leaving, that's so much blood! Oh, oh...'. By now, I was ignoring all of that. At that point, telling myself to calm down and stop the bleeding was the most important thing on my mind.

Then came the tissue paper, leaves and plaster. We had a first aid team in our midst, wow. Soon I was being piggy-backed to the nearest first aid station by both my father and his tai-chi teacher. They unwillingly took turns actually, for my father was quite 'pai-seh' to rely on someone else while the highly-respected teacher was always willing to lend a helping hand to others. While I knew I was unable to walk for the next few days (I could hop, though), I seemed to enjoy their arguments to piggy-back me. A subtle smile emerged on my face.

So from then on, I had travel around my being carried or hopping around like a joke. Thankfully, the rest of the trip was quite enjoyable. I remember one of the aunties amongst us letting out a scream during dinner when a cat went between her legs. Twice. Later, lightning came right above us such that deafening thunder came at exactly the same time, which instantaneously caused the fruit stall we were visiting to black out in darkness. And did I forget to mention the same auntie letting out another scream when a dog walked towards her quickly. TWICE AGAIN. We were so amused...

On the way back to Singapore on a mini-tourbus, while I listened to music from my iPod nano, I realised that I had to cancel many of the activites that I had lined up for me. That meant not going for my awesome friend's, Nicholas Nanoduckie Yuen's, birthday party the next day (which is today, 16 Dec). That meant not going for the BB Share-a-Gift day that I was supposed to help out. That meant cancelling all the upcoming outings. That meant spending the rest of December in my room.

Well, at least that would also mean more blogging. Hopefully, entertaining, interesting stuff. I'm still thinking if I should start using Tumblr...

I just came back from a polyclinic not long ago (that surgical procedure was so damn painful), and here is evidence of my injured feet and myself in a wheelchair.

Oh wells. I guess it was meant to be. As always. Every single thing that happens to you (and doesn't happen to you) has a role to play in your life. A purpose: probably to find your life's purpose.

I shall attempt to summarise my upper secondary life in my next post. Stay tuned!

Whataya Want From Me

2010-02-01T18:38:00.008+08:00

It has been one month. One month of change.

Made many new friends in my class. The class is quite adaptable although Bryan and I are the only two in the class from 2I.

I have banned my computer from Facebook for one week. Because I have been commenting on all my good friends' status updates. So much that one of them thinks I am stalking him. In fact, I seem to be stalking everyone on Facebook. Interfering with my school work.

Cannot allow that to happen. So would avoid Facebook for one week and Face by Books instead. Things will change. Positively or Negatively? We'll see...

Must concentrate more on my work.

I have been missing my full mark for Maths Tests for often than last year. Not something I like. Physics and Chemistry not scoring high enough. English debate and argumentative essay not performing exceptionally well. Haiz.

My expectations may be to high. But it helps me to concentrate. If not my results will drop, I'm not letting that happen.

I'm starting to become surprised that two of my friends actually know each other. But it's actually nothing to be surprised of. As both of them have went to the same class.

Lee Jiang is such a good friend. I can talk to him about practically anything without feeling awkward. Lol.

Anyway... Higher Chinese CA1 (Part 1) is coming up... in two days! oh no! I have to study for it. Have got 40 idioms to memorise, learning to write new Chinese characters, summarising long passages, comprehending essays... Should have done more of it during the holidays.

Never mind. I believe I would do well enough. Must aim for A1... although I'm not confident of getting it this time.

Can only use MSN to communicate now. No Facebook. It's only 1 week... it's survivable.

Back to studying... Goodbye. :D

Somewhere I Belong

2010-01-29T22:16:00.007+08:00

From the last blog post until now, my life has underwent yet another major change.
I will post about the change when I have the time, most probably the next post.

Anyway only Bryan and I are in Sec. 3D. Yes... our class is quiet at first, because our class is made up of part of last year's 2A, part of last year's 2D, and smaller parts of every other class.

We just needed time to bond together. We did, but the only thing that we deprived of was the enthusiasm to answer questions every time the teacher posed one.

Will talk more in my next post.
Now I want to sleep.

Tomorrow I have something to train for again.
Something called Adventure Quest.
A competition in my CCA that involves the competitors physically and mentally.
Anyway the training for this is getting strenuous as the weeks progress, so I would want to sleep more, or suffer tomorrow. Lol.

New Perspective

2009-10-22T07:33:00.008+08:00

Was super late on Tuesday due to an unreasonable reason. Not gonna tell you, but I guess I was the last one that entered the school premises, as seen by the emptiness of the zebra crossing right in front of the school.

I should not be relying on my parents' car so much these days. Usually it seems to be them holding me back. Since three weeks ago, I have realised that I have not been talking to David much, then I noticed that I have been taking the same bus as him to school for a long long time. And David has been complaining about my increase in dependence.

Nervousness grew as I approached the classroom. To be more specific, the Higher Chinese paper. I was not sure if I could survive it, as it was Higher Chinese that killed me. Refer to this post I made previously: Down (Jay Sean song). The killer subject for me. Don't want to screw it up.

I managed to plan my time well and the paper was quite okay, not very difficult. But I hope I do well this time, I was unsure for a few comprehension questions.

I wasn't really enthusiastic when Mr Lee's voice "Alright class, you... are... dismissed!" marked the end of exams for the year. Half the class were shouting cheers that overpowered the Secondary Ones' cheers when they were dismissed thirty minutes earlier. Madness.

Wanted to eat something at school before going home, but since Daniel, Joshua, Lee Jiang, Yogesh, John were going to Changi Airport for either Swensen's or McDonald's, I decided to follow them. When we arrived, we went to Starbucks (if I'm not mistaken) first. As the drinks were expensive, I decided not to buy and waited for Joshua, Lee Jiang and Yogesh to finish their drinks. As usual, John struggles with someone and someone else attempts to take a picture.

We went to McDonald's instead of Swensens' later on. We waiting for noon to come by talking and playing portable consoles (I don't have one). John seemed to be anti-social, and his best friend at the time seemed to be his iPod and earphones. Soon all of us bought our meals and ate. John was trying to demonstrate his "profound" chinese speaking skills, but it sounded like a British accent. Lee Jiang and I then talked back at him with idioms and the correct tone. Explains why his oral was that bad.

While I was eating, I noticed two Secondary One students who happened to be from my CCA. I chatted with them for half a minute before heading to the MRT station along with the rest.

I wanted to go home and alight from Aljunied station, but since I had nothing to do at home, I followed Daniel to Funan IT Mall, only to realise that our presence at the mall served no purpose. So Daniel's parents came to fetch him while I went home taking buses 197 and 100.

I spent my time at home packing up my messy room. The exam period has transformed the neat and tidy room that I last packed a month ago into the state it is now. Below my bed lie many unneeded items that I always wanted to place somewhere else. It made my room look ugly. And the table is unsuitable for study, papers found everywhere.

While packing my room, I wanted to rest, so went to the attic to use my laptop. Ever since the attic was built, I was able to utilise a free wireless network, although it's slightly slow. Then I noticed the large unused space at a corner of the attic. I then decided to place all these items in the attic. Storage area.

Had a game of badminton for one hour with my father's ex-classmate's son whose age was about the same as mine. I thought that my badminton skills has already deteriorated as I have not played for... four months? Apparently not. I seemed to be improving instead. Both of us were equally good, only that I seemed to be breathing more heavily than him, probably because he made me run about the court and the soles of my shoes have worn out.

I remember two years ago that I could not last playing badminton for twenty minutes without a muscle cramp. This time, with efficient warm-ups and cool-downs, I managed to prevent muscle cramps from surfacing.

Had a late dinner at 10 p.m. before going of the internet for fun like making changes to this blog and facebooking until 12:00, when I remember AK calling me a "weirdo". Differing sleeping times...

I met up with Athanasius at Kovan station and Daniel at Potong Pasir (actually Daniel and I was supposed to meet AK on the train, but because of my "bo-liao" decision). Then we headed straight to Vivocity and caught up with Joshua, Yogesh, Lee Jiang, John and Dominic. To watch that movie called Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs. We ate lunch at BK and Dinner at KFC. I remember Lunch at McDonald's yesterday... Man I've been eating too much fast food... Better stop.

Don't really want to list down the things we did there at Vivocity, but on the whole, all of us had fun. I did not get to study today because I was out from 10:45 to 08:30. And I wanted to update this dead blog. And revamp this blog. Time flew and I slept at 0100 hours the next day.

And the next day is today. I have that desire to start playing like how I did in the June Holidays. I think that I will not get addicted to play. Or in case I get addicted, I would have to go back to schedule planning...

Still, I'm gonna have to do some Secondary Three Elementary Mathematics and not slack off. Some New Perspective to life.

Not Meant To Be

2009-10-21T00:51:00.003+08:00

The exams ended yesterday, but its a little late compared to other schools. Still, without the extension of a week to study, I might have scored worse. The disadvantage is that we have less time to relax. After spamming studies appropriately (hint: recall last year's failed spamming of studies), I am gonna relax for good during the last two weeks of the school year.

However, something that I cannot relax about is the exam results. I am satisfied with the performance of all the papers that I have taken, but something is bringing my hopes of attaining high marks down.

Or might it be someone?

Mr David Lee has a problem. I remember right before the History exam, he was in class, but as he still had a little time with us. So he went on to talk about the Mathematics results. "Do you know that I have marked your Maths Paper 1, and none of you have got a full mark," his loud voice got the attention of the class yet again.

I stared blankly into space before getting back to my senses. You think its so easy to score full marks? I thought to myself. The Anax of Awesome pretended to be surprised that even The Legacy did not do so and expressed his view with his voice.

Mr Lee heard it and asked if I actually wanted to score full marks, which he obviously knew that I wanted to do so. I nodded. And he goes on saying "you have some mistakes and, looking at the mistakes in the paper here and there, you can't score full marks any more," he continued to blabber. I managed a grin and maintained my composure.

The bell rang and he left. I was still thinking if I had heard him wrongly as my classmates went to put their bags outside the class. I eventually went out, only to get pissed again by Nathanael and Philip. Their laughter of me unable to score full marks made me slightly enraged.

I wanted to raise my voice in front of them, but I practiced tolerance and ignored them. If I continue thinking this way, can I do well for the History exam that is about to start? Come on, do well for History, forget your Maths paper. It's over.

Every one knows that it is really hard to score full marks for Elementary Maths in Upper Secondary. So I cannot attain a full mark for Maths forever I guess.

Maybe its Not Meant To Be.

Life After You

2009-09-20T11:13:00.008+08:00

Yesterday AK went to my house for the Art project due Friday next week. We planned to finish all the shots needed to be taken for the video clip by yesterday, and we pretty much did everything.

I was finalising my Science notes in the morning. Then he came at around 10:30 and went home at about 5 as we were practically in a slackly mood. But it was according to plan - 95% of the pictures are taken. I am eager to have the life after the art project. (I'm thinking this is a bad attempt to link the song title to this post.) The only thing that was not according to plan was that my schedule had to be adjusted. In my opinion, we could have finished by 3:30 if we did not waste time.

The schedule was later interrupted when my father said that we were going for a movie. I did not want to at first, but gave in later. My father had to wait for me to decide on whether to watch it or not before booking the tickets online.

Just as we were about to leave for the movie at Kallang Leisure Park, my brother switched on the TV and was surprised to know that "The Adventures of Shark Boy & Lava Girl" had just started. As my father was not in a really good mood, he became impatient and his cheerfulness dissipated. But his mood usually helps, and this time his mood made us reach the cinema in time.

The movie was called "Whiteout". I gotta say that other than the frequent suspenseful scenes in the movie, the movie was not really my liking. The ending was a little too quick and the film is able to make some think that it lacked originality.

So I only did Science and Art yesterday. Still got some fked up slow Home Economics (Bear) to sew. I wonder if I can finish it up before the due date...

Please Don't Leave Me

2009-09-12T22:52:00.005+08:00

I was a little lazy on Thursday and Friday.

Lazy to the extent that I did not bother planning my daily schedule.

And that led to a decrease in the amount of work done on those days. Without my daily schedule, I did not know which direction I was going in my revision. You don't know exactly what you are going to do next.

On both days, I only revised / practised Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Situational Writing, 应用文 and 报章读后感。And I spent 8 hours on them. I think that is too much time consumed!

So I cannot let my daily schedule go yet. I got more revision to do before the EOY exams and repeat my mistake last year. What's worse is that I may not be able to finish my revision before the exams.

Probable early hiatus...

Knock You Down

2009-09-09T13:45:00.011+08:00

My exam results are, in my impression, quite good, but my MSG is being KNOCKED DOWN by my Higher Chinese. 1 to 1.8! It's almost 2 times more!

I got knocked down by past Higher Chinese papers, constantly failing the most important part of the paper: Comprehension.

I got knocked down again by Higher Chinese Orals. With stammering in Reading Aloud and hesitation in Conversation, how would I expect myself to get an A2 or at least a B3 for Higher Chinese.

I gives me headaches when I think about how I am unable to score well for my Higher Chinese when I speak Chinese every day and have such a fond interest in the language.

Maybe I need to speak Chinese to my classmates more also? Read and write more. Listen to more Chinese music. Listen to more radio stations : ~~958,~~ 1003, 933, etc.

Or post blog posts in Chinese. Builds up my descriptive skill in compositions. Hopefully I will not chase away followers of this blog

Here We Go Again

2009-09-07T08:02:00.014+08:00

Holidays! Here we go again...

Study Days
Woke up lethargic.
Daily routines.
Went online and checked on my friends' Facebook accounts.
Packed up bag.
Headed to Lee Kong Chian Reference Library by Bus 100.
25-minute journey.
Reached at 10:00.
Took lift up to Level 11 of the National Library.
Locked up by belongings in the locker and brought by laptop into the slightly-restricted library.
Found a new database of six books by typing some key words.
Collected the books.
Went to find a seat with a table.
Switched on laptop.
Connected headphones to laptop and played music.
Extracted information from the books and formed notes on the computer.
Spent 2 hours before completing my self-given assignment.
Go for lunch at Bras Brasah Complex. 20 minutes.
May create another assignment if I am not tired out yet.
(Maximum study time per day for me: 6 hours)
Reflected on what I have done for the day and felt satisfied.
Collected belongings from lockers.
Went home with Bus 100.
25-minute journey.
Go online (may blog a bit).
Shower.
Read.
Dinner.
Random things.
Sleep.

Leisure Days
Chill out at home. Music, Radio, Facebook, Blogging and maybe Play (something) if I have seriously nothing to do.
OR
Go watch movie with friends (rarely happens).
OR
Follow my family to wherever they are going.

Already Gone

2009-09-06T22:10:00.005+08:00

A short friendship. An experience of my secondary one life.

Ryan was someone who lives a stone's throw away from me, who went to the same primary school as me, who went to the same secondary school as me, and has the surname "Loy".

We started communicating after he noticed me for quite a few times on morning buses to school and I realised that he was from the same primary school as me when I started a conversation with an old lady that he gave up his seat to.

Soon we became good friends who uplifted one another's spirits, and very soon he got to know the many people in my class. David, Derek, Keeve, Ryan, Athanasius, Darius, Jun Jie, Ad'li, Nicholas, Darren, Jurgen, Justin... and more importantly, John.

After less than half a year, he made friends with John and soon they became what Ryan Loy himself called a couple. They would spend at least an hour together every day for a particular socialising activity. And I would usually be left out.

I did not like that feeling. I was not able to concentrate on studying. So I did stupid things. Like studying in places not meant for studying (airports, mrt stations, etc.). Like going to John's house or libraries to study instead of studying at home. Like reading textbooks and notes without digesting and understanding them.

After a month or two, I was able to overcome the loss of a friend due to lack of contact and interaction. A friend who is unable to sustain a minority of friendships. But it was not the end of my misery. I could not stop doing the stupid things. The thing that wasted more than half of my study time.

Life continued. And I was not surprised to know that John also lost his friendship with Ryan Loy due to lack of contact and interaction. The weird thing was that the amount of stupid things that I did kept increasing. One of them was going to John's house.

At that period, I thought that I went to John's house too much. My grades were not improving. I thought carefully of the word "gay" and knew that I have to stop doing those stupid things. I made the decision before the September holidays.

After the September holidays, I tried my best not the go to his house. But I went to the extent that I stopped talking to him.

Although I stopped the stupid things, I was a little late. It dawned on me that I had only two weeks to squeeze all information into my mind.

Everyone in class knew that I was a study spammer, and it became more prominent in the two weeks of preparation. So some of them were surprised that they had scored better than me in the exams. My class position was 28/41.

That was it. The downfall of the study spammer.

The study spammer then reflected on what he did wrong and decided to head to the National Library every day (or at least most of them) during the holidays to study everything I need to know and DRIVING them into my head.

That was the start of my comeback. Even I was surprised.

Position in Sec. 1 : 248 in level, 28 in class.
Position in Sec. 2 Semester 1 : 45 in level, 1 in class.

Ok now I don't know what to write. The blog post is going out of point. But one thing's for sure: you have understood how I improved in my level position by a whopping 203 positions.

I Gotta Feeling

2009-09-05T21:44:00.005+08:00

I want to have this result for my Mathematics SA2 paper:

And this, together with other goals, can be achieved by CONSTANT MUGGING. With 4 weeks left to spam study, I cannot afford to waste any more time. So its time for ULTIMATE SCHEDULE PLANNING again...

Down

2009-09-04T17:26:00.005+08:00

My results are rather disappointing.
Just joking. Only Higher Chinese was bad with 54/100. Others were all above 80 marks.

But I was not happy when I got my results today. I knew I could do well if I studied hard enough. But I did not study hard enough for HCL. I was so "OCD" with studying English, Maths, Science and History that I neglected Chinese.

Actually I was able to do well. The problem was that I only glanced through the 假期阅读 thing and barely registered the information into my brain. That wasted 14 marks.

The other was 填写汉字 and 选择词语. That was another 6 marks.

And I could have gotten 74/100 for the paper.

Mathematics was good. But not good enough. I wanted at least a 100 (I know my expectations are too high). I lost all 15 marks mainly due to careless mistakes (esp TfU). Blame my complacency after the June holidays.

Actually I don't know why I'm dwelling on my marks when I already did so well with an average score of 78.9. My other classmates' marks were far worse.

I shall be optimistic. I think I would have done so well in Art if I was not doing it with AK. Cos AK has the creativity and quick-thinking and I have the OCD and the desire of perfection in my work.

One more month to the EOYs. Study again...

Shadow Of The Day

2009-05-15T21:27:00.001+08:00

No Studying for Today...
I slept for 10 whole hours yesterday... Apparently the sun wasn't bright enough to disturb my hibernation. I decided to switch on my computer to continue my OPW work (which i was sort of lagging behind), but then i remembered the my father had changed the computer password yesterday due to excessive usage of 8 hours that day. But didn't I deserve it? I had not managed to have fun with the computer for the past two months. (Actually the main reason was for allowing my brother to watch me play when he was supposed to study for his last paper. A grave mistake.)

My worries for using the computer today dissipated shortly when I called my father for the new password to the computer. That was easier than I thought. My original plan of using the com for OPW changed to blog and playtime instead. And I don't usually change my plans (better known as SCHEDULES).

Time flew and I almost came too late for the movie (X Men Origins : Wolverine) I was supposed to catch with eight other classroom. Probably because i did not want to leave the computer in my brother's hands. Just as I was about to leave for the movie, it started to rain. Just my luck.

I had actually planned to meet David at Serangoon station, but he came quite late, so I went there myself. When the reached the cinema, David caught up with me quickly. He looked tired and drenched. But his efforts were of no use as the movie started later than the time he came. We spent time talking among each other and watching the advertisements before the prequeled of X men started.

Wake

2009-05-14T22:44:00.001+08:00

First post in MONTHS (you didn't miss me)
This may seem as the first post of the blog, but my previous posts have been kept in a dark corner of the cyberspace. Lol. I'm still trying to make improvements to this blog. You can expect more frequent posting intervals for the next seven weeks. ANYWAY, Mid year examinations are finally over, and I'm so sick and tired of studying for subjects that I suck in (actually it's only HCL, but I'm not impressed with my other subject results...). But I'm tired and sick of having nothing to do during the post exam season. Maybe it's time to get back to the computer gaming that I last "got in touch with" half a year ago...

Last year I did so bad in my studies that I could not even reach the school average mark. I'm guessing this is mainly because of unnecessary travelling around Singapore (airport, libraries, buses, trains, etc. hahaha) So much for forcing huge amounts of information into my head without knowing how to apply the knowledge. Especially Mathematics, which I am supposed to EXCEL in... But I am beginning to make a comeback. Getting an MSG of less than 2 does not seem to be far away from my hopes anymore.

For this time's SA1, I guess I screwed up a bit of English and Higher Chinese, but the BIT is insufficient to pull my grades down greatly, as far as I am concerned. BUT, but, but,,, I don't think I should be too confident when I say this. Come to think of it, the mistakes are quite fatal.

Enough about screwing up, I should talk optimistically. According to Lee Jiang, I scored 49/50 for my Mathematics paper 1, which I find is slightly unbelievable. But if i look at it in another perspective, scoring full marks is my aim for any mathematics paper. Only if I am able to eliminate any risk of making careless mistakes.

Going for some movie tomorrow... Maybe I really should go out, after studying all day and all night (maybe) from week1 to now (week 8). Oddly, the thought of playing all day scares me. Its like i REQUIRE study every day. Now there's no study needed, so my mindset for the next two weeks is PLAYTIME!