Posting again 'cause I'm off to camp tomorrow. Student Council Camp to be exact. Not exactly looking forward to it because I've been to a number of camps this year already, and I still have ATC, Catholic Camp immediately after that and OBS as well. System overload. Now in the camps that I've participated in so far this year, I've always been a Student Leader. This time, I'm going as a regular student councillor, which absolutely reeks.

Currently editing and finishing the previous batch's incomplete NPCC campcraft notes. Pretty good, I must say, but a couple of terms are wrongly used (e.g. blight not equals bight).

Celebrated Mom's birthday at a restaurant, before coming back to cut the birthday cake. My plans for going jogging have been foiled. Oh well, at least I can take comfort in the fact that there's running during the Council Camp, so at least I won't have to break my routine (I hope).

It's official: I topped the entire level for English. We got back our report books today, and I must say, my overall results suck. Even though I got highest for English, my marks only surmounted to a B3. The same goes for Chinese. I got a glaring F9 for my A Maths, a not-so-glaring-but-still-very-painful D7 for E Maths, an unhappy C6 for Combined Humanities, a C6 for both Physics and Chemistry even though I failed Chemistry for SA2 and a C5 for Biology. An overall percentage of 58.7%, and 19th position in class. That's crap. What pisses me off though is that for the second part of the results slip, for leadership, responsiblity etc I basically got crap "grades" as well. I'm not happy about it, and I know who's behind it. After all I've done....just because some people think I "act big", I get this. I have no idea how they got that impression, I've been misunderstood gravely. It's not that I "act big", it's because I have passion. Vague? Whatever, if you're close to me, you'll know anyway.

It's my Mom's birthday today, and I prepared her a card. Stop snickering, you, I'm being filial. We're all going out to dinner later to celebrate.

Was supposed to go running with a friend today and yesterday as well. Unfortunately, one of my friends can't seem to keep his appointments. I do admit it's partially my fault though. Anyway, I hope I will be able to go for a run later. Not optimistic about my chances, but I'll try anyway.

Tan Wei Kang still owes me $26. It's been 4 months, and if I don't get it back soon, I'll bash him up or something.

Today was the the day we were informed whether we had to drop any of the subjects we were taking and whether we had to take confirmation examinations to determine whether we would be able to keep these subjects for next year. My heart leapt into my mouth when Mr Ng was showing us the entire list of those who had to take the confirmation tests and drop Biology. Thankfully, I didn't have to drop Biology and as luck would have it, I didn't have to take any confirmation examinations either. There were basically four subjects, namely Additional Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology, and Physics. I passed both my Physics and Bio papers, so there was nothing to worry about these two, but I failed Chemistry and A Maths, which of course I flunked atrociously. Bleh. Anyway, there is a cutoff mark determined by the teachers, and failing to meet this cutoff mark would mean that you would have to sit for the confirmation exam. Now to say that having to sit for yet another round of examinations is unappealing is an extreme understatement, and pardon my French, but it'd be fucked up if I had to retake any one. Thankfully, I met the cutoff grade for both subjects, that of Chemistry being 40 (I got 44) and that of A Maths being 35 (I got exactly 35, how lucky is that?). A ton of people in my class are having to drop Biology, and again I'm thankful I don't. I was so afraid I would have to. However, I do realise that my Sciences grades are all borderline, and I'm still failing my E Maths, a result of studying for each exam the night before. Guess I'm gonna need a major change in my study ethic if I want to excel next year. It's gonna be ardous, but it's the only way.

Anyway enough of this macabre stuff. On a lighter note, one of my compositions was published in this year's Write! anthology, a publication by the school English department for compositions written by students. What disturbs me though, is that two of the compositions in the book are essentially the same, some crap about a guy losing his arms, using his mouth to write blah blah blah, yadda yadda. I wonder how they got in.

P.S. Played DotA today and got schooled. I think I should stick to schooling (most) people in Halo 2 instead.

Feeling a little shagged as I'm typing this, just came back from a bout of jogging at the park with a friend. I look at the clock, and it says 11.30pm. So maybe I'm a little crazy going for a run so late at night, but whatever.

The proper biological term for the stomach is a distensible (i.e. being capable of stretching and expanding) bag-like region. Huh? No link? You'll see. I committed a grave sin today. The seven deadly sins are: Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Anger, Greed, Sloth. Huh? Lol. Anyway, what happened was this. I went for dinner today with my parents at *gasp* Sizzler. And I ate. And ate. I basically ate till I felt sick and my stomach was no longer distensible. Bleargh. Right now I'm still feeling full. So basically I commited Gluttony today. -_-ll

After having dinner we went for Mass in Church of the Risen Christ. Haven't been there in a long time, and my, has it changed. The outside is still the same old, but the inside...LCD screens, projectors, tech stuff. Not bad.

Went to Junction 8 after that to spend the Royal Sporting House vouchers I had, all $50 worth of it. They were given to me last year as a Christmas present, and I'm only spending it now. Used them to buy a spanking new pair of shoes, which I tested out when I went jogging. Pretty good in my opinion. Original price of the shoes: $149.00. After 10% discount: $134.10. After using vouchers: $84.10.

Tired and want to watch TV, so I'll leave it here for today.

Sorry I haven't been blogging the past few days, was away at camp. As such, this post will most definitely be extremely long, so don't read unless you have the time. Had a very weird, albeit scary dream last night. I dreamt that that I hadn't taken my A Maths exam yet and that it was tomorrow. Worst of all, I didn't understand a thing! I thought I was screwed when I woke up in a cold sweat on my bed. Perhaps I had the dream because I failed the stupid subject.

Anyway, for the past few days in school, all the students were supposed to check their exmination papers and marks, but being away helping out at the Secondary 2 Camp as a student leader, I got to check my papers only at night, with the mornings and afternoons spent doing camp actvities. Anyway, imagine my trepidation when I got back my papers the first night; I was really scared that I would fail all three sciences because I didn't finish the papers. Chemistry was a goner, I knew. E Maths...well paper 1 I passed, but I ended up flunking paper 2 and failing the subject. A Maths..fail. Of course, not all of it was bad news. I topped the class for English with 73.0 marks, 2 marks short of an A1 but possibly topping the level. I got an A2 for Chinese with 74.0 marks, even though I did it anyhow and thankfully I passed both my Physics and Biology papers. Enough said about my dismal results.

Going on to the camp, being a student leader, I was required to take charge of the students for various activities, and on the first day, a couple of other leaders and I went along with the Secondary 2 cohort for a hike at Pulau Ubin. To me, it was kinda boring as I had been there countless times, but whatever. Anyway, we brought our own lunches there (loaves of bread, canned food and packet drinks...bleargh) and were supposed to have it at Chek Jawa at the South-Eastern most part of the island (you know, the one the government is preserving?). Now, I've been to Chek Jawa a number of times, and during the lowest tide, the water recedes such that you can walk all the way out. On the seabed you can see marine life such as sea anemones, starfish, and dollars and all sorts of stuff. Really interesting. Unfortunately, when we went there it was high tide, and there was nowhere we could sit and have lunch. We ended up going over to Mamam Beach North of the island to eat. After that we travelled over to yet another beach before going back to the jetty where we boarded the bumboat back to Changi and from there, the bus back to school. The whole trip lasted from about 9am to 4pm.

The second day was a new experience for me as I conducted another activity for the students: Star Orienteering. Now I'm not going to explain any further what that is, if you're interested search the web or something. I was actually scheduled to go for yet another Ubin trip with the remaining classes, but because the soles of my shoes came off on the first trip, I couldn't go as I only had sandals. Again, I'm not going to say anything else except that it was fun 'cause I don't want to bore you any more and 'cause I'm starting to get lazy to type...so yeah, I'll leave it here.

We went for a hike at MacRitche Reservoir on the morning of the third day. Standard cross-country route, Ryan (another leader) and I were stationed at one point next to the reservoir. We threw stones into the reservoir to try to make them skip and at a turtle which was there surfacing for air, "to practice our accuracy" as Ryan put it. Our little experiment with the turtle yielded some results, with the turtle being hit about 8 times. Cruel I know, but it was his idea. I'm really not that kind of person, and neither is Ryan, but it was really funny at the time. Well actually it still kinda is.

We broke camp at about 12.15 pm, and while others went back to the comfort of their homes, I went for NPCC activity, which lasted from 1pm-6pm. Insane? Not really, there's more. After my weekly activity ended, I played soccer till about 7pm and even went jogging at 9.30pm with a friend. How's that for a busy day?

Well, that's it I guess. Thanks for listening to me rant.

Was rather pissed off today and I'll tell you why. The day started off with me going to school for a camp leaders' briefing for the Secondary 2 Camp I'm going for tomorrow. Nothing much ado about it. After that, I went to play a bit of soccer. Ho-hum. But what I was really looking forward to was going to watch a movie, and I was supposed to go with two of my friends. Unfortunately, it started raining and those two suddenly said they didn't want to go. "Why are you angry because of that?" you say. After all, I could go watch it another time, right? Well, read on.

After soccer, I went home, had a bath, changed into my outing clothes: A polo shirt, jeans and a pair of shoes. That's when disaster struck. It started raining. Pouring, so to speak. According to my friend, the rain was so heavy that one would not be able to hold an umbrella against the rain without it flying off., and neither wanted to go anymore. Unlikely here in Singapore, but I'll let it pass. So I tried to reason with my two friends and said stuff like, "What the hell does going to watch a movie have to do with the weather?" Which it doesn't, of course, except for the fact that it gets you a bit wet in getting to your destination. So blah blah blah, they eventually conceded that we would wait till the rain was lighter before we set out. So, to while away the time, I played a few games of Halo 2 (yes, I do play it a lot, don't I?), constantly looking at the clock to see what time it was. We were originally supposed to meet at 2pm at the MRT Station, but because of the rain, I decided to give some leeway here and there, and so I ended up leaving the house at 2pm. Whilst I was walking to the bus stop, I received an SMS from one of them, saying that "Eh, XXX(left the guy's name out) said he doesn't want to go anymore, I and I don't feel like going either". In short form of course. Of course, I was freakin pissed. I already changed and left the house! What the hell was I supposed to do? So I SMSed the guy back saying so, and he told me to go to his house to play table tennis, and wait till the rain was lighter before the other friend came. "WTF?!" I thought. "What about the movie?" Do I want to play table tennis when I set out to watch a movie? No I sure as hell do not. And the best part is that the two don't even think they're in the wrong.

I went to the mall near my house after that to buy something for camp the next day, and went straight home after that, even though I was already outside. I'm typing this now after I drowned myself in DotA fo about a little less than two hours.

Saying today is a bad day is a bit of an understatement. The irony of the phrase "fair-weather friends" is not lost on me, and though the rain was rather unfortunate, it helped me to open my eyes to see whether my friends would be able to weather the storm with me, literally this time. Oh well, at least I know better now.

I've just finished a couple of rounds of Halo 2. As usual, thrashed those noobs who think they are pros online. Haha. Today was a pretty eventful one, with it being the last day of exams and me going for badminton.

The Chinese examination today was pretty easy, except for the fact that I kept dozing off for the first half an hour. Don't ask me how the hell I can doze off during an examination, I just did. It was the same with SA1, I was teetering between consciousness and sleep throughout the exam. I ended up having to read both passages again so I could understand the blotches of ink on the paper. Sheesh. Maybe it was because the passages were too boring or something. Also, even though I said earlier the paper was easy, I basically did it anyhow. My nonchalant attititude might lead to a big "F" on my paper, but ask me if I care. It's the last day of exams, dammit.

Badminton after that was fun, and we played from about 11am - 5pm. Really tired now, 'cause after badminton I went with a friend to Serangoon Stadium for a short run. Short because the long hours of badminton led to cramps in both of us. Really painful. We only managed two rounds, stopping after each to rest and do other crap like push ups. Pathetic, I know. Looks like more hard training is in store for me if I want to get a NAPFA Gold next year....

I'm watching "The Apprentice" as I'm typing this right now, and this week, the two teams are tasked with coming up with a solution to reduce office clutter for Staples, the largest office stationery company in the world. Cracks are popping up within Magna Corporation, and well....we'll see.

Read today in the New Paper about Jack West...again. The first time I heard about him was in the Straits Times a couple of months back, and the article was all about him having this perverted matchmaking website. On top of that, this guy was able to teach school children right here in Singapore while being a wanted man in the U.S. for molesting his kid and all sorts of crap. Disgusting, I thought, but apparently, that wasn't the end of it. He's back in the headlines again for taking $6000 worth of monetary help from MUIS to bring his family to the U.S., before braggin using vulgar words about it all. Here's what happened: After the newspaper report was published, this guy was caught, jailed and kicked out of the country. Once back home however, he started harassing the reporters who exposed him through vulgar emails, and even bragged about getting free money from MUIS to bring his family over. The nerve this guy has - not only is he an arrogant, child molesting paedophile, he looks the part as well. Not only is he ungrateful for receiving monetary aid, he even brags about it and mocks those who help him in the first place! Incorrigible bastard.


Anyway, enough of him. Tomorrow promises to be a fun day - it's finally the last day of exams, and I'm going to play badminton after school..yay. Until then.

P.S. Magna won. Brent got fired.

This is my first time ever typing anything in a blog, so I do hope this comes out. First of all, I'd like to say that since this is my first post, I don't really know what to write about yet: Telling you what happened during my day seems so....mundane. This is my first post after all, so I guess I should start of with a bit of an intro. Here goes.

Publishing this blog was hell for me, as I faced a multitude of problems: First, the language barrier. Whenever I tried to access the damn site so I could set up my own blog, the page came out in Chinese! That's not to say I'm illiterate in Mandarin, of course, in fact, I speak the language pretty okay if I may say so myself. But having the entire site popping out in Chinese (traditional, mind you) for a beginner like me is a major turnoff, which is what kept me from creating this blog earlier in the first place. That was until I found a small link at the bottom of the page which read "yu yan", or "language". There, problem solved.

The second problem was not what I would call a technical one, rather it was simply that I just didn't wish to jump on the bandwagon like everyone else and create something which I would'nt update after I lost interest. Then I thought to myself, "Hell, wouldn't it be nice to look back to the past and recall your experiences? That way, I would be able to recall almost-forgotten memories, things I never want to forget....which is what leads you to see this now. Through this blog, I hope to share whatever life experiences (or bullshit for that matter), not just for others to read, but also for me to look back and say, "WTF?! I actually went through this crap?" So to all readers out there, happy reading.