My fitness seems to be deteriorating. I had never felt my heart pump so painfully when I ran for a few years. Usually, its just the usual abdominal cramps, but not anymore. Like the pain spot has moved upwards or something...
4 rounds in 7:43. Improved by 15 seconds, but still not good enough. 7:20 would be nice. PE lesson today was kind of crappish. I have never disliked PE lesson so much in my life before. When the teacher makes us do push ups or leg raises, he counts the same number all over and all over again, because no one is doing it properly. However, upon delving into deeper thinking, that was why no one bothered to follow his counting anymore.
Today is orchestra day. First day for the newbies. Now that it has been a year since I transferred from basketball to orchestra, I feel quite jealous of them, when I see them getting to run about and exercise. Time for me to do that would be hard to come by now that Year 4 is so packed with academic work.
When I came home, I realised my mathematics file, bio practical and new notebook were missing. Perhaps I have left them in class, or they dropped out of my bag. Considering that I found my bag open on the MRT, that might have been possible, but then someone would have told me, wouldn't they?
I hope they are safe and sound.
Ironically, currently I feel more worried for my fitness level, and height, rather than those missing trivia. I should start doing something about it.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Sunday, January 17, 2010
"Orientation" 2010 - Part 2
We were talking about deciding on the class motto the previous day, when I gave this "proverb" as a joke.
'Build a man a fire and warm him for a day, set a man on fire and warm him for a lifetime.'
But Eugene gave me a further insight deeper into it. It could also mean to ignite the flame of learning and independence within a person.
***
Day two started with the station games which were no good, possibly other than tagball. Games like fighting to blow a ping pong ball to the other end of the floor, leaving the ground in a salivary mess, or the write-with-a-marker-by-tying-strings-around-it game. Oh whatever is the world coming to?
For most of Day two and three of orientation, it was house meetings. House meetings in preparation for the campfire. We had to make a costume related to the theme of ignition, and although I am not any professional critic, I could positively say that their design was not very well...well-designed.
On the morning of day three, people were busy making the garbage bag costume, which to cut a long story short, turned out rather much like a chicken suit rather than a fiery display. Too many cooks spoil the broth, and as no one gave us any jobs, a group of us kept out of the way. We started drawing, playing chess, reversi and connect with pencil on paper, origami, and any other scrap-paper related activity you could think of. After all, scrap paper was sure to be lying within hand's reach every moment.
Then, this girl came over to our group and saw that we were not doing anything work related, the closest work related thing being a checkered costume very good for playing board games. But as I have mentioned, we were minding our own business based on the justification that 'help would be given when you ask', and since no one asked us for help, we inferred that they were doing perfectly fine without us.
However, just like any other enthusiastic house leader, she would hear none of it and told us to do a cheer, and we would be then left alone. All was silent, not a single cheer was heard. Personally, I was thinking at that time, why should we cheer?
Aren't cheers just exhibiting the competitive nature of mankind dominating over the peaceful side of them? If cheering would be of any purpose, it would be for encouragement, and of all the times I have seen the school cheering, it was to make noise most of the time because someone would think that the silence is too peaceful for him.
Back to the story, great minds think alike, and all of us refused to waste our breath and 'practice' cheering. It isn't as if we were a cheer-leading team who needed rehearsals which included complicated footwork and stunts like double backflips and arm levers. When we kept silent, she insisted on us cheering, otherwise, she would complain to the teacher to stop us from playing, or lazing or doing whatever she does not like to see us doing.
A really long argument ensued, between her and a guy who stalled by telling her that we needed time to rehearse. After much recurring argument, the girl took my cheer sheet which I have neatly boxed, and tore it open, passed it to him and made him recite the stupidest cheer(or should I say one of the stupidest).
Lunchtime. A simple lunch, followed by a session with friends at the fitness corner. We did pull ups, monkey bars, dips and the classic of sitting on the top of the monkey bars. Wc, Jorg, Jk, ben, tl and cmc were there.
Jk tried doing upside down sit ups, followed by me, beating his number of times by a few, then he did it again, beating me, and I did it again. It was quite tiring, especially if we set it such that each time we are only allowed the beat each other by 1. Fortunately, our minds were in the right state at that time, so we did not do that.
House meeting again. Having finished that hilarious chicken suit, we slacked in class. Then, we proceeded to the concourse for further instructions which were issued untimely as I was in the toilet.
Having left my bag and all other belongings in my bag with my friends, who mysteriously disappeared, I searched from the 1st to the 4th floor, where I finally found them in the auditorium gasping for breath. In the auditorium, Eugene read his book about calculus, with me occasionally peeking with interest, and I scribbled on a piece of rough paper, trying to make ambigrams.
Dayna kept on asking us about who some people like in a really pursuing manner, and when the subject turned to you-know-who, she said: "Help me pass the message back to him that I don't like him."
That was rather funny to us.
The house leaders made us do cheers and we did it unenthusiastically just like normal. Then came a series of people in weird, lame, atrocious (you name the descriptors) costumes, one of which they claimed to be 'fibo man' or some sh**, but appeared rather like mickey mouse.
Dinner came and left.
***
NUSHS' first campfire, big deal. I was hoping it would rain, but unfortunately, the sky was clear. Then this teacher was up on stage asking the school.
"Is everyone having fun?"
An equal number of yes and nos came out from the audience. However, this teacher would not take no for an answer, so she repeated the question until the yes were louder than the no.
We spent quite some time in the hall learning children songs and stupid games which mostly involved clapping and singing. I mean, a few would be okay, but that was like making up most part of the activities.
Finally, salvation came (compared to what we were experiencing in the hall), and we moved off the the track for this campfire thing.
Dusk fell and the campfire did not fail to pollute the fresh evening air at the field. Activities were the 'fashion parade', 'cheering' (more like shouting and fighting) and performances put up by year 1s and 3s.
The bomb game (supposedly part of the cheering), was nothing but wasting of breath.
The 'fashion parade' was so boring I was dreaming.
And all I know about the performances was that it was something that involved a lot of shouting and punching the air. Fortunately Keat Mun, I do not know how he did it, but he just walked up and took over the limelight and started singing this Beatles song, which was the first thing that caught my attention that night. I am impressed.
However, the more interesting activities included:
-Pretending the lightsticks were light sabres and waving them around and 'fighting'
-Going to the toilet in the middle of a performance
-Counting the number of stars in the sky
-Sleeping
From time to time, just when the joy and contentment of seeing the fire burning out was seeping towards us, the people added more fuel into it, sending a cloud of billowing smoke towards us. The smoke dispersed itself into the distance, roaming about freely into residential complexes...Oh man, what happened to saving the environment?
The noise, amidst...more noise turned everything into nothing. It felt like the surrounding noise was just normal, part of everyday life, and the perfect environment to sleep in once you get used to it within the crowd.
Although it was not 10pm yet, by the law, no one can sue the school for making so much noise at night, when the poor residents of clementi are trying to get some sleep. Morally, however, there is all the inconsideration in such an act. People have campfires in more rural areas, like the park, not in the middle of a housing estate.
But I could still see that some people thought that it was awesome. I don't know about them, but I thought that it was a waste of time and it is the worst thing the school has ever done (Perhaps other than the turnstile). Tell me, what good this campfire had brought.
Perhaps just pleasing some majority of the school.
'Build a man a fire and warm him for a day, set a man on fire and warm him for a lifetime.'
But Eugene gave me a further insight deeper into it. It could also mean to ignite the flame of learning and independence within a person.
***
Day two started with the station games which were no good, possibly other than tagball. Games like fighting to blow a ping pong ball to the other end of the floor, leaving the ground in a salivary mess, or the write-with-a-marker-by-tying-strings-around-it game. Oh whatever is the world coming to?
For most of Day two and three of orientation, it was house meetings. House meetings in preparation for the campfire. We had to make a costume related to the theme of ignition, and although I am not any professional critic, I could positively say that their design was not very well...well-designed.
On the morning of day three, people were busy making the garbage bag costume, which to cut a long story short, turned out rather much like a chicken suit rather than a fiery display. Too many cooks spoil the broth, and as no one gave us any jobs, a group of us kept out of the way. We started drawing, playing chess, reversi and connect with pencil on paper, origami, and any other scrap-paper related activity you could think of. After all, scrap paper was sure to be lying within hand's reach every moment.
Then, this girl came over to our group and saw that we were not doing anything work related, the closest work related thing being a checkered costume very good for playing board games. But as I have mentioned, we were minding our own business based on the justification that 'help would be given when you ask', and since no one asked us for help, we inferred that they were doing perfectly fine without us.
However, just like any other enthusiastic house leader, she would hear none of it and told us to do a cheer, and we would be then left alone. All was silent, not a single cheer was heard. Personally, I was thinking at that time, why should we cheer?
Aren't cheers just exhibiting the competitive nature of mankind dominating over the peaceful side of them? If cheering would be of any purpose, it would be for encouragement, and of all the times I have seen the school cheering, it was to make noise most of the time because someone would think that the silence is too peaceful for him.
Back to the story, great minds think alike, and all of us refused to waste our breath and 'practice' cheering. It isn't as if we were a cheer-leading team who needed rehearsals which included complicated footwork and stunts like double backflips and arm levers. When we kept silent, she insisted on us cheering, otherwise, she would complain to the teacher to stop us from playing, or lazing or doing whatever she does not like to see us doing.
A really long argument ensued, between her and a guy who stalled by telling her that we needed time to rehearse. After much recurring argument, the girl took my cheer sheet which I have neatly boxed, and tore it open, passed it to him and made him recite the stupidest cheer(or should I say one of the stupidest).
Lunchtime. A simple lunch, followed by a session with friends at the fitness corner. We did pull ups, monkey bars, dips and the classic of sitting on the top of the monkey bars. Wc, Jorg, Jk, ben, tl and cmc were there.
Jk tried doing upside down sit ups, followed by me, beating his number of times by a few, then he did it again, beating me, and I did it again. It was quite tiring, especially if we set it such that each time we are only allowed the beat each other by 1. Fortunately, our minds were in the right state at that time, so we did not do that.
House meeting again. Having finished that hilarious chicken suit, we slacked in class. Then, we proceeded to the concourse for further instructions which were issued untimely as I was in the toilet.
Having left my bag and all other belongings in my bag with my friends, who mysteriously disappeared, I searched from the 1st to the 4th floor, where I finally found them in the auditorium gasping for breath. In the auditorium, Eugene read his book about calculus, with me occasionally peeking with interest, and I scribbled on a piece of rough paper, trying to make ambigrams.
Dayna kept on asking us about who some people like in a really pursuing manner, and when the subject turned to you-know-who, she said: "Help me pass the message back to him that I don't like him."
That was rather funny to us.
The house leaders made us do cheers and we did it unenthusiastically just like normal. Then came a series of people in weird, lame, atrocious (you name the descriptors) costumes, one of which they claimed to be 'fibo man' or some sh**, but appeared rather like mickey mouse.
Dinner came and left.
***
NUSHS' first campfire, big deal. I was hoping it would rain, but unfortunately, the sky was clear. Then this teacher was up on stage asking the school.
"Is everyone having fun?"
An equal number of yes and nos came out from the audience. However, this teacher would not take no for an answer, so she repeated the question until the yes were louder than the no.
We spent quite some time in the hall learning children songs and stupid games which mostly involved clapping and singing. I mean, a few would be okay, but that was like making up most part of the activities.
Finally, salvation came (compared to what we were experiencing in the hall), and we moved off the the track for this campfire thing.
Dusk fell and the campfire did not fail to pollute the fresh evening air at the field. Activities were the 'fashion parade', 'cheering' (more like shouting and fighting) and performances put up by year 1s and 3s.
The bomb game (supposedly part of the cheering), was nothing but wasting of breath.
The 'fashion parade' was so boring I was dreaming.
And all I know about the performances was that it was something that involved a lot of shouting and punching the air. Fortunately Keat Mun, I do not know how he did it, but he just walked up and took over the limelight and started singing this Beatles song, which was the first thing that caught my attention that night. I am impressed.
However, the more interesting activities included:
-Pretending the lightsticks were light sabres and waving them around and 'fighting'
-Going to the toilet in the middle of a performance
-Counting the number of stars in the sky
-Sleeping
From time to time, just when the joy and contentment of seeing the fire burning out was seeping towards us, the people added more fuel into it, sending a cloud of billowing smoke towards us. The smoke dispersed itself into the distance, roaming about freely into residential complexes...Oh man, what happened to saving the environment?
The noise, amidst...more noise turned everything into nothing. It felt like the surrounding noise was just normal, part of everyday life, and the perfect environment to sleep in once you get used to it within the crowd.
Although it was not 10pm yet, by the law, no one can sue the school for making so much noise at night, when the poor residents of clementi are trying to get some sleep. Morally, however, there is all the inconsideration in such an act. People have campfires in more rural areas, like the park, not in the middle of a housing estate.
But I could still see that some people thought that it was awesome. I don't know about them, but I thought that it was a waste of time and it is the worst thing the school has ever done (Perhaps other than the turnstile). Tell me, what good this campfire had brought.
Perhaps just pleasing some majority of the school.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
"Orientation" 2010 - Part 1
This is a story of three meaningless days.
Things REALLY have changed since our current principal took over. Things was going on perfectly fine and well have become nothing but a utopic dream. 惹是生非 would be a good description.
Installation of the backgate turnstile caused massive traffic jams and without any improvement in school security. Changing the lesson periods to 45 minutes, realising it does not work (and never will) then changing it back again. Now orientation, what's with all these house meetings overwriting the pleasantness of orientation.
I was wondering: Does the school have nothing better to do than to fill up our "empty" lives with house meetings? I found out the purpose of all these in due course, not being surprised that it would be for a bad cause.
***
School started with the usual assembly, principal address and disciplinary briefing. We got this new disciplinary master, who seemed quite alright at first. However, appearances might not be deceiving, and I started to dislike him and his fat figure the more he talked and saw him.
After playing basketball, we went up to the auditorium for more briefings, and then proceeded to class. Now is the time to talk about notice boards.
School, over the years, seemed to be more and more like competition. Everything is about that. Inter-school Olympiads, best decorated class award and et cetera. The same goes for our notice board.
Others want it to be visually appealing, colourful, not plain. Thus they use a board's worth of black paper to cover up the beigh notice board. Then, they cut out each letter in different colours and pasted them individually onto the board forming a nonsensical word which serves no other purpose but to make our notice board look more colourful.
A notice board is for notices. It is not a painting. Why shouldn't it be good as long as it serves it's purpose.
I asked: "Why are you even bothering to paste all these black paper onto the board. It is such a waste of resources."
"You mean you just want a brown board like that?" she asked in a ridiculous sort of manner.
"Yea why not?"
My point is, a notice board is a notice board and as long as the important notices are up there, it is good enough. If you want a black board why don't you just go paint it black.
Of course, no one will listen to the insane thoughts of me.
***
Lunch was catered that day, unfortunately, only THAT day, unlike in the previous years when each meal, including snacks were catered. Later, we had our first house meeting. What they wanted us to do was scream horribly composed cheers and whoever the composer was should never admit it. I can't believe I am saying this, but the F-I-B-O Cheer made the most sense. Then we were forced to play a sentence making game with letters from people born in the same month. That murdered quite a lot of our time.
Then we went to the hall to learn the mass dance.
For one thing, the new song was horrible, as agreed by many other people. The dance for "We could be together" by Debbie Gibson in year one was at the least considered music. I have to admit that that person who choreographed the dance and chose the music had good taste.
Everything was deteriorating.
And if anyone has an objection against this post, be prepared for worse in day 2.
Things REALLY have changed since our current principal took over. Things was going on perfectly fine and well have become nothing but a utopic dream. 惹是生非 would be a good description.
Installation of the backgate turnstile caused massive traffic jams and without any improvement in school security. Changing the lesson periods to 45 minutes, realising it does not work (and never will) then changing it back again. Now orientation, what's with all these house meetings overwriting the pleasantness of orientation.
I was wondering: Does the school have nothing better to do than to fill up our "empty" lives with house meetings? I found out the purpose of all these in due course, not being surprised that it would be for a bad cause.
***
School started with the usual assembly, principal address and disciplinary briefing. We got this new disciplinary master, who seemed quite alright at first. However, appearances might not be deceiving, and I started to dislike him and his fat figure the more he talked and saw him.
After playing basketball, we went up to the auditorium for more briefings, and then proceeded to class. Now is the time to talk about notice boards.
School, over the years, seemed to be more and more like competition. Everything is about that. Inter-school Olympiads, best decorated class award and et cetera. The same goes for our notice board.
Others want it to be visually appealing, colourful, not plain. Thus they use a board's worth of black paper to cover up the beigh notice board. Then, they cut out each letter in different colours and pasted them individually onto the board forming a nonsensical word which serves no other purpose but to make our notice board look more colourful.
A notice board is for notices. It is not a painting. Why shouldn't it be good as long as it serves it's purpose.
I asked: "Why are you even bothering to paste all these black paper onto the board. It is such a waste of resources."
"You mean you just want a brown board like that?" she asked in a ridiculous sort of manner.
"Yea why not?"
My point is, a notice board is a notice board and as long as the important notices are up there, it is good enough. If you want a black board why don't you just go paint it black.
Of course, no one will listen to the insane thoughts of me.
***
Lunch was catered that day, unfortunately, only THAT day, unlike in the previous years when each meal, including snacks were catered. Later, we had our first house meeting. What they wanted us to do was scream horribly composed cheers and whoever the composer was should never admit it. I can't believe I am saying this, but the F-I-B-O Cheer made the most sense. Then we were forced to play a sentence making game with letters from people born in the same month. That murdered quite a lot of our time.
Then we went to the hall to learn the mass dance.
For one thing, the new song was horrible, as agreed by many other people. The dance for "We could be together" by Debbie Gibson in year one was at the least considered music. I have to admit that that person who choreographed the dance and chose the music had good taste.
Everything was deteriorating.
And if anyone has an objection against this post, be prepared for worse in day 2.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
A Gloomy Forecast
But forecasts might be wrong.
It is the year 2010, and I was admittedly feeling rather unsure about the year ahead. It seemed like I was loading up on too much work than i could handle.
CCA on Both Mondays and Fridays, electives on Tuesday, German on either Wednesday or Thursday, and I am only left with one more day for SMP.
So how am I supposed to schedule my time, especially when I am still not sure when SMP meetings are usually on. I do not even know if I have got a project yet.
I do not know how to start scheduling my time, like when to change my german class to.
I wondered if I would be able to handle it all. For the first few days, it was just going along without any plans. What else could I do?
Fortunately, I regained my confidence after sometime.
I am sure that by putting first things first, beginning with the end in mind, sharpening my saw, and with my friends and family to help me along the way, nothing is impossible.
A beautiful song I got to know in Primary Six. Never fails to remind me of those times.
Want to know how 'orientation' was? Read about it in the next post
It is the year 2010, and I was admittedly feeling rather unsure about the year ahead. It seemed like I was loading up on too much work than i could handle.
CCA on Both Mondays and Fridays, electives on Tuesday, German on either Wednesday or Thursday, and I am only left with one more day for SMP.
So how am I supposed to schedule my time, especially when I am still not sure when SMP meetings are usually on. I do not even know if I have got a project yet.
I do not know how to start scheduling my time, like when to change my german class to.
I wondered if I would be able to handle it all. For the first few days, it was just going along without any plans. What else could I do?
Fortunately, I regained my confidence after sometime.
I am sure that by putting first things first, beginning with the end in mind, sharpening my saw, and with my friends and family to help me along the way, nothing is impossible.
A beautiful song I got to know in Primary Six. Never fails to remind me of those times.
Want to know how 'orientation' was? Read about it in the next post
Monday, January 4, 2010
Life in 2009 - The Closing Episode
The last time I have posted about the series "Life in 2009" was in the first half of the last year. The main reason being, I rather not think about sad and negative things. It just makes me sadder. But now that the year have closed, and most things have come to a settle, I suppose it is time to safely flip the pages and look through it once again...
Now that reshuffling befalled the poor souls of year 2, I was thrown into a pool of loneliness in my new class as I did not have any real friends there. Thus, I kept on visiting my friends in other classes which turned out to be quite a challenge and quite tiring due to different timetables.
Another obstacle I faced would have been about me having doubted a friend a lot. That threw me into quite a emotional state, as some people i have shared with knows. However, I started to feel enlightenment that I was just being paranoid because being in the same class once and not anymore have made quite a change that I was not able to handle quickly enough.
Gradually, I learnt how not to live my life in school. I have been quite peers-centered before, making me make decisions and be dependent on friends. However, as I faced challenge after challenge of not having much friends by my side always, this center of mine drifted away, which is in fact a good thing.
Having a center means being dependent on it. If one is too friend-centered:
-When they aren't with you, you feel lost
-When they make an annoying remark or leave you, you feel betrayed
-When anything about them does not go your way, your day is ruined
So, friends are undoubtedly a wonderful thing to have, but it is important to bear in mind not to let your feelings be dependent on them.
Other centers like hobbies, sports or academics might face the same downfall too, however one center that never fails would be the principal center. Do what you know is right and not wrong, because and even if not then, your conscience would eventually catch up with you.
I have now (hopefully) made new friends but must still be aware of the danger of dependence.
One quote about living around a center: If who I am is what I have and what I have is lost, then who am I?
I did not make that up
Now that reshuffling befalled the poor souls of year 2, I was thrown into a pool of loneliness in my new class as I did not have any real friends there. Thus, I kept on visiting my friends in other classes which turned out to be quite a challenge and quite tiring due to different timetables.
Another obstacle I faced would have been about me having doubted a friend a lot. That threw me into quite a emotional state, as some people i have shared with knows. However, I started to feel enlightenment that I was just being paranoid because being in the same class once and not anymore have made quite a change that I was not able to handle quickly enough.
Gradually, I learnt how not to live my life in school. I have been quite peers-centered before, making me make decisions and be dependent on friends. However, as I faced challenge after challenge of not having much friends by my side always, this center of mine drifted away, which is in fact a good thing.
Having a center means being dependent on it. If one is too friend-centered:
-When they aren't with you, you feel lost
-When they make an annoying remark or leave you, you feel betrayed
-When anything about them does not go your way, your day is ruined
So, friends are undoubtedly a wonderful thing to have, but it is important to bear in mind not to let your feelings be dependent on them.
Other centers like hobbies, sports or academics might face the same downfall too, however one center that never fails would be the principal center. Do what you know is right and not wrong, because and even if not then, your conscience would eventually catch up with you.
I have now (hopefully) made new friends but must still be aware of the danger of dependence.
One quote about living around a center: If who I am is what I have and what I have is lost, then who am I?
I did not make that up
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