Basket.

Ha, clowning around with my brother last night. He had this cap and we were doing really funny stuff with it, like putting it on backwards and parodying the new McDonald's advertisments. It was hilarious... I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. No offense to A01C, of course.

So he's leaving tommorrow, and I don't really want to think about it. I knew this day would come eventually, but when it's really here... the feeling just hits.

I don't want to admit it, but I am going to miss the guy. Whatever it is, we grew up together, and for much of my early life he was my playmate, later moving on to be someone to joke with, talk to and share many happy memories. We are pretty close, and I really cannot help but feel more than a little sad that we won't be able to talk crap with each other personally for a long time to come.

It will be difficult... but it will be inevitable. There is just no substitute at all for such a unique character in one's life.

The class has been great though. Still been thinking how much worse my life would be without all of them to joke with, crap with, laugh with and even talk seriously with. Good times this may not be on the academic front, but great times they are... otherwise.

What are good times anyway? Fleeting moments that you wish could last forever but always slip by so quickly. Siiiiiiggggggghhhh...

Promo fever in full swing... hence the changes.

Wooooo... not a bad Friday at all today, I would say. It was really a mistake for the maths lecturer to tell us Power Series was not tested... no one at all gave a fuck what went on in LT 5 today =p

Went out for lunch with the gang today... ate two sandwiches and loads of stolen stuff. The Ghim Moh pig innard soup is simply heavenly; I have never eaten pig liver with such an excellent texture. The soup was pretty good too, but a bit bland; more herbs and pepper would have done it the power of good. Gotta get back and eat a full meal from there one day.

It is this kind of moments that help you forget promos are in two weeks. Good friends, good food... sigh.

One year. How long is one year? And I'll fuckin' wallop anyone who tells me it is 365 days, 8760 hours or 31,536,000 seconds, because there is more to time than mere facts.

It somehow just hit today, when I had to return to RI despite horribly wet weather and horribly bastard taxi drivers. My work done, I decided to linger around my alma mater a bit, and ran into a friend who went to TJ. Asking him what his business was in this place, I found that he had returned to give a JC talk (done every year) to the present batch of sec 4s.

And it was this that sparked the realisation within me that almost exactly one year ago, I was one of those sec 4s listening to the talks. The sec 4s of yesteryear had become the J1s of this year, and the J1s of the year before were now taking their A-Levels. It was almost shocking... just where has this past year vanished to? How has it managed to slip by like an anonymous shadow in the night and disappear into the inky morass of the past, never, ever to return?

One year, seemingly so long, yet in reality so short. A year ago almost none of this present class knew each other, and none at all knew they would be thrown together virtually at random to form the united 1A01C we have today. It seems incredible; so many variables were in the equation, and it was a thousand twists of fate that arguably brought us all together.

One year, and it seemed as if it all happened in a week, or less. So many things, so many events, so many highs, so many lows, so many triumphs, so many tragedies. It has been one hell of a ride, and it has virtually flashed past our eyes.

Pragmatic. Dogmatic; dictatorial, according to dictionary.com. And not a word often associated with me. In fact, never, until today.

Now, I've been called a considerable number of things, good and bad, in this short 17 years, but never, ever this word, until today. Not that I have anything against the people (Cherylene, Jieqi and Gen seemed to come to this common consensus) who perpetrated this act; they have every right to their opinion. I am just intrigued... what could possibly make me a pragmatist in their eyes?

Could it be my ruthless, bean-counting ways as treasurer? Or my insistence that six weeks is a standard time before an exam to start studying? Perhaps it is my continued stress on being focused in preparation for the exams. I can only postulate, for it is a complete mystery to me; over the years people have more associated me as an antithesis of a pragmatist!

In RI I was rather known as being a slacker; one who did his homework but almost never studied, getting by by virtue of sheer intellectual capability; most of the time at least. I never did do many Maths practice questions like much of the rest of 4E; yet I, like everyone else, studied and worried when the exams came, be they Sec 1, Prelims or O-Levels. Never too fond of the sciences and maths, I literally had to force myself to sit down and mug those disgusting formulas and equations.

Hmmm... perhaps therein lies my pragmatism. I actually bothered, and managed, to force myself to do it. To study what I did not like. A dogmatic act that qualifies me as a pragmatist? Or me, not naturally pragmatic, forced to become so by circumstance? I would happily have dropped all 3 sciences and Add Maths if I could, after all, ie if the school allowed and... I must admit, no negative consequences were forthcoming from this act.

Aha. Perhaps it is that last part that can be seized on. "No negative consequences were forthcoming from this act"... have I just exposed myself as a pragmatist here? If so, however, I can think of one more question to ask: why are we all taking Maths C and complaining about it despite the fact that we can drop it anytime? I see no other reason than the fact that 4 A-Level subjects are a world away from 3. If this is so, we are all, every single one of us who hates Maths, taking into account these "negative consequences". So, are we all closet pragmatists, or what...?

Winston and the bunch of them never saw me more than a guy who was lazy but had something in my head; Zihao in a recent straw poll was of the opinion that I was "less pragmatic than most". Indeed, I myself feel that I almost always follow my fancy in doing things, sometimes to my own detriment. What, in the end, exactly are my characteristics? Can they be clearly defined, or am I a mass of contradictions? Mmm... very interesting. To think one single remark (ok, a few) can launch a journey of self-exploration. I wonder. No, I seriously do.

"A million things to do, which you don't fucking want to do at all."

That pretty much sums it all up.

Saturday night... let's round up the week, I guess.

Monday - Wake up, have lessons, go home, study, sleep.
Tuesday - Wake up, have lessons, go home, study, sleep.
Wednesday - Wake up, have lessons, go home, study, sleep.
Thursday - Wake up, have lessons, go home, study, sleep.
Friday - Wake up, have lessons, go home, study, sleep.

You get the fuckin' idea. A damn boring week enlivened only by this always-entertaining class and its almost-always-amusing teachers. From corny jokes about Jieqi's lunch (Zihao could barley stand it) to historical debates with the aforementioned cross-eyed guy with the big head to laughing uproariously at Pandian's less-than-deserving history notes, this week was a typical one in 1C crappiness. God, I just friggin love this class.

Ahhh... Friday. Usually an excellent day for slacking, but not when important exams are a mere three weeks away...! Get cracking, people who haven't, can continue cracking, people who have.

Thursday. Almost always dreary, but this one was not too bad by such low standards. I went through it feeling reasonably alright, unlike many of its predecessors. And tommorrow, is, Friday again.

And here's the friendly reminder I have promised to place in every blog post until it's over: Only slightly more than 3 weeks to promos!

Tired, tired, tired. Who the hell isn't? I find it hilarious that one of MoE's aims for the JC student is to cultivate resilience. Well of course they do, by putting us all through such a hellish system. And they seem to be trying harder and harder to test resilience to the very breaking point. We're considered lucky, I wouldn't want to get that new A-Level syllabus...!

Less than four weeks to promos. Shit.

What happened today? I wish something did. Oh, besides the fact that we were fed nauseating government propaganda. I just love the Ministry of Education.

First day of term, and everything is laid out before us. Death is the only answer, it seems.

So, the end of another week, and of another holiday. Term 4 begins tommorrow and it is another month at least of toil, triumph and tragedy (hopefully not). That was a quick holiday... then again, almost everything this year has been quick.

Sigh.

Boring boring boring days... and school is soon to reopen.

Some day it was today. Went to school for CCA, and somehow ended up eating lunch three times. Yes, three meals when there was only supposed to be one. How I survived it, I have no idea.

Not much else worthy of note on a very dull September 11th. Unlike this very day exactly two years ago.

Still at Daniel's house. Loads of RoN mixed in with studying these past days, and an extremely unhealthy lifestyle of fast food, coffee and instant noodles. Going home later today.=)

Updating from Daniel's house tonight. I came today and will be here the next two days for IPW and some studying.

Lots of running about today, including a fruitless search for a good Lit guide book around Kinokuniya and Borders. On the way we picked up Rise of Nations at Funan, and that means a sleepless night today.=)

But seriously, today was another reminder of the slowly encroaching exams...

Internet was fuck slow the past two days, so I didn't update. Never mind, it is nice and fast now.

So, September break. Not much of one I would say, but that is only to be expected with the dreaded promos only slightly more than a month away. Shit.

Loads of loose ends to tie up these holidays too. The hell.

Last day of term, etc... yes. And another Friday night. Why do they just come and go so quickly? Aye... somehow I just don't want this year to end...! But of course it is not within my power to halt the inexorable passage of time...

So... pretty relaxing night I guess. Some Maths, Age of Extremes, and here I am in front of the PC again. Well then, it can't last. Toodles.

Thursday night. Always one of the better times in a week, as all are equipped with the knowledge that the weekend (and in this case) a weeks of holidays, shall soon be here. But actually, there isn't really a big deal about that. Oh well.

Here, here, little cockroachieeeeee...

Yes, yes, encounters with my old nemesis (is there a plural for this word?) is responsible for this title. I've been afraid of those dirty, brown, disgusting six-legged buggers since when? Blast.

Blame it on the frickin Zihao. I mentioned to him casually that as I was returning from Ghim Moh after dinner I saw a cockroach at the void deck and was kinda freaked. Then I need to go to the toilet. At 8.15pm, so it is dark and all. So Zihao tells me to be careful as I might see a cockroach. I laugh it off.

Oddly, the toilet light is not on. I flick the switch, enter somewhat cautiously, and what do I see scurrying about on the floor? My dear old friend. I beat a hasty retreat upon sight of the beastly creature of my worst nightmares.

That idiot. So many past weeks he don't open his big mouth, I at night go toilet, no incident. Then today he talks about it, and it really happens. The hell.

We had plenty of close encounters of the third kind with similarly winged fiends, albeit much smaller and far more harmless ones. We mercilessly slaughtered them nonetheless.

An evening of fun and games with our three-segmented, winged and tremendously irritating brethren was then appropriately closed with my final rhyming salutory couplet to Zihao: "Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite". The hell with it, I hope they bite him all the harder.=)

Bah... no updates for the past two days because the Internet was fuck slow. Then again, nothing much worthy of note happened.

To summarise my glorious long weekend, it was studying interspersed with periods of Civ II. Fun eh? Call it necessary, rather.

Another long Tuesday. Not a bad day, except for the fact that nowadays I keep feeling the cold, damp breath of the approaching promos on the back of my neck. More work was parcelled out to do (so what's new?), but we ended it pretty pleasantly with a screening of the Animatrix. It was positively enthralling, and I mean it.