A few notes before my usual bookout post:

My sources tell me that my wake is rather visible:

"The econs hod seemed rather angry about it though. She told us that all palmtops were banned, because a student had written "bad things" on it.. was she referring to you?"

"He made reference to this 'terrible, terrible review' on the internet, (although in a rather amused sort of way) and seemed rather disappointed when no one appeared to have read it."

Hehehe.

10:47PM:
I'm rather dazed now, so the bookout post will still not be posted. Yet.

Another snippet:
" The life of an RJCian sucks.

I shall not elaborate, because of the infamy associated with you in RJ. In the sense that I don't want random people from RJ or RJ teachers coming here and reading about my real thoughts. No offence by the way. You're a very nice person. :)"

I presume this refers to me :)

From the same place:
"'I'm currently reading the last of the Alexander the Great trilogy by Valerio Massimo.' (which I really am reading, I'm not shitting you here.)"

My sister bought me the first book of that. But I think I might not get through it in the near future. Herodotus is sitting in my cupboard at camp, barely touched since I brought it (I'm in the middle, maybe, of Book 5 [of 8]). I'll try to keep up with The Economist first, so I know what's happenning in the world.

Heard from his mother that gabriel's still in confinement, dunno why.

I just came back from KL malaysia, spent last last friday to last thursday there. Stayed with relatives in ampang. I tried to contact zhe hui and ended up talking to his sis(?) in malacca- he's in KL studying A levels, will take the UCLES exams in may/june this year. Currently corresponding with him via email .
Spent my time with my relatives in the ampang area (and a hectic night with 3 juvenile cousins- aged 5,7,9 respectively. Fortunately, the next night they went off for tuition.) Aunty also drove down to Putrajaya- the new government centre off KL- grand architecture, giant mosques. Pavilions, parks, most of the gov. HQ stuff moved down there already.
I wanted to see the Paya Indah wetlands and the hippos there, go cycling, horseriding, trekking, nature-viewing but it was too late in the afternoon to take the tram and all that.
Then my cousin brought me down to ampang point- bought lotsa movie vcds. Also found things like spirited away and "the colour of paradise" (an iranian film- i'm obssessed with them). Wanted to buy Asoka ($20 ringgit in a legal CD store) but it was in hindi with malay subtitles.

Went to KLCC and walked around on my own... saw shops, got a RM$30 haircut, read harry potter in Kinokuniya.
My aunty's maid helped me dye my hair... it was a tube of ruby red dye, supposed to turn it brown, but ... it's orange. I like orange, but .... Do tell me whether it's noticeable if you see me round.

Since Utopia recently took a break, my cousin's onto another online web medieval strategy game that necessitates his logging on at odd hours to check on his kingdom.

Hey this is interesting, half the people who went to
http://www.geocities.com/marshmall0w/me.html
used google.com to search for the keyword "creative writing rjc". (manic grin) Publicity! Email me at marshmall0w@yahoo.com if you'd like to know more- or if you'd like to know some dastardly secrets of the J2s (heh heh heeee heee)

Most common keyword on search to my links page is QLRS, the toh hsien min web/print quarterly literary journal. If you go there you'll see at least one p-HO-to (look among the photos taken at the launch in book cafe)

*gasp* Even Giordano is selling hot socks now!

Andrew gan

Sigh... just heard from huijun that "Bryan's Brilliant Idea" aka S03B '2001 reunion outing thingy on 19 Jan. facing bad turnout. 5 people confirmed to be exact. Brilliant is Bryan's not turning up, Mala (who first spread Bryan's Brilliant Idea around) not in singapore, and most others are unconfirmed (which means they're waiting to see who else will turn up)....

Mum suggested i go for tennis lessons.

I'm halfway thru "A house for mr. biswas". Light enough reading,

Oh, Joshua 21 monthly concert thingy is in COOS- Church of our Saviour, This Saturday 19 Jan. 8pm. COOS is 5 min. walking distance from commonwealth MRT- alight and walk towards the queenstown market, the church is next to the market facing the main road. There'll be a large crowd there so you can't miss it.

Andrew gan

Most vegetarians/hindus are careful abt consuming gummy sweets, since most have beef gelatine.

Those floral printed shorts must be BERMS !! Erm, triplet was wearing a pair of pink ones... somewhere in OOD photo gallery.

The way Britney spears sings All her songs is disgusting... in her defence she mumbled something about "Southern' gals" in USA wearing crop tops and hot shorts all the time

Have u seen the Ericsson wireles bluetooth headphone thingy? It's really cool! I saw this ITE guy talking on it on the MRT. Has a range of 10m, i think, but handphone is generally left in the pocket so u don't have to mess with wires

The marks the garters left on my lower legs, caused by day-long wearing during the 4 days of range, are still visible. Gah.

Leaving for dinner, then to the ferry terminal soon. The day of MC I took has done quite a bit for my cough. Zhongyong also took MC, and I hope he's feeling better now.

4 and a half days of shit, here I come.

More backlog:

I'm feeling the pain of the Adult farecard. The 54 from Orchard Road to Bishan cost $1.00, and the 855 home from MacRitchie cost $1.10. Ouch.

I saw this 8 year old boy on the 54. He was wearing a singlet which had "Endure and Excel", and the PTI crest on it. I didn't know the singlets came in such small sizes. Maybe he just ironed on the badge.

So far, quite a few people in camp have asked me about the scar I have on my forehead. Maybe I should tell them it was caused by doing too many pushups. Muahaha.


RI:
I went back to RI yesterday to watch the 1urv Affair concert video (the second best choice because the concert was held on the 28th, before my New Year bookout).

RI has sold out. They now make everyone spend $10 to buy those large combination locks a la RGS and ACS, the ones with large rotary dials and which can be unlocked with a master key. Guess maintenance was tired of walking around with the giant set of pliers.

Now they've a String Ensemble. Hurrah! Band band and more band just doesn't cut it.

Uncle Soon Kiat has a new T-Shirt! These say "SKC" [Soon Kiat Construction], on the front pocket, if I remember correctly. While there I saw a bearded girl! She was at the water cooler and when she turned around, I saw that she had a beard atop her feminine features. Gasp.


Raffles Voices:

Some things never change. The choir was as noisy and rowdy as ever. People still like to run around (as I once did) and play stuff on the piano. Cheapo songs are still sung during Raffles Trail to con the Secondary Ones into thinking that "fun" songs are what make up the repertoire. And they had "Listen to the Music" again! ARGH. I"m sick of that piece. Well, actually now they've sold out. I found 4-5 ABBA scored in someone's score book.

When I entered LT3, it was not to the usual noise that customarily greeted me when I returned on previous occasions. The last time I visited was, if I'm not wrong, in June 2001, and that time, as always happened when I returned after graduating, I was greeted with raucous applause and people shouting my name. Now, only those who were in Secondary One when I was in Secondary Four are left. And I didn't get to know them very well, since I stopped going for choir in the Second Quarter of 1999 due to my not being selected for Choral Excellence. So I had, what, 3 months interaction with them. Coupled with my being bad at names... A pity I didn't get to know them better. Maybe when I am free (during block leave, perhaps), I shall return to acquaint myself with the new generation of Secondary Ones as I did in 2000 and 2001, such that people I didn't know came up to me saying, "You're Gabriel, right?" and "You're the one who spoilt the LT3 chair!" [NB: I didn't. I rarely sat in that particular seat].

I heard 'blazer', not just once, but twice!. No 'brazer'. Yeh!

They used an iBook for the presentation. Nice. Yummy. Mmm.

People are still eating the disgusting Yupi. I tried it once and was neutral towards it. Until, that is, I looked at "Ingredients" and discovered that it contains Beef Gelatine! Eee. Sweets and confectionary should not contain meat. I wonder if vegetarians or Hindus know about what goes into their Yupi...


1urv Affair video:

Note: 1urv stands for 1 United Raffles Voices. It's quite interesting and the person who thought it up has quite good perception :) How sad am I? I'm reviewing a video! Gosh. And I'm probably much worse than all of the performers. Oh well, the benefits of being an observer as opposed to a performer.

The camera didn't like the lights. Everyone had a white face on camera. And Jasper, when he came out to sing, held his arms in front of him raised for some reason.

Fake conversations between emcees to explain things to the audience suck. They're contrived, fake and irritating. And the surfeit of corny jokes was irritating! I suppose corny jokes are "safe" because you won't offend anybody. Except those who hate corny jokes. And the most commonly heard MC line of all time is - 'Sit back, relax and enjoy'. No comment.

Of a total cost of about $1700, they made a grand profit of ~$130. The money is supposed to go to Afghanistan, but 90% will be lost to corruption, so.

Why do people like to sing along to videos? I can never understand. Maybe they are trying to relive the night. And they keep jumping parts for convenience! Tenor to alto to tenor. I refer to Sicheng, who was sitting behind me, here (Are you there? Jumping parts is irritating!). When we did Listen to the Music last time, there were *always* wannabe Tenors singing along at the part which went, "Listen to the beat and the sound of the city, listen to the rhythm of the street. Listen to the radio playing on a Saturday night." [NB: I'm listening to the 1997 RI and RGS choir version of the song and I find that RGS sounds rather sleazy :)]

Cheapo songs were also sung during the concert. The alumni sang Kiss The Girl. This is terribly common and a staple of male A Capella groups. And Joshua gave some girl in the audience a flower (now, where've I seen that trick before? :) )

They also did "Geographical Fugue", last attempted in 1998 at "A Musical Concoction 3". I daresay they did better than RV did in 1998, though there was rushing, and someone was visibly beating tempo on his thigh! The one we did in 1998 at VCH was atrocious... The tenors came in almost 1 bar late at the end! Jennifer Tham must have been very pissed that night.

BEATS (A Bunch of Enthusiastic and Atrociously Tuneful Singers) has really gone down in standard. They used to be better. They performed "And So It Goes". It wasn't very tight, and there were numerous early entries, but then comparing them to the King's Singers is terribly unfair. Or maybe I'm suffering from the "good old days when a bowl of noodles cost 1 cent" syndrome [My classic retort to this is that "those were also the days when you earnt one dollar a month".] - the past always seems better and bad things about the past are forgotten and only the happy times are remembered.

They also sung The Lion Sleeps Tonight. Argh. Yet more cliched songs. It's actually not a good idea to do this song, because everyone knows it and even those without musical background, ability or talent can tell if it's done well. BEATS did quite okay, though for some reason they kept changing the tempo.

When the alumni came back in, they did the Banana Boat Song, complete with the giving out of bananas and antics with bananas.

What concert would be complete without a rendition of "Listen to the Music"? And so it was sung. And as usual, people clapped at the wrong place. Oh well.

Final song: The Institution Anthem. "Specially arranged to thank the school". I didn't really see the logic behind that. Oh well.

The encore piece was "Auld Lang Syne". As often happens, Ms Chaing started conducting from her seat. I think it's unconscious. But then the choir usually needs it. In 1998, when we did Les Miserables with MGS as the finale of "A Musical Concoction 3 - ReVolution", we rushed, notwithstanding her conducting. In 2001, when they did Les Miserables with RGS as the finale of "Music's Alive" (which sounds suspiciously like "Dragon's Alive", the name of the 2000 RI choir concert), they rushed too, even though Ms Chaing was valiantly conducting from her seat.


On people:

Quick notes. Frank and some others can still scream. Hurrah!

And yangyang looks totally different. Face, looks, height, everything. No wonder I didn't manage to locate him in RJC last year. And he's much less irritating now.


Misc:

I saw the *longest* floral printed shorts ever. They were up to the knee. My perception of the world has been radically altered! The rock upon which my whole existence is based has eroded! The cornerstone of my mind has crumbled! I need to rest and compose my self.

*Wanders off*

*Returns*

Now that I've scared off some people who doubtless believe that I've gone mad (I've always said I'd come out of Slavery Dead, Broken or Crazy), a few last scribblings.

The way Britney Spears sings "I'm a Slave for you" is really quite disgusting.

And there's something that really irks me about those disreputable people you see by the road or in front of shophouses selling things. The ones who have a microphone around their heads and who tout their product, demonstrating how good it is. Maybe I just don't like the head-mounted microphones, because I get shivers down my spine too when I see Chinese pop performers with those earphones on.

It appears that Jessica Tay is in the army too, in the "Reserve Forces". But she only has to do it once a week and 1 weekend a month.

Power Rangers Lost Galaxy has started! Due to combination of lack of time, laziness and forgetfulness, I missed the finale of Power Rangers in Space - Countdown to Destruction. Apparently it's quite good. Ah well. Lost Galaxy looks interesting, and the budget has visibly increased. It looks less cheapskate now.

In front of me now is a packet of "Wang Wang" small buns. The small white things with a brown top. To my horror, I have spotted a Halal sign on them. Then again, with Tuck Lee Icework's Halal Ice, I think we had already hit the bottom. Maybe I shall make my own brand of the small buns, one with a little lard inside (lard does wonders for Chinese confectionary I tell you).


A final, indulgent thought:

Societal influence is evil. In movies, books and fairy tales (where people live 'happily ever after'), life is portrayed unrealistically. Humans are fickle and unpredictable creatures who change their minds moods and feelings constantly and the changes can be very swift.

Therein lies a central flaw of marriage, because in the heat of the moment, people pledge their lives away and many live unhappy lives, not divorcing because of peer and societal (ooo, divorce is against "Asian Values") pressure and "for the children". One cannot predict the future any more than one can predict if a radioactive nuclide will decay in the next time interval. People change, we move on.

Slavery is evil.

hm the bio lecturer who mentioned gabriel and dropping bio must be mr. nah. He always starts off the year telling the J1s to drop bio, then spends the next 2 years asking his students repeatedly "why do you still insist on taking bio" while distributing test results

More Photos up (including prom!)
http://www.geocities.com/marshmall0w/

The perils of infamy:

"Upon closer inspection, the person who submitted that Bugzilla entry mentioned earlier is none other than Gabriel Seah , the infamous former RJC student who used to haunt the school's forums until they were taken down late last year. That guy scares me... And it's a pretty good thing I don't know him in real life."

Dubious honour :)


The VJC review is up on JC Guide, and it's quite "high class" too :) I kind of like the author's style.

I've learnt some things about VJC :) I didn't know that Lee Phui Mun would wash the toilets if she was free!


Purple Raine

"Today, I had tution again, and the fragrances from the ppl's hair infront and to the side of me really irritated me. I love the scent, but it makes me hungry and overly emotional, thinking about all the people I noe who smell nice, and what they usually smell like, and being totally unable to concentrate on E Maths and A Maths. Girls just smell so good.... mmmmmmmm". Err. Kenneth you have a sensitive nose.

Delayed bookout post (because of going to the doctor and a busy night yesterday):

Restored Post

4 weeks are over! 25% of BMT has passed. Whee. Though it was probably the easiest quarter... Ugh.

I need a belt. My pants are loose. Hell, half the platoon needs a belt. Maybe someone will go down to Beach Road and buy some for everyone. Ken said he'd buy one for me if/when he goes to buy a replacement rifle cleaning kit.

They expect conformity and uniformity from us (stand by bed, short hair et al) but they themselves aren't that uniform. For example, everyone conducts warmups differently - some omit the hip flexor and some say "thousand" instead of "one thousand" while others start "one thousand" and then continue "thousand" (Okay, so I'm being picky). And at the 100m range, we're not supposed to bring our rifles into the toilet (it's probably too dirty).

Last week was range week. Official reveille timing: 4:30am, which means people set their alarms for 3:30am or 3:45am, and we slept at 1am one day and 12am on two others, since the fall in time was 4:40am (thus do they find time to give us our "7 hours of uninterrupted sleep"). Actually, ironically, the 7 hours of sleep are one of the safety guidelines for range days, but it is on range days that we get the least sleep. What can I say? We are one of the slowest companies that the sergeants have seen (then again, they probably tell that to all of the companies).

The first day of range was incredibly boring - we were not allowed to sleep, talk too loudly or read, not even the newspapers that were brought along. The other 3 days were better, but we weren't allowed to lie on the floor and sleep (ahh the luxury of doing so! Tis greatly refreshing). It's very irritating, because most of our time at range was spent stoning, but we went back to the bunk very late.

We're actually checked for empty cartridges before we leave the range, but I'm sure anyone who is determined and ingenious enough will find a way to smuggle them out.

We had "night" firing during the day, when it was still bright. What can I say?

Some people with a master eye opposite to their master hand (eg left master eye and right handed) brought along eye patches. It really looks quite dumb and I'm glad I didn't get one. My shooting still turned out fine - 17/24 for the day shoot.

I wonder if the noxious miasma of gunpowder fumes is poisonous. Maybe that's why my cough still has not gone away after 2 weeks.

Running even short distances in Standard Battle Order is tiring. I hate to think of what it would be like running in Full Battle Order.

Tonner suck. They really really suck. The buses are much better.

Marching from point to point is stupid. It is slower than walking and so it wastes a lot of time.

I'm getting pimples from where the chinstrap of my helmet touches my chin. Ouch.

My physically more able buddy dislikes the mental part of training too - the ceaseless rush, punishment of everyone for one's wrongs, the rigidity of the system. If we could give up, I think most of us would. "The system is very fucked up" - Someone. People are punished for little or no reason - even for smiling!

Slavery really does mature people a lot, it is true. The sergeants and officers have a bearing and an air - they are more mature than the recruits who are older than them. But then Singapore women still complain that Singapore men are childish, immature and chauvinistic, so I suppose it's not full maturation. Indeed, it might make many immature in certain ways, or if not, at least more testosterone-driven / dicky / chauvinistic.

I'm still holding out against the temptation (though it's not very great) of going around topless or swearing ("shit" is the worse I've ever used).

Echoing is evil. It is noisy and the different tempos and entries of the shouting ensure that the original message cannot be heard clearly, to say nothing of the mangling of the message due to its being passed on - the Broken Telephone game anyone? And some pranksters are fond of echoing wrong messages. Because of echoing, I almost got one Guard Duty (luckily I was forgiven!) because of turning on the white lights in the training shed during range.

"I need intelligent reading material" - Jiaxiang. I think and hope that keeping the weblog alive will do something to stem my mental decline :) As will my bringing along of the Economist: [Officer on me reading it during range] Shit, you're a man, you read this sort of magazine?

More evidence of the desperation of NS guys: The mating of 2 monitor lizards attracted no small amount of attention.

Various events so far have proved the truth of that old adage : "You can do anything in NS, just don't get caught".

V. Ambiavagar is dead. We'll never see him at RI Founders' Days (all 4 of which I religiously attended for some reason) again. Sigh.

Apparently there's a "Ninja" company. That's if we heard the company name correctly. That must be the stupidest company name ever.

On Saturday morning, I had another injection. It actually went very well. I wasn't in tears before it, or even after (Note to all: Please don't give me any crap about "NS has toughened you"). Perhaps the medic was being very careful after I asked him to be gentle.

I saw and talked to Sing Pou and he was in Kilo for one week for his "Residential Course". Apparently they *don't* get to learn rifle shooting, and it's just propaganda lectures and more propaganda lectures. The PES E people don't even have to swing their arms when they march. (...)

Booking out and walking to the Pasir Ris MRT station, I saw a familiar group of people walking by. I guessed that it was 3S05B, and sure enough, Gilbert called out my name (and remarked that I looked burnt). That class is very enthusiastic about class outings.

Quickie (seen on Just Eat Me):

"Melissa: "There's this Econs teacher, she's a short old woman, I'm not sure what her name is-"
Me: "MRS LIM! GUAT CHING! THE COMMANDER! You've got her?"
Melissa: "Yeah, that's the one. Back to equilibrium! Back to equilibrium!"

Nice to know some things don't change."

Also:
"You might like to know- The bio lecturer (didn't quite catch his name) mentioned you and your JC review..."

and corroboration:
"if i remember correctly he said it was quite accurate... then he started convincing us to drop bio."

And something else:
"haha I'm thinking of going to RJ miss all the RGS girls..." - some VJ guy

hmmm ive been repeatedly asked to post here.. so here's my post..

*post* =)

julian must be busy playing daoc still.. he hasnt posted in ages, i havent seen him online (not that im home much).. but then lucky fellow only has a 7 day induction course into ns.. =(

hmmmm ns.. i attempted to lead the 2nd stanza of a song during a march, and got mixed up with my np-version of the song.... went all out of tune and stuff =P heheheh...

food.. is still relatively good...
section mates r nice..
platoon mates r ok...
yep..

Went to watch "Spirited Away".

Eye candy galore. I was intensely irritated by the plot (close to none). Things happen for no reason, there are inconsistencies and many things are not explained. The show's just a jumble of loosely connected (putting it charitably) events.

Yong Lin: "but the story is not the point of the show..."

Ahh.


In other news, Fierce Girl is the coach of the RGS debate team! Woo!


ACJC people are allowed to use their handphones anywhere, anytime, except when the teacher is talking. Bah.

The usual bookout posting:

Restored Post

It seems that I've less and less to write each time, probably because I've already covered much. I shall pad this entry with quotes at the end.

I saw a picture of Tim's class, the one in the 2000 yearbook. Not bad. And he-who-provided-the-picture says that many of them, er, blossomed in J2.

People were still looking at the pictures that I brought. No, I don't intend to hand them over to the sergeants in the set of 36 photos that we were supposed to bring so that they could "know us better" (someone had pictures of dogs and another had pictures of when he was 12). Anyway, someone tried to "chope" 2 members of vis-a-vis, Rebecca and Melissa (not that I know them, or that I would disclose their personal information to him, so he can dream on :) ). People were looking at the NJ and PJ yearbooks and pointing out supposedly pretty girls. Someone voiced his dislike for A-line skirts, saying they made girls look "too mature". And he was telling me how much he "appreciated" the RJ skirt, which apparently is very, err, free to move. I still don't have a complete and fleshed out theory to explain why guys in NS are so desperate and sex driven.

We were given a small mango for our dessert one lunch. Wah.

We've been doing bayonet fighting. It's the same as Taekwando (which, believe it or not, a long time ago, I learnt) - patterns are useless, and in a real fight, you'd use your own style to attack and defend instead of all the moves (or worse, the patterns).

We were offered $150 to take part in a hydration study where, over 48 hours, they would monitor out water intake and urine output and take 6 ml of blood and our nude weight 6 times. $25 for each drawing of blood? Count me out...

Seen on a T-Shirt: "Pain is temporary, glory is forever". My response: "Satisfaction from testosterone-driven acts undertaken under peer pressure is temporary, injury is forever". Needs some work.

We can now use the vending machines. They cunningly replaced Root Beer and Pepsi with Diet 7-up and Diet Pepsi. The day after we were freed to patronise the vending machines, the dustbin was full of empty cans. And the trashbag fell from its position (such that it was no longer wrapped around the opening of the dustbin). [NB: I have the glorious duty of changing the trashbag everyday.]

I actually have had the flu since last Sunday (what a convenient timing, during my 3 full day bookout), and my sore throat has gotten worse since Tuesday due to 3 days of shouting. And I think I've a secondary throat infection now. I can barely rasp now. I should create a new status tag - "Excuse Shouting".

I had a chat with my choir junior last week, who said that most of the deaths in Slavery are due to suicides. In response to my point that not committing suicide was a victory of sorts because you'd have survived the torture and not let it drive you to the brink, he countered that "tt's not true....by u getting thru NS, *they* have won.....they have successfully nurtured another soldier....by killing urself, they have failed....". Good point.

So far, I've seen 0 stray cats but quite a few stray dogs wandering around. Quite the opposite of what would normally be.

My sister says my hands have become a bit rougher. Gah.

My arms are going to drop off from all the pumping. Ouch.


Quotes:

"RJC girls, the green skirt, wah lan eh. [Me: Go ACJC] ACJC, cannot. Too power." Erm.

"You will be doing 2 positions today. One is doggie style, the other is 69 (foxhole, prone)" His speech is always peppered with sex references :)

"Don't go JC and teach... go into the lecture theatre, look up, all the girls zaogeng... [Recruit: Good what] Can't concentrate"

"[On the standing hip position] Not the cock, I see some people just now, [adopted the] standing cock position."

"Anybody not feeling well? [Recruits: No sergeant, fighting fit, yeah!] Gryphon company, when I'm here, don't try do that fighting fit shit (doing)"

"One thing, when you get married then you'll know. Your size, is it difficult?... What style do you want to adopt? [Recruit: Standing shoulder position]"

"Just imagine, if your wife see you, wah lan. Then you take off your shirt. Your breasts are bigger than hers. (sees)"

I'm still waking up at 4 in the morning. Ah well, packed room, had QT, then went for a run when the sun rose.

Went back to school for a large part of today- objective to talk to teachers. David Liew's growing a goatee!!! Don't think very "highly" of it at all. None of the teachers I know have transferred out... new faces around. Moses pointed out a "liqing" who allegedly has a reputation for her looks. Ms. Wee, strangely enough, still remembers me (though i think she can't recollect my name). Eugene Huang went all-out auburn. Met a lot of 4K pple/other assorted people. Reasons for many j3s going back: see teachers, get letters (recommendation) from teachers, play b-ball, crash orientation. Apparently it's getting very obvious: at least 1 J3 in every OG. Admin tried to clamp down to no avail.

Triplets cropped hair. Waiyi referred to hairdos resembling Joanna Yeo's bob as the "Joanna".

Sin tong and zewei are humans students; I mean they chose humans.

Had a peek at cambridge/oxford results from nice mr purvis but i couldn't recognise most of the names (in some cases, only the initials were given) and some were missing.

Qiying told me Rit. performed in a no. of exciting n' happening gigs during the hols, including a stint in Ritz-Carlton hotel and at a private party thrown by Mediaworks!!!

Just got my second batch of prom photos (plus london photos) developed. Remind me to show them if i run into any of u. Will upload them to homepage some time. Geocities only gives 15 mb of space- wonder how many i can squeeze in. Rest of my upload space consists of tiny html files since I don't use images as a rule.

This is really interesting:
Apparently for my page
www.geocities.com/marshmall0w/prom.html
describing Moonlight Masquerade,
Top search engine used to access this page: 100.00% use www.google.com
Top search word used to find this page: 50.61% typed "kylie minogue's white dress" .

"Swing when you're winning"- Robbie Williams.

Heh heh. *Plants kinky phrases surreptitiously all over homepage to increase no. of hits*

Went for a run at 7am today, then bought dosa back for parents' breakfast. Haven't recovered from jet lag: woke up at 4 something in the morning with nothing in particular to do, so I started packing my room. And napped from 3 to 8 into the evening: thank goodness I woke up- it's Frasier nite!
Worst part of this jetlag is the intermittent flu symptoms. Hope it doesn't develop.
Re: what I'm going to do in my gap period. Circumstances may compel me towards something that wasn't even on my list- my father's main nurse retired this month (she's 60+ and has grandchildren) and he can't find another clinic assistant at such short notice. So I may be required to fill in- for an unspecified period of time. Daily, 9 to 5. (ah-hemm)

Spent yesterday and today morning doing my melbourne photo gallery. Didn't expect 108 photos to take that long... and just discovered the link back to the index page Ood can't work. Anyone know why
www.geocities.com/marshmall0w/melbourne/index.htm

In defence of my bid:
a) It's not an animal documentary Or a cartoon dubbed in chinese
b) If you de-select the bahasa indonesia audio channel then it's perfectly okay since it's all in english
c) Beast wars are only released on VCD in this part of the world
d) The 4-5 other people auctioning off Beast wars VCDs haven't received any bids either. And most of them got theirs with chinese subtitles. Hmm, "porkypig2000" is from singapore and selling exactly the same thing for 4 times the price.

e) Not really in defence: comment that if you are interested in them or you have a friend interested in them, i'll pass it on FOC. Simply trying to clear my collection of stuff-

www.geocities.com/marshmall0w/shop.html

In the "things on eBay nobody bids for" series:

VCD Beast Wars Episodes 1-13

"Collection of first 13 episodes, season 1, of Beast Wars on Video Compact Disc (playable on computer and DVD players); audio channels in English and Bahasa Indonesia; relatively crisp and clear picture. Used only once! Beast Wars is the cartoon sequel of Transformers (the 80's animated series) "

Must be the Bahasa Indonesia that did it :)

$1.90 VCDs are all either:
1) Animal documentaries
2) Cartoons subbed/dubbed in Chinese

Then again, the "My Little Pony" movie went for 99 cents, for obvious reasons, because no one but screwed up people want it.

happy new year everyone!

I rarely lose posts because I copy the text to the clipboard every now and then to make sure it's backed up.

How come Mr Ong appears everywhere? I met him and some ex-4Kers when I went to Jade after A Levels, and he still claims that "Mazit" exists. And Shawn bumps into him quite often too, causing him some consternation. But I like Mr Ong. Mr Ong is nice. And we now know Mr Ong's age! Let's see. 18 years when he finished JC. 2 years NS, 4 years (or maybe slightly more) for University. So Mr Ong is about 40. Hrm, so the white hair isn't really a good indicator of his age.

Sorcerer vs Philosopher - they had to dumb it down for American audiences :)

I missed the first 2-3 minutes of LoTR because I went to catch the 2 pm show - right after I booked out. I think I'll get the VCD (hey, I *am* entitled to that, since my ticket was paid for [though not by me])

31st December is rather late to send Christmas greetings, hmm?

The legal age in Britain is, what, 18? So it'd have been just legal.

And aren't Lomo cameras the lousy ones that have become a cult thing?


Some stuff which I'd meant to post yesterday:

As of tomorrow, I'll no longer be able to use my red Child/Student Transitlink farecard, and will have to memorise the fare structure for public buses. Goodbye studenthood.

I was at Borders reading the Silmarillion (my e-text was not complete) - No, not the rubbish at the front which rambles and confuses many people, and which many people feel that you shouldn't read if you want to retain a good impression of Tolkien, but instead, the part entitled "Of The Rings Of Power And The Third Age" - and this Borders staff member, a 17ish girl, came up to me to ask me what the names of each book in the Lord Of The Rings trilogy were, because a customer had asked her for them, but she didn't know what the titles were.

While at the aforementioned place, I also saw a CD with 19 - no, not a typo. *Nineteen* - versions of Silent Night. I think I'd die if I listened to even half of them.