My pride gets the best of me sometimes. just like on sunday night/monday morning. after the dinner (which i will talk about later), we went off to try to catch a show, but all the cinemas (even the late-night ones) were closed. so we went to the LAN place, which was supposed to open until 5 but closed at 3. in there, i found out that due to years of corrosion, my strategy games skills are at rock-bottom level. everything i played, i lost. i'm severely out of touch with the LAN gaming world. not that we have had any previous contact anyway.

after LAN, it was stoning. eventually, stoning became boring and we went for pool. apparently, i'm a good pool teacher. we played until a bit later than 5, and the guys running the place were really nice to let us complete the game. then, seeing that there was nothing else to do, we sat outside Meritus Mandarin and played chinese chess. imagine that - three people (in semi-formal wear, no less) sitting outside the hotel playing chess. what a sight.

i desperately need to take pride-swallowing lessons. not only will it make me a better learner, but it will also help prevent me from looking and acting like a total jackass in the future. i should also learn that without practice, skill deteriorates over time. finding out that you are not as "immortal" (as i like to put it) as you think is never easy. especially when you find that out in the presence of others. as a result, to avoid public humiliation like that again, i've decided to do do some research on some popular LAN games so that i'll be better equipped to stand a chance of winning should the opportunity present itself again.

oh well. no more unhappy memories. time to talk about the dinner. basically, the theme was pretty irrelevant, as most people wore formal attire (quote "I'm the mayor of the town!!"). aside from that, the programme was semi-enjoyable, sabo-ing teachers and all. i can't really say too much about the food, but the soup was good.

for me, the main attraction would most definitely be photo taking. not that i'm narcissistic or anything, but i did take a (relatively) large number of photos, and those with my face in them will, as usual, not be seeing the light of day for a really, really long time. aside from that, the other highlight of the night goes to finally settling a 3.5 year bad relationship. no grudges indeed.

i'm becoming more dependent on sleep recently. i used to be able to stay awake for 45+ hours, but now, only after 30+ hours, my body demands that i sleep for 13 hours in return. but that's just a minor detail.

i hope everything works out ok.

-thingy of the day: "The purpose of life is a life of purpose."-

We're fast approaching december. a year has gone by just like that. it's hard to believe that it's been almost a full year since japan. all the memories are sudenly flooding back. too bad there won't be a chance this year.

did jc application yesterday. only filled in 3 out of 12 choices. i think it's true what they say. about 1/4 of the CJ population will be from cat high. i also found out that VJ's out for me as well, regardless of score as they don't offer the chem s paper, which i am dead set on taking. oh well, there's always RJ. *gets shot*

i know it's none of my business to post other people's affairs here and let the world find out, but i hope you feel better soon. see you at grad night.

-thingy of the day: In my left brain, there's nothing right. In my right brain, there's nothing left.-

And finally, all singaporeans involved in the education industry, teachers and students alike, breathe a sigh of relief. the 2004 o-levels are, on all accounts, over. even though i should not have a care in the world for the next month or more, the education system will never let its students feel that kind of unrestrained, pure freedom. for you see, i still have to settle my firat 3 months, and it looks like the decision is made, what with my lousy prelim results.

sadly, nobody is to blame for this more than i am. of course the teachers could have set an easier paper. of course the school could have helped us more through moderation. but on the flipside, i should have been prepared for the high standard. and as i've said before, i shouldn't even need to rely on moderation.

but it's no use feeling bitter any more. what's done is done, and unless i have time-altering powers, all the regrets won't make a difference.

everybody appears to have their life plan set out in front of them. i do too as well, to a certain extent. however, it's not too detailed. all it says is "do whatever it takes to get a good university education, preferably majoring in chemistry, then find a well-paying job and earn bundles of money in the next 15 years to last forever." kind of vague, if you ask me. after consultation with several relatives and teachers, it appears that the only way my plan has the remotest chance of coming true is if i take up science in jc. quite frankly, i feel i'm quite up to it, seeing that both interest and ability are in place. it's just that the teachers in, say, VJ and YJ are worlds apart. i'm not trying to discriminate, but past experience in both primary and secondary school has proven this.

wednesday will be oh so fun. really.

-thingy of the day: When you're down, there's nothing like motivational quotes to make you feel worse.-

It's my pleasure to introduce Open Up Your Mind - 5.00, a blog design for the holiday season and beyond. although i don't see the connection between Nightcrawler and christmas, that's not too important right now. 4 hours or so of my long holiday was spent on this, which translates to relatively little time.

yesterday was rather unexpected. i thought the whole school would explode in a frenzy of excited screaming, and it did - but only for a few minutes. after that, it just didn't feel right any more. i really don't know why. maybe it was because some of us may never see each other again, or something equally mood-dampening.

but anyway, i have to go. on top of having nothing to say, my eyes burn.

-thingy of the day: I'm staying out until 5am every day. Don't care.-

My tagboard doesn't seem to be working. odd. it usually never lasts for more than a day. maybe it's time to switch to flooble or something.

exams make the days whiz by. it's friday tomorrow, and incidentally, the end of our suffering. after that, it's time to kee siao and waste the next 4 months away. and speaking of exams, i don't think i'll fail anything, but no straight A1s also. quite depressing. we're supposed to be worry-free until the results come back. but looking at the situation now, i doubt we'll have fun.

since it's the second-last day of the exams, i went and got myself X2. watching it brought back some memories from last year. next on the list is spiderman 2, followed by X1.5...lots of money flying away.

when i'm in school or anywhere else, i can think of a million things i want to blog about. but the moment i open a new post, it all slips away.

-thingy of the day: "Never trust a beautiful woman, especially when she's interested in you." -Magneto-

History's over. *FINALLY*. by right, i can worry about other things, like geog and physics, which are both set for tomorrow. however, history still bugs me. doesn't feel like an A1, or even a B3. i'm just hoping.

as usual for geog, industry and development. both are related to SS and are somewhat interlinked as well. should be manageable, and if i'm lucky, quite fun. after all, the questions appear to be pretty standard.

have to end here. nothing to say now.

-thingy of the day: Without evil, what good is good?-

Decided to take a break from Nazi Germany to blog a bit.

life's been kind of boring these few days. weird thing to say, considering it's 3/4 way through the exam. and even though the 19th is drawing closer day by day, so are my remaining 7 papers. this means that technically, only half of the exam is over.

some stress relief (in the form of laments, complaints etc. etc.) will follow. press Alt+F4 now or forever hold your peace.

first off: studies. very worried for my relative velocity, germany, geog and physics. i don't foresee that many A1s, which is scary. because according to one teacher, "this is the only time you can study hard for one month and still get all your A1s." definitely must redouble effors in those areas. especially history. i think the malayan paper went quite well, and my modern world is NOT going to jeopardize it.

secondly: people around me. i thought studying at my second home would be better for me, and it is, to a degree. but then, even that has its drawbacks. i think we all agree that too many authoritative people in our lives is not a good thing. but this isn't all that serious.

thirdly: something personal, which if i reveal, i'll never hear the end of. so, that will remain private until...whenever.

now that that's over, i think i feel better. and as i'm used to saying, if you tell yourself something long enough, you'll actually begin to believe it. time to go read league of nations.

-thingy of the day: Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.-

The last few days have passed by really quickly. there was maths/amaths 1, history 1, english 1/2, all in the space of 3 days, which is not too bad. which means i'm left with maths/amaths 2, history 2, elec geog, physics 1/2, and chem 1/2. doesn't look too scary in writing. that's a good sign.

fatigue's been catching up to me as well. i just slept for about 5 hours, and i'm really sorry i didn't reply to anyone on MSN because being the genius i am, i fell asleep while the computer was on (which is a very very bad disadvantage of using a laptop on a bed). let's just say i had a semi-rude awakening due to heating effect and metal being a good conductor and all that.

before the exams, somewhen around january or so, i had this image of myself studying late at night by this nice small desk lamp. it's weird how your mind suddenly just conjures up these visions, and what's worse is if it actually happens. i haven't been doing much late-night study actually, so i guess the image was sort of inaccurate.

seeing as it was friday, i decided to catch a movie after the amaths paper. Princess Diaries 2 is not too bad. funny, yet with a meaningful storyline. i won't spoil anything here, but it's really worth watching if you have free time.

time for me to end this post. trying to finish up a chapter of fanfiction over the weekend.

-thingy of the day: "Queens are never late. Everyone else is simply early."-

2 down. 6 more to go. something like that. chinese went smoother than in june, thinking of B3. today's SS was great, except that time management was poor. it's the first time i haven't finished an SBQ properly in...ever. luckily, the SEQ will pull me up for once.

tomorrow's a tough day. english and history means friction burns on my hands. not good at all.

here's some comic relief for you all...

One night, a burglar was in the process of cracking a safe in a rich man's home. Suddenly, a voice boomed, "Jesus is watching you!"

Turning around, the burglar saw no one there, and went back to his work. When the same mysterious voice had cried out, "Jesus is watching you!" several more times, he decided to investigate.

Tracing the sound to a dark corner, he snatched away a cloth covering a cage to reveal a parrot inside. "Did you say that?" the man asked the bird. "Yes," it replied.

'Wow, that's one smart bird!' the thief thought to himself. Deciding to test its ability a bit more, he asked, "What's your name?" And the bird responded, "Theodore."

"Now who would give a bird such a silly name?" the man wondered aloud, to which Theodore replied, "The same guy who named the bulldog behind you Jesus."

-thingy of the day: Which element are you?-