Friends

I still feel the same (that means there isn't a bubble of 16dom surrounding me) but thanks for everything everyone :)

i'm looking for the art of the short story. i know it is in my house.

my house has many books. we have about ten bookshelves of varying sizes. we have books on these bookshelves, books on our dining table, books in our toilets, books on our coffee table, books in our kitchen, books on our desks, books behind doors, books on the floor, books on the chairs, books in the drawers, lots of books. the sheer number of books in my house rarely strikes me. sometimes people come to my house and they see the shelves obscuring my mother's desk, my father's desk, the bookshelf between my mother's and brother's room and they say "OMG shao your family has a lot of books".

sometimes i go to a shelf and i examine all the titles. half of those times i'm doing it just because; half of those times i do it because i'm looking for a book.

tonight i am looking for the art of the short story and i went to all the major shelves in the house.

my family has a lot of books.

the books are amazing. many are old and many are new. a small number of them are books i have read before. a good number of them have titles and authors i recognise. a good number of them i have never heard of before. we have books on a lot of subjects. religion, philosophy, politics, literature, psychology (and psychotherapy), botany, travel have books and books each. umberto eco has a whole corner. gore vidal has a whole shelf surface. on the shelf just beside where i sit right now, simone de beauvoir is nestled in between herman hesse and doris lessing. walt whitman's leaves of grass, emily dickinson's poems, dylan thomas' collected poems, and the essential rumi stand in a row. at the very end of their shelf is eight books on diving, coral reefs, and fishes. next to them is "the complete book of bicycling" (it looks ancient). the shelf next to this one has got three large shakespeare volumes next to plato's collected dialogues and "goldilocks on management". "prozac nation" (this book made me depressed when i was thirteen) stands beside three milan kunderas. this is just what happens to catch my eye right now.

the books belong to my family. they were bought by my father, my mother at varying stages of their lives, they were bought by their friends (the athol fugard i opened a while ago had tharman pencilled in the top right hand corner of the first page), by my sister, myself, my brother.

running my finger along the rows my heart is always stopped. along with the utter amazement is a wrenching wish like a pressure in my mouth to read them all.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RACHEL <3 Thank you for the yummy cheesecake and Criminal Minds marathon! We've known each other for six years and you're still one of the tallest and most intelligent people I know. (: Have an awesome sixteenth!


School's started! Yesterday night I totally angst-ed to Sarah Tan my little sunshine, about how life is forever sad, busy, tiring and mundane. Vetting proposals, editing proposals, planning and debriefs and organization... Then I realized that I've signed up for all of these things with a purpose in mind. I just lost focus for a bit and got carried away with work, such that I lost track of the big picture of what PSB, Special Projects, and my Class IC group want to achieve. Now I know that what I believe in will tide me through (:


Orientation so far has been awesome! I'm loving 108 more and more. (: Josephine (my fellow SPSL) and I are still finding footing in what it means to be an SPSL. Things have changed now; the jobscope is really different. There is so much more to learn! But I'm really glad for Josephine, and I know I can't make it without her. We conducted a PSL session for the last time today, and it was GREAT.


edit: I keep thinking of my brother during PSL sessions! I wonder if the student leaders at Hwa Chong are as nice as they are here (: I still can't believe he's Sec One haha. Though I can't stand it that when I tell people he's in Hwa Chong instead of RI, they automatically assume that it's because he didn't do well enough! Because that's not true! He could have had both and we chose Hwa Chong for him, okay. Just because I'm a Raffles kid doesn't mean he has to be one too. In fact I'd rather him not.

Also my cousin transferred to Nanyang (Primary) this year since she got into GEP. I was very surprised because I never knew she was smart.


The past few weeks have been pretty hard for me. You have know idea how many times I thought: FTIGTH*. I angst-ed to Jessie (my my, I'm feeling pretty angsty nowadays) about my grades. 3.66 seems alright but actually isn't, and I seem to be failing everything and ruining my entire life. I am good at nothing and I have no direction! (My goal in life is to be a happy and good person, but that doesn't count!) I'm a real Nowhere Man. ): Am I being just a regular angsty teenager? Am I being oversensitive? Or am I thinking this way because IT'S TRUE AND I'M A FAILURE? I think it's the last option, and this is bad because it's the worst. Sigh.


But, being me, I say: Whatever, I'll make this work. (:


*Fuck This I'm Going To Hogwarts.

New icons for a new year. Huzzah.

I have a feeling I'll be using this one a lot.

 WESTLIFE IS COMING TO SINGAPORE THIS YEAR.

I didn't do a year-end/ year-beginning post like everyone did, because I've been kinda occupied by everything, so I'm gonna do it now. I'll start with the day I watched Avatar.

30 Dec 09, Wednesday

My mom surprised me in the middle of the morning that she had decided to watch Avatar that very day. So, naturally, I was pretty much excited and hurriedly went to check all the cinemas with free seats for Avatar in 3D. GV Plaza Sing and all the other places, and Lido, were Fully. Booked. Except for the front three rows, of course. The rest was packed solid, and I swear I've never seen anything like that before.

Naturally, with all the hype surrounding Avatar, we went with extremely high expectations. I daresay my dad's expectations were fulfilled, and my mom's too, but I think my brother was a tad disappointed because it was kinda like Ferngully. As for me, I went in expecting something truly, truly epic, but no, it wasn't as good as Star Wars. I read a review that said it was as good as Star Wars, but damn, no way in hell was it. 

But overall it was pretty good, I must say. I love the special effects, the general idea is really brilliant - the idea of an avatar representing Sully on Pandora was really, really cool. And the last bit was really epic. I also like Sully; all those disabled people out there who've done something recognisable in your life, I really respect you all a LOT. Though Worthington's performance as a paralysed from waist down dude wasn't very convincing, he was good overall. Especially the last scene, where he was choking on the air and he pushed his chair away in his haste.

Anyway, this isn't complete without a brief image of the amazing special effects that went on - seen in a poster.




31 Dec 09, Thursday

Sher-Yin and Johnny came over! Honestly, I can't believe I made such great friends over a tour - all I was expecting was a couple of Facebook friends, whom my brother defined as 'hardly called friends'. But whoa, look man, we've met once, and expecting to meet again! 

K so they came to our house, where we first camwhored like mad with my brother's Photobooth - it was SO EPIC, and we recorded our own version of Disturbia which was, well, pretty disturbing. But it was really fun :) And then I played Poptrop for Sher-Yin, hahah that stupid girl was still so freaked even in Time Tangled >D Come on la Sheryin, FINISH IT ALL YOURSELF MAN! Hahah it's really fun, trust me.

We went to play Bridge/ Taiti after that :D We always looked at our cards before finally deciding what game to play, and once Sher-Yin and I wanted Taiti but Johnny and my brother wanted Bridge, so we scissors paper stoned hahah stupid boys they won us both ): Both scissors to paper too hmph.

But anyway after they left (I miss them they gotta come more!) we watched Transformers 2. It was like Mission Impossible 3: all action and no substance. I like Bumblebee, though.

Then went to Old Airport Road for dinner. It ended in something so freaking pathetic, stupid, and BLOODY IRRITATING because of my dad who flared up like hell at my brother over a stupid, ugly bottle. It's not like it's a fifteen dollar Nike bottle, it's just an ugly bottle from a hotel in Taiwan man, what the heck. Just because he didn't save it doesn't mean you had to scream at him like that and ruin all our new years. 

Yes, so we went to Tanjong Rhu from there, where we practically all separated but ended up sitting on the same groundsheet looking at fireworks partially blocked by the building. No one was talking to each other because we were all pissed at one another about something, all because of my stupid father who couldn't control himself on the last day of the year.


01 Jan 10, Friday

I don't remember much of what happened yesterday, actually. I really don't. I think we spent a large amount of the day playing cards and eating ordered in pizza. I remember that we watched Shinjuku Incident, though, and the part where the dude's hand got cut off was just disgusting. de_caveman , HOW DO YOU WATCH ALL THAT GORE MOVIES MAN.


02 Jan 10, Saturday

Went to my uncle's house to play cards and play with the dog :D I love their Lab Retriever, she's really pretty and sweet and totally mad <3 

Also, found out 408'10 teachers, I like/ don't know most of them haha!

English: Ms Picca (!!! WHOO)
Chinese: Li Jun Xiang
Math: Someone called Wee-Lim YH, whoever the hell that is.
Bio: CatWong, whoopie.
Chem: LimBE, again, whoopie.
Geog: KohBY, whoever that is. Not Lucille's good enough for me.
Lit: Joyce Yap, ARGH.
SS: BCHEW, WHOO.
Philo: LimEY
PE: Sean Yeoh (:D)

K so that's it, I'm fine with it I guess :)

I'm not a big fan of resolutions, though, so I'm not gonna have them. But whatever, I don't have resolutions, I have wishes.

[edit/]
I can't wait for school, I miss you 308/408, and I can't wait to see Ms Picca as our co-FT :)


Dr. Grace (Avatar): Just clear your head and let your mind go blank. That shouldn't be too hard for you.

Omg, my teachers 2010 are SO EPIC. We got Ms Picca for English (YES YES YES YES YES) and Bchew for SS (YES AGAIN) and omggg we got Sean Yeoh for PE I think, and WHOOHOO. :D :D :D I'm super happy yay.

Star Wars is also freaking epic.

Hey hey hey!


This is my 200th post, as well as my first post in the new year. (Yes, can you tell that I made them coincide?)


JANNE'S NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS 2010

1. Work extremely hard for everything I want to achieve.
2. Learn to organize and prioritize. Manage time well.
3. Be a good CCA chair/ SPSL/ student leader in general. This means
a) Taking initiative
b) Being responsible
c) Supporting & empowering other people etc.
4. Study hard and study smart, to get an awesome GPA.
5. Put in a lot of effort for CmPS International Conference.
6. Become healthier by exercising more often and eating better.
7. Read good books and watch good shows.
8. Improve spiritualism, achieve peace and serenity.
9. Treasure and strengthen all relationships.
10. Be happy (:


New Year was/ will be quite nicely spent. The cookies (and 2 boys), the not-so-extended family, and random family friends. Fun fun!


& Finally, thank you so much to every single person who made 2009 awesome for me. I think you know who you are. I truly appreciate and love you guys <3 Have a great year ahead everyone!

I suppose I ought to write the mandatory "yay 2010!" post. Well I spent the last day of 2009 doing Trig, and basically reminding myself how much i hate Math. Which is, I guess, pretty indicative of how I spent 2009.

At the end of the year people are always going on about how fast the year passed, but when I think about 2009, it seems so deathly long. I can barely remember what it was like at the end of 2008, and so many things happened last year that I can barely believe it happened so recently.

2009 was not a good year for me. But it was certainly valuable - and definitely necessary. I think I learned a lot, and grew a lot, and I made mistakes I know now not to repeat. 

So my resolutions for 2010 are going to be simple, but probably hideously difficult to keep - sleep early, read more, don't fall sick (so much), don't procrastinate (much). :D

Here's to surviving Secondary Four! :)

WHOO NEW HEADER. I like this a lot better, even though Hugh Laurie's kinda cut off ):

K anyway another post tomorrow when Sher-Yin and Johnny come over :D Avatar is epic though, just a short mention and preview of what I'm posting tomorrow. I respect Sully a lot, even though his surname kinda sucks.

James Cameron is a good director. Really, really good director. He waited 15 years for the technology to create Avatar, how cool is that! But that's just one side of his overall coolness hoho :D

(fellyfied  is weird. Seriously. I mean, who's high in the middle of the night? Tsk, Felly.)

Captain: My job is to keep you all secure. I will not succeed.

These few days have been MADNESS SPARTAAAA! The following is going to be pretty boring stuff about my life, but I just want to remember each bit of the holidays so that I won't return to school feeling like I've done nothing fun.


( things I've done this week )

GLEE IS COMING TO STAR WORLD. GUESS THE DATE!!! Haha it's 20th January, which is like, my birthday. Yay!


I know I've been spamming this place with videos like crazy, but you have to listen to THE LAST SHADOW PUPPETS. (Hot British rockers recommended by Ruby) They look like the Beatles in some of their phases <3 suits/ mod suits/ coats I LOVE THEM

Hello everyone! Are you having a good holiday? I'm having an awesome holiday! *beam* But I'm in the airport at San Francisco, waiting for my flight (which has been delayed) home. I don't want to go home! D: That said, I really, really, really need to work on my SMP, I have the feeling my groupmates are ready to murder me in cold blood (shrinks away from Claire and Yi Wye). Also, there's all that crap about studying for next year (damn Physics test), and restocking on stuff for school. And catching up on Secretarial work for Angklung.

But enough of that. :) This trip to America has been really, really fun. I got to see my sister, talk to my best friend on the phone (!!!) and hang out with my beyond awesome God Family and family friends, not to mention my sister's boyfriend, haha. Man, I wish I could hang out with them more. They're like the cousins I never had <3 But it has been great, the running around theme parks and eating at fast food joints and talking way into the night. :D

One thing about America I absolutely cannot stand, though: the gum. It's freaking EVERYWHERE. And its really really gross. Eew.

On another note, thanks to all the lovely people who sms-ed me to wish me merry Christmas! :D Sorry I couldn't reply. Hopefully you'll see this, I love you all! <3

School is going to start again and life is going to suck. D: But I'm glad I have you all~

it is not strange that when you hurt you close your eyes and fall asleep. if it won't go away, at least you can.

and speaking of sleep, last night i had a dream: the room had two beds each pushed against a wall and in the narrow space between them stood a man and a woman. the man had the woman seized by her bruising forearms. she tried to turn her head but she couldn't look away. as for me i stood inside the corner of the wall. i was crying into my hands. i woke up. i went back to sleep. i had a dream with some trees in it. then i had another dream. the room had two beds and in the narrow space between them stood a man and a woman. the man had the woman seized by her bruising forearms. she tried to turn her head but she couldn't look away. from where i stood inside the wall i laughed with hilarity. i thought how strange that i dreamt the exact same thing earlier. when i woke up in the early morning i recalled my dreams and realised they hadn't been the same. the first one hadn't been funny at all.

you see nothing clearly.

eating often makes you feel better.

something i didn't know is that there are two things my sister wants in life: a polaroid camera, and a typewriter.

our flight landed at 12.05am last night. when we got home she saw my typewriter and she flipped because she is Terribly Neglected and i just had to ask whereas she has been asking her whole life and she has not got a typewriter. actually no one has ever heard her ask this before but it seems to just prove her point. they sat around the dining table drinking mutton soup and eating otah and i went to check my email and get rid of all the photos onto facebook. i know i was supposed to go and sit there too, but the conversation did not interest me and i couldn't eat the food. when i went i had two pineapple tarts and i left. and i just looked up otah on wikipedia and i clicked on char kway teow and i am hungryyy. there's this vegan restaurant and i feel like putting on my shoes and going there right now for the char kway teow.

going home was logan (boston) - o'hare (chicago), o'hare - narita (tokyo), narita - changi. min and i woke up at five thirty am and had blueberry truffles, doritos, and pomegranates for breakfast. all the way from arriving at logan to arriving at changi it was a wtf smooth journey. min laughed at me derisively (characteristically derisive) when i said that on my way to cambridge, when, at o'hare international airport we arrived with about ten minutes to spare and i had to make a flight for boston and i didn't know it was cancelled and it was terrible, i was inwardly freaking out. actually i don't understand why it's so strange that i was worried. i shall no longer be though. my new secret is to basically know what i'm doing and to chill.

on our chicago-tokyo flight i hardly slept at all. i spent the thirteen hours reading the idiot, drawing, writing stories, staring into space, and talking to the guy beside me, a lebanese french greek son of a diplomat in his freshman year of college in montreal. he tried to get drunk off a single can of lite beer and taught us how to swear in a couple of different languages. i've been recommending dostoyevsky to people who are buying books simply because it was off the top of my head and i'd been intending to read the idiot but ever since i actually began to read it i've realised that people are startled when people my age read dostoyevsky.

you see just the going home is so fucking long i've spent about four paragraphs talking and little of it was about my being in cambridge at all. but then again two days is not long for a journey halfway around the world seeing as some years ago (and by some i mean many) it would have taken a number of months and in a ship too.

i have some photos on facebook which one cannot take as any sort of recount of my trip except as incredibly fragmented and bare. i spent a lot of time chilling with (min's) friends, walking around in the cold, eating immensely satisfying food, and had a couple of important Firsts. and of course as trips go there is a hell of a lot that i learnt, ranging from how to play beer-baseball to what my sister thinks of just-somebodies and Somebodies, with so much in between. as trips go this was a damn good one.

today is christmas day, which to be honest doesn't mean much to me. but it's 10.38am and i guess i'm finally up for dragging my lazy ass out of bed. i'd go and look for breakfast but being disappointed in this area can be depressing, so maybe i'll look for my mom and tell her i want to eat char kway teow...

1. 'Lady Gaga lyrics are so sick they burn my ears.' - fellyfied 

2. Lady Gaga videos are PORN.

3. I am trying to play Solitaire and I have no idea if what I'm playing is right.

In 2007, we started out as a very promising batch - the biggest 45th ever had, with the highest number of enthu people willing to do something, anything, for 45th.

In 2009, going on 2010, we have deteriorated to a very, very, very fail batch. Probably one of the worst 45th ever had, with the highest number of unenthu people unwilling to do anything for 45th.

There you go - summary of what batchoh'10 has become over the years.

We can't even have a successful batch meeting, we can't even do anything much with the pathetic attendance. Come on, how could we ever want to carry on Cantata with such a Great leading batch?   


House: Personally, I can't believe I've had the same employees for three years.