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Friday, September 02, 2005

The banes of modernization

Oh the banes of modernization.. You think that modernization works to your advantage but sometimes it just makes you look silly.

Modernization certainly didn't work to our advantage today. Haha. Here's how it goes:

Happily, Momo, Hubert (especially), Reagan, Xiuli, Janice, Jeremy, Jojo
and I decided that we would dine at Wafflestown! Momo and Hubert were so excited about it in the band room that they were rushing to satisfy their rumbling tummys. And so we gathered our forces and set off for the journey across the road to the 93 bustop (after slacking around in the cafe for half an hour).

Frustratingly, it took another 20 mins for 93 to arrive and everybody was just shagged upon plonking ourselves on the bus seats. Being the last day of school and all the fatigue just suddenly set in. Confidently, we zoomed pass Ikea where nice food abounds-Swedish Meatballs!

The ride continued past RV, past Lilian's place onto some long stretch of road flanked by jungle. Ok, great.. Hubert didn't actually know where Wafflestown was and a unanimous conclusion was made that we were lost. Our imperfect knowledge of public transport.

Crossed a nice little overhead bridge to get back and Jeremy declared that he knew 157 would bring us to Wafflestown! And so we waited..

With Momo's volcanic alimentary canal activity getting increasingly vigorous and Reagan struggling to stand on his two feet (exaggerated) tensions rose and blood glucose levels fell. The buses came and went, but there was just no sign of 157. Poor momo even had an optical illusion mirage thing about the bus no. on one of the empty behemoths.

Finally, over the horizon a ray of hope emerged and touched our hearts.. Basically the bus arrived. This bus was different from 93. It was eerily silent. None of the passengers said a word and Janice was broadcasting our destination to everyone. Ignorant of the excessive decibel rating our conversations were producing Reagan and I asked Hubert to tell Momo and friends (M&F) to keep it down. Oh the horror.. Hubert our dear friend started shooing to M & F such that the whole bus could hear his shoos. Reagan and I just had to hide our faces and Reagan's tie found itself untied from his owner's neck.

HCI people boarded the bus and we were wowwing ourselves at how big Chinese High compound was till the bus passed Sixth Avenue and we realised that we were quite unknowing of our final destination AGAIN. Started panicking again and this passenger asked me if we needed directions; he had never heard of Wafflestown either.

After jacking ourselves twice Momo resigned us to a badly planned Wafflestown outing and got off at Bukit Timah Market and Food Centre. Oh man! We travelled for 45 mins to eat at a food centre where half of the shops were closed!

But the Orh Lua was not bad although it was a small portion for 6 bucks. The rojak could have done with a thicker sauce and crunchier you tiao. My ulcer is colossal and it hurts.

Reagan couldn't stand Jojo eating tomatoes again! Haha.

That was our attempt to dine at Wafflestown.. Now in the first place, does the eatery really exist?

Oh yar.. Happy Bursday to Pearl Lim Lian Fang! <-- My sister. Keep the waistline in check.. Haha. You'll do very well for SS and come to SAJC.

Have I mentioned that every year we're the same age for 2 weeks.. So irritating and cool. Especially when she was taller than me in P5. Now we're both 16. Darn. =)

I think that the speaker phone has some flipsides to it. Basically, most importantly, when you are using one, the other party knows it. :)

I pray for healing.

I pray for promos.

I thank God for SAJC band.

a ranting by Eugene at 6:19 PM

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Weekly Review

Before my review is put before your eyes I must blog about the little box on my right! Woohoo!

So fun! Lively chatter. =) Adrenaline flows through my blood as I scroll down that box. Looks like my argument has generated many a counter-argument and rebuttal. I love to find out the views of others coz its through consultation that we learn. Let's start the analysis of how i've gained:

1) Think before you speak.
Yup, totally agree with Smithers that he was not thinking at all when he opened his mouth. Hopefully we have learnt that different people have varying degrees of responses to words that we speak. For example, some JCians were offended by our friend's comments whereas others saluted him for being brave, and I agree with both parties. I actually wish I had that bravery when I was in sec 1. If he actually translates that gut into a tool for leading the band I believe he's going to be a great leader.

2) Be responsible for your own mistakes
Its good to see that people rebutt me for also offending them and in the next few paragraphs I will be explaining why I had to offend you guys. However, as quoted from somebody "an apology from the sec 1 would have had been able to stop all these stupid stuffs.." The thing is, he hasn't explained his actions to the people who took offence to his comments. If he can totally justify that what he did was right and it is a perfect shining example for us to emulate i'll skip the apology part.

Ok, its true that he may not have seen this. But with so many people defending him surely someone has bitched about me to him. If not can I repeat my appeal for this to be shown to him. Thank you. =)

It doesn't even require him to apologize, just to explain his actions. But it's been a few weeks now and no one has called the SAJC department to inform us of the rationale behind why we had to endure such unconducive talk.

3) Voice out your opinions to make the world a better place
If I had not blogged this down would you guys even know that unhappiness was brewed on that fateful saturday. Oblivious to the unhappiness, naturally there would be no pressure on our friend to learn from his mistakes. If no one made noise wouldn't it be acceptable to him to continue in this manner? In the future he would run along to SAS and offend the guys there, TWE and offend the Twemasekians there, Siglap and offend Willie's juniors there and basically every other school he meets. Why not stop the unhappiness at SAJC and nip the problem in the bud?

Its not that I don't want to give him a break, but that I still have no idea if he is going to cause relations with others to degenerate too. Has he realized that his guts can be used in a superior manner and that he cannot afford to go around saying this to everyone he meets? Once the latter receives a positive answer i'll be satisfied that the bitterness we went through was not for nothing.

4) Know the big picture
Thanks for your explanation Tommy. =) From Tommy i'm clearer about the situation and I sincerely apologize to anyone who may have been taken aback by the baritone sax stand part. However, I still hope that all great Patrician's out there know that a drop of black ink stains the whole bucket of water. As long as his ways are perpetuated and an outsider is at the receiving end of his actions people are bound to stereotype a Patrician with the experience they went through.

In addition, I also hope that our friend will be able to see the big picture and realize that blood, sweat, tears, shit and love have fuelled the process to SAJC's current position, and from the results that we attained we didn't go to our friend and say "Hey we're the best man! Move aside and make way for us the Kings of the band world." That's utter bullshit. So why in the world does he have to speak to us as if we were big headed, complacent showoffs?

Think that's all for now.

Let me explain my actions to each individual. You may not agree with what I have to say but we are different people and I hope we'll respect each others ideas and learn from them to edify ourselves.

eS`: You rock! Haha. Thanks. =)

somebody: Maturity is a relative word. I don't know who you are, where you come from or anything else so by all means you may be much more mature than me. But of course people like Lee Kuan Yew and Mahatma Gandhi are more mature than you. So we're all fruits in this process of ripening and I wish to catalyse the ripening process in our friend through the mechanism of my blog.

I don't believe age is a valid excuse to defend someone. Let's say you are 25 and pointing out the mistakes that I have made here. I won't go "But i'm only 17 and you're 25 and i'm a small little kid who knows nothing in life thus for goodness sake you have to forgive me."

Age can be valid initially to defend someone as he lacks experience in a certain area, but surely a month after committing the mistake one would have eventually realised that the mistake would have to be rectified-which in this case rectification by the party involved is still non-existant.

jk: I have to include the whole of SPS coz it's not only our friend's problem but the whole of SPS'. A chain is as strong as its weakest link. Don't tell me The St Patrick's Military Band is a band of individualistic people who are not affected by the actions of another member. Obviously this weak link hasn't been fixed yet even when I purposely tried twice to draw the attention of every potential person who cares about SPS to help fix it.

Sometimes you need to be a little irritating before people take notice of what you have to say. I'd rather you hate me to the core and he learns than you don't know of my existence and he continues to make enemies. At least only one person is doing the disliking.

Smithers: Sooner or later he has to start thinking so why not now since he's going to have to lead 41 of his fellow brothers in no time. He can't afford to blunder like this with so many people who will be affected by his actions.

Wooh! Great practice for GP man.

Saying Yo! to the following taggers:

1)Dorcas- Actually Cui Yin was one foot faster than you. Haha. But quite one of the earliest too. =)
2)Zizie
3)Xiuli- Don't really get you leh explain to me in school k?
4)Tommy- Been thanking you like crazy. Haha. Have fun with your friend. =)
5)Cui Yin- On ah! So fun so fun must learn from you. =)
6)Yunus- Thanks for your msg man! Bassoons rock!
7)Wen Min
8)Jojo Kawi- Nice smile!

Oh man.. and this is only the beginning of my post.

Review time!

Saturday 27/8/2005
Exco meeting started off well, good that we could actually have time for a pre-meeting discussion, shows that our batch is responding to the need to be punctual.
Why do people never have pens and paper to take down relevant points that will aid them in the future during meetings?
We have to find a way to adjust air-con temperature.
I must introduce a 15min toilet break in the future to combat bursting bladders.
"You all" is taboo in addressing fellow band members, it should be "we all".
My handwriting sucks.
Tommy, Mal and Jeremy have the correct mindsets. =)

I cannot study in a group, especially with food lurking around the corner.
My strategy shall be to study beforehand and then teach and clarify to reinforce my concepts.

Sunday 28/8/2005
People in attedance: Andrew, Eef, Jun Jie, Cheuk, Jojo, Su Lynn, Janice, Ms Ho, Ms Lee, Me.
Went to send Peace off on Sunday. Hope she had a good flight and she seemed to be quite alright. Guess its quite true that one good thing was that her class and the band rallied around her and as a result she has forged closer friendships. =)

Ahh!!! I'm crazy! Haha.

People can give me things like a bicycle or bassoon but the elation in me from receiving Gummi Fries and tomato ketchup was uncomparable. Haha. Still happy happy throughout the night can.. Gummi Fries are cute.

Reminds me that I haven't eaten it yet! Darn.

Wear white?

Monday 29/8/2005
Monday sucked. Horrible day. Great man.. Got E for Bio the week before and I failed both Econs essay test and GP essay. Still have no idea how to write econs essays?! Need model examples to follow. And what's with my example driven arguments in GP. Intro and conclusion had "gd" ticks but fail for content. Consultation consultation..

But tuition was funny. Haha. As usual Edmund and I will end up laughing, doing stupid things and failing maths. We stayed awake with Kopiko! The Milo that Wei Hao makes is so sweet? How in the world does he do it. Haha..Edmund lost out. Kopiko investment didn't result in Coke. Being the economist that he is he had to gain back some benefits so he started some debate on how many glasses a water a day a human had to consume and asked for a glass of water at the end of it. Then we were playing rambo outside Tim's house to hide from his father and distract Tim from dota-ing.

Edmund gets a hint.

Tuesday 30/8/2005
Sneak a snack in the reading room! Haha. Daniel's packet of nice curry prawn thingys were driving us crazy for more more more!

Wooh..

Gelare Waffles..

The first bite is pure pleasure to the taste buds..

But they don't allow studying there.. Hah.

Oh darn many USO sightings and a major loophole! Phew..

Wednesday 31/8/2005
Having a chem test on teacher's day sucks. But guess it sucks even more for the teacher so must adopt a positive spirit! =)

The ACES day dance thing was quite unethusiastic.. Guess we're a bit too concious of ourselves and should just let our hair down. My whole class (almost) wore class jersey! Wooh! So fun. Haha. Of course the ponners were an exception coz they weren't even there.

Band teacher's day celebration totally rocks lah! =) Great to see the spirit and enthusiasm put into recognising the contributions of our teachers-in-charge. Oh, Happy Bursday Eef! =) Must thank the PRs, welfare, Angeline and everyone for chipping in. Our renditions of "Happy Teacher's Day" are actually more lively, audible and in-tune than our National Anthem and school song. So sad.. and happy. Band pic!

Concert was interesting. Kudos to the emcees who did a great job engaging the audience. Alfred and Mozi were dancing!

Janice was on the piano in LT3 before the test. Talented ah she. Darn! My repertoire so limited! Going to expand it and figure out chords. Lilian, got the chord book? =)

Shared a cab with Rueben and Daniel back to the East. Mal's cab reached earleir than us lah! Anyway, so happy to see everyone again! Haha. Especially Selly! Liu Lao Shi rocks man. Still inspired by her after a year. Do you know that bassoon is Ba1-song1-hao4 in chinese? Ba1 li2 (paris) de4 ba1, fang4 song1 de4 song1 and hao4 ma3 de4 hao4. Thanked Patsy Neo too! =) She made SS the simplest thing in the world.. 25/25 is chicken feet to get man. Pro teacher.

Alumni advert: TWE Band BBQ 5th Sept, 7pm at East Coast pit 23.

Went to have Mee Pok with Ed, Tim and Mary Chua Fu Kuan then trooped dlwn to Edmund's place to supposedly swim. In the end never swim lah! So sad. Just played some volleyball and badminton. Wind + badminton= stress. My tanning plan failed..

Aiyoh.. Edmund very bad to Fu Kuan. Keep on arguing with him and never act like a proper host. Tim appeared like 2 hours later after going home to change. Sunset already lah.

Weird.. when I do an analysis my words are prim and proper but when it comes to describing the events of my life all the Singlish and short form rears its possibly ugly head.

Washing my hands in the pool after our BBQ chips were all consumed, mund naturally has to try to push me down. Wah lao.. was putting up resistance and hit my right palm and knee on the ground. Shouted an expletive (which I quickly repented for) in a fit of anger. Was so pissed at Edmund I just kicked off my wet shoes and flashed him the most your-stupid-nonsense-caused-me to-get-injured-face to him. Yup.. So now there are these little open gashes on my knee trying to clot amidst a backdrop of scratches and orh chair. It was the most pissed I was with him in so many months, was deciding to ignore him throughtout.

But can't stand it lah.. He actually went to the shower thingy and pressed the tap, letting water flow onto his cupped hands and poured it over the cuts. Tim tried to take out my wet socks. How can I fume against a guy like that for a moment longer man.. Really touched by the sincerity in showing his sorryness. So 5 mins later we ended up talking and laughing again. Haha. That's true friendship man. Cherish these 2 guys. =)

As an optimist, the superficial wounds reminded me that i'm blessed as a healthy person who does not have haemophilia and whose body actaually functions normally to repair itself. I thank God for that. =)

Edmund knows all! Darn.

Oh no.. Chem test! Is the reaction too fast? Are the conditions right? Should it happen?

For now slsramclf. =)

Eh Cheuk.. Trying something funny is it? Want to bully come and bully me. Don't make it difficult for forest.. Haha.

Sometimes.. I am a green veggie of beanstalk. Sigh.

I pray for a productive PW meeting tml.

I pray for a good rest for all teachers and students.

I pray that Ed will not be so vulgur and Tim's configuration problems would be solved.

I pray for small lion.

Wooh! Tired. 3 hours to write this..