Monday, April 30, 2007

back from my first ophix outing. haha. only four people from the workshop came though, me included. the rest were either GLs or people from the camp.

another big outing to look forward to. may 12. gonna have something like fow/foc again, squeezed into one day, and a mini jam and hop! woots. haha.

just in case you don't know what's jam and hop, it's something like clubbing, without the alcohol or whatever. just music and dancing.

hmm, nothing else to add. was thinking of putting the photos taken just now up, but i look retarded in all of them, so...

ah well, bye.

12:48 AM

And through it all, the rise and fall...

Thursday, April 26, 2007

finally gonna update. i know i haven't been updating, but, ah well, couldn't be bothered.

so what's new? i got a laptop! woots praise God. haha...

also, i went for another camp, the design school one. not nearly as good as the freshman orientation, but at least i got to know more people from my school. interesting thing that happened there, i lost my towel and ended having to dry myself with a freakin small face towel. well at least it wasn't a hankerchief, so i shouldn't complain. we have like, 400 plus freshies, and schools like business and engineering have 1000 over. but we're probably the rockiest school. haha.

school hasn't started. all the other schools already started by this week, but the design freshies only start next week. starting to get tired of slacking, but it's not like i can go get a job until school starts.

hmm, nothing much to blog about. getting my hair cut tomorrow.

wonder what lessons will be like...

8:31 PM

And through it all, the rise and fall...

Thursday, April 12, 2007

for the last 3 days, i was practically missing from the online world. seriously, who in this blue world has the energy to come online at night after having to wake up at 6.45am and only reaching home after 9? alright, so i'm back from a TP workshop, and it rocks! cheering is like, so power at TP. gonna describe it to you, whether you want to know it or not :p

Day 1:
reached late due to some accident at the MRT. good thing was i wasn't the latest, although i was late by about half an hour. and also everyone took a super long time to settle down, so, no problem. was assigned to the empire "Ophix", and the sub-empire "Ophten". there were four other empires too, but i don't have to mention them cause they're all unimportant. hope min goes into Ophten too during her camp later today, otherwise i'm gonna get killed when she sees this...

everyone of the freshies in TP were super un-enthu during the first day. our group leaders (GLs) were trying their best, screaming out cheers at the top of their lungs trying to teach us freshies, while we sat there like gong-gong people. somehow they managed to get us to cheer along eventually with voices slightly above our normal talking tones. so we went around the school doing stations games. these games really helped to bond the group throughout the 3 days, along with everything else.so, nothing special happened on the 1st day. oh, and did i mention that the five empires were competing against each other? that's what the station games/cheering were for. so, end of first day, scores revealed, and we won, woots!

Day 2:
reached slightly later this time, like, 20 minutes after the thing started. found my empire and sat down. the whole sports complex hall was filled with voices with GLs from various empires trying to lead their own empire in cheers, but it seemed as though most of the energy that was gathered in the empires the previous day had seeped out or something. people were cheering half-heartedly, some people didn't even cheer. really pitied those GLs. but again, somehow, they managed to get their empires stirred up. also, we learnt the TP mass dance which was SUPER FUN! WOOTS! people just grab a partner of the opposite sex (wink wink :D ) and dance to the music being played. GLs demo-ed it to the freshies once, and it looked very nice when you see how everyone's movement was syncronised. then, when they taught us, one of the GLs from another group just randomly grabbed me and just like that, i had a partner, and she didn't look too bad either :)

one thing i love about the dance is that you get to hold the other person's hand, and i mean hold as in interlock your fingers. so if you managed to get your crush to dance with you, heh heh heh...

also learned the TP school song, which we had to sing along to and do the lyrics in sign language. quite cool, except for the fact that we had so many hand signs to memorise. and there's also the chicky dance! woots! haha, sorry, i'm getting high just thinking about all these things.

so after that we had lunch, then station games again, this time outside school. went all around doing weird things, and this time it was like the wet cement had been poured. people were really starting to get into the spirit, cheering loudly, competing with other empires who was the loudest and stuff. we also had to do a performance item, where the GLs couldn't help us, so every empire was on it's own for the first time. the time we were given to plan and practice was insanely short, but in the end we managed to come through, coming up with a rather decent drama/"stomp" performance. somehow, although i'm super sure our group came up with the idea first and the other empires just copied it off us, since it was the person next to me that suggested the "stomp" idea, most of the other empires did the same thing. maybe they saw us practice. anyways, for the uninformed, "stomp" is an act where you hit various item to produce different sounds, where every sound adds to the whole thing and everything sounds like some well orchestrated concert.

also, there was another mass dance later on. i feel like i kinda wasted a golden opportunity. there was a girl that i had been eyeing since i saw her, and she was alone, looking for a partner. at first i thought she already had one, since there was someone standing behind her. then some other girl asked me to dance with her, so of course i said yes, couldn't exactly reject her. turned around and saw her asking someone else. ARGH!

fast forward to the end of the day, scores were revealed, and we were placed in 2nd place, 4 points behind the first group.

Day 3: by this day, it seemed as though the wet cement that was laid had completely dried up. Ophix was more bonded than ever. when i stepped into the sports complex 20 minutes late again, i could see all the empires cheering in unison. the station games this time was held in the school again. for most of these games, or rather all, it required us to pair up, and having people of both genders in one pair gave extra points. and this time, i managed to the girl i had been eyeing! woohoo! best thing was, these games needed us to get quite close with each other to complete, so, you don't see me complaining! the first task we did, we had to support a bag, like one of those from coffeshops when you order takeaway coffee, filled with water, with only parts of our body above the elbow. we ended up biting on the string and let's just say the string wasn't very long :)

there was one game where the whole sub-empire of about 30 people including the GLs formed a circle, and a strawberry pokey stick was passed around from mouth to mouth, each person taking a tiny bite. i was so disappointed when i didn't get to stand next to the-girl-i-had-my-eye-on (TGIHMEO). consolation was by the time it came near me there was a small commotion when 2 guys had to take the extremely shortened stick from each other. the guy taking it used his tongue, and everyone got so high seeing that they demanded they do it over and over again, so the game didn't continue after that, although we got the points.

after the games, we headed back to the sports complex for lunch, before playing a game called "hunt-gry" (pronounced "hungry"). we were given tasks and had to run about the whole school doing weird (and i mean weird) tasks as an whole empire. up till then, we had been doing these things in our sub-empires so doing it as one whole group was challenging, not to mention that since we were the group with the most freshies, slightly chaotic. somewhere somehow we were doing a task which involved everyone eating from one sandwich. this girl went to buy the sandwich and passed it to me saying "hi, you are 'everyone' right?" and that was how i got stuck doing all the tasks which had the words "everyone" in it, which involved doing pole-dancing on a pillar, kissing a guy (not french, just peck on the cheeks) and other stuff. at least it was fun.

it was really on the 3rd day that i started sort of rising up. started shouting loudly for groups to gather and listen, since the girls didn't have the lung power, and started leading some simple cheers, although the last cheer i led, along with a few other guys, was a super long one, called the "underwear"cheer. i think that's the whole empire's 2nd fave cheer. anyway that's what happens when people get high in TP. it seems like getting high during gone of TP workshops/camps is an easy thing to do. other camps are like, way below standard compared to TP ones. at least for those that i've been to. sec 1 orientation really sucked. pointless tasks without meaning or something to learn from, besides getting down and dirty. so now, i got high, and i am currently paying the price. i lost my voice. when i sing "d0-re-mi" normally, withouh going super low, i have trouble maintaining "re" for more than half a second, and totally cannot hit "mi". worst thing is, i have a choir to attend in less than two days. God help me!

so the activity after "hunt-gry" was "final clash" at the field, where the 5 empires and the sub-comms battle it out it a water bomb fight. once you're hit, even by friendly fire, you're out. objective was to attack the opposing team's "lollipop", i hulla hoop covered by newspapers tied to a bamboo, and make a clean hole through the hoop. our strategy was to make peace with one empire and kill off everyone until we were the only ones left, but ended up we had made peace with two, and we lasted till the end. so facing a tight spot, not knowing who to attack, some guys acted on their own and backstabbed one empire, and someone by chance managed to get the other empire's lollipop, so Ophix won the game. went back to the sports complex, and our final scores were announced. needless to say, Ophix was the champion :)

had a final mass dance. i was looking for TGIHMEO when one of the GLs from my group grabbed me. she then proceeded to drag me all the way across the sports complex till the end of it, and that was when the music began, and i danced with her. still quite fun though. she was one of the GLs i liked, the more quirky ones. of course, i like all the GLs, but some people more than others, mostly those in charge of my sub-empire. end of the day, TGIHMEO was going home, and i didn't have the guts to ask for her number or msn. feel disappointed with myself.

there also happens to be another LJY in my empire, who is also in my course. we're both lim, and her name is jing yuan, same as edward, just different words and pronunciation.

left TP for the mac at the CPF building in tampines for the "traditional" after-workshop/camp party bought our food, sat outside the building in our own empires and ate. learned alot of new games, and saw a different side of GLs they couldn't show while leading us, a side with even more energy needed, which is why they weren't allowed to do it in front of us before. left for home in a cab at 1.15am. $22.35! idiots... had to take it alone since there weren't anyone there who was from BB or anywhere near.

remember when i said the "underwear"cheer was 2nd fave? i'm gonna leave you with the empire's fave and most power cheer. leader verses are in bold, brackets show the action.

Go back jump, go jump go (clap laps, hands, and hands up, x2),

Ophix, Ophix, go go go (same),

I say Ophix you say eh, you say eh, you say eh (clap laps, hands, hands up, clap laps, hands, point hips to left),

I say Ophix you say oh, you say oh, you say oh (same, point hips to right instead),

I say Ophix you sayyyy......

OPHIX SAY AY YAH AY YAH!

AY YAH! x3

We the best ah we the best, we will beat the rest ah.

Shake it to the left,

To the left, to the left, (glide left. and yes, it's the beyonce song)

Shake it to the right,

To the right, to the right, (same, glide right instead)

Oh.......

Smack that, out on the floor, (stmop ground and clap with large arm motion during "smack")

Smack that, give me some more, (same)

Smack that, till you get sore, (same)

Smack that, woah oh oh ohh, (same)

(Clap and stomp once, then open hands while waving)

It's magic...

(whole empire starts screaming and clapping like mad.)

2:59 AM

And through it all, the rise and fall...

Saturday, April 07, 2007

feel like i'm quite far away from my fellow classmates. only managing to see mei hui occasionally in pastamania or wj in church, and nani while walking along orchard road last week. don't know if it's because there were'nt any outings, or i just wasn;t invited. either way, they probably have their reasons...

on a brighter note, i finally got my laptop! it's a tablet, and the things inside is quite good, and it costs only $2299! woots! hasn't arrived yet, still anticipating it. after i get my hands on it, gonna throw it to my bro, let him do all the technical stuff, install firewalls, get mozilla firefox, etc. after that it'll be MINE! muahahahahaha...

easter service was great. the drama was nice as usual, albeit a little dramatic. but then again, it's a drama, hence the dramatism. 2 parts about the drama i loved. one was when the disciples of Jesus danced and sang along to the teriyaki boys, fast and furious tokyo drift. "i wonder if you know, He has power where He goes..." the whole church was laughing like mad and clapping. also another part was when the guy who acted as satan tripped and almost fell on his face. at first some of the people laughed nervously, not sure if it was intended as part of the play, then slowly the whole church started laughing. think it must have been super embarassing for the guy playing satan. pastor commented on about it afterwards said something like "when i first saw the guy acting as the devil, i thought he looked quite scary, withe the snake hanging around his neck and all, then when he tripped i thought to myself, wow, he's a fumbling fool." maybe God was making fun of satan when he made that guy trip, i don't know. haha. there aren't any coincidences in this world, afterall. read an interesting saying somewhere recently:

" 'coincidence' is when God chooses to remain anonymous." so true, don't you think?

hope to see more of my classmates soon...

10:52 PM

And through it all, the rise and fall...

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

hmm... gonna go for TP workshop on the 9th of april. finally feels like i'm leaving behind YISS. abandoning all but one of my friends, entering unchartered ground, kinda feels like the time when i first stepped into YI, if i could only remember what that felt like. ah well.

thinking back, i only truly made friends when i came to 3e2, forging friendships that actually stand a chance against the test of time. eventually, some friendships will fail, as communications break down, but hopefully, with some divine help, at least a handful will follow me into adulthood.

now comes the time when you think back on your secondary school life. some will leave with a heart heavy with regrets, others desperately trying to keep in touch with each other. looking back, i got into quite a few messes myself. one of the more memorable ones would be getting busted by the cops for being out way past our bedtime. making fun of edward's hissing, like "eh go lah, JY, police leh!"

this all wouldn't have happened without the o levels. four years of our lives, the late night "studying". yet ironically, it's the o levels itself that seperates us. true, some of us ended up in the same place, but not many can boast about being able to see our friends almost everyday. min and i made some sort of pact, to meet regularly at mayeb the design school cafe or somewhere to have lunch together. just hope other things won't come in the way. but then again, they always do.

wonder if the cops still have my i/c and phone registration number in their database...

11:58 PM

And through it all, the rise and fall...

Monday, April 02, 2007

i was about to get slightly pissed off just now, when i surfed a few blogs and found that many of them are like, stuck in a previous century and never moving ahead or something. then i realised, i haven't been updating that often myself. so i shall repent!

these few days have been kinda hectic for me. went out on saturday with winnie, rachel and daniel to orchard, for a supposed cell group outing, but turned out, everyone was either not free, not in singapore or just uncontactable. so ended up, only the 4 of us went. ah well, smaller group equals stronger fellowship, although seeing the same faces not appearing week after week kinda, well, sucks. yea, some probably have good excuses, but others just freaking don't want to come or something, choosing at the last minute to go MIA when they should know that we are responsible for knowing whether they were attending cell group and/or service, putting us in difficult positions. but let's not talk about such depressing stuff. gotta stay positive!

al~ways look on, the bright~er side of your life. da-da, da-da dee da de dum...

so anyways, we got there and had our brunch at this hong kong restaurant in cineleisure, i think. had fish baked rice, same as rachel, daniel had mushroom baked rice and winnie had a maggie noodle thingy, with the meat replaced with an extra egg. (for those of you who might not know, w330 is going on a daniel fast, which means no meat for 21 days, excluding food like fish, seafood, egg, etc. might not seem like alot of work, but when you do it, you realise that without meat, your eating options become very limited. and what's this? the time is 00:13, meaning the final day is over, and i can eat meat again! woohoo!)

gotta go back there some day. their menu had many interesting choices, gonna go back and check it out after being able to eat meat again :) after the brunch, we went to take neoprints. good thing there were only 4 of us, didn't have to get really small photos to split. my memory of what happened after that is vague. walked around, went to other malls, where i got my dark tie for the benni hinn choir, and before we knew it, it was time to go to church. mark conner was the guest speaker. great message. short, but great. for those who missed it, their loss...

after the service, we all went our seperate ways.somehow i managed to be convinced by rachel to go over to her new house to help her unpack and move some furniture, so we went over the block 203 and waited. suddenly, yuting, her mom, and rocky appeared. yuting sat with us for awhile until rachel's dad arrived, and her mom dragged rocky back home with a rope around his neck. time went by and rachel called her dad and found out that she was supposed to be at 202. that girl doesn't even know where she lives :p

so long story short, brought some stuff from the car into the house, moved some cabinets and beds, cleaned up abit and left. think i reached home somewhere at midnight, not that sure.

second day, yesterday, went over to help out again. daniel came over to help too. this time the main objective was more on cleaning up and setting up computer tables. they had alot of computer tables...

so in the end, i reached home around 11pm, legs almost giving out on me. took alot of my remaining strength to get up off the sofa i sat down on and to bathe. came online, saw that my bro had switched the msn to messenger live 8.0. ah well, it's still msn.

think i'm gonna upload some pics. been awhile since i last did that, and also my phone memory needs to be purged.

CNY/ daniel's birthday celebration: