My Island.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

I never really thought about the recession so far - the only thing I thought about it was how it would affect the cost of food and necessities. And that isn't quite saying much, since the only jump I've noticed so far is the price of samosas at Stall 7 going from 30c apiece to 40c. I'm not working, so I don't have to worry about whether I'll get a pay cut or the axe.

I realise that it'll take quite some time for everyone to recover from the financial crisis - years perhaps - and then I realise that I might not be able to take a gapyear if I wanted to. I wonder if I should study overseas, although I reckon I would come across quite a number of problems, namely: obtaining funding for the whole length of study, possible difficulty in understanding language of instruction (if it isn't English) and most importantly...FOOD. I would probably have to go vegetarian/vegan or something. $$$$$$!

I thought I had it all planned out earlier, taking a two-year break between JC and university to work for a full year or one-and-a-half years, and then using the remaning six months or so to travel for a bit (and seeing as I want to go to Scandinavia, it won't be a long trip because everyone knows Northern Europe's awfully expensive to go to). Afterwards I'd just go to NIE and try to work as a Geography teacher or something.

I wish I were a better student in school.

Labels: life

1/29/2009 11:39:00 PM

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Oh, the places you'll go!

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!

You'll be on your way up!
You'll be seeing great sights!
You'll join the high fliers
who soar to high heights.

KID, YOU'LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!

- stanzas from Dr. Seuss' "Oh, the Places You'll Go!"

Oh, the places I'll go.

Labels: life, random

1/27/2009 03:17:00 PM

Sunday, January 25, 2009

One of my all-time favourite things to do is to have a mini-picnic on Changi Beach at night. Even though it's awfully windy - especially during this time if you've noticed the increased wind strength - and gets rather cold because of the windchill, it's a lovely place.

Every once in a while a plane would fly overhead, the roar of its engines immediately pausing any conversation, and I'd look overhead at its great underbelly. The small planes don't interest me, but when the 747s and the A380s pass I smile in appreciation while covering my ears. If the wind had been blowing landward instead, I would be watching the horizon for the planes' spotlights, guessing which runway they would land at and looking at how many planes there were lined up for the same runway. Then, as they approached, I would be marvelling at how the spotlights illuminated the rippling surface of the sea.

I fell asleep like four to five times throughout the whole 'picnic', listening to Richard Marx songs on my mum's phone (Hazard is a rather creepy song). I had brought along my little marshmallow bolster, putting me to sleep almost every time I lay down and hugged it.

During the 'picnic' I also learnt the names of the current Japanese PM and the three preceding ones: Taro Aso, Yasuo Fukuda, Shinzo Abe and Junichiro Koizumi. The ones in the middle having rather short-lived terms. (I just noticed their first names and last names have the same number of syllables. On a side note, I rather like Junichiro Koizumi's name. It sounds nice.)

Conversation subjects went like this:

Airliners flying overhead -> I wonder if Nana's at Saudi Arabia already -> *bzzt link lost*

Talking about Mr Toh's Singlish examples -> Recounting about someone asking Mr Toh what his race was -> My mum asking about Rashidah's father (who is Chinese) -> My mum mentioning how Muslims in China have the surname Mah -> Mah reminding my sister of Ma Ying-jeou -> My brother mistaking Ma Ying-jeou for Lee Myung-bak -> Me mentioning the Sporcle quiz about the G8 (+5) leaders -> Talking about how the quiz wasn't updated when I first took it (the current PM is Taro Aso, but their answer was Yasuo Fukuda) -> Listing the two PMs preceding Yasuo Fukuda

: D

We eventually went home around 1+ am. Talk about wrecking my circadian rhythm, if I haven't turned it upside down already, what with me being unwilling to sleep before 2.30am unless I'm really tired.

-----------

Nana, how do you know all these people who act so gentlemanly?! It's rather unnerving!

Labels: life

1/25/2009 07:42:00 PM

Fuck.

I'm totally guilty of crying at the March of the Penguins.

-----------

I don't think I ever want to send someone off at the airport ever again. It just feels odd, especially when the person you're seeing off is migrating. Knowing that she won't be back for a very long time, knowing that she might be different when she comes back, knowing YOU might be different instead. It's depressing.

I liked going to the airport when it was just for leisure...

I think it was Terminal 2's Viewing Mall (which no longer exists or is only for the transit passengers) that I loved so much. Terminal 1's Viewing Mall is too small, smaller than the one I remember fondly, and spoiled by the construction works in front of it. Terminal 3's Viewing Mall, while modern and airconditioned and covers a rather wide area, is too far from the planes.

...is it wrong to forget to miss you?

-----------

Himaruya has updated his blog with chibi faces of Norway and Denmark.

Will they appear in comics or more illustrations soon? I hope so!

Labels: hetalia, life

1/25/2009 01:39:00 PM

Saturday, January 24, 2009

"Gonna watch more porn today!"
- Ying Jun, on the Biology videos on reproduction

"Where's the porn?"
- Ying Jun, again

"We're very open...if I was a woman ah, I would marry him!"
- Mr Sean Yeoh on his friendship with Mr Ben

Gah, idiot me keeps forgetting to update the minor stuff.

Thursday morning. I was in the shower, getting ready to brush my teeth. Suddenly there was a click and the electricity cut out, leaving me soaking in gradually-cooling water in the pitch black bathroom, still grasping my toothbrush. So. Do you continue brushing like nobody's business? I dropped my toothbrush, stumbled around for my towel and hurriedly jumped out of the bathroom just in case I saw something undesirable. Ran out to the living room towards my dad, who had an electric lantern and was busy fiddling with the fuse box, and stood there in my towel, shivering violently from both the cold and from nervousness. Power came on in several minutes, and I simply continued where I had left off. Except I made sure to squeeze a fresh batch of toothpaste onto the brush.

Karaoke today with Tey Guan, Andrew, Russ Lim, Zhiling, Sugi and Daniel! Um, didn't sing a lot of songs because I waited for Jazlyn and they only booked the room from 3 to 6pm. The only song I sang completely by myself was Thank You by Dido, and I think I was utter crap at singing. I joined Sugi and Jaz singing Sakura Kiss from Ouran, and as the finale we all sang Sk8er Boi by Avril Lavigne. Aw man, I would've loved to sing more songs (to hell with my tone-deafness) but not in such a big group la, or I'll feel so self-conscious.

Nana is leaving tomorrow. I don't think the severity of the situation has quite hit home yet. I reckon I'm going to write Nana a letter, but I'm not a person of many words on paper (not on blogs, I can spam all I want). I'll be at Changi Airport around 9 - 9.30am, attempting to find Terminal 1's viewing gallery. I think - if it still exists - it's way better than Terminal 3's gallery because it's so far from the planes!

Oh Nana. I do hope I don't cry tomorrow. I realise that I have become rather emotional and temperamental over the years.

Hormones. >_>;

Labels: life, quote, random

1/24/2009 12:36:00 AM

Friday, January 23, 2009

I just realised half an hour ago, when I arrived at home, that I had been standing straight the whole day for the first time in several days.

-----------

Whenever I get a seat on the train, every time the train pulls into a station I always check whether there are any elderly people, pregnant women or families with young children/strollers who board so I can prepare to give my seat up.

Such a situation happened today on a rather crowded train. The husband was wheeling in a stroller, accompanied by a pregnant-looking woman and a young woman - I couldn't approximate her age. I was preparing to give my seat up, but they were talking amongst themselves and not quite noticing my hesitant looks in their direction. A man in front of me did, though, and for the next few stations I alternated between glancing at the family, at the floor, at my bag and at the man in front of me, while half-leaning out of my seat.

I must have glanced at the man in front of me quite often, for he seemed to understand what I wanted to do. With each glance at him and at the family he kept moving backwards until there was a substantial amount of space in front of him and me, enough for me to stand up and offer the family, especially the woman, my seat.

-----------

I had a rather fitful sleep last night. The couches were all taken, so I took my sister's sleeping bag and decided to sleep on the floor instead. I must have been more tired than I thought I was, because I drifted off almost immediately as soon as I lay down on the sleeping bag.

In my previous posts I said I hated sleep paralysis, right? I experienced it again. TWICE. Bloody hell. It annoys me to no end. It felt as if my whole body was made of lead - I could not move any part of my body at all and it took me a great effort just to be able to move my head. I struggled to move my body, and then realised that my sleep paralysis could be due to my rather uncomfortable sleeping conditions. I was so tired that I wanted to sleep, but the hard floor prevented me from falling asleep fully, leading to an 'incomplete' transition into the sleep state.

Once I put a pillow underneath my head and hugged my trusty little bolster, I fell asleep almost immediately without any undesirable consequences.

There is even a medical application of sleeping with a bolster pillow; children in some families are encouraged to hug it until they grow into adulthood. It is considered to be very good for soothing nerves and calming one's mind during sleep.

- http://www.linkroll.com/pillows/Bolster-Pillow.php

Comfort = better sleep. Remember that.

Speaking about my bolster, do you know I've had it for ten years now? It's a lovely Garfield bolster, in light green - a shade of my favourite colour. My mum came home with it one day and told me it was mine. I felt so happy getting a new bolster! When I was five years old it reached my shoulders, but I'm fifteen now and bolsters don't grow along with you, so now it reaches only midway up my thigh. I don't think I'm growing anymore now, though, so it'll be that way for a long time to come.

Labels: life, memories

1/23/2009 09:21:00 PM

Gosh, in the past three weeks of school I've been approached by as many teachers as the whole of last year. All, of course, concerned for my studies but really, I think I could do without some of them until I am quite ready! Like English. I really don't like the idea of a one-on-one sort of speech thing because it's just unnerving to me. More unnerving than speaking in front of the whole class. Or is that the point of it?

I forgot to mention this rather funny thing in my last post - it's Hetalia related.

Every time I go to the library I always walk to the magazine section and check if there are any new and interesting issues. Two days ago or so, the latest issue of Monocle caught my eye because, well, it mentioned Iceland on the cover *cough*.

What was interesting though, was the picture of the model on the cover. The model was supposed to represent Iceland, and the magazine was pointing out various factors Iceland could use to its advantage and bring it out of its economic slump. For example, model's ear = Icelandic music. Knitwear model is wearing = Iceland could go back to knitting and farming to restart its economy. The funniest part (to me, anyway) was that the model had white hair, or just so blond it's white. Like Hetalia!Iceland's hair. : D Model = female version of Iceland?

Gah. It tires me to read current affairs magazines and stuff...because I can't stop LOLing every time I see a reference to the countries.

Labels: hetalia

1/23/2009 12:04:00 AM

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Okay, several brief updates:

1. National Geographic store at Vivocity

Finally went there last week - or the week before, I can't remember - with my mum because I was quite insistent on going. Some of the apparels are nice, but really expensive, like in the SGD200 range - but all sales are like donations to National Geographic though, supporting the society.

After loitering around the temperature chamber I finally plucked up the courage to speak to the guy-in-charge (who looked rather unfriendly, to me) and entered the chamber! You've got to wear a Gore-tex jacket though, and you're only allowed in there for 30 seconds just in case you catch acute hypothermia or something. I wonder what Gore-tex stands for. Al Gore Textiles?

The chamber was at -2.5°C when I stepped in. I made sure to remove my watch before then, just in case it couldn't stand the cold. The wind felt like a really cold aircon D: The jacket was very effective in keeping the heat in, though. Wouldn't mind using that in class when the polar bears are on the loose. 16°C my foot. I'm not sure what my body temperature ended up like in the chamber, but for half an hour after I stepped out of the chamber I constantly felt as if moisture was forming on my skin.

I totally wouldn't mind working in the store as a in-between-school job or something. Would be super interesting! And I like their 'uniform'. : D

2. Commonwealth Essay

I finally finished it at 1494 words! I'm not sure if it made any sense, the ending's rather ambiguous and this year it's not Mrs Leslie I've got for an English teacher, it's Mr Toh who I reckon means well but he can be rather ~~sarcastic~~ witty at times.

3. Teachers

I hate talking to them. Doesn't matter which teacher it is, even if they mean well, I hate talking to teachers. I hate being forced to talk. Because truthfully, I am a sponge. I sit and listen, and I just listen and listen and continue listening. When I have objections...I don't say it. Because it probably sounds stupid. Or something. I JUST DON'T LIKE TO TALK. DON'T FORCE ME TO TALK. You can let me draw if you like, but don't make me talk. If you DO have to talk to me, let me draw at the same time or I'll get emotional. D: <

Watch out, IMH, I'll be raving on your doorstep in ten years' time, eh!

-----------

Is it wrong of me to think that Stephen Colbert reminds me of DDFB? I think it's the appearance...

"We'll use the sun and the heat rays
To make everything way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way safer!"

Labels: life, random

1/21/2009 10:43:00 PM

Sunday, January 18, 2009

•✖★[Jazzu ] says:
http://i43.tinypic.com/ecykl.jpg* what country is secret poster talking about? D:
Cz. says:
hard to tell, but there are several countries in that region. Moldova, Bulgaria, Serbia, Kosovo (disputed area - not sure if it's a country).
•✖★[Jazzu ] says:
ah. o w o
Cz. says:
oh wait.
Cz. says:
I forgot Romania.
Cz. says:
that might be it
Cz. says:
(if it's Romania she's talking about, then I'm so sorry I forgot it. ><)
•✖★[Jazzu ] says:
XD
Cz. says:
oh shit
Cz. says:
it IS Romania
Cz. says:
god, the irony

*http://community.livejournal.com/fandomsecrets/236136.html#cutid1 (No. 138)

Labels: hetalia, random

1/18/2009 06:15:00 PM

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Doh. I remember I did have a rather interesting dream, one that I suppose I could call a lucid dream. I can't remember the exact details of the dream but I remember when I realised I was dreaming.

I was dreaming, and then vaguely aware that the dream was going to end soon. I didn't want it to end because it was a pretty nice one - but I can't remember it now, unfortunately - so I decided I'd take the rest of the dream into my own hands, because usually I have no control over what I'm dreaming about. I was aware that I was dreaming, and the instant I became aware the dream somehow became more lifelike and I had to constantly tell myself that I was, in fact, still dreaming.

The only thing I remember was that I was in my school uniform. I forgot what my dream was about because when I woke up, my mum was instantly talking to me and it went *fwoosh* out of my memories.

Speaking of dreams, I hate it when I experience sleep paralysis. It usually happens when I'm extremely tired and waiting to fall asleep, but before I actually drift off to sleep my body has already entered REM atonia, where the motor neurons aren't stimulated anymore and thus the muscles don't move. So I'll be lying there half-awake and attempting to move, but I can't because my stupid brain's shut down the release of neurotransmitters needed to stimulate the neurons. It takes a while for my brain to 'boot up' and finally get moving.

My fear in such a state is that I'll be awake but never able to move my body again. That's just fucking scary, because the only thing I'll be able to do is move my eyes and blink.

Labels: dream, life, random

1/17/2009 01:20:00 PM

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Okay! It's almost one in the morning and I'm still attempting to crap out my Commonwealth Essay. Even after all those oranges I've been eating you'd think I'd get some form of verbal diarrhoea by now, but nooo... I'm stuck with indecisive constipation! This is like my, what, fifth restart in the past three days? Stupidly enough, I had already written 621 words yesterday and then I thought, "Oh well, that won't do, it's too crappy even though I don't care about winning some Commonwealth Prize or even pleasing my teacher. DAMN MY STANDARDS!".

So here I am, staying awake as usual, typing again and again and daaaaamn it if I decide it's fucking crap after writing 900 words.

I'm still riveted onto the polar expedition idea though. : D I blame National Geographic or Fridtjof Nansen for inspiring me.

Labels: school

1/15/2009 12:53:00 AM

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

It's only the fourth day of school/second day of proper school and I get the feeling I am terribly doomed this year.

First class I already hate: Literature. I am in a small class of ten students and one boisterous teacher. I do NOT like to speak up, especially when the other nine students and one boisterous teacher are all good at Lit and rather passionate about the subject. I am the bloody kid who wanted to quit last year. QUIT I SAY, QUIT. FOR HISTORY WHICH I HAVE AT LEAST SOME OUNCE OF INTEREST IN, UNLIKE LITERATURE.

I don't like to speak up. I think I keep quiet like at least 70% of the time in one whole day. I want to express myself, but the people around me aren't the kind of people I want to express my emotions to. They won't understand what I want to say. Except good friends like Jazlyn, Nana and TG. So few! But very good quality friends.

Now in NCC I'll only have people like Hui Chen and Arasi to hang around with, when Nana's gone.

-----------

COSFEST. OH CRIMONY FISHES.

I'm considering cosplaying adult!Greece on Cosfest Day 1 and chibi!Greece on Cosfest Day 2, if I have enough time to do chibi!Greece. Oh gosh, six months to Cosfest in July and I haven't even got a price quote for my outfit from tailors and stuff! CLOTH. GREECE'S BERET. CAT PLUSHIE. FUCKING PLATFORMS. How tall is Greece anyway?!

Things-to-do:

1. Get a price quote for Greece's military outfit - containing khaki-coloured jacket and pants - and find a reasonable tailor to do it!
2. Get a brown beret
3. Get brown platforms or boots
4. Ask my mum or someone to cut my hair like Greece's. And probably spray it brown or something. >_>;;;
5. Wonder how to get my $300 out of the bank for this

and if I have time, get myself metres of cloth and attempt chibi!Greece.

Labels: cosplay, school

1/07/2009 10:32:00 PM

Monday, January 05, 2009

Second day of school.

I still don't get why Mr Ow is made of win. Perhaps it is simply the second day of school and everyone, teachers and students alike, need to get used to it. WHY AM I SO PARANOID. GEEZ. First it was...and then it's...anyway, I can't wait for tomorrow though, when I'll finally see some of my other teachers according to the timetable put up. Let's see, tomorrow I'll be meeting (as in new teachers)...

Mr Azahar (SS)
Dr Ng Kai Ling (Chem)
Mrs/Ms Doreen Tan (Math)

...and then looks like I'll be seeing Mr Evans again for RS. Haven't done a thing over the holidays, I wonder if Mr Evans will be mad. But he attempted to draw a puffball on our class whiteboard today with a little 412 flag, and wrote "Good luck! - Mr E." on it. How sweet.

(Reminds me of that time he signed off as 'Mystery' and we're all like WTF is that?! Mister E = Mys-ter-y. Kinda lame but pretty ingenious.)

Looking at my timetable now I just realised that our classroom number is D444. Not a good omen for the start of the year, methinks.

-----------------

Yesterday was pretty fun~ My dad rented a Suzuki Swift from the NTUC CarCo-op scheme, and we went to Adam Road to eat at the hawker centre there. There's a stall that's featured in the Sunday Times best 100 eats list. My brother ate from that stall, but I decided I wasn't really one for mutton soup and went for mutton chop from the stall beside it. Delish!

As usual whenever we rent a car, I'm always the one clamouring to go to Changi Beach so I can see the planes land and take off. My dad dropped my mom off at Singapore Expo so she could do some shopping. On the way to Changi Beach he took a lesser-known road (there's a signpost which said "Police K-9 Unit") which apparently passed a secret airbase covered with trees. I think he means Changi Air Base or something which shares a runway with Changi International Airport. (I went there for the familiarisation flight for NCC Air.)

The last time we frequented Changi Beach the planes would always fly in landwards for an immediate landing, and at night it's simply beautiful when the powerful xenon headlights (my dad says they're xenon anyway) illuminate the surface of the sea. However, in recent times I've been pretty suay, every time I go there at 10pm it's always that lull after the busy arrival/departure times which are around 7-8pm. So when I go there there's completely nothing at all!

Yesterday the wind was blowing strongly landwards, and I realised that no planes were coming in to land from the front of Changi Beach. Planes would take off as usual, but they didn't land in the same manner as they did last time. My dad told me it was because the wind was blowing landwards - it's better to land and take-off against the wind than with it, or you'll be going too fast and might lose control of the plane. So planes that were coming in to land had to circle to the other end of the runway and land against the wind.

Bad news for me, though: the wind blowing landwards is apparently part of the monsoon winds, so if I ever want to see a plane landing facing the front of Changi Beach I'll have to wait until the monsoon season is over. DAMN SUAY!

My dad then drove us to this quiet lane in the Changi Business Park where you could see planes coming in to land up close! I didn't even need the binos to see the paint job of the plane, what type it was and what airline it was from, unlike my earlier viewpoint at Changi Beach. I saw flights from Cathay Pacific, Valuair, Garuda, JetStar, AirAsia and even Air France! (I wouldn't have recognised Air France had I not seen the words at the side of its body.) AirAsia has a really colourful body! Not scrimping on the paint job like Valuair, so says my brother.

We even saw an A380! From afar it appeared to be a plane that was already near the airport and going to land, but when it took longer and longer to arrive we realised that it was in fact a very big plane that was very far, just that its size betrayed its distance from the airport. We initially wondered why it was so close to the plane in front of it (the Air France one - my dad estimated it was 15 to 20 seconds apart) and that would've been too fast for the latter to taxi off the runway for the next plane to land.

Altogether I'd say it was a very fruitful trip! The airlines I saw were: Singapore Airlines, JetStar, Lion Air, Malaysian Airlines, Valuair, AirAsia, Cathay Pacific, Garuda, Air France and...FedEx!

Labels: life, school

1/05/2009 06:11:00 PM

Sunday, January 04, 2009

412 (Catharine Wong/Christopher Ow)

English: Mr Joseph Toh (?)
Chinese: TanBL (?)
Malay: Cikgu Nuraini
Mathematics: Doreen Tan
Physics: ThioCK
Biology: Mrs Catharine Wong
Chemistry: Dr Ng Kai Ling
Literature: Ms Sandy Leow
Geography: Ms Foo Ling Ling
Social Studies: Mr Azahar
Physical Education: Mr Sean Yeoh
Philosophy: Mr Christopher Ow/Kevin (?)

FUCKING FISH AND CHIPS, I HAVE MS SANDY LEOW AS MY LIT TEACHER. PLEASE GOD, DON'T CHANGE MY LIT TEACHER EVER. I MIGHT ACTUALLY SCORE FOR LIT THIS YEAR.

Some names are familiar. Cikgu Nuraini was my Sec 1 Malay teacher, Ms Sandy Leow was my Sec 2 Lit teacher, Ms Foo Ling Ling was last year's Geography teacher, and Dr Ng Kai Ling is Infocomm Club's teacher-in-charge. She's strict but reasonably nice.

Teachers with (?) beside them I'm not too sure about. I don't take Chinese, so of course I won't know. On the timetable in the 'English Language' block the teacher's name was written as 'Joseph', and we only have one teacher named 'Joseph' in our school right? Who knows who Kevin is x_x

Everyone keeps telling me Christopher Ow is very funny, and according to JX, 'made of win'. I still think he's going to be rather sarcastic. I don't know! First impressions or something. We'll see tomorrow when the teacher/class bonding sessions begin.

Mrs Catharine Wong seems like a nice teacher, but the main point is: WILL SHE BE BORING? Mr - (gosh I've actually forgotten his name for the moment; ah there we go) - Chad Evans was quite entertaining. I think he progressively became more strict as the year wore on, perhaps he was getting irritated with us not paying attention in his class.

Another person to watch out for being boring: Mrs/Ms Doreen Tan. MATH IS MY FAILURE I TELL YOU. (Like no one here doesn't know that already). I don't know who she is but I hope she's good in motivating and teaching idiots like myself.

I haven't had Mr Azahar yet but I think he'll be quite entertaining and funny too. Mood in class = what the teacher is like! I think I was rather quiet in SS last year because, um, Mr Thomas Jeremy Lee is...rather...scary. To me, anyway. (I think I mentally flinch whenever I see him.) And I read from Shiying's blog that he actually does search around for people's blogs. Which makes it doubly scary. (I can come up with one pretty long paragraph why I find him scary. Haha. Maybe that isn't funny, really.)

311 has Mr Lee and Mrs Nelly Leslie as form and CLE teachers. I find that combination very...weird.

EDIT: Well, actually yes I do know that Mrs Leslie doesn't teach 311. Preliminary timetables are very unreliable. But I shall keep that there, still.

For PE we have Mr Sean Yeoh or Yeo, can't remember how to spell it, and I think he's the teacher most girls scream for and I have absolutely NO idea why. >_>;; I wonder whether he's anything like Mr Ben, who makes us run four rounds around the track every PE lesson, but I got my best time for 2.4km last year!

Labels: school

1/04/2009 11:03:00 PM

Saturday, January 03, 2009

First day of school today.

I'm always rather annoyed and cynical on the first day of school. There's so many damn talks which take too long and I'm tired (even though I slept relatively early last night) so I'm like "SHUT THE FUCK UP!" to the speaker by the end of every talk.

~~312~~ 412's form teacher is Mrs Catherine Wong, also our Biology teacher. Our CLE teacher is Mr Christopher Ow, a Philo teacher. He's the more familiar one out of the two (other than remembering that in timetables his name was shortened to COw). People say he's funny and I'm lucky to get him as a teacher, but I think he'll be more sarcastic than anything.

Got to get used to being Sec 4! I'm still saying "312", "313", "315" and whatnot, but in reality we're the oldest in the school cohort! Titchy lil' Sec 1s have no idea what they're in for. >_>;; Poor buggers, like me, you brought it upon yourself. Or your moms did, but it's most likely you.

I bought a cartridge pen today! It's like a fountain pen, just with an ink cartridge. Herlitz Füllhalter Metall M-Edelstahlfeder (German-version name because the English one is weird), $8.50 after Art Friend's discount thanks to Nana. "Metal, gold platted fittings, gold-plated stainless steel M-nib with synthetic point."

It didn't come with ink even though the specifications said it was supposed to, but JX gave me three cartridges out of the 50 she bought along with her own pen which is the same as mine. Could've bought the cheaper Herlitz Tornado cartridge pen with two refills, but I decided to go for appearance over price.

I was being stupid. >_>;; Cheaper pen = I can toss it around all I want. AND the Tornado was meant to be a beginner's pen AKA LIKE ME. I might buy it the next time I drop by there with cash. But I don't quite like the look of the blue ink, it looks diluted and washed-out. I prefer black ink...

I want to try using fountain/cartridge pens for the fun of it! Because it looks sophisticated and no one else uses cartridge pens nowadays (probably with good reason, it probably doesn't work too well for exams). But of course I'll still use gel pens as backup and for speedier writing.

Labels: school

1/03/2009 12:58:00 AM

Thursday, January 01, 2009

Happy New Year!

Around five I remembered that Nuku'alofa is 13 hours ahead of the Greenwich Mean Time and realised that they would be entering the New Year first. So I rushed to my computer and started listing countries according to their time zone so I could continually update my personal message and celebrate the new year with them. Even though I've never been anywhere outside Singapore and Malaysia and they're both the same time zone anyway.

By the time I got to Singapore's own countdown I couldn't care less. xD

Soon it would be UTC+5's turn. Just now it was India and Sri Lanka at UTC+5.30 and before that it was Nepal at UTC+5.45.

I'd love to go to Antarctica just to run around the South Pole. Because all time zones converge at both Poles, simply running around one of them would mean that you're running through all time zones in a matter of seconds. And no jet lag at all! Unfortunately there's isn't a concrete North Pole to run around, so you'd have to go to chilly Antarctica to do that. You could drop by the Amundsen-Scott Station on the way, it's the nearest to the South Pole.

Labels: geography

1/01/2009 02:35:00 AM