Every time I watch K-19: The Widowmaker, I still can't tell the difference between Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson. (I had no idea the second captain was Neeson until I read the credits, anyway.) They look so similar in the film that I have difficulty telling the two characters apart.
In the first half it was rather easy, since Ford's character Vostrikov and Neeson's Polenin have polar personalities, the former being a stern, all business-like man with little regard for personal relationships with the crew while the latter treats the crew like family and shows real concern for them and the submarine. In the second half, though, after the attempted mutiny by some of the crew, Vostrikov has a change in personality and then it gets really, really hard to tell them apart. In the scene where the K-19 crew were abandoning ship and boarding the S-270 I mixed up Neeson for Ford and when Ford appeared in the scene I went, "Wait a minute, they look the same...Is he (Ford) the captain of the S-270 (since I thought Neeson was Vostrikov, Ford's character)? Are the two characters played by the same person?". Facepalmed hard after that.
I didn't really want to watch the nuclear accident part because the effects of radiation sickness are just horrifying to look at or even contemplate happening to the human body. How fragile our cells are! I initially thought the character of Vadim Radtchenko was a total wimp for refusing to enter the reactor zone and allowing a more senior member of the crew, Gorelov, to go in place of him. However, later on when the replacement coolant pipe developed a leak, he was the one who went in alone and stayed in there for nearly twice the alloted time of 10 minutes, exposing himself to a much higher and certainly fatal dose of radiation than the rest.
Checking Wikipedia, the real-life version of Radtchenko would most likely have been Lieutenant Boris Korchilov, who received a dose of 5400 rem or 54 Sv. A dose of 10 - 50 Sv (1000 - 5000 rem) is 100% fatal after 7 days; Korchilov died six days after the incident of 4 July. The others involved in the repairing of the reactor received between 700 - 1000 röntgen, around 7 - 10Sv of radiation, and died between one to three weeks later. One more crewmember, possibly not working on the reactor repair team, received over 600 röntgen and died about 18 days later.
"The eight men from Compartment 6, their faces now grotesquely swollen and deformed, are evacuated to S-270 on makeshift stretchers. S-270 crew members “decontaminate” them with scalding water." - from National Geographic's K-19 site
(Yes, surprisingly K-19: The Widowmaker is a National Geographic-sponsored film. I never would've guessed it at all!)
SCALDING WATER. Good god. Their skins were already so sensitive and raw from radiation burns and other effects of radiation poisoning, and there you go pouring scalding water on them. Must've been one hell of a pain to go through.
Geez. I hate it when they show radiation, radiation poisoning, but I also have a morbid fascination with it - how can gamma rays, just invisible rays, have such a deadly effect on living cells? What kinds of effects do they have? How do they appear on a human body?
We watched the Seconds from Disaster episode about Chernobyl in the last Geog lesson. We had a choice between that or Eden at the End of the World, and I was pretty much in favour of something happy and beautiful but the group in front drowned any other opinions with loud calls for a 'sad' movie. Dammit. What's up with this radiation shit? Dying as all the cells in your body self-destruct, your organs fail, stomach/intestine/whatever linings break down and you either vomit or crap it all out sickeningly. Burns appearing on your skin. Irradiated, absorbing all those gamma rays, sounds like you're being cooked in a microwave.
I once read a book about the recollections of Chernobyl survivors. What they felt as they saw their loved ones around them turn horribly sick that even nurses would refuse to treat them, and eventually they'd just die. People called it a two-week disease - you'd die in two weeks after being exposed to Chernobyl. Doctors weren't allowed to let visitors in, but they'd ask the wives if they've already had children, and if they've had at least two then the doctors would let them in. The wives lied.
Can't even see whatever's killing you except the horrific things it's doing to your body. What does it feel like, knowing that these invisible rays are going through your body, sapping your strength, knowing that all your cells are undergoing some painful, ghastly transition?
It seems that the only thing I hear Jenson Button say over the team radio is "YEAH WHOO *insert random screaming here*" as he crosses the finish line in first place.
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After enjoying Team Fortress 2's "Meet the Team" clips I thought it was fandom blasphemy if I liked the characters but never played the game before. (Doesn't count for games like FFVII which I don't actually have at all.) So I attempted to play TF2 for the first time today on my brother's laptop, taking advantage of the Free Weekend they're having for the Sniper vs. Spy update.
...
I suck. But I suppose that's a given, seeing that I have absolutely zero experience at playing FPS games. And I'm a wimp. I don't dare play FPS games because the good ones are all freaking scary. Okay, so I played Portal, but Portal's not really FPS so that doesn't count. (Jaz beat me to the end of the game, I think. >_> I got stuck somewhere midway.) And I don't like playing against more experienced people when I'm still a noob because I know I'm gonna die in 5 seconds flat and I don't wanna get heckled by them. How do FPS gamers start out?!
Recently I went to watch Angels & Demons with Ruchi, Dora, Becky Lee and Bei Qing at Lido. Actually Dora wanted to make it something like a class outing but she didn't really advertise it to the class so only the five of us went. =/ But that was okay. Maybe it wouldn't have been as much fun with more people.
At first I wanted to watch it because Ewan McGregor looked hot - a priest can't be allowed to look like that, seriously - and I also wanted to see how Stellan Skarsgård and Thure Lindhardt acted in the movie.
Film critics might've given it low reviews and stuff, but I'm not a film critic so I enjoyed the movie all the same. Some parts that were meant to be serious came out funny instead (that fact in itself is hilarious), some bits were rather inaccurate (LHC particles leaving lovely shiny Tinkerbell trails, and does antimatter explode with such beauty?) and there were parts that were absolutely thrilling to me (the Preferiti's death scenes).
I kinda spoilered myself already before the movie by reading the Wikipedia article the day before because I never thought I'd get to watch the movie. I'm not in the habit of watching movies alone. =/ So I knew who was going to die and how and who the real mastermind behind the whole thing was. Kinda heartbreaking to see Commander Richter die so wrongfully. After the movie Dora said she'd never watch a thriller again. Bei Qing said she hid under her jacket during the cardinals' death scenes.
One of my favourite scenes in the movie was probably the one where Chartrand and Langdon were trapped in the Vatican archives. Lindhardt was pretty cute as the young Swiss Guard Chartrand, feeling breathless in the chamber and panicking as the electricity shut down and the oxygen level in the chamber steadily decreased. The scene where he ran towards the glass wall with a trolley stacked with heavy books in an attempt to break the wall strongly reminded me of Harry running towards the sealed border at Platform 9 3/4. O.O The action of the trolley bouncing off the wall was practically the same.
Surprisingly, even after Chartrand fainted from lack of oxygen, Langdon still had enough breath and energy to 1) climb a bookshelf and 2) push against the shelf hard enough to make the shelf sway and the rusty screws holding it down to break. But Chartrand smokes, so I guess it's not surprising he fainted first.
Speaking of Thure Lindhardt, I want to watch Flame & Citron. D: That was where I first knew of his name. I was actually interested in the Nordic nations in Hetalia and sometime after that I heard of Denmark's and Norway's releases of their own war movies, "Flammen og Citronen" and "Max Manus". Wikipedia'd both, thought Flame (played by Lindhardt) in Flame & Citron looked pretty cool, and have pretty much been wanting to see it ever since. Reviews for the movie have generally been rather positive, too. I doubt it'd ever get released in Singapore though, so my hopes would be to watch it online? =/ But I guess it'd only appear online after the U.S. release which would be on July 31. Makes me wish I could go to the Seattle International Film Festival for the screening.
Also, I had no idea Mads Mikkelsen (the actor playing Citron) played Le Chiffre in Casino Royale. o.O
Seriously, the 'secret life' of teachers are very interesting.
If you will pick up the Home section of The Straits Times today, you will see on the second page an article on the Darkmoon Faire (a World of Warcraft gaming event involving TCG and Minis) being held as part of the Licence2Play gaming exhibition at the Suntec City Convention Centre. There is also a picture, with two men in the foreground as the main subjects, one gesturing towards the game pieces with a slight frown and the other in contemplative thought. The caption underneath the picture names the two in it as two-time championship winner Corle Huffman from the US and a Singaporean who wishes to be known only as Mr Thio.
Mr Thio as in the Physics teacher Mr Thio.
Mr Andrew Chia also plays World of Warcraft. The first night in NCC Camp, he said he had to rush off at 10pm or so for an appointment. I was wondering about the sort of appointment you could make at 10pm, so I asked him, and he said he was going to meet his friends to kill elves or some other magical creature. *something inside brain clicks*
"You play World of Warcraft?"
"Ya."
Just when you thought that all teachers did were mark papers and plan lessons.
I'm fucking dead. I should put up my own obituary. Perhaps on my locker. In RGS you're pretty much dead if you've got a GPA of less than 2.0, or in other words YOU'RE A FUCKING FAILURE.
Even if I fail to make it to JC, which is a highly likely situation at the moment, I'll never be allowed to go to poly and make myself useful. I'll probably be forced to stay yet another fucking agonising year here so that I can go to JC anyway and finish my A Levels. "Wasted bloody fucking money on your education in RGS, and this is what you get for your studies?!" Well, the swearing probably comes from me but I bet my dad won't hesitate to use it since it's gotten this bad, eh.
I suppose I must buck up. Fuck. I suppose I'll have to start as soon as I get home today. Make a fucking plan of every subject I'm taking and their requirements for the year. Establish what the fuck I'm supposed to be doing for each subject, how to study for them, how to score. And go back to the basics for Chem and Math. Read more on general knowledge for Geog and SS.
You can't kill the messenger, but you can kill the cause of the message.
Me.
Every fucking thing in life happens for some fucking valid reason. It'll either make you a better person or a worse one. I wonder how this'll turn out.
Haha, for some reason after listening to all the Nordic entries for Eurovision the one I ended up liking best was the Finnish entry, Lose Control by Waldo's People. Which ranked last in the finals. =/ I mean, I do like Rybak's violin playing but his voice kinda doesn't really appeal to me.
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NCC Camp was slacker than I thought, and yet again I worried unnecessarily. I think I've been worrying unnecessarily a lot so far this year.
I had an odd dream on the first night. I dreamt that there were Transformers-like robots and we had to defeat them and stuff, and at the very end of the dream a screen came up declaring that England had beat Germany in soccer 1-0. For some reason I kept thinking WWII >_>;;
On the second night, when everyone was already lying down on their sleeping bags, I realised that it was the last night that all of us would be sleeping together in one classroom, in our sleeping bags, as one platoon. I was wishing that all of us would just do something special to celebrate this last night, but everyone was generally pretty pooped out as usual during camps and conked out really quick. Except Kathryn, Hui Chen and I, so we talked for quite some time, reminiscing about past camps and how bonded we all were then. Kathryn was worried about the Part Cs, because none of them seemed to be showing the proper leadership material they were looking for to replace the Part D leaders.
OUR OPEN HOUSE BANNER ROCKS. Kudos to all the banner people who painstakingly painted it! Looks damn awesome, definitely better than NCC Land's haha. Can't wait for it to be put up on Open House!
NSI Workshop was pretty fun, but the lecture bit was damn boring. Elaine fell asleep towards the end of the last lecture but I tried not to, even though it was damn tempting. Lunch afterwards! Had some chicken thing with potato wedges, while Ariel was the only one eating vegetarian. She immediately picked out all the chili slivers before continuing to eat it. =/
The afternoon part was pretty interesting at first, and the three of us laughed a lot at how stupid the instructions in the manual was. They told us to open menus only to 'note' certain functions, and then the next instruction would be 'Click cancel to exit the window'. WTF like I didn't know that. We'd open menus one after another only to note down functions we didn't care of (we might regret that later) and click cancel to exit the windows. After a while we quickly got bored of sitting there trying to finish the exercises. Went out to walk around for a bit - Cheryl and Elaine went to get fries - and then when we wanted to go back to the lab the lift was currently occupied by a bespectacled guy with a huge trolley such that it wouldn't really do to fit us in there.
The funny bit was that he was attempting to close the doors, but since practically half his body was sticking out the lift (or perhaps just his foot, but it was clearly in the path of the sensors) they wouldn't close at all. Cheryl and Elaine started laughing - quite mean ah, but it was pretty funny how he was oblivious to that fact - until he finally realised what was wrong and moved further into the lift. We got into the next lift up and went back to the lab where we were told we were dismissed already, and while we were packing up the guy came into the same lab with the huge trolley to collect the laptops. =/ What I thought was just a big-ass trolley actually had four rows of slots to keep laptops in. Whoops.
*makes mental note to watch Alexander Rybak's performance later*
So that makes it three times that they've won the ESC - 1985 (La det swinge by Bobbysocks), 1995 (Nocturne by Secret Garden) and 2009 (Fairytale by Alexander Rybak). Apparently Rybak's also set some new records in the ESC all in one go: having the most points ever (387 points), the largest winning margin (169 points) and the highest number of 12 points (16 countries gave them tops). That's pretty impressive!
Iceland's second! I shall watch that too.
Also, Happy May Seventeenth, Norway!
5/17/2009 06:57:00 PM
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
I spent half of today in a drug-induced stupor.
D'you know, when they say "Warning: May cause drowsiness" I never really listen to it. Because it's there on the Panadol boxes and cough syrups and shit but I never suffer from drowsiness after consuming them. So today, when I finally decided to take an antihistamine tablet - such a teensy tiny tablet - for my allergic reaction, I thought, "OK, no big. Won't get drowsy. How funny it would be if I did, though."
In retrospect, it was pretty cool. I slept in the train, but I sometimes do anyway so I thought that was normal. I was pretty awake in Malay, perhaps a little drowsy. Started feeling tired in Math and got annoyed trying to stay awake. In Bio, though, I finally conked out and slept for 3/4 of the lesson (sorry Mr Evans). I barely remember greeting Mrs Wong, but I do know when I first woke up some video was playing, and then I fell asleep again, and later when I finally decided to wake up she was talking about some Powerpoint slides. =/
At least if anyone asked about me sleeping, I'd have some sort of valid reason. How was I supposed to know antihistamines really made me drowsy? I stayed awake during recess (naturally I wouldn't want to fall asleep in my plate of chicken rice) and Philo, but as soon as free block started right after that I fell asleep for 1 1/2 hours until 1.30pm when we had to vacate the classroom for Sec 2 Orals.
Well, now the drowsiness from the antihistamines have worn off, but that means the itchiness has come back with a vengeance. Also, I'm still sleepy from today's 2.4km run. God, that was rather intimidating. 411 went first and Mish and Anthea were like WTFANDROIDS running and finishing at 11 minutes or so when everyone else was still at their second-to-last round. I thought I wouldn't make it, I needed 16 minutes to get a C and a Gold. Dora was asking around if anyone was aiming for 15 minutes or less.
I hate the pressure when everyone's already started to run and to avoid looking like a slowpoke or a loser you've got to keep up with them. I ran pretty okay, a little slow in the first two rounds, but I eventually began picking up momentum somewhere in the middle. Halfway through the fourth round it started to die down, though, and I took a 3-second break to walk before continuing my run. I was so tempted to slow down and walk the last round since I just needed 16 minutes to get a C and at the fifth/fourth/last round I was already at 11 minutes. I convinced myself it was easier to rest at the end than slack for a round and then finish only to find I've gone over the damn 16 minutes.
I like my second-to-last round timing! 11.17!
So my final timing was 13.51, whoo! A...'deprovement' of about 20 seconds from last year, but still an A nonetheless. Dora said she tried to follow my pace from behind but I was running too fast for her to keep up.
I was actually rooting for Barrichello to take the pole position, seeing as he was doing quite well in Q2. I believe he pipped Sebastian Vettel's previous lap by a good half-second until Vettel finished a flying lap himself, crossing the line soon after Barrichello and beating his time by about a tenth of a second or so. He appeared to have had slight trouble at the last few turns, possibly taking precious milliseconds of his time, and I was hoping Button would top that - and he did! By a tenth of a second and only just before the checkered flag came down to mark the end of Q3! Well done, Jenson!
"I wonder if he's going for an icecream." - on Kimi after his poor qualifying session
BRB, LOLING FOREVER. I will now always come to associate Kimi with icecream, after seeing him in Malaysia, already changed out even before the official early end of the race, grabbing a drink from the freezer with an icecream in hand.
Disappointingly, Raikkonen is 16th! I read in the newspapers yesterday or two days ago how Ferrari had given him a lighter car, and they were certain that it would be faster in Spain's race judging from preliminary testing. Yeah, the car may be better, but the management certainly still isn't! Looks like it wasn't Raikkonen's fault that he ended up in 16th - the team decided that his time looked alright, it was safe, judging from how fast the other drivers were improving per lap, and stopped him after driving for only five laps. Even Sebastien Bourdais did three more than that, and the others out in Q3 had either 10 or 11 laps done. Yet another screw-up by Ferrari - didn't they learn from the mistake with Massa in Malaysia?
So, from 1st to last are: Jenson Button, Sebastian Vettel, Rubens Barrichello, Felipe Massa, Mark Webber, Timo Glock, Jarno Trulli, Fernando Alonso, Nico Rosberg, Robert Kubica, Kazuki Nakajima, Nelson Piquet Jr, Nick Heidfeld, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastien Buemi, Kimi Raikkonen, Sebastien Bourdais, Heikki Kovalainen, Adrian Sutil and Giancarlo Fisichella.
Alonso, being in his home country, had quite some support from the crowd! He definitely couldn't have let them down here, and we'll see more about that in tomorrow's race.
Brawn and Red Bull seem rather comfortable being constantly up there in the top five positions. Steady on! It's pretty likely that they'll be able to keep up their winning streak tomorrow, but anything can happen, so...
At least I won't have to worry about being drowsy for school on Monday after staying up late to watch F1, Monday's Vesak Day holiday!
ARGH WHAT THE FISH AM I DOING. DUMB. DO YOUR WORK.
I was annoyed all of yesterday and today morning, and god now I feel like an ass. I think I treated a lot of people badly. How selfish I am! And yet everyone around me seems to understand. I don't deserve friends like them at all.
Talking with Ms Tan about it helped a lot, it took the weight of my problems off my shoulders and also gave me further insight about my future choice of career and what I'd want to do with my life. I reckon she's one of the few teachers I can talk more easily with, which actually isn't saying much because I don't talk to teachers like some people do casually. I just give them one-liners.
The talk also helped me realise, in a way, why I'm doing this scheduling thing and why I have to continually upgrade myself. If I hadn't started the daily/weekly schedules I think I'd be more lost than ever this year. Probably flunking badly all over the place. Truthfully, I'm still not quite following it to the dot because I'm a lazy arse, and I admit that is one of the areas I have to improve upon - my stubborn lazy mindset.
In Philo (NOT AGAIN. WHERE THE HELL DOES THIS COME FROM?), during one of the lessons about Paternalism we had to give an case example of an action that seemed to restrict our freedom, but actually ended up benefiting us in the end. I can't remember the exact phrasing, but I did give the 'keeping a schedule' thing as an example. How could I have forgotten that?
I don't want to have to tell you what I do every week, what I plan to do, what time I sleep/wake up/report to school. I don't want to have to think of ways to improve myself when I can't think of any. You say it's not working so well - yes, well, true, it isn't really, but what am I supposed to do about it?
You can tell me to wake up early and leave the house early so I can come to school early. You can tell me to plan my homework and revision hours in my schedule so hopefully I can follow it and improve my grades. But the one thing that makes me follow everything is my mindset, isn't it. You want me to come to school earlier, following a constant pattern, to sleep following a constant pattern, following a rout-I HATE ROUTINES. Actually, not really. But I don't like following them.
I want to tell you, I want to tell everyone, that I am improving, that at least I'm not coming late to school anymore even though sometimes it's just on time - I ALMOST GOT RUN OVER TODAY TRYING TO BE EARLY. That'll teach me, won't it. And I'm getting it more somewhat, in lessons, except Lit because I still think that's quite a lost cause on me. But I am certain that my Math is improving, I am certain that I'm doing a little better in Chem, a little better in Malay.
(Fish. I missed the Scandinavian episode of Planet Food. I WANTED TO SEE SURSTROMMING. Anyway, I shall proceed.)
Mrs Shirley Tan was telling me, and I think I did say it in one of my earlier posts, how I'd be able to do as I wish once I gain control over my life. I can't wait for that stupid day. But apparently their standard of control is nowhere near what I think is satisfactory for me. It's higher. It's always higher. I'm an RGS girl, of course I must aim higher. Nothing but the best for me.
Guess I'm the only one who's satisfied with myself, huh.
I really don't want to do this anymore.
I hate people telling me what I have to do, because apparently I am in no capacity to think about it for myself and act upon it. Paternalism. And suddenly Philo decides to come to me.
I was walking past the CLC where they were having a staff meeting and I stopped to look at their agenda that was displayed on the big screens and one of them said "Support for 'at risk' students" of which I am one. I kinda miss last year, but perhaps it was because there was no intervention on their part that I did my worst. No one telling me what I had to do, no one chiding me for my bad habits, no one guiding me back to the 'right path', so to speak. But I don't want to be told to do things too much. Things I already know I can do, that I can improve on, don't you ever tire of telling me that week after week, time after time? Even Becky asked me.
I wonder if Mrs Wong ever thinks of me as that angry problem girl in her class. The last time she hounded me for being late I was angry, of course. She told me not to be. Today during CLE I was clearly showing my displeasure. Along with Lilian, both of us apparently were the two most uncooperative people. But I think I was more uncooperative than Lilian was. She knew. What a problem student I am.
In a way I wish they didn't have to be on my case.
It kinda feels weird listening to Cheryl and Mr Ow talk about anime. Ah, LIlian joined in. It's surreal, because you don't usually associate teachers with anime. =/ Except Mr Asmizar and his FMA jacket.
I hate it when people tell me I can't do things I want to do. Because I'm an RGS girl, because there is that 99.99% chance that I will graduate from university with honours (there is no question of getting into university - because I'm an RGS girl), because I am so clearly destined for something higher, I can't do these "low-paying, degree-unnecessary, low-achiever" jobs. I must be a CEO, a scientist, a researcher, an accountant, a feminist, a doctor, a lawyer. I can't be a tour guide or a travel host. I bet I can't be an F1 driver or a fighter pilot either. Because they won't let me.
I ran across the road today to catch the early bus. The red man was on. The bus driver chided me for running across, saying that if I wasn't careful I'd get knocked down by a car and it would be a loss of talent. I left the comfort of my house early, I walked fast so I could get to the train station on time, I ran to catch the stupid bus which I would have to wait the next 13 minutes for if I had missed it, so I could be early. Because I have to be early. If I didn't run across the road when I did I would have been certainly late. Because I have to be early.
Why is it that the greatest motivators that I have are the people who tell me I can't make it?
Just you wait and see, I'll travel the world as I like. Just you wait and see, I'll get a job that I will love and it doesn't have anything to do with my stupid label of being an RGS girl.
NAPFA five items suddenly snuck up on me, gave me a minor shock and left as quickly as it came. It seemed to go by so fast! And to think that last time I would freak out so bad. =/ Mr Yeoh didn't even use PE lessons to prepare us for NAPFA, and we all still did pretty OK.
MY BEST TIME YET FOR 4 X 10M SHUTTLE RUN!
Standing Broad Jump: 170cm - C Sit and Reach: 40cm - C Inclined Pull-ups: 12 - C 4 x 10m Shuttle Run: 10.7sec - A Sit-ups: 33 - A
Total: 19pts
I need to get at most 16 minutes for 2.4km run or something to get a gold. x_x;; To get A means I'll have to run faster than 14:41. For the past three years I've been managing that (14:24, 14:19, 13:20+) so I hope that this year I'll maintain that standard.
We were being tested by external examiners, so I was afraid whether they'd be more strict that the teachers. Turns out they weren't at all, I'd say they were much more lenient. Probably because they didn't know us. And maybe because we're girls, too. >_>;; I almost forgot about the whole minimum points thing because I kept thinking "C, C, C, C!". Luckily I got 2 As ><;; I wouldn't have managed As in any other station anyway, except possibly 2.4km.
THERE IS A KITTEN IN THE SCHOOL. It's a black-and-white one, absolutely tiny. Kinda like Tommy, just that Tommy was more white than black. Yesterday during CCA a girl from Track gave it to Ms Ha for temporary caretaking because she couldn't leave it alone on the mini-amphi steps while she went for CCA. Hui Chen tried to touch it and it gave a hiss and tried to scratch her. It was trembling and trying to scrunch itself up into a corner of the cardboard box it was in, poor thing. Later Hui Chen and I looked at it again, and when Hui Chen mewed to it, it immediately perked up and began mewing several times before quietening down again.
The GO and Estate Dept. staff are looking after it at the moment, but Dr. Slatter says that an NIE trainee teacher might be taking it home tomorrow unless its mum manages to find it tonight. Otherwise, they know some cat rescue people who can take the kitten in. =/ Amanda says that she saw another cat in the school, also black-and-white like the kitten, but older and aggressive. Maybe it's the mum, and she's aggressive because she's protective of her kitten. Which we just took from her. Oh shit.
It's like the stupid midnight storm the other day where wind speeds went up to 83km/h.
I think this one is worse. A lightning streak appeared in the fucking dark kitchen. I ran like a little girl when the thunder sounded and crouched behind the couch until my mum came out.
I shall soon be curling up on the couch with cushion tucked tightly in arm and ears safely covered by headphones.
I feel a teeny sense of reassurance staring at the storm behind the safety of the windows.
It hasn't come yet, for me, if it does at all. Which in all likelihood it will, if swine flu doesn't persist, if SARS and avian flu don't make a comeback, and if the economic downturn improves.
Well, even if Singapore's economy doesn't improve, we'll still have it anyway - just on a smaller scale. We'll have it in school, which saves costs on renting a great fancy hall in a hotel, and we'll have the canteen cater the food! : D Plus we won't be paying $50 - 60 for a FAM seat, we'll be paying just enough for food.
From 'Passport to Paris' to 'EZ-Link Card to Anderson Road".
The thing I hate most about FAM is the freaking STRAPLESS DRESSES EVERYONE WEARS. Gross. I mean, yeah, it's the only time you ever get to bare your shoulders but how many bare shoulders do I want to see in a single night? Strapless, spaghetti straps, bustier, halter-neck, whatever. Ew. I am never going to wear any of those kinds of dresses for FAM.
Instead, I will wear a tuxedo suit with coattails or simply a formal vest over a long-sleeved white shirt and black dress pants. Accessorised with a pocketwatch on a chain. And a top hat. Heck, let's go the distance. I'll even wield a pimp cane! I'll tap dance my way into the hotel ballroom (or the school canteen) and doff my hat to every charming lady I meet. Which probably won't be everyone I come across.
Also, makeup. I am not handy in makeup, nor am I very keen on it. For daily purposes, if and when I ever do wear makeup, I will only wear foundation, blusher and lipstick. Well, concealer too if I look really bad. Hopefully by the time FAM rolls around Jazlyn will have mastered the art of makeup and can thus help me. If and when I go. Everything is hypothetical at the moment.
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Stupid of me, to think so far ahead when half the year hasn't gone yet. If I don't get retained, which I hope with all my heart I won't and I WILL PUT THE EFFORT NOT TO SO TO ANYONE WHO'S READING...anyway. I think I will cry when Farewell Assembly comes. Because it's the official last time I'll ever sing the school song, sit in the amphitheatre (or hall if wet weather comes into play), see all the teachers and friends and etc. etc. you get what I mean. That's why I sing the school song so earnestly now, because I know very soon I'll never get to sing it again as an RGS girl.
Dumb! So sentimental. I tell you, I can think of all the old memories I have and I can tear up like *snap*.
I have a new fear now: deep space. Have you heard of GRB 090423? The gamma-ray burst took approximately 13 BILLION YEARS to reach Earth. That was when the universe was only several hundred million years old. Earth hadn't even formed then. The star's now long dead, of course.
The time-relativity thing fascinates me greatly. Where that gamma-ray burst was seen, that patch of space, it is now 13 billion years ahead of us. We are backwards in time. We will never see what new star took its place until 13 billion years later on Earth, and by that time we'd have been annihilated anyway by the expansion/explosion of the Sun. (I'm no expert at astronomy and I can't be arsed to check Wiki now, so forgive me for the inaccuracy.)
It scares me. If I could ever get stuck in deep space, in that consuming darkness, amongst all those magnificent celestial bodies with their vast sizes and enormous masses and especially, especially their terribly yet fascinatingly dangerous potentials.
HETALIA!<33
mai OTP: Denmark/Norway
Nordic nations
Prussia <3
wishlist
TRAVEL THE WORLD, YO.
1. A GPS unit
2. A good pair of binos 3. Oh, the Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss 4. Farthest North by Fridtjof Nansen 5. Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard
