|
What a really fun day, amidst all that crazy studying!
It started with a swelteringly hot math mugging session in school, and I realized that I'm getting better at trigonometry yay haha. Been speeding through some questions and pulling through others, and now everything seems less bleak!
It was around 9.30 and I was planning on rushing math for one more hour then going to the canteen for lunch. Then tingzhang called. He was with ruiyong and they wanted me to go eat with them.
"JONLIM IF YOU DON'T COME EAT WITH US AT S11, I'LL FIGHT YOU!" (on facebook)
Okay so I agreed - packed up my stuff and left for the RI bishan main road side gate and we discovered the gate was locked up. Tingzhang happily climbed over the gate while ruiyong and I stoned at him, standing on the stairs. Then halfway through his climb he went,
"I'M SURE I CLIMB THIS GATE THEN YOU ALL STONE AT ME." (this is reason number 1. read on to find out more.)
In the end ruiyong and I decided to go by the other gate and meet him at the traffic junction instead, so yay we met him there and we realized that tingzhang got his knee cut while climbing over the gate because of the spikes at the top.
"I'M SURE LAH I CLIMB THIS GATE, THEN KENA PIERCE!" (this is reason number 2.)
We decided that we didn't want to eat at S11, so we made for Yoshi's in J8. And just nice, it was 10.10am and the student value meal promotion started at 10am! And there were beef, salmon and chicken bowls going at $3.95. We decided that we should each take one type of meat. I chose beef, and tingzhang wanted beef, but he lost to me in a game of oyabeiyasom. So I got the beef bowl, and he went,
"BEST YOU STOLE MY BEEF BOWL." (this is reason number 3.)
And then we ate. Halfway tonghui smsed me "Are you in school?" I replied, under tingzhang's instructions, "No, I'm jonlim." Then tonghui smsed "?" and under tingzhang's instructions again I replied "The message you just sent did not transfer successfully. Please try again later. Thank you."
THEN TONGHUI SENT THE SAME SMS AGAIN HAHAHA "Are you in school?"
SO I SENT THE SAME SMS AGAIN. AND HE DAOED. The story of tonghui continues on later.
Then after eating ruiyong the king of the mile camwhore decided that we should all use the cybershot phone to have some fun. And so we did.
Notice that almost in every single photo, tingzhang's face is cut off. I guess there is a certain pattern to explain this phenomenon. Turn your heads to page 13 of the latest Rinspire magazine, to read about the victory of the Raffles Cross Country Team, and also to look at the team photo.
WHERE IS TINGZHANG?
WHY, THE KING OF THE TEAM GOT CUT.
At this juncture tingzhang decided that my phone wasn't a very ardent supporter of him, a fine runner. He exclaims.
"YOUR PHONE DOESN'T LIKE ME LAH. WHOLE DAY GET CUT!" (this is reason number 4.)
Reasons 5 to 8 happened funnily over the course of our eating and joking session. We talked about almost everything. Why, everything about Timothy Tan, yes.
Timo is our saviour. Everything seems to revolve around him. And it gets quite fun when you run into timo the first thing when you re-enter the RI gates, walking quite a distance away but distinctly noticeable with a big orange crumpler. And ruiyong then shouted "MOMO!"
Here's ruiyong's fantastic moment with our star.
Oh hope you didn't forget about the story of tonghui's smses earlier on in this post. When we entered class he went on ranting about how he realized that I MUST HAVE BEEN WITH A CROSS COUNTRY GUY because I don't usually reply smses like a joker.
And since tingzhang and ruiyong were both with me, he was pretty convinced HAHAHA
...
...
...
...
...
...lalala.
Well, I went to eat with tingzhang in fear that he'd fight me up on facebook.
But because of the EIGHT reasons he had, ta-da. Oh well.
Heh the morning really cracked me up. Now I feel considerably much more light-hearted :D
IT'S NIIIICE. VERY NIIIICE.
> Link this post
CHAPTER DRAIN
In the midsts of the year this mystery came,
taking me to new places, upon bright shining faces.
The shadows I stepped past, the light in which I grew
to live strong, to live tall, to live life like
how I was supposed to.
The sorrow lay hidden beneath these new chapters;
the mystery never was unravelled.
The pages turned past, blurring fast,
perhaps a little over the line,
and words and messages faded away, slowly.
This mystery still lies before me unsolved,
uncertain of when it would ever come to be.
Till that day, the sorrow hidden in those pages,
will come to stay, as much as I try
to fight it away.
Mysterious, in the bright shining light;
how I wish there were clues, tales, perhaps -
if i could even make head or tail of this flight.
> Link this post
Lots of things happened over the past two days but I shall just reserve this post for whatever that went on in the morning - the Boston Consulting Group Business@School Programme Phase III presentations, the business ideas.
The outcome - Team Sleekicks took home a bronze award.
But it's just not justifiable. A bronze doesn't justify all that we have put into our BCG work since the holidays last year. It just doesn't quite cut it.
Yes, I believe we delivered - our presentation was at its peak, all five of us rocked and filled the entire theatre with our presence, with Tom's really infectiously impressing starting jig about the need for Sleekicks sneakers, to zhengxuan's really effective and also elaborate risks analysis and future scenarios analysis. I was really wowed by the five of us - we were peaking, peaking at that very moment of our 15-minute presentation.
But we got whacked by the judges and invited guests - our concept was thought to have many gaps, and our main focus wasn't quite right as they put it. It was agreeable that our idea wasn't exactly the best idea to start with. I agreed truly.
I have no reservations about not making it to the BCG Asia finals. I feel that it's quite alright. But at the point when deputy headmaster Mr Kwok handed me the bronze trophy, I couldn't really control my emotions.
I mean, what's the point of this bronze. Does it even justify the level of hard work we have put into all our three phases? I believe it doesn't even come close. Every single team took home awards, meaning that Team Sleekicks took home the lowest award of the day. It just doesn't quite cut it.
It's alright if we go home empty-handed, actually I'd rather that than get a bronze award, because by receiving this bronze award we're tagged 3rd class, behind the silver winners and the gold winners. We're in no way 3rd class. We had the team attire, we had our prototypes - not just one, two, but 5 pairs of personalized sneakers lying there in full glory before the judges to show we've done our work. Our presentation and financials were by far the most realistic. I guess it really was the concept gap.
But does this concept gap warrant us a tag of a third class standard?
No. No way. They don't see how we, on the day before every single phase presentation, make it a point to stay over at Tom's place, preparing and finalizing our stuff, before going to school and entering the presentation theatre as a team. They don't see how we, painstakingly whack ourselves again and again, trying to expose flaws in our own business plan, wondering again and again what can possibly go wrong with the business. They don't see how we desperately push on despite strong competition and lack of time as an all-prefect group, handle and pull everything together nicely.
But it's okay, I will let it pass. BCG has come to a sweet end for us, and I will live to remember it.
I was filled with endless thoughts on the way home, aside from trying to keep my emotions under control. And I thought about the entire year, and what BCG really means to me, and to my team.
I believe I have failed as a leader of the group, to put it shortly. So many possible explanations as to why we aren't up there, preparing to compete in the asia finals - blame ourselves for not having a mac and keynote perhaps, blame ourselves for not starting on our business plan earlier perhaps, blame ourselves for not placing BCG as top priority perhaps. I have failed to garner that level of enthusiasm and passion for the project.
I admit I have put people off. By being very authoritative and demanding in terms of work and results from my team. I'm very sorry. But I know for sure - yanliang, jiahao, tom and zhengxuan, you guys definitely didn't give up, and saw it through the whole process, and really gave your all for the end product. I said it earlier, I will say again - you guys rocked the presentation and I have never seen a finer one than this. We are champions.
I also have another team in mind which I am full of praise of, and that is Team Envirob.
Team Envirob were thought to be the sole winners, the hot popular choice for the asia finals. But they were awarded the silver award, falling behind two other BCG teams. I agree again, this time with a higher degree, that silver definitely does not justify their level of work.
For Team Envirob has been my personal motivation factor. They were, undeniably, the most accomplished - Start-up Singapore 1st Runners-up, National Science Camp champions, having started on their business plan in term 2 when everybody started in term 3, releasing a full complete set of Envirob cards and stunning the audience with a professional presentation done by none other than Readon.
We were under the same mentor. We were in a way, always behind them. But I pressed on because of them. I pushed myself to keep behind them, no matter in what terms. I pressed on and tried to equal their presentation standards using a powerpoint, and got nearly there. I felt accomplished. As a team, we tried to step up our financials analysis quality because theirs seemed superb.
Actually, they should've been the ones making it to the asia finals. I guess it just wasn't a lucky day for both of our teams.
And thank you linan. We ARE the joint champions of the day. We're never going to forget this. For we have come this far, we're versatile and we're going strong.
We definitely have the Sleek streak. Thank you all.
> Link this post
Have been studying quite a lot, but perhaps not enough.
Well anyway before I'm off to finish off the rest of chemistry, here's what I worked on for the first part of the rehearsal we had for BCG today afternoon - Converse All-Stars Jonlim GoldSilver :D
Mugmug.
> Link this post
These days have been eventful, but they aren't supposed to be eventful please I'm supposed to sit down nicely and study my time away and make sure I know my books through and through. Ahh I'm running horribly low on motivation and drive - wondering what's ahead of me but yet somehow envisioning everything going wrong and crashing, going down the drain.
No this is nonsense. I really really must settle down somehow. And really press through all this mugging. Honestly, with all the projects picking away at my studytime while I'm supposed to just drill on my books, I've been becoming rather burnt and annoyed at all the extra projects I'm handling instead of studying. And I'm just hanging on, doing what I need to do, giving that extra effort for things here and there, still surviving along... but oh well there's got to be more than this.
Yesterday afternoon was quite a free one, before training, but I made my way to parklane mall in dhoby ghaut to get the sleekicks shirts confirmed. It was a horribly rainy day and I got quite flustered walking all the way from the station to the mall but yellowcard's songs simply rock and made the walk painless haha :D
Eventually I got the shirts ordered and confirmed - made my way back to school, an hour before training. So I decided that I'd sit in a comfortable corner in the library and read some chem, but clever me dozed off and woke up at 2.45pm and I had to run all the way to rj track. But it was quite okay; kieran brought his air force ones for me to do some painting on!
So I worked on them in between moments of training - and here it is: Nike Air Force One Jonlim Cross-stitch haha :D
Training owned me la I did 5 sets of 200m sprints and had to walk one round around the track to let all the lactic acid flow away. It's been months since I felt so tired from sprinting! But sadly it's the last official training, and I think I can't bring myself to train on my own if I can't get my grades right. But oh well I'll see how it goes.
All hell broke loose after training when I went for the pressure-testing session by our BCG coaches. Well to put it simply, our business idea got slammed, whacked from all sides, exposing countless flaws and errors and shortcomings. And I think it was during that pressure-testing session where I really felt burnt.
I think I've said it before, I really hate it when things which I put my best effort into don't come to fruition and instead screw up, and now it's all happening again before my eyes. Ah the many many months of preparation and painful effort put into the presentation slides and report and now it's all falling apart with flaws and errors - well I should've known earlier la haha. Thankfully jiahao took the lead this time and planned out our one-week schedule, to last this entire last week before the BCG finals. We are going to do our best, and let the world decide whether we are going into the Asia finals.
So that was that. I went home all exhausted and burnt and put off - the day quickly progressed onto the next.
And it was okay haha :D I spent a few hours at bishan library working on the presentation with Tom and he decided to wear the sleekicks sneakers after we were done! And I say, it looks coooool yayyyy hahaha.
After a hearty lunch of pasta (again!) I went for ripb exco meeting and we quite a fun session, discussing many final matters before the very end of ourselves (sigh). Then during the meeting there was this funny moment when paul left his shoes lying on the floor beside him and it was partially hidden by the teacher's desk so we thought there was this unknown creepy person lying behind the desk. It was so real haha!
THERE, IT'S RIGHT THERE. HAHA.
It ended soon after and well here I am, after dinner and everything, about to study again.
I'm really angry with myself for not appreciate all this revision time. I am going to force it.
> Link this post
Going to hit the books soon enough so shan't post so much.
There was a big mess of free blocks again today - tried to study chem but wasn't so productive again sigh. Then after chinese I went exploring around J8 and eventually AMK hub to find sneakers for sleekicks! There were unfortunately sneakers selling a tad too expensively at J8 so I eventually found myself at a Bata shop and I found these North Star school canvas ones - very mundane ones, but good enough to do some designing on - and yeah I lugged 5 pairs back to school, in a big bag there lying on the platform awaiting the train back to bishan haha.
Then I stopped by back in school at the canteen to remove the shoelaces for convenience, and yeah bought the markers needed. I am going to work on 5 pairs of shoes over the weekend! The joy! The EOYs are so close! But no choice la our BCG finals are closer, and I can use it as a study break anyway :D
Few minutes later I rushed off for training and Kieran saw me carrying this giant bag with 5 pairs of shoes and decided to let me design his spikes here and there, and here I present to you Nike Zoom Maxcat Jonlim Edition (for Kieran)! Haha rocks. The silver and black paints never fail me.
Training was cool, did my first 300m in months and I clocked a very comfortable 41.5. Now for chem!
> Link this post
No DMP lessons for today! But I still went to school early in the morning at 8am anyway, and during those moments spent in the library it hit me in the face that there is seriously not much time left to cover all the academic stuff we have for the entire year for the EOYs, and that I really have to drive myself - just this month, and after that it'll all be over.
Somehow I feel dumb trying to get myself to study, it's never really happened much before. I guess I'm being hindered by so many things - projects, training, mental matters, ah the frustration of it. Spending 6 days out of 7 in school over the holidays and not being able to study much was annoying. But never mind, enough complaining. I need to work for this. I will.
I need a dose of motivation. Seriously haha I don't know how to get it. I noticed that usually I can motivate myself to work on anything - so I can really do my best for whatever I've taken up, but studies are another matter. Why, why, it's supposed to be the most important thing in the world now to me and yet I'm thinking otherwise. Well here I arrive at my priorities again, after so long.
Shan't waste time making detours in my life. This phase has come and gone; I won't make myself go back again.
After a few hours of chem (but it was horribly unproductive) I rushed over to chriskwan's house to work on the chinese project, and settled some BCG stuff along the way and in the end came running a little late for RIPB elections. I'm just glad things have smoothened themselves out but I'm feeling pressured from all the hindrances getting in my way of studying. Irritating seriously. Oh well I don't know.
Can't complain too much, and can't think too much. Leave all the rubbish to the end of the EOYs!
> Link this post
Haha first day of DMP - I reached school slightly off 8am and went to study in the library. But eventually I didn't do much heh was laughing at how Danial Hakim had only 16 hours for his entire DMP period of 3 weeks - meaning he had like 5 free days and a couple of free blocks everyday.
Well I'm not too worse off :D I only have 26 hours for these 3 weeks - compulsory higher chinese, philosophy (business ethics) and english (ways of reading)! It really pays to take a crazily long external DMP on stem cells through 2 entire terms, taking away 24 whole hours off our DMP schedule. Really pays. Rocks!
My philosophy-based business ethics module started soon after 9.30am and it was really useful, to me at least. Somehow business is quite exciting, well perhaps for the fact that I have lived, breathed BCG and business research for the past 9 months, and now we're entering our final few weeks to decide which team eventually takes it all away.
Then after recess came my english module - ways of reading. Which made me feel quite out of place because I was the only sec four guy there, with the rest being sec threes and mostly scholars. Then I just did my bit, learnt some stuff, relearnt most of the stuff, and then settled for lunch and chinese shortly afterwards.
Then the fun part of the day came - training! Haha since the cross country team was doing fartlek today, I asked coach if he could let me join them instead, and yay I did. So after loads of running and drills, we went into the actual thing, 15 minutes of sprinting jogging sprinting jogging. And I really felt fit, not really hindered by fatigue or anything - so I just sped all the way and eventually I realized I could've given myself more recovery time in the jogging before sprinting so my speed can improve. So from now on whenever I do it I shall run with MCHIA :D
And then came a few mad exercises plus this invisible chair thing at the very end where we had to have our backs leaned against a wall and our legs bent 90 degrees and keep it holding there for at least 3 minutes. My first time heh, and I just died la after about 1 minute I felt like I slowly couldn't keep it up but I just tried to distract the fatigue away by randoming and shouting mchia's name. Then 3 minutes passed and I decided to go for 5 mins!
And ya I passed 5 minutes with a horribly constipated look (I think haozhi took a photo -.-) but ya I immediately gave way and slid down and had to stretch like crazy - but this is certainly good training.
It's seriously good training. Even after many hours now, my legs are recovering and I can feel all the life flowing back and it feels so darn good! Haha endurance training rocks I feel like I want to run distances and distances forever and ever nowww.
But no, SPRINTERS ARE STARTING ON SPIKES AGAIN THIS WEDNESDAY, can't miss it for the world!
It's a little off a week left to the BCG finals next week Saturday, and I can't wait for Sleekicks to own. It is the product of our thirst for individuality and uniqueness. Give us that soul, give us that flavour; we're going to sweep this floor clean of stains and wipe a blankout victory on everyone else haha I'm randoming again. But yeah. We have the Sleek streak.
HAVE YOU GOT THE SLEEK STREAK?
> Link this post
Today is a simply boring day, not to mention a very sleepy one where I dozed off in the middle of tuition and didn't realized I was just stoning at a single math problem for a crazy amount of time.
I feel horrible. I need all the motivation and confidence I can get to get myself studying hard, not just skimming through books day by day and feeling pseudo-accomplishment. EOYs are a month away! I can't lose it now, no matter how things seem to be sinking, falling, breaking apart, if they are, anyway.
Well yeah these are the last few hours to the end of the supposed holidays. The past two days have been fun enough though! On friday I visited the Mazda showroom somewhere around the eunos area. My mom's getting a new car yay! Because the old one (a Hyundai Matrix)'s coughing up a lot of problems and I think the contract's due or something.
Mazda has really cool cars. I wasn't expecting to see a whole collection of sleek race cars (would've stayed there and stared at them the whole day if there was a whole lineup!) but yeah the cars look good. But still, nothing much really appeals to me other than the race-tuned ones. So I frantically asked the salespeople if I could find an RX-8 around there, and yes they pointed outside - this sleek shiny blue RX-8 in the shelters waiting to be driven hahaha gosh
I realized that I really really hate and cannot stand doing things without them coming to fruition. Realized it at this point after I posted thousands of words and the post screwed up and now I have to write it all over again. But never mind!
And yup this is the car my mom's going to get, the Mazda 3 SP, albeit white. It's pretty cool, looks sporty in itself!
Here's one incredibly funny thing which happened at the showroom - this salesman probably thought that I was the son of some rich multimillionaire who owns ten cars or something because he started trying to convince me to buy the Mazda 2 I was looking at. So I played along with him and told him that my dad would certainly like the design of this car, and that I would give serious consideration to getting it, then I told him that I'd be on my way to go home and ask my dad about it. He bade me goodbye, all smiles and told me to wish my dad a very good day on his behalf HAHA. But I respect such dedication to his job, it's good :D
Then I headed for my dad's office, rushed BCG and did a little bit of reading, and then it was home for me.
Friday was a little more fun - I went out early in the morning to study alone at novena han's chillout terrace. It's a pretty cool place I realize, having dined there for many dinners which ended pretty nicely and I felt really comfortable with the place. It's semi-outdoors, being half airconditioned, and what's more, it's quite cosy and roomy because peope rarely notice this spot while crossing between the two novena malls just next to the mrt station.
I did a bit of BCG work, then started on confusing chem. I had both lunch and dinner there haha! And then around 4 plus I made my way back to school, changed into blazer attire and soon I was ready for duties at the ORA Dinner. Haha it was fun enough, but pretty unfair - seeing how RIPB needs to usher guests, conduct school tours, manage book sales, oversee the dinner but not get anything to eat. And also while RG people get to come here and eat only! But never mind, no one else earns $20 from this :D
Oh I remember something - before the dinner, I had the opportunity to take four ex-Rafflesians on a tour around RI and RJC, and it's cool to listen to them reminisce about their past experiences in the schools. I seriously can't imagine myself coming back to RI 10-20 years later and meeting all my old friends. Haha can't imagine law jia hao 30 years old. Or even 20, from now.
Like I said just now, I hate doing things when they don't come to fruition. I also hate not being able to do anything about any situation. So yeah I started to feel really obsolete during the dinner, noticing how we sec fours are starting to fade away and we have to let the sec threes take the lead. But that's okay!
Here we have Isaac, Xiang Peng, Guo Wei and Gabriel managing Dr William Tan's book booth! True enough, No Journey Too Tough, we braved through what must've been like 6 hours from 5pm to 11pm without a single meal!
And somewhere in the middle of the dinner i started to get really high. Yeah paul had to go onstage to receive a character award of some sort and RIPB gave him a big WE LOVE YOU PAUL which shook him quite a bit! Such that he ran all the way to the back of the hall and gave us this what-do-you-think-you-were-doing kind of look. But rocks :D
And yeah I started drinking a lot of Mirinda Orange. And got more and more high. And did random things like laugh uncontrollably, waving wildly during marcus' brilliant performance and cheering and yelling in joy along with the ex-Rafflesians that won in the lucky draw. Along the way I was discussing the prospect of Gabriel Tong naming his son Tong and his chinese name Tong Tong, so next time his son can be proudly called Tong Tong Tong Tong!
Along the way I helped Dr William Tan up and down backstage, and so in that process I stoned quite a bit back there in the dark. Then we got back down and continued highing and randoming until the dinner started to end. I must say, RIPB probably had its best Unite cheer in many months, I felt really happy and proud from doing that cheer with everyone around us remembering the past and feeling all Rafflesian again. Well done RIPB :D
After helping Dr Tan pack his stuff into his really cool car (a Toyota 200SX! One of the models within Initial D!), I headed for home while Shanzhi Zongyi and company headed for cartel for a pretty late dinner. Yeah, and I slowly got home in the late of the night, enjoying the bright light of the RI teachers' gate.
Well looking at everything, everything feels like it's ending. It's one of the last events of the year. As sec fours, we're slowly ending our term, we're fading away. Just like the petals of roses which the RIPB EXCO smashed to pieces outside the prefects' room when we discovered that the water was breeding mosquitoes, and the roses were all gone and dying.
Fresh, blooming, flourishing,
now dying, withering, peeling off away.
I want to nurture, to be the light -
but now the light has moved its spot
to turn its face on others, leaving us
of the spirit, the adulation.
Can we light up the sky, one last time.
> Link this post
It's a Friday!
The holidays are ending!
Since when was there a holiday!
When you're gonna be in school 6 days out of 7 for at least an entire afternoon!
No I'm just ranting again!
Haha. Oh well, it doesn't matter - We have less than a term left in RI and I think I'm going to miss all these times in school when everything eventually ends so nope I'm not complaining. I actually like this kind of life, getting up early and sleeping late (well though it brings me hazardous consequences) and rushing, working, madly hardcoring my hours away until I'm all tired. Then there's the time for renewal and refreshing, and then I'm on the same psychotic work rate again.
I realized I have not been playing games, watching tv, watching videos - no, not even drawing regularly but only when I strongly feel a need to. This is sad! But I think when it all ends I'm going to miss this kind of life. Though yes, it's not much of a life, looking at myself from this perspective. But I'll miss it. Who knows in RJC I'd just revert back to this life, but well what's to come in only a few months' time will hold many opportunities; I'll just take my time to consider.
Just returned from training in the morning - the more I train the more I think I'm not suited to track anymore haha. On Biquan's tag - thank you, actually I do love running but now I think competitive running isn't much of a thing for me anymore. I can always run elsewhere. Oh I did one fast round around the RI-RJC boundary and three round crossings on the track all back-to-back, tiring but it was comforting in the sense that I felt great doing it, not lagging behind or anything.
I think what I'll do is just to keep training strong until my time trial for 400m and 800m comes in December. If I'm not anywhere near the RJC athletics standards then I'll just give track a miss for jc. And find something else which I have an interest in!
Well this post turned out to be about myself again. Why. Anyway i happened to chance by the apple website after knowing that the new iPods are out. And gosh. It's an iPodisaster.
Not of all them are a disaster though. The new iPod Touch is quite cool! With the iPhone Touch technology and everything, it's just like an iPhone minus the phone haha. And it's sleek, black and cool. I think the only drawback is that it only has a maximum storage space of 16GB - compared to the old iPods which have a minimum of 30GB, it just pales in comparison.
But it's sleek. And Timo was angsting yesterday online about why the Mac students' promotion doesn't give away the new iPods. Not bad la it costs $498, pretty reasonable for a new gadget like that!
After the iPod Touch comes the iPod Classic, a remake of the current iPods. I personally think this is the best iPod one can have - All the nice traditional iPod features, but now at a much higher level of storage space, at 80GB and a whopping 160GB! Haha imagine if I had the 160GB one, I can fill about one life's worth of music into it and never worry about a single thing again. Music woes can all go away. And the best part of the deal is, while the current 30GB iPod stands at about $436, the 80GB iPod classic is relatively close to that price! Haha this is for real!
I think if I'm ever going to get another iPod (apart from this metalback first generation iPod nano which has a storage of 1GB - same as those current iPod Shuffles) then it'd be the 160GB iPod classic. Ahh imagine if I held it HAHA
Up next is the real disaster - the third generation iPod Nanos. Gosh.
Apple seriously made a mistake this time.
1) It's a SQUARE.
Of course, it looks like a Creative Zen! How cool! No way seriously how can the iPod Nanos turn into squares, gosh they just killed the very very popular Nano. I like the first and second generation ones - candy bar players that are sleek and cool. But this is a square - it looks like a biscuit.
2) Colour Scheme
I really liked the previous generation's colours - bright red blue green pink white black. Now the colours have turned into an pale malnutritioned shade. I don't know if others like it though - haha the purple is nice, but other than that oh well.
3) Surface
From the shiny glass-layered first generation Nano to the double anodized aluminium second generation Nano, all seemed well. I'm not sure about this one though - Readon says it's a matte finish, and no way! Where did all the sleek shininess go -.-
The iPod Shuffles retain their shape and storage space but sadly their colour schemes are destroyed, too.
Haha but apart from this disaster of iPods I think I'm going crazy over Apple. I seriously want a Mac to do my designing stuff on - plus the presentations can be done so much better than on PCs. So along the way I'm going to get myself a Macbook Pro, an iPod Classic 160GB / iPod Touch 16GB, and all the really cool accessories that go with it.
But of course, money money money!
> Link this post
Today was a nice day, given a nice training, nice trip home and managing to finish most of my tasks for the day!
Training was cool, in the cold morning air we did a real lot of stretching drilling gymming and running. This time we tried a fartlek whilst in our 20 minute run and we had to sprint random distances like from lamp post to signboard to bus stop haha. It was fun but it left me in horrible fatigue. But never mind I know my fitness is kept somewhere high up there and I'll continue running!
I was brooding over my CCA prospects again during training. Because of this realization that I'd be quite useless in track. Well in response to Bryan's tag a few days ago, true enough that I like running but I'd carry on running just like how I like it, not running for competition but in the end losing out and not achieving anything. My reason for possibly leaving track would be that I don't like not contributing much to the team, I guess.
So yes I went into a whirl of possible CCAs I could join. Like canoeing, volleyball, floorball, dance, well mainly those where everyone started on the same level, more or less. Wouldn't survive much in a CCA requiring expertise haha. But I don't know really. I'd put my hopes on council if my grades weren't so horrible. So if I can convince myself that my grades won't lay waste then perhaps I'll have a clearer light shine on this.
Well I still the entire remaining few months to go, still got lots of time to think - and I won't stop training until I've come to a decision. I still love running a lot, will never stop or give up on it, no matter where I am or what I do.
Then the nice and relaxed part of the day came: my trip to orchard to get myself a book. I realized it's been months since I last visited main orchard (yes hail the no-lifer!) and it feels nice to be walking down the streets again with simple goals in mind like to get something off the shelves and enjoy a nice afternoon haha.
But no, I wasn't carefree. I was trying to lie to myself with pseudo stress-free feelings but the fact that the EOYs are a month away doesn't let anything slip past easily. I felt relaxed but yet strangled by little but yet sharp emotions that I should get around to studying instead of popping by the streets and relax. But never mind I was indeed there and I was going to get my book from kino.
So I visited kinokuniya at taka and got myself TWO books - AT THE PRICE OF EIGHTY CENTS! Heh yes, I had a $30 book voucher with me so I felt it was time to do my literary health some justice. I bought a fiction book, Scavenger by David Morrell and this business strategies book It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be by Paul Arden. I bought the latter more because I feel I really need more motivation to carry me through the last few weeks - been living low on motivation lately and I've been running on an auto-pilot.
I haven't touched Scavenger yet, but I've been a number of pages into It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be and it's been great. Haha I notice that I'm quite impressionable when it comes to these stuff, as well as my own projects and work. I can just believe things to make myself motivated and hyped up about the job, and I probably won't cease this passion until I really shake away from it. Which is good in the sense that I'd have a seemingly endless amount of energy when I work on things but I really have to work on being sceptical when I need to be.
And yes it's already drilled a few familiar but important points into my head. I'm going to bring my attitude and lifestyle to a refresh and a restart, and continue with this crazy rate of work just fine :D
The title of the book says it all - tells you just about everything there is to success. Just be dogged.
RIPB election interviews tomorrow - my final chance as the interview panel haha. I'm gonna treasure this, and see how interesting this year's candidates can get!
> Link this post
Yay I've just finished what seems to be my second sneaker masterpiece in my whole life!
The first one was done two years ago, the Converse All-Star sneaker splashed with many colours and fire-themed, it's probably somewhere in my recent posts but never mind I shall post it here again! It was very roughly done, given a few hours up to the submission date for the Converse sneaker design competition, and obviously I didn't make it, being a sneaker customization amateur but well it was a fun experience!
Now check this out. Originally I started with these brown Air Force Ones, bought about a year ago.
I only had a silver and black marker to work on my pair of shoes so I put them into good use, firstly making the swoosh more prominent by splashing it silver! Then adding in random black parts, eventually dyeing the entire back black and the coolest part: forming RAFFLES on the outback. Yay another pair of sneakers completed - these are wearable on the street too :D
Yay. Now these days have been full of much-needed rest and relaxation. I've gotten my much-wanted sleep, much-wanted food for the soul, and now I need to sort out my subjects and get to work fast. I have about a little off a month to go and I must cherish this time before the EOYs, to make up for all the work laggage, the poor grades, the dreaded expectations. Off I rush to study study!
And I say, this is real food for the soul, consuming me huge, twisting me awake.
For Raffles!
> Link this post
I returned at what must've been quite late yesterday so I didn't post much, but I had a nice evening!
Was stoning at home, resting from all these weeks of pure hardcore rushing and grinding and simply not having the mood to do anything else except watch Final Fantasy VII Advent Children once again after so many times with my brother. Then I got a call from dad asking if we wanted to dine out instead of at home, and it seemed quite fun that they were at tanglin mall so I quickly rushed out of the house with my brother and we found outselves at tanglin after a seemingly draggy cab ride.
And then I found myself at the one of the basement floors of the mall, looking at shoes again and ogling at the adidas originals jackets. Haha I think my shoes are dying out again but no I shall reserve a new pair of shoes to a few months later yay. Then I proceeded to this really sleek game store nearby the royal sporting house and there was this really nice special edition nintendo DS lite. I think I might try getting it, well after the EOYs! To help me survive through the impending boredom of the holidays haha.
And not forgetting the PS3. That one's a real deal. Maybe I shan't get the DS lite. The PS3's really so enticing.
And then I think I had the best dinner ever in a few months. The tanglin mall foodcourt's really interesting - well I don't know but I only took a seat inside Paddy's, this fish mini-restaurant at the front of the foodcourt and I had this cheese chicken thing for dinner and it tasted like heaven! Really really I was so engrossed in my meal.
Well maybe it's because all the tests are over, the numbness is wearing off and I'm becoming more sensitive and appreciative of the things around me! I wouldn't know, but the meal rocked :D
And then I went into That CD Shop and there was this promotion so I took the chance to get myself some food for the soul; of course, including the latest Yellowcard album ahhh I finally got it hahahah yay! And Evanescence's The Open Door.
I returned home a very contented and happy kid :D Which reminds me, I need to treasure my time as a kid before it all goes away. Turning seventeen and going to a junior college doesn't make me feel young anymore, but while I'm STILL a little RI boy enjoying the world, I shall enjoy it as much as I can!
The Open Door sounds very strangled and twisted. Well yeah Evanescence has gotten into this warped depressed obsessive scary mood for its songs in this new album so in the end I think I didn't really appreciate all the songs as I thought I would've. Their previous album Fallen suited me much better. But I like the song 'Lacrymosa' haha. It's spooky but yet cool.
And Paper Walls really rocks! Yellowcard really has brilliant lyrics and the songs are rocking nice too! And hence I've decided to upload a song onto my blog for the first time in more than two whole years. 'Keeper' by Yellowcard, enjoy :D
KEEPER
by Yellowcard
I want to love, I want to leave
I want you to love me, I want you to leave me
I want to stand where I can see
I'm watching you love me, I'm watching you leaving me now
I wish I could be somebody else
Wish I could see you in myself
Wish there was something inside me to keep you beside me
Say what you really feel
You know I need something that's real
Wish there was something inside me to keep you beside me
I want to know if I could be
Someone to turn to that never could hurt you
But I know what you think of me
You had a break through and now I'm just bad news for you
I should have told you everything
I never gave you anything
I should have told you everything
If I could give you anything
Then I would tell you everything
Now it's past noon and I shall get around to sorting out my notes for each every subject for the entire year. EOYs; only a few weeks left to go!
> Link this post
|
