In the search of the meaning of Life

2010-09-02T10:51:00.001+08:00

HI people, long time no see. I've moved to:

http://supereallystar.wordpress.com/

The D-Day and H-Hour

2010-02-28T22:20:00.003+08:00

It's the count-down to the most exciting moment of my life (thus far). Though it has already been started since like 23th Nov 2009, the last A level paper of mine, thk the excitement will only start to build up from tomorrow onwards. 5 more days left and i can foresee that the excitement will mount up each day and reach a climax on that very moment..

There is a mixture of feelings. I tend to (or attempt to) ignore the fact that the day is near so as to maintain my emotional calmness, the tranquility is always perturbed by overwhelming curiosity, excitement and anxiousness. Though people always say that everything's been settled, there is no point pondering over it, worrying about it, geting excited by it and etc.. it is really too hard to dismiss the fact that It is coming no matter how confident you are of your results. I believe 100% of the students receiving their results will get emotionally-affected in someway or another and to various extents.

For me, I've kind of been anticipating to know my results (no matter how bad it is) because i am just too curious to find out. 3 months of waiting is a long time, but it can also be short, seeing how it just passed us so quickly. but no matter what, our results gotta be known. For those who have done well, treat your results as a bonus to your hard work; for those who did not rise up to their expectations, treat it as a memorable experience of your life, get over it and seize the upcoming opportunities that are available so as to redeem your loss..

I certainly hope that i will get some bonuses for myself. But if harsh reality really smacks right onto my face, i also hope that i am mature enough to take things lightly. Reasons being: One, i did not work as hard as many others who consistently did their work and spent much more effort and time than i have which means i do not deserve to get as good results as theirs. Two, i believe there are always alternatives to reach my goals (although they are longer routes than those with shinier certificates), they are by no means unattainable, maybe just needa make more efforts that's all. Three, 塞翁失马，焉知非福, you cant make an absolute conclusion/judgement of your results, having good results doesn't necessarily mean one will lead a good life and vice versa.

so... hope the results will be out on fri, so that i am able to ponder over my roads ahead/ make solid decisions with the choices given to me..

2010-02-18T23:49:00.003+08:00

it's another one of the moments...

just sent my parents to airport and from tmr onwards, i'll be totally independent.. This is somewhat different from previous times, as previous times was like my mum going back for holidays and would stay with us in sg most of the time in the year. this time round, things turned the other way as she only comes to sg to visit us a few times in a year..

it's a bit sad to realise that maybe tmr will mark the day of me detaching myself away from the arms of my parents, like quite completely. and the days of which my parents are always around me whenever i need them are becoming history.. it's a bit daunting and uneasy to think of this, i feel that i am a bit caught off-guard by this too. But i'm already very fortunate when compared to many others whose parents just dumped them in a foreign land since young and left them to grope and explore the various survival ways on their own...

and so very randomly, as i'm typing this post and surfing in fb, i suddenly miss my school days...

2010-01-24T01:11:00.004+08:00

it's been a long long time since i updated...

quite a dilemma, because there're too many things to note down from the moment i went back to china til now, i want to record down everything, but am always feeling lazy of writing so many things down... so yea, that explains the hiatus in blogging...

but, tonight is different. i suddenly feel quite sentimental after a long long time (since last year oct or sept?) now that what's to be done has been done, the A levels, Uni apps, finding a stable temp job, there is suddenly a sense of emptiness and uneasiness for me. maybe there're still many things which to be done which i've neglected. yea?

anw, have been training the endurance of my legs these weeks, have been walking and standing for long hours all day long due to the nature of different promoting jobs done, i get easily tired out these days, esp today when a morning of calli lesson and an afternoon of karaoke totally drained me out. i almost came to falling sick at 8+ if not for the timely fulfillment of my stomach at marina square with jd, xia and seet. maybe the exhaustion had transformed into waves of sentimental feelings when i got back? and now that i'm a bit moody, but have no mood to sleep...

2009-12-29T12:17:00.000+08:00

after more than 1 month in china, i've finally found a way to crack down the internet filter laid by the chinese government. but it's a bit late as the eventful period is coming to and end soon and i have yet to record all of the happenings down.

very soon, i'll be back...

2009-11-23T22:44:00.002+08:00

A levels are finally over... though it feels like it's come in a flash and gone like a lightning, it's actually not so if i recall every miserable moments that i had throughout the process. Now that everything's ended, it feels like A levels are nuts. but if you want me to rewind, i would definitely not want to trespass the grey zone again.

8th nov to 23rd nov, 16 solid days, 16 days of stress, intensity and adversity, it's like the worst time of my life so far, with every moment doing everything that i detest. but the good thing is that, i persisted on, though there were times when i went out of focus, it was fortunate that i could still pick myself up and continue to trudge on. now that everything's over, i still cannot feel the feeling of 'all hells break loose' yet, instead, i am having a withdrawing effect, still in a semi-exam-state due to the strong inertia.

and i think i have no time to dwell on the post-exam mood now because i am leaving sg tmr morning. i'll miss the highly-anticipated prom and all the class gatherings (at least many of them). that's because i have to rush back to china for my expiring driving test which i started 2 years ago. and after that, i have to tidy up all the messy stuff back home in China which have accumulated over the years, that's why i have no choice but to skip the prom. it's a bit sad, but it's good enough to have the 2 years of memories, in fact 6 years, with me forever etched in my mind.

so, good luck to those who are still struggling with their As and for those who have already finished it, please do enjoy your freedom and do something meaningful. to all my friends out there, especially those close ones, thank you for everything that you've done for me, i really appreciate them. THANK YOU! and you know who you are ;)

2009-11-18T22:14:00.002+08:00

A lvls are ending in less than 5 days for me. flashing back, it's indeed a long way that we've come. i rmb i have begun counting down to prelims and after that A levels and when the exam started, i've also been counting down to how many more days to the end...

it's comforting that most of my exams are over, just 2 more ahead. but this is just a tiny comforting notion which is belittled by my disappointment of my own performance. econs was really a blow today. the moment that i finished reading the question, i knew that it's gonna be very tough. and it was true indeed. it was definitely not my top form during that 2hr and 15min, and that's why i am feeling quite disappointed as i knew that i could have done better if i was able to switch to a better form.

anw, what's written here is just a way of mine to vent some of my feelings. there is no point feeling sad over this now since it's already over. hope that i'll feel better tmr and could find some energy in preparing for the last 2 papers. i think i have to re-adjust my expectations for this exam after so many tumultuous papers and weird questions. oh well, life doesnt end at A levels, As are just a small fry when compared to other more important things in life ahead. i think i'll be pretty prepared for what is going to come in March 2010, but nevertheless, i will still do my best for the remaining two

2009-11-12T20:57:00.002+08:00

it's a memorable day today... woke up at 4+ this morning in hope to make up for the slacking + unproductive chem mugging yesterday. then left for school at 6.30 for the morning chem paper 3 at 8. after 3 hours of gruelling chem paper3, i realised that my morning sleeping hours shouldn't be compensated for the morning mugging... the paper(to me) was difficult, a few questions are weird, thk got two qns that i've misunderstood and gave the wrong ans and i've got a few parts don't know how to do. worse, i missed a sub question which is damn free-frag... moreover, time was so tight today that i didnt able to complete it and hence, no time to check for careless mistakes which i believe they are aplenty.

oh well, no time to lament after the test as it was another 4 hours of gruelling mugging for our beloved international history from 10.30 to 1.40. thk that's the worse mugging experience i've had so far. just imagine, have been lacking sleep these few days and waking up at 4+ this morning and the brain never stopped spinning, and had to increase to its top speed from 8 to 11, and now had to block off all the negative feelings about the chem paper and concentrate on the boring and monotonous history notes, and to fight against extreme fatigue and other temptations, it's really tough. tough. but 9 or so of us managed to pull through...

after taking a short nap 3 to 4 minutes before the history test at 2, i'm forced to resume to my exam mode again and the moment i flipped the paper and saw that the sbq was based on a totally unfamiliar topic, there were mixed feelings. first was, ahha, some interesting stuff. the second was, oh well don't needa moan, i have the advantage this time round since i didnt prepare much for sbq (and i'm sure most of us didnt know what is this Rio Summit was about), i took this as a reward since i'm still on the same leverage ground as others despite my indolence. so off we go and sit through another 3 hours of gruesome hours, trying to recall the limited stuff that we've learnt and thking of how to own the 3 so-unfamiliar questions that i've chosen. and oh well once again, we've gone through it. and now, gone with history (history as history itself, history as the subject, history as getting a decent grade for it...)

during dinner tonight, i felt so very hungry (because i only consumed a little breakfast and a small dish of cai fan as i asked to 减饭 several times lest i should feel sleepy and affect my history mugging) and i gobbled the food down the throat. was feeling a bit uneasy during dinner and the feeling intensified when i was bathing just now. then when i came out from my bath, i suddenly had this convulsion and then, the food just burst out of my mouth, from inside out... after a few rounds of waterfall, i felt better. much better and energised.

and here i am, penning down the happenings of this memorable day. flashing back, it was both exciting and miserable, which makes my Alvl memory more memorable.. haha. and now, i've got to start taking out my maths notes.

oh no, don't whine, everything will be fine..

5/11/09

2009-11-06T21:37:00.002+08:00

in loving memory of my eldest uncle. there won't be any one who will call me 彬猪公now...

大伯，走好

2009-10-29T19:57:00.002+08:00

9 more days to As and still have lots to consolidate. one of the things that i learnt from A level is the real meaning of 力不从心。when we are at this stage, there are times that when you really wana mug, but your motivation is thwarted by the limitations of your body and mind. also, there is this feeling that no matter how hard we work now, it's never going to be sufficient for Alvl... think many of you will share the same sentiment as me, sometimes, when you pushed yourself too much and overworked, it just backfired...

but, no matter what, we still have to persevere for 3 more weeks. yeah, 3 more weeks only, everything will be fine.

2009-10-23T21:30:00.002+08:00

grad day yesterday, kinda not as exhilarating or emotional as what i expected. the whole ceremony was pretty monotonous, except for one or few sparks when some interesting class montage was shown (namely ours and s6k's, haha), and of course, the song singing session wasnt bad too.

half-way through the ceremony, i felt so bored that jay (jingyu) and i decided to go down and have a night-walk (sorry for those cca leaders that i've missed, haha) . we went to the field (yes, just two of us alone, in pitch darkness.. it sounds a bit gay, but it was quite enjoyable) and had a nice short chat with my 小 jay jay. then we proceeded to the admin office (randomly walking) and was joined by eehong.. then we decided to crashed the apollo's ceremony. Just when we stepped foot onto the audi, it was obvious that the atmosphere there was much better than ours.. thk that's because the aircon there was much cooler... after a while, we went back and went on with our ceremony...

thk the most emotional part of the ceremony was when i was singing the chinese high school song. the first sentence already triggered my memory of the time when i first learnt the song. i remember very vividly that the music teacher was mr goh, an ex-chinese high boy and was also a physics teacher then. he was a very strict teacher, but nice, and he always wanted us to line the chairs properly (each on the exact tile) before every lesson and stacked them up after every lesson. i also rmb very vividly that our first music test was on the singing of our sch song, which was the one we sang ytd. the class was divided into groups of 3 and each group had to sing the song in tune and the lyrics must be right. and interestingly, i was in the same group as xiayang and xuhaocheng, one of the few weirdo/funny people in class then. as you know, both of them can sing for nuts, hao even refused to open his mouth during the test, all he produced was some mumbling... So, not surprisingly, the music test was actually my own test with only myself singing most of the time...

fast forward back to the ceremony, six years of my life was gone in a flash. but towards the end of this journey, time seems to be crawling like a snail in this final lap. i just didnt have a sense of conclusion during ytd's graduation ceremony. it just don't feel right where you still have the-most-important-exam-in-your-life awaiting for you , teasing at your state of mugging misery. to tell you a little secret, my ever so loving CT, mrs ong told me something inspiring when i was receiving the hwachong bear from her on stage. as to what she said, i shall keep it confidential. though i doubt what she said will come true, but i really appreciate her words. think those are the words which i will still rmb many many years later.

ok, reflection complete. must thank mell tan for making such a fantastic class montage for our class. let's give her a round of applause, she deserves it:

2009-10-20T21:00:00.004+08:00

as i was doing one of the recent daily routines (almost daily), which was to open the post-prelim schedule and check out the coming time tables, i was quite in shock when i saw that we have come quite far to this stage of post-prelim schedule. as in when i saw the very first item on the schedule, it was the CCA cert briefing on 30th sept, one day immediately after chem mcq, i felt that it was only a few days ago that i attended the briefing and sneaked out to play tennis with wz and ma... it really feels like it was just few days ago...

but no... we have already covered most of the post-prelim schedule and the post-prelim timetable is ending very soon. how fast time flies. how unaware we are that we allow time to fly past us like that? i thk this is one of the memorable times (no matter it is memorably good or bad) of our lives that we need to pen down our current emotions so that when we look back next time and review what we have done, or how we have felt during this crucial period before the As, at least we have all these words as witnesses to our emotional change during this very period. i thk it would be very interesting to read the 'witnesses' and flash back all the memorable (again, not necessarily be good memories) moments that we have experienced. it will definitely be very interesting as there are only 2 things that will follow you forever, your knowledge and your memories...

it is really sad to see that a couple of my friends have stopped their blogging activities lately due to A levels i believe? i thk it is a wrong choice they've made. i would definitely not want to have just a vague memory of full mugging and chionging practice papers for my pre-Alevel period next time when i reflect back. i want to record down some interesting things over this period which i could savour with next time.

2009-10-14T22:29:00.002+08:00

an emo night must have an emo song...

the last time i heard this song was in sec four i think, which was considered quite an old song then.. but i still loved it very much, and of course, i still love it very much now. as similar things always has affinity for each other, i suddenly have the urge to listen to this song. listening to it feels like find a long lost friend. what an aural encounter...

《Lonely Christmas》

check out its mandarin version for those who prefer it to be in chinese, it's called 圣诞结

2009-10-14T22:04:00.002+08:00

it's another one of the emo nights, and of course, it's one of the unproductive nights.

hope this kind of unproductivity is the springboard for better concentration, higher enthusiasm in the days ahead...

so now, give yourself a night of rest, and emo all you can...

2009-10-13T22:34:00.002+08:00

finally got back all prelim scores today. most of the subjects didn't meet my initial expectation, especially with gp which became the big cause for concern for me right now... i am really scared of screwing up my As because of my gp. if i get U for gp, i will have to retake A lvl.. :<

just got back my hist results today. quite a surprise. exceeded my expectation but that was pure tyco and should nvr be something to feel happy about because i put the least effort in history as compared to others and i got the highest grade for it amongst all. this says a lot about how lucky i am because 1. i spotted the right topics for both papers. 2. teachers are extraordinarily lenient this time round. 3. thk there are instances of speed marking which some blunders of mine were completely neglected.

hence, i still have to work harder (duh?).

but the bad news is, i begin to feel a bit saturated by mugging too much in this duration. i suddenly felt braindead yesterday as well as this afternoon when i was doing the freaking difficult AJ papers. hope it was just the paper (because of its difficulty) and not that i mugged too much that caused my braindead.

i've reached the second peak of mugging in my life. hope i could reap what i sow. thks

明天会更好

2009-10-04T22:09:00.003+08:00

1985年的MV，至今已差不多有25年了。还是那么的感动，那么的鼓动人心。。。明天会更好

(pls take note of 费玉清's funny expressions :)

let's build on the momentum

2009-09-29T21:02:00.005+08:00

prelims are finally over... kind of feeling fast actually. it's just over like that in a flash, quite didnt expect it. now the only thing left is As, and it'll be gone in a flash as well before we know it. prelim wasnt as scary as what i anticipated (i'm not implying that i've done well), in a sense that the stress level was rather ok which didnt cause too much anxiety which result in sleep loss or other abnormal symptoms, which was good...

thk i kind of have a slight withdrawal symptom for prelims, as in i really treasured those times when i was forced to be in my top form in studying (which was last seen in PSLE) which really made me more well-prepared and more familiar with the subject contents. Though i am still way far behind those good students in class (not to mention those in the whole cohort), i feel more prepared for As after prelims and surprisingly, i have been feeling energised and quite positive over the period (maybe it will be opposite when the results are to be released from tomorrow onwards). but then let's not worry about the what's about to come. we've endowed with the present as our present, let's not spoil the present but instead, enjoy whatever we have now.

cheers

2009-09-16T19:11:00.002+08:00

jc2 prelims is the worst examination that i have taken so far in my life..... it's only day 4 and there are still 5 more papers to go...............haha

2009-09-06T20:47:00.004+08:00

i really hate holidays. i have lost my mugging power since gp on fri as i am have involuntarily sucked into the holiday mood. this is really bad as time is really running out....

2009-08-28T20:41:00.000+08:00

last official day of school, it is sad that i didnt get the level of euphoria that i expected. on the contrary, i felt quite sian when school ended. the feeling also affected me in my bball game later on in which i played the worst basketball in my JC life. what a sad thing. what a bad way to end the official last day of school...

Prelims and A lvl are coming, i am running out of words to describe my feelings now...

2009-08-19T20:06:00.001+08:00

last day of network today...

CCA is finally over, which means there is no excuse to get distracted.

but, but, without any buffer activities from mugging, it means that it is harder to get focused. mugging has finally come into a full swing. and this is damn tiring. i can feel myself getting more tired and jaded everyday. i am going back to my pre-exam mode again. the depressed, sentimental and oppressed kind of mood. which is quite bad since it might probably last for the next 2+ months.

hope i'll be ok

奔三

2009-08-12T23:02:00.001+08:00

was thiinking of writing a long and meaningful post to commemorate my last day of being 10+ years old as in less than one hour's time, my age will begin with a different number. it's both good and bad for me, for i am stepping into a new stage of my life but at the same time, there is an inevitable sense of reluctance to depart from days of being 10+ years old. but as i am sitting here right now, i thk it's hard to express all my sentiments here as they are really complicated so i have decided to make a short commeration instead.

The first ten years of my life was devoted to my motherland while my 2nd-ten-year was devoted to singapore. where will i spend my next 10 years? i don't know. but one thing i know, the next ten years will be more challenging than the previous two. considering that i am already struggling extremely hard now due to Alevel, often to the point getting defeated by it, life will be harder after As as the real 'life' only commences after Alvl as many of my adult friends told me. But that i am not so worried about because i am very confident that once i have crossed this hurdle, i'll be fine. studying things which do not interest me at all is really miserable. but i have endured it for almost 6 years already, why not few months more? once i get into a course of my interest next year, i'll be able to enjoy learning for the first time and i'll be able to unleash the potential inside me. and i'm sure, i will be able to shine brighter than now. i have no doubt in this but this can only come true if i could overcome this upcoming hurdle. whether i can do it or not depends whether i want to make it happen. it really needs a lot of discipline and focus, and of course a healthy physical well-being and a good form during exam period. i think i can do it because i always believe that 2 is my lucky number.

wish me luck

emo

2009-08-09T23:03:00.003+08:00

不知怎么的，本来是难得的长假，应该好好地珍惜，以最有意义的方式和最愉悦的心情去度过的，但我反而觉得闷闷不乐。好久没有心情连续低落好几天了, 感觉既有点收悉又有点陌生，收悉那无从是好的感觉，但又陌生在不知怎么克服它。

在此，我真的很郑重很诚恳地说（我不是在说谎，请你就相信我这一次），我真希望快点上学。希望学校的喧哗能埋没我这几天的郁闷。。。

goodbye my friend

2009-08-05T23:21:00.003+08:00

ky, one of my good friends in school, is leaving for US tmr. he is like one of the legends in our school, not only for his and1 freestyle basketball, which very few in singapore is able to master, his innovative and radically different route to university is also admired by many. with nearly 2300 SAT I reasoning score and 4 perfect scores for subject tests (maths, chem, bio and physics), he was able to enter into a prestigious US state university, University of Illinois (UIUC), at J1. and now, he is heading for the US to pursue in what he loves while all of us are still struggling with our ever-hated As.

upon reflection, i realized that we've known each other for 6 years already. we actually knew each other since sec 1, when another legendary figure of that time, Zhuhui who is now in Shieldfield, UK, recruited wangzhuo, shuzong, yangyuxin, kaiyuan and i and led our sec 1 street soccer team to emerge as the sec 1 champion. that's when i first knew ky... In sec two, zh left us for UK and since then, the rest of the team stopped playing soccer (like completely) and wz, ky and i shifted our focus onto basketball. the relationship between ky and i only became closer in J1 when i became more interested in streetball. and this was the start of our frequent bball sessions in which we exchange skills between each other. i regret that i didnt get to know him well in sec sch until we came to JC. but there is no point lamenting now. just wana wish him good luck to his future endeavours. we will definitely meet again. meanwhile, i will also work hard for my own pursuits...

One of the best (if not the best) streetballers in singapore: Wang KY

2009-08-01T17:53:00.001+08:00

it's is a memorable day today. because today is 30 days away from prelims and 100 days away from As.

tmr will be a memorable day for me as well. currently feeling stressed about tmr...

2009-07-09T22:20:00.004+08:00

scary man. one of my friends, who was still studying in singapore and had often visited our house frequently last year, is getting married in about 10 days. though she is older than me, she still looks like a student. so youthful and a bit 乳臭未清. she definitely didnt look like someone who was going to be married in one and a half years' time then. but the fact is, she is getting married in just 10 days...

though i am already an adult, think i still feel like a teen as my daily life is engaged in school related stuff, and maybe most of the people i meet everyday are still teens. but when i came to know about my friend's news just now, it suddenly dawned on me that marriage and all those stuff related to adult are not so far-fetched anymore. we are going to be dealt with a huge blow when we leave JC and subsequently, Uni, by the mysteriously enticing and yet at the same time, discomforting world of adulthood.

i should get myself prepared for all these soon, especially when my mum is expecting me to get married within the next 10 years. lol

2009-07-06T20:39:00.004+08:00

just saw my score report......... it's damn agonizing, 1 wrong for maths then minus 30 marks already, Grrrrrrrrrrrrr. then writing got more wrongs than my previous test, zzzzz......................

anw, i am not retaking already, must make the best out of this.

good luck to me

TRANSFORMERS

2009-07-03T21:03:00.015+08:00

though there is still one more test to go, the gruelling and intensive week of blocks is finally over, which is quite a relief (for now). the moment when the results are going to be released will definitely be the opposite...

anw, just found this on my friend's blog, which is really better than watching TRANSFORMERS 2, because humans are better in disguise than robots, lol... this somewhat changed my opinion on girls, especialy those 'chiobus' we usually see on the street, quite a bit...

you see then you'll know... ENJOY

This is the process of the transformation...

done! woohoo.... she looks so chio now

This is another one...

another one...

The pictures below this belong to one of the two girls...

siao, right? cant believe that such a cute girl actually evolved from such a *cough* *cough* chio girl...

Below is the ultimate, enjoy...

So... after seeing all these, i think i know how to differentiate between a real chiobu and a fake one better. and i feel more unease at how artificial society is... maybe what we see everyday is just a facade, maybe people are just wearing masks everyday... but then, making yourself prettier using articial means like this, or doing plastic surgery or whatever, is a paradox. some people may strongly disapprove of such behaviours, while some just argue that making yourself more presentable and attractive is a form of respect to others. there is no definite right or wrong to this. but i still feel that make-ups are too fake, still prefer someone with his/her natural colour. Another lesson i learnt from all these pictures is that, i should bring someone i like next time for a swim first before making her to be my girlfriend, because i wana ensure that the real colour of my girlfriend will not be like the ones above... ha

无奈

2009-06-21T22:57:00.002+08:00

独在异乡为异客，每逢佳节倍思亲。。。

父亲节没法跟父亲过，很想用行动表达一下也不可以，真无奈。。。正如我现在所在的困境一样，想mug但是mug不了多少，一下子就做别的事情去了。应该是老了，过了mugging的年头，现在力不从心了。呵呵

2009-06-19T20:56:00.004+08:00

maybe we all have said it many times when we were young... lol

think this is the classic. though i have watched it several times few years ago, watching it again now still feels so hilarious...

李小龙！

2009-06-17T23:21:00.010+08:00

have recently rewatched Fist of Fury 精武门(1974) which is the magnum opus of Bruce Lee's films. the scene which depicts 陈真 who took revenge and forced the 2 japs to swallow down the paper which had the words, '东亚病夫‘ written on it is the classic of the classics.

those who know me well enough will know that i am a great fan of Bruce Lee. and there are tonnes of reasons why i like him so much. to let yall know him better, or at least have an idea who Bruce is and what he did, i have attached an exerpt of an interview of him which was done in 1971. The full version of the interview "The Lost Interview with Pierre Burton" is below, watch it if you are interested...
part 1

part 2

part 3

some basic info about Bruce: he died at the age of 33 in 1973. He only had 5 films in his life, but all are classics. his hometown was from shunde, guangdong (顺德，广东, same as me!) and he was born in san francisco, which means he was an ABC. his martial arts teacher was the renowned Yip Man叶问. besides his extraordinary physique, his is also famous for being the first to do push-ups with just one thumb and one index finger. he set up a kungfu school in Seattle before becoming famous and enrolled many hollywood stars as apprentice. school fees could cost as high as 250USD (250 bucks in 1960 was comparable to few thousands now?) what i admire most about him is his spirit, his confidence, his style, his charisma and his patriotism. he will be one of the most influencial inspirational figures in my life as always. no doubt.

ok, without further ado, let's take a glimpse of the philosophy of the KungFu legend, BRUCE LEE...

it is a great pity that he left us in such an early date... 华人的一大损失...

2009-06-10T20:26:00.008+08:00

i am not a fan of jap anime

i am not a fan of jap pop

i am not a fan of jap culture

but i am a fan of the most classic jap anime of all time:

SLAMDUNK

it is a classic because it was the first jap anime which created such a big hooha in the world. and a lot of elements of current jap anime evolve from SLAMDUNK, like the use of humour, structure and etc... i can proudly say that SLAMDUNK is almost like the father of all current animes. it is their pioneer, harbinger, precursor, avant-garde or whatever. i will definitely want to re-watch it for the 4th or 5th time after A lvl.

haiz, as i am writing this entry, i am being reminded about my childhood again. i don't know why, many of my singaporean friends have very vague memory of their childhood, especially during kindergarten and primary school times. it's such a pity for them man, because these are the most unforgettable memories of your life. lucky for me, my childhood was not entirely occupied with nintendo gameboy or playstation, i thk i had better life for my childhood than that. if you let me talk about my childhood in details, i can talk for days from 3 years old to 14 years old, until the end of my primary school life. i'll have tonnes to say because i still rmb very vividly all the exciting and memorable moments of my childhood. thanks to those occasional moments of reminiscence on bus, on bed, in the toilet and at random times in ramdom places which sustained the life of my treasurable memories.

btw, i LOOOOOOOOVE the theme song

2009-06-06T20:35:00.003+08:00

phew........ it has finally ended today... reached sch at 7+ and ended until 1.30... more than 4 hours of mental tension was finally over. got one more thing off my mind and next is blcoks. i can finally mug for blocks whole-heartedly lol

2009-05-27T23:02:00.003+08:00

what? 22 As, 1 B and 1 C for a total of 24 A'level subjects? if only i could get one fifth of his As...

http://updatemedaily.com/?p=548

please tell me what energy drink he drnks...

2009-05-18T21:00:00.003+08:00

this is one of the oldies that i am obsessed with recently. the theme of this song is 'childhood'. i always feel very sentimental whenever i listen to this song. both the melody and th lyrics trigger a lot of memories and thoughts in my mind. the description of childhood is so apt that even people, like myself, who didnt live in the era of which whhen the song was written, will always feel touched by it. that is what classics are for. please read the lyrics below while you are listening to the song, think you will draw some sentiments from the lyrics as well... the parts which i bolded and enlarged are the parts which i feel most strongly about. do enjoy.

罗大佑:童年

池塘边的榕树上,知了在声声叫着夏天
草丛边的秋千上,只有蝴蝶停在上面
黑板上老师的粉笔还在拼命叽叽喳喳写个不停
等待着下课等待着放学等待游戏的童年
福利社里面什么都有就是口袋里没有半毛钱
诸葛四郎和魔鬼党到底谁抢到那支宝剑
隔壁班的那个女孩怎么还没经过我的窗前
嘴里的零食手里的漫画心里初恋的童年
总是要等到睡觉前才知道功课只做了一点点
总是要等到考试后才知道该念的书都没有念
一寸光阴一寸金老师说过寸金难买寸光阴
一天又一天一年又一年迷迷糊糊的童年
没有人知道为什么太阳总下到山的那一边
没有人能够告诉我山里面有没有住着神仙
多少平日记忆总是一个人面对着天空发呆
就这么好奇就这么幻想这么孤单的童年
阳光下蜻蜓飞过来一片片绿油油的稻田
水彩蜡笔和万花筒画不出天边那一条彩虹
什么时候才能像高年级的同学有张成熟与长大的脸
盼望着假期盼望着明天盼望长大的童年
一天又一天一年又一年盼望长大的童年

2009-05-17T22:07:00.006+08:00

have opened my twitter account quite some time ago, but didnt really have time to play around with it until tonight... twitter is really quite fun man, it will be more fun if you have more followers and pple to follow. anw, i have discovered some interesting things about some nba stars using twitter.

what i did was, i just searched for some nba stars at the top of my mind and found that some of them own twitter and a few are actually very active in twitter. for example, shaq has 1 million fans following him, thk he is the most popular nba star in twitter...

another thing i found is rather intersting. i found an exchange between the notoriously bellicose rockets star, Ron Artest and nuggets' star, Chris Anderson - The Birdman, who is famous for his tattoos.

the exchange goes like this: lol

Then i also went to brandon roy's page and discovered that he is not as decent as what he seems. he is following quite a number of porn stars on twitter.. does that suggest anything? haha... here they are:

last but not least, i have wrote something to my idol aaron brooks and wished him good luck for the upcoming game 7. hope he replies!

source of inspirations

2009-05-14T23:32:00.003+08:00

the past always seems so perfect and tempting. it is almost like an utopian world because all the bad things and whatsoever in the past are over; no matter how bad the memories were, the fact that they were already over provides us a sense of comfort, which is why i have such a strong inclination to rewind the clock and relive the past. this feeling intensifies whenever i listen to those classic oldies. it really brings me a sort of utopian feeling, which is so tranquil, calm, and nostalgic. the drum beats of the 80/90s, the style of vocal projection then, the wonderful lyrics which are so meaningful and artistic that lyricists of today can never emulate, and lastly, the unique kind of 'rusty quality' of past recordings, all these make me feel so attracted to the oldies. they just bring so much a sense of familiarity and closeness, which is really a good place for emotional reprieve to temporarily extricate myself out of the current state of mind so as to recharge myself for any upcoming challenges...

2009-05-13T20:38:00.002+08:00

i suddenly feel very tired tonight, my usual enthusiasm and motivation in studying (which have been accumulating over the past few weeks) have mysteriously disappeared into nowhere.not only that, i am feeling a bit down too. the sense of discontent towards some issues suddenly resurfaced. i think its all triggered by the immense amount of academic pressure and high expectations. i think feeling down occasionally like this is normal. once it is over, i will become stronger and more prone to this kind of emotional reprieve. i am very confident that it will be over soon.

let's take a good bath and get revived after that

Mutombo part (ii)

2009-04-23T19:58:00.005+08:00

Muuuuuutomboooooooo

2009-04-22T20:41:00.011+08:00

today is a sad day. because today marks the end of the career of one of the most valuable NBA players in history, Dikembe Mutombo, whose name in full-length is Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo.

you may wonder why his name is so weird, because he is an african. Being a 7 feet 2 (218cm) 42-year-old african, he speaks English, Spanish, Portugese French and five other African languages. then, you may also wonder what is so special about this 7+ foot old man. Though he is already 42, he is still playing in the NBA, one of the most intensive sports leagues in the world. Not only is he still playing on the court actively, he is still making history. in his 18 years of career in NBA, he was named 4-time NBA defensive player of the year, 8-time all stars, 2nd in all-time blocking in NBA history, and many many other accolades... unlike his long-retired teamates or rivals, his presence on court still acts as a stabliser to his team, getting rebounds and making amazing block shots. even blocking and shaming younger players who are 18 years younger than him, and much more enegetic and powerful than him. and the reason why he is still not retiring is that he is still fighting for the Champion ring. and it is the yearning for the ring that pushes him to such height in his career...

outside the court, his is a great kind man who is a renowned humanitarian. he started the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation to improve living conditions in his native Democratic Republic of Congo in 1997, which won him the NBA's humanitarian award in 2001. Besides being the first Youth Emissary for the United Nations Development Program and being referred to as 'the Son of the Congo" by G.W.Bush, he personally donated $18.5 million for the construction and completion of the Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital in Africa.

Not only had he touched thousands of hearts on the court, he moved thousands off the court as well. but sadly, today might be the last day of his NBA career, with a knee sprain in the first quarter against the Portland Trailblazers in the 1st round of the NBA Playoffs season 08-09.

"For me, basketball is over," he said.

"I cried so much about it when I was laying on the floor," said Mutombo. "But when I got in the locker room, kids talked about I need to be positive and thank God for the wonderful 18 years I had."

"I've had a wonderful 18 years of staying injury-free, so I just want to go out with my head up, no regrets," he said.

tears almost gushed out of my eyes when i saw these photos of his injury and discovered that today will be his last day on court. actually, what is so inspiring of him is not his fame and titles, but his tenacity and perserverance that despite encountering failures at gaining a champion ring, year after year for 18 years, he is still fighting strong on court despite his old age. It is a pity for him to end his career like that, but this is life, or else there won't be tragic heroes...

LET'S SALUTE HIM!

Mutombo's signature gesture (back) he does this every time he makes a blockshot.

Mutombo's signature gesture (front)

2009-04-17T22:46:00.002+08:00

today's GP lesson was quite crap (as usual?), after completing her mission of going through the compre, ms lim suggested a "game" for us to play, 'game' was quite a cunning terminology to use i would say... haha

all of us lined up in 2 roles where ones in opposite faced each other, leaving some space in between and space enough for a step backward. so here is how the game goes, she throws out statement and we are to respond to it by stepping forward if you feel strongly for statement, step backwork if you feel istrongly against it, and remain on the spot if your stand is neutral.

eg: "You know what your goal is" and we were supposed to step forward/backward/remain on the spot.

i saw what was coming when the first round of the 'game' came, and the subsequent rounds further confimred the trickiness of the 'game'.(maybe 'trickiness' is a wrong word to use) haha, she was using the 'game' to observe and study us, which was quite ingenious in a way...

i don't know why, i just didnt want her to know me better and didnt want to reveal so much of myself, so for certain rounds, i didnt reveal my true opinion of course. and then came the last round which was "I'm glad to be in this class", and the class reaction to this was pretty fast, in fact, i felt that it was unusually fast. of course, 90% of the class stepped forward. actually i had an urge to step forward too. but i've decided against it. because to be frank, i have mixed feeling about our class, a feeling which is very hard to describe. i think even if i was in another class, i would have the same feeling too and i think i know the reasons why... so for this round, i've decided not to follow the flow and just stayed neutral...

i wonder if the result be different if all of us were to be blindfolded and the blindfold taken off only after we resumed to our original position.

2009-04-07T20:04:00.002+08:00

the past week was ok for me i guess.. nothing special had occured except for a few revelations i have discovered..

one of them is that the expense of a family is awefully and unexpectedly high. since my mum went back last week, i have to assume the role of treasurer for the family (again). Though it is just my sister and I, the expense this time round was (duno why) much higher than that of the previous times. the notes in my drawer is like depleting very fast this time round, i could really feel the pain of drawing money from the drawer again and again. Now i could finally understand why sometimes i feel that my mum was overly spendthrift. now i know why...

then another important revelation is actually the notion of "herd mentality". actually it didnt just dawn on me last week, it was more of the cumulation of experiences and observations of last year that led to this realisation in these few months of JC2 life. maybe i should discuss it on the following post because i think i need time to sort out my thoughts and find a way to express it first...

2009-04-01T23:35:00.003+08:00

just sent my mum off to gz again. there wasnt a strong sense of reluctance this time round, maybe i have matured, maybe i got used to living independently already, so my body and mind do not crave strongly for any dependency on my mum anymore...

just made a timetable for my A level examination... the whole thing lasts 2 + weeks for me, and fortunately or unfortunately, there is a day which we'll have chem and history on the same day. :S

then blocks results are more or less out for my subjects, i got stomped by elephants and stung by urchins so far, which isnt a good feeling i would say, i would rather get bitten by aligators or stung by bees, or get scratched by a cat...

anw, life still goes on

2009-03-28T20:45:00.003+08:00

damn pissed off with my mum... i think we are drifting further and further apart in terms of ideology and mindset. and pls, why do parents still treat their child/children as 10-year old kids regardless of whether he/she is already 18, 25 or 30+? if they so want us to grow up, then just loosen their grips and let us learn from our mistakes instead.

nagging can NEVER solve any problems, that's all i can say.

2009-03-24T22:43:00.002+08:00

BT1 is finally over, there are quite a few regrets here and there... but, just happy that it is over. tests in hwachong is no longer just on-the-spot kind of thing, it really requires us to prepare properly before hand.

since it is over alrady, i have to move on to other things now. hope i'll make good decisions in the upcoming plans...

2009-03-19T13:57:00.001+08:00

defeated

demoralized

despise

2009-03-01T20:40:00.004+08:00

fac cip today was, er, ok... doing almost the same old thing as what did over the last dec hol as starhub promoter... just that this time round is doing for a more meaningful cause, and the job was much much easier... today's experience was more enjoyable than the dec hol one because this one was done under no stress at all... the starhub one was really stressful, stressful of getting rejected, scared that i would knock into doors of someone whom i know (which did happen and was quite malu..) and worst of all, stressful of getting zero sales at the end of the day when seeing other pple getting quite a number... But it was those stress that enabled me to feel quite relax and natural today, if not i would be like stammer and the mind keep thinking of how to phrase my words to sound persuasive, then in the end pause for too long and the people get impatient, and then yeah... rejection or wanting to chase me away immediately... the 'special training' wei and i had was pretty useful, it can be applied to many circumstances in daily lives, thanks to those pro 'conmans' from starhub, yen and alvin and all...

but i observed the same old trend today as what i had observed last dec hol, that malays are much friendlier and receptive to strangers who knock their doors than chinese. They are much more courteous and are less protective or aggressive. i wonder why... though some of them, i believe, are not very well-educated, they are very cultured. but for the chinese, they always hold a dubious and reluctant expression to strangers. why? why are we so overly-cautious about strangers? even if we do, why those old aunties who always got cheated by conmen are chinese? what a world of irony...

though our school has a bit of the so-called 'anti-mud' sentiment, i feel that they are perfectly fine. in fact, i quite like them actually, they are just so free and unrestrained by society, can do whatever they want and all. moreover, they are so easily contented, even by trivial things. but for most of us, we are so restrained by society, peer pressure, family that we have to conform to external other people/things and morphed ourselves into some robots which are controlled by other people's opinions and wants.

i think i have too many issues with this world and it is good to pen them down. but not now, because i am reluctantly conforming to the society pressure to get a good degree so as to get a good job in the future so as to lead a 'good' life. in other words, i needa mug... not for knowledge or a sense of genuine fulfillment, but maybe a false sense of satisfaction which can only be provided by a graduation cert. :(

2009-02-22T20:11:00.001+08:00

many of them are leaving, leaving me alone here.

no...

一切从生活开始。。。

BBI

2009-02-17T22:58:00.004+08:00

for those of you from hc who've somehow read this, please spare a thought for BBI. at least for the thousands of dollars of the trip to Sillicon Valley, totally free, or $1k SGD for the 2nd prize or 300 bucks for the finalists (8 finalists i thk...) so the chances of winning at least 300 bucks are quite high...

2009-02-14T21:23:00.002+08:00

campfire fell short of my expectation, had actually expected it to be much more fun, at least would be as fun as jumpstart... the performances were just so-so actually, just failed to turn me on, maybe i have gone through the same thing before, so it was not so interesting anymore; maybe only J1s will be turned on by these kinds of activities; maybe my heart is not on all these activities anymore...

come to think of it, i feel quite a bit of empathy towards the J1s. thk most of them have been deceived by the facade of orientation. hope it is not too late for them to find out the truth...

2009-02-03T20:47:00.007+08:00

老爸前几天已回去了，今天跟老妈饭后闲逛的时候顿时想起了他给我传授了的几招所谓的选女人（老婆啦）的最基本标准。他说，恩。。。还是不要说好了，这种东西可能只是仅仅父子之间所分享的，你们可没有耳福咯，呵呵。

为什么我会突然想起老爸讲的话呢，一，他讲得太有道理，太精彩了，精彩到我记忆犹新，二，我刚刚在街上碰到了不少长的不错的女孩，所以就不由自主的想起了老爸的话。其实啊，世上真的不缺少美女（我本来以为美女在世上很难找，可能我在华中呆得太久了吧。呵呵...jkjk, no offence to anyone)。虽然说美女并不少，但是我个人认为，随着社会的进步，每一只丑小鸭都可以变成白天鹅，她们只需花一点心思和金钱去打扮就行了，大不了去整容咯。。。但是回头来在想，这种算是美女吗？需要浓浓的化妆和昂贵的服饰来显示出自己的美丽算是美女吗？与其说让化妆和服饰来表现女人的美，不如说化妆品和服饰借用的女人的身体来突出它们的美。不错，世上有不少美女，但是美不是美在她们自己，而是美在她们的打扮本身。听起来很讽刺对吧，但是这不是事实吗？嗨。。还是不要说这么多了，不然可能会得罪更多女人了。。。

说来说去，世上真的没有多少美女，这里的美不是打扮能表现出的美，而是从内在经过家庭的培养，文化的熏陶所自然散发出来的美。那些是不用打扮，不必做作而表现出来的内在美。在我记忆中，我碰到过真正“美”的女人可能可以用十根手指数出来，可能十根已经算多了，一只手的手指头吧。。。所以说，男人有时候也不好做啊！

难怪某某pw老师快要到不惑之年了还是单身（oops..是不是有点niao?)

2009-01-30T21:56:00.002+08:00

thought that cny will be another long break for me to relax and recharge after 2 weeks of school. but it had just passed in split seconds. people always say a new year, a new beginning. yeah, it is undoubtedly true that a new year signifies a new beginning and change. as i get older, i see less meaning in all these dates which demarcates past and present, old and new so specifically, eg: new year and birthday. all i have in mind now is to do my best in everything which will help me edge closer to the goal of my life. no point lamenting how time flies and how things have changed, what matters most is whether i have achieved the aims i set myself for and if i will achieve the ultimate goal of my life.

come to think of it, actually test and exam results do not matter so much now. it is more than enough as long as i have really tried my best, the outcome will not affect my sense of contentment that i have tried my best.问心无愧,what a high level of enlightenment for me to strive for...

2009-01-21T23:26:00.003+08:00

today was supposed to be a day of joy and happiness, at least for the second half of the day, as there will be no more test before CNY after taking the hist test in the morning, then there'd be hours of ballgames and fun and just slack for the following days for CNY... but no, it is the direct opposite of what was expected. i turned out to be gloomier and more lethargic due to two reasons..

during the history tutorial, i opened up my specs casing to retrieve my specs so that i could see the question of the history test clearly. and alas, the specs weren't there. then i suddenly realised that i've lost it. then i quickly rushed out of class and went to the toilet that i just visited then to search for it. and alas, it wasnt there. so i went back to history class and went ahead with my history test with a stomach full of disappointment.

tested had just begun when i rushed back to class and i could read mr teh's light and blur green marker ink, so i have to resort to my great friend, mr goh, for the test questions. so i just copied down the question he had chosen, which was something like, "conflicts in arms and methods were the factor which led to the failure of native nationalists". when i read it, i was deeply puzzled by the word "ARMS". why the hell is mr teh asking us to discuss the conflicts in arms of the nationalists. well, as a slack last year, i thought that i didn't pay attention in class and missed this VERY IMPORTANT point on ARMS, i just went ahead with my essay after like 5 mins of stoning... it is important for us to substantiate our points with concrete evidence. and since the conflicts in ARMS was the given factor,(as smart as always) i decided to cook up some evidence of the ARMS thingy, praying that those evidence i cooked up will be correct...

guess what? when the tested ended, i expressed my puzzlement to my great friend and is also one of the top achievers in our history class (he has more impt thing than meeting our very two prestigious nobel laureates btw), mr bong, seeking intellectual help so that i could be enlightened by his insights. well, what he said was definitely some kind of great enlightenment man, "LOL, the question was CONFLICTS IN AIMS AND METHODS, NOT CONFLICTS IN ARMS AND METHODS, lol, hahaha..." hahaha, it was really humorous, even i myself can't help it, how could i make such a foolish mistake? as smart as always.......

haiz.. so sad, i got a double-kill today. screwing up my first history test of the year is actually nothing much, i think what matters more is that i lost my beloved specs...

2009-01-17T20:30:00.003+08:00

first week of school, wasn't so bad afterall, didn't dose off in any of the lessons, only felt sleepy in some, that's quite a good start. all i need now is to continue this momentum and reinforce it day by day.

snowball effect

2009-01-04T20:59:00.002+08:00

2 months of hol is gone, one more week to sch... i rmb that i have set quite a number of targets to be achieved over this hol, but i thk 90% of them are unmet, haha... actually planned to finish all hol hw by the second last week, which is by now, but then only 15% is done? nvm, don't talk about it now...

mum coming back tmr. mixed feelings about her return. of course i am happy that she is coming back, just that i will not be so free by then. but i still prefer her to be back la. haha.

next week will be a busy week... boooooooooooo, how to finish my hw?

2008-12-26T23:40:00.003+08:00

no work these few days, quite free, that's why have been watching tvb online. tvb owns singapore local channels man, seriously dont know why mediacorp gets so many awards each year. :S whenever i watch it, it always increases my desire to be back home. haiz... just don't know why, watching pure and original cantonese programmes just reminds me of home. it feels so good to watch tvb, but it feels bad too whenever i watch as i will always feels homesick. must wait for one more year man... 365 days more? think i can make it la, as long as my studies are well and sch life is enjoyable, time will just fly past very quickly...

i hope

2008-12-25T22:56:00.002+08:00

Christmas is supposed to be cold but christmas in singapore is always an exception. However, this year's christmas in sg (as i have expecited) is colder than usual. Not only is the weather colder than usual, the atmosphere is a bit colder too... due to the pessimistic economic outlooks? but this christmas is quite memorable for me, did quite a few unprecedented things that i have never done before.

as night falls and as the wind gets a bit chiller, i began to think of the previous Christmases that i had with my family. "独在异乡为异客，每逢佳节倍思亲".

i miss home, again

2008-12-23T21:30:00.000+08:00

emo emo... the score has finally brought me back to reality

2008-12-21T00:23:00.002+08:00

"bang bang bang!"

finally killed you, term paper

人生不如意的事十之八九。。。

2008-12-17T22:29:00.004+08:00

quite down these few days, all because of some problems which i am facing. one of which is the term paper... deadline is already over for more than 10 days, and i am still quite far from the half-way line of finishing. have been thking of giving up and just dao, but then, i couldn't do it somehow. so it is like i am stuck in between. trying hard (really really hard) to squeeze out words and ideas for the term paper but the progress is slower than the crawling of snail, and on the other hand, my inner side urges me to slack off and dao the whole term paper and do other things instead. so it is like 1 to few hours of slacking after typing out few lines, 1 to few hours of slacking after typing out few lines... this is terrible man. i have never felt so terrible in writing an essay out (though essay-writing has always been terrible for me). damn fucked up

then today is a terrible day. sat there for more than 7 hours and watching the crowd went on and off, i still couldnt sell a single thing. the worst day of my selling history. until the final hour of the day could i then manage to sell one (that one was seriously tyco one)... and the day was ended with just one product sold. damn fucked up again...

and my performance in calli is very bad recently, always didnt perform to my expectations. think there're too many things on my mind already, cant stay calm and focused all these while, that's why...

then results of sat is coming out next week... haiz...............................

2008-12-03T21:05:00.002+08:00

这应该是我人生第一次感到如此强烈的寂寞吧。老妈回国了，老妹又去了同学家过夜，所以我就一整天自己一个人呆在家。本来今年放假没回去已经够寂寞的了，到了晚上自己一个人去吃饭时，这股寂寞感升到的顶点，真的从来没有过的强烈。那碗面好不容易地啃完，但是不想这么早回家，只好故意绕了一个大圈慢慢地走回家。一路上，看到了很多东西，这些东西让我不禁勾起我的回忆。我又想家了。tmd，去年的现在，我已经回去了，哪里需要在这边受寂寞的折磨。。。zzz

幸好，来到楼下信箱，好奇打开看了看，有封我的信。原来收到了我今年的第一份薪水。看到了这份支票，我才觉得有一丝的欣慰。。。

好了，emo完毕

2008-12-01T22:44:00.006+08:00

it is ups and downs for the 4-day IT show. though basic salary was only 50, the commissions and incentives were not bad.

first day kena rejected due to some internal matters, some pple just have the guan-xi and so got the opportunity. so i stayed home for the whole day.

second day was ok. sales was bad though, only sold 3 products for the entire day, commission was just around 15.

third day was better, but felt damn tiring. was already feeling dizzy in the first 3 hours, but i managed to pull through because seeing customers pulling out cash/cards from their wallets always chased my dizziness and tiredness away, always made me become more energetic. commission increased to 40+

last day of IT show, as tiring as usual, but more rewarding of course. 2nd in sales both in the morning and for the whole day. too bad didnt get top sales for both the morning and the whole day, if not my commission will shoot up to 300+... haiz.. just 4 points away to get the 250 bucks top sale incentive, and i didnt 输得心服口服，some pple was just too mean and $$ centred. 不择手段, zzz... but 110+ commission was good enough for me, i guess.

all in all, i have learnt a lot of things in these 3 days. too much things to be learnt, in terms of promoting skills and inter-relationship in external organisations. it is a very meaningful experience, and memorable too. though my few hundred bucks is nothing compared to that guy's 900+ is nothing much, i did my very best with sacrifices of lots of sweats and blood... and saliva too, talked until got sore throat...

2008-11-27T03:17:00.004+08:00

had some drinking with wei, but that little amt of alcohol didnt make me drunk, instead, it just made me feel uncomfortable, the feeling of being 10% drunk and 90% sober makes me feel a bit uneasy, that's why i couldn't sleep and have to wake up and linger in this space.
zzz.............

well, i just bushuang one person today, and that organisation, i am too disappointed in them. of all the 6 pple, majority of them are lousier than me, why must i be the one who got kicked out? it should be based on meritocracy, but not "stringology".

wait and see, will prove my worth and prove you wrong.

cold xmas

2008-11-20T10:12:00.002+08:00

as i was walking home these few days, xmas decorations at suntec city, citylink and the road outside raffles hotel are already fully put on. despite all these, i still couldn't get the festive mood. i wonder: it is still mid nov, why do we need to decorate the streets and the city in such an early stage? i shared my puzzlement with my friend while we were walking at the suntec area yesterday and i got a bit enlightened. as the prospect for singapore's recent economy is very pessimistic, it needs a longer chrismas season to kind of salvage the economy and offset the impact of the world's financial crisis.

well, they know that this coming xmas will be quite a cold one, don't think creating a longer xmas season by putting on the decorations early will help to create a warmer xmas atmosphere. who knows, maybe a longer season means a longer chilly xmas for everyone?

2008-11-14T00:15:00.002+08:00

cant believe it, my holiday is so much busier than any of my sch days this year. currently having one job as starhub promoter, and 2 more coming up. less than 2 weeks to exhibition and 3 more weeks to sat. so fun and exciting!!!

4L07 going strong

2008-11-09T23:59:00.003+08:00

in the hwachong history, "4L" was always the notorious class in school, with too many attitude, weird, naughty and kaobei people just within one class. and this was how many people looked at us when we, 4L07, first came together as a class (then 3L06). many teachers thought that we would be as notorious as our predecessors. Though our class indeed has quite a number of weird pple, they are weird in the positive way. A class which is always led by a voice of a commander, which has a pokka and sweet supplier, which is always filled with lovely and charming songs sang by our 4L idol, which produces an expert on cynicism and sarcasm who is now the KI top-scorer,and also a well-known terrorist in school, which always creates LOUD and incessant ghostly melodies of "HAO", "MAI", "DAO" and sorts. with so many weird characters in the class, it is not doomed to become disunited and disoriented like its predecessors. BUT, they have become the bonding chemistry between each and every one of us, the uniquely 4L culture.

and that's why, there were still 22 strong who turned up for the class outing yesterday, including our form teacher ms lim. the accompaniment of the other 21 buddies just melted any psychological and physical barrier of being separated for 1 whole year, we are still as close as ever. thx for those who came and showed their support, let's maintain our spirit and culture till world's end.

2008-11-06T19:51:00.003+08:00

I have missed this interesting incident in my last post which happened yesterday.

When i alighted the bus and was waiting to cross the pedestrian on my way home after the interviews, there were two men wearing some sort of security uniform waiting for the traffic light on the opposite. then there was this couple standing on my left and a malay man standing on my right. we were all waiting patiently for the 'greenman'.Then when seeing that the road was empty, the two men in uniforms opposite started crossing the road. The four of us on this side stayed put though, and were looking at the men in uniforms with interest. At first i thought they were just some random security guards, but when they came nearer, i saw the handguns on their sides, i realised that they were policemen. This becomes more interesting, isn't it? 2 policemen were actually jaywalking, while four law-abiding citizens were waiting patiently for the green light, and of course, observing this very ironic scene.

so we stared at the two policemen throughout the course of their jaywalking. and the policemen seemed oblivious, or rather, chose to act oblivious to our glares, and were chatting happily when they were crossing the road. When the two of them came within a close distance, the malay man blurted out something which really surprised me, "Can jaywalk arh?" It was too loud not to be heard by policemen and i noticed that their expression jerked for a moment and regained their happy composure quickly. and then walked on.

deep inside my heart, i was like, "wtf, well said man" and i suddenly had a sense of respect for the malay man . then, the green light turned on.

the two policemen had made a lot of sacrifices within this 10 seconds indeed. sacrificing the image and reputation of policeman, as well as the singaporean police force, for 10 seconds of personal convenience. well done. good job. should present them with the "most sacrificed award".

2008-11-05T21:28:00.003+08:00

today is quite a significant day. PW is finally over today. though it wasn't so much of a relief for me as our group has been slacking quite consistently throughout the year with 3 weeks of exception which include the 2 weeks prior to WR deadline and the week before OP. Nevertheless, it is still a burden that i have gotten rid of.

after PW, it is the searching-high-and-low-in-the-classified session in the library with wei again. After some concerted efforts, we managed to arrange 2 immediate part-time interviews. and we went straight for them after lunch. One is promoting calling cards while the other is promoting starhub products. Not bad, sounds cool. At least i won't be rotting away over the 2-month break.

then today is also the day which Barack Obama becomes the President of the USA, the most prominent democratic country in the world. As the first ever African-American president, a Black president, i believe there will indeed be changes to the USA, as well as to the entire world,as what Obama claims, "Change has come to America". and i really cannot wait to see the upcoming changes, whether good or bad.

and i have been watching this drama "The Lengend of Bruce Lee" (and bruce lee is my idol btw) and got damn inspired and intrigued by his life. For those people out there who still feel inferior being a Chinese as compared to Caucasians and those out there who are not comfortable with being Chinese, this drama is for you.

2008-10-19T21:25:00.001+08:00

tomorrow is the day, let me beat you up and reconquer what you have taken from me 6 or 7 years go.

and i will never allow you to do so again. never...

2008-10-16T16:57:00.003+08:00

拿了一个U，我终于生气了

真感谢这个U，好不容易终于让我感到如此愤怒，我看我这次是来真的了

放马过来吧

2008-10-14T21:39:00.003+08:00

everyone is getting older each day, and the rate of aging seems to be accelerating as you get older.

this is exactly what i am feeling these days. to begin with, i did not do anything hectic or rigorous yesterday, nor did i use any part of my neck muscles excessively, and i woke up this morning, i found this pricky ache at the right side of my neck. it's not the ache of the muscles, it is more like the ache of the bone. so strange, the bone at my neck just aches for no reason at all, and it is irritating me for the whole day. whenever i turn my head, the pain just pricks at me... and my 3-point shooting always tilts to the left today, zzz

i suspect it is a sign of aging. like one of the old folks' symptom, aka rheumatism, where old people's bones start aching when winter is nearing. well, come to think of it, winter is indeed coming soon (though not in Singapore, but in the temperate region), maybe the aching of my bone is indeed a signal of the forthcoming of winter. Maybe... :(

2008-10-09T21:53:00.003+08:00

今天tmd的这么早就放学，10点没到，我已经在球场上打球了。但很无奈，不能回家，下午四点还有cs，只好当个三好学生，乖乖地呆在学校。。。

在bench坐了老半天，不是看着别人玩牌，就是看着人家sian sian的样子，真的tmd的把我弄到sian掉，好不容易等到lan-fed的成员放学，才提得起一点精神到IRC打lan去.

谁知道,lan-fed的人还够朋友的,看我进去pool-room就以为我打pool去了,结果没帮我登记,其实我只是进去看看"魏"他们打pool而已啊...当我出来的时候,我才发现那个孔安大哥没有帮我book com,只好又回去pool-room, 跟'魏'他们打pool去.

虽然跟athena-second-in-pool同一组,但我并没有压力,随便打一下,反正我认真打也不会好多少,呵呵...输了几局后,也不知怎么了,我们的状态逐渐回升,每一局都有进步,后来还扳回几局,算是挽回一点脸吧...

三点多回到学校,还打了阵子球,四点就赶去做cs.虽说cs是一种惩罚,但待遇还不错,还有buffet晚餐提供,要吃多少就吃多少,但本人满civilised的,只吃了一点,就赶到我的岗位去traffic-control了.谁知,咱们三人一到terraces, 就tmd的看到床似的,一躺下来就睡了一个多小时,睡得还香呢.看看clock-tower,已经六点多了,再过一阵子,七点就可以收工了.嗨,这样就扣掉4个demerit points, 真是有点太爽了.一直slack到七点,我们又三人行地拖着沉重的脚步走回college take attendance去.所以说,cs就是这么的free-frag.

其实cs并不是那么free-frag啦,睡觉的时候被几只蚊子和蚂蚁咬了几口,光荣地牺牲了几滴宝贵的鲜血...

2008-10-08T21:02:00.003+08:00

it feels so good to watch nba again after a 4-month hiatus. following the happenings and the actions of the new season will definitely be one of the things which preoccupies my mind in the coming 3-month-long holiday.

C'mon rockets, let's break the curse.

Festival of Sports

2008-10-06T21:53:00.004+08:00

i was kind of anticipating this year's fos since quite some time ago, because this is the only opportunity left for me to prove myself (as i screwed up quite a lot for the FOS in the past four years) as next year will be A'level :(. this year's fos is the most enjoyable fos ever, at least for me. for the past 4 festival of sports, though they were reasonably memorable, i had left many regrets behind as i failed do my best and thus did not perform up to my expectations.

But for this year, though we only got 4th in the end, it had already exceeded my expectations. and think of it this way, we are 4th out of 18 classes, which is like quite an commendable feat (at least for me:) Actually we still had a chance to fight for the 3rd placing, but since it was against AhBao's class, which is another artemis class, both of our teams just played in a laxing mode. somehow, ahbao's team won by a small margin. But if our team play seriously, i believe we have chance to win our artemis counterparts hehe.

there are two matches which i feel worth mentioning here, for memorial purposes. first was the match against hongsheng's class (which is another artemis class, sadly). their team was seriously quite tall, not counting mingyang, the shortest player there is like the tallest player in our team already. What made this match so memorable was that this was the match which excited our whole team. somehow or other, our artemis opponent played quite meng today, there were instances where some of the players got quite rough. first was xiaoyao's injury. though it was mostly due to his careless fall (i think) and sprained his ankle, his injury kind of show how intense the game was. Second was Calvin's outburst. I think he bushuang opponent's roughness quite a number of times and got damn frustrated and angry that he blurted out some, eh, unpredictable roars, like, "Do you hold pride in your class?". this was rather shocking and interesting, and i was like giggling away in that situation because it seemed quite funny. 3rd was hongsheng's scratch on zhenrui's face, which was like more than 6 cm long on his right cheek. this happened when hongsheng was fouled and don't know how, zhenrui's face was being assaulted at when hongsheng was falling down. So all these instances and in addition to the tight scores, every one of our team members became damn focused and united. everyone had a common goal, which was to bloody hell win the match. so, with this 拼出去的精神，we had overcome the initial deficit and eventually outscored them by two points (10-8). With less than 10 seconds left, we fouled hongsheng again, and the fate of our team depended on his double free-throws. with a little bit of luck, he missed the second free throw and our final score permanently froze at 10-9, which means we won. i couldn't resist my excitement then and produced quite a loud roar.

the second memorable match was against hongyao's class in the semifinals. that was our second time playing against them on the same day. the first time we played was a trashing one, with a loss of 22-10. well, that was nothing embarrassing about it since hongyao is the starting point guard for combined schools and nicktan and hongyao's fast break was really really good. During our second match-up, we changed our tactic a bit and to my surprise, 6c also changed theirs, with hongyao played inside more often than outside, which i think was to our team's favour. as i was responsible for marking him this time round, my burden was quite heavy. i had to stick to him like his shadow in order to limit his attacking and scoring. In the end, our whole team's effort paid off. this time round, we only lost to them by 5 points and we actually had the chance to equalize the game in the last 15 seconds. Though we did not grab the opportunity, it was a good fight overall.

In summary, the 5 of us had played 6 games in total which was very tiring. but then, my exhaustion seemed to be slowly fading away with each game played. maybe my muscles were getting used to the intensity with every game played or i 慢热，i felt more energized and excited as the games went on. overall, i am very satisfied with my teammates' and my performance.

我们打出男人的血性！

2008-09-30T21:41:00.007+08:00

promos are over, i don't feel happy at all. i just felt relieved that it is all over, that's all. maybe both my heart and soul are drained by the intensity of promos and i got numb to everything now, maybe the feeling of screwing up exams overwhelms the supposed joy after the promos. maybe the latter should be a better explanation. and i found that i am physically drained by the promos, such that i felt dizzy after playing ball for a while under a moderate sunlight, which was like quite rare as playing always invigorates me.

anyway, life still goes on. there is nothing to celebrate or moan about, what matters is the present, not the past nor the future.

on my way home on a bus today, i spent more than 10 mins staring at someone. this person was not even chio, handsome, hot, sexy and attractive to start with, but i felt so good staring at him. yeah, it is a 'him', but don't 想歪歪。 it was a small little indian boy with his dad. what attracted me at first was his sweet in his hand, as i was exhausted and very starved then. then later on, he used his fingers and mouth and tongue to play with the sweet, making funny faces and doing some peculiar stuff. all these amused me. he looked so absorbed in his own world that he ignored everything except himself. So i stared at him for 10 mins like that.

it feels so good to stare at somebody like that because staring at someone for such a long time is rare and it is also a privilege. Because you will be shot back with weird stares after a while when the person you feel like looking at found that you are actually perv-ing he/she. and today, looking at this little kid was so good, i just felt so enjoyed.

this brings me to my point. there is hardly anyone in this world who is adamant and unwavering in his/her own stand or views. Most of us succumb to societal perception and peer pressure. why can't we just put down our masks and be our own? why can't we ignore external forces and just do what we enjoy most, like that boy? why we are so affected by other people's opinion that we try hard to satisfy what others expect of us rather than to try hard to realise what you really want to be?

societal opinion is good in a sense that it provides self-reflection and self-evaluation, but it sometimes hinders your self-assurance and confidence. i think we are living in a very artificial world, is there anyone who is brave and capable enough to reverse the trend?

on a side note, i feel a bit guilty for not mugging, but slacking now, as many of my peers are still mugging hard for physics and cll on thurs, bio and csc on fri, why cant we just start and end exams together?
Where is the spirit of "one for all, all for one"?

2008-09-29T17:21:00.002+08:00

arggghhh... the battle against human nature is hard to fight, but i have go on fighting, suppressing and overcoming it.

2008-09-28T20:16:00.001+08:00

arghhh... i thk the sound of the f1 engines will boost my maths score...

F1

2008-09-26T23:58:00.001+08:00

it was supposed to be a long and good rest for me after 3 intensive days of exams, but then, the central part of singapore seems to be attacked by a huge swarm of bees, the whole central district is like engulfed in an amplified humming sound, which of course disturbed my rest greatly. part of it is because of the annoying sound after you have heard it repeatedly for few hours, and part of it is my curiosity to see the whole F1 buzz. if the engine sound continues on like that for the next two days and if my curiosity is not satisfied within these two days, i doubt i can concentrate on my maths mugging. and so, i went to take a peep at the F1 race, which is like 2 km away?

it was crowded there, as there was limited space for FREE viewing, so we had to hustle with the crowd and practise our neck-extension skills. after 20+ mins of waiting, the cars finally came, and this was what happened:

a double-layered fence separated the audience from the track, but can still see the cars when they zoom past

strange enough, there were more and more people appearing in front of me out of nowhere as the starting of the 9.30 practice session neared, so we had to shift somewhere to get a better view. Look at those crazy people standing precariously on top of the tunnel which was like 10 meter deep, they are risking their life just for getting a glimpse of F1, haiz... but wonder how i took such a clear picture of this? i was part of them :) my legs were like shivering when i was standing on top because it was so steep and deep...

this is what was like live, but cant see the cars here as my camera quality is low, but the sound of the engine, the combustion of the diesel, brakes, and changing of gears, it's worth taking the trouble to go there and witness everything, since it is like once in your life time...

so my curiosity has been satisfied, there is no more reason for me not to mug maths tmr

xZb's first dunk

2008-09-26T19:20:00.005+08:00

promos are supposed to promote us, but...

yesterday was crazy, two content-intensive subjects, econs + history. not sure if i got mentally numb by the papers or what, i didnt even feel hungy and have no appetite to eat at all without having a proper meal from 8 to 3. considering the amount of brain juice lost and the Joules of energy being used on gripping a pen ferociously and moving it for more than 4 hours, it is indeed a great feat.

then today, chem was like not very difficult, but just extremely difficult only. like more than half of the time was guessing and crappy whatever answer in your mind out. this is the most difficult end-of-year paper that have ever encountered man, but 人生总有第一次。。

after chem today, i just feel so sick and tired of exams. and this was what i did with all my energy being vent out. like an explosion of a beast:

it was shiok
hehe

2008-09-23T21:52:00.002+08:00

lost to jindao in a 3-point shoot-out today, quite disappointing actually, the last point was a self-frag, i committed suicide and in the end, lost... jd was tyco la, if not, it would be a more heart-gruelling game. anw, the loss is a mixture of disappointment and joy for me. Lost to him like that was a disappointment, but happy that 青出于蓝胜于蓝.

haha

2008-09-22T22:27:00.002+08:00

i feel damn excited whenever i am struck by this thought: 7 more days to end of promos!!!

lalalallalalalalalalalalala.................
i feel high again

Beyond always

2008-09-21T23:08:00.003+08:00

have always been a beyond fan and don't know why, my desire for beyond's songs increase tremendously near End-of-Year-Exams and now, the coming Promos. Whenever i feel defeated by the daunting task of mugging and frustrated by my ability to mug well, Beyond is always there to inspire and motivate me. Though Kakui had already passed away for more than 15 yaers, his songs and lyrics have never failed to inspire me, especially in times of adversity. And that is what Classics are for.

Beyond's 海阔天空 sung by 阿Lam, in commemoration of Roman Tam, who died of cancer in 2002. very touching...

2008-09-16T19:51:00.004+08:00

xianzacbee is down just one week before promos, feeling so sick lethargic now... intended to on fire after the sept hols, but all the fire and energy is drained by this illness. i am destined to suffer from this illness at this critical period and maybe get lousy results for this coming promos, because i slacked too much this year.这大概是因果报应的道理吧。

i deserve it.
can't blame anyone, anything.
can only blame myself.

虽然时间不多，但离说放弃还远呢。

打死我也不会放弃

Empty

2008-09-12T23:09:00.003+08:00

as a sentimental person, i always save pictures, photos and videos in my comp as a form of memorial for every interesting moment of my life. this habit of mine was adopted when i was in sec one, so i had almost everything about my sec school life recorded in my computer, even some of the school works that i did since sec one.

but

my comp crashed during the sept hols. actually the break-down wasn't a big deal, since my comp breaks down frequently like once in every 3 to 6 months due to the special window system that i am using :P. And all my memorable files are stored in another drive, so reinstalling the comp won't erase the files off. But on one of the very normal days of sept holiday 2008, when i was trying to reformat my comp, i pressed the wrong drive to reformat. and as a result, all the memories (soft-copy) of my seconday school life are gone in just an instant. walao, those were the times which were much better than what i have now la, and those files which can always trigger waves of happiness and reminiscence are gone now. THEY ARE GONE FOREVER!!!

what's worse, i planned to show the photos and videos of my teenagehood to my children next time, show he/she/them the glorious/interesting/memorable moments of my teenage life. but now, my hopes are dashed...

fuck...

(heart is bleeding, lung is crying, mind is sobbing.............................)

enlightened

2008-09-08T23:22:00.006+08:00

~{TZ8==|5DJ1:rRQ2;;aIh7(H%R}FpW"Rb~}

~{>-9}J1RQC;SP?LRbH%F3JS~}

~{OPO>5DJ1:rRQ2;TYOkDn~}

~{NRRQMjJ$NRWT<:#!~}

2008-09-07T23:22:00.003+08:00

at this very moment, i damn look forward to promos now. and i damn look forward to mugging. arrrggghhh, i wana unleash all the unhappy moments this year into mugging.
eeeeeerrrgggggggggg.........................

要好好大干一场!

2008-09-06T23:38:00.002+08:00

maf, more boring than what i have expected... in the end, went to play night bball instead. not bad, everywhere is dark, cant even see the ball clearly, like groping the ball and shooting and dribbling with your sense of touch only, quite interesting... in the end, i missed the light-up ceremony, which was supposed to be the highlight, but nvm, heard that it was mundane...

after that, went to play lantern with eehong, weng and sherwin and all, quite fun, strolling with lanterns in the field at night reminded me of my daily dinner breaks i had when i was in boarding school during P2 to P4. those were the happiest times of my life man, study was so easy then, and we could just play and play, didnt have any worries about studies, friendship, family and future stuffs at all.

the finale came, and of course it was the song session. it was as high as usual, but i think the one we had during orientation was the most memorable one though... dance was a bit crap, tag was drunk, and he did a lot of stupid stuff with my class pple...

anw, had to rush home after that cos i have to wake up early tmr. so, nights!

2008-09-05T21:03:00.004+08:00

it's supposed to be a morning to afternoon revision at jurong regional library...... but after 4+ hours of lan, i am feeling a bit unwell now

zzz

BEAUTY IS NOTHING WITHOUT BRAINS

2008-09-02T10:51:00.004+08:00

some pretty women are for men to see ONLY

2008-08-30T23:51:00.000+08:00

time is such a powerful tool that i can somewhat see the people out there after 9 months...

i will watch out

what sarah said

2008-08-30T23:36:00.001+08:00

Sarah, "love is watching someone die".

2008-08-26T23:15:00.003+08:00

it's the same feeling again when i sent my mum for china and walked my way back alone from the mrt station.

it's the same feel again.

around this time last year, i was extremely emo just because of a xxx that i fell for. thinking about it now, i was so stupid and naive. and so i had to cope the pressure of EOY with this unnecessary emo feeling. to be honest, i felt so bad that i had sleepless nights.

then just now, as i walked back from the mrt, it drew a direct parallel from the night when i sent my mum off around this period last year. everything is the same, the empty streets, the few old men and cats loitering on the street, the greyish-darkblue sky, the cool and silent night, and of course, me. Comparing myself from last year, i don't think i have changed much. it's still the zb who always sighs at so many things about this world.

Haiz..........

glad that the situation this year is nto as bad as last year, i am not sure why it always happens around this period of the year. maybe late august and september are not my months. or maybe i can study better when i am engulfed in an atmosphere of grief?

response to hong's tag

2008-08-24T22:35:00.007+08:00

xZb to hong: no, i didn't mean that. what i meant was that those medalists like Phelps are getting more attention and glamour than they should, we should give more attention to people like the amputee olympic swimmer, Natalie du Toit, and the germany weightlifter, Matthias Steiner. There are more touching stories behind these olympic participants than Phelps and Bolt which the media has neglected. I think people should know more about these stories because these are the best displays of true Olympism. Olympism is not just about winning medals...

Natalie du Toit in the swimming marathon in Beijing Olympics

Matthias Steiner and his wife and their gold medal in the Beijing Olympics

An extract from the online news article from: http://www.smh.com.au/news/weightlifting/grieving-steiner-wins-strongest-man-tag/2008/08/20/1218911797232.html

German weightlifter Matthias Steiner won the super-heavyweight gold and held up a picture of his late wife Susann, choking back tears over the promise he made to her that he would keep their Olympic dream.

"She is always with me, in the hours before the competition, she's there," said Steiner, who made the pledge to Susann at her bedside in hospital while she lay dying after a car crash in July 2007.

"I'm not the superstitious type, don't believe in higher powers, but I hope she saw me. I wish," said the 25-year-old.

Steiner, who won with a total of 461kg, claimed the title of strongest man in the world with a last-ditch lunge for gold, lifting just one kilo more than Russia's Evgeny Chigishev.

He snatched 203kg, a weight far below his closest competitors, but raised his weights dramatically for his final lift in the clean and jerk and hoisted up 258kg.

"I managed to lift it because I had this strong, innermost urge," said Steiner.

2008-08-23T18:36:00.005+08:00

Some extracts from Guojie's blog "http://chinguojie.blogspot.com/" about olympics, for those who watch olympics just to flow with the trend, to feel hip and sporty, support handsome athletes and whatever, it is worthwhile to spend some time to read these:

"Sports has evolved into an entertainment industry, with spectators more interested in dribblers than goal scorers and swimsuits than swimmers. Fans are more than willing to take it all in, to accept athletes as role models, to worship them and call them “the most focused and talented” people on earth.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge sports fan. But these things we call sports nowadays, I don’t see what other purpose they serve but to entertain. I doubt anyone’s inspired by Michael Phelps’s 0.01s victories of sheer luck. Sports used to be about honour, about fighting for a purpose greater for your own; your country, the ones you love. Now they’re about endorsements. Athletes switch allegiances at the sighning of a cheque.
The Olympics hasn’t really been about the human spirit in decades. It’s been a long time since the Olympics have lived up to the hype, a long time since John Stephen Akhwari finished the marathon with a dislocated knee, a long time since Shun Fujimoto scored a remarkable 9.7 (still an Olympic record) on the rings with a broken knee and an even longer time since Jesse Owens won 4 gold medals in front of Hitler, debunking the myth of Aryan superiority. When asked why he pushed himself to finish the marathon, Akhwari said, “My country did not send me 5000 miles to start the race. They sent me to finish.”
There’s no lack of such stories nowadays, the press just focuses on different stuff, the type of stuff screaming girls (I still haven’t forgiven all of you for the fish tank incident) like to read about.
Did you hear the story of Lopez Lomong, the US flag bearer? Lomong was born in Sudan. As a child, he was held in a detention camp, before he ran for 3 days straight to cross the border to Kenya, where he spent the next 10 years in a refugee camp. He gave up his life savings to watch a telecast of Sydney 2000 and, inspired by Michael Johnson, vowed to run just like him one day. He was finally adopted at 16 and brought to the United States, where he excelled at the 1500m and 3000m. On July 6th, 2007, he became a naturalized citizen of the US.
Here’s another one. A few years ago, a young lady by the name of Susann tuned in to a weightlifting competition on television. On the screen was Matthias Steiner, all 140kg of him, red and puffy from exertion. She was instantly smitten. She emailed him and they met. It was love at first sight and they got married in December 2005. They were happy. Matthias, born an Austrian, had become German, just like his wife. Susann had been starving herself to save money to see Matthias compete in Beijing. But 19 months after their marriage, something tragic happened. Susann was in a car crash. Matthias rushed to the hospital and, as he lay at her bedside watching the love of his life fade into the darkness, he made a pledge to win the Gold in Beijing. A year later, he lifted a massive 258kg to come back from an early deficit and claim the title. Later, at a press conference, a teary eyed Steiner, with a picture of the late Susann in hand, said “she is always with me, in the hours before the competition, she is there… I'm not the superstitious type, don't believe in higher powers, but I hope she saw me. I wish.” I hope that wish came true."

"Everyone’s calling Phelps a champion, a real winner. Usain Bolt too, has been called great. I don’t think they’re quite there yet. I’m not saying they’re not winners. I’m merely proposing that they haven’t proven anything yet. Physical ability, yes. But mental strength, no.
Over the past week, I’ve become cynical. I thought these athletes were champions, real winners."

"I’d like to present the story of Hicham El Gourejj. In Atlanta 1996, a then 22 year old Gourejj was tipped to win the 1500m, but 400m from the finish line, he tripped and fell down on the track. He picked himself up, but finished last, shattered and devastated. In the following years, he broke numerous world records and became the only middle distance runner to claim 4 consecutive world titles. In Sydney 2000, he was more mellowed, and raring to go. However, he could only manage a Silver. 4 years later, in Athens, it was his last chance. He led the whole way, but, in the last lap, he was overtaken by Bernard Lagat. With 100 metres to go, Gourejj found that little extra burst of energy and surged past Lagat in the last 10 metres to claim his first Olympic medal.
All that said, what is a champion? I’m sure most would agree that what makes one great is not in the physical, but in the mind, in the heart. I like to believe that what differentiates a champion is desire. Champions don’t throw in the towel. Champions don’t pray for the game to end so they can go home to their mothers. Champions want to push themselves. They want the pain. Some champions are motivated by commercial reasons, think Tiger Woods. Others, for reasons greater than their own, think Jesse Owens and Matthias Steiner. Either way, they want a chance for greatness. Champions can last forever and, for that reason, in our hearts and minds, they’ll live that long."

No doubt, Phelps is the greatest swimmer ever (in terms of physical ability), but what endowed him with so many Olympics medals is more of the system of the competition. think about it, since running different distances, like swimming, requires very different techniques, what if running is divided into 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1.6km, 2.4km, 5km, 10km, 20km, 30km, 40km and 50km, 4x100m, 4x200m, 8x50m, 16x50m, 110 hurdles, 220 hurdles, 400 hurdles, 800 hurdles, 1600 hurdles, backward running for 100m, 200m, 400m and so on? i think kenyans and jamaicans would get a lot more medals in track alone if this happens. there will be more people like Phelps and Bolts too. what if rowing and sailings and other sports have as many categories as swimming? i think more olympics medalists will be created.

ok, sorry for being too imaginative and irrelevant, but hope you get my point.

defeatist

2008-08-19T23:24:00.003+08:00

i strongly disagree with Mr. LSL regarding the import of foreign talents in sports. If i remember correctly, he said something like this in his chinese national day speech: China has 1.3 billion people, singapore has 4 million people, which is 300 times as singapore's population. that means singapore will get one olympic medal when China gets her 300th. And then he tried to use this argument to justify the government's effort in importing foreign talents to represent singapore in her sports arena.

frankly speaking, i thk his argument is damn flawed. Not only that, how could a prime minister of a nation say something which was so defeatist? how can a prime minister not have faith in his own people, but instead, tries to somewhatjustify his mistrust in his people? instead of encouraging his people to work and train hard to bring glory to the country, he is providing excuses for his people to slack off and increase their reliance on other people. what a defeatist.

let me give an example. i just watched the 1.5km olympics final, the participants are mostly from developing countries, like kenya, bahrain (i am sure many of you havent heard of this name before), south africa, qatar and morroco. i am sure none of these countries can beat singapore in terms of economic and social advance. okay, in the end, one of the Bahrain runners got first (that's when i come across this country). and out of curiosity, i wiki about Bahrain.

Not to my surprise, it is another ulu country. but on further reading its info, what surprised me was its size of population. singapore's population rank 115th in the world, while Bahrain rank 159th. Bahrain only has 1,046,814 people. well, that is only 1/4 of singapore's... maybe these figure mean nothing to you, but there is one thing i am sure, Singapore's olympic medals are not 4 times as Bahrain's.

At this point, i don't think i need to elaborate my viewpoint any further, you know what i want to say already. i just don't understand why a prime minister can make such a xxx argument.

singoreans, hope you all can prove him wrong man.

rest well

2008-08-18T21:14:00.006+08:00

Let's wait for his comeback.

money

2008-08-16T23:29:00.004+08:00

it's interesting to see how singaporeans cheered their table tennis team on with hearts and souls and how happy they feel after getting a long-awaited olympics medal after 46 years with the team's win against the korean team, while most, if not some of them, dislike prcs actually.

what an irony.

2008-08-13T21:10:00.003+08:00

i always admire morrie's attitude at his apporoach to life. when i first read "tuesdays with morrie", i was greatly amused by what he said, "we should embrace aging".

today, i have finally realized that to attain the level of maturity which morrie had obtained or to get any nearer to it, it is an extremely formidable task.

i don't understand why so many people look forward to their birthdays so much, think they are too eager to receive wishings and gifts from their friends ba... i don't understand why people like to make a big hoo-ha about their birthdays as well,like wanting the whole world to know that it's your birthday or some sort.

anyway, i didn't feel quite happy today because it means that i am one year older, i feel that i am aging (haha)... think about it, it is like more than 1/4 of my life is gone and to reflect upon the 1/4 of my life, i feel that i have done nothing much. what's worse, i feel guilty of wasting a lot of my parents's efforts, time and money for failing to achieve what i supposed to achieve. and this sense of guilt became more intense today. on this very day 19 years ago, i was delivered into this world in the expense of my mum's 9-month suffering, my parents' fear of an inevitable operation to articially bring me out of my mum's womb and the pressure and the uncertainties faced by them for having an abnormal child who came out buttock first (normally is head first).

after thinking the countless things that my parents have sacrificed, the chances given to me by my benevolent parents for doing things wrong, the invaluable things that i got from them in these 19 years, i really would like to thank my mum and dad for giving me what i have had and providing opportunities for me to become what i am now. 真系多谢晒！

for those out there, please don't be too obsessed with your celebrations and joyous mood during your birthdays, think of the sufferings they went through for just giving birth to you alone and please feel thankful for what your parents have given you because our birthdays should be a memorable day for them,

and not for us.

2008-08-07T21:13:00.003+08:00

got a damn low mark for chem again, damn sad, made it such a bad day for me

Luckily, the long awaited break-through has finally arrived after more than 6 months

and

i can finally touch the rim again after 4 long months since my ankle injury... the touch of the rim is so shiok!

2008-08-05T21:03:00.006+08:00

have been feeling quite strange recently... my mood is always turning 360 degrees after 360 degrees. like now, i am feeling anxious for no reason, can actually feel my heart pumping quite randomly.... maybe my internal self is trying to alarm me that promos are just few weeks away. but then, i still cannot really feel the urge and the emergeny. maybe it is because i don't see many people around me mugging hard for promos, or maybe it is just a facade?

anw, olympics is coming (maybe i am anxious of the olympics?), it is a once-in-a-four-years event and once-in-my-life-time olympics which is going be held in my homeland, let's enjoy my lifetime's most meaning olympics first.

so it will leave me less than one month to prepare for promos. if it is more than sufficient for the EOYs for the past 4 years, is 3+ weeks enough for this coming promos?

hmm....................