It has been awhile.

Stolen! From! Ele! actually it was a tag.

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence on your blog along with these instructions.
5. "It's mine."
6. Tag five people.

[excerpt]

Starsky gets kidnapped. There's a gunfight on Beunas Yerbas Bay Bridge, and we've got a chase scene scripted with David and Paul running over car-roofs at rush-hour. It'll be a headache to okay it with the traffic cops, but we need to do it on location or we'll lose any semblance of artistic integrety.

'Hey, you're not taking Blood on the Tracks.'

'It's mine.'

[/excerpt]

Blog traffic has never been high, so I'll tag er. Zhicong, Dai, Kun, Bing and Julian. And whoever wants to do it.

It needs a good title

Because I cannot think of one!

This is the promised CAP post.
But, to facilitate reading and stuff, I'll give only the important keyphrases.

Day one.
reach-early; wait; ops-room; fiddle-with-camera; opening-ceremony; what-was-she-doing-in-arthur's-room; laugh-and-eat; ops-room; play-bad-music; admin-work; judith's-chocolate; talk; daniel-has-a-lot-of-weird-al; power-cut-from-us; we-search-room; failed-to-prank-miss-lim-so-daniel-olivia-and-i-are-sad; long-debrief; kulwat; eleanor-joins; knock-on-doors; return-to-room; Zzz.

Day two.
ignore-alarm-and-get-woken-by-del; stick-head-in-sink; full-awake; plenary; interesting-excerpt-things; look-busy; ops-room; rest-a-bit; go-on-lit-excursion; find-lost-people; swinging-red-lights-omg; chase-bus-up-and-down; back-to-ops-room; eleanor-sleeps-on-couch; timepasses; try-to-wake-her; del-is-laughing; go-for-film-workshop; sit-around; collate-feedback-forms; eleanor-returns; jianyong-returns; milk-and-brownies; back-to-ops-room; shorter-debrief; yay-sit-outside-to-write-and-chat; we-go-for-a-long-walk; mike-has-an-interesting-professor; cannot-find-brendan's-phone; longer-walk; back-to-rooms; chit-chat; back-to-room; Zzz.

Day three.
same-as-the-day-before; peer-sharing; some-people-are-really-too-soft; talk-a-bit; workshop-in-which-i-honestly-did-not-sleep-in; now-i've-forgotten-what-happened-after-that; jianyong-represents-singapore; film-again; eleanor-arrives-from-the-other-meeting; she-is-asleep-on-couch; del-and-jianyong-arrive; watch-film-folk; back-to-ops-room; debrief; crashed; Zzz.

Day four.
see-above; great-uniform-swap; dunman-high-uniform-has-long-pants; meet-the-mr-lee; writing-workshop; lol-julian; benson-has-a-really-funny-tee-shirt; alumni-sharing; loud-poem; film-goes-to-holland-v; nap-a-little; receive-icecream-from-eleanor; is-happy; back; change-to-stuff-for-formal-dinner-thing; judith's-room; fruit-and-vegetable-cult-was-great; shit-happened; workshops; major-meeting; kegan-lost-his-laptop-and-the-UCC-people-are-a-bunch-of-useless-fools; emcee-script; accapella; eleanor-and-i-binge-on-coffee-whilst-working; jianyong-and-athena-arrive-in-the-room-and-attract-cockroaches; contemplate-and-attempt-to-sleep-in-the-same-room; jianyong-has-his-head-in-the-corridor; fear-judith; return-to-own-rooms; Zzz.

Day five
oversleep; i-forgot-what-i-was-doing-here; reach-UCC; admin-admin-emcee-script; hunt-down-emcees; accapella-final-edition; rehearsals; big-night; performances; great-council-revolution-against-the-UCC; give-them-the-finger; the-performances; photo-spammage; judith-tossing; fun; prata.

And that was CAP in a nutshell. hurr hurr nurr it rocked. Ahahahaha. No really. Must be seen to be believed. It was great. In spite of the long withdrawal period to follow.

Et cetera. '07 CAP council - sank'you.

CAP'07

Did you expect a post?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. Gotcha. This is not a post.

This is a remarkably weird thing on the fact that I am going for another camp and whilst dying to blog about CAP has no time to, darn. Thus I shall post only on Wednesday, or something.

But.

OH GODS CAP OF 07 WAS AWESOME. 'nuff said.

Love to everybody. Yesyesyes.

CAP WITHDRAWAL SYNDROMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. I am on crack.

How divine a comedy

I now feel the pain of Dante, for I too hath gone through hell.

Thus is the end of OBS, which I did not blog about till today in spite of returning back to Sunny Island a day ahead of schedule.

In a nutshell, it was rather...

ooolookiesunburnontheupperarmandneckandnoseandacoupleofmosquitobitesalongeverysinglepartofthebodyaswellaswhatisuspecttobesomesortoffungalrashbehindmyneckandanabrasionalongthethighcoupledwithmanybruisesfromabrokenbagstrapandstuffogodsthepainthepainthepainthepainthepainthepainthepainthepainthepainthepainthepainthepainthepainthepainthepainthepainthepainthepainthepainthepainandflu.

...interesting an experience which, in all manners of political correctness, will serve to highly enrich my future and experience as a member of the rapidly globalizing hub of biotechnology that is our glorious nation.

Admittedly, I did like it at some parts. Lemme break things down a little.

Day 1 was as boring as undercooked chicken pie.

Day 2 was as boring as undercooked chicken pie.

Day 3 was as boring as undercooked chicken pie.

Day 4 was fun because I was at the medical centre.

Day 5 was fun because I was at home.

('ㅂ')

Aha! I seem to spot heavy generalisation here. I have strategically cut out the important bits!




Let us move into the specifics.

Day 1 -

We spent an hour or so waiting at the jetty whilst talking and walking around aimlessly. Then the ferry got to us and we took it to Ubin.

Yay.

And then had a briefing and another briefing and a happy fun joyful sit in circle introduction thing which I thoroughly enjoyed because I am an Explorer In My Own Right.

And we pitched tent and learn some skills that will not be used in future.

Day 2 -

We trekked not that far to the other camp to pitch our tents and go through more briefings. We did some high elements for five minutes after an hour or so of preparations. Then we ate lunch and went to kayak.

The first fun thing, really. Floating in sea aimlessly never seemed to appealing.

Dinner in the cookhouse, good food at last. Good food did not last.

The longan syrup ran out.

Day 3 -

Go for weird small games in morning, talk to Ben about gaming and sunblock. Run out of sunblock, feel pain in neck, hooray.

Then came the land expedition. Ooooo yeah.

walkwalkwalkwalkwalkwalkwalkwalkwalk.

Sums it up. Though, if you reeeeaaaaalllllly wanna be specific about things.

walkwalkwalkwalkwalkwalkwalkwalkwalkwithhugebags.

There, better? Y/N.

Nearing new campsite had what was close to an asthma attack, bag straps finally broke off after padding came off an hour or so earlier. Carry whole bag in arms whilst trying to use inhaler, learn that walking into tree is painful.

Reached campsite, ate maggi with soil. AND THEN.

Instructor realised that I seemed to be dying and was put under observation. Sat in tent, fell asleep, woken up a bit later to be sent to medical centre.

Highlight of the Night, took a speedboat round Pulau Ubin back to camp at 12 o'clock or so. That was truly enjoyable.

Slept.

Day 4 -

Woke up, took some medicine, accompanied a two others to cookhouse for breakfast, went to Sengkang Polyclinic for a long wait for a 5 minute appointment, discovered who John Jay was. (He was the guy in the other bunk at medic centre.) Contemplated existentialism whilst willing 2130 to be called by pharmacist, went back to Ubin.

Stayed in centre for a little more, got baggage in order, WENT BACK TO PUNGGOL JETTY AND GOT HOME.

I'd never felt so liberated in my entire life.

Day 5 -

I was at home, yay.

So thus was the OBS enriching experience. Lovely is it not?

Day 5, also, was the CAP Meeting.

Ohjoyohjoyohjoyohjoyohjoy.

It was fun, in all truth.

Reached there, took a brief walk around before being spotted by the already present Councillor party. Moved over for a chat.

*reenactment of conversation and some humor goes here.*

Then went to help upstairs, followed by standing at the aisle whilst making horse jokes.

Thus later went to help with the collation of application forms and things. Enjoyable fun it was not, but enjoyable fun the aftermath was. Fiddled with sub-machine camera flash. Then went with the superseniors for dinner at Far East. T'was much fun and talk.

Saturday was fun joy and laughter.

Sunday was mothers day and a lot of sleep. And flu. Can't forget the flu.

...Oh gods, the flu.

Thus I speak.

RETURNETH HATH ME.

asdasidjcjxckzxjckzjxck. (because every blog post needs one.)

Goodbye, O Cruel World!

And hello, O Cruel jungles of Pulau Ubin!
Yours truly shall disappear till the 11th, on Friday, for the dreaded OBS.

Till then, asdjasdjiasd!
I tremble in fear.

I Am @ Youth.SG

Once a upon a time.

A group of friends were merrily jaunting down the sidewalks of sunny island Singapore whilst trying to avoid being handed some pamphlets. And then in the midst of their merry jaunting-ness they found their way into the lands of a man on a mat. Which a can in his hand. And a bunch of bad rhymes in his pocket.

And unto him they said,
"lol y u b3ggz0r 4 c45h".

And thus is spoke this verily true line,
"no $, lol".

And they pondered over his plight. In glorious summation they uttered,
"lol wadeva n00b u53 p4yp41".

And they walked off. It was a sad, sad day.

Butbut heyheyheyheyheyheyhey. Let's put things into perspective and actual to relation to what I'm applying my logic or lack thereof to.

We are the next generation of scientists and researchers in a biotechnological hub of the future.

We are the new team of political leaders and government to bring the nation into a better tomorrow.

We are the essence of infocomm-savvy and the epitome of worthy computing skills.

"Tell me, Dr. , what do the youths of today believe in?"

"I'm not sure, Mr. Holmes - does it involve the internet?"

"Excellent, my dear Watson! They love the fame and 5p34k1ng 1i3k +h15."

"And eBay?"

"Yes. They love eBay."

The teens of today are a motley crew. Our age is that of widespread connections from the national to international level. Gone are the days when the mailbox had handwritten letters of Fun in the Sun, Wish you were here, Thanks for the books - incoming is the new era of fun in LAN, w15h u w3r3 h3r3, ty 4 +7 sword. We feed on computing.

Connections. This is an era of connections. GenY loves the sights and sounds of an online city, the letters and numbers that make about converstaions like 01010110010101 - we stand not the lack of IT, for the lack of IT is both pain and bad pun. O, prostrate thyne unworthy self in front of ze intranetz! Beholdeth its earth-shaking prowess and worship thy power withineth it!

Not like that's a bad thing.

As the youth of Singapore we strive for fun, joy and laughter.

We love the feel of ego growing under anonymous means, or perhaps the acknowledgement that one is better at losing credit card info and personal sanity. We want to talk with people who would never speak to us in real life - because they actually know who we are already. We strive for the statistics and numbers to take our mind of work and life, pumping good focus into acquiring a bunch of pretty pixels and a virtual acid trip. We mould every whim and fancy to fit what the internet can provide for us, and have fun while doing it.

Show some love for the online gambler. He seems to know what he's doing.
Show some love for the e-merchant. He doesn't seem to know what he's doing.

Show some love the avid gamer. He'd rather not know what he's doing.
And show some love for the blogger. He knows what the others are doing.

Drugs for children. They're doing drugs for children.

And face it, we're hooked, we're Singaporean.

Enjoy the ride. :]

Kill me at midnight.

What that does not kill us makes us stronger.
What that kills us, though, leaves us pretty much dead.

Something must have killed my blog, but my /\/\4) 5{!115 have brought it back to life.
For now.

Anyway.

I cannot believe that we got a gold. Shock-horror-disbelief-and-overall-FRIKKIN-HAPPY.

Happy in the way when you wake up in the morning to realise it's 4am and you can go back to sleep. Happy in the way that despite flunking the Chinese test by amazing levels you're still not the worst. Happy in the way that is your first and last SYF getting a gold.

Not a 'with honours', but I'll be damned if I've the nerve to complain after all that.

But I'm reallyreallyreallyreallyhighatthemomentIthinkit'sacombinationoftheteaandthecoffeeand thesugarandthetrees-and-rocks-and-rocks-and-trees-and-rocks-and-trees-and-trees-and-rocks-and-rocks-and-trees-and-trees-and-rocks-and-trees-and-rocks-and-rocks-and-trees-and-WATER.

Unable to think coherently. With the History test in sight. Panic!




I shall go drop myself from this mortal coil.

But hey! Then you realise that life is worth living in spite of the utter madness so please put down the knife and back away real slow because Santa is behind you with a handheld 150mm Howitzer and you're standing on a cheesecake and I really like the sound of heavy bells at night or something like that because they taste of orange just like the good old pavlovas great-granddad used to make in the oven that talked me at night it was such a good friend too until they melted it down to make cookies.

Dispel and begone, O spirits that plague me and tempt the mind to go sleep and worry naught about the pressures that bear down with such fierce asdkjakjdiqjf!

I suspect I am nacroleptic. When you can fall asleep so well in the day but just can't sleep in the night.

The damn night. They say that midnight is the hour of the dead, when it all comes to a freeze frame in one long ringing note of pathetic silence. Sunny island Singapore, wrapped up in quiet and still.

I once spied a man from my bedroom window.

He was walking alone in the street underneath the moon at about 1.30am. And I thought - if you had snow, a trenchcoat, a fedora, you've some quaint little pictureseque town where all are happy or at least philosophically at ease - those books where crumpets are more meal than concept, or where tea is brewed in porcelein pots that actually shatter.

But here is hub of change and biotech and whatnot, so we can't complain about the heat of night that just seems to want to kill us in tropical glory. We've our dialects and swearwords and durian or perhaps even the encyclopedias that tell foreigners what a kopi-O is and how ripped off they are.

Though sometimes you just have to sit up at night and look out to window and watch the whole damn world come to a lulling stop. A silly silly stop in the midst of all that haste and rush and run. A hiatus at the most important moment. Sometimes you just have to stare and the huge round big-eyed lamp that hangs up there unreacheable and wonder to yourself why we still do all this stuff when there's so much out there we claim but don't really know. Like the clouds and the sky and all that black-ish matter floating around that we catalogue in all our pretty numbers and whatnot like some equation that can be kept in a jar in the pantry.

Sometimes we need to just stop living like an idiot machine and ask ourselves:

"Why the fish am I sitting up in the middle of the night contemplating existentialism when there is a test tomorrow for which I am ill-prepared?"

And then we wonder.