Red

52 years and 3 months from now, nobody talks about the festive season that so many other blogs are talking about right now. That particular festive season with 'Red' as its theme. That 15-day long holiday where people give each other oranges, not for consumption, but as a form of greeting.

Governments all over the world decided to cancel this particular holiday because it did not fit into the requirements of the new world. In an increasingly pacifist world where wars, terrorism and violence is heavily condemmed, Red, which signifies blood, danger, communism and many evil things that humans depict them to be, has been officially removed from the colour palette. Red flowers were eradicated from the face of the New World. Red buildings were demolished. People were banned from eating red meat or consume red drinks like Red Bull or Ribena. Not to mention Red Wine.

And thus, that particular festival with its main theme as Red, was voted unanimously by leaders of the New World to be phased out and erased from all history textbooks.

Many protested, of course, especially the people of a particular race, against the decision. Those who protested were then cleansed of all 'redness' in their bodies by removal of all their blood. A special dye is added to the blood which turns into this greenish liquid reminiscent of bile. The new blood dye is of course a proud product of all the Life Sciences and Biotechnological research that was briefly mentioned early in the century.

There were groups who secretly practised the exchanges of oranges and four-letter greetings. Some kept red cloth and red ang pow paper passed down to them by ancestors. Kids who never knew or saw Red look into the mirror with green lips and green pimples. They never asked their parents how awful they looked. They looked like freaks anyway.

Strange enough, a day came when red rain came falling from the sky. It didn't stop for 15 days straight. The red rain painted the buildings red, it painted grass red, it painted the landscape red, people thought they bled red again. Whatever the leaders and the scientists did, they could not explain this particular phenomena nor could they wash away the red that engulfed the entire world. Its as if the Earth has become the second Mars.

Goodbye 21

I've grown older and more popular.

Firstly, I would like to thank my wonderful hall for giving me no obligations or emotional attachment or friends who remembered my birthday. I would like to thank them so i could spend precious time with my JC class, who waited for me till late at Boon Lay MRT station, just to give me their warmest wishes and a Kill-Billish tennis racket.

I would like to thank my wonderful hall for giving me the wonderful night I had with my CS darlings at Bobby Rubinos. The yummy treat, presents, psuedo-birthday card and love.

I would like to thank the people in my hall such that my friday night was free for yx and dw. We had such a wonderful time playing Samurai at the board games cafe. That was equivalent to a birthday celebration.

I would like to thank my wonderful hall for giving me my Sunday night off. lh, st and grinch are friends I've always depended on. I rank them as indispensable, though lh probably wun be reading this.

Oh don't be mistaken. I truly love my hall.
There are some people that I truly love,

Like Pearl, Nicole, Yanru, Yu Xin, Hanyu
Like Benny, Xingwen, Eric, Kok Vui, Hanlong, Fengjia, Tat Wee, Daniel, Jianlei

Sorry if I miss you out.

Sometimes you don't know when I'm telling the truth. This time, you will.

心情溶剂

The picture is a little far here but what the heck.

This annual mandarin song-writing competition organised by King Edward Hall of NUS ended just hours ago.

Gekleng, the person who took part in this competition, walked home with 500 bucks and 2 trophies: Best music arrangement and the second runner-up prize.

The performers for his song are in this picture. Benny on the bass, J doing the vocals, Diya on the drums and Yaoxian the keyboards. Considering we had negligible practice, we managed to come up with a really decent performance that we were pretty proud of.

We were the minimalists of the show with just 3 instruments and vocals. 10 different groups. Some with dancers, some with saxophones, some with backup vocals and most of them practising the whole time, throughout rehearsals and full runs. I guess the 5 of us had a good time chit-chatting, sleeping, playacting, singing and irritating the other contestants.

I was surprised by my rare composure on stage today. Maybe because its a really big crowd and a really big stage. It feels like holding your own concert with the place mimicking as a smaller version of Indoor Stadium. It feels good to be doing a song live in front of a huge crowd and this stands out as one of the biggest gigs I've done so far. Benny, Diya, Yaoxian and I really enjoyed ourselves on stage, it was some night to remember.

And thanks Gekleng for giving us a chance to do it.

Nanyang Prospectus

Last sem we were asked to do a photoshoot.

This sem, this is what we got.

Next sem, more people are gonna come to CS because of this.

All thanks to DJ Luq & Co.

Tuition Kid

What the hell.

Presents are for Peasants

The peasant told his feudal lords that he needed new stuff for the new season.

The feudal lords smiled and said, "We'll see what we can do."

The peasant thought for a while and said: "Let me give you a list."

" I will need some cash. Can you give it to me? Like maybe $20 000 to sustain my tertiary education? A nice, big fat ang pow is really appreciated. You can also give me a condo. There are some nice condos at... I mean new condos are always coming up. Travelling to school is a chore. Maybe you can get me a car? Luxurious cars are good , but some second hand ones will suffice. If you're a little short of cash, how about getting me some air tickets to the Bahamas, Maldives, Rio de Janeiro, Tibet or Paris? A good Canon digital camera that is worth over $1000? A iPod? A tennis racket though I think another high-flying peasant is getting it for me. What else? How about some brand new sports shoes? Running shoes I mean. I have chores to do Sir and a good fierce looking running shoes really does the trick. Some LEVIs vouchers maybe? How about giving me a nice big sumptious treat that is worth more than $200?"

The feudal lords were not smiling anymore.

And shook their heads.

And said: "Go to hell."

The peasant wasn't taken aback that easily, he cleared his throat and recited the perfect plan that he conjured over the many sleepless nights he had.

"If you can give me what I requested, then you are exempted from giving me anymore things for the next 10 years. Sounds like a fair deal? Its like saving all the interest by paying the full amount upfront. You benefit in the long run people. And If you give me anything above $1000, I promise I will add a 'Star' beside your name in my phonebook."

The feudal lords, fascinated by this masterplan, willingly accepted the peasant's request.

2015

Many years later when I look back at this blog of mine, it'll be nothing more than a pack of lies. Like all our favourite history textbooks, we never know what really went on behind those text that tell us things matter-of-factly. We need a time machine, to live history, to seek the truth. Like all our blogs, recollections of our memories are grey. We write what we want to remember, we write in our own biased opinion, we forgot whether we were really happy or sad.

When the past becomes unclear, we start making up our own stories of what was to be our glorious past. I will laugh at this blog of mine, it's uttering nonsense. And I will look at this post I posted and recall perhaps that was the only clever thing I posted. I will look back at the troubled times of 2005/2006 that why I even bothered to post this thing up. The 50 posts before and after this were all lies and stories that I made up. It was probably something I did to make me feel better about myself. I will laugh and laugh. Laugh at the silly things I did over the past 10 years. Something that reflects me but is in fact not me and the irony that, I'm going to continue writing this just as I thought 10 years ago that I would. I will laugh at the fact that amidst the hypocrisy, i'm basking myself in an imagined glory that never happened.

I am glad that I've written this when I'm not supposed to be feeling this way. Because in 2015, I will laugh at this because it is not funny.

Eye The City 2005

These are some of my favourite pictures I took for this photo-taking competition. I need to choose 3 pictures for final selection. Lend me a hand?

The last day of 2005 wasn't spent in revelling. Temperance is practised. I moved even slower when the crowd of New Year's Eve hustled and bustled. The entire population crammed and packed in that few square kilometres, I excused myself and relieved the population density of those crowded areas. Everybody loves a little attention, a little party and a little company.

I caught a terse glimpse of the fireworks which jammed up the entire ECP expressway. The cacophony of car honks and crazy people running across the expressway expressing their new year's interests resonated against the night sky of New Year's Day. Fireworks from town, from Siloso beach, maybe from Boon Lay community centre where Jeannete Aw is hanging out?

I love new years but it has been a tiring last year and New Year's Day is my rest day. Hopefully, I will have enough rest to cross the finish line at the end of 2006.

2005

I remembered I had duty on 26, December 2004. Thinking of New Year's Eve and what the next new year's eve would be like. I was randomly selected by my boss to go to Aceh to help out in the tsumami efforts, something that did not happen. Had a wonderful birthday gathering/surprise. Spent the rest of my days in camp skiving and escaping from duties. Going for unnecessary dental checkups, medical checkups and an abundance of university application interviews. Going for more university interviews (which never happened) and visiting the canteens 4,5 times a day. Lots of mahjong in camp and outside camp, winning eleven wherever i can. Got too bored in camp and took pictures of my camp's facilities like the dive pool, jetty and stuff. Managed to run 9.08 for 2.4km run.

And then February flied by pretty quickly. Counting the days of ORD and the exciting trips coming up. Somehow every mother's son in camp somehow got some motherfucking reason to skip work. Suddenly everybody became a sportsmen and took part in sports. People went for their university applications and never returned. Chinese New Year didn't leave much of an impression. The fight for the overseas trips became quite exciting. The prospects of going to Taiwan was enticing but the dread of staying in camp rather than going for trips was simply unthinkable.

And March I set off to the United States Of America. Stanford University, Golden Gate Bridge, Hollywood, Disneyland, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Staue of Liberty, Wall Street, Chrysler, Times Square, Empire State Building, UN, Indiana, The Magnificent Mile. The ugly big red spot on my forehead. The nice people I've met. The highways of America and how me and mx slept through half of it. The weather and the liberty of age. Mid-March I went.

4 days after my return from the States, I left for Kaohsiung, Taiwan with my best buddy and the nicest supervisor. The languorous times on board the ship where we ate, slept, shat, ensconced in our own little corner at the ship's engine room. Played cards, played with Wingsoon's PDA: Bejeweled, read a lot, calling up my friends from their sleep, telling them its meal time. 3 weeks spent in Taiwan and in sea. Talked about our future and freedom. Maybe definitions of freedom are different now. I was so idle then and had the financial freedom to splurge my weekends. Thus the end of April.

I spent the remainder of my NS life alone in camp with most of my batch mates clearing their leave days. I exhausted most of them for the US trip. I was still thinking whether CS was the right choice for me. I insinuated free days and off days from my superior who was kind enough to let me go where there ain't any work to be done. The whole month of May and June was inundated with duties. I strutted around camp like the only survivor and the most senior NSF with tons of people asking me politely but rather hypocritcally why I was still in camp. I had to remind them that I went to US during March when they were losing sleep and sweat over the Singapore Biathlon.

I dyed my hair to signal my return to school life, stirred trouble in both my orientation camps, made a lot of people unhappy and unforturnately did not break anyone's bones. I liked the hot showers in hall which I don't get at home. I have friendly neighbours who turn out to be great people as well and a great buddy as my room mate. My hall life is pretty stale though, didn't make many friends, didn't make an effort to. The morning struggles to wake up for lectures. Diang Nao boys to get me through my first few weeks in school.

A hell lot of competitions followed. The hall paegeant, the IMM competition, the party world competition, the band competition, and finally the song-writing competition from yuneng. Not a terrific record but plenty of experience now I guess.

Many days I recall, Fane and I were 2 inebriated people lying in our beds, talking about school life, gossiping about different people, watching ' The Family Guy'.

The CS 108 project got me involved in schoolwork and projects more than anything else and paved the way for many endearing friendships with my CS tutorial mates. The late nights at the Mac Lab, the many days of shooting and editing to produce a 5 minute clip of MTV which I'm quite glad to have attempted it.

Exams and late night study sessions followed. Late night suppers. Late night snacks. Late night soft drinks. Now i'm close to 70 kg. Something I'm quite proud to tell people. Then, the KL trip.

It was a good year I guess.