water.

Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.
Leonardo da Vinci

yesterday was fantastically fun! hahaha ok in the morning it was super sian though, came to school and finished some house stuff. efficient we were, but boring nonetheless. i guess such work can hardly be deemed interesting and it is usually the company that makes up for it - but yesterday was sort of like a stoning day for everyone.

went to island cremery for a short review. addressed some pertinent issues. i think in the midst of the interhouse rivalry, many of us houseds got too caught up in the web of emotions and competition that we were unable to detach our personal feelings from it. we let our competitive streak get the better of us and allow them to rule our emotions, contaminating our perspective of the other houseds and allowing negative feelings to fester. as such, even after the ihcs have long been over, remnants of these thoughts continue to persist and affect us subconsciously.

personally, i kinda feel that i'm on good terms with all the other houseds and feel that as long as we don't over-exaggerate and over-analysis the actions of others, always believing in the best of people, no matter how intense the rivalry between the houses were, our interpersonal relationships will never get damaged, but instead be ameliorated. after all, history has taught us that mutual misunderstandings and distrust was the root cause of the cold war amidst other defining factors. we should not traverse the same path.

kovan said something that was thought-provoking. thanks guitar boy! haha but anw, i realise that my sometimes abstract and unorthodox ideas and suggestions have led to others not considering them seriously at times when they should. instead i guess my mock arrogance was taken seriously? that's really 'dash dot dash' man.

perhaps my oscillating shift from nonsensical to serious is sometime too subtle, and as a result, abilities and ideas are undermined. mmm but i won't care too much about that. it is not in my nature to conform to others and pretend to be like the rest. if others find my line of thought not worth thinking through, well... haha i guess it's just too bad!

ok sian stuff aside, yesterday's oteam initiation party was fantastically fun! or have i mentioned that already? hahaha i got to practice my frisbee skills in a real game and it was such a joy to watch the frisbee i've thrown sail with such balance and elegance into the hands of my teammate and SCORE! mmm but more satisfying was the knowledge that i have really improved in the short span of a few weeks. those short playing sessions at the amphi really helped! frisbee is my loveeeeeeeeeeee (:

got to know a few people too. haha hmm let me try to recall. shengwei, yong han, shun (spellcheck!), sandra, joan and karen! oh ya speaking of karen i think i'm kinda noob. she's in my oteam subcomm and i couldn't recall her name yesterday. ggxx my memory is decaying =(

the night was spent playing frisbee, talking, playing group games, chatting, watching entertaining dances, having fun clearing the bbq mess, sparklers, songs, dances, finding taxis, and most importantly, revelling in one another's company! hahaha orientation is gonna rawk. i can feel it in my bones.

ok i'm still exhausted from last night's games. haha time to take a rest. and i think i'm getting influenced from the mystery-culture proliferated by yewei. lol maybe it's time to pick up an agatha christie book.

pure water reflects a clear image.
murky water reflects a distorted picture.

the CRAZY mood

yes. today i'm feeling damn high. haha.

reason 1: scouts
yessssss! haha all the usuals went back. w00t! i shall quote funx: "it feels like a family reunion." nice nice. it's great to meet and catch up after such a long, long time! yea and esp so when everyone's around. enhances the warmth atmosphere. =D

played lots of soccer. like soccer in the morning. lunch. soccer again.
then we had some campfire briefing. lol and there were like some food nearby which were available for grabs. but no! we hardcore through the brainstorming stage which took us super long before we finally went to eat. yes! resisting temptations is an exciting feeling. xD

reason 2: class gathering
then bathed and went cityhall to meet up with ex-classmates. lol in the end only got 5 of us - alex, changling, qinjie, yanxiang and i. haha but it was still quite interesting talking abt the good ol' times! ahhh the innocent and carefree years of primary school. =) haha talked a lot of other nonsense too.

reason 3: imba nick
k that's damn ego. but nvm. hahahaha YES I MANAGED TO CONVINCE LINDAN AND HAIYIU TO GO BACK LODGE ON TUESDAY! hahaha getting leavers to go back og, quite a feat yea? ok no more egoing. i reached home at 11 then when i get on msn suddenly super spam? siao crazily hard to jaga so many convos then some more got dota gang rushing me to join their male-bonding activity aka dota. haha xD

ok crazy happy fun day. and now i'm telling mel that saigang is good 'cos she's saiganging a lot recently. so i told her i'll come up with a saigang theory to make her feel better. and i wrote a lot of nonsense xD

come let me share my interesting theory entitled saigang is the recipe of friendship.

saigang. the best way of bonding in relationships is through hardship. in hardship, the veneer of illusion that many people try to hard to keep up will be shred to pieces. no more masks. no more facades.

and you begin to see. you see who these people whom you have worked together with for so long really are. and you show them who you really are.

only then can bonds of acquaintanceship develop into something deeper, something more meaningful, something called friendship. definitely, commitment and trust are key ingredients in this recipie - this recipe of friendship. but honesty is essentially the cooking pot that brews this special recipe with its unique ingredients. and saigang helps to bring out the truth and honest countenance of people.

furthermore, saigang provides the long corridor for which acquaintanceship can develop into friendship - it provides the time that is so essential in getting to understand the highly complex personality everyone has. saigang provides the common experiences where conversations can build on, and through it, people realise how similar they actually are to one another, thus creating a willingness to know more.

friendship is a long road.
a long road must have painful memories.
but it also makes for sweeter reminiscence.
and through rememberance, we feel the emotions again.
we feel the warmth of friendship flowing through our veins

and saigang creates painful memories, arduous hardships, and a multitide of difficulties.
that's why it is the recipe of friendship.

nice. i like. but i rushed it. maybe i'll perfect it one day when i get the time. which i think probably means never. x_X

OH YES. LISTEN TO DO YOU KNOW (THE PING PONG SONG) by ENRIQUE IGLESIAS! thx nigel for this imba song!

hahahahahaha ok tmr's another fun day.

4C! the Crazy and the Cool. =D

haha it was seriously a rawker gathering! one of the best outings i've had this year!
we did lots and lots of stuff haha and if i were to list out everything, it would have been too long a post xD so i'd just talk about the highlights!

1. bb ownage
haha unfortunately it didn't mean buckle-buckley ownage. bb = basketball! haha we played noobishly but everyone enjoyed it. yes! i can talk about my 'on-fire' status that occurred during mid-game. haha aiya nothing much actually. just scored lots of 3-pointers xD ok ok no more ego. after the game went to buy drinks. eng how got super excited when he saw a chio bu. he maintained that the image was etched into his mind. lol nice -.-

2. bbq!
yes! i love mushmellows! haha er but actually we didn't bbq them. we ate them later on. >< had a great time playing with starting the fire! then we reminisced a little on our previous gathering after graduation where we bbqed too. haha oh yea our class chalet got bbq also. nice. every time also bbq. maybe it can serve as our trademark activity. xD

3. convos +++
can't believe guys can talk so much. haha there was simply too much to catch up with! from comparing ri classes with rj classes to *ahems* to cca to school life to etc... nice. then there were the random impromptu philo conversations and debates that we had. lol seriously seriously fascinating, funny and fantastic. (nice. 3-word-combos. i like.)

and we like talked through the night? ahaha can't believe it. it was like 'ok guys it's 3'. then 'it's four no need sleep hardcore through the nite!'. then 'five le. dun sleep continue talking!'. haha we were crazy i guess. only slept <2 hours. then we woke up and watched final destination 3. shit now i hear the lyrics and music 'there is somebody watching over you...' i become humji already =.=

4. winning eleven round-robin!
ahhhh! haha i lost =( lol marcus won! it was super crazy. lasted for a few hours. kk decided not to talk about the game. to those who didn't play, it would definitely appear boring. xD but there was a cool photo i took! nice timing man! managed to take a photo of a goal-in-action. =D

5. PHOTOS!
i'm feeling tired and lazy now so no more writing! time for picture expression!

haha the pro shot! er, no puns intended.

leon thye entranced with the game.

nice green socks! =)

whoosh! cool fire. =)

farish and lucas playing a duet. i think.

lucas performing solo on the organ! nice.

on birthdays and shopping lessons

sruthi's bdae was today! haha lots of ppl met up to give her the most memorable bdae ever! from 27ths - sabby, giraffe, anna, shihua, junwei, yewei and i! from 26ths - david, jonny, gayle, jason and shawn! haha yup met at tanah merah mrt station - two stops away! lol but erm... i was late 'cos i left my wallet behind.. like seriously! but they dun seem to believe me =(

went to sruthi's house. she lives in some cool condo called the summit, and she lives in the block mt everest! how cool is that? haha we even took some photos of that.

someone cut the cake. haha pro. XD

after celebrations, we went to parkway parade to have lunch. lunch was quite interesting. jason and gayle took turns asking me some intelligent questions. haha really quite interesting.

gayle's question
you have two ropes of uneven thickness, and both of them will take 1h to burn. how do you measure 45 mins with the ropes?

jason's question
there are 3 switches in the first room. directly underneath is a second room with 3 light bulbs. all 3 light bulbs are working. how do you find out which switch corresponds with which light bulb given only 1 chance to move from 1 room to the other?

haha, cool right? the answers are really quite logical once you know what they are. after lunch, shihua, sabby, giraffe and i went shopping. mmm they gave me 'shopping lessons'. lol. so just walked around commenting on strange stuff and trying on strange stuff xD along the way we talked about super random stuff... like harry potter pairings? haha i disagree with sabby's fav pairing - snape/hermione! i find it so wrong please! then we concurred that in terms of looks, draco/hermione pairing actually not bad. lol aiya lots of nonsense actually.

after a while, shihua has to leave, so we accompanied her to the bus stop and back. then went mph for sabby to look for her frank lampard >< in the end can't find haha! shows how popular frank is =P realised got some random books around that are quite funny. and got some coolio psychology books too. nice. those books use chim terms to describe simple stuff. can't remember what the line was already. just found it quite amusing and lame xD

dinner. pastamanaia. haha i got scammed!!!! argh, cappuccino was like super foamy and super expensive x.X and doesn't really taste nice =X we spent a while there and played hangman. er, and i sort of got owned =( lesson of the day - shorter words are harder to guess!

k. tomorrow got meeting again. wa, cannot rest properly. =( oh well, maybe it's time i bring some work to mug. else i'll feel super guilty =X

gp! and lots of fun

haha, today's been funnnnnn! lol, gp was hilarious with siti and zijian revealing their 'sick' side xD pe rox! since our pe slot sort of got shelved off or something, we ended up playing handball as a class.. and lijian was imba with his height advantage! haha, top scorer of the game too! then stayed back with dex and jean to laze around and to attempt some of the maths tutorial before meeting with xj and brian to have dinner. got to know shihao who somehow ended up with us too!

lol.. and at night, mel had formed her team with others, so she gave me the email add of anna. talking to girl whom u haven't met before online is sort of awkward at first.. yea, then we talked a bit and exchanged some info.. and tata! the 'SAND' campaign group has been formed! haha, sand's just the initials of our names.. not the real name >< yup, will get to know them better tmr.. and i can't wait for the campaign details to be released! haha, the campaign's gonna be lotssss of funnnnnnnnnn!

kk, gotta rush lots of work today! can't post much... but before i go, here's a tidbit on 'woman - a chemical analysis'.. the reading we were given during gp!

WOMAN - A CHEMICAL ANALYSIS

Element - Woman
Symbol - Wo
Discover - Adam
Atomic Mass - Accepted at 53.6kg, but known to vary from 40-200kg
Occurrences - Copious quantities throughout the world, but found to be concentrated in urban areas.

Physical Properties
1. Surface usually covered in painted film.
2. Boils at nothing; freezes without known reason.
3. Melts if given special treatment.
4. Bitter if incorrectly used.
5. Found in various states from virgin metal to common ore.
6. Yields if pressure applied in correct places.

Chemical Properties
1. Has great affinity for gold, silver and a range of precious stones.
2. Absorbs great quantities of expensive substances.
3. May explode spontaneously without prior warning and for no known reason.
4. Insoluble in liquids, but activity increases greatly by saturation in alcohol.
5. Most powerful money reducing agent known to man.

Common Uses
1. Highly ornamental, especially in sports cars.
2. Can be a great aid to relaxation.
3. Very effective cleaning agent.

Tests
1. Pure specimen turns rosy pink when discovered in the natural state.
2. Turns green when placed beside a better specimen.

Hazards
1. Highly dangerous except in experienced hands.
2. Illegal to possess more than one, although several can be maintained at different locations as long as specimens do not come into direct contact with each other.
3. Should you experience itching, burning or rash, discontinue use immediately and seek medical treatment.

enjoy!

p.s. oh yea.. received a belated gift from ame elita and mel! thanks! aha

a day of fun... and horror

woke up at 7am. went to tanah merah mrt station. met up with odac associate dudes. took taxi to moe changi coast adventure centre. taxi driver dunno the place. drove us to the sailing centre or something. we walked all the way to our destination. lol, nice morning exercise.

alright, we had kayaking next. pretty dull in the morning. just played around the demarcated area. had our lunch.. and in the afternoon, it's expedition! got more fun as we started talking to one another more.. and exchanging lame jokes x.X lol.. here are some classic ones -

do you know the butter joke?
DON'T SPREAD IT! hahaha.

do you know the suspense joke?
i'll tell you later. =P

aha, and there's more but i'm too tired to list them out. anyway, on the trip there, i was the port marker.. so didn't have much opportunity to crap around. it's borrrrring to solo. however, on the way back, i got to switch positions with someone else, so i started mingling around more. that's when the lame jokes thingy started. got to know rachael, shiya and siti more during the trip. with siti, we traded stories of our past ccas - odac and scouts. lol, rg odac girls are really good... the 4 of them who went today - olivia, rachael, shiya and siti - are all at least 2 stars kayakers :O and their stamina is pro! with the rest, it sort of became a trading centre for lame jokes =X lol.

k, then the whole thing ended at arnd 5.. but we had to walk all the way to the nearest bus stop, which was at least 2km away i think. took bus 36 and reached town only 30 mins late for og dinner =D

lol, dinner was ok.. except for the cost >.< haha, 20+ bucks for a buffet at seoul gardens is pretty crazy i guess. but it's ok.. once in a while rite? chatted about random stuff and celebrated julian's belated bdae. took some photos of brian and jean laming about.. so it's time for storytelling!

1. jean was laughing at some random stuff (as usual =P) and had hung her arm over brian. brian looked at jean with a scheming glint in his eyes.

2. he wanted to feel how it's like to compress someone's face. so he decided to make jean the test subject. x.X

3. i think i heard him say, "it's a funny feeling." lol, but when he saw everyone looking at him and his random experiment, he immediately turned sheepish. haha! jean simply continued smiling.

end of story! after that, we met mel and 3 guys eating together. whoa, scandalous ya? haha, nah. one's her fren. the other's her twin. and the last one's her long-lost cousin. or so she claims. o.0

most of the og had to return home.. curfew! leaving brian, jean and i. feeling adventurous, we decided to watch a HORROR MOVIE! lol, so we chose 'the messenger'. k la, it isn't the scariest movie i've watched before, and the plot's sort of cliché.. but it was fun. haha, spent most of the time talking crap to brian.. and he swore he will never watch a scary movie with me again, 'cause i made them funny instead of scary. k, i think i'll take that as a compliment ;)

lol, came out of the movie wondering why i paid $7.50 to scare myself. oh well, humans are weird creatures. k, went home at midnight and took a bathe. realised that i have a SUPER DISTINCTIVE TAN LINE! it's literally a line! oh man... gg. and i'm super burnt now. yea, next time you're feeling hot or something when you're around me, feel free to blame it on me =P aha, just kidding!

k, i'm burnt and exhausted from a full day of activities. can't really think straight now. cyaaaaaa!

IT'S UP!

aha! after spending so much hard work, the blog is finally up! lol, first of all, i would like to thank Jeffrey Zeldman whose blog design formed the inspiration for mine!

with that, it's time to start possssssssssting! and let us now take a look back at O2!

still remember the photo scenario 'asymptote'? yup, that's our photo of it!

look! it's a bird! no, it's a plane! nah, it's...

really nothing... x.X

well.. this photo is supposed to be part of the scenario 'random'.. and we decided to meditate on the ground... yea, and we were supposed to look serious and stuff.. but somehow, jean just kept on bursting out in laughter >.< lol, and of course, she got caught on candid camera in the end and everyone had a great laugh over it. next time jean, you might want to learn the 'dao' look from me ;)

acting cute! lol, for the scenario 'camwhore', we've decided to do that 1-10 series of acting cute thingy. yea, aren't we all cute? (cute = ugly but adorable? o.0)

LAST BUT NOT LEAST, we have the posing scenario for guys! lol, feng shuo isn't actually part of l'egolas, but he had decided to join us that day, so that's why he's in the photo.

kk, i think that's enough photos and talk for now... so here goes my FIRST POST!