Born in the wrong era? No. There is no wrong era.

i had mee rebus today: 1 egg.
yesterday no fear: 0 eggs.
friday....ahem: 8 eggs. (9 if you count those bits from big ben's mash potato)
thursday yu tang: 1 egg
that makes 10 eggs in 4 days...or 8 in 1 if i wanna sound extreme.
but wun die la. ba?
i still young...ba?
hoho, i'm doomed

it's very easy to get disappointed.
u expect something, and it doesn't turn out like you expect(usually worse), that's when you get disappointed.
in the english language we have come to use the word 'hope' like we use the word 'wish'. maybe that's the correct way of using it. i'm not sure. i haven't checked the dictionary yet. maybe i'll check it out sometime.
as i was saying, we use the word 'hope' when we want one of the possible outcomes of something to occur, the ones that we like anyway. "i hope that i can enter university", or "i hope he comes back safely", or "i hope i can get that toy".
there's really no assurance in those "hopes". nothing real concrete at least.
that's why in shawshank red says that "Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane." that's quite possibly true when hope has no assurance.
when "hoped" to the extreme, and let down...to the extreme. i wouldn't be surprised if it drove a person insane.
andy held on to "hope" as a motivation to live through prison life. the possiblity that he could get out and live a normal life; that was enough to keep him going. while i don't deny that hope is a good thing, you'd better be sure about what you're hoping in. for andy's case...it was more like a wish that came true.
real hope is better than that.
thinking back, i still don't know if he had any assurance about his escaping the prison. was it his intelligence that gave him his confidence? or his attitude towards life that helped him to try and remain normal and dignified even in a prison? i'm not sure how. whatever it is, i will agree that it was his "hope" that enabled him to wear his "coat".
Christ's hope is as sure a hope as it gets. what He's promised, that's what we know will come to pass, and that is the christian's hope.
talking about disappointments then, we get let down when we hope in the wrong things and we realise that things don't turn out as we WISHED they would.
what this meanst then, is that we need to learn to have realistic "wishes". "expectations" is a better word here.
when our minds start to wander, and we start wishing for things that'd be far better than what they'd ever be...we're bound to get disappointed(and yet we still wish..).
sometimes, i think it's better to slap ourselves back into reality(tho reality may sometimes surprise us) and not expect the best. that way...when something better(and more likely than what WE would have imagined) happens...we're more inclined to give thanks.
of course, we can also be entirely mature and childish about things. this is the best...in my opinion. we can childishly wish for the best in everything and maturely still be grateful in all things.
even if what we wish for never happens, we still trust in Him who rules. and then there are those instances when what we wish for actually happen, then we grin from ear to ear and remember the one who made it come to pass.
right now, i'm learning to wish for the best, while expecting the worse, and yet still give thanks, come what may.

just like that.
poof. gone. no more.
haha. silly me.
so much for thinking.
heh.
but nevermind.
it's fine like this too.

it's been so long liao.
learnt the infinity way back in sec 3 or sec 4.
ronny could do before me.
then one skool event at the national stadium, i told him to just keep doing and i'd watch him. so he did. and i did. and by the end of the day i could do liao.
eventually i got better at it than him.
then, by fluke, one day i had it go down all the way to my pinky and contorting my hand a bit, managed to bring it back up.
hehe. level up! and i was the only one who could do it!
start teaching others loh...whoever wanted to learn i just teach. some didn't go too far tho. practised more of it myself too.
after so many years...i'm getting better. but still far far far away from being even "proficient" in the art. still. i've got until the day i die to work at it..
:)
so no worries man.
and who'd have guessed that it'd be in that most familiar of places that you'd find what was needed to make sense out of everything?

wah....
today super sian.

go to skool all the lesson all ultra demoralising.
lit lecture...very dry.
phys lecture...dunno how to do.
chem lecture...very slow.
gp...must write essay. and i got writer's block.
math...complete disaster(not surprised tho). should've just left skool one period earlier.

confirm. chop. guarantee. failure is the only option.
i'm gonna hit an all time low i reckon. i doubt if anybody in class will do worse than me. i doubt if anybody in the COHORT will do worse than me.
after the test i swung to my mental state of
"i shouldn't be here...i should be out in the fields...tilling the land and growing rice...ahhhh take me away...."

then in the morning had to go skool 1 hour earlier for make-up chem test. not very steady. a pass is not certain. chee choy bugged me about my badge(or lack thereof rather) also.
in addition to these skool woes is my sexy voice(buggy throat included) and ulcer(s)...i think it's at least a double or triple combo.
chi.

SHIKAAAASHI!!!

it didn't turn out as bad as it felt!
calvin and hobbes during the first break was a knock out. so funny! thanks to ah pui who brought the comics.
could've at least secured a mark or two for my math if i spent my time more productively tho(crash coursing hypo testing and corelation maybe?)...
but aiyah. i needed the laughs la. made me smile.

then! after skool!
at this time was dealt a blow from math and the day in general.
debated whether i should head home first before going eh.
got off at simei...but turned back and boarded the next train down to aljunied.
hehe.
dirty yu tang was closed...wanted the clear soup for my throat.
bo pian loh...off to yu tang!
ah...nothing like a nice bowl of curry maggi mee and a can kickapoo to wash it down with!
and that coupled with pleasant company made the meal all the more enjoyable.
the conversation was funny. heh.
fish soup makes me happy!

it just took some comics and noodles to make me a happier man.
i'm such a simpleton. lidat better ba.
i wanna watch the simpsons. but ah pui ask me if want to watch harry potty.
haiiii. how?

been sneezing more the past few days, but dad says i'm not sick cos i'm making far too much noise to be sick.
chi.
nevermind...i'm slowly beginning to bear with school...yesyes, bordering on a "like" for school. maybe it's cos it's gonna end soon.
30th july...esther's coming to have a chat with out class during gp that day.
no tutor no nothing.
just esther and us..hope she dun pick on me.
maybe i can fall ill on that day. must wear collar pin also...sian.
my hair's getting long too....should get it cut. just a question of who cuts it...

tuesday is possibly the most taxing day of the week
we got double gp, double chem tutorial one period after chem lecture, and back to back maths slots.
but amazingly, today i managed to follow all the lessons!
knew exactly what was being taught, knew where i went wrong in tutorial, knew what the lecturer was talking about in lecture.
SUGOI!
the feeling of knowing what's happening is cool. one of the rare times i've experienced this in my jc life.
i daresay i almost enjoyed skool...of course i still couldn't wait to go home la...still counted the minutes til my emancipation...
the best thing that happened tho, was that 35 minutes before the final bell, sung said he'd covered all that he wanted to cover..."so now how?"
a resounding "...GOOOOO HOOOOOOMMMMEEE~~~" from the entire class
"ok. go home loh"
WAH! that rocked! so happy! not lost in lessons, no scolding from teachers, no stress from undone assignments, THEN CAN GO HOME EARLY SOMEMORE...too good to be true.
the day was taxing nonetheless, went to library for nappy time during second break.
silly ah pui whole life kick my leg....i tell him wake me up when librarian come, he woke me up whenever ANYBODY came.
i even dreamt up 3 completely different dreams! and each dream quite nice one(forgot what they were about tho)...but each time i got yanked out of lala land thanks to my ever alert(and also ever clumsy) friend. good rest tho.
wonder tomorrow will be like how..
3 more days to the weekend!

:)
i got 3 bags of sng buey from bai nian lao dian!
thank you very miuch wei lao shi!
now...if only i could keep my brother away from them..
i'm hungry now. i'd best go to bed.

i bought a copy of naruto recently.
took it out to read on the bus.
sat beside a primary school kid.
in front of us sat another primary school kid.
i think they saw what i was reading.
noticed that one of them took notice.
he started a conversation with his pal, the guy on my right did.
was ok...at first

"you watch anime?"
"yea...i watch goondam and..."

okok. so they're just talking about anime. nothing to worry abt. i'll try not to eaves drop.

"i like prince of tennis and did you watch bleach and..."
"oh ya. that used to be on tv right? and..."

okok. so you've seen some things that i've seen before.
still just talking about what you've seen? that's fine dude, just dun bug me. come on, block them out you silly boy.

"ya and one piece very nice. have you seen the latest?"
"oh ya...and also.."

wow. you like one piece. that's great kid. and you've seen the movies too? awesome. lemme read my comic in peace please..

"oh. and how about NARUTO? did you watch that...? read the manga...?"

ok kid. you'd best stop there. you're entering a sensitive area here. please do NOT spoil in my presence.

"yup. wah the recent one..."

DEEDOODEEDOODEEDOODEEDOODEEDOODEEDOODEEDOODEEDOODEEDOODEEDOODEEDOODEEDOO
*CODE RED! CODE RED! SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT!*
**EMPLOY EVASIVE MANOEUVRES IMMEDIATELY!!!**

oh no. in public. alone. we have a situation.
can't put my fingers in my ears and start going "lalala..." like i usually do.
come on, think. QUICK.
reach into my front compartment. whip out the pod, plug my ears, start playing, volume UPPP.

"...orochimaru using 1/3 of kabuto's body because..."

ahh drats. too slow.

"BEHIND THESE HAZEL EYESSSSS!!"

but alas not too late!

all i heard after that was my music and a slur of their conversation.
ok, situation stabilised. now for more permanent measures.
i look around. there it was...salvation.
"AN EMPTY SEAT!!"
made my move. heard nothing else of what they said. read in peace.
good bye pesky spoiler brats. hello happiness.

i saw one of the boys alight. stared hard at him.
eeeevil fella.

wah. nowadays, no where is safe anymore. on the bus some primary skool brat can just spoil for you there and then you know!?
just now on the train also. one of the north guys to andrew.
"huh, you read the manga?"
"ya"
"oh, hey the last one..."

DEEDOODEEDOODEEDOODEEDOODEEDOODEEDOODEEDOODEEDOODEEDOODEEDOODEEDOODEEDOO
*CODE RED! CODE RED! SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT!*
**EMPLOY EVASIVE MANOUVRES IMMEDIATELY!!!**

din know what they were talking about exactly, but andrew read most likely is i know and don't want to know one.
*plugged my ears, "lalalalalalalala..."*

got out and walked far away to mr ong, my spoiler-free sanctuary....
heh. testing my system sia.
make me panic only.
chi.
AWAY WITH THEE SPOILER FIENDS!!

:D
TODAY!
IT'S WONDERFUL WEATHER!
THE AFTER-RAIN-BUT-DRY-LIAO-AND-GOING-TO-RAIN-BUT-NOT-YET KIND OF DAY!
i could have done with a little bit less clouds, or at least a little more blue sky, but this is fine too if it meant a little less sun as a result.
THE WINDS WERE BLOWING STRONG TONIGHT. I THINK IT'S GOING TO RAIN.
sat at the porch just now reading comics and drinking apple juice from my tea cup with ice after dinner. the breeze was sugoi.
i hope it rainssssss.
mondays. after some crazy guy go and make my day longer, he at least had the sense to take away all tutorial lessons(the not so wonderful ones at least) on mondays.
mondays put simply: senang. woohoo.

word has reached my ear that WEI LAO SHI IS BACK!
but for some reason or another, the ball didn't go to tuition today, so that means no sng buey for me...yet
i can wait until next monday when he goes tuition, or i could cycle down and get it...like tomorrow or something.
tomorrow cannot lah, will be at eh until late late.
like no days lidat. ok maybe thursday i go....but maybe very rush.
i don't like rush.
haha...maybe sat? will it be rush...
sunday la.
might as well save the effort and ask the ball to get it in monday.
so next monday it is then. or maybe not.

entering back into proper school life with lectures and all (still part of my break from the holidays),
a couple of things have happened.

the studyroom is now a warzone. or a post-war zone. complete with guns and swords.
(there's a rifle on my bed now in fact)
that war is the Battle of The June Common Tests. out of which i am certain i will not come unscathed.
i seriously need to clean this up...which i will...eventually.

there's also...a SAKAE SUSHI in my canteen!
they apparently revamped the canteen a bit. the most obvious addition is the sakae sushi.
which is fabulous.
not that i will buy anything from there, ever.
more business for them means less business for the other vendors which ultimately means...SHORTER QUEUES!
this rocks.

now p.e. also free period liao. yay. this means soccer or nothing.
today we played soccer! and i was late for lit. but nvm la, din miss much.
when asked to brain storm the "portrayal of men in p&p" for class group work,
i was the scribe and managed to draw an artist's impression of darcy while waiting for points to scribble. i honestly think it's quite good, though nobody else would agree with me...

and finally, yesterday i was woodsman teh again! i felt like i was frankie!
we had to chop down some branches from the tree at the back. which meant climbing and hacking! occasionally i sawed too. so fun! just take the chopper and massacre the branches. then when a huge one falls, you shout "TIMBER!". hurhurhur, so satisfying. and the tree can take both my weight and my dad's combined. it can prolly een take more than that. amazing. strong, yet flexible.
God, the incomparable engineer.
now my right wrist hurts tho, i may have strained it yesterday from the merciless hacking. but that's ok, it'll heal eventually. though slightly sooner than the study being cleand i hope.

while the animation doesn't do the manga justice(it's not exactly terrible...but the comic is tonnes better), still, watching one piece on youtube MAKES ME WANNA BE A PIRATE!
today med check up got one question in the preferences bit about whether travelling on sea in a small marine vehicle appealed to us.
immediately i thought about being a pirate. i then smiled and chose that option.
WAAAAAAHHHH. so cool to go mao xian!
or to brave the seas and come close to death in battle!
i'm thinking too far, i know. i don't care.
now i feel like pretending to be a pirate in the wave pool at jurong east(it's been years since i last went i think...), that was fun the last time.
anyhow, i think even if i do get to fight in battle...i won't last very long :(
today's check up showed me that...sian.
but who cares?
weak then train and grow stronger la!
i not scared.

went for med check up.
i'm Pes D.
lol.

ooooooooooh snapple!
faaaaabulous snapple!
subarashiiiii snapple!
snaaaaaapply snapple!

simply mmmmmmmmmmmm.

everything about it is sui loh.

the bottle is made of GLASS. that speaks only one thing man....CLASS!
(and it rhymes too)

the design of the label is fresh! and the colours are vibrant! just makes you wanna drink it. or if not, just makes you wanna look at it.

just look at the logo...if that's the logo...
"snapple". the words in blue in that retro-beach-ish font. against a white background that overlaps a red inner border. elegant and classic.

and then there're the cool flavours! LIME GREEN TEA! STRAWBERRY KIWI! MANGO MADNESS! SNAPPLE APPLE! AND MANY MORE!

then you tell me.
which other drink has FUN FACTS!?!?
I HAVE LEARNT SO MUCH FROM THEIR FUN FACTS!!!
collectively, these "real facts" are proabably more important to know than heisenberg's uncertainty principle and the schrodinger equation combined!
like this: "manhattan is the only borough in new york city that doesn't have a main street."
HEY! it's knowledge like this that brings you through life!

and the last thing that i will mention tonight(there's obviously so much more to speak about this wonderful drink....but alas! i am nonetheless still a being bound by the limits of time)
it jolly has a SAFETY BUTTON that POPS UP when you OPEN IT!
HOW COOL IS THAT?! and you can keep popping it after it's open!
sure, skill is needed to make it loud of course, but really...you gotta give it to them man.
THAT IS AWESOME.

right.
i think it's about time i went to bed.

physics was wonderful! whata way to end off the exams!
there were so many "qualitative"! and "explain"! and "define"! and basically wordy questions! with no numbers! that's the best part!
ernest's 1st law of exams
more word questions = more words = more smoke = more marks = more pass!
then i had a nice(this adjective is redundant) nap in the afternoon!
dinner was kallang western barbeque! mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!
i actually wanted to eat yesterday. cos we had it on sunday and it was mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!
but yesterday i eat mutton soup liao and nobody wanted to share a chicken cutlet with me. cos they all "full" lliao. :(
today i had the lamb chop cos sunday tried the chicken cutlet and chicken chop liao. conclusion: chicken cutlet nicer than lamb chop.
ms lee had chicken wings! gave me some. ^.^ quite wu hua, but i like still like chicken cutlet more.
dong shared with me some of his suan pan zi(first time i try. first time i heard also. okok la...)
then after that eat chee kueh! best. and we shared one big cup of long an...
ahhhhhhhhh. i am a happy man. if only to top it all off....
oh well.
then. they went to talk about anime and manga...sian.
eviiiiiiiiiiiiiil.
means i had to go and do my *plug ears with fingers and "lalalalalalalalalalala"* thing. not bad la. i managed to catch almost nothing of what they said.
haha.
YOU SHALL NOT SPOIL FOR ME!
even if it means i go army then read.
even if it means i buy for my son then read.
even if it means i buy for my grandson then read.
even if it means my great grandson share with me on my death bed then read....
I WILL STILL WAIT.
for how long. if i am not dead and they are not gone.
kitto.
hoiyak!

chee cheong fan and har gao for branch.
rain in the afternoon.
physics for a couple of hours.
moon shining bright at night.
one hour of happy bouldering.
mutton soup and lime juice for dinner.
last paper in eight hours time.
snapple in the fridge.
i smile.

everybody's in a rush. finish this, go here. finish that, go there.

"don't get in my way or i'll glare a glare that condemns you to hell even if you did just waste only 2 seconds of my life"
what's with the rush? it's not like you're actually going anywhere anyway.
alot of us are prolly just running very quickly around in circles with no real destination in mind.

we may or may not realise it. but either way, we'd prolly still be too caught up in the circle thing to bother. and thinking takes up too much time too. time that we'd rather spend doing pointless stuff. or maybe, we could in fact be doing all those pointless stuff just to forget that we don't know where we're going.

now, in all honesty, do we matter that much?

we think the world of the things that occupy us, but really, do they actually make that big a difference to our existence?
something may so overwhelm me now, but in a few months time i could prolly just look back and laugh at the sheer triviality of it all. life isn't easy. and many say that it isn't even fair. that's their opinion.

i think when the curse of sin died with Christ, the peace that we can have as a result will surpass everything else liao. our biggest boo-boo is solved. all other problems are nothing in comparison.

whatever it is, i think it's a lot more simpler than what many of us make it out to be. and it doesn't need to be so rushed also.
i would like to smell the flowers without being pushed, thank you very much.

the other thing about rushing...uhh society rushing..is the noise.
alot of people = alot of noise. whether it's shopping centres blasting music. or shops trying to get your attention, or just people talking, add them all together and it just gets very noisy. too much of it gets on my nerves. please.
it would be wonderful if we could all just keep quiet for two minutes. heck, one minute also can.

haii. now that i think about it, technology makes life more complicated also. ironic hor?

handphones got so many buttons that you don't really need and prolly never use. even if they don't have the buttons, they have the functions...that you don't really need and prolly never use. use tv also so complicated. aiyah what digital cable la. so many functions and so many buttons, fries my brain cells. do medical checkup online must do this and do that and print this and that. do a silly maths paper now need some gameboy advance advance advance that costs 175 bucks and that has more buttons than my previous calculator which prolly already has more buttons than all my previous consoles added together. not to mention now consoles also getting more complicated.

last time, mega drive: put in catridge, press "power", play.

then, playstation: press the big open button, put in cd, close the lid, press the green button, play.

then, playstation 2: on the power at the back, press the reset button, press the open/close button, put in dvd, press the open/close button, play.

now, all the consoles look so complicated...what with your blu-ray and hdtv and wireless systems and online play and media centre and what nots. the wii looks the simplest of them all...and it looks like it's gonna become the most successful too.

heh, i wonder if we'll all die without electricity too...

i don't know when i started to learn to drink water.
uh. that sounds weird.
as in i don't remember ever liking water. always drink ribena one.
but over time learn to drink water(must be those times when we ran out of ribena....and everything else sugared)
here's a list of water in order of preference

1. tapsi
2. water cooler water
3. western restaurant iced water
4. chinese restaurant warm water
5. chinese restaurant iced water
6. bottled mineral water
7. fridge cold water
8. swimming pool water
9. bottled new water water
10. seawater