Dark Garden

Thursday, April 24, 2008

After my brief hiatus from blogging, I now have a really vague impression of what I wanted to blog about for the past few days, including today. Note I used the word "hiatus". In the recent past as avid readers of the blog such as xue wei would know, 6 days isn't exactly a hiatus when I blogged every 8-10 days or sometimes worse. So let's see what's there to blog about.

Theron firstly, seems so isolated nowadays. He isn't sticking to Chen Yang that much, nor anyone for that matter. He's just sitting in one corner and appears to possess what most would call an "attitude problem". I don't know what's wrong with him but he's just so much gloomier. And so the atmosphere hasn't been as light with his perverted yet illuminating statements. Of course, Leonard's been really nice. So is Kevin, Darren and the other guys in class. But it's just not the same is it? I don't know what happened and I really hope I didn't cause it by insulting him in front of others. So now...I just keep a safe distance from him, just in case...

On the bright side, Gift was really fantastic last Saturday. I've never been so myself and carefree for weeks. The children were great! And although we didn't have small book sessions with the kids, Sisi and I were doing the big book entitled "Moo". It was rather anticlimax though haha since me and Sisi were trying to read the story with jovial voices. And yet the other "junior" volunteers were so unanimated...Sisi and I were reading while the 4 ahem, boy volunteers were supposed to act so that it would be both a visual and auditory feast for the kids but...I was going on about the cow mooing and the volunteer supposed to be the cow...Just stood there. Sisi and I practically screamed at him to get down on fours and moo...Haha amusing as it was, the new volunteers have really got to be more spontaneous. Then there was this singing competition which soon turned into a shouting contest. In my opinion, of course my group was the loudest, but not exactly the most melodious...But in the end, Sisi, being the considerate judge she is, announced that it was a tie! Among all groups that participated...So that everyone could get a prize! Debrief was pretty fun too as I was using the Ms Sunita style which was a little insensitive considering I was putting emphasis on certain words but nevertheless amusing. It was the gift session where I sustained most injuries thanks to Sisi who kept hitting me. Mostly due to my stealing of her M&Ms and comments about her haha. Really refreshing. Gift of reading forever!

Next highlight of the week would be the discussion forum with Prince Albert, His Serene Highness, of Monaco. Yea, I attended that on Tuesday and missed practically every lesson except English. The only good thing about missing lessons was that I missed the Econs mock test too which I didn't study for. Other than that, it was such a loss missing Math. Anyway, getting back to the forum. It was incredibly comprehensive. Hwa Chong, Raffles and NUS High were the three schools amongst all the "distinguished guests" as stated. And wow, all three schools participated most actively! Each asked hmm...One question? And frankly, not that I'm biased but Hwa Chong's question actually made the most sense. It was by a Sec 4; "Is sustainable development attainable in your opinion your highness?" A thought-provoking question, which the Prince totally avoided using the Mr. Hon way. Slowly deviating...Emphasising the URGENCY to take action. Gaia, I must have heard the word urgency at least 10 times...Then at the end he was talking about how advanced energy-saving technology is these days. I take it that he believes sustainable development's possible then. And RI was asking how would the government in Monaco show that it actually cares for the environment if there're events Monaco's famous for such as the F1 grand prix. And the Prince, well as usual, didn't answer it. He went on about saying that energy-efficient engines are now used in F1 races, which has nothing to do with the government...Last school but not least, NUS High. Miniscule boy who looked barely 12 (faking an american accent) - "YOUR SERENE HIGHNESS, what do you think are the ways we can ERADICATE global warming?" At this point I snorted and said to Yi Jing beside me, "It's not possible." And the Prince? - "Got a couple of hours?" And of course, everyone laughed. (Well I don't think you'd like to be beheaded would you? So laugh!) Digressed again of course. More URGENCY! "This stresses the URGENCY to blah blah..." Goodness...Well basically to quote Leonard, "the timeframe of the talk was 1 hour 45 minutes, 45 minutes to talk, 1 hour for the food." Apparently, the Prince of Monaco according to the palace's orders, was not to say for more than 1 hour at the Science Centre. Hence 45 minutes, in fact 30 minutes since we spent 15 minutes waiting for his arrival, was all he could spare. Oh well, at least Science Centre caters good food. Like really really good food. Well with a Prince around...But still, prawns, some mushroom canapes, aubergine lasagne, sausages which according to Leonard taste Mediterranean, this incredible bread with capsicum, fruit salad, more fruits and mexican drumsticks. Not to mention that the fruit punch was actually served in wine glasses. Coffee or tea was available as well. Sadly though, the Prince wasn't there to "mingle with the crowd". So Leonard, Kevin and I were eating whilst discussing about Jordan and other potential or already existing disruptions in class. We took second helpings and then went to "mingle" with...Miss Chua. And so I asked her, "What do you think of Jordan?" And she stared at me and smiled. Leonard was like stunned by me asking that question and then Miss Chua asked me why I suddenly posed such a question. So I replied, "Oh apparently, Miss Sunita said she had heard many things about Jordan...Not in the positive sense." Miss Chua's eyes widened and so did her smile before she said, "He's a very inquisitive boy. He's just a little impulsive. He just needs to learn to wait before asking questions but other than that he's actually a good-natured boy." Leonard, Kevin and me burst out laughing at this point and Miss Chua looked at us with a perplexed expression. So I told her, "That's the first compliment Jordan has ever received from a teacher this year." And Miss Chua gave us the surprised look again. We can infer from this that Miss Chua's too nice a teacher. As for Jordan...Too nice a student? For more information on him, you can ask Ms Sunita.

Edit on 25/4

The BSC people have returned! And guess what? They look like zombies! Well, they still resemble humans actually, save for the eerily pale complexion. According to weize, that's the result of the cloudy *cough*polluted*cough* skies. Sigh...Now that China's carbon dioxide emissions have surpassed that of the United States...You wouldn't want to think of what would happen to our planet. Moving on to the highlight of the week - English Presentation. Grrr, it was partly a disaster. Daniel said, "Let's hope there's nothing else not to like in your presentation." Well so Mr. Siew is very partial and indiscriminating, not quite the case when he makes those comments about Zi Jian. What happened? Well our presentation was on a rhetorical scheme - Anaphora. One of the strongest tools in persuasive speeches apparently. So we had a slide on Jordan, that employed Anaphora. It was like "A boy who's inquisitive, a boy who's impulsive, a boy who's good-natured, a boy who allows the lesson to flow smoothly and above all a boy who does not childishly mock others." And Mr. Siew gave that enigmatic look and said flatly, "I don't like this." Urgh. Well now I know Mr. Siew isn't one to tolerate personal attacks even if they're on undesirables. If only it was Mrs Jaya or Ms Sunita. Miss Quah for one I know will be chuckling so much just like she did when I hinted at landing Josh in the hospital in my essay last year. Thankfully, we (Kevin, Darren, Yan Yu, Me) salvaged our presentation with a light-hearted "Touch My Body" song which to my amusement, amused the class to such a raucous extent. Most of the cacophony attributing to Mariah though. Then we went on with sound clips (Which some group, I won't say which, used our idea AFTER us as well...Coincidence?) and then on to my MadTv video on a parody of Obama's speech, ending off with the actual Obama speech. Overall, rather successful I would say though I had to skip the Mr. Hon anaphora allusion with two quick taps of the spacebar in case Daniel murdered us. That marks the second hilarious English presentation of the year by the 4 of us!

28/4

I do not and will not care about the honoured guests who have just joined us. Flaming is pretty normal. And since I do it too (In a more refined manner of course), why should I deny them the privilege of doing so? Enough about our new friends, moving on.

Xue Wei had a fever last Saturday and couldn't go for Vovinam and this Saturday, I had a fever instead. Bah, and I skipped French today due to Project Utopia and Econs test tomorrow. Two Vovinam lessons missed...As for today's Physics test...I'm already doomed anyway as Yan Yu and I have carefully observed the ill-omens before the test, such as the unnaturally oppressive thermal energy transferred to us through infra-red radiation of the Sun and me spilling water on my worksheets like an idiot during Chinese. The only thing that went well though was the Chinese test results. Then again, 1 mark away from A1 isn't exactly a good thing...Curses, curses! The worst thing was the ICAS Competition. I didn't complete like 7 questions and ended up shading random answers in 20 seconds.

School life's a mess! Biology practical not handed in. Miss Chua saved me by announcing that the Thermal properties worksheet need not be handed in. Econs test tomorrow. And a 1/3 done Project Utopia. But hey, we'll blast all other Utopia's out of existence(Pun unintended). We rule!

Dark Memories[8:36 PM]

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