It’s the last day of the June hols for me, and looking back, I’ve certainly hated it. Long hours of zombie killing, xeno (alien) killing, mugging, doing projects, skateboarding… sounds a bit fun to you, but in actual fact, stretch that over a whole month and you get BORING…

I don’t really have much to write in the way of recorded events and reflections.

I’ve had my fair share of procrastination and well, of all the holiday homework, I didn’t even finish half of it, of course not entirely due to the fact that I procrastinate too =P

Quotable quotes this holiday:

- “Liberty is one of imagination’s most precious possessions”

- “Map out your future, but do it in pencil”

- Before the transformers movie, my sister pulls out a huge lump of popcorn and goes “MEGACORN!!!”… megatron + popcorn = megacorn…

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Being a photographer, I think the best way to commemorate the past month is by showing you what I’ve been through. Here’s a whole bunch of photos that can describe my holiday.

Enjoy!

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A display of all the thumbdrives I’ve had. The black Cruzer was just a stand-in for my new Cruzer Titanium.

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This is called “shitty drafts for Geography project”

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During one of my numerous returns to school for project meetings, a monitor lizard decidedly to add some variety to my day and cross the path =)

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Barricading out the zombies in CS Source Zombiemod

And I met a cute chick called Samus Aran while hiding

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Caught some bugs and made very nice macro shots (not THAT nice hahaha)

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Revisited my childhood toys. This magnificent aircraft carrier was bought 10 years ago… and its still the best aircraft carrier there ever was on the market.

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Went bowling, I suck at it, but when I actually land my power-shots, I smash pins all over =)

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Turned into an avid Transformers fan overnight and met Optimus Prime

Went down to watch it on 23rd June with me, cos I seriously couldn’t wait for official opening day (even when it was only tomorrow)

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Went skateboarding, although I”m still a totaly noob, I’m trying as hard as I can =)

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In transition to a Samsung F480

Got a new handphone!!! Fine, the model isn’t the latest, but I like it, and its much better than my previous one.

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Let a good game of Risk degenerate into a game of “real-time combat”

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Work on an experimental algae bio-reactor

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Hang out with my totally cool cousins

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Found a handphone keychain as big as the handphone itself

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Caught up with friends to play DOW2

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Essentially doing a lot of homework… =P

Sigh… what a holiday. It’s come and gone, and I still have a loonngg bumpy road of hardships to face, but at least I’ve got God and her by my side…

It’s the last day of the June hols for me, and looking back, I’ve certainly hated it. Long hours of zombie killing, xeno (alien) killing, mugging, doing projects, skateboarding… sounds a bit fun to you, but in actual fact, stretch that over a whole month and you get BORING…

I don’t really have much to write in the way of recorded events and reflections.

I’ve had my fair share of procrastination and well, of all the holiday homework, I didn’t even finish half of it, of course not entirely due to the fact that I procrastinate too

Quotable quotes this holiday:

- “Liberty is one of imagination’s most precious possessions”

- “Map out your future, but do it in pencil”

- Before the transformers movie, my sister pulls out a huge lump of popcorn and goes “MEGACORN!!!”… megatron + popcorn = megacorn…

---------------------------------------------------------------

Being a photographer, I think the best way to commemorate the past month is by showing you what I’ve been through. Here’s a whole bunch of photos that can describe my holiday.

Enjoy!

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A display of all the thumbdrives I’ve had. The black Cruzer was just a stand-in for my new Cruzer Titanium.

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This is called “shitty drafts for Geography project”

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During one of my numerous returns to school for project meetings, a monitor lizard decidedly to add some variety to my day and cross the path 

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Barricading out the zombies in CS Source Zombiemod

And I met a cute chick called Samus Aran while hiding

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Caught some bugs and made very nice macro shots (not THAT nice hahaha)

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Revisited my childhood toys. This magnificent aircraft carrier was bought 10 years ago… and its still the best aircraft carrier there ever was on the market.

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Went bowling, I suck at it, but when I actually land my power-shots, I smash pins all over 

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Turned into an avid Transformers fan overnight and met Optimus Prime

Went down to watch it on 23rd June with me, cos I seriously couldn’t wait for official opening day (even when it was only tomorrow)

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Went skateboarding, although I”m still a totaly noob, I’m trying as hard as I can

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In transition to a Samsung F480

Got a new handphone!!! Fine, the model isn’t the latest, but I like it, and its much better than my previous one.

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Let a good game of Risk degenerate into a game of “real-time combat”

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Work on an experimental algae bio-reactor

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Hang out with my totally cool cousins

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Found a handphone keychain as big as the handphone itself

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Caught up with friends to play DOW2

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Essentially doing a lot of homework…

Sigh… what a holiday. It’s come and gone, and I still have a loonngg bumpy road of hardships to face, but at least I’ve got God and her by my side…

 Man what an awesome movie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I dragged my sister down to watch the 23rd June preview just so I can catch the fun before everyone else in class. The movie is just undescribably cool. GO WATCH IT!!!

I also got this nice banner from the official website:

   
make your own here

OMG, the first week of the holidays has come and gone so fast!!! And I have done very little for all my holiday HW cos everyone involved is fcking AT CAMP OR HAVING OVERSEAS TRIPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHY THE **** ARE YOU (RI ppl) STILL GOING FOR OVERSEAS HOLIDAYS WHEN YOU HAVE 7 GRADED PROJECTS AND BARELY 3 WEEKS LEFT TO FINISH IT ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!! That’s just part 1 of the story.

The other thing that pisses me off is all the CCAs and the camps that follow. I think the school thinks we think (bleh bleh messy) about 10+ hours a week spent doing non-work-related, non-grades-affecting, non-productive-for-people-doing-work-with-you activities are OK on our schedules. Do you know how much can be accomplished in 10 hours?

Camps camps camps, now those are even WORSE than CCAs on their own… nearly 60% of my project work group members are gone on CCA camps, and those span a few days, and what does that mean????? MORE THAN 72 HOURS WASTED TOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Am I not going to be able to have any sense of “holiday” this month?

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Quite a while ago (haha forgot to post), I went up the Singapore Flyer with my parents!!! Well, its really quite boring, as most ferris wheels are… but the view is awesome!!!

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Yes… “june holidays”. So much for the holidays when we have 7 graded assignments complete with a full suite of homework to complete. I don’t think anyone has anymore time to holiday anymore…

Just to briefly cover what interesting has happened in the time between the start of the holidays and my last post, there were a few very very memorable events.

First and foremost, the massive outdoor event for all the youths of my church!!!!!!!! I forgot what it was called alr (haiz…) but its alright! Had lots and lots of fun, tho no photos of it cos I was so caught up playing in the events! However, I did get photos of the awesome stage during the 2-hour long praise and worship session!

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Right after that, on 26th May Monday, I had my Interschool Taekwondo Nationals!!! This is a somewhat bigger competition than the previous one I won gold for so as you can assume, competition is a LOT harder…

I was seriously playing “tanker” the whole tournament: I tie my opponent down 0-0 till the sudden death round (when both fighters are tied) where the 1st person to score a point wins. AHH… then is when I usually kill my opponents in 5 sec, usually cos I’ve taken the time during the 1st 3 rounds to memorize their fight-patterns.

Unfortunately for all, no photos of this event cos my supporters didn’t make it down until my final match, and no one brought a camera…

My final opponent was pretty tough, and was almost exactly like my opponent that thrashed me during my 1st ever tournament. I went on to blockxors all his power-kicks and tied 0-0, even through sudden death. In the end, he won cos he was more aggressive, but hey! Points to the one who resisted all the attacks in the first place rite???? =P

I got a cool glass medal!

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Just on Saturday, I got my skateboard!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I refuse to buy the usually-inferior completes and went to build a fully custom pro skateboard., although the price tag went sky-high after that…

My parts are as follows:

- Element Featherlight “Shock”

- Speed Demons trucks (that match my skateboard)

- Speed Demons ABEC-5 bearings and some blank 54mm street wheels

And the result is a pretty slick skateboard that cost me $250 SGD and is very much capable of doing anything most of the pros at the skate-park do.

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And after a couple of days or two of hard practice, the edges are worn a bit already, and I got my first crash injury on my palm and knee!

Note the wood showing thru at the top of the black part, and the wheels aren’t white anymore. And the dent! T_T sobz…

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Was going down a slope at ultra high-speed (yeah I even got scared when things became super fast) and hit a rock…

Once again, I’m either too busy, too lazy or too tired to post regularly… sigh… I was gonna post last Friday but apparently, circumstances dictated otherwise.

Okay!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Last Friday was the day we had our Higher Mother Tongue (well, Chinese for most of our level) mid-year exam, and it was supposed to be something like a mock-up of the real O-level Higher Chinese exam even though it’s still graded anyway. That meant a 4-hour marathon paper with 2 parts, the essay-writing and the standard paper. OH MAN! It was totally draining but I felt like God somehow blessed me with the ability to finish the paper and make me feel satisfied about it. All I hope for now is a good grade!

After the movie, I went for a movie with my friends: X-men Origins! Wolverine is so awesome and I kinda dig the story too. It’s sad how his wife dies in the end and he cannot remember…

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Ok, I’m moving back in time for this post haha! On the Wednesday before the Chinese test, our class had to go for this Learning Journey tour. Although the venue was the RSAF Museum (sounds totally cool for a military-enthusiast like me), it was totally boring with barely a few moments of interesting bits…

Looking up at a Bloodhound missile

Most of the fun came from taking random photos of things, laughing at the exhibits and stuff…

Look at the last picture and you should notice why we were laughing. The whole “no gap” thing was about the setting up of the RSAF but then below, another headline says “Two ships collide off S’pore” and together with the “no gap” comment, its really really apt…

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After the learning journey thing, my class still had an extra Chemistry lesson after school (yes my Chem teacher is soo extra…) and I got to see lots of cool bottles of some sorta plant culture liquids along the way:

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My sis and I were up late one night trying to get pictures of the super-heavy-rain when lighting started flashing everywhere. We tried to get photos of lightning many times with long-exposure shots but failed,. In the end, we just decided to just keep snapping around and try our luck. As you can see below, the initial rain made visibility pretty bad.

I mean, what’s the chances that second you decide to press the camera, a lightning bolt will flash nicely across the sky in your photo? Very very low, but WE GOT THREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The first of these was seriously an “OMG” photo. My sis was randomly pressing the shutter when lighting cut across the distant sky. We checked the photo taken and started squealing and dancing around…

The first photo is the “wow” one. If you look real close at the second photo, you can see the bolt far far away. The third photo was a “nuclear explosion” photo, where the lightning rips through the clouds and light diffuses everywhere.

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My sis was at it again another night but she didn’t use the tripod so her photos are extra shaky.

These aren’t really as impressive as the one we got the first time cos the bolts were too far off, and the third, as usual, is another “nuclear explosion” photo.

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Well, that’s all for today’s post! I’ll continue another time!

Yeah! As promised, I post again today about what happened during the recent weekend!

My caregroup member Meishi celebrated her 16th birthday on Saturday, and all of us from Radical were invited! Lots of people turned up and we had a great lotta fun! No, we didn’t celebrate it at her house or something. We went to Sentosa to have fun!

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The first part of getting there did take some time but in the end, my little group of 7 managed to get down the Amara Sanctuary Resort just in time for the cake-cutting bit! The cake was awesome, but apparently it was so big even the mass of us couldn’t finish it, and I got lumped with 3 huge blocks of cake (yeah 3 blocks of chocolate cake, the girls must be scared now)…

After that, it was fun for the rest of the day. We had a loonnggg break and lunch at Koufu (this place sells food super-ex).

A simple plate of chicken rice like this costs $4.20 there!!! I know the plate looks cool and all, but that’s seriously not a good excuse.

Everyone was quite undecided on where to go next, but Meishi was determined to see some animal show which involved a lot of new info on Macaques (those huge red parrots) and I got to take a picture with one on my arm! I apologize that almost all the photos are in someone else’s camera so I can’t put it up now.

Then, it was another debate before we went for some Sentosa Luge thing. I didn’t know what a Luge was before that but I certainly do now! It was TOTALLY AWESOME!!! Dashing down the track at breakneck speeds, entering turns like there’s no tomorrow, zipping past slow friends wailing “Nitro!!!”… I wanna go again! Anyone up for another few rounds of Sentosa Luge-ing?

I wore my Moor House 2007 tshirt which had a big M on it, and coincidentally, Meishi calls herself “M?” online too so she insisted we grab a photo together:

After the Luge, it was around 5.30pm and for a moment, while messing around deciding where to go, a few of us (including me) started throwing rocks of all sizes to see who’s the best (DUH…) and began some sorta pelting spree. Everyone couldn’t think of where to go next so we just walked down through the live-fire zone and onto the beach.

No prizes for guessing what we did next, we just… played at the beach!!! Somehow a bunch of youths from one of our caregroup member’s former church was there, so we had a fun game of captain’s ball. Kinda reminded me of my primary school days, when my team was gold medallist all the time =) 

Soon, the sky turned dark and a lot of us were desperate to go wash-down the grit and sweat in the pool we had been looking forward to all day.

After a nice refuel at 7-eleven, we went by this random roadshow on the beach that had been going on for the past 2-3 hours. At that time they were giving out prizes to people. This is the best part: When the host announced “And the grand prize goes to…”     my friend just shouted from behind the bushes around the stage “ISAAC KANG!!!” (that’s his name). AWESOME MAN! It was just totally hilarious!!!

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Ah crap, I have to stop here because I’m really out of time… will continue again sometime! I promise to put up the photos as soon as I get them ^^

This shows how busy/lazy I am. It’s ALMOST a full month since my last post.

Lots of weird, fun and mundane stuff has been happening this entire month! I’m gonna post slowly so there’s space to read, and not one big lump of text. Yesterday’s event will be in my next post!

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Ok, this one was like how long ago lor…. I bought this Wall-E cup for YeOon cos I know he really really likes Wall-E (don’t we all love Wall-E?) Well, they put the cup in this plain white box which I TOTALLY couldn’t stand, so I drew something on it!

Yeah, he liked it lots ^^

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I have indefinitely postponed all work on The Void Dragon to do another piece, a collection of Spartan characters from my little RPG game I play with my friend. I got a H (super-light), HB (my main sketching pencil) and a 5B (the super-dark shader) pencil to assist my normal 3B mechanical pencil to improve my drawing.

I decided to start on “Commander Javolro” first, a mixed Recon-scout armoured guy. As you can see, most parts are done in HB and the left hand, which I rushed straight to 3B is much darker, and the “untouched” areas are in H.

Rough sketching is both useful and fun, learnt from my sister through the process of doing up the Howling Banshee Exarch last time. =)

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And this is the same guy, about 90% done. I just needed to finish up the weapon he’s holding in his right hand. Notice I’ve already drawn other characters beside him haha.

The final piece is still incomplete, so it’s not ready for showing.

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My friends and I never fail to mess around in class…

This is me using YeOon’s beanie to act like a totally retarded terrorist…

And this is YeOon trying out the magnifying glass effect, speak about “magnifying oneself”… lolz!

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And now OTHER people mess around too!

Saw this just last week:

The original text was “Philosophy Cafe”

This one is just awesome! My friend (and many of us including me) forgot to get funding for our school ORA thing (annually) so while most of us just got 2-4 bucks, wrote our names, and handed the cards in, my rich friend got $50 from his parents, and made a code! Read the FIRST letter of every name in the list, and you get “I donated fifty dollars to RI” SERIOUS! And some people’s names are actually real people…

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Some guy with a cool souped-up MPV (yeah, not a sports car, an MPV) somehow appeared in school recently. Did make lots of heads turn since most of the teachers’ cars are boring.

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I “discovered” a new species of bug during this year’s Qing Ming thing where we went to pay respects to our grandparents’ tombs. My cousins and I caught some millipedes and threw them into a metal drum full of ash (from the previous person’s burnt offerings).

Some millipedes managed to escape from the drum but they came out totally different! It even looks genuinely like some new species doesn’t it?

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Well, that’s all for this post! I’ll post about the rest tomorrow or something when I have the time!

Ah yes, after being AFK pretty much the whole weekend and trying to get at least SOMEONE to come down to lend some support for my taekwondo tournament, all the effort training and stuff has finally paid off! I’m champion for brown belt middle/heavy weight category!!!

Man, I tell you, I was seriously nervous and very very very not at ease the entire night before, and the morning itself before going down to the tournament venue. The last time I participated in a similar sparring tournament, I got bronze but got beaten up quite badly too. This time, I was similarly afraid that something similar might happen…

I had to go down by 1pm but guess what? My first match only started at 4.30pm!!! OMG WASTE TIME!!! Even my dad got super-bored just camping around with the camera.

Well, here’s the lowdown on my first match. My opponent was as tall as me, composed, well-tanned and had this athletic look. Doesn’t make somewhat make you think he’s a formidable opponent already? I think I kinda unnerved him because I was praying aloud (not THAT loud) but enough for him to get his attention haha. Imagine your opponent referring to you “And the Lord will deliver all my enemies into my hand and give me victory”. HAHAHAHA. Since I was being super-cautious this first round, not knowing what to expect, I scored the first-point and stalled to the end. I won 1-0!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

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And we’re about to begin!!!

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Just minutes away from the fight! My opponent is in blue.

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READY? FIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Trading kicks which we both blocked, from top to bottom:

Opponent fails a kick, and fails another, and I nearly hit his face. Then we do a very nice simultaneous kick but no points for either of us.

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Heh, everyone has to show some sportsmanship after the match don’t we?

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Now on the 2nd opponent. Right after defeating this guy, I went straight to the finals already, Now you guys may think “Hey! 2 matches gold medal already?” Haha, there were too few people in my weight category, BUT it isn’t easy ok? You think none of the other fighters haven’t trained and are determined to get the medal too?

My 2nd opponent was from Maris Stella High, a very big sized guy who came across to me as all-power-no-speed. EXACTLY what my coach told me in the pre-fight briefing: “You your speed to out-do him”. This one I fought hard, and also got most of my injuries from, but I triumphed 3-0!!! My main coach (he coaches all of us, including my acting coach during the tournament) challenged me to lead by at least 3 points and if I won Gold, my Great Grandmaster (OMG HE’S LIKE HOW RESPECTED) would give me this special collar pin. Man, the pressure was all on me!!!

In this match, I am blue. I did manage to knock him down halfway through the fight, and though that didn’t count for any points, I am sure it did rattle him psychologically. In one photo, you can see 2 squares next to my score, 2 judges saw me score another kick but unfortunately, the other 2 didn’t so no count as well =(

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And so, I won Gold!!!!!!!!!!!

And my gold medal is so shiny, especially next to my previous bronze medal haha!!!

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My teammates were certainly an important part of the victory, cos we trained together, cheered for each other, and importantly, we are teammates!!!!

My friend still has a lot of our photos so I’ll wait for him to send me for my next post!

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Yay!!! After waiting for so long, and praying so hard, and saving so much, I finally have a Razer Lycosa Mirror Special Edition gaming keyboard!!!!!!!!!!!

It’s awesome, the blue glow is well appreciated and the keys just feel good, smooth and glossy under your fingers. Being the “mirror edition” of the Razer Lycosa, you get a damn shiny mirror-like keyboard which you can see your face in when you look into it! AWESOME!!!

Although what I told my parents was that I wanted a full-size keyboard with num-pad, to help my sitting posture cos typing on the laptop keyboard is not very comfortable, and I want something of best-quality-only and very cool-looking., part of te truth be told, from now on, no more fumbling with keys in the dark during my midnight gaming sprees. As with yesterday night’s scores, somehow my CS score is good again also.

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OMG!!! I finally got it in my room haha!!!

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At a glance, fresh out of the box, it already oozes technological sexiness and cool…

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Finally powered up! Due to the bright conditions, the backlighting isn’t obvious but since it is bright, you can see how it lives up to its “mirror” namesake (I am in the keyboard taking the picture haha!!!)

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Slightly darker now (around 6.30pm) the lighting looks more vibrant. This is how my keyboard would normally look like, including right now at 10pm, but the real thing comes in the dark…

My Diamondback 3G and Lycosa glow awesomely in the dark. Although my own laptop keyboard looks sufficiently illuminated, trust me, you really can’t see it in the glare.

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And thus, I proudly present the latest in my Razer collection, earphones not pictured =)

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Moving on, I’ve had a good week in school. All the tests somehow left me satisfied after completing them, and my geog paper came back with nice results!!!

My class was chosen to go support the Raffles B div softball team for their final. Man! They pwned Maris Stella High’s team big time!!! 17-3!!! Last year’s rugby final was really something because ACS and RI both have very good rugby teams, and both sides kept scoring to the end. This time, it just got boring after a while cos we seriously owned too much haha.

And we cheered very hard for the 2 ppl from our class in the softball team, WenJian and WenQi.

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Our geog greenwave project has seen a major event, even bigger than the final submission date, to my opinion. Eddy initially wanted to kick me and Dexter from the group because of his own selfish reasons. Hahahaha, he sealed his own fate. His “new pair-member” Kok Peng ditched him to join Dexter and me cos seriously, Eddy has been getting on all our nerves since the start of the geog project. Now he’s flying solo, with no mentor, no proposal (yes no proposal) and a screwed up poster.

We have had an awesome mutiny for our geog project, and this has brought the remaining members of the group closer as well!!! I dunno but somehow I feel the bond between me, Dexter and Kok Peng has somewhat improved. I hope this is for the best!!!

Dexter and me ^^^^^^ (he wasn’t prepared for the picture)

Dexter and me spent 8 hours up to 2am working on our poster submission, and Kok Peng, despite having his arm in a cast and sling, was so motivated to help out type something!!! I am so inspired by him…

And our final product!!! All the hard work!!!

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The last day of school was awesome, cos everyone was just rearing to burst out of the classroom and run away!!! We put this picture of Weiloong over a picture of Eddy:

LOL!!!!!!!!! In both pictures, they put on this very serious face…

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Anyway well, yeah, was fun posting and typing with the new keyboard. It just feels so cool la, the keystroke and stuff, and you can surely expect nothing less than high quality from such a great brand. GO RAZER!!!

I did a lot of things on Friday as well, apart from just buying the keyboard at the IT show. Will post about it when I have time, Cya!!!

Yes, what you read is true… my beloved Nokia 5610 Xpressmusic was dashed on some pebbles today in an accident involving my phone strap and a bag, and BAM, now a small part of my right select part is chipped off completely, and the once-pristine exterior (I clean my phone everyday) is now scratched and stuff. It gets hanged from time to time as well… damn…

I can’t get a new phone (I would REALLY REALLY love the new Nokia touchscreen xpressmusic) and I have to live with a partly broken phone. I initially wanted to bank on good exam results to get a new phone but now they’re mostly postponed to next term, LOL!!!!!!!! This is such a good and bad thing haha, but I should say more good than bad.

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I edited the Void Dragon’s shoulders to make him look bigger, same goes for the chainsword. Sorry, no update picture at the moment, cos I don’t think the progress is very notable today, the lessons aren’t really favourable to draw things… but nvm!

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Its amazing to see how many people are so tired this week and how little respect they have for the Philosophy teacher. Poor guy from Nigeria tries but fails… All these photos were taken in the short span of 1min:

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I love Windows Live Writer, lets me post more often now with its convenience.

Cya soon!

HAHAHA, totally random title, a mashup of wdv I’m posting here today. My post today will be mostly photos, less talk, there isn’t much to talk about anyway.

Work on the Void Dragon has progressed much further today, check it out!

He’s about 2 A4 papers wide, much bigger than the previous artwork.

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YeOon breakdances! And he’s quite good at it!

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The sparker and wooden thong thing take it out on the bunsen burner!!! IT’S TIME YOU STOPPED PUTTING THE HEAT ON US!!!

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My, that was random… now here’s something less random, a picture from my Prefect’s Investiture thing yesterday.

The hall arrangement for the event was pretty neat. =)

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Lastly to end off today’s post… I need someone to confide with. My sister who I can do so is home late all the time so no point…

I think about her all the time. Is she “the one” for me? I really hope God can tell me soon enough. Sigh… cupid’s got me again…

Lol, I’m feeling like extra extra tired this week, I can’t seem to carry myself through the 4th or 5th lesson of the day without much effort, or a good nap under the teacher’s nose haha.

Nothing much happened on Monday, so I shan’t elaborate on it. Today was the fun bit.

Lessons were pretty slack overall, so I had time to start on a new artwork (sorry to anyone who’s looking forward to me finishing my halo comic), another character from my imaginary game, the cyborg general who’s really a soul infused into a living metal body, which itself in encased in multi-layered armour made of the hardest, toughest alloys and metals known to man. He’s a bad guy too, and he’s called the Void Dragon (cos it sounds cool, and I can’t think of anything else better).

And work starts on the Void Dragon!!!

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I was covering the Prefect’s Investiture today, and after borrowing a telephoto lens (and later on, my rich friend’s 800 dollar PERSONAL flashgun), my ordinary looking 450D became some photo-taking beast haha!

Later at home, without the flashgun (I returned it to the guy), it looks something like a personal mini-telescope.

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And that’s all for today! Cya soon!

I’m finally done putting on the finishing touches to Jain Zar, my howling banshee exarch!!!

After slighty more than a week’s worth of hard work and collaboration with my sister, we’re done! It’s hard to say now who gets the credit, she did the basic form and I laid in all the details, weapons, helmet and just a few minutes ago, all the runic symbols.

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Well, that was the main part of today’s post.

On a side note, I had my Maths CCT today, and man! I shitted it up! I could have really did well if IHAD TIME TO FINISH THE PAPER!!! I mean, I knew how to do every single question!!! Serious!!! I just couldn’t make it…

I’m now sitting at the front of class, and boy, its friggin cold there!!! I need a jacket everyday already.

I’ve been reading about the topic of elitism in Singapore for quite a while now, for my school assignment about this issue and all, and I’ve been thinking a long, long time about what elitism means to me, and how people respond to it in general.

I’ve read blogs and articles about elitism in Singapore (just google search “elitism in Singapore”) and even spent hours poring over just the comments people write about a single blog article alone. If anyone has read thegreatsze’s take on elitism @ http://thegreatsze.blogspot.com/2007/06/elitism-in-singapore-from-alfian-saat.html , you will most certainly be spending some time thinking about this issue that plagues Singapore, if not society in general, and the links that he offers to other related blogs are also very helpful.

OK, I am from Raffles, as you would have found out if you read my profile/other posts enough, and quite a few people out there would certainly brand me as “Elite”, as they did to Alfian Sa’at and nearly everyone who comes from RJC or a similar school. Even my friends from neighbourhood-schools do treat me with this “all-knowing one” sort of air, and however hard I (or any other person from Raffles that I know) try to be as modest as possible and try our very best to relate with the rest of the commoners (as some non-elites call themselves in blogs), we will never dispel these stereotypes that are imposed on us.

In several articles I’ve read, some people also generalise the elite being the rich and privileged, like MPs. I am not from a rich family. I grew up in a middle-class family living in a lower-end condominium until I moved to a HDB flat because of my school’s location. Now, if anyone wants to pinpoint that I am implying people who live in HDB flats are “lower-class”, I am just using this because in nearly all these articles involving the elite being rich and privileged, the commoners are the ones living in humble dwellings and stuff. Thus, this definition of elite does not apply to me.

I, personally, don’t think I am the sort of arrogant and “uncaring elitist” person you might find in the likes of Wee Shu Min’s all too well-known rant. Ask any of my friends from neighbourhood-schools (what’s there to gloat about among other Raffles ppl), so I believe I can take a somewhat neutral stand here on this issue.

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Many times, I think the whole idea of elitism is generated by feelings of inferiority in the people who aggressively debase elites and the whole system of working to the top in Singapore. I don’t wish anyone to start relating me to Shu Min on this but, sometimes I really agree: If you don’t work hard, or you didn’t work hard in the first place, you won’t really ever make it. I don’t really have a comment about Derek Wee’s concerns about being over-aged and in need of a job. What really bugs is is that, quite often, as I have personally observed, these people begin to denounce elites because they couldn’t get there in the first place. It becomes something of a “sour grapes” sort of feeling, and the person finds a desire to comfort himself by saying “at least I’m not some arrogant elite like Jordan is…” Let’s face the truth, you (I don’t want to mention names), have always always aspired to get into a top school, and become a successful person working in a high office, and in the essence, join the “elite club”. Now that YOU didn’t make it, and more hard-working people (I frankly say that I worked very very hard to get where I am now) like me did, you start making them look like totally removed-from-society assholes.

In the end, what do our parents make us study hard for. There has GOT to be a good reason for them to believe a good education gives us a better chance of living a good life (if not a very good one). Which of you can truthfully say now that if, by your efforts, you were offered a place in a top school, reject it and say “I don’t want to be an elite because elites suck” and settle for a neighbourhood school (I’m not saying neighbourhood schools are noob but that’s what everyone else kind of implies when comparing top schools)?

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As a secondary school student, we ALL know that all such secondary school Singaporeans have to come from a primary school before anything else. We all have definitely interacted with friends from more than one stream, EM1, 2 or 3, even GEP classes. After getting into secondary school, the few who followed me into RI found ourselves with this “elite” image almost immediately. A large part of my friends from primary school are still nice to me and when we hang out, we don’t really care which school we all come from now. It’s just the few people who suddenly feel that we’re “too good” to talk to them, or if they would prefer the worse side, “too arrogant” to stay friends. HEY! WE DIDN’T DO ANYTHING BUT DO WELL IN PSLE!!! HOW IS THAT BEING ARROGANT!!!

To me, being elite isn’t really about what school we’re studying in, or later on in life, what kind of jobs we’re working in or the kind of pay we earn. It’s really about attitude of people. I’ve never treated any of my friends as being inferior to me or wished that they would all look to me like an all-knowing entity. I know of some people who are truly befitting of the negative image of the elite, the kind who are born rich, can’t stand anything short of the best (materialistically), treat all else poorer or less well-versed academically as vermin and think they are being very kind and humble by telling people to stop using (for example, an off-the-shelf pair of earphones) and ask if they would like to try their 200 dollar pair instead.

Enough said, I think this has given me a lot to write for my school assignment.

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Now, moving on to a different topic, I seriously wish my parents would stop yelling at me for being on MSN or reading a random wikipedia article about a movie/computer game. I know I have homework to finish but just leave me alone. If I was still in school, I would be TALKING to my friends instead of IM-ing. This is my social life! I come home and lock myself in from the outside world? NO thanks…

You both (my parents) know that I do want to finish my work and all, but LEAVE ME ALONE! If I can’t finish it or screw up my day, then it’s my problem! You don’t go to school for me! I can’t be 24/7 studying! I’m a human being too! I eat, I sleep and I walk around the house! Since I’m not studying during those times, why don’t you scold me about those too!

So what if you wipe my computer clean of everything save my documents. What do you stand to gain? The long-lasting hate of your 16-year old son? Someone who now grudgingly studies and gains nothing from it because he was forced to?

PLEASE, RETHINK YOUR IDEAS FOR A WHILE…

Ah, finally a post after more than 20 days of absence.

I love my DG. I dun have any photos of em but simply put, they’re all real cool and nice people. Go radical!!!

I DO have just one shot, Kia Min and me fighting with Mcdonalds straws. FENCING!!!!

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It’s a hectic life being a sec 4. Tests are round the corner, and some have already passed (yay, thankfully I’m still doing well this year). The next one coming up in on my Birthday, Maths!!!!!!!!! ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHH…. At least I have 2 no-school days this week, Monday and Tuesday ^^. The bad thing is, we have a shitload of homework to go with it…

I’m still drawing a lot! The Indian Scholar who sits beside me in class, Tejas, is still helping me lots for ideas of what goes into the next frame, and the storyline in general. I wish I had more friends like him in RI, not that I don’t already have a few good ones.

Chem lesson at least allows us some fun stuff in school la, like make a chemical mix more imba than Marcus’ mess of chemicals. He did a mixture of sulphuric acid, zinc carbonate, potassium dichromate, potassium manganate, silver nitrate and potassium iodide. I did all that, AND MORE!!! He didn’t put in Hydrochloric acid and the like, and I added stuff including the all familiar H20. Results are as follows:

Orange with glittery-sandy gold precipitate, turns paper dark blue, turns litmus paper 3 colours (white, blue and red) and turns a polo mint into partially melted horrible glop.

For the rest of the chem lesson, we tried to test for some cation thing, which lead to a nice assortment of colours in the test-tubes lol:

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I’m still drawing the comics, tho at a slightly slower pace than last month, where I produced like 5-6 pages in a short span of 3 weeks or so.

At the moment, comic work has slowed even more, cos priority has been shifted to the completion of my first ever HUMAN FEMALE!!! She’s not from my comic, but rather from an RPG game I play with my friend.

The development of “Jain Zar, the Storm of Silence”. Huge credit goes to my sister, who did the whole body in general. I’m directing the progress (telling her what to draw and what not to), and everything else that is not in the 3rd picture. Work is about done, just minor tweaks and such, and the weapons + gear.

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I really really need to get away from work in general!!! Red Alert 3 is still cool, esp when I’m discovering new tactics to try and stuff. I finished NFS Undercover alr… boring… the only thing that makes me play is the huge map and the whole bevy of cool cars. The story and all sucks… NFS needs some work, WHAT HAPPENED AFTER MOST WANTED?!?!!?

Check out the final mods of my Nissan GTR (red-white) and my Bugatti Veyron (black, this car costs 3 million SGD in real life).

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Right now as I blog, there’s this awesomely heavy rain pouring outside which obscures all visibility to about 200m or so.

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I recently submitted a story entry for some Commonwealth Essay competition. It’s titled “The Long Way Home…”, a short story about an Afghan soldier during the soviet-afghan war. If you have some spare time, pls do read and comment! Thx!

The Earth shook and the air thundered with a tremendous roar as the latest of the enemy’s artillery shells fell too close to the hideout. The Sniper tucked his knees closer to his chest and returned the blank stares of the other three Mujahedeen sharing this miserable hole under piles of rubble. He didn’t know those men but it didn’t matter. They were on the same side here. The Sniper turned to peer outside. Once again, for probably the hundredth time today, Kabul’s cityscape had changed, and each time it did, it was always worse than what it was before.

The artillery barrage stopped as soon as it had started. The Sniper narrowed his eyes into slits, trying to discern any possible Soviets the artillery may have been supporting. When he decided it was clear, he crawled out from the hole and scrambled for the nearest building that had not yet been leveled by the blasts. The other Mujahedeen figured out The Sniper was the only one here who had an idea of where to go, and one by one, scurried from the hole. The Afghan freedom fighters regrouped at the ground floor of a two-storey house, already half turned to rubble by the constant fighting. The Sniper pressed his back against a wall at the bottom of the stairway and carefully moved forward.

There was an empty rifle magazine on the ground, and from the way it looked, it was obviously Russian. Most of the Mujahedeen’s AK-47 rifle magazines were dusty, scratched, and bound by cloth to more than one other magazine. This was not a good sign. The house had been, or was still being, occupied by Russians. All four men edged up the stairs slowly. At the top, The Sniper stuck his rifle round the corner.

No response.

He stuck his head out from behind the wall, rifle trained on the corridor ahead. The rest of the Mujahedeen fanned into the corridor after him, scanning every single room for any sign of life. The only things they found served to remind them even further of the life they longed to return to, the life that they were fighting for. Here and there, broken dolls, discarded shoes, remnants of a charred bed frame.

The last room loomed at the far end of the corridor. The four Afghans crept towards it, weapons at the ready. All of a sudden, bullets ripped through the closed door and little clouds of dirt from the bullets impacting into the walls and floor erupted all over the corridor. One of the Mujahedeen grimaced as a stray bullet tore into his thigh. Before he could drop to one knee to support himself, the rest of the Mujahedeen had already ducked into the rooms that lined the corridor for cover, popping out to fire madly at the door. The Sniper took a quick look at the door, now half torn apart by bullets from whoever was inside, and the Mujahedeen outside. Ignoring the stuttering clatter of the AK-47s, he eased his rifle out from cover and peered through the scope. At this range, he could barely see clearly through the scope, and what he found was part of a Russian soldier’s uniform. His finger tensed on the trigger and jammed it down.

One shot was all it took. As the ejected bullet case hit the wooden floor, the thud of a body slumping was heard. The other Mujahedeen moved cautiously towards it, kicking the already shattered door open. There it lay, the body of a dead Russian soldier, contorted like a ragdoll in death. The Mujahedeen showed little respect for their fallen foe, disposing of his body out the window and taking whatever supplies and ammunition they could find.

The Russians had marched into Afghanistan 10 years earlier, fair, tall and proud men, a seemingly invincible force as their aircraft ruled the skies and their tanks shook the ground while their soldiers swept through the civil-war torn country. All that haughtiness had disappeared when the valiant Afghans starting fighting back, at first through isolated rebellions against their foreign rulers, then developing into a full-blown guerilla war. The Sniper left his village years ago to join the rebel cause, with the promise of freeing his family from the tyranny of the Soviet rule. Then, they destroyed his entire village, the town bombed into slag by the Russian planes. The Sniper never overcame the grief of returning to his house to see it as a pile of rock, the torn remains of his wife’s clothes, caked with dried blood, draped over the demolished front door. He never forgave them for that, and it was this memory that gave him renewed vigor each time the endless days of battle sapped the energy out from him.

Now the Russians were running, finally feeling the anger and determination of The Sniper’s people. They were trapped in a foreign land of angry warriors who would gladly sacrifice themselves in the name of Allah, and to liberate their lands of the Soviet menace. The Russian military juggernaut had fallen, and was crawling away with their tails between their legs.

The Sniper looked out from the window overlooking the street outside, and the first thing he saw was a Russian tank grinding down the rubble-strewn road, Russian soldiers running alongside and shooting sporadically at the deserted houses, as if the Mujahedeen lurked everywhere. At least there was one house that hid freedom fighters and the ignorant Russians were just passing underneath it. Emerging from cover, The Sniper had a clear shot of the Russian sergeant, wearing a fur hat and bawling out orders to his subordinates. A well-placed bullet through his head silenced his shouts and drew the attention of the rest of the Russians. Ducking back through the window just as a tremendous staccato of weapons fire horribly pockmarked the wooden ceiling visible to ground level from the window. The Sniper slapped in a fresh magazine and slid the receiver back with a satisfying clack as splinters rained down on him. Moving to another window, he popped out and took aim at another Russian. Time seemed to slow down as he brought his crosshairs over the tank crewman who was wildly firing the heavy machinegun fixed atop the Russian tank.

A few bullets zipped by The Sniper’s head, too close for comfort.

A resounding boom issued from his sniper rifle. The Russian crewman fell back through the hatch with a spray of red.

The Sniper ducked down again and almost immediately, began a mad dash out the door. The other Mujahedeen started up to follow him just as a couple of grenades sailed into the room through the windows. Two of them bolted out into the corridor. The one who had been shot in the leg managed to break into a staggering run as the grenade went off, turning the space in the room into a deadly hail of flying shrapnel. He never made it out.

The first of the remaining Mujahedeen frantically ran down the stairs crashed into the Russian soldiers coming up the stairs. It was only a fraction of a second before both sides started fumbling for their sidearms. The Mujahedeen got his knife out first, and set upon the panicking Russians, jamming his blade into the exposed flesh of the neck of the nearest soldier. The Sniper and one of his companions managed to duck into one of the rooms next to the stairway as the chaos erupted downstairs. Soon, the sharp bang of a pistol was heard and silence hung in the air once again. The other mujahedeen, shaken by the loss of both his friends in such a short span of time, grasped his rifle tight and burst out from the room, charging down the stairs. The Russian were ready for him, riddling his body with bullets as he came down, leaving a bloody steak on the steps as his body slid to the foot of the stairway.

The Sniper gritted his teeth. Here were more infidels killing his countrymen, and he was in no position to help them. Not yet at least, at the moment of their deaths. He drew his pistol and prayed that it would not jam, and steeled himself to rush down at his enemies. He heard the sound of the Russians reloading their weapons.

The time was now!

The Sniper yelled a blood-curdling battle cry and leapt from the room, shooting as he went. One by one, the startled Russians fell as each shot was true to its mark. The Sniper hit the bottom of the stairway in a run and found himself staring at a Russian officer. Ducking low as he ran, The Sniper fired his last bullet just as the Russian fired his own.

The Russian officer saw many emotions in that young Afghan’s face, one full of hate, anger and fire that burned in those clear blue eyes. His shot flew wide of his target. The Afghan’s didn’t.

The Sniper stared at the fallen Russian, the adrenaline still fresh in his blood. Outside, more Mujahedeen fighters had arrived. One of them waved the flag of Afghanistan as he ran past. The Sniper walked out into the streets, seeing the streets of Kabul slowly filling with more of his countrymen. The Soviets had been driven out. Afghanistan was returned to the control of its rightful owners.

The Sniper had returned home. 10 long years of fighting and he had finally returned home.

Hi again, after such a long time! I really apologize for my infrequent postings. I begin to find it difficult to find time to blog after loads of HW, the desire to game, and of course, this entire CNY period!

First things first. I should say this year’s CNY wasn’t exactly very fun, a lil bit boring even. On New Year’s eve, while everyone else was out having reunion dinner and stuff, my family just had a great western dinner up to 10.30pm, way past closing time of that restaurant, but the waiters were happy to serve us, and even upgraded our “yu-sheng” plate for free!

Yu-sheng in school!!!

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On Friday, the day before the CNY weekend, I really had no where to go after school so I joined some old friends for a good movie. RED CLIFF II!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s a REALLY epic movie, and I bet and hell load of the movie’s giant budget went to paying the extras alone.

And we found this giant piece of popcorn, well, lots of em in one big lump

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And so, the CNY period came and went with nothing significant, and school started again. Needless to say, it was boring…

The weekend after that was fun. All my cousins from my Mom’s side came over to play! We had a lot of fun, playing CnC Generals LAN, Red Alert 3, NFS Undercover, gamble for money and stuff.

CnC Generals LAN gaming in my room!

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The awesome moment when my camera captured the flash of my uncle’s camera at the exact same time!!!

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And the guys spends some quality time stargazing on my extensive balcony

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The epic arm-wrestling showdown with my cousin Aaron!!! It was a tie, although I look like I’m winning in the 2nd photo

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AWESOME FAMILY PHOTO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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I have to admit, MZ (one of my cousins) is REALLY a friggin sore-loser. I dunno what to tell him to change him, someone pls give me advice. Everytime he’s losing, be it on the spot or in the long term, he will give up, and give all sorts of excuses why, and go try something else he can hopefully WIN for once.

When we were playing MechWarrior figures, I wayyyy overtook him in the “arms-race” (collecting rare pieces and stuff), he just stopped playing completely and his collection now collects dust. When we were playing Duel Masters cards, I start building powerful decks and beat his anyhow-grab-something-and-throw-together deck and he just stops playing the game completely as well. When we’re playing CnC Generals, he plays on when we’re teamed together and bashing the AI, cos when he sticks to me, we always win. When I play a 1 vs 1 match with him to test his skills, he just throws in the towel after 10 minutes, and I haven’t even launched an attack force yet!!!

The only thing he will keep playing is the sort of gambling card games. Why? These games aren’t really testing skill, more of luck so everyone has a chance to win. ARGHH, WTF IS WRONG WITH HIM!!!

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I got my latest game! Need For Speed Undercover!!!! I have to say, like everyone else, I do find the storyline crappy, and after playing 2 previous NFS games already, the game now is a bit repetitive.

However, kudos to all the new things they introduced to the game, and a lot of changes to old ways of doing things, like buying cars and stuff. I also LOVE the graphics and the HUGEEE map. NFS Undercover’s total map size is like, thrice the size of NFS Most Wanted or Carbon’s, with huge interstate highways to link. Check out some screens below!

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My Lotus Elise (in green) does an awesome 360 degree burnout drift.

My Lancer Evolution X (yay my fav car), in red, starts bashing other cars (as part of jobs to take down gang bosses), and my Lancer in its new black-white form later on, which gets totalled in a race, leaving nothing but the bare frame behind.

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Some other random photos:

My Aunt’s car rearlamp, I like the light diffusion effect

My friend Moses and I during our church youth ministry’s “Japanese theme day”. Btw, the sword is mine, Moses just loves it…

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About my weird title to this post, its something related to my Windows Live Messenger nick…