Monday, March 30, 2009.

ahh it's the time of the year again, where people SPAM in an attempt to get into council.

i've seen 4 (including this year) council campaigns in my life, more than most others.

and truth be told, all look the same.

as a sec 2 boy, everywhere i went in rj all looked the same. all the colourful posters, banners, advertisements, popping out from everywhere.

soon, the outstanding became the standard, and nothing stood out.

that's where the problem soon lay.

a campaign in RJ is truly ineffective. what is the point of a campaign in a democratic process? to let the people better understand the candidates, to provide them with more info on the candidates' ideas and thoughts. so that people can make an informed choice on who they think is deserving.

but in RJ what is the point of it all? are voters biased? YES! people with larger social circles win because they know more people, and their friendship guides them to vote for their friends. given the extremely limited time schedule we see no true understanding of other candidates (we don't even remember their faces please.) and in the end we choose to vote for people, blinded by friendship/love.

is that fair?

is that voting for the best? are the electorate qualified to vote?

no.

and yes it is a popularity contest! no one denies that. winner = popular person.

and campaigns SOUND the same. every campaign shows off people with dreams and ambitions for the school, with great awe-inducing qualities that would make everyone swoon. they sound too good, it's generic.

in the end campaigns fail in their mission. everyone has more or less decided their votes (friend = maybe one vote for you. closer friend = confirmed vote.), and campaigns are ineffective, because of the inherent flaw in the system! so you're campaigning to show off traits that everyone else has, nothing special, everything so generic it fails to tell the minority whose votes aren't taken up what is so special about you.

yet there are exceptions. people who can make a strong impact with campaign will be able to break free and get into council, against all odds.

look at wang tianyi, with his "never let you down" tagline, winning him an ovation from the entire school.

and that's why the campaign has to exist. for people to try. to TRY, so that they might get a chance at being outstanding. even if all the campaigns may be the same. even if all the campaigns are so groan-inducing they make people cringe and cry.

because you never know if you try.

Labels: Life, school

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Saturday, March 28, 2009.

sometimes one is really blind to one's own abilities.

it is quite surprising for myself, to realise i'm actually not too sucky at talking to others (as in, not the everyone-in-a-group-and-we-chit-chat-very-noisily type, but the heart-to-heart type.)

maybe that's why I'm an ENFJ (draws attention to F).

but yes i guess i should still say this.

thanks to all of you, my friends, for everything.

Labels: friends, Life

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Friday, March 27, 2009.

i realised i'm not as strong as i think i am.

apparently, facebook/some internet quiz/the official MBTI quiz ALL claim i'm an ENFJ.

and here's what they claim:

"ENFJs are people-focused individuals. They live in the world of people possibilities. More so than any other type, they have excellent people skills. They understand and care about people, and have a special talent for bringing out the best in others. ENFJ's main interest in life is giving love, support, and a good time to other people. They are focused on understanding, supporting, and encouraging others. They make things happen for people, and get their best personal satisfaction from this. "

yeah i truly wish i had all these characteristics.

i know i'm not a perfect ENFJ. my Feeling is not very well-developed, as I always thought I was Thinking and more or less used my Thinking more (maybe subconsciously I used my F a lot too.). I'm quite blunt, don't really have good people skills and don't truly think I can understand people very well.

yet i know deep in my heart I AM an ENFJ.

yes it doesn't sound like it sometimes, but i do wish i get to encourage people and solve their problems. i do get a lot of happiness when i see someone get something he/she wants, and i really think i like to motivate people.

maybe MBTI was really right after all.

Labels: Life

{ 10:12 PM }

Tuesday, March 24, 2009.

today is THE HAPPIEST DAY OF MY LIFE.

(not.)

but you could never imagine the happiness (glee, more like) on my face when i stepped into LT2 and saw what was going on inside.

I NOW HAVE RENEWED PASSION AND INTEREST IN PHYSICS MAN.

my most mutilated set of notes are physics notes. usually the 1st page of the notes are horribly mutilated with weird crossings and whatnot. really people who never take physics won't ever understand.

anyway chem today was rather interesting (1st lecture of the year!), and besides the nigel-fong prank i played, Mr. ONG came in and sat in!

and the RI guys went mad cheering and clapping (especially his ex-chem rep lah duh.).

funny how the other teacher came in too (via the back) but no one took notice at all.

anyway holidays were a blast, just that i need to start on work (coughECONScough) soon or i'll most probably get slaughtered.

Labels: Life

{ 7:56 PM }

Saturday, March 14, 2009.

this IS overdue (why do i have a bad habit of blogging late?).

but yeah yesterday was a blast. like how o-nite was madness-ly fun and how kenneth's bdae was also some crazily fun day.

first was the epic bowling game 1 where HAN BOJIAN BEAT ME URG. i got owned terribly so i took revenge (not that i really intended to, but something just went right with me for the second game).

and got 113 pinfalls.

quite hard to believe though. strike spare spare strike strike in a row?! =D

and then later we went for pastamania lunch and had fun making shneg's specs disappear (and li yan's phone too).

shneg was as blur as ever lor specs just 1 metre away from him still cannot see. =D

then kbox. this round of kbox wasn't as bad as last time (last time was fun though!) cause i was more relaxed this time (the last time i was sooo nervous i couldn't sleep ok.). we went MAD jumping around (imagine 16 people jumping in one room.) and blasting out super-OUT-OF-TUNE melodies.

so in the end everyone's voice was as good as dead.

but an enjoyable experience though. really must thank jun sheng for the really nice planning and the intended idea of class bonding, which was really quite successful i must say!

10S06p <3! (and if anyone of you see this PLEASE tag!)

Labels: class

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Tuesday, March 10, 2009.

you know, during your kindergarten years, your teacher would go up to you and ask what you wanted to be.

you would answer with the utmost confidence, without fear or hesitation, that you wanted to be a so-and-so.

i wish i can do so now.

when people ask me, i have a fail-safe (fake) answer.

deep in my heart i question it. is it what i really want? is that my destiny in life? do i really desire it? will i hate it? will i regret it?

apparently the questioning might have had been too powerful at times.

i'll give myself some time to think though.

Labels: Life

{ 10:38 PM }

Sunday, March 8, 2009.

and finally i got home, after what? catching the last marina-bay train =D

hey, it's my 1st ever!

*gets hit on the head by waste-paper basket*

anyway apologies for the past 2 posts. this week hasn't been very kind to me, so yeah. but thanks anyway for everyone out there, really appreciate it a lot.

went to watch dramafest (without the E) just now, and besides the lack of aircon it was very very fun.

though i still cannot understand how MT won 1st, because their play didn't leave me with much besides the slapstick comedy (which was employed in full force for BW and RafflesPlayers' parodyplay). on hindsight MT could have won cause they gave quite a few takes on such a simplistic (compared to others) issue of periods, which was rather enlightening for the audience.

sadly i lost the drift halfway.

some memorable stuff:
bb - yellow line, and the all-so-comedic grandma.
bw - the indian couple! and the old uncle.
hh - fengshui and the very dramatic sacrifice.
mt - periods.
mr - the b-c dissonance and the rhythmic pulse.

my favourite (yes i know im supposed to support BW) was HH's at 1st till i switched over to MR. a lot of people hated it though, but i loved it.

maybe i'm just totally fascinated with morbid stuff.

like you know, I listen to shostakovich for the dissonance kick? i don't mind listening to a 25min piece just to hear the climax, cause it's so scary i ALWAYS get goosebumps. and the LARGE majority of his works are morbid death-filled works.


still, ultimately, there must be a winner. which is sad (about as sad as musicfeste) cause really, everyone deserved to win!

ahh but still, life is full of competitions, though i'll remember the plays from there well (just as i'll remember musicfeste.)

Labels: Life

{ 12:40 AM }

Thursday, March 5, 2009.

it feels horrible.

everything's crumbling down. that fragile column which was painstakingly built by all of us, it's giving way.

can we stop it?

i don't want to lose everything.

Labels: friends

{ 10:52 PM }

Wednesday, March 4, 2009.

for the 1st time this year i felt like crying today.

i'm so sorry, sorry for what happened last year.

it's all my fault.

sorry.

Labels: Life

{ 11:18 PM }

Sunday, March 1, 2009.

yes this is super-overdue, but heck at least i wrote something!

friday and saturday were 2 crazy days (as in totally crazy). musicfeste then chambercamp then patrick's cip.

honestly i don't feel so bad about musicfeste now. for one, there's no point crying over spilled milk. it's over so just forget about it. for two, i know we did our best for it, so if the judges didn't like it as much as they liked bb's (in retrospect my critical appraisal of it is rising, although very few people know that the minor version of 两只老虎 was most probably ripped from mahler 1 3rd mvt. same key, same rythmn, same 6-bar canon!)

but i still feel guilty about it. honestly, when i saw the email from bw house comm i really felt very squeamish and guilt-ridden. we're mainly responsible for letting bb overtake us. i just don't know how many people we let down.

that's why we're going to pwn musicfeste next year!

enough said. chamber camp was woow. cause you know, expectations (after all the rise camps) were not high, and with what MOE rulings and no whackos (yeah what the heck why is whacko banned?), we weren't exactly hoping for much.

but then again in jc everything shatters conventions.

yeah so we had what, FREE ENTERTAINMENT from yong zhiyi's excellent singing and his remarkable ability to dodge the ball. lol the video of him singing shostakovich was funny lah.

pity he just didn't dance.

and speaking of which i dont dance well. yeah why did we even dance.

yes our beloved j1 batch is like super-cards-crazy. we stayed up till 3 am spamming bridge (it's unhealthy but well.). Pity there weren't many exciting games (those that mainly involve 4 and above).

although i'm growing to love my batch more and more, as well as the cca!

chamber > you!

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