Of School & Block Tests....

Wow, it felt like ages since I actually visited my own blog, yet alone posting new content. But first, I want to say-----

Happy Birthday to my mum!

It was her birthday this past Wednesday, the first day of Block Test 1. I feel rather bad because I kinda forgotten about her birthday as I was busy preparing for Econs on Wednesday. It was till at night when my father called then I suddenly remembered it was my mum's birthday. But I swear I remember her birthday -- I even wrote it in my organizer!

Well, anyway, I think this blog WAS dead. My previous update was more than a month ago. I think JC2 life is rather demanding, in the sense that you need to manage your time properly if you want to have enough time to do everything you wanna do in a day. Sadly, my blog was cast aside as I struggle to complete my tutorials, study for block tests, dance, play games (hey, everyone needs some time off right?) and rest.

Maybe it's kinda hard for you guys to get a sense of my schedule by only reading this blog. Basically, I have something on almost every weekday after school, on top having to complete tutorials and study for tests. My schedule goes something like this:

Monday -- School ends at 3pm; Ryan's LA/Lyrical Hip Hop Course at 7pm
Tuesday -- School ends at 11.30am
Wednesday -- School ends at 2.00pm; Badminton Recreational session from 2.30-4.30pm
Thursday -- School ends at 2.00pm; Ryan's Lyrical Hip Hop open class at 8pm
Friday -- School ends at 2.30pm; Bad Rec session from 2.30-4.30pm

Basically, other than Tuesday, I would have something on after school. This can get kinda hectic, especially when tutorials are piling up at the speed of light. That's not to say I don't complete my tutorial -- in fact, I usually complete ALL of my tutorials on time. But the amount of work to be done is plain crazy. Furthermore, the teachers are spamming tests in the weeks leading up to Block Test 1 (BT1). I had 3 freaking Geog Tests, 1 Chem class test and 1 Econs lecture test in the 3 weeks before the start of BT1. What the fuck, teachers. Mercy.

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So far, BT1 has been something like this: O.o

BT1 started on Wednesday. GP was the first subject to be tested, and I can safely I fucking screwed up GP. Big time. For the first time, I couldn't finish my freaking GP essay!!! Like WTF right? I think my brain wasn't really in an optimized state to take a test, so I couldn't finish writing my essay consequently.

GP comprehension paper was.......interesting and intriguing. The passage given deals with a topic most teenagers (and maybe even adults) would be excited about: pornography and obscenity. There was this paragraph that went something like this: Viewing of pornography would induce "sexual regression", as individuals would try to achieve a sense of "self-gratification". My initial reaction when I understood the sentence was O.o. In other words, the author was implicitly stating that people who watches porn would masturbate, which would cause them to shy away from having sex since they can satisfy themselves. I totally wanted to burst out laughing.

Oh, and then there was the summary. Try to rephrase this point: "........is why people don't have sex in the public". One of my classmates (I won't say who) offered a direct answer: "......is the reason you won't find people fucking in the outdoors. I was laughing like crazy from that one.

But sadly, I didn't have time to finish the application question (which is something like an essay). The comprehension questions are also killer questions. Sigh. There goes my hope of getting C for GP.

On a lighter note, I did much better for Econs today. The essay questions are not particularly hard, especially when I have studied for Econs. I managed to finish writing 3 essays (or sub-parts), but I was writing my last essay halfway when the time was up. Even then, my essays are sufficiently long to get me what I hope to be a pass. I really hope I can get C or D for Econs this time round.

I have no paper tomorrow, so I think I'll spend the day mugging for the remaining 3 subjects, which are Chem, Math and Geog.

Actually, I have tons more to blog about, but I think I'll blog about them tomorrow after I finish revising. Danced for the whole afternoon and evening today. So come by tomorrow where I will be talking about more interesting stuff if my school life is not of your enjoyment.

Till then, I wish everyone good luck for Physics and Literature test tomorrow!

The Other Half

In my last post, I talked about school and how I spent my CNY. So it made sense that this update would be about my current status in dance and some other random stuff.

So what have I been doing in the world of dance?

As some of you know, I signed up for Ryan's LA/Lyrical Hip Hop I course, which actually commenced last Monday. I was just on time for the class and I went in to the studio. To my surprise, I find 5 other recital mates inside! Apparently, Felicia, Jia Xin, Kai Yin, Kelvin and Cherie also signed up for the same course! I thought I would only know Andrew in the whole class (Andrew is one of my graduated seniors, for the ppl who don't know), since he signed up with me.

Instead of "Hi!", the first thing I said to my recital mates was "Did you guys planned to come together or something?", to which they replied "No, it was all a coincidence". It was a pleasant coincidence, that's for sure. I haven't seen my recital mates in like ages, ever since the O School Recital last December. I learnt that there would be more recital mates in the class if the course have not been fully booked so fast; Farah and Helena wanted to join the course too!

Anyway, I think the course has helped me alot in improving my dancing. Unlike his open class, where he would be teaching the choreo very fast since he expects you to know the fundamentals, Ryan actually take alot of time to explain the details and mistakes in his course. In just 2 sessions, he already taught a handful of techniques and a choreo, and he wants us to practice for the next lesson. Guess I need to hit the PE studio tomorrow. Lol.

On top of the course, I still go for Ryan's Lyrical HH open class as usual. Last Thursday's choreo was probably THE hardest one I've learnt so far. He used the song "Angel" by Natasha Bedingfield. I tell you, even the pro ppl in the class have difficulties in learning the choreo, so you can infer that a noob like me totally died in that class. I forgot some steps here and there, and I couldn't catch the rhythm for some parts of the choreo. Just wait till he uploads the video on Youtube.

As promised, here's Ryan's choreo to Britney Spears' "Circus"--



Can't wait for his next open class!

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Oh, I have a Sec 4 junior who's actually interested in Hip Hop! He actually asked me to teach him! LOL. My initial reaction was O_O because I think maybe I shouldn't be teaching him because I'm unsure of some of the fundamentals and I'm afraid I'll teach him the wrong stuff. But after some thinking, I guess maybe there's no harm in exposing him to Hip Hop. Plus, he's interested in Popping too! And he actually wanna go to O School and learn.

It's hard to find a junior from the High School Section who's actually really interested in Hip Hop. Most juniors are interested in BBoy, because they wanna learn all the power moves and show off, but they have no idea what Bboy actually is. For retards ppl like these, who doesn't boter to find out what bboy really is about, I happily defer them to the MAD Bboys coz I'm quite sure the bboys would have a "good" time giving them a crash course.

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I found out yesterday what a small country Singapore really is.

Last Thursday, after Ryan's open class, I found out Cherie actually knows Hiroshi, which is my Geog Tutorial classmate.

I was studying with Ie Ching at KAP when I found out my OGL's ex-boyfriend knows Ie Ching and they were from the same class! I totally went O_o'''.

Then today Jin Xiang told me Heng Yang, who's one of my Malaysian Scholar junior, and also happens to be in my junior class, is actually his cousin. That one I said "WTF?!" in the middle of a lecture. Thank god Miss Lim didn't catch it.

The connectivity between ppl in the modern age is quite extraodinary. Ppl that you thought have no connection whatsoever between them actually turned out to be friends or relatives.

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Let me introduce a new game to play on your PSP, if you have one. It's called "Dissidia Final Fantasy". It's a new game from the geniuses which brought Kingdom Hearts series and the Final Fantasy series, SquareEnix.

This is really a dope game! The game features an all-star cast like Cloud & Sephiroth from FFVII and Tidus & Jecht from FFX. What's cooler is it's battle system. Check out the gameplay video--



During my free time, in-between lectures and tutorials (and sometimes even durng tutorials!), I would even play this game. It's freaking addictive coz it's damn fun. Mum, Dad, relax, I still got finish my tutorials before I start playing. Haha.

Anyway, I guess that's all for today.

It's another day of school.......

Heartbeat

Wow, I haven't been to my own blog in like...........ages! In case you're wondering--

NO, THIS BLOG NOT DEAD!

Lol. Though there are quite a few things going on in my life, but it's not like I don't have the time to blog, but I think maybe it's because I have gotten used to not blogging for some time already. So after realizing this, I decided I would update as often as possible.

With the renewing of my commitment to this blog, I decided it's time for me to change the blog title. Readers of this blog would remember the old title -- "Don't sweat the technique!" -- which means not to focus too much on the technicalities of life and just live it! Interestingly, since the starting of this blog, I've had quite a number of people asking me what that phrase meant. Lol. There you have it. Haha.

"The Dancer's Rhythmic Heartbeat"

It took me a while to think of that title. I wanted this change of title to signify my journey and growth thru dance. When I just started dancing about one year ago, I am always told by Daniel, my hip hop instructor who's now in LA, that I shouldn't think too much of the technique and just...you know...dance. Fast forward one year later, I have understood what he meant.

Dancing is not about impressing others. Yes, impressing and entertaining people comes with the package, that's the role of a performing art. But as I continued dancing, I realized dancing is about materializing the music using one's body. To feel the music, dance, and touch others -- that is the true purpose of dancing. It's music made visible.

Now, whenever I listen to songs, I would subconsciously move my body to the music. On the MRT; on the bus; in my room; it doesn't matter where, but I couldn't really stop myself. When the music comes on, and the rhythm kicks in and resonates with my heartbeat, then I would start to move my body. I bet there are many dancers out there that share the same "problem" too.

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CNY was quite a blast this time round.

Drank some booze, visited lots of relatives, and gambled a little here and there. It's part and parcel of the joy of CNY. Contrary to the popular belief, no, I don't feel more relaxed and recharged even though I had a few more extra days. In fact, I think it's even more hectic than the previous year's. The amount of travelling was insane and my legs were going numb with inactivity. I think I almost fell sick actually, but thank god I didn't.

The food and snacks were delicious as usual. (What do you expect? It's Malaysian food. Lol.)

But the biggest surprise actually comes from my grandfather. My grandfather (my mum's father) was quite sick when I last saw him. But now, he actually out on quite some weight and is active again. I guess miracles do happen. I was quite relieved to see him well and active when I went back to my mum's hometown.

One of the interesting thing that happened during CNY was I finally got to learn the truth about my extended family. It was really a very long story, and I would like to typed it out on this blog, but maybe some time later. My dad broke the story down to a few parts and told me and my bro. Suddenly, everything makes alot of sense.

Last but not least, I got to celebrate CNY with my close Malaysian friends this time round. I guess I won't be seeing them till the June holidays.

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School is a peaceful affair. Somewhat.

I think this year I get along with the guys in my class better, though sometimes the CT rep tend to target his insults at me for no reason at all. The amount of tutorials given (especially from the geog teachers) are more, and the pace of the lectures are getting faster, coz this IS the last year of JC afterall. Surprisingly, the stress is not as heavy as I thought it would be. It's inevitable that JC2 students will experience a certain stress level, but it's not as high as I expected to be, at least for now.

I seriously think I am becoming some kind of a mugger. Lol.

School would have been peaceful............without the massive influx of JC1s, that is. Their orientation has started the past Monday. Hardly a day goes by without their cheers and screams disrupting tutorials. I bet that's how our seniors felt too. It's commonly agreed that many of the high school guys in the new batch of JC1s are posers. Most guys also find, the pretty girls can be very pretty and the ugly ones are on the fugly end of the spectrum. Lol.

Watching the soon-to-be JC1s going through orientation is kinda nostalgic. Makes me wanna go through the whole orientation again and play the awesome OG games like slippery slope and dodgeball. Funnily, looking at the juniors, I don't really feel like a senior -- yet. Probably the realization that it's our final year haven't really sunk in yet.

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I actually have lots more to blog about, but I guess this is enough for today. If you managed to finish reading my wordy post, then kudos to you. Not many people can do that, you know. Haha.

Till then, may you find your own rhythm in life.

A Long Update

OMG! I haven't blogged for so long that I have even kinda forgotten what it feels like to blog regularly! And since I haven't blog for like 3 weeks or so, I have tons to update on. So this is probably going to be a very, very long post. I will split this post into different sections so you guys can skip to the ones that interests/concerns you the most.

Before I get to them, I wanna say--

Happy belated birthday to Bing Yeow, Jia Yun, Wang Yi, and Nik!

And--

Happy birthday to my dance buddy, Diana!

Also--

Happy Chinese "Moo" Year to you guys too!

Lol, these birthday wishes have been accumulating since I haven't been blogging for such a LONG time. I've really wanted to wish them on my blog on their respective birthdays but I couldn't since I didn't really have the time and the access too.

Anyway, I've gotten back my laptop! Full repaired! So my comp is not the freaking lagging laptop that took like an eternity to start up and another eternity to sign in to MSN. Whoo!

BUT---

My hard drive has been replaced too. All my songs, videos, and photos are all gone!!! See, the person who said there's two sides of a coin is a genius. So now I have only what was in my PSP! Guess I just need to spend my free time downloading all the lost stuff. What a good way to spend the new year, don't you agree?

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School has been okay up till now, though there's a hint of the hecticness of the future. I really like my timetable! My latest day ends at 2.30pm, which leaves alot of time for everything else. I have a new Chem teacher, which is also my new form teacher, a new GP teacher, and also 2 new Geog teachers (one for Human and Physical Geog). Along with the change in teachers, Geog went from the slackest subject to the most intensive. The amount of tutorials is kinda crazy.

Oh yeah, I've decided to get myself a CCA, which is---

Wait for it--

Recreational badminton! I bet there are ppl who are reading this expected it to be MAD. My form teacher and GP teacher has been bugging me to get a CCA, so I thought maybe I should join just to avoid questions.

"Why not MAD then?", some of you might wonder. The answer is this -- apparently the MAD Exco decided they won't accept J2s. It was decided by the head of each divisions, and each of them had their own reasons. But for Hip Hop, it was more or less because "the standard is rather low" so they feel they want to "focus on the current members".

But after talking to some of the Exco members, I realized that that wasn't the real reason. The real reason was because they want to keep ppl out of the Hip Hop division. I know there are a few ppl that they don't want them to be in, but what I don't know is whether I'm on the list. But whatever it is, I'm still subjected to the same political barrier anyway.

Actually, I thought a CCA was supposed to be in a club where members gather because they share the same passion. I guess I'm wrong. Nic. Tay told me "MAD is not a crew; it's a CCA". I guess she's right. Actually, I wouldn't have asked to join if my teachers weren't bugging me about it. At least I tried. I'm quite sure I'll be asked questions by MAD members and classmates alike after I post this up, but seriously, I don't really give a fuck care about it.

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CNY celebration in school was quite......err.....interesting. The performances were rather dull IMO, but my class stall was interesting. Since we've so lazy to think of things to sell, we have decided to have a garage sale, so everyone brought their unwanted stuff and jus try to sell. And Yu Wei was going around and "fortune telling" but he managed to earn some cash. In the end, we ended up earing more cash than last year's street market stall. Btw, did I mentioned how privileged I feel to be the only batch of students to do 2 street market stalls throughout JC? Wow, I feel honoured man.

Oh yeah, did I mentioned we sold hugs and kisses too? Augustine and Bing Yeow managed to earn some cash out of it too (I mean hugging). But the whole thing led to a very funny situation when the bboys dragged Si Quan to our stall and dared him to kiss Ningxin. I was laughing like crazy from that one.

But I was very happy to see Casey, Nic. Tay and Sali on that day! I haven't seen them since the MAD senior chalet, and I definitely didn't expect them to be there. Nic. Tay was squealing when she saw me. I really missed their company in the PE studio. Too bad Tack Kian and Wilson weren't there.

After the celebration ended, I went to RUA to learn the Athena'09 fac dance from Karlton. finished learning within a few hours! Phew! I like this year's one better, and it's nicer and simpler from the previous one! You guys will just have to see for yourself.

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Talking bout dance, I can't wait for Ryan's LA/Lyrical Hip Hop course to start! It starts on 2nd Feb, and I am excited to learn the basics from Ryan, the dope "old man" himself.

Meanwhile, I went for his open classes as usual. Check out his choreo to "Eat You Up" by BOA--



He also used Britney Spear's Circus in his latest class, but he haven't uploaded the video yet. His choreo to that is equally dope! Props to "Oldman"Ryan!

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Thanks Diana for inviting me to watch the popping battle last Tuesday! It was really damn dope, even considering that you guys are just in the Popping I. Michael is dope, that is a given! I wish I could learn popping from him after watching you guys battle it out. Now, if only the fee is not exortbitant...

Anyway, enjoy the Chinese New Year!

Balancing Act

So the moment that I have been dreading is finally here. School reopens tomorrow and the balancing act begins anew; juggling school work, open classes, self prac, revision, outings, entertainment etc. And it's the final year of secondary school life.

A year. Sounds like alot of time, but time flows like a raging river.

On a side note, tomorrow is also the day where O Level results are released. Good luck to all my friends who are taking their results tomorrow!

Actually, I really have tons to blog about throughout the whole holiday. Interesting things. But sadly, my laptop is spoilt and I have sent it for repair. I'm only getting it back during Chinese New Year. (I'm using my cousin's comp to blog now) And the comp lab in boarding school went from bad to worse, because the internet connection was freaking laggy the past few days. So that means I can't blog, download latest songs, watch dance vids etc.!!! Argh!

Looking back at my posts, I realized life can be very enjoyable. I smiled when I read some of my joyful posts, recalled some memories when I was reading the others. It's like watching yourself growing.

Ever since I came back from Malaysia, there have been alot of things going on.

I went for class chalet from Wednesday to Thursday.
I went to the new O School on Thursday night and signed up for Ryan's LA Lyrical Hip Hop Course.
I went to NUS and danced with Hui Wen on Friday.
I played the new Prince of Persia and Left 4 Dead.
Other than the Issues and Ideas booklet (which I plan to dao, like what the hell? You wanna write 9 AQs and 2 book reviews, be my guest), I more or less finished all my other holiday assignments.

Despite all the happenings, as I plug the earphones into my ears, I would feel a sense of......emptiness. I miss having my family around me. I miss the heart-to-heart chats I have had with my close Malaysian friends. I have another set of friends in Singapore, but the people that I can really talk to are not many. The best way to describe this experience is like travelling from one world to another.

Sometimes I miss my Malaysian life, at other times, I like my Singapore life. Being too long at one place can be a little boring, but I always have trouble with emotional luggage. I need to balance my dual life.

Life's just another balancing act.

Tears

I haven't been updating much these few days, so I really have loads to blog about. Things like the countdown @ KL, Xiao Long's (my good Malaysian friend, and don't ask me why he share the same name as Bruce Lee) birthday celebration, my father's birthday, a meeting with my long-lost good friend Brian (Not the Brian I knew from Oschool, heh. Parents these days should really come out with more creative names), etc.

But I'm not in the mood to blog about any of these, because I am feeling very down and sad now.

Today was supposed to be a happy day. It's my last day in Malaysia before returning to Singapore tomorrow, so I intended to spend my last day with my family and friends.

That's why I packed my luggage yesterday. While packing, I suddenly thought of Steve, one of my very close primary school friend. He used to be, anyway. You guys would have no idea what best friends we were to each other. I used to go his house once per week and have dinner with his family. I was rather close with their family and Steve's father treated me as his "godson".

Things were jolly, till the day I got my scholarship to study in Singapore. I remembered Steve's mum telling me that he couldn't sleep the night I told him I was heading to Singapore. I learnt that through time and distance, relationships can be weakened. But we still kept in contact though we were not as close as we used to be.

A few years back, Steve told me that his father had cancer. But somehow, his father managed to overcame the cancer and recovered. Or so we thought.

Suddenly reminded of all these, I keyed in the numbers and dialled Steve's home number. I spoke with his mum since he was taking a nap, then she told me that his father had cancer, for the second time in a row. I could hear from her tone that she was sad, thought her voice sounded otherwise. So I told her maybe we should meet up.

That was yesterday. I also planned to go karaoke with my friends after visiting Steve, but I canceled it after having an argument with my mum last night. She forbade me to go karaoke, because she said I have been going out and spending too much, and she wasn't keen on visiting Steve's family. I could understand why she was upset about the karaoke, but I don't understand why would she refuse to visit Steve's sick father. I told her, "Maybe you only want to visit him when it's his funeral".

I woke up with a foul mood this morning. I was ready to murder anyone who irritates me. I was THAT angry. The foul mood eventually fade off during breakfast.

We went to visit Steve's home after breakfast. I got the shock of my life when Steve's father greeted us at the door. He was very frail and could barely speak, far different from the energetic and fit person from the distant memories of the past. My heart felt as though it sank ten thousand feet into the ground.

Steve's mum filled us in on the details of the illness while his father went to rest. But I didn't need them to see how badly affected he was by the cancer. I felt rather sad for Steve because he had to care and worry for his father constantly, when any other teenager was having the time of their life. Hell, he even needs to sleep in the living room because his father could no longer go upstairs.

In his eyes, I could already see that he accepted the fact that his father could pass away "anytime", as told by the doctors. In a way, he was forced to grow up prematurely and assume the role of the head of the family.

I feel lucky that I have decided to call Steve yesterday. I realized that the "uncle" that I once knew could be gone very soon. At the same time, I regretted not calling earlier. Perhaps I could have hung out with Steve's family, just like the old days.

On the car ride back home, I had to force back the tears.

These tears. They can't stop falling...

Happy 2009!

This is just a short post to say--

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!

I've had a great year and I hope 2009 will be equally awesome! I actually want to blog bout alot more stuff, but I guess I can leave that to later. Countdown was fun, that's all I am going to say for now.

I also want to say--

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

(Yes, he's a New Year baby)