you're such a BOLONGY!

Saturday, May 30, 2009

in retrospect, at 8:15 AM

Read the previous post before this.

Here's an update:
Morning jog, pretty much successful! Managed to wake up after a mere 4 hours of sleep the previous night (damn! Facebook!) at 6.30am. Changed, ate a light breakfast and started at 7am. Eventually I didn't use the $5 and my spectacles cause my spectacles were kind of bobbing up and down my head (which gets annoying) while I run so I gave up on that. Self-reflection, not really. Calmness: I couldn't jog till a part of Singapore which had no civilisation; it's impossible, but some part of the time the surroundings did get calm. Running straight ahead in one direction: epic fail, didn't want to run on the noisy roads and such. Getting lost: maybe. You know, I ran from Serangoon to Kovan, backtracked a little and ran into the nearest forest, jungle? Forest. I was pretty much rural... it's around Maris Stella. But I was running and running and for a moment I thought I was lost cause I found myself between a rather-desolate military headquarter surrounded by tall fences and barbed wire, and on the other side a cemetery. Sounds creepy, but not so cause it's near Maris Stella and I've seen the cemetery before. But just at that moment I thought I was lost cause the turn was supposed to lead to an open road but it didn't.

Anyway the jog wasn't too bad, I jogged for 15 minutes and gave up halfway though, I wanted to take in the surroundings so I stopped jogging. The cemetery jog was good, a pity I was only jogging around the circumference of it. Would love to jog in there: serene, calm, peaceful; the lush greenery, but I not exactly sure if it's appropriate.

Took the circle line from Bartley back to Serangoon. My first time; there isn't too much a difference from the NE line, the MRT carriage looked almost exactly the same, just shorter. The station though, looked a little more... "technologic". Seriously, everytime a new development in Singapore comes out, it looks a little more like the sci-fi alien spacehub you see in movies. Swear we're going to look like them someday.

And to the second part of the plan: being energetic to do work for the rest of the morning/afternoon. Hope its successful, really. When I came back from the jog my mum told me I'll fall asleep later on. NO WAY! Right? :)

Friday, May 29, 2009

in retrospect, at 11:16 PM

Last time I remember blogging was the night after House Comm results were released: angtsy, drop-dead emo post (which I deleted). Would rather not think about it actually. Anyway here's an update after what's been almost a month. Have been busy. Sleeping or otherwise.

I was just sorting out my SMSes, typing some into the computer and saving the really meaningful ones. I know it sounds stupid, but my oldy k770i has phone memory to save only about 15 SMSes into the saved messages folder. And I think reading over the messages is really nice, like it gives you that fuzzy warm-hearted feeling. Reading some of them relived Phoenix cheerleading, and also much of the whole journey through as a House Nominee, from House camp to speech to campaigns and also to the day of the results. Remember I was having a self-consolation dinner with Alvina, thanks to that, and much more to the SMSes which really helped me pull through the night :)

Oh yeah, and I just finished planning out my June holidays mugging plan. I'm to catch up with Math (to at least tutorial pace) before the June holiday officially commences. One week to catch up on physics, one week for economics and one for chemistry. Leaving one final week to spam practices and some essay writing skills for GP. Which is not really enough right? Hopefully I'll be on schedule this month. But anyway you'll know soon enough, I'll start whining on my blog if I realise I'm lagging behind anyway. Setbacks are CLIC camp which lasts 4 days, volleyball and wushu trainings generally scattered around 3 or 4 times a week, and also gatherings. Which I should exercise self-control on. Motivations to do well is OCIP this end of year (yes, I really want to go OCIP!), mum expectations and CCA. My mum's clueless that I'm absolutely lagging behind school, and I don't want to scare her with my mid-year results, so it's like do or die. And CCA, bad results = quit volleyball. My mum's already forcing me to quit even before she saw my results.

Oh yeah, and I didn't go to school today. I wanted to be late for school (cause I woke up late and I didn't want to rush) initially but I ended up falling asleep on the couch and waking up around 12.30. I lied to my mum I went to school and she found out later when she came home. Cause it slipped my mind and I left my school shoes outside my house. I would have usually brought them in to the balcony after I came home from school, but I didn't leave the house today so... I forgot about it. Got a huge scolding from her, she poured out her disappointments, questioned why me and my brother's always worrying her. Plus just today my brother went for his NS health checkup and its found he might have some heart problems (OMFG NO!) and he needs to go for another checkup in October. Yes, here comes my motivation to study hard.

And missing the last day of school wasn't entirely perfect actually. It was Runming's last day with us. She's flying to the states to study soon. She's like one of the closest PRC classmate to me, funny, a little auntie but yet really interesting. Might miss her :( Plus it was Miss Huang's last day with us too. She's S65's PRC GP teacher. Quite cool right, like "hey my GP teacher's a PRC". Haha, I know it sounds a little ironical and everytime I mention it to someone else I take a stab at my own Singaporean ego, but hey her English's really good okay!

And I'm going to try something new tomorrow. I'm planning to take out $5, an EZ-link card, my spectacles and my iPod touch on a 7am morning run. It's a journey of self-reflection, observation and calmness. I'm planning to just run straight ahead, in as much of a same direction as possible, then get lost and try to find my way back on bus. The morning run serves to energise me (to study for the rest of the morning/afternoon), give me some "me-time" to let my mind run free, and also to tone my calf muscles. See 3-in-1 package! I'm so excited! Plus there's going to be DHS Dance concert tomorrow at night, I'm looking forward! :)

Random thoughts: I think my life's really fulfilling now. It's paced well (despite some academic setbacks) and everything I'm doing has a purpose, a meaning. I'm satisfied. Life's Good :)

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

in retrospect, at 12:58 AM

I'm past the stage of caring.

Bolong's new motto: Don't live in regret, enjoy the fullest of the moment. Okay that wasn't well thought, it's 1am and I thought I ought to sleep soon. Past few late nights (3am, 4am etc.) have been giving me migraines now and then and also a little fever. But anyway my motto is all about making sure that whatever you're doing right now: you're not regretting it, and to enjoy the most out of everything you're doing.

Fat globules staring up at me. I've had full dinner for 4 consecutive nights now, the first was a $74 Sakae meal between 3 people, next was cheap vegetarian food, then was 8 courses of Thai food and a pre-course of KFC 2-piece meal (on mother's day) and today I had Subway for dinner and went home for a second serving of dinner. Super. Bloated. Seriously thank god for exercise and a high metabolism rate, otherwise I really can't imagine how fat I'll become. But whatever, being satisfied is good. Oh and yeah, I bought 2 packets of chocolate chip cookies in the past few days, the sight of them makes me happy!

This is old news, but swine flu alert's gone down to yellow. Damn. I secretly hoped it would go up to red a few days ago (when it was still orange and we had to take temperature like 3times?! a day) cause I wanted school to stop. Evil. OMG wait have I said this before? This is totally dejavu I thought I blogged about this before but I just checked and it doesn't seem to be there. But yeah, I thought having an early holiday would be quite a good thing for me. Especially when I'm behind in every subject. By like about 3 deadly chapters. Or more.

House Comm results out tomorrow, I just got the news like 2 hours ago. And I prayed to Guan-yin-ma already. Wish me luck. :(

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

in retrospect, at 7:51 PM

Taylor Swift rocks my socks, like seriously! :)
And here's to pushing that video down. It's rather lame, House voting's supposed to be till this Wednesday, but some tell me the voting at VCSD has closed. I haven't even showed the school my video yet. Should I? HAHA

Monday, May 04, 2009

in retrospect, at 8:29 PM

Just a couple more weeks to go, hang in there Bolong!

My mum's prolly quite mad at me cause I've been badly failing my tests - like 10% kind of scores. I'm spending too much time on Facebook, and for the past 2 weeks or so I've been doing House speech/video. I think I haven't touched work for about 2 weeks already. Minus today. I came home from VJC RJC volleyball match, and yes, I did a little of GP.

I've been trying to figure out my tactics, I've finally got it. Here's the new plan: maths and chem on pace with syllabus before the June holiday commences. Yes, you can see that's a desperate reduction from my original plan of catching up before May. New plans, new motivation, though the motivation might not last me through till the June holidays.

OH YES AND FINALLY, HERE'S THE HOUSE VIDEO I'VE SLOGGED MY 2 WEEKS FOR! PLEASE VOTE CHEW BOLONG FOR PHOENIX HOUSE COMM :)

Saturday, May 30, 2009

in retrospect, at 8:15 AM

Friday, May 29, 2009

in retrospect, at 11:16 PM

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

in retrospect, at 12:58 AM

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

in retrospect, at 7:51 PM

Monday, May 04, 2009

in retrospect, at 8:29 PM

OH YES AND FINALLY, HERE'S THE HOUSE VIDEO I'VE SLOGGED MY 2 WEEKS FOR! PLEASE VOTE CHEW BOLONG FOR PHOENIX HOUSE COMM :)

More About Me

Chew Bolong, Singaporean. Would have to emphasize on that point at times cause you're not exactly the first one thinking that my name's PRC. Oh, yes, my name's a Mandarin translation. Get on with life already. I graduated from Dunman High School, then Victoria Junior College and I'm currently spending the next year and a half of my life (brainless), in National Service. I have interests in designing and art [note: interest doesn't mean ability], (indie rock / folk) music, nature, long walks at night and making friends - sounds like a weird combination to say but those are things I associate myself to. I'm an ENTP but at times an introvert. I love deep conversations with people. I'm always in a dilemma deciding whether or not to change this description about myself, so I've decided that additional details shall be listed under.

27 Random Facts you HAVE to know about me

1. I used to suffer from insomnia cause annoying tunes would be stuck in my head or I tend to think through every event that's happened in the day, so I wouldn't be able to fall asleep. But in NS that doesn't apply anymore, cause I'm always tired. Don't think that's a good thing.
2. I like long walks alone at night, because it gives me a good opportunity to reflect, let my mind wander into deep stuff and just immerse in nature and the surroundings. That's provided the place I'm at is quiet and green. Yeah that's parks, garden, and most of Serangoon. Unfortunately, since NS, my mind's been pretty empty most of the time.
3. I told myself that by 37 years old I must have a (big) house complete with a billard table, a home-theatre system, a cosy round table and 4 armchairs in a corner of my (huge) living room, a secret hideout with natural lighting to chill and read books, a tiny bartender corner, a walk-in wardrobe and a useable kitchen amongst all other things. But my definition of future success only encompasses one thing - happiness. Yeah, it's a cliche but there must be a reason why it's a cliche right?
4. I enjoy people-watching. Behavioral science. You can actually tell a lot from that.
5. A part of my body I hate the most? My calves for sure. If you're a consistent reader of my blog I'm sure you would have heard of it already. But yeah, I'm standing at merely 165+ but I'd rather have thinner calves than be taller.
6. I (secretly) detest the Secondary 1, 2 me cause I was way too childish and immature. Not that secretive anymore, but I could have better spent that 2 years doing something else rather than doing lame things and attracting attention. I don't exactly like to mention this cause it's unglamorous, so lucky you.
7. I'm extremely afraid of cats. Like as if you don't know that already.
8. I can't take plain white bread. Nor powder formulated (warm) milk. They really make me wanna puke, cause they've that gooey feeling and they get stuck between or under your teeth. Which is disgusting. That's probably one of the reasons why I'm so short. I didn't know fresh milk existed when I was young, so I didn't drink milk for around a decade.
9. I find people who have good fashion sense and natural leadership emanating from them incredibly sexy.
10. I like girls with slightly reddish long hair and colourful sun dresses.
11. I have an inevitably heavy breathing, and it always gets worse when I start to notice it. Instead, I just reminded myself of it and am having a hard time trying to regulate my breathing right now. Plus I only breathe through my mouth. Although I've a big nose, my nostrils are probably small cause I have a blocked nose 24/7. BUT somehow when I fall asleep my body will force myself to breathe through my nose. Which is the reason why I snore in lectures. It's not even a snore actually - just heavy breathing sounds. I know I sound defensive right now. But no. True story.
12. I think the first gush of air from the air-conditioning system of a car is extremely addictive and pleasant. I'm pretty surprised some of my friends thought so too.
13. Crocs look ugly, but they smell really awesome to me. That fresh smell of sweet rubber. Everytime I walk past a Crocs outlet my heart melts a bit. No one seems to agree with me on this though.
14. The standard pen I use is a Pilot G2 0.5 ballpoint, and I write with such force on paper that Mr Ken Leong once commented on my essay: "braille?". The problem's so severe I need to use a cardboard piece (or a stack of paper of at least 5 pieces) as padding whenever I'm writing on paper. I switched to Uniball 0.38s in JC2. I am now using the Uniball to sketch as well.
15. I'm fully equipped in the skills of martial arts: junior black belt in Taekwondo as well as 6 years of Wushu. But I haven't even so much as laid a punch or slap on anyone. Okay I think I've slapped my brother a couple of times but that doesn't count cause I don't use my full force on him. One day I'd really like to try and punch someone. See if he even feel it hurts.
16. I'm guilty of judging people by a first impression (or just a quick scan). Don't everyone do?
17. Though I do say that, I find that my first 'evaluation' of someone is always pretty accurate. If I don't like someone, after time others will find it the same too.
18. I really like to whine and complain. I've been trying to tone it down recently because I realised that I feel better after I let it all out, but yet it only spreads the gloominess to my friends. I'd hate it if my friends were always whiney too, so I'll tone it down. I'll try.
19. I don't know why but I'm much more expressive online. I spill out secrets more often. I blog about things I don't even tell my close friends. So yeah, do read more when you still have the chance to. :D I suppose I'll stop blogging once I'm off the "student" label. Once I enter the workforce, when things are really so much more political and shit.
20. I've a weird habit of munching off the circumference of my burgers before I savour the centre of it. Don't laugh.
21. I have slight lisps. I wouldn't exactly call it that really, cause I refuse to admit it as a flaw, but pronouncing things with "esses" usually results in my tongue sticking out between my teeth and what comes out really sounds more like a "th". Yes, you can mock me about it for all your eternity of a boring, insipid life because I've came to terms with it. Booyah.
22. I believe that if someone isn't vain, he/she probably doesn't look good either. So yeah, come join me in being vain.
23. I'm quite a perfectionist about my companion, love and relationships, so I don't date easily.
24. I'm a huge nature lover. I want to walk Singapore's city at night with my friends. I want to camp under the stars with my friends. I want to live in the mountains without civilization. With a close friend or alone. My future half would probably have to love nature as well. Not like hiking-nature or climbing-nature, but really just the nature all around you. Even in the city.
25. My friend once said that I like to "fix broken dolls" as a boyfriend. In some ways it sounds apt, cause I think that girls with... a bit of emotional damage are deep and... more exciting to be with. I sound like I've dated before, but no, I've always been single. Evergreen, if you play that 'traffic light' game in University. Don't be weirded-out by me please.
25(ii). So yeah, if you're someone (or you know someone) who likes nature, likes long walks at night, likes folk / indie music, slightly emo / reflective at times but friendly otherwise, call me.
26. I listen to folk, alternative rock and indie music. I hate it when the artists I like gets famous and extremely mainstream. And that's not just a childish thought. It's because I think there's this special bond shared between you and the artist (and his / her music), and when it gets mainstream, the bond you had gets shared with all the other millions of people in the world, and it's no longer special. Kinda like what you'd say with relationships.
27. Finally, I fancy a good laugh everyday. My friends have given me that, and that's why I love them so much.

Not your usual Bucket-list

Yes, in order of 'want'.
1. 1 month backpacking trip to Europe / cold climate areas with a close pal (or two). The less civilization the better.
2. Is wanting something illegal illegal in itself? Yes, drugs - at least once. LSD, to be exact.
3. Making (good) friends with someone insane. I mean, mental. But I don't want to make it sound derogatory. There's something strikingly beautiful about insanity, like experiencing another dimension of some sorts.
4. The Killers' concert.
5. A folk / acoustic concert - say Iron & Wine, Bombay Bicycle Club, Inch Chua or Zee Avi.
6. Camping under the stars in the city (Padang?) and listening to acoustic sounds.
7. Experience the Glastonbury / Lollapalooza / Woodstock / Coachella festivals.
8. Bungee-jumping.
9. Scuba-diving.
10. Going for a real Broadway production.

I know - I'm weird, right?