The day Maomao died.

In case any of you were wondering, Maomao is my family hamster. It lived to a ripe old age of around 3 years, and it quickly became something all of us liked to look at together. The times it ran on the treadmill, the times it slept, the times it ate... we looked at it do all those and laughed whenever it did something funny.

It died peacefully while it was sleeping, and went into its little house for its final rest. It hardly slept in its house, but probably knowing its impending death, and trying to make things easier for us, it still went there to rest.

While those times are gone, it still remains a part of us. Thank you for being with us for 3 years, Maomao.

I do remember saying something about posting up the pictures of my hamster but I never got around to doing it. I guess now is an appropriate time.

ivan fed the world.

March 26, 2008. This is a day when my legs and ass hurt like no other because of the training that we had for ODAC. Here's the story:

We had initially planned to do some hardcore PT today, because we had FOUR HOURS to spare, which means some crazy lot of things we can do like static exercises, running etc. But no, things do not always go as planned, because there is always ANOTHER PLAN waiting to destroy yours. Yes, Mr. Tan had different plans, and we embarked on a journey to walk for a total of 4 insane hours.

It's funny how I noticed that Singapore had so much flora and fauna that I simply pass by and not take notice of. Only today thanks to Dr. Loo and Mr. Nah did I realize that there was actually such a diverse range of trees and flowers right here in Singapore. Usually when I walk around such places, for me its like, "Oh that's a tree. And that's another tree. And another..." However, today I was able to note some distinguishing features of trees which I never noticed before, that can help me differentiate what used to be Tree No. 1 and Tree No. 2 to their proper names. But back to the nonsense then.

We walked to the Treetop Walk at Macritchie, which sort of reminded me about the similar experience I had with my batchmates during Sec 2 Malaysian Montage, which was an unforgettable experience. Only that this time, it was 472938473294 times more stable than the Malaysian one. Quality issues, I guess. Either that, or they probably thought that leaving their bridge so loosely supported added on to the "authentic" feel, without actually thinking that people could actually fall off. -.-

This time, we actually had enough time to really look around and soak in our surroundings. By the time we reached Bukit Timah hill, the sound of cicadas became so loud it was basically the only thing that we could hear. Apparently, these cicadas only have a few days to weeks to live when they emerge from the ground after living around 12 years underground, and those are actually desperate mating calls before they die. Funny how we were burning cicadas during our March Expedition like as if they were leeches. =X

Walking up the steps towards the summit, I can really see the difference between the treks in Singapore and Malaysia. In Singapore, there are steps created to help you go up the hill, whereas in Malaysia it's all mud and natural steps. The experience is simply different when it is really natural instead of one which is created for you, even if it is just something minor like steps. We reached the summit, and everyone was simply like "WTF?!" because it just came so quickly -.- Sadly speaking, it is the highest hill in Singapore, but yet it didn't really present much of a challenge in conquering it. (maybe because of the man-made steps?) In fact, we went up and down the summit path a total of three times because it simply was no kick lol.

However, afterwards our legs simply burnt, so I basically couldn't really walk properly. Now, I'm still feeling the soreness, which probably won't subside by tomorrow. Tomorrow got PE, and that simply spells two letters. GG.

[sarcasm]Being such a fortunate person to live in Bedok, the ride home from Bukit Timah courtesy of bus 66, was excellent.[/sarcasm]
I joyfully hopped onto the bus while bidding farewell to my friends at the bus stop in Bukit Timah. One and a half hours later, I painfully hopped off the bus while bidding farewell to the sense of touch at my posterior region. My butt effectively went numb for the next half an hour before improving slightly.

Lesson learnt: Long bus rides can be very scary. Be careful. It is advised to keep shifting your sitting position, or else numbness is inevitable.

ivan fed the world.

One late Saturday night spent between Nic Yun and I, and the results prove to be extremely fruitful.

All of the above is drawn on the MSN drawing tool, and all done with MOUSE only (no tablet PC pens).

Of the people there, I drew Timo, Jon Neo, Abiho, Christian, Samantha (spot her), Yiksin, Zhefei, Shihua in pissed state, Ewen, Ying Ying (Nic Yun added the man), Yuwen, and Shihua in normal state.

Damn proud of the proper drawings I think I did :)

Comment if you want on the class Yahoo groups (it's posted there as well), or on the tagboard about the SUPREMELY SEXY PPLZ OF S07A!


P.S. If I offended anyone with these drawings (I think I offended Abiho and Yiks), sorry >< All in the name of fun kay? :D

ivan fed the world.

Yesterday after Chemistry practical (which I totally did not know how to do by myself), I went to watch this show with Zhefei, Vionna and Sabrina. After missing out on Leap Years (no one to watch with anymore since everyone watch already), I decided to go see just how tear-jerkish such shows can be. Believe me, I have never watched a tear-jerking movie before since I always watch movies with my friends and it all turns out to be big hits such as Pirates of the Carribean or Star Wars.

Entering the movie without the 1.5L Coke Zero which I expertly carried in my hand and then got caught for, we went to watch the movie, which I kind of expected to be quite a nice show. Oh yea, spoilers ahead, with plenty of biased comments to match.

Within 15 to 30 minutes, there was sex -.- And that's on the very first date between the male and female leads. Even though I am tempted to believe that this can actually be happening in Japan, you just have to stare in disbelief when you see this kind of shit happening -.- Oh yes, and I forgot. They were SIXTEEN years old. (Y)

Blah blah blah drone drone drone I got really bored after the first hour. They just showed how the girl got raped, how the guy beat up the culprits, how they had sex in the SCHOOL LIBRARY (WTF), how the girl got pregnant lalala. In fact, this was probably the movie I yawned the most in. Zhefei and I started planning what to do in school the next day, and planning dota that night. In fact, I yawned so much that tears came to my eyes. If this was their idea of tear-jerker, congratulations it worked o.o

And then comes the climax. It's like most Japanese shows out there, pushing ALL the emo bits altogether just so that the sudden "shock" will cause you to feel touched and cry. Of course, for the incredibly bored brain of mine, I was already figuring out what was going to happen later in the movie, together with Zhefei. The male and female lead broke up, the female lead found second love even after saying she will not fall in love again, gets engaged to the man who treats her so nicely, and after a few minutes drops the ring after finding out the male lead has got cancer and tries to visit him.

This man who gave the female lead her second love, was truly the only character I sympathize within the entire movie. He was such a nice, gentle person, looking out for the female lead all the time, always putting her first. He even helped to patch her broken family together again. And yet he gets thrown aside for a dying man. Why is this so? Why is the world so unfair? There is only one answer -

He lost out to the outgoing male lead simply because their relationship lacked the passion that the first one had. I always here from people, "It's good to be a nice person." After watching this show, I'm quite convinced that being nice just does not cut it. After being with the girl and helping the girl to adjust back to her normal lifestyle after the shock of a sudden breakup (due to the cancer) for a whole span of 2 years, he simply gets thrown aside and never mentioned again. I simply feel sad for that man.

The part when the second man got dumped... that was the only part which I even came close to tearing. The rest was just so predictable, but yet I saw people crying all around me. Maybe my tear glands kind of dried up already, I don't know haha.

At the end of the movie, I was sad. Partially because of the sad ending, but mostly sad for the poor wallet of mine :( I probably need to read reviews and stuff before deciding to watch a movie next time XD

Oh, and do you remember me mentioning a 1.5L Coke Zero? Zhefei and I redeemed it, and downed all its contents within a span of 2-3 minutes. Our stomachs got owned for awhile, with the bloating and burning sensations. After burping all the gas out (which was probably what 70% of the drink is made up of), we felt much better. But it's definitely a lesson learnt:


In essence, I feel the starting of the movie ruined it all because it was simply too boring. If it was able to grab my attention from the start (no not with sex, it's not going to work, unless Nick Yun is around), I probably would have enjoyed the movie. But typical plot, typical characters, typical acting in the end kind of ruined it for me. But I see the potential in such shows though. Probably will go watch more of this genre of movies just to see what they can throw at me.

Go ahead, make me cry.

ivan fed the world.

I forgot to mention that I broke my specs during the expedition.

While I was sleeping with my specs on (due to extreme laziness to remove them and put them in the casing), my specs got bent.

Therefore the smart little Ivan decided to try bending in back to original, as what he always does. While in the process of bending, *CRACK*


And there is the extremely entertaining story about me breaking my specs.

So you will probably see me without specs for a few days (like during Orientation, when I tried going through it without specs), until I repair my frame. And yes, I can see, thank you very much.

ivan fed the world.

Originally, our group was supposed to cross several rivers around Endau Rompin and hike like crazy to get to our destination - Buaya Sangkut, which is apparently a beautiful waterfall.

And as you all probably know, it rained in Singapore for the past few days which we were away on expedition, and any rain in Singapore is multiplied by 34765435436 times over there in Endau Rompin, and so it POURED down on us almost endlessly. Probably around 3/4 of the time we spent was in the rain, and the river swelled and flooded the banks. The currents also grew too strong for us to cross the river, and so we had to change our plans and go and hardcore some hill/mountain thingy which was 467m high.

It rained while we were climbing the hill, and it became a wet and muddy trip, and when we reached the top, we were treated to a truly excellent view of the nearby mountains and the clouds beneath us. Nothing less.

The descent was rather horrifying because there were blood-curdling screams from both the front and the back because everyone was slipping down the slopes, which frankly speaking was really quite slippery. The teachers were totally owning us, with Mr. Tan going to the front and sitting down to wait for people while imitating the bird chirps with whistling -.-

And of course, how can I leave out the inevitable leeches? With such hardcore rainfall, the area which leeches covered spread to EVERYWHERE, so people were literally looking down at their feet where they walked just so they could avoid leeches. I think the most frequent word used in this expedition is probably "leech(es)," with people talking about leech prevention ever so often. Some people simply could not walk when there's a leech on their body, so I was just standing there like "wtf -.-" in the midst of the screaming and exclamations of "AAHHHHH! It's damn pain!" Luckily the guys were not so freaked out, but rather found fun in exterminating (mostly burning) leeches which were either found on the ground or removed from our bodies. We discovered several techniques such as "barbeque, flamethrower and 3M-ing" the leech, which have proven extremely excellent for use, nothing less. Beware leech. >=)

I got bitten twice (I suspect). One was probably when the leech sucked on a wound which I had gotten previously during floor hockey with Special Olympics. I think the leech chose to suck there because the "infrastructure" for bloodsucking is there already, so might as well shunbian just crawl up abit more and suck until shiok. The other one was close to my left ankle by a small leech which I flicked off. After that I faster go chiong the river which we were dipping at to wash the wound.

Bit of information: There were no leeches at the part of the river where there was a rather strong current, so it's relatively safe to stand there, provided you don't get swept away.

My clothes, shoes and bag are totally in a state of gross-ness now, and strangely the mud smells like cuttlefish LOL. I didn't even dare to pick up my shoes after the hike because it was too muddy and disgusting ><

I think everyone really opened up over the course of this expedition, especially the guys, which is truly excellent in my opinion. "It's time to HARDCORE." We will be going for our next expedition in June, and we will definitely be more prepared than ever :)

And in latest news, I can go for my church class outing! Yay! Finally get to meet old friends whom I miss so very much.

P.S. I think the ODAC people know why I bolded those particular phrases and words within the blogpost very well :) Enjoy!

ivan fed the world.

As it is, it is mere hours before I leave my house to go to school to prepare for the expedition to Endau Rompin (some river in Malaysia) which begins at such a perfect time - 3 am - which is why we decided to sleep in school in the first place.

This is the first real expedition we are having as a batch of ODAC 24, as BTC (Basic Training Camp) was as its name suggests, just a camp in the friendly region of Pulau Ubin. Now we are going to Malaysia! Not really very far away, but still it counts as an overseas trip, and most of all, an expedition.

I will definitely be expecting to get leech bites (no not you leech -.- the real leech), and people around me are desperately trying to find ways to leech-proof themselves, such as by wearing track pants the whole time, or by trying to find some anti-leech spray. I think it's all just a part of the experience, and it'll most definitely be funny to see girls (or guys!) squealing when they find out a leech has latched onto them. Haha we shall see what happens during the expedition then.

At this time of 6 pm, I have not started to pack yet, and I am supposed to report at school at 8 pm. Procrastination is for the win (Y). And my Throne of Procrastination is none other than my computer chair which I am sitting on now. I think I shall start now.

Managed to recruit 20 classmates to go for our class-adopted CIP, which is the walk with senior citizens at Bishan Park. Quite proud of myself for managing to get so many people to sign up :) And of course, thank you to the people who did (09S07A classmates).

Unfortunately I missed my OG gathering on Monday, which consisted of pool, Crystal Jade and Coffee Bean >:( My parents said I've been going out too much recently, and are determined to keep me caged at home like a bird. "You can't please everyone," they said. Bullshit. I can, and I will whenever it's possible kthxbai.

Congratulations to Eugene for having made it into canoeing (which is your one largest dream to enter as a CCA), and I hope you have a great time there. In time to come, I shall see you kicking my ass in chinups and 2.4 km run like as if it is a daily walk in the park. I'll be waiting for that day o.o

And so, I will be back on Saturday, hoping and praying that I will be able to go for my church class gathering. The only obstacle left in the way is of course my parents, so I shall try to put my persuasive skills to good use here.

Don't miss me too much people. *sniff*

ivan fed the world.