dEsKOh91 VX

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr-brown/90928249/

just a demonstration of how much you can invest if you want to record a proper broadcast.

in case you did not realise, mouseover the pictures to make it easier for you to identify the equipment.

a murder or suicide case just happened downstairs at my house.

my father heard screaming and a hard knocking sound against the floor, and told me to come out to take a look with him.

when I took a look down from the corridoor of my house, I saw many other people were looking down to see what happened as well.

a chinese guy lies face up on the ground, face and the area around him covered in blood.

next to him are two chinese guys. one guy stares on blankly, the other cries loudly and kept blaming the other guy.

police arrived (since they are only opposite my block) and handcuffed the guy who stared blankly. the crying guy was handcuffed later after the police cooled him down. both were led to the police patrol car and taken back to the neighbourhood police centre.

it seems those guys were living at the same unit as I am three floors down. saw a group of guys there just now while going for the reunion dinner. guess they are there to celebrate. and such an unfortunate thing happened.

what a bad end to the chinese new year eve.

finally a report on the Secondary 3 Level Camp from the Field Reports and Photologs expert!phones are not allowed, so this is gonna be a field report. though first...

Overall Comments on Secondary 3 Level Camp

this is one of those camps that are not as strict on adherence to school rules. many of the times we have our shirts tucked out without getting into trouble, nor are we punished for every single thing we make a mistake on.

this allowed us to have more fun as life is actually rather fun there. the times after lights out and before activities commence on the second day, you can hang around till nearly 12 midnight or go visit your friends' tents to chat at about 5am.

not to forget most of the time is spent having fun, so time actually passes rather quickly.

this camp is much unlike NYAA camp, you are not told off on every single thing, nor are you required to maintain silence all the time. the activities also have much more variety and not exactly very drab.

in short, it is one of the camps with the most autonomity I had till date.

=========================

now onto the detailed description...

I will be doing this post like how I did the 2/3'05 Class Chalet of last year due to the large amount of information, and I promise I will finish it in one go, not like some other people who did it halfway...

Day 1 - 18th January 2006

Arrival at School

came to school at usual time. saw a few of those 3/5 people and wei lei sitting at the canteen so I joined them. wanted to take a closer look at the groupings so went upstairs to take camp info thingy down with wei lei, which soon got lost as many people wanted to look at it.

then come the attendance taking and hell a lot of waiting. finally we boarded the buses in our camp groups.

zhepeng and I boarded the same bus as groups 13 and 14 take same bus. talked crap all the way with metinee and jamie (I think) in front.

Arrival at campsite: Pasir Ris Park

we were settled in the marquee in our groups. the marquee also became the central meeting point between activities.

then came the camp opening by the Camp Overall IC, Gopal Suppiah, who introduced us to the various activities and people we will be facing for the next three or so days.

we left our bags there and soon at about 10am we went for our first activity.

Tent Pitching

we dont get to choose our own groups. though eventually we made a slight switch between the few in the queue.

I am in the same tent with Desmond and Quan Xiang and some 2/4'05 guy. two uniformed groups people really made pitching the tent easier.

our tent originally had an unblocked view, but ivan, wei ru (yes that infamous new nan hua guy) and his gang took the spot in front of us. it wont matter too much anyway.

Team Games

this is the lamest part of the entire program, it is like those standard orientation games you play in Sec 1 Orientation Camp. rather tasteless and unchallenging. so the boys group kept cheating while others relax in one corner, refusing to join in anything.

the most interesting activity is probably the caterpillar walk 2nd round. at least people partipated and made the game slightly more fun.

Lunch

the first meal there should be the packet boiled chicken rice. the chicken is tasteless and the rice is cold. I am wondering whether it will cause me to have diahrroea. even found a strand of hair. Zzz.

High Elements Part 1

yes! high elements which I wanted to skip! and guess what? I succeeded in skipping them! my group got posted to Skywalker and I am not the first few to go (rather luckily). yujie had just finished his skywalker when god helped me by starting a drizzle and all of us ran for shelter.

the first round of rain did not last for long. after about 5 minutes we left the sheltered areas outside the chalet to continue. fortunately, within 15 minutes, another rain came and we (yet again) ran for shelter.

Team Name and Cheer, Incorporated in High Elements timeslot

the instructors, knowing this rain is gonna last a long long time, told us to create our group cheer and names in the meantime. my group has some rather unenthu people so I guess it was quite hard on ting ting and priscydora.

finally we settled on the team name Crash & Burn. no idea how it came about, really! the team cheer is really funny, especially the last part when the instructors started doing stupid dances to it.

Who is the leader of the field called Crash and Burn?
Who is the leader of the field called Crash and Burn?
Whoever mess with us will be dead meant *hand moves as if chopping meat*
Whoever mess with us will be prata *flips prata*
*loudly* Na na na na na na (x3) One more time!
*louder* Na na na na na na (x3) One last time!
*loudest* Na na na na na na (x3) Crash and Burn!

bloody lame. but really fun.

groups then take turns coming out to present it and teach it to the rest of the groups who will all perform the cheer together. this is repeated for all the groups in Major Group D.

when we finished, it is 4.30pm and after some preperation to resume the activities it is 4.45pm when the high elements continued.

High Elements Part 2

skywalker was shut down as the ground is too wet and dangerous up there. thus we were switched to the intermediate ropes.

I escaped yet again by being among the last few. after a while I decided to go over and give the trolley pusher for the Flying Fox a hand.

after we are done, it is 5.45pm and we are released back to the central meeting area also known as the marquee.

Tent Repairs

when we returned to the marquee. Gopal told us that the thunderstorm just now caused some of our tents to collapse and told us to go fix it up again before having dinner and washing up.

my group members are from Major Group B and are nowhere to be seen, so it took me a while to recongise my tent and fix it back up. the area where our tent is pitched is also so damn infested in mud that my shoes got totally dirty.

when I went there, I realised all the tents had moved house and now nothing is blocking us. how nice =D

I did not really do much, just brought the fly sheet back up and tried to stabilise the structure as much as possible as some of the tent pegs went missing.

when I returned my group members were screaming at me for being so late and thus unable to go for dinner.

Dinner

I actually forgot what was dinner, though I remembered we ate at the empty areas outside the chalets yet again.

I also remember there are supposed to be watermelons but we did not take them.

Wash Up

wash up was hell. first was the long distance we had to go to reach Toilet B (the instructors advised us against Toilet A due to the atrocious queue).

when guo hao and I arrived at toilet B, there was no queue (except on the girls side). danny appeared and asked whether we are there for washing up. we said yes and he said he will give us a discount: two of us to one cubicle for two minutes.

guo hao has got big business to settle so I went into the cubicle alone for a minute. the best offer at that time.

only had enough time to take off clothes, jump in front of the shower, wondered where the heck is the tap, found that it is actually a foot press, started washing myself crazily with my leg busily hammering the button. no soap nor shampoo, dried myself with towel, put on new clothes and rushed out.

guo hao seemed to have just started bathing though by then. haha. went out and saw those girls washing their hair with the taps outside. used one of those taps to wash my mud infested shoe. after I am done, talked to wei yao since he is waiting for wei hao reuben and josef to come out.

those girls actally had 3 minutes for one person! if I had that much time I could have applied shampoo and soap and dried myself more thoroughly already! but girls being girls, they even have to come outside to wash their hair. ah well...

Campfire Performance Preparation

there must have been something that wasted lots of time since I remember only starting to prepare the activites at around 8.3opm in our groups. I didnt catch much since I am way too groggy to take in much.

just remembered we are doing the NE Value on Racial Harmony and it involves stealing of tents and chinese and non-chinese groups.

went back to marquee at around 9.30pm.

Debrief, Supper, Free Time till Lights Out

I forgot what is on debrief, but we had a hot dog bun and a packet drink for supper. how generous.

the freetime till lights out was the most relaxing period of the entire camp, you walk around in slippers and visit other tents or go buy stuff from the store located near the toilets (sound strange but it isnt as disgusting as you thought)

finally we all had to go into our tents to sleep. but no one seems to be sleeping...

Post-Lights Out

within 15 minutes of lights out we were told to come out of our tents and remain in push up position as we were too noisy. we were once again returned to the tents and told to sleep or enjoy some night PT.

I have difficulty sleeping for dont know what reason. at first my tent remained rather quiet, but finally we gave up sleeping at 2+ and started talking crap till 4+.

some people ran out of their tents and spent their time along the shore of Pasir Ris Park, before Danny came at 2+ and shooed everyone back into their tents and said: Night Market is it?

Day 2 - 19th January 2006

Pre-Assembly, Morning PT, Breakfast

nothing much going on in pre-assembly. you brush your teeth, say good morning, see couples hanky pankying, change into shoes and assemble in shoes along the running track in groups.

the morning PT is really darned senang. we just went for a short jog and did some lameass warm up exercises in lame ways. and we were ushered for breakfast

I forgot what I had for breakfast as well. haha.

High Elements Part 3, Incorporated in Low Elements timeslot

the segment right after breakfast is Low Elements, but even before we began, we were ushered by Vilau to High Elements due to the disruption of the rain the previous day.

I had to once again use my skills to escape this section. luckily that guy did not force us to go for the stations so I am once again safe.

the principal came talking to the few of us about the high elements as well. feel so honoured to be talking to her. haha.

this segment ended in an hour and we went on with Low Elements.

Low Elements

low elements are actually a series of low rope and relatively unchallenging activities that places more emphasis on team spirit than anything else.

we played all four stations, all without much glitches, and also showed our team spirit really well. the first activity is the crossing to the other side with a rope. the only difficult part is getting the rope over at first as there is no one who can bring it over. ended up using shoelaces and one shoe.

I took a few attempts. probably four. first was a totally stupid try. second was after hearing how to exactly properly cross, but failed to raise leg high enough. third is also the same problem, until I finally managed the fourth.

there is also the web where only two persons can be sent over in one of those "holes" in the web. we carried many people across and the remaining just crossed using the lower holes.

the last two activities involve people supporting you by the sides as you go walk on some metal line.

Lunch

I know lunch is fish and chips, though they seem somewhat cold. then we went onto kayaking.

at first I am supposed to have a partner but they all seemed to have ran away. so I am assigned to this 3/8 girl. she is okay, except you have to keep issuing commands to her and she glitches up once in a while.

forming the raft part is the most challening since I dont know how to reverse and ended up circling that place a million and one times until someone pulled us in.

then came the free movement part where stupid yujie come and knock onto us and cause us to capsize. Zzz.

finally we watched a rather hilarious capsize drill by guo hao and phyo.

after that comes the hard part, we have to carry the kayaks back and wash them. the kayaks are darned heavy and even if there are four guys carrying them, they are still heavy.

washing is fun and everyone enjoyed the clean water since everyone "volunteered to wipe part of the kayak clean"

we then assembled and waited for the missing people to come back. turned out they went to bathe first.

Wash Up, Dinner, Final Campfire Performance Preparation

it is wash up again! we went toilet A this time. despite the annoucement to tell us to eat before bathing, nicholas and I ignored them seeing how short the queue is. soon it reached our turn and both of us get to use a cubicle each for unlimited time some more.

when we came out no guys are waiting to bath while a bloody long queue formed on the girls side. apparently washing hair takes a long time.

those who were there were told to have dinner first while waiting for everyone to arrive. by the time everyone has eaten and bathed, it is about 7.30pm+, about time for campfire.

we did the last minute work for the performance before being ushered to the hall where the "campfire" is due to the rain.

The Campfire

though this campfire does not have fire, it is in a really comfy hall with air conditioning, so it becomes more like watching performance instead. haha.

before the groups start to perform, we watched all teachers present there do the opening performance. the Chiku Cha Chiku Cha Chiku Cha Cha Cha thing where the teachers had to shake their butts. hoho.

the various groups performed and in between each major group performance, they will get a teacher up to do the frog song. the one that goes Hm Hmm goes a little shy/sexy/macho frog Hm Hmm. aileen leong isnt as shy as expected after all.

vilau tried to run away from the sexy frog dance, but singh and him eventually had to do it together since singh sabotaged vilau.

many of the various groups performance involved racism and fighting, only a few was slightly more interesting.

Supper, Pre-Lights Out, Lights Out

we collected our supper at the end of the campfire and left for our tents. I spent a little bit of the time walking around before going to sleep. and I slept really well that night. I only woke up once at 3am to go toilet and it is dead quiet. everyone slept I guess.

Day 3 - 20th January 2006

Wash Up, Dismantling of Tents, Picking Up Rubbish

I woke up and washed up and the few of us started to dismantle our tents. we reported there first since we finished packing first and what is our reward? we were told to pick up rubbish around the boys tents area.

quan xiang desmond and I cursed and sweared as we started to clean up the boys tents area. it is a wonder what CME teaches us. I see used styrofoam boxes, muddy shoes and socks, some used rag, plastic bags, drink cans and many more.

we finished the job and ended up with two full trash bags (one "kindly" given from the cleaner there) and returned an hour later with no reward. so we cleared up trash for other people because we three are supposed to. cool.

Debrief, Departure from campsite, Arrival at school, Departure to Home

we were debriefed and boarded the bus in classes as we had to collect our new timetable. althea and shawn slept rather intimately on the bus. hoho. you want picture go get from sarah or something.

we arrived in school, collected the timetable and went home.

======================

this wraps up this long long entry. took me an hour plus to type. now I had to go and study my maths common test. though I think the problem will be more on finishing the paper than not knowing how to do the questions.

good luck to my common test tomorrow...

I really apologise for not posting for such a long time! but school life kept me so occupied that I did not actually find anything remotely interesting enough to be shown.

so here is one great piece of news:

SECONDARY 3 LEVEL CAMP IS TOMORROW!

it is right at Costa Sands Pasir Ris Resort (Note: the one with the spelling mistake is the Gopal guy, not me.).

while the venue says Costa Sands Pasir Ris, we dont actually stay there. we build our tents in the outskirts of the chalet. the irony of life.

the high elements will be conducted there though. so they could have mentioned Pasir Ris Park and Costa Sands Pasir Ris Resort or something.

talking about high elements, I must find a way to run away from them. stupid mx and xing hao got away by filming.

the kayaking wont be too bad (though rafting would be more fun) as long as there are life jackets so I dont drown.

the rest of the activities such as low elements should be generally manageable.

*prays hard I can escape the wrath of high elements*

all these factors leads to my conclusion that I have no idea whether I should be happy or nervous that level camp is tomorrow.

so it is saturday and that means one week since school started. the amount of posts I wrote reflects how tiring and busy secondary 3 life is.

so lets cut the crap short and go onto what happened and review of every teacher! decided to forget about writing about the peer leaders training because it is simply way too late to write something regarding that.

because of the amount of text, I split the posts into different ones and edited post dates to reflect actual days.

(Post date edited for added realism)

after meeting all my teachers, I can now give a short summary of the various teachers that teaches me. of course some of my seniors thoughts are added in for good measure.

Class Mentor, Common Test, Biology: Madam Soh Li Yan

quite a new teacher and I she taught 3/1 last year as a trainee teacher. not many seniors know much about her since she just entered last year.

a rather horny teacher who keeps mentioning sex-related stuff in bio lessons. not as bad as elfie since no girl can crack as many dirty jokes as a guy (sexist but true =P)

but it seemed she was really passionate about biology as she described her experiments and field trips in her university days.

hope this passion will be the pushing force for her to teach biology well.

English: Miss Kelly Lim (Actually is Madam Kelly Lim but she insists on Miss)

a really humourous teacher who can really liven up a boring lesson. the best english teacher I had as of date.

her famous creations include the anus digger cum nose airways widener, the massager and the author of a physiology book that teaches you how to kick pesky students out of the class window.

seniors comment that she tends to give homework often, so she will definitely help us improve. her great command of english also allows her to crack jokes well.

Chinese: Mr Ong Han Guan

didnt hear much about him from seniors, but he seem like an average teacher. loves using chinese proverbs in everyday speech and strict on the deadlines.

my chinese was generally not bad so I dont really mind which chinese teacher teaches me.

Mathematics: Miss Achary Gopalan Shiyamala (Or Miss Shyam)

the teacher who is known to talk like a machine gun, and scolds like one as well. as of now, she seems to me as a good maths teacher who knows what she teaches and ensures everyone understands what she teaches before continuing.

various seniors all said she is not a bad teacher. I agree with them as well (as of yet).

Chemistry: Mrs Yeo Siew Mui

a teacher who seems rather friendly and really experienced. many seniors said she is a good teacher. shall take their word for it.

she often cracks jokes to try to liven lessons up, not to say they dont help, but it sometimes isnt really funny but at least it is better than not trying.

Combined Humanities (Social Studies & History): Madam Aileen Leong

experienced teacher. though she didnt teach last year. apparently her trip to china worsened he english spelling. good thing she didnt forget her syllabus.

didnt receive much comment about her since she didnt teach last year. though they say they heard from their seniors she is not bad also.

must always read up first before her lesson because she likes to call people up to answer questions.

Geography: Madam Rosmilliah Binte Kasmin (Or Madam Ros)

seniors comment she is a really responsible teacher. and she teaches quite well. definitely better than ridz.

personally feel she is not bad as well. prefers us to read up first before she commences on topic.

Civics and Moral Education: Mr Adrian Chia

my CM, English （for 3 months) and CME teacher for last year. really friendly teacher. not much could be said about him. not an exceptionally good nor bad teacher.

and thus I conclude, I got some of the best teachers I could have, which is a good thing. I heard 3/2 had all good teachers.

next post up will be regarding some interesting happenings of the first week of school.

(Post date edited to reflect actual date of event)

it is the first day of school! long pants man! reached school by about 6.20am according to arrangement with wei lei the night before. the guys in long pants really looked more mature, especially ying sheng.

got a table and we waited at the canteen and more 2/3 people arrived as time passed. everyone talked and finally assembled at parade square at 7.10am or so.

great confusion over where to seat. so bad until ridz terrence and ros screaming everywhere. finally sang national anthem and go hall for the wonderful opening speech by teo khin hiang.

we took gallery again because gallery cant fit 9 classes. a summary of what teo said are the various N level scores of the class of 2005 and the intake scores. not to forget the new mission, vision and values.

Motto: Ever With The Best

Vision: A caring and vibrant learning organisation that ignites passion, inspires excellence and illuminates new frontiers.

Mission: To develop each Commonwealthian into champions of today and leaders of tomorrow.

WEALTH Values: Warmth, Enterprise, Adventurous, Loyalty, Tenacity, Honour

motto never changes. it must cost a lot to change the Ever With The Best letters at the entrance.

vision sounds as if it is created with reference to the burning torch in our school crest and damn difficult to memorise though it sounds damn chim.

mission is the condensed version of the old vision lah. fei hua.

WEALTH values has been revised to match the level of english vocabulary of the principal. though it is much easier to memorise compared to vision.

go back class for a while see CM then orientation begins.

guo hao and I take group 4 of 1/4. at first quite unenthu, until we warm them up by asking them to be more open and dont be scared to speak up.

the orientation isnt exactly very interesting. it is actually rather tiring with the long time spent at the hall and the running around to discover the school.

finally went home at 6.30pm or so. too bad we cant go orientation camp.

2006 marks the beginning of a totally different new life in secondary school for me!

it meant I left 1/3'04 and 2/3'05 of the Lower Secondary level into 3/5'06 and 4/5'07 of the Upper Secondary level.

actually I am not exceptionally sad, but just felt that a new class like 3/5'06 isnt exactly a great one. while the enthusiasm will definitely be high, I dont know exactly much people there.

Upper Secondary also meant that we will be specialising in more subjects. in Lower Secondary we specialise in only English, Mathematics, Mother Tongue, Science, Geography and History.

in Upper Secondary, the Mathematics will be expanded into Additional and Elementary Mathematics, Science into Biology and Chemistry, and Geography and History into greater detail.

basically it means more stress. how wonderful.

Upper Secondary also means all guys shall wear long pants. so exciting! ying sheng in long pants! w00t!

I will be a peer leader for tomorrow. hope I pair up with someone I know. but if they are arranging by names, not quite possible.

that's all for this post. more reports on the first day of the new school year tomorrow.