It’s a little late for resolutions but…

So I’m a little late, but who’s reading (and keeping score) anyway?

I resolve to do the following in 2010:

1. fall in love and be loved in return
2. get a place at a medical college, preferably in the UK
3. spend more time with, and better appreciate, my family
4. ORD from the SAF!
5. plan, and go for the overseas KKK trip (though it might actually be in early 2011)
6. play and do well in a major Ultimate tournament
7. play better Ultimate
8. see ACS (I) take down the trophy at the Inter-JC Ultimate competitbion
9. be Christ’s ambassador to everyone, especially the recruits reporting sick at the med centre!
10. cycle 85 km to and from work every week
11. read 80% of every Time magazine (this is tough)
12. read more literature
13. write more, and possible take part in a short story/ poetry competition
14. manage my finances!
15. walk closer with Christ
16. finish writing my resolution for 2011 on time

 

Of interesting people and a good game

I went for a pick up game of ultimate yesterday at Gotham. As is usual in this time of the year, the field was nothing short of a mud hole, which made running and changing direction all the harder. I met John and Grace at Bugis MRT and subsequently Nadine and Clement on the way to the fields. Nadine and I taught Grace to throw for a while, and then joined in the less intense game with John. Grace did great, especially for a first timer! Later, Clement, Nadine and I played in the main game. On one particular part, as I was running in the end zone to score, Clement hit my remote layout button! Following his verbal command, I managed to snag the disc by the fingertips before sliding into the mud. It was quite a day, although i have to admit I was rather lazy and didn’t really run during the majority of play time.

Post clean up, we went for dinner, except for John who had to go somewhere else. As was usual, the dinner’s conversation was primarily Clement making fun of me and stroking his ego, which was entertaining to the say the least. Later, Grace and I went over to Suntec to buy a belated Christmas present for a friend from Toys’R'Us, before heading back. That was pretty fun too. =)

*

Over dinner, Clement asked what I would be doing this afternoon, before this evening’s party with the ultimate team. Thinking about it, I realized that having decided to pull my US college application at the last minute, I was essentially free. And last night, I did something I hadn’t quite done in a while: I blog-surfed, and until 2 in the morning! I happened to read one person’s blog, who I honestly haven’t known really well. She’s like a friend of a friend, who I’ve met before. What struck me was how her writing embodied the depth of her personality: she wrote fearlessly and sincerely, appearing unafraid of what others would think. I don’t think it was so much the incidents recounted but how she told them, and her reflections on herself. And I began to think, if this is what she writes, she must surely be a heck of a lot more interesting, which is saying something. I wished I had made at least an effort to befriend her. Anyway, I myself intend to do some reflection today, and resolve to update this blog more regularly throughout 2010.

 

A snippet of conversation…

Mong says:

i wanted to shisha though

Jonathan says:

WHAT?!

Jonathan says:

that’s smoking

…

Mong says:

no it’s not

…

Jonathan says:

its worse that smoking

Mong says:

but you can’t get hooked on it

Jonathan says:

hmmm?

Jonathan says:

how so?

Mong says:

coz

Jonathan says:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/87463.php

Mong says:

you dont have a pack in your pocket all the time

Jonathan says:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8214097.stm

Jonathan says:

hahaa true

Mong says:

so you can only do it like once a month

Mong says:

or something

Jonathan  says:

go read lah

Mong says:

i am

Mong says:

holy shit

Mong says:

shisha is quite strong huh

Jonathan says:

tobacco is the commercially appealing way to spell cancer

Mong says:

lol.

Jonathan says:

yeah

Jonathan says:

i mean

Jonathan says:

really

Mong says:

thats for future me to worry about

Jonathan says:

dude

Jonathan says:

please

Jonathan says:

if u want to screw up your body

Jonathan says:

u should do it in a immeadiate and reparable way

Jonathan says:

at least u can get MC and down pes

Mong says:

lol!

Jonathan says:

cancer is just a waste

Jonathan says:

i mean really

Mong says:

yeah true it kinda sucks

Jonathan says:

hahah

Jonathan says:

is that a pun?

 

Alas, the weekend nears it end.

The weekend was supposed to be a long one. Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The guardsmen are on block leave you see. But as usual, it all flew by too quickly. Hmmm, perhaps it was ended up really packed.

Well, I spent most of Friday watching ER (gosh, it is such an awesome series), and preparing for the SAT Chem which was on the following morning. I also managed to meet up with Kyle, Brian, Nic and Roshen for dinner then. Saturday morning was spent testing at acjc. I also happened to chance upon the ultimate team training, and said hi to Alex. After a much need nap (I’d been in sleep debt for the last two weeks or so), I went to Sentosa to play beach ultimate, before heading to Kyle’s place for dinner with the KKK. Haha. As Kyle has posted on FB, I turned his shower ‘Saharan’ with all the sand I’d brought from the beach. SORRY! Sunday was church, then Korean lunch, and then field ultimate at Tanah Merah. Zhao and I crashed at Li Anne and May Anne’s place for awhile. Following that, I enjoyed a very satisfying dinner at Botak Jones.

After all that, today is cut-your-hair-so-you-don’t-get-extras day, and stay at home day.

 

Dear world wide web,

It’s been awhile. In fact nearly 10 months have passed since we last spoke. To pick up from where I left off, the IB’s went well (Glory to God!),  I enlisted into the army, and found out why everyone else hated it so much. But recently,  I’ve found some sort of definitive purpose here, that extends to beyond these two years. I’m applying to medical college, and praying that everything goes well. I’ve also happened to make some very good friends, and seen the importance of keeping up with the old ones.

A couple of weddings are coming up soon, I’m very happy for the soon-to-be weds. God bless.

Until next time,

JP

 

The Nightmare After Christmas.

Results day. I walked into the auditorium. A certain member of the senior administration was droning on and on, and going through slides of statistics for each subject. I managed to snatchat a few  phrases: “not as good as the last”, “slightly disappointed”… To start with I was unable to make head or tale of the statistics; this compounded my anxiety. But he persisted in going through the unending lists, and I couldn’t tell how the last 2 years of hard work had borne or not borne fruit or what kind of fruit was borne. The sky grew dark, and we had to come back the next day to continue the debriefing and collect our exam results. I vaguely remember some sort of hostage/ terrorist situation too. Then I woke up, realizing that in my sleep I had somehow rotated myself 90 degrees, so that my body lay almost parallel to the bed’s headboard.

What a dream. The first time I dream about the IBDP in as-long-as-I-can-remember it turns into a nightmare. Well, at least its great to know that my subconscious hasn’t lost its imagination.

 

So, much has happened…

So, much has happened since the last time that I updated this page, most notably the final exams and the prom. By God’s grace both went well, and I am now officially unemployed! I also have got a new bike, it is great! Look out for photos! I also went for church camp.

And I fell ill with the Chikungunya fever. Yes, seriously! For those of you who are going “Chicken-what?”, please read this. Essentially its a mosquito borne virus not unlike Dengue. I’m still not sure how/where/when I got bitten by that cursed Aedes mosquito, but I have a suspicion that it was while I was climbing Mt. Faber on the new bike. The good thing is that I recovered really quickly. By Day 3 the fever had gone down! It was really by God’s grace that I recovered so soon, and that I’ve not been too affected by it.

Yesterday night, a few of us went to watch The Day The Earth Stood Still. Everything was aligned perfectly. The surviving members of the KKK (the rest are on vacation), streamed into one of Singapore’s best digital theaters, late enough to skip over the advertisements but just in time to catch the opening titles. This itself was a rare occurrence, as we normally walk in five to fifteen minutes late. The seats were great, I found myself neither craning my neck nor squinting at the screen. The screen itself was huge. I had half expected to be relegated to watch the movie on a puny one as I did on previous occasions  at this particular cineplex. So the movie started, and it was getting really intriguing (at this stage they were operating on an alien), and then, it stopped. It stopped! It just froze on one particular frame.

Someone in the audience shouted: “Eh! Why pause?”. After a series of failed attempts to resume the movie, someone turned on the breakdown sign. The management would like to apologize for the breakdown… Please remain seated. The movie will resume shortly. It didn’t. We ended up leaving and exchanging the tickets to watch the same movie in another theatre at a later time. Well, at least we got to watch the whole movie.

The movie itself? Well I thought it was pretty awesome. It’s a pity that most would disagree. O well.

 

The final days.

The 10th of October was the my last official day of school as a student at ACS (Independent). Needless to say, there were no lessons. In an effort to capture, encapsulate and preserve the countless friendships, memories and beautiful moments that we found in ACS, most took the opportunity to engage in a massive photo taking spree that lasted most of the day. (And somewhere in America, it was noticed by the people who ran Facebook, that there was sudden spike it photo uploads. No doubt, it posed a threat to the stability of the system.)

I know that some couldn’t quite wait for this year to be over and that some (ok, all of us) had at one point in time or the other wished that they had taken anything else other than IB. But, even with all the problems that I’d run into, the disruptions that the IB made to my sleep cycle, the discouraging moments that I want to erase from living memory; in retrospect, I realize that I really do love the school. Chronologically, ACS has made up 1/3 of my life, but such quantitative descriptions do not do justice to the unique experience.

God places us in all situations for reasons. Similarly, I believe that He blessed me through ACS. I found God here. I grew up here. I found friends who I hope to never ever forget. I was educated here, by some of the darnest, best teachers. I found theatre here. I learned to sing here. I learned leadership, how to deal with people. I found racing here. I found ac ultimate… I had 6 amazing years here.

At this departure, I can hope that the saying remains true: Once an ACS boy, always an ACS boy. Because, honestly, ACS has found such a comfortable part in me, and I in it, that sometimes, I don’t really want to grow up. Of course, I know that there is a future ahead for me, which God has planned out, and inevitably, I will be part of that future, but I suppose for a moment it is worth reflecting on the last 6 years.

 

A long weekend.

Given that I have no paper today, I am trying to make the best use of my long weekend. By God’s grace, I finished up the first draft for my theatre portfolio yesterday night, and essentially finalized my theatre research commission on friday night. Only problem is, now I have to get to revising for Math and Chem.

My plans to wake up early to start revising were foiled by me sleeping in. I got up at approximately 0930. Well, at least I am well rested. I give thanks for that!

On another note, I’ve thinking about a few of individuals lately. I think its because of the distance that they preoccupy my mind. They’re not too alien that I don’t even know their last names and not too close so that I can just pick up the phone and have a chat about nothing in particular. Perhaps its because of this that they keep popping up in my consciousness, often when I least expect.

Finally, I woke up this morning having actually dreamt of myself looking up the definition of an aliphatic compound. The dream definition (something about calculating solubility of a compound based on the percentage by mass of certain atoms in the molecule) astonished me even as I got out of bed. It astonished me until I checked out the definition in real life, and realized that it is best not to do exams in semi-conscious, sleep-walking state. (The true definition of aliphatic is: referring to an organic compound without aromatic rings.)

 

I’ve been…

1. Trying to revising and revising for exams. It seems that some sort of dynamic equilibrium has been established between the two. Almost every time I try to rev up the latter, the equilibrium shifts to oppose the change. Curse you Le Chatelier! (Frenchy!)
    
2. Following the to-and-fro of the legalization of gay marriages in the USA, and what the presidential candidates have to say on the issue. I remain unsure on what stance the church, individual Christians and Governments should be. Consequentially, I’ve also been watching Ellen Degeneres’s stand up comedy. And have been absolutely wowed by her talent.
    
3. Working on my theatre arts portfolio, which is essentially a 3000 word reflection on the past 2 years. As a result, I started reliving some truly beautiful memories especially those from Love/Retreat.
    
4. Wanting to properly update this blog, but failing at most times.