PSSC Fair / RSAF Open House

Secret War Journal[29 May 2011][Photo-heavy]
Yes, me deciding to attend the Public Service Scholarships & Careers (PSSC) Talk was long decided. I had planned to invite some guests to the talk but because I was asked to register for them beforehand which I did not, I was wondering if they would be interested and didn't had the time to ask before the deadline as the decision to go was rather last minute too.

Johnston and I meet up earlier at Plaza Singapura for Lunch. This is perhaps a good time to inform you all, we are all pretty sick of fast food due to excessive eating of fast food during all our study sessions, dubbed Mugfest.

Much to our dismay, we couldn't find a food court in the shopping mall. I could had sworn I had seen a food court in there before. Oh well. We decided to dine at Pizza Hut.

Student meals were not available during weekdays. Johnston decided to order Baked rice while I ordered Hawaiian Pizza for lunch.

Keller arrived around 10 minutes later. At that point, our food had not arrived. I was starting to wonder where's our food and if the waiters forgot our orders.

Around 20 minutes passed and Keller started to complain about how long our food is taking to arrive because we were going to be late for the fair at this rate.  As a result, we went to ask a waitress when is our order would be ready.

It was only until then we released they forgot our orders. Mine was prepared in haste while we were given a free plate of garlic bread since Johnston's baked rice would take a long time.

Well, eventually, we got our food though we missed some of the talks for the fair.

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The fair was not bad. There were really a lot of information about the scholarships. In addition, there were talks scheduled by various organisations to inform us in depth what their organisation is about.

As it turns out, there wasn't a need for worry about not registering your name before the deadline. The fair was pretty much open to the public, if you were aware of such a fair in the first place. The event was pretty much hushed up.

I guess I'm helping them to do some publicity for them right now. Hahas. The event was at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel this year. I wonder where the event would be held next year. :)

In the fair, I met the other Leroy. Actually, he spotted me first. Hahas.

After the talks, we headed off for the Royal Singapore Air Force(RSAF) Open House!

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RSAF 2011

For this, I had prepared an image slideshow for simplicity. Unfortunately, it's in the opposite order, my apologies.

Time to rise the curtains, for I shall let the photos do the talking. *Walks off*

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"War does not determine who is right - only who is left." ~Bertrand Russell

Sucker Punch

Secret War Journal[24 March 2011]
"Awesome day. Hahas" That was my cliff notes for this post and I think it's super hilarious for me to write that. (Still laughing, oops)

Okay apart from the fact this week's buzzword for me is "Awesome", though many of you probably already realised I mostly meant it in a sarcastic way. That's a tale for another day. Fortunately, this movie outing occurred before this week so the word "awesome" is meant literally. :) Saved by the virtue of the fact that...

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Skin-deep or Cell-deep?

For this movie outing, Cynthia's the organiser.
Apparently,... actually forget it. I think it's too chaotic to be written down in words. Just know that everything was done on the spot, the movie to watch, where to watch, everything. Haha. I say Chaos at the cellular level.

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Buddy Hoagies

Attendee(s): Johnston, Eunice, Clarissa, Siew Yan, Bao Lin, Cynthia

Ah, before I forget. Let me mention that today, 24 March, marks the end of my March Block Test! Of course there's a cause for celebration! No?

Anyway, after much discussion, we headed off to E!Hub to have lunch!

The restaurant we went to dine at was one named Buddy Hoagies.  It sells affordable western meals! :)

I ate the Flame Grilled Chicken and it's not bad, definitely go try it out when you see a Buddy Hoagies resturant nearby. ;)

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Sucker Punch, the Movie

Shoot, I'm running out of time. Let's jumpstart to the movie itself then.

I don't care what other might say but personally, I would relate this movie to one similar to Inception. The plot is rather complex which is actually thrilling to watch, plot-wise. However, the motivation of the plot was left unexplained which was a letdown in some ways. Of course, if you're someone who just wants action without much reasoning, then this movie suits you.
Yet, if you're a big fan of action, I would recommend you to instead watch Transformers: The Movie as it is more action-packed. Sucker Punch is a movie that goes from slow to high-gear then back to slow and so on.
Thus, one can say Sucker Punch is more of a generalist than of a specialised movie focused on one genre.
Sucker Punch incorporates a large amount of one's fantasy, much like Alice in Wonderland and one thing that I really appreciate about Sucker Punch was the director's use of movie technique.

The use of foreshadowing is very apparent in this movie, from the start to the end, subtle hints are dropped from scenes to scenes that allows your subconscious mind to already to be aware of what's going to happen yet at the same time, leaving you a sense of suspense. This, I feel, is very well done as it helps to enhance to the plot.

However, one technique I believe was badly used would be the slow motion scenes in the movie. Initially, I was impressed by it for the first few fight scenes. After a certain point, especially at one particular scene where almost every move was in slow motion, the technique was used too excessively which led to a negative afterthought about the scenes as it was far too slow for a fight scene and that particular move didn't seem to be of any significance (if it was used for a finishing move or one that would be critical for the finishing move i.e. the third move). Apart from that, this movie is still pretty decent despite the name. I'm not sure of the true meaning behind the movie unless what I suspect is true (but that doesn't make much sense in the plot. Okay, perhaps a little bit but...)

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Really appreciated Johnston sacrificing his other events to join us. Thanks! :)

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"Fear not darkness for that is when the stars shine the brightest" - Anonymous

Of arguments and philosophy

Secret War Journal[14 March 2011]

Rare are the days I can finally post on the actual day itself. Rare, indeed. Hahas. Well, that is if I finish this post in half an hour anyway. :)

So I have been promoted to JC2 if you had not been following due to the recent chaos and today marks the start of the March Block Tests.

The first paper would be General Papers. Fancy attending for examinations during your holidays. How great is that?

The paper was tough, not a very bright start.

I did some essay question on space exploration. Not sure if I made the right choice...
Halfway through, I sorta end up writing philosophy though I went back on track (hopefully)
The comprehension was scary, especially the summary.

I hope I pass. I hope. O.o

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Had KFC with Bao Lin, Cynthia, and Lai Yin. Tried this new Hearty meal (I think it's called that.)
Left for Simei where I meet with Darian and Johnston for Burger King. ^^

Thanks Darian and Johnston for helping me out for Physics! Much appreciated! :)

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Didn't really want to blog about this but... actually, today is White Day, exactly one month after Valentine's Day.

This day is mostly celebrated by Japanese but I doubt that would be so this year with the recent earthquake (and its aftershocks) and tsunamis in Japan...

Not a very joyful day, or this period of time for that matter...

Anyway, be Strong, Japan.

The Nutcracker

Secret War Journal[9 December 2010][Long Post][Picture Heavy]
Here is where there some overlaps of events. I won't make much sense stating the context for this particular case as it requires some background information which should be addressed at another post.

Basically, on that day, I was watching a drama with my aunt (which is very rare but I enjoy it okay! :D) when Johnston invited me to a musical play called the Nutcrackers.

Despite the play being in Singapore for quite some time, I never got the opportunity to watch one so I was really looking forward to this one. :)

That was one problem then, I had no access to my wardrobe then. Hahas! Johnston says he intends to go there in MJC uniform since he doesn't have the time to go home and change. I was planning to go there in shorts but my aunt was like horrified by that idea (well, I guess I should be but hey, I had no access to any pants right now.) and she sent me off to collect appropriate clothes for the musical. Hahas!

I watched for a few more episodes of the drama with my aunt before leaving to collect shoes and cloths. It took one hour to retrieve them. Phew! When I come back, my aunt was still watching the drama. Hahas! Continued to watch with her, of course. :)

Johnston's handphone was going low battery so we quickly made sure we planned everything so that we can (hopefully) find each other at the meeting area.

Oh, before I forget, on that day, I actually forgot about Punggol's LRT system. I was reminded by my aunt who was telling me I do not need to take a bus 83 then transfer to MRT when I was like giving a very confused look because I only knew that way to the MRT station. Hahas!

Punggol MRT station is still as spooky as ever. Can't they add more things, like set up some shops? It's so empty.

The musical play would be held at the Vivocity near the HarbourFront MRT station.

The MRT Station seemed to have changed by quite a bit since I last went there since there are many more exits than I recall. I was a bit lost when I came out of the station (as usual, given my pathetic sense of direction). Hahas!

Well, I definitely never foresee it being having so many exits so apparently there was an ambiguity in our planned meeting location. Oh great, I'm so lost. Fortunately, Johnston's handphone was not drained dry yet. He smsed back that is the exit with the Yogi Bear Movie advertisements. But there was a problem, I don't see any Yogi Bear advertisements. I'm officially very lost. Hahas!

At that moment, Johnston's phone ran out of battery. :O

Well, I wasn't aware yet but I knew for sure that happened when he started calling me via a public phone.
Well, at least, we did not lose so much time that we end up missing the musical. Hahas!

Had dinner at Burger King before setting off for the musical. (At least the inside of the vivocity didn't change much, hahas) The venue of the musical is at the rooftop of the shopping mall which was like sort of cool because I didn't know the rooftop had something. Hahas!

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The play

Well, the ticketing system was short of defeated since you can catch a peek of the musical from the sides outside. Well, at least if you have tickets, you get to side while you watch. Hahas!

(My camera isn't very good so I hope you don't mind if the quality isn't top-notch. ;)

Thus, the magic (I meant musical) begins

They started to dance!

Sorry, big guy. O.o

The story officially begins

Welcome to the rat kingdom! :D

Oh, I forgot to mention this. Did you realise the nutcracker had already appeared?

Duel!

The nutcracker is now human!

The strange ice king and queen have appeared.

That's one weird fairy as well, hahas!

Happily ever after. O.o

Photo-taking session!

Rats! Hahas!

The Prince and the Princess!

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After the photo-taking session, we went out and took pictures of the nearby gigantic christmas tree! (That tree went up on the news too, by the way)

 Merry Christmas in advance? XD

There, that's the big tree I was talking about. Magnificent, isn't it?

This was a bit of a fail shot. We did not know it was so dark in the picture. Hahas!

A final look at the tree before we headed home! :)

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Actually, I already observed that that day. Stay strong and don't lose heart, my friend for you do not stand alone. There are many who will stand by you, I'm sure. So stay strong...