A New Term, A New World

Secret War Journal[16 August 2014]
I originally wanted to publish this post last week but wow, school really takes up a great amount of time these days. (I am taking time off from my studies to write this. xD)

First off, I am saddened to note that summer vacation had ended. It had only been one week of school but I had missed my freedom solely. (Nevertheless, school had been fun thus far.)  I would not say that I had wasted my time during my summer vacation. I learnt a lot during my short time in my part-time job, IRAS.

Link: Summer Vacation Wishlist

Score: 7/8

This is probably my best performance ever. Wohoo! I guess this could mean that 1) I am better at setting goals; 2) I am better at accomplishing my goals.

Ironically, the only goal I could not fulfil was my very first goal I had set for myself - Learning Driving. I guess it shows how easily I derail from my goals. (Dang) The main reason why I did not start on this goal is due to the fact that I sort of spent the funds allocated for driving to learning a 3rd language - Japanese. While I did learn a lot of interesting things from that, I felt a bit of unachieved since I did not manage to start on driving. Of course, many would argue that the skill of driving is much more useful than a third language but that is, of course, debatable. To be frank, I felt a pang of regret. The reason being was that the summer vacation was not long enough for me to attend a full semester on the basics of Japanese. I was only able to complete two-thirds of the curriculum of basic Japanese. That did not qualify me to take the examinations for basic Japanese.

In short, it means, it can be said I wasted money for learning how to drive with an half-assed effort to learn Japanese. Go ahead, call me an idiot. Haiz.
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Entering new grounds: NTU
It is now August 16. Most of the orientations have ended.
[Link: SCE Orientation Camp]
Apart from SCE Orientation camp, I have also met my coursemates through the various orientations organised by the Schools.

What set these orientations apart from the others, especially the first, was that instead of remembering each other names, we ended up remembering everyone by their chosen alias.

Now, how did that happen? On the first orientation, since everyone was arriving in waves, the Orientation Group Leader (OGL) had decided to let us play a name game with a twist, using alias just like online avatars. Thus, we needed to remember each other's alias (Useless information but funny nevertheless) Some examples include "Table" & "Chair" and "Tampines".

As it turned out, since our cohort size for the course is quite small, all the other orientation groups for our course were largely the same. Hence, on the second orientation, we pretended to not know each other and played along with the name games with the OGLs. The introduction was especially interesting as we introduced ourselves as a student pursuing the course BCG in succession. This went on so well that the OGLs actually thought it was a prank. (Do note that normally, students in a orientation groups have similar courses but it is extremely rare to see a majority of students having the exact course in a orientation group.) It took a lot of effort to keep a straight face. Hahas.

Over time, we finally got to know each other's time. (It was no mean feat to me. So many names, dear Lord)

1. Anirudh - Boundless. Hindi & Sanskrit Origin.
2. Andy - Brave. Literal meaning of "man warrior". Etruscan origin.
3. Bryant - Strong. Celtic meaning.
4. Claudine - Lame. French and Latin Origin. (Wow, never knew a name could mean that. Same for Claude. Claudication means limping in Latin, it is a medical term. Now you know.)
5. Jason - Healer. Greek origin.
6. Jeffrey - Multiple origins and meaning, mostly similar. Teutonic & American - God's Peace. Anglo-saxon - Peaceful gift. French - Divine Peace. English and German - District, Traveller, peaceful pledge 
7. Pauline - Little. Latin Origin.
8. Raymond - Wise Protector. Literal meaning of "Guards wisely" French Origin.
9. Desmond - Gracious Defender.
10. Joel - He that wills or commands. Hebrew origin.

Names with non-english names are exempted. As usual, I am not interested in those. There are some interesting one and some that really breaks what I thought was the norm for names. Let's see where we get to with this class. :)

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"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future." - John F. Kennedy

Over the Edge: Struggle

Secret War Journal[26 July 2014]
I was recently invited to attend a musical play by Lai Yin. Performed by her church, it was a play that deals with the internal struggles that a teenager would face in the society.

As every young adult would probably face during their teenage years, it is a period where one struggles to find their own identity in the society. The story follows a girl who is doing well in academics. However, she wanted to fit in with the more popular kids. She was always not invited to social gatherings as she was not popular with the friends. Thus, she decided to spent more effort in becoming more 'popular'. The main character's family is not very well-to-do. Hence, they do not have  lot of money to spare and her parents are not willing to spend on unnecessary things.

The girl decided that, to be become popular with her peers, she has to dress better and do the things the peers do to fit in. All these cost money, however. To get the money, she lied to her mother that the money is for buying textbooks. In the end, she was not able to fit in despite her efforts and her lies were subsequently exposed.

As it turned out, people liked her as she was before. Thus, there was not a need for her to 'pretend' to be someone else. That is the message that this play seeks to tell us: Just be yourself.

It was an interesting play. I went with Laura. Along the way, I met Siew Yan and friends. No photos, we are not a group that likes to take pictures. Not sure if Lai Yin took though. Hahas.

SCE Camp 2014 (I)

Secret War Journal[8 July - 12 July 2014][Long Post][Media-Heavy]
Day 1 - Yorel, you're up
Clothes checked. Shoes checked. Sleeping bag checked. Yorel, it is time to go.

I would be frank. I was dragging my feet to the door on that afternoon to go for the camp. I was slowly packing my items as indicated from the packing list provided. Emelia was around so she probably noticed my walking up and down to transfer items to and fro my bag.

Why am I dreading the camp? After all, did I not sign up for the camp. (Now you are probably wondering I am some indecisive ***tard.) In my defense, I am an introvert. It just so happens that on this very day, the first day, I was feeling the full blown effects of introversion so I was not really looking forward to meeting a lot of new people. It helped that I had prepared myself for this day but it did not help that I was not able to recharge sufficiently before today.

Nevertheless, what's done is done. Despite my reluctance to get out of the house today, I set out towards tampines.
--
The location to meet was at the Gongcha at the MRT station. (Ironic as it may sound, I actually reached the area early. Curses, well on the bright side, I guess it was better to be early than late.) However, when I reached the location, I did not see anyone in orange shirt.

(A bit of background here: We were supposed to meet up at bubble tea shop gongcha wearing an orange shirt. Since there was no whatsapp group created beforehand, I had no one to consult except for a phone number.

Our orientation group (OG) name was Titus. Supposedly named after a roman emperor. The reason why likely could be due to the theme of the camp - The King's Coliseum.)

As it turns out, Titus's meeting point was not exactly at the bubble tea shop. Jin Heng, one of my OG mate came to me when I was loitering around the shop. He asked if I was part of Titus which I replied that I was. He pointed to a shelter opposite the shop where I see another guy with orange shirt.

As it turns out, I was the first few to arrive. I was kind of surprised because many members from the other OGs had arrived. They were all very early, wow. Perhaps I should rephrase my sentence - I was the second member to arrive at the correct place. I think many of us arrived around the same time but no one realised that the meeting point was actually opposite the shop. (I mean, seriously, no one was informed about this. They cannot be blamed.)

While waiting for the rest to arrive, we started to introduce ourselves to make this whole waiting a little bit less awkward.
--
When everyone was gathered, we took a bus towards the lodging area. Much is not revealed before this day. No one among us knew where we would be staying at nor what were in store for us. As it turned out, we were taking up residence at the Aloha Changi Chalet.

This was where we stayed for 4 nights

After a long ride, finally reached our destination

Here, we did a formal round of introduction and proceeded with the games.

This is where we had our games for the first day

Camp President Speech

One of the notable games we played was the one concerning our mode of accommodation. We had to compete against the other houses, Vulcan, Spartans, Ceasar in the game of 黑白配 (a game where two players first play scissors-paper-stone, the winner then denote a direction which the other player must not point his head to. If the winner succeeds in making the other player point his head towards the designated direction, he wins.)

Scissors-paper-stone!

Wrong direction! :p

Long story short, Titus was second. Thus, we were supposedly allocated the second best lodgings. (I still feel cheated on this matter but it is not that important.) The last house from the competition was supposed to sleep outside overnight but obviously, it was a lie. (In fact, some believed that their lodgings are better than the first and second runner-ups. Blasphemy.)

Next, we painted our house flags. Camp family shot!

Ceasar

Vulcan

Spartan

Titus

Titus Family
From Left(2nd Row): Kai Wen, Jin Heng, Andy, Leroy, Wee Hang, Da Yuan, Choon Keat, Ryan
From Left(1st Row): Yeow Yang, Aaron, Sisi, Xiao Xin, Sebastian, Francis, Shu Wei, Sin Yi, Daniel, Jivon

Night came and we played a series of games with our sister-house Ceasar before we called it a day early. By early, I meant earlier than expected. The activities ended around 11pm which came as a shock to most of us. We actually suspected if the camp organisers would wake us up in the middle of the night for some activity. (They didn't.)

Blowing bubbles, for fun

Drinking game

So messy!

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Interim -/- Namesake -/-

• Aaron - (Hebrew) Exalted, Strong
• Andy - (English) Manly
• Daniel - (Hebrew) God Is My Judge
• Francis - (Latin) From France Or Free
• Jivon - (Sanskrit) To give life
• Ryan - (Irish) Descendant Of The King
• Sebastian - (Greek) Venerable
• Sisi - (African) born on Sunday

Not much interesting names this time round. Some names worth mentioning would be Jivon - an irregular name given to males. Its Sanskrit origins makes the whole name much more interesting; and Ryan - For obvious reasons. Unfortunately, it is of Irish origins. I hope to find one originated from France.

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Day 2 - We and our sense of direction
We got lost, very lost, extremely lost

Morning came with most of feeling tired despite how early it ended yesterday. Time check - it is now 7am in the morning. I slept at around 4am in the end yesterday from talking. Some slept even less, catching the World Cup live.

Breakfast!

Today's highlight was Amazing race. Our first stop would be... Tampines. There is nothing to done at Tampines actually. It just so happens that that we have to transfer at Tampines since it is the nearest MRT station from our chalet. From Tampines, we made our way via train to Somerset where *scape awaits us.

And so we go!

Having fun at Tampines

This train belongs to us

--
*scape

One of our sponsors

Reaching the station was no easy feat. Not much were given as to the precise location of their whereabouts apart from the fact that it was in *scape. After venturing the place a bit, we eventually found them at the one of highest floor. One interesting to note, however, was that there was a filming being taken place beside it. I could not figure out what show was it for but it did not seem local.

One consequence of the station being located next to a set was the inability to shout and make a lot of noise since the other party is filming. As a result, we were not allowed to do cheers and get overly excited. (kinda sad, huh)

To clear this station, we had to finish a game combining charades and messenger.

Mirror LMAO

Instead of a verbal message, the message had to passed from one to another via charades. Of course, there is a high chance that the message gets kind of strange, rendering this challenge potentially difficult. However, all strategies were made redundant by the wonderful position of the wall mirror. With the mirror, one could see the first person's actions and deduce the answer. With that, we cleared the station with ease.

Next stop. A certain stadium (I forgot)
--
Stadium

What? Not happy ah

This station tested us on coordination and teamwork. It was a manageable task and we cleared it with minimal hassle.

Tying our legs together

We are ready!

Getting our coordination right

The first task was to satisfy a set of conditions as instructed by the station master. For example, 5 legs, 4 arms. Only 5 legs can be in contact with the floor and 4 arms in the air. It is similar to the game, twister.

Next, we would be given a pivot and we would need to either rotate clockwise or anti-clockwise about it. It was quick fun clearing this task, hahas.

The third task involves passing through a hula hoop across all the members.

Not very difficult, isn't it

Cleared them, no sweat!

After the third task, we would be released. The entire house would not conduct a macarena dance. This was done with hilarious effect.

What's happening?! Hahas

Now, bonus round! In this round, we would given a period of time where we try to get as many water bombs from one point to another via human chain. We had to throw it to pass to the next person.

Not going to make it easy for you guys!

Bring it!

This is trying

This is...Just give me!

This is...Too easy

Out for lunch

Clearing the station, we headed for lunch - Chicken Rice!
--
Plaza Singapura

Getting our clue to our next stop, Plaza Singapura, we headed there after our lunch.

As it turns out, this was the easiest station. The challenge was this -- Find a certain number of items which add up to a specific amount as given by the station master.

Our strategy to achieving this real quick was to split into smaller teams and find items to match up to an amount that we discussed on.


--
Marina Barrage

Our last station. Last because we took kind of long to reach the destination.

Our OGLs - This is going to take a long time

The task is called Magic Carpet. This is actually harder than it looks. Stage I was easy. We need to stand on the mat and flip the mat without us touching the grass patch outside the mat.

Smile while you still can guys!

Stage II: We need to move the mat from Point A to Point B without us touching the grass patch outside the mat.

Magic Carpet, fly us there!

It took some time and a lot of coordination but we did it.

Stage III: The mat is not cut to one fourth its size and we all need to squeeze on it!

We did it! We did it!

Time to attack the Station Master, with bubbles!

Since we ran out of time to go for the next station, we decided to have some fun (and clear some hidden missions at the same time :)

Jump shot

Power Slam

From Left: Aaron, Leroy, Andy, Francis, Jin Heng

Taking pictures with tourists

Time to head home.
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A little incident
On our way back to the Chalet from Tampines, an incident happened. Drunk with laughter and fun, we boarded a bus without a second thought, only to realise that the bus does not go to our chalet. The bus that we were supposed to take was XX. When a bus XXA came, we sorta assumed that the bus would go to our Chalet. Once aboard, one of us checked and realised that it does not. Immediately, we alighted after one stop and waited for our bus. However, bus after bus came, all full and could not accommodate us. Eventually, we gave up and took a bus back to the interchange and took the correct bus to the chalet. By then, we were one hour late. As a result, we had a late dinner.

You would think this is all for today but it had only just begun. I am cutting this post into multiple parts, seeing that this post is becoming too long.

Click here to see what happened next [Not published] -->

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Credits: Are You Photogenic?, Michelle Chow

X Men: Days of Future Past

Secret War Journal[25 May 2014]
People who knew me would know that I had no intention to watch this movie at all. Partly because I had no interest in the story. No offense to the fans, I did watch the X-men films up until Origins (at least I think I did) but I just liked how the story ended at X-Men 3 (it was a sad ending, I know). I did not really want them to dig up the story again and smash what I thought I knew about the story and kept it moving again.

Premise
That said, I ended up watching the movie in the cinemas. As ironic as it may sound, I was presented with the opportunity to watch the movie. As luck would have it, NUS Business was giving away X-Men tickets for participants of their tea session. As not everyone who attended for the tea session was interested in watching the movie, Emelia managed to obtain additional tickets for her family and me.

To be honest, I was not aware about this development when they procured the tickets for me. At first, they asked me if I was free to join them for a movie. At that moment, I was celebrating Jing Ying's birthday with Lai Yin and Gable gang. Since I was not aware when the celebration would end, I decided to play safe and replied that I would not be able to make it. For some reasons, they did not catch my reply (I think Johnston's phone went out of battery) and sent me another message stating that they got me a ticket. Naturally, I assumed that they bought a ticket for me already. Hence, I excused myself and quickly headed for Vivocity to catch the movie.

Personal Opinion
The movie saw the return of popular characters such as cyclops, jean grey and storm. While they play little role for the bulk of the show, they did play a role.

There were introductions to many new characters featured in the Days of Future Past. Furthermore, we got to see the younger Magneto and Professor X in action. The whole show gave off a calm before the storm atmosphere which helped to build suspense as to when chaos would break out in the timeline that Wolverine was in. All the while, time was ticking in the 'now' where their hideout is being discovered by the Sentinels. Here, the mutants will make their last stand against the Sentinel as one and their fate depends on Wolverine.

This situation certainly helps to build excitement for the critical moment when the past reaches a turning point where Wolverine and his team attempts to change the future and prevent the advent of the Sentinels. Credit should be given to Jennifer Lawrence, the actress behind Mystique who played a central role in this show.

Overall, it was an all right show. Not great but bearable. (I am sorry, I am not a X Men fan.)

I would like to note though, that the next X Men film: Apocalypse seems promising. Until then!