Oh my freaking GOD. At last the As are OVER! the four weeks of torment has finally come to a resounding halt. It has been one heck of an A levels, and I kid you not when I say that four weeks is just too damn long a duration for any exam to last.

Anyway, aside from this the end of exams has been eventful. After Lit, it was water rugby and then dinner with Jerome, Han, Chris, Kiat, Yanni, Wei Ting before having some jugs of "get fucked" and "sex on the beach", before stumbling home.

Morning was spent packing hiding all that educational material from my "party going" eyes. Then it was Suana time and a light swim before waking up now. What an eventful day. Ok then theres mambo tomorrow and maybe a gym session.

Till next time

While I was being educated (part I)

This will be the first of a series of post that will be tittled "while I was being educated". The posts are aimed to kinda sum up what has been going on in the world as I have gone through my 12 years of 'fixed' education. I think it is somehow fitting as my JC years come to a close and I begin with a mandatory 2 years in the army ie a 2 year sabbatical from thinking, that I recapitulate what has happened these bittersweet 12 years.

For the first post, I will talk about the accession of reality TV series. In no other time period has the words "the tribe has spoken', and 'immunity' been so widely used. And lest we forget how traveling around the world could be such a strain. Top that off with multiple scandals caught on tapes and viewed by billions across the world. Yes! reality series has stormed themselves into our living room these 12 years and have become a staple diet in television programming.

What is all the fuss about? well I guess the reason why reality TV has gained such a foothold in TV programming is simple because we demand for it. We just can't enough of watching people have sex at night with completely unknown people, plot to vote off another person, scheme and bribe locals not to help others and basically to show the completely nasty side of human beings in which we wish we could enact but are unable to due to a supposed "civilized society". Well maybe it could be due to the highly fantastical notions of winning a cash prize and rising above ones social status. Either way reality TV has come a long way. The amount of spin offs from survivor, the amazing race, the contender, etc are too vast to count.

They have filled our TV sets with copious amounts of Darwinian theory in which the strongest survive. Where the weak are preyed upon and there is a constant struggle to maintain dominance through any means possible.

Is this really what we are advocating? To struggle? to scheme? to as what Pip says, show a very "bad side of human nature"? This I leave to you my readers to decide on you own.

This week promises to be a rather relaxed one. The irony of this being that I am technically still having my A levels. Anyhow I will try to maintain my momentum. I hope.

On a lighter note, met up with Jerome and Chris yesterday for a spot of shopping, and coincidentally enough met xiang un along the way. Interesting how small Singapore is. Well I shall spare you the tiresome details of the experience only to let you know that everyone left with a plastic from Zara, Pedro or Kino. But it was a great time to catch up with friends. I NEED to do this more often, maybe with a nice mug of Heineken next to me.

I started to reflect and I think we need to enjoy life and take it easy. Life is too short for us to be running this rat race all the time. After all even if we do win this race, what does it make us? A champion rat? not an inviting thought. So I think it is time that we sincerely learn to appreciate Life. I use life as a noun simply because I am treating it as a living object.

You see, we have hardly considered Life and have simply been going about life. What Life gives us is more a wholesome, rich and meaningful. Yet we neglect her and treat her without much reverence.

Its time that we live Life and love Life.

"4 for more?"

As I write this post, i am heaving a huge sigh of relief. Well, the bulk of the papers are over and the tensions of the A levels are slowly winding to a much anticipated close. The past four days have been a real mental and physical test. Four papers in four days and ten and a half hours later, I am still having a pretty sore right hand and an exhausted brain.

It did however, end on a good note. Had a good time with Han, Jerome, Xiang un, Boren, Shi han and Kiat last night, mm, this morning to be exact. Followed up with water rugby and Tin wai birthday celebration. I have literally gone 48 hrs with about 4 hours of rest.Boy! thats fun.

I do not know if it is some form of epiphany or not, but I think I have come to realized the profound importance of friendship. You know how we are told in school that friends are important and how and what a "good" friend should be. Yet, it is not until we really experience the deeds that allows not just our minds but our heart to comprehend. I guess it simply means the company, I am sure that we will not always agree all the time and sometimes we can say the most irate of things. Yet, somehow or rather its just a fleeting thought, a mere outburst of emotion.

Allow me to concrete this rather abstract idea. Look at friendship as a tree as the years go by, it will become bigger and bigger ie. the friendship fosters and begins to grow. Secondly, along with growing up, it grows down too. thus friendship, like a tree goes deeper into the soil of your life and reaches into deeper recesses in which pain and happiness occurs. Thus building a friendship that is stronger too.

Of course sometimes it sours, like when a primary branch of a tree is cut off. Sometime even the bark disappears. Yet, while we may feel that it is a loss, there is hope. Like grafting, we can grow that once dead branch again, and start anew.

Ok, I have rambled enough. I need to sleep.

Months later

With a sudden spur of emotion and the need to get something off my chest, I have decided to resuscitate this dying blog of mine.

My my my, how much things have changed since the last time I decided to post something up. The A levels have hearald their arrival by giving me THE most stressful time in my life (so far), and my emotional life has been twisted in and out, and back in again fortunately or unfortunately not as bad as Han.

Well, time to bitch a little about this A levels. Dear Mr MOE, let me pour out my feelings about this wretched examination that I am experiencing. The revised A level program of 3H2sand 1H1 is not want you have claimed it to be. Instead of being a "lighter load", it has turned out to be like lead. Small but dense. Yes you heard me right. This perceived streamlined curriculum has done nothing to make our education more aerodynamic. Instead it makes us, well at least me, to feel that the load is heavier, the subjects more varied and ultimately, the A levels more difficult.

This is exacerbated by the paradoxical 'teach less learn more' theory. It is hard to learn more when teachers teach less and although self learning and discovery is suppose to substitute the teachers or 'mentors' , the problem lies in the fact that there is seriously no time for this fantastical idea of 'self discovery'.

Although I do have to admit that this education has churned out many bright minds and wonderful citizens, I just cant help feel that this system is not working out for me now.
Well, time to insert this life story here. Chances are, no one is going to read this post and even if someone does, probably apathy and this natural sense of "its not happening to me" mentality will set you. I am not exempted either, I will probably forget this episode once the papers end and I start the alcohol sessions.

Well, at least this is off my chest I really do hope that something will be done, but knowing this world, I don't expect too much.

"blackbirds fatten best in hard weather, why not I in these dog days?"