Ah doesn't this bring back memories..I was just shifting through some old photos and what do you know..I found this beautiful RVCO 2006 picture, as good as new. Well I looked at it and I found it most amusing..mm yes indeed. So juniors, do look and try to find your seniors, I guarantee its funny, especially since people like Kennard have changed quite a bit since 2006. Yes..so yep just a filler post. XD

Of course, there is true courage and false courage, the latter of which I'm going to talk about today. False courage, I believe, is fostered by a lack of knowledge about the unknown. Of course, when people are unaware of the circumstances they face, they react in different ways. Some will cower in fear, while others boast and say, let us face it head on with power and courage, which is pathetic by the way, and will only get yourself killed, just like that poor little pawn in the picture above.

Fact is, some people just don't see it. Even when the facts are right in front of their eyes, they refuse to see the situation for what it is and thus assume a sense of false courage and arrogance. Well, these people can only learn when they finally face the obstacle and are totally crushed by it as a result of their lack of preparation and their holier-than-thou attitude. Just like the famous general that gave us that quote, people might commend your courage, but in a competition or battle, no mercy shall be shown.

First of all, happy birthday to both Kennard and Jin Xian on this fine 20th of November. And now, on to the personal recount of today's outing. Once again, KH and Jiawei abandoned us and so we proceeded to East Coast Park with er, the five people above and Melvin. Since Melvin had to go Thompson road for his class outing, we decided to go bowling first, and so we did. Played one game, and I missed my average (100) by 1 point. Damn I got 99. That still put me at the top of the bracket though. After that, we procceeded to Subway, and ended up not eating at Subway but at MacDonald instead. Tsk. So after eating Mac, we sent Melvin off and went to rent our bikes. Cycled to Bedok Jetty and I was the fastest of the group. Yes, Xinyu, I don't care, I'm the fastest. So we got there, talked, and Youwei decided to learn how to cycle with miserable results.

We then cycled back, returned the bikes and went to the outcropping/breakwater to talk, again. We ended up talking very crap topics like what would it be like if we met again in the future. We more or less agreed that I would either be a minister or in jail, Kennard would be married and a WCG pro, Jacelyn Tay dunno wad, Xinyu a wife, and Youwei, well, he didn't join this topic. Oh well it was fun to talk about this sort of crap. We went off late after that, so Xinyu didn't get to eat dinner cause she had to rush home. Sorry Xinyu. D: Yeah and sorry Jacelyn for tricking you all the way to Clementi only not to eat HAHA. Yeah so me Youwei Kennard played arcade at JP, and they had Drummania! Nocturne No.9 ROCKS! AHAHAHA A A A!!

So yeah, today's outing was fun, there's a CAB one next week, can't wait either.

NICE CHRISTMAS TREE!

All right, on to the meat of this post then. For those of you who read my blog on a regular basis, most of you would have realized that I did a post on Twilight long ago when I finished it. Why this extra post you ask? Well this is the impartial review, which takes my perspective out of a 18-year old boy's perspective and instead switches it to that of a social observer as well as literary critic, to the best of my abilities. Twilight fangirls, and yes I'm talking to you, Cailing, you all should stop reading here since this review is not for you Edward Cullen-obsessed people. After looking through Twilight again, I realized that there were a lot, and I do mean a lot, of incoherent plot holes and poor choices of language, and overall horrifying characterization, which seriously makes Twilight, nowhere near 'Book of the Year' or what other awards that its passionate fans claim it should be awarded. I shall highlight my criticism in 2 areas: literary failing and disturbing social ideas.

1) Flawed Characterization
Now, I'm not a Professor of Literature, but even I know good characterization when I see it. It requires a good flow, transition, reasons for the characters acting the way they do and why they change in character. This would be good characterization. Pip from Great Expectations comes to mind, as well as possibly Elizabeth from Pride and Prejudice. Focusing on Bella Swann, her character is almost unbelievable and really hints at flawed characterization. She is introduced in the opening chapters as a girl that is supposedly self-reliant, and clever, etc etc. I don't really see these qualities coming through at the end of the novel. She makes stupid decisions, and gets almost everyone in trouble, as well as herself in danger. Yes, I'm looking at falling for James's plan.

Twlight fangirl: OMG BUT THAT SHOWS HOW CARING SHE WAS FOR HER MUMMY! YEAH BELLA LOVES HER!! OMG!

Nope, can't really agree with that. Even if she really did love her, this doesn't explain her so called intelligence floating out of the window. And the way she treats her friends, tsk, horrible. She thinks lightly of them for thinking of 'teen affairs' Oh yeah Bella, cuddling with your vampire boyfriend and finding ways to make yourself immortal so you can be with him even more and kiss him and describe his perfect body is VERY IMPORTANT indeed, more than teen affairs. Tsk.

Alright, on to Edward Cullen as well. Now a lot of fangirls said that Edward Cullen is a fully developed character that was well written out by Meyer. Ok, maybe they didn't say that, more of something like "EDWARD IS HOT OMFG ! XD" but that's not the point. Edward is nowhere near a well developed character. First of all, in terms of physical description. Damnit, I swear if I had a buck everytime Bella/Meyer used 'marble', 'God', 'cold' to describe Edward's body I would be a millionaire by now. Maybe that's a bit exaggerated, but you get the point. Honestly, repition serves to enforce characteristics but repition beyond a certain limit just gets tedious and hints at a lack of vocabulary. As to his inward development, it screams cliche. The worrying thing is how many girls think Edward is such a perfect boyfriend. Oh yeah, I can see why they're attracted to the abs, and the superpowers, but beyond that, hmm what does Edward have? Oh yes, really cheesy lines and a schizoprenic personality, I rest my case. Anyone don't know what schizoprenic is, ring me up and I will tell you what it is and give you examples of why Edward is schizoprenic.

As such, Twilght falls flat on pure literary characterization alone. The frightening thing is that Meyer actually has a degree in English. God, the horror. Of course, character is only one of the literary failings of Twilight. Besides that, one must look at Meyer's overuse of purple prose, such that it gets annoying and tedious sometimes. Tsk.

2) Disturbing social ideas

This is going to be a short paragraph, cause hell I think its pretty clear what disturbing social ideas Twilight is spreading. The scary thing is that fangirls are actually pandering to these ideas! The horror. Lets see, Twilight tells girls that beauty is everything and it doesn't matter if your boyfriend has muderous tendencies as long as he has marble-like abs and and make your heart stop with his kisses. Twilight further tells girls that as long as your boyfriend is pretty it is ok to reduce yourself to a sludge-like state when he isn't around and become disinterested in everything. Twilight also tells girls that when you meet such a hot guy that loves you, it is ok to want to be changed into a vampire and leave behind the mother and father that love you as well as all your friends just so that you can be with your loved one forever and let his kisses make your heart stop and so that you can glance at his abs all day. SERIOUSLY NEED I GO ON? CASE IN POINT: question to Edward fangirls: beyond Edward's abs, does Meyer actually describe any aspect of Edward's character that makes him such an attractive boyfriend? He argues with Bella, is domineering and says he cannot be with Bella but continues to hang around and arouse her. I rest my case. The scary thing is that fangirls all over the globe are lapping this up and dreaming of how they would 'meet their Edward' one day.

All in all, Twilight may very well be accepted by teen/tween girls whom have vent up sexual frustrations and dream of meeting their own beautiful Edward one day. However, for anyone wanting a good read, this book is oh god nowhere near a gem. And if one more fangirl comes up to me and say how the love between Edward and Bella is TRUE LOVE, well I'll bash their heads in for being so empty.

Twilight final review: 3/5 Stars

Economics today, was ok, but I would like to divert thine attention to something else today. The above picture was taken from a webcomic : Grim Tales from Down Below. It really is quite a good webcomic with a charming storyline so here's the link: http://grim.snafu-comics.com/?comic_id=0 . Yeah it really is a nice webcomic so READ IT! If you have the free time of course. It is touching in some areas, and funny in others, especially if you get the pop culture references in the comic. Very nice indeed.

Until next time. 3 more days to freedom.

Well people it was literature today. By god, the paper was challenging in some sense and do-able in other senses, but oh well it was ok I guess. Duchess question was easy, Great Expectations was hard, poem was just..poem. Ah well, guess I have to do well for paper 4 if I'm aiming for an A. Economics tomorrow. Another subject that I must ace. Sigh. A levels, 4 papers left. How nice. And it will be all over. I won't even need to think about studies for another 2 years! Mwahahaha!

Yes, that's it for this post people. Yeah normally I have some political or philosophical or random musing per post, but surprisingly I don't have any today. Just too exhausted after literature I guess. Meh.

Sigh. A Levels are on, so I know I shouldn't be posting at such late times or so frequently, but hey, posting is like writing a journal yep? So I guess I need to write when I'm happy or when I need to vent my frustrations. You know people..have any of you ever met hypocritical people before?i.e hypocrites. The kind I'm talking about, are really those without shame, get my drift? These are the sort of people who are so hypocritical that I shudder to think of the degree of their hypocrisy. They are the kind of people who can proclaim adherence to one idea for now, then switch sides when it benefits them the most. Scary, isn't it? They are the kind of people who can be your friend, and then backstab you, driving it into your heart where it hurts the most. And the most important part is, because of their great acting skills, its hard to even tell who they are or when they'll plunge the dagger into your heart. Worse still, after the dust settles, they will actually have the gall to put all the blame on you, and leave you broken and battered, while they remain content in the adoration of the fools around them who take their word for it and never stop to think and question their motives.

It is indeed scary that we live in such a world, isn't it? Lucky then..that there are still bulwarks of hope against such hypocrisy. In the end, fate and destiny will see that Justice is done, and such lying bastards/bitches are sufficiently dealt with. One can only hope, since the hypocrisy and lying ways of these people means they can deceive anyone but the high heavens, destiny, or fate.

Be careful what you wish for. The other day, Cailing didn't tag me to do her quiz so I tagged her and said "Yay I didn't get tagged by you." Guess what? It has come back to haunt me since KeeHeng tagged me, so yeah, time to do the quiz:

RULE #1 People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blogs and replace any question that they dislike with a new question formulated by themselves.

RULE #2 Tag 5 people to do this quiz and those who are tagged cannot refuse.These people must state who they were tagged by and cannot tag the person whom they were tagged by continue this game by sending it to other people.


1. Do you have secrets?
Of course.

2. Would you fall in love with a girl younger than you?
I guess so.

3. Do you enjoy going to school(ACJC)?
Not really.

4. What would you do with a billion dollars?
Economic investment and sound redistribution of wealth comes to mind.

5. Are you a stupid, idiotc, moronic fool?
Obviously not. Intellect of mine is rarely surpassed.

6. Which is more blessed, loving someone or being loved by someone?
Loving someone.

7. List out your 15 favourite songs:
花海
Time's Scar
爱诗曲
Maybe I'm A Lion
Numb
Papercut
屋顶
枫
Rhythm Of the Rain
Stand By Me
路
Accidentally In Love
我们的爱
Dancing Mad
One-Winged Angel

8. If you're single and your crush is already attached, what would you do?
Move on. If she's happy, then I'm happy.

9. Is there anything that has made you extremely happy?
Of course.

10. What makes you angry?
Rarely anything. Hypocrites and Betrayal by best/good/close friends comes to mind.

11. How would you see yourself in 10 years time?
With a mirror.

12. Who is currently the most important people to you?
This is seriously a pathetic grammar error. Who IS the most important PEOPLE? I shall assume its person, then in that case..Someone XD.

13. What is the most important thing in life?
Love, trust and a flask of spirits.

14. Single or attached?
Single. WHAT? I AM..SERIOUS! XD

15. What are your favorite colors?
White, Blue, Gold

16. Would you give all in a relationship?
Yes.

17.(I changed the question.) Do you have someone you're willing to die for?
Yes.

18. What are you doing now?
Watching the Stars.

19. Do you prefer chocolate drink or coffee?
Chocolate Drink.

20. 5 people I have tagged:
No one. Tsk I never pass such troublesome things onto others.

Done.

Now that the electoral college has posted a 333-145 victory for Obama over McCain, I think its safe to say that this election, one of the most hotly-followed in the history of the United States, has reached its end with victory for Obama, 44th President of the United States of America. I myself started as an Obama supporter but got increasingly jaded throughout the campaign after listening to certain of his policies and measures. John McCain however, did not feel me with confidence either. Now that the election is over, I shall use my limited international relations and politics knowledge to somewhat predict in simple terms what this means for America.

1) Greater Acceptance amongst the world. Let's be fair. The world loves Obama. He has won them over with his charisma, confidence, riding on his campaign of change. Polls, surveys, etc taken by newscasters and serious newspapers worldwide have mentioned that if all 6 billion of the world could vote for the job of the most powerful man on Earth, Obama would have won by a landslide. So, I predict greater acceptance of America in the first few years of the Presidency. Now this is important for America, as Bush basically screwed America's image in just about every country/every NGO's eyes with his dominant and take-it-or-I'll-crush-you foreign policy. Countries now see the USA in a different light again. Factors include Obama's mixed heritage. Indonesians clamour for the time he studied in Indonesia, Kenyans refer to him as a 'son of the soil' while Middle-Eastern Arabs take notice of his middle name, Hussein. It's hard not to like him and the USA he leads, so greater acceptance of America seems to be the norm, at least for the first few months.

2) Israel's problems will still remain and will seemingly tarnish Obama's image of change. The USA's unilateral support for Israel and their destructive campaign against the Palestinians has been a hallmark of USA foreign policy for decades and has caused much unhappiness amongst the world at large, especially the Middle East. Obama, despite his clamour for change, has stuck to the same policy, promising neverending support for Israel, and emphasizing the close ties between Israel and the USA. Israel's increasingly aggressive foreign policy against the Palestinians and their wanton destruction of Palestinian homes and farms is unlikely to add any points for President Obama's image if he is to continue support for Israel rather than act as a neutral mediator for Israeli-Palestinian peace in the Roadmap to Peace programme started by his predecessors.

3) The Economy. I'm not an economist, so I can't really predict what would happen to the economy as per Obama's programme as compared to McCain's programme. And after reading both websites, I realized that their economic programmes used a lot of American economic jargon that is unfortunately, somewhat over my head. But from what I know, Obama is for greater intervention in economic markets, tax cuts for the middle-class and increased taxes for big companies, as well as greater regulation of free trade, plus investment into alternative sources of energy. Well, as an economics student whom has seen the collaspe of free markets worldwide recently and one who always had doubts about the free market system, I believe that Obama's programme would bring some stability to the American economy, and his plan to cut the trade deficit, etc seems sound and reasonable. However, he would have to win reelection, as many of his programmes are far too ambitious to be successful in just one term.

4) Foreign Policy. This, has in recent years, been on the war on terror and rogue states. Obama's stance is greater forces in Afganistan to help the ailing Northen Alliance against the Taliban, withdrawal from Iraq, and greater means of diplomacy with rogue states like Iran and North Korea. For Obama, this means more diplomacy and pressure in the form of international isolation and sanctions rather than military presence, combined with diplomacy. I can see some benefits here, as Obama has chosen not to take the Bush-Cheney stance in foreign policy, which was a "America-is-holier-than-thou" approach which basically screwed America's image in most of the world. A greater willingness to talk is definitely positive, though whether it will yield results remains to be seen.

5) Social Issues. This refers to anything like stem cell research, conservatism, abortion, gun control laws, etc. I'm not from America, so I am unfamiliar with what it feels like to own a gun, but from reading stories in America and rules and regulations on gun control, I do believe that stricter gun-control laws are needed, etc. As for abortion, I'm definitely pro-choice. The pro-lifers that I have discussed this issue with have often argued that hey, its unethical, immoral to kill a baby without giving it a chance to live. I say, it is even more immoral if you force a mother to give birth, adding to her economic woes, and forcing the baby to live a hard life. This is especially so if the mother is poor, or the baby deformed. Are you saying that forcing people to bring a deformed baby into this world, let it get laughed at, mocked, ridiculed and even abused and made to suffer is moral and ethcial? I cannot agree with that position. I'm pro choice. So, of course Obama's victory will change the social debate on these issues once again.

All in all, I have said Obama would win from the time he sought Party Nomination, and now he has really won. Congrats, and do let us see that you can carry out Change that we can Believe In.

P.S McCain, a good fight but and I applaud your concessionary speech after the results were in. Most impressive and respectful.

Long ago, on the continent of Mu, there existed a glorious civilization, far advanced beyond what humanity had to offer now. Fearing the rest of the world's barbarians and feeling that the continent had nothing that the world could offer them, Mu's leaders decided to isolate themselves from the rest of the world, creating a shield barrier that isolated them from the rest of the world.

Mu was ruled by a triumvirate which shared the same vision for Mu, let its culture prosper while keeping the continent from the rest of the world. However, in the 16th century, the leaders were getting old and in place of the triumvirate the 3 leaders decided to erect a Parliament to lead the civilization with a Prime Minister at its head. The leaders then carried out a series of scouting measures, selecting talents from the civilization, basing their judgments on criteria such as background, previous services, talents, etc.

Now, however, one of the triumvirate became corrupt in his/her old age. Note that Mu's people were not divided by sex or gender. So, instead of choosing what was best for the civilization, he/she chose its lover, someone who had the talent and skills somewhat, making this decision even before the scouting procedure was completed. One person on the triumvirate saw this for what it was and disappointed, thus gave up, keeping silent during the scouting process and just giving up trying to recommend his/her candidates.

In the end the new committee was formed, and Mu took a total change. It embarked on a different vision from the triumvirate era, and enslaved its citizens, ruling with total power, eventually embarking on a series of risky experiments. The continent sank as a result of the destabilizing forces created by the experiments soon after. A glorious civilization thus was erased from Earth due to a foolish vision that was not ascertained before transferring over leadership.

The fault of the corrupt member for not thinking of the civilization, or the fault of the member who stuck to her/his principles but failed to act on them? An open-ended question indeed..

Long ago, in ancient times, there lived a wise and kind emperor who wished nothing but the best for his subjects. As a result, he abolished the controversial law which stated that the throne must be passed down to his heir, his son, or his blood relative. Rather, he chose to use talent, in that he would pass down the mantle of ruling to the most talented person in his point of view, after discussion with prime ministers and advisors so that a mistake would not be made.

So after all the interviews, they selected a young man whom seemed to have every talent that they could ever dream of. He was charismatic, handsome, wise, had leadership capabilities and what not. So happily, the emperor transferred ruling powers to him, and went off into seclusion to pursue his love of chess and music and the classics. However, when he returned, to his horror, he discovered the country was in ruins and shambles.

Can anyone guess why?

It was cause they had conducted the interviews in ENGLISH!! For all his capabilities, the young man ruled over a Chinese country, and a leader was as good as useless if he could not communicate his ideas!

Moral of the story people? I leave it up to you.