After tonight, the first half of 2009 would officially be over and I know I sound like a broken recorder but time is really passing way too fast.

So everyone must have heard by now. The long reigning King of Pop is suddenly dead. It's a loss to the world for however weird he became after turning white, he had indeed been an inspirational icon in the music world and his music has touched (and not in the paedophillic way either) everyone's life at least once.

I found myself in disbelief when I read about Michael Jackson's death. At the age of fifty, that's not exactly a grand old age though his achievements could carry one's pride for a lifetime. Even though I was never a huge fan of him, I cannot deny that I'm upset about this piece of news.

I used to jump on my parents' bed when I was young when his music was played on the radio. His music was always played on the jukebox which once existed at the McDonalds outlet at the Kallang stadium and I would effortlessly recognise his voice over the noise of the crowd. At that time, I was six, or perhaps seven. The television used to air a few of his live performances. I used to get dazzled by the sequins, the stage, the dance moves.

Michael Jackson was a part of my childhood and his death represents the ebbing away of my childhood. All that once used to live and used to be present is now obsolete and can only exist as memories. Life can be that cruel and can be that easily robbed away. What is even more disconcerting, is that he's about the age our own parents. How would you feel when it's time for them to go too?

And so, rest in peace, Michael Jackson. May your music live on.

Went out with Michelle, Serena and Zi Wei today(: Had lunch at Astons and then hung around in Mitch's room before heading to Suntec to crash Serena's drum lesson. We took turns with the guitars in Mitch's room and her facial expression is simply awesome.

Looking forward to it! POWERPUFF LOL.

HIPPIE AT HEART says:
*lol
HIPPIE AT HEART says:
*y sad face
HIPPIE
AT HEART says:
*haha
): says:
*hairrrrrr.
): says:
*i can't imagine people's faces when i get back to sch
HIPPIE AT HEART says:
*hair issit?
): says:
*what else! hahahahah
HIPPIE AT HEART says:
*lol crap i was going to talk u into following me to collect tickets from the printer
tomorrow
HIPPIE AT HEART says:
*haha
HIPPIE AT HEART says:
*looks like youll be a hermit for awhile though
HIPPIE AT HEART says:
*cant be that bad
HIPPIE AT HEART says:
*i mean u have long hair
HIPPIE AT HEART says:
*how screwed up can it be
HIPPIE AT HEART says:
*unless u cut it short
): says:
*it isn't longggggggg.
): says:
*thanks friend.
HIPPIE AT HEART says:
*which would honestly be hilarious
:P
HIPPIE AT HEART says:
*hahahaha
): says:
*you're like the bestest best most fantabulous fucker ever.

FML&KMN. I did. Some kind of best friend you are):
{retreats into minor depression}

Okay, to be really honest, I'm really scared out of my wits for the upcoming common tests and it's not that I don't have the movtivation to mug because when I start revision, I get quite serious. However, I must admit that I lack the discipline to sit myself down to study. Pathetic conduct for a JC student, isn't it?

They should have extended the holidays): But noooo, school's going to reopen as scheduled. Dammit.

Anyway, I had lunch with my mom at Parkway today. Went off to Gramophone for a bit to look for Bruce Hornsby & the Range's albums. Mainly The Way It Is actually, but I found A Night on the Town too. Impulse-buying, really. But impulses have usually worked well for me. Well, at least for purchases, not so much for other decisions.

On a random note, if you haven't already known about my new object of intrigue, it's SS501. Please don't judge me): LOL. Well, it first started with the songs on the Boys Over Flowers drama and then hearing some of their other songs. Wanqi had sent me a link to some Korean reality show starring them a few days ago and I find them horribly hilarious. I know quite a lot of people are fawning over their looks but I don't really see why.

Okay, I've done enough bullshitting. Back to E*onomics.

Went out with Kai to watch HANNAH MONTANA(wtf) yesterday. It's such a useless movie. The kids sitting behind us were actually singing along to the songs, can you believe it. May joined us at town after the movie and we went around to different apparel stores to try out clothing. We took a number of rather unflattering but nevertheless amusing pictures.

So, apart from the wide-eyed pseudo-shocked looks and prominent eyebags, do we look that alike!?

You probably think I should do something more productive with my time, like revision. I agree too, but I'm sorry, I have a life to live too.

If you ask me, it's the emotional and mental ability to introspect which sets human beings apart from other animals.

Introspection is a tool used for reflection. To seek errors within self and to justify one's actions. But sometimes, human beings are just dense fags who can't think beyond their self-righteousness and their obsession with all things pertaining to the superficial and the material. That would belong to the category of narcissism.

If God truly exists, He'd probably created this in hope of finding repentence. And so tainted souls like ours inevitably turn to narcissism and slowly detach ourselves from what have been set down as ethics and morals.

Slowly we watch ourselves devour ourselves. This is another giant leap for mankind -- a leap towards failure.

#888:

Deborah and I watched The Young Victoria on Friday at Lido. Somehow, we end up watching all these English movies together but I'm thankful for that because not everyone appreciates them. It was funny, walking around after the movie looking at the things being sold in shops, especially those obnoxious headbands from Forever 21.

Saturday was spent at Sentosa with some of the preusem group seven people. Sand, salt and whatnots. Battled the post-rain humidity and lack of toilet space. I can't find the motivation to put in details so let's just make do with this.
On Friday night, I had an odd conversation with one of my MSN contacts. I don't exactly know him but Deborah would remember the guy from the Dream Theater concert in January last year. He's been showing me some awesome YouTube videos. This time, it was about Klaus Nomi and we ended up talking about embracing apocalypse and striking a balance between beauty and chaos.

Are you ready to search for the silver lining, then?

Sometimes, you try so hard to get something out of your life, it just ends up being stuck. Avoiding isn't the answer, it just prolongs a bad situation. No matter how far you run away from something, it will get right back at you evetually.

Anyway, choir on Tuesday was kind of odd. The attendance of nine students and nearly eight hours down at the choir room. Crazy. Though it was quite fun. Theory, technique and all sorts, we hardly sang actually.

Yesterday, Henny, Kee Jia, Fun Juin and I went to Patricia's house. Crazy people, I swear, but they're awesome(: Webcams, digital cameras and what-nots. The number of pictures we took went up to about three hundred. We sat around talking about SC and all other stuff. Funny how we're already halfway into June, huh? My e-mail inbox have been flooded by Facebook notifications due to all the photo-tagging and commenting. And so, I stole quite a number of pictures off everyone's albums. And here are some from the Pre-University Seminar 2009.And of course, I'll have to start making trips to the library to study for the upcoming common tests soon. Tomorrow, perhaps.

The first week of the June holidays is nearly coming to an end. And you've guessed right, this post is going to be about the Pre-University Seminar. I don't know how long I'll type but here goes nothing.

So I woke up on Monday morning with a tinge of guilt because I knew that my classmates were going to school but I was still at home, fiddling around with my brother's bag and the things that I'd packed into it. Waited for Weng Keong's call and then we waited for my father to drive us to PGPR @ NUS.

You could almost see everyone in their frantic search for people they know amidst the sea of students from institutions all over the nation. I thought it was rather chaotic, the whole registration thing. We were sorted into groups. Awkward silences and earnest attempts in starting short friendly conversations were made. Maybe it was anxiety, maybe it was excitement, but I knew I was trying to supress all the dread and reluctance that had been bothering me all morning.

Permit me to use this lousy pun but the icebreakers were really.. Icy. Icebreakers don't really break ice. They actually just simply cause a chip in the many-feet-thick block of ice. At the end of the icebreakers, we only knew very superficial things about each other -- mostly the names. Well it was a start, it was a start. Misery engulfed me as badly like the stuffiness and stifling heat had as I took my first step into the hostel room. Four white walls and barely any ventilation. The activity after that perhaps did serve to aid in a wee bit of bonding. Mostly because we created Savvy (or is it Sevvy) and left it in the good hands of Jing Yong.

Spent the time after dinner embarking on patchwork. I made Li Zhi help with redrawing the design because mine was shitty. Li Zhi and I went off to the mart for a bit where we met Weng Keong, Kow and Zhi Min. Zhi Min was asking about the problem of the lost blazer when this happened --
ZM: How now brown cow?
Kow: {turns around in the queue because ZM was behind him} WHAT!
ZM: {stunned} Your name's cow?!
Kow: Ya!
Weng Keong and I happened to be around them and we both burst out laughing. The whole abusurd hilarity of that encounter cannot be described in words. When Li Zhi came back, we told him what had happened and we couldn't get over it.

After which, Kow, Li Zhi and I hung around the playground a bit, laughing about Kow's band concert and listening to the two of them talk about their VS stuff. Weng Keong came over when we were about to retreat to our suffocating rooms. Kow went back to discuss PW with his schoolmates while the three of us sat outside the multi-purpose hall, taking advantage of the cold air billowing out of the air-conditioned hall. Li Zhi was oddly high and it sort of scared me a bit but whatever.

The second day marked the start of the parallel presentations after the opening ceremony. Kow, Li Zhi and I spent lunch hiding away at the second level, "emoing at one corner". Well no, actually, we were talking about really stupid stuff.

Third day was spent on the continuation of parallel presentations, panel discussions and then onward to Sentosa which really helped to bond the group together. We had sand and saltwater in our mouths and made up a cheer. We ended the day in a state of insanity with us screaming songs at the top of our lungs and making a fool out of ourselves, ignoring the grains of sand stuck to our skin. We struggled to finish our patchworks before heading off to sleep.

The fourth day was another mundane day of parallel presentations and panel discussions though I have to admit that the 2nd session was a lot better than the day before. I don't know about everyone else but I thought that preUsem was a little useless in the sense that all the topics discussed were mainly about the economic effects and possible economic solutions to the economic crisis. It's not like we know enough to actually comment about such issues. I thought it would be a bit more.. relevant if we had focused on the society instead, because honestly, what we've taken away from this seminar in this week, was barely anything about the economy, but a lot of remarkable friendships which transcended ranking of institutions, ages and cut-off points.

So maybe not all groups were fortunate enough to have members that were as co-operative as those in my group, but Brenda, Fazillah and Mathew were definitely right to have said that our group was special in having been able to form friendships with every single one without leaving anyone out. Elitism does not play a part in our interaction. Yes, we acknowledge the fact that it exists and it is an inherent human ability to judge but we were able to be oblivious to such ridiculous and unfair judgements to make way for human bonds which is an essential mindset which all people have to eventually adopt to create a stronger, more bonded nation. We may not have been the first group, the "best" group bagging all the prizes, but I daresay we're the most bonded group. And isn't that basically what Singapore wants out of its citizens? To be bonded and to stay together no matter what in crises? To work together, to work together, to regain confidence but not complacency?

After checking out of the hostel today, we spent a bit of time down at the meeting room before heading off for lunch at Seoul Garden. Tears and bittersweet departs. Time flew by faster than we realised and we know how difficult it would be to meet up once again. But it doesn't matter. We did more than we could expect of ourselves and there is no denying the special chemistry apparent within our group.

On a less serious note, we have earned ourselves weird nicknames. Like how Jia Ming's our Princess Fairy Gaylord/Fung Mei's "mother"/Jonathan Lian's "wife", how Ah Lian's Fung Mei's father/Jia Ming's "husband", how Tim (Bitch) Yeow's my druggie PRC twin brother, how Navina's the resident clubber/gambler even though she does neither of the above, how Fung Mei's particularity with cleanliness is mocked at, how Ana's my LSD-buddy/drunken Mona Lisa and et cetera.

Apart from the new friends made, I met quite a number of old friends. People from TNS, people from SCGS, people from Crestar and people from RMUN08. It was a bit disconcerting at the beginning but I'm starting to appreciate how everyone's social circles are interlinked. I guess sometimes you simply have to let go of some bitter memories of long-ago immaturity.

The closing ceremony was short and camwhoring was a widespread practice everywhere in PGPR. Pictures are mostly in Mathew's, Fung Mei's and Navina's cameras. I shall wait for Facebook and all its updates.

Ignoring cliches and other selfish thoughts, I think in general, preUsem taught me lessons that it never intended to teach.