“The Ballad of Amelia Earhart”
Tom McRae
King of Cards

Kinda bored. The studying is moving kinda slow. Kinda worried about my math, the Victoria paper really burnt my ass. Just need to up the ante of things even more. Haven’t touched physics for a quite some time but I wanna do math and chem today.

Anyway, the BPL started off kinda weak. The thing is, many of the lower tier clubs have improved a whole lot over the summer. So I don’t think we will many see 6-goal difference match-ups, unless it’s against the league’s new whipping boys, Stoke City. But hey, it’s just day one. The whole order of things will fall into place in a few more weeks.

Chelsea’s starting off against Pompey. It would be interesting to see who Scolari puts as his first XI, especially the whole midfield saga. How do you fit 10 strong midfielders into 4 places. Anyway, I hope the Pensioners take this by at least 2 goals.

To leave things off, a picture from the Racial Harmony Day/ASEAN Day/National Day carnival.

I don’t know why, but I find this picture frickin’ cool.

“Sick Little Suicide”
The Matches
E. Von Dahl Killed the Locals

I’m so freaking irritated with the Victoria School emath paper that I’m trying to do. If the ‘O’s are ever like this paper, I’m so freaking screwed. I still have like 5 questions to slave over, and I think gonna I’m leave the rest for tomorrow so I can ask Mdm Lee. Still have the chem paper, which I hope would be relatively easier to accomplish.

And leaving off by saying congratulations to the women’s table tennis in finally getting attaining a medal for Singapore, after 48 years (after the silver in weightlifting in Rome at the 1960 games). Pretty good match if you watched it. Left me at the edge of my seat most of the time (and a very traumatizing experience when I attempted the Victoria paper while at it). Anyway, congratulations again. Beating China is a distant but possible dream.

Back to the Victoria paper.

“Platano”
Cassino
Sounds of Salvation

Got back my ‘O’ level MT results. Got a C6 and a merit for the oral part of the exam. Pretty bad result for a relatively easy paper (as claimed by many). I guess the smart ones in Singapore really really set the curve for the exams. Highest in my school (for malay) is a B3, among 3 people (the “elites”). Most of us got a C6. Not a thing to be proud of anyway. I guess more malay classes to continue until November.

In other news, I nearly passed my physics test. Alot of careless mistakes, just one more mark. Blame’s on me, no one else. Need to work harder. These small roadblocks need to be taken in good stride and a reason for us to push on some more.

School ends at 12.30pm tomorrow and Thursday, because of our triumph in snooker at the national schools level and our “near-triumph” in softball. But it’s also because there’s Oral on those 2 days.

And I misplaced my entry proof. And my oral exam is on Thursday.

“Me and Billy Barnum”
Josh Woodward
The Simple Life, Part 2

Olympics are on. The opening ceremony was superb. Best opening ceremony of any games/events/whatever-the-hell I’ve seen in years. I can’t believe an opening ceremony can be better than an entire National Day Parade.

Singapore’s performance, hmmm. We’ve only ever gotten one medal at any Olympic games. A Silver in weightlifting back in the day. For 2008, let’s see. Tao Li got 5th in 100m Butterfly, even though doing quite well in the semi/quarter finals. Ronald Susilo is out, beaten by the World No. 2, shooting’s out. I think if Singapore’s ever gonna get a medal from any sport, it would definitely be in table tennis. But that’s not totally eluding the fact that we may get something off the other sports, but table tennis nearly came close in Athens, might come close in Beijing.

I’ve only been watching mostly football (Côte d’Ivoire!), both men’s and women’s. Alot of women’s sports actually (heh). Weightlifting is pretty interesting. Handball too. Fascinating sports.

Anyway, semi-productive holiday. I did accomplish some stuff, just not in the way that I wanted. Now in the midst of some geography just because I thought there was gonna be a geog test this week (which I’m still clueless about). I want to do more chem, which I finally got past of the acids/bases/salts phobia. Still alot to accomplish. And my ‘O’ level Oral is this Thursday! And MT results are gonna be out this week!

Aw crap.

“Rockin’ the Suburbs”
Ben Folds
Rockin’ the Suburbs

Just woke up from a nice 3-hour nap and it’s time to do some serious carpe diem. I did a little history yesterday, mainly reading up on Nazi Germany. Gonna further my reading later and I think I’m gonna do history for the rest of the day. Need to take advantage of the next 3 days. Prelims are around 3 weeks (2 weeks technically) and ‘O’s are just 70 days!

Anyway, today’s carnival was a success I guess. Basically a carbon copy from last year’s stall. Just no fondue (thank god) and instead of a batch of oily tasteless fries, it was a bunch of oily tasteless hashbrowns. More of each dish I guess. My mum’s homemade muffins sold out, or I would like to say - lucked out. Sale was slow at the start and I think putting the muffins in the packaging at the start was a bad idea. I don’t think we will match last years $800+ earnings (from $1 and $0.50 coupons okay) but it was still a good sale.

The 4E1/E2 team lost to 4E5. Though we were up 3-0, at the last minute, 4E5 scored the winner to take the game. Alot of injuries in this game. 4E1/E2’s 5-4-1 (or the “Catenaccio”) proved effective in the first half.

In the other news, my arm/elbow still hurts. 1/2 done with geog, 3/4 with bio.

The school held the Q&A session for the presidential candidates today. I wanna comment on it, but I don’t wanna be rude.

My right arm has been giving me alot of pain today. The pain was slight yesterday, but the pain escalated this morning (and I thought all pain healed with a good night’s sleep) and it didn’t get better after my short nap in the afternoon. It’s hard to depend everything on my left arm, even though my right arm isn’t totally immobile.

I have two tests next week. Need to get studying now.

Went for the Singapore Selection vs Brazil Olympic Team football match at the National Stadium yesterday. Got a last minute call from Kamal (followed by a hilarious telephone conversation with him and my brother) saying he had an extra ticket to sell. So fortunate.

Met up with them at about 7. Went in and had a hard time finding seats. All the good, up-front seats were taken but we were lucky to find some, though at an angle to the goal. The first half was good. 1-0 up after what I think was s shot from Diego (WOOOO!). The second one was an Ronaldinho one I think. Was at the other end of the pitch so I couldn’t see well. From what I saw, it was a few stumbles…then put in by Ronaldinho (which I initially thought was Anderson). Second half was a nice one. Singapore had chances which didn’t convert to goals. Only goal of the half was a header by Jo, the new city striker. I forgot who got red-carded, because after a while, the match kinda got boring.

After that was supper at KFC with Kamal, Nawas and Kim Lai, after Ben left.

Okay, guitar in about half-hour.

Just got my hands on a shitload of Emath & Physics school papers. Planning to do at least a paper a day (esp math, though I have more physics papers), which I actually followed for 3 days already. Need to make more time for the sciences now.

Losing sleep…