Stories about the box in the box

4 hours of Chem and Math tuition back to back, followed by a drama post production party. Alliteration. I might die. If I die, you may not have my computer. You may not have my camera. But you could help yourself to the leftover vodka.

I’ll clear it…some…day….

Oh yeah, IOC is over. The demon which I’ve wrestled with for so long – Staying back in school until 10pm, pouring over King Lear trying to find obscure links that may or may not exist. Evidence of Lear’s allegedly incestuous inclinations towards Cordelia. The parallel of Edmund to Shylock in The Merchant of Venice . Yadda yadda. I’ve been so affected by IOC that now I keep noticing repetition, rhyming, plosives, sibilance, cacophonics, alliteration and symbols in everything I read. I am also convinced that if you look at something for long enough, you can relate it to almost anything you want. Somehow. I’m fairly certain that 80% of the links we find while mugging for King Lear during IOC were never actually intended by Shakespeare. He must be looking down at us now feeling like a god.

Shakespeare: King Lear….Incestuous? Whoa…400 years and I’ve never thought of it that way. I’m goooooood

Anyhoo, IOC went pretty well – much better than I imagined it would. I got Apologia Pro Poemate Meo, which was somewhat disappointing. Mostly because I had studied so hard for King Lear and 12th Night, and was positively certain I could link the hell out of any extract that came from either. Nonetheless it wasn’t a bad extract to get – and I thank Jeanette for that. The night before she quizzed me about the poem and that lead me to read up more about it and I found alot of “bonus” information which impressed the hell out of Paul Tan. The actual IOC was a bit hair raising as the stopwatch wouldn’t start after Paul Tan started the recording, which lead to me silently screaming out to him that it wasn’t working, to which he replied by swapping out stopwatches. Also, prior to the actual presentation, I hadn’t really annotated as much as I would have liked to. As a result I was afraid I either wouldn’t have enough to say, or I wouldn’t be able to organize it properly. This also meant that during the presentation I came up with alot of my points impromptu, and what was (I felt) a slightly messy commentary. However Paul Tan seemed genuinely impressed for some reason. Score.

Now that IOC is done, it’s time to partay a bit before I hunker down into prelims mode. Suki Sushi buffet ftw! It’s a brilliant thing to be in a tight class – I gander that our class gatherings easily double that of most classes. I guess this’ll be the (close to) final hurrah before we *really* get down to studying for the IB exams. Mein gott.

In other news, I’ve gotten all of my shirts! Huzzah! (Kyle hates me using that word for some reason, so huzzah huzzah huzzah huzzah huzzah huzzah huzzah huzzah huzzah!) Now I have an disproportionate amount shirts compared to pants. Shall need to go shopping for those someday… But no more shirts for at least the next 10 or 20 years for me.

Alright gotta run for a sushi buffet.

Huzzah.

IOC’s on wednesday, and only the poems remain until I finish my coverage of the extracts! Come on boy! Come on!

On a related note, I tried practicing and recording myself to hear how I sound like while presenting the extracts. Good god that’s painful. So pausey and hesitant and inundated with “um”. Roar.

Well, in spite of IOC being just around the corner next week, life is actually pretty good. I’ve been mugging like a mad dog for IOC, staying back in school until 10pm on some days, but the odd thing is that I’m actually coming to start liking this process. The discussions on the dramatic effects of the various plots and stuff is all pretty enlightening and extremely interesting at times. With some of the points that are being made and tossed about, I honestly feel as though I’m on some form of academic frontier – a naive thought I know, but hey to be young and optimistic: the world is your oyster and all that jazz. You can’t help but visualize some of the scenes actually being played out on stage (what am I talking about..you’re supposed to. But I meant in a good kinda way – the personal interest kinda way), and it’s pretty exhilarating to see in your mind’s eye the various dramatic effects having a pertinent bearing on the way the play is perceived by the audience (use of plosives, ha!). I suppose one of the reasons why I’m so chirpy on this subject is because I’ve been making some pretty good progress on King Lear, and should finish the text more or less by tomorrow, upon which I can commence rehearsing.

In addition to the good tidings of my IOC progress (at least I hope so), my spirits have also been buoyed by the arrival of some shirts I’ve ordered from Busted Tees. In addition I managed to snag a shirt from Threadless seconds before it was sold out, and all my orders should be in by next week. I suppose there is some inkling of truth in the claimed benefits of retail therapy. Of course that is said in a totally and completely manly way, and in no way effeminate or homosexual. Hoo ha.

My mom finally sent my maid back early this morning.

It seems almost impulsive – I was only informed of it after she left, when I woke up.

Just like that my maid’s disappeared forever, with no goodbyes.

She was a good maid. It’s just like my mom to crush a good maid’s spirit by imposing her unrealistic standards of perfection.

I suppose I shouldn’t be sad – she’s in a better place now (not death): Back home, where she’s free from verbal abuse.

So far I’ve been staying back until about 9:30 in school with the sole intent of doing as much of my IOC extracts as possible. I’m attacking this problem from the 12th Night first, then I’ll move on the Lear, then finally the poems. Staying back in school is such a fun experience – you get to forge bonds with friends, and you tend to meet and speak to people whom you otherwise wouldn’t find the opportunity to speak to on normal school days. You form so many inside jokes, and nothing compares to the trek to Wah Chee or Broadway for dinner with friends. I’m probably going to miss this aspect of school most when I eventually have to leave after IB. Say what I might about the pressures of IB schoolwork and studies, but it’s definitely alot more carefree than what life would be like in the real world – we really have few other obligations aside from school. There’s no “wife factor” or “kids factor”, and on the whole, the people you find in school are more than willing to hang around in school to study/talkcock (The latter happens alot more often, but I like to think of these sessions as fairly productive still – definitely moreso than what I’d wind up doing at home) for a few hours.

I have no idea why alot of people just want to scurry home immediately after school at the first chance they get. Tis school be a sacred place – soak up the history! You’ll never be affiliated to the school as an institution in the same way ever again. Hell, you’ll probably never ever feel the same sense of belonging to any organization to the same degree that you find in the school. Treasure it while it lasts lest you regret it in later life. Regardless of where I wind up in life, even if I learn that this staying back in school constantly is a major, major mistake, if I had the choice, I’d still probably do it again. I always say, there’s no point in having a cushy life with few memorable moments. Imagine looking back on this time and realizing that you spent it in a 4 walled room with a mountain of books in front of you. Or if you’re just about to get shot in the upcoming war between Singapore and at least one South-East Asian nation (Oh, I’m sure it’ll come someday somehow…), you’ll see a flashback of all the events in your life and as the slug rips through your internal organs you’d be left with one thought: “Gawd almighty I’ve led a boring life”.

Anyway a few of us have hatched an audacious plan to hold a study sleepover in school one of these upcoming weeks. The advantages are many – more time to study as you have zero commuting time, and the school isn’t a half bad place to sleep in since it has great showers and stuff. Furthermore, there’s the added benefit of being able to talkcock late into the night, and not to mention being able to relive the memories of staying over in school the many times we’ve had camps in the past. Sadly, thanks to our being in year 6, there’ll be no more school endorsed sleepovers for us. However, this will be a nice approximation of the feeling – that of being the only souls left in the schoolblock, discounting the boarders in the boarding school. Good times. Looking forward to the midnight 7/11 runs and crawling under the backgate of the school to avoid the guards.

In other news, I’ve just discovered that my dad has always had a gem of a camera in his film camera collection – a genuine honest to goodness Leica M4-2 rangefinder camera. It’s in pristine shape (as with all of my dad’s possessions), albeit the fact that it doesn’t have a lens. Easy to fix though as my grandfather has a collection of M-mount lenses that I can appropriate. Thanks to my recent interest in shooting on film, I’ve sure got alot of toys to play with. This has just joined the queue behind the Nikon F4 and F2. Huzzah!

Huzzah! Shot a roll of film in school today on my dad’s F4. It’s quite neat I must say, and I love how some of the colors turned out. You’d need alot of work on photoshop to get digital to look this way. If all goes well I might shoot another roll on Friday. Anyhoo, check out the pics.
Unfortunately after school before I dropped off the photos, I accidentally opened the camera back and burned some of them. Great looking mistake though – I love the film burn effect.

Nikon F4
24-120mm F3.5-5.6
Kodak Ultramax 400

http://www.zooomr.com/photos/wobblin/sets/35808/

For those lazy ones, I’ve included a few in this post:

Today I went to the Philippines Lucky Plaza to pick up some film for my camera. It’s damn hard to find Kodak film – I hate to hunt all around for it, finally finding it in a small photoshop in Lucky Plaza. Irritating.

Anyway I picked up a roll of Fuji superia x-tra 400 and a roll of Kodak ultramax 400, so we’ll see how that turns out.

…this wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.

So I went for dinner with Barry Lai at Newton food centre, and the food was marvellous – not to mention the wave of nostalgia that washed over me as I walked along the same paths I used to walk when I was in ACJS 6 years ago. Anyway, Yiwei was supposed to join us but in the end we found out he was tied up, so Barry and I split at about 9:30pm. I took an MRT back home to Orchard station, and that’s where the highlight of my night occurred.

I was walking out of the station having returned my deposit (I still haven’t gotten a replacement for my lost EZ link card), when I noticed a guy, who looked oddly like Bryan Goh, but with a mustache, staring in my direction, with his gaze following me. Having never seen him before, I did what any normal person would do, and assumed that he was staring at somebody walking behind me, thus ignoring him. This was until I felt a tap on my shoulder a few seconds after I passed him. The ensuing conversation was one that simultaneously flattered and freaked me the hell out.

Guy: Hi…you know how to get to Shaw Centre?
Me: Oh sure yeah, it’s just over there in this direction…I’m actually going there now
Guy: Oh…wanna make friends?
Me: I’m sorry what?
Guy: Well….you very cute one.
Me: What?! Well um…I’m actually making my way Shaw Centre now…
Guy: Oh…yeah I’m also going home now…Wanna keep in touch?
Me: Erm…I’d rather not..thanks

Firstly, I’m never ever going to wear the bracelet I made with Melodie’s beading set out in public ever again. Secondly, it made me realize – THAT’s why I can’t get a girlfriend…It appears I cater to a completely different market. Evidently I’m going to need to restructure myself.

Man…manly man.

Just once I wish it was the girl who looked like Angelina Jolie who did this to me. Instead I get….