Just Jie Yang now.

Any regrets, this year, m’boy?

Yeah. I regret skipping through 3 blogs, with the first terminated brutally, the second being over-angsty, and the third being a pretty successful prototype that should have been continued a bit longer to establish a reader base.

I regret being a two-face, being too nice to those whom I treat under the category “friends” and too bad to those who are excluded.

I errrrr regret spending less time on my studies than I feel is needed.

Yeah. 3 big regrets this year.

Oh yah! I regret not concealing my feelings towards others around me more strongly. I won’t make that blunder again.

This year, I will make an unpredecented move towards excellence. I’ll make a new year resolution list.

Er. Here I go.

1. I will lie less.
2. I will exercise more, hopefully.
3. I will try to be more sensitive to those around me.
4. I will behave more thoughtfully to those around me (less moronic stuff that will make me feel so ashamed later on.)

I will try to keep myself upbeat in spite of the upcoming academic stress, as forecast by my two brothers, and hopefully remain true to these resolutions. OH YEAH! And I’ll try to keep a low profile school year, but a high profile blog.

2008, here I come.
You had better be ready.

What are your new year resolutions? Leave me a comment

The reason why Singapore is not a populous nation is revealed. It is because, children nowadays are either:

STUPID or
MORONIC or
IDIOTIC or
IRRITATING or
BRATTY or
NOISY or
WHINY

I mean, you won’t get this feeling when you have kids already, but from a teen’s point of view, that is seriously how it is, in reality. You can’t say all kids are the same. Some are just really (insert verb from above in here) and annoy me till the limits of my threshold.

Imagine

on the MRT/in the station.

It’s super f-ed up. MRT stations, and the train cabins got that good amplifying effect, coupled with the confined space feeling, when the kid yells, it hurts. It’s painful.

There were 4 adults and 2 children on the train today. The male kid had a really high voice and starting making lots of noises that sounded like he was speaking. (Did that sound correct?) Anyway, the mum and the other three adults (relatives, I think) thought the kid was cute and all.

God, I never felt more violent in my whole life.

I wanted to slap the kid, man.

I reckon the Indian girl who were right beside that family would gimme a medal.

Shall go watch 300 to quell the violent streak in me.
Or perhaps amplify it.

Met irritating kids before? What did you do to them? Heheheh tell me by leaving a comment.

Ok people, I know you have been to the orientation website, I know you are all wondering which subject combi you should take and what others are taking, and most importantly, who the hell is in your OG!

Normally, you would wonder for 3 reasons.

1. You are afraid that someone in your OG is someone that you totally dislike.
2. You are hoping that someone is in your OG.
3. You are wondering about how many NY girls are there in your group.

I really think I ought to self-censor, since there are 8 NY girls in my group.

Anyway, if you are dying to find out, please click this link.

Good luck if you are in Group 7. There is Bryan Choo + Jonathan Heng + Lijie + Teck Yuke + Quinn.
Good luck, OG 7. I am even beginning to pity the OGL.

One good thing is, I have Shu Yang, Zhong Han, Wenbo and Tzin wai with me. If Tzin wai does stupid stuff, I’ll stick with Shu Yang. I have Eliseus in in my orientation group again. Just like in Sec 1. Damn it.

8 Nanyang Girls.

Cool shit.

Anyway, as part of a bet with Ruizi, I shall do the forfeit.

I ate lunch in Macs with 20 NY girls and none of them shrieked.

Really. I think I will stop publicising my blog when JC starts.

I’m scared of the repercussions.

It’s all about knowledge and power. Know what you’ll be doing at school, who are your classmates, who to avoid, (who to suck up to, for some people), and do the right preparations for it. Trust me. It’s the only way to not screw up your first day at school.

1. Establish who is going to be the “transformed people” next year. Those that turn from muggers to poseurs. Or, from poseurs to muggers. Avoid at all costs, people. Stick to the constant. It allows you to maintain the image that you don’t like poseurs, and you don’t want to become a “transformed person” over the holiday. At least, that’s what I feel about it.

2. Know who’s gonna be in your class (which is nearly impossible for me.) I will wait for my orientation grouping to come out. I have a good idea who I’m gonna meet in my faculty. Idiots from my class.

3. Know where, when and what. Those who are going to HC next year as J1 students, go to this link to see what’s going to happen next year. Oh yah, and I think next year’s students at high school side of HC is going to be sorted by the programmes they take. That means, regardless how bad you do, you’ll be mixing with the elites. (And that’s a bad thing)

3 steps. You need it to survive. At least your first morning. Once you give your form teacher a bad impression, your papers will always miss one mark to the next grade.

On a more personal note, to those who are going to HC, I shall post more details about orientation, which is titled JUMPSTART! (I have no idea what it signifies. Maybe jumpstart your engines and mug, you idiots.)

Yup, taken from the website straight. 8 days! My eldest bro tells me that the first two days are probably all admin talks though. So, perhaps, not a good thing to have it for soooo long.

Haven’t chose subject combi….

It’s Christmas today, people! Lovely day was started with a morning run, which I failed miserably at completing. My brother told me to reflect. Yeah. Click on the pic.

I won’t say much today, will just list down my presents.

1. Guess Leather Belt (God-dad+mum)
2. Zinc Bag (Swopped with my bro, to obtain his brown sling bag (next year school bag)
3. Miserable Oreo wafer sticks (won’t say from whom)
4. A humongous watch (2nd Bro)

Lovely. Plus the Zinc poseur cap that both my bros don’t want, I can be a poseur! xD just joking, my resolution for next year is to erm be not poseur, and be fit.

Silent night. Holy night. All shall be bright.

What did you receive for Christmas this year? Tell me!

It feels weird to wake up at 9.30 in the morning.

I mean, the lack of the mad rush in the morning to mess myself up into the guy you see at work, is kinda well, making me feel a tad too slack.

But I guess I deserve it. I work an 8 hour day, 5 day work week, for 5 months, and only went out 5 times this hols.

Guess I should post about yesterday’s outing at Sentosa.

I quote bits from jesslyn’s blog.

• Monorailed to sentosa

  Cycled up hill, then downhill, then around, now suffering from a sore butt,
  ripped skin at the ankles and an irritating blister and the thumb
  area.

  Ate lunch at koufu, learnt that curry katsu don that costs 5.90 is made
  using pre-fried chicken cutlet and microwave-ready curry sauce.

  Played captain’s ball, I have the height advantage, but due to lack of
  exercise, get cramps in the calf like thrice. Colin thinks I bully Clara. I
  think I bullied Colin too then.

  Chat a bit. watch people play volleyball and decides that even me, the noob,
  is pretty good. (relative, it’s all relative)

  Walk, walk, and walk even more, just to reach a half court with no clearance
  line, a screwed up board, and higher hoop.

  Went to the resort to meet shao fei. met limzhen (bloody random) and am
  stunned, shocked and laughed at by shao fei.

  Do a few cheap shots at the basketball court, shao fei stands by the side
  like an extra, although I told him that he would be super sian.

  Wait for terence to bathe finish. Long wait for the second time.

  Tiffany came. ate at some hk restaurant, and got my order missed out. eat
  like a mad man when the food came to minimize waiting time for the others.

  Played bit of pool, get pwned, then watch the other peeps play air hockey.
  girls seem violent, dilys is a damn good sniper, and my reflexes suck as
  usual.

  Go home cause of some stuff at home.

Boys (Above) versus Girls (Below)

Score: (Boys):(Girls)

6-2(003)

Ok, it was a good day for several reasons, shall not say why.

I’m clearing out my drawers now, there are stuff that I just can’t bear to throw, some that cannot be thrown, and stuff that I must throw, even if I don’t want to. I did the section of clearing I loved most though, which is counting the coins and the piggy bank.

Lovely. Guess how much I have worth in coins?

164.70 dollars.

Just in time, when school is starting and cash is low.

Ok. I shall end this personal post here.

I’ve noticed that we’re going to school pretty soon. So I’ll be launching a new series called:

Mainly, it’ll just be about doing some stuff to your stuff and yourself to prepare for the new school year. And today’s topic is about lacing your sneakers.

Everyone gets the same sneaks. Adidas superstar. Nike sneaks that are not customized at all (7 people wore my sneaks after I got them, including Jia Chen the student council Chairman.) The easiest and cheapest way to make your shoes stand out, is simply to change the way you lace your sneaks.

Pictures from SneakerFreaker.com

Of course, the most common way of lacing is the Double Back,

Which doesn’t stand out much, unless they are luminous.

The display, is the best for chucks and thick laces.

The hidden knot looks best on contrasting colours between your shoes and laces, and especially when your laces are thick and bold.

From this point onwards, the following two designs are solely for cool people.

The checkerboard:

The coolest, most attention-grabbing kind, but, only should be used for those wide-ended, huge kind of sneaks, those that hip-hoppers wear. Get two contrasting laces, and weave them in and out to get desired effect.

Or perhaps, just do the lattice, if your sneaker has a double-tongue, or looks good when something attention-grabbing is at the center.

I think you should only do the lattice with bold laces too.

If you’re wearing mild-coloured chucks, why not use twine as laces? I saw one pair strund up with twine, and it gives a rugged, conditioned look to your chucks.

It really depends on your style, and the sneaks you have. I suggest, you grab a pair that can be easily matched and customized, as it is a much less fuss that way.

Yup. Or if you are those artistic, groovy, unafraid-to-screw-up-your-sneaks-type, go to this link, and learn to modify your sneaks by painting them yourself today! It’s a tutorial by a Singapore designer!

Know of other ways to make your sneaks look even greater? Leave a comment/message for readers and me!

Do you own an Ipod Classic?

I own one, and recently I tried to customize Ipod, through the means of a nice skin. So I went searching for a good design and all.

1. Decal Girl.
Chock full of designs, but lack of a good, unique, design, for me. There’s rextoric.blogspot.com, which is a webbie recommended to me by Jesslyn, it last did a spree (mass import) from Decalgirl, and the price is somewhat cheap, at around 12-14 bucks. But still, I won’t sacrifice my desire for a good design to my cheapo-mindset.

2. Gelaskins.
Great webbie, not really a humongous range of designs, just enough to flip through and make a choice, and moreover, all are great designs. I wanted to get this one:

Lovely skin, something cutesy and bright and definitive to liven up my life.

But. But. But. One costs 59.90, as I found out to my utter horror at i21 shop in Cineleisure. Perfect, this further proves that my taste is as good as it is expensive.

It only lists as 14.95 on the website, and seriously, since it ain’t pounds, the highest it can go is like 30 bucks assuming the currency they are using is twice that of Singapore’s dollar. I am dissed. And since I can’t import just a single skin alone, I’ve gotta say bye bye to this skin.

3. Istyles.

This webbie is like a combination of the above two, and it lists its prices at around 7.99, which I suspect is US dollars again. Of course, since my parents are so liberal minded, I can try getting this:

Hahaha, just fooling around, this design is what I woud like if I’m getting from istyles.

Kinda simple and nice eh?

Too bad, I found little websites who are doing sprees now. I got a silicone skin for my brother, it’s meant to look like a biscuit, especially witht the little cute square shape of the new Nano. He’s out now with it, so I’ll add the pics of it the next time.

It’s pretty good quality, by the way, even has a cover for the bottom connection part.

Then again, it’s twenty bucks, and his X’mas gift.

Know where to get great Ipod Classic skins at fantastic prices? Leave me a comment/message please!

I got my chucks today people! Haha, although I didn’t see any that I liked when I went to Far East Plaza with Shao, and, Gang, I saw a pair that would look kinda great once conditioned.

So yeah, this is how it looks like.

Hahaha just joking, I just watched the trailer for Good Luck Chuck and it is hilarious (though it’s an adult comedy).

Watch it if you are above 16.

Funny right? XD

Anyway, I happened to have a real deja vu today. Trust me on that. I let you experience deja vu for real too.

First, go read Crazyhamster/Victor’s post here.

Then take a look at these photos.

Jerrold spilt his coke at Long John’s Silver. Cool shit. Made our shoes sticky for a while after that.

Hmmmm I’ve got new ankle socks and sneaks. Next on the shopping list, schoolbag…

I remember reading a report in Straits Times talking about media freedom, but I think much of it until I saw it on The Online Citizen, and also on Tomorrow.sg.

As you may know, I am a strong believer in media freedom, and that the government should only interfere if the reports can cause disturbances in the publics, eg. riots, racial intolerance, blah blah blah.

So, imagine my dismay when I saw the actual report from BBC, in which parts of the report were not included in the newspapers (another sign of lack of media freedom).

“Fewer Singaporeans consider their media as “free” than any other
nationality. They do not express strong views on the accuracy and honesty of
news reporting in their country and are divided on many issues concerning
media freedom.”

In fact, we are the lowest in terms of media freedom.

What in the world, man. We suck at media freedom. And of all countries to be compared to in terms of media freedom, we are compared to big countries like Russia and India, where media freedom must be limited in order to maintain stability.

We are a small country, and our stability is easily maintained, compared to suge huge countries, thus, I don’t see any point in restricting media freedom too much.

Read this:

The media in Singapore is perceived as less free than in any other country
surveyed – only 36 percent give a high freedom rating, compared with 56 percent
overall.

See, we are restricted, limited, and held back.

I can see some reasons to why this scene is, and will recur in the near future.

1. Singaporeans do not want to sacrifice stability of their country in exchange for meda freedom. Pretty valid, I rather get a good balance of stability and freedom, then an unstable Sinapore and false media reports.

2. Singaporeans cannot decide for themselves whether media freedom is good or not, as seen by the statistics:

Fifty percent of Singaporeans (versus 40% globally) agree that controls on the media are sometimes needed to preserve stability, while 42 percent (56% globally) agree that press freedom is non-negotiable.

3. The press is really immature in Singapore, and the reports we see is totally different from the original drafts.

4. The government is doing something to our press…

Read the comic.

Anyway, at any rate, we cannot become a developed nation, since, well, media freedom and stability of a developed nation can happen synonymously with each other ideally.

You can read the full report by BBC, here.

Agree/Disagree that Singapore’s press is too restricted? Leave me a comment. We’ll chat about it.