Monday, February 23, 2009

Interview with the Devil

The council interview was screwed up! Ronald said I was damn lucky, but I'll agree if I get into to the next round.

Doing stupid crap like making up a cheer and NOT returning sarcastic remarks was a total test of my ability. Especially the last part. It took a lot of effort not to let my usual sarcastic self materialise before the interviewers.

Although I had to say I wished I had that kind of maturity to talk like I did to Alica and Yongping when I was supposed to "convince" them to not slack. (Pretending I was the head of the Friendship Week Committee.) Was tempted to use the "I'll buy you lunch" (or some form of reward) that I used in SJI, but I thought that would have been fatal. To me. So I made up stuff I would say when I was getting annoyed but not using sarcasm (which happens almost freaking never). I think I've only talked like that once in my entire life.

And for all my 2 years of English knowledge in 433, I only realised there were other words I could have used to express my ideas better after I stepped out of that room. Why does my genius come when least needed? Sigh. At least I gave it my best, or at least, the best I could give under such pressure.

I think it'll take a miracle to get through the interview phase. Or this may be a sign from God that the road ahead is tough and I should prepare for the rest of the fight.

But those are worries for some other time. Right now, I have other problems that require immediate attention - homework and tutorials.
--Xiang An at 10:04 PM


Saturday, February 21, 2009



Thanks for the birthday wishes everyone! Haha.

And especially to ben, samantha, rena, vito, stelle, dom, samuel and benedict for celebrating with me at vivo! Haha. The cakes were delicious!

After celebrating at vivo, I went for "Take My Hand". The saints filled up the 2 front rows! Haha. And not to mention one of us got sabo'd for the game. Too bad he didn't have to answer the question on what his perfect valentine is. Haha. So much for dumb luck. Qi Jian finally accepted Christ today, after he was brought there like 90072365976 times.

The play was really powerful. I could definitely relate to some of the characters. And Pastor Andy's speech after the play was just as thought provoking. That no matter how much love we seek from others, it'll always run out, but that God's love is eternal. Although I don't think it's true for a small handful of people around me. My true friends that are there for me day and night whenever I need them, and also when they need me.

It reminds me of that quote - "Angels are friends celestial, but friends are angels terrestial." That my closest friends are really like angels sometimes, they pick me up at those moments in life when I hit rockbottom.

I'm not going to go emo here, but after the many people who remembered my birthday (or checked facebook), I'm just really thankful for all you guys who have been there for me at any point of my life - be it in SJI or my short time in SAJC or even in primary school!
--Xiang An at 2:23 PM


Saturday, February 14, 2009



Valentine's Day.

Funny how little it meant to me till today. Last year was special, but this year really let me know how much friends can really care for one another! Rena bought the whole OG balloons, and I bought balloons for the girls she missed out! Haha. I got 2 lollipops, 1 from Larissa in my CG and another from Michelle. Ben gave all of us chocolates. Celebrating V Day in JC is definitely much more fun. Or maybe it's because SJI doesn't really have a tradition of giving gifts to each other. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that we're all guys! Haha.

It was really a memorable day. It's the first time I've ever celebrated V day in school, although I had a bad feeling about today at first, being reminded of how last year was for me.

I guess God is just telling us on this day that we are never alone! :)
--Xiang An at 1:19 AM


Monday, February 09, 2009

First Day of Lessons

Was really retarded. Why?

First of all, notes are supposed to help us learn, correct? But the notes don't do that! For H2 Maths, the Chapter 1 notes are: Set Theory, Number Systems, Surds & Indices, Logarithms. Basically things we've done in secondary school but the school is going through them again to refresh our memory.

Why are the notes far from helpful? Look at the following definition of a rational numbers:

The set of rational numbers consists of all numbers that can be expressed in the form m/n, such that both m and n are integers have no common factor.

My definition:

Rational numbers are fractions in their simplest form.

Isn't my explanation so much LESS complicated? Come on, if you're going to explain something, do it with terms the person you're explaining to can understand! Jeez! What the hell is wrong with teachers?

*bimbo tone*"Heeeellooo? Can I have that again in English?" xD

Okay, I had no problems understanding that but then when the lecturer talked about that phrase people to the left, right, front and back of me were going "huh?" and once she simplified it they all went "oh.." and 5 seconds later "why didn't she just say that in the first place?"

I wish I had a video camera recording their reactions. Damn.

Another "Huh?" moment was when the lecturer was explaining that {37} is not a subset of {{37}}. "{37} means a set containing 37. {{37}} means a set containing the set containing 37."

Not funny at this point, but the irony is when people said they didn't get it she explained it in the SAME EXACT WORDS. Some girl behind me was going "That helps a lot. I didn't understand it the first time!" Only with lots of sarcasm.

Wow. Maths is not a popular subject, even though a lot of people take maths. Ironic, huh?

I don't think I can take 2 years of this T__T
--Xiang An at 9:14 PM


Sunday, February 08, 2009



Well, it's been an awesome and fun filled week at SAJC! I must admit the orientation programme has really put SJI's OC to shame

First Day

We went to the Cultural Centre (CC) for assembly. Our OGL, Ronald, had morning duty so he wasn't there and we were all going "I see every number except 6 out there." Then we found out our OGs were grouped by birthdays, so all of us in OG6 have our birthdays in February/March.

The theme of the Orientation is "Saints Arcanum", and our five houses, called "kingdoms" are called Sequia, Agyrus, Ilio, Neriah and Tethysias, spelling "SAINT" when put together. We each have our own unique cheers, taken from songs like Fergalicious and Hollaback Girl, which is more interesting compared to SJI cheers. We even have counter cheers to bash other houses after they are done cheering.

My personal favourite is the one used against Aguyrus. Each kingdom represents an element. Sequia is earth, Aguyrus metal, Ilio wind, Neriah fire and Tethysias water. I'm in Sequia, and we're "archers". Agyrus' symbol is a ball, so whenever we cheer we go "We shake, you drop, and all your balls go squashed. PIAK!" which is kind of fun and retarded. Although they tend to respond with a "Balls to you" echo. Which is even more retarded.

Our mass games are extremely fun too. I'm too lazy to describe each one in detail. Basically each kingdom sets a challenge for the day, that being the main "theme" of the games. For our own challenge, Earthquake, we went around Singapore using clues and having to eat a compulsory food item at each checkpoint (think of the Amazing Race except you only have detours and you eat a lot along the way). Although we stopped and just ate lunch at our second checkpoint, vivocity! :D We ate on the rooftop and left afterwards due to time constraints.

Groups could "duel" each other if we crossed paths along the way, so when we were at the station and returning to school we did one for fun. Our challenge was to drink coke and see who could burp the loudest. I took up the challenge and failed horribly. I drank HALF of a 1.5 litre bottle and ended up not burping till the challenge was over and we were heading back to school.

Epic failure.

We had an OG outing on Thursday, we went to play pool after the orientation programme was done and we ate mac's for dinner. It was loads of fun, albeit expensive. Rena 'force' me to do a magic trick though I demanded payment for it and I went home without performing a trick. Not like I had anything in mind to do anyway. And a lack of preparation to do tricks means I'll probably screw up even my simplest tricks.

I'm looking forward to the Finale tomorrow. We're doing our mass dances - Shake It by Metro Station and Beat It by Michael Jackson. Anyone who wants to watch our OGLs doing the dance moves can go check out http://saintsarcanum.blogspot.com :) We're also doing our Kingdom Dance which is cool but annoyingly hard to learn. We didn't really screw it up. But then again I didn't go on stage to do it :D

The Finale was epic. In every sense of the word. It was much more fun than any Orientation Campfire I've been to, although the rain did prevent us from being able to have it at the gallery. So we all went to the CC instead and had our Finale there, although that meant we couldn't really move when we were doing our mass dance.

And Ronald scammed us. He said dinner was provided when we ended up SKIPPING it totally. And we saw a certain picture on his phone which sent us all into a laughing fit like hyenas. Then Ronald went on about Rena and I (don't ask me what's going on, I have no idea how all this started). The SJI guys in my OG made some really stupid comments as well when we were doing the feedback form. "Please show up for outings that you suggest" and "Change your phone's wallpaper". Haha. We're damn mean to him but it's fun :D

We ended up with best Identity (costume design), although it might have been due to our representatives really dressing up for the thing. The rest of us looked like crap.

Our kingdom dancers were awesome as well. They did an amazing job, mastering and modifying the dance to make it look better all in a matter of a few hours. That is no easy feat and I really have to give my kudos to them. They're really good at it and despite the little practice they put in, it really paid off. Sadly each kingdom won a prize so we didn't get any extra awards.

After the Finale was basically just hanging out with our OGs and camwhoring. Lots of retarded pictures, including one of Ronald, Rena and me (blardy idiots.) I'm not even going to explain what the hell happened. All I know is I got ambushed.

We went to eat at a coffee shop nearby afterwards and left after eatng. I walked to the MRT just to walk out and take 966. I'm not a fan of midnight travel on trains. Reached home at 11 plus, showered and now here I am blogging about soome really retarded crap.
--Xiang An at 1:45 AM