singzeon.


(closed)



19 February 2014:

Modulator

Two primary school kids board the bus
bespectacled,
carrying bulging bags,
both with iPhone 5s.
They sit down.

An ahma boards the bus
panting,
carrying groceries in
both her wrinkled hands.
They weigh her down.

Ahma looks around the bus
frantically,
finds the boys,
squeezes in the seat.

“Boy, told you don't walk so fast, ahma leg pain ...”

“Okay” says the fatter boy who
looks around his phone screen,
finds the boss,
kills him with a grenade.

“Boy, how your school?”

“Ahma shh, I playing game” says he and
asks the other for help
“eh how go next stage ah?”

Ahma shh-ed and
gripped the groceries tighter
for they couldn't communicate
as they were on different frequencies.

Inspired by true happenings.


14 February 2014:

This thing called running.

Today is the last time I'll be running a road run as part of a school. I don't really know what to feel about it, though. Should I be happy there are no more runs, or should I be sad about my run today?

Today, my left leg numbed up around 1/3 of the run. This happened before, when we were running ~4 km during one of the PE lessons. I honestly didn't expect this to happen again; I thought it was a one-off incident.

Hence, I decided to slow down to a brisk walk. It was a risk I was not willing to take: what if I severely injure my left leg because I decided to ignore the numbness? There is SYF coming up - no matter cast or crew, an injured leg wouldn't be convenient.

Quickly, many others overtook me. They were slow-jogging or even running. And yes, I became one of the last runners. Technically there was a group behind me, but they deliberately (from how I saw it) took it slow.

On top of the injury, I had faeces right at the door, waiting to come out any moment. Which, of course, made it harder for me. Along the way, I saw L, who was also at the same pace as me. He was really nice and stayed by my side, talking to me.

So, we walked more than half of the run. It's rather disappointing, actually, having to give up the run due to an injury risk. But oh well, I rather disappointment then inconvenience. I guess we can't have our cake and eat it.

Back to the part about L, yes, he was really nice. He tried his best to talk to me and suggest things like trying coffee shops along the way to see if they had a toilet I could use. I honestly felt very touched because I could tell he was genuinely concerned.

Sidetrack: I honestly think it's very rare to find someone like L. Yes he may seem a little simple-minded at times, but he has lots of innocence, a scarce quality right now. And of course, innocence, but not stupidity. So yes, he is a gem, if I may say.

I walked with L till near the end of the run, about 2 bus-stops' distance away. Then I decided to run (and of course asked him along). By then my leg was less numb so I felt safe enough to try and give a final push.

When I reached within the school, I instinctively stopped near the rock wall, since that was where we stopped for PE lessons. Then I realised that this time we had to run a short distance on the track!!

So yes, L and I started running again. This time we really ran to the finish line and collected our certificates of participation. Again, I would like to stress how nice L is, waiting for me and helping me hold my things while I rush to the toilet.

~

I used to hate running. I have zero stamina and therefore do not fancy running at all. Last year, I adopted a really bad method for all runs: start and stop, start and stop etc. I learnt that it actually doesn't help the body and I'll never get my stamina up.

Which is why from this year, I resoluted to try my best for all runs. I may be slow, but at least I made sure I did not stop at all, completing it in one stretch. Gladly, I did do so for all but one run, which was the abovementioned when I had the numb leg.

Ever since then, I've felt that my stamina has improved. I can run for a longer distance before I start to feel breathless. My legs also ache later, which means the lactic acid build-up is delayed.

Therefore, my stance towards running actually improved. I no longer hate it that much, and start to like it. It's certainly still not a favourite of mine, but at least I don't dread it as much as previously. Also, I view it as pre-NS training.

This was why I felt rather disappointed about today. I thought that given my previous runs, this would be good too. Good, in the sense that I could sustain and not stop at all. Sadly, this was not to be the case.

So, too bad. This is my last road run of my schooling life, and this is how it ended. I'm just glad that I did not have any severe injury and the numbness went away after about an hour. Things could've been worse, so luckily it did not.

~

The quote I've been using to motivate myself during runs, by 九把刀:


TTFN.

The picture of the beautiful sunrise is not by me; I picked it somewhere off Google. I just overlayed it with the quote to make it look nicer.


7 February 2014:

What's the difference between a boss and a leader?


Obviously someone doesn't realise this.

Just because you are in a higher position doesn't mean you can order people around. Of course your job entails strategising and more thinking, but this doesn't mean that you do all brains and no labour.

I don't mind doing it for the greater good, but such attitude seriously puts me off. If I wanted to be an arse I would've pointed at the job scope for my role and say that I don't need to do such things. But I don't.

I don't because I believe that I am a part of this organisation and I should contribute. I know there are a lot of things to do and I am willing to do them. But I'm not so willing if not everyone is sharing the load equally, when some have to shoulder more weight.

It is at times like this where I remember all that leadership training I had during secondary school days. I certainly benefited greatly from it; if only I know how to solve this, though. Whilst I don't want to blow things up, I really don't want this to continue.

I really have no mood to play politics or entertain flying arrows. So perhaps I may just swallow everything up (besides this rant) and slog on. I'm just afraid I'll crumble while someone shines (as usual).

TTFN.


5 February 2014:

You create opportunities, fate pushes you along the way.

It's no joke to say that being a J2 is busy. Right from the start there isn't a honeymoon period like J1 where people can nua and slowly get used to the JC system. Being a J2, you are expected to start from the first day of school.

(Of course, your ability to start fast enough depends on whether you've finished your holiday assignments. For those who have the starting process is gonna be slightly easier. Otherwise, it's like starting an old car: lots of grunts before the tyre turns.)

But I digress. I haven't been blogging in a while and, while it may seem like an excuse, I really have been quite busy. And yes, some of the time was not well-spent. Instead of using it do finish my tutorials as soon as possible, it was used for social media.

Short digression again - in view that I am a very easily addicted person, I have decided to not use Twitter and Instagram for an indefinite period of time. It has certainly taken up way too much of my time and I cannot afford to continue this behaviour.

A few days before the Chinese new year, my Twitter account was suspended. This basically meant that I couldn't use Twitter as they literally stopped everything, including new tweets from others from appearing.

I sent an e-mail to Twitter, detailing how I did not violate any of their rules and regulations and terms and conditions as set out in a page that they kindly referred me to in the default suspension e-mail.

On Chinese new year day 1, my account was un-suspended, without notice. They never replied to my e-mail (which ended off asking for a suspension reason), so I will never know why I was suspended.

But what of that. The episode made me realise how unnecessarily over-reliant I was on Twitter. I was basically addicted to Twitter but didn't realise it before that. Now that I couldn't use it, I went into 'cold turkey' mode.

I constantly picked up my phone to access the app, then remembering that I couldn't use it anyway. So yes, this made me aware of how badly addicted I am and how potentially damaging it is to my life and studies.

Therefore two days ago, on Monday, I took the liberty to delete the Twitter and Instagram apps from my smartphone. Technically, yes, I can still access it from my computer through their web version.

Somehow, after deleting it, I feel less attached to it and will not even think of logging in through the web version. Maybe my phone has a curse; but anyway now my phone is Twitter-less and Instagram-less and I am freer.

(What turned out to be a small digression ended up quite long after all.)

Back to where I was, now that I have got rid of a major distraction, I really should focus again on my studies. Technically 2013 ended off quite well in terms of studies, having improved in most subjects (except history and GP).

Nevertheless, since J2 contains new content, there is a constant threat of falling behind others again. Therefore it is imperative that I shouldn't rest on my laurels and continue to fight on.

Thankfully, I completed 99% of my holiday homework - I left petty questions here and there empty: bad habit, I know, but I will improve it soon. So I wasn't lagging that badly since I had complete tutorials to refer to or assignments to hand in.

- I paused blogging and went to view my class Whatsapp group. There are ~20 messages of homework that is due tomorrow or Friday. This is why I should stop soon, or look forward to 2am sleep time tonight. -

As the previous paragraph has reinforced, homework is flying in fast and furious. Now even completed holiday assignments can't bide time since everyone now starts on an 'equal footing' with new tutorials.

~

This year I have started doing reviews. It's kind of stupid doing it only this year and yes I regret not doing it last year. Reviews are good because they jolt one's memory and the chances of it staying in the long-term area of the brain is higher.

This isn't just scientific bullshit. It apparently true; at least I experience its effects, or at least a placebo of it. Whatever, so long as things wrong that's just good for me. It takes more time, yes, but it's also better in the long run.

~

(After a dinner, my thought process is horribly scattered. Excuse my incoherence.)

One guess as to why my Twitter account got suspended is because some of my tweets are caustic. I am a liberal Buddhist-atheist and I speak strongly against religious obstruction towards science (e.g. evolution) and other matters.

Therefore, I'm suspecting that someone reported one or some of my tweets. If so: I offer no apologies. Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, with their own consequences. I just don't want to be standing on the wrong side of history.

~

Why I actually started this post was because I chanced upon two blogs by juniors from secondary school that I do not know personally. Nevertheless, they blog extremely well about many topics.

The posts aren't 'serious' kinds like politics and all, but they offer a nice read. What's best is that they use more-or-less proper English with good paragraphing. To me this is the biggest draw factor to read a blog, which is why I do so for mine too.

These two have a tendency to intersperse their words with graphics; I personally am not into such a style so I apologise to any dreary-eyed reader. I aim to use words 99% of the time to illustrate my point.

(I also realise that the font of my blog is actually rather small. This is particularly unhelpful for text-heavy posts but sorry I have no intentions to change it currently. I love my minimalist skin so far.)

TTFN | comments at ask.fm/singzeon

If you realise, my blog post topic has next to nothing related to anything within this post. Reason being, I wanted to talk about what I did in the front, slowly leading to the topic. However, since my train of thoughts are scattered and I have little time left to blog (in view of the looming homework mountain), I have decided to prematurely abandon this post which is slightly over 1000 words.



aboutme.

From Singapore. 20 years of age. Blogs as and when inspiration comes, in British English (and Singlish), Traditional Chinese and (hopefully) Russian. Not a lifestyle blogger, expect posts to be serious, dull or even obscure. I enjoy comedy, in particular British humour.



interests.

[more or less in order] medicine | forensics | theatre | modern world history | typography (including style and grammar) | visual design | Taiji | Chinese language and literature | Mandarin pop (and singing) | Apple products.



typography.

PT Serif for main text and links. Ubuntu Condensed for dates, post titles and sidebar headings. Both fonts from Google Web Fonts.



credits.

singzeon. by Sing Zeon is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence. Pictures used here either come from my Instagram (instagram.com/singzeon) or Google image search. For the latter, I do not own those pictures.



quote.

Hard to love. 認真你就輸了。