Finally. A time for a break from all the hectic work. CCTs, CCA commitments, so on.

But this is not just a holiday. It's a time to reflect on what went wrong, and what went right. in Semester 1, and hopefully start afresh the next semester!

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Haha last day of school was fun! First period was a free period, slacked in class playing Buzzer (music quiz). Then was Maths. No comments. (:

Recess, then English! English was great. We had some sort of a mini class party at the 1st floor of SR block, where we could bring our food, and share it while discussing our Social Advocacy Project. BUT THE BEST PART was at the end of the lesson, when one group randomly started playing truth or dare (double dare), and it ended up with hilarious dares! This included dancing randomly in front of RJ and RI people, asking a boy for his number, and so on. (: Haha it was funnyyyy.

After which was SS, continuing with the Performance Task. Haha we were actually counting down the last twenty seconds of school SUPER loudly! Then we asked our SS teacher to help us take a class photo! :D And somehow the whole class went crazy after that. xD

After school, went with Sean, Jia Rong, Raphael, Luo and Edward to Orchard for lunch! Went to Macs, then Pastamania, then Macs, then Pastamania, then decided to sit at Macs and eat Pastamania... ._.

Went back to RI with Sean, while the rest went to Lesmana's house. Took the MRT to Bishan, then decided to take Circle Line to Marymount for the fun of it. Just to try it out. (:

Got down, and walked to RI, then had PM with Shark!

Collected firewood, and collected even more firewood. And then Yong Xin invaded our PM and we had PT and stuff.. :D

Haha Daniel's Ribena got kicked over, and at that moment, there was an axe lying there. How convenient.

YongzDaBombz Photography ©

PM went quite well, I guess. Did a bit of orienteering at first (without maps and compasses -.-), then did survival for quite long to get ready for camp (only to find out it wasn't important??!! they should've told us beforehand what's necessary and what's not, seeing that there's already a lack of time..)

After that was footdrill! How fun. For once, we're the ones standing in front, rather than under the watchful eyes of our seniors. We're the ones, spotting the mistakes, and flicking hands (a way to check whether arms are locked). After a while in the Junior Block, we went to Raffles Square and did some more footdrill. Under the hot sun. (:

Shark's not that bad at footdrill. Better than I thought!

LOL saw Sean, Yang Terng, Lawrence and Raphael during PM. Raphael was following us around the survival part >.<

Ahh. I hope Shark does well in camp.

I'm really really really really really really sorry I can't go for camp. ): Sorry Joshua, and the rest of Shark.

02 aside, I got into the IT internship! :D

It's from the 1st to 12th of June with Amdon Consulting Group, and I'll be experiencing about two weeks in the life of a game designer! (: So exciting.

starting to go for cca tomorrow. (:

BUT IS WAS FUN. Raveen, as usual, was grabbing as much food as he could.. -.- And as usual, he caused trouble! (: (By throwing a tennis ball into the fountain/water area place at the Marina Barrage. The security guard, however, found it amusing..) And then there was this band performance.. They were really good, but I didn't manage to catch their name. ):

And at the end of everything, the shuttle bus took us to City Hall instead of Marina Bay.. :D How nice.

The famous place where the tennis ball ended up.. [bottom left]

But anyway, NIC aside, today was my first skating lesson for CCA. Skating is quite fun, I guess. And I finally managed to move around without falling down! Not bad for a first lesson, eh? :D

Stinky equipment FTL ):

Anyway, batch outing at Marina Barrage was awesome! (:

We really had a lot of fun together as a batch, and it was great to see that PY and AS were enjoying themselves and weren't disheartened after IAC.

Some pictures..

The water there is super clean and bluish on one side and on the other side, it's murky and greenish.. This is the clean side btw..

This is the biiiiigggg grass field on top of the Marina Barrage building itself. And it's huggeeeeeee. And it has a wonderful view. Go there if you haven't already.. (:

Random artistic shot :D (of a big structure thing on the huugggeee grass field on top of the Marina Barrage building..)

Still sick.. :/

But at least I can go for the skating lessons in CCA now..

Tooooooo much work.. ):

And IAC is tomorrow... (Investiture and Appointment Ceremony) - where we get our posts.

Too lazy to write down anything else. D:

And I'm tired.. );

AND THE SKIN IS SWEEEEEEEET!

Go check it out here.

Rainbow (:

More Flag Decor / Tentage for CCA today. And the Raja Snake + creative new ways of torture (coming up with a batch cheer in push up position on the 7th floor of the Raja Block). Tired. Too much CEP homework.

Here's the proof;

And yeah, I'm setting up MacOSX+Fedora dual boot on my Macbook. :P

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As for school today, nothing really significant happened other than the fact that today was the day that I have ever seen three 3-2-1 flagpoles fall down in a row.

A 3-2-1 flagpole is a flagpole, which is made up of 3 five metre spars, 2 three metre spars and 1 two metre spar and tied up together using tripod lashing. So the total height of a 3-2-1 flagpole is around 6-7 metres. It looks like this;

So, during CCA today the Sec 3 batch was taking the 3-2-1 flag decor test, in which you have to erect a flagpole, peg it down by the sides firmly and let it stand in twenty minutes, in groups of four. 

As for my group, the first time we took an excellent time of 30 to 40 minutes - a total phailiur. 

Our next try, we failed again, though we had improved our timing quite significantly - 28 minutes.

The next try, however, is of great interest. We were just about to hit our time limit of twenty minutes and complete it on time, and just as we were tightening the side guylines (support ropes), the whole flagpole gave way. So, you can imagine how horrific the scene would be, with everyone shouting to clear the area, and people running away from the flagpole, and eventually the 6/7 metre flagpole slamming onto the floor. This is dangerous. People can get seriously injured.

Of course there were consequences, which came in the form of many many many push-ups and crunches and stuff and long lectures by seniors, but I guess they are right. Safety is a big thing.

And what's better (or rather, not), it happened thrice. Once for each group. I have no idea what went wrong - lack of skill, lack of knowledge, lack of manpower or just plain lack of common sense...

What I do know is, that the next time I do flag decor, I'm wearing a helmet or something. o.o

Oh and this is probably the worst time to say this, but take a look at this video;

  
                    

LOL at the gripping powder -.-

But, it was actually quite fun!

Everyone was split up into groups to do different stuff.. check tentage, air ropes, clean the den, etc. Most of the Sec 3s Sec 4s and a few of the Sec 2s Sec 3s (See? I'm still getting over that...) were chosen to air ropes! How fun...

So many ropes... Luckily it was sunny, although it had rained not very long before this picture was taken.

Hard at work untying the knots..

And not long before Terence happily hijacks my wallet... Apparently looking at my Naruto card which I have clue of where I got it. xP

I guess the first day of school was okay (oh, except for the Amazing Race).. The classroom is kind of cool, and hoping to get to know my new classmates soon..

Can't wait for OBS!

I thought our second batch hike (actually the first, not counting the one last year as we were broken up into groups) went great. Our batch showed great enthusiasm and willingness to push ourselves beyond our limits and were able to complete 36.5 km on 9 hours (with stops and lunch breaks). We left at 10 am and reached back ant roughly 7 pm. 

Route

Changi Beach Park  à Loyang Ave  à Tampines Ave 7  à Tampines Ave 9  à Tampines Ave 10 à Tampines Road  à  Kovan MRT Station  à  Upper Serangoon Road  à  Hougang Ave 2  à Yio Chu Kang Road  à Upper Thomson Road  à Bishan Fire Station  à RI

Total Distance: 36.5 km

Checkpoints:

1. Hitachi Chemical Asia-Pacific (Loyang Way)
   (3.48km from Changi Beach Park) (4.485km to next)
2. Sun Plaza Park
   (2.92km to next)
3. Golden Padoga Buddist Temple
   (3.548km to next)
4. Lorong Baling
   (2.963km to next)
5. Fortune Park (Tampines Road)
   (2.925km to next)
6. Bowen Secondary School (Yio Chu Kang Road)
   (3.083km to next)
7. Chatsworth International School  (Kindergarten)(Jalan Kayu)
    (4.83km to next)
8. Saint Thomas Orthodox Syrian Church (Old Yio Kang Road)
   (3.488 to next)
9. Thomson Plaza (Soo Chow Garden Road)
   (2.625km to RI)

This was out hike route. Looks short on the map. xD

Anyway, here are the hike pictures;

But anyway, I couldn't help not posting about this one. It looks reaaaaaaally good.

It's by a Lifehacker user by the name of 'Kaelri'. And don't ask me why he has three clocks. Haha. It has a nice KDE look to it. It's all done for free by the way, you don't have to buy anything. Other than XP, of course.

The instructions to get to this can be found here.

Have fun customizing.

By the way, Irvin recommends SlanXP (a theme for XP). Don't ask me why, though. I find it quite plain. 

Hike log is killing me. Someone help me.