First things first, I just send out my Christmas Cards. I have no idea if it is going to be late (hopefully not) so please bear with me. But I do know that overseas letters usually take about seven days, so it should be on time, probably two or three days earlier. Local cards are of course early this year. Well, hopefully I didn’t miss out anyone. And if I did, it’s probably because I didn’t have your address…Haha.

Anyway, my results for Psycholinguistics are out. “C” grade for all those work. *Sigh* Guess it’s time to really work my butt off if I want to pull my GPA from 3 back to at least a 4. Maybe the psychology modules should wait for a while as I tackle the easy modules…

But there are so many things I want to do! Writing (I use my pen more for marking than for writing), going on a long holiday (our school is sort of teachers so scratch that), study Japanese (forget it, after what I learnt in Psycholinguistics, I know that I’ll never achieve mastery over any language now) and many more! So many wants, so little time.

Well, I’m praying to at least keep my blog up to date with my life as possible. Crossing my fingers.

Apparently, some joker was carrying out a devious ploy of duping old folks into believing that their family members are being kidnapped or in some sort of danger. They are then told to remit money to an overseas account. From what I gathered, my father was the one who picked up the call. And he almost had a heart attack when he listened to the call.

Thankfully, my mother, eldest sister and brother-in-law were at home with my little niece. My second sister was going to have a graduation ceremony so my parents are attending the ceremony. My sister and brother-in-law came by early to babysit the baby. Once they knew what was happening, my brother-in-law took over the phone while my sister called me. I assumed my mother was calming my father down. When my sister received my message that I’m safe and sound in school - or maybe not, considering that I was almost being murdered by the students - things disintegrate rather rapidly for the scammers.

When I came back, we all joked and discussed about that episode. But thinking back now, it was quite frightening if only my mother or father was alone at home. Worse things could have happened. But I was glad that things turned out right in the end. Those who read such stories on newspaper, please never think that this will happen to you. I was reading newspaper just this morning about how two of such scammers got caught by the police and I thought nothing of it.

I shall keep those scammers in my prayers everyday from now on. May they not die early but live to ripe old age and be paralysed from neck down and be forced to survive on drip for the rest of their natural existence.

Amen to that.

1. Hearing :: Court!
2. Aggression :: Fighting
3. Charged :: Guilty
4. Traveler :: Time traveller?
5. Hydrate :: Strangely, this reminds me of Pokemon…
6. Detox :: Hmm, those spa treatments that boast to rid toxins from body?
7. Qualify :: I still can’t believe Singapore is hosting F1 and Youth Olympics in 2010.
8. Prison :: Break, though I never watch that show before
9. Frontal :: No Frontiers by The Corrs.
10. Pep talk :: Giving my class pep talks since their exams is on 13/10. But apparently, only teachers are nervous…

That’s all.

1. Heist :: I distinctively remember there is a literature text where a character has this last name.
2. Hack :: Into the computer system and you die!
3. Dane :: Don Juan. Don’t ask.
4. Stings :: Bees!
5. Monkey :: See, Monkey Do
6. Junkie :: Drugs?
7. Pumped :: Petrol?
8. Brass :: A kind of iron. Don’t ask me anything about Chemistry or Physics…
9. Fight! :: Or flight!
10. Vouch :: Voucher?

That’s all for today! Hope I can blog more next week. Amen to that…

At some point in our life, we have all been to those meetings where someone wants over 100%…and some people commits to delivering more than 100%.

Here’s a little math to help you in achieving a little more of 100% that may prove helpful in the future!

If: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

equals: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

then:

H A R D W O R K
8 1 18 4 23 15 18 11 = 98 % Only

K N O W L E D G E
11 14 15 23 12 5 4 7 5 = 96 % Only

But:

A T T I T U D E
1 20 20 9 20 21 4 5 = 100 %

However:

B U L L * * * T
2 21 12 12 19 8 9 20 = 103%

Ha! So, puh…lease….don’t promise me more than 100%, because more likely, you are just giving me the 3% extra…and if that is something that gets you to the top…well I certainly don’t need it…because bull***t may get you to the top, but it doesn’t keep you there too long.

Good news? I sign up for a M1 mobile broadband, so I’m able to go on internet after my sister cancels her plan.

Bad news? Many. I failed my Grade 8 Practical. Again. I hear people laughing…I’m sure my parents will want me to take again. But after so many attempts, it’s not that I’m a quitter but, it just gets downright demoralizing.

Besides that, I have students taking the new AEIS test this coming Monday to go into government school. And another three weeks’ time, another batch of students. Some of them, I have no qualms, but others, it seems like I’m more nervous than them.

And only just, I checked and discovered that I received a B- grade for my psycholinguistics assignment. So much for trying to get an average GPA of 4.5 when I graduate.

Wonderful day, rotten mood.

You say … and I think … ?

1. Cut the crap :: With scissors?
2. Scent :: Dog
3. Vanishing :: Powder. It is supposed to make stains vanish but somehow, it gives the idea that the powder vanished…
4. Wetness :: Tears?
5. Cheap :: Cheep!
6. Badges :: Inspector?
7. Puppy :: Eye look. You know, the sad puppy look?
8. Problem solver :: Not me. I’m “Problem Creator”
9. Gambling :: Las Vegas?
10. Sophia :: A student in my school.

That’s all. See you guys around. I hope.

He sighed as he passed by the shop again. It had been umpteenth times since he trudged on that path, looking wearily at what he wanted to buy. Want and need. Know your needs, get rid of your wants! he thought to himself mockingly. If he had to live the rest of his natural life with that philosophy, he might as well shorten that natural life. He gazed longingly at the object of his interest again.

A laptop. Lavish for someone like him, who earned peanuts from his slave-driving workaholic employer. A laptop that had the basic function for his wants. Writing. A laptop to rule them all. He snorted and shook his head, from dejection or those self-pitiable thoughts, no one knew.

If one was to look at him, they would be amazed that he actually needed money. The fact that he looked haughty, glanced at restaurant menus with distaste and sniffed disdainfully at people working on the streets (flyer distributors, interviewers and the likes) might have something to do with it. After all, who would do all those? Any working class person would just shook their head politely even before interviewers began their barrage of monotone well-wishes and memorized questions.

He had concluded quite early during his schooling career that there were three types of people. People who were born with silver spoon in their mouth, people who were holding onto plastic spoons and people who were wearing silver jacket.

People with silver spoons in their mouth were just that. Rich to the point where they could choose to choke themselves on the silver spoon and still had value even after their death. A truly formidable suicide weapon. Plastic spoon holders at least had the tool to find food and possibly, attack another person with a plastic spoon. One would usually notice them in high corporate ladders. They tended to be hard to miss.

Then, there were people like him. With silver jackets on and no spoons at all, they were able to con those people who were biting onto their silver spoons and weaned the spoon off them, claiming the spoon for their own. Or they could lose their jackets trying and essentially be left with nothing. With his jacket, he was sorely tempted to do that. Only the gods knew how tempted he was.

But flirtation with something you did not know could be fatal. He was a silver jacket wearer with morals drummed into him by his parents. Never dally with silver spoon; flirt with dual plastic spoon holders could land you in hot soup; stay away from the other silver jackets or you’ll court more trouble than you bargain for.

But his parents failed to understand one thing. In a working life, every two cents you chipped in did not mean you would get them back. Two dollars could be gone and you still got nothing in the end.

Flirtation was dangerous but it had a certain justified reward in the end. He grinned. He was going to find himself a silver spoon. By hook or by being a crook.

“Girls do not suddenly run away and fly,” he said obstinately.

“Yes, they do. We just saw it,” I argued back. Damn him and his stubbornness. Must he be so down to earth?

“I heard that! And for the last time, no! There is no girl, much less a flying girl! It’s you. Just you, alright! Are you trying to drive me crazy?”

His voice was going an octave higher as he responded. I knew it was time to get a hearing aid when I could still hear his voice even after stuffing my ears with cotton and clapping my hands over my ears.

Here I was, feeding him all sorts of ideas for his creative writing and what did I get in return? Rejected ideas, one after another. There was pretty much no point in creative writing if you curbed your imagination, was there?

“Alright, what’s wrong with you?” he demanded. I told him what was wrong. In great details. “No, no, no, it’s not creative writing. We are supposed to write about one thing that happened to us in the past few days. Not some fantasy stories.”

“Which is precisely why my idea will put you in top place after your teacher grades your paper,” I replied. Sometimes, was it that difficult to put something interesting and exciting?

“From bottom up, you mean?”

Yep, as I suspected, he had a sense of humour as well. Sadly, that was only when he was going out of his way to annoy me. Oops, was that the thunder?

“Yes, that is,” he answered, squinting his eyes as he gazed at the rapidly darkening skies.

He heaved a dejected sigh as he started to gather his things. His imagination could be disagreeable at times. “Me and my overactive imagination,” he muttered as he trudged back from the garden back into the house.

“Your imagination heard that. Without me, you couldn’t have written so many wonderful stories,” I said smugly.

He threw his things down and pulled his hair in vexation. “Zeroes! Nothing at all!” he shrieked.

Blessed the heavens above for sending me to such an amusing person. Nope, life was never dull at all.

I decided to go alone this year to look around Suntec City. Min calls it useless window shopping. I call it self-entertainment walking without spending money. That aside, I inevitably found myself in a bookshop call Harris. I was walking around, looking at rows of books, which were all categorised, when I saw this:

I laughed when I saw it because when I looked at the contents, it was actually this:

Rows and rows of comic books dedicated to fans. Ranging from X-Men to random comics from DC and Marvel, there were eight full bookshelves, a haven for children and fans alike. Graphic Novels…Noble name for comics *sniggers*

Netball. How long has it been since I last saw this game? During my secondary school days. I didn’t understand the rules then and I still don’t understand the rules now. But I was still fascinated by the movements in the crowd.

Evidently, I’m not the only one. There were quite a few of them discussing the shot that was made previously, which incidentally, didn’t score.

Anyway, Great Singapore Sale has ended. But National Library Board Book Sale is coming up. Books going at $2. I’m so going tomorrow morning!