A lone bird flies in the sky

  Friends. PALS. You know I was going to post here a month ago like you guys but that faithful day my internet crashed I think. I was pressing the publish button real hard but I don't think my computer got it. We don't connect really well.
 
So I'm writing something now and maybe a month later you guys will chance upon this blog again and read my post :') How lovely. I saw these cool marshmallows online:

(OH I deleted those photos from download. Meh.)

LOVE YOU GUYS <3

MIOMWR

Maltesers, resurrected.

I'm still floating in the fuzzy sentimental mood from visiting RG with 411.

Anyway, with Sicheng's new found singing abilities, we can go busking together when we're older and possibly penniless. Because we'd automatically sound good with a harmony thrown in. And then maybe we'd happen to sing a favourite song of a billionaire dying of cancer (and liver failure for good measure) who'd then give us all his money in his will. And then we can travel around the world doing gigs. Maybe even visiting Nyan.

---

Anyway, we're famous guys. Look, we're INTERNATIONAL.

oh hello!

it's been ages and decades and eons

(turning into old fudgepots)

yet we can still climb into cupboards and have awkward teacher conversations and wolf down cupcakes and chope positions in the braid queue and stare at fountains and have ridiculous stupid fun

the earth is the blue one on the right.
(the purple one's occupied by nyan-ians)

but sicheng sings better now :D

OMG HI GUYS

I mean, hi imaginary friends.

I ate tiramisu today :D

MY SIS HAS BEEN PLAYING THE RECORDER THE ENTIRE DAY (and the recorder isn't exactly the most beautfiul-sound-producing instrument in the wold) the sound is killing me. Especially with the tunes What makes you beautiful (it's actually rly easy) and happy birthday OVER AND OVER AGAIN

We ate xiaolongbaos too

I shall now go do work. Bleh. Memorizing definitions on crude birth rates is really boring.

Oh hi!

Didn't see you there. Whatever happened to us?

We're good we're good. How are you? Mmm, good to know. Sounds like life has been treating you well.

---

And so resumes our awkward conversation with our non-existent readers. (Unless hi Fish - you're somewhere out there?)

I'm going to tape up my nails

They're quite bad, even by my standards. Which is saying quite a lot.

Blogger's changed! How odd.

Rainbow-cupcake-baking-outing-thingum in the June hols? :D

omg PI

Wastage? what wastage? Where? I don't know!

Discovery? If there are adaptations to be made they'd have been made, jeez.

HELP MEHH

I have this strange urge to do something on sanitary pads :O

你说什么？

My Bi-cultural Studies (China) class is all in Chinese?!?!

It may seem pretty duh, but I wouldn't expect the India bi-cultural studies to be in Tamil or Hindi or whatever. Neither was last year's China's Foreign Policy options class in Chinese.

I thought bi-cultural studies was more of examining China's rapid economic growth or its policies or how the government is responding or rapid urbanisation problems or stuff like that - y'know, current things, but our first four talks are like 孔子 or 中国画 type stuff :/ Only in the second semester will the focus be more on contemporary issues. Oh well.

Nevermind, my Chinese will improve by the end of the year. Marginally. I had better be able to speak decent Chinese before I go for the trip anyway :D
At times like these, I wish I were better at languages.

Sicheng, can I draw oranges on your orange-red stickers?

What about CPR?

Wait, when you say there are no flaws in the argument, are you referring to the prisoner's reasoning or the bit where the judge's remarks came true because of the prisoner's reasoning?

Is the prisoner's reasoning screwed up?

Once he starts reasoning and guessing which day he will be hanged (or how he will not be hanged), whatever day it is he will be surprised. If he reasons that it will not be Friday because it wouldn't be a surprise then, and on Thursday night he is still alive and therefore reasons that he will not be executed, then when the execution actually occurs on Friday, he will be still surprised?

Oh wait, scratch that. I got it! I think. Because he's working backwards from Friday now, each day he's working with the foreknowledge that he wasn't already exe... oh wait. This is flawed.

(Second Thoughts/Aside from the third paragraph: But that's ignoring the judge's first condition that he will be hanged.)

(Third Thoughts: What is being surprised? The execution happening on a day he didn't expect it to? The execution not happening on a day he expects it to? If on Wednesday night he is still alive, and he reasons that he won't be killed Friday- I lost my train of thought/it became too convoluted even for me to follow.
If he doesn't try to reason at all, and just sits waiting in his cell, will he be considered surprised when the execution comes? He doesn't try to guess so there is no expectations for a certain day, but he expects to be executed, he doesn't not-expect to be executed on any day but expects the possibility of being executed. Doesn't this make him not surprised?)

(Fourth Thoughts: Oh- I forgot.)

Omg his reasoning is flawless. I think. But is stupid, because his reasoning inevitably leads to his conclusion, which contradicts the judge's first uh premise-thing but also allows that same premise-thing to be 'fulfilled'.

I just smoked that.

[Edit: OMG OMG epiphany! I think I got what I was trying to articulate in the second and third paragraphs of the deleted bits. It's a bit like slippery slope but not really. It's not Friday because on Thursday he'd know it's going to be Friday. It's not Thursday because on Wednesday he'd know it's going to be tomorrow. But what assumption is he making on Wednesday? That they are not going to surprise him by making it on Friday instead of Thursday... I think. Oh nevermind.]

I give up.

I have... renewed tanlines. About four different shades of skin tones, including the red of a mild sunburn.

And I say yes to rainbow muffins during June hols!

I don't see why I got poked

When it's Sand's turn.
I guess thia just wants to remind us that she has finally posted, and fish has something new to read bahaha.

Slept for 2 hours today, shall go to sleep now bye guys! <3333

CPR?

Ah sorry >< I haven't checked this in quite a while - but I'm back, and will hopefully stay back :D

I seem to see both of you quite a bit around school! Sandra with her OG and Sicheng.. at random places. Life landings corridors one earth booths canteen after chorale during camp?

Speaking of paradoxes - 

A judge tells a condemned prisoner that he will be hanged at noon on one weekday in the following week but that the execution will be a surprise to the prisoner. He will not know the day of the hanging until the executioner knocks on his cell door at noon that day.Having reflected on his sentence, the prisoner draws the conclusion that he will escape from the hanging. His reasoning is in several parts. He begins by concluding that the "surprise hanging" can't be on Friday, as if he hasn't been hanged by Thursday, there is only one day left - and so it won't be a surprise if he's hanged on Friday. Since the judge's sentence stipulated that the hanging would be a surprise to him, he concludes it cannot occur on Friday.He then reasons that the surprise hanging cannot be on Thursday either, because Friday has already been eliminated and if he hasn't been hanged by Wednesday night, the hanging must occur on Thursday, making a Thursday hanging not a surprise either. By similar reasoning he concludes that the hanging can also not occur on Wednesday, Tuesday or Monday. Joyfully he retires to his cell confident that the hanging will not occur at all.The next week, the executioner knocks on the prisoner's door at noon on Wednesday — which, despite all the above, was an utter surprise to him. Everything the judge said came true.


A surprise test version of this appeared in our KI notes and almost everyone refused to believe there were no flaws in the argument.

(Rainbow muffins during the june holidays? :D)

I don't see you guys much anymore!

Sec 4 seemed like such a long time ago.

Honestly I don't actually feel busy yet, mostly because I don't spend my time well (i.e. instead of mugging, I stone) D:
but I'm not looking forward to the busy period. Seriously.

On a side note, miss you guys! :)

Para-dogs

I poked Aletheia. She's not posting ):

I shall Google for paradoxes! Because they are fun. Look look:
"If a crocodile steals a child and promises its return if the father can correctly guess what the crocodile will do, how should the crocodile respond in the case that the father guesses that the child will not be returned?"
Can the child return back by himself?

"A male barber shaves all and only those men who do not shave themselves. Does he shave himself?"
The male barber is not actually a man... Let's not consider the implications.

And my personal favourite so far: "I'm lying."

... Or am I?

I'm still alive

but I'm barely breathing

NO LA STILL AROUND. Had chorale camp from 5pm yesterday till 7pm today. :O And we didn't have prac BOO YA.

MISS YOU GUIZ! Saw Aletheia today with her fencing friends but I was too busy finding pebbles and wax around the school i think.

I'm currently quite satisfied with my commitments in life. :)

lemon melon I can't anagram

My brother says I have a career as a tuition teacher. Is that a good thing or is that very sad?

I wonder what Sicheng would be like when she's grown up. Will she still be as Sicheng-y or will normality set in?

I hope you stay Sicheng-y for the rest of your life, Sicheng!

I've never been a crazy kid. I feel like some part of childhood has been denied me. Eh.

This is too much to think about now. I feel like eating lemon puffs! IF YOU'VE NEVER EATEN KHONG GUAN'S LEMON PUFFS, YOU'RE MISSING OUT.

things

I am tired.

I am posting on a blog. I am creating media. We are all creators of mass media. Even if the content's not original, whenever we do reblog/repost a photo or video, we are embellishing details accumulating to ditch DR.

I saw Aletheia today, dressed up as tribal person? There's another photos online, probzblu.

I typed
"Regards,
Samdra" then I realised.

[Edit] Omg did someone edit my post? I don't remember writing half the things here. Unless I was that tired. /edit

Me again?

It's rare that I'm the one who gets poked by Aletheia with such fervor, and I have to say that i've been busy lately, what with staring at the ceiling, laying on my bed thinking about how peaceful life is, sitting in front of my computer doing nothing.

Should I get a ukelele or a guitar? :D If I get a ukelele I can bring it anywhere, but there's not many notes that can be played; then again, that means it would be easier to learn!

And yet time is priceless!

一寸光阴一寸金，寸金难买寸光阴

Our chinese is not entirely lost! More like a person somewhere strange with no working GPS/3G/map, because said person could always ask a friendly stranger (baidu?) for help, or walk straight till you arrive somewhere, or just lepak there.

My Morphing Malteser Motel is a mix between Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, a medieval castle, the Room of Requirement, and a posh hotel, owned by no one and everyone simultaneously. With wood panelling and cold floors and fireplaces and black and white corridors and 42 rooms bursting with colors and warmth and a kitchen with a balcony, and anti-gravitational and infinity devices, and books. It'll be made largely out of chocolate, of course, that doesn't melt on you even if you're a stuck-up Indian prince.

I felt inordinately happy when I told the Times salesperson that I took neither GP nor econs. :D

(don't worry I walk out of almost every KI class feeling mind-boggled.)

Time costs money 8D

I sort of imagine economists to be bespectacled earnest nerds, who huddle around in a room poring over figures and graphs, and eventually emerge to inform everyone solemnly that the economy is going to contract by 3% (or something).

Oh I got Time, because I realised I forgot to take home Newsweek's subscription form to ponder over anyway. I subscribed only for a year though, so I can order Newsweek next year. (I do enjoy my weekly Science & Health thing they put in our classtrays back in the good old days.) Equality.

Sicheng! How is the publicity board? :/

YES IKR

I hate calling them curves because pretty soon I'm going to forget that curves are like, curvy.

but then again you do realize that what we're learning now and the graphs we're using is an extremely simplified version of those economists stare at in the real world. So ah well.

Half an hour more to the releasing of CCA trial results, amirite?

Desserts in a deserted hotel, anyone? A side of maltesers?

"Why would we want to be stuck together in a deserted hotel? oO" You may ask. Thought-provoking question.

Because why, it is the most wonderful thing that can happen to anyone! (Or anytwo. Or actually, anythree. Only anythree.) But don't you see: the deserted hotel contains the fountain of youth and fun and laughter and sugar and spice and everything nice.

Everything nice, of course, mainly consisting of us. Maltesers. Maltesers are nice.

If I were in the hotel, you could probably find me in the kitchen snacking. Because snacking and fun and laughter all go hand-in-hand and skip merrily through sunshine and rain and are the best of friends.

(I'm not thinking straight right now. Econs has got to my brain. Why is a demand or supply curve called a curve if it's - usually, mostly - a straight line? Life's great enigmas.)

Sicheng's back!

How's life!

omg Fish reads our posts? How nice of her! she must check in like, once every month.

Imagine if this were a hotel. We'd be damn dead. Aletheia, at the reception counter, wouldn't be picking up the phone calls (not that many people check in anyway) because she's too busy with modelling.
Sandra, being the manager of the hotel, would be too involved in other matters such as saving books.
Sicheng, doing every other odd job, will just be all over the place.

THE HOTEL OF MALTESERS.

So do I!

I ordered Newsweek! Times isn't bad either, though I prefer the tone and selection and spread in the Newsweek. I don't really like Broader Perspectives. It has pretty illustrations, though, so it's really useful for cutting up and using in cards/decorations or for making paper bags. And yes, they are stiff!

YES MORE FUN AND LAUGHTER. Because people (or, more specifically, Fish! though it might or might not count) actually read this :O And because it makes you look younger and not like mona lihahaha! Oh dear I can't think of anything remotely malteser-worthy. Uh..

This shall be a tiding over post.

(black and white are lovely often neglected non-colours, okay. oh let's spray our hair snow white one day! :D)

I feel like posting something

Hi guys.

To counter all the moodiness in the previous few posts, I shall post something trivial!

Times
Newsweek
Broader Perspective

Which to order? (I included Broader Perspective because it has nice covers that are actually stiff. Stiff. I tell you.)

Mona Lihahaha

Don't change your subject combi! Stick with it and trust any issues with your class will iron itself out? Especially with class camp coming up. If you transfer now, you'd have to get used to a new class again and try to break into it with everyone already more-or-less knowing each other etc.

The problem with my OG is that we're supposedly close without really knowing each other, which is what happens what a random group of people are forced to be together for four intense days. I can tell that if not for orientation, I would probably not hang out with any of my OG mates.

(This sounds really bad, but it's not. I still like them, I guess, but it's not quite the same. Shall not delight you guys with any more ramblings.)

(I'm good at this reflection thing heh.)

WE NEED TO HAVE MORE FUN AND LAUGHTER IN THIS BLOG.

Behold! Fun and laughter. Also, disturbing but mostly funny and laughter-y.

And whatever happened to colours? Why black and white? Is this a metaphor for a dreary emotion you have bottled inside you? Come, sit on the e-couch and speak forth.

Um sorry?

I couldn't think of anything remotely decent to follow up the exciting nose posts. How! And I didn't manage to give either of you carrot cake.

I suppose I ever really appreciated how accepting and fun and open and un-discriminating our class was till now! I like my class and my OG and it's new and exciting and scary, but still! Watching what you say is awfully tiring.

(Ahh Sandra I'm quite horrible at this reflection thing ><)

On another lighter note, I would like to make friends with a black unicorn and a white pegasus one day.

Hating on muggers

The only reason people can hate on muggers is because muggers give the non-muggers stress. Using the word muggers too much also results in me thinking of it as that..that harry potter word, what was it muggles? #ignoramus

Currently I'm feeling kind of stressed/scared/whatever negative feeling because next week school is really going to start and there's no time to drift about or relax or think about what direction i'm heading to, except bury myself in piles of work and programs.

SAVE ME. i'm still thinking about changing subject combi, but i guess in the end even though I'm slightly uncomfortable around my class geog > bio simply because sciences are no fun. So I shouldn't change subject combi because of my class. If I say the reason I'm thinking of changing class is because it's too filled with awesome people, it sounds weird but it is true.

What?

IT'S ALETHEIA'S TURN.

Who was the one who (wrongly) poked me for not posting?!

(Sicheng.)

Cue the 'OHHHH' that RI guys always do. Such a different culture. Everything's happening too much, too fast. Too many groups of people to adjust to. Too many decisions to make. Frisbee why your trials are all gone so fast? Good luck, guys.

---

(Okay, so I couldn't resist a little reflection.)

School. Oh school ): if we had a abrupt transition to active-mugging/studying it'd be great. But no, we had an extra week of holidays, then JIP, and no school again. Then orientation which was a blast and made us all feel like not studying but expecting to, then a week of semi-school (lectures, no tutorials). Because studying in JC is a lot more self-regulatory and therefore requires a lot more discipline on our part, this strange gentle transition just means that we'd might never get down to proper study life, or at least until it's a bit too late.

I also liked how in 411 there were no clear distinctions between muggers and non-muggers. There are definitely people who study more and those that study less but the 'muggers' would also go for class outings and be high and part of us and the 'non-muggers' would also study (in varying degrees/amounts) even with 'muggers' and so on. No one hates on the muggers and muggers don't hate on the non-muggers or anything.

Not so in RJ (at least, from my experience). There are muggers and there are the people who discriminate against them. I feel kind of in between (because I classify myself to be in between). It feels strange.

Plop

I was inspired by all your discussions about noses, and thus (please tell me this looks vaguely like a nose) came up with the idea of having our lip tattoos on our noses.

If people can get attracted to lips, why not have a sexy lip tattooed on your nose, so your nose can be attractive as well?
Speaking of nose tattoos, how come no one seems to tattoo their noses? Wouldn't it be cool to tattoo a butterfly on your nose? Then every time you sneeze, the butterfly comes to life.

or pluck?

You know you're in a society that emphasizes on outward appearance when a large percentage of the results from Googling "pluck" show images of eyebrow plucking.

Anyway. I would start an (pseudo)resarch/advertising company, extolling the benefits of colourful noses for psychological reasons of Brightening One's Day and drab noses for showing maturity, solid noses that will last and hollow noses for storage space, noses that match your species/ethnicity to promote ethnic pride/ loyalty and noses that don't to promote non-discrimination/peace/harmony. Wooden noses for everyday, metal ones for special occasions and maybe a mouth-blown, hand-engraved, milk-plated (because the value of milk has increased the most! not gold!) one for Very Very Special Important Occasions, or normal occasions during which you want to fool the host into thinking that you think very highly of his occasion.

I would conveniently do this after the all-sorts-of-noses craze begins and before the revolt occurs, earn lots of whatever-currency-it-is, and retire into a life of spicy-spring-roll-looking-things to which I've become addicted to.

I hope your nose is better. And what happened to our picture?

or pug!

I've never wanted a pug, though I've always wanted a coat like that. And I have no idea how one is supposed to study for the SATs.


Imagine all of us had wooden noses! (Made of the sort of wood that doesn't decompose despite the moist warm surroundings, of course. Though when you walk into things head first it'd hurt more because there's no cushy thing to soften the impact. Or less, because there aren't any nerve endings there.) Perhaps we would all be born like voldemort, because of a genetic mutation caused by radiation from an evil rainbow with intentions of taking over the world. And since noses are vital for the smelling of sisters' hair and blocking germs and looking sane and, most importantly, a Symbol of Vitality, Valor, and Vitriol-towards-Voldemort, a ceremony would be conducted in which a wooden protuberance would be attached to our face (metal is expensive, and it won't do for only the rich to have noses, no?).

It'd start out normal, with asian people with flat-er noses and french people with big sharp ones and dogs with dog ones, though sooner or later I suppose the forces of capitalism would take hold and people would start using their children's noses and a mode of expression of their expressiveness and wealth, and there would be people with red noses and pink noses and dog noses and pelican noses, though this would just foster animosity of angsty colorful teenagers against their parents and the angsty non-colorful teenagers against their parents and between the latter's parents and the former's parents and between the whole world.

So a revolt would take place, and le Déclaration de l'Indépendance Sans Nez would be signed (because french is cool), and people would be free to choose whatever nose form they wanted at 17 (because 18 is when you can drink and 16 is when you can have sex, and 17 was getting lonely), though of course discriminating against people of different nose types would be banned. Of course, since people would be sick of bumping into things with their noses and aching phantom nerve ends, and choose instead to just do away with their noses, and bit by bit the entire human race would be noseless, which would give time travellers heart attacks, and thus, rainbows can rule the world.


oh dear I have no idea what I just wrote.
(it's worse when you have phelgm dripping out of/blocking one nostril and blood flowing out of the other.)

My nose is like a plug

Blocking all smells--be it the stink of my sister's hair or the freshness of the strawberries.

I cannot feel.

I am wooden.

Wooden nose.

On a side note, I realized we actually do have page views! Be it the unintentional visitor clicking the "next blog" button, or the secret stalker who likes snowmen made from wool.

(THE PUG PHOTO IS MEANT TO BE PLACED HERE WITH THE CAPTION "UNBELIEVABLE" BUT IT ALWAYS GETS PLACED AT THE TOP OF THE POST AND THERE IS NOTHING I CAN DO TO PLACE IT DOWN.

Let it be

because we are the great maltesers who forge other foodstuffs

(Does this mean that, in FoodWorld, Maltesers are the creators/gods/deities-thing?)

We can make rainbow-coloured cupcakes-or-whatever-we're-making! Although I'm sure we shouldn't be fitting that many colours into a cupcake. Sicheng cupcakes! With her face and trademark glasses on it?

I think I'm being overly ambitious oh well.

Look at this look at this I will find materials for this and time to make it this is amazing though hopelessly impractical.

I have also found a newspaper nail tutorial which is cool and a uh "Winter Fashion Cape" which is not very useful here in Singapore but looks kind of cosy.

I can see our faces greeting us with such warm expressions! Aletheia's eyes look really model-like in that makeup/photo :O

but we still shall!

(another continuation.)

Let's get together at the next festival day thing and make colorful cupcakes! Because it's harder to make ugly cupcakes than ugly cakes, though we can try.

Every time (of the grand 3 times in total) I make macarons either the macaron itself or the filling fails ): And I.. haven't attempted a single SAT essay yet, though I've done a few full papers. ): And blogposts are getting shorter and shorter ):

enough sad faces. (Actually I feel quite happy! yay!)

edit: look now you can see our beautiful faces every time you visit. (It was either this or one with suspicious white marks on our faces.) Oh and sandra we bought totoro shirts! :D

No point meeting up AFTER CNY

because then we can't do cards and all ):

Hahah I swore you were listening intently when the last guy was talking about math-related projects. :D

But personally, those talks and presentations sort of put me off, making me even more sure that I do not want to go into the research nor medical path. :O

characterised by large eyes

(title is a continuation of Sicheng's title)

Sorry I can't make it on Friday D: do you guys want to meet to do anything in the break after CNY though?

I can't write my SAT essay in 25min. I need half an hour. Squeezing out some bit of info for the essay about how Google gives their employees time to do whatever they want (apparently a lot of time :O ) - I mean, whatever projects they decide on embark on - and this has led to a lot of successful products like Gmail and... I only remember Gmail.

(Yeah, I'm finally doing the free practice paper.)

Listening to the talks towards the end of today makes me feel so unaccomplished. People are conducting research, thinking thought experiments (so freaking cool - except it pretty much takes a genius to come up with these new ideas), doing olympiads left, going on overseas seminars/exchanges, publishing papers as young as JC or right-after-JC.

What am I supposed to do as a career? What is my passion? ):

Marshmallow Men

Ew a fat marshmallow head!

A moustache man (this is not cute at all)--I tried drawing a suit with my gray crayon but it's simply not possible.



this is that vampire thingy.

that is an owl.


this is broccoli man.



I'm sorry I'm out of ideas! Did live up to my promise though :)

anything but pokes

I like how our titles read out nicely like a paragraph that might make sense (:

Sicheng you could buy gigantic colored sunglasses and nice marshmallows and orange-shaped wallets and starbucks! Though isn't it quite sad seeing the $6 you spent an hour earning just disappear like that?

Class chalet was fun. Jollification! Anyone want to go roller-skating one day, though?

(I'm still very confused about everything. How? )): )

Let's enjoy

bread and tomato sauce.

Ohman I really want to run over to the bank tomorrow to withdraw my pay so I can go shopping on Sunday but I have no time before the bank closes which is so annoying because I know that what I'm going for is not particularly significant (esp compared to shopping and spending on a whim with money I EARNED) so mehhhh ):

There. I can now double-poke Aletheia.

I have a puffy eye.

Class chalet was fun (:

There's school tomorrow D:

Having a to-do list makes me feel productive. Although it gets annoying when I have things to do that span a long time (SAT studying, finish cross-stitch - I dislike back-stitching why did I start this meh) so I can't tick it off.

I have a pile of newspapers from the past few days to clear. I dislike reading the papers.

I'm not going to retake Chinese. Screw it.

I'm practically typing in one-liners because I'm trying to think of things that will lead into a train of thought to elaborate and turn into a nice tidy paragraph, but each pop-up thought leads nowhere. That's a mouthful.

Happy last day of school!

So like

I've been busy.

Nah, not really but it feels like i don't have time to do anything I need to rush through everything D: