24 December 08

I'd feel guilty about writing over an entry someone else just written, but seeing as TOFU's is really quite short (about the All-American Rejects' new album, hmph, you don't see me blowing a blogpost on an entire album do you? Oh wait, I kinda did) well, fuck him and his mainstream music! I have unparalleled nonconventional taste in the arts! Which is not the point of this entry!

But the cruellest thing you can do to an artist is tell them their work is flawless when it isn't.
- Ben Croshaw

'Yahtzee' Croshaw is the man behind the hit online game reviews Zero Punctuation. He's also Australian, like the Hilltop Hoods! And that guy I was arguing with on Youtube yesterday about Australian gun laws!... Also not what today's theme is (I almost said "letter of the day", there) but I'll throw in some Yahtzee humour at the end because I like his hat.
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Long post ahead.

I can't quite remember the last time I was pumped about Christmas. Huh. If I had to guess who was behind this inane tradition's continuation I'd say it was my mother. (Don't worry, I'll keep the hate-my-family-for-attention short this time.) She's quite Singaporean.

Anyway I forgot where I was going with this... oh yeah, I was going to be all nostalgic about (drum roll) my past, but then I guess all my Christmases have been rather uneventful... So as a better primer for getting off my ass and begin fine-tuning Bridge again, I'm gonna tag the shitload of secondary school photos I uploaded on Facebook a while ago and see what comes up.

Unfortunately, due to the Pebble Fort's constitution (TOFU is noob!) I cannot post them here. I will describe them instead. A lot of these photographs are my own. I can't say I have too strong of an interest in the art of photography, but there is definitely some. Interesting but unsurprising fact: Mikana probably sparked it off. Holding the post of photographer certainly gave me plenty of opportunity to snap away (Wank away would have been more appropriate, but less accurate).

In between getting stone-hard boners for the pretty maiden, I did manage to catch a few things out the corner of my eyes that I snapped anyway... all in all, I did make an honest attempt to do my 'job' and learned a few things. Just me and my father's camera. Impromptu amateur photography.

When I lost my handphone (again) and inherited a newer one with a camera, I obviously went crazy with it. Because of the poor photo quality and shit resolution, and the fact that I was already out of Drama by then, meant that I would no longer have opportunities to shoot Mikana up close, and of course faraway shots with a phone is invariably crap. So I shot other things.

Taking advantage of the quick setup time and relative inconspicuous qualities of the phonecam, I could whip it out anytime I saw something particularly photogenic. I think my favourite one (ego incoming) came from the night study sessions in school. A student, sitting alone at a table. His bag and study things are strewn around him. This is all taken from behind him, but from the back of his head we can see that he's looking at a clique, engrossed in themselves, just a table away. He's just sitting there and watching them, arms and hands down. I dunno what the rest of you will take away from it, now that it's on Facebook, but predominantly it got me thinking about social barriers, because there's a tangible, powerful barrier in that photo.

Was it because the student was obese? Maybe he was just not very likable? Gender? Racial barriers?

I'm sure the Singaporean Tourist Board would jump to overuse the phrase "Racial Harmony", but the fact is that Racial Tolerance would have been more accurate. All the government conspiracies and prejudices discussed in math tuition aside, a great number of cliques I see are still defined by skin colour and sex. You have the Malay girls over there, the Chinese guys over here, Chinese girls, Indian girls, Malay guys, more Chinese guys.... Yeah, there are exceptions (thanks to Lime, we are one of them =).

There was this girl from Thailand who was my classmate this year. There wasn't a clique she could just fall into... so had a Malay guy as a best friend. Of course, she did tell me that back in Thailand, being from an extremely rich family, most people saw her in terms of money... so what, only necessity can overcome petty things like racial and gender barriers? Eh, lets go back to nostalgia.

Got a photo of Giant, Panzerz and the rest of 4/8 chilling outside the classroom by the railing. I wonder why nobody bothers to record these things? Or maybe I just think it is extra special because my own class, 4/4, has really no unity. No pictures of them.

Here's one of TOFU. It's during one of those dreadful barbaric Scout rituals. (Take that!) In this picture TOFU is sitting right in front of the camera, resting his head on his hand and staring off into the distance while a bunch of other Scouts do push-ups behind him. It's like he's wondering "Is there a life for me beyond making little boys cater to my every whim?" while he's looking towards the sky with hope in his eyes. So yeh, quite funneh. I didn't take this one, stole it off TOFU's blog.

There're a few pictures of female friends as well. If the gender equality in Singapore is anything to go by, unless I'm fucking them in the years to come (I'm not THAT rich, so...) I'll probably never see them again after another year or so. I'll also probably never see much of my other secondary school schoolmates again, so I'm really very pleased that I managed to teach one of my classmates Bridge during the chalet, so it didn't feel like I was wasting people's oxygen. Managed to tie this part of my life off pretty nicely actually in comparison to primary school and (gasp!) India.

Another bad tie-off was 6J. I've received invites asking me to attend a gathering. Though it would certainly refresh me with what kinds of stupid things you say when you're in a social group you don't fit into, and help me write Bridge. I guess I'm really behind in terms of social skills. Too much time on the internet anarchy.

Just uploaded the few photos I managed to take of school surroundings before the next set of Sec 4s invaded and rearranged everything. When I finally got round to it with a proper camera, the desks had been moved and everything we had pasted and left behind, except for some wall and desk murals, were gone. What I managed to salvage anyway is up on Facebook.



I suppose its worth mentioning that on in 4/5, one of TOFU's post-it notes on the door was untouched. It read: "Even though we got burned, look at all the things we learned." It's a geeky Portal quote. But then again, I have come some way despite being "burned" many times. I have to admit my position in life isn't too bad and can get a lot better. Tomorrow, Christmas Day, I'm going back to writing.

And here's some of Yahtzee's British humour, straight from fullyramblomatic.com.