Operation Overlord

Write to live, live to write.

AIRBORNE ALL THE WAY Friday, May 28, 2010

Before I begin this long-overdue post, let me first wish you happy German surrender day, happy VE day, and all the various other things I've had to wish you for the past three months.
I shall first account for my absence. My life has been understandably hectic ever since I came to VJC. It's been tests and assignments galore. If you wanted to stress yourself out you can't find a better place to go to. I've had harrowing times and none the better to show for it - my results were a joke.
But now that that's over we can rejoice. The June holidays are here!
...and the review tests right after that.
But let's not think about that. We're going to Bali this June. Originally we were going to go to Bangkok, but we didn't want to get shot/burnt/blinded by too many colored shirts to count (Red, White/Pink, Yellow, Green (the Army)...what next?) so we're going somewhere relatively safer. (2002, 2005 do not count.)
Recently I participated in this iGlobe competition where they tested current affairs. I came in individual champion, beating JC1s and 2s. Goes to show that the IP students do have something in them after all.
I failed my very first major test. Physics, by a measly 2.5 marks. Hate physics now. Never liked it in the first place really, but it sucks.
The ranks of the Army are really useful in coming up with dumb things. For example, using them as names. Imagine if your last name was 'Mistake' and you were a Major. What would that make you?
Yessir, Major Mistake.
Another one is Corporal Punishment, a third would be General Knowledge/Paper/Practitioner.
Right, this settles it. I'm mad.
Cheerio.

>>Forgotten by23:35

AIRBORNE ALL THE WAY Thursday, February 25, 2010

Well.....
Happy belated Invasion of Iwo Jima day and raising of flag on Mt Suribachi day!
For your information, Iwo Jima means Sulfur Island. Although I daresay you'd have known that by now if you've known me for a while.
I know that nowadays if you hear from me via this blog, it's like once in a blue moon (which actually does exist, by the way. It's what they call the second full moon in one month.) but I'm quite busy with school. On Monday we end at ten minutes to five, on Tuesday at three o five, on Wednesday it's...weird, on Thursday it's 1615, and on Friday it's...I don't remember what it is. But, basically, to sum up, I never have time to come online anymore, let alone blog.
What about the weekends, you ask? I would, but I'm much too lazy. SO you can take all my reasoning in the previous paragraph and throw it out of the window and just use this much easier excuse. And this excuse, by the way, does not help when you're explaining your undone homework.
Well, in case I didn't tell you, I did manage to get War and Peace for my IH option, and I'm very glad I managed to get it. It. Is. The. Best. Lesson. Ever. Just yesterday we stimulated a war, where Singapore is divided into three parts, Westland, Middleland and Eastland. W invaded M, and M asked for our help, and so we had to justify our cause of action and think of what the enemy would do. The situation escalated when W captured 30 of our people, including the Prime Minister's Son (however did they manage to do that?) and were dropping one off every ten minutes from the top capsule of the Flyer.
Our group's proposal was very simple: Go to War. Why? Because W invaded a sovereign country who was at peace, and that country asked us for help, and in addition they provoked us, who have absolutely nothing to do with the war (yet), by taking thirty of our citizens and dropping them off. Which is quite stupid, if you ask me. Our course of action was going to be 'wait for the US to come and help', or 'wait for the UN to sanction the war', but then we realised we had superior air power (Changi airport, Paya lebar air base) and superior naval power (Changi Naval Base). So we came up with a whole plan of invasion (advance into the CBD area because that's where the port is, at the same time distract with an attempt on Sembawang air base which is in M to distract W's troops while a commando team can be sent in to rescue hostages, build a defence line somewhere in the middle of middleland that should not be run over by enemy forces, bomb Tengah air base, send our destroyers in a flanking attack against the industrial estates in Woodlands and Jurong so that they will not be able to sustain a full scale ten year war, say, etc.) but that, sadly, wasn't needed.
Tomorrow is cross-country. It's compulsory for everybody, girls and guys and staff (although I can't see certain members of the staff running...) and the girls have to run 3.3. Yes, I want it to be meters as well, but it's kilometers. The good news is that I'm not going for it. The bad news is that it's because I have my Grade 7 piano exam tomorrow, which sucks, which I'm going to fail.
Heh, it's funny I'm writing this down because I'm currently also doing a Chinese compo now which is probably graded and I also have my bio project, which is definitely graded, and our group is not getting anywhere on that front. It's a four front war I'm fighting here, people. God knows how many more are going to be added.
So if a few months from now you see me - or actually, you see my brains all over the wall - you'll know how that happened.

~Today in History~
1945: Turkey declares war on Germany. Yup, for three long, hard months they were at war with Germany, sitting on their bums and suffering. Way to go, gobble gobble gobble.

~Quote of the Day~
BZZZZZ and that's all we have time for. Next time...there might not be a next time.

>>Forgotten by02:41

AIRBORNE ALL THE WAY Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Lessons have started. Finally, I can hear you say. You've waited ages for them to begin. How come you've had three hundred tests and I just began lessons?
Our literature teacher is like a three year old on a sugar rush. For those of you who know su lao shi, it's like when he's all fired up about wenshi, just ten times worse. For those of you who know Le Yan, it's like when she's on sugar, just ten times worse. For those of you who know nothing, it's just pretty bad.
Our Geog teacher is also a psycho. It seems that the only requirement for an IH teacher is that you must be weird. She describes herself as anal and acts like she should have been teaching drama instead.
For Language Arts, all we did was watch the Matrix so I can't really say how that lesson is going to be like. I can say, however, that I do not like the Matrix.
For the three sciences we have nice, engaging teachers. Mr Boy is the kind of person my dad would like, serious and subtly passionate about his subject. Showed us a very interesting double-slit experiment, in which he explained using machine guns. The picture he used, though, was not of a machine gun but of an M16. I know that nobody cares.
We're all broken up for Chinese. Our teacher is bloody stern. And weird. She wants us to find out the meaning of our Chinese names. Mine is 'rich victorious beautiful piece of jade'. That's obviously literally translated or it would actually make sense. She also says we're going to write a lot of zuo wens. DIE.
That's about all the teachers I have. (Math is so normal and boring I won't even bother mentioning her. Except that I got a chance to recite pi during her class.)

~Today in History~
Today in 1840 Queen Victoria married Prince Albert. In 1906 the HMS Dreadnought was launched. In 1954 Eisenhower warned against US intervention in Vietnam. Fools, not to have listened.

~Quote of the Day~
I said, to the people of the Philippines whence I came, I shall return. Tonight, I repeat those words: I shall return!
Blah blah blah, Doug McArthur. Big words for a big ego.

~Useless fact of the Day~
A rock fan who paid one thousand pounds for a guitar signed by Queen's Brian May rubbed off the signature with his sleeve when he played it.

>>Forgotten by01:27

AIRBORNE ALL THE WAY Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Right, I can't believe it was December thirtieth since I last posted.
School has been quite a blast, I can tell you that. Others have already had what, three tests? And we're still having JC Orientation.
IP Orientation was held first three days (11-13 Jan). We were split up into groups (within class) and made to go around the school to play games. A lot more fun than JC Orientation, which is what we just finished.
This is because JC Orientation is mainly for - you guessed it - JC1s. Give yourselves a clap. So us IP1s were left out, dazed, disoriented (Excuse the pun) and pretty much left to ourselves. For example Carmen's group was asking why she needed to be here at all.
And the names of the big groups are just whacko. Mine was called "Creudor". There was also Alphaeus, Ryphon, Valora, Pyxis, Eorix, and there's one that starts with a "shen" and another that starts with a "Ark". I don't know how to spell them.
Right off all the participating people were the 'freshmen', the JC1s. So one five (My class, 10V15) gathered at the back of the hall and ignored everything going on, except for the mass dance (Seven of them. SEVEN OF THEM.) which we all did as a group. You could say that we 'bonded in the face of adversity'. And the best part was that a lot of the Orientation Group Leaders, mostly IP2s I think, went through the exact left-out feeling as we were going through, just that they did theirs last year, and absolutely understood.
So for the third day of JCO one of our OGLs, Samara, helped us scram from the Cluedo game they were playing. We pretty much just had a 15 group and went to sit in the Treehouse, the unofficial hangout of our class. We sat there till four and then went back to learn another dance.
And today was wet games. Unfortunately I lost my group, then had a terrible headache and went back to class to get Panadol. Azelle, Carmen and Gordy came with me. Charlie was already in class, because he's the keyholder. Then Bryan, Billy and Harish came back, because Bryan had a neck injury, Billy was there to see him back and Harish said he injured his...bicep?
Yeah. 15 is the best at coming up with excuses. (Although my head really, really hurt.)
Stayed there slacking till four thirty before going back down to listen to the results. Apparently the wet games had an amazing amount of points because before the games they announced the standings: Valora was first, and Creudor, unfortunately, was Eighth. Last. So after that Creudor became overly enthusiastic.
Anyway, the final result was quite a shock. Valora dropped to sixth place and Creudor jumped to third. Just as well.
And now it's over. We're going to Ikea tomorrow to look at furniture to buy for our class. Not all might be going though. Caunt have twenty five of us looking at things can we old chap?

~Today in History~
1943: The last German forces surrender to the Soviets after the Battle of Stalingrad. (As in, not the last German Forces in the whole of Europe. Just Russia.)

~Quote of the Day~
If it moves, salute it; if it doesn't move, pick it up; and if you can't pick it up, paint it.
-This is called 'Typical Army'.

~Useless Fact of the Day~
A misomaniac is someone who hates everything.

>>Forgotten by03:43

AIRBORNE ALL THE WAY Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Today, I saw a guy walk across the road - no traffic lights involved. Jaywalker. And you know what his shirt said? "Safety concerns me."

>>Forgotten by00:15

AIRBORNE ALL THE WAY Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Two/three days to the New Year, depending on who you ask. There are the people who consider 12 AM part of the next day and people who consider 12 AM part of the day before, so I'm not sure which one whoever is actually bothering to read this is.
Me? I'm neither. I just believe that 12 AM the time where everything's pitch black outside and most people are either asleep or in a nightclub somewhere. But nobody asked me that question anyway, so I shall just shut up.
Ros, Eme, Pearl, Vera, Le Yan and I went out yesterday. They made me a cake. You may be thinking "oh, that's so sweet of them! I would love to have friends with yours." Yes, it was nice of them, but be careful what you wish for. Preferably friends with better cake-decorating skills. I would show you pictures but unfortunately the only ones I've got are ones taken after they've been half eaten and it looks even worse.
We then went to watch Sherlock Holmes. I thought it was hilarious, especially the part about the pigs being sliced in half and the blood and guts spraying everywhere. Or the part where there was this frog with its legs stuck on four sharp pins and the skin on its stomach gone.
By the way, if you really want to know, the cake looked absolutely pure and clean and white as snow at first. After my friends were done...decorating it, and I say that with italics and particular emphasis which implies heavy use of sarcasm, it looked like one of Jackson Pollock's random abstract paintings. The difference being art critics can look at Pollock's paintings and see something, but when they see the cake......
It was very nice of them, though. I'll give them credit for that. And the presents were...amusing.
Because both Vera and Eme knew very well I don't like pink they went out of their way just to get me something of that color.
Ros gave me National Geographic photo annuals that were very nice (excluding the advertisement for eco-friendly underwear attached) and Pearl gave me a wooden plane painted by Eme. It's all rather confusing, but I did like the plane.
I don't think I have anything else to say right now. I feel like I've taken a dose of "instant sarcasm". Do you feel like that too?

>>Forgotten by02:02

AIRBORNE ALL THE WAY Friday, December 18, 2009

Right, you blokes, I realised I haven't posted a single post since the eighth of December, and I completely missed Battle of the Bulge day.
The Battle of the Bulge was actually the name given by the popular public to Operation Wacht Am Rhein, German for Watch on the Rhine. It was Hitler's last, biggest gamble (perhaps influenced by the 20th July plot to assassinate him) and many of the Generals recognized that he wouldn't achieve his goal (blitzkrieg all the way to Antwerp, get supplies and win the war!). Nobody stopped him though, and on the sixteenth of December 1944 Colonel Jochen Peiper and his Panzers attacked in full force across the mountainous area of the Ardennes forest. The Krauts achieved complete surprised (helped by poor Allied intelligence and Allied overconfidence) and inflicted a lot of casualties on the Americans, making it one of the worst and most costly battles the US have ever fought.
This is the part where one of the shortest speeches (but one of the well-remembered ones) comes in: General Anthony McAuliffe of the 101st Airborne defending Bastogne replied to a request by the Germans to surrender, "NUTS!"
Now, you're probably wondering what this has got to do with anything. The answer is it doesn't have anything to do with anything and everything to do with nothing. While you figure out that sentence I'll leave you and only post again two weeks later. Merry Christmas, everybody. If you see a fat, red figure sliding down your chimney or climbing through your window, get a big shotgun and blast away. Santa Claus may very well be Santa Money-or-your-life, and it's best not to take chances.

>>Forgotten by23:46