Some of you know I've been working on a script and it's temporarily titled "The Store of Memorabilia". Well, honestly, it's really inspired by a certain episode of an anime which (if i'm famous) I will name it the best anime ever produced. wahaha~

anyway, this particular episode is titled with the same title as a 1979 novel (and 1983 movie) named "Kusa-Meikyu", which when translated means Grass Labyrinth. this is sooo gonna be on one of my hopefully-can-watch list of movies. damn. i doubt i'll be able to watch it.

go search for it. i noticed that episode of the anime has borrowed a few things from there, and interestingly one of it is inside my script as well when I wanted to expand upon a character. i'm now trying to include the other element present in both the anime and the novel/movie.

am i really teasing your appetite? haha~ let's just say I hope my script matches up to half whatever level the anime and the movie is at. watch out for the elements!

oooh~ i so wanna watch my own script being staged. gah!

*going-ga-ga-at-2:28-in-the-morning*,
Yong

 

... or is it just an illusion.

Heck, i rather think of it as the former. wahaha.

Why? What happened? Just checked my NTU mail and noticed my CS226 instructor sent an email out to all the ppl in the course. here's roughly the email (i've excluded some unimportant or unfunny bits):

Hello,

Thank you for signing for CS226 Desktop Publishing. My name is Kay Chin and I will be your instructor for the course.

First, lets get this sorted out: If you are in the class that meets every Wednesday, you are in CS226 Moriyama. The Friday class is CS226 Araki.

The naming has special meaning but no bearing, it is just my way of not confusing the two sessions. In the past, classes were named Magritte, Dali, Picasso, Dali.

Araki and Moriyama are two of my favorite Japanese photographers, so go figure.

If you have any questions for me about the course, please hold your horses till school starts, unless it is life-and-death.

I am out of town this Friday till August 9, so if you don't hear from me, it means I am having a good time and ignoring you.

See you in school.


kaychin


Cool!

*illusioning-myself*,
Yong

 

heys, yeok and mu, if you're reading this, i have to say... i'm SOOOO damn terribly sorry that i've missed ur convocation! i only started remembering that u're having it when i saw the news a night ago. I'm so sorry. I really wanted to go and take photos of u two in the convo costume, really!

but haiz, i guess i can't take the photo until the day i have my own convo right? i heard yeok that it's so much more worth it to buy the costume, so now i'm hoping mu u oso went to buy it and have it pack away in a corner of the room. take it out for me on my day kay?

actually, honestly speaking, i felt like i have this obligation to update my blog. dun noe why... somehow there's this tugging feeling within me. and when i start to write in here, i felt like i'm just rambling or uttering nonsensical rubbish that the rest of the world shouldn't even care. haiz.

a week and a few days more to the start of the new school term (avoiding the phrase "reopening of school" cos i know sk will sure to kindly correct me, *winks*), and next week will be filled up with hall camp. am looking forward to the sunday night when us hall-prodigies will be showcasing ourselves.

ah, ok, a little update on what is going on for hall2prod for me. me, i'll still be involved in it, as a scriptwriter and as a co-director (lanzi, i tink, is still trying to get me to drop the "co" bah), giving most of the creative directions for the script since i'm the one who wrote it in the first place. now i'm trying to come up with the actual script, having written 7 out of the supposed 16 scenes already at this point. actually, honestly, the more i write, the more i want to see it staged. weirdly. most probably, because this story has been with me for quite some time since the start of this year bah, and it was inspired by a lot of my favourites (be it anime episode, novel, idol, or song). but, i needed the runaway next year. yes, i call it a runaway, from singapore, from this weird culture that i felt i'm starting to suffocate in.

why weird? actually i never really bothered about this culture thingy before until i went Taiwan. coming back, my view has been quite altered. i tink singaporeans suck. interestingly, i don't dread the government, cos i felt none of the governments on Earth is actually an organization which is near perfect. i dread the people, cos they're the ones who have the government as it is.

for that one week that i drove (in my bro-in-law's car), the things i've seen on the roads just made me confirm what i believe the "Singapore" culture is, thoughts that have seeded in my mind since don't know when, but have bloom into a full grown tree now.

people drive much faster than the speed limit, and blame others for driving just at the speed limit and press their horn untastefully and irritatingly. being scared of accidents and speed (having met a few accidents as a child), i made an effort not to drive beyond the speed limit. if it's 80kmh, then i'll be at 75-80; if it's 90kmh, i'll be at 80-90. what's wrong? i don't occupy the right-most lane (i have a fear of bumping the center kerb), and i really don't swerve my car. yet i kena horned by ppl for no reason. hullo~ if u feel like speeding, i can only be sorry that u're in singapore and not italy. if i'm going by the rules because i have my reasons, u shdnt ACCUSE (yesh, that's the word i'm associating with horning) ppl for doing so.

that's the problem with singaporeans u know. they defy the rules, JUST for the sake of doing it, JUST for the THRILL of doing it. then if anything happens to them, they bitch, they gossip. "Wah, today arh, there's this car on the road that almost hit me leh" "why how come?" "i'm almost late for work and have to rush what, then the stupid red pedestrian lights come on. what u expect me to do? if late again, how? reputation not good leh!"

see see? if u're late, then sorry, but don't expect the rest of the world of cars to give way to u when u ignore the red lights to cross the road u know? dun blame the cars for horning u in this case.

today, i was on 180 back to NTU, den at a t-junction, the bus is waiting to turn right as the pedestrains crossed the road. when the pedestrain light is already flashing and almost turning red, this teenage-boy have to sashay his way onto the road and continue to sashay his way cross the road even when the lights turn red. Wah lao~! hullo boy arh! red lights leh! cannot see arh? have to make all 40 passengers on the bus WAAAAIIITT for u to ENNJJOOOOYYY sashaying cross the road issit? if u need to pee, and HAVE to cross the road, u can quickly cross the road to find a toilet and the earlier u get to release u know? if u're not in the hurry, WHY THE FUCK DO U NEED TO IGNORE THE SIGNS FOR U TO STOP AND MAKE THE WHOLE BUS WAAAAIIIITTT FOREVER FOR YOU HAR? fun arh? SLAP u in the face u know. blardy hell.

i hate blardy immature singaporeans. yee-yer...

er-hmm, luckily i purposely didn't put a title to this post. sorry for letting u all hear my ramblings. paiseh.

*feeling-better-after-blurting-out*,
Yong

PS. those of u who went to the rehearsal with me just now, ops ops, dun worry, i'm not feeling frustrated with u guys. just that this traffic things were getting on my nerves and i've been holding back to say until now. wahaha~ don't worry, u guys are great!

 

While i try to recover from the headache (not due to the following jokes), enjoy (altho u must prob wudnt):

 

After coming back from mahjong cum supper session with buddies (lost $5 btw), i have been having this terrible ache throughout my body and my head feels like Davy Jones' heart, beating all the time. gah~ i'm really falling sick. after a quick shower, collapse myself onto the bed and dozed off. it felt terrible. none of the sleeping felt like deep ones, waking up now and then to cough, and my headache kept striking. had to force my eyes shut and hugged my pillow harder to sleep.

woke up half an hour ago, faced with deciding if i'm going to go home for dinner or stay in hall and slumber again. tink i'm going to take a drive, yea, the advantage of having a car.

tmr lala having sentosa outing, dun noe if i'll be going. wanna go la, but, aiyo~ later the sick force becomes stronger how? i'm not yoda who can feel the force and still kill all the bad guys around him one leh. ok, lame... er...

heck la, see how la... *cough cough*

*finally-sick*,
Yong

PS. sorry to sikeng peeps for not choosing not to go for the equinox thingy, cos there are really other factors involved besides the lame excuse that me money not enough! sorry sorry~ hope u can understand!

 

I will not try to tell ppl how happy i still am despite all the happy stuff going on.

end of foc, ktv wif weiyi and frens, meeting up with film soc gang, driving my bro-in-law's car all over the island alone, etc etc.

I should be happy, but i am not. because of one miserable person. and i shall not tell a lie.

if this post should happen to be censored, u all will know, won't u?

*don't-want-to-wake-up*,
Yong

 

I just woke up, and I felt like I'm already being treated like a tool by my 'fren'.

Shall i even call this person 'fren'? When I found out abt the backstabbing, confronted him, and he still won't say anything truthful. I'm stuck wif this guy, and I keep letting him make use of me. for once, i told a lie, and it's a first step towards writing a fullstop in this friendship.

Why can't I just let go? Heck man, sometimes i feel like i just wanna scream to him.

Read this from my other fren's blog:

Impressing People:
When we try to impress people, by proving that we are clever or rich or cool, people can see through us. And then we look silly. We usually impress people when we are not trying to. That is why babies and animals and elderly people are so appealing. They do not care about what you think. They are perfectly natural. Hiding behind a façade and showing people what you are not is apparently not the smartest thing to do – especially when your friends find out who you really are. Lose that pride. Just be yourself. True friends will love you – flaws and all.



This happens to me a lot. Ppl keep telling me abt how nice he is, how helpful he is and stuff like that, but I know these aren't true and he does things in front of ppl whom he's trying to impress. Then i feel like shit when i look like i'm somebody there for him to attach to.

Sure, frens are meant to help each other, but there's a keyword there. WILLINGLY. u shd not EXPECT someone to help u, just because this someone is ur fren, eh? don't take things for grant, for goodness sake. i'm not some Daiso $2 product which u expect to buy already and can expect to serve u a whole lifetime. HECK, even things that u buy oso has either an expiry date or an eventual date where it just goes spoilt.

My 'other' fren's blog oso has this paragraph:

Helping People:
When we try to help others by solving their problems, they become dependent on us, and some grow lazy. The more we help, the less they do. Mostly, we help people by not helping too much.

Don't use us frens like tools and expect us to forgive u (when u don't even say sorry for bothering in e first place too) and be ur fren for lifetime. If the reason behind u having me as a fren is so that i can be ur tool, sorry, i rather move on myself.

Sounds so childish right? but simple logic that kids understand, why can't 20somethings do the same?

Does he know how the real world works? Should I blast out my volcanic lava at him? Heck, writing this on my blog is bad enough. Let's see how he reacts, shall we? And trust me, I will write this down here.

*sick-and-tired*,
Yong

 

FOC is over.

my role as one of the head programmers ended that morning as well. after a whole morning of packing up, i finally get to meet my bed and enjoy its company without any worrying thoughts haunting me anymore. slept from 9am to 8pm, ordered mac delivery for dinner, slept from 11pm to next day 11:30am, woke up, drove home, slept from 4 to 6, went out for dinner, came back, and trying to stay awake a bit more to get myself updated with my online world.

the camp had been difficult. as a freshie last year, it was just plain physically tired. this year, it was both physically and mentally draining, and perhaps even emotionally as well. a roller coaster ride it had been, and somehow, i didn't really appreciate the people contributing to down-factors of it. i'll remember them, yes i will.

for me, i have been thinking why i was able to endure all the stuff and all the shit that was on us when we were the freshies. i was thinking how i can just laugh it off and continue enjoying the camp. i had fun! heck! the whole camp had fun! why didn't some this year? for the organizing committee, we had been trying to tone down a lot of stuff, afraid that things may go a bit overboard. and so, a lot of stuff, like human cluedo, had been like the simplest of most years liao. why were ppl still affected? *gah* you know what? that night, i kept telling my frens about how i felt, because i was really trying to find a reason to why I'd been feeling that way. i felt no sympathy, i felt like i couldn't care less, i felt angry.

nevermind that. i can only say i'm a person who can forgive, but cannot forget.

anywayz, before assumption is made that i hated this camp, i shall say that i did enjoy parts of it.

i enjoyed being in the OG i got myself attached to. their company had been great through the camp. they knew what it meant to have fun and be fun. sometimes they reminded me of dian-si-kee when we just didn't bother abt others and had our own little fun. yar~ i guess sometimes it had to be that way. games we don't enjoy, we forget, we complain, but when there are things that are really fun, we played along and had fun.

thank you Lala for your support too. sometimes hearing u guys "sabo"ing me turned out to be the most comforting sound thru the camp.

thanks a lot to my subcommers and my station masters, esp Shi Si, Weiyi, Renita, Maybel, Sikeng, Victoria. you guys rawk, allowing me to exploit u all, getting u all to suffer my numerous briefings (just to assure myself), and forcing u all to listen to my whinings when i know sometimes you all don't wanna hear them. i guess ShiZi will not be successful without u all. i guess I will not be able to do so well if not for you all too. weiyi, thanks for the food you packed for me. it was great! and the chin chow! omg, i tot i'll never get to eat it that night.

thanks a lot to seniors, like samuel, xunxiang, marcus. sometimes your encouragements/jokes have been energy boasters during days of not-enough-sleep.

thanks a lot to deana. i'm so sorry i couldn't help out in anyway that i can. somehow i felt i suck as a fren when i couldn't give u enough emotional support. but thanks a lot for the friendship and i hope this goes on forever.

thanks a lot to the rest of the main comm. darren, guangzheng & sayheng, for believing in me and allowing me to just do my stuff sometimes, and pushing me to accomplish goals i never thought i had the self-discipline to complete (somehow, that sounded wrong, argh). rongjun, for the numerous pinches. *kidding* u r one of the people i'm glad i get to know better thru foc. esther, for staying up with me before ShiZi to complete the store packing, for the starry-starry-night shit we had to go thru, and for the comforting and stress-relieving chats we had on the van. melvin, for sending me to and fro from my hall and for all the encouragements. val, for just being urself and for all the encouragements we've been giving each other. justin, well, thanks, don't really wanna elaborate, but you should know. haha~

things have come to an end, in an ironic and unexpected way. it's surprising i've moved on so quickly, plunging into another proj right now. i got my rest, i found myself again, so i guessed moving on is only natural.

but i know i'll remember this experience for a long time.

*actually-still-not-enough-sleep*,
Yong

 

I need to post this here as i changed my nick to reflect how i feel at the moment: "Women love us (men) for our defects. If we have enough of them, they will forgive us everything, even our intellects." (Courtesy of Shi Si who gotten it from an Oscar Wilde movie)

It's 5:04am, and i just couldn't sleep. My nose is running like some reservoir dam that has a leak. I feel cold with the fan blowing at me, and yet hot once it faces away from me. My head is spinning like some mad-hatter's cups. Damn...

It's been like many months since i fall sick, argh. Felt like it's coming back with full force. This is so not good. FOC is just around the corner, how to tahan?!

hope everything will turn out fine. waiting for Kaili's sms to tell me about the filming schedule for the weekends. Boon Seng is back! need to get back all my comics from him. *roar*

so sick... (almost wanting to sing Neyo's song)

*blow-nose*,
Yong

 

I have to continue with this! shucks, approximately two and a half more days to go!! gambette...

so, the morning at 阿里山, i was assigned to wake up the earliest and wake the rest of them up. the assigned time was... a freaking 5:30am for me to wake up! but by the time i'm up, the sun was shining in like it was noon time. wow~ it's that bright.

another after a good (and very cold) wash up (it's still around 10 degrees ba), i tried to wake CL up while mic went to wash up. (she's amazingly early in terms of waking up) mic brushing, CL hadn't wake up... *shake shake shake* mic rinsing mouth, CL hadn't wake up... *shake shake shake* mic come out of bathroom, CL slightly woke up, but whiningly refused to get out of blanket... *shake shake shake* mic was back under the blankets waiting for the rest to wake up, CL still whining, hp woke up and went to wash up... *shake shake shake* hp came out, CL still refusing to get up... Me took out my camera and started taking a video of him whining... which sounded sometime like a cow moo-ing and a pig being slaughtered... i shant put the video up.

yeok oso the same. i shall say like bf like gal...

anyway, we went to have breakfast at the hotel's designated restaurant. 5 min after we arrived there (in full sleepy mode), all the ah tiongs came. they were rowdy, noisy and inconsiderate. if singapore was ranked 45th on the consideration list, i tink this particular country will rank even lower. they were demanding and irritating, ordering extra food and scolded the restaurant owner for charging them (as if she shouldn't). very bad attitude. destroyed a very nice cold peaceful morning.

went to walk the trails of 阿里山. initially it was damn nice, seeing the old railway and taking photos in the forests. it's quite serene. 阿里山 has lots of streams, and they flow quite gently, like a very nice picture you see in chinese restaurants, but it's all real. damn, everywhere i turn, i see pictures and pictures. i swear if zhang yimou see this, he will want to include 阿里山 as one of his scenes in one of his wuxia movies.



we met a couple of 高雄 aunties (they're actually a mother and a daughter), den we started talking and she recommended us to change our plans to go to 高雄 immediately that afternoon. true la, after walking so long, there isn't much else to do on top of this "stranded" mountain. anyway, we still wanted to finish walking around 阿里山 first.

just when we were admiring the scenery from a certain bridge and breathing in the fresh air... *choke choke choke* wa lao!! the ah tiongs came by and they were smoking! speaking loudly! totally ruining the environment! damn man! argh!! i really hate ah tiongs at this point of time. FIRST TIME EVER IN MY LIFE! i hate them. yeekz...

anyway, in the late morning, we packed our stuff, got some snacks and bought our tickets to the 嘉義 train station to go to 高雄. nothin' much la. just that at this point of time, i got a bit irritated by one of the 高雄 aunties.



we took a very 老-kok-kok train to 高雄, which took million of years to reach our destination. it was like the most common public train service, and it's cheap too. because it was around afternn time, so there were A LOT of students squeezing on the train.

that's when i discovered that the train seats can turn 180 degrees! woah... 老-kok-kok train oso has interesting functions one.

we reached 高雄 and then quickly found a hotel, checked in, and went out for dinner. we were that hungry. anyway, didn't take much photos, cos i was pretty tired, and also becos i was busy buying food eating. haha... because after finishing a formal dinner at a Yoshinoya-look-alike (which also sells jap food, but taste much better!), we went to the night market which is more like a food street. i just kept buying food i havent seen and eating and eating and eating! i swear i ate much more that night than any other days since i was born! u have to message me personally to know what i ate. woah...

after eating, we decided we want to ktv. yeok and jh went mad while we were searching for the ktv. they started singing weird songs that normal 20+ dun sing.

took lotsa videos while we were ktv-ing, but better not put here. they're all pretty disgracing. wahahah~ ktv in taiwan is pretty much the same la, just that they dun use hanyu-pinyin to organize the songs, so it's pretty difficult for a singaporean to search for a song there. and they do not utilize the remote control fully, which made things very difficult. oh wells, the idea of free-flow plain water and a suite-attached bathroom is good enough for me. ;)

by the time we reached back in hotel, it's already 4am, or is it later? can't remember. tried watching tv, but tink i concussed after 10 min... *zzz*

[to be continued]... hopefully very soon too!

 

i've been waking up at 4pm everyday until i have to squeeze all my appointments within the night. but tonight's gonna be different! yea! going boozing wif CS peeps. actually it's gonna be quite a sad event. Lee Wai Peng (My research department lecturer) is leaving, haiz, 1 less reason for me to select comm research as my division. then again, it's gonna be my second choice only anyway.

gonna get ready my camera, my map (i tink i'll get lost, i hate that part of the city), and everything. oh oh~ need to meet a freshie to pass her the cinderalla slipper. haiz, too bad they can't get to meet Lee Wai Peng.

oh oh~ i got a junior who is coming in! surprisingly right?! woah... he's my junior from my junior class in hwa chong! whee~~

*all-energetic*,
Yong

 

In response to recent events, I've decided to change my blogskin. SGJ has quite a number of meanings now for me. heh~ Anyway, a thought crossed my mind today, it would be interesting if my "performing name" becomes "John Yong". mmm... John from Johnson, and it sounds like my Zheng oso... heh... i must be darn weird... what performing name sia?

So, now that i have my new blogskin... so long, old one! you may not be greatly missed, but i'll remember you. In tribute:



*moving-on*,
Yong

 

These recent weeks saw me looking heavily into my past, perhaps due to my scripting process, especially since the script is about memories and stories. I was looking into the various stories that happened ever since i was a kid until now, what they have taught me and how i learned to see a more optimistic future by reliving and recalling memories.

Pretty philosophical right? haha... go watch Hall 2 Drama Production next year. shud be either 3rd or 4th of February 2007 ba, and most prob oso at Jubilee Hall... mark it down. thank you. :)

but on a serious note, sometimes when i get down to being all nostalgic and depressed, somehow at one point or another, i'll gain quite an amount of energy to actually bounce myself back to what I'm doing, suddenly being very optimistic at things. i guess that is what is special about me bah, being able to find courage and peacefulness in the most contrasting things ever possible.



so, I see myself in 1 yr's time, still in school, but somehow, the word 'stuck' is not there. i'm looking forward to a very different academic year indeed.

firstly, if u managed to catch my nickname for the past one week or so (until weizong forced me to change my nick just now and shi si came up wif a quote for me to put), yes, i was 'having a crush on susan lai!'. pls don't be mistaken, susan lai is my school's admin in charge of helping students, especially during the period of subject registration. and she personally helped me in the most cutest and most sincere way that i've ever since in my whole entire life! so yupz! thanks to her, i got everything i wanted, including every single module, and every single slot that i planned. actually must oso thank weizong la, he told me that i just have to 'coordinate with the server timing' to press "register subject", so i set my laptop's timing in time and accurate to the very second with the school's server. that's how i did it. whee~!

so, how's my timetable? here it is:



What? You call this good??

Why? oh, u mean all the holes in between the lessons arh? haha~ u're talking to Mr Zhang Zhengyong here, whose mind definitely cannot wake up at 8:00am in the morning. most prob i'm expecting a 'B-' for that particular module CS201 liao. shit la, who ever put the two slots there must be brainless...

my experience in the first two sems tot me something abt me la. first sem, my timetable was similar to this, having a lot of holes in between, but i discovered i totally love it, since i can go back to hall and take a nap before the next lesson. it helps also because if there are certain things that need to be done before the lesson i can finish it in time for it.

the second sem, i tried squeezing quite a number of tutorials in between lectures, and the result is hell. when my mind tries to concentrate copying down notes for a lecture or two, it gets very tiring to continue for tutorials, especially if my day started off at 8am. and because of that, i tend to skip quite a number of lectures and tutorials that fall consecutively one after another. wah, my grades drop lor. thanks to that.

So, yupz, this time round, i'm going to plan it juz like my first sem, leaving spaces for me to nap. wahaha, i wonder what i'll do if i don't have hall next time.



Next up, i'm really looking forward to all the practicum modules. did i mention that my england not very the powderful arh? you ask me write 1000 words, i tell u, 1000 words all toking dun noe wut kok sia one la~? sia la~ jiak lak sia~ u ask me to click click here and press press there, wa, i tell u, somehow my brain can function better with buttons.

so i'm really hoping this semester will help pull up my GPA oso. and hopefully i get project mates just like my previous sems where we can all clique together. ;)



The second half looks exciting, cos... well, it will be exciting. i can't really disclose much... but i think half the ppl who read this will know exactly what i mean. i dun wan to disclose cos i dun wan someone to find out, and i'm sure that person will do something if word gets to that person. yee~ so... no! i'm not saying anything... *mmmm* but it's gonna be very exciting for me indeed. i was pretty surprised that my mum was pretty supportive and my dad was... well... financially-supportive as well, but i guess i was just being lucky.



Anyway, the whole year will look exciting because one part of my life will change VERY drastically. my time management will change VERY drastically as well due to this. as for whether it's going to be changed for the better or for the good, it remains to be seen. scary huh? yar... hopefully i dun remain fat with less walking.



i don't really want to see myself in 3 to 4 years' time. i dun noe what will happen too. sometimes i wish for something to happen, but it doesn't, and it's really pretty depressing. and even if i'm going to put myself into a time after 3 or 4 years, it's too little time for big goals in life, yet too much time for short term goals. so i shant go there. i'll figure out along the way i hope.



it's 6am in the morning. finally i've penned down my thoughts. somehow it's sort of a relief, dun ask me why, it's just a feeling... :)

*waiting-to-feel-sleepy*,
Yong

 

Remembered that one of my birthday wish is...



A green Kia Picanto?

Now, it has become a...



A polar silver Kia Rio!

*waiting-happily*,
Yong