I am so tired that I thought Ronnie Winter was my friend.

Yeah, I am dead tired. Every bone in my body is aching and I couldn't even think straight. When Huang Yu( I hope I spelled your name correctly, if not, the reason why I got this wrong is obvious) passed my a recording of "guardian angel". I found the song familiar and a little weird. It was not any recording you find on Youtube or from the nearest iTune store. And Huang Yu asked me to guess who sang it. I somewhat knew the voice but I could not say who. I gave the worst answer(not telling anyone who I said). Obviously, I was wrong and the lead singer was Elliot. It was a momentary madness but I wasn't in Sparta yet. Well, as a friend you could say I did a bad job. But that's not my fault(sorry Elliot), Elliot's song was too good to be true, nobody could have listened and guessed it was Elliot save Elliot himself. Guess I have to admit that I'm getting old, age is getting on me and I have to accept the fact that I cannot run as fast as last time (PE just got worse and worse) and among other things. I am also quite surprised, although I should not be, that my friends in other schools are high and in form for their examinations that they have extremely decent results. Of course they are overall nice and good people and the gap between me and them just got wider. Of all those out there who thinks that I'm joking. Well, I am definitely not. Take for example this week, I just broke another apparatus in the in the Chemistry lesson. I hate myself sometimes. One person once said," In life it's not one damn thing after another, but the damn thing over and over." Of course there's a little cynical and true but I knew I could live through all these. In my high school, it had taught you everything you need to survive in this world. Even when the sky falls on you, you would know that it's nothing special. Why? Because in my high school, the sky falls at least twice a day.
Another event to be noted was the arrival of the Japanese band in my school. If it doesn't involves war, I think the Japanese are mosted welcome everywhere around the world. Their performance was unrivaled in my country. The Japanese boast some of the best bands in the world. And they didn't fail their reputation or their country. I was in band once and I get the sense and the feeling of nostalgic in my body as the music ran through my ears. I had seen such performances before and is not a new or fresh thing to me. The pieces were somewhat familiar. But what really caught my ears was the clarinet. I would never forget the sound that it produce. I played it for 4 years since high school but now I had lost every skill and technique of the instrument. It was a tragedy beyond words. Such short and bittersweet memories resurfaced in my mind. (If I had to retell the tale of why I needed to give up the clarinet, it would need at least 2MB of words)As the band performed on the stage, I couldn't but think of how hard it was for them to prepare for such a performance. The members at least needed numerous tries and oceans of sweat before they even get their plane ticket printed. Not to mention the soloist. They have at least the pressure of the band squared. Looking into such events and reflecting about my life. I knew it is about time to do sometime or lose everything. Some points in life, there are critical moments. And this was it. Everyone except me are fighting for their lives everywhere. So, I have decided to change from hardly working to working hard. Like zergs coming out from their lairs. It is time to feel the rush.

How something free turned sour. But they can learn from the pseudo Japanese stall.

It was another day to start with school, feeling a little down and sleepy, you got on the daily transport to get to your destination. Of course, at the end of the ride, despite wanting to curse the transport system in its current dire state, one would look forward to getting a copy of the free newspaper to read and take your mind off. Everyday was the same, a routine which slowly embedded into my mind. I like to read the papers in the morning, waiting on the bus or even at school. It provides something to think of before the first lesson. But to my horror today, they(the company which distributes these papers) decided to distribute it at a much later time, which I would have no chance to collect one copy. It was a fatality blow. The voice from the announcer of mortal combat rang in my ears, "Finish him!" At that moment, I was still in somewhat of a shell shock. Vision was blurry and some hallucination of the past appeared. I could see an imaginary paper in my hands but I couldn't read it. After coming back to my senses, I thought of the possibilities of they they want to postpone the paper distribution. I came up with these conclusions:1) the working people complaint that students were taking all the papers leaving them with nothing. 2) The people distributing the papers wanted to get to work later. 3) It was all a prank to the coming national day.
It was not good at all, but I knew that something like this would happen. When newspaper is free, one should be cautious. There is no such thing as free lunch and giving out free newspaper is no exception. It was a corporate scam of sort, playing with people's minds and in the end forcing people to buy papers to read instead after a "honey moon" period. I hate monopolies. Whatever the reason for such changes, we are always the losing end and at their mercy. Shifting the timing of distribution would not change the demand for the papers. Even SPCA's dogs know that. But instead of increasing the supply of the papers they do this instead. It's like trying to mend a hole in a boat by taking wood from the other parts of the boat and nailing them on the hole. In the end it'll still sink. To misquote Robert Mugabe," If there's not enough money, I'll print more." This should be the motto of the newspaper company. " If there's not enough free newspaper, I'll print more."
But of course, there is always ways to solve such problems. Taking the case study of my school's Japanese restaurant would be a fine example. Just a few months ago, the Japanese restuarant closed down due to a lack of customers(through observation), little variety and wrong variety of food(by trying the food). Price was a concern too.(by paying money) There was a stalemate by the restaurant. Time passed and nobody really have any idea whether there's going to be a new store or other plans. Just this week, the restaurant reopened. There was a new look. No more energy consuming fridge or disgusting sushi rolls which are not authentic Japanese. There was only set meals and bento sold. Instantly there were large crowds gathering to get their first taste of the food. One important lesson that they have learnt from their failed experiences was, don't target the favour of the locals(trying with sushi and fast and carriable food for the busy lifestyle), instead target the favour of the Japanese(bentos, ramen, miso soup). Whether the locals like, it is probably good. Whatever the Japanese like, it is probably much better. With a move of ingenuity and commitment, couped with the students hungering for some Japanese food again. The stall thrived with customers at the expense of other stalls. The move was clever yet utterly disturbing, that I could feel that I want to try the stall too. And I did. Risk taking is a virture which the government is promoting. I bought the ramen and I felt that it tasted worst that instant noodles. But with a more broader variety and more to eat, there must be something nice. Like Macdonald's, there's a burger that I like to eat even if it will cause cancer. As seen, there can always be ways to regain the volatile public trust. Like how this restaurant did it, the newspaper must relook everything to make its free newspaper a success. Opportunity starts with Intel(good computers and brains) inside. Empty minds won't solve a thing and if they need a place to print newspaper. I'm sure Zimbabwe would be glad to help.

Playing host and finally reading a book.

Well, blogging had became frequent these days, I don't really know why but there are very important things that I would like to write down. As my results are all in, I somewhat have an idea of my goals and strategies for the upcoming schools days. Like how a football season ends and it transit into the transfer period, there are things to complete for the next major barrier in life. Of course there are lots of speculation and disappointment in the air. I've never liked the result collection. It is morale crashing and tiring. Looking at past mistakes and having the feeling of dysphoria that you could have done better is ever so nostalgic. But those are the past now, no more remorse.
Last week, some visitors from my homeland came to visit my family, and there are some middle school students too. Their purpose of visiting is for their school's foreign trip to visit a foreign country. Of course, with my personality, you can say that I'm not that comfortable with new people. But I'm glad to say that I tried my best. I can offer them the best hospitality like going to Merlion and eating some local delicacies. Paper prata was their favourite food. I won't argue about that too, Indian food is nice. We took some photos and have memories which would stick to us for a life time. I'm quite sure that they would learn something meaningful for their lifetime gaining a broader prespective of the world. I too have a great desire to travel and see the world. Not just America or the European countries but maybe the southest point of Argentina where it is closest to the south pole.(This idea was inspired by a Taiwanese traveller for a television programme, sometimes I feel that Taiwanese people owns all Asians like my homeland people and some others)
And I'm finally reading a book! Not that I have any time but I started a few pages. The book is Saul Mellow's "Mr Sammler's Planet". I found that my sibling borrowed it from the library a few weeks ago and I read a few pages. Was a complicated book but it was a good book. Anyway, I have not really read a book since high school. So it was hard, my eyes were tired easily and I felt that I was just reading and not understanding it. Which I spend quite some time on the same page reading it again and again. Thus wasting quite a amount of time.
One very regrettable thing this week is that I couldn't meet my friend Jon at his own institution of higher study when I need to do a survey there. There seems to be some miscommunication and other factors like my own school mates who accompanied me on this trip. So super sorry for Jon for missing him and making him wait at his school. Hope you would not be angry. That's I would dedicate this song for you as an apology. It's O2 by orange range, it's in code geass and it rocks.

And Shiawase Neiro by Orange Range again. This is the ending song for code geass. I personally like O2 more but this is good too.

Mind disturbing and the youth day.

Well, it's already the second half of the year. Nobody likes to admit but we have to face reality sometimes. Speculating the second half of the year contains health hazards. So I wouldn't do that on this blog. In case people crash and die. As always, to have a break and a longer weekend is a luxury. Like taking one gold bar out of the bank and returning five gold bars the following day. "Compensation for the lost time" is the favourite excuse or "we can't let you have time for yourself or else you'll become idle". Our benefactors have plenty to afford as a vendetta after the holidays. So Newton was right. His laws(not naming them for various reasons, eg the rules are not proven so any viewers online can slam this blog for trying to misquote newton)really applies more to life than to physics. If something good happens, something detrimental would definitely chase you down and it will hurt you. Sometimes I wish this blog can afford more, like ways to solve inflation and how to predict when the bus's coming(or not). But listening to a lecture during the week, it was for some report writing and the teachers showed us a sample of the report. After explaining to us all the beauty and details of the report they told us that there's a catch. The sample would not be accepted due to the length of it. And to end the lecture:" Please find your own ways to make the report acceptable." It stuck me with two things. In my mind I was thinking, " If everyone in the world can find their own ways, I think I have a home in Mars now." It wasn't the best of thoughts but it was very true, we can't do everything and showing us a "failed" example is definitely not going to help. Why waste our time on something impractical. It's like using the story and theory of Daedalus to inspire people to fly. The iniquity of the world just jumped a notch after that. My mind wasn't in its best state during the writing of the blog post, it was mostly because of the flu I got in the weekend and the chinese oral exam tomorrow, which I'm trying to think and speak the language(Ironically, I'm writing english). So if you think that whatever philosophical insights or the views above are crap(I know of some who are out there). Please ignore them. That's why I don't blog much, it always needs a whole lot of care in writing. School's coming back soon, I got lessons to catch and things to do and results to face. Clearly that's why I'm not feeling well. If not for theCrew and good friends, it would be tenfold worse. They say that an apple a day, keeps the doctor away, but does it include apples which fell from the tree and hit the head?

The Germans, the exam and the fox

Once a Dutch football pundit commended," In every tournament, the final always consists of the Germans and the Italians." Well, in a sense that is quite true, the Euro 2008 which so prominently featured teams like Portugal and Holland, the Germans were considered outsiders. Watching every local newspaper column in the build up of the tournament, it was all about how such(Deco and Co, Russia with their new talents...) teams would have won the tournament. When asked about the Germans, they all said, there's no hope and that the Dutch are better. What really would shut their mouth was how the Germans reached the final. But that was the good part of the story, the final was well sadly, very much like the Germans. They have went through 13 finals(including Euro2008) and just won 6. That is not pretty and talking about German efficiency, we can have a little doubt about that. But the Germans themselves are not surprised. Someone commented on Soccernet:" The only people who think that the Germans can come back from the 1-0 deficit are the non-German fans." So kudos to the Germans with their unique culture and fantastic football which made fans like me. Nobody remembers the losers but the biggest losers is legendary.
Apart from the Euros, there is the examination I received straight after the holidays. Well, who could say that he doesn't like the school after such acts of love? I really have no information or details of my results. That's not important to my teachers and I dread seeing them too. Especially some subjects which I think there is really no hope in. And the end's not there yet, with the chinese oral and listening just around the bent, one could hardly feel how fortunate that their circumstances are.
Finally a great tribute to the Firefox. I know it have been a few weeks since the arrival of Firefox 3 but it definitely deserves its share of respect. Not only freeing us from the clutches of the IE but even in a certain extent blocking off bullshits and bugs for the IE. One great example of why I hate and distrust the Microsoft have reignited me recently. On MSN, my friend's computer tries to send me viruses. I am wondering what in the whole IT rim are those people doing trying to allow msn as a medium for virus. I don't believe that of all their experts in the Silicon Valley, they couldn't think of a possible solution for such problems. Clearly they either don't deserve their pay or they are the people sending such virus. And my friend should really format or get a anti virus software for his com... That aside, it's just another week in school and I'll have to get used to life as a student again.