#BOLEH

 

Don't you just love videos like this that make you feel patriotic about our country? Despite our divided politics, where people would rather bicker about whose name is at the top, I am reminded about how beautiful our country is, and my chest cannot help but swell with pride.

This country isn't perfect; no country is and will ever be perfect. However, we are continuously evolving to achieve Vision 2020.

Because of videos like this, I will strive to ensure that this country will get the plaudit it deserves.

Distance.

Distance means you can't see someone,
Except in pictures.
Distance means you can't hold someone,
Except in your dreams.
Distance means you can't love someone,
Except when you already do.
Distance means you can't be with someone,
Except when they are already in your heart.

  Tell me you love me and to runaway. Tell me you love me and I'll find a way.

Age doesn't matter, love is much stronger, 

Forever is nothing, We can last longer.

Note: This author has probably gone beyond his critical stress value and is currently showing signs of wear and tear befitting an aerospace engineering graduate student of the University of Michigan. Ahhh, sod it, he'll fix himself up again, perform magnificently, and graduate with full honours.

さぁ、行くよ！

P. S. I honestly had no idea where I was going with this post. I just thought that it needed a new post every now and then, to remind us that we, all of us, are in our own little corner of the world. Most may be attempting to better their lives financially. Some may have already found their own corner someplace and are spending the rest of their life in peace. This post shouts out to all of you out there. Also, if this was going to be the anniversary celebratory post, well, you guys get an early present, from me. I ended up being inspired by Christina Perri's "Distance" to do this on a whim.

P. P. S. The second and third stanzas really aren't meant for you guys, but oh well, love comes in many forms. I wonder what she'd do if she actually found out that not only I was a sap, I like poetry. Actually, come to think about it, she probably does. *giggles*

Only in CHS

5587 views and counting...

Check out the comments. Decades of CHS-ians out there!

On a Bridge...

In a greater effort to make sure the blog does not die out, I've decided to re-publish a very, very old entry that I found in my external hard-disk while doing spring cleaning. I had submitted this story to the school magazine a while ago when I was in Form 3, but for some reason it was never accepted.

In my honest opinion, if I remember correctly, what was written inside that magazine that year was a load of rubbish and amateur literature written for the sake of wanting to be in the magazine, but I digress.

*lame attempt at a joke, by the way. I'm not actually still pissed off over something that happened years ago...*

Anyways, read them, and get back to me on how they are. Let's see if this story manages to stand up to the literary critics of 5S5. Oh, how I can imagine the law school-ers picking this apart with tweezers!


じゃあ、どうぞ！
 _______________________________________________________

Bridges are strange things. They link places and worlds together. Indeed, folkloric tradition is filled with stories of the bridge to another dimension, or of narrow escapes over rivers where spirits cannot follow, and yet, despite their importance, belong to neither. Hovering perilously in-between this world and the next, they adopt their own rules and time, becoming a kind of no-man’s land where the laws of the material and immaterial planes are weak and flimsy at best. Bridges, in essence, have their own kind of magic.

They do not have to be special or elaborately decorated to hold considerable power. The little bridge over the ravine is slowly going to rot and ruin, garish red paint peeling off its softening boards in long, thin flakes, and yet it is more important to the girl than any other bridge in the whole wide world. She has tried to give it a fresh coat in the past, but for its own reasons the bridge rejected these new colours outright. The paint rolled off its balustrades into the dry riverbed below like bright blood, until eventually the girl gave up trying to fix the cantankerous old thing and just left it alone. It seems happier this way somehow, allowed to age in relative peace.

She comes here whenever she gets a chance, to write or draw or just stare up at the sky with her hands firmly tucked behind her head, gazing up into the blue. At first her parents worry about all the time spent alone: shouldn’t you join a club or go out with your little girl friends instead of playing in those abandoned buildings? You could get hurt; they’re not very well-built, are they? 

However, when the girl is stubborn she is very stubborn, and few know this better than her parents. Eventually they give up their cajoling and she continues to go to her special place every day. On the bridge, where the fabric of things is paper-thin, she feels closer to them than anywhere else.

If her parents knew of the girl’s habit of sneaking out late at night there would be more trouble, but she is quiet and stealthy and waits until they are fast asleep and snoring to make her exit. The darkened woods might scare some girls, as might the dusty tunnel with its hollow moonlit spaces, but they don’t bother this one in the slightest. The further she goes the more comfortable she feels; by the time the field with its acres of softly billowing grass comes into view the girl is usually flat-out running, hoping for something. It has never happened yet, this mysterious change she wishes for night after night, but it will someday, of that the girl is certain. As surely as the sun rises in the east the change will come, if she just has patience and waits. The waters will roll in and there will be lights and noise and magic again, and a pair of pale arms waiting to embrace her.

But for now the dilapidated buildings remain dark and silent, inhabited only by crickets and raccoons and all the skittering, creeping creatures of the country dusk. She sits in the middle of the bridge with her dusty, knobbly knees pulled up to her chin and watches the stars as they wheel in stately procession far above, wondering if somewhere on the other side of the rift someone dear to her watches them as well. The little purple hair-tie is clutched in her fist like a talisman, a connection to the world that she cannot see but knows is there. She could almost reach out and touch it, just, just, if only the veil would draw back for just a moment…

.

.

.

.

.

And somewhere on the other side, where an ocean stretches to the horizon and lights glitter on every surface, the boy waits on a bridge, staring up at the heavens. He feels closer to the other side here than anywhere else, and so every night he comes to this place, and he watches, and he waits, biding his time. When the veil lifts again, for however ephemeral a time that may be, he will be through the curtain like water through a dyke, like a river bursting its dams.

But for now, he waits, ignoring the curious stares of gods and spirits as they pass by. He does not care if they stare, continuing his vigil long into the night. 

_______________________________________________________


I miss you guys. Really do.

Random bits of humour I!

In fear that the blog will grow stale, I'll post some random comics that hopefully will put a smile in your day.


The hilariousness of a compilation of unimpressed astronaut photos (compliments of Kesvick Tan).

Winter's coming!

おはいよう！（or こんにちわ or こんばんわ）

ケスビックです。よろしくおねがいします！

5S5はおげんきですか？　＝）

ひらがなとカタカナをかきます（かんじはかきません）。すみません、みんな。

Translation:

Good morning! (or "good afternoon", or "good evening")

Kesvick here. Nice to meet you!

How is 5S5 doing? =)

I'm writing in hiragana and katakana (no kanji). Sorry, everyone.

Well, that was the best of my translating from taking classes in my university's Japanese program. I'm kinda liking it though, it's fun to learn new languages.

Sorry again, I haven't been able to contribute as much as I have been able to, partly because I'm still rather shy around this (admittably), partly because I was afraid that if I started posting here I would somehow make this my personal blog. Hopefully, that won't happen, and I'll try and post some relevant content for the class blog.

Well, I attached a picture of how I look in the USA right now. I could post it on Facebook, except for 2 very important (some would say critical) points: 1. I don't have Facebook 2. I don't think I am going to be getting an account without incentive. I was gonna ask how do I look, but that would make it seem rather egocentric and sad.

Oh well...it's me trying out some tricks picked up from my kitty. Meh...

Anyways, over here, 'tis the season of fall. Frost has started settling over the leaves and grass. If you squint hard you can see frost on the leaves. Still, I was walking around with my camera and I came across a rose bush that still had not wilted from the cold, so I took a picture. Winter will come soon...probably about 2-3 weeks away.

*contemplates what to write*

It's amazing how short a time has passed. I remember thinking that this was going to be a LONG year. Then, before I know it, 8 weeks have passed, and it seems as if all the settling-in, the getting-reacquainted-with-classes phases were only last week.

Ah well, I am talking in circles here. It's probably best to just stop here and save myself further embarassment.

ありがとうございます！さよんあら！

P.S. Where is Ter-Yi? It'd be nice to see him back on. As well as...you know, the others.

bckground source:http://www.oyonale.com/images/3D/classe.jpg

In other words, hope life is treating you well!


ps: Follow up on the Bright Side of Life, it really cheered me up =)

The Bright Side of Life

We humans are so blind, most of the time. It takes a disaster to make us realise the power of nature. It takes a loss to make us realise what it meant to have. It takes a death to make us realise what it is that matters most in life.

Things happen without warning. Without premonition. Without any sense of omnious foreboding. Things happen before we have the chance to apologise, to embrace, to speak our heart out, to finish writing letters of farewell and gratitude to all our friends and family.

People, you've known me for almost 5 years and counting. You know me enough to recognise this as another piece of my unreasonably exaggerated melodramatic crap. You've already seen me at my worst, my weakest, my most irrationally emotional many times over. I know it's annoying. Forgive me for ranting once again (you: not again!).

S5, I take it for granted that you already know this, but - I can't be any blunter than this - I just wanted to say it out loud that you have been an important part of my life, and I appreciate the opportunity to have known you all more than I can put in words. Thank you for being there, for being amazing, for being you. For caring, for sharing, for bringing so much cheer by cracking super-lame jokes you'll never hear anywhere else/ singing the birthday song or the national anthem/ insulting each other in friendly banter all the time/ endless things to laugh about even though we haven't met in a long while.

Who would've thought that a bunch of people who started off as strangers would eventually become the same friends who organised various "last gatherings" after graduation, then finally dropped the "last" knowing it will never be? It's a known fact that acquaintances inevitably drift apart with time and distance but you proved otherwise. And I salute you.

I don't expect many to see this, really, or even any at all. Not that it matters. Like my boss said about blogs, "Never mind if anyone reads it. If you write it down, at least it's documented." Thought I'd just want to put down on record that I cherish every class gathering we had in the past, and every one that we are bound to have in future.

On another note, Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life! :D

(Lovely song! Go search for it on youtube. Works for me all the time.)