Leaky Walls

The 16 day Olympics officially ended yesterday :( I'll miss watching all those events but will be looking forward to 2012!
On day 15 of the Olympics, I managed to watch the finals of Women's Volleyball and Rhythmic Gymnastics (All around finals). I was also able to catch three jumps of the women's High Jump (!!!!!!). Yay! Now I can strike off everything on my list!
Women's Volleyball
Women's Volleyball ended with Brazil winning 3-1 over USA. Brazil was fantastic with all the spikes and blocks. I remember one of the spikers, the tall one with a headband, was that Paula? Well anyway, someone really tall... All those that were supposed to guard the net (in Chinese, Er Chuan, or as I know it...) all blocked many many balls (like on average 14-15). Brazil was good, that's why they won and they were having a celebratory dance session at the end of the competition where they all hugged each other and galloped in a circle. Some were so happy they cried (I don't think I'll cry if I win something such as that, but I'll be extremely happy, not that there's anything wrong with crying, and it's only IF I ever get to that level...). Though USA didn't win Gold, they put up a strong fight. It was a good game. Brazil deserved their Gold and USA gave their best and utmost by making it hard for Brazil to get that Gold. Bravo to both teams for their excellent performance, a great way to end the season.
Rhythmic Gymnastics
Saw rope and and a little of hoop. They are just magnificent. Never in my life would I ever be able to do that. The Russians dominated the field for rope but one of them made an error in hoop. I'm not sure what happened after that but whether all not they won, I feel that they (all participants) should be commended for all that hardwork they put in for that one short moment on the international stage. Rhythmic Gymnastics is not easy.
Women's High Jump
I watched one whole hour of the Athletics event broad casted on cable but was only able to catch three jumps on the same height (including that of the woman who won Gold!). The first thing that came to my head when I first saw Tia Hellebaut of Belgium was "Wow, she's so tall!". Well, congrats anyway :)
Oh, also want to mention the nice pictures of the various events featuring different Zodiac animals on Google for each day of the Olympics. It was great :)
Moving on to why this post is titled "Leaky Walls". That's because my neighbour is renovating his house and somehow or another, water is leaking through the walls at the staircase (of my house) causing the paint to bulge out and crumple as they dry up. I didn't notice it until I walked downstairs and stepped into a puddle of water. I just went like,”What the…” Spent the next couple of minutes cleaning up the mess and then going out of my room with 10min intervals between each visit to check on the pockets of water... Bah. So freaking irritating!
Right now, I have no idea how to do Chinese Compo...

My Long Wait's Worth...

Finally I manage to see Rhythmic Gym!!!
I only saw it for about 15min or so but good enough to strike it off my must-watch Olympic events list :) It was as good as I expected it to be. Some of them go scarily high on their pointe... I'm not sure about this but I suppose some are better in twirls while others tumbles. I watched the ribbons and clubs routines just this afternoon and was so excited that I actually managed to watch all that I hoped to in the Olympics! It was the qualifying rounds (for a spot in the top 10) so no winners yet. I hope to see the finals though, it airs on Cable Channel 604 tomorrow at 10pm (Singapore Time) I think... Hope I can watch it!

Yes, I agree, it is the most beautiful Olympic event (and you can't say I'm biased towards my event or anything because I am not a Gymnast, I was previously a Volleyball player and now am a tracker)...

Throw Up, Pass Out, Wake Up

From the lyrics of Another Irish Drinking Song by Da Vinci's Notebook...
I first heard this song while browsing through the Internet where I found The Friars' videos (they are an acapella group) and they were singing that song, after tweaking it a little... They are really good and some of their performances are hilarious :) Way to go guys!
Right now I've got so many PTs to complete and a whole lot of revision to do. I guess I'm just blogging for relaxation, even though I know I probably really cannot afford to. I have to go through math now (Alternative Assessment) because there will be a discussion period tomorrow and I can't leave everything for my partner to do because that would just be mean...
Haven't been watching much of the Olympics lately, just snippets of it when I pass the television sets set up in the school canteen (sometimes shown in the foyer). I caught some of the synchronised swimming today but that was the duet thing. The one scene that stayed in my mind for a very long time for synchronised swimming was actually this one time where the Italian group's (once upon a very long time ago, not during this Olympics...) music could not be started and they had to start their entire routine again... Quite sad but they were really good, oh and before them was the Japanese team doing their routine to some Ninja/ Samurai song. Haiya! Unique...
Men's trampoline yesterday... Really nice event to watch, their form and style were just so perfect... China's Lu Chunlong taking Gold with 41.00, Canada's Jason Burnette taking Silver with 40.70 and China's Dong Dong taking Bronze with 40.60. Can't wait for the synchronised ones...
Before Trampoline was Women's (not on the same day) Floor event Finals for Gymnastics. Shawn Johnson was great coming in Silver but was overtaken in terms of score by Romania's Sandra Izbasa who had the highest level of difficulty and still performed the routine perfectly. Following them was Nastia Liukin (with Bronze), the all-rounded Gold medalist.
That's all I've caught so far. I've managed to strike off all the events in my must-watch list except for Rhythmic Gymnastics, which begins tomorrow (21st Aug) and Women's High Jump, which unfortunately was shown while classes were in session :( I only managed to see one jump on my way to Assembly...

Lucky Number 8

Phelps managed to achieve his goal of 8 gold medals today with men's 4x100m medley relay!
Whoo hoo! He's the man! With a total number of 16 Olympic medals, he is second only to Gymnast Larysa Latynina (18 medals), but his 14 career gold medals are the most of any Olympian.

WWRY Australasia Forum

Just made an account on http://wwryaustraliasia.proboards81.com/. Unfortunately, I have no idea how it works so I couldn't post anything. Anyway, just want to say a big thank you to Nat and Debbie who made this forum :) It is great and a fantastic way for WWRY Australasia fans to show how much the tour meant to them. So, THANKS GUYS!
I've read some of the messages posted by the cast and I think it's really great for them to take some time to post in the forum :) Yay!
So, I know this is a little late having watched their performance so early in the year but I just wanted to say great job guys! You were amazing and I enjoyed every minute of the performance. The band did a marvellous job and the cast and ensemble were fantastic too! Put together, you guys were sensational. I am thankful for having an opportunity to see you perform and hope to do so again soon.
Right now, this tour has officially ended :( But I had a great time watching the performance and I'm sure so did the cast, band and ensemble working together. This is a fantastic production.

ROCK ON!

Medal Alert!

After 48 years!!! Finally another medal for Singapore!
The second medal in the history of Olympics for Singapore was assured yesterday by paddlers Li Jia Wei, Wang Yue Gu and Feng Tianwei on Friday (15 Aug) for the team event in Table Tennis. Way to Go Team Singapore!
All the way for the Gold! And to the rest of the team too :)
Good luck!

In the Mood for Randomness...

Well, didn't watch much of the Olympics today except for about 15min of men's artistic gym on the bus and 10mins of women's archery.
Getting a little bored now... WHERE IS RHYTHMIC GYM?!
So House Captain and Vice Captains handover today... The new captain for my house this year is Veronica Teo, congrats :) Oh oh oh, and well done Pei Qi! Teletarbet... Hahahah XP
I wanna try archery... (Forgive me for whining but seriously, it's cool.)
Gotta do Biopolis presentation, prepare Chinese PT, English PT, and there's the Aviation presentation next Tuesday... Oh and Math Alternative Assessment (Aw man...).
The movie we watched in Chinese was so sad... Haix, the discrimination he faces... I wanted to tell the husband (whatever his name was), "Like dude, you should so trust him!" Was really happy for Liu'er that his nephew was so close to him though. Eh, didn't finish the movie but it was so distracting; I did not do anything else but watch the movie throughout the entire block. Except for drawing the design for English PT :)
FYI, the frozen Ethanol so does not leave your hand numb for half an hour. I got a whole lot of it on my hand today (by accident, if you were wondering) and it didn't feel the least bit numb...
Maybe that's because the Ethanol warmed up already after being in room temperature for so long... Pity.

Beijing Olympics 2008 - Day 5

Woohoo! Olympics craze!
China just scored with another three Golds from what I know... Men's Saber Fencing (last night, 12/8), Men's Synchronised Diving (This afternoon, most diving events are shown at 2:25pm on the 601-606 channels) and Shooting (Also this afternoon). They're like winning everything this year.
Went home together with Bingrui and Cailyn today. Bingrui was totally excited about Synchronised Diving (and so was I because I think it's really cool). We started talking about the China Divers while queuing up during lunch XP China's divers are just so good!!! For today's event (Men's 3m Synchronised diving), during the 5th round (2nd last), the commentators were like "China's just got to get into the water to win this thing". And they did, they won by quite a large margin too, about 50 points or so if I am not wrong (!!!!!!)... Good news for one of the Chinese divers for he slipped up during the Athens Olympics in 2004 and this time, BAM! Gold! USA unfortunately missed a medal for the 9th year running... Some teams really screwed up the last dive others on the other hand did really well, the Chinese team scored about 94 for their final jump which is freaking high! I have to admit that I kinda dozed off somewhere during the third jump (hey, I was tired) but I still think this event's cool.
Also watched Equestrian yesterday. Didn't know riding a horse and jumping over something has such a complex name. Seriously speaking, if I just saw the name alone, I would not have known what it was. The name sort of reminded me of Curling, to be honest (Curling's really cute, especially when the brooms are involved but it's more to the "thinking" side, i.e. It involves a lot of thinking, it's played during the Winter Olympics). I did not really watch much because I was more interested by this show on Nat Geog which was trying to fool a lie detector. However I do remember this one competitor, a girl, small-sized I'd say with her horse Rock Model. They were really fast, faster than the two male competitors in front of her (Whom I also thought was good). Equestrian is like a rider-and-horse bonding session but of course, it's harder than it looks...

I LOVE THE OLYMPICS!

Beijing Olympics 2008 - Day 4

Yes, for 10-metre Men's Synchronised Diving, Lin Yue and Huo Liang, the duo from China, was leading all the way through (all 6 rounds) and eventually attained Gold with a total score of 468.18. They also won the 2007 world championships in Melbourne. China was followed by Germany's pair of Sascha Klein and Patrick Hausding with 450.42 points (silver) and Russia's veteran team of Gleb Galperin and Dmitry Dobroskok with 445.26 points (Bronze).

Taken from http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/diving/story/2008/08/11/olympics-diving-china.html :

What makes the Chinese pair so formidable is that they don't rest on past accomplishments. After winning the world championships, Lin admitted that he wasn't "quite satisfied" with his performance and felt he could improve.
"They can do this event in their sleep," CBC diving analyst Anne Montminy said prior to the competition. "It would take a real disaster for them to lose. They should not feel any pressure because they are so far superior to everyone else."

Diving is a great sport to watch. It's simply amazing, elegant and beautiful :)

Beijing Olympics 2008 - Day Four

Day four into the games!
So far I've successfully watched (a lot of) swimming, men's and women's artistic gymnastics, a bit of men's and women's synchronised diving, a bit of both men's and women's volleyball, a tad bit of women's handball and just a peek into boxing.
Swimming
Tao Li got 5th in the finals for 100m butterfly. Good job! Getting close!
Phelps is really cool as per usual (I had no idea he was so young, incredible!). Unfortunately, I did not watch the relay where Jason Lezak performed exceptionally well (as I've heard, man, how could I have missed it?! Lezak is about 10 years older than 23-year-old Phelps.). Witnessed Kosuke Kitajima break the World Record for 100m breaststroke (by 0.22 seconds) with a timing of 58.91 seconds on Monday.
Men's Artistic Gym
Real cool :) Just watched it today. Saw one China competitor, Zou Kai, doing floor. He got 15.9 odd for his routine which I thought was really good. Kohei something, gymnast from Japan was also doing floor (15.7 something). Loved the last triple twist thing where the body is straight and you just twist three times in the air. Real good :) I should really go learn the technical terms...
Women's Artistic Gym
The China team was really good. They all look so young and small but actually the smallest looking one there is like 16-years-old. They were all really good. One of them slipped and fell for uneven bars though. As in she slipped off the lower bar and fell. But there was this other girl who was fantastic for vault (China). One difference I noticed (besides the different events both genders participate in) is that women have music for their floor exercise while men don't. Not a very significant observation but well...
Synchronised Diving
Another beautiful event :)
I didn't quite watch the women's synchronised diving so I cannot really comment on it. For men's, China was leading all the way through (or at least I think so because I kinda only watched till the 3rd jump) with divers Lin Yue and Huo Liang who also won Gold in Melbourne's World Championship. China's really good for diving, I don't really know what makes their routine stand out so much from the others in the first jump but they scored high. They are actually really sleek when slicing through the water. Much attention on the 14-year-old diver from Britain in the Men's Synchronised Diving. There are very little splashes in his jumps but the two are not quite as synchronised as the Chinese. Don't quite know what they are looking for though...
Volleyball
Finally, a game which I more or less understand. Didn't really watch the women's match so won't be commenting on that. Egypt vs Poland, still in the first couple of rounds so they might not be the best teams but are still very good. Whoever can get into the games should be good. The spikes are killer! Nice fakes and certain fantastic saves. Poland won I think. I realised that the same fake is used quite often. Someone sets the ball, one player jumps up and pretends to spike, causing the other two defenders on the other side of the net to jump up too and the spiker on this side jumps up a fraction of a second later and smashes the ball right pass their faces. Handy :)
Handball
Something like soccer I'd say, I was pretty much clueless about the rules. All I know was that the goal keeper of this one team got knocked square in the face (forehead actually) during a penalty shot. Ouch, must hurt.
Boxing
They don't fight till they drop. They go by points. Of course, if you knock the other out, you win.

Beijing 2008

Second day into the games!
The Opening was fabulous! The lights, technology and special effects and basically just the planning of the entire thing was great! Nice opening drum performance. It must really take a lot of effort to get that many people in perfect synchronisation especially since there wasn't background music involved so nothing to hook onto except for themselves. For the marching in of the countries, it is apparent that China has the biggest team, all of them in red and yellow with Yao Ming carrying the flag and a little boy who saved the lives of two men during the Si Chuan Earthquake walking beside him. (Yao Ming is freakin' tall!) What was different was that instead of going in alphabetical order, they went by the number of strokes there was in the Chinese form of the country's name. Thus, Singapore was around the last few to march in with Lee Jia Wei carrying the flag. During the march, many athletes had cameras and some were even talking on their handphones, probably calling their families to say," Hey! I'm here! Do you see me?" Haha, ain't that just cool?! It must be such an honour to be there representing your country. Right now, I can only dream to be a member of the audience XP
I saw Quah Ting Wen compete in the IM. She was leading all the way until the breast stroke :( I guess it was pretty apt for the commentators to say that breast stroke is the point where the competitors start widening the gap as that was seen in other groups as well where the person leading eventually fell slightly behind during the 100m of breast stroke. But of course, there were those who kept strong throughout the entire event such as Stephanie Rice of Australia. Really strong competition there in Beijing... Anyway, GO EVERYONE! If you don't make it this year, don't give up cos there's always the next! Oh and Tao Li got into the FINALS!!! For 100m butterfly. AHHH! In the Singaporean manner of speaking, got chance, got chance (for a medal)!
So far I've only watched a bit of Women's Volleyball (like seriously a bit, I only managed to catch about 5mins of it, Italy vs some other country... Shoot, my memory is deteriorating) and men's Gymnastics. I missed the Women's one today :( Hopefully there's a repeat. The gymnasts are scary good. I was all like how the heck are they doing that?! They can do so many flips in just one jump into the air and land properly afterwards. I can barely do a split jump and can't finish a pirouette properly. How pathetic is that... (No, don't answer that.) Then, look at the muscles those guys have. Wow baby. It's really kinda scary and it sorta makes some of them look a little distorted... No offence. The Pommel Horse (At least I think that's what it's called) is really nice to watch though, and the High Bar, if they do well. Actually, everything is nice to watch :) I like the horse thing because it just looks so smooth. It's amazing where they get the arm strength from. Basically, I think I spend most of the time watching swimming events that can go on for two hours or more straight. I've watched the IM, 100m Men's Breast Stroke, 200m Men's backstroke (or was it 100m, or was it women's??? Dang, I can't remember...) and a little of women's 400m freestyle so far...
I am so making sure that I watch Rhythmic gymnastics this year, and diving.

The commentators of channels 601-606 were really good. Great job guys!

No school tomorrow, gives me a bit more time to study for the PPAs...

Olympic Rush

TOMORROW! Tomorrow will be the official opening ceremony for the Olympic Games 2008 in China! The 8th of August 2008 at 8.08pm (8/8/08, 8:08pm)! Well, hazarding a guess, they chose this day and time to hold the event because of all the eights involved. The number 8 is an auspicious number to the Chinese because another Chinese character with a similar pronunciation as that of 8, means to excel or to get rich (if you didn't know that).
The Olympics have been a major event all around the world up till now as it is the most prestigious sporting event since. It is the time where athletes representing their countries from all over congregate at one place to compete and learn from one another. This year, the Olympics being held at China has made every if not most citizens or even Chinese everywhere proud and excited about this event. China has also made massive improvements and changes to their country in order to ensure that this event will be a success.
This year, I wish to watch five events in the Olympics, namely Rhythmic Gymnastics, Diving, High Jump, Swimming and Volleyball. I might not find time to watch everything in each of these events but still, it would be great if I could just watch one session of each. However if any of the Singapore athletes make it to the semi-finals, I will try to watch it, and if I am unable to, I'll still be cheering them on! All the way Singapore! Go Quah Ting Wen!
I do not really recall what happened at the Athens Olympics in 2004 except that Lee Jia Wei almost got a medal for our country, but I do have a rather vivid image of the Winter Olympics that presided that. I especially enjoyed watching Figure Skating. The Russian skaters are really good! In fact all of them are :) But I really like Evgeni Plushenko (men's single) and Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin (pair skaters). I do not really know much about figure skating (not being one myself) but I know a little about form and style (having learnt how to dance) and I think they are fantastic. The things they do on ice! I was like dude! I can't even jump that high on land and you can do that with skates?! I think Scott Hamilton still rules though :) Besides that, the Winter Olympics also opened me up to different types of sports which I didn't even know existed, such as the thrilling Luge and the more slow moving Curling.
Well, can't wait for the Olympics to begin! Immerse yourself in the splendor of the Games and feel the Olympic spirit!

Virtual Pet

Aren't they just adorable?
Try clicking on the "more" button :) For Linda, click on her and see what happens and for Greg, double click on the strawberry when it's near his mouth :)

adopt your own virtual pet!

adopt your own virtual pet!

Inflammation, Viruses and Bacteria

Spent the whole day with a throbbing head and a blocked nose. Goodness, it was terrible. I felt like sleeping the whole day and it was not a good time as I had the MOV Lit quiz today (and I already have 5 questions wrong). I think it was because I slept with the air-conditioning turned on last night and somehow infected my throat and caught a cold. Thankfully, no fever just yet. Will sleep early today (or it will be a guaranteed fever) to let my body rest. GO IMMUNE SYSTEM!
My mother made me some orange juice just now (to replenish my Vitamin C content or something). It was nice but she chucked some salt into it (I forgot what that was for, something to do with dryness) so it tasted a little weird. But anyway, THANKS MUM!
So, shall go and finish up my homework now, still with a throbbing head, heavy eye-lids (not as bad as before after I took a half an hour nap. Dinner keeps me awake anyway...), an itchy throat and a foot that still hurts (there's PE tomorrow, FYI, it is no longer the same pain, I think I somehow injured it again)... TO THE BATTLEFIELD!

Thousand Year Love Song

Added a song from Imeem called "Thousand Year Love Song" from the Korean Drama Series 태왕사신기. I don't know why but the first part is cut off so the song kind of starts only after the vocals come in. The song is sung by 동방신기/ Dong Bang Shin Ki/ TVXQ/Dong Fang Shen Qi or whatever you call them.

Enjoy!

태왕사신기

That's a really nice Korean show, otherwise known as The Legend/ Tai Wang Si Shen Ji/ The Legend of the First King's Four Gods. I embedded a video of this person playing the song "Approval" the piano version from the soundtrack of this show. He's pretty good :)
I don't think I'll explain the plot because it might take up a lot of time... Just google the title XP
The show stars Bae Yong Joon as Dam Duk/Tande (also the original Joo-Shin King) and Lee Ji-Ah as Sujini (as well as the character Sae-oh). Apparently Bae Yong Joon injured himself quite a bit while filming this... My favourite character is the Overlord of Guanmi (I don't know his name but he was played by Lee Phillip) because he is always so cool no matter what it is. Cool as in quiet, mysterious and calm. Fab character dude! When it comes to who I think performed the best in the show, I would have to say that it was Lee Ji-Ah. I would say that because she is able to quickly switch characters (and convincingly too) from kind, quiet and humble Sae-oh to playful, somewhat noisy and lively Sujini, then return once again to the quiet character towards the end of the show when Sujini became wiser etc. Lee Ji-Ah won some best new actress award for her performance in 태왕사신기 if I am not wrong. Way to go girl!
Overall, it is a great show. Sort of a different kind of Korean drama (as compared to all those I've watched); refreshing change I'd say though of course, there is still a bit of romance involved here and there. Interesting characters and good fighting scenes. Some special effects were good, others were ... but soundtrack, FABULOUS! I love the soundtrack!!!
Oh, while watching, don't forget that it is always harder to play the bad guy, then to play the good one :)

Hear The Bells Ring

It's the first day of a new month! Heard the Church bells at twelve this afternoon, they sound so beautiful...
Today I was called up twice, once in Science and the other in Chinese. We should never use that point-to-the-picture method again. Well science was okay because at least I did do my research and was able to answer the questions but I completely screwed up for Chinese. I was chosen to do the PT presentation thing. Goodness, so embarrassing! I did not know what I was saying. Why couldn't she choose me at any other time?! I wasn't prepared for this one...
I started browsing through all the Sound of Music soundtracks when I came home. Ahh... The old times. That was the movie which I watched the most number of times in my entire life (so far, though I think no other show can beat this record). IT IS EPIC! Hahah. No quite the right word to describe it but it's really good. I suppose the kids that acted in it should be quite old by now...
I will be going for a concert at the Esplanade later (my friend's dance concert if you were wondering, though I would really like to watch We Will Rock You if it comes to Singapore again...). I doubt I'd really be able to see anything from my $20 seat (according to my friend). Anyway, I'm there to give moral support! If I can actually see something from there, all the better, if not, I'll just enjoy the comfy chair and air-conditioning and feel honoured to even be there XP
The Esplanade's stage is really cool. Hopefully someday I will have a chance to get up there and see how it works...