So it's (nearly) the end of my 'O' Levels and I'm really excited about the things I'm planning to do during this 2 or 5 months break (depending on which school I end up in).

So the objectives for my Post-'O' Levels period are

• Lose *insert large number here* kg
• Get Theory and Practical Grade 5 for Guitar
• Have a great time with the ensemble at the KL trip this December
• Learn more about Journalism at the 'My Hong Kong' trip thingy by Channel News Asia
• Earn $150 by January (which shouldn't be too difficult, considering how close Christmas is to my birthday)
• Lose myself at the class chalet...
• ... And at Red Camp

I'm hoping to enter Ngee Ann Polytechnic in 2010, or possibly, even better, Laselle College of the Arts. That is, if I manage to rush through to Grade 5 in Guitar fast enough, and learn entry pieces fast enough.

If you're wondering, 'O's have been really fine so far, and I'm feeling pretty positive about the papers I've sat for so far.

Also, do check out the new blogskin I've made for allaboutryanlim.blogspot.com - it looks much better than the previous one.

Okay, I've been online for nearly 9 hours now, so good night!

- Ryan

This may sadly, though probably, be my last post on this LJ for the next 3 months or so.

Why? Simply because the insane amount of work to be completed during this school semestar and stress that our schools have so cleverly and successfully planted in us (or, at least the more paranoid, anxious, nerdy and concerned-about-our-future bunch of us) has driven me to an extent similar to that of last year's.

To completely rid my days of distractions, I have painfully, though to a certain extent- necessarily, banned myself from using the computer and playing the guitar for leisure purposes until the end of my 'O's, which is around mid-November (much later than I had estimated).

This is so that my only purpose to live my life everyday till the day I graduate is to study, and to perceive every detail and topic there is in all my textbooks, and to surmount the bane of weekly tests and revisions until they are a bane no more.

Until the day of my liberation, I shall fast from my life's pleasures and surround myself with tempests of work and stress, all this as it is necessary should I one day stand tall and proud above the corpses of my tormentors.

...

Hmm... That sounds like a cross between modern-day emo and medieval slang.

But yeah, you probably get the message, anyway.

I do recall doing something similar last year, just that it was only for a month or so.

My examinations are really of top priority to me now, and such measures are only basic.

I will be updating my Facebook via Twitter via Widgeous (which means my Twitter and Facebook will show the same thing) and possibly some random photos from time to time, should I care to spend time and money uploading my pictures through ShoZu.

So until then, this blog shall hibernate.

- Ryan

During my flight to and from Korea, I managed to squeeze in 3 movies - Watchmen, Confessions of a Shoppaholic and Race to Witch Mountains - arranged in chronological order.

So, because these movies are somewhat outdated and I'm terribly late in watching them, I'm obviously in no position to heavily criticize, so here are my simple reviews.

Watchmen (M18 - Thankfully, it was edited, so no Little Manhattan was shown, and therefore, I faced much less distractions to watching it.) -
Pretty complicated background to understand and absorb. Needs a bit of patience for the plot to totally unfold. It's pretty long too- killing a good two and a half hours of my uneventful flight along with the characters in the movie. I liked how it displayed the different perceptions of justice through the eyes of Superheroes.
A nice 4/5 from me.

Confessions of a Shopaholic -
Originally, I felt that this was a total chic flic, but I decided to give it a try after the outstanding response from my mother (... I know ...). I liked how the story brought the Shopaholic twist to the Romance-Comedy cliche. It had good humour, very nice clothes, and pretty good acting, although it did carry the distinct hint of hollywood impossibilities into it, which I didn't like.
3.5/5. I recall my teacher telling me in Secondary 1 that half marks are also known as pity marks.

Race to Witch Mountain - 
The movie wasn't as good as I had expected it to be, which is in total contrast to my response to Confessions of a Shopaholic. I didn't like the rush-rush of the intro. I didn't like how unatural Dwayne Johnson was acting especially towards his encounter with aliens and alien threats. I didn't like how much exaggeration they put on the military's intelligence. But what I did like was the two children's acting; they were pretty good. I was expecting to see more realisticity and less Walt Disney. Actually, this movie would've probably scared both children and adults alike- Children, as they would be terrified of the 'scary' bad guy in the movie, and Adults, as they would be terrified into thinking of how to answer all their children's questions about the entire process of the military's pursuit.

Okay, I'm done.

... I think the three were all quite badly written, due to fatigue.

So, I normally don't prefer to post things that revolve about my private life, but it's only a yearly thing for me to go travelling overseas, so this, I will make exceptional.

Before I went for this trip, I was originally against going. I preferred having the idea of staying at home and being a good lil' nerd. Obviously, my attempt to voice out my opposition was greatly in vain, partly due to the fact that the trip had already been paid for.

So anyway, to make a long story short, I'll just point out the few things I've observed from this trip.

• Koreans are much rougher in their actions and words than us, Singaporeans; they're less ashamed to voice (or rather, shout) out their feelings of angst and opposition as compared to us, generally timid and docile creatures.
• Koreans are still quite deep in culture, something which I admire, especially after having an almost equal dose of globalisation as Singapore. To quote a friend: "Singaporeans are 'posers'."
• I wanted to point out something about North Korea here, but due to the er... circumstances that have prevented me from doing so... *shuns*, if you do want to know about what I have to say, please do ask me personally in a clandestine manner. (Haha...)
• I like Korean food. Most of it, anyway. Bulogi (some, meat/pork thingy...) tastes really good as a burger patty, and I like their 'Kopitiams'. Basically, instead of going straight to the hawker/vendor to order your food, you go up to a cashier, give him/her (usually a her...) your order, pay and collect a receipt. There are television monitors around the eatery which tell you when your food is ready for collection, and which stall you should approach to collect it. It's convenient, it allows tourists to easily order food as their dishes are labelled as codes (for example, my Spaghetti Carbonara dish I ordered two days ago was labelled as G7) and it's hygienic as the vendors don't handle money.

So yeah, those are mostly it. I'll post my short reviews on the movies I watched on the plane there and back later, as I have to rush for church now.


 

I recall a friend once telling me, 'If no one comments or visits your blog, what's the point of keeping one?'

At that time, I really had no idea of how to answer that, or if there even was an answer to that question from me in the first place.

It is true, that as a blogger, I favour and welcome comments to my blog or blog posts.
The reason, simply because it's just a very nice sign that people do spend time reading your blog, and take the time to comment on it, which also can be inferred as showing interest to your post.

And when you don't receive a comment after a number of posts, an undesired yet somewhat inevitable feeling creeps into your mind and gives you the impression that no one bothers about what your life is about, no one can spend time to read your uninteresting posts and that you're just wasting away precious time into a website which millions of other users similarly own and yet, they do receive hundreds of comments daily.

Somehow, there must be a drive or a passion of some sort that keeps these bloggers, who don't receive mass amounts of comments to keep blogging, and blogging regardless of the situation that they're in.

For me, I basically assume that there's some asswipe out there, who hops from blog to blog, gayly spending his time reading about people's lives and thoughts and never bothering to think or spend time to comment or just say 'Hey, I've been here!'.

And to this asswipe, I do hope that from reading this post, you'd care to click on the 'Comment' button, and come to realize that by clicking just a few buttons, typing out a few simple words, it makes a hell lot of difference to the blogger.

I seriously do not know why I had to urge to post this.

But, I just did, anyway.

- Ryan

Whenever the school holidays arrive, there's always a contrasting cacophony of excited screams and bitchy complains that fill the atmosphere.

I mean, I'm not saying this in a very literal sense, but in some way, it is true.

Some students tend to find the holidays a time of relaxation. A time to void out from the world and catch up with the late nights they spent mugging for their examinations.

Another group of students, however, look to the holidays as a long time period that carries the facade of the above mentioned, but in reality, it's actually just a long time of preparation for the next phase of their lives, be it a new semestar/term/school year. In fact, some students exaggerate the amount of work to do during the holidays, that it doesn't even seem to be a holiday anymore.

Which is very ironic, especially since many students, during their school term, tend to want the holidays to arrive sooner.

So here's the question that I have, especially today being the first day of the mid-year holidays.

How should we define our holidays?

It's a pretty dumb question, you may think, but it's very simple an answer to give.

Our holidays are basically a time off the school term, that builds a renewing atmosphere amongst us students, and its main purpose is for us to really patch up the things we should be patching up, like if we haven't completed the syllabus, or homework, or projects. And on the other hand, we could be patching up on our sleep, our well-deserved rest, our relationships.

Basically, it all boils down onto how much we have been doing for our previous school term/semestar, and if we're willing to go through the necessary steps to get back on our feet for the next semestar.

For me, I'm going to do 2 general things for the holidays:

• Complete the entire Secondary 4 syllabus for all subjects, beginning with E-Maths, POA, A-Maths.
• Revise on every subject till I know each book inside out.

And I'm going to start right after I post this entry. =]

- Ryan

Hi everyone!

Now, in contrast to my 2nd post and 2nd last post, I am, in fact, going to be using this LJ for a very long time!

Indeed, an LJ is easier to organize, and it looks so much nicer than my Blogger.

Hence, I have decided to change between the two blogging mediums.

Don't get me wrong, Blogger isn't going to die out.

It's like Biz Club now.

"Biz Club didn't close down. It's still a club. Just that it has nobody in it.."

... Yes, it's a Gabrielite/4E2 joke, for the selective few.

Anyway, it's growing late, and I think I'll log off for now.

- Ryan

Hello to every soul reading this.

This is the first post on my LJ.

It will also probably be my last as I am already active with my first and other blog,
AllAboutRyanLim.blogspot.com

Please do visit my other blog. =]

With virtual love,
- Ryan