Commencement Dinner '09

Decided to stop procrastinating, for this post, at least. :P
Take, Flight, Soar
启、齐、起
Same theme as Sec. One Orientation '06
Or at least the English one is... don't really remember the Chinese one.
The night was brilliant, full of emotions, enjoyment and reminiscence.
Didn't really prepare that much early before the actual dinner, unlike Song Boyang, who started preparing like 2pm? He said he polished his shoes, not much difference to my unpolished ones. (Didn't bother to, the Kiwi can solidify and maybe some day I will fire it at some one.)
The afternoon was as usual, facebook, msn, and the extremely wonderful Internet connection. I wonder why I cannot be spared for one day from disconnecting. Sigh...
Reached the hotel with Boyang like 1 hour earlier than the designated. 174 only took 1 hour, much shorter than expected.
We talked for the whole journey and got thirsty, so we after seeing that only a few people have arrived at the hotel, we took an extremely unwise move and bought Slurpee from 7 Eleven. As time progresses, the weather got colder and the brain freeze effect does not help one bit. Went back to the hotel, and realised that drinks are being served. So much for our decision...
Lobbying was fun, talking random stuff with friends and laughing about fashion sense. Feels warm and comfortable, not in the literal sense.
The dinner was ok, the food was not filling though. Who cares, mass picture taking is the priority. And my class annoyed the MC with our loud yum sengs, did as a class three times, before we did it as a batch. I like the enthusiasm of my class, we really show it and I guess our bonds have developed stronger than I have imagined.
The programme was good, one of the highlights being Theron's singing of the first theme song of Pokemon: "I want to be the very best.", albeit it being off key, off beat. It brings back memories while we were "What in the world?!" in a state of pleasant surprise. 
Link to original song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTdsijn32HQ&feature=related
The other was Alexander's dance which was "Oh my god!", dancing to a song of Madonna. It was shockingly good, not as if we have not seen him dance female artists' songs before, but it is another surprise. Gives goosebumps though. :X
Link to video: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=178910818194&ref=nf
Boeing 777 Band was terrific too, but the out of the ordinary performances were more attractive. :P
Link to video: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=180829924271&ref=nf
When the dinner ended, we did a couple of cheers, namely: Willow willow, 山歌 and Rock you, with the last cheer testing the hotel's foundations (lucky they have carpets, if not it's going to be loud and startling). And the last song 朋友, other than the school song (we still get to sing this for another two years, lol), was popular and kind of abused by us, especially the interlude between the lyrics. May be part of our favourite "school" songs now, haha.
Link to original exact same video we are always showed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydingPIMWsg
Other reminiscing friendship songs:
1) 细水长流: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0clcDm-2bM
2) Amigos Para Siempre: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsvVzAn_qlI
3) Friends Forever: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdKqMJ0O88I
4) That's What Friends Are For: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTcHT4zpAGs&feature=fvw
5) 童年: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOib_26bFRo&feature=related
6) 红蜻蜓: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUGGocg-Wvo
And from our dear CSE coordinator: Mr. Galvin Sng, specially made for our batch:

Hwa Chong Institution Batch of 2006-2009 - "Thanks For The Times" [HQ]

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=214050207541&ref=mf

Thanks for the memories, everyone. Allow me to present one more song, it's less emo, very high actually:

7) Thanks For The Memories: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thMpcWf0Wi8

Keep in touch, everyone. 

Last of all, recommend to me any more friendship songs in the tagboard, thanks. =D

Ways of thinking (Part II)

Holidays are getting very boring now... I must find some meaningful thing to do before the holidays breeze past.
One of my friends wrote a note about the relationship between him and me, and I appreciate the effort a lot. Brings back a lot of memories of lower sec. days... of childish, immature and rather rash days of the past.... Back then, no one really hides anything (not in the literal sense, of course) from each other, the emotions and feelings shown are genuinely true. But those days are in the past, and can only be remembered... Maturity brings masks of deception? Oh well, that will be elaborated in another post, not this. Have to finish this first. :P

Anyway the link to the note that my friend has written is: http://www.facebook.com/notes/eugene-walcott/reminiscence-of-fateful-friends-part-02-yong-quan/207713761123 Feel free to look through, and comment there or in the tagboard here. Your comments will be appreciated. :) (Got to publicise the blog soon, I just wonder if Facebook is an appropriate platform.)

Back to the main point: the ways that people think to make decisions for themselves and others. In the absence of authority to order them around (Appeal via authority: Ethos), I found out that people manage themselves and others by 3 main ways.

1) Logic (Appeal via logic: Logos)
Point, Evidence, Elaboration. That's all. Go by the book. Their brain programmes like the computer C++ programme, via "if" statements. They consider all the possibilities, and choose what they think is best for the situation. Every claim and decision has to be rectifies, supported. They do not do things without grounds, or just by mere speculation. This kind of people can be described as robots, no feelings hinder decision making, everything flows in an orderly manner. These people usually plan way ahead before they act, via the scenario that presents itself. They do things extremely efficiently, but generally have little friends and their social life is rather bland. The brain is the dominant decision factor.

2) Emotion (Appeal via emotion: Pathos)
Emo? Nah, emoing is for the extreme. Their feelings are publicly displayed on their faces. Relationships are vital to them. Loneliness equals sending them to hell. They like mingling around and making friends, keeping in touch via various communication devices. Generally very sociable and click with anyone easily. One will not feel uncomfortable around them, even in silence. Emits a "soothing" aura which lets people drop their natural guard quickly. Very open to critiques, but extremely sensitive to them as well. Spouting anything without going through your brain is going to bring you disaster with these people. Ultimately, they are willing to bend rules and the norm for relationships, especially close ones. The heart is the dominant decision factor.

3) Instinctive (Instantaneous)
Generally, people are a mix of both types mentioned above. And if those two contradict each other (very often indeed), they will sink into a dilemma and well mental torture. They will decide for an uber long time, and by the time the decision has to be made (which will be reached very frequently indeed in this kind of fix), they go by instinctive thinking for the instantaneous moment. And hope for the best, prepare for the worst. Sounds like leaving everything to fate, but well it is. Whatever pops up into their brain at the period of decision making, they will just do it. One cannot say the decision is utterly random, during the period of dilemma, all the possibilities will have been considered and the extreme unacceptable ones (to them, may not be to others) will have already been rejected, leaving the "acceptable" options, but each having very high opportunity costs of each other (i.e. you choose a, b has to be sacrificed; you choose b, a has to be sacrificed, no compromise can be made), thereby stumping the decision-makers. Hence, the option is chosen randomly from only this group. Another option is not doing anything at all. Saves the pain. But rather irresponsible.

Your views, anyone? All are welcome, except for unknown crappers.

Ways of thinking (Part I)

Discovered the general ways people think myself after 2 years of upper sec. exploration. During lower sec. and primary school, my own method of thinking keeps changing and. I did not really take note of how people and myself think too, only concentrated on what they are talking about.

Took specific notice, especially this year, where I explored different ways of thinking and communication. One dear friend "suffered" a lot because of that, he went through my experimentation with me without knowing. I thank you for bearing with different forms of me, but my nature stays the same, as he has realised. =) I did not realise the risk of losing him as a friend if he does ever misunderstand. He continued MSN chatting with me, for that I salute him yet again. (Note: I started after I came back from BSC, I did not realise myself at first too.)

After observing how people around me communicate, I tried some myself, rojak-ed several ways together and the end integrated the methods which I feel are successful in human relations into my own style. During the process, I was very vulnerable to people and their actions as I became extra sensitive, more easily influenced then I was in the past (I am very easily influenced, btw). And with that sensitivity and my own ways of thinking, especially emotional, creating a massive whirlpool inside my brain, there was a brief spout of emotions due to some changes... That friend got the most of my wrath, apart from inner lashing (partly because that was the last trigger of a whole range of explosives). I cleared things up with him, but did not really explain, as I should rightfully have. I owed him. He is a very good friend, even though he is in denial of his strengths. He asked me to describe to him who he is, and I side-stepped. (Did he notice that?) Like him, I am no good in describing things, although I am better now. I was very similar to him, and still is, that's why we get along extremely well indeed, the lack of physical interaction did not really impede our getting-to-know-each-other process.

Many other close friends' ways of communication and thinking have also been integrated into my own. Now, I guess I can say I did get away from high school with something other than results and knowledge. Emotional and relational knowledge, and these are as important, or not more important, to me in the future. Sincere thanks, friends. =)

P.S. I may seem only have mentioned only one friend, but that is because I feel that I owe him an explanation and that I may not be able to physically interact with him in the future, chances of meeting are uber low. To my other friends, I hope I can still see you guys in JC and hence there really isn't a need for cyber declaration as physical interaction is always the best form of communication. =)