ODAC 22... With One Voice We Say, We Are One

2007-11-28T10:11:00.000+08:00

Hi everyone. This Blog seems so dead. Anyway, hope everyone survived the dreadful As. Well in any case I suppose that most of you would have heard about the dragon boat tragedy in Cambodia, where 5 national dragon boaters died in the Tonle Sap river. Even though most of us would not know them personally, I suppose many of us feel very sad about this disaster. If anyone of you would like to write something, say online tributes or anything, do visit the following blogs.

Stephen Loh http://energizerloh.blogspot.com/
Poh Boon San http://bgpoh.blogspot.com/
Jeremy Goh http://rememberingjerbroni.blogspot.com/
Chee Wei Zheng http://rvhs2j2001.blogspot.com/
Reuben Kee http://ntu.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6327748991

2007-07-17T22:43:00.001+08:00

Lesson 1:

A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is finishing up her shower, when the doorbell rings.

The wife quickly wraps herself in a towel and runs downstairs. When she opens the door, there stands Bob, the next-door neighbour. Before she says a word, Bob says, "I'll give you £800 to drop that towel." After thinking for a moment, the woman drops her towel and stands naked in
front of Bob. After a few seconds, Bob hands her £800 and leaves. The woman wraps back up in the towel and goes back upstairs. When she gets to the bathroom, her husband asks, "Who was that?" "It was Bob the next door neighbour," she replies. "Great!" the husband says, "did he say anything about the £800 he owes me?"

*Moral of the story* :

If you share critical information pertaining to credit and risk with your shareholders in time, you may be in a position to prevent avoidable exposure.

Lesson 2:

A priest offered a nun a lift. She got in and crossed her legs, forcing her gown to reveal a leg.
The priest nearly had an accident. After controlling the car, he stealthily slid his hand up her leg.
The nun said, "Father, remember Psalm 129?" The priest removed his hand. But, changing gears, he let his hand slide up her leg again. The nun once again said, "Father, remember Psalm 129?"
The priest apologised "Sorry sister but the flesh is weak." Arriving at the convent, the nun went on her way.
On his arrival at the church, the priest rushed to look up Psalm 129.
It said, "Go forth and seek, further up, you will find glory."

Moral of the story:

If you are not well informed in your job, you might miss a great opportunity.

2007-07-07T22:51:00.000+08:00

Dead blog is dead.

Since this is the ODAC blog however, might as well update with something environmentally-related! It's kind of late, but today is Live Earth and if I'm not wrong you can still catch the concert on TV if you've forgotten about it! So let's take the time off today and think about how we can do our part to be little climate change warriors and speak for Planet Earth (although as one letter in Today mentioned, it is rather ironic that as a 24-hour concert beamed across eight cities to two billion people in the world, Live Earth is probably going to be a massive contributor to global warming).

Take care and good luck studying for prelims!

2007-05-02T21:31:00.000+08:00

a guy steps into the bar, sees a pretty bartender.

he walks past her once, saying: ONE PENGUIN.

5 minutes later, he walks past her another time, saying:
TWO PENGUINS.

the third time he walked past, before he could say THREE PENGUINS, the pretty bartender could stand it no more. so she asked:
"what's up with the penguins?"

guy: "i was wondering how many penguins it would take for us to break the ice."

please swoon.

2007-04-22T20:50:00.000+08:00

Earth Report: 2006

decided to catch this documentary cos it sounded and looked interesting. few points i noted down during the 45 mins of it i watched.

1) polar bears may face extinction caused by melting polar ice caps
2) at one point of time sharks were being killed at a rate of 8000 a day/hour (whatever it is it still is alarming. alarming is an understatement too)
3) booming population in china has lead to increase in desert-turning fertile ground (desertification)
4) sand storms can even be seen from space satellite images. imagine what's the situation at the ground level? (deforestation)
5) a large tree can take in 20000kg of CO2 a year. but we're losing trees through deforestation so.. global warming?
6) high CO2 in the air even affects marine life by increasing acidity of sea water->weaken shells of oxygen producing micro-organisms->less O2 for us
7) overfishing at the current rate may wipe out fish stocks in 40years (:
8) hole in the ozone grew 16% larger than expected last year. it is now the size of america and russia combined
9) each human needs 10 trees to make up for his CO2 produced in his lifetime haha
10) fortunately humans' attitudes are improving, and there is hope in that. so give what you have to offer, cos the earth needs it (:

you might want to catch "the end of the world, as we know it" on 29/4 at 7.30 CNA. i think its on how we're producing so much CO2.

who will speak for planet earth?

peace out. i hope i dont live long enough to see the earth die.

2007-04-20T23:34:00.000+08:00

Aprex: soundbites

1. Japan Japan Japan 9 0 6 8

2. "Wah i sleep in Yong Peng and wake up in Australia"

3. DUCK!

4. (in our ever-favourite lorries) Please vote for PAP/Barisan Socialis.

5. Beeeep Beeeep!

2007-04-07T11:48:00.000+08:00

2007-03-21T23:35:00.000+08:00

i want to blog but there's no point on blogging on my blog since all the blogger blogs that start or end with '-' aren't loading!

so i shall blog here.

(oh thanks gerard btw!) ((:

anw it sucks to have your bday during CT week! HAHA esp since it'll be spent doing stuff like chem paper, mugging for phy and basically studying damn hard while the bio people get to enjoy the end of cts one day earlier.

but anw we had that "privilege" one year back... (i rmb how in j1 phy students always ended earlier than bio students)

anw im tired. i shan't bother to stay up til midnight.

think i'll go sleep now.. heh (:

2007-03-21T23:08:00.000+08:00

2 more days...for those idiots taking physics.
for the idiots taking bio, good for you. tmr marks the end of commontest 1. hope you feel screwed.

and happy birthday yishan. tomorrow marks a big milestone in your life.

this post of mine sounds stupid. maybe my mind's not working properly.

2007-03-21T22:32:00.000+08:00

YO! Middle of CTs. Chem tomorrow (uh oh...)!! Hope everyone's going strong so far and jiayou for the last 2 days! I can't wait to play tomorrow! XP

And, the ODAC jacket is wonderful! Thanks so much to Gina for all the trouble in coordinating the whole thing, and to Ryan for designing it, and for anyone else who contributed to its production.

I miss having our many-hours-long picnics under the lemon trees in the lush green lawn at the Grampians. =(

2007-03-17T22:14:00.000+08:00

weird i see no title box =( but nevermind i'm here to post PICTURES! the odac muggers in sch today decided to model in the odac jacket! haha see our wonderfully taken pics!

YAY!

2007-03-16T23:47:00.000+08:00

dammit everyone's missing ODAC at the same time. must be because of exams.. today gg yeesian gerard xz and me (cant remember if james was there yet ><) were studying then we recalled abit of our expeditions. and the conversation started all because i wanted to shit but i was in the middle of a qn so i was holding it. then gerard said this kind of thing can ren3 (hold) one meh? and i replied cannot meh? then during expedition you how? and then we went..

sigh just now while i was washing my plates (good boy duh) i thought: i'd rather wash plates/messtins with leaves and sand then a sponge and detergent. weird huh.

and yes you CAN feed the hamster strawberries as ive exclaimed on the tagboard several, several, several months ago (:

i heartx odac

2007-03-15T18:58:00.000+08:00

i think it's been ten years since i last blogged! hahaha and ohman i JUST saw this pretty template (: lovelove grace.

im going to openly declare that....
IM HAVING EOY EX BLUES AGAIN AGAIN AGAIN?!?!?!

miss odac and trainings and all the retarded things we do damn it :(

lovelove and see you all ard!

2007-03-14T22:00:00.000+08:00

HEY PEOPLE,

我们的 blog 为什么这样快就死掉了？现在才只是三月中旬而已呢！看来大家都在埋头苦读，只有我一个笨蛋还在这里 blog。。。希望大家不要为了这一次的考试而伤坏了身子，要多保重 ok ？

道明

2007-01-16T00:11:00.000+08:00

Hello all hehe,

well its been damm long since i last posted here but im just bored and kinda sian of tutorials and all so yea hehe listen to me rant muahaha =)

J1s have finally come whee!!! arent u all excited haah. well btc is round the corner and i can see that HR and PR along with btc comm have been sending out many different emails and all, of different nature of course but all very impt none the less =)

well honestly all i can say is that we've really come one full circle. like gerald said in his email, it really seemed like only yesterday that we were all sitting at the table at harbourfront food court with jason ong and eddison(hehe) and having lunch together after our own orientation. its been a wonderful journey, filled with much excitement, sadness, tiredness, happiness but most of all, the times that we have spent together, in love and in unity, constantly supporting each other with encouragement, jokes, lameness, and to a large extent, store wash and all =)

so yup would just like to say a big big big thank you to all of you 22s out there =) because without u guys none of these experiences would have been possible, none of these times together would have been possible and most of all, packing the room would not have been possible too =) jkjk hehe. so now as the new j1s come in and we slowly phase into our mugging modes and all, would just want to encourage all of us, to just use this little time left to us, to take sometime to reflect on whats it been like and really use that reflection to share our experiences with our j1s, so that they may have a journey as wonderful as the one we have had =)

So well cheers all and lets jiayou for BTC =)

James
aka Cold Hearted Freak =)

2006-12-23T22:25:00.000+08:00

the.outdoors.and.me

to modify a favourite quote of mine...
"The outdoors is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, it has no survival value, rather it gives value to survival."

To actually signpost the start of my "outdoor journey" would be impossible because there wasn't exactly a point where I decided to formally engage in the outdoors or whatsover. It was more of an extended period of loving and enjoying it, intentionally or not, before culminating in this trip. A possible beginning of the end or end of the beginning.

A significant experience outdoors would be Outward Bound in Sec 3. Although everyone was forced to go for it, till today, I find that it boasts one of the most unforgettable memories with my sec 3/4 classmates. The experience of carrying those heavy backpacks, showering in a toilet devoid of light and pitching tents to the accompaniment music of Gerard's swearing. Certainly, some of the funniest stories, most impactful experiences and goofiest moments occur in the outdoors. Much can be said of the camps in NPCC as well. Nothing beats recounting a shit funny anecdote of camping or expedition life. The close fellowship of great friends, the feeling of being freed from day-today routines was probably the very first draw of the outdoors and camping life.

My journey into ODAC was partially driven by a promise of similar fellowship, partially foolish shortsightedness and partially Hobson's choice. Much of my influence to join ODAC came from my officer in NPCC, who was a batch 16 odacian, from his recounts of the friendships and bonds unbreakable forged in ODAC. Foolish shortsightedness in the impulsive belief i placed in ODAC. I was viewing it more as a CCA with great people and tremendous fun rather than a larger opportunity to step into the outdoors. In other words, it seemed to be Outdoors Activities Club, with the outdoors in a much smaller font. Hobson's choice in the sense that I couldn't see myself doing anything else in another CCA like sports or a club. That inexplicable picture of myself fitting nicely in an outdoor club could be the very first, albeit weak, attraction to the outdoors.

For most of the school population, odacians ware perhaps seen as an odd bunch of people - a group that loves being dirty, sleeping in tents and eating crap food. Engaging in the outdoors is sadly viewed as something for a crazy minority. It's quite curious how our attitude towards the outdoors is somewhat warped. Many people believe that going out into the outdoors is like going out into an unthinable new world and for that many of them, they would try their very best to stay away from it and remain put in their "natural habitats" - their schools, homes or Orchard Roads. But isn't the outdoors our natural habitat and the cities we live in the artificial one? I guess it's quite a loss for us to see the apartments of 1000sq feet as the natural de facto environment and everyone beyong it as artificial and inferior.

The very first phase of my outdoor life was perhaps feeling comfortable in the outdoors - simply not being afriad of the dirt, getting sweaty and doing stupid things, eating fried rice with sand. BTC and MAC was quite a breeze because I was blessedly comfortable outdoors. Hence, for the initial period outdoors and in ODAC, I viewed the outdoors as a place to chill with friends and have good fun.

As the activities we undertook became more challenging like sea kayaking long distances during JEX and the great CCAL camp, I began to realise that the outdoors was a great place for personal dvelopment. This unknowing transition from seeing the outdoors as a playground to a classroom was the second phase of my outdoor journey. I benefited much from it and also firmly believed that the outdoors taught much more that no other teacher could. For the outdoor buffet, I was particularly keen on sharing experiences and lessons learnt in the hope that everyone could leave believing in the outdoors as a classroom.

The past 12 days have certainly unveiled and indulged me to a new phase and aspect of the outdoors. By having us spend extended periods of times just being with nature instead of pursuing a goal, it made me realise that spiritual aspect of nature. The sense of a connection with the land, to hear the deafening silence of the mountains, to feel the tranquil calm of the still waters, to taste the dryness of the air and heat, to hide in the cover of the shade and to see the splendour of a cloudless sky. All that and more to reflect on the beauty of Creation. As ineffable the expierence was, a close summary of this phase would be a spectacular appreciation of nature. AS the quote of my cover goes, "If God took time to create beauty, how could we be too busy to appreciate it?" The pace of this trip really made it a point to remind ourselves that we must never be too busy for Nature.

In a country like Singapore, it is very easy to believe that what is around us is our natural habitat and that is all there is to the world out there. But when you stare at the mountains millions of years old, when you see the caves that could have been full of coral reefs, when you hear of how ancient people lived out their land, you realise that our very small world is all but a speck in the vastness of all nature.

Previously I always believed the company, not the place or activity truly mattered. Whether we were kayaking or climbing, as long as fun people were around it would be good. But this trip made me realise that the place, animals, and plants are not merely part of the background. They are all worthy of being part of the foreground; they are all important as well. And it is important to know and understand them, and marvel at the intricate ways in which they work in.

At the end of the day, this trip achieved much in uncovering a third aspect of nature and the outdoors. That it was not a place for mere exploitation - a venue to satisfy our needs - but truly it was just a place to be in and be a part of.

It does not mean, however, that this aspect of the outdoors is more important than the other two - of having fun and of personal development. It was just something new and never consciously expereinced before and we should henceforth make an effort to incorporate it with whatever activities we do.

From this moment, what remains is to discover more about the outdoors. To always be seeking, asking, discovering the different ways it can relate to me at different times. At times a playground, at others a school and perhaps even a cathedral. There are infinite things it can be for me and the true adventure would be to discover each and every one of them.

2006-12-21T21:35:00.000+08:00

TWO DAYS IN AUSTRALIA
I think it's ideal for us to share some entries of our EOY journal here! Here's two days worth of entries from my journal. For the full journal, visit my blog. =)

---------------------------------------
23rd Nov
12 p.m.
I am now sitting in the comfort of my tent. Though I am sweating profusely, this is wonderful compared to the intense heat of the scorching sun outside, and the merciless flies. Flies can kill.
I have returned from yet another fairy-tale like experience. We did multi-pitching up the Organ Pipes in Arapiles, doing a grade 10 climb. This meant we go up as a team, one by one to each 'level', wait for all to come before going off again, towing up ropes for each other as we ascended, and belaying from the top. I found it extremely enjoyable.

The experience was exhilarating. When we reached up we had climbed some 95m or so, and were about 120m above ground. This is amazing because the most I've ever climbed before is 12m. For the first time I have felt like a real climber. Though I was initially apprehensive, as I climbed more I gained confidence. I began to love and appreciate the rock and the way it feels and support me. My fingers and palms embraced even small notches that could be gripped, my climbing shoes-clad feet scraped the roughness and trusted friction. I enjoyed the journey upwards and took each step up with more confidence.
Every ledge we reached was an achievement. We sat and stared into the horizon, which seemed to have come out of a storybook or children's drawing. The land all around was flat farm land, so far and wide we saw fields of various shades. The sky was a beautiful shade of blue with fluffy white clouds. It was perfect... for a queen =)
At the very top ledge, Peter gave us a lesson in geography, explaining how Arapiles was created. He pointed out quartz and sand compressed together to form the rock, suggesting that Arapiles was initially an island protruding from a large water body, with evidence of erosion by waves. The flat land was eroded flat to become the bed of the water body. We also used stretched rope placed in line with the horizon to compare and see that the earth is round, not flat. Simple knowledge that everyone knows but never discovers.
The entire thing felt like a dream, a once in a lifetime experience I am unlikely to go through again. This entire trip feels like the most amazing holiday I have ever had, and probably will ever have. I am in paradise.
Another thing I have noticed is the friendliness of the Australians. Everyone stops to say hello and give a smile to everyone else. So much for Singapore's 'Four Million Smiles' for IMF. People here are much more relaxed, friendly, and know how to enjoy life to the fullest. Away from the hustle and bustle of my pressure-cooker homeland.
By the way, I have blackened an entire piece of wet wipe just wiping my face. Another one for my neck and 2 more for my hands. I am filthy, yet happy.
The winds outside are going mad and some tents are flying away. It's a miracle mine still stands strong.
I forgot to mention that this morning, while brushing our teeth, we spotted a kangaroo with a joey peeking out its pouch. It looked directly as I snapped photos, but did not run away. Extremely adorable!

8 p.m.
I am in love with Arapiles.
Today we went to the set of climbs called the Charity Buttress. I scaled the conquered the grade 8 wall 'Charity'. It involved a lot of looking for routes and even creating our own scrambling moves, laybacking, jamming, and simply anything that would get us up. After much struggling I got up, switched over to the abseil rope and came back down. Great fun.

On the way back to camp we stopped and explored wildlife like birds, lichens and even a kangaroo with an insanely bulging pouch. We took photos with the Arapiles plague as well. I will miss this lovely place.

My skin has become a shade lighter with a swipe of the wet wipe. I am filthy and not going to bathe for another many days, but it is worth it.
I love Australia.

10.30 p.m.
Things people do when the temperature reaches below 10 deg Celsius, and winds blow in from Antarctica:
1. Wrap up in layers upon layers of clothes.
2. Jump on the spot.
3. Go for long runs.
4. Huddle together and moan.
5. Squat and refuse to sit, though I can't figure out how it helps.
6. Break out into loud renditions of YMCA.
7. Hide in tents.
8. Simultaneously huddle shoulder to shoulder when we gather for briefing.
9. Exercise mind over matter. "I'm not cold, I'm not c..coold"
10. Huddle up in a comfy sleeping bag and sleep. Goodnight =)

24th Nov
6 a.m.
This is the coldest morning I have woken up to, and the coldest night I have been through. I can barely write now because my hands are numb with cold. Australia's weather and climate is really unpredictable. While we expected only serious cold the first 2 nights, and indeed it got hotter after that, now weire back to the same numbing coldness - and even worse.
I'm starving too. Not that we haven't had enough to eat, but all the energy is going towards creating (insufficient) heat and I am left famished.
Today we will move out of Arapiles and into Grampians. I am much looking forward to Grampians, but I will miss the beautiful rock I am now in love with.
After Arapiles, it seems so foolish to ever climb on an artificial rockwall again, so dumb to grab obviously protruding pieces of colourful manufactured plastic pieces on a manufactured wall. Not when we have gone through Arapiles, which is considered the mecca of rock-climbing.
Arapiles provided a lot, including rock-climbing, abseiling, trekking, mountain climbing and even some caving. A perfect place I recommend to every rockclimber and adventurer.

12 p.m.
Some things we learn to appreciate only when we're here. Especially with climbing. For one, we never really appreciated helmets as there is no way to fall upside down and bang our heads on the artificial wall. But at Arapiles we're constantly declaring, "I love my helmet", such as when loose rocks are sent tumbling down onto belayers and onlookers by a climber, or when climbing we step up and knock into a suddenly protruding slab of rock.
Another thing is the climbing calls. For example, before the climber climbs, the belayer takes in the robe and when taut, the climber responds with "that's me!" That seemed silly when the climber and belayer stood side-by-side in front of a sports wall. But at Arapiles, especially during multi-pitching, it was a top belay system and the irregular rocks resulted in the belayer unable to see the climber. We had to rely on the climbing calls to communicate effectively and ensure our safety and proper belaying.
We have also learnt to appreciate the warm rays of the sun upon our exposed skin to counter the chilly winds. And at the same time we appreciate the breeze of wind that cools our burning skin in the afternoon heat.
We are now on our way to another foodstop at Horsham, before heading over to Grampians.

6.10 p.m.
Today has been declared slack day.
Having arrived at a privately-owned huge piece of land (even has its own cliff for climbing) by Peter's friend, Dave, at the Grampians, we have been spending the time resting in the grass and playing silly games like 'fuzzy wuzzy'. We were supposed to take a trek to explore the area, but it was too hot and we were 'busy slacking'. I finished my book as I lay down on the grass, and have really enjoyed this time of pure relaxation before we start some work restoring the burnt land tomorrow.

7.10 p.m.
It started with a book Rob presented to us called 'tracks, scats and other traces', which talks about exactly what its name suggests. We sat around pieces of scats, touched them, opened them, sniffed them and explored them to discover they probably came from a passing kangaroo. Scats, for your information, are pieces of excretion. That continued with an impromptu trek down the valley to look for more tracks, scats, and other traces.

Through we only found more fresh kangaroo poo, we also discovered beautiful black, white and blue feathers. We looked at trees and thought about what species they may be, all of our own accord. We squatted down to examine tracks and found one that looked like a camel's, but obviously no camel would have passed through. We also talked about how it was greener and cooler in the valley, with water flowing in. If the weather is hot, one would build a house in the valley. If cold, build on top. If lazy? Build in the middle, as Brendon suggested.
The outdoors is our classroom. A few guidebooks on birds, wildlife, plants, stars and more and our interest is piqued. Our knowledge, according to Rob, of Australia's natural environment would be more than that of most Australians' by the end of the trip.

2006-12-03T17:55:00.000+08:00

Who's the Boss??

The organs of the body were having a meeting, trying to decide who was in charge. Each organ took a turn to speak up:

BRAIN: I should be in charge because I run all body functions.
BLOOD: I should be in charge because I circulate oxygen for the brain.
STOMACH: I should be in charge because I process food to the brain.
LEGS: I should be in charge because I take the brain where it wants to go.
EYES: I should be in charge because I let the brain see where it's going.
ASSHOLE: I should be in charge because I get rid of your waste.

All the other parts laughed so hard and this made the asshole very mad.To prove his point, the asshole immediately slammed tightly closed and stayed that way for 6 days, refusing to rid the body of any waste whatsoever.

Day 1 - BRAIN got a terrible headache and cried out for relief
Day 2 - STOMACH got bloated and began to ache terribly
Day 3 - LEGS got cramps and became unstable
Day 4 - EYES became watery and vision became blurred
Day 5 - BLOOD became toxic and poisoned the body
Day 6 - The other organs agreed to let the asshole be in charge.

MORAL OF THE STORY:"NO MATTER WHO YOU ARE, OR HOW IMPORTANT YOU THINK YOU ARE, YOU WILL FIND THAT IT IS ALWAYS THE ASSHOLE THAT IS IN CHARGE"

erm...sorry Meiting, no offence ok.

2006-12-02T00:32:00.000+08:00

I was surprised to be free of the post expedition blues. i was surprised that i was not missing everyone like crazy or feeling especially sad that everything was over.

I told myself that maybe its because there was something new to look forward to. That every ending was but the beginning of something new.

Maybe looking through the photos would make me reminisce everything instantly.

But the deepest of all photos are those in my heart and mind, not snapped by the lenses of a camera but by the memories of our hearts.

And tonight, the sweetest of dreams.

2006-10-24T22:54:00.000+08:00

yayy finally odac is resuming. rock climbing tmr at yishun safra whee!! havent been there for ages since i quit air rifle.

oops sorry this is supposed to be odac blog haha.

i miss odac hammy =
24 more days to eoyex!! (:

2006-10-22T20:40:00.000+08:00

ODAC BLOG IS SO DEAD =( PEOPLE, BLOG MORE BLOG MORE!!

(speaking of which, odac friendster is like more dead???)

hmm on a more serious note, well, odac hammy (bobby) died last week.

R.I.P!

we buried it already and hopefully it's resting in peace now..

ok anw I CANT WAIT FOR EOY EX! (: whee! (:

and uhh i dont know wat else to say..

ppl pls blog!

2006-09-05T19:09:00.000+08:00

i was clearing up my phone memory today (instead of mugging. oops) when i found mr leong's drawing of a bull er. discharging its waste.

unfortunately the picture isnt too well taken (was trying to take during exco meeting and i wasnt too near the whiteboard) so ohwells. but anyway. =P

after that picture on the left he drew another one. or rather he altered the above picture to conjure another one.

heh.

anw happy mugging everyone. jia you for promossssss.

-pet.

2006-09-04T22:46:00.000+08:00

Here are some lame laws...nothing to do with physics though

Law of Mechanical Repair
After your hands become coated with grease your nose will begin to itch or you'll have to pee.

Law of the Workshop
Any tool, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible corner.

Law of Probability
The probability of being watched is directly proportional to the stupidity of your act.

Law of the Telephone
When you dial a wrong number, you never get a busy signal.

Law of the Alibi
If you tell the boss you were late for work because you had a flat tire, the very next morning you will have a flat tire.

Variation Law
If you change lines (or traffic lanes), the one you were in will start to move faster than the one you are in now.

Bath Theorem
When the body is fully immersed in water, the telephone rings.

Law of Close Encounters
The probability of meeting someone you know increases when you are with someone you don't want to be seen with.

Law of the Result
When you try to prove to someone that a machine won't work, it will.

Law of Biomechanics
The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the reach.

Theatre Rule
At any event, the people whose seats are furthest from the aisle arrive last.

Law of Coffee
As soon as you sit down to a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.

Murphy's Law of Lockers
If there are only two people in a locker room, they will have adjacent lockers.

Law of Dirty Rugs/Carpets
The chances of an open-faced jelly sandwich of landing face down on a floor covering are directly correlated to the newness and cost of the carpet/rug.

Law of Location
No matter where you go, there you are.

Law of Logical Argument
Anything is possible if you don't know what you are talking about.

Brown's Law
If the shoe fits, it's really ugly.

Oliver's Law
A closed mouth gathers no feet.

Wilson's Law
As soon as you find a product that you really like, they will stop making it.

:) Gerard

2006-08-16T23:42:00.000+08:00

ODAC Couple Special!

[EDIT: The photos that were here previously are now GONE because they're apparently very unglam. If you didn't catch them, then too bad for you!]
or you could always get them here and here.

2006-08-10T22:43:00.000+08:00

i wonder if anyone still visits this. the last post was eons ago therefore i'm here to rev' it up (: and this marks my first post on the odac blog.

just some random rambles and my personal feelings with regard to ophir ex that has just concluded! yay congrats to everyone - we conquered it! don't know about you guys but personally i was really extremely apprehensive prior to the expedition, worrying about not being able to.. uh come back in one piece. haha in fact throughout the climb i was very fearful too. sigh imma some noob. haha so i'd like to thank group B for supporting me and pushing one another to move on! esp the dudes in my group heh thanks for lending so many hands when i kept losing my footing :/ anyhows, we're like one fantastically high and crazy group! I LIKE(:

yep and kudos to the planning comm, especially the camp commandents, for putting together this expedition which provided us such a memorable experience in ophir. hmm i'll be copying all my photos onto a disc and passing them around.. so whoever wants my prettypretty pictures can save them onto your comps. i guess the conclusion of ophir ex also marks the start of the mug-for-promos season. so work hardd guys (:

2006-07-09T21:14:00.000+08:00

ODAC SLEEPOVER! (:

all u noobs who arent here. too bad. we had tons of fun all the way from on the bus until my house!

hahah the "9 o clock" woman and gtay's super hilarious umm comments about halters. LOL

ok thats all for now (:

2006-06-27T12:58:00.000+08:00

heylo odac22!
common tests are gonna be over..
JUST HANG ON!
yayyy.
i have to admit i'm damn bored.
even though i haven't finished lit maths and bio
but chem is over!
and it was.. quite bomb.
alright.
too much talking.
cyu guys around
(:

common tests are where we go togetherr... :D:D

2006-06-26T01:04:00.000+08:00

2006-06-23T16:32:00.000+08:00

hello everybody (:
hahah gina taking a break from mugging maths!

anyway! mr shah sent me this photo of us taking the motherboat back from snorkelling my god we looked weird but the most impt thing is that we looked super duperly HAPPY (:

HAPPY MUGGING EVERYONE. see you guys soon (:

and my god rockclimbing rocks!!! we had damn alot of fun at teengames and good lucks for the adventure race pple! ((:

2006-06-22T20:41:00.000+08:00

Through the climb there'll be ups and downs
(hopefully only 1 of each though)

teengames sports climbing episode ii: the pongsters strike back

yep today went for the 2nd session. forgot to mention that 1st session was speed climb, basically fall off still can continue, timing is the most crucial part. today's is challenge climb! ie you climb as high as you can, and they take the panel you climbed to as the score.

gavan had both his wisdom teeth removed. so he's trying to get mc for the whole of next week, cause he lost all the wisdom he has. (just kidding, gavan don't be angry =P)

before the climb, went to paya lebar again for lunch. gerald tay and i shared a buddy meal, while gavan only ate whip potato. pet had a shrooms meal and grace starved. according to her she said she already ate breakfast, so cannot eat lunch. even though 17 years of experience tells me that you are supposed to eat BOTH breakfast and lunch, maybe that only applies to me.

when we reached there, i was totally shocked. the place suddenly became damn holy. the only reason being the increase in number of holes in the climbing wall. there were 5 routes altogether, and each category is supposed to climb 3 (each climber climb one). and the guys are supposed to climb the omgwtfbbq overhang. if you don't know what an overhang is, basically tilt your head up about 90deg and you see an overhang. for the ri ppl, overhang is similar to what we had on our wall, the one on the extreme right.

but this overhang isn't any overhang, its one which most ppl can easily overcome, if they can defy gravity. in short, it is a 2 panel long overhang (1 panel is 1m long). definitely not for the weak-minded, weak-hearted, weak-fingered, weak-handed, weak-armed, weak-legged and weak-bodyed, therefore i didn't climb it. gerald tay the man climbed it, managed to reach the edge of the overhang, but he just couldn't get the hang of it and fell, just like every single climber who attempted it (yes no one made it to the top).

being the weakest climber, i climbed the one that looked the most noobie, basically the only flat wall climb. so during the climb is like "i must complete it i must complete it, ahhh i must complete it, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...." and fell off the 4th or is it 3rd panel. but after that i learnt that many of the climbers didn't pass it too, so felt a bit better.

after the results were announced, did some free and easy climbing. then we tried to get charlene up one of the routes. she was tired from the competition and the route requires quite a lot of arm power, so she got stuck. being too weak to provide approximately 490.5N (50 * 9.81) of force to negate the pull of gravity, other ppl started anchoring me, since i had to look at charlene, i can't tell you how many ppl or who were anchoring me, but basically they were pulling me along and charlene went all the way to the top without even having to climb.

the part about charlene going all the way to the top is a lie. sorry, couldn't resist saying that. lol. anyway good effort charlene =)

possibly the fastest also became possibly the highest, coming in 1st, runners up, again while mummies came in 1st, again too!

世上只有妈妈好, 是妈的孩子赢了宝
(you may have to detect your encoding to see this chinese sentence)
shi4 shang4 zhi2 you3 ma1 ma1 hao3, shi4 ma1 de4 hai2 zi3 ying2 le4 bao3

for us, not bad la, there were 10 teams in the competition and we managed to come in 4th, pretty good achievement i would say.

got quite friendly with the other participants there, basically the climbing cca from SRJC, rocmoc (rock climbing and mountain climbing) and some church goers from hope presbytarian. probably thanks to gina who got everyone hyper by screaming shouting and cheering for everybody who were climbing. they are really good climbers, they did really well for their climbs and very friendly ppl too.

then me, gerald tay, gavan, grace, meiting and charlene went to kfc again for dinner. had buddy meal again. grace and charlene also ate buddy meal, and meiting ate a shrooms meal. i can't believe how little some girls eat. you can't even call it shrooms burger, more like shrooms bu, since its barely half a burger. maybe its not that she doesn't want to eat anything else, but she's hoping to be like mario. whats more, meiting gave her whipped potato to gavan cause she couldn't finish it o_o.

rock-climbing is so damn fun! and it only costs $10 per person to rent the wall for 4hrs!!! its so cheap! only more 50c more expensive than lan! we should really go there and rock climb someday. we can train and take part in the national climbing competition too! and be the first winners of the competition!

rock climbing! speed climbing! challenge climbing! wooooooooooooooooooooooo!

2006-06-20T20:15:00.000+08:00

Rock-climbing is where we go together!

had teengames today, for those who dunno, heres the groupings:

The Mummies: Meiting, Petrina, Grace
Possibly the fastest: Gina, Charlene, meee
The Pongsters: G tay, Gavan, Marie

but we went down there, realised that my group was registered under the girls category -_-, i know i very sexy lar, but not in that kind of way right.... so swapped over with marie to become a pongster.

heres the competition format: basically there were 2 lanes to climb, each person have to climb each lane once. the wall was basically a flat one (like most of those in RI). sounds easy? heres the catch, the 3rd climber for each lane has to climb BLINDFOLDED! fun fun. top 2 teams of each category will move on to compete again for 1st and 2nd place.

just by looking at the opponents, we could already confidently tell we are going to be one of the top 4, only cause there were 4 teams there.

really long time since i last climbed (when was our 2 star course?), so kinda scared. but did better than i expected, chionged right up to the top (thankfully i didn't have to do blindfold climbing). if we exclude the blindfold climbs, we each took an average of about 25-35s to complete each climb. sadly, still didn't get into the boys cat finals. well~, the 2 groups who got in are competitive climbers who did an average of 18s for their climbs sooooooooooo....

but the girls cat finals were so much more exciting, apparently our odac girls owned the other girl ~~groups~~ group and both got into finals! (ok more like the other group owned themselves cause they decided to blindfold a girl with no climbing experience and she couldn't complete her climb) that aside, all the odac girls performed very well! especially our mummies who eventually beat the fastest to win.

most commendable award goes to odac baby marie, even though she was really tired and probably having stiff muscles, she still perservered and completed all her climbs even after falling many times. even the other teams were cheering for her. well done marie!

most encouraging award goes to gina. when marie was really tired and kept shaking her head, gina was there to cheer her on!

SCENE 1
*marie shakes head*
gina: don't shake your head! later drop off
(correct me if i'm wrong here lol, thats what i heard)

she also convinced marie to give in her all to complete the wall even after falling the umpteenth time.

SCENE 2
*marie falls*
gina: you want to continue right? i know you want to continue. go!

after rock climbing, realised that odacians really belongs to the outdoors and find it hard to survive in this modern world. first we jay-walked across the road, with half of us following along but not knowing that we were jay-walking. then didn't keep off the road even though there were motorcycles coming towards us (had to call out to g tay about 5 times before he responded and went onto the footpath)

then went down to cheers by the mrt to buy stuff. gavan and g tay ended up buying 1 and 2 sticks of fishballs respectively. as they entered the station happily swinging their balls around, the mrt staff came out to lecture them on why they shouldn't be eating in the mrt. oh well. lesson of the day: don't go around showing off your balls (fishballs) especially in the mrt station.

good job everyone! had lots of time today. realised again that rock climbing is damn fun!! can we pls have rock climbing for training? maybe we can go something related to rock climbing for one of the expeditions.

can't wait for thurs for the next session. it gives me great pleasure to announce that the mummies and possibly the fastest will probably be the fastest again cause the only other girls group has decided to pull out of the competition. and guys, we can go whoop their asses, since we'll probably be in a good position to do that anyway, right below them >_<

2006-06-15T12:24:00.000+08:00

JEX!

2006-06-15T00:32:00.000+08:00

to my one-sided slipper who accompanied my whole kayaking trip back:

sayonara.

2006-06-13T23:27:00.000+08:00

Presenting Exco's 四大天王 =）

2006-06-05T00:31:00.000+08:00

In about 8hrs time, we will be setting off. On a 10 hr bus ride. -.-

Nonetheless we will be having fun and JEX will be a memorable one.

And i leave you with the best picture of tenggol island

And that was tango island.

2006-06-04T17:06:00.000+08:00

ITS SUNDAY 17.05 AND WE HAVE.. um.. 13 hrs 25 more mins until JEX!!!

BUTTT...

I STILL CANT WAIT!!! I WANT TO HAVE JEX RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!):

CAUSE IM STUCK AT HOME. AND I HAVENT PACKED.

AND LATER IM GOING FOR WORLD PRAYER DAY.

AND THE THING IS I DONT EVEN WANT TO GO BUT IM GOING CAUSE MY PARENTS THINK THIS WILL BE A GOOD EXPERIENCE FOR ME.

YEAH RIGHT MAN THE LAST TIME I ATTENDED SOMETHING LIKE THIS IT WAS THE WORKERS PARTY RALLY AT SOME RANDOM STADIUM WHOSE NAME I CANNOT RECALL.

AND THE ONLY THING I REMEMBER ABOUT THAT WORKERS PARTY RALLY IS THAT I COULDNT EVEN GET INTO THE B***** STADIUM LET ALONE GET A GLIMPSE OF OUR POWERFULLY CHARISMATIC OPPOSITION POLITICIANS.

AND ANYWAY WHAT I COULD HEAR FROM OUTSIDE (YES THE SOUND SYSTEM WAS GOOD) WASNT PARTICULARLY MEANINGFUL. I MEAN COME ON MR OPPOSITION IF YOU SAY THINGS LIKE "WE THE OPPOSITION WILL NEVER FAIL!!" THEN WHAT PONGSTER IS GOING TO BELIEVE YOU??? HAVE YOU SEEN LEEKUANYEW AND THAT SICK SMILE ON HIS FACE WHENEVER IT GETS TO ELECTIONS??? YOU KNOW WHY HE HAS THAT SICK SMILE???? CAUSE HE KNOWS HES GOING TO WIN!!! HE KNOWS PAP IS GOING TO PAWN ALL THE OPPOSITION HEADS THAT HAVE STUPIDLY POPPED OUT OF THE GROUND FOR THE PAP TO PLAY "POP THE DUMBELL" WITH!!!!!!

gah ok basically im bored, i havent packed, and im leaving soon for world prayer day. and when i get home it will be late and i will STILL not have packed and in all probability i will just go online and gripe to the world about my troubles.

oh well tomorrow's going to be fun!!! GO ODAC!! WOOHOO!! ODAC CHEER!!!

KELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL........

(:

2006-06-02T14:16:00.000+08:00

Just something random I did on the Graphic Calculator when I was bored.

To everyone going for JEX, have fun and stay safe, and keep the ODAC spirit alive throughout the expedition!

2006-05-29T12:17:00.000+08:00

HEY GINA darling. got me to pei2 you at home wat. (: shall dedicate this post to you:

yes its damn boring at home :( i wanna go for ccal camp too! >.< grr.. NVM WE GOT JEX! ((: more important to get well first k?

JEX will be damn fun! with damn chio sea sun and sand! and we get to "snorkel". YAY! how fun is that (: i bet it'll be funner than ccal camp =P HAHA cos got ME and YOU going too!(:

and TAKE CARE too k? get well soon cos we want your high-ness for JEX! (:

heh i bet you love me cos i just dedicated one entire post to you.. (:

2006-05-29T11:50:00.000+08:00

hehe it's been ten years since i last blogged here.

and i shall jus do so since i ve NOTHING to do cos poor gina is SICK with high fever and poor gina has to miss ccal bintan camp :( and poor gina is damn sad cos ive to stay at home and slp through the whole 3 days and it is wth the start of holidays and im spending them like a pig! )958!_#$$%

HOW CAN? so cannot. so im here to blog (:

I CANT WAIT FOR JEXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX :D:D:D:D

can you???? :D:D:D

imagine we are going to see BLUE SEA everyday :D:D damnhappy la. so i hope im okay and well enough to go for june ex. surely can one la. if not i stab myself to death. hahhaahhaa.

so see you guys on wed for the unofficial but compulsory meeting! YAY!

love, gina who loves odac22 (:

2006-05-20T23:21:00.000+08:00

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Odac22core!

1) If you blow out all the candles on odac22core with one breath, your wish will come true.
2) Until the 1960s, odac22core was not allowed to enter Disneyland!
3) Odac22core will often glow under UV light!
4) Odac22core is physically incapable of sticking its tongue out!
5) Without odac22core, we would have to pollinate apple trees by hand.
6) Forty percent of the world's almonds and twenty percent of the world's peanuts are used in the manufacture of odac22core.
7) Women shoplift four times more frequently than odac22core!
8) All gondolas in Venice must be painted black unless they belong to odac22core!
9) Donald Duck's middle name is odac22core.
10)Long ago, the people of Nicaragua believed that if they threw odac22core into a volcano it would stop erupting!

by: http://thesurrealist.co.uk/trivia.pl

2006-05-18T20:57:00.000+08:00

so stagnant so i thought i'd leave a quote:

"if june ex is called jex, what, then, is september ex called?"
-Author unknown

2006-05-14T23:03:00.000+08:00

I brought my internet friends kayaking at paddle culture yesterday. there were altogether 9 of us, and i was the only one with cert. so all of them had to take the open deck, while i took the infamous cyclone.

i had big dreams. it didn't seem so big at first, but when i saw them get into the boat, i began reconsidering my 'dreams'. I had wanted to bring them to macs for a little reward in a mini expedition kind of thing. but noooooo. we barely got past the first breakwater when 3 of them called to me with defeated looks on their faces. one was already nauseous after barely 200m of paddling, the other 2 we just tired and perhaps paranoid of drowning.

anyway, I became the unofficial instructor of that day, teaching them how to hold their paddles, how to paddle properly and efficiently, how to turn, stop, etc. I even demonstrated a capsize and rescue. wahahaha.

the 3 of them gave up with the hour, while the other 5 could take it, so we had a great time paddling here and there, splashing each other and racing. all of a sudden, the sky started pouring and the wind went insane. within minutes, our swimming pool-of-a-sea became an insane monster (much like how elysa, nicole and qian hua will remember me on our little trip to downtown east on the handover day. to nicole: escappppeeeee. muahhaa) Anyway, to return to the beach up point, we had to go totally against the current. the waves were extremely choppy, but it was really fun riding on it. the rain pelted in our faces, and the wind meant that we couldn't push our paddles properly because the wind would push against the face that was up in the air.

we eventually reached back, exhausted, but having had a great time and a wonderful experience. and now they're quite interested in kayaking more. isn't that what odac is supposed to do... impart the love of outdoors to others? ^^

grace is happy. muahaha!

2006-05-09T21:03:00.000+08:00

Well due to the great request of many people for a bio on our dear Hr-Pr Man, aka Handsome "ren" aka Gerald leong the LAME, i have decided to do a write up for him who's been my close friend for close to 4 1/2 years already. So here goes...

Name: Leong "Fei" Qiang Gerald
Background: Full Of "fei-ness" so all BEWARE!!!
Darkest secret: When u talk to him BEWARE!!! pay close attention and you'll realise that his "fei-ness" is often subtle and hidden within his words. Like a ticking time bomb it often takes a while to "~~Digest~~ Explode" which would often result in Mr Gerard Lim Dao Ming bursting out in hilarious unstoppable laughter followed by Ms "hihi" going "EH U DAMM FEI LEH GERALD". Furthermore when bunking or sleeping nearby please be advised thatit is a MUST to wear earplugs or be warned that you will suffer the fate befallen on the entire EXCO during the mayday expedition. Cheers to him people for winning the most "fei" guy of the year award =)

2006-05-02T00:07:00.000+08:00

Today, your kind secret correspondent brings you a special feature on not the elections but on 11 personalities that have had the unfortunate pleasure of spending two days with me. We present to you some of their darkest (literally) secrets and information.

First up we have...

Name: Goh "hihi" Meiting
Background: The smallest and most powerful odacian
Darkest secret: Rumoured to be in love with...ODAC! As the saying goes, do not judge a book by its cover and thus do not judge a meiting by her size. Is incredibly strong and can haul a whole two man kayak during rescues and insists on not getting help to board her kayak after capsizing. Is incredibly patient with planes that fly past and likes to stand on chairs so as to make others look shorter. Here we see her after scrumptuous dinner on saturday.

Name: Ang "tai tai" Yishan
Background: Loves pink
Darkest secret: Fear her as she unloads her whole armada of moisturiser, face cream, spa gel and conditioner. Quite poor thing being extremely sunburnt after two days in the sun and is now redder (and hotter ahem) than chilli. We wish her a speedy recovery.

Name: Gerard "hysterical laughter" Lim Dao Ming
Background: Extremely clear headed (literally)
Darkest secret: Has the ability to sleep standing up and sleep without clothes on, i meant shirt only. He is applauded for being able to survive two days of kayaking with Gina. Here we see him after a treatment at yun nam hair care.

Name: James "QM" Lee
Background: only guy in exco whose name doesn't start with G
Darkest secret: Just see him in school and you'll realise what the sun has kindly done to his face. It's like free natural facial exfoliation treatment lor. Eats anything and everything and has a shithole for a stomach. Here we see him right after kayaking, sustaining 10th degree burns.

Name: Marie "Secretary-General" Lim
Background: Do not be deceived by her
Darkest secrets: Seemingly innocent, our beloved secretary is anything but that. Beneath that facade is a girl who employs pokes and her ultimate pouting skills will make any guygirldogcat crumble to their knees and surrender. Though she has a body of cotton, she has a mind of steel and we salute her for pressing through the whole expedition even though she was incredibly shagged to the core, at times she was truly sleepyhead101. Here we see her in her most appetising form.

Name: Kelly "runs-like-siao" Ng
Background: characteristic green hairband
Darkest secrets: Emerged from the expedition as red as a crab her msn nick declares "Kelly is HOT" but we so think otherwise. Be warned, don't offend her or you will get owned by her perennial stressed and buay song face. Here we see her during lectures giving me her usual dirty look.

Name: Gina "Gila" Ng
Background: Hazard to mankind
Darkest secrets: Should be kept away from milo at all times, or any other sweet substance for that matter. Can get dangerously high and start singing uncontrollably from "When you say nothing at all" to raffles cheers. Is rumoured to have pee-ed in the hatch compartment of her kayak. Here we do everyone a favour by reminding them to mind their sanity when near her.

Name: Gerald "rudolph" Tay
Background: Is incredibly blessed with the same name as me
Darkest secrets: Today, he's a changed man. The pic shows u the before(right) and after(left) effects of two days out at sea. By some amazing piece of luck, his nose got burnt like a dunno wad and now he looks like rudolph. Rumour has it that he was visibly (literally) traumatised for some unknown reason. Ladies and gentlemen, pls take the time to tease him abt his nose.

Name: Petrina "damn manly" Leo
Background: The darkest person in exco
Darkest secrets: very very x10^99 ownage Training IC. She is muchly loved for brining the aloe vera gel that gerald tay digs like its some gold and that which mr shah wanted to eat. And gerard has incured the wrath of this lady by whacking her on her sunburnt legs. He has, at last check, ran away to somewhere in indonesia for fear of this fatal female.

Name: Grace "stealthy" Lum
Background: our beloved treasurer
Darkest secrets: Is already quite dark to begin with, she is extremely stealthy and silent. Do not be fooled by her unassuming ways, just give her a dancer and she can overtake even the pointer. Also the first to KO on saturday night and was sound asleep in the bunk before we even lay our heads to rest.

The abovementioned individuals should be found in this picture.

2006-04-29T15:48:00.000+08:00

today me, wee pin, shawn, ben and thomas went down to ECP to train cycling for the upcoming adventure race. an uneventful morning of cycling.

then just as we were about to head for home....

kayaks spotted! are they who we think they are?

yes it is! sneaked up on them and took some photos

weather so hot, even marie turned black (or maybe its just my cam >_<)

wanted to take a group photo for them, but they had some briefing so we left. anyway, sorry for the terrible shots, very noob at taking photos. hope they have fun!

N.B. if you don't know why they are there, the exco is having an extra day of kayaking expedition! double the fun, double the sun. (wish them good luck with the sunburns)

2006-04-27T16:47:00.000+08:00

hello. elysa here. (: in rj's library. i'm seating on this broken chair which means any moment now, i'll end up on the floor. xD at least it's carpeted. ERM. how come there are umbrellas all over the library? omg i justgot a new chair. =) but its so low. and i'm already so vertically-challenged. so my chin reaches the keyboard. (:

i shall end off my superduperultramegalong entry with a joke. XD

Q:why were the soldiers wearing bras when they came back from war?

A: cos they returned in TRIUMPH.

and....

Q: what did explorers find at the bottom of the ODAC sea?

A: ODAC ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!

(ok i came up w that myself)

2006-04-22T23:18:00.000+08:00

hey some photos to share! LOL. ((: currently no captions. someone might want to add in captions? haha. and i hope i got the photos in the right order!

2006-04-18T22:10:00.000+08:00

YAP YEE SAM! MICROPHONE TESTING 1 2 3 !

okay my first entry on odac22.blogspot is so not going to be another one of gerald tay a.k.a squeezee's funny antics. what im gonna say is of high importance and should be taken to serious consideration and ponderation by everyone of "Raffles Junior College OutDoor Activities Club batch of 06" (quote hulin).

people people!! the fantabulous z'ODAC is dying!

ok for those of you who still do not know what the fish that is, z'ODAC is a wonderful og-gathering-looking thing that a few of us have come up with. reason for this is for us manly dudes and dudettes to jux sit together (almost) every morning to talk rubbish! this would apply especially to those who 1) have screwed up OG's 2) hate their screwed up OG's 3) need to source for tutorials to copy last minute 4) simply love to arrive early in school and THEN look for smth to do etc.etc.

ok on a more serious note. we ARE odacians of batch 06, and have been brought together by fate or some other reason which u'd like to believe in. so we should really treasure each other and try to spend time with each other more often! a good reason for this is -> up to late we've been really busy with our skills trainings, that refering to 2 star kayaking and lvl 2 sport climbing. this ALSO means that we have not had much chance to interact fully as a batch! as in group A pple dun see group B pple, group B pple dun see group A pple. therefore, my point being, we should ALL try to come down and see each other! (yes gerald tay wants u to see more of him. much more) more stuff that can be done can be found in gerald tay's post on the odac egroups.

now that ive said my pis..i mean piece, all of us should make an added effort to come down for Z'ODAC GATHERINGS!! <333

btw: if ure there and u dun see anyone around, there may be a few reasons to this. 1) you are in school and the time is 6am wadthefish 2) the odacians higher up the man-o-meter are working out at the track 3) its a tuesday/thursday and u realise soon enough that many of us are at students venture. however please do not let this stop u from coming down to the outside-council-room area (oh ya thats where we are if u havent realised just yet) less often than u really wish to! cos after all mr and miss leong's og is just there and they are really friendly and nice and odac-loving and did i mention friendly and u could talk to them too (:

so once again PLEASE COME DOWN for z'ODAC meetings (:

2006-04-13T01:09:00.000+08:00

It's amazing how you can speak right to my heart
Without saying a word you can light up the dark

So, was greeted this morning by this tshirt about horns and bulls and got a tau pok in the subcanteen. oh man even though its after my birthday already. And this shirt......it draws quite some attention. And yes, i'll definitely wear it when i go out with you guys. Thanks.

Try as I may I can never explain
What I hear when you don't say a thing

And i really didnt expect any celebration, especially not at the kayaking centre. Really am disappointed with myself for not seeing through your plans and suspecting something when you all gathered outside the canteen area. That simple birthday song... was melodious. Xie Xie.

The smile on your face let's me know that you need me
There's a truth in your eyes saying you'll never leave me

And the cake. The cake that charlene, aisha, gerald and gavan rushed out to buy during break and rushed back at 1.30, thanks for the effort really. The cake that was layered almost like agar agar, was most tasty. Kiam Sia.

The touch of your hand says you'll catch me wherever I fall
You say it best, when you say nothing at all

But this post is not just about thanking you guys for celebrating my birthday, coz my birthday is seemingly inconsequential to what really matters to me. It has been most special to know you guys, in the short 3 months, to have spent such tremendous time with everyone of you. It seems to me that each and every one of us arent in odac due to some random collision of molecules but cause we were meant to be here. And you guys are special, i dont know why, but yah. So this post should and will be kept short, cause perhaps the best of words are those that are unspoken. And although there was no picture taken today, the best of memories should remain etched intangibly in our minds. At least in mine for sure.

A quote from mel ho's blog:
"and a lifetime's not too long to live as friends"

Nope, you guys are not my friends.

But odacians.

And that makes all the difference.

2006-04-08T21:54:00.000+08:00

multi-disciplinary climbing

climbing yesterday was damn bomb. it made me realised how multi-disciplinary the whole thing is.

firstly, mathematics:
If Willy fell from the top of the 6th panel to the middle of the 3rd panel, calculate his fall factor. [2m]

next, physics:
For the questions, you can assuming zero air resistance unless explicitly stated and g=9.81ms^-2

Willy was lead climbing the rock wall in Bukit Gombak. After climbing 6m of the wall, he accidentally fell from the wall. He fell to a distance of 2.5m off the ground before being stopped by the dynamic rope.
a) calculate his velocity just before he stopped. [2m]
b) what is the time taken for him to complete the fall? [2m]
c) if his belayer, Joel went up a distance of 1.0m, what is his final velocity? [2m]
d) calculate Joel's impulse [4m]

(wanted to draw a diagram for this, but much too lazy to =P)

then after that is bio:
1) Epinephrine, also known as adrenaline, plays a central role in the short-term stress reaction—the physiological response to threatening, exciting or environmental stressor conditions such as ...blah blah blah... has a suppressive effect on the adaptive immune system.

and it also PREVENTS YOU FROM FEELING ANY PAIN!!! which is why i didn't realise i was scratched quite badly after falling, until i looked at my knuckles.

2) The outermost layer of our skin is composed of dead squamous epithelial cells and their functions of include secretion, absorption, protection, transcellular transport, sensation detection, and selective permeability.

realised the truth of it when i was bathing. ow

well, thats pretty much it, and contrary to common believe, it is actually quite fun to fall over 4m, assuming you stop above ground level. thanks to joel for saving my life and thanks to zhixuan for being in the same boat as me =). well, still looking forward to the next rock-climbing sessions! w00ts

2006-04-06T21:40:00.000+08:00

yay ppppl!

i tink dis is like my first time blogging or sth! i got read one ok! n play w hammy! but yeah! ok ok ok i'm just excited abt grace's post on all the games! let's go play!

i dun mind capts ball/table tennis/badminton? any takers! come w me! i tink gonna be fun! den we can own everybody n shout odac cheers ok:D yay!

n gd luck to ppl campaigning for council!

lotsa luv
sau

2006-04-06T21:13:00.000+08:00

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls

Let's have odac lunch tomorrow
So when your school ends go to dining hall (in RI) for lunch.
Anyway there's no food in RJ and Grp B has to rush for kayaking.

So meet at dining hall and lunch together then can talk cock and chat coz not everyone has meals together after activities so this a good opportunity.

2006-04-06T20:35:00.000+08:00

Teengames 2006, 19-24 June

Hey all! I got this pamphlet today about teengames 2006.

For our age category:

Soccer (20 and 22 June) 5 players 2 reserves (U-18 Boys)

Bowling (21 and 23 June) 4 players (U-18 Mixed)

Adventure Race (23-24 June) 3 players (U-18 Boys, U-18 Girls, U-18 Mixed)

Badminton (21 and 23 June) 5 players - 1 male single, 1 male double, 1 female double. 2 reserves - 1 male reserve, 1 female reserve. (U-18 Mixed)

Rockwall Climbing (20 and 22 June) 3 players (U-18 Boys, U-18 Girls, U-18 Mixed)

Basketball (2o and 22 June) 3 players 2 reserves (U-18 Boys, U-18 Girls)

Captain's Ball (21 and 23 June) 5 players 1 reserve (U-18 Boys, U-18 Girls)

Ultimate Frisbee (21 and 23 June) 5 players (at least two from opp. gender) 2 reserves (U-18 Mixed)

Table Tennis (21 and 23 June) 4 players - 1 male single, 1 female single, 1 male double. 2 reserves - 1 male reserve, 1 female reserve. (U-18 Mixed)

Sounds kinda interesting. Price is $10 for all, except adventure race, which is $15. More info: www.myteengames.com/singapore2006 .

Contact info: Peiyun 6743 2330 (O) 9297 1647 (Hp)
Victor 6338 (O) 9749 9387 (Hp)

2006-04-05T21:01:00.000+08:00

hey people

please go take a look at this blog.. http://ele-eli.blogspot.com/ theres a post inside about the plight of Joan Chan, an ex RG / RJ student, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2005. all the details are in the blog, as well as some pictures that show us just a few images of her story.

if you want to find out what you can do for her, please please visit the blog and read! treating cancer is expensive, and in this case the situation is made worse by the fact that only an untested, expensive drug has any chance of saving Joan's life.

so in aid of Joan and her family, Raffles Tshirts will be sold during ORA, at the RG shooting booth. Each T shirt costs 10bux, so please do try to spare a little of your cash to help her out. in fact, you can buy more than one if you want. ask your family and all your non-raffles friends if they want a raffles T shirt! (pics of the shirt can also be found inside the blog)

thanks!

2006-04-04T00:03:00.000+08:00

hi all, see these pens, very cute right? winnie the pooh pen, in blue and pink! don't the pens look exciting? BUY ONE FROM ME! they are only 10 bucks! 10 bucks for pens that are so exciting, very worth it. well im actually raising funds for youth challenge for elderly poor who live alone in studio apartments. so, HELP THEM, and buy a very exciting pen from me!

2006-04-03T21:28:00.000+08:00

harlo people

okay eddison has kindly provided the website for the NTU-ODAC organised adventure trail. take note, this is the HARDER ONE.

http://www.ntuodac.com/atc/atc.php?option=aboutus

there arent any details regarding the easier one yet, but what the j2s did last year is basically a 9km run with a very short bike ride, as well as some abseiling. so its much easier than the NTU organised one.

so if youd like to participate in either / both of the races, please email / sms / msn me.

erm one last thing, the NTU organised one (the harder one) is on 4th OF JUNE. that means it will be the DAY BEFORE OUR JUNE CAMP STARTS. hoho so only try for this race if youre feeling damn damn fantabulous. if not during the june camp you'll need lots of attention from the first aid people >.<

thanks!

(this is gerald by the way)
(tay)
(XD)
(i like brackets)
(or you can call them parantheses)
(anyway i like them)

2006-04-02T09:27:00.000+08:00

"A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner."

Indeed.

Kayaking two star yesterday was absolute fun. Changi Coast Adventure Centre was a relatively new place (in fact yesterday was their first day of operations) and the kayaks were in much better conditions than Paddle Culture. The sea was very scenic and calm, coupled with the occasional flypast by mega jets, made for a wholly enjoyable morning kayaking.

The vessel of choice (ok we didnt have a choice) was the Dolphin, a short and extremely wide boat with an extra large cockpit (very comfortable). At first glance, this boat seems not worthy for the sea but once you're in the waters, you realise that it is extremely stable. In fact, so stable that you would need phenomenal effort to actually capsize while using it, and urm gavan...

Lunch was provided for (simply because we were abt 2 hrs walk away from civilisation) and everyone was kinda hungry and ate everything with much enthusiasm. Of course, the favourite food of all time was non other than the...

B1: "Are you thinking what i'm thinking B2?"
B2: "You mean you actually think?!"

bananas. Such was our obsession that gerard ate 4 and we started contemplating how to steal the bananas from RV who were having camp there. Ideas included the dramatisation of a stomach ache to the creation of news that bananas are carcinogenic.

But the afternoon rowing was much much different. As if the sea decided to PMS, it became very very choppy and the waves were very powerful. That coupled with the fact that the vessel of choice (again we had no choice) was the Dancer, this narrow, light plastic playbo- uh playboat i mean. After the initial launching and everyone started swearing (swearing in ceremony indeed) at how screwed up the boat was. Of course, it didnt help that we were going against the currents and paddling for 10 minutes, you will realise that your boat is dragged back to where it started in less than 3 minutes.

However, after a while, you kinda get used to the Dancer and you actually begin to like it. I feel it has more "character", for its control requires much more skill and if you can control it well, the boat kind of becomes a part of you. Also, you begin to enjoy the bumps every wave brings and your bow strikes the water surface, releasing a sprays onto the deck. Launching and bitc-, sorry beaching up becomes a tricky but skillful manoevre.

So after more bow rudders and stern rudders (they damn fierce) and more capsizes, we ended our session with a lesson into maths. Remember: 5 min + 5 min = 20 min.

"A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner."

Roger that.

2006-04-02T01:38:00.000+08:00

Feeling like you can take some wickedness? Try The Wicked!

http://weikiat.ikueb.com/thewicked

Created by some J2 from AJC, the wicked is a genius of a puzzle. It currently consists of 40 levels. You basically try to get to the next level with clues from that page, anywhere and everywhere. Use your imagination!

I'm at level 36, and stuck. AHH

How far can you get? ^^

2006-03-31T23:00:00.000+08:00

Hello all! It's been some time since I last posted. Whee.

Wah, you guys are going for the 'harder' one? Hmm it's 4th June... may clash with our expedition. Any girls for the easier?

My thighs and legs hurt! Thanks to Ms Koh's lunges during PE. haha yes Ms Koh takes my class' girls for afternoon PE.

I wonder how I'm going to do sports climbing when I can't climb stairs or walk properly. Ahh. But I think the anchoring is very fun! Especially when your safety is on and you can just hang there happily =) To those doing kayaking, sorry if you don't know what I'm talking about, but you'll learn when it's your turn! ^^ so... Laser Quest or lanning tmr, group A? wheee ^^

2006-03-30T23:39:00.000+08:00

ehh why no one wants to go for adventure race....

as of now only 2 people have signed up - poey and i. WHYWHYWHY

COME ON ODAC BABES AND MANXOMES WE NEED TO PROVE OUR BABELICIOUSNESS AND MANXOME-NITY!

if you dont want to go for the mad(der) adventure race, at least sign up for the easier one! apparently CJ odac is going to spam teams for both! we must compete and not give them free frag!!

so please email / sms / call / talk to me if you want to sign up!! by the way poey and i are looking for 2 more manxomes to join us to make a team of 4. sign up first think later!

WE ARE A WARRIOR!!!!

2006-03-29T23:33:00.000+08:00

hallo peeps =D
heres a big huge massive humongous THANK YOU to all who took part/planned/gave ideas/dadada in bihui and my farewell party =) we both super loved our presents [baby pooh!!<3<3] and advanced mama says that the food's good! If i didnt haf to go for SRP i wuld haf stayed to finish the food.. *misses camp food* wonders when i'll get to eat it again.hahaha

anyway even though i didnt stay for very long in odac, i think odac has definitely changed me much and i super love how people are so friendly and close in odac. Nothing can give me the equivalent of what odac has given me and I dun think anything can truly replace odac =) thanks everyone, whether i've talked much/talked little to you, for it is everyone of you thats made odac so special for me ;)

i'll be sticking around to play around wif hammy..i really think its super cute la..click click click= super high jump + roll.. hahahaha..maybe come down for PT with u all, go find z'odac...will miss all of u cool babes and dudes! [handsome and beautiful ppl used too many times le >_< besides must be..ahem..original..haha] =P

2006-03-28T00:56:00.000+08:00

lol...hi people,

gd luck to those getting interviewed on thurs and friday. very interesting questions were asked...not supposed to leak out though and of course i wun do that. anyway i think we should make a batch t-shirt for odac 22...quite a random idea though.

here's a stupid comment: my eyes got diabetes from all the eye candy you are giving me...i can taste the sweetness in my eyes. (how lame can u get...this came from my class)

wadever

2006-03-26T22:02:00.000+08:00

wa liew wa liew :P gerald tay has been spamming i see. haha. well im damm bored so i thought i'll post something to desianzify myself lol. anyway right this week is gonna be like so boring without odac trainings so i thought maybe whoever wants to go watch a movie on wednesday or something, if it doesnt clash with ur interview for those who have been shortlisted and stuff yup. haah =) just a suggestion, V for vendetta looks good :D

James

2006-03-24T22:53:00.000+08:00

erm theres a change, for the easier one its 3 people per team, for the harder one its 4 people per team.

thanks and faster sign up!

2006-03-24T21:56:00.000+08:00

hi everyone

ok people theres some funky adventure race thingie thats going to be going on this june! in fact there are 2! details:

(A) theres one supposedly uber easy one that RJ odac went for last year. its near the end of june, but eddison says theres no kick. cause apparently for mixed category we got 1st, 2nd and 3rd. and for girls we got 1st and 2nd. and we sent 5 teams i think. haha add it up.

but anyway please take note, it was eddison who said theres no kick. yeah. and we all know his idea of a kick (no pun intended) is getting zham-ed in the ****s by some 1.9 metre tall ang moh during his MUAY THAI lessons. so this race may be harder than you imagine haha...

(B) anyway for the second race - even eddison says this is, and i quote, "hiong" and "mad". its something like an 8 km run, then 10 km biking, then 7 km run, then 300 m kayaking. yeah. so bring a towel ;) this one is held on the 4th of june, eddison says.

anyway for both races, the details are not really confirmed, all we know is that the easier one is at the end of june, while the harder one is on or around 4th june. and each participant has to pay like 30 bucks around there.

dont know about prizes, venue, reporting time. if im not wrong for both its 4 per team.

okay so please give me your names if you want to participate in these races. and take note that the number of people who can participate may be limited per JC, so it will be on a first come first serve basis. im first. (:

anyway all of us in odac, supposed to be hiong right. sign up sign up please. ((: and to quote a certain someone...

i assure you that i will see to this being a success.

The (--insert post--)
(--insert rank--) Gerald Tay

2006-03-24T00:52:00.000+08:00

A lava bomb is a globule of molten rock larger than 2.5 inches in diameter, formed when a volcano ejects viscous fragments of lava during an eruption. If the outside of a lava bomb solidifies during its flight, it may develop a cracked outer surface as the interior continues to expand. This type of lava bomb is known as a breadcrust bomb. If the bomb remains molten when it strikes the ground, it may form a distinctively-shaped cow-dung bomb.

-Wikipedia

Whoa, some bomb. ;)

2006-03-23T22:55:00.000+08:00

how on earth did i get dragged into the picture?? -->"want to talk about yishans nosebleed then say la!"

more like WHY? lol..

anw i think we shld each have our own soft toy! (: haha this can be some odac thing. then we can bring for ~~mac~~ future expeditions (post mac withdrawal symptoms =X). like one small little soft toy each. hahaha

ok fine. nvm. childish idea =X

and yes. ppl, do come to Z'ODAC! every morning! you get to see me and gerald tay and gerald leong and umm. prob tons of other handsome and beautiful ppl there (:

2006-03-23T21:03:00.000+08:00

oh and gerald leong. you have an unhealthy fascination with stuff like, and i quote, "a certain monthly biological mechanism in the opposite gender that had gone real bad".

come on lar... want to talk about yishans nosebleed then say la!! so hum for what! although i dont know about monthly... what could gerald leong mean??

and for those of you who dont know what manxome means... I DONT KNOW EITHER HAWHAWHAW. its some random lit term from some famous poem called "jabberwocky" by some famous guy whos so famous i cant remember his name right now. so basically we were told by our teacher that this is some guai lan poem that we were supposed to read. then she told us to highlight all the nonsense words. and then come up with a definition for each one. so manxome became...

*drumroll*

...

...

okay my fingers are getting tired. manxome became MANLY and HANSUM. which is just another way of saying GERALD!

TAY!

ok on to serious stuff. the collection of different batch photos is part of a broader objective of making the odac room look more lively and fun! and not just some storeroom with a demented hamster. so...

(a) ask around! see if you can find people around you from previous batches of RJ ODAC. and ask them for photos of their expeditions / activities / anything to do with odac.

(b) think! and come up with some ideas how the odac room can be lively-fied and fun-nified! post here and everyone can read, comment, refine etc. so we'll have a damn nice room, damn fast, that everyone has contributed to!

okay enough from me. see you all on saturday at MOE MAC! (:

2006-03-23T20:51:00.000+08:00

HARLO HARLO HARLO

JOIN z'ODAC PLEASE!!!! DONT LET IT DIE!!!!

YOU GET TO MEET BEAUTIFUL AND MANXOME PEOPLE IN THE MORNING IF YOU GO z'ODAC!! YOU EVEN GET TO MEET... *drumroll*...
...

...

...

...

...

...

*more drumroll*

...

...

...

...

...

...

ME!!!!

((:

so anyway just abandon your OGs please. ok, maybe don't abandon them. just leave them. and come z'ODAC.

kthxbaiiiiii

2006-03-22T23:03:00.000+08:00

Am feeling incredibly light now since the shit pile of work has disappeared. No more bio assignment or chem test ><>

So before odac training, some of us were hanging around the mini canteen and james asked gavan to pass him his schoolbag. Gavan threw and some of the impact went to james specs which ended up bursting a pimple and cutting an artery. So there was quite a profuse release of blood (though not as much as the one mel ho) and it just bled non stop lah, like a certain monthly biological mechanism in the opposite gender that had gone real bad. So anyway no real harm done, at least he never get disfigured lah. Never mind lah, small scar on the nose is quite manly lah, girl will like ;)

Store wash is something that i actually enjoy. Even though its a damn sai kang job of washing tents and groundsheets, the process is always enjoyable. I mean where and when in the world do you get the chance to steal hoses from weird ass places in school, get a chance to wet tents and persons alike, get locked up in a tent, climb fence and threading on prickly grass in the prickly heat (hahaha.). And i begin to discover the love hate relationship that people, particularly girls, have for getting wet. When wet-ed, they will scream and express disgust for being sprayed but in secret they like to get wet in the sweltering heat and have fun with the water. All's fun except wet underwear is really irritating...

So we went on to clear the odac room, surprisingly we manage to get rid of all the shit in such a short period of time. Now we just await the “condemnation procedure” for the canteens. So I actually was helping to stack and count the backpacks when I observed one red milo backpack experiencing an infestation of ants. Then I opened the bottom compartment and discovered…
One black st. margaret’s polo tshirt…………………and a white underwear. Yishan and me just sat there stunned. And why on earth are the ants attracted to the underwear?! Anyhow, Yishan swiftly removed the underwear to check if it was branded and if so whether it could be re-used (just joking lah, she threw it away swiftly)

After that was dinner at food junction and also to celebrate Yishan’s birthday. As usual, much cock was talked, much jokes were cracked, much food was eaten and much laughter was shared (Gerard laughed like mad again). Yishan complained that eating dessert was making her feel cold and actually took out her sweater to wear!

And now I am feeling hungry and I actually am craving pancakes. Also, I swear there’s a chemical reaction going on in stomach coz chilli from mee goreng and cold from dessert and ruffles don’t actually go well…Anyway hope more people can keep blogging and CB their lives and time in odac. Also, we are starting a project to trace the batch photos of all the batches before us so we can display in odac store. So if you know of any aunite/ uncle/ ah ma/ ah pek/ cousin/ senior/ brother/ sister/ dog/ cat/ mouse who has pictures, pls tell us…

2006-03-22T22:41:00.000+08:00

hello, since no one blogs, i shall blog. this is weird, i'm not suppose to be the one thats blogging all the time, but nevermind. i miss rj odac! i made my mum buy the pancake mix thing cos it reminds me of BTC and mac food comm. and then whenever i wear my school's drifit pe shirt, i get this odacy feeling, so nice, but when i look down, ITS BLUE. =.= but i think i'm not gonna like it very much soon, cos PE in aj is maddness, probably worst than odac pt(thats why aj odac dont need do pt ^^). they make us jog more than 2.4km, and carry water bottles at the some time! and the best part is, not everyone gets at least a gold/silver. oh and my pe attire is like some lollipop/ice cream/some crazy thing, its like blue and yellow. BEST. so anyway, so sad, cant join you guys anymore. i will miss rj odac. i just had my first odac session in aj today, quite fun, i bet i will have just as much fun. =p take care guys and have lots of fun!

2006-03-18T23:58:00.000+08:00

truly madly deeply. i dont care it's the new batch song for odac 22 ((: everyone set? hahahha.

and everyone! we have a new odac game!

superman ah superman
batman ah batman
spiderman uh spiderman
shahman uh shahman
bomberman uh bomberman
rahmen uh rahmen
damnman uh damnman
faggotman uh faggotman

those who know must teach the rest the actions :D:D

jerpong mongzizi altefrab

HAHAHHAHA whatever that means :D

with one voice we say, we are one (:

2006-03-18T12:50:00.000+08:00

Truly Madly Deeply

I'll be your dream
I'll be your wish
I'll be your fantasy.
I'll be your hope
I'll be your love
Be everything that you need.
I love you more with every breath
Truly madly deeply do..
I will be strong I will be faithful
'Cos I'm counting on a new beginning.
A reason for living.
A deeper meaning.
Chorus

I want to stand with you on a mountain.
I want to bathe with you in the sea.
I want to lay like this forever.
Until the sky falls down on me...
Verse 2

And when the stars are shining brightly
In the velvet sky,
I'll make a wish
Send it to heaven
Then make you want to cry..
The tears of joy
For all the pleasure and the certainty.
That we're surrounded
By the comfort and protection of..
The highest power.
In lonely hours.
The tears devour you..
I want to stand with you on a mountain,
I want to bathe with you in the sea.
I want to lay like this forever,
Until the sky falls down on me...
Bridge

Oh can't you see it baby?
You don't have to close your eyes
'Cos it's standing right before you.
All that you need will surely come...

I'll be your dream
I'll be your wish
I'll be your fantasy.
I'll be your hope
I'll be your love
Be everything that you need.
I'll love you more with every breath
Truly madly deeply do...
Chorus

wad do u guys thing of this song for our odac batch song?

2006-03-18T00:05:00.000+08:00

I will never forget...

using the mega orange bag as a bolster on the journey there
the songs we sang with james strumming the guitar
the very pro looking logistics tarp
the fried rice and the variations that the different groups had
the 猜拳 that me and gerard played to finish the fried rice
the sand in all the dishes
the rowdy malay boys near the toilets
the damn screwed up mess tin that sand treatment could not treat
the midnight palm readings by bi hui
the eviction from my tent by gerald tay and gavan
the extremely cramped but otherwise deep sleep in gerard's tent
my attempt to toast bread using the gas lamp
the smoking guides (not the 01, 02, 03 kind)
the songs sent on the way up
the spring water
the summit that had absolutely nothing on it
the army rations
the cola sweets
charlene and her owned ankle and meiting and gerard for the time we spent bringing her back
gerald tay and his pickup line
the odac song
the "truth and truth" game
the "comm meeting"
the bomb milo and equally bomb pancakes
the feeble attempt to destroy the styrofoam boxes
the "blakang lobang"
the "customs examination"
the people, every single one of you all.

To all those who probably did not make sense of that list, all i wanna express is how much this expedition meant to me and hopefully future, more adventurous expeditions will bring greater meaning to each and every one of us odacians.

2006-03-16T23:41:00.000+08:00

ok MAC is over! but you havent heard the last of yishan and i ((: theres still bag and money collection haha...

anyway yishan and i would just like to say a big big THANK YOU to all of you handsome and beautiful people, especially the planning committee who made all our lives so much easier.

ok as you all no doubt can tell im not very pro at writing long long blog entries like our dear ladyboss -.-" so yes. thanks to everyone for making MAC so enjoyable and meaningful.

To the administrator: OK WE REPORT FINISH LIAO.

To everyone else: REMEMBER THE ODAC CHEER.

oh and pls clap for our new ICs Gina and Chihung. they are pro and manly. and i think mr shah likes them so... ((:

2006-03-13T14:53:00.000+08:00

who wants asics shoes? this friday, between 0930-1200, at some warehouse. think we can get about 40% discount, but we need more people, though im not sure how many. so tell me if ur interested, then we can go down together. i have kayaking after that. ><

address of that warehouse: 119 Genting Lane
H&H Building
Level 2

i don't know where this place is, but according to streetdirectory.com it is near kallang. but eddison say its at macpherson.

n then he suddenly say we should just go down to PS asics stall cos they give 40% regardless of who you are, while the one at the warehouse only gives 40% if you buy under the school's name. im not sure about the PS asics stall, so maybe i will check.

***ascis stall at PS close down already

2006-03-13T00:13:00.000+08:00

i am going to die tomorrow.

why?

because i got sunburnt today at sentosa. which means my shoulders hurt like some bomb. WHICH MEANS I'M GOING TO DIE CARRYING MY BACKPACK UP BELEMUT.

that is all. go to sleep.

2006-03-12T23:39:00.000+08:00

since we are from odac, we need a cool pet(unlike the un-exciting hamster in odac store). let me present to you, our odac hammy(hamster), which is actually a hedgehog, cos hamsters are not happening enough. why its called a hammy, i dont know. its green, cos uh i couldnt think of a nice one, plus green is our school colour! n now the exciting part, when u click on it, it jumps so high, its almost flying(like chicken). ^^, so exciting. too bad u cant do funky stuff like deep fry it, skin it, chop it, eat it, etc. ok fine, im dam bored. n the odac hammy doesnt exactly fit into the sidebar, but heck, haha.

2006-03-12T22:32:00.000+08:00

hey guys, have fun for MAC. sleep early, which means u shouldnt be reading this. WAD ARE U DOIN?! go n sleeeep. call me when u reach the summit or something(if theres reception in the first place), will be so cool. muahhaha.

2006-03-11T23:18:00.000+08:00

YAY 2 more days to M'sia..i keep having this feeling i gonna forget to bring my passport =S ppl pls rmb to bring passport..it'll be damn funny if we find tt we cant get across cos dun haf passport

i think my bag is too big..i borrowed one from my uncle in army.. and theres still a lot lot lot of space..>< and the bag is too tall for me..haha the strap kinda doesnt really rest on my shoulders..like its somewhere hovering just above my shoulders =S

haha everyone must sleep well and dun fall sick k? i still feel like i'm floating in my kayak..heh

2006-03-11T23:05:00.000+08:00

my feeble attempt to help revive the odac blog. read this.

2006-03-11T00:14:00.000+08:00

First things first, our blog is dying. Within like 2 weeks of its initiation it is gg-ed. Pls dont let this happen. Some complain of a lack of inspiration or material to blog about, some are plain lazy, some dun even read this blog. Please, everyone, please blog more regularly and even if u have writer's blog (block) do find something to write about, something funny at dinner, or some joke or something about anyone in odac, or about basket weaving, flower arrangment and dog's birthdays.

So in that spirit, i shall share what happened today. As in not one day but two day. ok haha. So other than we pia-ed to army market and collected stuff and pia-ed back, the more exciting news was reimin came back. Apparently to return library book.

Had dinner with her, gerald tay, willy and then adjourned for bubble tea. Sui bian today was sour plum + dunno wad + dunno wad. Just damn damn damn damn sour lah. That was our first cup. And thus, in anticipation that some of us would need some drink to neutralise the very "unique" taste of the sui bian, willy ordered a choc milk tea and pear a plain red tea. So altogether three cups.

So we started playing zong ji mi ma and soon got bored. Decided to play with wads in the cup of bb tea. Now bubble tea ammo is classified into three kinds:1. Pudding - the yellow jelly that comes out with a "piak" sound and is suitable for close range. Is very sticky and get irritate foe.2. Pearl - very accurate ammunition. The trajectory makes is suitable for getting it at all the weird places (forehead, butt, shoulder, face, eye, anywhere)3. Sago - in my opinion, the best of them all. For the dota acquainted, it is very similar to scatter shot in that the victim has little space to run away to since it is very much all encompasing. Is also very sticky and hard to find since its so darn small...

Started with some lame game to test how accurate ur shooting was. Then it proceeded to warfare. 2 (the two geralds) vs 1 (willy- as in the american slang for a male organ and the australian slang for a hurricane that willy). Willy got shot first i think then he started to chase me. I edged him on and jsut when he was about to shoot, gerald tay, who was hiding at the side, ambushed him and he got gg-ed. Round two, he continue to chase us and then i stopped him to try and "negotiate" and gerald tay came from behind and gg-ed him second time. He then took the bubble tea and splash at me, but it missed, hitting reimin instead. haha serves her right for seating there and laughing at us all the time...

And so i THINK, i THINK we are hereby banned from the bubble tea shop heh.

- - - - -

Mac is round the corner (yes i know there are many McDonalds around) and it has been a hectic journey planning for it. The weeks were spent EVERYDAY doing odac stuff, but hopefully it will be worth it. I think we are doing quite a good job but everything's done already so we wont know until something crops up.

However, i personally think, that this expedition lacks a collective objective, whatever that's supposed to be. Sure, there are the objectives in the proposal but personally i believe the batch, should as one identify a certain direction for this expedition. A direction beyond merely successfully scaling the mountain.

Perhaps all of us who are part of this experience should pause for a moment and think what is your personal goal/purpose for this trip and better still, a goal for the club as a whole. Be it to have mad fun, to enjoy the outdoors, to make new friends, to take a break or to learn something new. For what's most important is that each and every one of us have a purpose before we set off. This may sound very much like what the teachers would nag you to do but i think it makes a lot of sense. Afterall, with a purpose in mind would we then treasure this experience and make the most out of it. Afterall, with a purpose in mind can we then look back and evaluate this whole experience, learn from it, and improve on it. Afterall, only with a purpose would this expedition count at all.

I don't know why or what makes me compelled to say all this, but i thought this blog may be a good avenue to share what i am currently feeling about the trip. And hopefully, most (if not all) of us would have a purpose before we set off on monday. And with luck, we could share with each other during the post trip reflections.

- - - - -

Sorry for sounding all serious in this post. Shall share a joke with you.

Q: What did opium do to the Chinese people?

A: It made The Chinese High.

Till then.

2006-03-10T00:25:00.000+08:00

Are you all excited about MAC? I am! With all the exciting planning taking place, whoo! MAC is going to rock =)

And it's our first expedition together as a batch, without J2s. I really can't wait to spend so much time with all of you and do funky and crazy things together, and climb Belumut together =)

3 Days time!

2006-03-07T18:12:00.000+08:00

hello, i realised why i should be very happy. WE ARE DOIN NYAA GOLD TOGETHER!!! ^^

2006-03-06T23:44:00.000+08:00

this is quite screwed up, i cant access this page.

2006-03-06T22:51:00.000+08:00

Hiii. good luck to all those appealing to get into rj! hope you guys can come back.
once an odacian always an odacian!
hrmph i'm so tired i don't feel like doing any homework. =(
looking forward to kayaking on weds. =) BYE.

2006-03-04T23:34:00.000+08:00

uhh hallo =) gerald told me to post sth..so i only learnt how to post sth today..hahahaha after realising i haf forgotten my username and password hahahahaha so funny =D=D odac's uber fun =D todays training was quite xiao..u add everything together its 5 km and 70 storeys and 100 crunches and pushups hahaha sounds so zaii and freaky =P sad i couldnt stay for the food.. must haf been very good =D

2006-03-01T02:05:00.000+08:00

hi guys, new template, i know the pic kinda sucks, pls someone make a new one. im not gd with photoshop. anyway its dam late now, i got chem tut to finish n maths quiz to study for. ahhh.

2006-02-28T16:45:00.000+08:00

hello all! lalalala (:
yes, reason im here: will someone kindly add my link to the list on this bloggie (: cos i duno how.. XP thanks in advance! im at thisnothingness.blogspot.
and since im here on the odac blog i might as well leave a msg for you all, so.. heh. erm.... Hope we have a whale of a time at belumut!!!(: (but before that we got to get through the saturday/wednesday pt alive ah..)
cheers!
-Elysa

2006-02-27T23:01:00.000+08:00

of violent seas and calm hearts

As most of you should know, sunday was spent in the sun (sorry for the pun) at paddle culture kayaking. I probably wouldn't describe it as "fun", cause "fun" just happens to be an overused adjective and everything good, happy, nice, fulfilling nowadays has been sadly reduced to a mere "fun". It just doesnt really describe anything substantial.

So...yah sunday we went out to sea (thankfully got to do some serious kayaking). But surprisingly (or shockingly), the waters of east coast proved to be of much more energy than say ubin or pasir ris. It was really quite powerful with waves that seriously threaten to capsize you. And it didnt exactly help that we (we = the 10 pple who are supposedly more pro) were given cyclones to bring out to sea. A easy to manoevre kayak, it can take you in any direction at ur will (or against ur will), even underwater =P

So basically, i totally wasnt enjoying the leg of the journey to macdonalds cause you realise you are doing corrective sweep strokes all the time, instead of focussing on forward and back paddling. It made the whole thing very very sian indeed. But on reflection, you learn that it is important to keep using sweep stroke, instead of backpaddle to correct your orientation. Even though sweep stroke doesnt move u forward much, it ensures u are still moving forward, keeping the momentum and that really helps.

Then had to beach up near the macs. Instructor decided that the 10 more experienced ones should beach up first and that meant we had to disembark without assistance. Now this is when the "fun" started. As i was trying to get out, and i was unfortunately parallel to the coast, this super huge wave...at least the height of a tsunami (okok maybe only chest high) decided to give my kayak a pat on the back and out i came. Luckily never kill anyone.

Left me feeling quite miserable having to empty a kayak and i just dreaded going back out to sea. But hmm things kinda changed on the way back. Before we left for paddle culture once again, i bought candy floss which a select few lucky creatures got to lick/taste/bite/use fingers and tear/gobble it all up.

You start to get used to the continuous correcting strokes required and although it requires great energy, you can be satisfied when you see yourself moving closer and closer the target. Also, you slowly appreciate the not-too-sunny but clear weather of the day. And most importantly, you realise that although the sea was quite violent, my heart had to (or could) remain quite calm. As calm as a clam.

One interesting advantage of the high energy tides and currents was that we managed to return back much much faster as we were in the flow of the currents. And it is kind of philosophical when thinking about it. The mighty waters, like hardships, at first seem intimidating but when ridden in the right direction, they propel you ever faster in the right direction.

Anyway thats all i want to share and hopefully no one is bored to death reading this... Hope it benefits those taking the course this week

cheers all =D

2006-02-27T22:40:00.000+08:00

Yay tagboard added! =) And if anyone wants to link your personal blogs to this blog, let me or any html-savvy person know, ok?

When I think of ODAC now, i think of $. $1000 for food, log, campfire, and first aid for MAC. Somehow, we're going to squeeze everything within this sum. wahahaha ^^

2006-02-27T22:22:00.000+08:00

Hallo!
Yay we have a blog! Haha, I'm posting for the sake of posting. Lol..Soon this place would be full of spam, because of people like me. =)
To the kayaking people, bring shoes with HOLES so the sand/pebbles can flow out easily! otherwise you'll have to keep emptying your shoes. =) And avoid the cyclones, they don't go straight.

Okay nuff of my rubbish. Byebye!

-Siying.

2006-02-27T20:36:00.000+08:00

hohohoms..

yayyy thanks whoever for setting this up (i think it was Kelly - yes?)

hahaha. just when i killed my public blog, i get another one to talk nonsense in.

anyway! for group A who is going for kayaking. it will be good to bring a bath towel, toiletries and spare change of clothes (complete down to the underwear) so that you can bathe and change into nice things after kayaking! those who are wearing shoes do bring slippers to wear after kayaking session unless you want to wear wet shoes. hahaha. have fun! kayaking is nice ((:

-pet. (:

2006-02-27T01:01:00.000+08:00

haiz, i played around with the layout abit, hope it's better. i know it's kind messy and not very pro, but make do with it until i or someone finds the time to do something more decent, k? =) heh yea, not very used to blogger yet. ebloggy.com still rocks!

If you have too much time to spare, do visit my blog at http://wackystarz.ebloggy.com .

And meanwhile, prepare your MAC $100 to be surrendered...

YAY I can't wait for kayaking next week =) Sport climbing was fun ^^

1am. I should be asleep! *yawn*

2006-02-27T00:07:00.000+08:00

ugly layout! title of blog is in caps! ewww...
anyway, pple w/ pics pls post up.. haha

oh.. what food u guys want for MAC?
can post up suggestions here!

Jeanette's really pro at cooking.. (her email address is jeanette_can_cook@something, wad do u expect?) can ask her to cook anything.. we actually have a list of food for the meals out already, but if u guys want anything, then still can change

=)

2006-02-27T00:00:00.000+08:00

haha yes!! very good.. another way to bug you people to bring stuff / post reminders (:

and yes mr short guy, you are the first. congrats :P

2006-02-26T23:51:00.000+08:00

we need a new layout.

2006-02-26T23:46:00.001+08:00

YAY, odac 22 blog, finally, m i the first?

holla!

2006-02-26T23:46:00.000+08:00

HELLO TESTING. EVERYBODY POST POST. x)