5,6 and 7 of 12: 2 chronicles and judges.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
mused @ 4:04 AM
in secondary 1/7, he given index number 40 and sat among 39 other unfamiliar faces. he was told to introduce himself to class with an adjective. he chose the word 'mischievous'. he lived up to his name. he was quite outspoken for his age. in his new class one day and finally being unable to stand one of his classmates that his fellow classmates hated, he stood up and complained to the teacher in front of the class.
his new classmates were joining uniformed group ccas. npcc, ncc, st john's ambulance. some were into sports, basketball for example, and others into aesthetics, the band. he originally considered the band, till his mother told him no: it would take too much time she said.
and with that, he joined the it and av club.
the old building at bedok south always frightened him. once, when he went to toilet alone in broad daylight, he could feel a creeping sensation, a heavy aura in the air. it wasn't right. luckily for him, the school was due to move to a new premises in upper changi road. the new building was newer, fresher and he and his fellow students were granted front row seats and rights to use and abuse the premises.
secondary school life was very much different. he did reasonably well in school, save chinese, of course. he took part in the national robotics competition with his it club mates. he took part in the intra level chess tournament where he won first place, the first of 3 times over the next four years he would win the same medal. it was in semifinal of his secondary one games where he played against a certain steve teo. steve was in the it club and av club as well. and it was this other boy who influenced his taste in music in a great way.
now steve was an ardent fan of trance music and he introduced him to trance music. one of the first songs he introduced was bt's dreaming. and he loved it. and although he had bought his first dance cd in 1997, which was called titanic dance, due to the advent of audiogalaxy and napster, he began to explore and appreciate the genres of music called trance and techno. he also began to understand and appreciate game music as they were in essence, electronic based too. frank klepacki's hell march was a major influence. and from there he started to build up a collection of electronica and game music. he also dabbled in soundtrack music. his first soundtrack cd he ever owned was the con-air ost.
now in his church, he had another good friend, called siyuan. siyuan, like him, was a gamer. and he was the one who got him interested in another thing. it was called counter-strike. counter-strike then was in beta 6. and he spent hours after hours with siyuan playing counterstrike via his 56k modem connection. of course, with counterstrike, came another titular title. half-life. and he learnt to appreciate first person shooters along with the real time strategy games he already enjoyed. he was a lousy sniper though. it was in a counterstrike game he picked up the nickname, purekrome.
in fact, it wasn't his nickname to begin with. it was one of the other player's nicknames. pure krome (the real one), was an australian and was saying that calling a westerner an ang moh was the same as calling a chinese a chink. that got him angry with the australian and he quarreled with the australian that they were in fact not the same and that chink was more derogatory. in the end, in a final effort to try and piss the australian off, he took the australian's nick pure krome, and used it as his own, changing it to [pure]krome so it seemed that when the australian killed him, he was killing himself. it was a childish attempt to make it seem that he won. but he liked the nick and for the next 7 years used it for himself, albeit altered.
he was bought a super nintendo when he was in primary school and was still playing it in his secondary school. he could play mario and donkey kong the whole day, finding out every single secret exit. this, mind you was during the burst of popularity of the playstation. mario never tired him. the super nintendo set is still playable in his house right now, a relic that reminds him of his youth.
he had supported manchester united from 1997, when his cousin, ivan, influenced him in the red's way. he also found the owls of sheffield wednesday nice for some odd reason, but after they got relegated, he lost interest in the owls. one night, the night before he had a home economics exam the next day, he secretly sneaked down to catch manchester united play arsenal. it seemed to head toward a draw until in the last few minutes of the match, manchester united scored. he made a small cheer and immediately a door upstairs opened. his father woke up and heard a sound, apparently.
in his panic, he tried to off the lights and television and hide in the cupboard, hoping that his father would not find his errant son watching football at 1am in the night. unfortunately for him, his plan backfired magnificently. he slipped on a carpet which was below the lights and his foot rammed the heavy wooden door. and immediately he felt a a shot of pain rush through his body. he stared at his foot and saw his 2nd toe on his right leg bent to a side. his father, upon hearing a even louder sound came rushing down and saw his son lying on the ground. he came up with a feeble answer and his father threatened to use only chopsticks to put his toe back into place. his parents eventually sent him to a hospital where they discovered a hairline fracture in the toe. ironically, he was wearing superman pajamas that night. he was to spend the next month walking with crutches. and the toe would always be bent to a side.
but supporting manchester united came with reward. he was watching the match where manchester united beat bayern munich 2-1 at the death to win the champions league and the treble. it remains one of his best memories ever.
he was promoted to secondary 2/5. in the year 2000, he helped out as backstage crew during his school's 20th anniversary and in that backstage crew, he made 2 more good friends of his, young chuan and wenjie. and he would be part of the backstage crew for another 2 years.
it was in 2000, that the girl who wasn't in temasek secondary started writing to him via paper letters he found in his mailbox. he never really talked to her in the year that had passed and was pleasantly surprised to receive letters from her. she lived so near that she didn't have to put postage. he returned the favours in kind and replied each letter and kept each letter. but he didn't really know why he did that. she was a good friend though. after all his siblings and her siblings were all friends.
he started helping the youth ministry in his church. he helped out in publicity, but really didn't do much. he stepped down from the post after one year. but he still went to church. but he began to question things now.
in secondary 3, he went to a triple science class, 3/2. steve, young chuan and wenjie were all in the same class. miss woon was his form teacher and biology teacher and he credits her to making biology interesting. she was a good teacher.
in 2001, the girl he was writing to told him via a letter that she liked him. he was taken aback by the message. yes this was the same girl he had told him liked in primary one. but it was too sudden for him. he wrote back to her and gave a lame excuse that studies were more important and told her maybe later. she was to brush it off in a later letter that she only wrote that as her sister told her to write it, but he never bought it. but that was to be one of his greatest regrets in his life, but he didn't know it then.
he was given an interesting proposition later that year. his father's friend had applied for a job in the us and gotten it. in fact, this was the same post his father applied for but failed to get. his father encouraged him to take sats and go to states for studies, living with his friend, where it would do him good. but for the sake of friends he had made and possibly with the girl at the back of his mind, he declined the offer, stating that at only 15, he would not know how to take care of himself in a foreign land. many others would have jumped at that same offer, and when he looks back, he sometimes regrets not going.
in secondary 3, he also began to play around with music software. groovemaster, dance ejay and traktor. and it was in secondary 3, he arranged his first track. and he called it osmossis, after the scientific term of osmosis he recently learnt. it was from here he began to try to teach himself music software, trying to construct his own music. a good thing was that steve was sitting beside him, and they constantly traded music.
in 2001, he watched one plane crash into the world trade centre in new york live on television. and the world was about change in a big way. but he didn't know how.
from 3/2 he went to 4/2. he had finally passed his o level chinese with a b3, to a huge sigh of relief. and now he set his sights in doing well for his prelims and get to tjc in the first three months. but it was not to be. he got 16 points for his prelims and to his great disappointment he was to be in tpjc for the first 3 months. he had only wanted to go to tjc all this time and obviously not vjc, after vs rejected him 4 years ago. he had now to redouble his efforts as he would be without the 2 bonus points from being in tjc the first 3 months.
almost everyday, he would spend his day with wenjie, young chuan, steve and 3 other friends in the school library. doing the insanely difficult raffles papers and mugging. ice milo and chicken burgers served as snacks and he left with his friends after the sun set. the girl that he liked had retained in secondary 3. she failed her secondary 3 exams. he wondered why. but that would mean that she and him would never be in the same standard anymore. and that made him feel wretched. but he didn't know why he cared either. he blamed the hormones but that was unlikely the case.
the o levels was a stressful part of the year. all his life in secondary school now hinged on this exam. he finished the papers. and outside the school on the final day of exams, he saw people burning the textbooks they would not read again. it was finally over. his 4 year journey had come to an end. he hoped for the best and hoped that in march of 2003, he would get a favourable result that would get him to tjc.
it was time to bid farewell to temasek secondary. they had a graduation ceremony where they stood on a platform and their class representive gave a short speech. they took photographs after the event. photographs he still has. 4 years spent in this place. and all the memories condensed into pieces of photo paper. he wished that he could crystallise the memories where he made good friends and enjoyed the tau sar baos, ice milos and mee sotos.
in december 2002 though, he went to miyazaki, japan on a student exchange with his sister. he was excited to say the least. he had been watching anime on axn since secondary one and had watched rurouni kenshin and flame of recca at least 2 times each. and the trip deepened his love for the country, which was beautiful. his homestay family there had 3 sons and he was invited to partake in their lifestyle. he took their contacts in hope of remaining in contact, but after a while after the trip, he stopped writing. it was on this trip however, that he made his first god-sibling. and her name was catherine.
and when he came back, he knew he had to brace himself for school, in a place he didn't want to be at.
'aim and achieve'
he stared at those words on the school logo. and that was the first day of school of 2003. he certainly hoped he would get his aim.
and then he was 16.
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