Apathetic Avenger

Exam Procedure

[Never mind. This post has been made stupid due to a paradigm shift.]

Blogged @ 10:04 PM

NDP, only without the ND.

I was watching the Olympics opening ceremony. I'm not quite certain, but I think it started at 8:08:08 on 08/08/08. I was eating dinner at that time. You can sense my excitement.

That's a freaking lot of 8s. Chinese people believe the number 8 to be especially auspicious. They came to this conclusion because the the number 8 sounds like the Chinese character for luck. The infallible logic of rhyming.

If ancient Chinese voodoo practices are right, then we can apply the Law of Rhyming Co-relation to all aspects of our lives. We can eat honey to get more money. We can drink water through straws (suck) to get more luck. We could also... well never mind.

Well anyway, I was watching the opening ceremony. To me, all these events seem vaguely similar to me. A country wants to show off, puts up this large scale show, where thousands of people are roped into wearing colourful and bizarre costumes. They move in synchrony, waving their thingies and forming words and shapes and other wonderful symbols.

I've seen this performance before. I see it every year. It's called National Day. The Olympics opening ceremony was basically Singapore's National Day Parade, only that it's held in China, and they spend much more money, because they are bigger than us. They are the same in spirit. There's the cheesy song, the cultural thing, the symbolic performance, the dancing.

However, the later part of the ceremony was different. The countries started coming out one by one, displaying their Olympic teams. All 205 of them. You'd think that after a while, watching people carrying a flag and waving would get boring. It did. I stopped watching. But one thing I noticed was the China performer girls that were hanging around were clapping and cheering whilst the teams walked past. Their enthusiasm was palpable. Later in the evening, I walked passed the tv on the way to the kitchen. I saw that the China performer girls' enthusiasm had deflated abit. They were probably tired out and pissed off from all the jumping around in high heels for an hour. That was funny.

So that was pretty much all I took back from watching the ceremony. Girls with tired feet. Sure there was the singing and chinese culture and some strange painting thing where they rolled around on canvases while painting it at the very same time. Okay that last thing was pretty cool. But all the mass dancing and drums and clapping, and costumes and history are so common. I saw similar things on tv at the WorldCup, previous Olympics, and of course, NDP.

National Day is tomorrow. Happy National Day? I <3 Singapore.

Labels: Musings

Blogged @ 11:38 PM

WOOOOOHOOOOOO!

Rejoice! Let us celebrate the awesomeness of this day, the 1st day of the 8th month of the year 2008.

I have finally removed my braces.

It has been a long an arduous journey. It began nearly 6 years ago. I'm not joking. Back then I was a wide-eyed innocent little boy (really.) that didn't know very much about the world. I was brought to the dentist's office, because as my mom told me, my teeth were hideous and freakishly out of place. We needed to spend a large sum of money to rectify that problem immediately!

I remember immediately after the installation was complete, I thought, 'Eh this isn't too bad, I'm not in that much pain.' However, within 2 hours, the pain set in. I couldn't even lick my teeth (not that it's a habit of mine) without feeling HELLISH STABBING JOLTS OF EVIL PAIN. That night, I had to chew food with my tongue.

So after a while, I became familiar with the routine. Every month I'd go and tighten... the stuff (that's the technical term), and be unable to eat properly for 2 days. Actually I could have made that into some sort of diet, but sadly, no.

However, after a while I just stopped going. I'm not sure why. There was a period of 6 months when I did not go for a single appointment. Maybe I became emotionally attached to my braces. Or perhaps I was subconsciously trying to resist change. Then there was the possibility of a childish fear of pain. But I think it was probably because I'm just a really lazy dude.

After a while, I decided to get my act together, and went for appointments! Woohoo. Within a few months, I could take off the bottom row of braces! Hoorah! But my top row of teeth decided to be pricks, and refused to budge. A year passed. Two years passed. I had to re-attach braces to my bottom row of teeth to use as reinforcements to pull those stubborn upper row fools down.

Over the past 2 years, my dentist would tell me after every appointment "just a little more", or "two more months", "we are almost done". On the next appointment I would be brimming with hope, my heart aflame with the possibility of freedom from the oppression of metal shackles attached to my teeth. I would then die a little upon receiving the dreaded phrase, "I'll see you next month then. We're almost done."

However, on this afternoon of the 1st day of the 8th month of the year 2008, things were different. He examined my teeth closely, with a look of satisfaction on his face. Very good, very good, his murmurs echoed in my head. Could this be the day?

I was given a choice. My teeth were looking pretty good. I could either wear my braces for a while longer, and make them look even nicer. OR I could take them off right there and then.

I took a moment to look at a mirror, and pretend that I hadn't already made up my mind the moment those words left his mouth. After a minute of contemplative silence, I whispered silently, 'I think they look quite alright. Let's take it off.'

I then danced silently in my mind.

Removing the braces is a wonderful feeling. After years of having to worry about getting food stuck in strange nooks and crannies, wrapping rubber bands around my teeth, and getting massive ulcers, having those metallic bits scrapped off my teeth felt wonderful. It really made my day.

I know this is an insignificant event, but I'm glad it's finally over.

Now my front teeth look massive.

Labels: Musings

Blogged @ 9:30 PM