Love Me Tether

Whoa, this must be the first time I have no idea what to blog about. So expect severe randomness and a post with different subjects scattered about.

I will be going on a vacation in the March holidays. From Monday to Friday, so that reduces me to only 4 days at home. Worry not, I got a laptop just in time for this dilemma. It's not bad, but I am yet to have time to customize it. It can detect my phone, so maybe I'll start using it as my main blogging medium from now on. IIRC, I am going to Guangzhou, China on Singapore Airlines. This marks my first time on a Singapore Airlines plane! If there's anything confirmed, it's that I will be bringing my DS and the laptop (mainly becuase my father needs it for his job - there, that's it ... In the future, I will keep myself out of work stuff when on vacation with family members). I have been pondering about whether I should bring my PS2 along or not. I mean, 4 days is too short, seriously. Not to mention I can't stay up late on the last Sunday. There are a few games that is already confirmed that Williew will resume playing - Odin Sphere (after a sickly hiatus), Silent Hill Origins (practically too scared at the first save point to play any further when I first got it) and of course, my dear P4. Currently I am focusing more on my DS games, since the PS2 has hardly any (good) new releases anymore and the fact that the DS has plenty of games that are just what I dig. I use a R4 card, and my games are mostly RPGs and Adventures with a single Horror. Games that are put on a break are cut-and-pasted over to my computer to save space. Those I am taking a break from include Final Fantasy III & IV, Exit DS and Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker. 

Talking about DS games, I am yet again into another JP game. I mean, the US release is due June 23rd, I believe, so am I expected to wait that long when the game's so good? The game I am hinting is ... Megami Ibunroku Devil Survivor, which will of course be released as SMT: Devil Survivor.

Yeah, I know the main cast suspiciously resembles the P3 cast, especially the main trio (MCs, Yuzu & Yukari, Atsuro & Junpei). The plot involves a 7-day survival like in TWEWY, just that this one is set in the whole of Tokyo and not Shibuya. Anyway, the characters have gadgets called COMPs which resemble the DS physically. Atsuro, the whiz kid (who somehow for some weird contradictory reason has low MAG growth but focuses on STR and END) just happened to hack into a folder in the COMP which releases the first three demons the protagonists have to fight. Upon victory, they become party members. The COMP can thereby be used to receive mails from others, enter auctions to purchase new demons, view character profiles, perform demon fusion, save data and change the game settings. If my memory serves me dutifully, this should be the first SRPG SMT game. When attacking, the screen experiences a transition to a battlefield in first-person view where allies and foes dish out attacks. It's pretty cool, and I will still grab the US release when it's out. The game features multiple endings, so I guess it can last till I get the US release. 

Let's just say that the DS really has awesome games. Compared to the PSP, the DS falls behind in term of graphics and sound, but makes up with more quality games. I have thought of getting the PSP ... but heck, that may take a few more years. I really want to concentrate on my writing competitions since there is prize money to be won, but I can't really focus with all the school projects hogging me down. Can the Education Ministry please explain the use of these kerja kursus-es we are doing? Because if there's one thing I know for certain about it is that it severely takes up large chunks of our valuable time and causes unnecessary stress. I have really been thinking about ditching everything and focus on my short story, which I haven't even started and the deadline's due end of next month. The one thing pulling me back is whether or not I can actually win - if I can't win the prize money, it's really not worth it, and the story is not going to be returned. Argh, I am currently torn between my schoolwork and my own dreams. If I can request a personal special ability, I'd choose the power to manipulate time and space. I'd just freeze time and finish everything, because it just always seems that I must have SOMETHING to be finished, sheesh. Personally of course, I have not the slightest intention to be doing my projects. Then again, it's not like people care what I want. Thankfully, this year's PK project is much smoother, thanks to Mr Jeffrey who doesn't reject every single piece of my work. It actually gives me the motivation to finish quick. I am worried about the woodwork, because I heard he's quite strict on that part and I suck doing woodwork. *sigh* But no worries, no matter how strong the gale and blinding the lightning, Williew will always pull through.

Have you guys heard of the recent petitions in West Malaysia? The petitions against PPSMI - teaching Science and Mathematics in English. According to recent news, the higher-ups of those petitions think that people learn better in BM and it is our national language. I will not try to sound biased with my opinions. The main point is the blatant injustice in their claims. They practically ruled out people who learn better in English. As a student, I find English easier to understand than BM. BM isn't too bad for me, but when compared I really find English to be much easier to understand. While this may be unrelated, I prefer writing English essays, mainly because people prefers reading them and even teachers appreciate them. Whenever I write fictional BM essays, I never get high marks from teachers. They always complain that I drag things around (exactly what my mother remarks - berleter-leter). To top things off, starting next year it is fully factual for us. It is as if they are trying their best to make BM boring. Well, I am never really against factuals - I sometimes write non-fictionals myself, but every single factual BM topic is so freaking CLICHED every year and keeps getting recycled that I'm nigh bored dead. They could have made it more fun by asking us to write philosophical ones - on second thoughts, no, because BM teachers also do not like that (last year I did 'Death' as my oral speech topic in Ms Siti's class and obviously the reaction wasn't very convincing). Factual English essays are fun, you get to stuff in lots of words and quotings. Not to mention I really love musing with things. Now, back to the main topic. I think those petitioners are deliberately trying to stall us from grasping the international language (English) because probably they themselves aren't so good with it so they are jealous that we get to be more knowledgeable than they are. Just my opinions. If they have so much time to burn through, they might as well petition to ban kerja kursus instead. If we learn Science and Maths in BM, we surely can't do very well overseas. I mean, the rest of the subjects are already in BM! Why are they so selfish!? They should be thankful that we students don't go on strike asking for all the other subjects to be taught in English! Get real - we will really only need BM that much if we plan to never modernize and jsut stay the way we are in this sheltered place called Malaysia that is quite the hypocrite - makes up urbanization challenges to be achieved but at the same time tries to slow doen progress. You're such a jerk, Malaysia. What disappoints me most is that the petitions even got the support of A. Samad Said - I expected him to be quite wise. Pity, he chose to side against English.

It's, like, I have work to do, so, like, I gotta bounce. BTW, I never knew this is how bimboes talk, I am just imitating the way Ini Miney talks in PW: JFA.

Guilty As Charged

Note: This post's PTC is NOT referring to the song of the Gym Class Heroes - Estelle collaboration. It's something else and after reading the hint in the PTC section I bet Dawn can get the answer.

Today was ... fun, I suppose. Especially BM and English, yesh. The only thing that made me unhappy was Scouts late in afternoon. Ugh, let me start with BM. The axis upon which the whole BM class revolved on was Jonathan himself. So I bet today's BM class was exclusive for 3A ^_^. Anyway, for Johnny's sake, Mr Danny went over last year's Pantun Perpisahan, this time with emotion. Anyway, in the second half of the lesson, Jon-kun got to express all his favorite memories of everyone. Here's the list:
1. Janna: For always hitting him in elementary school.
2. Elisa: For being manly.
3. Joel: For being pai kia.
4. Sharon: For being sarcastic.
5. Edbert: For being a nice friend, for having hair that can never be straightened and for liking someone (*cough* Top student in 3A = ? *cough*).
6. Philemon: For his (Phil's) hair.
7. Jocelyn: For being a good friend (so he says ...).
8. Jack: For being extremely annoying.
9. Susan: For being one of his main homework-copying suppliers.
10. Agnes: For lending him homework to copy but showing a mean face.
11. Daryl: For his angry expression.
12. Jordan: For Jordan's muffins.
13. Alfred: (uh ... bummer, I don't remember)
14. Williew: For not being able to use simple English, for being funny (Sexy beam SHOOT-OUT! Yes, this is from Silent Hill 3) and for ... being huggable?
15. James: For lending stationery that end up lost (according to James, 20 pens missing thus far).
16. Dawn: For being his best friend.
17. Yi Yong: For being someone he can endlessly argue with (methinks).
18. Jessy: For being nice and yet another supplier.
19. Shahiran: (eh ...)
20. Yiew Chiew: For having fair skin.
21.  Karen: For being a good friend.
22. Lester: For being cool.
23. Michael: For his extraordinary unique actions.
24. Vincent: For looking like a drug addict.
25. Derrick: For being rich.
26. Brandon: For being holy and ... horny? Weird combination, but whatever.
27. Fira: For making him cupcakes.
28. Adrenne: For being so popular.
See, like, my EHEM Memory (to make it shorter, let's just use EHEMM) is 98% accurate? To rack up the suspense, I am still not going to talk about it. Heh.

For English, we got to play a vocabulary game after quickly finishing our work. Well, the victory condition is to have the most team members by the end of the game. Anyway, teams of 3 - 4 people need to come up with an extremely difficult word and answer questions from other teams that may lead to the word. I used 'holocaust' as my trump card but I didn't suspect Sharon'd know. The other word in my mind was 'laceration', which I really should have used. Well, anyway, if you manage to guess a team's word, you can recruit one of its members. Well, I got dragged into Sharon's team, but later I won another new member, Derrick by bulls-eyeing his team's easy word, 'zephyr' ... they said they learned it from Pokemon. Ah, Falkner's Zephyr Badge. I never got to play the Kanto and Johto games, but yup, I do my research. I learned it much earlier from Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage (was it 2?) on the PSX. I was already playing that in kindergarten, haha. These days I'm too lazy to play platformers
anymore ... sigh ... well it's not my fault. As you can see, ex-quality-platformers are now doing it awfully in the market ... series like Spyro and Crash Bandicoot. Shame, when I really liked them back on the PSX.

Anyways ... argh Scouts Club is infuriating! Last year I submitted the form to join Scouts since most of the boys in class said they'll join. Jerks, all of them. I am the sole 3A boy. The rest of the Form 3s just deemed me invisible and I'm reduced to joining the ranks of those International Noises. Okay, most of the team are normal people. Then, we just must have a bunch of freaks. Actually, just two boys. They are so zetta annoying! One says stuff like, "My father is a scout. My uncle is a scout. My grandfather is a scout." During practical sessions, he always runs off his accomplice who is equally annoying to do something else. Can someone kick them out? Please? For my heart's sake, as I can't bear too many Noises? Anyway, they are just ... childish, arrogant, annoying, and makes me want to beat
them to a bloody pulp. Finally, FINALLY, Mr Sinclair reprimanded the freaks today. I wish they will keep up with their antics until finally they are officially OUT. Out, I say. There's another jerk in my team. He's 
practically the loser of the group, and tries to stick around the aforementioned freaks (because freaks just attract more freaks) but still gets rejected. So he was sitting on one of the Lecture Theater benches alone, and I tried to be friendly and moved up to his row. "Um, can you go back?" That's it. I give up trying to get to know Noises. If there's something else I want to mention, it's that one of those freaks (I am mentioning the name wide because evil people need to be fully exposed) - Etienne Goh from the International School stepped on the LT bench he's sitting on. I so wished that I was a prefect and I can just ... wait, offence slips don't work on people from other schools huh? Grr ... GRR! I didn't get to be a prefect in my elementary years, so this time I really wish to get to don the tie! I've never worn a tie before! And anyways, prefects are envoys of supreme justice! As a keen observer, I know the best spots to catch all the offenders ... because my motto is 'Justice For All'. Well, of course, I will do some reasoning ... but most of the time, I don't see why the Noises' reasons are valid at all. Still, I won't land a verdict without reasoning, of course. That is justice! Sadly, Eugene chose me as his Temperance instead of Justice. But nevermind, that still fits.

Tomorrow may be the last time I see Jon-kun. Kufufufu. I am expecting fun in classes tomorrow.

Me Time Is Free Time

Phew - Mr Danny finally said that he's putting a full stop to this thing. I always love major incidents in my life like this one - I can rank up on my The Fool Social Link! Well, The Fool is supposed to be the self in its growing period. So I guess I learned a thing or two from this, and thus grew a rank! I mean, this is reality. There's no Midnight Channel or Dark Hour, so we gotta, like, grow from these in-life travails. I guess ... um ... my blog can be back to normal now? My point is, constant serious posts are not really my cup of tea. Or my cup of coffee, since I prefer coffee over tea. Tea is luxurious and elegant, but coffee is what I favor for the noir feeling it imbues. I love Boss coffee, exclusive from Suntory. Um, does Williew ever turn down Japanese products? Heh, I guess not. Talking about Japanese culture, let me introduce free schools to my Malaysian readers who are in the dark.

Technically, free schools do not originate from Japan. Nevertheless, there are quite aplenty in Japan. Free schools are schools for people of all ages who for some reason of their own are unable to attend normal schools. They are not necessarily people with special needs. They may be NEETs (Not currently engaged in Education, Employment or Training), social outcasts, asocials, or traumatized of education. The education system varies depending on the country the free school is in. Classes are all optional. Students have the liberty to choose whether or not to attend. Free schools focus on building all the inner qualities of their pupils. Once the students are back on track, they can choose to go back to normal schools or stay. 
Public examinations are still available, of course. There are manga libraries, video games and such in free schools (in Japanese ones, at least). I've been reading two shoujo series that both focus on life in free schools: Cat Street and The Wandering Class. Cat Street is more popular but the latter's more into the free school thing. If there's one thing I like about shoujo manga, it's that I get to take a break from all those battle-oriented shonen manga and get more self-development. I don't think that shoujo manga is exclusive for girls - that's sexual discrimination. It's the same, the other way round. There are plenty of girls who are into shonen. Most of the Noise where I live in are just ignorant (Noise, of course, refers to humans I see as foolishly foolish foolhardy fools who do foolishly foolish foolhardy acts in this world that should be foolproof ... and yes I know I am speaking like Franziska von Karma). Anyways, while chasing a runaway problem student, the main character who is a teacher at Kirihito Gakuen (the free school) stops to talk with the director mid-chase. The director gave a very insightful description of free schools during the talk:
D: Can I ask you one thing?
T: Fo sho.
D: Am I a guy from the lower-class?
T: Huh? What're you talking about? Of course you're from the higher-class!
D: Really?
T: Why do you ask me that?
D: Because of what you said. Last time I was also a school dropout (the runaway's a dropout).
T: What!? But you're a doctor (he's both the school director and a doctor) right?
D: Yup. I didn't go to high school (for all the ignorant Noise, your Forms 1, 2 and 3 are junior high grades, yeesh, so stop saying 'high school'!). But I did the entrance exams and made it to university. Because your education was complete, and you are are surrounded by the same type of people, you must have been in the dark ... that in this world, there are many people who can't reach their destination directly, but stop somewhere first. Even though for those who see from afar they look like they're lost, actually that's an important moment for them. When they decide to return to return to mainstream, they can leave Kirihito Gakuen. So isn't it good that there's at least one school that reach out to them and say, "Feel free to linger around first."?
I felt really bewitched by that speech. If there were free schools around, I would definitely study there. The school standards doesn't matter - you really just need that moment of tranquility in life and recuperate. You gather yourself together, and go back out to the battlefield. So isn't AMGC (Anime Manga Game Cosplay) beneficial for us? Schools may teach us academic stuff, but AMGC teaches me both academic and personal things. I grow a lot from AMGC, while there's really only growth in knowledge and physique while in school. Last year, a lot of the boys have problems understanding 'mode' in Maths. But even in elementary school
I already know what modes are, since the Indonesian translation of the Doraemon manga used the term once to replace 'trends'. So last year I immediately knew that mode is used in the context of trend, like the trend of certain statistics, so it really helped me to understand. Due to my EHEM (Evil Housing Estate Manager) Memory, I can remember all those important things in AMGC, so it's no big deal. Of course, I will explain what EHEM Memory is. Probably in the next post. This time I feel too lazy to make a long post, so I'll end here.

p/s: I translated the dialogue from Indonesian, which  was translated from Japanese! I did mention I bought a whole box of tankobons while in Jakarta, right? And Michael asked me about my desktop wallpaper, so here it is:

TWEWY, the characters featured are Beat, Rhyme, Shiki, Neku and Joshua; clockwise from top.

Cornered Rat Bites Cat

I am pulling back all my words against Ms Connie. For some reason, she had a change of heart and became a really nice person suddenly. She even pulled a joke yesterday, which was so unexpected we didn't even get to laugh. Personally, I really feel like deleting that post that resulted in quite a controvery - not. More like a fuss.

On Mr Danny's side of things though, um, I've done all I can Phil, so please forgive me if I am unable to apologize directly. Because you should know that I am unable to speak to adults with ease. The gap between adults and kids was explored in Wild Arms: The 4th Detonator. My mindset is like those of Jude Maverick's, Yulie Athreide's, Arnaud G. Vasquez's and Raquel Applegate's - people who have been constantly betrayed by adults. I don't want to confront Mr Danny only to be flamed. I don't think and can ever fully trust adults. You have proof, Phil, that he'll forgive me? I already stated clearly that I don't need his forgiveness. He can bear a grudge against me, spread news about me among the teachers, or even sue me. I mean, those ARE his rights. At least I know that I have realized that I hurt him, regretted doing so, and apologized openly. I am never good speaking in person - you can ask Sharon, I can talk about more stuff and she understands better through chatting. If you guys are really mad at me for hurting your beloved Mr Danny, fine, I'll try to find an opening and say sorry. I don't expect to be friends with him, just student-teacher is a good enough mutual relationship. I still physically punish myself to avoid from falling asleep so I won't hurt him further. His implication of me hurting him is enough for me to use Edbert as my voice in BM class. If I really have something personal against him, I might as well ditch everything he teaches and do my essays in his classes instead. I still have the MPH-Alliance Bank and the Scholastic. And If I actually manage to win there's prize money. The former competition especially has sufficient enough prize money to net me one or two of the 7th-generation home consoles. But it proves that I really only foolishly offended him on impulse without further consideration. If he thinks this is all a duri dalam daging, I am thinking that this is a pedang dalam sanubari or a pelayaran di atas bahtera kesedihan, because I have to deal with my father at home too. I know the word hedonistic because I am trying my best to be hedonistic outside (this is a white lie, I learnt the word from Resident Evil Outbreak: File #2), since obviosuly I am internally more pessimistic than I really am optimistic. Um, sometimes I don't really know myself. Am I really this bitter and nihilistic? I 
guess it's only at school. When with people I can actually relate to, it never feels better to be able to act like a kid. But then again, I still have these negative thoughts even when outside school. We are supposed to pursue our true self ... but it's so hard when you can't even identify your true self. Once you create too many masks for the self, the original persona is at the risk of being buried eternally. Last year after finishing P4 on the 21st of August at 5 a.m., I pondered a bit about my real identity. Who am I? Urk ... I feel faint.

The school's badminton competition is held during the March holidays, so I can't join, as I will be in China for that one whole week. I will have my DS there with me, which is good; but the very knowledge that my father's there and my PS2's not there and there's no badminton makes me feel uneasy. If my father's there, Williew-haters can rest assured that I won't get a tranquil holiday. If my PS2's not there, that means I will practically be wasting holiday time without getting to play. No badminton equals possibly nil exercise. Ergo, I can expect an increase in body mass after the vacation. But I do so love going to new places, and though I've been to China before, it was seriously eons ago and I need new memories of that place to compensate the faded memories. Talking about badminton, Mynci's being a very good coach. Aside from Bike Stryker, we have other programs:

1. Speedy Cat
If you play TWEWY, you should know that Speedy Cat is a set of 3 special Pins (Righty Cat, Brainy Cat and Lefty Cat) of the Gatito brand. Well, the meaning here is emphasized on the words 'Speedy', 'Righty' and 'Lefty'. If I'm on the left side of the road, Mynci will deliberately direct his receive towards the 
far right, and vice versa. Ergo, I have to move fast, really fast. That's 'Speedy', as this training is mainly to develop speed. I gave the name, for obviously Mynci doesn't even know about TWEWY.

2. Scales of Justice/Libra/Balance
I haven't decided on the name in fact. Personally I like the first. Mynci's with Balance. All we have to do is to keep passing the shuttlecock back and forth. Sounds simple and all, but ... nope. This training program develops a few stuff:

(a) Accuracy
It is only natural to feel increasing anxiety as the shuttlecock is passed around and the number of hits rack up. If you can't focus, you will easily miss the shuttlecock. And with focus comes accuracy. Accuracy is also tempered in a way that we will need to try hitting Drive As (Drive Aerial, basically high shots) as it will be easier for the partner to receive. I tend to screw up and do Drive Cs (Drive Cataclysm, low shots) or even Smashes, so this is good to train one to know what Drive to use when faced with certain situations. The other Drive is Drive B (Drive Body, middle shots). Of course, Drive Cs are rendered useless in formal courts with nets.

(b) Control
I'm running out of time so I'll make this short. For offensive players like me, we need to learn to suppress our strength. Using too much force will end up ruining the tempo.

(c) Synchronization
Good if you are playing Doubles. Here you will learn to trust your partner and know his strengths,
weaknesses and personal tempo. Trust is important, especially for those like me. I tend to go for 
the ball all the time even when in Doubles, so when doing Balance on the street, I must not try to
traverse the road bumper (that is the border) and hit the shuttlecock for Mynci. I will need to believe
in him. Once you know his weaknesses, you can try to complement him with your own abilities 
in matches. 

Like, I gotta catch the Midnight Reading Express?