My hours in HCI

A fruitful 3-and-a-half hour band practice. Half hour lunch. 4 hours of ACE work, 1-and-a-half hour CIT Camp Meeting, 3 hours of concert. And safely half hour worth of travelling time in between.

So here is the breakdown of my very great Saturday in HCI. Now no need to add up the hours: it's 13-half.

Today is a day where I could witness both sunrise, sunset, and nightfall, and still go home to sleep. How much more can I ask?

Today is a day where I found out that my mouthpiece had been the culprit, for 1 year, of my salivary-sound on the saxophone.

Today is a day where I spent half-hour trying to connect to the Wireless@HCI.

Today is a day where I could miss the LRT, MRT and bus on the way to school.

Today is a day where I could listen with full attention to a forty-eight-minute-long concert piece.

And today's a day where I could come home just in time to go on MSN, read Trevor's blog and get someone to immediately ask me why I always come online so late. xD Thanks Matt. Now what's so special about all these nonsense.

According to Trevor's blog post, people do not maximise their 24 hours, but only complain about how tiring and redundant homework is. We all usually take for granted what we have, and the sad raw fact is that we only cherish something when we do not have it.

And yes, this is the truth.

There is, however, at least one moment in our lives where we hoped that people would spend their time more wisely.

This moment arrives when someone who you love passes away. At the wake, we all find ourselves saying that 'this person has led a fulfilled and happy life'. We all hope that this loved one has made fullest use of his/her time before departing this life. And as we say the prayers, we see the body in the coffin, we see the Crematorium; then the columbarium, we see the urn - we then hope for ourselves that we would use time wisely.

For today, I have made good use of my time. We all want fulfilling lives. We all want to be happy. And I find that if we all make full use of all our time, and we achieve something big, we would then have lead fulfilled lives.

If you were to live every day as if it were your last, some day you would most certainly be right. A fruitful 3-and-a-half hour band practice. Half hour lunch. 4 hours of ACE work, 1-and-a-half hour CIT Camp Meeting, 3 hours of concert. And safely half hour worth of travelling time in between. Here is the breakdown of my very great Saturday in HCI.

NEW YEAR

I walked into 2A1 with Cong Yang and Jarrett.

Band was tiring.

The march-in took up a lot of time and energy. Just as exhausted as I was, my heart sank when I saw the three seats left in the corner of the classroom. Great. I sat down, knowing that the back seat was my fate for the rest of Year 2. Then I saw those familiar faces of the Acerians.

Sean. Baboon. Kevin. Wei Jie. Hua Ying. And from the other end, The car lover, The british officer, Leoj, and Yue Jun. So this was life at the back of the classroom, reflected by a mirror at the back wall. From the back, I could see the whole class, know what everyone else is doing but not the other way round. From this, I could tell the colourful life of 2A1, without much interference from the world-famous E10.

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Hi all. I'm Khoo Yihan, also known as Hanky Hooi and Rihanna Montannah, but preferably Dartebiota, creative editor of The Distillation Melayu. Here are some snippets about me.

1. The title of this post took me 5 minutes to come up with. I can't say I think fast, but I'm someone who tends to observe and analyse things. Besides the bug that I accidentally crushed today at the Science Lab, I normally see and recognise situations and people real quick.

2. I'm born on the 7th July 1996, 20:47. It just happens that:

- that day's Sabbath Day, or Sunday.

- normally my birthday falls around or on Youth Day.

- fortunately this year it falls on our Projects' Day Semi-finals. *screams*

(falls down)

- my Primary 6 brother celebrates on the same day that I do. His birthday is on 7th July 1998. Celebrating birthdays together save a lot of money.

3. I enjoy music, arts (fine, media and design), sleeping, problem solving questions, sleeping, table tennis, dining at cafes, sleeping; and a newfound interest in Chemistry. On the other hand, I hate misunderstandings and pointless, trivial and baseless arguments.

4. Currently, I'm aiming for the Science and Math Talent Programme in Year 3, and academics are the essentials to get me there. I'm still coping with the new assessment systems, but really hope that I'll get through. I'm in the Science Olympiad Programme, which focuses on advanced triple sciences. Full commitment to everything.

5. I'm from Hwa Chong Institution High School Concert and Military Band. I play the Saxophone (Alto), and am currently preparing for the Pacific Basin Music Festival, held in Hawaii in March. I'll experience Hawaii first-hand and miss lessons.

6. I'm also from the Art Elective Programme. Whenever people assume that AEP is just an extra CCA-like activity that isn't important and can be ignored, then they're wrong. Very very wrong. In fact, AEP, besides all the expected art-related experiences and knowledge, also provides a very flexible A1. This is because art work is versatile. I'll also be attending a film festival in Tokyo, together with my AEP-mates in November this year.

7. I'm in Aphelion Council, and this year I'm involved in planning the CIT Camp (Acerians who want to join the council can look forward to this camp), the mid-year review camp, and Aphelion Nite.

8. So you see, there is a whole long load of commitments I've got.

9. But yes, I'm also from 2A1, and a loyal member of IRA (1A1'09).

NEW YEAR. New hopes. That's me.

Lastly, here's one of the comedians whom I've always laughed about.

Russell Peters.