The jubilant bedlam caused by the charlatan galvanized the whole casino and split it into two halves, the adherents of the winner and the loser. Inebriated losers, completely disgruntled, started a huge fracas as everyone threw away all decorum. A young boy, porfession being a fledgling pickpocket, kept his equanimity and exploited the situation. His avarice drove him to everyone in the fight until an obese man grabbed his hand, full of pique, and shouted

“What are you doing to my wallet?”

And then the fight suddenly stopped.

Well the book is very interesting and I reccomend it to all of you. Now here are my 5 facts about Francine Prose:

1. Her name has the word “Prose”, which means a short writing without structure.

2. One of her novels has been turned into flim: Household Saints, 1993

3. She wrote 25 books already.

4. Born in 1947 in Brooklyn, New York

5. Some of her books have a Jewish background such as: Dybbuk: A story made in Heaven , Stories from Our Living Past and Judas: The Pious

If there is anything wrong, or you feel that it is not good enough a fact, leave a comment and I will try to change it (try to tell me more about her too, all talk and no doing is useless!)

“The sun is so hot that I could fry an egg on my head!” commented Wu Kui as he strolled out of the school gate. The weather had been an incredible 34 degrees the whole week. Apparently, the cold drinks at school have been selling like hot pancakes (ironic, isn’t it?). By the time Wu Kui reached the drinks store, all the drinks have sold out. “Anyone who bereft a primary four kid of cold water should punished!” complained Wu Kui like a line straight out of the popular kids cartoon “Kids Next Door “.

Wu Kui’s big stature made him perspire considerably more than normal people. He sweat out gallons of 100-plus everyday. He had a cute and likable pudgy face that drives older girls wild (when he walked pass one of the girl’s secondary school, the girls kept on screaming about his cuteness). Ironically, he was a devout egotist. “So what if he was rich?” said Dahu, Wu Kui’s classmate, in class that day, “He is so full of himself! Maybe that’s why he so voluminous! He never listens to anyone! How irritating!” Wu Kui’s face started to turn red as he was cooked under the sun like a prawn. “How I hope that there is a bottle of sprite ice in front…”

Before he finished, he stood still and stared at that bottle of cold sprite ice on the ground in front of him in a puddle of condensation.

Exultating in his mind, he ran towards the sprite ice bottle. He felt how cool it was. Then he opened the bottle. Immediately, the bottle started to shake violently as Wu Kui started screaming like a girl.

Half a purple ghost flew out (the bottom half was gone for some reason). “Don’t be afraid! I am Ali from Arabia, here at your service! I will grant you 3 wishes!” Wu Kui stared for a long while, stoning, and then started laughing. “HAHA! I got half a genie here in my hands! I want to their faces when I show them tomorrow!” Tears of pure laughter dripped out from his eyes. “Why are you in a sprite ice bottle? I thought genies are supposed to be in lamps?” said Wu Kui in a vitriolic tone. Maybe he wanted to make a good first impression.

“I am planning to travel around the world in a tight budget. This bottle was the cheapest accommodation I could find around here.” replied Ali. “Why are you only a half of your usual self?”

“This is because when I can only…”

“Ok! Now you shut up and listen to your new master. I wish to be a king!”

“Are you sure? I must warn you that I can only”

“Just shut up! Can’t you just listen? I wish I was a king!”

Almost immediately, Wu Kui screamed.

The next week, when Wu Kui went to school, all his friends shouted for help. Wu Kui entered the class, with half his body gone! He has become a prince for some bizarre reason. Wu Kui had not realised that Ali could only grant half a wish. Ali tried to tell him but he would not listen. Wu Kui could still live on as normal after about a month. Ali said the wish can only be reversed after 3 weeks. All Wu Kui could do is to sit around, hoping his ego wasn’t so big then…

It was during the english drama performance (SPLAT) that I found out. The system was so good that it sounded so real. People kept on chattering like a flock of parrots. 4 secondary three students at the back kept on rattling on and on about the actors. They kept on talking and talking. It was of paramount importance to tape the back speakers of the surround system.

Then the front speakers started to work. A girl who was sitting at the front row kept on saying, no, not saying but shouting, that the secondary one boy one stage was so cute. She kept on shouting. Well, you know me, I cannot stand such surround systems, especially during performances. A transient feeling of hostility passed me. Suddenly, the surround system started going into full swing.

Everyone was given a bag of popcorn to eat during the performance. It was placed in a small brown paper bag. When our hands reached in to take out one piece of popcorn, the bag made so much noise. Everyone had o bag of popcorn, so imagine how well the surround system worked. All the people around me, especially the school students were talking about how well the new couple in class would get along. So irritating! 

In a gist, the most prevalent problem is our school mates just simply do not have basic manners and consideration. It is either that or…

the surround sound system worked, too well 

No, you sickos, it is not a date.

My cousin was leaving for the USA for 3 months on an internship programme organised by her university, NUS. She would work in SeaWorld, Florida! So cool. I wish I could go there in the future. She is so lucky. She will be the first from our family that is going overseas for an internship programme, so we planned a  family dinner at a certain restaurant in Geylang called NS. The food was great. The chili crabs were so huge and delicious. The fried chicken in prawn paste was so good too. It was a little salty, a little sweet and a little sour. Just the right balance. The mussels were absolutely great. The meat inside was so smooth with a kick of spice. The I consistently poured the gravy on my rice. I loved it. Everything was perfect, just perfect, until we heard it coming from the back.

3 tables of China man were close to being drunk behind us. They obviously were Imbibing gallons after gallon of wine. A serving woman wearing a blue polo tee was pouring the wine into their cups. They made so much noise. They shouted across the room, raising their glass in the air frailly. They were laughing madly as their faces started to turn so red. Each person had 3 glasses. One was for tea, which was not drank. One was for plain water, which they also did not drank. The last glass was for the wine, of which they kept on drinking. The serving woman on the other hand kept on drinking water.

They kept on talking like loudspeakers. We ate the fried chicken with their voice ringing in our ears. We ate the mussels with their shouts reverberating in this enclosed room. We ate the chili crabs as they continued singing some kind of ridiculous drink song, out of tune. I could see everyone having the same expression on their face. Disgust. How I rued coming to this restaurant. In their drunk state, they posed in virile positions to show off to the serving woman and coaxed her into drinking the wine. How vulgar! At least be a gentleman! The serving woman soon became drunk. She was just trying to do her job. When they left she had to be supported by her follow colleagues as she gave out the clean wipes. I felt sorry for her. Why does she need to suffer under such shameful conditions?

We should at least have some aegis from such inconsiderate behavior. How I wished the management had got rid of them! I am not against any China people, but they should have some manners! I felt ashamed to a Chinese when I saw them. What if they, in a drunken stupor, accidentally hurt one of the customers? This would be the most detrimental to the restaurant management. Potential customers will not go as such people could endanger their lives! Business will drop. You should know what would happen next.

I just hope the restaurant will be more careful of their patrons. Hope I will not hear such disgusting dinner music ever again.  

I laughed when I heard we had a bazaar in the Lake. It was the Chinese paper 1 debrief, and someone wrote in their letter that our school was “hu li mai dong xi”, translating into selling things in the lake. I most certainly cannot carry out this absurd action. We were supposed to write to our overseas cousin a letter talking about a big event that happened in our school. One silly person, well, did not know what was the bazaar’s name in chinese and translated wrongly. It was supposed to be “hu pan jia nian hua“, or lakeside carnival.

Exams are just over and we were attending debrief after debrief. Chinese paper 1 debriefs are the most funny as they point out all our mistakes, which are usually very hilarious, sadly. Some of us are celebrating our achievements, some are moaning over their unexpected results. Some just give the most indifferent face you could ever see. This sets me thinking. Even after taking all the exams, answering so much questions, we still have one left.

“Where do we go from here?”

The answer depends on where your “here” is. If you did well, there is only one thing to do: get higher or maintain. It might not sound difficult, but this is very tiring. You have to live up to countless expectations while juggling a whole whale of commitments and responsibilities. If you are blessed with frenzied parents, then you might expect a whole, not whale, but Jupiter of so called “extra help” and “tuition teachers”. Your assessment books will pile to the skies (I wonder how do you fit so much books into a house). What these parents do not realize is that such “help” is not help at all, but more “harm”. I suppose that some parents think that by having so much “help”, you will become inviolable from failure.

For those who are crying over their results, good for you! You have the interest to continue working harder, but for some unlucky reason, you did not get the results you want. I feel that you should maybe change the way you are studying. No use being dyed-in-the-wool and stick to the methods of studying that cause you to fail. Learn your lessons and remember them as you walk into the examination hall in the future. Tell your parents that it is imprudent to get even more “help” as it is sometimes better to listen extremely attentive in class than to do so much assessment books. It is very important to sleep early and get rest to prepare for class tomorrow. Sleeping in class is just like killing yourself in plain sight. Never sleep! If you listen in class, you could throw away most assessment books!

For those who have that indifferent face, I can ascertain that you have the easiest job to do if you want to get your results. All you need to do is to listen in class. Good scorers need to work so hard to maintain their lead while those who did relatively well need that extra boost. Indifference is the thing that is making you receive bad results. Most indifferent people are very smart, but they for some bizarre reason just do not want to listen in class. Instead, they become contemptuous towards those who do better then them. Weird. Sometimes I wonder what are they looking down on. Do they look down on other people’s hard work even though they have not worked hard at all? Silly.

Think about it: Where are you going?

The most eventful event was the bazaar by the lake. We set-up 3 (or 4?) stores: Roll Roll Rawk + Al-Ka-Zapp (both games), Cotton-Mama + fish food (both foods). The games store was located in front of the admin block foyer while the food store was located at the road bend near the lecture hall 1. Business was immensely slow in the morning. The fish food and cotton candy sold like stale pancakes. The games store was slightly faster. Our so-called impenetrable games soon fell and our top 2 prizes (a fan and a MP3!) was won. I certainly got my back up! Nothing could go anymore wrong. There was nothing to attract customers. No prize, no customers. Then came “it”.

The rain fell as if someone poured a bucket of cold water over the school, and our hopes for some good business were extinguished too. Silly bucket of water! This catastrophic rainstorm felt like a sign from heaven. The sun was so bright in the morning. This strange weather “phenomenon” was definitely a sign. Moreover, the game store was severely flooded. Our prizes were almost drowned in the water. The water level was very high. The drain at the front of the admin block turned into a temporary ocean for ants. Such inordinate rain choked the school’s drainage system. I heard the lake almost overflowed (just joking…hehe…). Our candy floss sugar was one of the casualties in the rain. It turned from a fine pink powder into pink slime, straight out from some low-class horror movie (maybe we should have donated it to the haunted house).

However, the rain brought with it a new kind of hope. Bizarre, isn’t it? When the rain fell, I saw more people having fun, especially our classmates. Go see fong sin and pin jun become “r*ta*ds” on our class blog. Some of our classmates had so much fun walking barefooted in the rain. Anyway, for some reason, the rain with it more customers. Every visitor was squeezed into the shelter, so more customers!

The rain was certainly refreshing. Anyway, the morning sun was also too hot. The afternoon was much cooler than normal. We wore black that day, so imagine how thankful I felt. The after noon went on more smoothly. My station was changed to the cotton candy, located at the end of the canteen. I was together with Darren Yap. We had an endless line of customers. The person making the cotton candy, well, after so much problems and troubles, had a face as black as our class tee. Obviously, he was very easily irascible. Well, we had a ridiculous request for 17 cotton candy! I stupidly gave them 17, and soon the lost half the line. I have learnt my lesson and wrote my lines…

Overall, the sales was quite well done, about $800-$900 profit. Not too bad. Kudos to these people: Shi Yun and Kian Hao for the games. Adeline, Jennifer, Darren Wee, Ahani, Shevons, whom I saw was working feverishly from 10-1. I would like to thank all those that satyed on to help. I would like to also thank Eugene and Gang for buying the fish food, and selling it (and buying it to eat for lunch). I would personally thank Eng Kiat and Darren Yap who consistently remained solo at the cotton candy store, dealing with customers and the operator (thank you operator for creating so much cotton candy!). I would want to thank Chen Rui, Chin Wang, Xuan Hao, Dominic for creating that attention grabbing banner. I would also like to thank Jia Xin for her effort in collating the prices of food. Most of all, I would like to thank Mr Lam for helping us through the whole bazaar. Thank for taking over the cotton candy machine business. I doubt I will be able to deal with that tone-less voice you heard over the phone. I would thank everybody in class for helping out one way or another. Sorry I never mention your name!

To end, I will tell you what I overheard from some teachers a few days ago…

“Hey, I heard that we will have another one next year.”

“Have what?”

“The bazaar of course! What else?”

Yes, here we go all over again! ; ) 

Me and Shi Yun was buying a mp3 and a fan for the class game store prizes. The old lady at the home appliances area cashier beckoned us to pay there. There was no queue at all, so we decided to go there. Anyway, the fan was frightfully heavy and the mp3 was only sold at that cashier, so we had to go there. Soon, we understood why no one was there.

“err…aunty…can we see this mp3.” I pointed at the jet black mp3.

“Ahmad! Ahmad! Faster come and help this boy-boy  with his mp3″ She then walked to the other end of the counter. Apparently, a customer who wanted to buy a clock had also wanted to check if the clock was working. The customer was served by this old lady first, but because of the battery issue, she had sent Ahmad away. Now she wanted Ahmad to come back again. I pity Ahmad.

Ahmad soon ran back with the batteries. The old lady attended to 2 office ladies opposite us while asking the customer to fix in the batteries himself. They were buying a vaccum cleaner. One of them looked at me. For some reason, the old cashier had small talk with the 2 ladies, and somehow included me into their conversation.

“Oh! Aunty call you boy-boy! Hehe. SO funny” said one of the ladies, caustically

“Eh, we move to the cashier at the front can? Here so long.” said Shi Yun as she realised that the payment for the vaccum cleaner will last an eternity. The 2 ladies kept on asking irrelevant questions.

“Just wait a while more. It will be our turn soon.” I replied, somehow unsure.

Ahmad has to rush off to do another “old lady” sent errand. We started waiting. When the vaccum cleaner was almost done, another guy came along, and cut queue.

“Let this man go first lah.” said the old lady. I almost fainted.

After scanning the item, it was found that the price was $18, not $9 on the price tag. He left without buying. He never say excuse me, or thank me or say sorry for cuting my queue. “Aunty, can I pay no…”

“Wait! I want to finish this vaccum cleaner first! Young people cannot wait nowadys! Ill mannered!”

I was incensed. Her indifference really made the both of us angry. We could not stand the rude man’s behavior, and this just escalates our bitterness. We have already waited for 20 minutes! Now the 2 ladies started asking if the vaccum claner was in apple pie order. Again, Ahmad was summoned to bring the two ladies away to an electrical socket. It was finally our turn!

“I want to pay for the mp3 and the fan.”

She started scanning the fan box with the movable scanner in a black face. It could not read the bar code. Then, the hag called another of her attendants, a certain “Seng Huat”. He went to take the fan tag. It was just behind her! Why does she need to call people to walk for her? This incident was becoming a potential complaint.

She scanned the mp3 and dropped it on the table. Then she pretended to ignore it, and demanded for payment. I tried to as polite as possible and passed her the money, plastering a fake smile on my face. As we left, Shi Yun said, “I told you so! Just go in front.”

“Ya. Ya. I regretted too. She was so rude! And yes…

you told me so.”

“You shall remember this moment! You will remember me talking to you about respect. You will remember black sheeps. Look at the lights! Look at who you are sitting with…”

Immediately, Wei Ming took notice of his surroundings. He looked at the person sitting next to him. He was obviously not supposed to sit there. He had changed place. He looked at the lights. One of them had blown and was still not fixed yet…for 1 month, 2 weeks and 4 days. That was how particular Wei Ming was about dates and time. The sunlight was so strong. It seemed that the lights were unnecessay. “It has been like that for 2 hours, 32 minutes and 23…wait…24 seconds”  pondered Wei Ming, quietly.

“Then look at the scenary outside! See the skies! Remember the clouds! Its shapes! Look at the trees! Remember it in full bloom, with leaves!” The teacher stopped right there. He looked out of the windows for a moment, then said “On second thought, remember it to be bare! Look outside! Remember!!”

Wei Ming stared at the baby blue skies. Cotton white clouds lumbered across the sky. To Wei Ming, the clouds all look like…clocks?

“Remember this MOMENT! You shall remember it FOREVER!!! FOREVER!!! It is my supplication to you that you will remember respect! Remember ME indoctrinating the class! Remember ME standing here, hoping that I will be able to nurture you…” Now, the teacher was moving his hands in an exaggerated manner, as if something big is about to happen. Sounds of muffled giggling could be heard.

“REMEMBER THIS MOMENT!”

“errr…class dismissed.”

Wei Ming, walked out of the class, starting to believe his English teacher was a scion of some religious priest or something. He turned to his friend and said:

Did you hear what he said?

So here I am writing (with such a plain title )

Teens these days are glued to the computer screen, playing online video games such as DOTA (Defence of the Ancients) and Maplestory. Many youths play such games for enjoyment and relaxation, but some do not. Quite a few teenagers are addicted to such games, playing them into the wee hours of the morning. Everyday, they explore the virtual world instead of enjoying reality. Obviously, it has become an obsession. But, looking carefully, do we really have a trenchant and reliable impression of online gaming?

On one hand, online games can result in wasting precious time. Online game addiction will cause one to spend more time on the computer and less time on more constructive activities such as homework, revision and exercising. As students, our job is to study hard and do our work, other than keeping ourselves healthy and fit. By being addicted to online games, we have deviated from our main purpose. In addition, time is a precious resource, once spent, forever gone. Wasting time will be a big pity.

Also, online game addiction could pose as a risk to your health. When you play online games for many hours on a stretch, your body will be very exhausted. In such an exhausted state, your brain could be agitated by the bright lights and flashing images of the computer screen. This can lead to sudden death. And if you keep on sitting down and play games, you may develop a medical condition known as deep-vein thrombosis. In an article ran by the International Herald Tribune, South Korea is facing serious online gaming addiction problems. At least seven deaths last year in the city was attributed to excessive online game-playing. A 28-year-old man died after nearly 50 straight hours of online gaming.

On the flipside, online gaming can be good too. Online games progress very fast and the player has too catch up too. He has to think quick and keep up with the pace. You have to know what to do and where to go in a split second. You have to react very fast. Your reflexes have to be quick in order to move around. In the modern fast paced world we live in, these quick reactions can be beneficial. We might need to solve a problem when we are working, immediately with absolutely no delay. We have to think quick.

On the whole, while playing computer games can be harmful, they can benefit us too. To moderate between the pros and cons, I suggest people continue to play online games, but strictly cap the amount of time spent on the computer. Maybe you could use your friends or your parents to control the amount of time you spend on the internet.