(This vid above is Final Fantasy magic.)
Today, the Wind Ensemble managed to celebrate Priscilla’s birthday in the Old LT. It was hilarious, what with the baby rattle, the Elmo glove, and the pregnancy test kit, presented by Oliver himself, HER ONE AND ONLY TRUE SOULMATE.
PRISCILLA YUEN TURNED 17 TODAY. 
yam.
excess [ek-ses]
-noun, adjective, verb (used with object)
Like I said. Overanything is unhealthy. Literally. Look at my dear friend: she persistently ate yoghurt, because it made her happy. Now it’s just giving her the stomachache.
Mr. Connor set us an unseen written commentary, based on an extract from The Great Gatsby. Honest to God (PUN! HAHAHAHA), it’s one of the best pieces I’ve had to analyse ever. With Seraphina beside me, the both of us just kept scribbling, drawing arrows, highlighting, bolding, and throwing ideas at each other. The piece was about how a first-person narrator described Gatsby’s partying using a third-person narrative. And boy, did Gatsby party like mad. You get a sense of routine as one reads about how his many parties operates.
Also. Yesterday the Year 5s were subjected to more ToK in a seminar whose topic was on the question, What Makes A Good Life? It was highly debateable, and it did set our minds thinking. Why do we say life sucks, when it clearly is better than “those starving Africans” (quoted directly from millions of parents in Singapore). We were then split into tiny discussion groups, and Douglas, leading mine, asked us: Does having everything make up a good lfie?
We then looked at it in terms of living with excess or moderation. Initially, we were arguing for either, but as we reached a close, we felt that we should have both. We should live a life of moderation, but strive for excess, step by step, without peaking too early.
We agreed on this, because we felt that being happier was a greater joy than being constantly happy. If we live a life of moderation, we understand that a better life is actually obtainable; when we do obtain it in pieces, we manage to live a life that is consistently getting better and better. If we live in excess, however, we risk falling into two things:
We took the analogy of the celebrity. Although they have fame and fortune (the world’s idea of everything), they’re constantly screwing up their lives. They take drugs, they shoplift, they attempt drink-driving, they get charged with paedophilia and subsequently hop around Asia to prevent themselves from being arrested. The only reason why they do these things, is because they’ve already peaked, and they realise that doing these awful things is their only way of peaking further.
What do you think?
yam.
Ping! is in A Softer World.
After a week’s worth of secret planning, Seraphina and I managed to buy her a copy of Dorothy Parker’s Ladies In The Corridor, 2 tubs of Yami frozen yoghurt (original and peach flavour) and a scrapbook decorated with handwritten poems and other interesting pages.
The road to Yiping’s house in the morning was tough though. I had to wake up at 5.55am. Seraphina and I then had to rely on muscle memory in order to trek our way to her private resident home deep in the heart of Braddel. We had to stand in front of blocks 10F and 10G in order to decide whether she lived in either of them. We had to take the elevator to almost half the floors of the building, cos we forgot which floor she lived on. Finally, at approximately 8.30am:
YIPING: (on the phone) Hey, you called?
DARYL: Erm, yes. Which floor do you live on?
YIPING: Er… WHY?
DARYL: Because we’re in your block, but we don’t know which floor you live on!
YIPING: (laughs) I LIVE ON THE 15TH.
WONG YIPING TURNED 17 TODAY.
yam.
