Jolly Folly, Mighty Morphin'

Today, my brother and I waited in antipication at 9pm US Time, in the confines of an MSN conversation filled with an air of tension, to witness his historic .... Post-BMT posting.

He's going to Sispec, and I AM VERY VERY HAPPY for him. I mean, we have been brothers for years... (o man that's 20 years to be exact, and we have shared the same room for 20 years!) I guess the point I'm trying to make is that sometimes, you just start to take people around you for granted. Today, at that very 9pm, I felt like I've talked more to him than I have in my entire life as a an elder brother to him. It feels funny, perhaps it was a combination of my physical distance from him and the intensity of his excitement and uncertainty that made the conversation so pregnant. It was the exact same path I had trodden just a few years back and tracking his own journey into the biggest Factory in Singapore is like watching a replay clip of my own life.

I seriously am very proud of him and I KNOW he will make good. I had ALWAYS had doubt if he could make it physically and mentally, but now that he tells me BMT was "slack", I sigh a heave of relief for my brother soldier - he, who shuns seafood in the cookhouse, could do no pull-up to save his life, is addicted to computer games as much as I am to food - the very conditions that the Army treats with disdain.

One more day to end of exams. Time's ticking.

Posted by Brandon at Friday, December 19, 2008 | Permalink

I wish my bottle had a hole,
Makes it leak and bones and balls.
Folded papers crossed with more,
I wish I had known it all.

I wish I was all that wise,
Takes more courage than a nut in bowl.
Grains, cereal, bars and smore,
I wish time could stop, doesn't it bore.

People wish upon a star,
I wished upon the biggest moon so far.
Gloves that lost their furriness,
Don't mind me, the snow will not thaw.

Right upon the daffodils,
Shines that mighty sun of yore,
Milky way of thousand cries,
I wish you could hear it all.

Posted by Brandon at Monday, December 15, 2008 | Permalink

How do you respond when a girl from the same country as you are, tells you, "Hey! You are Brandon right? How come like(sic), I see you and you are like (sic) always never respond one! Like you don't know me like that? It's like (sic) so funny, ain't it?"

Luckily, my friend was beside me to back me up as I gape in disbelief and frankly in a loss for words, "He's like that one la. Always very blur face." (which isn't untrue).

I honestly have no interest in girls who spiral from a Singaporean accent downward into a mess of slang that is unrecognisably awful. Granted, I speak in a more American way to my American friends, but it's more than just an accent. It's like hanging around in the bus like it's a night club, peppering speeches with OMGs and insincere superlatives and simply, making a scene, that irks the hell out of me. I feel kind of sad for them, BUT I HAVE no right to say they are wrong because there honestly is NOTHING wrong haha. It's just unnatural to me.

I'm starting to like the snow. Imagine Mr Softee from 7-Eleven spread on a field. And sparkles of light mingle with the sheer whiteness to produce a mashmallow plain that's a great treat to the eyes as you stare out of the window in the morning and alas, there's sun today, all looks magnificent and I'm ready to rock the day.

But people don't really see the other side of it. There's black slush all over the road (Imagine Slurpee from 7-Eleven), and it's all wet from the melting edges of the fields. The exterior of buses become black at the end of the day because of the slush. People eat more without realising how much they have ballooned in size. It's freaking cold. Cops patrol Lieb Slope (a slope that Cornellians like to sledge down the snow illegally) to nip fun-makers in the bud. The night starts at 5pm.

Term's ending, my last burst of fire for my exams has ignited. RAWR!

Posted by Brandon at Sunday, December 14, 2008 | Permalink

Allow me to lament right now.

We have this group project due this Wednesday. It is broken into 4 parts and each of the 4 members will do one part. I did mine on Friday and posted it on Google Docs, Member No. 2 finished hers on Sunday and uploaded it too. 1 hour before our group meeting today on Monday, the other two bangali-chocolate-eat-shit-bobos have NOT uploaded anything! When meeting started, Member 3 is rushing her own OTHER assignment and tells us that she is "still doing her assignment". Member 4 says "he has all his ideas already, just haven't written them down". Member 1 (Me) and Member 2 looks at them, and at each other, and I know exactly what Member 2 is thinking. WHAT IS THE POINT OF MEETING WHEN these bangali-chocolate-eat-shit-bobos have NOT bothered to do anything!

I had just finished rowing practice and had to rush to the meeting, only to be disappointed that the project will be drawn longer close to the deadline. People here really have no sense of urgency! Why go partying and boozing away on Friday night when you know you will drag others along for not having done your part of the work?! Why talktalktalktalktalk and then talktalktalktalktalk when you have NOT contributed anything! Ayomak.

I must say I'm in a very stressed time because of all these last-minute assignments and since most are group assignments, they require me to face the world of not-very-concerned people. I don't even want to get to the other group project which I ended up doing all the formatting nonsense and talking to blocks of wood. Not to mention the NEED (urgent need) to START studying for finals, continue daily rowing, eating and sleeping (and slip in an episode of 'mind your language'), and combating the -10 degree Celsius weather!

NOW,
I feel better having let it all out. Like a fart in bangali-chocolate-eat-shit-bobos' faces.

Posted by Brandon at Tuesday, December 09, 2008 | Permalink

If there is one thing you must do before you die, you HAVE to watch MIND YOUR LANGUAGE. I cannot believe I actually missed it in Singapore when it was showing on Arts Central! The jokes are so accessible and ridiculous. GO TO YOUTUBE NOW AND WATCH IT! NOWWWWWW!

I just came back from dinner at Statler Hotel's restaurant, Banfi's. The food was awful! But everything else was great. Appetiser was an unglam fried calamari, not as good as Fish and Co's and very untypical of a menu choice in a fine dining establishment as Banfi's! Entree was crab stuffed trout, which was really quite tasteless. I mean trout is TROUT! You've got to sear it HARD and let the flavours infuse, but it looked more fried and dry than juicy and tempting. Dessert was Espresso Cheesecake (obvious choice for me!) and it was powdery but still delectable. The average check was 60 per person, which was a bomb for the quality, but as a proud Hotelie, we get to have this meal for free - educational purposes.

Ok, exams are coming ahead. I hope my addiction to MIND YOUR LANGUAGE wears off soon, if not I will fail my finals and be kicked back to Singapore. AHHH!

Posted by Brandon at Tuesday, December 02, 2008 | Permalink

Today is one of those days when I sorely miss home. If I write incoherently please forgive me.

It's Thanksgiving and our classmates all head home for the weekend to celebrate with their families. And Cornell is dead except for the international students lingering around.

I just went on facebook and had these thoughts:

1) My American friends all have nice pictures uploaded with people with the same last names tagged. The crew guys, people who talk crap and fool around all day, are framed in starkly different contexts (arms wrapped around a little sister, posing with big-bellied dad and mum, having a feast at the table) - that it almost surprises me that we all have a life outside crew (gasps!). It reminds me how far I am away from Singapore, and the very last time I actually carried my own brother and watched silly cartoons with him. Now, Tristan's POPed from BMT, things have moved on. Doesn't help that most Singaporeans are going home during winter break... What a dampener.

2) WE ARE SO DAMN LUCKY PEOPLE! I mean everyone's travelling...moving around, having a good time. Great food (ZAGAT-rated), Jet-setting/car-bound vacations, Lavish (or budget, who cares) accomodation, and generally just having some cash in the bank to do the things we want to do and to live the life we want to live. I mean how SHIOK is that. Of course, it is easy to justify these with the rigours of academic life and the boredom of staying in Ithaca, but hey, weren't we lucky to have gotten here in the first place? I guess it's all about having a sense of our starting points before we lose sight of the track that we are on. I guess, we humans will never be satisfied (in a good or bad way), we are only making the best out of the very best that we have already been provided with.

On a side note, Crew has been taking over my life right now. I row everyday on erg machines. I know I can never be writing this when I'm physically rowing, because it hurts, very badly at it. Your legs are burning and your back is hurting. But off the erg, it seems like a whole different world. As I look at the photos of our past championships, I REALLY have this bursting motivation to keep going and to beat Yale and Princeton come spring.

"Do it for the guy next to you."
"Got to get hungry now."
"Come spring time, you are going to win the Eastern Sprints."
"I am not coming home without a medal this year."

With every practice, it's like treading on a thin line. The voice of our coach resonates in my eardrums. My inner percussion kicks up a ruckus, my body ready to go, and every ounce of energy waiting in line to be expended. Suddenly, it all pours - harder than you've ever imagined.

Posted by Brandon at Monday, December 01, 2008 | Permalink