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ZUH-OH EM GEE!

Sunday, April 26, 2009

This is the article that I wrote for the Star’s Ole BRATs two months ago. It was supposed to be published in the February 2009 issue, but due to some error, it got lost in translation, so it was only published today. But, it was PUBLISHED!

FAMOUS.

(Excuse the perasanity. It’s not every day you get your work published in the country’s leading English daily.)

FAMOUS.

But it’s very watered down because I wrote R’s part, and Dhinesh wrote Caroline’s part. And somehow my character R got turned into someone else, and Dhinesh had to merge our two pieces into one. But wth.

And, I got a picture byline! :D But it doesn’t show up here, so go look for the newspapers.

….

On second thought, don’t. It was a rather unglam picture.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not even a puff

By LOUISE TAN and DHINESH PRADHAN

To smoke or not to smoke? That is the question! Believe it or not, more and more teenagers are facing this question. With their peers puffing away, the temptation to try smoking is quite strong for some. It is not so uncommon to see students in school uniforms hiding in corners or even openly smoking cigarettes.

We spoke to two teenage smokers to find out what made them start puffing away. Ray is a Form Five student in a government school, while Caroline is a freshman in a private college.

Ray said he started smoking for the fun of it. It is in his character to try everything at least once, and that led him to start smoking when he was 14.

Caroline, on the other hand, was persuaded by ‘idiots’ (her words) when she was 15. Her friends convinced her that smoking is cool and she should try it.

“They even used reverse psychology on me. I eventually tried smoking, but I told myself that I was not going to get hooked,” she recalled.

Despite hating her first taste of smoking, she tried cigarettes again six months later when she was really stressed out over her studies and relationships. She has been hooked on smoking since then.

The influence of movies and the easy availability of cigarettes made it all the easier for them to pick up smoking.

“The movies always show how relaxing it is to smoke, I just assumed it was real,” said Caroline.

Ray said he never has trouble buying cigarettes despite laws forbidding its sales to those under 18. Few shopkeepers ever hesitated to sell him cigarettes, even when he is wearing school uniform. When they ask for identification, Ray just tells them that he is buying the cigarettes for his father or grandfather.

Despite the pleasure they get from smoking, both teenagers admit that there are downsides too. When he was 16, his parents found out that he was smoking. Quarrels and lectures ensued, and tempers ran high in Ray’s household.

Now, almost a year later, Ray has finally allowed his father to bring him to a clinic to seek help to quit smoking.

Caroline’s mother caught her smoking when she came home from work early. Her mother was initially very upset and insisted that she quit smoking, but she has now given up on persuading Caroline.

Caroline says she tried twice to quit smoking, but started again the next day. “There were times I would throw the pack across the room at night but ended up crawling to pick it up the next morning,” says Caroline. She also thinks that her acne problem is due to her smoking.

Ray is determined to stay off cigarettes.

“Maybe I’ll miss the taste, and the high on nicotine. But I never want to go back to 20 sticks a day, no way. Smoking really sucks. You have no idea. Seriously, if you want to release stress, there are better ways to do it. I’m glad I’m quitting, and I’ve even got one of my smoking buddies to quit too.

“It’s really much better not to start smoking at all.”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

*applause*

My thanks to Dhinesh! Haha.

Below is the original article I wrote, before it got merged.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If every smoker smokes one packet of cigarettes every day from the day they are 20, they will have smoked approximately 292,000 cigarettes by the time they are 60 years old, assuming they manage to live that long before cancer claims them. Now, however, it is not uncommon to find teenage smokers as young as 14 or 15. Most teens know at least one smoker directly or indirectly.

According to the website http://www.teendrugabuse.us/teensmoking.html, The American Lung Association estimates that every minute, four thousand eight hundred teens will take their first drag off a cigarette. Of those four thousand eight hundred, about two thousand will go on to be chain smokers. The fact that teen smoking rates are steadily increasing is disturbing, as researchers are finding out that about 80% of adult smokers started smoking as teenagers.

R is a Form 5 student in a local government school (name of school withheld). He is daring and outgoing, the sort that will try almost anything once. Unfortunately this included smoking. He has been smoking for 3 years now. However, unlike many smokers his age, R has decided to make the right move towards his addiction – in the opposite direction.

“I started smoking for fun,” he explains. “And it was really easy to start.” Apparently, despite there being law forbidding the sales of alcohol and cigarettes to under-18s, a shocking amount of dealers sell cigarettes to students in school uniform without batting an eyelid. Few ask for identification, and if they do, it is enough to claim that you are buying the cigarettes for your father or grandfather.

R used to go through a packet a day. He enjoyed the “high” feeling very much that came after the puff. Besides, he says, it did help to somewhat ease the stress that he faced from school and parents.

And even now, despite the heavy advertising against smoking and all the health implications emphasized loudly on billboards everywhere, R still believes that he will be fine; that he won’t face any health problems in the future.

“I won’t get cancer,” he says confidently. “I’ve heard of smokers who live to be 90 years old and they’re still puffing away. Their lungs can adapt to cigarette smoke. I’ll be like that,” he believes.

In the beginning it was alright. Just a puff before or after school, outside the compound, usually with a couple of mates. At he beginning of his Form 4 year, however, his parents found out. Quarrels and lectures ensued, and tempers ran high in R’s household. Now, almost a year later, R has finally allowed his father to bring him to a rehabilitation centre in Kuala Lumpur. He is currently into his 3^rd week of quitting. (time of interview was in February)

“Despite the ‘highs’, smoking did kind of suck. 2 or 3 hours after my last puff and I’d start feeling ill and unwell.” The dependency on nicotine can be difficult to resist. If the urge came up in school, R would just head to the back of the class and try to sleep it off. When he and his buddies went ‘social smoking’, he said he would ‘try not to inhale the smoke into his lungs’. It didn’t always work, of course.

“And I don’t want there to be anymore quarrels and lectures,” he says, with slight remorse. “I want my ‘freedom’ back,” meaning he wants his family to stop nagging. “Besides, I’ve never liked the ‘rempits’ that hang out in gangs smoking in the parks and playgrounds. But I realized that if I smoke, what makes me so very different from them?”

The 2^nd week of quitting was the hardest. Even with the help of nicotine patches, R felt irritable all the time, and he developed a flu-like running nose. He spent a lot of time sleeping in class, and as a result, got knocked by a lot of teachers, who are all unaware that he smokes.

But now it seems that the worst is over. “It’s my 20^th day today, and I feel a hell lot better,” he tells the class proudly, and they whoop and clap for him.

“It’s really much better not to start smoking at all.”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

~~*applause*~~ ~~*APPLAUSE*~~ *STANDING OVATION!*

Good night.

ALIENS ARE UBER STUPID.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Haha, no I’m not emo-ing. I just love PostSecret! :D

ALIENS ARE STUPID.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

‘Cause you had a bad day, you’re taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
You say you don't know, you tell me don't lie
You work on a smile and you go for a ride

You had a bad day
The camera don't lie
You're coming back down and you really don't mind
You had a bad day
~~You~~ I had a bad day.

**edit**

DHINESH CALLED AND JUST MADE MY DAY.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH DHINESH. I LOVE YOU. (And I love Ivy too, but that’s giving away too much.)

HOMG I AM CHEERFUL AGAIN.

YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY!

oh hell, not colourful enough. Let’s do that again.

YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY!!

*jumps around to some random Fall Out Boy song.*

I’m not telling you why! ‘Cause that will only spoil the surprise.

And to YOU who ruined my day, thank your stars for Dhinesh or you’d have to face a very cold and unfriendly me for the next couple of months. And we wouldn’t want that now would we?

PS: look out for the newspapers this Sunday. ;)

I SMILED. :)

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Saw something on someone’s blog that totally made my day. Well not totally, but close enough. Very surprising.

And no, I’m not telling you what it is. Ask me yourself!

Wheeeeeeee :D

Thank you, and You.

DON’T EVEN ASK ME HOW I AM.

Because I’m not going to tell the truth.

I ran 3000m and 4x400m (both of which were sucky, for me). No, I didn’t drop the baton, fortunately for everyone, even though I didn’t get to practice. But I did sucky anyway. Nearly collapsed at the end of my second round. Remind me never to run 3000m before a speed event again.

Oh wait! I don’t have to! I’m in Form 5!

And I came back feeling like a flat tire, with all the gas let out of it. Floppy, can’t stand up straight. And my mom insists on me going for chemistry tuition!

No way! I will DIE if you make me go for chemistry tuition! Do you hear me? I will flip over on my back with my legs waving in the air and gagging and choking like the death throes of some disgusting cockroach that breathed in pesticide. I’m THAT tired okay.

~~But evidently not tired enough to stop blogging, eh Louise?~~

SHUT UP, YOU.

*edit*

Yay! No need to go tuition!

*does a tired, floppy sort of conga, and falls asleep doing it, accidentally hitting the PUBLISH button*

IT RAINS WHEN YOU’RE HERE, AND IT RAINS WHEN YOU’RE GONE

Saturday, April 18, 2009

It’s down to the last 10 jellybeans! Not counting the sucky liquorice-flavored ones of course.

Haha.

And I assure you I ate most of them, Yuee Sun!

Majlis Anugerah Cemerlang was a waste of time lah. Not that I’m not happy for all of you who got awards today. Maybe I’m even just jealous I wasn’t up there with all of you, if believing that makes you happier. Haha. But the fact is I’m tired. I go running every evening and sleep past midnight doing tuitions and homework. Get up the next day, repeat.

I should have stayed at home sleeping and recovering from all the running I’ve done this week. I’m so tired. How to run Saringan lah, like that?

And, I’m friggin scared of dropping the baton when I run. :( I saw that happen once and it wasn’t pretty. I haven’t had a chance to practice running with a baton because I haven’t found anything in my house remotely baton-ish. Except for the stupid pipes that my brother salvaged from somewhere but they’re one metre long!

Oh and for those of you looking for a laugh. Go and read Jian Kai’s blog. <click there!>

He’s funny lah. But I still think Mun Keat should be the Court Joker of 5S7!

K I go sleep or I’ll nod off in church tomorrow. I will regret not doing my physics tuition homework, but oh well. Don’t we all do that.

Baibai.

PS: I want us to win. Badly.

CHECK THIS HAND ‘CAUSE I’M MARVELLOUS.

12 April 09 @ Cinnamon, One World Hotel

My awesomeee family treated me to dinner.

And yes, they had a gorgeous chocolate fountain! O.O (drools)

CIMG6302

(drools some more!)

Only all those delicious stuff was like, at the buffet section of the restaurant. We were ordering a la carte. So I couldn’t touch any of that yummy stuff.

Brother (Peter), sister (Isabelle), me, Papa.

Me and sister. I know lah, we hardly look related.

The Terrible Threesome. :D

Me and Papa, and thankyouverymuch for my awesome birthday!

Me and Mama.

Shouldn’t birthdays be about parents too? Cause you know, without them, I wouldn’t have a birthday to celebrate.

(I don’t think my parents make a big deal out of birthdays. But they know I do. That’s why all the fuss. My parents are awesome that way.)

And then OMG OMG OMG. I only realized this later when I looked into the camera memory, but this is what I found.

Get it or not?

MY PARENTS WERE CAMWHORING.

‘O.O’

Stop the world! I want to get off!

I look anorexic in this picture! But to prove that I’m not, look below!

TADAAAAH.

See, I DO eat. So there.

And then after that sinful dinner, we went back home for chocolates. As if we hadn’t gained enough weight already. But I guess this makes up for missing the chocolate fountain!

13 April 09

What I found in one of my birthday cards!

The wonderful blunderful card that Briana made for me that I’m now using as a bookmark :)

And I’m VERY VERY happy about this. Thank you VERY VERY much Ian and Sean Beh!!

From Shen Wen and Yuee Sun!

WOWEEE! AWESOME PEOPLE :D

I’ve officially converted from chocolates to jellybeans!

Well. Maybe not just yet.

Eeeeeeee :D

OMG. I’d better run before you all faint and die. Hahahaha.

I’m blessed. Thank You, most of all. :)

SEVENTEEN, BABEH!

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

I am sixteen going on seventeen
I know that I'm naiive

Fellows I meet may tell me I'm sweet and

Willingly I believe

I am sixteen going on seventeen

Innocent as a rose

Bachelor dandies, drinkers of brandies

What do I know of those?

Totally unprepared am I

To face a world of men

Timid and shy and scared am I

Of things beyond my end

I need someone older and wiser

Telling me what to do

You are seventeen going on eighteen

I'll depend on - who?

HOMG today was awesome. Pictures later, role call first!

DANGGIU VELI MUCHIE to all the people below (in no particular order)

Papa, even though you made me walk to school this morning. =.="

Mama

Isabelle

Peter

Twa Peh

Anselm, who wished me first!

Jun Wei - sorry lah but you were cheating. x)

Ian, the first to CALL. :)

Su Teng!

Christine!

Tan Yi Chin, and I can't believe he remembers!

Joel!

Ern Lyn

Dennis FC Loh

Karis!

Cousin Esther

Briana!

Joanna!

Meng Xin

Leng Hue (for the wishes)

Shen Wen (for that huge hug!)

All 5S7 people, for the birthday song.

Aaron Ng! who was being unnaturally nice to me but I'm not complaining!

Pei She!

Yu Li!

Sean Beh

Adrian - pfffffft! Wish people also needa insult them.

Lily!

Kian Seong gor!

Khar Wei

Elyssia - some best friend you are. bah!

Kai Boon - you're next.

Rebecca

Tang Shu Yi, and what makes you think I'll be telling you anything?

Kimberly

Mabel Loui!

Prashanth

Yuee Sun

Jian Kai

Weng Fai, I guess.

Jenani

Gin Vern!

Ru Jun, and I had no idea you even knew. XD

Miaw Fen!

Su Yen

Adeline!

Yin Wei!

Kong Lai Yee!

Lyn Wei

Jeremy Leong, who just remembered and doesn't want to admit it!

Mr Lee, the funny Chinese tuition teacher. Haha.

Aunty Christina

The Add Maths tuition people for the birthday song!

Jing Wei

Sheng Hoay!

Chee Seng

Cousin Claire

Hwee Yeen!

Ronnie, haha. Upshut, you.

And, I suppose if you count pulling my hair, pushing me down the stairs and then tripping me as a BIRTHDAY WISH, then Jonathan Wong Luke Keith counts too. =.="

All the Ed Boarders and LPS who wished me

And all the facebook comments

And those who gave me stuff

(And I'm VELI VELI SOLI if I MISSED ANYONE OUT)

I thank you from the heart of my bottom.

Uhhhh, I mean, well you get what I mean.

Teehee. :D

*this post is seriously screwed! Gah!

ONE MORE DAY!!!

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Happy Easter!

“The fasting has ended; let the feasting and celebrations begin.”

- Fr Simon Yong.

AMEN to THAT!

And besides it being Easter,

It’s a Lily Day!

Happy 17th to the Ed Board’s beloved EIC!

She’s like the glue that makes the entire Ed Board stick together without falling apart at the seams. And yes, she makes it rock too, most of the time. :)

And no, I don’t have a picture with her, so er, this one will have to do.

Sorry lah, no better picture. :) She might screw me later, but too bad. Haha. It’s already up there. ~~Teehee~~.

And Aaron, you look fuh-riggin evil in this picture!

TWO MORE DAYS!

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please -

Er. Never mind.

*edit*

APRIL 11

HAPPY 18TH SUE YEN!

(HOMG. I look weird in specs.)

Ignore the background! We were not at some seminar for PLC Bio-Herbs Investment! It was a BRATs workshop okay. The stupid hotel people just lazy to clean up the conference room for us to use. Pfffft. And the workshop was the March 2008 one in Taiping. And she was a member of the oh-so-awesome Group 2. Just like me.

HAPPY 17TH ESTHER LIAN!

She’s the one in the middle by the way. Also Taiping BRAT 2008, and also in Group 2! And when we went to the Year-End Camp in Sepilok, she was also my group member there. =.=” Eh. Haha.

APRIL 5

HAPPY 18TH JEREMY ~~TRANNY~~ LEONG!

The picture speaks for itself.

And this day was also Su Teng’s birthday but I don’t have a picture with her.

(i_i)

Okay I’m cooled down already. Time to go shower and get ready for the Easter Vigil. Yippay!

*edittt*

OH BY THE WAY.

I GOT CONTACT LENSES.

(like, finally.)

TELL ME WHYYY

Thursday, April 9, 2009

… everything is sooooo slow!

And, by the way, a reminder to all of you, four more days. : )

PS: Happy Birthday Melissa! AWESOME-est piano teacher ever. Not that she reads my blog, but never mind. Haha.

PPS: I want JELLYBEANS, YUEESUN!

*edittt*

From Kai Boon punya blog.

“One room is clean and cheerful looking. Everyone take good care of the room together. Once going in I feel happy. I greet everyone in with a natural smile. I joke with everyone, doesn't matter if they are younger than me for a year or two. We say bye to each other before leaving, from the bottom of our heart. We tease each other, without worrying if we would offend anyone, because we all know, we love each other.”

I better not be perasanated. Haha.

I. AM NOT. A WHORE.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

(inside thing.)

I saw a RAINBOW this morning!

And I was hopping and skipping about on the front porch like it was nobody’s business, because it meant that today was going to be a GOOD day. And guess what?

It was!

For a start, it was the LAST HOUSE PRACTICE.

Somebody tell me why no other Form 5s felt as excited about that as I did.

Come on, it’s the LAST HOUSE PRACTICE of your LIFE!

You’ll never ever ever have to go for house practice EVER AGAIN!

No more standing in line under the hot sun and feeling crappy when you run so fast and hard and you miss the time limit by half a second! I tell you, it’s good to be Form 5.

(I mean, not that I don’t like sports. But still!!!!)

And the sukantara was, well, awesome. I’ve never seen the Kuning girls so semangated. I’m so proud! LAST HOUSE PRACTICE was the bestest ever. ~~Even though I only got 2 points lah.~~

Oh and playing hangman with Koe Yeet was fun too. Haha. Koe Yeet, there’s another UBK session next week! Bring dictionary and lets play hangman again. Hahaha.

And Ed Board, you know lah. The usual randomosity.

On the other hand, moral project due tomorrow. That’s not so good.

K lah, I know you’re getting tired of all the :D’s so I’m CIAO-ING.

*edittttt*

THE CLASS PAGE LOOKS AWESOME!

*edittttttttttttt*

FIVE MORE DAYS FIVE MORE DAYS.

EDITORIAL BOARD!

Friday, April 3, 2009

I seriously can’t think of anything else for a title. Haha. I feel like I’m form 4 all over again, because the past few days have just been a blast, thanks to the Editorial Board! Even though we ended up all hotsweatyandstinky (and pissed off sometimes, too) I had FUN :)

~~After all I didn’t really have to do anything. I’m a senior now! Wheee!~~

Making juniors write poems and stories for and about me was awesome. Working together with the Form 4 and my fellow senior Ed Boarders was awesome. Getting to know them better was awesome. Helping to run the photoshoot was awesome! And it makes me feel like stopping time so I stop getting older so I won’t have to leave all of this behind next year! ~~I refuse to grow up!~~

Scratch that. I could do with a few more inches.

One of the form 3 probays just told me she really really enjoyed working with the Editorial Board and helping out in the photoshoot and she loves the seniors.

Awww! See I tell you we’re awesome! The Ed Board is the awesome-est club ever! :D

Yes yes I know there’s a lot of the word awesome up there, but what to do. The word’s damn powderful lah. And Ed Board’s powderful too because it pwns ~~the LPS~~ every other club in the school. I’m being biased, but sue me. You’re probably not an Ed Board member if you do!

*childishly sticks tongue out and emulates Kai Boon: neninenibooboo.*

And this is a personal message from me to Yu Li, Michelle, Yi Kun, Pei She, Rachel, Ee Jay and of course Aaron. Good job. Yes, even Aaron, despite all the complaints. You guys did an awesome job on the photoshoot. Your planning was meticulous and nothing was left to chance. I know cuz I pat gua and sat in on a few of the many meetings. More importantly, you guys clicked and you had fun along the way. I lied lah, it doesn’t hurt so much to admit that you did way better than our year. :) No major disappointments.

And you know something, Wednesday was the dullest April Fool’s day EVER. I only got pranked ONCE the whole day, and that was because by that time I’d even forgotten it was April Fool’s day. It happened at night! If you hadn’t gotten pranked for 20 hours, you’d forget too. It’s surprising that the Ed Board didn’t pull any pranks, but maybe we were all too stressed out with the photoshoot to remember to prank people.

…

Oh bugger. Saw something I wish I hadn’t.

You’re important to me, you know? You were a very important part of my life for a long long time. Things have changed, but you ARE still important to me, just not in the same way. Therefore I HATE feeling that you’re shutting me out of your life, and I HATE that I hardly know what’s going on with you anymore, and

SCREW IT. I DESERVE BETTER FRIENDS.

And I have them too :)

PS: 2nd April - Happy Sweet Seventeen Anselm. Thanks.

PPS: OMGOMGOMG! 9 more days! Really want to blog about my birthday wishlist but don’t want lah. Embarrassing if I don’t get what I want. Howwww? Ninemoredaysninemoredaysninemoredays!