Name: Louise

13 April 1992

You can only call me Lulu if you don’t think the name’s funny.

I am a member of the Smiley Conspiracy and a proud ex-CHS-ian, graduating class of 2009. Now doing A-Levels at HELP University College. Is proudly Malaysian, but doesn’t look like it and is proud of that too.

This is the 7th time I am editing this about section of the blog this year; I have sort of accepted that my personality is ever-evolving, ever-changing, therefore rendering my moods as volatile as the weather. But just as there are some things that have stood untouched across the centuries by harsh weather, so there are some things with me that remain ever the same: a belief that to live is to learn, and the ability to bounce back from setbacks.

What I love also remains constant. I love good food, dancing, fresh experiences, open minds and friendly people, all of which can be found in the wonderful wonderful city that is Istanbul. I love musicals, plays, good books, stickers, owls, colourful wrapping paper, hugs and kisses, chocolates, almost any music from the 17th to the 21st century, intense debates and post-it notes.

Fictional characters I have been compared to (in terms of personality) are Piglet from Winnie The Pooh and Kelsi from High School Musical.

I dream of finishing this list [29/8/2010: list is undergoing revamp!], and my secret ambition is to become a hairdresser or bartender. Unfortunately I’m also incredibly kiasu, so I’m going to go to university just to show everyone that I can. But want to go to uni also because I love learning lah!

Words that describe me are impulsive, impetuous, quixotic, sanguine, quirky, bewildered, kiasu and hodgepodge. The last one also refers to my sense of fashion.

*GRINS* :D

Goo Goo Dolls – Better Days;

(it’s the perfect New Year song.)

Here goes the long, boring but compulsory Year-End Post!

Things I Loved About 2009

• My classmates. (: I’m serious. There’s no effing way 3B3 can beat 5S7.

 

I can’t believe it; I didn’t take pictures at my own Christmas party!! I really need to get over this lazy-to-take-pictures habit.

• Ed Board; ‘nuff said. The term for it is esprit de corps! (:

post post post post

• Winning 7th place in the Cross Country! (consider that I only got 34th place the year before)

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• Rumah Kuning; it was the best Sports Day for me ever, even though we didn’t win. It was a great way to end high school.

post post post

Until now, I cannot get over how cute this thing is. :D

And I can’t get over how pretty my banner is either. Yah, yah, yah. :D

• Getting exam results I can look back on and be proud of.
• Meeting some of the most awezum people ever!
• This:

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Even though I only got a really small chunk out of it compared to the rest. It still makes me feel good. (:

• Family. This is also the year I spent the most time getting closer to and understanding my parents, especially my dad. Don’t scoff.

 

• Finishing high school.

The day of the SPM Chinese exam, and the last time in my school uniform.

• Preparing for, finishing and so-totally owning the SPM!
• Rocking Prom!!

• The class trip.

• Christmas (:
• Thinking about college.

And just like everyone, there are so many ways that I want to make myself better in every way, in the coming year.

I don’t call them New Year Resolutions. I call them Promises.

Promises for 2010

• Study my butt off for college, so that I don’t end up jobless homeless and loveless. Wahhhh :D
• Practice hard enough for a Distinction in Piano PC, so that I don’t regret it like Grade 8.
• Get over this lazy-to-take-pictures habit.
• Refer to the list of 50 Things To Do Before University.

Things To Look Forward To In 2010

• Life, in general. (:

This is supposed to be a really sentimental time, because I’m leaving behind A LOT. But I just don’t feel it.

This is why: I still have far to go, and that where I’m going, I can’t bring the past with me.

I know I had a smashing year, and I know some of you didn’t. And in some cases, I suspect I was the reason for it being un-smashing. I’m really sorry. I hope the next year is better for you.

To those of you whom I’ll be seeing less of with the end of 2009, thank you. (: Let’s not make promises we’ll regret not being able to keep. I hope you have a GREAT life!

To those of you whom I’ll still be seeing this year:

If I like you, YEAH LET’S GO ROCK 2010!

If I don’t like you so much, uhh… *grins* hi?

 

Happy 2010, everyone.

 

May it be your most colourful one yet!

 

(:

With much love from Louise.

I’ve finished registering at HELP college. (: I simply cannot wait for the new year! In the meantime,

THIS. PICTURE. ROCKS.

***edit***

 

O.O

Yuee Sun suddenly came up with this really really random spontaneous thing. But it’s definitely on.

 

Calling all 5S7-ers!

NEW YEAR’S EVE PARTY @ Yuee Sun’s Place

• (It’s in KL Sentral in case you haven’t been there before)
• 31st December 2009, starts at 7.00pm
• Potluck – if you’re confirmed coming, we’ll be telling you what to bring. Vegetables, fishballs, chicken, fireworks. (:
• RSVP with me or the man himself.

Don’t worry about getting home after that. Yuee Sun says his place is pretty comfortable. (:

Please please once you see this, spread the message around to our classmates! We’ve only got 2 more days. Way to be spontaneous, teddy bear.

It’s late, and I’m really tired. I just want to shout out to all who bothered to turn up, thanks for doing so. I was actually really afraid that no one would turn up, and then things would be really awkward.

I’m also sorry if I wasn’t the perfect hostess, and I didn’t make you feel completely at ease. (Especially to the non-classmates.)

The truth is, I just didn’t want the last day of the class trip to be the last time I saw most of you. So yeah, I had very selfish reasons for inviting the whole class to the party. (:

Sure, we’ll be keeping in touch. But like Dan said, face it: it’s not going to be the same anymore.

I am really, really going to miss all of you.

*Note: this post is long. When I post up something lengthy, it means I felt very strongly about something. But if you really cannot stand reading long long posts, at least read the quick add-on at the end.

Christmas has come and gone, but reality hasn’t quite sunk in yet. With the end of Prom, class, trip and SPM, my secondary school life really is over.

I feel more than a little disappointed to find that the national school system has failed me. I’ve hardly learnt anything in secondary school. We swallow and regurgitate formulas and sophisticated vocabulary and historical factlets, but of the leadership, speaking up for what we believe in and believing in ourselves (and other gaff) we learnt nothing.

Thinking back, the one thing I really wish my teachers had taught me is the ability to question.

“Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in proportion to their readiness to doubt.”

- H.L. Mencken

Our education system combined with Asian values (high emphasis on respect) hardly allow any room for questioning elders and speaking up. Teachers always say, “Don’t be afraid to ask questions,” but what most of them really mean is, “You can ask questions, just ask the right ones.” The right questions meaning the questions they can answer, which will make them look good.

As a result, we’ve been turned into a bunch of robots that know how to answer complicated add maths and physics questions – which is all very good and well done, but nothing more. We can’t think out of the box. We find it difficult to apply what we learn to the real world. We don’t question what the teachers teach. It’s a teacher, right? So it must be true lah.

If any of us had bothered to ask further, I think we would discover that most teachers (by no means all!) know very little more than what we do, and they’re afraid of letting us find out.

"I never let my schooling interfere with my education."

- Mark Twain.

& when you think about it, most of the things that you are glad you learnt in during your teen years were not learnt in a classroom, but through other activities, mostly on your own.You never ever see people being thankful, years on, that they managed to memorize all the laws of physics and every formula and every historic event. Instead, people find joy in celebrating the life’s lessons learnt: all the things regarding friends, leadership, time management and other stuff.

The minute I realized this, there were so many things I wanted to do to change the rigidly obedient part of me. I sat down and I’ve drawn up a list of things that I want to do before I hit university, because I know that I learn best through experience. Effectively, I’ve kind of drawn up my own education system. I’ll put it up here, when I have the time, and you can comment and add on to it.

I wanted to get started on it this year, but every time I wanted to, something/someone would scream in my ear, “SPM!!!!” And of course, that took priority. As a result, I’ve spent much of the time of this smashing year preparing to meet the attack of the Super Peperiksaan Man head-on. It was like a buffer, a damper, a wet blanket on all of my ideas and plans for my life. Whatever I wanted to do, SPM came first.

And, as you all know, it turned out to be *snaps fingers* like that. Like, WTF? My time could have been better spent.

That sounded really cocky. Okay lah, touch wood.

But I’ve given my best for the SPM already. The important thing is that now (NOW!) it really, truly is over. The buffer, the harness, the wet blanket, the restraining belt, the straitjacket – it’s gone. My real learning can get back on track.

I can go out and learn to drive, then go on a spontaneous road trip to whoknowswhere. I can take up Ju Eng’s offer to start writing articles for the Youth Network thingamy (I get paid!). I can indulge in BRATs activities again.  I can get more deeply involved with church and charity. I can learn to dance properly, seeing as I don’t know how to at all. I can read ALL of the books I missed out on without feeling overly guilty. In fact, I’m going to have to, if I’m taking English Lit for A-Levels. I can go bungee jumping, I can go for holidays overseas.

I can, I can, I CAN!!!

Freedom takes some getting used to. (:

[And I better get used to it fast. Orientation’s on January 2!]

***edit***

A quick add on:

This post is very emotionally-charged, but reading back, I don’t think it makes much sense. Clearly my brain cells have yet to fully recuperate from Penang.

Here is pinkpau’s blog post appealing to all high school students. What she says is somewhat related to this one. It’s a bit late, but I think it’s a must read. If you’re not Form 5 yet, lagi more must read!

Here’s another of pinkpau’s posts that I like, but unrelated. I just like it cause I’m a real sucker for smart people as well. LAAAAAAA ~

I know that if any of you readers follow celebrity bloggers, most of you follow xiaxue. I know xiaxue is super funny. I laugh at some of her posts, and I really like the way she just goes “BAH!” whenever anyone criticizes her. She’s really blunt and straightforward. And she writes the most hilarious stories.

But personally, I think pinkpau rocks more! I like the way she argues something calmly and maturely, and goes into great detail on whatever topic she happens to be blogging about. She doesn’t churn out a long post every single time, but I love it when she does, because she touches on things that really matter. She’s really honest and sincere. A lot of her posts reflect my thoughts, but she knows how to put it in such a way that is faintly amusing and appealing to readers, whilst I simply blog whatever’s in my head. Therein lies the great difference.

(Pei She, I think you’d like the way pinkpau blogs. And yes, I’ve learnt my lesson. No more making up my own words! :D)

Besides, xiaxue is Singaporean. pinkpau’s from good old Malaysia.

Go pinkpau! :D

So I was being Scroogish; then I decided, what the hell? Why screw a chance to be really happy while everyone else is doing the same? Isn’t this the atmosphere I wanted all year round?

So I deleted that post.

:D

And I found a quote that describes what I feel about this season, in a nutshell. It makes me smile.

 

“Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.”

- Norman Vincent Peale

HAVE A HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY CHRISTMAS, EVERYBUDDY! :D

Everyone’s talking about Shaun and Sheng Hoay’s dancing on Prom night. I told you, you guys were awesome lah! :D

5S7 Christmas Party @ My Place, 27 December 2009, 8.00pm

I forgot to invite you, I’m inviting you now! But only for 5S7 lah.

If you miss the class, COME!

And don’t bring gifts or I’ll shoot you (with my brother’s rubber band gun).

And talking about rubber band guns, I was going through the computer for pictures to delete, and I found this.

We were back at my house after attending a rather sombre event – Yee Sook’s funeral. From L-R: That’s my brother. That’s Ian Beh. That’s Kian Seong. And those’re my feet.

Ian is playing rubber band  finger guns with my younger brother.

Doesn’t he look like he’s having fun?!

 

 

HELLO, IAN! :D

Disclaimer: this post is long and full of unglam pictures. So before I begin,

KEEP THE DISPARAGING

COMMENTS TO YOURSELF, FC!

CHS Prom Night @ Sunway Hotel Ballroom, 16 December 2009

Elyssia: What’s your Prom’s theme? My school’s (Taman SEA) is  A Midsummer’s Night Eve.

Me: My school’s is Mystical Twilight.

Elyssia: What? Mr. Go Toilet?

I spent a lot of time and money worrying over how it’d turn out. And I really just wanted to go to prom in an old sundress with my hair down and no makeup. Ask Si Jun! When the make-up artist let me have a look in the mirror, I actually wanted to cry because I looked nothing like my usual self. I wanted to talk about how I didn’t feel natural and how self-conscious I felt for part of the night, and tell everyone that I think I look awesome without makeup. Until I looked back at this picture, taken just after the hair and makeup were done. And then I thought…

Oh what the hell. I did look pretty awesome. (:

 

If you disagree, you can keep that thought to yourself!

It’s proven: he really is fat and cute!

Shen Wen, the amazing balloon popper. (:

And there was this stupid game thing involving my date (Prashanth) being forced to have three balls in his pants for a while.

I’m not going to blog about it!!!!!!!!!! I don’t know how to put that kind of thing into words! You can save me the trouble and read the short story here and here.

Oh and just in case you didn’t know yet, that’s not REALLY what happened. I won by accident. If you want to know what REALLY happened, ask me or Prashanth!

Shen Wen and Koe Yeet won their games, and I won mine (accidentally or otherwise). Conclusion: 5S7 girls rock!

And while you’re there, check out Hui Tien’s Latin dance performance too.

And yes, I do realize how much I look like I’m adjusting my boobs here. Like the Prom Queen.

Looking and feeling rather dishevelled after all the dancing, none of which was slow. (:

 

Shaun and Sheng Hoay looking very couply. (: These two were easily the craziest dancing couple on the dance floor that night!

I’m not sure why but Lily and I decided to do a hunchback thing for this picture.

Prashanth, me and the ridiculous tea set that we/I won.

Winning is fun. (: Thank goodness for Jin’s apparent half-blindness.

And if the other two couples are unhappy about our unfair win, you can come claim the tea set from me. I don’t want it, and he doesn’t want it either! It’s just going to grow mushrooms in my bedroom.

 

 

Class Trip @ Langkawi-Penang, 17-20 December 2009

Most of us got home from Prom about 1am, and rolled out of bed to get to school before 6am the next day.

I didn’t bring a camera, so all these pictures are my favorites, grabbed from FaceBook. There are tons more there, go and see. (:

Day 1: Most of it was dedicated to travelling. But we had fun on the beach.

The Class!

Day 2: We went up the cable car up Gunung Machinchang. And here I am, leaving my/our mark at 705 meters above sea level.

:D

 

I look like a rockstar. (:

A very happy rockstar!

We also went to the Kilim Geopark which, as it turns out, is full of horses and elephants. Like you wouldn’t believe. (Inside thing! (; )

Day 3: Spent most of the day travelling to Penang and playing on the beach. Got chucked into the water by the banana boat driver.

I wasn’t posing in this shot, and I like it. It just screams “Sexyback”! Thanks, Mabel!

My favorite picture of the lot. (: Hui Tien, me, Meng Xin, Leng Hue and Shen Wen. If Kim had been in the picture it would have been perfect.

Day 4: Went to eat cendol at Penang Road. And this is all of us who had sunnies, posing like a bunch of very retarded rockstars! I like Sze Geet’s pose by the way.

The roommates: Meng Xin, Shen Wen, Hui Tien. Me, Kim, Leng Hue .

And then, you know lah. I stayed in Penang to grow mushrooms while the rest of you went back down to KL. The idea was to save me some 10 hours of travelling time, because my family would be coming up on the 22nd. In retrospect, it wasn’t such a fair tradeoff because I missed out on a few extra hours with the class and got 72 hours of sheer boredom in return. (Sorry mah-mah and yeh-yeh! But it’s the truth!)

BUT that’s all resolved because my family got here last night! At long bloody last! HOO-RAY! I’m thankful for even the childish banter I engage my 11-year-old kid brother in!

But it’s still going to take at least a few days for all of my grey matter to fully regenerate.

And I’m already missing you guys much! Please please please try to make it on the 27th (:

***

Overall conclusion: despite all the worry and drama involving mates, dates, makeup and motorbikes(!!!), Prom and class trip ROCKED SOCKS! I wouldn’t expect anything less of the class trip, but the turnout of Prom took me by surprise. It really makes up for the lousy graduation day I had. Prom was awesome, more so than I expected. You should have seen people like Shaun, Kai Boon and Juosie going wild.

Fuiyohhh. :D

Too bad there weren’t any pictures of us dancing, spastically or otherwise, because it was memorable!

I’m trying to find a less offensive way to say this, but I can’t: I think it was ‘cause the clique people, the people we usually deem “popular”, weren’t there. They probably thought they had better things to do, and went off partying elsewhere. Or else there were too many of the rest of us. Well good for them, great for us! For once they weren’t the ones that hogged the limelight. It was our night to have fun.

Weird. Because that means in a way, if you play it exactly right, Prom really is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. But you don’t need the most awesome makeup, the most awesome dress or even a date to make the night an awesome one. I did look good, I did have a good dress, and I did have an awesome date.

But the fun part did not consist of any of that. It was just letting all go and screaming off the post-SPM/high school stress, and partying it out with the people who’ve walked with me for 5 years or more. I didn’t need to have all the things I worried about (dress, shoes, makeup) to have that much fun. And it only happens just this once, because college will only be 18 months long. There’s not enough time to bond, compared to 5 years of high school.

I eat my words.

And I lied. I do have ONE picture.

Stop laughing

Damn, I rock. :D