fantastic 4: rise of the silver surfer is the first of all the summer blockbusters to feature sneak preview shows...
not just that, it might as well be released on the 13th instead of the 14th, what with the huge number of shows in all theatres...
anyone up for it on this coming wednesday? =)

as i read dozens of blogs, current and past entries, it got me thinking - in my 5 years of pre-tertiary education, i've kinda done most of what i wanted to...
i've gone through the 6-month whirlwind that is AC OM, dreamed of doing it again (as i've dreamt of doing all those once-in-a-lifetime experiences again after the feeling of it being over)
that same year i immersed myself in the creative nirvana that is CAP, and also wanted to join the alumnus and come back as a mentor and all that jazz, but after paying the 10dollar membership fee i've never been back...
(its a pity i was such a ditz when i was younger and didn't have the habit of blogging blow by blow the amazing events as i went through them as i do now, but there's really no point rehashing them 3 years later is there)
a year before that i did the music bit of secondary school life by getting silver at the syf, and performed at foa the next (that's the only thing i've never quite wanted to do again, i think coz it didn't leave with with that much of a hangover since it didn't really give me that much of a high)
i jumped on the IP bandwagon (my year was the second year IPs were around, but it was really the year that made it very in vogue), applied to everything, got accepted into everything, chose one excellent school over the other great ones, and never regretted a minute of it...
there are 4 things i take back from nj, or more importantly, the njcIP, that i would never have gotten so early on if i'd stayed in ac in '05...
i understood what class spirit really REALLY was about having been in a really close-knit class, i experienced, prematurely but gratefully (as it would turn out to be the only real time i'd get to), the extreme high that is the first orientation of any jc (dance party and all), i ran for council and was an ogl, working with J2s and J1s that treated us 15yrolds as equals, and i made some awesome friends (guys and girls), some whom i had known before and grew closer to, others who were knew and exciting characters, all adding a robustness to my circle of friends, an addition i would never have had if i stayed in my comfort zone of 8 yrs in ac and same faces from a long time back...
i almost repeated the application frenzy in '06, but stopped short of mailing the filled-in forms, and decided to settle for the IB course...
not to mention debating all this time...
it was a cca i'd never even thought about before secondary school, but it turned out to be the only constant... though i never did get the a div champions trophy i wanted, meeting team c and helping establish nj's debating culture by winning the b div was a high on its own...
there's only been one thing i've never done so far - being part of the leadership body of a school...
i went for the selection camp in sec 1 (a camp that many of us who went still remember as probably the last tough camp before they scaled it back subsequently) and ran for council in 05, but these were really for secondary reasons, for the rush that it brought with it, so not experiencing them didn't stay with me at all...
this year's council campaign thing was more significant, in that it was one of those things that i wanted to do, and not getting the chance to do it despite having tried was quite a dampener, and i was just reminded of that hearing from the councillers who just got out from camp this week...
but you make yourself up and get back in the race...
not doing OM, CAP (and council) this year kinda goes against everything i'd planned to do - jump right into the hectic lifestyle i'd been missing for quite some time...
i'm glad i didn't though, coz it meant that i went for oep with my class, and it resolved the disconnected-ness i'd been feeling from the beginning of the year that was really getting to me...

so yeah, 2007's turning out pretty ok so far, and as we're approaching the half-way mark (oddly represented by the term exams that are stressing all of us out), i'm hopeful that the rest of it will be something i can smile back upon...

that's life,
jlc(aines).