Its time for new year resolutions again~! seeing as how i failed so abysmally last year, perhaps i should set even simpler and more generic resolutions this time around.

1. I resolve to stop downloading new manga series.

Note: the keyword is new. which means no more one-shots, no more 'ooh, this was from the author of... ...let's get it!'. but i'm still entitled to my koukou, shaman, vagabond, and of coz read online. hehz.

2. I resolve to stop surfing dubious websites.

3. I resolve to increase my net asset value by graduation.

Note: if my NAV doesn't increase after graduation it means i ain't got a job.

4. I resolve to get my CFA level 1.

5. I resolve to STOP reading manga during exam periods.

Note: This rule is relaxed on the exam day itself. If i'm too sian to study, i'll rather i go sleep, bathe, write, or watch korean dramas over yy's shoulders.

6. I resolve to sleep before 1.30am and wake up before 9am.

Note: best if i can wake up before 8am and jog over to the admin building to pick up a free newspaper.

7. I resolve to get slimmer.

8. I resolve to read 5 investment-related books.

9. I resolve to get at least an A- for my FYP.

10. I resolve to spend more time with my family. 

for the first time ever, Hall 13 finally won the boggle silver medal~!

the boggle interhall was fraught with mini-disasters. the first round started at 10am as per normal, and i double-checked the penalties scoring system with the umpire. there was no problems and we proceeded with our game... and i ended up scoring 41 to 21 against my opponent, before the penalties kicked in.

in a sudden and insane twist, the umpire said that the penalty was such that each word which was successfully challenged would give a penalty of 5 points to the challenged, while each wrongfully challenged word adds 1 point to the challenged guy's score.

i was stunned. my opponent had a deduction of 15 points and the score became 42-6 in my favour. this was totally against what she said before, and when i asked her to recount the penalties scoring system she told us before the match started, she couldn't remember what she said, and insisted that the chief umpire said the penalty was 5 points each, instead of 2 points for 3,4 letter-ed words, 3 points for 5-lettered... as was the case last year. i got her to go check with the chief umpire again.

there was a huge decry over the issue, and she insisted that the chief umpire said that all the recreational secretaries had discussed and agreed to this change in rules. i silently resolved to kick gerard in the shin for neglecting to let us know.

but it turned out that it wasn't gerard's fault, coz none of the other recreational secretaries, with the exception of the chief umpire's hall knew about the changes.

there was a halt, where the secretaries had a loud and agitated debate (it wasn't an argument, and no one was scolded) over the rules, and finally it was decided that the competition would be played according to the old rules.

and we had to play round 1 all over again.

"WHY?" i asked. "can't we just recount with the updated system?" our third player won under the updated rules, but lost under the 5pt-penalty rule.

but no, we had to play round 1 all over again because "some players had been playing with the 5-pt rule in mind, and this affects their strategy." like whoa. the only players playing with the 5-pt rule in mind was hall 7, and why should i care man? it was their hall that screwed up, and our third player lost subsequently. sheesh.

and we won hall 10 by a close shave, where les and i won, sun and yanh lost, and huimin drew with her opponent. and since les won by a difference of 100 points (pwnage~) it was determined that we won based on spread.

after that incident, our hall managed to win all the remaining halls in the preliminaries, and make it into the semi-finals.

the first day ended behind schedule by 2 hours odd due to the rules screw-up in the morning. and we celebrated our semi-finals candidacy by driving out to eat the famous kway chap at the 179 bus-stop place.

there were only 2 matches on the second day. we faced hall 2 in the semis and won with difficulty 2-3. on the other side, hall 6 killed hall 15 5-0.

and in the finals i faced up against a fellow nbs final year guy, ivan. he was strong, with a good command of his three-letter words. for the first round i scored an embarrassing 13 against his 41. i'd totally missed out the whole row with the letters SHEETS, and i didn't see the weird words such as EDH and MYC.

as i thought, 'shit, i'm gonna get pwned' the board before us started bitching about how she was using the hall 13 game sets, and that it was unfair towards her as 'hall 13 had been practicing with this set'.

i stared at my set. the set was an fugly yellow, with horribly old, cracked cubes. and it said 'hall 6' in faded ink on the underside.

wow, if only she had thrown a real fight about the issue, maybe i could have gotten into the argument and requested my game was unfair too and replay my first round. but her opponent gab was a nice guy, and no one can diss him for long. and so she gave up, and i decided to try to catch up on the 28 points spread through orthodox means. 

the second round was a hard fight, where i managed to get a measly 5-point lead, leaving me trailing in the dust by 25 points. 

i resolved to do well in the third round~ and the umpire shook up a horribly close board and i knew with one look that winning was impossible.

so i lost, gab, yanh and sun lost, and les was the only person who pwned his opponent. but its still a medal~

and we happily went off to IMM to eat cafe cartel in les' van and sun's merz to celebrate our medal.

(and hall 6 strolled over, flags and all, to canteen 13 to eat. i wonder if they did it on purpose -_-)

but as yanh said, we lost boggle to them 4-1 in the finals, but we won them 5-0 in the scrabble finals, so its still our win ultimately~!!! hymph~! 

wow. i found someone i don't like. seeing as how i'm 21 now and i'd only had 3 people i din like until today (there were many who pissed me off, but hey they aren't saints and neither am i; they are like-able)

the first person was this girl in primary one, pretty cute with fair skin and big round eyes. she walked out of the toilet when i was going in, and when i looked up reactively she said 'ta ma de'. in primary one, that was an expletive ranked somewhere on the top of the list of offensive swears. so i cursed back at her, and we became enemies for the next six years.

the second person was another girl whose name i don't know. this one wasn't cute lol. all that happened was that we brushed past each other one day, and she glared at me. i glared back, and she hated me from that day on. of coz, if hated, one should return the favour.

the third person was a guy in my secondary school. i respect him really, but somehow he hates me. as usual, if hated, one should return the favour. so i did him the favour of listing him as xueqi's official enemy no. 3. the only true reasons i got pissed at him was coz he refused to hold my hand for rehearsals, he was socialist while i was capitalist, and he refused to sit beside me for my entire secondary 3, leaving me a lone girl sitting at the front of the class (that hit a bitter spot. i was sitting all-a-lone for a full year sob). ironically for him, his mom sent him to my house for tuition, and we were in the same class for six consecutive years. and since he hated me more than i did him, i just had a good laugh over how unlucky he was.

so! conclusion is i only hate people who hate me~!

but i really really really dislike hypocritical people so here's enemy no. 4, met during the inter-hall games, and made when i read her blog. i was invited by her team-mate to join the school scrabble team for the interschool game. but i really can't imagine being in the same team as her now, and i'm trying to think of how to break it across to her team-mate without straining our relationship. i don't want another scrabble medal so bad that i would team up with someone who said my team sucks after playing us in the finals, and who gave malicious names to my friends. 

sigh... but there's still loyalty to the school and bleah.

i wonder if my hall was hated coz we were always winning and come off as arrogant? its a competition, and i tried my best to be friendly, and not sound arrogant when giving pointers. i feel bad too when i have to play weaker opponents, and i make it a point not to challenge their words, but inform them of mistakes after the game. i do my best against everyone as a courtesy to them, and so they may pick up tips from my playing style. and we're not so hard up for a medal that we'll kick up a fuss just coz the game set belongs to the opponent.

and unless the opponent was discourteous or unsporting, we give them all the respect they deserve. so we SUCK huh? my friend is a ----- (-_-) huh?

hymph. *secretly curses her*