Friday 11 February 2011

Efficient Corruption

This post began 'construction' on 11 February 2011, and was edited and posted on 12 February 2011.

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YES!

I got my first set of Copic markers today!

Well, but before I elaborate on anything else, I might as well just (not-so) lightly cover my day's journey.

Ah, I remember it just as it was this morning...which it was...but WHATEVER. ;D

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This morning I woke up with sleep still clinging onto me like water riding up the edges of a test tube. I was decidedly not a happy camper. However, knowing the serious consequences of being late to school would include a much dreaded booking as well as a most uncomfortable ride by public bus to school, I safely settled for getting my lazy bum out of the welcoming tendrils of warmth emanating from the bed, sandwiched under a soft layer of comforter.

Dragging my 10 tonne legs to the toilet I brushed my teeth almost lethargically while trying to stay awake, nevermind keeping my eyes open. My arm felt like some sort of lead contraption designed to make locomotion the most horrible thing you'll ever experience. Blearily, I rinsed my mouth with Listerine and stumbled "gracefully" back to my room to change.

Cold assaulted me as I slowly pulled my large night shirt over my head to toss into the laundry basket. Goosebumps were a definite presence on my overly-thermal-sensitive skin. Fumbling slightly, I rushed to get my blouse on before the goosebumps become a permanent fixture on my epidermis. My eyelids drooped yet again for the nth time when I put on the pinafore. Grabbing my freshly washed maroon jacket I stumbled down the stairs.

Blearily I pinned on my school badge and name tag to avoid any strange looks from peers and unwanted attention from suddenly flocking prefects. I tied my hair into its usual low tail and blinked tiredly for a few seconds to clear the fog from my eyes. Why does everything seem so unclear even though I have my glasses on?

We ran out of Soya Milk so I asked for a cup of water instead. It was the most bland thing you've ever tasted, but some liquid down my slightly parched throat was better than none. I tucked my lunch box into my bag before once again returning to a state of the living dead. I sat listlessly like a rather odd-looking doll until the national anthem played over the radio, signalling that it's 06:00, and also time I left home to board the school bus.

My school bag was its usual weight, which comforted me a little for queer reasons I am not going to bother to figure out. Ambling to the school bus, I gazed up at the lightening navy blue sky to look for signs of a secret moon before getting clumsily into the school bus. As the bus drove off I managed to settle myself down without colliding into the roof and causing a spectacular bruise to develop on my large forehead.

Like usual, I dozed off after a few minutes due to a great desire to catch up on sleep that had deserted me when they decided amongst themselves that I needed to wake up just 15 minutes prior. Unlike usual, however, I woke up a few times during the ride. As the first person to board the bus, I could spend about 50 minutes sleeping, but strangely enough, my brain gained consciousness at odd times without any apparent triggers.

I alighted from the school bus in the school car park, walking slowly and heavily to class. There was CES today, which meant that there would be an extra Mathematics lesson awaiting me to face my doom early in the morning which, after morning assembly, would be followed by another Math lesson 55 minutes long.

It turned out, however, that Ms Fan considered the fact that some students were unable to make it for the CES session, and so she turned it into a consultation period. Ah, what a waste. Today would be the first time I'm attending the PEP (Philosophy Enrichment Programme) which is held in the library as informed by an e-mail received 1-2 days ago. I am moderately pleased that I had the foresight to inform Mr. Lorenzo that I wouldn't be coming due to the scheduled CES, but what a disappointment CES turned out to be.

Before the CES lesson I turned on the computer to do a little research on Copic markers. I did a similar research before, but that was mostly out of curiosity. This time, however, I was planning to buy a set of markers for my own use, since my birthday would be coming up in 2 days and I've expressed to my mother my desire to own some of these markers. We decided to go to Bras Basah today, right after Art Club is dismissed from an exhibition at the Singapore Art Museum (SAM).

XinYu, who was supposed to do her English class presentation today, approached me and asked if I knew how to access her thumbdrive on the class computer, because she couldn't. I showed her a nifty solution to the problem as I've been faced with this before with one of my thumbdrives. I actually do wonder if she approached me with any expectations or simply out of convenience. I don't think I've cultivated an image of extreme IT knowledge in class or anywhere else.

I've also realised, as I was unpacking my back onto my table to prepare for CES, that I had forgotten my pencil case altogether. Before that, I had a sudden epiphany which led to me remembering that while Mr. Angullia had mentioned that we would need foolscap for today's lesson, I had clean forgotten about that and brought not a single sheet. Thankfully, I managed to secure a pen from ShuYing and a pencil and a foolscap from Jaslin.

When the minute hand neared the 30 minutes mark to indicate 08:30 at 08:20, I proceeded to the parade square, not donning my maroon jacket. I have come to realise that if I do not wear it in the school bus I would not likely wear it to morning assembly. As it was, I only draped my jacket around me during the bus ride this morning.

Finding ChuNing whom I know to be from the PEP since I looked through the e-mail receipients who were informed of PEP's location earlier yesterday, I asked her about what she did today at PEP. It seems that the first session was mightily unproductive, mostly introductions, so I was relieved.

Since it was a Friday the Lower Secondary students assemble in the hall in preparation for assembly which is their first block. This left the entire parade square to the Upper Secondary. Needless to say, most of the student body were too dense to realise this and still gathered in their usual positions, and it wasn't until 5 minutes before morning assembly began that they finally realised they were standing in a spot far different from where they were supposed to be.

Singing voices were barely heard over the booming instrumental of the national anthem. If I could wager a little I would say that little under than a fifth of the students actually bothered to sing. I was not one of them. I used to be, though, but after an entire week of intermittent bursts of sore throat I didn't feel it safe to use my voice, as it would probably come out as some husky, undetermined sound.

Little announcements were made, and we were dismissed without fuss. Weaving through the dense crowd I nimbly manoeuvred my way back to class, lightness in my steps starkly contrasting with their sluggish movements just earlier that morning. Fast-paced but not quite delicately, I was the first back in class and pressed the switches for the lights.

Mathematics, as the first lesson, was a decidedly disgusting move on the timetable department's part. To begin the day, a FRIDAY nonetheless, with a mind-blowing lesson was just too much. I did manage to survive the lesson, and prepared for assembly by readying my tie. With a expert tug here and a wrap there I neatly formed the tie's shape and then secured it to my collar with a flourish, making it look like I had my uppermost button buttoned when it was not.

Before I move on I must mention this little experiment I did on 1 February this year right before the Chinese New Year break. I wore my tie properly, but instead of showing it, I pulled on my maroon jacket like I always do, and this time zipped it all the way up so that no part of my tie shows through. I don't usually do this when going for assembly, but I was doing an experiment that day. I pushed up my sleeves and then brazenly walked out of class and to the hall.

I was slightly disappointed that I wasn't accosted to show proof of my tie when I walked past the hall's entrance doors, but it vanished when a prefect ran up to me after I had walked pretty much half the length of the hall to ask if I brought my tie, a pretty euphemism for, "I KNOW you didn't bring your tie. Now let me catch you in the act and book you." The prefect probably didn't have this conscious intention, but her inner justice was probably roaring this anyway.

So, nonchalantly, I unzipped my jacket. I imagine she was looking a little tinged when she left, but I was too flustered with success from the experiment to notice anything. So, if one wants to enter the hall but does not have a tie, one should not zip the jacket up full and roll up the sleeves. That would make you look like you're warm, but somehow or another unwilling to remove your jacket. Reason? Well, the prefects (and all other students, for the matter) probably think you didn't bring your tie.

Today's assembly was going to be a similar but different experiment. This time I zipped up full but did not pull up my sleeves. In addition, to complete the image, I tucked my fists into my jacket's pockets as if to keep them warm. I was filtered into the hall without much fuss. Huh, so this is what you should do if you want to enter without a tie. Now we all know what to do, don't we?

Assembly was radically unlike every other assembly. While it began with the singing of the school song with an innocent quality comparable to heaven's choir accompanied by a pure tune of gentle, piano notes distinctly rendering a graceful, lady-like quality to the song, its main agenda was to signal the end of Friendship Appreciation Week (FAW) and start the Student Congress discussions.

With a short clip depicting students thanking various Executive Administrative Staff (EAS) and a spoken testimony presented via the video of the EAS showing appreciation for their work in RGSS, it was an effective conclusion to the week. While each department's representative ascended the steps to receive a token of appreciation from our new vice-principal, I could not help but notice that the green men were awarded a resounding applause no other staff departments had. Well, I guess appreciation for green men have been successfully inculcated into us. Shouldn't we begin to appreciate the other EAS now?

Immediately after the proclaimed end of FAW'11, Student Congress stepped up and headed a discussion about Timetables and School Infrastructure. Without much doubt, there were some complaints brought up which were irrelevant to the topic. It was clearly stated by the Congress Speakers that applause are to be held until the end, but the student body clearly didn't have ears, or else their ingenius minds were smashed into goo the moment a moderately 'cool' issue was brought up.

The discussion first started out very slowly, but once the ball started rolling, stopping it was an issue. There were many times when the Congress Speakers suggest the same solution of speaking to relevant teachers, which we all know to do but somehow have no mind to think of it as a REAL solution. In fact, it wouldn't be too far a stretch to say that it got annoying how the Speakers kept dodging issues like that after a while.

We were dismissed for recess soon enough. Snatching up my lunchbox I flew with the swiftness of an eagle cutting through the blue skies to the canteen. All my preferred round tables were already taken up, so I made do with a round table on the side of the canteen closer to J-Block. Rachael Sim joined me not long after, and we chatted a bit before going back up to imitate lifeless sculptures in our chairs. At least, I did.

Then entire of English block was used for an FA on documentary review writing, so XinYu didn't present to the class today. The video was about surrogate mothers in India, and while I have no idea what the documentary was supposed to be conveying, I decided against writing a draft and started on my essay immediately. I noticed, much to my chagrin, that Jaslin, who was my desk mate to my right, was actually doing a draft. I felt horribly unprepared then.

The word limit was 300-350, but I overshot it by 10 words. Jaslin and Celine (especially Celine) wrote so much excess that their words sprawled over 1 or more pages while mine was confined to half a page. Well, the fact that I had forgotten to insert paragraphing probably had something to do with its apparent lack in length.

Social Studies went by without a hitch, other than the fact that I wans't particularly interested in how to write the essay, but more on reading the articles for leisure instead. I have interests that do not help my academics, but I am sure this form of enjoyment might make life much more tolerable than others. While Mr. Azahar went to photocopy 31 copies of an article for the class, I forgot that it was still Social Studies period and went to the toilet, coming back and getting mildly surprised that Mr. Azahar was still in class. During this extra time I played around with my hair, and gave it an insociant-ish apperance, which I kept until the end of the day.

Physics was a mess of cluttered information. There was so much to absorb in so little time, even if I actually found out the answers to the questions which I got wrong for before Mr. Thio went through them. There were new ideas brought up and old ones revised. I found I needed that extra reinforcement as my knowledge of Physics is severely limited.

Physics ended early enough for me to get a round table as well as food within 5 minutes. Grace who, like me, was from Art Club, joined me at my table in a while after PanYu, also another person from Art Club, did, and with Grace was one of her friends whom I assume is from Red Cross Youth (RCY). Grace mentioned that she had to do a worksheet when she visited SAM yesterday with half of Art Club. She also brought up the fact that only 2 Sec4 Art Club members were amongst the other Art Club and SAP pupils at the exhibition yesterday. Poor girl. Grace commented that she liked my new hair, though. =) I have to admit, I like it too. It looks professionally messy.

Grace accompanied me all the way to my class where I packed up belongings. Before leaving for the foyer where the half of Art Club (and SAP) who haven't been to the exhibitions yet are assembling, I made a quick detour to the toilet once more. I simply cannot help but want to be on the safe side.

At the foyer I saw AnYan (AY) playing the piano, so I walked up to her with Grace in tow and set down my bag at the foot of the piano. I soaked up the music she played with much gratification. Grace also played a song or two before I reminded her that she wanted to take a picture of my awesome hair. She took 2 photos, and I asked her to send them to me because I thought my hair was awesome too. I spied Mr. Wong beyond the yellow Singa and passed up my consent form, and also refilled my waterbottle at the cooler adjacent to the foyer.

AY and I stuck together like some sort of honey. We weren't as close as glue, although we did think of that since we didn't know much of the other Sec4s very well anyway, but close enough. I feel a little guilty for leaving ShuYing out of my fun, but I think she was close enough to PanYu to enjoy herself.

When we boarded a bus, it didn't move for over 15 minutes. We were then told to transfer to another bus. What a weird thing. Can't they simply transfer drivers?

We first went to a warehouse in Tanjong Pagar where art pieces were displayed in large, warehouse halls. There were some rather controversial images, such as one of the Japanese emperors with a pregnant woman's nude body and holding a shovel to signify the desire of the emperor to make up for horrible labour treatments by giving birth to the labourers again. It was pretty vague, but I could completely appreciate the technique that went into the painting.

An interesting thing to note is that we got lost both getting to and from the exhibition hall. Firstly, we took the wrong elevator up. It was a cargo elevator, so even though we arrived at the correct floor the entrance to the floor was sealed. Then, when we boarded a broad passenger elevator, we finally found our way. The doors of the elevators looked like thick metal, and slid down with a sort of slow, groaning movement. There were doors on both sides of the elevators, and they opened depending on the level. Mr. Wong told us that if we got our bodies stuck in between the door and the floor, we'd be crushed immediately. We found out later that that was an empty scare, for sensors at the doors would immediately force the doors to retreat should something be in the way.

The exhibitions there were creepy. Firstly, right in front of the elevator, was a ginormous installment of large clay pots punched in while the clay was still semi-wet in places to specifically form a likeless of humans singing. There was another memorable installment which was many dogs arranged in rows and collumns with 3 LED displays on the ground showing, in sliding movement, a testimony of a girl who survived the bombing at Hiroshima. The words used were simple yet hauntingly despairing. In a room in a seemingly unknown wall of the hall was a silent video screening, inspired by the life of two people so trapped in their own ideals that they work in a dreamlike state without interaction with the outside world.

As we took the passenger lift down again to level 1, the door on the other side opened. We found ourselves rather lost when faced with the unfamiliar sight. There were workers looking at us from the landing. I suppose they were the ones who pressed for the lift. We were facing the other side of the building! It would be a VERY long walk back to the side which we had been on. We tried looking for exit doors but they were emergency ones. As a last minute attempt, we gathered back inside the elevator and closed the doors, then opened them again. Thank goodness the door to the other side opened!

We visited the second hall at the warehouse without getting all that lost because we've been to that hall before, but not after the changed the exhibits. These exhibits are the controversial ones.

Next, we boarded the same bus to SAM. This meant that we left our bags on the bus while we were at Tanjong Pagar. Taking our bags with us when we alighted at SAM because we weren't going to take the bus again, we ran across the small distance from the bus to shelter because it was raining slightly. Within the lobby of SAM, we were each given a saturated blue-green circular sticker which read in white: I AM MADE FOR SAM which I later dropped on the bus home. Hmm. "Who's SAM? Someone's boyfriend?" was what was running through all our minds, sarcastically. Funnily enough, my mother later brought up that I had a cousin called 'Samuel'...

While we set aside our bags in a cage-like huge locker, AY and I decided to try and impersonate any one of our original characters (OCs) for the length of the visit at SAM. I chose Lucille Trinity, one of my latest OCs, as his personality was pretty much fixed, and I wouldn't feel TOO embarrassed imitating him since he, like me, has a lot of pride and wouldn't do anything silly that would stain my face a permanent red.

SAM's galleries were good, as expected. Heck, it was interesting! Especially the exhibition where this woman sewed velvet over her father's bones and made it so that they look like art exhibitions. It was amazingly beautiful yet creepy at the same time. There was also a small (claustrophobia-inducing, which might have been the desired outcome) room where everything was red, and shelves were lined evenly with bottles which contained "blood". Their labels even have instructions on how to consume them!

We were dismissed surprisingly early at 17:45, a very different time from what Grace said. She told us her group was released at roughly 18:30. Hmm, perhaps it's because Mr. Wong has already been to the exhibitions that he can gauge how much time is needed for each and herd us along appropriately. On our way out we picked up a free magazine near the counter called Muse.

Others left for home immediately after dismissal, while I stayed back and waited for my mother who said she'd be coming at 18:15 to go with me to Bras Basah to buy Copics. I was incredibly excited, but when I called her she said she'd take a while, so I read Muse while trying to pass the time. When I called her at 18:15 because she still wasn't there, she said she was still waiting for a bus, but she shouldn't take long, so I continued reading. It was probably the largest coincidence ever that just as I finished reading the magazine my mother called me at around 18:35.

It didn't really register that it was my phone that was ringing since I don't usually turn my phone off silent mode, so the ringtone sounded incredibly foreign to me. When I picked it up my mother told me that she was already nearby and gave me directions to a building which was probably some office of NTUC. I followed it, and stopped at a small road crossing even though there wasn't any traffic. Well, all I cared about was that I shouldn't cross when the red man is on.

Under the NTUC building my mother and I reunited and went on our merry way to Bras Basah. I was surprised at how close it was to SAM. My mother did show me the map yesterday but I didn't actually think it'd be THAT close. Excitement rising within me, I happily accepted my mother's offer of soggy fries from her lunch, picking them with much care with a serviet???????????? so as to not contaminate the fries with whatever strange germs I have on my hands.

At Bras Basah we checked the directory. I read online earlier that morning about a shop called ArtMark which sold Copics as well as Art Friend. Well, we all know that Art Friend sells just about anything, so it wasn't much of a surprise. The directory told us that Art Friend was on the 3rd floor while ArtMark was on the 4th, so we decided to go to Art Friend first to check the price, as the thread I read said that ArtMark offered better Copics discount.

I was overwhelmed by the selection of Copic there, and was torn between Copics, Copic Sketch, and Copic Ciao. Well, I wasn't actually all that interested in Ciao since I read a feedback somewhere that was pretty negative. Even though the subsequent comments all had testimonies which denied the truthfulness of the negative feedback, I didn't want to risk anything. Copics were a little hard, so I decided to get Copic Sketch.

The sets were not present at the shelves but at the counter, and my mother helped me ask if they could show us the sets since I have no idea which colours to buy as it's my first time buying Copics. I was really torn. The choices within each set were good, but while one of the sets had colours for skin which I absolutely adore, the other one had another shade which was perfect as well. In the end I temporarily picked a set that looked most suited for skin, something I would likely be colouring most. One of the sets was a box of saturated colours, and I wasn't too pleased with that as it didn't offer me much choices for skin colours, if any at all.

Then, my mother suggested that instead of getting the sets we get the holder for the markers and then pick the colours I wanted. I wasn't really confident of getting nice colours, though, since I have no idea what I want and need. However, I accepted her proposition. It was a little tough to make this decision since the box would cost more separate from the set.

Before choosing colours we went up to ArtMark to check out the prices there. Turns out there wasn't a difference, and in fact, ArtMark didn't sell sets of 12 but of 36 and 72, which were way too expensive to afford. So we went back to Art Friend.

I spent a really long time selecting the colours. By the time Art Friend decided to close shop I had only picked 9 colours. The boxes were a little hard to tell whether they were for Copic Sketch or Copic Ciao or Copics, since all the markers had different shapes and sizes, and each box was custom made to fit their specific markers. In the end, my mother got a box which could fit 36 Copic Sketch markers. She told me that I could add more to my collection like this if I got a large box. I was pleased, very much so.

We decided to go to to ArtMark to get a few more colours. I picked another 9 colours, and clean forgot to get a normal red and green marker. I was too engrossed in choosing aesthetically pleasing colours that I totally ignored saturated colours. Well, that's a lesson for you to learn: Never EVER get too carried away that you forget your basics.

I realised that I left the Muse magazine in ArtMark when we had gone down by a level, so I returned to get it while my mother decided that nature was calling. I made my way up the steps alone, feeling incredibly creeped out by the acute lack of people in the area and also by the fact that the architecture was old. It felt like a horror movie, and frankly, I was afraid that some creep would come out and kidnap me. I held my bundle of precious (and EXPENSIVE) Copics close to me because I really didn't want to ruin them before I even have a chance to try them out.

Luckily, ArtMark was just nearly closing and hadn't closed yet, so I got the magazine without issues. Come to think of it, I was standing at the glass door and motioning at the magazine which was lying on the counter looking severely out of place, and the cashier lady seemed to understand what I was trying to say. Well, her face was a little scary although she was pretty so it was kind of freaky, but when I voiced my thanks she smiled and I was filled with some sort of, "Oh, so she can smile so nicely too." feeling.

The rest of Bras Basah still looked incredibly like a horror movie set.

I went to meed my mother in the toilet since she hadn't come to our designated meeting place yet, and walked with her down and to the bus stop opposite to get onto a direct bus, 133, home. The bus ride was remotely uneventful, except for when 4 teenagers came in, 2 Chinese girls, 1 Indian girl and 1 Indian boy. The bus became a little noisy for a while. Before they came in my mother and I sat in different rows since not many seats were available, but when the seats opened up, we sat in the second last row on the right, since there were no other adjacent seats.

The teengaers came in after we changed seats. One of the Chinese girls got the Indian girl to help her put on her earring, while the other Chinese girl commented that her ear hole was bleeding so they couldn't see the hole itself. It must be noted that they were attempting to insert the earring at the TOP of the ear shell, which likely means that the piercing is at the top. Strange, I've rarely seen these, and in most cases, in mangas. I actually like piercing my OCs' ears in odd places, though. =)

Halfway through the teenagers compacted into 2 sets of adjacent seats, one in front of the other, while my mother and I sat behind them. My mother suggested putting the Copics into the box we bought, and I thought it was a good idea to pass time. When we unwrapped the box from its multi-layered plastic wrapping, we found that it was cracked, though. I didn't really mind the crack, but my mother lamented about how expensive the box was (S$7.00+) and that it was such a pity. We couldn't really have noticed the crack, though, since so many layers of plastic was wrapping it that it marred out vision.

While I rearranged the markers, I also tried to arrange their caps to face the right direction. While doing so I accidentally dropped the cap of an orange Copic Sketch, which led me to squat and look about for it. I must have looked a littlel like a pervert... When I was unsuccessful and now feeling a little depressed, my mother told me to hold the box while she took it. She found it near her seat. I didn't actually expect it there, since the bus lurched forward and I thought the cap might have flew forward as well. My mother then told me not to do anything else, and I completely agree with her. I don't want to lose a cap (or a marker!) for good. They were so EXPENSIVE! ><

We arrived home at around 20:20, and had dinner immediately. The bus ride was approximately 30 minutes long. Yes. If you do the Math, we spent a LONG time at Bras Basah. Oddly enough, my father was getting some stuff out of the car boot when we arrived home. I assume he just arrived as well. My mother asked him why he was so early (I was all, "EARLY?!") and she added if my brother had CCA (Astronomy) today. My father replied negative, which made everything make a lot of sense.

My brother's Astronomy CCA is held at night on Fridays, and ends at around 22:00, see.

At home I consumed dinner and a very odd looking gummy bear which was actually 4 gummy bears melted into each other to look like a piece of shapeless gummy. The interesting thing about it is that out of all the many possible colours, red and yellow were the make-up, and in equal amounts as well! Even more queer is that it is arranged in such a way that it almost forms a square, with the top right gummy being yellow, the bottom right red, the bottom left yellow and the top right red. Interesting, isn't it?

When I thought that the box didn't come with a cover after opening it on the bus, I just didn't notice that the cover was tucked OVER the base. I found that out right at the end of the day when I discovered to a dent in each narrow side of the box. I held the box up by those dents, mildly interested in their purpose, when the cover fell off...well, colour me surprised.

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FAST FORWARD to 12/02/2011

My mother decided that she wanted to exchange the broken box for a new one, since there was a 3 day warranty/exchange limit at Art Friend. So we took the bus to Bras Basah after lunch. There, I picked up another 3 colours, red, green and blue, and bought a Sakura Micron pen as well. My mother and I spent a long time browsing through other shelves just to take a look at what they sold. Art Friend really did sell a lot, but I don't get the feeling of a friendly air in the store...I wonder why.

I bumped into one of my cousins, YuXuan, at Art Friend. Because he was MALE, I felt completely weirded out. It's not like I hate him or anything. Actually, looking back, I didn't even recognise him. When he called out, "Er4 Jiu4 Ma1" from behind us my mother turned around to look, and exclaimed my cousin's name. When I myself turned to look, I didn't recognise him at all, and thought there was some strange mistake, until my mother insisted that the tall boy behind me whom I didn't recognise was YuXuan. Oh dear. I guess he just changed too much over the course of the 1 year I haven't seen him. It's not much of an excuse, though, since I do see him every year during Chinese New Year, and IT HAS JUST PASSED. O.o

We took the bus back, and at home, right now at my computer, I remembered that some of my favourite characters' hairs are blond, and I HAVE NO YELLOW COPICS. Wow. Epic. I don't want to go all the way there again to get one...I have an orange-ish colour which could double as a very dark shade of yellow, though, but most of my characterse have very light blond hair. Perhaps one of the very light brown shade I got would do...but it doesn't look very yellow!

So, I shall present a complete list of the marker colours I bought, if anyone wants a reference. There are 21 markers in total.

V01, V06, RV42, R02, R17, R59, YR00, Y38, G14, G21, G99 BG49, B000, B28, B3, E29, E30, E57, C1, 0, 100

V likely refers to violet, R red, Y yellow, G green and B black. I have absolutely no idea what E represents, but the colours of Es are brown-ish. C=Cool, a set of gray colours. 0 is a colourless blender, and 100 is black. There's a 110 called 'Special Black', but I honestly can't tell the difference...

I feel quite unique, you know, because most people start off with a set of colours pre-picked for them, while I selected my own colours. I hope to get more, but I think I can do a lot with what I currently have. =) I will try not to let the money go to waste! Each marker costs S$5.85!