Spread Peace, Improve, Conserve Environment (SPICE), royal wedding

The environmental club of our school and sister schools. I joined. We're hosting the Congress, as I said before. There's going to be presentations, speeches, movies and whatnot. For 3-4 days. Wow!
Britain needs to get rid of the head-up-ass idea of hereditary privileges. In a proper world, no one gets power and privilege simply by virtue of birth. Their monarch doesn't need a driving license, did you know that? And then the whole publicity stunt with their private ceremonies. Spending six figures in the post-recession era. Commendable, Willie, commendable. I don't see how all the people in Britain worship some people, just like them, not because of ability but because of birth. Simply birth. And then the royals have some stupid rules: succession preference to younger brothers over older sisters, prohibiting royals from marrying Catholics... these Brits and more so their royals won't let go of outdated discriminatory ideas and anti-humanist practices. Stupid! I don't understand why every country in the world is so jubilant about a semi-bald armed forces guy from London marrying a pretty small-town brunette. Happens everyday!

Swearing In

First off, sorry for the delay: my internet connection was interrupted by a storm yesterday.

So, yesterday, on the 25th of April, 2011, the School Cabinet for the Academic Year 2011-12 was formally sworn in. It was a solemn affair as usual, but being a part of it was on a whole different level than the usual awe. The badge of the Assistant Discipline Minister felt so heavy when the Principal first pinned it on. Each minister from 10th grade was sworn in along with their assistants from the 9th. I now have a nice neat blue badge with 'Asst. Discipline' inscribed on it in white capital letters: blue and white, the colours of our school flag, uniform and the monochrome version of our logo. Today we were called to the Principal's office for the distribution of duties. My 'boss' and I are to visit classes and rate their level of discipline so that they can be rewarded accordingly.

My badge

Also, this year is a special year as the Annual Convention of the SPICE club, the environmental club of all Carmel schools, is being hosted by our school. The Cabinet of course is expected to take charge of the organising along with the teachers. There's a whole lot to plan out: Students, teachers and nuns from so many different sister schools will be here, along with several dignitaries. We'll have to prepare hard: there's so much to do, planning events, decoration, welcoming, hiring, and a lot else. A whole lot of orders will be flying back and forth. And combined meetings will be held, with the Cabinet and concerned staff. There's loads of work to do, orders to give and follow, brainstorming to be done. I'm so excited that my junior cabinet year is going so well. I'm sure I'll learn a lot, and it will help me do my job better if I (hope so!) get a post next year too.

Wallpaper 29, busted UPS

The result of experiments with brush modes of the same colour with a little filter applied in the end. Looks better in original size, as usual.
This one won't be available on the Wallpapers page right away, as I've decided that the page editor hates my images too much, so my wallpapers will be put up in twos from now on -- putting up a single is more trouble than I can handle, especially with a busted UPS. Yes, I'm working on direct power. A single power cut and all my unsaved stuff gone poof. Along with a little bit of my computer's life.

Good News, Bad News, and more

In our school, the School Cabinet consists of the School Pupil Leader, the Assistant School Pupil Leader, and the ministers from class 10, and the assistant ministers of class 9. And guess what? Yesterday I got one of the most important portfolios, the one which is sworn in right after the SPL & ASPL-- I'm the Assistant Discipline Minister! We'll be sworn in on Monday (25/4/11) and I'll get my badge.

That was, obviously, the good news. The bad news is, the editor and founder of Tinkle, my favourite children's magazine, Mr. Anant Pai, the guy who always insisted that kids call him Uncle Pai... he's no more! The latest (March) issue of Tinkle announced the news. It happened on 24th Feb. I feel bad for not coming to know of it earlier.

Also, today the little kindergarten kids at school were formally initiated into the school. As every year, the parents of the kids attended. The school doesn't watch the program. Just the senior students in charge, the nuns and the pre-primary teachers are present. So we usually don't get to watch any Initiation other than our own. I still remember my own one, back when I was four, and now here I was helping teachers during an Initiation as a senior student. The routine of the initiation has stepped up a whole lot, it's much better than mine was. New stage lights have been installed in the auditorium. Watching the initiation was loads of fun, helping the teachers conduct the event and going around giving instructions to the parents was a fun too. The most fun was missing SUPW (Socially Useful Productive Work, ie. crafts and stuff) class for it. However, there was a huge drama in the class which I came to know of later. The teacher was totally unfair and paranoid with everyone, however it isn't so much of a huge surprise given her previous records, though this one surely beats it all.

Also missed Value Education for the Swearing-In Ceremony Rehearsals. Yeah!

SPL Elections

Today we elected the school pupil leader for the academic session 2011-12. There were five nominees. Sadly the candidate I voted didn't win. She got the second highest votes though. So she'll be the assistant SPL. Like every year I noted the results as they came. But I guess posting them here would be pretty boring. I can't afford to be more boring given the somewhat makeshift posts I'm putting up these days.

L, l

First blog post with the letter L. I found it to be the next letter I'd never begun a post title with. So here you are: L, l, lo, lid, line, llama, loiter, leopard, lavender, lethargic, liberalism. Bonus: legislature, lexicography. 13-20, anyone?

Absence Makes...

...the wallpaper grow better.

Another one that looks better in the original size. (#28)

Gen3

Travians is an awesome game. I have my second regeneration in the game tomorrow, so today is my last day before generation 3. I'm dead busy. Wallpaper, I promise, in next post.

100 posts, now 101

So I didn't post for two days and am posting a little less now. Yes, I do have many wallpapers queued up, but you see with my intermittent connection it takes me lots of time to finish my other internet work and I hardly have time left to blog.
But hey, I still managed to reach the 100 post-mark with the last post, or so Blogger tells me. I'm too lazy to count. And yes, Sherlock, this is the 101st post. No brownie points for deducing that. It's way too elementary.

J, j

Once again employed the idea of typing in letters to find a letter I've never begun a post title with, and then ranting about it. Because I don't have anything (much) else going and it's too late at night to go through the trouble of uploading a wallpaper -- as I said before, the post editor hates my images, and it's even worse when I try to add one to the standing wallpaper page.
So, here goes: J looks like a traditional umbrella handle and like an inverted cane. Or better still, a candy cane. J, j, jo, jog, joke, joker, joyful (reminds me of value ed class dammit), janitor, junkyard, juxtapose, jackhammer.
Bonus: judgemental :)

Conspiracy Inc.

The cover in which
I read the book

I finished reading The Lost Symbol. This Dan Brown guy is superb. In the previous two Langdon books he did deal with controversial topics, but this one beats them, with it's background story set in a more modern time, and the greater number of complex emotions, deaths, shocking revelations, and plot twists. It smells typical Dan Brown, of course. Taking advantage of the same conspiracy theories that his protagonist hates so much. He's taken full advantage of the aura of mystery that surrounds Freemasonry. Reminds me of all the Freemason-themed eerie games I've played. By the way, I just found out that the game referred to in Angels & Demons, called 'Illuminati: New World Order' actually exists. I don't know if it was made after the book or before.
Edit: Remember the Freemasonry connection in the last Sherlock Holmes novel The Valley of Fear?
(Image: Google)

WORLD CUP

India just won the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011. I finished The Lost Symbol, but gonna talk about it tomorrow. Tomorrow everything else. Now,  CHAK DE INDIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!