"Summer has come and past. The innocent can never last."
      - Wake Me Up When September Ends - Green Day


And after two summers, suddenly this song just managed to pop its way into my brain,


Aside of the two different internships I did (read: previous blog post), I feel much more satisfied; personally this summer.

This is because while the summer holiday in 2013 was pretty much well-spent with my then-new apartment mates and making new acquaintances, I felt that this year's holiday was more useful to accomplish task on a more personal level.


Let's rewind back to the end of Term 5 in May.

Quite right away after the term ended, I flew back home.
And that was where my break started; home.

Feeling very deprived of games after so long, I practically spent more than half of my waking hours rushing through Mass Effect Trilogy. Somehow though, that still wasn't enough for me. So I completed Sleeping Dogs as well.
Actually, talking about games marathon, I just remembered that before I even flew back home, I was able to finish a storyline of the newest DMC.


Next, fate brought me to a new place yet again.
Never been more grateful for the opportunity to travel.
Visited Japan with le familia for a week.
It was more than an eye-opening experience. It was a trip I would remember for the rest of my life.
Though I wish I could be more involved with the local culture longer. Haha,

Then came the bulk of my summer break: student research assistant internship. Well, sort of.
Doing a rather similar type of work every day, but I felt happy to be able to contribute significantly nonetheless.
At the same time, clearing up story lines of new games that I've tried, like Deadpool and Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions. That was when I kinda realised that Deadpool and Cancerians like me share quite a few similarities, based on some research done by ZodiacFacts (Source: twitter.com/zodiacfacts). However true that is, though, is beyond me. I just found the connection interesting and so I started playing some games that featured Deadpool in them as well as watching the Hulk VS Wolverine which also featured the character. Heh.
Anyway, during my more relatively free part of the days during this period, I also completed the House of Cards until its latest Season 2. Can't wait until the new season air next year! The main character Frank Underwood has provided me with what I call "how to survive the real world" tips, intentionally or not.

There were a bunch of movies I caught up with too, like Death Note Live-Action, Divergent, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, among others.


Lastly, for the last 2 weeks of holiday,
It was time to come home, again.
There's no place I'd rather recharge in.

Anyway, cleared up another long-overdue TV series, Kamen Rider Hibiki.
With this, I have watched every Heisei rider series (yay!).
The series picked up quite slowly, in my opinion. That's probably why I wasn't really hooked until towards the end. Then it got quite inspiring and intense at the same time.

Oh, and for the first time, I celebrated Mid-Autumn festival with grandparents. This was a first, and I hoped it won't be the last!

Good thing also I could read up a couple of books in here, like Architecture: Form, Space, and Order by Francis Ching (which was a basic architecture book that I have been wanting to complete since forever) as well as Highway to Success by Dato Dr. Andrew Ho, a famous motivator that my dad had the pleasure of knowing personally. Hopefully it would inspire me to keep up my fighting spirit, confidence, and desperation that I used to have as a kid but lost along the way these few years, especially for the bloodbath coming ahead.



That's that. Summer is ending, very soon.
I can already feel responsibilities, hardships, and challenges impending.
As much as I dread all of them, there is no longer avoiding them.
I've gotta face them head-on, without fear, and with strong determination.
I'll have Christmas to look forward to, and 14 weeks is gonna breeze through so fast I won't even have time to catch up on my breath.



I don't want my summer break to ever end,
but I'm ready for the last 4 months of 2014.
And as The Rock put it,
Team Bring It will kick ass.

12:13
Up, up, and away!