Duelist Alliance (38 hours Creative + 20 hours Service) (Term 1, 2 and 3)

The reason why I will deal with both areas Creativity and Service is because they are easily discussed together. The Duelist Alliance is a group of friends who come together to play a card game called Yu-Gi-Oh! which originated in Japan. We have our own Ning website (duelistalliance.ning.com) where we can converse and discuss new cards and other related news. However, the large number of new players and people who have joined our group in the last 6 months have meant that we are in need of a website makeover. This will hopefully involve upgrading our website to a .com instead of a .ning and hiring a website designer to give our community a more fitting appearance.

Our aim is to further increase the ease at which people can play this strategic card game to accommodate this growing interest in Brunei Darussalam as it can be difficult to start up playing a game when you have no idea of who to play with and how to make the most of it. In addition, more on the creative side, I really enjoy the social aspect involved with this game as it brings together all of us with different ages but similar interests to play a much-loved game. The main reason that I play this game instead of all the others available is mainly because of the tactical characteristics involved and I enjoy competitive games with combinations of options to prove one's skill in the game. There are thousands of cards available to one to construct a 40-card deck out of; so the combinations are endless and each deck shows your personality as a player. We have often held tournaments whereby entrants play to gain points in a ranking system to show off those with the most competitive and consistent decks.

Another hope of the people who run this site (me among a few other of my friends) is that the money that is made from these tournaments can be put back into our community itself and the website so that we can hold bigger and better tournaments with more great prizes. Also, we do not have a fixed location to hold all of our activities in private so we are hoping to rent out an area or something similar and become a distributor of merchandise as there is no hobby card shop in Brunei and this could hopefully open the game up to even more people! Generally, this will help to enhance the experiences of all the people in Brunei that we all get from playing this game.

Now, further into the year (August), our friends are starting to organise a card hobby shop to be set up in an area called Kiulap which is a convenient distance for most people and should be easy to access. It will also be near other facilities which will help the shop blossom into a nice meeting point for us all. Also, we are continuing to hold more tournaments to allow players to socialise and enjoy themselves more. Now that our Ning website has its own funds, recent tournaments have had more prizes, heightening the enjoyment that we all get from playing Yu-Gi-Oh!, and we hope that this trend can continue in the future.

Weekly Piano Lessons (26 hours Creative) (Term 1 and 2)

I have been learning piano for over 10 years. Over this time, I have learnt a variety of pieces of music to play and have progressed through levels / grades while doing so, acquiring new skills as i go. I started learning in ISB but my teacher, Miss Yii Ven, moved to another location and started up her business, Muzette Alley, and I have been going there ever since. She has many students in her school and from her teaching, I have found piano as a different outlet that has been and is relaxing and so enjoyable at the same time. Lately, we all have practiced for the annual concert held by Muzette Alley. In October, I took the Grade 3 Theory Exam for piano and scored a High Distinction with 97% after all of the hard work, learning and revising; and I was very impressed with myself although for the past two grades, I scored 98% and 100% respectively.

For Term 2, I have continued with my learning of Grade 4 Theory which I will be examined for in October this year, 2010. In addition, I have continued with my completion of a Grade 4 Practical Book. Even through the long book with over 20 pieces, I can see my improvement in terms of the difficulty level of these pieces and the new skills that I have had to learn in order to pass them. The most satisfaction comes from looking at the first piece that I learnt in my books and comparing it to the most difficult one, to see my improvement. I still enjoy piano as I always did, as something completely different from most other activities that I do.

In Term 3, I completed my collection of pieces and moved onto a new classical book. Classical music is very demanding for the reason that it revolves heavily around fingering techniques and the ability to play one hand separate from another. This helps to differentiate the various lines in the music (melody, accompaniment, etc). Also, classical pieces generally require a personal input into the 'feel' of the music and this can be quite hard to do while concentrating on all of the other aspects involved. Nevertheless, enjoy classical music and the challenges that it presents to me because I know that that it will improve my proficiency in playing the piano. Also, my theory exam will be on the 30th of October and I am currently studying past-papers to improve my knowledge of the format of the exam and some common questions.

Strategic Card Gaming Club: My Self-Initiated (17 hours Service + 5 hours Creative) (Term 1, 2 and 3)

This club is mainly an extension of the Duelist Alliance (www.duelistalliance.ning.com) that we have set up and running. Many activities in ISB are for sporty people and not everyone wants to take part in a competition or do a sport in the hot sun. So, my friend Afnan and I jointly started up Strategic Card Gaming Club where we have over ten students who play Magic the Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh!. Everyone plays Yu-Gi-Oh! in the club and so Afnan and I helped them to be more competitive by suggesting ideas and improvement for their decks so that they can attend our weekly meets where everyone in Brunei gets together and plays Yu-Gi-Oh!.

I feel that we have achieved our goal which was to expose them to Brunei's duelists and help them get more enjoyment out of the game. To make this properly happen to its fullest extent, we invited our club-members to our online Ning site and we hosted a tournament for them to debut in where they could then start to earn points and be a part of Brunei's Yu-Gi-Oh! ranking system.

Now, a few months on (April), our school duelists have taken part in numerous competitions both in and out of school in order to enjoy the experience of the game as they rank higher on the community's leader board and ranking system. In addition, I noticed that this club proves to be a nice social gatherings at lunchtimes which helps us to wind-down and enjoy ourselves for a little under an hour before going back to class for the last few hours of school.

Water-sports (10 hours Action) (Term 1, 2 and 3)

My family and I have recently jointly bought a boat with another family as a consolation for being in Brunei so long (16 years) and because the activity is too expensive to undertake everywhere else in the world. On jointly buying this boat with another of my friend's family, we were now able to enjoy the activities that come with owning a boat. These include boating off to the spit where we have barbeques and surf. In addition, I learnt to kneeboard initially, and then move on to wakeboarding which is similar to surfing in the sense that what you are on is moving as well as your surroundings. Through a little pain at first though, I realised that this used a completely different set of muscles in my body as my thighs and arms usually ache the day after if I do not stretch beforehand.

However, I enjoy the challenge and the work in the learning of a new sport. So far I have managed to stay on for a long period of time once I picked up the knack of the sport after many failed attempt at first to stay on; but I have also managed to successfully pull off a couple of 360's! I have yet to get any serious airtime though; that is proving to be a rather difficult trick and I am working on that at the present time...

I enjoy being outdoors as opposed to doing work all of the time at home as I get the opportunity to take part in enjoyable activities such as this. From having this new leisure option open to me, I have taken full advantage of it in order to try new thrills such as driving the boat, doing water-sports, while enjoying quality time with my family as well as my friend's family.