Shortest post ever

This will be the shortest post ever. I am up to my neck in tests and homework. And I need to use the time for blogging to work through that mountain. So I shall be leaving the whole blogging to tomorrow where it's "Friday". And by the way, I never like the song. How did that crap even achieve 69 million hits(that is, 10 min ago)?

I digress. Anyway, signing off from this blog post which I shouldnt even be doing. Bleh.

Ambassador and Public Speaking

A song from Angel Beats that I found melancholic. Added it to my "Homework" playlist, which is just a list of music I listened to while doing my work. Mostly, they are sad and able to invoke a tear had I watched the movie/anime/show.
  
My school hosted the C.A.S.S.O.C, which is an acronym(I kinda forgot what the S.O.C stood for). Basically, it is a public speaking competition for high school students hosted by our school. Topics given were "When I am 64...", "That's all, folks", You cannot put the toothpaste back into the tube" and " Memories are like paperbags".

The topics were created by J1s, or rather, my fellow public speakers and debaters. I particularly liked the metaphorical usage of paperbags. Rather that was abstract. The link could be made but we wanted to see what the contestants would make of the topic. After watching all the constestants, the main problem lie with them reading from a script.

In public speaking, it is taboo to either hold a paper and read word-for-word to the audience. It breaks the eye-contact and it will no longer be public speaking but public reading. The top 3 winners were students who didnt use any form of notes. Kudos to them.

Everyone sitting on the stairs taking a break after a dry run of C.A.S.S.O.C

This photo was taken when we were finishing up the preparation for the competition to be held the next day.

Early in the morning: Preparing the consolation prizes

Chocolate. That was the consolation gift. Everyone were preparing everything, tying ribbons, stacking them in a nice way...the works. Competing in a competition and preparing for a competition are similar: both are fraught with stress. No one wants to screw up.

The emcees: Nicholas and Pierce

Being an emcee is not as easy as some might think. There are a lot of impromptu involved. Their banter were amusing and witty, which is a major flaw in many emcees today. And when there were problems beyond our planning, when more time is needed before the next speaker comes in, when there are technical difficulty, they are there. Kudos to Nicholas and Pierce. 

A surprise performance from a few of our students

They were a rock band, but for this formal competition, they played Eric Clapton "Wonderful tonight" and another song(forgot the name of the song).

All the contestants: Official photo shoot

I was an ambassador- means I was attached to one of the school. Kind of like ushering.

Amanda and me: both ambassadors

iPhone are really excellent cam-whoring device. My Xperia mini cant go dual-camera mode. Damn. This photo was taken by my friend iPhone 4. Hmm. Nah. Still an Android supporter.



Alright. I have a physics test tomorrow and I do want to ace it. "That's all, folks." :D

Reflections and Three Day Event Diary

I know. I did it again. Broke my promise of posting once every two days. This probably would go on. School ends late (earliest at 4) and this really proves tiring. And you soon find that studying until 2am in the morning is more detrimental than if you trade those hours for sleep. Then again, time needed to sleep varies individually. I, myself need 6 hours at least. If I get that 6 hours, I am good for the rest of the day. 5 hours is okay, but I get headaches. Anything less and I am sure to doze off during lessons.

That said, JC life is extremely fulfilling. Contrary to popular belief, I dont get an excellent score for every assignments or tests. They are a mixture of good and bad. I am still a little wobbly in the academia side, but I attribute that to my natural laziness, procrastination and also the JC life.

It is true that JC life is far different from my Secondary School life. The workload, the friends, the conversations, the teachers, etc. There is a big change and I am still getting used to it. I am still a little messed up on how much time to devote to each subject's revision. I hope once I get this right, I can fulfill that dream of getting to top 15 in the cohort(my dreams are always high). I am still lazing around, actually, since I am still reading more than I study. Well, the habit of reading fervently is hard to kick.

That is my reflections on my journey in JC. I have a habit of reflecting for long periods of time- old classmates around me thought it was just me daydreaming. Nah, I would tell them. I think. About many things. Sometimes about things you would expect a 16 year old teenager to think about. Other times, about a philosophy, or about life in general. I devote time before I sleep every night to think. Just to think. That makes me a bit of a weirdo, I guess.

Moving on to the less heavy stuffs. The three most interesting thing that happened to me the last three day was: Free Ice Cream, some really ironical irony and Nike.

Free ice cream. Yeah. I got a free Magnum Gold ($2.80) from 7-11. That branch seemed to be closing down and well, the guy manning the store handed me two of the Magnum Gold. Yeah, I know what you are thinking. "What the heck, it's only ice cream." Yeah, but it's free, and everything in society today have a price. So since this deviated from the norm, it becomes a unique event(I know I lead a boring life).

Second, the irony. I had a chemistry lecture today. And like any other lectures, you need to bring the lecture notes and a pad of paper. And this guy comes in, tall and lanky, with almost nothing in his hands. Not his stationary, not a pad of paper, not his notes(which is the most important thing). The only thing he had with him was a story book. Then instead of paying attention, which is the very least he could do, he slept. The only one who did not bring his notes was also the only one sleeping. Which kinda irritate me just that little bit.

But that was fine, since I might sleep in one of those lectures in the months to come(for my sake, and looking at the content of those lectures, I sure hope not). What was the ironic thing was the book. As he slept and drool on top of his book, with his head supported by his hands, I glanced at his book.

"Dreamland" by someone called Dale Brown. And my friend and I started laughing. It started small and we started laughing out loud in the lecture hall. Took a glare from the lecturer for us to keep quiet. Doesnt seem so funny now, but it was funny then.

And moving on to Nike. They came over to our school to carry out some exercises with us. And lent us their shoes to run with. Probably one of those advertising gimmicks but I felt the difference. After switching to their shoes, I felt I could run forever. Truly. I need new pairs of shoes for running. I have always wished to cut my 11.30 min timing for 2.4km to a 10min timing. I am a sprinter and I hate running long distance and getting a Nike shoes that can do both seems to me like an ideal birthday present(you better be reading this, bro).

Oh yeah. My phone was rescued from the brink of death. Whew. Already in working condition.

Tiring college life: power naps during our breaks

I rarely see this in my secondary school, or high school to some. But in college, power naps are more frequent. Anything just to get a bit of shut-eye before the next lesson.

My friend and I having a quick match in Othello/Reversi on the itouch

And the others, like me, the one not sleeping, will be rushing out their assignments. Or in my case, playing stuffs. Chess, reversi, etc. As I said earlier, I am quite the slacker.

The secret decoration for my class not supposed to be uploaded until today

This is useless, actually, since we decorated the class with a lot of stuffs. I will need to get a new photo of the class now.

From Left to Right: Me, Christina, Mei Qi, Shubhankar

That's me on the left, the one with the smile(fine, everyone is smiling). Anyway, the three in uniform stayed back in class just to decorate it- to give everyone else a surprise and to give the class a more comfortable atmosphere. Kudos to Christina, Mei qi and Shubhankar for sacrificing their time.


Ah well, I still have that dipole homework and sigma notation assignment to work out. Hope everyone reading have a nice nice/day(depends on your location, I guess). :D That's me, slacker extraordinaire signing off.

Water+handphone and end of March holidays

All gone. My week of supposedly holiday went by so fast. *Sigh* In fact, I didnt get to enjoy it that much. I mean- I went for university modules and back to school. Even started a tuition. I only got to play computer games and the likes once. That is once in the entire week. :(

I guess I got much in exchange for the fun and games that I could have. New friends. Knowledge(and knowledge is power, so they say). And how computer games and soccer weigh up against all these?

Wait. I kinda do not want to answer the question.

But seriously speaking, it had been a fun-filled holiday(educational "fun"). I didnt regret joining seeNTU(maybe just a little). My holiday homework. Yup, finished them all(I think).
And school starts tomorrow.

*Big sigh*

I cant lie. Every student would always have a sinking feeling on the last day of his holiday. School is enjoyable, but you need to make it so. The very nature of the holidays are by itself fun. You might be enjoy school, but chances are you will enjoy the hols more.

Moving on. My phone. Damn it. I am still cursing myself. I am the kind of people who bring a bag with him wherever they goes. The bag would store a book, my handphone, itouch, tissue papers, a couple of pens, a pack of cards... The usual kind of useless and useful stuffs clumped together. The thing was that I always bring a water bottle. I dont usually finish the water but it has become a habit since Singapore is a hot and humid country. Temperature hovers at 32 degrees Celsius(90 Fahrenheit) and practically everyone brings a bottle to school. And well, my bottle spilled in my bag. And it was full. On top of my phone.

My phone is a Xperia Mini and it really suffered the brunt of all the water. My John Nash book was drenched and my phone was soaked. It was still functioning well enough; at least until I got home and the screen(touchscreen) didnt light up. Opened the casing and well, the interior was wet. Sat the phone on the table to evaporate the water. An hour later, the screen recovered but it wouldnt respond to my touches. So since it was a touch screen phone, I couldnt even turn it off.

I checked the internet and they all go: Put the phone into a bowl of rice. The rice would absorb all the moisture and the phone should be good to go.

Neat. Gonna try that out. I wonder who thought of that. He has my admiration because the resulting comments after the "rice" solution were quite good. I hope my phone can be saved too.

No photos because well, I use my phone as my blog's camera.






{NEW UPDATE: Nah, I am just uploading the photographs by means of memory card.}

Pointing at the mercury lamb: I forgot the reason why.

This photograph was taken at a particularly unglamorous moment of my partner at the lab. She complained and asked me to retake the photo. As you can see from this photo, I didnt.

Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain

Beautiful lights. Taken when device was turned off. Still, a rainbow could still be seen. I probably will never take an engineering degree though. My eyes strained so much I was seeing stars the whole day. And my neck. Ow.

Crunching the numbers

Just calculating the wavelengths of the different kind of lights after spoiling our eyes using the diffraction grating. It WAS fun(at least I have to keep telling myself that). It was really fun. Accelerated learning always gives one a more challenging and fun-filled experience. 

Chicken rice and tofu from the university canteen

The food at the university was so heavily subsidised. >.< I mean, they were cheaper than the food we have in high school.

Contemplating deep thoughts

Actually, these were the new friends I made. And from the chat we had, I found out a girl was a computer gamer. Which is rare. Not to be a sexist, but up till now, I have only met three regular female gamer. She plays Left4Dead and Audition. And a bit of Maplestory.

Second part of engineering module: Beta field of a copper wire

Another friend I made from River Valley. Actually we finished an hour before the time was up so we spent the rest of the time chatting with the professor and photographing(okay, the latter was just me).

Random stuffs on the whiteboard

Anything written on a whiteboard is always intimidating. Especially a whiteboard in a university.

Grilled chicken chop+baked potato+ potato salad

 This was my dinner a few hours ago. Astons has always been cooking good food. The baked potato tasted just right and the butter was just the right texture. The barbequed sauce could be toned down though. It was too sweet- but that would probably be the only thing to complain about.

NTU and...NTU

That is all my mind is thinking about. About what I did today in NTU. For the benefit of people who do not know what NTU means, it stands for Nanyang Technological University. Which is one of the top 3 university in Singapore. And where Singaporean students plan to go. That is, aside from the Ivy league in America (Cambridge, MIT, Oxford, Harvard), where they just and probably will remain a pipe dream.

What we did today was to have a university lecture for (quoting from the program description) "high ability learners with a passion for Science and Engineering". And the email sent to congratulate me for being accepted into "a premium enrichment programme". Basically, the whole program is just based on us learning some university level stuffs. It was brain-draining. It was mentally exhausting. It made me sleep on the train for an hour and made me almost missed my stop (or I would have if my stop wasnt the very last station).

I gotta say, it was exciting. No questions about that. It was academically challenging and it made me interested in stuffs that I once thought was out of my league. There is something different about learning when your lecturer has the same expression on his face as you, of joy in the wonders of mathematics. Boy, can you feel the passion emitting from them.

They love the subject and they know you know it.

I would love to talk about what I learn today, but it would be long and I would need to explain everything in further details. And if I start, I cant stop.

Touching on the cooler stuffs. Their toilet.

That's right. Their toilet. I didnt take a photo of the interior of the toilet cubicle (duh) but after I was done with my...erm...business. I notice a knob that says "Push here". So imagine me sitting on the seat pressing this button I know nothing about.

What happen was a nozzle came out and shot water up my....you-know-what. I preactically jumped up. The shock I experienced.

Anyway, it DID serve its purpose, which I am not going to go into detail (awkward chuckle). But my point was the toilet in NTU was really clean and high-tech. Which will definitely affect my judgement if the day comes where I have to make a choice between my degrees and which university I want to go to. Heh.

The campus was huge. I needed a bus from one point to another.

And the canteen food was amazingly cheap. I know, all these stuffs seems mundane. But hey, it was my first time strolling in the campus that might well be where I find myself 2 years from now.

That is, if I make it to a university. I might flunk the national examinations. *Shudder* There is always that chance. The horrors. And the ice-cold fear. I hope not. I am quite a pessimistic person when it comes to my future.

Small competition of my school versus another (Ming Liang's round)

Another highlight of today's program was the Game Theory tournament between all the schools there. The brains of the various schools pitted against one another in an all-out competition of "Brussel Sprouts". Have a go at it with another friend. You might find there is more to the game than meet the eye.

Our school's team, comprising of my friend, Ming Liang and I clinched first. It was really awesome. That is, both the part where we won and the competition as a whole. :D

The bag containing Ming Liang's share. A 50-50 split

And we got a whole bag of science puzzles as a prize. And we decided to donate one of the puzzles to our school's Mathematics Society because...well...just because.

My share of the prize

The puzzles look really lonely and small. But this is the puzzles without its boxes, without its wrappings. In all their glory. The green rod at the back is not a puzzle- it is a rubber pencil. A really long one.

Then the professor took out another bag of prize, saying that he will pass the whole bag to us if we win him in the game.

=.=

That's us versus a person holding a doctorate in Discrete Mathematics. I would love to say we won but it was really a one-sided fight. I hope we gave him a good run for his money. And another lecturer held up two movie tickets for the first person who solved the question on why is integer point and convex pentagon always having a perpetual area of 2.5, also requiring the prove for counting the area of a primitive triangle of 0.5 using boundary points and local contribution to explain.

That just sounded confusing so I wont go ahead with the details. No one won those tickets.

For those readers who go, hey, this blogger is an idiot- those tickets could have been mine, here is some mathematical questions. Problems that if you solve, you get a million bucks.

Take a look. I assure you, this is really interesting stuffs.

I have more photographs actually, but I think my memory card is a little corrupted. That pretty much sucks for a blogger.

Alright. Gotta sleep earlier today since I have to get up bright and early for tomorrow NTU programme.

The 4 digit count

I am currently in an NTU lecture, rather, we are having a break. Thus everyone is moving about...to the toilet, to eat a sandwich etc. I checked my blog, as always and I saw:

1000 hits. Gotta say, that 4 digit number made my day. Thanks you, readers, you make me feel that little bit of pride. :D

And hey who knows? Might hit 5 digits in a year. *Grin* (Well, one can dream right?)

New friends around the world

The visitors to my blog are normally people I know, or at the very least, my school mates. Recently though, there are people who read my blog AND I dont know them.

I feel extremely humbled. Thanks Hyesu and Mifuyu for bothering to read this blog!

I gotta say their blogs have shown me a lot that I can learn from. Interesting to note Hyesu and me use the same skin though (we both have good taste- duh) And both attend public speaking/debates. Which makes us people with similar interests. :)  Honestly speaking, the blogger community really rocks.

I have made many new friends and I hope I make more through blogging, this important online diary tool. :D

PS: I updated most of the descriptions in my Pidgeonhole, after knowing just that bit more about each blogger. And added in Hyesu and Mifuyu. 

The start of tuition and my Skype marathon

I just realised I only have 2 days out of the full 7 days of March holiday where I am truly free. And if I had joined hockey as per my former CCA, I would have none (CCA camp). And I wonder how many had tuition right now in JC: because my aunt just signed me up for physics tuition.

I dont know what to say. My Sunday just went up in smoke. Ah well, my aunt has the best of intentions. I do want that desired degree. So no complains. And who knows? I might enjoy tuititon (did I just typed that?)

*Typing while munching Lays ships* This is kinda random but sweet and sour Lays is the only way to go. :D

And my classmate asked why I never get fat. Like yesterday where my friends and I went off to get lunch at Toa Payoh Hub. I ate a plate of duck rice AND mee sua. And finished up my friend portion of soup+rice. I attribute my unhealthy size to my crazy metabolic rate. And my mom always commented that whatever she fed me, it always comes out in an hour(not going into the details)

But anyway, this weekend was a weekend with a lot of "firsts".

It was my first time using Skype. And I used it for six hours- four hours at a stretch and then 2 hours the very next day. Make no mistake, it wasnt for gaming(which most of my friends would swear by Skype), it was for debates.

Motion: THBT that all limitations on Science research should be removed.

And our work was to write out the 1st and 2nd speaker parts and the replies.

The work of 6 hours: 2500 word document

My thanks to the two who was hardworking and passionate about debates to stay up to 2am in the morning with me with earphones jammed into our ears. Thanks, Ding Yan and Michele. It had been a load of fun working with you guys. (i thought the whole experience was really voyeuristic) And hey,  I got to see Michele's room and how she look with spectacles and hair band. :D


First time Skyping. First time video conferencing. First time using a Mac for six hours straight. First time using Google Documents. Speaking of Google documents, have anyone used it and go "this is one cool tool"? Because I did, which my teammates were probably amused by. Yes, I havent use Google Docs before, though I did know of it. 

And the first tuition I have been signed up for in JC. And I hope it is the last.


I am really someone who like reminiscing. I know many people listen to music, but how many love Chinese music? And out of those rare chinese music lover, how many are into songs of the 80s and 90s? So I am those rare ones that actually know who 新月团，罗大佑，张信哲，黄小虎 or 梁文福 is. And to those who actually know, wow. I mean, really.


To those who dont know these singers, you dont know what you are missing out.
To those who know these singers, you need to be my friend quick.
To those just scorn chinese songs, you need to grow up.


To those who just scorn and hate chinese as a language, I have nothing to say. 你不值得当一个华人。

I do like Chinese. There is something so beautiful and philosophical in the words, in every strokes. And the proverbs and Chinese sayings. Amazing how they can cram centuries of learning into a few words, or a story in a phrase.

And to echo my GP teacher words, it is fine if you are a Chinese BUT suck at Chinese. Just make sure your English prowess make up for the lack of your Chinese. If your command in both languages is mediocre, I pity you from the depth of my soul.

I cant even bear to OPEN the nice looking box

Yes, I am a sucker for good-looking stuffs(this applies to people as well :D kidding). The box was so compact and good-looking. I felt my heart ache when I had to tear open the box. And as it is with all Japanese wrappings and boxes, the opening of the box was by itself unique: tearing a small flap before pulling...so one and so forth.

You cant help but feel Japanese stuffs are all so ergonomic.

Another of those snacks

Crispy on the outside with a think dole of chocolate on the inside

The cookie rocks. The chocolate chips were half melted and the texture was just right. I had one. Then immediately, I needed another. And now, with the combined effort of the whole family, that silver ergonomic box is now empty.

And I joined the three others in decorating the class. Well, the pictures I can put up is limited because they want to me keep how it looks a secret until school reopen.

Half of the team in action

Outside Koi with my class

That's Meiqi hiding from the camera: Fail :D

My classmates are kinda bonded but I found them quite the muggers (As I did mention in my previous post)

Alright, it is 1.30am in the morning and I am dead beat (what's new?).

Here is another photograph of my favourite Japanese butter snack to make you drool.

The holidays and CCA quirks

First of all, I would like to apologise. I mean, I broken that promise again- of posting a post once every two day. Secondly I would like to assert the fact that I had no choice, with the Project Work and Pre-University Seminar PPT preparation running concurrently. This also means I will be duty-bound (and guilt ridden) to type one exceptionally long post to make up for the last 3 days. (Stretches fingers)

The highlight of three day ago was the Pre-U seminar presentation. Two days, it was the Maths test and yesterday, Project Work, debates and the seeNTU programme. And I got a really horrendous haircut. So quite the eventful week. Or so it was to me.

First off, our Pre-U sem presentation was a fiasco. We, the smallest group of three members had much more work to complete the powerpoints with equivalent contents to those groups with five members. Secondly, we met really rarely, or if we did so, it was online. And online meetings pose a new limitations. Suffice to say I am not one of the four presenters. The fact that our competition was tough (5 debaters and orators) consoled me a little. To say they would good would be an understatement. Our team could have gave them a good run for money but it was clear we had far less preparations compared to the other groups.

Bleah. But I learn new skills in multimedia presentations from every single presentation there. Well, I guess one live to learn.

Moving to the next point of substantive(debate lingo), my maths test. It pretty easy so I am feeling really good about it. The only thing I will be griping about was that there was a bonus question. Yes. As in a question that allows one to score 110 over a 100. I am really sorry but I simply did not notice it. I finished the test fast and I didnt notice the extra printing. Reason being I knew I have done 15 marks of question and the top portion of the paper did state the test was upon 15.

Really. I dont know what to say. At least I can take joy in the fact I (think I have) done pretty well.

And the project work. First of all, I do my presentation using OpenOffice instead of Microsoft Word- Macbook and all that. So I screwed up a little- I couldnt open our ODP format document. Secondly, I spoke too fast. And someone said, hey, slow down, it's like you are a debater.

Well, technically, I am a debater. o.0 Another said I was too intense. One did say my presentation was awesome (but that could have just as easily been sarcasm).

At least we managed to pull off the presentation without any major problems so I AM feeling kinda relieved.

Moving on, we had our second debate outing comprising of Carrissa, Ding Yan, Amanda and me. And we reached the place late...again. For me, I have always lived in the East so I have no idea how to get to Chung Cheng (Yishun) for the Julie Gabriel Secondary School national debates. And when we finally got onto the bus, we got off the wrong stop.

Me: Uncle, 我们到了Chung Cheng 了吗？
Driver: 过了。

*All four of us scrambled down the bus*

Thus, we checked the directory and hey, we still have not reach Chung Cheng. Perhaps I might have misheard the driver but the other three debaters with me all heard "过了".

Checking the directory

Pepper hotplate for dinner

That Carrissa's hands and Amanda next to her.

We managed to watch a debate. I stayed to watch Victoria School. I am not too sure whether I typed the first motion correctly.

First debate: St. Anthony Canossian VS Nan Hua High
Motion: THBT the advancement of science and technology is at a rate too fast.

Second debate: NUS High vs Victoria School
Motion: THBT companies selling alcohols and tobacco should not be allowed to advertise their products.

St. Anthony won and Victoria School won. :D

Reached home at 10.30pm and took a shower. Then my mum started recommending me some Japanese cookies and they were good. (Finished in minutes) I need to remember that brand so I can ask my aunt to stock up when she goes Japan again.

MMMMMmmmm

YUUmmmmm

I really do love chocolate chips cookie. I would say this cookies would beat the Famous Amos one in terms of taste. I find the cookie crumbles more easily in my mouth compared to Famous Amos, where their cookies get a little dry after you eat a few.

And a video, once again, hilarious and recommended by my ex-classmate.

Anyone supporting corporeal punishments on children?

Signing off to take a nap. I am dead beat. Oh- that reminds me. This is the first blog post I did in the afternoon and not at night.

Reversi and THE presentation and polygamy

I sleep at one or two in the morning every night and I am forced to drink coffee. While others view coffee as something to be enjoyed, coffee is just caffeine to me. I drink for the caffeine. I still like coffee but in the end, I just need that caffeine. I would love to sleep earlier, but all the revision drains me. I think it is proving to be more detrimental than if I sleep at an earlier midnight. My night is filled with projects, homework, revision of stuffs taught that day, blogging and reading the daily papers. I reach home at seven and finish my dinner and my bath at 8pm.

Time flies. I remember my O levels like it was yesterday and an hour pass like a second. I guess our life is really just like a candle. I hope I am burning to my fullest.

In my JC life, I try to take part in as many stuffs as I can. Pre University Seminar, trying for the NTU research program and putting my name within the upcoming inter-class reversi competition. And I realised I am hooked on Reversi/Othello. I am aiming for that gold in napfa too. Technically that would make me 文武双全, which just means excelling in both academia and sports. And that would be my "long-term goal" (Student Development Program, anyone?).

I dont have any photographs for today because frankly, it slipped my mind to get photographs for my blog. It...just...slipped...my...mind. Not a good excuse but hey, everyone got those kinda days. So this post will seem really boring (I hope not, actually)

And anyway, the only stuff I could think of to write is my new addiction to Reversi or Othello. I played 8 games yesterday and 6 games today. I love the game, just like how I love Chinese Chess or international chess. The game is just so versatile. I love board games, especially strategical ones such as Othello. And it is the only game where if A is given 3 moves to B's 1 move,  A would lose. Mind-breaking,

The second is Pre-U Sem. Tomorrow is the presentation. THE presentation. The moment we have all been waiting for. Actually, tomorrow's presentation is to select four person out of the twenty to present to the Guest of Honours  and many more. So, truth be told, it is an honour above that honour given to that twenty. That sounded confusing. >.<

Creme la de creme, to be precise. Which is french for top of the top. Nerve-wracking I am sure, as everyone would love to have the chance to represent the school even further.

My days are busy but quite monotonous. A highlight of the day was the GP lesson. As it goes, it is the only subject without a given syllabus. Thus it can be said to be a refresher to the day in comparison with all those content-driven lectures. My favourite two subjects now would be Mathematics and General Paper. I have always like maths and GP is well, really fun. Take for example today and yesterday General Paper.

"Should polygamy be allowed?" I wrote no, since it should open a whole new can of worms. But many factors might lead us to think otherwise. Could it solve Singapore's declining birth rate? And at what price? Still it is interesting to know two of my classmate (one male and one female, no names) wrote "yes". And hey, it is not necessary wrong. Questions like these make one thoughtful. To agree or not to agree.  

I guess I should just stop here. time constraint and all that. In return, I would just like to post a gem of a youtube video I found.

Warning: it is kinda vulgar. In a sense. No vulgarities, I promise (urrgh, oxymoronic me). It is just you and your assumptions. :D

The singer just sorta pause and you assume...stuffs. I love the wit of the whole thing. I mean, who the heck created this song? My friend showed this to me.

The creator of the lyrics have my due respect. I hope it didnt offend anyone. :)

Hate speeches and mugging

"A handicapped person is a human being with the same heart as anyone else. It's not a misfortune if you can't hear-it's just an inconvenience." ---Aya Kito.

If you can, watch the video and listen to the song. If you are free, watch the anime- there are lessons in it. It brings to my mind "Tuesday with Morrie". And so, I am rereading that tear-jerker. I am one of those people easily touched- so yes, I am a guy but I cry.

I saw someone playing the song for this opening to Angel Beats on Friday. I was in a state of rapture while the song was played. There is something so poignant about this song. And I love it being recreated on the piano. And everyone loves it when someone share the same interest as you.

Actually, I would rather sleep or do some other work. But I swore to upload a post every 48 hours. *Panda-eyes* JC life is so hard. But rest assure to the fact that I am enjoying it. Perhaps everyone is a workaholic at heart. There is just something so wonderful when you have so much work and you finished them all. How rewarding it is if you ever top the class/cohort/country (latter not likely) due to your hard work.

I might actually cry when my school life officially ends and my work life begin. Never knew a day would come where I would feel sad about leaving school. Might be why everyone wants to be a doctor so much- 7 years degree compared to a normal 4 years degree. Also just cut out the article of the two RJC twins who scored 7 distinctions in the A levels. I want to paste it on my wall to remind myself of my final objective in two years.

Until the day come, I shall strive to make as many friends as possible and enjoy this kinda life to the fullest.

Enough of the philosophical rambling and moving on to events of the past two days. Yesterday was Friday (duh) and it was my debate session. Needless it say it rocks as usual- I mean 8 people arguing with innuendos and puns. And hidden insults. What more could you ask for in an evening? And what better company could one find?

The debate motion was "This house believes that hate speeches should be allowed on campuses." I saw it and I started hoping I ended up on the opposition. As hard as I could try, I couldnt see a single way how hate speech would be beneficial.

Thanks goodness our team got preposition. It was really amusing to watch the other team came up with good, solid and iron-clad point against us. Really, it was. They talked about freedom of speech and our team pointed out hate speech actually would contradict the purpose of freedom of speech. They talked about monitoring hate speeches thus to control any violence that might be incited and we retorted that monitoring was a fickle thing- where and when do they cross the line?

Then they actually stated that our definition was from Wikipedia. And we were like "So? Wikipedia is not always wrong." 

Debates has started to affect my thought processes nowadays, namely because it makes one become, oh so cynical. And we had another pre-university seminar discussion and had a small confilicting viewpoint in our proposal. And hey, my team and I saw the cat again. All the seniors knew about it. Kinda like the mascot of CJC. :)

At the self-study area beside the quadrangle

And I was offered a cookie made by my classmate. Which tasted really nice (I love cookies anyway). I love the small coloured sphere. The whole ball just comprised of colored sugar I think.

Loved it. Size would be half of a ping-pong ball.

That reminds me: I need to try Amy's chocolate muffins one day.

My marker all ran out so I got new refills. My blog post for the two days are really about mundane affairs. Debates would be the highlight of it all. Another highlight (to me) would be that I signed up for the Nanyang Research Program. They require a certain L1R5 (which I forgot) but I know I dont make the mark. But still, I can try. The mathematics module about Euler's sequence sounds really interesting. *grin*

Testing out of my new markers

I sound so muggly sometimes. Or maybe it could be that I am finishing up this post at 2am in the morning. Yeah- that could be it.

Signing off as I need to finish reading up some physics topics. And to satisfy that sudden night craving for chocolate.

*walk off to get some tiramisu from the refrigerator*

*Too tired to think of a title today*

I am knackered. Really tired and exhausted. Mentally and physically. Inside and outside. Metaphorically and literally.

Today was the 4.2 km run. Which I took part in the competitive- lotsa running. And more running. Basically it's just close to twice of a 2.4 km. Dont get me wrong, I love running, but it is the aftermath that I dislike. Why do we need to feel the exhaustion for the whole day? As I type this whole lot of bollocks on my Macbook, I am reclining in the laziest posture on my chair.

 Actually, in truth, I shouldnt be blogging because I have a Pre-U Seminar proposal to rush out and a 200 words abstract for Project Work. But I also know that if I stop blogging today (and therefore not follow the schedule I set for myself), I will never do another blog post again.

 I shall keep this blog short and concise. I am mentally exhausted because of the discussion I had with my Pre-U buddies. I listen and I store what they say in my mind. Then I think it through, carrying a mini discussion within my own head. I always maintain different personalities and characters holding mini debate and discussion session in my mind. Keeps my brain active. Might be why I am lacking in the concentration department- I can never keep my thoughts in a single line.


Additionally, my hopes of showing off and topping my class in Chinese (Still quite proud of that A1) is crumbling. I have been assigned to a different class from all my classmates and they ALL scored distinctions. All scored A1s and A2s. I am now one of the many "Cheena" people.

我也不知道该说些什么。

All I know is that Chinese in JC is really different from my Secondary school. We dont have group works, we dont have in-class discussions, heck, we havent even introduced ourself...the teacher just dived straight into the lesson.  Which made me disgruntled all day. I might just have lost what little love I had for the language. Chinese lesson in JC, for lack of a better word is boring. Seems more rote-learning than anything else. Perhaps it might be because of the lack of time, or the fact we are the best Chinese class.

Also envied Amy and my HTC, who volunteered to manage the drink stall. The one offering free 100plus after the run. Grr.

I ended the day with dinner at Carl's Junior with my classmates. This makes it the first official outing I had with 1T17. The burger at Carl's was...huge. Seemed to surprise my classmates to hear that I was a Carl's Junior virgin.

Guess I am not a fast food junkie because I rarely eat at Macdonald's or BK or Subway. I have a more Asian palate.

"Tired and I wanna go home" face

Unsteady hand = failed group shot

Onion Ring lover

Angus Beef- 2.5 times the size of a Mac burger

"Whatcha looking at?"

Signing off as I head resignedly towards that pile of projects.