A teen life

The heck of it all: Mid Years Exam results

2011-07-19T22:45:00.001+08:00

A month. That's a month without logging into my blog here. But my excuses are sound(whose excuses arent?): it is my MYE exam results. My horrible, extremely horrible, excruciating Mid Years Examination result. I failed a subject. A failure, that is, my exams and me. My resolution in my first post of my blog (it has been 67 posts since then), was to score straight As'.

Bleh. ****. Rats. And all the other four letter words ever existed that might convey a sense of shame. I did not study a single bit. Not a week, not a day. A couple of hours, maybe. I seem to be sinking back, arm in arm with my old friend, "Last minute studying".

My results are a mixture of Bs' and Cs' with one fail thrown into the mix. As my teacher might note, "Seetoh, your chemistry results are absolutely disgusting."

Devastated would be an understatement. In fact, it would be an understatement to call it an understatement.

:(
:(
:(
:(

A picture speaks a thousand words, so here's four smileys. I would add more, except that I wouldnt be able to stop. As a matter of fact, I just wanted to type one more in. I digress again. It stands to show one more resolution made is one more resolution failed. I guess I am just not resolute enough. I dread to think about my parents at the Parent-Teacher Meeting, where my form teacher will break the news(yes, that's right- my esteemed parents have no knowledge of my travesty of my results) I better prepare a defillibrator for my dad and an oxygen mask for my mum. Just 2 months ago, my parents put on the table all kinds of threats- if I dont achieve 4 A1. That's what they asked.

4A1. I spent the next two hours haggling. First of all, I told them there were no such grades as A1s' in JC.

"There's no A1s' in JC, Mum!"

"Shut up, boy. 75% is an A1. JC and Secondary School are next to each other. Are you telling me you will just aim at a A2?"

-Speechless-

Next, I bargained with the 4A1s'.

"Mom, fine. Bs'. All Bs'. JC life is new to me. Give me the time to adapt. I will give you the As'...sorry...A1s' during the End Of Years Examinations."

"Nice try, sonny. Make sense though, so this is the only time I will cut you loose. 3A1s'. I expect to see that 4A1s' during your EOY though."

-Open-mouthed-

Enough of that. I guess I will reaped what I sowed during the PTM. (I left my last will and testaments in my second drawer, third compartment)

Anyone read "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother"? With the strict parenting style by Amy Chua? And her poor daughter, Sophia?

You get off too easy, Sophia.

Yawn Life is just so tiring.

2011-06-20T14:30:00.005+08:00

The holiday is coming to an end- and I have done a lot of things. Or the last three weeks, I have borrowed tens of books, reading classics and contemporary fictions. I have gone through another Grisham's novel and one of Murakami's writings. I have slept for 13 hrs and woke just to have dinner before going back to sleep. I have practised multiple illusions and car d tricks so as to amaze my friends and relative. I have watched 2 new movies and watched Momento and Inception, both for the second time. I have practised debating (my club/society in school) to hone the art of arguing for one's stand. I have played a lot and done much more.

Yet, the only thing I seemed to have neglected is my studies. For every three hours doing stuffs not related to my schoolwork, I spent ten minutes flipping through my lecture notes. This cannot do. So this last week of school holidays will be spent doing work- I do want to top my school. (heh) Still, it seems like my determination is at a all time low, when the holidays had started, it had seemed a lifetime of fun and enjoyment was waiting for me. Yet, just a mere three weeks later, it now seems more the end of a long and surreal dream.

As I typed this words out, I am next to the window and it is 2.20pm. I hear the crows cawing and a gentle breeze is streaming through. The sky had streaks of blue mixed with specks of white. There's no cloud, so it probably will not be raining. I have a chilled Ginger Beer next to me (zero alcohol content) and on my lap lays my mathematical notes on Vectors. I haven't glanced at it in the last hour. Instead I have been day-dreaming, imagining myself flying in the sky because I had the power of flight.

And now, as I clicked "Upload" to put it up my blog, the house is quiet because I am the only one here.

A lifetime can last a moment, and yet a moment can also last a lifetime.

*Yawn* I will study...perhaps...after a short nap to rejuvenate.

A video I did to practice a new trick

2011-06-18T19:14:00.002+08:00

Still to lazy to write my usual inane stuffs. Here is video I took practicing a magic trick. Still havent got it the way I want yet though. Why do I keep screwing up? >.<

Oh, and the sniffling sounds were because I am having a cold. :\

A whimisical reflection on the Perfect Crime

2011-06-09T14:57:00.000+08:00

When the holiday comes, I always revert to my sluggish self- where I just feel bored and day-dream. And just think.

And because I am lazy to write a full long blog post about Pre-Univerisity Seminar, I will just post a reflection I did on my iTouch whimsically. I didnt want a long-winded essay so it took up 20min to type it out on the iTouch. This was after reading "Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

A perfect crime isn't that hard to achieve- it requires perfection in which we human are rarely able to attain. Though difficulty is relative, if the pinnacle of care and intelligence cam be breached, there is no reason for a murder to be solved.

For such a heinous act that is murder, the authority relies on a few crucial factors to solve the crime. Namely, the evidence, the motive and the witnesses. For evidence, there are sub-categories: those found on the body and those found away. For witnesses, there are the visual witnesses and the audio ones. In short, you either saw the incident or you heard the commotion, if any.

To commit an unsolvable murder, one must keep in mind: the less factors you contribute to the crime itself, the less chance you have of being caught. The biggest opponent of a perfect crime would be that of pressure. A perfect crime must only be attempted after planning; the duration will be according to where and who will the victim. To kill a vagabond is infinitely easier than to kill a person living in an apartment or a high-ranking corrupted official. Not leaving physical evidence is the rudimentary portion of a perfect crime- the easiest part, yet it is this part that the police use to the greatest effects. Of course, even if there are no physical evidence, whether on the murder weapon or otherwise, there are still other ways that a police can go into.

Motive is always an important part of any deductive work- theories on the murderer(s) involved lead to profiling- racial or religious, age group or sexes. Thus far, we have seen that to kill off someone close or someone one knows would be disadvantageous. That is not to say that a perfect crime cannot be committed- it is just that the difficulty had risen exponentially. You will get questioned and it is a fact that many interrogation leads to the criminal confessing. To get away from interrogation, one has to be a fantastic actor. It is not just the act of taking the Fifth or putting on a poker face- you have to show the correct range of emotion with just the right degree. Assassination is one of the only type of murder where finding the connection between the murderer and the victim will prove to be nigh on impossible.

Murder should always be for murder's sake and not a by-product of rape, robbery, a fight or a burglary. The other factors all complicate matters and are just a platter of evidence to be handed to the police for dissection.

Pressure wreaks the human psyche, it paralyzes it and renders the mind useless. Fear of being caught leads to pressure and yet pressure is not a proper subset of fear. The ideal mind to commit the crime would be one that is rational and without conscience. Rare indeed, to find a person who lives without ever experiencing pressure and the guilty conscience that threatens us when we do an act that is of utmost evil. An eccentric, a mad cold-blooded bastard taken straight from the psychiatric hospital- would he fit the bill? He wouldn't. He lacks one more thing- intellect and a understanding of the society in which he had lived in. A common eccentric (oxymoronic) would not conform to society, yet a person who has conformed to a certain extent, one who knows the rules of the society at heart would be able to carry the act of murder and escape.

A perfect crime can only be labelled as such when it has satisfied a series of criteria, an unsolvable crime and an escape. To sneak past the bodyguards and kill a President cannot be perfect without the get-away. And after you run, you must never be caught.

Of course, a few lucky souls who sunk under pressure will still manage to pull off the two conditions stated above- but he or she will live in fear for the rest of his or her life. And finally, to rid the fear in his or her heart, confess to the relevant authority.

The arms of the law are long, but the hands are only so big.

Sent from my iPod

A disclaimer: By no means have I committed the act itself nor am I a proponent of murder. However I do support capital punishment, especially against first-degree and cold-blooded murder. I am also aware of the fact that if a perfect crime had taken place I would not be able to give an example pertaining to the culprit- because he will never be caught.

The $40 play and Pre-U Seminar

2011-05-29T23:21:00.002+08:00

Surreal experiences are rare but when they happen...they are almost enjoyable. Two days ago(wasnt really long ago, I guess), I went to the library with Adeeb. The Central library- gigantic one located at Dobby Guaut. He needed to return books($1.80 fine) and I wanted to borrow some.

And no, the trip there wasnt the surreal experience. Though for blogging sake, here are the books I borrowed: Dante's Inferno, Death's Head, Wolverine: Origin and The Internet is a playground(yes, I do read comics from time-to-time).

The surreal experience came later. When Adeeb and I sat on the steps outside the library with a drink each(mine:lemon tea, his:coke), we talked about a variety of things. And toward us walked a woman with a white ticket in her hand.

Surrealism. Noone can predict such a day. And because it differed so much from my normal routine.

The woman started off mentioning the price of the ticket. I guess it was to appeal to the pragmatic...nah...kiasu part of Singaporean. The mention that it was a "sensory play" came much later. And it was not as though I was versed in the Arts- therefore, the description of it was lost on me.

It was fabulous. I thought it would be those plays where your ass cheeks get glued to the seat for 2 hours. It was not to be- yet it would be really bad of me if I spoil the play. Suffice to say it was a first-time experience for me and immersion would be the word. You are in the play. Touch(ho ho ho), feel, hear, sight(you lose it at a point in time). And even, taste.

Best play I have been in my life(sadly, I havent been to many nor have I lived that many years yet).

Testing the 16 megapixel camera

Actually, I am pretty lazy to do a long blog post. So here are photographs that I have taken with the new camera. You know what they say, "A picture is worth a thousand words",

Toodle-loo. I need to pack for Pre-U Seminar. That's 5 days in NUS chilling out.

Am I going to enjoy this.

China and a new mouse

2011-05-29T23:05:00.000+08:00

6 weeks ago or so thereof, I wrote in my blog post that my brother was heading to China for an exchange program, to a satellite campus that Hwa Chong owned in Beijing. A study immersion program. For 6 weeks.

That marked the longest period of time my brother and I were separated. We were never away from each other more than 3 days(camp). 6 weeks seem to be then a long stretch. A sibling provides much entertainment- that is, if I look at it in a pragmatic manner. Just think of it: all the arguments, the competitions, pranks and games. I wouldnt want to be a single child, if only for the want of a more exciting childhood.

Turns out I wasnt affected much. Perhaps it was the relatively short length of absence. Or perhaps I just didnt love my brother as much as I should. Though strictly speaking, we are very close. So close we can talk for 5 hours at a time. Whiling away time together is easy. We are very different in interests and attitudes but we are similar in so many other ways as well.

He had a great deal of fun in China. Tales of 4-hours gaming marathon, of learning Magic: The Gathering, of the delicacies found there were told. He told us(lies!) he didnt miss us.

Jealous. Damn. I havent even been to China.

When he came back, he bought me two things for my birthday. A X-Luca mouse for 30 bucks. 2400dpi. Just right for a casual gamer like me. And a deck of cards(Ellusionist's Shadow Masters) for 20 bucks. My last deck of cards were ragged after the hours of practice(did I ever write card tricks as a hobby in this blog?).


Looks better in the poster than it does on my table

Once upon a time...

2011-05-16T00:26:00.000+08:00

Once upon a time, in a kingdom far far away, there was a blogger who quit blogging...

I forgot that I was a blogger again. This post is thanks to a status in Facebook: "I started blogging to destress..."

Me: "Hah. Just like me. I hope he enjoys blogging...oh wait..."

Back to my Mac. But the best thing is, due to the long time spent away from the keyboard, I have no end to the things that I can write. First thing that popped in my mind- happy belated birthday to me. Birthdays should be blogged about. I feel like I broke a blogger's rule by not reporting every bit about my birthday.

Worse of all, I dont have an excuse. I still have a lot of homework; but due to superb time management, or maybe because of the new 5-hrs detention punishment set in place, I have managed to toe the line. As a student, I am obligated to finish up my homework(cue the toothy smile).

Oh well, who am I kidding.

My birthday presents: Saucony running shoes and 3 books from my parents. Not yet any from my brother(since he is in China). My aunts and uncles gave me hong baos. Last year, I requested from my parents a three-hundred dollars whiteboard. And a earpiece from my brother. The year before that I got a floorball stick(which I am still using), a rubik cube(for a timing of 1min 30 sec after 2 weeks) and Green Day's album.

Picked them up at Giant at 13 bucks each

The left side message from my Chemistry teacher and the right side message from Christina.

Enough about my birthday. Another thing- I stepped on stage; or rather the 2nd story in the Piazza to receive a prize for being second in the Shanghai TI Maths Cup. Of course I was surprised, pleasantly too...a ten-dollars Popular voucher. To a bookworm like me? I would have chose the voucher to a blank cheque.

As one can see, it has been a period of time where I encountered many "firsts". Another one coming up: it was my first time doing competitive debating. We beat ACJC and TJC(Temasek). And lost to NUS, Nanyang Polytechnic, ATTM and House of Zosa(Philippines team). It was an open competition, which means university graduates(and above) are free to enter. NUS tore us apart but the encounter taught us much.

Hmm. After this post, I wont be sure when will be my next post. Mid-years is coming. Along with many other events. Exchange program to Ritsumeikan university, Pre-University Seminar, Floorball in the Sports carnival, SMO(Open), Shanghai TI Cup competition... and I am not even the busiest person in class. Far from it.

That reminds me, I am in Floorball interest group. I joined because I got a bronze for my NAPFA. (>.< at the 1cm in SBJ that caused it) I fear for my physical fitness. And another reason was because my class is competing in floorball in the Sports Carnival. Counting me, there are only 3 competitive floorballers in the entire JC. *Rub hands with glee* I do hope we become champions.

My JC life is packed. Fulfiling, to say the least. So, especially to you, Jun Yin, I AM enjoying myself. :)

Now, if only I can top my class...

Portal 2, Children of Men, Tests and NAPFA

2011-04-29T22:57:00.003+08:00

Actually, embarrassingly, guiltily and annoyingly, I had forgotten I owned a blog. Partly because I had no time to do my work, partly because of a movie and a game. And of course I blame the countless tests that us JC students are made to go through.

And how did I remember? Adeeb looked me in the eye today and said with a straight face,

"Hey Seetoh, update your blog or else I will castrate you."

That threat made it hard for me to refuse, even thought it was just a joke(I think, cant be sure with Adeeb). Hence, I am back in front of my Mac, Musing(the band, not the action) and typing all this out. For those who still persist in calling me a mugger, think again. Nowadays, I actually pick out the homework that I want to do. And leave the rest after the deadline. Procrastination. That might be because I had picked up my old bookworm habit, and am now swallowing CJC's library books whole. And that habit lives together with procrastination. There are plenty of computer addicts but little book addicts.

Find me one person who excrete in the toilet and read a book at the same time. Some do that, but does anyone ever read a book while taking taking a piss? Weird if you are a girl but at least you will be behind closed doors. Guys take part in communal peeing-next to everyone else in the open and into the urinal. This means stares and sniggers for me.

Thanks goodness I quit that habit when I was Secondary One, after one male teacher castigate me for doing just that. All I can say is that was the most awkward reprimand I have ever received(probably wasnt easy for him too).

And when I read while I walk, I can reach the location I was going without knowing which path I took. My best friend liken it to auto-pilot.

And of course, Portal 2 came out. To non-gamers, you definitely do not know what you are missing. I was busy playing Portal again to ready myself for the sequel. It's like Harry Potter; you read the last book to remember and re-immerse oneself into the plot.

Movie: I rewatched Children of Men. Poignant tale of a dystopian society set in a world where the women were infertile through unknown causes. R21 though. o.0 Like it would have stopped me. For anyone who want to watch the movie, here.

The tests. Hrrrhm. I either studied the wrong topics or wrote the tests in my homework diary...on the wrong day. I need to buck up for the Mid-years. Weirdly, my strongest subject currently is Chinese where I got a distinction for my CA. >.< My weak foundation in Additional Mathematics(A2) wreak havoc on my Maths tests. Barely scrapped a distinction. And let us not talk about the science tests I took.

I made my days busier too, by being in the Chinese Fortnight Organising team AND the Singapore Mathematical Olympiad Open Category training on Saturday. A three hours session of JC1 AND JC2 mathematics that would make one's head spin.

At least I got that Monday to look forward to. Oh wait, that's our deadline for our GPP. >.<

To top it all, I got a Bronze for my NAPFA. Because of 1 cm. That's right, I got silver because I jumped 215cm instead of 216cm(criteria for Silver). ****.

2.4km: 12min 31sec
Sit-Ups: 43
Pull-Ups: 3(hey, I am skinny)
Shuttle-run: 9.6s (kinda slow, ran a 9.3 last year)
Sit-and-Reach: 43cm
Standing Broad Jump: 215cm

I am not really disappointed though, since I am in Debate and not in a Sports CCA. Plus, I have a knee injury that need 2 weeks rest. I(obviously) ignored the instructions and did my NAPFA after 5 days abstaining of all physical activity. And hey, I am 16. Younger than all of you. So there.

I will probably retake it next week.

I love my life(I dun even know whether I am sarcastic anymore).

2011-04-27T23:21:00.000+08:00

SO busy... I will try to get a post this weekend. And I just joined Floorball as an interest group- kinda like frisbee. I am exhausted.

Just wasting some time for a quick post

2011-04-19T22:31:00.003+08:00

This post will be short. Just a screenshot of my blog statistics(interesting stuffs) and a song whose lyrics I love.

What's Window NT? There is such an OS?

For the second song, English translation of the song is at the top right hand corner. I love the lyrics, I really do.

Longest hiatus ever: Whatever shall I do when Mid-Years come?

2011-04-17T14:08:00.001+08:00

Once, in my secondary school, I have given a survey along with my class. The DISC one, if anyone know what I am talking about(I am a D and I). One of the questions in there was: What time of the day do you like best?

Some answered morning. "Oh, the morning is the time where one's brain is at the best- oiled and ready-to-go." And I agree fully. Morning is a great time to study; I just hate the waking up early part. And by the way, early morning means one starts his or her day at 6.30am onwards. *Eyes the late-risers who think 10am is early*

And the afternoon. I hate it. I feel sleepy, especially after lunch. Unproductive is the word for the afternoon, the only thing good after 12pm is slacking. As in, kicking back in the armchair in the sweltering heat and just day-dream your way to sleep.

And the night. Some of my classmates(the smarter ones, heh) chose the night. The night is quiet and silent, black and ominous, foreboding and filled with tension. And yet, it is such a great to contemplate. The average student, nay, the average Singaporean's day is filled with people palavering, with day-dreaming, essentially nothing useful most of the time. We have to filter out this massive load of information, into the useful and non-useful category. Again, to clarify, conversations with friends belong to "useful". And "homework". Hmmm. That would take some thoughts.

On a serious note, the night is a great time to spend with your only companion- your own mind. And that is your most trusted friend- not your friends or relatives. Perhaps your family, though even that is debatable at times. The night is the most quiet part of the day and your mind will have no need to strain itself, sieving through your 5 senses for information earlier on in the afternoon. And how many times have you lie awake in your bed, reflecting about your experiences...just thinking there?

And this might be why I like to blog at night, where there is no one but me in my own private and personal little world. Kinda ironical, really, to pour out my "innermost secrets" in my blog at the most private part of the day.

Enough with my thoughts. Heh. After that ramble, I wonder how many shares similar view? I, personally, sleep anywhere from 12am to 2am. And occasional 3am. This also might explains why I am usually a late riser. But not too late. Perhaps about 8.30am to 9am?

Moving on. Recently a fellow debater came to me and told me, "Seetoh, you dont update your blog often enough." She didnt praise me for interesting or humorous content(okay, that could be just my wish), but that simple statement flattered me a great deal. I dont blush, but if I do, but face would have been the shade of an apple. So, thank you Michele, for not praising my blog but just informing me that your follow it. And I suppose, you too, Ding Yan.

I suppose one becomes happy when your work, no matter what kind, have people appraising it.

And next up: SAF-CJC partnership. That proved to be a day of many "firsts". My first time firing a gun. A machine gun, a pistol and a SAR 21. Note to self- guns are pretty loud. Especially a machine gun. Maybe it's a guy's thing, but there is something about a gun that make a guy pump up with adrenaline. Could be the testosterone but every male in my class would grin about their learning to strip a pistol. My reasoning? Military weapons is a human construct and this just make us proud. Not proud of its usage for violence but proud that we could produce something so powerful. Pride of the creator, pride of its user.

And hey, even girls felt it was kinda awesome. I mean, carrying a 8kg bazooka? Who would have given the chance up? Not to mention the army camp boosted a huge town- an artificial one. One with shophouses and residence area, all empty and used to simulate urban combat. Soldiers, perhaps to pacify their superiors, gushed about NS life.

"You get $200 if you get a Gold for IPPT(NS's NAPFA) and $100 if you get a Silver."

I could see the dollar symbol in everyone's eye.

Hmm. And the Hindi movie. To be honest, I have never watch a Indian movie in my entire life. Perhaps watched a few excerpts and they were those dancing and singing scenes. I am neutral to musicals, save a few, and almost all Indian movies are a musical. Added on with the language barrier, this means "The 3 Idiots" was the first Indian movie I watched.

I watched it because it was witty, funny and exposes life in a new perspective. It showed many flaws in the education system and praise the virtues of friendship and camaraderie.

It is not the best comedy film I have ever watched, but it was a great one. To skeptics, cast away the racial stereotypes and watched "The 3 Idiots". I guarantee there will be no disappointment. Below is the first portion of the movie. Someone uploaded the entire 2009 movie up. I recommend

Click for Part 2 of the movie

Click for Part 3 of the movie

The rest are also on Youtube, just click the name of the fella who uploaded all these to see everything.

That was how I spent my weekend, or rather, in view of the "hiatus", the entire week.

*If you notice, I didnt mention myself doing any homework. So eh-hem, just to clarify, I am not a mugger. :D*

Apologies

2011-04-12T21:33:00.001+08:00

Once again, I will not be able to post a blog post today. Two mathematics test and one physics test.

By the way, on something totally unrelated, I am signing up for REACH CAmbridge. Hope I get in.

Spam, debate, Beijing and Alexandra Wallace

2011-04-08T23:30:00.002+08:00

My Macbook, no longer as new as it was a month ago is still in good condition(Duh). There isnt much problem with it, other than the fact it is pristine white. Whenever I just finish reading the newspaper, your fingertips tend to turn grey, or black, depending on how much you read and how you hold your newspapers. And these colours like transferring themselves on the keyboard. And because I always forget to wash my hands after reading the papers, my keyboard is no longer that white it had started with. >.<

First of all, this post IS going to be long. Starting with spam. Fellow bloggers might know what is spam. Your blogs will get comments and after awhile, when you have amassed more followers and readers, you get these weird comments that are the following:

1. Selling electronic items
2. Selling sexual accessories
3. Utter gibberish

Could be just me, but I didnt get these things in the past; it only happened when the number of readers of this blog passed a certain point. I supposed these stuffs happen. I guess I can take into comfort the fact that the spam filter is working perfectly because none of these comments made it out.

Debate. I (not in a good way) stand out in debates. And that's because I am the only one with no debating experience. While everyone goes straight into brainstorming and tearing into their rebuttals, I needed some clarification of the formats. And I get nervous. Perhaps I should have gone into public speaking, as I had some experience there. The strict format of debates make me a little uncomfortable. And I tend to stumble on my words. Lack of experience and lack of practice. That's why I resolve from this day onwards, I shall practice my second speaker role every moment I can. No more singing while I bath. It would be purely debating as I shower.

Actually, I just did it today. Debated while I shower. And wow. It did help. My thoughts just transmitted itselves fluently into words.

There IS something special about being alone in a small enclosed room naked with warm water pouring down. I kid you not.

On a more serious note(actually I was pretty serious about the shower thing), I really do need more practice. It wouldnt do to lag behind the rest of the debaters. I constantly worry about the fact that I dont have that cynical mindset that every debater should possess.

And oh, I cant believe I am saying this but I actually miss sports. As in having a sports CCA. That physical exhaustion I undergo three times a day last year has turned into mental fatigue once a week this year. And it is not necessary easier.

Beijing. My brother is heading off for Beijing. For six weeks. Hwa Chong has a campus of its own there, joined together with a Chinese university. My brother is going there to get a feel of studies in China. Six weeks. Might be a wink of an eye but that's still the longest period of time my brother have been away. Actually, the second place would be a five days stay for the ASEAN Youth Convention. By me. Thus six weeks is a horribly long time. To me and my parents, that is. I mean, imaging being alone at home with noone to talk to.

Also, it is interesting to note that it will be the longest amount of time my brother will be separated from me since we popped out of our mother. Hrm. I shall get my revenge when I get that 6 years scholarship to study medicine in Imperial College.

My brother is definitely not feeling sad. My father had just bought him a new laptop and a sixteen megapixel camera for his stay there. >.<

And finally, a little rant about an American girl. This was introduced to us in General Paper lesson.

And I thought discrimination has reduced considerably after President Obama was voted in. Seems like discrimination will always be rampant. And the sad thing is, the racist people today never seem to think they are racist. Rather, they feel they stand for the norm in society.

And here is a reply by an Asian in a song. I loved it.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

On blogging and on liars, hypocrites and saints

2011-04-05T19:08:00.000+08:00

Nadah on interesting events. I am certainly not living as exciting a life as some of my friends, though I am certainly living a good one. Two comments about my blog that struck me today. First, my classmate asked me why wasnt I doing more posts? I do it once every three or four days. And he does his once every two days.

One, I would just like to mention that my blog post takes up half an hour(Could be just me). Some people just type out what's on their mind, while others like to play the role of observers. I am the latter, though I do indulge in a little of the former. And that brings me to what my GP teacher, Mr. Casimir Kang asked today, why blog? A platform to post your innermost secrets? And let the public view it?

There are a couple of bloggers in class(perhaps three). I dont know whether it is just me, but I sure dont post up my innermost thoughts into my blog. There was a comment about narcissism. And I admit it. I am narcissistic...as much as the next person is. I believe everyone is narcissistic and hypocritical. The thing that really matters is do you exhibit those characteristics openly? And you might be a hypocrite, but to what degree? And to those who are extremely idealistic, disagrees with me and also think lying is bad, have you lied before, sir?

Because if you have never lied before, never made a hypocritical decision ever in your life and have never made a selfish choice, you, sir, cannot be described as an honest man. To name you a saint would be more correct.

Woe betide those who said you have never lied before because lying is bad. Because if you have lied before, that makes you a liar AND a hypocrite at the same time. And the interesting thing is, if you lied but have never been caught at it, does that make you a liar? Some says yes, but I know of a few friends(and two from KI) that would disagree to a certain extent. If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

And to those who still feels strongly against blogging, I have to say, from the perspective of a person who blogs and once kept a diary, a diary does not equate to a blog. And that said, a blog is more therapeutic. It relieve stress and you get to have your 5 minutes of fame(depending on the number of views you get). And because I do believe a blog is to get readers and I DO like the idea of having strangers read my thoughts, I guess I am narcissistic.

Phew. This post is really quite philosophical but hey, Cogito ergo sum.

Sogurt and It's Friday

2011-04-01T23:03:00.000+08:00

Aaargh. My phone broke down on me again. I mean, seriously, it was working a few days ago. So now, I am using a phone that had no colour on its display screen. No colours, no camera. It's quite nostalgic, really. The only game inside is Snake. That IS cool. And taking it as a social experiment, it is really interesting to note that I dun really mind a phone whose only function is, well, call. No cameras. No recorder. No internet. Case in point, long gone are the day where there sell a phone that just has a single function.

So a few days ago, while waiting for my brother to finish up in his school, I went Sogurt. Yes, the Sogurt I read so much about(mainly from Amy's blog).

Atmosphere: 9/10
Price: 8/10
Yogurt: 7.5/10

Now, I love the atmosphere of the place, I mean, really. Everything about Sogurt shows the thought and planning the owner must have been through. I also like how they have a redemption/stamp card. And the price. It is slightly pricey for any student with an average allowance but Sogurt IS supposed to be a treat and not really a daily affair. But the shop does give a 10% discount to students and I love it.

My gift card and my first stamp. A step closer to that membership card.

That 10% does matter to students and you can see the satisfied face of the customers that they do enjoy the whole eating experience in Sogurt. I based the rating on all the ice-creams/yogurts I have ate, from unknown stalls selling Ice-Kacang to Anderson, Ben and Jerry, the works. And mind you, the best yogurt/ice cream does not even belong to one of those "branded" names. And thus I rate it a 7.5. Mine did taste good, but I find it tasteless after a while. Cookies and cream. I cant taste much cookie nor cream. The texture was superb but it tasted plain after a while.

Perhaps it was just the favor. Or the fact I got 250 grams instead of the minimum 100 grams?

Looks a little like dog doo, since I ate a mouthful already.

A little side-tracking, but the best yogurt I had was in Marine Parade. I cant even remember the name of the store but the ice cream there was $2.50 bucks for a 100 grams and boy, the taste haunted me the rest of that week. Cant eat there anymore though- too far from my current school.

I tried the waffle and my rating would be: 8.5/10

Chocolate waffle

I liked it. I liked it a lot. And it might be the cloying taste of chocolate that resulted in a poorer rating for the yogurt.

Moving on. Today IS friday. And that brings to mind a viral video of a song song by a 14 years old girl singing about Friday. And in the video, it is implied:

she played traunt
she hangs out with people more than 2 years older than her
She goes to a party with alcohol drinks
She does this every Friday

And remember, she is 14 years of age. I mean, wow. And the last I checked, the video had garnered 73 million hits and has:

171,964 likes, 1,398,980 dislikes

And then to top it all, I chanced upon this article. I love this guy.

I love how he writes out the whole thing. He embellish, he sign-post, mainly, he bullshit. Pardon that word but I cant find a better word to describe this. :D Really, I love it.

And debates today was fantastic. I cant talk much about what went on today. But suffice to say Mr. Na and Ms. De Souza debated together. I laughed my ass off at the whole debate. Heh.

Signing off. The pile of homework has decreased. The end is in sight. *Picks up a pen wearily*

Shortest post ever

2011-03-31T21:11:00.000+08:00

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

2011-03-27T20:05:00.001+08:00

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

2011-03-25T00:04:00.003+08:00

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

2011-03-20T22:48:00.005+08:00

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

2011-03-17T23:30:00.004+08:00

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

2011-03-17T10:37:00.000+08:00

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

2011-03-16T01:54:00.001+08:00

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

2011-03-16T01:22:00.001+08:00

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

2011-03-12T13:43:00.000+08:00

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

2011-03-08T21:08:00.001+08:00

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

2011-03-06T01:48:00.009+08:00

"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

2011-03-02T21:59:00.000+08:00

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.