soliloquy.

Unique Voices that not Many Listen to

2011-07-09T22:19:00.008+08:00

When it comes to music, my preferences are rather unique. I don't exactly like mainstream popular music, partly because it conforms too much to a particular style and recipe to allow for mass appeal. At the end, many songs sound similar to each other, thus somewhat lacking creativity.

The most important aspects of a song are the quality and uniqueness of the singer's voice, and the melody. That explains the range of songs I include in my iPod. Other people may select songs because they are popular, easy-to-hear, easy-to-sing along with etc., but I don't.

A unique voice really puts the X-factor into any song. Here are some singers with distinctive voices, which I really admire.

元ちとせ (元千歲) - 千の夜と千の昼

Chitose Hajime - Sen no yoru to sen no hiru

Her ultra-distinctive voice has a flute-like quality whenever she hits the high-pitch notes. If I'm not wrong, this trembling move is a traditional technique originated from the Ryukyuan islands of Amami Ōshima (奄美大島), where Hajime Chitose hails from. Kousuke Atari (中孝介 - あたりこうすけ) is probably a more famous example of another singer from the same islands; he had participated in the filming and recording of the theme song for Cape No. 7, the Taiwanese movie miracle.

Hajime Chitose's voice is incomparable to anyone's in the Chinese pop music industry. Some might think that her voice is eerie and sounds like shrieks when she hits the high notes, but that is what makes her unique.

I remember reading on a webpage that Hajime Chitose was extremely introverted and unwilling to display her singing talents, so the representatives from the recording company had to travel by flight to her faraway, isolated island and approached her family in their humble village house to clinch the deal with her. Then she signed the contract.

Here's another song:

元ちとせ青のレクイエム

中孝介 - 花海 (原唱:周杰倫)

Kousuke Atari - Sea of Flowers (Originally by Jay Chou)

Kousuke Atari is also a native of Amami Oshima of Japan. Every time I hear his trembling yet powerful voice, I shudder a little.

If you did watch Cape No. 7, you should be more familiar with this song.

장윤정의 꽃

Jang Yoon Jeong (Jang Yun Jeong) - Kkot (Flower)

Jang Yoon Jeong really deserves a special mention for venturing into a sector of the Korean music market which no one dared enter since 1992. But she single-handedly brought that sector from its deathbed in the early 21st century.

From the time after the Korean War to the early 1990s, Korean popular music market was dominated by "trot" music - a music genre that sounds old and conformed to a particular rhythm similar to that in foxtrot music. There had been no dance tracks, hip-hop or ballads to speak of. In 1992, male group Seo Taiji and Boys (Seo taeji wa a-ideul)'s music revolutionized the industry, introducing rap, dance and hip hop for the first time ever. From then onwards, the old-school trot music fell into a deep decline, and was totally replaced by the new era of Korean pop similar to what we hear on MTV and Music Bank nowadays.

However, in the early 21st century, Jang Yoon Jeong, in her early 20s, decided to sing trot music instead. She was highly lauded, and is one of the few singers in Korea who can appeal to both the older generation and some younger ones.

Her voice is actually not as distinctive as Hajime Chitose's, but it is surely a strong one. Perhaps her powerful voice is more evident in the following song:

장윤정 Jang Yoon Jeong - One Night Only

Alex - 정려원 출연의 '미쳐보려 해도(Can't Be Crazy)' M/V from 2nd Album 'JUST LIKE ME'

Korean-Canadian Alex Chu of Korean electropop group Clazziquai released his 2nd solo album in early June 2011. His voice is somewhat unique too; perhaps it can be described as 'sticky'. It just feels that way. Like me, you might feel that his songs are not that attractive or remembered easily after you listen to them for the first time. To appreciate the songs, you need to listen to them repeatedly. Also, all the songs might sound similar in style, but to me that's not a reason to dislike them. All in all, this is an album worth replaying. The more you hear, the better it sounds.

莫文蔚-愛情
Karen Mok - Love

From the Chinese pop music industry, we have Karen Mok, winner of the Taiwan Golden Melody Awards. Her voice is not that unique, but I like the slowness and uniqueness of the melody of this song.

陳珊妮 - 青春 PV

And she might not be that popular due to her being not conformed to the mainstream bubblegum pop music market, but Sandee Chan is definitely talented. I heard this song on the radio recently, and I think it's really contagious.

心血来潮想update部落格

2011-06-05T22:47:00.004+08:00

I remember the days when blogging used to be a weekly activity. But now the last update was about 1.5 months ago. I've missed out on commenting so many current affairs. Oh well...

______________________

I'm quite lucky recently to have discovered and read 2 books that interest me:

NOTHING TO ENVY: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
by Barbara Demick

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6178648-nothing-to-envy

Factory Girls
by Leslie T. Chang

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2635587-factory-girls

Nothing to Envy brings outsiders into the the ordinary lives of North Koreans from the 1950s to present day. After interviews with North Korean defectors who are now living in South Korea, Demick presents us with details on the finest aspects of life under the Great Leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, and how the ever-loyal residents, brainwashed willingly or reluctantly, have prospered and suffered. Some of the stories are set in Chongjin, a heavily-industrialised city probably nearer to the Russian border than to Pyongyang. In the 1960s, when the West talked about the Korean Miracle, they were talking about the Democratic People's Republic, which had a Gross Domestic Product per capita of about thrice that of the Republic. After the Korean War, life turned for the better, with immense Soviet support, and it steered into a slippery downhill slide ever since the Soviet Union broke up. Some North Korean elites started doubting the government, but most believed that the Kims would provide for them, and that they really have nothing to envy in the world.

Is it true that if a certain ideology has been drilled into the minds of the masses, they will really accept it as the truth, and therefore lose their ability to distinguish between their delusions and the truth? Is that the power of propaganda?

Factory Girls presents the ever-changing lives of migrant female workers through the author, Harvard graduate Leslie T. Chang's personal encounters with them. She also presents the harsh truths of dealing and doing business in today's increasingly-capitalist China. The book is easily as good as Falling Leaves by Adeline Yen Mah, which I thoroughly enjoyed because of the inter-cultural references. The author, an American Chinese, also traces her familial ties in back in her ancestral China, a land which she is entangled with but which is not her real home. Having grown up in USA, and being ethnically Chinese, and luckily being rather proficient in Chinese thanks to her parents forcing her to attend weekend Chinese lessons during her teenage years in New York City, she presents the whole book in a manner which a Westerner might not be able to.

______________________

I visited the Singapore Book Fair 2011 today at Suntec City Expo, and it was greatly disappointing. There was definitely a limited range of books. Today was the last day. I would recommend you to head to Kinokuniya, Ngee Ann City for the biggest collection of books for sale, or to the second hand bookshops in Bras Basah Complex for precious books, and for Chinese books. There are a few bookstores which specialise in Chinese books.

______________________

After listening to Korean pop music for about 1.5 years, I realise that the Taiwanese and Hong Kong Chinese pop music market is so highly saturated and not very creative. I always prefer Taiwanese Chinese music from the 90s and early 2000s, not the latest hits. For Hong Kong, majority of the singers can't even sing well.

I've only been listening to a few genres of Korean pop - hip hop, rap, trot, jazz and house - and I haven't even paid real attention to mainstream K-pop. After searching and listening to so much, I've barely scratched the surface of huge market. I still don't really listen to songs by groups which are made ubiquitous - SNSD, T-ara, 2NE1, Kara, C N Blue, FT Island, Shinee, Super Junior, BigBang, After School, 2AM... Yup - when I tell you I listen to Korean pop music, I mean Clazziquai, Epik High, Jang Yoon Jung, Dynamic Duo etc. - groups that you might have never heard of, but which you should begin listening to :).

______________________

Weekends are getting boring. When we were students, weekends were always for studying or doing homework, but now there's really nothing to do. I wish Singapore were more interesting. Hmmmm...

Yes there is the Great Singapore Sale, but I dread shopping. Maybe life will be better if someone can convince me that shopping is interesting.

More often than not, we find ourselves trying to keep ourselves busy so as to not waste any minute of time. But perhaps, when we grow old, and mature, we'll understand that it is perfectly normal to waste time and be bored. Life doesn't have to be interesting all the time. It's not possible for it to be interesting all the time. I think.

______________________

Cliche as it sounds, time flies. 10+ more months to the completion of National Service. And most probably I'll be flying to Melbourne for university. It's not Harvard or MIT, but I'm still looking forward to it.

Let's Get Together Now.

2011-04-15T21:36:00.002+08:00

World Cup 2002 Song - Let's Get Together Now (Japanese version)

South Korea and Japan. After having a history of unwelcome invasion by Japan, South Korea and Japan's relationship thawed when they jointly organised the World Cup in 2002. Organisers put away the bad history and focused on creating the best ever Asian soccer event. They forgot how a Japanese linguist patriotically defined Korean as a 'dialect of Japanese' - a scientifically inaccurate statement - during the Japanese invasion.

Coat of Arms of Korea under Japanese rule. The 'CHOSEN' refers to 'Joseon/Chosun etc.' (Korea; land of the morning calm; 朝鮮)

Flag of the Japanese Resident General of Korea. (1905-1910)

World Cup 2002 Song - Let's Get Together Now (Korean version)

Which one of the 2 versions sounds better?

Häagen-Dazs

2011-03-27T11:44:00.001+08:00

The name, Häagen-Dazs, does not derive from any of the North Germanic languages; it is simply two made-up words meant to look Scandinavian to American eyes (the digraphs "äa" and "zs" are not a part of any native words in any of the Scandinavian languages). This is known in the marketing industry as foreign branding. Mattus thought that Denmark was known for its dairy products and had a positive image in the U.S.^[4] He included an outline map of Denmark on early labels, as well as the name of Copenhagen.^{[5]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A4agen-Dazs}

Japan. II.

2011-03-17T22:16:00.003+08:00

Honestly, if I'm in Tokyo now, I won't feel worried about radiation. But I'll return to where I came from so that my family won't worry about me. And that's about the only reason.

Earth Hour just commenced in Tokyo earlier than anywhere else. A courteous and conscious people, the Japanese have voluntarily reduced unnecessary electricity consumption, resulting in a not-so-illuminated Ginza these few days.

From China and Hong Kong, the panic has caused thousands to stock up on salt - sea salt, which is mostly sodium chloride. Prices have been jacked up by 600%. People are selling salt online. How... amusing.

Epik High 'Run'

2011-03-16T23:52:00.000+08:00

It's hard to forget this MV. It's probably the best in Asia in 2010. Dramatic. I've watched it a few times for the past few months, but every time I reach 3:23, the realisation of what had happened to the male runner is always appalling. Too bad this MV didn't win any awards for the 2010 prize presentation ceremonies. And there are about 936000 views to date. Let's make it a million!

On the other hand, it is obvious that a few American singers have been dominating the world, or at least, in music and youtube. For instance,

Justin Bieber - Baby ft. Ludacris

Music video by Justin Bieber performing Baby.

Lady Gaga - Bad Romance

Music video by Lady Gaga performing Bad Romance...

Katy Perry - Firework

Official music video for Katy Perry's "Firework...

Bruno Mars - Grenade [Official Music Video]

Phenomenal.

The Road

2011-03-16T23:33:00.000+08:00

The Road - Clazziquai Project (English)

it's never good when you have so many paths to choose from.

I have to make a rational decision, and it's difficult. If I were not so ambitious, things would be easier, but no - I hope to deviate from the status quo. And I hope that's possible. The location, distance, culture, nature, course, costs and funding. Wow. That's just a few of the factors. By no means is it easy to decide rationally and speculate accurately.

Japan

2011-03-15T22:34:00.005+08:00

Who would ever think that the world's second largest economy will be so fragile in the face of unstoppable threats...

Or perhaps that is not fragility.

Or perhaps the people of Japan have always anticipated natural disasters, since their nation is dotted with volcanoes and converging plates, such that it is just part of their lives to experience an epic disaster.

Or maybe some might choose to call that 'fate', though I won't.

And even in shops near Sendai, the horrified denizens still obey their usual practice of extremely courtesy and politeness, and there have not been chaos in shops when they frantically purchase their necessities, not to mention looting- that would be almost nonexistent.

In some ways, it was lucky that the offshore earthquake did not occur right outside Tokyo, since that would cause even more disastrous tsunamis.

I also realised the shortcomings of those shock-resistant features on structures, which have been a big area of research. Indeed, the waves on the ground merely shook the buildings, and they swayed vigorously from left to right, and few collapsed. However, any building and any kind of preventive measure is futile in a tsunami.

And channelnewsasia just has to showcase their overzealous attempts in earning money by asking business partners to purchase spots asap for advertisements during broadcasts of Japan's situation.

Back to history.

Personally, I have absolutely NOTHING against Japan.

But I'm not sure of the Koreans feel hatred towards Japanese, even now in 2011, because of the Japanese invasion, and because Japan somehow caused a divided Korea.

In fact, there are actually reasons for Korea to feel threatened, since historically it has been influenced so greatly by its 2 giant neighbours - China and Japan. Perhaps now it's time for both the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to cherish their sovereignty - politically and culturally.

After the Korean war, North Korea actually had a higher GDP than did South Korea for a few years, until the South Korean economy took off in the 1970s. The 1988 Seoul Olympic Games was probably the indicator that South Korea had become a first-world nation, merely 40 years after the war had ravaged everything. In some ways, the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games can also be seen as the similar indicator. Keeping the years 1988 and 2008 in mind, Japan was decades earlier in reaching this benchmark, as it held its first Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964.

According to a Time article in 2009, Beijing and Tokyo are the cities which are most prone to earthquakes in the 21st century. When the epicentre moves itself to those places, the aftereffects are unimaginable.

Epik High (에픽하이) - Over

2011-03-15T22:32:00.000+08:00

Epik High - Over

You got so much to prove
Hoping they approve
The only thing that's true is all you ever do is do
You're moving shoe to shoe but you're not going
You stop growing, the moment that you stay at the top
The only way is to drop
Freefalling down the stairs that you climbed up
Lined up to freely mount the air
But you dare not air drop
Tied up like a hair knot
Hiking down without a chance of stepping on a fair rock
And so, you stand still in a stand-still
Hands still building castles on a sand hill
"Man chill," is what your friends say
But you're not hearing what little men say
Anyway, keep on going, and taste the stars
Keep on growing, and raise the bar
You're living life for the As down to the Zs
After the hill you got a mountain to seize

You are an overachiever
Do what it takes 'til it takes everything you are
You are an overachiever
Do what it takes 'til it takes everything you are

Who can tell?
Your living is an organized hell
The mansion of your mind just an oversized cell
The pressure, everything is done to a measure
In the sea of competition sunk like a treasure
Like a feather falling slow spiraling to the floor
Strung up like a broken violin to your course
Opportunity is knocking at your door
But you never left a welcome mat (it doesn't matter anymore)
Or anyhow, but you're too late to turn back
Fate pushing you into the wall like a thumbtack
Ain't no comebacks in this game of life
Roll the dice again
Roll it once, never twice

Keep on going, and taste the stars
Keep on growing, and raise the bar
You're living life for the As down to the Zs
After one drop you got a fountain to seize

You are an overachiever
Do what it takes 'til it takes everything you are
You are an overachiever
Do what it takes 'til it takes everything you are
You are an overachiever
Do what it takes 'til it takes everything you are

Wanna break from the world, but the world wanna break you
The weight makes your backbone curl up and make you

You are an overachiever
Do what it takes 'til it takes everything you are

Wanna break from the world, but the world wanna break you
The weight makes your backbone curl up and make you

Epik High's songs have been the most played ones on my iPod touch for the past half a year. This song, Over, is from their latest 'special' full album , released in March 2010. Even though lyricist-rapper Tablo of Epik High is Canadian-Korean, not many songs are fully in English, except for this.

Tablo is no small fry. His popularity in Korea is allegedly due to the ancient link to Confucianism -- he is academically a high-achiever too, having graduated from Stanford with a Bachelor's degree and Master's degree in English and Literature within 3 years, and with straight A+'s. However, with an IQ of ~180, that might not be too surprising.

Language and Intelligence

2010-11-22T23:32:00.005+08:00

Many statements are controversial and lacking evidence to some extent...

The complexity of a language probably depends on the levels of intelligence of the people who speak it on a daily basis. However, in what precise ways will intelligence affect the language? Before I explore further, in this case and only in this post, we shall assume that Intelligence Quotients are accurate representations of the degrees of intelligence of people, and that IQ tests and surveys conducted on a sample size in the respective nations are all of high reliability. Also, we have to assume that as such, a nation with a higher national IQ consists of generally more intelligent people.

Wait, people. Hold your comments. I understand that every single statement and assumption can be challenged. And that every one of these is controversial and possibly biased in every possible manner. But we shall deal with these controversies on another issue, and concentrate on the current topic.

Not quite surprisingly, east Asian nations have topped the charts in national IQ levels, with Hong Kong and Singapore having national IQs of 108, and both Koreas having national IQs of 106. No prizes for guessing which countries are runners-up -- Japan, China and Taiwan at 105. All these figures are obtained from IQ and Global Inequality, a controversial 2006 book by psychologist Richard Lynn and political scientist Tatu Vanhanen.

The Korean language is one of the more complex languages in the modern world, with numerous conjugations and verb endings. Each verb (action verb or descriptive verb) can be conjugated in approximately 40 ways, depending on the mood (and here it doesn't refer to being happy, or sad), tense and level of politeness (there are 7 levels altogether). Add in honorifics, a Subject-Object-Verb sentence structure and consonant changes, and you get a mystifying language of level IV difficulty, according to the USA Defense Language Institute.

Can we conclude that the Korean language has developed into such a complex one because the Koreans have been intelligent enough to develop, understand and communicate in such a difficult language? In addition, has it not been simplified throughout the centuries of use, because the Koreans have proved capable of learning and mastering their language despite the difficulty? The language might not be an easy one to learn, but because Koreans had inherited high levels of intelligence (and to some extent, linguistic abilities), they can cope with it.

Yet from another perspective, if a certain racial group is highly intelligent, they may, on the other extreme, simplify their language gradually in ways that allow even easier communication. Some may debate that Koreans could have developed and simultaneously simplified their language into a more efficient version that requires less effort to learn.

Indeed, intelligence has somewhat played a role in increasing literacy. In 1443, King Sejong introduced hangeul, an all-new self-created Korean alphabet for writing Korean. Previously, Chinese characters and special, non-standard symbols were used for writing Korean language, and the inaccessibility and difficulty have left most of the people, except for scholars, illiterate. With hangeul, literacy had soared.

Korean, Japanese and Chinese are extremely complex languages, especially the first 2, even though many would concur that Chinese is equally tough. Here, we have to note that Japan, South and North Korea are extremely homogeneous nations, with at least 98% of the respective populations of each nation belonging to the native race. In PRC, at least 92% of the people are ethnic Han Chinese. Is it a coincidence that the 'level of difficulty' of a language is proportional to the racial IQ?

On the other extremes of geography on Earth, certain other races with lower 'measured IQs' have even more complicated language structures. I got this idea from a certain book; I forgot which it is. It states that traditionally, European conquerors had this concept that advanced civilisations would use highly complex languages, while more laid-back ones would use languages which are simple. However, the book presented an alternative view, that is, the most excruciatingly difficult languages in the world are spoken by tiny pockets of peoples who are not assumed to be of the top tier on national IQ levels. Without naming examples, there are a few minority groups in certain European-dominated nations which speak languages that are extremely succinct and agglutinative, and highly inflected and declined. It would have been a scenario of stereotyping, but the European colonial masters probably would never regard those peoples as 'advanced civilisations'.

Yet on the other hand, would such minorities have kept their languages because they have collectively failed to understand the importance of simplifying their languages, in order to allow more people to achieve literacy?

To sum up, the Koreans are statistically a high-IQ people, and their language is difficult to master. However, given such a high level of intelligence, could they also have learned to simplify their language so that it is more easily picked up? Also, the world's most obscure languages are spoken by minority races which are not exactly proven smart in terms of statistics. Is there any link between national (and therefore in some cases, racial) IQ levels, difficulty of languages and literacy rates?

There are so many controversies involved in this writing, because many statements and statistics are based on assumptions and conjectures. Therefore, many statements are not necessarily true.

One Year Ago

2010-11-07T02:02:00.003+08:00

Can't really believe that it has already been one year. Just one year ago 7 or 8 of us sneaked into town to celebrate Kim Yong's birthday days before our first A level paper. This year we gathered at the same place at Fish and Co. at Dhoby Ghaut. It's amazing to know that time flies, and that I have served more than 1/4 of my 2 years!

This isn't something new, but my battalion has just shifted from Gloucester Camp to Sembawang Camp. That actually happened in late September. In case you were wondering, Gloucester Camp is along Portsdown Road, and it's really in the middle of everything. On bus, it's 12 minutes from Vivocity, 5 minutes to IKEA and Alexandra Hospital, 10 minutes to NUH and NUS, and it's just opposite Science Park! With all these in its vicinity, Gloucester is definitely a prime location.

I kind of miss the months spent in Gloucester Camp as I spent my first days as a clerk there. It's tiny, and the fact that there's only one toilet in the whole camp explains how miniature it is.

Sembawang Camp is much bigger. At first, I didn't fancy the idea of shifting of camp (but of course I couldn't object -.-), since I loved the location of Gloucester, but after spending one month in this brand new building in Sembawang with state-of-the-art facilities (ok that's exaggeration), it isn't a bad thing after all.

---

All right, 5 days to my Basic Driving Theory Test. I'm not very willing to read through my book of 300 Q&A for the BTT because it's less interesting than learning Korean. Ugh. I'll just have to make sure I get 45+ so that I wouldn't have to retake it.

---

Speaking of that, I'm learning Korean! This is mildly puzzling, as the songs SNSD, Shinee, Super Junior and BigBang aren't the most-played ones on my iPod Touch. In fact I only have a few of them. My Hangugeo is still rudimentary, so I can only understand parts of the language. I am always in search of books for beginner learners of the Korean language, but apparently Korean language is so popular that those books are always on loan. Nevertheless, I borrowed a relatively good book by the publisher Tuttle, named Practical Korean. There are numerous errors and mismatches between the Hangeul and romanizations, but it is well-structured and concise.

JB

2010-10-18T00:15:00.003+08:00

After booking out of Sembawang Camp from a 24-hour Ops Duty, which consumed an otherwise perfect Saturday, I headed home for a short respite before my overseas trip which involved the grandeur task of crossing an international border.

Henry and Yang Sheng crossed the Woodlands Immigration Checkpoint, and headed towards Johor Bahru. The checkpoint in JB was gargantuan, silver colour-based and majestic, but drove everyone in circles as we walked from one end to another to access the immigration counters. Nevertheless, that extra walk would serve as a compensation to my lack of exercise, an extraterritorial physiotherapy session for Yang Sheng's injury, and a good practice for Henry in his future kicking endeavor in MT.

I haven't blogged for months, but I have not diverted away from my usual and habitual digression. Well that's not important.

The first place we went to was City Square; being next to the checkpoint, it was inevitable. McDonalds is certainly cheaper there than in Singapore. Not to mention they have a different menu. We grabbed 3 black pepper chicken burgers and were good to go.

I probably haven't walked along JB's streets (out of City Square) since 13 years ago, when my family joined a shopping trip to there. Needless to say, there have been changes. It's such a unique place. Don't compare JB to Singapore, HK or cities in China because there is nothing like JB. There are street scenes unique to this city, such as the perpetual bus queue along Jalan Wong Ah Fook, juxtaposed against the modern office tower of City Square, and the four or five HDB point blocks across the straits in Marsiling. The very presence of HDB blocks in our view make us feel that we're not really that far away from Singapore. Haha.

Not long after, we arrived at the museum Yang Sheng had been talking about. 新山华族历史文化博物馆. It was a miniature museum carved out from one of those old shophouses ubiquitous in JB. No photography was allowed, so Yang Sheng was... mildly disappointed. There was a truckload of information about how Chinese people settled in Johor Bahru and its surroundings, and I was genuinely interested. But somehow, other than the 2 Chinese scholars who came in for a short glance, there were absolutely no other tourists or visitors. Hmmm.

Following the museum visit we stopped at a traditional coffee shop for tea. One of the aunties there works at the Poolside Restaurant at HCI too. It was no surprise that she could recognize Yang Sheng, but I was a less frequent customer and I couldn't really believe that she remembers me. Hmmmm. Maybe she has superb memory or I was extraordinarily eye-catching or something. Haha. The toasts there are way better than those at Ya Kun's.

We walked along the Indian street which was replete with goodies for Deepavali, which would come quite soon. It was quite festive, though it was not as grand as what you would expect to see in Little India in Singapore. Then, apparently Yang Sheng wanted to avoid harassment from a few surveyors, so we made a detour to the back alleys, which also served a plethora of food, and quirkily had Singapore HDB flats in the far background.

Following that was shopping at City Square, and early (at least that was an early one to me) dinner at a joint which served steak/meat on a hot slab of stone. My ribeye wasn't bad, and I always prefer real beef to ostrich meat which is halfway between chicken and beef :).

So that was JB for this afternoon.

-----------------------

On a side note, I have almost exactly 18 months to go! Before I ORD! For the umpteenth time, I say that I can't wait for the academic semester to start. Gee... I've just spent 6 months in army. Oh...

Like a boulder.

2010-05-10T23:46:00.004+08:00

Recently I watched Mao's Last Dancer, which was spectacular but in some ways exaggerated. But still, it is a movie that some people would totally love. But if Iron Man II and other movies of the genre are your cup of tea, then Mao's Last Dancer might not satisfy.

I'm glad I've treasured my NJC school days. I generally did not dread going to school last year, and from the beginning of JC I knew that in the future when we're working, we're going to miss our school life, regardless of how many tests we had flunked or how many hours had been spent in the library. However, the definition of treasuring 'good times' is vague. Methodically how do we treasure such times? One method is to not take the good old school days for granted. School days would always come to an end. I've gone through a few heart-wrenching graduations, and prior to the end of those school days, I would always allow myself to immerse totally in the spatial and social environment of the schools which I would not attend anymore. So what if we had treasured 'good times'? Would they last longer? Scientifically, if you were to graduate on 9 December 2009, and you are 10 days from it, treasuring your last moments does nothing to elongate those hours.

But the irrationality of the human mind makes people feel that certain one-hour periods of time 'fly', while others are dreadfully long.

Regardless of all that, I miss the tiniest and most minor details of my life in NJC.

I miss...

the times when we had to rehearse 3 to 4 times a week from 4 to 9pm, when I voluntarily stayed back without complaints, even though the LT1 aircon is always off, and it's annoyingly hot to practice outside LT1...

the maths lessons in J2 which were on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, when it was conducive for a nap, and the ONE instance Mr Tsang woke me up from my shallow slumber... I don't really sleep during Maths class!

the lunches at the canteen which would either consist of chicken rice or Japanese rice - nothing else...

the Pokka Milk Tea / Milk Coffee which kept me awake during afternoon maths lessons...

the delightful discovery of the almost-complete collection of Aldous Huxley and George Orwell books in the NJC library...

the really hot days when we would perspire after walking from the canteen to TB34, which is really far away...

the moderately-long bus journeys on 74/852 and 163...

the delightful discovery in J2 that the absence of PW makes up for much free time that can be allocated for Wikipedia and Facebook...

the slippery and smelly toilet at the canteen...

the lack of toilets nearby on the same floor as TB34...

the indescribable euphoria upon solving a maths question...

the worry, and the subsequent determination to excel, after knowing my horrendous J2 June Common Test results...

the situation in which I put down my bag on the shelves outside the library, and bring in EVERYTHING except for the bag itself into the library, simply because bags aren't allowed there. The result is myself holding a 15-cm thick stack of various notes, in addition to my pencil case, Creative ZEN and my water bottle (which I smuggled in)...

And then it's just me, but occasionally during the mundane office hours, such poignant memories of school hit me like a boulder in the head, and my heart would skip a few beats.

-

2010-04-24T00:36:00.004+08:00

These few days have changed me considerably. I met lots of people, and thankfully, most of them were nice and pleasant to be with. I learned how to interact with people who were different. I had an insight into how working life would be in the future. I experienced whatever one can never get from school, which I miss so badly. Yes I miss NJC a lot a lot. Every aspect of it. I can't wait to pursue my next level of education; I can't wait to learn. But it's just not the time to enroll in an university yet, for the obvious reasons. I like those days when I woke up to go to school, and hopefully, get educated, learn or understand whatever needs to be understood.

Yeah so I hope I'll get used to this kind of lifestyle quickly, and I think I've already acclimatised to some extent. And don't countdown - the huge number of days left is depressing, even though people around me often claim that time flies.

A few hours ago I felt so different upon exiting through the turnstiles from Sengkang MRT Station to Compass Point. The bright lights, the crowd, the queues and the advertisements - and the awful stench of commercialization and privatization - all reminded me that I'm warped back into the comforting reality, regardless of how much I detest that awful stench of commercialization. At least I see civilians :).

Learning never stops at this inevitable part of life. BTT followed by driving shall come soon. And there are language lessons. Yeah I promise - I'll have a life!

Back to NJC

2010-04-14T18:52:00.006+08:00

What an eventful day. I haven't been to NJC for a month, and yesterday I revisited the great old college in the afternoon just in time for the Harmonica practice. The place looks the same as it did in January, though there are major changes from last year...

I wore the white Aerius 2010 T-shirt and bermudas, and got stopped by the ever-friendly security guard. I said I graduated last year and I came back to visit my CCA. He gladly allowed me to enter, but just before I walked away, he asked me the ultimate question: Which school are you from?

"NJC duh!"

He said ok, and I walked on...

There goes the basketball courts where Kar Woon used to shoot the hoops. The basketball courts are now a construction site. A multi-storey sports complex will stand there soon, but as of now it's an unsightly mess. The track is still open for use, but the long strip of tiled floor between the grand stand seats and the track is also under construction - I don't know what they're building though. Maybe the tiles are just being replaced.

The first wave of nostalgia hit me like a blunt and heavy hammer. It wasn't emotionally comfortable. I recalled those Monday and Tuesday afternoons in J2 when we had PE and assembled at the left side of the grand stand. And Mr Irwan would single out the NAPFA failures. And it didn't feel good when you're one of them. Not that the prospect of playing captain's ball or basketball would be much more exciting than training for an insignificant one hour at the gym, but being coerced to train for a test was rather gloomy. Of course I trained, and in the gym I saw the usual few guys from my class or other PE classes who had to train as well. At least the idea that I wasn't the only one there was rather comforting:).

Now, looking back, PE lessons in J2 were still somewhat gloomy affairs.

The staircase leading to the canteen were the same, of course. And the canteen was still a hot place. The school was full of secondary school-aged students in dark grey shorts or skirts. The grand flight of stairs that led from the canteen to the circular walkway is now converted into another construction site. In a few months time it would probably be a library for the Junior High students.

Yesterday's harmonica practice ended at 7.30pm. Not too early or too late. But I can't help being reminded of how busy I was exactly a year ago, when practices quite often ended at 8 or 9pm, and there's still another project waiting for me at home. There was homework too.

How nostalgic. As I walked past every place, I remembered the numerous things I had done there. At the big TC classroom where the combined session was held, I had GP lessons 2 years ago during PAE, and also Monday's Human Geography lessons in J2. And that's also the classroom where we had our harmonica camp in J1's March holidays. Then the amphitheater was another eventful place. From Orientation 1, when OG 20 had our pizza meal there instead of dancing in the hall during the.... erm.... I seriously forgot the name......, to the harmonica exco elections to the house activities to occasional harmonica group practices there (J1 before the camp), I can only say that it's now all over.

I was so helpful. I helped to carry one music stand from the TC classroom to the harmonica store. It's really far away. Like last year, by the time practices ended, it's already turned dark. We had done this so many times last year - leaving school moments before the side gate is closed. The last of these days was last April, so I haven't experienced such a busy day of CCA since then, and yesterday I found it hard to imagine leaving school at 8pm and having to do work at home, and reaching school the next morning by 7.40am. So hectic! I survived it, but now I wonder how I actually managed to manage. Haha

In NJC I was not one of those who returned home early everyday, or at least immediately after CCA. I spent countless late weekday nights out at dinner, even if there was school on the next day. Dinner at KAP McDonalds, Serene Centre McDonalds, Plaza Singapura, Zhen Fa Huo Hai Xian at Novena, dinner at Jurong Point at Boon Lay, dinner at Subway at West Mall, dinner at j8... It was tiring by the time I reached home at 10pm++ during those days, but they were definitely fun.

To think that I'm not going to experience any school life so soon! Can't do anything about it though...

-

2010-04-14T13:07:00.003+08:00

I just dreamt of myself being stuck in an EARTHQUAKE in HONG KONG last night. How cool is that.

蔡健雅 — 晨间新闻

2010-04-13T12:59:00.004+08:00

……我们已有感觉，不管它多尖锐；疯狂世界，but do we really care；晨间的新闻，自己来篇写，才算特别……

~

2010-04-12T02:47:00.000+08:00

On an even gloomier note, I'm worried. I'm worried that unis won't give me places. I'm really worried. And I need to keep myself really busy to stop these worries. I don't know if always appear worried, but yes I am worrrrrrieeddd.

The Only Way to be Truly Happy is to Keep Yourself Busy.

2010-04-12T00:18:00.001+08:00

It's not my first time posting this picture - I've posted it on Facebook and this blog last year. But it's really so applicable to me. Perhaps my character isn't suited for a mundane life. In fact, the busier the better. Being busy gives me a sense of accomplishment, prevents procrastination and deprives me of time for excessive worrying and thinking. I keep thinking of this period of time one year ago. I was really busy with Harmonica practices for SYF and the SLA Spatial Challenge, but in retrospect it was enjoyable, or at least, satisfying. And a few months ago, mugging for A levels was the priority, and it was sort of good to be busy mugging because I know that ultimately it helps. (On another note, intense H2 Mathematics practices DO help. It's not something new, but I'm really thankful to all my maths teachers who forced/encouraged me to practice maths. From a score of 26% in the June Common Tests [and being called by Ms Ling HC, who really cared a lot for all her students:)) ], to that elusive A in Maths for A levels, it definitely wasn't some kind of divine intervention. It was months of hard work on a subject that wasn't exactly my best one.)

A few months of holidays ain't good at ALL. I've never ever had such a long break before. I hate to admit it, but the HOLIDAYS are taking their toll on me. I want to be PRODUCTIVE. Ugh.

And when I post such things, I'm not exactly the happiest person on Earth.

I'm feeling totally lazy now, but I wish I were busier. I think I'm on my way to becoming a workaholic in the next 2 years, in uni and in work, but why am I not acting like one now?

I feel like I'm living the life of a retiree. Ugh.

We're too young to understand the complexities of the world; we're too old to study in JC and enjoy student fares. And being 18/19 years old, (are you sure that) we're supposed to be in the prime of our lives?

In any point of time in your life, you are either earning or spending money, directly or indirectly. And it happens that most of the time, unless you work 24 hours a day, you are somehow using up money.

You might remember me posting the above status updates on Facebook before. Those ideas or thoughts make me guilty and worried. I don't know. I'd rather be in school now, or totally busy at work or something. Having too much free time is lethal. I've lost the concept of the preciousness of time to a large extent.

Eli?

2010-03-30T14:40:00.004+08:00

If an apocalyptic war were to occur, and you were only allowed to rescue one book before civilisation ends, which one would you choose?

In this movie, apparently Eli held on to the Braille version of the Holy Bible until the end. Well, not really the end, since the leather-covered Bible was taken away by Carnegie, the so-called antagonist of the movie. After the apocalypse, who would ever imagine that the maximum-security prison on Alcatraz Island would become the doomsday vault for books and knowledge? In this movie of ludicrousness and irrationality, that is possible. The journey on foot by a blind man (presumably so) from the interior of the United States to the 'West' is also possible. On IMDb, there is some debate on whether Eli is totally blind, or partially, or has perfect eyesight, but regardless of how fervently Eli assures that he 'walks by faith; not by sight', it's still impossible for a blind man to walk from wherever he started (probably in the deserts of Arizona) westwards to San Francisco, without a walking stick or a dog that guides him! If he's not blind, it's also absurd for him to think that walking is the best way, when he actually has access to vehicles. Talking about cars, the director seems to imply that regardless of how badly America (and the world) has been damaged by a war, there will always be one perfectly-paved tarmac road that leads from Arizona to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and that the San Francisco cityscape would remain intact despite the widespread damage in all other places.

The list of absurdities in the movie goes on, but I assure you that on the overall, it's quite an enjoyable watch. Apart from the numerous factual and logical flaws the director has spiced up the movie with, the story of a man with a mission to rescue the last copy of a book is actually watchable, and the movie itself does not pale in comparison with the other March 2010 ones. At the cinema last Thursday, we somehow chose to watch The Book of Eli instead of Zuo Ren or The Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and till today I don't regret my choice, so this movie is recommendable.

Oh according to Wikipedia: "Eli (אלי) (إل), a variant on the name of God as spoken in Arabic, Hebrew, and Aramaic." So that's how the movie got its name from. Eli is also a common first name in Hebrew.

Why do unrelated people join unrelated groups?

2010-03-30T14:12:00.004+08:00

Here on Facebook, I have twelve individuals who wish to join the Alumni Group of Catholic High School 4-6 '07. But all of them are not friends of mine. They might be friends of my friends who are part of that group, but I didn't bother checking. I've never heard of their names before. This group is a closed one, and to join, the people have to request from me, since I'm the only admin and the creator of this group. But why would anyone still bother joining if they're not even from CHS, or Singapore? I have no idea. One possible method to stop all these notifications about '###### would like to join this group' would be to make the group private or hidden, but I don't want to do that, because some day, my ex-classmates who are not yet part of this group might chance upon it, and reasonably, request to join it. I don't want this group to be hidden from all those teachers and ex-classmates who can rightfully join.

-

2010-03-26T21:14:00.003+08:00

This is not my personal encounter. I just happened to read about such topics somewhere.

Just because 2 people are from the same country, it doesn't necessarily mean they know each other. I've heard examples such as "Oh, you're from America? Do you know XJKLHSGH? She's from New York! I bet you MUST know her!" Then, I'll roll my eyes.

People who just cannot distinguish between China, Korea and Japan (their languages, culture, written scripts etc.) exist. Some think the three countries (and coincidentally, ethnic groups*) are... well... the same, and they speak the same language.

* I added in 'coincidentally, ethnic groups' because people of one ethnic group might not necessarily be within one nation, and that one nation might consist of more than one ethnic / religious group. Even the highly homogeneous nation of Japan is made up of a few hundred thousand Koreans, Chinese, Ainu and Filipino each. Even better examples of non-homogeneous nations would be Singapore, Malaysia and Belgium.

"Do you speak the Asian language?" "Do you speak the Indian language?" Since some people are so ignorant, we might as well assume that every single person on Earth speaks the Earth language. Just like how all the blue humanoids on Pandora speak Na'vi.

O.o

I can't think of any cheesy title to put here, so yeah

2010-03-20T01:36:00.009+08:00

Haven't updated for a nong nong time. So yeah. A level results were out two Fridays ago, and I've sort of overcome my lack of straight A's. Hmmm. Even with 7As, there's no guarantee that I can enter any course that I want, so I shan't mention how I'm slightly restricted. Hmmmmmmph.

I went to the Open Houses of SMU, NTU and NUS, and it's great that I've a better idea what I want and what I don't.

Last Thursday I went to the National Library at Bugis with Wee Siang and Kim Yong, and had an interesting time... reading at the reference library. Yeah. And then it was followed by a 2-hour lunch. And Alice in Wonderland in 3D. It's not that kind of movie that I would love, but it garnered generally positive reviews, so it's not a bad movie at all. Watch it if you want. And the red queen looks better than the white one (Anne Hathaway), whom Kim Yong calls a cross-dresser. And I must say that the 3D effects are even more rudimentary than that of Avatar. My skull shape isn't really suited for putting on those 3D glasses, which cost $150 each, according to the onscreen notice before the movie.

Cross-dresser? Maybe.

Here's my display picture for these few days. I found it somewhere on tumblr. I just created a tumblr account, but I'm not going to update on my tumblr blog, so don't bother finding it.

I basically choked on saliva upon realising the implicit humor there.

And recently I've been reading a few books. One of them is "Asian American Dreams - The Emergence of an American People" by Helen Zia, a Chinese American who grew up in the USA in the 1950s, when racial harmony was as scarce as hen's teeth, or to fit the context, cultural knowledge of racial groups which were different.

On page 103, in the chapter "To Market, To Market, New York Style":

A man stopped at the Red Apple [owned by Koreans, who were then discriminated against by the African Americans] and dropped off a bag with an anonymous letter and cash. Jang [the storeowner of the Red Apple, a grocery] cried when he read it, and taped the note to his empty shopwindow. It read:

To my brother Koreans [in New York]:

I am a Black American born in Brooklyn [a county of New York state within New York City] raised 20 years in Bedford Stuyvesant [a neighbourhood with many minority groups in New York City]. I cannot apologize for the treatment my brothers and sisters are giving to my Korean brothers. Instead I can only suffer. I can only feel pain as my Korean brothers and sisters feel. If any man has the authority to throw the first stone at his neighbor, it should be me. Instead I only feel LOVE.

Please accept my small donation... along with these few words. "This is hard-earned money." I'm sorry and I only ask that you feel forgiveness in your heart. And please continue...

It's subtly heartwarming.

A level results

2010-03-06T00:37:00.003+08:00

So they were out on Friday afternoon at 2.30pm+. I can't say that I'm satisfied. But I'm glad that the subjects that I screwed up are my 2 worst ones, instead of those that I usually perform well in. Also, I'm glad that my name DID appear there, even though it's at the back (or right hand side).

ア　ア　ア　ア　ア　ア　ア

2010-03-04T22:08:00.005+08:00

It's not easy to describe my feeling now. Worried? Yup, I'm somewhat worried, but only to a small extent. Only a few hours ago then I felt the tension, and all the 'what-ifs' inundated my mind.

What if I don't do well?

What if I do well, but did not obtain a perfect score?

What if I don't even do well at all?

It's not easy to convince myself that I have done my best, even though I believe that I have done so. And then the cliche statements…

"Your best is not good enough."

A statement less pessimistic than the one above would be
"Only the best is good."

Then, here's another cliche statement I saw on Facebook recently. It was mentioned in a comment by some other person I don't know.
"If you can't convince them, confuse them."

Then for me, if I can't convince myself that I've done erm... well,
I should just confuse myself.

Actually this blog post is inspired by Kim Yong's latest blog post also about his worries.

Yes - almost everything depends on this A level cert.

I'm not exactly talented, skilled or trained in other areas, such as singing, acting or fine arts, or even sports, so I can only rely on it. Most of us don't have many alternatives. Not that I can sign up at Sony Music as a new singer and release my album if my academics aren't favourable. But then, almost everyone HAS to rely on this cert.

On a lighter note, your O level results aren't obsolete either. It's a slight advantage if you had done well for your O levels.

And it's so much easier to do well for O level than for the A levels.

Just because I got that for my O levels, it totally doesn't mean that my A level results would be like that too. Even though I hope it really really is.

So unpredictable.

-

2010-03-02T22:45:00.004+08:00

Costs of living in various cities -- Fares of metropolitan railway rides

Singapore, 1°17′N 103°50′E
S$0.68 (one station) to S$2.07++

Tokyo, 35°42′2″N 139°42′54″E
Tokyo Metro
¥160 (S$2.52) to ¥300 (S$4.73)
Tokyo Bus
¥200 (S$3.16)
Similar costs apply to buses and trains in other major cities.

Beijing, 39°54′50″N 116°23′30″E
Beijing Subway
RMB 2 (S$0.41), and same for many other Chinese cities

Taipei
Taipei Rapid Transit System
TWD 20 (S$0.87) to TWD 65 (S$2.84)

Hong Kong 22°16′42″N 114°9′32″E
Hong Kong MTR
HKD 3 (S$0.54) to HKD 23.40 (S$4.23)

Seoul 37°34′08″N 126°58′36″E
Seoul Metro
1000 won (S$1.22) for first 10km, 100 more won for each additional 5km

London 51°30′29″N 0°7′29″W
London Underground
4 (S$8.38) to 7 pounds (S$14.66)
But it's like 40% cheaper if an Oyster card is used

Paris
Paris Metro
€1.60 (S$3.04)

New York City
New York Subway
USD2.25 (S$3.16)

Moscow
Moscow Metro
26 rubles (S$1.22)

Ok Singapore's transport fares aren't really expensive lah.

Japan

2010-03-01T21:25:00.005+08:00

After my first ever trip to Japan, I totally realise why many people wish to visit it over and over again. The creative Japanese have been able to package their nation in an attractive way, to the extent that every moment spent in Japan is highly pleasurable, regardless of whether you are shopping, on the train or even just waiting for the plane or next bus. And goodness - it's sooo much cleaner than Singapore, which already features extremely clean streets. I only went to the cities this time, but I guess the rural areas shouldn't be any less clean, since the land of the rising sun houses 130++ million civilised persons who generally know that they shouldn't throw their chewed chewing gum on the floor.

Maybe it's a relatively new feature, but practically all road signs in the major airports (though I only boarded or alighted at Kansai, Narita and Haneda) are written in 4 or 5 scripts -- Japanese, English, Korean, and one or both forms of Chinese (Traditional and/or Simplified). Most of the time it's just Simplified Chinese, since it's the form of written Chinese used by the people that provides Japan with lots of retail and tourism revenue. With the relentless rise of the People's Republic of China's economy, the highly voracious shoppers at Gucci or LV or Prada are mostly Chinese, with a considerable number of local Japanese of a variety of ages, and the occasional Korean, Taiwanese, Hongkonger or persons of non-East Asian variety. Therefore, if I were in charge of any of the many 10+ storey department stores that dot Tokyo and Osaka, why wouldn't I provide a Chinese street directory in addition to a Japanese and an English one? I'm quite sure ten years ago there were only Japanese and English signs, and in some cases, only Japanese. Now, it is highly logical to have at least a few courteous staff at information counters who can converse in ultra-fluent Mandarin with the inquisitive customers.

The train network is probably unparalleled anywhere else on Earth. The Tokyo Metro, with its 9 lines, together with the 4 Toei lines, is just a minor part of Tokyo's transportation network. If you are a Geography student, and had carefully read through Ms Kavi's Urban Geography notes, you should remember there's one page that refers to Tokyo's JR (Japan Railways) Yamanote Line that is an oval loop that serves the main areas of Tokyo. But then, that's only JR's one line - the Yamanote. There are probably hundreds of JR lines throughout Japan that serve as an additional metro service in metro areas, and suburban and intercity railways. Plus, there are dozens of private railway companies in each major metropolitan area. Then there are streetcars, peoplemovers and monorails everywhere as well. Thus, there is little reason to grab a cab, which is painfully expensive. Well, with the high costs of living in Asia's most developed nation, buses and trains aren't that cheap either, but of course you can't travel from Odaiba to Ikebukuro within Tokyo by foot, so metro is the obvious winner.

It's almost absurd to think that Japan is 'dangerous' just because it's where 3 plates meet. If you're worried about your safety when you're in Tokyo, and that a 20-storey building would be hurled onto you once an earthquake happens, you need to convince yourself that you're in... you know, Japan! instead of Haiti or Armenia. Many buildings are well-equipped to withstand a shock greater than the Richter 8.3 1923 Kanto Earthquake. You can see from the extensive amount of steel supports (instead of concrete) used in newer buildings. The older ones are likely to have undergone reinforcement too. After my Japan trip, I found out from USGS that a very minor earthquake occurred at one of the islands south of Kanto on one of the days I was in Tokyo. Without a doubt, only seismometers felt it, since it was 4.3 on the Richter scale. But from this, it is perhaps safe to say that there is at least one earthquake shaking any part of Japan on any day - but most are totally undetectable by humans, dogs, cats and sheep. Only by the ultra-sensitive seismometers that detect negligible Richter 2.0 quakes.

When talking about the world's most expensive city, how can I ever miss out on costs? Tokyo is one of the world's most expensive city to live in, but to a tourist, the other major cities wouldn't be cheaper too. To sum up, almost nothing is cheap in Japan. Perhaps the only shop that sells economical goods is the Daiso 105 yen store, which has branches at IMM and Plaza Singapura. 105 yen is less than SGD 2. Getting a plate of the Japanese equivalent of a Singapore hawker centre chicken rice for $3 (approx 190 yen) is simply out of the question. By no means am I a picky eater who only eats horsemeat sashimi, but the cheapest meal I had ever eaten was a soba set meal in a humble family-owned restaurant with minimal renovations, near Tokyo Tower in Ropponagi. The meal, though economical by Japanese standards, costs as much as a set lunch at Jack's Place. As for SGD 3 (190 yen)? It doesn't get you a ticket on the Tokyo or Osaka Metro for even one station. Tickets costs 200 yen and above. On another note, some Japanese are as crazy over Korean stars as some of my friends are. SNSD's 2nd Mini Album sets you back by 4500 yen. But then if somehow you are a hardcore fan of SNSD, and you even want to collect the Japanese version of this Korean group's mini album, you probably wouldn't mind paying that...

Maybe contrary to what you had expected, Japanese cities house a few homeless squatters who set up their temporary huts in the parks and railway stations. Thankfully, there are no young orphans begging for money alone in the cold wintry nights. All the homeless people are middle-aged men who have probably gone bankrupt after burning their fingers in the stock or property market in the 1990s. Sadly, there are even news reports of such people committing suicide due to the stress and financial difficulties. If I'm not wrong, stress had driven the deranged young otaku to drive a truck through the busy pedestrian street in Akihabara, Tokyo, mimicking a scene he had seen in the controversial game Grand Theft Auto. Just because Japan is Asia's leading country in terms of economy and literacy, it doesn't mean that all these tragedies and flaws are absent.

Bow

2010-02-13T00:57:00.006+08:00

They bow everywhere. At the train station, at the restaurant, and in the toilet. Perhaps, being extraneously courteous is as essential to them as sleeping is to us. Needless to say, those in the hospitality and service sector are among those who bow the most frequently. In Tokyo, the staff of all shops and restaurants welcome you verbally and with a slight bow the moment you enter their place. However, they speak to everyone in the Japanese language only, even if the customers obviously don't look like a speaker of the language isolate, which is according to linguists dissimilar to any other language in the world. While they bow, they smile.

At Hankyu Department Store in Umeda, Osaka, a well-mannered young lady is specially in charge of controlling the crowds queuing up for the four elevators that serve the 11-storey megastore. She wore an unrelenting smile above her thick make-up which was determined to cover any blemishes on her face. While the news reports tell us that Korean female stars undergo plastic surgery to create their perfect images, all Japanese from 16 to 66 seem to put up quite a lot of make-up before leaving their house for any occasion. In Japanese, she instructs the shoppers, consisting of mainly local Japanese ladies and tourists from the PRC, awaiting a ride on the elevator, to queue up behind the doors in twos. When a fully-loaded lift arrived at the first storey, she directs the crowd out of the lift before welcoming the next group of anxious shoppers who had obeyed her instructions to queue up, as if the ultra-polite lift attendant were their nursery teacher. After every single customer entered the lift, she bowed slightly and thanked and uttered a string of Japanese. She made sure that all the customers were inside the earthquake-proof container. Someone in the lift closed the door, and then she started her 45-degree bow which persisted until the lift doors were entirely closed. That was, of course, accompanied by a professional smile.

At Umeda Station, where a dozen railway lines converge, colleagues bow to each other before they go their separate ways home after a long day at work. A man bowed INTO me. His forehead went colliding onto my shoulder while he did his daily goodbye ritual after a farewell at the station. I guess somewhere along the road when he meets another friend, he'll bow and bang into someone else again.

SAT I, Take II

2010-02-11T20:42:00.004+08:00

If I got 2300 I would have posted my results on Facebook and MSN an hour ago. Same if I got 2250. But then, the worst things that could happen happened. My Writing scores, which were already rather high in the first take, went up further (wait - that's actually something good). My critical reading was bad for the first time, but now it's better. But seriously what happened to my Math. I'm not notoriously bad at math, so why is this happening to me. It's like everyone's Math is the best among the three, but mine is the most disappointing. Not the lowest score, but considering all the drilling from A level Math, SAT I Math shouldn't be any challenge. I thought so too, but obviously it was not the case. My critical reading isn't too good, so I'm a bit delighted by my improvement. But why Math... On the overall, out of 2400, it's obviously not good. I wouldn't bother telling you my overall and individual scores, since they are disappointing, totally. But then I had expected that the moment I stepped out of the exam hall at AJC. Noooo.

Why is my Math like that. Not as if SAT I Math should be a challenge to me if I scored 800 for SAT II Math. SAT I Math is obviously harder than SAT II level II Math, but what did I do to deserve such Math grades.

If you've been thinking that I'm stupid, then my scores for SAT I Take II would be your perfect evidence for my stupidity.

And if that's gonna make me happier, I got a 10 for my essay, which I thought I screwed up. 10 out of 12 isn't exactly egregious, though you who got 12 would be giggling in my direction. Ugh.

Empire State of Mind

2010-01-31T00:29:00.003+08:00

[chorus]

In Hong Kong,
Concrete jungle where dreams are made of,
Theres nothing you can’t do,
Now you’re in Hong Kong,
these streets will make you feel brand new,
Big lights will inspire you,
lets hear it for Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong... ...

19 degrees Celsius. :)

But somehow I wish I'm in Singapore now, and attending the sleepover if they have one :). And so that I could have attended the long-awaited steamboat too.

So much for globalisation. It drags and pushes people apart and towards each other. Simultaneously.

Cruel Temptations

2010-01-27T23:01:00.000+08:00

I'm still jobless, not because no one wants to give me a job, but because I ceased all plans to find one. And there are many reasons behind that.

Yet it's hard to comprehend why I have always been so busy. Today, I left my house at 8.30am, and I returned at 8pm. First it was roller blading with Puo Nen. Ernest came an hour after we two rented our skates, which were surprisingly more expensive than mountain bike rentals. All in all, roller blading is mentally torturous, since there's the fear of falling all the time. And since the consequences of falling on one's back can be severe, I have to make sure that I fall only to the front, and that is tiring itself. But I've gone much further away from Burger King. I even crossed the bridge. Haha. If that's not an improvement from the previous time with the two professional skaters Kim Yong and Zheng Pin, what is? Therefore, Kim Yong and I should celebrate our feat of being able to leave the green practice court =/.

Lunch was at McDonalds. Finally, Mickey Dee's after a whole month without it. It's unhealthy and tasteless, but it's one of the cheaper foods at East Coast Park, and since I had to save up money for the bus ride later, McDonalds was the only choice =/.

I rushed through the tunnel that goes under the ECP, and through the HDB blocks towards Marine Parade Road to catch 36. 36 is a bus with a nice view... as it goes onto Sheares Bridge and descends at Suntec City. And I thought I was late, but I was extremely early to arrive at 2.10pm.

The last time I played L4D2 was during the 6A outing (and I just reminded myself that I forgot to blog about that), and this time the 4+ hour tournament was action-packed, yet tiring. Yet after a bit more than 3 hours, a part of me felt like stopping for a break. That's when I understand how those who play daily find it repetitive. But eventually the game was highly enticing, and I continued very willingly. The last stage at the bridge of the whatever campaign you call that is rather funnily challenging. A charger can easily push you down the bridge, and both of you will embark on your majestic journey to the... erm... the other end of the world, the other dimension, the other world, the underworld, heaven, hell or paradise. At least this time no boomer fell down the bridge, unlike that time during the 6A outing. I think a tank fell off and killed herself too. Tank? Herself? Himself? I don't know. But there are both female and male boomers, while I think all spitters are females. And spitters are fun. They're rather easy to play too. And who else would be professional enough to launch the grenade launcher at a very nearby target, and eventually incapacitating himself (since his HP was less than 10 initially)? It's a fun experience to know the different ways of killing yourself, and your teammates, in L4D2. And is it a virtue to be ranked number one in the list 'MOST WITCH ALERTS"? I don't think so. There aren't that many witches to begin with.

On the other hand, during the games, Kim Yong's comments are highly hilarious yet they make sense and sound intellectual. Great entertainment value :D, and I'm not joking. Seriously funny. Especially when he's playing as one of the special infected, and trying to attack the AI players, or Rochelle in particular :D. He should continue commenting during future games.

And gasps. I forgot to watch Cruel Temptations. Coollll show. All should watch it on Channel U, weekdays, 7pm. And switch to the Korean soundtrack. The Mandarin voiceover is irritatingly high-pitched, so for the sake of your sanity, listen to Korean. Then you'll hear people saying aigooooo all the time.

On another hand, I need to spend less. And yet on another hand, it's not easy to not feel inferior, sometimes.

Perfectly fine

2010-01-24T02:00:00.005+08:00

Ignoring the previous SAT post, I haven't blogged much since the movie review post, but sadly this new post isn't something to look forward to unless you embrace lugubrious ambiguity veiled by a mist of sarcasm.

Feeling useless isn't exactly the best feeling in the world. The cruel truth is that at any point of time, you are either spending or earning money. Most of the time, you're spending money unless you're actively working for money. But you don't even work 16 hours a day. And many are jobless - voluntarily or involuntarily. No - it doesn't take a spendthrift to be spending money everyday. At this very moment, I AM using up money. Even if you sit and laze around, you are indirectly using up money because you need energy for your body even if you're not doing anything rigorous. And to replenish energy you need to eat, and food costs something, of course. Convincing myself that I'm not doomed (and by no means am I referring to the A level results or anything academic) is so difficult, but the slightest subtlety might alter my stand totally. And the next change will probably change my mind again. So let me just be convinced that it is not blatantly wrong to strive on. Sounds cool huh? It's absolutely fine - as fine as I am now - if no one knows what I'm talking about. Of course it's perfectly fine even if I'm doing the opposite of what others are doing. And all along, how often have I been sticking to the norms of society, or behave and think like majority of the people around me? Always? Sometimes? Never? Maybe any one of these three options might answer the question.

I hope it's my last SATurday

2010-01-23T20:01:00.000+08:00

I took SAT I this morning at Anderson JC because HCI was fully-booked. I saw familiar and friendly faces like HJ. And I saw familiar people from NJC and CHS, and since those unnamed persons have decided to pretend they did not see me, I obviously did not bother talking to them. There's a young man with a leg injury taking the test too. He was unfortunately crippled and required crutches. Thus the invigilators allowed him to enter the LT first and be seated on the first row with much assistance from his father. Of course, the assistance stops at the moment the test started, and the father did not assist him in scoring a 2400. After section 10 and a dreadful long wait for all the papers to be collected, we were finally dismissed, and I wondered if the injured man would be given permission to leave first. No, he wasn't. Being the sympathetic kind young teenager I am, I wondered if the rest of the test-takers would be kind enough to let him exit first. It turns out they didn't know his existence. Being the follower when it comes to rushing out of certain places, of course I followed the crowd. Ok. I officially declare this paragraph as the quintessential example of a drafted essay that requires corrections in the section 'Improving Paragraphs'. Haha.

Recent movies

2010-01-10T00:16:00.002+08:00

Since I had been on this topic for the past few posts, I shall just briefly review a few of the movies I watched this year and last year.

(500) Days of Summer - 4.5/5
"This is not a love story. This is a story about love." Stop telling me how cliche this statement sounds. Extraordinary movie, creative narration, and topics that touch the heart. 4 stars for all that, plus 0.5 star out of nowhere.

Inglourious Basterds - 4/5
I particularly like stories set in WWII, so I'm going to very subjectively favor this movie. The effects are great, and the story is rather special. 3 stars for the interesting storyline, 0.5 star for all the visual effects, 0.5 star as a bonus out of nowhere, too.

Ip Man - 3.5/5
Way better than the average HK movie. 3 stars for storyline, 1 star for good martial arts display, minus 0.5 star for it being showed in Mandarin, when it's obviously better when all the HK actors and actresses converse in Cantonese.

Up - 4.5/5
The old man and the ultra chubby boy bring us on an emotional ride up and down as they ride up and down in their... erm, flying house. Never mind the unrealistic storyline and the impossibility of certain events that occur in this Disney fairytale. It's easily as good as Finding Nemo (2003). 4.5 stars for that too.

Slumdog Millionaire - 4/5
Sorry to all Slumdog Millionaire fans (I can be considered one of them too), but I don't think it deserves 8 Academy Awards. 4 or 5 would be appropriate. It's a great movie, but it certainly doesn't deserve titles like 'Movie of the Decade' or something. Nevertheless I enjoyed it thoroughly, and in many ways this movie is so insightful. 3.5 stars for story, 0.5 stars for nice Jai Ho song and for it being heart-wrenching and highly intriguing.

海角七號 Cape No. 7 - 4/5
Cool. I've been to Kenting before. On another note, it's so far from Kaohsiung, but since it's a tourist attraction made famous by the famous movie, Kenting, especially the hotel where this movie is filmed, is the next big thing in Taiwan. 3.5 stars for good story. 0.5 star for nice music :). Haha I wonder if Yang Sheng would think this movie deserves more than 4/5...

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - 4/5
I have yet to catch this movie, but there's such a thing as predicted grades. Yea, even for movies.

It's not that I'm lenient with grading movies. It's just that I only watch movies that would be worth watching, so I don't watch the movies if I predict that I would be giving them like 2/5. I'm strict with grading movies! If there is a film lousy enough, I won't wait to give it a 1/5. And yes - I am highly subjective and you will bear with it :).

Unfair disadvantage

2010-01-10T00:14:00.001+08:00

I shan't rant on, since it's not only me who is, in some way, disadvantaged. Yeaaaaaa...

-

2010-01-07T15:55:00.001+08:00

I just get this kind of weird and mixed feeling every time I scroll down my Facebook Live Feed.

A few movies here and there in 2009 and 2010

2010-01-06T01:05:00.003+08:00

NOT WITHOUT YOU (NO PUEDO VIVIR SIN TI) 不能沒有你

I haven't seen a movie like this for ten years. Enough said. 4.5 out of 5 stars. :)

Avatar in 3D isn't bad too. Luckily I didn't feel any headache after watching the 161-minute blockbuster with the glasses (rumored to cost $80 each). There was a slight backache though, because we were seated on the fourth row despite having booked the tickets one day in advance. Wow this show is a true record breaker, and the Jay Chou and Chi-Ling joke pales in comparison :). Treasure Hunter anyone? Haha.

Avatar in 3D - 3.5 out of 5 stars. 3 stars for above average storyline (yet the story is rather predictable, right? For those who have watched), 0.5 star for the exciting battle scenes, 0.5 star for the use of 3D technology, and minus 0.5 star for the immature and still-developing 3D technology)

2012 - 3 out of 5 stars. 2.5 stars for average storyline, 0.5 star for breathtaking graphics

I watched it twice with different groups of friends.

Casino-goers

2010-01-05T00:23:00.003+08:00

They're mostly citizens of the People's Republic of China who have obtained permission to travel to Macau SAR. To a smaller extent, there are people from Hong Kong who have crossed the sea to gamble in Macau's 31 casinos. I just turned legal, so this time I could enter the legalized gambling dens that bring in billions to Macau, and Stanley Ho in particular. My parents and I spent absolutely nothing on gambling. Why should we anyway? Before anything logic comes in, GAMBLING IS BAAAAD. I don't need to elaborate. Furthermore, don't any gamblers realize that casinos are profit-based, and not some charitable organization? If gamblers have a high chance of winning these many games, how are the casino and hotel owners going to profit? That's why, it is only logical that as the number of times the gamblers gamble tend to infinity, they will lose most of their money. The amount won would never be great enough to compensate the amount any gambler has placed on bets. Casinos earn their bucks mainly through the money gamblers have bet, so after an hour at the casino, you might be cheered up by the fact that you have won a few rounds, while your excitement numbs you so that you don't realize the net amount you have actually lost, and contributed to the Macanese economy.

It really makes me think when I see hardcore gamblers dishing out five or ten HKD5000 notes for their bets at Baccarat. I mean, HKD5000 is approximately SGD900. Don't they feel the pinch after they have lost a few rounds and still proceed on to the next bet? It's easy for such gamblers to lose HKD200 000 in a matter of minutes.

Done

2010-01-02T00:48:00.003+08:00

I have been so busy these few days (between 25th Dec and 1st January) that I have no time to type anything here. But now, everything is settled; 塵埃落定. I had wanted to update on... not my daily activities, but my daily thoughts.

Write something!

2009-12-25T01:35:00.001+08:00

Not that I don't have anything to write. I have all the content and perspective, but not the motivation to start doing something that is less interesting than surfing the net. I wish MSN Weather, Wikipedia and Facebook don't exist for these few days when I need to concentrate so badly. I have all the content they need, but I don't have the urge I need. Ugh. Maybe it's better for procrastinators like me to do things nearer to the deadline. Because now I'll just easily drift off to find out the weather conditions for Melbourne, Australia and Ulan Bator, Mongolia. Yup - I'm interested in such stuff. Ok I shall continue tomorrow, and hope I'll be fortunate enough to be able to concentrate, and write something very boomz. Boomz. Now I'll shingz off to bed.

-

2009-12-23T22:42:00.002+08:00

So at least I can say that I've done something. It's better than nothing at all. Sometimes, look at what you have accomplished, no matter how easily it is accomplished, instead of worrying about what you haven't accomplished. The deadline is 1st January. There's not much time, but I don't feel the rush and urgency. I've done something, but in fact I spent most of today sleeping and reading unrelated posts. Hah. But who knows. Maybe I'll withdraw at the last minute. Ok now back to reading some CHINESE books.

-

2009-12-22T23:16:00.004+08:00

It feels so unusual that after this holiday, there's no school. It just feels weird. When there was school I used to wish that the new term wouldn't begin so soon, but now I'm hoping that there's a compulsion for me to return to school and see the people I want to see, and those whom I don't look forward to seeing. Call me a sentimental school-lover, but I'm missing the formal, uniformed school days now.

Between the end of my last A level paper and the beginning of my next big event, there are a few months. Sometimes when I think about how I'm going to spend this time, it's really really easy to be lost and directionless. Ever since I attended pre-school, I have never had such a long genuine break. I certainly don't want to waste a few months of precious time allocated for what I truly want to do. And believe me - it's scary to entertain such a thought.

I could find a job. Or participate in an internship programme somewhere. Or learn driving. Pick up a new language. Travel. Teach. Go out with friends. Go back to Hong Kong again. Read all those books I've bought or had wanted to borrow from the library. Go to somewhere near Singapore. I might end up doing all these, but I might end up doing none of these at all. I don't want to waste this time by sleeping and lazing around at home for a few months. But when laziness overtakes, I might succumb to slacking and doing anything far from productive. I don't want that, and thinking about how I might sadly end up wasting all my available time is a scary thing.

Get a job. You might say, since everyone is actively getting one, why not? I've heard of friends earning as little as $2 an hour, and some lucky ones $8 an hour, and rarely anything above $10. But consider this. After we graduate from university, we'll be spending the next few DECADES working just to survive. Why, then, should we engage in such an activity that is, unfortunately, most likely mundane, during the break? Of course working is a good experience, and you get to keep some or all of the money you have earned. But then I'm not a big spender or shopaholic and I don't need all these extra cash to satisfy my shopping desires at the new LV flagship shop at ION Orchard. I don't know what I should do. Work? Don't work? I don't know what works.

As for internship programme... I feel like I've missed an opportunity but it's not over, or rather I haven't really missed it at all. Aha. Confused. An internship is going to be heavily enriching though.

Driving seems more probable though.

What I really really want is to travel. Anywhere. Even if it doesn't involve a long-haul flight. I had thought that I could fly from Hong Kong to places like Hanoi/Northern Vietnam, Korea or Japan this winter, but due to time constraints I only went to Macau. It was a fruitful trip too, even though I've been to Macau twice before this. Anywhere too far north like Iceland or the UK or Canada would be highly unfeasible because the days are short, and there might be snowstorms. I wish someone would be free to travel around with me, but everyone is either not free or not interested. Ugh. So never mind. But if someone is really free for a holiday please send me a message or write on my wall or something or email me or send me a mail to my letter box. I really don't want to exist in Singapore throughout these few months. Ugh.

Don't you think it's one of the most fortunate things ever to be able to be a student forever? Don't tell me you've been thinking that life's gonna be better when you work. That's an obscenely wrongly optimistic thought.

10 days

2009-12-22T23:04:00.003+08:00

It's just 10 days, yet I felt like I've been there forever, and I wish I'm really there forever. Because of unfavourable circumstances, I could only spend 10 days in Hong Kong, and today I flew from the subtropical high pressure belt to the persistently warm tropics. It was 12 or 13 degrees C in Hong Kong - unusually low due to the high pressure system in Southern China and the cold winds originating from Northern China - and the usual weather here in Singapore.

Graduation Night 2009 Part One

2009-12-12T13:00:00.002+08:00

The NJC prom night, with the theme Metamorphosis, took place at Swissotel the Stamford at night on 7 December 2009. At five plus I met up with Shaun, Seng Chian and Kim Yong at Yio Chu Kang MRT. Shaun's mother kindly fetched us to the hotel on her car so we didn't have to squeeze on the MRT train with our make up :). As usual, the trendy, fashionable, meticulous and erm.... maybe cool... Kim Yong was very late after he spent almost half an hour in the toilet tidying himself up :).

Hwa Chong Institution also had their prom that night at the same hotel in the neighbouring ballroom. That's why I wasn't shocked to see Huey Jeen at the first floor lobby. But I was more shocked to see that I took some time to recognise certain girls, whose make-up and costumes have made them look completely different - and more boomz :). On Facebook, one of my friends had an album of the prom photos named 'No one dressed up like a caterpillar', and I thoroughly agree. Then we went to the toilet yet again because my vain friends wanted last minute touch-ups on their face and hair. And camwhoring began as we rode the escalator to the fifth floor.

There was an endless stream of photo-taking after we arrived at the lobby and reception area, and we were trying to appear in as many photos as possible. There was a rainbow-coloured cardboard sign made by the councillors, and it said it would take us 30 seconds to walk from that sign to the entrance to the ballroom, but it would take longer if we paused for photos. Nothing much about that actually. Then we went in and got our goody bags, which initiated some complaints. It would be better if the councillors had found a sponsor for plastic goody bags rather than paper ones because the latter is fragile and most people were annoyed, and threw away the whole bag with its contents by the time prom ended. But not me. Being the nice and sentimental guy I kept everything, regardless of how useless things like the portable cutlery were. And the torque magazine is still on my desk - unread and untouched. Some others got Men's Health, Seventeen and some other sponsored magazines, but I won't read them anyway.

I thought there was a cocktail reception, but all that was served by the waiters was coke and carbonated orange drink, which I'm sure contains 0% orange juice. After the coke and carbonated orange drink reception, we entered the hall and sat at our table - which has a number which I've forgotten. It's at the right of the stage, all the way in front, and very near to the screen. Talking about the screen, I don't know why the councillors had to display the windows vista screen throughout the dinner unless there was some show on stage. The windows vista screen is so disgusting. Not as if the windows 7 screen isn't, but they could have just offed the projector. And the place where 08S07 sat was near to the loudspeakers, so obviously it was so noisy that we had to sms each other to communicate with people on the same table. The loudness was so shingz. The councillors enjoyed dimming the lights whenever there's food on the table. Some call it ambience, but I call it annoyance. Just turn on the lights, and stop shining yellow light on the middle of the circular table...

I didn't expect much from the food, since it's not the main point of the event anyway. The emcee was boomz, and the activities and shows were boomz, and overall it was great if you ignore the lighting and food. We sabotaged Kok Wah to go onstage for the limbo walk thing, and he did us proud by being one of the 40 finalists. Well... considering there were 40 tables and each table of students had to send one rep... he had done a boomz job :D. And our table was not lucky because none of us won any lucky draw. Well... considering there are so few prizes this time compared to the CHS grad night, you must be very lucky in order to win the very exquisite round-trip to Bangkok for two - on bus - or the digital camera plus digital frame sponsored by our principal.

Four guys and four girls were called onstage, and only after they appeared before the audience, they were told that they were candidates for the most well-dressed. The winner was Muhd Kamaruddin, and I don't know the exact spelling, but this soccer guy looked very formal and I guess Dian Feng or Qing Wei or Kuan Loong looked much better than the winner, since he isn't really outstanding. He was just rather... decent :D. And the girl probably won because of her thick eyeshadow and flowery dress, which looked boomz. And the 3 other girls and all the guys looked boomz as well. Except that it was slightly embarrassing for F4 because somehow no one wanted to vote for her, even though she looked rather boomz too. Well all 8 of them plus all those who voted for them looked very boomz too.

To be continued. Since this is called 'Part One', it's only logical to find a 'Part Two' later. But I don't know when I'll update, since I'm going to the airport for my flight to Hong Kong now, and in Hong Kong there are a million better things to do than to blog, such as watching tv. So maybe you'll read about part two next year. Bye.

The end is not near; it's here.

2009-12-10T15:51:00.003+08:00

The end of mainstream education came unexpectedly early. Grad night on Monday night was boomz, and I don't understand why the councillors all these years had difficulty getting people to attend such a heart-wrenching and memorable event - much better than the farewell assembly joke. There were no external guest performers, but every single event that night would not be easily forgotten. To quote from Eugene Koh's Facebook status update, "Why is everyone looking forward to graduation night when it's the saddest thing that can ever happen?", it was indeed a sad event that the end of all these 'halcyon' days have come to an end, but most people didn't want a teary farewell, so camwhoring and getting high were greater priorities that night.

All of a sudden, it seems like I've grown up overnight or something. Yesterday, I could finally leave my home without dressing up formally as if I were going to work. I was in just T-shirts and shorts pants, and not in some suit or tie and formal long pants that I had to wear on Monday and Tuesday. So yesterday I felt more like a teenager than an adult-wannabe (but I'm already 18).

Yesterday I went to the airport to send off Michael, Albert and Henry, who were flying back for good. And I smsed them something, which obviously would be too explicit, shocking and offensive to be stated here. After that, I went on bus 36, which was really convenient, to East Coast Park and found the rest of the first chro people at McDonalds. But what a poor attendance. But let's ignore those who decided to ignore the planned outing, since we had great fun roller skating. It was more of a psychological thing than a physical skill, since it was mentally tiring to pluck up courage to let go of the railings and skate freely. It was my first time yesterday, and I did not expect it to be so difficult. But it was a great accomplishment for Zheng Pin and me, who, with the assistance of Ka Tsun, not in skates, skated from the practice court to Burger King. That's very very very long, and *gasps* I lost count of the number of times I had to stop suddenly or fall down.

Ok gotta go for harmoc chalet now. I'll blog about the very boomz grad night some time later.

SAT and Advanced Levels

2009-12-07T00:04:00.004+08:00

After taking the SAT I and Subject Tests, I realised the drastic difference between the Singapore and American education systems. In my opinion, the aims of schooling in these two places and the levels of difficulty are dissimilar. The American 'syllabus' (perhaps they don't have a fixed syllabus like we do in our Advanced or Ordinary Levels) is much more superficial, while the Singapore syllabus, largely based on the British model, ensures that the students understand range of content required in great depth and detail, and critical thinking is greatly encouraged. In addition, rote learning is greatly emphasised in Singapore, while I'm not sure if that's so in the UK. Surely, by memorising and practising dozens of papers for the Singapore GCE 'A' or 'O' levels, a student is bound to perform much better in the exams. However in preparation for the SAT Subject Tests, rote learning was not necessary at all.

In addition, MOST of the questions in SAT I and II are MCQs, while for the Singapore exams, a great deal of writing is involved. In the Subject Tests, some questions are extremely basic and it would seem almost ridiculous for such questions to appear in any part of the 'A' levels. Perhaps the Americans only learn certain concepts in great detail if they were to major in that in university, and not in their secondary education, while the Cambridge syllabus requires us to understand a great deal of knowledge in the respective subjects - knowledge that would most certainly not aid anyone in the future careers or in university. The Princeton Review 2009-10 for Maths Level 1 and 2 states that 'most students would find Maths Level 2 extremely difficult, so the majority takes Maths Level 1'. After spending tens of hours on H2 Maths prelim papers, I guess most Singapore candidates would find that statement a colossal joke.

But certainly, as with most other students, preparing for SAT I or II is a breeze compared to two years of mugging for A levels. And after all, I'm still extremely glad to say that I'm sheltered under the well-planned Singapore education system for my primary and secondary education, which closely follows the British model, instead of the American style. No offense, but it just seems like a joke if I have graduated from an American high school, and my content knowledge is as little as what is tested in the SATs. The A levels certainly requires students to grasp a great deal of content and concepts, but I guess more information is better than less.

Don't see it.

2009-12-03T23:59:00.004+08:00

It's ok, it's alright. As the Eason Chan song title goes, 'Nothing Ever Happened'.

So the A levels have officially ended with the completion of bio MCQ today. It feels great, but I felt a greater sense of euphoria last Monday after Chem MCQ ended, so it didn't feel too special to complete this last paper, after a gap of ten days. The A levels so far have been... both boomz and shingz. I can't think of other words to describe it, so I'll just say that it's ok, it's alright.

Sarcasm

2009-12-03T23:02:00.004+08:00

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3195089&id=59899066172

How often do you get complimented? And when was the last time you accepted compliments without suspecting that your admirers are hinting sarcasm? It seems that as we grow, it is less likely for us to get genuine praises. Yet many fail to notice that from young, our parents, elders and teachers have been complimenting us repeatedly simply to prevent us from being discouraged by the harsher realities. Parents tend to coax their young children by praising excessively, so that their self-confidence will not be affected by the minor setbacks. You cannot expect a loving mother to tell her 3-year-old daughter that her colouring skills are egregious, even though the daughter might have, in fact, doodled on her colouring booklet. As young children, we might have failed to comprehend that not all words of praise are totally truthful, and they are meant to be white lies. For my friends of my age, you can't expect your parents or teachers to praise you for every single thing you have done. As we grow, it is increasingly difficult to achieve things that are worth genuine compliments.

Yet when we receive compliments, we are too often too quick to dismiss them as sarcastic remarks.

Karaoke withdrawal symptoms

2009-11-28T00:58:00.004+08:00

On Tuesday, I spent a boomz day with Shaun, Kerry and Ernest, with our endless flow of jokes and the D. Theory. :) For the first time I played L4D2 at Raiders in the morning while Shaun and Kerry were wasting their time on DoTA XD. I tried the single player and the online survival modes for Dark Carnival. It's hilarious to search for a channel with an 'expert' level of difficulty, and enter, and kill your teammates within a few headshots. And of course, they'll unanimously vote you OUT of the game. Luckily, I am a great survivor most of the time. I try my very very very best not to shoot teammates.

The electric chainsaw made a nice machine-like sound. If I'm not wrong, it would run out of battery eventually. But it's still good. Now you can use the frying pan, guitar and some other hook or stick or pole and the fireman's axe to axe your zombies' heads off. It's no longer just the boring boring guns/pistols/machine guns or something. I don't even know the names like AK or whatever pistol or sniper. I grab whatever is available and shoots well. Who caressss...

Finally I played a versus mode game with Shaun and Kerry. I think it was Hard Rain. Can't remember. Shaun had the audacity to join the opposing team! Haha. Poor Kerry and me. We had to grab online players such as 'Jalz', who loves dying, and 'Call me wonder woman', who has a profile pic of a wonder woman's face. Her name is just so funny. But it can't be funnier than our random comments. I was laughing throughout the game. After playing for a while, all 3 of us were overwhelmed, and decided to quit, and migrate back to L4D1.

I forgot what exactly happened, but I think we talked too much (in real life) and lost focus and were overwhelmed and phew! it was just in time for lunch at Long John Silver. Where Kerry and I had a Loooooooooooooooooooooong wait for our 'spicylicious' 3-piece chicken meal, which in my opinion, tastes a bit worse than the normal 3-piece chicken meal. According to Shaun, the wait was LONG because we were at LONG John Silver. And 'Nao Chong Xue' wasn't efficient enough. Haha those who were there would understand :D.

And then we were late for part II of the day. We rushed to the AMK MRT station, and boarded a train which had a faulty announcement system which might have caused thousands of riders to be confused. So professional of SMRT huh. When the train stopped at Yishun, it said Khatib. The error continued until a man's voice replaced the robotic female announcer's erratic announcement. So impromptu. But Kok Wah's fall onto a random passenger behind him was more impromptu. And so was Shaun's greedy occupation of the RESERVED SEAT. Ok he only sat for a minute. And also 'Gene and Beyonce'. Haha if you were there you should get what I mean.

There is never a karaoke session which isn't fun. This is especially true when we actually played songs like 路边的野花不要采, and Humpty Dumpty. Yeah. We were bored of pop songs at a point of time. I couldn't find my favourite 凤飞飞 song. And the new song Hua Sha isn't there yet... :(. But it's ok, considering it's a really economical student deal :). I couldn't find Dai Ai-ling's songs too. Instead, we found songs by 郑惠玉，范文芳，梁志强，张菲. The MVs for a few songs were sooooo wrongly matched. When it comes to Britney Spears' Toxic, you should expect a saucy, sexy and sassy and naughty MV, but we were greeted with a scenery of a river that lasted all the way to the end of the song. Weird weird. But at least the lyrics displayed were totally correct.

Ok I shall blog about Wednesday, Thursday and Friday soon.

奴隷

2009-11-25T23:11:00.004+08:00

其實，一切想擁有的，難得卻終於得到的，都只是一個又一個心理包袱。我們擁有得越多，懮慮便越多，因爲得到了之後，我們總更加擔心自己會失去難以得來的一切。著名作詞人林夕在古巨基的「花灑」裏有一句「何必要做奴隷，無須要爲失去了的執迷，人流量或會象四季……」

Just a random thought. I'm NOT emoing :D

Africa

2009-11-21T01:15:00.004+08:00

Human geography is over, but it would have been better if they did not provide the names of African countries in the Insert, for certain unmentionable reasons :).

If you need to know why, you would have already known it. :)

The map of Africa shocked people, like Sarah Palin, who have been believing that Africa is a country. Or people who have been thinking that Africa consists of only 2 countries: 'North Africa' and South Africa, perhaps only after Ris Low made that country famous.

Examples of phrasings that roll your markers' eyes:

In the slums of Africa, a city in an LDC, there are...
People moved from rural areas like Africa to cities like America.
Rural-urban migration occurs in countries like Africa
Africa experiences a tropical monsoon climate
In the continent of Russia,...
LDCs such as Scandinavia and Cairo...
90% of Africa is the Sahara Desert
The Sahara Desert, also known as the Sahel,...
In Seoul, JAPAN, the 1998 earthquake...
The urban structure of Africa, a city in an LDC, is influenced by historical factors because it was once a European colony...
Countries like the EU and the UN should enhance the greenhouse effect and prevent global warming by lowering sea levels...
The Sichuan earthquake occurred at the plate boundary between the Chinese and Japanese plates...
People moved from rural areas like England to cities like California.
Refugees moved into Japan from Australia during world war I - a form of voluntary transmigration...
However, while DCs like California, New York and Florida signed the Kyoto Protocol, USA did not...
In London in the US, the...
Russia's tropical climate encourages chemical weathering...
During the eruption of a volcano near Kuala Lumpur in 2008...
During the American Civil War in 1980, many refugees involuntary moved to countries like London and Africa
In LDCs like Africa, the TFR is 1903 per woman, and there are 3109 births per 1000 people, so the population growth rate is negative, leading to a population boom(z)...

Answers like these are so not boomz, so I hope you haven't included them in your A level scripts :). If not, the Cambridge markers will say, oh no, this student is so shingz.

I've never done this before, but...

2009-11-19T23:53:00.003+08:00

...I will post a few songs on my blog! Listen to them if you wish to.

2009
Jay Chou and Cindy Yen - Hua Sha
周杰倫＋袁咏琳：畫沙
Cindy Yen is a new singer. Her voice isn't that powerful, compared to powerhouses like Elva Hsiao and A*mei. The lyrics don't really make much sense either. But still, listen.

2007
Hacken Lee
李克勤：花落誰家
Being a 42-year-old father does not inhibit Hacken's dominance in the Cantopop market. With his powerful voice, and his lack of ability to write songs (all his songs and lyrics are NOT written by him), there is little limit to his growth. This is especially true when he has professional lyric writers like Lam Yoek-ning who penned the poetic lyrics which remind us of the urgency of environmental degradation. This deviates from the saccharin love songs that most singers are only capable of delivering.

-

2009-11-19T23:28:00.002+08:00

Yes - I'm still here. It just seemed sinful to be updating my blog during the crazy two-week period with nine papers, so I'm only updating now, with 9 out of 12 papers completed. I'm left with bio paper 3, and bio and chem MCQs.

Today, there was a heavy rain but I didn't know it would be so severe as to spill over the huge canal along the parallel roads outside our school. Physics students were late. I heard many took their 1h 15 min paper barefooted, or at least, drenched with muddy water. Some even took the paper at our friendly neighour's school hall because they were stuck on buses near Coronation Plaza. HCI was nearer, and it might take 45 minutes to waddle from there to NJC's hall. It's so epic and dramatic. Who would have expected that the long stretch of canal and the extensive sewage system of Bukit Timah to be inadequate in handling huge rainfall intensities? I've seen some photos on Facebook posted by friends of friends. The canal overflowed into the Dunearn and Bukit Timah Roads, while the wheels of most cars were submerged in the muddy, brown water. We thought we were in the Yellow River of China.

Why did I use 'we'? It's THEM. I was walking home at 1.55pm, and who would ever know that Singapore is soooo big that there would be calm weather in Sengkang, and insane rainfall in Bukit Timah? Physics A level students were caught badly, but the car owners who parked their vehicles in the half-underground Sixth Avenue Plaza carpark were worse. Their cars were submerged because water flowed into there. In the future, the Downtown Line of the MRT will be constructed. Without any substantial improvements, will water flow into the underground stations, and form rapids on the stairs and escalators? I don't know.

When I was on the train from Ang Mo Kio to Sengkang, I thought many students from other JCs would be late. At 1.35pm, a few were waiting for the train at Serangoon to SAJC. Some others just got off the train at Serangoon and are about to change to the Circle Line to Lorong Chuan to NYJC. A few heading to SRJC were on the same train as I was. Of course, the only reason they're rushing to school at that hour was that they're taking Physics. And while I thought they were... doomed, our students at Bukit Timah Junior College are stuck and late.

On another note, it just seems entertaining that when students are stuck on the bus which cannot move due to the still traffic, the bus drivers can't open the doors either, because the water outside will rush into the bus, inundating the floor.

1988

2009-10-27T22:54:00.003+08:00

It's amazing that with 453 photos of me on Facebook, I can't find a single one that's suitable for a certain online application. I didn't expect them to need a photograph at first, but now that they need one, I don't have any that's formal enough for them. Well, the deadline is in a few days, so I'd better ask someone to take a nice, formal one for me. And it's lucky that I've cut my hair cos my previous style was a bit trashy...

It's amazing to read old books. There are plenty of them in NJC's library. In fact, I've calculated that 63.2156% of all the books there are older than you, assuming you are studying there now, i.e. you're above 12++, since there are now JH1 geniuses (I shall be nice and not call them kids) roaming about the hallowed compounds of our prestigious institution. Admittedly the books are almost all anachronistic, antique, archaic, antediluvian, and actually attributed to activities from the Archæozoic, Albian and Aptian ages. That was a failed attempt in alliteration, but it's not the point. Don't be surprised to find Xestobium rufovillosum or Anobium punctatum hiding between pages when you happen to flip through the books that have existed before you were born.

Last Wednesday, when everyone else was mugging, Albert and Michael took a book about politics from the library. Of course, what's politics without a political world map? Doubtlessly, there was one right behind the front hard cover. And voila! It was dated 1988. How unusual. Of course, it's just 21 years ago, so we didn't expect to see prehistoric places like the Sea of Tethys, Gondwanaland, Rodinia or Pangæa on the map. And no - don't confuse what you have learnt in geog about global warming - in 1988 the sea levels were not 100 metres lower than they are now. They're just... a few centimetres lower then I think. So you won't find Singapore being linked to Sumatra or Borneo or Java by a continuous land mass. But on the map, Singapore was shown to be somewhere on Sumatra. Obviously the author or publisher had made a mistake. We found North Vietnam, South Vietnam, North Yemen, South Yemen, and the USSR before its dissolution. They're no longer found on the updated world map. I zoomed in to the Balkan states, and found that the only labelled country was Albania. There was supposedly Yugoslavia, but perhaps of the turmoil and uncertainty of the borders, the publisher decided to leave the whole area unnamed. Two decades later, now, we no longer find those nations on the world map. Politics sure is interesting. And I haven't explored into the contents of the book at all.

Random thoughts

2009-10-20T00:33:00.002+08:00

I always have these random thoughts that surface sporadically. Before I forget them, let me just record them somewhere. I should be revising bio now, but well 3 minutes wouldn't kill.
__________

Sometimes I really wonder why some people are so devoid of feelings of any kind. But perhaps such people have an advantage since they don't get mood swings that affect their productivity.

Some other people are certainly born without a conscience. Some others just cling on to certain ideas and are too stubborn to adapt. While some others can simply forgive and forget as if nothing ever happened. And some others act as if they're fine when they're simply very affected.

I don't understand, and I don't think anyone will be able to understand all of these.
__________

During the Song Dynasty, around 1100 AD, China was the dominant economy in the world. The Song empire controlled 35% of the world's GDP. Even now, the USA only dominates 23% of the world's economy.

Random.

Farewell assembly with a touch of the floor

2009-10-19T22:25:00.006+08:00

No way...

Upon entering the hall, we were greeted by the lack of chairs. I thought we went to the wrong place - maybe it should have been at LT5. But well, we saw Mrs VC and Ms CSK. And all the civics tutors were waiting at the back of the hall.

It very pleasantly began with the announcement of the top students of every subject. I lost count of the number of times I stood up. Oh yeah I haven't told you that I got merely a few A's and B's for the prelims. In terms of number of top students, 08S07 owned 08S01 totally. Our two geniuses are Sofia and Sherman. Sofia topped H1 Geography and Sherman topped H2 Tamil Language and Lit. Did I make a mistake? Ok it's the other way round, but who cares? 08S01 only had one topper - Edmund - who topped H1 General Paper. The previous queen of GP, Rose Marie Tan of 08S15, had been relegated to Rosmarinus officinalis, a woody, perennial herb with fragrant evergreen needle-like leaves. (The fresh and dried leaves are used frequently in traditional Mediterranean cuisine; they have a bitter, astringent taste, which complements a wide variety of foods.) Jay Chou even has a song for her (it) - 迷迭香. Ok that wasn't funny at all, but well you get the idea that she's probably second this time (but I really don't know). Thinking about this, it's almost impossible for 08S07 to NOT have a top scorer for every test, because all the 3 who take H2 Tamil are in this class. And Sherman or Zhung How has been topping H1 Geog all the while, except for this year's CTs, when Zuan Bao of 08S14 topped it instead. So back to me... when Ms CSK mentioned my name I stood up proudly and waved to everyone :).

Then Mrs VC talked for about half an hour, and I remembered almost nothing that she said. Perhaps if I went back to CHS and listened to Mr Lee Hak Boon I could remember his words two years down the road. I only remember that she mentioned there's a 'part II' to her speech. Because Mrs VC was interrupted by Ms SP, who meticulously reminded us of exam procedures and security. The teachers are so concerned about Mr Alvin Bek, because he has to dig into the MOE network for our confirmation slip if we forgot to bring it to our A level exams. In addition, we have to pay $5 or $10 for unknown reasons. So, let's bring our slips so that Mr Bek can strut and shop peacefully at Plaza Singapura, and that he doesn't need to silence us.

Without a doubt, part II of Mrs VC's talk was more interesting. I thought the positioning of a clock in the middle of the stage in front of the school hall required the concerted efforts of professional interior designers, architects such as I. M. Pei, and contractors, but apparently our adroit principal did all these by herself - she measured the midpoint of the width of the stage to the precision of 1 picometre, and voila - the $2500 digital clock was really right smacked in the middle! The only surprise was that I had expected the clock to cost like $100, yet we were told that the money we have donated to the school would be spent with special planning, and would be used to purchase clocks that cost a few thousand bucks. This clock, which I must say was a great help in time management during the exams, doesn't cost $100, but I'm sure the new clock-cum-timer-cum-scoreboard to be located in the indoor sports hall will cost a hundred times as much.

On a sidenote, I hope the school will extend the deadline for donations because many many people are very very interested and committed in donating clocks and benches and perhaps, the metal letterings used to put up the names of our future president scholars on the board in the hall. I'm sure there are many to come.

The consequent programmes were highly exciting, but it doesn't warrant a blog paragraph, so let's skip to the part when my bladder gave me a timely reminder the moment the cheers started. So I awarded myself a 10-minute toilet break, which involved much more than that. We talked and gossiped downstairs (only). Some other J2s went to buy drinks, and bought them into the hall. Their bottles of orange and white and red liquid had been observed by the PE teachers who guarded the doors the moment the students entered.

I forgot to mention that many students buried their heads either in slumber or in notes while someone was speaking.

After all the exuberance and joy, there came the most poignant video ever. It was all about NJCians' aesthetic performances and orientation activities. The teachers didn't include anything about mugging, so perhaps that's one stereotype that the school had been desperately trying to remove, yet failing every year. Well, many students actually fixed their eyes onto their newly-received Chem revision package when the tear-jerking video was played.

That was followed by a scene fresh out of Inglourious Basterds, in which Shousanna and Marcel set the cinema on fire, and everyone panicked. Students scurried around and compared CCA records, while some others panicked after finding out their 120 hours of CIP had not been recorded. Those with errors gathered in front, demanding those forms they had to fill in to correct their records. While some others gave up, and resorted to camwhoring. CIP reps looked for classmates for their forms, only to be disappointed that everyone's CIP records were erroneous.

After an hour of helter-skelter, many made their way to the linkway for a gastronomical and epicurean feast fit for a king. Who could ever forget the plastic-like substance called pudding? It's the same orange chemical matter we were treated to after the Colours Award a few months ago.

That's NJC's Graduation Assembly 2009 for you. It was so boomZ.

Doodlers Anonymous

2009-10-19T00:38:00.003+08:00

http://www.doodlersanonymous.com/entry.php?entryID=1377#more

Study Break

2009-10-16T00:18:00.003+08:00

Bored. Really bored. Perhaps studying in front of the computer for the whole day is really a bad idea. I've tried it many times before but I just end up on Facebook and MSN. Shouldn't have redone this today. And today's really really boring. I should have gone to AMK library or the MacDeez near my house to study. I'm astonished at my lack of productivity and efficiency. MUST START THIS WEEKEND. I prognosticate that I won't have to do much tomorrow. I'll do a lot of maths and I won't care whether I enjoy it or not. For many weeks, and those before the prelims, I have not been studying with my computer on, and it had been fine. Today I've been on the computer for the whole day.

While a few hours were spent on something meaningful which totally concerns my future, the rest were just a freaky waste of time. I need to recall how to do Correlation and Regression and Hypothesis testing! It's amazing that my prelim maths paper 2 is worse than paper 1. Many people find statistics much much easier, but to me, stats are only a bit easier than pure maths. Not to mention I need to study study study for bio too. Like what happens at the synaptic cleft and how insulin or glucagon etc works. Chem too, even though I have been doing a lot of chem. Geog must be done too! And a bit of GP here and there. And for physical geog I really need to read up on hydro and atmo. That's like 2/3 of the whole syllabus. And I need to improve my essays for physical and human geog. Honestly my human DRQs were very good. Ugh. So much to do, so little time, and more importantly, so little motivation ;(.

:D

I need to study! It's the A levels. :D

Maths

2009-10-15T22:29:00.001+08:00

I took such a long break that I've lost touch with Maths. After the prelims I haven't been doing maths at all since it was not something I enjoyed. And now, looking at my prelim answers, I wonder how I actually managed to get certain stuff correct. Help. I think it takes one whole week for me to pick up maths skills again. Then I'll look for Mr ST for intensive help.

a bit of everything

2009-10-10T18:03:00.004+08:00

So school's really over. Prelim results are back. At the moment of seeing my marks on the scripts they seemed horrible, but after comparison and some consideration, they are actually ok.

Sometimes I wonder why I even bother. If you're focusing on the tiniest details in life (ie being myopic and microscopic), you will miss out the (hopefully more optimistic-looking) big picture (the macro view). But sometimes the most insignificant things that happen to me can affect me so greatly.

I don't know why I'm worried about such trivial stuff (that shouldn't even affect me at all in the first place) when I'm supposed to be studying really really hard. Really. No one is at fault at all.

School's over. It feels a bit like the period between prelim THREE and O levels, but somehow it feels different too. Whatever. I seem to have stated the obvious. But so what if school is over? I need to go back on Monday, Wednesday and Friday next week. There's GP mock exam on Monday morning - something I'm not lamenting over because I figure I really need timed practices. But then I remember that Geog Mock and Chem Mock are on the same day! It's bad. Geog shouldn't be paired up with any other subject, cos I'll just over-focus on PHYSICAL geog, neglecting HUMAN geog and ALL CHEM.

The area at the canteen where we usually sit at is now so much brighter because of the collapse of a huge branch of the tree on the slope. The tree must have been there since the first Hillcrest days of NJC, since it's substantially tall, but a thunderstorm struck and the wind had shaken the branches. While the tree used to prevent UV light from allowing initiation of free radical substitutions at the shaded area, it's so glaringly bright now. Some superstitious people might directly link the collapse of a tree to...

1. a harbinger to the downfall of results or failure of something else (and believers will rattle on and on about what can possibly happen)

2. an optimistic sign that brightness has entered the canteen area where students mug a lot, such that hope prevails and the path is bright and there is a glorious future and there is a newly-opened pathway to success (and believers will rattle on and on about what can possibly happen, too)

A simple collapse of a tree branch can lead to so much discussion, debate and argument between the two groups of superstitious thinkers who believe in directly opposite connotations. But the truth is that regardless of what will happen in the future, there is almost totally no relation to this collapse of the tree and its consequences. The tree did not collapse on anyone or any structure so its effects are negligible. I feel that believers can continue to claim that the collapse of a branch has significant effects, as long as the extent of superstition is not psychologically-detrimental, while they shouldn't blame anything that might happen on this single and isolated event. If they blame the tree, it's as bad for blaming the faulty tap for your failure in the exam, or saying that you're late for school because a tsunami hit Samoa.

On another hand, I visited amazon.com for the first time ever. And it was unintentional. I accidentally clicked on the 'amazon.com' button when I had wanted to click on Wikipedia search. There's nothing interesting on amazon.com, so you might as well visit the Amazon. Oops that wasn't funny. Perhaps I've been mugging too much, or too little. Got to do my chemistry now, so that's all.

njc

2009-10-08T22:26:00.003+08:00

If I say I don't feel sad that tomorrow is my last official day in NJC, I'm obviously lying. Some people feel nothing, but I feel everything. It's about how you perceive it. I've had a fair mix of nice and not-so-nice events and people met in NJC, but now I won't regret having spent these 2 years in NJC. I've achieved some things I wanted, while I could only see certain other opportunities drift away from me forever, but it's all (almost) over, and I know I would remember them forever. Strangely, I feel so much more attached to NJC than to Catholic High School even though I studied in the latter for twice as many years. Again, maybe it's just me.

But then, my JC life is far from over. Perhaps I can say it ends on 3rd December, when I end my last paper, Bio MCQ. Or it ends on 7th December, during prom, which I will attend. Or it might be some time next January during the release of A level results. The definition of graduation is never clearly defined, but there is no reason to challenge such definitions.

At this point of time, I really wish there were a few more weeks of official lessons, while many friends are hoping that there is more time for self-study. Again, it's just me.

落花流水

2009-10-06T00:33:00.002+08:00

This is such an awesome song. It's not new. Not exactly an emo song, but I feel... kind of heartbroken after listening to it many times. Wong Wai Man's lyrics are so poetic yet incisive. For those who know Chinese, good for you, but for those who don't but are curious to find out what the words in the chorus mean, I hope you're aware that Google Translate is grossly inaccurate. Enjoy :D. You can copy the title and search for this song on Youtube or Tudou. At least during times like these, there are still songs like this to 'cheer' me :).

陳奕迅 - 落花流水
作曲：Eric Kwok/陳奕迅
填詞：黃偉文
編曲：Eric Kwok/Jerald

Chorus:

流水很清楚　惜花這個責任

真的身份不過送運
這趟旅行若算開心
亦是無負這一生
水點　蒸發變做白雲
花瓣　飄落下游生根
淡淡交會過　各不留下印
(命運敲定了　要這麼發生)

GP lecture...

2009-10-01T22:57:00.003+08:00

... was sooooooo interesting. Ms Dorothy once said that students tend to forget 99% of all the information they have learnt after they leave the lecture theatre. She couldn't be more right. I forgot every single thing the teachers mentioned during yesterday's GP lecture. The only thing I remember was that Ms Phua, Ms Antoine and Ms Khoo Poh Leng made an exceptionally exciting colour combination of red, yellow and green while they were together at the front of lt1.

No prizes for guessing who wore what. Ms Phua wore her favourite gingery yellow. Ms Antoine wore Grinch green. Ms Khoo wore luminous rosy red. The 3 of them were standing beside Ms Champagne who wore Prussian blue. The moment the rosy Khoo joined the other teachers, there wasn't anyone who wasn't giggling at the interesting colour combination which obviously reminded you of a traffic light. Ms Champagne joined the trio after she completed her speech (of course I totally forgot what it was about), and voila - red, blue green and yellow - colours you are likely to find on a toddler's toy. The only takeaway from that lecture was the fabulous colour contrast. Because I forgot the other 99%.

Decision-making

2009-09-30T01:13:00.002+08:00

This is a year with lots of decision-making. And of course it's important, and not like deciding what to eat later during break or what youtube video I should watch. Ok. I just hope I'll never regret. The deadline seems to be approaching, but then again it seems not, since it's not the final decision.

Over?

2009-09-27T01:17:00.002+08:00

Sometimes things are perfect when you don't even think about whether they're perfect or about how it can be improved. Situations are bad only when you think they're not good enough because your expectations are too high.

Sometimes I think I think too much. Sometimes I think I expect too much from myself and everyone else.

There's so much I want to say, but these things cannot be publicised. How I wish blogger also has the function to let users create password protected posts. That's why wordpress is better. Then only a selected few will have access to those posts. But even if there is, it's unlikely that I'll give out my password to anyone.

School life is ending soon. I'm feeling so nostalgic and sentimental now. Last year due to my promo results and the stress from Project Work I was so fed up with school life. But this year it has been better. And regardless of whatever nice and nasty things that have happened throughout these 2 years in NJC, I'm going to love it, and in the future I would wish that I could relive those last days in uniform. Ten more days. Some people think that just because JC life is only 2 years long, people usually have few memories about it, because of the more significant 4 years spent in secondary school. I beg to differ. I wish that the days in school uniform would never end, ...

and that the days when we wear home clothes to school would come next year. And hopefully it's somewhere in London, north of London, west of London, or at the American East Coast, 42 degrees North, or just in NUS. Or somewhere in California.

But I don't believe in miracles. I believe in sheer hard work. If I'm smart enough to score well even without much preparation, then good for me, but if otherwise, there's absolutely nothing wrong with working hard in those areas I'm less gifted in.

The problem is... the earlier situation is more applicable to me. Hahaha

And believe me - I'm really NOT stressed up about A levels or Prelim results these few days. For once, I wasn't sarcastic when I said that.

Ok got to sleep. Bye

Shouldn't be

2009-09-25T00:18:00.002+08:00

I really hate post-exam days. It's so ironic. Yes, I do hate taking exams and preparing for them, but it isn't as if the world is a perfect place just because exams are over. Ugh. I'm just so... not-like-anyone else.

It's not as if everything would become better just because the 4 torturous weeks of mugging and exam-taking are over. If life were as simple as working hard, taking the exams and trying your best, wouldn't it be a bit too simplistic?

I'm so cynical, skeptical, critical...

Perhaps the next time someone tells me that I'm absolutely unique and different from any other, I should just believe it, and interpret that in the most pessimistic way.

I have never met anyone who is even distantly similar to me in terms of personality and interests. Not in NJC. Not in CHS. Not in primary school.

When unique and different are just euphemisms for __________.

Karaoke

2009-09-18T10:12:00.000+08:00

Karaoke was fun! That's one step closer to performing in the Singapore Indoor Stadium. No - I prefer the Sydney Opera House. And it was a great leap towards a multi-platinum Grammy winner. Haha.

I simply love to read about weather. It's not just for physical geog. I chanced upon the weather report for Ulan Bator of the People's Republic of Mongolia just now. Ooops... it's no longer 'the People's Republic of'. I suddenly forgot what happened in 1989. Mongolia is what the country is called now. And recently when KY and I were studying at AMK library, there were two Mongolian girls sitting near us. They spoke in a language utterly unfamiliar to us. If you guessed that they spoke Mongolian, you're definitely correct. They were giggling while staring at photos of their favourite Korean male stars in the magazines Teenage and i Weekly. They were noisy. It's so unfortunate that we were sitting opposite them at the tables. How were we supposed to study Chemistry with such noise... Anyway back to the topic of Mongolia's Ulan Bator's weather recently. It's rather unimaginable for people in the tropics who experience regular and uninterrupted 'fair' weather to exist in Ulan Bator in late summer.

The diurnal range on Saturday is 40*C.

Imagine having a daytime as warm as Singapore's cooler days. 29*C. And at night you find the water in your bottle starting to freeze. It's -11*C. It's no typo error. I've checked MSN weather and the results are similar. Hmm... And it's just mid-September. But then because of extreme continentality and its altitude of 1000+ metres above sea level, that's not surprising. This is also a reason for us to temporarily enjoy Singapore's stable weather. As in - it won't suddenly snow tomorrow right? Maybe we don't realise it, but it's fortunate for many of us to stay in climatic zones that have rather predictable weather. So next time when you feel that the routine thunderstorms of the equatorial regions are a nuisance, feel again.

Los Angeles Fail

2009-09-17T11:37:00.000+08:00

I wrote about the failure of Los Angeles' public transport system for the human geography urban question just now. And the system was definitely a FAIL. The county government just couldn't get people out of their cars. It's a worse failure than any failed monorail project in Jakarta or Bangkok.

And yes, I'm here, blogging. Yesterday before Maths, Yang Sheng asked me when I would blog, and I said I would blog only after something weird happens. He attempted to do something weird right after that, and that caused Edwin Tan to roll his eyes. But what ys did wasn't weird anyway. Anyway I'm still here to blog although nothing weird happened.

Well, maybe except for the unusual treatment of this morning's 'latecomers'. At the command of the council teacher, everyone halted at the middle of the carpark and dared not venture into the parade square. I guess there were at least 100 people who were 'late' this morning. So phenomenal. 6 JH1s were late too. It's surprising, because according to our discipline mistress, (I think) all the JH1s are staying in the hostel now. Wait. I mean the NJCBS boarding school.

Bleagh. What's happening to me these few days. I've been repeating certain things repetitively like those STR repeats we learn in Bio Applications syllabus. I think it all started with a PE teacher who asked us whether we 'watched the AYG games'. Then this morning, I was told to reset my 'GC calculator'. To add on, Qiansheng commented on my status update, saying that his 'Graphical GC calculator' failed on him. Haha. So many repetitive repeats make me sound like I'm repeating like STR repeats with a VNR no. of repeats. Ugh. I should just stop repeating repetitively.

Ok back to the topic on latecoming. I tend to digress a lot a lot. This morning I was talking with Jasper about something related to silicon in chemical periodicity, and he linked it to some topic so explicit that would make my blog an M18 one. Thus I also have the tendency to make others digress. Okokok back to the topic on latecoming.

The JH1s are not supposed to be late because they are (I think all of them are) staying in the hostel now. The security guard post of the hostel is not even 100 metres away from the school's main gate. That's why those late students in dark grey shorts or skirts were given extra punishment. On another note, it is so fun to stay in the hostel. I'm sure the JH1s have been enjoying themselves thoroughly these 4 days. They're staying there for a term i think. It's even more fun when you're randomly given a roommate and you don't have a choice but to accept it. On yet another note, the JH1s sure love to run around. Everywhere. Yesterday I arrived at the parade square at 7.35am, and at least 7 JH1 boys and girls had been running up and down the slope from the general office to the carpark. They're enthusiastic in cheering competitions too. That's why I think that they are extremely exuberant (an euphemism for noisy) in the hostel, and perhaps they enjoy playing hide-and-seek. JH1s sure are interesting to be with. But I don't know any one of them personally. It'll be fun to make friends with them. Haha.

I've still got three more papers next week, so I shall do my bio mcqs now. Nah. I'll sleep and slack over the weekends.

I should be studying Organic Chem now

2009-09-05T13:19:00.002+08:00

I become kind of anti-social after every paper has ended because I don't enjoy discussing about the exam questions. It's not because the papers were very difficult. It's just disturbing to know that your friends have different answers from you. It makes me feel that I got many answers wrong - but their answers are not always correct, and mine are not always wrong either. I just want to ignore those papers that I have already taken, so I don't even talk about them :D.

No - the Prelims are far from over. 5 papers gone, 7 to come. At least 2 are MCQs but that doesn't mean I should not prepare for them. GP Paper 1 and 2, Bio paper 2, Physical geog and Maths paper 1 - in chronological order. Will begin with Chem paper 3 after the September holidays. I forgot the rest of the schedule.

Maths prelims were slightly better than the common test. But I could not do a few questions. Ugh. Practicing questions from the yellow booklet was helpful but it certainly did not guarantee a good grade.

Geog prelim questions were not those unexpected ones. Again, I could have written so much more if there was better time management, and if there was actually more time. 3 hours are barely enough. And I think I didn't mention the term 'trade winds' at all. I just didn't do that question despite studying about the cells and trade winds so intensively.

Don't eat or drink on the MRT

2009-09-05T12:42:00.005+08:00

Yesterday I was squeezing on the packed-but-not-really-that-packed train on the North East Line on my way home after 8 hours of non-stop thinking and writing. Then, I was thirsty. I intuitively wanted to retrieve my water bottle, but I suddenly remembered the o-so-scary red guards that would nab you if they find you drinking or eating anything on the MRT trains and stations. Yes - those new red-uniformed security personnel newly assigned by SBS and SMRT would be patrolling around and on trains to catch offenders. Obviously I was so scared by their stringent observation and the consequences, so I had to suffer from dehydration until I went out from the turnstiles of the station. Ugh. In Singapore, even drinking water in an MRT train is a perilous experience - one where a person risks being fined during his quest to prevent further dehydration on the trains.

Just a few days ago, on a local TV programme by Mark Lee, it was featured that food and drinks are allowed on trains of the Tokyo Metro, yet the gracious commuters have been making tremendous efforts in ensuring cleanliness. Vending machines and snack counters are located on the station platform, and many commuters bring their purchased food on board. Yet it is the tradition of hygiene and courtesy that prevents them from littering on the train. Back to Singapore, is there really a need to substitute fines for the 'lack' of such a practice of courtesy? (And wait - I believe that Singapore's commuters are very courteous as well.) For hundreds of years, the stressful culture of being perfectly polite has been practiced in Japan, so Japanese seem to have been taught to be extremely well-behaved in public since young. However, I am sure that even without the $50 or $500 fines for eating on MRT trains in Singapore, people WON'T be littering freely on the MRT trains. Is there really a need for the law to control people's eating habits of trains in Singapore, a highly-advanced developing country with a civilised population?

Because time isn't our best friend

2009-08-16T22:30:00.003+08:00

So little time left, so much to do. It sounds so cliche, but it's so true.

After reading Kim Yong's blog (yes, I read your blog), it suddenly dawned upon me that it's already the last week we're having official lessons. The last week that we're actually following our printed time table. So our 'official' school life is coming to an end so soon. It wasn't long ago when I just got used to the 1-hour tutorials (last year's were 50-minute long). It wasn't long ago when I just realised that the BCMG time table is so ideal compared to many other PCME/BCME classes' (we get to go home at 12.30 on Friday, and we don't have unsightly long free slots). And tomorrow is probably the last Monday that follows the time table. Ugh. I'm suddenly feeling so sentimental now. Haha.

And talking about university, I just feel so lost. What would I do in the future? Where? How? There seems to be SO MANY options, but when I narrow them down, it seems that few are actually feasible. Should I follow my interests? And what am I genuinely interested in? Oh. It's one of those crucial times in my life when I really need to make decisions that I won't regret...

And on another note, I felt the earthquake at 3.40pm Singapore time. It lasted for at least 7 minutes. Ok. The epicentre wasn't in Bukit Timah or Sengkang or Jurong. It's somewhere in Sumatra. Did you feel it?

Tennis

2009-08-11T22:42:00.000+08:00

Today's Phys Ed was extraordinarily exciting because it is one of the few times I escape from the gym, leaving the Gobi Desert Trainer in the gym with certain other people who are training for their standing broad jumps. I advanced into the tennis court and dealt with moderately-big yellow balls, and held on to a tennis racquet for the first time. It feels different from holding a badminton racket. It feels different from holding a table tennis racket. It feels different from holding a squash racket. Yes - I've actually played all of the before. I don't know whether I should spell that as 'racket' or 'racquet'. Maybe one is British and the other is the American spelling. But blogger complains that 'racquet' is wrong by underlining it in red. And I'm complaining because blogger does not allow formatting. I can't change color, change font or size etc. Lousy. No wonder people are shifting to wordpress.

I broke the record by dishing out a grand total of three yellow balls out of the school. My amateurish tennis skills, or the lack of it, drove three of those hairy, disgusting and white-striped 'Prince-brand' balls towards the road that separates NJC and the low-density housing that is perpetually under construction. It's just three, so there's nothing shocking. I dished out many many more towards the other side which is the track.

Since I had drove so many of the school's balls out of school, I was responsible for picking them up. I went through the LOCKED gate towards the road. I walked along it and found numerous balls. One of them was lying in the middle of a group of Bangladeshi workers. I'm sure they're not PRC this time. They were not half-naked. Next to a truck, they were deciding what to do with the tennis balls. Ok they were actually slacking beside the truck. One of them was in deep slumber on the driver seat with the air con blasting. A few others talked and talked and talked. I went into group of Bangladeshi workers and picked up the ball. Then I asked amiably whether they had seen any more tennis balls around. They giggled, smiled, and shook their heads. I wonder if they were shocked by the raining of tennis balls onto their worksite.

I walked downstream and found more yellow, velvety and hairy balls. Ew. Some dropped onto some muddy surface and they had a layer of soil. Altogether I found eight tennis balls. I walked through the locked gate again and continued thrashing my opponents in tennis. From this, I can conclude that there's little difference between the tennis game in Sony Ericsson phones, and in real-life tennis.

nothing done

2009-08-03T00:15:00.003+08:00

It's not funny when some people countdown to the A levels on their Windows Live Messenger display name, personal message or on Facebook. Being constantly reminded is sort of... intimidating. But anyway let's be optimistic and parrot-cry, "It's just early August!"

This has been such an unproductive weekend. Monday and Tuesday are going to be hectic as well. No time to study for my organic AND inorganic chem test on Tuesday because I might reach home at 10pm tomorrow. No time to complete the chem energetics and thermodynamics questions by Wednesday.

I attended a geography talk at TJC on Friday afternoon. It was fairly useful as a recap of this J1 topic done long long ago. Many case studies as well. If not for it, I would have totally forgotten what the Vaiont Dam disaster was about. They mentioned Venezuela and Sulawesi as well. And Southern China is very very very prone to landslides. Ok it wasn't a wasted trip. It would have been more complete with a taste of the Char Kway Teow at the opposite food centre - my physical geography teacher recommended it, but I didn't get to try :(. I like char kway teow.

We walked out of TJC through a revolving side gate - a NJC dream that was never realised. I don't see what's wrong with the idea of such a simple gate at NJC's bus stop gate. It would prevent the need to embark on a 15-minute detour through the main gate along Hillcrest Road, after which we would be greeted by hordes of construction workers working on the low-rise housing estate which is perpetually under construction, just like some majestic cathedral in Spain. Just that this housing estate isn't majestic. And the side gate would make stationing a guard at the side gate less necessary. It doesn't cost the school $2 million to build a metal revolving gate there, so I don't see why it was disapproved last year and never brought up again.

Ugh I just realised that I still have assignments due tomorrow.

Conserve not only our resources.

2009-08-01T00:20:00.006+08:00

After I had my first glance at this year's Project Work topics, my narrow perspective limited the scope for 'Conservation' to just buildings and heritage. It suddenly smacked onto me that conservation of languages is such a popular and important issue now, despite the lack of attention paid to that, and that it is nonetheless not easy to tackle such anthropological problems in your first year of JC life.

Perhaps you would instinctively link the issue to that of the disappearing languages (and culture) of the Native Americans in the USA. Almost no one speaks the Algonquian languages now, as a result of colonial powers and their mindsets. Yet many seem to be ignorant of the very current and exacerbating situation here in Singapore.

How many young Singaporeans can actually communicate very fluently in Hokkien or Cantonese? And how many of these people actually speak better 'dialects' than do English? And how often do you hear a conversation between young people purely in a Chinese 'dialect'?
Among the Chinese in modern Singapore, majority have their ancestry in Southern China, and not anywhere near Beijing or the three Northeastern provinces. The native languages spoken in their forefathers' lands are, to a large extent, not Mandarin or Putonghua.

As learnt in Geography, government policies have generally had major impacts on many places. The Speak Mandarin Campaign launched by the Singapore government in 1979 included the banning of all television and radio broadcast in 'dialects'. The only 'form' of Chinese to be heard in local channels or radio stations has been the Standard Mandarin ever since the campaign started. Many primary schools have listed in their rules that speaking of 'dialects' is prohibited in school. Without a doubt, this highly-successful campaign has unfortunately deprived most of the younger generation the opportunity to learn and speak these beautiful classic Chinese that were a perfect embodiment of the culture of the Chinese originating from the Southern provinces of Hainan, Guangdong and Fujian.

It is highly justifiable for the government to limit the use of 'dialects' at that time because a unified Chinese language would reduce friction between the different dialect groups such as the Cantonese and the Hakka. Also, it is impossible to carry out Chinese lessons in school in different 'dialects' for the different subgroups. Mandarin is the default lingua franca in communicating with other Chinese, including those in Mainland China and the many millions of overseas Chinese. Therefore, the promoting of Mandarin in Singapore is doubtlessly a wise choice.
However, 'dialects' have become a spoken language only among the older generation in Singapore nowadays. Obviously having an excellent grasp of Mandarin would put one in an advantage when it comes to discussing deals with the Mainland Chinese, but it is a pity that the original native tongues of the ancestors have been replaced with the 'stepmother language' of Mandarin, as quoted from news agencies in the 1980s in Singapore.

I am not doing PW this year, so I don't have to look into conservation measures to revive or increase the knowledge of 'dialects' among young Chinese Singaporeans. However, it is definitely saddening to see that the use of dialects among youths has been reduced to merely in vulgarities.

*This is highly debatable, but personally I regard Hokkien, Cantonese, Hakka, Hainanese and Teochew to be 'languages' within the Chinese family of languages. In more linguistic terms, all the 5 spoken tongues fall within the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. They are 'languages' because the numerous differences between them have prevented them from being mutually-intelligible from each other. Mandarin and Cantonese are different Chinese languages, and the different Cantonese dialects include Guangzhou dialect, Hong Kong dialect and Toishanese among many others. Mandarin dialects include Beijing and Shenyang dialects among many others. The difference between standard Cantonese and standard Mandarin is considered by linguists to be as different as English from Spanish, or English from French. I regard American English, Indian English, Pakistani English, British English, Scottish English etc. to be the different dialects of the English language.

Heavy

2009-07-28T00:19:00.004+08:00

School days are so interesting these few weeks. We stay back for consolidations after school every day. And guess what? I know that later during Maths lecture, Mr Tsang or Mr Bek will announce that there's a 2-hour test on 20 August, Thursday, at 4 to 6pm. Topics tested are statistics and graphing techniques. I'm sure everyone in LT1 will cheer, jeer and roar upon hearing this. And I'm sure you will be wondering how I know there's such a thing before the lecturer announced. The difference is that I access KM and look under the H2 Maths 2008-09 section, while you only play lame facebook games such as word challenge, type abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz within 2.33 seconds so as to be the top 0.000000001% in the world, or you are naively amused by CrushBot, MarriageBot or even GayBot. Or maybe you were busy reading Failblog, or playing MythMonger, or trying to get to Erub, the new location in MouseHunt. That's why you've missed out the fundamental and overarching idea of online learning at NJC - that is to access KM, and check the individual subjects' announcements regularly. :D

I'm facing some problems with NAPFA. One reason is that I'm too massive. I am heavy. I bet I you won't believe my weight if I were to tell you. Michael pointed to his hard, blue plastic file yesterday after bio lesson and complained about the unsightly crack on it. He claimed that ****** sat on it, but I guess I can create an even larger crack on the hard plastic file, which in my opinion is an anachronism, since the last time I used one was in P5. But I found it unusually bulky, and since I am someone who bothers to pack my bag everyday so that I carry the bare minimum (mind you I'm neat and tidy) to school, such hard plastic files are redundantly a grand waste of the internal space of my bag. I wouldn't want to lug that plastic file, which I received as a souvenir after I took part in a Chinese essay competition (and won NOTHING), to school every day. Through my observations, I see that the more adroit people tend to have no files to carry their loose worksheets, or only fit stacks of worksheet into clear folders. :D

It will be utterly wrong to say that it's hot these few days, because it obviously isn't. I'm no meteorologist or climatologist but I can still tell that these few days are... cooler than the past few weeks. Because of rain? I don't want to tell you. Read your contemporary climatology to understand why rainfall can possibly reduce temperatures. :D

Talking about contemporary climatology, I think it's time for me to park myself in the library to hunt for such guide books. My common test results are back, and they're far from decent. One word - SHIT. Two words to describe it - TERRIBLE. Ok that was just one word. Anyway, I'll just work hard for Prelims which are not far away. Three A's at least. And then get whatever I want for A levels and beyond. :D

This is just another random post. You won't always find me blogging in chronological order because it will be boring to tell you what occurred during each lesson today. So no offense if you feel offended. Got to sleep now.

Worrying is good.

2009-07-15T03:27:00.004+08:00

So that's JC2 life for me. Waking up in the middle of the night just to complete homework. And a school day later that ends at 5pm.

And there's the need to arrive in school at 6.50am on Thursday to take my NAPFA. Yes - it doesn't help even if the first SBS/SMRT bus doesn't get me to school by 6.50am. Any forms of protests had been futile.

Five counts for two months off two years. How do I ever increase the count from zero to five in a matter of weeks? I'm feeling an unprecedented determination to train well and raise myself up five times in a row during the last chance to redeem myself from my sins. Not to forget about the other five stations as well. Neglecting them would be fatal even if I manage to miraculously do that intimidating thing for five times. When asked about my problems, I only reveal my inability to thrust myself up the metal bar, but in reality there's a possibility of failing every single other aspect if I don't put in the effort. And for a not-so-sporty person like me, that is a lot of sheer, smelly, dirty and time-consuming hard work.

The fact is that I'm so significantly weaker than my training companions who also could not move their chins above the rusty rod. I require so much more assistance from the machinery compared to them. For me, it's excrucuatingly painfully, physically and mentally, when my upper arm simply refuses to pull myself upwards because of the lack of strength. When I'm halfway up there, not even endurance or a continual effort to bend my arms further can shove me upwards. The lack of strength totally hinders me.

So how do I ever get it to five? I have to do it only once, and it's impossible for it to be on this Thursday morning, but how would my arms ever be able to support five counts when I am still stuck at zero? Along with getting at least a D for all other stations, and scoring a minimum of I-don't-know-how-many points for all stations combined, I would be guaranteed - face it - my ultimate goal of reducing eight weeks out of the two years of prolonged torture and agony - if I even need to enter at all.

Crossroads

2009-07-13T18:38:00.004+08:00

This Friday I'll be skipping school for a prelude of something I'm so dearly uncertain of. I'm totally not ready to serve a body which I'm not fully loyal to. I don't feel the passion.

I've come to point in life when there's a myriad of decisions to consider. In cliche terms in Chinese, one would say that he has come to a 十字路口 or 分岔路口, but that's too simplified. In addition to THAT blood-boiling issue, there are so many other choices to be made. And every single choice would affect my next few decades totally. Naively I had once thought that by the time I reach this checkpoint I would be wise enough to make the decisions that would ultimately be the best choices for me. But I'm wrong. To begin with, what course should I take in uni? Which uni in the world should I study in? Scholarships? Future career? Should I pursue my interests (and end up living in a cardboard box, wrt the Facebook group) or follow the economically-viable and conventional way? In addition, I can't really imagine myself having a 9 to 5 job in the office typing out reports, emails and documents day after day. I think I'll be bored to death with such a monotonous and invariable job for the next few decades.

*And oh - '9 to 5' is too idealistic, or is a thing of the 1990s. Many offices in Singapore start at 8.30am and end at 6pm. And there's still overtime.

Everyone (almost) who is (unfortunately) eligible has succumbed to their fate and made the necessary mental preparations. But it seems that only I'm not.

My last A level paper would end on 3rd December. I'd better have a truckload of free time between grad night and whatever I'll be summoned off to do. Half a year would be nice. I need a well-deserved break after the A levels. If not, there's absolutely nothing to look forward to after these months of hard work. Please.

And for those of you who care, I sincerely thank you. :)

Preamble

2009-07-13T18:09:00.003+08:00

This morning, the HOD of GP came to our class to give us instructions for the lesson because our GP teacher was absent. She mentioned that there's a chance for us to join the UN Climate Change Conference this December if we submit an excellent essay and get selected by the judges. The point isn't about climate change. She went on to say that the guys, however, might be enlisted and even if we get selected, conscription might hold us back.

Why have I come to a stage where I just can't cry. I feel so horrendously tormented. But I forgot the last time I cried. Ok whatever. Maybe I just need LAN. Needless to say, this week would be disastrous, and I need somewhere to vent my frustration. Of course currently I'm doing so by hitting my keyboard, and it really helps when I cool down and think clearly before I type so that I won't pen down anything too offensive for public viewing. Anyway, I seriously need to go to LAN one of these weekdays. If not weekends. Mugging is nauseating.

For the period of time when we receive our test results, I tend to sink into foul mood. Yes - this is the week. My results are definitely fubarred. I'm one of the few people who think that Bio paper was harder than Chem paper. And this is a really bad phenomenon. It means that I'm hopeless for both subjects because I can't even differentiate their levels of difficulty. I don't mean to say that Chem was easy. It obviously wasn't. This is such a lousy week. It's just July for goodness' sake. Contrary to what you might be thinking, I'm NOT very worried about my results during after-school hours like this when I'm free. I'm already mentally prepared to get at least 3 U's, and if I get anything above it, it's going to be delightful.

We received our Bio MCQ today. Needless to say, I have never seen anyone with a lower score than I have, but I'm still not displeased by the results because I can only say - it could have been lower than this.

2nd weekend after CTs

2009-07-12T18:12:00.001+08:00

Not bad. The LAN session at Ody was one of the best I've ever had. I don't go LANning frequently, but I've already lost count of my no. of visits ever since I stepped into that lousy Internet Cafe at Punggol CC (near Hougang MRT) with Patrick and Ingmar to play an interrupted game of CS. L4D is truly enjoyable after I've got the basics correct. And that's when addiction begins. ODY NEXT WEEKEND ANYONE?!

And I bought new earpieces for my Creative Zen. The Creative earpiece that came free with the Zen purchased in Nov 07 had a faulty right earphone. At least this free earpiece lasted longer than my previous Creative earpiece which also came free with my previous MP3 player (128MB storage only). Now I've replaced them with the new black Sony earphones which are simple, plain and ordinary.

Seriously WTH - it's just more than one week after the dreadful CTs have ended, and this weekend we have homework for almost all subjects! After these nonsensical weeks of holiday spent on cramming, studying and stressing out for the CTs, the poor NJC SH2 students have been fed with all these sh!t. WTH is this man! As if sacrificing our entire summer break (for the 2nd year in NJC, and for me - 3 consecutive years) for tests set ridiculously right after the holidays isn't tormenting enough for us! What the sh!t! There's not even a slight compensation for our last and lost June holidays in our lives. Seriously. Why do they think that the only way is to make us do work all the time! I can't believe this. It's just the end of our 3rd last major test, and it's already so crappy. No wonder pessimism dies last. Screw the self-deluded fellows who advocate that hope dies last. If we're already pushed like this in July, shit knows how much our workload would be in October.

After LAN yesterday, I went to Sengkang library and was delighted that I could bring home 6 books instead of 4. Can't wait to read all 6 of them. But there's school. Sh!t. These months are one of those times when schooling totally interferes with education. I've quoted this phrase for countless times but it still applies to me. Seriously. Why would I even need to know the usefulness of plant cloning, how the nervous system works or how I can synthesise diols?!! Indeed they are a waste of time, but for goodness' sake and for my A level Distinctions they are of top priority. Imagine spending the next few months getting the whole chunks of pap into my brain.

6 books: 1 fiction - The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer. 5 non-fictions - all wordy and content heavy, and taken from classification numbers 910 to 970. Interested people would know what I'm referring to. No - they're not related to Bio, Chem, Maths, Geography or GP.
I don't really hate school, but I think the school hates me. So does the education system.
I had intended to blog about the good things that happened, but I always get diverted to such annoyances.

Inline skating

2009-07-10T21:45:00.003+08:00

JH students were having in line skating today near the canteen. So many were falling down.

Today in the library Puo Nen showed off his ancient handphone. But it wasn't that old. There's a colour screen and camera. He claimed that 100 years later it can fetch a high price.

Durians are powerful. I don't even eat them. Merely smelling them gives me a slight headache and nausea. Ok I might be exaggerating.

The really nauseating thing is that there's a truckload of homework for most subjects over this weekend. It's just a week after the CTs. What else can you expect from JC2 life?

The iPhone 3G S has just been released this evening. Some people have been queueing up since 9am.

Ugh. I should just do my Chem homework now. There's a whole new revision booklet.

The current show on Channel 8 is painfully disgusting. Ouch.

'Kung Yin Lo has an absurdly strong memory when it comes to remembering absolutely pointless information.'

2009-07-09T23:49:00.005+08:00

Today, my Chemistry teacher said she wants to see me because of my poor results. FML

Perhaps I shouldn't have studied so 'hard' for the CTs after all. I might just end up getting U's for many subjects (mind you I only take 5). It's just that the U's will be high U's.

I don't remember panicking so badly 2 days before the first paper - not even for last year's promos, which were considerably more important than this CT. Thinking of the days 2 weeks ago already makes me shudder. I don't know whose fault it is, but studying for certain subjects had become such a torturous task.

Chemistry was disastrous - the MCQs and the essays mainly. After a whole chain of devastating results throughout these years, I'm desensitized and no longer disheartened.

My Chemistry teacher wanted to meet 2 group of students. Without a doubt they were those underperformers. Why in the world would a teacher gather her top students for a praising session instead of holding a 'how come you did so badly'-asking session for the majority who are at-risk or almost at-risk? And of course she didn't randomly divide the students into 2 groups. I'm in Group II. During lunch she met only the Group I students. She said they were underperforming, but were not determined by NJC as being at risk. So what does it mean to be in Group II? The students who had just met her standard of achieving just a D? Dream on.

And I had to fill in the blanks for the Group II lecture notes. And complete the tutorials.

I think I'm going to get 3 U's this time. Bio, Chem and Maths. I had expected them to be at least E's. But things are supposed to get worse.

There are xx U's in my maths class of ~25 people, so there seems to be no reason for me to not get U for maths. And doing normal/binomial/poisson distributions for one whole day in the last week of the June hols was absolutely torturous and heart-wrenching and suicidal and it totally put my endurance and tolerance of drudgery to the test.

When I find myself forgetting entire chunks of info in the chapter Nervous Control, I shiver and wonder why I can remember so many other pointless information so much more easily. Why do I remember most of the capital cities and languages of the sovereign states when I cannot even remember what happens at the synaptic cleft! I'm not exaggerating, but many people have been awed by my crazily strong memory, but mind you - I seem to be only able to remember those useless information. Such as what happened during sports day in primary 4. And 2. And 5. And sec 1 and sec 2. FML

Nervous control is absolutely nerve-wrecking. I swear I could have gone crazy and still be unable to memorize one of the many processes. Not that I totally forget everything. It's just that everything is in bits and pieces and nowhere near the level of process-memorizing ability that a H2 bio student should necessarily have before he takes on the challenge of taking Bio in JC (IS THAT EVEN A CHALLENGE!) In my mind there are keywords like synapse, myelin, K+, Na+, gated channels, ion channels, sodium-potassium pump, ATP, phosphorylase, impulse, nodes of Ranvier, Schwann cells, glia, cleft, knob, axon, dendrite, gray and white matter and a huge chunk of other words, but how do I ever link them together to form a logical storyline about what happens when you ~~~ and how the signal gets ~~~ so that you react by ~~~?! Nervous control is totally sick.

Operons too. Organization of euk and prok too. Bacteria II too. DNA and Genomics WERE bad, but at least I have something to write about now.

Ok I was rattling on. At least I bothered to find out which topics I'm weak in. As if that helps.

Today wasn't a bad day at all. The results were not out. It's just that it has made me realise that we should be more pessimistic sometimes, because it's mostly just self-delusion when you're confident that things will turn out better.

4 days 3 LAN

2009-07-07T00:26:00.003+08:00

Common tests are over for me. And I thoroughly enjoy it, cos it's over, and because it's over, I'm experiencing the POST-CT EUPHORIA! Nice. No - the papers were terrible, but the accomplishment of sitting through 8 papers in 3 days is BAGUS!

BUT anyway, it's over. Results won't come back this week, I think!

Wednesday 1st July - 12th anniversary of the handover of HK to the PRC

The third and last day of common tests wasn't much better than the other two, but I was just relieved it ended.

Thursday 2nd July

Thursday was a relaxing day which began at 1pm. I explored the MapleSEA world once again after a 1.5 year hiatus. It's changed so much. I felt an indescribable pang of nostalgia after revisiting the game, which has sadly lost its charm and popularity from its heydays 2.5 years ago.

Friday 3rd July

I met up with Henry and Michael in the afternoon at Dhoby Ghaut for LAN. Albert was quarantined, but even if he wasn't, he wouldn't play anyway. Kok Wah wasn't free, but even if he was free, he wouldn't play anyway. Yes - Michael actually plays LAN. OK actually it's hard for some to believe that I also frequent LAN shops. I arrived slightly early, so I detoured to where PC Bunk had been. It was not shocking at all that it had closed down. A few months back I visited it, and there were very few gamers. 2 to 3 years ago, it was common to see high level Maplers at the Bunk fighting formidable monsters, while at least 10 people would be gathering around him/her to view the awesome damage. But everything changes, and Maple is out, so PC Bunk is out too. The furniture was still there, together with all the computers, but according to a notice on the door, the shop will be transferred to another company.

Lunch was at KFC, which was one of the few places with fewer people and acceptable food. Huzaifah joined us soon. As usual, the shop Ody was not fully-occupied at the moment we entered, but soon disappointed gamers had to resort to going to the HQ for their DoTA sessions. With Henry around, we doubtlessly played Left 4 Dead instead of PirateKingOnline or Ragnarok or RoseOnline or Gunbound or AuditionSEA or Cabal. It's one of my first few times, and according to Michael, it was his virgin attempt at a LAN shop. Hmm... even I had already gone to a LAN shop in Kovan in sec 2. But it's ok. LAN IS FUN. L4D makes CounterStrike seem like an outdated and cliche shooting game without a soul and purpose. L4D has more pleasant graphics as well. Of course those who are intimidated by vomitting zombies will be turned off, but the graphics are decent I think. And it's so much better than CS because L4D requires teamwork and synergy. I can't imagine my AI player going away by herself to a secluded spot to solo Tanks. But I must agree that there's a limited choice of maps. I think I've been to every single spot in the L4D world already. Nothing new to explore. But other than that, it deserved every single award it achieved.

MORE LEFT4DEAD sessions please!

Saturday 4th July - Jing Kai's birthday, and Independence Day

It's Obama's first Independence Day after he stepped up.

I joined Kim Yong, Jaslin, Ping Lin, Ka Tsun and Wee Siang at the top floor of Shaw Centre for lunch. All of them except the 10th in the world (inside joke) had gone to the PSC scholarship talk and were loaded with tonnes of goodies in good goody bags. Kim Yong might become a Maths teacher next time. Just a word of warning - PSLE Maths isn't easy either.

We walked to Orchard Cineleisure and on the way Jaslin and Wee Siang each received a helium balloon from a booth that advertised the Great Singapore Sale. I think Wee Siang thinks that he can fly up if he's attached to a few balloons. He's more likely to do that than me. He's lighter anyway. Anyway before we reached the Mandarin Hotel, both of their balloons had flown off and disappeared into the horizon. I think at least one drifted into a construction site and got stuck. Whatever.

We bought whatever was necessary at Cine, went Braddell-bound. I had never been to Jing Kai's place before. Kim Yong was the only person who had gone there, and we would have thrown the toy car on Jing Kai's cake at him if he couldn't lead the way. At least he did. We got off one floor below his unit, and we lit up the candles of the cake there. Wait - there's only one candle.

While we were suppressing our laughter while ensuring that the surprise would work out, the Indian woman in the unit on the left stared at us regularly while she was watching North Korea vs South Korea in some Asian Youth Game broadcast on TV. The Indian family in the other unit stared at us too. I think they should continue watching the AYG instead of staring at the cake and candle and the toy car that weren't meant for them. It's not their birthday.

We ordered Jaslin to hold the cake and walk upstairs to JK's place, and Serena eventually followed her. JK's mother and sister opened the door instead. He was bathing at the very moment. But it's ok. We waited, and went back to the safe room one floor down, while being stared at by 2 Indian families which had doors facing each other.

We went up again, and the birthday surprise was a success.

We waited for Jing Kai's aunt and cousin to arrive. In the meantime we watched Fei Teng Bing Dian on Ch8. It was shown last year during prime time. Fann Wong again. So sick of her appearances in Shuang Zi Xing and with all the hullabaloo on her wedding, and the CNY movie modelled after her real-life wedding with the same spouse. Anyway, Xiang Yun acts really really well, and Fann Wong totally pales in comparison no matter what she acts as. We're lucky to have actors and actresses such as Xiang Yun and Zhu Houren cos they're the jewels of Mediacorp. Ok that was a lot of crap.

Next we went to Raiders at AMK for... my first ever DoTA session. With relentless help from Jing Kai, and hahahaha no thanks to Kim Yong, it was much easier than I expected. FUN. More DoTA sessions soon please. Before A levels invade.

No matter where first chro goes, we always create noise pollution. Our dinner at Sumo House was noisy even though Kim Yong had left for a BBQ and chalet. My salmon bento sure did not look presentable, but it tasted very decent.

Highlight of the night

Kung Yin moves out of his seat to get Japanese chili powder and soya sauce from the counter.
Wee Siang exclaims: "Kung Yin take some sashimi as well!"
Kung Yin is bemused but ignores WS's request for... sashimi.
Kung Yin comes back with chili and soya.
Wee Siang is disappointed because there's no sashimi.
Waitress puts down a plate of Maki with some soya sauce and wasabi.
Wee Siang says: "Never mind, the sashimi is here already."
Kung Yin: "What sashimi!!!"
Wee Siang: "There! That green green spicy Japanese thing you use to dian your sushi!"
All of us: "That's WASABI, NOT SASHIMI!!"
Roars of laughter that lasted for at least 3 minutes started.

Can't blame our dear president. Wasabi rhymes with sashimi, and both are Japanese food. Haha. Anyway the things we said were hopelessly hilarious. I think I'm giggling over those jokes now. Haha.

TO BE CONTINUED.
Contents:
Sunday 5th July
Monday 6th July

Back

2009-06-18T17:37:00.003+08:00

I'm back to Singapore from the subtropics, and I did not forget to bring along avoirdupois. Ugh. I think I weigh 5 more kilogrammes than previously. That's one huge leap AWAY from fitness =(. The place was nice, and so was the food. I'm glad we avoided certain places that are usually only visited by PRC tour groups, because those places are dead boring. But it would have been better with more shopping and eating time, and less of certain nonsensical purchases.

Back to mugging. Not exactly the best way to spend a summer vacation, but the common tests are here. And like it or not, BCMG people are having 5 subjects on the first THREE days. Even if you take PCME, it would only last for 4 days. Another issue is that this is our first major test this year. We didn't have any in March because the school was busy with those science fairs and the 40th anniversary celebrations.

I've never expected myself to be so bad at Complex Numbers... practice practice practice!!

And I've no idea why it took me 7 minutes to load the blogger.com main page. It's not my internet connection - going to other sites has been perfect.

Chem question:
What's the difference when you oxidise an alcohol with ALKALINE KMnO4 instead of ACIDIC KMnO4?

Help me... I just can't find the answer even after flipping through all my organic notes!

Apparently they have decided to name the Downtown Line Station outside Hwa Chong Institution (College section) 'Tan Kah Kee' to commemorate the founder. It could have been 'Duchess' or 'Hwa Chong'. It's no wonder 'National JC' has never been considered as a name for the station, since it is nowhere near our beloved school. The station will be situated outside the HCI (JC) stadium part, and part of it will be right outside RGPS.

In case you don't know where it is, it's at the bus stop when we get down to go to school when the side gates are closed. We get down from those bus stops, and walk a huge detour into our main gate along Hillcrest Road, not without encountering half-naked and smoking construction workers who seem to be on a perpetual break along the road. Yea - the rows of houses outside NJC and RGPS have been under construction for so long, and there's no sign of completions. Well... Yes. The future MRT station will be near those bus stops. Are NJCians going to walk 10 minutes to the nearest MRT station, when the bus stop is just outside the side gate (when it is opened)? Personally I won't walk to the MRT station - I'll take the bus as I have been doing so. But not to worry - the MRT station won't be ready until 2016. But I'm dubious. Construction hasn't even started. Perhaps the opening of the Downtown Line section under Bukit Timah Rd and Dunearn Road won't be ready till... 2018. That was just an optimistic prognostication.

Cya...

Hotmail

2009-06-08T20:09:00.002+08:00

The "Search your email" function on Hotmail seriously needs to be improved. I've tried, on many occasions, typing in PERTINENT keywords that will supposedly allow me to retrieve the old email message that I desire, but Hotmail has always failed to show those messages in the search result. It's stated that the search results are limited to the first 400 entries. That's the excuse Bill Gates has for being unable to get me the message I want. The allocated storage is huge, but the rest of the functions are crappy.

Recently, two hockey fields near my Sengkang residence opened. Now, they're hosting some international hockey youth competition, and I can occasionally hear the cheering of the spectators. Also from the lift lobby I can see the brightly-lit field with the hockey players from around the world playing on it. Flags of the different countries have been raised. I just heard another roar. Perhaps a certain team had just scored a goal.

Red boxes are annoying. I'd rather catch a mutated white mouse at the Mousoleum than get red boxes, which tell me the mouse which ran away had crippled my courage, taking away xxxx points.

Common tests are in a few weeks' time.

Now the crowd is cheering again. From the sounding of the HORN by the referee, it seems that the next round has just started.

Breathtaking

2009-05-26T00:07:00.004+08:00

This morning we had a geography lecture in an enclosed and unventilated place in the school known as LT3. I am profoundly disappointed that the inclement internal conditions deprived us of watching the informative video (seriously - no sarcasm. The video would be nice.) on hurricanes/willy-willies/typhoons/cyclones. So troublesome. Different people call the same thing differently. But that's not the point. The syllabus requires us to understand its formation, regardless of its nomenclature and etymology. Coincidentally, we had to take our temperatures because of the swine flu, and with the lack of air-conditioning in this place which is currently hosting 2 international science competitions these 2 weeks, I'm sure body temperatures were a lot higher. At 8.50am, we could faintly hear the droning of the decade-old aircon. The lesson ended at 8.55am without the showing of the interesting video. As we left our seats, we felt cool air. We had been in the LT since 8am.

Asian Cuisine closed down... for today. Perhaps they had gone to play Restaurant City on Facebook just like I did. "Kung Kung Kung" is the latest talked-about restaurant on the Street. It started just an hour ago. Jasper and Lynn are my chefs, while Kok Wah is my waiter. They're all happy and energetic :D.

Let me update you on my Glorious MouseHunt journey.

00:00 yesterday

I checked my trap and found that I had caught a mouse! I caught a 5 oz. Moosker mouse from the Great Gnarled Tree worth 76 points and 130 gold.

I have such a tendency to catch cheap mice. And this is the beginning of my unlucky streak.

00:05

Michael Kevin sounded the Hunter's Horn, but my efforts were fruitless. An Eagle Owl mouse ate a piece of cheese without setting off my trap.

00:21

Michael Kevin sounded the Hunter's Horn, but my efforts were fruitless. A Fairy mouse ate a piece of cheese without setting off my trap.

Haha Michael :D

This afternoon there's a rehearsal for the performance on Thursday. I don't know the name of the concert. Harmonica, Guzheng, Angklung, Western, Indian and Malay dances are performing. The emcees are cool. Yeah.

But I think the emcees for the VJC Guitar Concert last Friday were better. They could communicate with each other and the audience very well, and that definitely was a good addition to an already exciting and rocky concert. Last year's Perfect Fifth was already great. If you ask me if this year's concert is better than last year's, I'll say NO - it's better this year:). Sheng Kang, Ber Fong and I entered the Performance Theatre at 7.27pm and boy it was almost full! What an overwhelming response from both Victorians and other JCs' students!

And on Saturday night, the band's performance was breathtaking at many times. It seems kind of unlikely, but it's the first time I've ever attended a band concert in my life. The male emcee was highly entertaining. He mentioned that a certain 'swinging' song made him and the female emcee swing around to the music in the backstage. He seriously said that. But certain comments blurted out by a few members of the audience were more entertaining. If you were there you should know which ones I'm referring to. The concert was way above my expectations, and it's not a surprise that they have achieved so much these few years.

Anyway back to our very own concert. This Thursday.

Location:
LT5, affectionately known as Ngee Ann Kongsi Performing Arts Theatre, which doubles up as a Physics-Chem and Maths lecture venue for SH2s

2 timings:
Afternoon 2pm - $4
Evening 7.30pm - $6

Approach me if you want tickets for the show! Main highlight - ME :D

Kolegium Dni

2009-05-19T00:36:00.002+08:00

In a desperate attempt to polish my understanding of how the students of Warsaw Agricultural University address the significant occasion of celebrating their school's anniversary, I've Polish-ed the title. The 2 words simply mean 'college day' in the Polish language. Google Translate translated it for me. But I don't trust Google Translate totally. Copy any chunk of Chinese text, and Google Translate will render another chunk of nonsensical and jumbled-up translation. That's especially true if you type in Chinese profanities... hehehe. I don't do that though. So I had wanted to cross-reference to Yahoo! Babel Fish to see if Google Translate was correct. But what the FISH! Babel Fish doesn't offer English-to-Polish translation. So I have no choice but to accept 'Kolegium Dni' as the orthodox and correct translation of College Day.

National Junior College's 40th College Day was total blast! It was fun, exciting and interesting. From each class, ten lucky gold ticket recipients had been meticulously chosen by their form teachers, based on their past behaviour, performance, aptitude and attitude, to represent the class in attending the prestigious opening ceremony-cum-concert in the air-conditioned Hall. And I felt victorious when I knew that I was one of those 10! So honoured to be there.

Okay actually we volunteered to view the concert. Fahimah, Weini, Sofia, Vinnie, Eunice, Vivien, Henry, Boon Jun, Sekwy and I were there on Saturday morning, 9am.

With high spirits we entered LT1, which was the safe room for all the honoured J2 audience before they proceeded into the air-conditioned Hall for the ceremony. Being impatient to celebrate the school's 40th birthday, Boon Jun arrived at the LT very early. Haha... And we saw NJCians proudly putting on their red ties.

The event proper started at 10am, with all the guest of honours walking in at that time. But we were already obsequiously seated on the chairs in the Hall by 9.30am. I used that time to read one of the most influential books of last century.

At 9.45am the choir people walked into the 2nd level of the hall. Standing in 2 rows, one on each side of the hall, they stoned for 25 minutes until the guests had arrived and seated, and the band started the Malay school song. The lyrics were projected onto the huge screen in front in case our seniors had forgotten them. After the school song, the choir people left the 2nd level and proceeded to prepare for their upcoming performance.

Mrs Virginia Cheng talked about our Glorious achievements, and promulgated our future plans. I feel extremely happy for our school for getting such Glorious achievements for the past one year. Proud to be :).

The guests of honour made speeches too.

Then an inexorably long list of J3s received their prizes. Top in geog... top in chem... 7As... 8As... student of the year... many many more. Next year you'll see me there.

Then the choir performed. Then Western Dance performed. Then guitar ensemble performed. Then the 2 eloquent and effective student emcees told us that the ceremony had officially ended. Then all of us reluctantly left the hall. We had wanted to immerse in the festive atmosphere in the hall for a longer time, but the ceremony ended 10 minutes earlier. Wo men yi yi bu she de li kai li tang.

Subtropical High Pressure Belt

2009-05-11T09:16:00.003+08:00

Ms Ting mentioned that the place with the highest annual precipitation is somewhere in India. I did read up more. Cherrapunji, Meghalaya, India has a more annual rainfall (in mm) than people -- 11430mm compared to 10086++ people. See how the bars for summer rainfalls extend way above the border of the climograph.

The population of 10086 people was based on a 2001 census. India should experience high birth rates, and the women should have high total fertility rates, so the population has most likely increased from 2001 to now, unless there is a widespread rural-urban migration to larger nearby cities such as Calcutta due to the need to find jobs and better education opportunities. People might move out of Cherrapunji possibly also because the extreme rainfall hinders their daily lives and makes agriculture difficult. However, the birth rates are likely to be higher than the death rates and the number of people who migrate out of Cherrapunji. Furthermore, tourism might be a growing industry because the Guinness World Records the town holds have made it more popular. Tourists spend money in Cherrapunji, increasing the earnings of locals and thus raising their standards of living, decreasing the need to migrate out of Cherrapunji. That explains why the current population is more than 10086 people, hence '10086++'. Aha -- I've just linked between physical geog and human geog. That's what SEAB's syllabus for H2 geog demands. Even though physical geog and human geog might be taught separately, every effort must be put in to ensure that the students link between the 2 concepts. And I've evaluated a bit too.

Ok so much for 11430mm of rainfall. Now back to the physical geog assignment.

Too much of those boring stuff

2009-05-09T23:46:00.003+08:00

I've looked around, and everything seems to be about the swine flu. It has become such a common yet boring topic with all the hullabaloo, brouhaha and hubbub about it. The omnipresence of the concern is evident from the status updates and quizzes on Facebook, on the news, newspapers, in public speeches, on friends' blogs, on the radio and in SCHOOL.

Since my blog is an interesting one, I have been avoiding talking about the swine flu. You can try to find the phrase swine flu on every one of my posts, and you'll fail.

So much for the hype!

Oh I just realised that I just mentioned swine flu. I might as well continue...

****************************

In Hong Kong's Metropark Hotel, a group of international tourists had to be quarantined for 7 days because one Mexican had been staying there with them. For the 7 days, the hotel was sealed off from the outside world. The hotel staff could leave after work, but the guests had to remain in the hotel throughout the quarantine.

It was so hilarious to see the staff fully clad in an antibacterial armor, complete with a full-body green coat and a transparent mask covering the whole of their faces. The guests were in their normal clothes.

Reporters and paparazzo constantly crowded at the glass windows to have glances into the hotel lobby to understand the trapped tourists' lives. The only form of communication was through pasting pieces of paper on the glass surface for the outside world to see. Soon, many curious students and young workers gathered near the entrance every day to see observe the quaint lifestyles of those trapped in the hotel.

They were not deprived of daily necessities. Food was provided by the chefs. There were also stacks of magazines and DVDs and toys (such as teddy bears for the young ones) for entertainment.

On the sixth night, they had a special dinner with a ceremonial feel, since it was their last day being together. They drunk wine, danced to the music and devoured food. The end of quarantine in a semi-posh hotel was such a lavish celebration.

One hour before the quarantine ended, I guess at least a thousand reporters and passers-by gathered around the place. At the exact time of the release of the trapped, which was around 6pm+ on a weekday, there was a live broadcast on TVB.

Random pictures

2009-05-09T00:33:00.002+08:00

Here are a few random photos from the College Board and Deviantart.com. They're really random.

I wonder why the emails College Board send me have such random photos on the header. I mean it's ok if they display a photo of a teenage student studying or holding a stack of notes, but how relevant is this photo of 3 boys camwhoring relevant to any part of SAT?

Talking about SAT, I'll receive my score on 21st May. Makes me wonder.

Maze. Random again.

Brutalism can be cool. I forgot where this photo was taken.

SLA Spatial Challenge 2009 - Hillcrest Humans

2009-05-05T21:33:00.002+08:00

This was last last Friday... 24th April 2009.

Hillcrest Humans got 2nd for overall in the SLA Spatial Challenge. :D. Our weekends had not been wasted. It sure was hectic and stressful, with 3 of us in performing arts groups which have been practising almost everyday for SYF, and two others being the captain/president of their CCAs. While many other groups from other JCs claimed that they did primary fieldwork during the March holidays, 4 of us were in Malaysia and Edwin was in Vietnam during that week. It had been difficult meeting up because we have so many commitments in and out of school, but I'm glad that our meetings have produced good results.

Thanks everyone for putting in much effort despite our absolutely tight schedules. And thanks Alvin Yue, Kok Wah, Henry and the A02 girls for coming to SMU to support. And thanks to the A02 girls who rushed to buy the materials and helped us decorate our booth.

SilverYF

2009-05-04T23:53:00.004+08:00

This is a bit late. I must be the last one to blog about our SYF which was last Thursday!

We arrived at outside the harmonica store at 7am in our attire minus the hot tie and blazer. Yes - the blazer and tie are both hot crimson. We did some last minute practice conducted by Huimin. And some people will never forget to style their hair using Gatsby Moving Rubber, just as Mrs Teai will never forget to put foundation on all of our faces. Including mine ;D.

Our performance was at 9.58am sharp at Republic Polytechnic Cultural Centre. We viewed Yuhua secondary's performance before queueing up to enter the 'testing room' for our ultimate practice before the real thing. And we were so confident and desperate to get the gold with honours.

We performed on stage with the seats almost fully-occupied. Then I understood how it feels to practise for 6 months and only be on stage for a short moment. Barber of Seville + Postcards from Russia are supposed to last for 8 to 9 minutes, but as the hackneyed, trite, prosaic and humdrum cliche goes, 'time flies', so it really did. I was determined to make that performance the best one ever - one that is above perfect. And we would thrash every single school that was watching us.

The results came at 12+. I can't remember the exact time because I was too pissed off by the injustice. I wrongly assumed that judges for ALL SYFs are smart and musically-inclined. Especially when 2 are from Singapore, 1 is from Hong Kong, 1 is from USA and 1 is from Canada.

It's so unjustified for ALL schools to get SILVER regardless of the effort put in and more importantly, their PERFORMANCE during SYF. I hope the judges can be more sane and informed. Any Tom, Dick, Harry or ordinary Joe along Bukit Timah Road can easily sense that some schools were RUSHING! Gan pai zi! And any tone-deaf person can hear that certain ensembles' melodies are screwed up. For the privacy's sake of course I won't say which ensembles they are. But isn't the GRADIENT in MUSIC QUALITY obvious even to the untrained ear?

I had been thinking that if we didn't get Gold with Honours, we'll be flooding the RPCC with tears, even if we get gold. But the fact is that few of us shed tears. All I felt was unjust and disgust. All 5 JCs and all 3 secondary schools got SILVER for that day.

The announcement of results was short and sweet. The emcee didn't even seem emotional at all when announcing them. Perhaps the same person had been doing the same thing since the first SYF event was held. He then invited us to move to the front to hear comments from the judges.

But our 2 buses arrived. SMART DECISION (no sarcasm. Really). I bet the judges' comments were cheesy, cliche and conventional. I chanced upon Fang Yi's blog, and she mentioned that Jeremy mentioned that his friend mentioned that the judges mentioned that it's NOT about the award you get. It's about the time you spent with your friends during the many practices... the bonding within the bands... the process is more important. And within SILVER, there are better silvers and not-so-good silvers.

Please. Enough of diplomatic and pseudo-politically-correct excuses for the misjudgment. Of course we know that our many many practices (did I not mention they end at 9.30pm) have increased our friendship and ties and unity and teamwork and blah blah blah and [insert cliche 'treasured values' here] and... ... - we don't need five internationally-renowned musical professionals to educate us on that. But don't you understand 'VARIATION'? GRADIENT? DIFFERENT STANDARDS? By sweeping all of us with silvers, it seems to imply that ALL of us are of the SAME standard. At least produce a gold - make it 1 gold and 7 silvers - and we'll not launch such an inflammatory diatribe against central judging 2009.

But it's over and done with. Regardless of our results, Mrs Teai and Mr Lim had decided to treat all of us to a meal at McDonald's at KAP. :)

HM05 National Junior College Harmonica Band - Singapore Youth Festival 2009 - Silver.

SYF and SAT

2009-05-02T11:59:00.001+08:00

Quick update.

NJ Harmonica went for SYF on Thursday, and we got Silver, together with ALL 7 other schools' ensembles. Many were pissed at the injustice done to our music standard.

I took the SAT for the first time this morning. It was so-so.

Then Henry and I met Jasper and Huzaifah at Dhoby Ghaut. We went to a LAN shop in POMO (previously known as Paradiz Centre) and played L4D. Nice game.

Got to sleep now. Details shall come tomorrow morning.

April

2009-04-19T23:11:00.001+08:00

I'm really busy and I should be sleeping now, but I can't resist blogging. This past week has been really hectic.

On Monday Harmonica Band went to Republic Polytechnic Cultural Centre to rehearse for our SYF. It was the exact location where we will be performing on the morning of 30 April. Needless to say, the bus rides were totally noisy and filled with photo-taking sessions. The wooden floor was soft and seemed to crumble as all of us walked on it. But that's not the focus. The whole place was very new and boasted an innovative design, so I'd better not hold our college's architecture in juxtaposition with this building Woodlanders should be proud of. Serena found her twin sister there. The photo is on Jeaness' blog. I was the one who pointed out to her that the person really resembled her.

Wednesday was the SLA Spatial Challenge presentation. It was fine, I guess? It ended at 9.40am, and since we were exempted from school for the whole day, I went home and only went for harmoc practice at 4pm. It was merely the election speeches, and there were no formal lessons.

Actually I don't mind listening to the elects speaking in front of everyone, either embarrassing or advertising themselves in the process. The council election posters were ubiquitous. They were on most pillars and walls, and not to mention, on the floor or in the dustbin. Some of them LOOKED (superficially) as if they have the potential, while some just made everyone laugh. Whatever it is, don't disparage elects just because their posters are hilarious. Perhaps their speeches were inspiring. But some smart councillor-wannabe said that the prom night this year will be a 'primitive-themed' one in the ZOO. Yeah right. And some of them claimed that their posters reflected 'their true selves' or 'who they really were'. And that's why we WON'T vote for certain people. Anyway, it's now too late. Voting ended on Friday. I've voted, and even if you have not, all you can do is await the election results, and wish that your worst enemies would not get into council. But all in all, this voting process has generated a truckload of gossips over lunch.

Yesterday was Chem Skill A. Phew. I love this feeling. NO MORE CHEMISTRY PRACTICAL SESSIONS! Please tell me this is true. I don't hate chem pracs, but I don't like them either.

Ok I got to sleep now.

Happy Birthday to myself

2009-04-12T22:41:00.002+08:00

Happy 18th birthday to myself! Thanks everyone for your birthday wishes and the magic kit :DD.

Coincidentally my birthday was on a public holiday... for the first time ever!

The day before it, our PW results were back. Throughout the day, I had been rather worried... worried that our hard work and super-last minute changes might not have paid off, but the verdict was that all our staying in the National Library for 9 hours straight and sleeping at 3.30am were worth it! NJ071 did not experience a smooth-sailing journey in the process of modernisation, but after countless nights of staying till 8 or 9 or 10pm at the Raintree in school, WE DID IT! All 5 of us received A s for PW :D. That's another awesome birthday present :D.

On the other hand, my MouseHunting journey has been rather lucky - at least for this evening!

But my schoolwork is now lagging behind quite badly! Just a few weeks ago I was ahead of many others. But now, I haven't done MOST of my weekend homework! Tsktsk to NJC's unsympathetic style of dumping us with 'holiday homework' only because it's a 3-day long weekend. There's chem ws, electrochemistry, binomial and FISH distribution, human geog, physical geog, genetic variations... and of course you can't forget the ultimate ASSES! SLA, SYF and SAT. Grrr my busy schedule. And my lack of motivation. And I hate procrastination.

As of now, 11.00PM on Sunday night, I have only done PART of the chem ws! After a few months of organic chem, I've forgotten all about physical chem, which in turn becomes much less interesting than organic chem. Tsktsk. I won't be able to score my 7As like this -.- "". There's still the human geography essay to be handed in TOMORROW TOO.

Yesterday we went to Pei Yi Harmonica Exchange at VJC. We met at AMK at 11am, and rushed through our lunch before riding on 76. Alvin was desperate to do certain stuff, and we needed the back of the bus on the second level. Luckily there were few people. It was a total first chro characteristic - we were absolutely loud and I swear the people sitting in front on the second level can totally hear our uproarious laughter and all our conversations. Haha it's a bit diu lian, but it's enjoyable :).

The exchange was nice. We got to listen to other schools and their performances. Compassvale Primary School performed Postcards from Russia too, though it was different from our version:).

School

2009-04-07T21:44:00.002+08:00

So it was over - at least for the report. There's still the presentation and the poster.

Yesterday's GP was rather informative. We went through only one passage in the Red Book, but definitely in depth. When Miss Champagne asked for examples of politicians and entertainers involved in sex scandals, Edwin and Wei Qiang had loads to share. GP is simply enjoyable :).

Bio lecture was actually one of the best ones I've had this year. Finally - after the super-dry (reminds me Asahi and dry ether) continuum of topics that focuses on the microscopic details and processes (perhaps too much of those crap has made me zoom in too much for physical geog - something Ms Ting is against), there is actually a bio topic that I enjoy - Genetic Variations. It is inherently fascinating, and definitely better than stuff like Respiration, Photosynthesis and Nervous Control.

Mrs Keng is definitely one of the more interesting lecturers. When we first started the topic a few weeks ago, she told all of us to touch our ears and our friends' ears to feel if they were attached or free. In another lecture, she randomly called upon random students. Henry got called and I forgot if he had forgotten the answer, but I remember that he had answered correctly. Then she called Beijin, who was stunned but still answered correctly. Then she called Jeaness, who shouted aloud 'HAIRY' from her seat. She answered correctly too.

The lecture notes were also highly distracting. On page 39, there is a pedigree showing the incidence of haemophilia among the royal families of Europe. It started off with Albert and Victoria. Albert's daughter and daughter-in-law were Helena. Ernest was Albert's grandson. Henry was Albert's son-in-law and grandson-in-law and great grandson. Olga and Leopold are cool names.

On the other hand, Chemistry was as chemical as possible. Electrochemistry is just another topic. I'd rather have organic chemistry.

Ms Kavi's human geography lesson made me go high. She gave out a worksheet which required us to locate countries on a world map. I think I go crazy when I see world maps, especially blank ones. I'll fill them in.

Today was worse. She brought a globe to class. It was interesting. She even showed us a digital world map on the laptop. My head practically grew towards the screen, and I started to search for the exact coordinates of Martinique and Sao Tome and Principe. The worst thing was that the globe was an inflatable 'beach ball', which she claimed was purchased from Popular for $4.90, but is no longer available. I want to buy a globe at that price, but perhaps I'm not destined to get a globe, because one already exists in my mind.

For the first time in a few weeks, I actually attended PE. It was nothing much though.

Waiting for the worse to come.

2009-04-05T19:30:00.004+08:00

I need to revise for Chem Skill A! It's so stressful to see ALL the other first chro J2s mugging their skill A notes during practices while I'm not bothered at all. Skill A isn't far from now, and there's a test coming up soon, so I'd better study. SAY NO TO COMPLACENCY. Perhaps that's my greatest problem.

In addition, I need to watch the Curious Case of Benjamin Button -.- ... that is if I have time to spare.

14

2009-04-02T05:39:00.000+08:00

Happy fourteenth birthday. 14 years spent on this flicking place.

逃避現實

2009-03-31T23:32:00.002+08:00

從來沒有這種感覺，但是現在佷想逃避現實，也瞭解爲何許多人想抛下一齊真的不管了。

因爲: 我哋死梗喇！

BIO!!!

2009-03-31T22:31:00.002+08:00

What a stupid subject. For me. I'm getting nervous over nervous control. I pulled myself together and tried to read through the thick stack of Nervous Control lecture notes, but I gave up halfway because it was too dry and uninteresting. Some might argue that Na+ and K+'s movements across the membrane is soooooo exciting. But I think it's hopelessly boring.

And my SAT is 2 days after harmonica SYF. SYF is on 30 April at Republic Polytechnic, and SAT is on 2 May at The Other Side. And there's labour day in between.

On a brighter note, my Chem test last Friday was actually OK. It's still nothing compared to many others' results, but I'm still rather satisfied. But I could have scored even a mark higher if not for... ...

Ok got to watch TV now, again :). Can't imagine life without TV, because I ALWAYS study and do homework with the TV on. It's doubtlessly a distraction, but without this distraction, I would have collapsed halfway.

Russia

2009-03-30T23:14:00.002+08:00

What the heck is wrong with Windows Vista and its algorithm of burning CDs!!

Why does it take '2 hours and 27 minutes' to paste merely 50MB of photos into a blank CD!! Hello... Windows is perhaps so beyond hope that not even a Windows 7 can save the company from further degradation that originated from this joke called Vista.

On the other hand,

I've been visiting an interesting website which I recently discovered::

http://englishrussia.com/
English Russia

Depends on your interests though. Lots of photos and juicy facts about the modern Russia and the CIS, and the former CCCP. Widens your perspective towards Russia - it's no longer just St. Basil's Cathedral of Moscow that links you to the Russian culture. I read those articles mainly for fun.

It might have been delightful if we were allowed to skip school occasionally earlier in term 1, but it's definitely not something nice to do now. Imagine how much we'll lose if we skip one day.

And the A levels are nearing. I really hate this feeling. I thought I had lived out of the O level studying days, and I have never expected that the A levels are in just a few months' time. Currently, I can't say that school work is terribly unmanageable, but I'm sure it can only get tougher and more intense as the exam days come closer.

And I totally abhor the notion that in a few months' time, my sole reason for existence will be to ace my A levels. I can't stand mugging. I enjoy education, but that's not necessarily the case for schooling. I abhor cramming lots of information, especially those which do not interest me at all.

And I have absolutely NO IDEA what nervous control is about. Facts like these do not register easily on my mind.

I abhor exams, and I believe few would not dislike them. I'm glad that our dearest college had decided to abort the MCTs or whatever you call it. Our first formal exam is T3 W1. Thanks. Our June holidays are officially gone. Just like for the past 2 years. I thought it would only occur in sec 4, when a rigorous schedule was actually necessary. But not last year.

And sometimes I really really hate school A LOT A LOT A LOT. Sometimes. A LOT.

and it's here AGAIN! Vista is driving me nuts. Why did it paste something that I didn't even want it to paste?! What kind of joke is this?! I think I'd be better off if I'm using Windows 98 now in 2009.

soliloquy.

Unique Voices that not Many Listen to

元ちとせ (元 千歲) - 千の夜と千の昼

Chitose Hajime - Sen no yoru to sen no hiru

元ちとせ 青のレクイエム

中孝介 - 花海 (原唱:周杰倫)

장윤정의 꽃

장윤정 Jang Yoon Jeong - One Night Only

Alex - 정려원 출연의 '미쳐보려 해도(Can't Be Crazy)' M/V from 2nd Album 'JUST LIKE ME'

心血来潮想update部落格

Let's Get Together Now.

Häagen-Dazs

Japan. II.

Epik High 'Run'

Justin Bieber - Baby ft. Ludacris

Lady Gaga - Bad Romance

Katy Perry - Firework

Bruno Mars - Grenade [Official Music Video]

The Road

Japan

Epik High (에픽하이) - Over

Language and Intelligence

One Year Ago

JB

Like a boulder.

-

Back to NJC

-

蔡健雅 — 晨间新闻

~

The Only Way to be Truly Happy is to Keep Yourself Busy.

We're too young to understand the complexities of the world; we're too old to study in JC and enjoy student fares. And being 18/19 years old, (are you sure that) we're supposed to be in the prime of our lives?

In any point of time in your life, you are either earning or spending money, directly or indirectly. And it happens that most of the time, unless you work 24 hours a day, you are somehow using up money.

Eli?

Why do unrelated people join unrelated groups?

-

I can't think of any cheesy title to put here, so yeah

A level results

ア ア ア ア ア ア ア

-

Japan

Bow

SAT I, Take II

Empire State of Mind

Cruel Temptations

Perfectly fine

I hope it's my last SATurday

Recent movies

Unfair disadvantage

-

A few movies here and there in 2009 and 2010

NOT WITHOUT YOU (NO PUEDO VIVIR SIN TI) 不能沒有你

Casino-goers

Done

Write something!

-

-

10 days

Graduation Night 2009 Part One

The end is not near; it's here.

SAT and Advanced Levels

Don't see it.

Sarcasm

Karaoke withdrawal symptoms

奴隷

Africa

I've never done this before, but...

-

1988

Random thoughts

Farewell assembly with a touch of the floor

Doodlers Anonymous

Study Break

Maths

a bit of everything

njc

落花流水

GP lecture...

Decision-making

Over?

元ちとせ (元千歲) - 千の夜と千の昼

元ちとせ青のレクイエム

ア　ア　ア　ア　ア　ア　ア