The Outsiders

look back

2006-09-02T23:16:00.000+08:00

Aah... i've did about 9 months of national service already. here's wad i've learnt in NS:

1. i can't stand irritating people, especially people who ask questions that fit the meaning of either of these 3 R's... redundant, ridiculous or rhetorical, which leads to point 2.

2. i can flare up quite easily, sometimes during when i'm tired, and also when i'm not so tired. however, sometimes i surprise myself when i dun flare up under extreme conditions, maybe bcos my self-awareness keeps reminding me that flaring up may not change anything for the better, so no point wasting energy.

3. i must work with people i'm comfortable with, people who i know very well. however, the 'people' i'm referring to here can sometimes be just one person. but i'm starting to open up to more people, so that when that one person is not around, i still have other people to crap with.

4. pulau tekong has trees grown in the straightest rows i've ever seen in singapore. so much for being realistic.

5. i love to give names to people i dun like, which act as 'code names' when i'm talking bad about them just in case someone who knows them is eavesdropping.

6. there are 101 ironies in the army; however i can't really change anything, much less since i'm not a commander.

7. some sergeants really deserve some slaps on the face due to their foul mouth / ridiculous standards / inhumane punishment... i'll make sure they are slapped when i ORD if i see them anywhere around on the streets.

8. i have zero tolerance when people provoke me in civilian life cos i think i have endured quite a lot of shit in camp and dun deserve to be tekaned anymore... so once i scolded an auntie when she accused me of jumping her queue cos she apparently choped a place.

let me give you a summary of what a person with A levels / diploma qualification can go through in the army if he's combat fit (PES A or B):

either BMTC --> OCS or SISPEC (training schools for commanders to be) --> units (as commanders leading their men);

OR

BMTC --> unit (as men - if u chose not to be a commander or SAF decides u are not fit to be one; i belong to the latter case obviously since i fail IPPT)

so straight after BMT, in which i enjoyed life at Raven company, i suay suay got posted to 1 Guards, a unit. so much for being so eager to login to the overloaded website to check my posting after waiting for about 15 min for the web traffic to clear. the posting is even more exciting than my A level results. i was glad that 4 other pple in my platoon also suay suay went into the same unit as me; one of them was my best buddy in BMT. after some asking around, i found that another tj friend and my pri sch friend were also going to 1 Guards for the rest of the 2 years. however, both of them were going to be recce troopers, while i'll just be simply a rifleman, meaning i need to chiong when i'm supposed to, unlike them who will be dealing with military intelligence.

[i would like to post about BMT stuff, but then unit life is so much more interesting to write about... so BMT life will have to wait.]

so wad happens if u dun have A levels or a diploma? you go to a unit straight for your BMT and the rest of your NS will be done at the same place, with the same people you met during enlistment day. yes, that means they dun enter pulau tekong, and dun have a chance to be a commander at all and are destined to be men. why this special arrangement? ask the govt lor. then again, not many of them have the qualities to be a commander anyway. since these people enter a unit directly and the intake is small (a few hundred compared to thousands at tekong), they are known as a 'mono intake'.

why do i suddenly bring forward this concept of a 'mono intake'? that's because 1 Guards as a unit always takes in a mono intake every 2 years and while i happily thought that i'll be separated from them and posted into a company full of A level students in the same predicament as me, i was sadly wrong...

(to be continued...)

NDP is over

2006-08-13T16:05:00.000+08:00

Good riddance, national stadium.

Yes, i'm proud to say i've no feelings whatsoever for this gigantic gray architecture. my buddy agrees with me on that point too. it always gives me the depressing feeling. please dun give me the crap that it has 30 plus years of history and has witnessed countless events and i'm supposed to feel sad that it's going to be torn down. i would be delighted to apply my demolition skills to destroy it though =)

some reasons why it should have been gone years ago:

1. the track has already started melting. walking on it normally with boots will cause imprints. now you know why the annual national track and field championships changed their holding venue years ago.

2. the toilets are definitely the dirtiest in singapore. even dirtier than some portable toilets located at construction sites. even dirtier than MRT station toilets. and the water that comes out from the tap can be just 3 mm wide. it's that pathetic.

3. there are plenty of mosquitoes there. i believe it has the highest mosquito density in an urban area in Singapore. of cos the spectators during NDP may not feel it cos the mosquitoes have many options. but during one night when i was guarding the fun packs delivered there by my company, i thought i was in outfield.

if you dunno yet, 1st battalion singapore guards (or 1 GDS), the unit i'm in, is in charge of NDP 2006. that is assuming you know that SAF always organises NDP. of cos, one big event like this needs the help of other units too... armour, combat engineers, blah blah.

wondering what i did for NDP in what i term it as the 'Great NDP Saikang'? read on. (saikang is hokkien for 'fatigue work', which simply means the work behind-the-scenes)

it all started with the calling centre. we are supposed to call everyone in singapore who are successful in the ticket balloting. i had one weekend burnt because of this. actually, when informing the winners, we only know their NRIC number and the number of tickets they were allocated.

so wad happens next when we tell them they won tickets? we have to give them their tickets. so i became a person clad in red hang ten 'i-love-singapore' t-shirt sitting behind a counter giving them tickets. that had to be the best day of my NSF life since i get to enjoy air-con, work on a laptop, interact with civilians and eat at a japanese restaurant for dinner. heard that the set meal cost $18.50. too bad i only did this ticket collection thingy for one day only.

then some singaporeans decided to wait till the last minute to collect their tickets. so we had to call to remind them on the 2nd last day that the ticket collection will be over soon. i burnt a saturday because of this.

now comes the 'fun' part. we now need to pack fun packs for all 3 shows, namely the NE show for pri 5 students, the preview and the actual NDP itself. every company will take turns to pack fun packs every day, and the target to meet every day is 10000. my company was the only one to cross this mark every time we packed. while the other companies argue that the reason is bcos we have more people, i say it's because we concentrate on wad we do and not slack so much.

towards the preview and NDP, the logistics dept of HQ decided that we need to pack 13000 bags a day. and they are prepared to let you pack till night time as the bus will leave the warehouse at 9 pm. (we pack the bags in another camp in clementi) but of cos my company won't take that long to pack. we finished at around 4 plus and by 5.30 i was on the bus back to bedok camp. our OC (Officer Commanding, something like the principal of the company) promised us we could have a nights off all the way till 11.30 pm if we can meet the target everyday. a 'nights off' means you can book out to the civilian world and for people like me whose house is near my camp, i can even go home.

wad do i do during the shows then? i mentioned 3 shows: NE, preview and NDP.

for NE show: i was the Army Liaison Personnel (ALP) for edgefield primary in punggol. so i need to go to the school alone in my uniform and ensure every pri 5 student gets on the bus to go to stadium. i had teachers to help me of cos, so it's not that bad managing 11-year-olds. plus, at the stadium, i get to sit down and enjoy the show. however, i had to follow the buses back to the school itself after the show. since the entire country's pri 5 students are here, there were not enough buses and i waited till 11 pm when my school's name was called to board the bus.

for preview: i was attached to charlie company (my most hated company in the battalion, why i hate them so much is another story) to help them give out fun packs. sounds easy? it was definitely not the case as we had to constantly refill fun packs at the counters and the refilling rate was slow. the fun packs were stored in boxes of 12 and were quite far away from the counters. plus every fun pack contains 4 things that make it heavy: 1 bottle of distilled water, 1 bottle of newater, 1 Yeo's packet drink and 1 sports drink u've never heard before called Activade. while we are working our ass off refilling fun packs, you have our dear charlie company people just standing down there looking at us while they count the number of people that went past them using a pacer. u see, their OC is so good, assign the easy jobs to them, give the difficult jobs to us. dun tell people that the best soldier of the month came from that company.

for actual NDP: my platoon complained about doing too much work for preview so we were assigned much easier work this time. some of us manned pigeon holes. they are just the different entering points into the gallery of the stadium. we could only let the crowd enter at specific holes so we need to man them in case they take away the barricades or open the gates themselves. i was an usher in the gallery though. i was supposed to 'pack' or squeeze as many people on a bench by constantly reminding them to move in and put their fun packs on the floor or lap. however, my platoon sergeant decided not to do this and i became underused. so i slacked around and almost viewed the entire show too. except that before the fireworks, i had to give umbrellas to those sitting at the top few rows of the gallery in case they get hit by fireworks debris.

for all 3 shows, we ate KFC for dinner. sounds good but by the time i got the food, the oil from the chicken had already been absorbed so much by the paper box that the bottom part of the box can give way any time.

after every show, there were always saikang to do (moving barricades/leftover fun packs/keeping umbrellas blah blah) but of cos, my company always finishes so fast that we need to help other companies. as a result we can only go off at about 11 pm in our sweaty uniform. luckily i always share a taxi with 3 other people living in pasir ris... so the taxi fare is quite cheap.

*****

now that NDP is over, it's going to be normal training again... and of cos taking whatever fun packs that are left haha =)

procrastination

2005-11-20T15:15:00.000+08:00

got this via this blog, when i was blog hopping.

Procrastination

Procrastination is the avoidance and delaying of doing a task which needs to be done. This commonly involves feelings of guilt, inadequacy, self-disgust, stress and depression. In the long run, a person who procrastinates tends to be an underachiever who lacks confidence and self-esteem.

When faced with a daunting task, we sometimes try to disguise our avoidance of the task by keeping ourselves busy working at other tasks that simply do not contribute towards the main goal or important goal.

Why do people procrastinate?

Reasons vary but frequently, people procrastinate because they feel overwhelmed by the task at hand; sometimes, this might be due to their own perfectionist tendencies and unrealistic expectations. People who procrastinate spend time worrying about the task rather than actually working at it.

For some others, procrastination results from their inability to prioritise, difficulty in concentrating on a task or simply knowing they will be bored by the task. Others procrastinate because they are unsure of what the expected end result is.

To overcome procrastination:

* Make a list of everything that you have to do.
* Eliminate unimportant tasks.
* Rank the remaining ones in order of urgency/importance.
* Make your tasks meaningful (e.g. try to evaluate the importance of the task by considering the ways it affects your life or those around you).
* Consult others to find out more about what is expected of the task.
* Begin tackling the more urgent/important tasks first.
* Set realistic goals for yourself.
* Promise yourself a reward if your goal is achieved.
______________________________________

this really applies to me... especially the words in bold. =(

updates

2005-11-18T00:40:00.000+08:00

some "updates" (in no order of importance)...

#1: mediacorp finally did something right - inviting patty hou (the beautiful jay chou's girlfriend) to host the star awards, together with guo liang. of cos, the best part is, i still get to watch the show, 5 days before i enlist.

#2: 'A' levels are going to be over soon. just one main paper left which is the chem mcq. yay? i'll save that when i get my results, hopefully.

#3: apparently, the booking engine of golden village's website is down, which i think must be due to the vast number of people going online at the same time to book tickets for harry potter. then i used my handphone's GPRS to check... the 8 and 9.25 pm timeslots were sold out, and the 10.25 pm were selling fast. warning: this show is 157 min long... normal for a harry potter movie of cos. and for the first time, the omnimax theatre of the science centre will be showing the imax version of it for six months, starting from now.

#4: two new terms i came across about exams - being 'owned' by it when u think it is difficult, and dun want to "da bao" an exam. not so sure about the latter though...

signing off...

before gp

2005-11-10T21:22:00.000+08:00

there are just 29 days left to the start of my National Service/conscription (to sound GP-ish)/participation in military defence (total political correctness).

yes, i failed my napfa. so i would be in early. very sad case. sigh.

translating the above to sound GP-ish:

I would be entering the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) prematurely due to my failure to pass NAPFA, a fitness proficiency test. It is a cause for sorrow and despair that leads me to sigh at this predicament.

yes, it's my GP exam tomorrow. i just received a "happy christmas" card from my GP teacher Ms Kwan. it is square-shaped and it came in a red envelope. her name card was also attached, which i really dunno why, cos i have her handphone no. already. the name card is professional looking and nice though, and i had a first look at her credentials. 2 bachelor degrees from the US and one masters from NUS. wow.

although christmas is more than a month away, it's pleasant to know that Ms Kwan actually bothers preparing a card, writing a personal message, wishing you good luck, finding your address, writing it on an envelope and sending it to you. she teaches at least 3 classes, so she did that for at least 60 people. she's smart enough to send the cards through school though, so she didn't have to affix a stamp. (omg i actually notice this.)

she said she thinks i'm capable of scoring and i just need to keep in mind my time management. AH. an element of stress added. = i wouldn't like to disappoint her though.

i have already disappointed myself in my chinese A paper. as for the maths and chem papers, let's face it: A LEVEL IS NOT AS EASY AS IT SEEMS ANYMORE.

argh. i dun like exams.

wad my birthdate means

2005-11-06T17:06:00.000+08:00

Your Birthdate: September 28

You have a Type A personality so big it makes other Type A's shrink away in shame.
You never shy away from adversity - and you love to tackle impossible problems.
Failure is not an option for you, and more than a few people are put off by your ego.
You tend to be controlling, and you hate leaving anything up to chance.

Your strength: Your bold approach to life

Your weakness: You don't accept help

Your power color: Bronze

Your power symbol: Pyramid

Your power month: October

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Argh, why isn't the power month November?! Don't be surprised i carry a glass pyramid everywhere i go now. =P

the classic

2005-09-26T11:52:00.000+08:00

i just watched a korean movie called "The Classic". it stars Son Ye-jin, who will be appearing soon in the upcoming movie "April Snow". Son Ye-jin (of "Summer Scent" fame) is really a credible actress. it's a very very very nice movie, which made me cry due to the storyline and of course, the music. not many movies can make me cry to this extent, not even "My Sassy Girl" of which is also made by the same director. i must say this movie is better than many hollywood made romantic films... one of the most fantastic films i've ever watched. the background music was so nice, as always, characteristic of korean shows. i'm going to buy the OST tomorrow.

talking about movies, South Korea has been continuously producing many great movies. and of cos, many of them are of the romantic and love genre. while many people accuse them of being melodramatic, they no doubt are successful at causing a stir in your heart. plus, they are very marketable, sought after in asia and even in the US.

now look at love movies produced by local directors. 1st one that comes to your mind is perhaps "I Do I Do". i'll like to tell jack neo that no one is grieving about the fact that the movie wasn't sent in for nomination at the Golden Horse Awards. please lah, even raintree pictures knows it isn't film-fest material. i'm sure that the movie won't do well at all if not for its chinese new year screening, and also bcos people who can't get seats for other movies chose to watch this unwillingly. another movie recently of this genre is "Be With Me", directed by eric khoo which has won rave reviews at the Cannes Film Festival. finally, we have one movie that can be recognised internationally, although it is not of mainstream material.

it is definitely true then that singapore's movie industry is light years behind korea's, or maybe the rest of the world too.

time for some packing of my notes...

prelims aftermath I

2005-09-24T00:28:00.000+08:00

after a month long absence, i'm back. but that doesn't mean i abstained from my computer for that long. if i did, i'd be expecting 4As for my prelims. during this time, i was still surfing around the net, admiring the breathtaking ipod Nano, fantasising on the idea of owning one. so i discovered that i can actually buy it at the apple store online at a lower price, simply by clicking on the "education" section. and apple will deliver it to my doorstep for free. now i'm psycho-ing my mother to buy me one, saying that this student price will expire once JC life is over. but i must be quick, if not once the prelim results come out, erm... er... =X

maths: paper 1 was ok, and i thought paper 2 with a major part on statistics will be likewise. unfortunately, i was bloody wrong and so i kissed my 'A' goodbye. the pure maths section for paper 2 was pure evil, with traps everywhere. the 1st question on vectors which was supposed to be easy certainly wasted some of our time. and for the 1st time in my life, i thought i was going to give up on the iterative methods question. luckily i figured out it was the dy/dx graph in the end. as for statistics, which i'm not good at, the unconventional questions made me see stars. to think i was really seeing stars the night before, that is, when watching the Emmy awards.

chem: didn't finish studying it, just like in june. looks like i never will. i guess i must memorise some biochem and inorganic chem everyday from now on. for paper 3 (essay), chose the wrong organic deductive question and left an easy kinetics question blank. paper 2 was ok, except i still suck at chem equilibria, finding Kp blah blah. paper 1 (MCQ) was a rush, as always, but not so much tikam-ing like the next subject...

...physics: for the MCQ, i was choosing answers that looked like answers. and i always dun study much for physics, this time even worse for papers 1 & 2 as chem paper 3 on the previous afternoon tired me out. mr chan will be so furious to see these 2 papers. hopefully physics paper 3 can save me a little bit.

chinese: paper 1 was definitely ok, and the comprehension passage was something meaningful, unlike some others i did before which were difficult and more about whining about life. actually i think the paper was scaled down too much, due to... because... *ahem*. paper 2 was pure memory work, which i won't score that well cos i can't finish memorising. in all, both papers will be laughed at if they were circulated to other schools, like ajc/cjc/jjc/mjc/pjc/srjc and yes, even an ang moh school like acjc.

last and the very least, GP: wrote slightly more than usual for essay, but still can't finish. actually i didn't really have enough time to finish all my papers. darn. paper 2 was crap, and i'm proud to announce it was the most lousy compre i've ever done.

i just finished my last paper which was chem 'S' paper today. looks like u have to be really special in order to do such a paper. i'm hoping for a merit, but won't be surprised if a big fat 'U' for unclassified lands on my script.

however, i'm not exactly feeling overjoyed now that prelims are over. for me, i think one should only be happy after the exams when he's confident of scoring decent results, like a C for all subjects. also, now i think sleep is very important for every exam, even though there is always the reliable coffee to keep you awake.

but of cos i'm enjoying now, listening to fish leong's new album, finished watching the first episode of survivor: guatemala, waiting a few minutes more for LOST season 2 premiere, and awaiting for desperate housewives to air this sunday in the US.

lalala...

EARLY Superstar Results

2005-08-17T00:30:00.000+08:00

oh my bloody goodness! i can't believe that for this week's performance of 3 songs, that sin huey actually scored 40+ marks for all of them! 42/41.5/44 compared to kelly's 41/37/38... argh. looks like i must vote for kelly this time... CANNOT let that malaysian aunty win.

as for the male category, apparently both junyang and weilian didn't do that well in the first song with tempo/tune variations... they got 34.5 and 34 respectively. for the other 2 songs, weilian suffered kelly's fate... he came in lower at 37 and 40 compared to 43 and 44.5 for junyang... 44.5 is the highest score by a superstar contestant to date which is junyang's rendition of tong hua... looking forward to it. but i still support weilian...

back to studying for my maths and physics tests tomorrow, or rather, today...

2005-08-09T17:42:00.000+08:00

i'm back. not from any other place though, how i wish. i've been quite lazy nowadays... towards school work even. anyway, the national day parade is telecasted over mediacorp stations now. i just realised this is another great opportunity for mediacorp to showcase their artistes, just like the NKF charity shows. oops, i think i just said 3 bad words. anyway, this year there are so many places celebrating national day, as though S'pore very big liddat. tampines, jurong east, yishun, marina south, padang. but i still dun feel the national day spirit leh. especially since i even ponned the celebrations in school yesterday. how very patriotic of me.

ah, i just saw on tv some weird thing that people over there are putting in their mouth and sucking/pulling. and they are competing to see which place can make the most noise out of it.

i think i just found a reason to celebrate. who do u think set up the stage and chairs and such at the padang, which is supposed to be an empty field? NSmen lor. heng ah, since NDP is held at the padang only every 5 years, i confirm won't be doing such stuff in the next 2 years then. heard the poor people had to burn their saturdays setting up the stuff. oops that's another bad word. my GP teacher says cannot write "stuff", so maybe i should replace with "equipment".

who do u think in the audience feels the least enjoyable attending the NDP? the president of cos. he has to walk around inspecting the platoons, then stand in a pick-up truck moving around the stadium waving to the audience. very tiring to lift your arm up so long u know. his excellency will then sit in a tall brown chair for the rest of the evening. he doesn't have the goody bag, not even a small singapore flag to wave when he likes it, and the worst thing is, he doesn't have anyone to talk to. unlike his other PAP friends sitting together, with their goody bags, able to stand when the situation calls for it, for eg a kallang wave. one wonders why he still wants to run for another term of six years.

as for this year's national day song, it really sucks. cannot compare to those by kit chan, tanya chua and stef sun. the dance is even more 惨不忍睹... the song is so forgettable, even though it is constantly being played at every MRT station. maybe i can remember the long "aiiiiiiiiiiis" at the end of every verse in the chorus only.

let's reach out for the skkkkkkkyyys,
with wings we soar up hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh.

enough about national day. happy birthday singapore! i will talk about some other things now.

LOST and desperate housewives return to ABC this fall. just after my prelims. hooray! for LOST, we know that sawyer, jin and michael who fell off the raft are still alive. and i think the people from the tail section of the plane will be introduced soon. as for desperate housewives, looks like mike is indeed zach's father. poor Bree must be so sad after her husband's death. i wonder why john will be going to jail. bcos of the death of carlos' mother?

project superstar is coming to an end soon. for the girls, it's obvious i want kelly to win. she sings well, and her overall stage presence can be felt. but the outcome for the guys is much more difficult to predict. while jason is finally out, the next to be out may not be weilian. although i still support him, his singing skills just do not improve... still got heavy 鼻音. he should have many supporters, maybe not as much as derrick, but who knows whose financial power is greater? cannot forget jun yang who has consistently been doing well too.

more later... i want to watch NDP now. but not forgetting to switch over to another channel when rui en and taufik sings.

2005-07-18T17:07:00.000+08:00

i just had my chinese listening compre which started at 3 pm but the school told us to report at 2.15 pm. during the very long wait, i almost fell asleep, and heard so many times of "Symphony 92.4. good music, good life".

just 15 min before that, i realised i wasn't wearing the full school uniform. the disadvantage of the polo tee being the official school uniform but not that official to be worn during major exams. so i called my chinese teacher who told me to go to the students' council to borrow the green uniform. ah-ha! for once, having a SC has a USE.

ms wong loves to have impromptu remedials. this is not the first time already. i have had enough of it. so she intends to make this weekly. looks like it will be a late lunch for me every monday from now onwards. *pukez*

the new VP is getting lame. last wednesday, he said every verse of the school song as it is being played, just before every verse was sang, as he noticed we are not singing loudly enough and he attributed that to us being not familiar with the lyrics. today, in an attempt to promote the blood donation drive this wednesday, he asked 3 questions with the 3rd one being "what is a replacement for blood in the body?" obviously the answer is no. he had to inform us it was a trick question. i wonder how many were actually tricked.

i'm not having enough sleep nowadays... 0_0

oral yeah

2005-07-14T16:21:00.000+08:00

i just took my chinese oral in school... ms wong doesn't seem to believe i still need to take oral. haha, it's not AO chinese leh, it's chinese A. the conversation topic was about having water sports in reservoirs... not too difficult for me. good luck to the girls taking the oral tomorrow.

let me reply to my tag-board here:

to ben: our chem not many topics actually, even considered "few" to our tutors... talking about pathetic results, for chem this time, you need just 35% to get an E. i didn't do too well also, due to lack of preparation.

to hongzhou: RC stands for revolutionary committee. a self-formed one in CO, haha, u get the idea lah.

project superstar was ok yesterday, but i dunno how that wei choong could get so high marks. guess i can't really judge singing... but i agree with the comments by the judges for the rest of them. wei lian must jiayou ok! hope he gets in today. he's the only one without a singing coach at all among all the contestants.

the NKF scandal is so exciting. so stupid of NKF to fight a lawsuit with SPH since the latter won't lose much. it's singapore's national newspaper with 160 years of history leh, can't expect it to shut down even if SPH loses. too bad it ended so soon. if not there will be more front page news on zaobao. i can't wait to see how much money it can actually garner when their cancer show no. 3 airs tonight. someone should tell the singers performing today about NKF's dark secrets.

just like in desperate housewives when carlos was arrested and had his bank accounts frozen, everyone loves a scandal when the high and mighty fall, especially when they commit acts that are so not respected. in this case, i wonder how long that indian man can stay at the top. but u never know, some people's face may be so very thick.

some updates about the school:

1. we have a new VP. wad's his name again? but i like his voice. haha, looks like he wants to follow the style of mrs lim the P, telling us some stories with values for us to think about it.

2. the bookshop doesn't sell sweets and chips and biscuits anymore. but the vending machine is still there, selling at a higher price. wtf. and apparently the western food stall has closed. that's the stall that sold the most edible food in tj leh... i think it has got to do the OM. someone should define a job scope for him. why does he poke his nose into everything? so concerned about us eating unhealthy food? that would be the greatest joke on Earth since 7-eleven and a hawker centre in just across the street. one day i shall buy a hash brown and eat it in front of the OM in the canteen.

school's getting so boring. nothing to look forward to. can't possibly look forward to the prelims right?

com spoilt again

2005-07-10T14:45:00.000+08:00

i'm blogging from tampines library now cos my computer broke down again. looks like my com must break down every half a year or so. and it's always due to hardware problems. the last time, the motherboard "burnt". my mother is now speculating that the technician had put in inferior parts into the CPU and cheating me by saying they were of high quality.

for this time, windows can't boot and i'm hearing weird sounds from the CPU... which i think may be a fan problem. argh. no more LOST for me temporarily.

***

i haven't got back my chinese results, not that i'm anticipating good results. she has only EIGHT scripts to mark leh, not like some other maths and science teachers who have more than 80 scripts to mark. of cos i know she has some year 1 AO chinese scripts to mark too, but she's simply taking too looooong.

***

i wonder if i should just abandon biochem for food chem. the tutor is going so freaking fast! looks like he just wants to have a "sense of accomplishment" when he finishes all biochem lectures before the food chem people. haiz, no choice lor, 90% of the biochem people take bio. maybe i should just stop typing here and go read my biochem notes now.

***

project superstar is going from good to bad to worse. the voting i mean. all the people with good singing are not being voted in! worse still, if the others that didn't deserve to get in were based on their looks, then i'm still ok with it. but look at the 2 girls that got in. hope that kelly poon and derrick can get back in during the revival round.

***

i saw the big VJC banner when i was returning from tuition yesterday having this slogan to promote their IP, or VIP to be exact: "the grass is greener on our side". hmm... it's rather provocative, and somehow i feel that it is directly aimed at tj, haha... but anyway tj has more grass lah...

i better sign off now since the library charges $0.05 a minute...

aftermath

2005-07-06T23:16:00.000+08:00

i was late for school today due to buses 12 and 38 not coming on time at tanah merah. nobody saw the need to take a taxi although there's a high possibility of being late. f tong suggests we wake half an hour earlier to come to school on time. if he thinks i'm going to sacrifice my sleep and consequently lose my concentration for the entire day's lessons, then he's out of his mind.

i got back physics and maths results today.

physics: O (hopefully)
maths: A

heard from mr chan that the entire cohort is not doing well for physics. and i can tell he's almost giving up on our class as he tried giving us remedials and his summaries but no significant effect was shown. as for maths, since the paper was easy, every single thing we wrote or did not write was scrutinised and penalised. although i dun consider mr ho being that strict.

rumours about chemistry suggested that 50+ marks can earn you an A grade. the effect of not having MCQ in a paper... i should be knowing this tomorrow. i wonder when i'll receive my chinese results, since i will not have lessons for 2 weeks as they are all in the afternoon when my teacher has to be an oral examiner in some other school. am i supposed to wait for her sms to go and find her, or just directly find her myself? in any way, the results won't be good...

there was mass civics today about "dating". we were shown an episode of "get rea!", about some teenagers having jaw-dropping views about sex, and how they found their prey, or worse, how they became the prey willingly. one 14 year old girl called sophia had sex with about 50 partners already, and each time she writes their particulars in a little black book. haha, i immediately thought of desperate housewives, where maisy gibbons the neighbourhood prostitute also kept a little black book listing names of all her clients. well, i dun think sophia has watched desperate housewives, cos she seems very desperate in her life already...

extended holiday

2005-07-05T23:01:00.000+08:00

Yesterday

an outing to sentosa with the RC people, also known as the cello and bass people. dun ask me how i became part of the RC since i'm from percussion. haha, anyway we met at harbourfront mrt to take the sentosa bus there. there were many groups of teenagers already there, including a group of 10/04 people. i think there were other TJ people as well as other JCs people. so i bought the potato chips and biscuits i was supposed to buy at cold storage before meeting them.

we were the last group to leave the station since timothy was quite late and we were talking about having to squeeze into the beach since many people are there already. but then we still found a spot under the shade of the trees on siloso beach to put our bags, before shifting to a more reliable shelter. the long stretch of beach didn't look packed at all.

we ate the egg and tuna sandwiches the girls made and then we realised why nobody brought drinks. totally forgot about that.

qingyun brought a volleyball and they planned to play the game but we really CMI cos we couldn't manage to pass the ball more than 3 times, even without a net. so say yong and i just went to soak in the water, which is very salty. we talked a bit before going up again, this time knowing they improved to a maximun of 4 passes. haha. so we headed for the waters again, this time with yonglin. there were some vj people playing ball beside us.

we headed back to the beach and found that the "volleyball" game had stopped and those people were about to go into the waters. so say yong suggested captain's ball, but only after we find 2 chairs. in the end we managed to find the chairs and played, without a few people as they went to buy water for us. i heard some vj choir people singing around us while being the catcher... should be year ones i think. the game continued until we decided to rest, waiting for the water people to come back. however, we didn't look after our chairs and one of them got stolen again.

the water people came back but we were still without a chair, so we sat around telling lame jokes, asking lame questions when we spotted where our chair had gone to: an indian woman was sitting on it by the beach. she left a while later and we got back our chair, and played captain's ball, this time round all 12 of us played except chanel who was already bathed and cleaned as she couldn't stand the sea water on her.

it was an enjoyable game... for the first time i felt myself really playing, but it had to come to an end as we have to bathe and go for dinner. it was a long wait for the girls to finish bathing as there was a long queue.

finally we ended up at sakae sushi, also on siloso beach for dinner. i waited extremely long for my bento... it's not as if the entire restaurant was packed lor, there were only the group of us plus 2 more tables. the waiter said my bento is coming behind me (the kitchen is behind me) when he served some of the others' orders. 15 minutes later, he came back again to serve some more orders, still without mine, and still the same comment: it's coming behind me. so i remarked, "is it 100 metres or 1 kilometre behind?" haha.

we left the place after paying, and were delighted to know that there's a 10% off. my food wasn't too nice actually. the beef was hard to chew. next time must order fool-proof stuff like chicken. confirm can eat without problems.

we were the last to leave the mrt station in the morning, and so we were the last to reach it at night too. so we went home, happy but tired. how very cliched indeed.

Today

my mother and i went to orchard to spend my $100 royal sporting house voucher which i got from singtel last year for signing 3 years of 1500k unlimited broadband with them. which is quite a stupid decision of mine as i have to pay $65 a month! currently the new offer is $58, and i think starhub's cable plan also cheaper.

anyway, i got an adidas shorts and nike tee and socks. it's the "stadium" shop at takashimaya... quite a large one compared to the shops u find in other shopping centres. then we walked around, ate the venetia ice cream before going back to tampines for my mother to collect her new specs.

my mother's new specs had "progressive" lenses, meaning it corrects short-sightedness with another condition called presbyopia, an age-related disease, called lao hua in chinese. different parts of the lens are used for different purposes, e.g. the upper part is to see things far away and the lower portion is to see things up close, like reading.

after collecting the specs we went to cafe cartel for dinner. it's my mother's first time there, and she found her black pepper fish pasta nice. i tried the texas rodeo pork ribs... very full lor. i also applied a student's privilege card which is free for $30 spent in a single receipt. the card has 3 designs for you to choose from and entitles you to 10% discount.

on another note, i suddenly find Huang Yi Da's songs nice. plus the newcomer, Tong En, sings with a unique voice and her songs are also very nice... currently listening to "shi qu"...

JCT - it's over!

2005-07-02T23:54:00.000+08:00

my june common tests were over only yesterday, unlike 771 other year 2s who ended their ordeal after thursday's maths paper. somehow HCL and CLA people are the only unfortunate people taking their last paper on friday. the parade square looked so empty with so few year 2s... haha. here's my analysis of how i did for my papers:

1. physics - the gone case paper, as i thought electricity is surely going to come out for the essay questions section but sadly gravitation and electric field/capacitance came out. i almost know nothing about gravitation, so in the end just did the capacitance section. luckily ideal gas was tested, as my physics teacher was the setter, so i studied his wonderfully prepared notes and his question was the most complete question i done for the whole paper! structured questions were difficult, so i left many parts blank. the data analysis question was so creative, got some sort of topo map and tsunami questions to answer, almost like a geog question on first look.

2. GP - another gone case paper, wrote the "teach less, learn more" question for essay, but as usual i was sloooow and wrote quite little with not very substantial points. i am praying hard for 20 marks. argh... compre paper was about privacy and such, this time i wrote a bit more for AP than usual, at the expense of the short questions. but vocab was quite ok for me. hope my GP grade won't get a E8 or it's tea with lim lai cheng.

3. chemistry - i thought not having a mcq section in the paper was a rumour but it came true! some people claimed it was announced during lectures but i just didn't hear it. so it was structured questions plus essay questions for the entire paper... left the biochem option question blank (10 marks!), but i was prepared to give up that anyway since i didn't study much on it. not a very well done paper in general.

4. maths - the paper that i believe was the saviour for many people. pure maths questions were laughably easy, only the statistics questions were a bit more challenging. in the end the normal approximation to binomial/poisson didn't even come out. aiming for an A, though i am counting how many marks are deducted now.

5. chinese A - a supposedly easy paper if you memorise well. i was planning to study overnight to cram whatever i can into my brain but i fell asleep halfway! i managed to stay completely awake to the morning before the physics and chem papers... guess i was too tired by the end of the week... in the end i couldn't write much... i think 40+ marks only... haiz, from a possible A drop to O or even F.

anyway, on a happier note, next tuesday will also be a school holiday for tjcians to celebrate the basketball win last term. good time for me to be refreshed properly before another school term.

i watched war of the worlds yesterday after the chinese paper with the lyes. the movie looked very real and kept me intriged from start till the end... definitely worth the 4-star recommendations from both straits times and zaobao.

to those who think that all hope is gone after JCT, don't fret. perhaps you can ask yourselves what has gone wrong, and how u can avoid that from happening again. or at least i am trying to do that. ha =P.

back to LOST...

SYF photo

2005-06-23T01:21:00.000+08:00

nice photo... this time there's even a photo collection CD... many shots of us performing... just like a photo album. view it here. i must order it. but quite expensive leh... $14 for A4 size.

the feeling of getting a gold this SYF is vastly different from the previous outing. we left SCH dejected this time, in contrast to SYF 2003 when we were jubilant. xuguang and daniel should know this very well.

somehow i think lion looks happier here:

do u think so? =)

this photo looks cute:

wonder what they were singing at that time...

more surveys please

2005-06-22T01:16:00.000+08:00

i was attending tuition today when my tutor asked us to complete a survey for him... initially we thought it was just about what we think about him, how he teach, the usual stuff. but after questioning further, he was just helping one of his year one students from a jc near where we were (east region of cos) do his/her PW survey... the immediate response from the class was "anyhow do lah", and jee shiang was saying how PW survey results can be faked easily, according to what you 'want'... haha.

so the survey was about playing in an arcade. i seldom step into an arcade... so actually i can't really give my best opinions about it. i can, or u can say, everyone can comment on the survey structure/format though. the survey just started with an 'objective'... without introducing who the surveyors are, what is it for (PW), and worse of all, didn't even thank me for doing the survey. i was laughing away while doing the survey as everyone was scrutinising it, to the extent of nitpicking, and they were openly criticising it. however, besides the above bad point, there were many others:

1. one of the questions required us to tick... but where are the boxes? okay, maybe we can tick anywhere but why were there brackets provided, like every other MCQ?

2. the last two questions were free response ones, so lines were provided for us to write... but alternate lines are incompletely drawn... example:

_______________________________________________________________
_
_______________________________________________________________
_
_______________________________________________________________

hello? can't even draw a proper line using microsoft word? ancient inventions like a pen and ruler can assist you too.

3. no questions were asked about me. i suppose age and gender are important to determine whether one goes to an arcade once a week, or 6 to 7 times a week, as indicated in one of the options.

4. one MJC girl was saying that she chose the option 'no' to a series of questions simply because she doesn't go to the arcade. u cannot blame her, since this survey didn't take into consideration of the people who dun visit an arcade at all.

5. grammar problems. aiyoh, i circled that error and wrote on top of it, "GP fail, ah?"

at the end of the survey, i wrote this in the suggestions section: "All the best to your PW with a survey like that. Yeah." at least i wrote this in pencil ok. my friend wrote his comments using a highlighter. really ah, this survey seems more like a draft to me. wonder wad the supervising tutor was thinking or doing when checking this survey. worse come to worse, he/she might have done nothing. =P

on another note, JCT is coming in less that one weeks time! argh... i have many more topics to go... bye!

the two Rs

2005-06-21T01:12:00.001+08:00

You Were Actually Born Under:

Delicate, timid, and attractive - sometimes you really do act like a bunny.
You're very compassionate and protective of those you love, sometimes too protective.
Your home is really your castle, and you make sure your home is comfortable and well furnished.
You don't like to argue - and you prefer a quiet, peaceful life.

You are most compatible with a Goat or a Pig.

You Should Have Been Born Under:

Resourceful and practical, you are a quick thinker.
You are very observant - and it's hard to get anything past you!
A total perfectionist, you are especially picky about looking your best.
You're a big dreamer - such a big dreamer that reality can disappoint you.

You are most compatible with an Ox or Snake.

What Year Were You Born Under?

the end of...

2005-05-31T12:45:00.000+08:00

you know, i'm glad blogger doesn't work like hotmail. else this blog may have been deactivated already. it's more than a month since i last posted.

during this period of time, many things happened. it has been the end of...

1. SYF, although we didn't manage to clinch what we wanted - the gold with honours. therefore it was so unhonourable that we didn't dare announce we got a gold during assembly. so nothing was mentioned about it at all and i really hate that. it's like our work wasn't recognised.

then again, we did our best, so there's no point wallowing in self-pity but to continue to work towards our CONCERT. (later in this post)

2. Lv Yuan by CCC, a tj chinese drama production featuring ye xian in one of the plays... his acting was great! all 3 plays had sad themes in them, although certain parts are not quite understandable... so i had to consult yx for explanation of some scenes after the show... but i enjoyed the entire show very much... kudos to jodi and her team for their hard work.

3. The Amazing Race 7, in which uchenna and joyce won. luckily they didn't lose just because of not having enough cab fare. romber lost, thankfully, anyway they won a million dollars before already in Survivor: All Stars. plus, they had a televised wedding on CBS on 24th may... which about makes them the hottest reality tv couple currently.

4. Survivor 10, in which Tom won as expected. Ian was quite silly to just give up the chance to be the final two to katie... if not he could have stood a good chance to be the sole survivor. at 41 years old and still being so strong, Tom rightfully deserves to win this game and i think the New York fire department is definitely proud to have him as a fireman and possibly, a spokesman... haha

5. Desperate Housewives, which ended in the US on 22nd may... of cos s'pore won't show the finale (episode 23) till a few weeks later... u have to resort to high-tech means to watch it now... which i already did. =) it was a cliffhanger and i can hardly wait for season 2 this fall. of cos, thanks to benjamin who recommended this wonderful show...

6. Basketball finals, an event that the tjc basketball (boys) team has never went in for the last 15 years and a champions trophy that the school last got 20 years ago. the principal mobilised the whole school down to toa payoh to cheer them on, perhaps learning her lesson of sending not many classes to support the volleyball finals some time ago and hence losing the title. the basketball finals were exciting, especially in the last minute when tj and hci were in a tie but tj subsequently scored 8 points within a flash to win the title! i didn't watch the entire match though, thanks to our beloved (pui!) SC's wonderful arrangement of boarding buses on a first come first served basis (chiong ah!), exemplifying singaporeans' typical kiasu spirit, and some say tjc's too. anyway, it was the first time so many tjcians went to somewhere to support the school, something so familiar for me since u get to support VS every year during x-country and track finals.

7. The New Paper Big Walk, an event which i participated for the first time in my life. i went with wy, hc, rachel and cy. oops, not forgetting balloon man (or, uncle) leonard. we didn't start the walk at 7.30 am but bought some foodstuff and drinks before we began the frantic rush to complete the walk by 11 am so that we could still eat mcdonald's breakfast meals. we didn't eat in the end though...

8. AJBand&CO concert - Rhapsody II, held at the esplanade. i must say the school really supports them by having a concert at esplanade again this year. quite a nice concert, although their band's standard is a silver only. there was not one, but two pieces featuring collaborations between the CO and band, which were interesting to hear.

to be continued in the next post...

2005-04-18T21:25:00.000+08:00

argh, i just had a big fight with my mother over that piece of paper. she's still not satisfied.

and i still hate that aunty.

it sucks...

2005-04-16T22:27:00.000+08:00

i forgot to thank some people for PW yesterday, so here goes:

1. jodi - for being an excellent leader who kept us focussed throughout the project and never fails to encourage us when we are too sian...
2. wanyi - for typing most of the minutes and also your superb IT skills,
3. chen yu - for being entertaining? haha...
4. organic paradise store owner - yes uncle, we've made it! doing a project on organic food can score... will drop by your store next time with my mother to buy organic food.
5. "rainbow" lady - for accepting an interview with us, although it was a long trip to lim chu kang... hope you manage to break even.
6. USDA foreign agricultural service - muahaha for being the most quoted organisation during the project!

and last but not least...

7. our PW supervising tutors - even though ms ho didn't see us getting a band one, her comments were still valuable... plus ms rabi'ah, for being a friendlier alternative to ms ho... haha

today, i went to kbox with 2 friends who are rather lost in love. =P i must thank them for accomodating to singing at marine parade, cos i have to go tuition after that. the songs they picked are all about love which sounds rather sad... i should have picked some of F.I.R's songs for them as they are always so full of hope... but there is one song in their new album that may be most relevant to them, called "死心的理由"... oops, dun beat me... but i forgot to pick "waiting for you" by hu yan bin, a nice song that should reflect what their hearts are thinking...

i must get that book. no matter what.

sports day & PW results

2005-04-15T23:02:00.000+08:00

it was supposed to be a short day today but there was sports day which i obediently stayed for.

before that, during maths tutorial, we were informed that cecil ang will be relieving mr ho for maths for the whole of next week... oh my, it's time to do my maths tutorials then. he was in our class on tuesday, sitting at the back of the classroom. i thought he was assessing mr ho but come to think of it, mr ho is so experienced, still need another teacher to assess him meh? so u see, he was here to assess us.

lessons ended after chem lecture at 12 noon. i quickly rushed to my civics classroom for the much awaited PW results, and surprisingly, i got a band one. in fact, the whole group got band one. looks like the OP Q&A didn't do much harm to both jodi and me after all. i think our class did quite ok, with majority in band 2. dunno how the school did generally... i really wonder how vjc can achieve 60% band 1 and 99% band 1 & 2 grades...

then it's the annual sports day... just like last year the most entertaining events in sports day are the cheerleading competition and taekwondo performance. this year, however, was more interesting due to sizzling comments from ms norsheha.

i thought alpha house would win the best cheerleading award cos they performed many risky stunts, throwing and turning in mid-air. but they only got a 1st runner-up, and surprise surprise, delta won it. they really dunno how to "fen zhu rou"... cos my house will be winning both the girls and boys overall champion so they should give other houses at least this award. maybe the judges (who?) find that cheerleading should not be stunts galore, but some real cheering indeed.

after that, the teachers had a fish and chips treat. tjc teachers are always having something to eat. they had a lunch buffet treat on wednesday, and shortly before their fish and chips, was the sports day reception. their welfare is so good...

during the sports day, we were also informed that our dance club won Gold with Honours at the SYF. i wonder if all the cultural groups in tj can achieve that...

medical check-up

2005-04-14T21:57:00.000+08:00

i didn't go to school today because of the NS medical check-up... i did not choose this date but CMPB chose it for me. for more information, click here. it's good actually since i get to miss PE and the weekly marathon chem tutorial.

you get to see all kinds of people during the check-up. it's the first time since sec 3 i got to see so many ethnic people together. yes, even during my VS days, there are only 3 of them in my class. there were also people with dyed hair, most probably from polytechnics and also people wearing their PE t-shirts proudly from the JC-next-door and of cos, the premier junior college in the bishan-ang mo kio area.

i saw some familiar faces too, one Rj guy from my chem tuition class, 3 Tj guys including one that dedicated a song to hL during friendship day... and also one from VSCO now in Aj.

somehow i think that after leaving the registration counter and entering the check up area, they are 2 different worlds altogether. the reg counter has some polite female staff u see at banks, but the check up area is dominated by the NSmen. some of them are friendly but some are really sick and tired of repeating their instructions to different groups of people that they say things so fast and u may not catch it sometimes. things get a little bit informal as you hear latest F.I.R songs coming from the computer and also fm 88.3, the chinese radio station managed by SAF.

for me, i waited a while to check my eye, then tested my hearing, proceeded to the "lab" for urine testing and blood taking, checked my teeth in less than a minute, then waited for another while cos they mixed up my file with the later people. after that i went to take chest x-ray before going for the final real medical check up, where the infamous "coughing" test is conducted. that's not the end yet, still got the mapas test which have questions on maths, physics and patterns for me to solve. that took a long time too.

after 5 hours, i'm finally out of there... got a pes B =)

quote of yesterday: "for college for nation" by mr chan

it's not the end, not even the beginning, that's why u're called a pre-enlistee.

old soul

2005-04-10T23:06:00.000+08:00

You Are an Old Soul

You are an experience soul who appreciates tradition.
Mellow and wise, you like to be with others but also to be alone.
Down to earth, you are sensible and impatient.
A creature of habit, it takes you a while to warm up to new people.

You hate injustice, and you're very protective of family and friends
A bit demanding, you expect proper behavior from others.
Extremely independent you don't mind living or being alone.
But when you find love, you tend to want marriage right away.

Souls you are most compatible with: Warrior Soul and Visionary Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?

aiyoh, i'm an old soul. just like someone who said i am a lao ah pek, what. =)

tired

2005-04-09T15:45:00.000+08:00

突然累了

曲：林俊杰
词：林秋离

吃饭吃到睡了我开车开到傻了我看书看到你了开始怀疑我怎么了说话说到吐了我写歌写到疯了我爱你爱到盲了天知道我又怎么了不舍得舍不得都分手了舍不得不舍得散了(爱是你的我是我的完了) 原来我只是突然累了原来我不说了原来我撑着撑到麻了原来我不爱了

i am feeling so tired.

here's a quote from desperate housewives i just watched after downloading:

"Competition. It means different things to different people. But whether it's a friendly rivalry, or a fight to the death, the end result is the same: there will be winners, and there will be losers. Of course the trick is, to know which battles to fight. You see, no victory comes without a price."

it's time to buck up.

follow-ups

2005-04-06T21:27:00.000+08:00

oh, thanks for that person who agrees with me in that tag.

i feel that a blog is a place for you to rant, so that after ranting, you may feel better. then life goes on. u sometimes look back at your entry and say, wow, was I that angry? u may even regret what you said, but that is what makes a blog 'real'. you can't be always so goody and tell people your life is wonderful and you are doing fine.

i've added a disclaimer on the right...

2005-04-03T11:11:00.000+08:00

i just saw this typing test on weiliang's blog, so i decided to test how fast i can type. here are the results:

Number of words typed: 142
Test duration: 3 min
Speed: 47.3 words/min. (236 keystrokes/min.)
Error penalty: 0
Accuracy: 100.0%"

actually, i could have typed faster if i didn't amend my errors as i was typing. weiliang can type 77.2 words per min... wow. he has some errors of cos. i still looked at some keys while typing, but it was minimal and actually i'm quite pleased with this speed of mine. i know a friend who can type very fast: wanyi. i discovered this during PW last year and i'm sure this is one of the reasons why she was able to produce so many minutes of meetings.

a funny thing just happened. 3 days ago, a friend of my mother's called but my mother was in the toilet. as i do not have caller-id at home, my mother wasn't able to return the call. yesterday, she called again and my mother was also in the toilet. just now, she called and thankfully this time, my mother just got out of the toilet. i was laughing away and the caller must have thought i just got crazy. the moral of the story: put phones in every toilet u have, or install caller-id, a 20th century invention that i still dun have.

ka yan called me yesterday and asked whether CO has chimes... well, of cos we don't. that's an instrument used in western percussion, not commonly found in CO pieces. it's funny cos her conductor found their chimes a bit too old and suggested to borrow another one from CO, but CO does not have one and is planning to borrow from them cos we need it for one of our songs. here's a picture of chimes:

2005-04-02T23:54:00.000+08:00

it's the end of week 2 which means it's 8 weeks to the holidays. of cos, many things will happen in these 8 weeks, things that will hopefully go in the right direction.

in the past week:

Wednesday
mr chan reminded us it was the last physics practical of the year. or as he predicts, the last physics practical of our life. ooh, he can really foresee we won't have anything to do with physics in our future. we'll see, since it's too early to say anything.

i made more errors than usual during CO and lion is obviously not pleased. he now focuses on the set piece and choice piece only, putting concert songs at the side first. at the end of the practice, he made his speech again, saying the same things again, we're better in quality than ajco but not as united as them, we can do it if we want to, it's our last chance to compete in a CO competition not we should not leave any regrets, blah blah. he also mentioned that there'll be a cash prize if we win. wow...

Thursday
it's games again for group PE today so i joined 28/04 in playing tennis. of cos we can't play it too well, but it's one of the rare opportunites to play, so i just tried. somehow, someone did not have a racket and another person gave up his racket to him. oops, i was beginning to think that i may be at fault for joining them since there are not enough rackets or something or they didn't count me in. he seems rather pissed about not playing so i gave it up to him halfway but he refused. the situation didn't seem to be right but luckily after the game, koon hwee clarified with me that they did count me in and it was another person in their class that took the racket without telling. phew...

aunty asked us to go to the Scope to see the "one night stand" exhibition. haha, it's actually called "yi ye qing", with the "ye" actually meaning "leaf, not "night". i've always wanted to see the exhibition since some of my classmates' works are in it too. coincidentally, wanyi and yilin were in charge of looking after the place during that period. it's my first time inside the Scope, and clearly a lot of hard work was put into some of the works.

Friday
i did some meaningful stuff today... it's CIP time and we went to Lions Home for the Elderly, just a bus stop away from tj. we cleaned the windows and grilles while a few interacted with the senior citizens. we were supposed to stay for only 1.5 hours but we took a longer time to complete our tasks. i wonder how different that place is compared to a private nursing home.

Today
i ate Scoopz ice cream at parkway after tuition today... although i couldn't find the avocado flavour that daniel recommended, i still enjoyed my cup of mocha and durian ice cream. my mother will love this better than the ice cream at Venetia cos there is milk/cream in the ingredients. too bad i can't bring some for her home.

i also bought lin junjie's 3rd album at sembawang music for only $14.90. the price was so unbelievable that i even looked carefully to see whether it's the china or taiwan version. it's the taiwan version! and best of all, it has a bonus track specially for albums sold in singapore. looks like they really want to discourage people from buying the china version.

new blog song: "no. 89757" by lin junjie

earthquake!

2005-03-29T01:40:00.000+08:00

AHH!!! WHY AM I FEELING GIDDY? IS THE BUILDING MOVING? AHH!!!

oh, so it's the first time i am experiencing tremors from the earthquake at Sumatra. it's really not a nice feeling lor... argh. serves me right for not sleeping early... *yawns*

short post

2005-03-28T20:55:00.000+08:00

oooh, i can actually blog 2 days consecutively. actually i wanted to cover the previous post's bad content... haha.

there's mass PE and we had circuit training... or is it lap training? these professional terms and a super unfit person like me dun go well together (ahh! get away from me!). it's just basically running six rounds, resting 1 minute in between. in the end, we were told that we were supposed to run faster than our normal 2.4 timing. *shudder*

hmm perhaps that was the only thing worth blogging about today. before i forget, i must say mr cheng is a very good chem teacher. it's funny that he lectured chemical bonding only in the entire chem syllabus taught till now...

i'm going to watch desperate housewives later... haha since the heart-wrenching korean drama Glass Shoes has ended... =(

CO tomorrow, mr shen has left with SCO to perform in europe, dunno whether can self-practise or not... i think lion will just make it a da zu...

rants

2005-03-27T18:40:00.000+08:00

how did you spend the long weekend? as usual, most of it is wasted for me. if i can slack for the entire march holidays, 3 days is nothing to me.

i wanted to watch The Eye 10 with the lyes on good friday but sadly i have to attend my tuition which was supposed to be on saturday. i really dunno why mr chong had to change it, not as if it was an extra lesson. but i still watched the movie on saturday, and it was really a hilarious horror movie. wait a minute, did the "scary movie" series pop up in your mind?

the march results, or rather, report will be coming out soon. i just known some data on thursday: i got F for physics, 38% is the E grade for chem but 400+ people failed. here's a reminder for tj students: we still have to meet the criteria of 1A/2AO passes (even worse for me as i'm taking 4 subs).

in addition i also knew of my chinese grade during chinese class. i got an E... a huge drop from B last year. my chinese teacher is of cos very helpful to announce to the whole class that my results dipped. at the same time, she gave me back a very recent test 2 days ago which i scored 37/40, definitely one of the highest in the class, but she spoke NOTHING of it.

argh, i need to cool off now...

the end of holidays

2005-03-20T22:52:00.000+08:00

the march holidays have come to an END. darn darn darn. i didn't do much studying at all, not even start reading my Death Note 5. but that's because i'm still at the fourth one, haha. so wad did i do during the past week?

monday - shopped around with my mother and watched Hitch with her. bad choice of movie. it really wasn't that funny, u can almost fall asleep during the middle part of the show. even Million Dollar Baby, the oscar best picture which is supposed to be more artsy and boring was more interesting. worse still, it's the first movie my mother has seen since last year's The Best Bet.

tuesday - went to school early for library duties... and learnt that mrs hoo the vice-principal will be leaving soon from the ever resourceful (read: ba gua) library man. it's always like this: VPs will leave the school sooner or later for a "leaders in education" course and before u know it, they will be principals of another school. the library man also pointed out that she has studied too much already since she's a harvard graduate.

then it was CO sectional with mr shen till 6 pm. there was supposed to be games after that but i decided to pon cos it was clearly stated in my sms the practice was until 6, not 7.30. please lah, holidays still want to stay in school till so late?

wednesday - CO again, this time for a longer period from 1.30 to 6 pm. but it was more of slacking for us during the self practice session. that's a huge contrast with ajco.

thursday - it's the 20/04 outing with only 8 people to marina bay to eat bbq steamboat. i guess everyone is just too busy during this short one week holiday. we were the first ones eating there at about 5 pm cos lianwei had syo practice. the food was ok though the beef sucked.

there's nothing to blog about friday and the weekend cos they were more of slacking days...

starting from tomorrow is land mass PE, consisting of running, push ups and more push ups. there's even a make-up chemistry lecture until 6pm tomorrow... argh i still have a chinese test on tuesday. one happy thing to note is that there's no sectional practice on tuesday as mr shen has to follow SCO for their europe concert tour and i can go home early at 3 pm. not very early, but it's better than having maths S last time till 5.15.

notice that i'm even blogging about the new week... haha no time to blog on weekdays lah, until i figure out a way to blog on my handphone, despite hefty gprs charges... =P

where are the freebies?

2005-03-13T01:13:00.000+08:00

i realised at about 1+ pm today while reading zaobao that NUS open house is being held today... damn. excuse me for that expletive. yes, 'damn' is considered an expletive to me, haha. of cos i can still go there at that time, since it's until 7 pm. but i have already missed the engineering and university scholars programme talks. even though they are repeated in the afternoon, i can't go cos i have tuition.

i think every jc student wants a place in a local university in the least. but dun be fooled by the Times report published last year that said NUS is ranked 10th in the world. i seriously dun think so. it can't be ranked higher than some prestigious university in the US...

2005-03-10T21:57:00.000+08:00

hmm... i haven't updated in a long time... this is only my first post in March, but then again, i dun have much postings anyway.

i'll start from last friday, when the A level results are released. tjc really did well in terms of percentage distinctions, with percentage increases that brought the results to a five year high. however, our top students only have 7 distinctions, unlike the nearby jc (the one with the letter 'v', not 'm' =P) which has 9 distinctions. somehow i love to compare our results with that of the nearby jc, but then i think we are not really at the same level as them. dunno how zhiyuan did for his A levels, didn't see his name in the 3/4 distinctions name list posted at the vjc website.

on a personal note, i got A1/distinction in oral for AO chinese, something "not surprising" as chen yu puts it. i do worry for my chinese A though, cos i feel that my chinese teacher is really kinda slack and doesn't prepare us enough in terms of language. literature wise, it's more about the memory work. but i also won't like it if she gives more work to me of cos. i would like to see on the powerpoint slides next year when receiving my results that %AB in chinese A is 100%.

monday was the last swimming PE i had in tj, or more exactly, the last time i had to rush like mad to go to the swimming complex by 7.20, which i never do.

tuesday i went for CO on time, no more maths S for me, hooray! but the big drum was being lent to PA for their upcoming concert this saturday (which i can't go sadly), so i came only for the sectionals with mr shen. he's a nice man who have many stories to tell once he has the chance to say them. haiz, if i have known him in secondary school, i would have learnt from him since then.

yesterday we had a learning journey to the central narcotics bureau, but in fact we were only brought into a meeting room and sat there listening to a powerpoint presentation throughout the time there. nothing really new and interesting about drugs, i think the speaker's own stories were more interesting. there were snacks prepared for us, i think the ISD (internal security department) should really learn from them. the question and answer session surprised me as many questions were asked. all of us left with a water bottle too, but all good things must come to an end. we learnt that there was no return bus trip, so we had to find our way home. poor mr ho doesn't know this also i think, so he had to take taxi back to school.

today was chem SPA skills B & D involving recrystallisation. ms wong was surprisingly helpful as she walked around the lab, telling us what we had done wrong and what we should do. in the end, i was constantly asking for her opinion as i dun want to lose out to the people whom she helped... haha. i didn't feel too good after smelling so much ethanol though. but i felt better after i went for the sterling lecture which was directly after SPA. the angmoh speaks in a clearer way than mr chan although with a heavy accent. the topic was about vibrations and the real life video clips during the presentation were the most interesting. imagine walking on a shaking bridge?

i must study for my maths test now... bye.

2005-02-23T23:01:00.000+08:00

there are just so many tests nowadays, and somehow they have become more important since they will end up in that progress report to replace the original march common test. it's not nice to have 2/20 on something to show your parents u know.

i received the results of the open book maths test which happens to be the first maths test i failed in jc. very saddening since it covers very basic topics like AP & GP. and also people who never get higher than me does. but i just dun have the knack for AP & GP. same for the maths S selection test, which includes AP & GP, binomial and trigo. that'll be the second upcoming maths test i'll be failing. so i fall into the category of mr ho's "dunno how to think out of the box" kind of people. blah, drop maths S then drop lor, the questions require me to think too much. concentrate more on physics to make cheow wee happy, better hor?

yesterday ms wong spent one whole period "lecturing" us. reminds me of the first lesson with her last year, when she also spent an entire period talking to us. yar, she always cares a lot about us, but i have to disagree with her about rjc students really doing independent studies. your head lor. rjc is the school that really feeds them with plenty of notes. when i mean plenty, i mean extra info that's not really in the syllabus and of cos, difficult questions that test too much on your concepts. how i noe this? from outside chem tuition.

last saturday was road run... it's the first time i ran 5 km! never ran during VS cross country before... haha. running within 30 min is quite an achievement for me, dun laugh ok. wad is laughable is the drinks supplied by the school for the road run. extremely diluted ribena with the slight red colour and ester smell really doesn't suit my taste. where's that milo truck?! very very stingy. we can raise so much money for the student welfare fund which is supposed to help students who need financial aid, but who's looking after our welfare?

speaking about welfare, perhaps i should have raised this up during the SC dialogue session, which i think less than 25% of year 2s turned up. good job, people. oops, i dun mean the councillors of cos. they have the cheek to tell us we have to be courteous, not spouting vulgarities and no personal attacks when asking questions. a helpful guy asked why we had to pay $3 for temasek idols and we really got a very courteous reply. want to fight ah, issit? slap u ah, i tell you. yes, $3 doesn't seem much but it does fulfil a meal at the hawker centre. might as well save more $3 for Kbox and sing all i want better.

i'll like to see this appear in the next temasek times, which is free:

"our college loudmouth, ms cecilia xiao has just been found guilty of CHEATING during a maths lecture test held on 23 Feb. she will be stripped of all duties in the student's council and be suspended 2 weeks from school. this time is given to her to reflect on her lousy CHEATING skills, plus hopefully, SHUT her up."

p.s. the above is true ok, i got spies in the student body. =)

chinese new year

2005-02-10T23:17:00.000+08:00

i dun feel too much about chinese new year this year. in fact, i didn't even step into chinatown at all this time; oh i'm so busy.

CNY eve - i really dunno why i'm in school that day. we were there for the sake of being there since we didn't organise anything like eating in the canteen etc. later i went to buy some "last minute stuff" that my mother forgot to buy and went home. then i went to bugis to watch constantine, which i'm pleased to say that this will be the most LAN show of the year. very LAN. dunno why i was in the cinema since i was not even interested in looking at keanu reeves. so i went home and before long it was time for the reunion dinner, which consists of just my parents and me, ever since my grandma died. didn't watch much of the CNY countdown show on ch 8, but i did unfortunately watch the rather lame "passing of beer into a large measuring cylinder" game. i switched over to ch 49 Asia Plus and it was broadcasting china's countdown show, which i can even call it a parade. i read the papers before and it said that this CCTV's annual show can have ratings of 90% in china. WOW. some of the songs sang were indeed very ... communistic. although not too much really just that the lyrics were all like telling youngsters to work hard for the country, blah blah.

CNY Day 1 - i set an alarm at 9.30 am so i that i could catch the LIVE telecast of the Amazing Race at 10 on AXN. muahaha... that's a good 12 hours earlier than non-cabled homes. anyway kris and jon didn't win... which is not too surprising since the most well-liked team (they got a popularity rating of 92% on CBS.com) never seem to win during the final leg. but at least they got 2nd, and plenty of holidays since they won dunno how many "first places" throughout the entire race. they are really a great couple, not quarelling and supporting each other always, i think everyone wants to be like this model couple.

since my grandma died, the only people to come to my house on day 1 are my father's sisters and their family. one of my cousins is the same age as me, currently also in tjc year 2. then it's slacking throughout the day, and i watched spider-man on AXN at night. how boring... because my father is too lazy to go around visiting since he sold his car.

CNY Day 2 - i went to visit my grandpa's sister (my xiao gu po) as she is our closest "old" relative since my grandma died. this year was a bit special as i went there for lunch and also for exchanging of gifts/angbaos. my parents will always give bak gua and abalone while she will give us homemade pineapple tarts plus some goodies.

then i went home to wait for my mother's brothers and their family to come. the eldest uncle's family is vegetarian and has two sons, one of which is the same age as me who is also from VS but now in nyjc. the third uncle has a son and a daughter, the former in chinese high and the latter in cchs(m). so it's obvious my third uncle and aunt cares about their children's education A LOT. these cousins of mine always liked to play on my computer, but sadly my computer has no games to offer them, other than some slightly older pirated games that i haven't even played before -__-". they were not interested in my 1500k broadband =P. it was dinner time and we proceeded to dinner at a vegetarian restaurant.

it's 9 pm already but my father insisted on going to visit his elder brother. so off we went and stayed there shortly. again we gave bak gua and abalone. so u see, being a relative of mine has advantages, especially if u are more elder.

awww... the holidays end so soon and i need to go back school tomorrow. that principal was so helpful to remind us on CNY eve that we have school on friday. argh.

i hate NS registration

2005-02-03T20:27:00.000+08:00

i haven't blogged much nowadays, so i decided to update today. [redundant opening statement -_-"]

there's this pre-enlistment NS documentation to be done which requires me to fill in a bank account number. since i dun have a personal account (!), i told my mother i want one, but she gave almost no response (and stupid me not to chase her for this). then the last day for registration came and i had to have an account number, so she gave me the one for our joint account. then i discovered that i just needed to login first, and can do the updating of particulars later, so i didn't complete all at one go. the very kind NS officer sent a letter to remind me to update all by yesterday. since i always procrastinate, i did the remaining part of updating only yesterday night. it's already 11+ pm, but my mother was busy washing some sea cucumber and could not help me measure my shoulder length. when she finally helped me and i completed all measurements, i realised it's 12.05 am. there was one last step which is to book the medical exam date, which could only be done after inputing the measurements (stupid system). now i tried to click that and i'm told i can't book anymore. so i logged out and logged in again, this time it says the registration period is OVER.

that means i've summitted nothing. and now a letter will be arriving to tell me when i have to report down to cmpb personally on an assigned date and time. DAMMIT. dun tell me i have to miss lessons just to do some simple registration. then again, if it's so simple, why didn't i do all earlier? argh, must go kill myself now.

today there was this chemistry practical and i had to work with zhen gang. he's partially blind since he doesn't have his specs, but that didn't mean he can just go flirting with leonard non-stop, or vice versa. zG didn't care about wad happened to the practical at all. i didn't know partially blind people had such priviledges, if not i'd have made sure some phenol gets into his eyes. and please leonard, stop showing off your nokia 3120 by playing games or letting it ring during class. cos your phone absolutely pales in comparison with my 7610 or wanyi's k700i. one mp3 ringtone from us and your phone will have no place to stand. muahahahaha, i'm so arrogant.

there was group PE today which means running and more running. it's 3.6 km today and my timing was 19 min+. sped up at the end causing chen yu to accelerate... haha. wad shocked me was that lookit ran faster than us by running and walking periodically... didn't know this strategy can work.

there's a physics test yesterday and i doubt i can get 5 marks.

david tao's album didn't really seem that attractive when i first heard it but now i'm listening to it everyday.

my chinese teacher is sick, because she got it from her son, who was sick last week. i hope it's not a cycle and she can get well soon. =)

i must talk about coincidences too. last friday i saw leonard and a year one girl after my tuition at parkway. on saturday, my mother and i went to parkway to shop since we are visiting a relative in the vicinity. i saw the uncle and aunty of the zap shop. their son was around too. saw another econs teacher at Isetan, and last but very least, the OM. oh dear, must wash my eyes soon.

now for another type of coincidence... my new shoes which were stated in a few posts earlier happened to be the same as luther's. last year i had the same pair as zG, and now another classmate. haha...

the swim starts now

2005-01-17T21:40:00.000+08:00

it's a brand new week and it started with swimming. dunno why the number of people is quite little, dun tell me suddenly everyone joined a sports pdp. there is no need to especially when they won't win many awards anyway (ooh, i'm so mean.)

CL A had to bore me with a compo after lunch... then it was Chem S with the "i've a lot of jokes" tutor mr goh, who is also the current organic chem lecturer. yeah, Chem S today is actually quite interesting, not boring at all like some physics lecture (unfair comparison actually since physics is boring, can't blame the lecturer). but i need to do some Chem S questions for homework. argh.

then i went to sembawang music. i wanted to buy S.H.E's encore cd+dvd, but then i think it's sold out and dunno when the next shipment will arrive. maybe i'll just buy from music junction. so i bought david tao's pre-release (yu4 gou4) album. it's my first time buying a pre-release album, but then again not many singers have that in S'pore unless they are popular enough. mayday's albums always have pre-release but then only available in taiwan.

the cd is actually a AVCD, containing one music video which "contains some disturbing scenes" and 3 songs. actually, it's only a small section of less than 2 min for each song. the MV is for the song "ghost", which is stated that it contains horror themes with blood and gore. hmm... haven't watch yet, maybe i'll watch during the day... haha. the cd is also enclosed in an exquisite way which i've never seen in other albums before... i shall be waiting for the official worldwide release on 21st jan.

there's physics SPA skill A on thursday... wonder whether i'll pass...

back, finally

2005-01-16T22:53:00.000+08:00

it's been a loooooooooong time since i posted, simply because of dead computer (read: mainboard burnt). and also because of being very busy after school reopened.

i go home very late everyday, in contrast to some people in the class...

Mon me - 3.45, others - 12.00

Tue me - 5.15 (not counting CO, which means it should be 7.30), others - 12.00 again

Wed me - 7.30 (official CO prac), others - 3.00

Thu me - 3.00, others - 3.00 (wow! a day which i can finally go home at the same time as others. but it's their latest day. bleh.)

Fri me - 2.15 (due to physics remedial which i hardly understand -_-"), others - 2.15 too, since most people are taking physics. but allow me to laugh at some LEP people who have to stay back for LEP club. muahahahahahaha. but i can have 18 other people laughing at me for late dismissal times due to S papers. muahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. (i'm mad)

allow me to talk something about S papers. i'm taking Chem and Maths, and i think quite a handful take this combi. the first lesson on chem S was quite ok for me, since it's about chem bonding and my tutor (as in external one, can't be rita rite?) has drilled us in drawing molecules. for example, N2O must have the N drawn together, not O in the middle of 2 N molecules. mr goh the "funny" lecturer was lecturing us.

but the maths S wasn't easy at all. i got the questions on AP & GP from Zap days before but i can't figure out a single AP & GP question. oh dear... i intended to copy the answers during the lecture but the lecturer said she will leave them at Zap. so i sat through the double period lecture in LT2, looking quite wowed by the answers.

GP teacher has changed to ms kwan. very humorous tutor indeed, and i'm glad that she's not collecting the holiday homework. mr chung is, not that i know when i'll start on it. =P

i'm signing off now, leaving you to read these 2 websites to let u know about "taupoking", if u haven't heard of it ^__^.

click here and here.

shopping @ queensway

2004-12-22T22:17:00.000+08:00

i went to queensway shopping centre for the first time today and bought new shoes and sandals. the discounts given were flabbergasting... $50 discount for a pair of new balance shoes. hmm... must compare with the prices in sports stores in town. haha, so aunty.

will i run faster with these shoes? =P

there's another surprise in the amazing race today bcos this leg of the race is being left hanging with a "to be continued" sign displayed at the end. there'll certainly be more bunching up and lori & bolo may not be eliminated so soon. i'll be waiting to see who is philiminated or whether this leg is a NEL...

a world without thieves?

2004-12-21T23:42:00.000+08:00

there was CO practice today followed by a truncated sectional practice. not surprising of cos, since mr shen is not around to "control" us, resulting in the lackadaisical attitude that somebody had.

after that, xuguang and daniel went back to VS as VSCO was having an exchange programme with RGSCO. i was interested to go back too to see wad's the state of VSCO now, but i had agreed with wY and cY to watch a movie after practice. originally planned to watch ocean's twelve, but it turned out that we watched a world without thieves, starring andy lau and rene liu and guest(?) starring ge you.

a world without thieves got a double A rating by zaobao's movie critics. that means a well balanced commercial arthouse flick. it's a nice movie, with beautiful scenery, superb acting and of cos spoken mandarin with heavy china slang. the majority of the production crew are chinese nationals. and i must agree that the soundtracks are a bit old fashioned, although the lyrics convey the message well. its story is based on a book, maybe i'll consider reading it. i knew andy lau was going to die in the end before entering the cinema, as a result of watching too much entertainment news... haha, so kinda killed the excitement for me. the sadness does not end there though... :'(

rachel's birthday

2004-12-20T23:29:00.000+08:00

i got an envelope stating "good progress award" after opening my letter box on saturday. yay! it's my 2nd time receiving this, since primary school.

anyway, today is rachel's birthday. the lyes celebrated by eating sakae sushi at heeren. i bought her a book... Dan Brown's Digital Fortress. initially thought of a jazz CD or maybe a book voucher.

after eating sushi, we went to eat ice cream at takashimaya. there's this shop called Gelateria Venezia which serves ice cream in so many flavours! definitely a must try next time. however i was too full already from the sushi so had only one flavour while some of the girls had 3. wonder why they suddenly can eat so much.

we proceeded to kinokuniya to look at books again. of cos, i only looked while waiting for the others to complete their transactions.

i received a Xmas present from wanyi at the start of the day too. it was a winnie the pooh mug... haha it's cute and thanks a million! cY asked me wad i wanted for Xmas. dun think i'll buy Xmas presents for my frens though... yep sorry i never have such a practice. =P

signing off... hope to watch ocean's twelve tomorrow. =)

previous week on... me, not TAR

2004-12-16T23:02:00.000+08:00

i bought a levi's jeans at 20% off on saturday! but there was a $3 alteration fee which my mother complained, especially when she could alter it for me anyway.

tuesday's CO practice was quite ok, with me not being scolded. we are practising a difficult song for the concert next year, which is, according to lion, not as difficult as the finale piece in the concert this year. but this time the song should be much more lively and relax, as it's adapted from a jazz symphonic piece. for the sectionals, mr shen was not around as he had returned to china for the new year so we practised ourselves.

i also checked my S paper applications and found that both chem and maths are approved. next to it are the new subject combis of year 2 students, taking into account S papers and dropping of subjects. i found yX's name on the 20/04 class list, with his LEP dropped. hmm... maybe the principal gave him another chance? i checked on another name whom i know is retaining and his name wasn't there...

on wednesday i decided to go school early for library duties. it's to clear my make-up hours. i catalogued 40 new books... haha... they include many books which have been made into movies... like bridget jones diary: the edge of reason and after the sunset. dunno why the school or MOE has so much money to buy new books. either way, nobody is complaining... haha.

i got bored so i went to look at some previous yearbooks in the eighties and nineties. i saw mr ho last time looking older than he is now... haha... why? bcos he had a moustache last time... hmm, i just find that old-looking... and guess wad? rita wong got 3rd position in the road run?! haha, looks like she wasn't bluffing that she was fitter and possibly slimmer last time.

there was the amazing race last nite and i must say jonathan is really an ass without a hole. he blames anything and everything on victoria, and can even let her carry his bag on the run to the pit stop... 1st time saw phil the host actually intefering into a team's affairs on camera... even though i think he does so privately of cos...

it's about 2 weeks to the end of the holidays... =(

update

2004-12-11T02:23:00.000+08:00

UPDATE!

i have not blogged for ages... bcos i was on a 2-week trip to japan and korea, visiting places like disneyland and beautiful scenery featured in korean dramas. yar, i wish.

basically my holidays can be summarised as follows:

movies bridget jones diary with wY and cY (who arrived late). nice movie though some critics feel that it was just recycling the winning formula which made the first movie a success, eg. the fight scenes between the 2 male protagonists and bridget jones' big butt landing on the camera. well they are still funny, so watching more of these nevertheless can still make me laugh.

watched blade trinity with wY and cY again recently as many others can't make it bcos either of work, or maybe no money. imagine a guy trying hard at home shaking his legs and hoping for some money to drop from his legs. =P

some other movies watched include the incredibles, taxi, the forgotten, shark tale and the princess diaries.

upcoming movies to watch should include national treasure, a world without thieves, kungfu hustle and ocean's twelve. actually, i'm quite interested in watching alexander, although critics say it's too looooong, but most importantly is that it's M18. and no, i dun think i'll watch any christmas movie. never celebrated christmas at all, so not interested.

korean dramas i'm currently chasing 3 of them now. summer scent on ch U, glass shoes (an early 2002 drama and ch8 is only showing it now) and stairway to heaven, which i bought the vcd at 25% discount at TS. really, dun buy vcds from anywhere else. of cos, all 3 shows have been shown on ch 56 b4, but i didn't have time to catch from the start till the end.

summer scent is getting draggggy. son ye jin (huiyuan) should stop crying and move on with her life. she is still gonna be with minyu at the end anyway. moving on to glass shoes and stairway to heaven, both feature some similarities, like beginning the shows with children, who are the younger forms of the leading actors and actresses that takes over at about the 3rd episode or so. notice korean dramas like Autumn fairy tale and All in start their shows with young people too. glass shoes and stairway to heaven have one of their leads suffering from amnesia too, although they will recover sometime or another.

stairway to heaven is really nice... starring choi ji woo and kwon sang woo... it's a very well packaged drama, with good looking leads and best of all, the wonderful music which kept me so intrigued during the only one episode i watched on ch56 and led me to buy its vcd eventually. and most probably the OST. haha... it's not so draggy too, so no wonder it scored the highest ratings in korea for 2003 or something like that.

it seems that i'm more interested in such dramas than my mother... oops.

chalets & bbq i've been to my overnight class chalet and primary school class chalet. yes, there's a primary school friend who never fails to organise one every year, courtesy of his parents too. i was supposed to go to some bbq organised by the library, but i told that grp leader of mine i had tuition which changed day sometime after i replied her. so i forgot abt the bbq altogether and went for library duty on the same day as the bbq. the tried-to-act-smart-but-unfortunately-isn't grp leader then smsed me the following day why i had time to do library duty and yet wasn't at the bbq. if she had brains, she will know that the tjc library closes at 6 pm, after which i can still go to tuition at night, although as i mentioned earlier, the tuition day changed.

comics i decided to "invest" in death note which was well received by many people... exciting storyline plus serious theme. it's the first time i'll be buying a series of comics so i wonder how long i'll need to finish the entire story. and i realise that just reading one book takes quite long of my time... which means $5 is really worth it.

work not the kind of work u are thinking of cos. i mean homework. i've never worked before. haha... i'm not after money so much currently, so might as well slack at home better. back to homework, i've not done much, just some maths only. argh... but tuition has started again, so maybe that will push me to do some homework. =)

library duty i've finished completing 11 periods of duty, with one more to go... but i still need to clear make up hours... which means more sitting at the counter, either reading or doing homework. very boring, although some may beg to differ as compared to some shelving duty they have to do in national library which contains tons of books that will never be finished shelving.

CO practice lion is strict as usual, but of cos with some jokes of his that will never fail to provoke immense laughter from someone in the erhu section. no prizes for guessing who she is. mr shen the percussion instructor is starting to get stricter too, since we are all quite slack in practising at home. we are now learning basics most of the time, and he has cut down on his rather crappy analogies. too bad he's returning to china till the end of the year, so when practices start next year, he'll expect much more from us. oh dear.

it's early now so i'll better sign off from this rather long entry~

PS. my previous blog music, 2046's main theme has just won the 41st golden horse award's best original soundtrack... which is not surprising of cos... haha.

random thoughts

2004-11-22T01:33:00.000+08:00

Random Thoughts

i was returning from tuition today and when i alighted at pasir ris mrt, there were a lot of NSmen around, not surprisingly of cos. they are always around there every sunday to catch a bus at the interchange to tekong. why am i saying this? obviously it's bcos i may be one of them soon. ok, not so soon as if i'm taking my A levels this year. but i'm wondering if i'll have to enter NS early... as in december next year. i really dun think i can get a silver for napfa next year. for the uninformed, guys have a minimum criteria of getting a silver for napfa if u dun want to enter NS early. although not a bad thing either as i may adapt to army life better, it deprives me of my holidays. ooh, i must really cherish my holidays now then.

***

friendster is a good place to find old friends. i will sometimes look around, click on people's profiles and read their testimonials, though i have always believed that testimonials are not very real and only shows good sides of people. however, who doesn’t like to receive compliments? the testimonials can teach me how appreciate people better too. but i’m too lazy to care about my friendster account.

***

i found my primary school classmate on friendster today. she was from my first primary school. she had remained etched in my memory until today, bcos she was quite close to me. never contacted her after i changed my school though. dun she remembers me now. from her profile, i know that she’s now in siglap sec. quite shocked when i first saw that. my first reaction was “how come she landed there?” cos i’ve always regarded that school as full of a particular race that’s really not too smart. which is why i think i’m downright elitist. am i a product of the elitist education system in S’pore? i really think so. i always think that jc people are more superior than poly people. and top-5-jc people are more superior than some jc opposite my house. that’s very wrong i know. all people are created equal. yet i have such a mindset. dunno whether i can ever change it.

***

i’m a boring person. i dun watch soccer or basketball, and i dun play computer games. i dun even specialise in a sport. u must be thinking, how can i even be a guy? yet i am. plus i’m so introverted and passive. which is why i think people dun enjoy talking to me at all. or they dun talk to me in the first place. it must be bcos i look too nerdy/serious to be true. i hate that. i am someone u can definitely joke around with. just ignite something within me, and as long as i know something about it, i’m sure i will be bursting into flames before u know it. please, i dun want to be talking about academics all the time. though that’s rather important for students like us now.

***

it’s late, and i must sleep to prepare for a class chalet tomorrow. tata.

the ticket to the class chalet

2004-11-19T23:53:00.000+08:00

i decided to revert back to tag-board, even though shoutbox is easier to use and can integrate into my blog better... bcos got more messages and memories.

i went to play pool at parkway yesterday with cY, leonard, zG and rachel. it's supposed to be sort of a "farewell" to leonard bcos he's going to beijing for 2 weeks in a few days time, but not that i care. i care more for my entertainment. ^_^ then again, it's not as if he's leaving forever, even though his LEP scholarship is. oh my, stop suaning him already.

i received a rather shocking sms in the morning too. it's from hL, official spokesperson for mr ho's holiday activities. she told us that we need to buy a ticket to the chalet... let's guess wad the ticket is.

Is the ticket...

(a) titbits?
(b) cooked food?
(c) $1 for entry?
(d) maths holiday homework?
(e) your girl/boyfriend? (ok i noe this is ridiculous)

the answer is (d) maths holiday homework. ohmigoodness, i haven't done any question at all. that's not the point, but now i know mr ho's motive for organising the chalet... to check on our holiday homework progress! and perhaps shun bian give us the schedule for extra lessons for the rest of the holidays? so evil. (x_x)

anyway, today is the library enrichment trip to the navy museum at sembawang and chinatown heritage centre (yuan mao guan). somehow everybody was not interested in asking questions, so the guide concluded very early that we were the non-responsive type and he can show us around in a very short time. maybe it's just tjcians, me included. looks like i'm not interested in the military at all... or maybe i know just too little?

then we went to yuan mao guan to have a malay tour guide speaking to us about chinatown's past, from the early chinese immigrants to the 1950s. how ironic. she was quite entertaining. this place managed to remake successfully the harsh living conditions of the chinese at that time. it's very real and having videos which play the interviews with some of the old people who lived there before are much better than some artificial figures sitting around moving and talking expressionlessly.

this enrichment trip was free, so even though it took up most of today's time, it's quite worth it lah. maybe i should bring my parents to yuan mao guan one of these days too...

couch potato

2004-11-18T00:06:00.000+08:00

firstly, i need to reply to my tag-board here, since it’s out of order now.

to chingz: glad to see u visiting my bloggie… i link u ok? u can find out more about the script to put music in your blog from wY… she knows better.

to some guy: i can’t go for the autograph session… reasons being 1) i got class chalet that day, 2) i have nobody to accompany me & 3) this kind of performance must get very “high” one but i shy type, dunno how to express “high” feelings, ha. i think i will find someone to help me autograph.
_______________________________________________________

i am a very busy person... well at least for this Friday. i need to attend:

1) the library "enrichment" trip, from 10.30 am to 5.00 pm. i was told by the library man when i went to library yesterday that the enrichment trip was compulsory. but i said in my earlier posts that i was told by my group leader it was not, since hours are not counted. so it turned out to be the useless leader giving me the wrong info. vicious woman. just go and die.

2) physics tuition, slated to start in the afternoon,

3) CO practice, 4.00 to 6.30 pm,

4) cousin’s 21st birthday chalet, evening.

i have no choice but to attend the enrichment trip and the chalet. i can’t stand anymore make-up hours for library… my tuition was supposed to be on Sunday, but the teacher was sick so he postponed to this date and can’t change anymore. so it’s not my fault. i rarely miss CO practices, so i think it’s ok to miss it.
_______________________________________________________

i was a couch potato today and watched tv the entire afternoon. got very nice shows on ch 52 (cable tv), namely shen ti mi ma and kang xi lai le. shen ti mi ma is a show talking about your health with guests like stars and of cos, doctors. each show will have different topics, for e.g. today is about myopia plus different ways to correct it. looks like laser surgery is rather simple and highly successful, maybe i’ll undergo it next time?

kang xi lai le is hosted by cai kang yong and xu xi di (xiao S), the former a popular compere in Taiwan. it’s a show interviewing different stars each day in an extremely interesting, humorous and light-hearted way. rene liu was on their show today and i was laughing throughout the show…

the amazing race 6 premiered today… watched it just now on ch 5 cos didn’t came back in time after dinner to watch on AXN at 8 pm. it’s an exciting start though it’s hard to keep track of teams… not that familiar yet. i started to hate some characters already… due to the power of editing?

yet another lye family outing to orchard

2004-11-15T23:54:00.000+08:00

the lye family went to town again!

we had lunch without zG at takashimaya. i had japanese fried noodles with cheese and egg which is not quite worth my $3.50. nonetheless, it's still tasty. we ate our food sitting at the staircase when xL saw me and yilin so she said hello to us. who is xL? she is 1) a friend I met thru CO, 2) not my primary school friend & 3) from swiss cottage sec, obviously. =P but looks like i haven't answered the question. heh.

we wandered around and landed up at the heeren shops when someone (forgot who -_-") suggested we watch a movie. actually, the main purpose of coming to a lye outing is to 1) watch a movie & 2) eat delicious food. haha, but of cos we get to catch up with each other. not in homework though.

so we went to cathay cineleisure to watch The Forgotten. wY saw mr daniel chung our GP tutor while we were at the popcorn bar. AH-HA! WE CAUGHT HIM! with nobody, sadly. awwwww… he asked us what we were watching and he said he will be watching something we can’t watch. it’s M18. since our movie started at around 3.25 and he is last seen buying snacks then, I deduce he must be watching Everybody has Secrets (showtime at 3.30), a korean movie starring Lee Bing Hyun and Choi Ji Woo. wonder who he is watching for though. ^_^"

guess he must be shaking his head in his mind when he knew our choice of movie. cos The Forgotten lives up to its name, by being a movie you can forget. -_-" actually, that is quoted from a movie critic. even newspapers say that it hit No. 1 at the US box office bcos of its exciting trailer which contains abt all the thrilling parts of the movie already. definitely not the biggest jaw-dropper since the sixth sense.

then we wandered around more, with my stomach starting to ache. we landed up at a “hot” outlet of pasta mania at scotts so we decided to walk back to cathay to eat at another outlet. while walking, cY’s stomach began to ache too… looks like he’s in more pain than me. so we rushed to the _ _ _ _ _ _ . wondered what we ate. at least I get to eat my garlic bread and yummy baked rice after the ordeal.

there’s CO practice tomorrow and it’s NOT with lion! yay! but it starts at 4.30…

rotting...

2004-11-13T23:18:00.000+08:00

there was nothing significant during thursday and friday and today. i was indeed quite bored at home, always staring at the computer. wadever happened to the 101 things i wanted to do when i was studying for the promos? looks like i should have made a list then so that i will know what to do now.

the library grp leader called on thursday to ask whether i would like to go for an enrichment activity. it will be a trip to chinatown and a museum around there on 19 Nov. of cos, my immediate reaction will be: are hours counted? dun blame me for being so blunt. blame on the library itself. anything that they organise will be counted as service hours, e.g. camp, an unnecessary "extravagant" library investiture and time wasting general meetings, to ensure attendance. i really dun think such things provide service to anyone. sadly, i will just have to conform and get my 4 service points at the end of it. argh.

anyway, the obvious answer was no, i will not go since hours will not be counted. she really doesn't how to promote events. or perhaps, there's nothing to promote in the 1st place. maybe the "enrichment activity" is not even free. haiz, i really dun understand how a trip to chinatown has anything to do with library. even orchard road has a national library. chinatown doesn't.

then the grp leader smsed me on friday, wanting to know my reasons for not going. i wanted to be evil and just reply her that since hours are not counted, you have no right to intrude into my privacy and i have no need to tell you my reasons, if there's any. it's obvious there's nobody going and perhaps the library man wants the comm to account for it. so i conveniently replied i have a chalet and to top it up, remind her to call me if the library man decides to count hours in a desperate attempt to have people going. the truth is that i do have a chalet on that day, which is to celebrate my cousin's 21st birthday. dun think i will have one like this next time though.

2 weeks of holidays passed already. quite scary, to think of it. it's really boring to stay at home, unless i start on my holiday homework. -_- this is one holiday that is quite important... it's a good time to consolidate what i've learnt in year one and prepare for more rigorous work next year. oh my, do i sound like rita wong? =P

new haircut from QB!

2004-11-10T23:03:00.000+08:00

playing: hu yan bin - waiting for you, you hong ming - di yi qian ge zhou ye

please check out the 2 posts before this. i finally blogged today so i conveniently typed 2 posts under 2 previous dates.

i watched cellular on sunday. quite a brilliant movie by the same writer who wrote phone booth. this is a fast paced thriller starring Oscar-winning kim basinger and chris evans, who is said to be an upcoming star. both are actors worth your money. i was quite impressed by kim basinger's role as a bio teacher who actually uses her bio knowledge to outwit the kidnapper.

i also watched princess diaries 2 with cY, and zG in PS on monday after chem SPA. although more of a girly movie, this movie can appeal to all since it's a comedy.

we started practising the SYF set piece yesterday. it's unusually short, just 120+ bars. the inhuman lion (duh) was frustrated at me again cos my reaction speed was slow in contrast to what he considers as easy. the lion act smart and tried to display his drum beating skills, but sadly it was wrong. the percussion instructor corrected it. hah.

i got a haircut today! finally after scratching my hair for the whole morning. wanted to buy a birthday card for my father, but then saw no suitable ones. i haven't showed him my results slip yet, so maybe that will do. =P

thinking of changing my blog music to... mayday?

the unlucky week

2004-11-05T19:06:00.000+08:00

this week did not go so well for me. first, it was the OP. maybe i shouldn't conclude this so fast since there's still the weekend.

on wednesday, i went to yum cha so dinner after seeing wY's appetising pictures which she took when she went there with cY on monday. i ate just 2 clams and my eyes were swollen plus i had slight breathing difficulties late in the night. argh, it was an allergy. actually, i knew i was allergic to clams way back in primary sch but i decided to try it again. looks like i'll never ever touch clams again. note that the clams i'm allergic to are not the ones u find in cha kway tiao and certainly not abalone. =)

today was my AO Chinese exam paper. honestly, i didn't prepare much for it at all, since i didn't prepare during the promos and still managed an A1. however, i'm not quite sure whether i can get an A1 this time. argh.

the compo questions don't look good at all. i'll list the 4 questions here and comment on them individually.

1. Your best friend betrayed you. Write about the incident and your feelings. i foresee most people to do this question as this looks like the easiest of the 4. however, the trick here is that u must write something that even your best friend can betray you. surely u can't write about your best friend giving your secret away, if not how did he/she become your best friend in the first place? and u must say wad happened after the incident. will you 2 stop being friends altogether? remember he/she is your best friend. best friends don't break off so easily.

2. Knowledge is power. Write about this question and u'll die. unless u love GP so much and score well during GP. then again, those who score well in GP will most likely not do too well for chinese. =P

3. In the present S'pore society, some people think that being good in english is more important than being good in chinese. Do you agree? i did this question and agreed with the statement. oops, i forgot that the teachers marking my essay are chinese teachers. but the statement is true. didn't have much details though to make this an A1 essay. darn. this is not my cup of tea.

4. Your parents have always wanted you to become a doctor. They think that doctors have high social status and enjoy high salaries. That is until one incident which changed their thinking... Continue this essay. this is the most ridiculous compo question i've seen in my whole life. doctors are indeed highly paid and have higher social class, so wad can change this? not just because of a few doctors being negligent in their work can change your parent's mindset. or rather, everybody's mindset.

paper 2 was ok... kind of sad though that i lost 5 marks for not completing on time as i continued my compo during paper 2 as i was struggling to find things to write. nonetheless, i still want my A1! i hate it when the questions are the ones which cause me not to do well. ironically, the summary question was about success and failure which says that one cause of failure is due to external factors. how apt.

PW / OP sux

2004-11-02T18:49:00.000+08:00

I will be ranting about PW Oral Presentation so skip this post if u can’t stand my whining.

PW officially ends today. wow, i should be celebrating! (yar, my grp did eat ajisen ramen and watched the movie long feng dou after that, but that's not the point.) the point is, i got assessed by jismyl lam the blue t-shirt aunty. ok, she might not look as aunty as rita wong but i dun care. Mr ho was right… she asks tough questions that seem ridiculous to me. the real stressful thing about OP is not the presenting, but the Q & A after that, which can decide whether u get a band 1 or band 3.

the aunty asked both jodi and i questions. here is the interesting conversation jodi and she had. (assume this is a MSN chat)

JISMYL LAM SUX: how do i distinguish these organic apples from conventional apples in a supermarket?
Jodi: u may not be able to distinguish by taste, but they are placed at a special section marked out in the supermarket, blah blah…
JISMYL LAM SUX: (seems rather dissatisfied with the answer) what if these apples are misplaced? how are you going to identify it?
Jodi: u can maybe ask the people in charge of the supermarket and they should know how to identify.
JISMYL LAM SUX: (in a very displeased tone, almost arguing) who are the people? the uncle or aunty there?
Jodi: erm, the workers.

oh, if you think the organic apples can be misplaced in a supermarket, then 101 things can happen. people can tear off the label from the organic apples and replace it with a cheap conventional apple label. frankly, most Singaporeans won’t give two hoots about organic apples after they see the price tag. perhaps, since u are a smart-assed bio tutor, u can teach us how to identify.

then it’s my turn.

JISMYL LAM SUX: listen carefully. About the evolution of the trend, how does your project follow the question requirement stated in the project task?

She spoke in such a slow manner that anyone could have caught her question. I got her question immediately since jodi raised this point before about our project since our evolution of the trend is increasing and we propose to further increase the trend. but the question says that we must change the direction of this evolution. We asked ms ho our supervising tutor before and she said that will do too.

I tried to explain that there is only a small amount of people eating organic food but there is a slow increasing trend and we propose to make this trend more significant in 10 years time. Perhaps we presented our trend too explicitly unlike other groups. But that was wad ms ho wanted. Argh… I almost wanted to say “go check with your fellow colleague ho sern ling and see whether I’m right”.

She then proceeded to “insult” my intelligence by guiding me through her question.

JISMYL LAM SUX: when u change the direction, u…?
Me: (very reluctantly) reverse the trend?

oh, so she wants me to admit I got my project wrong from the start. SHIT HER LAH.
____________________________________________________

I must remember to thank my other members though for slogging with me through this project. They are:

Jodi: our wonderful group leader who gave us a Garfield soft toy each today. She led us well, and is in charge of pushing us when we feel restless.
Wanyi: she types most of our minutes (oops, don’t tell MOE!) and is in charge of the wonderful powerpoint presentation with her photoshop skills.
Chen yu: our entertainer. Yeah, like that only. =P

next up: maths project? Shudder.

new blog song

2004-10-31T23:48:00.000+08:00

i've just changed the song on my blog to 2046's theme... so that it won't be the same as wanyi the copy(marie)cat... haha just joking. anyway i just saw on AXN that The Amazing Race 6 is starting soon on nov 16 (or 17 for Sg). i think i'll be watching at 8 pm like last season. looks like there are more models as competitors.

took this from chen yu's blog...

Cor blimey, I taste like Tea.

I am a subtle flavour, quiet and polite, gentle, almost ambient. My presence in crowds will often go unnoticed. Best not to spill me on your clothes though, I can leave a nasty stain. What Flavour Are You?

sian... PW is coming

2004-10-31T20:16:00.000+08:00

ahh... time really flies. it's the end of the school year already. the newly formed lye family (zG, wY, cY, rachel, hC, yL) with the father ye xian "celebrated" the last day of school by having a steamboat buffet at marina south on friday. yum, it was cheap, and most importantly, tastes good. very long time since i ate there. there were fireworks for accompaniment too... which came out of nowhere. we had our fill before proceeding to the esplanade to take photographs cos we wanted to show off our camera phones... haha of cos not since there's nothing to be proud about with the photo quality.

then saturday came and i was at home in the afternoon watching mtv chinese channel. saw the latest mayday MV jue jiang which happens to be the theme song of channel u's latest drama qi zheng neng yi... didn't know that until i visited a mayday forum. yeah, nice MV shot by an acclaimed japanese director plus nice music (rock + symphony orchestra + lalala at the end of the song = i like that.) and nice lyrics. i'll be buying their 5th album on 5th Nov, just after my AO chinese exam. yeah, can't wait anymore.

cY and wY called me during late afternoon to watch shark's tale. interesting movie characters but there's not much of a climax before the movie ended... i think finding nemo is better. wonder whether this year's disney/pixar's The Incredibles can live up to its predecessors.

there was PW meeting at wY's today and i'm still doing annotations! i have only myself to blame for always finding such loooooooong articles. the pagination of the file is finally done, thanks to wY and jodi. we rehearsed the OP 2 times, but i got worse the 2nd time. then the 3 of them went to buy the organic apples that will be served during the OP while i went for my physics tuition.

after tuition when going home i was outside white sands and saw this female group from china playing chinese percussion on tv... immediately bought their dvd since it's quite cheap. they are called the red poppy. quite a weird name i think... but they are very pro, especially in long teng hu yue... they played the drums so effortlessly... seems like child's play but actually it's not easy.

the official OP is on tuesday... argh... hope i will not be nervous.

holiday mood?

2004-10-27T23:03:00.000+08:00

our 3rd PW rehearsal was yesterday and really, having more rehearsals doesn't help you improve unless u constantly put in much effort from the 2nd rehearsal and also provided u dun already feel sian. i actually missed out a slide altogether...

then there was the chinese lecture by mr chan, my ex-physics teacher. yes, u didn't read wrongly and he's still teaching physics now. he likes chinese very much although he was an AO student and began writing articles for the newspapers since he was in secondary school. he showed us some of his childhood photos during the start of his presentation and ka yan commented i looked like him when he was a student in tj. -_-" anyway not many AO people attended the lecture, including majority of my chinese A class. overall i think mr chan could have shared more but i think not many AO people will have the patience.

we followed the timetable for monday today and there was mass PE in the morning supposedly. not that i was particularly looking forward to that though. however there was a lousy assembly/civics period before it and was lousy bcos most people dunno where to go, plus the period is there just for the CTs to give out report cards. luckily mr ho made it fast and just left after giving the cards. then many many people showcased their dilly dally attitude by walking slowly and it almost took 25 minutes to get all people before the sports complex. the HOD as usual talked and talked until there was no time for PE (he expected it) and just let us off. lame.

there was a talk in the audi during maths lecture (lectures are the best times to interupt) and Dr Tan spoke to us. initially i thought it's the PW tutor but then it turned out to be an eloquent doctor talking about his experiences in yunnan treating the village people. totally enjoyed the talk, maybe i should have bought the book he wrote at $10.

i played the timpani for the 1st time during CO practice... i consider my performance ok though lion obviously prefers fast reaction people to play. well i think i can improve by next practice lah.

there are rumours that mr sherwin cheng is taking over ms choo to teach us physics next year. this isn't exactly good news to many boys in the class including me since we won't be able to slack anymore. according to my senior last time taught by him too, he can manage a cross combi class very well. actually we aren't cross combi since we take 2 sciences, although some people just dropped one. most people in the class wants ms choo to follow up but then she is simply too inexperienced and she knows it too. she's really not bad for a newcomer though. i dun want mr chan to take us back since he speaks too fast although his physics is very pro but i dun think i have the time to decipher his words next year.

life after promos isn't as good as it seems. should listen more to liu jia yue tuan then. ^_^

lazy me

2004-10-25T23:59:00.000+08:00

i am a very very lazy person which is why i haven't blogged for the past few days. actually i blogged yesterday about all my doings in the past week but the com hanged and i had no mood to type all over again. but i must blog about today, which is *special*.

van fan yi chen and liu jia yue tuan (six plus) came to tj to hold a concert as a result of our school's continuous support for NKF. we donated a total of $31 000+, one of the highest amounts in S'pore, which the emcee claimed. the emcee was yang jun wei, it's the 1st time i saw him in person (including the singers of cos)... must say he has a good voice but somehow his antics on stage are similar to wang lu jiang's. he's a gooooood friend of mr rajesh; my classmates and i were wondering how they knew each other.

the concert was scheduled to start at 5 pm but somehow it got delayed till around 5.40 before we were let into the audi. many of my classmates stayed for the concert... chinese class mah. the OCIP people were selling light sticks for 50 cents each (the thin ones)... didn't buy but ye xian gave me one cos he bought more at a cheaper price. thanx.

wanyi was saying that we should grab the 4th row but then i think we'll only get it if we have really queued just right behind the doors. which most tjcians did and by the time we got in, most centre rows are filled. yu bo, chen yu and i managed to find seats at the topmost centre row. while wanyi and others sat at the 3rd row right portion, which they find themselves in front of the speakers. =P

liu jia yue tuan's style of rap-rock really rocked the whole audi... plus the crowd was almost full of enthu people (read: screaming girls). i got their CD yesterday but it was sold $3 cheaper in school though. you can't hear what they are singing most of the time... but actually the lyrics are full of meaning. here are the lyrics for yuan meng the xiao xiong, my blog's current music:

六甲乐团--圆梦的小熊
词曲: 小任

景仰的天父你还能施舍多少天
还有多少天能让我留在这世界
无奈肉体的病痛它一直在蔓延
不断侵蚀著我活下去的每一天
垂泪的点滴透过针头穿刺皮肤表面
我似乎已经没有任何的感觉
就在想要拔下呼吸器的那一瞬间
隔壁病床传来一句温馨的誓言

等病好一点爸爸带你环游世界
下了决心旅行迪斯奈乐园
等病好一点爸爸带你环游世界
下了决心旅行迪斯奈乐园

耳边微弱的心电图呈了一直线
相依为命的爸爸已经不在我身边
就在伤心之馀想起来一个心愿
和爸爸环游世界的计划还没有实现
想了一个办法能够与他去冒险
来走遍全世界大小的每一个地点
我拿起了一只小熊象徵爸爸的脸
加上我的名字代表著共同的心愿

等病好一点爸爸带你环游世界(牵著手下榻每一个地点)
下了决心旅行迪斯奈乐园(许了愿等著我们去实现)
等病好一点爸爸带你环游世界(不要怕梦想离我们不远)
下了决心旅行迪斯奈乐园(许了愿我们一定会实现)

这是来自一个日本小女孩的故事
藉由传递的方式把小熊交给去旅行的人
就这样不分国籍语言一个传过了一个
只是举手之劳携带完成了他的心愿
当他得知小熊平安去了十七个国家
忍住了病痛哭著感谢实现心愿的人
这对圆梦的父女也许已经不在人世
但是环游世界的旅行会一直走下去

i almost cried the first time i saw the lyrics... quite touching. it's about a father and daughter who somehow both got hospitalised but the father passed away first. the girl thought about their dream which is travelling to disneyland (迪斯奈乐园) together and so wrote both their names on a teddy bear so that their dreams can come true when it is passed around over the world.

van fan yi chen also performed 3 songs... including one new song that is contained in his upcoming album... quite nice. he sang his cheng-ming-qu "i believe" too. overall i think the concert is a success... me first time attend such concert although it is a mini one.

ms rita wong must be feeling so high now since she is a "shao nu" and had her name called by yang jun wei in such an affectionate tone. riiiiitaaaa... haha.

it's late and i think i still need to practise my OP. tata...

promo results II

2004-10-19T23:55:00.000+08:00

if u can't view the last post which has chinese words, pls switch the encoding under 'View' to Unicode.

continuing on my previous post about getting results, i got A for maths, E for physics and B for chinese A. with just 9 people taking the latter, getting an A isn't that easy at all since only 1 person got it and her marks were just higher than me by 3. i think i'll get C for chem, but i'm hoping for a B. argh, should have studied harder for both chem and CL A.

just now during CO practice, everybody is talking about results. although initially some were discussing about passing promos, the topic quickly shifted to S papers, whether who wants to take and the criteria, blah blah. this is a topic not talked about at all in my class, so i was somewhat surprised to hear it in CO. which makes me wonder whether i want to take S papers or not, since i meet the criteria and mr ho says he'll "go all out" to support anyone that wants S papers. hmm.

it's getting late, i'll end off with this quiz i took.

I'm completely down-to-earth! Find your soul type at kelly.moranweb.com.

promo results

2004-10-19T15:40:00.000+08:00

i'm blogging again while waiting for CO practice to start... yesterday was results day and i was quite bored waiting for the results... since i already knew 3 of my subjects and passed promos plus retain 4 subjects. however, some of my friends were still stressed as they need passes to promote. i thought of the following song which reflects what students generally feel... usually and during exams (note the bold words)

六甲乐团--半工半读
词曲∶任中强

当掉当掉被当掉被当掉
fire掉 fire掉被fire掉被fire掉
被当掉当掉被当掉被当掉
被fire掉 fire掉被fire掉被fire掉被fire掉

烦人的闹钟一响起依照惯例起个大早两眼惺忪还没睡饱
不过没有关系再来眯个五分钟应该不会迟到
天晓得一睁开眼睛时光飞逝已经过了半个钟头
就连刷牙洗脸买个早餐时间都不够搞的自己像一苹饥饿无比的臭虫
接著下来又得面对那忙碌拥挤人山人海瘫痪的市容
就在公车捷运站上大眼瞪著小眼谁也不愿意相让挣个你死我活
终於在夹缝中求的生存还要秉持著敬老尊贤一贯的美德
巧遇天时地利人和的博爱座其实想坐又不敢坐只好眼不见为净

当掉当掉当当掉掉被当掉被当掉
fire掉 fire掉 firefire掉掉被fire掉被fire掉
被当掉~(被fire掉~)
当掉当掉当当掉掉被当掉被当掉fire掉 fire掉 firefire掉掉被fire掉被fire掉

还真是羡幕那些自由自在整天闲晃
领人薪水的上班族每天起床的时间都一样
但是所受的待遇却又完全不同
换我说现在的学生吃不了苦
真的是身在福中不知福
茶来张口饭来伸手嫌不够
可知道出了社会得靠自己孤军来奋斗
哪像你们迟到扣个钟点微不足道
这点小钱简直无伤大雅
我们却是缴了一笔学费来让别人骂
要是错过了考试搞不好又会被学校当
我们成天忍气吞声低声下气
拍人马屁为得只求安定的生活
日以继夜不惜繁忙的工作
不懂赚钱的辛苦就别在那胡乱的叫嚣

当掉当掉当当掉掉被当掉被当掉
fire掉 fire掉 firefire掉掉被fire掉被fire掉 老师别把我当掉
当掉当掉当当掉掉被当掉被当掉
fire掉 fire掉 firefire掉掉被fire掉被fire掉老板别把我fire掉

想到期末的考试一结束按部就班就得领教那公布栏重修的名单
心里面打个冷颤但是这学期的成绩是否能够欧趴
近来公司裁员的手段除旧布新一昧的又向我逼近
现在仔细想想其实我们遇到的问题大同小异诸如此类不过也都一样

the song talks about the grievances of both the working class and students from their own point of view, and the conclusion is that actually their complaints are similar...

okie, CO practice is starting soon, more blogging later...

procrastinate

2004-10-17T20:30:00.000+08:00

a blog really reflect's the owner's character. for example, i like to procrastinate a lot and therefore u only see this post now which is 4 days after my 2nd post. i consider that a loooooooooong time since there's nothing much to do lately and i should blog everyday. nonetheless, i'll still write something about the past few days.

yesterday i went for pool with wY, cY, rachel and zG at parkway centre again, the 2nd time since promos. this time we opened two tables, one 7 ft and one 8ft. won and lost some games... rachel left early and zG went to toa payoh so the rest of us had dinner at mos burger... yummy!

friday was quite a tiring day, with organise-your-own-CG-activity in the morning. bleh, it's actually a ploy to let us waste time at the sports complex so that the sch staff and admin can prepare for the open house later in the afternoon. anyway, my class had captain's ball. some classes had picnic, while my enthu class almost played the entire time.

then 10 am came and it was time for the preparation for open house. there was really nothing much to prepare and yet the preparation time lasted all the way till 2 pm which is the starting time of open house. rehearsed in the CO room for the performance in the afternoon for open house before lunching with some of my classmates who also had nothing much to do.

i can still remember one year ago when i was looking lost in tj during open house. haha... at that time i was envious of the people already in tj and i'm glad now that i successfully entered here. ^_^ i was giving some brochures of CO with some CO people and then i wandered off to explore the open house with yet again my classmates. hmm... the open house was well-received i think.

we saw ms choo walking around and so approached her to ask about our physics results. the good thing abt tj tutors is that they are more than happy to release our results secretly... got 44.2% only... hopefully an A-pass. zG surprised us by getting 50.4%... the power of having 3 subjects i think.

then came the performance... i performed ok with some errors towards the back part of the song. luckily i'm not the one leading the song... should say hau yee did a good job. i must say thanks to some of my juniors who came to support me and xuguang... 2 of them are appealing thru tjco and i hope they can make it...

the last item of the open house is mass dance and some of my classmates and i decided to dance during "speedy", the easiest dance of all. had a really great time and it's the 1st time i felt so happy and 'high' after promos.

thursday i learnt balloon sculpturing for personal enrichment programme (post-promos activity). many of us in the class chose balloon sculpturing from some others like magic, sign language, break dancing, "making 1st impressions". LN was supposed to be attending "making 1st impressions" as he didn't choose anything before promos but he crashed the balloon sculpturing course. really, he should attend the former.

balloon sculpturing is actually not too difficult... learnt how to make a dog, mouse, giraffe, rabbit which are just simple variations of each other. the bear was the hardest to make... i should try out at home using the spare balloons i've got.

also, i got back my chinese 'A' results today. got 70%... which can be A or B. dunno how the other girls did... should be all passed as my chinese teacher will be treating us to i'm lovin' it's breakfast next wed.
____________________

today i had PW at wanyi's house as usual. the written report is finally complete after reduction of words by jodi. yeah... then we sort of rehearsed OP since most of us didn't go thru our cue cards ever since the OP rehearsal before promos. i still need to do some annotations though. =P

then we went for a PW movie outing at TM. first time jodi's joining us... we watched 2046, with much grumbling from chen yu. he originally wanted to watch sky captain and the world of tomorrow, which i'm actually not very interested. watching 2046 with my friends is good, since they can enlighten me on some parts of the film i dun understand. my comprehension and inference skills really sux -_-" i will be reading more reviews to understand the movie better.

all results will be released and papers checked tomorrow... i should start praying for me and my friends now... some of them really need passes in order to advance to next year...

waiting time

2004-10-13T15:47:00.000+08:00

i'm in the school's Hub now typing this blog... it's a long wait for me now till 5 pm for CO practice. while some of my classmates watch white chicks at tampines mall. humph.

dear mr lion conductor decided that we should play a chui da ensemble Tao Jing Ling for the open house... well this is chicken feet for the woodwind section, but is certainly going to be hard for the percussion section as only i have played this song before during mardi gras way back in march. not that i doubt my friends' skills but they really do not seem to handle the beats well. seems very pathetic as this song is kinda basic for the area of chinese percussion. most importantly, we only have TWO days to practise this new song. expect piles of the lion's mane to accumulate on the floor and pailfuls of blood to be collected later. i'll update u on this.

my CT mr ho 'secretly' returned us our maths marks today. he told leonard ngoei that he got 30+ (no surprise) in the morning and told some of the boys their marks when they asked him. they were anxious to know whether they passed. i didn't ask, but eventually all knew after CIP (cleaning of the canteen in 30 min but registered as 2 hours) when he just shoved us the mark sheet after some prodding. yeah, i got better than expected. ^_^ should be an A. i decided not to reveal my marks here in case someone beats me up -_-" cos there are only 2 As in my class.

the official checking of scripts day is next monday. chinese A paper will be returned tmr though... which i hope i can score an A again. it's certainly an easy to pass/score subject, compared to LEP. i'm really not up to the standard for LEP... being a practical person i guess i can't stand too much chinese literature. of cos chinese A contains chinese lit too, but it's of a more manageable level, lesser in content and difficulty. i think the bicultural studies programme suits me more, which is practical and contains a bit of everything (lit, philosophy, modern history, blah). sadly i'm overaged already.

it seems that the new timetable will be modified into 45-min periods, a reduction of 5 min every period. which means earlier dismissal. actually, what for? lectures are already very rushing before, now they either rush through more, or maybe leave out some details for us to find out so that "teach less, learn more" is applied. i really dun think the traditional spoon-fed crowd of tj, including me, will be pleased with this.

i realised i've typed too much... more later.

first post

2004-10-12T23:58:00.000+08:00

i'm finally writing my first post... haha... spent quite a lot of time on the space at the right of this blog on what to include... this blog is created with help from wanyi... thanks! i'll play some music on the blog soon...

promos are just over and so i'm enjoying now... watched the exorcist: beginning at PS with wanyi, chen yu and zhen gang today. as usual, got scared. then we went to play pool at parkway which i lost all 3 games... haha. well we were saying that the ones who lose are the ones who pass the promos but the ones who win are the ones that spent months training secretly and will fail promos. hmm... that means i'll pass with flying colours? crossing my fingers now.

tomorrow will be a super sian day with PW in the morning and cleaning up of the canteen as CIP after lunch. argh. wondering whether my maths paper will be given back tmr.

pls tag to let me know u are reading... =)

new blog

2004-10-11T21:56:00.000+08:00

testing...