Notes from a flat in Serangoon

2009-04-15T16:06:00.003+08:00

yup. 1 month plus and the wait is over. yes miniature pleibians, it's time for another one of my great posts!

just kidding.

syf is over and i'm rather free now. at least, it seems that i'm more free now. however, a look at the recently released APR clearly shows that i should be less free. seriously. i think i've been slacking around too much liao. sometimes i don't do my homwwork and need to rush it out in class, or sometimes i even need to do it in another teacher's class. it's becoming something ike a bad habit for me. must change sooner or later...

anyhoo, RIMB will be performing on the 30th April as a joint SYf series performance with the rest of the musical groups. it's free, at the school hall i think. anyone interested?

plan to arrange one particular song for our upcoming concert. it's a percussion ensemble, and there are roughly 12-13 parts. thus, we might need to rope in people from other sections to help play the easier, so called "minor parts".

the instruments are, in order of appearance,

-hihat
-snare
-bass
-cymbals
-cowbell
-toms
-timbales
-woodblocks
-timpani
-agogo bell
-vibraslap
-chimes
-gong

gears are to keep beat, although we won't be using those

here's a video:

Till next post...

2009-03-01T19:35:00.002+08:00

hi peeps.

maths test just over, and i kinda think i screwed up. sianzzzz. that's what you get for not getting enough sleep for the past few weeks...

homework piling up as usual, wish i had somesort of device to stop time, like when you are too busy to finish a movie you just press pause, then you do your stuff, then you come back and then press play. if only life had a remote...

band practises rather hectic, but i'm glad to see that we have been making some sort of progress. was rather impressed when the horns could actually play the parts that had been assigned to them properly in the right rhythm. managed to run through the song a few times the past prac. very impressive in my opinion.

my neighbour in the next block that i know plays the sax. he's in band of course. secondary school also. have to find out what song his school is playing for SYF this year.

i'm starting to notice this trend of spamming on people's textboards. first my class blog, then the band blog. seems that some people really have no life. first they flame you/ your blog/ your whatever, then you argue back they suddenly change, either calling you immature for flaming, or they just leave without a trace, leaving your IQ decreased.

i know a very good example of a flamer/spammer, but since i'm not one to start conflicts, i shall remain mum as to who that person is. as to why people like them want to flame, who knows? after all, who can understand the mind of an idiot?

P.S a disclaimer. once again, i did not explicitly mention anyone in this post, and if i'm going to get flamed for criticising anyone with this particular post, well, let's just say that i can't blame you for having the intelligence of an amoeba and the comprehension skills of a microbe.

Till next post...

2009-02-22T21:08:00.002+08:00

poof. just came back from mervyn's other house (quice nice also) after a day of doing ERP. tried out other games like sushido, harvest time (first time playing and i won woo!), and other random games on viwawa. also managed to persuade mervyn to join viwawa (but i don't know his wawa name so i can't add him yet. hmm...)

in terms of work, we managed to get some work done. emphasis on SOME. rest will be completed later individually i think.

went on wikipedia and searched "mervyn" for fun. found out there really is a company called "mervyns" in USA. showed it to mervyn and he was excited until he found out that company filed for bankruptcy. the squeal when he found out was priceless. PRICELESS. (in a good way)

parents fatched me home with viet cos it was raining damn heavily at around 3 plus. through conversation, i found out:

-viet is not vietnamese-chinese, he is just vietnamese (he has no chinese surname)
-his name has no meaning (really)
-his scholarship only lasts for like 4 years, from last year. once he's done here, he wants to go to UK.
- he sort of understands chinese, cos some chinese and vietnamese words sound similiar.
- viet and nam weren't from the same school/class.

chinese is screwing up. it's like making a bomb. one errant twitch, one wrong word here and there and kablooiie! your marks blow up in your face. combine that with highly volatile marking, and you can see why my chinese is in a wreck now. it's not i don't have any of the right tools. it's that some tools i need are missing and sometimes i don't know how to use the tools that i have now. hope that by the end of the year i'll be able to assemble a real whopper that will be sure to ensure me a good grade (and not blow up in my face) the ironic thing is that when i'm typing this i'm trying to assemble a bomb called "ying yong wen er"

band is on tmr at 9-4. goodness, it's like working. except you don't get paid. kirk says this is going to sto ponce we get past the SYF period. it better...

just got a new junior for eupho, called errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.... i forgot. sorry. i'm not very good at remembering names.

haizz... must go and finish the bomb now.

Till next post...

restarting

2009-02-08T15:35:00.004+08:00

hai... i know it's been a looooong time since i posted something, but hey, with so much stuff going on around these few months, i can't say i have had alot of time to write...

but anyhoo, stuff in my life has been piling up for a while, so i think this will be a rather long post. bear with me.

first, my class is almost the same as last year, except different seating arrangement, i have moved diagonally forward and am now in the front row. (damn it. come to think of it now, i shouldn't have sat there. always kena catch by the teacher when i don't finish my work. also can't sleep when lessons get really boring like SS, Geog sometimes...) teachers are all the same as last year, except for languages. english teacher is mz. kuang (yes. it's mZ. she refuses to be called ms. or miss kuang because she says it's a disrespectful term. it's along story, but since it's along post, i'll write it down anyway. first, miss. something makes the woman sound as if she is unable to "catch" a husband. -_-) and chinese teacher is zhang hongshi (from china, but is korean. another complicated family tree) leassons with them have been rather interesting, with laughs, talking and intereaction. hope we can keep the chinese teacher. she's one of the better chinese teachers i've had in secondary school. and that's saying something.

cca next. practise has been hectic and long, the pressure is on as SYF is nearly a month away, and we haven't mastered like, ANY of our pieces that we will be playing. combine that with some juniors that are screwed up in terms of playing , attitude and attendance, you can see from my viewpoint as SL why i've been worrying so much. another piece of evidence showing our worrying situation: kirk is getting angry. yes. kirk almost never gets angry, and he just recently held us back to lecture us about our performance until very late. and i got angry with my section as well, to be precise, some member of my section. hai... i'll just let it pass for now. shall go home and think about my situation, what i should next and whatnot. will also play epic sounding music to cheer myself up.

and brandon got angry with his section as well. not surprising, since he gets pissed very easily (too easily, if you know what i mean) and also his section isn't performing as well as it was last time. band is in a techinical recession now, but don't give up everybody, not when we've gone so far already!

"Just gotta wait out the down cycle... yeah... everything will be fine..."- random quote from one of the enemies in the game that i'm playing now.

i also have to take this opportunity to commend my section including that person for putting in their effort during these few months, and also to tell them that no matter what happens in the end, as long as you've put in your best, don't go too hard on yourself. i know it's not easy being labelled indirectly as the "worst section" in the band, but still... always remember:

"yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery. but today is a gift. that's why it's called the present."

use it well.

last week was rather hectic, one day i even reached home at 10 pm. yes. it's a new record. never once has this happened before. oh well, i guess for me everything has to be late.

-go home late
-have meals late
-sleep late
-wake up slightly late next day
-almost be late for school next day

you get the picture.

anyhoo, last tuesday spent sometime during unofficial band practice to play Take 5 with yifan. i was on piano. yes that pathetic piece of shit that sits in the corner of the band room. that thing with many silent keys and every note sharp. that thing that is only good for spare parts now. anyway, the piece was quite fun, being in 5/4 and such, yifan always had some problems reaching certain notes or getting the melody, but hey, in the end it sounded quite nice. and we might be using it for yifan's big debut next week. hmmm...

just met new sec 1 recruits for this year. i have 3 new hornists (yuran (taiwanese scholar i think. 15 years old but doesn't look like it), danial and sean. all have musical experience) and 1 new euphoniumist (jedediah. no musical experience) and i don't know exactly the reason but, but on the first day of CCA, jedediah wants to QUIT. said his first choice was table tennis, so he went to talk to mr jee, mr jee suanned him by telling him that the school didn't let him join because he wasn't good enough. ouch. if you were him, you would feel really lousy now, and even less in favour of band, wouldn't you?

thinking back, being leader of the section has taught be important skills on how to deal with people, people who listen and are cooperative, people who are more problematique, and also how to persuade and most importantly, lead. despite me not being able to play a horn, i think my section has made lots of progress. good work. not too much praise now cos i don't want to count my chickens before they hatch.

preparation for band camp has started, the theme is currently secret cos we dun want to spoil it for anyone. might volunteer to be station master or floater. (but if i want to be floater i must learn how to throw like a nitro splicer) anyway... it's going to be fun. and lame. but most of all, it's going to be useful.

went out to visit some people this chinese new year, ang pow earnings were less than previous years, but hey, everyone's earning less now, so why shouldn't we as younger people get the same treatment?

Sian. would write more but am tired now.

Till next post...

2008-12-28T11:38:00.002+08:00

hey peeps. i know it's been more than a month that i've posted on this blog, but hey, you can't blame me for having an uninteresting and probably unfulfilling Nov/Dec Holidays...

anyhoo, i know it's abit late, but i'm posting now cos yesterday was quite a special day for me. i'm finally 15, and i would like to thank all those who actually remembered:

1. Family
2. Relatives who came for yesterday's party.
3. Friends, namely Si Kai, Kieran, Alvin, Jack, Java, Mervyn, Parry, Danial and Ben Nah

thanks alot.

Till nest post...

band

2008-11-24T23:38:00.003+08:00

well, we just got the set piece for SYF next year. it's called "two overtures for wind band", and reading through the conductor's score, all i can say is

GOOD LUCK (we'll need it. don't forget lots of practise too.)

of course, not everything is bad news. all sctions have been making progress, and i think that if we can keep at this pace we could be well on our way to winning a gold with honours next year. mr. oura has been pretty content with how we have been doing so, keep up the good work everybody! especially the sec 1s, who are probably stil new to this band life, and also relatively new to your instruments as well. for you, SYF next year will probably the most challenging thing to happen to you in your four years of band life, since it's your first time probably performing in front of a real crowd for real judges, not forgetting you are representing your school as well. don't be scared though, just do your best. don't forget each person up there has the support of the others as well. (unless you are doing some solo.) for those who still can't play relatively well, don't fret, there is still time for you to learn. just make sure you put in the effort. that's what counts.

oh and jun hong, you still owe me 40 pushups and counting... (i didn't forget what happened you know...)

Till next post...

P.S should i continue designing cards for a 3T deck, or should i wait for next year to see what are the new positions? and who can give me tips on how to draw? thnx.

P.S.S most people whose blogs i've read are getting OIP withdrawal symptoms. tsk tsk...

OIPs

2008-11-17T21:52:00.002+08:00

oh goodness. life in singapore is sort of BORING. i finally see why people want to go for OIP. haizzzz...

had some talk with sheng wei last night on MSN. he was in Hanoi, and apparently over there it's one hour ahead of singapore time. so yeah, i'm there listening to how his host is like, how Jack was attracting girls already, how it wasn't flooded like the news said, how you were allowed to jaywalk all over the place, and basically what they/he did. and it did sound nice. only thing bad was sheng wei complaining about his mosquito bites.

oh well, guess it's only like that when you are at home during the weekends. i'm saying this because when i went for band during the weekdays i never felt any sort of boredom like this. guess that's the magical effect of getting out of the house once in a while.

haiz.

Till next post...

2008-11-13T21:49:00.003+08:00

since a certain mr. tex. is calling my blog dead, i shall now try to squeeze a post out just to prove him wrong. XD

no lah. i haven't been posting cos nothing interesting has been happening so far during the holidays. actually, coming to think of it now, what holidays?

fine fine. here are some somewhat interesting moments from various parts of my life recently.

went out with Kirk, Lin Jin, Yi Fan, Si Kai, Bo Qing, Philemon and Johnson (his idea) to mr. oura's (our conductor's) concert on Sunday. yes. the Sunday that just passed. anyway, he was conducting West Winds, some sort of un-official, get-together-once-in-a-week type of band to practise type of band. oh, but they were GOOD. they played movie hits, from Theme from The Incredibles and Final Fantasy 7 medley, to the classics, like Gabriel's Oboe and Indiana Jones. the gabriel's oboe solo was taken by a trumpet (not the first time, according to Johnson), cause a trumpet is much louder than an oboe. anyway, enjoyed akmost all the pieces, except for one piece where the percs starting not watching oura, and then sort of screwing up their solo. (the drum set was just doing random crashing around.) anyhoo, their encore piece was...

High School Musical Medley (OMG!!!!!!!!!one). i'm not joking. it wasn't until the end piece, We're All In This Together, that most of us suddenly realised what song they were playing. the cheers andpplause were loud and long. we wanted a second encore, but apparently, time prevented us from getting another one. also, despite the nice music, the atmosphere was ruined by the poor turnout and some people taking pictures incessantly. anyway, it went back on the NEL with johnson again after some food. nothing much for the rest of the day.

oh, that reminds me. just on the day before that, almost the whole class of 3T went for a class outing to Mervyn's house. reached Buona Vista MRT at around 1.25 pm plus (it's damnfar from my house), waited for the rest of the class and Mr. Koh before going off to take the bus to somewhere near his house. ended up squished SBS (side by side) on the TIBS for a few stops, before getting off at the junction of Farrer and some road. anyway, we were going to start walking towards his house when suddenly somebody got a call from Mervyn saying that his family would be coming to pick us up from the side of the road. of course, we were wondering how we would all fit in one car. no problem. apparently, there were three cars coming. (warning sign #1). squeezed into the front seat with Mr. Koh, in a blatant breakage of traffic rules. anyway, we began a long twisty drive down the narrow road down to Mervyn's place (warning sign #2), reached the house entrance, and saw nice decorations (warning sign #3). drove down the slope ot the main entrance, walked through the front door......

and we all got stunned there for 5 minutes, with "ooh"s and "aah"s coming from almost everybody's open mouths. anyhoo, we had a tour of the house, and by the time we were done we were all panting from lack of breath from running down the long hallways. took some pictures, but due to protection of privacy we decided not to post them online. spent the day playing pool (you know, the ball and stick game, hit the white ball to hit the other balls into the holes...), card games (the standard fare) then mahjong (with an automatic table), singing karaoke (yes, i can sing), playing computer and finally we had dinner, and mass dunking of most of the class, including Mr Koh. hitched a ride home with jian wei and his parents (thanks). nothing much for the rest of the day also. have to remember to thank Mervyn for this once in a lifetime experience! (although it would be nice to go again =P) 3T rocks!

skip forward to day before yesterday. went to Biopolis (next to Buona Vista Station again -_-) in the morning to attend the Science Exposure Program by A*STAR. went over to simtech to attend lab tours, and also to attend the course on Control Theory. got throughly confused in due course, and after a day's worth of activities went back more enriched with knowledge on PID controllers, and that 1 point means alot when trying to win water bottles (in case you're wondering, we had a competition in groups where we would try to control the motor as accurately as possible in order to win. eg. leaast sum of absolute error. P in PID stands for proportional error, I stands for integral, and D stands for differential. if you don;t know what that means, don't worry, cos i'm not exactly sure what they mean either.) anyway, second day was slightly more fun, had an exposure program at BTI (Bioprocessing Technology Institute) to learn how they made pharmaceuticals from mamalian cells, more specifically CHO cells (chinese hamster ovary cells). had a short tour of the lad later, and we got a limited edition laboratory gown that we had to throw away later -_-. anyhoo, had lunch buffet style, and played cards with some of the Cedar Girls and some Hwa Chong boys. (didn't get their names, how sad) after lunch and discussion we went over to fusionopolis, a futuristic area where we were exposed to the technologies of the future, from a TV that you could control by just waving your hands in front of it, self-cleaning glass, to high tech hospital beds that could detect whether the patient was ok by measuring it's breating rate, to tables that were connected to projectors, and that you could just write on them with ur finger. imagine that! just write ur answer on ur table and then send it to the teacher to display to the whlole class. went for a short presentation later, where we had to share what we had discussed just now. ended off the entire session with mass telephone sharades, where we had a good laugh watching the people on stage perform (seems that almost every question involved people waving their hands left and right, whether it was "Matrix" to "High School Musical 3" or even "Tour guide") anyhoo, took our cheques, and went home by MRT with Mr. Nihilist. 158 came surprisingly fast this time, and i suffered several head injuries

when

1. I was sleeping.
2. The bus was passing by several humps. or swerving towards the right.
3. *bangs head on window*

you get the picture. anyhoo, what i'm going to do with the $1000:

1. Treat my family to dinner.
2. Buy a new phone, cos the old one broke when i spilt water on it.
3. ???

whee.

ps. Does anyone remember what was the name of the movie that Jack lent to Mrs. Tay during our last few lessons of physics? it because i actually want to search for it so i can actually finish watching it. thnx =)

Till next post...

2008-11-04T13:07:00.001+08:00

let's cut this short.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

and HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY MOM! (sorry...)

Till next post...

relaxation with music

2008-10-30T20:50:00.009+08:00

Hi peeps. with so many ppl zhao-ing from singapore to other countries soon for OIP/holiday/whatever, it's only fair that i say this:

Have fun! And for goodness sake, come back in one piece. Learn something new, meet new people, experience a new culture- in all, just get away from it all. Bon voyage!

Anyway, here's a nice music video i found online, the Youtube quality just doesn't do it justice though... thankfully the sound quality is still there.

Till next post...

PS: Fixed! had to tweak the HTML abit.

eoy results

2008-10-28T23:41:00.003+08:00

aiyo.first day of getting back results, and just to cut things short,

English:

EOY: 37/60 (61.666 %) aka 2.8

Overall: 3.2 (goodness me)

SS

EOY: 21/ 30 (70%) aka 3.6

Overall: 2.8! (really glad about this, considering my GPA before the test was 2.0, and i was lowest in class.)

Geog

EOY: 30.5 / 40 (76.25%) aka 3.6

Overall: 77% aka 3.6 (yay again)

Chem

EOY: 75/80 (93.75%) aka 4.0

Overall: 4.0 (whee)

Physics

EOY: 75/80 (93.75%) aka 4.0

Overall: 4.0 (amazed, considering physics used to be my worst science.)

Bio

EOY: 84/100 (84%) aka 4.0

Overall: 4.0 (yay again)

Chinese

EOY: 54.5/110 (dunno%) aka FAIL. (yes. please don't talk to me about it.)

Overall: 2.8 (thanks to CA)

Maths 1/2

EOY: 49, 57.5/60, respectively

Overall: 4.0, 4.0 respectively

Overall overall: 3.6 (improvement, if you compare with the past 2 years' final APR)

my thoughts: could have worked harder for SS and Chinese, also, need to have some luck while doing chinese (especially first part, zhong he tian kong >.<), must brush up on compre and writing as well for both languages. overall, must work harder for next year, cos, its your last chance in RI.

P.S. I heard someone in our class got 95 for the bio EOY, according to Joy Lim. i wonder who? *coughcough* (update, it's xinyan. why am i not surprised?)

If you're wondering why this post looks so familiar, that 's because it's an update. poof.

Till next post...

cards

2008-10-26T22:18:00.003+08:00

now, there is this very um... pertaining issue in school, and i have spoken to some prefects, and even brought it up briefly with some teachers.

to cut things short, it's about cards/playing cards. the school is currently being a ________ not allowing people to play cards. yes i know it's about the school's "image" (whatever that is), cos any people visiting and seeing students playing cards in the classrooms will think that this is RGS (Raffles Gambling School). anyway, i acknowledge that fact, but please don't forget that not ALL instances of playing cards equals gambling.

yes, i know it's useless posting here, but it's equally useless talking to either prefects or teachers. in the case of teachers, they just say it's the school rules, and they can't do anything about it. however, there is one teacher, who will remain unnamed, who has allowed us to blatantly display cards in class, with his permission. the purpose of bringing out the cards at that time was for entertainment (what else?) and i really appreciate his flexibility. unlike prefects, who promise lots but give little. their standard response is "Keep the cards now, if not i'll book you.". when asked why cards are not allowed, they refer to the teacher's answer. hai...

well, they keep emphasising on bonding and whatever, so we are finding a way to bond. except that, our way isn't the school's way. hmm. great. besides, card games that require skill and thinking also train up mind skills.

Till next post...

ps. for those people who want to flame me for this, this is just my opinion. cheers. =)

2008-10-25T14:02:00.002+08:00

recently visited my cousin's blog shop. the link is on the right there.

i scrolled down to the total sales listings, and oh my goodness, she's sold like over 40 pairs already. ath an average of 10$ plus for each pair.

that's like $400 earnings! so happy for her. heard she's going to use the cash to buy a new tennis racket (she's in tennis CCA anyway)

so, life is getting really boring now, hullett got 3rd overall (as usual) after house carn 2, and exam papers will be handed back next tuesday. just great...

johnson's house is available for "visiting", just have to decide when and with who. was planning to go today, but there was little support due to 2 sleepyheads *ahem ahem*. maybe another day...

gotta go play big 2.5 now. have to level up soon, especially after yesterday's disastrous session.

Till next post...

stuff in my life (lol what else?)

2008-10-22T20:32:00.004+08:00

went out with johnson, josiah and lin jin on monday after the bio test. wanted to go bowling, but when we reached there we realised the placed had been turned into a tuition centre. (...) anyhoo, decided to go to plaza singapura and orchard road area to go window shopping, visited the new daiso store, and ended up going to the yamaha store and bought nothing there. after that went to some large movie theatre thing, but ended up not watchin anything cos there was nothing nice to watch. (diao) anyhoo, in the end we went to some magic shop at the concorde, and i bought myself a deck of bicycle cards. josiah bought a deck of transparent cards, and johnson wanted to buy a keychain but was put off by the price ($18 for a keychain. SCAM.)

took MRT back with johnson later on the NEL, linjin and josie went back on the NSL, and standard talk about stuff went on. nothing much here.

taught family how to play bridge, had fun with them for a while, until my sister decided to ruin the fun by bidding really high every time.

wednesday was the day of the NE quiz, or i should say NE game. got a score of 597000, and managed to build quite a lot of stuff. btw, google is your friend when you're playing that game. heehee. =)

went for band later, spent the whole day trying to teach ashlee how to play high E natural, and failed. -_- went through the song once or twice myself, after that stoned around, talked to the section, yadda yadda. nothing interesting ever happens at band anyway. other than occasional card games.

after that was dinner at j8 KFC, with kirk, johnson, yi fan, si kai and linjin. somehow, the person at the counter forgot my order, especially after he said that it would be sent to my table later. ended up watching the rst of my friends chomp away happily on their burgers and chicken pieces. oh well, finally got my food after going up to the counter and "reminding" them. started talking for a long time, colonised the place until our consideration reminded us to give up our seats for the more needy. went home later on 58 with siki. more standard rambling and poking ensued.

currently playing Big 2.5/other games on Viwawa, basically online Taiti. currently level 15, but remember, level doesn't mean anything, it's about your skills, strategy, and your cards. for example, i have won people much higher level than me, same thing for other people who are lower leveled as well. in one particular game, one person had 2 four of a kinds. wow.

viwawa also has bridge, mahjong, and other games. quite fun actually. and their motto, which is quite applicable to almost any circumstance, is

"Why play alone?"

if any one of ya'll decide to join viwawa, do tell me ur wawa's name so that i can add you. thnx

Till next post...

2008-10-19T00:04:00.002+08:00

recently, life has been stressful. the usually black faced Dr. Chionh is still black faced, and she has kindly set us an EOY paper which i'm sure the questions of which no one has ever practised before.
same thing for physics, thus through much thought, i have come up with the really imba sounding but actually quite lame...

"Law of Inverse Relation" !!! *cue fanfare music and confetti throwing*

Anyway, i think that the more relaxed the teacher is when teaching you, the harder the paper will be.

for example,

Name: Joy Lim
Stress factor while teaching: 100/10
Evidence: Talking too fast, spamming us with words, daoing our questions, or answering by asking "why you never study?!?!??"

EOY paper for Bio: ??? (probably going to be easy. i hope. this is not suanning.)

Name: Koh Siak Peng
Stress factor while teaching: 12/10
Evidence: Abusing pupils, impatience during lesson.

EOY paper for Chem: OK-easy. (again, this is not suanning.)

Name: Eunice Tay
Stress factor while teaching: 4/10
Evidence: Really relaxed tone of voice used during teaching. almost never scolds.

EOY paper for Physics: EPIC FAIL. (if you think this is suanning, you need to get your eyeballs replaced.)

Name: Quah Seok Whee
Stress factor while teaching: 11/10
Evidence: Random nodding of head and shrieking while talking. Tone of voice rises and falls dramatically.

EOY paper for English: OK. (it was just compre and compo actually)

Name: Sunny chong/ mr. jing ying/ tong lao shi/ wang lao shi/ current lao shi with unknown name

Stress factor while teaching: 6, 3, 1, 2, 1 /10 respectively
Evidence: HAVE YOU ATTENDED CHINESE CLASS BEFORE WITH THEM?!? IT'S LIKE __________.

EOY paper for Chinese: OMGWTFBBQGGXXDDY Q (lol random letter in the middle of nowhere)

Name: Priscilla Lim
Stress factor while teaching: 8/10
Evidence: makes sure you get work done and handed up on time. punishments are varied and creative.

EOY paper for Maths: OK i guess. paper 1 was a bit more problematic though.

Name: Chionh something.
Stress factor while teaching: 9/10
Evidence: has a killer stare.

EOY paper for Geog: OK, until you reach the last question. then you black out, bruise your head, and are desperately in need of artificial respiration. (which can be provided by Mervyn, if he pokes your ribs.)

aah EOYs. just another eggshell in the omelette of life. you can't remove it without ruining the rest of the omelette, so just grin and eat it. swallow carefully! ^^

Till next post...

more EOYs

2008-10-18T11:50:00.002+08:00

ok. it's 8/9 now. only 1 to go.

BIO >.<

wish me luck. and gd luck to all too. (especially those poor souls who have to take lit >.>)

Till next post...

answers, answers...

2008-10-17T15:25:00.002+08:00

This is regarding an earlier post...

1. The powder can be any ammonium salt. I'm going to use ammonium chloride.

a) ammonium chloride. NH4Cl = NH3 + HCl

b) the red one. ammonia gas diffuses faster than HCl due to it's lower Mr.

c) so the gases can dissolve on the paper.

2.

a)
A : Ag2CO3 (silver carbonate)
B: Ca(OH)2 (calcium hydroxide/ limewater)
C: AgCl (silver chloride)
D: CaCO3 (calcium carbonate)

b) E's pH would be higher. F's would be lower.

c) Add acid to each powder. if effervescence is observed, it's calcium carbonate. if not it's silver chloride.

3. Despite mercury having delocalised electrons allowing it to conduct electricity like any other metal, mercury tends to cling on to it's electrons more tightly, now wanting to contribute then to the sea of electrons. thus, it's metallic structure, although there, is not as strong as other metal's. thus, it has a low boiling point.

a) Rubidium.

4. a) atoms of the same element with different number of neutrons.

b) allotrope is the same element in different forms eg. diamond and graphite

c) The average weight of all the atoms of that particular element found in nature.

d) pH is the measure of the concentration of H+ ions in a solution.

5. ammonia does act as a base, dissolving in water to form OH- ions. however, it does not act as a acid, as in this case it is the proton acceptor.

so yeah, these are the answers. some might be wrong though. have fun...

Till next post...

EOYs (part 2)

2008-10-13T20:55:00.002+08:00

ok. english and SS completed, and personally, i have not much to say. except that english was sort of ok, and that i might get my 3.6/4.0 if i do well in this test. the story writing was really spammage, and other than that i have nothing to say.

for SS, well uh, each section for me was 1.5 pages. i was actually getting rather worried when i saw other people still scribbling away while was one of those who was err, done. we still had 20 minutes left, and reading through my answer, i couldn't see what else to add. either my answer is perfect, or i'm really stupid. i think it's the latter.

HCL and chem coming soon, hope i do well for those too. one can dream, can't he?

PS. i should learn how to make those marks graphics like alastair does. it looks much more professional.

Till next post...

my thoughts on the EOYs

2008-10-04T23:30:00.005+08:00

hai, EOYs are coming, and it seems i have contracted the emo syndrome from most of the people around me, including Wai Choong, Mervyn, Shoun and others. and i say this is because EOYs seem to be the only thing on our minds these coming weeks.

i mean, how can we not think about it? 40% of the entire year cumulated in just 2 hours worth of testing. screw this up and your A+ will be reduced to some distant fantasy.

it's like something that's bad and you don't want it to ever happen to you, and yet, the other half of yourself longs for it to be over quickly, so you can be free...

for me, i've been equally mugging and playing. how can you play at this time, you might ask. well, it's just one of the ways i can take my mind off the content for a while. last thing i want is to blank out on the day itself. it's happened to me before, and it's not some pleasant experience i want to talk about. playing also gives the person the false sense of security, that he is prepared enough, that he can relax. call me delusional, but this false sense of well being is better than feeling no sense of well being at all.

geog and ss will be the usual subjects that i don't do too well in, for obvious reasons. despite that, i will try to mug and make sense of the meagre notes we have been given. wish me luck.

before EOYs is the time when friendships are tested. when you ask for help regarding work or some school related problem, the most logical person to ask, other than the teacher, would be your friends. for example, i'm not meaning to boast or anything, but recently i've been receiving a barrage of messages online asking me for help regarding some science questions/problems. according to one friend, i'm sort of "the most reliable science reference book". that does make me feel good that i'm able to help others out, but it makes me wonder about other, less positive things as well. a reference book is not something that you keep long with you, something that is just touch and go, something that you leave behind once it has satisfied your needs. this trait has appeared recently, with some old classmate of mine who hasn't spoken to me in 9 months suddenly popping up with some science question to ask me. should i answer him, i wonder? should i?

oh well, these are just my thoughts. on another note, if you have any queries regarding the sciences or maths, you could approach me to ask your questions, and i'll try my best to answer you. for those who are too love face to ask me, don't worry, i won't laugh at you, unless it's a REALLY POINTLESS, STUPID question. after all, helping each other out is what friends are for.

Till next post...

P.S I heard Wen Da wants to join band in RJC. i wonder what he'll play...

2008-09-30T22:32:00.003+08:00

hello peeps. EOYs coming soon! be prepared to uh, drive the night car.

Anyway, i've come up with some Chem questions to help me/you/whatever get into the appropriate mood for studying. i came up with them myself, so forgive me if their too evil or hard for you. but i honestly think that it should be not much problem for most people who have studied.

So, let's get started!
1. A pure white powder, when heated strongly, sublimes. The gases evolved are tested with a piece of moist red and blue litmus paper. When the experiment is over, both pieces of paper have changed colour.

a) Deduce the formula of the powder, and thus write the equation for its decomposition.

b)Which piece of paper changed colour first? Explain your answer.

c)Explain why the pieces of litmus paper had to be wetted first.

2. Some powder A was added to excess solution of hydrochloric acid in a flask E. Effervescence was observed, and a white precipitate C was seen settling after a while at the bottom of the flask. The gas evolved was bubbled into another flask F containing solution B. After a while, a white precipitate D was observed at the bottom of the second flask too. Further tests on a mole of A showed that it contained 3 moles of ions.

a) Deduce the identities of A, B, C and D.

b) How would the pH of the solutions in E and F differ compared to that at the beginning of the experiment?

c) After filtering out C and D, you forgot to label them and now you don't know which is which. Describe a short test to differentiate between the two substances.

3. Explain, in terms of electronic structure, why you think mercury is a liquid at room temperature, despite it having other metallic properties.

a) Name another metal that is liquid at room temperature. (Hint: It's in Group 1.)

4. Define the terms

a) isotope

b) allotrope

c) atomic mass

d) pH

5. Gary made the following statement, ”Ammonia acts like both an acid and a base.” Do you agree with this statement? Explain your answer.

So, i guess that's it for now! will try to post answers soon. Anybody wants to try answering them? =)

Till next post...

EOYs

2008-09-28T00:14:00.003+08:00

eoys are coming in about 2 weeks now. if you fail these exams, there goes 40% of your ENTIRE year's grades.

no pressure at all.
-_-''

anyhoo, revision for me has been quite ok going, except for the humanities subjects, which has always been a problem for me anyway. flashback to last year, where i was still taking this dreaded things called "history".

Me (thinking to myself while reading the test paper): How is this source useful? Useful?!?! What sort of retarded question is this?! *random cursing inside*

Results back later, i barely passed. not very surprising for me though. seeing i'm more of a science person.

and that the fact that i have really screwed up humanities subjects teachers doesn't really help much, does it? i still remember what our present geog teacher said while scolding someone this year. still good for a laugh now, IMO.

Teacher: You didn't hand up your project in a file?!? This shows you have no leadership!!

Me (not the one being scolded) *thinks*: WTF? Leadership? what does this have to do with leadership?!?

poof.

now going through DMP, which means DeModulated Program, although for most of us it's supposed to be De Mugging Period. like me. modules i've taken are prety ok, at least when it gets really boring i have some friends to talk to/poke (ahem). take for instance, one incident in the physics lab, when i was having my "Enriched Modern Optics" module. Huang Yuting (teacher) was at the front droning on and on about something that didn't make any sense to me at all, so, being utterly bored, i decided to entertain myself. pulled out drawer of my workbench, and saw...

Batteries and electrical stuff. so yeah, spent about half an hour tinkering away, connecting ammeters to voltmeters, sliding the rheostat up and down, nearly short-circuiting the ammeter once (the ammeter needle was off the scale, and there were sparks coming out of the battery contacts. oops.) at least it was better than nothing... and amazingly, in the half an hour or so, she DIDN'T NOTICE ME AT ALL. how epic.

Wen Da is suanning me as usual in the maths modules, because he's in 2 out of 3 of the maths classes i'm in, and because he's so pro. take the last Permuutations and Combinations lesson, for example. Wen Da was sitting between me and Daryl (from 3R) and throughout the lesson we were well, helping each other out with the questions, occasionally suanning each other, and sometimes me and Wen Da would declare poke wars on each other. then before the maths trail thing in the next half of the lesson, we were making "suan (acidic)" jokes about wen da. here's some:

"Wen Da reacts with NaOH to produce salt and water."
"Wen Da has a pH of 1."
"Wen Da stop dissolving me lah!" (this was said while Wen Da was poking me.)
"Wen Da turns litmus paper red."
and so on... i think by making all these jokes we were sort of revising for Acids and Bases, so, you see, making jokes about one another is not always bad. =)

went for the maths trail thing later, where we got owned by some really random and hard questions. was group leader of group 9, and had Wesley Aw of 3H (thnx ryoji) and Shayne something of 3G in my group. (sorry lah, my memory always got some holes one.) went around doing questions, and will be sharing some random quotes from this activity downstairs.

on some days, namely Tuesday and Thursday, i would go down to the band room for some practise playing our song for next year, and after that, i'm not allowed to tell you what we did. don't worry, it's nothing illegal.

Random quotes that i can remember:

During Maths trail thing:

Shayne: What's the answer ah?
Us: Err... *punches numbers in calculator* 122 thousand something.
Shayne: Really ah? I got 12 billion plus leh. (whoa)
Us: You're supposed to add these terms leh, not times together lah! (diao)

At another station... the question was how many ways to climb up the stairs if you could take 1 or 2 steps at once.

Shayne: 7 steps, so 3 r 1 is 4, so 4!= 24.
Me: No lah. Because 1 2 2 2, 2 1 2 2, 2 2 1 2, 2 2 2 1 only four ways what.
Shayne: What? can repeat again?
Me (thinking): Damn...

Some maths club guy walks over and looks at our answers.

Guy: Aiyo! this one ah... wrong x 7!
Wesley: Go away lah! I like my wrong answers!

At recess...

Me: Linjin, did you get your file back from Yen san?
Linjin: Yeah. *walks away to clear plate*
Me: You forgot your file!!!
Linjin: oops.
worst thing was, the file was just next to his plate.

At band later...

Brandon: "I was suanning Nick Eu about how next year his class would be 4Q (fock-you), then he said that next year my class would be 4R-m. (forearm). "
for those who don't understand, don't worry, it's sort of an inside joke.

and finally, for those who like to suan people, or just anyone at all, the song is probably going to describe what you feel when you see someone else having problems. the feeling is called schadenfreude, and it's perfectly normal. so, when next time you get into trouble, don't get offended when others laugh at you, cause you might have done the same thing to them before.

Warning: The song contains explicit lyrics, but nothing very serious that you've never heard before lah. so if yo're the super-don't-like-vulgarities type, then don't play the song.

Till next post, and good luck to all who are takin exams soon!

2008-09-18T21:50:00.004+08:00

josiah has a blog.

only problem is, i don't know what's the URL!

ergo, i can't link you yet. sry. pls do tell me soon. thnx.

2008-09-13T23:47:00.002+08:00

everytime i visit some people's blog, i will always notice some post about them getting presents from others, what they are going to buy for another friend's birthday, how that present made their day etc.

for those who know me, you should know i'm the more quiet type of person. i don't really ask a lot of personal questions, and if you ask me i would probably not know most of my friend's birthdays! antisocial lah, you say. however, i don't think that literal gift-giving is the only way of showng friendship. for those in my class, especially those sitting near me, how many times have i stopped what i was doing just to answer your questions regarding whatever/asked you hard questions to test your thinking, how many times have i lent you ties, pens, correction tape etc. when you needed them, and how many times have i talked/acted absurdly just to inject some humour for everyone's benefit for a laugh?

hmm. thus, i believe the best thing that brings people together is actually the common interest that both share. for example, the soccer players in my class seem to hang out together alot, people who play DotA in my class can often be seen striking an animated conversation about how they pwned their opponents last night using a certain hero and such.

thus, i'm willing to learn more about each other's intrests and such. for example, i was asking yen san about how to play DotA, something i would never have thought i would ever ask. and thanks to jian wei, i have picked up a little bit of tennis/table tennis.

finally, sorry if i'm overly hostile sometimes when reacting to some of your actions. for example, when shoun kept pestering me yesterday with something yesterday, i just daoed him for the whole lesson. i guess at that time i was feeling cranky and sleepy, and my first priority was just to get some rest. so, sorry if i snapped back rudely towards you. other times when people come asking how much i've gotten for a test, i usually call them suanners or whatever and then not answer/try to aviod the question. i guess sometimes when people ask the're just curious to know what you've gotten, and without much bad intention at all (although this is not always true for all). some people just like to know how much you've gotten, and then have a good laugh in your face. why they do that i don't know, but i guess it's just their mannerism that's all. mutual help is what's important IMO.

hope that clears up some misunderstandings between some.

oh and by the way, i play cards when i'm really bored, and the situation is deemed appropriate by me.

and finally, a message to the juniors in my section: Don't be discouraged by Mr. oura's scoldings/comments and such. that's his way of teaching you. i think the best way of improving yourself now is to remember what he has said you need to improve, what you think you yourself should improve on, what you think the person next to you has to improve on,and then work on improving it. for example, let's say Liang Pu is sharp. then Ying Feng/ Justin next to him can point that out and then help correct him. juniors, you cannot wait for your seniors to go and tell you what to improve. please be proactive, if not when the seniors are not around to tell you, you will be as good as useless. work hard, and let's achieve for next year's SYF together!

the above paragraph is completely irrelevant unless you are from band.

Till next post...

2008-09-13T19:14:00.002+08:00

well. i guess it's time for another post, eh?

had quite an interesting day in school on friday, ranging from hypnotically tiring speeches by our various teachers and such.

during recess, we had some entertainment by a very special guest who popped into class without much warning and started to err... do his stuff. yes. it even attracted some people from other classes to watch as well, commenting how nice if their "person" came to "do that thing". i can't place the name of the person here, if not umm... there will be repercussions. who knew that that person could actually "do that thing"?

band practise went on as normal, with me trying to play the horns to find out if it was the horn's problem or the player's problem. and the conclusion? it's the player's problem. (no offence though) i, josiah and justin (the horn junior sec 1) went on to go and clean out the horns, putting grease, oil, cleaning the slides, polishing with cloths and such... it turns out that it takes only 3 wipes of a valve to turn a piece of perfectly new tissue into um... something that seems to have come out of your bum. yes. i'm not exaggerating. later some people turned up late, and it seems that a certain person from one of the sections that i'm in charge of has really thick skin. i saw him, called his name, asked him to come, and guess what he did? walk past me with a stupid grin on his face. haiyo...

went out for dinner with friends at McDonalds at J8 later at 8PM, cos we spent 1 hour plus waiting for Zeyang and Josiah to finish talking to Mr . Jee about the new attendence taking procedure. during that time we just spent it talking about almost anything and everything, ranging from band practises, RGS girls, Texas Hold'em poker, Taiti, Grade 7 piano pieces, to Tom and Jerry Cartoons (feel like posting one on the batch blog later. =)). After dinner met Manfred at the bus stop opposite J8 while waiting for 58 with Brandon and Patrick. Turns out he stayed until so late for the "Mid-Autumn festival" celebration thing at our school. lols. Patrick pangsehed Brandon to take bus 58 home with me later, and we talked about random stuff as well, including whether i could ask him physics questions if i didn't know. Turns out next year we 2 don't need to take the bus home anymore cos circle line might be opening soon ! buh-bye to long waiting times! and i can finally get home earlier! woots! apparently, he'll be getting off at Lorong Chuan, while i'll be getting off at Serangoon. duh.

anyhoo, DMP starts next week (everyone should know this) and i look forward to 2 weeks of um... learning? really strange topics they are teaching this year lol. from "retro biology" to "chinese geomancy" there's something for everyone! (commercial?) have a few free periods during that time, and now that i'm talking about this, i have to submit DMP timetable to KSP, cos he wants to do remedial/revision for whole class. -_-

cousins coming over for dinner later, looking forward to a night of talk and card games. =)

problem i see about card games with others is that it sort of brings out the my uglier side. from swearing and outright blatant cheating sometimes, cards are well, a stimulus for my other half to emerge. (i'm not always so guai. fine, i admitted it. happy now?)

Till next post...

2008-09-04T16:52:00.002+08:00

and for those who are wondering why i posted that below, you would perhaps be interested to visit this link : http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-healthy-type (kudos to wai choong for the link.)

Thanks.

2008-09-03T22:44:00.002+08:00

went out today at 10am plus to samuel's house to do ss project with him and ben nah. it's regarding some "the NS story" thing, where we had to write a story and make a short movie about his journey through NS. went late cos i woke up late, rly sorry about that.

spent most of the day doing work and physics, and played taiti with sam's brother, Aaron and also with Ben Nah. had a delicious dinner prepared at night by aunty Florence, Sam's mum. ended off by watching "Blade Trinity" on tv, from an earlier recording. then, on the way home, it was raining. hard. there was even once when the water splashing up from the sides of the car next to us travelling in a pool of water managed to reach over to the top of our car! imagine if you were walking on the sidewalk at the side at that time. ouch.

still have some unfinished matters at home regarding schoolwork and such and others, but i'm really trying to put them behind. closure is what's important for me now. i'm sorry if i haven't been writing much lately, but that's probably due to some recent happenings now that haven't been too pleasant.

Till next post...

2008-09-03T22:01:00.002+08:00

oh, so sorry. i guess certain people are too obstinate and self-centred to think properly eh?

2008-09-01T22:15:00.003+08:00

the following text is posted for those who are involved in the inter-sectional issue or are just interested to read.

whoo. band politics are finally appearing between our sections. and since i'm one of the parties involved, i think i should have a say in this. forgive me if i seem a little bit "no link" cos i haven't been able to sift through the mass of emails earlier.

anyhoo, the spat between the sections thing has not been resolved yet, and if we do reach a conclusion it will probably mean me losing part of my position. hai... haven't even started the job already got people give me problems. i guess it's basically about the position i'm having now, the joint eupho/horns SL position. and because of this, cheng xun and bryan (why is he even involved in this?) have written an appeal telling, or requesting me to unmerge the sections, and thus unmerging my one position into two.

i will be arguing for my point, and because i am one of the people who are at stake, please forgive me for any unintended offense i cause anyone.

firstly, after reading through your attached document, i would comment that sometimes your excessive formality is not required in this context, and as such such bombasticity of words can cause certain inaccuracies of your message. for example, ladies and gentlemen, the words "theses" (sic.) appears in the starting of the message, in the title itself. now, the word "thesis" means a document submitted when applying for a degree or some form of qualification. a thesis also consists of a cover page, a contents page, etc. just like a report. thus, i think that it is inappropriate to use such a word in this context. thus, the only reason i can think of you wanting to write in this manner is if you wanted to obfuscate your true meanings behind lavishly draped words. this paragraph is also an example of what you might come up with, if you were to go to extremes.

moving on, i think that one of your first few lines, "That the french horn is unique." is extremely subjective. going with your line of thought, i can claim that ALL instruments are unique and thus the bassoon should have its own section, which is clearly not the case. this will have to be confirmed after i hear your reasoning later.

you also say that one of the reasons why we should not merge is because the french horns are much bigger than the euphos, and merging would be like "malaysia and singapore." from hindsight, we can tell that the merger did not end well. however, we must look at the reasons why the separation occured. it was mainly due to the racial riots and violence that they decided to separate. and now you are insinuating that if we join you all, you are going to RIOT or at least cause a disturbance due to some reason or whatever? i think that is extremely immature on your part. also, singapore was trated unfairly during the merged periods, where they had to contribute back to the central malaysian government without question. if you want to compare this situation of horns merging with euphos with small group "singapore" merging with larger group "malaysia", i don't think it is very appropriate.

you also seem to bring up the size of the section as the basis on which you should be able to, in certain terms, "be independent". however, if we look at productivity, you are a large group that has not been producing results comparable to the rest of the band's. thus, it seems that the sec 4s have decided to merge us so that we can keep an eye on you and ensure that you put your practises to good use, which from my observations, you have not. this is also evident from the many scoldings and insults from Mr. Oura, our conductor. and due to his many years of experience with music, i think that he is able to tell good music from bad ones easily, and he has identified yours as "bad".

next, i personally think that the french horns should be merged for the good of the band.

i have these reasons to list:

as a solo section by your self, you have not been producing results in the past few years.
i believe the sec 4s of this year have merged us so that we, namely, josiah and me, can keep an eye on you.
i believe that as an SL, i can be able to help your section, not in terms of playing literally, but as in the identification of problems that you might make, and thus pointing them out to you and helping you fix them.
next year, being an SYF year, it is thus of utmost importance that you/we be able to perform well next year as to keep up the prestigious traditions of the band.

from earlier discussions with you, mr. cheng xun, it seems that you seem to oppose me due to the fact that i am not a horn player, and thus you find it unfit for me to be the horn SL, as i cannot play the horn. however, i would like to point out that there are certain sections that do encompass different instruments under the same name eg. the oboe under "flutes", the bassoon under "saxes" and such. and yet, they are all under the same SL. usually, it is the senior who plays the same instrument, or some external mentor that teaches the junior how to play the instrument. this is true for the case of the oboe sec 1, and the bassoon sec 2. thus, it is natural that the horn seniors that teach the horn juniors. and if you shirk this responsibility saying that your sec 4 has denied you the permission to teach them (which i think is highly unlikely) and because of that you do not want to teach, i think this is even more evidence why you should NOT be the SL. also, if now you claim that since that i am the SL and want me to teach while you slack/whatever, the result is the same as above. i'm not saying that you have no leadership ability at all. if that was the case, why would the sec 4s give you the position of LD head? obviously they thought that you had the ability to lead a cupboard full of papers right? right.

next, you say that we are invading your "soverignity" and "dignity" or what else you have brought up. HELLO, this is not a country you are running here. it's just a group of some people playing the same instrument together. and you have said that the juniors are extremely unhappy with this, and will REFUSE to work if i am their leader. in fact, i have met up with the juniors of your section, namely the sec 1 s, and they seem to be quite ok with the fact that i'm their leader. also, this threat of not working will be met with almost universal condemnation from the rest of the band members, due to the next year being the important year for our batch and the band. so, no matter who the leader is, please note that work is something inevitable.

also, you say that since the french horn and the euphonium sound very different, play different parts and such, thus they should not be merged, and should not be practising together. if that's the case, there should be no such thing as a concert where we all get together to play, right?

you have said that the reason the sec 4s did not give you the SL position is because we would be unhappy that you had too much power. that is crap. please look at linjin, patrick, johnson, and brandon. they ALL hold double posts, and are we complaining? no. case closed.

finally, you have said that as i do not play a horn i cannot teach how to play one, and since the SYF is next year this is an issue of concern. in that case, i, unlike your earlier senior who refuses to let you teach, will graciously allow you to instruct the sec 1s/ juniors until they have reached a standard where they can play reasonably well. problem solved.

finally, you say that you are wondering how the section can improve under my leadership. well, in my opinion, being a leader does not mean you do EVERYTHING. it just means that you must be able to delegate work in a reasonable and fair manner, and also do some work of your own. thus, if i delegate you the work, and you refuse to do it, it is not my fault already. it is yours. and yet, because of this, i will be getting most of the flak from the others, including teachers and Mr. oura. the most i can do to help in the areas that i am not very capable in is to push you all in the general direction. and if you still refuse to do anything, please bear in mind the repercussions that may surface next year.

oh, and regarding the "blind chickens" comment, please, it was only used to inject some figurative language into the conversation, and also for the sake of visualisation. are you a blind, crippled chicken Mr . Chua? no? good.

to end off, the statement "this instrument is the hardest to learn, blah blah blah." is often heard emanating from the mouths of the horn players. and it is exactly because of this that you should be practising harder, not squabbling about who is the leader here. even if some one else were to get the position and you all still not work, the outcome, i assure you, will be the same.

just my two and a half cents worth.

Your current section leader,

Ernest.

ps. sorry for all the grammer mistakes. i was typing this in blogger.

OMG. that has to be like the longest thing i have ever written consecutively in one go! new record! whee. (fine that was lame.) just like lin jin. sometimes. =)

Till next post...

2008-08-31T16:24:00.003+08:00

oh, nearly forgot. our school had our teachers celebration on friday, and the most retarded things was (other than the program), we came to school at 8 am, and we ended at 9. -_- according to some prefect friend of mine, we originally were supposed to end at 9.45am, but due to the lack of programs and interest, they just ended early. as bio rep, i had to give the flower to our bio teacher, aka. Mrs. Joy (celene) Lim, and the message was

"To: Mrs. Joycelene Lim "Stay Joyful!" From 3T =)"

i can just imagine her reaction when she sees us next term already. it's gonna be good.

then went back to cat high to visit my old teachers. met up with some of the sec 2s from cat high, including Irveeeen and Kenneth from band. we reached there at around 10, and from the looks of it the plae hasn't changed alot, other than the paint and the decorations. they also installed the most random huge-ass fountain in the back of the parade square. (what a lovely way to waste money. i'm not surprised, since the principal is a _____. and he happens to be the father of one of the juniors in band. names shall not be mentioned to protect the privacy of said person. for those people who know, good for you.)

teachers still haven't changed much since the last times we saw them. for example, the still very tall ling lao shi started squealing in excitement once she saw us coming, mr. wan and ms. tu are still the same old people, and basically all the canteen stall owners are still there (and the same). Irveeeeen pangsehed the old cat high-ians to go home early. the doob. -_-

spent the rest of the time at cat high playing table tennis and talking to some of the teachers that i used to have. turns out ms. rita from last time is now in japan. hmm... shows how well informed i am of things.

Ah well,...

Till next post...

2008-08-28T21:15:00.002+08:00

investiture for band was just yesterday, and i must say that this week is one where i learnt a very important principle:

"You win some, you lose some."

i has applied for 3 positions originally,but when the results came out i had only gotten 1 (or 2) out of the 3 that i had applied for. the positions i am talking about are

1. Euphonium Section leader
2. French Horns section leader.

also, just went for section dinner at Pepper Lunch at AMK hub today. other than the weird timing and location, it was quite a nice meal, and the whole section including sec 1s had a good laugh.

and now, for the "you lose some" part.

both my sciences, physics and biology were screwed up. and they're supposed to be my good subjects! (except for physics. my physics has been very lan since forever anyway.) so, only thing now is to depend on CCT to save my results. must mug more. as for physics, must do more practise questions and ask those more "pro " ppl for explanations and help. i hope to include you in the list, Mr. chinchilla and others. *grins evilly* alternatively, i could go for remedial with the best physics teacher in the world, Mrs. Tay (in my opinion. i haven't had that many physics teachers actually). hmmmmm...

amyhoo, some line i heard in a movie has gotten me thinking about it. the line is:

"Do unto others... before others do unto you."

Till next post...

2008-08-17T14:15:00.002+08:00

well. it's that time of term again, where teachers start piling on work and tests and projects.

quoting from LinJin's blog:

"

I have 3 exams next week.

Mon - ZOMG Maths
Tue - WTF Geog
Thur - Physics

To make things even ~~better~~ worse,

Mon - Social Studies Essay
Tue - English Graded Debates
Thur - Physics Practical
Fri - English ERP (Extensive Reading Program) Essay"

what else is new? -.-

hai. have to go and study/mug/read/do/whatever now. (if not i'll be dead by next week.)

won't be blogging for at least a week from now.

Till next post... in a week or so.

2008-08-11T12:13:00.002+08:00

oh. reading other people's blogs has somehow reminded me of things that happened that should be on my blog.

firstly, after watching the china olympic games opening, and then the singapore National Day opening. i can only say that we got owned. (no lah. we did pretty well already, cos the size of the events are different, thus the size of the openings must be different as well. dots.)

anyhoo, Singapore is now officially 43 years old. may we continue to have peace, prosperity, happiness, and progress for our nation! whee! (ahem)

so, on to other things. singapore hasn't really been having much luck at the olympics, with Susilo getting beaten after 2 or so rounds, Li tao getting 5th in swimming, and others. hope we do better next time...

Till next post...

2008-08-10T16:29:00.003+08:00

next week is the week of interviews for me, cos i have

1. PSL interviews (if i get in)
2. Band interviews (wish me luck)

poof. interviews always give me butterflies, cos that's when you're forced to answer every isngle darn question that people throw at you, no matter how squeamish it makes you. and if you can't provide a satisfactory answer, there goes your chances at the position. and you only have one chance at the interview too.

ugh.

anyhoo, in times of stress, i like to play cards (how random). anyway, this is a scene from one of my games with the computer:
People who have played hearts or are familiar with the rules will immediately know why i found this position so hilarious. a small note: the 1 point I got was the King of Hearts.

Till next post...

2008-08-06T20:51:00.002+08:00

Appealing for PSL position currently. seems that KSP got it wrong.

haiz. why don't things ever go in my favour?

Anyway, our old philo teacher, Mr. Cake has gone off for NS for about 3 weeks, so we got a new relief teacher from a university. well, comparatively he knows how to keep the class disciplined, and does make his teaching points clear. rather good, IMO. but he's rather err... EGOISTIC.

our chinese teacher is replaced also as she was sick, and we got some new old teacher (lol oxymoron.) she's strict as well, but still as boring as ever. found out i passed chinese test, much to my amazement. fell asleep halfway through class when she was going through answers.

got my grade 7 piano pieces already, and they sound very nice, but the amount of skill required to play them is no small feat either. time to start practising for next year... i'll upload mp3s of them if i can. planning to choose:

A:

Very late new year's resolution: Get 4.0 GPA for all sciences and maths. at least. time to start mugging...

Chem will be starting on the topic on redox soon, and i can tell you, from prior readings this will be a rather interesting/easy topic. well, it depends from person to person, but that's the way i feel it is. i'm trying not to suan people.

lastly, (damn i forgot what i was going to write)

Till next post...

2008-08-05T15:31:00.001+08:00

appearances can be deceiving. what you hear is never true unless confirmed later.

it wasn't meant to be...

2008-08-02T23:15:00.002+08:00

recently we had some visitors from a Korean International school, and all of us were visibly excited when they announced the classes that would be hosting them , and one of the classes of 3T (duh). anyhoo, on the day of their arrival , jack and samuel went to escort them to our classes, and according to one of them, we got 3 boys and 2 girls, and we also got the "ugliest girls" (in his words). so, without further ado, their names are
1. Marvin
2. Tina
3. Michael
4. forgot
5. forgot

(pardon my poor memory. it's a bad habit of mine to forget things.)

so, they would be here for roughly a week, attending our classes, and interacting with us. on one morning, they were forced by our form teacher, Mr. Koh Siak Peng to do a presentation about their school and a bit about their country. so here's what i can remember from their presentation on that day:
1. They come from Cheong Shim International Academy (please visit the link. the school is VERY NICE)
2. Their school is situated in the mountains, and is next to a lake.
3. Every once in a while, they go down to the lake as a school to have fun and games and food.
4. The uniforms that they were wearing is their formal uniform, used for visits like these.
5. They have to learn at least 1 musical instrument there. (in our class we had a flutist, a clarinetist, a pianist, and 2 other unknown ones. and Marvin, the considerably taller one, plays basketball.)
6. They study for up to 12 hours a day. 0.0

so, how did they do in our class? well, some like Marvin took alot of notes and asked questions, but others like Michael turned our classroom into his bedroom. lols. i'm not suprised, since some of our teachers can get really boring... (like geog teacher, who managed to get a triple kill- 3 people sitting in a row all slumped on the desk in front of her. and she didn't really notice them also.)
so, on one day before they left, we all went for recess together at the RJC canteen. finished quickly and went up to class again, justto endure more boring lessons... oh well. at least the koreans are nice.

Band has been going smoothly, picked couple of new songs for investiture, now problem is trying them all out... not hoping for a rerun of what happened last year. what happened was there was an uneeded flute solo at the end of our piece. and the sec 4s were EXTREMELY displeased. poof.

and i realised i just screwed up my chem OBA. this is probably due to me forgetting some important nethod of doing some question and me not bringing my notes on that day. how clever. now i'm going to get suanned by other people again. whee.

on the flip side, i got news that i'm going to ... (CENSORED FOR BEING SENSITIVE CLASSIFIED INFORMATION) i'll tell you on monday.

must work on my prose when writing blog entries. my entries nowadays are more point form, than compared to last time where i would spam whole passages/paragraphs. oh well...

Till next post...

2008-07-25T20:49:00.002+08:00

woo! the results are out!

Headlines: Raffles bands take unprecedented sweep of all 3... silvers.

yes. RIMB as well as RGSSB got silver for the SIBF, and amazingly, both bands got 82% /100%!

Quote from RGSSB BM," I want a rematch!" (lols)

anyway, all the hard work that we have put in practising our pieces have really paid off, and going by the results now, i'm even more confident that we will be able to get our gold /with honours next year. at least i hope we do...

goodness, i'm too happy to worry about work now, or anything else for that matter.

Till next post...

2008-07-23T23:22:00.003+08:00

omg.

tomorrow is the SIBF (Singapore International Band Festival), and i'm playing in it to represent RI, along with the rest of the RIMB. this means that if we do not win a gold at the competition tmr, we will be breaking the ever lengthening chain of gold awards that has been the tradition of RIMB since i forgot when. we will be playing dance celebration and merry widow, FOR THE LAST TIME. (how ominous.)

and thinking of that just keeps giving me butterflies. it just got worse when i found out that other more larger and experienced bands will be competing against us for the cash prize of up to 19000 dollars.

eek.

will be leaving school tmr at 10 am to go for practise just before our performance at 1.50pm at some place i'm not exactly sure of. yen san, help me keep homework pls. hope i do well for titration test tmr.

and adding on to the previous post, here's an obviously editted picture (for joke purposes) of future mrt lines.

"WE don't need cars anymore in Singapore."

(ROFL at Causeway line.) (Some of these lines look as though they'll be in the ocean though. And since when will there be a Terminal 5?!?)

Till next post...and wish me luck.

2008-07-14T22:05:00.003+08:00

whoo.

back from band practise today, which in case you people don't know what it is, it's a 4-5 hour affair conducted during the afternoons of school days and holidays. even though sometimes i feel it's a drag to go there,

it is my CCA, and i have a commitment to it. (OMG so cheesy >.<)

anyway, today's session has gone well, oura (our conductor) was actually smiling at some parts when we played (which is rare) anyway, some major overhauls for both pieces and random storytelling by him. anyway, went out for short dinner with batch mates later, and went home soon afterwards.

by the way, for those of you who don't live near MRT stations and find transport inconvenient, take a look at the future MRT map.

MRT: Coming to a neighbourhood near you

2008-07-13T14:24:00.002+08:00

hmm, how should i start?

ok first, due to our stellar performance at the tennis finals earlier, the school has decided to let us have july 11th as a day off. also, the week after that was APCG, which means the entire week is free for us.

when teachers smell a break around the corner, it usually means bad news for us you see. homework aside, our CCA decided to give us training on the off day.

OFF day? what kind of OFF day is this?

urrgh.

aiya, can't blame them since competition for me is like 2 weeks away.

anyway, my American cousins and Japanese cousins have just arrived in sunny Singapore. which i think is pretty funny considering:

Singapore was taken over by the japanese in world war 2.
The americans bombed the japanese.

What an interesting relationship between the 3 countries.

fine, i'm being lame.

but, i must say, even though their all younger than me and they can get quite irritating sometimes, they are quite cute,especaially the youngest one from america. the 2 japanese ones are still umm.... the same, as in they look the same, and the younger one is actually as tall as the older one already! goodness... they still can't speak english though. pity... not suprisingly, as they have a grand total of 4 hours of english lessons a year! wow...

will post pictures of them if i can get a digital camera. till then, word descriptions will have to do.

Till next post...

2008-07-08T17:04:00.002+08:00

i got this in the email from my sister, and i was laughing my ass off. it's a quick take on life in Singapore. Enjoy. =)

In Singapore, the majority of us live in Highly Dangerous Buildings
(HDB),
And most people have already got used to Paying and Paying (PAP).
Not only do you have to pay, you Pay Until Bankrupt (PUB).
If that's not enough, somebody still Purposely Wants to Dig (PWD) and
get more from you.
So what more can you do when you are in the Money Only Environment
(MOE)?
With the current Mad Accounting System (MAS), you are forced to Pay
the
Sum Ahead (PSA),
Which will leave some people Permanently Owing Some Banks (POSB).
And forced to live on the Loan Techniques Always (LTA) system.
When you fall sick and happen to be admitted to a Money Operating
Hospital (MOH),
You might be able to use your Cash Prior to Funeral (CPF) fund.
If you are out of luck, you may
meet doctors who Never Use Heart (NUH)
to treat you,
And you will be Sure to Give up Hope (SGH).
To help ease the traffic, motorists have to pay Cash On Expressway
(COE).
If that doesn't help, they can always Eternally Raise Prices (ERP)
on the roads.
If you don't own a car, you can always make a Mad Rush to the Train
(MRT),
OR get squashed in a bus Side By Side (SBS).
Lastly, under all these pressures, there are not many places we can
relax,
Not even the good old place we used to go because it has become
So Expensive and Nothing TO See Actually (SENTOSA)!!!

lols.

Till next post...

2008-07-05T16:25:00.004+08:00

ok. school's been in session for about 2 weeks, and almost immediately once i went back, the teachers are out to get me again.
seriously.
come into class, teach for 1 hour, and cis boom bah, leave our class at the end with fond reminders that a project/compo/work/assignment/whatever is due in *insert ridiculously short time here* then, if that wasn't enough, the next teacher comes in with exactly the same thing on her mind.

here's an analogy. if teachers were hurricanes, then in one day we (3T) got hit by Hurricane Quah, Hurricane Chionh, Hurricane Tay, and Hurricane Wang. these hurricanes brought along strong gusts of homework, and there is a large chance of project surges as well. and even though their landfall was predicted weeks in advance, we were not allowed to evacuate the class just before their arrival.

and on the subject of hurricanes... it reminds me of the GEOG PROJECT on that STUPID HURRICANE which just had to HIT burma JUST before the holidays. and our oh so creative geog teachers took this as the perfect chance to invent a "project" for us based on it. so i guess it's true. a disaster can have large impact over a large radius. -_-

and i just remembered, it's due next wednesday.

DIE......

on a happier note, some things i have been worrying about for the last few weeks and month are finally cleared:
1. social advocacy project class presentation finished!
2. maths test over! (slightly screwed up though)
3. general work from the past few weeks
4. chinese book test finished! (it was really random)
5. Physics PT done!

hope to add more to list soon...

Oh, and the western stall at the canteen just suddenly closed down. which is abit the strange since it was the stall with one of the best business; with the fries and the $2.50 set meals and such. if this trend of suddenly closing down continues, the school canteen will be useless in about 1 year or so. which is not good news for the students; who will find themselves with a less connvinient place to eat (RJC canteen) and the school admin, who will suddenly find themselves with a new empty block (how convinient).

so now, our school canteen has only 5 stalls. which applied to the Demand-Supply hypothesis, means that the queues now are longer. and this is especially true on friday, where the WHOLE SCHOOL plus/minus teachers go for recess at the SAME TIME. which invariably leads to longer waiting time, which leads to getting to class late, which leads to getting a blasting from the teacher for being late (worse if that teacher is Mrs. Priscilla Lim)

which leads to the conclusion that it is best for the school population in general to open up AT LEAST 1 more store. (or extend recess =P)

what wishful thinking i have. eh?

Till next post...

2008-06-28T12:28:00.004+08:00

i know it's abit late, but our RE with our VWO on 17th and 19th was a great success! i'll tell you about it...

The 17th

on the first day , we were supposed to do a lesson for the children to teach them about maps and map reading. the children seemed to enjoy it alot, and they were rather cooperative, with the exception of a few, who got bored very early during the lesson. the rest of the lesson/session was then disrupted by him, as some of our group members had to catch him if he ran out of the room. -_-. anyhoo, after icebreakers, introduction to the lesson and introduction for ourselves, we started up the computer and did the teaching with a power point presentation. i did the second half of the lesson, and frankly teaching is easier than it looks, although i think that was partly because the children already knew most of what we were supposed to be teaching them. moving on, last part of the lesson was supposed to be spent playing puzles and teaching them how to play and such, and in my opinion, i liked that part too. ended with a debriefing by ms. Yang, our correspondent at the centre, and also the person we were supposed the lias with. went home to prepare for the next session with the children.

The 19th

today was the day where we were going to bring the children out for a "Amazing Race" around the hougang area. the children had to figure out the clues that we gave them and then use the map of hougang we would give them to make their way there. i got the group with the more naughty children, and at the start i was already feeling sorry for mself (why me?!?). however, to my surprise, the children did very well, figuring out the clues quickly adn making their way there with relative ease (although we had to help them slightly sometimes. the last station was back at the centre, and it was this puzlle competition thing. my group quickly lost interest, and ran off. diao. anyhoo, gave out prizes later, and my group got last place in terms of number of points, but i think they really put in effort. and that's what counts.

Lastly i would like to thank the helpers for coming down to help us, without you all i don't think that we could get this level of success; namely Alvin, Alex, Brandon, Chevy, Francis, Si Kai, Wai Choong and Zi Jian. we're planning another activity in December (pending). any volunteers again? =)

went out for ice skating with my cous, cous's friend, jian wei, wu and zhi yuan after second day's work. been quite a while since i last went skating. hmm. anyway, zhiyan couldn't skate, partly due to it being his first time and also because he didn't dare to fall down. lol. wai choong is up to his usual i-push-you-you-push-me ways, but at least he's not as crazy as on our first skating trip together. started at 4 plus, ended close at 8 pm. took mrt back home, and fled from wei wei who wanted to drag me all the way to Paya Lebar. goodness... i think she's mad at me now. oops.

Pictures of the RE activity can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/dedricktan1202/sets/72157605768513732 (courtesy of Jian Wei)

School will be starting soon, and i haven't done most of my work... oh poof.

Till next post...

japan

2008-06-18T14:17:00.008+08:00

ahh. 7 days of bliss indeed. and finally, an update!

if you don't know what i'm talking about, i just came back from my band exchange/performance in japan. sadly, i didn't bring a camera. here's a rough cap of what i did there:

Day err... 0?

went to school at around 6 plus with my heavy luggage and my laptop bag. yes. i found out that i was one of the few people who brought their laptops. as a result of that, they were swarming me to want to play it/access internet. managed to shake them off somehow. phew. waited for the rest to arrive, loaded the baggage and instruments on the truck at 7 plus, and then waited for the bus to arrive. talked to friends about maple for quite some time, until the buses finally arrived. strange thing was, 1 bus was really big, while the other one was more like those types of mini school bus vans. anyway, learned how to play bridge on the bus from brandon/josiah and amazingly, won my first bridge match ever. whee! anyway, reached the airport at aroung 9 plus, checked in instruments and luggage and went to eat dinner at food court, bought drinks from fairprice and went up to play taiti with umm... let's see... josiah, yifan, zhuo hao, brandon and june hong (my junior). 6 man taiti FTW. anyway, played until it was roughly 10.45pm, time to go inside the passenger section. there, i found out about the true beauty of the terminal 3. spotted another school band also going overseas, but didn't recognise the school. diao. anyhoo, time then was already around 11 + going on 12, sat down near the boarding gate and played more cards, and then some jigsaw sudoku with brandon (we gave up) and finally boarded the plane. sat next to si kai (my room mate) and talked for a while, ate, watched "Horton hears a Who!" and slept. Nothing much for this day actually.

Day 1

woke up just in time to complete my embarkation card and talk a bit more to si kai. landed at kansai airport, passed through customs without much problem, collected instruments back and met our bus drivers and tour guide, sort of. drove along the beautiful japanese coast towards our first stop, todaiji temple in nara. it has these nice deer roaming the grounds freely, and many souvenir shops along the way. according to our tour guide, todaiji temple is the largest wooden structure in the world, and the main attraction is the 15 meter high bronze buddha statue they have inside, together with many other things, like models of the original temple, religious figures and other things as well. also, one thing they had was this hole at the bottom of one wooden pillar. they said that it was the size of one of the buddha's nostrils and if you could successfully crawl through it you would become smarter/better etc. only some people tried, and one of them was si kai, who fit through with ease. i myself didn't dare to try. =P borrowed zeyang's professional looking camera and took a nice looking picture of todaiji exterior. looks very nice indeed. went for a buffet lunch that was rather nice, and was our first dose of true blue japanese food. oishii!! i knew it would be one of many ones to come.
went to osaka toin high school for exchange with the japanese band, and well, got owned. really. they have at least 2 times our manpower. they their own band hall building SEPARATED fromthe main school building. and they had at least 7 euphos. they sight read our pieces like after 10 minutes of practise only. *stares* i felt slightly better when i could actually play one of their pieces properly with them, although thanks to slightly un-understood instructions i didn't really play at the parts i was supposed to, and i played at the parts i wasn't supposed to. goodness...
went for dinner with them later after the exchange, and we ended up at some university-like place. after some seemingly random walking in a forward direction, we suddenly turned left, turned left again, climbed up some stairs and poof! we were at some random eatery. there, we met up with some of the players that we had played with earlier. HOWEVER, the euphos we had met with earlier were not there. actually, not a single one of those that we had seen earlier was there! diao. so, we just sat there as our section, eating the food provided, and gossiping with any sections that happened to walk nearby. and, it was brandon's err... birthday celebration on that day, thanks to dao bo, who apparently told the japanese players that well, it was brandon's birthday. i should have taken a picture of the commotion that they caused. haha.
bid them farewell after dinner, and bryan actually gave one of the girls his handphone number/email. why am i not surprised...
anyhoo, checked in at new hankyu hotel in the middle of osaka, next to bustling yodobashi shopping mall (will type about that later), main street and stuff. room was 451 if i'm not wrong, settled down, unpacked laptop and stuff, showered and played cards until like err... 12.30 plus with friends. then slept. found some time before that to check out asnas, the convienience store to buy some apollo strawberry chocs and instant noodles. si kai set the old kettle sitting on the table to work, and we had a filling, although meagre supper. yummy. =P

Day 2

woke up early from this strange dream. when it was almost time for me to wake up, as in the half asleep-half awake kind of state, i heard this beeping noise. i (in my dream), looked down to find this digital thermometer in my hand beeping away merrily. i pressed the button to turn it off. it kept beeping. it was not until si kai called me then i woke up and found myself pressing the air stupidly. turns out it was the built in wall alarm clock, lols. anyhoo, went down for buffet style breakfast. had some coffee (useful stuff, that) and other random japanese/international food. took bus to USJ for a fun-filled day at the theme park. oh before i go on, japan has this most amazing network of highways. turn onto the expressway entrance, drive up a ramp, and poof, you're driving like 6-8 floors off the ground. and at some places if you actually stick your head out the window, you can actually see what's going on inside some office buildings. this also means that while driving you could get some pretty nice overhead views of the city. only problem is, to protect the privacy of people working, they've decided to install large metal grilles. therefore, most of your view is limited to admiring the quality (or lack thereof) of the metal whizzing by. poof. back to USJ: only problem is, i've been on everything before. what a lovely way to spoil the fun. also, i lost my re entry pass after going out for lunch. that means i was NOT allowed to go back inside. i would like to thank those people, wei jie, jun hong and yifan who stayed outside with me to play cards. thanks to you, i didn't die of boredom during the 1 and a half hours or so i was waiting outside. so, before lunch, iwas enjoying some of the rides, the jurassic park one was particularly memorable, i had my poncho hood on just before the drop, but as we rushed down the slope the wind blew it off, and it was just before the splash that i managed to save my clothes/bag from laundry treatment.
skip forward to dinner. we were at some long (emphasis on long) shopping street, the type lined with shops on both sides and cars aren't allowed to pass through. first, me and the "eutube" section went to the yamaha shop all the way at the end of the street, looked through the OMG-ish expensive euphoniums and tubas, mouthpieces and such. finally decided to buy this music book and CD together as a section, which will come in handy when trying to teach those @#$@#% sec 1s. turned around after a while just to see the rest of the band (almost), following us into the shop. helped alastair, wei jie and some others decipher the signs on the dividers on the shelves of scores. turns out eupho is "yuho", tuba is "tyubaa", clarinet is "kurarinetto", trumpet is "turampetto" and so on...
left the other sections behind to go to some cafeteria like store for dinner. i sat down and ate my curry and udon set, chatted with my section for like 15 minutes when suddenly, the whole band (almost) followed us in for dinner as well! lucas immediately attributed this phenomenon to his magnetic personality. -_-
met back at 7.15 plus at the kani nabe ("crab pot" in japanese. don't think sick.) started to rain at that time, so jun hong smartly took out his jurassic park ride poncho. i told him that it makes him look as though he's wearing a plastic bag. oh well... the saxes were late, cause they ended up at another kani nabe. (trust me. the japanese love their kani nabe.)
went back to new hankyu hotel, and ended up with our room crashed by those wanting to play cards. again. when you're stuck in japan with no tv or computer to use (yet), the next best thing is well, CARDS. this we all knew. because of this, i ended up sleeping late again. and we found out brandon is phenomenally bad at taiti, probably because he thinks too much. slept without much disturbance from then on, but not without showering first.

Day 3

woke up early again, thanks to the trusty alarm clock in the wall. that day was another slack day, we were checking out of new hankyu to go to fukui. but first, we had achane to go to kinkakuji, a gold-plated temple sitting serenely at the side of a lake. joined the crowd of people waiting to take their picture with this 24k wonder, and sadly, cause i din have a camera, i wasn't one of them. ended up taking pictures for others instead. poof. anyway, walked along the path winding through the gardens, saw a few mini shrines with stone figures around, one i saw had this bowl in the middle, where people would try to throw coins into the bowl from the side. i tried, and wasted 10 yen. lol. walking along the path, it's easy to forget that you're in the middle of a bustling city like kyoto, since that place is so peaceful, with natural scenery and greenery and such. then lunch. helped my section decipher the all japanese menu at some restaurant-eatery place, and bought some souvenirs, like a necklace for my cous and a windchime for my flat. =) bryan bought a life-sized but thankfully wooden katana. lols? next we went to kiyomizudera, or 清水寺. another temple of sorts, the main attraction at kiyomizodera is the three streams of water that run down from some place at the temple. people drink from these streams to gain blessings form the gods. i didn't drink from them because 1. i'm a freethinker of sorts and 2. i don't want dysentery/cholera. wanted to buy souvenirs, but was put off by the price. me and my typical singaporean cheapskatedness, haha.
next was a 4 hour or so long bus trip on the chuki bus to fukui town in fukui prefecture. played hearts on the com for the first half an hour or so, then listened to music (techno FTW) until my battery ran out. slept until we reached the rest stop, a random place in the middle of nowhere. from then on, managed to keep awake until i saw the words "fukui" start appearing on road signs. strangely, there's a city named obama there too. lol.
reached the hotel and checked into room 351, on level 3, the only non-smoking level in the entire hotel. which is a good thing, as the other storeys reek of stub stench. anyhoo, the room was much bigger than the previous hotel's one, and the decor was slightly nicer as well. went out for dinner at some traditional-ish restaurant where the floor was tatami and the tables were short. finished quickly and played blackjack with sikai, who was next to me. had some malt tea which tasted like green tea plus coffee, and returned to the hotel after walking along some dark alleyways with less than desirable establishments like ahem ahems.
this reminds me of something. on the tvs in the hotel there is this pay card system where you buy this tv card to access certain pay channels. p3 has some shows like Heroes and such. and P1 and P2 happen to be the po** channels. yes. they have such things in japan. there was a 30 second preview of each channel before you had to pay. and because of this many people were crashing other people's rooms just to play the 30 seconds of ahem, and then accuse the other person of being sick minded. and worst of all , they were the sec 4 seniors. oh puh-lease.
much to my surprise, nobody bought the pay TV card!

Day 4

had buffet style breakfast at hotel restaurant, and they have this most wonderful half boiled egg immersed in this soya sauce solution. lovely. went off for rehearsal at the fukui harmony hall, something like the singapore version of the victoria harmony hall, except better in every way. waited for an hour or so in the dressing/practise room, before going on stage for a dry run. in case you didn't know, we're the guest player for the fukui high school band concert. had bento lunch which came in these nice looking boxes. and inside, the box is further divided into main course, appetiser, second dish and dessert (mochi!) . another sign of japanese perfectionism; something you don;t see very often in singapore. anyway, the rehearsal was screwed up , cause the percs screwed up by not playing properly, and dropping most of their sitcks and mallets down this hole at the back of the stage. and the only way to retrieve them was to well, move the entire stage, which was something we didn't have the time or strength to do so.

let's skip ahead to... our visit to tojinbo or 東尋坊. just google the name and you'll know exactly what it is. took some pictures off the top of the cliff, and peered down oike, one of the biggest drops (25m) to the bottom, which is the sea. fear of heights and falling to a certain death aside, the place was pretty breeezy and nice, with the sun shining,the clouds billowing across the sky, and the horizon seemingly stretching out to infinity. oh, and there are these eagles which refuse to fly low enough to get a picture of themselves taken. sigh... went to a crystal shop to look around, wanted to buy some but didn't. don't really know why. must be because of the price. bought a kendama at some shop there, and i'm currently playing with it. quite fun actually.

went for dinner at some italian/japanese restaurant, and nearly gave the cashier a headache as we all payed in COINS (and in amounts of up to 1000 yen as well). diao. went to the 100 yen shop later and bought some glass bottles for a personal reason, and some jumbo sized playing cards (but i lost them later. boohoo...) si kai and i joked that these cards would finally be suitable for big-forearm/hand brandon to shuffle. ahem. sec 4s went for the public bath as a batch, and my hotel room was again colonised by the people wanting to come in to use the com/ watch P1/ play cards/ stone for no reason whatsoever. left to play cards at andy/ jun hong's room until 12 plus, and returned to find my room empty! turns out si kai chased them all out at 11pm . thanks sky! you can roughly guess what happened next when now i'm going on to

Day 5

the big performance!! changed into band uniform in the morning, standard morning procedure blah blah blah, and we headed off to the harmony hall. oh, did i mention we had an earthquake in the morning there? only thing was, it was on the other side of japan, so by the time it reached us in fukui, it was less than noticable. the remarkable thing was, just 1 minute after not feeling it, it appeared on television. how efficient. anyway, our performance was due 1t 4 plus, but let's just say the rehearsal before that was less than satisfactory. oh why must bad luck follow us all the way from singapore!??! but the show must go on. and it did. first piece, bandwagon, was screwed up again. you could even say i crashed the bandwagon.. second and third pieces were dance celebration and merry widow, both of which, were in my opinion smashing successes (again). after our turn was over, we sat back and enjoyed the music played by the fukui high school band. there were some recognisable tunes, like 20th Century Fox theme fanfare, Takarajima, Rhapsody in Blue and so on. also, the star guest player was some professional trumpeter called Eric Miyashiro, who played super high notes and trills and jumps as easily as someone would do so on a piano. during his performance, the notes he reached almost made my glasses break. i also noticed Russell's face turn a lovely shade of green as well. i guess it's not because he's sick.
dinner was again at own expense, and our section went to eat at Mcdonalds (globalisation. hmm.), after finding out that all of the other food stores were closed. saw some bimbos at Mcs, nothing more to say. ordered some megamac burger, and it was well, large. what else can you expect from something called MEGAmac? met back at the century clock with everyone else, and walked back to the hotel for another night of cards and talking with friends.
this reminds me. that night i played cards with ignatious, zhuo hao and brandon until 4.30am. yes. it's not a typo. played bridge, taiti, hearts, cheat and the lot until the sky turned bright. which was around 4.30am. days are longer in japan now as it's summer now. anyhoo, i managed to make it through the entire day without falling asleep thanks to this wondrous substance known to me as coffee (with cream and two sugars). slept again only to wake up to

Day 6

woke up on time, amazingly thanks to si kai and that overzealous alarm clock next to me. went to fukui high school to have an interaction with them, and i, being the only person who had learnt japanese, had become the official translator for both the japanese euho section and the english-speaking eutube section. so, on bad times, my life would consist of speaking alternatively in japanese and english, repeat ad infinitum thanks to my talkative section and the japanese people's manners which prohibits them from refusing a question. whoo... ended up trying to make them play cards to no avail, as they didn't know how to play even the simplest card game of all, blackjack! moving on, i just had to make do with simple conversation about themselves and the band. and although they didn't really speak much english, they tried really hard. one even brought out his japanese-english dictionaries. good thing they understand chinese characters though, so i guess that was one common point. oh well... found out that one of the japanese players ws really good at dancing, so we tried to invite him on stage to perform, but he didn't. boo.. anyhoo, 1.5 hours just flew past as we had fun talking to them and playing some random games adn had some random talk with them as well. when it was finally time for us to leave, we realised that we didn;t have some kind of gift for them! after some discussion, we decided to give them our school ties, with our schol name writen on the front with some silver ink pen. how creative! not. as usual, our good-natured japanese friends accepted the gifts with thanks (no matter how cheapskate they were) and one even went to wear it at once! we took a picture of that, but i have yet to find it...

after waving goodbye, we spent most of the after noon travelling back to osaka, had lunch at rest stop along the way (nice katsu kari) and bought some treats for my family, after remembering the lovely green tea mochi i had. reached hotel at 2.50 ish, and met downstairs to go to yodobashi, this huge shopping complex opposite our hotel, mostly specialising in electronics. entered the shop and we were met with this array of colours and noise, of people advertising their wares, tvs and radios doing their best to show themselves off and price boards hung over every display case. bought myself a pair of sony earphones (cos i needed them for blasting music on the bus from my laptop), looked around all the levels for games (couldn't find much) and went back feeling quite happy. played cards until it was almost time for dinner at josie/brandon's room (and inadvertently left my new earphones there when it was time to go for dinner)

dinner was at some shabu shabu restaurant, which is some sort of japanese steamboat. had free flow beef, and i and 4 others (joseph, cheng shuen, zhuo hao, yinan) finished off 7 plates of beef! poor eric must be thinking of his relatives... anyhoo, did more of a certain activitiy involving shuffling and dealing and sporadic swearing (mostly by ahem ahem). laptop got used again for Hearts and Liero X (nvm what that is) had to go to bed early as tomorrow it was time to go back home. and thinking about it gives me some sort of happy/sad feeling, as i could actually live like this for a while longer anyway, it's time to face the inevitable and move on to

Day 7

final day! had breakfast, as usual, loaded bus with instruments (my poorly wrapped eupho lol) and luggage, boarded bus for the last time, and reached osaka airport with some time to spare. checked in luggage, enjoyed lounge area for passengers, and when the time finally came, boarded the plane back home. watched some movies, including I am Legend, CJ7 and some other random one i forgot. spent some time talking to si kai next to me, and poked him for fun (random?), had lunch on board, and spent the last half an hour of the flight enjoying the view outside (although i wasn't the window seater) and counted down to the landing with help of the screens infront of me. we had some sort of reception at the airport, with mr. paul lim (ex-teacher at RI) and some other people that i do not know. anyhoo, the bus ride back was ok, passed RIGHT BY MY HOUSE (wanted to be let off there, but knew that wasn't possible), met back at band room for debriefing and got fetched by parents back home. whee!!

in all i think this trip was rather fun and enriching, and i would gladly go for another one, if there's one next year (hope there is, but most likely won't have due to SYF), but anyway, i would like to thank the teachers who planned this out, and thank my friends who came along on this trip for making it more interesting for me with your jokes and games and laughter and such. last but not least, my parents for providing the money for me to even go overseas! =P

will update on school life in the next few posts, but that will take a while to produce due to my utter lack of energy to write another post, especially after this super long one.

Till next post...

2008-06-05T11:41:00.002+08:00

ok. since i'm so bored, i shall do what jack wants me to do. a quiz!

#1.If your lover betrayed you, what will your reaction be?
hmm. i'll just move on then.

#2.If I could wish for 10 things,what would be the most important wish of all?
hope that i don't die too soon... or of unnatural causes.

#3.What will your dream wedding be like?
I... err... um... it would be somewhere nice i guess.

#4.What would you do with a billion dollars?
buy stuff i want first. then buy stuff i need. then donate some and save some.

#5.What's your ideal lover like?
Probably someone who likes what i like too. and has a sense of humour.

#6.Which is more blessed, loving someone or being loved by someone?
Both are equally important.

#7.How long do you intend to wait for someone you really love?
until i'm too old to legally get married.

#8.If the person you secretly like is already attached, what would you do?
find someone else.

#9.Is there anything that has made you unhappy these days?
Work, not getting what i desperately want, and stupid people.

#10.What cheers you up the fastest?
When my chemistry experiment finally yields results. or if it's really cool to watch.

#11.How do you see yourself in ten years time?
more work/busy, but probably more independent by then.

#12.Who is currently the most important people to you?
Family first. then relatives. then friends.

#13.What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?
Umm. Very guai in school one. Quite nice also. Kills us in maths. =P

#14.Would you rather be single & rich or married but poor?
Let's not think about that now.

#15.What's the first thing you do every morning?
Open my eyes and get out of bed?

#16.Would you give all in a relationship?
Probably yes, if it's worth it.

#17.If you fall in love with two people simultaneously, who would you pick?
I would make the decision now to decide on one only. That's much better.

#18.What type of friends do you like?
People who are concerned for you when you have problems and can offer help. Not too irritating or proud either.

that's it! i don't wanna tag someone else though.

Before I go, here's a thought/teaser:
Do bald people wash their heads with soap, or shampoo?

Till next post...

2008-06-01T17:47:00.002+08:00

Here's a quick joke to show the incompetence and pompousness of Americans:

A transcript of a radio conversation between a US Navy ship and Canadian authorities, in 1995.

Americans: "Please divert your course 15 degrees North to avoid a collision."

Canadians: "I recommend YOU divert your course 15 degrees South to avoid a collision."

Americans: "This is a captain of a US Navy ship. I say again, divert YOUR course."

Canadians: "No, I say again, YOU divert your course."

Americans: "THIS IS THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN, THE SECOND LARGEST SHIP IN THE UNITED STATES ATLANTIC FLEET. WE ARE ACCOMPANIED BY THREE DESTROYERS, THREE CRUISERS AND NUMEROUS SUPPORT VESSELS. I DEMAND THAT YOU CHANGE YOUR COURSE 15 DEGREES NORTH. THAT'S ONE-FIVE DEGREES NORTH, OR COUNTER-MEASURES WILL BE TAKEN TO ENSURE THE SAFETY OF THIS SHIP."

Canadians: "This is a lighthouse. Your call."

Diao...

Till next post...

2008-05-30T17:18:00.002+08:00

Going off to japan soon in about 2 weeks. meanwhile, having lots of band practises to get ready for concert in japan *gasp*. this inevitably leads to stress, and what a better way for me/you to destress than me giving you puzzles and you solving them?

so, here goes...

1. Show n^3 - n is divisible by 3 for all natural n. (this one's a doozy. i can't type powers properly on blogger, forgive me.)

2.If x , y∈Z+ , find the value of x , y if x^2 − 4y^2 = 37. Do not use guess and check. (this one's another doozy. the Z+ thing is supposed to be the symbol "Z" used in set theory. except that i can't type it here.)

you maths club people should have no puroburum at all. *wink*.

have fun! will reveal answers later.

Till next post...

2008-05-30T00:05:00.003+08:00

A really short, irrelevant-to-most-people post. feel free to read if you really want to.

Ryoji: that " cos i like your boobs XD" comment wasn't really by me. honest.

one a separate note, were you the idiot who posted that hardogay comment?!?

Reply pls so i can go and harass the right person when school starts or when i see him. =P

2008-05-29T23:47:00.002+08:00

found this lovely song on youtube. it's quite old actually, and i've heard it before. except then i was 10 years old and i didn't know the name of the song. i think some of you might have heard this before.

so here it is: Cher- Believe

Lyrics:

After love, after love [repeat]
No matter how hard I try
You keep pushing me aside
And I can't break through
There's no talking to you
So sad that you're leaving
Takes time to believe it
But after all is said and done
You're going to be the lonely one, Ohh Oh

[CHORUS:]
Do you believe in life after love
I can feel something inside me say
I really don't think you're strong enough,
No
Do you believe in life after love
I can feel something inside me say
I really don't think you're strong enough,
No

What am I supposed to do
Sit around and wait for you
And I can't do that
There's no turning back
I need time to move on
I need love to feel strong
'Cause I've had time to think it through
And maybe I'm too good for you Ohh Oh

[CHORUS]

But I know that I'll get through this
'Cause I know that I am strong
I don't need you anymore
Oh I don't need you anymore I don't need you anymore
No I don't need you anymore

[CHORUS repeat to fade]

2008-05-25T22:00:00.004+08:00

i'm back people. whee!

anyhoo, life in class has been ok so far, except for some irritating people (as usual) and one very overexpecting form teacher, Mr. Koh Siak Peng.

=P

lol. i shouldn't make him sound so bad lah. he teaches quite well and he can be quite fun sometimes. and, if that's a crime, ladies and gentlemen, i have some rather conclusive proof of his guilt.

WARNING: RANDOMNESS AHEAD FOR NEXT 50 OR SO WORDS AND PICTURE

Exhibit A:
(photo courtesy of Ervin's second blog)
The accused is the person sitting in non-RI school uniform on the second row on the right. The prosecutor (me. lol) is the person who is making bunny ears on his head; and also the person whose face is partially obscured by his head.

Exhibit B:

Some quotes from the accused:

"This is all primary school stuff!"
"Why so dumb?"
"This class is so dead!"

The jury has made its decision. I now pronounce the accused guilty! *bangs on table with gavel*

RANDOMNESS ZONE HAS ENDED. THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION (that was a blatant rip off road work signs. anyway...)

ahem. moving on.

i really don't know why, but i've decided to spend some money to buy lab stuff, like erlenmeyer flasks, boiling flasks, beakers, watchglasses, test tubes etc. probably must be because i like science so much. also, i have to go and ask science teachers where they get their chemicals from. hmm. (the look of a flask of acid with label on a table just looks nice, right?)

holidays have arrived (yay) but homework has too (boo). i'm going off to japan in june (yay) but it's for a band performance/exchange (boo). i'll be getting the instruments i ordered earlier soon (yay) but the cost is coming out of my own ang pow money (err... yay?). i won a few mahjong matches yesterday against my cousins (yay) but we weren't playing money (boo). and i've finally decided to post a post on my blog (yay) but now i'm getting writer's block again (boo).

OK. THAT'S ENOUGH POSTING (for now)

Till next post...

2008-05-17T15:18:00.002+08:00

whoo. what a hectic week this has been. first endless band practises everyday, then the concert on thursday 15th may.

the concert was quite successful, with about 85 % ticket sales, and an encore from the audience. also, although some parts were abit screwed up, i really like how we bounced back from the mistakes quickly, and managed to play together and in tune (even the horns. *amazed*). anyway, some rather chilling news from home on that concert day at around 5.50pm from my parents.

prepare yourself, people.

someone actually COMMITTED SUICIDE at my block of HDBs. yes. he jumped down. i wasn't there to see it, but i got the details from my family. apparently, they knew that person's family eg. saw his daughter before (she always wears this white dress). his body landed on top of a car, squashing it. luckily they didn't tell me about the state of the body, since it was about dinner time that day. now, his funeral is being held below at the void deck, and i can hear the prayers chanting now from my flat upstairs...

goodness, why must some people do such things to themselves and others?

to end of on a happier/less sombre note, here's a thought of the day:

"Why do they make lemon drinks out of lemon flavouring, while dish-washing liquid out of "real lemons" ?"

2008-05-13T23:49:00.002+08:00

hello. just changed the individual tracks there for a playlist.

some of the songs there you might not have heard of before. that's ok. i don't expect you to know them either.

Till next post...

2008-05-12T19:57:00.001+08:00

for the next few days or so, i will be tweaking some stuff around on the blog, (like trying to put music from my computer on) so forgive me for any weird happenings and sorry for the inconvenience.

haha.

Till next post...

2008-05-10T15:50:00.002+08:00

on thursday, we received last year's yearbook (abit the late, right?) so, of course i flipped to 2P' s picture (my class last year)

and what horrors i saw.

you see, for each class they had taken 2 photos, for some strange reason of which i do not know. 1 of which would be published in the book, while the other would be available for us to buy.

and as luck would have had it, we got the more "lousy" version published. why do i call it the more lousy version? well, cause it looks like the photographer pushed the shutter when we weren't ready yet. there are the following funny happenings in our photo. people from 2P last year would know who i'm talking about:

-alex's eyes are half closed, giving him a funny-serious look, which ends up looking funnier.

-wai choong's eyes are half obscured by his glasses, and combining it with his slightly opened mouth (revealing teeth), and slightly tanned skin, makes him look like a beaver.

-sheng yang looks spaced out.

-zi jian looks like he's sleeping (and smiling).

-zydney looks less round than normal.

-jeremy and wen da's glasses are very reflective, giving them white eyes.

-nick quah, jian wei and me apparently haven't combed our hair yet.

-other people are giving diao faces.

sorry. just being random here. still adapting to life in our new class.

oh. and i must stop "shaking my head" when i talk.

Till next post...

2008-05-09T23:53:00.002+08:00

finally, after the tests, i have some good news.

physics has been a rare success for me, with a score of __/30 one of the best i've gotten so far n my 3 years in terms of percentage (not counting those small worksheets with marks)

maths came back as sort of a disappointment, as i only got __/30, which is a 3.6 in percentage. whoops. must practise more to prepare for the next test.

geog was a pleasant surprise, with a 4.0 GPA overall percentage of 80 and above. whee. and to think that the geog teacher was calling us stupid.

bio has just been taken, and in my opinion it was rather easy, ie. everything that was tested had been gone through in class before. hope i do well.

more good news just in, our class was supposed to get 1st in the interclass deco competition, but due to some technical error in announcing the results, we ended up getting third. lol. now we're still discussing how to spend the $120 cash we got/will be getting...

got some new nice Spanish song called Eres Tu for our encore piece, sounds emo, like Che Sara, but slightly better. still must get some parts right though...

my thoughts have been rather disoriented these few days, partly die to me still sleeping at 1 am plus. goodness. i'm becoming a panda. *rubs away eye-rings*

Tilll next post... (Oh dear. a typo. tsk tsk...)

2008-05-01T11:15:00.002+08:00

hmm. school life has been ok so far, but our teachers are up to their same old before-holiday- homework-giving madness. to quote a scene from a certain teacher,

" Ma'm, tomorrow is a holiday! Don't give work lah!"

" But tomorrow is supposed to be Labour day!"

Diao...

anyhoo, the tests were rather hard, and i think i screwed up some of them. for example, in the physics test, one question asked for the brunt area, or diameter of the burn. i stupidly forgot to read the units, thus i ended up with a burn diameter of 72 cm.

GGXXDD. (lol)

Oops. must work harder/ practise more. wish me luck...

RE project has been going rather smoothly, we have almost everything planned out already, now to flesh out the details, prepare materials, coordinate with our VWO, get extra manpower, do one more visit there, do more research etc.

all this to be comepleted in just 1 month. isn't that great? i also found out that my band trip ends on 16th June 7.00pm, and my VWO thing is on 17th June morning. i'll probably oversleep. again.
note to self: must buy more alarm clocks.

bio test next week, just remembered: must pin up topics to study on class noticeboard, if not i'll be blamed by the class for saboing them. one of the many dangers of being a subject rep.

concert will be happening soon, and ticket sales are only at less than half. O M G. that's bad. very bad. and to quote one teacher, she wants us to "sell, sell, sell!" this is harder than it looks, as most people are so leng lui (people who know hokkien will know what i mean.), and the concert is on a Thursday night. that's probably one of the worst times you can have a performance.

poof.

things to do: 1. study
2. practise music (includes piano)
3. sell tickets
4. renew passport (realised passport expires 5 days after trip lol.)
5. lose weight/ grow taller (getting suaned during PE) (and also by Wen Da)
6. learn how to play some sports, like tennis
7. nothing for now, but something will come up soon enough

Till next post...

CCTS

2008-04-27T22:48:00.001+08:00

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

physics, chem, maths, chinese ccts are this week.

also my chinese performance...

GG.

Till next post...

suanning. again.

2008-04-26T17:45:00.003+08:00

hi peeps. it seems that i have to return to a rather old topic again.

*ahem*

[rant]

ok. the recent ccts are over, and we have our results back. and with the reception of any sort of marks/results/POINTS/awards/certs/whatever there will be some people who do badly, and some who do well. that is perfectly alright, IMO. however, there are some idiots who think that they're so great, that what they have achieved is such a BIG deal, that they have to go around shoving it in other people's faces. let's quote from some of my yesterday experiences. my thoughts will be added in brackets.

"Oi! (Idiot can't even manage to say a simple "hello".) I (emphasis on "I".) just got a certain amount of marks/results/POINTS/awards/certs/whatever. how much did you get?"

the conversation usually continues in either one of 2 directions after this.

1) "i... err... got less than that. *says number of marks/results/POINTS/awards/certs/whatever.let this number be x.*"

"haha. i owned you! i got *insert number > x*. (And i care because...?. all it does is give you a nice looking A+/ non-significant award for a certain non-classroom subject.) stupid noob."

the person then goes on and on about his previous results and how he expects to get his desired amount this year. and how i'll probably lose out to him. blah blah blah. usually at this point i walk away/dao him.

OR

2) "i got more than you. *says x amount of marks*. yay."

"walau eh. mugger. (he stops to think of a smart comeback. he fails.) how much did you get last year for this?"

"err... *says y amount of marks.*"

"lol. i owned you. stupid noob." (again, he goes in a large round to shoot me again. oh puh-lease.)

worse of all, all of his answers are done in an irritating nasal-like voice. doesn't help the situation alot, does it?

still dunno why people act like that; showing off their "greatness" to others. i guess it's to feed their bloated egos, which are probably even larger than i am. and that is not good, in case you stupidly think it is. and in case your oh-so-smart brain hasn't realised yet, people don't like it. it pisses them off. you might be the only one standing there like an asshole shooting your mouth off to people who are not very interested. people don't criticise you in front of others because they are giving you face/or you have skin thicker than elephants'.

also, doing that makes you look like you have an AP/PMS/both. laugh at other's problems, and no one will care when you bitch to them about your problems/achievements. it's not good socially to be a selfish bastard with a fucked up attitude.

ok. i look really heartless now. i shall now redeem myself. i do admire/envy those who do better than me. i take it as some sort of challenge to beat them next time. and when i do, i don't rub salt in their wounds.

humility is a virtue. learn it. it'll bring you far.

sorry for the excessive sharpness of tounge here. oops.

P.S: I did not explicitly implicate/mention/arrow/sabo/etc. ANYONE on this post. everything you read is up to YOUR OWN interpretation. so if you come up to me saying i suanned you with this, you are an idiot with an insecure mind.

P.S.S: Sorry about the vulgarities as well. i couldn't control myself.

[/rant]

on a happier note, i passed piano grade 6 with merit (124/150). this is like the first time i got merit! other times were just plain pass. *celebrates*

Till next post...

band stuff

2008-04-25T20:36:00.002+08:00

it's been a rather hectic week at band, with new pieces, more practising, more this, more that etc.

first, our next year's competition choice piece has been decided, and it's called Scootin' on Hardrock. it's REALLY fast and hard, syncopation, rhythm, and togetherness have to be there, if not it'll sound really screwed up, and we'll die for the SYF, and we'll break a string of 17 continuous gold awards. no pressure at all. =)

............ -_-

anyway, i've added the mp3 below at the music section, you can hear a professional band playing it. hope we can play like this next year...

also, our concert's coming in 3 WEEKS time, and our songs are still like, wth. hai...

hope for this year to be over soon. suffering from writer's block again.

That's all folks! Till next post...

2008-04-20T18:29:00.003+08:00

gah. concert's in less than 1 month and i we haven't gotten our repertoire up to standard yet. why? cause our concert is supposed to be 2hs long, but cerrently, it's only scratching 1h ++ after we add in intro, intermission, talking time. etc. OMG.

our conductor is also going ballistic over this concert. sometimes during practise he'll be really abrasive towards us, like calling us stupid, no brain, don't think, never look at him etc. ok, i admit it's sometimes our fault, but suddenly, on some occasions, he'll start being really nice to us. like praising us, telling stories for us etc. goodness.

tickets sales aren't going so well for our concert, so please, if you are free, and can afford it (i'm sure many people can. it's $10 for goodness sake.), please buy a ticket and come down to support/ listen to us. and looking at other school concerts, our seems to be the cheapest. that's good. at least i think so...

1st cct week has just passed, and i have mixed predictions for the tests. first, i think chem was slightly screwed up, geog was ok, and ss was ok, although i'll probably screw up. hai... life is sad.

next week will be maths, and bio , and then bio again. and i predict i'll get suanned for every subject by the person on my right, who will inevitably get higher marks than me for everything.

Till next post...

2008-04-09T22:11:00.002+08:00

Found this video on youtube, and I must say i'm pretty impressed by both the quality of the animation,(though the video sucks)and by the music composition. i think that this would have taken a long time to make. hope that our band can play as coherently and together-ly like these robots, although
1. they're robots, we're human.
2. they're animated, we're real.
3. we have much more people to coordinate than them.

of course, this is no excuse for us to slack, considering our concert is coming soon, and people will be expecting value for money at our performance, especially with everybody all up about saving. phew...

Till next post... and enjoy the music.

RIMB concert

2008-04-06T18:44:00.003+08:00

hellos people. since i'm a band member and the owner of this blog, i feel that it is necessary that whoever enters must be subject to this advertisement:

RIMB will be be having their biennial concert, Prometheum 12, this coming May. Expect a nice selection of pieces ranging from fast gallops, to soothing chorals during your time there. Details are below:

Date: 15 May
Time: 7.30 pm
Venue: Victoria Concert Hall
Price: $10
Free seating.

Anyone who is interested in going for this concert may approach any band member for tickets. Including me. Sponsorship is also encouraged, if any.

Till next post...

flag day/ randomness

2008-04-06T10:23:00.002+08:00

today is flag day, and being the usual weekend me, i overslept. and because of that, i reached there around 1.5 hours late. ahhh... anyway, thanks to my friends for coming to meet me later.
anway, i got my bag, stickers, etc. and then we headed off to um.. let's see... Admiralty, Woodlands, Bukit Batok, Marsiling and Choa Chu Kang to collect donations. being the quiet type, i was reduced to standing at the side of the road waiting for people to somehow notice me, understand what i was doing, and then give me a donation; while my other friend was getting some money from almost every uncle or aunty that passed by, except for a few Daoists that just walk past you as though you were transparent. one aunty even opened her umbrella as she came near us to "shield" herself from us. lol. at the end, managed to collect quite a fee, although most of it was self-donated. haha. went out for lunch later back at Bishan with friends. stop writing in short sentences. although today's flag day was quite ok, i would rather be painting or helping to move stuff at a VWO.

A few days ago, jack said he wanted to kill the physics teacher, mr. wong. really. he said he could have killed the maths teacher as well, but he was kind not to. goodness. he almost killed us as well by suggesting a method for solving some maths questions that was like ________. who knew jack had a hidden side that was like that?

also, to avoid excess damage to other people's/my own body parts, i'm going to save slapping for special occasions involving certain very irritating people. i won't mention names. who knows, if slapping doesn't work, i might bring a cane or a stick from home and use it. and according to the formula for calculating pressure, amount of pressure is inversely proportional to the surface area of contact space. ergo, thin cane= big ouch.

Till next post...

2008-04-05T19:08:00.003+08:00

ok. first some good news. our class won a interclass soccer match with a convincing scoreline of 3-0 against 3J (noobs). next match will be against ???. (will edit this later)

now for some randomness, since i will be going to japan later during the year, i suddenly remembered the fun and confusion of learning japanese during my last 2 years. the grammer is manageable, but the confusion comes from the "kanji' or chinese lettering. because, the words in chinese when read literally DON'T MAKE SENSE. although, some do. like these:

word pronunciation in english meaning

大きい ookii big

小さい chisaii small

静かに shizukani quiet

必要 hitsuyou need (n)

必ず kanarazu need (adj)

留学 ryuugaku study overseas (v)

some can roughly be deciphered, such as:

word pronunciation in english meaning

易しい yasashii easy

働く hataraku to work

調べる shiraberu to investigate

準備 jyunnbi to prepare

and finally, these are the really weird ones. the ones that don't make sense to me:

word pronunciation in english meaning

切手 kitte stamp (envelopes)

切符 kippu ticket

全然 zenzen not at all

心配 shinpai worry (adj)

面白い omoshiroi interesting
安い yasui cheap

高い takai expensive

卒業 sotsugyou graduate

お手洗い otearai toilet

and now, the king of weird chinese usage, PROPER nouns (ie. place and people/brand names) i shall quote from the names of stations along a certain Tokyo Line of the Jr Railway. (sorry if i spam)

name pronunciation in english

魚住 uozumi (my aunt lives near this stop)

加古川 kakogawa

土山 tsuchiyama

大久保 okubo

西明石 nishiakashi (means "west of Akashi")

朝霧 asagiri

舞子 maikou (literally means "dancer")

垂水 tarumi

塩屋 shioya (literally means "salt-house")

須磨海浜公園 sumakaihinkoen ("seaside park at suma")

鷹取 takatori

新長田 shin-nagata

兵庫 hyogo

神戸 kobe (name of the state)

元町 motomachi

三宮 sannomiya

灘 nada

六戸道 rokkomichi

湖南山手 setsu-motoyama

芦屋 ashiya

尼崎 amagasaki

塚本 tsukamoto

姫路 himeji

御着 gochaku

曽根 sone

大阪 oosaka

the chinese doesn't seem to mean anything, right?

ahh. good times. gooooood times.

japanese also copies from english some words that cannot be translated properly, like chinese copies "sandwich" and "hamburger" directly. because of that, some words some weird as well when japanesed.

whew. that was a long post. will write about flag day, but later.

Till next post...

school life

2008-04-02T21:10:00.003+08:00

last thursday i was late. again. really. here's what happened...

left house at 7 am , and after some miraculous rushing through red lights and braving some rather unpleasant traffic jams outside my house, i managed to get to school at 7.23am. i thought i was early, as morning assembly was supposed to start only at 7.25am. i was wrong. turns out the parade commander, being extra, decided to start early. GG. stopped by prefect at parade square, got hong bao, and went to class to mark attendance. after this, had a RIMB meeting, and received news about some band trip to Japan (Osaka to be precise.)

here's a rough guide of what we will be doing once we get there:

band interaction with ands in japanese schools (probably will get suanned)
hold a joint concert in a full fledged concert hall, in front of a full fledged audience.
go sightseeing around the city. (theme park visits, anybody?)
shopping at osaka airport (have fun reading the japanese texts)
homestay (not confirmed, although if we do go for a homestay, it will knock a few nights of lodging cost off our bill)
go home after all that.

all this in 5-7 days.

すごいですね！

(cool!)

this intenary is obviously not confirmed, and it's only bits and pieces i can pick up from memory. the cost is below 2k, which i think is very worth it for something so enriching. (since outside tour packages cost up to 3k at least...) also this is a chance for me to refresh my japanese!

one last thing. osaka is famous for the few gangs of the japanese mafia, or yakuza, which operate there as its headquarters. and the gangs are HUGE. and they're influential and dangerous if you meddle with their affairs. you can learn more about them here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakuza

ah don't worry about them too much if you ever do visit there. i'm just being paranoid. as usual.

rest of the day was quite ok, but the 2 most remembered periods for me are the PE and SS periods.

PE was quite fun, we were up against all the more "sporty" people in class (you know, always playing soccer that bunch) , while my team was, um, not so physically inclined. so, surprise when we actually managed to pull a score of 3-2 (we lost) against them. and i discovered a rare sporty side of myself as well. *wink* looking forward to more PE lessons in the future.

SS however, was one of the most um... *insert appropriate word here* lesson, as i'm a not so humanities-type of person. what i mean is, my brain was switched off for almost the whole lesson. until the end when we greeted her goodbye. whoops.

piano lesson later, will be learning some new songs. like some by ABBA and Jay Chou.

hmm. i guess that's all for today.

Till next post...

interclass soccer.

2008-03-26T13:54:00.002+08:00

heard from some people that our class is doing quite well in the interclass soccer competition; and that we beat 3P yesterday. sorry i couldn't go down to support, still feeling drowsy after medicine taking in the morning. grats to them. seems that their incessant playing of soccer around class and during break has paid off somehow after all...

wonder what class we will be facing next. doesn't matter, since i'm sure we'll win anyway. hope we do win, since it will probably pacify Mr. Koh's burning desire for our class to achieve.

gosh, this is my shortest post yet!

Till next post...

random rants

2008-03-24T15:58:00.002+08:00

i'm in a bit of a dilemma now. firstly, i try to be nice to people, but more often than not, the following situation arises:

[rant]

After helping him/her, i get no thanks, instead i get some form of abuse. usually verbal, saying that it's the wrong way to do it, i could have done it myself etc. to that i have this to say:

if you're so damn smart, then you would not have needed my help in the first place. i help out of goodwill, but if this goodwill doesn't reciprocate, what's the point? i find it quite a waste to help for nothing. i'm not expecting cash or prizes, but a simple "thanks" would suffice. if you can't even bring yourself to say that word, then i think you're an EQ failure. such situations usually cause people to think that they have been taken advantage of.

also, is it such a necessity to suan people? yes i know suaning is inevitable, but of course, balance it out with some form of kindness. do things that are pleasing to others. and for the record, using vulgarities on someone after him/her helping you does not constitute kindness. if your vocabulary is so limited to those words, then you're also an IQ failure. if you're really not ready to say thanks yet, at least shut your hole before shooting off again and acknowledge the act.

of course, some people are hard wired to be nasty to others. i cannot change that. however, they themselves can change that, although kicking the habit is quite hard. just try and it'll do wonders for you.

[/rant]

ah. that felt better. anyway, today was the track and field meet, and as usual, Hullett got completely owned by the other houses, especially Buckley and Bayley. must be that their runners have longer legs. also, i was struck down mysteriously by a fever, most probably spread to me by my little brother. Brandon also went down with a fever after his event. he was just sitting there with head in his hands. at first, we thought he was emoing there after getting third overall for 4x400 relay. lol (hope it's not my fault he got the fever.) rest of the day was pretty uneventful, and i went home at 11.30am to see a doctor. thanks to her prescription, i now have a total of 5 different pills to take one after another. hope i don't accidentally overdose...

getting blood test on Wednesday for a certain disease, and if the results come back negative, i have to go for another shot. this would be ok, except i have a phobia of being pierced or cut. i would rather they anaesthetise me first. this phobia of mine has some history...

it was five years ago. i went for a blood test to determine whether i have certain antibodies. so, i laid on the table, the doctor inserted the needle into my elbow, and after 5 plus minutes, said,

"sorry. i don't seem to be able to draw any blood here. please endure as i try again on a nearby spot."

*faint*

thankfully, he got it out the second time round. all this while, i was trying to ignore that sharp metal thing in my arm. and he was making it difficult for me by mumbling about some stuff about arteries and veins and how he should have used a larger needle...

glad that was over. however, every 5 years i'm due for another blood test. and whoop-the-doo, the next one i have is on wednesday. aargh!

piano exam for grade 6 is on friday, hope i pass... if not i'll have to endure another year of the same grade.

oh well, that's all i have to say for now. Till next post...

2008-03-23T14:19:00.003+08:00

ah. it seems my puzzle addiction is acting up again. and being the nice person that i am, i have decided to share some puzzles with you readers. I sort of arranged them in order of difficulty.

hmm. this one's quite simple if you know how to cut it up properly. answer's a nice whole number.hmm. try to simplify the problem by thinking critically. (lol i know i'm no help at all.)

this one is simple maths. just need to watch out for some tricky wording.

coming up next are all " A said,"B's lying, while i'm not." Who is lying?" type of questions. hope you like them...

this one is crazy. even i haven't thought of it yet... a continuation of the question is: who should they let go?this last one will probably need you to bring out pencil and paper to solve. if you don't need any of those, you're really pro at puzzles.

these puzzles are probably for those who are better at logic and maths. i'll post some word games/whatever puzzles later.

oh well, that's all i guess; for now.

Till next post...

community day

2008-03-22T22:07:00.003+08:00

ahh. the day that we're all so hyped about is finally over. here's a quick recap of the day's acitivies.

report at 8.00 am? no it was more like 7.00 am for me, as being part of rimb, going for community day would most likely involve some kind of musical performance. and just nice, i was in the sec 3 ensemble with the rest of my batch mates, and we had arranged specially so that we could perform as a batch on that day. so, being perfectionists that we are, we had arranged to go report at 7.00am for:

-Unpacking of instruments
-Warming up
-Talking
-Changing of clothes
-Bringing instruments/whatever apparatus down to the hall for ceremony

8.30 am plus : board buses to the care centre (our VWO). played taiti and bridge on the bus. accidentally bid wrongly when experimenting how to. lost the game in the end. (for all you curious georges who want to know what i bid, it was 3 hearts. not too bad, unless you consider that my hand was full of clubs. )

anyway, we reached there soon enough, and we were soon having various activities with the old folk, involving morning exercise (which was quite ok), interaction with old folk with games, performance...

oh yes. interaction with old folk. we went together as the euphoniums' section, but out of the group that we had, one couldn't see, one couldn't understand english or chinese, and one couldn't talk. see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. quite sad for them actually. however, it was warming to see them look out for each other. for example, the one who could see would tell her half-blind friend what was going on, the one with hearing would translate what we said into cantonese for her illiterate friend, and the one wh couldn't talk well, um... stoned there. pfft.

performance was quite good, considering the hard effort that we put in and the short time we had to practise, it was quite good already. we were going to have some acts after our batch one, but due to time constraint, those had to be cancelled. whoops.

after all that, we had attendence taking back in the band room in sweet old RI, and kirk got squished during sec 3 batch picture. actually, we had meant to taupok him at the bottom of the pile during picture taking, but in the end, he got taupoked, AND was out of the picture; cause we all blocked him. lols...

went out for lunch with friends later at s11, had noodles and soup. also found out Si Kai is quite good at puzzles. good for him.

One last thing. whoever designed those shirts, please know that it makes us look like Raffles Jailbirds. thank you.

Till next post...

2008-03-19T21:45:00.002+08:00

a few nights ago, went out for dinner with my family, my mother's friend's family, my cousin's family, and her taiwanese godmother and godfather at some seafood restaurant.

and when i say seafood, i MEAN seafood.

the whole menu is filled with stuff like fish, clams, shells, oyster, crabs, lobster, scallop, eel, abalone, sharksfin etc. no mention of meat anywhere else. the only side dish we had was rice.

and man, was it nice. the oysters are HUGE. like 3 times bigger than you would expect normally. however, the true size of the flesh is revealed when you crack open the shell, and all i can say is that it's normal.

which means that most of the oyster is probably shell, which we can't eat, yet we pay for in weight.

poof.

rest of the dinner went well, there were loads of laughs and talking for all. also, my cous got a free Wii from her uncle in taiwan. lucky her X(

anyway, so called holidays are here, but also here are the holiday hws. everyone should do a DoS attack on askandlearn. that way we have an excuse for not doing work. lols.

today was also one of the longest self volunteered extensions of band prac i ever had. it was until 8pm ++. whee. at least after that i had dinner with friends at KFC. quite nice actually.

grade 6 piano exam coming next friday, feeling nervous about it already. must practice pieces more!!1! even stole some time during band prac to play piece B2 (Moment musical in F minor). one of the shortest yet most challenging songs i have to play in my opinion, cause my left hand needs to jump around so much. combine that with exam pressure, and you have a mistake that's waiting to happen. hope for the best. =) after the test it's going to be mostly casual playing, and i can finally get the Marriage D'amour score (i hope) from my piano teacher.

on a side note, i'm going crazy over brainteasers. forgive me if i pop up and ask one suddenly when i see any of my friends around. i have a strange postulate that this erratic behavior is caused by stress.

back to the present, tomorrow is RI community day, and we're going to meet some old folks and interact with them. i'm going to play something, and there will be other performances as well. trying to convince lin jin to go perform magic on stage, but to no avail. hai, magicians...

On a happier note, the world can't end today, since it's already tomorrow in USA. [sarcasm] that's a great relief [/end sarcasm]

Till next post...

random stuff

2008-03-14T11:59:00.003+08:00

hmm. currently at cousin's house for sleepover, and saw one of her magazines with something i think is quite funny. so anyway, here it is:

Q: What does this road sign mean?
A: Drive abreast

Diaozzz. -_-

Q: To get to Ang Mo Kio from Orchard Rd, which expressway should you take?

A. CTE
B. PIE
C. BKE
D. ECP

A: The taxi.

what a stupiak.

And finally, just a little puzzle.

A perfectly normal and healthy student was going for her medical exam to become a certified doctor. thhe examiner gave her a femur (thigh bone) and asked her how many of those she had. she replied, "Five."

"Wrong. you have two femurs."

But the student was right. Why?

Ahaha. who knows the answer? tell me through cbox.

Till next post...

Camp

2008-03-13T19:03:00.003+08:00

well, just got back from band camp, and here are some words to describe it:

Crazy
Fun
Motivational
Tiring
did i mention fun?

anyway, we started out with standard band stuff eg. sectionals, concert, practise with juniors etc. then we went on to not-so-standard stuff like: lunch, dinner, station games, sleeping, watching movies. i shall elaborate soon.

sectionals are pretty standard, with us playing assigned pieces among seniors (me), and then sparing some time to teach the junior sec 1s (ashley and samuel (we stole him from the trumpets)) their progress has been so-so, ashlee has learnt how to play a song, albeit simple, and samuel is still learning everything from scratch. and i have to teach him. wheee... anyway, when we go in for concert, the sec 1s go out for drills. they absolutely love doing drills.

concert is the typical tuning then mr. oura comes in to conduct affair. as usual, we euphos get lots of rest while the other sections eg. horns get screwed by oura's sarcastic comments. the new songs are quite peaceful and nice; this is true as the St. Florian Choral nearly put me to sleep. especially at the first part, where i have about 24 bars of rest. *snore*

meals were all provided for by aunty azzah, quite nice actually.

station games were largely random and sort of fun, but you realise after playing each one that there is some sort of lesson to learn from each one. for example, the chairs-and-rubber-bands game was about teamwork, and it would not be possible to win with soloing the entire thing. other games like the blowing-ping-pong-ball-around game showed the importance of having a good breath whenever doing something. or at least, during band.

then came the motivational speech. the sec 4 seniors took their turns to tell us about why we should be extra hardworking this year, especially our batch, since this year we're taking over and next year is SYF again. thinking back, they do have a point.

showering and sleep was long awaited, though as murphy's law dictates, something will go wrong. and something did. i'll tell you what.

first, after searching a while with Shang Shuen in the Raja Block for a empty shower cubicle in the toilet, we finally found two, i went in one, locked the door, drenched myself with water, and to my horror,

realised i left my towel back in the room.

poooooooooof.

fortunately, the pe shirt that i changed out of was pretty absorbent (compared to the dry fit crap the sec 1s are wearing), and i managed to dry myself to a large extent. i was lucky not to catch a cold.

next, we went back together. we parted ways, and i went back to managing my room mates. i tried to play card games with them, but as luck would have it, none/not enough of them could play taiti/bridge/hearts etc. (shock! horror!) anyway, card games are not allowed as usual, so i gave up trying to persuade them to learn, and we ended up playing other stuff like Truth or Dare (i got truthed.) until it was time to sleep.

oh yes, sleep.

i decided from previous experience that a sleeping bag would be unnecessary, and that tables would be rather comfortable. i was right, and wrong. tables are rather ok to sleep on (i also used my dry towel as a makeshift blanket/pillow) but not if there is a 24 deg. air-con blowing constantly at you, plus the fans are turned on to full. the first 3 hours were ok for me, but halfway through the night, i was frozen awake. really. for the rest of the night until about 4am, i was pacing around the room trying to tire myself out, while my room mates were all curled up inside their sleeping bags zzz-ing away. just then, i had a brainwave.

sometimes during REALLY BORING sectional days where all you did was play the same song for 4 hours, it would be common to see me head slumped over my music stand. why? rest , of ocurse. so i learned from experience, and placed my head in that position, towel over head and arms to prevent frostbite. and then, just after a few minutes,

bliss...

until 7.00am, where our friendly band major Gerald popped in to extricate me from Dreamland. oh well...

the rest of day was quite normal, until they decided to watch some dumb movie about a boy who wants to dance ballet. oh please, how predictable.

broke camp at 3.30 plus, and went for extremely early dinner at around 4.30pm at McDonalds, and then had dessert at Swensens. just then, it started to rain again. before this, if not for austin's mother fetching us to j8, i guess we would be much wetter. thnx austin's mum.

after all that had to rush over to cousin's house for some stuff. nearly missed the stop on 156. woke up just in time to press the bell. phew.

sry if my writing seems abit uncoherent, since i'm writing this at about 2.30am. can't write any more, if not my eyeballs will fall out due to tire.

Till next post...

2008-03-08T19:58:00.002+08:00

hai.

i'm losing my mind.

i do all (fine most) of my work that i need to hand up tomorrow, and then i pack my bag nicely for the next day. i then sit at my table, admiring the emptiness, which is a stark contrast to the paper strewn scene i saw earlier.

i try to relax, wind down, chill etc. but i keep thinking i have something to do. oh goodness. poof.

hope this condition goes away, as i'll finally be able to sleep early for once.

finally, alvin still hasn't linked my blog. so antisocial...

Till next post...

school hols and ccts (pt.3) and random comments

2008-03-07T23:54:00.004+08:00

well, it's the end of the week, and it's the start of the school "holidays". sort of, since i have, 2 days taken by band, 2 days taken by some personal things, and the rest is probably going to be busy cause of work.

anyhoo, the bio paper came back, and i got 33/40! 4.0 by one mark! anyway, the highest was 37, and it was achieved by mr. suanner, who is again sitting next to me. we went through the answers, and the question i lost most marks on was the sickle cell anaemia stuff. must get higher next time.

arriving next was the english cct script. i got B+/A although the exact mark is not known (teacher says it's not important). anyway, quite pleased with the results, although as some random dead guy once said, there's always room for improvement.

and jack's quite good at puzzles. who knew? still awaiting his answer to this question i asked him :

" What word in English has the letters "lica" in this order together in the word itself? There are 3 possible answers : silica (although it's more of a proper noun), implicate (and other forms) and the last one, which is?"

anyone knows the answer?

one last thing. i get how 2.4 km, shuttle run, and to some extent pull ups can help gauge how much you can perform next time as a soldier, but i have a question with standing broad jump.
imagine the scenario, you're running from enemy fire in a war. there is a big ditch in front of you. who in the right mind would run up to the ditch, stop, position both feet in a straight line, swing his arms for a while, and then jump? common sense probably dictates that you just bridge the gap in a single bound. and i predict that by the time you stop and get ready, you would have been pushed in by your fellow comrades rushing behind you as well. anyway, those are my thoughts.

And what the heck is a Crystal Maiden?

Till next post...

testing

2008-03-05T23:32:00.001+08:00

sorry if random widgets start appearing in my blog. i'm just testing (i'm new to this remember)

and sorry for the random music. if you don't like it, don't play it. simple as that.

ccts (pt.2)

2008-03-04T23:13:00.002+08:00

well. after going through the horrors of taking the tests, the results have returned. yes. the numbers that determine the amount of time you are allowed to use the computer during the holidays are returned together with the papers that we worked hard on to earn them.

enough crapping, the maths test was quite satisfactory for me, although there should have been more. time, that is.

the bio test result is still a big mystery, and my reputation as bio rep is still at stake. whee. and whether i do good or bad, i'll get suaned by a certain someone behind me anyway. haizz... must learn to be a Daoist.

anyway, looking forward to 1 week "holiday", and then back to school after that. then the daily cycle of school, home, school, home, school, home etc. starts again. wash, rinse, repeat.

tomorrow is the geog trip to labrador, and we're probably going there to look at some rocks. fascinating. prove me wrong tomorrow.

and looking at the next 5 day weather forecast, all i can say is those without umbrellas will suffer, unless you think walking around in a wet uniform is a fun and enriching experience.

on a final note, i should listen to people more carefully despite my primary-1-time diagnosed hearing problem. this will save people the energy to repeat themselves, and me some embarrassing experiences. for example,

"what dialect are you?"
"*reply*"
"what? one side hokkien, other side grandmother?"
"no, *clears things up*"

oops...

Till next post...

Suanning

2008-03-03T22:52:00.002+08:00

since this topic is EXTREMELY prevalent in our class (and probably other classes as well), i just felt i had to write something about it. so, here it is.

"The Art of Suanning and how to Deal with it"

ok. i'm not going to pretend to be some expert on it, so here's my few cents worth. i take no responsibility for injury or death caused by use of this advice.

1. Suanning

Q:What is suanning?

Suanning is the action of either using (1)verbal language or (2)physical actions to cause the intended receipient or any one who sees or hears it to feel inferior or unpleasant.

Examples of : (1) Can you be more EARNEST??!? (directed at me)
Wah, first time i couldn't see Java. (directed at Java)

(2) Someone outperforms you during PE lesson (eg. plays a particular sport better)/NAPFA test/during Track and Field meet/whatever and after seeing you lose out, comes and rubs it in your face.

of course, being the smart people that we are, we have learnt to combine both for greater effect. this list is by no means exhaustive.

Q: I just got suaned and i'm not happy. What shall i do about it?

well, in my opinion, there are two things to do. 1. dao the person. 2. suan back. 3. take some physical action.

1. Daoing is put simply, IGNORING completely the particular person who has suaned you. this is not as easy as it looks, as some people just love to bear grudges (cannot dao). and if you say something to them, they keep it in them until they find the perfect chance to exact revenge. so, if you are naturally quiet, daoing is the way to go for you. however, this does not mean you can't do the next thing, which is...

2. Suaning back. this is a large topic, so forgive me if i become too verbose on it.

Q:How to suan back?

A: well, depends what kind of suan hit you in the first place, if it's type 1, you can easily counter it with a quip of your own (and from experience, a good comeback can leave your opponent speechless). i shall tell you how to later. if it's type 2, however, i must say it is VERY hard to suan back a type 2. reason: actions speak 100 times louder than words. it is not possible to erase what just happened to you with a mere sentence . simple as that. the best advice i can give you is to outperform him on another battlefield: the classroom. scoring higher than a person in a test is a simple yet effective way to suan him.

Anyway, i shall move on. effective countersuaning needs you to know a few things:

1. what are the persons' weak points? is there anything he ashamed of? afraid of? know that person well.
2. sarcasm, irony, quick-wittedness, quips, hidden meanings... all these are weapons to add to your arsenal when suaning.
3. know the context of the suan. is it right to apply this suan here?

Warning: An uneffective suan can make you look stupid. such is the double-edgedness of suaning. also, do not suan a person in front of his "friends" as they will all attack you as well. more than one person at once is too much to handle in my opinion, unless you are extremely confident of yourself.

suaning takes practise, or it can come to you naturally. some side effects will include making you look really thick skinned or just plain insensitive.

Q: i just suaned that person back and he used some four letter words on me. what should i do?

well, use of vulgarities is good news for you. it shows you have reduced your opponents choices of comebacks until he is forced to use that word. you can now comment on his childishness of using those words. or you could keep quiet. depends on your mood.

finally. a suan fight can escalate into a real fight. if you are caught in one of those, immediately report it to a teacher.

on a final note, this was written as a JOKE. please do not take me seriously, although if you want to, i can't help it. we shouldn't be suaning each other at all actually. hope this brought some smiles to everyone's face.

oh dear. now i'm going to get suaned in school for writing this. nooo....

Till next post...

2008-02-29T22:10:00.004+08:00

ok. here's another random excerpt from my life in 3T. OMG spoilers. after some bout of weird imagination, i decided the best way to remember our class/win the class deco competition would be to design something original. and since i'm a card game fanatic, the best thing i could think of was...

A 3T themed deck of playing cards! *fanfare music plays*

Only problem is, i can't draw for nuts. *fanfare music stops abruptly*

anyway, to make my life easier, i have decided to redraw only the picture cards (K, Q, J), the Ace of Spades, and the Joker, and each card will be representative of someone in the class. i will explain the design soon. anyway, here's the list of cards/people:

King of Spades - Sheng Wei (Monitor)
Queen of Spades - Xin Yan (Assistant Monitor)
Jack of Spades - Brandon (Treasurer)

King of Hearts - Ernest (Biology Rep)
Queen of Hearts - Johnathan (Chemistry Rep)
Jack of Hearts - Mervyn (Physics Rep)

King of Clubs - Teng Chuan (Chinese Rep)
Queen of Clubs - Parry (English Rep)
Jack of Clubs - Dominic (Maths Rep)

King of Diamonds - Manfred (CLE Rep)
Queen of Diamonds - Lin Jin (IT Rep)
Jack of Diamonds - Jack (duh) (Geography Rep)

Ace of Spades - Mr. Koh Siak Peng

Joker - Generic Joker

here is the explanation in general. skip this part if you're lazy to read it.

in taiti, Spades is the biggest, followed by the Hearts, Clubs and then Diamonds. therefore, Spades is the most "important", the "highest" position. similarly, the CEC is the highest position in the class, and just nice there are 3 positions, like there are 3 kinds of court cards. therefore, the King of Spades should be the head honcho, the monitor. similar reasoning for the rest of the Spades cards.

next biggest is Hearts, which are represented by the 3 science reps. heck, our class "name" gives a clue to the importance of these subjects. remember course selection online, there was TRIPLE SCIENCE plus Geog. without the sciences, our class would just be Geog. (rather boring name, isn't it?) the arrangement of big to small in the sciences has been arbitrarily assigned by me.

next, Clubs. The languages and maths reps take up the suit here, as they are the subjects that are not that "important"/noted, but yet we can't live without them. again, rank has been arbitrarily assigned by me.

finally, last but not least, Diamonds. the smallest suit, this category is for the final subject (Geog) and its rep. also, the other reps which contribute but not so much academically are placed here, such as the IT rep. without them, we wouldn't be able to enjoy the wonders of multimedia, would we? so, there is still one place left, any takers? Reps left: PE, CLE, Security.

ahh, the Ace of Spades. the first thing evryone sees wh en they open the deck. similarly, the form teacher is the first person anyone sees when they discover our class misbehaving. the Ace of Spades is usually the most fancy card, so more work has to go into this card to make it look nice.

the joker is usually not used at all, but when called upon can perform an almost unlimited number of actions, such as replacing a lost card, or being the highest card. the joker also gives people a sense of playfulness, unpredictability, and the quiet one most of the time. usually, the joker is drawn in a funny situation or in funny clothes, so forgive me, whoever is placed here, if my drawing doesn't fit your ego.

gosh, i think that's all for now, have to go think of poses and design ideas (colour, details eg. what they're holding, what they're doing etc.) for each card. also need to go observe friends to be able to draw how they look like.

also, i noticed that people don't like to be placed on the queen card. come on, it's just a letter Q on the side of the card. and i'm not going to draw you in a dress and a crown or whatever (not like i can). there is NO OTHER meaning intended.

who knew that designing a deck of cards would be so hard?

Till next post...

2008-02-24T16:28:00.002+08:00

ok. more about me. i like music, all kinds, except for rock that involves excessive screaming and headbanging. my current fave is techno, and a particular song called Dance Fish has me moving along with it. anyway, i'm also into puzzles, except that i absolutely fail at sudoku. how strange. moving on, thereis this game that i'm playing now, it's really old, released about 1992, and it's about dropping marbles into start funnels to make them go into the correct coloured bins. sounds easy until you see levels like this:

or this:
and this:
(the third one looks deceptively simple, doesn't it?)

i must admit, i would have never solved them without the answer key. some of them, like the first one, involve timing as well. goodness. love the Da Vinci-esque style of drawings.

anyway, today was my brother's chess tournament, and he got paired up with a china scholar like twice his age. he lost in about ten minutes. diaozz. he did win other people though, congrats to him. hope he wins yet another trophy back.

2008-02-23T22:07:00.000+08:00

as you can probably tell from the blog url, i'm the bio rep to the fastest teacher in the world, ms. joycelene lim. according to her, she has had alot of good bio reps, and i'm expected to follow in their footsteps. this understandably, causes quite a bit of pressure on me. also, i can't quite keep up with the rate at which she goes. once, after collecting one big pile of worksheets, and counting and sorting them out in neat order, i approach her as she enters the classroom to hand it up to her, only to hear her say,

"Ernest, please return them their worksheets, I want to go through."

*faints*

And certain people say I'm always sad. i wonder why. obviously they haven't heard me when I'm with my close friends. i do smile, but some people say that when i smile i look really evil. O.o lols

looking forward to another tennis day with jian wei and others. the last one and first one i had was after Tuesday heats, where 5 or 6 of us had to squeeze into the back of a car. except me. i got the front seat. (haha) anyway, tennis was quite fun, except i played it like badminton, and because of a certain wide angle shot nearly hit the ball out of the court. forgot the tennis ball is VERY bouncy. whoops. went home with Alvin later, and forced him to walk home from my house. exercise is good, so alvin should exercise. (just ignore that fallacy)

looking forward to holidays in 2 weeks, where i can finally go and sleepover at my cousin's house! hi cuz!!>! her house has a great view of rosyth from the window.

ah well. must study hard before my mum will even consider letting me go.

Till next post.

ccts

2008-02-23T19:41:00.000+08:00

a few weeks ago, when mr. sunny chong left, we were left with a new relief teacher, who our class affectionately refer to as the jing ying teacher. dots. thanks to his random story-telling, class with him is more like MT/CLE than MT.

anyway, he is sort of a good teacher, and we actually learn something. he also accomplished something i haven't seen in other teachers; memorising our CHINESE names in about a week or two. this is evident as some other teachers still need the class seating plan to read our names. we usually sabotage them by changing seats without telling them. hee hee.

anyway, the chinese cct was rather screwy, thanks to the li jie wen da and the zhong he tian kong. haizzz...

biology quiz was easy, and i scored 24/25. there was one person who got full marks though, and he's sitting next to me. not surprisingly, he got GPA 3.8 last year, one of the highest in the class. suaner.

and i'm sorry to use the word, but the philo test was shit. rather weird phrasing of questions, and unclear asking make the hard questions even harder. glad it's over.

next week is the geog, maths and bio test again. time to mug mug mug. oh joy.

arts at the atrium was much better than the last one we had, where And then the Ocean Glows ended with an explosion thanks to the imba bass drum and the great acoustics of the atrium. i must admit i screwed up a bit, at the Trio part to be exact. sorry ppl.

and for napfa training, i got 13 mins for 2.4 km. and that includes walking for half a round. OMG i can't believe it either.

ahh i'm running out of things to say, and it's getting late. gotta go brush up on my subjects and my sarcasm.

Till next post.

2008-02-22T22:52:00.001+08:00

ok. abit about me. i LOVE science, all 3, and will not hesitate to jump from wikipedia page to wikipedia page to find out more about some enticing new topic. also, i'm a fan of card games, from standard more well known ones such as Hearts, Blackjack, Daidi, Poker, Uno, Cheat to more obscure ones such as Idiot, Slamwich etc. (ask Wen Da about them). Sorry, i don't play Bridge. Hearts is my current most played card game, as my computer has the software. While you play, some interesting situations crop up, so, here's a quick montage. sorry if they're too small. Ignore the names, as they were created in a moment of spite for my siblings. Don't worry. We're getting on fine now.

Me shooting the moon (whee), one of the best/worst things you can get in Hearts, as this greatly speeds up your victory (or loss).
And the computer shooting the moon. Whoops.

One memorable game, where the computer almost shot the moon, but was thwarted at the last moment. This game is also my high score game, where my score was 3 points! (lower is better.)
Finally, one of the rare occurrences. Sorry if you can't see but anyway, it's a 3-way tie for first place with me and 2 other computers each scoring 77 points. And Stupid Rachel got 107. Lol. Thank the Queen of Spades for ending the game.

I don't really have other pictures, so i guess that's it for this post. (Suffering from writer's block.)

2008-01-28T23:09:00.000+08:00

ok. all posts after this will be set in the present. fast forward time. dots.

2008-01-28T20:54:00.000+08:00

day 5

whew. 5 days are almost over in a blink of an eye.
last day was not much, mostly some small activities, talks, buying of souvenirs, and finally, getting our certificates.

Certificates!

the only thing that actually sums up your entire experience here! the paper of proclamation! the sheet of spiel! the ... ok that's enough.

rest of the day was just the boat ride back, riding back to school on the bus without the teacher (whoops), returning home, flopping on the sofa, yadda yadda.

5 days down, next is the start of a new beginning as life in 3T...

2008-01-20T18:15:00.000+08:00

day 4

sea ex today. woke up at 7am, which, according to our instructor, is late. oh please. i'm sleep deprived anyway. so we did our morning sharing, filled up our water, loaded our bags into the instructor's motorboat (scammers <.<), and headed off. i was in a double seater with Sheng Wei, port marker was Mervyn, starboard markers were Manfred and Jian Wei, navigator was Hiok Yang (he was navigator for land ex too), and sweepers were not really noticed by me. sorry.

we went around ubin island, starting from the main jetty on the south-eastern end of ubin, and did a counter-clockwise round all the way till camp 2. we had luch on the sea, which consisted of us throwing oranges, biscuits, digestives, drinks, powder, milo etc. around the kayaks. quite fun. first time i really needed to catch my lunch on the sea. jian wei lost his specs, cause i dropped them when my partner capsized the boat suddenly. oops.

not much i can remember from the rest ofthe day, but i remember thinking that this would be our last night on this island called ubin. looking forward to going home tomorrow.

4 days down, 1 to go.

2008-01-20T10:13:00.000+08:00

day 3

landex. it's the main theme for today. yes standard blah blah stuff we did in the morning, and then we were off to walk around pulau ubin. how fun. before that, we learnt pacing, which in my opinion is a rather retarded process, since we are going to follow the roads around anyway. so there we were, carrying our already heavy bags, when javinson huang comes over and says,

"hey Ernest, you got space or not?"

"err... my bag already very heavy liao leh."

*opens my bag* "got space lah! carry this pot" *stuffs it in my bag*

thanks to him, i nearly broke my back.

anyway, we were soon off, first to the German girl shrine, then the Buddha rock shrine, and then the sensory trail thing owned by the Singapore something association for the blind. i have no idea how those three places are connected up till now. how random.

thankfully, it just started raining when we completed our journey around ubin, and , even better, our campsite wasn't far away. only one problem. we set up tents, only to have them soaked through. hope the tents dry soon. dinner was a rushed affair, with maggi mee being eaten like mamee. rest of the night was quite relaxing, except that my tent mates, including viet, snored me awake. or was it the other way round? i forgot. who cares.

3 days down, 2 to go

tomorrow is the sea ex. hoping for good weather as i slowly.... fall...... asleep....

2008-01-20T09:34:00.000+08:00

day 2 of OBS

woke up at 5.55am as mentioned earlier, and had a run-it-yourself tour of the OBS camp. and we found out instructor haizul's favourite phrase is "many many more" why? you'll find out later.

standard procedures for breakfast followed, and then was the height element.

THE HEIGHT ELEMENT!

it looked fairly simple from down on the ground, but once you got up there, it was as though your legs had become disobedient all of a sudden. there i was on the Warden's Walk, hanging on the the rather useless "support rope" that they had provided, and inching forwards on the 1 cm thick metal wire they had. finally made it, and the next part was the Swinging Log. i zoomed across it, to my surprise. it was quite fun overall.

next was the kayaking course. we learnt basic strokes, how to capsize and get back in (some people lost their specs) and that was it.

finally the briefing for the land ex. we learnt navigation skills, how to read a 6-years outdated map, basic safety precautions, wild boar evasion techniques and what to pack.

and finally, the second course for the mosquitoes and sand flies.

2 days down, 3 to go.

2008-01-19T15:37:00.000+08:00

day 1 of OBS (Outward Bound Singapore for all you clutzes who don't know what that is)

lugged my 2 heavy bags to school and placed them in a line at the raja block foyer in the okapi group line. i tried to strike up some conversation with my classmates, but this is all i got:

"hi. what's your name?"

"..."*turns away* "Oi Jack! what you ..."

-_______________-

fortunately wen da and brandon from the neighbouring class, were conveniently located next to me in the other column (lol makes it sound as though their some kind of convenience store) , and it was much easier to talk to them, as compared to mr. turn-away-when-i-try-to-talk-to-you. phew.

and to quote some teachers," We'll be away at OBS." yeah right. going to the dock, and saying bye bye is not part of going to OBS.

anyway, we were off in the ferry to pulau ubin to the OBS camp 1. we met our great instructor Haizul, and we set off doing some group bonding activities. the rest of the day was fairly fast, with getting the tents, some belaying courses, intro to the outdoor camp site, cooking dinner (burnt rice FTW), and finally feeding time for the mosquitos and sandflies. wake up time tomorrow is at 5.55am. whee.

2008-01-18T19:59:00.000+08:00

just completed OBS, and was feeling absolutely lackadaisical (ooh big word), even though i was glad to be back. overall, it has been an extremely enriching experience for me, and i learnt much more about my class than i probably would ever do in that same period of time if we had been doing something else.

i'll elaborate on the 5 day's activities in the next few posts.

2008-01-17T19:42:00.001+08:00

well well. my new blog. feels a little strange that i'm only starting a blog in the 3rd year of my existence in RI, while the rest of my friends have like, long lists on their blog pages. *stares*.
anyway, since lots of things have happened since this blog was created, you might see stuff from before now mentioned. rewind your minds, people...

next thing, i'm quite new to this blog thing, so forgive me if i post weirdly or something.

oh well. it's a new blog after all.