Teenage rendezvous'

nothing.

2012-02-11T23:36:00.003+08:00

Hi there.

I haven't talked to someone or post on this blog for some time, seems like I've been a recluse lately.

Simply, there's nothing worth posting.

Being sick with a fever for 3 days makes one feel despair. The last 2 days I rotted at home; wistfully lingering on facebook to check newsfeed hourly and wasting time watching drama.

But it's been nice to be alone for awhile especially after the hubbub of orientation, new classmates and socialising is exhaustive.

I'storia

2012-02-05T19:36:00.002+08:00

Orientation was a blast. Except war games were really scary. Sometimes things got really competitive between houses. But oh well, MR still won :D

Hello

2012-01-29T00:38:00.004+08:00

Hello! Somehow, I am very tired right now; my feet are aching and my eyes are getting heavy. Today has been a pretty delightful day. I'm really happy that I have some great friends around me. In the morning, sat test was not as bad as I expected, in fact it was pretty fun doing the paper. After much practise at the writing/grammar section, I improved quite a bit in grammar. After that, yearmates and me (haha me sounds wrong, but according to sat practise, it's like Juan and me instead of Juan and I) went to pastamania for lunch. Then, we went for accreds, which weren't so bad too.

The best part of the day came after the accreds. I had a very good talk with Debra, one of the rare few ones that did not spiral around relationships, gossip, secrets, school or celebrity. We talked about cliques, some 'social politics', and largely on religion, in particularly Christianity. I think Christianity is fascinating, but oh well there are many reasons why I still decide to choose to be a freethinker.

We also talked to our seniors; about piano learning, nursing in sg polytechnics and NUS and on some inspirational people.

Haha, thanks Clara, Chelsea, Esther and Hazel for the early birthday cake. The 'foxy ruoxi' is pretty, the stc quite funny and the red cross and hearts pretty sweet. The leftover icing is also very fun to play with.

Thank you to my trainers and seniors for the musical birthday card too. :)
I had a great time today.

Jean Valjean

2012-01-27T00:16:00.003+08:00

The night's still young. I re-read the wiki synopsis of Les Misérables and concluded that Jean Valjean is my favourite book character that I will always remember. And Bishop Myriel too. For their benevolence and selflessness.

---------

Nothing interesting happened this week. CNY celebrations are almost the run-of-the-mill activities like other festive seasons. Missing my relatives though.... tis been a long time since I visited them.

2012-01-23T02:42:00.000+08:00

Happy Chinese new year.

:)

I avoid your gaze,

2012-01-21T21:59:00.003+08:00

for the fear of infatuation.

It spins me out of control,

so let's snip the flower,

when it's still in the bud.

photo credits: http://browse.deviantart.com/?q=infatuation&order=9&offset=48#/d28sh96

Short Film Review 2

2012-01-20T21:12:00.004+08:00

"None are more enslaved than those who falsely believe that they are free."

-J W Goethe

I think this sentence encapsulates the message that the movie "The Matrix' wishes to convey. Brilliant film. Well, the movie will be slightly confusing at the start, because there are many layers; the dreamworld seems like reality and reality just seems like a hellish dreamworld. But afterwards, when things are explained and motives explicated, it becomes much clearer.

The film depicts a future in which reality as perceived by most humans is actually a simulated reality created bysentient machines to pacify and subdue the human population, while their bodies' heat and electrical activity are used as an energy source. Upon learning this, computer programmer "Neo" is drawn into a rebellion against the machines, involving other people who have been freed from the "dream world" and into reality.

- Quote Wikipedia

I like this film. Alot. It's pretty thought-provoking, and if you read on the wiki extract, you will realize that the movie makes many references to philosophical ideas which I find quite interesting. Also, 'The Matrix' seems to be an allegory to present modern world, where perceptions of various issues are actually falsified and disillusioned. The sentient machines were comparable to some powerful authority such as the mass media, that had great influence over humanity.

Well, I first got to know this film when the KI teacher from RI screened some snippets of it.

The most famous quote as goes like this when Neo, the protagonist, destined to save humanity ask Morpheus: What is real?

To which Morpheus answers:

What is real? How do you define real? If you're talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.

I guess this is the point of revelation for Neo who realises that everyone is living in the Matrix (a computer simulated programme of reality) is a big screwed-up disillusion.

The movie made me slightly depressed and skeptical. What if this world that I've been living in is actually not real? O>O OH NO. Heh, a friend gave a reply: actually even if we were to live in this heavenly dreamworld that is not real but are able to live happily and comfortably, why not? To which this movie ends with these three memorable words: Ignorance is bliss (Not that I am going to preach this)

I would recommend this film to people of all ages, especially people looking for a film that would tickle their brains.

Rating: 4/5

Let the chase for success begin

2012-01-12T19:42:00.003+08:00

Hopefully, everyone will make out of JC well.

Today, I would have totally been transformed into a socially awkward turtle if not for my classmates who were with me. Really admire the brave DSA students who came for the JIP.

There's so many guys in JC that are so tall and big. Intimidating.

Heh, slight androphobia here.

2012-01-09T20:53:00.003+08:00

In the morning I enjoyed lunch and dessert treats with my classmates at Mad Jack and Island Creamery. After that, (O's results collection yada yada, I did pretty fine) yearmates, Evan and I went to try my new uniform at Bibi & Baba. Eh? It's quite fun to try clothes, and we all look so pretty in JC clothes.

I'm really grateful to Jiang Education tuition centre. My Chinese exam results improved by leaps and bounds after going for tuition there.

Subsequently, when Chelsea and I went to Scape, we met many of our Red Cross friends who just came back from collecting their O level results.

Initially, I felt really horrible about skipping the O'levels and going to RJ just like 'whoosh'.

Aiya, afterwards, I thought about my entire academic journey in RGS - all the stressful weeks leading up to MYAs, EYAs, staying up till 4am/5am to complete a performance task, having a major exam once every two weeks during the term, bringing a calculator whenever we get back a paper, calculating our GPAs furiously, the rising tensions and competitions between classmates, the disappointments when we fail a paper/missing one more mark to the next band, the nonchalance that is so pervasive when we get a 4.0 because it is expected that you get a 4.0._. (Come on, I never ever seen anyone from school bounce and rejoice and punch the air when she gets a 4.0)

Not bad.

Mel Tham's adventure in the West

2012-01-05T21:36:00.002+08:00

Why the title?

Because Mel rode the circle line from Ang Mo Kio and voila! Here she is at Clementi.

She came to my place. We played Monopoly Deal as usual, 2-player Taiti, International Chess, Speed, tried to watch Studio Ghibli Movies, paint our nails, walked the family dog and ate fried home-made dumplings!

It's been very nice to have company with me. Well, I truly appreciate my friends' presence!

After that, we went to SP's Open House and paraded as O'level students interested in attending polytechnic. Hoho, it's quite fun going to a poly open house. Well, it was at Dover, very near Clementi so we just wanted to check out the place and courses. Actually, Mel was wasn't interested but I insisted on going there.

There's a huge range of courses. Interesting. Bah. I would love to do a poly course in conjunction with attending a Junior College. Somehow I think attending poly and JC at the same time will provide a more holistic education.

Curriculum in a JC is extremely academic and subject based, so we are constantly drilled in content that I think will be largely irrelevant in our lives. Come on, whose going to remember JC stuff when you are going to specialise in University. Okay, but I have to admit that the academic rigour in Junior College is necessary for our growth. In Poly, most people would have chosen their specialised field they would want to major in and you learn specific skills there are directly related to it. Such content and skills learnt from both institutions will be complementary!

Just like how if I would want to be a doctor/dentist, I would go to JC in the morning and attend night classes, probably taking up a course in 'Health Sciences' etc.

Haha, JC is going to be so busy what with studies, CCA and social work and if anyone is to squeeze in Poly studies into their life, then he or she probably needs a time-turner that Hermione from the Harry Potter series has.

We tagged along M for her Dental appointment in the afternoon. Her dentist is still training at the Faculty of Dentistry, which is so cool so we got to observe how she work! Hehe, it's quite cool to see the dentist work with M's braces. We chose orange as it was auspicious for M's braces.

Haha, went to M's place again! Played Mono Deal with her siblings.

M showed me her awesome postcard collection and the website www.postcrossing.com this is pretty cool, I'm going to try it out :D We had nice dinner at M's place and that concludes Mel's adventure in the West.

meh

2012-01-04T13:04:00.002+08:00

The train pulled into Buona Vista station swiftly and I caught a glimpse of a woman wearing white shirt and green pleated skirt. Haha, I was curious then to find out who she is! So I walked over to the next carriage, and voila, it turned out to be Moira's sister on her way to school! LOL

2012-01-03T15:01:00.004+08:00

Ho, I'm here to do a short movie review today. I had intended to watch Sherlock Holmes or Mission Impossible, but the ticket seller sold me the wrong ticket, oh well.

"The Darkest Hour is a American science-fiction film directed by Chris Gorak and produced by Timur Bekmambetov. The American-based production depicts an alien invasion in Russia and stars Emile Hirsch, Max Minghella, Olivia Thirlby, and Rachael Taylor as young people caught in the invasion.

Quote Wikipedia.

Adding on to Wiki, basically there was a world-wide extermination and the 5 main characters were lucky to escape. Subsequently, the film shows their near-death encounters with the aliens.

So my initial response to this film was like OKAY.... average thriller.

It is adventure packed, filmed in Moscow with a largely Russian cast crew. The cinematography is alright; the photography and various scenes were realistic in depicting the post-apocalyptic scene.

Well, it was horrifying at first, when the aliens were killing everyone. Subsequently the movie ran flat. Real dry and the sequence of events could totally be anticipated.

Between 2012 and this, the former would have been way better, even though I thought both movie scenarios are just imaginative and impossible.

I would recommend this movies to couples dating though! Well, there's so many scary scenes that the scared girl can totally cringe towards her boyfriend all the time. HAHAHAH

bahh

2012-01-02T19:30:00.001+08:00

I'm so bored at home. ;_;

Play with the family new dog, watch TV, check Facebook statuses, check Google Reader, stalk everybody's profile, BAH! HUMBUG!

I want to go to school.

2012-01-01T23:42:00.003+08:00

http://yawningbread.wordpress.com/2012/01/01/starting-the-new-year-with-race-and-religion/

Pertinent points raised.

Especially in the 3rd section. Well, he wrote exactly what I felt during Christmas after I attended a gospel rally at a church.

Farewell 2011

2012-01-01T11:28:00.002+08:00

To the new year, and to your eyes

Kanpai!

-----

I spent the last 2 days of 2011 at the Red Cross Campsite - VI retreat.

Tis' fun, and I got to know many of my seniors. Clara, Hazel, Chelsea and I arrived at the same time pretty late, but we still managed to join the games.

So firstly we played a GAME!

We were divided into 6 groups and I was in group 4, my ship is called the water lily, the crew: froggies, and the captain: frog queen (?)

We went around the campsite that was pitch-dark, with only one torch light per group to guide our way, to look for the picture clues. Along the way we had many interesting tasks that allowed us to do all kinds of weird actions. Haha, my groupmates are quite funny too, I like them. After spending all our silvers, challenging sea monsters, challenging groups, and bribing our parrot, buying hints to clues, we finally finished and were the first group to arrive back at base! YAY :D

Performance - Batch Skit was interesting :) HAHAHH

Many other nice performances too by our seniors.

Subseqently, it was OTOT. (meh, I only found out what it stand for when I was leaving campsite) So we were free to do anything we like! Many rounds of Bridge, Taiti, Monopoly Deal. I'm starting to like Taiti now :) And the moon shone high, in the clear blue sky and all was bright and gay bom bom bom bom. We played way into dawn and started the morning with captains ball!

Haha, Captains' Ball was quite intense, just like Netball Carn in school.

---------

After the retreat, yearmates attended Ms Ng solemnization! Matrimony sounds pretty sweet and beautiful but also a huge responsibility with many obligations attached. Oh yeah, but still a happy marriage to my teacher :)

Enjoying the remnants of my holiday

2011-12-29T12:51:00.003+08:00

Greetings Earthlings!

This is just going to be the run-of-the-mill blog post where I'll relate what that had transpired over the past few days.

26th - I spent some time in the morning, from 12-4, reading about Irreligion and Christianity on Wikipedia. Both topics are interesting. My ex-english tuition teacher told me that Religion would/may be taught as a topic for GP and boy was I surprised.

After that my parents dragged me out of bed at 10 am :( and off we went visiting their friends. Oh, it was a bore there. Bah! Humbug!

27th - Oh, our RGSRCY annual Christmas Party. Not bad, not bad. There was a mini amazing race at J8, then we strolled backed to our junior's condo and party lol.

28th - OH YAY, the day. Moira, Winnie and I went window shopping around in Orchard after having lunch at the Ramen shop at Far East. HAHA, er, we toured around TOPMAN and A&F for a while. The cologne at A&F smells pretty nice, but my friends dislikes it.

We did not take a photograph with the half-nude guy.

Then we went to Kino, then Daiso, then Compassvale Mall's Sengkang library, and to Winnie's house. There was home-cooked dinner, and we got to meet Winnie's mother, father, grandma, sister and godma! HAHA :)

Mono dealed a few more rounds until 9 when MELISSA NG CAME!!!!! We changed to Bridge since we have 4 players now :D. At an unearthly 9.30pm, we excitedly hopped to Mel Ng's place and drank some ice-lemon tea. Beautiful place too.

29th - Study SAT ;_;

quickie

2011-12-27T00:43:00.003+08:00

Oh no.

Please don't be so saccharine sweet and sentimental to me. I'm so sorry to hurt or disappoint this kind of people who are so sincere I don't know how to reject them BAH.

----------

I spent my first Christmas without my parents and the whole day out. Morning -skip- don't want to talk about it. I had lunch at my classmate's place. Haha, also my first time having a Christmas meal. The food really reminds me of Christmas - turkey, honey-baked ham, beef, sausages, potatos, pasta with luscious tomato puree, vegetable salad, fruit salad, sparkling juice, orange juice. YUM YUM, listing the food down sure makes me hungry again!

I love big families. When I grow up, I think I would want 5 kids. It's so fun to see children emanating youth and vitality to run around the house.

After that I went shopping with Shihui at Somerset 313. The Christmas crowd wasn't as huge as I expected and bought a nice pair of heels (wedge to be precise, found the name from the image above).

Then we hang around and ate lots of meat from lunch which still tasted yummy. Enjoyed some Christian and Christmas songs. Esther was part of the church choir which sang beside the Heeren. Took a photo.

After that we hang around Ben & Jerry thanks to an awesome senior who treated us to ice-cream, and talked away into the night. But hey, when we left when the night was still young.

2011-12-16T10:14:00.002+08:00

I woke up into a dream, having arrived in Los Angeles. A flowing river meanders in the middle of the city, with Mickey Mouse and other disney characters standing by the banks and waving enthusiastically at passers-by.

The rest of my holidays:

VIP stuff

SAT mugging (the math is harder than I thought ._.)

Bike Trail with my friends! Haha, the cycling craze among my classmates is amazing yeah.

Visuals

2011-12-14T21:31:00.004+08:00

Delta Platoon at Grid Studios, Scape

Change for the best to lead the rest

2011-12-13T13:04:00.005+08:00

HAHAH. Hands Up is such a addictive song, Delta platoon starts singing when it is being played.

VIP camp ended yesteray. These four days have been the most intensive days of my entire life.(even better than OBS) I guess it's similar to OBS in some sense where it serves as a platform to stretch our physical and mental stamina to the limits, but OBS was more focused on getting the entire class bonded and teamwork while VIP to me was more leadership-orientated.

Definitely, everyone learnt many many things and was changed subtly bit by bit over the days. This transformation has been progressive and almost imperceptible until we sat down for platoon time and reflected upon what we have done these days when I realised that Delta has really grown and mature into fine VIs-to be. (Better write it down so it will crystallize into coherent points)

So here's 20 lessons which I jotted down during the course of the camp:

1) Be proactive, not reactive

Our sirs and ma'ams constantly reinforced this point. I interpret it as taking more initiative to take control of the situation instead of going with the flow and getting spoon-fed with information. Well, at the start of the camp some of us were still confused and still trying to find our footing, but after a while everyone started being more eager in doing things themself. [ Aiya, this point is quite hard to explain :( ]

2) Respect, hierachy is a big deal.

Now that I think about it, it's not only a big deal in UGs, but hierachy will always be prevalent in society. (except my friend Reggie thinks with anarchy it will be gone) There's many ways of showing respect I guess, from one's actions and speech. During the camp, I think I heard of people who were always trying to find excuses for their mistakes. It kind of made me sick. Bahh, I mean if you're wrong, just admit it, stop trying to find weird excuses.

3) Be smart in bearing

Well, it's kind of linked to the previous point about respect. Furthermore, presenting a decent image and conducting ourselves in a professional manner is imperative especially if you must set the right example for your future cadets/juniors. There was a scolding which pretty got stuck in my mind. During day 2 of the camp, everyone was pretty tired. Some people (including me :/ ) rested our heads on our hands. Well, it didn't seemed a big deal to me, but we were reprimanded because this act seriously doesn't live up to our professional image. Okay, so afterwards the more I reflected upon it and it dawned upon me that generally all people do not like or want to see other's sick/tired look. It demoralizes them I guess and doesn't garner sympathy.

4) Think! Question the mode and conjecture the rationale

Challenge the way, set the right direction and execute plans with a clear purpose. Quite sure I will take some time before I can drill this into my head because I'm a pretty intuitive person.

5) Safety is paramount.

Know safety, no pain. No safety, know pain.

This is partly linked to point 4 to. When you question the mode, you will spot possible hazards or unnecessary loops in some methods.

6) Anticipate possible scenarios

7) Trust

Building trust with the people you work with makes the task seem much easier.

8) Determination

Ex. Humanity was strenuous. It was a rescue mission at Pulau Ubin. But determination can do wonders. You are really stronger than who you think you are. It made me proud when we all made it. I thought the planning for Ex. Humanity was pretty good too :)

9) Responsibility

- Accounting for logistics

- Accounting for platoon strength

- Accounting for personal safety

Take note of all of these before you can take care of your juniors

10) Don't make assumptions, check & verify

11) Doing too much saikang does not earn you extra credit

Sorry, but I really think it's true! During the camp, it was noticeable that there were some people who were trying to take on so much responsibilities, to the point that they were over-exerting themselves. stop it, get some rest, trust your platoon mates, delegate the task properly!

After attending VIP, I met another type of people whom I never seen in school. People who are worried that they have too little things to do or desperately want to shine that they are overly enthusiastic and burden themselves with all kinds of responsibilities. If there was a workaholic spectrum, they would be on extreme ends as compared to slackers. But don't get me wrong! I do not dislike this kind of people. I just think it is unhealthy for him/her only and does not promote growth for other people too.

12) Talk to your seniors

It's quite inspirational, everyone has a life story to tell.

13) Plan or you stress later

No need to explain right?

14) Communication is key

15) People centred, not self

All for one, one for all.

16) Encourage the heart

My mentor brought up this point. It is easy for people to spot criticisms, but difficult to give praise. Give people some words of praise, it makes them happy :) But don't give too much otherwise their ego gets blown up or they start doubting if what you say is true. [After spending some time with Mel T, my classchair this year, I kind of admire her motivational spirit coz she will always praise every classmate :) Thought I kind of doubted her praise for me at first. HAHAHAH, Mel, don't worry we're still good friends.]

17) Stay humble; don't doubt people's abilitites

Heh, must be my overblown ego.

I know there are some people who would prefer to do group work all by themselves because they feel they cannot trust their groupmates. I get the feeling sometimes too.

But during the camp, I learnt, the process is more important than the product. Like planning for Ex. Unity, a specialist investiture day during the camp. Well, if our mentors were product-orientated they would have assisted us, spoon fed us to ensure that the entire programme was ran smoothly. But NO. They were process-orientated people who I appreciated. By letting us plan ourselves, it ensured that we learn some necessary skills for organising this kind of event. So even if our programme screw/has glitches ( :/), we still take home many learning points!

18) Say it from the heart, not because it's politically correct

Makes everything more meaningful.

19) Strive for excellence, not only the minimum standard

Don't just aim for the passing mark. It corrodes standards and diminishes competitiveness.

20) Step out of your comfort zone.

Yeah, that's it for now. Good job if you are reading this line man! I spent 3 hours typing out this, with breaks though. Currently, I am still trying to find my motivation and reason for being a Volunteer Instructor in RCY. I been foraging for external reasons, but perhaps it's time I look within, really really inside myself.

2011-12-09T00:57:00.003+08:00

I'm slightly sleepy. Have been drowning myself with tea to keep myself awake.

Let me tell you the most interesting that I learnt in this week as part of organisational skills.

Learning how to use visual aids!

As you know(or not), currently I'm in a programme training to be a volunteer instructor in RCY. So my platoon is organising an award ceremony. Since we don't have a rehearsal for the award ceremony like speech day in school, our mentor taught us how to do a run-thru with a map of the ceremony grounds and with ourselves written on small pieces of paper. So the rehearsal is done on paper. I think it's really really smart. Quite hard to explain here in words, do you get the concept?

I'm so sleepy now. Preparing for tomorrow's camp.

And my printer is running out of black ink :( There's still so much more things I need to print.

mulling

2011-12-04T18:09:00.003+08:00

Ho. It's going to be a hectic week. But after a while I thought, there's still sufficient time for me to practise my schubert and despair after doing SAT mock-tests, heh, it's not going to be that bad a week after all.

I think it's a pretty good experience working with new people and doing things that are definitely out of my comfort zone. I really really like my platoon mates (though I think they won't be seeing this)

Yesterday many of us completed CS2 of VIP. Heh, I wasn't exactly the best DI, and I know I could have been better :/ I will definitely be more clear-headed and situationally aware during the camp!

Let me write down what I learnt:

1) The roles of a teacher: It just dawned upon me suddenly and I think I have a much clearer idea what a teacher should teach. A teacher pin-points concepts, abstract ideas and package them in such a understandable fashion before relaying it to his/her students. People who can teach concepts are really really great people. Well, obviously there are other requisites to being a better teacher, but I always believe that a good teacher must know what she is doing before she can teach, otherwise she will just be plain smoking. So, perhaps this week I must read up on subjects and think thru it.

2) Learning to be thick skin: Well, perhaps it involves how one changes her attitude and learning to take in unpleasant stuff. Oh, there were many situations that occured this week where I got berated for being "blur". And going up upon a stage after watching a concert and being screamed at to come down. Meh, it took time before I start accepting it and not taking it to heart or start hating people. It's definitely important to adjust our mental thinking when we are being scolded and continue being rationale instead of letting your emotions get the better of you, so as to sieve out the important message/lesson from the scolding and not take the unpleasant part too personally.

3) Keep smiling keep shining, knowing you can always count on me.

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

Nothing else much.

November's passing away

2011-11-29T21:59:00.002+08:00

Somehow, each day feels like it is meaninglessly slipping away from me. Granted I'm spending my time doing plenty of stuff, heh, but at the end of the day I'm always too tired to reflect upon what I've done so...

I promised I'll post about my first impression about vip for aeslehc. Haha, sorry for always dragging it.
It was pretty daunting at first, haha, coz I'm really not used to interacting with people outside of my social circle ._.
Clara and I met by coincidence at Bishan while taking Circle line, and then we tumpang Uncle Lau's car to campsite.
I think the main ideas that I learnt from cs1 was what being a VI is mostly about. We had many different sirs and ma'ams who gave us a presentation of various facets of being a VI. There are also sirs and ma'ams who are pretty good at speech. Haha, I like it when they can speak in fluent English without any uhms and pauses, it totally makes them seem like they know what they are doing.
Heh, we also had a RCK bronze and silver test.
I think War is such a puzzling thing.
I'm tired.
Haha, I like my platoon-mates! Delta! Today we had a committee meeting at scape to discuss proposal and to finalise many things. I learnt to adapt to new working styles, like the silent-hardworking type, and the cheerful chatterboxers... and people who just 'smoke' too much :(. HAHA, but overall I still like everybody, coz there's a cheerful disposition within everyone and nobody seems to be interested in being hegemon or AA. Working with platoon-mates is quite pleasurable.
Okay, that's it.

2011-11-27T09:00:00.004+08:00

Haha. It's been a while since I came back from Indonesia. The feeling of graduation finally sunk in after parting with my beloved friends at the airport. I think friends from school made all hell seem so much more bearable. Thank you for riding out the waves with me. I'm glad I'm blessed with a bunch of amiable and easy-going classmates, as well as ever-united and fun yearmates.

Haha, I'm not going to write about my Indonesia trip. I've read J's tumblr and felt awed by her Indonesia trip post,

Flames to Dust,

Lovers to friends,

why do all good things come to an end?

come to an end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pBo-GL9SRg

A reminder

2011-11-18T23:12:00.006+08:00

Now that exams finally ended, my holiday schedule officially begins! Well, I've learnt new things this week, but I haven't really have the time to start writing about it. Will list them down so that I will remember to elaborate it on it another day.

- Malay O' levels

- Farewell Alma Mater

- Malay LC

- crashing Hazel and Emeline's date and shopping at Bugis

- Yong En's Volunteer Appreciation Nite

- 3rd last piano class lesson

- Class outing at Sentosa

- Cycling from Siloso beach to VivoCity

- Photojournalism workshop

I think this week has been a very meaningful week to me. I enjoyed going to FAM, the entertainment programmes (the pageant and lucky draw) was pretty good, and you have to really be present in the ballroom to experience the atmosphere, pictures don't capture anything. Just that we wasted so much food, I felt sick looking at plates of food being replaced before we even finished.

Haha, after Malay LC I went to shop with Emeline and Hazel. I came home with a sore shoulders from carrying my heavy bag and barang-barang from my locker. The shops at Bugis street are just like Far East :O The clothes they sell are well, specifically targeted to teens-young adults,

Well, the next event the Volunteer Appreciation Nite thing was nicer. I was invited to a buffet dinner cum ceremony at Yong-En Care Centre. Was really really honored and pleased that I got to go. I am happy that I've been able to spend my time volunteering at Yong-En. There were many amiable and dedicated adults during the dinner. (well, i was the youngest there...). I sat with the president of the centre's board of govenors, an adult volunteer who I frequently see when tutoring the primary school kids with my friends and another friendly lady who works there. We talked about volunteerism, how Yong-En sustains and works, listening to the president share stories about Singapore and his work here at Yong-En. It was very eye-opening. I thought it would be awkward for me, initially I felt like a pond fish swimming in the sea. But the adults talk with me, they don't talk to me, it made me feel comfortable :)

And so what have I learnt about volunteerism this year?

Ho, it's quite simple actually. First of all, my take is, everybody should be engaged in some for of volunteerism somehow!

The thing is, I think peer influence act as powerful catalyst in propelling student's engagement in CIP. REALLY really influential. I guess the society needs more socially-engaged leaders who are aware that we all have a role to play in this society. Not only that, they will have to be active in rallying friends right! Hoho, but easy said, not done! This year, I had the great opportunity to be part of Welfare Committee of Red Cross to organise many activities. I learnt, before I start upon any journey of trying to diffuse the spirit of volunteerism to people around me, I should learn to cope with my own innate obstacles such as fear of interacting with strangers or procrastination tendercies. Yes yes, very important to eliminate such things.

My 3rd last piano lesson :(

Haha, I owe my completion of piano and theory degrees to my school (besides my piano teacher). There is a general art, performing or visual, apprciation atmosphere prevalent in school community. Especially starting this year SYF year and Art Tapestry, ARTreach. I draw my motivation and inspiration to play the piano largely from the school. The desire to continue contributing to the art scene some how i guess.

I went to Sentosa for a class outing. Cycling back to VivoCity with Regina was amazing. We cycled a long distance, passed through RWS :O AMAZING. Did I tell you the last time I went to Sentosa was 4 years ago, and ho boy the transformation is amazing. Just like when I went to MBS with my parents I felt as if i was stepping on foreign soil. Heh, random paragraph.

Photojournalism workshop was extremely productively good and I had many takeaways on photography! Can't exactly list what I learnt today verbatim, the main point was exposure! LOL Learnt how to appreciate beauty in seemingly ordinary things, after a stroll down Little India.

I think ART definitely needs to be taught in order to be appreciated. The human eye/ear seems too feeble to be able to appreciate great beauty without being able to fully comprehend the message it intends to convey and in what sense it is good/bad. The beauty of light, it's so subtle, but it changes what that will be seen so much. I definitely wouldn't have notice if the instructor hasn't pointed out the difference in how the subject is presented with different lighting. It's just like appreciating music, me thinks.

Another example that struck me was when me and my friends visited a toyshop. My friend, H, she was disgusted by the quality of the toy figurines. Well, to me they look pretty fine, until H started pointing out the flaws of the toys to me, such as paint seeping down to wrong parts of the body, unrealistic eyes, bad proportions. Subsequently, I started spotting all the seemingly imperceptible imperfections. Well, just another example of mine to drive home my point that art needs to be taught to be appreciated.

In my Options media Lit class, we discussed whether ART needs to be taught to be understood, like if we show a man from 2 centuries ago a film, will he be able to understand it? I'm quite sure he won't.

My activities for the rest of the month, will talk about it soon.

- Karaoke with class tomorrow

- Run for Hope

- Indonesia darmawisata with rsp friends

- VIP contact session 1

Byebye

2011-11-07T23:02:00.002+08:00

I fear that I'm starting to lose my English. It's slipping away, I think, I read much slower than before :(

There's many things that happened this term which I didn't post.
- Last Netball Carnival
- Last days of school
- Drama Fest
- Graduation
- Batch Flash Mob
- Getting back progress reports
- Last tuition classes
- Learning to let go
- Letting go quite easily ._.

I will miss 308/408. Though we weren't the perfect class (methinks), everybody is amiable and easy to get along with. Heh, I realise that I have a complete reshuffle of friends every two years ._. (Heh, except CCA yearmates, who stayed with me for 4 years :) ) So will be expecting new friends in JC.
Recently, I have been thinking of all the teachers that have made significant impact in my last year of RGS. I will ~~miss~~ think about them frequently.

Heh, I have to admit, my tuition teachers are more memorable, sorry.

Graduation doesn't seem to sink in yet. Since we're all still going back to school for exams, and stuff.

Actually I have nothing much to write today. I think I shall close for it. Goodbye.

THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD

2011-11-01T17:20:00.002+08:00

HAHAHAH.

Today we got back our Chinese Mock papers back :|

Compared to my Chinese EYA papers, my grade improved by 4 bands ;_;

I see hope, I see possibility, I see an A for my Chinese haha ._.

o.o - o.O - O_O - :O - :) - :D - ;_; (tears of joy)

Procrastination Vacation

2011-10-24T10:23:00.000+08:00

OH NO....

I need to extricate dearest meself from this entangled mess of jubble-wock and get back to a proper schedule.

What happened to muggerism terrorism?

School musings

2011-10-20T21:23:00.002+08:00

Today I didn't do anything much except watch all the various sec 4 classes practise netball. 408 was very enthusiastic. This year I didn't want to be on the team :P

Since I wasn't playing today, I brought the first aid kit and took care of many many injured kids. Okay, not many, but few. I think being a first aider is quite a fulfilling role, especially when you sucessfully treat someone and your casualty is grateful to you. There's a special heartwarming feeling which I like and I feel happy :)

Hur... after that I went home for piano class and slept the entire afternoon. I'm going to do chinese now................................... :(

2011-10-17T20:16:00.002+08:00

Hallo~

How's your day? I felt physically drained the entire day.
Though my days in secondary school is limited, can't wait for this term to be over :(

During Math today we learnt Vectors. HAHA, very fun. Uhm... actually I have nothing much to say today.

Ho! Let me tell you what happened yesterday during class part cum Suzanne's birthday party.
I arrived at Bukit Batok 15 minutes to meet Mel T and Maegan only to realise Maegan reached there way earlier. Heh, we could have met at Clementi and taken a faster bus there, but haha the ride there was very very smooth.
Suz lives at a very ~~ulu~~ tranquil part of Singapore ._.
We reached 2 hours earlier then the whole class, so we played tennis together! It was so fun playing with Maegan and Mel :) Maegan is so patient and encouraging and Mel is so cheerful and helpful she doesn't mind running around, oh such nice people! Ashley came and we played doubles. I felt so out of touch of tennis, until Ashley gave me some advice :) Hur, it's very fun to play with classmates and having an entire court to yourself. The weather was beautiful, it was sunny, yet there were many rounds of passing rain which cooled down the steaming floor.

After that we played pool! Suzanne and I teamed up against Maegan, Ashley and Mel. Hur, very interesting game! The other MAM's team was leading, but in the end, the last player hit the black 8 with the white ball into the hole together, so Suz and I won! HAHAHAHAHAHAH

After that Maegan, Mel and I went for a refreshing dip in the pool. I think there were other classmates who started to arrive so they were playing pool. Haha, we were mostly just waddling in the pool.

We started building the fire for the barbeque. It is kind of difficult to start a fire with charcoal :( Luckily the food came cooked, so all we had to do was to heat it up. A big plate of fried rice was provided too. Hazel brought delicious onigiri (riceballs) to feed us too xD We ate, we talk, there were 13 of us. + Suzanne 14. A heartwarming dinner together by the pool, haha. We ate delicious creamy vanilla strawberry cake and watermelon together then. I love cake.

That's about it. I look forward to the next class outing, then we can do more stuff together. Yesterday, we were mostly just tending to the fire...

Okay, goodbye!

2011-10-15T19:34:00.001+08:00

:O Tired.

Haha, today yearmates and I played for a long long time together, except I came later so I missed some of the physical games ._. But after that we played lots of card games! HAHAHHAHAHAH I LOVE EGDIRB.

After that went to volunteer at Yong En Centre again....

that's it..

goodbye

<3
FoxyRoxy.

2011-10-14T22:12:00.002+08:00

Tomorrow Acasa would be handing over the Red Cross Room to our juniors.

No real invoking feelings as of yet... But I do have much affection to the room! It's like a nice little patch of heaven in a battlefield where I get to spend time with my yearmates, talking and playing together.

okay. goodbye...

2011-10-11T20:36:00.002+08:00

Ho NO, I shouldn't have gone to school today!

I went to school at normal school time, waiting for options to start at 1.35pm. I spent my entire morning playing monopoly deal with my classmates, buying manga (OHWAIT, I don't regret it now! I bought Book1-17 of Fruits Basket at $24 only! That's 40% of the usual price only hahaha, and the books are in such good quality. The previous owner wrapped them up and it's still beautiful)

Then in the afternoon we found out that there were no options again! :( Mixed feelings though of relief and slight frustration... So I hanged around in the library till tuition.

I also took the circle line home today after TLL tuition. OH BOY is it difficult to squeeze onto a train during peak period! I took the Red line train from Novena to Bishan, and it was so cram the train was REALLY PACKED LIKE SARDINES. Haha, but I realised I have the knack of squeezing onto trains HAHAHAH (Y) The circle line is awesome! It takes 16 minutes to reach Buona Vista from Bishan, compared to the usual 50 minutes by the long way :O :O :O :O HOMG. I'm so relieved and happy that I'm going to JC only next year :D :D :D

That's it.

progress report

2011-10-10T18:14:00.003+08:00

Hallo friends!

Saturday:

Finally, I enjoyed a meaningful Saturday weekend. I swapped my Chinese tuition timing from the afternoon one crammed with 13 people to early morning, and there's only 4 people in the class! That's so much more attention so I'm happy.

Afternoon, I went to Yong En Care Centre to volunteer my services there by giving tuition to primary school kids with a bunch of my classmates and yearmates. We met at Chinatown before making our way there. At the centre, there were around 20 boisterous kids running around. But they are good and obedient kids! They help to set up the table and chairs for tuition :)

HAHA, it is a really interesting experience! I never tutored primary school kids before and boy is it difficult. I think it's kind of hard to teach them some concepts especially when I'm so inexperienced. Or I think the method which I try to get them to apply is too complicated and it contradicts how their teacher teaches them. Like for example, it was kind of hard to teach a P1 girl how to add/subtract beyond 20 :X I felt very sad when I couldn't get my kid to understand addition/subtraction, and I was certainly frustrated when she was just guessing answers and I was spoon-feeding them to her.

Afterwards, I swapped students with a friend, apparently the P5 girls didn't want to do their English and they spoke in Malay so my friend didn't understand. So I went over, and they told me they wanted to hear ghost stories. Heh, so we started telling each other ghost stories, about Pontianak, our school alleged ghost stories, and stuff I heard from my friends. They were very surprised too when they found out I could speak in Malay! Secretly, I was pleased and felt a tinge of pride too, especially when they asked my name, school, where I lived, which floor etc in Malay and their interrogation totally felt like Sec 1 Malay Orals HAHAHAH.

In the end, we didn't do anymore English practices :X We just talked, and they told me about their school life and aspirations. The girl wants to be a teacher, except she thinks it is kind of stress... because the naughty students in her school gives the teachers a hard time, sometimes to the point that they make the teacher cry. Aiyo. In the end, I gave her advice to just be a good kid, and make life for her teacher easier by being obedient and a guai kia. I felt disturbed after that.

So what have I learnt from this experience?

The importance of being patient and earnest especially dealing with children! Well, children definitely take much more time to get concepts, so it is important to be able to go slow and over and over again before you see tangible results. The importance of being earnest! I realised sincerity is very important when you meet and work with new people. You have to somehow make that effort to get to know that person, truly care about that person before you can even cooperate with him/her and get down to work. Makes your job easier, and your partner trusts you more, and opens up to you more easily. Listening is a good thing to do too. I realised children love attention, perhaps it's nice to shower them with that once a while to make them feel happy.

So that's about what happened in 1.5 hours!

Monday:

Math 2 was beautiful. HAHAH. No, not aiming for full marks though. Options were tiring after that :(

I am facing a HUGE dilemma! I'm not sure what subject combination I should take when I go to JC :( Today the HOD of History (?) came down to our school to give us a talk about History and RSP. I suddenly felt like taking History, because I find the skills applicable to the occupations that I want to do when I grow up (public administration, business administration and accountancy etc.) But I didn't enjoy my humanities lessons these year.... and the exams were so difficult to prepare for O_O If I take History, it means I will be dropping Biology. So that means I will surely be abandoning the Science & Research/Medicine path for my future.

Gotta go talk to more people and find out about Biology vs History.

random musings again

2011-10-02T23:48:00.002+08:00

http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/content/psle-chinese-compressed-time

Starting paragraph:
Little Boy memorized his very first Chinese composition last year in Nov-Dec 2010. We are now September 2011. It has been 10 months. The start was most onerous indeed. To describe the first 25 compo memorizations as long and hard toil, is perhaps an understatement. He could not recognize more than half the words in each compo. The compos were taken from a compendium of 1000 Best Compositions from the equivalent of China's PSLE. They were at least 3 to 4 years above his reading level then. Grandma read them into a digital audio file and Little Boy plugged in the speakers and listened and followed and memorized and recited to me.
.
.
.
.
So what's this about learning Chinese the fun way? There isn't one. It's plain hard work. You memorize. You recite. You regurgitate. You do that again and again until you get good enough to do your own thing. That was the way Grandma was taught (says she) and I will tell ya... she's really good at Chinese.
-------
HO WHAO. Are you serious? That's crazy. Great round of applause to the little twelve year old boy who has immense determination and stamina compared to me. And his mother as well.
On the other hand, I kind of disagree that there is no way learning Chinse can be fun. I am very sure there is one. When I went to Taiwan for two weeks immersion, I was very happy in Chinese class there. Basically we also had normal chinese lessons and exams were also in comprehension format. In the afternoon we had literature lessons too, and everyone in class were very much in awe of chinese poetry and short stories. But somehow, learning Chinese there seems more of language appreciation rather than drilling phrases. After reading many rounds of literary texts, I am confident to say that I was able to apply some of the beautiful phrases and some metaphors in my essays and poetry. Perhaps if we remodel our Chinese education such that we include chinese literature into our syllabus, perhaps it will arouse more interest in children.

Really awesome motivation for me to continue working for my HCL O's. I feel rather puny after thinking of the effort I put in compared to the little boy :P

2011-10-02T17:51:00.001+08:00

I Love Facebook.

I couldn't have done my Media Lit Assignment without it. HAHAHAH

Dreaming in information

2011-09-25T12:58:00.000+08:00

What do you see?

I see a

highly pressurized cannister brimming with

wonderful stuff waiting to

erupt in a fireworks of display.

Classmate's bottle actually.

self condolences

2011-09-23T00:31:00.003+08:00

What a bad hour to be still up and awake in front of the computer on a normal weekday.

Well, I can't believe I'm wallowing in self pity and trying to find excuses for myself for my mediocre marks for chinese.
A chinese teacher proclaimed that according to rumours, C ban is nicknamed the 'Cheena class', B ban the 'Bochap class' and A ban the 'Angmoh' class. HAHAHAH. I think the class which I belong to describes my attitude towards learning Chinese and Chinese exams in Singapore aptly.

It's the last term here in secondary school, and there are still many many things to be settled, only masked by the misleading countenance of 'post-eya' when actually our EYA is not completely over -.- and there's still Chinese and Malay Os.
Class has never been as monotonous as before. It feels like as though everyone is starting to drift apart. Perhaps we lack some sense of cohesion as a class o-o.

I just watched two movies these days.
1) Piano Forest (Piano no mori) simple but interesting anime movie.
2) Life is beautiful. (from wiki - Life Is Beautiful (Italian: La vita è bella) is a 1997 Italian film which tells the story of a Jewish Italian, Guido Orefice (played by Roberto Benigni, who also directed and co-wrote the film), who must employ his fertile imagination to help his family during their internment in a Nazi concentration camp.)
It is a very touching movie. I recommend this movie to all people who seek a break from endless work that has eroded all your emotions!

Keep smiling keep shining,
knowing you can always count on me!

2011-09-21T21:52:00.002+08:00

Stars upon your twinkling eyes,
dancing with the sparkling waves in glee.
Keep smiling keep shining,
knowing you can always count on me.

-me

post-eya activity

2011-09-17T13:10:00.002+08:00

I started watching Fated To Love You , 命中注定我爱你.
I think it is a wonderful drama. The plot makes sense somehow, and I like how there seems to be new adventure everytime!
The actors are really convincing, and although each scene in the episode is long, I realised it is awesome in building the depth of the characters :)

I like the main female lead Chen Xin Yu of the story, especially after she change a whole new person when she went to Shanghai. Somehow I guess I would want to have a personality like her when I grow up, independent, free-spirited, hardworking, courageous.

Merdeka! for now.

2011-09-16T15:03:00.003+08:00

I feel so happy and relieved. Exams are finally over! for this week ._.

In the morning, I woke up at 5 am to memorise my Area Studies note because I was too tired and sleepy the previous night. Well, didn't go very well, then I went back to sleep at 5.50 again before going to school. When I reach school I was SOOO nervous because I really haven't remember all my evidences yet. Heh, never felt so nervous for an exam except PSLE.

I was sitting in class and opened my scheduler and realised that the exam only starts at 10.30! -.- Hai, I should have just woke up at usual time... During the exam, I was so sleepy and my hand really ached :( I have a fresh new bump on my thumb now.

I'm so glad Chelsea helped me alot alot alot for Area Studies, seriously I would have died if Chelsea didn't send me so much of her notes! :((( Thank you very much Chelsea! I owe you big big one.

Well, I'm going to enjoy my weekend, then start revising for Chinese Prelims which is in 2 weeks -.- and Math in W4 :D
I love Maths. Until I see my careless mistakes.

2011-09-13T18:03:00.001+08:00

ASH WITH UNICORN CORE, ELEVEN AND THREE QUARTER INCHES, UNYIELDING

2011-09-11T18:52:00.000+08:00

QWERTY

The longest word that you can type with you left hand is stewardess. The longest word you can type with your right hand is lollipop. The longest word you can type on the top row is typewriter.

Oh well, hope tomorrow goes well and no careless mistakes :)

Revision break

2011-09-11T09:27:00.001+08:00

Yesterday many 408-ians went for a coastal clean-up at Lim Chu Kang :D
So the whole bunch of us gathered at the foyer and had a nice chat. There were many teachers from various departments who were coming along with us too! Including our DP.
I like the bus ride there. We drove along the road, as somebody once described the road that drives straight into the sea, before reaching our mangrove site.
[ :( no photographs.. yet]
The beach was inundated with loads of rubbish, that it was almost a colourful spectacle. Red plastic bag, plastic cap, BIG styrofoam chunks, tiny styrofoam pieces, fishing net, oil container, a hand bag o-o, blue plastic, basically loads of trash that was entangled among those mangroves roots and trapped amongst the decaying logs and oily sand. After a while, the beach really looked more brown and like a mangrove swamp.
Hiya, though its a good project, I'm quite sure this place will be just like before right now. I think the rubbish there isn't disposed by people, it is swept to Singapore shores by the sea currents, and people living across the shore, living at the longkengs or probably lazy seaman who just can't find a dustbin, probably throw their rubbish in the sea and it gets to Singapore. Awesome rubbish terrorism yeah.

So that's about it. Haha. In the afternoon I went for Chinese tuition which was -_-||| It was tiring.
But tuition at Hazel's was (Y) because we had a good Physics revision time :D Haha I think my physics is more secure than my Chem..

Okay, it's the last day of preparation! I'm up 2 hours earlier than when I usually wake up.

2011-09-09T11:55:00.001+08:00

I've gotten back my English and Malay compos and it totally felt like two sharp slaps/wake-up calls.
-----

Yesterday night I was watching some surgical videos online. There was one which showed a LASIK surgery, another showing blepharopasty (double eyelid surgery) and a coronary artery bypass graft. Haha, the videos are all very interesting and educational!
The LASIK surgery was really really a EYE-OPENING EXPERIENCE. I mean both ways. At first watching it was really gruesome. Would you mind if people were prodding, playing with your eye with steel? O_O But the more I watched the more professional the doctors seem, and the guy was totally cool about it. I won't mind getting it when I grow up.

The CABG surgery was cool too. Basically people who get atherosclerosis (constricted heart vessels due to blockage from cholesterol build-up) have a leg vein grafted and sewn to the heart.

Well, just some random videos to spice up EYA revision week :|

musings

2011-09-05T19:34:00.000+08:00

HOMG I GOT MERIT FOR MY GRADE 8 PIANO EXAM HAHAHAHHA (Y) and it was a nice 120 marks :D I love getting borderline grades, it makes me feel so lucky and yet accomplished. Just like my Grade 7 theory I got same borderline merit marks and I felt over the moon!
----

Tomorrow's ACASA's POP Parade. I used to think tomorrow would never ever come. It feels so surreal and O_O shocking.
My first E-parade was nice... I remember Sun Xue, Ji-Hyun, Siu Farn and I had DC that day, and we had E-Parade during training time, so we rushed and managed to join the parade just before it started. It made a huge impression as a introduction to me, seeing my ma'ams march and execute a parade. But so many years later, I don't really remember what were my impressions of it now.
The memories of Red Cross; trainings, Arts Fest and FAC competition, good and bad will always be etched in my mind (It sounds cliche but it's not! It's true!)
My CCA has been instrumental in developing who I am today. I realised most of my personal values and attitude towards life is shaped by various activities from CCA. Well, there were many bitter times when I was younger, but we always ride the waves out together as a year/as a unit.
I really like my yearmates. I like how they are disciplined, principled and caring. Just like old cheese infused with lots of Red Cross flavour. I like how we spend lots of times together.
I also like my yearmates for not being nice all the time. Oh well, it adds flavour to my life and make me grow up abit.
My Red Cross teachers have been really supportive and awesome these years too! Ms Loy, Ms Ng and Ms He are wonderful people. They always come down for camps/welfare activities/competitions :DDD I will miss them when I leave :(

-

2011-08-26T22:27:00.002+08:00

Mwehehe.

Three and a half subject's exams are done :)
It feels so liberating. After school, Maegan Chelsea and I had a nice time at Plaza Singapura watching a movie 'rise of the planet of the apes' which was pretty good. And I enjoyed myself, I hope they did too!

Currently I'm watching The Pupil Season 2 on youtube! It's one of the best Singapore drama production that I've ever watched

Self-recognition

2011-08-23T21:05:00.004+08:00

Today was a pretty nice day. My class got back Bio PPA and SS PT papers. Well, I am really really amazed that I managed to do pretty good for my sciences, math and SS ?~?!??!?! Considering the fact that I spent loads of my weekend time during Term 3 watching Gossip Girl, movies, and other funnaye stuff.

I had a chat with a classmate today after school. We were talking about how perhaps overachievers are numb to good grades. Yeah, I kind of agree to it. Not many people react like they are over the moon whenever they get 4.0s, they (ya including me) just gladly accept it, phew~, keep the paper and forget about it, but when we don't get the desired grade we wallow in regret/pity of how we could have done better. Anyway I was thinking it is quite tough to keep chasing after grades, especially if there is a never ending race to be always better. The other day I was watching 10mins: Win it on Channel 5. It's this show where the competitior has to finish various task under 60 seconds such as knocking over cans with a ball attached to the body etc. to win cash prizes. I think what was amusing and inspiring wasn't the activities which the competitor participated in, but I was really heartened by the extremely enthusiastic reaction and response from the competitior and audience. When she completes a task, no matter how simple it seems to me, she would jump around, cheer, go ooooooh, and cling onto the host screaming and bouncing and the audience cheers for her. In the end she won $50,000.
So the point I just want to bring across today to many people is: Well, recognised your own efforts! No matter how routined or easy you might think a test/a assignment/CCA matter/Board stuff may be, give yourself a pat and tell yourself GOOD JOB if you done it well. Perhaps everyone would be happier if we get some recognition and encouragement from our ownselves instead of expecting it from other people. Don't ever take your own efforts for granted too!

Hur, there's Chinese Exams tomorrow. Good luck babes.

2011-08-20T21:48:00.002+08:00

Recently, I have been feeling out of place in school and in class.

Bio remedial today felt productive :DD. I learnt how to draw a restriction map for the plasmid after a friend show me the thought process.
After that there was English Remedial too haha. It almost felt like a normal school day, except when we were leaving the foyer was remotely quiet cept for us 408.

That's it. I'm going back to homework...

2011-08-18T14:04:00.002+08:00

Math was terrible for me today. (OKay, before you read it's not the teacher's fault lah..)

I used to not understand why people complain, moan and groan and lament how math lesson is so tedious/fast/difficult when usually I breeze through it until today I fucking realise that it is really annoying and sad when it is assumed that we all possess a high intellectual, thinking ability just based on those who are outspoken and comprehends things faster. I was trying to do the classworks and think through permutations today when there were people shouting out the answers, hello, please stop doing that give other people a chance to think about the question don't GIVE THE ANSWER RIGHT SMACK INTO OUR FACE. PERIOD.

Hiya, make no sense to me to stop the teacher to ask her to repeat everything coz I'm going to hold up the class every question, might as well just wait till the end of lesson and get it out right but most of the time the answers still don't come out straight, that's why I prefer tuition.

So I'm sorry if I ever thought Math lesson was too slow. Yeah, I have too much ambivalent feelings towards math. I mean when we're slow, we're really slack we enjoy we chat, but when we fast we go woosh zoom I'm confused.

Other than that English was -.- too. Compre was fine, I'll retry the summary before my teacher goes through it next week.

2011-08-14T18:53:00.001+08:00

I am going for FAM. I look forward to it, even though it's kind of expensive. But I would like to complete my RGS memories with FAM, something to end with a bang. Haha, so would you like to go for FAM? :) Don't worry, it won't affect your O'levels Listening Comprehension very much. I plan to study abit more Malay in school after P1 and P2 in school, then go for FAM :)But it's okay if you don't want to go! No pressure haha.

Please don't judge me because I'm going for FAM. I got this negative feeling a while ago, after getting response from a few friends that FAM is a waste of money and that they rather save it.

2011-08-13T23:21:00.003+08:00

I finished reading Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. It's marvellous, brilliant and my favourite book currently. I'm reading the sparknotes about it right now. Don't you think the literary analysis of books are so interesting and they make you go ooo ahhh oohh wow, haha.

Today, I learnt from Chinese tuition class that there are four types of books (古今中外) which I am suppose to read diligently so as to improve in speaking and writing. Reading classics allow you to better appreciate language, reading current day books help you improve your writing as you familiarise yourself with the syntax. And obviously reading Chinese books helps to improve your Chinese ._.

That's it for now. Goodnight

2011-08-12T22:37:00.006+08:00

Regina suggested writing 1000 words everyday on paper. It sounds therapeutic, yet one that seems unsustaining to me too.
The pace at which lessons in school go by these days are so puzzling. Aren't we suppose to be rushing to complete the school syllabus for our EYA in 2 weeks time and lessons still seem to slowly cruise by every single day. Isn't it really ironic, I mean I expected most teachers to start picking up the pace, but no, school still seems slack sometimes.

Today I had Malay Orals, it was unexpectadly (not telling what I feel about it :): )
It just made me think of whether I want to take Malay at JC. Perhaps I might...

There are some people who really made me puzzled and annoyed seriously (like today again D<) . It's like people who seem to have recurring conflict with me and I would feel pissed by that person and want to avoid talking to her anymore since nothing pleasant is said but she doesn't really know, so STOP BEING SO NICE TO ME, hell I hate it when the people I slightly wish to avoid are BLEEDING SACCHERINE nice and it seriously guilt trips me but well I'll still be polite to you and respect you. Haha, but I know you won't be reading this.

Assembly felt dry today. But it was really interesting when Dr Slatter shared with us his pedagogical team's research studies on the qualities of an effective teacher. Well, I always wanted to research on this! So he shared findings like how teachers and students have some similarities and differences in their perceptions of a effective teacher, such as students think teachers must be approachable while teachers think otherwise... I hope they would be able to use their findings wisely and then implements solutions and new measures to improve teacher-students relationships, I'm quite sure they will :)

Today Chelsea and I played some tunes on the baby grand at the foyer before heading for Malay O's. How would you like if we organise a class concert! I think we chould :D Like everyone can prepare a piece on the piano, one/two pieces which they like the most, or do a duet/ensemble with friends and voila! We have a class concert because I'm quite sure there are many talented classmates in class who can play the piano, perhaps we can all have a talent display. Of course we can also bring other instruments like the erhu, guitar, flute, recorders HAHAH! I remember Maegan told me before it would be cool if the class could form a whole orchestra and perform a piece commissioned to us.
Hiya, no idea what the class response would be like though... I think some people might like the idea but some people would shoot it down because it will be so time-consuming and whose going to be the audience? Actually it would be just fine if the audience was just 408 (Y) But then again, I thought not sure if all of my friends would be able to sit through a concert...
Hey, then instead we should have a class outing soon :D

I'm currently reading Great Expectations. Contrary to the title, the main character Pip is living in the abyss of his life of having little expectations in London after squadering much of his money from his anonymous benefactor.
I think reading this book has been keeping me sane these days from all the examination and Malay mugging turmoil.

So, that's about it. Goodnight.

2011-08-09T19:51:00.004+08:00

HA.Ha.Ha.

Tonight is going to be sangat sibuk dan sesak seperti pasar malam dengan kerja rumah.
SS FA and Area Studies PT ;A;

Love ya babes

Happy National Day Singapore. You've been an awesome country, rock on NDP'11. Thanks but me think GE 2011 was still the best time to feel the Singapore spirit.

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

I had such a exhilarating time this afternoon.

Really, I was so worried about our NDP costume, (sorry AY, no offence) I roped in some friends and we stayed back to revamp it. It looks pretty much more presentable now. It's a pretty two piece costume with a beautiful train trailing the costume.

At around 7, my friends and I finally left school. We headed Just Acia at Dhoby Ghaut for dinner, where there was free flow of ice-cream and drinks.

Tired. I'm going to sleep!

2011-08-04T22:54:00.002+08:00

Bsh...
these days I'm not feeling really happy. Sorry for making you worried. Yeah, I keep insisting that I'm smiling but heh actually I'm just feeling annoyed, and tired of exams.

Currently I'm starting on S1 of Gossip Girl. I'm not going to be a bitch okay! -.-

Term 3 has been the worst term of my school life.

Goodbye. Sorry dear readers, I'll post more substantial stuff.

2011-07-29T00:27:00.001+08:00

Aiya, I'm finally done with my SS PT.

These days I've been sleeping pretty late.

Neon Trees - Animal

2011-07-27T22:52:00.001+08:00

I keep listening to this song. I love it. The tune is so catchy. The lyrics is cool too. I like lyrics which does not insinuate any form of sex heh :D and lyrics which are inspirational.
I got to know of this song from my friend's brother.

I'm doing SS PT! I'm half way done. I took 3 hours to do that -.- But I vowed to finish it today, so goodbye.

Reggie: If you're reading this, HELLO~!
Chelsea: If you're reading this, HAHAHAHAHAH, What are you doing now..... uhm... I think you are studying Chinese. Oh, now that I think about it, you're prolly doing the Malay note hmk.

Singapore GAGA

2011-07-26T22:14:00.003+08:00

Exams were just the usual....

I just watched Singapore GAGA by Tan Pin Pin
It's an interesting short, low budget film. This film is mostly a almagation of Singapore Arts presented through various different genres of songs. There are scenes from MRT buskers, the tissue paper woman song, professional artiste who performs abstract art and a harmonica performer who really intrigue me. It also featured a Madrasah's Sports Day.
My favourite scene from this film was a interview between the director and the harmonica performer, Mr Yew Hong Chow and another Indian man. They were talking about popular harmonica was in the olden days. The Indian man also think that the recorder isn't really a suitable instrument to play in primary school. He also mentioned perhaps because the MOE people were british educated, thus being influenced from the recording playing in primary schools in Europe. He suggested perhaps we could have been like China and learnt the harmonica.
Personally after listening to the harmonica, I think it's quite a cute instrument! Mr Yew Hong Chow laments that harmonica popularity has dropped, he used to teach in many school, but now he only teaches one school- RJC HAHAH. (Not sure now tho, the film was made in 2005). Subsequently, the film featured the RJ harmonica ensemble rehearsal. I think I wouldn't mind learning the harmonica in school.
So there's various other songs, communist inspired songs, performance by a ventriloquist. Somehow it's quite a heartwarming film, when I recognise the places from the film and listening to the genial and soothing background songs.
I learnt more about Singapore :DDDD It's a good film to have a sneak peek at the Singapore art and society culture.

-.-

2011-07-25T17:56:00.002+08:00

Today wasn't a really nice day. Somehow, I was just waiting for the entire day to end. The lessons didn't stir much interest in me, and I practically just cruised and cozed through lessons.

Sighh.....

I feel compelled to write again.

2011-07-24T13:26:00.002+08:00

Holy cow, what a wonderful month.
July was named after Julius Caesar.

This month we covered a lot of issues regarding the income inequality in school. We had 3 external speakers who came over to give us a talk. We went through lots of reasons as well as the society's obligation to try to bridge the gap and moral questions, heh, didn't think we really reach the crux though.... Personally, I kind of agree to this statement my classmate made in SS class 'it actually doesn't matter if everyone is still happy and is okay with this income inequality.'

But BAHH, that would be totally flawed ROXY, because I am sure even if income inequality doesn't bring about social unrest/revolt, there will be economic/political implications! Uhm.. I really wished the speakers expounded more on how income inequality can affect our economy. Er... judging by face value, it seems like massive hordes of cheap labour seems to really benefit companies by diminishing inital costs.

So yesterday I went for Chinese Tuition, then Math tuition, and I felt like really lucky and happy to have supplementary classes. I profess, I Like Tuition. Sometimes, I am puzzled by why kids are so reluctant and annoyed to go for tuition, shouldn't these people be feeling satisfied and grateful that your parents are wealthy enough to afford these extra classes?

Kemudian, while I was on the MRT going back home, I overheard a conversation between this 50+ looking man with an elderly couple. Well, the elderly couple (who is still working) was giving him contacts for a job. A job as a cleaner at a school. He would have to work from 7.30 -5.30 (mon-fri), for $720 a month, and extra $30 if he doesn't miss a single day in the month. I admire these resolute people, they don't complain about life but work hard to survive in our little city. Lucky for the man that he isn't married (I heard), I'm quite sure $720 is going to be tough feeding a familiy.

---------
My own situation:
optimistically BAD.

There's so many exams this term.
1. School term 3 exams
2. SS PT/AS PT
3. Malay O's oral
4. Piano Exam
5. EYA Exam
6. Piano theory exam

hi again

2011-07-22T22:10:00.001+08:00

i just came to say hello

Today I’m staying home because it’s HOME BASED LEARNING DAY, which is really wonderful. I woke up at 9, ate my breakfast and lazily breezed thru the news till 10 before I opened Inet.

I managed to change my tumblr theme too. I realised one of the reason why I abandoned blogging was because I hated my previous theme :P

School was just O_O_O yesterday. Chinese was blehh, I mean seriously, if you haven’t have a proper chinese teacher for 3 weeks, and O’s are coming soon, it really gets to the nerves.

CLE felt like SS somehow. Since many of my friends mentioned about it, I guess it’s useless if I continue rambling about it too. Just that I was feeling a bit apprehensive when I was walking to the estate department, afraid that I would be questioned by teachers on why I was wandering around school.

Tetapi, I think I had a really productive and meaningful Malay revision yesterday. Dear classmates and I read thru our notes, and I felt much prepared! YEAH baby.

Then MelT and I went to watch Harry Potter after Malay Orals, which was pretty cool. Well, it was a last minute plan, because the Waddle house commers had loads of spare tickets. Sorry for jumping in front of so many classmates for oral ;_;

Harry Potter great! I think the editing and special effects were beautiful. GREAT, AWESOME, EXCITING. I wonder how the editors manipulated it. Well, other than the sounds and editing, I still think the book is better if you would like to go for the plot.

On the way home, I met Ji-Hyun! Haha, the last time I saw her was 1 year ago on my way home too. I love coincidences.

2011/07/14 1 note
Hong Kong!

It was a interesting holiday. The first time that my family and I went by ourselves without package tour. After staying in Hong Kong and experiencing life there for a while, it really struck me how great Singapore’s food and clothing inflation is. But otherwise, there were some similarities between both cities which made me feel quite comfortable somehow. For example, seeing many many philippines maids gathering on weekends, bakeries, their CBD area, Octopus Card/Ez-link card, very very busy port. But everyone speaks Cantonese there and we don’t understand :( So we ask if they could converse in 普通话.

The Dim Sum there was really good. We went for afternoon tea 4 times, and always ordered siew mai and har gow (xia jiao).

And we went down to the Avenue of Stars 3 times too! LOL

On the 2nd last day, we went down this antique street which has many stalls selling antiques. I found coins of the Qing dynasty! There was this big storage plastic container full of coins of various countries. I think they’re all real. So my parents and I dug for the old chinese coins, which is circle in shape and there’s a square hole in the middle, with the name of the emperor inscribded on it. Haha, after searching for 45 mins, I managed to find a complete set of Qing coins with all 10 emperors names :D Ya, so currently I’m quite confident to say that I can recite all the names of the Qing emperors in order and backwards.

That’s it :D
2011/06/04 958 notes

Passion

2011-06-28T15:17:00.002+08:00

Hi,
-.-
i hate blogging here.

woosh

2011-05-12T19:54:00.000+08:00

Ho whao,
reading hard truths, it feels like a total revelation on the subject of the Singapore political and survival scene. I think Hard Truths is a pretty cool book for a newbie. Perhaps this the way for me to get better marks in SS too 8D

2011-05-11T19:03:00.003+08:00

HAHAHAHAH,
i meant to post this yesterday:

I got merit for my G7 theory paper!
This is surprising,

see you

2011-05-10T21:01:00.002+08:00

It's math tomorrow!

I hope I would be careful tomorrow. I just looked through my chinese paper, and I realised I made 2 careless mistakes which caused me a band -.-

Okay, time to go sleep!
Goodnight

scars upon scars

2011-05-06T22:35:00.005+08:00

It's May!

We meant to go to Raffles City, and was hoping to bring back memories of walking down leisurely down malls with friends happily.
Unfortunately, I ran and fell on my knees on the travellator at Dhoby Ghaut station. HA :( I remember my thoughts right before stepping on the travellator: I'm gonna unpin my fringe. But well before I had the chance to do that, I landed heavily on my knee, the wound was around 0.5 cm deep, which was quite bad. There's two wounds on my right knee, it's shaped exactly like the travellator, parallel lines with equal widths.
But the main thing is, I'm so glad I had a very very nice group of friends with me and a caring mrt station mistress there. We went to a hidden room at the station, got first aid, and covered it up with a nice gauze! I think we should totally put it in the first aid kits. Usually our first aid kit has standard gauze and tape, but this gauze comes with a big tape that covers the entire gauze such that it secures very nicely. Hazel and the other lady was so nice for helping me bandage my knee, Cheng Yi was so nice for lending me her phone, coz my phone died, and Suzanne was nice she helped me with my bag. Thank you so much friends.
We went to a clinic, the doctor was very nice too. He gave me discount and was very friendly. He seemed impressed that so many friends would come with me, and mentioned how this memory would always live on. Yes, I was really touched and grateful that I had caring friends with me, and other strangers who are equally helpful too. Thank you Hazel, Cheng Yi and SUZY, you made my day so much easier and better :)
Heh, I wonder what would my scar look like. I feel down twice in sec 2, once on left knee, once on right knee and so I got 2 circles on each knee.

-

2011-05-05T21:06:00.002+08:00

Today?

Bit tired. Annoyed. People. People making me puzzled and then annoyed, but let's just put up a happy smile and pretend that I don't know anything that's going on.

Byebye.

2011-05-04T20:19:00.000+08:00

jeklyn

Day03 - A picture of the cast from your favorite show

2011-05-02T11:50:00.004+08:00

This show, it's 真情(a kindred spirit), a Hong Kong serial drama which runs over 1000++ episodes, but I think I only watched 200-300 of it. But hey, I watched this when I was a kid, like 6/7 years old. Hoh my tian, it was so addictive. Everyday after school, I would make sure I get back by 7 am, turn on channel 8 and watch this :D Well, the drama was just airing on the ordinary but interesting life of this big family; tales of scandals, love stories, growing up and family bonding.

Maybe it won't be my favourite show now... I was contemplating Mythbusters/Air Crash Investigations.

Day02 - A picture of you and the person you have been closest with the longest

2011-05-01T22:37:00.001+08:00

she's somewhere in there

Day 1: A picture of yourself with ten facts

2011-05-01T21:52:00.004+08:00

1. I love travelling. This was taken in Taiwan... 3 years ago. At 绿岛, a little island off the mainland.

2. Food is good. I think I can be bought over with food. Chinese food, malay food, Indian food, Italian food, American food, exotic food with interesting spices.

3. Champagne/gold is my favourite colour. There's a scene (Masquerade!) in Phantom of the Opera where all the dancers were so golden and dancing, it was beautiful.

4. I like RGS.

5. I like my friends, those around me :) I think it's very nice of them to give me support when I need it and talking to me. I think their existence gives me a purpose in life too.

6. I just came back from a SDP rally. I think it's amazing to be able to see so many singaporeans gather at one place, it's amazing. Politics really bring people together!

7. I like the arts. But I guess I rather be an art appreciator than an art creator.

8. I live in a HDB flat with my parents. I moved homes everytime I go to a different school. I moved in P1, I moved in Sec 1, and I know we're moving next year again.

9. 'Dengan Semangat yang Baru' is my favourite line in the national athem. It means With a new spirit. (Y)

10. I still keep in touch with one of my kindergarten friend. We use to go to a nursery cum kindergarten called Tenderlove (it closed). During the sch hols we would go out together, to orchard or somewhere, catch a movie, have a meal.

starting today

2011-05-01T21:48:00.000+08:00

Day01 - A picture of yourself with ten facts

Day02 - A picture of you and the person you have been closest with the longest

Day03 - A picture of the cast from your favorite show

Day04 - A picture of your night

Day05 - A picture of your favorite memory

Day06 - A picture of a person you’d love to trade places with for a day

Day07 - A picture of your most treasured item

Day08 - A picture that makes you laugh

Day09 - A picture of the person who has gotten you through the most

Day10 - A picture of the person you do the most ****** up things with

Day11 - A picture of something you hate

Day12 - A picture of something you love

Day13 - A picture of your favorite band or artist

Day14 - A picture of someone you could never imagine your life without

Day15 - A picture of something you want to do before you die

Day16 - A picture of someone who inspires you

Day17 - A picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently

Day18 - A picture of a letter

Day19 - A picture of somewhere you’d love to travel

Day20 - A picture of something you wish you could forget

Day21 - A picture of something you wish you were better at

Day22 - A picture of your favorite book

Day23 - A picture of something you don’t want to change

Day24 - A picture of your day

Day25 - A picture of something that means a lot to you

Day26 - A picture of yourself and a family member

Day27 - A picture of something you’re afraid of

Day28 - A picture that can always make you smile

Day29 - A picture of someone you miss

Day30 - A picture of yourself

-

2011-05-01T13:06:00.003+08:00

Dude and dudettes,

good day?

BAD DAY FOR ME

I did a whole morning of chinese, and I swear, 3/4 of my mind is asleep when i tune in to chinese :(

other than that, this week, I watched 'The Social Network'. Pretty cool movie on the starting up of Facebook, lots of interesting wordplay, nice editing and was certainly intrigung to see the life of young adults at Harvard.

bshh, I think people who like to rub salt in especially with their own academic, are seriously annoying.

jangan pandang belakang

2011-04-29T21:35:00.003+08:00

Tired.

I'm perennially drained, I think.

HAHA, today, thanks to Chelsea Ong, I spent 9 bucks travelling home for piano class.

will post later.

-

2011-04-28T19:53:00.001+08:00

The Clementi Public Library opened!

There are so many new books, and I finally got my hands on to nineteen eighty-four. It's new, crisp and the book cover is in a perfect rectangular shape with no creases (Y)

red cross

2011-04-24T18:17:00.003+08:00

Hi guys, aw man weekend is coming to another close.

This weekend? It wasn't as crazily spent like previous weekend, partly coz I didn't get any new movies and my parents were nagging on my homework. On Friday, I spend the bulk of the day sleeping. I think I finally understand how sleeping can be such an exhilarating thing.

Saturday was a more meaningful day. I chaperoned sec 1s to the Red Cross enrolment ceremony at yck sec school with Chelsea. Well, it was my 3rd time going, sec 1 being my own enrolment ceremony, last year I accompanied the year 1s too.

Well, thought it was meaningful in a refreshing sense. We sang songs; the Red Cross song, You and I song, Life Power song, it brings back fond old memories of the past. Special mentions to taking the red cross promise with everyone in the hall, it feels like a renewal of my vow to serve society and a reminder of why I am in this CCA and my purpose. I guess that's my favourite part of my CCA, serving community. If I didn't join Red Cross, prolly wont meet dedicated yearmates and prolly won't be so active in reaching out to the community too.

The VIs also put up few skits, on the history of redcross, what red cross is about, how their journey would be like and there were the 'anticipated' mass dance!

Just hope that the juniors would embody the spirit of community spirit and volunteerism. Well, they're showing lots of promising signs (they sign up for many welfare activities), I'm quite happy :) Ultimately, still hope that they have fun and will be able to stock up fulfilling interesting memories that they can reminisce on when they grow up.

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

the unglam side of this weekend:

on friday night, after dilly-dallying for so long, I realised I left my Red Cross uniform and boots in school!!!! D< Well, but I was extremely glad that the ceremony was in the afternoon. I rushed to schoolthe following morning, collected my uniform and went home to prepare it. Then I was so annoyed, tired and sweaty, I took a cab to school.

At night, I was going for math tuition. Bahh, I stood in my boots for the whole day coz Chels and I were afraid we would crumple it, my feet and legs ache :/ So I took cab to Hazel's place. In my anxiousness, I forgot about the surcharge thing -.- I took a cab before 8 and it cost me extra $3. And well, I was 40 minutes early -.-

But hey math was productive :D
yeah, that's it.
Today?

hurr.... nothing much. Cleared all my google feeds, it amounted to over 1000+ and homework. piano. + sleep till noon again, was so tired yesterday. HAHAH, the Mr Brown song Ash post was very interesting.

2011-04-21T18:53:00.002+08:00

3. so we became v cynical haha 8D Lit skills 8D when the principal expandedthe expandy thing and talked about being stretched we realised the inside of theball revealed it’s hollowness ha ha ha…
- a common cabbage

HAHAHAH. I would like to believe air is substantial too.

Today!

2011-04-20T20:32:00.005+08:00

Hi earthlings,today was a very interesting day, especially during CLE block.

(Lessons were the same, slacking chinese, micro-bio, own-pace-own-target math and do math during chem stuff.)

During CLE, the RI principal and her team came down to give us a talk on RI, what is RI and the JC H1 H2 thing. Hahah, I got to say, Xenia put it so aptly, the principal, she's an awesome salesperson man. RI was put across as such prestigious and opportunity-riched place that the whole time I felt extremely awed by the work of my seniors and lucky. Pure lucky that I am a participant of this '6-year seamless education'. I can't believe so much hinges on PSLE.

After that I went out with Xenia to Fort Canning Park to do stuff xD There were many nice plants and trees, saw many spices :D Just that it was drizzling, and there were many stupid mosquitoes, and I was so tired, kinda made me drained.

See this photograph, it was taken from the Raffles house. My first reaction was : HOMG, such a beautiful view from the front porch. You can see the supreme court and MBS so clearly, beautiful.

www.artreach.tumblr.com

2011-04-17T23:08:00.003+08:00

Hi friends, and friends of friends:
it's my weekend post again!
I had a really meaningful weekend camp spent, at WELL (Wallace Environment Learning Lab), at Dairy Farm Park, Bukit Timah Nature Reserve[for the lesser known]. The camp stretching from friday to saturday, aimed to combined the disciplinary subjects of biology, arts and literature together through nature. We had lots of nature related activites, such as a day-walk at a trail, a night-walk, star gazing, birdwatching in the morning, and talks with invited artist, poet and a ecologist.
It was such a nice escapade from urban reality. There was no clock on the wall, and I didn't on my phone or bring a watch, time really felt like a strange concept. Furthermore, there seem to be lots of spare time and nature seem to sway and frolick slowly past us, it felt almost relaxing. Of course, the air smelt pure, like fresh out of the plants, no chemicals, no extra carbon or sulfur or nitrogen oxides.
I learnt a few names of plants and birds, it was all pretty cool. And talking with the nature guides, and their work during environmental survey. Makes me want to join our nature society singapore. Nature is such an awesome thing :D Haha, after this trip, I guess my biggest takeaway is to learn how to appreciate tropical flora and fauna especially those common in Singapore. Before that, I guess I was always pretty westernised in nature concept, of how I would want to explore coniferous, deciduous forests and african grasslands and big animals such as bears, gazelles etc.
Well, there's actually alot of interesting animals in Singapore, just that they are smaller xD. Totally appreciated going on lizard-hunting trips with Suzanne, Mr Lim and Claudia, improved my sight for this kind of minute animals.
Pictures on ArtReach's tumblr :DD
Today? Bahh... guilt trips man. I slept till 10am, cleared facebook and google feeds till 11.30, watched tangled (Rapunzel movie) till 2, tried to organise what I want to do in the afternoon, felt too sleepy suddenly, slept till 6 again. Tangled was pretty nice, enjoyed the graphics and song more than the plot. I <3 drawings! Surprisingly, Rapunzel can draw and paint pretty well.
Hiya, but I know I'm in control of my academic life (at least that's what I think ._.) and this term my goals is trying to strike a balance between studies and my personal hobbies and enjoyment, so I hope my weekends won't be dull :D

random

2011-04-14T20:57:00.004+08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grVHXLY5cM8&feature=related

I use to hear this every time when I went for piano classes at Cristofori like... 6 years ago. I was doing grade 4 then, so I would arrive early at the centre and sit outside a specific studio. Most of the time the student in that studio would be playing this piece, sonata in F major by Mozart, it's a beautiful piece, love the modulations. My teacher told me that some grade 8 student was doing it for his/her exam piece. Haha, really admire how that person could play then.

be BRAVE

2011-04-13T18:03:00.004+08:00

Yo hello.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2uORs59gv4&feature=related
Soundtrack of Moulin Rouge - Come what may
Ohh, just lots of stuff happened this week. Busy week as usual

Other than that, I'm really happy and grateful that my class gave me the opportunity to be on the debate team. Hahah, we had a really cool motion: First world nations are responsible for the plight of third world countries.
I was on the opposition, pretty cool haha. Just that I really wish I had better prepared my points, wrote out a proper script instead of improvising (my whole team improvised) and be more brave and analytical. Bahh, I feel so bad for not preparing well, well I guess I kinda disappointed my class and making everyone so worried. Thank you Moira and Chelsea for supplying the points though hahahha. Oh, but I'm happy the proposition was very supportive, and seemed genial all the time made me less stress -->ending up laughin at Regina and Maegan's expressions.
On Tuesday afternoon, my senior came back to school, and it was very nice talking to her :) Well, I got to know abit more about JC. JC really sounded like a pretty cool place, just that studies constitutes like.. 90% of your life ._. it's total dominance yeah.
Do I look forward to JC? Uhm.. maybe. Or not... I think I'm going to miss the things in rgs dearly, like the Red Cross Room, yearmates, classmates, friends and teachers and the stuff that I get to do in school. The only thing I look forward to about JC is having greater perspectives in life issues/academic subjects and meeting JAE people. I guess JC gives me the impression of doing subjects more in depth, mature friends and viewpoints, growing as a person and perhaps discovering how I can be useful and contribute to my JC community and society outside :D Totally dread the exams, muggerism spirit and A'levels :(

The coloured paddle pop

2011-04-10T22:22:00.004+08:00

Hi world, how has your weekend been? Mine has been pretty good. I love today. I slept all the way till 11. But the best part is I got to watch Moulin Rouge! !! :DDDD I'm so happy, it's similar to Phantom of the Opera, a romantic musical film that has a tragic ending. Kinda reminds me of Romeo and Juliet. As usual, I like the grandeur of the set as well as huge casts for supporting dancers. Well, this was set in Paris too, cept in a different century. Those people in POTO was wearing elaborate victorian dresses but the characters in Moulin Rouge were wearing the 1900s wear already. Nicole Kidman was beautiful, her characterization was (Y) and totally convincing. But I thought there were some funny editing here and there, especially when they sped up lots of parts made me kinda dizzy.

Oh wow, I just love Sundays. Gives me so much quality time with myself, i get to talk to myself, reflect on what happen in the week, indulge in personal inside jokes and moments and think about how next week would be like. And best of all, MOVIES <3
After that I finished my Area Studies AA okay! I'm pretty pleased with it. And I just finished the philo story which my relief teacher asked us to do.

-------------
Ohh I realised it's pretty good to have study groups. Like how I revised most of Bio with Chelsea on Thursday, pretty good :D Chinese? Blehh..... it's good :D D:
--------- On Saturday, I watched some of Nigahiga's video in the morning. In the afternoon there were a HSK chinese test.... and I went for Math tuition at night. Er.... saturday was just tiring, accounts for why I slept till so late.

secrets

2011-04-08T20:16:00.002+08:00

2011-04-07T22:40:00.002+08:00

Oh, these days, I'm feeling pretty happy during morning assemblys. Thinking that 3.5 years of Malay really paid off, I understand what my national athem means when I sing it! LOL, makes whole lot of difference compared to the days when I just sing it blindly without understanding, and I'm pretty sure all my MSP friends understand the national athem well too. i LIke the lyrics :D My favourite line is: Dengan semangat yang baru, coz the tune is nice

Today, I realise that I really really like Chinese. Well, actually I knew that since I went to Taiwan. It must be just as awesome as English. I was reading the HSK mock paper, and there were alot of short chinese passages, and the stories are so nice. Totally like chinese (Y), but the Chinese Subject in school 'oppresses' my motivation for chinese and chinese lit. I think Singapore just want to make sure that you are well drilled in the technical aspects of language.
Makes me wanna go to school in China for a year to really immerse in chinese and c Lit.

Oh, I just realised that we have Area Studies AA due soon! ?AH EH?!

A different perspective

2011-04-06T20:36:00.002+08:00

Today was a pretty awesome day. Especially during CLE assembly, the school invited speakers from leadership training centres, the lady speaker spoke with such conviction and enthusiasm, really drove the message straight to my head.

Then after school and RS, Suzy, her friend Claudia, with the help of Mr Lim went down Orchard in search of lizards again! Hahaha, it's still very cool though it's my second time following Suzanne. Suzanne's lizard spotting skill seemed to improve alot. There were so many small (almost petite) lizards, that I would definitely wouldn't have notice if I were just cruising down shopping. How nice, seeing our little commercial playground as a nature habitat for other creatures. I wonder how the lizards think of the cars and noise and people around them. Free ice-cream and seeing Mr Yeoh on the way.

I think the one characteristic of people which I value the most is being passionate. Being completely devoted to what you strongly believe in, and bent on doing something to develop your this passion. It's amazing seeing friends and teachers having strong rooted interest for their various interests. Totally (Y)

Currently I haven't thought of what I'm really passionate about :( I mean, I like alot of stuff, I like nature, I like the Arts, I like Maths, I like music, especially my piano, I like Chemistry and I like Red Cross woork too and I kinda like teaching. Maybe one day I'll be truly able to find my passion, then work hard for it.

FUNNAYE MATHs

2011-04-05T20:53:00.000+08:00

Happy Belated April's Fool?

2011-04-04T23:27:00.003+08:00

Hello, so today Acasa played a merry belated April's Fool joke on our unit, and well with the tenroh species, covering your body openings(eyes, nose and ears and mouth), doing superman and batman, wobble wobble during PT, hahahahhah. Very funny, but I hope our juniors don't get too serious and up about it, I mean it's only a joke and well I thought the new additions to PT seem to make it even harder. After that I went for Physics tuition.

Pretty good, I think I understand static electricity and the charging stuff now. Goodnight. Hi bed, I missed you dearly today.

Past the point of no return

2011-04-03T15:39:00.002+08:00

Hello, today morning past midnight I watched Phantom of the Opera.

It was fantastic, I adore Andrew Lloyd Webber and the Phantom. The music was superb, there were alot of beautiful duets, duets between the Phantom and Christine(the main female lead), Christine and her childhood lover, Christine and her girl-friend.

The film also makes use of alot of good sound techniques, the recurring theme is played so many times, but each time a different instrument and texture, it was always so fresh. But well, I learnt that looks can be very deceiving. The Phantom looked hideous, but was trying to be close and nice to Christine until he started killing so many people okay, this guy is really warped. Shan't spoil the surprise if you haven't watch.

Other than that, I managed to finish most of my other homework today.
Saturday night, I realised how much I love kit kat, but every time I ate->gullet spasmzzz. I look forward to this week :D

2011-04-02T18:38:00.000+08:00

OH Today was such a sunny day spent. I Feel Really happy :D

2011-04-01T17:58:00.004+08:00

Esophageal Injuries If you recently swallowed something sharp-edged or irritating, if you just went through a bout of vomiting or if you had a vitamin pill or medication stick in your esophagus, you may have injured its inner wall. Many of these injuries are minor and self-resolving, but they can cause pain with swallowing or burping for several days. GERD can cause chronic or recurrent injury to the lower part of your esophagus. A 2010 study in "Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology" demonstrates a link between GERD and chest pain, and a review in "American Family Physician" reports that up to 50 percent of people with chest pain that is not due to heart disease have gastroesophageal reflux disease. Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/358407-your-chest-hurts-when-you-swallow-food-drink-or-burp/#ixzz1IGR7myJW

Bahhh... I think I injured my gullet on Monday. I remember at night, I ate a pill but the water was so hot I swallowed the pill without the water. The whole night sleeping I could feel the stupid pill stuck at my chest area, and in the morning I drank lots of water but the pill-stuck thing feeling won't go away. It was so disturbing and kept bothering me, a tuesday exam during SS and physics exam and the entire day I felt like puking. These few days my chests feel pain whenever i eat/drink/swallow saliva. :(

2011-03-31T21:58:00.003+08:00

hello people reading this.
I have a new blogskin. I realised I wouldn't be moving to my tumblr after all, because well there are too much attachments here. So if you're reading this from google reader, you can go check up http://www.sparkling-jewel.blogspot.com/ to check out my new blogskin. And I opened up my archives to the public again. My really really lame and funny archives that I documented the past 5 years. I don't regret posting all these weird stuff in utter Singlish and vulgarities, it's was just me, maybe overly carefree and dramatic. Wouldn't it be absolutely revolting to hate your younger self and thoughts? That's just like self-deprecation again.
Goodbye March. I think you're the most sentimental month so far. Far from chaotic february and uncertain January. Thanks for all the school memories, holiday activities, new stuff. I realised if there was no such thing as school in my life, my youth would decay to utter rot and despair. The things that happen next month, I think i'm going to mull over my non-academic goals for this year instead of plain simplistic ones.
Hi Math PT, i hope you would be okay. byebye

2011-03-30T20:11:00.001+08:00

oh gosh why won't my previous post show paragraphs?

Luna

2011-03-30T19:43:00.004+08:00

Oh, this month(March) I have been thinking of the moon quite frequently. There was one saturday where the sighting of the moon was the biggest. It was so intriguing and beautiful, the big big shiny golden orb. ----- I think people who do what is right and not what that is popular are really really admirable. (Please, I'm not trying to be cliche.) Especially people who are determined to stick to their cause even if they know they are going to end up unpopular. Bwahh.... and it makes me even more sad cause life seems so unfair that these people are sometimes unrightfully misjudged because the people around her dont' see her other side. I have a teacher who is much particular about behaviour and attitude, well she totally attempts to bring the school behaviour standards back to what that it is always suppose to be. During hall assemblies she stress so much on respect to people talking at the front/performers, coming into the hall in a orderly and quiet fashion etc. Well most importantly she emphasizes on how seniors should always set the standards. I think this is the first time I seen such a commited teacher who has been unfaltering in reminding us. I hope this year everybody would rise above their norm and perhaps really be good role models for the juniors :D ------------------- I hate self-deprecating humour.

cry a river, build a bridge, get over it.

2011-03-29T13:18:00.001+08:00

Today, I realised during exams that what that is worst isn't how I am unable to solve problems or make careless mistakes during the test, but finding mistakes after the teacher says pens down.

Well, at least you're immersed in the sweetness of ignorance and blissful disillusion for the former.

There are some stuffs going around in life, which I really want to change. Bahh... fuk that I'm either not in the position to do something about it or the people around don't really want to do it.

Byebye.

2011-03-28T20:27:00.003+08:00

I cleared 5 mountains off my room yesterday, 4 on my desk and one on the piano. I never knew my desk was so spacious. Now that I cleared it up, I have 2.5 times the size of the desk i have in school. YAY Tomorrow there's exams!

2011-03-27T19:26:00.000+08:00

"Happiness is not a possession to be prized, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind." - Daphne du Maurier

found my life direction

2011-03-27T02:00:00.002+08:00

I think maybe there are just is so much competition in Singapore and the fast pace of life. After reading this, I guess I kinda understand how I've been feeling or wanting to feel these 4 years in RGS. Good starting point to contemplate on how I want to move on and finish my last year here in school. I like 'a woman of strength wears grace.' Totally, need to keep my cool.

Today

2011-03-25T22:59:00.002+08:00

I fell into deep deep slumber after piano class today.
I guessed it must be FAT-igue, the sleep felt never ending, and I saw a lot of stuff in my dreams. I saw my old neighbourhood, felt like 3 am, and I was dashing around the road, buying stuff before going for a friend's gathering. Then I saw a horror clip, kinda still remember some scary scenes, like fingers dropping from the top of a ferris wheel and a murder.

(haha, must be overdose of reading manga Q.E.D)

well, to end it off with something soothing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGbh_oAwuOE&NR=1

reblog

2011-03-25T22:35:00.002+08:00

stophatingyourbody:

I want you all to look very closely at this woman. Her name is Lizzie Velasquez, 21 years of age, and weighs about 55lbs(or 25.4ish kg), has nearly 0% body fat, and isn’t anorexic.

She suffers from a rare and undiagnosed syndrome that prevents her from putting on weight, and has to eat every 15 minutes in order to stay alive. She has about 60 small meals a day, consisting of between 5,000 and 8,000 calories. She was born four weeks prematurely and doctors found there was minimal amniotic fluid protecting her in the womb. Genetic experts could not diagnose her illness, and her case fascinated doctors all over the world. Now she is part of a study run by Professor Abhimanyu Garg in Dallas. Garg believes Velasquez may have Neonatal Progeroid Syndrome which causes accelerated ageing, and fat loss from the face and body.

Lizzie has said, “I weigh myself regularly and if I gain even one pound I get really excited. I eat every 15-20 minutes to keep my energy levels up. I eat small portions of crisps, sweets, chocolate, pizza, chicken, cake, doughnuts, ice cream, noodles and pop tarts all day long, so I get pretty upset when people accuse me of being anorexic. When I meet new people I have to say: ‘Hi, I’m Lizzie and I have this rare syndrome, I am NOT anorexic’.”

Please don’t feel like she’s lucky that she is this way.

I think we need to take time out of our days to be happy for what we have, cherish our bodies, and be thankful for them. I’m not gonna throw out some form of a guilt trip on this saying you should be thankful for what you have because you could be this and so on;

What I do want all of you to come from this is that if this woman can smile constantly with a body like her own, we should be able to do that too, regardless of everything.

I’m not Lizzie, and I don’t know how you could get in contact with her, but I am here to help any of you in any form, regardless of if you’re a lady or a gentleman.

Smile today; you’re wonderful. <3

BE BRAVE! JOIN THE REVOLUTION!