A new year is dawning. Christmas is just over, I've just come back from the US. Woot! The trip was a blast. Took many photos and went to so many different places. It is a nice place to live for sure although Singapore is still not bad for its sense of security. One thing the US can do much better than us: Service standards. Service staff there are definitely more polite and helpful. After 16 days there I find it quite hard to adjust back to life here. Anyway there's also not much to look forward to in the next year. A tonsillectomy and enlistment are in the works argh.

Seriously wondering what army life going to be like. although I think I'm not really looking forward to it.

Yay 1 more paper till the end of A levels on 3rd Dec, although I've been slacking since my unofficial last day on 23rd Nov. On that last day this piece of paper is finally useless I so can't wait for it to be over so I can go on my US trip =D. At least theres 1 more month before ns so I can hopefully get a job or something. These few days have been quite boring, went out on fri with Sam, Andrea and Atika to Bukit Timah hill. It was so tiring! Then went to Raffles City for lunch. Tmr will be attending Mr Gan's wedding reception. Holidays rock =)

I know at this critical juncture 1.25 weeks before my first A level paper I should be studying. But I decided to blog now after reading Lavina's post about the last day of sch. Well it was 3 days ago but it seems more like 3 weeks. The last day of sch was well not really the last since I have to go back tomorrow for mock bio and gp lessons. But the stuff that the teaching staff wanted to communicate to us was that we decide our future. That day, 26 Oct began with assembly. Funny how ppl sang the national anthem louder that day. Then it was time for the last cohort meeting. The VP tried to encourage us that our prelim results didn't matter much. What matters is the A's. She showed us results of our seniors that despite getting S'es and U's, getting 3A's or more is still pssible in the actual exams. After that was the farewell concert which I'm not going to elaborate much on except that our class seemed to be the only one not getting any last words or farewells from our STs. (unless you count those generic to all [insert subject] students) When the concert ended I just stayed behind for a few photos and left to eat lunch with SC.

That was my "last" day of TJ. I remember the first. Actually it was nearly 3-4 years ago when I was in sec 2. SC told me about TJ's IP program and I was sort of interested. Even though I said I would apply I was lazy and didn't get to it. Fast forward 2 years and it was after O levels. PAE still existed then and I was sent to MJ. While not my first choice it was ok and I hoped that my actual O level results would eventualy let me enter TJ. MJ was not a bad school at all but I hated the travelling and the fact that I had little friends that did not compel me to stay even though my PAE class were quite a nice bunch. I will still remember 08S305. It eventually dispersed and nearly half the class went to different sch's after that. When the actual results arrived I was quite anxious. I did better then prelims though - but still not enough to enter TJ. I immediately started the appeal process. SC was freaking lucky. He appealed for PAE AND JAE and got in both times! The first day of JAE was weird for me. All the ppl I knew well in sec sch left for other jcs, leaving me alone. It was a weird experience for me since my PAE class had sort of disbanded and I felt kinda lonely. The next day however, during lunchtime when I was slacking in the library instead of participating in orientation, I got the phone call that told me I had been accepted. I almost screamed with joy but it was the library after all. What happened next was that I had to rush between MJ and TJ. Luckily they were quite near each other. Well, what happened next is history.

22/08 has been and will always be my best experience in TJ. The dynamic bunch of people having such close friendship through thick and thin, PW, teachers leaving and our class events will never be forgotten. That basically made my experience in TJ all the more better. Despite not having the PDP I wanted and not having any leadership roles I will remember TJ for 22/08. Leaving it will not make me cry, but at least there's something to look back on.

Alright that concludes this megapost.

WOW! I managed to NOT blog for 1 whole month. (Not that I like blogging anyway) Well in 1 month prelims came and went. Tmr will be the day of reckoning to see if my inverse-studying law that says the less you study the better you score actually works. Anyway it has been quite a crazy month. F1 was in town recently..... natural disasters are wreaking havoc on 10% of the world's population etc. Anyway my life still has been quite boring, but it could have been worse so I'm not complaining. A's are really around the corner now and I think its time I start memorising stuff and understanding them. I compared the old AS AO level syllabus with the 'H' series and I'm kinda glad now that we're taking the new syllabus. The old one was insane! Mechanics in maths? Food Chemistry in Chemistry? How did they cope? Oh right...... they didn't have PW or SPA.....

I kinda feel lousy at the moment since I don't think I have achieved any of my goals set out. SC is training hard in preparation for NS and I'm just lazing around =( And today I meant to thank the person who found my wallet but I felt embarrassed and the oppertunity jus slipped away. Feeling really bad about it now =_=

Time to buck up. Its now or never.

What is this world coming to? Everyday in the news more and more retarded stories keep coming up. First I saw this article about how a teenager in the USA was charged for recording 20s of a Transformer's movie (which totally sucks btw) to show to her brother. And the people involved felt that the cinema was a "victim" . That's right, they will lose $18.6 bn from her 20s recording! And apparently theres good and bad stealing. WOW!

The second article comes from the Straits Times, about how our really close neighbour cant seem to make up its mind whether Muslims can attend a concert sponsored by a beer company. This is not really news, since they have a long history of proposing something and then changing their mind. Recall: Teaching using English, SG cars and MY petrol etc. Anyway, I was more incredulous at their suggestion that they have a "first world" democracy while Sg has a first world mentality but third world democracy. Give me a break! The political situation in MY definitely sux more than in here. They have democracy? Thats what they call by blaming their loss in elections to everyone else? I don't even want to talk about their NEP. Its about as effective as a waterproof sponge.

Anyway about more serious stuff, prelims are like in 2 weeks or so. I know that its pretty late compared to other JCs but I still havnt internalised some maths concepts such as complex numbers and graphs. At this rate I think I can only scrape by a C to B average. Really need to get my rhythym back. Think I'm also going on hiatus for quite a while. Don't really think anyone will miss me anyway.

Today was a really tiring day for me. Although it was supposed to end at 12.30pm I had some geog talk conducted by a Prof David Higgins from NUS geography department giving a talk at 4.20pm about landslides. It was sort of interesting learning about some new techniques that geographers use to map cliff faces and see the impacts of landslides. Quite a bit of stuff was repeated from the A level H1 syllabus but it was quite informative. We had a sharing session with some 2003 seniors after that. That has motivated me to get an A for H1 geography and my other subjects. Also, there was pizza! There was also an interesting comment about speeches. Apparently good ones are like skirts, they must be long enough to cover the essentials yet short enough to catch others attention. I loled at it.

Ok now on to slightly more serious stuff. There is approx 100 more days to A levels and I must so start preparing. I must get serious now since its like the last lap. I guess I'm like the 2nd type of person mentioned by the senior. I feel stressed that I'm not feeling stressed enough about the impending A levels. This is seriously getting me worried. And I have a chemistry concept test tmr that I havn't even prepared enough for. Dang it.

Extra: Anyone wants to send their name to mars like me? My name is erased for privacy purposes since I'm not like most people who are willing to post all their personal details online which sort of explains why I'm nt really into social networking.

This is horrible. Liverpool vs Singapore. What a disaster, 3-0 to liverpool. Seriously wuuuuttt! And dang it, this is distracting me from my homework. Really can't seem to get anything done over the weekend. Then there's bio PQ to do again and chem concept test coming up. Really sian-ded from all the work and stuff. On the brighter (dubious) side, A levels are coming in 4 months time. Target this time is AAA/B at least. Must........... get............... back......... to.............. work.




Edit: Liverpool is up to 4 goals.
Further edit: 5-0. Think they will beat Man Utd's score last time?

Felt really crabby today after P.E at the thought of bio MCQ tests tmr and the large amount of work that is steadily piling up. Was really quite tired after PE that I just had to take a nap. Oh well, there's the partial eclipse that is going to take place this Wed at 8.40am SST. Pity that I don't have any glasses/filters to observe it. Although it will be during my break time I hope that clouds won't obscure it. Lucky ppl in China will get to see the whole sky turn black while we see this pathetic thing:



Anyway got to get back to doing my bio CCC practice questions. The writing is really killing me.

The harsh reality of term 3 has finally started to sink into me. I am like so frustrated trying to find out what I can type for my top 3 achievements for the SGC. Just realised that the CIP that I did at NUH in January is still not recorded down even though I have the verification letter. I still have to go get it approved then submit the letter to the General Office. And yeah, clubs and society type of CCAs suck! I have nothing much to write about during my tenure at the entrepreneurship club. Then again, I didn't even choose to be in the E-club, it was a result of appealing to TJC. Just my luck when I thought I could try another CCA for once. /facepalm Now I have nothing much to write for my top 3 achievements except CCA and CIP. The last one is really a headache when you have no leadership positions or intellectual achievements. Writing about duathlon or some obscure CCA activity sounds lame too. Whatever, I'll just take ideas from other ppl. And anyway, having a perfect SGC with all E's isn't going to do much good when applying to unis either, which brings me back to the topic of JCTs

Yeah they suck, with me failing almost all my subjects before moderation. Surprise though, my best subject was maths. Bio sucks now, requiring the regurgitation of so many keywords and terms. Hate the answering technique. Srsly, I so think life sucks now; nt sure if NS will suck more. Worst years of my life. And whats the point of ranting here when no one reads my blog anyway? *depressed*

Today was youth day in lieu of yesterday, when ppl who still had papers for JCTs had to mug instead of relaxing. Since my papers ended last week, I had 2 days off instead =D . Spent today going to tampines and playing dota with csc lol. I saw that there was a Hokkaido fair at tm. Really cool stuff they were selling like this ikameshi which is squid stuffed with rice. I saw it on a taiwan tv show on saturday. Apparently its really popular in Japan as a form of ekiben or railroad food. I find it cool that railway stations are associated with different types of bento. I also wanted to buy the butter cakes but the queue was so long! Maybe I'll try my luck tomorrow. Its from 3rd to 12th july.



ikameshi box



the squid - its actually quite delicious

Sigh after two days of JCTs, I really am feeling tired. Stupid papers this time were quite hard. Need a break

Oh man, yesterday was such a cool day that I will remember. Reason: I went to the VGL concert. It was a blast!!!! Music by the NUSSO playing themes from Metal Gear Solid, Sonic the hedgehog, Super Mario Bros, Final Fantasy and much more was awsum live! The pianist Martin Leung was cool too. Imagine playing the theme to Super Mario Bros blindfolded and at a speed of 280 on the piano. He's imba.....

I liked the following poem too:
Roses are#FF0000 Violets are #0000FF

ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US!!!!!


The intro video:




Theme to metal gear solid:



Theme to sonic the hedgehog:



The crazy guy who can play the piano blindfolded




I dunno, but I might go again next year hehe.

Today after tuition we went to the Science Centre at jurong to view the Da Vinci exhibition. It was quite interesting really to see all his inventions and artwork, especially to see the Mona Lisa as Da Vinci intended and not the faded colours of the painting hanging in the Louvre today. Also watched a IMAX show about Vincent Van Gogh's life although honestly I did not find it that interesting. The new maths exhibition in the main building was also sort of interesting. I find that applying what you learn in class to the real world definitely gives it relevance instead of just poring through the subject for its sake. But I do sort of wish that I could solve one of the Milennium Prize Problems. Such as the Riemann Hypothesis, mainly because its like a challenge that no one else has been able to tackle. But of course, I must first work on my H2 maths syllabus now. Really in a dilemma as to what my real interests really are and what course to take in future. Guess I'll take it slow and easy first.

Went for TJCSB band concert on the 23rd of May. It was a blast. The pieces were played nicely and excellently and the theater cum performance part was really funny. Made me roflol when I saw it. No wonder ppl said that the band deserved a gold and not silver during the SYF judging. I so agree.

Owww now my legs are aching cos NAPFA was just over. Im so #@$%$#^% angry that I missed silver by 3cm for SBJ and 2 pull ups and like 40s for the run. Is so can make it one lor! ARGH

Decided to update this post with the bacterial transformation pictures which were done during bio prac period. They look so cute glowing.

Ok. I dunno who this person is or why he/she is being such a jerk, but one thing is for sure, spamming my blog is the lamest thing anyone can do. Anyway, since the posts are obviously flame bait and are entirely false they are so laughable, I shall not bother to respond to such acts of extreme stupidity. As such, I decided to lock the tagboard for a little while. You can still leave any feedback you have via the comments link on each blog post. Today marks some important events. Mas Selamat Bin Kastari has finally been caught after 13 months. He was still planning attacks on Singapore! And the H1N1 threat is finally subsiding, we're moving to code yellow which means the cessation of daily temperature taking. Phew. I totally hate having the thermometer in my mouth twice a day.

Plus X-Men Origins: Wolverine is not a bad watch, although some reviews said that the ending was rushed which I sort of agree to. Looking forward to Terminator: Salvation which will be sort of the last in the Terminator series. Man, the first movie came out like 2 decades ago and now its finally coming to an end!


EDIT: tagboard has been unlocked

Been reading the news recently and I think its time for an update. "Swine" flu has been spreading round the world. I hope its not a repeat of the 2003 SARS incident. Although Singapore is not affected YET, it has the potential to spread here cos we are always trying to be a "hub" for everything. I just hope its not flu. And I dont know why such diseases take place in years where I have major national exams. SARS happened during my PSLE year and 2007, 'O' lvl year had bird flu scares. Looks like what the bible predicted about epidemics and earthquakes in the end days are becoming more frequent. Mexico the source of "swine" flu also had an earthquake. Coincidence? Maybe. And some moronic no life loser decided to spam my tagboard with spam messages. Irritating. Why can't some people get a life?

You can say that yesterday wasn't a very good day for me. The reason? PW results. Yea. It was quite an experience knowing that hardwork sometimes doesn't always guarantee success as contrary to common thinking. It bewilders me that I got a B when the rest of my group got an A. Not to be bitter about it, but I just don't know why despite putting in so much hard work, thinking of the idea, typing the WR and GPP (5 times), staying back till dunno wad time binding the WR and doing last minute editing as well as myriad other stuff I still ended up the only one in the group that got a B. It really is sort of unfair when I think about it now, but I have accepted it (mostly). T_T Well at least the comments that our groups idea was interesting, feasible and well thought-out made me feel slightly better that the topic I thought off was good. Well SY told me that PW isn't really that important. I could have done worse. And there are still my H2s that can make the difference. I shall use that for my motivation and prove that I can make it to uni. Furthermore, remembering my goal to be always happy no matter what, and considering that today, on Good Friday commemorating what Jesus did for me by dying on the cross, I find that none of this matters. So yeah, eat my dust!


Nothing you say today is gonna bring me down....

Finally! MCTs are O-V-E-R. But does that call for celebration. Yes - and no. My birthday was just over and I was mulling over life in general. What does it mean to be 18? An age that many people in Africa and elsewhere would be lucky to reach? I guess I'm still searching for my purpose in life, although I really want to do biomed research and hopefully discover the mechanisms behind many diseases. I also think teaching is a good idea, I do like teaching somewhat and also because teachers have a lot of 'power' over students lives. Yea it would be really cool to produce students that turn out to be Nobel prize laureates or something. In the mean time however I gotta work hard. I thought I did well for MCTs. I thought wrong =( Oh well, off to do some work.

Sch holidays are over. Just like that. And tmr is my GP paper. Yay! Honestly, I could do with another week of holidays. But well, life isn't a bed of roses. Problems are cropping up left right and centre and I'm starting to feel the heat. But why? Everytime I do something, there is always someone who is better. Does that mean I should not bother? Why can't life have simple answers to complex questions? Nothing is yes or no, it always depends on the circumstances. I hate uncertainty. Why cant yes be yes and no be no? Whatever, I'll just live this life with God's guidance.

I guess its time to bid Chinese good bye. No more studying chinese, but will still continue to use it if needed. Anyway, MCTs are coming soon and I dunno wad to do. All the mugging done seems to have evaporated already. Seriously in need of help and something to confide in. All right, this post is not making sense. Time to put a stop to it.

I am putting up this post because I feel very sad over how other people in the world are starving. Sounds weird huh. Anyway, this person: Robert Mugabe disgusts me absolutely to the core. Read about it here. Its sickening the way such dictators put their own interests before the citizens. All I can say is: poor Zimbabweans . Their country is in poverty with an annual inflation rate of 89.1X10^21 % and all he can think about is his birthday. In fact Zimbabwe was a country that was prospering before this *censored* came to power. I just feel so sorry for the innocent people suffering under this tyrant and his government. Really opens your eyes to what is happening around the world. Well, I hope he gets his just desserts.

Shall try to keep this short, since I don't feel very well. Anyway, one of the days I was walking back home, I saw this scene:

it doesn't look very clear, but its some workers destroying the playground I used to play in when I was in kindergarten, like around 4-7 years old. Im sorta amazed it was there for like 10+ years, and I recall the happy and carefree times when I just climbed over without a care in the world. Now, that part of my childhood is gone =( Its like when you were young you wanted to grow up fast. Then when you're older, you realize how much more innocent and carefree being a child was. Oh no, I'm getting sorta emotional here =X I guess its because of all the work and responsibilities that never end and it sometimes makes me just want to break down and forget about everything. Ah well, some positive news, I got my new phone today yay! Although I won't get to use it next year cos it has a camera zz. One accident, I forgot to include the charger in the box when trading it in. Oh no! I hope they dun charge me for that =.= Ok thats it 4 nw. Gotta sleep soon.

Can school get anymore boring? Now chem and maths are on the insanely dull topics of vectors and chemical energetics respectively. I so feel like sleeping in lectures now. Z and theres like chem test on the WHOLE of organic chem this wed. haix Anyway, I had this weird urge to type the remaining part of this post in lolspeak. haha Hai 2 4ll tht ish reading dis post! dis look v.weird but me tinks iff u ebber wan 2, u can learn teh language from http://speaklolspeak.com/?t=anon and u will be teh pr0z! Aniway, meh is sick of moah and moah work tht nebber seems 2 end. Ah well, time to revert to english. Now revising carboxylic acid derivatives. Can't talk too much now.


I can has cheezburger!!!

I am feeling so exhausted and tired as sch ended at 6.30 today @#$@#%@%$@%!!!! Im so annoyed!!!!! that we have a test this week and I don't understand like 99.99.....% of photosynthesis. (maybe I'm exaggerating here) I so don't want to fail! Or I'll dream of these images:

I feel dumb. Just because TJC is one of the "traditional top 5 jcs" that everyone thinks all those who make it in are smart. Then the pressure comes to perform. Ok, I admit I'm not the model student type of person. I would rather sleep then read notes about [insert subject here]. So I guess I'm somewhat at fault too. Anyway, enough of negative talk, time to get inspirational. I believe no one is born stupid, even those so-called "mentally retarded" people. Surely everyone has a talent, although I'm still not sure what mine is. Like this:




oh well. JC 1s have started coming into school this week, and I kinda miss the times when there were no JC 1s. Imagine the whole canteen without so many people and the lack of a queue at the bus stop. But orientation seems to be pretty hectic and exciting, from my viewpoint. (anything beats homework and lectures right?) Being a stationmaster for the mass games has got to be one of the most tiring things to do. I'm aching all over now and somewhat partially deaf. (due to all the cheering) The worst thing today was having to run the stupid practice for the roadrun next week. I seriously don't care if I don't get the stupid certificate.

Feeling so sian that sch has started alrdy... well I guess this week wasn't too bad (it could have been worse) as there isn't much work given out yet. But it'll be a different story one to two weeks from now. This week seems to be 'inspirational' talk week, with so many warnings of dire consequences if we dun work hard for the 'A's. Well, they could be right, at least I intend to work hard, and hopefully hope for something comparable to my 'O' level results. Anyway, I have no idea why I had this sudden urge to blog about something that I found really cool. Look at this : http://news.sg.msn.com/topstories/article.aspx?cp-documentid=2081761 I wish I had such a job! Doesn't look too hard right? Just laze around and get paid! Although you have to be sort of a cam-whore and let everyone look at what you are doing. Bliss......... Oh ya, about my blog..... I think its at least more interesting than the dullest blog in the world at http://dullestblog.com The author must be very bo-liao and yet ppl still comment on his lame posts..... *wonders what is wrong with the world* while my blog is slightly more interesting yet I get next to no visitors. What a strange world this is.... anyway I think i better get back to the oxidation and reduction of organic molecules.



Yawn

I've not been posting for a while and suddenly felt like doing so. Anyway, what have I been doing since the start of 2009? Nothing much to be honest, although I just finished 3 days of volunteering at the Radiotherapy Centre of NUH. It was quite fun actually as there was also a girl from NJC- Edlyn who was there as well. She's quite funny haha and really made my time there more interesting. We did stuff like decorating the place for CNY, some filing and paperwork, delivery of items from department to department, and data entry. Of course, I dint really do it for altruistic reasons - I wanted to get CIP hours to be honest =P . Anyway school starts on Monday 12 Jan and I'm really not looking forward to it. The reality of A' levels still hasn't sunk into me although I can bet that when it does, I'll probably panic =X Oh well, I shall post some pics of my time there.


The place I volunteered at.


The secretary there, Suzana (she's an Obama fanatic). The girl is Edlyn.


The manager, Michelle. (She's really nice, treated Edlyn and me to lunch - twice)


The treatment area (The two doors in front).


The waiting area for patients.