yongjie(: journal

The last hurdle

2009-10-10T04:08:00.004+08:00

Is Monday the last hurdle to freedom? Seemingly yes, but maybe not. Angst, anxiety, regret and disappointment will prevail for some even as the JC1 Promotional Exam comes to a close. Seeing months of continuous effort, dedication and hard work being put to test, one would certainly want to eventually savor the fruits of labour. However, thee who expects the outcome to be just purely, immensely sweet may want to step back and think again.

I can certainly safely say that I know much clearly about my studies now. CA score has shot up drastically (in one case, Physics, has gone from a U to a B).

Even so, it's not going to help when the papers are all killer papers. Especially for Mathematics. Having lost 39 marks in total, I'm possibly only able to garner a B at maximum. That's after doing more than 2000 questions for Mathematics (~300/topic). How ridiculous. Add Economics and KI to the equation and you'll get more damage.

Despite all these setbacks for now, I hold no regrets. Every last drop of effort has been put into this exam... Of course not forgetting the bittersweet experiences of staying back every single day till 7 pm to purely just study.

Blame it on my foundations. My lackadaisical attitude at high school certainly contributed to my close approach to death for the block tests.

The last hurdle is near. But we're not even close to the finish line.

burnt out

2009-10-02T03:32:00.002+08:00

burnt out.

Hiatus

2009-09-27T15:10:00.001+08:00

Back when promos end. Good luck everyone! This is the last lap.

Reminiscence.

2009-08-27T03:09:00.005+08:00

The prelude to the voyage has long gone. There will be no turning back.

Weekends.

2009-08-21T20:04:00.002+08:00

Weekends are finally here :D

Quite a long list of things have happened since the last post. PW, academics (as usual), CCAs. Explains my absence from my blog for the past 1 1/2 weeks.

Yes. Love Warning letter from MOE. Apparently, 9 out of 13 guys (my Malaysian batchmates) also received the same hairdryer treatment. The girls didn't do as badly as us, I think. Not exactly hairdryer lah. But for me, it's more like getting my priorities right - dropping whatever leftover CCAs or external activities and focus primarily on mugging. To others who fell into the same pool - jiayous for promos! :D we shall mug and mug and mug and own promos. :D on another note. some of us got compulsory self-study sessions EVERYDAY! D: haihhs. meaning that I'll be returning home at like close to 6+ pm every single day.

A-Level SPA examinations were quite alright. The seniors said that this year's format is much easier though. They had to write a 4-page essay or so (?). idk. ahaha. full marks is out of the question, certainly, but definitely hopefully that A has been checked.

PW is being a hindrance to my revision schedule ): but at least I completed my EoM and group project trial - after nights of pia-ing by everyone :P Turned out quite well, but the archival system wasn't ready for live demonstration, unfortunately. That aside, THERE'S STILL KI LIT REVIEW AND WR ):

Haha at least I got a bit of entertainment this week. There's Daniel's A3-sized worshippable poster (laminated and de-motivated poster) as his birthday present. :D

Glad everyone did quite well for Physics test (although many may claim that the paper was easy). There's upcoming Economics and Maths test next week though :S so this weekend certainly isn't any free weekend :X haihhs. But certainly I'll do my best :D 09S60! we can do it! :D

It is 45 days to promos. Jiayouus! :D

National Day

2009-08-11T03:10:00.007+08:00

I'm not a Singaporean, nor did I attend the National Day Parade at Marina Bay.
So this post isn't going to be about these things... but rather the more random and mundane things that has occurred over the past few days.
Anyway, as a side note, I have decided not to give up my Malaysian citizenship from the very start, although I would at least give back something to Singapore at some point of time.

Friday, 07/08/09
Uhh so. National Day didn't mean a lot except for the extra holiday and the fact that Friday was a half day off.
At least being in PA/AVA allowed me to go to the Auditorium control room, while the rest of the J1s were in the Hall.
That's a benefit as I can do what I like to do :D
Ricky, Huang Huang, Yixin, Joycelyn (the sleepyhead!) and Benjamin were there too!
The J2 seniors were extremely noisy (especially during the Harmonica Band performance).
It was rather clear from the top that most of them just couldn't care less.
Some were playing with their PSPs, handphones, hair or just plain mugging.
Oh well.
The celebration in auditorium ended rather early. Just lasting 2 hours.

Hi Ricky!

There was also an MOE International Scholars' Meeting slightly later that day.
There was a "survey".
It was a form which had 6 boxes in it - strengths, weaknesses, support, resources and 2 feelings (?)
Appeared to be largely the same as the one we did at the start of the year.
I think it was pretty pointless, so much that I just wanted to leave it blank.
Perhaps one more relevant thing is regarding the warning letter.
I'll probably be receiving one due to my stupid U-grade in Physics. :/

Very unfortunately, my laptop decided to murder itself on the same day =.="
This time the thermal sensor was the culprit, it kept reporting that my CPU was at 99 degrees celsius right from the start.
And that caused the hardware to trip itself.
Attempted to repair it but no avail because I didn't have thermal paste with me.
Apparently this laptop is probably reaching its expiry date~
Wai Chew's laptop seems to be also on the verge of destruction as Windows XP takes around 3 - 5 minutes to start each time.

Felt rather unaccomplished at the end of the day as I just slept through :|
It's interesting to note that 12:34:56 07/08/09 happened :D

Saturday, 08/08/09

Went to Sim Lim Square alone to get the thermal paste I required.
Bought a VGA cable to replace the Boarders' Council's spoilt one, apparently the rate of spoilage of VGA cables within the Council is rather high, amounting to roughly 1 cable per 2 months.

I think I would be running out of money soon :/
MOE doesn't want to take into account inflation over the past 5 years ):

Since I was at Sim Lim Square, might as well take a look at what laptops are available currently to replace mine~
I had fun laming the salesperson(s) at various stores, by telling them that "I want a 14-inch laptop which can play Crysis at high settings".
Apparently one of them was rather ignorant, so much that he actually pointed me to a laptop with nVidia GeForce 9300M GS (which is rather low end) :D

Actually I have already chosen my laptop of choice :D
It's an Asus N81Vp (I saw the less powerful Vg model at SLS though), priced at roughly RM4320, after conversion from USD and taking into account delivery charges.
I didn't know importing laptops into Singapore would incur a 7% GST, whereas for Malaysia it's free!
Specs for Asus N81Vp are rather good :D

Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 (2.8 Ghz, 1066 Mhz FSB)
4GB DDR2 SDRAM
ATI Mobility Radeon HD4650 (1GB GDDR3 VRAM)
14" 1366x768 pixels display
1.3 megapixel camera
5 USB ports, 1 eSATA port
2.50 kg with battery

And yes, it can play Crysis at high settings.

Oh by the way, just wanted to say that PW SUCKS D:
especially when the execution of our trial comes *right after* Physics Lecture Tests, which I feel I'm not adequately prepared for.

Time to get back to sleep~ *yawns*

It is 55 days to promos. Jiayouus! :D

:P

2009-08-03T18:49:00.002+08:00

Chemistry test just passed.
Made quite a bit of mistakes ><
sienned.
Apparently not much graphs came out, contrary to what was expected.
Ahh. Nevermind. Things have passed.

I sense lots of things coming up, especially for PW.
wished PW had really followed the Projects Competition format.
morning assembly had resumed~

Ms Ooi didn't come today.
At least by organic chemistry concepts got slightly clearer.
now guess what that means :D

my MPTP tutor was great :D
learnt lots of things already.
he taught me SMTP math stuff LOL :D

one thing I realised about Friends for Sale:
it teaches people to treat others as a means to an end! :P
probably it isn't a good game after all~
ahahas. KI people will understand this more.

It is 63 days to promos. Jiayouus! :D

Xsite!

2009-08-02T14:24:00.005+08:00

Xsite Finals was great :P szh was sick though - so he didn't go in the end =( the organizers didn't allow us to substitute Jay into the team, so it was quite a blow for us. Yeah - so in the end we didn't win - RJC and Dunman High beat us. Means Hwa Chong now needs to make up for a score deficit in NIC.

Chemistry class test was okay. It wasn't counted anyway. At least I got a decent looking score. Lecture test coming up on Monday, so shall continue to study for Chemistry :X PW is being a bane in this period of time. Rahhs.

It is 64 days to promos. Jiayous! :D

72

2009-07-25T06:29:00.003+08:00

This week wasn't any particularly interesting week - especially after all the results have been known and finalized. There is still a fair amount of catching up and pia-ing to do though.

I participated in Xsite - a National Infocomm Competition jointly organized by Singapore Science Center, Infocomm Development Authority and the Ministry of Education. My team had Wang Zhi (de facto leader :P), Daniel and Zheng Hao. The first round is a poster design competition - themed "Earth Fast Forward". Pretty interesting :D I think our interpretation of the theme was rather okay - the resultant poster was so-so (I made it! :D) anyway - not sure I can pit myself against AEP guys from other schools. Aesthetics only covers 30% of the competition score, hopefully we would do well on the short report and reflections.

There are lots of holes in the timetable this week :P there are a fair amount of absentees throughout the week (including teachers). I heard Ms Genevieve Tan was down with H1N1? o___o and David too =( hopefully they can get well soon. There were lots of scares - Joanne, Ivan and Philemon falling sick...

And there was also Physics SPA mock-test. Meh. Didn't do the last page at all (worth 5 marks! D:). Not enough time la. Or rather, spending too much time trying to hold a pulley onto the retort stand (hahas szh also took a fair amount of time?) and also tying strings (which I suck at). Mao didn't finish as well, I think :X

Results - they suck:

No.	Subject	Mark (%)	Grade	Rank	Percentile
1	Knowledge & Inquiry H2	45	D	16	50%
2	Mathematics H2	42	S	808	23%
3	Physics H2	34.1	U	352	6%
4	Chemistry H2	45	E	673	24%
5	Economics H1	59.9	B	8	86%

FULL OF REDS AND ORANGES.

It is 72 days to promos.

Or 2 months, 10 days
6,220,800 seconds
103,680 minutes
1728 hours
10 weeks

Jiayou! :D

:X

2009-07-23T20:30:00.003+08:00

I'm feeling the stress :O

It is 73 days to promos.

Or 2 months, 11 days
6,307,200 seconds
105,120 minutes
1752 hours
10 weeks

Jiayou! :D

Athena Faculty Blog, Version 3.0!

2009-07-22T03:56:00.002+08:00

The new version of the Athena Faculty Blog has just been uploaded! Please take a look at it here :D

Athena Faculty Blog, Version 3.0

Note for those technically inclined, or curious: The new version of the blog validates as valid XHTML 1.0 (: In addition, it uses "Web 2.0" (so-called) technology such as AJAX via the jQuery JavaScript toolkit. I can answer questions regarding the inner workings of the blog (:

BT screwed =(

2009-07-16T18:34:00.003+08:00

3 block test papers have been returned; seeing the current state of matters, I will need to revise my expectation downwards. Math paper was way far away from what I expected I would get. Well admittedly all of this was due to continued procrastination during the June holidays - I didn't really make the most of the holidays. In fact, I actually only really started to study towards the end of the holidays. What regret. =(

Now things have passed, and there's really no point crying over split milk. The only choice I'm left with is the promos. I should start today. Economics and KI papers have yet to be returned, but these will not be sufficient to salvage my scores. At one point of time I actually considered dropping my commitments such as Boarders' Council, but after some thought, I applied for a study leave instead.

Perhaps it is only now that I have come to the realization that this is no longer high school - the days of scoring > 80 marks, or even > 70 marks are long gone.

It's time to really really buck up.

"e-learning"!

2009-07-08T03:56:00.002+08:00

Last Friday marked the end of Block Tests! :D Um. Maybe not a ":D"... there are still results to wait for. I believe I would get dismal marks for Physics. For other subjects, not too sure, I don't think I would score anything high either. =/ Well well. The BTs have been over for more than 4 days now, so I might as well just chill a little.

Anyway, Tuesday and Wednesday are the "e-learning days" designated by the college. Apparently... well, they replaced sabbaticals in the process. And I think it isn't a good thing. Originally I thought the e-learning system in college is going to be similar to the one we had in high school... but... NOT. Oh and the reason they gave for postponing sabbaticals to after Promos was H1N1 =.=" I think that's hardly even a valid reason lor. Why not postpone BTs then since BTs actually encourage gathering more than sabbaticals do. Think: BTs held in a hall of > 300 people, and sabbaticals in dispersed places with a head count of < 30 people.

Things don't get any better when the e-learning days start, like NAO. Expectant of things like mass MSN discussion and convos, I was proven WRONG -___- In fact e-learning days seem to be nothing more than a veil to conceal a hideous fact: to disseminate masses of homework and assignments to all of us. An evil plan indeed. ):<

Last but not least, thanks feli(cia) :D for allowing me to relax a bit more. I'm stressed >.< rah. piang sleep.

3 down, 2 to go!

2009-07-01T15:03:00.002+08:00

Economics is down, (the dreaded) Chemistry is also down. Uh. Maths and Physics left :D

By the way, sabbaticals have been postponed :(( the school admin seems to have double standards... =| like not postponing blocks but sabbaticals instead. And there's home-based e-learning! In actual fact block tests encourage more crowding than sabbaticals do, since the sabbaticals are carried out in various different venues... Well well. But either way, next week is a week to relax~ :D

Okay, last lap~! :D

1 down, 4 to go!

2009-06-29T23:30:00.002+08:00

Knowledge and Inquiry is down! :D 4 more to go! No comments on the paper until the results are released. Jiayou for those who take Economics tomorrow (doesn't matter if you're taking H1 or H2).

Hahas. Kwang Chian was like coughing occasionally throughout the exam. Cedric also did the same (I heard he just returned from some foreign country, no?). And coincidentally (or maybe not) Zongbin was seated in the middle. Poor Zongbin. Hopefully she doesn't catch (swine) flu. She better not. Because I'm just seated behind :D

Okay, time to pia Economics! :D

><

2009-06-23T01:57:00.001+08:00

Rah! Block tests in one week! Night guys!

Zune Software

2009-05-30T16:04:00.000+08:00

Recently I have changed my default media player from Windows Media Player to Zune Software. Well, both media players are from Microsoft, but apparently they are miles apart.

The layout of Zune Software is distinctively clean and uncluttered. In addition, Zune Software utilizes your graphics card to provide a set of smooth flowing, aesthetically pleasing animations to the user interface.

Zune Software: In its full elegance

At the upper left-hand corner of the Zune Software, you can see 2 tabs: "collection" and "social".

The collection tab shows your library of media files, and there are 4 subtabs (i.e. "music", "videos", "pictures" and "podcasts"). There is also a useful search box at the top. I find the nested tab navigation system more intuitive than the drop-down navigation system used in Windows Media Player, or the spreadsheet-like navigation system used in Apple's iTunes.

The social tab brings you to a feature called "The Social". It is basically a service that allows you to share what music have listened with your friends.

There is also a selection of backgrounds under settings; the default background for Zune Software is just plain white.

Now Playing mode: Delicious

While playing, if left untouched, the Zune Software switches to "Now Playing" mode. This mode changes your background to a collage of all the album covers within your music library. Of course, for this feature to work properly, your music library must be rather well-organized and your MP3 files must be tagged correctly.

While playing, Zune Software also shows a small visualization near the bottom of the window. Looks pretty neat.

In terms of performance, Zune Software beats the rest with its fast and responsive user interface. Startup time was way faster than Windows Media Player on my setup, and slightly faster than iTunes. In comparison with iTunes, Zune Software looks more consistent (iTunes has frequent visual glitches).

The only drawback that I had faced was that Zune Software taxed the CPU (and possibly GPU) quite a lot. Just by playing a song, it uses somewhere between 25% to 35% of the CPU. This problem can be worked around, however, by minimizing the window.

Overall, Zune Software is a strong contender. I have not had the chance to try out the Marketplace (where you can purchase songs and videos), but just for regular desktop usage, the Zune Software is a winner. =P I would recommend anyone to try it out (and eventually replace Windows Media Player).

Zune Software can be downloaded from Zune.com. Be warned though, the installer is pretty heavy, weighing in at ~124 MB.

Holidays! =(

2009-05-28T19:54:00.000+08:00

The holidays have started! The title of this post is rather ironic, but meh, it's true... I don't really think the holiday means a lot to me except for the fact that I'll be able to return to my true home in Malaysia. =| The rest of it...

Even if I do get back home, things won't become any easier.
Maybe a day or two, for myself to catch a breath.
The rest of the month will probably be lots of studying (ugh!) for the upcoming block tests.
Commitments still remain, although not as much, but limited to things like design jobs from the Faculty Committee and the 9th Boarders' Council.

On another note, I'm also involved in the IHPC Quest (some sort of IT-related competition). Not sure if it's going to take up a whole load of my time.

I'm mentally and physically drained. And I need rest. =/
I need confidence as well.

Hopefully the faculty committee camp would do enough to inject that confidence back into me. =|

=|

2009-05-24T22:40:00.002+08:00

休息... 是为了走更远的路。

Feeling rejuvenated after the weekend break. At least the workload for Boarders' Council has reduced to almost zero (: Faculty Committee wasn't really too demanding either. (: Clashes still happen, though, but not at the totally wrong time =| Well, at least I get some time for rest now. Time to resharpen my focus on academics.

My target for block tests are rather ambitious, but I will try.

Thinking about it... my term as a councillor in the 8th Boarders' Council has come to an end. It was simply the best council experience that I have ever had. As Luna, Ha Minh and Yi Le left for NJBS that Investiture night... I recall of my past experiences with all the councillors, how we did last minute pia-ing for events. Still remembered the time last year during Investiture in which I finished exporting the Introductory Video just 40 minutes before the event started. Investiture Dinner was really really the first event for the 8th Boarders' Council (9th had Earth Hour before that). Well... as all good things must come to an end (unfortunately), everyone just had to go. Hopefully we will still meet and interact with each other 10 years, or even 50 years down the road. It has been fun being with you guys.

As I step up as the 9th Boarders' Council's Senior Director of Support Services... I present my Tribute Video to all of 8th Boarders' Council.

Click here

It's all over... like finally.

2009-05-23T12:34:00.004+08:00

The past 3 weeks has been an extremely hectic... To the extent that I couldn't even know whether I could make it though without fainting or anything. This week was the worst, having only obtained 6 hours of sleep within 4 days, I was extremely worried whether I could keep up. Nonetheless, I made it through, not with any consequences though. That usual to-do list on my phone has finally been cut down to only 2 items (KI Independent Study and Revision for block tests).

Never before I did curse and say that "life sucks". But bleh. I needed to make that statement. It's like being through hell. Never before I thought my optimism would fade away so quickly, and never come back again. Never before I thought I could break down so easily... But well, it's all over now, and there is finally light at the end of the tunnel, a silver lining in the cloud. I do have multiple regrets, though.

The preparation for the Investiture Dinner at HCIBS was the most taxing of everything. As of now, my position in the Council has been "upgraded" to so-called "Senior Director for Support Services". My role is to coordinate the actions of the Welfare Committee wing of the Council, including the Publicity Committee, Photo Resource Committee, Video Resource Committee, PA/AVA Committee and Human Resource Committee. Never before did I expect that managing this would be that tough... I had left the Publicity Committee, Video Resource Committee and Photo Resource Committee on autopilot, but I guess, that wasn't a wise decision anymore. Two weeks before the event, I realized that Publicity Committee has not been submitting anything yet... and Video Resource Committee didn't take flight either. That was when I started to push and cover the work of both sides.

Things started to get worse from then on, with multiple committees being unable to cover their specified job scopes. I had to cover these, which took up a huge amount of my time. There were also Council Dance practice sessions, which basically used up most of my night studying hours. Worst of all, Video Resource Committee actually pushed one of the videos to me...

PA/AVA Committee was also in need of assistance. I had to persuade Mr Desmond Tan (PA/AVA for High School Section) to provide us with wireless mikes, and it certainly not an easy task, because our predecessors have actually spoilt lots of equipment. But in the end, spending around an hour, I did finally manage to borrow from him. Care had to be taken for the equipments, and I tried to keep reminding the PA crew to take care of the equipments properly. I also had to teach the PA crew a thing or two... which well, takes off some of my time as well.

Also concurrently in action was the Athena Faculty Committee... in which I did have to attend meetings (but I usually didn't attend due to clashes with the Investiture timeline). Furthermore I was supposed to do a Tribute Video for the previous Faculty Committee batch...

There's also the PA/AVA Society, where I was supposed to be involved in the Dance Night preparation, but I felt that I've made a right decision in pulling out (not very last minute though). Otherwise I would have fainted while managing that follow spot. But I do regret missing this considerably popular event. =/

From this point on I did get into trouble with some teachers... including the one in charge of my scholarship. Hmph. It's rather heartbreaking to know that I'm the worst performing scholar in Hwa Chong. And Ms Ooi was pushing me to stay back after school to study... It was a dreadful experience... I really had multiple dilemmas. On whether to uphold my commitment as a councillor, or to uphold my role as a scholar. Furthermore, if MOE would to choose to remove scholarships at this point of time, I think I would be the first one to go... And that thought itself is extremely terrifying because that would basically mean that I will be leaving everything behind. Having failed my Chemistry AA, as well as Maths Lecture Test, I knew that I wasn't going to make it this semester. Economics was my only scoring subject as of now.

The last week before everything ended was the most "interesting" one. It was the run of my life... I needed to get 2 videos done in time, and mind you, they aren't simple ones done in Windows Movie Maker or similar programs. During every break, I did try to find some time to do the videos... Furthermore, I updated the cue sheet + backdrop each time the programme was changed. I also had to teach the publicity team on ways to get things done faster, since the deadline was really close (in fact, past already).

On 21st of May, 11 am, I took leave from school, in the process, I jumped over the very first hurdle, completing, finalizing and rendering the video 7 hours before the Investiture. But it wasn't over yet. Lu Hao, the Video Resource Committee Director, needed to constantly look for me in order to get his video done as well. It was the first time he was using Adobe After Effects, so naturally he had many questions to ask. But well, it was really not a good time to ask after all. The official event was to start in a few hours, so I was also concentrating on the other committees. I tried to put up a lot of patience, a calm front, to make myself seem more like myself... but sometimes I just couldn't manage this amount of stress. But this one pulled through as well - only 15 minutes before the official start of the event!

Things were not over. The event ended at 8 pm, but after keeping, packing, etc. all the stuff, it was already 11 pm. Which means, I was effectively left with less than 17 hours to start and complete the 2nd video. It wasn't going to be an easy thing... I took 2 weeks to complete my first one, and if I did manage to complete the 2nd one flawlessly... it would be an absolute miracle. I woke up at 5:30 am, started to work on the video until 7 am. Immediately after flag raising ceremony, I continued work till 10 am (thank god Physics Lab session was canceled on that day). But things weren't done yet. After attending KI lessons till 12:30 pm, I decided to skip Mathematics lecture and Project Work with a valid reason, so that I would finalize and render the video. So the video was done by 2 pm, finalized at 2:15 pm. And most amazingly, the render completed at 2:55 pm, just 5 minutes before the Faculty Committee Introduction Session! So miracles do happen. Thus the 2nd hurdle was skipped.

The very last hurdle was the Independent Study paper I had to do for Knowledge and Inquiry, but Mr Shyam was kind enough to allow me to submit tomorrow on the premise that marks "might" be deducted...

Right after the Faculty Committee Introduction Session, I finally realized that my to-do list has shrunk to only 2 items... Absolutely glad that this happened. What's left now is to concentrate full time on my studies so that I can try to fulfill the promise of full-range As for my subjects. After the AAR for Investiture Dinner at 9 pm that night, I was finally able to fall into bed... and slept for around a whole 12 hours =D

Oh, and thanks to Chong Wei and my kind PW group members who have covered my work for me for the past week... Sorry about that, but I really really really do appreciate it a lot. Also thanks to my friends, teachers, and parents who have supported me all along =D without you guys I would not have survived till today. =P

The (real) 100th post!

2009-05-02T01:47:00.010+08:00

Just realized that I actually had draft posts, which were also counted into the total post count in Blogger. I've deleted those draft posts (: So this is actually the "real" 100th post.

College this week wasn't fun at all... lots of catching up to do. Except for the most epic Athena Faculty event GREENWORKS!

EPIC

I was involved in the PA setup for the day, but given the amount of resources that we were allocated (only 2 portable MiPro speakers), the sound quality is said to be bad -.- But no choice lor. Ricky (or Viet Anh) was there to help as well. The stage for Athena is considerably larger than the one Ares had.

There was also a dance performance with J1 MAD members. But couldn't really see that performance, since there were lots of people blocking the red carpet in the middle. Faculty Prince and Princesses went on, with games involving respective classes as well (: However, the audience's response to the emcees wouldn't be exactly great... There seemed to be a lack of faculty spirit (or maybe people were just too busy BBQ-ing stuff! =D)

BBQ was rather good (: I think too much food le lol. And most of 09S60 as well as our senior class turned up for the event. There was also faculty dance session at the end, but there was only one encore. Haha. Followed by camwhoring and class bonding (!). Shall not cover the class bonding thing =X not only class bonding, but involving our vice faculty head Matthew. (:

Pictures courtesy of Daryl Chua of 09S60 (:

Thanks.

2009-04-29T23:51:00.003+08:00

Thanks guys. Really appreciate the support and encouragement... at such a time where I'm totally in confusion and distress.

But please don't mention anything about the Chemistry Lecture Test and Physics Lecture Test anymore. I don't want to think about them any longer. I was damn pissed when I heard that people who pon-ned school on Monday could retake the test. So this is what I get for coming to school so diligently. Well, this is life anyway, life is unfair, and so life sucks. Period.

Hopefully someday I would rise from the ashes and bounce back to where I was.

天空突然黑了
我的心也被震碎了
下一秒瓦解了
泪堆积成了河

但明天是好的
我们要坚定着

爱~让我们不放弃活着
还要继续和大自然拔河

当爱与希望投射炙热的太阳
昨日泪光会随时间都蒸发
别轻易放弃明天要许更多愿望
装满了勇气就更有力量

当爱与希望倒映暖暖的月亮
再回头望又是筑好的家乡
我知道未来还有好多路要闯
我打开了窗看见了晴朗

=(

2009-04-27T18:53:00.005+08:00

Save me. I'm drowning. Soon. Please tell me that I can survive. I have never expected it to turn out this way.

Are academic results the only thing that matter in this world? I feel so hurt, so down. Those who know me well enough should know what's happening exactly.

My lecturers and tutors, if you do read this by any chance... I'm extremely sorry to have disappointed all of you.

黄城梦

2009-04-27T01:55:00.009+08:00

I stopped to think about the effort and sacrifices and have been made for 黄城夜韵2009 for the past 2 months. Worth the sacrifices? The answer, for myself, and I believe for many other 黄城人, is a resounding yes.

Not remembering when was the last time reached boarding school while the sky is still bright.
Nua-ing + setting up radios with 音响 people.
yongchai!

I believe these are the things that form the essentials of my 黄城《音》 experience.

As I walked out of the control room, I knew that it was going to be the very last time that I would be doing sounds in VT, and most importantly, working with Felicia and Mo Xiang for the performance. There was no regret, as I had tried my best to
achieve perfection although I did have a mild fever and was shivering.

I cheered my heart out for during the very last 谢幕. Never before I thought I would have such a strong affinity to 黄城夜韵. I still recall that lijun and I deliberately went for Athena Faculty Dance sessions for an extended period of time so that I would not need to go for 黄诚. But this feeling eventually faded away...

And so I hesitated to leave for the 道具 bus... Getting to know the other 黄城人 and expanding my social circle, especially those very very nice people from 音响组, was simply something that was extremely great. I knew that I would have to let go of the performance eventually, but these people are the ones which I would never ever let go of. Be it suan-ing or nua-ing with each other... all of you have a place in my heart and my memory. You guys just totally rock!

My mind is now shrouded with mixed emotions. No words could describe what I feel right now... The 黄城 experience, I believe, can only be felt by those who have gone though it.

Every soundtrack that has been used in the show now does have an extremely special meaning to me.

Thank you felicia, moxiang, alvin, yiren, hanyong, yanjie, lijun, yihui, nicholas, norine, lanya, shirley, weiming and all have who have been there. That includes the audience, especially my dear class of 09S60 and senior class 08S60 for coming down to support 黄城. Felicia for being my sounds partner!

And so...
One-thousand, two-thousand, three-thousand, 灯暗!
House curtain closing, one-thousand, two-thousand, three-thousand, four-thousand, five-thousand, six-thousand, seven-thousand, eight-thousand!

梦要追，岁月别留白
让黄城为你生活添色彩
飞起来，让你飞起来...
黄城绝对最精彩
黄城绝对最精彩...
我♥黄城

For now, it's mugging time for Chemistry Lecture test!

11 hours to VT!

2009-04-22T23:54:00.001+08:00

100th post!

11 hours more to VT bump-in! Feeling rather excited now =D well, though today was a rather tiring day. Anyway, today marked the last day that we're using the ground floor consultation area (below College staff room) as our 排戏地点. Thinking about that makes me feel slight nostalgia... It has been close to 2 months since we were first introduced to this location. It is admittedly the most cooling and clean area, and it's a rather convenient place to plug in our radios (we only needed one extension drum, as opposed to others who needed 3 or 4). Today was also the last time that Felicia and/or myself would bring the radios from the 黄城 storeroom to the 排戏地点. At first we (well, maybe it's just me) did complain a little about the inconvenience of bringing down the radios... But eventually it became a daily chore, or perhaps, even a habitual task. Our 排戏地点 soon became the "音响 gathering area" (or you could say "nuaing area") in favour of the original classroom at B105. At times it was rather boring, but this didn't actually matter a lot, as we did have ample time to talk and interact with other 黄城人.

As with all other things, all good things must come to an end. =/ And so after the very last full run, we had to restore that area to its original state (that's before 黄城 started this year). But before that, we did have a camwhoring session lol. Lots of spastic photos (and I think some of them very act-cutish de ><). haha. I'll post them someday after I get them.

I had to say that removing the stage markers wasn't really an easy task as expected. I thought it would just be as easy as just peeling and pulling them off. But that wasn't the case. They seemed to be stubbornly stuck to the ground >< I think us (the 《面》 people) took around an hour just to remove the markers. Actually the main problem was that the tape would break easily when pulled, and many would leave lots of sticky traces on the ground. Worst of all, there was some soap trapped beneath the tape, which appeared to be rather disgusting. =X felicia was damn fast at removing the tapes though (damn why do I keep repeating this =P). Alvin took a darn long time just to remove the boom markers xD and john lee was also there. But he didn't help though. =X Um. Maybe yes, by "entertaining" us with his extremely zhai selection of songs. anyway, by the time we ended, it was already 11:15 pm.

Anyway, today was the introduction for the 36th Students' Council Presidential Elections. I wouldn't say that any single one of the candidates was exceptionally outstanding... I do not know any of the candidates personally, though. Anyway, tutorial day was as usual.

Oh ya, the wind blew damn strong yesterday while we were 收工-ing o____o for apparently no reason at all. Then after that it started raining heavily for just a short moment. Flower pots were all turned over, and some trees in the boarding school did break. o__o

Tomorrow is going to be a half-day for me! Then we would all be making our way to VT already! Just Chemistry + Economics lecture and that's it! =D

This is win.

2009-04-22T01:29:00.002+08:00

Didn't know boarding school wireless could go so fast. =P 爽感！ =D

Haha. Off to sleep now =D

1 day to VT!

2009-04-21T23:38:00.004+08:00

I failed NAPFA test... =/ all because of (the oh-so-standard) standing broad jump. haihhs. Last year also the same... and this year the thing just repeats itself =( it's so absurd that I got 21 points and still couldn't pass NAPFA =( haihhs. this is so unfair =/ hahah actually I think it's more of my lousy technique =X

Sit and Reach: 55 cm (A)
Chin-ups: 6 (C)
Shuttle Run: 9.8 seconds (A)
Sit ups: 43 (A)
Standing broad jump: 202 cm (Failed!)
2.4 km: 12:05 (C)

I lost my Physics blue set of notes today =( Ngoc Thu and Michael also lost theirs, apparently =/ I don't think anyone in the right mind would steal lecture notes lor. Or maybe it's just my own carelessness for leaving the set of notes around. Haihhs. Worst of all I spent quite some time at 黄城 emo-ing over the lost set of notes because I couldn't do my tutorial (and no, I still disclaim the fact that I'm a mugger, at all).

Today is the first time that I didn't come late for PA/AVA duty =D but today raining =/ so they didn't actually set up the system for the flag raising. I neh come late then no flag raising. I come late then got flag raising. Hmph. But accomplishment lor. I managed to wake up by myself at 6 am leh (yes a huge feat for a huge sleeper like me).

weisheng was sabo-ed by the whole S60 =P because Mr Yeow said that those who have their birthday on the day of the Maths lecture must have to answer at least one question =P so well, everyone sort of scammed Mr Yeow that it was weisheng's birthday =D so he had to present his answer.

Today 09S60 goes further in the realm of sports... and guess what. STREET SOCCER! hsiu chin was in the court too! Most of the guys were there. Some girls were there. In addition, tess, liqin and joanne were sitting beside the court, passing around the spare soccer ball (with hands =.=)

Felicia and I didn't do much during 黄城 today, because it was yet again another "discussion session" for the 演员s =/ thanks felicia for setting up the radios today =D (not I slack duh. have tutorials lor). But apparently the radios weren't used at all -.- but at this stage, we could already recall all the cues without reference to the script. So felicia was helping 道具 for most of the time, and I was doing my own homework (finalizing my PW PI). So the usual nua-ing. But lijun and yihui had run, so they didn't join us.

Anyway it's the first time since like dunno when that we could return home so early lor. Felicia left at 9 PM. I stayed for a little while longer, observing the 演员s (since they did have interesting stuff that they came up with). =P anyway, it's a half day off for us sounds people (at 11 am) on Thursday, and full day off on Friday! Yay! But the sad sad sad sad sad thing is... =/ still need to take Chemistry Lecture Test on Monday. Really have time to study sia.

But bump-in to VT is really just about the start of the exciting stuff =D haha. 1 more day. 1 MORE DAY!! =D tomorrow's the final full run at our 排戏地点... after that, it will all be in the official venue! Jiayou all 黄城 people! =D

Physics =/

2009-04-20T17:47:00.004+08:00

I think today's Physics Lecture Test is a total disaster =/ totally blanked out one whole question for Section B (subjective questions). Not even sure if my MCQs are correct. Haihhs.

So... it's more like...

It's more about how U will my U-grade be =/

And people don't believe it. =.=" Haihhs. I studied till 4 am and yet I will most probably fail. Kay. Enough of Physics.

I think also screwed ILP for H1 Economics. =/ the presentation wasn't really well prepared. Oh well. I thought of improving it but since Ms Genevieve Tan says we can no longer edit it after the deadline, I didn't edit it. We scored a 31/50 (that's a B) for ILP, including the oral presentation component. But fortunately this one does not include the individual component scores (which I think I would be able to score =P).

Wasted a lot of time today =/ rotting at the class bench from 1 PM all the way to 4 PM before 黄城 starts. Don't ask me why, I just felt rather exhausted.

Felicia only came down for 黄城 at 6 PM. So basically I took the 2 hours of time to do my own work. Well, at least it's productive =) actually there's nothing else much to do for 黄城 already (with regards to 音响) - most of the cues and tracks + 剧本 are more or less internalised (so we don't really have to refer to it anymore). And so we just 跟戏 for intermittent moments (on and off), with frequent interaction with the 道具 people =) Felicia also quite boliao to walk to band room (and see if tzehan was there).

bufan was damn drama can! =P and lijun kept nua-ing with felicia. lulz. Okay basically the sounds people all nua-ing.

anyway sounds bought gifts for 演员s already =P hahah!

We'll be bumping into Victoria Theatre on Thursday and Friday! Yeahh so on Thursday it's a half day for me (I'm leaving school at 11 am), and Friday I'll go straight to VT in the morning (that's no lessons).

3 days to bump-in, 5 days to 公演! Jiayou everyone!

Back Again!

2009-04-19T19:19:00.005+08:00

Hwa Chong JC... Where I belong?

After almost 2 months of MIA-ing in blogging... I think it's time for me to get back again! And yes, "Back Again" is also the theme for this year's Dance Night.

PA/AVA! As part of PA/AVA, I would probably be in charge of something again! =D The last big event for PA/AVA was Talentime 2009, which was a blast (well save for some time management issues). I was backstage crew then. Oh, and I'm looking forward to the Athena Faculty outing! =D

黄城夜韵!... it has been going rather good (: Except that it takes up the majority of my time. 黄城夜韵 seems to take up more than the content of like 10 H2 subjects (well, ~6 hours a day x 5 days). And this figure does not include the weekends (which is like, full day). I'm in 音响组, and I'm doing track control for the 《面》剧. So far I have not much to complain about, given the fact that I have not been involved in any form of drama productions before. My only complaint is that 黄城夜韵 does not use sound mixers nor amplifiers ): only typical 50W radios which become distorted as volume goes up. 音响组 is filled with nice people by the way (: Felicia is my partner! =D Not forgetting moxiang too. There's my (former) dance partner lijun, hanyong, yihui, yanjie, norine and nicholas.

SMASH '09!... The annual badminton competition organized by the Recreational Badminton club. I participated, but unfortunately I did not manage to get past the second round. Scores were 22-20, then 21-9 =( but huge huge congrats to Daryl Chua for getting 3rd place! And Ho Xinyi from our senior class, 08S60 for getting women's first! =D

Boarders' Council!... nomination, election and induction camp have all passed. So this year I didn't manage the Admin Committee as well =/ Frankly I'm a little upset but I'm pissed about something else. Nehhmind. Can't and shan't say it here )= But I've gotten the title of "Senior Director for Support Services". I shall try to be as enthu as before, although I'm still not over that issue yet =/

Studies!... Still doing quite okay, but can't say good either =/ Failed Maths twice already (1 U and 1 S grade). As for Chem and Econs, still doing rather well! Physics lecture test is tomorrow )= and I haven't really done anything yet. KI... Dr Jennifer Ang said that 16/30 is a "very good" score =/

Not much time to go into full scale mugging yet... =/ Thanks to my timetable, which sometimes does have 3-way clashes. Here's a sample of my current Tuesday timetable:

0750-0900: Mathematics Lecture
0900-1030: NAPFA Test
1130-1300: Physics Lecture
1400-1500: Project Work
1500-1600: Economics Tutorial
1600-2200: 黄城夜韵

So that's like 14 to 15 hours in school altogether =/ Tired but still must pia =D

Victoria Theatre in 4 days! 公演 in 6 days! Jiayou all for 黄城夜韵! (Especially Felicia and my fellow sounds people =D).

Athena Faculty Dances!

2009-02-27T04:16:00.002+08:00

So everything's in here =D

Athena Faculty Dance 2009:
Click here

Athena Faculty Dance 2009 (Back View):
Click here

The big day has come! =D Jiayou to all ATHENIANS and other faculties too! =D

In retrospect...

2009-02-26T03:42:00.004+08:00

And so, my very first month of JC life has breezed past and is coming to an end. Lots of things have happened, lots of new friendships have been forged, and last but not least, memories have been created.

I'm starting to like JC life a lot. Especially that there's much more to mugging than only mugging. I love my class (or CT group as they call it), my OG, my teachers (especially Ms Melissa Toh =D), my seniors and (even!) the lecture-tutorial system.

I believe that the content on other blogs would be sufficient to cover the entire Hwa Chong REV-IT-UP! Orientation; thus I will not revisit that again. In brief, I was allocated to OG38 (or affectionately called SAMBA or SAN-BA by my dearest groupmates =D). It turned out to be one of the most imba orientation groups throughout the week, trailing the top group by a mere 1 point. Subsequently, I was allocated to 09S60, which is the KI class for PCME. And thus, also to Athena (the faculty in green!)

The Athena Crest

Athena, known to other faculties as the "loser faculty" (as seniors from other faculties claim) was not to be the loser this year round. Prior to admission to JC, I prayed hard that I would not join Athena. Yes - I like green (as they always say, everything is greener on Athena's side), but the statistics for Athena were quite dismal. This year, however, would be Athena's year. We did not win CT flag; we did not win faculty skit; nor did we win war games - but that does not mean that we lost. Athena's spirit and teamwork is one that would blow everyone off, literally.

My subject combination is:
PCM|KI|H1E

Yes, I decided not to take up H2 Computing in the end. It was quite a last minute decision, as College Administration would not allow me to take H2 KI and H2 Computing simultaneously.

My CCA choices are:
1. PA/AVA Society
2. 黄城夜韵
3. Recreational badminton

That's about it.

Comeback!

2009-01-27T01:17:00.000+08:00

It has been rather long since I last posted on this blog, particularly because I was rather busy with other stuff (: And so lots of things have passed, including the HCIBS Chinese New Year Celebration, which Chen Yang (the I/C for the event) said was rather successful. I'm glad that the PA/AVA team was independent for the first time ever. They didn't need my help (I couldn't help them anyway, since I'm at Malaysia at that point of time).

The decorations for this time's CNY celebration was rather extravagant, with lots of fancy things along the stage as well as the backdrop. Many thanks to the CNY Committee which worked day and night a week before the event to see it through.

To be frank, my home-coming back to Malaysia was rather boring. Ever since my grandmother passed away 2 years ago, there has been little or no relatives coming back to visit us (yep, my house is the "kampung", so "balik kampung" = my house). So the house was rather quiet for most of the time. It's quite sad, and thinking of the times when more than 30 people were in my house at any time could have caused me to cry.

Since Singapore's CNY holidays only lasted 3 days (officially 2 days, just that Hwa Chong added on another day), it was a rather brief homecoming. I didn't actually visit any interesting places beyond few friends/relatives' houses.

Just before the CNY holidays, there was also an "IP activity", a revision programme for Integrated Programme students to revise their Sec 4 syllabus. The programme was rather boring, although I did like the lecture-tutorial system that I would be experiencing shortly in JC life later. It was just the content that was rather dry (probably because those were old topics).

Also, I took my KI selection test. I took it just for the sake of "trying" (: The paper was rather hard >< and it talked about the construction and nature of knowledge using the Western and Eastern approaches. The selection paper consists of only a 2-page passage, and 2 essay questions of not longer than 450 words. I literally wrote "crap", since the topic was something that was totally remote and stranger to me.

This year's Hwa Chong Institution Orientation theme should be "REV-IT-UP!". I saw the council banner at the back of the SRC (the council banner painting area). Hahah. Rather interesting theme; except that REV-IT-UP has 3 syllables (which means I will need to adjust my cheers to contain 3 syllables, since the ones I know best only contain 2).

Looking forward to Orientation soon!

HCIBS Chinese New Year Dinner Full Dress

2009-01-19T02:03:00.002+08:00

The annual Chinese New Year Dinner at HCIBS would be yet another event that is coming soon, on the 24th this month. So yesterday was the full-dress rehearsal. I wasn't really involved within the whole event, but I went down for the sake of spectating.

Anyway, I wouldn't be able to attend the actual event, as I'll be returning to my home in Malaysia on the 24th morning. Just to take a look at some of the performances that the boarders will be putting up on that day, and also to supervise the PA crew members to ensure that they know how to coordinate and cooperate throughout on the actual day.

The full dress rehearsal was better than the average full-dress that we had in the past few major events. This time, Ms Quah and Gian was there to oversee the entire proceedings. There were 4 performances in total, with one interesting one being a drumset performance (rather impressive, I would say :D). There was also a flute performance, and another drama one (from Bukit Panjang Govt High).

This full dress rehearsal was rather meaningful, as it did generate numerous valuable inputs from various quarters, as well as many ideas with areas for improvement.

Hopefully I wouldn't have to worry at all on the actual day, as the PA crew members did quite well this time round. Meng Hang will also be there on the actual day as one of the key I/Cs to the event.

On another unrelated note, my laptop has been repaired (by myself!) I found it rather hard to disassemble the laptop, but after few tries, I succeeded in opening it up completely. So... the main problem for the failure was actually just the accumulation of dust near the heat vents (where hot air comes out). It's filled with dust balls :X oh well.

College's (unofficially) starting later today morning, and since I'm SMTP, I'm going to have to wake up rather early. Hopefully I would have a rather exciting start to college life! :D

Back in HCIBS... (again)

2009-01-17T23:52:00.001+08:00

So, once again, I'm back in the boarding school. Just tumpang-ed Kai Min's car over to Singapore, since I don't really have much luggages or stuff. And bus tickets are quite expensive already (RM122 for a one-way trip). Nothing interesting, but the journey took quite some time because Kai Min's parents stopped multiple times for toilet breaks, as well as lunch and dinner.

At night, as usual, since it was a Saturday, Kai Min and I went to play badminton. Heng Yang isn't back yet, and Kai Min's roommate Wai Chew isn't either. Anyway... totally off form ._. Since I didn't play like dunno 2 months or so. Haha. There were lots of people playing though, notably the new Sec 1 guys. There are 2 rather pro Sec 1s, including Kai Rou's brother (Kai Bin), as well as the cute cute OG1 Su Han ^^ Unbelievably, Su Han is a Kedah state player! o_o Sort of shocking when I first heard of it. And from the looks of it, it seemed he did beat Bong.

Boarding school is as lively as before. Some of our J2 seniors, including Yi Hang, etc. were all playing mahjong at the HCIS area, and people like Christopher and Li Wen were playing soccer (at night! and on the streets).

My laptop just spoilt this morning ): and now it's not really working properly (for example, random shutdowns). I'm planning on disassembling and fixing it later (: So that I can get my HCIBS Chinese New Year Dinner stuff completed in time.

College is about to (unofficially) start in a few days! :D Although I have yet to complete the NYGH Maths papers...

HCL 'O' Levels!

2009-01-13T00:21:00.003+08:00

New day, new post (: This is just a post to say that... I'm darn happy :D

For those who don't know, the 'O' Level results for Singapore was just released today. I took only Higher Chinese and Malay Special Programme though. And both got A1 :DD Haha. Motivation for me to start mugging for JC.

Congratulations to those who scored well in the 'O' Levels, and to those who didn't, don't despair! Just have to work harder next time for the A Levels! :D

My result slip is still with the school though, since I'm still in Malaysia and I won't go to Singapore till the 17th.

P.S. Thank you Wang Chi for helping me check results =D

不会分离

2009-01-12T16:11:00.003+08:00

Tagged by Wang Chi =D

1. Put your iTunes/Napster/Zune Player/WinAmp/etc on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS!
4. Tag 10 or more friends

IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY" YOU SAY?
1998 Freestyle - 50 Cent

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
给未来的自己 - 梁静茹

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
Let's Move - Need for Speed Most Wanted Soundtrack

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
往幸福出发吧 - 王心凌

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
风雨同路 - 光良

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Just Missed The Train - Thankful (lol no link)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR PARENTS?
爱情的颜色 - 杨丞琳 (wtflol)

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
When I'm With You - Faber Drive

WHAT IS 2+2?
Ring Ring Ring - S.H.E.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
We Will Rock You - Queen

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
超快感 - 孙燕姿

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
喝彩 - 5566 =D

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Good Girl Gone Bad - Rihanna (LOL definitely not)

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
理想情人 - 杨丞琳 =D

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Highway Chance - YUI (even more no link)

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Treat Me Right - Backstreet Boys (not bad eh :D)

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Y (Why...) - 张力尹 (LOL)

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Blow Your Mind - Jesse McCartney (o_o)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
ポテトとコーク - little by little (what's this D: and I dunno how to translate)

WHAT'S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?
Goodbye My Lover - James Blunt (zzz)

HOW WILL YOU DIE?
Life is beautiful - FLOW (lol)

WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET?
TRILL - Kawada Mami (no link)

WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?
败给你 - 罗志祥

WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?
You Light Up My Life - Westlife (that's the inverse -.-)

WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED?
Gotta Get Thru This - Daniel Bedingfield =D

WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?
中国话 - S.H.E. (LOL)

DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?
Jenny - The Click Five (LOL)

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
她的睫毛 - 周杰伦

WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?
Lies - Evanescence

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
不会分离 - 光良

I'm tagging:
- YuJing =D
- Huiling
- Kenji
- Christopher Ho
- Justin
- Edwin
- Joey
- Marzie
- Leong Hui
- Yee Ching

Hello Windows 7!

2009-01-09T17:47:00.011+08:00

Since I have nothing much to post recently, maybe I should turn to tech topics just for a while. This one is for the layman, though, so don't worry about technical jargons and stuff like that.

So recently, I've been completing my father's company website, so it's now around 90% complete. The website can be found here, so if you're interested, give it a spin. If you do encounter problems viewing the site (i.e. page errors, broken links, missing images, etc.), please do tell me. Internet Explorer 6 is definitely not supported. For those who are lazy, here are 3 quick screenshots:

And more recently (just yesterday!) I've taken a little time to upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7 (beta, i.e. testing version) :D For those of you who are not aware, Windows 7 is the next Windows after Windows Vista (yes, it is definitely newer). The upgrade experience was close to seamless, although it took roughly 2 hours (that's long :/))

Windows 7 Beta 1, in its full glory

The general look and feel isn't much difference to Vista. The most noticeable part of it all is probably the new taskbar, and that the sidebar is already gone! D: But fear not - for all your gadgets are still around.

Okay, more screenshots.

Also included in Windows 7 Beta 1 is the "Superbar", a completely revamped version of what we know as the taskbar. Windows from the same program (i.e. multiple Firefox windows) are now grouped as one. As you can see in the screenshot, the Windows Live Messenger windows are grouped as one.

Windows 7 "Jump Lists"

Perhaps the most prominent feature in the new "Superbar" are what Microsoft calls the "Jump Lists". Basically, jump lists are a list of items allowing you to quickly perform tasks. To open the jump lists, just right click on the icon of a running program. The screenshots above shows the jump list of Windows Live Messenger 2009. Also notice how the Messenger icon changes color upon changing my status.

Repolished Start Menu

The Start Menu, as always, has also undergone changes. The Start button now appears to have a glistening effect. Jump lists also work well in the Start Menu.

The right click menu on the Desktop has also seen more useful additions.

Repolished Start Menu

Changes in Personalization

Customization in Windows 7 has also improved substantially. Windows now gives you the choice to shuffle your wallpaper (for example, every 30 seconds) with a nice subtle fading effect. For Mac and Fedora 10 users, this is nothing new (:

There is also a new Display Settings Control Panel.

Projector Options

You can also tap Windows+P to extend your screen to a projector (very convenient and useful for presentation purposes). There are 4 modes in total.

Also new in Windows 7 is "Aero Peek". It allows you to see items on the desktop without minimizing all the windows (sort of like Windows+D, but better). Aero Peek is activated by moving the mouse cursor to the "Show Desktop" button at the bottom right corner of the screen. Clicking the "Show Desktop" button is equivalent to Windows+D.

Application switching has also improved dramatically. When hovering over thumbnails in the superbar, all other windows are minimized, showing only the highlighted window.

EDIT: There's also a new "Device Stage" on Windows 7, which was able to recognize my phone rather quickly!

Overall, Windows 7 is turning into a rather polished release. This is really "Windows Vista done right". Performance wise, everything just feels much snappier than Windows Vista (as aside, Windows 7 consumes only 500 MB of RAM on startup on my laptop). Hope you have enjoyed reading this post as much as I did writing it (:

Slight Changes

2009-01-04T16:31:00.004+08:00

Changed the picture for my blog again (:

Since it's the new year, I shall welcome myself back to active blogging! :D Christopher's blog reminded me to do this, although it has been a little late:

Happy New Year!

And may all who read this be blessed with luck and joy.

Well. School's about to start for those of my Malaysian friends, and it's started for my juniors in Singapore, so things have gotten a little boring for me. (Yep, school hasn't started for me). Not that I'm enjoying life or something, I'm still trying frantically to find something meaningful to do (:

A part of my brain has been constantly reminding me to start studying for JC1, but apparently somehow the other half doesn't want to respond. It's getting boring, but I don't want to start studying either (for now). So right now what I'm doing is just basically being online aimlessly, or helping out with some web design projects.

Another random thing: recently, there have been lots of scam/phishing cases involving Facebook, Twitter or MSN accounts. So I would advise anyone using these services to be extremely aware/alert of the URL when they login, because these scam/phish pages look totally identical to the actual ones!

Haha. For once again, happy back-to-school XD

Happy New Year!

2009-01-02T23:13:00.008+08:00

This may have come a little laggish - but hey! I'm back at home sweet home already. <3! Uhh... just came back like yesterday, for those who are wondering, and going to Singapore again on the 17th of January.

Not much new year resolutions to make anyway. New year resolutions have always proved to be useless for me, so I'll just set my own goals as the months pass by.

And so... we (the 8th Boarders' Council and the boarding school staff, in particular Ms Quah) organized a Year End Countdown at the usual place (that's right, the function hall). As usual, I coped with my double-role, including being the PA/AVA system (sound, screen, lights) and publicity. As part of my publicity job, I've also created an Adobe Flash animation which counts down to 2009.

Here's it. And of course, everything is zero because it's already 2009 -.-

<rant>
But anyway, the countdown didn't really end with a bang as I expected to be. It wasn't any of the emcees' fault anyway, they did quite well from the start of the event to close to the end of it. The games, atmosphere, were all exciting. But what broke the deal was... Uhh. Let me give you an illustration as to how the event went at the end.

5... 4... 3... 2... 1... Happy New Year!
(With all the screaming, shouting, cheering, whatever-ing)
and...
(30 seconds later) let's all pack up and go.
and... if you don't go back, right now at this moment, you're screwed.

So Christopher, Meng Hang and I were pretty pissed off at the end of it, so much that I would rather apply for leave and go to Marina Bay.
</rant>

Back to the fun part, there were really lots of snacks. And also fun games which required participants to style hair (: But lots of Gatsby/hair gel/whatever foam being sprayed over everyone :P including me.

So, right now, I'm sort of busy with some web projects as well as events, but it isn't the start of college life yet :P although I'm eagerly anticipating it XD

As usual, the Year End Countdown pictures can be found within the 8th Boarders' Council Website Gallery.

That's about it.

HCIBS Orientation 2 2008!

2008-12-31T01:42:00.001+08:00

The HCIBS Orientation 2 2008 has finally concluded! My experience with it, as compared with Orientation 1, was way way better as I did have the mood to get high. As usual again, I'm the Cheer I/C. There were however, less people in the orientation, this time only a mere 42 :/ and only 6 OG.

So I was attached to OG3, which was William and Joey's group. They were OGLs. Nothing much to say, just that I thought that the group was rather quiet as compared to others. However, it did have Chung Xian (who's actually Lit Xian's younger brother). He's the only one who's able to zi-high quickly, unfortunately. Although his looks and the way he speaks is roughly the same as Lit Xian, he's rather different! :D

There are 28 Malaysian scholars for Hwa Chong this time round. As the Xinmin guys have already shifted out, there were much less people around. The gender ratio is also quite high D: there are like only 7 SNGS Sec 1s.

This is the 4th Orientation that I have participated in, and although it wasn't really perfect, it's one of the most enjoyable ones, especially that there are many cute little kids ^^ (okay, maybe some not). And that Du Wei and Daqi are happy to have their children after the Orientation.

Again... I'm gonna let the pictures do the talking. So head over to the 8th Boarders' Council Website Gallery for the complete photos.

What's interesting after the orientation is that... Ms Quah actually brought us out for supper at 1 am! Furthermore it's at Al-Azhar (with their high-tech food ordering system)! So those of us in the Orientation Committee as well as 4 OGLs went out. I had quite a supper, 1 Maggi mee goreng, 1 roti prata with telur and finally a cup of teh tarik. Mr Dennis Teo was with us too.

That's all I have to say :P

In Singapore~

2008-12-23T06:45:00.002+08:00

I'm back in Singapore already, in preparation for the HCIBS Orientation 2! My room has changed to a two-bedded one, and I'm now in the 6th floor. My new room is now D6R/03.

Anyway, I initially thought that the 6th floor is darn stuffy and hot during the afternoons, but it wasn't the case for this particular room. At my bedside, there are 2 windows! And there are three windows in total on my side. So air circulation is rather good. However, mornings are particularly cold if you leave the windows open. And another thing! Sunrise is particularly nice in this direction! :D

The room was particularly dusty when I came in. Anyway, the NJC boarders were the ones living here previously. Almost everything had dust balls when I first came in - the headboard, cabinets, cupboards, etc. The floor had to be mopped 3 times to be clean enough to walk barefooted. There was also some stench: they probably came from the mattress, which had fungus on it. Of course, I changed the mattress in the end.

Christopher, Meng Hang and Lionel are on the other end at D6L. My roommate is Heng Yang and the others I know would be Rui Jie, Wai Chew and Kai Min. This cluster is quite diverse :D including Vietnamese, Malaysians and PRCs!

And I got my new phone! Not a HTC or an iPhone or whatever though. I've decided to stick with Sony Ericsson once again. This time, it's a Sony Ericsson G705. The best of all, this phone includes most of the nifty features from the HTC Touch Diamond (that I wanted originally, but costs a bomb) or the iPhone. It has WiFi, 3.5G, GPS and more :D It's $198 from SingTel using a 2 year contract.

That's it for now!

Hokkaido Trip!

2008-12-19T16:16:00.000+08:00

Just came back from Hokkaido Trip! :D Lots of things have been seen, but I'm lazy to explain because there's just too many things to say. But Japan is really darn clean, even cleaner than Singapore I say. And the people there are so so polite. The workers are always cheerful, and best of all, the pricetags on the goods in shopping malls are all quite exotic and fancy XD

So, basically it's the first time I've touched such an abundant amount of snow. And I learnt ski-ing! :D

Those guys who have me on Facebook can just check out my album list. Just letting the pictures do the talking :D since I'm lazy to post like 400+ pictures here.

A'Famosa Trip!

2008-12-10T06:03:00.001+08:00

This one is way back in November with my family. Anyway, for those of you out there who don't know what A'Famosa is, it's actually a resort in Melaka, Malaysia, consisting of various attractions, including a safari, a water theme park, golf course, etc.

I of course, have no interest in golf, so I went to the safari instead. Some photos from the trip:

On the tram (:

And the chickies :D

And some of the rest! :D

There was also a cowboy show, but it certainly wasn't as good as the one I saw in Australia years ago. The most obvious thing is that the sound system sucked too much just to hear what the actors were saying. In fact, almost nobody understood the whole plot.

The other shows were much much better, although it has already started to rain at that time. The bird show was rather interesting, but the birds were to hard to capture (on camera) ._.

There was also a night performance, however, the camera wasn't really good enough to take shots that are worth seeing.

A'Famosa isn't exactly considered a tourism area, although the souvenir shop sells stuff at a price rate matching those in tourist areas (i.e. RM3 for a can of Coke). Moreover, the standard of English used in signs, notices, etc. are really in bad bad condition. Overall, the trip was quite okay with quirks here and there.

Six-bee-oh-four gathering!

2008-12-08T21:01:00.001+08:00

And so the gathering actually materialized! :D There were around 20 people around noon, which is almost close to half of full strength :P Thanks to all for coming!

Here are the photos, copied from Winnie's Friendster account.

To those who didn't manage to attend the gathering, please attend next year hor (;
This one is rather successful as the first attempt :D

Thanks for coming guys! 6B'04 rocks :D

6B Reunion!

2008-12-04T17:13:00.006+08:00

Hey 6B'04 guys! (I hope you guys are still out there XD)

After that long, complex, messed, disorganized discussion over MSN, unfortunately Tze Jiet has backed out. He's going for chess competition and he has training 8 hours per day starting from today (I think). So... Good luck to Tze Jiet!

Anyway, there is another informal reunion coming again soon. Details are as follows:

11:00 AM
Saturday, 6th December 2008
Sunway Pyramid Main Entrance

See all of you there!

On another note... there's 14 days more ><

Lazy (x

2008-11-29T17:10:00.000+08:00

Hahah! I've given up uploading all the photos. Check them out at the 8th Boarders' Council Photo Gallery instead!

The holidays is sian-ned. But still looking for stuff to do. Right now, "projects" include:
- My father's company website
- Removing the cable mess at my computer room
- Looking for camera/videocam to buy ahead of Japan trip
- Setting up a HTPC
- Moving the router to the center of the house -.-

Backtracking...

2008-11-25T02:07:00.002+08:00

This blog isn't dead, you fool! D: Nehh... just joking (about the you fool part) :D

Anyway, I'm going to backtrack on what has been done since the previous post. To not confuse the Facebook RSS importer, whatever blog importer, I have decided to post using the dates I am supposed to post the entries (:

Orientation 1: Fireup!

2008-11-10T15:23:00.029+08:00

And so HCIBS Orientation 1 2008: Fireup! concluded rather successfully :D

This will be a rather long blog entry, probably the longest :D Since I'll let the pictures and some captions do the talking. Special thanks to the dedicated photographer who was with us with his uber cool professional camera :D

So there goes...

Day 1: In the beginning...
Pre-Orientation!

1st: Councillors assembling in preparation for the start of Orientation
2nd: Jin Da and I setting up the PA/AVA equipment and projector screen
3rd: New boarders assembling at the Function Hall

1st: New boarders getting to know each other
2nd: Councillors interacting with new boarders via ice-breakers
3rd: OG Leader Ning Yin interacting with new boarders

1st: OG Leaders distributing T-shirts
2nd: Bai Zhao and Luna preparing T-shirts
3rd: Chen Xu giving a presentation about the 8th Boarders' Council

Ice-breakers and "Get Together" Session!

1st: Heng Yang and Rui Jie interactive with new boarders
2nd: OG getting together to play "Whacko"
3rd: OG Leaders having fun with their group members

1st: Arveen's OG members being made to do a forfeit on stage
2nd: A new boarder being made to do a forfeit
3rd: Chian Lim teaching OG 3 new stuff

Cheer Session!

1st: New boarders, OG Leaders and councillors cheering alike!
2nd: New boarders, OG Leaders and councillors cheering alike!
3rd: 4, 3, 2, 1, Listen to your heartbeat! :D

Dance Session!

During the Day 1 Dance Session, the dance "Wild Wild West" from HCJC was taught.

Dance I/C Daqi teaching the dance moves. LV behind, acting as the male partner.

1st: Luna and Chian Lim as partners up front (:
2nd, 3rd and 4th: OG Leaders and participants dancing!

1st and 2nd: Dance~ (:
3rd: Partner dance~ (:
4th: Partner dance~ starring Zhi Hao :D

Song Session!

The song session included some of the 8th Boarders' Council's very own productions, as well as songs from HCJC and elsewhere.

1st: Councillors singing in a row!
2nd: Heng Yang and Duwei, with councillors behind!
3rd and 4th: New boarders and OG Leaders singing along!

1st: New boarders and OG Leaders singing along!
2nd: Councillors in a row waving hands~
3rd: New boarders and OG Leaders waving hands~
4th: A good opportunity to mingle around and cherish the friendships that have been made...

Day 2: Buffet! and Song, Dance, Cheer!
Buffet Dinner!

1st: The food that was prepared!
2nd: 2 new boarders (I don't know their names!) enjoying their meal
3rd and 4th: New boarders queueing for food!

1st: New boarders queueing up for food!
2nd: New boarders (and Luna on the left) getting food
3rd: The food that was prepared!
4th: New boarders helping each other with food~

Seniors Sharing Session!

1st: Seniors Sharing Session (Swiss Cottage)
2nd and 3rd: Seniors Sharing Session (CHIJ St. Nicholas Girls School)
4th: Seniors Sharing Session (Bukit Panjang Government High School)

All: Seniors Sharing Session (Hwa Chong Institution)

OG get-together session!

1st: Yuheng whacking Chian Lim ;D
2nd: What are they doing? o_o
3rd: LOL @ Bingze. With Zhi Hao, Gong Qing and Du Wei
4th: Forgot what this is. But there's Yuheng in front!

1st: What is Yuheng laughing for? o_o
2nd: Dunno what OG standing on stage :D
3rd: Orientation Group 3!
4th: Lastly, all assembling for the next programme.

1st: Rui Jie and Yuheng. Probably playing something? ((:
2nd: Bingze forfeit! Jerking his butt :D
3rd: Random guy from random OG (:

1st: Wang Pai and someone else playing games
2nd: All your items are belong to us! :D
3rd: Forfeits on stage for the win!

Cheer Session!

All: Random OGs practising their cheer...

1st: Gu Bingze!
2nd: Robert teaching cheers to his group!
3rd: Random OG practising their cheer...
4th: Son and has Orientation Group 5!

Cheer Competition!

Song Session!

1st: Guitarists Heng Yang and Ha Minh.
2nd: Councillors Iddo, Zhiru, Jingyi, Chen Xu, Daqi, Duwei and Christopher.
3rd: Guitarist Heng Yang with Chen Xu, Daqi and Duwei.
4th: O1 participants singing along.

1st, 3rd and 4th: O1 participants singing along.
2nd: O1 participants singing along, with Luna being overexcited XD

All: O1 participants singing along.

1st and 2nd: O1 participants singing along.
3rd: Bingze helping participants understand the lyrics.
4th: Bai Zhao and I singing along, while Chian Lim teaches the lyrics.

1st: Chen Xu, Daqi and Du Wei singing on stage.
2nd: Gong Qing and Yuheng singing on stage.
3rd: Qiming and Chen Yang enjoying the moment.
4th: Heng Yang the guitarist! :D

1st: Ha Minh the electric guitarist! :D
2nd: Bai Zhao singing along...
3rd: An OGL taking the stage to lead the song.
4th: Du Wei, Chen Xu and Luna singing on stage...

<More to come. I'm updating my blog to include Day 2 to Day 4! :D>

EDIT: I'm too lazy, too many photos to upload :o
Check out all of them at the 8th Boarders' Council Gallery! :D

HCIBS Orientation Fireup!

2008-11-08T01:03:00.002+08:00

So the Orientation has started! I haven't been posting for numerous days, and I'm supposed to post only after the last day of the Orientation (this Sunday). Anyway, it was really fun, especially yesterday :D (it's past midnight now)

Tiring, but yeah, I enjoyed myself as cheer I/C up to now. Tomorrow there will be a local tour whereby we'll be bringing the new boarders to areas such as The Esplanade, Singapore River, etc.

We're going to keep the spirits high! :D

Chinese O Levels are over!

2008-11-05T12:57:00.000+08:00

This is slightly late, but Higher Chinese O Levels are officially over! It was rather okay... not too hard or not too easy. No further comments though, I'm just hoping for an A1 or an A2, as both grades will be considered an "A" at the A Level standard.

And right after Higher Chinese O Levels comes the HCIBS Orientation 1: Fireup! The end of the Chinese O Levels certainly gives much more reason to celebrate. It's going to be fun :D

I'll probably not post for 5 more days (Only after the Orientation has ended then I'll post. With picturespams). Meanwhile, I'll just enjoy myself! :D

But I've run out of money this year, I think. Posting this here to remind myself that I owe Kai Min $19 (for pizza and something else hahah). And there's a failed GIRO deduction of $50 for the sabbatical course which I have to pay before 12th November (that's when I return to Malaysia).

Oh, and I forgot the publish this post so it appeared late.

New month!

2008-11-01T02:09:00.002+08:00

November has come, and there's lots of things to do this month. I think this month is going to be an interesting one for me. It will probably the first time that I'll have a full meaningful holiday to pass by.

Some of the upcoming stuff include:
- HCIBS Orientation 2008: Fireup!
- Website for Hwa Chong's Heritage Centre
- O level examination (yes, that's something rather interesting I would say xD)

When my "official holiday" starts, there would be work on the Youth Olympic Games New Media Team. Yes, I'm part of the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games (although not quite involved in the organizing of the event, I'm involved in coverage), and probably something related to graphic design. Either way, there's lots of things to complete.

:D And I would return to Malaysia on the 12th of November, and yay! Family reunion! I guess my family members would be longing to see me back at home. And there would be lots and lots of shopping (for winter-wear) in preparation for our trip to Hokkaido, Japan :D I think it would be my first time consciously touching and playing with snow! :D

New month, new chapter!

And to YuJing, sorry for not replying... D:

OGL Workshop

2008-10-27T04:07:00.004+08:00

The HCIBS Orientation 2008: Fireup! is about to come! :D

For those who don't know, there are actually two orientations being held at the end of each year in the boarding school. They are named, of course, O1 and O2 respectively. O1 starts at 5th November to 9th November this year. O2 starts at 26th December to 29th December.

Yesterday was the workshop for the Orientation Group Leaders, or in short, the OGLs. Having been an OGL for last year's O1 and O2, I know the experience was inherently exhilarating. However, this year I have "upgraded" to councilor status and thus I'm holding a different position now.

And so the workshop yesterday was thrilling, and there were lots of surprises for everyone, for the OGLs of course, and even the councilors had fun interacting and getting high with the OGLs. It, however, had drained most of my energy at the end of the day, but was nonetheless a good experience.

I had a few surprises myself. Anyone else who knows me well will think that I'm not exactly the normal self I am yesterday. xD Anyway, just to sum everything up, there was a cheering, singing and dancing sessions. And well, I have been sabotaged numerous times during the OGL workshop by someone else to do cheering/claps. And the worse is of course the "讨厌" clap =.= Which I demo'ed and well, got an ultra sexy clap back in return. And I guess no one else would want to see that x_x

The cheering session made me lose my voice just early into the morning. And worse, subsequently, it was the singing session, and again, I was sabotaged by Heng Yang to sing. But I pulled Minh in (or rather, Minh was merely volunteering? idk.) And well, I *think* I only did lip synch XD (actually not, I did sing, but Minh essentially covered my voice completely).

As for the dances, we did the Hwa Chong Mass Dances, namely "Together in Electric Dreams" and "Wild Wild West". The first dance was so much easier than the second one, due to two reasons, one being that the dance moves are rather easy, and that I had learnt that before XD

"Wild Wild West" was much much harder. Especially when my dance partner was taller than me =.= (crap LOL). But in the end, there was a dance battle, and the group which did the worse were made to jerk their butts on stage :P And MOST SURPRISINGLY, our group (actually consisting of councilors, mostly) wasn't the worse! Although I was like, totally randoming when the moves went wrong and things like that. XD Actually I think the only part I really knew in the whole dance sequence was the standard "Can Can" move! LOL.

I'm extremely exhausted at the end of the day, and I bet the OGLs are too. I really look forward to the orientation :D And hopefully it will be as fun as last year, if not more fun :D

EOY Results!

2008-10-24T02:20:00.009+08:00

:D :D I have nothing else to say other than...

MSG = 1.90

The results are official.
They are pulled from the Hwa Chong Results Portal.

So, in the end:

Subject	CA	EX	FL	GD
English Language	86	65	73	A2
Higher Chinese	84	71	77	A1
Integrated Mathematics	84	63	71	A2
Chemistry	88	66	75	A1
Physics	77	60	67	B3
Malay Special Programme	86	80	82	A1
Integrated Humanities	74	63	68	B3
Infocomm Research Paper	92	92	92	A1

:D

And also, Congratulations to YuJing for attaining the Best Subject Award for Higher Chinese! :D

Clearing tags xD

2008-10-22T01:31:00.003+08:00

Haha... since "that someone" asked me to do this, I shall (:

1. The person who tagged you is?

YuJing xD

2. Your relationship with him/her?

Uhm. You know it (:

3. Your 5 impressions of them

LOL. Also... "err... them?"

4. The most memorable thing he/she had done for you.

My birthday :D

5. The most memorable thing he/she had said to you?

Every word is memorable ((:

6. If he/she becomes your lover, you will?

Uhm. That shouldn't be asked anymore ((:

7. If he/she becomes your lover, thing he/she has to improve on will be?

Same as previous XD

8. If they become your enemy, you will?

How can that be possible? o_o

10. What it is you want to tell for him/her now?

Where's number 9? =.="
And the standard line (yeah you know what I mean)

11. Your overall impression of him/her is?

Well rather obvious isn't it? Great! :D

12. How do you think the people around you will feel around you?

They will probably feel terrorized. D: Nahh. Joking.

13. The characters you love of yourself are?

I'm an extravert.

14. On the contrary, the characters you hate yourself are?

LOL keep forgetting stuff. =.=

15. The most ideal person you want to be is?

An all rounder. :P

16. For people that care and likes you, say something to them.

*something*

17. Pass this quiz to 10 people that you wish to know how they feel about you.

This is not a sabotage. Do if you wish to ((:

1) Mao
2) Huiling xD
3) Marzie
4) Priscilla
5) Leong Hui
6) Ding Jie
7) Justin (duplicate? D:)
8) Edwin
9) Shiwei
10) YuJing (reverse-tagging, but yeahh.)

18. Who is no. 6 having relationship with?

It's a polygamy :D (he has girlfriends)

19. Is no. 9 a male or female?

Obviously male ((:

20. If no. 7 and no. 10 are together, will it be a good thing?

wth lol. It'll be the worst thing ever.

21. What is no. 2 studying about?

Hmm? Not sure XD

22. What was the last time you had a chat with no. 3?

Uhm. If tagboard counts, it would be 2 days ago.

23. What kind of music band does no. 8 like?

No idea lol.

24. Does no. 1 has any siblings?

Yepp. One little brother ((:

25. Will you woo no. 3?

I'm taken. (In other words, that's a strong no.)

26. How about 7?

I'm not gay? D:

27. Is no. 4 single?

Nope :D She's married to pek-bongg :P

28. What is the surname of no. 5?

Lee...

29. What is a hobby of no. 10?

Dunno LOL (and I should smack myself). Possibly playing Cabal haha :D

30. Does no. 5 and 9 get along well?

They don't know each other at all.

31. Where is no. 2 studying at?

Pei Hwa Secondary School (and possibly HCJC in the future :D)

32. Talk about something for no. 1

The guy who has never experienced anything < 95 marks for Maths?

33. Have you tried developing feelings for no. 8?

wth kay. I'm not gay.

34. Where does no. 9 live?

Dunno. But of course, somewhere in Singapore.

35. What color does no. 4 like?

Judging from her blog URL (not colors), it's green! :D
Otherwise it'll be pink.

36. Are no. 1 and no. 5 best friends?

Um. Nope. But no. 1 and no. 5's friend might be best friends.

37. Does no. 1 have any pets?

Yep. A dog ((:

38. Is no. 7 the sexiest person in the world?

*pukes* :D

39. What is no. 10 doing now?

Sleeping safe and sound ((:

That's it ((:

Farewell Dinner!

2008-10-19T23:45:00.002+08:00

The 14SLC facilitators met up again.
This time at Bukit Gombak MRT.
And this time for a farewell party.
Marissa is emigrating to Canada )):
And it's likely that we don't have her during subsequent outings.
And the Sec 3 October BSC batch is about to leave.

So the BBQ party was held near Kristin's condo.
Of course, she was with Dennis ((:

Sherwin and Nicholas was damn funny :D
Especially with the chef thingy ((:
And Sherwin was totally damn high lor.

Also, there was a super super cute baby there can.
And Sherwin attempted to carry it, but the baby cried instead XD

The people there was Nicholas, Sherwin (who came slightly later), Pris, Nat, Yujun and few others ((:

Batch Dinner also ROCKED!

2008-10-18T03:32:00.002+08:00

I'll miss 4L )):

Class photo taken during Commencement Dinner '08 <3

Went to Paris Hilton Hotel at around 5:45 PM via taxi.
Followed Hock Xiang, Wai Chew and Christopher there.

I dressed up exactly the same as during Twilight ((:
The batch dinner costs $75 dollars.
It's organized by the 35th High School Council.

Upon reaching, many 4L people were already there :D
And Yee Nam's attire was really really formal.

It was probably the last chance to be with 4L for a mass activity.
In the end, the 75 dollars was really well spent.
Although the food wasn't as high class as expected; XD
it is the gathering that mattered the most.
Something to remember; something to recall.

Literally half of the people were like camwhoring.
But my camera phone wasn't too good for photos in such conditions.

The class montage was shown.
And Heng Yang performed that day.
Along with an acapella performance which wasn't really entertaining, to say the least.
Norman and Bingze were MCs.

And here it is; the class montage:

Click here

And all the photos that have been digitally enhanced and manipulated:

Twilight ROCKED!

2008-10-17T11:25:00.009+08:00

The full day Chinese lessons are here.
It's the Festival of Chinese!
Yes, 6 periods of Chinese each day.

Just an illustration of how the timetable looks like now:

0800 - 0840: Chinese
0840 - 0920: Chinese
0920 - 1000: Recess
1000 - 1040: Chinese
1040 - 1120: Chinese
1120 - 1200: Recess
1200 - 1240: Chinese
1240 - 1320: Chinese

Totally boring =.="

But in the midst of all these sien-ed days, there is Twilight!
Yes, Twilight - The HCIBS Year End Dinner 2008!

What I could say was, it totally ROCKED THE HOUSE!
The whole thing was ULTRA ULTRA HIGH, especially the dance night!
Kudos to all who have helped in one way or another.
Special thanks to Minh for being the DJ throughout the whole event.
It was really a total success.

From the organizers' view, I think this sets the benchmark for the next Boarders' Council.
I think we have surpassed the standard of the 7th Boarders' Council. (sorry XD)

The main event + dinner, performances were very interesting.
The King & Queen event succeeded, although it wasn't really well planned.
Wensen only gave me the King & Queen photos just before the event item.
And I had to frantically insert the images into the backdrop slides.
However, thanks to Microsoft PowerPoint's Presenter View, I succeeded ((:

This event is the first time I had used an animated backdrop.
A Flash-based one.
However, it does not follow the music.
But it helped to set the mood for the day.

Click on the image to view the animated backdrop (:

It is also the first time that a true DJ software has been employed (:
Lots of firsts.

Including the dance night.
The dance night was a previously-thought-to-be-impossible thing.
However, somehow, we managed to pull everything through.
And it became the focus of the event.

I haven't gotten the photos to put up yet.
When I have those; I would probably create a new post for that.

HCIBS Year End Dinner 2008

twilight

was definitely a good experience ((:

I got so high that I can't be attentive now (during lessons).
Guess I would just sleep through the whole thing.
And there's batch dinner later as well! :D

I shall delve into the details when I have the photos later (:

Twilight: Tech Run #2 and Full Dress

2008-10-13T01:39:00.000+08:00

Tech run on the 11th was tiring!
Extremely exhausted and frustrated due to the stupid sound system.
That left Minh and I totally freaked out time and again.
Badly coiled cables, malfunctioning equalizer and badly coordinated programme.

However, it was the first time we were able to use the walkie-talkie (:
And it proved to be useful for communication.

After rounds and rounds of trying;
Everything finally worked after the Tech Run ended.
At 11:40 PM we finally found the solution.
And Minh and I went insane, jumping around with joy.
Doing random dances while the sound system blasted ad infinitum.

So everything went on smoothly on the 12th;
Which was the full dress rehearsal.

The animated backdrop had to be removed momentarily.
Due to certain issues;
Like Christopher's computer actually degraded the global sound quality.
But overall, everything went without a hitch.

I didn't have a formal attire ):
Anyway, I need to get one before Thursday.
That could also be used for the batch dinner.

I think the YED could be a success.
We have the working equipment, suitable ambience and manpower (:
Now it all depends on the audience.

Hopefully everything will go smoothly.

Hall B Quiz Competition

2008-10-12T13:47:00.000+08:00

Shuchen was unable to prevent us from winning :D
LOL. We really won. At least runner up.
And we came from the back to win!

:D
But I pity Charlyne for being too short. :P
Since she was constantly blocked by Christopher.
Ms Quah couldn't see her during the Fast Response session.

Thanks to Meng Hang and Christopher for being extremely quick.
During the second session.
(One member was required to act, and the second member is supposed to guess what that means).

In the end, the $70 voucher was ours :D
And well, we gave a bottle of Coke to Mr Dennis Teo
As an "unintentional" token of appreciation.

Oh, and yeah!
I *think* we still in debt because of Shuchen (:
She wanted us to treat her to a meal if we won. LOL.

Hwa Chong Open House

2008-10-11T15:52:00.003+08:00

The Malay paper didn't cause the largest upset ever. (:
Of course! Otherwise I'm probably going to zibei for quite some time.

Anyway, after that morning paper check...
I went to Hwa Chong Open House 2008! (:
Which is aptly named "Heart".
It was rather nice, quite a lot of people from various schools (Majority SNGS and NYGH I think).

Went there with Meng Hang, Lionel, Christopher and the usual bunch of people.
Saw Calvin Sim in traditional Malay attire at the MLDDS booth.
Jia Jun, Yi Hang, Kenn Siang, Shuchen, Reuben were all there.
I just went around to ask/know more about the CCAs and other random college stuff.

Met up with Mr Chia, Daniel, Zheng Hao and Wang Zhi at the canteen.
The main thing of discussion is computing-related JC curriculum.
I guess my decision to take H2 Computing is already final.
However, it seemed that SMTP and H2 Computing are not compatible.
The admin staff at the fishtank cafeteria clarified that if there are > 10 people taking H2 Computing, they might set up an SMTP class for that (:
Hopefully it will be so...

The whole atmosphere, I would say, is sort of celebrative/festive.
Everything went quite well.
And I would have to comment that the HCJC Council's Publicity team is rather good.
I guess it would be quite competitive if I were to join the publicity team.

As Daniel and Zheng Hao wanted to go off at 2 PM, I met up with Zhi Chao and the rest again.
This time we went to the respective subject rooms to get more information.
Apparently Physics was rather interesting, but I think Chemistry would be more useful at this point of time.
But I may have to reconsider the choice between Physics and Chemistry.
We visited all subject rooms except, well, Mother Tongue (:
Since there's really no point in visiting that xD

Saw lots of Boarders' Council J1 (those from HCI) there (:
But didn't see Huiling (although she said she was there) xD

Hwa Chong is where the heart is <3

Exam Photos

2008-10-10T15:27:00.002+08:00

Nothing much, just photos related to exams :P

)): Every paper has been checked and returned, but I guess I'm far from getting that MSG < 1.5. Lots of unexpected (usually negative) surprises here and there.

Breakdown by subject:
- English Language: A2 (73.6%)
- Higher Chinese: A1 (76.3%)
- Malay Language: A1 (86.3%)
- Chemistry: A2 (71.2%)
- Physics: B3 (67.7%)
- Mathematics: B3 (69.3%)
- Integrated Humanities: B3 (65.4%)
- SMTP (IS): A1 (92%)

Total => 22 points = 2.20

Hopefully they would round up the points, so it would be a 1.90.

Anyway, something else random here :P Just some random cat that I saw during Boarders' Council retreat.

EOY log!

2008-10-07T12:50:00.000+08:00

ALL DOWN! :D

7th October 2008
Malay Special Programme / 1
Malay Special Programme / 2

What's there to say? :D

3rd October 2008
Higher Chinese / 2

Nothing to say xD Just that the 篇章 given was slightly harder than usual. Confident of an A1 though, unless the teachers are evil/sadistic enough to use scare tactics so that we'll work hard for the O levels.

2nd October 2008
IH Core

IH Core was alright, but I can't really predict what results I will get for this one. Because this is the most unpredictable subject =.=" If it's above 20/30 then I'll be rather satisfied (: Since I never really got an A1 for IH Core before.

30th September 2008
Physics / 1
Physics / 2

Physics was quite average... Just that I made some stupid mistakes xD And dang, I forgot to bring a calculator and had to borrow from Xueyan at the middle of the exam, otherwise I would have to evaluate sine and cosine manually (which I obviously couldn't :D).

Hopefully I would get A1 for this one (:

29th September 2008
Mathematics / 2
IHE Geography

Yay~! Mathematics was rather easy. The highest possible score after subtracting mistakes and such should be around 86%, which would effectively offset my poor doing in Paper 1. And I had a boost of morale to take the Geography paper after Mathematics :D However, I didn't finish the last question because I ran out of time. Took too long proving trigonometrical identities =.="

Also nearly ran out of time for Geography! But the topics were quite okay! Hands feeling numb right after the paper >< Gahh. But right after this one is Physics le. Gotta mugmugmug! :D

26th September 2008
Chemistry / 1
Chemistry / 2

Dang. Chemistry was not quite easy, especially Paper 2. Left quite some questions blank for that paper due to lack of time. Paper 1 was far easier than Paper 2.

The worse thing about paper 2 is the marks distribution. There was a question that required you to fill in 6 boxes, and it had 6 marks. And there was another question that required you to answer in 6 lines, but it only had 2 marks. =.="

It's not easy to get A1 for Chemistry now, I think. Going to rely on SPA 1 + SPA 2 for that now.

24th September 2008
English Language / 1
English Language / 2

*Confident* for an A2 or better, should there be no significant mistakes. I picked Q2 (To what extent should scientists be concerned about ethical issues?). The SRQ was about Voluntourism (Volunteerism + Tourism), which I have identified 5 points of contention but only selected 3. Both around 2 pages full.

Comprehension was rather okay, but I think I got few questions wrong for the vocabulary section. The summary was relatively easy. The rest was okay.

23rd September 2008
Mathematics / 1

Dang I lost a lot of marks. Scores should be around 65 to 75 marks, taking into account careless mistakes and things like that. Things like binomial theorem, vectors, etc. didn't appear but I would expect them to appear in Paper 2.

22nd September 2008
Higher Chinese / 1

This one is a composition test, and it's rather okay. I selected Q1 (应用文，中国大地震，国人纷纷伸出援手捐款... 试写出你的感想) and Q4 (谈谈节俭的重要性以及青少年如何培养节俭的美德). So yeah xD

LAAAST DAY :D

2008-10-07T02:49:00.003+08:00

Finally and *technically* the last day has come!
All rejoice! :D

But the EOYs, virtually, has been a thing of the past.
The very first games appeared on my laptop since last Friday.
And no, I do not have Minesweeper or whatever standard games that came with Windows.

Guess what was the first?
It was no other than the classic 3D Space Cadet Pinball.
I attained scores of well under 1 million.
The once-familiar game suddenly turned into uncharted territory.
However, with practice, everything became perfect.
A picture tells 9 million stories.

FIFA 09 cropped up as the second game that appeared on my computer since close to a year.

Council duties came along, and so does HCIBS Year End Dinner.
More posters, videos and saikang jobs to be done.

Then along came the Malay exam.
The finishing move will arrive in a few hours.

A complete revamp of this blog will commence soon after.
The "Twilight" of 2008 will be closing in soon, on the 16th this month.
The second one will be here too, on the 17th this month.

): ):

2008-09-29T20:19:00.003+08:00

Sigh. No mood to mug for now. I'm so so upset)): ):
No, I can't be that weak >< *emoish*~
The ignorance. I'm sorry.

Heh feeling much better now :D

15 hours to go!

2008-09-21T16:11:00.002+08:00

15 hours to go!

And whhaaat. Facebook does have an event entry for the End-of-Year exams. I wonder who's not attending :P

Heh gotta wrap up Chinese revisions tonight. Finished Mathematics around 4 hours ago.

Good luck to all! :D

Backtracking...

2008-09-20T21:46:00.003+08:00

Heh, since this blog primarily serves as a memory to me, I would backtrack on one of the more memorable events of the previous week.

Just 12th September 2008, I attended the Projects Competition Grand Finals. It was certainly an insightful competition. Too bad my parents weren't able to make it here in time to witness the presentations and the moment whereby I received my trophy. And my team mate too, who was unable to make it due to a back problem (hope he gets well soon). He was replaced by a "dummy" prize receiver, and so is Daniel's group (Zheng Hao was not feeling well I guess, and Wang Zhi is a Grand Finalist).

After witnessing the first presentation, I came to understand why our group didn't get into the Grand Finals in the first place. The overall standard of all the presentations were really really good; so good that most of us got blown away. Especially Daryl's "Thru My Eyes" photography project, the extensive coverage (with disputes) and scope presented by Project Pipit (which is mentored by Ms Esther Cheong), as well as Chern Yuen's "Change Order 2" Mathematics project which cannot be comprehended even by a troupe of professional judges (one of them is in the field of Mathematics). And there was one Secondary 1 group which did really really impressively for their level.

Well, actually the only thing that was badly done for that entire day was the backdrop (the background slides showcasing the Grand Finalists' project, which was probably done by teachers).

High Distinction Winners and Grand Finalists from 4L included Zech Tan, Yu Hui and myself, which is really comparatively less as compared to say, 4K.

Anyway, this year marked the second year whereby I got to witness the Grand Finals. It was sort of a "I came into Hwa Chong with a Projects Competition trophy, and left Hwa Chong with one". And this year, I finally broke the A* drought that I was determined to break this year.

On a side note, the Guest of Honour (who is from MediaCorp) was really a good GOH. His use of suitable cold humour right in front of a diverse audience with different disciplines was truly something that should be appalauded. He is much much better than the GOH that came during the 14th Student Leaders Convention. Anyway, he went on to talk about "Failure", and hinted rather obviously that his son is in Hwa Chong (:

In the end, I had to return the received trophy to the school because my class was not printed there. Doesn't really matter anyway, but it is even better since the original label for the trophy was full of scratch marks and dirt.

And as for Daryl, I have to say this (plagiarized from Christopher's blog, but it is especially relevant in this context):

you were the clear best.
the hot favourite.
the crowd's choice.
the outstanding one.
and you deserved better.
you deserved not the roots but the top of the tree.
but you will always be a winner to me! XD

Hahas :D

~ And just around 1 more day to the End of Year exams (a.k.a. High School Grand Slam). Hopefully I'll get a complete breakthrough of MSG = 1.00. *HOPE* :D

Got life anot?

2008-09-19T02:56:00.004+08:00

This may have come a little late, but anyway, it's worth posting XD

Happy birthday to:

Priscilla Tan, Mark Hee, YuanYuh, Nicholas

and last but not least,

My mum! :D

(But probably she wouldn't read this) ):

3 more days to end of year exams! D:

Uh, and I have had no life over the past week. Like, mugging, then sleeping, then eating then mugging, etc. etc. Duhh.

Worrying about IH.
Revisions - trailing behind schedule by roughly 8 hours.
Hours of sleep per night is < 4 hours.

Good news :D Chemistry = 26/30.
Class MSG is 1.21 anyway.

D-Day is in 3 days~ D:

Snippets

2008-09-12T04:19:00.001+08:00

Since I have not posted in a while, I shall backtrack a little on what has been done since my previous post in brief. Anyway, I'm not going to update my blog as frequent as before in lieu of the End-of-Year examinations.

Holidays

Strictly speaking, the previous September holidays wasn't even a holiday for me at all. Although it did give me some breathing space, there is still much to do, especially with the barrage of "holiday homework" given by various teachers (particularly Chinese). It wasn't really an enjoyable holdiay; but then again, there were certain points to remember (:

And yeah,

Thank you!

to those who have given me their wishes on my birthday :D

My birthday wasn't really special though, it seemed just like any other normal day. However, this is my first time having my birthday without my parents (as they are in Malaysia). I do appreciate the fact that my family members back in Malaysia called me intentionally to wish me happy birthday :D Probably they wouldn't read my blog, but I just wanted to say that I love and miss them very much <3 But too bad I can only return after my O-level examinations (that is, during mid-November).

Marvell Outing

On 2nd September we met up again! And this time, it was at City Hall MRT, then Raffles City Mall. Anyway, it wasn't really a satisfying one, although we did catch up with each other. What we had was just random crapping/chit-chat, then having lunch (at Burger King again! Same place as the last outing we had). However, it seemed that the outing had turned into a mugging session with Yongzhi marking his self-designed Chemistry paper :D And yeah, so we left early to mug for EOYs. Heh, but there isn't any noticeable change in everyone, except that Shiway now has a blog! :D Hopefully we'll be able to have a more proper outing during the end-of-year holidays.

8th Boarders' Council Retreat

On 5th September the HCIBS 8th Boarders' Council Retreat @ East Coast Park was held. I went there with Daqi (since we met on the bus), however, I can't believe that I actually lost my way there, just because one bus was out of service during Fridays (bus 401). So when we reached Bedok we were frantically searching for a detour. Well, so we ended up late by around 45 minutes. However, there were 2 other latecomers besides us xD, so that's a consolation.

Mr Dennis Teo and Ms Quah were already there, along with around 11 other council members.

Anyway, when we reached, the whole bunch of them were already gathering at McDonalds. There were playing 终极密码, and well, again, the traditional "Truth or Dare". Heh, I didn't guess any number *correctly* (possibly due to skill xD), but Mr Dennis Teo actually guessed the correct number once (but I forgot what the forfeit was). Anyway, when Meng Hang and Jingyi came (well, they were the latecomers), we went to the steamboat buffet restaurant somewhere there.

Dinner was quite nice, however it costed 15 dollars in total. That's rather expensive :o But the boarding school helped us subsidy about 5 dollars, which is still 10 dollars. After that we proceeded to the beach :D And yeah, the same game, but it was really fun. Random forfeits such as Chen Xu calling her _________ *ahem*, and Meng Hang "求婚" from Ms Quah made the day.

We reached the boarding school at around 11:45 PM, but we were allowed to be late. Was really fun :D And somehow all the council duties and stuff like that were forgotten temporarily.

Annual Mugging Spree

The annual mugging spree started off for me on plan. During Monday and Tuesday I went to SDLS (which is basically a self-study session in the boarding school's dining hall, compulsory for Sec 1s - 3s but not for me!), and started mugging for a few subjects. Everything was on track - I'm glad :D

Anyway, I have finally submitted my SMRP thesis! :D And later today I'll be at the Projects Competition Grand Finals prize presentation! We'll be getting an early dismissal - right after Chemistry class test which I think I'm quite well-prepared for.

Heh, with that said, I'll probably be going into hiatus for a while as I prepare for the EOYs which will commence in around 1 week.

Comex Rocks!

2008-09-02T12:02:00.008+08:00

Before I start:

Happy Birthday Marzie!

And hope your grandma gets well soon :D

Heh! I went to Comex IT Show at Suntec City Exhibition Centre on Sunday! Really really lots of people there that no taxi driver at Bukit Timah would pick me up to go there xD

So I went there via MRT, and the whole area is literally flooded with people all the way from CityLink mall to Suntec City. Extremely crowded that just about anyone will find it hard to move about. Reached Suntec City at around 5 PM. I went myself, because most of my boarding school friends have went home to Malaysia. So yeah.

My cousin was hanging about there as well. Went to the SingTel booth (well, not booth, because their area takes up the space of a ballroom :D) to check out phones. The queue for new broadband subscribers was like 20 metres long D: I saw Samsung Omnia and tested it out too :D And also there's a mini-HTC booth within that SingTel area, but unfortunately the Touch Diamond was available for demo at that point of time.

Anyway, there were just lots and lots of people; and so I went to Food Republic to eat a little first. Similarly, there were no seats available, so I just stood and ate at the sides like many people did.

Actually I wanted to get a new hard disk casing to replace my old one (the old USB connector is spoilt!). But initially I went up to fourth floor (there were 5 floors for the exhibition, and a total of 33,000 sq. ft. of space or so they claim), but only saw all the big names such as Acer, Asus, Dell, etc. Well yeah. So I just looked around first.

Jonathan (Lau) joined me at the sixth floor (there's no fifth floor :D) at the HTC booth, and he spent 20 minutes looking for me although I've told him the exact location :D Just too many people. There's a dedicated HTC booth this time, and yeah, I managed to demo the Touch Diamond. It looks pretty cool :D And easy to use. The touchscreen is more sensitive than as claimed by critics (probably my taste), but it's a costly $1008. Probably buying it sometime with a mobile plan.

So we hanged around, sourcing for gadgets here and there. But couldn't find a hard disk casing which was cheap D: There's one that retails at $129 but it was REALLY FAR TOO EXPENSIVE =.="

That's $129 just the casing. At around 8 PM price slashes started to occur. So we spotted at Western Digital external hard disk, 250 GB selling just at $129! That's exactly the same as the casing o_o And yeah since it's more worth it, I bought it. And with an extra 1 dollar (which Jonathan paid), Western Digital would give the backup software (Acronis True Image) away! Well yeah! Quite a worthwhile buy. But I only have to undergo the hassle of transferring my old stuff.

With that purchase we were eligible for a lucky draw. But didn't win anything; because there were literally thousands of lucky draw sheets in the box.

With that, pictures! But blame the poor quality to me moving about and the camera itself.

Clearing tags xD

2008-09-02T02:34:00.007+08:00

Tagged by marzie to do this xD

Whats your primary food group?
Huh? What primary food group?

who would you like to have lunch with tmr?
Um. If it's "like to" then it would probably be someone special xD. But in reality, no one in particular, just my boarding school-mates.

would you rather be a zombie or a vampire?
vampire - it looks more life-ly than a zombie :D

would you rather be Master Chief or Serious Sam?
Serious Sam - time to blast something off :D

favourite pizza topping?
anything without veggies

would you rather be the The Joker or The Riddler?
huh what?

Music. what does it do to to you?
the rhythm of my life :D

favourite bands from that genre?
no particular favourite band (yeah I like singles more)

what instrument do you play? or would like to.
NONE D: no musical talent.

got anyone on your mind?
probably :D

why are you be thinking about them?
because, um. yeah. you know.

gonna do anything about it?
i shall wait and see.

so what's your top 4 reasons why you like someone then (top 3 is so overrated)
instincts :D nehh not actually. wouldn't like to reveal either.

what did you want to be when you were a kid?
doctor

what do you want to be now?
an Infocomm player

if you changed your mind...why?
Infocomm is super interesting okay!

whatcha doing tmr at 3oclock?
jumping around; waiting for marvell outing!

psyched about anything at the moment?
nehh

nearest thing to you thats plain black?
mobile phone, a HTC brochure, hard disk pouch, laptop bag, mmm that's it.

whats on your Desktop now?
Finder, Safari, Firefox, Adium

can you multitask? what are you doing besides this quiz?
Listening to music, if that's counted.

whats the longest you've ever gone without sleeping?
46 hours.

whats your catch phrase of the moment?
riggghhhhtt.

do you like long hair or short hair!
what? myself? obviously short!

now tag other ppl so they can do the quiz instead of the other one floating around(cos this one's just awesome, ya know?)

i'm lazy (:

Tagged by huiling to do this xD

TEN things you wish you could say to TEN different people right now (Don’t name the person)

ILU
Yo
Nut
HTC Touch Diamond is better than an iPhone
HTC Touch Diamond rocks okay!
Windows sucks
I wanna go Marvell outing!
Happy birthday! (guess?)
Happy birthday! (me! I'm a person too okay!)
Happy birthday! (another person from HC, guess?)

NINE things about yourself

<3 designing
<3 tech gadgets
Currently happy over a new hard disk
Want to grow taller xD
Not a mugger
Not a gamer either xD
Loves lots and lots of friends
Great at consistent zi-highing
Knows how to speak Malay :D

EIGHT ways to win my heart

I refuse to answer this :D

SEVEN things that cross your mind a lot

Studies
My family
Career
-censored- :o
Friends
JC life
Council matters

SIX things I wished I never did

Not prepared enough for Projects Competition
Waste time
Destroy my old external hard disk
Drop my laptop
Score F9 for Physics because I left out a page
Score C5 for Humanities because I didn't work hard enough

FIVE turn-offs

Cigarette smoke ><
Noise (that includes music with bad sound quality)
Rude people
People who dao
Extremely untidy places

FOUR turn-ons

Returning home :D
Scoring extremely well in exams
IT shows and outings
Occasions where zi-highing is possible

THREE words to sum up my life

Colourful
Meaningful
Fun

TWO things I won't die till I do

Achieve life's objective (pretty abstract yeah!)
Enjoy myself

ONE last confession

This tag has drained my brainpower! :O

"Happy" 51st Merdeka?

2008-08-31T00:00:00.000+08:00

50th Post!

Raising political issues within my blog has never been what I would like to do. However, as a Malaysian, it would be apt for me to pen in my thoughts as Hari Merdeka dawns upon us.

The 51st Hari Merdeka marks a new low in Malaysia's history as the country celebrates Hari Merdeka with gloom. Never before has the country been so devoid of National Day enthusiasm. The lack of fireworks on the eve of Merdeka isn't the issue of contention; but rather, I would like to question to meaning of Merdeka.

Many have questioned the lack of support in flying the Jalur Gemilang as a sign of patriotism and love to the country. That question could have answered itself.

The Jalur Gemilang symbolizes Malaysia as a sovereign state and each and everyone of us. Each of us own a piece of that cloth and what it symbolizes. But for the past 50 years, have we been given an equal portion of that cloth?

No, it is not about the marginalised Malays, Chinese, Indians or other races.

It is about marginalised anak-anak Bangsa Malaysia.

True Merdeka runs beyond the mere, blind displays of patriotism. After 51 years of nation building, so-called national unity and social (dis)integration, what do we have?

While Singapore has celebrated the Singapore Spirit for a whole month, with newspaper reports showing complete focus on the celebrations, where has the Merdeka spirit gone to? Newspaper reports in Malaysia has been marred with Anwar Ibrahim's sodomy case, blogs flying the Malaysian flag upside down, the Bar Council controversy, an extremely racist teacher and various other headlines which are supposed to make way for the Merdeka celebrations.

The composite image of divide and conquer rule by the British colonial masters still stays and remains deeply rooted in the seemingly hardwired mind of the ruling class. Times have changed; as globalization becomes more obvious and imminent, national unity must be present in every single person in order to fight global threats such as rising price of commodities. Racial politics must be left in the dust as it is no longer relevant in the pursuit of the equality of all peoples.

One must question, as Merdeka also encompasses the unity of all Malaysians, how have we fostered national unity when the government promotes the institutionalisation of racism through the promotion of racialised policies and politics? How have we maintained a democratic way of life when our social, educational and economical structures do not promote such values?

Why the championing of Ketuanan Melayu by deaf politicians when Merdeka celebrates the fight for independence of Malaysia by all races? One has to keep in mind that the early Merdeka movement consisted of truly nationalistic Malays, Chinese, Indians, Ibans, Kadazans, Sikhs. They fought for a homeland that promised progress and harmony, racial tolerance and a robust economy. Have we then broken these promises?

The only way in which Merdeka can be truly celebrated is via the replacement of human beings running the education system, so as to allow fundamental changes in our school of thought. And that would also require the replacement of human beings running the political system, replacing the corrupt, repressive policies such as the Internal Security Act and white elephant projects and government contracts.

As for the meaning of Merdeka, its true meaning can only be attained as we finally catch up with the 21st century and abolish the illegitimate policies that have been the instruments of instilling fear and disunity in the peoples of Malaysia.

In the light of the current situation, this Merdeka, hopefully would re-ignite hope towards our quest for a Malaysian Malaysia.

P'DAY Grand Finals and Physics Test

2008-08-29T02:11:00.003+08:00

Well. I didn't get into the Projects Competition Grand Finals. Well, that was to be expected, since we weren't really really well prepared. But it was certainly an experience; and at least that A* (High Distinction) is ours to keep.

Re-calling the day; Jay and I met up at 4L (my class) to finalize everything. As we discovered more loopholes and flaws in the presentation, we only finished the presentation slides at around 5:55 PM. And we thought we would be late. Our group was scheduled to present at 6:30 PM, and we had to report at 6 PM.

However, when we reached the High School General Office, it appeared that every project group (Chern Yuan, Hou Yin, Daniel and others) were delayed close to an hour. So yeah, extra time to prepare. But we didn't really do anything much then, as Jay and I were really really tired waiting for our turn outside LT3.

At around 7:15 PM we went into the Conference Room 1, and were faced with 5 (or 6?) judges, including many "high profile" teachers such as Ms Yeo Hwee Joo (Dean of Studies), Mr Steven Su and various others. So we presented normally but apparently our presentation was still TOO technical for them to understand. Unlike Daniel's Infocomm project, our group did not receive too many comments from the judges. And Ms Yeo said that my pronunciation had problems (lol, probably due to the lack of water).

As the judges weren't paying attention at all, we concluded preliminarily that our presentation was badly done. Well. Not only that, it was really really tiring - I reached the boarding school at 7:50 PM, and I realised that I haven't started preparing for Physics at all.

When I returned, I started studying for Physics, but the next moment I found myself asleep, and well, I woke up at 4:30 AM in the morning. And so I pia-ed until it was time to go to school! xD But luckily it was raining that morning - so I managed to finish studying everything by the end of reading period.

So, the Physics test was quite alright except for some flip flops in certain areas (scam questions =.=).

Thursday was quite a slackish school-day as we had NIE tests and surveys. Which translates to only 2 lessons for the day (double Maths). The rest are all assemblies, etc.

Use your hands campaign (for those who don't know, it translates to cleaning up the classroom) was particularly fun, and I guess it was the first time ever that our class was so involved and high in cleaning up the classroom LOL.

Caleb stacked the chairs till like close to 3 metres high, throwing unwanted objects and books around, etc.

It marked the "unofficial" start of the school "holidays". (:

Malay 'O' Levels Oral Exam!

2008-08-26T23:18:00.003+08:00

I spent my Friday with a whole bunch of high PRC scholars in the boarding school's function hall so as to witness the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. It wasn't as long as the opening ceremony of course, but the same fact remains; it was equally impressive. But it was really really sad when the Olympic flame was extinguished from the giant torch. The Beijing Olympics was certainly one of the best I have witnessed, with multiple athletes setting new benchmarks. However, Malaysia did not do quite well this time, but it was still ranked at 71 alongside with Singapore which also garnered one silver medal.

My weekend was quite great; it offered some rest for me before I'm going to start working on the EOY exams. But it was really a cold weekend with the rainy season coming about. And thank you to Yujing for making my weekend so special xD

Today I was excused from lessons early at 11:30 am to prepare for my Malay 'O' Levels oral exam. I returned to the boarding school to retrieve my exam slips, and went to Tiong Bahru SEAB Centre at around 12 PM with Lionel, Kai Min and Meng Hang. We went to Tiong Bahru Shopping Centre for lunch at Long John Silvers before leaving for the Centre.

Reached there at around 2 PM. The SNGS Malaysian scholars were there too. Pretty much everyone was doing some last minute prediction before going into the waiting room. Li Wen and I were the last in waiting in the waiting room (in fact I'm the extreme last! xD) Both of us had to wait around 2 hours (around 4:30 PM) before finally entering the Silent Reading room. But before that I was quite a little zi-highing with close to no nervous feeling (dunno? xD)

With all that preparation, it turned out that the oral exam was SOOOO much easier than we expected :D Especially with the "conversation" part. As for the reading component, I think I didn't do too well for the start (forgot to use standard Malay, or Bahasa Baku), but it turned alright later. There were two examiners, and both of them are Malays. They *looked* friendly but MIGHT have a killing intention LOL. The conversation part was just about shopping (: Which I think the girls may have an advantage of.

Tomorrow is Projects Competition Grand Finals selection round. This will ultimately decide whether I get to enter the Grand Finals or not. Hopefully I'll do the best (well, this time with my teammate Jay's assistance) so as to end my high school years with a bang (not THAT, sickos =P). And Physics is on Thursday. But yeah! Chemistry test is going to be on Term 4 Week 1 so I don't really have to worry about it for the time being.

I may go hiatus anytime (:

Sabbaticals review

2008-08-22T20:51:00.003+08:00

Well, the sabbatical week was certainly great! Really really learnt a lot of things this time round. Although it was only about the basics in investing, it is certainly relevant to Economics, one of the subjects that I'll definitely pursue when I go to JC.

On Thursday and Friday we had virtual stock market trading. It was quite fun watching the stocks jump up and down like mad. This one was particularly shocking that it gave us the bumps when it plummeted at around 4:30 PM:

The overall atmosphere at Computer Lab 5 was really quite "on", everyone were like checking out and monitoring the stocks ever so closely. Due to the fact that we were not using a stock market simulator (information were just stored in regular Excel spreadsheets), some people were able to scam through, but the irregularities were only spotted during the presentation time. Oh, and before I forget, the other of my group members are Kwang Chian and Vernon (from Sec 3). Yeah so our group was the mass-Sec 4 group that is the most imba xD

The whole thing resulted in a $969 profit in SGD (virtual cash, of course! What do you expect :D), investing in 6 Malaysian stocks and 3 Singaporean stocks. Kwang Chian was a super-aggressive buyer lol. I had one stock which resulted in a 70 cents profit (AND in Ringgit) after GST and commission were subtracted from the original RM100 profit.

Ah! and I woke up at 7:20 AM today LOL. But I wasn't considered late haha. Thanks to the JC uniform, the NCC cadets who were in charge of catching latecomers didn't catch me and I just basically disguised a JC student xD

During sabbatical week I saw Marzie on Thursday lols. But she didn't notice because the whole bunch were posing for photos and it's also probably that I was wearing that JC uniform. Haha.

But sadly the sabbatical week also marks the end of the "playing time" - I still have Physics and Chemistry test on Thursday and Friday respectively, and thereafter full time mugging. Well, I may go into hiatus thereafter, but who knows; I may still have interesting stuff to say. Ah well and I need to prepare for my second Publicity Workshop soon.

Sabbaticals! :D

2008-08-19T23:44:00.006+08:00

Sabbatical week is fun! xD I'm in the "Being an Individual Investor's Course", which basically teaches the basics of investing in the stock market. I have to say that the course is quite enriching thus far, and I've learnt many new concepts. Hopefully I can put those into use in the near future. Yi Zhang is also in the same sabbatical as me. Anyway, I'm joining not for the sake of ACE, since my Maths ACE is already full xD

The lectures can be dry at times; but random jokes and funny stuff from us Sec 4s lightened up the mood a little. The Sec 1s were pretty unresponsive relative to others, well because, yeah, they are still Sec 1s. In the next few days we'll have virtual trading :D But all calculations are done on a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet instead of the "real" virtual stock market.

Anyway, the iPhone has been scheduled to be released in Singapore by SingTel on the 22nd August. In fact, I have even received an invitation email for the reservation and booking of the phone. However, the pricing seems a little too high for me to afford; so I might consider not buying it in the end. It's $648 in case I'm going to re-contract with the same plan. If I upgrade my plan, it's still going to be a painful $348. Maybe I should consider getting a HTC Touch Diamond instead, which is obviously more economical without the "Apple" brand.

And yeah, on Monday recess, Yong Boon managed to achieve this feat:

It's a slackish week; and I'm lovin' it xD

P'DAY RESULTS ANNOUNCED! with added crystal ball

2008-08-19T02:28:00.002+08:00

The official results for the Hwa Chong Projects Competition has been officially announced! =D =D

And, I'm again presenting my "crystal ball" to estimate the scores needed for an A1 in the end-of-year exams. It's in an Excel file format, and it requires Microsoft Office 2007.

What does this do? This Microsoft Excel spreadsheet is able to estimate how much you'll need to achieve in the final-year exams so you can plan your studying better (:

How do I use it? Just insert the relevant parts, replacing my original ACE, OP and CA items with your very own. These scores can be obtained from the Hwa Chong Results Portal, the Intelligent School Portal and the Integrated Virtual Learning Environment (IVLE).

Limitations and Disclaimer
This does not take into account the ACE points limits for SPA, which is capped at 7 points. You will have to determine that yourself.

By using this spreadsheet, you agree not to hold me responsible for any discrepancies that are encountered that may lead you to fail your exams.

Download
Click here.

Well that's the end :D

Lee Chong Wei lost ):

2008-08-18T23:36:00.000+08:00

I watched the Olympics Men Badminton Finals on Sunday via my Internet connection, as Channel 5 did not telecast the competition live (to make way for Team Singapore in table tennis, which also lost to the Chinese). There were like around 10 people sitting on my bed watching the minuscule screen of my laptop. Fortunately the connection didn't lag too much to make the match unwatchable. But one funny fact xD The video playback would lag when the Olympic logo shows on the screen =D

Duhh... Lee Chong Wei's performance on Sunday was utterly disappointing. The match started at around 9 PM, but it only lasted for around 30 minutes. It wasn't really as entertaining as expected, as Lin Dan won in 2 straight sets, trashing Lee Chong Wei 21-12, 21-8. And as far as the pressure goes, I see that Lee Chong Wei didn't actually have the willpower to fight back.

But while he has lost totally, I must acknowledge the fact that Lin Dan's support is totally overwhelming and Lee Chong Wei is thus bound to make tons of mistakes. He essentially proved that when the 2nd set opened, where he committed 6 unforced errors in a row to give Lin Dan a 6-0 headstart. Lin Dan's really in top form that day.

My MSG for this term = 2.78, and obviously I'm not very satisfied with that.

Attention all 4L people - your English marks is calculated by dividing the marks reflected in ISP by 215. This is based on information received from 4K.

A1 - Chemistry (77%)
A1 - Malay (78%)
A2 - Higher Chinese (74%)
A2 - English Language (77%)
A2 - Mathematics (70%)
A2 - Mathematics
C5 - Integrated Humanities
C5 - Integrated Humanities (57%)
C6 - Physics (51%)

Note that extra 1 mark in Physics; I don't know where there came from xD. That concludes my results for this term.

Publicity Workshop!

2008-08-17T16:34:00.002+08:00

Heh! Yesterday was the most memorable day that I had. But I won't tell why xD But I'm very very very happy :D

The Chinese Drama Club's show was superb, I had to say. 10 dollars well spent. Stunning effects and props, plots and emotions were at centerstage. Really really entertaining that no one would have any qualms choosing that performance over the Social Dance workshop (which was another boarding school event held at the same time). Thanks to Min Hua and Shien Yang (2 chairmen :D) for making the performance such a spectacle.

And today was the Publicity Workshop. I held the workshop; and so I was the solo presenter there. Around 14 people attended if I'm not wrong. The workshop was about Poster Design Theories. I felt my presentation was quite alright, except that I may have went through things too rapidly (some of the people had to leave at 3:30 PM, so I had to cram everything into within one hour). And Dee Zhen came down and he joined the Publicity Committee :D Oh, and it gave me the chance to recap what I had learnt in previous years in my Photoshop lessons.

:D :D Still high over that A* in Projectsday. Thanks to all who have congratulated and supported me via that small little tagboard on the right :D Anyway, it's not "Grand Finals" yet, but "Grand Finals Nomination Round", as I thought that some of you might have misread.

PROJECTSDAY FTW :D

2008-08-15T18:18:00.002+08:00

YAY. Today I'm feeling happy because I'm through to the Projects Competition Grand Finals Nomination Round! :D (And for those of you asking how did I know my results very early; the Infocomm Studies category often releases results right after or shortly after the judging.) And it's good to know that nobody in Infocomm Studies category got lower than A. For now, it's a guaranteed A* for me =D

I submitted my testimonial.

Slept quite late last night to do my final chiong-ing for Projects Competition. The hard work paid off but for now, it's sleeping time :D

looooong time no post D:

2008-08-15T16:39:00.006+08:00

Oh my, another week has just passed. Nothing really interesting here, except that there was 14SLC FACS UNITE! xD But not many people went and there wasn't really much to do except eating at VivoCity and talking about random stuff. And also watching Olympics at the StarHub outlet. Guess everyone was busy ):

Anyway, the NDP celebration this year was boring as compared to the Olympics (well, of course! xD) Watch like 5 minutes then feeling sien sien le =.="

IHC/IHE was a shocker. Chinese too. I think Mr Lim CC was super slack; he only started marking our Geography papers on Tuesday. There were 18 failures for Chinese, and "many failures" for IHC. Which was really demoralizing for me (although at that time, I didn't know my own results yet).

Unfortunately I got only 16/25 for Geography, no thanks to a question about Stevenson's Screen, which costed me 5.5/7 marks. Anyway I don't remember Mr Lim teaching about this or even mentioning about this in the first place. Ian said he answered using his Sec 2 Geography knowledge lol, and of course he got an A1. But while 18 people failed Chinese, I got a commendable A2 :D (29/40), which is quite close to Yueyin and Zech who got 31/40.

And Zech got bonded :D No photos here; keeping my blog visually clean xD Anyway, head over to Yong Boon's blog for the pictures picture.

My results for this term are sort of bad (in fact, the exact same for last term, if my predictions are correct). My estimation:

A1 - Chemistry
A1 - Malay (Estimated)
A2 - Higher Chinese
A2 - English Language (Estimated)
A2 - Mathematics
A2 - Mathematics
C5 - Integrated Humanities
C5 - Integrated Humanities
C6 - Physics

= 26/9 = 2.89

OHMY. Huge disparity between subjects, I realised.

40th Post! and a looong one.

2008-08-09T21:48:00.005+08:00

Alright, lame title, since I don't know what title I can think of.

I haven't updated for days already, since I was being a little emo over the past few days (more specifically, I was _very_ dissatisfied with my Chinese test results). Anyway, things have gotten MUCH better right after that but still, I'm still upset. I'm not able to get an MSG of lower than 2.0. It is really a blow to my wish of getting an OSA or ARE (dream on!)

The first good thing to hit me after that dreaded Chinese test was Chemistry, at which I got A1 (23/30). The second thing that brought further satisfaction was an English assignment (essay), at which I got A2 (22/30), which was relatively high. And in the afternoon there's Malay essay test, which I believed I've done very well.

Wednesday was a boring day ): But I was excited about 2 upcoming Boarders' Council events. When I cam back from school to have dinner, I attempted to put up the PowerPoint presentation slides in the dining hall to publicize the National Day Dinner event, but I wasted like 1 hour just because the VGA cable was faulty. During that night I helped in putting up the decorations and the table arrangements.

Thursday was much more interesting. There was Chinese common test in the afternoon, which I did quite okay (although my Q5 70-marks essay was a little short at 3.25 pages). For those who are interested, I did Q1 and Q5, which was typical of many (obviously because both were quite easy as compared to the others; Q4 was an exception because a similar topic was done before in class). I can't really recall what were the topics.

After Chinese test ended (at around 4:20 PM) I had to rush back to the boarding school to prepare for the National Day Dinner event, one of the larger events organized by the Boarders' Council. The PA crew, whom I was partly in-charge of, had problems setting up as early as 4:30 PM so I had to rush there to help. Ironically, the decorations were quite gorgeous as compared to our Investiture Dinner. As of now I only have 4 photos to post, but I'll post those later.

The most demoralizing thing about the whole event is the fact that 80% of the people have left near the close of the event. ): Probably because the theme is about "Celebrating the Singapore Spirit", and as almost all the boarders are not Singaporeans, the National Day Celebration/Parade probably isn't of any interest at all. Gahh. But then again, the PA crew were actually praised for their flawlessness :D :D Something that I have to be proud of. And I congratulate the PA/AVA Director Jin Da for bringing the team through. ): ): AND I STARVED on ONLY SATAY STICKS D:

The High School section's National Day event wasn't really good in my opinion, as the whole Sec 4 batch dao-ed the event and even left LT4 long before the whole "concert ended". Probably it's because of the distance from the stage that keep us from being entertained. I mean, most of us (including me) were doing things like listening to MP3, playing PSPs, Tower Bloxx in handphone and even poker cards.

The most interesting thing of the celebration was the fact that Zhang Quan was voted to be Ortus' NE Quiz representative. (obviously he was sabotaged). And hey, not bad! :D HE GOT THE 3RD RUNNER UP :D _{Which was actually the last position}. The iSpark consortium dominated the whole thing (probably not because they have higher IQs, but rather other consortiums were more DAO).

During the night I went to You Jun's house to fix his computer (: Apparently it was close to worst-case scenario, but I managed to rescue it to its usable stage :D Anyway, regarding the state of his computer, even Internet Explorer, Windows Live Messenger was broken. And tools like the Device Manager, and Disk Management were broken too. But I managed to restore these :D And You Jun's parents were kind to serve me some food and drinks and send me back to the boarding school before curfew time.

At 11:10 PM, I joined a group of high extremely high PRCs in witnessing the start of the Olympic games in Beijing. And well, I zi-highed as well :D But the event was REALLY REALLY impressive and they use laser projection technology as well as VERY synchronized performances that would leave everyone jaw-dropping. Of course, as China is a major producer of fireworks, their fireworks display was extremely unique. Furthermore, the opening ceremony at the dining hall ROCKED because we were watching it via StarHub's HD channel, and the image was extremely sharp and clear.

Anyway, for the Boarders' Council, we have already started planning on what to do for the Year-End Dinner. (: (: As I posted this, PRIS TAN just returned from her NDP performance and she said it was GREAT! Haha congrats (:

And to my "you know who you are", LYL (:

Hopes Dashed

2008-08-05T15:30:00.001+08:00

给我这样从来一次的机会
渴望…… 时间倒流

Weekend

2008-08-04T15:01:00.001+08:00

Haven't posted for quite some time already, but my weekend is again filled. Happy that my parents came all the way down from Selangor (~400 km away from Singapore) in Malaysia to visit me. I'm glad that my little sister came along too, and my parents also bought a new wallet, bag and shoe and also helped me get a new pair of specs. They were quite nice (: I'm all grateful for that. My parents only visits me about once a term, so I really miss them when they left.

So I stayed overnight at my cousin's house on Saturday. The Internet connection is really fast, reaching around 800 KB/s or even 1 MB/s at peak (: I didn't really touch my laptop on that Saturday because I really wanted to take a break. It has been really stressful for me. At night I asked my uncle to help me solder the broken USB connector for my external hard disk, and LOL, it was partially successful, as I am now able to use my hard disk without taking out the casing, but I needed something like a key to position to USB connector properly. At least can use! :D

Yay! Ms Ang missed out a mark for my Maths test, and my grade was up by 1 to A1! Overall I got A2, which is better than my oh-so-average-B3 standard of Mathematics. Haha I'm generally quite satisfied with that.

And I got my O'levels entry proof. Can't believe that Malay Oral Test is less than a month away :o

3 down, 2 to go

2008-08-01T13:38:00.002+08:00

3 tests down this week; 2 more to go next week (: Arrrgh. I got 73 for Maths (29/40), overall 69 for Maths, which is still counted as B3. Hopefully I would have the chance to get just 0.5 more marks for the second paper, then I'll be on A2 already.

For Chemistry today, the paper was quite okay, just that I may not be able to get A1 due to certain mistakes made. Nearly ran out of time. Haha I stayed up till 3 AM last morning to complete my oral assessment speech script, and also used my short term memory (: Glad that I remembered most of the stuff. But as a result I'm extremely tired and I want to fall asleep now, not really in the mood to go for CCA. >_>

But TGIF! :D

GEOG Test? NEHH. and OIL!

2008-07-30T16:56:00.003+08:00

Today was generally quite slack, but time seemed to have passed very slowly this morning, probably due toe the boring-ness of lessons that we had. Anyway, there was Geography mock test this morning, which was totally too easy that many got full marks (well, not really, since the paper is only worth 7 marks LOL). There were simple 1-mark questions like "calculate the diurnal range of temperature based on the diagram" and another 5-mark question.

Okay, anyone who knows how to read, copy and paste with descriptions from a diagram or table (and knows how to interpret symbols correctly) should be able to score xD Um. I mean, even a Sec 1 with the appropriate contextual knowledge would be able to do that; since the paper only relies on basic skills such as observation, copy-editing and copy-pasting. No critical thinking required (: sort of a no-brainer as Yueyin and I spammed across the answer sheet. And I wonder how difficult or easy will the actual test be (given that Mr Lim CC often confuses himself with things like "The Earth rotates on its axis clockwise"). Okay okay I shall stop niao-ing.

Maths lessons was the usual SPARTA situation with random noises from random corners of the classroom. And this was the particularly interesting episode:

Someone whom I didn't hear clearly: ... Tze Han drunk in oil...
Ms Ang: Wah, Tze Han, the oil price drop so much, very sad leh. Tze Han, will the oil price still drop?
Tze Han: (shocked expression)
Ms Ang: I invest a lot in oil leh... Must be 4L lah, ask Tze Han to produce so much oil...
Tze Han: ...

And Mdm Ong didn't come again. Mr Chew took over, resulting in triple Chemistry, at which I stoned for quite some time because I was quite tired from the lack of sleep the previous day.

Tomorrow is Maths test; and I need to score 33/40 to secure an A1 for this term. Hopefully I'll get that. For now, it's time to MUG MUG MUG xD

YAY!

2008-07-29T00:05:00.002+08:00

Physics SPA was *surprisingly* easy. Hopefully I'll get full marks for that, although I was really really close to failing it. We were required to determine the relationship between 1/V (reciprocal of voltage) and R (the resistance) in a series circuit. No contextual knowledge required (: Almost every procedure and required sections were already printed in the question sheet.

Anyway, there was one part where I nearly got tricked (poor Clement). We were given 3 resistors of different resistance, and we were supposed to observe how the reading on the voltmeter varies with the total resistance. There was one step that was particularly confusing: The results can be obtained by connecting the resistors SINGLY *AND* by connecting them in series. The first time I did the experiment I really did miss out the AND keyword. But I realized that Mr Steven Su was observing me for like close to 5 minutes, so I started to think that something was really wrong.

TURNED OUT THAT I WAS LUCKY xD Once I started connecting them in combinations, Mr Steven Su walked away so I thought I was already doing the right thing ;D YONGJIE you couldn't be more careless than that! Next time pay attention to the details!

Anyway, for those who are interested, my readings:

Gradient: 1.2 x 10^-4
Resistance of voltmeter: 2100 Ω (to 2 s.f.)

On another note, I have completed yet another poster :D But not now. It wasn't actually my work, so I don't want to post it.

Anyway, to any boarding councillor who is reading this, jiayou for NDD :D

NDD Tech Run & Cleanliness Check

2008-07-28T03:45:00.006+08:00

Yesterday was National Day Dinner 2008 Technical Rehearsal (at the Boarding School). Well, what could I say other than that the tech run was done up pretty badly ): ): Everything was just totally out of order; plans not prepared in time, logistics not sufficient, and tasks not allocated properly. Anyway, hopefully the National Day Dinner Committee will learn something from it, and make sure we don't do badly on the actual day.

Anyway, I (as Publicity Director) got scolded a little bit too T.T Because the backdrops were not prepared adequately, and the poster was not submitted in time. It wasn't exactly my fault anyway, since actually my sub-committee member was handling the poster. Actually I did remind my sub-com member to submit the poster on time *4 times* before the deadline, but apparently it still came in a little too late. Anyway, as the leader of the committee, I can't really push the blame to others. I shall need to blame myself for being overly lenient on deadlines.

I did see many got pretty pissed off by how everything went; and obviously we were all frustrated. But nonetheless, that isn't really any excuse for us not preparing well enough. I'll not be there for the second full-dress rehearsals as my parents are coming to pick me up for a while; but I shall place my hope in the team to get things straight. Hopefully the second one will be close to perfect, since that will be our very last chance.

Tonight was cluster cleanliness check, and I did take the opportunity to clean up the mess in my room, and to put up the cluster noticeboard that has been delayed oh so long (: Anyway it wasn't really any serious work as compared to the Boarders' Council noticeboard, as more than 10 people actually contributed to it. As for the cluster noticeboard, it's me and only me solo-ing through the entire thing, so it wasn't really expected to be of high quality.

Several photographs I have here (again, taken with my crappy phone camera). From left to right:

1. My external harddisk's USB port is BORKED =.=" Note the missing connector.
2. Cluster noticeboard (okay okay, not exactly nice)
3. Overflowing cluster dustbin after checking
4. My room after checking

Oh, and I have finally completed and finalized the poster for the Beijing Olympics 2008 Telecast at the Boarding School. I made it to fit with the Olympics theme colors very much. Haha looks quite nice IMO (and my ego comes again :D).

Tomorrow will be Physics SPA test. Hopefully I will do well, although we were not informed of any details of the SPA test *at all*. Yeah, Mr Steven Su says that just *anything* will appear. Wish me luck again xD

UPDATES xD

2008-07-27T00:57:00.004+08:00

Okay it has been long since my last post. Not much interesting things happened, though. I think I did quite okay for English SRQ. I wrote on the title that's similar to "With the advent of technology, a new phenomena in human history has happened: the young seem to be more knowledgeable than the old" - not the exact title though. Around 2 pages for each essay, so total 4 pages. Timing was alright, I did have 1 minute left before the papers were collected xD My stand was a little more to agreeing, but for many other things (i.e. life skills) the aged are still more knowledgeable.

Friday was a totally slack day, half day yay! Due to Track and Field, Judo, Gym, Air Rifle, etc. winning various championships, we had the half day off. So it was lessons till 11:20 AM only. Theoretically this meant that there was only 1 "true" lesson for the day, which is Chinese. The form teacher's period was about financial planning, which I dao-ed because I felt it was redundant for me. I had planned my finances by myself since Sec 1 okayy. For the Chinese compo I just got back (about 报章报道：老年人的环保意识比年轻一代的多), I got an A1 (53/70)! But Yueyin continues to OWN, getting 57/70 >_>. But I'm satisfied (: For double English periods we had 2 panel discussions, which I admit that I was sleeping for most of the time (since Mdm Ong was seated behind) - and well, that's pretty normal for all her lessons.

And I took my Physics re-test. Unfortunately it was capped ): ): and I believe I could garner an A1 well for this test. It was my fault anyway, for not having taken my first an only chance of getting A1 seriously. But I'm glad this time I had performed to my standard. All 3 of us, Jonathan, Junkai and I finished the paper at almost the same time.

There was no CCA, although Mr Kuek had called us back to continue on our video editing, virtually no-one went back there. So I decided to return to boarding school as well.

Saturday was just another Saturday.

Chinese Test, SPA, HSK, etc. etc.

2008-07-23T21:16:00.002+08:00

I (sort of) owned Chinese Test, SPA and HSK :D :D

Chinese Test on Tuesday was quite easy, the questions were quite straightforward. The only thing I fear of is paraphrasing too much. 黄老师 warned us Malaysian and PRC scholars not to paraphrase too much or else we'll miss the points at times. I fear my answering style this time might be a mistake :o Depending. But I won't fail, that's 100% guarantee plus chalk =P Otherwise I can zibei and die le. (And KC, that's IN YOUR FACE xD)

Chemistry SPA was quite alright too, although Mr Chew assisted me on one question when I got stuck (well, when you're stuck on one question, you can't proceed to the next). Chemistry SPA was again the typical titration thingo, and this time it's about the same. Hopefully my experimental values are accurate. For 4L'ers who are interested in my experimental results:

Amount of solution P used: 21.50 cm³
Percentage of zinc in brass: 28.6~% (I forgot the last decimal place)

So yeah. And I got B for 汉语水平考试 (高等), and apparently that's to be expected :D I scored 376/500 (damn Yu Hui who got 379, and You Jun who got 382). All no thanks to my 听力, which I got C, and 口试, which I got B. ): The rest (阅读，综合 and 作文) all A. I gotta niao Khai Khai for getting C (: AND for 初中等.

Today I broke another record for getting only 10/20 for a Chinese summary that we did previously. OMG. Only Yueyin got A1 for that particular piece, and the rest of main score range was from 10-13 marks. But yeah, I did badly ):

Tomorrow is English SRQ exam, hopefully I'll be able to do well. Wish me luck xD

Green Concert 2008 Photospam

2008-07-23T16:30:00.003+08:00

Alright, here it is. Photos from the Green Concert.

On another note, my Facebook account has been switched to the new Facebook layout. For those who don't know, the new layout looks like this:

Anyway the new layout still looks quite clean, so I don't mind the change (: In fact it makes profile pages less laggier by isolating application boxes from each other.

Racial Harmony Day and Sabbaticals Bidding :D

2008-07-21T23:42:00.006+08:00

I haven't gotten the Green Concert photos with me yet, so I guess I don't really have anything to post up first. The Green Concert was originally scheduled to be held at the open-air Amphitheatre (at the Boarding School), but it was unfortunately raining that day so we had to move into the Function Hall. Overall the event was quite well coordinated, except for some quirks here and there (sorry Heng Yang for the missing mike stand :D ). The PA group did extremely well this time, the volume controls were flawless, except for some timing issue, the rest weren't really a problem.

And so today was Racial Harmony Day celebrations. Too bad many 14SLC Facs didn't actually wear the shirt (I think I only saw Nicholas wearing lol). Hock Xiang did bring his fac shirt but didn't wear. Apparently the message didn't spread well enough, but anyway, yeah, I was in my fac shirt. :D

The Racial Harmony Day planning was quite alright, with the bazaar quite crowded. And the people who sold the stuff were inherently enthusiastic due to the fact that they weren't students. (The people who sold the foddstuff were mostly parents). The High School Council also set up drinks stall (and Yu Hui, Mr Tan Chee Wee and Hansen was selling the stuff). The items were largely overpriced, but yeah, they would go into a fund so I didn't actually care much.

From left to right:
1. Entrace to Kah Kee Hall (Food Bazaar)
2. Coupon Booth (sold in $5 and $10 bundles)
3. Video showing the culture/traditions/etc of difference races.
4. Yu Hui laming around (:

Anyway, despite the stalls being interesting and all, I was compelled to stay in class (well, we really had nothing to do). But somehow Mr Joseph Sim came in during 9:30 AM and asked all of us to go out and participate. So we did and I bought some random foodstuff that included a $3 nasi lemak. The nasi lemak was quite alright, although frankly they could not really be on par with the standard in my homeland (:

After that we went for the Racial Harmony Day sabbaticals. The sabbatical that I chosen was about making the "ketupat" shells and the Bunga Manggar (those kind of decorative items used during Malay wedding ceremonies). It was kinda boring, although there were like 8 4L'ers there. So the end product went to us although Wai Chew was also involved in the making of the bunga manggar.

I didn't go straight back to the boarding school after the whole thing. I still had to present my SMRP (IS) project to Mr Chia (our IS teacher and mentor), who just wants an update on our progress. So the presentation wasn't really formal, it's like just conversing to Mr Chia 2-to-1 (my other group member was Jay) in a normal conversation. And yeah, Jay was a little mad at me for dao-ing him (and well yeah, I wasn't willing to continue our project as of now, but later xD).

I have just bidded for my sabbaticals. It was all out (1000 points), since this is really my last sabbaticals in Hwa Chong. But recently (this year), the sabbaticals that included ACE points have really reduced (mainly to discourage students from being too reliant?) For those who are interested to know what I bidded for:

Anyway, I hope there will be half-day holiday tomorrow (: Since track-and-field had garnered 3 top positions and I think Judo did well too. Recently I'm busy on the Boarders' Council website (my task is to fill it with initial content), and also other related council stuff (like National Day Dinner Celebration).

That's it, I'll post up the Green Concert photos when I have time.

ATTENTION all HCI 14slc facs!

2008-07-20T20:38:00.001+08:00

Wear 14slc facs shirt tomorrow during Racial Harmony Day celebration! It's our "ethnic costume" :D :D

Day of Panel Discussions

2008-07-19T19:36:00.002+08:00

On Thursday I had to prepare two things:

Background information for Chinese Panel Discussion

Background information for English Panel Discussion

So yeah. I printed tons of materials (probably amounting to slightly over 50 pages) so I can be really prepared on Friday. Chinese panel discussion was about teacher-student relationship (探讨师生关系), so there are generally quite a lot of information that has been provided. However, on Friday morning, the entire discussion was EXTREMELY quiet -_- And not one soul wanted to participate in the discussion except for Tze Han. The other panellists were ill-prepared too - none of their information was crafted to last for the entire session (typically only about 1 minute or so in speech). So obviously I was nervous, and there was also this bunch of people who were sleeping behind, and another group who were playing some lame stuff on paper.

Well yeah. I was quite frustrated by the attitude of my classmates. Those who usually spoke up like Yi Zhang didn't do so, and well, maybe it's just the style of how I conducted the discussion. Probably I'm a boring person, and well, people just don't get entertained. Having said that, I could also trace the dull-ness of the entire discussion to the lackadasical attitude that many had. Even while a teacher was observing from outside the window, there were few lost souls who were sleeping. It was such a disgrace to our class. I'm deeply antagonised by the fact that we don't actually have any class spirit at all. Nobody seemed to have a sense of belonging to 4L, or nobody even had basic mutual respect to listen attentively while their classmates are speaking. Even the CMC members were not responsible enough to keep the class in check.

Speaking of respect, I am deeply upset that someone had actually vandalised my table (as an insult to Darryl, as that table was originally Darryl's seat). If I were Darryl, I would not feel pleased. Dear 4L, it is against Darryl's wish to have such vocals, it's really not what he wanted. I'm alright with the constant "blr blr", but vandalism is really overboard.

I didn't really want to make this rant, but I felt everything was intolerable.

Anyway, what was interesting on Friday was the BlueSky Enterprise Day 2008. It was held during lesson time, and the entire event was located near our classroom. So yeah, between lessons we actually went out to "participate" in this event. There were some primary school kids from Si Ling Primary, and yeah, they wore yellow blazers (so cute ^_^). And there were many other schools there, Jurong Junior College, etc.

And there was even a mobile Old Chang Kee stall set up behind our classroom, and everyone went insane (partly because of Zhang Quan's prescence). Many camped near there (:

CCA on Friday was pretty normal, continuing our video editing course.

During the posting time, Green Concert in the boarding school is about to start. But it was delayed to 8:30 PM since it was raining. I'll post some photos after the event then (:

Hwa Chong International Forum Series 2008

2008-07-19T19:11:00.003+08:00

During assembly earlier this week we had the Hwa Chong International Forum Series 2008. The forum for us Sec 4s was about "Sciences@Singapore", basically detailing what scientific progress has been made by Singapore over the recent past few years, mainly on the biotechnology sector. Our guest speaker was Associate Professor Low Boon Chuan, who is from the Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore.

It was quite an enriching talk, although some of the terms and fields were relatively unfamiliar to me. Professor Low also revealed certain career options, and has also addressed ethical issues with the advancement of science, such as that of embryology. Overall he was a better speaker than Lily Neo, the guest speaker for the 14th Student Leaders Convention (judging by the way he answers questions, quite straightforward).

However my future career should remain unchanged. It's infocomm for those of you who don't know. As iDA claims, "The Future is Infocomm: Be A Player" (: (:

Physics Test

2008-07-16T14:48:00.002+08:00

I don't feel like saying a lot, but yeah, I totally flunked the test. Seriously. That's from an A1 -> F9. But fortunately Mr Steven Su allowed me to retake the test on Racial Harmony Day with no caps. (It might been unfair at first, but then I have my reasons (: ).

That's it.

CLARIFICATION: The possibilities of having no caps remains very small. The thing is subject to "other teachers' permissions", due to the fact that it is a common test - you know what that means. But if you realize, 4K students, and the general trend of those who have taken the test later on Friday do score SIGNIFICANTLY better than those of us who took it earlier.

Painted Dustbins and Fieldtrip to Novell Singapore

2008-07-14T18:27:00.002+08:00

Yesterday I slept extremely early, probably around 9 PM. But later then woke up at 12 AM and found that I couldn't get back to sleep. So I slept at around 2 AM, but still, enough sleep (: Before that I helped Daqi and other Boarders' Council members to carry the painted dustbins from the Dustbin Painting Competition from Hall D to Hall B (or Block B, you could say). I wasn't there to spectate the painting process, but the designs were quite nice.

The dustbin that was painted by Heng Yang and Mr Dennis Teo (Boarding Staff) was completely off-theme haha, it was supposed to be based on "Eco-Friendly" stuff, but they painted one themed with red blood. =D The nicest design, I had to say, was Ms Quah's (Council Mentor) design.

Anyway, today's SMTP (IS) was much more interesting. We had a field trip to Novell Singapore, an international IT company that specializes more on software applications. Pretty much interesting, and I learnt that they were strong supporters of Open Source development as their presentations indicate. All the laptops used for the talks and presentations were running Linux and OpenOffice.org.

We also had a demonstration of the innovative technologies by Novell. There was also a webcast with a university student (who is attached to Novell), who is currently in Germany. I did participate actively in the talks. Novell Singapore does not really have any developers, and the office space wasn't really big. 17 of us squeezed into the meeting room. However the room had a view of the more popular tourist attractions in Singapore (NDP floating platform is one).

Overall it was an enriching experience. (: And I also had the chance to enquire about professional certifications in the IT industry (:

That's it for now. I'm tired ~_~

CCA, Council Noticeboard and Projectsday Results

2008-07-13T14:44:00.003+08:00

Going back to my pre-Maths test mugging, I felt I had something to rant about. After I came back from school, the boarding school made an announcement that all Hwa Chong (High School) boarders are to go to the Function Hall at 4 PM. Obviously I was not pleased, because the announcement came so sudden, and it was pre-Maths test. It turned out that the reason was that 2 MOE officers came to um... interact with the scholars? =.=" Anyway, it's the usual "Getting to know you" form that we had been filling like for like 4 years. Kinda pointless in my opinion. And there was also things like sharing session, how to cope with stress etc. But I find the sharing session pointless since I know well how to cope with stress. Fortunately, the entire thing only lasted 45 minutes, but that was really wasted time, and I could have put that to better use.

Oh, and see that I put "Lack of Sleep" there (:

Now, on to Friday. Friday, is well, yeah, a relatively normal day for me. During Art Club I did almost nothing. We were supposed to create a video for the Youth Olympic Games, but my group (consisting of Yong Boon, Wai Chew, Kenny, Zhang Quan, and others) have already taken the required footage a week ago. So basically it was all-slack (: (:

But after CCA ended I had to run off to get the Boarders' Council Noticeboard done. And the deadline is by 11:30 PM. I went back to the boarding school, got to Tutorial Room C2 (where we prepared our logistics) and started work. Yufei (Publicity Committee member) and her friend were already waiting there. While we were working halfway, to my horror, Tutorial Room C2 was booked by a teacher for her lessons, so we couldn't continue work there anymore. And we were forced to relocate everything to the Function Hall. We couldn't use the Council Room because it was used by APYLS. I pia-ed the captions for the names of the councillors within a space of 30 minutes. By 6:45 PM I was done, but the printing shop only opens till 7 PM.

So I chiong-ed all the way to Coronation Plaza to get the tag printed. Initially the uncle at the shop said it was already closed, although they haven't closed the shutters of the shop. But yeah, I had no choice, I begged him to do this very last job. And he agreed! :D Very kind :D :D

But it wasn't over. I had to run to Bukit Timah Plaza to get extra paints and brushes. I got those quickly, and realizing that I haven't had dinner yet, I ran to KFC (in NTUC Fairprice) there, and da pao-ed something back. And finally, I reached the boarding school at 8:05 PM.

Fortunately, Zhaoxiang (My JC2 senior), Yufei, Yufei's friend, Yu Jing were helping there. Yufei was complaining that there isn't really enough people to complete in time. So I got Robert, Zhi Tao and Wang Xiang Kang down for more help. Robert and I did the captions, photos and miscellaneous decorations, and the rest did the title and background. With random helps by various councillors and others, and random dirty jokes by Zhi Tao, by 11:20 PM the board was up and close to completion. And it was nice! Thanks to Yufei's excellent noticeboard design skills! Take a look:

THANK YOU THANK YOU to all Publicity Committee members. Especially Yufei who came up with the final idea. And Yu Jing for the previous idea, which didn't materialize but was nonetheless a good attempt.

As for Projectsday, I'm both sad ): and happy (: Yeah. One project passed and the other didn't. The failed project:

And the successful one! =DD Overall I'm still happy because I do have another, final chance to reach the Grand Finals. Hope I'll do well.

Pre-Maths Test and Maths Test

2008-07-10T23:40:00.003+08:00

There are two things that I would like to say about the Maths test I had today. It was easy, but was made slightly difficult due to the lack of time. Topics that were tested on included "Integration" and "Area under graph". Both are relatively small topics, so there wasn't really anything much to mug.

I spent the entire Wednesday mugging Maths. Started at about 4 PM, all the way till 1 AM. (Of course, I didn't forget dinner (: ). Within that timespan I completed all the exercises in the textbook covering both topics, which was quite a feat. I didn't get distracted by my computer this time round (: In fact it was fun doing all the questions.

With all that mugging, I felt the most confident in getting A1 for this time's test, assuming that there were no excessive careless mistakes made. I skipped 1 question, and 2 incomplete, due to insufficient time. I was a little freaked out when Ms Ang (our Maths and form teacher) said that there was only 2 minutes left. I was at question 4(a) then (the paper had 5 LARGE questions). But in the end, I did manage to finish till 5(a)(ii). =DD

On another note, today's assembly was immensely boring, especially the mass PCME session. The topic for the PCME session was "Media Literacy". I thought we went though the EXACT SAME thing last year - so like everyone was sianned. Too bad I can't sleep because I'm at the frontmost row - and Ms Ang was like sitting in the same row. The class performance was badly done up with the combined guitars, but the vocals were good. The class which performed (4M was it?) qualified for Teacher's Day performance though.

Went to Ms Esther Cheong's home room right after school, but she was apparently too busy to discuss things with us or give comments on our project.

And YEAH, HCI continues to PWN IN TRACK AND FIELD NATIONALS!! =D

Projects Competition

2008-07-08T16:35:00.004+08:00

Yay! I'm probably into Projects Competition Finals already! =D At least for my Category 9b Project (Infocomm Studies) about Mobile Phone Security. Surprisingly I did sleep at least 4 hours last night, as it is a ritual for me not to sleep at all a day before every Projects Competition. (: But yeah, I'm feeling happy, but abit tired.

At 8 am I quickly briefed Jay on what we're going to do. And also merge our final changes into the PowerPoint Presentation and website. We did get the site done, but the template was taken from my the other project and recolorized. But the content is there (: Just added the bibliography and modified the presentation.

At 9 am I went over to class 4A for my Category 4 Project (Resource Development). My god. One of our judges was Ms Esther Cheong, and I guess almost all of us know how good she is at killing projects. Obviously I was ultra nervous. Even Jonathan Lau, with his totally imba website got shot multiple times. That got us worried as his group's project quality is supposedly higher or equal to that of us in my opinion. The group that went to present before our turn was totally eliminated as the title was just about "Globalization", and you just know what that means. (Ms Cheong is a Geography teacher, by the way).

But yes, things didn't turn out that bad for us (: Even without Ho(ly) Xian's help. Although she captured the point that our site wasn't really interactive enough (yeah, I admit that), she did commend us for creating something that she did like. I think no other group received a commendation. We were lucky xD. Mr Alvin Tan was the other relatively quiet judge.

After that I choinged back to Computer Lab 3 to touch up on my Infocomm Project. Although the Cat 4 project has demoralized me a little, I still felt fine to put up an impromptu presentation this time round. And the result was: BEST PRESENTER =DD Thanks Jay for his commitment last night, and the majority of the contents. (: For sure, Mr Yong confirmed that we're in. But I sort of choked the presentation when Microsoft PowerPoint didn't show one of the slides (the text was on my laptop screen, but not on the projector o: ). But we exceeded the time limit, like 5 minutes or more. Nonetheless it was a great experience.

Oh, and OB Mongolia has been cancelled. I had the option to turn to OB India or OB Taiwan, but none of them interest me so I opted out of camp completely. Message by Mr Tok:

Hopefully I'll have double finals (: and double grand finals.

Inspire'08 and Youth X'travaganza

2008-07-06T14:35:00.006+08:00

I'm posting this from my mobile phone, from the Youth X'travaganza at Ulu Pandan CC. It's really boring here, there are like only few people around. Really a stark contrast compared to during Sec 1/2. I'm sitting here, doing nothing at all, and I even have the time to type this post on my phone. Alright, picture spammage, as usual :D

Talking about yesterday, I went to Inspire'08. It's a charity concert organized by the Straits Times Pocket Money Fund. The performances were of quite high quality, Music and Dance from Hwa Chong, Raffles Junior College Jazz, and many other external performers were there. There was a diverse genre of performances, including piano, dance, rock, jazz, etc. The Music and Dance performance is themed around the Counter-Strike concept. The pianist who performed was had nimble fingers and was SUPER FAST. o_o The performance by the FFC dance group was really eye-popping! Their popping skills was godsend. They even popped when presented with the token of appreciation. (: There was also an all-girls band with established personalities. There was also a super-cute group of small little girls dancing ^_^ Ding Jie, Zhaoxing, Xining were there too. Overall the thing sort of rocked, but the audience feedback wasn't really great. Only like half the seats were filled.

The Boarders' Council is having some sort of a crisis. I'm not revealing exactly why as it's still not supposed to be public, but it's what happens when one gets too pressured or has too many things to tend to. It's a sad thing, and it came at a time where we were seriously short of manpower. I'm upset, but I guess there's no other choice. I'll be updating this post with a photo when I can. That's it for now.