10:38:00 PM
Unwittingly Random
Why did the the homeless man fall asleep.
He was too bored. Geddit? Board.... ok whatever.
Haven't blogged for quite long.. a mix of playing winning eleven, f1 2002 demo :), squash, soccer and tv. With some work in between, but not much really done. I still have a bit of outstanding CEP work, but I'm really fed up and bored with C++, and related rubbish. I guess I might drop CEP next year! Nooo. Ok maybe not la, but if I get 3.2, I will seriously consider it. I'm aiming for a 3.6, by the way, I'm not Manek who will probably get full marks for everything without even trying.
Yawn. I've exhausted all my enthusiasm for the year in everything except squash. Can't wait to start safra training. The Coach Richard guy says that maybe if I'm good enough I can jump straight into F grade this year. Oo hope so. Lala.
27.3.07
8:25:00 PM
Here begins one entirely spam-ful post of no intended topic.
Today, I shall be totally random and post whatever I think of in huge random blocks. I think I shall be overly satirical today, after watching Clinton's ridiculously hilarious video clip during English.
Ok, whatever, I guess it probably took so long to load that you are so bored that you are about to leave. But don't. Here's more random stuff for you. As you may or may not know (I'm assuming here that you are immensely ignorant of current affairs), two compatriots of mine are currently taking part in the iam@youth.sg blogging competition. An interesting to note is that youths are not that stupid as to mistake an "at sign @" for an "a", especially with our increase in technological knowhow these days. :) Well, whatever.
You can go here to check out all the blogs in the top 20: http://youth.sg/blog/2007/03/24/11-9-winning-20-blog-entries-for-round-6-of-i-am-youthsg/, but HURRY! Dateline is this friday 23.59PM!
Ok, I got so caught up trying to make a full length review for Karliang and Zhicong that I got so bored and I don't feel like spamming anymore. Maybe tomorrow? iPromise?
26.3.07
6:48:00 PM
On "Resiliency" and Managing Failure
To be honest, I thought we really had a chance when the score was tied 2-2. Alas, the pressure got the better of Yan Liang, and we suffered our second 2-3 heartbreak. I mean: this was ACSI, the "brand name" of squash that was feared to such an extent in previous years. Bleah. What else can I say? It's like my roller coaster Maths ride last year, just that last year, I PASSED, and um.. if you put the match in retrospective (is that the right phrase to use?), it's like.. a failure. The team played hard but fell short = failure (put in a really blunt way).
Haix.
On a more positive note, SAFRA responded! Haha.
I didn't know that I knew the coach, and I guess the coach doesn't know that he knows me but haha. That's better than um.. (thinks of a random movie where the boy likes the girl but in his other "life" hates a person which turns out to be the girl), at least. Haha.
Also, got back ERP essays because Ms Chew wanted us to see for ourselves whether, in our right minds, if we were marking our own scripts, we would actually qualify for the best section. I think I did quite well :) Found lots of evidence in all the sections, and Ms Chew said something about "liking the organic style of writing in my essay...?" I don't really know what that is, but I guess that's a compliment. Using my literature-tuned brain which forces me to make an educated inference, I would say that I guess she's saying that my writing is like.. original? Argh, I can't really put it in words, but hey, its a compliment!
Anyway. I might upload it here, but then again I wouldn't want to be so boring as to post my homework here. (irony: i already HAVE posted some of my homework here; it's called EL bloggggg :P ) Haha.
25.3.07
8:46:00 PM
Random Quizzes :P
Raises eyebrow.
|
Doing random tests are strange. :) |
24.3.07
2:54:00 PM
24/3 Update
Um, just finished changing my links to make them look, well, nicer. Ran into a little trouble because when i changed the a variable in my css stylesheet, it changed the link for the current affairs page as well. This looked hideous, as I set the width of links to 249px so, combined with the a:hover{background-color:#FFCC00}, it looked quite nice. Like hover buttons popping out of nowhere, just that they aren't. Solved the problem about 20 minutes later (waste of time!!), by creating a new class .current:hover and formatting it so that the background color would be black instead of orange, and everything else similar to my previous links. Last thing, I changed the link code from the usual a href=" " to a rather ingenious a href=" " class="current". Hahaha. I hope you got bored. That would make two of us.
23.3.07
10:22:00 PM
Random
Here's an interesting thought. If you put two of the same type of words together, sometimes, instead of adding extra emphasis, you change the meaning completely. Take for example the word "giant". Gigantically giant would just mean that something is really, really big. But what about the word "pathetic"? Something that is pathetically pathetic would be so pathetic at being pathetic that that thing is no longer pathetic to a large extent (that's what the aim of putting two similar words together; adds emphasis, hyperbole, whatever). Interesting, right? So if I say my work is pathetically pathetic does that mean I'm a show off? Ok, well, probably the above musing is utter rubbish. Pathetically pathetic could also mean that something is pathetic to the extent that it is pathetic. Confused? Haha.
Anyway, I couldn't think of much to talk about besides lots and lots of rants, which is something I don't feel like doing at this point of time. Hence, I decided to post a portion of my utterly random poem which I'm supposed to slam during english.
Ouch. Haha. I hope you didn't hurt yourself too badly.
Um it's supposed to be based on an emotion (try and guess, it's easy), but I thought I'd have a little fun.
***
The carpenter was busy making furniture
When suddenly, the toolbox dropped
From the table onto his foot.
Argh, screw it.
The teacher was desperately teaching a class
Of rowdy, noisy, hyperactive young boys.
Repeat after me.. A, B, C, D, E...
Eh, can you people shut the F up or not.
***
I bet you all know what emotion that is. It's the feeling of experiencing life to the fullest isn't it? Heh. Anyway. still no response from SAFRA (I guess the Conveynor must be like some really old guy who checks his email once a month :P), so I shall wait, lala. I also tried to install maple because I was really bored and wanted to escape from reality big time. However, there was some major conflict between the tablet pc and it's multiple antiviruses, and the increasingly gimmicky Wizet game client, hence I am here posting this.
Ok, I saw this really nice adidas bag which is black and blue, but DO NOT PANIC. Adding amylase can reverse this and turn the black nice and iodine-yellow once more through the digestion of starch. Bio test is coming up in week 8! Haha I don't want to get anything close to Paul's mark (shan't disclose), so I'm working extra extra hard, lest I get 30 again, like this CCT that just past.
Maths is easy too.
Lets play the circle formula game.
Find the radius and center of a circle given the formula
x2 + y2 +4x + 8y + 3 = 0
k here goes.
rearrange terms to form: x2 + 4x + y2 + 8y + 3 = 0
complete the square for x and y: [x2 + 4x + (2)2 - (2)2 ] + [y2 + 8y + (42) - (42)] + 3 = 0
complete completing the square: (x+ 2)2 + (y+ 4)2 - 4 - 16 + 3 = 0
calculate the remaining stuff outside brackets to make it look like formula (x - a)2 + (y-b)2 = r2
continuing.. (x +2)2 + (y + 4)2 - 17 = 0
blah blah.... (x + 2)2 + (y + 4)2 = 17
now.
the radius of that really strange circle is sqrt 17
and the center of the circle is (-2, -4)
IS THAT CORRECT? Maths geniuses please come and correct me asap lest i learn the wrong thing for TA nex week!
22.3.07
9:28:00 PM
Squashhh
Ok i suddenly have become moderately enthu about squash. Theres something about a new racket and new black strings (ok i used a black permanant marker and coloured the strings totally black, ridiculous, yes?) that boosts a person's morale about something. I guess that applies to new things in general. Anyway. Went down ALL THE WAY to Kallang to "support" the C division team. They were playing against ACSI, and they lost 4-1.
I guess I didn't really want to voice out my opinions, because Michael was already calling me extra. Ok, like *makes the leon W sign with fingers* WHATEVER; in that case what about you. shortage? (ok that was the best possible opposite that I could think ok). Actually I had some stuff to say, but I guess that's me isn't it; keeping everything bottled inside locked tighty away..
Anyway, I think the bottom line is that ACS have this interesting aura of intimidation where you kind of freak out; like what kind of devilish brand name is ACS, filling little kids with terror. It's especially interesting because as a senior when you've been there, got thrashed and came out, you don't quite feel it anymore. The second time you go in it's you don't feel nervous, you just want revenge.
Haha. I just realised. My forehand is really, really good now. Not to be arrogant or anything, but I changed my swing a little, from pulling back the racket horizontally sideways/backwards (something like Bryan Nah's huge triangularish swing, except on a much smaller scale), I'm now swinging from.. hmm it's kind of hard to describe. Maybe I should take a video cos then it would be much clearer. Anyway, my forehand is very consistent now, it's just a matter of training up my backhand like crazy; my backhand is not bad now. I just can't seem to swing fast enough as opposed to my thuderous forehand. Bleah.
Oh yes, instead of chasing after people to join SAFRA squash with me, I have decided to just go in alone and I have sent in the online application form thingie on the SAFRA website, yeah. I guess I should see a marked improvement in my overall game, which is not bad, i can take quite high number of points off Michael; I can even win sometimes. Depends on my irregular form, I guess.
Last thing abt today: after the C div match ended and the debrief was over, Jun Wei and I booked a court and played. The booking process is quite freaky. Firstly, at 17X (this is no maple level, its my height, approx) I had to hunch over the counter and talk through this opening in the glass wall about 1.5m from ground level. Secondly, the counter lady asked for my IC, contact number, postal code and unit number! Like, whatever for! Is it some intelligence agency for CID la Singapura? :)
Ah well. Hope I get into the safra nsl team next year. Haha.
21.3.07
11:24:00 PM
Clueless
I'm currently trying to think of something to blog about but can't.
Something that won't make you have a strange feeling
In your stomach that you probably usually get
when someone says something really, really hurtful
right in your face.
Maybe you just suck at playing the game of life;
Or maybe you're in denial; delusional and delirious.
I'm trying to be a really nice guy here, I hope you see
The effort that I'm putting in not to hurt your feelings or mine.
I mean. Do you want me to post you suck notes right here, right now?
I can if I want to.
No one can stop me
But once again:
Who is
The Nice
Guy?
Like.. whatttt? That was so random, but I guess it kind of expresses all my pent up hate towards random people; classmates, supposed friends, the works. Gah. Oh well, the physical shape of the poem looks quite cool. But, whatever.
I think R&J is driving me crazy. I briefly scanned thru the whole thing in abt 1 hr (quick huh; sacarsm here!) to get an idea of what the whole plot is.
The lit test is supposedly on friday where there is no lit period, and tomorrow, there is lit, but however, tomorrow is not called friday. Instead, it is given a seperate, unique name called thursday. But why fret over thursday or friday? After all, what's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Are you a Montague, Thursday? No you aren't. Thursday, thursday, wherefore art thou thursday. Thou art only twenty minutes away from thy grand entrance.
Ok, I am currently bordering lunacy. I do not like Lit online quizzes. I can tell you the storyline, but when it comes to quotes, I am clueless. For example, I can answer a question like "Who did Friar Lawrence ask to deliever the letter of instruction to Romeo?", but if they ask a stupid, stupid question like "fill in the blank. two families both alike in ______, in the fair city of Verona". Ok, in this example, since I set it, I would obviously know that the answer is dignity. In any other case, I would be clueless and put some stupid answer like.. wealth, perhaps? Bleahhhhllbbb..
I suddenly seem to have gone back into a strange solitude-liking mode. Take free period for example. I have suddenly stopped enjoying "hanging out" with Ben Low, Leon and Geoffrey. I somehow have cease to enjoy happyhappy conversations and games galore. Instead, I seem more attracted to rushing to the hml, dumping my bag on one of the shelves and finding an empty sofa somewhere far from the entrance and relaxing by myself, or with one of the less active socialites (is that even a word), such as Zhongren or even Shanghai, who spends free periods sleeping.
:(
I'm depressed now.
17.3.07
8:26:00 PM
A Much Better Tioman Post
A long, long time ago in a far away time zone of GMT +8, YEAR 2005, I made about 2-3 long posts rambling on about Tioman. However, on hindsight, I guess it would have been easier to paste the whole schedule of the tioman trip there, which incidentally is avaliable on http://www.ecofieldtrips.com, somewhere. Anyway, what was REALLY missing was and is PICTURES :) Unfortunately, in 2005, Nigel Fong had not yet purchased his D70 and was hence not involved in photography of any kind. Furthermore, the constant water activities was a turn off for Nigel's photography zest; overprotectiveness over his cameras (you can't blame a man for protecting his $1000 camera from water, can you?)
So: here's an array of pictures coming at you. Unfortunately, ecofieldtrips (the company organising the trip) decided to resize everything and everything is rather small. So, here goes. Paul, Ben Lee and Daniel, ENJOY!! My memory is good. Don't worry. I mean it :P This might be a lot longer than last time, but more thought has gone into it, 2 years from the actual event.
-----------------------------
After being cooped up in a really tiny bus (I guess our oversized bags made a BIG difference in our amount of legroom), we were unceremoniously hoarded into an old, scary boat. Although I can swim averagely (is that a word??), I am really quite scared of some forms of water transport. This would include Bangkok canal boats (IF YOU FALL INTO THE GUNKY WATER THAT WOULD BE UTTERLY DISGUSTING), and old, rickety boats, such as the one we were in. If I'm not wrong, there was this ancient looking TV in the middle of the boat, and it was showing Ice Age. Note that I said showing. It was hard to really hear anything, so it was basically causing a headache. To make things worse, the boat was hardly moving much. It was just bobbing around and instead of surging forward, as we would have liked, we were constantly being overtaken by fishing ships.
Bored as I was, I managed to indulge in pinball on Daniel's old motorola phone. I racket up 5 million points (a high score which would be broken by Daniel later) and got really bored. Pressing 3 and 6 and 0 makes me lethargic. Like listening to Mr Rizal rattling on about "t equals to zero seconds" and standing at the door. (Sorry to say, he is the main reason why I dropped physics. You just DONT take a subject you hardly understand anything about!) I couldn't sleep either. I had already slept on the bus to make up for my rude awakening at 4+ am, so this was clearly not a time for shut eye. Also, the cacophonous rattling of the ancient engine seemed determined to drive us crazy (huge pun intended... engine > drive... argh never mind).
Finally, after many hours of travelling, we reached our desination! (cue first picture)
WELCOME TO TIOMAN PAYA RESORT! Actually the official name is Paya Beach Resort (Tioman has many beaches, we were at Paya Beach. No prizes for guessing that, though. After a quick lunch, we went for a round the island rainforest/mangrove tour, showing off the flora and fauna of Tioman immediately.
Daniel's group in the mangrove. Faces to note are Jian Xiong, Guo Wei, Daniel himself (right in the middle), Manek, Tan Yong En amongst others. On the extreme right is Mr Law and the guide for the day, Karen (she's a total ____ by the way). We were given group names Porpoise, Orca and Dolphin, which forms POD together, i think Daniel's group was called Dolphin. Anyway, I was in Orca, and the first day guide was RAJJJJJ! The best ever.
Here's our group. I don't see myself, but you can definitely see Raj. Right in the center waving for us to hurry. Anyway, we did LOTS of cool stuff in the mangrove. We learnt about BRAS (no, it's not something sick, it's just Brugueria, Rhyzophora, Avicennia and Sonneratia, the 4 main species of mangrove), bowed fervently to the cocoa trees, listened in awe was Raj imitated bird calls and managed to get some birds to reply :D The main highlight of the day was Ben Lee's up close and really personal immersion into the mangrove environment. He was such a huge sensation. He created such a splash at Tioman. No really. There was some kind of mangrove root above water, and we stepped over it one by one. However, as Ben Lee made his ascend up the mangrove root, he fell head first into the murky water below.
(Something tells me that Ben Lee became Valine after that; he seriously became Mangrove-Aquaphobic. On the last day at the seashore survey, Karen asked us to go over and see some rare shell or something. Everyone plodded over except for Ben Lee, who refused. The nice guy that I am :), I went over to ask Ben Lee what was wrong. Ben Lee quipped:
"Yucks! I don't want to go there, it's too dirty."
I shall jump straight to the seashore survey while I'm here, we had to find objects of interest in the area we were designated (we orcas went to the rivermouth, near the place where Ben Lee plopped into the water). After that, we went back to the resort to present our findings with regards to the environment and possible factors affecting it.
This was my group's presentation. Joshua Tung handled everything brilliantly :P
Paul and this mysterious other guy was presenting for the Porpoises. If my great memory hasn't failed me, there was an imitation of Channel Newsasia by Guo Wei's group, and Mr Law asked Joshua Tung out of 3 objects, two of them plant leafs and the last one a frond of seaweed (apparently we were presenting on that, hmm wonder why) which was the odd one out. Joshua Tung promptly replied in his cutecute (maybe not well..) voice "I think it's seaweed." Mr Law said "And why?" and Joshua said "It does not have real leaves"
Ok I was clueless about this. I did not know that, but O_o.
Anyway. Back to the first day. After a snorkelling lesson and a MARVELOUS BUFFET DINNER (All our meals were Buffet style, and the food was GOOD. Not some cheapskate catering service food like at low budget camps, but REAL HOTEL FOOD. What a treat :) Anyway, we all gathered in this small, cold bar (beer+wine, not like a metal bar) to have a briefing on what we should have seen but never had a chance to see.
The second day saw the 3 groups going out in 3 different bumboats to various snorkelling spots of choice.
I am not sure which boat this is; I have a feeling this was not our year, but just to let you know what it was like, here's a pic. Pity, a lot of the fish were realy cool looking, but the water was quite murky despite the rain, and the tide was sending salty water into my mouth via the really inviting breathing tube in the snorkel, which was disgusting. We saw lots and lots of tiny fish anyway, and Ms Aymie Lim, the Orca teacher IC was really nice, bringing Milkybars for all of us (I probably will do the same if I get to go to Tioman for the juniors; after LOADS of suffering ala Salt Water, chocolate never tasted better!)
Anyway, during lunch, we stopped at a random beach and had lunch of packet-ed fried rice with a large drumstick. It tasted average compared to the resort food, and it tasted a little bland. Maybe it was the overdose of salt. Oh well. Later, we continued to some mangrove, which was quite cool. Patrick brought our group to this nice desolate place which he knew about. Apparently, at high tide, the place which we sat down at would be completely flooded with water. Oh yes. As we were making out way though the dry mangrove roots, Ben Lee stepped on one and broke it in two. I KID YOU NOT. I tell you, if Raj was our guide that day he would have CRIED. Anyway, mangroves are resilient heh.
Coming back, we were crusing ahead of both boats, and we were ready to take a early showers, when disaster struck. Daniel's boat was stuck! The rudder had caught on to something. Oh no! We valiantly made a huge circle back to save the other group. To our dismay, our boat's efforts were rewarded with smoke from the other boat charging ahead of us. They were "unstuck", BLAH. We were now behind, and a little miffed. Our early shower was gone, and instead of playing heros, we had ran straight into a burning building and realised that the screams for help were coming from a radio. Haha no hard feelings but life's like that :)
That night, we hiked through a different section of the jungle. The climax of it all was when 5 volunteers crossing some minature river to search for mangrove snakes. That was really cool haha. It was like *search for the murderer.* everybody shhhhhhhh. kind of thing. After that, we searched for long sticks. Wondering what it was for, we followed Patrick, Raj and Karen as they led us to Paya Beach, where we saw what was in store for us. We had to create a stick pyramid and then climb it. Then we had to dive into the water!
*shakes head like Mr Vetuz and says in the Vetuz-cutevoice: "No ah!"
It was a CAMPFIRE!! The sticks were for roasting marshmallows. Hahaz we played lots of lame games, such as um.. cheka cha? :) Well, I'm not sure if that's the real name, but you go around saying cheka cha, cheka cha, cheka cha cha cha and do accumalated random stuff. Like, you have to stand on one leg, then you have to stand on one leg and touch your head, and then stand on one leg and touch your head and hop around or something like that.
The highlight of it all was the Toilet Bowl song by Patrick.
"Sitting on the toilet bowl"
"Ooo"
"Backside feeling very shoik"
"Aaaa"
Something like that. Daniel, please fill in the blanks! After that, we headed back for a MAGGI MEE PARTY! Jon Lee, Daniel Lim and some others from other rooms came over for a cup noodles party!!! We had boiled some water before we left, and boiled even more and had a really nice time. Hahaz, Nigel was REALLY funny, every night, he would stand outside his room, chatting with his mother in hokkien on his handphone. Putting the fact that it would probably cost a lot aside, Nigel was REALLY funny talking in a strange mix of english, hokkien and malay. Well.
Ok anyway, on the last day, after the seashore survey (mentioned earler), we hiked over to another beach (starts with M, Melina, maybe?) to see a turtle sanctuary. We watched a video at the sanctuary, saw a turtle rearing enclosure (they dont rear per se, they help young abandoned turtles grow properly, I think). As we made our way back, we took a group photo which we never got to see..
(insert photo that never appeared here!)
Back at Paya Beach Resort, Karen decided to play school teacher and went
"Guys, do you know, the Malaysian government want to turn this wholeeeeee stretch of sea into an airport. And what is going to happen to the reef and all the beautiful fish and corals that you saw on the first day? And what would happen to the turtles at the other beach? And who would want to visit Paya Beach Resort if there's no beach???" Despite my dislike for politically correct lectures, I thought it was really quite striking. If the airport popped up there, everything would be screwed up. Which is why I want to go back this year with Daniel and Paul.
Well. The ferry was supposed to come at 2. It came at 5
Here's us waiting at the jetty :)
Yayyyy. Oh yes, while waiting we fed fish with fish bread, and ahem, some potato chips. Ok sorryyyyy. We dropped some by PURE ACCIDENT! SORRY FISH!! Ok anyway, the boat was a different one, this one really fast. We got back to Mersing, got up a bus and started the drive back. En route, we stopped at a certain P1 restaurant in Mersing, which served fantastic home cooked food. The best dish was the mashed potatoes, which were seriously mashed potatoes, not some potato powder which fast food restaurants use. It is called P1 restaurant for a weird reason. Apparently, there is this whole wall with drawings done by p1 students. Did you notice this guys? On the way to the toilet, there is! :)
On the way, there were loads of stories and jokes etc. etc. shared by Patrick and everyone, we sang songs, did random stuff at the back of the bus... hahaha. Lots of crap but lots of fun. Well, as Nelly Furtado sings, all good things come to an end (did I need Nelly Furtado to tell me that?) We reached school at about 3 am, and that was the end of a great adventure. I WANT TO GO BACK THIS YEAR!
----
On a seperate note, you can now call me at 82397768. :) Yay
15.3.07
5:06:00 PM
Um, whatever
I got another equation wrong, apparently.It's supposed to be 2fx - 2gy, um.. sorry..? Argh, just goes to prove my point about carelessness; I bet you all out there can sympathize with me lots! :P Ok, that was stupid. Have been listening to the same old songs lately, I haven't bought anything yet, so if you want to buy me some albums, you CAN! The only new inclusions I have on my Neeon is Candyman by Aqua and Candyman by Christina Aguilera. Um. The latter is not covers by the way. Christina's is really suggestive, while Aqua's is just plain retarted, but with a really NICE tune. Perfect for disco music, about 20 years ago, but still nice :) I shall upload these on the sidebar provided RadioBlogClub has..
Yesterday, Joshua, Brent and I went to substation for SL. It's a really cool, vintage place. The people there are really friendly and quirkly, and the office there is like a real mess, but apparently they like it that way. Anyway, when we first arrived, Brent and I crowded around this gigantic Mac, where Brent was doing some photoshop work; cropping and resizing and editing of photos to make their file size about 70kb. Anyway, after that Joshua went to buy black spray paint, but came back with blue, because they ran out.
Dialogue of the day contender #1:
Joshua: "Um, they ran out of black paint, so I bought blue, is that ok?"
Ms Annabelle (um, wonder if the spelling is right): "Um, actually that's not ok, but it's ok"
Hahaha, ok.
Anyway, after that, left brent halfway to do this really tedious job of putting invite cards into envelopes, then putting address stickers and stamps.. Joshua came to help halfway and instead of Mr Hatta's target of 5, we finished at um. 3. After that we walked to the Philetalic Museum to post the letters, and we spent a good 5 minutes debating whether the ancient red post box-looking object WAS an operational postbox (WILL TAKE A PICTURE WHEN I GET TOP-UP CARD)
Dialogue of the day contender #2:
Me: Um, excuse me, is the postbox.. thing outside operational?
Counterlady at SPM: (starts laughing)
Her friend/co-worker walks over.
Counterlady (to friend): They asked whether your postbox is real.
Friend: Of course la, last in Singapore one leh blah blah, why would you think that?
Us: Um, we are supposed to deliever some letters, later we put them in an exhibit, then we die.
-- At this point the counterlady and friend are already laughing..
Friend: (Points to a puny, obviously exhibitlooking exhibit.) Ah, this one is an exhibit, you put your letters here, will stay here forever. Outside can use. :)
Well, DOTS. Wait, I really need a picture to show why we thought it was an exhibit. Here's a temporary photo from http://www.marimari.com .. It's really tiny, but i guess you can see.
Haha. On our return, we went to the Random Room to sort books, and after that, we spraypainted some wooden boxes. Really fun :) Haha. Will come back with more pictures... next time?
Anyway. I have added the archives section: I really do NOT like the archives, cos I really hate to go back and dwell on the long past. Except for the really nice memories, it's really pathetic reading constant rants about people from 2 years back. Haha.
13.3.07
2:18:00 PM
Random #2 - Dots.
I'm not feeling very happy now.
Well, here are some random pictures in an attempt to make things a little brighter. Bleah.
US Sentiments, perhaps?
I know one girl I wouldn't want to date. Well, LOL.
Argh.
11.3.07
12:17:00 PM
Random #1: Of Music and Men
I'm resetting my random counter to 1, to see how random I can get. Anyway, changed one of the songs from, um.. wait let me try and remember. Ok I forgot. Oh wait. If I'm not wrong, it was Littlest Things by Lily Allen. It's now Wasted by Carrie Underwood. Anyway, it's interesting to know how music plays an interestingly big part in our otherwise mostly-monotonous lives. One day going home after school, as I was busy listening to my trusty Zen Neeon (IT IS NOT BAD; IT HASN'T DIED ON ME YET.), I noticed a rather interesting sight. Everybody except 1 person on the 54 had some form of earphones plugged in. Even the old uncles and aunties sitting in the *specially reserved green seats*.
Oo.
Anyway, I was going to crap loads and loads of stuff. but decided against it. I'm not going to bore people to death with philosophical arguments. Zz.
10.3.07
9:59:00 PM
Un(Amusing Musing) #1: On Maths and Tennis
Haha. Started a new series of blog posts called Amusing Musing. Probably some kind mix between previous Random posts and deeper insights, perhaps? Haha. I was thinking in class and musing about how the phrase "a musing" is really just "amusing" with a space, so a musing should be funny, right? Anyway. The dictionary doesn't agree. The Oxford dictionary says something like "deep thoughts" or something like that. Funny how Maths lesson drives you to insanity.
It's not because I don't understand a thing either. This year is the COMPLETE opposite of last year with Mr Mustafa. Now, with Mrs Tan/Ms Peh Lian Hong (PLH, as Leon calls her, for short; no disrespect intended :P) I seem to take a short look at everything and know how to do everything really, really fast. I must have somehow sapped some of Barry's maths RA genius. The thing that kills me is that I am CARELESS EXTREME as Nigel Fong has an IQ of about 1000. In the maths test, 4 of the questions in which I lost marks, + signs were written as -s, and vv, screwing up the equations, so, instead of getting about 25, I got 18.5. Idiotic.
Well. I wonder what's so amusing about that. Probably 80% of the cohort failed. That's what's funny. I mean, HELLO, excuse me, but the paper was SO EASY, just that we were super, SUPER, SUPER rushed into carelessness by the ridiculous time limit. HELLO, MATHS DEPARTMENT: whatever happened to "preparing us for long, 4 hour papers in RJC"? That is SO hypocritical. Also, the bonus questions are RIDICULOUS. From "free marks", they have evolved to be "searching for the really MATHEMATICALLY GIFTED." Has it occured to ANYONE that this goal of bonus questions is RIDICULOUS, as the MATHEMATICALLY GIFTED are ALREADY IN MATHS RA? What's the point of bonus questions if all it achieves is making us feel even more frustrated with Maths. Like, BLEAH.
If any maths teacher reads this, you might probably raise 100 objections with little things that may seem offensive, but please understand not everyone is good at maths. RI is NO LONGER a school of maths and literary geniuses. The whole point is that we are NOT in Maths RA, because we are not good at maths. I don't think there's an in between, because either you can do the question or you can't, unlike Lit Essays, where you can crap up a storm and get maybe 50%.
So, what's so amusing about that? This mind boggling topic of x2 + y2+2fx+2gy+c=r2 is really driving us up a wall. Hence, after much deliberation, I have changed the title to Un(Amusing Musing), keeping the original title, but well, it is NO FUN at all to fail. I almost died last year.
On a more positive note (but not by much), we went down to support Felix at the Nat Sch Tennis Final! It was a day of totally lousy emotions for Rafflesians, as we got thrashed 5-0 by year 4 and 5s of ACS against marginally smaller, cuter Felixes etc. Anyway. We really died badly, but what seemed to impress me was the fact that RI refused to concede, despite losing the first 3 matches. I guess making the scoreline 3-2 would impress on the school as a much more credible effort. However, we still lost 5-0, but those who were there would resent ACSi even more than we already do.
Firstly, they were shouting at us (RI) to give up after being down 3-0. Apparently they wanted to go home early and celebrate, but they were wrong. Apparently we were going to make them stay until 6pm. Yay.
Secondly, I really wonder how much IQ some of them have. They (I took a look and saw 90% of the supporters dressed this way) walk around with knee-long bermudas with their shirts tucked out, hence creating a hooliganish image. Worse still, some of them were playing SOCCER at some tiny area, which is retarded, making a nuisance of themselves, AND showing the tennis teams (both RI and their own) how much they care. Like, ZERO.
Thirdly, ACS(i) people have ZERO INTEGRITY. Felix was playing against a certain Marcus Tay, and the game score was 30-30. Or so it seemed. The referee counted wrongly and said the score was 15-40. Instead of doing the right thing, Marcus Tay shrugged and said "I really forgot, sorry". So did all the ACSI supporters, they seemed to be insistent that the score was 15-40. Felix did the temporary Thailand and they had a huge conference between the coaches (the ACSi coach was probably insisting that the referee's decision was final and all, because Felix did not get his rightful point back.
The list goes on.
The only highlight of the day was Norman catching a cute frog from a drain. We called it Maswari, after Norman (his full name is Norman Maswari Aziz), and he kept it temporarily in some damp tissue paper. Trust me, it IS cute.
Some blur pictures taken by avid handphone photographer Paul:
Cute, right!
Pity about Felix. We went there to watch him lose; probably made him feel worse that he already did. Anyway, we consoled him at the end like good classmates do :) Touching isn't it.
3:31:00 PM
I'm Back, I'm Back!
I am BACK, with a brand new template too! Found a nice singapore skyline picture that caught my eye, and I decided to make a film-strippy effect to it, and soon, the blog was flooded with little brown squares. Haha.
arctisc.wordpress will be left to die; too bad for wordpress, they've just lost a customer.
I have been using the com for abt 5 hours straight to make the template on notepad, and with the constant refreshing of the template on a seperate window, I haven't eaten lunch. Anyway. Off to eat. Bye.
8.3.07
9:04:00 PM
random
Yay. I'm finally updating again. (this is yet another note for Ms Chew to click the link "ep" on the left to access english portfolio posts until I get or make a nicer template);
Haha, anyway: I haven't updated for days, and neither have I updated my wordpress blog. Wordpress may be sleek and all, but if I can't even access the dashboard page, what's the point? Worse still, I can hardly find my way around the loads and loads of absolutely random features that wordpress has a lot of. It's irritating.
Anyway. I'm making very little progress making a new skin. I'm trying to find a nice Phantom of the Opera picture to make a banner with. Phantom of the Opera is like one of the coolest musicals, second to the other cool musicals by Andrew Lloyd Webber, like Cats (all time favourite!), Evita and even JC Superstar. Haha. But they certainly can't outdo Cirque Du Soleil in anything! But they are all really, really good theatre to go watch. Everything is of the highest; the quality, the meticulously designed costumes, the nerve-wrecking stunts; and yes, even the price.
It's really different from potentially-ameteurish local productions, try having a Singapore Circus; like, the best we have is Uncle Ringo, and I don't even thing the Uncle Ringo Funfair is Singaporean. Ringo is NOT a Singaporean name. I trust my instincts. I'm not saying all local productions are ameteur, though. Everything but the Brain and Survivor Singapore (we watched these two in Jan.) are two huge counterexamples, and although Brain was somewhat more forgettable because of it's semi-tragic storyline, and although SS was very morally and preachy amidst the laughs, both were equally good.
And hard: on my pocket.
Ok, enough about theatre, it's getting too lit-ty for me. Besides, the lights are already on here. Har har. Yesterday was the tennis final. Skipped substation to go and "support" well, presenting:
The Rafflesian definition of commonly-used terms #151
match-support v, n
(metch-sur-port)
1. The act of showing your face at the competition venue, and reading books.
2. The art of catching frogs from drains and giving them names such as Maswari etc.
3. The art of going there and going home within 5 minutes of each other.
4. " " (where are you in the first place? :P )
4.3.07
4:42:00 PM
NOO.
Something really bad happened to my blog template. I made a new one last night but something happened. Now whenever I go to my blog, it says Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close or something like that. So, whatever, I'm switching to wordpress, and this blog is going to be for english portfolio only.
Note to Ms Chew: To access posts, please click the labels link on the sidebar.
Note to everyone: My blog has hereby, officially and whatever other big term there is, moved to http://arctisc.wordpress.com. I regret not setting up a wordpress account earlier, because niemi.wordpress.com was taken, and, to add to my misery, has one PATHETIC post, and has died as of November 2006, if I'm not wrong.
Well.
Bye Bye Blogger, thanks for the mermories.
3.3.07
7:55:00 PM
Ok tell you what; the fate of this blog as my personal one rests entirely on tonight. If I cannot get an average template up by tonight, I'm using wordpress.
Note to self:
Tomorrow afternoon: Chinese Compo
Tomorrow night/early morning: Dig up chinese worksheets and do filing.
Monday afternoon (4pm liddat) do ALL CEP homework together with Leonard over MSN.
Now: Do template.
Gah.
7:12:00 PM
I Am Migrating
I will be migrating to the USA.
Woohoo.
Just kidding. That was random.
I'm not migrating. I'm staying put here in Singaporeeeeee.
I will be migrating, however, to a wordpress blog after this term's english portfolio assessment. This blog will be reserved for English Portfolio responses, and I will be using a .tk domain to have sort of a index page. Well. Lala.
2.3.07
9:32:00 PM
Random Day.
Haha, today is random day.
Whatever.
I tried starting on a new template but I got really bored, and irritated. You can't manipulate images properly with Paint. Haha. Anyway. I shall be boring and talk about my day today. Haven't done that without missing the plot for quite long. Disclaimer: My day was not boring today.
First period: Bio.
Went to the bio lab for some cool experiments involving air pressure, catalase and potatoes. We used dataloggers to measure the air pressure of potato puree mixed with Hcl, NaOH and some other stuff, can't remember. It was especially fun because we were using super ancient Pentium processor laptops. Also, some totally random nut changed all the file names of everything on the laptop to stupid stuff. For example: in the start menu, Microsoft Office was replaced with "Online Games". Inside, instead of MS Word, PPT, Excel etc, there was Rakion, maplestory, DotA, World of Warcraft etc. All fake, of course, but nevertheless funny.
Second period: FREE
Went to the com lab to upload and finish all the random CEP homework. CEP is getting increasingly hard, but its quite manageable, and I'm using it as kind of a filler for Physics. Of course, C++ is quite retarding and of course, CEP != Physics. Bleah. Some C++ joke.
Recess
Went over to RJ for recess. I seem to be distancing myself from the free period gang. Hmm. Prefer solitude, I guess. Bleah. I just find that most people having free period, like Jon Shin, Leon etc. are like, so hyperactive. I prefer silence, and relaxation hmm.
English Test.
Not much to say, Ms Chew picked lightbulb moment as one of the topics, so I rambled on about how I got 1.2 for maths CA, worked the **** off like a Barry Tng, and ended up passing and feeling so good about life and quadratic equations.
Chinese.
Really a waste of time. The worse thing, we were doing some compo about why Chinese is hard to study. I mean, do I need to photocopy my blank gao zi with lots of cancellations and question marks as proof?
Hahaha, I realised that my day was quite boring after all.
Heh, sorry la.
1.3.07
12:19:00 AM
A Case Of Mistaken Identity
Haha. Apparently, Ms Quah (the rp one) thought I had said that if I did not get into cast, I didn't want to take part in Foster, because I can't make it on the SYF rehersal days. That's what she though I said, and so nobody contacted me, and I was anxious, depressed and.. gah. Heh, that was crap, but it's true, she remembered me saying something some other guy said, so she thought I didn't want to take part in Foster. Well.
At least I'm back on the Foster crew. I can't believe I'm helping to work on a musical. Not being in the cast is not a big miss; the crew is equally exciting :) Haha, better still; Leon is apparently thinking about turning Oedipus into a musical for the Lit Parody Feste :)
Haha, anyway.
Today wasn't very exciting. Especially the investiture. It was quite bleah.. Childish? Not really. I think the word is "unprofessional". The impression I got was that the RIPB was really quite lacking in QUALITY. Especially the intro video with the Subarus and all; what was up with that? It's like some cheap animation made by repeating the same images over and over again!
The PI I enjoyed really much was in Sec 1, when the theme was some secret agent thing, and at the end, they all did this interestingly cool dance. But that was Sec1. Funny how quality seems to diminish over time. In Sec 1, our orentation theme was a thought-provoking Illume, but this year.. Nagarro sounds like something out of Toy Story. And what about Bayley. In Sec 1, Adnaan and gang were so cool with all their lame stuff. This year we have a batch of serious-wannabe-ish (wow, triple hyphenated word) EXCO; comprising people I know, and they are nice people, but they don't seem to measure up to the 2005 Exco.
Haha, I bought a scheap $1.60 sketchbook from Pop. Holidays are coming and I'm going to start drawing, drawing, drawing. I have been drawing random stuff since Primary school, and I hope to start drawing personalised manga; basically manga with slightly tweaked styles. Come to think of it, manga is really quite freestyle, unlike other bleah-ey Piccasos, and Starry Starry Nights.
Oh well, can't wait to start scanning randoms in and uploading to Deviant..
