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.
