top 5 favourite geek jokes

happened to chance upon the reality show beauty and the geek today on tv and it was hilarious!
during the audition (i was watching episode 1), this question was asked: "which is closer to earth? the moon or the sun?". the 'beauties' gave a variety of answers, none of which was correct of course, lol, some answered that the sun was closer, as it was bigger (actually that makes sense disregarding common knowledge, the closer an object, the bigger it appears, no?) and one contestant actually said that the moon and the sun were the same!

hahaha!anyway, below are my top 5 favourite geek jokes. enjoy!

1. Q:Why does e^x hate going to parties?A:Because no matter how hard he tries, he always fails to integrate.

2. Q: Where does bad light go?
A: To a prism.

3. Two gases are talking to each other and they see another gas walk by. . .
gas 1: man that is the IDEAL gas
gas 2: eww you pvnrt!

4. Q:What did the rock say to the geologist?
A:Do not take me for granite.

5. Q: What did Donald Duck say in his graduate physics class?
A: Quark, quark, quark

Tuition has taught me alot. Just the other day, i was going through a mcq question with my sec 2 student about the particulate nature of matter. The question was something like that:

Which of the following are matters?
i) light
ii) shadow
iii) heat energy

a) all the above
b) none of the above
c) i and ii
d) ii and iii

The answer is obviously b and i was waiting for the student to give his answer. After a few moments of silence, i prompted him for an answer by asking him what was a shadow and what was matter and hoped he would solve the question by elimination.

He replied, " The brightest light passes through the darkest shadow."

Knowing how he likes to give me nonsensical answers and asking out of the world questions. I immediately dismissed his answer and told him the definition of matter, (has weight and takes up space). However, upon fully digesting what he said, i realised that despite it being irrelevant, his answer was really meaningful and thought-provoking!

Like wow! I didnt expect it from a sec 2 or him! He told me he read the quote from a book. Hmm, that must be a good book he is reading then! I should probably re-evaluate my role as a tutor and start learning from my students as well!

Online Treasure Hunt

Hi all! had a brainwave last night, since i enjoy playing online escape from room/point and click games so much, why not create my own game? so heres presenting to all readers, my very own virtual treasure hunt!

STAGE 1(easy)

Buried deep in my archives,
A treasure you shall find.
A key to set you free,
Awaits you a day before Jan 23.

Let The Search Begin!=D

hi a quick update on my life! i am now a tutor for 5 students, 1 p6, 2 sec2s, 1 sec4 and 1 jc1. initially i thought that tutoring would be a relatively stress free job that pays very very well. like 5 times bengawan's salary per hour. i would just have to 'turn my knowledge into wealth', according to edwards tuition's slogan. just turn up at my student's house for a few hours every week and watch while he/she does his/her homework. but NOOO!! money will never fall from the sky! both my sec 2 students are very intelligent and hardworking, they have been obtaining A1s and A2s/B3s consistently. their parents engaged me so as to make sure that they would obtain straight A1s and get into the triple science stream in their school. they expect me to coach their child on answering techniques, source for exam papers from other schools, and perhaps even spot exam questions nearer to exam time! also i realised that p6, sec 2 and sec 4 are very very impt years in the education system in singapore! psle, sec 2 streaming and O levels! omg! the student's lives are entrusted in my hands! stressed! my p6 student aims to score 205 for psle, thats a fine line between express and normal tech. i only have 1.5x4x8 hours before psle to pull up his dismal grades and ensures he gets into the express stream! my sec 4 student has been scoring F9 for maths since sec 3. recently she scored 3 upon 74 for a maths class test and her father hopes that i can help her achieve a B3 or 4 for O levels. 2 weeks ago i spent 45 minutes teaching her how to complete the square, and even then she needed hints in order to solve the problem... thankfully, all my students are agreeable people, and they genuinely want to learn from me. except for one who looks at the clock frequently and invites me to leave when exactly 1.5 hours have passed. hmm, sometimes i feel bad for charging so much when i dont feel i have made a significant impact on the student, so i try to spend a bit more time with the students, to reduce the cost to hour ratio, yet when the student themselves are unwilling to learn more, i cannot do anything! all in all though, tutoring is still an enriching job, i get to be the student's study mate and get a glimpse into the student's lifes, by entering their homes! haha! what a long post without paragraphs! im not practising what i preach to students about good compositions with appropriate paragraphing! fail!

edit-- i am now teaching 10 students, and working 7 days a week. very busy but fulfilling=D
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im in love with the 10pm show on channel U! the GFS is super cool! go watch!=D

bengawan solo job

hi all!

work has been a super tiring event! i work at bengawan solo tampines as a temp promoter, so all day long from 12-9 i have to serve customers samples, recommend cookies, replenish samples ect ect and i cannot sit down throughout the whole time period!!! i think i have stood more during this job than like the whole of 2008! at the 6 or 7 hour mark my ankle, back and even my toes will start to ache, then i have to endure the 3 or more hours based on mind power!

anyway, i think compared to m1 and my friends, i am super fortunate to have a good boss. he is this 20 something malaysian guy who looks super nerdy and likes to joke alot! all my colleagues are nice to me too, so work is pretty enjoyable, except for the long hours and the standing.

i think i serve like 500 customers a day and have made some interesting observations. many young office ladies need nannying!!! like they would want me to stand by their side the whole time while they talk themselves through which cookie to buy.

ok, my post shall stop here today, i cut my middle finger while opening a can of loveletters today and find typing very hard now =( tata!

2009 happy new year

OMG! i am so touched!!!! thank you to daddy and mummy for the best new year gift of my entire life!!!! MUACKS!! <33333333333 loves you!

hello world!

hi!!!!!!! sorry for neglecting this blog for so long!!! but, true to my word, i am back to revive this blog!

2008 has been an awfully long year and i am so glad the A levels are finally over=D during this one month since liberation, i have been catching up with all my friends=D, relaxing and having fun. at the same time, i have been slowly losing the ability to speak and type in proper sentences and have been spamming all my emails/smses/ messages with excessive !!!!!!s and =DDDDDDDDs.

however i have been facing my new found freedom with mixed feelings... the end of school signifies the start of a new phase of life, a life with more responsibility, less fun and more decisions to make. i dread stepping into adulthood, even if i just have to take babysteps for now.

fortunately, by my side are friends who (hopefully!) share my views on growing up, and i hope the transition into adulthood will be made much easier with like-minded peers beside me during this journey!

not forgetting my dearest M1 who i will grow up and grow OLD together with, for the rest of our lives!!! ahh, the future already looks brighter lol!
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ok, enough of reflections, i think this post is serious enough as a starter post since my year long hiatus. now for my signature update on my latest online adventures.

introducing my 'Heroic Pet', Maggie, the most adorable pet living at 42 Pet Society Avenue, S(70137). Do drop by whenever you are free!


oh! and of course, may everyone enjoy a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

hohoho!

IBN fun!

woosh!

no this is not what you are thinking we are doing. it is something less glamorous- a game of heart attack in progress actually. i wonder what the lab officers and post docs think when they hear our laughter resounding from the student room!

Quest for the rest

Quest for the Rest , a game and website for US rockpop band The Polyphonic Spree. Click.

beautiful game

check this out!
the effects are beautiful!

what to do to progress?

clack!

yet another game recommendation!
click on the blue lines to shorten or lengthen them, they will rotate, and knock into other blue lines like a chain reaction. the aim is to uncover all the hidden gears in the green space in order, through letting the blue lines pass through them. not particularly exciting, but extremely rewarding when you complete it, hence this blog post :) go on try it!

the sound effect is good, so turn up your speakers! press the orange triangle hidden below the green patch to start.

I know i should be studying but! this game is about logic, and perhaps it would help in my er, maths?

Bloxorz, the best game in town!

level 33


edit: this blog is fast becoming a game review site!

winterbells SUPERHIGHSCORE!
wooohooo, look at my score 42447834078650, which is 4.24 x 10^13!
my next goal is to reach avogadro's constant, 6.02 x 10^23!! :)

edit: newest high score 81188720435254917= 8.12 x 10^16, highest hit of around 8500/hit

winterbells

newest game find at orisinal.com called winterbells. the music is great and the game is addictive. move the little rabbit around the screen to hit the bells which would propel the rabbit upwards. hitting the moving bird would double your score. very cute game!

my record score is 76 million=D try it!


edit: latest high score 9059 million!!!!

hi SISC was great! i made many new international friends as well as got to know the vj participants better. special thanks to the SLO too! justin, cleavan and i managed to win a distinction for the science challenge, and overall vjc did very well, obtaining a champion for science challenge and 2 distinctions for reseach project.

now its time for a trip to korea and the catching up for the 5 days of lessons i missed

tata!

i was keying in my cip card when i lacked some information so i hopped over to marjorie's account to copy the info. unfortunately for her, i pressed 'submit' at the wrong account TWICE, resulting in this. OOPS sorryM1!

i was writing my precautions taken to ensure accuracy for physics prac today when sim asked me what my precautions were, and i told her that it was to write 3 precautions. haha! because we are only required to write 2 precautions for the practical.

during chem lecture, after mrs yik said that she would release us 10 minutes earlier, the class started shouting at her to tell her famous jokes. the funniest joke she could say would be that she just told one.

when was the last time you did something for the first time?

i scaled the vjc main gate today and climbed into school, for the very first time in my life! it was actually very simple, i could probably do it with a broken leg, no need to be a rock climber or some stunt man to do so. it was all so exciting, my father who drove me to school even got out of the car and stood near the gate to witness the act. it probably brought back memories of his schooling days, hah:)

table tennis competitions start next week and i am happy to announce that this year i fought hard and managed to win myself a place in the team! yay:) have been training from mon to sat and there is training later on too. hopefully our hard work will pay off, go VJTT!

pardon my laziness i am now going to summarise what i did the rest of the week in one-liners. am still reading Out by Natsuo Kirino. watched cages on thursday. attended korean pianist Lee Hee-Ah's concert on friday. oh and music and lyrics is a good movie :)

----
expand (a+b)^n
(a +b ) ^ n
(a + b ) ^ n
(a + b ) ^ n
(a+b)^n
(a+b)^n

school

i have been noticing many puns and jokes whenever people speak nowadays

when describing orientation during gp lesson, yijin said "the red shirts are very cheerful" . lol!

and when mr teo asked our class which topic the lectures were covering currently i had this miny imaginary dialogue in my head

mr teo: what topic are the lectures covering now?
class: gas
mr teo: no i dont want to guess, tell me
class: gas!
-exasperation-

STAGE 2

Hello Treasure Hunter! Congratulations on reaching Stage 2! That wasnt that hard was it? On to stage 3!

user: muffinsss
pw: CloudSmiles2
you know the name, you know the code, but where?

Toco toucan- a life, alive?

project superstar

just came back from project superstar results show. chuan mei is out but im quite sure that there will be a revival round and she shall be revived!

before we entered the studio, we saw a crowd of noisy people huddled together and to our amusement and excitement the singapore idols were there! marj and i were initially laughing at the fanatic ways of the fans and then we finally succumbed to our great desires to get close to the idols, we are only young once right?

his eyes were huge, and so was his fan base.


we saw all the other idols except for hardy and jon. im sure there would have been a stampede if they were there.

----------


pardon me i have been so detached from writing that the bulk of my recent posts are filled with pictures and short accompanying sentences. hee

the land of a thousand smiles

im back!

the best parts of the trip must have been the shopping. M1 and i learnt from our mistakes not to buy what looks interesting but buy what we would use. its not hard to fall into the trap of buying what looks slightly better (but totally useless) when faced with mountains of substandard goods. i would say we really made our dollar stretch and got some good steals =D

the friendly matches were fun too. this small boy that i played with gave me an action figure keychain.


lastly, i got to know and bond with the team, which i think is the most important part of this trip.

top: louisa, tan chun, lilin, tina, carmen, yuqin, mr wee
bottom: M1, me, janica, suchen


VJTT whoosh!

smash!

i have never broken more than a mug in my life so i guess today's accident more than makes of for it. during table tennis training at sunsports in kallang today, i wanted to slide open the glass window (maybe 80cm by 1m). the window was rather high, around my neck level and fully shut, so i had no chance to slide it open by slipping my fingers into the gap. seeing that it wasnt locked, i instinctively decided to slide the window open by friction, meaning by sliding it with my palm pressed on the glass surface, pushing forward and leftwards. then disaster strucked. the window, which obviously wasnt firmly attached to the grooves, started tipping away from me, OUT OF THE BUILDING, once i pushed it forward. i could only hold on to it for a few seconds before the weight became too much and then surreally, it fell slowly away from me. the massive piece of glass smashed into some disused chairs outside the window, surely into hundreds of pieces. and then everybody in the room started LAUGHING. they probably heard my shriek when the window tipped and saw my desperate attempt to save it. but laughing!, perhaps they derived some kind of sadistic pleasure seeing windows smashing into pieces. it was funny in a horrifying, comical way for me. fortunately, i was on the first level and thus did not kill anyone, imagine if it was a hdb glass window, i would have been sued for killer littering.

yay! SIP done done done!!!

yay off to bed

spider solitaire

after a weekend of trying, i have finally completed spider solitaire difficulty medium: 2 suits! i always get a sense of order when i am playing the game, its as if when clearing the mess of cards, im clearing the mess in my room and my homework book. when im good enough at it, i shall head on for 4 suits. =D

lit essay

i could have slept at 12. i completed my 1000 words lit essay just in time and after sending it to mrs jay i realised that the document was only 300 words long. apparently i didnt save my completed version. just sat in front of com and starting shaking. in the end, afetr searching all my files on com to no avail, i redid the essay. its the same length and basically the same pts but the structure of paragraphs just kept repeating,

im so upset =((((((

monday

coach trained me today during table tennis! and it wasnt just for a while. yay =D

friday and saturday

Chemistry wonderland
FPSP qualifying round
EZSF (BTNR)
all done!

What a busy week. Fortunately there helmsman next week! On the other hand, it saddens me to think that this is the last helmsman week for our IP journey. =(

Friday-
Chemistry wonderland (a chemistry workshop for P5 kids) was great. The children were smart and very responsive. "Repeat after me, red means acidic, blue means alkaline. If lemon turns my litmus paper red, what is lemon?" and they would chant "acidiccc". One interesting thing: I tried getting them to tell me the taste of all the food items which were acidic so that they could generalize for themselves what acidic food generally was. So I asked them, what does lemon taste like? "SOUR!", what does orange taste like "sweet" (I expected them to say sour, orange has always always been a sour fruit to me) What does vinegar taste like? "Disgusting! Yucks. Smelly!! ". Maybe its some kind of generation gap, all the 3 food items are sour to me and I love vinegar =D

I presented for like 40 minutes straight and then we were off to Lt5 for finales. Sadly, there was a miscommunication and all the schools had to leave early, so we gave out the prizes and feedback form. Had a quick look at the returned feedback forms and I am so happy that most of the students remembered my station and what I taught them. Whee. Hard work pays off.

After that rushed to PT for east zone science fair prize presentation, our BTNR forest gap got the gold award! Our ppt, presentation, poster are all super professional. Not forgetting our group members and the subject matter – Forest Gaps, that rocks. =DDDDDD

After prize presentation, rushed off for inv!gorate. Played floorball against V13 and we won them 4-2. it was a good game and our class possessed the ball most of the time. I think our strategy was the winning factor, and of course not forgetting excellent teamwork.

Had a short FPSP meeting after invigorate then I went home.

Saturday-
Just returned from RGS where we had our FPSP qualifying round. FPSP stands for futuristic problem solving programme. The competition is a 2 hour long one where we have to solve a future scene problem using a given 6 step process. I think we did well today and I really really hope we advance to the next stage.
the more Shrek does it the more i p* that i dont u* just to i* Shrek)
-----------------------------
Things left:
Zuo wen (due this friday)
La task (due this thursday) ext to tonight after 8pm.
SIP proposal (due next week)
Lit task (due this friday) ext to Monday

I have a day and a half to complete everything. Weekends should not be working days too!

But first, im off to sleep. 5 hours of sleep everyday is so not enough.

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random thought. i think i like economics!

today was a productive day.

i memorised how to play the doremon piano piece!, i wrote a 600 word essay, i did my zuo ye, i slept, i ate a lot, i watched tv, and i did not do my 1000 words ss assignment. i dont feel panicky at all. it seems the norm now to sleep at 3 or 4 or to hand in work late. i guess i value relaxing during the weekend more than clearing the work. in fact i even wanted to sleep first and wake up at 3 to do the assignment, just so i could extend my weekend as much as i can and leave it right to the last moment. its not only ss, its any kind of work in general.

but now i must get to work.
go me!

pirates

watched potc with the Eugene and Eunice today. the singapore twin project by NUS gave out potc tickets to all twins, so yes, we enjoyed the movie FREE! saw many identical twins and even triplets. cute!

it was a bright and happy morning because mummy fetched me to school. so, i went straight to the staffroom so i could pass something to a teacher. called his extention number: ring ring. female voice says "hello". me:"hi, could i speak to mr x please?" and right after i finished, i heard the phone slam. huh, did she just slam the phone on me? being an optimistic person, i thought that perhaps she accidentally hung me off before replying to my question.
so, i called again. ring ring. female voice: "hello", me: "hi, may i speak to mr x please?" and she slammed the phone on me AGAIN, with a little more vengeance this time. through the glass doors, i could see a female figure slamming a phone and going back to her seat in a huff and a puff. Goodness! no wonder we are rated so badly for courtesy, even teachers are capable of such bad behaviour. i could see the sign showing the name of the teacher through the door but being a nice person, i shall not type it out here. she spoiled my happy morning well and truely.

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

so say we all.
come on, he is just a harmless man expressing his frustration through the use of witty language and hoping to bring at least a smile to people's faces. the response was reeaally irritating.

last week of holidays

i've been having weird thoughts. can humans hibernate? a fat person can then just sleep for a month and then wake up and presto, he is now 20kg lighter! oops, i forgot that we need water and it cant be stored in the body, can it?

------

nrp on monday, wednesday, thursday and friday. i think im very fortunate to live near to school. i take close to 4 hours to travel to and back from nie and i cant do anything on public transport. i try to sleep but i dont feel refreshed after napping on the train/bus, my eyes will be shut but im still conscious. mrts are too noisy to sleep anyway, every station is around 3 minutes (i think) and before and after the mrt moves, there will be an annoucement. that means that there is hardly 3 minutes of peace not forgetting the numerous "look out for suspicious belongings", "single-trip ticket $1 refund" and "no eating and drinking" announcements in 4 different languages no less.

the project involves studying the chemical compositions of intermolt and exuviae exoskeleton of giant freshwater prawns (macrobrachium rosenbergii). to make a pellet, i have to grind the prawn shell into very fine powder and then measure 0.0025g of it. the grinding part is the worst as the shell is extremely though and elastic, especially the intermolt shell. the best part making pellets is the hydraulic pump. i tihnk its really amazing to apply 10 tons of pressure to some powder and tada! the powder is now a solid pellet. nick even made a tissue paper pellet for fun. maybe one day i would try using sugar or something and make sweets. hee.

minesweeper score

hahahaha! 3 seconds!

back from uk

uk was great!

look at the pictures http://www.flickr.com/photos/margaretting/, theres only 80+ as most of my pictures are in other people's cameras and i got lazy towards the end of the trip =P have fun viewing

back from uk

uk was great!

look at the pictures http://www.flickr.com/photos/margaretting/page5/, theres only 80+ as most of my pictures are in other people's cameras and i got lazy towards the end of the trip =P have fun viewing

wednesday-
yay, our rmbr group got the silver award for the singapore youth science festival science fair project! all the visits to btnr as well as the rushing of the report, ppt and everything else was worth it! thanks to my dearest group members and everyone who helped us in any way =DDDDDD

thursday-
we won mj 4-2 in soccer! i think jalan besar stadium is much better than the kallang one as the distance between the spectator stands and the field is barely 2m. i could see all the action so clearly while sitting at the front row, especially as i was at the side where mj's goal was and vj kept attempting to score. the victorian crowd was simply amazing, we would react to any action on the field and express our joy/frustration instantaneously. cheering is indeed cathartic.
WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!

friday-
new car! SGG 9607 X. it looks all round and red and happy. somehow it reminds me the name Charlie, because Charlie sounds like a name for a clown and our car reminds me of a clown's nose. no, that sounds disgusting. erase everything i just said. our car's logo looks like superman's and so its passengers would be superheroes. yay

got back our report book and i am very pleased with my results as well as my helsman report.


whee, this post is nice and happy.
and the UK trip awaits =D

tuesday

we had our health screening in the morning and my eye sight is still perfect at 6/6. the nurse was telling me that very few students she saw nowadays have perfect eyesight and that i was very lucky. yay! i read an article or something before that said that eyesight will not deteriorate once one has passed 18 or 21 years old. so if i can protect my eyes for another 2 years i would be safe from short sightedness for the rest of my life.

later in the afternoons we had our nafta test. the first station was sit ups which i passed with 31 sit ups. the bare minimum for an A so i didnt waste my energy, and i couldnt do more than that anyway. next was inclined pull ups where i was seriously dissapointed with myself. lets just put it that i only did 10 and was 1 pull up away from my C which would have given me my gold. arghh. i got 52cm for sit and reach-A, 186cm for standing board jump - 1cm from A and 11.0s for shuttle run- A. overall i achieved 3 personal best, standing board jump, shuttle run and sit and reach. i think i have a fear of doing inclined pull ups now. nevertheless, i will try for inclined next week. after all, like how sarah puts it, it is better to go away knowing that i tried by best rather than not trying at all. =D

wednesday

after table tennis training today, marjorie and i joined the health and fitness club, who were sharing the hall with us, for a game of floorball! the other people playing with us were extremely supportive and they would randomly shout encouragements or praises everytime someone had hold of the ball so it was all great fun!

where is the ladder?

This is so funny. My mother asked m1 and me to look for a ladder in the house. Apparently she took a very long time before she found it as it was in such an inconspicuous place. So, as a challenge I suppose, she put up $10 for the person who could find it first. Seeing it as such an easy task, (how hard is it to find a ladder in the house?), I immediately began the search. 1 second after walking out to the living room, I found it- right behind the thick curtains. The curtains were bulging so unnaturally especially from where I was coming from. And this is how I am now $10 richer. =DDDD

i want to donate my blood, take it! i have read about the shortage of blood in the blood bank many times this year and everytime i read about it i would feel a huge sense of urgency that i had to donate my blood really soon or else a person might die or something. and so this huge opportunity to fulfill my dream comes and the organisation comes to our school to collect blood. whee, of course i felt so excited and i happily skipped to the english resource room during break. however, i was rejected because of my fever last week! ahhh, i felt so disappointed after that.

fortunately i didnt wait for 3 and a half hours like m1 did. muahaha.

__________
on a side note, i am certainly getting lazier. here's a solution to avoid washing your water bottle, buy a new bottle everyday or alternatively, USE A STRAW!

also, if you are lazy to type in a title for your blog post, type it as the 1st few words in your post.

Was extremely negative towards the end of the day, felt restless and that everything was pointless. hmmm. no idea why. i feel that my attitude is very bad nowadays, and although i can always pinpoint in what way i am behaving incorrectly but i just cannot seem to stop myself. for example: i have many criticizes for everything else but not myself. Also, when i do sense that i am in the wrong, i will always have excuses for it. like how i am reflecting now shows that i still have control over my behaviour and so it should not be too alarming. look, another excuse.

anyway, my apologies to all those in the S and T centre today after PE. after checking with Marj when it ended, i confirmed my suspicion that i was over critical and negative. My comments probably steered everyone away from the discussion and dampened everyone’s mood rather than being constructive.

Ahhh, I must really really change!

Paddlers

We won Hwa Chong 4:1. WOOOOOO! =D

busy busy

chinese compo
bio assignment
lit task (done!)
chemistry presentation script (done!)
rmbr report (finished preliminary editing)

my birthday

thank you everyone for y0ur birthday wishes! thanks to sarah, wuyue, jiayi, ruiqi and nick for the wallet. i will start using it now =D

something really funny happened today. being really bad at handicrafty stuff, i stupidly cut the diameter of an upright piece of wood (exactly like a chopstick) using a penknife while my left hand was clutching the wood. of course, i cut myself. the penknife cut my 2nd finger of my left hand at almost a right angle leaving behind a 1cm gash. i freaked out opon seeing the blood flowing out. thanks to wing yan who attended to my wound, she was extremely calm and she knew just what to do with my finger. if not i would have just continued sitting there and stared at my cut in disbelief. and then wu yue said, this is your birthday cut. of course she meant "cut", but all of us heard "card". lol, it was all really funny.



happy birthday to marjorie too!

return from taiwan

mum and dad came back from taiwan yesterday.

i know i am very bad to say this but i wasnt very happy with her return because i was upset with the things she bought back for us. the shoes, the wallets, the shirts ect were ugly. dont know what she is going to do with all those stuff that i dont want. argh, i think i expressed my displeasure too explicitly. hm, i have been telling her that i am glad that she is back and that is all that matters and i really hope i sound sincere. she is flying off again on my birthday with dad and i will be so sad again.

Thursday-

Training from 4-8 because competitions start on Monday. I went from 5 to 8. As it was raining, the entire hall was packed with people from track, basketball, volleyball and us table tennis. Every now and then we would see the hall illuminating because of random lightning bolts. The massive number of people (and the noise produced) and how everybody was really focused on their game influenced me, suddenly I felt really competitive too. Perhaps that is the long lost feeling of playing in a competition, which I haven’t experienced since sec 2.

Friday-

Rushed to NIE by taxi with nick right after electives ended at 3.10, the taxi driver was really chatty. He asked us how we wanted to reach there, by pie or aye or ecp, and obviously we (or just me) didnt know. When we finally reached there, Mr Tan brought us to see the giant freshwater prawns, Macrobrachium rosenbergii, we would be working with. The project is briefly about finding the chemical compositions of its moulted skeleton- calcium carbonate and calcium phosphate. But first, Mr Tan wanted us to change the water of 8 tanks. We then had a brief introduction on what the tanks contained and the conditions in which the prawns survive in. the oldest prawn, around 2 years old, was almost 50 cm long and we were really lucky as the female prawn had just moulted and they do so every month or so. as she had just lost her skeleton and was really vulnerable, the male had a claw over her body to protect it from enemies. These prawns have really long blue claws so that they can protect their territory, by moving their claws alone would draw out a huge area. Ended at around 7 and reached home at 8.30.

Saturday-
cashflow101. The game was really fun, although we didnt have much time to play as the facilitator kept talking. Very privileged to have Mr Bellum Tan speak to us as he is a close friend of Robert Kiyosaki, however I felt that his hour long introduction was really unnecessary. By being there, we were already a converted audience, and so there was no need for him to spend so much time talking about why we needed to be financially literate. The time could be spent on the game! The facilitator was good, but as we had too little time to play, I could not bring myself to concentrate on what he was saying and wanted to carry on with the game asap. In the end, I had the most cash in hand for my table - $ 282 520. The winner of the entire half of the cohort had 13 million so I really pale in comparison. The main idea of the game was to invest as much of your money as possible when the opportunity comes. Our group mainly bought stocks when the price was low and sold it when the price rose. However, the $1/ share card only came at the last 2 minutes or so and we had no chance to make use of that opportunity. Overall, my main take away was that we should invest our money, wisely but not overly cautiously. Maybe I should join Biz club and play the game every week. I certainly enjoy competitive games like that. =D

hellooo? i never did call her at midnight. the latest was perhaps 9pm which is no way near midnight. i will never do such an inconsiderate thing.

my 100th post and sports day

sports day! i took part in short putt and long jump and i squeezed into the finals for both, getting 8th in heats. then in the finals i inched myself up and got 7th! yay. it was the first time in my life where i threw the short putt ball. it was extremely heavy, perhaps 3 kg. ok, maybe im exaggerating. but one thing for sure is that i needed two hands to lift it off the ground. im am so proud of myself, i managed to throw the ball and got a maximum of 480cm. today was also the first time i long jumped. kind of expected myself to stop at the line at the last minute or something but the sand looked quite inviting. jumped 7 times i think, and my maximum was 2.96m. yay. go pegasus!

The Goth-O-Matic Poetry Generator

Night Ritual

Around, all around, the storm clouds gather.
My dread grows as the headsman's axe falls against my
naked soul.
It slays me, and darkly my
life's blood drips
to the thirsty earth.
In a strange and terrible glee I cry out
while Death's shadow hovers close.
Now alone, my fervent plea falls upon cold eyes.

This is because of you

monday

weekends dont seem to exist. the past few weeks seem like a never ending day. hm, have i mention this before?

lets see, i reached home on friday close to 7. then i ate dinner and slept till 10 the next day. after the silicon valley meeting, it was confessions and then i went home and slept again. on sunday, woke up at 9 and went straight to darren's house for physics song. stayed there till 7. and then drumroll...... at 8pm on sunday i started to do my homework! i managed to finish half of bio task, lit task 2 and zuo ye and i slept at 2. well thats nothing new, i sleep at 1 to 2 everyday. big smile =D

now: visit to changi general hospital

since a week before cross country, my left hip would hurt ALOT right after running. the pain would last for a week. got refered to CGH sports medical centre and i took an x ray! my hip bone structure looks simply gorgeous i tell you, the contour is so clear and i would paste it on my wall as a poster IF i could bring it home. argh. the doctor kept my x ray, saying it belongs to CGH. =(

my thigh bone seemed to be dangling precariously below my hip, it seemed quite scary. but anyway, my bone structure is perfectly ok! its just that i have weak muscles, so it cant support the hip bone (which tilts left and right every time we walk) as a result, the hip bone moves too much and causes pain. i have to see the physiologist some time later and learn some muscle strengthening exercises and in the mean time i cannot run.

so that sums up my visit. overall, i think GCH is a beautiful place. there is a beautiful water fountain and its very spacious, at least outside the sports centre. BUT, i feel that places should be functional too. there are only 2 lifts at certain lobbies and many people using them. also, the toilet only has 2 cubicles. even VJC has like 6 or 7 cubicles! so there definitely is room for improvement.

upgraded phone

my mom bought marjorie a new phone a few weeks ago because she washed marj's phone in the washing machine. here is a picture


guess what, the water in the phone evaporated and it works now. and the phone now belongs to ME! i got an upgrade from k500i to a k700i. wheeeeee =D


btw, vote me for house cap =D heres a victory cheer for you, to smirk at the other houses, showing how united and loving peggy is.

i love you,
you love me,
we're a happy family.
with a great big hug
and a kiss from me to you.
Pegasus has just won you!

or if we want to encourage our participants, we can change the last line to

Pegasus is loving you.

the song= barney= purple= pegasus

my new year resolution

well it might be quite late but does the timing matter?

my new year resolution is to learn to eat with my left hand! i just finished my lunch using my left hand to eat bee hoon with chopsticks and it really isnt that hard. remember the brain exercises we were taught last year? i figured that if i switched orientation i might become smarter and my brain would be more effectively utilised. so do remind me to use my left hand if you see me using my right hand to eat during breaks. =D

almost abnormal

You Are 40% Abnormal

You are at medium risk for being a psychopath. It is somewhat likely that you have no soul. You are at medium risk for having a borderline personality. It is somewhat likely that you are a chaotic mess. You are at high risk for having a narcissistic personality. It is very likely that you are in love with your own reflection. How true! =D You are at low risk for having a social phobia. It is unlikely that you feel most comfortable in your mom's basement. You are at low risk for obsessive compulsive disorder. It is unlikely that you are addicted to hand sanitizer.

How Abnormal Are You?

what a crazy week it has been with table tennis training on monday, wednesday and thursday ending at almost 8 for every practice. i didnt really feel as if this week had 5 school days but rather one long stretch of 120 hours with occasional rest stops.

the team needs 8 more players, of which only 3 would be actually playing in the competition and the rest being reserves. but there are 11 people competing, meaning i have to beat 3 players to squeeze in. i really want to be in the team not just for the skipping of lessons but also because there is this misconception that players in the team do alot for the school and should be honoured while players not in the team are just playing for leisure. more specifically, im speaking of reserves as i believe that players who didnt make it to the team train as hard as those who made it but do not play in the competition.

im glad that mr wee understands my position but i feel that i need more than understanding and that is getting into the team. to do so, i need to win 2 more matches out of 5. argh, this is frustrating. (i can, i can i believe i can)

on another note, i think my stamina has improved during the practice cross country run today. or perhaps, it could have been what i was chanting in my head. maybe both =D

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

blogging has lost its meaning of being a journal. when writing in your journal, you are supposed to be personal and frank right? however, most blogs are nice and serve more as a channel to advertise the bloggers themselves through their activities rather than being a reflection journal. therefore people get offended by candid posts as they are not common and not politically correct.

the purpose of this post might seem to be expressing what i feel of reserves and non school team players and that is a trueful personal account. but i am also informing everyone how much time and effort i spend on my trainings and that is a way of advertising myself.

by advertising, i mean positively gaining attention for your own made up character.
for example, someone might complain in his/her blog that his/her phone bills was very high and was thus scolded by his/her parents. my guess however, is that the intention of that post is not for readers to pity the blogger who was scolded but to advertise the fact that he/she is popular and to form the impression that he/she is a cool, always smsing teenager.

im tired now and i shall just end here.

maple death

i cant believe she killed herself just to spite me. arghhh, our experience dropped from 12 to 4% and i had to walk from ellinia back to the cursed eye tail spot.

and i stripped her character of all armor and weapon and walked all over the place. hows that? =DDD

shatec

Dont you think managing a hotel is so exciting? Especially if the hotel has branches all around the world and i can fly around the globe visiting places. Most importantly, when im tired at work, i can just check into a suite and take a nap!

Amazing job, but it would only be that enjoyable if i were the ceo of the hotel or something. Its quite impossible as i cant inherit the hotel and neither would i want to work my way up from serving tables or making beds. Theres another alternative though, i could marry the ceo's son. Thats the joke of Shatec but i seriously dont think its very funny.

Anyway, i thought that the dining etiquette class was really interesting. Shao sheng, xiao xian, chun han and I had to role play fine dining. I must say that I really enjoyed having a guy pull out my seat and being courteous and all. =D

After lunch, all of us headed to the kitchen for a lesson on cooking. It was really a memorable experience. Charissa was my partner and we had to cook roast chicken, spaghetti bolognaise and Indonesian fried rice

After marinating the chicken, I had to put it into a frying pan fill of bubbling oil. As the chicken was slippery and I was worried of causing the oil to splash out, I held on to the chicken carefully with both my hands on either side of it and my fingers below the chicken. I must have been too dizzy with excitement as i forgot about the oil and 3 of my fingers dipped into the hot oil. After being attended to my fingers still hurt a lot and felt like it was on fire. And thus being injured just after 5 minutes of cooking, I spent the rest of the 2 hours of cooking like a handicap with only 7 working fingers. I heard the chef who attended to me saying something like medium rare.

Charissa was so brilliant, she managed to tend to the chicken and spaghetti at the same time by herself when I was away and was still so composed and had the place in order when I was back. If I had to do that by myself, I would probably get so tense that I injure myself too and nothing would be done.

For dinner yesterday night, everybody ate what I cooked for dinner as I had already told my grandmother not to cook the day before. My grandmother was so funny, she said that I was worried of not cooking enough for my family that I added my fingers as extra ingredients. Lol!

I felt so proud of myself for cooking for my family and I constantly reminded them of my sacrifice (burnt finger). =D I guess that’s how egoistic men feel when they are the sole breadwinner in the house. But I still prefer being provided for. =P

So in all this experience was really special and I also saw a different side of all the VIPs. Daniel Ong looked like a chef when he was shifting the pan around the fire while cooking fried rice and everybody looked so different in their apron and hat. Everybody were sweaty and dashed about with pots and pans. Yu fei helped me wash a pan and Summer helped me with my ever falling hat. =D thank you!

Whee. Shatec is my favourite fieldtrip. =DDDDDDDD

inertia

its really hard to start once you stop. i have half a mind to quit school and travel around the world or just rot at home. now that im well rested, i really dont want to continue the hectic school life for another year. i guess thats why mom decided to give up writing her thesis and forgo her degree after being at home for so long. its inertia

along the line of inertia. when u are going down a rollercoaster and you feel your heart jumping out of your mouth, is that inertia? your heart wants to stay on top but your body speeds downwards giving the sensation of a jumping heart.


im going to get a huge shock when school reopens.

to Yod if you are reading this

my tt opponent from thailand, Yod, called this morning. ms cindy low insisted that nobody would call since international calls are expensive. hah, guess shes wrong this time.

he called at around 11 am when i was still sleeping and asked what i was doing. too embarassed to tell him he just woke me up, i told him i was doing "nothing much". muahahah

we didnt have much to say and the call was filled with awkward silences. he asked me how i was twice though.

anyway, i thought that it was fun speaking to him and it was nice of him to call. =D

i like having international friends!

muacks

I feel so pampered. Mummy bought a dvd player for our room so that she could help marj and I record the rainbow connection tv series so that we wouldn’t miss 5 episodes while we were in Thailand. It costs $800 and has a hard disk drive which can record up to 233 hours. We didn’t feel that sorry when marj’s friend couldn’t help us record the show and I really didn’t expect her to go to that extent just so that we wouldn’t miss a tv serial.

On the car today mummy also asked me at 4pm whether I was hungry, she never really bothered about my eccentric eating habits, like feeling hungry at 1am and looking for food in the house.

She also apologized for not changing my bed spread when I was in Thailand and hurried to do so when I came home.

Furthermore she apologized for not being able to differentiate between marj’s and my clothes when she had to put them back into the respective drawers after bringing them in and folding them. Personally I thought that she should have delegated the task to marj and I especially after we dumped 5 days worth of dirty clothes each to her after our return.

Perhaps she missed me too much during the brief trip. =D

back from thailand

did you miss me?


marj and i bought back a crazy amount of stuff

23 shirts, 2 pairs of ballet flats, 2 pair of slippers, a huge elephant cushion, 3 handbags, 1 long pants, a frog musical instrument and many other miscellaneous stuff.

we went for a traditional thai massage which cost $8 for an hour. i thought it was super cheap.

the table tennis girls were really a bunch of shopaholics, we queued up outside MBK waiting for the shops to open. the thais have a superstition that they have to sell something to their first customer. so the price could be pushed down really low.

i bought a belt which originally cost 299baht for 200 baht because i threatened to leave. thats around $4 lower.

the thai shop keepers are mostly very friendly, until you decide not to buy an item. they would show you a really pissed off face and ignore you.

i found the thai language really whinny, the thais like to drag whatever they are saying. like sawatikaaaaaa.

the table tennis competition wasnt really much of a challenge, we won almost everything because the students there really wasnt that strong. the younger students however were really good for their age. i guess table tennis as a sport is just begnning to warm up in thailand.

marj and i made namecards prior to the trip with our email address and a thai girl just emailed me. =D

01. bought everyone in the pub a drink
02. swam with wild dolphins
03. climbed a mountain
04. taken a ferrari for a test drive
05. been inside the great pyramid
06. held a tarantula
07. taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. said 'I love you' and meant it
09. hugged a tree
10. done a striptease
11. bungee jumped
12. visited paris
13. watched a lightning storm at sea
14. stayed up all night long and watch the sun rise
15. seen the northern lights
16. gone to a huge sports game
17. walked the stairs to the top of leaning tower of pisa
18. grown and eaten your own vegetables
19. touched an iceberg
20. slept under the stars
21. changed a baby's diaper
22. taken a trip in a hot air balloon
23. watched a meteor shower
24. gotten drunk on champagne
25. given more than you can afford to charity
26. looked up the night sky through a telescope
27. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
28. Had a food fight
29. Bet on a winning horse
30. Taken a sick day when you're not ill
31. Asked out a stranger
32. Had a snowball fight
33. Photocopied your bottom on the office photocopier
34. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
35. Held a lamb
36. Enacted a favorite fantasy
37. Taken a midnight skinny dip
38. Taken an ice cold bath
39. Had a meaningful conversation with a beggar
40. Seen a total eclipse
41. Ridden a roller coaster
42. Hit a home run
43. Fit three weeks miraculously into three days
44. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
45. Adopted an accent for an entire day
46. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
47. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
48. Had two hard drives for your computer (i have 4 =D)
49. Visited all 50 states
50. Loved your job for all accounts
51. Taken care of someone who was shit faced
52. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
53. Had amazing friends
54. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
55. Watched wild whales
56. Stolen a sign
57. Backpacked in Europe
58. Taken a road-trip
59. Rock climbing
60. Lied to foreign government's official in that country to avoid notice
61. Midnight walk on the beach
62. Sky diving
63. Visited Ireland
64. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
65. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them
66. Visited Japan
67. Benchpressed your own weight
68. Milked a cow
69. Alphabetized your records
70. Pretended to be a superhero
71. Sung karaoke
72. Lounged around in bed all day
73. Posed nude in front of strangers
74. Scuba diving
75. Got it on to "Let's Get It On" by Marvin Gaye
76. Kissed in the rain
77. Played in the mud
78. Played in the rain
79. Gone to a drive-in theater
80. Done something you should regret, but don't regret it
81. Visited the Great Wall of China
82. Discovered that someone who's not supposed to have known about your blog has discovered your blog
83. Dropped Windows in favor of something better
84. Started a business
85. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
86. Toured ancient sites
87. Taken a martial arts class
88. Swordfought for the honor of a woman
89. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
90. Gotten married
91. Been in a movie
92. Crashed a party
93. Loved someone you shouldn't have
94. Kissed someone so passionately it made them dizzy
95. Gotten divorced
96. Had sex at the office
97. Gone without food for 5 days
98. Made cookies from scratch
99. Won first prize in a costume contest
100. Ridden a gondola in Venice
101. Gotten a tattoo (fake one)
102. Found that the texture of some materials can turn you on
103. Rafted the Snake River
104. Been on television news programs as an "expert"
105. Got flowers for no reason
106. Masturbated in a public place
107. Got so drunk you don't remember anything
108. Been addicted to some form of illegal drug
109. Performed on stage
110. Been to Las Vegas
111. Recorded music
112. Eaten shark
113. Had a one-night stand
114. Gone to Thailand
115. Seen Siouxsie live
116. Bought a house
117. Been in a combat zone
118. Buried one/both of your parents
119. Shaved or waxed your pubic hair off
120. Been on a cruise ship
121. Spoken more than one language fluently
122. Gotten into a fight while attempting to defend someone
123. Bounced a cheque
124. Performed in Rocky Horror
125. Read - and understood - your credit report
126. Raised children
127. Recently bought and played with a favorite childhood toy
128. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
129. Created and named your own constellation of stars
130. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
131. Found out something significant that your ancestors did
132. Called or written your Congress person
133. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
134. ... more than once? - More than thrice?
135. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
136. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when you knew someone was looking
137. Had an abortion or your female partner did
138. Had plastic surgery
139. Survived an accident that you shouldn't have survived
140. Wrote articles for a large publication
141. Lost over 100 pounds
142. Held someone while they were having a seizure
143. Piloted an airplane
144. Petted a stingray
145. Broken someone's heart
146. Helped an animal give birth
147. Been fired or laid off from a job
148. Won money on a T.V. game show
149. Broken a bone
150. Killed a human being
151. Gone on an African photo safari
152. Ridden a motorcycle
153. Driven any land vehicle at a speed of greater than 100mph
154. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
155. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
156. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
157. Ridden a horse
158. Had major surgery
159. Had sex on a moving train
160. Had a snake as a pet
161. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
162. Slept through an entire flight: takeoff, flight, and landing
163. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
164. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
165. Visited all 7 continents
166. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
167. Eaten kangaroo meat
168. Fallen in love at an ancient Mayan burial ground
169. Been a sperm or egg donor
170. Eaten sushi
171. Had your picture in the newspaper
172. Had 2 (or more) healthy romantic relationships for over a year in your lifetime
173. Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about
174. Gotten someone fired for their actions
175. Gone back to school
176. Parasailed
177. Changed your name
178. Petted a cockroach
179. Eaten fried green tomatoes
180. Read The Iliad
181. Selected one "important" author who you missed in school, and read
182. Dined in a restaurant and stolen silverware, plates, cups because your apartment needed them
183. ... and gotten 86’ed from the restaurant because you did it so many times, they figured out it was you
184. Taught yourself an art from scratch
185. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
186. Apologized to someone years after inflicting the hurt
187. Skipped all your school reunions
188. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
189. Been elected to public office
190. Written your own computer language
191. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream
192. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
193. Built your own PC from parts
194. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you
195. Had a booth at a street fair
196: Dyed your hair
197: Been a DJ
198: Found out someone was going to dump you via LiveJournal
199: Written your own role playing game
200: Been arrested

da vinci code game

i just love this game.

10 stars! dan brown would have spoken to me if not for the fact that he lives across the pacific ocean. and i have 2 emails from Robert Langdon and Jonas Faukman in my gmail.

--
some of the riddles are coded in the perfect square method which i coded some of my posts with and nobody took the time to decode. =(

anyway, if you do try, you would have to figure out the size of the square i used. muahahahah

its very tedious too as there is another step to solving my posts. it can be done in seconds unless you find a website.

some posts have a third step if im not wrong. but thats really simple to replace.

im sure i can do this easily

i have a bad habit of oversimplifying many things.

firstly, i guess because im always very confident of myself. =P
another reason is that during this year, many assignments regardless of subject require a personal definition of certain words.

that would lead to oversimplification as the argument would only work based on your meaning of the word. for example, 'experience' (see previous post).

another example is my answer for the ss exam. the question asked for my opinion on 'disregarding the past as only the future mattered'.

my answer was that if living in the future refered to a state of the world, then it would be possible to live in the future. for example, if living in the future meant that everybody migrated to live on the moon, then if technology advanced so rapidly that everybody lived on the moon, then they would be living in the future.
see? oversimplification. my definition is not useful at all.

what i can conclude is that not every word should be given a definition as that limits the meaning of the word as well as the argument.

but for some words like 'censorship' a definition should be given as that tells the reader where the author is coming from. - from mr koh.

its all in the body

it is possible to climb a mountain in singapore, even if the highest lump of soil here is only considered a hill.

if everyone wore high heels and climbed up bukit timah repeatedly, then the experience would be similar to climbing up a mountain. by experience, i mean how tired and how challenging the climb is. its hard to achieve the temperature drop and lack of oxygen in the air but i suppose one could fan him/herself more and more vigourously after more trips up the hill. and for the oxygen part, one can restrict himself to only breathing through his mouth or something. haha

ok, the above suggestions are really a bit far fetched but my point is that it is technically possible to experience anything, anywhere. that is if the definition of 'experience' is for your body to use up a certain amount of energy in a certain period of time, to feel cold, hot, to smell something and so on.

since 'experiencing' something is based on the 5 senses, then age, health and familiarity would be important factors to take note.

if i ate 3 pieces of pizza when im 5 years old, then i would be very full, but if i ate it when im 20 years old, then i'll probably still feel hungry.

if i eat pizza when i have a cold, then it wouldnt taste good. but it would be delicious if im healthy and can taste it.

if i can only eat pizza once a year, then it would be extremely tasty and valuable to me. if i can eat pizza everyday, then it wouldnt taste as good and taste boring.



--

when i decided to write this post i thought of an example- when watching tv, i saw a female guest star speaking and suddenly i felt really sad because i realised i spoke like her, very jerkily and the main point doesnt come across straight away.

but now i dont see the link with my point above.

bukit timah day 1

the 5 of us- christine, subra, wilbur, chun han and i had a trek in bukit timah hill in the rain today. when going down the slope, we saw a school of japanese kids, probably 9 or 10 years old. its propotional isnt it? 15 yr old vips climbing mt fugi and 9 to 10 yr olds climbing bukit timah. plus, it was raining in both cases. haha

our mentor was ms wang, and she went through the scientific method with us and we were asked to come up with 5 questions each when trekking. some of my questions were not scientific ones, according to her. like whether the part of the forest i saw near the path was representative of the entire forest. and rather than questioning why most of the leaves were dark green (which is common), a better question would be like "why are some leaves red?" which is questioning the uncommon/abnormal.

there were questions like "why is moss slippery?"and ms wang said that that was not a good question too, simply because moss contains water. another question was whether vines could identify what was supporting it on its upward climb. for example, if a vine is placed in between a tree and a lamp post, which one would it choose to attach to?

a good question asked by christine was why was it that some leaves on the same plant had different shapes. shes really observant i must say, i never ever thought of that question or even paid close attention to the consistency of the shapes of leaves.

why are there so many plant species? apparently this is a huge question for many scientists and there is no answer for it yet. i thought it was simply because the wind and sea is favourable and blows all the seeds over to the tropics and because of favourable conditions, many animals like to travel here, bringing over the seeds. ms wang said something about competition but she didnt elaborate.

she gave mr teo 5 research topics and he picked how landscape patterns affect ecology. another topic was to study the behaviour of orangutans and to suggest possible improvement to the orangutans' life. isnt it interesting? i havent been to the zoo for a long long time and it would be fun to observe how much time the animals spend scratching each other, swinging around or basking in the sun. it would be especially rewarding to have our plan getting accepted, and perhaps improving their lives by building a playground or having a bigger enclosure.

i asked ms wang what our research topic of how landscape patterns affect ecology would lead to and she said that perhaps bukit timah nature reserve could be linked back to the central catchment area which was divided by the construction of BKE. by building a bridge for the animals to cross? i have no idea how it can be done.

just some grouses

am i really quiet in class?

i can easily list at least 20 of my classmates now who do not speak AT ALL during lessons. im sure i speak up more frequently than many other people as i make it a point to speak or ask a question at least once for every subject everyday. if i am quiet, why do i have a comment in my Elective report that i "actively participated in class discussions and contributed opinions actively", "displayed much enthusiasm in learning and contributed much to the learning of the class" and "ready to ask questions whenever she had any queries". my Imagineering report also states that i was "active during group discussions and consultations".

ironically, the next paragraph in my helsman report states that i took initiative to involve the quieter members of my group. if i am quiet, i would have joined the rest in my group and kept my mouth shut.

so i dont see the reason why i have the awful comment in my report.

i feel that the reports should be standardised and written with a certain criteria. it is too short to include everything the student has done but by selecting what to include and what not to in a report is very unfair.
for example, why is it that marjorie has "most involved in her learning, not only at the class level, but also in being selected to go for the Silicon Valley trip with the JC students" in her report and i dont have it? if the report were fair, all 5 of the IP students should have this in their report too.

i feel that the choice of words in a report is extremely important and it isnt fair that the reports are written by different teachers even when all the teachers hold meetings to discuss the students. i feel that some teachers are beginning to make generalisations about students. like how a certain student is "bright", others "loved by everybody" and for me- "quiet". this is unfair as the outcome of the report would be dependent on who the form teacher of the class is. if the teacher has a positive fixed image on the student, then it would be good for him/her, but what if its negative? using a stronger word, the student would be wronged.


furthermore, different teachers have different styles of writting resulting in reports which are not standardised and unfair to some classes. my report is just 5 independent paragraphs. each paragraph states what quality i possess at the start and proves it with an example of what i did. this is repeated 5 times, making up my report. i have read other student's report and i find that the use of quotes make the report convincing. language teachers would also have a better command of language compared to a maths teacher for example and the report would be extremely different.

lastly, the reports across the classes are of different lengths. V11's report all seem to be a consistent 5 paragraphs. in this case, the choice of what to write in each paragraph is very important. im not sure if the teachers have a list of what the student has done for the year, and other teachers' comments on a list as a reference on what to write. it seems to me that what the teacher writes is based on memory and stereotyping. if it is positive, then very well. but as mentioned, if otherwise, it would be unfair for the student if the event stated is not a key one and maybe just a small event when there are major activities, that the student participated in, to mention.

Perhaps i should start being noisy in class by making unnecessary comments about the teacher or the subject, like how many more slides there are to go or how the teacher has changed a certain acessory for example so that i have something more to say during lessons. otherwise i could be extremely crappy and gossipy so that i do not appear to be quiet. in any case, the above suggestions might not contribute to the learning of the class but then, one would appear to be active and not the hated word- quiet.

player 1 says write in diary NOW

thanks to leon who lent me sims 2.

the purchasing of furniture and arrangement of them in the game would (ok. might) help me in deSpace. so cheers to my effort =DDDDDDDDDDDDD

its creepy how much i can control my character. in the previous version of sims, my characters really had a mind of their own and they never listened to me. my commands were suggestions to them. maybe that was because i was over ambitious and played with 4 characters at the same time. but my sim this time was really co-operative, the only time he didnt respond to me immediately was when i accidentally deleted the door to his room and he had no way out. ha

i always have fun getting my sim to fall in love with another =D i also make sure my sim gets a good job. my sim is a politician and has 8 out of 10 possible charisma points. he has high logic, creativity, cooking and cleaning points. muahahha.

other similar games i play include zoo tycoon and roller coaster tycoon but its been ages since i last played those 2 games.

i remember that my panda gave birth to many little pandas and my zoo was so popular that it swarmed with people such that the pathways jammed and my computer hanged, possibly because it was overworked.

my theme park was so big that people got tired walking and i came up with a free monorail system. pity the people were too stupid to utilise the free transport and treated it like a ride. boooo

when im tired of the game, i program the rides to crazy speeds and the train flies out of the rail. i also catch people who are about to vomit and place them on a specially constructed 'vomit path'. great fun i tell you. =D

one last thing, i created a safari with lots of lions, giraffes, monkeys and an occasional zoo visitor kept together in a huge cage. there was chaos of course and eventually the population was greatly reduced.

i always feel bad when animals or people die in a game especially when killing them isnt the objective of the game. (games where you kill your opponents are different, because thats the only way to win and they would kill you if you dont kill them.) however, i only feel guilty on hindsight. i either am in a killing frenzy when setting the stage for the slaughter or just being curious to see if they would die.

i failed my chemistry. 45.5. surprisingly i didnt feel really sad. i guess i saw it coming right after the exam and since chemistry was on the last exam day, i kind of forgot about grieving. unlike, lit unseen where i cried for a day. in case you are wondering, i failed lit unseen too. completely misread the poem. booo to me

my maths score was low too-60. however, right after the paper, i counted my marks and i remember telling my mum the maximum mark i could score was 57. so i really shouldnt be complaining.

notes for the year

i sorted out my notes and filed them after all the exams. the total weight of all the notes is 5kg. i expected more.

i am normally extremely lazy.
my table is cluttered with newspapers, opened red packets, random pieces of paper, brochures from sv and tokyo trip, receipts, clothes hangers, pen caps...
as you can see, i do not use my table for studying or homework. i prefer the floor as there is more space. i remember covering my table top with a towel just so that it isnt an eyesore and i dont have to tidy up my table =D. problem solved in 3 seconds =DDDDDDD

recently, my mom bought me a low table (like those in the 1st jap hotel in june). i only used it for the first few days. when i am excited, which i normally get when i realise the solution for a maths problem for example. i would push the table aside and solve the problem on the floor, because theres more space and its closer to me. hah

my files are all piled on the cupboard beside my bed. there was a landslide once when i was sleeping and the files slid down, burying me. hilarious.

one good thing however, i seldom lose any notes. ORGANISED CHAOS. =D

i dont like tt anymore, seriously. used to like it for the competition, the joy of facing another school, winning them, getting trophies and of course missing lessons. now im not even a reserve and the coach doesnt even bother about me. i feel that im wasting my time and energy everytime i go for training. the coach even asked me to serve balls for M1 to smack, im not a ball machine ok.

its open house tmr and i dont feel like helping out for tt. i dont fancy playing tt just so that there would be activity at our station and possibly attract more potential team mates. im not a zoo animal.

and im spending 6 days in thailand during the dec holidays with tt members for an exchange programme. im hoping i would grow to like tt more about that. if not, the 6 days would be simply unbearable.

on a happier note, i think the 6 wizards are meeting up. whee, i really want to meet pq, b and jessss.

just finished reading da vinci code for the second time andi realised robert boyle was a grand master. not sure of how true that is, but still pretty amazing isnt it?

woohoo gadgets

http://www.gadgeit.com/

its over!!!

im so happy! 24 hours of exams ranging over 6 days is finally over.
but it has taken a toll on my health

firstly, due to the extensive hours of writing, my neck seems to be fixed to my left. after every paper, i experience excruciating pain trying to twist my neck back to its orginal position. if the duration of the paper increases in the future, my neck might just crack.

secondly, i have been constantly worried and under the pressure of time. it is no joke trying to complete 10 topics of chemistry in 5 hours and still trying to get to sleep at least 4 hours. 2 minutes before the chemistry paper, i got rui qi to tell me everything i need to know for the gas laws and atomic structure. furthermore, i seemed to be short of time for every paper. flipping through the paper frantically searching for the more worthy questions through dozen of blanks is scary. squeezing in the last few sentences when the clock indicates the time is up but the teacher hasnt instructed us to stop is even scarier.

what is worst is that i found it extremely hard to fall alseep at night everyday before a paper. i would lie on my bed at around 1am every night and then stay awake with my eyes closed for more than an hour. the longer i stayed awake, the more worried i would get as i wouldnt be getting enough sleep. not that if i fell alseep immediately i would have a full 8 hours but 2 hours more out of a daily 4 hours is certainly helpful.

however, i have nobody to blame except myself and i really shouldnt be complaining. i remember m1 was nagging at me to study around 1 month before the exam and i only revised 3 subjects out of 8 before the papers. i studied the rest of the 5 subjects the day before if not during the 2 hours break. i should really have started earlier and managed my time properly. i already know i am going to do quite badly for this eoy. =(

but for now, its over! and hopefully i will start earlier next year. =D

the world is flat

http://www.cit.nus.edu.sg/nuslive/PublicEvents/PE2005.htm#

watch this 2 hours clip. rather interesting speech and q and a by thomas friedman, author of The World is Flat.

'your left brain is used to prepare for SATs, it can be outsourced or found on the net. develop your right brain, do what you love. '

CQ (curiosity quotient) is far more important than IQ.

webfolio

i did the entire webfolio.
im so proud of myself =D

http://web.vjc.moe.edu.sg/students/v05v11_tingyxm

the northest part of singapore

i went to sungei buloh wetland reserve today with jinci, dhevy, henry and wilber. mr pang drove us there from vj and i slept the entire 40 min drive.

the breifing started at 9 and pple from nus, singapore american school and a church atteneded. there would be around 200 pple doing the mangrove cleanup on the 10th.

following, we had a tour of the spots where we would do the cleanup. SAS's spot is filled with rubbish. vjc's allocated spot is closest to the sea i think. meaning it would be muddiest spot!

johor can be seen very easily from the coast. i think i saw the tallest flagpole.

im thinking of wearing some old and forgotten shoe and im definitely not wearing my new starry shoelaces =P bought those last wednesday and since then i felt as if i was walking with the stars. wheee =D

last year i went to chek jawa, the mangrove in pulau ubin, and i had a horrible experience as my shoe got caught in the mud and i lost a sock.

hope we have fun on the 10th!

Happy teacher's day!

diane, cheryl, jonathan, marj and i went to dhs after celebrations in vj. met mr siva would couldnt remember my name. so hurt =( and talked to liu lao shi. she is still as nice as before =)

the theme for dhs' celebration is retro party. wonder why they chose it.

hejin brought us around the classrooms to view the painted walls. i expected nicer designs. almost every classroom looked the same, being predominantly pastel and with flowers and rainbows. i like 3C's wall though, the colours are stronger- red, orange and yellow (i think) vertical stripes like Popular's file design.

if i had a chance to paint my class, it would have 4 different scenes for every side of the room.

the first would be of a globe. there are billions of people living on earth, failing an exam would be sooo trival to the world. the globe would thus show us the big picture and serve to destress.

the second would be that of a fireplace with a comfy sofa. beside the sofa would be a plate of cookies =D

i cant think of the 3rd and 4th sides of the wall. anyway, windows take up one side of the room while the whiteboard takes up the other.

the 2 sides of the wall would be painted as life like as possible. cartoonish drawings are kitschy



the 6 wizards had a mini reunion and i really miss the times we shared. diane, cheryl and i joined vip while berlinda and jessalyn joined dhp. poor pei qi is taking 0 levels. muahahhaha

went to parkway after that to meet with kong hwa friends-cheryl (nygs), stephanie (tkgs) and eugene (vs). the 5 of us, including me and marj were from 3 different classes and are in different schools now. how we bonded is truely amazing. oddly, our small grp formed after we graduated and since then we have been meeting almost every public holiday.

smile!

17 reasons why you rawk!

1. your piano skills are great
2. you can type very quickly
3. you make excellent powerpoints
4. you can master foreign languages very well like jap and french
5. you take unique pictures like the one at golden gate bridge and the drain one at the stadium
6. you washed stitch
7. your blog has a high viewership
8. you understood med training (at least more than me)
9. you know many people in school, outside class
10. you are more self-disciplined than me
11. you spoke to the president and made tea for his wife
12. you never do things at the last minute (like until 2am)
13. you have great aspirations which i dare not dream of (college day prize recipient)
14. you are decisive
15. you are perfectionistic
16. you care and love animals
17. im always happy when i see you in school

+1 you understand my jokes and this is not a joke

M1, this is for you! =D=D

one two three

learn japanese numbers 1-20 the easy way!

repeat after me: ichi, ni, san!

indiE

What a week! I really enjoyed strolling into school at 9.30am. Sleeping 2 hours more everyday is simply blissful. The security guard must have thought I was late and stopped me. I simple said IP and like a magic word, he waved me in.

For chemistry and maths, we had to come up with a home rebonding kit.

With such a special task on hand, I certainly saw the school in a different light. For example, as we needed hair samples to try straightening, I went Long hair alert every time we saw students with long wavy hair in school. Also, my group went around the canteen searching for limes as they have a low pH. The drink store auntie gave us 10 limes FOC. If my group members hadnt mentioned, I would never have remembered how there is always half a lime on honeydew sago, instead I think I would have stolen limes from the Malay store!

The S and T centre was like a kitchen as well as a playground. We had access to all kinds of chemicals. With the project as an excuse, we did all kinds of unimaginable stuff like melting chocolate in a beaker and sticking in a pH paper to test for pH. We mixed egg white with sodium hydroxide and shampoo. The alkaline probably denatured the protein (my guess) and the egg white turned jelly-like. We also came up with this disgusting mixture of sodium hydroxide and banana. Somehow, the yellow mixture turned dark brown and watery. Wonder how Mdm Samsiah could tolerate 8 groups doing similar or even more creative experiments in the S and T lab.

By the way, never add sodium hydroxide (2m) to hair. Our hair sample dissolved in it; from strands of curly hair to a beaker of soggy black bee hoon that broke at the touch.

As hair is made of protein, we figured adding protein to it would strengthen it. We also needed an acid to neutralise our alkali. Thus, we had the brilliant idea of using sour milk. We bought HL milk and attempted to make it spoil, like by putting it in 4 different petri dishes and laying it out on the grass patch behind the staff room under the sun.

High acidity and alkalinity would harm ones scalp and so normally petroleum cream is apply on the head before hair rebonding. I linked this to the concept of mucus in the stomach protecting the stomach bag from the acid, and crazy ideas developed like replacing petroleum cream with goo from lady s finger, aloe vera or even durians.

Although there is no timetable to follow during this week and the project didn’t really demand a lot of time, poor time management and being rather off track in our experimental procedure led to finishing up in school at 7pm almost everyday and meeting online late at night to hold further discussions. However, as we did everything by ourselves and the teachers were solely facilitators, the time spent was rather relaxing.

Everyone agreed that we would have worked harder if we knew what the prize was- 10 movie tickets! But that would truly dilute the true meaning of indiE-venture week wouldnt it?

Anyway, I would say that indiE-venture week was a success and I really enjoyed myself. I learnt more about acids, alkalis and the effect that they had on hair and had fun albeit through mistakes like dissolving hair samples. =D