I did the Jacob.

Watched The Pink Panther 2 movie on TV last night with my dad. Alot more hilarious than I expected!

Aishwarya Rai: Excuse me, may I disturb you?

Inspector Cruzo (i.e. Steve Martin, looking stunned by the beauty): Oh yes! Please disturb me.

HAHA!

Also went to watch New Moon with Bahiah and Nina last Thursday. It wasn't a great movie... but the Jacob parts really made it worth our $7.50. Plus I haven't met the both of you in a very long time... :( Jacob's scenes were mostly hilarious, except for the parts when he was fighting with Edward over Bella. :O

Remember how much better Jacob looked after he cut his hair short in the movie?

Yesterday, I did the Jacob too. :D

Before: The unkempt hair of Jacob. Wasn't cut at all since October. GAH!

After: Transformation to a werewolf. It's in my genes.

(Ok, there are no vampires and werewolves in this world. )

I like my new hair! It's great for sloths like me; it doesn't require combing in the morning. :P

Now for some pictures I've shot over the weeks. I LOVE MY D90! And photoshop too. :D

Uploading more pics after a game of Sushido. :D

Theories don't always apply in our lives.

Just flipped through this week's papers, and discovered that Nikon is still selling the D90 kit with the 18-105mm lens (and a few other free gifts which I don't need, other than the rather nice 8gb card... hehe.) at $1988.
(Audiohouse seems to be offering more attractive free gifts at that price, though.)

STILL!
NOOOOOOOO!!!
WHY???

I thought change made the world go round.

Nikon just stopped my world from revolving for a millisecond. :P

That almost made me fly off tangentially.
(don't forget your circular motion, physics student.)

I thought the US dollar just depreciated against the Sing dollar. Why aren't our US imports cheaper? Why? Why is this so reminiscent of econs? :O
(it's ok if you forgot the exchange rate policies, though.)

8 more days, 1 week and a day has never felt like eternity.

On an even sadder note, my dad brought me into a Sony shop yesterday afternoon, and we were stunned by the prices (and arm-muscle-unfriendly sizes) of the alpha lenses. Especially those macro/wide angles I've been eyeing. Doubt the Nikkor ones would differ much from the alphas, then. Sigh. Rich man's hobby, huh. Guess I'll have to work hard for them! :)

On a happier note, my dad's new iphone casing matches mine. :D Mine's metallic pink; his is a very shiny silver. My mum's iphone now has a mirror-like screen protector! :D :D :D

And on an even happier note, Jael's new blog is now open! With 37 new captivating pictures of her cousin's wedding yesterday in her first post, you'll be shocked to know that she took them all with her sony ericsson phone. :) No kidding.

Hai. I'm pretty much in holiday/gaming/leisure reading mode already. Shall load my Michael Buble CD into my phone, and revise chemistry again.

Our much deserved break has never been so tantalizingly near.

I just hope that my A level results will be good enough to allow me to enter the electrical/electronics engineering course at NUS. I'll be delighted, really. :D

Be still, my beating geek heart.

This is quite funny! =D
Getting my D90 on 30th Nov, after the physics MCQ paper which marks the commencement of freedom!

funny

"To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering, one must not love. But then, one suffers from not loving. Therefore, to love is to suffer; not to love is to suffer; to suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love. To be happy, then, is to suffer, but suffering makes one unhappy. Therefore, to be happy, one must love or love to suffer or suffer from too much happiness."

by Woody Allen

now that's interesting.

Many quantum physicists believe your angry vibration can be felt in a larger universal energy field—thereby attracting negative circumstances. A well-known quantum physics expert, Lynne McTaggert, wrote about a study she witnessed where a happy person sent out loving energetic thoughts to an angry person, which then successfully calmed this angry person's temper.

from Oprah's website. :D cool huh.

Let's do this!

ARE YOU READY TO ROCK???!

15 days to our first A level paper! YAY!

Despite having failed prelim math (S, damn sad), and crying over it (and physics, who else but me could have made so many careless mistakes in paper 3?) for 2 days a loongg time ago, I've slogged my guts out over the revision packages after prelims, and I'M READY TO ROCK!!! :D

I'm only blogging today because I just finished the NJC 09 physics prelim paper this morning. Yay! I fell asleep, sprawled unglamourously on my bed at 1am last night, just as I had 1 more question left to finish paper 3. My dad said he came in at 3am to find me, this dead log, heavily asleep on the bed, with study lamp in my room turned on. hahaha :D He nearly scolded me for studying late again. For some reason, the hc teddy gives me motivation to study. We got it on graduation night from Mr How, under the nerve-wrecking glare of the stagelights, in front of the whole of the Athena faculty. Stage fright!


We all slogged for 2 years in this JC for you, bearbear. You better have some kind of supernatural powers which can increase our intelligence. :D




It has soft, curly fur, and dons the hwachong PE attire, minus the black school shorts with elastic bands of unusually high spring constants. Yes, it's made of the same uncomfortable dryfit material which we hate... But at least it keeps bearbear warm in case its homeostasis system breaks down. :)
Hey... stop trying to hug your computer screen!

Goodness, I haven't visited my blog since... I forgot. I was really happy to see Mrs Foo's comment on my September post! Oh man... Mrs Foo. You made the comment on 2nd October and I just saw it today. Paiseh. >.<>

Hello Mrs Foo! :D I miss you! I'll come back to visit TKGS after my A levels, hope you'll still be in school when I'm back, haha. :) Did you find my blog via Mr Yong's blog? hehe. :P

So, after all, it's byebye to hc diploma, no thanks to my math and physics. And my horrible GP. (sigh) After all the effort I put in for prelims, and all the time which has passed, I'm over the initial period of severe disappointment. :D

Miss Lim (GP tuition teacher) returned us our most recent compre yesterday, and I was also pleasantly surprised to see that I got 32/50. 6/8 for AQ. 11/15 for language. Seriously, I have NEVER scored >28 for a compre, >5 for an AQ, and >8 for language since I came to jc. Heehee. My English isn't THAT bad after all lor. Recently Jen and Shu Hui got 5 for their AQ, if I recall correctly! Seeing the fruits of your labour is really encouraging! Although Weilun meant to be sarcastic when he said "wah, you so lucky" in response to Ms Lim when she told him that I first met her 4 years back on a Europe trip, he has truly spoken words of wisdom. hahaha :P hc's method of teaching GP simply doesn't work for me. Sigh.

Nevermind, on to happier things, like graduation night photos! :) Not that I like camwhoring, but this is the last chance this year to catch some photos with my friends. :(

Mr Remedios, thank you for your patience, tic-tacs, colourful spring, brute force/iteration method for radioactive decay, and of course, the SuperStuds. (in other words, supervised study sessions)

Poon, who covered his head with a black bag after shouting HWACHONGGGG really loudly after we sang the school song. Go Poon! We love your antics. :D

Going clockwise, it's Shu Hui, Jen, Me, Lina. With photobombers Wilson and Nic Tan at the back, and Kennsiang's peace sign. Thanks Kennsiang, I think the world has enough terrorists, we don't need any more photobombers.

Shu Hui pointing at Wayne. Wayne goes "Noooo dun take photo of me!".

Shuhui and a suicidal Wayne. Nooo Shuhui don't shoot!

Jen and Shuhui have been studying with me all this while, so here's a little tribute to them.

(Jen I don't have a photo with you :( )

Shuhui is against photobombers.

And now for people from 08S6C to look out for in the headlines in 10-20 years. Hmmm. I smell talent hunters.

Chuan Khim.

Something has happened!

Xinyi's IQ increases by 10!

Talking about living in the moment...

Jun Lin.

Something has happened!

Xinyi's IQ has increased by 10!

And... my dear BBI/Centad/SSEF groupmate!

(pity Lu Theng is in Artemis... could've gotten a group photo.)

Without you, we wouldn't have had all those really good marketing strategies.

Presenting the future psychologist/successful businesswoman,

Jiang Ying! Trying to be funny arh. :)

If you're a 4 H2 PCME student like the overworked me, it's 36 days to the END of the A levels! You've only got to slog for another month! :D

On a bleaker note, the price of a Nikon D90 with a 18-105mm kit lens is STILL $1988 after nearly 3 months. Cheap DSLR, sadly, still remains an oxymoron. Guess I'll have to make do with that price. When I buy it, the first person I'll take a photo with is Nina! Because we're both not the camwhoring kind, we haven't taken a photo together yet!!! hahaha!!! >_<

I wonder if entering the NUS course for electrical and electronics engineering will be the right choice for me...? Mmmmph. Too complex an issue for my feeble and immature 18 year old brain. What's all the talk about this course being easy to get in, and difficult to score in? I just want to be in the team of techies creating the next coolest invention, and be happy while I'm at it.

A simple dream which seems so difficult to achieve.

Okie. In the meantime, I have to pia the chemistry prelim papers for tomorrow. The +20 intelligence I received on grad day is still coursing through my neural network. Ah.

If you feel stressed, remember that gorging yourself is NOT the right thing to do.

Even if you look cute while doing it.

36 days to freedom! Persevere. :D

time to catch your breath

Love Story meets Viva La Vida

The title may sound weird, but the music doesn't. :D

Also, some eyecandy for you!

YES! They're all cupcakes!! :D

Jiayou everyone! One week and 2 more days to go. :) We'll get through this soon.

Rethinking my life

It's odd that I don't feel very stressed out now, even though the prelims start tomorrow.
Yikes!

In fact, I felt much much much more stressed a few weeks back. Weird huh.
Suddenly, I lost my hopes of going overseas to pursue a degree in engineering. Just can't imagine how badly I'd fare at being independent. And I feel too lazy to apply for overseas unis. In fact, now I kinda don't care if I can't get the hc diploma. I'd be happy to enter NUS. :)
Is this laziness??

The past few days haven't been extremely productive. (only start revising each day from 1pm to 7pm. Then it's TV all the way until 12mn.)Wonder if the last minute chiong syndrome in me will ever surface. :/

Yesterday night, I had a terrible nightmare. I downloaded some RPG game from the Apple appstore, only to discover later that it was a trojan in disguise. It took over the entire OS of my iPhone and wiped out all my data. It took me a long while to get over the panic, and finally attempt to delete the app from my phone. Miraculously, the simple solution worked. And I woke up. PHEW! Definitely one of the worst dreams I've had. (I rarely dream.)

Oh yes... I am currently extremely sick of studying. SIGH.
Thankfully, we only have 3 more months to go.
And all I can think of is the day when we finish our A levels.
After that, I can:

-release 1000 mealworms in the Principal's office.
(just kidding)

-Meet up with Shijia and friends! :D
-eat at holy grill again
-Visit TKGS teachers
-bake for friends

-Buy a DSLR
-Learn driving (very important :D )
-jog for an hour every day. I think I'm becoming a mobile lump of lard; sitting at home all day mugging.
-Learn to read Japanese

-finish knitting scarves for my family
-US trip! Yay! My mum's friend and her daughter are going on the same trip too. :D

-finish reading the quantum and the lotus.
-finish reading a brief history of time
-finish reading the 3rd eragon trilogy. (embarassing, I know.)

Ah. I feel more motivated to mug now. :D
Keep the holidays in mind, everybody!
And good luck for the prelims!

Movie outing!

Had a very fun movie outing with Nina today at Century Square. After countless days of toiling our brains away in school, the free periods of our frenetic timetables finally coincided. :D

We watched the 5pm Up movie after lunch at Tampines One. Most of the food there is pretty expensive though.

Watching it in 2-D (not 3D, it makes us dizzy) may have removed the physical element of depth from the movie, but some of the scenes and quotes have definitely struck a deep chord within us.

I remember the rotund boy scout talking about his dad, and how they spent their free time counting how many blue or red cars they spotted on the road. The old man looked disgruntled as he reluctantly listened to the little boy's incessant boring chatter; but his heart immediately softened when the boy mused that "it's the boring stuff that you'll remember.".

Thinking back, I realised that the little boy is right. Whenever memories of TKGS flood my mind, the ones which I remember most vividly are the days when we returned to the school library during the study break to mug for the O levels. Those were the days when I was, oddly, happy amidst all the stress which the impending O levels was imposing upon us.

Maybe it was because we had superb teachers like Ms Yeo, Mrs Chan, Ms Tee, Mrs Pang, and Mrs Foo, Mr Peh, and Mrs Irene Tan who helped us to understand our work well. Maybe the O levels are way easier than the A levels. (definitely!)

Maybe it was how we came together, helping each other solve crazy questions. Maybe it was how we challenged each other to the Impossible Quiz, or checked out interesting books like "Mad About Physics" in the TKGS library when we got bored of studying.

I'm sure I bored you as much as the little boy bored the old man, but these are the stuff I'll remember for life.

Ah. I miss those blissful days in tkgs.

I received the results of the PSC psychometric assessment today, and I was stunned by its accuracy. (okay, except for jen's twin's report which astonishingly said that he's 'cool' and 'humble'. Once you tell others how humble you are, you lose your humility!) I was never an extrovert, but many incidences which I've witnessed in JC have made me more introverted. I have shut nearly all my doors of trust to others, and I silently think about agendas people around me may be having. And I've learnt to only fully trust and confide in true friends.

On a lighter note, the report also said that I am unable to work methodically (hehe), and that I can't stand boring work. My thoughts are also "somewhat disorganized". The joke of the year is the part where it said, "you are generally more easygoing than most people are when facing delays in assignments". hee... ;)


Back then, strong bonds of friendship kept us going.
Right now, some of these bonds may have faded;
but some remain, and have become stronger than before.

That will keep us advancing in this crazy race.

3 months is all we need to get through to reach our goal of freedom.
Don't give up, my friends! :D

So THAT'S how you kill gummy bears...

the end of our BBI presentation, but only the start to Ambi's journey into the world.

I'm not boasting here... but my group has definitely done extremely well for BBI. From our pitch to the way we answered the questions which were unforgivingly shot at us... We were very sure that we put in our very best and gave it our all on the 10th of July. Thank you to Mrs Tan and Mr Tan for their praises; we are very happy that our effort has been recognised.

We may not have entered the grand finals, although we were pretty confident of it yesterday. But oh well. Things happen. We felt like we let Mr Terry Goh down. We promised him that we would win. I may not have cried yesterday, but I cried quietly for a while when I reached home and told my parents about BBI. In fact, my eyes well up whenever I think of the judging results on Friday, as I am now. It really hurts to know that you have done your best, that there are many people who believe in your product and team, that you actually have a good chance of presenting your business plan to the J1 cohort.

Our team joined Best Business Idea for a different reason. We wanted to make Ambi known to the whole school.

You can call winning BBI a by product of the competition, because the transformation we have undergone is priceless. From the introverted people Mr Tan once saw... to confident presenters on Friday. (hehe now I'm not going to talk like I'm pitching, though.) But winning, or at least qualifying for the Grand Finals, would have been the ultimate way for us to know that our efforts have been recognised.

They should have told us earlier that the judges were looking for products which could earn profits quickly (for Singapore)... The name of the competition has been made a misnomer ever since the judges gave their summative comments.

Nevermind... Lesson learnt: If you want to win, then before joining a serious competition like BBI which requires a hell lot of hard work over a long period of time, ascertain the background info of the judges, and also be very sure of the judging criteria.

Hehe. Hope you read that, juniors!

We were also quite depressed when we heard that the judges barely read our business plan. That was the product of months of hard work... now gone to waste.

Lesson Learnt: If you ever become a superior, take the effort to read the proposals your subordinates have submitted to you. Show your appreciation for their effort; everyone cheers up when they know that their efforts have been recognised.

You once told me that after years of training and injuries, there's the desire to end it well; but one wrong step shatters it all. For us, those were sleepless nights, numerous painful scoldings from our parents, endless editing of our report and powerpoint, and numerous speech practices. We, too, wanted to end it well. But we don't know what shattered it all. Did we take a wrong step? Or did the judges make the wrong decisions? I'd like to believe in the latter (hehe Mr Goh...), but not knowing the exact cause of our predicament hurts the most. We want to improve, but if you can't tell us how to, I'd resolve to believing that you guys weren't a credible bunch.

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

Hahaha ok I shall put an end to BBI; to all that remorse, regret, and sadness. Let's just say that the people we have met, how we improved as a group; and also as individuals, are just priceless.

(The skills we have acquired will allow us to get jobs which pay so well that we can afford to visit the Silicon Valley 10 times a year. :D Skills are priceless!)

hehe I always have this feeling that I'll be really rich in the future. :) muahahahahahaa... Or have I confused my feelings with my daydreaming?

----------------------------------------------------------------------
YES! On to happier things!

Ambi Inc. returned Ambi to the NUS SRL after BBI, and guess what we saw...

YES!!! IT'S THE S$6000 SOFT TOY, Paro from Japan!

AHHHH SO CUTE RIGHT!!! Bet you jumped out of your chair to get a closer look. We couldn't contain our excitement either.

A robotic seal, it's built to comfort/calm the elderly and children. Some homes for the elderly in Singapore are using Paro, for your info. :D

Doesn't it have such long eyelashes? Haha :D It purrs a bit when you touch its whiskers. (or whatever you call that) I forgot how many touch sensors it contains; but there sure are a LOT of them in there. And they're really responsive. Paro responds to you regardless of where you touch it.

The sound localization is just OMG!!! I tried snapping about 1 metre away, and Paro turned to me! IT TURNED TO ME!!! IMMEDIATELY!!! The microphones are cleverly hidden in its nostrils. This piece of technology is DEFINITELY worth the 6k. The lab will be using it for psychology tests on the elderly and children.

You may be wondering about the pink pacifier. It's a stroke of genius... Well. It's a charger! Plug the pacifier into Paro's mouth, link the other end of the pacifier to the mains, and paro starts charging! Paro actually sleeps (with its eyes closed!) while charging, and wakes up when you provoke it. It even bats its luscious eyelashes gracefully before groggily waking up. How cute is that! :D Like a little baby.

1

2

3

everybody say: AWHHHH............

Yup, we later headed to this shopping mall in Boon Lay interchange to buy gifts for our teachers and mentors. And also to buy Japanese schoolbags which we have been eyeing on since June. :D Didn't manage to haggle much of the price off, though. Yay now we have the same schoolbag with different designs. :D Plus, we now look more studious with double strap backpacks. We're well on our way to mugging sessions and straight As!

Oh. I was considering whether to join the NUS Start-Up business competition next year. The grand prize is 10k! But you must have a working model of the product. Which translates into many hours in the SRL after the A levels..... We're not giving up on Ambi.

ooh, interesting

This is so weird that I have to blog about it right now.

I just synced Michael Jackson's 'Black or White' and Linkin Park's 'New Divide' into my iPhone.

When I turned on the radio, the Muttons were playing their hilarious 'complete my mutton' game. They then played 'Black or White'

And then, they played 'New Divide'.

hehe back to the economic growth notes. :D

da jia jia you!

what went wrong?

The camera's stare is fiercer than that of the audience.
At least for me. :P

xinyi finds me scary. BOOOOOO!

ok, maaaybe she prefers DSLRs and considers me, a technological fossil, as a highly uncouth contraption. sigh.....

Yes, I practised my pitch for 4 hours. But I screwed up my BBI 1minute pitch today during video taking. (Mrs Tan: you need to practise more. Not enough zeal.) SIGH. I'm not a drama mama, I'm one of ambi's mama. Sorry Jiang Ying and Lu Theng. If we don't get into the grand finals, it's my fault. Hai. But thank you for being so understanding all the time. :) The both of you are some of the BEST people I've worked with. I love my centad group so much that I want to start a fanclub for it. :D Don't worry, I will improve on my pitching. Silicon Valley. (stares dreamily into the distance)

And thanks for the chocs Jeannie! Haha they really brightened up my day.

Mum was so nice, she offered to help me video my pitching on a camera and offered me tips, such as "Believe you are Obama when you're pitching!". Nod nod. I'll try to! :D

Sigh, today was a bad day. Maybe lao tian ye wants me to pay back for the birthday luck he gave me 2 weeks ago. It's wearing out. Or maybe I'm starting to break under pressure.

I woke up today to find my mouth ulcer not hurting. (whee!) My morning began with a hearty breakfast, and promptly ended with a debilitating stomachache. Gah!

Took a cab to NUS (stomachache emergency delayed me) which cost $17. Ouch!

Spent some time at the new SRL. Nice place! Panda-eyed Hewei grants his mentees permission to transport their brainchild, Ambi, to HCI. Mentees oblige to bringing Ambi back to NUS at first, but later bargain with their mentor after a second thought. Mentee Chong claimed that Mentor Lim allegedly blushed during the bargaining event. Only the accused would know why. Mentee Lim remains clueless as usual. Hee!

(oh! we saw hewei without his specs for a while today. his specs seem to make his eyes look smaller. hmm. :/ is he wearing inverted magnifying glasses? )

Mentee Chong lugs along the blazers and bags, while Mentee Lim tries to handle the brainchild with care on their way to the bus stop. They later board the NUS internal bus and have an entertaining chat about guys, until Mentee Chong claims that she hates guys-who don't reply to SMSes they're supposed to reply to. Mentee Lim nods fervently in agreement, until she notices a lone male student sitting next to her (and in front of Mentee Chong) quietly laughing to himself. Mentee Chong's face turns pale for a moment, and she covers her mouth in shock. Both mentees subsequently became entangled in a longgggg moment of mirth. Ah, the good times we've had in NUS.

Ok, Mentee Lim will now stop writing in 3rd person and get to the point.

.

There, a point!


(waits for laughter, and hears none.)

.....Right! The point is that my arms and my left lower back are aching like hell. Sob. I can't even tolerate physical activities like that. Sob. Or is Ambi really that heavy? Hope Lu theng isn't experiencing aches. I think I won't be able to fit into my long-sleeved tops anymore, because my arm muscles are getting huge. Awh man. Is it possible to reduce those muscles? Ok I should stop talking about my insecurities. Buy me a lock!

Anyway, today... I felt like I have never done anything properly all my life, and I can't see anything through to completion. That feeling of despair is indescribably horrible for perfectionists. I didn't pitch well, I haven't started on chem revision, and I'm not done with my math revision. Damn, I didn't set my priorities right. My time management is... uhhh, what's time?

Dad was slightly angry at me for not opening the door quickly when he came home today; I was stoning in front of the TV, thinking about my pathetic state, and completely oblivious to the formidable loads of bags in his 48-year old arms. It would've been a hilarious incident on a normal day, but today, it made me feel absolutely worthless to society, and I started crying midway through my dinner. Why do I even exist? Hey, I'm of no use to anyone. I'm a letdown.

I tried to hold it back at first, but my tears decided to obey gravity, and they all poured out. Dad got pissed when my mum put the blame on him. Heh.

I attempted to practice more Poisson distribution questions, but my mind was a blur. Chatting to Edha online really made me feel better. Sometimes you need a good friend (who is online) to share everything with. It's difficult to talk when you're all choked up in tears and suffocating in stress. A problem shared is a problem halved, indeed.

In my entire academic life, in my ostensibly nerdy (please look at me) existence, I have never cried so many times in one year, because I don't cry easily. JC2 broke the record; give me a trophy for it! Sometimes I wonder why I was so eager to enter hwachong ever since I was a pimply sec1. But heck, it has been a tumultuous time in JC, and it's going to be over soon, for good riddance. And... centad and BBI have made it-dare I say?-the best experience I've ever had.

Still miss tkgs, though. Mrs Chan... my favourite chem teacher. Ms Yeo and Mrs Pang, the dedicated cute masters of math. Ms Tee and Mr Yong, for their highly entertaining physics classes. My sec 4 SS teacher. And our favourite tkgs teacher of all: Mdm Seah! :D

Edha, thanks for this video! It instantly ended my 2 hour session of crying.
It's amazing. Watch it to believe it.

oooh Benny Lava...

A little old Bollywood did the trick. Way to go Edha. Good luck for your Friday event. ;) Chem engineering and Electrical/Electronics Engineering results in harmonic resonance. Trust your instincts. :)
I'm back on my track to MIT! I mean doing ok for BT2. (not very confident, hehe)
That is, after I get some sleep tonight. Don't worry Mentor Lim. Ambi isn't giving me any nightmares.

Tomorrow will be a better day.

Think it, and you will be it.

and that's why I love Japan TV

whee! I'm legal! Uhh. So I can't do illegal stuff?

Thank you to...

Nina for your lunch invitation today. hehe.

Jen for sending me your sms at 11.04pm. hahaha...

Jael and Shu Hui for sending their birthday melodies over at 12 midnight exactly. So qiao ah. You both sent the birthday song to me at the same time!

Chun Ling for your heartwarming sms... Oh, the heartburn!

Chuan Khim for his birthday wishes over msn.

(yep, in chronological order again! Don't you just love it?)
(on a sidenote, I'm really doubtful about the MIT thing. I'm not really up to it...)

Jael, don't worry about not being the first to sing the birthday song to me k! Sometimes life whizzes by at the speed of light, and we have to take into account the effects of time dilation.

Man... what am I talking about?

What do I want for my birthday? A sony alpha 700 dslr.
But I've decided to work after the A levels to finance the astronomical expenses of my newfound interest.
AIM: Earn 2000 bucks in 2 months, spend a maximum of $1500 on the fancy encapsulated techno-surrounded pentaprism and its peripherals! Save the other $500.

What do I really want for my birthday?
My family and friends... You know who you are. :D
All of you are worth so much to me that if I ever decided to sell you all off for money, it'd cause a really bad inflation, when consumption starts to increase, and AD increases, and the AD curve shifts right, bla bla bla econs bla bla you get the idea.

My parents bought a cake today too. awh. >_<

To many, I look like a secondary school child.
But you all definitely made me feel like an 18 year old today.

Thank you - for being part of my life.


**Update**
Thank you Shu Hui for your ultra cute birthday card! :D

interlude

Originally wanted to continue with my previous grandmother story post about what happened at Robopreneur on Friday... But well, I'm not that old yet. I shall continue with that post on another day. :P

stoned/played taptap revenge 2 (online!) for the whole day today.

Before you scold me for slacking, I just want to say that I have still been very hardworking... at the cellular level. (8km on exercise bike! :D )

Ahh. Jokes aside, I felt like a lousy friend on Sunday.
I couldn't give you many inspiring examples, because I've received undivided attention from my parents since I was born. (which isn't as great as you all think, honestly.) I don't know how it feels to be neglected while your sibling basks in parental attention, but everything you said conveyed all those foreign feelings to me. Now, I understand. And I appreciate.

Seeing you sad almost made me cry, because I just came to realise how helpless you felt all these years.


Don't work hard for your parents. Everything you're doing now - tell yourself that it's for your future, not theirs.

I hope that helps you to get by these few years. And remember this: if you ever feel sad or just sick of everything, the fire-proof wooden doors of my house will always be open for you! =)

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

Oh yes. I've noticed how people stare at me when I'm wearing my uniform. When it was the iconic TKGS uniform, people stared for (mainly) 2 reasons:

1) The emerald green works up some pyrotechnics in your eyes. Ouch, it prickles. (or even pickles, given the intense greenish-ness)
2) They recognise the tkgs uniform, and used to be tkgians.
(yes. The auntie selling the famous rice dumpling soup in Bedok was a tkgian!)

But when it's the hc uniform, they stare because
1) "is that nyjc/vjc/hci? They all look the same hor?"
2) They think hc is a top school, and they are waiting for me to commit some crime. (or something along that line, like punching a bus driver maybe?) Does the local press pay people who provide them with fodder for top news stories?
3) Uhhh. I don't know. It's nicer than the tkgs uniform? (albeit less comfortable)

I especially hate how some people change their perception of us with a glance at our uniform. No, it isn't a secret agent suit which can enhance my capabilities. It simply tells you about the school I belong to. Don't start having high expectations of me, because I'm just an another student; another mere mortal standing near you.

Uniforms: They cause people to have non-uniform opinions about students.
The irony.

robopreneur : educator's symposium

long story... I shall type out the events in a chronological order, the way Mr Yong likes our physics files.



Don't read this if you hate grandmother stories. It's gonna be the grandmother of all my posts. I'm writing this for my team. (including hewei! well, you never know who reads your blog, do you?) Although I don't like toiling away at the NUS SRL very much, the thought that we most probably won't be going back anytime soon makes me sad. For now, we'll have to focus on



This post is for us to reminisce about everything we went through this week, lest we forget about our hilarious experiences. It's funny how 4 complete strangers came together for this project. And how good our team dynamics are! :D





Woke up in the morning to find my forearms dotted wildly with tiny bumps (which were not red. just looked normal) which made me bear resemblance to a patient with a STD. Freaked out for 10 seconds or so, and then proceeded with life. Maybe my skin is sensitive to Ambi's dusty exterior.



Lugged Ambi out of daddy's car as I stepped into school, focusing my eyes on the path ahead and dodging the curious gazes of everyone else. No, it's NOT my birthday.



Plopped Ambi gently down next to the class bench and sat next to her, turning on her switch with much trepidation to check if she was fine. Discovered (with great horror) that her head was stationary when she mouthed her pre-programmed phrases. Freak out (yet again) when I can't find the wire that leads to her head servo. Nicole, pea, jen, and shuhui come along and play with Ambi, offering their condolences. (remember? Ambi got paralysed...and it's all my fault) Ex-crush ignores Ambi, but who cares about him anyway, when Hewei will be with us soon to bring Ambi back to life? :D



After assembly, we carried Ambi down the canteen, walking by the cleaner uncle who enthusiastically asked us "你们要拿去丢掉的啊？".

(translation: Are you all gonna throw that thing away?)

I cursed him in my mind and mentally rolled my eyes, forcing a laugh.



Dr Lim took a picture of us with his dSLR, and commented that the "educated" word on her shirt was very dirty. -_- Sigh... Like hewei mentioned in his ppt, people who are much older than you don't take you seriously.



ok. You must be getting bored by this point, because I am. Let's skip to the exciting bits!





When we got to the AaHa! Room in Admiralty Secondary, I discovered that the laptop they were using there only has the old 2003 powerpoint installed. Our powerpoint was saved as .pptx, the 2007 ppt version. And I had to edit it.



CRAP! IT'S THE GAZILLIONTH TIME I FORGOT ABOUT THIS.



We frantically called our mentor (who still had a sore throat) to come down with his laptop, ASAP. At that moment, lutheng found out that Ambi's head servo wire came loose. And it was stuck in an inaccessible location. Sigh. I smsed this update to hewei, who promptly replied "Jus relax".



SIGH...

The 3 Princesses of Serendip

are none other than lutheng, jiangying, and yours truly.

*ecstatic wail*

BBI FINALS!!!!!!!!!!!

Just when we got over the loss of our place in the finals yesterday, we had the serendipity of receiving Mr William Tan's SMS today morning at 8.03am.

ahhh!!!!!!!!!

Hehe random post. I'm typing this in the fishtank at 8.30am while I pon PE (volleyball).
Actually I came here for the aircon. :P

Hmm technically I didn't pon it, since I went to get my attendance marked already. And I did go to play volleyball with the effervescent Nicole for a while. :D Or should I have said evil? She whacked the ball into shuhui's head. A moment later, one of her massive spherical projects sliced through the air, missing jingbin's cranium by an inch.

Nina... hahaha I shall not mention anything about you. ;D Take care of yourself and your *cough*!

(pun intended)

k shall get on with my mundane school life. bye to slacking. =)

sick in the head

Was down with food poisoning since Monday night. The nausea/stomach hyperacidity/general sian-ness persisted till Tuesday afternoon.

bleaurgh.

All my grand mugging plans blighted by an unfortunate choice of dish for lunch on Monday.

Currently, I'm forcing myself to fight off the powerful drowsiness induced upon me by all that medication. My mind feels heavy and it's gravitating towards my bed.

Nooooo... resist bedroom gravitational field!

Resistance is futile...
if <1 ohm

and this is genius. haha
http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/jewelry/a38d/

now you know.

What happened today morning was... unexpected.
It's not the most pleasant thing in the world to hand your (crikey!!) a present.
Mildly nerve-wrecking. And very telling indeed.
Oblivious as he may have been in the past, I'm sure what happened today has already elucidated the truth.
Way to go. (charges into wall, slumps into a lifeless heap)
Nevertheless, I'm still grateful for the arranged opportunity. HAHA!
And really. Thanks to Shu Hui for preparing everything!

I seriously doubt if the 'truth' on my part will be reciprocated in the future. You know how the truth can strike fear in us. (especially in sprinters. whahaaha) Anyway, I shall no longer pursue the matter even if this thing goes my way. Currently, I only have eyes for... the A levels, of course. (What were you thinking, you filthy-minded --- blog reader!) NO DISTRACTIONS!


Nina and I have shared much with each other over the long weekend. :) Sorry, can't share them here. But Nina's heartfelt words on Friday almost made me cry la. Never knew my sms would make you cry more. Hehe.
You will never know how much a simple act of kindness means to your friend.

Julia and I have had a pseudo-intellectual discussion about religion/politics/the AWARE organisation/homosexuality/terrorism over msn over 30 mins ago. Haha it's always great to have such discussions with you! =D Next shijia meeting ok! (:
You will never know all the right answers in life.

Jen can't wait to know what's going on! Patience, my friend!
You will never know what's going on until this Wednesday!

hee. :D

in search of the truth

Remember the times in primary school? Social connections were formed and broken with such ease back then.

"I don't friend you."
"I friend you!"

We were blunt. And very straightfoward. There wasn't a spectrum, only two discrete colours named black and white.

Looking back, I suddenly appreciate how direct we were to each other in the past. Now that we're young adults, we've come to understand social mores, and we've accepted them. Yes, they are a way of life. But I hate some of these unspoken rules. I hate how we sometimes compel ourselves and pretend to be friendly; how some are willing to change their behaviour simply to fit into a group, and how others... forcefully forge friendships to up their popularity index.


Spending time with Shijia on Good Friday, studying and chatting with Nina, talking to my close friends...

These quality moments remind me that apart from our families, there do exist people whom we can be absolutely honest with. They are the true friends we can trust for the rest of our time on this bluish-green sphere. Mortal angels who lift our spirits from the seemingly inescapable depths of depression.

All of you have brought shame upon the shallow minded, and shone light upon the world.
Your light made everything as simple as they could get, but not any simpler. You showed me what truth really means.

(hmm, my blog's poster boy would've liked you.)
-----------------------------------------------------------
Okay. End of post, end of escapism... But before I end,

Thank you for your honesty.

Through the Years

Stand By Me

it's a nice song =)

no idea why the judges have to nitpick about him always closing his eyes - that's insignificant in comparison to the way he can contort his vocals... beautifully.

Heaven

Note the background singer sobbing a tad bit at around 0.32. Omg...

Here's a flashback.

=) hope you enjoyed this post.

so many great inventions from just one guy

Was watching a video about Wiimote hacks made by this Johnny Lee, a graduate student at the Human Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.



http://www.ted.com/index.php/speakers/johnny_lee.html

That's his profile page.
(on a side note, http://www.ted.com/ is a great website to visit for highly interesting talks about various topics... useful for GP. May I suggest that we pon GP to watch videos on TED??? =D )

Ah, if only.

If that demonstration cum manifestation of his intellect and creativity hasn't astounded you yet, take this!

ownage! =O

And some chim RFID locating technology which my feeble mind can not yet comprehend.


His blog, http://procrastineering.blogspot.com/ , (hahaha love the name) gave a brief mention of Sensitive Object, a French company specializing in the use of microphones to detect touches on any object. In fact, their technology can even locate the touch and detect dragging with more microphones. To my surprise, it wasn't done by sound localization. (!!!!!) The microphones are calibrated to recognise how touching a certain part of the object sounds like. This means that it will match the sound created by your touch to one of those in its memory, and then determine where you touched the object.

Woahhh! It's shockingly similar to the speech recognition software we dabbled with while we were building Ambi. Who would have thought?!

All these stuff inspire me to major in electrical/electronics engineering in university. =D

K. I've been watching TED till 4pm. This is bad. =P

Off to finish my tutorials! =)

what's happiness?

sometimes,

it's when you make your good friend cheer up,

dust themselves off,

and get back on their feet.



sometimes,

it's seeing your hard work get paid off.





Lu Theng just informed Jiang Ying and I that our business proposal for the BBI managed to enter the finals. =D (which is around a 20 to 30% chance?) And a letter of approval from our mentors in NUS is all we need to receive a $500 grant for creating/improving on our prototype robot.



WHEEE HEE!!! We actually have funding! :D



Never expected it. I was too stupefied to feel any shock.



This time, we'll make sure that our robot is well constructed.



We won't give up.

And we'll hope that external memory for sensory chips come cheap. Hehe.

math and life.

People are like complex numbers.

z= a + bi

In public, we apply the Re function to ourselves; and so do others.

Re(z) = a

That portrays our physical appearance and public persona, and that's how most people perceive us.

But that's not all there is to us. We are no mere constants; we all have complex personalities.

Im(z) = b

Few discover this elusive part of us, and there are many reasons why.
Maybe they can't be bothered to.
Maybe you're unconsciously hiding it.
Or maybe it's too overwhelming for their acceptance.

Understanding this complex bit can be tough. It's parallel to how you felt before complex numbers were introduced to you; that bliss one feels when they know that they are capable of completing the math paper without having to deal with complex numbers. (ok, I'm talking about my own mathematical insecurities...haha)

You know what? Take the initiative to learn more about the imaginary part of a number. It adds a new dimension to the number you once knew. Quit trying to expand a list of shallow numbers you are acquainted with, because having a deeper understanding of fewer numbers would be much more meaningful.

Want to have a lifelong friendship?
You do the math. =)

HC's 90th Anniversary; this blog's 90th post

haha so zun right! :)

Nothing much to say about the anniversary dinner last night. But I didn't enjoy myself very much because...

The bleddy loudspeaker was wildly bombarding my left ear throughout the dinner. In fact, my left ear still feels a little deaf now. I'm SO going to sue whoever planned for the speaker to be placed there if I do go deaf in one ear. >:(

Hehe. Joking. But I was also very tired to begin with.

The song sessions were fun, though. (Thanks to Pea who pointed out to me that caveman was singing. Made my day, even if he was screeching badly... Well, at least he looked cute while he was at it. =P) It felt like orientation all over again, with a big discount on enthusiasm, regretfully. Maybe Cambridge examinations silently assasinate the children in us. Slowly.

Was having a talk with my dad late last night about my surprise of seeing so many girls dress up for the anniversary dinner. Call me a nerd, but I've got no clue why many girls can spend days worrying about what to wear to an event, when the total amount of time that people actually look at them is not commensurate with the amount of effort they put into making themselves pretty. Don't get me wrong, I'm not criticizing those who dressed up, I just don't seem to see the importance/significance of doing so. Will someone enlighten me? =/

Thank you Chuan Khim and Shuhui for... (how should I phrase this??) helping out yesterday. Really appreciate what you all did, but YOU KNOW!!! He knows already. So it's time for retreat? I really cannot walk any faster. =P And my mind is bent on believing that caveman is avoiding his self-assumed-stalker right now.

As Liang Jing Ru sang in her song, 接受，
不能退后也无法向前走

Don't want to make his life difficult, either.
Looking back, I think my brain/common sense was on vacation all this while. Highest record of stupid things done in one year - for some guy I don't even know. What's wrong with me! Why am I losing 10 minutes of sleep some nights worrying about something which is not my ultimate goal for 2009? (ultimate goal=straight As for A levels... except for Chinese which is boh pian)

The Life section in the Straits Times today mentioned in its Horoscope section that Geminis should be prepared for a very great change to their lives today. Admittedly, I don't believe in their predictions. Nonetheless, I think it could be my resolution to abolish caveman from my list of worries. It's tough; I brought it all upon myself. Now it's time to take it away.

Yesterday night, I wanted to remove the italicised words from the end of my previous post. But oh well, what's done is done. Whatever has been read by caveman is now in his military-grade memory. Erasing a digital mistake won't help.


Funny, how a part of me still has an unrealistically optimistic belief that everything will work out right in the end, like how my O levels turned out eventually.
Hold on to that hope. =)

hocus pocus... FOCUS!

The previous 3 posts were mind-numbingly bimbotic, now that I've read through them again.

They evidently included:
1) Girly gossip about celebrities
2) Swooning about a guy unabashedly
3) More swooning, about an inanimate object, though. (my new bag!!! XD)

Noooo! I don't want to bear any resemblance to a bimbo!!! Like, ohmygosh!

Now that I've come to the topic of bimbotic-ness...
I wonder.
How did this derogatory term come about?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bimbo

WOW! Wiki actually has an article on it. Impressive. Now for some unimpressive plagiarism from my favourite site.

"Bimbo is a term that emerged in popular English language usage in the early 20th century to describe an often attractive, non-intelligent woman."

Phew. The first verb is not applicable in my case. Case closed. Don't you love definitions?
(but here's a shocking fact. In the English language, this word was originally used for stupid men.)

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

Ok, moving on to the main topic for today.


Wah... how saccharine can young love get?


(btw, that's fructose, a monosaccharide which is apparently the sweetest of all sugars)

Nina and I were studying in KFC today, when a couple stepped in and sat down a table away from us. The both of them are decked out in their respective school uniforms. Hmm, the guy's in shorts! Nina quickly infers that he's in lower sec. Woah. Very young love.

Romeo and Juliet droop over the table languidly. They stare absent-mindedly into space, avoiding each others' gaze. The chivalrous Romeo then decides to get off his handsome stallion of reticence, swiftly slicing through the icy barrier to interaction with his majestic sword in the process.

The ice has shattered.

He casually leans closer to his fair maiden.
No response.

Unaffected, he reaches out slowly, and holds her hand.
She looks into his eyes. He senses sadness, and smiles meekly.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

CONVERSATION:INITIATED

Meanwhile, the TK girls skulk in the shadows of their chemistry books, feigning innocence. (which is something they are really good at) =P Yup! We were eavesdropping! HAHA! Turns out that the girl just lost a musical instrument after band practice. (hehe. Were you expecting a live break-up scene?) We were. =P

This is going to make us sound like underaged nosey aunties... but anyway, Romeo was talking/zoning out with Juliet for more than an hour! Amazing.

It's an incident which set me thinking about relationships. When you get committed to a person, involuntary P2P exchanges occur. Yes, there is no doubt that the both of you will share many happy moments together. However, love is not all about fluff and sugar. As the both of you become more of an entity, you start to share your problems, and also worry for each other. In my opinion... such relationships are really a chore for students. (who already have more than enough to worry about :( )

So, why do so many adolescents yearn for a BGR?

Are humans fond of flirting with trouble?

Or is there a daredevil in all of us?

equilibrium unattained

in other words, unfair.

Was just watching American Idol on channel 5 an hour ago. Elimination round in the final 11.
After announcing the results (ie who will be eliminated), they gave this contestant with the lowest number of votes another chance to sing. If the judges think that she doesn't deserve to be eliminated, she'd be safe.

Now, don't you find this rather silly? After being told that she would be eliminated, she would be feeling absolutely devastated. Completely sian diao already, got mood to sing well meh... -_- But then again, I must say that she sang very well, still. Wow. The courage to do that is amazing. No doubt, there were some high notes which she failed to reach, but it doesn't matter! She is a true performer. =)

Haven't watched American Idol in a while. Ryan Seacrest's face is now generously laden with Botox... And Paula Abdul's hair is great! Sleek and simple, so much better than having it all big and messy. Hehe.

Live n Loaded is on channel 5 now. Soo's hair is unconventionally nice! From the left, it looks like a school-disciplinary-master-approved hairstyle. From the right, it's a long and edgy anime-inspired cut. Dyed hot pink! XD

And some big-shot guy from Universal Music just made a guest appearance on the show. His name is... Lim Teck Kheng!?!?! It has just 1 more 'K' than my daddy's name! Hahaha! Ironic, how the music gene is absent from my family. (None of us can read music scores) Yup. I was a total loser in music classes. Haha =)

Junlin just said that thermo is also tested for chem BT1... SIGH... I thought I was more or less done with revision for chem, other than making sure that I remember all the organic chem reactions by heart. Irritating la, that thermo topic. Hmm. Wonder why/how my favourite subject turned into my foe. Must be my laziness.


I've been extremely unproductive today. Lazy me!!! Sloth!!! GAH! Haven't started on math. Must pia like hell tmr, xy. Stop letting your ambitious lazy self down.

Rihanna says: Shut up and drive study. =D

You might wanna catch Don't Forget The Lyrics next Thursday night. Or next next Thursday night, can't recall, hehe. Members of Parliament for 2 GRCs are taking part! Entertaining. ;)

hmmm, you may never find out the mastermind who wrote the letters to you.

Besides, things would be better if you don't know.

At least for now.

EXCLUSIVE!!!

Hey there! If you're reading my blog now, you're in for a laugh... second!

(because the first to see this pic was Nina! =D My lifelong mugging partner. hahaha )

Dun care already! Must post this on MY BLOG FIRST!!! >_<

I was taking a different route to Bedok library today morning, and guess what I found!

(click picture to see a bigger version)

OMG! =O

Nooo, your eyes are perfectly fine! And so are mine! And so is my iphone camera!

JUNLIN XIAOCHU

HAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHA XD

New restaurant in Bedok interchange! Just behind the library. Somewhere around Cash Converters, I took this pic while walking past the carpark. You can visit it if you want...

HAPPY MUGGING EVERYONE! Don't listen to people who tell you not to mug/that you have mugged too much!

Before I forget, here's an inspiring quote from Nina today.

"Ignorance is bliss; with knowledge comes responsibility."

Maybe it's better for you to pretend you don't know.

out with the (not so) old, in with the new,

and out goes my dad's savings.

*embarassed smile*

The samsonite schoolbag I bought in December got ripped on Monday... alllll thanksssss to that GP file. The gaping hole at the base is huge enough to let a GC fall through. Great quality. -_- Maybe my A for Chinese fell out through that hole too. Ended up getting a B/Merit. Damn sian. But oh well I will not dwell on that any further, because I still can get As for everything else. And I must now do my best for SSEF!

Ok the previous part was just crapping, the reason why I wrote this post is BECAUSE.....
*dramatic drumroll*

Daddy bought me a new schoolbag yesterday morning! =D WHEE! Thank you daddy! (that sounded very childish) And I love it even more than my...my... my... ermmm, ok, he's not mine. =( (hint hint. ahem.)

http://www.selectit.jp/item_acce/xpac-bag_crumpler_japan-pink.php
http://www.crumpler.jp/ginza/page/2
Pictures shamelessly koped from a Japanese Crumpler website.


*takes a deep breath*
The Barney Rustle Blanket by Crumpler! What a long, nonsensical, but cute name.
Bought the royal blue/hot pink one. =D It was a difficult decision between these 2 colours. But the shade of blue matches that of somebody's schoolbag. ;) HAHA!!! no lah, the pink one was kinda plain.

Barney is a dinosaur from our imagination

And when he's tall

he's what we call a dinosaur sensation

Barney's friends are big and small

they come from lots of places

after school they meet to play

and sing with happy faces

Oops, I'm guilty of rambling nonsense again...

Train of thought: (The logo is bubblegum pink! SO CUTE!!! MUST BUY!!! XD)

Yar it's supposed to be some limited edition bag in Japan. But interestingly, it's available in the crumpler store at raffles city. The Japanese must be feeling cheated now. But then again, how limited is 'limited'? 1million would also be 'limited' righttt...

Oh! The sales assistant there was very helpful too. =)

$163, painful but well spent. =D Will take very good care of my new love, and leave my old love to take care of himself. Hmph. (LOL)

At first it looked too small for school use, but after I went home and loaded all my academic junk in, I realised that everything fit in very nicely-with some room left! =D Happy! It's like we were meant to be together!

(Omg, crapping again.)

Just learnt that it's also built to accomodate camera equipment. Hmmm just perfect for my future DSLR. Ahh, bliss. No no no. I shall only buy a DSLR if I get an average grade of C for block test 1. (err, quite unlikely)

Btw this brand has some of the loudest velcros you've ever heard. Many people are complaining about this online. So this idea of theirs is really ingenious!

K. Shall stop gushing about my bag and get on with my sad overworked life.

Happy mugging for blocks, everyone!

senior treat junior!

The NTU mechanical engineering glider challenge turned out to be a bit of a bore at the beginning. *hint*shuai chairman of ASME in NTU.*hint* HAHA! Watching mythbusters was fun, though. But the climax came at the end, when we were building our gliders out of balsa wood (shockingly soft and light, like styrofoam!) and later went on the stage to launch it with this rubber band thingy. Had a good laugh anyway. =D

My group's plane did okay, except for my lousy launch which resulted in an embarassing 1 point for that shot. (paiseh...) Thanks to Sihao for wishing my group good luck before we went on stage... hehe. =) His group's giant plane (hmm maybe not as giant as PJC's) did really well on their last shot, which was unfortunately not one of those counted in the competition. In fact, it was one of the 2 planes which managed to smack the main door of the hall! 100 points! Simply amazing. No idea how Sihao managed to shoot the plane off so well the 5th time round. Sigh, it was really dependent on your luck la. Not a very scientific way of launching.


Later went for STJ... because Jen persuaded me to! Haha! But I didn't regret my decision. Had fun watching hongyao's antics (never fails to entertain), watching people bbq (ok actually only one person only la...hehehe...), talking to the girls, watching jingbin proposing to junlin while holding back my tears (from laughing, HAHAH! no wonder junlin looked so sad the whole night la. only got guy propose to him. haiyou.), playing the silly yet strangely entertaining shoot/shag/marry game within the "circle of trust" (or rather those who stayed till the end. about 10 of us?).

A lot of secrets revealed ya... I revealed 2, but only one of them was unknown to everyone. Hmm the other one you all know la hor. Not exciting de.Except for the other person involved. Hmmmm. ck's eyecandy. HMMM. That game really lets you know how the extent of your popularity in school. Shall stop talking about it here, because I don't want to bitch publicly. Heh heh.

And just another thing which deserves its own paragraph.

I ate roasted marshmallows for the first time in my life yesterday. WHY HAVE I NOT EATEN IT EARLIER??? XD Thank you Pearlynne for roasting it for me. Hehe =)

Did something adventurous yesterday night. Shouted BYE 'caveman' (replace 'caveman' with the name of a person) loudly as he was leaving. But he didn't even turn back. Wha lau ehhhh. Obviously ignoring me, right!? Apparently, my goodbye wasn't audible... (but I thought I was shouting!) Although I must say that it felt good. I've never dared to say bye to him for sooo many times in school. So many times, that I sometimes regret not doing it.

Now that I've tried to say it, he blatantly neglects it. Booo. Oh well, nevermind! I like doing things spontaneously! =D Shall do it more often in the future. HAHA. Oh. He was carrying a diesel sling bag la. Quite unlike him hur. Always had the impression that guys who wear Diesel are the cool/beng/shuai type. (oops I'm stereotyping) He was in a solemn mood the whole night... could my presence be causing him to feel dejected? Or do guys have pms too? Who knows?

Wahhh I just wrote 2 full paragraphs on caveman even though he is not even my friend.
I feel kinda sad for him, honestly.
What's bothering you?
I'll never find out.

What's wrong with me?

Perhaps it's just a branch of chemistry that can't be explained by Nobel laureates.

where would I be without you?

yep I had a rough day today.
a sinusoidal mood is something we all should avoid at all costs.
sorry if this post is incoherent, because it's reflecting my fluctuating emotions.

a few moments ago, I was venting my frustrations at some gwai-lou. every single detail of his face is deeply etched in the recycle bin section of my memory. I wanna delete it, bcos I can't sleep.
jiang ying said that it's not worth getting angry over such people.
hmm, she's right. he's of no significance in my life anyway.

jen, nicole, shuhui, pea, lutheng, nina, jiang ying.

now that I've listed all your names down in chronological order, I realise that there are many many people out there who care. Versus the number of people who hate me.

(The peculiar thing is that I'm crying as I'm typing this, not as I was typing the previous post.)

Thank you Nicole, for your hug. Thank you Jen, for your hug and unreserved support. (you had lots of fun today, right! XD ) Thank you Pea and Shuhui for just being there for me at that time. Thank you Lu theng, for counselling me and listening to my incessant whining. Thank you Nina, for spending so much of your precious free time with me, and sharing with me so many of your experiences. (and also the ice cream, haha =D made me feel a lot better. Sorry that everytime we meet for ice cream, I'm the unstable one.) Thank you Jiang ying, for consoling me and bringing me to my senses somewhat. And also for offering to pass up my file. =) Thank you caveman, for your chocs. LOL.

No idea why I always start my prolonged crying at home, not in public. Guess the peace and quiet of home makes me constantly rewind and play back the day's events. I'm so weak. Or maybe I just had a moment of epiphany... that I have more friends than I thought.

This must be why some say that it's good to count your blessings. It makes you feel very fortunate and contented.

I've not made many friendships in my life, but most of them are extremely close to my heart.
Some people make a deep impression in your life. One that moulds you to become who you are today. Friends do this gently and imperceptibly. Villians do this...violently, of course.

And with each experience with such people, we walk out of the situation a changed person.

I love you all. =) looking foward to the NTU mechanical challenge tomorrow. Friends aside, science is my life, dude. You can't change that.

a rough day.

what happened during GP today was my fault. Yes. Bad time planning.
I admit that I have been doing ssef and any other subject other than yours.

You wanna talk to my form teacher? You wanna complain to my parents?
I've got no qualms about it. Go ahead. It was my fault, I'd deserve that if you really wanted to do it.

But demerit points... well that's kinda extreme.
However, the thought of demerit points is not what made me break down. It was your threat of preventing me from participating in the SSEF. You got me there, gwai lou. That's what means the most to me right now. The stress piling up over the weeks... And now your emotional blackmail. It made me spill all my accumulated emotions. And I thank you for somewhat relieving my stress... and making me feel crappy in the process.

All I sought for was your kind understanding, really. I wasn't testing your patience (because you have none for me to test anyway) and I know who you are. You're my subject tutor. Period. Being head of the department doesn't intimidate me, gwai lou. Don't try that lame "do you know who I am" tactic on me, it's simply showing your lack of self confidence. Try saying that to Bill Gates, dude. People who are of a higher social status never have to say that. For people with real substance, things speak for themselves.

Besides, at this ripe age, you should have understood that the true value of a person does not depend on his social position. It's a person's heart. Mdm Seah may not be the head of the art/humanities department, but she is a great person, and we all respect and love her for that.

I thought you knew more than me. But I was wrong.
And you are wrong about yourself.

There were simply too many times you showed us your true colours.
When you verbally humiliated people indirectly.
When you told my friend to "shut up" when he wanted to raise the temperature of the air-con for the welfare of the class.
Thanks man, gwai lou. I'll prove you wrong. As I did to a few unreasonable teachers from my secondary school.
And maybe one day, you'll regret doing this me.

Wait... I'll turn that "maybe" in that previous sentence into "surely".
In time to come, you'll see. And you'll regret. Deeply. =)




I feel so much better after suan-ing you.

sleep is precious

whoa. SSEF is driving my group nuts. I'm going almonds and cashews. Help!
Other than hewei, we are the only other people who can help us. Reality check in place.
This is the craziest time in hc I've ever experienced so far.
I actually chionged the Time Tunnel while sitting in the bus, and continued to scribble furiously even when standing in the MRT.
My sanity has gone on a vacation.

Julia, congratulations for finishing your exams! Take a good break, chill out. Because you deserve it! =D

Reached home at 9.30pm, and quickly proceeded to wolf my dinner down. (howl....howl...) It was one of those moments when you're too mentally exhausted to even sense hunger. But the first spoonful of rice broke me out of the inertia. Hehe, I rarely eat this quickly. Just wanted to quickly get over with the daily chores of eating and bathing, so that I could get started on the GP homework, study for chem SPA tomorrow, and prepare for tomorrow's mock presentation at NUS.

My eyelids feel like lead.
My mind is a void.
But 2 functions still exist within it.

#define PlaySnd(x) _PlaySnd(x,(long)&SNDTBL_MYBRAIN,256)

keepEyesOpen()
{
just keep my eyelids apart!
}

keepWriting()
{
I leave this to your imagination.
}

void main()
{
keepEyesOpen ();
keepWriting();
PlaySnd(SND_yawnnn);
}

It's a loop that we all can't escape from.


P.S. the #define part was koped from our Sensory coding. Hahaha =D Don't you miss coding?

analogies.

you're a walking slurpee.
You give me a brainfreeze whenever you're near.

And suddenly, my mental clockwork comes to a standstill.
I don't know what to say to you.
You may look away in fear,
Hmm what else could happen this year?

This is not rhyming.

(I'm bored!)

My mortal has stopped replying to me. Hmmm he has probably realised the rare coincidence occurring here. =)

Nina! I can't wait to meet you... But our schedules are really packed. Sigh.

On a more colourful note, there was a huge full rainbow outside my house today.

Rainbow after the rain.

I wish you were here to see it with me. =)

tag reply

k I couldn't fall asleep so here's my reply to chuankhim!

haha our water bottles are the only 'food items' allowed... other than our packet lunch? =P
maybe can serve ice water instead.

ARGHHH I'M DAMN NOOB AT THIS! frustrating!!!! >_<

thought of printing a huge board of the teddy bear's head. And paste it right smack on top of the booth, so that it sticks right out of it, and you can spot our booth from Changi. HAHA! Science centre never say cannot stick things on top, although they did mention that we can't put anything beyond our booth.

anyway, thanks for your advice! =) Hwachong ppl are very creative indeed. And slightly annoying to judges, I suppose. =D Hehehe.


argh I'm very stressed. Want to sleep also cannot fall asleep. =/
Hope tmr will be a better day.
Can't wait to meet nina again this week. =)

and when you get it, you feel like getting rid of it.

tag reply to [not THAT Jen]:

Omg, someone free my digital neck from your merciless virtual hands! (gags and breathes for air) So do you want to have toh-paz's picture removed from my blog? hehehe...

Oh ya it's ok for me to be super obvious now, because if this doesn't work out, errm... well at least I tried. Haha! And also I am not a high-profile person in school, so my blog isn't that widely-read...I think. Anyway caveman won't read my blog also la... =) Let's hope so!


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yes, yes... me and my hyped-up emotions about the SSEF briefing today.

I shouldn't have been looking forward to the briefing. It only made my group feel stressed, and pressured my brains into a pile of sludge. You got that right. Sludge.

The next 3 weeks will be the craziest 3 weeks I'm gonna ever have in school.

Here's the brief breakdown of what's going to happen!
(of course, if I add in all the details, it's going to be really daunting)

Tuesday, 10 March: Set-up day (2pm-4.30pm)

Wednesday, 11 March: Judging day (8.15am-6pm) AND ALSO Econs block test 1

Thursday, 12 March: Public Exhibition day (11.30am-5pm) AND ALSO GP block test 1, if I remembered correctly.

Friday, 13 March: Physics Block test 1


That's right! We only have 2 weeks to complete the gigantic poster for the presentation AND prepare ourselves for the presentation AND improve our verbal crapping skills and diplomatic skills to impress the 3 judges who will be interrogating us. AND... a whole mount everest of other tasks to complete. (including studying for the block tests, which I probably will do very little of =P) It's PW all over again!!! What have we gotten ourselves into?

We need lots of advice on how to go about doing the giant poster... It's very important in the presentation! Sigh. Ya I want to ask caveman but it might make him feel sad. Do you know anyone else who has been in SSEF before?? =/ It's an engineering project, so the conventional rules for a poster are not very relevant. HMMM maybe we could score on the creativity points that way. =D We already have some tricks up our sleeves... Such as offering the judges free canned drinks. Hehehehehe...

Weird, how I can get something I really wanted, and later have a strong urge to abandon it.

hmm. No no no no no... I must work hard for SSEF and the blocks. Lutheng's right. Let's go for the gold! =D
WE CAN DO THIS!
WE CAN DO THIS!
WE CAN DO THIS!

YES WE CAN! =D