Interesting Quotes from Ernest Hemingway

Blatantly koped from http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ernest_hemmingway

Ernest Hemingway (21 July 1899 – 2 July 1961) was an American novelist and short story writer whose works are characterized by terse minimalism and understatement. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954.


"Our nada who art in nada, nada be thy name thy kingdom nada thy will be nada in nada as it is in nada. Give us this nada our daily nada and nada us our nada as we nada our nadas and nada us not into nada but deliver us from nada; pues nada. Hail nothing full of nothing, nothing is with thee."

-The old waiter of "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" in Winner Take Nothing (1932)


"It's none of their business that you have to learn how to write. Let them think you were born that way."

-On the loss of a suitcase containing work from his first two years as a writer, as quoted in With Hemingway (1984) by Arnold Samuelson
(note: tell that to your GP tutor.)


"Writing and travel broaden your ass if not your mind and I like to write standing up."

-Letter (9 July 1950); published in Ernest Hemingway : Selected Letters 1917-1961 (1981) edited by Carlos Baker


"We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master."

-New York Journal-American (11 July 1961)


"If you have a success, you have it for the wrong reasons. If you become popular it is always because of the worst aspects of your work.

-As quoted in That Summer in Paris (1963) by Morley Callaghan


"If a writer … knows enough about what he is writing about, he may omit things that he knows…. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one ninth of it being above water."

As quoted in A Second Flowering (1973) by Malcolm Cowley


"You're beautiful, like a May fly."

-Statement to his future wife Mary Welsh, recalled in her obituaries (26 November 1986)





"Hesitation increases in relation to risk in equal proportion to age."
Pt. 1, Ch. 3





"Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know."




"I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I'm awake, you know?"




"Even when I was in a crowd, I was always alone."





"The first draft of anything is shit."





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I'm quite unhappy with hc life right now. Tutorials, tutorials, tests, and no sleep. Hai.

But I must say that I was quite lucky yesterday morning. The morning assembly in school, unfortunately, started at 7.30 SHARP...



which was the exact time I stepped into school and realised that all of the late-birds were maniacally flocking towards the central plaza. Being sleep-deprived, I just walked.



When I reached the canteen, I saw Yiting, some guys and 2 teachers standing still. The national anthem played softly in the background.

CRAP.



Hehe, I was late! (for the first time in my already sucky jc life! =D )



Later, we had to surrender our ez-link cards to my PE teacher. Heehee. But then the most miraculous thing happened.



A huge hoard of latecomers flooded the latecomers' area. Wheehee! Then Mr Ken Yeow announced that we wouldn't be getting demerit points due to "heavy traffic conditions".



THAT WAS SO NICE OF HIM!!! Thanks Mr Yeow!

(despite his not so nice haircut, which was reminiscent of Mr Yong's pineapple-crew cut 2 years ago)



Damn heng. Must force myself to wake up early in the future.



Went to survey some kids and parents today with my robotics group for CenTaD on Friday! :D It was really fun. Running around and getting rejected occasionally didn't discourage us. Hehe. And I noticed that men don't like to participate in surveys. The ones who talked to us were mothers... fathers were generally not too happy to see us. Haha!

Toys R' Us had a plethora of robotic toys... at a price. Usually around $100 for those higher-end ones with better functions. Eg. BabyAlive. The robotic baby eats doll food and poops it out. Besides that, her mouth moves! LIKE A REAL BABY! Which can be quite freaky at night, I think. =P The visit turned out to feel like a shopping trip, but it did give us a much better idea of what functions commercial robots for children offer.

And surveying was tough. Or rather the beginning was tough. It's just so difficult to initiate a conversation! :( However, when we finally got started, I realised that hey... parents are mostly friendly people. :D

My centad group rocks, can?! :D They are two of the best people I've met in hc so far. We got flamed (badly) for our presentation during the centad conference on wednesday, but we remained optimistic and happy. (in fact we laughed when we got flamed. hahahahaa) Okay. Maybe our presentation wasn't superb, but our team dynamics are really strong. Unlike the other groups, we are not ripping out the uterus-es of lab rats and other gory/boring things. We're actually HAVING FUN! Hahaha. With more effort, I'm sure that we can conquer the other groups. muahahhahahaha
SSEF here we come
muahahahahhahaha

But we wouldn't be achieving much without Hewei and Prof. Ge. So kudos to both of them!

And just some things of interest to me that I encountered in school this week.

-Jingbin's daily 'cool walk' down the central plaza in the morning
-Jianwei is president of HACAS! I just discovered that, I don't believe myself.
and of course his quote. "You don't know if you don't try."

It's pretty overused, but it's true. :)

Productivity

Hehe, this is my second post in a day!
Well... I just wanted to type this post out to help keep all of us level-headed if any of us ever get to hold high positions in life in the future.

This post was inspired by a particular person who ignored us today when we greeted her. I shall try to keep the post more... general.

Alright, here goes.
If a person is in a high position in the corporate world or in any form of organisation, and has many people working under him/her, this person should respect the workers under him/her.

Think about this. If this person has nobody working under him/her, then he/she is not in any high position. That person would just be an individual.

From this, you can see that that person is nothing if not for the numerous workers who work for him/her. These workers have given up the chance to become a boss in order to work for him/her. Thus, I think that the person 'on top' should, at the very least, show some basic respect for the people 'below' them if they wish to continue being in a higher social status than others.

(hmmmm I wonder if you get what I mean.)



Surely a simple "hello" accompanied with a smile doesn't take too much effort?

A looooong trip down memory lane

(As I finished typing the title, an eyelash fell out of my left eye. BOOHOOHOOO!!!)

Ok ok I shall get back on task. Teehee!

I met Julia and Chun today at the bus stop just outside the side-gate of tkgs. I was early today (woohoo! For once, I'm early! =D ), so I sat down in the bus stop to play Final Fantasy II, while receiving odd stares from some tkgs girls. Dang. Shouldn't have bought another neon pink bag. That was 12.30pm.

We then proceeded to the general office to collect our graduation certificates from MOE. Unfortunately, we had to (reluctantly) surrender our ez-link cards to the receptionist to confirm our identities.

(NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!)

The receptionist must have had a really fun time comparing the pictures of us on our ez-link cards to our current selves. So paiseh...

Well, on a brighter note, the School Graduation Certificate comes in a (surprisingly) grand-looking black PVC folder, with the logo of the MOE embossed proudly in gold over it. Ooh, gold... How generous of them! I'll be sure to scrape some off and sell them to a jewellery shop! =D We all know how much gold is worth nowadays, right?

Since we were missing TKGS food sooooo much, we went to the canteen for lunch! The canteen hasn't changed much, but the chicken rice stall has been taken over by another group of people. And the western stall auntie and uncle are still as nice as their food. =) Sigh, I miss them so much. Today's Milo wasn't diluted. Hurrah!

Grilled dory fish with spaghetti and mini hashbrowns: $2.60 only!!!

milo: $0.60 per cup

total: $3.20 (GAH. Food in hcjc is so expensive in comparison...)

Yummy

Had a nice long chat with Mdm Seah. Shouted "HI MISS YEO!!!". Talked to photoshop. Waved to Mdm Chee and Miss Tee (who is now MRS LIM!)... and discovered a new pond next to the swings!

All right, I photoshopped this pic. The pond does not look as nice in reality. Hehe. Mdm Seah is one of the teachers in charge for decorating this pond, though I feel that the school should really reduce her workload... She's really stressed out now!

In the late afternoon, we left tkgs for Ice Cream Chef! The ice cream there is really good. Chun's granny smith apple ice cream was unique and refreshing, a great choice indeed! =D Their ice cream was so good that we decided to buy a large cup to share among ourselves after eating the small cups of ice cream. =P

un-blocked

ALL RIGHT!!! Today marks the end of the gut-wrenching, goose-pimple popping block tests!

(oh alright. I still have to go for my H1 Chinese paper on Monday... but that should be okay, considering the monstrosities I encountered for all the science papers)

Hmm so what was this post for, you wonder. And why would I want to act nocturnal and blog at 3am?

Yes, I'm going to help YOU to de-stress! =D

So enjoy the following videos of weird and hilarious auditions! Take your pick =D

1) American Idol auditions: guy who doesn't sound like one


2) American Idol auditions: could you lower your pitch?


3) More funny auditions


4) So you think you've got the X-factor, eh.


5) Numa Numa song... or was it?


6) Don't Cha ... wish I didn't come for the audition


7) Bulgarian idol: Ken Lee, oh libulibu douchoo


8) Polish Idol: What the heck was that?!


And now for a change.
9) How to be Emo


10) How to be Nerd


11) How to be Gangster

Science Songs!

website provided by Nina

http://faculty.washington.edu/crowther/Misc/Songs/music.shtml

Download the Glucose Glucose song from that site! It should be particularly of interest to bio students. I don't understand a colossal chunk of it, (contains A level stuff like glycolysis... is that a drink? =P) but it's okay. IT'S SO FUNNY.
(and besides, the website provides a *brief* explanation on the jargons used in the lyrics)

Glucose -- ah, sugar sugar --
You are my favorite fuel
From the blood-borne substrate pool.
Glucose -- monosaccharide sugar --
You're sweeter than a woman's kiss'
Cause I need you for glycolysis.

I just can't believe the way my muscles take you in.
(For you, they'll open the door.)
All it takes is a little bit of insulin
(To upregulate GLUT4).

Ah, glucose -- ah, sugar sugar --
You help me make ATP
When my predators are chasing me.
Ah, glucose -- you're an aldehyde sugar,
And you're sweeter than a woman's kiss'
Cause I need you for glycolysis.

I just can't believe the way my muscles break you down.
(My glycogen is almost gone.)
A few more seconds and I'll be rigor mortis-bound.
(Acidosis done me wrong.)

Your sweet is turning sour, baby.
I'm losing all my power, baby.
I'm gonna make your muscles ache.
No, no, no!I'm swimming in lactate, baby.
Yes, I'm swimming in lactate, baby.
Now I'm drowning in lactate, baby.
I'm gonna make your muscles ache.
No, no, no!
I'm drowning in lactate, baby.

Ah, glucose -- ah, sugar sugar --
I used you up and you left me flat;
Now I'll have to get my kicks from fat.
Oh, glucose, glucose, sugar, sugar,
The honeymoon is over now.



How about CHEMISTRY CAROLS?
http://www.delta.edu/slime/chemsongs.html

check out "I'm Dreaming Of A White Precipitate". WTH.


Oh ya. I'm sick of having this in my msn nick, so I'm going to paste this here for memory.
[fixed 4x4 at 2.07pm 18/11/2007]

and not to mention this phrase I created spontaneously for my msn nick too.
"My computer just attempted suicide by hanging"

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step...

While the journey of a 100 marks begins with just 1 mark.

Haiyou. My Semester 1 results are just as horrigible as the way I just spelt "horrible" in this sentence. USEABB. Wah biang. I can rant on forever, but this blog is supposed to be HAPPY! So I shall shut up here. Hehe

Holy hydrogen! I'm going to fail last week's chemistry class test. =( Got owned by so many questions... and not to mention the Lewis diagrams, which really should be classified officially by the government under illegal material for the good of all Singaporean chemistry students.

I think I got owned by A level chemistry. Oowch. Used to be able to cram a day before chem test and still score As in tests. Looks like it only works for the O levels. =P Whoops.

Oh well. At least that's not the lecture test! I'm going to work smarter this time for the coming lecture test. MRS CHAN, I WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN ANYMORE!



I was reading the Sunday Times today when I came across a small report on Chen Wei Lian. (Project Superstar 1 winner, who is a blind singer) And it struck me that he has the same English name as my current chemistry tutor, Mr Kelvin Tan. Hahaha!

I shall now tell you what other crappy stuff happened to me last week:

1) Rubik's Cube Competition in HCI (college) organized by the Mathematics Appreciation Club during Math Week.

There were only around 10 participants, and I was the only girl. Boo. (hurray for girl cubers!) I met Tejin (astro senior) there! He was super friendly and even gave me words of encouragement, although I was already mentally prepared to get owned by all the guys there. =D My mental preparation came at an opportune time though.

Contestants were to solve 3 scrambles. The average of the 3 timings would be taken. Timings were recorded by MAC members using stopwatches. (not very accurate... because Jen and I noticed that they started recording timings at different times although they uncovered the cubes at the same time!)

UNFORTUNATELY, no inspection time was given at all. I panicked during the first solve and ended up with a rubbish timing of 1min 6 seconds. The insanely fast guy next to me (who was using F2L + his own 'commutative' method for the last layer... I will lose to him for sure as I use the working corner method. The guy next to him uses Petrus. Damn fast can?!) didn't help to calm me down either. He finished it in around 24 seconds! Wanna know what contributed to my crappy timing? Here's the breakdown in chronological order:

1) Couldn't find the green/white edge --> took super long time to make the cross
2) Performed wrong formula to insert last white corner. Dang muscle memory.
3) Performed 2 wrong formulas to make entire top face yellow. sighhhh
4) Kena 2 wrong top layer corners diagonally opposite each other. RU'R'DRUR'D2zU'RULU'R'U', my most hated algorithm, had to be performed. =(
5)To add to my misery, I kena-ed diagonal double edge swap. RU'R'UDR'DU'R'URD2F. Oh lao tian ye! I hate D moves!

I apologise if the above was too technical for my beloved readers. Anyway, it was a nightmare. BUT BUT BUT! I did well for the second solve. 47 seconds, one of my best timings! =) The 3rd solve took 58.3 seconds, which is my average timing.

By then, I felt depressed. Jen had to go for her tennis training some time later, so we decided to stay and watch the other guys compete. The second batch of guys were pretty impressive on the whole. One of them even managed 14 seconds for one of his solves. Holy??? The last batch of guys were not that fast. I picked up a stopwatch to time them, and discovered that their timings ranged from around 50 seconds or so to 1 min 30 seconds.

The very same day, I was on my way home when I started cubing in the bus. This dunman high JC guy suddenly plopped down next to me, smiled, and said "lets play!". (which is kinda odd, considering that I'm not popular with guys anyway) He was friendly, but he was fast. He averages around 30s with Fridrich. He told me to lubricate my cube too, and let me play around with his super smooth cube. Later I found out that he lives just one bus stop away from me. Hmm I guess there are more cubers around me than I thought! =)

and now for more crappy events.

2) On Thursday, I got my right index finger stuck in the main gate lock of my house in the morning.

Had to forcefully pull it out. Yowwwchh! It bled at the rate which ice caps are now melting at the poles of the earth. Sob sob sob... it still hurts till today.

3) Saturday's Student Research Symposium

To my utter dismay, female student VIP ushers had to wear court shoes. I was tottering around noisily (and clumsily) like jelly on a pair of Heelys. The back edges of the shoes also scratched off a fair amount of the skin on my heel. ='( Why are court shoes so freaking difficult to walk in?! AND why do women have to endure such self-inflicted pain? Gah! On a brighter note, playing with the flight simulator in the SRC demo lab was fun! =D



-end of crappy events-

I *finally* got myself a can of silicone lubricant spray on Wednesday after school. Cost me $8.50, but it's quite a big bottle. =o After I sprayed it on some of the innards of my cube, the cube felt odd to play with, so I left it in my bag for a few days. When I took it out to play on Friday, it turned like a dream. Not as good as that dunman guy's one, but still decent. Looks like silicone spray needs some time to dry and set in. = Shall spray some more of it on wednesday night. =D

After lubrication, I could get down to 40 seconds. Still looks slow to me on video, due to the numerous regrippings which I have not learnt to avoid yet. Hehe.

btw my right index finger is bandaged because it was the victim of the gate lock. (see above, crappy incident no.2)

And I restickered the white face of my cube SILVER! Pretty eye-catching huh.

remember people

this coming thursday is Labour Day!

which means it's a

PUBLIC HOLIDAY!!! WHOOOOOOOO!!! :D
have a great week ahead! =D

Does laughing make your tummy flatter?

I was mugging for my physics lecture test last Sunday when I came to the (dreaded) chapter of Errors and Uncertainties in the TYS. The revision notes gave me inspiration to create this joke.

Q: What do you call an extremely intelligent man who is gay?



A: Homogenius


I know what you just thought to yourself. NOT FUNNY!!!

Another one! During the break on Monday, I was in the canteen sitting with my class. Suddenly, Linus said, "Hey let's talk Physics now! Physics SPA coming soon."

Nobody replied, so he said to Jing Bin, "That was so linear momentum."

Jing Bin's reply: "Eh, you don't FORCE me ah!!!"


FUNNY FUNNY FUNNY HILARIOUS!!!!! He has such a good sense of humour that I wonder if he has humour sensors embedded in his brain.

Anyway, that reminds me of what Miss Tee told us at the end of our very last physics lesson with her: "May the force be with you."

(note: what about 'may the mass x acceleration be with you, assuming that mass remains constant.)

And speaking about SENSE, healthy humans have the following 5 senses:
--> sense of smell
--> sense of taste
--> sense of touch
--> sense of hearing
--> sense of sight

But people like Jing Bin and Shu Hui have 6! Beause they have a sense of humour. But whether their sense of humour is healthy or not... Hmm.
(okay, I think you expected that lousy joke. I'm terrible at keeping people in suspense.)

Going back to TKGS soon to get my O level cert. Whee! =D

Humour is a solvent for boredom.

My son got a *pui* B!!!???

Why it's rare to see an asian guy with a white girl

Son attempts to explain to his parents that he is gay

Loss of Cultural Roots

The 1st, 3rd, and 4th videos are from this show called "Goodness Gracious Me". Enjoy! =D

I. Need. Sleep.

BUT

Sleep. Is. For. The. Weak...

*falls into a deep slumber*

Alright! I'll have to admit that I'm weak. I've been sleepwalking around hc for the past few weeks. The workload is really a royal pain in the... cranium.

I think I can cope with the workload, but I'm seriously too lazy to do all the tutorials. =P Can't wait for the march holidays! That would be a GREAT time to *ahem* slack *ahem* erm... I meant MUG! Why of course.

Unable to be as enthu nowadays compared to the time when we were JUMPSTARTING!!!
No matter how much sleep I get each night, I inevitably wake up with an odd feeling the next day. The increasingly annoying ringing of the alarm clock seems to make the gravitational field strength of the earth approach infinity. Hearing my mum attempting to wake me up seems to increase my mass significantly.

Since W = mg,

Waking up on time every morning is a great challenge!
Oh no. I'm digressing. Basically, I need a HOLIDAY!

I'm really sorry if I've been grumpy to anyone lately. Especially to my ILP group, which largely consists of super enthu people, minus me. Yep. Kind of doubt any of you actually KNOW that I have a blog, but I do appreciate all your enthusiasm and jokes! (but I can't figure out why guys tend to have a better sense of humour than girls.) Today's ILP discussion was quite fun, with the silly 'human graphs' and all.
Should've have played a more active role in the discussion today. Gah. But I'm still not very comfortable about talking to guys for now. Hope I get used to it soon.


Weekends are like resultant forces. They give me the all the momentum I need to go through another week of school.

Looking back, JC1 life seems to be a harsher version of sec 4 life in tkgs. It has much more rigour, and requires good time management skills for survival.
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ON A BRIGHTER NOTE!

(A reminder from Jael a.k.a. Kim Kim)
ANNOUNCEMENT: This announcement goes out to all members of the Shi Jia.
Please remember that we are having a badminton session on the 11th of March at Tampines Safra! =D Yippee!!!

And of course! What do people come to my blog for? JOKES of course! Here are some that I've heard of recently!



1) Q: What do you get when you ignore an orange?


A: Methyl Orange (me DAO orange)




2) Q: What kind of stationery did Shakespeare use for his writings?



A: 2B Pencils

WHY?
Because his most famous quote was "To be or not to be"

Just being random! (as usual)

Alright! So this post is really outdated, but HEY! I'm posting!!! Hehe. And it's going to be loaded with pictures, so enjoy! =)

During the end of January... guess who visited Hwachong?

Royston Tan!

Liu Ling Ling from the 881 movie also came to belt out some Hokkien tunes from the movie!

Found this furry pink plant in the garden located in the place where the lecture theatres are.
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CCA PROMOTION DAY IN TKGS! (19 January 08)

(Yes. I miss TKGS so much that I went back on a SATURDAY!)

Met Julia, Jael, Samantha, and finally Chun Ling at the bus stop outside pizza hut. (names are in order of appearance) For some odd reason, it felt really heartwarming and nostalgic to see them there again... My life in TKGS would have been completely meaningless without all of you!

We visited the art room and helped Mdm Seah do some mundane admin work, like stapling worksheets. Nonetheless... It was fun! =D We took A LOT of stupid pictures out of boredom, too. Visit Jael's blog (under the links section in the sidebar) for the pictorial evidences of our sheer boredom. That day really reminded me of the good old times we had in TK. =) Ahhh. I feel old. *strokes non-existent beard*

Looking back now, I've realised that our seniors were right in telling us two things after they graduated:

1) You'll realise that TK canteen food (AND the food in general around TK, eg the chicken rice stall outside TK) is really heavenly only AFTER you've tried JC food. (I second that!!!!! With all my heart.) Seriously, juniors! You will regret all the times you visited Videoworld, to happily feed on unhealthy(!) instant noodles! You should really eat more TK food... like the Briyani Rice, western food, whatever! JC food really sucks. =S

2) Cherish your friends in TK now. They are probably some of the best friends you'll ever have in your mugger life. Sigh. I should have realised that earlier.

为什么人总是在失去之后, 才会懂得珍惜?

SIGH. (again) I guess all you ex-tk girls out there feel the same way too. But being in Hwach makes the magnitude of the sad situation gargantuan... due to the paucity of TK girls here.

-The canteens in hwach lack the high-frequency-and-high-amplitude-soundwaves. (aka screaming! =P)

-My eyes are not accustomed to the sudden disappearance of green. Don't you miss that colour?

-I miss being with SLS, talking rubbish over our HEAVENLY canteen food(note the emphasis), and competing with Julia to see who can finish their cup of Milo in a shorter span of time. And not to mention... making the weird UFO-ish sound with our straws.

-I miss performing the Tiger Moth dance/song with Nina, and watching Bahiah and Cassandra sulk(inverse) at our bad sense of humour.

-I miss watching the lower-sec people rush into the canteen as a frenzied mob whenever the bell rings at 10.45am. (hehe. TKGS girls gone wild. That scene is the perfect antithesis of our school motto, which is, ironically, Demure and Resolute. ROFL)

OKAY! So. I've fulfilled my sec 3 academic dream of seeing my picture up on the projector screen before getting my O level results back. And I'm in my dream school now... I've dreamt of being in Hwach ever since I was a (noob) secondary 1 girl. This is just a displacement reaction. The old must make way for the new. And I (the non-metallic element) have to make the best of the opportunity given to me now. Bye bye Fe 2+ ion! And hello Pb 2+ ion! (um. The Hwach uniform is beige... the closest I could think of was yellow.)

And that means that I have to go finish my magical self-regenerative pile of tutorials now!

Just kidding. I'm leaving that for tomorrow, hee!

K. Enough of my linguistic crap, it's time for pictorial crap!

(picture taken outside the Art Room)
HOW DARE YOU FLUSH MY FAVOURITE EQUATION DOWN THE TOILET?! ROAR

The art room partition! With paintings of sausage-lipped people.

The picture says it all.

JOIN INFOCOMM CLUB HOR!!! It's the best CCA in TKGS! ( <-- an extremely biased opinion)

Abstract art painting by our very own TALENTED Mdm Seah! =D

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And finally, my feeble attempts at trying to make my photos look artistic. Hehe. Hope Jael can comment on them. All pics shown below were taken using my Sony Ericsson K850i 5mpx camera, in macro mode. (it's in a TV commercial now. Remember the guy taking a pic of the alien toy in various places, and then showing the pics to his son?)

Many people say that the buttons used in this phone are a chore to press. Honestly, I find them pretty ok. However, the three touch-sensors below the screen took me a few days to get used to. Users with bigger fingers should try out the buttons before they decide to buy this phone, though. The aesthetics of the phone are good, but not as appealing as the Motorola V3 Razr. I'm happy with the functions, though. Personally, I think that functionality is way more important! (the same goes for choosing bfs... that's what my mum said. Haha!) Hence the purchase of this phone made me a happy girl. =D

Nice mah?

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Oh. I had some fun with my new graphic calculator!

1) I zhng-ed it with lots of rhinestones. Hehe.

2) After some experimentation, I drew a star with my GC. Try it!

See the star in the middle? =)

Star Watch 2008! (organised by the HC Astronomy Club =D)

Venue: LT at Science Research Centre

The opening powerpoint slide.

Philip giving a briefing.

Green laser pointer. =)

And the 3 stars of Orion's Belt are Alnitak, Mintaka, and... Mintaka? (audience: Alnilam lah... =p)

Above the school field, observing the cloudy skies with telescopes. The sky was reddish and all, so I didn't see much. But we did manage to see Mars. =D

(Heh. I just HAD to use the camera flash to get a good picture!!! And now I bet everyone at astro hates me for doing that. =P But I guess it's okay, since more visual purple will be generated in your eyes after all. Hehe. Get more Vitamin A in your diet.)

JUMPSTART!!!

Hi! Sorry for not blogging ever since... uh. Okay. I forgot when was the last time I blogged. And, I would like to thank all the people who have visited my blog all this time, despite my laziness. (yes I observe that meter.)

ANYWAY!

Hwachong rocks big time!!! The school spirit is just amazing. Just listen to us when we cheer! =D Chinese high guys can cheer *much* louder than TKGS girls. Surprised??? (I like the shan ge cheer. Funniest cheer ever, really. Can't imagine my father used to be one of them. Hehe)

And I have to say this. My first few moments in hwachong were utterly EMBARASSING. Everyone was staring at my uniform. (well. It's green...) It didn't help either that I was a greenhorn there. Really. But then I met Jeannie later on. She is the best senior I've ever had so far. =) Thanks for all your help, Jeannie!

I'm lucky to have met Corina and Yuen Ying outside the auditorium on day one. (Ya Ting too!) I don't know what to do in hc without you girls. =P (and sorry for eating so slowly, I know it has been hard on you all. And YUEN YING. DELETE THAT VIDEO FROM YOUR HANDPHONE!!!)

The orientation games were fun! After the first day, I realised that all you needed to do to have fun was to be super enthu. Go crazy, like no one cares. =P

K! Gotta go off for the OG 3 outing now, so I'll stop here.

FUNNY FUNNY FUNNY!

An extract from a TV show called The Big Bang Theory. Catch it on youtube!









And, something less funny.

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



I didn't know that phenolphthalein turns colourless in solutions with a pH of >10.



=O

A Rhetorical Question

If the Rubik's cube turned into a human, would it be a male or a female?

Hmm...

Well, this little fact about the Rubik's Cube from www.rubiks.com should clear it up:

Frau Schmidt of Dusseldorf in Germany, sued her husband for divorce in 1981, citing the Cube as correspondent. She complained: 'Gundar no longer speaks to me and when he comes to bed he is too exhausted from playing with his Cube to even give me a cuddle'.

The answer is obvious now. The cube would be a woman. A femme fatale. =O
Who would've THOUGHT!?


Here's another dumb fact about the Cube.

"Easiest color to solve on a Rubik's Cube? black. Simply remove all the little colored stickers on the cube, and each side of the cube will now be the original color of the plastic underneath - black. According to the instructions, this means the puzzle is solved."- Steve Rubenstein
OKAY... at least Mr Rubenstein is technically correct... AND has a sense of humour at that!

let gravity take its toll on us

This was extracted from a conversation I had with Bahiah today morning... (with kind permission from Bahiah!)

bahiahhh says:
sighhhh

bahiahhh says:
i'm floating

bahiahhh says:
why nina and cassie not online

xinyi says:
I thought you were a down to earth person, bahiah

bahiahhh says:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAA



From this, I we can see that jokes can be re-used! (refer to my previous post on Nina being down-to-earth. ) Amazing huh. Just don't use it on the same person, twice.

It's Hee-Hee-Hilarious!

How to be the type of nerd that girls love

How to Click A Mouse


Someone save me from laughing too much!

It made our hearts skip a beat!

No, I wasn't referring to a guy in the title above.

I was referring to the Sony Ericsson W580i phone! (tra la la~)

Click Here to View the Heart-Throb


By the way! Here's a website you can visit when you feel like procrastinating.
http://typera.tk/index.cws
It allows you to check your typing speed. Mine was 277 keys per minute. I have potential!

ALAS. Freedom. Well, almost.

We had our Chemistry Prelims yesterday. I found the paper okay. Not particularly easy or hard. pH7.

We had our Teachers' Day Celebrations in TKGS today! (sorry, no photos!)

I was slacking off like a pair of slacks carelessly flung over my shoulder. Therefore... I FORGOT TO PREPARE MY CARDS YESTERDAY.

OH, THE HORROR OF TIME LIMITS!

I hastily YET meticulously created the cards with the timely help of Jael the Art Master today morning, in our classroom. It turned out reasonably well. And I was especially happy with the PINK coloured one we gave to Mr Yong.


The front of the card read : "ARE YOU HAPPY?" For counselling services, please call 1900-112-6868. Calls are charged at S$50.00 per minute. So cheap! Call now!

The second page of the card read: "You should be happy! Because today is Happy Teachers Day." (pun fully intended)

The third page of the card read: "Mr Yong: Thank you for being our No. (0.5log₁₀100) robotics teacher! -From Somebody-Out-There 06' (P.S. but this was written in 2007)"

And the final back page of the card was the page I was happiest with. (of course) That's because it read:

DID YOU KNOW...

That Knowledge = Power -------(1)

Time = Money ---------(2)

But Power = Work Done/Time, so by substituting equations (1) and (2),

Knowledge = Work Done/Money

Money = Work Done/Knowledge


This means that when knowledge approaches zero, money approaches INFINITY!
So stop studying now!

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

Mr Yong was somewhat amused. Ho hum. But what really got me ecstatic today was to see Ms Tee smile. When Jael and I were talking to Mr Yong, Ms Tee passed by. I cracked a smile, afraid that she would tell me to stop chatting and go play with my FunScope^TM, which is a modified cathode ray oscilloscope consisting of two positively charged Y-Plates.

But, appallingly, Ms Susan Tee BEAMED at me.

Yes! She BEAMED! She was so pretty when she revealed her normally mysterious teeth that I had to turn away, to avoid the visual purple in my eyes from getting bleached forever. Her teeth shone with a brightness of about 120 Candelas, about the brightness of a 100W lamp. Oooh.

And Ms Tee later went onstage to receive the Most Patient Teacher award. I find that weird, because Ms Tee is a very healthy woman filled with vitality. Hmm. I wonder.

Sigh. We are such Aluminium Blocks. We form passivation layers (like aluminium oxide, Al₂O₃ ) around us whenever Ms Tee smiles. We don't know how to react.

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

You know how Nina always thinks that she belongs to her home, which was originally in the clouds? Cassandra and I were chatting about that a few minutes ago.


xinyi says:
what happened to nina

xinyi says:
she went away?

xinyi says:
=O

cassie--muggerina. says:
to the clouds maybe?

cassie--muggerina. says:
HAHAHAHA

xinyi says:
haha

xinyi says:
thats her true home

xinyi says:
gravity caused her to fall

xinyi says:
at least she's now a down to earth person

xinyi says:
AHAH

cassie--muggerina. says:
!!!!!!!!

cassie--muggerina. says:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

xinyi says:
HAHA



And that's how Cassandra fell of her chair laughing!!! HAHAHAHAHA!

bet I made you go HURH?!

1) I have no idea what a benzene ring is, nor do I have any idea of what is going on in the song. But anyway, here's a chemistry song presented proudly to you by a MIT student.

http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/life/student_life_culture/benzene_back.shtml

Getcha benzene on.


2) Any driver's dream.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/8e9a/

The driving LED emoticon!


3) Like heavy metal? Of course you do.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/science/8953/

(that is, if you take chemistry)


4) And the final website... It's really cool.

http://web.mit.edu/sp.778/www/index.html

The MIT toy product design website! =D

The Art of Coin Balancing

When we were done with drinking our blub-blub teas today, Cassandra, Nina, and I were sitting around, waiting for our small intestines to digest complex carbohydrates.

And suddenly

Nina started to balance her coins on the bench. It was a beautiful and complete set of coins.

From big to small... In proper order... Just like a homologous series.

$1, 50c, 20c, 10c, and..... 5c!

Too bad that the difference in Mr between two consecutive members of this family doesn't differ by 14...

I challenge of you to find a coin balancer as good as Nina!!!

By the way, some of you may have noticed something different whenever you tap your ezlink card in an SBS bus. Something purple and orange.

it's nice and bright, right?

And finally, for those of you who haven't seen a 4x4 cube before!

I managed to solve 3 layers! =D After that, I was simply clueless.

Nice view from this angle!

But look at this.

Top view.

ARGH! Oh how it breaks a 3x3 speedcuber's heart to see an unsolved cube. In the end, I just decided to mess everything up. Guess what? I can't even solve ONE layer now. Sob sob sob...

(basically you have to form all the centres, pair up the same edges, and when you're done with that, you can solve it using 3x3 formulas) SOUNDS EASY! Hehe.

To my 4/7 friends... Sigh. Mrs Chan has rained chemistry worksheets on us. (as mentioned in the previous post) So sad lah. But then again, practice makes perfect!

"What other people can do, you all must be able to do. What other people cannot do, you all must be able to do."-- Mrs Chan

So basically we have to do everything.

Girls were meant to own the cube.

EVERYBODY!

If you think that only guys can speedcube, just look at this girl named Brittany.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2dE3ltt_i4

YAYNESS! PRO GIRL CUBER! FINALLY!

But of course the first pro girl cuber would be Jessica Fridrich. La la la. We wouldn't be able to perform F2L today if not because of her.

And by the way. That mysterious guy on your *LEFT* hand side is none other than...

Tyson Francis Mao !!!
one of my favourite speedcubers.

But why isn't he cubing??? He is one of the best cubers ever. Btw I posted a link to the human tetris video on his blog last week. And he actually thanked me for it. Sort of.
OH THE WONDERS OF THE INTERNET.

Back to me. My current average: 1min +
My current lucky timing: 54 seconds

Aww man. Looong way to go.

But I am SURE I can achieve Brittany's averages after the O levels.

For now, I'll have to finish my Chemistry worksheets. Now THAT's a long way to go. (well, Hwa Chong JC's still my top priority for now!)


If you haven't had enough of the dreaded (?) Rubik's cube, watch THIS!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sXtSC2KLE0
The Siamese Cube. *faints*


Still not enough? Then visit this channel. http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=gvdlfs





And let's end off with a joke today.

Why do stars smoke?

Because they have 'tar' in them!

[ Joke created by Nina in the MRT ] Thanks Nina!

Appalling Videos

[Above] The Simpsons and Tetris

[Below] A scientific viewpoint of The Simpsons (Charles Darwin anyone?)

And finally, a Japanese gameshow about... HUMAN TETRIS!

(note: this is terribly hilarious)

auntified

If you have the Female magazine at home, check out the LAST PAGE!

Joanne Peh is modelling for Bonia handbags!

*gasp!*

*shock!*

*WHAT?!*

ARE YOU APPALLED BY THIS?

I've had this impression since I was a child that most Bonia bags are targeted at aunties. No offence to aunties here, but their customer base is predominantly made up of aunties.

So, why is Joanne Peh advertising for them?

I can think of 4 reasons.

1) She likes Bonia bags for some peculiar reason
2) Bonia is paying her a ridiculously substantial amount for this ad.
3) Joanne Peh is being long-sighted. She's aspiring/preparing to become an auntie.
4) Bonia wants to change their image and inject youths into their customer base.

I guess the 4th reason makes the most sense. Hmm.


Here are some new and boring updates!

-My tuition teacher for maths is apparently preparing to start her own blog. Wow...?!
(or was she just kidding with the guys?)

-NEW SPEEDCUBING TIMING! 54 seconds. =D I'm cutting down on cubing, hehe.

-the $8 Dr Grip mechanical pencil my dad bought for me a year ago is now not functioning properly =(
ARAGSBJSSJAHADSKJADDSA^%&*GBJBA
(the above gibberish was shown to express my discontent and fury)

-I linked Cassie! Hello Cassie!!! =)

And I didn't know that Elain visits my blog too. HIEEE!!! =D

Reminiscences of PRIMARY SCHOOL!

http://www.stanthonyscanossianpri.moe.edu.sg/staff_teaching.html

Found this site from the MOE database of schools in Singapore. =D

And boy DO I SPOT MANY FAMILIAR FACES! HEHE!!!
(and why are all the teachers female?)

With special thanks to Mdm Chng Meng Huat. She gave Yi Tian and I the opportunity to have our comic published in a book which *used* to be sold in bookstores. =P

More special thanks to...

Mrs Rita Teo, (^_^)
Mdm Rahat, (another nice teacher)
Mrs Wong Boh Heng, (who puts on too much blusher sometimes. But she's a GREAT chinese teacher)
Mrs Rowena Yap (just look at her hair now! Haha),
Ms Ginnie Quek (for giving me high marks for my artwork, LOL),
Mdm Kong (she quit teaching Chinese in my Primary school some years back, but we shall always remember her 300-word chinese spelling tests, huge hairbun, traditional chinese clothes, strict-ness, and scolding. Junie Loh would fondly remember her I believe. =P For confiscating her library-borrowed storybook and not returning it to her. Whoops.)
and Mdm Ernie! (for being so strict, yet such a great form teacher.)

BTW! the new chinese teacher, Ms Goh Beng Hong, does bear some uncanny resemblance to a Hong-Kong-based actress!!! WTH!

And I wonder what is up with Mrs Emelyn Ho. She is really pretty in person, but somehow her smile cranked up in that pic. Oh well. As Mr Yong says...

"Shit happens, if not you'll get constipation."

Yeah right! I can remember dropping the miniscule lego robotics kit pieces all over the grass patched carpark outside the Science Centre... All because I only held the top of the box.

The resonating clanking sounds of lego pieces bouncing off the concrete floor...

xinyi : "OH! SHIT! OH SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT WHAT DID I DO SHIT!!!"

Rest of Somebody-Out-There: "........................" -_-

And then Mr Yong mumbles his shimmering, golden, somewhat timely and wise words. (as seen above.)

Yup! What goes up must come down. What goes around comes around. What goes in must come out through the other end. HOORAY FOR EGESTION!

Can't wait for 5.30pm to come. Joining Su Ann at her Social Studies tuition, because I am absolutely desperate for an A1 in Combined Humanities.
Oh quantum leap.

Now I'm going off to study physics. Haven't been studying properly during the holidays. Just don't feel like studying, sigh. Hwa Chong JC. MIT. Glittering gates of Hwa Chong JC please open for me!!!

And to you my fellow O-leveller. Mug hard and score, live long and prosper. (shows star wars handsign)

PS. EDHA EMAILED US! If you didn't get Edha's email, mail me at lola_estelle AT hotmail DOT com!!! I'll foward it to you. But of course, if you're some stalker going after her, then get yourself lost in the island shown in the TV show LOST. Byeee!

PPS. My aunt bought a 4x4 rubik's revenge cube for me while she was enjoying herself in Hong Kong. GREATTTT! *weeps in a corner of the room*

PPPS. The guy from the social studies tuition centre is really bored. When he saw my email address on the form, he said "You didn't grow up in my generation. Lola is not a name you want to go around with.". Then LATER, he said: "Ok, so LOLA LIM, how much did you score for SS in your Mid-Year Exams?"

well. I DO NOT HAVE AN ENGLISH NAME, SO PLEASE CALL ME XINYI LAHHHH!

Look how hard I'm studying nowadays!

In fact, I've been studying SO hard that this is what happened:

[insert picture of bandaged right index finger here]

GREAT! A papercut from my beloved GCSE Physics Textbook. Love can be a painful thing.

It feels wonderful. Now I can't cube AND type properly.

[weeps melancholically in a corner of the room]

Sorry for whining here. =D

Why do you blog?

Jael posed this question to me in an email. My answer? Here goes:
(note: I added some extra stuff to one of the examples below in green)

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

I am obsessed with the computer and the internet. (and not to mention, speedcubing.)

I come across interesting jokes, pick-up lines, stories, or news pretty often on the net. As you may know, I also am obsessed with excess info.
(eg. what is the name for the rate of change of acceleration? Answer: Jerk. Not tested in O lvls, but whatever.)

However, a lot of excess info read by me can potentially be forgotten. So, my blog can store all these excess info, for the benefit of not only myself, but everyone.

My blog also doubles up as a diary, where I can share the most absurd happenings in life with readers of my blog. But I do NOT post TOO MANY posts about my life in my blog. Most bloggers do that, but I normally find these posts excruciatingly boring.

(eg. Oh you know, like, today I went out with my friends to watch a movie, and, like, it was like, so totally fabulous. I mean *totally*~. And we went shopping, manicure, pedicure, manifest, manimani, padifields, etc etc etc....)

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Oh. And the final reason why I blog is because of HTML and Photoshop. =P My blog gives me an excuse to practice using HTML and Photoshop.

Hope you found my answer satisfactory. Hehe! =D

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

I thought that it was a rather brilliant idea to ask why exactly do people blog.

We know, you know, I know, they know, a LOT of people blog.

But WHY do they blog? Does blogging have any meaning? Any practical use? Or do people blog because of peer pressure?

Hmmm. Have to wait for Jael to tell me the results.

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

By the way, she has also started a survey on whether National Education has been effective. If my blog had lots of readers I might have asked her to post the survey here. But then again, I'd prefer to keep this blog somewhat private. The best treasures are always hidden. HEHE. (hello Miss Ruby Teo! I just found out that you discovered my blog through google, right? =D Welcome!)

Back to the point! When I was in primary school, EVERYONE sang the National Anthem LOUDLY and PROUDLY, even if we were pathetically out of tune. I mean it. Go ask girls around my age who were also from St Anthony's Canossian Convent Primary. (but I do not know about the situation now.)

The first day I set my foot in the assembly ground of TKGS and heard the majestic National Anthem start to play, I was more than prepared to blare the lyrics out horribly. (just kidding. I can sing! badly.)

HOWEVER, just before the "Ma" of "Mari kita" resonated from my trachea, I noticed that absolutely no one was going to sing it. Not to even mention singing it LOUDLY.

To prevent severe public embarassment and schoolwide attention on my poor sec-1 self, I just mumbled all the way through.

Until today, I am still imitating Jay Chou while singing "Majulah Singapura". Yes, I still mumble all the way through. As you can see, peer pressure is definitely a lot higher than 1 atm.