Hobbies!

Started today morning with my P&C tutorial! (whee!) And I'm happy to say that I have completed half of it, considering that I usually wait till the last minute to complete them. :p

(ya lah ya lah, I bet the pros in 08S6C have already done tutorial 13 AND the supplementary exercises.)

By the way, I still dislike P&C. Heh. Old habits die hard.

Later, proceeded to carry out some cube maintenance... and *finally* give my cube a nice spa to reward it for having been very cooperative and friendly this week, when I brought it to school everyday.

Life has been tough on you, my cube, but at least you have a responsible and kind owner, right?

awww. Look at my cube's younger sibling innocently looking at the camera. :) How cute!

Process of cube spa:

1) Dismantling (or disrobing???) of cube

2) gentle exfoliation to remove cube dust with damp cloth

3) Moisturizing with a delightfully smooth spray of silicone lubricant

4) my mum stares in horror at my cube, asking "omg what did you do to your cube??!!"

5) Assembling cube!

Sounds really enticing huh. I wouldn't mind giving your cube the same spa treatments for $3 a session! (right. just kidding.)

My dad came back really early today, he was able to catch an early flight! =D

And I started to bake cookies at 8pm. The first batch actually came out smelling great but were ridiculously soft, so I baked them for another 10mins and ended up with huge coalesced lumps of jet-black soot. Very disappointing... and hard to clean. :P Well, we make mistakes in life in order to learn. :D

Wasted a whole load of cookie dough in the process! :(

My mum told me that cookies harden as you let them cool down outside the oven, so I heeded her advice (which did not come at an opportune time. should have asked her earlier, grrr I'm so silly) and ended up with some pretty nice cookies! Unfortunately, I forgot to use cookie parchment paper to line the tray, so the cookies were embarassingly stuck on the tray after baking.

*BLUSH*

I'm such a noob at baking!!! GAH. But I managed to salvage most of them in good condition with the help of a butter knife. =D Shall bake some more tomorrow!

Yep. Had a pretty nice chat with Yiting on msn today. Somehow I think that I have more to talk on msn. Is that bad? Or does it show my antisocial tendencies in real life?

And Jael, don't overthink things ok! =D Thanks for your adorable Garfield MMS. I liked it a lot, and it cheered me up after I saw my chao-da carbon cookies.

solitude.

those 3 sticks above remind me of one of the art exhibitions... a movie I saw at the Singapore Biennale yesterday. Have any of you visited it yet? Go check it out! It's pretty good.

Melancholic shadows of three Inuit men standing on icebergs in the sea;
with no form of communication.
Nary a sound nor a slightest hint of connection to each other.

Yet this predominating element of sadness was neutralised by the sheer beauty of nature;
the flawless reflections of human figures wavering in the diaphanous, rippling skin of the ocean.

And, for some reason, I felt calm.

ZzzzZzzzZzzzz...

Right... I have to be honest and admit that this exhibit did feel extremely boring at first. (ya lah, I am not so cultured.) But our patience paid off, because as time went by, the movie started to portray the scenes in different weather conditions. The scene taken in winter (it was snowing! :D), along with the eerily realistic sound effects, made our otherwise normal atmosphere feel ethereal. Neat!

Ehh not bad. I managed appreciate art!
TKGS art education department, I have not failed you!
(I had no idea that going to art exhibitions could be so enjoyable.)

Appreciating art was a difficult process which made me feel uneasy for some reason. Maybe Jael can explain the philosophy of art to us! Had to use the free handbook given to us quite often to understand the intentions of the artwork on display... But understanding an art piece doesn't feel like understanding gravitation or circular motion.

HOW TO SAY???
dunno how to explain.

It's just enjoyable! =D

Unfortunately, I still have so much work to deal with.
Hello, my true life.
-eom 2nd draft
-I&R 2nd draft (both by this friday!!!)
-OP powerpoint slides (BY this FRIDAY!!! ARGH)
-study at an intensity which I have never attempted... for chinese A Levels (30th october, 2 more weeks? Aaaaah!)

Must begin preparing for the SATs now, and study for it at full force after OP.
My promo results have been unsatisfactory so far, and I'll have to make up for it with the SATs I guess. =D I will never give up. Must...keep....going...

Oh yes. I just picked up my beloved cube again. Trying to slowly condition my brain and fingers to CFOP, starting from the F2L, which I am trying to perform intuitively. This is not much of a problem, except that I am excruciatingly slow at the intuitive F2L. I need more practice!!! Aiming to achieve around 30sec timings by christmas this year. =) But I am subconsciously over-contented with the working corner method, it has served me pretty well so far with averages of around 50sec. Oh wells, humans can never be contented. Especially women.

(hahahahaha! I remember someone said that to me some time ago.)

Did you know that the cross on the cube can always be done in 8 turns or less?
AND it should ideally be finished in 2 seconds if you're speedsolving. O_o
www.cubestation.co.uk
Had no idea that making the cross could also become an art to be perfected.


hmm.

And now, we should really get on with our lives. =D

please don't stop making me laugh

Came across this on a NeoBoards thread:

Politics - a compound word consisting of the Latin word poly, meaning many, and tics, meaning several of a type of small blood sucking creatures.

Therefore politics means many small blood sucking creatures.


heh heh heh heh heh

Wasting my youth... for just a weekend.

Hmmmm...

The promos are fading,
The JC1s are jumping;
The teachers are fainting.
What have I been doing?

(Oooh. Poetic.)

Why of course, I have been crapping!

Let's examine what I've done over the past few days...

Thursday (after physics paper): eat lunch with mum, splurge $30 on Brisingr (3rd book in the Eragon trilogy), Wii, Wii, Wii, Wii, NEOPETS!!! (especially plushie tycoon)

Friday: astro exco meeting, eat lunch with parents at Xin Wang HK Cafe (Kovan), more plushie tycoon

Saturday:
Melodramatic Morning- kena cheated of $3 on breakfast at Maxwell Food Centre! (2 egg tarts + 1 char siew puff, WTH?) My mum, who similarly got her money painfully ripped off, paid $2 for a cake-serving-plate-sized portion of cai tao kueh. Haiya.

Agonising Afternoon- Incinerate $100 for SAT books, combust another $29 for the delightfully witty "Mad About Physics" book, proceed to kallang airport hawker centre for lunch. I met the TKGS western stall's auntie and uncle there! =D BUT.....

Now, this is the part I want ALL TKGS GIRLS TO READ.

Auntie: "We just moved here recently."
Me: "Oh you moved to a new home around this area is it?"
Uncle: "No, we now have a stall here."
Me: *stunned* "What happened to the TKGS stall? Rental increased significantly ah?"
Uncle and auntie: *uneasy*

What happened is that the *most highly academically educated* person in TKGS right now decided to abuse her power in the school... and force the stall in the canteen with the best food and greatest following to leave the canteen without rhyme or reason... for the financial benefit of her own cronies in the canteen.

I tried my best to put it in a more..... GENERAL form of expression. The uncle originally did not wish for me to publicise this issue, but I felt that this is completely UNACCEPTABLE ACTION TAKEN BY SUCH A BLEDDY HIGHLY EDUCATED PSEUDO-ELITE IN TKGS. I CANNOT STAND SUCH INJUSTICES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you don't understand what happened to the western stall auntie and uncle, please feel free to send me a message/ask me on MSN. I'll be happy to explain to you the situation, even at 1am.

In the end, I told them that their food is good, so no matter where they go, they will be able to build up a pretty neat customer base. =)

Anyway, holding a petition to bring the western stall back to tkgs is unlikely to move the non-existent heart of a pseudo-elite, right? So if you love the auntie and uncle's food, (I know you do!!! Because I do, and all TKGians do!!!) visit their stall...

Name of stall: Holy Grill
Venue: Old airport road food centre
(opposite Broadrick secondary, you can take bus 10 or 31 from TKGS)

There, I've done my part! Join me in my mission of the promotion of good food! Copy and paste the above colourful text into your blog, and visit them whenever you can! =D

Sunday:
neopets, centad meeting, neopets, chatting with old friends. =D
note: Jiang Ying, get well soon! =) And don't walk about too much ah.


Shall end off with a nerdy joke. (can't get enough of them, can you? :D)

nerd: knock knock.
classmate of nerd: who's there?
nerd: thermos.
classmate: thermos who?



nerd: thermos be some way to make you laugh! :D :D :D

self improvement needed urgently!!! =o

Wednesday.

The day I usually look foward to.
(well, school ends early!)

But I learnt new things about myself today.

The day started off with me drowsily anti-reclining from my bed. Zzzzz. 5 more minutes of sleep please??? :( I was quite disappointed because I slept at 11pm last night after chionging my chinese workbook, which is considered quite a luxurious time to sleep in jc life.

I got a shock the moment I sat down next to Jen in school, because Jun Lin said 'good morning' to me. If you are Jun Lin/his friend/any hc friend reading this, (which is highly unlikely anyway, we all know your favourite hobby :D my blog isn't very widely known, either.) please don't take it the wrong way.

It's just that his simple greeting made me realise just how much more introverted and quiet I have become after coming to hcjc. Returning and initiating greetings have become so awkward for me, for reasons I don't know.

Why was greeting people and chatting with friends in tkgs so effortless and enjoyable?

Why do I find it so difficult to just smile or even say hi/bye to others now?
What is up with that really uncomfortable feeling of my heart scrunching up when I say hi/bye to people?
And why do I suddenly have a great deprivation of topics to chat about?

WHY AM I NOT STUDYING PHYSICS NOW?????!!!!!
(hehehe. Reintroducing comic element in blogging)

Hmm. I don't think anyone in my jc has ever met my secondary school self. Any one of you in hc would probably be appalled at the sight of me as a tkgian. Hehe. Okay, to be honest, I have been more of an introvert all my life. Unfortunately, I think that my personality has taken a turn for the worse. A severe introvert, omg. (Maybe I'm a martian, destined to be alienated when I turn 17 years old) Or am I still trying to adapt to this new school?

The school always stresses on the importance of not only achieving good academic results, (which is a difficult task by itself already...) but also forming many friendships during our stay. We all know how to achieve good results. No further elaboration needed, just get your concepts of your work right, and mug! But forming friendships is a completely abstract subject to me. There isn't really a formula, is there? But then again, what I consider as friendships are probably not what the school portrays them to be. (hmm, I'm not sure where this is heading)

To me, friends are *loosely defined* as those whom I have a mutual understanding of; not people whom I don't talk that much to, or merely wave to.
Just look at ShiJia. We have stuck with each other for a whopping, yet extremely fun 4 years. Or rather 2 years, since I only came to know Jael in sec 3. (thanks for putting up with my numerous smses conversations with you these few weeks, I really enjoy sss-ing you =D) But that doesn't make much of a difference anyway, because we truly care for each other like real friends are supposed to. Nina has also been a great friend; we relentlessly helped each other through the tough period of intense studying before the O levels. (and emerged victorious. Whoohoo!) Jen, thank you for being the one I can always rant to and laugh with in school. =)

But is my idea of friendship unrealistic? Maybe friendships don't have to be such intricate relationships after all. My idea of 'friendship' should probably be classified under the subset called "best friends".

Ok, back to the story. I madly chionged to complete my EoM and I&R in the library today. The two most boring and mundane pieces of work, ever. (I&R: required endless crapping to meet the word limit) And so I trudged drearily to the class bench at 3.45pm or so to pack up and go home after 2 hours of work boredom. Upon arrival, Chuan Khim asked me, "Why you look so sad?".

But I don't want to be sad, and I was not even aware that I looked depressed.
Awh crap! I am trying not to look sad, but my expression reflects my life pretty well, huh. Maybe that's why people don't enjoy talking to me now, because I look so sad when I am talking to them that they start to believe that they are boring people.
Must smile more. :D

:D :D :D :D :D <--- there you have it

The fact is, I am freaking frankenstein-ing tired of hc. ROARRRRRRRRRR
Daily sleep deprivation, meeting deadlines frantically, mugging for tests frantically, etc etc.
No time whatsoever to actually ENJOY what I am learning.
It's all a mad rush which whizzes past you, and escapes sneakily from the seemingly escape-proof clutches of your trembling hands when you try to get a firm grip on things around you. And not to mention that at that time, I hadn't had lunch.

oh ya hor. I think I may be suffering from some mild hair loss problems. :S the bathroom drain filter is always clogged by my hair after shampooing. Scary ya.

Making alot of careless/idiotic mistakes in my math workings now. Hope that these problems are all due to sleep deprivation and exam stress.

2 more weeks, and it will all be over. (NO, I am NOT committing suicide, of course. I meant my promotional exams, you paranoid...uhh, blog reader.)

Wouldn't school life be so much easier if we could simply head to a chemistry lab for a solution to all of life's problems? The solute-solute interactions in life's problems are regretfully strong. That's why we can't make a solution out of it.

Conclusion: Life problems are like magnesium oxide. Maybe melting them at high temperatures might help?

Since this is getting so chemical, I might as well end off with a lame chem joke I created yesterday.

Q: What do you call a country which consists solely of hydrogen atoms as it citizens?


A: The country would be called a "hydroge-nation".

PS. Failure to find humour in the joke is a strong indication that you have NOT BEEN REVISING YOUR ORGANIC CHEM!!!!! Please go and study your alkenes lecture notes. =D


I had a long, insightful talk with my mum tonight about how to become a better person. (apart from the usual econs-intensive talk we have for hours every night. hehe.) I do not wish to continue my life like this; my parents have long told me that being academically successful is not of importance to them, as what they truly wish to see me become is a good person. And being their only child, I will never let them down. Just watch me trying my best to evolve into a better person, act by act, day by day.

how adorable =)

Fun pillowcases:
http://www.stupid.com/fun/PPCS.html


Q: What did the stone say to the ruler?

Ans: You rule!


Q: What did the ruler say to the stone?

Ans: You rock!


SO CUTE!!! Haha I can't wait for the shijia gathering this Friday. :D
and happy birthday to my junior Elain! Jiayou for your prelims and O levels, and hopefully see you in hwachong next year! Haha =D

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."





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



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.