Jean's blog

2012-02-19T01:44:00.003+08:00

Reality check.

It's 3 weeks to Common Test 1 (and 9 months to A levels).
Should stop being such a sad sob and start studying soon.

But I'm bogged down by so many other things, not to mention my own tiredness/laziness.

I find myself dreading each passing day. Or rather, I greatly look forward to the end of each day, yet dread the coming of the next. Of course, my days are occasionally brightened up by certain events/people/thoughts/realizations, but they're generally so dark and dreary that I find myself wondering how my mind degraded to such a plight.
And there're so many loose and slightly incoherent thoughts catapulting across my mind now, I don't know where to start thinking from/sorting out the thoughts.

Escapism. Now that's enticing.

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

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

2012-02-16T00:55:00.001+08:00

Dear God,

I think.. Maybe, just maybe, I've finally realized what You've been trying to teach me over the past few years.

Is it too late?

2012-02-10T01:05:00.000+08:00

Everyone stands at a platform, each waiting for their own trains to arrive.
The trains come; they get onto their trains and leave.
Where's mine?

Ever get the feeling when it seems like everyone around you is so caught up with life, and has a thousand and one purposeful things to accomplish, yet you're just.. not there? You're merely an observer to everything around. Silently watching. Secretly hoping that someday, you too may be fortunate enough to experience even a fraction of that flurry of life.

It's when you long to break out from the wooden blocks and strings, to become something.. real.

Streams of consciousness:
in no particular order

1. What for keep trying to prove my worth to strangers, when I remain a fool to those around me?

2. His righteous anger is mocked

3. Good memories should remain where they are. Don't let them be tarnished by trying to relive them.

4. Insurmountable, inexplicable joy

5. Hate it how I keep hoping that someday, I'll be understood

6. Life isn't a nightmare; nightmares are shorter

7. 'Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.'

8. 'Time is a coin that can't be spent twice.'

9. When a door shuts, God opens another window for you. But I'm too short to climb out, you see..

2012-02-05T20:39:00.001+08:00

2012-01-15T23:56:00.001+08:00

Something that made my night a little more interesting:

The Stinky Field Analogy Revisited

In the previous section of Lesson 4, a somewhat crude yet instructive analogy was presented - the stinky field analogy. The analogy compares the concept of an electric field surrounding a source charge to the stinky field that surrounds an infant's stinky diaper. Just as every stinky diaper creates a stinky field, every electric charge creates an electric field. And if you want to know the strength of the stinky field, you simply use a stinky detector - a nose that (as far as I have experienced) always responds in a repulsive manner to the stinky source. In the same way, if you want to know the strength of an electric field, you simply use a charge detector - a test charge that will respond in an attractive or repulsive manner to the source charge. And of course the strength of the field is proportional to the affect upon the detector. A more sensitive detector (a better nose or a more charged test charge) will sense the affect more intensely. Yet the field strength is defined as the affect (or force) per sensitivity of the detector; so the field strength of a stinky diaper or of an electric charge is not dependent upon the sensitivity of the detector.

If you measure the diaper's stinky field, it only makes sense that it would not be affected by how stinky you are. A person measuring the strength of a diaper's stinky field can create their own field, the strength of which is dependent upon how stinky they are. But that person's field is not to be confused with the diaper's stinky field. The diaper's stinky field depends on how stinky the diaper is. In the same way, the strength of a source charge's electric field is dependent upon how charged up the source charge is. Furthermore, just as with the stinky field, our electric field equation shows that as you get closer and closer to the source of the field, the affect becomes greater and greater and the electric field strength increases.

The stinky field analogy proves useful in conveying both the concept of an electric field and the mathematics of an electric field. Conceptually, it illustrates how the source of a field can affect the surrounding space and exert influences upon sensitive detectors in that space. And mathematically, it illustrates how the strength of the field is dependent upon the source and the distance from the source and independent of any characteristic having to do with the detector.

2012-01-08T16:17:00.003+08:00

I fell asleep on the plane ride back to Singapore, halfway watching Disney's Princess and the Frog. Evidently, Fairytales and happily-ever-afters are still nothing more but bedtime stories.

2011-09-11T18:45:00.002+08:00

2011-08-06T22:18:00.003+08:00

Off to Cambridge for the next half a month.

While studying there, I've to keep reminding myself to not forsake the load of notes I've had lugged all the way there so as to keep up with lessons in school.

Not to mention the barrage of tests (Chem SPA, another exam, then Physics SPA) awaiting my return.

I think the experience and learning there is worth it. I might not do law in the future (or rather, I might not even qualify), but I at least want to know what I'm missing.

2011-07-29T21:53:00.001+08:00

IHC Sports (Floorball) is over, and I'm glad to say that MR got double champs!

Spent the entire time between end of school and IHC settling the venue. Something in the school system is terribly wrong. We couldn't use the ISH today because of a parent-teacher meeting (in the evening, even) and no one told us until some Floorballers went early to practice and found people setting the tables and chairs. Since we couldn't stop them, we'd to call everyone and I'd to run around looking for people. Everything turned out fine, but that still doesn't negate the fact that this is the second this has happened to us. A few weeks ago during the A level Chinese oral exam, no one told us the ISH was being booked, and we'd to cancel training because of the lack of venue.

These two cases are actually quite in isolation, but what I can see from this, is that the school/teachers in charge probably don't have the courtesy to check the venue booking system (which we'd booked way in advance) and schedule their stuff some other time, or that despite checking, they could have 1) not made any other booking assuming they could overwrite out booking - which is kinda true that they have priority 2) Checked it, knew that they could overwrite our booking, therefore didn't bother booking 3) Knew fully well that they were going to use the place regardless, but didn't bother informing the teachers ic/captains that they wanted to use it.

If this happens again, I think the stress/pressure from such last minute changes is gonna blew out a few brain cells of mine.

This week has generally been alright.

Monday was Founder's Day, coincidentally on our school-declared holiday in lieu of good sports results) so we didn't miss any lessons due to that.
Getting the History book prize, once again resurfaced and reiterated my doubts on why I'm doing physics-chem-math-econs, and not any other subject combination which might seem to suit me more.

There was a German exchange student and Taiwanese exchange student who joined some of our lessons during the week. I think the highlight of the German guy's week would probably have been during afternoon PE, when we played captains ball in the amphi, but he stayed back to play soccer with some other guys in the class (fortunately, my class is male dominated, so he wouldn't feel out of place). His soccer is really good (he's only 15) - accurate, powerful, and honed skills. It's no wonder Singapore soccer doesn't rank significantly in the international arena, when there's so much better talent out there.

Thursday was run with Monday's timetable, so I could wake up late (a good thing too, because after trainings I'm tired enough to conk out without doing any work).

Today was.. alright, except for the minor hiccup before IHC. IHC itself was quite fun. No not (just) because MR won, but because it was a good stress-relief session. Except, I'd to play/referee nearly every alternate game so I had hardly any rest in between.

On another note, my impression of our new GP teacher has taken a slight twist. I'm in no position to evaluate/criticize any teacher's competence or ability, so I think all I can say is that I'm not in full support of the teaching methods used, and I think my learning style also isn't suited for such a teaching style.

I'll be leaving for London in a week. WR first draft is due in a week, and so is EOM. And then there's SPA.

Hm.

2011-07-23T21:20:00.002+08:00

It's been a crazy week. At least, crazier than usual weeks. I'm glad it's over, but there's still worse to come.

Many thanks to those who have been supporting and encouraging me throughout these few really chaotic weeks with their words of wisdom, God's Word, faith in me despite my inadequacies, and enduring my various eccentricities.

My class had around 2 hours of Bhangra dancing yesterday after school, as part of Racial Harmony Week. I'd initially felt quite disappointed that we weren't put down for inter-faith dialogue since it sounded a bit more interesting than dancing, but after yesterday's session, it was a really good form of stress-relief - I hadn't laughed so much in a long time, so that felt good. By the way, no, I don't mean laughing at the dancing, but laughing at my other er.. very enthusiastic and comical classmates.

On another note, yesterday's farewell marked the start of a new chapter in the RJ Floorball legacy. The seniors are off to study for As, and we're picking up from where we were before the long break after season.
We start with the end in mind - next year's season. Of course, there are of lots of other milestones along the way like IHC Sports, 10km runs, clinic session+recruitment from RG, CCA CIP etc to look forward to.
We juniors lost the testimonial match yesterday, but I think we're deserving of that, because we have so much to learn and improve on.
So as we embark enthusiastically on this new start (and I with with much apprehension and insecurity in my duties as captain), I'm not hoping/expecting that it'll be a walk in the park, but at somewhere around this point in time next year, I'll look back on my time in Floorball and not regret anything that I did or could have done.

RJFB seniors:

2011-07-09T00:27:00.001+08:00

Stop it, would you?
You know not what you do.

2011-07-06T21:22:00.001+08:00

We had our first lesson with our new GP teacher today. It's a good start, I think.

While analyzing arguments from their premises and conclusions:

Someone: 'Er, Madam, I think I don't know what an argument is.. Could you explain it to me?'

Makes me wonder yet again, if there can ever be a common understanding of any word.
i.e. Everyone forms different opinions of what the definition of a certain word entails or how it is properly used, based on the experiences he has had with other people using it, and then from his own experiences using it and the reactions from others as a result of that. And all that is then subjected to the cultural context of the person.

First post-season/after hol training, and we were already made to run suicides. That being said, I need to work on improving my fitness level.

What Faith Can Do - Kutless

The age-old question/food for the brain (or at least for me):
How do you know if faith is true faith, not blind ignorance, a refusal to look for the truth, or simply self-psyching?

2011-07-03T15:40:00.002+08:00

Zapateado:

http://www.stomp.com.sg/brandswangleehom2011/video21.html

The girl playing is quite skilled, I must say.

2011-07-01T21:16:00.000+08:00

Those who criticise this generation forget who raised it.

2011-06-30T19:28:00.001+08:00

CTs haven’t been too good.

Too hard, maybe? There seems to be a general consensus around to support that, but even so, the opinion of the majority does not validify it, so there’s hardly use in such comparison. Furthermore, if others define ‘doing badly’ as getting a low ‘A’ or less-than-full-marks, it’s not a fair comparison to that on my scale.

Predicted marks (from highest to lowest):
GP, Economics, Math, Physics, Chemistry

The last two have quite some chance of failure too. Or rather, the last two will be the worst two failures.

The main problem that has been revisiting me many times this week is time management. It could be that I haven’t sat for an exam in a long time and forget how to pace myself, or it could be that I generally wasn’t aware of my allocation of time.
After each paper, I sat there wondering how my 2 hours (or more) shot by so quickly.

It’s post-CTs, yet there’s no bright side, nor any bleak hope of light at the end of the tunnel. Where’s the relief I was hoping to feel?

Sorry for being such a depressing little creature, but after mugging madness week, I don’t think the few marks I’ll get justifies the amount of effort (not just for these two weeks, but also consistent work throughout the past few months).
[Since output < input, it could be 1) Unemployment/Underemployment of resources 2) Inefficiency 3) Diminishing marginal returns has set in. 4) Market Failure]

For those who have yet to finish CTs/terms/MYEs, keep going!

Pain is short-lived. If you don't die, you'll still come out stronger.

Rest if you must, but don't quit.

2011-06-26T14:19:00.004+08:00

Common Tests start in a day.

I'm not used to spending my June holiday studying, so I don't think I've actually been in any 'study-mode' till the start of this week. Even so, my days haven't been all that productive.
And now with 4 days of tests looming ahead, it's no wonder I don't feel adequately prepared to face the tests; there's always a little part of me that probes within my conscience, incessantly prodding out the guilt that taunts : 'You know you could have done more - woke up earlier, been more focused, started revision earlier, done away with some slack time, practiced more questions, starting memorizing earlier'.

On another note, Promos srtart in 3 months!

2011-06-18T23:41:00.002+08:00

Mission accomplished:
30 hours of fasting + 4 extra hours (don't ask me why)

After effects:
Hunger, headache, sleepiness, exhaustion, lots of excess water in my stomach till I feel bloated, feeling of accomplishment

Worth it?
4/5

What now?
Take a stand against poverty
Eat, sleep, study

2011-06-08T21:08:00.002+08:00

I feel so maligned, (for the lack of a better word), but the worst part is that I can't do anything about it.
It has also yet reinforced in me, that I should give respect to people for who they are - not what they can do or have achieved.

And I know I'm supposed to have patience, be more understanding, realize the logical flows of the situation and what not, but there's still a certain section me that has emotions, in which reason cannot seem to overwrite.

Anarex could soon be my new comfort food.

Ok no, I'm kidding.

2011-06-06T22:08:00.002+08:00

Some photos of the stuff that went on this year:

Project Serve:

(North Area picnic)

(Camp)

Orientation:

Take 5:

Floorball Camp:

(After friendly against VJ)

Cooking a huge dinner while my parents were overseas:

Class Camp:

Floorball team trainings, dinners, and lepak-ing:

(PT)

(Line 3)

(Year 5s)

Finals:

(Line 1 - but missing Han)

(My fellow ~~crazy~~ defender in Line 1)

(All Floorballers)

(My vice capt)

CCAL Camp:

(C3!)

(Trekking)

(Dragon Boating)

During CCAL camp grand dinner:

(My classmates - but missing two people, Joseph and Zi Yuan)

(C3)

(Floorballers and/or Councillors)

(Floorball vice capt/captains)

(ex-MGS CCALs- missing Aavishka and Charlotte [who didn't come for camp])

(Classmates)

Photo credits:
Shiyong, Michael, Amanda, Jodi, XJ, Wei Jie, Jingwen, TNP, Zi Yu, Husain, me

I don't feel like doing anything..

2011-06-02T22:04:00.002+08:00

I'm back from CCAL camp in Bintan, and in good shape too. These 4 days have been the most enjoyable in a long time, after all the stresses of the past few months. The scenery there is really stunning - a typical picture one might see on an advertisement for a cruise or the likes, but just in real life.

My group was great, and I was encouraged by everyone's team spirit and care for every other member. The fact that all of us are appointed leaders in some way or another (CCAs or council) made it all the more interesting, because everyone understands the importance of team spirit, taking the extra step, having initiative, and learning from each others' leadership styles. As for the camp, every activity we did had the purpose of teaching us something about leadership, and could link back to how we could lead our CCAs etc, so that made the camp more meaningful. Besides all the physical activity and team building, there are so many lessons to sieve out and apply back to leading our own CCAs.

Monday:

- We gathered in school at 7am, got into our groups and sub-groups, boarded the buses to Tanah Merah jetty, and took a jetty to Bintan. We lepak-ed at the sea-side for awhile before taking another hour-long, bumpy, and stuffy bus ride to our campsite (Agro Resort).
- Lunch, briefings, set up tents, and played some team bonding games. There were quite some casualties in our simple game of dog-and-bone against another group (Rachel Lau's group).
- Cooked dinner at the breach front. The food we cooked tasted good (maybe because more than half of my group consisted of girls), and the sea breeze and scenery/sunset made the process even better. Once the sun had set and most of us finished eating, my group's kerosene stove became some sort of campfire, and we were singing/playing guitar. Not too long after, other groups came along and joined in, and we started singing and getting all hyped up.
- Cleared up, washed up, briefing, ate a bit, and prepared to sleep. It's the earliest we ever slept/tried to sleep, and I'm glad I made full use of that, because the next few days were really tiring.
(Side note: Throughout the camp, there were tins of biscuits put out in the guys and girls campsites to munch on whenever necessary, and also hot milo at night and in the morning. Think I've eaten at least a hundred biscuits already..)

Tuesday:

- The first activity for my group was Rafting (my third time so far), at a really nice beach not too far away from our campsite. The beach was clean, the waters were clear and not too rocky, the sand texture was good, and with great scenery.
Basically, every group was given different amounts of 'money' to buy their stuff and build a raft that can carry everyone and go out to a certain point in the sea, without capsizing. My group got the second least amount of 'money' (on the premise that life isn't fair, so we have to learn to make do with the given resources we have), but I'm proud of the raft we managed to build. It was sturdy and even though the two kayaks at the side flooded at times, it traveled fine. We improved on it after the first attempt by tying in two more barrels, and that worked out well too.

- Lunch+facilitation+lepak by the beach.

- Our second activity was Reforestation. We took an hour long bus journey to a village. The village once survived mainly on producing charcoal from processing mangrove trees from around the area, and from the islands nearby. But they were given money by the UN to stop harming the environment, and we went there to plant some mangrove saplings into the swamps.
Upon arriving at the village, we saw groups of children playing with a Frisbee that the teachers/facilitators brought, and they looked so contented with just that. The villagers didn't have much, but survived well. (I got the chance to use the toilet, and the houses (on stilts) are not very well equipped, so the toilets are the kind where there's a hole on the floor and everything just drops down and floats out to sea.)
We each took a few saplings in both hands, took sampan-like boats out to sea for around 20min to the mangrove swamps, and then dug holes into the soil to plant our saplings. After planting my 6 mangrove saplings, I felt so accomplished, and in a way, 'involved' in the efforts to save the environment. Granted, all I did was to plant 6 saplings, all won't necessarily survive, and they'll take decades to grow into a tree. But by planting them, feel like I've taken ownership over my little part of environmental conservation. A small action by everyone leads to an even greater end result- aka, the whole is larger than the sum of its parts.

Mangrove planting wasn't as muddy as I expected, but maybe because the tide was quite low, and also because our group was civilized enough not to get into a mud war..

- During the long bus journey back, it was so cold and wet that I couldn't sleep. Took a shower upon reaching our campsite, had dinner, then went out for our night activity.

- We were taken to two dark and abandoned buildings (actually they looked so well built, it's a pity the owners abandoned them) for our night activity. It consisted of 5 stations in total.
Halfway through, it began to rain heavily. (At this point in time, I find it appropriate to mention the usual weather in Bintan. It rains at the random-est of times (even when it's hot and the sun is out), then stops and continues.
By the time we ended, it stopped raining too, and there were fireworks. The fireworks were really cool. They exploded right above our heads, and were set off quite near us too. Bintan isn't as strict as Singapore in terms of rules governing the use of pyrotechnics, so it was a cool sight.

- Upon arriving back at camp at surveying the damage done to the tents by the rain, I could hear howls of shock and well.. despair, from all around the campsite (boys and girls). Lots of people were drying their stuff on the fences after the day's activities (3 out of 4 of the main activities were water-based), and even their towels and sleeping bags. Lots didn't even bother closing their tent flaps, and the rain pelted in and flooded the insides. As for the tent I slept in, only our mosquito net was closed, so obviously everything inside was flooded. Some of my tent-mates didn't put their stuff in the rubbish bag, so all their stuff was wet, and their clothes wet too. It think this was quite common everywhere else, because I could hear shouts all around about how their stuff were soaked. I think it was a rather miserable night for many, because we arrived back at camp quite late at night, some had showered, and most tents were flooded. Eventually, most decided to use the towels to dry up their tents then make do with what they had. As for mine, we were kindly lent another (dry) tent to pitch, and then we dismantled our wet one to give back. We were one of the more fortunate groups.

Wednesday:

- After breakfast, we set off trekking. Since we didn't have time to go back to the campsite in between activities for both days, we most of us trekked in our sandy and wet shoes, because we had dragon boating in the afternoon.
- We took turns in pairs to navigate using the GPS, to the nine different checkpoints across the entire route. It was great that as a group, we encouraged a lot, the front people shouted out directions and stuff like trees/roots/paths/rocks to be careful off. Along the way, we managed to spot a Fire Ant nest. Their nests aren't like that of normal ants, which usually form ant hills on the ground. Fire ants form their nests on trees, putting leaves together to form a rounded enclosure, which then hangs from a branch. So it's scary, in that when walking under trees, ants could drop down on you anytime. And when Fire Ants bite, it'd hurt a lot.
- After a few hours, we finished the trek, and headed to the nice beach-y resort that we were at the day before for lunch.

- Facilitation+lunch+lepak+dragon boat briefing.
We (the 5 subgroups) were in the midst of our flotation tests and about to begin, when a huge storm broke out, and we had to stay indoors. But after around 15min or so, the storm subsided, and we were allowed to continue with the activity.

Dragon boating was by far the best activity we did, in my opinion. It was the activity that required the most teamwork. If we didn't row in sync, the boat wouldn't move properly, and despite rowing as hard as we could, the effort wouldn't have been justified. Another thing that's very important is team spirit, which is about keeping the morale up, and giving encouragement to each other. Encompassing all of that, is mental strength. Everyone has to give their 110% for the team, especially when everyone is most tired. At the end when we had two races, we didn't win the first race. Despite that being so, and despite feeling like our arms were burning and like we could hardly bear to pull back the oars anymore, everyone maxed out their strength and persevered on, and we won the second race. What made the win even sweeter, was that our group had 10 girls and 4 boys - the least number of boys in any of the groups competing, yet it wasn't by strength that we won, but by being together.
This experience taught me a lot not just about being a leader, but to extend that thought, applying it as a member of a team, and to my life.

- Back to campsite to shower. We had a grand dinner, which was quite nice actually. We dined at the beach front, and with good food too! Oh yea, and fireworks.

- Stayed up for awhile at night to talk to people.

Thursday:

- Packed up, took group photo, lepaked around, ate a lot.
- I woke up with quite a number of sandfly and mosquito bites on my limbs. Which is very unfortunate, because it was the last day, and it's sad to have all the bites before leaving, and not during the activities. My arm was kinda numb the whole morning because of the sandfly bites on it. At one point in time, it felt worse than a muscle ache.
- Slept throughout most of the bus journey to the jetty. I think I snacked too much after that so I couldn't fall sleep on the subsequent boat ride and bus ride to school.

All in all, the camp was definitely a memorable experience (in a good way), and it felt so good to be out of touch with the world for those few days and not care about anything, except trying to maximize fun and learning out of the activities. Not to mention making lots of new friends in the process.

The first 4 days of the holidays have been well spent, but I'll have to start studying for CTs soon. And of course, do PW.

2011-05-28T21:36:00.003+08:00

Met my PW group for the whole of yesterday. And then I went to watch Pirates of the Caribbean (On Stranger Tides) in the evening with some CCA-mates.

The movie was alright. Somehow, the plot was expected, and the scenes seemed very repeated (from the previous movies). But the acting was good.

If only the mermaids weren't so evil.

And if that wasn't enough.

2011-05-25T16:26:00.003+08:00

It's been a long, intense (and as usual, tiring) week.

I don't know where to start.

So I'll start with the freshest things in my mind, not in chronological order.

- Finals on Monday against MJC

We lost 2-0. The two goals were scored against us within the first few minutes of the game. Those were silly goals. As in, they could have been prevented easily, but we gave the game away.
We stepped up our game, but didn't manage to convert any shots to goals subsequently. Coach only played two pairs of defenders for the whole game; I ran so fast and so much that it took a hundred and ten percent of my mental and physical strength to keep me going on.

One thing that's been repeatedly reinforced into my brain after these few months of training and matches, is that the most important thing I need to conquer is my mind. All the negativity and pessimism has to be overcome by a never-say-die mentality. As coach keeps telling us, champions are those who don't give up, and don't stop fighting. We didn't win against MJ, but we won against ourselves, and the last two periods of our final game are moments that will constantly remind me of that.
After all, for all the blood (literally. and bruises, sprains, blisters, shin splints, torn ACLs, twisted ankles), sweat (gallons of it), tears (especially after finals), and scoldings (scary, yet inspiring), I'd rather we play a good game to get second, than to have an undeserving win.

Congrats to MJ for winning double gold(the boys and girls teams) though.

At least, there's still next year.

We went to Seoul Garden with coach, and all the non team players (guys and girls) for a steamboat buffet dinner. It's a good celebration to the end of season, and also the end of fasting from fried food/fast food/soft drinks/prata.

By the time I reached home, I didn't feel like doing work, not less studying for GP, and I was kinda overwhelmed by the day's events.

It was a disheartening loss. But I'm glad to say that after everything, I've learnt so much more than simply the game itself.
It's actually a good thing I didn't join basketball.

- Tuesday (yesterday) was quite a horrible day. I didn't get much sleep, had a headache+neck ache+shoulder ache+back ache, spaced out a lot during lectures, and fell asleep sporadically. That's further compounded by the fact that Tuesday is one of the longest days of lessons, and I had to go for lesson in the evening. Which meant that I had hardly any time (or mental strength) to study for GP. I kept telling myself that I'd study for GP after season, but with merely one day in between to rest, it's kinda hard.

Right, and then there was the curious incident of the lizard in the night time.

Basically, there's been a bothersome lizard that has been roaming about the house since a few nights ago. Before I went to school, I found it in my toilet. When I came home, it was staring at me from my sink. So after I showered in mom and dad's room, I decided that I'd be nice and open the toilet window for it to go out. But it didn't. Instead, it somehow slithered into my room and stared at me trying to study GP. I got really irritated, and well.. to cut the story short, I chased it out in the corridor, where Dad used his slipper to whack it about 5 times (on separate occasions). Each time he whacked it, he was convinced that it'd died (despite my protests that it was playing possum), and told me to pick it up and throw it away. And each time I did that, the lizard would suddenly flick its head and move away from me. In the end, Dad whacked it so hard that its stomach somewhat split (I saw some red stuff sticking out), and it finally died, so I flushed it away.

- Wednesday (today):
Once I woke up, the train of thought that went past my mind was 'oh man, why am I not sick?'.

Anyway, sitting in the ISH was so reminiscent of O levels.

After 3 hours (and a 15min break in between), I finally felt a little less burdened.

- Tomorrow's the last day of school for this term, because it's staff day on Friday, so we get a day off.

- I'll be away from next Monday to Thursday for CCA Leaders Camp in Bintan. Hope it doesn't rain too heavily.. I don't fancy living sleeping in an inundated tent, nor do I wish to see it floating off into the horizon (extreme, but then again, the area where we pitch our tents is near the beach, so anything could happen).

Up till now, I'm still getting over the shock. I ran for Quarter Master. And during the exco interview, I specifically mentioned that I'd rather be QM because I like doing stuff relatively behind-the-scenes, and not leading the team upfront, since I'm not much of a 'people-person'.
So when we were told the exco results, I was genuinely surprised to find out that I was made the new Captain. I've got big shoes to fill, and I'm worried that it'll make coping with work hard to handle with all the commitments, and especially now that I'm not exactly top of the class or anything close to that.
But on that note, I'll definitely give it my best shot and serve the team as best as I can.

- I just found out, there's no more shaker fries. Man.. just as season ended.

2011-05-14T10:18:00.000+08:00

Wednesday:

My PW group got whacked during our GPP presentation. Not good.
Training in the afternoon was not good too.

Thursday:

Did my one-week-overdue-because-of-matches GP essay test after school, finally.

Friday:

For some reason, I was so uneasy during Physics lecture test that I couldn't concentrate. And for the second question, I worked out the first part right (using max H=(u^2sin^2x/2g) ), but I thought I was wrong, so I cancelled the entire working and left the subsequent parts of that question blank. Which cost me about 10 marks.
The only questions I'm certain I got right, are the first question, and last part of the last question (on momentum).

Believe it or not, I got the highest in class for the GP compre+summary+AQ test, with a 26.5/50. And after writing so much for my AQ, I got one pathetic, sympathy mark for it. With GP common test coming up in 12 days, things aren't looking too good..

We had our semi-final match against Hwa Chong today. We won 6-2, it was probably the worst we played (as a team) in all our matches. Coach blew up so badly after that, that her entire face turned red, and her veins could be seen bulging out from her neck. Around 5 people broke down and cried during the scolding/on the bus/during team talk, and we knew that despite winning today, it wasn't a convincing/deserving(?) win.
Emily treated us to dinner after team talk ended (at around 8pm), at Thai Express in J8. It's because she made a bet that if she scored a goal, she would treat us to dinner.. And sure enough, she scored one today.

After reflecting on the game, it's time to move on, get the team together, and have fun during finals.
Just a side note, MJ beat VJ 5-2, so we'll be meeting MJ in yet another match (third time this year).

Be (intentionally) there

2011-05-09T21:53:00.003+08:00

Went to school early in the morning for CCA. After our morning run/jog, we watched the videos of our TJC and MJC matches, had training, went to NEX for lunch, then back to school to study/do work (though relatively unproductive).

I feel like today has been a good day, because I helped 3 people.

2011-05-08T15:39:00.003+08:00

'Yam Ah Mee, our one and only returning officer.'

2011-05-07T21:30:00.004+08:00

We went to Ye and Nai's house to celebrate Lynn's birthday. Jensen and Jerome were fighting over use of the computer (as usual), and that's the context of this quote:

Jensen: 'JEROME! It's my turn to use the computer, your time is up!'
-after awhile-
Jerome: 'Wait, I have to sign in first.. Look away, cus you're not allowed to see my password!'
-silence for a moment while Jerome starts typing-
Jensen: 'Hey! I know your password!'
Jerome: 'Huh, how did you know? You looked? That's not fair..'
Me: 'So what is it?'
Jensen: 'I saw the last 4 letters, and I know it already..It's 'I hate Jensen'!'
Everyone around: -bursts out laughing-
Jerome: -smirks, and runs away-

I'm eagerly anticipating the GE results.

When you believe

2011-05-06T23:42:00.000+08:00

I'm now ahead of tutorials, but behind lectures - for the lack of a better expression.

This week at a glance:

Monday:
- Training (coach didn't have much of a Labor Day holiday)

Tuesday:
- I think there are a lot of quotable quotes that can be collected, but I don't think anyone has gotten around to doing that yet.
- Stayed back to discuss GPP
- Lesson

Wednesday:
- I kinda wasted my morning in school. The first period is PE, second is break, and third is physics lecture. Since I'm let off a 9.50am due to match, and I'm excused from PE on the day of a match, I felt so bad for going to school to do no work, that I attended (most of) physics lecture, during my supposed 'break-before-leaving-school for-match'.
- Match against TJC (I'll expound on this later on below)
- Team talk in school (I've no idea how come our team talks can last for so long, like 3h)

Thursday:
~ What's the definition of 'floating' ? When do we use Archimedes' Principal, and when to use the Principal of Flotation?
- Probably the most productive day of this week

Friday:
- Went to school for PW and chem tutorial, before leaving for match against MJC
- My group presented our GPP, and it was er.. not too good a reaction from our teacher
- (see below)

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

Last Friday's match against NYJC was a win, 7-1.

During Wednesday's match against TJC, we were down 3-1 in the first two periods. Somewhere around the last period, one of the best players was injured halfway. Coach subbed me into her line. Ok wait, lemme explain the background to the lines first.

The team comprises of 4 lines and 2 goalies. At any one point in time, there can only be 1 goalie and 1 line on court (or rather, 4 players and 1 goalie) - 1 pair of defenders and 1 pair of forwards. For our team, the first 2 lines consist entirely of J2s, line 3 and 4 both have 3 J1s and 1 J2 defender.
Throughout the game, players can be substituted at any point in time (I don't think anyone enjoys prolonged sprinting at full speed?), and we usually try to stick to our lines, because the play-ups/tactics/free hits are discussed within the line, and every line functions differently.

So when the defender from line 1 was injured, coach put me into line 1 (I was originally the defender in line 3) to play alongside the (relatively scary) J2s. Which came as quite a shock, because I felt really blur being out of my line.

Before the last period when the score was 3-1 in TJC's favor, I think everyone was internally panicking, because it was a crucial match (if we won, we'd guarantee a place in the semis), and we were largely messy and uncoordinated due to TJC's surprise diamond-formation play. We managed to bring the score back up to a draw, 3-3, within the last half of the last period. And really, that's something we need to be very thankful for, because it gave us a renewed confidence not only in the hope of getting into semis, but also faith in the team.

Today was the last group stage match against MJC - our greatest rival, so to speak.
The person who was injured on Wednesday collected her MRI scan from the hospital today, and found out that one of the ligaments (ACL - Anterior Cruciate Ligament) in her knee was torn. And the ligament, once torn, cannot be healed naturally, she has to go for a surgery to fix it. It's saddening that such a mishap would happen to her, because she 1. is one of the best players/defenders in the team 2. is also a good runner (her 2.4km run was around 10min) 3. can't play for the rest of season 4. has to go for a surgery, and it'll take at least 6 months before she can recover.
So.. note to self - try not to get injured too much.
Anyway, since she can't play anymore, I'm now the defender in line 1, and I've got very large shoes to fill. It's not just about running fast, good stick-work etc, but also about knowing how to read the play, thinking fast, and thinking smart. Sad to say, sometimes all these processes don't happen while I'm on court, and then as coach says, becomes the classic example of running around like a headless chicken.

Since MJ is a strong team, coach decided to play mainly lines 1 and 2, so by the last period, I was tired. Which is a bad thing, because it's a signal that my fitness/stamina/anaerobic thingy is deteriorating. Alternatively, it could be that MJ was pressing really hard on us..

We ended off winning 2-1. The first loss for MJ, and a good win for us, because it means that we're now top of the tables (Group B) even as we progress to semis.

I'd say that this week's matches were a near-miracle. Thank God for that.

2011-05-03T22:16:00.000+08:00

TV News Anchor Fail

2011-04-28T19:15:00.000+08:00

Monday:

Missed the entire day's lessons because of the match against YJC. We won 3-1.

Stayed in school for team talk to quite late, so by the time I reached home, I was really tired. But no, I couldn't go to sleep, because I needed to re-modify my PI in time for Tuesday, else it'd be yet another epic fail.
(So at this point, I feel obliged to thank someone who stayed up with me till past 4am,to accompany + motivate + give feedback/help + provide stress relief. If not, I'd have stopped work before midnight and handed up a relatively shoddy PI.)

Tuesday:

Zombie-fied the entire morning, because I'd only gotten slightly more than 2 hours of sleep, compounded with fatigue from the match.
Worse still, we didn't have our break because our GP teacher used it for his test (which stretched from his period before break to nearly the end of break), so my brain was in a constant whirl.
I think the only reason I stayed awake the entire day, contrary to my expectation, was that Shuen and I munched down a pack of Skittles during GP test (he allowed us to bring dry food), and that probably sent me on a sugar high the rest of the time.

Met Ms Lim after school, and my PI is finally approved! Or at least, two thirds of it.

Went for lesson after that.

After the end of such a long day, I took the liberty of not doing any work and sleeping at 11pm to catch up on sleep.

Wednesday:

Lessons as per usual. Missed assembly (House comm speeches, and dunno what else) because of match.
The match against IJC was quite.. exciting?
Ok yea, we won, 14-0.
The interesting part was that IJC got a 2min penalty, and even though line 2 was playing, no goals were scored during those two minutes.
The other interesting part was that the players were supposedly previously hockey players, so they used their body a lot more than the YJC people. Which is a good thing I suppose. But at one point in time, I was marking an attacker quite tightly, and I felt really bad because she was almost a head shorter than me, and I don't like the feeling that I'm 'bullying' her by using my body more (since she already had problems getting past my defense). As a short person, I can completely empathize with the feeling of being 'swallowed' up by some other bigger player, so I didn't want to do that to her. So much for focusing.. I can't believe I actually think about such stuff on court during a match.

Went back to school for team talk till about 7.30pm.

Slept quite early too.

Thursday:

Oh yea.. To my (pleasant) surprise, I got into the Reach Cambridge Summer Program! From what I saw on the list of successful applicants, I'm one of two PCME students who got into the Law course. I'm undecided on whether that's a good or bad thing.

Anyway, I'll be missing two weeks of lessons for the trip, and I think it's around the SPA period, so er.. good luck to me.

Ok the above was irrelevant to today. Today was.. a normal day (I don't feel like defining 'normal'), and I met my math tutor for consultation after school because I missed the lecture due to math. I feel much more enlightened now.

Match against NYJC tomorrow.

Oh yea, fun fact: MGS String Ensemble got Gold with Honors for SYF! And so did RI (Year 5-6).

Good job guys..

2011-04-25T19:17:00.000+08:00

Received word on Saturday after training that Ye Ye was in A&E. Turns out, he had sort sort of stroke and went hospitalized.

So during Sunday evening, we went to visit him at SGH, and he looked quite alright.

Anyway, that's just a brief introduction to the context of this quote..

Before we were about to leave for dinner, Ye Ye lamented about how the hospital's 'service is too good', that he has to call the nurse every time he wants to walk/go to the toilet, and how the nurse watches him shower in case he falls. So then he said he needed to go to the toilet (without calling the nurse, since we were around).

Ye Ye: -rolls over to the side of the bed and gets into his sandals-
Lynn: -looking very concerned- 'Er, can you walk?'
Ye Ye: -retorts indignantly- 'Of course lah! -walks very quickly to the toilet-
Lynn: -looking thoroughly embarrassed- 'Oh... Oops!'

Today's match was against YJC. Although we won, there're lots of things to work on, and it definitely could have been a much better play.

Time to catch up on work..

2011-04-21T19:12:00.001+08:00

Gah, we didn't get to do the 2 tests today because our class was put down for match support for the table tennis finals.

While the list of classes to go for match support were announced during morning assembly, I initially thought the classes all signed up for it on their own initiative, until my class was called, and I realized it was a random selection of classes. Thankfully I had my PI consultation in the morning, else I've no idea how I'm gonna reschedule it when I'm busy the next two weeks with the ongoing matches.

I'd rather finish the tests once for all today. But no, now I gotta take the GP essay test on Monday during protected time, go straight off for match, then come back to school for afternoon lessons and for Chem test. Tuesday's break will also be eaten into (ah, the pun) by the other GP test (short ans+summary+AQ).
Tuesday is our longest day, and the fact that we've got no break in between because of the test is very putting off.
Man, I feel tired just thinking about it..

On a lighter note, I had no idea I'd be seeing so many familiar faces from MG at the table tennis finals today. For A div, it was RI vs NJC (boys) and RI vs HCI (girls).
Charlotte and I managed to find Alexa, Ern Wei, Li Cheng and Tze Shien from the NJ side. I also saw quite a few others (a strings junior who das-ed into NJ, Carol, Saera, Siyan, and others whom I only know by face).

Accomplishment for today: Blowing a Vuvuzela and actually producing some noise (though it kinda sounded more like a..watery fart?)

Not so good thing for today: Forgetting the Unite cheer. Then again, the cheer is so fast that the words aren't easily discerned, so I guess some mumbling would suffice.

After GP lesson (or more like, a discussion) today on gender stereotypes and gender inequality, it made me think about a the famous line from 1776 United States Declaration of Independence - 'All men are created equal'. Even in the first article of The Universal Declaration of Humans Rights adopted by the UN in 1948, it states that 'All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights'.

But is that necessarily true, and what's the basis for such a declaration?
In fact, can anything/anyone ever be 'equal'?

Some food for thought - If you don't want to read the rest, pages 8-9 are the more interesting parts.

2011-04-20T21:35:00.001+08:00

My PW group has 4 people, so all of us are likely to be maxed out. As of what I gathered from our self-confessed working styles, I seem to be the most 'focused/hardworking' among the four of us. Now that's a scary thought.

Season (the first match) starts in 4 days.
5 matches in 2 weeks.. It's crazily intense.

And after seeing the physiotherapist again today, I think the only chance of full recovery before season would be if I stay at home everyday and not walk about.

Finally did my napfa 5 items on Monday. I improved in everything, maybe except shuttle run (because I can't remember my previous timings), so that's a good sign.

There's GP test, Chem test, and PI consultation tomorrow.

Argh.

How many times will it take for me to get it right?

2011-04-16T13:34:00.002+08:00

Celtic Woman - Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring

1. I noticed the violinist holds her bow not at the frog, but higher up on the stick. Wonder how it affects the sound..

2. 3.42-4.06 is stunning.

2011-04-14T20:25:00.002+08:00

'However high be your endeavors, unless you renounce and subjugate your own will - unless you forget yourself and all that pertains to yourself - not one step will you advance on the road to perfection.'

I have to admit, I didn't touch any tutorials for the past 5 days. Which means I'm starting to lose momentum, and there's a risk of lagging behind the pace of classes.

Our class (and 3 other classes) were off for class adventure camp on Monday and Tuesday at Pulau Ubin, so we missed out on some lectures, and our 5 items napfa test.

Class camp was better than I expected. Or rather, depending on which area of comparison. I had 34 insect bites by the end of the camp (mostly from the low-elements activity), despite trying on 4 different types of repellants (and even combining layers of some). This only serves to reinforce my nagging suspicion that I'm one of the strongest insect magnets around/among my classmates.

It rained on the first day, but we still got to carry out some activities. Good thing it stopped raining by the time we slept, else our tents would have been flooded.
I don't think I'd even count it as a proper camping tent, but simply a shelter. It consisted of two tarps, 2 wooden poles, 8 pegs, and 10 pieces of nylon string.

On to more positive things..
The camp was fun - definitely not as strenuous as OBS, and lots more time for class 'bonding' (I use this word with great hesitance, after Mrs Cheng's insistence on it not being a proper to use). Indeed, there was lots of free time in between activities to relax.
Nice to get to know my classmates more during the camp.

When we got back on Tuesday, I went home and slept a while, before eating dinner and staying up to finish PI.

Wednesday was a relatively more tiring day, because not only did we not have enough time to recover from the effects of the camp, we also had our 2.4km napfa test in the morning, and I had training+pt in the afternoon too.
I improved quite a bit from my trial run time, to 12min 16s. Think the pressure of running alongside boys, and the distraction of music blasted from the stadium speakers did help greatly.
Our class missed our 5 items test due to class camp, so we'll have to do it next Monday.

As for training, well.. tiring as usual, I guess.

I feel a little more accomplished today, because I managed to finish a Math Tut (ok.. I was half-done with it already anyway). Not much, but at least it's something!

I need more sleep..

I’ll be Bach

2011-04-10T17:40:00.001+08:00

What makes you right and me wrong?

How does one play the piano well? What’s ‘well’ and how is it defined?
Think of the ‘best’ piano player you’ve heard/known about. Is how the person plays necessary the ‘best’, and the perfect representation of how the piano should be played?

If I play the violin the ‘western way’ (violin held horizontally with respect to the ground) in front of an audience of native Indians (who play the violin vertically with respect to the ground), am I wrong?

What gives ABRSM the authority to instruct that playing the C major scale on the piano must be played with the fingering 1-2-3-1-2-3-5, and that the right-most pedal must be stepped on by the right foot? And who came up with the idea of how the piano should be play anyway? The piano was developed with reference to the harpsichord in the later part of the Baroque period (and this idea can be extended to how playing such pieces on the piano is ‘wrong’/not according to how it was originally intended), meaning the societal norms on how to ‘properly’ play the piano develop over time, which implies that these can be changed too, and are not absolute.

If I were to play, let’s say, a C major scale on the piano, would I be right to simply shift my finger 1.5cm downwards, 1.5cm upwards, 2.35cm to the left, 1.5cm downwards etc to complete the scale? Or is playing the piano well (accurately) more than that? When I play a note differently from what the score indicates, is it wrong, or could it be a right musical interpretation?

In fact, what defines a ‘note’, and how does one play ‘in tune’? Assuming I tune the A string on my violin to 440(Hz) and play it during a concert in the Esplanade, playing the same as how the score so-called indicates, am I wrong? Since the concert pitch in Singapore is taken with reference to A at 442(Hz), does that mean despite playing according to what the score indicates, I’m playing wrongly/out of tune?
What makes an A at 440(Hz) right, and an A at 442(Hz) wrong; if nobody sets the ‘standards’ accordingly, then wouldn’t all musicians be playing ‘out of tune’ (if there was any definite ‘tune’ to begin with).

At the macro level, what separates ‘music’ from noise? Since we all perceive things differently with regards to upbringing/environment influences, what gives one the authority to determine what’s right/acceptable, and what’s not?
(e.g. ‘tyranny of the majority’, ‘To hell with a morality that is based on the proposition that might is right’)

Yet, it’s comforting to know that at in the face of ‘constant change’ and the threat of such pervasive post-modernism, God is immutable.

(There’s a crazily heavy thunderstorm at my house now. There’re flashes of lightning outside almost every 3 seconds. Some of the lightning streaks were really cool, and they lasted long enough that I could have captured them on camera, but I didn’t think there’d be so many of them and I didn’t bother getting a camera. I think this thunderstorm has the potential to cause some flooding, though not anywhere near my house since Bishan, as its Chinese name implies, is quite a ‘hilly’ area.)

Faith doesn't make anything happen - faith rests on something that has happened

2011-04-09T21:35:00.000+08:00

Got distracted by 'Meet Dave' showing on Channel 5 just now.
It's my first time watching it, and I was thoroughly entertained.. Great stress relief.

'Time for me to exit into the night.'

2011-04-09T01:44:00.000+08:00

PW results were out today.

Our class was sitting at the canteen today having lunch, when we saw a girl running towards a class behind us waving a piece of paper in her hands. The teacher next to them was grinning broadly as he refused to tell them their marks, and suddenly the girl screamed 'Everyone got A!'. There was a moment of shock and silence, before the entire class erupted into screams, laughter, and maybe some crying. It kinda reminded me of getting O level results.. just, happier?

Not too long after, I could periodically hear screams and shouts from all over the school/canteen, since all the J2 classes collected their results at around that time..

Makes me feel even more stressed out, because the J2s have gotten their (good) PW results, while we've barely even started on our PI. Or at least, I haven't, because none of my ideas seem appealing to me. I've got till Sunday to think through it, but seeing as I'm busy most of the weekend, that changes a lot.

I sat out half of training today, because during the first part of drills, someone crashed into me; I not only aggravated my ankle, and also got another injury on my knee. So after icing it, coach let me off and I went to the side to practice my stick work instead.

PW (or to contextualize it, for now, PI) is slowly killing the few brain remaining brain cells I have. Not that I have much to lose..

2011-04-06T22:21:00.000+08:00

I'm quite doomed.

Been getting headaches ever so frequently since last week, and if that isn't enough, the peaks of pain are during training days. Today was no exception.. I'd planned on going home for awhile to sleep (I made it a point to sleep a lot earlier last night in hope that it'd solve the headache problem, but that obviously didn't work), but due to some last minute changes, I ended up having to leave for school again right after I got home and showered.

We had a friendly match against VJC after the guys finished their match.
Played till past 7, and by the time we finished cool downs and team talk, I left school at around 8.30pm. Really thankful I live so near school now.

Ok yea, we won 8-5, but the last period was not good. It wasn't so much of the fitness level problem. I'm probably fitter now than compared to any point in time the past year, yet it's still not good enough compared to the other ex-sport cca people. Ah well, fun fact: I'm the only person/year 5er who was previously from a non-sports cca to make it into the school team. If they specifically tested on fitness levels as a criteria to make it into the CCA/school team, I think I'd be kicked out immediately.
Anyway, so yea..it wasn't so much of the fitness problem that made our last period relatively bad, but more of the mental problem. Think we got a little too complacent and distracted then.

And to make things worse, not just do I have a headache to deal with, but I think I sprained my ankle again during the match today.
Then there's past vs present this Saturday morning, and I'm gonna be playing tennis and basketball in the afternoon.
With season looming ahead, that's bad news.

Compounded with that, I've got a Class Adventure Camp next Monday to Tuesday, and my napfa test on Wednesday.

I haven't started writing my Preliminary Idea for Project Work yet, and it's due next Wednesday. My one and only consultation slot with my PW teacher before we submit our PI is also on that Wednesday.
To precise, I haven't even thought of an idea which I wanna do the project on.

I messed up my math test two days ago, there's an Econs test next week, and I've yet to finish my online Chem test.

Conclusion?
Life's hard, get used to it; grit your teeth, and keep moving on.

2011-04-04T01:00:00.003+08:00

'Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?'

~Corrie Ten Boom

Avalon - Can't Live A Day

"God created things which had free will. That means creatures which can go either wrong or right. Some people think they can imagine a creature which was free but had no possibility of going wrong; I cannot. If a thing is free to be good it is also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible. Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having."

"The moment you say that one set of moral ideas can be better than another, you are, in fact, measuring them both by a standard, saying that one of them conforms to that standard more nearly than the other. But the standard that measures two things is something different from either. You are, in fact, comparing them both with some Real Morality, admitting that there is such a thing as a real Right, independent of what people think, and that some people's ideas get nearer to that real Right than others."

"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."

~ C.S. Lewis

Could it be?

2011-04-02T13:30:00.002+08:00

"A skeptic is a person who, when he sees the handwriting on the wall, claims it is a forgery." - Morris Bender

2011-04-02T11:06:00.000+08:00

I had a strange dream last night. No wait. It's strange that I dreamed/I remembered my dream after I woke up with such clarity, but the contents of the dream were stranger still. Well the main idea was, I was trying to find the best ways of burning down a house. For example, where to start from, which materials to start from, how to progress and make the fire spread (like, pointing a fan at it), and using only one lighter. By the end of the dream, I think all my 'methods' failed, because the house didn't burn down.

Morbid, yet queer.

There was no school yesterday, in lieu of good A level results. But there was still training.
So from yesterday morning till early afternoon, I went to Republic Polytechnic for training. I like the floor of their court..for some reason, it makes playing more enjoyable. Season starts in 3 weeks. I'm steadily improving, so that's a good sign.

Took a shower before boarding the bus back to school. And then I took a bus from school to MGS to collect my certificate thingy.

I think I'm finally getting the hang of the pace of work. As of now, I'm ahead for all my tutorials, and I been making consistent effort to read through lecture notes after each lecture and write down questions to clarify.
But upon coming back from class camp (in two weeks) and missing so many lessons, I think that's bound to change soon.

2011-03-27T19:15:00.003+08:00

About 10 minutes ago, I looked out of the window, curious why the sky seemed to be unusually yellow-brown.
Then from the corner of my eye, I spotted a huge rainbow. Turns out, Lynn and I could actually see a full rainbow formed nicely within the range of sight of our bedroom windows. By the time I got a camera, the rainbow had faded into the dark clouds behind it. It's a pity I didn't look out a few minutes earlier than that.

Interestingly enough, I don't think it rained anywhere near here today.

2011-03-27T18:05:00.000+08:00

Go East, young bureaucrat

Emerging Asia can teach the West a lot about government
Mar 17th 2011

WHEN people talk about Singapore’s education miracle, they normally think of rows of clever young mathematicians. The hair-design and beauty-therapy training centres at the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) are rather different. The walls are covered with pouting models, L’Oréal adverts and television screens. There is a fully fitted-out spa and a hairdressing salon. It all seems rather more “Sex and the City” than Asian values, though the manicurists, pedicurists, cosmetologists and hairdressers toil diligently.

Asked whether he wants to go to university, the holy grail of most Asian families, a young barber called Noel replies that he would rather open a hairdressing salon. Mei Lien wants to set up her own beauty salon; Shuner would like to work in hotels abroad.

Until recently ITE—dubbed “It’s The End” by ambitious middle-class parents—was the dark side of Singaporean education. The city state streams pupils rigorously and is unashamedly elitist: one school claims to send more students to Ivy League universities than any other secondary school in the world. But such a system also produces losers—and many of the bottom third who do not make it to university come to ITE.

Since the 1990s the government has worked hard to change ITE’s image. It has not only spent a lot of money on new facilities and better teachers but also put a great deal of thought into it, scouring the West for best practice in vocational training. And it has encouraged students who are used to failure to take pride in their work. That has involved discipline (a list displays the names of class-shirkers) but also fun outside the classroom: ITE has sports teams and concerts just like any university.

This attention to detail has paid off. Many of the graduates have to compete with cheap migrant workers, especially in service jobs, but most of them are snapped up quickly. The hairdressers and beauty therapists are off to the new casinos, or “integrated resorts”, as they are prudishly known. Singapore, already near the top of most educational league tables, has created yet another centre of excellence that is beginning to attract foreign visitors.

Singapore is important to any study of government just now, both in the West and in Asia. That is partly because it does some things very well, in much the same way that some Scandinavian countries excel in certain fields. But it is also because there is an emerging theory about a superior Asian model of government, put forward by both despairing Western businesspeople and hubristic Asian chroniclers. Simplified somewhat, it comes in four parts.

First, Singapore is good at government (which is largely true). Second, the secret of its success lies in an Asian mixture of authoritarian values and state-directed capitalism (largely myth). Third, China is trying to copy Singapore (certainly true). Last, China’s government is already more efficient than the decadent West (mostly rubbish, see next section).

Fact or fiction?

For all the insults hurled at “Disneyland with the death penalty” (to use William Gibson’s gibe), Singapore provides better schools and hospitals and safer streets than most Western countries—and all with a state that consumes only 19% of GDP. Yes, that proportion is understated because it does not include the other fingers the government has in the economic pie, such as its huge landholdings, the Central Provident Fund (a mandatory savings scheme) and Temasek (a government-linked investment company). Yes, it is easier to serve 5m people on a tiny island than 309m Americans on a vast landmass. Yes, it has relied on immigration, which is now creating strains (and will be the main topic in the next election). And yes, Singapore’s bureaucrats can make mistakes, such as letting an Islamic terrorist escape in 2008. But its government does pretty well.

The Chinese are fascinated by it. “There is good social order in Singapore,” Deng Xiaoping observed in 1992. “We should draw from their experience, and do even better than them.” It sends streams of bureaucrats to visit Singapore. One of the first things that Xi Jinping did after being anointed in 2010 as China’s next leader was to drop in (again) on Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s minister-mentor, who ran the island from 1959 to 1990, and his son, Lee Hsien Loong, who has been prime minister since 2004. The Chinese are looking at other places, too—most obviously Hong Kong, another small-government haven. But it is hard to think of any rich-country leader whom China treats with as much respect as the older Mr Lee.

So what lessons are the Chinese learning? There is an odd imbalance between the things that Singapore and others make so much noise about and the reasons why the place works. In particular, the “Asian values” bits of Singapore—its authoritarianism and its industrial policy—that the Chinese seem to find especially congenial are less vital to its success than two more humdrum virtues: a good civil service and a competitively small state.

The island that Lee built

Singapore is certainly a fairly stern place. It has been run by the People’s Action Party for half a century. The older Mr Lee, a Cambridge-educated lawyer who was originally seen as a bit of a left-winger, set up a parliamentary system in which it has proved curiously difficult for the opposition to do well. From 1966 to 1981 Mr Lee’s PAP won all the seats. It has opened up a bit, and in the most recent election in 2006 it won only 66% of the votes and 82 of the 84 seats. The media, and particularly the internet, have also got a little freer.

The Singaporeans argue that they have the perfect compromise between accountability and efficiency. Their politicians are regularly tested in elections and have to make themselves available to their constituents; but since the government knows it is likely to win, it can take a long view. Fixing things like ITE takes time. “Our strength is that we are able to think strategically and look ahead,” says the prime minister. “If the government changed every five years it would be harder.”

There is more truth in this than Western liberals would like to admit. Not many people in Washington are thinking beyond the 2012 presidential election. It is sometimes argued that an American administration operates strategically for only around six months, at the beginning of its second year—after it has got its staff confirmed by the Senate and before the mid-terms campaign begins.

Yet even assuming that voters are happy to swap a little more efficiency for less democracy, Singapore still seems a difficult model to follow. Not only is it manageably small, but balancing authoritarianism and accountability comes down largely to personal skills (and even the opposition admits that the two Lees have been extremely good at it). More generally, Singapore’s success as a planning state has a lot to do with the sort of people who run it.

One thing that stands out in Singapore is the quality of its civil service. Unlike the egalitarian Western public sector, Singapore follows an elitist model, paying those at the top $2m a year or more. It spots talented youngsters early, lures them with scholarships and keeps investing in them. People who don’t make the grade are pushed out quickly.

Sitting around a table with its 30-something mandarins is more like meeting junior partners at Goldman Sachs or McKinsey than the cast of “Yes, Minister”. The person on your left is on secondment at a big oil company; on your right sits a woman who between spells at the finance and defence ministries has picked up degrees from the London School of Economics, Cambridge and Stanford. High-fliers pop in and out of the Civil Service College for more training; the prime minister has written case studies for them. But it is not a closed shop. Talent from the private sector is recruited into both the civil service and politics. The current education minister used to be a surgeon.

Western civil services often have pretty good people at the top, but in Singapore meritocracy reigns all the way down the system. Teachers, for instance, need to have finished in the top third of their class (as they do in Finland and South Korea, which also shine in the education rankings). Headmasters are often appointed in their 30s and rewarded with merit pay if they do well but moved on quickly if their schools underperform. Tests are endemic.

How much strategic intervention takes place in the economy? The Lees have dabbled in industrial policy, betting first on manufacturing and then on services. Temasek manages a portfolio of S$190 billion ($150 billion). The country is now trying to push into creative industries, with limited success thus far, as ministers admit.

These attempts at dirigisme have made Singapore a more reserved, less entrepreneurial place than Hong Kong with its feverish laissez-faire. It certainly has far fewer larger-than-life billionaires. But it is hard to hail Singapore as a success of top-down economic management in the way some Chinese seem to think. Indeed, the core of Singapore’s success—its ability to attract foreign multinationals—owes far more to laissez-faire than to industrial policy.

Come in, the water’s lovely

Rather than seeing foreign investment as a way to steal technology or to build up strategic industries, as China often does, Singapore has followed an open-door policy, building an environment where businesses want to be. The central message has remained much the same for decades: come to us and you will get excellent infrastructure, a well-educated workforce, open trade routes, the rule of law and low taxes.

In other words, Singapore’s competitive advantage has been good, cheap government. It has worked hard to keep its state small; even education consumes only 3.3% of GDP. But the real savings come from keeping down social transfers and especially from not indulging the middle class. The older Mr Lee thinks the West’s mistake has been to set up “all you can eat” welfare states: because everything at the buffet is free, it is consumed voraciously.

Singapore’s approach, by contrast, is for the government to provide people with assets that allow them to look after themselves. Good education for all is one big part of it. The other mainstay is the Central Provident Fund. A fifth of everybody’s salary goes into their account at the CPF, with the employer contributing another 15.5%. That provides Singaporeans with the capital to pay for their own housing, pensions and health care and their children’s tertiary education.

There is a small safety net to cover the very poor and the very sick. But people are expected to look after their parents and pay for government services, making co-payments for health care. The older Mr Lee especially dislikes free universal benefits. Once you have given a subsidy, he says, it is always hard to withdraw it. He is convinced that if you want to help people, it is better to give them cash rather than provide a service, whose value nobody understands. China, he thinks, will eventually follow Singapore’s model.

But arguably the place that should be learning most from Singapore is the West. For all the talk about Asian values, Singapore is a pretty Western place. Its model, such as it is, combines elements of Victorian self-reliance and American management theory. The West could take in a lot of both without sacrificing any liberty. Why not sack poor teachers or pay good civil servants more? And do Western welfare states have to be quite so buffet-like?

By the same token, Singapore’s government could surely relax its grip somewhat without sacrificing efficiency. That might help it find a little more of the entrepreneurial vim it craves.

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Man.. wish I could write like that. GP would be a breeze.

2011-03-26T15:12:00.003+08:00

Earth Hour TV Commercial Earth Hour: Switch off your lights tonight!(March 26, 8.30pm - 9.30pm) With Qing Ming festival coming up, the I'm gonna have to get mentally prepared for the packed buses, traffic jams along the main road, and of course, lots of smoke. But I think it's anytime better than the ge tais during the 7th month/Hungry Ghost festival.

2011-03-25T23:38:00.000+08:00

I'm appalled at a lady's insistence that Holland Village residents are more 'cultured' than those from the Heartlands.
Doesn't she realize the implications of broadcasting such a radical respective on radio to the rest of Singapore? It's ironic when she deems others as un-cultured, when the very criticism of hers isn't what one would expect to hear from a 'cultured' person.

We went for a 1h run (I think 'jog' wouldn't portray it that accurately) at MacRitchie reservoir today. Ran in the forested area (gravel path), so not only were the slopes a pain, but also wasting energy trying to keep my ankle straight and not slip on the pebbles.
Think the distance we ran (from school track, to the reservoir track, back to school track) might add up to 7km.
After the run, we continued with core training.

Why are there so many online tests?

Today's sunrise was exceptionally vibrant, but the day (and night) was(is) exceptionally hot.

2011-03-24T22:58:00.000+08:00

Having a hard time deciding if I should go sleep, or do work (pw) first.
It's a rare time that I even have the chance to sleep early. But there's training (pt) tomorrow, so that means I'll be home really late, so i should sleep more now.

Didn't have training on Monday and Wednesday because the J2 had CTs this week. But since they end today/tomorrow, there's pt tomorrow.
Speaking of pt, I think I might finally be getting fitter. On Wednesday's 2.4 rum during PE (no, not the actual test) I got 13.07min, which probably isn't too bad for someone previously from a Performing Arts CCA. But compared to the other sports people, I dont think it's even close to good enough.

Went back to MGS on Wednesday with Hui Xian and Xi Yun to crash strings for awhile, since it's a rare (and pronably only) time I don't have CCA on Wednesday. It so happened that we crashed on the right day, because it was Wang Ya Hui who came to guest conduct, we got to hear the two syf pieces in good shape.

Work aside, I guess life is ok.
I've sort of progressed to the last stage of grief (acceptance) over the fact that I'm 'running with horses'. It's also scary how time passes so quickly, and I've spent close to two months in school. Which also means, CTs are coming up soon.

I don't know what to think about this year's PW topics..and I can't make up my mind whether they're considered easy or hard. As of now, I've no idea which topic I'm more inclined towards, becuase there are so many areas/issues that I want to look at (though I'm not sure if they'd be very relevant/suitable topics to choose).

My first few assignments haven't fared too well. The physics e-learning tests are probably the highest marks I'llbe getting in a long time to come. Math wasn't good, GP was shockingly bad, econs was just..bad as expected.
I was trying to recall how my chem did, when I realized that I've a quiz tomorrow, which I cleanly forgot about, but I don't think I can bring myself to start studying for it now that I'm feeling my sleepiness kick in.

2011-03-20T22:32:00.004+08:00

Spent a large part of my night watching the live performance rebroadcast on Youtube, of the Youtube Symphony Orchestra 2011 Grand Finale from Sydney Opera House.

It's inspiring to see so much talent (there's a 17 year-old conductor, and the youngest player is 14 years old) converging from around the world to play not just classical music, but also some interesting modern compositions.

I especially enjoyed 'The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra Op.34' by Benjamin Britten and 'Mothership' by Mason Bates.

For the former, I'm not too sure why, because I've heard it so many times it's amazing I'm not 'bored' of it yet, but I never fail to be fascinated by the piece each time I heard it. Or maybe it's just the effect the ending has on me, when the fugue theme is played with Purcell's melody. Kind of like the idea of how there is order through disorder, if that makes any sense.

As for the latter, it's because of the four improvisation performances (electric guitar, jazz violin, gu zheng, electric double bass) and how the seemingly dissonant sections blend in so nicely with the background orchestral music, and also the mixing of technology with classical music.

Now, time to do work..

2011-03-18T13:38:00.005+08:00

Monday:

I went for the seeNTU session on mitigating climate change in the morning. Mom and Dad sent me there before driving off to Malaysia.
It wasn't particularly enriching, but the usual babble about global warming/CO2 aside, I did learn other new things.
The course ended late, so I ended up getting to Plaza Singapura late (for an N.E. Mation gathering), and missing out on a bit of The King's Speech.
Don't you think the movie is rather overrated? Well no doubt, the acting and filming is good. As for the plot/story, I found it quite dry. And by the end of the movie, I don't think I've taken away anything from it - it's a forgettable movie, and I wouldn't want to watch it again.
We (Carmen, Eleanor, Liz and I) walked around aimlessly (or some would term it 'shopping') from after the movie till dinner, where we met our trainers, Helena and Nicholas, for dinner.

Tuesday:

Don't remember much of what I did, except that I went for lesson in the evening and then to NTUC for grocery shopping after that.

Oh right, I didn't mention - my parents (and grandparents) are away in Penang for this entire week, leaving Lynn and I to fend for ourselves. Anyway, we split the housework and cooking to maximize efficiency. Seeing as how Lynn's cooking attempts haven't been all that successful in the past, I'm thankful the house/kitchen is still intact after her attempts this week.

Wednesday:

Went for another seeNTU session on Nanomaterials Synthesis, and as such, missed training.

I was a bit late, because of a miscalculation in traveling time. Since NTU is the west, I decided to make use bus 52 to get to Jurong East Bus Interchange, then transfer to the East-West line to Pioneer, and then take the shuttle bus from Pioneer to NTU. Due to bad traffic and many traffic lights, I spent one and a half hours in 52 to get to Jurong East.
As I was late, I missed out on quite a bit of the lecture. After the lecture, there was a safety briefing, then we proceeded to the lab. We worked in groups of 3-4, and carried out the Sol-Gel synthesis of Titanium Butoxide to Titanium Oxide. If I remember correctly, the steps are hydrolysis, condensation, and gelation. Problem is, at the end of the experiment, the liquid was definitely more viscous, but I don't think it counts as a gel.
We were then brought for a look around the MSE (Material Science Engineering) labs which contained various electron microscopes(TED, Scanning electron microscope) and X-ray diffraction microscopes, while the people there explained how the microscopes worked. It's cool being able to see matter at the atomic level, but I'm still amazed by how they can tell the types of atoms apart. Like how do they identify that it's a Titanium atom, not a Tin atom, and how to identify from the structures/layers of atoms - everything looks so similar to me.

Had lunch with Charlotte, and did some work at Starbucks after that.
Went home, went out for a jog, then back for dinner.
Since Bishan Park is quite inaccessible now with the construction going on, I took a half an hour jog from home across the park, to church, around the estate, and back.

Thursday:

SBC gathering at West Coat Park. Not many people went though. Played in the park till lunch, then walked to West Coast Plaza and settled ourselves at a nice empty area. We got stopped from playing Monopoly deal after some time, so in the end most people took our their work to do, and it looked like a mass mugging session of some sort. Christie, Lau and I went to Charlotte's house (or to be precise, the function room) where we met Audrey, Jerusha, Zenn and later Glenda, to do work. Correction: Try to do work.
Projectile motion is very ____(Ack, can't think of an appropriate word) . It's so simple, yet so complex.

Had dinner with Christie and Lau at Crystal Jade in Holland Village.

Friday:

Gonna meet Xiao Jun and Jian Ling at AMK hub to buy ingredients, then come home and cook. Sounds silly/lame, but it sure is a good way of de-stressing.
Jian Ling just came back 2 days ago from her 6-month work attachment in China, so it's good finally being able to communicate without technology (skype/email) after a long time.

Saturday:

Going for Charity Not Enough before TF.
I can't even claim CIP hours for it, because it's organized by a 'religious organization' (SYFC) so the school won't endorse such a program. Ah well.

Homework Progress:

I've yet to do the second Physics e-learning test. The tests count for 1% of our final Promotion grade. Which is very crucial since I might be failing, and need all the marks I can gather now. But of course, there's a catch. All the questions from the questions bank are randomized for each student to minimize chances of cheating, and the passing mark for the test is 8/10. Upon passing, the student will get the 1% for his/her Promo grade. If the student fails, it's a 0%.. Not even a half mark or anything.

I haven't started Math Tut 2(Functions is a terrible topic). Most of my time was spent doing Chem.

Productivity is very low, because I take super long just to finish a question. I can spend more than half an hour on a Chem question. That being said, I must first qualify that the questions have many parts and sub/sub-sub-parts..

Oh yea, most importantly, I haven't gotten to studying econs yet.

2011-03-13T00:55:00.002+08:00

CCA camp down.
Next up: Class camp in April.
It's sad that our class camp is at the start of the week, because the day after we end camp, we still need to report to school for lessons as per normal.

Anyway, camp started off with a match against RV on Friday afternoon/evening. The guys had their match first while we did goal setting, and then we played. We won 4-8, but the scores were really tight at the first 3 quarters. One of the things that I didn't do well, is that I ran too much and passed too little. As such, I tired myself out early into the match, and had to sub very frequently in the subsequent quarters. But stuff I did well were communicating more, reducing lag time, marking more smartly, and the bursts of sprints. We ended at around 9.30pm, cooled down, de-briefed (coach told us the names of those who made it through to the school [competition] team), showered, and then had dinner at 11pm+. Lights off at 12.20am in the MPH. The guys and girls slept at the different sides of the MPH, and there wasn't any air-con, so our sleeping bags were clustered around the pillars with wall fans. I didn't sleep well because of the chatter around, the heat, and lack of a pillow. Only managed to clock in a few hours of sleep, interspersed with lots of abrupt waking-ups.

This morning, woke up, ate bananas, and went for a morning run to, at, and back from MacRitchie reservoir. We played bonding games for awhile, before playing benchball.
After a shower and breakfast, the J2s were given time to study, while J1s and J2 ex-co members went for a ex-co sharing session.
We ended an hour before lunch, so we lepak-ed around.

The non-team people left after lunch, while the rest of us watched Facing The Giants. It's my fourth or fifth time watching the movie, and it never gets old..
Training right after that, and then team talk/goal setting till 9.30pm.

That's about everything in brief, and I shall sleep soon. Really sleepy and tired after so much exercise.
My foot is as bad/worse than how it was a week ago, despite me trying my best not to over-exert it.
Good thing it's the holidays. Bad thing, coach is testing our 2.4km run after the holidays. And we're supposed to look forward to finishing a 10km (within a dunno-what time) at the end of the year..

2011-03-08T22:42:00.000+08:00

No use brooding over useless stuff.
These three quotes sum up my current sentiments aptly:

'一山还有一山高, 强中自有强中手'

'人比人气死人, 马比骡子驮不成.'

'Choose your battles wisely.'
~The Art of War, Sun Tzu

2011-03-02T21:42:00.003+08:00

'If the enemy is in range, so are you.'

There are copious opportunities passing by. What's crucial is discerning which to reach out for, and which to forgo.

PW presentation is over! Basic/preliminary research aside, my group only started working on our presentation last night, and as you might be able to guess, we slept quite late because of that. Being the first group to present is good, in that we get 'over it' earlier and don't need to worry about it for the next two weeks. Another good point, is that we 'set the bar' for the later presentations, so we don't have to stress about getting scolded for not doing enough. Considering short span of time we got to work on our presentation (we only knew about it one PW lesson ago), I think we scored relatively well.

I'm exhausted by the end of each day, and I feel like my weekends don't allow sufficient rest. I never imagined that having dinner at 11pm would be such a common occurrence now.. And of course, all the physical conditioning during PE and trainings don't make life any better.

My foot has been injured since the match with NUS. This morning's running during PE was painful enough, and it got worse from training. After training, we were supposed to jog to MacRitchie reservoir and do sprint cycles along the slopes or something, then jog back to school. But I joined the rest of the injured to stay in school to do core training. Think I'll be having a hard time trying to roll out of bed tomorrow morning when the muscle aches fully set in.

Something I find interesting, is that the Chamber Ensemble practice room is just next to the court (in the Indoor Sports Hall). So whenever I go to refill my water bottle, I take a sneak peak into the practice room. But that gives a sense of dis-ease, because it's weird when I just spent four years' worth of many afternoons confined such a room playing the violin, and now I'm spending my next two years' worth of many afternoons (and nights) running about outside that room. I mean, I keep thinking of the parallels and the irony of the situation, and sometimes it makes me view myself as some sort of 'traitor' to the String Ensemble.

So when I walk into the ISH with all my stuff, alongside with other people who carry their instrument case etc, and then walk out alongside the same people, but with me looking half-dead and them humming tunes to themselves, that sharp contrast provokes me to question my choice of CCA. Not that I've any other choice now (since CCA JAE registration is closed, and all trials/interviews/auditions are over), but it all boils down to the simple question of 'What do I want (to do)?'.
Not just in such a specific areas like CCAs, subject combination options, enrichment program options etc, but also life in general.

As a Jack of all trades yet master of none, my comfort zone is with 'breadth' and not 'depth' - from what I concluded, not even Primary Schools value that sort of 'talent'.

2011-02-19T00:10:00.001+08:00

Training ended at 9.30pm today, and it was tough. After many hours of running and drills, when I thought I'd drained every last bit of energy out already, we were made to do sprint cycles, and then 3 min plank.

Need to catch up of reading through Lecture Notes and finishing Chem + Math Tutorials. All the questions make me feel stupid/incompetent.

My PW teacher is really scary. She's almost a replica of Mrs Ng (sec 1 Philo teacher), just with longer hair.

I think a good word to sum up my second week of school would be: Chaotic

2011-02-13T23:40:00.001+08:00

Played basketball with Carmen and Charlotte yesterday morning. Tze Shien couldn't make it, so well.. another time man. We used the NP courts. Which were quite nice, except that halfway through a whole troop of guys came over and start playing soccer across the courts.

For some reason, I had got a headache again from the afternoon all the way till the time I slept. Funny thing is, I took a Panadol in Yu Xin's house when TF went there for dinner, and Jensen took a Panadol in my house when he came over for dinner. (Both events happened almost simultaneously) Maybe that's proof migraines do run in the family, because I got lots of headaches when I was as young as him too.

I finally learned how to play Rummy-O! It's actually quite fun.. I'd have enjoyed it more if it hadn't been for my headache, which made thinking (and even resting) painful.

My family went to YST Conservatory today to watch the Archduke Trio (SSO Chamber Series), because Ms Kwok gave us 4 complimentary tickets. Didn't know Mr Chan was performing too, till I saw the program booklet.

And then we went to (the newly built) Clementi Mall, without knowing that only Level 1 and the Basement were open. Ended up eating (spicy) Thai food, which meant that I was left to feed on rice.

2011-02-11T23:58:00.003+08:00

忍
Very disturbed. Should send myself for counseling or something..

2011-02-10T22:51:00.002+08:00

The first week of lectures are over.

So far so good. We split into classes on Monday, and after 4 days of hanging around/getting to know each other during the breaks in between lectures, I'm not as scared of them now. 8 girls, 19 boys, of which, there are about 8 JAE students. That's a considerably large number when compared to other classes. The girls are quite friendly, and I generally haven't talked to the guys, but those I talked to seem nice too.
I've forgotten a lot of O level stuff by now, so during lectures I was mentally beating myself for having forgotten the basics. Takes time for the gears to crank up into action.

I went for Floorball tryouts on Monday, got through the two rounds, went back for the final cut on Wednesday, and managed to make it to the team. It's the most exercise I've done in many moons. Basketball tryouts are on Monday, and I'm apprehensive/skeptical about my chances of getting in. The RG bball team would have taken up most of the places in the RI team, and compounded with my lack of (competition) experience in Secondary School (I think I'm still sore about MG not having bball), that makes it hard even for me to be considered for the team. Somehow, the situation I'm in makes me relate it to Facing The Giants.

Some CCA options I've thought about: Basketball, Chamber Ensemble(though quite unlikely), Floorball, Hockey, International Chess, Red Cross Humanitarian

Going to Sentosa for Take 5 tomorrow. Think the ACS(I) people are gonna be there too.

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王力宏 - 你不知道的事

王力宏 - 需要人陪

Never had a dream come true

2011-02-04T17:56:00.000+08:00

Happy Lunar New Year!

I've been feasting the past few meals, and stuffing myself with CNY snacks in between meals. As I probably say every year around this period, Kueh Bangkit is the best CNY snack. At second place (far behind) would be pineapple tarts, but that varies.

Rewind...

The last day of Orientation didn't go too bad I guess. War games were shifted to the morning for fear of heavy in the afternoon. This time, there was no mud, but lots of water (and saliva).
Now I can finally say that I've finished learning the Batch Dance and Batch Song, and both are quite cool. My dance partner and I were initially very skeptical of being able to complete the entire routine, but well, everything turned out fine, and we didn't crash into each other much (dancing at the gallery is harder, because we can topple of the steps easily). I spotted Charlotte and her partner (her OG happened to be near the front of the hall and I could see them from the gallery), and while it was their House's turn to dance, and that made me crack up.. Not that their dancing was bad though.
There was O'Night, and each OG had to come dressed according to the theme they set for themselves. For mine, it was 'mismatch'. O'Night was entertaining, and a good close to Orientation. Pity the Delchanto words didn't burn properly.

Wednesday was a holiday, and I think we're the only school that didn't have any CNY celebrations on that day. Went for reunion dinner at night. Dad's side+mom's side. so we took up two tables.

On Thursday, went for lunch with mom's side at The Vines (oh the irony, western food during CNY) after going to church, went home for a while, went out to Wei Chuan's house to visit, and then went to Nai and Ye's house for a steamboat dinner (dad's side + Rose + Jasmine and family).

Dumpling overload.. I think I've eaten more than 20 these two days.

We stayed at Nai and Ye's house till nearly midnight, because Jensen, Lynn, Shen Shen, Shu Shu and I were holed up in Shu Shu's room watching Ip Man 2.

As for today, I woke up at around 11. I was still half-awake when Dad said to go cycling, but I went out anyway. Dad, Lynn and I cycled to Upper Pierce Reservoir, to Bishan North to get drinks, then back home. After all that cycling, I think it only helped burn off 6-7 pineapple tarts' worth of calories. Ah well, CNY is the time to stock up on fats anyway.

2011-02-01T00:00:00.001+08:00

Orientation Day 3

Status: Adjustment in progress

It was cold and wet in the morning, and it didn't stop raining till noon. Didn't help that the air-con in the MPH was working well.

The Rafblood cheer is scary. For the non RP students like me, it was rather intimidating too.

As for the school anthem, it sounds quite.. cinematic. The only qualms I have are regarding two lines: 'sons of Singapore', and 'With one voice make us pray/Auspicium Melioris Aevi/With God to guide the way'.

Learned part two of the batch dance:

Good thing there are an equal number of guys and girls in my OG.

Batch Project - decorating flower pots.

Learned House cheers.

Each House separated into 3 sections, rotating around the 3 stations.
War Games:
1. Eye of the Storm
- 3 rows of defenders
- People from another house must try to run past the rows of defenders without being tapped, to reach the vortex
- a. Take a basic item and go back again OR b. Remain in the vortex with a clip attached to left sleeve. Run around trying to steal clips from others, while at the same time protecting your own.
- I got scratched/whacked a lot on my arm, when people kept chasing after my clip.

2. Strip Me If You Can
- Guys have 6 clips attached to their backs
- Girls hold hands in pairs
- Girls run after guys from other houses to snatch their clips, while guys run around trying to avoid having their clips being taken by girls of other houses.
- Guy can be 'protected' if he stands in the middle of a pair of girls (with their arms circling around him)
- Lots of casualties, but thankfully none too serious
- Lots of running too.

3. Pearl Pursuit
- We played this in the field after it had rained for more than a day, and while it was still drizzling. So everybody had to take off their socks and shoes, and sink their feet into the mud to run around.
- OGs must link hands and form a circle. Everyone must leave 2 socks hanging out from the waist of their pants.
- Each House must protect their soccer balls at their base (aka pearls) while trying to snatch the opponents' soccer balls
- A person can be taken 'prisoner' if someone manages to pull off the socks. The 'prisoner' will stand in the middle of the linked OG, and cannot escape as long as the OG's hands are linked. Once deposited in a 'jail', the 'prisoner' must do a forfeit in order to get out.

- Basically, it was very chaotic and muddy. Those who bravely caught the balls had mud all over them.. and the rest of us had mud all over our legs, pants, and/or shirts.

Ended off with Storyline, more cheers, announcements, and dinner with OG (in school, because we ordered pizza).

Out of character

2011-01-29T22:08:00.001+08:00

Random thoughts:

Haven't thought of subject combination yet.

Being in a secular school after 10 years is a leap out of my comfort zone.

I don't get the hype over Orientation Groups. Many say one's OG is special because it's the 'first family' in an unfamiliar environment, and many would still remain close friends even after Orientation.
This may seem rather cynical, but what for invest so much time/effort into 4 days to forge relationships with OG-mates, when you most probably won't be meeting them again after those 4 days? Wouldn't it be more sensible to put classes as OGs, since it'd facilitate interaction within the class(and that's more important)?
And why were the icebreakers held during JAE matriculation, in the absence of 'new' students? That's like ice-breakers without the ice.

In a way, I can't wait for lessons/lectures to start.

Went to Bibi and Baba today to buy my uniform. At least when I went there, the queue wasn't too long. Upon leaving the shop, the queue was twice as long as it was while I was queuing.

That aside, I'm quite amazed that they gave me the wrong shirt. As in, I got the shirts and skirts, and for some reason, the shirts have front pockets. So they gave me two sets of male shirts and skirts. Gotta go back to swap the shirts tomorrow..

Acclimatization - Out of the pond and into the sea

2011-01-28T00:21:00.003+08:00

Random thoughts:

It's the end of Day 2 - Orientation. I'm impressed by all the effort put into organizing the programs.

Yesterday, we gathered at the MPH first for flag raising, attendance taking etc, before going for JAE matriculation. There were only 250 JAE students, and the rest are from the RG, RI, or DSA. But today, another 50 or so successful appeals got it too.

My OG isn't too bad. We're MR01 - 'Damn right, it's better than yours', one of 60 OGs. It sounds weird when we do our group cheer, especially in public, because it sounds like we're cursing over and over again.
(FYI: There are around 18-22 people per OG, 12 OGs per House, and 5 Houses)
So I guess the only problem is that I'm one of the rare ones not previously from the Raffles family in my OG, which makes me uneasy when everyone already seems to know each other.
And of course, now there are boys in the school, so that takes time to get used to.
Granted, I've met new people, made new friends (though I still don't know the names of some people in my OG), but it's still..socially awkward.

Spent the morning learning cheers, the Batch Dance and Batch song.
Our Batch Dance is cool, though the steps are quite complicated. It's a mix of 4 songs, and it requires everyone to get a dance partner of the opposite gender.
And the Batch Song is nice as well. The guy who composed it is a genius..it's catchy, yet not repetitive. Think we sang it more than 10 times today.

Today's EA (external activity) was canceled halfway due to the heavy rain. At least my group wasn't at the Fort Canning/Botanic Gardens/AMK West stations, and we could find shelter easily.

After EA, at one point in time, the hall turned into some kind of dance floor..

Have had OG dinners the past two nights, and probably for the next two next week. I realized that living here has a downfall - no one likes to hang around the area around school (e.g. J8, Thomson Plaza, AMK Hub, NEX). Instead, we choose to go to places far away to avoid the area. Got an OG outing on Sunday too, but I'm not too keen on going, nor can I make it for the first part anyway.

I'm still in the midst of getting over the culture shock from MGS to RI(JC), and also that everyone there is super smart (and their talents don't merely stop there).

I have until the end of this weekend to make my subject combination choice. Despite having mulled over this for so long, I can't come to a decision. I've got 5 choices, as of now. And if I pass (or convince myself to go for) the placement test next Monday (which I've already signed up for), that will narrow my options down to 3 choices. Then there's still the problem of whether I'll take up Chinese again, which gives me 3 more choices.

As one of the Deans (forgot her name) mentioned during matriculation, JAE students are bound to meet transitional issues, and at times, feel like they're not as good as the RG/RI people. And our comfort is supposed to reside in the fact that we got into RI solely by merit, and that means we're of a certain standard already.
In fact, I think that backfired on me, because the JAE students around me are the top scorers of Singapore, and that makes me feel even more inferior and under-accomplished. Then again, I need to remember that I've to be content being an average/lower-than-average student, else I'll probably sink into some sort of depression.

In conclusion, I'd rate my first 2 days of school/orientation as 3 out of 5 stars.

Sought, but never found.

2011-01-21T23:40:00.002+08:00

Been forced to re-think a lot that I assumed I'd settled.

The past 3 weeks have been enriching, fulfilling, and fun.

School starts next week, but I can't say the same for my engine.
Met up with some of my P6 classmates today, and one of them has already started studying (JC work) before the start of school.. Scary.

2011-01-16T21:32:00.000+08:00

David Tao - 祷告

2011-01-16T20:56:00.001+08:00

"Please Interrupt"

Sometimes I feel like an interruption,
and then I want to shrink back into my shell
and never come out again
I want to walk away and say,
"sorry for wasting your time".

Being an interruption hurts.
It tells me
something is more important than I am.
It tells me
you are looking,
but don't see me.
It tells me
you are listening
but don't hear me.
And so I move along.

But, God says
"Don't hurry away.
Stick around.
Tell me how it is with you.
Tell me what you're feeling right this minute.
Tell me why you feel that way.
I want to know you.
I care about you.
Tell me what I can do for you."

And, I go away feeling I was glad that I called.

~ Ruth Senter

2011-01-10T23:43:00.001+08:00

Falling sick, I think.

So far, so good.

I don't know what school to choose - but I have to be thankful that I have the opportunity to choose.

I'm actually hovering indecisively over two options, because those are the two I'm left with after a series of eliminations.

2011-01-08T23:53:00.000+08:00

What I've been up to, at a glance (and off the top of my head):

Mindsville
Mission Trip
Walking With Dinosaurs
South Korea
Jigsaw puzzle
Christmas
TF Camp
Countdown
SYFC Project Serve
Project Serve Camp
Connections
Archery

Lessons, rehearsals, meetings, planning, practices, emails, late nights, and a strand of white hair.

These are what I remember as of now..

Still to come: Results

People are people, and sometimes we change our minds.

2011-01-04T00:24:00.000+08:00

What's God doing?

2010-12-29T02:01:00.000+08:00

Tired.
Can't believe I'm so busy, despite it being the holidays.

2010-12-25T12:50:00.001+08:00

The Digital Story of Nativity

Creative.
But yet again, the wrong concept of it being three wise men who went to seek Jesus.

Happy Christmas, and a Merry New Year!

If somebody loves you, won't they always love you?

2010-12-23T21:56:00.002+08:00

Man has to suffer. When he has no real afflictions, he invents some.
~ Jose Marti

祢爱永不变

I first heard this in 大谷地, when the youths there presented this song during the church service.

The song is about God's unchanging love.

As of every passing day, I'm more and more convinced of the fallibility of humans, and how fickle they are.
As the year draws to a close and I reflect on this year, many things have changed. Some for the better, and unfortunately, some for the worse too. People, feelings, commitments, priorities, decisions, environments etc change. As the saying goes - 'The only constant is change.', we can never be sure about anything that has yet to come. You can't guarantee that tomorrow, you'll still have food and shelter, that the people you think love you will still love you, or that you'll even be alive till then.
Which brings out the power of God's love, because God is immutable. God will never change, and His love will never change.

From the freezer and beyond..

2010-12-19T22:46:00.003+08:00

Back from a week in Seoul, South Korea.
The past 3 weeks, I've been adjusting to 3 different time zones. Thailand: +7 GMT, Singapore: +8 GMT, Seoul: +9 GMT. Good thing they're merely slight changes.

I'm actually quite lazy to post a day to day recount, so I'll just mention some highlights.

We walked so unbelievably much. And in the cold too. I think the lowest temperature we got to was around -13°C, and anything above 0°C was quite comfortable already.

This was one of the more miserable times. It was so cold, that we stopped by a tea house to warm ourselves and drink tea (as for me, I drank water).

It started snowing on Thursday night, then continued sporadically throughout Friday.

On Tuesday, we spent the whole day skiing. By 'whole day', I mean from around 10am - 4.30pm, since it gets dark quite early. I wanted to try snowboarding this time, but strongly recommended me to Ski since I wouldn't have to waste time learning.. Ah well. Skiing went fine, I guess.

Lynn and I can proudly say that we tried all the slopes and made it through alive. There was one particularly tough slope, which Lynn and I went down once (and never tried subsequently). It was so steep that we couldn't even see the bottom from the top. So well, we took a leap of faith and plunged down, not knowing what to expect, and without much mental preparation.

To make a long story short, I fell once, Lynn fell twice.
I fell at the steepest part of the slope and to my shock, after a painful landing(and some skidding), I kept sliding down the slope, despite jamming my feet and elbows into the ground. To make matters worse, the snow went into my coat and up my back, so that didn't feel too good. Somehow, one pole and one ski had been flung off when I fell, and they were a few meters above me. Every time I tried to crawl up, I'd slide down down even more.
Frankly, I hadn't felt a 'damn' moment like that in a very long time. So I was mentally preparing for a grueling crawl up the slope (and trying to hope the skiers and snowboarders didn't crash into me).
After a few minutes (or seconds, I don't know, because to me it felt like a long time), I saw a lady skiing towards me and shouting a whole load of stuff at me in Korean. Then she skillfully maneuvered around to pick up my pole and ski, stuck her ski below me to stop me from sliding, helped me up, then made sure I was ready to move on before telling me 'Slow, slow!'.
I did try to go slow, but gravity is much stronger than me, so I ended up speeding down the slope again.

Ok that aside, there was a slope (Slope 7) that was really enjoyable. It's the longest of all, and has a variety of gradients. Dad, Lynn and I skied down that one so many times that I lost track of how many.

The morning after skiing, I could barely heave myself out of bed. I had muscle aches everywhere and bruises on my knees.

On that note, I woke up every subsequent morning with muscle aches, mainly on my shoulders, from carrying my bag around the whole day.

Almost every other day went something like this:

Wake up
Breakfast
Walk
(Stop by at some shops to thaw)
Walk
Lunch
Walk
(Stop by at some shops to thaw)
Walk
Walk
Shopping
Dinner
Watch TV (Discovery, Nat Geo, CNN or BBC)
Eat Ice Cream
Sleep

There was one day that we went to Bukchon Village. It was full of traditional houses and whatever other traditional stuff, but the main thing I remember was climbing up and down the steep roads. Seriously, every day when these people come home from work, it's like climbing up a Bukit Timah Hill just to get home. In the cold.
And the roads are a long straight line with hardly any crossroads or intersections, apart from leading into small roads, which meet either at the top of the bottom. Dad had some sudden motivation to walk along the lines (roads) to look around, which sent us climbing up and down and up and down etc.

Another day, we went to Seoul Tower.

Apart from the usual highlights of a nice scenery, a tall tower, and cable car, there were two things rather unusual.

1. There was an elevator that moved diagonally.

2. There were locks on the metal railings/fences. Lots of Koreans (and foreigners) bring locks and lock it there, symbolic of 'locking' their love for someone (and/or vice versa).

On Friday, we went to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea. It reminded me of visiting the Berlin Wall, just that this time, without the happy ending of reunification (yet). Despite mounting tensions between both countries at a high now, I didn't really feel scared about it. It seemed kinda surreal that there's an impending war too.

Our first stop was the Imjingak Park, which is a park, a memorial, and a place for defected North Koreans to go to, since it's directly next to the DMZ and open to civilian access.

In the park, we saw a locomotive train which was blown up by North Korea during the Korean War, as well as the Freedom Bridge where 13 000 POWs finally returned to the South after the war.

It being winter, the entire park was actually more like barren land, but the snow made it look a lot nicer.

Next, we went to the Third Tunnel. Dug by the North Koreans (but they claim otherwise), and most likely by prisoners too. Since the shuttle train down to the tunnel wasn't in operation, we had to climb all the way down through another tunnel. The slope was 11°, or so we were told, but to me it seemed more like a 30°. Yea I know I'm biased because I had to suffer climbing down and up those 350m. Good exercise though.
The tunnel wasn't very big, and I'm short. If it serves of any comfort to me, at least I didn't have to bend much while walking through the tunnel.

We walked till the third wall (3 walls were built from the border line onwards to block any invasion from the North). On a separate note, we also got a chance to try the underground water there.. it tasted quite good actually.

We had to skip Dora observatory, because it isn't safe due to er.. recent events. If not, we could have seen North Korea land for real.

We then visited Dorasan train station - propelled to fame in 2002 when then George W. Bush visited it. The trains were supposed to go through North Korea, China, Europe, and eventually reach Russia. But the trains never started operation. The roof of the station is symbolic of South Korea's hope for reunification.. It's shaped like two flags making up one, as though like two hands clasping each other.

Last stop, unification village. That's where we got to see DMZ and North Korean products. North Korean beer is supposedly quite good.

Ok I don't feel like posting anymore, so in summary..

What I've learned/accomplished:

1. Learning to read and write Korean (not very well, but passable. Korean's not that hard to learn after all..)
2. Improving my skiing (instead of using the 'V' method we were taught from young, moving on to parallel skiing and braking)
3. Walking a lot
4. More about Korean culture and history (the museum was very informative, and the DMZ was like..History coming to life)
5. Surviving sub zero temperatures in T-shirt+sweater+jacket, Jeans and track shoes.
6. Throwing a snowball at Lynn without getting one back

Saw a lot of stuff like this:

Beats me how fanatic people can get over fellow humans.

But it was nice to see this:

Credits for photos: Dad, me

2010-12-09T23:58:00.001+08:00

Mission Trip - 30th Nov to 7th Dec

2010-12-09T01:55:00.000+08:00

30 Nov 2010, Tuesday

Left to Right - Tian Chuan, Bi Fen, Lynn, Xiao Jun, me, Pastor

To continue where I left off previously..

I took a Panadol after dinner and spent the evening resting, while the rest went out to visit the school.

After they came back, we all went down for the nightly QT.

I felt better, so after QT I spent some time playing basketball with the guys. It's weird having kids a few years younger than me/the same age/older than me calling me 老师 to pass the ball .

Spent the night talking to the youths there - Ren Huan, Hai Hui, Jia Wei, Jia Cai, Xiao Jun, Lynn and I. All are 17 years old except for Xiao Jun (18), Jia Cai (19/20), me (16). But then again, I'm already considered one of the older ones there, so age age isn't the matter.

We showered, then slept at 2.
Showering at night is very..refreshing. It kinda works something like this:

Step 1: Fill up a bucket with water.
Step 2: Use the scoop (a plastic container) to splash water over yourself, and try not mind the freezing water.
Step 3: Watch out of bugs or spiders that drop from the ceiling.
Step 4: Rinse after putting shampoo, and then after soap.
Step 5: Fill up the bucket of water for the next person.
Step 6: Change, step out, and try to keep warm.

1 Dec 2010, Wednesday

We (Xiao Jun, Lynn, and I) woke up at 5.30am, then went down to wait for Ren Huan and Hai Hui to get up. Turns out, they overslept, so we spent the morning watching the sunrise and doing random things to keep ourselves warm.

Xiao Jun and Lynn:

Once they came out of their dorms, we walked to town to find a phone shop for XJ to buy her SIM card, and took a walk around town to see the morning street stalls. If remember correctly, we bought 6 baos back for breakfast.

Went to the common room for QT, then went down for breakfast. The kids left for school after that.

Think I should explain a bit more about the place, because most of you reading this would be rather clueless about everything I'm typing.

So basically, I went on a mission trip to Arunothai. It's a village on a mountain up in the north of Thailand, about 2.5 hours drive away from Chiang Mai, and near the border between Thailand and Myanmar. It's one of the more popular refugee areas because it's very near the border, so there are soldiers guarding the area.

Check point outside the village:

Most of the people/refugees there are from Yun Nan (China), Myanmar, or are one of the ethnic minorities (e.g. the 傣族), so most are able to speak Chinese.
We (pastor, Tian Chuan, Xj's mom - Bi Fen, Lynn and I) stayed at a home named 主恩之家 where pastor 李牧师 and his wife （aka 师母) run the place. There are about 50 children/youths there. We stayed in the block next to the kitchen, where the girls' dorm was on the first floor, li mu shi's family stayed on the second floor, and we occupied the third floor.

One room for females, another for males, another common room where we met to do work, plan, do QT, or debrief (检讨).
Many of the children there are orphans or with only one parent, and most attend Thai school in the morning, then Chinese school in the evening 5.30pm - 8pm.

One of three Chinese schools, 恩惠学校.

As for the weather there, afternoons are usually fine, but when the sun sets, it becomes very cold. Nights are worse than being in an air con room.

Ok back to my recount. After breakfast, we walked to the school (that the pastor also runs - consisting of a primary and secondary section) to teach the teachers English.

For the whole day, it was mainly Bi Fen, XJ, Lynn and I around because li mu shi brought pastor and Tian Chuan up to Chiang Rai to visit pastor Yang Shi Zhong.
Xiao Jun conducted the lesson, while the rest of us went around answering questions and helping to check on the blur-er ones. Had lunch in school.

We walked back to the home and spent the next hour or so washing clothes.

Step 1: Find a washing tub, wooden plank, brush, and stool.

Step 2: Take a pail and haul water out from the water tank (but later the kids put fish into the tank because the other tank was being used for baptism, so we had to take it from the well thingy.

Step 3: Fill the washing tub with water, dump your clothes in, pour in a reasonable amount of washing powder.

Step 4: The most effective way of washing would be to lean the wooden plank sideways in the tub, then brush your cloths on it.

Step 5. After scrubbing everything, wring them dry, rinse the tub.
Step 6: Fill the tub with water again, rinse, wring.
Step 7: Repeat Step 6 as many times as required.
Step 8: Wash feet with the water from tub after each rinse for maximum cooling effect.
Step 9: Hang clothes.

Spent the afternoon preparing for an impromptu English lesson at the Chinese school. We weren't told that we were supposed to take over lessons for the next three evenings until that day, so.. yea.

Before:

After:

Had dinner at around 4, before walking to the school.

Bi Fen kindly took all three sessions (45min x 3 plus 10min break in between) for that day since none of us were prepared to each take a class, so she was very drained by the end of it.

Went back, Lynn led QT with the kids at night, then went up for debrief.

The cup noodles that we bought were all spicy. The original intention was for everyone else to eat to Tom Yam flavored noodles while I ate a non-spicy flavor, but it happened that the one I picked was spicy too. By the time I finished the noodles, the area around my mouth was swollen, had a runny nose, and I had finished 2 cups of water. It was a rare time I didn't feel cold at night.

Anyway, at around 12 midnight, we retired to our rooms to sleep. But we then found a huge line of ants in our room near Lynn and my mattresses, so we spent the next hour pounding the floor and cleaning up bodies after the ant massacre. The ants somehow came in and made a home near our luggage when there wasn't even any food around.

That was worse than having having beetles drop on you from the ceiling at night. Every night when we were at the common room, it was like sitting in the middle of a minefield. Beetles would fly in, burn their wings on the light bulbs, then spiral down onto whatever was underneath them. So not only was there the threat of having beetles drop on your from above, but you had to plan your route carefully in order to avoid stepping on writhing beetles on the floor.

The resident grasshopper:

2 Dec 2010, Thursday

How the kids are woken up:

We woke up at 6am to meet Ren Huan and Hai Hui for a morning walk to the market.

We bought dou jiang 豆浆 (aka, dou hua shui 豆花水) back for breakfast.

QT, breakfast, then drove out to town to buy snacks for the campfire at night.

Went to the school to drop XJ and Lynn off for English lesson, while the rest of us went out to do 逐家布道 (aka, door to door evangelism). We met a guy who had lived in Arunothai for 30 years and was a descendant of the remaining army from Taiwan that fought against China, and was very anti-west. We also met another elderly lady who said that she would believe in Jesus in 3 years when she turns 70 years old, because she still has other things to do. And another one was quite friendly, but halfway through his friend came to visit, and his friend was very hostile to us.
There was a language barrier problem, because Yun Nan Chinese is quite hard to understand when I've only been exposed to Chinese in Singapore. For those who have very strong accents, even pastor couldn't pick up what they said, but for the rest, I could understand more or less.

We went back to the school to meet the teachers, XJ and Lynn for lunch at the noodle stall across the school. XJ, Lynn and I then coaxed Ren Huan to take a walk with us around town, where we treated her to ice cream. A Cornetto cone costs only 20 Baht (less than S$1), so it made eating ice cream very worth it.

Walked back to wash clothes, and Ren Huan joined us to wash hers too. The baptism pool was being cleaned, so the fish previously there were dumped into the usual water tank we used to wash clothes.

So Ren Huan got Jia Wei (a tall, lanky guy who plays basketball well) to help us scoop water out of the well thingy since he had longer arms, so he ended up watching us and talking to us while we were washing clothes. His mannerisms and the way he speaks resembles Liang Wen greatly.
Ok that aside, he helped to fill our tubs for all 4 rinses (which is about 3 scoops x 4 rinses x 4 people).

Went up to prepare for the evening's English lesson at the school.

Before:

Bi Fen and Tian Chuan each took a P4 class.
Lynn took the P5 class.
I took the P6 class.
Xiao Jun took the Sec 1 class.

After 45 minutes of lesson, we all came out feeling very drained, and all with sore throats from shouting across the classroom. The teacher in charge on my class came in at the start to greet the class and hand me a cane, then left me to handle them subsequently. And in case you're wondering, yea, all teachers carry around canes because the children are very wild.
And in case you're wondering what I did with the cane, no I didn't hit anyone, but the cane came in useful since it served as a pointer, and way to rap desks, and well.. a way to scare the kids.
The P6 class I took was very wild. There were 46 of them, ranging from ages 13-19. I feel very lucky that classes in school aren't like that, because I wouldn't never be able to concentrate. There's shouting, fighting, sleeping, running around, running in and out of the classroom. General chaos. But the good thing is, they're all very responsive. And there are some who are so willing to learn, that it makes me feel pleased to be able to help them.

Went back to rest and prepare for the campfire for the zhu en zhi jia kids.
We also managed to call Jian Ling to ask her about life in China. So Jian Ling, if you're reading this, sorry I haven't replied your email since dunno when, I'll try to soon, and it's nice hearing you speak again. Thankfully you still remember how to speak English and don't have a strong cheena accent yet..

Campfire went ok, quite enjoyable, though quite noisy at times.
The fire had to be moved because it was directly under the telephone line, and we feared the line would be heated too strongly, and would melt.

Near the end, we threw sweet potatoes around the fire to cook them.

After campfire, we went to talk to the youths at the table under the tree.. It's a very nice place.

Hai Hui, Jia Wei:

Went up for debrief, showered, then slept at 1am.

Right, I haven't mentioned it yet, but the time there is 1 hour before Singapore time.

The true spirit of table tennis:

3 Dec 2010, Friday

Woke up at 6am to meet Ren Huan and Hai Hui to go to the market. Not the wet market kind of market, but the more.. large-scale market that only opens on Fridays, and the numerous stalls sell all types of things. Clothes, fish, chickens, pigs, vegetables, fruits, noodles, etc.
Had breakfast there (ba ba si nooodle), and met the rest (pastor, Tian Chuan, Bi Fen) there. We walked back first, because Hai Hui needed to go to school and was almost late.
Tried the bubble tea there. The pearls are nice, but the 'tea' is rather diluted.

Had QT, dropped XJ off at the school for her English lesson, and the rest of us went for door to door evangelism.
Well before that, Pastor taught me to ride a motorcycle. I made it to the other side of the courtyard, but while turning, I lost balance and the motorcycle crashed on me. On the bright side, I crashed quite skillfully so I wasn't injured much except for a deep gash on a knuckle from the little rocks on the ground.

Pastor didn't come along for door to door evangelism, but li mu shi followed us this time. This time, we went to a nice place near a pond, with nice scenery, and lots of plantations.

We met a lady who built her own house out of mud (with her husband), and seemed to be living such a happy life that she insisted that she had no sin.

The conversation went something like this: (in Chinese)

Tian Chuan: -uses the wordless book to tell to Gospel, reaches the color black- 'So the color black represents sin in the world. Do you know what sin is?'

Lady: 'Er.. not really.'

Tian Chuan: 'Ok, sin is.. when you do something you shouldn't do. So do you think you have sinned before?'

Lady: -smiles, shrugs- 'No..'

Everyone: -shocked speechless-

Tian Chuan: 'Oh? So.. have you ever scolded anyone?' (no) 'Been jealous of anyone?' (no) 'Been angry?' (no) 'Stole anything?' (no) 'Experienced any hurt or unhappy times?' (no) 'Told a lie?' (no).
-pauses-

Everyone didn't know how to reply that, because it isn't nice to force people/worm out some sin that she must have committed, but it's also impossible to have someone so perfect. But I like Li Mu Shi's comeback to that:

Li Mu Shi: 'You might already be a good person, but there's always room to be an even better person.'

That aside, she was a good host.

We also met another lady who waved at us from across a plantation to ask us to visit her.. that was really nice of us too.

We went back to the school to meet XJ and the teachers for lunch, then walked back and got ice cream along the way. As we were around to reach, we realised the room key was with pastor and he was back in school teaching his bible class to the teachers, so Tian Chuan went back to get it while the rest of us went to the pond to walk around.

Lynn:

Washed clothes, prepared for the night's English lesson.

I took the P6 class again, and it went neither better nor worse. Stayed back awhile to talk to some of the kids there though..

Our throats hurt again after the lesson.

Overall, the experience of teaching the kids there was quite enjoyable. It was also a step out of my comfort zone, because I was left alone in the classroom to fend for myself and teach English in Chinese without anyone to help translate or settle down the kids, so that was a good learning experience.

Prepared for the Children's Gospel Rally while waiting for pastor to came back from leading a cell group. So we ended up eating dinner at 10pm.
Spent the night talking to the youths there again. It's weird when there are three different languages being spoken at once - Thai, English, Chinese. What makes it harder for communication is that Chinese is not only our second language, but theirs too, so that makes it harder to communicate.

Showered, then slept at around 12.30am.

4 Dec 2010, Saturday

Woke up at 6.30am, QT at 6.45am, had breakfast, then went to school.

We successfully organized (and carried out) a Children's Gospel Rally, using the school compound. Students from P3 to Sec 1 attended.

Each one of us were in charge of a station, and had one of the youths or teachers to help us.

Hai Hui helped me for my station, which was a very good thing too, because her Chinese (and English) is one of the best among all the youths there, so I didn't have much trouble conversing with her.
Having said that, I admire her seriousness in learning. Upon reaching Thailand, she only started learning Thai in P1. After P2, she was so good already that she skipped levels from P2 to Sec 1. Now, she's currently in Sec 3, and has been in one of the top 4 positions every year. Her English is also very good. Good, not meaning that she's able to speak fluent English or construct sentences well, but her vocab is almost as good as the teachers there.
She goes to three schools - 2 Thai schools and 1 Chinese school, and is very serious in her work. Now that's something I need to learn..

So, 5 batches of students went around 5 stations, so by the fifth station, both of us were drained from all the shouting. In between each group that came, I taught her how to play some games (like 3D tic tac toe, and the canceling the sticks one), while she tested out her English on me.

We gathered all the kids back for a round up in the chapel, where Ren Huan managed to entertain them very well while waiting for all of the groups to stream in.

One of the kids from zhu en zhi jia, and also in the P6 class I taught:

After lunch, Xj, Lynn, Ren Huan, Hai Hui, Jia Wei and I went on a trip to the Pha Dang National Park. Jia De drove the pickup truck to send us there. We had to pass through the soldiers' checkpoint, which the adults claimed to be very unsafe, but we managed to get through without any trouble.

It was a day before the King's birthday, so in lieu of his birthday, we didn't have to pay any entrance fees to get into the park.

The park was very peaceful. Scenery good too. But the main attraction was the waterfall. The waterfall was unique, in that the rocks were not slippery, so it was possible to climb up the waterfall. So we did.

It's a once in a lifetime experience to be able to climb up a waterfall with your bare feet, and with water surging past you with every step you take. It's of the things that are impossible to accomplish in Singapore in such a protected environment. After climbing up the waterfall, despite the jumpy feeling of having accidentally stepped on any fish or whatever else, I felt a sense of accomplishment. Most tourists would merely stop by the plunge pool and wade around in it, but with daring, experienced local youths as our guides, we were really fortunate to be there with them.

Hai Hui:

Lynn and I:

Hai Hui and I:

From the bottom - Ren Huan, Lynn, Xiao Jun, Hai Hui, me, Jia Wei

We roamed around the park doing random things and visiting the various places, before sitting near the foot of the waterfall to have nice afternoon picnic.

Jia Wei:

Ren Huan:

From left to right - Hai Hui, Ren Huan, Jia Wei, Lynn, Xiao Jun:

Not too long after, Hai Hui suddenly got up and left, then came back and pulled me up to take a walk around the other places of the park with her. She said that the park used to be nicer, because the flower garden and fish pond were converted into parking lots for tourists. After talking to her, I learned more about her family background, school life, and life there in general. Anyway, we walked around till we saw the rest leave the waterfall, and then she led the way to a shortcut to the entrance.

Jia De then drove us to visit some Hot Springs. Entry was free too, in lieu of the King's birthday.
We got a chance to try one of the hot springs (the least hot one, which was still very hot). Very relaxing, and very slippery.

When we walked to the hotter Hot Springs, we could see the steam and smell the sulfur. I thought of it being a gentler version of Yellowstone Park, minus the buffaloes.

Reached back at around 5pm for dinner, then went to school (aka, the church too) for the pei ling hui.

Pastor was the speaker, and the rest of us presented a song. We could hear fireworks around in celebration of the King's brithday.

Jian Tao-ed, showered, then slept.

5 Dec 2010, Sunday

Sunday was Father's Day, since it was the King's birthday.

On a random note, during the trip, I learned to drink tea. More specifically, jiao gu lan　tea/绞股蓝/Gynostemma pentaphyllum (I actually went to search it). I think all of us can safety testify that this tea is highly effective in clearing bowels. It's a common tea there, but expensive to get in Singapore.

We were in charge of the Children's Sunday School in the morning, so they were treated to a hi-tech version of '冬瓜奶奶的法宝'.

Hung around till the start of the adult service at 10.15am, in which pastor was the speaker, and we presented a song again.

Went back to the home for baptism. The baptism pool was finally cleaned and filled.
24 people were baptized that day, and many were youths from the home. Jia Wei and Hai Hui were among those baptized.

Hai Hui didn't even tell us that she was going to be baptized, so by the time she went, XJ's camera batt was flat, and mine was on the verge of death.

Jia Wei:

Hai Hui:

We ate lunch at a stall across the road. They had to specially order a plate of non-spicy Papaya salad since I can't tahan spicy things.

Washed clothes, while Tian Chuan went to play basketball with the kids.

After that, I went for a walk around the village with Hai Hui.

She brought me to see her Thai school. The school is quite near the pond and basketball courts. On the way in, there were kids playing soccer at the field, and kids playing table tennis at the few wooden tables in a clearing in the middle of some trees. Each classroom is a block by itself. Almost like little huts in the middle of a forest..
Students have about 13-15 subjects. Some more interesting subjects are gardening, sewing, and computer studies.

We went back and up to the third floor where Bi Fen was giving out stuff to the kids, so I ended talking to her at the corridor while looking down at Lynn, XJ, Ren Huan, and Jia Wei who were also talking to each other near the basketball hoop and looking up at us.

Went to school/church for the pei ling hui after dinner, back for jian tao, showered, then went out with Hai Hui, XJ and Lynn to the nearby Thai primary school to look at the carnival (for graduation, and also to celebrate the King's birthday).

When we got back, Hai Hui brought us to her room (she shared room with 3 other girls, but two were out and one was trying to sleep) and let us look around. Each kid doesn't have much belongings. At the most, each kid has a cupboard with a few drawers for them to put their personal belongings, a rack for their other things, hangers for their clothes all around the room, and a few papers/posters/photos on the walls next to their mattress. XJ found it quite stuffy, and she also had other things on her mind so she went out first to look for Ren Huan, and Lynn wasn't too interested in barging into the room while the other person was trying to sleep, so it was mainly me hanging around there. I got to see photos of her family and friends, and well.. I suddenly felt sadder than usual for the kids there.

But anyway, eventually Ren Huan came out and the five of us sat under the tree to talk, so it was a pleasant end to the day.

6 Dec 2010, Monday

It was supposed to be a holiday in lieu of the King's birthday, but some still had to go to school.
We woke up at 6am to meet Ren Huan and Hai Hui before they left for school, but later they found out that there was a group of people from Malaysia visiting so they had to stay.
QT, breakfast, packed luggage.

Pastor the snowman:

The kids wrote cards for us, and even drew pictures for XJ, Lynn and I, with a bible verse in 3 different languages. We wrote letters to the youths.

Xiao Jun, Shi Mu:

Hai Hui, me:

Pastor, Xiao Jun, Shi Mu, Lynn, Bi Fen, me, Tian Chuan, Li Mu Shi:

So we sadly said our goodbyes, and set off on our 2.5 hour journey to Chiang Mai.
Li mu shi's three kids followed us, as well as a girl who was going to Chiang Mai with her friend to take a university entrance exam there.

I don't know if the kids/youths there were as sad as we were when we left, but well..it was a sad day.

We went to Tesco for lunch before heading off to the airport. We reached Bangkok at around 4pm. Took a taxi to our hotel (Baiyoke Hotel), and went out for dinner and shopping the rest of the night.

7 December 2010, Tuesday

QT at 7.30am. Took a train to have breakfast at a coffee shop thingy, then spent the rest of the day walking around.

Reached the airport at 6 to relax, and got onto the plane in the evening.
Reached Singapore around 11pm Singapore Time, but we waited for our luggage till nearly midnight. Came home to unpack our stuff, then slept at 2am.

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

In short, this is what I've learned/managed to accomplish throughout this trip:

1. Pick up some Thai (and count from 0 to 10)
2. Survive nightly cold showers
3. Wash clothes using a more primitive way
4. Teach English in Chinese
5. Speak Chinese more fluently (though I might have picked up a slight Yun Nan accent)
6. Make friends while only using Chinese
7. Climb a waterfall
8. Drink tea
9. Eat slightly spicy things
10. Experience door to door evangelism, which is very different from that in Singapore
11. Be thankful for what I have
12. Play basketball at night, with little light
13. Look for the North Star at night
14. Be nice to kids
15. Be a better person

I've spent close to a day typing this and processing photos. Then again, I woke up past 1pm today so it can't be considered a day. Blogger uploads photos really slowly.
As for fb, I'll upload whatever I can, but not put it public yet, so that I have time to add comments and tags first.

I'll sleep soon.

2010-11-30T21:06:00.000+08:00

We've reached Arunothai already, after an entire day of travelling, and surviving on 3 hours of sleep.
Last night Lynn and I had a hard time trying to pack everything to within the max 20kg.
Reached the airport at 6.15am, jammed up the queue really badly, and then got up to the plane at about 7.40am.
Changed flight to Chiangmai just in time, while barely having enough time to go to the toilet.

Li Tian Shou mu shi helped us load our luggage into his pickup truck. Xiao Jun, Lynn and I crammed ourselves into the back of the truck.
We stopped by a roadside shop for lunch, and then went to a market to get our last minute stuff.
Then began the long ride up to the mountains. 3 of us were subjected to the heat, dust, exhaust, sun, and later the cold, before finally reaching the home.
Lugged our stuff up 3 stories, took a walk to the town centre to buy other stuff, and came back for dinner.

As of now, I'm really nauseous and have a bad headache, despite having slept a bit just now while the rest went out to see the school, and having taken a panadol. But it's better than just now, because it was so bad I couldn't finish my food .

Later we'll be joining the girls from the home for their nightly qt.
Everything here is rather primitive, so I was quite surprised that there was wifi here.
Anyway, I can't wait to take a shower later, though in very cold water. Now that it's night, it's like a free air con, except that it keeps getting colder by the hour.

We're all going to take a class each to teach English and music, or so as planned at the moment, so I think I had better get well soon.

2010-11-29T22:51:00.000+08:00

Off to Arunothai (大谷地) for a week for mission trip.

Pray for the safety of all members of the group, and of course, for good health.

Need to go pack now..

2010-11-27T23:53:00.000+08:00

Thanksgiving travelers learn to cope with 'scope and grope'
By Jonathan Mann, CNN
November 26, 2010 -- Updated 1200 GMT (2000 HKT)

(CNN) -- -- America is feeling invaded by a uniformed force moving into some very private places, with a mission that's being decried as "scope and grope."

"They want to take pictures of us and put their hands in our pants," said Republican Congressman Ron Paul. "If we tolerate this, there's something wrong with us.

"They" are the officials of the Transportation Security Administration, which tightened its airport screening procedures after a suspected terrorist tried to blow-up an airliner with a bomb in his underwear. So, in addition to the airport security routine that passengers are accustomed to, many now have to submit to revealing high-tech imaging that sees through their clothes. If they refuse, they're subjected to a fully-clothed but startlingly invasive physical search. (Hence the catchy rhyme about "scope and grope").

The TSA has withheld precise details of the hands-on search techniques but its screeners, deployed by gender to match the passengers they scrutinize, do pass their hands around or over the breasts, buttocks and genitals.

Needless to say, it's the kind of interaction that gets your attention. Similar techniques may be familiar to experienced international travelers, but in the U.S. they were introduced to the flying public only a month ago without extensive explanation or publicity.

There may be some easy irony in the observation that a country which launched a global war on terror with countless casualties now objects to a few awkward moments at the airport.

But it's no laughing matter to travelers who complain that TSA employees have interpreted their new instructions in uneven and sometimes unfortunate ways.

Passenger Erin Chase likened her ordeal to sexual assault by a TSA screener who, "went all the way up my legs, up my inner thighs, all along my inner thighs until she reached my genital area, touched both sides."

Cancer survivor Tom Sawyer says that a TSA officer burst a special bag that captures his urine, with no time to change clothes before his flight.

"By the time he was done, I had a round spot of urine maybe the size of a small pancake, something like that and I had urine dribbling down into my underwear, down my leg on my shorts."

The horror stories are legion, leavened only by tales of defiance that are quickly spreading as well.

One passenger's warning to a screener -- "Don't touch my junk" -- has become a national protest slogan, immortalized in music, T-shirts and countless comedy routines.

Another passenger travelling through Los Angeles wore a coat with nothing but a bikini underneath, because she said she didn't want a hand-search and thought she could save time.

Even President Barack Obama was drawn into the drama, fittingly perhaps, while he was on a trip of his own, to Portugal.

"One of the most frustrating aspects of this fight against terrorism is that it has created a whole security apparatus around us that causes huge inconvenience for all of us," he said.

"But at this point, TSA, in consultation with our counter-terrorism experts, have indicated to me that the procedures that they've been putting in place are the only ones right now that they consider to be effective."
One passenger's warning to a screener -- "Don't touch my junk" -- has become a national protest slogan, immortalized in music, T-shirts and countless comedy routines

Twenty-four million passengers are expected to pass through American airports this week for the Thanksgiving holiday, one of the business travel seasons of the year.

Some had threatened a disruptive protest, but the threat never materialized.

In fact, a USA Today/Gallup poll found most travelers are prepared to give-up some of their personal privacy to prevent terrorism. The trouble hinges on the technique.

A clear 57 percent majority say they are not bothered by a full-body scan. But the same percentage say they are bothered or angry about the prospect of a hands-on search.

To quote that now timeless phrase: don't touch my junk.

Republican lawmakers are threatening legislation to outlaw the searches. The rights activists at the American Civil Liberties Union are collecting travelers complaints and funneling them to the government.

But airports across the country are still crowded. The travelers passing through them seem as eager as ever, and as annoyed as ever, for any one of a number of reasons related to the ordeals of air travel in the 21st century.

No one seems to enjoy the obligatory airport intimacy but mindful of the threat of terrorism, most people seem willing to endure it.

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

Wal-Mart Gets Sued in Bulk

Apathy

2010-11-26T12:46:00.000+08:00

Been busy the whole week, but in the midst of all the work I've to do, I have some sense of fulfillment, that I'm being busy for good reason and my tiredness everyday is justifiable.

Stephen Tong Gospel Rally

1. I helped out at the Childrens' Rally. Everything went rather smoothly, except that a girl got her hand stuck in the cup holder at the side of the seat and started crying, but none of us knew what to do, until YHDS's friend poured water around the arm and managed to wriggle it out.

2. I met a girl who didn't know what country she was from. Because somehow, some other helper shoved her a card and blabbered a whole string of chinese and left immediately after, leaving the girl in a shock. So she came up to me for a translation of what that other person had said, so I talked to her in English and helped her write her stuff. Her name looked very unique, so I asked her if she was a Singaporean. She replied 'No', so I questioned what country she was from. After a slight pause, she replied 'Er..I don't know. Overseas?'. Thinking I'd scared the poor girl until she couldn't remember where she was from, I made sure she knew how to get back to her parents before let her run off.

3. The night rally was enriching and substantial. I particularly enjoy the unique examples that he gives instead of the cliche ones, and the way he structures his arguments. But what I have yet to digest, is the reason he doesn't fully agree with the ontological and teleological arguments for the existence of God.

Mission trip preparation

Yesterday, Xiao Jun and I went to shop for materials after recce-ing Changi, buying whatever we thought we wouldn't be able to find in Chiangmai. Went to church earlier to rest and figure out how to play Pictureka (I think we will agree that it requires lots of creativity).
Lots of stuff (clothes, toys, stationery, winter clothes) to bring for the kids/refugees there, on top of our own stuff and the materials we need to bring there. Thai Airway allows 20kg per person, but the problem isn't that. Rather, it's that we can't possibly be carrying so many pieces of luggage. I haven't started packing, and I already foresee the possibility of everything not fitting in, but there's always a solution for everything and as XJ's mom always says, God provides.

Mindsville

That's where I've been every other free day/time I've had. Helping out there as a volunteer, mainly at the Childrens' Wing. No idea what finally compelled me to serve the community after 4 years of inaction. My CIP hours were at the bare minimum (following the 6h as a class) and didn't contribute much to my CCA points. Now that I'm out of school and whatever CIP I do cannot be counted, it's interesting that I have a greater motivation now than compared to when I was forced by the school. (On a separate note, I'd have clocked close to 40 hours already.)

Changi, mosquito feast

Went with Andrew, Jasmine and Xiao Jun to recce the area to plan games (mainly the night game) for TF camp. Walked from the chalet all the way to Changi village, then back by the boardwalk. Many diversions in between. It was a nice exercise, albeit with the heat and the constant threat of insects.

Halfway while walking (and while I was itching all over), I felt a stinging sensation on my arm, and I rubbed that part of my arm against the side of my shirt. Moments later, I looked at that part of my arm to scratch it, and saw a reddish-brown streak across that part. I checked the part of my shirt that I'd rubbed my arm on, and saw a huge line of blood across it, as though my arm had a wound and I rubbed it across my shirt. Then it finally came to me that I had squashed an insect that just sucked out/was still sucking out my blood, on my shirt. What shocked me was the amount of blood on my shirt, not the usual little spot..because it looked so unlikely that an insect would be able to hold so much blood. I was so disgusted that I called Lynn to bring a shirt to church later at night for me to change into.

As of now, I'm left with about 16 insect bites.

PSLE

I feel so stupid now. Almost everyone who I asked (who took their PSLE this year) did better than me. Then again, I didn't do too good. Makes me kinda wish I'd studied for it.
The top scorer is a boy. Finally, after years of girls dominating the top spot.

Phrenetic

2010-11-23T22:53:00.000+08:00

RSA Animate - The Secret Powers of Time

2010-11-19T01:01:00.001+08:00

Monday, 15th November

Dad dropped Lynn off at school, then sent me to Nai Nai and Ye Ye's house (aka Nai and Ye's house). Jerome was up when I reached there - pajamas, spiked hair on one side, half-open eyes, sitting on the floor, playing by himself. Makes me wonder when the last time was, when I woke up so early on my own accord for the sake of waking up, not including having to wake up to go somewhere or do something.

Nai and Ye were out, probably sending Jensen to school, so when I knocked on the door, Jerome ran to Dang (the maid) and told her I was outside. But she didn't believe it, and refused to go unlock the gate, so Jerome bravely climbed up a wobbly stack of shoe boxes and racks to unhook the key and pass it to me.

We played with Nerf guns, Reversi/Othello, a sentence-building game, Chess, 4-in-a-row, Commando Assault (on miniclip), then Need For Speed. After Nai and Ye came back, we ate some stuff, and went out to pick Lynn up from school for lunch at Jack's Place.

Nai had some one-for-one promotion for the Rib-eye Steak, so Lynn, Ye, Nai and I ended up all eating the same thing, while Jerome had Chicken in a Basket (which he wanted to pour out onto a plate, but we told if he did that, he wouldn't be eating 'chicken in a basket'). The waitress who served us had a good sense of humor. She maintained that there was no more ice cream, and Jerome kept shouting that she was joking. Eventually, he still got it. But only after lots of persuasive work.

I didn't notice my garlic bread was like that, till Nai pointed it out:

Bought bubble tea for myself and for Jensen before going back to Nai and Ye's house. Jensen had already gotten home from school by the time we went back, just in time for his bubble tea.

Went bowling at SAFRA Mount Faber. Jerome made a laughing stock out of himself at the bowling alley because of his unique way of rolling the ball. Out of his many attempts, he managed to knock down two pins, albeit on two separate occasions. I'm kinda intimidated by Jensen's bowling now.. Good thing he (probably) isn't going to continue bowling in secondary school, else I'll be thrashed badly soon.

At night, shu shu, shen shen, mom, dad and Rose came.

Shen shen kindly baked a cheesecake for me:

The chocolate layer on top is really nice. Normally, I don't like to eat cheesecake, but this is an exception.

Tuesday, 16th November

Sunday school class outing to Mu Li Lao Shi (aka MLLS)'s house.
Her elder daughter helped her make lunch, consisting of Soba, Sushi, and some pancake thingy (I don't know what it's called). Of her 5 years with our class, this was the first time we had gone to her house, and the first time we tasted her cooking. It was not bad, actually. I'm not much a fan of Japanese food, nor do I enjoy having food doused with Wasabe, Soy Sauce, or Vinegar, but the food was quite suited for my taste buds (apart from having to use one end of my chopsticks to poke out the crab sticks from the inside the sushi into Rebecca's bowl).

I don't know how, but then we ended up watching TV shows like Tom and Jerry, the history of airports, admiring the homes of rich teens, and then some MTV channel.

We left the house earlier than planned, because Rebecca wanted to go to Raffles for some job interviews, so we decided to walk around and waste time while waiting for her, so that she could make it for the movie after her interviews.

The guys went Cathay to play LAN, while the girls wandered around.
In Kinokuniya at Ngee Ann City, I was walking around looking for some books, when I heard a shout 'Jean Chan!' and saw a figure coming towards me. Turns out, Charlotte, Rachel, and Carmen were also at Kinokuniya and I happened to bump into them.

We got back to Cathay before the rain became too heavy. Met Joanna (classmate from German class) at the lift lobby. She'd just finished watching Due Date, and told me it sucked. I trusted her judgment, and later confirmed it for myself after I watched Due Date.
The plot was illogical, unrealistic, cheesy, and disgusting at some parts. The filming and acting was ok. There was no proper closure at the end - seemed to be more like a hasty jump to a 'happily-ever-after' scene, because everyone would be tired of the movie if not.

Wednesday, 17th November

Spent most of the day in church discussing and preparing mission trip stuff. One of my greater accomplishments during the day - learning to use a laminating machine, and using it successfully.

My family went out for dinner (and some shopping) after that. We ate dinner at about 9.30pm at Lao Pa Sat. Smelled like Satay after that. The prices of the desserts (or at least, the Chendol and Ice Kachang) have increased drastically from a few years ago. $2.70 for an Ice Kachang is a rip-off. You probably pay more for the bowl/washing the bowl and utensils than for the heap of ice and flavoring.

Thursday, 18th November

Had lesson in the morning. Rose offered to pick me up and give me a lift to Mindsville. Stayed there for the rest of the day till 7pm, when I got a ride home from another worker (Reynard), whose dad came to fetch him.
Quite tired now, and I'll sleep soon. Going back to Mindsville again tomorrow, and then I'll have to rush to SBC in the evening.

2010-11-15T00:49:00.001+08:00

I'm still shocked at the new integrated Messenger and Facebook thing. I don't even know how to adjust my own window (the proper chinese term I can think of to describe my situation is 笨手笨脚). And, I'm not exactly keen on linking those two accounts. Then again, I hardly appear online on MSN or do anything much on Facebook. I'm still thinking if I should consider switching to 'micro-blogging'. Just 'blogging' status updates would be convenient, but I don't get the luxury to type and post however many long, random things I want at a go. I also don't like letting all my 'Friends' on Facebook know all about what's happening in my life by posting status updates, because I'd rather blog and if people bother to read my blog, good for them, but if not, I don't want to 'force' my posts on them.
Does anyone get my rambling? Nevermind. Point is, should I move on to micro-blogging or stick to blogger?

I've been rather busy these few days, and have a lot more work yet to come, so I couldn't find time to post after Os. I'll go in chronological order then...

Remember I posted about birthdays?
We celebrated Jerome's 6th birthday on 23rd October (actual date: 25th October) at the Potter's Cafe at SAFRA Mount Faber.

There was a magic show and balloon sculpting. What impressed me the most was the magician's ventriloquism, but other than that I wasn't too interested.

Right. So, the cake:

Looks really harmless right?

Singing Happy Birthday:

Cutting the cake:

Cutting the rest of the cake:

The people working at the Potter's Cafe provided a huge knife and chopping board to aid the many attempts at cutting the cake. Good thing the party was at the Cafe, because I think if he had the cake at Nai and Ye's house, we might have only been able to eat the cake once it most of it had been melted.

While eating the cake:

Originally, I took this simply to show Jerome that his mouth was dirty, in hope that he would feel guilty and make an attempt to wipe his mouth. But later, I looked closely and realized the camera angle made the two boys at the background of the picture look quite, strange.

Then on 7th November, we celebrated Lois's 6th birthday at the clubhouse function room. It was great, since we merely had to walk about 200m and it was so close to home. Once again, Lynn and I were the oldest 'kids' there. On the bright side, we spent most of the time swapping phones with shu shu (Jensen and Jerome's dad) playing Angry Birds. We three have the Samsung Galaxy, but his model is different from Lynn's and mine. He didn't believe I could finish one of the golden egg levels nor that I could get three starts for so many, so I played on his phone to improve his non-three-stars scores and prove myself worthy of the three stars.

There was also a magic show. Also nothing very interesting, until near the end, where the guy ate the balloon. He pumped air into the usual elongated balloon used in balloon sculpturing, and stuffed the whole thing down his throat. A while later, he managed to spit out the deflated balloon from his mouth. We suspected that since he blew that balloon by himself, it contained mostly carbon dioxide, so he tied the balloon such that some air could escape while using his teeth to clamp the opening of the balloon, and then let out the air down his throat as he pushed the balloon further in.

Another surprise was the cake:

Wonder how long was spent designing and putting the icing on the cake.

When it was time to cut the cake, I pulled out the doll (it's made of plastic) with great enthusiasm, but:

It's the top half of a (Barbie?) doll's body. I was thinking that the cake shop might have been nice enough to put an entire doll in the cake so that the kid could keep it as a memento, but who knows. Wonder what they did with the legs though.. maybe they used it in another cake? Not very possible that they'd only leave the legs sticking out of the cake right? It'd be a 'barbie-drowning-in-a-cake' nightmare for the kids.

Now that Os are over, I've got to put my mind to other things. There's less than two weeks to finish preparations for the upcoming mission trip, and I still have the camp stuff to prepare.

These few days have been tiring. I spent about two hours trying to fall asleep last night because I kept making mental notes, telling myself to remember these mental notes, wondering if I should make write them down, then feeling too lazy to write, and wondering if I'd forget them, etc etc.

On Friday after chem paper, I went to watch Megamind with the non-bioers to mark the end of Os. Despite my birthday only being 3 days away, they refused to let me watch The Social Network (NC 16) because my 16th birthday hadn't passed yet.
Megamind wasn't too bad. Typical plot, but quite funny actually - good for stress relief.

I had no idea TripleOne Somerset or Orchard Central existed till just now. I also never stepped into those two buildings (and one named '313') till today.
My family went out for dinner at Applebee (in TripleOne Somerset), then took a walk around that area. We took the escalators at the side of the building to the roof garden at the top of Orchard Central (I insist that I've never stepped into that building that building before). The view and breeze was nice, though the lingering haze and the after effects of the rain weren't too helpful. My lousy phone camera refused to cooperate, so it turned out terrible:

At Prima Deli, while choosing a cake to bring to Nai and Ye's house tomorrow:

Lynn: 'Get the Belgium Chocolate one lah..'
Cashier: 'That one is slightly bitter.'

(after a while)

Mom: -points at the Cookies and Cream cake- 'Is this very sweet?'
Cashier: 'Yes, but not very sweet.'
Me: -stares at Lynn-
Cashier: -sees my weird look- 'I mean, all cakes are sweet right?'

Ok I didn't know to make out of that conversation, because I didn't get the logic behind it. But the important thing is, we finally got the cake.

While the cashier is putting the cake in the box:

Cashier: 'So how many candles would you like?'
Me: 'Er.. sixteen?'
Cashier: -smiles, murmuring to herself- 'One large six small..'
Lynn: -nudges me- 'Eh, she probably doesn't believe you're sixteen..'

Ok that's about all for now. Gonna sleep.

Happy Birthday to me..

2010-11-11T21:38:00.000+08:00

I think if I take a muscle relaxant/panadol/whatever other medication every time I get a headache, I could almost seem like a drug addict by now..

Problem is, I trust natural healing more than I trust medicine..
But that might not be too bad, because at least I have faith in my immune system, and it helps with the self psycho-ing.

2010-11-10T18:28:00.000+08:00

Turkish Airway Commercial

2010-11-08T22:13:00.001+08:00

FYI:

1. 署长, 局长, 校长, 董事长, 会长, 社长, 院长, 馆长, 部长, 所长, 助长, 编辑, 主席

2. 尊敬/各位评判, 校长, 老师, 同学, 先生, 女士, 来宾

3. 办事效率高, 周到的服务, 从善如流, 热心教育, 一向致力于推广__, 不遗余力__, 一向很关心__

4. 担忧, 欣慰, 愤怒, 气愤, 开心, 惊讶, 赞同, 不赞同

5. 网站, 网络, 互联网, 下载, 上载, 上瘾, 简讯, 电邮, 博客, 网上日记, 推特, 脸书, 侵犯隐私权, 名誉受损, 心灵受损

6. __的居民, 《联合早报》的忠实读者

7. 自扫门前雪, 取之不尽用之不竭, 自私心态, 优雅社会, 生活水平下降, 疾病丛生, 传染细菌, 破坏市容, 旅客人数锐减, 影响经济发展

7. 三方面的配合, 人心齐泰山移, 更严厉的惩罚, 罚款, 坐牢, 杀一儆百

8. 祝, 生活愉快, 学业进步, 身体健康, 年年有余

9. 我的演讲就到此为止, 请尽快派人前来调查并加以改善, 加紧巡逻并郑重考虑我的建议, 希望早日收到你的来信, 谢谢

My own (non-exhaustive) compilation of 'Phrases I Should Know'. Just in case I panic and need a quick reference.
Hope it helps you too.

2010-11-08T21:50:00.001+08:00

No, Pentagon says, Obama will not be guarded by 34 ships

The claim that many of the 288-ship US naval fleet would be deployed to waters off Mumbai was "absolutely absurd," Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters on Thursday.

US officials usually decline to discuss details about security precautions for the president, but the media accounts circulating out of India were so off the mark that press officers at the Pentagon and the White House said they felt compelled to speak up.

"I will take the liberty this time of dismissing as absolutely absurd this notion that somehow we were deploying 10 percent of the Navy -- some 34 ships and an aircraft carrier -- in support of the president's trip to Asia," Morrell said.

"That's just comical. Nothing close to that is being done," he said.

Although the United States is known for taking elaborate precautions when it comes to presidential trips, the accounts out of India described a massive naval fleet steaming towards Mumbai and an astounding price-tag of 200 million dollars a day for security.

The White House bluntly dismissed the cost estimate, and said that the price tag for security was similar to trips for previous presidents, without offering a specific figure.

"I think there's been a lot of creative writing that's been done on this trip over the last few days. I've seen other reports with some astronomical figures in terms of what it costs to take these trips," Morrell said.

India's NDTV website ran a report claiming a 34-ship security detail, citing the Press Trust of India, which was in turn picked up by the popular US website, Drudge Report.

The report, without citing sources, said that Obama "will also be protected by a fleet of 34 warships, including an aircraft carrier, which will patrol the sea lanes off the Mumbai coast during his two-day stay there beginning Saturday."

The report said the devastating attacks on Mumbai two years ago, which were launched by militants who arrived by boat, prompted the naval presence.

Referring to the Mumbai assault, Morrell said it "should not come as a surprise to anyone" that Obama would require security during his visit to the city.

While a huge show of US naval power was not in the offing, municipal authorities in Mumbai said they had removed coconuts from trees around the city's Gandhi museum -- where Obama is due to visit -- just in case.

"The coconuts were falling off, so we requested the local authorities here to remove the remainder," the executive secretary of Mani Bhavan, Meghshyam Ajgaonkar, told AFP.

2010-11-07T20:26:00.002+08:00

'The government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.'

~Ronald Reagan

Random Thoughts:

These two weeks, I've gone to two little kids' birthday parties, and it makes me wonder what I'm doing there. Last week, it was Jerome's party at SAFRA Mount Faber, and this week it was Lois's at the function room of the condominium I live in (because they live in the same condominium. It's nice been so near home.). I've watched two magic shows, seen lots of balloon sculpting, endured hoards of screaming kids, and of course, eaten a lot.

But what intrigued me the most were the cakes. I'll post pictures of them some time soon when I can be bothered to upload the pictures from my phone.

I've also watched three movies the past two weeks.
1. The Early Years of Billy Graham
2. Letters to God
3. Facing the Giants (my second time watching)

On Friday, I spent my entire afternoon at church doing some stuff, and for a rare time, I went shopping after that. Got a new pillow, and hopefully in the long term, I'll have a lower frequency
of headaches.

On Saturday, I was at MacRitchie reservoir the whole afternoon.
There, I saw probably the most gruesome thing I've ever encountered. There a few monkeys along the footpath where we were walking, and as I walked past, I saw one sitting down picking something from its butt and eating it.
Upon closer inspection, I saw a huge hole, probably around 4cm long and 2cm wide, in between the monkey's butt and leg. The hole was pink-red (the color of raw flesh), and there was a lining of white around the hole, probably some left-over skin without fur. The monkey kept turning and using its hands (hands - for the lack of a better word) to scratch the pink flesh, and every few seconds, it seemed to put something in its mouth (as I inferred, probably its own flesh). I'm very sure I know what I saw and I wasn't hallucinating..the others around me can also testify to such a sight.
But the point is, I felt sorry for the monkey. Then, I felt thankful to be a human. And then, I felt thankful for civilization.
I didn't manage to take a picture of that, because I was too stunned, and there were quite a number of other monkeys around so I didn't want to risk them thinking my phone was food and that my bag had any forms of food inside.

We went to Thomson Plaza for dinner, and thankfully only then did it begin to rain.
At around 8pm, we left, and some of us followed YHDS to Bishan MRT to do some 宣传ing.

So while I'm at it:

Stephen Tong Gospel Rally - The Power of Faith
唐崇荣布道会 - 信仰的能力

17 Nov to 21 Nov 2010, Singapore Indoor Stadium

17-19 Nov Wednesday-Friday, 7.30pm
20 Nov Saturday, 6-8pm
21 Nov Sunday, 7.30pm
20 Nov Saturday, 2-4pm (Children Gospel Rally)
21 Nov Sunday, 6pm, Question and Answer

There will be English translations too.
And if you're free, you can help out as a 培谈员 during the Children's Gospel Rally.

I'm sick of studying already. What bad timing..

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

Random Quotes:

After Lynn finished violin practice:

Lynn: -walks out of her room slowly, sits on couch, and doesn't move for a while-
Mom: 'Eh! You got Thalassemia minor ah?
Lynn: -startled- 'Huh, no. I'm thinking!'

During dinner:

Mom: 'Research has shown that high dosages of Vitamin B can help slow down Dementia and Alzheimer's. So if I feed you high dosages of Vitamin B..'

Dad: -stares- '..I'll be dead.'

While eating dinner at Thomson Plaza:

YHDS: '哦, 国锋明天要请你们去吃那个...麦当劳的那个..叫 furry, 是吗？'

Me: 'Furry? 那是什么?'
-thinks awhile-
'Oh! 是不是那蓝色和白色的塑胶杯，里面有冰淇凌的那个东西?'

YHDS: '是吗?'

Me: 'Er, yea. 我猜是吧..它叫 Macflurry.'

YHDS: '是阿? 原来如此..'

While playing a game, where the player describes the words in English and group members guess words in Chinese:

Player: 'No no no.. Ok stop. What's the singular of feet?'

Rui Quan: 'Toe?'

2010-11-04T13:43:00.002+08:00

Finding Nemo - Dory Speaks Whale

Marlin: 'Just as well, he might be hungry.'
Dory: 'Don't worry, whales don't eat clownfish, they eat krill.'
Krill: 'SWIM AWAY!'
Dory: 'Oh look! Krill!'

Ana Laura - Completely

The secret of life is letting go
The secret of love is letting it show
In all that I do
In all that I say
Right here in this moment

The power of prayer is in a humble cry
The power of change is in giving my life
And laying it down
Down at your feet
Right here in this moment

Take my heart
Take my soul
I surrender everything to your control
And let all that is within me lift up to you and say
I am yours and yours alone
Completely

This journey of life is a search for truth
This journey of faith is following you
Every step of the way
Through the joy and the pain
Right here in this moment

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Now's kind of like a 'slack time' during Os, because of the long break.

One more week..

Only human

2010-11-03T17:45:00.002+08:00

2010-11-01T22:17:00.001+08:00

After today, I feel like after finishing lit and physics, I can do anything. Well not 'anything' as in the superhuman kind of anything, but the 'I-survived-two-lit-papers-and-physics-paper-two-in-one-day-so-I-should-be-able-to-do-any-other-paper' kind of anything. Am I making sense? Probably not.

During physics, I was so tired and brain dead that I had to keep forcing myself not to slow down and not to fall asleep. I barely managed to finish the paper on time - something quite rare, which made me wonder what I'd been doing the whole time because I usually don't take such a long time. After the paper, my eyes were out of focus for a while, I had a neck ache, had a slight headache, and felt quite terrible.

I'm generally quite an easy going person, I don't hate anyone (nor do I wish to), I try to be patient, and I try to be as diplomatic as I can. But there are some things that make me very worked up, for some weird and unknown reasons, no matter how much I try to ignore them.

1. Being compared to (be it in a good or bad way).
2. Having my work/effort trivialised.

Maybe they stem from some underlying self esteem issue, and I have yet to analyse that. But as for now, I'll try to be as patient as I can.

6 more papers. That sounds good..

2010-10-29T19:08:00.000+08:00

TGIF.
Really.
I'm happy I've survived this week of Os. Every time I feel tired, I think to myself 'anything's better than [next] Monday'.

English wasn't good.
German wasn't very good.
E Math was ok.
A Math was not bad.
Chemistry was ~~not good/weird/shocking/~~others. I don't exactly know how I think about this one.

Four and a half down, four and a half to go.

And many head/neck/shoulder aches to come.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stress relief:

Hidden Camera - David Beckham

Poor masseuse..

Greyson Chance - Waiting Outside the Lines

He's got guts, but he's out of tune, looks like Bieber, and is trying too hard.

Ok, so now for some more positive songs..

林俊杰 - 会有那么一天

林俊杰/蔡卓妍 - 小酒窝

2010-10-24T21:08:00.001+08:00

I ~~don't like~~ ~~greatly dislike~~ hate this feeling.

All the best for the next three weeks!
May it be a quick/painless death.

2010-10-23T11:38:00.000+08:00

'The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.'

The load of Chinese articles on LMS is intimidating. After downloading all, I scanned through a few of them, then I got tired of reading.

1 more day.

2010-10-21T11:22:00.000+08:00

It's so hazy I couldn't tell that it was raining outside, until I saw people with umbrellas and realized the roads were wet. But then the rain became heavier and I could finally hear it, so well.. yea, I was just trying to make a point about the haze. And that made me think of the chem chapter on Air.

Playing 'Angry Birds' makes me angry instead. It's as though the game has something against me.. There's one level that I took a day/a day's sporadic attempts to complete.

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

Dead Sea Scrolls to be made available online
By Kevin Flower, CNN
October 20, 2010 -- Updated 1009 GMT (1809 HKT)

Jerusalem (CNN) -- In an ambitious application of 21st century technology brought to bear on a first century wonder, the Israel Antiquities Authority and internet search giant Google Tuesday announced a plan to digitize the Dead Sea Scrolls and make the entire collection available to the public online.

Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) General Director Shuka Dorfman called the project a milestone that would enhance the field of biblical studies and people's understanding of Judaism and early Christianity.

"We have succeeded in recruiting the best minds and technological means to preserve this unrivalled cultural heritage treasure, which belongs to all of us, so that the public, with a click of the mouse, will be able to access history in its fullest glamour," Dorfman said.

Made up of 30,000 fragments from 900 manuscripts, the Dead Sea Scrolls are considered by many historians to be one of the most important archaeological finds ever made.

The ancient manuscripts, made of leather, papyrus, and copper, were first discovered in 1947 by a nomadic shepherd in a cave near the Dead Sea. In the years following, more scroll fragments were located.

Dating back more than 2,000 years, the scrolls reveal details about the development of Judaism during the Hellenistic period and shed light on the relationship between early Christian and Jewish religious traditions.

The project will employ the latest in spectral and infrared imaging technology to scan the thousands of scroll fragments into one large database.

"This is the ultimate image of the scroll you can get get," explained IAA project manager Pnina Shor, as she showed reporters an example of the imaging. "It presents an authentic copy of the scroll, that once online, there is no need to expose the scrolls anymore."

Conservation of the ancient manuscripts is a major concern for the IAA which recently began limiting photography of the scrolls. Flawed preservation and display practices in decades past had in some cases had "catastrophic" consequences Shor said, and the IAA decided it needed to create a new active image record that would spare the manuscripts from further degradation.

The entire collection of Dead Sea Scrolls was photographed in 1950s, but access to the photos and the documents themselves has been limited. Only four conservationists are allowed to actually handle the scroll fragments and scholars are limited in how much time they can spend studying them in person.

Google with its high-powered search and translation services will help catalogue the mass of material, but the internet heavyweight says the project is not for profit and not exclusive.

"I can envision scholars or other companies contributing their own technologies so as to get some additional value over the data," said Yossi Matias, Google's head of research and development in Israel.

The IAA has raised $3.5 million in funding for the project and project managers say that the first images could be online within months.

Matais said it was too early to detail how the scrolls would be displayed online, but assured "the idea is an open platform and an open approach"

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

Court in UAE says beating wife, child OK if no marks are left
By the CNN Wire Staff
October 19, 2010 -- Updated 1854 GMT (0254 HKT)

(CNN) -- A court in the United Arab Emirates says a man is permitted under Islamic law to physically discipline his wife and children as long as he leaves no marks and has tried other methods of punishment, the country's top court ruled.

The ruling came in the case of a man who slapped his wife and slapped and kicked his 23-year-old daughter, the document said.

The daughter had bruises on her right hand and right knee and the wife had injuries to her lower lip and teeth, the ruling said.

The court ruled that a man has the right to punish his wife and children. That includes beating them, after he has tried other options, such as admonition and then abstaining from sleeping with his wife.

However, the court ruled that in this case the man exceeded his authority under sharia, or Islamic law. His wife was beaten too severely and his daughter was too old to be disciplined, the ruling said.

"Although the [law] permits the husband to use his right [to discipline], he has to abide by the limits of this right," wrote Chief Justice Falah al Hajeri in a ruling issued this month and released in a court document recently. It was reported in the English-language publication The National.

"If the husband abuses this right to discipline, he cannot be exempted from punishment," according to the ruling.

Several experts said it is against Islamic law to permit wife-beating.

Jihad Hashim Brown -- the head of research at Tabah Foundation, which specializes in the interpretation of Islamic law -- couldn't comment specifically on what the courts did and didn't say because he hadn't read the ruling.

However, he said he feels confident that the UAE court didn't sanction injury or abuse. He said sharia law is complex and has been open to interpretation.

But he argued that in Islamic law it is "absolutely unlawful" to abuse a wife, injure her, or insult her dignity.

"When a situation in a marriage reaches the point where people feel like they need to hit someone, that is time for divorce. Anyone who would abuse, injure or even insult the dignity of their wife, this has now become a criminal offense which can be prosecuted in a court of law."

Canadian-Egyptian scholar Dr. Jamal Badawi, who has written about this topic, said "wife beating is not allowed in Islam" and said the Quranic verses and sayings back "the prohibition of any type of wife beating," especially on the face.

Summer Hathout, a lawyer and an activist for women's rights in California, argued that the UAE rulings are based on maintaning a patriarchal elite power structure.

"To those of us who know Islam and the Quran, violence against women is so antithetical to the teachings of Islam," she said.

A to do but not to not do

2010-10-19T00:40:00.001+08:00

Feels nice to (try to) sleep knowing I don't have to wake up for school the next day.

German Part 3 on Wednesday. That's the paper I'm most worried about.

Every day, my doubts about my academic abilities increase exponentially.

It's like, no matter how much practice I get, or how much memorizing I do, it doesn't matter, because I could forget it all during those few hours of exam panic. I really hope the stuff I'm studying for comes out (and the reverse too).

As of now, little bits of every subject are floating around in my head.

I'm also rather uneasy, that my near future depends entirely on my brain's performance for next month.

So before I start stressing myself (and whoever is reading this) out even more, I think I should stop here.

2010-10-16T22:15:00.002+08:00

Random things about today:

1. I had exactly 8 hours of sleep. Rare for a Saturday (as in, I usually sleep in), yet satisfying because I felt quite refreshed after I woke up.

2. My entire day was devoted to Chemistry. Not that I spent the whole day doing Chemistry, but that of all the few work-related things I touched today, all were related to Chemistry.

3. Jasmine: 'Eh, I tell you something.. You know yesterday, I went with my reindeer to..'
No it wasn't supposed to be reindeer, but something about Marina. Think my hearing is getting a little off..

4. While playing captains ball after TF at the huge multi-purpose area next to the badminton court, we had hardly been playing for 5 minutes, when we heard a loud, unmistakable 'splat!' somewhere on the court. Everybody stopped and turned toward the source of the noise, and to our immense shock, it was an egg splattered on the ground right beside Rui Quan's feet. It was thrown with such great force, that half the shell was found about 3 meters away, the egg yolk was really spread out, and some bits of the shell court be found in random places around that area.
It was the first time that such a thing happened while we were playing captains ball there, and the surprise I felt is rather amusing, now that I think about it. I don't think it was because we were too noisy, or because we played very badly. Mysterious.
Anyway, there were quite a few people watching us from the surrounding HDB blocks, and we spotted around five children watching us from the second floor of a block closest to the court. After that, I had an irrational fear that maybe they were hiding a carton of eggs behind those window grills and getting ready to pelt us anytime. Thankfully, nothing else like that happened for the rest of the time that we were there.

(Disclaimer: Photos taken after the ball bounced on it once)

4. My interest in Monopoly Deal has been rekindled. Think I'm suffering from withdrawal symptoms?

5. Ok this wasn't today, but I took this sometime this week while waiting at the MacRitchie bus stop. This monkey came up from behind the bench I was sitting on, and the old lady sitting next to me practically jumped out of her seat. Fierce monkey.

Proben, proben, proben

2010-10-15T17:15:00.000+08:00

Probably the only comfort I have after today's paper, is that everyone else was visibly shaken/unhappy after the paper. The last few questions were a killer. I had no idea the passage was about energy conservation until after the paper when some people were discussing it. I thought it was about a man living on an island with no electricity (which I believe, is partially true).

There were some people who ended up at the wrong examination center. E.g. Some who were supposed to be at Tiong Bahru came to Bishan, and vice versa. Poor them. I've no idea whether they were allowed to sit for the examination, but I guess for those who were supposed to go for listening, they wouldn't be able to reach in time, but for those writing essays or doing compres, they might have been able to write some stuff.

School's over. That's good, I guess.

2010-10-13T15:56:00.000+08:00

For stress relief.

I look to you

2010-10-10T17:32:00.001+08:00

I meant to post something just now, but I've forgotten what I wanted to type so now I feel the need to replace it with something else.

S.H.E - 远方

If you haven't realized it yet, the original was by the Backstreet Boys - How Did I Fall In Love With You.
I still think theirs (BSB) is better than this.
They did a good job in re-making this, but it's still not as good as the original.

But just to show that I'm not just biased against covers, here are two covers that I think are better than the originals.

1. Original: Journey - Faithfully

Cover: Glee - Faithfully

2. Original: Bonnie Tyler - Total Eclipse of the Heart

Cover: Glee - Total Eclipse of the Heart

10/10/10:
A lot of people are getting married today.

2010-10-08T17:37:00.001+08:00

I like the Google Doodle today.. Go see it before the logo changes back.

2010-10-07T17:41:00.000+08:00

You wouldn't believe the shock I got, when I stepped into the exam room and saw that one of my examiners was the German HOD.
Anyway, I was kept amused for awhile, as they stuck my details onto the cassette tape, and then pressed the 'record' button. You hardly see this sort of thing nowadays.

I won't delve into the details of my nerve-wrecking 20min, but:
1. The passage was unbelievably hard. And there was so little time to read it, that I barely managed to look through it once before I had the paper taken away from me.
2. I think my reading was worse than conversaton (which says a lot).
3. I'm actually quite proud of myself, for being able to hold a conversation for about 15min in German.
4. One down, three to go.

If you haven't noticed yet, I've changed the countdown to a more positive sounding one. Hope it'll help to motivate you to endure the next month..

Don't ever look back

2010-10-06T17:46:00.004+08:00

Mr Loh, referring to the crossword puzzle in the chem TYS:

Mr Loh: 'This is the first time that you'll see a jigsaw puzzle in the TYS.'

Did I ever mention how much I dislike chem lessons? Well yea, I do. I also have a metal block that makes me shut off during chem, and do my own work.

9 more days of school. Is that good or bad?

Great Expectations

2010-10-05T23:33:00.002+08:00

We want a lot of things in life, but we want to get them with minimal work done.

If there were no sufferings, there wouldn't be any accomplishments.

I'm almost dreading the passing of each day.

Who died, and made you king of anything

2010-10-02T23:25:00.000+08:00

I simply cannot express the frustration I feel right now.