i just got my ears pierced! hohoho. n its very painful... ouch.
my ear lobes are pretty small. too small.
had lunch at sizzler - with mom, dad, uncle hua (we call him ah hua ah zeik) and his family coz they are going to america for 2 years. jan was real naughty, kept hitting ian, but jan's real cute too. haha.
hmm.. there's alot to blog again.
yest. the end of another of my commitments - chi exam! yay! i seriously hope i'll get an a. but the mcqs were unreasonably difficult :( lin lao shi said she'll write to them abt it. its really unfair to us. all those phrases that we never ever saw/heard. evil setters.
initially, i felt that the zuo wen ti mu were quite difficult. i had prepared myself for doing the yi lun wen but it was "in present day singapore, jing tong ying yu bi jing tong hua yu zhong yao. what are ur opinions?" so i looked at the other qns but just cldnt come up with any storyline. wasnt in that mood. so i had to do the yi lun wen. wrote an acceptable length - 2 and one quarter pages. not alot according to average standards but more than my usual 2pages or less. even used some of the 2nd one and a half hours for the final half a page of writing. always spend too much time at the beginning.
quite relief i could do the tian xie han zi. not as pathetic as the zero for promos. but the mcqs were really too much. they ought to be shot! n unlike the usual 1 self-elaboration qn for li jie wen da, there were 2!
anyway, after that, i went to orchard with yuxian n joyce. quite pathetic. then i realised many of the girls dont take chi. jus went home to mug. pam was meeting her s** j*** so she wanted to go home 1st. haha. those arent the real reasons but they just didnt come along.
yuxian had to go back to sch for co so i kept getting this sense of restriction to having fun.
i had wanted to eat at some place where it was more slow paced, since life has been such a rush. but joyce had low budget so we ended up with takeaways at taka basement. there i met jiayun with her wonderful class of s15. actually there wasnt the whole class, but there was an even mix of guys and girls. oh ya, before that, i met charmaine, michelle chen, n valerie dining at mos. i guess they were catching up. hmm.. charmaine n mich shldnt have gone over to hc. nj band's great! will even better with them. win-win situation. but guess its the ny to hc traditional they were following.
so in end, i only ate one custard cream puff and one ultimate spicy tuna curry puff. hey. now that i typed them, i realised they are both puffs! haha. lame. both tasted great. then we were about to walk to far east plaza when joyce decided to go. i think the combination of the 3 of us makes us feel weird. different freq? maybe. so yuxian n i proceeded to far east (on the way, i met phyllis) where we simply walked around without really going into shops n looking at things like what we did the other time with sand. we met mr yeo who was about to join the other teachers for hi-tea. wah. not bad. enjoying life.
then i hurriedly bought a wallet yuxian recommended before rushing down to lido to watch ladder 49 at 3pm. i was really sick of looking for a wallet. its been like more than 5 shopping trips that i've been on looking for a wallet n i had been too choosy. this time i just had the impulse and bought it, though it may not b that up to my expectations.
yuxian went back to sch. then i had nothing to do till band prac. initially planned to join the rest of the band who were supposed to be shopping around orchard for mr ho's bdae present but i didnt meet them along the way at all, n none of the clarinets were with them, so i decided to join jiayun's class for the movie though its not the type of movie i would choose to watch. it was like less than half an hour before the 'commencement' of the movie when jiayun called n within seconds, i made the decision n called back to ask her help me get the ticket. whoa. i have truly changed. everything used to have to be planned beforehand. now, decisions are made so quickly.
oh. i forgot to thank *the good one* (someone whom i just created impromptu to thank for all nice things that happen :D) for cancelling the chem o lesson originally scheduled for 1pm. otherwise instead of all these out-of-school, more specificially out-of-library activities, i wld be preparing for chem o the entire afternn.
whoa. i accidentally press my shutdown short-cut combi. luckily i managed to 'save as draft' before my comp shutdown. otherwise i'll flip. something good about it's 'lagginess'.
ladder 49 was quite a mix of the different genres - action, romance, comedy. there was life and death, family, friendship, work etc. its about the life of a fireman - jack morrison. seems like a true story. i think the way it was filmed - showing flashbacks throughout the whole movie in between short scenes of the latest ongoing. oh my. i just found out from a webpage that dennis n ray are brothers. no wonder ray was treated so specially when dennis died. n i didnt even know that guy was called ray. i only recognised him as the guy who acted in love actually. n in fact, he isnt even him. haha. lousy me.
the fire scenes made my heart beat fast. that's why i dont like to watch such shows, make myself scared.
it was so touching i cried twice towards the end. jiayun had to hid her tears otherwise her classmates will 'niao' her like they do to krystle who cried real hard. haha. she always uses the word 'niao' to describe what they do. but other than that, can tell that her class is great. like when we were leaving, one of the guys said 'take care'. even jiayun herself didnt expect it. haha. oh, before i entered the theatre, i met kangqi with some acjc ppl. he looked kind of surprised i think. or was it blur? anyway, it came to my mind that i cant imagine how he would look in nj grey. actually, i couldnt imagine anyone in nj grey until we were in it. haha. i think it would be very interesting to see people trying out nj grey.
addy, who was shopping with her sc friends, joined us before the 3 of us went over to jurong point to join karen and debra for dinner at the kopitam. mabel, jasmine, junhao and adeline koh also joined in, n more ppl came along. it was great fun hanging out with them =)
found out from the trumpet girls that erwin is lame. like if someone dropped something and someone else offered to help and the 1st person says "i'll pick it up myself", he will comment and repeat "how do u pick up yourself?", doing the picking-up-himself silly actions. haha. totally changed my impression of him. he looked like the quiet serious type.
mabel knows wenyi. not personally though. mabel knows loads of gossip. haha.
while we were leaving for nie, i met weiliang! he was like so blur, couldnt recognise me. perhaps coz i tied up my hair. it was like 5 seconds after i started waving to him that he noticed it was me. haha.
hmm, meet so many ppl within a few hours. pri sch classmate, sec1/2 classmate, nycb n njcsb mates, 1st 3 mths classmate. whoa.
on the bus, i laughed even more until my whole face was jiang ying by the time we got off the bus.
before prac started, thomas rushed in with his hair all wet. he just had bio o. 5 hours of 250 mcq after 3 hours of chi exam. madness!
it is mr ho's bdae on next wed, 10/11. so the nie ppl held the celebrations today. n the njcsb ppl zhan dao pian yi. haha. coz they bought alot of nice food. it was after 9.30 when an nie member (i suppose the band major?) brought in the cake from behind while mr ho was still conducting n gave him a little surprise. i think he was quite happy. like earlier on when karen, addy n i wished him happy bdae. actually we didnt know the actual date of his bdae. haha. but he looked very happy and said something like 'so early' n i thought we got it all wrong. heard that they celebrate his bdae every year n every yr he would be surprised. so i was like so he's surprised every year on his bdae for the past 35 years? haha. i think he feels fortunate. anyway, the nie person was rather crappy, saying he's getting old so didnt switch off the lights like last year etc etc. i think nowadays, singaporeans are becoming a crappy bunch of ppl. or is this overgeneralisation?
we were allowed to leave at 10 but most of them stayed so i followed. n played this piece "a gift of time" composed by an nie member, brenda. initially when i saw the name of the composer on the score, i was thinking, hey, a chinese composer with english name! whoa. n it ended up that the composer conducted the song for us! i didnt know they really had to compose songs. quite cool. but the pc was very difficult.
half of us left just before 11 for fear that there were no more trains. then some got lifts home n i ended up being the one girl left with youzhi, boyang, qingyang, junhao, donaphan n daryl to get home by public transport.
oooo. just visited youzhi's blog. n there was the list for the band fest groupings! no one in my grp is someone i m quite close to. i suppose that should be good. i shall get to know my grp members more!
paste what he wrote hear:
everyone will spilt into 4 different bands, namely J.S Bach, Rossini, F.Lizst and J. Strauss. Quite corny if you ask me to name a band after a CLASSICAL composer, but that's not the point. Ok so the 4 bands will be named A, B, C and D respectively on my blog ok? Here goes...
Band A Han Jie, Elizabeth, Esther, Jun Hao, Erwin, Mabel, Qi Sheng, Emmiline Band B Merra, Edo, Fenella, Wanda, Yi Xian, Ming Hui, Zhiyong, Shu Jun, Joanne Band C Swee Peng, Jurena, Adeline Tan, Daryl, Qing Yang, Valarie, Adeline Koh, ME, Thomas Band D Sixun, Bo Yang, Debra, Wei Xian, Jasmine, Sharon Hiu, Clarine, Boey Wai Kit Donaphan, Crystal, Janina
so i m in this band called rossini. i wonder what will happen over those 4 days. should be very fun as lydia said.
he also said "SYF next year is at Singapore Conference Hall on the 5th of May." the day will come real soon. i hope mr ho decides on the choice pc within these few weeks. i need alot time to master it.
whoa. a mynah nearly wanted to enter my room. it was on my window ledge. luckily i have the nettings to keep it outside until i m 'attracted' into my room to shoo it away. otherwise there would be a bird in my room now. it isnt the 1st time birds land on my window ledge.
ok, back to the trip home. initially i felt somewhat awkward. but it wasnt that bad. band ppl r great ppl to be with. donaphan was real funny. kept trying to irritate the rest of the guys by saying stupid things. they were seated as a row on the mrt train n i was on the opposite side so it seemed a bit like watching a show. haha. that's mean of me. boyang was another lame one junhao oso buay tahan n i even denied that we are in the same section. haha. youzhi was the serious one. cant believe both donaphan n youzhi r from the same sch (chi high). daryl was the quiet one. both boyang n daryl r from cat high. hm, schools groom different types of ppl.
then i was saving the hp nos. of bandmates n they thought i was mugging. even when they found out what i was doing, they said i was mugging the contact list. haiyo.. how did i officially become known as a mugger.. youzhi even tried to test if i could recall erwin's no. sigh. ok. so youzhi n qingyang n boyang all met me studying chi in the lib. but ppl who study in the lib arent true muggers! true muggers can study at home. then after i said that i m not mugging the contact list, that lame donaphan replied that the contact list is mugging me. -.-" haha.
n boyang was playing a fool with the call diverting function coz the guys were callg him for fun. diverted 2 calls to me la. n i didnt know about such a fn. was like showing daryl my phone n asking him y he was calling me. coz it was quite weird since i didnt really know him. yuan lai shi boyang gao de gui. haha. didnt know serious daryl does such stuff too. calling for fun.
at least i learnt about a new fn. but i will use it for real needs.
just found a njcsb website created by qingyang! i think i super lag. but at least i found it now. there r links to hundreds band photos there. lovely =)
just joined band msn group! laggiest member again. to make up for that, i uploaded some of the band photos i took to share.
whoa. i guess that's the longest ever narration of the happenings on a single day.
back to the week before..
mon (25/10)...
mrs cheng gave us this 2nd module of leadership talk based on "who moved my cheese?" showed us this video on it. it was very meaningful. i want to buy the book!
lin lao shi told the 11 of us who were offered 's' papers our results. no one got 4as. tianen was disappointed. mayb cher too. i did worse than for common tests. aacc to abbc... or does ac = bb?
chem dropped the most. raw score of 82 to 53. nearly 30 marks. i think out of the whole level, my score had the most drastic drop. many of the others ended up with better overall than me. enough of the crap that i m gd... but actually i have myself to blame. for preparing so poorly. thankfully, the moderation of 5 marks to the promos score and my ct score managed to keep me in b range - 62.8% ~ 63%.
econs oso dropped.. mainly because i did not answer 4b at all. the marker commented "please manage your time wisely". hm. n i need to be clearer in what i say.
let me type some of the comments the marker made on my answer for mrp theory.
"you are trying to convey so many ideas in a one-sentence para! bad habit because you lost focus of what you want to say!" - on my 7+ lines of one-sentenced intro para.
"do not squeeze diags together!" - the marker wrote in caps..
"draw large diag!"
"too small and squeezy!"
"discussion of theory is too narrow! you must not:
1. draw diag that are so small that it frustrates the examiner trying to read it.
2. include many points of discussion in one sentence. you lose focus on important issues and at the end of the sentence, both yourself n reader are lost."
hmm.. very helpful to make so much comments. or perhaps he/she was really irritated by my lousy ans..
for the other qn, my crap about eos was all extra. nearly one page of crap. wrote them in simply because it was one of the few things i studied. i only spent like less than 7 hours in all preparing for the essays. real bad.
dropped from raw score 58.4% to 55.73%. moderation of 3% helped. but i need another 1% to get a b! argh. 58.7% ~ 59%... boohoo.
math. improved abit. raw score 76% to 80%. btw, actually i havent looked at the scripts since getting them back.. looking now... oh ya.. my silly move of cancelling away the asymptote.. lost 1% there.. n the marker put a qn mk. haha. puzzled by my silly move...
holy shit! i missed out 2 whole marks! oops. too vulgar. argh!! its just an easy sketch! i overlooked the qn! sigh. sai. but now i have lost touch with math. dont know how to do them now... lousy... only 1 month n forgotten.
hey.. i dont uds y i got some parts wrong..
i think its extremely unfair that we dont get to check our papers. its an internal exam! they should go thru the answers and we should be allowed to ask for the marks at parts that they overlooked. such things do happen. n its no like really troublesome like for cambridge exams where the papers have to fly in airplanes..
okok.. stop complaining abt my only a.. but they rounded it down! 79.2% ~ 79%
phy. improved the most. coz of the hints? i guess so. raw score 58% to 67.14%. but sooo many ppl got a... did badly for the gravitation qn despite having tried to improve my grasp of the topic. sigh. ideal gases was bad too. my mcq score was among the lower ones in class. guess that pulled me away from a. so i had to settle for b. n they rounded it down again! 65.3% ~ 65%
i have to practise phy mcq from the tys. oh ya. i didnt touch the tys mr yong got us to buy at all...
chi. dropped 2nd most. raw score 76% to 67%.partly coz of the zero for tian xie han zi. also did worse for the other sections.
gp. improved by a pathetic 0.5% from 49% despite so much effort put into improving my content - reading the daily newspapers. my lang dropped from mediocre to inappropriate.. "avoid awkward expressions" was a comment. i think i wasnt in the english mood, in addition to my already weak grasp of the lang. had alot of trouble finding the right word/phrase, esp coz of the requirement for transposition. i tried. i failed. i want to go for gp clinic. i want to improve. i need help. oh ya. i forgot. i have to type my blog in proper english. ok. from next entry onwards. i must.
i was stuck at the edge of c6 bcoz yet once again, they rounded down my marks. 49.4% ~ 49%. how can they do this to me. i did work hard. i did improve. though its was a pathetic marginally increase. y cant they be kind enough to promote me to c5... i got the lowest for gp out of everyone in class who was offered 's' papers... i am in the bottom 23%...
sigh. i always miss the next grade by a tiny bit..
:( all my percentiles fell... (gp - by 16; chi - by 4; chem - by 9; math - by 2; phy - by 1) expect for econs which maintained. proves my observation that the others always work relatively harder and do better for the more important exam. the trend has been like that since p6.
k. enough of grades.
after chi lesson, pw meeting n op tech run, i was about to write my overdue zuo wen in the lib when i received a call from a stranger. it was ms dorothy chua asking if i want to go for the nkf work attachment coz someone just backed out. i had to decide fast otherwise she would call someone else. so i called youzhi to check if i can go n then i was down for it! after i ended the call, i noticed that yz was actually on the other side of the lib.. kinda waste call time
tues (26/10)...
i was in the lib again preparing for chi while waiting for chem o to start. it was sort of a chatting day? qisheng, kaiyun, yiyun, boyang all came by. havent talk to kaiyun so much for such a long time. she had lost touch with chi. asked me if i regret taking cl ao. i do not. coz i need to get a better grade. cant stay with my c6. n i stayed in touch with my mother tongue. 'bananas' may roll their eyes but i want to stay in touch with chi. i m a chinese. not any other race.
nathalie is super hardworking. has slacker pw grp, in council, takes 2 olympiads, is leader of harmonica band, n has whatever other commitments. was still reading a chi bk though she's a philippino n doesnt take chi. pei fu pei fu.
just visited an nj ip student's blog. can tell that the nj ip students really enjoyed themselves this year. they formed extremely close relationships not just with a few cliches but across the 5 ip classes. although many of the jc students dislike them, i think that its more of jealousy than plain dislike. the school did alot for them. they had lots of new experience. now is their turn to become snrs. no longer just "ip kids" as they are often called. the 2nd batch of ip students have joined nj. i think the jealousy sprouted not only because the ip students are given alot of new opportunities that the jc students dont have, the ip students are also very intelligent, multi-talented, vocal, enthusiastic ppl. its not pure coincidence that they are like that. the school chose them out of the many who signed up.
wed.
got our result slips. a disappointment. actually i didnt set a target for myself. but i did worse so its considered a disappointment.
supposed to meet clarinets at 1pm but no one turned up. ended up that karen n addy didnt arrange to meet the rest. karen changed plans n addy was busy with 's' papers application. choosing between chem n phy with veena's help. veena kept persuading her to take chem coz she liked it but she didnt do well enough for promos to be offered chem 's' so she had to appeal, while she was offered phy 's', n her whole family is pro at phy. i was rather impressed by the way veena was convincing addy to take chem 's'.
(addy was already convinced by veena but in the end, 2 days later, she took phy. perhaps after talking to her family.)
i was also deciding on which 's' papers to take. initially, i was choosing between all four because i thought there's a somewhat equal possibility for me to do any and i didnt know which ones i was weaker at n where my interest lies. then i realised the reason for me having to choose is that i was weak at all of them n not truly interested in any.
chem? i seem to be not that bad at it. but there alot to memorise for organic chem. i cant memorise.
econs? i think i m interested in it. but its for the pros only. extremely difficult to get distinction. alot of work to do on our own. i lack the willpower to put in so much consistent effort. its all essays. my weakest.
math? its my only a. the only subject that my performance is maintained there. but i m competing with f math students. they have an advantage. n i heard the qns are totally different from math c.
phy? i think i m interested. but it could be because i like mr yong's teaching style. i do badly for tests and exams. electromagnetism. i m weak at that.
(finally took chem n math coz there no pt taking 's' paper though i cant get distinction n i m weak at the explanation for phy n it requires good knowledge to handle the qns - i lack that. i can push myself to do math. chem o should help me with chem 's')
then addy n i went down to jurong pt for late lunch before heading down to nie. we talked alot along the way. actually she did most of the talking. then she said that between 2 friends, 1 has to be the listener. otherwise if both talk alot, they'll be fighting to talk. sounds logical. though many people who r chatterboxes become good friends as well. hmm.
found out that she also likes subjects because she excels in them. that's y she had liked chem. math was my favourite subject during primary sch coz it was my best subject. i think many ppl are like that.
we ate so long we ended up more than half an hour late for band. luckily the nie ppl werent there.
on the train home, i think it was the first time i really talked to yulin. found out to my surprise that s10 has 6 cliches. they had seemed a rathered united class.
thu (28/10).
op dry run.
greenlink nature trail training.
fri (29/10).
got back the papers. supposed to have normal timetable but most of the tchrs merely returned us our exam scripts. for phy, like the previous time after cts, mr yong got us to write reflections. this time i had more to write. the generic points that he gave for us to cover helped. then he said he would be going new zealands. i think he was joking. but he said whatever the case, he wouldnt be taking our class next yr coz we are motivated enough. no!!! we need him! he was the one who increased my interest in physics. anyway, our class isnt motivated... its just that during 1st 3 months, he build up the class's fear of him so we always submitted physics homework. he can't drop us! s09 isnt disciplined at all. if he isnt our physics tutor, i wonder if everyone will still be as obedient.
have already blogged about this day's band prac.
sat (30/10).
greenlink riverkeeping. 2nd earliest to reach pasir ris mrt at 7.45am, after huiling. most of the others were late. ming jun was so late n he lost his way that he didnt do riverkeeping at all so he treated us to macs icecream. kind of weird coz i dont know him at all. didnt want to accept the treat but huiling insisted.
found out that baorui is actually attached to christine. really surprising coz they dont behave like a couple at all. ok, i shall keep quiet.
we had lunch before i went in search of news articles for pw op. wanted to find the nkf article that supposedly caught our group's attention and attracted us to do charity... i went from pasir ris community lib to tampines regonial lib. found a number of useful charity articles after more than an hour of looking through the microfilm and was about to print them but the lady-in-charge of photocopying services wasnt there. waited very long but in the end i was told the machine had broken down... it was exasperating coz such unlucky incidents always happen.
went all the way back to woodlands lib where it was pouring heavily. fortunately, this lady-in-charge of photocopying services was very helpful and cooperative. had nearly the same critical demand as me. adjusted even single article to the best.
i think the machine is quite fun. it would be great if i could do all the adjusting of zoom, rotation, sharpness etc on my own. but they charged exorbitant rates. $0.90 per photocopy. n it was limited to a3. spent like $8.10 on that... n printed one extra article...
had swensens for dinner. 2nd round of icecream in 1 day! fattening..
the whole of the next 2 days (sunday morning all the way till monday night with only an hour of sleep in sch lib in between) was spent on pw. pw. n more pw. at the expense of studying for chi or chem o. while the other grp members did do chi.
what can i say.
on sunday night, qisheng called. his op was on monday n he needed help with it.
i think its my weak spot - always trying to help when asked and its not impossible to help (in fact nothing is impossible). that's why people don't hestitate to ask me when they want help.
then i sort of yue bang yue mang coz i suggested changes but i shouldnt coz i made him panic. however, luckily i cut out useful articles so i managed to find the article he needed without much hassle. his topic was on chi. totally so him. absolutely pro at chi. the other time i was waiting for mr yeo so that i could put in my annotated articles (it was tues after chi), qisheng came by n taught me despite me having taken hcl n supposedly have learnt more.
i was late for pw meeting on both monday n tues coz of pw. how ironic.
had to take taxi on both days.
mon (1/11)
pw meeting till 12+
had greenlink nature trail at 1pm. unfortunately, it was raining so we could only stay under shelter. there were only about 5/6 people (2 councillors, 2 from ny - anqi n zhixiu, another from band - thomas, but who left half-way) who joined the trail, but about 15 greenlink members. hha. quite funny. hmm.. can tell where people who are supportive come from. yea. and out of all 20 people who stayed throughout, 4 are from the same class of the same secondary school. ;/
actually its rather interesting to learn about the nature life in nj. the plants (there's a banana plant with bananas growing! yea, there's no such thing as banana tree) ; the trees (took a closer look at this 'monkey puzzle tree' in the garden which i had just taken for granted before that. found out that it can be a christmas tree too!); the spices (there are curry plants, lemon grass that really had the smell!) etc. people complain that nj is all stoning. but they don't want to care about nature either. whatever.
after that, i went to the library to complete my individual annotations but fell asleep for like an hour before starting on work as i could no longer withstand the tireness.
all the other pw groups of s09 were in school too
tues (2/11)
when i boarded the taxi, the taxi driver thought that i am not local; that i am a philippino. hahaha.. how absurd. he said my english (accent?) sounded like a philippino's. i had been considering to use mandarin initially but at the spur of the moment, i just felt like using english. then once i sensed that something was wrong, i asked him, ni yao bu yao jiang hua yu? then he still had to ask to confirm if i am a true-blue singaporean.
aiyo.. i think my languages are seriously easily influenced by others. i had transformed from a more chinese-speaking girl from chinese family background in a chinese school to a "ang mo kia" in a matter of weeks/months and now (perhaps because of nathalie who is a philippino - but it isn't a convincing reason since we only sat together during chem o lessons). what happened to all my 17 over years of mandarin-speaking at home? what about all the mandarin i spoke back at ny? couldnt have lost it so easily right? or i could? coz i did??
talked alot to the driver. hmm. i talk to strangers more when i am anxious.
when i got to school, there was my group n pam's group (serjing, estelle, russell, wei qi) together in the canteen. serjing was quite amused by the donation tin i made with 'pws flag day' labelled coz i said 'pws' represented 'pw sux'. he even joked of putting 'pws' on every slide of their ppt
when op was over, i felt that the intense build-up of fear over the previous few days was finally released. ahh...
hm, my fear for other academic stuff never started this early... sometimes it was only until the morning of the exam that i would get that scared feeling. even for 'o's.
the sense of fear heightened while we were audience for the first two groups.
the s08 groups with us were both 4-guys-1-gal teams. christina's group, the second group to present (ie the grp b4 us), with kim ong, did biometrics. i think they were of eee (exceed exceeding expectation) standard. most of them had no cue cards, showed full confidence together with friendly smiles, engaged us throughout their presentation with their interesting information and home-made videoclips with music and style of presentation which made the originally so scientific topic of high techology that was alien to me so easy to understand - coming up with name of 'c cube' method for their course of action making it easier for the audience to remember it.
to sum it all up with 1 e - excellent.
during the 1 hour break before our presentation, i suggested a run through but the others were reluctant. so i left to practise my own speech - for the first time. perhaps its a blessing in disguise? that i was given a chance to finally practise my own speech? then they came back when they changed their mind. so we went back to the exam venue to practise b4 the examiners - mrs nair (gp) n mr chris ho (econs) - came back when it was time to assess us. so our presentation started. i was extremely nervous but i tried to appear confident, tried to included gestures (which i think looked awkward...) and tried to look at the audience but could not maintain the consistency due to lack of practice. the examiners looked very bored and unhappy, which was totally discouraging. perhaps i sounded too agitated??
they should give us a feedback so that we know how to improve our presentation skills.
then i went to the lib again to prepare for chi. russell played neopets till 8 and kept distracting me, asking me to see. of course i didnt ignore him so as to study (i'm not that type), furthermore i was once so addicted to neopets i even played for hours during the yr-end exams so the sense of familarity and interest is still there.
actually i didnt manage to study much coz chai xin msged to ask about last yr's pure history qns n though i didnt take pure hist, i went around asking those who did. then qisheng also called
so basically it was kind of a relaxation-after-pw-stress thing
then at 8+, lydia found me and was worried about my safety. such a nice caring senior.
i was the only person not on library duty who stayed till 9pm. there were the council pres, another councillor, a student librarian, a non-teaching staff, and a ultra nice biology teacher mrs khoo who offered to give me a ride to the bus-stop! so kind of her!
ok, here's what i wrote on the final day of pw. not for reading.
mom complained that i spent too much time on pw. i was too "niao". i asked her - if i don't check through (the slideshow) again and again after making changes, who is going to be responsible for any errors? i am the only one who has the whole powerpoint because i created more that half of the slides n modifies the rest because the others didn't bother to add any animations. so i was the one left to add all the graphics - usage of visual aid is the only group component of the entire op section, and somehow, it seems that they take muchmore initiative doing their individual components like their own script, practising presentation of their own part, and doing individual annotations. then i was implicitly expected to ensure that the whole ppt runs smoothly, print the slides, know how to coordinate everyone's speech with the ppt w/o any running thru as a grp save for the dry run which was compulsory and which i already had difficulty coordinating the ppt with each of their speech yet their was no chance for me to confirm with them the coordination - all group components. leaving my own preparation of cue cards till the very day of the real thing and speech-practising up till the very last hour just before the real thing, while the rest of them had already practised several times a few days before.
fortunately, we did do our one and only run through as a group, just less than an hour before the real thing. because during this run through, i screwed up alot of the clicking so if there was no such run through, what would be screwed will be the real thing. this run through was held only after my outburst of final initiation. i had asked for a run through on monday but they said it wasnt necessary. ya, of course they found it unnecessary - for their individual components. it was stated that visual aid was to be counted towards grp. n i was the only pathetic person who thought that a run through was necessary because i was the only person who was silly enough to place higher priority on grp components than individual ones, doing the powerpoint from sunday afternn all the way till monday morning, helping joyce with her new slides, despite having not done the improvements to my own script that mr yeo wanted and thus creating more slides as well. i had also not done the improvements to my own annotations, which again was required by mr yeo, to monday afternoon to night. actually mr yeo had told us about them the wednesday before and the other group members had already made their individual improvements by the friday before but i didnt because of my commitments...
ok. this post is the very last one with pw ranting.
i think i m glad that my op was on tues. coz that gave me some left time to prepare for chi.
wed (3/11).
we had more than 2hours of chi lesson in the afternn and asked alot of qns. maybe the most ever. yea, last minute burst of questions on the final lesson before exam. initially zhang lao shi was very unhappy with our class and the way she treated us and those from the other class (it was a combined session where we just went to the classroom and were supposed to 'grab' for a chance to clarify any doubts coz everyone had qns). towards the end, it got better coz i think all she wanted was for us to concentrate on chi n not waste our time there chatting (which we did on tues).
i am such an emotionally weak creature. i was studying chi again in the lib and the no. of ppl got less until finally i was the only person not on duty left. n ms sharon phua popped out!
she asked if i were a yr 1 or yr 2. (later while walking out, she said that she saw that i was studying chi and deduced that i am a yr1. she had came over coz she thought i was her yr 2 - yea, she kept using the phrase 'my yr2' - panicking for gp.) so she told me to go home, saying its already so late, 6 people are looking after only me.
then i started feeling overwhelmed by emotions and tears began surging up to my eyes, all ready to flow out and i tried hard to blink them back. when i starting crying, she kept asking why, kept repeating, "i ask u to go home so u cry?" (or sth like that) and even asked if its because i dont like to go home. so i had to keep saying no... i think i said at least a dozen "no"s. coz she kept repeating. made me feel like a problematic student who doesnt want to go home...
i do have lots of problems but i am not problematic.
anyway, i think she's actually not that bad if you dont break any school rules.
on my way out of the library, silin (i was hanging out with janice n singyin in the afternoon n silin joined them. she was actually from rgs but claimed that she was from swiss cottage and i actually believed! then she guess that i was from rv and explained that it was coz don't have the girls' sch look! how interesting how people deduce the schools that others are from) , who was on duty also told me to go home and rest. aiyo.
then sp walked out of school with me. asked about my chinese results - o lvls (i explained i was a hcl student), common test, promos. also asked about promo grades and commented that it was very good. haha. quite encouraging. she said getting b for promos is already very good.
oh! i should have told her my gp results. then she'll faint. hahaha
asked about my subj combi and rightly guessed that my c was for econs.
asked where i live, what sch i was from. haha, i told her to guess and she said st nicks (which she repeated a few times even after i already said no). also guessed anderson and it seemed that she was trying guess the schools that are not that far from sembawang. so i said its quite far and she guessed cedar. in the end i had to disclose it myself. hm. though teachers know possibly more students than we do, they sure arent better at guessing our ex-schools. haha.
basically asked loads of qns - how i travel to school, what time i reach, if i had to take the 1st bus, my siblings, who i live with (i think she seriously thought i have family probs.. yea, i do have a prob - i need a quiet peaceful place where i can concentrate to study! that's why i stayed in the lib! should have told her that)
the security guard asked about her not running this night. then i found out that she runs every night at 10pm! whoa.
also found out that the guard will be there in the morning during the 'a' lvl exams period (he is usually not there) and they will be locking the side gate at 8.30 instead of the usual 9 for fear of strangers entering to discrupt coz it happened to other schools before. whoa. so careful.
hmm. this seems like a talk-to-adult-strangers week. 2 taxi drivers and 2 teachers whom i had never talked to before.
i m now torn between going for the endau rompin trip (11-14) or preparing for chem o. ugh. i thought it was after chem o. didnt know it was before... n subconsiously signed up for it... n now i need to find a replacement... but its too last-minute...
just created my 1st ever planning schedule. for this hols. haha. hope i can stick to it. this hols is probably the dec hols with the most commitments i ever have.
wishing; 11/06/2004 04:55:00 PM
Have Read
'04 year-end holidays (highest number of books read in a long time)
-The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom (gd read)
-Princess Diaries: Third Time Lucky by Meg Cabot (fun read)
-Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom (must read - inspirational)
-Slab Rat by Ted Heller (full of office politics and R21 stuff - not for kids)
-The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (makes u want to finish it)
-A walk to remember by Nicholas Sparks (simple but meaningful)
-The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark (can identify with)
-The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks (romantic love story with too much R21 stuff)
-Message in a Bottle by Nicholas Sparks (even more R21. ugh)
-The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery
-Unstrung Heroes by Franz Lidz (autobiography about his four uncles and father)
-The Rescue by Nicholas Sparks
-The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (very unique POV of an autistic boy)
-The Summerhouse by Jude Deveraux (love the breadth of the plot, one of my favourites)
-Wild Orchids by Jude Deveraux (alternating between two first persons' view - unique, but don't like e plot)
-Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder (philosophy tb in a story; gets abit dry though plot saved)
-forgot what i read...-
-Working Wonders by Jenny Colgan (story of an urban planner)
-Angels and Demons by Dan Brown (impressive intelligence with bits of great humour)
-Just between Us by Cathy Kelly (thickest bk i've ever read-600+pg, too long for me but not bad)
ha, started a few bks but didn't enjoy them enough to read more.
'06
-Life of Pi by Yann Martel (novel based on true story; a lot to learn from the book - animals, religions,
survival, appreciation of simplicity; marvelous descriptions of both the tangible and the intangible,
such that I could feel their realness; bits of very enjoyable humour; a must read)
-The Complete Analects of Confucius, Volume 1 - Asiapac Comic Series (some good teachings.
didn't read everything though)
-The Parable of the Pipeline by Burke Hedges (lent to me by Shujun; like she said, its a short version
of Rich Dad Poor Dad - good financial tips)
-The Alchemist by Paul Coelho (simple story with deep meaning)
-Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results
(hai, doesn't seem to be working for me - cos im not applying..)
-haven't been updating from Jun'06 to Jul'07-
'07
-Take a Chance by Sarah Webb (very interesting twist towards the end)
'08
-A Child Called "It" by Dave Pelzer (very saddening. made me realise how significant family is in how a child behaves)
-Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite by Paul Arden (refreshing book with many pics)
-The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Rui Zafon (amazing how people can think of so much plot to pack into one book, wld b a gd tv series)
-The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (the story is interesting but i think the ending cld hv been better written)
-This Book Will Save Your Life by A.M. Homes (a bit thought-provoking on relationships but i didnt like e abrupt ending)
-Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner (gd knowledge but partly qte repetitive)
-For One More Day by Mitch Albom
-The C Words by Mark Mason (made me keep wanting to read on. light & funny)
'09
-Return to Summerhouse by Jude Deveraux (another good read from Deveraux)
-The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (gosh such vivid descriptions! very well written book. i liked d theme of friendship and the realness of the story)
'10
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (a must-read!! i love the expressed thoughts of the protagonist, esp those about friendships, and the writing style - it seems like she's telling me her story specifically to me)
How to Save Your Own Life by Michael Gates Gill (an inspiring read, for emotional liberation and greater joy in life)
Reading
on hold
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
Waiting for chance to get hold of
The Little White Car by Danuta de Rhodes
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
Le Scaphandre Et Le Papillon or The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
My Left Foot by Christy Brown
Gotai Fumanzoku or An Unsatisfactory Body (Translated into English as No One's Perfect) by Hirotada Otatake
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
Other Recommended Readings by Marc
The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin – Few books have had as significant an impact on the way society views the natural world and the genesis of humankind.
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell – Gladwell looks at how a small idea, or product concept, can spread like a virus and spark global sociological changes. Specifically, he analyzes “the levels at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable.”
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens – This is a tale that lingers on the topic of attaining and maintaining a disciplined heart as it relates to one’s emotional and moral life. Dickens states that we must learn to go against “the first mistaken impulse of the undisciplined heart.”
Lolita – This is the kind of book that blows your mind wide open to conflicting feelings of life, love and corruption… and at times makes you deeply question your own perceptions of each. The story is as devious as it is beautiful.
Getting Things Done by David Allen – The quintessential guide to organizing your life and getting things done. Nuff said.
How To Cook Everything by Mark Bittman – 900 pages of simple instructions on how to cook everything you could ever dream of eating. Pretty much the greatest cookbook ever written. Get through a few recipes each week, and you’ll be a master chef by the time you’re 30.
Honeymoon with My Brother by Franz Wisner – Franz Wisner had it all… a great job and a beautiful fiancée. Life was good. But then his fiancée dumped him days before their wedding, and his boss basically fired him. So he dragged his younger brother to Costa Rica for his already-scheduled honeymoon and they never turned back… around the world they went for two full years. This is a fun, heartfelt adventure story about life, relationships, and self discovery.
Self-note: Tip for my future business =D
give employees reasonably high pay to keep them- otherwise they are unlikely to stay loyal.
treat employees not according to how well they treat me but how conscientious they are at work
(of course, musn't expect them to only do work throughout the entire working hours -
give some breathing space too, we are humans, not machines) Movies watched(listing started on 6jan08)
in cinema from VCD/DVD
1Sep07: "Hairspray" w TK, GH & SH
14Sep07: "Ratatouille" w mom & extended family
28Dec07: "The Pianist" w Jus & Pam (heartbreaking but good lessons; i recommend!)
2Jan08: "I Am Legend" w Sherm (scary! but good acting; thought provoking; i recommend!)
5-6Jan08: "A Good Year" alone (excellent show! i like the acting; funny; good lessons; touches my heart; i recommend!)
11Jan08: "Le Grand Chef" w WLing, JT & Irene (good! funny, very touching, :) nice; watch if like humour+meaning+food)
7Feb08 (CNY 初一): "Ah Long Pte Ltd" w parents (pretty hilarious - but u gotta understand dialects, some teary parts. wells typical of jack neo movies but with diff content)
11Mar08: "The Leap Year" w Sherm (so sweet! :) and apart from couple relationship it touches the theme of mother-daughter and best friends too)
6Jun08: "P.S. I Love You" w Sherm (don't know if its coz we watched it on laptop, coz it didn't impress me as much as it did for him in cinema)
8Jun08: "The Forbidden Kingdom" w Lisa, Karen & Sandy (ums..guess i'm really not into kungfu)
8Jun08: "What Happens in Vegas" w Lisa, Karen & Sandy (simple,relaxing show)
7Jul08: "我和狗狗的10个约定" w Sherm, his ma & sisters (very simple,touching but actually not my type of show)
10Jul08: "Before Sunrise" w Sherm (hmm maybe watchg on laptop really affects appreciatn of movies..)
30Sep08: "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" w Sherm (i didn't like it as much as i thought i wld when i saw the ads)
31Dec08: "Yes Man" w Mom (inspiring and funny)
11Feb08: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" w Mom (not as impressive as i thought it wld be)
1Jul09: "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" w Yumei, YY & Matt (the best thing was the soundtrack. heh.)
14Aug09: "GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra" w Joyce (it was awesome! best action movie i've ever watched)
17Aug09: "Food, Inc." w SYL & RuiQ (learnt some stuff abt the American food industry but it was a bit boring and not worth the $10)
22Sep09: "The Time Traveller's Wife" w WB, VanD, WLing, CHL, Irene, VanQ, Mf, Pg (i liked it. having read the book really helps w udsg)
21Nov09: "Gokusen" w Mf, Eva, Tony, Sarah (funny inspirational movie)
24Dec09: "十月围城" w Tony, WLing, VanQ (action action and a bit funny? tony criticised the plot. my fav scene was the running n jumping through the crowd along the five-foot ways w/o cuts)
30Dec09: "Sherlock Holmes" w Irene, Tony, Sweetee (my favourite genre of books made into a movie - what else can be more cool? acting effects humour excitement suspense all in)
12Jan10: "Avatar 3D" w Mom (didn't appreciate the digital effects which everyone wowed about. content etc was so-so. cathay's 3D glasses were too heavy for me)
8Feb10: "The Truman Show" w Ky n sis n Yuhshin (a must-watch. very thought-provoking, funny. reminder to be spontaneous and create your life the way you want, instead of falling into a typical routine
14Feb10: "New York, I Love You" w Mom (I loved it! a good couple movie with meaningful pointers to keep it going. but i think some stories could be more developed)
16Feb10: rewatched "The Pianist" (still find it good, tho i still feel first viewings are the best)
17Feb10: "Valentine's Day" w CHL n WB (laughed throughout - a feel-good movie; liked the fact that the various stories binded tog so well with the little surprises here and there, vs NY ILU in which each story was separate)
20Feb10: "赤壁二" w Addy, Karen, Sharon, SJ (should have watched the first one first cos i ended up not knowing who's who and what's happening and had to keep asking :/ and couldn't pay attn.. if not i think it should be a pretty good movie..)
4Mar10: "Alice in Wonderland 3D" w Mf (i found the 3D effects of this @ CCK Shaw SO much better than Avatar @ The Cathay =/ and the movie was much more enjoyable too! - cheered a sad me up :)) favourite quote - the Mad Hatter: “You used to be much muchier before. ... You have lost your muchness.”)
18Mar10: "Nodame Cantabile" w Irene, Mf (i thoroughly enjoyed some of the orchestra pieces - SO impressive! the expressions of the actors were really amusing :D)
23Apr10: "Ice Kacang Puppy Love" w Mom (funny, touching and meaningful - about love between friends and family. i cried 3 tissues! cos some touching parts i could really understand the feelings of the characters involved)
Inception
Letters to God (very simple Christian movie)
22Nov10: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" w Ame, Irene (they loved it. pretty good, i guess the main problem i had was that im not familiar with HP :X)
13Dec10: "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" w Sj (not bad, could follow the story unlike HP. like the meaningful teachings, too long - in a post)
2Mar11: "The King's Speech" w Ame (hilarious, inspirational, tho it doesn't impress me that much to understand why it's the Oscar winner)
Mar11: "10 Things I Hate About You" very funny. silly sweet high school romance. just right for having breaks in between doing homework
23May11: "Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides" w Wb Yl Ame Pg (pretty good - scenery, freakish parts, fighting scenes, dressing, humour, bits of Christianity like when the Spanish said "only God gives life")
6Jun11: "Xmen First Class" w Wb Ame Pg (i was very keen on watching it and it was really good! intellectual, makes sense, cool action, some humour)
9Jun11: "Legally Blonde 2" w Irene (seems like some dumb blonde movie but kind of meaningful too - speaking up for yourself and what you stand for)
17Jun11: "Something Borrowed" w Sandy Lisa (quite funny, somewhat meaningful wrt friendships. they didn't like the lack of sense for one part tho)
16Jul11: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" w Irene, Sweetee, Kw (not bad. i didn't understand some parts again but the humour and effects were pretty good)
Aug11 "Horrible Bosses" w Ma (she fell asleep! gosh. the movie was very crude i must say but there was the humour)
25Oct11: "The Three Musketeers" w H (i would rate it 3.5 for humour/intellectual language and 4 for action. it's by the same producer or director as Sherlock! but a bit less awesome albeit a good chill out movie)
5Nov11: "Real Steel" w Hl (action packed but not too hardcore for me. i liked that there was the father and son element and how the father eventually softened his heart and especially the part when charlie was having trouble telling max sth and max was so understanding saying "Don't worry. Your secret's safe with me." touching and demonstrates true fighting spirit)
12Dec11: "50/50" w L (adopting her words - a heavy topic put across in a lighthearted way, but not taking away d meaning. most of it was rather hollywood-ish trashiness but there were a couple of punch lines "u can't change ur parents, but u can change d way u respond to them.")
25Dec11: "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol" w KY (ultimate action packed! super tense almost throughout the movie, and interesting Tom Cruise made it such that not everything happened smoothly - he would jump and misland and get all sorts of injuries..it's really the courage to jump without hesitation even though you are not sure you'll be alive after that. KY loved d movie and said she would watch it again!)
3Jan12: "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" w KY (i love mystery (: and the witty sarcastic dialogues. good level of excitement with the action. didn't understand some parts as usual. i like Holmes and Watson they depict such a true pair of buddies ;D)
23Jan12: "You are the Apple of My Eye" w mom (now i understand why guys like this movie so much - the anxiety of chasing after a girl and the acts schoolboys do to get the girl's attention and hopefully affection. the initial fluttering and the subsequent quarrelling)
22Mar12: "The Iron Lady" w KY (really love Thatcher's sharp words. inspiring and thought-provoking, tho i was still left uncertain of what to do with my life, the movie is definitely an encouraging one)
29Mar12: "Barney's Version" w SJ (a funny movie of a screwed up life of a man who had 3 wives, smoked and drank but very heartwarming at the same time, the relationships with the dad and the 3th wife - quotable quotes!)
27Apr12: "The Hunger Games" w Mom
4May12" "Avengers" w MF n PS (funny, action-packed)
7Jul12: "The Amazing Spiderman"
21Jul12: "The Dark Knight Rises" (fantastic depth, loved the twists)
20Aug12: "ParaNorman" w Mom (simple funny animated movie, heartwarming support)
Performances watched (listing started on 25Apr10)
20Jan10: Patrick Marber's Closer by outoftheBLUE, NUS Science w Pam (
13Mar10: The Rain Came Down Like Pearls the Night I Died... The New Musical - Sing & Tell by Mark Chan w Addy & Jy
21Mar10: Quintessence by NUSCO w CHL
