I Don't Feel Like Picking Up My Life 10:41 PM

Umm, first let me explain the 19 day sabbatical. Ouch. Its called the Overseas Educational Programme. To Vietnam. With my class (weehee :) ) It was extraordinarily fun :P. The diary pages for those 8 days in Vietnam will be posted soon, when I feel free. Which is going to be awhile. The other remaining days were like Chinese New Year, where I had matters of great importance to attend to. Such as binge snacking on pineapple tarts. Anyway, I don't feel like writing lots of stuff now. So I shall later use the wondrous tech tool called the backdating option. :)

Anyway, I heard the latest news from Ms Dheepa's dramatic Computer Sciences lessons. This is apparently what she said:

"Dheepa is a string of characters"
"Dheepa has a value of 6 bytes"
"Fruits are a class and oranges are a subclass"

In her class of 40+ only 4 are Singaporean or PR. The rest are scholars. And one day, all the Singaporeans / PRs sat at the same table. So this is what she said:

"This is a devilish combination. You go there. You go over there. And you go over there."

I briefly contemplated putting a link to the e-card that Jon Tang sent to me for New Year, because it was seriously obiang (is that how you spell that?). Then I realized that its the thought that counts, and I was being unappreciative, stupid and mean. Anyway, some things are pretty hard to say face-to-face, so if you are reading this now Jon Tang, which you probably will one fine day, I'm sorry for being like that. Thanks for being so thoughtful. :)

I think I take too many things for granted.

By the way, Jonathan needed those ornamental plate stands to prop up small paintings for charity bazaar, so this is what he said to his mum on the phone (it has been edited a teensy weensy bit to increase its literary appeal :) ):

"Hi mum, I need some plates!"

Anyway, today at NCDCC, Daniel was actually pointing out mistakes to the year 1s nicely. It wasn't a scolding. He was actually talking nicely to them. This is new.

Anyway, I feel emo today. I thought about my life and I felt like I did everything wrong. I don't want to care anymore. I also realize, as I thought of everything that happened in my life, that life tears people apart. I guess thats just something I'm gonna have to accept someday.

Yeah.......

Kayaking Day 2 11:04 PM

Jonathan Tang sent me an evil email to laugh at me being sent for this....

Hey,

How's things with you? Was Kayaking fun? Not meaning to rub it in if it was not. Just concerned.

Jonathan Tang

------

The niceness is all a devious facade.......

Moving on....

Today the main part of the kallang basin is being used for competition, and they started already. Meaning that we had to carry our kayaks around to the other side. The kayaks are freaking heavy.

First thing we started was rafted tx rescue. My group got this extremely grouchy senior CLT who yelled at us the whole time. I want to cry already.

It's almost impossible to do. Both the times I did, either as rescuer or assistant, I managed to do. Then the CLT started yelling at us for being too slow. When I was the victim, and Andrew the rescuer, cannot do. Epic fail.

CLTs were also doing rescue. It was highly amusing to watch Daniel Lim capsize. He screamed help so loudly that people on the opposite side of the basin heard him. Haha lolz :)

But I am sooo happy we didn't do it in open sea.

After lunch the instructors decided not to be so sadistic and make us do capsize drill and rescue. We went on a short expedition instead, all the way up to the Marina Barrage.

Once we got out of the kallang basin, the currents were quite strong. And the waves were really bumpy. There were all these Ducktour boats, so we had to keep to one side.

There was a lot of bumping around, and boats crashing into each other. Kept meeting Joel Toi, he seemed upset about the bumping around. But once you break away from the crowd, and kayak ahead, it became really fun.

For the record, I was second there and second back. Second cuz I slowed down at the end to avoid being the one tied to the buoy.

The underneath of Benjamin Shears Bridge is highly fascinating.

We went very close to the Marina Barrage, and I've never seen it so near before. Maybe it was creating all the waves. I hope it does it's job soon and make the kallang basin less salty.

On the whole kayaking was very fun. Did I mention that it was for one star certification? I hope I dun phail.

Time to go home after that. I'm dead tired, with tons of homework to do.

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Kayaking 11:04 PM

Okay first things first. After my post about the CCA exhibition yesterday, Jonathan Tang sent me an email detailing his point of view. And it was a very funny email mind you. That's why I'm putting it here, and also because "our readers must know the truth" So here goes:

HI.

Just read your blog. For the record, I can be very encouraging when i want to but that is like really rare and SOME people just think i am being sarcastic so that makes compliments even rarer. And apparently Dr. Samson Tan like made a pact with Li Yen See that he wont touch Philharmonic students on Sats. ( I have practice from 11 - 1). Benedict however has Li's permission to go ... and i dont.

SO JUST BEFORE YOU GOSSIP ABOUT ME SOME MORE, I HAFF MY REASONS !!!!!!!


Dont worry. Your sins are forgiven.

Jonathan Tang

Now, here's a compliment: Thanks for everything. You are 1 good guy.

------

Not a bad idea to turn this blog into a gossip blog eh? :)

We met at Kallang MRT, before walking to the Singapore Canoe Federation at the kallang basin. I'm freaking nervous. Someone remind me why I'm here for this.

The CLTs are in a separate group, which makes me both very sad and very happy at the same time. You already know why.

Joel Toi was there also, which is a nice thing.

Swim 50m first. Easy, except with shoes, and disgusting tasting water that freaking stings your eyes.

Capsize drills first. I'm scared. The water is murky, and the seabed is muddy. Halfway through was lunch. Torture resumes, and it's my turn. Yuck! The water tastes disgusting. The whole experience was disgusting.

After that it was actually not that bad, maybe even fun. Okay, it was fun after that. :) Our group got instructor David, who is extremely nice. He taught us both side draw for moving sideways, which helps a lot when rafting up.

The enthu people are here today. Again.

Oh yes :) Andrew has read the earlier posts on this blog, and deduced that the silly little enthu people refer to him. He finds that not very nice, and says I have been poking fun and gossiping about him. He thinks that the contents of this blog are not objective. (Its a blog, duh it's biased...)

Anyway, he wants me to say that he's nice. So here goes. He's nice. Oh alright! I admit it, Andrew has been a very good friend. Thanks a million for everything. :) Just dun be so enthu next time :P You do know that you were the one who told Dr Samson Tan that I wanted to go for this...

The rest of the day as actually really fun. Kayaling is actually fun. The wind got really strong, and we kept getting blown down to the other end of the basin, so we had to row back agaisnt the wind.

We beached up, and watched a demonstration of the rafted tx rescue. They said we need to do this in open sea, and that means that someone needs to capsize in open sea to be rescued. I want to cry.

Andrew was enthu (sorry :) ) and tried to do the rescue before we went home. Epic fail. They make it look so easy, but it's actually very difficult.
Before we went home, I realized that for the first time in my life, I can actually kayak in a straight line. Yay! :)

On the way home, I realized that Andrew accidentally took my red t-shirt. So he put it through the laundry for me. Thanks :)

I'm dead exhausted, I just fell asleep once I got home. Woke for dinner and slept again. Morning comes too soon

Geolocate this post.

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happy... 11:29 PM

Today went really well, I couldn't ask for more, and I dun think it could have gone better.

First lesson was Ms Choy's Bio Prac. Which was fun. I like bio. It was the first prac, so I suppose thats why they did some cells under a microscope thing. Epithelial, stained with either methylene blue or iodine. And Elodea too. We actually had some spare time, so we got to see red blood cells and white blood cells.....

I think I was pretty lucky. I got a perfect focus on visually appealing cells for each specimen. Unlike some other practicals. The Elodea cells were really nice looking especially before the methylene blue had fully diffused. It was a gradient in fantastic shades of green and purple. I kept saying something about that scientists should use the Elodea cells as their wallpaper.

Later on, Saurub told me that the Elodea nuclei are visible only when you stain it with iodine. I didn't see the nucleus because i used the methylene blue. I think its a nicer color. I think iodine is not very visually appealing. But its an interesting side note. 

Later on there was supposed to also be Bio theory. So cool right? Bio twice in one day! :) But I didn't appear for that cuz I had to leave class for the Year 1 CCA Recruitment. All Andrew's fault, go and tell OC that I wanted to do it. >:( Missing lessons, especially Physics is suicide. The stuff is so difficult this year.

Anyway, Alex Ng wanted to put up a tent in the middle of the SAC. And everyone was running around looking for all the brochures we printed. It was with Alex Ng. But he also brought the free postcards from the Civil Defense Museum. A rather large stack. Thats actually very resourceful.

Here is Andrew in the funny SCDF suit....

Enthu.

Lee Zheng came too, and Daniel arrived when it ended. LOLz. Apparently both are staying on for IB. Which is a good and bad thing. Respectively. 

BTW both are CLTs already. Bleugh, I hoped Daniel would just buzz off. But Lee Zheng kind of balances that out. I'm just really happy about that.

Like almost at the end, I was feeling tired, sad for no apparent reason, a little ignored. I really don't know why. So Lee Zheng came and sat next to me, and we kinda talked (about random stuff, like piano....). I think maybe he was trying to cheer me up. Duno. But that was nice of him. 

For some funny reason, I am now going for the NCDCC Kayaking course. Apparently Gavin pulled out. And Jonathan Tang didn't want to go. ("Wah, fine lah Jonathan!") So Dr Tan asked if I could go. Then I said yes. And after a couple of moments Lee Zheng said "Do you know Daniel is going also?". I kinda just flopped over. ("Maybe you should have said that earlier?!") And Jonathan was like "Oh, you just signed for two days of torture." ("Jon Tang! You are very encouraging....") At least Lee Zheng's coming too. Which like the earlier situation, makes things okay in the end.

Bye Bye.

its a long day 10:12 PM

I duno how I should say my day was. There were kind of like good bits and bad bits. So lets see....

Chinese lesson first. Like I mentioned, we got a really nice Chinese Teacher. Anyway, I think her name in an earlier post is wrong, it should be Ms Ivy Goh. And our physics teacher's surname is Chan. Mr Jason Chan. Okay, anyway Ms Goh was a little extra when she asked us to copy stuff from the shou ce. And she spent quite a long time explaining each keyword. Which is a good thing, actually. But anyway, I did the copying thingy homework while she was explaining. Haha.... :) So I didn't have any homework when I got home. I'm trying to be more productive this year too.

We had our first proper C Math lesson. And I was totally wrong about Mr Kenneth Ong. Totally misjudged. I thought he was going to be some boring droning teacher. In fact, his lessons were really interesting and funny. (funny haha, not funny peculiar...) Apparently, his mobile phone number is a Secret, and so is term 3 coursework theme. (*so store the numbers under a secret code name like "Mads", and don't make it too obvious*)His jokes are so funny, and there are so many I can't remember..... I was laughing like crazy. He's also good at teaching, like he's totally serious when explaining important stuff.

Our Lang Arts A teacher is Ms (difficult to spell firstname) Bose. She didn't introduce herself until someone asked her too, she said she thought she was already very famous/infamous. The she wrote her name on the board, and said "like the bose speaker". She's really funny, in a sarcastic kind of way. 

Student leans on door

Bose: You have become one with the door, leaning .......

Student: I didn't.....

Bose: So that means that I am a hundred years old and am seeing things in front of my eyes.

Later

Bose: Please do not become one with the door, or the wall, or the chair

A few other one-liners, that i sadly cannot remember....... She's an interesting teacher....

Moving on, for some funny reason I am now helping out with the Yr 1 CCA exhibition (for NCDCC). Ugghh! I should've said no. Andrew wants to attend the NCDCC Kayaking course. I think thats insane. Especially when the NCDCC officers are sadists. 

I think MPac is completely screwed. Everything, including marketing is messed up. I'm over with writing proposal and report after report and proposal, when 2 years on they still achieve nothing. I'm also angry that Michael Ong wrote an email to everyone, teachers included, in a way that suggested he did everything, from conference planning, to graphical design.

I'm through with MPac. Its completely stupid and ridiculous. People are soooo apathetic. The workplace culture sucks. I think I'm going to start my own film studio, with a couple other more motivated people. I'm canceling the MPac conference, and taking it to my own studio. I'm taking all my ideas with me.

Art was pretty cool, until 6 though, so a little long.

So would you see today as a good one or a bad one? I dun really know what to make of it.....

a random day 10:48 PM

Today we met more of our new teachers for this year. Mr Moghan Das will be taking IHS, and Ms Ivy Goh will be taking Chinese. Miss Ong Advanced Math. Fantastic isn't it? :) Oh yeah, and Mr Das is a very funny teacher.....

When I got home today, I found that Lucas' PSL team told their year ones that I am very scary. Oh dear. 

One more thing, I now have spiky blue manga-esque hair in Second Life. If you don't already know, my name in SL is Lynx Criss. 

Oh, one last thing, we were brainstorming for new names for MPac, and a possible rebranding, and Kapilan came up with this fantastic idea. I can't really say much about it yet, but lookout for a film studio with a much cooler name. 

One very last thing, I have Art and Design tomorrow, Wheeeeeeee! I already sorted through like 2000+ photos and picked the best 138. Wheeeeeee! Did I mention I transferred about 1000+ over wifi from another computer? Wheeeeee!

Storming 11:40 AM

I am very angry today with a bunch of immature idiots. Basically, someone lent out the MPac iMac, without even consulting the IT Manager, to the Student Council. It was returned with a scratch all the way down one side, and a long scratch on the top. Even worse, the Student Council was camwhoring, and didn't even remove those photos. Apparently, from the photos, the iMac was left out in the sun.

Its simply unthinkable that people nowadays do not have any respect for other people's property. If it was just any other computer, then its not so bad. But people fail to understand that Macs are professional grade research and production supercomputers, and that their laptops can run easily to $7000, and desktops $4000++. Each Mac is a work of art, a scratch can ruin the whole minimalist appearance. Worse still is the fact that this is the Student Council. They are supposed to be role models. Absolutely disgraceful. To think that these same people will be next generation of business leaders is more than mildly disturbing. I shudder to think of the kind of corporate social irresponsibility doomed to befall the future leadership of companies both local and multinational.

Frankly these bas***ds should simply be shot dead. One begins to wonder why they abolished death by firing squad. Sometimes its actually quite fitting.

Disgraceful.

First Day of School 11:38 AM

So today is the first day of school, and our CT is now Ms Fiona Ho, PCTs Ms Ong Mui Hong and Ms Choy Min. Too bad Turrance is not teaching us anymore. Maybe he hates our class. We are going to Vietnam instead of Shanghai, not happy about it. The flight is only 4 hrs. Practically nonexistent, especially when one has flown transatlantic 20+ hours non-stop, with a 3 hr transit to another 5 hr flight added on. Total traveling time 28+ hrs. Yes, that is my longest journey. Anyway, Ms Ho has this habit of inhaling deeply in the middle of a sentence:

"I now think that it is time for you to *huuuggghh* go to Lecture Theatre 2"

Its all quite funny really, and Jeremy Ong thinks its all very screwed up this year. Nico thinks Ms Ho is crazy, Kapilan too. Anyway, Lucas thinks that Ms Ong is a very nice teacher. I don't disagree, especially outside class. But I think she should smile more. Its a little funny when a person you see throughout the whole year doesn't smile.

I finally got Apple MobileMe, my calendars, address-books and email are perfectly synchronized. I am happy with my life when its in perfect order. I have also resolved to be more organized this year, on top of my earlier resolution to be less mean.

Oh yes, and I got upstaged during chemistry. I am very angry about it. Basically the question was what was the fifth state of matter, so I put up my hand, and then this person at the back just blurted out the answer. How barbaric. Anyway, if you were wondering the answer is the Bose-Einsteinuim Condensate. Less than half of all matter is capable of achieving this state.

We got this fantastic physics teacher, Mr Jason (oh no, I forgot his surname, I will find out later).

When I came home I read this inspirational article on Zenhabits about happiness. I am very inspired, I shall also resolve to be a more happy person this year. Zenhabits is a website about removing physical and mental clutter. Go google the name, the articles are very inspiring.

So that was the first day of school...........

Last Day of Holidays 11:31 AM

Holidays were retarded. Too many MPac meetings. Marketing is in disaster cuz no one is doing anything.

Its 2009 now.

BTW Lee Zheng is a CLT already. If u are reading this now, Thanks a million!