Busy Once Again 11:16 PM

Two weeks. The busiest two weeks ever. I hate life.

Today I got scolded like crazy by Mr Goh Yan Yih, for a delayed Biotech Fair registration. Said I was utterly irresponsible. All because _______ promised me he would get it done, the night before. And didn't. I feel sad. Upset. Disappointed.

By the way Jeremy and Joseph prompted/reminded/forced me to write this post XD

I discovered I probably shredded a tendon/muscle in my right lower leg. I hope its not. The consequences of jumping around like crazy during PE. Oh yeah, and I think my NAPFA probably epic phail. 

Yeah, so I can't tilt my foot toes pointing upwards. And yeah, later I went and played a piano piece that required a legato pedal. It was... difficult.

I was forced to go for haircut after school, by my mum, to which I took great umbrage.

Anyway, I happen to be using hair gel, which is probably not very easy to cut. Normally, they would use a spray that dissolves the gel, and makes my hair easier to cut. Today they didn't. I was thinking like "okay, here comes an interesting experiment..." So I didn't say anything. So throughout the whole time, the electric hair cutter was making these wonderfully fascinating loud grinding noises.

The hair cutter jammed a few times, I think, and the hand scissors made lots of crunchy noises. Because of the gel, my hair clumped together when cut, and after a while, I became surrounded by a sea of these little black sea urchins.

Then they put hair mousse at the end. On top of my hair gel. I wondered briefly if an adverse chemical reaction might occur... . By the time I got home, the reagents seemed to have formed a mousse-gel complex that possess great tensile strength and hardness. It feels the equivalent of a bed of nails. 

I hope its water soluble.

Parliament House 2:06 PM

Today we visited Parliament House for our Moot Parliament project. Let's just say it wasn't what I expected it to be.

Three minutes before the sitting of Parliament at 1.30 pm, a bell rings continuously to inform MPs that they need to get to their seats. At 1.30 only two MPs had arrived. The rest walked in midway through the proceedings. Very few came in the end, there were a lot of empty seats. To be honest I had this impression that parliament is always fully seated when in seating... well, MPs must be very busy people...

Out of those who came I saw...

_____ talking on the phone

_____ sleeping/slouching

_____ leave right after he answered his question

Well I suppose it wasn't such a important/hotly debated bill being heard today, hence the observations XD

After that went for the CIP at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. It was okay. Ms Choy spotted this spider web with thousands of baby spiders. It was just amazing... :)

CD Knowledge 2:05 PM

Oh my goodness. You wouldn't believe how boring CD knowledge was. Its a revision of everything we learnt at NCDCC so far...

MEW, Miao, Miaowed 1:34 PM

Concurrent sessions were the first thing today. None of the ACS SLs went again. We kinda just sat on the porch and slacked around playing phone games. We also tried to solve this diabolical wooden puzzle which they gave as a door gift yesterday, which tends to fall apart when not fully solved and send pieces flying everywhere...

There was this funnily arranged bench next to the one where we were sitting until it started to rain...

Then we went for this awesome maths treasure hunt thingy at the Marina Barrage. Jeremy didn't come today because of NCC, Kylie didn't come because she said she wanted to sleep in. Lolz... I spent most of the time talking to Daryl about stuff, about life. Its nice to know people still understand you...

The Marina Barrage looks ultra-futuristic, like something straight out of AEON Flux...

The treasure hunt questions were really interesting, and my team was totally awesome :) Thanks a million you guys :) ...

The teams were of course not supposed to collaborate, but we did all the same, Daryl too XD

So at the end, RGS was giving a "discipline talk" (they organized this year's MEW). Except that they made a joke out of the whole thing XD . They said it was no laughing matter, then started laughing. They then started talking about the spirit of the mathematician , where they drew a picture of a ghost with a pi symbol for its nose...

Lolz :) MEW was quite fun I guess...

Jeremy Ong Pai Kia Wannabe 9:00 PM

Today was the first day of the Maths Enrichment Workshop, also known as MEW.

It is held at Dunman High School this year. Which is supposed to have a new campus, but in actual fact looks quite old fashioned. I arrived at the school to a rather shocking revelation. Today Jeremy Ong tried to be a pai kia, and epic phailed. See picture. (Sorry Jeremy... :) )

We went late for the briefing for student leaders, because I had no idea it existed, and the people who knew it existed didn't tell us. I don't think that the briefing contained anything important though, since all the details were printed out in paper already.

The first half of the day was spent playing a great number of absolutely cheesy "ice-breaker" games. They did it in the auditorium which had air-con, only they didn't switch it on, and they used fans instead. Which is quite annoying. I was paired with Kylie from Nanyang. We were talking about random things than actually doing our job as student leaders... XD

I think I disturbed Daryl Chen a bit much by saying I thought he was very emo. And giving him the reasons why. I said that his blog was black with lots of these gothic patterns. Sorry :)

Just before lunch the teacher in charge told us that all the student leaders could do what we want. We could attend concurrent sessions if we wanted or just go home. 

I tried going for a concurrent session of cryptography, but none of the other ACS student leaders went, and I was feeling tired. And the room looked boring. So I went home...

Lol :)

Fiona Ho on Marriage 9:56 AM

I think we have the quote of the year today. 

"Just pick who you want and see how long it lasts"

--Ms Fiona Ho on marriage

I guess it had some deeper meaning, but she made it sound so superficial that I think we all completely missed it and went howling with laughter :) The whole lesson was a laughing session as usual :)

The cold I caught yesterday continues. Except it gets worse. The classroom was way too cold. Kept going outside. Sneezing and sneezing. Daryl and Tenn Joe thought I was crying and tried to be nice to me. Lolz. For the record I was not. I told them, and they didn't believe me.

I tried to go to sleep during A Math, because Ms Ong didn't come. I was disturbed quite a few times by some people. I find that rude. I also find it rude that people can be so noisy when its so obvious someone's trying to sleep. 

By evening I had got a terrible fever and cold. Again. Really really diabolically ill. On three different medications. Again. I could shoot myself for a careless mistake that might have cost me my life. Missed one antibiotics dose. Fell sick again. 

Thanks a million to the friends who were there for me, I don't think I would still be here if not for you :)

I made the hardest decision of my life today. I was given the opportunity to join the Science Competition Team. Unfortunately it clashed with my research schedule, in a way that could not be reconciled. So the choice is between research and competition. Since primary school, I kinda always wanted to do science quizzes stuff. 

I chose research.

I felt that I make a bigger difference at research. Its there I can create concepts and ideas that might change the world. How much can you change by winning science olympiads or quizzes? I felt that even when you win some big science quiz, people will eventually forget you. But if you research, and discover something, people will remember you forever.

That's how I want to be remembered.

You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end each of us must work for his own improvement, and at the same time share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful.
--Marie Curie

Different 9:48 PM

I must have the nicest bunch of friends in the whole wide world.

Its really nice how I can rest at home with the peace of mind that everything will be left in good hands. Jeremy Ong and Nico settled a ton of Moot Parliament paperwork for me while I was unwell. Jonathan Tang went so far as to email me a subject by subject summary of what happened the whole day, from start to end.

Thank you people, I appreciate everything you did. :) A lot.

Science Research was pretty interesting, and we were doing fluorescent microscopy. Its interesting to be able to see individual bacterium. We discussed a little more on our research projects.

It was quite a weird afternoon. First I still had a cold, and I was sneezing and snuffling crazily the whole way through. Then Environmental Focus Group came along and started to cook grass in these huge vats over bunsen burners. The fumes were quite terrible. EFG didn't bother with opening the windows.

I guess being in bed unwell the whole day kinda left me thinking about my life again.

I think I'm too stressed. I'm told I'm too stressed. In no uncertain terms by a doctor. I think I know why I'm stressed. Because I try too hard to be good at everything. But I guess everyone is different, and we can't really be good at everything.

I guess that the all rounded education thingy is really misguided. Its asking for nothing less than for us to be excellent in everything. I guess maybe some people are lucky enough to be able to do that. Its not the same for the rest of us.

Why can't they let us do the things that we are best at? Isn't what we are best at or not so good at that defines at least part of who we are? Most of the time nowadays, we're so busy we can't really spend time doing the stuff that we are really good at.

Why can't they accept that we are different?

Perpetuation of Moribundity 1:20 PM

I must be a lousy friend.

I was not exactly happiest yesterday, what with forcing myself to come to school with terrible migraine and cough. Only to be bossed about by someone. I told that person to go away and that I dictate my own schedule. I hate it when people always tell you where you're supposed to be, constantly assuming that you are perpetually free. Especially, when they themselves hardly know what's going on in their own life and schoolwork. Being committed is one thing, being asked to drop everything else just for that one thing is just rude.

I mean I will always be willing to help out a friend in any way I can, anytime and anywhere. But when it comes to stuff like going together for courses and stuff (especially if you know I probably do not like the thing), at least ask properly instead of dragging people along.

So after that I think I yelled at some other people. I don't think I'll ever forgive myself for taking it out on other people. I think I hurt a few friends. I hope you guys will read this someday, because I'm really, really sorry. I think I'm more short-tempered than when I was smaller. Its the first time I remember taking out my anger on other people. I'm sorry.

Flag raising was quite messed up in terms of admin matters. I remember saying, "This has to happen on a day when I'm hardly at my best. People are going to die." I'm meaner than I thought I am.

I was also double-crossed by someone I thought of as a friend.

Migraine got worse. I took temperature: 38.3 deg C.

Today still feeling quite sick, so I didn't go to school and went to see a doctor. To the people who want me dead, you have something to be happy about. 

I was diagnosed with early pneumonia. 

At least its nice to know I still have friends who still care. Friends who are extremely responsible and dependable, who settled a lot of stuff for me while I'm out of school, or called to keep me informed about stuff which I should know about. With you guys, I can rest with peace of mind that everything is left in good hands. You guys have won my deepest trust long ago. Friends who send a simple "get well" note on FaceBook or something. 

I hope you read that paragraph, because I really, really appreciate everything you people did for me.

FHM Magazine 12:53 PM

As promised by Jeremy Ong, here are the juicy details about Ms Fiona Ho. But because what you are about to read might be a teensy bit too sensational,

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Okay, lets start with a bit of background. The noodles in Vietnam are called Pho, something we found out when we went to this place called Pho 24. A couple of weeks after coming back from Vietnam, we discovered that Ms Fiona Ho labelled the back of her clip board with the word "FHO", which I suppose are her initials. Anyhow we pronounce it the same way as Pho, and call her that.

There were quite a number of FHO jokes. Like writing "Fhonetics Lesson" on the board before FHOs lesson. Or telling her that we "Fho-got to bring our book". So we said a lot of it in front of her. Other words include For and Four becoming Fho. She still doesn't get the joke, weeks and weeks on.

Then we wanted to take a picture of the FHO word on her clipboard. Then someone said that isn't an original work of art, and that we should steal the clipboard. Lolz :) We didn't steal it of course.

Today someone suggested that she should be the poster girl for Pho 24 noodles. And we talked about life-sized cutouts of FHO holding a bowl of noodles wearing her trademark "Do you get the picture?" expression. 

Then someone suggested that she should grace the cover of the Fiona Ho Magazine, FHM for short. Someone had a very graphic narrative on her appearance if she did appear on FHM. Unfortunately, because this blog is not supposed to have explicit content, It shall not be written here. Sorry :)

Someone suggested that we look for a good picture of FHO so that we can photoshop a spoof FHM cover page :)

This blog seems to be covering rather sensational stuff. Maybe I should start writing scandals. I think I wanna be a journalist when I grow up. I think this blog is turning into some kind of tabloid.

Which is exactly the way I want it to be :)

Moribundity 12:49 PM

Major migraine today. With dizziness and a cough to go. I was forcing myself to get through piano and tuition. At piano, I managed for the first time to do a theory exam question without any correcting by my piano teacher. Tuition was a disaster. Got scolded for exam marks. 25/50. 

Will try to go school tomorrow.

2 Star Kayaking Last Day 7:21 PM

Lets begin by saying that the title in itself is a complete lie. Here's why. It rained in the morning, so we started late. Then it rained in the middle of the assessment. Meaning we need to come down again to take the assessment. Which in itself is impossible. Because if I miss another karate lesson, I think I've as good as failed the next grading. Which is not a good thing.

At least I'm not so afraid of the Eskimo Bow rescue as I was when we started. Why? I did it with someone I actually trust instead, Michal :)

We took shelter at Singapore Indoor Stadium when it rained the second time. It rained a total of four times in the three day course.

Going home I realized forgot ez-link card. So I borrowed Andrew's. TGFF - Thank god for friends. Also got caught up with the stupid minimum top up amount. Silly MRT people.

When I came home I did something that always makes me happy, I fell asleep listening to music, and the headphones in my ear. I fell asleep on the words:

Why do you look so familiar

I could swear that I 

Have seen your face before
I think I like that you seem sincere
I think I like to get 

To know you a little bit more

From the song Who Knows by Avril Lavigne

Friday Busyness 7:11 PM

I was talking to Jeremy Ong on the phone the whole of yesterday evening. Thanks a million Jeremy :) Its always nice to know that there are people out there who understand how you feel, and are always there for you.

My schedule was insane today. Climate change conference at 10am. Mind Games meeting at 1.20pm. NCDCC Guard of Honor Meeting 2pm. Science Research meeting 2.30pm. Back to NCDCC 5pm.

The climate change conference at NUS was pretty good. The speaker was excellent. There was a lot of stuff we could use for our Moot Parliament bill and hopefully debate.

Missed C Math because of the conference, and found out how I am far down the homework list later to great shock and horror. I was fifth from the top the last lesson. Oh dear.

Mind Games meeting was okay, I am in scrabble, which is a good thing, seeing as I am terrible at chess, and would be bored to death my IQ quizzes. I also happen to be emcee. With Rohan Shah. :) Which is a very good thing.

Alex Ng was late for the GoH meeting. No surprises here. Lee Zheng is surprised with the appearance of my brother. Like lots of other people. Do we really look so similar? I think we look completely different.

Science Research went okay I guess. Our research on Nano-biotechnology got the go ahead from Mr Goh Yan Yi. I made a fool of myself explaining my own proposal. Drew a diagram of a T4 bacteriophage when I was talking about a M13. This is what happens when you don't get enough sleep.

Hoping Mr Goh can get me the scientific papers which I need. 

Back to NCDCC after that. It was okay I guess.

Haiz, Kayaking 2 Star assessment tomorrow. Wish me luck. I need it :)

Life Looking Back at Me 5:23 PM

Some of my friends are really not liking life at all. Upset about everything about themselves or their life. Feeling like they are never good enough. Demoralized, hurt and alone. Just know that you are not the only one. Just know that I feel the same way too. Just know that if you need a friend to talk to, I'll always be there for you. It doesn't matter if you need to rant for literally hours on end, because I'll always be listening. I owe it to the people who have done the same for me.

To you, I am a friend

To me, you mean the world

I think the education culture here needs to change. We have tests and exams week after week, parents who don't understand how we feel, who set unachievable goals and compare us to other people, hundreds of projects and thousands of assignments, tons of other commitments, until we don't have time to be just who we are - kids.

Why are our projects powerpoint presentation? Why aren't they stuff like making a leaf collection? Behind the forced smiles, kids are being killed slowly inside. Sometimes people think that some of us are lucky enough to have perfect lifes, just because we tried our best to hide the tears and pain.

To me living a life thats about exams and benchmarks and not about enjoying life as it is, is to live a lie.

I think the value of UYO as a leadership development tool is very misguided. I don't think it should be compulsory. Come on people! The only reason people listen to you in a UYO is because of rank and hierarchy. You have not won your people's respect. Yelling at people or punishing them to get them to do what you want them to is not leadership. Its just intimidation and bullying. 

Of course there are some really good UYO leaders out there who are exceptions to what's written here.

Leadership to me is coming in on the same level as everyone else, as one of your own people, and inspiring them to do great things. Thats why to my best ability, I don't scream and shout and be mean to the people I lead. Call me inefficient, and an ineffective leader, but thats how I want to win respect, thats how I want to lead. This is the kind of leader that I am.

I hate the things and the people who try to take away my individuality and the stuff that make me who I am. The people who try to make me someone else. I am Allister, I am me. Just try to stop me.

I think that its morally irresponsible for countries to auction artifacts that came from another country. Its the same as selling stuff you stole.

I saw a really big mushroom while walking home. That made me happy.

I think we just need to stop and appreciate the little things that make life great.

Comparisons 6:02 PM

A Math marks came back today. 44/50. Again I was happy until I looked at other people's marks. Everyone else is too smart. They do their homework months ahead of time. 

I discovered that Ms Ong Mui Hong is actually very nice, despite the fierce persona she put up in sec 1. We had a really fun PC lesson. Earlier on when I went to the staff-room with her to get stuff for the class, I told her how I felt about the kind of marks I got. In her words:

Don't compare with other people

Compare with yourself

Life Sciences Symposium 10:10 PM

Today was busy. I had to go to 4 different labs just to get the materials for the PCR. Rushing around the whole morning.

I was doing direct PCR technology with a commercial biotech company. Google for "direct PCR" to find out more.

Our team won the Life Sciences Symposium challenge for year three. It was about building a mini-generator. We won by 6 volts. Using just saltwater, zinc and copper. They gave the wrong trophy, so gotta go find the solar car people and exchange with them.

Oh yes, when I told Nicholas I need to be at two booths (generator also need to exhibit) and didn't know what to do,  he had the best reply ever:

"So tell them that you couldn't make up your mind which one to go to. And say "Then I was dizzy. So I sat down""

:) Nicholas always makes a situation happy

Daniel Shim and Jin Chong and a couple of other friends came to visit :) Thanks for coming!

Lee Zheng came like when I was packing up. :( Worse still I was out of the lab returning equipment when he came. :( We just said a quick hello and bye.

Packing up took like an hour, because cannot remember which stuff belongs to which lab. And also because we just chucked the micropipette heads through the holes of the sink cover, only to find that we need to used screwdriver to open that particular sink. There was a lot of jokes about Mdm Reena, and her grouchiness as lab tech. Someone did a very good impersonation. The jokes were about how she scolds people for anything, including returning stuff. Ms Ong wanted someone to return a lot of stuff to Mdm Reena, and he was like "do you want me to die or what? :)" lolz. We wanted to give her buffer solution as a present, because we couldn't remember where it came from.

Somehow I remember all the little things the clearest. The friends I make. The funny stuff we say. I remember these things so much more than the research itself. 

This makes it my third time doing symposium. I'll do it every year for as long as I am here. I always keep the "Official" tags. I keep stuff that reminds me of the funnest times of my life :)

I feel a little sad its over so soon. I look forward to it every year.

Thanks millions to Frederick Wijaja and Jonta Koga, because the exhibition would have gotten nowhere without you :)

Met Lee Zheng and someone I know from karate at roundabout and I said goodbye to both of them. 

Under the Weather 9:54 PM

I feel moribund today. Here's why. I awoke today with a splitting headache, bad cold, cough, sore throat. Its all the fault of the enthu person who dragged me along for kayaking. I will never forgive you.

Life Sciences Symposium preparation was thus totally messed up. I hate it when I have appointments messed up. I felt left out too. Everyone is busy preparing for the symposium tomorrow, and here I am in bed unwell. I didn't have the presence of mind to inform Ms Ong Wei Ling, and she spent the whole afternoon looking for me. I feel guilty doing this to nice people.

When Ethan got home today he told me about his conversation with Jon Tang. Jon Tang asked if I was coming today, and Ethan told him that I was unwell, and explained everything. Then Jon Tang said something like "Oooh! Now I have a piece of gossip to spread"

Looks like that's how much I matter to other people.  T.T  Sick for one day and they start to spread malicious rumors about you. Thought I could trust Jon Tang. I guess I'm too naive. I only want to see the good side of people, and I want to believe that human nature is not evil. I guess that when you're like that people take advantage of you. I guess I'll need to change someday.

Kayaking 2 Star Day 2 8:15 PM

Today do Eskimo Bow Rescue. Never felt so distressed in my whole life. Basically, after you capsize, you hold your breath underwater, wave for help, wait till it comes, and use the bow of the rescuer's boat to flip yourself up. The fact that you can't see makes it scarier. The water is awful.

I did something extremely careless today. Its not related to kayaking. I also said something extremely tactless. I duno how to say sorry for the second one. I should've been more sensitive. A bit like how I accidentally reminded Jeremy Ong about Moot Parliament (he didn't get in). Twice actually. I'm really really sorry, I just duno how to say it to the people that I hurt.

Lee Zheng figured out that I was dragged along for this. He told me something along the lines of, since you are here already, might as well do it well. I'll take that as encouragement.

It rained again. This time it was freezing cold. Not fun at all. 

While waiting for the rain to stop, we were talking with Michal about Daniel Lim. So much, until Lee Zheng said "Can you stop talking about Daniel Lim?" It was really interesting. Like this conversation that Michal and Daniel had during 1 Star Kayaking:

Michal: Hi Daniel! :)

Daniel ignores

Michal: Why I say hi you never say hi? Its very rude you know?

Daniel: Hi (sarcastic)

We arrived at the conclusion that Daniel is too tactless, and too direct.

Walking back to the MRT, me and Lee Zheng were talking about what we wanted to do with our life, he wanted to be an engineer, I wanted to do biotechnology. I guess we're very different people. Its just that I feel biotechnology is where I can make a difference.

Dinner out with family, at this place called Jack's Place. It was yummy.

As I lied down in bed that night, I thought about my whole life and everything that has happened to me. And I realized I should never look back on my mistakes, just not repeat them again, that's all. 

Knowledge is a degree which incorporates life's curriculum.