ACS won best opposition at Moot Parliament this year. You probably think I’m happy. Well I’m not. I’m very angry at GEP branch. They’re a screwed up bunch of cretins (the irony) and they’ve treated some people very unfairly. GEP branch, we’ve already made our opinions clear through the school. Get your act together and stop being such an embarrassment.
To that friend who has been so torn and so hurt because of all of this... I’m so sorry for everything that happened. It was never once your fault. There’s nothing more that you could have done. Please don’t blame yourself for any of this.....
If ever you need me..... I’ll be waiting for your call.
________________________
Somewhere last week, in the bleak, cold thunderstorm of never ending work, pressure, anxiety, trouble, worry, pain, finally I snapped. I didn’t anymore have the strength to carry on, I didn’t anymore have the will to live.
I locked myself in the bathroom. The tears flowed, as I held a small vial of medicine which was labelled to have lethal consequences when overdosed. I held in my hand many times the maximum dosage of that medicine, debating in my head whether or not I should just do it, as I cried my eyes out. To end it all right then, would have been so easy.
That single desperate hour, is the worst kind of hell I’ve ever felt. I’ve never felt so wretched, so alone, so desolate. Life is difficult, painful, unforgiving. Death is peaceful, easy.
I didn’t do it. I knew I was gonna miss someone when I’m at the some other place you go when you die. I knew he would miss me too. I put the poison back. I’m not sure if that was the right thing to have done.
It had to come to this, because for that hour at least, life had lost all meaning. I think I knew what was missing.
Its true that the Singaporean education system does produce good grades. Its true that academically its a success. Its true that it excels in any measurable criteria.
But it fails in what is immeasurable.
Learning shouldn’t be something that is dreaded, something that is to be terrified of. Unfortunately that’s the way it seems here. Just take a look at the endless amount of homework, projects etc. that have to be finished by students who are in school before sunrise, and home long after dusk.
Our education system produces great academic results. Unfortunately it also produces students who end up hating learning, who end up stressed, tired, angry, who are pushed to the point of trying to end their lives. Hatred. Anger. Suicide. Death.
They call that a “world-class” education system.
Learning should have been fun, enjoyable. Something that I could have looked forward too. The reality is that it isn’t. Because this education stole from me, and stole from every single child, the joy of learning.
I don’t think that’s something you could give back.
We have today as a result of this education, people who are brilliant at memorizing things, people who’s brains contain a great amount of knowledge. But these same people are unenthusiastic about learning, unimaginative, stagnant, boring.
Therein lies our biggest failure.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
A Time Machine and Ms Fiona Ho 11:46 PM
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: TOMORROW IS JONATHAN TANG'S BIRTHDAY. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT AND URGENT THAT YOU TELL AS MANY PEOPLE ABOUT IT. PLEASE TWEET THIS AND FACEBOOK THIS. AND TRY TO FIND CHERYL TOO. SHE NEEDS TO ATTEND THE BIRTHDAY. APPARENTLY SHE'S FROM ST. NICK'S.
________________________
Here's the PHOto I promised you guys XD FHO looks quite different from now right? :P Took it today when she wasn't looking :) Click for full size.
Today's Lang Arts B was epic XD So many jokes. And Saurabh and Jon Tang did the computer crash screenshot trick (take a screenshot of a BSOD screen and put it in the powerpoint) with the powerpoint he and Saurabh were presenting. Then we all doodled all sorts of stuff like a Ms Ho caricature on the slides while annotating. And we, especially Joshua and Richard, framed the poem in a highly sexual context XD
Daryl tried to "fix" Ms Ho's laptop after the computer crash screenshot trick, by shaking it upside down. Then later Jem fell off his chair, so in the confusion I did a real computer crash, unnoticed. And so the lesson ended XD
This is something I took during chemistry with Nico, cos he sits next to me during chem...
Isn't it nice :)
Acid-Base titration and molar concentration analysis using phenolphthalein. This is the solution at neutralization endpoint without regular stirring.
Isn't it amazing that for every natural phenomena no matter how big or how small or how breath-taking, behind it lies a simple, elegant scientific explanation.
That's why science is ever so fascinating.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Read the Announcement 11:53 PM
Uh.... excuse me, I need to make an announcement.
To: ACS(I) Year 1 NCDCC Cadets
Re: Total Defence Presentation
Kindly note that in lieu of there not being NCDCC last Friday the 21st of August, the submission deadline for your total defence presentations has been extended to this Thursday the 27th of August. Please email your presentations to either Jonathan Tang (jontang94@yahoo.com) or me (allisterlow@me.com).
Thanks :)
________________________
Ok, moving on. I was sick on Thursday, so I didn’t go to school, which meant I missed the chemistry test. Whoops. So I settled that with Mr Peter Tan on friday, and he did the “Aiyah! What to do?”. I’m probably doing the test on Monday or Tuesday. Mr Tan seems way more stressed than usual (which is already very stressed) these few weeks. Oh dear.
IHS presentation was also on Friday. I was quite upset with the actions of one of my group members. I’m not gonna say who. Along the way, in the duration of the project, I don’t mind jokes or messing around, but there are certain periods of time where this is not appropriate. Especially on presentation day itself. Everyone else was frantically preparing and you were preoccupied with messing up the computer.
You’ve helped us tremendously in the duration of our research, so please make sure that the inappropriateness mentioned above doesn’t happen in future.
I was also extremely upset with Swapnil Kumar. My team delivered our presentation on a Mac, so there was the presenter display feature, which is a kind of tele-prompter thing. This means that although the primary display (projector) showed our presentation as per normal, the laptop screen showed the slides as well as speaker’s notes, timers, and the next slide. These miscellaneous items do not appear on the primary display.
That’s how we could remember all those phrases with literary value, speak fluently, and not appear to be holding note paper or cue cards.
Now Swapnil, having speaker’s notes on the computer and referring to them is not cheating. It should not have escaped your brilliant mind that other teams where using speaker’s notes in the form of cue-cards and paper. I do not appreciate your running up to the front of the class, interrupting when I was about to speak, and yelling about my speaker’s notes. That was unprofessional.
I understand the concepts of academic rivalry, and the fact that we constantly try to better one another in various aspects. But we do this in mature ways by elevating the standard of our work. We do not do this in childish ways such as screaming and shouting. Please do not do such things in future.
Anyway we got 15/15 for the presentation. On a side note, one of my team members was very loud about it. Yeah, I know we are all super happy :) I am too. But try to think about other groups who didn’t do as well ok? :) It comes across as boastful to make so much noise.
After school, I went for Ms Ong’s A Math lesson in the library as a result of my one week of absence from school. I have been enlightened. Thanks so much! :) On the way, saw Ms Ho in one of the library rooms doing IOC or something. Me and Ben Tay stood outside and kept waving for uhh... a while. The look on her face was hilarious XD
Then after that I had to finish the POD homework from the week I was away. And we found Ms Ho in another room doing something else. So we waved again for uhh..... a while. And then we decided to sit on the chairs facing the room. Her expression was soooo funny XD Eventually I think she couldn’t take it so she ran away and left the room :P
The after school me and my bro and mum and dad went to a barbecue housewarming party of one of my mum’s colleagues. It was fun :)
Looking forward to Science Research Challenge exco meeting on Monday :) If you have any interesting science experiments that you know of, kindly leave a comment, because we are in the process of brainstorming for some, for an event that we are starting :) The rest is classified data so I will not describe what that “event” is about :)
To: ACS(I) Year 1 NCDCC Cadets
Re: Total Defence Presentation
Kindly note that in lieu of there not being NCDCC last Friday the 21st of August, the submission deadline for your total defence presentations has been extended to this Thursday the 27th of August. Please email your presentations to either Jonathan Tang (jontang94@yahoo.com) or me (allisterlow@me.com).
Thanks :)
________________________
Ok, moving on. I was sick on Thursday, so I didn’t go to school, which meant I missed the chemistry test. Whoops. So I settled that with Mr Peter Tan on friday, and he did the “Aiyah! What to do?”. I’m probably doing the test on Monday or Tuesday. Mr Tan seems way more stressed than usual (which is already very stressed) these few weeks. Oh dear.
IHS presentation was also on Friday. I was quite upset with the actions of one of my group members. I’m not gonna say who. Along the way, in the duration of the project, I don’t mind jokes or messing around, but there are certain periods of time where this is not appropriate. Especially on presentation day itself. Everyone else was frantically preparing and you were preoccupied with messing up the computer.
You’ve helped us tremendously in the duration of our research, so please make sure that the inappropriateness mentioned above doesn’t happen in future.
I was also extremely upset with Swapnil Kumar. My team delivered our presentation on a Mac, so there was the presenter display feature, which is a kind of tele-prompter thing. This means that although the primary display (projector) showed our presentation as per normal, the laptop screen showed the slides as well as speaker’s notes, timers, and the next slide. These miscellaneous items do not appear on the primary display.
That’s how we could remember all those phrases with literary value, speak fluently, and not appear to be holding note paper or cue cards.
Now Swapnil, having speaker’s notes on the computer and referring to them is not cheating. It should not have escaped your brilliant mind that other teams where using speaker’s notes in the form of cue-cards and paper. I do not appreciate your running up to the front of the class, interrupting when I was about to speak, and yelling about my speaker’s notes. That was unprofessional.
I understand the concepts of academic rivalry, and the fact that we constantly try to better one another in various aspects. But we do this in mature ways by elevating the standard of our work. We do not do this in childish ways such as screaming and shouting. Please do not do such things in future.
Anyway we got 15/15 for the presentation. On a side note, one of my team members was very loud about it. Yeah, I know we are all super happy :) I am too. But try to think about other groups who didn’t do as well ok? :) It comes across as boastful to make so much noise.
After school, I went for Ms Ong’s A Math lesson in the library as a result of my one week of absence from school. I have been enlightened. Thanks so much! :) On the way, saw Ms Ho in one of the library rooms doing IOC or something. Me and Ben Tay stood outside and kept waving for uhh... a while. The look on her face was hilarious XD
Then after that I had to finish the POD homework from the week I was away. And we found Ms Ho in another room doing something else. So we waved again for uhh..... a while. And then we decided to sit on the chairs facing the room. Her expression was soooo funny XD Eventually I think she couldn’t take it so she ran away and left the room :P
The after school me and my bro and mum and dad went to a barbecue housewarming party of one of my mum’s colleagues. It was fun :)
Looking forward to Science Research Challenge exco meeting on Monday :) If you have any interesting science experiments that you know of, kindly leave a comment, because we are in the process of brainstorming for some, for an event that we are starting :) The rest is classified data so I will not describe what that “event” is about :)
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
So Much for Religious Harmony 10:42 PM
400 Unique Individual Readers. And Counting.
That’s the readership of Spiky.co.nr. :D So here’s a GIGANTIC thank you to everyone :)
________________________
Uhh...... it seems I am now in Science Research Challenge Executive Committee. Had a short meet up with Liu Yang last week. I naturally asked how he found out about me, since I really haven’t met him before. Apparently my name gets around.
Anyway, today I got an email saying Daniel Lim and Nicholas Ngiam are in too :)
Looking forward to the first meeting :D In the meantime, ideas for next year’s LIfe Sciences Symposium are welcome :)
Art lesson was fun today. We were kinda messing around in the art room while waiting for our canvasses to dry. Messing around meaning disturbing Adi. Heheh.
This morning and yesterday’s was the school’s religious emphasis week.
I was distraught.
As you might know, I am atheistic, specifically anti-theistic. That means I explicitly believe that no god exists. I was profoundly upset that we were not given the option to not attend religious emphasis week. I was profoundly upset that they were more or less trying to convert us to Christians. Try to imagine how unnerving that is.
I was also profoundly upset with the terribly polarized and one-sided perspective that was presented during the speech. The speech consisted of sharply criticizing the book entitled “The God Delusion”, what might be considered a book of the atheistic arguments and reasoning. What happened to respecting the beliefs of others in the name of preserving the religious harmony in Singapore?
What I am presenting here is not about the arguments for an against the existence of a god. That is immaterial. What I am presenting here is the way that the pastor has treated other religions and beliefs. That is with absolute scorn, disrespect and contempt.
It is all well and good to believe in what one wants to believe in. It is not all well and good to go about deriding the beliefs of others. It is this total disregard for the opinions of others, this ardent self-righteousness, that has brought upon the world many issues of great concern.
For such blithe disregard of other beliefs and philosophy to happen here, in a good school, in Singapore, leaves me gravely disturbed.
That’s the readership of Spiky.co.nr. :D So here’s a GIGANTIC thank you to everyone :)
________________________
Uhh...... it seems I am now in Science Research Challenge Executive Committee. Had a short meet up with Liu Yang last week. I naturally asked how he found out about me, since I really haven’t met him before. Apparently my name gets around.
Anyway, today I got an email saying Daniel Lim and Nicholas Ngiam are in too :)
Looking forward to the first meeting :D In the meantime, ideas for next year’s LIfe Sciences Symposium are welcome :)
Art lesson was fun today. We were kinda messing around in the art room while waiting for our canvasses to dry. Messing around meaning disturbing Adi. Heheh.
This morning and yesterday’s was the school’s religious emphasis week.
I was distraught.
As you might know, I am atheistic, specifically anti-theistic. That means I explicitly believe that no god exists. I was profoundly upset that we were not given the option to not attend religious emphasis week. I was profoundly upset that they were more or less trying to convert us to Christians. Try to imagine how unnerving that is.
I was also profoundly upset with the terribly polarized and one-sided perspective that was presented during the speech. The speech consisted of sharply criticizing the book entitled “The God Delusion”, what might be considered a book of the atheistic arguments and reasoning. What happened to respecting the beliefs of others in the name of preserving the religious harmony in Singapore?
What I am presenting here is not about the arguments for an against the existence of a god. That is immaterial. What I am presenting here is the way that the pastor has treated other religions and beliefs. That is with absolute scorn, disrespect and contempt.
It is all well and good to believe in what one wants to believe in. It is not all well and good to go about deriding the beliefs of others. It is this total disregard for the opinions of others, this ardent self-righteousness, that has brought upon the world many issues of great concern.
For such blithe disregard of other beliefs and philosophy to happen here, in a good school, in Singapore, leaves me gravely disturbed.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Life is startling, unpredictable. Amazing. 11:40 PM
Have you ever wondered, what it might be like.....
To make a friend when you were just a little kid, so small, so long ago. To have gone to each other’s houses for one another’s birthday party. Mucking around, running after, chasing each other, making lots of noise, doing all the stuff that little kids do.
Then life gets too busy, we go our separate ways. To have tried to keep in contact. For things to get in the way. To have life tear us apart. To forget each other.
To grow up.
And then to find each other again, in the same secondary school, so different yet so the same as what we were before. Getting the funny feeling, that lasted just a flicker of a second, that we’ve seen each other before, but not really able to put our finger on it.
To have our parents tell us about all we did together last time. When we were too small to remember anything. To have a tiny, miniscule, microscopic fragment of those memories left.
To make friends all over again.
I know now what that feels like. It feels amazing. It feels as if life has found new meaning.
It takes your breath away.
And I guess that the only thing that this proves is, even though life sometimes can get rough, gloomy, so bleak.....
Life is still so startling, so unpredictable. So amazing. Life is one crazy ride, and you’ll never know where it might take you.
So laugh you heart out. Dance in the rain. Cherish the moment. Ignore all the pain. Love like you’ve never been hurt. Forgive and forget. Life is too short to be living with regrets. Live your life like there’s no tomorrow.
Because no matter what, life is.....
Beautiful.
To make a friend when you were just a little kid, so small, so long ago. To have gone to each other’s houses for one another’s birthday party. Mucking around, running after, chasing each other, making lots of noise, doing all the stuff that little kids do.
Then life gets too busy, we go our separate ways. To have tried to keep in contact. For things to get in the way. To have life tear us apart. To forget each other.
To grow up.
And then to find each other again, in the same secondary school, so different yet so the same as what we were before. Getting the funny feeling, that lasted just a flicker of a second, that we’ve seen each other before, but not really able to put our finger on it.
To have our parents tell us about all we did together last time. When we were too small to remember anything. To have a tiny, miniscule, microscopic fragment of those memories left.
To make friends all over again.
I know now what that feels like. It feels amazing. It feels as if life has found new meaning.
It takes your breath away.
And I guess that the only thing that this proves is, even though life sometimes can get rough, gloomy, so bleak.....
Life is still so startling, so unpredictable. So amazing. Life is one crazy ride, and you’ll never know where it might take you.
So laugh you heart out. Dance in the rain. Cherish the moment. Ignore all the pain. Love like you’ve never been hurt. Forgive and forget. Life is too short to be living with regrets. Live your life like there’s no tomorrow.
Because no matter what, life is.....
Beautiful.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Incredible !ndia | Thoughts 12:00 AM
We got back from the tour and changed and got ready to go to the airport.
Just before we left, Daniel asked me whether I wanted to go take our poster back, since the school wasn't keeping them and was taking them down already. I remember running down the antique, white, empty corridors of City Montessori School, something I won't get to see again until 2011.
I remember bursting straight into the poster room trying to find our poster and collage, and turning around to see Daniel in the doorway.
We decided not to bring home the collage since it couldn't be rolled up because of the sticks. But we took home the butterflies.
We left lucknow 7:30 p.m. to begin our long journey home.
And I guess all the time in between, the quiet flight, the transit time in Delhi, I spent looking back upon the past six days. Thinking about how I had given absolutely no thought at all when I signed the registration forms, and to then have embarked on a TOTALLY AWESOME six days of my life.
My biggest take-away wasn't the incredible culture of India nor was it wasn't the competition.
The fact we didn't win doesn't matter to me at all. We, every single one of us, finished the fight without a single regret or tear. Because each of us knew that we did more than our best, knew that we exceeded ourselves. Because we knew that whatever we did was better than anything we had done during the so many practices and trainings.
And because of that, no matter what the results are like, they don't matter one single bit.
Throughout these six days, the one single thing that has left footprints on the stuff that makes me who I am, is the friends we made.
Not just with the other international participants. Among ourselves too.
Stuff like sitting in the IB lab with Nicholas, Daniel and Mervyn until late in the afternoon, cutting out stacks and stacks of stuff for the poster and collage. Stuff like me emoing the night after the results, and looking up to find Nicholas' smiling face telling me to cheer up. Stuff like our little plan to be deliberately late for functions because we were upset with always being made to wait so long for things to start even though we were asked to be punctual.
Stuff like all the jokes and things we said to each other along the way. Stuff like all the little ways we looked out for each other.
Stuff like all the fleeting moments we shared together.
Those are the things that mean the world to me. Things I could never forget. Things that will stick with me for the rest of my life.
THANK YOU SO MUCH TO DANIEL, NICHOLAS, GUO YANG, TONG NHAT DUONG, ANMOL, MERVYN FOR GIVING ME AN UNFORGETTABLE, TOTALLY AWESOME 6 DAYS OF MY LIFE. ITS BEEN AN AWESOME JOURNEY WITH YOU GUYS AND YOU GUYS ROCK! :D
We were dead tired, throughout the long journey home in the middle of the night. Dragging ourselves through the transit terminal in the airport. We hardly spoke. But you can sit in silence next to a friend all evening, and walk away feeling it was the best conversation that you've ever had.
And that's how I felt.
The plane left India 12:45 a.m. and as I looked out of the window, peering at this exciting new world which I had so briefly explored, contemplating my return in 2 years time for the next Festival of Biotech....
I knew it won't be the same.
Not without you guys.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Incredible !ndia | Day 6 11:44 PM
We were leaving in the evening, so we still had a bit of time. So we went along with the mini-tour thingy which the school organized. That started with a tree planting session.....
These are the bright orange flowers which I was talking about earlier.
Then they tried to go to the botanical gardens. But they didn't check the opening time, so it was closed when we got there, and wouldn't open for another hour or so. By today we were quite upset with their punctuality.
Especially when they ask the teams to appear on time for talks and stuff like that, but take forever to get started.
So they took us to the shopping centre instead. Not much lah, cos no time, because we had to go back by 2 p.m. for some of the teams who had to leave at about 4 p.m.
I guess the nicest part was just looking out of the window of the bus and getting a fleeting glimpse on what India is like.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Incredible !ndia | Day 5 3:28 PM
Not much today. Had to sit through Mr Jagdish Ghandi's terribly boring talk on world peace and the following talk by a scientist because Mervyn's turn-coat was quite early, and we didn't want to miss it.
For a turn-coat presentation you have to present one side of the debate, then "turn-coat" and debate against yourself for the remaining time.
Debating against the argument.....
After "turning-coat".....
Lunch, then the closing ceremony, starting with a feedback session with all the other teams, where we all share our thoughts on the whole event. Then more cultural performances.
Then the results of the competitions.
We didn't win in any category :( Only got an honorable mention for poster category, but that was all :(
Upsetting that their idea of good visual design is the kind of stuff that V.K. Satiyam might make. So I guess they have a very different idea of what is good and bad.
Oh well :(
Jordan won overall, followed by some Indian girls' school.
Here's a photo after the whole event ended.... :)
The frantic exchanging of email addresses, phone numbers, Facebook IDs, small gifts promptly ensued :) Some teams were leaving the next morning.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Incredible !ndia | Day 4 3:01 PM
Once again, we ponned Mr Jagdish Ghandi's terribly boring speech on world peace. Remember the huge chart the other day? Well he explains one quarter of it every morning. Hearing about world peace, religion being one, etc. once is all well and good, but to hear it so many times make one feel unwell.
We were all also quite sick of their time management skills, asking people to be on time and then making people wait. And also having to sit through long endless ethical arguments between professor and student, so we more or less ponned the most of the talks today. Ahem.
We came back just for the various competitions. Starting with me and Anmol going for the powerpoint competition. Where on the way we found the school's Guinness certificate.
Then Nicholas went to deliver his seminar with the virus model hat (which I think was Mervyn's idea :D ). Which we had been teasing him about for just about the whole trip XP. Mervyn is on the left, Nicholas is wearing the virus model hat. Its supposed to show the surface proteins of the virus.
We were like "remember to wear the hat for the seminar ok?". The look of "come on, do I really have to?" kind of resignation on Nicholas' face was so funny :P
Me and Anmol didn't get to watch the seminar cos we were still doing our powerpoint. Then later on Daniel and Anmol went to do the collage. Here's our entry.....
Then was dinner.
All of us had done our competitions already, except for Mervyn who had turn-coat tomorrow.
Over the course of the past few days, in our spare time, we kinda played SPORE and COD4 on my laptop. Nicholas lost his appetite after watching one of us play SPORE. He was like "you mean you kill the other animal then you eat it? oh my goodness....." The expression he had was so funny XD
We were all also quite sick of their time management skills, asking people to be on time and then making people wait. And also having to sit through long endless ethical arguments between professor and student, so we more or less ponned the most of the talks today. Ahem.
We came back just for the various competitions. Starting with me and Anmol going for the powerpoint competition. Where on the way we found the school's Guinness certificate.
Then Nicholas went to deliver his seminar with the virus model hat (which I think was Mervyn's idea :D ). Which we had been teasing him about for just about the whole trip XP. Mervyn is on the left, Nicholas is wearing the virus model hat. Its supposed to show the surface proteins of the virus.
We were like "remember to wear the hat for the seminar ok?". The look of "come on, do I really have to?" kind of resignation on Nicholas' face was so funny :P
Me and Anmol didn't get to watch the seminar cos we were still doing our powerpoint. Then later on Daniel and Anmol went to do the collage. Here's our entry.....
Then was dinner.
All of us had done our competitions already, except for Mervyn who had turn-coat tomorrow.
Over the course of the past few days, in our spare time, we kinda played SPORE and COD4 on my laptop. Nicholas lost his appetite after watching one of us play SPORE. He was like "you mean you kill the other animal then you eat it? oh my goodness....." The expression he had was so funny XD
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Incredible !ndia | Day 3 12:54 PM
Had breakfast, then the day started with a talk on the philosophy of City Montessori School by Mr Jagdish Ghandi. The philosophy begins to feel like some kind of cult. They believe that "religion is one" and that the various religions are different manifestations of a single god.
And so they have this "prayer" which they invented. Which doesn't seem to refer to any standard religion. In fact, it seems they are trying to invent their own religion/cult. And did I mention Jagdish Ghandi is long-winded?
This chart describes the school philosophy, note the size of the chart, and the size of the text. When they gave out printed brochures of it, they had to print on A3 paper because it would be unreadable otherwise.
Anyway, Mr Jagdish Ghandi was terribly boring, and we were all very happy to move on to the next part, where the people lighted the lamp.....
Then a talk on "Concepts of Biotechnology" By Prof. D. Balasubramanian. It was a good talk for an introduction on biotechnology.
Then me and Tong Nhat Duong had to leave for our poster making competition, and Guo Yang and Mervyn had to go for the written round of the quiz, followed by Guo Yang's debate.
I was extremely annoyed with them about the poster competition, because they said that no pasting of cutouts was allowed, and neither was having reference pictures to draw from, rules that were never stated in print anywhere, nor made known verbally before the competition began.
My entry (materials used: 2 felt tip markers).....
Made it back to the auditorium just in time to see Guo Yang debate. By the end of the day, Guo Yang had this fan club of people who thought that he had been extremely charming during the debate XD He was the only debater that smiled and did not start yelling into the microphone.....
We had lunch after the debates, and decided to pon the next talk since we were tired of trying to decipher what the speakers were trying to say because of their really thick accent. And the fact that it is considered good public speaking skills in India to yell into the microphone.
Anyway, later on Daniel and Nicholas went to present the website. Boy were we relieved that it could run on their ancient computers :)
There was tea and coffee after the website presentation, but both were so sweet that one only tasted the sugar and not the tea leaves or caffeine. It seems this is the way these beverages are made here.
Mervyn was very sad about the quiz round :( Cos Anmol said that Mervyn and Guo Yang got into the next round of the quiz. But they didn't, cos Anmol misheard. So he kinda got his hopes up for nothing :(
Dinner was quite an epic disaster because they were so behind time that the buses which were supposed to take us to another City Montessori School campus for dinner all left, so most of the teams had dinner in their rooms, eating the food that they brought along.
And so they have this "prayer" which they invented. Which doesn't seem to refer to any standard religion. In fact, it seems they are trying to invent their own religion/cult. And did I mention Jagdish Ghandi is long-winded?
This chart describes the school philosophy, note the size of the chart, and the size of the text. When they gave out printed brochures of it, they had to print on A3 paper because it would be unreadable otherwise.
Anyway, Mr Jagdish Ghandi was terribly boring, and we were all very happy to move on to the next part, where the people lighted the lamp.....
Then a talk on "Concepts of Biotechnology" By Prof. D. Balasubramanian. It was a good talk for an introduction on biotechnology.
Then me and Tong Nhat Duong had to leave for our poster making competition, and Guo Yang and Mervyn had to go for the written round of the quiz, followed by Guo Yang's debate.
I was extremely annoyed with them about the poster competition, because they said that no pasting of cutouts was allowed, and neither was having reference pictures to draw from, rules that were never stated in print anywhere, nor made known verbally before the competition began.
My entry (materials used: 2 felt tip markers).....
Made it back to the auditorium just in time to see Guo Yang debate. By the end of the day, Guo Yang had this fan club of people who thought that he had been extremely charming during the debate XD He was the only debater that smiled and did not start yelling into the microphone.....
We had lunch after the debates, and decided to pon the next talk since we were tired of trying to decipher what the speakers were trying to say because of their really thick accent. And the fact that it is considered good public speaking skills in India to yell into the microphone.
Anyway, later on Daniel and Nicholas went to present the website. Boy were we relieved that it could run on their ancient computers :)
There was tea and coffee after the website presentation, but both were so sweet that one only tasted the sugar and not the tea leaves or caffeine. It seems this is the way these beverages are made here.
Mervyn was very sad about the quiz round :( Cos Anmol said that Mervyn and Guo Yang got into the next round of the quiz. But they didn't, cos Anmol misheard. So he kinda got his hopes up for nothing :(
Dinner was quite an epic disaster because they were so behind time that the buses which were supposed to take us to another City Montessori School campus for dinner all left, so most of the teams had dinner in their rooms, eating the food that they brought along.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Incredible !ndia | Day 2 12:58 AM
The culture of some places is quiet, muted, discreet. Elegant. India's is unabashed, unrestrained, loud. Incredible. Its there that bright garish colors, flamboyant costumes and dances, and the omnipresent road honking is right at home.
Over there its a polite thing to honk the car because it is apparently important that it notifies others of your presence.
Anyway, today is the official opening of the Festival of Biotech. We went around exploring the school right after breakfast (which was nan, rice, other Indian food, and lots of curry.) And they put lots and lots of inspirational quotes on the walls everywhere.
The ACS team :) From left: Anmol, Tong Nhat Duong, Guo Yang, Mervyn, Nicholas, Mr Goh, Alo (a student from City Montessori School), Me, Daniel.
We were one of two teams representing Singapore. The other was Global Indian International School. Which, well, doesn't consist of Singaporeans. 14 Countries attended, with the likes of Russia, Japan, Jordan, Germany, Sri Lanka, Nepal etc.
The See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Say No Evil monkeys XD Btw, Mervyn is in year 5, so you can infer which Chinese zodiac he's born in, which somehow makes the picture come together nicely.
Me and Mervyn.....
More of the school (which by the way contains a convention centre, a park, owns two radio channels, and holds the Guinness world record for the largest school by student population at 22,612 in the year 1999)...
The event started with a series of (might I say terribly boring?) videos about the school. Its not that the school has not history. It has a rich and fascinating history and has come very far. But the producers didn't really know the meaning of being concise.
We sat in the first few rows, which consisted of sofas (muahahahaha).....
Thank goodness we could escape for a while because we had to settle the competitions that Guo Yang was taking part in, because two of them clashed.
When we came back to the convention centre, the videos were almost over :D. Next was the interactive session with the, as they put it, "galaxy of eminent scientists". Oh do they misuse the English language. But in fairness to them, they had a huge number of scientists among the likes of chiefs of eye institutes, crop/biotech associations, and numerous other research institutes, and I guess that's what they were trying to describe.
And boy was the interactive session funny. In their culture, its okay to interrupt each other, and it was hilarious watching some of the students arguing with the scientists. And it was so funny to see both the student and scientist try to speak at the same time, and interrupting each other.
After that we had to attend the press conference along with another photo taking session with more of the bright orange flower garland thingy. And it was hilarious, because they couldn't find the Singapore teams, even though we were there. We were like "here cannot find, on map also cannot find little red dot" XD
Then lunch, then slack until 5 p.m. when we had to go attend the official opening ceremony and introduction of the teams.
There was a moot world parliament. Yes, the Indians want to abolish the United Nations and establish their own "world parliament", and they were going on and on about Article 51 of the Indian constitution and how it was the only way to world peace. LOL
The the gust of honor arrived, who was A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, one of India's former presidents. After he arrived, no one bothered listing to the speaker on stage because they were all busy snapping picture of A.P.J.
This was taken when A.P.J. went on stage to speak. He's at the podium, and standing to his right in white is Mr Jagdish Ghandi, founder-manager of City Montessori School.
Then A.P.J. opened the Festival of Biotech. And they had this enormous rotating DNA model...
Then was the cultural performances (they have great misconceptions about the national costumes of numerous countries.....), mostly dancing etc. And lastly the introduction of the teams, going on stage with our school flags (which felt awesome), and oh my goodness even more photographs XD
Dinner was at their swimming pool.
Over there its a polite thing to honk the car because it is apparently important that it notifies others of your presence.
Anyway, today is the official opening of the Festival of Biotech. We went around exploring the school right after breakfast (which was nan, rice, other Indian food, and lots of curry.) And they put lots and lots of inspirational quotes on the walls everywhere.
The ACS team :) From left: Anmol, Tong Nhat Duong, Guo Yang, Mervyn, Nicholas, Mr Goh, Alo (a student from City Montessori School), Me, Daniel.
We were one of two teams representing Singapore. The other was Global Indian International School. Which, well, doesn't consist of Singaporeans. 14 Countries attended, with the likes of Russia, Japan, Jordan, Germany, Sri Lanka, Nepal etc.
The See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Say No Evil monkeys XD Btw, Mervyn is in year 5, so you can infer which Chinese zodiac he's born in, which somehow makes the picture come together nicely.
Me and Mervyn.....
More of the school (which by the way contains a convention centre, a park, owns two radio channels, and holds the Guinness world record for the largest school by student population at 22,612 in the year 1999)...
The event started with a series of (might I say terribly boring?) videos about the school. Its not that the school has not history. It has a rich and fascinating history and has come very far. But the producers didn't really know the meaning of being concise.
We sat in the first few rows, which consisted of sofas (muahahahaha).....
Thank goodness we could escape for a while because we had to settle the competitions that Guo Yang was taking part in, because two of them clashed.
When we came back to the convention centre, the videos were almost over :D. Next was the interactive session with the, as they put it, "galaxy of eminent scientists". Oh do they misuse the English language. But in fairness to them, they had a huge number of scientists among the likes of chiefs of eye institutes, crop/biotech associations, and numerous other research institutes, and I guess that's what they were trying to describe.
And boy was the interactive session funny. In their culture, its okay to interrupt each other, and it was hilarious watching some of the students arguing with the scientists. And it was so funny to see both the student and scientist try to speak at the same time, and interrupting each other.
After that we had to attend the press conference along with another photo taking session with more of the bright orange flower garland thingy. And it was hilarious, because they couldn't find the Singapore teams, even though we were there. We were like "here cannot find, on map also cannot find little red dot" XD
Then lunch, then slack until 5 p.m. when we had to go attend the official opening ceremony and introduction of the teams.
There was a moot world parliament. Yes, the Indians want to abolish the United Nations and establish their own "world parliament", and they were going on and on about Article 51 of the Indian constitution and how it was the only way to world peace. LOL
The the gust of honor arrived, who was A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, one of India's former presidents. After he arrived, no one bothered listing to the speaker on stage because they were all busy snapping picture of A.P.J.
This was taken when A.P.J. went on stage to speak. He's at the podium, and standing to his right in white is Mr Jagdish Ghandi, founder-manager of City Montessori School.
Then A.P.J. opened the Festival of Biotech. And they had this enormous rotating DNA model...
Then was the cultural performances (they have great misconceptions about the national costumes of numerous countries.....), mostly dancing etc. And lastly the introduction of the teams, going on stage with our school flags (which felt awesome), and oh my goodness even more photographs XD
Dinner was at their swimming pool.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Incredible !ndia | Day 1 11:58 PM
8 a.m., and I'm already at Changi Airport Terminal 2.
Feeling nervous about the competition, excited to soon be exploring the wildly different world and its striking culture that is Incredible !ndia. I'm heading to Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh (India's most populous state) to attend the 1st International Festival of Biotechnology, hosted by the City Montessori School.
I'm going with Nicholas Ngiam, Low Guo Yang, Tong Nhat Duong, Mervyn Lim, Anmol Khurana, Daniel Lim and Mr Goh Yan Yih.
The first person I meet is Nicholas. Eventually, everyone gets here and we check in without hassle but highly amused by the weight of some of our luggage XD. Our art materials alone for the poster and collage was over 7 kg. Someone had a bag almost 40 kg. We were mostly bringing lots of bottled water. And food too. XD
By 9:40 a.m., we were at gate E3 waiting to board. Mervyn, Guo Yang, Nicholas and Daniel were playing bridge out of boredom XD.
We were flying by Air India. Mervyn took a couple of picture on the plane before the stewardess came along and said no electronic devices during takeoff/landing etc. Mervyn was like "everywhere I go I get owned one XP...". Took off at 10:05 a.m. on the dot.
There was this thing that we had on the airplane lunch which looked very much like a soup. Apparently it was sweet, and apparently it was Indian dessert.
Ever seen Ricola in a can? Guo Yang brought...
Arrived in New Delhi 1:35 p.m. India time which is 2.5 hrs behind Singapore. The airport is unmodern, and we got off onto the tarmac. There was a 4 hr transit. The security guards there all have (what is probably and AK-74) automatic rifles slung across their backs. Unnerving.
We met Anmol's parents and his sister, who stay in Delhi. And we spent the transit time talking to them, munching snacks, and playing phone games, e.g. SPORE, Paper toss, Bubble-wrap.
From left: Nicholas, Daniel, Guo Yang :) This was at the airport, waiting for our connecting flight, which was at another terminal. Oh yeah, and the airport seems to have this "prepaid taxi" thingy. Lolz
On the way to the other terminal by the airport shuttle, we saw what is the taxi in India. The thingy behind the two people is the taxi.
We got to ride the airport buggy at the other terminal :D
This is the boarding pass for our domestic flight...
Boarded the flight from Delhi to Lucknow on the tarmac again. Learned a new word from one of Anmol's Indian magazines. The article was talking about how yuppies were over, and how now was the age of the "scuppies", the socially conscious urban professionals. Lolz
We arrived late in the evening, maybe about 7 p.m. The airport is small. We were welcomed very warmly by the people from City Montessori School (and uhh the weather too. Its very hot.) They did the whole Indian bright orange flower garland thingy. Along with a red carpet and a photo taking session. From left: Guo Yang, Anmol.
The school is quite near the airport. Here's what it looks like at night right when we arrived.
Dinner (oh my goodness, so many different kinds of curries in one sitting.) then play a bit of COD4 with Daniel, on my laptop, then sleep :)
Feeling nervous about the competition, excited to soon be exploring the wildly different world and its striking culture that is Incredible !ndia. I'm heading to Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh (India's most populous state) to attend the 1st International Festival of Biotechnology, hosted by the City Montessori School.
I'm going with Nicholas Ngiam, Low Guo Yang, Tong Nhat Duong, Mervyn Lim, Anmol Khurana, Daniel Lim and Mr Goh Yan Yih.
The first person I meet is Nicholas. Eventually, everyone gets here and we check in without hassle but highly amused by the weight of some of our luggage XD. Our art materials alone for the poster and collage was over 7 kg. Someone had a bag almost 40 kg. We were mostly bringing lots of bottled water. And food too. XD
By 9:40 a.m., we were at gate E3 waiting to board. Mervyn, Guo Yang, Nicholas and Daniel were playing bridge out of boredom XD.
We were flying by Air India. Mervyn took a couple of picture on the plane before the stewardess came along and said no electronic devices during takeoff/landing etc. Mervyn was like "everywhere I go I get owned one XP...". Took off at 10:05 a.m. on the dot.
There was this thing that we had on the airplane lunch which looked very much like a soup. Apparently it was sweet, and apparently it was Indian dessert.
Ever seen Ricola in a can? Guo Yang brought...
Arrived in New Delhi 1:35 p.m. India time which is 2.5 hrs behind Singapore. The airport is unmodern, and we got off onto the tarmac. There was a 4 hr transit. The security guards there all have (what is probably and AK-74) automatic rifles slung across their backs. Unnerving.
We met Anmol's parents and his sister, who stay in Delhi. And we spent the transit time talking to them, munching snacks, and playing phone games, e.g. SPORE, Paper toss, Bubble-wrap.
From left: Nicholas, Daniel, Guo Yang :) This was at the airport, waiting for our connecting flight, which was at another terminal. Oh yeah, and the airport seems to have this "prepaid taxi" thingy. Lolz
On the way to the other terminal by the airport shuttle, we saw what is the taxi in India. The thingy behind the two people is the taxi.
We got to ride the airport buggy at the other terminal :D
This is the boarding pass for our domestic flight...
Boarded the flight from Delhi to Lucknow on the tarmac again. Learned a new word from one of Anmol's Indian magazines. The article was talking about how yuppies were over, and how now was the age of the "scuppies", the socially conscious urban professionals. Lolz
We arrived late in the evening, maybe about 7 p.m. The airport is small. We were welcomed very warmly by the people from City Montessori School (and uhh the weather too. Its very hot.) They did the whole Indian bright orange flower garland thingy. Along with a red carpet and a photo taking session. From left: Guo Yang, Anmol.
The school is quite near the airport. Here's what it looks like at night right when we arrived.
Dinner (oh my goodness, so many different kinds of curries in one sitting.) then play a bit of COD4 with Daniel, on my laptop, then sleep :)
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Out of Office 12:32 AM
I will be away from Singapore from 2 August, 10:05 AM to 8 Aug, 8:35 AM. I’m attending the 1st International Festival of Biotechnology, in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India :)
I can only answer emails and publish articles here pending availability of internet connection over there. Sorry :(
You can always call or SMS my phone, and I’ll be happy to answer :)
They call it a festival, but its more like a competition. Thanks so much to all the people who wished me good luck! :)
I can only answer emails and publish articles here pending availability of internet connection over there. Sorry :(
You can always call or SMS my phone, and I’ll be happy to answer :)
They call it a festival, but its more like a competition. Thanks so much to all the people who wished me good luck! :)