Friday, October 31, 2008.

evidently today was not even half as interesting as yesterday.

maff was the standard - mr kwa just talked to us about the rj syllabi and encouraged us to take H3. obviously the rest of the period, plus:

physics - was spent playing BRIDGE. and as usual I won once with 7 spade cards and a wonderful partner. pure ownage, and 1 1/2 hr of bridge does WONDERS to your brain.

then was recess.

then ss, where the whole class crammed themselves into 2 small project rooms (1 for MarvelVSCapcom, one for PRPP). PRPP (Project-Room Ping-Pong) is perhaps the best RI-invented game ever. and i don't suck that badly in it! :D

chinese was last lesson, but no one saw it that way - anxiety mah.

eitherway rise photoshoot after school! and as usual i had a lot of fun eating in the canteen with my concert attire on (huiyao went up to me and asked whether i was mad -.-)

seeing my juniors handle rehearsal rather well i'm rather pleased. they are capable people, and have very good synergy, so i don't think i need to worry so much about them as i did at the start.

received a very nice piece of news, but since i hid the whole incident from so many people, there's no point saying it out anyway.

Labels: Life

{ 11:22 PM }

Thursday, October 30, 2008.

was ranting just now and freaking out because of my gpa, but i guess what daniel says makes sense.

indeed, things that you hold on to too tightly won't happen, while things that you let go of turn out quite well most of the time.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. - Frost

How much difference it made I won't ever know. But I'm certain I took the road less traveled.

Anyway today was a wonderful day, a day I hope I won't forget (since it's THE last day of lessons). Every teacher (as far as I saw it) didn't exactly do a RnR (they technically did, but then they focused on something else), but diverged into other stuff:

If there was only 1 thing the students would remember about the subject/teacher, what would it be?

Geog was really nice (though we came into class VERY VERY late cause of class chalet discussion). Mrs Lim gave each of us one card - that was very sweet of her! Thanks Mrs. Lim :D But anyway it was really fun as 4ABCH but it's so sad it has to end so fast. And to be honest, i'll never regret taking geog. I'll try to turn green as much as possible xD

Bio was equally nice as well - Mrs Low gave us a personalized pencil! Thanks Mrs. Low! But what she taught today was very interesting as well - i guess every teacher sought to give us just one thing they wanted us to remember about the subject. What she told us about intelligences really ended the whole year quite nicely - that everyone has his own intelligence and we should discover it and harness it for the good of the society. Not exactly bio, but rather nice.

English was typical english, just that Ms Tang thought we were Lit students and screened The Importance of Being Earnest (Lit standard text). Obviously I wasn't paying attention, but I felt it was just her way of showing to us her interest in Lit.

ChemRA was quite sad. As in, it's our last lesson (and I'm pretty sure we're the most bonded RA class ever!) and there was that gloom that we're parting. It's sad that I never got to know everyone that well, but well we had a lot of fun together as a class! As usual Mr. Ong asked us to list as many concepts that we learnt, but I guess it's just his way of giving us advice on the future. And I was pretty sure we were rather reluctant to leave the class after the bell rang.

And I was certain every good-bye greeting was the loudest I've heard for each class for all the subjects. For we know it's over, our 4 years in RI with our teachers.

But then again, there's CHINESE Os. ahh. *drags himself back to earth*

Labels: Life, school

{ 8:45 PM }

Wednesday, October 29, 2008.

ok i don't know whether to be happy.

maff was typical maffeoy style, double 59/60s (ahh careless! if only xD), means my maff actually gets the honour of being my highest scoring subject for this year (91 i think :D). while going through answers mr kwa was very very amusing:

"Ok so now let's go through the bonus. Most of the people who attempted them are in here anyway." - suan.

"I like to set this style of questions." - standard maffra questions (the eoy bonus)

maffra was pure ownage lah. I looked thru the marklist and saw like at least 80% of the people were >90% for both papers. scary right?

chem was bad. I OFFICIALLY DISOWN MY CHEM EOY PAPER. (71 is trashy i tell you. - overall 89, could have been much higher)

ss was quite sad, but i roughly knew i needed a miracle, and miracles don't appear so often. 24/30 which equates to a 78 (ahhh moderation! save me.)

geog was :D - 35/40 was nice, which means 87 overall (i have 3 87s so far! and surprisingly my ras are the highest! this world is weird.) and on a side note 4B has the highest class average for geog! (then again 4B has 3 people taking geog :D)

without mod - 3.76
expected gpa - 3.80
best-case - 3.84

not good at all, but it's not cause i didn't put in effort. it's cause of one error i made, against my better judgment.

that's why i'm so harsh on myself this year.

imagine, no jap:

w/o mod - 3.87
expected - 3.91
best-case - 3.96

that's what one judgmental error can do to your grades.

luckily this is only sec4 and not o's. because if it was os and i made that mistake i dunno what would happen.



anyway, out from the depressing stuff:
chemRA lunch today was cool!

as in, real cool.

as usual we've got nigelfong and his claims that his hair gel serves no purpose other than preventing his hair from dropping (obviously that isn't true - we should do some chemical analysis on his hair gel :D).

on the other hand you have andrewtam, the massive screwed-up freak, who claims that n****e t** is soo hot and wants to *ahem*.

i can only conclude that geogra and histra are poles apart. yet i can also conclude that chemra is made up of very weird people (yours truly being one of them).

anyway combi-chem talk was very interesting! just that i didn't really catch everything i wanted (so many strange molecules and weird solvents/reagents.).

rest and relax tmr (well, it's officially titled review and reflect but to be honest no one really cares.) it also marks the last lesson for every subject, and i'm rather reluctant to leave chemra. maffra too, and 4abch (what a weird name xD).

most of all, i don't want to leave 4B.

it's weird right? how we don't miss our class until the truth sinks in.

but there's still chalet. let's make chalet the best ever there is!

Labels: Life

{ 7:27 PM }

Tuesday, October 28, 2008.

ok and the 1st day of the results didn't exactly help much (with regards to my final gpa).

phy was good, but careless here and there. still, a rather sweet 72/80 (translates to overall 87% seeing as i massively screwed up cct2 (as in bottom in class.))

bio was very very sweet. 85/100 (seeing how bio eoy was manslaughter) was indeed pleasing, and translates to overall 87% (so my bio = my phy. there goes the qn on what i should take in jc. o.O)

3rd period is chinese (quite a welcome relief.)

eng was o.0 (as in seriously!) 34/45 = 79% overall?!. still, the english department (and ms tang herself claimed) might moderate, which means I should be saved. IF ONLY i got 1 more mark for eoy, which would mean I would have gotten 80 downright.

but still, there's tmr.

and i remind myself of the epic PHLAIL i made last year (ss :( 6/15). and the impossible task i need for ss (26/30! how is that possible.).

and my claims that chemRA selection test being easier than EOY MAY (i repeat, MAY) just come true. Apparently the Olympic torch question demanded for soot (which I evidently missed out, cause I merely talked about energy and photons and energy levels and whatnot.). Then again, the MCQ looks good (and every exam with good mcqs mean well for me (generally)).

ahh. will not know my final gpa till moderation saves me. PROBLEM IS, i'll most likely be the victim of moderation (as per last year) again. the subject that needs moderation most won't be saved, AT ALL. maybe kengchee made the cleverer move.

Labels: school

{ 6:14 PM }

Friday, October 24, 2008.

Observing a lot of people, I can conclude:

The number of blog posts is directly proportional to how interesting the person's life is at that point.

Which makes sense. Seeing as if there's nothing interesting then there isn't anything to blog about.

Sadly, the past few days have been uninteresting.

Thursday was maffRA test, which was interesting to say the least. Apparently people now think that the BioChemPhy papers were simply too easy and is not a good gauge of true talent. For maffRA that didn't seem to be the case though. On one hand you have people struggling to complete the paper and on the other hand you have IVAN.

And I'm proud to announce I went LANning for the 1st time in years.

Played DotA with quite a number of 4B people, and expectedly got owned (what do you think? I have never played DotA before). Overall, a very interesting and fun experience, though if I had been pro-er I would have enjoyed it more I guess. Better than mugging Chem anyway :D

ChemRA test was way easier than expected (I was expecting Martian stuff that would freak me out), (EDIT: It was easier than the eoys to a certain extent, but to another extent it was more difficult. They aren't exactly of the same type and standard.) but then again I think I may have lost quite a number of marks for carelessness etc. Was hoping for more organic chem.


Anyway, a nice video which sums up my feelings for it:

There you go, a very humorous rendition of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto #1.

Some other piece I am quite addicted to:

Rachmaninoff's Symphony #2, 3rd mvt - Adagio (the other part to it can be found by clicking on the link on Youtube)

P.S. for mad freaks like me,
http://kco.radio4.nl/index.php?page=home&lang=en
10 free symphonies from Concertgebouw! and there's Bruckner8 too (and mahler1 but i dont exactly fancy it). thanks theokwek!
P.P.S. I WANT NODAME CANTABILE. (i must be mad, watching jdrama?)
1) I am relatively free, and don't want to be viewing the same Wikipedia article for the 6.02*10^23rd time.
2) I need to buck up my Japanese. It's rotting (just like my brain), so I need to brush it up.
3) I need some music. Somehow watched a little of it, and liked their version of Brahms #1.

so if anyone would be kind enough (if the reasons aren't compelling enough, tell me.) to send me the whole jdrama, please leave a tag. ill give you all my candy in return, k? just that those are laced with melamine :D

Labels: Life

{ 8:32 PM }

Monday, October 20, 2008.

yay it's over! :D

maff paper1 was good, so far no mistakes. paper2 wasn't that ideal though, since i read the question as distance instead of the more simpler displacement. though i got the 1/sin60 bonus, though the only problem is that i forgot to rationalise the denominator and left it as 2/sqrt3 and not 2sqrt3/3.

still. who cares?

anyway after lunch, we went to kennethyong's house and went mad.

bridge/taiti/poker/texas hold' em/indian poker/uno etc etc.

INDIAN POKER IS LAME.

as in super-retarded.

you hold a card above your head and attempt to get the highest card. no link eh.

now i can safely declare i have played 4 hours of cards in a row. and 8-player 2-deck taiti, which isn't fun when you are the a**hole and are stuck right at the bottom with loserish cards.

either way, eoys are over :D

just that on the way back we discussed about ri-rjc merger. and despite attempts by the great cec chairman to convince us that merger is good, it was not good enough. seriously, why merge when everything is well? there's the homogenization of ri and rjc cultures - 2 different distinct cultures - and you lose a whole school name.

really, why fix it when it ain't broke?

anyway, RA tests on thurs/fri. shall start mugging chem on wednesday.

Labels: Life

{ 10:36 PM }

Sunday, October 19, 2008.

yeah, everything's all settled with nlb.

thankfully i wasn't made to pay. but it's my fault too, as jerald rightfully pointed out, that i should have checked. admittedly i knew that the liner notes were missing, but i didnt go to the service counter, so i got quite worried over this yesterday night.

phew.

anyway maff's tmr! (why do i call it maff i wonder). hopefully it should bring me some good marks (seeing as I want some nice marks to decorate my APR, what with a stinking 2.8 for a particular subject). anyway there's moderation, though even after moderation i doubt ill get the 100 i got last year (since i put in MUCH more effort in maffeoy last year (as i desperately needed my 4.0 last year)).

but WHO CARES.

freedom is within sight.

just that stupid 1.5hr/1.5hr paper(s) blocking my way.

but anyway freedom is but short-lived. what with the other crap like RA papers (maff on thurs - no calculator zomg and chem on fri - ahhhhh i forgot everything) and hcl o's (yeah need to buck up) and jlpt (far away but still quite near), it's not the dream holiday every sec 4 wishes.

still, with the 2week extra it should be dreamy enough for me.

but first.

O Fortuna
velut luna
statu variabilis,
semper crescis
aut decrescis;
vita detestabilis
nunc obdurat
et tunc curat
ludo mentis aciem,
egestatem,
potestatem
dissolvit ut glaciem.

Sors immanis
et inanis,
rota tu volubilis,
status malus,
vana salus
semper dissolubilis,
obumbrata
et velata
michi quoque niteris;
nunc per ludum
dorsum nudum
fero tui sceleris.

Sors salutis
et virtutis
michi nunc contraria,
est affectus
et defectus
semper in angaria.
Hac in hora
sine mora
corde pulsum tangite;
quod per sortem
sternit fortem,
mecum omnes plangite!

O Fortuna, Carmina Burana (Orff)

It's a piece I haven't yet learnt to appreciate (maybe cause i tend to fancy works which are more symphonic in scope), but nevertheless a nice piece. And a famous one at that, too!



i should be mugging and sleeping. hm.

Labels: Life

{ 10:33 PM }

Saturday, October 18, 2008.

life is freaking unfair.

let's say, i borrowed a cd from esplanade library without the liner notes attached.

when i attempted to return it today, they told me to find the liner notes or they would treat it as lost.

and it isn't even my fault it's lost!

but i can't prove that, can i?

so most probably i'll have to pay for the "lost" item, which will set me back about 50 bucks.

50 bucks for something i didn't do?

but can i do anything? i can't prove my innocence! so that essentially means i just lost 50 bucks for nothing.

screw.

Labels: Life

{ 10:14 PM }

Friday, October 17, 2008.

bio was so-so. not too sure whether it was good, so i say it's so-so.

ANYWAY IM SO HAPPY I TOOK MY LAST BIO TEST IN MY LIFE! :D

actually i kinda like bio, without the mugging part.

pity.

anyway the bishan security guard is really weird, ask jerald for more info.

and i realised i actually can play asshole taiti very well! :D

Labels: Life

{ 10:58 PM }

Thursday, October 16, 2008.

phy was ok. seeing how badly i flunked cct2, i thought i worked quite hard for this paper and found it moderately ok (yay 3 marks for bonus). hopefully if all went ok i would get >75.

geog on the other hand is crap. i totally forgot about haze! so i crapped up one weak point about the 3 Ps not working together for my opposing viewpoint. I expect to get l2 or a very very low l4 if the marker is kind. that means that my predicted geog mark is not a 4.0, which isnt very good. any lower than 28 and i lose my 4.0, so well.

THERE'S BIO!

cytoplamicdeterminantscomplementsystemstewardshipantipodalcellsacetylcholinetibialoopofhenle ahh all crap.

thankgoodness im not taking bio next year.

oh and we (as in patrick jinghui jerald and me) decided to target someone in the library, the security guard. i think ri guys have this BIG hate towards security guards i guess. and somemore we didnt even choose to target bishan-gay who stared at patrick for eternity last friday.

mug it all man.

and I'M GOING TO RAFFLES JUNIOR COLLEGE NEXT YEAR, WHATEVER THEY CALL IT.

Labels: Life

{ 7:10 PM }

Wednesday, October 15, 2008.

oh dear i just had my last chem test in RI! then again there's RIJC (which is a stupidly retarded name to say the least).

it was rather fun (and soooo darned tricky - the u-tube and iron hydroxide one), though i reneged on my promise to go to the toilet when i finished the paper.

Anyway we were discussing some stuff outside the hall before the paper, and it went like this:

Me: What are you gonna do when you finish the paper?

Andrew: Oh, stare at N***** T** lah!

In the end she didn't turn up. How hurt Andrew must be feeling now!

There's still stinkin' geog and physics tmr. Both are somehow my weakest subjects amongst the remainder (phy geo bio math) and it was cause of 2 stupidly-done CCTs, one for each subject, that gave me a disappointing CA mark.

ahh why must 3 of us be the only 3 people taking geog in class? now tmr they are so gonna suan me till i fail geog. but im pretty sure 4b will have highest average for geog (cause there are only 3 ppl taking geog)!

anyway rachmaninoff is a really gifted melodist, as i discovered today. I was humming the Adagio melody from his symphony no.2 today during chem, it's just too beautiful. really.

who wants to go/is going for sarahchang + laphil on 25/10/08? tell me!

Labels: Life

{ 9:06 PM }

Monday, October 13, 2008.

i shall take some time off my geog textbook and notes on aid to talk about the most important piece of news received today:

ri and rjc is gonna merge to form ri.

(as if we didn't know that).

so next time if employers ask for my study particulars i'll show them:
2005 - 2008 - RI
2009 - 2010 - RI

Technically we still graduate this year-end.

BUT.

1 - the press released it out TODAY. the exact same day as the students knowing it. Aren't students expected to know the whole merger thing before the sch announces it to the press? And we received it ONLY today. So when I got home my parents ALREADY knew about it from the news.

2 - Why was there an information embargo? we deserve to know so much seeing as we are the products of the school (and we pay for it anyway), yet there was an info embargo. Anyway its rather pointless trying to shut it from the students. If they hadn't realised, they were dealing with the top 3% of Singapore's population, which should have been smart enough to obtain enough info to feed themselves. Not that I'm against them keeping certain info from us, but rather the IDEA that they should keep some info from us.

3 - Now what happens? CCA? To be honest that is my biggest concern. Do I rejoin the same CCA after being honourably discharged? Will Daron and co. get sacked? Will some of my teachers move up? See how little they released it to us, 4 WEEKS before the official school term closes and 4 (school) WEEKS to the implementation of the merger!

Ugh. This is absolutely annoying.

Labels: school

{ 9:28 PM }

Sunday, October 12, 2008.

'tis not a very very good time to be sick.

really.

my efficiency was negative50million fongs/minute.

cause i was sleeping throughout yesterday afternoon due to the side-effect of the medicine.

thanks man.

now im supposed to be mugging geog, which is really getting up my nerves (lol at bio).

then again, i haven't finished bio mugging! i need some form of aid (haha geog.).

maybe eoys short-circuit your voltaic brain-cell.

ok i am pure random (eek probability).

P.S. Don't ever read my blog. It reeks of randomness.
P.P.S. I found your blog! Just that I haven't bothered to tag it yet, since I don't use LJ. anyway I relinked!

Labels: school

{ 9:43 PM }

Saturday, October 11, 2008.

i should have posted this yesterday, but was just too sleepy.

eng and ss really depends on how nice the teacher is. Eng was a case of "dunno how well one did", cause I didn't think I wrote a kick-ass essay (unlike last year), but I wrote many points down. So let's hope for the best.

ss was same. I missed out the word "necessary" on purpose, but wrote so much with many points and figures, with a nice ending (or so I thought). Then again, I don't recall whether I wrote that I agreed or disagreed with the statement.

now is intensive geog mugging (even if there's chem and phy before).

anyway 4B has been such a wonderful class so far. really, which class LANs, supports concerts, plays soccer, celebrates birthdays, watches anime, plays mvc in class AND still scores freaking high in the cohort? i'm really impressed with my class, and really nothing can describe the thought of having to break up after just 2 years.

It's sad, really.

so, for the last 3 weeks we officially remain as a class, let's do our best together. Pool our notes together (e.g. geog) and help our class as one to own this eoys!

Labels: class

{ 12:34 PM }

Thursday, October 9, 2008.

yeah. sometimes i have to say economic theories work SOO beautifully in this world.

think about it. is it more beneficial for one person to study ss alone, and make 1 set of notes just for himself? or is it better if he makes that set of notes and starts circulating it around, and in the meantime putting pressure on other people to release their notes as well?

that's the whole concept of free trade.

when gatt came around it was precisely for this purpose: to raise world trade levels. just by one country lowering tariffs, it started a chain of events leading to the gain in trade. whoever gives, gets back more.

it's just so beautiful right?

but of course there are the anti-traders who tariffs their imports. what happens? according to the theory of comparative advantage, that country cannot afford to diversify, no matter how skilled the country is. so in the end, the country suffers from a lack of economic growth because of the lack of specialization.

isn't it just the same in this world too? the people who don't help don't get helped.

and that's why i love my class. ever since i sent the 1st email with notes, i have received (to date) at least 15 emails, nearly all with notes on ss alone. maybe the demand for them is so high, since we hardly had any supply.

anyway it's nearing the killer week no. 2. and tonight i will be lucky if last year's ss mark doesnt get into my cranium and haunt me.

a free 4.0 flying away just because of 1 question and 1 wrong interpretation. it flew away when i had it in my hands.

so it still hurts.

and i hope my worst enemy doesn't cause me to die.

MY HANDWRITING.

sounds stupid eh? but strangely it is my weakest link for tmr. my handwriting, scanned into the comp, registers weird greek, arabic and korean language alphabets in them.

but nevermind.

all the best, and may free trade, mncs and globalization win.

Labels: Life, school

{ 7:06 PM }

Wednesday, October 8, 2008.

even as the eoys loom i am STILL here posting.

i must be mad.

but today was productive, not only in terms of mugging. We (Patrick, Jerald, Eugene and myself) mugged in Bishan Lubrary for 4+ hours (and Patrick is still there as I type), along with kenneth, both bens, tony, erdong, xiongwei and kengyong. and everyone was mugging ss (except me - i was mugging a combination of geog and ss).

some things we discussed were rather interesting, including people-centric ideas.

today's chinese was rather interesting. our chinese teacher talked to us for 10 WHOLE minutes (everyone was freaking paying attention, which is rare for our class) with regards to some happenings in school. she's a very good analyst and commentator, and she shared her views on stuff in school, which we more or less agreed and sympathized with.

the school feels as if it's collapsing. can we do anything about it? or is it just another side-effect of globalization and ideology shifts?

Labels: school

{ 8:38 PM }

Tuesday, October 7, 2008.

and this is the post everyone knows will come no matter what.

it's THAT time of the year, where sales of brain tonic rises like never before.

but remember, i promised myself i wouldn't ever go on a hiatus cause life ain't boring (yet). so before i plunge my head into the inviting scent of freshly-printed ink-on-parchment,

good luck all. try not to die during the eoys, then you would have wasted $46 on an exam you would never ever take (HMT O's).

it's not so difficult, so let's try to own it and obtain sky-high gpas.

もっと頑張ってください！

Labels: school

{ 7:53 PM }

Sunday, October 5, 2008.

for all those people who think ri guys are mentally sound:

wenjie says:
no
wenjie says:
impossible
wenjie says:
dont lie
wenjie says:
you lie
wenjie says:
fong doesnt lie
wenjie says:
everybody else lies
wenjie says:
what is bvecoming

wenjie just sent you a nudge.

wenjie says:
haiya
wenjie says:
i am going to fail
wenjie says:
myself
wenjie says:
b ecause
wenjie says:
of
wenjie says:
the
wenjie says:
you
wenjie says:
which
wenjie says:
drank
wenjie says:
soybean
wenjie says:
and ate
wenjie says:
wasabi
wenjie says:
together
wenjie says:
with
wenjie says:
marmalade
wenjie says:
juice
lumpy - 4B '08 すばらしい! says:
you just made sense.

maybe you might want to reconsider your opinions.

Labels: friends

{ 11:15 PM }

Saturday, October 4, 2008.

this is a rant. don't say i didn't warn you.


WHY ON THIS FREAKING WORLD DO WE NEED TO LEARN ABOUT QA? freaking hell, it's like a whole bunch of lies, about "Barium Sulphate is never soluble in water" when we do know they ARE soluble in water. what's the whole point of remembering that Fe(OH)3 is insoluble in water when there's the data table and Ksp to help you? and then the worst part is the whole idea of QA and salt prep. no one freaking makes salts in this world, and there's always nmr and the like to tell you which salt it is. must you go make bromine water to test whether the beaker has Al3+ or Pb2+ in it?

ok in short.

i haven't mugged chem and i dont want to.

though i much prefer other areas of chem like organic. then again this rant merely serves to illustrate how much stress eoys are putting into us.

by reverse logic,
me >3 eoys.

Labels: school

{ 10:35 PM }

Thursday, October 2, 2008.

this is quite late,
but jbj passed away.


which effectively means,

whatever we have left of our opposition is nearly 0.


he was a good fighter to the end. if only singapore had more of these people (actually we do, but they're not in politics).

rip.



anyway someone lend me RA personal statement to copy! im lazy to do.

Labels: Singapore

{ 8:38 PM }