Glimmer of Dawn

College Life

2007-01-27T20:03:00.000-08:00

I think I will blog a little more about college life, now that I had experienced about 2-3 weeks of it.

First of all, it is really hectic and as I may have said to you, you come to school before the sun is up and only go home after the sun is down. In other words, you are practically spending your whole day there, even if your lessons ended early like say in the early afternoon. The truth is there’s so many activities organized each day that you will be unable to find any “slack days” on your calendar. For instance, there may be Faculty Dance session on one day or say DramaFeste or whatever… I guess while you may not find college life fulfilling, it will at least be “filling”.

Another thing I noticed is that the pace of lessons is much faster than in the high school side. If a person is slacking for a day or two by not doing tutorial, he or she will probably be behind schedule already. For me, I am trying to catch up with the mole tutorial as well as 1C. To cope with this increased workload, some had resorted to “mugging whenever there’s time”, so you can see them working on tutorial during breaks or even before the morning flag-raising. For some, they will either be copying wholesales, or photocopy the whole tutorial like what Kian Yang did.

Another indicator of the workload is the much thicker notes for each of the subjects. For the first 2 stacks of Economics notes, which I think will last for one term, has a total of 88 pages albeit with some useless crap inside. In contrast, year four 4 biology only has 100 pages of notes FOR ONE YEAR. With so many notes to be printed over the term, the class fund has been rising by an extraordinary rate. I estimate that I had been paying about $10 each week. This high expenditure reminds me of what ngmy said about textbooks. If you buy textbooks, it will be in one go and will feel less costly, supposedly and in perception, than if you were to be pay the class fund every other day. She said that the total sum will actually be about the same. I’m not sure about her theory, but I can at least confirm that my pocket money always run out before the week does.

Huang Cheng

2007-01-27T07:06:00.000-08:00

Well, Huang Cheng is getting more and more imba. Now everyday I need to go there at 4pm and do work till like 840, so I can only reached home at around 9++. So there's no time to do any work liao so I can only mug during the breaks. Even so, I'm now officially behind schedule.

Will talk more soon

07S61

2007-01-19T20:24:00.000-08:00

Well I finally did get my first choice subject combination of “CCME”, though there will not be any 4J people in my class as my now ex-classmates all decided to choose something different from me. For instance, Kian Yang wanted to take biology instead of economics and Lim Yi actually reversed his “final” decision to take CCME to switch back to PCME!

Amazingly, I am in the same class as Zheng Hang because S61 is a combined class with people taking either CCME or PCME. Well, that’s quite a pleasant surprise. And we actually go back to the CT allocation list to double-check to make sure either of us did not make this mistake.

For that week, we need to do the class flag and prepare the class item. Dian Jun actually provided some sort of pictures for us to choose, and so we voted to see which will be the final design. When I first cringed at the idea of a “rainbow dolphin”, it actually turned out to be quite nice in the end with skilful blending. As for the class item, we decided to have a “4K item” whereby we acted out some lame actions/MTV parody of some songs. Thus we went to the SALT centre for practice, which is actually captured in yet another montage.

However on the actual day itself, we somehow switched songs totally to “wu ding” and some “my girl” thing, so I guess the class had to start all over again. Ivan was leading the class superbly and for a moment I thought maybe he can be the dancing king of the class.

Yet as “Judgment Day” dawns, somehow the Tania (with Ying Yue?) asked Zheng Hang and I to do some random *ahem* stuff as the class sang “wu ding”. Since that’s impromptu, so we were like doing anything that came up on our mind and eventually we ran out of things to do, I guess. Ironically, there seem to be hotter audience reception towards our random antics than the rehearsed “my girl” dance, which is well rather ironic. Well, our flag was and still IS totally outstanding on that day, and truth be told, there’s not much opposition and so we are the class flag champion!

Term 1 Week 1

2007-01-06T20:22:00.000-08:00

Well, think I will blog about this fast, else I will forget whatever that goes on during this period.

Talks

For the high school students, more than half of the talks were, well, rather boring since we already gone through those in assembly. Moreover with everyone using PowerPoint, no stunning background could help you get attention from us. It is a bit like stoning at PD judging full of lousy projects.

Yet amazingly, on Friday, we had 4 interesting talks in a row. First of all, the deputy principal (I think he’s called Mr. Chan) talking about his high school experience. Apparently he only got 35 for his first college math test before becoming a math teacher. Wow, that’s cool. And there’s this talk about history of hwachong which is rather insightful as the speaker talked about how the school had developed and the original positions of certain building and our moves from woodlands, bukit batok…. rather than wasting our time repeating the school values. Same goes for the sexuality education and the “MRT” talk. Haha.

Station Games, Dance, Songs

First and foremost, I’m okay with most of the songs maybe except for the college anthem as it’s particularly high and it’s of a very large range so it’s hard to sing. In contrast, I think our school song is rather low, just right for boys.

The dances are disastrous. Enough said (Read on to find out what I did to escape from the torture).

The station games are obviously designed by students to students but are they are for students? After the entire ordeal, the only people having “fun” seem to be all those councilors.

Subject combination and KI fiasco

As you may had read from my previous post, I had actually decided on “ccme” quite a long time ago. However after listening to so many talks and from effective persuasion from your friends, your resolve seems to be wavering.

Actually I’m quite undecided whether to take the KI selection test, such that I arrange my holiday so that it will not clash. However, though I’m interested in the subject and willing to try it out, I’m not sure which combinations should I be taking with it. Therefore my mind is in some sort of stalemate whether to take the test “for fun” so that I may opt for it later on should I change my mind.

What eventually overcame the stalemate, of whether or not to take the KI test, turned out to be the disastrous dance session. Seeing that I can miss the dance session if I take the KI test, I promptly asked Kian Yang to go as well (or is it the other way round?).

The test turned out to be quite okay. You need to write an essay not more than 500 words on “in your opinion, what makes a piece of knowledge certain”. I was actually quite taken aback at first since I’m not prepared for such kinds of question. However, after some planning, I promptly write the essay. Basically I argued that you can prove or disprove a hypothesis, thus validating the piece of knowledge or otherwise, through repeated experiment and intellectual debate based on logic and actual observation, which will remove possible fallacies and or loopholes.

Then obviously I waited for the test result. And guess what, amazingly, I actually made it! Lol. Then there’s some people who are really serious but did not made it. Then here comes a guy who had gotten in partly just to miss the dance.

Although I’m still uncertain at that point whether to really take the subject, I decided not to tell the school I do not want to take it as I want to put as 2nd choice (only), with ccme still being the first of course. Thus, imagine my horror, when the isp said I can only register for combination with KI! After fallen into panic as I froze on the deeper implication of my failure to decline KI, Chuan Xin came to the rescue! Somehow I can choose ccme again.

:) Thanks, lcx!

KI test’s new point

(Btw, it’s ok if you don’t understand the following para. It’s normal)

I had thought of a new point which should be quite suitable for the above question as well. See if you agree with this following paragraph (I had broken it down into several big chunk for easier reading).

“In some cases however, there may be insufficient evidence as to prove or disprove a particular hypothesis, thereby resulting in a stalemate.

One example will be the question on whether god had really existed, which had eluded humanity. Proposition or opposition for such a hypothesis, even after a rigorous debate, will be unable to reach a satisfactory conclusion for one side or the other based on the available evidence.

Another example may be that some people proposed that the world may not be real, but merely the stimulation of a “matrix”, like in the movie. Obviously, there are absolutely no signs or evidence of this being so, but proponent of “matrix world” may propose further that such was the intricacy of the matrix’s construction, that it is impossible to detect any signs. Though this sounds absurd and unlikely, this is obviously logical and entirely possible.

Fortunately, we can still resolve the above 2 hypothesizes even though we never reached a conclusion. For the former, the existence of god is a religious issue and can be treated as a personal choice. Therefore, some people may continue to believe in god while others do not. As for the latter, we can resolve the issues mathematically, by ranking all possibilities in order of likeliness. In that case, the possibility of this “false real world”, so to speak, to be “real” is very high. The existence of a “matrix world”, though possible, is too unlikely for it to be considered and so should be ignored.

However, the above methods of resolving hypothesizes have a deeper implication. By resolving them without conclusive evidence for one side or the other, it leaves a chance for the other side, though already deemed unlikely mathematically, to be actually true. Therefore, strictly speaking, these pieces of knowledge are not really “certain”, but only “near certain”. However, in a normal situation in a normal context, such “near certainty” is “certain” enough for most of us to validate a piece of knowledge.”

It follows that my new conclusion, incorporating my new point, may be something like this.

“In cases whereby the process of validating a piece of knowledge can be done through observation, repeated experiments should be conducted. As humanity progresses, sometimes entire new body of knowledge can be created and perfected by abstract intellectual debate and discussion. However, even if such new theories are perfectly logical in our mind, they need to agree with the laws of nature before it should be accepted. As for cases whereby there are insufficient evidences, we can only take the likeliest possibility, and accept this “near certainty” as “certainty”.”

Wow, I’m impressed by myself. But then this point is edited in my head over these 1-2 days and way beyond the 1 hour test duration. In any case, this point can be a stand-alone essay even without conclusion, with about 400 words. Lol. Lastly, please comment whether you agree with my new point. Thanks. Maybe I will email the KI teachers on what they thought about my new point.

So to all those who think I'm just laming and crapping all day, I won't mind if you start thinking that I have a good mind. :)

The wonderful year: 2006

2006-10-26T23:02:00.000-07:00

Besides all the negative stuff, I want to thank people for all the good stuffs that made 2006 one of the best year for me.

I want to thank Mrs Tan for letting me taking part in VJC quiz, and Yingjie for saving the team from being pushed out of the running.

I want to thank my form teacher Mdm. Ng for recommending me to take part in the translation competition over Ling Chen (who gave up the chance by insisting I'm better than him in English) and subquently another one later in the year, as well as 华岗文学 (though I didn't win anything).

I want to thank whoever nominated me for mun last year (most probably Mr. Ng and or Mr. Ho). I want to thank Mr. Cheng, Mr. Chng, Miss Sunita and Mr. Lim for their valuable guidance

Last but not least, I want to thank 杨老师 for making xinyunxinyun a success.

This post is for all the teachers. Think I will post another one for my fellow schoolmates next time.

RMUNC

2006-07-21T19:55:00.000-07:00

Ok, the event is like around 2 months ago....so the timing of this post is "a bit" Kian Yang. But anyway, here's what happens generally:

I received a private emb msg that notified me that I'm participating in RMUNC (Raffles Model United Nations). Apparently all the delegates selected are either those who went for THIMUN or want to go for HMUN this year. So anyway, I'm in.

Then I went for some briefing at RJC. Interestingly, all of us need to prepare some ppt which states our country's stand and planned solutions and so on. Apparently this is for the chair to judge how well-prepared are we. And then the conference is set in 1982 during cold war, and not 2006, so "outdated" info suddenly became the most "up-to-date" ones.

After missing a few meetings whereby allocation of council were discussed and stuff, we were notified that HCI will represent Russia (aka USSR) and Zimbabwe. So anyway I'm in ECOSOC doing Debt Crisis.

I'm quite glad that I'm not doing GA4, as it's highly technical which makes it well very boring and hard to understand. Moreover, since it deals with special political issues like say Israel and Palestine, it takes almost forever to just deal with the ownership of Jerusalem.

And obviously, we needa prepare the ppt and start to read up on stuff, as teachers (SLIM and Sunita) will be looking at it. I wonder whether I prepared enough, but I certainly dont know more than others. Moreover, I can't find stats for my own country's debt and so on. LOL LOL.

Then one day, someone added me on msn. Apparently, she is Alan's friend, and added me for lobbying and some sort of "consulatation". So we exchanaged our ppt and gives suggestion for improvement. It turns out that others often spam the RMUN official yahoo grp for msn contacts for lobbying. LOL, and I just stone. So anyway, up to the time the conference starts, I only have MOST (not even all lor) HCI's contacts and Zi Wei's contact. Ok, that's "a lot".

So the actual ppt quite screwed of cos. I dont really know what I'm talking about and the chair caution me. I went home to do a working paper, as I'm too lazy to do a resolution.

Day 1 conference: Stoned mostly, so kena scolded by the Chair. LOL. But I did speak a few times against the USA's resolution of cos. I don't quite understand why the USA wants me to support his side. Obviously, it would be a major diplomatic coup if he succeed, just imagine the 2 superpowers WORKING HAND IN HAND! I also agreed with him that our proposed solutions are quite similar. However, my job is to OPPOSE USA. Sorry then. In the end, I joined another bloc formed by UK and sorta contributed to their reso.

Day 1 night: After being heavily criticised by so many people for not performing the role of Superpower, I decided to came up with my own resolution. However as we needa fix the computer, I only went online at like around 10 pm. Feeling boliao for one moment, I talked to Iran (aka Zi Wei) and asked what she is doing. It turned out that Iran, being anti-US, had found a bunch of countries (sorry, should be "alliance") who are waiting for me to work together on an alternative resolutions. Ok lor...ji I need to find allies?

So anyway I shared my ideas with them infused with lots of "socialist" (I'm supposed to be communist) ideology. I koped some ideas from others' resolution, my own working paper and "The End of Poverty". There's a 5-point plan inside which lists way to stablise an economy, which I amended for our anti-US, socialist reso. We split up the work amongst the alliace, consisting primarily of India, Saudi, Iran and USSR. Guyana also contributed. As we cannot finished in time, we decided to meet up tomorrow at J8's Mac to iron things out.

Day 2: Iran was very late, but we started work anyway. So basically, everyone take out their work and combine. India (or is it Saudi?) promptly worked on it for almost the whole morning of the conference. And I myself, being the head of all communists, sent out lots of notes to publicise. And obviously, I went up to speak a few times. Things were looking up. :)

However, everything changed during the lunch. UK decided to merge his reso with USA, which effectively means that there wont be space for any opposing bloc to propose a new one, since you can only sign one at a time. So I need to defeat the merged reso which I signed, otherwise my reso would be totally useless since I cannot get enough signatures to get it debated. (You can only sign one reso at a time. If it's passed, you cannot sign again). SO SCREWED.

And of course, I cannot even find 12 countries to sign the reso. I think USSR is really unpopular. Cuba's absence and the Sino-Soviet split doesn't help either. And apparently, we are involved in Somalia and Afghanistan's war so they wont support us either. What ter heck! USSR is a powerless superpower.

Then after that, we had the RMUN crisis. Apparently, because Falkland Island had Diamonds, everyone wants a share of it by claiming the island is theirs. So there's 2 camps: one group wanna resolve it by settling the ownership first, while the other just want to have a share of the diamond for funding to resolve the debt crisis.

And ridiculously for the USSR, we were supposed to invade them! We proposed a joint alliance with China, but of cos there's the Soviet-Sino split. So we were left quite alone and we just dao the thing. To put it simply, logical solutions that will get support does not seems logical for USSR's interest. If we wanna protect our interest, we wont get any support. What ter heck!

Interestingly, I read from someone GP's notes on my trip to RJC, that small nations often want a "referee" like UN to enforce the rule, while major powers wants more room to manoeuvre (often by upsetting the rule). Moreover, it sounds logical for a major power to exert his influence and assert his power by taking active steps to protect her vested interest. Unfortunately, self-interest often go against collective ones.

Day 3: After completedly giving up, we just dao the thing. The next day, a reso, which referred the case to SC, was passed resolving the stupid crisis. Our debt crisis meeting went on for another 90 minutes. For some reason, nothing got passed due to a lack of time. It would be a success of the council to pass the reso, but then it would seems as a failure on our part. And of cos, my alternative reso was laid to waste.

Then we had our fashion parade. Our rasputin was well, entertaining, but not artistic. Same goes for Zimbabwe. And I think the D n D rocks lah, especially the band, though nobody really dances unless you count jumping and down for no reason...

So obviously I didnt get any prize for the whole conference, but I admit it's quite a good experience nonetheless.

Xinyunxinyun

2006-07-17T06:51:00.000-07:00

I finally passed the baton to my successor, MoXiang (aka y-c cos y=mx+c) in a "chuan wei" ceremony which is quite lame of course. I'm sure that our heir will handle their new mantle with care and bring the Frozen Huagang to greater height, though I admit MoXiang still has too much link at the moment. I would make sure he has hyperlink soon.

Meanwhile xinyunxinyun is finally over. There's such an intensive emotional release that everyone got quite high after the xie mu, with yours truly amongst them. I guessed I finally fulfilled my mission, though unfortunately not in a bigger role, of reviving Huagang Yee Yun. I can left Huagang with a clear conscience, that I contributed to OUR production, BY us and ultimately FOR us to watch.

And then some other rumours had materialised into concrete links, with some with high potential of actually developing into "good-friends" or even romance, with no brokeback. You can refer to HP or Jensen post for more details. Meanwhile, being the "Linkable Lincoln", I'm still a noble gas existing as a solitary atom. This declaration is not an open invitation or whatsoever to tell you that I'm available or anything..., just reporting on my status.

The end is near and I wonder whether the new beginning would prove to be better...

Quote of the day
Homework: Something you needa get it done, though there's no need to get it right.
You need to done it, or you would be done for.

It's ok for love to be blind, as long as you don't lose your sense of taste.

From HongYe
*Someone* is effecient at getting things NOT done.

Can't think of more at the moment. Maybe will update soon.

Project's Day

2006-07-13T09:11:00.000-07:00

Well, think I would just like to blog about what went on during the competition this week, since I had been nothing much else as of late, except spamming Hwagang of cos. Just before it's our turn to present our project, Yee Jiunn told us about the 3 Cs.

Convince - Persuade the judges that you are part of the magical movement that would bring to school to further greatness
Con - Well, nothing is what it seems to be.
Confuse - if there's no substance, try to "smoke through" according to JJ.

Let me add a few more Cs to the list.

Chim-mify - quite similar to the idea of "con". If the project is hard to understand or even impossible to understand, the judges would generally have less questions or don't know what to ask, so you wont be screwed for Q and A.

Combination of Consequenses - aka luck. Sometimes the judges don't need a reason to kick out of the competition...

So anyway the judging was quite screwed for us, but I would and wouldn't say that "you reaped what you SOWed". Our group was screwed by one particularly annoying and bitchy teacher whose name is somewhere in this post, and highlighted in some way. But of cos, I dont think we deserve to be eliminated this way, since we really did the experiement the best that we could though sometimes misguided by our dear mentor. In fact, I bet I done more for biodiesel than my previous 3 projects put together. Haiz, based on effort alone, think we deserve something more. but that's for me to decide.

Term 2.5

2006-06-16T02:56:00.000-07:00

With so many stuff piling up “nicely” for the June holiday and the first few weeks of term 3, the break seems more like an extended school term to me. Indeed, it would be a miracle if I sailed through the whole periodunscathed. Indeed, I have been coming to school almost every-day that this break merely seems to be an extended school term. Fortunately (for better or worse), I’m not coming to the school campus for week 2, so at least I’m not so sick when I came again in week 3.

Week 1 – making props

Although about half of Huagang belongs to the props group, somehow only about 3-4 regulars turned up frequently enough to be worth a mention. Of course, I cannot blame those actors and exco members (Hey some of us did come down to help!) since they were already too bogged down with rehearsals and administrative matters respectively. However, what excuse does the rest have? Why are they not coming when we need them the most?

Week 2 – RMUNC

Ok, I myself did not go and make props nor go for the Huagang camp for a very obvious reason: RMUNC. Well, for details about what went on during the conference, please wait for my post just on this event.

Week 3 – Project and Choir

After RMUNC ended off with a bang with the D & D, I promptly went back to work on my Biodiesel project. This must be the first time I had actually started doing my project during the June holidays, perhaps yet another potent indicator of my failure in Project’s Competition. Yet I cannot screw it up this time around, for this is the last year all of us would be in HCI high school section (Refer to my earlier post about Year 4 syndrome).

I sincerely hope that we would at least make it to the final, after missing out on greenwave and NUS Chemistry fair due to our lagging external mentor. Anyway, the Ngee Ann lecturer did not reply us promptly yet again (think he’s overseas) so we just continue preparing the oil needed for testing religiously. Hopefully we can complete everything in time.

Meanwhile, choir training resumed with dismal attendance as usual. I really begin to wonder whether we can make it for the NYGH concert in tip-top condition, considering what we sang during the practices. And of course, the old issue about succession popped up more and more frequently, as the date for departures of sec 4 nears. Hewlett quipped we might as well form a boy band. At the same time, I think Mr. Yong gave hints that yet another recruitment drive would be organized. Miss Lim’s comment that there’s a lots of singing talent in Hwachong rings ever louder in my ears nowadays, as I realized that our dear Chee Yang didn’t even join VE. Imagine that! Hopefully VE can survive beyond the few remaining founders.

As you might had noticed, I did not even make a passing mention about revision for test (Math, Physics and Bio quiz), holiday homework nor HRP for a very good reason: I didn’t even touch them. They would probably be tackled in the last week.

Schedule

Stuff for Term 3 Week 1-3
Book circle
HRP
Physics, Bio, Math test
VE and Chinese drama performance
Project’s Day Semi judging
Australian English

Stuff for remaining weeks of term 3
ACE (especially Physics and Biology)
Oral Defense
Young editor (write some short stories)
Science research paper (for “Scientific Major Research Paper” aka SMRP)
Exam revision

Hopefully everything goes well, and then I can concentrate on revising for my exam to get my choice subject combination.

Year 4 syndrome

2006-06-16T01:45:00.000-07:00

I think the final year in your school would always be the most memorable. Besides relishing the bond with your friends and the inevitable parting, the anticipation of your next steps towards achieving your life-long dream must always be on the back of your mind. Now more than ever, I feel the increasing sense of urgency as the sand remaining in the hour-glass disappear even faster than a shooting star. The quest is on to eliminate any possible regrets, from being carried forward to your college days.

No doubt this cohort would still be promoted together to J1, but this is a significant milestone that nobody wanted to cross without something to show for. Perhaps that is why all of us are working so hard, with valuable experience accumulated from past failures, to save our best shot for the last.

The end is near.

Translation

2006-04-14T22:54:00.000-07:00

Thought I just blogged again since I still have not developed the mood for doing my HRP, RMUNC ppt and..........

So as I mentioned, Term 2 Week 2 is a bit crazy due to the ultra-hectic schedule, which made me completedly burned out. Yet somehow for one reasons or another, it became quite "slack". So here's the timetable for that Monday:

730-1330: Normal lessons (Recess training with Mrs Tan for VJC quiz)
1400-1500: LEP lessons (supposed to last till 1600 but for some reason, it's cut short)
1600-1750: Project meeting with external mentor with Mdm. Choi (Been waiting for tyjiunn and Kevin, as they were held up by some stuff)
1800-1930: Stone at poolside and had dinner there, as I dao VE
1930-2130: Translation training with Mr. Wang
2200-2130: Bath, rushes some hw and went to bed

All in all, the translation training with Mr. Wang is quite fun, and I learnt quite a lot. Interestingly, I never met my team-mates throughout the course of the training. Jian Zhong and Dian Jun were too busy and only came for the Wed session, while obviously I'm away for that day due to VJC quiz.

Just like the VJC quizzes, the 3 of us were quite shocked that we actually made it to the final round, considering that the 2 of them did not prepare adequately (the 2 hours "crash course" on wed). Apparently Mr. Tan, lacks so much confidence that he did not want us to bring the xiao qi there. lol.

So here's how the competition went along:

1st rd-Dunman totally screwed up, scoring a grand total of zero. At this pts, RV is leading with 12 pts, while RI and us got abt 8-9 pts.
2nd rd-RV totally screwed up, scoring 9 out of possible of 48. Dunman caught up with RV and eliminated them with a total of 27 pts (Only top 3 teams qualify for the 3rd and final round). Meanwhile HCI trailing RI by 4 pts with 45 pts.With such a big lead, we are confident of getting top 2 at least. Anyway the order is this HCI go 1st then RI, then Dunman.
3rd rd-RI self-destruct as their rep. obviously cannot translate english into chinese. Same goes for Dunman, but they dont have anything to destruct anyway, so we dont bothered about them. We know we were the champ, once the RI guys began to speak Chinese.

So after the 2 competitions, ACE for a few subjects have been maxed or very close already. Here's the tally:
Chinese: 5 for sabbatical and 12 for translation (total 17)
English: 3 for ppt and ?? for translation subject to approval
IH: 8 for VJC (I also had 1 land reclamation ppt, RMUNC and lit...)
Physics: spamming forum + Australian Science

Others still zero. So hoped everyone can collaborate with me thanks.

What I did

2006-04-13T07:42:00.000-07:00

Havent been blogging for these few weeks for a very simple reason: Too much stuff to do. Everyday, you seems to need to sleep at midnight or work non-stop from 6am to 6pm to clear the pile of homework.

Achievement in Term 2 Week 3:

Best Speaker for "in the" class debate
3rd for VJC IH Quiz
Passed Projects Prelim (lol though it's not our real topic at that time...but it seems we are doing on Biodiesel after all)
Champion for national Translation competition

For past 2 weeks been training for the competition as mentioned. Lol Yong Jie and I and we were actually quite surprised we got into the final round in the first place, as we did not feel we prepared adequately. I mean during the tea reception between the prelim and final rounds, we were discussing how many qns we got correct. So all of us got little more than 30 (Ying JIe got 39 while Zach, our reserve, got 24). It turned out that once you passed the quiz, as in getting more than 30, you are already one of the top since Ying Jie actually got individual 4th!!!

So for the final round right, HCI screwed up the individual round, sorry lor. Subsequently for the jeopardy (is that what you call that?) also a bit screwed.

Thus we did not really narrow the gap so we were in last place. The scoreboard look like this: HCI 30, RI and Chung Cheng 55 and SJI 75. Somehow SJI got this guy damn meng so he sorta answered all the questions.

Then for buzzer, Ying Jie is practically spamming so we eventually climbed to 2nd. Unfortunately, we answered wrongly for the last qns, and was deducted 2 marks, thus surrendering our runner-up position to RI by 1 mark. (SJI 112 Champ, RI 98pts, HCI 97, Chung Cheng 97)

Just thought that it's quite sway that we only got 3rd since I actually know the answer to some questions and it seems Ying Jie didn't hear me or something. But then Ying Jie is quite zai so don't blame him. Oh yah one RI guy thought they get to answer one buzzer rounds qns when it's supposed to be us, and they just shouted out the answer lol. But then considering that HCI didn't get in (or is it never?) even with a damn good team last year, think we did well lah.

Since this is my 1st competition representing the school, felt quite nervous. So totally stone for 1 Russian leader pic (didnt answer at all) luckily Yong Jie also crapped some qns like saying Tony Blair is Foreign Sectretary (it's Jack Straw), making me more relaxed.

All in all quite tyco, dont really know how we got in. But once we got into the final round, we knew we got a chance to win, though it was not to be.

So 1 more stuff to my portfolio, 8 IH CPs. Sorry Miss Sunita, I missed out on the 2 RMUNC meeting due to VJC. Hmm, luckily they did not assign me to that GA4 again. Otherwise damn sian man.

Blogged abt Translation next time.

I still got RMUNC ppt, HRP (long overdue but becos got competition so no time to do) and....

Date with FT

2006-03-16T20:32:00.000-08:00

In the end, did not meet Miss Koe but "just" my form teacher. However, my dad seemed pretty aggressive and kept pointing out that I should manage my time better and not wastes it on some "lame stuff". I think someone passing by would think that it's my dad who's the angry form teacher confronting the helpless parents on what exactly goes wrong. The truth is actually the other way round.

Let me give a short transcript:

FT: Here's your son's term 1 result
Dad (after looking through intently): Why did you get so bad result?
FT: I'm quite shocked too. During Chinese lessons, he's always quite alert and quite competitive. In fact, I think of all the students whose parents I met (as in those who also get MSG>3), he got the strongest learning ability. So what could be the reason behind his bad result? He said he kept watching TV.
Dad: Not really, but he spent a lot of times on some stuff like reading newspaper, lazing around and things like that.
FT: Hmm
Dad: I think he should be less involved in those class events and things like that, so that he can have more time to focus on his studies.
FT: ok…

Then we changed the subject to competition, which I felt I’m involved in too many of them.

FT: The school’s policy is that we allow those with the ability to participate in outside competition (to build up the resume) and gain some experience. Your son said he’s involved in too many of them, and cannot cope.
Dad: That’s why I said I asked him not to be so active in those events that don’t really need him.

And they keep repeating this. Then I’m asked to go out so that FT can have a private discussion with my dad.

In the end, I did not drop anything at all. However my dad told me I’m kicked out of the translation competition liao as FT wanted me to focus on reducing my MSG. Although I’m not officially informed by FT yet, LLC told me he’s being approached to replace me. Just as well, I got 1 less thing to do.

By the way, I don’t really understand why but I’m involved in so much more stuff this year. I think the surge is due to my lack of initiative when I’m in lower sec, when I just cannot be bothered to take part in anything and not selected for any school events or for performance either.

However when I’m in sec 3, I somehow got into the THIMUN team which led to my involvement in RMUNC this year. Whenever any emb msgs call for participant, now I would read through them to see whether I can take part in it. Another reason would be that FT gave me quite a lot of opportunity to participate in some Chinese competition. Oh yah when I’m in sec 2, I sorta short listed for “Instant Speech” competition and asked to meet Shiesh, but nothing came out of it.

FT also remarked that I’m actually quite all-rounded in the sense that I’m above average for language, humanity and the science, so it would be quite hard to gauge what area to focus on to develop my “strength”. Well let’s hope I manage to reduce my msg in term 2, do my PD project well and get some prize.

Lastly as I would be quite busy in term 2, it’s quite likely I won’t be blogging very often. I hope I can put up short msg from time to time to inform reader what I am doing. See ya.

Year 2006

2006-03-09T05:02:00.000-08:00

My meeting with Miss Koe

Totally screwed this term so think my parents and I need to meet Miss Koe. Just to give you a picture of how bad it is, I'm normally on par with Ling Chen and Mi. However their sum of their msg this term would roughly equivalent to mine. Really not meng bao?

Anyway thinking of things to drop. Currently I have:

1 additional subject: Biology ("Lest our old robe sits easier than the new")
2 Special Programs: SMRP and LEP
2 EP3: Chinese Drama (There's a combined performance with NYGH in July) and VE (Don't want to know what I need to do…)

4 Competitions:

1. Chinese reading report (need to write about 2000 words on "Cherishing Life")
• Real-time translation (1 day event. Would there be training? Not really finalised, maybe can get kicked out?)
• VJC Humanities/Current Affairs Quiz (Slim chance of actually getting in. Maybe can get process point for being reserve and taking part in training if any)
• Projects Competition (Much better chance of getting into the finals with quite a good team in my opinion. Doing some Chemistry stuff with Vincent Tan)

2 Events:

• RMUNC 2006 (3 day event during June holiday. In Hwachong MUN team. Hope I got to speak and not get kicked out)
• Ngee Ann Astronomy (2 day event during Term 2 Week 2 weekend)

Let’s hope I would do well in all of them and improve my msg.

Insight about Myself

2006-03-04T07:01:00.000-08:00

Finally blogging again after so long. During this period, my hand sorta recovered (still can't straighten it), com. crashed so lost all my files. Anyway this entry is abt an interesting encounter in which i got some interesting insight abt myself.

During the taiwan trip last year, My family and I went to something like a fortune-telling centre which gauge ur fortune in life based on ur name and when ur born (aka "sheng cheng ba zi"). That guy also said I got quite a good name, from a geomancer point of view. Hmm.

Here's what they told me:

1. Possess great intelligence (probably in the area of problem-solving and dealing with people)
2. Will probably starts own business in the future
3. Needs a "gui ren" to be the catalyst behind my success. He said I'm likely to surpass that "gui ren"
4. Very determined to get what he wanted and may even resort to despicable means to achieve them.
5. Have a love for freedom

The last identifying feature strike me particularly. Would that be better or worse?

THIMUN

2005-11-24T00:55:00.000-08:00

THIMUN

The inaugural THIMUN Singapore went off on a bad note personally, as I missed out on the opening proceeding. This is in part due to "betrayal" by Kevin Cheng, so that the few of us can sing during the opening ceremony. I would say it all went downhill from there, as my absence made it hard to get involved during the lobbying process.

I would say that during the preparation process, HCI delegates would be concentrating on improving their policy statement or resolution, and not familiarising themselves with the debate process or having a simulation of the actual conference. Besides rigorous preparation, experiences also count in that sense. Having nil experience in the MUN style of debating, HCI delegates spent much of the first day adapting and trying to suit myself to the occasion, uunlike what Mr. Cheng said in his EMB message that we are damn active.

As quoted from my partner, "The difference between the newly initiated and those more experienced was stark; some stood by idly, while others were handing out resolutions left and right, trying to introduce themselves socially, and to push for their resolution, almost to the point of being overtly aggressive."

Honestly I myself had never spoken AT ALL during the whole conference. Well the main problem with representing NGOs like the Human Right Commission, was that you would not be able to vote. Therefore you can say that NGOs were generally ignored right from the start during the lobbying process. Add to the fact that the Chair would normally give the chance to speak to:

1. Major power (the 5 permanent member in the security council, but mainly US)
2. Those countries directly involved in the issue being debated (for instance Israel and Palestine for Middle East Conflict)
3. Those countries submitting the resolutions (Lithuania had been highly active for THIMUN Singapore)

Generally if you did not belong to those categories, you can be counted on spending one whole day watching others go up and down to speak. That's how the conference works though unfortunately. Otherwise why do you think HCI chose Russia and not some tiny teeny countries like say Luxembourg?

Well for the plenary session (I explain the difference later), the Human Right Commission kept raising our placard (cards which indicate what countries or NGOs you are representing) but was not given a chance to speak. Otherwise I would have gone up the stage to speak about some clause on "mandatory public service" which keep skilled worker in the countries. Yes human right is violated (please look up "Universal Declaration of Human Right" if you have the time to spare and actually bothers).

Now let’s move on to some other interesting stuff.

Food-I cannot believe the councilor when they said the food is difference for the 3 days. It seems to me that only the arrangement would be different (one day the meat would be at the right, then the left then the middle…and the vegetables…). As they said, it's better not to talk about it.

Dress Code-Well the problem of not wearing the blazer became evident by the end of the first day: other delegate would think you are one of the admin staff. So next time, the TIC better get some external blazer. Many a times I would be faced with some delegate asking me to do some admin work or asking me for the way to get back to auditorium (Yes the school is so big that they got lost). Luckily I got myself some other attire for the subsequent conference. There’s so many delegate wearing black blazer that I thought I'm in MIB. Lol.

Note-passing -Well when some delegates go up to speak (taking the floor), you can scribble some message to be passed around to some other delegate present in the same forum. Although it’s supposed to be "screened by some MUN director" or something, apparently those admin staff don’t bother. I think I remember someone said the following "walau that delegate is detestable, so I just pass on the offensive message anyway". And then if you read the zaobao report, some delegates seemed to be using notes to
1. Asking people out for lunch
2. Love letter?
3. Scolding each other…

Respect and Orderliness-Honestly some delegates are simply hilarious or should I say, “using their best effort to make a fool of themselves”? And can you believe it? The Uganda delegation (cannot remember exactly which country) was laughing practically all the way…Such is the level of respect…

Well the North Korean delegate actually bring a portrait of Kim Jong Ill up when they take the floor! Besides that, they would say stuff defamatory to United States (something like "North Korea would like to express its concern over US’ aggressive stance and fear over possible invasion"). Therefore it can be said that no North Korean speech would be complete without some reaction from US (“we demand apology!”)

Friends and Girls-Well obviously we did make some friends. However I cannot help but notice one girl who is always around Glenn (Hewlett: "I think she is interested in him".). Well that must be one of Glenn "unexpected gain".

Aftermath-Well all the delegates got a certificate of participation and souvenir (Nice globe). Note that THIMUN discourage grading of delegate so there’s no such prize ceremony giving out honor like say "Best Delegate". However, Hewlett told me that Glenn had been overwhelming voted the "“most confused delegate".

Dinner and Dance-Yes THIMUN personnel went for some private dinner and dance Another Yule Ball?) Event at the Night Safari. Generally for me, it sucks. Let me quote Hewlett again "THIMUN party@Night Safari: The food was below average, and the DJs suck." In the end, I went off early with him. Oh yah Kevin Cheng was shaking his butt and dancing to the beat! What a scene.

Jokes

Oh yah in the course of the whole THIMUN (including the preparatory period), I have one favourite quote

Mr. Cheng: "I can be late but you cannot be late".

Walau, I take my hats off you man.

Hewlett: How come you are all alone and not socializing?
William: What I am Russia-lising!

William: Hey there's someone irritating at the conference. He know nuts, did not research on anything, but insists everything his own way!!!
Hewlett: Who is it?
William: The Chair?

William: Now HCI got the fifth consortium council!
Hewlett: What talking you? There are only 4, right?
William: Tell me what defines a council?
Hewlett: They organize event to promote student welfare or something like that.
William: Precisely. Based on the amount of work done, don’t you think the school now has a Humanity Council?

To be honest, the consortium council did nothing much. Tell me which event they organized or help out of bigger scale than THIMUN or HIC? Therefore besides developing your interest in humanity, they also develop your leadership potential. Coincidentally or not the SEC of IH, NgSC, is also in charge of leadership in the school.

What happened exactly during the conference?

Blog in next issue as my hands are too tired to continue…

Being yourself is the hardest thing to do.

2005-06-24T09:33:00.000-07:00

Being yourself is the hardest thing to do. COnforming to peer pressure would be easier...but who would be living for? Are you being yourself or trying to be the mirror of your pals?

Haiz, Ting Kun just set up a new blog FINALLY after persistent asking why he won't want one. The problem is, you can't talk sense into someone unless they are willing to accept the new reality around them.

As Galieo once said "you cannot teach a person anything but only to find it within himself".

Anyway, I see Ting Kun's new blog as part of a ongoing process for him to conform to the majority whom I think seems him as "weirdo". For instance he would argue against his point without backing down although he's fighting a losing battle, some feels he's not open-minded enough to accept other's view. Or bizzare theory to save the earth for the better future future of mankind...He simply refused to have MSN or Email as he feels it's not necessary and a waste of time.

Whether it's justified or not is a matter of opinion, although I'm quite neutral at this kind of matter. Not that I'm sitting on the fence, but you need a deeper understanding to pass judgement.

However he's beginning to take step to be part of the new generation, like having a HP, MSN, Yahoo account and so on.

At the end of the day, just remember to be yourself.

OBS experience

2005-05-15T05:59:00.000-07:00

OBS adventure

Day 1-Grouping Drama

I was allocated and in the Residential group whereby people says it's not as tough as mobile where you need to move all over the place. So I feel quite self-assured that I would be able to survive the boot camp. However, expected unexpected seems to be brewing the moment the ships starts to ferry HCI to and fro to our OBS site, Pulau Ubin. R8 was mysteriously left out and bypassed and eventually we are the only residential group left. All of a sudden, someone came down (the stairs) and said R8 had been disbanded and told us what's our new allocation. What the hell! I'm in mobile now! Lol. Although I'm disappointed that I'm in residential since that's being "soft", but why ter hell told me when we are about to board? Anyway feeling pissed, I came up with a few possible reasons.

1. There are too many absentees in the other group so the school (who may want to maximise ppl. in mobile) may want to consolidate
2. There's not enough bunk?
3. Instructor did not come?

Then get to know of a bossy/commanding guy called Hui Jie and Wei Ming's the lagging food IC. Then sian lor, we need to pitch the camp in the forest, and everone's pissed. Still need to surrender all those material goods to "get back to basic". ****, can't even have my Ritz biscuits.

Day 2-Kayaking and capsize drill (at the beach)

For the next day, just realised to what extent was the group lagging. Honestly I dont remember our group is ever punctual. Then supposed to do rock-climbing today, but it started to rain like siao when I'm about to start. So Wei Ming is the only one who finished climbing in our group lor. Then spend the time packing for ??? expedition and I almost brings everything lor. Sian.

During the afternoon, we are kayaking though I think we wasted like 1.5 hours +++ just to know the strokes......Boring, heck lah. Afterward realised need to do capsize drill lor and everyone's quite reluctant to do so. Anyway it's quite ok lah for the T-rescue but Jun Jie took like 10++ mins just to get up? Clumsy man. Then camp at campsite 3, which is the beach which got no facilities. So dont need to bath loh.

Day 3-Sea expedition & trekking

4 watches came together to form "mobile B" and each watch need to send a representative to be one of the Sea X leaders. Columbus (my watch's name) sent Yao Zhong, who got some stars for kayaking.

Then the 4 sea X leader would each be the starboard and port marker, navigator and sweeper so they are there to mark the 4 corners of the "diamond" formation. So like that kayak for like 3-4 hours all sunburnt and have our lunch on board. Damn that Wang Lin lor, keeps splashing others and rocking the boat and I'm splashed though I'm innocent.

After that it's trekking which is very tiring. Sian.

Lol continue next time

Camp

2004-09-09T19:51:00.000-07:00

I think I better blog about this before it becomes outdated.

Instructor (Er Jun aka Hagrid?)-He is quite nice to us no matters how poor we are, being late leaving no time for dinner, RJ making stupid comment and irritating every1. He still stands by us, giving us his silent support. But then I feel not everybody appreciate this and ignore him, challenging and bypassing him. His kindness is not rewarded.

Ah BAo aka Fred and George-Always as cheeky and ready to crack to a joke, he has a great sense of humour. He does seems to be restricted by rules as he sings that "suck the jelly" song in front of the teachers! His bold approach won much support from us though. He is also cunning during "Simon Says". Honestly he is like En Loong, very funny and dirty (mentally) too.

LCX-He is my buddy and sometimes he seems quite engrossed with arguing with Ling Chen. I feel he just wants to get out of this camp ASAP. He did have a strange position for sleeping, curling like a baby, squeezing himself into a corner. Other than that, he is quite funny sharing jokes with us.

Ling Chen aka Dean Thomas-He helps us draw our banner and other art stuff. His gut lifted the group and does not give up. He also like to lame around with me "William again", without getting tired. Seriously, he is a nice person to have around in such camp.

Li Ye, Wei Ming and Swee Keng-They are the heart and soul of the team, with every physical activity assigned to them. Well, what can we do? Li ye and swee Keng are from uniformed groups and should have better life skills than us. Wei Ming also showed his leadership quality by guiding us.

Boxian and Jiang Hao-These 2 ppl have some problem.
Jiang Hao keeps asking me why am I laughing and those lame stuff.
Boxian have a double personality indeed-he despised RJ for 1 hour but call him "friend" the next. This is hard to comprehend, but to RJ, "you are worth of this".

Bo Rui and zi Xian-They have some problem coping with those phhysical stuff, but they did tried their best. Borui look amusing at times and Zi Xian is sadly at the sideline most of the time. Hmm, he really wasted $75.

Conclusion

2004-07-25T01:00:00.000-07:00

As you can see, good personnel are important for anything. As LKY said in his memoirs, capable people are even more important than a good system. For while good people in a lousy system could still be thrives, it would be the opposite case in a lousy people in a good system.

Good working attitude-They should not be slacker

With that said, I still bears hope for next year PD and MRP. If partnership is allowed for year 3, I would be going after my no. 1 target in my class.

He is hardworking, articulate and able to do his paper alone. We are under the same mentor. I had even though of a topic: Asian Financial Crisis.

Storm Before The Rainbow

2004-05-25T06:24:00.000-07:00

The sun shone with a roaring brilliance, illuminating the sky to gentle blue, pushing mother earth to greater life.

Ignorant of the clouds’ gathering conspiracy as they secretly plots against him as the sun linger on the throne.

Soon the rain began to beat as the sun’s unbeatable glow fades, and advances through her face. As the sun was losing ground.

Just as it seems they were fighting a losing battle and the end is near, nobody realise whose is it.

The sun shone once more with a glowing brilliance as the triumph was celebrated in the magnificent rainbow

As the sun condemn the gloomy darkness to eternal slumber