About holidays

Amazingly, holidays are already coming to an end (at least to me, it is). When nearing December, I feel a great reluctance to greet the new year. 

It is ending,

I feel sad.

It's waving me goodbye

Even though I'm pulling it back.

A new year ahead of me makes me uncertain and unsure about what to expect. I have mostly been the kind who does not dare to tread on new territory; it all seems so scary. Furthermore, a new year brings about the greatest tragedy that can ever happen to a student: the end of holidays and the start of school! D:

Looking back on my holidays, it has all been a complete BLUR. Seriously. I wonder where all the time went, so Huiyi and I decided to do a little recapping of our own.

1. Studying for HCL O-levels / Workout
2. Guitar CCA and camp
3. Class chalets
4. Work
5. Work
6. Work... (you get the hint)
7. Dinner with friends

So, basically, work just took up a huge chunk of my time. Before the holidays, I use to think that work would be something for me to DO, but I have just realised that it wasn't something that I actually DID DID. Get the idea? Work is just work.. but it wasn't going to be like a 'highlight' or 'event' in my list of holiday activities when I look back at it, which made me realise that work was just A COMPLETE WASTE OF MY TIME. Yep, I got the monetary gains, but my days of working felt like a 'blank'?? It didn't feel worthwhile for me to use my holidays to work - especially since I did say that I was going to enjoy the holidays after all the major exams. 

Hmmm... so if I ever work again, it must be with friends. At least that will be memory/bonding session for me hahaha. 

Anyway, met up with Yunyi and Huiyi yesterday to practise guitar, with a lot of slacking done in between of course. 

I've finally watching Breaking Dawn. Thought it was awkward at times in its execution, but overall, a major improvement compared to previous films AKA more interesting.

Hmm, I wanna go bake and workout with my Purple Buds!!! But some are working and busy, HAIZ.

Also, I have just watched the film Across the Universe, which is a musical featuring songs from the Beatles. OMG, I never knew that The Beatles' songs were SO FREAKING GOOD AWESOME AMAZING ADDICTIVE. Currently, my favourite is Hey Jude :D However, I like the film version's of the songs rather than the original, hahah.

This is the part in the film with Hey Jude :))

Going off overseas tmrw (not exactly a very far place hahaha). Shall tell you where when I return :D

Okay, starting to feel a little hungry... XD

Work experience

So after my chalets, I went to work.

I worked at Metro City Square Mall from 12pm to 9pm, hence explaining my lack of blog posts (which is due to my laziness as well I admit).

The first day of work was HORRIBLE. It was a Saturday. I showed up in black pant, covered dark blue shoes and a black tee with prints. Turns out I needed an all black attire, with no prints, no nothing. Haiz. So I went to buy 2 black shirts, of which one was bought for me for free because apparently this problem did not just occur once, so it was kinda a punishment for the person ic.

I was a promoter for toys - the company I shall not mention. Anyway, there were so many kids!!! My job was to let the kids play the toys, hope that they don't break them, and hopefully, get their parents to buy the toys.

So this is the thing: KIDS ARE MONSTERS. Well, some are.

Some of them would snatch for the toys!!! Very annoying. Some would not follow instructions, and do things which would probably accelerate the process towards which my samples would get spoilt. Very irritating. Some would get excited and start shouting. Very noisy.

Because of my location, weekdays were boring while weekends were terrible. There were too little people during weekdays, and too many during weekends. The difference in contrast is too huge!!!

But then again, some kids are actually pretty decent and cute. These situations usually happen when there is only one or two kids around the table. It gets easier to control them too. Some kids are adorable too :) Their huge eyes and small statute. Hahahah. Sounding like a pedo here.

So, when I first started working there, I was lost. When customers asked me stuff, I didn't know how to reply. I would then just rush off to find an associate; when I can't find one, I panic. Somehow, it seemed really important to fulfill the needs of the customers once I was put into my job. It was part of my job, and yet it wasn't at the same time. I was just a promoter, but since I was working at Metro, I needed to follow the basic code of conduct in Metro since I was 'representing' them as well.

Another sad fact of my work was I wasn't close to anyone. I was all alone. So lunches (if taken outside) and dinners were by myself. I did enjoy the loneliness sometimes though, after being surrounded by so many kids especially.

Another part of the job which I hate was the fact that we had to stand the whole day!!! Just standing, and in my case, waiting for people to come along. There was this day when I felt abit tired and sick. That whole day was torturous because I had to stand even though I just felt like collapsing and sleeping. The thought 'I wanna go home' kept ringing in my head.

AND, I HAD TO WORK ON SATURDAYS AND SUNDAYS. WHAT A BUMMER.

I did gain experience though. I finally knew what it was like being a promoter. If ever I work as a promoter again, I want to promote products for adults. At least they behave more civilised at times than kids. Haha.

I also did packing and stocking of items, which was very tired. It is pretty amazing because now I know how do products actually get into the shelves. Oh, and we had to stick the price tags on by ourselves, which is surprising because I always thought they went though some machine which would stick them on, LOL.

I learned how to deal with customers a little better. And I learnt that it's important to pick things up fast. Like for example, when a customer wants to open the shelf for some Tomica cars, I used to find and ask my colleagues to open it. If I can't find the colleague, it would be quite bad because the customer has to wait for me to find him/her, then wait for him/her to open it. In the end, I found out where to find the keys, and just opened the lock on the shelf by myself, which is way easier and better because it's faster, and I don't worry about not being able to find someone else to do it. Relying on oneself is always better.

I also realised that eating by myself is not such a scary thing. Partially because city square mall had way less people. But still, eating alone always seemed terrifying to me. Somehow, we all get the image that it screams 'loner'. But when I was forced to eat along, it started being okay and normal for me.

Yep, yesterday was kind of my 'last' day of work. Zixin came to visit me, and we ate dinner together :) A break from eating alone! I would be officially working my last days of work on the 17th and 18th (which are weekdays phew!!).

As of now, I shall not be working anymore. I have quite a lot I wanna do. I need to watch Breaking Dawn and buy my Christmas gift! :DD Korean dramas toooo!! Alice in Cheongdam-dong is GOOODDDDD. Go watch it! Shall go out for dinners with people more often. I went out for dinner with Huiyi and Dion on my off day. We initially planned to watch a movie, but there were no more seats/ good timing. So we resorted to just eating HAHAH.

The next time I look for work, it must be either with friends, or be an admin/office hours job. Tuition's not bad too hahhaha!

Class chalets

Yep, chaletS.

I had two class chalets last month, the first with my 2K class (Kellyxians!!). The second with my 4K class.

Before the 2K class chalet, I had my guitar cca, rendering me completely exhausted when I was at the chalet. We barbecued, mainly because of my protests at not having a BBQ haha. In the end, we ended up with too little food because I was scared that we would end up with too much food like the last bbq we had. So we ended up ordering pizza too.

We then played bucket, where everyone would answer a question anonymously and then the answers would be revealed to everyone. Pretty interesting game especially if there were controversial questions haha. Afterwards, a few of them went night cycling. I kinda regretted not going, but if I were to make a choice again given those circumstances, I guess I would still stay behind, because I was so freaking tired. I felt like dozing halfway through the bucket game. Which is to say, I wasn't in the 'high' mood needed for night cycling.

The next day, we basically lazed around in the chalet. In the late evening, we decided to play captain's ball by the beach. It was a pretty fun game! :) One of the few recent times where we all played a sports game together. Oh! And there was this cat which kind of got attached to us. So when we were playing volleyball, the ball went out and I wanted to pick it. When I got the ball, the cat pounced on my leg LOL. I bet it was planning on pouncing on the ball because that's what it did the next time round. But it really surprised me!!

Then we TRIED playing sardines, which failed TERRIBLY. Grace Nicoleg and I were probably the only ones actively searching for Weirong LOL. We saw a beautiful scenery and near-sunset though :)

Afterwards, I left the chalet with Nicoleg Grace And Jinheok (who had a sore throat) :) Sad that I couldn't stay for the second night!!

~

Okay, now for the 4K chalet. I merely went for the planned BBQ on the first night, but it rained so we ate out instead. Anyway, when I first went into the chalet, my expectations were totally not met, and in fact, they were failed very badly. This is the reason why: 2K's SAF seaview Resort was FREAKING AWESOME. Whoever that's planning to go there, you won't be disappointed, but will be pleasantly surprised instead. They have 2 floors. The living room has a huge tv, with a sofa. The kitchen provides everything!! Knives, utensils, tongs, even chopping board!! And they look clean. They even provide charcoal and fire starters!! AMAZINGGG. There are 2 toilets - which are freaking huge too!! Almost has big as a room lol.

Meanwhile, the 4k chalet was just.... frankly, it looked dismal the first time I saw it. I just went, "this is it??" Even Yohanes agreed. Anyway, we went for dinner at Downtown East in the end. We at Different Taste, really great (second time eating there). The portions were small though -.-

On the second day, I went there after guitar. The place looked better. The sunlight streaming in helped, A LOT. It made the place look livelier and bigger I guess. We had bbq!!! Which went better than the 2k one :)))

So, some of us were planning to go night cycling. I was a bit hesitant and very unsure. I mean, it's further from here to marina barrage than from saf seaview to marina barrage. And the 2k ppl took 6 hours the other time!! Eventually, I decided to go. I mean, I don't wanna regret again. So, we went to check out all the bicycle kiosks nearby.... and they were closed. Such an apt ending, because we took really long to decide if we wanna go (as usual). And by the time we set off for the kiosk, it was 9pm. But still, I think the walk to and fro the park was okay. Because I had people to talk to, and my group actually sat in the middle of some rocky floor in the shape of a circle at pasir ris park and talked a little. So yep, it was actually okay. We went night walking instead of night cycling LOL.

At night, we played a drinking game (with soft drinks). Pretty fun. Heard quite a lot of interesting stuff :) And I made everyone talk backwards, while joelle made everyone talk in alliteration. Not sure which was worse hahah.

The next day, I went bowling with Shernaine and Zixin, while Huiyi Randy Sheryl and Louis played bridge. Quite a good game, and I ended up with the highest scores hahahah. Afterwards, went home with Huiyi, while dragging my insanely huge guitar along.

~

Overall, the 2 chalets have been nice. In fact, they were better than I anticipated, for many reasons. I thought 2K chalet would feel awkward, given the span of time which we haven't met up. It did feel awkward at times, but it was pretty much okay.
I thought 4k chalet would just be... eventless?? hahah. Somehow, that was the feeling I got from 4K (case in example the night cycling). But I still got some fond memories and nice things that I did there, so it wasn't too bad.

Yep, the chalets of 2012 have both ended on a nice note, of which I am very happy about!! :DDD

Holidays

I havent been blogging for a while. Basically, I am just too lazy to type out a few hundred words talking about my life and random stuff, hahah.

Chinese o-levels are finally OVER! :D I had been studying Chinese with the Purple Buds!! (Name courtesy of Joelle/Shermaine) Various places we have studied at: My house, Dion's house (where I ended up playing Wii), Joelle's house (Waffles!!! She's a dog btw)

I have also been exercising quite a bit with them too. Gym, swim, badminton :) Feeling pretty good about myself now hee.

Chinese o-level's were over, in a snap. Literally. In 5 hours, it's over. 

Everything that I studied did not come up in the exam. LOL. I guess that the whole point of studying is to reassure yourself before you step into the examination venue. Otherwise, for subjects like Chinese and English, studying before an exam can be kind of pretty useless because these subjects count more on consistent work rather than last minute studying.

I have been DESPERATELY looking for a job these few days. I am pretty keen to be a tutor heehee :D Though I know that people are probably looking for full-time/permanent tutors who are willing to guide their child throughout their school year. Hmmm, I wouldn't mind it though I guess the month of Oct would be quite troublesome for me since I would have my year 5 promo exams next year...

So I had Huiyi and Yunyi over at my house today to practice guitar for our guitar auditions tomorrow. Freaking nervous!! I am pretty sure that I will screw it up. Huiyi has been telling me about how good Delirium is (I lent it to her), which is making it pretty funny since Dion had been spazzing over it just a while ago because I lent her Delirium and Pandemonium. Hahah. The 3rd book in the series is coming out next year I think, so it's going to be a long wait.

Hmm, I feel kinda... listless/restless/bored without chinese to study. I still recall bringing chinese stuff everytime I go out and study with my purple buds. Now, it's just weird that I dont have to do that. I still remember feeling guilty (!!) over listening to english/korean songs when I know I should be listening to the chinese radio lol. This is just so weird. I guess it feels like a BIG part of me is gone. Imagine. Without the topic 'Chinese' in my syllabus anymore, I am actually hardly going to take the initiative to make contact with Chinese. Sometimes, I wonder if taking the O-level HCL and then not studying Chinese for the rest of my life is a good thing.

Oh, and I watched Skyfall. It was kinda good, though it seemed much more like a comedy than a Bond movie. I was expecting this movie to be pretty 'dark' and twisted, therefore giving it an edge. BUT, it failed to meet my expectations. The Bond girl (or at least the more interesting one) actually like (spoiler) dies halfway through the movie. When she died, my reaction was "whaaaa?! so that's it?" Yep, don't be surprised if you feel like that too. I mean, we don't even get much of her background info, or how did she get captured/threatened. She just appeared, had sex with Bond (duh.), then dies. Great.

Overall, you would walk into Skyfall expecting a whole lot more, but getting a lot more less. There is less action, less pretty girls, less complicated and intriguing plot lines. There is only one thing that there is a lot of, in fact too much of, the comedy. Yeah, some were pretty funny, but some just felt out-of-place. Hello? Is this is Bond movie or a comedy???

I would give this movie a grade B.

I went to Nex with my maternal extended family yesterday! Happy Deepavali. Was intending to go to Punggol Waterway, but it started raining. We then had dinner at my house, and watched a slideshow of some old photos of ours where we laughed at weird poses and funny hairstyles of the past decade. 

That's all for today~!

I need to get a job.

Events, one after another

So, just some updates on what I have been doing:

After we attended bowling for our post-exams activities, a group of us went to Vivo City. We ate lunch, sat in a circle and played some games. We then played sardines, which was actually quite fun, but tiring. One of us would hide, while the rest of us were seekers. When the seeker finds the person who hid, he would have to hide with him too. The last seeker remaining loses. Vivo City was so big (and we only played on the top level!!). Quite fun ahahah. After that, we watched Perks of Being a Wallflower. I thought that the book was nicer then the film though. The film was I guess... subtle?? But I hate films that are subtle because in books you kinda get it, but in films, nah. There were also too many elements in the book that were fitted in the film, making hard to concentrate. All of us were also very tired, so it was kind of hard trying to stay awake during the movie. Oh, and if you watch the movie without reading the book, you would just walk of the cinema going "whaaaaaaat?" So, advice: read the book before watching the movie.

I also went to eat Fish @ Co. at Suntec City with some of my classmates: Zixin, Sher, Chunsan, Xue Chun, Karen and Joelle. Omg, the lunch became a laughing session. All of us laughed for at least 30 mins I think. Mainly, there were a few causes for laughter:
1) My snide remarks (I asked where was the feedback form when the waiter got the order wrong, and I said bye to Xuechun when she asked if we could eat at some other place - being my mean self hahahah)
2) Xuechun's bluntness and cluelessness (she asked for refills of the salad bar, and attempted to make some word sound like oranges by saying it real slow)
3) The laughing video
4) Joelle's laughter (freaking infectious)
5) The weird menu (seriously, 3-some??)

Then I went bowling again with some of my classmates during the last day of school (which DID NOT feel like the last day of school). Played some cards too, had some fun :D
Took lots of unglam pictures too.

Last Friday, I went to Shermaine's house to play (haha, we sound so childish). Xuechun, her sis, Randy, Trevor, Huiyi, Yunyi and Dion were there too. We played mahjong, bridge, some x-box racing game. All of us bought mac's too (some general consensus to get fat together), except Shermaine who ate chicken rice. I regained some memories about knowing how to play mahjong. I played bridge with Dion, Huiyi, Shermaine and Trevor. There were moments when we all laughed in exasperation at Dion's actions during bridge and I was saying that whoever plays with Dion will lose (but Dion finally won a game ahhaha).

After returning from Sher's house, I celebrated my brother's birthday with my extended family. Watched this really gory movie (which I watched before), watched the channel 8 show, and other stuff. I was really tired by then (see my eyes closing).

On Saturday (the next day), I went dancing with Zixin - oschool at scape. The open class was so hard. I had trouble keeping up and was pretty sure that I danced as if I were drowning underwater. Flabbing my arms wildly, struggling to keep up. Hahah. I shall go for another class this saturday, but shall go shopping with Dion and Zixin before that hahah.

After the dance class, I headed to my cousin's house/function room for her 21th birthday. Ate food, talked a little. My legs were aching by then because of the dance lesson too.

Wow. Just realised I had a lot of events happening :)

Anyway, my mind was also troubled over the past 2 weeks because of my subject combination choices (which I have already submitted). I was stuck between english language and linguistics (ELL), history and economics. I needed to choose two out of the three. My confirmed choices were Maths and Physics. I realised that my school did not allow the subject combi of MPHEll, so I definitely needed to take Econs. I was stuck between ELL and history and frankly, I was fine with both. Flipping a coin did not help.

I discussed with my parents and decided ELL. I guessed in the depths of my heart, I wanted ELL. But I was too afraid to take it ( it was a totally new subject to our school), and I just couldn't bear to tear history out of my life (I mean, I have been studying it for 4 years?!! There's some attachment there.) So I chose MPEcEll as my first choice. Choosing subject combis was such a headache for me!!! Totally did not expect it to be that hard for me to choose. o_O

Gonna study chinese these few days!

Wish me luck for HCL O-levels :)

YEP - Dunmania

I attended Year End Party for Year 4s - Dunmania 2012, yesterday evening.
It was basically unexpectedly fun and enjoyable :)

I went to Dunmania with my 4k class. A few of us were already in the hall (venue) when Zixin called me, telling us to go vet her outfit (lol). We then went back to the hall and ate dinner. Halfway through our dinner (how inconvenient), the emcees wanted us to play some games, which were quite entertaining!

When there were performances, it was a bit awkward initially because no one dared to go to the centre; we were sitting in a semicircle all around at the edges with no one daring to go to the centre. Finally (after we finished our dinner of course), almost all of us went to the centre to just try and get into a high mood. Hahaha. The songs were abit inappropriate in that it wasn't 'dance-y' enough such that it could get us all excited enough. We were still a bit 'subdued', but towards the end, when we sang our level song out loud, we could feel the atmosphere go to an all-time high, with all of us linking arms over shoulders, singing our hearts out (surprising that we can still remember the song!!! :D). I felt that was the ultimate and best moment of the YEP.

After that was the Hunger Games!!! We were all very very excited because we did not know what to expect at all. We had paper bracelets where we could 'kill' each other by tearing off the bracelets. We had to find food and paper balls as well to win the game. If we got killed, we have to surrender whatever we had. We were also split into several colours: green, blue, yellow and red. I was green. We then headed to the Cornucopia (the hardest word to pronounce ever!) which was the parade square where we started the games. All of us ran like mad LOL. It was very hard to reunite with the rest of the green team later on since we were all still very cautious and hesitant about what to do. We finally found them at the staircase near the library. It was actually pretty cool because we were like this career pack, except that we were the green team :)) There were some blue people stuck in this closet like thing under the staircase; they wouldn't and couldn't come out because the whole green team was outside hahaha. We eventually moved on because the place got cordoned off -.- \

I would say that the game got pretty violent and scary from then on. The guys in our teams were like 'attack!' or 'run!', which made it kind of exciting though. :P There was this part when we had to catch this girl who was not from our team. She ran and around 5 of us girls pounced on her and started to grab her bracelet. It was actually quite violent and scary LOL. I was even surprised at how violent we were. We managed to get her bracelet though all the time we were pulling and grabbing her, we were asking if she was okay. Ironic much.

The green team was actually managing pretty well initially. The turning point came when we got chased by some random group (somehow we ran away instead of fighting). We separated. When we got back, a few guys from our team were dead already, which made it kind of depressing because they were the ones who were always leading the pack. We were kind of at a loss as to what we should do. Eventually, a few of us girls and Noel decided to go down to the first level, basically because the second level got cordoned off too GAH IRRITATING.

When we went down, we saw some green colour people. I saw Huiyi, Joelle and Benedict, who were walking towards me, which already seemed weird by then. When they came towards me, I saw this huge group of people suddenly started coming. Then IF I AM NOT WRONG, I heard Huiyi said something like this to me, "You know we were hiding right?" OMG. I then knew that the people behind were red and so I shouted to the green to run. I managed to run away, but Noel got caught!!!!!! And he was the one with all the paper balls for the green team!!!! GAH I WAS SO FREAKING ANGRY. So I ran back and tried to tear off Benedict's bracelet, because he got the paper balls for the red team. But in the process, my bracelet got torn, WHAT THE )_*(^&%@$$#$@!! Grrrrrrr. And I think that quite a lot of green people got killed because of that 'ambush'. I am not sure about the situation, but I am pretty sure that this was what happened. That was sooooo disappointing because there was just 15 mins left before the games end =.=. Why did I dieeeeee????? So annoying.

We then had the finale, where the 5 strongest from each team would supposedly fight to the death. I was at the top because I DIED. (Lol I hate the red team) I couldn't understand anything that happened, except that there were some really violent parts. There were a lot of guys chasing Yee Han and he got killed. Then Joelle and Amanda wanted to attack this girl (forgot her name) together, but the plan kind of backfired and Joelle got pushed to the floor. O_o I am truly amazed at the wildness we possess within ourselves.

Overall, the hunger games were quite fun and exciting, considering that we had never had something like this before. It was rather successful, I would say :D It did create a certain degree of fear and anticipation in me while I was playing the game, making it seem like the real thing!

After the whole hunger games thing, we proceeded to the movie marathon. I initially wanted to bathe, but there were so many people and so few cubicles that I did not D: At least the air-con in the hall helped me feel less dirty.

The movie marathon consisted of movies which I had watched before. Night at the Museum 1, Real Steel (I just rewatched it last weekend), Flipped and Step Up 3. I wanted to play poker cards and did so with Karen, Huiyi and Louis. Playing bridge with them then was really quite fun because all of them are quite good players. This made the game very interesting, and made me use my brain more. Playing with them was soo FUN. I was actually on a winning streak, until I paired with Louis 3 times in a row - that was when I started losing hahahaha. This happened because I realised that whenever I pair up with Louis, it is always when one of us bid for 3 of something, making it such that we had to win 9 sets. We did win around 2 rounds of 9 sets, but we started losing later on, hahahhaha.

Then, LPL came along.

The reason why we even started playing bridge was because Mdm Low (year head) said that whatever we wanted to do, be it play poker card games, keep it in the hall. Therefore we assumed that we were allowed to play poker card games. Ms Yeoh and probably Mdm Low passed us so many times, and we were playing bridge, but they did not stop us. Only LPL did! ZZZ. SO PISSED AT HIM.

He came and said that he was going to confiscate the cards, making me very puzzled. So I told him that mdm Low said and even announced that we were allowed to play poker cards. He then said that we were playing poker card games in the hall. The hall is in the school, so we are playing poker card games in the school and that is still not allowed. WTH. Seriously?! That kind of reasoning does not even make sense. But we (being such GOOD students), still gave him the cards.

My impression of LPL was actually improving, but now, it has just taken a u-turn and went the other way round. This experience has just told me two things: He is inflexible and unreasonable.

Inflexible because he doesn't know when to make exceptions. Mdm Low has already announced that we could play poker card games. We are not even gambling! Just because it says in the rule books or whatever, doesn't mean that such a rule cannot be broken all the time. Does it mean that since it says that we have to wear the tie on all Mondays, we must definitely wear a tie even though national day celebrations happen to be on a Monday, and we are supposed to wear red tees??? His reasoning of the hall being in the school blah blah doesn't make sense because Mdm Low already said/implied that we could play bridge in the hall. Why can't he make exceptions and be slightly flexible?

Unreasonable because: fine, assuming Mdm Low did not mean that, and that we were not supposed to play bridge in the hall, seeing that we THOUGHT that we could, shouldn't he be more understanding and tell it to us in a nicer way, and not confiscate our cards? As a teacher, yes, you can be strict, but you should be understanding as well. I mean, I thought that we could play. So if I was wrong, just tell me nicely and tell me to keep the cards. I will definitely stop playing them. What for confiscate my cards? Hello???? Those are MY cards. Is there such a need for such an extreme measure? It is not as if I was breaking the rules INTENTIONALLY. If I did, fine, confiscate them for all you want. However, I broke the rules under a misconception. Shouldn't that render me some understanding on your part?

After that, I was just so pissed because it wasn't as if I was entirely in the wrong. I was indignant because he made it SEEM as if I was wrong. GAHHHHHHH. RANT RANT RANT. We were all complaining. Basically, the mood was just ruined. And the bridge game was so good too!!!! Luckily, he confiscated my SIA cards, which were free, and technically ugly according to me. But whatever, those were my cards, and I felt that he had confiscated them under unreasonable circumstances, and that is what made me so angry.

Grrrrr. Anyway, I slept through most of the marathon, but I woke up occasionally and managed to watch a part of every movie. I watched the last part of Real Steel again LOL. We (4k) then went to Mac's to eat breakfast (of which that just happened around 3 hours ago!! :D)

Had a really great experience not bathing for more than 30 hours, spending time with friends, playing games and having fun (despite the cards part)! YEP will definitely be memorable for many years to come~! :D

Scores

I’ve finally gotten back all of my marked test papers. Yesterday was Language Arts, Chinese, Physics and Literature. Today is Maths 1 and 2, Chemistry and History.

So basically, I shall reflect on this year’s test results and the subjects, stuff.

Language Arts (LA):
    LA this year was a real shocker. The teachers started having much higher expectations of us. The appearance of Mr Sng played a critical part too I guess. His papers definitely increased the bar of standard of LA tests. The teachers also wanted us to start writing essays in the General Paper format – one of the quirks of an IP school. I had a lot of difficulty with this and always scored a very low, on-the-dot B. Frankly, I even started to hate LA because of this. My comprehensions were poorly done; I just passed! My frustrations towards LA definitely did grow over the past year. I also felt irritated by my LA teacher – she always seemed to be spending lots of time on unnecessary things, she was also easily distracted at times. However, during the period nearer to the exam, my impression of her started to improve. The tips that she gave us just before the exams (read tips, not hints!) were very helpful, and also showed that she cared about us, albeit in a manner which I did not really like.
    My essays were pretty well-done! :) I got above 20 for both the situational and essay, which was a pleasant surprise since it was the ONLY time I got above 20, or in fact anything more than a B, for any LA essay in the past year. I did work hard for this, trying to memorise facts on media, sci and tech and ethics. I read some of my classmates’ works and tried to figure out what was wrong with mine. Super glad that my hard work paid off! :D
    I definitely could not study for Paper 2 - comprehension and summary. This component pulled me down; in fact, my essays ‘saved’ me. Comprehension was an improvement I guess (though Mr Sng did say he lowered the standard of the paper LOL). Summary was DREADFUL. I really need to work on this, HAIZ.
Overall, this test has revived my love for LA – I got an A!!! I think I shall continue to work hard on my essays since the results show hahahaha.

Chinese:
    Frankly, Chinese has been sidelined for this test because I needed to study more for the other subjects. Although, I did try to memorise some good sentences on the morning of the Chinese test. It turns out that IT WORKS. Hahahah. I got an A for Chinese, which is AMAZINGGGG. (Hoping to recreate this during o-levels LOL) Shall work hard during the next 20 days to hone my Chinese skills so that I shall be ready for the o-levels! :D
    Eat Chinese, think Chinese, talk Chinese, sleep Chinese.

Physics:
    Physics was not bad :D I think that I have been regularly and consistently paying attention to physics, mainly because I like it better than Chemistry. I have also decided to take Physics in Senior High so I worked rather hard for this too :)

Literature:
    This was a REAL surprise. I had Math 1 and Lit on the same day, so I chose to focus on Math 1, and basically only memorized the lit quotes and stuff on the very day of the test. I remember saying to myself that I had ‘given up’ on Lit, and that I was going to screw the test up. After doing the test, everyone had the general consensus that we were all going to screw the unseen prose/poetry section up, even though the Romeo and Juliet component was surprisingly manageable. However, our teachers told us that we had improved!!!! Major shocker. I remembered myself scribbling on the paper furiously whatever comes to my mind! How could that have been an improvement? All of us had huge wide eyes that showed utter disbelief. Even Ms Sangeetha who was in-charge of unseen prose/poem said that generally, it was well-written!! WOWOWOW. When I got back my Lit paper, amazingly, I got an A+! I was genuinely shocked and pleasantly surprised. It appears that we had unconsciously wrote essays, that were actually good!!
    There were comments that my essay was much more focused, which really made me happy. I think that it had something to do with the environment and atmosphere of the examination at that time. I had went in expecting to fail the paper – somehow, I am guessing that this assumption made me a lot calmer in that I was ‘expecting’ to screw the test up. The time limit, although much longer, also made me ‘panic’, work faster, and forced me to write straight to the point. LA also helped me to hone this skill further. In fact, when I was writing the paper, I did not actually believe what I was writing in! This is all so weird. It appears that the teachers are not looking for something too abstract, or too definite. I think this is why our essays managed to be quite well-done. We have learnt not to go overboard with our analysis and pre-conceptions, therefore not going out of point.

Math 1 and 2:
    Math 2 was done better than 1. Lots of careless mistakes. AGAIN. Nothing much to say. Hahahah. Although I would say that I was surprised that my class did not do as well as I thought we would. My class is also kind of sorry towards Mrs Kong, our math teacher, since she said she would treat us to macdonald’s meal if we all got Bs. Some of them did felt that we let her down :(

Chemistry:
    I would admit that my chemistry marks was although high, below my expectations. I am not planning to take chem next year, but I still want to do well in it. Call it my perfectionist attitude, but I do believe in doing my best in everything, even though I hate it. Apparently, this paper was quite badly done in that the teachers were disappointed with us. Chemistry was much harder to score because the teachers were very strict with the phrasing and wording. I had a couple of careless mistakes here and there, which did make me frustrated.

History:
    I did think that I would do better in this. I missed A by one mark D:
    I’ve worked much harder for history this year. Mr Tay was a nice and good teacher too, which kind of inspired me to work harder. I am guessing that somehow this effect was felt by my class too, which kind of suggests the improvement we’ve had (Teachers play a role!!). I did feel more confident about my history than last year. I still remember that I freaked out during the exam because it turns out that what I did not study came out. I wanted to do a question on one of the topics which I studied on, but it required a component which I did not prepare for. I was in a dilemma. Should I continue doing that question, or try another question on a topic which I merely briefly went through? In the end, I chose the latter, which turned out to be a pretty good choice. I got A for both essays, which made me pretty happy :D What pulled me down was by SBCS, GRRRR.
    Overall, I would say a certain improvement in history, though I have not yet mastered it fully. More practice needed.

--

This year has been… rushed. The word very aptly describes it. Syllabuses were rushed through, studies were rushed through, the exams were also in a way, rushed through. The year has passed very fast – in the blink of an eye.

I felt that all of us has worked harder this year (or at least for this exam), whether harder in a large or small amount. I’ve also managed to do quite well for this exam :)

One thing that I really hate during script checking is when people get much lower marks than me (not that I want them to get higher scores, HAHAHA). It really puts me in an awkward situation because 1) I am not the type to comfort people, in fact I don’t know how to, 2) I have a higher score than them and definitely do not want to come off as arrogant/sarcastic and, 3) I cannot exactly celebrate in their faces. This leaves me brooding about exactly what I should do. Unfortunately, this situation cannot exactly be ‘solved’. I just hope that almost everyone will actually worry about this kind of stuff like me, because it does show that one is being sensitive to others. (I am not exactly praising myself, but you get what I mean)

I am currently mulling over which subject combi to take, and what cca as well. Tough decisions in your life uh. This is soooo confusing. I would definitely like to get into a cca that I like, enjoy, am proud of and proficient in. However, the chances of getting a cca that fulfills all that is quite low. *worrying*

Meanwhile, I hope that the exams go well for those taking o-levels! Good luck and jiayous! :D

Religion... and other stuff

Since I am too lazy to post many blogposts on different subjects, I shall just have everything under this one blogpost.

Let me go onto the subject of "other stuff" first. I just read Huiyi's blog (which was funny HAHA), and I saw her post about dreams/nightmare, and I was reminded of my own nightmare, which I told Dion and Shermaine when I went out to study with them.

The nightmare went like this:
Somehow, Ryeowook from Super Junior was in this freaky nightmare LOL. He was training for standing board jump (which is weird because who trains so hard for that). He even has a coach for it -.- Then, when it came to the point where he was supposed to jump, ryeowook's face changed into that of an old uncle. Yep, which was I guess better after you read what happened next. The old man tried to jump, then he tripped while landing, and his legs broke. HIS LEGS FREAKING BROKE INTO TWO PIECES. That is just so scary!!!! It was as if his legs were clay or something, and it just... broke. It might not sound much here but I saw it in the dream and it really gave me the freaks. There was no blood though (luckily).

So there, my weird nightmare which is so freaking scary.

And I went to USS with Shermaine, Zixin, Dion, Joelle, Cherlyn, Beatriz, Sheryl and Xue Chun on Thursday :) Had great fun though I really wanted to sit on more rides. I guess our priorities were different. Like for those who it was their first time there, they really wanted to take many pictures; the scenery was their main focus. But for me who has been there before, my focus was the rides, not so much the scenery. My personality was also one which defined a trip to the USS by the number of rides I took. So different people had different priorities. But the trip was still a good one :) I sat on both the human and cylon battlestar roller coaster. I felt the human one was much more scarier because there were a lot more deep falls, which made me feel like my heart was dropping. Cylon just had more turns and spins, which were technically, less scary.

Okay, now onto the topic of Religion. Okay, I know that this is gonna be very very sensitive. So to anyone out there who's gonna take offence at what I say, just think that whatever I say is total crap and bullshit; please do not take this the wrong way.

So, I wanted to blog on this topic because my grandma has been 'praying' (not sure if that is the word) for my face to have less pimples (which just gets me annoyed because that is what all my family is talking to me about these days, even my dad!!! PLEASE JUST STOP TALKING TO ME ABOUT MY FREAKING FACE. rant over.). She's a Christian by the way. I was okay with that because I mean, that was a way for her to show her concern over me, or more specifically, my face.

The turning point came when she asked me to pray for myself!!! Which is just weird, for me. She told me to hold my hands to my face and pray to God, saying that he is a great doctor, and asking for him to 'fix' my face. I dunno... but to me, it felt like an indirect way of telling me to believe in Christianity and God. I know that that was not my grandma's intention but it felt like that nonetheless.

The reason why I felt uncomfortable was because I was a free thinker. I mean, I've always thought I was Buddhist/Taoist until I asked my mum. Apparently, my father is a free thinker, so am I. I think that being a free thinker suits me fine. To quote my dad, "I am too cynical." To clarify: I am not an atheist.

True, I was born a free thinker, but I would also choose being a free thinker (I did not know there was such a thing. I thought we all had to believe in some kind of religion when I was young, so I was kinda glad there was such a thing called a 'free thinker'. lol). It's just hard for me to imagine there being a definite god. I believe that there might be some supernatural or more powerful force than ourselves, but I don't exactly think that we can label it as god. Luck, chance, coincidence?? These are not really 'gods', but these are some other worldly forces that also control us in some way. It's hard for my mind to reconcile it in the manner that some do.

However, I am definitely leaning towards the Buddhist side. This is partially because my mum is a Buddhist so I have been visiting temples with her a lot since young (which explains why I thought I was Buddhist). I guess that way of 'thinking' and 'believing' has been embedded in me since young.

I guess in the end, all religion will want us to do good. That's something synonymous with all religion (at least, so far from what I know) and I think that should be the main focus of religion. Not whether there is a god or not.

Ultimately, I think that we, as humans, should believe in ourselves more than any other creature/ thing/ god. We are the ones that are going to make it possible, not anybody else. Our actions are what makes the difference (implying that if I put more cream/stuff on my face more regularly, my face will get better - LOL, WEIRD EXAMPLE HERE).

I am not here to say that either of us are wrong or right. We are all entitled to our beliefs, as long as they make us believe in life and hope, and make us feel good. I think that there is no wrong or right regarding these things, so keep an open mind.

Who knows? Many a few years later you will see me blogging a post about why I believe in a certain religion.

OVER

THE END-OF-YEAR EXAMINATIONS ARE FINALLY OVER!!!

Ahhh... That feeling of bliss, liberation, freedom, satisfaction that I have overcome 8 papers, and that today, the final hurdle has been cleared! :D

*Jumping and skipping madly around, grinning from ear to ear like a fool*

I can't believe that it's over! I can actually still remember studying so hard for history the last week, and worrying frantically over the EOYs last month! It's amazing how time flies! The papers came one after another as well so that really contributed to the speed at which the exams finished.

THIS IS FREAKIN' AWESOME.

Oh, but something did happen during the Math 2 Test today. My mechanical pencil stopped working 1 hour into the test. I wanted to draw a line on the graph and the pencil just could not work. I PANICKED. I actually dismantled my pencil to see if anything was stuck. I was lucky that I did the paper quite quickly so I was already at question 10 at that time, meaning that I could afford to waste some time worrying over my pencil. I flipped to the back and found a question where I needed to draw my graph - IN PENCIL. More time freaking out. Then, eventually I came to the conclusion that I should just move on instead of wasting my time. I continued doing the questions until I came to the question where I needed to draw the graph. Since the mechanical pencil was stuck, I just slotted in a short piece of lead through the front, hoping that it would stay there so that I could draw my friggin graph. AND IT WORKED!!! VIOLA. And the rest is history. All this just further convinced me that 1) Luck really does matter in a test, and 2) I should bring two pencils to a test.

I went to watch Taken 2 with some 4K friends (14 of them, which is A LOT!! Amazed at the turnout).
It was basically a rehash of Taken 1, with some new CIA stuff added in (really really cool stuff - the circles intersecting). When we were in the cinema, everyone just went, 'Wahhh. Smart, man.' You can literally hear people saying that. The movie never fails to keep you on the edge, making for a very good thriller and action movie. I got to see more Liam Neeson action (which is GOOD - watched the movie because of him). One flaw of the movie is that some lines get a bit repetitive. "Took", "I'll come back", "She's safe". Yeah, I get why they must be said, but can't the scriptwriter be slightly more creative?
Overall, I would give this movie 3.5/5 (which is an A, for the record)

Got some plans for tomorrow, can't wait!!

EOYs... are coming to an end!

Okay, so the exams are ALMOST coming to an end! I am left with 3 papers and am looking forward to the coming Wednesday already!!! :D

What I shall definitely do when EOYs are over:
IMMEDIATELY GO WATCH TAKEN 2 (HAHAHAHA)
Buy books/ borrow books and immerse myself in fictionalised worlds until harsh reality drags me out from them when I get back my test results
Celebrate and 'high' on my blog!!!
Watch korean dramas.
WATCH TV WITH MY FAMILY (something which I wasn't able to do recently D:)

So far these are the few achievable and realistic 'goals' I have planned for my 'retirement'. Anyway, I have found this interesting book in the library - The Russian Interpreter. Looks interesting so I shall go borrow it :)
Oh, and I am currently desperately to read this other book called The Shoemaker's Wife because all the reviews are full of praise for this novel! *excited* (I just realised how 'no-life' I am because I actually get SO excited over books. HAHA)

I went to eat out with Dion and Zixin today at Hot Tomato, Nex. LA Paper was over, and today was a Friday, so why not just eat and slack? We had great fun just sitting, eating and basically chatting. LOL. We laughed a lot! Zixin laughed so loud until everyone in the restaurant heard her HAHA. We were talking about future boyfriends/husbands and about really really funny stuff HAHAHA. Oh one of the points we were making was about how important it was to find your 'right guy' during university because when you go out to work, everyone will be very competitive (so no one would actually fall in love), and that workplace romance was a no-no.
Funny to say but I think that we are actually quite mature for 16 year olds. HMMM...
Oh, and Dion said that when we clench our fists, the number of fold lines made at the pinky finger will tell us how many relationships we have. If that is true, apparently I will have 6-7. WOW. THAT IS DEFINITELY SO NOT HAPPENING. HAHAHAHA. Yeap, so basically we were laughing at all these weird stuff.

Yesterday, I went walking around Nex (yes again!) with Dion and Huiyi. Initially, our plans were to just buy bubble tea, but it soon evolved into walking and wandering around Nex. It then turned into spazzing over books at Popular (finally found people who are also interested at just flipping through books at Popular). Our physics paper ended yesterday and LA Paper was next, so there was no need to study - this, of course ended up in us wasting time away like yesterday. XD

Recently, something bothering me is the year-end party for year 4s - Dunmania. We are Dunmanians with no end. Get it? Punny right? :D
We have to wear blue/white, which is like, what I don't really have in my wardrobe. And I am just afraid that the party won't really have a 'party' atmosphere. HAIZ. I really shouldn't worry so much, and just go there and have fun :D <-- positive thinking going on here.

Shall study Chem tmrw :D (totally wondering what's this smiley face doing here)

Meanwhile, I am totally giving myself a break (which I am not sure is hard-earned) here.

Oh, and someone, ACTUALLY COMMENTED ON MY BLOG. Ivy (my cousin) did, but it wasn't so much of a 'wow' because she's someone I know. But still, thanks for the comment HAHA.
Anyway, it was a blogger of the blog loveourchildrennow.blogspot.com . Basically, she found my blogpost which talks about Humanities and PSLE, which I posted on Saturday/Sunday. This is really cool because SOMEONE OUT THERE IS ACTUALLY READING MY OPINIONS. (Really similar to when my blog appeared in the news HEE.)
I am just grateful that people actually take my opinions seriously. I do make an effort not to have too many grammatical errors or slangs during one of my more 'serious' blogposts, so it's a pretty nice feeling have to know that my blogposts are appreciated :)

STUDYING AT HOME IS THE WORST.

I should have gone to school to study. Or gone somewhere else.

STUDYING AT HOME IS JUST NOT CUTTING IT.

*REGRET. REGRET. REGRET.*

Should have just gone to school =.=

Studies

So I was reading the Straits Times this morning when I came across two interesting articles mainly focusing on aspects of studying.

Studying Humanities Will Make The World A Better Place

This is WHY the education system should not scrap humanities. Go read the article, if you can find it, and you'll see what I mean. Humanities are more focused on relationships. Relationships between man and man, man and the environment, man and the world, man and his past. How can you forgo these relations just because science and technology seems more important in today's context?

Furthermore, to elaborate on what this guy (Jim Leach) said, humanities make it easier for people to form national identities and relate to their own cultures. Isn't this what Singapore needs so desperately amidst all the talk about what is a Singaporean identity?

Humanities is so closely interlinked with us. It is the study of OURSELVES. Don't we need humanities to reflect upon ourselves, see our mistakes and improve on it? If no one studied WW1 or WW2, would the world still be as (relatively) peaceful as it is now? We would never understand the gravity of some mistakes our predecessors made.

Besides, aren't students supposed to have a choice of what they want to do? By closing the doors to humanities (or leaving only one door by combining history and geography), are we leaving the students with a choice to do what they want? 

A subject that is deemed unimportant is not necessarily truly unimportant.

How ironic since I am supposed to be studying literature instead of typing this blog post. The point is, don't let temporary perceptions of society affect policy making. THE HUMANITIES WAS INVENTED/STUDIED FOR A GOOD REASON. If we scrap it now, are you saying that all those 50 years of education was crap/useless? Then that must mean we should stop studying the Maria Hertogh riots and why it means so much to maintain the fragile multi-racial social fabric of Singapore as well, no?

Basically, stop diminishing the importance of Humanities.

A Place For Exams As Social Leveller

Scrapping the PSLE is a BAD IDEA as well. (The whole education topic is revolving around scrapping things these days eh?)

Read this article and understand why. Granted, PSLE gives parents and students a lot of stress. However, aren't the parents over-exaggerating things? Aren't they over-thinking the importance of PSLE? I don't even remember being so stressed over PSLE when I was taking it.

Yes, I was nervous, scared, a little stressed out. But definitely not pull-out-my-hair, burn-midnight-oil kind of stress. The whole issue parents need to look at is why do we even have PSLE in the first place?

A very basic reason: it provides a fair platform for every student to score.

Every students, no matter what background/race/intelligence, takes the EXACT SAME PAPER, on the SAME DAY, SAME TIME. The grading process is the same as well - this goes very well with the meritocratic values of Singapore.

During the exam, it will be just the students against the paper. Nothing else.

If we replace the exams with projects and interviews, it might result in an unfair platform (just as the writer of the article says). Students with wealthier backgrounds inevitably have better advantage over the other students where projects are concerned. They have better access to facilities (which will no doubt be provided by parents who are already oh so concerned and worried over PSLE). Besides, won't projects result in more stress on the kids? I mean, for goodness sake, they are PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS. I have never even worked on a proper project until I was in secondary school. Do parents actually think primary school kids have the mental capacity to even plan and execute a proper project???

Furthermore, interviews??? Seriously? What are you going to ask a primary school kid? What is your favourite colour? I would have answered purple. What are you going to be when you grow up? Everyone at at that age would have answered teacher. Also, don't oral examinations already fulfil this aspect?

Parents are placing PSLE at the same level as A-levels, which is a totally wrong way of looking at it. If we scrap the PSLE, what comes next? Scrapping the O-levels, then A-levels? Wow. Singapore would be exam-free!!! Even though I might actually be happy when that day comes, but is the reason of stress really worth the action of scrapping examinations?

True, I am currently having exams and am feeling stressed out (read my previous blog post), but I don't advocate the action of removing PSLE/any other major exams.
In fact, call me sadistic, but I think exams are a great way to build up a student's mental strength. I actually feel excited before every exam. The thrill of getting the paper, the thrill of reading the questions set by teachers all get to me. There will be tests in our lives everyday. Why not prepare the students for it, rather than letting them fail when they come face to face to a truly important test in their lives later on?

There are some parents (in the article below on the same page of straits times pg 41), who ACTUALLY WANT TO REDUCE THE WEIGHTAGE OF THE SECOND LANGUAGE PAPER, claiming that it will give the students less stress. That is the WORST IDEA EVER. To that parent, have you been reading the newspapers lately? Singapore is facing a crisis where our mother tongue language is taking a back seat to English. No true-blue Singaporean (of my age) can speak Chinese properly and fluently anymore! Which explains why I am typing this blog in English, speaking English 90% of the time and scoring a B for my Chinese language. -.- And the absurd idea of reducing the weightage of mother language paper in PSLE can actually be suggested? *Speechless*

PSLE should not be scrapped. If parents want other areas of talents to be recognised as well, simple. Allow a wider range of talents to be considered for Direct School Admission. It allows for other talents to be taken into account as well, while not overly-diminishing the importance of studies.

To the parents, stop complaining about stress. YOU, by pressurizing your children to study more and sending your kids to tuition, are the actual cause of stress for your kids.

Exam Stress

I think I am actually feeling really stressed, just that I do not show it.

Apparently, I was SCRATCHING THE WOOD PLANK OF MY BED IN MY SLEEP. Witness = my brother who woke up in the middle of the night because of that. I am guessing that is A SIGN OF STRESS. Either that, or I was writing out my LA essay in my dream, which is hardly any better.

My parents have also told me that I used to grind my teeth while sleeping during examination periods. Hmm. It is proven that grinding your teeth while sleeping is either due to the fact that 1) there is something wrong with the alignment of your teeth, or 2) one feels stress or anxiety.

WHAT IF... the scratching sounds were actually the sound of my teeth grinding??? That is scary - the sound that my teeth makes can actually be so LOUD. I worry for my teeth.

Exam stress is such a problematic issue. Thinking too much about it brings more stress too, ironically. I think this problem of stress is much worse in Singapore too. Students in countries such as Norway are less 'competitive' in a sense - everyone is provided with the same opportunities (they do not have streaming), which makes the students less worried about their results, since it would not affect the number of their window of opportunities. On the other hand, marks are everything in Singapore. A C is acceptable in Norway, while an A is the norm in Singapore. Too much emphasis is based on exams, which are mostly based on rote learning as well (I am totally against the idea of rote learning).

I admit that it is hard to suggest an alternative to exams as a fair mean of grading the students. However, this issue will definitely affect the mental health of students (AKA ME.) 

I always prefer this: Concepts over Memorisation.

Understanding the concept is more important than memorising of facts for me, which is why I prefer Physics over Chemistry. Chemistry is, admit it, based mostly on memorisation. Physics is all about the concepts. Understand and apply it - this is also a much easier way to study :D

Anyway, just finished my LA paper 1 today. The questions were obviously out-of-this-world. (Quite excited to get back the papers and see the comments HEE) My plan today is to basically slack and reward myself for all that hard work for LA hahaha. I shall work on History tomorrow :) 

History is another headache for me. And literature. THESE ARE ALL THE HUMANITIES SUBJECTS. How ironic that I am a double-science student! (Anyway, the plan to scrap some humanities subject from the syllabus is silly and SHOULD NEVER BE ALLOWED. HOW CAN YOU SCRAP HISTORY???!! NONSENSE. History is such an essential part of life, much more so than chemistry/biology/physics -.-) 

Already looking forward to the end of EOYs and HCL O-level.

Plans to do after EOYs:

Go to Korea (if possible)

USS with 4K girls

Watch Taken 2 and all the other awesome movies

SLACK

Read books!!!! (MUST-DO)

Read manga

Listen to more music

Blog more (if I actually have stuff to blog about)

Go to cousin's house and bake/cook

:D

Science and technology, and ethics

I am current grappling with the idea of how ethics is important in science and technology. This is A VERY INTERESTING TOPIC. First off, it is controversial - and I love controversial topics because they make me THINK. Next, it is a very relevant topic because we are at an age and generation where science and technology pervades every part of our lives. To have knowledge about such topics is going to be useful and essential in the near future.

A few of the topics I have just read through on the internet:
Genetic testing, Human-animal stem cell research, Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis.

Apparently, Singapore is one of the few countries at the forefront of stem cell research!! (WOW) So amazing. And I never knew that O.o
Our government allows embryos to be used in stem cell research, as long as stem cell is not extracted from them after they are 14-days-old. I found their reasoning very logical.

   "Within the 14th Day Limit: Research may be conducted on an embryo before it reached the 14th day from the day the gametes were fused. However, all such research is to be subject to strict regulation and undertaken only if there is very strong scientific merit in, and potential medical benefit to be derived from, such research. The BAC did not agree with the extreme view that an embryo is merely a collection of cells. While the BAC was prepared to recognise the special status of an embryo before it reached the 14 days limit, it did not consider this special status to be equivalent to the status that a living person would have.  Accordingly, the BAC considered it ethical to conduct research on such an embryo on a strictly regulated basis and subject to the conditions stipulated; and
  Beyond the 14th Day Limit: The BAC considered it unethical for research to be conducted on an embryo that has reached the 14th day limit and that such an embryo would be accorded full status as a person."

The 14-day agreement was because the embryo starts to show a primitive streak after 14 days. I think that this is a rather acceptable stand of the government. It is not too extreme or mild; it is rather moderate. Besides, it is my personal belief that an embryo (at least before the primitive streak) does not have consciousness or sentience, and therefore, cannot be truly considered as a 'human' or 'person' like the rest of the living humans. Regardless, I think that in the face of the various religious groups in Singapore, BAC managed to come up with a 'solution' that seems appropriate in Singapore's context.

Some scientists (not in SG) have also been producing headless mice and frogs. YES. You read that correctly. Guess what their ultimate aim is? TO PRODUCE A HEADLESS HUMAN CLONE.

That is just crazy, weird and obviously unethical. True, a headless human clone of yourself will give you the organs you need for organ transplant. Furthermore, it effectively wins the argument against opposers of cloning that the clone will have consciousness, and would be deemed as a 'person'. The scientists' argument is that by producing a headless clone, there is no brain, no mind, no consciousness. So, you are not really killing a 'human' in that sense. WELL, GREAT LOGIC HERE (sense the sarcasm please).

If you want clone infant to grow into that of an adult, even if it is headless, it is still growing. Growing = living thing. Even though it does not have consciousness or sentience, it is still considered a living thing. I mean, a patient in coma is also a person - here's the catch, but since he is in a state of coma, technically speaking, he has no consciousness. Does that mean that he can be treated as how your clone is going to be treated - killed for their organs? The absurdity of this situation makes me wonder how the scientists managed to convince themselves about the justifiability of their actions.

Are we really going to purposely create deformed human beings for the sake of saving the life of another? You have just officially created a life, and killed that very same life. All for the sake of another.

THIS is why this topic is so interesting. It gets us thinking about stuff like humanity and our understanding of technology and its appropriate uses.

Also, I think that people should get more involved in these kinds of debates! Basically, be more aware.

All in all, an interesting topic that is just as hard to score.

EOYs D:

really really dreading EOYs...

and I was only recently blogging about CTs being over (ironic).

I stayed at my cousin's house during the past few days. Watching many Super Junior-related stuff haha, and watched a few of To the beautiful you.

I went out on a few study dates with Shermaine and Dion too, which have actually gone quite successful. Greenwich is a great place to study :)

Oh, and yeah, my team got kicked out from the top 100. We did not get into the top 40. It was really a waste because we all felt that we did not give our best. The teacher ic did not tell us which of our three stories got selected, so we did not do any preparation AT ALL. We only knew about it 30 min before our story pitching, which screwed our confidence up. WE HAD ONLY 20 MINUTES TO PREPARE.
I am mainly upset because we got kicked out even before we had a chance to do our best. If we had been given the chance to show our best, and then got kicked out, I wouldn't have been so angry about it.

Anyway, I have so many things running around in my head... Eoys especially. How can anyone even create such a thing that tortures us so much?!

3 weeks more...

I wanna go Korea!!! FOR THE HOLIDAYS!

Princess's Man

I have finished watching Secret Garden and am now proceeding to fall in love with The Princess's Man! :) Frankly, I was kind of upset when I bought the drama and it had chinese subs, but I got over it now and am enjoying every bit of the drama! The drama is EPIC AND REALLY GOOD. It's very moving, with every moment put in its correct place. The characters are very real as well; you don't really hate all the bad guys because you see that they have their own reasons for doing so and essentially, we know that they have a human side to them as well.

And after watching this drama, I am actually starting to like Park Shi Hoo (the guy). YEP. I used to hate him because he was like this extra guy in Iljimae HAHAHAH. But I just realised how good his acting chops are! After watching this drama, you will definitely fall in love with him!! My perception of him is totally changed!

I also started taking notice of this girl: Moon Chae Rin <3 p="p">

She acts really well in this show. And when she's weeping, it really comes naturally to her; it's not like those shows where I shout out at the girl and tell her to stop crying and start doing something. I love that her character is very strong-willed as well. She actually DOES something in the drama that contributes to the plot, which usually does not happen because 'girls are weak yadah yadah'. So this drama did a really good job of writing her character.

Oh, she's going to act in Nice Guy with Song Joong Ki too!! Goodie!! :DD I shall keep an eye out for her :D

Haha, fan girling here~!

Oh and I LOVE THE OST OF PRINCESS'S MAN. Baek Ji Young sang the ost of Princess's man too!!!! (Same person who sang ost of Secret Garden) I ACTUALLY GUESSED THAT SHE SANG IT. Because it's so her style and the voice sounds the same. She's a really good singer!

Meanwhile, I finally finished my analysis of the Long Telegram.

George Kennan should learn to summarize. Why waste that much time and ink and make students' lives difficult?!!! D: 

And my group got into NEmation top 100!! :D

After CTs!

Common tests are finally over!! Yippee! :D

I swear that the CTs have actually had some kind of stress effect on me. Because I am currently having this annoying pimple breakout. And by breakout, I really mean breakout! GAH. It's very painful :(

I think that my whole life is just revolving around studies, tests and formulas.
CTs
After CTs
EOYS (in about 6 weeks =.= seriously?!)
After EOYs
O-level HCL

Only after O-level HCL can I truly be free...
Haiz.

Anyway, I had a 4K class lunch today to celebrate the end of CTs! An amazing amount of people turned up = 18! That is more than half the class, which is a miracle already. We ate at Astons (did not order the spaghetti this time!). I was stuck at the end, again. Haha. Elaine, Dion, Zixin and Clarissa made it interesting for me though :)
Afterwards, we kind of camped at a staircase nearby because we could not decide where to go. All of us took turns buying Goong Cha, which was funny because the longer we took to discuss, the more people went to buy goong cha. Me too haha.
A few of them eventually decided to go Jaime's house. I was hesitating but decided not to go since it would be quite inconvenient for me to go home later. I then window shopped with Elaine, Beatriz, Huiyi and Dion for a while. It was quite interesting actually going around to see all the high-heel shoes. Yeah, THAT WAS BASICALLY ALL WE WERE DOING AHAHAHAHA. But I got bored after a while. I then left while they continued to shop.

So I thought I would have plenty of time when I went home, but I don't know what happened. After I got out of my shower, it was ALREADY 6. My eyes just went O_O. And I actually checked the clock at my dining hall against the one in my bedroom to make sure it was working properly. That was how surprised I was. Time slip haha.

I read a little of Wuthering Heights - aiming to finish it this week if possible, seeing that CTs are over.
I have just been reading the synopsis about A LOT of korean dramas. I wanna watch The King 2 Hearts. It looks awesome :) So I started the 'research' because there is a sale of korean dramas at compasspoint and I wanna know which dramas are good so that I can buy them. Yep, I know, totally not the right reason to 'research'. hahah.

Hmm... tomorrow will be a long school day - ends at 4.15pm.
Dreading it. Yep. Totally dreading it. The day after CTs should be a holiday. (being self-delusional here)
Gonna watch Secret Garden now <3 p="p">

Hyun Bin

As seen from the title, this blog post is going to be about me spazzing over Hyun Bin. If you don't know who he is, he acts in the korean drama Secret Garden.

And.... official spamming of his pictures begin!

 

So, anyway, he's not bad looking right??? :D

When I first watched Secret Garden, frankly, I thought his character was being really annoying. His character is Joo-won, a rich guy who unexpectedly falls for a poor girl who's a stunt woman. They are at opposite ends of the social spectrum. He's the CEO of a big shopping mall!

Basically, Joo-won chases after Ra-im (the girl, acted by Ha Ji Won)! He WOOS her, to put it more accurately. However, he does it in the way which seems as if he is not wooing her. Okay, this sounds confusing. To put it simply, he is wooing her, but denies doing it. 

Some parts of the drama are really sweet. Actually, I find his character rather pitiful because he is always misunderstood by Ra-im.

Their feelings are mutual though, that much I can ascertain heehee.

As the drama goes on, I am liking him more and more!! <3 p="p">

There is this part in episode 9, where Ra-im told him that she cannot be his little mermaid (apparently that's Joo-won's favourite story) because the mermaid loved the prince dearly AKA she does not love him. Hyun Bin managed to act VERY well at this part because he looked genuinely hurt and heartbroken!! My heart went out to him at that very moment because he JUST SAID THAT THEY WOULD STILL BE TOGETHER. D': Ra-im, how can you do this?!
Ra-im then left. The lift door was about to close, but (as always in dramas) Joo-won stops the lift doors. He wants to go in, but stops, because HE IS CLAUSTROPHOBIC!! WHYYYYY. But Ra-im doesn't know! So when Joo-won tells her to come out instead (when you chase after a girl, you are supposed to go into the elevator WITH her), she takes this as a sign that he still does not respect her/is not serious about her. So, she just presses the close button. THE LIFT DOORS CLOSE IN JOO-WON'S FACE.
Omg, his face was just HURT. I don't know if he was tearing, but it seemed like he did.

This was his expression as the doors closed:

Sequence of what happened;

And when he ran down the stairs to find her, she was gone.

MY HEART JUST WENT OUT TO HIM. IF ONLY SHE KNEW WHY HE COULD NOT COME INTO THE LIFT!

It is not often that I get that fuzzy feeling from watching a drama, but this drama nailed it.

So yeap, Hyun Bin is just this sweet awkward guy in this show. The quotes of the drama are very meaningful too!!
You can view them here: http://asiandramaquotes.wordpress.com/index/secret-garden-quotes/

If the drama proves to be really really good (which it is now), I might buy the whole episode after my exams :))
Anyway, Hyun Bin is in the army now D: He is going to be released at the end of this year, haha :)

Okay, common tests are next week (and here I am) so jiayous to myself and everyone else!!

The Dark Knight Rises

The Dark Knight Rises

So I went to watch The Dark Knight Rises with my family on Sunday. There is only one word to describe this: AWESOME. 

The cast was stellar - I personally liked all of them, especially after watching a few in Inception :D

The first part of the movie would be a bit draggy I guess because not much action happens. It is this time that audiences get confused as well because there are just some unexplained characters, which would be explained later in the movie. 

Personally, I found this Batman series one of the best. It highlighted just what it meant to be human, which is the crucial part because then the audience gets to realise that 'Hey, Batman is a human too. He is not just a superhero, but a human as well'. There is a lot of underlying messages about humanity, fear, forgiveness and love. It did not just focus on Batman and his stunts, but his feelings and actions and consequences. The whole Batman series of this was one of its kind. 

It created a lot of situations where people were forced to make 'ethical' decisions based on unethical means. The film does a lot to test the truth about humanity. Also, what I liked about the movie was that it allowed itself to delve deep into the dark parts, which most superhero movies are afraid to do so. They did not bother to glamorize Batman, which allowed us to see the 'real him'. That's crucial.

Even though I am a big fan of the Avengers as well, I have to say that Dark Knight was better than the Avengers. 

It brought Dark Knight to its climax. At a certain point (not gonna spoil for those who have not watched), you finally get a sense of the attachment you feel with Batman. A sense of loss overwhelmed me at that point of time as I realised that this was the final instalment of the Dark Knight, and that this might be the end. (It's already a massive clue as to what might happen)

Dark Knight definitely has formed a bond with its viewers because we are taken on the emotional roller coaster ride of Bruce Wayne. We feel and understand him, and eventually, we ALL wish to see him gain happiness. 

Ultimately, I am very satisfied with the ending :) I could not have asked for more :D

Score: 5/5

And yes, Christian Bale, you have gained yourself a fan :)

Yes, I know. He looks infinitely hot. HAHAHA :))

Looking forward to any other movie he makes in the future!

Books

I shall dedicate this post to a list of books that I have recently read!

Books I have read (and still remember that I've read):

1. One Day by David Nichols (one of the few books that I do not regret buying)
2. Delirium by Lauren Oliver (quite a nice book to own)
3. Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver (sequel to Delirium)
4. This is a Love Story by Jessica Thompson
5. The Perks of being a Wallflower (thought I might add this in because it is going to be a movie, and it actually a pretty good coming-of-age book)
6. Thirteen Reasons Why (LOVE THIS BOOK)
7. The Illumination by Kevin Brockmeier (Pretty touching and sad. It might get irritating when some people's story ends and the story moves on to another)
8. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver (I already own three of her books LOL. This one is quite touching as well)
9. Toby Alone (Courtesy of Siyun who lent me the book)
10. The Sealed Letter by Emma Donogue
11. Room by the same author above
12. Something Borrowed
13. Before I Go to Sleep (I had too high expectations that it did not quite meet)
14. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes (Wonderful book)
15. The Last Letter from Your Lover (Superbly touching book, YOU SHOULD READ IT)
16. and many more...

Books I have read halfway (and kind of gave up reading):

1. Rupture by Simon Lelic (This is actually a pretty good book. It's just that it gets irritatingly slow after a while. It does give some insight into human behaviour and nature though)
2. Anna Frank's Diary (worst mistake I made - buying this. Everyone says it's good and provides knowledge into the lives of Jews during WW2, but you cannot help but admit, it's very boring)
3. A Million Little Pieces (interesting in the beginning, but gets boring later on because the author goes into a repetition of vomit, eat, vomit, eat - it's a true story though)

Books I am currently reading;

1. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (proving to be difficult to read)

Books I am planning to read:

1. Jane Eyre (the original version btw)
2. The Red Queen by Philippa Greggory
3. The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Greggory
4. Art Geek and Prom Queen
5. Night Circus (I wanted to buy this and no. 4 at popular since there is a sale, but am trying to control by book-buying fetish!)
6. A dangerous method by John Kerr (I have a feeling this is going to be boring though)
7. Howl's Moving Castle (yep, the book!)
8. I might re-read Thirteen Reasons Why HEH.

There! So far, these are the few books that I can actually remember. If anyone who knows me is interested in reading any book, and I own it, feel free to borrow them from me :)

Anyway, just fell in love with this Chinese song (unexpected right?!) called 爱你 by Kimberley. 

The song is very addictive and surprisingly nice for a Chinese song :)))

就这样 爱你 爱你 爱你 随时都要一起
我喜欢 爱你 外套 味道 还有你的怀里
把我们衣服钮扣互扣 那就不用分离
美好爱情 我就爱这样贴近 因为你

~