April

March is over and April is here.

How time flies.

The subtleties of every day creep onto you,

Eat away at you,

Consume you,

And become who you are.

I think I have changed.

Somehow, somewhere,

Inside of me,

I have changed.

But the change is slow,

Ever-changing,

Looming,

I never know when it happens.

I never know where it happens.

Have I changed for the better?

Have I become a better person,

A better citizen,

A better student,

A better friend,

A better daughter,

A better me?

I do not know.

I ask myself this question every year, on a special day.

I think I will ask myself that question again this year, as I marvel in that one day's speciality that is only known to me, that is only truly treasured by me.

Only time will tell.

And with time comes change.

As time passes,

Memories,

Emotions,

and the vibrancy of colours fade.

I will probably forget that I ever wrote this.

Over-ridden

I am being over-ridden with troubles. Heaps of it, in fact.

The lesson today started off with Mr Tay announcing that we have to start on our ACE ATT 2. Didn't we just finish ATT 1? I thought that was over and done with, and then out comes a follow-up project, which will no doubt be followed up by another follow-up project called... ATT 3! Hooray.
Furthermore, I am facing the impending doom of common tests. It is not here yet, but I can already feel its overwhelming presence. I keep thinking that I should do something about it, but am too lazy to take any action.w

A few other projects that I am faced with (let me list them out for easy reference):
- ATT 2 (T3W1)
- Project Work (T2W5)
- Romeo and Juliet play (T2W4)
- Chinese project (T2W4)
- CME project (T2W4)
- Financial Lit project (T2W4)

Perhaps that are more that I cannot remember now... D:

*ripping my hair out in worry and rage*

At the same time, I have so many 'social' stuff to attend to. Yep, I am having so many outings despite the ongoing list of tasks I have.
I am going to watch Hunger Games. And read it too.
I am going to eat free ice-creams on Free Cone Day.
I am going for DHS CO concert.

Speaking of which, if anyone reading this is interested, please attend the Chinese Society (CS) concert! This is my CCA, but I am not performing. I will be helping out with the lighting.
Date: 5 May 2012 (Vesak Day - you can't claim to be busy!!)
Time: 7pm
Venue: Dunman High School (Singapore), Performing Arts Centre
Performances include chinese opera, drama and chinese dance :)
Tickets are sold at $10 for one.
**All performances will be spoken in Chinese.
If any non-Dunmanians are interested, please contact me at sueq51@gmail.com :)
No spam please. I WILL BLOCK AND REPORT YOU.

Anyway, I have just read the novel "The Sealed Letter" by Emma Donoghue, the author of "Room", which I also bought. It centers around the scandal of the Codringtons (you can go check it out) and the characters involved in it.
What makes the characters very believable is the fact that they all have some flaws. You can almost see them as being real people. Not all of them are truly noble, or truly evil.
Helen and Fido are friends whose friendship is threatened when Helen's affairs are found out by her husband, Harry, who presses for a divorce. Fido had helped Helen in the affair a few times and is thus, dragged into this unfortunate mess.
The nature of their friendship quickly unravels amidst revelations, confessions between them and of others. How much of it is truth, and how much lies? There is suspense in every page of the novel - the readers are always left guessing.
The language is vastly different from 'Room'. There is a certain eloquence and exotic-like quality with every sentence. Difficult words that are not often used are mentioned in the book too (useful to have a dictionary on hand). There are some Macbeth quotes in there too - finally, something useful from the education last year! The way of writing is much like the olden times as well. Long sentences which you have to re-read several times to grasp the full meaning. It may prove difficult at first, however, as you progress, you will find the sentences easier to read (at around 1/5 of the book).
THE ENDING WAS A REAL TWIST AND SURPRISE AS WELL. Though I suspected it after I found out what literary award it won...(hint hint)
The ending left much to be satisfied. The feelings of the characters after the trial were mostly left unknown, only Fido's were explained. A 3.75/5 for this book perhaps. The long-windedness at the beginning of the book cost it that 0.25, heh.

Gonna end off here now :))

Delirium... Pandemonium

Do you still remember when I talked about the book "Delirium"?

It is actually part of a trilogy and Pandemonium is the sequel to Delirium.

The whole story focuses on a girl called Lena who is in this world where love is considered a disease. At the age of 16, everyone has to take a injection (or vaccination) that will turn them into loveless being, devoid of sympathy or feeling. The government controls everyone, including who they marry. 

Delirium was really good. The concept of the whole story was good - a world without love. Man without passion. I was really interested in the idea of it and bought the book. The book is captivating - I remember finishing it in one sitting :) However, the only thing that I really did not like were the instances of romance. Somehow, it did not seem to fit in because of the fact that this was supposed to be world without love. There are hardly any moments of intimacy except towards the end. The book really did a good job of building such a scenario without love.

Now, onto Pandemonium. I was really hesitant about buying Pandemonium because there have been sequels that fail, terribly. (The cover looked really good though.) And the words were in a slightly larger print - which I don't like. I like books with small print, somehow it gives them its authentic feeling. However, I still bought it in the end and I finished it in one day :) 

The book was fairly good, although it is not as good as Delirium. I'll give it a 4/5 for the fact that it's a sequel. The language was somewhat lacking in comparison to Delirium. However, it still makes for a pretty good read. Delirium was more about Lena gaining exposure and new insights about the world she lives in - the hard truth VS the lies. Pandemonium was more action packed with Lena getting physically stronger, and smarter. 

*Spoiler - Alex is PRESUMABLY dead, and Lena is slowly getting over his death. Then, she has to keep track of this guy called Julian who is a representative of a Youth organisation against the love disease. You can guess what happens. 

The ending of Pandemonium is perhaps the most upsetting and disappointing part. I was really hoping that this series would be able to avoid the usual cliches (meaning, love triangles -.-). Anyway, Julian and Lena makes an an unusual combination. Alex would be wayyy better because he did what Julian never did - he sacrificed himself for Lena.

I was also hoping that rather than exploring the love as love, Lauren Oliver would explore the love of friendship. Tackle where most teenage fiction writers miss or ignore, instead of going for the cliches of love between the opposite sex. It would be really good to bring back Hana and see what happens  - did she really take the cure? Would she still see Lena as a friend? 

Okay, so mainly what I want is: MAKE THINGS MORE DISASTROUS FOR LENA RATHER THAN GETTING HER INTO A LOVE TRIANGLE. 

Make her feel the dire consequences of a world without love! It would be REALLY good if she goes find Hana and Hana doesn't recognise her. MAKE LENA DEVASTATED. Make her desperate. Of course, it would be best if Lena finally manages to get Hana to feel love (friendship kind) for her again! That would really get readers to treasure the existence of love. RATHER THAN GETTING LENA INTO A LOVE TRIANGLE - REALLY, HOW CAN IT ACTUALLY COME TO SUCH A POINT. I am really disappointed!!! I really expected better for this series.

Especially since it had SUCH A WONDERFUL CONCEPT TO PLAY WITH.

And another thing: How can there be so many resistance members??! I thought they were the minority. And suddenly, there are so many helping Lena out -.- It seems rather unrealistic considering the situation they are in. 

At least one thing that was really good in this book is that there actually WAS a resistance plan - HOORAY. (spoiler!!) I've been wondering throughout Delirium what signs were of resistance were the resistance showing. Get it?? LOL. Also, it would be best to find her mother in the last book - focus on OTHER types of love!

Overall, I think I will still buy the last remaining book - I mean, I've already bought the first two right?? I really hope that the third book would be able to make good use of the concept in the first book :))

-- edited

Anyway, there is an ebook featuring Hana's viewpoint when she went partying while Lena went to look for her that night. I really want to read it!!! :DD Finding some way to do so...

Social Sciences Conference at SMU

I went for the Social Sciences Conference (SSC) at SMU yesterday along with Hannah, Huiyi, Siyun and Yunyi. :)

Anyway, being the slow me, I only realised yesterday that social sciences is actually a subject at other schools, just not at Dunman High, though we have something similar called ACE - which I forgot what it stood for. Oh! Active Citizenry Education, yep.

So we were supposed to meet at bras basah at 9.10am but then in the end, I ended up being the only punctual one (pat myself on the back). Huiyi ended up being the latest because she slept at 3am the night before. AS ALWAYS.

We had this Q&A session with S.R. Nathan. I REALLLY felt like asking him and question but could not think of any good ones so I just gave up and listened to the others ask him questions. Yep, and my wish to take a photo with him obviously dissolved because there wasn't even a chance to do so!

Anyway, I am quite annoyed by something he said though, "Singapore cannot change the world. We can only react to it." LOL. I wasn't really expecting those words to come from the ex-president of Singapore. I mean, have a little more faith in us! And these words were quickly refuted by the speaker during the breakout sessions.

The session which I went to (with Yunyi) was Who runs the World? Meaning, who takes charge and creates the rules in the world? We dabbled with a few ideas such as the United States and the United Nations. Is UN a world policeman? It would definitely seem ironic to call it so because it does not even have an army. The UN soldiers are mainly contributed by countries and most of the soldiers come from... guess where? Bangladesh! WOW. 

And I also find the UN's way of conducting affairs slightly unfair and even, let's say, biased, power-inclined? I mean, we have this 5 big powers who get to literally, have the FINAL say in everything. So long as one of them disagrees, the whole suggested plan will have to be scrapped! Imagine that! Instead of the United Nations, you might as well call it the 5 countries' nations. (LOL. maybe that was too harsh) 

But the UN does not not have its merits. I mean, it really does excellent in the philanthropy area! The usual idea is really that of UN = help. right?

But in terms of keeping peace, I guess the effects are really only felt in smaller countries. I mean, the UN can't actually help make peace between the US and China right? After all, they themselves are part of the 5 big powers! It would really be ironic to see them pass a veto on a proposal on themselves, HAHAHA. 

The other thing we discussed is US vs China. I guess VS would be a bit inappropriate.

Anyway, I don't really like the idea of having US troops stationed in SG. I dunno why but the idea just kinda puts me off because I mean, this is Singapore. Why do I need other people's troops in our territory? It's kinda intruding?? But then again, this is the government's decision and maybe, there are other issues at stake, so who knows? I cant give a definite judgement based on my own assumptions.

So anyway, the whole discussion was really interesting and cool. Although I did find that the seminar way of teaching is cool, it still freaks most of us out because we aren't used to the style of teaching. haha! So the whole discussion was actually pretty one-sided.

AND I REALLY LIKED THE LAST PART OF MS ANN's discussion! Because she said that we should not think that singapore is not important in the global front. Just because we are small doesn't mean we aren't significant! hehe. I think that that last part really empowered all of us sitting there because it really gave us hope that, hey, when we grow up, we can make a difference. As opposed to the seemingly pessimistic view of SR Nathan, haha. 

Yep, and we finally had the final part of the conference where we had all the professors come together and answer questions by us. 

There was this part which is really extremely memorable where a student asked if they thought that the recent hype over the general elections were temporary or sustainable. One of the Indian professors, who is a Singaporean answered this as the rest had only lived in SG for a few years. He said that he felt the hype was a mix of both. And then he went on to say that we should not discredit what the government has done as well. We have managed to achieve multi-culturalism to a certain extent, when many other countries have failed. At the end of his short speech/answer, the students applauded. I think that that was when the Singapore spirit really shone from the various students sitting in the auditorium. I could really feel that all the students/Singaporeans there felt proud at that moment, to be a Singaporean :)

After SSC ended, I went to Plaza Sing with Siyun, Huiyi and Yunyi. We walked around Daiso and Spotlight- mainly it was huiyi and siyun who were actually 'shopping'. We then went down to the basement and ate, because we were all so hungry.

I then met up with my parents there for dinner. We initially wanted the Manhattan Fish Market but it appears everyone had the same idea as us, haha! Partially because there was this coupon that they gave out (I had it at home too) which was really worth it! haha! So in the end, we went to the... FOOD COURT. Note the big disparity in food standards. After eating, I went to this bookshop nearby :)

Oh yeah! SMU gave us this book published by them - Social Space. You can go check it out. There are several articles which I thought was really interesting!!

"Of Spatial and Mindset Change" - interview with Tay Kheng Soon

      He talked about rubanisation! The idea is actually quite cool, where the urban and rural area come together as one. He also talked about communities as being small sustainable communities.

"The New Way of the Future: Small, local, open and connected" by Ezio Manzini

      Very similar to the idea of rubanisation!! He calls this cosmopolitan localism. I really wonder what SG will be like if the two ideas were implemented!

"Improving lives in the base of pyramid, profitably" by Stefan Jacob and Pin Kwok

      Mainly about how to tap into the lower class people's 'wealth'. For example providing cheap, but good quality products that are targeted at these people, rather than the usual high-end customers. It will not only benefit the companies involved, but the consumers as well.

"Working on the Rights of Singapore's Working Poor" by Siew Kum Hong

      OH THIS IS IMPORTANT. haha! Because it involves Singapore! It addresses income inequality and actually provides a SOLUTION called Workfare Plus! The idea actually sounds pretty good although I am not very sure about what is endowment... lol.

"Tiny Ideas, Big Changes" by Won Soon Parl

       This article is cool too because it talks about how citizens can take part in policy making, rather than only small groups of people working along with the government :) It would be really good if SG can implement this!

HAHAHA. I sound like I did a lot of work, hehe! :D 

I shall go relax now because I've finished all my homework! YAY. It was a really good idea to start on PW earlier!!! Really kudos to Hannah for speeding us up :D

I shall treasure all my time at home now before FACING SCHOOL TOMORROW D:

homework, to do or not to do?

Actually, the title might be a little misleading because I have actually finished most of my holiday homework. I am currently only left with two - chemistry worksheet and a history essay. It is the history essay which puts me off because I really have NO MOOD to start on it at all!
I usually have an enthusiasm for such things! I would be thinking, "okay, let's start on this and get high marks!" Yep, I am a person who REALLY CARES ALOT about marks. People often ask me why I do so well and I think the main reason is because of marks.
Seriously speaking, I hate studying. I have actually contemplated quitting school and getting a job before. Yep, I did! I think it was around last year when I starting to have these crazy thoughts. I felt like I did not have any direction or goal in life and that I was just wandering aimlessly. I did not know what I wanted to be when I grow up.

I was especially frustrated because I did not seem to have the passion for anything in life.

So, I have always been living in the moment. Even now.
I guess marks are just a short-lives motivation for me. I WANT to get high marks - that's essentially the key to whatever I do. To get the best results possible. I love self-satisfaction :D

Okay, anyway back to the topic - history essay. I heard from one of my friend Siyun that we did not have to do it O.o But I am really doubting that such miracles could come true! I believe that we will STILL have to write the essay eventually, it's just a matter of when. D: So, I WANT to do it ASAP, I am just too lazy to start on it!

And yes, I realised that I have been very lazy these days~!!!! I have SOME stuff on my agenda but I always find some excuse to push it back or refuse to do it -.- I NEED TO GET STARTED.

Oh yeah, I went to watch WICKED with Siyun (that was when she told me we did not need to do the essay), Nicole and Krystal.
We met up at Suntec and ate Astons! Siyun and I did the horrible mistake of ordering spaghetti - I did it to get the soup. LOL. The spaghetti was horrible. I never liked spaghetti with sauce. What's more, we ate dominos during lunch while doing project with Huiyi and Xuechun.
Krystal came over and said, "I saw you two eating spaghetti and I was like, why? why?" HAHAHA. yes, I now know my mistake. I WILL NEVER ORDER SPAGHETTI FROM ASTONS. To quote myself, "I was foraging for salmon amongst the spaghetti."
We laughed over a lot of stuff while eating. Oh yah, we also talked about Xiaxue and Naomi. I HAD NO IDEA WHO THEY WERE INITIALLY - "living in my own bubble".
I was just listening to them talk about them. Anyway, I was interested and since I was reluctant to start on my essay, I went to check out their blogs just now heh. LOL. Xiaxue's blog was pretty interesting and the most recent one about being selfish is kinda cool and truthful. I also went to read Naomi's one which was regarding her haters lol. She actually took the time to print screen her hater's twitter comments and post it on her blog, hahaha. I wonder how she has the time to do such stuff, while I am here worrying about my essay =_=

So, yeah, we then went to MBS. We took some pictures using Nicole's camera :)
And then, at 7.30pm, WICKED started.

Wicked was really good and awesome. Electrifying, an eye-opener! :D The songs that they sang were actually good! The whole stage set-up was really cool and nice as well! The story really felt like Romeo and Juliet at the beginning (where they announce the whole story's ending at the prologue lol). The green girl really creeped me out initially. haha! Anyway, the story was really touching as well. I actually cried a few times during some of the parts.
The last musical I went to was Mamma Mia! which was when I was p4? I don't remember much of it already, just a woman at the top of a make-shift cliff singing something. So it was a really wonderful experience to watch such a fantastic play AND remember it! :))

And I finally managed to watch Guzaarish just now! The storyline is SSSSOOOOO similar to Me Before You!!! They should have collaborated or something, haha! Anyway, the movie was a tear-jerker :') You really feel as if you are in Ethan's shoes. Anyway, the movie is about a man who petitions for euthanasia because he is unable to move any of this body from his head onwards. Furthermore, he was a famous magician before that so the suffering and entrapment he feels is much more intensified. The movie is shot beautifully and everyone should watch it! :))

Yay, the past few days' events have been recorded :)
Now, on to whether I should do my essay...

Holidays!

It is finally the end-of-term holidays! YES!

Although I look forward to the holidays, in truth, it will be bombarded with homework. Also, the holidays is only one week long. There is an additional day of holiday tomorrow due to good A-level results of my school. I will probably be doing my chinese newspaper article review and my chemistry project. These are my top priorities! I still have a few, wait. That's an understatement. I still have TONS of homework undone. 

I am seriously hoping that I will be able to do them fast, and well. :))

I am currently obsessed about this movie, "Jodhaa Akbar". Yes, it is a Bollywood movie.

And yes, I watch bollywood movies (to those out there who don't know). In fact, I love them! I have a few favourites - Devdas (a must-watch!), Kal Ho Naa Ho, Dhoom 2... and many more! Because I am unable to find the disc for Jodhaa Akbar in the National library, I am now watching it on youtube. However, I want to watch it on BIG SCREEN!! So I actually emailed Vasantham (yes, I DID!) to screen the show during the Saturday 4pm timing where they show bollywood shows! HAHAHAHAH. 

And I also find this guy DAMN HOTTTT. HRITHIK ROSHAN!! (I'm just gonna spam his pictures now haha)

He acts in Bollywood shows! And he has two thumbs on his right hand (cool). His eyes have this really cool colour like grey/blue. GAAAAHHHHH. (okay, I know I'm fan-girling, wtv) 

He actually looks abit like Jason Mraz, but in a hotter and nicer way, heh.

If I ever see him, I wanna get a picture with him! :DD

I told my friends at school during physics lesson about him and his hotness and they all went, "huh! where got?" Either that, or "I didn't know Sue Qin's type was this kind." Yep, now you know! I went crazy about Takeshi Kaneshiro once too!

Yep, but now Hrithik is cooler. Much cooler. He has this Caucasian look :) :P <3

Anyway, I stayed back in school today with Siyun and we talked. ALOT. haha! It was really a good, nice chat that we had. We got free tickets to Sheryl and Elaine's ___. HAHAHA. It was really good! And it was so fun to watch them! Yep, and SIYUN WATCHES BOLLYWOOD MOVIES TOO!!! HAHA. I showed her alot of movies and we were discussing storylines and stuff :))

Overall, not such a bad day!

Oh, and I finished Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. SUCH A GOOD BOOK. It really sets you thinking about life and its meaning, as well as the power of love as well. You definitely won't regret picking it up! :D

And then it happened...

I am just here to review on a book called "And then it happened" by Linda Green.

Basically, I would rate this book 3.5/5.

It is quite a good book, but not an especially good one. I think that what annoyed me initially was the style of writing of the author. The author tended to write very long sentences, which forced me to re-read some of them in order to make sense of what she was saying.

The storyline goes like this: Mel and Adam have been together since 13 years old. (Seems kinda 'One Day'-ish) They are in love and have a child called Maya. They have a close friend called Steve, who is married to Mel's best friend, Louise. One day, Adam gets into an accident and goes into coma. This book narrates the trials that Mel faces during this period, and how she gets over them.

The storyline is really quite interesting. The chapters shift between the views of Mel and Adam every chapter. (similar to One Day again!) What particularly made me irritated was perhaps Mel's character after finding out about Adam's accident. She cried for a long period of time, which made me feel like going up to her and slapping her in the face and screaming at her, "Get a hold of yourself!" The vulnerability and self-pity she exhibits can be rather over-excessive in the first few chapters after Adam goes into coma.

Perhaps what could be noted could be the phrases that the author repeats towards the end of the book. I read the words and vaguely remember just seeing them a few chapters before, which makes the reading process undeniably unpleasant. UNLESS they had some significant or symbolic meaning to them.

What I REALLY liked about the book though, was its sense of realism and its ending. SPOILER* The ending might make some of us feel unsatisfied, as if it could have been better. However, it would be important to know that in real-life cases, happy endings do not happen. The stark realism of the ending really struck me and left me wondering where did the real Adam went? However, it is also weird and too exaggerated that the 'new' Adam and 'old' Adam are SO different! Their tone and intonation just do not seem like each other. I admit that they will never be the same, but they can't be that different, can they?

Well, either way, this book would made a good read for those who want a touch of realism and romance mixed together.

I am now reading a book by one of my favourite authors, Jojo Moyes, "Me Before You". If you have not read her previous book, "The last letter from your lover", you REALLY SHOULD. IT'S DAMN GOOD. <3
I also bought another book, "Before I Go To Sleep", which is on waiting list :))

fond memories

hmm... I think I have not posted anything on CNY yet.
Anyway, CNY was great. I had reunion dinners with both paternal and maternal relatives :))
Although, it was really quite awkward sometimes because I don't recognize some of the extended relatives. Some problems with extended families!
I went karaoke with my maternal family too. After that, I went to have dinner with 2k!! :DD

It was really fun. I went to Yohanes' house and meet some of them first. They were playing risk, although in actuality, they only really played for 30 minutes!
We decided to go to Changi Airport's Terminal 2's Sakae Sushi. We booked a tatami room :)
The dinner was really funny! We talked a lot, and joked around :D Yohanes tried to make us guess a scenario and we did not get even one correct! We came up with a lot of funny scenarios instead which got us all laughing.
And when we played black magic, I always seem like the last one to get the trick, especially FUZZY WUZZY. All of them tried to get me to figure it out, AND I FINALLY DID, HAHAHA! We also took a lot of photos :)
It was the first proper class outing in a really long time, and more than half the class attended it: Yohanes, Suting, Genevieve, Grace, Ying Xuan, Krystal, Pamela, Felix, Bryan, Alvin, Valen, Jinheok, Boning and me! I am pretty sure I got everyone there... >.<
I am really glad that we got together after so long! :)) I think that 2kellyx has got this 'thing' that most classes don't have! I hope that we will get together again after like, 20 years, when all of us are married with kids :')

Anyway, I am having some problems with my own class' stuff now... hmm... I better not mention it, haha.

I am currently trying my best to do my commonwealth essay, but I figured that there is no use trying to force myself to do something that I cannot now. I am going to watch my bollywood show! :))

In a Grove... and stats!

Lessons have been pretty interesting these days, I wonder why...

Let's take History for example. My teacher has given us something similar to a short story, "In a Grove" by Ryunosuke Akutagawa. It is an interesting story. A samurai's corpse is found. There are three suspects for this murder: Masago (his wife), Tajomaru (a bandit) and himself (he might have committed suicide). Testimonies have been collected from the woodcutter who found the body, a travelling buddhist, a policeman who arrested Tajomaru, Tajomaru, Masago and Takehiko (the samurai). What is certain is that Masago was raped by Tajomaru; what differs is what happened afterwards and who killed Takehiko. You can read the story here.

Most of my classmates felt that it was Masago who killed Takehiko. They argued that perhaps both men loved her and wanted to protect the fact that she killed Takehiko. Others felt claimed he committed suicide to 'save face' as it was better than dying in the hands of a mere woman. Somehow, I have a feeling that my history class is very wary of woman, especially beautiful ones. HAHA.

We are supposed to determine who is the murderer and write an essay on it. This is very interesting, and different from the normal lessons that we have done. After searching it up, I found out that it was never the author's intention to have a real murderer. What he was trying to prove was that our initial guess of the murderer is shaped by our moral inclinations and biased judgements. As humans, it is very hard to see the REAL truth. This story serves to prove that. What one character says is always refuted by another. It is almost impossible to decided on a real murdered based on their testimonies. 

After reading that, I was dumbstruck. How do people ever come up with such novel methods to prove a certain point? I was very impressed by this. However, I felt stuck at the same time. How am I ever going to decide who is the real culprit? This is when the true objective of the project hit me. I was supposed to use my INVESTIGATIVE and ANALYTICAL SKILLS to help me argue for one of the character. The main point wasn't which character I chose. The objective was to see how I made use of the testimonies by the non-parties and general knowledge to prove that the character that I have chosen is the murderer. 

Perhaps I will put up my essay the next time, if I remember!

Anyway, I was interested and went to find out the statistics for my blog. Here are some:

Pageviews all time: 4,741

Pageviews last month: 153

Audience: Singapore (3,332), USA (726) - Wow, who reads my blog in the US?!, Russia (71) - I guess they google translate or something???, etc.

Post with highest views: tag (click here) Apparently someone quoted from my blog and it appeared in the straits times! HAHA. I still cannot find the newspaper article... Maybe I should do some searching now...
[updated] I FOUND THE NEWS HAHAHA!!! It's here. It was featured on The New Paper, Thursday, December 03, 2009.

"But netizen Sue Qin, writing on her blog, felt that some of the rules in the Chua household (featured on the programme) are overly-harsh, citing the ones forbidding sleepovers, boy-girl relationships and another rule which stipulates that the computer be in the living room so the parents can see what sites the kids are visiting.

She added, however, that most of the rules – like the ones against skipping school, smoking and alcohol – are “kinda expected”.

She felt that Singapore is conservative because we are made up of races which have their own strict traditions about raising children.

“While too much control is not good, too little control is also not good,” she wrote."

AHAHA, I ACTUALLY FEEL QUITE PROUD OF MYSELF. How old was I? 13? HEHE ;D

And I am going to end my blog post now! The most recent book that I've read is by Lauren Oliver. It's called Delirium. I'm giving it 4/5 stars! Overall, the story is really good, except for some sappy romantic parts which makes the book lose some of its adventurous 'feel'.

School... again!

Today is the second day of school, when lessons officially start.

Initially, the idea of lessons really put me off there. However, today was better than what I expected it to be. I thought that the lessons would be really drawn out and exhausting because it lasted until 4.15pm today. However, time passed surprisingly quickly, except for the first 2 hours which felt like forever then. 

My new chinese teacher is a female teacher called Ms Sau. She taught me CME before. I was quite disappointed when she did not recognise me when she named the students whom she knew, but then, I must admit I didn't make much of an impression when she taught me the other time. Chinese lesson was quite interesting. It was about this female author called Zhang Ai Mei. I think that's the name. Apparently, she's a prodigy, a genius. How envious! We were told her life story which was kind of sad and pitiful. She wrote so much books on love, but her life was far from blissful. However, I think the scars as well as the joys of her love inspired her to write such great short stories and novels. I wonder if I can ever be like that as well. 

Literature - Romeo and Juliet. A classic. Although I don't mind reading Romeo and Juliet, I would really like it if the school could arrange for us to study a modern play rather than a Shakespearean one. I recently watched this film "Closer" which is based on a play of the same name. It is a modern play written in 1997. The concept was pretty simple, but the way it was played out was really cool and interesting. It is about 4 people, with 2 couples who commit adultery. The play is supposed to highlight the degrading nature of love and marriage in the modern times. Really deep...

Oh yeah, I recently read a news that the new salary proposal for the Singapore government is out. Now, the president's salary will be lower than that of the prime minister, which is kind of weird as the president is thought to be the 'head of the state'. Hmm... Though I guess I welcome the new salary change (it is now lower). I mean, it means less tax money being given to them? Haha. Next, they should deal with the rising cost of... everything. I mean, I have no idea why but, if our SG dollar is getting stronger, then shouldn't the items here be sold at a lower price?? I don't really get the idea of inflation but I think I will probably learn about it in financial literary lessons next week :)) Looking forward to it!

I finally sent an email saying that I want to redraw from AEP. The teacher asked to meet me, Dion and Beatriz because we all want to quit. Ms Gao will be there (@_@). I am seriously scared that Ms Gao will interrogate us like those officers in the police station or something!

Anyway, I celebrated Christmas and my cousin, Irene's birthday recently!

Christmas was at my auntie's house. I cooked Aglio Olio!! :DD Everything was finished eventually; I was so happy!!! Previously, some of the chilli padi's juice got onto my fingers so my finger was burning all the way to my cousin's house. Though, my efforts were definitely paid off seeing how they all enjoyed the spaghetti! :) We also played several games like charades. We had a gift exchange session. My present was for Iris. It was posters of Super Junior since she loves a member in it. My present was from Ivy. It was a lovely brown bag! My friend, Shermaine, said it looked nice when I brought it to the 3K class gathering.

Irene's birthday was fun too! We watched Running Man, which was this variety show where some celebrities played a game like Police and Thief. It was very funny! My mom and I chose a dress for Irene as her present :))

There was a 3k class gathering as well to celebrate Christmas.

I planned a treasure hunt with Dion, Beatriz, Trevor and Randy initially. However, it was all for naught when some envelopes when missing and no one wanted to play D: I bought a bracelet for Shermaine and I got a photo frame from Jing Ying. Thanks! I also played bridge with Jalyn, Beatriz, Chun San, Miss Lim and Jaime. There was this really funny moment when Chun San lost and Miss Lim (who was trying to make noises to hint to him while sitting beside him watching him play) asked him why he played some cards the way he did. He answered, "I play by instinct." And then there was this funny laughing moment because we all know that you can't rely on instinct in a bridge game. Haha.

It's now 9.17pm. I should prepare for school tomorrow and go to sleep :))

I now realised that my minimum sleep hour has to be 8 hours or the exhaustion will accumulate and by Friday, I would be very worn out.

I shall do my NYAA during the weekends. Hopefully, I can complete skills and service by then!

New Beginnings

Every year is a new year...

Upon looking back, I realised that last year passed by very quickly. Everything was a blur, I guess. New classmates, new subjects. When year 2012 is over, I will be in Senior High. Aah, I feel nostalgic just thinking about it (laughs).

This holiday is perhaps, in some way, the start of a new beginning for me. I have a new laptop! :) For me, who is quite engaged with the internet in more ways than one (like now), this means quite a lot to me. HP Pavilion g4 :)

I am looking forward to Christmas! I am going to have a family gathering with my maternal relatives, with potluck and such. My year 2 class is planning to organise a dinner gathering as well. Hopefully, the organising goes well.

Next year... Truthfully speaking, I am not especially anticipating or looking forward to it. Because,
a) It means the start of school, which can be dreadfully boring and draining.
b) I am going to take my O level Higher Chinese paper. I am totally NOT looking forward to this, though I am to the next two years if I manage to pass it!
c) A WHOLE YEAR, before the next year end holidays!!!
d) Less time for me to... well, not do anything productive.
e) Less time to SLEEP - the balm that nourishes your soul, yadah yadah yadah~

AND, I have not decided if I should quit AEP or not, which is actually what I have just realised while typing this blog post! This is bad! I should hurry and decide; but I have a feeling that either way, I am still going to continue with AEP =_=

The first blog post in many months *claps*
Be willing to wait for the next one for a long long time! (sniggers)

P.S. I am in the top 25% :)

the end

    The end of the school term is nearing; the last day is tomorrow. I guess looking back on this year, it was rather a year of insecurities, new-found friendship, opening up, frustrations, disappointments, relief and lastly, happiness.

    The year had started with its fair share of problems - I was in a new class with new people whom I either saw, but did not knew, or did not knew existed in school before (how anti-social I am). I was feeling quite out-of-place, I guess. I did confide some of these feelings with my friend, and was surprised to find out that hey, I am not the only one! I guess I thought that I was the only one who would feel this way, but I was relieved to know that I was not alone.

    New friendships were forged between my new classmates, almost strangers before, and I. This kind of feeling is kind of exhilarating. Knowing that I can still make friends after being with the same class for 2 years is kind of reassuring in a way, I guess. :)

    This year was also a year where I had gone through some roller-coaster ride I guess. One of which was the MPP journey. I must confess that not everything is as perfect as it seems. I guess this happens because of our lack of willingness to give our best for something - we want something, but are not willing to work hard for it. Because of my team members' lack of enthusiasm and initiative, I got really frustrated and upset. I was fuming inside because I was astounded to their degree of 'unwillingness'. Because of that, I typed an email (while trying to be as polite as possible, but I believe I failed) expressing my disappointment with their attitude. What happened, was I guess really just a confession of my feelings as well as theirs. I think that after seeing things from my perspective, they are able to understand the tough spot I am in as the group leader. And I also believe that by winning the best Gov debate team award, it was a stamp of approval of us, and a definite boost to our confidence. I know that they were able to do it, and this was proof of it. :)

    I was also facing some insecurities, not just with my class, but with my CCA as well. After all, I had transferred, thus making my transition a bit 'weird'. The fact that I am not spectacular or proficient in my chinese adds on to the awkwardness. After hearing some things that I shouldn't, and did not want to, I felt really sad and angry. At myself as well as others. A million thoughts had ran through my head and I wondered, if it was not due to the single mistake of who-knows-who, how different might my secondary school life have turned out? I have since accepted the truth of it. Since it's already done, then it is done. What I am just really looking forward to now, is to just pass this phase and look forward to the next. And I promise that I will definitely get things the way I want in the future.

    I would like to say that academic-wise, I am not doing too badly. My wish would be to get into the top 5% of my level. I would see if that comes true tomorrow. *excited* Although, I do feel that I could have done better. I have worked hard, of course. But perhaps if I had worked harder, I would have been better. This is what I always regret, but then it is the driving force for me as well.

    Oh look! And there is a whole reflection from my about me whole year! My teachers would have been proud of me. :)

    Just one more year to senior high!

Exams

1 more week to exams...

I really feel quite frustrated, because I still don't feel like exams are coming...
But, I am really looking forward to the holidays!!! 2 months of it :D *happy*

I should really get into my exam mood more quickly... like now.

Okay, it's totally not working.

Books

The school celebrated Teacher's Day cum Mid-Autumn festival. The concert was really good, I must say! Hope that every concert can be like that too :)

I went to the Borders sale with Iris and my auntie. There were so many books! But the content was a little disappointing as most of them were cliche romances. I bought two books - Rupture and The Senator's Wife. Rupture looks quite good I think. I only bought the Senator's Wife because it was on A HUGE discount, and because it is supposed to be a national bestseller! x)

We then went for the John Little sale at the next expo hall! THERE WERE SO MANY STUFF!!!! And they were on discount~!! I think that although we went to expo for Borders, we bought more stuff from John Little instead, heehee ;P

I still have quite a lot of homework. Mostly project work.
I still have AEP. I think that I am going to quit it next year. It is giving me unnecessary stress, and it ruins my interest in art. D:

A few manga I just found that I really really like:
Hana ni Arashi
Kamisama Hajimemashita
Karakuri Odette

I love the style of drawing in all of them - they are kind of similar :))

Trophy :)

The last day of the MPP programme went unexpectedly well!

We started with some presentations at the MOE Centre at Grange Road.
The journey there was absolutely horrible because of the blisters and ache in our feet that Grace and I got while walking there in court shoes. Also, wearing such formal wear made me feel slightly emabarrassed >

After wearing stockings, wearing court shoes became better. Only that my shoes became looser -.-\\. THERE WILL ALWAYS BE A PROBLEM.

Wearing the school blazer felt really cool too! Luckily, we were not the only ones wearing the blazer! :))

The FUN part came when it was the debates. I was REALLY REALLY nervous sitting there, waiting for my turn! It felt like FOREVER!!!! ;D But, when it finally came to my turn, all my nervousness went away, surprisingly! I was really proud of Grace, Yuan Wen and Felix, who did the debates with me! WE WERE AWESOME!

I was even more pleased when a Hwa Chong teacher, whose school we were debating against, praised us on our debating skills!! :DDD SO COOL! ;)

WE WON BEST GOVERNMENT TEAM FOR DEBATES! :)
Overall, even though we thought that the programme was bothersome, looking back, I find that I had enjoyed it!

One person whom I guess I really have to thank would be Grace. Without her, we wouldn't have even participated in this programme. When we had to rush our proposal that was to be sent to the GE Branch, I was hesitating then about backing out, and not even submitting the proposal at all! She was the one who pushed me and the others to give it a try. She was also one of the more hardworking people on the team, so I really want to thank her :))

Thanks also to all my group members: Grace, Yuan Wen, Felix and Mingyu.
Also to my teachers, and our expert-mentors!

This was a really memorable experience :)

Common tests

Currently, my common tests are not bad, judging from what I have done... at least I hope so... HAHA.
I am most worried for my history and language arts paper. Macbeth is a total killer, although I think that the question seemed relatively easy this time round, but they added so many points for us to cover, so I am worried that I have not gotten the points across.
I took the History paper today and out of the millions of questions that they could have tested, they tested one area that I did not study much on - Rise of Japan I was totally dumbfounded and just tried to sound as if I did my homework already. They also tested stuff in the total opposite manner - I was much more confident for impacts of colonialism on Vietnam, and rise of nationalism of Indonesia. But, the history test turned out to be the total opposite -.-
And then, there's AEP too... Oh, that reminds me! I should send the email to the teacher so that she can comment on it P: I hope it goes well...

I wish that the holidays would come sooner!!!! :DD

More time.

The past few days and next week will be filled with common tests. Seriously, I have no idea why is it called a common test, just to make it sound nicer? I would have liked it so much better if they just called it a mid-year exam; that way, I will be able to go back home earlier. :))

I just need more time, I think. It is what everyone needs too. I know that it is my fault that I don't have the time, but truthfully, I am a very lazy person. (Reminds me of "The Lazy Song" -.-) It is true that while I will be able to focus on whatever I am doing, I need to actually start doing it first! Without the motivation, or even excitement to start on a piece of work, I wouldn't feel like it at all. I wonder where all that energy of mine went...

Of course, there is AEP. I am starting to contemplate quitting, although it is true that it will prove useful should I need an additional A to pull up my grades, AEP is not exactly a 'sustainable' choice, unless I am planning to head into the arts department for my work, etc, which is not what I am exactly planning. Also, I could use the time for AEP to study (if I actually do, that is). Recently, the assignment given to us proved to be really time-consuming. We are supposed to design fashion wardrobes. I thought, "Quite easy." I was proven wrong! The teacher even wants us to choose a freaking THEME. We would need to research on the theme's history, culture, etc and come up with some clothings that are inspired by that. Truthfully speaking, my theme isn't exactly that sophisticated. And, there isn't much 'history', or 'culture' to talk about. I was just planning to use Katy Perry as my 'theme', and a few of her songs as the background story behind my creations. Compared to what the teacher mentioned, my idea looks so... superficial(?). Though I really do love Katy Perry :DD The other idea I had was weddings... But is not a very NEW idea. I shall go consult the teacher and decide later. (sigh)

Recently, I keep getting sarcastic remarks from people around me, though I think that they are trying to praise me indirectly, the way they do it is getting to me. I have someone who tells me that I don't have to study because I will still be able to score even if I don't, which totally pisses me off, because I DO STUDY, and because the tone in which she said it was annoying. It is as if she worked hard for it, and I didn't. Another person told me that my art was good, while the tone in which she said it sounded like jealousy. It was something like, "So good, you are good at everything." I was like, WHAT. You all make it sound so easy, but actually it is not. So please, stop sounding jealous. And if whoever whom I'm talking about didn't do it intentionally, then I am sorry for mistaking you.
And I wonder if I actually do the above sometimes... I should really stop sounding so hypocritical, if I do.

I think that I am feeling... happier (?) in my class now...
I've got to talk to so much more people, as compared to last time when I was with the same few people. I really hope that our class is gonna stay really bonded in the coming year :))

Grr. Maybe I should change the link of my blog.
Just so that when I complain, no one really knows. HAHA.

Mooooooooot

So, I am in this programme called MPP.

Shan't divulge too much about this programme in case....

Anyway, our group was selected for the debates.
Even though I am GENUINELY happy about the fact that we got selected, and the fact that we might have to chance to win some trophy (HEEHEE), I am still UPSET over the fact that we have to attend a briefing after school this Friday just for it!

Of ALL days, why choose Friday?!
It is the day when I finally have NO CCA. (Grr.)

But still, I am silently happy that the "higher-ups" seem to be very interested in our topic, apparently.
Because it is something NEW :D

HEEHEE.

I can't help but feel... a little happy :))

--
But then, I was really quite depressed about something that happened on my way home. I shall not say too much about it, but only that I was chatting with this girl.

She was going to tell me something, and was supposedly 'hesitating', but I know that she was really just DYING to tell me the truth/rumour.
When she told me about 'it', it was just utter shock that came to me.
It was because she was so HYPOCRITICAL.
I mean, if you know that the person is not going to like what you are saying, or is going to be hurt because of that, then why even say it in the first place?
And HESITATING before that, while rattling away after you said it?!
WTH. Seriously.

Hypocrites.

Try harder

Even when life fails you, you must always try harder.

Why?

Simply because you don't have a choice.

That must be the easiest decision that Life has ever made for you.
So try your best at it.
And try harder when it doesn't work.

Simple

I have decided to go back to the kind of classic templates that Blogger have been providing.

Apparently, I have decided that simple is nice :)

Somehow, I have suddenly found out that life isn't that perfect, like what I thought it was when I was young.
I thought that I would always be able to do everything, that I would always be the best. Being the best gave me a sense of fulfillment. Now, I'm finding it harder to feel satisfied with what I have achieved.

I guess that's what I have learnt after getting into a secondary school with a whole other lot of smart people - that you cannot always be the best.

Mistakes are made and somethings are lost. I start to wonder what would have happened if I had done something differently? Maybe I should stop trying so hard?

But something in my heart always tell me, I shouldn't lower my standards. :)

One Day

"One Day" by David Nicholls is really just an extraordinary book to me, even though my friends have been denying it and telling me it is boring. Partially because of the fact that I haven't been reading much, I find this book making me fall in love with reading all over again. I am now on a desperate search of more books to make me feel like how "One Day" did.
The picture shown (<) is actually the poster for its movie of the same name. The photograph just looks awesome, doesn't it?
The story is really quite intriguing as it starts off with a scene of Emma and Dexter being in bed together. You expect them to get together or, at least do something, but then, it abruptly fast-forwards to the year after that. This is one of the irritating and  disrupting parts of this book. Though the style is unique and I have to admit that it is essential if you were to carry the story over twenty years, it is just frustrating at times when you want to know about what happens next, not next next! However, I got used to the rhythm of the story after a while. The story started out as being quite boring. Things only started to get heated up after Dexter gets drunk and writes a letter confessing his love for Emma. BUT he loses the letter. That's basically what this whole book is all about - lost opportunities. It makes "One Day" a very nostalgic read; hence, if you are one who are really into happy endings or chick-flick similar stories, this book is not for you.
Throughout the whole book, I was desperately praying and just waiting for the two of them to get together and marry. But, I had to settle for lost opportunities that made the fact that they are meant for each other even more obvious! When they finally do decide to, you feel a wave of relief and exhilaration at the same time, as well as happiness for the two friends, and lovers. That's how close I felt I was to them.
The ending was totally just as how some lives are meant to be - sad. I wouldn't want to say what happens in the end, but I guess the message that "One Day" was trying to put across was to always treasure what's in front of you right now.

HCI AVC 2011

I have to admit, I totally wasn't looking forward to the HCI AVC 2011 at all.
I even tried to pull out of it a few days before it, but I gave in to the guilt-ridden feeling that I had when I found out that the school had paid for me. -.-
I went for the first day, and I got lost in the huge campus. I went to the college side, which was the WRONG side. I was starting to feel so screwed. My group was kind of quiet at first, with our facil (younger than me!) trying to act enthusiastic. He gave us lollipops :DD
We learnt some stuff about sound system, which was definitely NOT what I came for. In the end, I started to regret it, and had the mind to pon the next day. I was SO nice to discuss with my team members, who tried to ask me not to. haha. I think that we kinda bonded over the "pon or not to pon" incident. I have to admit that I was quite lucky in the sense that my team members were really nice and that we really kind of 'clicked'. Other groups were still quite 'dead'.
So, I decided to only pon the early afternoon. Then, I would go in the afternoon, because thats when the finale rehearsal + finale performance will be. I just wanted to skip the 'learning' part, haha.
In the end when I went, I still had to take part in some simulation stuff, which was unexpectedly FUN. Especially the one where we had to negotiate with GL people, who apparently paid 1million to rent the drama centra, HAHA.
And, our group won in the end :)) HEHEHE. :)))
Really had great fun with everyone! Jiaxin, Huizhen, Daryl, Zhenghan, Haoyu (facil)! :))

Now, I am currently trying to load City Hunter ep 9 and 10. I havent watched them yet D:

School is going to reopen, with plenty of new subjects, which I'd prefer not to have! But oh well, NO MORE BP, HAHA XP

I'm now looking forward to the next holiday already. T_T

X-Men

I haven't been blogging for a while. I think the blog is going to die soon, and I am making not much effort to keep it alive, haha!

For the first time, I went to watch a movie by myself on Tuesday.
Surprisingly, the experience was quite pleasant. Because I am usually the one who gets what the movie is about, I don't really feel any urge to ask someone for an explanation after the movie ends.
It is also quite nice to sit alone, and just enjoy the movie, without sudden interruptions at the critical parts.
Overall, x-men did not disappoint me. For a movie with about 80% of the cast being unknown to me, it did pretty well. There were also a few touching moments, like when Xavier's spine got hit by the bullet. It was so unexpected because I did not know that the person who caused his injury was Erik.
I was also looking forward to the relationship between Xavier, Raven and Frost. But it appears that Frost has not yet liked Xavier yet in this movie, so oh well.

The june holidays are pretty hectic, totally not what I expected at all.
There are plenty of homework to finish, with the most dreadful project of all - IDMI. And it has to be handed up on the first day of school, how thoughtful of the teachers. If they were expecting us to get it all done by the holidays, they got it terrible wrong.

After spending one week at my auntie's house, I officially got hooked onto a few korean dramas!
City hunter and Miss Ripley. :))
Both are really good dramas! I am currently watching City Hunter. Looks like I will have to carry it over to when the school term starts. :(

a weird 2K outing

We had a very small 2K outing on good friday, which was kinda fail i would say, haha.

Jin Heok suggested it. And I didnt take the trouble to sms him so I only found out in the morning when I woke at 9+ that we were supposed to meet at 8.30am. HAHAH. Nicole and I decided, fine, let's go then lor. And turns out there were only Felix Xuhua and Jin Heok there. HAHA FAIL. Nicole and I met with them and Pamela. We went around and slacked around. I played train conductor on Nicole's phone :))
Then Suting called and we randomly made a decision to go to Valen's hse -.- Now that I think about it, it was totally random and crazy. HAHA =_= Nicole and Felix left then :( Pamela, Xuhua and I were then outside Valen's house acting like a bunch of thieves cuz Valen was sleeping and we couldn't get in!!! -.- Finally, Pamela managed to get his mother to get us some badminton rackets :D
We then went down and TRIED to play badminton. But then halfway through it was too hot, so we started playing Monopoly Deal in the end. :D haha! and then Jin Heok started entertaining himself. LOL.
Then it became very boring, so Jin heok, being the restless him, wanted to go to E!hub. Suting was like "no!", and then he left. HAHA. THIS IS A VERY BIASED ACCT. HAHA! So we started teasing suting!!! xD
We then went to Valen's house and played Scrabble ._. We then slackedddd. For a very long time. Finally, spaghetti was ready! I was so hungry by then D: It was nice though :)

This and the next 2 weekends will be great because there will be THREE DAYS 'WEEKENDS'. :D haha!!! So happy :))

GAhhh. Have to study for Lit test.... grr.

Just saw the Star Awards tonight. JEANETTE DIDNT WIN BEST ACTRESS! D:< whyyyyyy.
This is quite lame, yeah, but she SHOULD win!!!  :((

cant stand it

sometimes, we just have to break down.

Recently

I have been busy with some class t-shirt stuff recently. Arranging designs, shifting icons. I hope that the tee will turn out great! :)

Another thing that I am quite worried about is my literature play I guess. I haven't really came up with a title yet. It needs to be good though, in order to interest the person reading it. Haha.

My tests have been not bad so far. I got unexpectedly high for my literature! :) *happy* But my history and chinese is not really good. My chinese has deteriorated i guess.

I've had a few stuff too for MPP recently which keeps clashing with stuff that makes me irritated. First it clashes with my history test, then it clashes with my HSK test! HMPH.
My meeting with my expert mentor was quite funny, i guess. We were all waiting for him at this really really high class cafe. We were really hungry so we ordered some food. Just after the food came, he arrived. He looked quite young, which was VERY unexpectedly. Because he was a public prosecutor (woah), we had this image of him being very 'strict' and perhaps, older. With some prosecutor aura around him. And throughout the whole thing, it was mostly me and Grace speaking to him. (Mingyu was just eating and being REALLY silent, which was surprising. Yuan Wen too! -.-\\ I was hoping they would speak SOMETHING) We were also quite shy to eat in front of him. So when he said that we could eat, we all heaved a sigh of relief because it was really quite torturing to stare at food and not be able to eat it! haha. Then afterwards he left. We stayed on for awhile more to roughly summarise what he just said and divide roles. Ms Kheng went to foot the bill. But she came back and told us something shocking, the expert mentor just footed the bill for ALL of us. AND WE DIDNT KNOW OR THANK HIM AT ALL!!! We were all like stunned. Then we were commenting about how he was really surprising nice! haha!
We had a bill writing workshop yesterday. IT WAS REALLY BORING. haha! It was still quite fun at first, but it just became quite draggy afterwards. But we did take home SOME learning points. some only. heh. Afterwards, we went to Ajisen Ramen and ate lunch there. Just right next to our table, there was an  adult guy who coincidentally started talking about buying flats or property. He said not to buy Potong Pasir's properties because it is not a PAP ward, so the upgrades are very slow and old there. HAHAHA. That was exactly what our topic was about, and it was just after we had a MPP programme. IT WAS REALLY TOO MUCH OF A COINCIDENCE!!!

I recently had lunch with some Kellyxians. Felt quite nice. Even though nothing really special happened, it just felt quite nice because it has been so long since I had lunch/dinner with them :)) Miss them!

I am currently downloading some songs to my iPod touch. :) my hp has run out of memory space, so I'm now gonna listen to the ipod touch. TOO BAD I CANT DOWNLOAD GAMES. D:

Anyway, we recently celebrated my dad's birthday, even though it hasnt arrived yet! haha!
So, lemme just say here first, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! :D

Humanities Camp

Havent been blogging for awhile, just been too lazy. :p

Humanities Camp was not bad.
I was paired with Nicole to facil our group 7, KICKASS. I came up with the name. Not bad eh?
The introduction and beginning was really quite boring. I was quite nervous as I faced a bunch of kids who were staring at me and expecting me to get something done. We played some games, which were... lame? I managed to remember everyone's name after some failed attempts. :D We were at this really low moment where the energy level sort of went down down down... We were trying to figure out the group name. We tried getting something related to Humanities, but it didnt work. So we were running out of ideas, then we, i mean I, decided to call ourselves Kickass! Then the cheer, was kinda, me doing it also. -.- But then when we started cheering, I could see that there were these few girls who were really spirited and loud at cheering. So I started to think, hey maybe this group is not so dead afterall! :)
And, the other groups got our name wrongly. Hello~??? It's not kiss ass, its KICKASS!

Overall, we didnt really do much. We were just... facilitating.
We didnt get to go to the workshops with them, we didnt get to go to the museum with them either. so most of the time was just slacking in the meeting room (shhhh. XP)
I have to admit that initially, I didnt really feel like I was part of the whole committee. There was this two groups between the girls. The guides, and the 2F (i think that was the class?) And obviously, I didnt fit in either. So, I was kinda teetering on both sides, switching between the both. But then as the days went by, it started to get better. I got to know more people, got to talk more to them, and yeah, it wasnt so bad :D

Radin Mas was a total.. failure??? LOL. My group somehow didnt have the luck and they didnt get to interview a lot of people. They kept getting brushed off by people. It seemed really contradictory to what I had in mind. It started raining halfway through. D:
Then on the way back, some guy smsed Mr Chin in various languages and finally smsed him "Sorry, I'm Muthu. I got the wrong number." It was really quite funny seeing Mr Chin trying to nab 'Muthu'.

At the end of it, group 7 had to draw the map of their ideal city.
We were really short of time and the drawing group was really slowwwww.
I was getting kinda pissed i guess. oops, sorry ><
So we were just chionging at the end, and chionging more. Haha.
But in the end, we did managed to short of 'finish' it enough to present it to the judges.
The group was really good at presenting. I was really quite surprised myself. Everyone was getting really restless as we were the last group, but then suddenly, Aisyah and Shinyi came up and started presenting really dramatically! I was like, 'WOAH'. But really GREAT JOB PEOPLE! :D :D
We came in fourth in the end. Not the top, but unexpected and pleasant surprise nevertheless! :)

The river cruise was the most epic i guess.
The facils were screaming yam seng under every bridge and waving to random people passing by. I was wondering if the bridge would vibrate too much because of our screaming and collapse! haha.

The reflections time was finally the time when we would get to eat our... DORITOES!
Nicole and I have been holding on to the doritoes forever and waiting for a good time for the group to eat it. Finally, we managed to do it! We were supposed to play blow wind blow and write the reflections but apparently the idea wasnt so good so we just resorted to passing the cards around, as well as the doritoes. x)

Overall, the Humanities Camp was really nice and something that I would look back upon fondly :))
--

Had MPP on Wednesday. I was already slightly sick then. The parliament didnt look as old inside as it did on the outside. The guide made the tour really interesting, with a few jokes along the way. I think that this is one of the best tours i've had, that was the least boring, despite it being about the parliament! x)
The debate was really nerve-wrecking. But I think that I did quite okay :D I spoke twice! :D :D Happy happy~ And the RGS girls werent as fierce as they were said to be. There were a few good speakers as well in the schools and I was really quite impressed with a few of their points that they have came up with. :) Parliament wasnt as boring as I thought it would be :D

Was sick on Thursday. It was really horrible. I really felt like skipping school but then there was a physics test and I didnt want to take make-ups which was so troublesome. Throughout the whole day, my eyes were watering non-stop. It felt like I had an endless amount of tears. I bet that during the physics test, the relief teacher was staring at me and thinking "Is the test really that hard that she has to start crying?". haha! I went back after the test. I thought that I could just leave the school like that, but apparently, I had to go to the GO and get some leave form. I was really frustrated and seriously, felt like REALLY crying then. Because I was already feeling really sick and terrible, with a headache. And I had to still go to the GO and get some stupid leave form?! GRRR. On the way home on 158, I slept almost immediately and did not wake up for the rest of the journey until I reached serangoon. That was the best sleep I've ever had in my life.

Watched a few movies at home while I was recovering.
Repo Men, The Guardians: Owls of Ga'Hoole, Red, The Town.

- Repo Men was quite good, though really really gory. With a few cutting and getting body parts.... yikes. With a few top nude scenes... i think girls can watch it without really cringing, but guys? no no. And the ending was really unexpected and nostalgic.
- Guardians was quite cliche, but still good enough to keep you watching till the end. the owlets are really cute, and the name Eglantine just rocks.
- Red was good as well. Though the story does feel a bit slow in the beginning. But the plot is good enough to keep you watching. The guys does seem abit too old for the girl though. But the action is good, just enough and not too much of it with a good amount of humour added into it. I wouldnt mind watching it a second time.
- I had high expectations for The Town. It met half of it i guess? Story is quite cliche given the amount of action and gun fighting shows i've seen. I mean, robbing the banks - ocean eleven??? Ending wasnt exactly nice. And the Town had little performance from Blake Lively, whom I thought would have more. Story was really slow at the beginning as well. There were like three robberies, so I was guessing and literally waiting impatiently for the one that would finally be the last one where everyone dies or succeeds.

I am totally not looking forward to school, especially after I've had like 4 days of complete rest. Nope, not really wanting to get my butt off to study at mountbatten of all places. xP

briefing

hi :)

I havent been blogging for a while. There's been a lot of assignments and homework lately :(

Finally, the one week holiday is here. But for Japan, it was a disaster.

They've been hit by a 8.9 magnitude earthquake and many people are probably dying.
I wish them all the best and hopefully, they would be able to save as many people as possible from such a disaster.

Here i am at the humanities camp briefing :)
I wanna have brunch, hehe.
Looking forward to the camp. Hope to have lots of fun :)

getting tired of stuff

School's been okay these days. Nothing big happening.
But I do wish that I get to bond more with my other classmates I guess.

My IDMI is in a fix now too.
We can't seem to think of any ideas.

Next week is filled with tests.
Thanks to Mr Ken to postponed our Lit test!!! :D

Sigh... school seems never-ending and tiring.
Somehow, I wish that I have half a million dollars so that I can quit school, start up a business, and then start earning bucks to support myself.
And maybe, be like that Facebook guy. ;)

CNY

Chinese New Year has been pretty much okay, with a few occasional hiccups here and there though basically okay :D

The eve of CNY was spent with half day at school. There were all really slack lessons, which made the day even better. Afterwards, I met up with some kellyxians to eat lunch. We were just wasting time outside the library until we decided where to go. Soon, we made our way to NEX. It was basically a lot of fun. We were just wandering with empty stomachs and then we just randomly decided to eat at Mad Jack. There were a lot of problems with the orders!! I was really just trying to keep a straight face. The food and cards helped :D :D After eating, we wandered around somemore. Pam said that she wanted to go to Skypark, so up we went. Halfway through, I found a shorter route. And apparently we left Pamela with Xuhua gleefully..... FORGETTING THAT ALVIN WAS WITH THEM. hahaha!!! We were all like 'shit, alvin sure kill us.' LOL. We took another way and wanted to see the DOGSSSS, but the staff were washing the cages so we couldnt see them D: Finally, we made our way to the skypark and met pamela there. Got scolded by the security saying that the playground was only for children ages 5 to 12. LOLOLOLOLOL. we didnt even realised that! haha! Afterwards, we slacked a while and then went back home :)

There was a reunion dinner with my paternal relatives that night. The dinner was awesome as usual with a huge spread cooked by the maid. :)
We played Blackjack with chips after wards. I was initially losing a lot until I had the least money among the rest. However, once I had no more small change and I bet a 50, I won - A BLACKJACK! hahah! so I got twice in returns!!!! I actually got back more than my original value.
After that, I just kept winning quite moderately :) There was once when I got blackjack FOUR TIMES IN A ROW. :D :D :D awesome right.
we played poker after that. was quite tired around that time.
I guess I bonded more with my cousins :)

--
Day 1 of CNY
Went to maternal grandma's house. Ate a very delicious lunch there and chatted and the cousins for a while.
They got kind of hooked on the whole eyeliner thing, so they were going around putting eyeliner on everyone -.- My dress has a spot there so I was kinda upset at first. But I managed to make it go away :D :D
Then went to my paternal grandma's house. Played bridge with my cousins. Then a really really cute 2 / 3 year old cousin boy came jumping into the room and interrupted our game. He was superbly cute! And his pants were falling off.
He was trying to 'magic' away the cards and we just took some while he was playing mahjong with them. Slowly, he realised they were gone, and he was genuinely surprised i think.
Before they left, my uncle asked the cute cousin (Darren i think his name was) whom he thought was the prettiest sister. He pointed to my cousin who was wearing a really long and elegant dress. When asked why, he replied, "SEXY." HAHAHA. imagine! out of all the answers, a three year old boy replies 'SEXY'. lolololololol!!!
Afterwards, we went home and ate dinner and watched movie marathon :D

--
Day 2 of CNY
My family went to an uncle's bungalow. WOWOW. big o.o
It felt kind of boring there as there wasnt really anyone to talk to and I was just reading my own book, you know.
They do have a lot of goodies though! :D :D
When we were leaving, I saw some DHS scouts performing lion dance at a bungalow for some people. They initially looked like professional performers, with the truck and everything! It was a funny surprise and I saw Mr Chin! haha!
Made our way to my maternal grandma's house. Ate dinner there and played cards with my cousins.
I lost money this time round D: We played with real coins!!!
I think that I'm better off playing chips!

--
Day 3 of CNY
Went to Katong Shopping Centre and karaoke-d at TeoHeng! :D
There were too many people I think so there was not enough time for everybody to finish their songs. But I think that I sang quite a lot. Mainly because I know a lot of english songs, heh.
Then went to my auntie's house where we had dinner at a hawker centre-like place.
We then went to her place. We played Blackjack and Monopoly Deal.
We tried to play the sparklers but it didnt work!!!! :( :(
Was very reluctant to go back home D:

--
Day 4 of CNY was mainly consisted of slacking at home and finishing up of homeworks, hehe. x)

--
Day 5 of CNY was the day we had the celebration in DHS.
I think that I bonded a lot with 3K during the fiesta thingy I think. It was really quite fun, especially lao-ing the yusheng! It was really very messy. But in the end, no one wanted to eat it, haha!
There was a karaoke thingy being played all the while. With a lot of Zhou Jie Lun's songs, LOL!

After that, I met up kellyxians again.
There were quite little people today. We ended up buying from KFC and eating at Macs, haha!
We made our way to Xuhua's house. Initially we had like 10 plus people, but then they all slowly left while on the way to Xuhua's house. D:<
At xuhua's house, I was quite amazed by his humongous terrapin.
I learnt how to play mahjong :D
And we played monopoly deal and also blackjack.
The nerf guns were shooting ammos around once in a while too.
Overall, it was just like a 'playing in Xuhua's house' kind of gathering. But it was fun too! :D
--

Finally finished my CNY post.
I had physics test today and I personally thought that I did well for my MCQ part, but then apparently Ms Lim says no, so I still hoping for the best.
I was supposed to present LA Montage today too, but then all the groups took a lot of time. So we will present next week. Grr and we rushed last night. But not bad. We managed to finish our montage in 2 days! :D
Haiz. I shall pon tomorrow's history lecture. Really tired right now. Good night :)

looking forward

I haven't been posting for a while...
I guess I am still in the midst of getting used to school life after all that slacking and waking up late during the school holidays. Those were the times, man.
But I think that 3K is slightly better now I guess :) I mean, we are bonding more... but we are still sticking to our same cliques. And basically most of the cliques are based on sitting arrangements. So what I guess is that when our sitting arrangement changes, we would get closer :D

CNY deco was really quite fail I guess, in terms of cooperation and helping out. Apparently, the CNY deco comm was SUPPOSED to be in charge of it, but then they just left it as it is. And in the end, mostly Beatriz, Huiyi, Elaine and those few ended up helping. And we are not even in the CNY comm, lol -.-
Schoolwork lately has been quite good. With projects done, I think that the homework have become more manageable. :)
But then there is the LA Montage. I have really no idea why but I think that my group is really quite ineffective. We already had an idea for the theme Happiness, and all that we had to do were to take pictures according to the already written ideas. But somehow, we always manage to sidetrack and digress. And I would just be standing there feeling just really bored and irritated. Somehow I get the feeling that Jonit feels that too? But I'm not sure. ._. So now I think that the whole project would just be really screwed up. I planned on bringing my camera today so that I can get this done quickly and over with. BUT I FORGOT. zzz. So in the end, we spent a lot of time just... wasting time, yeah. -.- Thats what I PERSONALLY feel. I mean, if this was a solo project, I would be able to do it faster, and easier.
That's why I kinda of hate group projects.

Went to rivervale plaza tonight to buy some CNY stuff.
There were ALOT of people just 'milling around'(<-learnt this through compre test :P). It was really quite crazy especially at the 'hot spots'. My dad said that it was because the past few days were always raining, so everyone took the opportunity to come out tonight since the weather was great.
We got to borrow discs. It was really just a lucky and happy surprise that I saw 'The Social Network' sitting there on the shelf. I was ecstatic as I really wanted to catch that show :D There were many other shows as well. There's the Doctor Parnasses' Magical Emporium, which I borrowed :)
While waiting at the NTUC, there was a woman who asked me to help her look after her trolley. My dad hurriedly said that he couldnt be sure if he would be able to look after because we were leaving soon. The woman said okay, then went off. My mum soon came and we needed to go, but the woman wasnt back yet. And I just felt really guilty that I left the woman's trolley there.
This reminded me of the countless times where I felt like I should have done something, but I didn't. Like just random strangers there who seemed like they needed the help. But I was always in a rush to go somewhere whenever I see them, so there is always this enormous guilt just building up inside of me. I always have a soft spot for elderly people, especially those who have this 'kind' look on their face. :(

Sigh... whatever.
I am looking forward to Chinese New Year though! :D
And just to wish y'all:  新年快乐，恭喜发财！

to me: GWS

ahhhh. I was feeling really terrible at around 4am in the morning. I touched my forehead and it was freaking hot! The next 3 hours while I tried to sleep was excruciating. I brushed my teeth, thinking that it was still okay, but I really just felt terribly tired, with my whole body aching. Sensing something wrong, I went to take my temperature and voila! I have a fever.
I nearly just slept through the whole morning and afternoon, only waking up to eat my med. I slept until around 4 plus. o.o I still feel sleepy, yawn.
Even though I get to skip school, I feel really really bad. Because I am the Treasurer (thanks for the votes (: ), and yet I cant attend school to collect money etc, and help out with the class comm. *sobs* I was actually planning on just resting for one day, but the doctor gave me MC for 2 days, so I was like, okay... :(
and also, homework! I am the type who cant stand lagging behind people for hmwk, heh.
and just when I was getting to know my class better tooooo! >.<
And the class name!!! Hmm, I really want to change it actually, to make it more COOOLLL, you know. haha! I am having a hard time pronouncing Kissel.

haiz, I should just enjoy my 2 days of rest and stop worrying, neh?

finally learnt how to cherish

Orientation and school finally started, despite my reluctance.

On Tuesday, I went to my new class 3K. And there was no one there. Except one guy, just sitting there. It was expected as I had met Krystal outside on the way, and apparently it had already been her 2nd time around the level. Everyone was still hanging out with the same friends, chatting outside the classes. It seemed kind of ironic, and awkward for me. I wandered around for awhile. And soon, kellyxians started to gather in the 3L class, since it was empty. I finally saw how relieved I feel to see someone familiar, and whom I can talk to.

Gathering at the hall, was another lonely business. Since I was the only girl kellyxian, I didnt know anyone. I sat through the flag raising ceremony rather quietly, nearly dozing off. Going back to class, I hoped that I can make new friends.

Luckily, a girl asked if she could sit next to me. If not, I would be just sitting alone i think. She was Joelle. Yeah, the OTHER Joelle. haha. We only chatted occasionally. Just getting to know each other. In front was Shuwen and Hannah. I recognized Hannah from level camp.

Next, we got to the ice breakers. Frankly, I think that the ice breakers was really quite useless. Though it did help me remember some people's names. But not get to friend them. I lost to Dion, I think this is how her name is spelt, and had to take an M&M choc. It was red. While waiting for our turn to carry out our 'punishment', I chatted with Karon -again i'm not sure about name spelling-, which was mostly quite fun I guess. Then Beatriz and Levi came, and we chatted some more. In the end, I didnt get to carry out the punishment. But I ate the choc. :)

Then went back to class. And my spirits started to feel a bit better. We needed to choose a class name. I personally wanted Kiss N Tell, after all those suggestions. In the end, Kissel got chosen. -.-

We proceeded to the hall. It was the briefing for the sandcastle building. 3K was really quite disorganized, as we were supposed to split into 3 groups. But the facils didnt tell us, so technically, it was their fault. -_- During the discussion, it was just a really cold atmosphere. With people fiddling with their hands, and people talking amongst themselves. And no ideas were coming out, which was making things harder for the supposed leader. Then, I tried to contribute some ideas, after some 'persuasion'/'nudging' from Huiyi. :) Then finally, things started getting a little better. We finally got an idea for one sculpture. Though there's supposed to be 2 ._.

Afterwards was lunch. I met up with Yuan Wen and we went back up to class then went to canteen. Bought from a new Western stall. The food is nice, but expensive. :( Met up with Nicolew, Pamela, Suting and Genevieve. Nicole started complaining, to which Yuan Wen and I agreed with and added onto. :P

Gathered at the auditiorium for the telematch briefing. Sat beside Beatriz and Suichun.

The telematch was really quite fun, and really bonded most of us i guess.

First was the potato game, which we won. I went for both rounds. And even though it was hot, it felt fun stealing potatoes and ripping lives off people. heh. I had to apologize to a few people for ripping their lives though. >.<

Next was the answer or squeeze/ chair game. I was the one answering. Most of the questions were lame, or the answers were wrong. I really pity the people up there, with which 6 of them are guys. Poor things. And it was funny to see Yohanes being hugged by 2 guys. o.O

Third was the table soccer game. It was fun, but our class suffered a terrible loss. 3-0? Anyway, our class guys didnt really helped much, and they werent really sporty, which obviously didnt help the game. But the class that we played with was really really funny, which helped lifted the spirits up. I laughed a lot. I got rope burn though, ouch.

Fourth was captain's ball. We played against A and N. We won the first match, which was quite easy I guess. But all the boys from that classes started playing in the second match, including facils, so it made the whole thing quite chaotic and reeeaaallyyy competitive. And Valen was the defender -.- so obviously it made things harder for my class. And he snatch so much that Levi got hurt. D: So we lost in the end. :(

We skipped one game. Though most of the classes did as well. Overall it was really fun. If the sun werent so hot. xP

Gathered at the hall for debrief. Afterwards, we gathered back with our old class to collect our orientation tees. I was genuinely happy and super relieved that I could finally gather back with 2K friends. And to finally get to talk so easily! Everyone was just ecstatic :)

Met up with 2K for dinner after being dismissed. We camped outside the MRL, waiting for others.

I think that half of all that I have talked that day must have been with 2K people. Just sitting that with the wind blowing and talking was simply fantastic.

Argued about where to go for dinner and finally, decided to go Suntec City.

Ate at Aston's. Played cards while eating with Nicoleg, Xuhua and Bryan. Xuhua and Bryan kept cheating at the end, which was irritating. But the first few games were really quite fun :D
And to quote from Bryan to Yohanes, "Dude, you are supposed to eat the whole steak. Not swallow it and vomit. Are you a cow?"

And had to settle some things with Grace about the cabbing problem. Seriously, I really cannot stand people who just crash in on something and expect to be given priority, even though they are the extras.

--
Wednesday. Today.
Cabbed with Grace, Jingwen, Yuping to East Coast Park.

Queuing in classes didnt really help as I wasnt really close with the people in my class. But after a loooonnnng time, I got into the conversation between Karon, Jaime and Shermaine.

We took off our bags and shoes and set off for the beach. The beach simply reminded me of 2K class outings, where most (or maybe all) were held at beaches.

Building the sculptures were really the hard part. There was A LOT of arguing, with nothing CONSTRUCTIVE being done. I was trying really hard to make them see my point of view/ suggestion, but I gave up after a while. In the end, we changed the whole design. -.-//

But in the end, we managed to finish all the three sculptures. :D
Played with the water and took lots of pictures.

I think I kind of get what this sand sculpture building is all about. There is a lot of labour involved, so teamwork and cooperation is really needed. Just like the case of us, when we were arguing. Everyone has different ways and perceptions about how we should build the sculpture. And sometimes, the design just doesnt allow us to build it, using sand. So planning and discussion is essential too.

We got to eat ice cream too after the whole sand caste building ended :D

Met up with 2K people to eat lunch. Again, argument about where to eat. I decided to just sit and wait for them to come to a conclusion. Parkway Parade was the conclusion.

Nicole, most of the guys, and I went in a different direction from Krystal, Gen, Pamela, Yuan Wen, Valen, Xuhua. In the end, Nicole and us reached first.

The guys except Xuhua and Valen ended up eating at Yoshinoya, while the rest of us ate at Ajisen Ramen. -.- Somehow, we always end up like this. ._.

Played bridge there while eating too. I won all rounds except 1. While Nicole won all. Pamela won some. Yuan Wen won none. haha! Suting and I also took some indecent/purposely-scandalous photos of Yuan Wen and Valen.

After that, we went to Koi and bought drinks. Then, we went back home. :)

--
I finally realised how much I miss and love my class through this class change.
After 2 years, we are finally going to be separated. I cant bear it, and dont want it. :(
12 girls and 14 boys. It's the perfect combination. <3

--
I am not looking forward to studying tomorrow. sigh.
And I will be having AEP on Thurdays, which means I will miss shufa.
Hmm, wondering if I should quit since I wont get the CCA hours anyway. And I really feel like joining Photography club, that is if their activities are not on Thursdays. :)

new year, SIGH

I went to the Botanic Gardens with my family and relatives yesterday. :)
It was all great fun, except the occasional showers and exhaustion. xD
Took lots of pictures, which was expected with the colourful flowers everywhere!
I think that we didnt take enough jump shots though D:
MONOPOLY DEAL WAS FUN THOUGH :D cuz i won twice, haha.
The big buffet at my house was good too :) :)
And we tried to watch the Jap version of 'Dark Water', i failed. ;P

Before that, I went to watch Gulliver's Travels with my family.
It was okay, quite a typical story actually with some humour added in it using some modern elements.

I am still trying to figure out if I am gonna like this year... hmph.
It's not working.