Sunday 28 November 2004

IEC 2004

Royston won IEC! Wow! Think he's the 1st Singaporean to win it in electone history.. Heard from everybody how great he is, wish I heard his performance.

Interview

Wanted to blog yesterday, typed halfway and my com crashed.

Interviews: they remind me of oral exams. Chinese orals especially, for some reason or another. When the interviewer asks a question, i'll just sprout whatver that comes to my mind first. If i only thought of 1 thing, then that'll be what i say, and i'll try to stall time to think by elaborating that 1 pt. But since I can't multitask, I either end up being incoherent or just stuck with 1 point. If I thought of more than 1 point, then I'll have to keep the points in my head while talking abt something else, and hopefully by the time I finish my 1st point, I can still remember what I want to say.. and say them without jumbling everything together. Well, 1 good thing abt interview is that you can always explain more if they don't understand, not like essays with word limits.. Yesterday's interview, i probably broke all the rules, all the yah, erm, aahs punctuating my sentences. Guess the interview didn't help me, but at least i got a warm up for Firefly.

Friday 26 November 2004

Yes exams have ended and I think doing that Chem S paper would be quite enjoyable if I have more time, don't need to choose questions and not panicking. But no I didn't feel bad about exams ending, not like I did in Sec 4. Probably because I'm not a wandering spirit yet, I have 2000 things to do before I can be a free soul, which is really good. But there are other more interesting things I want to do, and actually, shopping for a prom dress is not one of them.. well, i guess they'll have to wait.

I don't think I can say that my birthday wish didn't come true if I didn't even make that birthday wish on my birthday. Was pretty crazy about it for a while, but guess it just doesn't matter so much any more, since I didn't even remember it on my birthday. I've found things that matter more to me, like friends, and maybe that's what I should write in my essays.. grr, stupid essays. and interviews, stupid interviews.. grr

Monday 22 November 2004

Cochineal beetles and drugs

Cochineal is a natural red colour from the egg yolks and other parts of the dried female insect Dactylopius coccus Costa, a parasite of the prickly pear cactus. The insects occur in colonies covered with a fluffy wax that they secrete. The major regions of Cochineal production are South America, especially Peru, and the Canary Islands. It is an expensive colourant and is therefore not in common use: it requires 70,000 insects to make one pound of colour. The product, which in its processed form is usually called Carmine, is a crumbly solid or a powder.http://www.unicapinvitrosight.com/templates/Allergens.asp?id=2532

drug (n.)
1. A substance used in the diagnosis, treatment, or prevention of a disease or as a component of a medication.
2. A chemical substance, such as a narcotic or hallucinogen, that affects the central nervous system, causing changes in behavior and often addiction.
~The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary

Friday 19 November 2004

Commercially, barium is made on small scale by the electrolysis of molten barium chloride, BaCl2.
cathode: Ba2+(l) + 2e- --> Ba anode: Cl-(l) --> 1/2Cl2 (g) + e-
Barium metal can also be islated from the reduction of barium oxide, BaO, with aluminium.
6BaO + 2Al --> 3Ba + Ba3Al2O6

I was walking to MRT today and saw Clarence. I was on my way to school and he's going Aljunied to eat before going to school. VJ is just so near. Anyway, I nv knew he's a French genius, he said that he's fighting with Jaireh to get the top marks for French, wow. Unless they are the only 2 people taking French which shouldn't be the case, he's really good. Nv knew he became so involved in French, he's actually going France for uni. Other than the French part he's still the same I think, except that VJ suits him more than DHS perhaps, he sounds so much happier.. yeah, and we actually talked about a primary sch reunion instead of a sec sch reunion, how weird.

Thursday 18 November 2004

Somehow I think A levels are more enjoyable than O levels, don't know why but I remember that O levels were not fun at all..

went bedok to eat today, then realised that the hawker centre at the interchange closed down.. how lucky, so we went to the hawker outside TJ.. how interesting. Too bad didn't really know what's good there, so ended up anyhow buying stuff to eat.
I really think that if anyone saw us this week after papers, they wouldn't think that we're having exams.. Hanged (is there such a word?) around the post office at Ghim Moh the other day for an hour, then today went Bedok to eat.. Haha.. Anyway I have faith in us all, we will all get our As.

This week's Time is so good. It's a travel guide to so many places in Asia, Singapore has a swimming pool in Changi Airport featured as the best airport surprise.. There's a section on the worst of asia, and one of the worst things is summer: let me quote
"goes on way too long. In Singapore, it seems to never end. (The government has to do something about this.)"
I don't get it. What did the govt do? Someone pls enlighten me if u find out.

Sunday 14 November 2004

Education system is changing so much, in 5 yrs time when we are out of uni, we wouldn't be able to relate to the pri, sec, jc people any more, cos everything's so different. PW, science practicals, counselors in school, O level, A level, maybe they'll abolish S papers soon..

about my last post, i'm not sad or depressed or blaming anyone for anything, just typing down some stuff that i've been thinking about. so, thanks to those people who showed concern, but i'm fine. =) next time i write such things i'll put lots of smiley faces around. =) =D =Þ hee hee.

so funny, mole said he thought about me last week, hope it was during GP papers, and hope his powerful english telepathic messages reached me and i'll do well for gp for once. Haha. mole's a family friend from USA who's starting eng classes

Tuesday 9 November 2004

so far, don't think i've had the chance to put my brain engines to high power during exams.. there's either not enough time (like bio today) or too much time (like maths today), either not enough time to think, or too much time so can take my own time working through the questions. Do I want it to stay this way? I wouldn't mind, but it's probably harder to get As like that.

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so what? so what if he claimed that I was his best student, it's probably all changed now, and if it's not, it'll change in a yr's time. I'm not talented. so what if i get a fantastic recommendation? i can't promote myself properly cos i don't have the substance to promote. My playing suck so badly, I'll have to reject invitations to play in public. How to make recording? So what if I take up composing? no one will ever see or play my scores, just like no one heard me play. Is there any point in doing things when nobody knows you've done those things? Are those things really done?

I was reading the Chicago U book, it says that U Chic wants to provide a uni education that's not just one which we have to go through, but one that gives students firm foundations and allow them to go on to the next step. Building foundations, haven't we been doing that for the past 12 years? What are we building foundations for? What are we going to put above the foundations? When is it that we stop building foundations and start building the real structure, or are we building foundations and structures at the same time? What are we aiming for? Is there a final building that we are aiming towards?

Thursday 4 November 2004

I'm running out of time. I'll nv forgive myself if i don't get an A for Physics, or worse don't get A for Chem.

Nvm, q sad, last time doing GP, not that I ever liked doing GP stuff, but as I was telling my TERP partner this yr before CT1, GP's the only non-science/maths thing we do, it's sometimes a good way to relax those science/maths part of the brain, act felt q lost when i came home and saw my GP stuff lying on my desk, kind of wondering what to do with them.. haha, my GP evaluation form was so negative, so unprepared for GP exam, the only positive thing was that i enjoyed the subject.. haha

Anyway, it's sunny's birthday!! Everyone's getting older.. ok duh. Had a great cheese/ yoghurt cake, went Mac to eat, ended up playing games there. Those games are really addictive. I bet if we didn't have to go back to sch the last time we went there with AS club, we would have played that PayDay thing for another month. Anyway, it's so unlike me, stayed and played with those people, sunny's friends, whom i don't exactly know well.. but well, it's fun. Then the stupid sky started raining, and we were trapped, so continued playing from lunch to dinner. Fantastic us, u would think we've finished our As or something.

Great, at least I got one decision made today. Will take music theory, finally. Don't know how high I can go though, hope my fundamentals and impros can take me up to a decent level.