breaking of the MUSIC/}!

Friday, January 30, 2004

33/03's antics

I was surprised that no one responded to my recent article about the OCS visit. Perhaps noone is really interested about NS-related stuff of what?

Anyway, allow me to talk about some interesting stuff that happened for the past few days.

Yesterday, Mr Quek was missing and Mr Ng HK, the FM tutor came to relief the class. I'd told the people about the superior powers in mathematics that Mr Ng had and now they get to experience it.

Mr Ng is a very impromptu person. He comes to the class armed with only a few markers, but he's all prepared in his brain. For myself, the minute I listened to his S paper lectures, I loved him. Really! Anyway, he managed to correct a few of our class's problems. A good example was that he highlighted that Mr Quek failed to tell us to write Integrating Factor (IF) in full and that we would be penalised for it. Our class was shocked when he said that. Following that, he went on imparting his strategies for handling calculus questions. I swear I'll not use the long-winded integration by parts formula again thanks to him. From now onwards, I'll practise the condensed formula, for the function uv, you choose one u (given the u and LIATE mnenomic), and then copy u-integrate v minus integrate v (differentiate u). Hopefully I wrote it correctly cos' the old formula is still in my head... correct me if I'm wrong.... better ask the FM students for the correct condensed formula.

Mr Ng created wonders by giving me another tip when integrating exponential-trigonometric functions. Check the coefficient eg: sinx + 2cosx. take the squares of the two coefficents ie. 1^2 + 2^2 = 5. Then compare it with the bottom coefficient of e. Wonderful indeed. He also completed square in seconds when I had to take a minute to do so. The wonders of mental calculation being exhibited.

Our class was so intrigued by his lessons that they begged him to stay. For the first time people who failed badly for maths said that they finally understood the maths concepts and they couldn't understand Mr Quek's explanations at all. They were suggesting that we should write a petition asking for Mr Quek's removal and Mr Ng requesting him. Xue Ling gave Mr Ng a smile that was only meant for Mr Chin, cos' she loves Mr Chin alot. To sum up, 33/03 ppl says: WE LOVE MR NG!!! Now I know why the FM people loves him dearly. Perhaps we should remember his punchline: "Don't get intimidated by the question." Well, imagine what'll happen if TJCians can vote for their teachers. Our members from my SPP group were suggesting this idea and was unanimously supported by the students surveyed, but unanimously rejected by the teachers.

Well today Mr Jonathan Koh, guest economics teacher gave us a lesson about intepreting essay questions which I believe will be useful. He gave us some econs s questions and showed us how we can break it down. Everyone was engrossed in his lessons, which explains why 33/03 people nicknamed him 'shen' (god). Even Mrs Ivy Lim was quite satisfied with his presentation. Good refresher on Market structures indeed.

And for history lecture, it was quite comical indeed. I asked a rather silly question about the terms 1st Cold War and 2nd Cold War. You know, I asked Mr Bala whether he coined these terms himself. He was shocked upon hearing my questions and quickly replied that these terms were coined by historians and were used to describe the trends in relations between the US and USSR during the Cold war in various time periods.

In addition, a 32/03 student asked about the UN mandate, and Mr Bala replied that since you don't know, you see me afterwards, cos' everyone knows it already. Then our class responded with cries of "We also don't know!" haha. Mr Bala knows how to detect passiveness in his lectures, given the fact that the slacky nature of our class means that we don't absorb and understand knowledge that easily that we may not ask questions that actively until tutorials. Anyway, Mr Bala did explained the term. When he is away next month, I fear that my History 3 knowledge might fade away....

So much for 33/03's antics. Tomorrow's flag day, and we shall see how it goes when we raise funds for the Red Cross. Hopefully the weather will be fine and it doesn't rain. Anyway I need to do my tutorials as usual...and see you....

zeligdhilee breaking the MUSIC.
20:44

Thursday, January 29, 2004

To Lead, To Excel and To Overcome

The above title will give you the idea of what I'm going to talk about today....

Today Yazid, Joey, myself and a few others from the council as well as the scholarship preparatory programme went to OCS to witness the comissioning parade. One thing honourable was Edmund Twohill, the president of the 25th Students' Council of TJC, was the Parade 2IC, which is some sort of assistant commander. We met him after the parade for a brief while and to sum up, he's really a great person. Someone you can really look up to.

Well as we watched the parader despite the bad weather, one thing that comes to mind to all of us is one thing is NS, which we guys will have to go after our A levels. And since we got to visit OCS, ultimately we'd be tempted to find out more about getting into OCS rather than BMT, etc... Well the seniors we spoke to were poly graduants and they said that BMT performance and fitness isn't just the main criteria. Once performance in the A level results as well as CCA record matters, including an aptititude test which MINDEF will soon ask us to take. But actually, no one really knows what's the real and actual yardstick for criteria. They said that as long as you ace in your A levels (since we were from the SPP), your fitness is good, your fate is kind of sealed.

Interesting indeed? Well for myself I do not really know what to do in future cos' in the first place, a military carreer would not be in my mind, let alone a scholarship. But it's another harsh reminder for me that:

1) Build up fitness
2) Boost up CCA record
3) More importantly, ace the A levels!!

In general, it was an eye-catching experience for myself as I witness the great precison and pride in the newly-commissioned officers and I felt the ecstaticness when they threw their caps in the air and hugged one another in the rain! To enter such a prestigious path in your NS would be considered very good.

Well a few lame stuff about today's parade:
1) We were instructed to wait at Ero Boutique at Jurong Point where a bus will take us to SAFTI. Guess what? We realised that the place was actually Ero Lingerie!! We were all joking about its meeting location. Anyway the officer cadets found us at the shopping centre and directed us to the entrance at coffee bean which is apparently next to Ero Lingerie. ha, ha, ha.

2) When inspecting one row of officers, President SR Nathan did not stop to talk to anyone for the front row until he stopped at the last person of the row which was the corner. Some of the spectators were laughing at the fact that he spoke to no one but this lucky corner fellow. The president also inspected the second row (there were two rows of contigents) and spoke to no one. Guessed he wanted to do it quickly cos there was a small drizzle...

That's all for today..... need to catch up with my tutorials once i return to school tomorrow.... good night...

zeligdhilee breaking the MUSIC.
00:10

Saturday, January 24, 2004

What does the SAT stands for?

Read the following choices and reasons and cast your vote in my tabox or in the comments tab.

(1) Stupid American Test

It is always believed by the chinese that the third day of the new year is not a day for going out or accepting visitors, as it is often perceived as a relatively "inauspicious" day among the 15 days. Well the Americans who don't give a damn about CNY and so does RELC just because it's isn't a public holiday so we poor students don't really enjoyed our new year so much. While we're collecting hongbaos we've to worry about this freaking SAT. So the bottomline is: Screw American Time!! So anyone passing by after the test would hear TJCians cursing about either not being able to finish the verbal section, and also the fact of its difficulties and large number of "kajagugus". I myself included.

(2) Sit and Tikam

For me, this was prevalent for the verbal section. When time was called, I quickly shaded some random boxes for the unanswered CR questions using the my remaining 'fragmented' thoughts and interpretations of the passage when they were not looking. After all, I'm taking a gamble of at least 5-10 multiply by a quarter of a point. It diifers by at least 20 points (scaled) you know.

(3) Systematic Answering Tiff

It seems very regimental. "Now, look at box 5 and shade the ovals. Do not do anything until I tell you to do so. Stop writing. Put your pencils down. Well it's worst over these petty stuffs compared to the Cambridge exams. Never felt so ordered around over such petty stuff compared to the normal exams. It is a normal habit for me to sit on my desk and start writing my particulars on the writing paper, so as for my SAT answer sheet. So when Ms N******* passed by and told me not to write anything, I tried to explain that I was merely writing what was needed for the particulars, and she said, "Do you want to argue?" I'll save the argument for another day. Anyway it brings bad luck for the new year.

(4) Slow Administration Tackling

Lame. In the College Board's Registration Bulletin they tell us to come between 0800-0815 cos' testing starts at 0830 and ends at 1230. Instead it was delayed until 0900 and ended at almost 1300. Why? At the hall they made everyone queue up just to take attendance, henceforth the delay. If this is a College Board/RELC system, screw them. They might as well tell us to come later. After all we need more sleep. Perhaps they should adapt the Cambridge/MOE system of making everyone seated, then take the attendance by checking the admission tickets. So much time being wasted.

(5) Scholastic Assessment Test
If you disagree with all of these and you're a test-taking freak then I've no more to say.

Anyway I'm forcasting a 700-750 for math. If I get 750-800 (very unlikely) I'll be very happy. As for verbal I hope it doesn't got below 600 or it'll be disastrous. A few of my peers found my fears unfounded and predicted a perfect score for me. This prediction will defintely be in a probability of 0%.

If you wanna know, the test was like this:

Section 1 -- Verbal (SC/Analogies/1 Critical Reading)
Section 2 -- Math (General)
Section 3 -- Math (General)
Either Section 2 or 3 will be the equating section. Personally I'd rather have a verbal section as the equating section so that I don't need to worry so much about mistakes.
Section 4 -- Math (QC/Grid-in)
Three sections (1.5 hrs) of math in a row is rather taxing despite being a piece of cake.
Section 5 -- Verbal (SC/Analogies/2 Critical Readings)
Section 6 -- Verbal (1 Critical Reading, paired passages)
Section 7 -- Math (General)

Some of my peers told me that they were unfamiliar with the SAT format and procedures. They didn't sign up for the High Q course. I now wonder if the High Q course was really useful, and whether the college should make it compulsory. I couldn't believe that some of these peers told me they didn't know anything nor prepared for the SAT until this morning!!

I do not wish to retake my SAT but it seems that I may have to retake..... Screw these Americans for choosing such an unsuitable day and Screw the Singapore administration for using things American. Now I just have to sit here and hope for the best.

zeligdhilee breaking the MUSIC.
18:40

Thursday, January 22, 2004

The Year of the Earth Monkey

GONG XI FA CAI!!!　

恭喜发财
万事如意
身体健康
步步高升
学业进步

And here's the sms that I sent everyone.... composed by my mum... (pls change to unicode (UTF-8) encoding, thanks)

福从天降
福星高照
五福临门
福贵吉祥
福禄寿喜
福满庭芳
十福十足
幸福年年
福至心灵
散福人间
福利众生
福照十方
新年快乐 !

Well today is the first day of the year of the monkey, and I'd like to wish all my friends success in whatever they do. Enjoy!

===========================================================
Part 2

Ok guys, I really enjoyed TJ's CNY celebration and it was much, much better than last year when we all swarmed Mrs Lim over leave forms when the rather 'silly' 26th Council locked up the gates. Well our HC knew things better. Let me tell you, this year's CNY celebration will always be in my memories when I leave TJ. It's too great and I really felt the enthusiasm of the year ones. They were much, much more passionate compared to us when we were juniors last year running the stalls. Kudos to Jasper, as I saw them standing on the benches shouting their lungs out just to get all the business!

Anyway, I reluctantly fought with Adriel on the Gladiator thingy. I couldn't see clearly and the worst was, I couldn't balance. Looks like it was rather not fun when you don't know how to balance. And poor Yazid and Wen Yuan (aka Calculator Boy) got dunked several times. I fled the scene as soon as I heard intelligence reports of ppl pooling in money to dunk me. As for mass dance, it was okay though we seniors don't know Heartsdale! Even the year ones are better than us! Well it was too great indeed.

I also got to meet Sarah, Jeremy's "dearie". She's such a friendly and amiable girl to start with. She's always smiling and cheerful just like Jeremy. She knew me before I knew her. "You're Zenon, right? Jeremy told me alot about you." And I helped them take a photo. Well, they're really a wonderful couple and Sarah could even be my best friend if I was in the same school as her... so interesting indeed.

The next day, our class went to East Coast. We played our favourite game, Captain's Ball and as usual, the girls will behave as though they got traumatized or stumped, as they laughed and laughed and laughed. Quite fun indeed, though I left early to go back to Chung Cheng.

Chung Cheng was very different. I met Mr Yazeed, Mrs Lim SP and a few others. I also met Mr Wong. Well Mr Wong got lots of things to say, including telling the juniors more about the A level system and his opinions about the anti Mr Yue sentiment. His opinion about this issue is from a practical perspective. He said we would face a boss like Mr Yue next time and hence we have to face up to reality. As for Mr Yue, I ignored him when he passed by. Personally, I felt that all the performing arts groups deserved their own separate concerts, but according to Mr Wong, Mr Yue had to do it combined because the rental fees of the Esplanade was ridiculously high. Even VCH is as expensive as ever. Perhaps we Chung Cheng people hate Mr Yue too much. I don't know what to say now. With no Mdm Teo, Mr Aziz and Mr Han around, life is so different....

And tomorrow, I'll be visiting my relatives. I've watched too many lion dance performances, no matter how good they were. Anyway, I better stop now to take forty winks and revise for saturday's SAT.... enjoy yourself to your hearts' contents!!

zeligdhilee breaking the MUSIC.
15:45

Sunday, January 18, 2004

A few days left

It's a few days left before we usher in the Year of the Monkey, and so it means that everyone would have lots of spring cleaning to do, and i myself is no exception. My mother even hired a cleaning maid to do the cleaning, while she berates me for not being helpful over such stuff. This means I've less time blogging and more importantly preparing for the SAT....

Anyway, I heard about the rather "disastrous" results of the SRJC invitationals... but I'll not comment on anything until I've seen the video after CNY. Upon hearing that the SRJC side was rather fussy over supporters, I decided to accompany Kaishi and Huey Woon to NUS to attend the NUS History Seminar briefing. I drew the lots for the college and we got Popular Culture, among three other spheres which are religion, political and academia. Looks like to dwell upon deeply on this issue of Popular Culture cos on my own personal basis I tend to give little regard to it when studying history... and know what, I met my old friend from Chung Cheng who is now in YJ. And much to my surprise, Kaishi singled out Audrey, the much-talked about debator from ACJC! Well I'll say no more about the history seminar until the group meets after CNY.

In response to Vasudha and Qiong Hui's remarks, it's my own fault that I didn't make my points clear for all, so let me clarify. Firstly, Vasudha, your remarks should be directed to the junior concerned. Yes, Megan is a good coach but unfortunately I didn't mention it and so painted a rather incomplete picture of this issue. But I have no motivation over discouraging people, and I didn't mention this at all! I know it's provisional, so point taken. Secondly, Qiong Hui, I am not trying to be any spokesman of any PDP including debate, and my blog is meant for my own two cents on anything I want to talk about. This is my blog and I've the right to say anything about debate, just as I cannot stop you from saying things about me in your blog. However rest assured I'll make things clearer this time round cos' thanks to your tags I realised so many loopholes in my recent posts. After all the debate blog can't be used for what you've mentioned. Anyway I wanted to make things clear to the junior concerned that we should be appreciative of megan's help. I only emphasised on this point because this person doesn't really understand.

Okay. Looks like I've to reread my posts again, but the bottomline is, I do not hold slander or demean anyone no matter what happens, and if anyone thinks I've put anyone in a bad light, I shall only apologise for my loopholes in my posts. There is no doubt that Megan is not only a good coach but more importantly a senior cum friend, but I wrote this in a seemingly futile attempt to make this junior understand...

zeligdhilee breaking the MUSIC.
16:10

Wednesday, January 14, 2004

The renaissance of the TJC Debating Society

Today is the day of the renaisscance of TJC debating society. I managed to meet a couple of enthusiastic and knowledgeable juniors who really have alot to say about various issues, like the UN failure as well as the Dictatorship motion.

The juniors show great potential in excelling, regardless of whether they got into the school team or not. Cliff, Zheng An, Azzhar, Gurvinder, Vikodan made it. To be frank, they're ten times better than the debate exco when we just joined debate. Maybe because they've experience, but they really sound like experts that oh my! This poor research director here is overwhelmed!! I'm sure the SRJC debates will certainly define for them the path through two years in debate... a great start, a great genesis... Nevertheless I see that Vasudha and Jonathan less frustrated with Megan and Joshua's help... and this means abit more research on my part to really help them. It's great to hear both juniors and seniors discussing issues of the UN, US, collective security etc. and bring themshelves out here..... I really feel so inferior at this moment, and I think I need to engage myself more in the discussions... very promising batch indeed..

Anyway for those who didn't get in, I think they're quite okay...Xiao Jun, a ex-councillor, also went for the trials. Well for these ppl we've to make them contended in debate no matter what.... we cannot afford a repeat of last year of our batch... though they still have to do research work...

The drive is on!! Push it!! This house believes that the TJC Debating Society can revolutionise the free speech in the college!

=======================================

Anyway, poor Mr Hasim is on MC for today and tomorrow (which means more time to organize my overdue GP file.... *haha*) but I don't understand why the class is so heartless to him.... they were screaming in jubilation when I broke the news to them... Megan says that he's nice, and we shouldn't treat him so badly despite his strict, no nonsense attitude. Just make sure he doesn't message you or something...

And it's Jeremy and Zheng An's birthdays today!! Yay, yay! My two wonderful friends have really enjoyed themshelves... anyway I ended up talking to Kumar, the rugby captain of TJC. In case you ever want to know, Chong Yew (vice-cap) said I should join rugby as a winger despite the fact that I'm not a sporty person, and most importantly I have a "clone" in TJ rugby. (ex-AHS ppl and those from 26/03 will know about this). Should I mention his name? Oh, never mind....

And yep.... Scholarship Prep Programme.... I've to rush with the survey forms soon cos' the tutors will be chasing us about our projects after CNY.... and anyway, I'd decided to experience some healthcare-related attachment in CGH after CNY, observe an OCS commissioning parade, write 80 words about a local historical event on my birthday and maybe participate in the NTU Current Affairs Quiz. Well Megan says it's harder than the NUS ones...... but it's hard to get a team of three.... well Mr Hasim asked me about it..... but like what Ms Kwan has said, make your CV looks nice! Yep.... all of you will be thinking that I'm really AMBITIOUS.. and oh yes I'm really one...

zeligdhilee breaking the MUSIC.
22:04

Tuesday, January 13, 2004

Thinking mathematically

Anyone who attended today's Maths 'S' lesson will faint. See an 8-mark question gets solved in 2 steps, see 5 questions squeezed in 1 sheet of paper. See the cover-up rule being invoked the partial fraction question gets solved in only 3 steps! See the beauty of mathematics and logic being invoked, IQ not needed! All by the greatest FM tutor TJ and Singapore can ever have..... Mr Ng HK!!! Everything is chicken feet, that I myself actually got lost during the lesson and was desparately noting down his tips and tricks before he went on to another question. So what everyone says about him is really true. To sum up --- he's a genius and only those who think the same 'wavelength' as him can really understand what he really says. To name a few, one of them is my sec sch mate, Gan Hong and also Wen Yuan aka "Calculator Boy".

Oh speaking about the "Calculator Boy", he was so smart and attempted to interrupt Mr Ng a few times. Well, he got a standing ovation for his high 'mathemical mind' today... And also Gan Hong. For a non-FM idiot like me I see him solve inequalities like dust, I'm so inferior to him. I'm also rather pissed with him for saying "so easy lah".... well poor me..... need to do something about my maths s stuff... Perhaps I should ponder on Mr Ng's advice and is not to be intimidated by the 'hard-looking' expressions and understanding your basic concepts very well, which involves more of your brain rather than skill.

Those not taking Maths 'S' paper, trying to ponder about this question below:

Show that, for all real values of x, sin ( 1/ (1+x^2)) > 0.

Don't think too much.... the solution is only one line for 3 marks.

There's another part following this question but I won't continue on....

And another interesting one:

Express in partial fractions:

1
--------------------------------
(x+1)(x+2)...(x+r)...(x+n)

Hint: Use cover-up rule. The final answer is presented in sigma notation.

Any takers??

===================================================

Okay now.... Part 2

A debate junior asked me a very interesting question. "Why is Megan the coach when she is not even a national debator or been to World Schools?" Well I gave him no answer, and I'll not mention his name to protect his privacy and identity. The thing is, we're lucky to have her to help and we should be appreciative of that, given the lowly debate budget that we can't hire someone else so Megan took the job. We've to learn how to work according to the situation, and without her we may still have difficulties finding someone other than her. Oh well..... the same person was very happy that Nigel's stuck in the army camp because he doesn't really like him. On what basis? He used the sole example of Nigel's decorum blunder in the ACJC debates two years ago..... well we should not judge people in narrow ways.. and i hope the juniors will soon realise how important seniors like Megan is to them. And Megan's not only a senior, she's really a very close pal to all once you know her for quite some time. Anyway i need to research further for the SRJC debates and the school team is really frustrated and stressed out...

Anyway, Justin mentioned a rather interesting statement. "All the 4CR guys have suffered academically except you [Zenon] and Gan Hong." Well I disagreed with him and asked him to change his statement to "All 4CR guys have suffered academically except Gan Hong." See the difference? Well to be frank, if you put Gan Hong and me side by side, I performed better than him for the Os but now he's really superior to me. I've devalued while Gan Hong's value-added. Well Gan Hong is very science-inclined and it partly explains why he aces so well now. His strong mathematical ability surpasses all including me and which also explains his high pride and ego when he's with me. He's a good friend to be with, but unfortunately today I was rather pissed by his remarks. So, what's the botttomline behind Justin's statement? We're no longer in the heydays of Mdm Teo where we did very well and we now have to face the reality of the intimidating A levels. With this I rest my case.

I need to settle econs project stuff..... and also the history outline, etc..... life is so terrible.....

zeligdhilee breaking the MUSIC.
20:10

Monday, January 12, 2004

The week ahead

As of today, I've the following things to do:

(1) Research for the SRJC debates on SATURDAY, needed urgently
(2) Study for econs test, it's TOMORROW!!
(3) Maths 'S' tutorials, it's TOMORROW!!
(4) Analyse three editorials (Friday)
(5) Revise for SAT using High Q website (Less than a fortnight left)
(6) Do Chemistry assignment (by next Monday)
(7) Dunno.......

Well we all have bad debts to clear and I'm really too strectched that if anyone of you faces delay, I'm sorry. Anyway, look at my order of priorities... the thing is life is so bad like a vicious cycle that we can't really do anything about it...

Oh speaking about yesterday's old clothes and newspaper collection. Well actually it was carried out smoothly. However, some people were angry that I should not have just helped the leos carry the stuff into the lorry. Well to me it makes no difference cos' we don't benefit at all and only the elderly benefit. Though I acknowledge the fact that I did not really help the class (rather than the leos), to me it doesn't matter and it's ridiculous making an outcry over it. I'm glad to be assured by my peers that no wrong was committed. Okay forget it and bury the hatchet. We have enough of quarelling over petty stuff. Nevertheless it was quite a success though it was tiring. On a personal note I prefer the admin to hold it on a saturday rather than a sunday cos' it'll be better for us to have one day free..... we deserve our weekend...

Anyway, speaking of better stuff, the SAT lecture last saturday was interesting with a new lady from Israel and personally I think she'd make a good cheerleader given her loud voice.... I still prefer the guy (Elat) last year due to his 'entertaining' antics. And that reminds me of doing some revision especially after the SRJC debates or I won't get a good score. And since CNY is round the corner it'll mean less time for revision... argh..

And today Mr Gan (AO Chinese tutor) played an interesting game for us... which was to answer the question in two seconds... I was surprised when Jeremy said he felt he made a good image consultant (quite true when he actually helped me spike my hair last year). Perhaps an alternative career for him? That's why I say to be with friends with the three 'J' s is better than having hundreds of friends. They all have interesting traits to start with.

Going back to the 'to-do' list, I feel like saying something about the word 'Priority'. One weakness of myself is to lack priority. That's why I can't find time for everything. My mum bickers about it. Perhaps I'm feeling the strain to due lack of 'priority'..... well the world is harsh and we need to shift our priorites depending on the situation.... cya and gonna do something about the to-do list!

zeligdhilee breaking the MUSIC.
20:15

Friday, January 09, 2004

Opportunity Cost

The definition of opportunity cost according to Sloman is cost measured in terms of the best alternative forgone. Also, from somewhere in his book, it is mentioned that the opportunity cost of any activity is the sacrifice made to do it. It is the best thing that could have been done as an alternative.

So, my opportunity cost for blogging right here is sleeping, doing research, tutorials, studying for tests, SAT, etc..... the rationale for bringing up this term cos as a yr2 with so many things to juggle... i guess this term will come back to haunt us, as well as the word priortize.

Well I just realised that I've too many things to do right here. Firstly, it's the SRJC invitationals which is on the following saturday. The motion, which I'll not mention here, is quite horrendous for both the proposition and opposition, and I believe both Kenneth, Jonathan and Salmah would really agree with me. I'm expecting all sorts of interpretations out here which will make research even harder cos' what I research may be relevant to one speaker but not to another. We shall see what happens...

And yes..... there's the stupid old clothes collection which takes away my precious time needed for these stuff.. the SAT lecture as well... and the chem and econs tests...damnit. Damn the clock. Damn the teachers. Damn the CIP system. The opportunity cost of all these is....... (dunno what to say)...

Speaking of chemistry, we had our first lesson with 31/03 and Mrs Lokman. I've always thought that 33/03 is the most slacky CG in TJC until now. You know, Mrs Chua finished all the yr one tutorials (up to halogenoalkanes and now starting on amines) and guess where 31/03 is at now? carboxylic acids.... Mrs Lokman was rather surprised and now the three of us have to pass our time and treat it as revision... personally I'd rather have more questions thrown at me cos' I want practice.... only then our horrendous chem grades can be pulled up.... Also, the people of 31/03 seem to be "vegetating". I'm really sorry to say this, but I realised that it's really hard handling a chem cross-combi. It's the worst of all. Well the class was too quiet (by my standards). I think I must inject more life into their next lesson or I'll fall asleep.... but when I do so I need to speed the pace up...... or we'll never be ready for the MCT... I really pity the 31/03 people.... I also see the frustration of Mrs Lokman in her face. I really pity her as well to teach a class like us... perhaps we're the slowest of all... I guess the three of us will really miss Mrs Chua, right? At least her class was lively... We really need to do something about this. Chemistry is supposed to the science of dynamicism, not of being passive. We're now at the latter.

And Mr Hasim was quite interesting today. I guessed he'll be a good person to discuss current affairs with, cos' I feel GP is about knowing what's around you and there wasn't much discussion of current affairs under Mr Chin. Well we discussed the adult ez-link cards issue..... we even condemned the government! Perhaps our class should join the opposition next time... Guess it'll be challenging and dynamic under Mr Hasim though he gave us another burden of writing 3 editorial responses when we already have so many things to juggle like PDP, etc. In addition, he really knows his econs stuff well. At this rate of doing so, he can take over Mrs Ivy Lim and make econs lessons more interesting for us. I think I need a refresher on market failures and the externalities of whatever..... and perhaps a refresher on opportunity cost as well...

I wonder why the class voted to join the stupid dance thingy... the opportunity cost of doing so is precious time of studying for tests, managing your PDPs and doing tutorials forgone! Yes. It's always 33 and it'll stay on for good.

I also collected my Maths S tutorial. Mind you. I think I can't do any of the questions without any miracles... looks like I've to labour on it before next Tues' lesson...but too little time for it...

That's why I've to find ways to priortize between debate, my academic stuff and especially blogging. Too much being said online means sleeping time forgone. Just as in economics we say that resources are scarce, time is also a scarce resource. I'm going to take forty winks now, but it means time for studying, research and tutorial is forgone. Opportunity Cost is like being part of our life, but we're too busy or slacky to notice it. Adios.

zeligdhilee breaking the MUSIC.
19:09

Tuesday, January 06, 2004

You write what you want but you cannot see what you write.

Stupid Blogger.... did you know that I cannot read any single blog on blogspot (including mine?) I wrote a complaint to Blogger and they said they got some sort of 'turbulence' problem and in the process of solving it. If you wanna ask me, I feel that Blogger is not very good in service --- the techincal support side compared to other online sites. I can access blogspot pages in TJC but not at my house! Why???? This means that I'm saying something to you all YET I cannot see what I write. Pointless to blog right? I need some technical help......

Anyway, I just wanna say a few things. Firstly, Jonathan asked me to read his comments regarding PDP exhibition in his blog. And I just settled the issue with him personally. Well my job is considered relatively heavy, and it's a huge challenge cos' I've to rebuild the research resources for the juniors..... i just hope it goes on smoothly...

Oh yes, there's 34 CGs for the class of 04/05.... Zheng An is in my junior class, yet he can't get the combi he wanted... well fyi 33/04 is econs/lit/hist if 33/03 ppl wanna know. 33/04 is similar to 33/02 then..... well another junior class we might want to know is 34/04, cos' i heard they're a lep arts class.... Loo Kit is in 20/04.... I'm sure he'll do fine right there.... I saw the ppl of 33/04... hopefully 33/03 ppl will be willing to know their junior CG (ask min dan)...

Tutorials start this thurs...... yet I feel so unprepared for the full timetable.... dunno why.... also I need to study for tests... perhaps it's the beginning of the undue stress that we all have... but we shall see what happens....

And yep.... I'm quite bogged down with moderating.... it has been a pleasure answering the juniors' questions (i bet they dunno me in real life at all).. but of course it's the opportunity cost for forgoing precious study time to do tutorials and study for lecture test.. I'd dare say the forums will be at its peak of influence thanks to the class of 04/05... I'll be glad if I know them in real life (cos I know a couple of the forumers in real life), and I'll say they can make a wonderful batch... thanks ashke for making me in charge of the Genesis threads! But I looking for someone who studies my unique subject combi leh......

As for the secret project (the FM tutor Mr Ng knows it already yesterday, and we carelessly mentioned the leo club while their exco were having meeting just behind us!), well we're quite on track.... sooner or later I'll have to survey my fellow peers and juniors..... but we know that even though it may not be successful (which include incurring Mr Sim's wrath).... we know we can make it...

If you're a fellow blogger member and you can read this, PM me in the Forums or whatever.. I dunno what the hell is really happening...

ok..... my responses to the tags (I can see your msgs in the blogger preview)...

I ever wonder if Saejan has a good knowledge about such astrology-related stuff. Personally, it'll be good if he shares some of his knowledge here. Well it really depends on us then... but I believe in myself, I believe in boosting my confidence through this way.... to me, confidence is the key to excellance....

Thanks Chong Yew for visiting!! It'll be good if you've a blog as well.... knowing your personality....

zeligdhilee breaking the MUSIC.
19:36

Friday, January 02, 2004

A Genesis for all

Allow me to quote the definition of Genesis from our college's programme booklet....

\Gen"e*sis\, n. [L., from Gr. ge`nesis, fr. the root of gi`gnesqai to beget, be born; akin to L. genus birth, race. 1. The act of producing, or giving birth or origin to anything; the process or mode of originating; production; formation; origination.

Well for we seniors... it's also a Genesis for us apart from our juniors, cos' we've to start preparing for the dreaded A levels. I'll have to spend less time online blogging, and more time revising, especially when I haven't studied for lecture tests.... It's truly a challenge.... It's a Genesis created from the previous Genesis that we experienced last year in Ohana.

Anyway, I met Loo Kit. He successfully appealed in TJC Science despite a high aggregrate and I think he'll have a great but challenging time here. I really need to find time to have a nice chat to find out more about the band, as well as his future plans. He's taking MEP, Maths, and two other subjects which I've forgotten. Also, I heard poor Quan Ming got his application rejected despite performing better than Loo Kit. Interesting indeed. I also heard that Junwei and Eunice plan to join the Temasek family in March. I do hope that Zhiming comes in as well. Quite a sizeable number of Chung Cheng people today, but unfortunately I don't know them..... they seem okay....

PDP exhibition tomorrow... going to promote Debate Society.... wanna know more about TJC Debate? Come find us at the classrooms! You'll gain the confidence that you'll never have before!

And yup. Mr Chin's successor is Mr Hasim, NE Co-ordinator and former History 2 tutor. Well i hope he can bring up everyone's grades well, and I guess all of us will find him interesting. I'm sure that's a new Genesis for him as well, cos' he has to transit from teaching history to GP. We shall see, we shall see.....

okay... my responses to the tags....

saejan: you're right that about the time when you're 18, where your zodiac clashes. however, you're wrong regarding the year of your own horoscope. PSLE's defintely not the best time, cos' it is said that the year where your horoscope and the year's clashes is quite bad. Anyway, O levels is quite good for me, given that 2002 was the year of the horse. And the horse gets along well with the tiger.

Well, why do you say believe it and die by it?

sikoden: well it's up to you to believe, but it's worth to know about such stuff. being an LEP student, saejan knows alot and I'll suggest that you ask him more.

By the way, see the comment tab below every post? You now have a choice. If you have a small greeting or very short comment/question, use the tagboard. However, if you have lots of comments or you have a critical analysis of my posts, use the comment tab. I'll respond to the comments in the comment tab but I'll still leave the tagboard to just you.

zeligdhilee breaking the MUSIC.
18:19