rahh econs.

determinants of demand:

1. prices of related goods
2. level of income
3. distribution of income
4. taste of consumers
5. size of population
6. structure of population
7. climate/weather/season/festival
8. government policy
9. interest rate/ availability of credit
10. expectation of future prices and income
11. new products
12. exchange rates.

NOTE TO SELF: PRICE OF THE GOOD ITSELF AFFECTS QUANTITY DEMANDED

-downward sloping demand curve ensures a price increase does not equate to lost of all customers.

-remember ceteris paribus.

-market: a system that cordinates the independent decisions of buyers and sellers.

determinants of supply:

1. technology
2. price of factor inputs (capital--interest, entre--profits, land--rent, labour--wages)
3. governmeny policy
4. expectation of future prices
5. prices of related goods (joint supply)
6. number of sellers
7. firm's objectives

-market forces regulate market demand and supply, don't need goverment intervention

-price elastic demand, lower price (sale). price inelastic demand, increase price.

determinants of PED:

1. close substitutes
2. proportion of income spent on good
3. time period (changes tastes)
4. habiutally consumed
5. necessity/luxury
6. number of uses

-CED: high positive=close subs. high negative=close complements

-YED: positive=normal negative=inferior

factors influencing PES:

1. time period (SR all factors fixed, unable to change qty supplied)
2. factor mobility
3. nature of products (manufacture elastic, agri inelastic)

-normal profits: AR=AC
-supernomal: AR more than AR
-subnormal: AR less than AC

allswell, that doesn't end well.

you know that allswell advertisement? the one with bloody bad enounciation?



yeah, this one. it was on sunday times yesterday, with critics talking about the singlish "tay peng" (iced milk tea) and the quite cliched plot.

but what they failed to observe was how the girl went, "driinnnng kiit!" and that's exactly what makes the ad, in my opinion, quite bad. and, "ungke dohneed dohneed!" and and! "because i luff you."

the article criticised the guy saying "ey, what is thiis?", but i don't hear the double i.

well i appreciate the company getting inspiration for the plot from a worker, as mentioned by the sunday times report, and i appreciate them trying to embrace the singapore culture, but there are other ways to capture local audience. and one way, is to make sure words are properly pronnounced. like, rochor road shouldn't be pronnounced as "rocker road". read the gps article from the paper too.

auditions.

weien
i think i'll post 5 colours next. haha.
aaron
if i take cll it's going to be a bigger mistake. will you be my bff? haha.
megan
well then let's hope it's not the same one marking your promo essay.

i think i'm going crazy. econs is one data response and one essay, which totally de-motivates me to study. i mean like, it'll be more worth it to mug for a full paper, no?

math. there's nothing wrong with my concepts. i just need to step out of my failure shadow. and learn how to complete the square.

i need a study mate. for chem. any volunteers? no minimum qualification required. okay, perhaps an o level. and please don't be a stranger.

hello blog. i'm back from my bio paper, which i hope i didn't screw up. my blog revision proved to be somewhat useful, because i found myself having a mental image of the notes i posted up this afternoon. haha.

signed up to be a volunteer for yog. technically i'm not allowed to register myself like that, because students are supposed to register through schools, but i figured out it'll be faster this way. yog's on 14-26 aug 2010, i hope it won't affect my uni too much. if i go to a uni, that is. trainings begin somewhere 2009, i hope that won't affect my a's too. if i can promoted, that is.

times have changed, now everything comes with terms and conditions.

bio.

why do i love thee? let me count the ways:

1. prokaryotic cells have no distinct nucleus and no nuclear membrane and have circular strands of dna. eukaryotic cells, on the other hand, have distinct, membrane-bound nuclei and their dna-s are packed into chromosomes.
2. chromatin are dispersed and entangled in non-dividing cells, but chromosomes as chromatin starts condensing and becoming thick to appear as separated structures when dividing.
3. the rER (network of sheets) is the site of protein synthesis and helps in the intracellular transport system. the sER(network of tubules) synthesises lipids and steriods, detoxifies drugs and other poisons and is involved in carbohydrate metabolism.
4. protein synthesised on ribosomes on rER enters lumen of rER, where carbohydrate component may be added. transport vesicles move protein to cis face of GA, in which it is further modifies. vesicles transports proteins from trans face of GA to the plasma membrane, where the contents are released from the cell.
5. lysosomes contain hydrolytic enzymes so that material that cell consumes from the environment can be digested.
6. the endosymbiotic hypothesis talks about how the mitochondria and chloroplast may have been prokaryotes and have been engulfed by eukaryotic cells, becuse they possess prokaryotic properties.
7. centrioles produce spindle fibres radiating towards equator of cell during cell division.
8. homogenization allows study of cell organelles, freeze-fracturing allows study of cell surface membrane.
9. cell membrane is a fluid mosaic model. phospholipids are ehld together by weak hydrophobis interactions, allowing them to move by diffusion in their own layers. peripheral proteins flaot about the bilayer in an irregular pattern.
10. cholesterol acts as a plug, reducing the escape or entry of polar molecules across the membrane. it increases flexibility and stability of membranes. at relatively warm temperature, cholesterol make membrane less fluid by restraining phospholipid movement and at low temperatures hinders close packing of phospholipids, therefore lowering freezing point.
11. five functions of membranes: compartmentalisation (separates), selective barrier (regulates movement of materials across), enzyme activity (by proteins embedded on membrane), intracellular joining (membrance proteins hook together), cell-cell recognition (glycoproteins serve as identification tags)
12. triglycerides have large amount of energy-storing C-H bonds, hydrogen atoms yield metabolic water on oxidation, are poor conductors of heat, posses low mass so much can be stored in small volumes, are large and uncharged therefore insoluble and are less dense than water.
13. triglycerides contain molecules on glycerol attached to three fatty acid tails each via ester linkages, which are saponised in respiration.
14. starch is unbranched and straight, consists of many a-glucose residues joined by 1,4-glycosidic bonds, whose angles causes chain to coiul helically to be compact. -OH groups projected into interior of helix, therefore starch is insoluble.
15. glycogen has backbone of a-glucose residues joined by 1,4-gb, branches formed by 1,6-gb. highly branched, hence hydrolysis by enzymes is efficient.
16. cellulose made up of long chains of b-glucose joined by b-1,4 gb, which makes the chain straight. parallel chains form hydrogen bonds between -OH groups of neighbouring chains, cross linking results in micro and macrofibrils, conferring high tensile strength for stability and support.
17. reduction of Cu(II) to Cu(I) is by oxidation of carbonyl group in reducing sugars. in sucrose, aldehyde group at C1 in glucose and ketone group at C2 of fructose involved in formation of gb, hence sucrose cannot be oxidised and therefore is not a reducing sugar.
18. collagen consists of three polypeptide chains wound around each other to from a triple helix. each polypeptide chain is a loosely wound helix because high proportion of proline prevents intramolecular hydrogen bonding. three chains bound together by intermolecular hydrogen bonds. cross-linking give collagen greater strength. many helices=fibrils, many fibrils=fibres, therefore structure is stable, high tensile strength and able to withstand large pulling forces.
19. denaturation does not affect primary structures.
20. stroma contains enzymes for Calvin Cycle reactions, where CO2 accepted by RuBP to form 6C unstable compound which gives rise to 2 glycerate phosphate. GP phosphorylated to triose phosphate, converted to hexose sugar.
21. thylakoid is site of conversion of light energy to chemical energy, chlorophyll present in grana absorb light energy from sunlight and emit electron after light absorbtion by chlorophyll. ATP produced, electron and H+ reduce NADP+ to NADPH.
22. ATP serves as energy source for light independent reaction, is needed to phosphorylate GP to form 1,3-bisphosphoglycerate and is needed for regeneration of RuBP
23. NADPH provides reducing power for light independent reaction and is needed to reduce 1,3-bisphosphoglycerate to form TP, which is required for synthesis of sugars.
24. in photolysis, H2O is split into 2H+ and 2e-. e- used to replcace lost e- from special chl a in P680 and protons combine with e- from PS1 to form H atoms which reduce carrier NADP+ to NADPH for use in light independent reaction.
25. photosynthetic pigments such as chl a and b and carotenoid embedded on thylakoid membranes and arranged in photosystems. PS1 (P700) and PSII (P680) absorbs wavelengths of 700nm and 680nm respectively. photon of light absorbed by both PS will excite electrons in special chl a in reaction centres to higher energy levels. excited e- accepted by primary electron acceptors which pass them on to electron carriers on the electron transport chain. electron carriers on the ETC are of progressively lower energy levels so energy is released as electrons move down the ETC. energy released used to pump H+ from stroma into thylakoid lumen and the accumulation of H+ generates potential energy. when H+ return to the stroma by diffusing down concentration gradient through H+ channels, energy released to couple phosporylation of ADP + Pi o produce ATP, catalysed by ATPase.
26. non-cyclic phosphorylation, lost electron in PSII replaces that lost in PS1. electron lost in PS1 reduces NADP+ to NADPH. electrons from phoyolysis of water replaces lost electon in PSII.
27. cyclic phosorylation, lost electron in PS1 passed down ETC betwwen PS1 and PSII and returns to PS1.

respiration is a complicated topic and structure of dna requires less attention. my bio promos begin in 110 minutes' time, all the best to me.

operation promos.

weien
dowan luh. all the mass dance songs here then you all dance in front of the computer meh. lol.
megan
got special teacher mark your essay? idk, i'm losing touch with gp. and all the other subjects. wonderful thing to say when promos start at 8.15am tomorrow huh.
niaoci
yeahhh tmrrrrr. die. aq. i refuse to study anything from the content book alr.

so yes as you can see from the above tag replies, perhaps except the first, i'm quite disturbed by the upcoming promotional examinations. and them starting in less than ten hours' time isn't very comforting. neither is having a phone that receives the wrong sms-es.

gp tomorrow morning, bio friday afternoon, math monday morning, econs tuesday morning, chem thursday morning, my birthday when the clock strikes twelve at midnight for friday.

i heard someone say we were going to the zoo next friday.

last night he finally got it right.

there. your mass dance song.

even losers can get lucky sometimes huh. but i guess a little hard work still helps. i'm going to study. it's the study break after all.

countdown to promos: 5 days.

shannon
i asked ms heng, like you heard, but she hasn't given me a reply. i forgot to ask her again.
weien
whoah you actually bothered to read those italics stuff arh.
niaoci
if you're referring to math, yes i'm fine, but maybe your favourite teacher isn't.

i hereby apologise (sincerely) for my absence online the past few days. i actually had online fans being super concerned.

nah, i'm kidding.

my phone is dying. gahhh. which is why i really need a c and above for my math.

which was why, i think, i broke down during math yesterday and cried and screamed at L. i'm sorry everybody, that my tolerance reached its limit before everyone else's.

suddenly i'm quite worried about my gp.

would i have done better in an arts class? but meh, jjc doesn't offer a chem econs bio geog class. that subject combi has been mentioned because it doesn't have math and doesn't include literature nor history, two subjects i'm vaccinated against.

i need etiquette lessons. so i will know how to talk to people, like certain people and my parents.

creating stress.

i need to escape from this bombardment of stuff. i need some time off to organise what's in my brain. i need people to reply my messages and answer my calls.

yeah so i'm in sort of immense stress now i may explode any moment. and i haven't even really began on revision for promos, even though it begins next thursday. this feeling sucks.

yesterday, sparked off by i-forgot-what during gp, i started penning down questions about our lives. mostly in the singapore context.

do people still remember what Mas Selamat looks like? or even better, who he is?

do people care that a second large group of Chinese has been victimised after the second bout of earthquakes? do they even still care about the first victims?

old men seeking prostitutes: they blame it on their wives who have become "unattractive" over time. have they, then, because of their age, become "more attractive", which deems them worthy of pretty young things?

demanding millions of dollars in exchange for broadcasting the Olympics, does it even go with the rationale(s) of the competition itself?

has wearing spectacles allowed people to see a wider, deeper or clearer view of the world?

Singapore is a multi-cultural society. But has having four cultures made us so saturated that we become impermeable to foreign cultures, such that people refuse to even share living spaces with foreigners?

has the morals of people been so depleted that priority seats have to be set aside to remins them to be gracious enough to give up their seats for the more needy?

are our students too independent, such that Project Work becomes such an arduous task and a much hated subject (both by teachers and students)?

so, we need a medal to spur people into taking up sports?

have we been so blinded by fashion that we fail to identify what truely suits us?

are we really that money-driven to need incentives for nearly everything, including giving birth?

have we been so ignorant to each other's voices that we require noisy accessories to say "excuse me"?

are we taking education for granted because it is so easily accessible?

90.22

72% for german prelim! heh. now i can be assured of at least one a on my year-end result slip. my last a for german was in sec one.

who else but herr neiser would give students 80 upon 90 for oral. all the candidates who got him as their examiner for quite high. like, seventy-plus on average. frau quim's students mostly scored in the fifty-plus range.

and the highest scorer for cloze passage was three. M got that. most got one or two, i got two. damn funny luh.

D scored 23 out of 25 for listening. damn pro. i got 19.

i think this is one of the most fun german lessons ever man. never has the class laughed so much over receiving results. it's like one joke after another.

but i must say herr spindler did make a great difference to all of us this year.

for more info about german prelim, please refer to my post-prelim post somewhere below. haha.

mission wr, accomplished.

JJ137 HAS FINALLY COMPLETED OUR WR!!!

mmhmm. eeling just called. you could just hear her excitement as she announced the news over the phone that our two hard copies have been binded.

after pw tutorial today, C called me to the front of the classroom and passed me the official seab letter announcing my german oral date. 3rd october, 2.15pm at moelc. only after i took in the black and white (and highlighted yellow) information did i feel the stress running through my every vein (and artery and all other blood vessels).

while being locked inside the pw classroom by W and S, M and me had a talk. i'm glad we did. though we ended up being late for the follwing pw lecture. because we decided to just suddenly push open the door while W and S are still holding on to it, but when we did we realised they were already gone. and they reached the lt before us. jokers.

M stole my highlighter during pw lecture. at least twice. everytime she did that we'd just laugh. i don't even know the rationale behind the laughter.

so german oral's same date as leaders' camp. i'll have to talk to L about that.

and on the way home from school, i thought, i'd laugh if i saw K and the soul-mate on the streets.

2008 september holidays.

hotmail, you'd better work when i send in my wr later.

yeah, spent my whole afternoon refining the wr for the printing and hotmail had to lag like crazy. ms word's a bitch. the picture kept bouncing to the top of the page when it was supposed to be somewhere in the middle.

i sort of completed my bio tutorial. because i have never done the essay questions. not from even the first cell membrane tutorial.

i'm not worried about promos. i think this is what you get when you slack too much, you'd never get that sense of urgency. i sort of admire E and X for being able to endure such long hours.

rain, rain, go away.

rantings.

so my september holidays are nearly gone. and the revision plan for promos hasn't really started. my room's in a mess too.

math mock promos was quite okay. at least i know how to do some questions.

homework list for what's left of my holidays: ionic eqm tutorial, chem revision paper, bio dna tutorial, revision for bio mcq test. thankfully i've got my gp essay plans done.

finally i'm talking homework. when i only have my weekends left.

shit.

godparents of just me.

my childhood, at least a large portion of it, was spent battling illnesses. so according to a belief of some people, i don't know if it's exactly chinese, my parents got me a godmother. it was said that having a godparent, or something along that line, will help the child become stronger.

my godmum's my mom's mom's elder brother's daughter. ultimately, an aunt of some kind.

so i grew up as if having two sets of parents, one, my biological parents and second the godparents. double the love, double the birthday presents, more ang bao money as compared to my brother.

because he didn't get any godparents. but he still addressed my godmum and god-dad (one d's too weird, two d-s together even weirder hence the dash) as what i do. and every year i'll still receive more angbao money from them than my brother, and they don't give him special angbaos on his birthday. i do, and usually to make him feel better i'll give him a hundred out of what i get. beginning of years i'll also receive substantially big angbaos for "school stuff". but not my brother.

and when my godparents go overseas (at least my godmum, cuz my god-dad's sort of permanently in indonesia), which is pretty often, i get lots of gifts, i.e. souvenirs, but it's not uncommon that my brother will be left empty-handed.

like this evening. my godmum popped by for a visit after her return from korea/indonesia/vietnam a week ago. she was armed with lots of presents, but none of them were specially for my brother. sure, we'll share the food she brought back, but holding the pile of clothes that she bought me, together with some hand-made canister and two handphone straps from korea, i have to admit i felt pretty bad.

because while i was happily receiving the stuff, my brother was slouching at a corner of the sofa. admiring the tokens he got back from his robotics competition this afternoon. and i thought those were gifts my godmum brought back for him.

i don't exactly know what's my point in writing this post, it'll probably make me feel better. because i can't possibly tell my godmum to buy stuff for my brother the next time she goes away, or remember his birthday and give him more angbao money.

and my mom whispered to me while my brother was away somewhere else in the house, that i should not ask what my godmum got my brother. because most of the time he receives nothing.

tired.

tell me why my post count's so low. all the blogs i go to have the owners proudly announce that they're reaching the 1000th post soon, or something along that line. but i just crossed the halfway mark, like, 500 plus.

okay now i'm talking like an auntie. damn.

megan
THAT wish. haha. your house always got funny organisms one luh.
sebas
who's the she? this blog's like, oestrogen overload. haha.
weien
yeah, three days of consecutive early leave's over.
tracy
not as scary as our math and bio. dang, i loved bio in secondary school.

today was ep (emergency preparedness) day at hong kah north cc. which is near bukit gombak mrt station.

this is J's and my second ep day teaching cpr, and i guess we've sort of had enough. after dismissal today we made some great plans.

there were so many chinese speaking residents that i was, in J's words, in hot demand. at most of the time i'll be at the mannikin (not mannequin) wiping the mouth with alcohol, tearing face shields, carressing the hard rubber like it was my boyfriend though it's supposed to be female, and teaching people the whole procedure starting from checking for surrounding danger.

but most people who try out cpr just jump straight to the chest compressions and the kissing part. well, our cavemen instincts huh.

but i still like teaching children cpr. at least they are responsive enough. male adults who volunteer to try out cpr are, based on my meagre amount of experience, single and desperate. and highly unattractive. because, i think, eligible ones won't even attend ep day.

and the higher-ranked civil defence officer says my compressions are good. regular enough.

this time they didn't provide us food. and my famiy was away at the saf open house so i returned to an empty home like a latch key kid, grabbed a prune, ate leftover cake and went to sleep like some pig. then i woke up three hours later to watch tv and cook instant noodles.

leave me at home somemore, i'm really going to turn fat. and stupid.

hui gu niang

so. teachers' day celebrations are over. which means, september school holidays begin. which means, it's seriously time to start mugging. though i need to go to school on tues, wed and fri. oh yeah, and tmr and sunday too. sort of.

Cinderella
Tata Young
I Believe

When I was just a little girl
My momma used to tuck me into bed and she read me a story
It always was about a Princess in distress
And how a guy would save her and end up with the glory

I'd lie in bed and think about the person that I wanted to be
Then one day I realized the fairy tale life wasn't for me

I don't wanna be like Cinderella
Sittin' in a dark old dusty cellar
Waiting for somebody, to come and set me free
I don't wanna be like Snow White waiting
For a handsome prince to come and save me
On a horse of white, unless we're riding side by side
Don't want to depend on no-one else
I'd rather rescue myself

Someday I'm gonna find someone who wants my soul, heart and mind
Who's not afraid to show that he loves me
Somebody who will understand I'm happy just the way I am Don't need nobody taking care of me

I will be there for him just as strong as he, will be there for me
When I give myself then it has got to be, an equal thing

I don't wanna be like Cinderella
Sittin' in a dark old dusty cellar
Waiting for somebody, to come and set me free
I don't wanna be like Snow White waiting
For a handsome prince to come and save me
On a horse of white, unless we're riding side by side
Don't want to depend on no-one else
I'd rather rescue myself

I can slay, my own dragon
I can dream, my own dreams
My knight in shining armour is me
So I'm gonna set me free

Like Cinderella
Old dusty cellar
Waiting for somebody, to come and set me free
I don't wanna be like Snow White waiting
For a handsome prince to come and save me

I don't wanna be like Cinderella
Sittin' in a dark old dusty cellar
Waiting for somebody, to come and set me free
I don't wanna be like Snow White waiting
For a handsome prince to come and save me
On a horse of white, unless we're riding side by side
Don't want to depend on no-one else
I'd rather rescue myself

deutsch pruefung 2008

german prelims are over!

this exam period for me was damn interesting.

the first paper was on tuesday, written. that morning, i went to the general office to get early leave forms. yes, plural, because i took three at one go. filled them all up, and got miss heng to acknowledge during lesson time.

at noon, the time i was supposed to leave for all three days, i walked out of math tutorial after many "bye"s, and went back to the general office to get the admin manager (am) to acknowledge my forms. yeah, getting away in jj's harder than getting away in nh. she looked at my three forms and was quite astonished. but she signed them anyway.

so i walked towards the gate, and showed the security guard my form. he looked at the form, then looked at me, and repeated the steps at least another four times. then he nodded and returned me the form.

and off i went to bishan. had to take a bus over to moelc cuz it was raining and the new footpath's damn long. the paper was okay luh, or so i thought. until herr psindler came in after everything. we asked what "vorstellbar" meant. because it was in our essay questions and was definitely one of the keywords. and i chose that question. yes, without exactly knowing what it asked for. because i almost completely couldn't understand the other question. turned out, nearly everbody misunderstood the qn. i think my guess was somewhat near.

next day, oral. so i walked out of the gate again, but this time it was a different guard uncle and he didn't look like he was interrogating me like the previous one did. got onto the bus, then onto the train. armed with my potato and pickled chye sim, because they were props i was using for my presentation.

just when the train reached bishan, it began pouring. so i had to take a bus again. when i reached the canteen of moelc, there were already quite a number of students there, and my classmates who were earlier than me announced that we were only allowed to bring in one cue card.

i had six. pieces of notepad paper.

so the frantic me called up herr spindler to confirmed. because i was the first candidate for my group and by that time my exam was less than half an hour away. he came down after a while, and gave us tips on how to hide our extra pieces of paper.

i stepped into the language lab, the familiar room of yesteryears. two years ago i was there for lessons and that was when i scored the worst in my whole life learning german. the teacher responsible, he's my oral examiner. herr neiser.

so i began my presentation about food in germany. first i was to talk about the importance of the potato in german cuisine, so i brought out my potato and asked, "do you know what this is?" in german, of course. he stared at the brown thing for a while, and exclaimed excitedly, "a kiwi!"

but after i told him no he took a second and harder glace and said correctly that it was a potato. i would think my oral's rather screwed because he didn't give me a chance to talk about food in the singapore context, and all the questions he was supposed to ask me, which apparently herr spindler briefed him on, he never asked. so the work done on the sg's part quite wasted. and thus was my pickled chye sim. general conversation was wonderful. he asked me for my age. and where i would like to go for uni. secondary one stuff man.

and today. my listening compre. frau anwar brought in the wrong cd. the instructions part was already quite weird, because what we heard wasn't exactly what's stated in our question booklet. and when the passage started plaing, it was about smoking, but our questions were about weather. so we raised our doubts and frau anwar was pretty taken aback by the mishap. because frau schraudolf, the setter of the paper, was on mc. she paused the track, fished out her phone and attempted calling another teacher for help. but there was something wrong with her phone, so she had to borrow becky's.

she asked the other teacher to fo relief herr spindler's invigilation (he was watching over the sec 4 written paper) so that he could bring the right cd down, since he's one of the teachers who set our paper.

he came down soon enough, and we carried on with our listening.

i was sms-ing beatrix before the exam, asking if she was coming, cuz i wanted to see her in uniform since i have never seen her in term time. yeah so our short exchange of messages before listening ended when i told her "see you!" we talked abit before she went to class, but didn't talk about the sms-es.

so after my listening ended and my classmates and i were done with preparing herr spindler's teachers' day gift, we headed over to his classroom where he'd usually be. even though he might be still invigilating. but we saw beartix talking to frau heng. yeah so we walked away to find him elsewhere. and i sms-ed beatrix to confirm if it was her talking to frau heng. after a while she replied and asked if i left alr. i said, no, still roaming around with classmates looking for our teacher. and she asked where i was, she'll come over and find me. he were at the staffroom then, so i told her just that. but we managed to get the gift onto herr spindler's table and so we left to the first storey. then we saw frau heng, which meant beatrix was dismissed. saw her walking up the stairs, towards the staffroom. i called out to her but she never responded, so i gave chase. then we started walking together but she was going it some weird direction so i asked where she was going.

she said, "staffroom. my classmate said she's there."

then i recalled seeing another stephanie on her class list, and told her i was the one who said i was at the staffroom. she got quite freaked out.

so yeah, a compliation of interesting things over the three-day period of my german h1 prelims. i hope it entertained you.

hidden.

so. tomorrow's the day that i have waited/worked throughout five years for.

the rehearsal for my ao levels german. aka prelims.

well herr spindler may be saying that it's just prelims and everything, but i guess this does put me into the promo mood.

i am sort of looking forward to promos. reminds me of exams in nh and how the gang would always go for lunch together after the paper.

yeah, and laugh at me when i had to sit for my chinese lit paper cuz they don't have to be in school that day. but i'd laugh at them when it's physics.

why could we manage so many subjects in secondary school, yet have to struggle with these measly few in jc? i'm always damn proud to say that i took ten subjects for o's. but for a's, i'm just any ordinary student with 3h2 and 1 h1. german doesn't even count in a's.

i shan't end this post on an emo note. even though i'm curently quite disturbed with the commotion going on at home.

wish me luck for tomorrow's paper! and wed's oral, and thurs' listening, and fri's content quiz.

one week later, we'll all be famished after the bbq at ms law's home.

[:

if you were deciding against getting the canon eos 1000d because it does't come with an included manual, please don't. click on the ad above, and you will see why.

it really comes with a manual, just that you'd prolly don't need it cuz the cam's user-friendly enough. the website says the manual's only just in case you need to prop up uneven table legs.

closing ceremony now. i think my german's a gone case.

cd?

sebas
erm. it's the quality, not quantity(:
weijie
jj didn't get outstanding achievement award for character development for nothing okay. not that i'm sayng hc's got no character luh.

thursday's content quiz freaked me out. now i've got to take it on friday after teachers' day celebration. thanks ms heng for being willing to arrange this slot of me(:

okay i screamed during L's class. he couldn't bloody find the "differentiate three mre times" in the bloody question.

W fell again, therefore she needs a wheelchair. it seems pretty bad luh, but she's really committed to her duties.

megan, your wish came true. i hope your study session with shannon was nice.

promo timetable was out today, and for the first time since sec one, cuz i can't exactly remember anything before that, i'm not having any papers on my birthday. and that day i don't even have school. it's a friday btw, in case you think i'm trying to be lame with my bday on a weekend. it's friday okay!

dad says study hard. so i can enjoy celebrating. not that seventeen's really significant or anything luh.

iphone. 62.5%.

vier.

oh wait. tomorrow's friday. and tomorrow's the 22nd.

sometimes insensitive people really do get on my nerves.

and i guess how i treat L has annoyed quite a number of people. sorry.

i am bloody not looking forward to saturday.

rubbish bins.

update on the latecomers' thingo, somebody told me they'll be transferred to pj.

i think it's just not right for anyone to treat any jc as inferior to another. although of course, hwa chong does produce better results as compared to jj. but i guess we still win in the character development part.

Everybody's Here
Electrico

I had a dream the other night inside my head
One of me that it seems I've always had
In the middle of nowhere dark and cold
I find myself all alone.
And everytime it seems like it never ends
I gotta find my way back to get me out of there

I had a dream the other night inside my head
The same old dream, but then instead
Of being alone in the middle of who knows where
I saw another man standing there
So I went up to his face and I turned and said
How can I be the only one inside this place?

Cos you don't know that everybody's here
Same old story time and time again
You just never turn around to look behind (you)

So I turned round and what (did) I see?
A line of people waiting around like me
"you're not alone" is what I mean
"or why would the line stretch to the sea?"
All of us adrift in an endless space
I'm not the only one inside this place

He said, "You on your own is what you see here
And it's hard to see it any other way
Now it's time to open up your eyes
Cos, you don't know that everybody's here
Same old story time and time again
You just never turned to look behind."

I'm not alone, it's not just me here
It's not (that) hard to reach out to find your way
Now it's time to open up your eyes.

20% more than human race.

12 km on the cycling machine today. i sense a muscle ache coming my way.

but i like muscle aches. makes me feel accomplished.

promos' in jj are like o's in nan hua. why did i stoop so low.

latecomers today were given damn special treatment. they were forced to sign transfer out forms. reason to be written as wanting a change of environment.

the bookshop auntie was damn funny. i by default spoke abit of chinese while talking to her, then she said, "you speak chinese very weird leh!" C was there too, and he replied, "is it? i was going to say she's quite good."

auntie: "yes, her chinese is quite powerful but her face give me the impression of a potato mah."

in case you don't know, potato's used to describe a person that's rather/very english inclined.

crimson as the blood of all mankind, yet white and pure and free.

those people just don't understand that we're just motivators, not organisers. i guess this is what you get when you execute a large-scale project that fails. and blog about the failure.

watched table tennis at the expense of my math and chem tutorial.

everybody was hoping for a gold, no?

so was china.

well i thought it'll be pretty cool to have majulah singapura play at the victory ceremony, but we'll just have to settle with our flag placed beside china's.

that's good enough anyway, considering we're such a small country with limited talents and our last medal was 48 years ago.

a silver medal too. but that was before independence. now the medal's rightfully singapore's.

i would think it was sort of an emotional struggle when li jia wei had to compete with her friend. maybe that's why she under-performed. but that's the price we pay for getting foreign talent.

which means, we need to bring out more sports school people soon. it'll be more meaningful for singapore-blood singaporeans to win medals for singapore.

huh.

shannon
yeah maybe you'll get divorced, with a bit of effort, that is. copying totally on purpose. you're supposed to separate the fouth fingers while making sure the postitions of the rest stay anyway. maybe that'll help abit. so you don't have to find a lawyer that soon.

today. is the sixteenth of august. damn. eleven days to german prelim oral. ten days to german prelim paper one. twelve days to german prelim paper two. fourteen days to chem o selection test.

one month and two days to promos.

even though bio's like, one of my best subjects for the 60%, i think that's the one i have to work alot on, after math of course. and econs actually. chem...must remember to do tutorials.

idk. jj has been quite nice to use written assignments and active participation and small small tests for our 60%s, but that leaves us with a hell load of stuff to study for promos, because it's just one test, clear cut and no way anyone can help us in anyway.

war at sebas' blog like it was at mine a few months back. only this time his includes circa 30000 people.

ring finger for a reason.

bowen forwarded an email that was rather interesting.

Why should the wedding ring be worn on the fourth finger?

There is a beautiful and convincing explanation given by the Chinese.....

Thumb represents your Parents
Second (Index) finger represents your Siblings
Middle finger represents your-Self
Fourth (Ring) finger represents your Life Partner
& the Last (Little) finger represents your children

Firstly, open your palms (face to face), bend the middle fingers and hold
them together - back to back

Secondly, open and hold the remaining three fingers and the thumb tip to tip
(As shown in the figure below):

Now, try to separate your thumbs (representing the parents)..., they will open, because your parents are not destined to live with you lifelong, and have to leave you sooner or later.

Please join your thumbs as before and separate your Index fingers (representing siblings)... ., they will also open, because your brothers and sisters will have their own families and will have to lead their own separate lives.

Now join the Index fingers and separate your Little fingers (representing your children)... ., they will open too, because the children also will get married and settle down on their own some day.

Finally, join your Little fingers, and try to separate your Ring fingers (representing your spouse).

You will be surprised to see that you just CANNOT....., because Husband & Wife have to remain together all their lives - through thick and thin!!

somehow this weekend doesn't seem very appealing.

but on the bright side. after i clear promos, i have so much waiting for me. germany, chingay'09...(:

getai issues.

kengyang
okay. somebody got girlfriend without telling me.
botswana
what meh mean in african? sounds like goats bleating. singapore has goat farm. at lim chu kang. there got goats' milk, can feed hungry and malnourished african children too.

i think. we need to be more responsible for our actions. make a mistake, correct it ourselves. not just find a simple excuse (or not even bother to find any) and leave the scene of crime. to leave fellow team mates to clean up the mess we've created.

fion's phone's zero button's malfunctioning. and it's nokia, meaning the space button cannot be use. so her sms goes like this: "cdc.relay.tomorrow.have.cca.at.room.106.2pm.reply.when.received."
yeah you get the idea. the actual sms was longer.

promos begin on 18 sept. now why does that date sound so familiar?

extracts from content.

steph's been studying for her aq test okay. here're extracts from my content textbook.

"in a survey conducted with singles aged between 25 and 49, 6 in 10 men in sg have had multiple parters compared to 4 in 10 women. 3 in 10 men have one-night stands, while 1 in 10 women have done the same. 3 in 10 men paid for sex."

"men find cohabitation appealing with advantages like not changing legal status and going through troublesome traditional ceremonies, and yet having someone to share the expenses, do the laundry and enjoy sexual relations."

"unhappy couples in china can visit their local community centres and if both parties agree, a divorce will be issued in only 10 minutes, for as little as 10 yuan (S$2). "

"the afternoon hours are the peak time for juvenile crime."

i've been receiving multiple memorandums from botswana nowadays, adressed to uniquely singapore. chicken rice feeds hungry children, huh.

i'm glad that i passed all my 60%s. though i know not the exact figures for econs.

jj140 interview.

tracy
maybe i'll be. for three years or more. i actually thought of being an econs teacher in jj okay. not that my econs is top notch luh. haha.
anonymous
MEGAN!!!!!
kengyang
referral from your blog=people who come to my blog after clicking on my link on your blog. haha.
wei en
npnp! yeah okay. but that don't be stressed was for connect sg right. now i'm stresed over....prelims and promos. haha.
XD
fleas is that you? what's with the evil laughter.
jiabin
yeah, the whole of ite balestier was next to my 30 jj students for connect singapore. their councillors are quite good.

so finally i did jj140's interview with sebas. rather fun.

am ill. again.

i think there's hope for prelims/promos. just keep the computer away from my sight. especially before i look through/do my tutorials.

national day hols are over. work begins.

connect singapore

well yesterday we did manage to connect singapore. 30, 000 students from 53 schools held hands over a 20km route.

but the loody dj didn't say the pledge after she counted down.

the plan was to hold hands AND say the pledge, but after her counting down from ten, 91.3 began PLAYING COMMERCIALS.

okay so, no 30,000 people saying pledge together. so i made our people, cira twenty, say the pledge at some random i-decided time.

yangping was asking me not to be sad that the thing wasn't successful, but i seriously wasn't sad. it's already successful, since we really got people holding hands, and i tell you, walking a 2km route and seeing everybody holding hands is really a wonderful sight.

i got rather fed-up with the dj for a moment, because after she counted down and a commercial played, the radio went:

person one: WE, THE CITIZENS OF SINGAPORE... (and i thought it was the real pledge)
person two: hey why are you saying the pledge?
person one: oh! i'm rehearsing for connect singapore!

yeah.

but it was really nice seeing everybody in ri cheering and being high. and having jj lead two cheers. and us cheering like mad even though we had only thirty students. i think we were louder than the whole sec one cohort of ri.

and mr ho was super cute, he screamed like some very excited kid for us to take a picture at a wall of ri that had the pledge. and he was very excited at the route and kept snapping pictures. mr wee was very excited too.he carried the first aid kit like some professional. mr chan looked like che guevera.

i was pretty impressed with the ite councillors. how they carried themselves and seemed really professional. i don't think many councillors would be able to involve three schools to do the toa payoh wave with such enthusiasm. and the three schools are, mind you, 30 jj students, whole of ite balestier and whole of marymount primary.

and i thank mr ho for being so understanding. he actually told the students to forgive us for the screwup and sought their understanding that this is a major project and mistakes are a dime a dozen. but there were still students who forgot mr raymond's third rule, "don't let anyone spoil your day". i shared the rules with them before we departed from school.

mom called pizza delivery for lunch.

happy national day.

tomorrow's the day. NOT BEIJING OLYMPICS.

slightly more than 12 hours to connect sg. CAN YOU FEEL THE HEAT ALREADY.

okay i figured out nobody from jj connect sg will read my blog, so i'm going to let you in on something.

i couldn't find my route when i went to recee today.

yeah. i read the map sideways and upside down (and the right way of course) and i couldn't locate the stratch of road sector 12d's supposed to stand on.

go ahead, laugh. i thought i was pretty stupid too.

stephanie can't read maps anymore. four years of geog returned to three teachers.

mr raymond sent all leaders and motivators of connect sg an sms today. it says:

dear leaders and motivators. this is the defining moment. the largest
project all done by young people. it couldn't have happened without you. thank
you for being part of the team, we wish you all the best tomorrow as you lead
the 30, 000 youths and unite them as one people for singapore. let's win all the
teachers over with your professionalism, enthusiasm and can-do spirit. you have
done us proud.

i know we'll definitely make the news tomorrow, but darn, beijing's going to get all the limelight.

germany.

i was doing random thinking while walking home when i felt like i didn't want to go to germany. i mean like, all the money spent on the trip, it could bring the family much more benefits. like, our doors need changing cuz they're falling apart (it's cardboard inside, cheapo hdb-hired workers) and the curtains need replacing cuz the sun has worn them out.

but then of course, this is my last chance to do anything like that. and it'll be like a treat at the end of the year IF i get promoted. which i seriously hope i do. i don't want to spend three years in jj.

nuffnang results surprised me. i get the most referrals from lihuan's blog. like, 40 since the last month. 39 from liling's blog. 29 from kengyang's. and weird searches lead people to my blog. "08s22 jjc", "shorts under nan hua skirt", "ndp heartware ushers".

i thought i spotted a mistake in mr lawrence's ppt slides today, so i went to clarify with him after math lecture. he said i was right. then after that i went to the canteen to stare harder at that question, and realised he was right in the first place.

oh yeah. i should start on tutorials. don't leave any debts. i don't have the time to.

connect sg in two days. 44 hours in fact. rahhhhhh.

3000SGD okay!

annoymous
well you're just out to annoy us huh. with reference to the name you put, lol. i don't mind having a contact with the name annoymous in my phone you know. =D
shannon
yeah, makes me wonder if i'm indonesian or singaporean. you know, the same colours.

i lost track of time while doing owens national day deco. only when i saw my mum's sms beckoning me to be home did i realise it was near seven already.

tied alot alot of stars to the walkway shelter. five to each segment of the walkway, i shall count exactly how many altogether tomorrow. not to forget the five at the singa half of singapore at the gate.

thank you fellow owens house com ppl for appreciating my work. agnes was like, "you sit. rest. you deserve it." and zhiqiang treated me to ice peach tea.

and shawn saved a bird from the jaws of the evil jj feline. i saw the cat attacking the bird, but i decided to let it be because i thought like hidayah, "it's just life." but shawn thought otherwise. he noticed me staring at the cat (and the bird) then came down from the ladder and shooed the cat away (with much difficulty cuz i think the cat was pretty hungry) and finally removed the poor feathered friend from danger by gently putting it in suhyee's washed zapple cup. and brought it home i think.

while other fellow jj leaders attend rehearsal for investiture on wed, leaders' camp on thurs and fri, and finally investiture on friday's national day celebration, i'll be following my default plans. wed, cca. thurs, german. friday, CONNECT SG. jasper threatened to strike me off the leaders' list since i have to be absent for all three days. but you see, there's no point to go for wed and thurs if i can't make it on fri.

this morning mr koh announced that a china student left his wallet in the toilet outside the school hall. there was 3000 sgd in the wallet, transferred over by his parents as allowance for the boy and his two brothers for the next three months. when the boy realised his wallet was missing, he returned to the toilet to find his wallet with the money all gone. mr koh asked for whoever that has taken the money to return it, even if some has been spent. he said that if the person was really that hard up, he'll give a reward of $500. whether that's true or not, i don't know, but this has definitely changed my opinion of the prinicipal.

damn, $3000. that's prolly more than 15000rmb. i've never even seen that much money in cash before.

idk, why would anybody want to steal? by using that money, won't he feel guilty or anything? where did the conscience go? well yes i do admit i have stolen stuff, like stationery, from classmates when i was young and unlearned, but it does make me feel guilty, and therefore i stop doing it. and when my mum finds out that my brother brings home anything that doesn't belong to him, she'll make him throw it away.

stealing's the easy part. getting away with it, and getting over it, is the hard part.

grace said i changed ever since the june hols. she says i'm more understanding now.

i told her it must be cssp.

preview.

yang ping
hi SL!

preview was...okay luh. i think the spirit at kallang stadium was better. photos at my photo blog here.

yeah, the rsaf dark black knights heart formation too. i think there's more than five shots of how they formed it up.

because it was preview, the real big shots, i.e. president, senior minister etc., weren't present. however, the emcee person still had to continue reading his script, so after every announcement of the arrival of a big person, he would say, "simulated."

"ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the arrival of our senior minister goh chok tong. simulated."

and some japalang white person steps out of the car.

by the third or fourth time that happened, everybody began to laugh once he said "simulated". and when the real goh arrived, some mp, everybody thought it was fake and hardly anybody stood up when he announced, "please rise for the arrival of our guest-of-honour, minister of parliament, ....."

heartware ushers weren't trained properly. when i enthu-ly went to ask one of them if she knew christina, she answered blatantly, "there are 400+ of us here." like i don't know. at least say, "sorry, i'm not sure who that is." and when we met christina upon being directed to our seats, the only thing she said was, "this way please, sir." being professional on the ground huh, lol.but of course there were a few who were super hyped up.

rmb the rules of mr raymond, people. smile. don't act like a pillar. don't let anyone spoil your day.

jasmine asked if i need another cm for sector 12d for connect sg. cuz she got two extra people. so a asked if guy or girl, then she replied, "1 guy 1 girl. you choose." lol. i took the guy. connect sg blog counts down, four days plus to connect sg. stress stress stress.

there was a time when people said that singpore won't make it
but we did.
there was a time when trouble seemed too much for us to take
but we did

we built a nation
strong and free
reaching out together
for peace and harmony

this is my country
this is my flag
this is my future
this is my life
this is my family
these are my friends
we are singapore, singaporeans

singapore our homeland
it's here that we belong
all of us united
one people marching on
we've come so far together
our common destiny
singapore forever
a nation strong and free

we the citizens of singapore
pledge ourselves as one united people
regardless of race, language or religion
to build a democratic society
based on justice and equality
so as to achieve happiness, prosperity
and progress for our nation

we are singapore
we are singapore
we will stand together hear the lion roar
we are singapore
we are singapore we're a nation strong and free forever more

we are singapore
singaporeans!

okay. that was a long song. esp when i was typing out the lyrics while it was playing from my blog.

visitor to jj.

i had to use a visitor pass to enter jj today. cuz i was wearing connect sg attire.

me: hi uncle! i'm from heartware network, i'm here to oversee the students' meeting today.
security uncle: hardware arh? what you all do?
oh. we're a youth volunteer organisation, this current event involves 30000 students holding hands and saying the pledge together on national day eve.
oh! not meddle with tools arh!
-then i hand over my ez-link card and he fills in the details in the visitor book-
how do you spell your hardware arh?
h-e-a-r-t---
oh the h-e-a-r-t heart arh! i though is hardware.
haha, no lah.
-then morning assembly began and mr koh began talking. halfway through:
eh stephanie what school are you from arh?
jj.
huh which jj?
erm. this school lorh.
huh so you no class today arh?
err i got excuse letter.
orh so you today do heartware business arh?
yeah lorh.

i thought we were supposed to have our last connect sg training tomorrow. but there hasn't been any email. but i'm going for chem tomorrow anyway.

then's preview. my camera's ready!

gold record okay!

yeah, this is some competition thingo from creative, stand to win a creative zen x-fi. it's just a game, bejeweled-inspired. i think the person who scored top score's some psycho.

countdown to natl day!

yeah, red blogskin to get into the festive mood. next up will be change in blog song. compilation of national day songs from the ancient times till now. i've got songs from 1988 in my comp.

jj sl meeting tomorrow, i merged the heartware ppt and the original sl handout for my sls. because H didn't show the students the entire ppt when he was promoting connect sg.

i've got a feeling the meeting tomorrow will be fun. but it may drag too. hopefully they'll be motivated enough (with yours truly as the chief MOTIVATOR) to come up with stuff themselves. for the decisions that we will be making.

chem 60% released today. i secured 39.1%, not an a, therefore i'll have to sit for chem promos. not that i mind, lah.

my german entry proof's still somewhere in outer space. C asked the hod about the issue, then the hod's directing it to moe. damn. it's just an entry proof. i was verified to be taking the subject, confirmation slip had german too, which means the amount (near $100 i think) has been deducted from my parents' giro, yet they still cannot produce my entry proof. no entry proof=cannot take exam, yo.

i always like sg when it's nearing national day. how the whole place is decorated, albeit in pretty garish colours, and how national day songs' mvs are shown at regular intervals on tv. this year's mv's pretty good i guess. watched the chinese one on tv mobile this afternoon. it's many short stories combined into one video. i think can download from http://www.ndp.org.sg

preview this sat!

connect sg's making me miss house com investiture, but somehow i don't mind.

lima kosong konsong.

500th post!

the connect sg feeling is kicking in. in fact, everything's kicking in.

school work, house com, cca, heartware, chem o.

it's nice to feel busy, at least i'll feel guilty when i'm not doing work. but too much stuff on my mind de-motivates me to do everything.

which is why i've been sleeping pretty early these days. last night i slept at nine plus.

swtiched over to block twelve for connect sg, so i'll train the jjcians instead. i don't know if it was a mistake from the very beginning, because now it's like both blocks are having problems. and apparently sebas isn't very happy with my rather sudden decision to switch block.

but i guess it's easier for me to work with people i already know. mr ho's in charge, sls are clara wenjie yangping and xianghui.

which reminds me. i need to get their handouts printed out soon. and download the heartware ppt.

getting into house com didn't feel like an achievement or anything. it was just like...an obligation. how council rejects end up in house com. idk. i guess if at any time i feel i really can't do stuff like that, i'll just give it up.

because i guess if i were to choose between house com or heartware, i'll take the latter. heartware or chem o, that's a though one i don't even want to think about.

we're planning too much into the future, i would say. we're always encouraged to plan ahead. but we plan so ahead that we forget what we're currently facing. like, i can say i want to be a plastic surgeon in the future. but first, will i be able to enter a unversity that's good enough? or, will i even get promoted at the end of this year? or even better, will i survive today? what if i die in my sleep?

i guess deep inside, i am a pretty pessimistic person. all these stuff that i'm doing, they're just in hope of making me think optimistic-er.

maybe i'm just thinking too much.

apparently i'm supposed to have a scandal with seb's friend who has fangs and a tatoo on his upper back. and seb can make me crazy by spewing mushy stuff. sounds wrong, but yeah. the unexpected always happens. who knows, i may be the first female president in singapore one day.

look out for changes on the blog. national day's coming soon.

post number 499

twelve days to connect sg.

tomorrow's monday, need to help huilin find mr ho.

cut my nails.

friday was a weird day.

we finished up hotel rwanda by viewing the visualiser image on the screen. we made the visualiser face the laptop screen cuz we couldn't connect the laptop directly to the projector. the final product was like some pirated vcd image.

broke down during math. pace is too fast for me. overload of information too soon. but i'm thankful for the friends and the bodyguard. and the boyfriend who got all worried when i didn't pick up the phone after 4 or 5 calls.

woodlands ring student leaders training was too early i guess. cuz the very next day at our training we received new instructions. so perhaps we need to go back another day. and martin's damn tall.

block twelve's totally vj. and they're motivating jj people. how to come over for sl training? one singapore apart, lol. maybe i'll be nice and do it for them. since it's only sls for circa 50 students, depending on how many mr ho managed to rope in. leading 50 students, maybe only 2 leaders. and considering how many cheers jj has, all that needs to be done is the passing down of info. what will happen, what to bring, what to do, etc.

i'm anticipating a long day tomorrow. i don't know why. did math tutorial but got stuck at question seven. the way it was phrased, it sounded so familiar, but i didn't know how to go about solving it.

i want to get back my econs common test.

and hopefully whatever's wrong with my right hand's not permanent. i'm really scared i may not be able to write.

hello.

okay so my last post was monday. but i haven't been deprived from the internet, i've just been a lazy bum who refuses to select blogger from my list of websites.

i made it for both third lang lessons this week. tuesday because i didn't go for the mock test, got the test papers from mr subash before i left the school. today because i attended the earlier econs make-up session.

tomorrow's bio enzymes essay test. it's only fifteen minutes, somehow it sounds like a bad omen.

for the first time in my life, i'm dreading bio. mdm yong, i don't know if you still read my blog, but i really miss your teaching.

friends issue. i don't know, but i'd definitely feel bad if i were in P's shoes. but if she could be more sensitive to stuff, there wouldn't be any internal conflicts.

W says i owned M. what i did to him was, in W's words, "delectable evil. very good." and he can't believe he's condoning my abuse of his assistant.

perhaps i need to change my way of treating people. i.e., new people.

random thoughts put together.

sometimes i really wonder what's so captivating about this machine called the computer. when paired up with the internet, or world wide web to make it sound more intimidating, it can teleport me to some other dimension that doesn't really exist, and making me spend so much time hovering my cursor to unlimited links and finally applying pressure on a button on what they decided to call a mouse. so much so that homework is usually next in priority. and smetimes, even in the expense of my sleeping hours.

math crash course, i would have to agree with L, wasn't really useful.

and they said that when i have my hair tied up, my back view resembles P.

chemistry mcq test turned out to be common test. only knew it when the teacher said to fill in "chemistry common test" in the space for test name.

and i didn't study much for chem, because i thought it was just some normal lecture test-like thingo. weekend was spent math-ing.

i guess the highlight of today for s25 would be O walking out on us. i don't exactly know what happened, i was sleeping while staring at the screen showing some boring animation .okay maybe it's not the animation that's boring, maybe it's just my attention span. and how complicated photosynthesis is.

tomorrow's math mock test after school, which means for once i'm attending tue's pc lessons. because i'm skipping german. as much as i don't want to. i'm hoping what i'm staying back for's worth it.

because to hand in my germany application form, i'm heading over to bishan straight after one on wed. just to give herr spindler that piece of paper, then return back home cuz there's guitar in the evening.

what, bio test's shifted to friday econs slot? that means i'm only allowed to slck (slightly) after 25th. sucks pretty much.

okay maybe not that much, since agnes planned class gathering after school on fri.

ho wei jie. sat sl training1, then next thurs sl training 2? cuz i think sat can't do much, so let them play play first. thurs i've got 4-5 free, i can go over to ri before heading over to moelc. then we can get them to do work, and if the rest are free, i.e. you and sebas, you two can stay to complete whatever needs to be done. 080808's like, real near.

alot of tag replies.

six posts without replies to tags. the last one i replied to was jon's which is currently third on my tagboard. ahh well.

weien
yeah, here's a very late thank you. and a recent thank you too, in appreciation of how you were there for me even though i pretty much snapped at everybody on friday.
sebas
one day, ONE DAY, i'll teach you h2 chem.
yuhui
you clicked huh. there was a disclaimer there for a reason. haha.
jiabin
whoah. i did leave a pretty huge impact huh.
xingying
it's always more comfortable to do on a familiar topic. but i don't think i'll stick to it till a's.
megan
this blog's purple because the blogger likes purple. i think the b & w pictures are to dissolve the gross factor. did you manage to get police tape when you went to the npc?
weien
only when your words are worth quoting then i quote one okay!
jiabin
sometimes, yeah. but i guess it's part and parcel of growing up. but even when working you'll feel like you're being treated as a slave by your boss right. moral of the story, study hard, work hard and be a boss. and treat people like slaves. haha.
anon
<3 back. i think you should leave your name the next time.
bessy
i go bloghopping very often, since most of the time i don't do my homework. so don't feel guilty that you're not reading my blog, it prolly means that you've been doing homework. i voted for your blog! thanks (:
joy
ahh. hello.

blogger should merge with hotmail. not google. then i can sign in to both at the same time.

there's been many newspaper articles recently about incentives to be given for working women giving birth. both from the reporter's point of view, which equates to the government's perspective (somewhat) and also from readers.

but firstly, why not let us think, what is the reason for coming up with incentives to encourage birth?

ultimately, it's to hope that women give up their careers for the family. because the government knows fully, that women juggling work and family are not really sought after. because they are seen as less productive then other women who don't have to tackle kids.

bearing children, was, a sign of love between a couple. yet now, benefits have to be given for children to be brought to this earth. is it the fault of our people? i'd say no, it's the fault of the society. how we are distorted to think that males are the dominating sex.

if females taking maternity leave, childcare leave, and medical leave are considered non-productive hence dismissable, what about males having to go for ns and reservice? aren't we both contributing to the country while being away from work? for females, it's for social defence. for males, it's military defence. does that make women inferior?

i understand that women may cause some trouble when they take leaves, especially the long maternity leave, but that doesn't give them the disadvantage of losing their job. after all, it is not worth it for a person to lose his/her job of circa three decades just because of an absence of three months.

i should think that bosses who decide that mother-to-be women are to be done without are those without families themselves. otherwise, i'm sure they'll be able to put themselves in their employees shoes.

so shouldn't the government, or anybody in charge for this matter, make it a rule that all managerial staff should have a family to maintain? by family, i do not mean the mum-dad family, but the husband-wife-childrem family. this would ensure that the welfare of lower-ranking but definitely more important staff is not compromised.

or, if incentives must be involved, since somehow the society loves this word alot, give them partly to employers as well, to encourage them to reserve positions for women undergoing maternity leave, or to encourage them to hire mothers.

hiring mums should be pretty good, since mums are proven (by yours truly) to be more committed to their jobs and more patient to demands. and therefore they are more productive and thus can meet the aim of the firm, which is assumed by economists to be profit maximisation.

if i were to be a mum, while i'm working of course, i'd seriously consider the incentives givento me, in case my boss decides to fire me. unless of course, i'm my own boss. but then, i'd have to consider my oppotunity costs for choosing to give birth. you know, benefits of the next best alternative forgone. imagine if i were my own boss, that'll be prolly of a rather money-making firm, how much i can earn in three months. that will all go to nothing if i take maternity leave and not have incentives. i may suffer from subnormal profits some more, since if i ever become a plastic surgeon, i'd expect my fixed cost to be of a substantial amount.

so if nobody gives me stuff i feel is worth my three months' pay plus all the torture i need through for nine months and the whatever pain i need to succumb to during childbirth and the changing of figure and everything, no, i won't even think of contributing to singapore's population. incentives, i think, are rewards to mums. they totally deserve it, and most likely should be given more.

i shall stop here, this is sounding like a gp/econs essay.

somebody has to make a decision.

i guess when a choice really has to be made, between family and dreams, i'll give up dreams.

yeah. i'm not going to germany.

and racing? some other time i guess. there'll be more races like the nike+ one. the industry's basically made of firms copying each other anyway.

this morning L called for a meeting with three classes, cuz we lined rock bottom for math ct. s25's squashed right below. so therefore, to salvage the condition, we'll be undergoing a crash course on monday after school, followed by a mock test after tuesday's school. all these, to secure us a pass for the lecture test on wed, which constitues five percent of our j1 h2 math grade.

bio topical test on thurs 3-4pm, i already planned to skip german when i knew of this.

but with the addition of math, i guess i'll be degermanified next week.

told my mum my decision, her first reaction was, "then when are you going to hand in the german trip form?"

i told her i've decided not to go. since the family's trying hard to even make ends meet.

she cooked double boiled herbal black chicken soup for dinner. gave me almost half the chicken worth of meat.

and this time yesterday, we were in pretty heated argument.

sometimes i think my mum's a superwoman.

[edit]
just after i had the above up on the net, my parents came into the computer room to ask to speak to me.

because they have decided that they will let me go for the trip.

how they will come up with the funds, they say they will think of a way.

now i've just got to wait for herr spindler's reply of a detailed itenary, and somebody to help me hand up the form to him, cuz i won't be there whole of next week.

idk, i wasn't feeling any jubilation when dad said they thought about it and think i should go.
[/edit]

fnqwtkfuhb3t

mom says they're willing to fork out at most $2800 if i go to germany. she says she'll try her best to fulfill my wishes, but still need to put the family first.

she sounded like she was on the verge of tears when saying that.

somehow that made me feel abit guilty about my post yesterday, but i'm still not happy about being barred from racing. sent a german email to my german teacher to ask about the expenses problem.

no test tomorrow! but i think it'll be a long day, there'll prolly be hardcore revision of compre techniques for the test on fri.

i wish there's connect sg on sat. i don't really care if i don't have enough time to study for chem, math and bio next week. math's a goner already anyway. i don't even laugh when i complain to Y that the teacher "squay her squay there, i don't understand at all."

but actually i think i'm fine with differentiation, it's more of the inequalities i'm afraid of. idk what i was doing during the lectures, most likely thinking of how to torture L. he ignores me now btw, and goes all sacarstic when i differentiate something correctly. like, "you actually got it correct!"

was supposed to go for cca today but i didn't because econs test ended at a kuku timing of 4.20 and i had to leave by 5. not much point to travel all the way to wherever the rest are doing house visits at and rush back to try to make it on time for guitar. anw i told mel before my test that i'll be absent, i only changed into the youth partner shirt because W wanted to have somebody change with her.

and it was acutally Z's idea that i skip cdc altogether today, cuz i mentioned about my schedule.

today's like, minimum communication with sebas. i don't know why, but it feels weird. no sms replies and doesn't pick up phone. i hope nothing's wrong.

what has the world got against me?

i'm beginning to consider whether taking up german was a mistake from the very beginning, since 2004. for even, end 2003, cuz that's when the decision was made.

in sec two, the laguange centre offered an opportunity for all sec two students to go to germany. mom said try my luck, apply for it.

they didn't even shortlist me for the interview.

early this year, herr spindler was promoting an exchange program with giessen students. we host them, they host us. mom said don't want to host. which means cannot go.

turns out it's because of my bro, she's afraid the german girl that comes to stay at our house will affect his studies. because she can't scold him while the girl's around.

today herr spindler asked if grace and i wanted to go giessen at the end of the year. becuase though germany sent 21 students over for the exchange program (the same one as above), singapore here booked 25 tickets. so they're looking for another four students.

i was so dammit happy that i could go to germany without hosting the student. so i took the form from herr spindler, thinking that mom will allow this time.

she said no, consider the family's finances.

what's with taking away all my opportunities all of a sudden? first running, then this. dad even said, "wait till you complete your studies."

but who was the one who said to make full use of exchange/immersion programmes in schools? and who said that going overseas with schools provide a whole new perspective of the country?

i don't know, is it just me, or the world's coming to an end. maybe i'll destroy my solar system like the boy in the short story kindergarten. then you'll never hear from me again.

because perhaps tomorrow, i may have been prohibited from even blogging.

running.

gp test was okay today. familiar topic because it's too big a risk if i change to something else. common test, leh.

so when we stepped out of lt 5 at ard 6.30pm, weien exclaimed, "you like, always do on ageing one leh! i remember from our first essay you already do on ageing right!"

yeah. i rmb my first gp essay began like this,

"I personally do not have the luxury of grandparents due to their premature
demise, therefore I am not able to witness first-hand problems the aged face in
our society. However, due to exposure to the media, I have come to realise that
problems faced by the aged in my society are quite real, though actions can
be taken to solve them."

topic? Are the problems faced by the aged in your society real?

so yeah. tomorrow's chem lecture test, on energetics and alkanes. idk, suddenly chemistry seems foreign to me, especially after failing so many topical tests.

and my first chem topical test in jj was actually a full-marks piece of work.

class today was pretty mid boggling though, especially the one and a half hours about photosynthesis. and to think when i first came across that term in primary school i thought the most difficult thing about it was to get the spelling right. now all the new terms come in, special chlorophyll a and all, and i think the hardest task will be to link all the concepts up.

but it's h1 bio.

i was thinking, what if i didn't choose this subject combi? what if i risked and took physics instead?

many things would have changed, good and bad.

i miss aaron. like, my best guy friend. i've effectively registered in my bibliography four years in a class of girls. because 311/411's essentially girl (sorry jiabin and yuhong) and 08s25's pure girl power. our only male tutor's mr low. for now.

nike plus had to send me a mail.

Dear Nike+ Human Race 10k participants,

Each participant must wear the human race tee to run the race on 31st
August 2008, so it is important for you choose a size you are able to run
comfortably in.

We would therefore like for you to re-confirm your tee sizing with us by
18th July 2008,5pm Singapore Time. Please note that all the human race tee sizes
are based on US sizing. This means that if you usually buy from a Singapore
retail outlet a running tee size (L), you might want to consider choosing a size
smaller (M) for the US sizing.

For race tee details, please refer to the human race sizing chart
http://www.nikeplus.com.sg/blog/racedetails/index.htm that will give a more
accurate measurement for each tee size.

Please email us at nikeplushumanrace@nikeupdates.com.sg with the following:

Name:
IC No:
Contact No:
Human Race Tee Size:

Once your tee sizing is confirmed, we will send you a confirmation email.
Availability of sizes is based on a first-come, first-serve basis. If we do not
receive a reply from you by the 18th July 2008, we will provide you the tee
sizing as indicated on your confirmation slip.

Thank you for your understanding and we will, to the best of our ability,
make the necessary arrangements to provide you with the size you have requested
for.

Cheers,
Nike Singapore

i didn't even sign up. unless my mom was feeling apologetic and signed me up. but i doubt. but then again, i hope so.

cuz i like the feeling of running freely.

weien, again, was commenting that i was running very fast during pc today. i was enjoying the spring beneath my new shoes. i was savouring every millisecond of running. but i only replied, "i'm very high today."

fast post, random post.

studying for econs this weekend didn't prove to be very fruitful. haven't cleared up my room yet, though i did attempt a little before venturing online.

tomorrow's paper one of gp ct, essay. i don't know, scoring 34 for the last test does make me feel slightly pressurised for this one. i know i should try another topic, but i guess ct's too big to risk.

went to chinatown this morning, mom bought my brother the lay-on-the-mahjong-table mat. because she found her miniature mj set while rampaging through cupboards two days ago, and my bro expressed his interest in wanting to learn. the mat's so that it won't irritate neighbours downstairs cuz they're playing on the floor instead of a table, since we don't have a mj table.

so now instead of irritating the neighbours, they're irritating people at home, namely me. or my dad, but sometimes he plays too. thankfully the tiles are small, =not that loud. and thankfully my room's pretty concealed from the outside world. and all the while i thought one set of windows (two flaps) is bad.

i have my content pack on my lap, and it's screaming, "READ ME, FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE! YOU'VE GOT A TEST TOMORROW!"

but at the same time, the two topics of econs are yelling, "YOU'D BETTER ABSORB MY CONTENTS, OR YOU'LL HAVE A BIG FAT U ON YOUR PROGRESS REPORT."

rahh. there's a lee child book on my bookshelf that looks very tempting.

NO. NOT UNTIL AFTER 24TH JULY.

cuz that's when the big tests end. but then comes promos and everything else.

charmaine was right when she said jc students never have a life. the most we can go is, half a life.

and i'm glad my half involves blogging, friends and heartware. racing may be condemned to the other half, i hope i'll be able to survive without it. mum's not showing any sign of repentance of her banning my participation in races.

i need people online to talk to me. 490th post.

being a faci for cssp earned me 101 cip hours. so this year, up till now, i've got 138 hours under my name. all that's lacking is for the digits to be keyed into jjc's system.

chem olypiad first training was okay. stereoisomerism, pretty much visualising. E-Z isomers are so-called because of the german terms they stand for, e for entgegen (ehn-geh-gen) and z for zusammen (tsu-za-men). but apparently the teacher had zilch knowledge of that.

"why e and z? e is for anti-jen, meaning opposite and z is for su-seh-men, meaning together. it's a foreign word."

AHHHH. wenn Sie keine Idee haben, wie diese Worte rechte sprache sollen, dann einfach, nicht sagen bitte.

but i'm still fine with the teacher luh, since she could explain the chemistry stuff and everything. after all, i think science teachers can't do languages like maths teachers can't too.

[edit] hello seb's friends. the link you want, it's below. my friends, if you're interested in seeing the personal recount of a cannibal, then do visit the link. shannon, i know you feel the urge to enter this other dimension, but i highly advise you against it. seb, if you know you can't take it, don't click.

here: http://youcapturedme.blogspot.com/2008/06/excerpt-from-in-fog-sagawas-post.html. credits to amber's blog. [/edit]

i wasn't feeling really good, but your tags brought a smile to my face. thanks people(:

sebas
thanks, i think so too.
weijie
too? who is the other one with horrible handwriting. sebas arh?
jiabin
whoa you actually remember? i'm still using the pen. just that it has aged and has began falling apart.
jeannie
i wanted something to do on saturdays. haha. mum isn't really glad with me devoting to heartware though.
jon
since erm...i don't know. one fine day i just decided to retake the test and phoom! entp. maybe i'll retake another time and the results will change.

okay. so why wasn't i feeling too great?

because my mum sort of banned me from racing.

i don't know, racing's like, my motivation to run. cuz if there's no race i won't run hard. i wanted to join either the nike+ human race 10k, or the great eastern women's 10k, so i consulted my mum. first she said choose one. so i weighed the pros and cons and discussed with weijie, and decided nike+ would be better.

so i went out of the comp room to tell my mum i want to join the nike+ race, then she said no, don't go race anymore. cuz everytime i do so need to pay a certain fee (nike+'s $25, great eastern's $38), and each year i only study for like, seven months (in her exact words), and i'm already spending so much time on volunteering and my dad's the only one supporting the family. she says if want to run go stadium and run.

i've attempted going to stadium to run. the last time i trained at a stadium was the first run of my first week's training for the saucony 10k. it was 3.2k, running eight rounds of the track was torturous because i had to see the same things eight times.

it doesn't make sense luh. if it was about the money issues, why did she even bother to fork out the money to buy me my nike shoes?

today is not a good day. i cried during math, not because i was laughing too much about the class' jokes. the laughing was to hide the tears, to try to find an explanation for the tears rolling down. because if i told anyone the real reason why, i don't think anyone would understand. but yeah, tears welled cuz of what i was writing in my notebook/diary. then i sent out an sms that was never replied.

okay to lighten things up, since this post is sort of gloomy. after gp, i was about to leave the classroom. weien and the rest were outside waiting for me cuz i always take forever to pack. so finally i got my butt off my chair and began walking towards the door. as i walked past the whiteboard, i heard somebody (a guy) go, "hello?" it sounded like it came from the next door (through the wall) or from the wires below the whiteboard. i stopped my tracks and stared at the wires for a moment.

then, "hello?" another time. this time weien heard it, and she was staring at me/the wires. and suddenly i knew what it was: my phone. on loudspeaker. apparently sebas called me and the phone picked itself up and conveniently put itself on loudspeaker so i could talk to sebas while the phone was in my bag.

i made that last sentence up. but sebas really called me, and i think my phone really picked itself up, either that or i didn't lock my keypad and accidentally pressed a button. i didn't feel any vibration signalling an incoming call.

so. after i realised it was my phone i screamed into my bag (cuz the phone is in a pouch), "wait wait wait!" then got weien to help me throw my styrofoam cup away (i brought drinks into class) while i fished my phone out, then tried to explain to sebas(while laughing like a mad woman) what happened earlier.

pardon the many brackets. i got quite excited typing that. like orbitals going though hybridisation. my fingers felt like they were overflowing with energy, like free radicals undergoing electrophillic addition.

asst head of admin

so yeah, after completing modules two and three of cepp today, melissa announced the exco members of cdc. imma assistant head of admin. my boss is sophia.

met with weijie and sebas for dinner, discussed connect sg stuff and joked around. dinner hasn't been this fun for a loooong time. it was subway student meal btw. tuna!

oh yeah, i have my specs on right now. mummy went out with dad and bro for dinner and to collect my specs. not new specs, replace lens only.

okay weijie if you're here, hi. please tag. and sorry for my atrocious handwriting on the meeting minutes today. i think we took like, 7.50-9.15....85 minutes.

lihuan did the class tee design. it's not bad. and it's purple!(:

footnote: welcome back all people who went to zhejiang. you all were greatly missed. really.

no specs!

LIMITATION ERRORS

inaccuracy in temp measurement, due to the use of 1 deg. c interval thermometer.
using a 1 deg. c thermometer which measures to the nearest 0.5 deg. c to measure a (small) temp change of (insert temp change here) is inaccurate. as a result, there is a high percentage error in the temperature measurements. hence, the calculated enthalpy change of (insert rxn required) is unreliable.
% error= interval/temp change x 100%
improvement: use a 0.2 deg. c interval thermometer which measures to the nearest 0.1 deg. c to improve the accuracy of the temp measurements.
using this thermometer, the % error is reduced from (insert above value) to (insert following calculated value)
% error= interval/temp change x 100%

inaccuracy of vol measurement due to the use of a 50ml measuring cylinder.
the use of a measuring cylinder which measures to the nearest 0.5 cm^3 to measure a (small) vol of (insert volume measured) is inaccurate. as (insert chemical name) is the limiting reagent, the inaccuracy of this vol measurement will cause the calculated enthalpy change of (insert rxn) to be unreliable.
% error= refer to above formula.
improvement: use a burette which measures up to the nearest 0.05cm^3 to improve the accuracy of vol measurement.
using the burette, the % error is reduced from (insert prev % error) to (insert following value) and % error= use that formula again

PROCEDURE ERRORS

difficulty in monitoring the max temp reached while having to stir continuously with the thermometer
the actual max temp reached may have been missed while stirring and hence a k=lower temp could have been recorded. as a result, the calculated enthalpy change of (insert rxn) is less exo.
improvement: use a magnetic stirrer for continuous stirring to ensure that the thermometer is solely used for temp measurements.

the rate of stirring is not constant throughout the whole experiment.
as a result, the rate of cooling is not constant. hence, the cooling graph obtained is unreliable and the max temp derived by extrapolating the cooling graph is therefore inaccurate.
improvement: use a magnetic stirrer to ensure the rate of stirring is constant throughout the experiment.

okay i typed that without my glasses. my eyes are super stressed now. i'm going to sleep. prac tomorrow, in case you were wondering why that chunk o junk's there.

and because i need to get my speacs done, i'll be skipping a portion of scdf training tomorrow. thankfully it's cpr and fire fighting.

i got myself a dad. ho wei jie. waimun's the missing sister, jun guang's the long-lost brother, and seb's the cousin. meeting dad and cousin tomorrow for dinner, after cdc.

gute nacht.

alaris

i got new running shoes!nike air alaris, wanted to get another pair of saucony but the ones at the store either weren't the colours i wanted or didn't have my size.

i'm hoping this pair of shoes can take me through more races. my last two pairs each accompanied me through one race, first one 5km, the prev saucony pair 10km.

wore my sauconys to buy this new pair, sort of like passing-on parade. but i won't make the saucony pair obsolete.

pre-farewell party

all right this sucks. i'm still awake now and tomorrow later's a long day. there's connect sg press mock up on sat, so i won't be able to go down for excel fest. rahh. there's econs make-up before i head to connect sg too.

but wells, at least i got my wr draft one settled. though i cheated abit here and there.

ala first aider, "everything will turn out fine." no murphy, you will not be my friend.

cssp crapping

time spent online today was....crapping with cssp facis and campers. i don't know why tertiary students can still spend so much time online crapping when we're supposed to have more work to do.

scdf training today was fun because i could practice my active participation, esp in the first aid module. farah's hot guy came. he recognises me. to the extent that he refused to let me take off my head bandage. he said, "all can take out! except her!" and points to me.

i'm taking over huiyan and fanddly's place for emcee-ing on friday. super impromptu. but i'll manage.

school's taking its toll on me, i finally found myself swarmed with undone tutorials and miscellaneous tasks. esp project work, dang.

oh yeah. liberation from malay lessons since today. what the school will plan for us for the rest of our time in jj, i think it's better to leave it to fate.

i want 7 july to come soon.

sebas i hope you're not meddling with wires.