This author is currently on hiatus for the ignoble cause of mugging. The public is advised to remain calm, as this routine protocol has been shown to have no effect on one's violent tendencies in 96% of cases.
| Wednesday, February 28, 2007 |
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Checked out the HCI IT Fair earlier today afternoon, over at the college side. Eventually bought a $12 mouse and a $10 512MB thumbdrive - that's more than one week's pocket money blown, ack. Though its quite worth imo. My old mouse had a loose left button and an unresponsive scroll button. Not to mention weak mouse sensitivity and an irritating click-clack sound whenever i pressed a button. Can't imagine my delight at getting a much-needed new mouse. =X Here's a comparison of my old and new ones:  Sadly, no prizes for guessing which is which. That's what years of playing games like Gunz does to your mouse. Gotta love the new one though, it's so shiny and sleek <3 |
'Twas teh winnar at 5:16 pm.
| Monday, February 26, 2007 |
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The tagboard seems to be screwing up again. It takes more than 2 mins to load for me, and for a few others i asked, it doesn't even load for them at all. Hopfully its just a temporary error with the oggix server. Don't wanna have to change tagboards again, ive switched it 3 times so far already. <_< The only reason why im not using the all-time favourite cbox is cos it comes bundled with occasional pop-up, erm wait, pop-under ads, if you've noticed. It actually gets through Firefox and IE Tab's security, which is why it's so irritating. Ugh. On a side note, this is also the 100th blog post, though i won't dedicate a post on it since ive already done one a while back on hitting a thousand unique visitors. =X The tagboard just has to fail on such a special occasion, especially since our History re-test is tmr. Oh, woe. EDIT: Eh, wtf. The tagboard miraculously went back to normal after i published this post. Looks like its nothing to worry about after all. But it still doesn't change the fact that we're doomed for History tmr. x_x |
'Twas teh winnar at 10:35 pm.
| Sunday, February 25, 2007 |
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The gahmen should seriously make this as illegal as child labour is. It's utterly unethical. What connotates this crime is taking advantage of the ever-so-innocent minds of our young preschoolers and offering them little "presents" of candies which cost less than 5 cents each (you can get a pack of 50 for around $2), but under the condition that they do some disgraceful actions first. Of course, the children don't actually realise they're being scammed, so... The perfect example of this popped up yesterday, when i went downstairs to the function room for some Chinese New Year event the good people were holding for the residents. Ok, so i suppose we were there more for the free dinner than anything else. After the not-so-appetising dinner (duh, nothing's for free), one of the Organising Aunties decided to hold some after-dinner entertainment. So she went around broadcasting with her cupped hands, "Children! Later, we'll give you a fan, and you'll dance to Chinese music, and the best three will win prizes!" And there was an audible hum of excitement around those young kids running about, because the mention of "presents" or "sweets" gets them more excited than Paris Hilton to Tiansheng or Huang Ji. A few minutes later, when the Auntie announced the commencement of the "competition", a few girls pushed out by their parents went up to the makeshift stage - a space created by pushing a few chairs back - and they were handed fans as some traditional music played. Apparently, they didn't quite like the music either, cos they just stood there...and stoned. The Auntie finally realised that things were not going according to plan, so she went up and did a few elementary moves, waving the fan about and motioning for the girls to follow. And...they stoned. Eventually they found an acceptable move - turning around and around and around - and did that for the entire song, nothing else. And the adults simply laughed at the insane lameness of it all. Then came the boys' turn. Some daring ones (including my younger brother) went up, but again they stoned. And the Auntie went up again, but this time, they actually followed. The blind leading the blind. And again the adults laughed at the kids doing random waves, kicks and turning around. I was shocked that my mum actually had the audacity to encourage me to go up, after she had sucessfully done so with my brother. I replied, "You crazy ah!" Eventually, they realised that they still had a lot of leftover presents, so they gave them out to all the kids anyway - even those who were smart enough not to go up. Duh. Taking advantage of children by making them do undignified actions for some cheapskate entertainment is just immoral. But wait, i guess the children don't even have dignity to begin with - do they even understand the meaning of it? - so they can't possibly lose any of it. No wonder they're okay with it, since they don't have anything to lose. However, it just ain't right for us to laugh at fellow humans, especially those who lack the mental abilities of advanced logical processes. And its even worse to bribe them with near-worthless gifts, just for the adults to go "Lol, those fools are so stupid." A few years on, after the children grow up, when they look back at thier childhood, they realise how they were humiliated without even being aware of it. And adults can still complain about us not showering them with respect. But then again, it is a win-win situation in a sense, cos the children are happy with their sweet teeth, and the adults get a good laugh out of it. So as long as Mr Hon supports this principle of life, things probably won't change. Just get the Aunties to do a proper folk dance themselves next time - its definitely way more appealing. Or spend money getting a professional comedian, instead of laughing like idiots yourselves. |
'Twas teh winnar at 12:53 pm.
| Thursday, February 22, 2007 |
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Meh. This is my first post about academics this year, so in conjunction with World Scout Day - i was one in pri sch but no, im not one anymore - be prepared for a fair bit of whining. We're having the last term of the term tmr - Literature. Yay, doomed freedom! Though History was probably even worse... If i can get an MSG of <3.00 (0.0 <3) this term, ill be happy. But then again, ive been slacking quite a bit since the start fo the year, so...haiz. Heck, brooding over acadmics is too depressing. I haven't bothered to calculate my grades for this term yet, as muggers like Derek would already have done, frantically slamming on the calculator once each test is returned. Seriously, grades don't seem to be of a high priority this year. =X Meh, on to other stuff. First time i got bonded today, lol - or at least an attempt to, by Julian, Jiakun, Gary and Lesterrr (pukes). Managed to push julian off, though its kinda impossible with Lester. (We bonded him after that, with the help of YYY.) For those not in the know, it equates to stripping down to the underwear, or at least just to the zip, if the class happens to be feeling more merciful. If my memory doesn't fail me, there were at least 5 bondages today. Probably a result of after-exam stress. Ah well, at least I qualified for AIME, the second round for AMC. The cutoff was lowered from 120 to 117 this year round, so i barely made it in. Cheers! =) Sadly, my blogging time seems to eb diwndling, as it always does at this time of the year. The number of active blogs in the class currently can be counted one on hand lor. So try to be content with one post every three days, or sometimes even less. D: |
'Twas teh winnar at 8:05 pm.
| Monday, February 19, 2007 |
 Or 1001, to be exact. Anyway, let's cheer: the number of visitor to my blog to date is OVER 1000! (Though 1/20 of the hits was probably generated by me =P) The number's probably much higher though, since ive switched hit counters b4. Congratulations to Mark for being the 1000th visitor, who alerted me to this feat with an MSN message of: -●={Pràëlûdïúm}=●- // generationMIO. says (6:40 PM): Unfortunately, by the time i rushed to open firefox, it was already 1001 since my visit was included. :( No prizes for ya though. Yeah, im probably expected to sponsor something for this very special occasion, but nooo! i won't give up any of my hongpaos for a lowly mortal like you. -pouts-  Whee, what a great way to start the year! (according to the lunar calendar, that is.) |
'Twas teh winnar at 6:48 pm.
| Saturday, February 17, 2007 |
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With Chinese New Year just around the corner - yep, reunion dinner tonight! - Singaproeans are making a mad rush to stock up on rice and chocolate coins before the shops close for the fastive season. And it was on a fateful friday (ytd) that my mother took me to Fairprice Xtra at AMK Hub, probably as extra manpower to help her carry all her groceries and extra miscellanous items housewives are infamous for. And man, was it crowded. At least the escalators weren't jammed up like the last time, and there was still some space to move about, though hardly any. But taking a trolley was the wrong choice, cos there's hardly any space to move about. For the first time, i saw more baskets than trolleys lor. You could imagine the place to be like a system of cramped criss-crossing roads, except there's no traffic lights nor wardens at all. Oh, and you can park at the sides too. The traffic's so bad you have to wait at least 30 seconds at every junction. There's also no such thing as U-turning, unless you want to be be squashed head on by a mob. And thanks the sucky design, a lot of accidents occur often. Ramming the trolley into someone, running it over someone's toes or plain crashing is part and parcel of the visit. Even though its a hypermarket, the architects have the bloody sense to divide the already-narrow walkways even further by displaying a row of goods right in the centre. | | S| 0 | KEY H| 0 | 0 - Chenin Blanc's finest E|↑0 | red wine. Cheers. L|↑0 | Џ - Stupid trolley with V|↑0 | toddler girl inside. E| 0Џ| S| 0 | | | The kiasu Singaporeans just make it worse. I even met Bo Yan, who came from a land far far away with his father to buy groceries. God knows how many people from all over Singapore crammed into the hypermarket yesterday, just cos its new and everyone's gotta "join in the crowds". and the entire mall's not even open yet - most of the shops in the upper levels are still under renovation. In the end, I found the Hala section to be almost deserted (unsurprisingly) so i just stoned there with my brother playing in the trolley while my mum went to do her shopping. But we ended up buying just a carton of drink and some frozen roti prata, cos she got sick of the crowds too. I miss the old (and much smaller) NTUC outlet just outside my house. So convenient, and you can push the trolley (and your lil bro inside it) around at high speeds. No such thing as popping into NTUC to grab a packet or two of stuff anymore. =( But the show-stealer of the day was still the few units of FLABeLOS on display near the entrance. It supposedly helps the user lose weight through vibration of this platform which s/he stands on. And it looks absolutely GROSS when some obese auntie uses in, particularly in such a public area. Look at her rotund bum bobbing up and down, its like eeew. >< For the slim couples and little kids who went to try it out for fun, it gives you the ability of double-tonguing very quickly - or to be more onomatopheia-ic, "tsk-tsk-tsk-tsk-a-a-a-a-oomph" *falls off in laughter* xD I will never ever go CNY shopping again out of my own free will. Or buy a set of FLABeLOS, for that matter - though i probably won't need it. |
'Twas teh winnar at 1:16 pm.
| Wednesday, February 14, 2007 |
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Love is in the air~ Several teachers were spotted in the staff room today with bouquets of flowers. Even Mr. Tan HC was seen passing a bouquet to another teacher, who name i cannot remember, with a wry (and awkwardly-shaped) smile. Unfortunately, there were no flowers on Mr. Kevin Cheng's table. Also, Mark, Wei Qi's arch-rival (</3), was seen in home clothes going out on a date with Eening. Well, at least Wei Qi got an invitation to a date from Huang Ji:  Sadly, he rejected it. Even other animals have gotten into the mood. Going back to class after assembly, we caught sight of two couples of pigeons apparently making love with each other on a grass patch. First they hopped about and flapped their wings excitedly, then they got intimately close to each other for goodness-knows-what. To commemorate such a special day, the school initially decided to put our annual compulsory cross-country run on this day. However, due to "unforseen circumstances" (perhaps the PE teachers had dates to attend to?), it was cancelled and we spent 2 hours in the auditorium watching The Pianist instead. It's supposed to bring about awareness of the importance of Total Defence, so they say. We wow'd at the bazookas, at least. The school has such innovative ways to celebrate Valentine's Day, doesn't it? Here's wishing all couples a very fruitful Valentine's Day, even though its over in half an hour. May your romance bear fruit soon. =P |
'Twas teh winnar at 11:35 am.
| Monday, February 12, 2007 |
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So the final epidsode of the final season of Phua Chu Kang wrapped up yesterday with Gurmit Singh himself almost in tears, marking the end of a 12-year long legend. Well, at least in Singaporean terms, that is. Loved by Singaporeans and hated by the Speak Good English Movement (not to mention SM Goh) alike, it's hard to imagine how this uncouth contractor transformed into a national icon, even representing Singapore in The Amazing Race 3 back in 2002. i suppose its the way the show can connect with the mainly-Singaporean audience, what with all the Singrish and "dun pray pray ok!" Criticisms of the PCK series aside, though, one has to admit that PCK Pte Ltd is in fact, one of the relatively most successful comedies/sitcoms in Singapore. Of course, it's no match compared to other shows on the global arena, but put against a backdrop of all the junk Mediacorp sh*ts out ("永不言败" - Never Say Die anyone?), it's at least something worth watching. I will miss the weekly ritual of turning on the TV and tuning in to channel 5 every Tuesday night over dinner. =( So here's a final tribute and farewell to our dear contractor Phua Chu Kang. His trademark mole will remain stuck to our hearts all the time. Ok, maybe that wasn't such an appropriate metaphor, but you get my drift. PCK has become part of Singapore's culture, and is too bright a yellow to be forgotten that easily. Best in Singapore, JB and some say Batam! |
'Twas teh winnar at 8:08 pm.
| Friday, February 09, 2007 |
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Went for gym "training" today, since it was rumoured that both coaches were off at some CCAB (CCA Board) meeting out of school. And guess what? It came true. =D So JJ and i spent 2 hours in the gym drifting around, doing nothing of significance. Though we did help Jia Xi out with the lil sec 'uns a bit. This year, we have an intake of 7 sec 1s through the regular EP3 selection, and around another 5 through DSA. So the gym was relatively rather crowded today - there usually aren't more than 10 people training between Mondays and Thursday, unless its the competition period. And yep, sec 1s are getting smaller and smaller, though not necessarily cuter. Of course, there are exceptions - we have this sec 1 who's even taller than most of the sec 4s. o.O And along comes the biggest surprise of the day: I realised Bing Quan, our dear chairman's bro, is in gym! I didn't realise it until he came up to me and said, "Do you know Bing Heng? I'm his brother." -stun- No wonder he looked so familiar, but then again, we're all similar to the extent of a couple of differing genes. I seriously thought BQ would join canoeing or something like that lah, since BH is in it and would have probably have influenced his to follow in his footsteps. Shockingly, though, BH told his bro that he could "join anything, just don't join canoeing." How disastrous not to uphold the spirit of 饮水思源 (yin2 shui3 si1 yuan2, for those of you whose encoding is screwed up.) Our ancestors will not be pleased. So, voila, Bing Quan randoms into gym. Who wants to place bets on whether his muscles will surpass that of his bro in a year's time? ;P One last thing: Despite repeated encouragements and threats of SungKK, Zachary still has not stepped into gym for almost 8 months now. You should have come today, even if just to show your face and slack off. But not like Wang, our main coach and teacher-in-charge, really cares anyway. Perhaps that's why Bing Quan came into gym after all. xD |
'Twas teh winnar at 11:51 am.
| Thursday, February 08, 2007 |
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im feeling kind of down today. perhaps its due to the fact that i slept late (as usual) last night, even though i didn't touch any homework at all. or maybe its cos i found out today that i got one qn wrong in AMC-10, which means no Round 2 (missed by 3 marks!) or maybe cos we have a chemistry test tmr. or cos my parents just scolded me for "sitting in front of the computer all day", and made sweeping statements which equated to "the young generation today has AP, i wonder what will happen to Singapore." (FYI, i wonder what will happen to us in the near future too, if PAP continues its vice-like grip on our "democracy".) or...i don't know. perhaps its just life that sucks in general. somehow, short sentences and paragraphs just aren't my style, and that says a lot about this post. on a slightly less depressing note, though, we've made an astonishing revelation today: maths whizzes do not just excel in logic, they have amazing creativity too! the following is the evidence from the maths quiz training "attendance list" today, where everyone was instructed to write their class and index number to show they were present.  therefore, we prove Without Loss Of Generalities that maths quiz training is inhabited with 12003(tortoises) + x(smiley faces)2 + y(squiggly peeps) < LAM. |
'Twas teh winnar at 10:34 pm.
| Tuesday, February 06, 2007 |
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We In fact, the paper was so hard that even the preparations were difficult. Before we started, we had to fill in our personal details - and they wanted stuff like the school's address (when it was already stamped right below!) and even our home phone number. Caused me to get writer's cramp from all that shading. Completely unnecessary and irrelevant, or in the words of Mr. Ang, "Just anyhow fill in lah, then want it for fun only." Wasted half-an-hour wasting lead on little circles. <_< Nothing much to say about the actual paper itself, since the questions are so difficult you probably won't understand them anyway if i described them here. The scoring system is kinda weird though, 6 pts for correct answer, 0 pts for an incorrect one - and here's the odd part - 1.5 pts for a blank one. So if you left the entire thing blank, you could still get 37.5 pts - better than guessing everything and getting it all wrong. At least i could do 19 out of the 25 questions. Looks like that's the average in 3N, though. So the maximum mark i can get is 123. We need at least 120 to be selected for the 2nd round, which is called some guai lan name of "AIME", so if i get just one careless mistake, GG. Later, i took a look at the question booklet again and realised i could have done 3 more questions, which would mean that i would be on par with Derek. I misread one, didn't have enough time to think of the solution for another, and didn't even have time to look at the last one. D: Guess i should have skipped some of the harder questions i was stuck on. Then again, i checked my answers with that of Wei Qi's and all of them matched (except for a couple which he didn't do) so i think i should be able to get all the 19 correct. That is, unless i shade soemthing wrongly... But I should stop harping about AMC-10, since i still have a Biology test tmr to study for. =( |
'Twas teh winnar at 8:14 pm.
| Sunday, February 04, 2007 |
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Before we do anything, let's rejoice that Singapore beat Thailand and is now the champion for ASEAN Cup twice in a row. Yay! =) Now, let's get into the nitty-gritty details. I can't comment on the first half of the match since i didn't watch it, but i saw the replay of Thailand's first goal and i must admit its quite nicely done. Sweet goal there. However, from what i watched in the second half, the Singapore Lions kinda sucked. Their ball control was just lousy, either ramming the ball out or allowing the Thais to intercept their passes, thus the latter held possession of the ball most of the time. Even my father remarked, "Walao eh, Singapore deserves to lose." Not that the Thais were that good either, but they were at least somewhat better than the Lions. Both teams wasted a crap lot of scoring opportunities, though. Then came the lucky Singaporean goal in the 82nd minute by Amri. Pursued by two Thai defenders, he managed to blast the ball into the net even before the goalkeeper could move. But then again, luck is a major factor in everything, so kudos there, Amri, for doing Singapore proud. The Thais tried desperately to slot in another goal in teh remaining 10 minutes or so, but unfortunately time was jsut not on their side, even with the referee handing out two yellow cards for wasting time. Ugh. So the match ended at a 1-1 draw, although Singapore won with a 3-2 aggregate. And the papers tmr will be splashed with headlines over how spectacular the Lions were, how great the match was, and how the Thais were sore losers. Again, patriotism and governmental forces at work. But looking at the perfomance of Singapore today, I am worried about the sports scene in Singapore. Yeah, the Government does try to groom local sports talent, rewarding altheletes with generous cash handouts, upgrading sports facilities, announcing ambitious plans like Goal 2010 and whatnot. But the local talent pool is simply too small. Look at it this way: it's just 3 years to the target of Goal 2010. Till now, i don't even see Singapore even qualifying for the World Cup, much less making it to the finals. Perhaps the gahmen is hoping that the opponent fouls in the penalty box and the referee awards a penalty to Singapore every single match. Then perhaps that dream may just come true. |
'Twas teh winnar at 10:41 am.
| Saturday, February 03, 2007 |
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Had to go for the mentor's tea for HSSRP yesterday. Apparently, there was supposed to be a briefing, then an introduction of the mentors, who were mostly professors in NUS or NTU, so we could meet them face-to-face for the first time, before ending with a library tour. After being released about 10 mins late by Mdm Cao at around 1.40 pm, those of us from HSSRP met up an ran for bus 151 to NUS, by which time was already 2. We arrived there at 2.20, and found out we alighted at the wrong stop. I mean, i think NUS is more than twice the Hwachong campus, and if Hwachong already spans 3 bus stops, you can imagine how confused we were with which stop to alight from. There's even buses running on 4 internal routes to ferry people around the gigantic campus. The smart Kia Wee decided to live up to his status of being an adventurous Scout and walk 4 bus stops - almost the entire width of NUS - to our destination building, whereas we, the more logical ones, took a look at the map and decided to take the shuttle buses instead. And guess what - we found Kia Wee at the very next bus stop, squinting at the map - applying the map-reading skills of a scout! We gestured wildly at him, and thankfully he saw us, got the message and boarded the bus. We arrived there just in time (the Nanyang girls weren't there yet) and the briefing began. Nothing interesting here. Next, they introduced our mentors - and guess what, only 4 of the ~15 mentors were present, and my mentor, Dr Lee Jin, was one of them. Just great...i hadn't really prepared much for my project yet. But what could i do? I went over and greeted him with a stiff "Good Afternoon, Dr. Lee". He had a sort of conservative look about him, and as his name suggested, he seemed to be from China, speaking with a mainland-Chinese accent. I needn't have worried, since Dr. Lee was the one talking the most in our discussion, with me replying with an occasional "Mmph" or "Yeah." Ah well, looks like my first personal interaction with a professor didn't go too badly after all. Halfway through, though, he had to leave to return his office. Just as well, since i was running out of new points to discuss. After that, we had our "tea", consisting of carrot cake, some ngoh hiam thingy and tiny eclairs. Oh, and there was chraysanthemum tea which looked rather yellowish, too. It was a measly catered spread of largely tasteless food, though the eclairs were probably the most appetising. But e being the "hungry ghosts" we were (we rushed to NUS without even having our lunch) took 2 or 3 servings, since no one really wanted the food. Finally, we had our tour of the Central Library in NUS. Its comparable to the National Library, with 6 storey crammed with a couple of million journals, encyclopedias and research books (no fiction! =() with a lot of info. Well, not really surprising, since its a university after all. On a side note, i was actually falling asleep during the tour, but its quite dangerous to be dozing off while climbing stairs, however even playing Worms Fort secretly on my phone couldn't wake me up. Unfortunately, our library cards weren't ready yet, so we couldn't borrow any books. After browsing through the wide selection of books, though, i realised the books i borrowed from the NLB libraries pales in comparison. There's books eprtaining to almsot every field you could think of - Genealogy, Criminology, Chemical Engineering etc. And if you can't find what you want there, don't fret, cos there's another 6 specialised libraries in the campus you can go to! o_O After all that, though, i think the name "Mentors' Tea" isn't really suitable, since only a few mentors were able to turn up in relation to the "Mentor" part, and the "Tea" was more like mere refreshments. Perhaps something like "Boring Intruduction with Snacks" might be more apt. |
'Twas teh winnar at 11:39 am.
