Scout trooper

Today I went scouting for images for the SW special on my blog (you'll see it soon!)... I decided that the illustrated scripts (with lots of movie stills) would be a good choice of resources, so I went to Marine Parade library to borrow them (there's none in Tampimnes library and only Ep.5 in Bedok Library).

So... I'm back with the scripts!

Oh, yesterday I took a picture of my LEGO X-wing which I made in my Sec 4 days using stray LEGO pieces.

And the CS lab is freezing my fingers again. I'll probably get frostbites.

Sk8ter boy!

Yesterday I took part in the inline skating mass race.

I was very excited about this when I knew that I got in the race. What I was worried about was that I could have forgotten all the stuff I learned from the skating elective course last year.

Before the race, the IT Club guys went to our control room to watch an episode of Naruto. Along the way, Kuti and I kept giving spoilers of SW Ep.3 to Junqun (much to his dismay, of course).

"Oh, then Padme was Force-strangled by Anakin right?"

Haha. Now for the skating part.

When I tried skating on my rented skates, of course I couldn't get used to it, but with further test-runs, I felt that I never lost what I've learnt after all.

The boys' mass race started at about 10 am, after the girls' race. As we all got ready at the starting line, everybody darted forward as if there's no tomorrow. I wasn't surprised that I was lagging behind the pack right from the start.

Last year's course was short lah. My skills were still limited.

Some more, the race route was in such a way that the skaters had to make clockwise U-turns.

And while I could turn left easily, turning right was always my limitation to skating.

Every of my U-turn was a fall. And I was supposed to skate 10 laps.

Crap lah...

There was a part of the route which was extra bumpy... it acted as some "obstacle" for the skaters... but I didn't fall there.

There was once I lost control and skated towards a car! A parked car lah, what are you thinking?

And while doing my last lap, I heard the song "Step on" playing at the sports complex. Haha.

It wasn't really that bad for me... I'm still a noob at skating, and considering experience, I've ventured a much greater distance on my skates than anytime last year.

So at the end of it I got an aching back (I skated in that hunched position for balance), calloused toes and the experience of my life. I was just a bit sorry for the swimming team (who organised this race) because they had to wait for me to finish the race (long after the others finished it).

Of course, nothing beats the first mouthful of cool water after a long race.

Later in the day I went for a Quake 3 (some first-person-shooting LAN game which turned out to be very fun) session. There was one map we played where there's a lava pit, so... here we go again, repeating SW Ep. 3 dialogues.

And some of us did "fall" into the lava pit. Lol.

In the afternoon we went to the Squash court for Dodgeball (not to play, but to organise the game). There were a lot of screw-ups. Firstly, we couldn't begin on time because the Squash game hasn't ended yet. So the whole thing was pushed back for a full 2 hours! Most of the participants were quite pissed off because of that.

And we had to handle their wrath.

During the game there were complications too. Firstly, not all the players turned up. So we had to tell the houses to regroup their teams, and so we could not stick to that "3 guys 3 girls in a team of 6" rule.

We got lashed by some poeple who just couldn't accept that there were better players in other houses.

Then there was this problem that because the Squash game ended late and we couldn't start on time, our game got pushed into that late time slot and clashed with the Captain's ball finals. Some of the Dodgeball teams had to go for Captains' ball, and we had a hard time re-arranging the groups.

We had to do a walkover for some of the teams.

One of the teams for my own house (Beta) which could not make it because of Captains' ball came back later and was dismayed that we did a walkover. Fortunately there was some situation that caused one of the winning teams (from Gamma house) of the qualifying rounds to be without an opponent team. Hence, we decided to put that Beta house team against that Gamma team.

Problem solved.

In fact, that Beta team got into the finals. Against a Delta team.

In summary, the whole Dodgeball thing was stressful for us IT Club guys, and I'm glad it was over.

Oh, last week I took a shot on my camera phone... mimicking Darth Sidious.

Moody movie

Yesterday during GP lecture (1st period) we watched a video on future travel into space... many scientists predicted that after millions of years the Sun will swell up and die, causing the Earth to be uninhabitable.

Well I think Christ will return way before "a million years later". I don't think this generation of humans will really last that long... longer than the Sun does.

And I was still looking for pictures for my upcoming project... shit I don't know whether I can finish it in time...

Anyway, after 4 straight lectures (Phew!) I went to Bedok central to watch ROTS.

The show was a sad one lah (duh!)... even though I knew that there'll be a good ending to this saga (this is just the prequel, remember?), I still couldn't help feeling moody for the rest of the day...

The movie was good lah, generally... but I think Yoda's departure from Kashyyk was pretty abrupt.

In the evening there was a Captain's ball match (a prelude to the coming sports carnival) and my class took part as well. We didn't get into the finals, though.

And I won't give an extensive coverage on the carnival... for today's part, at least. I'm only involved in tomorrow's events... namely inline skating and Dodgeball (I'm the organizer for this one).

So... that's all

Surprise gift

Today was all-lecture day, so not much events.

Except that Ms Fong took up a free period (and one Civics) for Chem tutorial... and worse still, I didn't bring my tutorial book.

Other than that, another exciting thing was the much anticipated Physics test (it was supposed to be last week, but was postponed due to SPA, much to our dismay haha). The questions were what I would call... standard.

I think I can pass the test. If so, it would be my first Physics pass in my second year in JC.

Following that was IT Club meeting... we did some June camp stuff and tried out Dodgeball with the actual number and type of balls (last week we used only one small miserable tennis ball).

It was a blast lah, but because we did it behind the Audi, that ball kept flying over the wall, and to get over that wall (by legal means) one has to walk a long way... out of the school... through a flight of stairs at the back... then back again.

The ball flew over 2 times.

Before the Dodgeball thing, Joel suddenly approached me and gave me a thumbdrive (he knew mine was spoilt) and I was quite surprised... he said it was a gift, so... well...

It looked more solid than my previous one.

Thanks Joel.

Hike of the year

Yesterday was the day when the IT Club Exco went on a recee hike for our coming June Camp.

As it was meant to be a secret, I won't reveal much of the route... wait until the June Camp is over lah!

There were some interesting incidents during the hike, of course... (I mean, a lot can happen in 3 hours!)

We talked a lot about... stuff like Star Wars, soccer, Ankur (who was there wth us)... etc.

OK we did pass by East Coast Park... it was very windy there, and all I could say was... shiok! Really lor... natural air-con!

We met a group of Hwa Chong Institute students doing a backpacking hike. Talk about the match between our College and HCI the previous day... lol.

Along the way we booked the pit for our June Camp barbecue session.

Then we passed by a very beautiful forest area... looks very... fairy tale. Like we say in Chinese, very meng huan.

That's why we decided that we should call our hike a scenic hike!

Anyway, the hard part of the route comes after the beautiful forest... but we do hope the Year Ones wouldn't mind...

Haha there were funny stuff in the "hard" route too... we saw an empty condom packet lying on the grass... could it be that someone... did that in the woods?

Never mind.

Then there was once when we saw a pack of wild dogs... don't worry, we won't make the Year Ones walk that dogs route...

A reward for our going through the hard part was a walk along the Sheares bridge! OK I know I'm disclosing a bit but... can't help lah. It was so awesome!

After 3 hours of what I would call an "adventure" (the first of its kind in my life), we reached Suntec city unscathed! Except for a few blisters on Ankur's feet. At Suntec, we went to the "Family corner" (a place with carpeted flooring where you can sit there and even have picnics if you want!) for the evaluation and further planning for the Camp.

Hope the Year Ones would appreciate our efforts lah... haha.

Oh I couldn't watch Revenge of the Sith that evening... something cropped up with my Mum and I was supposed to help out... never mind lah, can wait.

The taste of victory

Today was another day for usual tutorials and lectures... and some resource searching for me... I'd been searching for some resources with which I'm going to do some kind of stuff... right on this blog.

There's time for that some other day. You'll know what I'm talking about when you see it.

Poor Maoxin, he's now the only one left in my class doing Bio-Chem.

Today I nearly walked past the Discipline Master while eating my Kit Kat... if not for my friend's help.

Anyway, during Food Chem lecture our lecturer talked about how to differentiate genuine and false sharks' fins. On the molecular level.

Genuine sharks' fin contains some kind of protein... and another aromatic compound (one which is connected to a benzene ring). False sharks' fins do not contain this kind of aromatic compound, so if you really (bother to) go and do a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance analysis, you can identify the benzene ring in real sharks' fin.

Sounds fun. And creepy.

Today, almost the whole school turned up at Toa Payoh Stadium (we're brought there) to support our College basketball team (playing the finals against Hwa Chong Institute team). Although I was no longer that overly enthusiastic kid whom I was last year, I still cheered all the way for the College (I mean, since I was already there...). Initially our team was leading, then later they got a bit off-form especially in shooting... and then they caught up again.

The result? 73 : 65. Our team WON!!!

It was nearly 20 years since TJC basketball team touched the champion trophy. It was a moment of elation for (almost) the whole College cohort...

So... yeah, went to Junction 8 with Kelvin and Jansen after the match... and now I'm in Pasir Ris Library blogging.

Kelvin has an exciting day ahead... 2 wedding ceremonies to attend during the weekend... enjoy hor!

As for me, there's gonna be an exciting outing for IT Club as well... we're gonna go around looking for ideas for our June Camp hike!

And if possible, tommorow is ROTS for me as well!

Brute O' polo

Today's swimming lesson, with Mr Ng absent, was supposed to be another "water-polo" session... without nets, of course!

Today it's something like 10/04 Vs 12/04, with 16/04 people uniformly distributed between the 2 groups. For the frontliners, things got a bit "physical" when some 12/04 guys were near their goal... Maoxin even had a cut on his finger!

Today's match was good, with lots (and I mean LOTS!) of laughs... for me (the myopic geek) it was a challenge to actually pass the ball to the right teammate (or should I say, to my teammate in the first place...). I made a few mistakes lah. Inevitable waht.

On our way back to College, Maoxin and I saw a just-dead rat. Not very gross looking lah... just some flies around it... I saw a worse one in my Sec 4 year; that one was crushed by a car, so... the innards were visible.

Sorry if I put you off your next meal.

Oh, did I mention that I went back to College in my PE attire? I didn't want to sweat on my uniform lah... that's why.

I bought Ngor Hiang (5-spices meatballs) as usual for my post-swimming meal... I intended to bring it to my classroom as I thought the teachers would not be there yet.

Yeah right.

I forgot Ms Fong's announcement that today, Mr Foo and Mrs Lim (VP) would be here to inspect our Chemistry lesson. That might be the reason why everybody (the teachers I mean) were so punctual.

I was greeted by Ms Fong's "No eating in class". Mr Foo also told me to go change into my uniform.

So I went to the toilet to change... and eat up my Ngor Hiang.

OK that was another de-appetizer...

There's Physics SPA today... Skill A. Throughout the day I was not very much in the SPA mood... only after my friend came up with the Skill A mugging list (see previous post), then I was sort of geared up for SPA... heh.

It turned out fine, I think... my answer was logical... I hope.

Mugging: Skill A -- Planning

One of our Forum moderators "M" designed a mugging plan for his fellow moderator, "Zzzzz". This "plan" was done in the Physics SPA Skill A answering fashion.

---

Aim:To perfect Zzzzz's Economics 9079 scores

Hypothesis: In order to perfect Zzzzz's Economics scores,a strategy must be devised to tackle the problem. This strategy will include doing huge amounts of past papers to train Zzzzz's cognitive skills in Economics, further familiarise himself with the exam format and to be able to handle the paper under stressful examination conditions. Detailed studying of every single topic will enable Zzzzz to have the knowledge to tackle any Economics Question with sufficient detail. Revision of all past work will complement the mastery of theory and rigorous doing of past year papers.

Procedure:

M recommends the following homework in the first two weeks

1)Yr 2 Economics JCT 1995-2004
2)16 JC Economics Prelims for 2004
3)16(15?)JC Economics Prelims for 2003

Each of the 2003/2004 prelims will include 30 MCQs, 1 DRQ and 1 Case Study each and 6 esssays.

M also recommends getting more CSQS and DRQS from students of other schools for practice. Zzzzz should aim to get at least 18/20 and 25/30 for the DRQ and CSQ respectively each time.

M recommends the following in the process in the last two weeks:

1)All TYS MCQs
2)All past tutorials with MCQs/DRQs/Essays
3)All past MCQ/DRQ/Essay Tests
4)Studying for every topic two times

Zzzzz should study:

1)Fundamenals of economics
2)Product Price Determination
3)Production and costs
4)Market Structures
5)Market Efficiency
6)Labour Market
7)Money and Banking
8)National Income Accounting
9)Theory of income determination
10)Full Emplotment and unemployment along with money transmission mechanism
11)Theory of international trade
12)Balance of payments
13)Foreign exchange Rates

In addition to the 13 topics in the syllabus that will be tested in the JCT, M also suggests that Zzzzz gets notes from year3s on the Role of Goverment and study Economic growth as it could possibly be tested in the CSQ section. Thus...

14)Role of Goverment
15)Economic Growth

Zzzzz would thus be able to boast of the rare distinction of having finished his entire JCT, Preliminary and actual A-Level Examination Preparation for Economics 9079 within the June holidays. M awaits seeing Zzzzz collecting the prize for the highest score in Economics in the preliminary examamination on college day next year.

M's suggested strategy wuld be to do one prelim and one JCT Paper each day in the first two weeks along with homework for other subjects.

It may be hardwork but Zzzzz will be rewarded with an A grade in the range of 70s, definitely enough to beat everyone else in 08/04 and the level. For al we know, Zzzzz may actually break the psycological barrier of 80% for the Economics examination.This will represent a new high in achievement by a TJCian in an Economics examination. This would serve as an inspiration to others to break old barriers and achieve new heights.

Calculations:

For Zzzzz to get an A Grade of 60%, the following scores for MCQ/DRQ/CSQ and the two essays would be a combination sufficient to achieve it.

MCQs:12/15
DRQ:12/20
CSQ:18/30
Two Essays: 14/25 and 15/25

However, 70% is a more suitable score for someone of Zzzzz's intellect. M thus recommends...

MCQs:14/15
DRQ:14/20
CSQ:21/30
Essays:17/25 for both Essays

Of course, the best choice for Zzzzz is to reach out for the stars and get 80%, breaking a psycological barrier at the same time...

MCQs:15/15
DRQ:18/20
CSQ:25/30
Essays:19/25 for both Essays

Safety Precautions:

Remember, Soo Hern will always be there to cheer for Zzzzz and give him moral support and encouragment...

Priestess may want to offer online counselling should Zzzzz ever feel burderened by an excessively heavy workload.

OMG

Today for Physics we went into our option topics -- Fluid Physics. Today was the beginning of the first topic on buoyant forces.

During GP today our tutor talked about globalisation. She said that globalisation has reached a new phase called...

OK she gave us a clue. It starts with 'O', ends with 'G', and has 3 syllables.

One of my classmates guessed "OMG".

Of course, the answer was nothing close to that -- she's referring to "outsourcing".

Ms Fong told us yesterday that she's going to do Chemistry during Civics period today. When she reached our classroom today, we protested (duh!) that without Civics, we can't have "morals".

Yeah right.

Anyway the Chem lesson went on, then when the Chem stuff was over... heh, there was time for "Civics" but we changed viewpoint again (fickle people...).

Argh, we just wanted early lunch...

Come to think of it, doesn't it mean that in the past when the class always wanted early lunch instead of Civics, we're actually "trading our morals" for an early meal?

Sigh... what's the world coming to?

*Tomorrow, it time for REVENGE!*

*All the best for our basketball team... getting into the finals for the first time in 2 decades.*

*Our class shall clean LT1 soon.*

Fun with Physics

Well, I think this title looks is a bit "fosed.blogspot".

These days have been very tiring for me... I kept arriving at College feeling drowsy... this morning I collapsed at one of the canteen tables immediately after I put down my stuff.

And I woke up at around 7:21 am. To see Kelvin sitting before me.

We chatted lah... on and on until... "Shit! Ain't I supposed to go buy this week's issue of 8 days?"

It's like this: While I expected the issue for this week to be a Star Wars issue, I discovered yesterday evening that the SW issue came out last Thursday already!

OK I was slow...

So I got the issue lah. Yoda cover (one of the 4 covers...). Should have gotten the Leia one.

OK anyway, today during GP Mdm Lim briefed us on the Topic Sentence again... haha I know she's quite worried for most of us because of our essay topic sentences... we're not that good at it, according to "Cambridge standards".

To digress a bit, I sense some of my classmates doing some matchmaking for some one and someone else...

During Food Chem lecture today, we're taught about the structures of proteins.

You see, human hair is made of proteins, and the lecturer told us that at the rate out hair grows, 40 peptide (amide) bonds are generated per second for each strand of hair.

For those who don't have a clue of what's a peptide (amide) bond, it looks something like this...

During Physics tutorial today, Mr Desai decided that since nobody volunteered to present their solutions, the class should call out people they wanted to "volunteer" up there. This led to a class-wide sabo-ing exercise... I was one of them, along with a few others including Joel, Yong Chuan etc.

This was the first time we were so hyper during a Physics tutorial.

After stopping for n weeks, I finally continued my jogging today! The rain just stopped when I started jogging, so... it was a quite cool weather, but it was not so good for my feet... I thought I could be careful not to step on puddles, but still I got my shoes all wet.

Never mind. I could still maintain my timing at about 16 minutes plus.

And I think I like Ocean's new song "Six-coloured rainbow".

Watch out!

Yesterday I finally completed the first question of my Computing Coursework. Yeah. Haven't tested it, though. I'm afraid of the moment when suddenly the compiler tells me that there are more than 100 errors in my program.

Today morning was Thermochem SPA! We sort of used this spirit lamp (runs on alcohol) which gives quite a nice flame. Haha. I remember Ms Fong saying that I only need to be assessed on Skill C this time, but I think I gave quite a lot of stuff for Skill D too. Generally I'm confident.

Not so for my tutorials, though. For one moment I thought I was fast in completing my tutorials, in another moment I was barely keeping up with the pace of the tutors.

And last weekend I forgot that Ms Fong would go through NMR today, so I didn't touch that topic at all.

My friend said that wearing the watch on the wrist of the writing hand would be very uncomfortable in times of writing, and I had to agree, so I tried wearing my watch on my left wrist today.

It's even less comfortable... I'm not suited to change, you see...

It's back on my right wrist again. Nah... I'l just take it off while writing.

There was no group PE today again. Same reason -- teachers had to support sports groups at tournaments.

At least they don't do all this stuff during swimming sessions (which are conducted in early morning anyway...). If they do, I'll...

I'll...

...complain on Forums. Heh, the easy way out.

Notice I've changed my photo on the blog. That one was taken using my handphone. Oh, talking about handphone pics, here are more photos of my study room.

My study area

My Electone

Mesa gotta freeza in-a carbonite-sa

Went to starwars.com (again?) and saw the latest picture for the caption contest.

WTF?!!

Attended my Aunt's funeral for the last 2 days... they didn't know I'm a Christian yet (still can't tell my Dad... woe is me) but I did manage to avoid the too Bhuddist/Taoist parts of the ceremony.

Of course, I did feel for my cousins at that time... losing their Mom just after celebrating Mother's day...

I pray I can cherish my Mom more.

Deliverance

Today we got back our Maths test (Wow, now that the June holidays are near, the tutors mark real fast!).

I got 19 out of 25.

I'm happy that I finally passed a Maths test. My first Maths pass for this year!

Thank God.

Oh, here's the animation I did during IT Club Flash lesson yesterday.

This is done as a re-enactment of the scene in Return of the Jedi.

"Anyhow whack!"

Paper Sith

Today's swimming lesson was a blast!

Although there was rain in the morning and there were probably a few who would rather not change into swimming gear at all, swimming lesson still went on.

Good for me.

We had a "water polo" match all the way... it wasn't really water polo because the method of scoring was just to hold the ball and touch the side of the pool to score a goal... it was like Captain's ball in the pool.

Haha... Mr Ng joined our team.

During the game, I (with a myopic degree of nearly 1000 on each eye) had some difficulty spotting my teammates (with my specs off)... but generally I can say that I tend to do passes better in water. Heh.

What's more, during the game I finally mastered front crawl! Woohoo!

After the match (Mr Ng lost count of the scores lol). The match ended quite early, so Maoxin and I had time to swim a few across-the-pool laps.

Back at College, I was greeted by something less impressive.

I failed the Chem test I took yeaterday by 1 mark. 5 out of 12.

The reason was not conceptual error, but a few careless mistakes. That was the only way I could console myself. It is relatively easier to correct carelessness than to try understanding a topic which I don't.

Ms Fong said she may consider asking me to attend remedial lessons soon.

During lunch today I came across this issue of TIME magazine for public reading, and the cover story is about SW Ep 3. Heh. Lots of stuff, but most of which I already knew.

What I didn't know, though, was that George Lucas would be in the film during the scene where Anakin and Palpatine would be watching an opera. He would appear as a blue-faced guy, I think.

During Computing, Quang Hung tole me about a Star Wars special in today's issue of the New Paper, so... I got it lah, of course. Quite rich in content, I think. Haven't read it yet.

After school was the IT Club Exco interview, which went on fine. I find that we (the current Exco) are less intimidating than the previous Exco (which freaked me out during my interview...).

Starwars.com added this section in its opening Flash movie to introduce all the characters, locations and stories. I found a particularly cute shot of Palpatine (after the transformation, of course!).

"No more Jedi around, heh?"

Ugh. Hope it scared you.

2 quick tests and a slow speech made my day.

Today was a day in which I would have a load (or two loads!) lifted off my heart.

For the past few days I've been worrying about my tests... I mean, I could mug the ass off me but there're certain things which are out of my control. What if something happened during my tests? What if my mugging was, in the end, in vain?

Yes. Today is (I should say was) the day for 2 of my tests: Maths and Chem.

Yesterday night I prayed a lot.

Today my Maths test was at the first period (this applies for the whole cohort haha) and generally I can say I would pass the test. I think the test was easy for everyone, but that didn't stop me from being extra elated for the rest of my morning.

I came across this article debating about whether to be kept alive through atrificial means if one goes into permanent vegetative state. Without written proof, it was hard to decide what the patient wanted, as it was in the recent Terri Schiavo case. Schiavo's parents said that her faith (Catholic) suggested that she would not decide not to be kept alive through artificial means, despite the testimony given by Schiavo's personal friends that she actually told them "No tubes for me".

I myself would not say that I love dying, and I would not go for Euthanasia even if diagnosed with cancer... but did the Bible stress that we must hold on to "life" so dearly? That refusal of being kept alive artificially is just wrong?

What the Bible does say clearly is that if we believe in Christ we would be with him after death, that we would not perish but have everlasting life. This I know.

I would not pursue death, but I think when I grow up, I would choose to sign the AMD. No use keeping me alive if I am befallen with a simmilar case as that of Schiavo.

Let me go see Christ lah, come on!

Anyway, Mr Desai wasn't here today so it was relaxing time for the class. Due to the smell of chlorinated water (which I couldn't stand) that seemed to fill the classroom, I went out to study for Thermochem (the test was to follow this period).

*Mugger!!!*

Shortly after I returned to the classroom, Ms Fong came in rather abruptly and the test started with equal abruptness. I was surprised that the test only consisted of 2 questions and the total mark was just 12!

It was easy, though. I think I can get 70% of the marks.

After that I joined my friends for a gathering (today we discussed about prayer requests for a combined prayer list), followed by a talk given by one of the Generals in SAF.

The talk was informative, but the speed with which he delivered the speech made the whole thing very long, and I was, like, upset because I could have used the time to do my computing stuff.

Never mind. The speech has ended after all, and the time is all mine. Better use it wisely.

Lor Mee Chemistry

Today during lunch break, Poh Woon came to join us for lunch again, and we shared some common frustrations that are common among guys in BGR... sigh... in all kinds of relationships there are bound to be highs and lows... more than often I've been thinking that I was losing friends.

In my relationship with God there've been ups and downs as well, most of which was my fault, though...

In relationships there are bound to be frustrations but what matters is whether we want to stay on and walk to the end.

Oh, talk about relationships, I just feel that some of the guys in 10/04 will never get the attention of the class. I think I'm one of them.

... ... ...

Anyway, during Food Chemistry lecture today, the lecturer talked about starch as a thickening agent... how it gelatinises and retrogradation (the reverse of gelatinisation).

Basically it's water molecules being traped between starch chains and whatever stuff.

We were taught that stirring and other forms of agitation will cause retrogradation and whatever's sticky will become watery... it reminds me of eating lor mee, where the dark gravy will always become watery after I finished the noodles.

Talk about lor mee...

I recall eating what the stall called the "best lor mee in town". Firstly, when the lor mee was served, the dark gravy seemes to have undergone uneven gelatinisation (I learn fast OK?), causing sticky globules of starch to appear in the gravy. So I had to remove all those globules (a whole lot of them!) before the meal looked edible.

Stray globules kept emerging from the gravy while I was eating, and it turned me off big-time.

I vowed never to eat lor mee from that stall again.

Arrgh... I was listening to YES 933 on the Net... when it came to "The Moment" by Stef Sun (I like that song) the streaming had some problems... so it spoilt that song for me. Arrgh!

Anyway, I saw this caption competition on starwars.com... you'll understand.

Click image to view captions

That's all.

Thou shalt Flash no more.

I have lots of stuff from a recent sermon I wanted to share, but I have to do it some other day.

Just for your information.

OK today was generally peaceful... you know, Chem practical, tutorials, lectures... same stuff. Except that during Physics lecture I slept again. I was awakened by a particularly loud Flash animation which the lecturer showed us to... sort of wake us up. Obviously it worked on me. Literally.

Oh, talk about Flash animation... no I'm not going to make your computer lag with another pointless animation.

In fact, I can't do animations that often now.

During Computing period, I realised a painful fact -- that the group of computers the year-two students use (you know... with all the personal user accounts...) caught some virus and had to be reformatted.

Not that the user accounts were gone for good. New accounts can be created and I did not store essential data on my computer anyway.

What's real bad was that since the web-design coursework was over, the reformatted computers need not have Flash MX installed. So now if I want to use Flash, I have to go use some other computer in thhe lab.

Doesn't sound that bad actually, but... you know, it's always better to have what you want in your personal computer right?

Anyway, I think Maoxin is a bit angry with me for not updating him on homeworks and new lecture topics during the time he was absent.

Sorry MX, I'm sure I'll be able to spot and meet the needs of my friends in the future.

There was no group PE today because the PE teachers were with the sports groups' tournaments. Hence I've got the time to actually blog today.

Oh, I chanced upon this section in MSN movies which covers tons of stuff about SW Ep.3. I also found a picture there which I was searching for ages!

Meet Isaiah the Jedi.

Oh, there's been a discussion on TJC Forums on the members' ranking system. Previously the ranking system had a town theme, so it consitied of "Merchants", "Workers" etc. Haha.

Nothing bad about it, except the fact that new members are titled "Nobodies". Of course there're some who don't like it right?

Hence the discussion on a new themed ranking system.

Well, since Star Wars Ep. 3 is drawing near, most of us there suggested a Sith-themed ranking system, so I came up with...

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Ranking suggestions (descending order):

1. Emperor
2. Sith Lord
3. Royal Guard
4. Grand Moff
5. Moff
6. General
7. Stormtrooper

Make the Mods "Jedi", Trainee mods "Padawan", and Global mods "Jedi master".

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Hehe... in the end my proposal was accepted, so I'm now a Jedi Knight!

During morning break today, I realised how immense my appetite was.

Macaroni with beef Rendang + Seaweed chicken + Fishcake + Chinese sausage + Cravio ice-cream.

That's quite a lot for me.

Today there was no maths remedial again. The girls (who seem to have an array of poker card games in their minds) played this card game where one person passes cards around the table to every player continuously. When you see another player having a card on top of his/her stack with the same value as yours (e.g. Club 3 vs Spade 3), you have to call out the player's name first (i.e. before he/she calls out yours) and you get to pass all your cards to him/her.

At the end of the game, the person with the most cards in his/her hand is the loser.

Every player gets to choose his/her substitute names within a theme (e.g. MRT stations or brand names). Everyone wanted to choose long names so for fruits theme, they had things like "genetically modified seedless grapes". ROFLMAO.

During Food-chem lecture today, I learnt that those Chinese braised ducks are made using caramel and appropriate amounts of spices. Until now I have been thinking that the dark colour was caused by black soya sauce!

Oh. Our current topic is on sugars, so the lecturer actually brought some sweets which were free for the the taking at the end of the lecture.

Except that all the marshmellows were gone when I reached the lecturer's desk (I was sitting at the back).

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In The 08/04 class thread (which is full of SPAM) on TJC Forums, Ming Hwee made a homework list which inspired me to do the same.

Isaiah's list of homework for this weekend!!
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Chemistry:
-Try to do my electrochem tutorials.
-Revise Thermochem.
-Do my Organic Chem Flow chart (Full-colour version)

Maths 9233:
-Tutorials lah, duh! Mrs Leong's fast, I tell you.
-Summarise my past notes for last year

Physics:
-I am one tutorial ahead of Mr Desai and I finished Quantum Physics! What can I say, man?

Computing:
-Our mock coursework.

Told you....

Told you I was going to do another animation...

Heh heh... this time I used motion guide, so it's a new skill practice huh?

Haha... the guy beside me is doing animations of lightsaber wielding dudes! Nice!

Evangelism

Yesterday morning I joined Jiansheng for the chin-up practices. After doing a few chin-ups (he did a few; I did none!) we saw a few old guys who were there for morning exercise. Jiansheng suggested something I did not even think of during my Sec 4 "on-fire-for-God" days.

"Let's evangelise to them."

"OK lor..." so I followed him towards the few uncles and Jiansheng started asking them whether they knew the meaning of life (you know... our usual stuff...) and then he told them he was a Christian.

Following this was a series of "advices" from the uncles... that we young ones should not be "too devoted" to religions and must concentrate on studies... and that "all religions have their good points"... you know, their usual stuff!

A bit hard to evangelise, I think.

Firstly, in the Biblical days, in the Book of Acts, for example, Apostles evangelised to either Jews (who believe in the Old Testament and hence the Messianic prophecies) or people who believe in other gods (which means they did believe in gods in the first place!).

Now we evangelise to a new generation of "believe-in-yourselves", who do not believe that gods can exist.

Nevertheless, God remains the same. This I know. The most important thing it religiosity can't help in evangelism. Only love can.

After that attempt, I talked with Jiansheng about evangelism. I almost thought he's going to do street evangelism soon (!!!), but he said no. He said that he would look for opportunities that would make evangelism effective. It's not just about fufilling a quota.

I think that's quite a matured remark. I myself have gone through bouts of doubt (Aww ...what's new?) about methods of evangelism (no I'm not a "Methodist"...) and I do not think street evangelism is that effective.

I didn't say it's not effective at all... I knew a few examples where it worked... but in other cases, it resulted in turning off some of my friends like Jinrong and Kelvin (he may want to blog about his experience...).

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I just finished listening to Sy Rogers' sermon... the gist of the whole sermon was that God does not want us to play "pious games" with him.

Some people think it's better to "cleanse" themselves before they feel "presentable" to God, but the fact is that we can't do it! Only God can cleanse us from sins and guilt.

Oh yes, I've just evangelised again.

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Yesterday afternoon, while I was mugging in the canteen, I tried to tune in to YES 933 FM using my $2 radio... it kept skipping to News radio 938 without passing by 933... in the end after I changed place in the centeen and then I could tune in to 933. Wierd huh?

Oh, before mugging, I did another animated gif (NOT AGAIN!!!) for my Forums signature... this is better than the previous one (which was a bit incomprehensible, I think...)

Hehe... nice right?

Back to mugging again. While doing my Polymerisation tutorial, I found the reaction flow chart (which Ms Fong told us to do) useful in helping me find the possible reactions an organic group can undergo.

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Today morning we did 4 laps of swimming across the width of the pool... and while doing the front crawl laps, I kept stopping and running out of breath.

Oh, IT Club's Dodgeball got in for the games for sports carnival... haha I'm one of the officials! So now I've got a whole list of rules to memorise... shouldn't be too hard, though.

Will blog about IT Club later... and I suppose I'll do another animated gif since it's still Flash course today.

New signature again!

Ha. My new signature is another animation!

This one didn't take too long, though.

Long weekend.

Last weekend was a long weekend (with labour day on a Sunday... make-up holiday on monday... wow.)

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Last Saturday, I met up with my GP group to do our Application Question (which we will have to hand in this week). Our meeting place was originally Compass Point in Sengkang, so I went there early and bought an FM radio for $2 (you know... the kind of small small one, battery operated one...). Yeah, and later I joined the group and we did the first part of our AQ in Burger King.

Later we decided that BK's environment was too distracting, so we decided to move our place to Esmond's house instead, where we thought we could be more concentrated.

Yeah right.

We went to Esmond's house by LRT (it was my first LRT trip!), and on the way, I confirmed the fact that Sengkang would be one of the places (including Tanah Merah) I would like to live in when I grew up. It's quite a nice place and I love the way the LRT tracks intertwine with each other... looks so... "urban". OK never mind.

When we reached Esmond's house, the first thing our "focused" study group did was... BRIDGE!!!

We had a whale of a time playing Bridge (which I learned after the first few rounds). One of my best (and noisiest) victories was when I partnered with Joe. Haha... we were "playing Spades" near the end of the game and I happened to have a lot of Spade cards, so....

Joe: "Do you have a Spade?"
Me: "Yes!!"

*Joe "ate" the set*

Joe: "Do you have a Spade?"
Me: "Yes!!"

*Joe "ate" the last set and... VICTORY!!!*

Haha... in the end we were hugging each other as if we won the World Cup.

OK, after all the Bridge and noise, we continued our AQ. It went quite successfully and all of us were so full of ideas... Esmond treated us to home-made pudding near the end of our AQ time.

After which was... Bridge again! Except that during the last few rounds I kept partnering with Esmond (who scolds his partners for slight errors...).

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On Sunday, I tried out the FM radio I bought and it worked! hehe... so it was 2 days (Sun + Mon) of YES 933 music for me! Haha... I regained my hope in Mando-pop!

Oh, there were a few nice songs... one of which impressed me the most was Eason Chan's "Shall we Talk?". Quite meaningful, the song is.

Oh, I have no time to translate everything... so for those who don't understand Chinese, sorry.

David Tao's "Suzanne says" is also not bad, I think.

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Today was uneventful, ecxept that our class wrote Essays for GP today and I wrote on the topic: "Do we need action heroes?". I hope my points were okay.

I wrote something like, action heroes are for enterteinment, but we don't really need them for inspiration since we cannot be inspired by impossible things... has the crime rate decreased with the various superheroes' stories all around our lives?

Near the end of the lesson, a bird perched on the window grille of our classroom and started singing... actualy it's singing was not bad, except that we were all too busy writing our conclusions to give a damn about its singing. Finding no one to appreciate its singing, it flew off.