Feelin' good!

Nothing like a shower to revitalise the soul that's weary after having a short nap (I mean, don't you feel drowsy after you just wake up from a nap?).

I feel I can conquer a mountain now!

Nice BGMs, an unexpected visit, the Night for 80, a long lunch and blogger blues

Yesterday was uneventful (unless you want me to talk about forgetting to bring my Physics 2004 A level Paper 1), but I added some music into my day.

Yes... my very first MP3 download in my life!

Isaiah the country bumpkin.

Yeah... I was seeing Joel Long playing DotA and playing some background music that had an Anime air about it, so I asked him (because he plays Initial D too) whether he had MP3 files of Initial D BGMs (background music, that is) and he said that he was actually playing one of those BGM songs (I suppose that song appears in the Anime, because it was nowhere in the arcade game).

He also told me a website where I can download the BGMs I want, and it turned out that Junqun had an account there, so he helped me log in and I downloaded 3 of my favourite BGMs from the game. My favourite is the song entitled Speedy Speed Boy.

---

Speedy Speed Boy

Running with my car
Running in my dreams every night...Night
Born to overtake
Born to race and to overdrive...Drive

Engine's over the red degrees
And my heart beats as much as I can breathe
But I don't want claim any stop
They wanna say I'm quitting...(Quitting)

Speedy Speed Boy - gasoline's burnin' in
Speedy Speed Boy - as fast as I can be
Speedy Speed Boy - every night and day
Wind is on my face

Squealing off the tyres
skidding to the left and right...Right
My step on the brakes,
rear vision , mirror to spy...Spy

---

It's the BGM for the Myogi pass (the most basic level).

This morning while we guys were sitting at our usual table in the canteen waiting for assembly, Jingjing made a surprise appearance at our College, I think she was here to see Cailin and collect some notes from her... she asked me to help the 2 of them take a photo, but when she offered to take group photos for us... I mean look, the group there consisted of me, NCC, Kelvin, Jinrong and Jansen (the 2 J's don't know Jingjing very well), so we turned it down.

Heard some grim news this morning: That there are only 80 students who have signed up for Graduation Night (a Prom night for Graduated Year Twos). Compared with the figures for the past few years, usually from around 500 to 600, that's quite sad indeed.

Sigh... so should I save up for Grad Night? If I do, I've got to turn up with decent clothes (and that costs money too).

Oh, yes. I heard from a Jonathan that PES C people don't have to go for early NS despite having failed NS. So that means I can go for Metamorphosis (a year-end Christian Camp) organized by Campus Crusade.

$85 for Grad Night... $140 for Meta. How?!

Before lunch time today, Kelvin told me that we're to buy envelopes for ourselves and submit our own envelopes, with names and addresses written on it, to the College for them to mail us our A level... erm... slips. Some kind of slip lah.

I bought a pink envelope (that's the only envelope which was big enough for an A4 paper) and when Yong Chuan saw me after that, he asked me whether I was getting married.

Then I had a long lunch with Kelvin and Jansen at KFC, and we ended up talking about stuff like school life and Pokemon.

There's this incident recently about a few bloggers being suspended from school because of writing negative remarks about a teacher on their blogs.

As a blogger, I think that's kind of unfair... I mean, what is a blog if we can only put politically correct stuff in it? How can we blog about our thoughts under the knowledge that our blogs are under some kind of scrutiny, and any negative remark is going to get you into deep shit?

Racist remarks are different, because I believe that racism will cause large-scale conflict (it affects a whole community, not just individuals).

But using your authority to prosecute certain individuals for making bad remarks about you is simply a petty move.

The 40-50 syndrome

I finally got to know my Physics overall percentage. 52%.

So... this time round my best subject was Maths. Quite surprising for me. All my subjects for Prelims are, therefore, around the 40-50 range. 42, 42, 52, 53.

Oh... the 2nd 42 marks is for Chem... because I think I can claim one point for my Paper 3... it contributes 0.5 points for my overall, but my overall was 41.5 in the first place (and I think it's rounded down...), so the increase in 0.5 points will be significant for me.

Come to think of it, I didn't know how I survived my O levels... I have already forgotten how hard I studied at that time... did I have to study like crazy at that time?

Now, it seems that the stress has gone up to a new level.

It's Maths day for me today, because we've got to do a practice paper which Mrs Leong will go through tomorrow.

Stupid me... I fell asleep during Maths (I'm not lazy, I just slept late last night!), and was seen by Mrs Leong... heh. She didn't scold me, though... Phew. Just suggested that I stand up for a while to keep myself awake... it worked. She said it wasn't a punishent.

I heard lots of stories about people scoring A grades for their A levels after being OWNED during the Prelims season... I certainly can't imagine myself getting 4 A grades... but, all things are possible to he who believes... Amen?

Oh, remember the song from the Initial D HK movie, Yi Lu Xiang Bei (All the way to the North)?

Oh... other than the fact that I like this song a lot, another reason I put this song here today was that, recently I found out about this Pokemon in Ruby/Sapphire version known as "Nosepass".

Nosepass is a rock type Pokemon (I think so...) which has a naturally magnetic nose: It will tend to point to the North.

The song reminds me of Nosepass.

I've just finished the Gold-Silver-Crystal part of the Pokemon Adventures manga series. Sad ending. Sigh.

The Pokemon doing the GANBATTE yesterday is Heracross, one of my favourites.

Total OWNAGE

I'm so OWNED.

Got back most of my Prelim Papers already.

Maths: 53%

Chem: 41%

Computing: 42%

Physics: Only got back Paper 2. Got OWNED by it as well.

Sigh... but it feels good to be able to see my friends again (after a 6-day study break).

For the first time in my College life, I was so not looking forward to Computing lesson today, but in the end things turned out fine and I wasn't scolded at all. Phew.

Sigh... at least I'm still the "top 6th" in the whole Computing cohort. The Cohort of 6.

Yong Chuan got hold of a copy of Mein Kampf (My Struggle) written by Hitler. It was actually quite thick and cost about $40.

The CS Lab printer is giving me loads of trouble, and I can't bear with it anymore. I shall use the printer in IT Club Room to print the past year papers for Computing.

Sigh... feeling glum now. But not down. Just a bit erm... glum. Yeah.

There's Electone course later. Hope it will brighten me up a bit.

GANBATTE!

Have a nice day...

Prelims: Before, during, and after...

I'm finally back to blog about the Prelims. And one of my greatest periods of suffering in my whole life: the week before Prelims.

Yes. The week before Prelims I fell sick on Monday. At that time, I had such a great pain in my waist that I thought I was getting Dengue fever (isn't it that a person will feel pain in the bones?), and I even thought of some worst case scenarios, like what to include in my will...

And I was thinking of calling Ms Fong to ask whether she knew about how long the incubation period is for Dengue fever (she caught it once last year).

My pain was gone on Tuesday, though (I woke up that day after having some silly dream about racing in a car). I did throw up in the morning, but only once.

That day was the worst day in that week, though. Or even one of the worst days in my life.

I tried studying Computing on that day, but found myself frequenting the toilet (there was once when I was so lethargic that I fell asleep in the toilet!)... and my diarrhea was so serious that eating Po Chai Pills (a Chinese medicine frequently used in my family) didn't help much.

And my thermometer registered 38.5 degrees!

I accompanied Mum to the doctor on Wednesday and learnt that antibiotics can make diarrhea worse (which was why I didn't get antibiotics for my fever).

In the later part of the week, I slowly recovered, but the last traces of diarrhea did not go off until Monday of the Prelim week.

I wasn't worried about Maths (I was doing Maths Paper 1 on Monday), however, because I studied Maths for a week (the week before I got sick).

As it turned out, My Maths paper was fairly OK, and this time I was determined to skip the questions I couldn't do (I failed to let go in the past, resulting in leaving less time for the questions I could do).

Monday afternoon was damn rainy... I was mugging for Chem in the canteen and the rain droplets were blown in and my summaries felt moist, so I had to move my seat. The thunder was pretty loud as well. Poh Woon joined me on that day and shared some pickled snacks with me.

General Paper and Chem paper 3 were on Tuesday.

For GP essay, I wrote on how important it is to have standards (one of my favourite issues... I mean, just imagine a world without standards being set!). Comprehension was on the topic of governmental legalisation of gambling. For which I did not complete the Application Question.

Chem paper 3 was much worse for me, as a peek at my answer script would show that I obviously did not prepare much on Periodic Table group studies.

Physics paper 1 and 2 plus Computing paper 1 on Wednesday.

I would say that Physics is one of my most stable subjects now (I would think so for Maths too).

After we had the Physics papers, the 3 of us Computing dudes were having a rest in the canteen (the Computing paper was 3 hours after Physics ended), and Maoxin was suddenly inspired to write a song about examination worries. Here's what he came up with.

Sing it to the tune of Auld Lang Syne.

---

Should all equations be forgot
and never brought to mind?
Should all our efforts come to nought
and we can only wait to die

Let's go~ and~ die~, oh dear
Let's go~ and~ die~
We'll take a cup of papaya milk(I'll explain later)
then go~ and~ die~

---

Before Maoxin wrote these lyrics, we saw Ms Fong and Mrs Aileen Lim buying fruits at the fruit stall. Maoxin asked us to guess what fruit Ms Fong would be buying (we were that bored!), because he saw Ms Fong eating a papaya when he went to see her eons ago.

So I went to the adjacent snacks stall to buy a cup of hot milk (and to see which fruit Ms Fong bought), but after I paid for my milk, the fruit was already put in a blue plastic bag, so I couldn't see what it was...

And hence, after going back to report the failure of my mission, Maoxin started talking about papaya milk... so you can see it in the DIE song.

Anyway, I got OWNED by Computing Paper 1.

Thursday was a free day. I stoned a lot on that day.

Friday was Chemistry paper 2. All I could say was that the paper was divided into 2 sections, each with... I think it's 4 questions and 3 questions respectively. And when I reached the 2nd section, I only had 10 minutes left.

And it wasn't only me. All the people I asked complained that there wasn't enough time.

And as you can see from my previous post, Friday was the day I watched "One More Chance".

Prelims week 2, Monday. Computing Paper 2 and Physics Paper 3.

The 6 of us did our Computing paper in a classroom, and before the paper, Mr Chua told me that I did very badly for Paper 1, so I've got to get at least 80 marks for Paper 2.

But after doing the paper, I guess I couldn't. Don't know lah.

I did the first few questions of my Physics Paper 3 with much enthusiasm, but I sort of got OWNED by the Nuclear Physics question (I originally did not intend to do that topic, but Ideal Gas got me stuck halfway as well, and I wasted a lot of time there).

In the end, I had little time left to do the easy-to-score Option Topic (Fluid Physics) questions. I think I should do my Options Topic questions in my A Level Physics Paper 3.

During my Prelims period, I'd been having my dinner (Mixed vegetable rice, Take-away) at College all the time, and that day wasn't an exception. The only thing different about that day was that there were lots of queen ants dropping from the ceiling, and I had to be extra careful not to let any of them drop into my dinner.

For my Maths Paper 2 on Tuesday, I did my Options Topic (Probability and Statistics) first, which I think was a good idea, because I managed to complete more questions.

Chemistry Paper 1 (Multiple Choice questions) was the last paper on Wednesday. I was thinking that I ought to study a lot for this paper because I did not perform so well for my other 2 papers, but in the end I studied only the Periodic Table Group Studies section.

In the end. however, I managed to finish the whole paper (quite hard considering the fact that it's 40 questions in an hour). ON the next day, however, after discussing the questions with some of my friends, I realized that I got some of the questions (I was actually quite confident about most of them) wrong!

Few days to take a break before the new A Level preparation time table begins. I played Pokemon Silver again and realised that Miltank is actually quite a nice Pokemon.

Miltank, which reminds me of Keli's "Ji Niu Nai" (Milk-The-Cow) game.

And the most crappy thing that happened was that I caught Raikou using ONLY ONE Great Ball (Level 2 Pokeball). I released it afterwards, though. I'm not suited to using "legendary" Pokemon...

I finished the Johto part of the game in 3 days (yes, that's my speed!) and experienced one of my most stressful battles ever with the Elite Four, probably because this time my Pokemon team's average level is lower than that of every E4 member. I lost once (didn't bring enough Hyper Potions...) and barely won the second time, with 5 (out of 6) of my Pokemon fainted and my Feraligator having only half its maximum health.

I realised that the first few battles with the Elite Four (you can battle them for an infinite number of times until your Pokemon get so strong that you get so bored and you restart the game) are those that really got me thinking on my feet... I had to analyse the battle styles of the E4 members and come up with strategies and stuff.

In one of our Forums discussions about being "Liberated" from the Prelims, Junqun made a very rare remark indeed.

I remember last year when all of us IT Club dudes called Junqun "Panda" because of his... erm...

Hey

Heh heh... just back to check things out, because I think my template re-publisher is a bit off...

Just trying whether I can successfully republish my template by publishing a new post...

Just watched One More Chance (San Ge Hao Ren)... I was thinking that it would be quite a meaningful show... well it turned out fine, but the ending came out as quite a surprise (or not so much of a surprise...) but anyway, something to let me unwind and gear up again for a mugging weekend...

Can's blog much now, but will give a full coverage of my study break plus Prelim exam days once this ordeal is over.

Oh... anyway, I had been thinking about one thing... the picture of the Civic Type R which I put in my photo gallery (if you bothered to look) does not look like the Civic Type R I use in Ini D... and I did see some pictures of the Civic Type R which do look like the one I'm using...

Later I found out that the one I'm "using" is actually an older edition of the Civic Type R... the key lies in the moedl number of the car. My version is the EK-9, while the one I thought was "my car" was actually EP-3... a newer version!

Honda Civic Type R [EK-9] -- the one I'm using!

Honda Civic Type R[EP-3] -- the one which I thought was mine!

Well, I think I like EK-9 better because it has that "lean and muscular" look... when compared to the newer EP-3 which looks like... it's gained a bit of weight, you see...

OK OK must go now! I changed the picture in photo gallery already.

Oh... and do drive safely... life is not a game, and you don't want to end up like this...

Sorry I can't find worse pictures of crashed cars... no time.

Evangelism, BKB and actual scene tours

Yesterday was Teachers' Day, and there were quite a few posts on the ST forums which thank teachers for their efforts.

I'm joining in... Happy Teachers' Day to my Tutors!!!

Anyway, yesterday the College was still open, so I went there to mug again. In the afternoon.

In the morning I went to the McDonalds outlet in Changi Cinema, instead of the one at Princess Cinema which I normally mugged at. Mainly because it's nearer to the College.

While I was beginning to mug my Computing, a woman suddenly talked to me, and after some conversation, she decided to shift to my table and I let her join me, out of politeness.

The conversation slowly evolved into my very first evangelism attempt to a stranger. It turned out that she's a staunch Buddhist...

Still, we talked a lot about issues on faith. And other stuff, of course... about my wanting to be a teacher... and so on.

She left before I did... and before leaving the place, I went to the toilet and saw another guy having the same bag as Kelvin (I used "another" because there's already one girl in TJC having the same bag as Kelvin, and he knows it).

I read the news yesterday and I was appalled at the measures China has taken to tackle the fish hazard... like adding fish farms which are no longer in use into the list of safe farms for Honkgong fishmongers. What's more? The farms in the list which do exist make up only a minority of the list.

My goodness... and you want to regain control of Taiwan?

I also got to know that former Deputy Prime Minister Dr Tony Tan is a Christian.

I've been training my arm power recently, and I like to train at this monkey bar whose "inter-bar" width is wider than the rest... it's chin-ups at first, but I was surpried that when I decided to swing through the monkey bars, I succeeded.

Hmm... I've taken a liking to that bar, and since it's black in colour and it's the largest of the 3 monkey bars there, I decided to name it the Black King Bar!

I know... the BKB is a magical item in DotA... the moment I first heard this name, I thought it sounded melodious, you see...

Oh, and my calloused palms.

Today while having my long lunch break (I'm really generous with my break times), I did a search on "Mount Akina" and found out from a website (Tsukaeru.jp) that actually the place is named Mount Haruna in real life, but the scenes are all there, including the lake.

Remember this tower?

And since the website provides real photographs of most of the locations featured in Initial D, I decided to explore further...

The steep slope in Myogi Pass... I recognize this place!!!

One of the many "hairpin" corners on Iroha Slope. Yeah, it's like this in the game as well.

Bye for now. Blogged quite a lot already...