Listened to Stefanie the whole day. In general I almost didn't care about the Chinese papers tomorrow, but at the back of my mind the thought was still there. Gonna spend whatever time I have left to study composition writing.
Headed to Sembawang Music Centre @ West Mall after dinner to buy Stefanie. The Stefanie singlets (free with purchase of one of first 20000 copies of the album in Singapore) were still available, but the biggest size left was the M-sized black singlet, so I got it. The singlet was quite tight for me, so I just hung it up in my wardrobe. The main idea is the album's quality anyway. And yep, Stefanie did it! A successful comeback!
Stefanie's album was supposed to be released worldwide today, but Singapore would have to wait until tomorrow at least, as I'd found out when I went to West Mall this afternoon. In Singapore, there were no pre-order periods, but the first 20000 copies of the album came with special Stefanie singlets. Apparently, Warner Music Singapore had some problem with the singlets, hence delaying the release in Singapore to latest tomorrow.
GCE O-Level Examination 2004
Paper: 5093/03 Biology
Once again, I'm in shift one, so I was in school by 7.45am. Once we had moved to the corridor outside Chemistry Lab 3 (the lab I would be taking the exam in), we had to wait quite a while to go in (probably because they had to settle some stuff required for the exam).
Once I placed my stationery on the bench allocated to me, I looked at the bench to find, among the usual apparatus, 4 capsules of solutions and a prawn. According to the teachers, they're fresh. :p
Question 1 was pretty easy; question 2 would be the killer, since the first drawing was worth 8 marks (and labels were not required). Overall, however, I finished within an hour and spent most of the remaining time slacking away in the lab.
Once the paper was over, it's another 4 hours in the hall studying and slacking away. Went home straight at 1.30pm like Tuesday.
My nose is so tired. It had been running from this morning till evening after bathing time. It's still a bit red and blocked, but feeling better. Tomorrow's Biology practical; hmm, premonition of tomorrow's question?
GCE O-Level Examination 2004
Paper: 5052/03 Physics
I was in the first shift today, so I had to report by 7.45am to AVA 1. After a short while in the air-conditioned room, we moved to our respective labs to get ready to begin at 8am. To me, the paper today was quite okay, though I kept worrying if I had done the stuff correctly or not.
Once our paper was over, we had to move to the Hall to be quarantined until 1.30pm, after which we must leave the school compound (according to the teacher). This was to minimise communication between candidates who have taken the paper and those who have not.
I sat with Fang You and spent the first hour or so studying a chapter in Social Studies. After that, I was thinking of Maths problems from friends and about my JC choice. I had told those who have asked me that my first choice was HCJC, but the truth is I'm still undecided between HCJC and NJC. I've heard that there's quite a number of friends going to NJC. Then again, I've also heard that NJC is more 'muggerish' (a Singlish term meaning that students study a lot) than HCJC. Looking at last year's L1R5 aggregate scores with bonus points for students entering the Science stream, HCJC will probably be harder to get in than NJC with my score. So to those whom I've said somewhat definitely HCJC, I take back what I said and replace it with: "I am still pondering."
And I can't wait for October 29; Stefanie Sun's 8th album "Stefanie" will be out in stores!
It's Physics practical exam tomorrow.
Tried to study Chinese today. Ended up listening to Stefanie Sun. Erm...that's Chinese too, right? :p
Went to Anglo-Chinese Junior College's (ACJC) Open House this afternoon. I met Kegan, Veronica and gang at the main lobby, where a dance performance had just ended. Forgetting about the goodie bag (which seemed only to contain an ACJC folder with ACJC information, a few pieces of papers and an M1 notebook), I followed the people up to the Hall on Level 2 where the CCA Exhibition was held. I excused myself from the group to watch a mime being performed in one of the LTs we passed by and left the room after the performance had ended and a guy began to talk about the Arts faculty. Sorry, I'm interested in drama, not the Arts faculty.
Later, I returned to the Hall in search for the Drama Club booth. Sure enough, I found it beside the Debating Club's booth. I chatted with one of the gals there about what the Drama Club in ACJC does, and I'm quite impressed by them. One of their productions (looked like a musical) was airing on their TV.
After that, I rejoined Veronica's group and we went to watch the Symphonic Band's performance in a LT or auditorium (don't know which it is) and the String Ensemble, Harp Ensemble and Choir's performances in a Viewing Gallery which faces the running track. I enjoyed all their performances.
We then walked a bit to the ACJC Sports Complex. The ground floor is pretty much an open space (with pillars) where the Table Tennis Club members were playing there. There was also a SuperGym occupying one side of the ground floor. On the second level was the swimming pool and the badminton courts. Water Polo Club members were playing water polo in the pool, and the group, mainly made up of girls, sat down to watch. After what felt like ages, we moved to the air-conditioned badminton court where we looked for a while and went home after that. My only regret was not finding out more about the school; it felt as if I had just stepped into the campus.
I walked briskly to the bus stop across the road from Zhi Yuan's house after he had said, "Come quickly." Both Zhi Yuan and Juliet were already sitting at the bus stop waiting. Zhi Yuan's instructions weren't needed after all; Michelle was still on the bus to Bukit Batok MRT Station, where Delia was already waiting.
Eventually we got onto the bus from BB MRT Station that Brenda, Delia and Michelle were on. We were heading to the Hwa Chong Junior College (HCJC) Open House called Genesis. According to Zhi Yuan, Kegan and Paul were already in HCJC.
On alighting, we crossed the road and entered the campus one storey above ground level (direct connection of the overhead bridge to the gate). Immediately on the left I saw two squash courts (but nobody was playing squash yet). A few metres down, we saw a group of dancers probably practising their suave Western dance moves. There a tour guide by the name of Alicia met us and we went on a tour around the school (or to be more specific, tour around Block A of the school, where most of the CCAs had set up their booths). We met Kegan and Paul outside the dance room too; both of them immediately passed me two slips of paper with mathematics questions on them.
After receiving our goodie bags (the plastic bags were designed by the students), we headed to Block A and the Central Plaza where most of the performances by the performing arts CCAs were taking place. We went around the block and watched the Chinese and Western dance performances. Alicia left us at one of the air-conditioned classrooms where the Economics Department set up their booth.
From there, we went to the air rifle range (forgot whose idea it was) and most of them tried some shots. After the underground range, we headed upstairs to the Hall where a replay of last week at NJC occurred.
After hours at the Hall, the gang left the school at around 1pm for lunch at King Albert Park's McDonald's Place. Another round of downpour (similar to yesterday's) followed, and all of us went into McDonald's Place with shoes soaked. After lunch, all of us went home, though I regretted not checking out the ELDDFS (the 'F' refers to 'Film') before leaving.
After today, I'm in quite a dilemma. NJC produces top students, but the atmosphere may be a bit stressed; HCJC seems to have more laidback attitudes. I know I will eventually have to make the decision, but I want to find out where my friends have decided to go before considering. Sigh...
After dinner at home, my mother told me father caught two seahorses when they went fishing last night and he stupidly brought the two home. By the time they reached home they were already dead. Heartless, stupid father. (Okay, the first word's exaggerating, but he was really quite stupid.) Why can't just set them free? Pictures of seahorses are all over the internet; he doesn't have to bring two home specially to let me see.
Rest In Peace
GCE O-Level Examination 2004
Paper: 5068/03 Chemistry
The heavy rain that poured when I alighted from the bus seemed like a premonition that the Chemistry practical would be a disaster. In the AVA Room (our holding room), the atmosphere though was much lighter, with people laughing and chatting. At around 1.50pm, we headed to our examination rooms (Chemistry Lab 3 for me). We began our practical after making sure we had our apparatus and reagents required.
I think I would have at least 5 marks deducted. I was hitting myself for not realising that a calculated Ar doesn't necessarily mean it has to be that element...Stupid.
No progress on Social Studies again, so I just tossed that aside to study for tomorrow's Chemistry practical.
I'm not making much progress in Social Studies. Focus, Tobias, focus!!!
Spent the day listening to radio and reading Social Studies.
I went to the National Junior College (NJC) Open House today. I initially went alone, but while waiting outside the campus at the bus stop for no reason, I met Kegan, Yan Chen and Paul. Together, we went into the campus via the NJC Walk (a long and narrow walkway), led by Alvin, an ex-Nan Huarian and now a NJCian.
Upon entering, we received goodie bags with notepads, a folder and other souvenirs in it. One of the red-hair Councillors (all Councillors had their hairs dyed red to match the red on their school crest) became our tour guide around the campus. We visited the stadium, gym, squash courts, canteen, linkway, Atrium, 1969 NJC Archives, the library and Bytz (a computer lab). Another group of 4/1ers (Michelle, Zhi Yuan, Juliet, Abraham and Quan Ming) caught up with us in Bytz and all of us went to LT5 together to listen to the Principal's address.
After the Principal's enthusiastic and persuasive address, the original four of us plus Juliet and Yan Chen's friend (?) continued the tour. We visited one of the classrooms, the Student's Lounge (beautifully furnished), the Councillor's Room and what could be considered the amphitheatre with a rock-climbing wall beside it. I was tempted to try rock-climbing, but decided to carry on with the tour without delay.
After that, we made our way back to the linkway where the Harmonica Band was performing. We went up to the air-conditioned hall where some of the CCAs had set up their booths here. I made a beeline for the ELDDS booth and left my name and contact information with the Drama section representative. I met two members of the NJC IP debate team at the ELDDS booth too, and one of them was the still model for ELDDS. We also met Wei Zhe, an ex-Nan Huarian too, who is now in the Harmonica Band. Our tour ended in the Hall too, and we were free to move around after that.
We headed to the canteen for lunch. I had a mushroom omelette set which was pretty tasty despite its price tag ($2.50). After lunch, we went to the gym because Kegan wanted to check out the Table Tennis Club and I wanted to play badminton. All that sweat wasn't enough; I wanted to check out squash too. We went back to the squash courts where, though reluctant at first to find out I was the only one in the group who wanted to try squash, I eventually went into the court on the right side. After spending some 5 minutes in the court looking at a guy who couldn't hit the ball to serve, I laid my hands on the racket and the ball and tried. I couldn't hit it at first, but after a few tries I managed to hit the ball, never mind that I needed more strength. After a while, Kegan came in to try out, and he played fabulously. The rest came in and we played squash in a rotating manner. Kegan was, of course, the best player, while Juliet could only scream everytime a ball flew towards her.
We played non-stop until a NJCian came in to tell us another group wanted to try. Sitting down, we chatted with a Sec 3 NJC IP student, after which we decided to go home. From today, I had a pretty good impression of NJC, but I'll have to check out Hwa Chong JC first before I can decide which to put as my first choice. All in all, I had a great (and sweaty) time, so much so that my right arm was almost about to fall off. :P
Today was the official last day for the Sec 4s of NHSS, and for our class, it was filled with lots of free periods where we just played and played and played. Some had last photos taken; some rushed to finish writing for their friends' autograph books or give a friend her autograph book to write. For once, O Level was out of our thoughts.
During the last two periods, the Sec 4 councillors did their last duty for NHSS by going to the classes to check the cleanliness and lockers. For Tania and I who went to 4/7, we waited long for Mdm Poon and finished our check at around 2.10pm. During the last period, Mdm Sia gave out our report books and report slips. Sigh...I dropped to the 19th position in class; couldn't help it. Mdm Sia, though, was nice in writing my comments, saying that at least I "had tried".
When, for the last time, we said "Thank you Mdm Sia", the tear which had been hanging at the side of my eye finally rolled out. It felt funny that when we were Sec 1s, we were so looking forward to the end of Sec 4 and all the stress and troubles for two months but now we had reached the end of Sec 4, we couldn't bear to end. So many friendships, hardship, happiness, sadness, laughter, tears and memories are hard to forget. In the end, Kegan, Yan Chen, Zhi Yuan and I were left in the classroom. Like what I did two years ago with the 2/4 classroom, Zhi Yuan closed all the windows of the room, put up all the chairs and closed the doors to signify the closure of this chapter of life. Well, at least there's chalet as an epilogue before it finally finishes.
After that closure, the EXCO still had the work review to do. Mrs. Lim also gave us papers to write about our thoughts and feelings about one another to be kept as memory by us. Since I had done my work review with Mrs. Lim already before the Prelims, I could concentrate on writing comments for the other EXCO. Once again, this job made me look back on all we've done together as an EXCO and all the fun and laughter we had. For the last time as EXCO, we used the Councillor's Room to write our comments, and we even played Cluedo towards the end.
Before I left school, I 'buried' (the correct word is dumped) the human figure that had been on our classroom's noticeboard for a year. The 'body' will eventually be reincarnated, but the spirit will be enjoying everlasting life in Heaven. God bless all!
My file is bulging with papers of all subjects from other schools. Whoo. Anyway, heard the story of a Chinese DJ's first love on radio just now. She spoke about how she fell for a senior in secondary school and then initiated the break-up because of her parents' past warnings to focus on studies. They got back together for another short while before they broke up again. Is love that difficult? I guess so.
For Sec 4s, there are only three more days to the official last day of school. So, the last period today (1.10pm to 1.30pm) had been set aside for us to clean up our classrooms from top to toe. When Mdm Sia indicated to us to begin the job, Kegan allocated different jobs for different groups of people. There were lots to do: wipe the tables clean with detergent; clear the noticeboards; wipe the whiteboard and remove the double-sided tapes that got stuck on the border of the whiteboard after CNY; clean the walls, especially the wall at the back of the classroom which had been dirtied badly by the ball the guys kick everyday; sweep the floor; and clear up the piles of things at the corners of the classroom. There was even a water gun battle held in the classroom towards the end. Most of the 4/1ers left when the bell for 1.30pm rang long ago. I stayed behind to play mahjong (in the form of cards) with a few others and realised how much rust was on my mahjong playing skills.
Revision throughout. The worst is A. Maths, where we had to do 18 questions on different topics every day. My hands will rot by Friday.
Normal school day. Kegan, Crystal and I stayed back after school to discuss the inspection of the classrooms of Sec 4 classes on Friday, the last day of school for the graduating classes. Once again, we went back to our old ways of going off-point during the meeting.
On the bus home, I actually dozed off and missed my stop. It was not my first time I had dozed off on the bus, but the first time I missed my stop. I took the bus all the way to the Bukit Batok Bus Interchange. Since the distance between the interchange and my house wasn't that long, I walked back instead of taking a bus back.
Originally had wanted to go swimming in the morning, but I couldn't find my goggles. In the end I spent the day writing two Chinese letters and Kegan's autograph book and worked out the amount of money 4/1ers have to pay for the class chalet in November.
Spent the day on the computer. I played and replayed the previews of three songs from Stefanie Sun's next album, Stefanie, due out on October 29. You can also hear the songs by clicking on the links below:
我的爱
奔
我也很想他
The filming for the class video continued today during Chemistry lesson; Ms Wassan had kindly lent us the time to do something productive. Well, in the end everybody was frustrated because only few people had suggested ideas for the video and given their comments about them.
XL borrowed Mr. Peh's video camera after lunch, the task on hand being to film a 10-minute video about 4/1 which will be shown during our Fond Farewell (something like that). Most of us had fun with the video camera; nobody spoiled it.
There was a briefing for the O Level Science Practical exam during assembly today (which was only for Sec 4s). Nothing much there. My L1R5 still stands at 11. Sigh...hope I can get into NJC. *fingers crossed*
Heard the advertisement for Bond's new album Classified on TV. So the single 'Explosive' was what we've been hearing on other TV commercials. Really want to buy this album; Bond also had a hipper remix of Pachelbel's Canon. Very cool!
Got back all our results except English Oral results. I've posted my results in yesterday's entry, and my L1R5 is an 11 at best (12 at worst). This very troublesome number has got my parents and I talking almost all day about the probability of getting to NJC (who's aggregate scores last year were 6 to 10) and if not, which school I could get into and yet have not much trouble travelling to. Sooner or later I'm just going to go crazy, or dream about the school which I should go. Brr...
Got back most of our results for the Prelim today:
1111/01 Higher Chinese: 59.5/90
1111/02 Higher Chinese: 64.5/110
1111 Higher Chinese (overall): 62% (B4)
1127/01 English Language (Revised): 37/60
1127/02 English Language (Revised): 31/50
2190/01 Combined Humanities: 28/50
2190/02 Combined Humanities: 33/50
2190 Combined Humanities (overall): 61% (B4)
4017/01 Mathematics: 71/80
4017/02 Mathematics: 98/100
4017 Mathematics (overall): 93.4% (A1)
4018/01 Additional Mathematics: 70/80
4018/02 Additional Mathematics: 71/80
4018 Additional Mathematics (overall): 88.1% (A1)
5052/01 Physics: 33/40
5052/02 Physics: 52/80
5052/03 Physics: 28/30
5052 Physics (overall): 75.3% (A1)
5068/01 Chemistry: 31/40
5068/02 Chemistry: 70/80
5068/03 Chemistry: 45/50
5068 Chemistry (overall): 85.3% (A1)
5093/01 Biology: 36/40
5093/02 Biology: 44/80
5093/03 Biology: 24.5/40
5093 Biology (overall): 65.3% (B3)
Updated on 5 October 2004
I have a bad feeling about my English and Social Studies results. Gotta pray hard.
Life is pretty slow now that the Prelim is over and I have an injured foot. I'm trying to walk as normally as possible.
After watching Survivor: Vanuatu last night, I logged onto the MediaCorp Forums to find the Singapore Idol forum flooded with people. Expectedly, they were all here to let out their grievances (and partly because the official SI forum on starhub.com was down). There was so much swearing, so much anger, so much pain and so much unkind criticism that I couldn't bear to read the posts any longer. I posted the following long message before going to bed:
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Sigh...where should I start? From the point when I was watching the Results show. I watched it from a friend's house (as we were celebrating his birthday). When the results were announced, I was probably the only one in the house who was not surprised. At all.
Let's see some of the things that have happened on this very active forum (was quite shocked to see so many people even at this hour; but then again, I'm one of them, aren't I?):
- The most prominent was the cursing and cussing from users when Jessea went out and not Jerry. Some felt it was interesting to fill the whole page of posts with long posts which basically say one vulgar thing, or posting a few threads which say the same thing too.
- Some immediately accused Singaporeans to be racist. I didn't see how this assumption started, except from a topic few weeks ago about Jessea not having the edge because of her previous Canadian status.
- Sweeping statements swept the board. "SINGAPOREANS ARE TONE-DEAF!!!!!" one screamed. Wow, the poster is so brave as to admit that he/she is tone-deaf too.
- Some called SI a 'failure' because Jessea went out. This seems strangely familiar.
From these, I derived a few learning lessons:
- Be polite, clean and law-abiding. People often mistake freedom of speech to be that 'we are free to speak'. Never forget the word 'responsibly'.
- As my Maths teacher used to say, 'never assume as it will make an *ahem* out of "u" (you) and "me"'. Treat rumours as rumours until there's concrete evidence.
- Be a little cleverer in posting statements that may come across as sweeping. You don't want to end up pointing the finger at yourself.
- Conclusions are best made at the end of experiments. Those who called SI a failure are probably fortune tellers. They'll probably be able to tell us where the 11 finalists will end up in 3 years' time accurately.
My take on why this had happened started way before the Spectaculars began and I predicted it to happen. Remember a famous person from AI3 called LA TOYA LONDON? Most people said (and quite confirmed) that her departure was due to complacent fans who assumed others will vote more for her since she was so good. I predicted the same would happen in SI to Jessea (though I didn't expect it to be so soon).
Don't take it too much to heart. What matters more is that life goes on (at least a little differently now) and not stop to curse and swear because something went wrong.
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What struck me as saddening is that young Singaporeans are growing to become a bunch of people who rely on spouting vulgarities to let off their anger. I don't deny that when I get EXTREMELY ANGRY I will let off a few words too. People, we're a long way from the 'G' word.
Prelim 2004
Paper: 5052/01 Physics
Finally, the last paper of the Preliminary Examination, and though it was not very easy, one can't help feeling relieved that Prelim is over.
Then, 12 4/1ers went to East Coast Park for another post-exam outing. A long bus ride on 196 later, we arrived at the McDonald's branch at ECP where we sat down to have lunch amidst an atmosphere apt for Children's Day. After lunch, we headed onto the beach where the tide was getting higher by the minute and plonked our belongings on a stone bench. For a while most of us stood at the shore and let the sea water wash our feet. We tried playing volleyball with a light beach ball we bought just after lunch but failed because the wind was strong enough to send the ball off course. Instead, we played frisbee on the beach. The team I was in scored close to 5 points more than the other team in the first game. Halfway through the second game though, while chasing the frisbee towards inland, my right foot hit something hard (felt like a rock). I examined the injury; the 'rock' had cut the skin between my first and second toes and it only began to bleed, albeit slowly, minutes later. The most we could do then was to wash the wound with water from my bottle and using the tissue to clean it up a bit. Ching Li lent my a plaster later, but it got soaked with blood while the others continued their activities. Fang You was the next unlucky victim, stepping on broken glass pieces. His wound produced more blood and faster, but he was able to stop the bleeding eventually and put the plaster on the wound.
The two of us sat on the stone bench while we watched as the group decided to tease Ai Pheng and XL again. The latter then seemed to isolate himself as the girls played soccer (or tried to) with the beach ball. After who knows how long, I hopped on my one good leg back to the bench with our belongings (careful to avoid sharp objects) and put on the shoe for that leg. The whole bunch of us then returned to McDonald's to wash our legs and feet. I re-washed the wound and placed a new plaster over the wound. Walking like a handicapped, I returned to where the rest were with our belongings.
For the afternoon, half of us (including me; surprise, surprise) decided to bowl at Marine Bowl while the other half went off to play pool at the entertainment centre above McDonald's. I scored a 92 in my second game, my new personal best. Veronica played a total of 6 games, finishing off the last game with 90 points.
Finally getting back my ez-link card at around 4.30pm (I used my ez-link card as verification and identification for the games), I rushed off saying a hurried goodbye, Zhi Yuan's birthday party in my mind for the past 30 minutes. It all started off as an idea of Abraham and Michelle, and some of us were invited to the party. It was meant to be a surprise to Zhi Yuan (hence no mention of it for the past week). The miracle for me now was to get back to Bukit Batok and attend the party within a little over an hour (since the time on the invitation was 5.45pm).
I arrived at Zhi Yuan's condominium at around 6.10pm full of sweat. Most of the other invited guests were present already. The BBQ pit was also fired up already. After reassurance from a few of them that it was all right to come a little later, I walked home (across the road), took a quick bath and change of clothes, replaced the plaster on my foot with a new one and walked back to the party.
It was a little past 7pm already. Most of the guests have arrived, and some of the food has been cooked. I had a quick bite before heading up to Zhi Yuan's apartment on the 5th level with a bunch of people to watch TV. I watched till about 7.30pm, after which I went back down to the BBQ pit. Delia was BBQ-ing chicken wings and she assured me that the two she had on a paper plate beside the pit was cooked throughout. I ate more stuff during that 20 minutes or so and took in the fluid that I needed. When I went back up at around 7.50pm, the TV was still on. We watched through until 9pm, including the minute when Jessea was eliminated from Singapore Idol and Jerry stayed on.
The next activity was probably the climax of the party: cake-cutting. The cake was initially surrounded by ants (none but one of the ants touched the cake) but it was deemed fit for eating. We sang the birthday song for Zhi Yuan and he made his wish and blew the candles. The cake tasted a lot like Ferero Rocher (hope that's the correct spelling), complete with chocolate and nuts. After the climax, some went home while some sought refuge from the drizzle in Zhi Yuan's house. At 9.50pm, I wished the birthday boy "Happy Birthday" and walked home alone.
And nope, I don't feel tired at all.
