Memories on a Plane

CA for CA: Odex had "no right of civil action" against illegal downloaders

2007-08-30T22:58:00.000+08:00

Piracy is a crime. Or is it? It's so common it's becoming the norm nowdays.

Many people in Singapore are downloading pirated stuff nowadays, from songs on various P2P software such as Limewire, to downloading videos from youtube, and it does not just apply to animae. This, in the government's eyes, is illegal, bu they are not doing anything about it besides promoting 'piracy is a crime' advertisements and 'commercials' on every video you buy, or in the films. They aren't really cracking down on offenders of this crime, and now they refuse another company's claim to sue the offenders. This just will encourage people to download more illegal stuff as they know that the government is making very little effort to nab and fine the people who are doing illegal downloading, and teenagers who don't really care about the consequences because they think that the government will not bother to care that they are downloading and nab them might just be right.

The fault also lies in the company. Firstly it is making a large amount of profits by selling their VCDs for an exorbitant price. The CDs only cost a matter of 10 or 20 cents and the rights to the video will cost about 10 to 20 dollar per copy. But ODEX is selling animaes at a price of 50-80 dollars, which makes their profit about 50 dollars. And their focus audience of the animae is the students and teens, who do not earn any money and get little pocket money. By doing this, it discourages teens from buying because they do not have enough money and their parents are not willing to spend that much money on a matter of a matter of 1 or 2 videos. Thus teens will resort to piracy where they can get the same thing with comparable quality, and the best thing is that it doesn't cost a cent.

Let's look at this, if prices are high, less people will buy and turn to illegal downloading. And when less people buy, the company has to increase cost of the video to make up for it's producing costs, and the vicious cycle continues. But if prices are lowered by the company and the government makes a strong stand on piracy and takes action on offenders, then people will turn to buying real stuff which are affordable and the profit of the company will increase too even though they earn less per vcd as more people buy, and this is a win-win situation for both the consumers and ODEX.

Seriously, who cares about 'illegal downloads' when you can download them for free and get away scot-free for it. That is the attitude of teems who don't care about moral issues. But why should they care when the government doesn't care too. The government might think that this might serve as a warning to the illegal downloaders, but it will turn out the opposite. It should instead set an example to the people by showing that piracy is NOT tolerated and bothering to go sue and nad the people who do that.

As usual, ODEX is suing the illegal downloaders because of company profits. They have lost money because people have downloaded illegally instead of buying the real thing, and they are trying to claim back the money. But claim of $5000 when the stuff they downloaded cost only about $50 of their profits. A bit too much?

The only group that seems to have been not criticised yet is the individuals who download the stuff illegally. It might seem unreasonable to criticise them as firstly they are unable to afford the vcds, and secondly they government does not care so they won't care too. But have they forgotten their morals. It's not acase of bring the most witty and smartest by getting the 'best deals' but on the morals of downloading. Yes, the costs might be too high, but does it give teens a reson to download these illegally? NO It's like stealing a computer from a shop because the costs are too high and you cannot affort it. It goes against the issue of morality. Teens also have the misconception that piracy is not stealing, but it actually is, excapt that it is not material theft but software theft.

To the government- Just let ODEX sue the illegal downloaders and let them bear the brunt for what they have done, and teach them a lesson they'll never forget, however at a slightly lower cost of maybe $500 as a first time lesson. But first, ODEX- lower your cost of animaes.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/cna/20070825/tap-odex-had-no-right-of-civil-action-ag-231650b.html

CA for CA: U.S. envoy expects North Korean nuclear talks to restart soon

2007-08-27T10:41:00.000+08:00

When two inreasingly stubborn countries come together and try to form an agreement between the two of them, each one refuses to compromise and as usual, they break down again. But this time. its's different. Pongyang somehow agrees to shut down it's nuclear reactor, but of course, it comes with a cost to the US government too. But the question is not on the cost, it's about why the US wants to close pyongyang's nuclear reactor down?

Why does US of A have so many nuclear weapons while it is trying to get other countries to stop production of these weapons of mass destruction. Their stand is that the other countries pose a threat to the peace of the world and that it is their duty to stop these and 'protect' the peace of the world. But let me ask them, if they treat themselves as the 'big brother' to the world, shouldn't they set an example to the rest of the world and destroy their own weapons first. And what is the purpose of having nuclear weapons to the US, is it to destroy other countries, or is it to protect themselves? If it is to protect themselvs, North Korea can also have weapons because they want to protect thmeselves too. Anyway US must remember that it is the only country to have used a nuclear bomb on humans, and they are the major culprit, not the North Koreans or Iran. If they want to prevent this from happening again, they should make sure that NO country in the world should have nuclear bombs, and they should start off first and set a good example to the rest of the world.

Another complaint is that North Korea is not reliable and could detonate the weapon to kill many people. But we question and ask whether the US is reliable, it could just detonate its weapon on anybody it doesn't like. And the US also says that North Korea is a threat to the world because it has nuclear weapons. But doesn't the US have nuclear weapons too, and certainly more than North Korea, so that makes the US a bigger threat to the world

The reason USA is doing this because it wants to protect it's status and interest. It wants to be the major superpower in the world and wants to protect their own country. Another question is why is US so concerned with the nuclear situation in North Korea? The parties in the six coumtry nation talks are Japan, China, South Korea, Russia, North Korea and the US. Do you realise that the US is ther furthest country from North Korea in the rest of the 5 nations, so why is the US so 'kaypoh' and interfere in the talks? It just wants to show to the world that it is powerful and that they are 'really' concerned the the affairs of the world to protect the security of everyone.

Even the complains on the US is not able to dispell the fact that many people think that North Korea is a threat to the world due to the fact that is is a commmunist state and its not open to the world. What makes it even threatening is that North Korea is not transparent and the world is unaware of the recent developments and whant is going on is North Korea, which makes them even more suspectible.

US is just trying to protect it's own country and status as a superpower and big brother and does not care vbout the rest of the world even though the claim that they are doing so. They should just leave the matter till pongyang decides to do something or should leave the matter in the hands of the countries around North Korea which are mostr affected

Forget to remember, remember to forget

2007-07-23T23:10:00.001+08:00

Should I remember, or forget. It pains to remember, because I hope that it could start all over again, but it's not going to happen. To forget... then the 8 days there will be a waste of time.

Should I?

Miss the ppl

2007-07-23T00:44:00.000+08:00

I'm starting to miss everybody. From my teamates and facilitators in my group at the camp, to the person who sat next to me on the plane on the way to Taiwan. I just wish I could go back into time and experience the wonderful times we had, but I noe it's impossible, we all just have to move on.

Keep the memories...

Quotes from Taiwan

2007-07-22T22:32:00.000+08:00

Here are three most important stuff I learnt from 秩敦哥

如果要他high，就要先自high, 但不可以过度high
你们别问我，一起跟朋友讨论，想出办法，如果真的不可以才找我
如果有东西要问就去问，以后回想时就不会后悔，而自己会觉得满意

我永远不会忘记的话

Other quotes kopped

累只是一种过程(红豆)

Back from Taiwan

2007-07-17T23:01:00.001+08:00

Yes. I'm back from taiwan after a week. Missed one week of school but had lots of fun there. Made lots of new friends, learned lots of new stuff and had lots of fun. Took about 500 pictures on my handphone because my camera wasn't good but the pics were of quite low resolution. Took China Airlines, which had personal tv on the way there with touch sereen. The flight on the way back was horrible, no personal tv and the seats were very old. We had one day of lectures, another day of team building activities, 3 days of preparing for the event and the final day which was the event where we hosted the visually impared children to a day of fun and games. Only managed 4 hours of shopping from 10pm-2am on the last night. No taipei 101 visit too. Sigh,,, back to school.

Heard there is another trip to Dwen An in November...

Taiwan Dwen An Service Learning summer camp 2007

2007-07-09T01:30:00.000+08:00

Whee... will be leaving for taipei later in the aftenoon today. now it's 1:35 in the morning and I can't sleep. Too excited. Will be ponning skool for one week + one day and will miss a physic quiz and some praticals and practice for chem and physics. Anyway I hope to have fun and improve my Chinese there, even though it's so hard to understand the words because they are in fan2 ti3. Anyway to those reading my blog, have fun in school....muhaaah (Ivan laugh)

Burnout

2007-07-05T00:49:00.000+08:00

Wah. These few days damn busy lor. Only wednesday and total burnout already. Today kena late for skool.
Monday: Youth day, but had to reach skool at 9.30 am for briefing. Then bring the Taiwan Dwen An students for amazing race around Singapore till about 9pm. Reach home still got to do ERP. Slept at 2am.
Tuesday: Usual skool. Got PE, then after skool rush down queensway to pick up class shirts then rush to RGS where the Taiwan ppl were. Then played lot's of sports and games and finished at 10pm. Went home and rushed ERP and RE. No time to revise for maths TA. Slept at 1.30am.
Today sure fail maths TA lor. Never revise. Tmr still got chinese du zhe test.

Sigh... tired

anyway, 4 more days. Heh

Mid year hols- Part 1

2007-06-11T01:57:00.000+08:00

Ah well... as usual, no work is done, or has been done. Who cares. What's important is that I had fun. Work's coming and is going to be done later in the next two weeks.

Week 1- Interact camp. Damn fun leh. Left the air con on in the junior blk class for 3 whole days, amazing race around half of Singapore, war games where everything got stolen, Macs for dinner, playing cards, baseball and soccer in the room, and playing soccer on the Astroturf at 3am. What more can you expect from it. SMO senior was the only 'spoiler' during the camp

Week 2- Yong GEMS camp. All the way at Republic Polytechnic at Woodlands for 1 whole week, but worth it. Went shopping during the camp, 'busking' (giving out free stuff) on Orchard Road, service attachment at SMRT corp (slack but very insightful technically), performance, friends, service, smiling, blah... Cool eh.

NAPFA 2007

2007-05-20T22:10:00.000+08:00

It's always like this: beofre I do my NAPFA I akways think I'm going to not be able to do enuff situps or IPU, but it always turns out better than ok.
I round up my results after my 2.4 or Wednesday.

Situps- 47 (A)
SBJ- 249 (A)
Sit and Reach- 46 (A)
Shuttle Run- 9.5 (A)
IPU- 30 (A)
2.4 run- 12.23 (C)

28 points and a Gold. Whippee.

CA for CA- Singapore government pay increases by 60 percent

2007-05-12T22:21:00.000+08:00

The huge financial problems around the world, including in Singapore, yet the Singapore ministers give themselves a pay rise of a whooping/shocking 60% pay rise to S$3.1million a year. One question being asked by Singaporeans is, why are these ministers getting a pay rise, and do they deserve it?

Our ministers pay have not been increased for many years and I think an increase will be suitable not so as to peg our salaries to the top few percent of the working sector. These words, to some degree of similarity, was quoted from Mr Lee Hsien Loong, which shows his reason for the pay increase. You have to accept the fact that ministers' salaries have not increased for many years, and that they have done quite a good job of handling the country and so do deserve some sort of a rise as an incentive to work even harder, but why so much increments, and why must the government peg their pay to the top few percent of the Singapore's working force, shouldn't they peg it to the bottom few to show fairness and that they want to geuninely serve the country and are not here for money?

George Bush works 24/7 serving a country that is thousands of times bigger than Singapore, and he only gets one-fifth of a Singapore minister's salary who works part-time as a minister. Fair? Surely not. George Bush's pay is not even in the top 5 precent of the highest earners in his country, and the hugeness of his country makes it an even harder one to manage.

When running for elections, the main thing the minsters have promised is to serve the people, but it comes with a very heavy financial cost. By serving the people, the ministers have decided they need a increase beacuse they have 'served' the poeple very well. But what does it mean by 'serve'. To serve the people and give themselves huge benifits is not serving, but instead 'working' for the people.

The recent increasing income gap also makes it less a reason for the ministers to increase their pay. When some people in the country are not doing financially well at all, the ministers should go all out to help those in need instead of sitting in parliament and discussing on their pay rise. Why don't the government decide to not increase their pay, instead put their supposed pay rise into a fund or plan to close the vast income gap though financial help and the implementation and finding of new and skilled jobs so the people can earn money.

Singapore is 'democratic', so why not exercise this voting right on how much the minister's pay should be increased by. The citizens can determine the ministers' rise on the amount of work and contributions they have made to the country, which will be a fair reflection and judgement. The citizens also won't complain of the pay rise as they have determined it themselves.

However give credit to the ministers when it's due. Several ministers have agreed to donate the pay rise to charity for the next few years, including the Prime Minister. This indicates that what the ministers want is not money, and want to prove to Singaporeans that they want to use their earnings for a good cause, which is good. However, why not just take away the pay rise and put it into a fund instead.

Yes, the ministers should take a pay hike, but not as much as 60%, perhaps 10% or 20%. To them, it might be just a matter of a peanut or two, but to the working class, it's like 50 bags of peanuts. So to all ministers, why don't you take away some of your peanuts and throw it down for us to eat and we'll be contented.

Word count: 638
Source: http://sg.news.yahoo.com/070411/3/47rb4.html

Reflection: WHat I think was good about this article was that I managed to show both views, the view of a minister and that of a citizen. I also managed to relate the pay hike to some issues such as the increasing poverty gap in Singapore and the use of democracy here.
Self rating: 16/20

Note: Ms Yong, if you are reading this, I have two other blog posts somewhere in Feburary, one about the Indonesia floods and one on the Crazy Horse. You might have to look in the archives. thanks.

APR April

2007-04-12T22:34:00.000+08:00

The first APR of the year is out, and these are my results:

English- 69, 3.2 (half mark for any assignment would have gotten me a 70, 3.6)
Maths- 77, 3.6 x 2 (too much weightage on CCT, which i ony got 65percent)
Higher Chinese- 68, 3.2 (ok lah)
Social Studies- 89, 4.0 (hah)
Geography- 90, 4.0 (imba)
History- 80, 4.0 (ok lah)
Physics- 67,3.2 (most likely 3.6 if they had counted pratical)
Chemistry- 66, 3.2 (sucks. worst subject)

GPA: 3.56

I don't thing it's a good grade, but some of my friends all think it's good. Wad do u tink?

JTC

2007-03-19T23:46:00.000+08:00

Sigh... It's been 2 days since I got back from RR JTC camp but I'm still feeling the hangovers of it. Still quite tired even though I slept 14 hours the night I came home. The camp was fun, but only slept 4+2+3= 9 hours in 3 nights. Still got quite a bit of homework to do. Posta bout the camp another day.

Screw it

2007-03-08T20:31:00.000+08:00

I think I sort of screwed up my first 2 years in RI. It didn't really start off on a good note in sec 1 orientation camp, seemed sort of a complete joke, as in me. Then the gym allocation, which really screwed up my first 2 years, ponning and being the brunt of all jokes whenever I went. I think I didn't really take the first 2 years that seriously, like playing around, slacking and stuff. Ok. I had quite a number of friends, but it didn't seem that perfect. I don't know, but looking back, it seems screwed.

One of my biggest regrets was not becoming a prefect. I dunno wad's the hype in me about being a prefect, but is it the credentials, the willingness to serve and return back to the school or just being able to ponn stuff to support RI

This year is better and worse. The better thing is that I'm trying harder to improve my grades and it's going quite fine now. The bad thing is that the GE people have been split up and I feel slightly more lonely, juz talking (as in really talking) with 1 to 2 friends in class, and they are mostly geepers.

Hope the year improves.

Note: I may sound a little screwed here, but I' actually quite sastisfied and happy now.

Prefects Investiture

2007-02-28T23:42:00.000+08:00

Prefects Investiture today was in the new hall. Definitely bettee than last year.

Looking back at Sec 1, I realised that the 3 people I voted for CEC in Sec 1 are all prefects now.

Coincidence or superb foresight?

CA for CA: Poor Turnout closes Singapore Crazy Horse

2007-02-22T21:34:00.000+08:00

Crazy Horse troupe performing

Another one comes and goes just as quick as it came. Crazy horse, the cabaret show, so famous in Paris but a ho-hum to Singaporeans, closed its doors in January, just more than a year after its opening.

You are in school and your friend runs up to you and say, "I watched Crazy Horse yesterday night, there were long queues and the show was a sell-out, and it was fantastic to watch." There are 2 loopholes in this scenairo. Firstly your friend will not be able to watch the show as he is under 18, and secondly the show has never been a sell-out (except for once).

Social Perspective
But why don't the Singaporeans watch these shows where in Paris, the show has been running for many years and recieve a good amount of viewership every day? Firstly, compare our museums and heritage sites in Singapore to those in Paris. I think our museums have more wax figures that visitors in them, but in Paris, just look at the Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, etc. which are bustling with visitors every day. Another comparism is their shows we watch to those the Parisians watch. We watch almost meaningless shows like Singapore Idol, the Dance Floor, Project Superstar and other comedy and competition shows. What the Parisians watch is soap operas in which they really appreciate. It just goes to show the type of culture we apprecite and what the Parisans appreciate. It's not surprising that the two crazy horse situations are so different. I mean, if Singaporeans want to watch half-clad women dancing, they can just watch it at home on their computers. Technology is so advanced now that people can do everything at home, on their computers, compared to 30 years ago. Other examples of falied cabaret shows now is Neptune, which also closed not long ago. It was very popular in the 1970, where people didn't have computers and wanted entertainment, so they watch these shows, but the situation is so different now and people don't like to watch these shows, and the Neptune's viewership has dipped since the 70s. Singaporeans' mindsets are sterotyped- if you watch these shows, you are not appreciating culture but you are a 'dirty old man'.

Political Perspective

What the Singapore government is trying to do is to promote this show to both Singaporeans and tourists.But it isn't doing much to help improve viewership of these shows and expose Singaporeans to appreciate new cultures. Firstly, the government has too many restrictions on the shows, for example banning advertisments on the Crazy Horse shows on bus stops and on newspapers, beside the Movies section in Life. The government also ins't doing anyhing to promote these shows. Maybe they could have a minister watch Crazy Horse so he can 'endorse' the show. This might abolish the steryotype that make Singaporeans scared to watch the show. As for tourists, why would they want to come here to watch a second-rate show where they can go to Paris and watch the real and original performance. The atmosphere here is also not 'conducive' and the theater will be almost empty. Tourists go to different countries because they want to see the countries' specialities, which for Singapore is the food, warm weather, shopping and our 'kiasu-ness', and not to watch these shows. Perhaps when the 2 IRs are open more people from Batam and other parts of the world will come here to gamble, and convinently enjoy some form of entertainment through the cabaret shows. But not for now.

Source:

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/070125/5/singapore254709.html

Does anybody hear her- Casting Crowns

2007-02-10T23:45:00.000+08:00

CA for CA: Indonesia Floods Leave 145,000 Homeless

2007-02-07T21:35:00.000+08:00

Residents use a makeshift raft to help a motorist cross a flooded street in Jakarta, Indonesia, Saturday, Feb. 3, 2007. Severe storms caused the worst flooding in Indonesia's capital in five years, forcing rivers to break their banks, inundating thousands of homes and businesses. [AP]

Hey, all you people sitting in your comfortable chairs, sipping your coffees (or soft drink or milk, if you are) and reading this post on your computer, have you ever thought of how lucky you are to be in your current situation. Just look at the 145,000 people in Indonesia who are homeless. They don't even have a roof to cover their heads, much less the computer you are sitting in front of now.

You many say that it is just another flood (after the Malaysia floods), just a natural process which just happens to certain countries and not others. We know that they are homeless and despearte for help. But we cannot understand what they feel, because we have not experienced it, thus cannot empathise (not sympathise) and it will be hard for us to put ourselves in their shoes.

Needs and Wants

Our society, the upper class society is talking all about what we want, good food, computer games, the 5Cs, and even though we have a lot already, we want more and more and more... even though we got what we actually targeted. But people who are working very hard to make ends meet, like atking up 3 or 4 jobs a day, all they care for is things they need, not want, like basic necessities such as clothes, and they would be grateful to even get a little of those. So we ask ourselves this question, are we demanding too much?

We think that going to school is a boring process of life that we go through everyday just beacuse the government forces us to, and we are sick and tired of it, and we want air-con, more recess, blah blah blah... but in Indonesia, the children would be estatic just even to be able to go to a basic school wih no fans or air-con, and tables and chairs made out of wood, and dusty blackboards.

Effects in Indonesia

The floods have brought out the best in some and the worst in others. When someone is in distress and see fellow people who are in the same boat as them and need help, people will lend a helping hand and try to the best of their abilities to help others (as shown in the picture above). That's what I think is one of the positives that can be taken from floods. However, looting is also common after floods, where looters break into other people's homes and steal anything they can find. The reason why they do this is because they too, are desperate for money and goods and so resort to looting, and in some way we can sympathise with them. But looting is immoral in the first place they they should not have done it.

The floods will also teach the Indonesian government an important lesson in what they have gone wrong in by having poor urban planning and not having an adequete sewerage system.

So just spare a thought for the people who are so very homeless and desperate for help, and be thankful that you are not in their shoes and appreciate what you have.
P.S. Donations Welcome too

Source:
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/070204/ap/d8n2m9tg0.html

CA for CA: Indonesia Bans Sand Exports

2007-02-05T21:14:00.000+08:00

Land sand for export

The Situation and reason
Oh...so Indonesia has banned land sand exports. I don't know if Singapore was prepared for this, but this came as a sudden thing to those who only read the newspaper (which is quite a lot for kids like us these days). However it has hit the republic island quite hard, considering that most of the sand which comes here is from Indonesia, after Malaysia banned the same thing in 1997. Note that people think that land sand is used for reclaiming, but in fact it is used for producing cement, essential in the construction industry. Indonesia has banned the sand due to environmental reasons and to protect Indonesia's borders. However it is stated that much of the sand mining is done inland, and is unlikely to affect outlying islands and Indonesia's borders.

Effects on the 'little red dot'
As stated earlier, lots of sand used here comes from Indonesia, and by this ban, will have an impact on the construction industry. However the government and BCA (Building and Construction Authority) states that the impact will not be significant, and won't really slow down the construction sector, in which they can use sand from their reserves. The fact is that at this time, major works are happening in Singapore, the building of not one, but two IRs (Integrated Resorts), the MRT Circle Line, Marina Barrage, and lots more. It would be difficult to say that we would not face problems in the coming future.

Solutions
What Singapore will have to do when her reserves run out is to import land sand for concrete from other countries further away around the region, and there will undoubtedly be higher costs. Eventually, the higher costs will have an effect on the people and consumers (that means US) will have to pay for this increase in costs when they buy or use facilities. What we can also do is to use sustainable construction methods to build buildings and stuff, and the BCA states that it will cut consumption of sand by 60 to 70 percent.

The ban takes effect on the 25th of February 2007 and gives exporters us to 5th February 2007 (today) to honour it's existing sand export contracts.

Reflections

Indonesia

I felt that this ban by Indonesia was something that would be expected someday or another, and it just happened today. Indonesia's decision to ban the export totally at one go was in my opinion, a little too sudden. What I think they should have done was to inform on the ban a few months before to give the countries which obtain the sand from them to find other sources before the ban kicked into place, or maybe they could have phrased out the ban, which will allow countries importing the sand to deal with the situation slowly and gradually, and eventually have time to come up with ways to solve this problem. However you have to look at Indonesia's situation and know that they are losing lots of sand and they need to protect their borders. There is also environmental issues, where animals will lose their habitat and erosion will speed up, thus causing more land to be lost.

Singapore
I thought that even though the ban came as quite a shock to the countries that import sand from Indonesia, especially Singapore who imports most of its sand from there, the BCA (Building Construction Authority) has done quite well in preparing and foreseeing this might happen by having lots of sand in our reserves and having other sources around the region where we can import sand from. The government has also done quite a good job by providing subsidies and cheaper rates to those contractors and building companies which have been affected by the shortage of sand and the price hike. However, I think that this can only be a short-term solution because eventually, we either switch to sustainable construction methods which do not use sand or look for other countries around the region for sand to import, and this will certainly increase costs eventually and thus the people who will pay more will be the consumers too, us.

Source: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/254450/1/.html

About me (For the CA for CA)

2007-02-05T12:21:00.000+08:00

Yes. This is me. Koh Yong En a.k.a. Ernie by 1/2Q and some others.

Tokking about CA (current affairs) for CA

2007-02-05T12:16:00.000+08:00

Sigh...Homework's here again. This time it's an English CA thingy on CA (Current Affairs). For the time period of about till end of Term 2, there will be some posts on Current Affairs. Anyway, will still continue to post.

Sec 3 OBS

2007-01-14T11:57:00.000+08:00

Back from OBS. 5 days 4 nights. Was with more than half my class in a group called Dhanabalan (don't even know who he is, juz noe he's some minister)

Day 1-
Got to skool same time as usual, took a bus to some ulu punggol jetty then got onto those OBS bumb-boats. Went to camp 1 so we were residential, 2 nights in bunks and 2 nights in bashas (mobile ppl had 4 nights in tents). Our instructor/trainer was Cindy and so first we did some admin stuff lik taking away ur wallets and handphones and doing a little bit of icebreakers. Lunch was at the canteen, had catered food which consisted of rice, 3 dishes and a soup. Food tasted ok, similar to the dining hall one. After lunch was kayaking. where we fisrt learned some drills such as capsizing before going for a 2 to 3 hour trip to Pulau Ketam (Crab island), cutting thru the mangroves halfway before going back to camp 1. Heard Manek capsized 6 or 7 times. Nightime was dinner in the canteen again and we got our rations for the next 2 and a half days.

Day 2-
Morning and some part of the afternoon was spent doing some activities about trust, like blindfolding urself up and ur friend leading the way. After that was learning how to belay and then doing something like rock climbing but vastly different from it. Lunch was at the canteen again. Then we camped to camp 2 carrying our heavy bagpacks which was somehow straining my lower back and we managed to get to camp 2 in 23 minutes (record time according to Cindy), berting her other groups' record of 24 minutes. We cooked rice for dinner which was slightly undercooked and anchovies in chilli and mushrooms with minestrone soup. We also pitched our baashas. Dinner was considered quite good for first or second timers and then we intended on taking a powder bath but after looking at the female shower cubicles in the far end of the campsite with proper doors and of camp 1 standard, we decided to have a shower. After that we decided to sleep...
12.30 am. Woke up feeling wet on my socks and shirt. Realised that it was raining. We moved over to the holding area where we slept on tarps on the hard concrete floor for the next 5 hours. Very hard...

Day 3-
Woke up at 6am and ate breakfast, changed and went to do business (big) in the cleaner ladies toilet. Then headed off 1 hour behind schedule at 9am. We started trekking around Ubin Island, looking for yellow plates on the way. Halfway,...

To be continued...again

School- Sec 3

2007-01-04T16:48:00.000+08:00

School's started again. Feel a little wierd, waking up at 6.15 every morning. 3J this year, 28 ppl in class, 3 scholars. It's been quite ok so far, the only major difference is the new teachers and the non geepers, which seem to have quite different characters from the us, more rowdy and noisy (doesn't apply to all). FT is Mrs Ho Wai Lin and many of the teachers teaching us this year are quite un-GE and quite new. Classes have been quite ok so far, except for Geography. Mrs Yak is our geog teacher and my class is so wierd that I dunno hu I can do project work with. Anyway OBS is next wk and I haven packed my bags yet.
Kudos and have a good year ahead.

China trip- more extensive blogging

2006-12-29T01:52:00.000+08:00

It's been some time since I came back from China. Here's an account on what happened.

People Count
10 total
4 of us
3 uncles and aunties
3 cousins

Took SQ 801 to Beijing. Only one runway was working so spent a long time queueing up to take off. Reached Beijing at about 3 something pm. Beijing airport still quite the same as 2002. Had to wait for the Air China flight which only arrived about 1 hour later. We got out of the airport at about 5pm and it was dark already. Temperature about 3 degrees Celsius. Heard snowed a little that morning. Went for an acrobatic performance and then had dinner before checking into Jing Guang New World hotel. The room was small but was warm. Had ESPN there so managed to catch some Champions League action. Next three days went to the usual places one would go in China. Watched the famous Wushu performance there which was way cheaper than in Singapore or other places (180 yuan compared to 100 over Sing bucks). Managed to climb up to the fourth tower of the Great Wall, wasn't very tiring or hard. A lot better than the last time I tried to climb (only managed 3 steps). After that we had ice-cream which wouldn't melt. Went to Chengde on the way there. Watched Rob-b-hood during the bus ride there which lasted about between 3 to 4 hours. At Chengde, it was so cold that the inside of the window panes of the bus froze so we did some 'paintings' on the window. We stayed at the best (ironic) hotel in Chengde which was only 4 stars. Big room but the thing that was horrible about it was that the heater wasn't working. And when we called up reception, they only brought blankets. So we slept in almost freezing temperatures through the whole night. Next day went to some place which had the 'Hong(2) Lou(2) Meng(4) ' and 'skated' on the ice (not really skating lah) before visiting some thing which was very similar to that big Tibet red building. Then headed back to Beijing where we watched some lame 'Ju(3) Qi(2) Shou(2) Lai(2)' movie. Went to some swimming pool cum sauna cum hot spring cum dinner cum performance place (sounds like a country club) at night. Stayed at the Great Wall hotel at Juyongguan, just under the Great Wall. Pretty nice rooms and working heater. Managed to catch some Chelsea vs Arsenal action on BTV 6. Third last day went to the Ming Tombs (didn't manage to go into the tomb unlike the 2002 trip)Second last day was spent walking around. Supposed to go Tianjin but was cancelled bue to fog which closed the expressway there. Went to Tong(2) Ren(2) Tang(2), the TCM clinic and then to XiushuiJie for the second time and then some arts street and another small palace garden. The night was wierd, going to some unknown jade and jewellery shop called Jiu(2) Jiu(3) Fu(2) where there was the owner who claimed to be Singaporean and gave us crazy discounts on bracelets and stuff which were supposed to be real (200 yuan for jade necklace, 200 sing bucks for some diamond necklace and bracelet). The last day in Beijing was spent having steamboat for lunch and going to the airport very early and spent 3 hours in the waiting area playing cards. The Air China domestic flight was not bad, had personal television, bigger than SIA's but toggling through the menus was a nightmare and the video and game range was very un-wide. Landed at Shanghai Hongqiao airport where we met up with our friend and then took the 20 seater bus which would be the transport we would use for the next 3 days. Checked into Charms hotel which I thought was the best in all the hotels I have stayed in during this trip and then we took a walk down Nanjing Road. Dinner was freakingly cheap, about 150 yuan (30 bucks) for the 10 of us, and it was those 8 cai(4) 1 tang(1) type of food. The next day was spent at yu(4) yuan(2) where we walked around and ate xiao(2) long(2) bao(1). We ate at the higher class section but not the highest. Then we walked around and bought some Bread Talk there. Then we went to some shopping place which was horrible, bringing us through one small and cramped room to another with all the fake goods inside. Then went to our friend's house for dinner and then went for a walk with then down the Pudong side of the river, looking at the Bund. Next day went to Zhouzhuang where they had people living on the water (shui(3) shang(4) ren(2) jia(1)). Nothing much to see but their food was nice, especially their pork knuckles. Then went back to Shanghai for some shopping which was totally horrible and boring, completely unlike shopping in Beijing. The malls were either dark and crammy and smelly (of smoke), or were new and empty. Then had dinner at some Japanese restaurant in which the shabu-shabu was horrible. Then took the Bund Tourist Underground Tunnel and went up to the second level of Oriental Pearl TV tower. Then took an MRT back to the hotel. Last morning stayed in the hotel playing cards while the adults went to book city (shu cheng). Afternoon was spent ay yu yuan and we ate the xiao long bao for dinner, but this time eating the cheaper one (16 for 10 yuan (2 sing bucks)) and queued up more than 1 hour for it. After that went to Pudong airport very early, about 6 hours before our flight. Took about 1 hour to get to the airport which was about 40 km away from the city centre. Found out that the check in counter was only open 3 hours later so we went to a cafe while my dad and I took the maglev to and fro. It cost 80 yuan for a two way ticket and the ride was a little bumpy and the train didn't go very fast, only about 300km/h, way lower than the fastest speed. At about 9.30pm, we checked in and went into the waiting area where my uncle bought a can of coke for 18 yuan (3.60 sing bucks) from a cafe when about 20 meters further down, there was a vending machine selling the same thing for 8 yuan (1.60 sing bucks). Then we played more cards and waited till 11.40 pm when we entered the plane for our trip back. Spent most of the time sleeping but the Kris flyer on the way back was horrible.
Fun trip

Stuff I did with cousins and brother:
Play cards
Walk and Talk
Imitate Rusell Peters

China trip

2006-12-18T22:39:00.000+08:00

Came back from China yesterday. Went to Beijing and Shanghai. Total about 12 days. Left on 6th early morning and came back yesterday (17th) early morning. Quite fun but very tiring trip. Will post about the trip later.

Master Card

2006-11-20T23:40:00.000+08:00

Electricity bills for sleeping in a air-con room right after bathing without drying yourself: $1

A pair of scissors to multilate yourself: $1.95

Two packs of Yakult to gulp down in a day: $6.95

Getting sick and a MC to ponn Gym: Priceless

There's some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's Master Card.

Weekly update

2006-11-13T23:12:00.000+08:00

THis week was quite fun. Went class 'chalet' at Aaron's house and we went Seletar Country Club, and 5 of us squeezed in the back of Aaron's car. We got there and played pool, table tennis, bowling and maybe 1 or 2 arcade games. I bowled a 163, 3 strikes in a row in the first game, then I tried curling the balls (no pun intended) in the second game, dieded at first but ended up ok. Tuesday to Friday was quite ok, OBS meeting on Tuesday, and Wednesday to Friday was mostly spent at my cousin's house playing and more playing and doing nothing (ponned Gym). Saturday was Rockwall climbing with church, and it was raining heavily and lots of people got wet (haha). The rockwall was indoors so there was nothing to worry. I climbed thrice; twice on the walls with flat surfaces, one easier and one harder. I managed to reach the top both times (even though I had do change my shoes because they were too big, so no grip), then the third time I climbed the wall that was slanted out, but I only managed to reach the third or fourth panel (only church people will know this, about 1 and a half storeys). I didn't know that there were those holes in the wall which you could step on. My dad came back from his one-and-a-half-week business trip to Germany and he bought me a 345 euros train (model train) engine (quiet expensive). The train is fun, with all those train sounds such as the braking (screeching) sound and the whistles and even the shoving coal sound. Quite worth it.

I realised that a lot of people are going Hong Kong this december; my cousins (10 people) and lots of friends. Think it's because of Disneyland. Anyway I'm going China (Beijing and Shanghai) this December for 12 days. Will be leaving on the 6th. Still a long way to go.

Gym

2006-11-06T00:52:00.000+08:00

It's plain stupid. 7 (or rather 6) times a week for 5 weeks, non-stop. 8.30 to 12. Sparstic. It's just that horrible than I can't quit (and change). 2 more years, then I QUIT.

Yess...Noo

2006-10-26T17:11:00.000+08:00

Ok, the results were out today, almost all. Pretty much a mix of emotion, with those imba and sucky ones. From best to worst:

History: 23/25 (top in class)
Geog : 27/30 (3 rd in class)
Maths: 43.5/50 (5th in class)
Science: 30/40 (sucky)
Chinese: 53.8/100 (die...)

The end of year and GPA:
History: 88/100 (4.0)
Geog: 80/100 (4.0) (top in class)
Maths: 76/100 (3.6)
Science: 78/100 (3.6)
Chinese: 61/100 (2.8)
German: 64.5/100 (3.2 if they round up)
English...
I need a 4.0 for English to get a 3.6, but it's highly unlikely, so bye bye 3.6, no more 11 subjects. Sigh...

Give Thanks

2006-10-22T01:05:00.000+08:00

As Nigel Fong posted on his blog, we ought to give thanks to God, especially after what he has done this week. Firstly, during Maths test on Thursday, I was left with 2 un-done and un-known questions with 20 minutes to go. Then I prayed, and suddenly the ideas came flowing into my mind and I managed to finish all but one part of the 2 undone questions. Secondly, today was our church's anniversary party which was outdoors. Thank God it didn't rain and the psi was about the 40 to 60 range, which is very low nowadays. Thank God.

P.S. Prayer Works

CTs...yay

2006-10-19T15:55:00.000+08:00

Yay. The Ct's are finally over and it's time to relax. However, it's quite boring at home when you have a brother who hasn't even started his exams and you can't play anything besides computer which is so boring. Oh, we got a 32 inch LCD tv and an XBOX 360 as a free gift. But same thibg, I can't open it till my brother's exams are over, so pissing.

Argh...Regret

2006-09-22T21:30:00.000+08:00

Argh...
Why didn't I run for prefect
Mr Jee asked me if i was going for it
Then after the nominations Mrs Lim asked me why I never run for prefect because I had leadership qualities but was juz naughty in class.
Nobody would and will ever believe it.
But I somehow have the 'leadership capabilities'
Now the chance is over...
Must wait until go to RJC then try again
Argh...Regret

Free

2006-09-11T23:20:00.000+08:00

It feels so good...
not to have to go back to the torrid place of mats and springs
No more
Constrains
Tied down by those rules
Those unreasonable rules
The people who tell you not to do things and yet do it themselves
The...people
The cold, hard (obvious) place
No more of those
Wish it could last forever...
But it won't
A few more weeks, months
Prometheum day
2007
It'll be over
soon...

Some acronyms

2006-08-27T21:50:00.000+08:00

Future problem solving---FPS---Friday ponn school
Teachers' day celebration---TCD---Thursday don't come

I wonder what they're trying to imply...

The last...

2006-08-27T21:35:00.000+08:00

Friday was inter-house debates finals. I ponned cca to watch it (yay). The topic was THBT in this world there is no more "Auspicum Meloris Aevi" (excuse me, my spelling sucks) (meaning: hope for a better age). I thought we deserved to win but we lost 3-2 to Buckley. No excuses, but everybody thought we deserved to win, including Mrs Smith but there were 5 judges and there was a teacher, 3 debaters from other houses, and... a Buckleyan J1 or 2 student.

Saturday, I went for the final of the 8 weeks of IMO junior training 'torture' (somewhat) x 3 hours which brings it to 24 hours of challenging maths. Yay, it's finally over, and I don't think I will get into the senior team, it's already been long and tiring enough and has way exceeded my expectations. Actually I didn't want to go for SMO but my mother and maths teacher wanted me to go, so I went for the first round and anyhow do the questions. Then I got into the second round, which was quite of a surprise and so I went and there was about 200 over people, so I didn't think I would get into the top 30. But somehow I managed to get into IMO junior team training which only 50 people managed to get into. So then I thought that there was a realistic chance of getting into the top 30, and which I managed to get 17th in the country. Now the journey has come to an end...probably

Today was the last guitar lesson in which we had to do somewhat like an American Idol 'audition' but was more on a review. I did the easiest song and the 'judges' said it was quite good considering that I started off with zero experience.

The upcomming week is slack week. Monday and Tuesday, special programmes to Pulau Ubin and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) respectively. Wednesday is staff training so it's a holiday for us, Thursday is teachers' day celebration until 10.15am and Friday is teachers' day holiday.

Responsibility

2006-08-17T22:46:00.000+08:00

I just wonder if I should go gym tommorow. This horrendous gym experience has been a vicious cycle since day one. Me being put in a stupid CCA (not one of my choices)-> Me ponning CCA-> Seniors 'dislike' me-> I semi-suck at gym-> and the whole cycle is repeated again. Gym training is supposed to be from 3.30 to 6.30 on Monday and Wednesday, and 3 to 6 on Fridays. But on Mondays and Fridays, by the time I get released, it's already 7. And on friday when I have to leave at 6 (on time) (for swimming), the seniors actually make a big fuss. And I think this year's seniors are getting more and more unreasonable, especially those who have something to do with me. On Monday, I left early because I had 2 tests to revise for tommorow after getting coach's permission. Then when I was leaving, one of the gym seniors came up and prevented me from leaving and questioned me on leaving early and blah blah... such as 'Is it gym''s fault that you never revise for your test'. Then at one point I told him that coach allowed me too, then he rebutted 'coach allow, but I don't'. Who does he think he is lor. And it's not like I don't always come to gym or that I purposely leave so early. And what happened to those who ponned gym to revise--nothing. That's why it isn't fair. Thn tommorow I have to do a class makeup for Saturday's hiking trip and I have to leave at 5 (gym training is from 3 to 6 (supposedly official)). And I cannot imagine my seniors actually letting me off...That's why I intend to not go, or if I go, then I'll go from 1 to 2.30.

Planetshakers: Ultraviolet

2006-08-13T00:11:00.000+08:00

Planetshakers rox. Today after church I went to EXPO to watch the planetshaker ultraviolet conference. Managed to get tickets from Ben Low and his cell group leader. Thanks a lot, guys. The atmosphere was wonderful, jumping and singing, but I felt the lack of spirit from we Singaporeans, not a lot of jumping and singing, even though it was audible. After the performance, I bought the CD and went to get their autographs and they were talking about my Rangers T-shirt, about 'the golden rule, my daily rule' and blah... Overall I had lots of fun and I look forward to more of concerts from Hillsong and Planetshakers.

Inter-house debates

2006-08-11T23:05:00.000+08:00

Today was Inter-house Debates. The topic is if this house will sue McDonalds. I was the reply speaker for both the prop and opp. The debates turned out quite fine, except for one guy on our team who was so un-debate like, bad standing posture, restated points without any additional info, said stuff like 'don't make any point of informations yet' and 'how many more minutes left' which might have caused us to lose the debate. Anyway I think I did quite ok and it was a learning experience, even though we lost both our debates. lol

RI vs HCI 'friendly' match

2006-08-04T22:38:00.000+08:00

Today I ponned gym to watch the RI vs HCI soccer match at HCI. Got there the earliest and met up with a few of my old school friends. The match was pretty boring in terms of gamplay value but it was not without little entertainment. The referee got there late in the first place, and during the match, The HCI goalkeeper slipped while kicking the ball twice and the ball didn't go far and high. Then the linesman got hit by a ball and the HCI people missing a few their kicks, RI only missed one or two. Then during half time we got to take penalty kicks with the goalkeepers from each school trying to save our shots. Then in the second half, a blatant handball in the penalty box (damn obvious) from one of our players went unnoticed by the referee. Then in about the 6th minute, I left to go for a class. The score was 0-0 then.

Tests

2006-08-03T22:50:00.000+08:00

Today was test day. 3 tests, from the first period of school till the last period, with breaks and lessons in the middle. It started with Maths, the subject that I'm pretty good at but always screw up. Today was not much of a difference. Screwed up the last question. Besides that was ok. Then there was science practical when I became a little spastic. It was pretty ok. Then was swimming for PE, the ultra love or hate sport. Then was 3rd lang test (German). The gramma part was good 18.5/20 (I think top in class) but the Luckentext (close passage) was horrible 3/15.
This week has been tiring. CCA on Monday, Swimming on Tuesday, Cross-country on Wednesday, swimming again today, and finally CCA again tommorow.

Drama Feste, NDP

2006-07-30T14:16:00.000+08:00

The last two days have been spent for relaxing and enjoyment. On friday was drama feste. Went to watch the matinee show because I lost my night show ticket. silly me. Thought hullett was quite ok while the other two, buckley and moor were very emotional. However we won, somehow. lol. Saturday was National Day Parade prievew. Quite fun, except that this year's was not as good as the previous years. Have been to NDP for 7 times in the past 10 years, 6 previews and 1 NE show. Havn't actually been to actual day before, but have sat in all four sectors of the National Stadium before, including the grandstand. Have only been to padang once or twice, all others in the National Stadium, which is going to be demolished this year.

Hmm... maybe they could replace fireworks with money dropping from the sky?

SMO

2006-07-15T23:13:00.000+08:00

Surprise. Surprise
I actually got 17th for SMO, beating people like NicChee and Ivan. I didn't even expect to make it past the first round.
And yes, NicChee has alreaddy pressed me on going to Maths Club.
Ivan was 'smart'. He ponned the special round because he woke up late which ended his chance of getting into the top 30. If he had gone for the special round, he sureyly would have gotten into the top 30.
IMO training is hmmm....boring? Stuck in a room doing maths for 3 hours with only a 10 to 15 minute break in the middle. And I'm sitting next to NicChee and Ivan, who rolls his chair all around the class. lol
RI got top (team) for both junior and senior sections, beating HCI and NUS high, which makes it even sweeter:)

Money and Spending

2006-07-10T03:18:00.000+08:00

Many people think that I don't really spend a lot of money when shopping and that I am thrifty. But I tell you that's not the case. If you ever know what toys, items and gadgets I have at home, you would surely change your mind. Some of my gadgets are like my $600 train set, an I have a few of them, and other expensive stuff. Still think I don't spend a lot of money...

WC 2006 Ouarter Finals: Ger vs Arg

2006-07-01T01:47:00.000+08:00

4-2 to the Germans on penalties. Simply fascinating.

Mid Year Review

2006-06-27T21:30:00.000+08:00

Half a year has already been gone and I think it's been quite sastifying , if not good. Mid year GPA was 3.73, above what I expected. I think they moderate the marks a lot. Anyway I got 4.0 for History, Geog and Science, 3.6 for Maths and English, and 3.2 for Chinese. Luckily German wasn't counted; I'd probably get 2.8 or 3.2 for that. Anyway the holidays were spent slacking, playing and watching football from 9pm-5am, or at least to 2 am. School started today and there was a little wierd feeling, the feeling I always get when I go back to school on the first day. Everything turned out ok except that I got 65.5/100 for German. Argh...watever

SI 2006

2006-06-04T23:20:00.000+08:00

We had some RE (Research Education) competition at HDB Hub yesterday and today about some Resource Management. We presented our half completed RE project which was about a green building yesterday and we were surprised to get into the top ten. Then we did another round of presentation before I rushed to church on bus 145 and reached there just on time. Could not lead worship yesterday. Then today wen't back again to showcase our project and there was prize presentation, where we got a consolation award and 100 dollars. I think we got 5th, jsut one spot away from a trophy, but it's just a 'think'. Enriching experience and I think the 100 dollars prize exceeded the effort we put in for the project.

MM

2006-06-04T23:12:00.000+08:00

Ayiah, I've decided to scrap my blog post about what happened at Malaysian Montage, just look at the itinerary below.

Day 01 Tue 23 May 2006 (L & D)

0700hrs: Pick-up from RI and transfer to JB Second Link
0830hrs: Depart Second Link for Melaka.
En-route, stop briefly at Tangkak.
1130hrs: Visit to Mini Malaysia at Air Keroh.
1300hrs: Lunch (local style).
1400hrs: Cultural show showcasing ensemble of Malaysian culture.
1500hrs: Traditional games
1600hrs: Depart for Tiara Beach Resort, Port Dickson.
1730hrs: Arrive Resort and check-in.
Group Debrief
1900hrs: Group briefing for Day 2 Activities
1930hrs: Buffet dinner at hotel with traditional mock wedding.
2030hrs: Briefing by FRIM official at Tiara, Garden Terrace.

Day 02 Wed 24 May 2006 (B, L & D)

0700hrs: Morning PT
0730hrs: Morning briefing at Garden Terrace.
0800hrs: Breakfast at Garden Terrace.
0900hrs: Depart hotel for Putrajaya Tour.
1030hrs: Tour of Putrajaya.
1200hrs: Proceed to FRIM.
1315hrs: Arrive FRIM and proceed to lunch.
1415hrs: Canopy Walk.
FRIM Museum.
Group Debrief
1730hrs: Depart FRIM for Chinatown – Petaling Street.
1900hrs: Steamboat and buffet dinner at Nelayan restaurant.
2045hrs: Return to Resort.
2300hrs: Arrive Resort and Rest.

Day 03 Wed 25 May 2006 (B, L & D)

0700hrs: Morning PT at Bus Level.
0730hrs: Morning briefing at open-air theater.
0800hrs: Breakfast at hotel.
0900hrs: Team Building practical at Telok Kemang beach.
1230hrs: Lunch at Tiara.
1400hrs: Transfer to Casa Rachado Lighthouse trek start point.
1430hrs: Conduct of Lighthouse trek.
- Team Building & Leadership
1730hrs: Return to resort
1930hrs: Dinner at resort.
2100hrs: Post dinner activity

Day 04 Fri 26 May 2006 (B & L)

0700hrs: Breakfast at Resort.
0745hrs: School briefing.
0830hrs: Check-out resort and depart for D-Paradise, Alor Gajah.
1000hrs: Arrive D-Paradise and briefing by D-Paradise Resort official
1030hrs: Final Team Challenge
1300hrs: Buffet lunch at resort. Final briefing.
1400hrs: Movement to Singapore with rest stop at Pagoh.
1830hrs: Arrive at Raffles Institution.

End Of Tour

Updated 5 May 2006
(B-Breakfast; L-Lunch; D-Dinner)

I was in group 12, Terengganu with Mr Tan (CLE head), Ms Quah (Our Bio Teacher) and Ms Koh (school councillor). The trip was fun, except the resort (Tiara Beach Resort) which was like in the middle of nowhere, and the toilet was worse. There was no way we could bathe at night with the drips of water from the shower, for 3 nights. Port Dickson was cool. We could build moats (the real one) around castles with water not flowing out, and we dug many pools at the beach. There was the 200-300m canopy walk in FRIM which was cool. Then I got the silver heart at the end of the trip. Oh yeah, I only spent 13 RM (S$6) on the trip. On 2 Ramly burgers (4 RM each), one cup noodles (3 RM), arcade (1 RM), and one icy grape and 2 bubble gum (1 RM).

Back

2006-05-26T23:33:00.000+08:00

Finally back from Malaysian Montage after 4 days. Had a good, hot shower and think of going to bed soon. Yawn... Will blog about the trip later.
(Tau gay sucks)

Joga MaMa

2006-05-22T00:34:00.000+08:00

Tommorow, or rather today morning will be when I finally get to play competition football this year. Joga Bonito, or Joga 3 futsal will be held in our school tommorow, inter house. I'm playing with Vince and TYE but I injured my leg on Saturday while playing captain's ball in church after injuring someone else. She's better now. After today will be Tuesday where the whole Sec 2 cohort (abt 400 people) will be going to Malaysia till Friday. I haven't packed my bag. Argh. Must rush.

Mothers' Day

2006-05-13T22:38:00.000+08:00

Today was cool. Morning and afternoon was the usual except I didn't go for music and so went home to slack. Then went to Church at about 3.45 with my Grandma where we had the comanders from outpost 11 to teach us about hiking. Saw a few commanders from ATC camp, like our patrol commander and junior commander (junior guide. haha). Quite fun except for the horrible amount of copying. Then had mothers' day celebration where we presented a modified version of 'Living Spring My Home' to the mothers. Quite happy with my and the group's performance, luckily we dodn't screw up. The girls pulled out becasue they were not confident (shalln't laugh at them even though I feel like). Then after service, I went to play soccer with the youth and the younger RR kids until 8 something where we went home.
Happy Mothers' Day

Post CT

2006-05-09T18:37:00.000+08:00

CTs are over and today's the first day back to school. It was pretty boring, starting off with a rugby match with RI vs OFS. We won (of course). The Sec 4 had their soccer tournament whivh was very boring;90% of the games ended in 0-0 draws. Yawn. Then there was a mime skit, or rather, a play qhich was quite interesting before we went back to class for the Malaysian Montage admin stuff. Then went to 3rd lang where after waiting for 10 minutes after the bell rang, our german teacher still hadn't come. She always used to come early and so we thought she wouldn't be coming today. Then when we were just about ot leave, she came. Argh, cannot ponn.

GE 2006

2006-05-09T18:15:00.000+08:00

The 2006 GE has just ended and as expected, PAP won again (sigh) with 66.6% of the votes. 666 seems like a bad number so hope that PAP will lose the next election. He he. Anyway I went down to the SDA rally at Potong Pasir on the day before polling day by myself to see Mr Chiam speak. I got there at about 8.30pm and there werquit some people (more than PAPs) and some SDA guy talking (forgot his face). Then was Mr Vincent ..... before Steve Chia. He's very pro, only 35 years and has gone for 3 elections already. Lost all 3. Sad. Then Mr Chiam came and everyone cheered for him. Then Mr Chiam gave his short 15 to 20 minute speech jus before the rally ended at 10pm. Then all his supporters carried and cheered him through the coffee shop and then thousands of them followed him all the way to his town council (I don't know if they were carrying him) which was about 500m away shouting "Potong Pasir, Chiam See Tong" It was very heartening. Then they all gathered round the town council and cheered him for about half an hour before the police asked the crowd to leave. Then I walked home.

I thought that the PAP tatics were pretty negative. Giving the residents $80 and $100 million if they voted for them and won the constituency. The PAP were using the gahmen's funds and not their own party funds which were contributed by the people. And when they provide the expensive upgrade, the residents also have to co-pay, which is quite a sum. They didn't win.

So Chiam and Low Thia Kiang won the two opposition seats, which was no better or worse than GE 2001. However, the Workers Party are getting stronger with their big crowds and high amount of votes while SDP are sinking into obscurity and trouble.

Go WP and SDA.

CT

2006-05-09T18:14:00.000+08:00

Yay. It's (CTs) over.
(Actually it ended long ago)

RR worship

2006-04-13T22:04:00.000+08:00

The RR worship roster is out and i'm not very happy with it. My name only appears once in the schedue which is right at the end of the next month. I don't know what my mom said to her (the person who did the roster) but it was something along the lines that I cannot make it every week and stuff because of this and that... Anyway the fact is that I only can't lead this week because of my CCA (Gym tramp) competition. For subsequent weeks, I can do makeup for my English classes.
There is also this wierd thing to the roster which has all the names spelt wrongly and people put in 2 positions on the same day. There are also a few younger kids doing the worship too.
I dun know, but I think this roster needs some changes.
Please add my name to more worship sessions. What my mother said is "crap"

Take My Son

2006-03-22T21:42:00.000+08:00

I came through this when looking at a blog. I felt that this is interesting and talks about Jesus who died on the cross for us. Read it

A wealthy man and his son loved to collect rare works of art. They had everything in their collection, from Picasso to Raphael. They would often sit together and admire the great works of art.When the Vietnam conflict broke out, the son went to war. He was very courageous and died in battle while rescuing another soldier. The father was notified and grieved deeply for his only son.About a month later, just before Christmas, there was a knock at the door. A young man stood at the door with a large package in his hands.He said, "Sir, you don't know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son gave his life. He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him in the heart and he died instantly. He often talked about you, and your love for art." The young man held out this package. "I know this isn't much. I'm not really a great artist, but I think your son would have wanted you to have this."The father opened the package. It was a portrait of his son, painted by the young man. He stared in awe at the way the soldier had captured the personality of his son in the painting. The father was so drawn to the eyes that his own eyes welled up with tears. He thanked the young man and offered to pay him for the picture. "Oh, no sir, I could never repay what your son did for me. It's a gift."The father hung the portrait over his mantle. Every time visitors came to his home he took them to see the portrait of his son before he showed them any of the other great works he had collected.The man died a few months later. There was to be a great auction of his paintings. Many influential people gathered, excited over seeing the great paintings and having an opportunity to purchase one for their collection.On the platform sat the painting of the son. The auctioneer pounded his gavel. "We will start the bidding with this picture of the son. Who will bid for this picture?"There was silence.Then a voice in the back of the room shouted, "We want to see the famous paintings. Skip this one."But the auctioneer persisted. "Will somebody bid for this painting. Who will start the bidding? $100, $200?"Another voice angrily. "We didn't come to see this painting. We came to see the Van Goghs, the Rembrandts. Get on with the real bids!"But still the auctioneer continued. "The son! The son! Who'll take the son?"Finally, a voice came from the very back of the room. It was the longtime gardener of the man and his son. "I'll give $10 for the painting." Being a poor man, it was all he could afford."We have $10, who will bid $20?""Give it to him for $10. Let's see the masters.""$10 is the bid, won't someone bid $20?"The crowd was becoming angry. They didn't want the picture of the son.They wanted the more worthy investments for their collections.The auctioneer pounded the gavel. "Going once, twice, SOLD for $10!"A man sitting on the second row shouted, "Now let's get on with the collection!"The auctioneer laid down his gavel. "I'm sorry, the auction is over.""What about the paintings?""I am sorry. When I was called to conduct this auction, I was told of a secret stipulation in the will. I was not allowed to reveal that stipulation until this time. Only the painting of the son would be auctioned. Whoever bought that painting would inherit the entire estate, including the paintings. The man who took the son gets everything!"God gave His son 2,000 years ago to die on the cross. Much like the auctioneer, His message today is: "The son, the son, who'll take the son?"Because, you see, whoever takes the Son gets everything.FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, WHO SO EVER BELIEVETH, SHALL HAVE ETERNAL LIFE...THAT'S LOVE.

From: http://3i4christ.blogspot.com/

'Virus'

2006-03-22T21:05:00.000+08:00

Yesterday I downloaded some Block Checker thing from the internet after a 'recomendation'. Then when I installed the block checker thing it worked fine, but each time when I opened a msn conversation an advertisment on the block checker would always appear. How frustrating. I asked my friend about how to get rid of it and he said there would be no way. Sigh. So I went to the block checker website and went to the help section to find out if there was a way to get rid of the 'virus'. I finally managed to download a program that would erase the virus. I erased the virus and introduced it to my friend. He managed to erase the virus too, eventually.
I thought that God wants to tell us that if your friends are bad and sin, they will affect you and you too will sin, but when you believe and recieve God into your lives, you will be forgiven of your sins and you will become a new person, someone who is God loving and fearing. And besides that, when you introduce God to your friends, and if they believe in him, they too will be changed.

ATC Camp

2006-03-20T00:24:00.001+08:00

Hey, I haven't been blogging for 3 months already. So far 1 term has been gone and it's been quite ok. The holidays are almost ending but there are still 2 more extra days of holiday because the teachers have to go for some meeting or training.
Meanwhile, during the holidays, I went for the Adventure Training Camp (ATC) by Royal Rangers from Wednesday to Saturday (15 to 18 March). The camp was simply wonderful. The Holy Spirit really blessed the camp and the spirit there was really wonderful, the patrol spirit, the camp spirit and even the spirit of the commanders. We started off with creating our patrol name and we called ourselves Holy Bears. Then we pitched our campsite and our patrol was very lucky to have the largest campsite. Our team spirit was evidently present and we completed our requirement within the first day and got a bronze the next day during flag raising. I then cooked dinner which was packet noodles, egg, vegetables and luncheon meat. The food turned out to be nice. We then had evening classes before a campfire at night which was like most other campfires, except of the Christian element which we had. The council fire a.k.a. campfire consisted of cheers, campsite songs, acts, stories and after that, there came the Christian element. We had worship and a sermon by pastor Rachel (was it?). It was something like a revival. Then we went to bathe in the toilets where we only had a bucket of cold water and a scoop to bathe in (imagine if you run out of water). After that we went to sleep at 12. I managed to finally sleep at 12.30am, praise the lord. The next morning we woke up at 5am. We then had devotion and breakfast and then flag raising. It was followed by morning lessons such as firecraft, toolcraft, ropecraft, etc. Then we cooked our own food which was tin foil cooking which consisted of chicken, carrots and potatoes. It was quite disastarous as the charcoal fire was not strong enough and the food took a long time to cook. However we manager to eat some food and it was yummy. We had some water games and got people wet before having more classes. Then we had dinner which was sausage buns with vegetables and baked beans. The dinner turned out well and then we had more evening classes before having another campfire, just the same as the day before, except the boy patrols had to light the council fire and the girl patrols having to perform a stunt (skit). Then we bathed in the horrible toilet again and went to sleep in the tent at 1am. The next day we woke up at 6am and the morning was the same as the day before's. We got our silver medal during the flag raising and I was the patrol guide on that day. In the afternooon, we had tin foil for lunch, except this time it was fish, potatoes and carrots. It was as disastarous as yesterday but the food was nice again. We then had water games the whole afternoon. Observation: The girls always are the losing teams in the water games. Inference: The girls... (no offence). Then we had dinner which was supposed to be claypot chicken rice but ended up to be claypot chicken porridge. However, time and time again, even though I still don't know why, the food turned out to be nice again. Dinner was followed by evening lessons before the council fire. During that council fire, I managed to be baptised by the holy spirit. Praise the Lord. Then we stayed up until 4am to do our workbooks and I decided not to go to bed after that which meant not sleeping. I managed to not sleep without really feeling tired. However during devotion I got too comfortable and dozed off, hitting my head on the wall 3 times. After devotion, we had breakfast and then packed up our campsite before having a McDonalds burger for lunch before having the ceremony. Our patrol got the gold medal which other patrols got too, not only from the ATC, but also the patrols from the JTC and AJTC. Every patrol got the gold medal. I still wasn't feeling tired then. I went home after the ceremony and bathed and came back for RR. I still wasn't feeling tired eventhough I didn't sleep (minus the 1 or 2 minutes where I dozed off during devotion). Then for RR the people who went for ATC (including me) had to do worship. The worship was a little shaky, but it was ok considering that it was our first time. I saw and compared the spirit of our outpost rangers with the rangers in the camp, there was a big difference; the spirit in the camp was high, everyone would be singing, cheering their hearts out, everyone would be enthusastic, reply a question with all our voices, but in our outpost the rangers would all stand there, see you sing and reply like half-dead, totally no spirit at all. The ranger class ended early without lessons, only a sharing of pictures about the ATC camp. After the class, me and Ji Heng were playing the guitar and singing while the other ATC graduates went back to sleep in the room we had most of our lessons in during ATC. Then after church I went home and suddenly got very tired. So I slept for about 1hour and woke up half alseep. I couldn't really remember someone sending me an sms and I replied to it, all half alseep. Then we went to the airport to send my dad off while I was very sleepy and after a drink, it was time for my dad to leave. We did the normal stuff everyone would do when a loved one would leave. Then we went home and I slept at 1am.
I don't know why I didn't feel tired even though I didn't sleep the last night. Maybe it was just that I was too excited, maybe it was just that I had enough energy. Or it could have been Jesus who was there for me. God Rocks.

Some interesting stuff I experienced in the States

2005-12-20T15:01:00.000+08:00

I got lots of static shocks in Las Vegas. Once I touch something metal, I will get a static shock. A big one. For example, a telephone or a water cooler.
I found four 1 cent coins during my trip.
I always wake up at around 3.30am almost every morning.

Try to think of some more. Will update it soon.

Best of the West

2005-12-20T14:25:00.000+08:00

Ok, it's been one week since I came back from the States and it's time to blog before I forget about it.

Dec 03. First day, reached the airport at 7.30am, flight 9.40am. Delayed for about an hour. Left at about 10.30am. Stop-over at Tokyo Narita, second time I've been there this year. Then to Los Angeles. Slept about 2 hrs on the plane. Reached LAX at about 11.45am local time. By the time we cleared customs, about 1.30pm. Then went hotel in Fullerton, near Anaheim. Wyndham Hotel Anaheim Park. Then went shopping for some water and foodstuffs at the nearby Henry supermart. Then went for dinner at a Chinese Restaurant. Untypical Chinese food.
Second day, Disneyland Park Anaheim and California Park. Hopping Pass. Went for some famous rides, such as the Indiana Jones. Then went over to California Park, another theme park by Disney but not about Mickey Mouse and friends, but about other stuff like Bugs Life and anoynmous stuff. More rides. Then went back Disneyland for more rides and the Fantasmic + fireworks show at 9pm. Got there at about 8.40pm. People waiting there since 7pm. Then they cancelled it. Because of strong winds. No show. Nothing. Then went back hotel.
Third Day, Universal Studios Hollywood. Not much, Jurassic Park water ride, Mummy Ride, some other rides, shows and 4D shows. Everyone's favourite was either the water show or the Shrek 4D. Other stuff, nothing much. Then another Untypical Chinese Dinner in Los Angeles Chinatown.
Fourth Day, Sea World San Diego. Two hour ride there. Reached there 11.15am. Saw the Shamu show and some other water animals shows. Cool. Hyped up over Shamu. Went for some rides which were outright boring. The only nice ride was a 4D show about the Haunted Lighthouse by RL Stine. Left at 5.15pm back for LA. Slept.
Fifth Day, bus to Las Vegas. Left at 8am, stopped over at Barstow for 1 hour to shop. Reached Vegas at about 2pm. Stayed in Stratosphere Hotel. Walked into casino first thing I reached there. Big one. Smelly one with cigratte and cigar smells. Open Concept. Had to walk past casino to get into hotel.vRested the whole afternoon. Night went for dinner at a so called food court but when we got there, there was only a McDonalds, Mexican food (Cali Cantina), some pizza and a prezel shop (Wetzels Pretzels). Ate the Mexican. Not to my liking. At night, went night tour where we looked at free shows from 8 to 10.30 at all the hotels cum casinos. Short ones, about 4 to 7 minutes only per show.
Sixth day, woke up at 4am to go to Grand Canyon. Got to a private Scenic Airlines airport and took the 6am flight. 19 people (all from our tour group, thankfully) squeezed in a small plane. Took 1hr10 or 20 min to get there. About -8 degrees C there. Then got onto bus and went to Grand Canyon. View was magnificant but the wind made it very cold. Had hot chocolate. Then went to another place for another view before having buffet lunch. Then took the same flight back. Reached Vegas about 1pm. Then went hotel to rest for a while. Then went casino hunting to look at the different hotels. Took a bus, the Deuce, runs along Las Vegas strip. Whole day ticked for 5 dollars. Expensive compared to Singapore's. Then came back to hotel and sleep.
Seventh day, Took Southwest Airlines dimestic from Las Vegas John Mc Carran airport to Oakland. Reached there, crossed the Bay bridge into San Francisco. Went to Chinatown for lunch. More typical Chinese food. Went for some sightseeing (Fisherman's Wharf, Golden Gate, where I walked on the bridge, Twin Peaks, Civic Centre, went past the Gay and Lesbian street (I think Castro) where had lots of 7 colours flag)and then went hotel and then took a walk along Market Street and nearby. Then went for dinner (at Chinatown again) and then, I got fever. No choice but to walk and so went shopping a Macy's and more shopps before going back to the hotel and sleep.
Eighth day, took the cable car for 5 dollars a way (Powell and Hyde line) and got sick (stomach problems, fever) on the tram. Stopped at Lombard (crooked street), then walked down to fisherman's wharf. Didn't take bay cruise. Had clam chowder in a sourdourgh bread bowm before taking a F trolley (tram, name is F) back to hotel. Slept on a very comfortavle couch in the hotel lobby and slept from 3.30pm to about 5.30pm. Then woke up and went for dinner at a Thai restaurant in O' Farrell road. Food was nice, had soccer showing on the TV. Then went to di last minute shopping and then went back to the hotel and left for the airport at 7.30pm. Reached San Francisco International Airport at about 8pm and then checked in, had a small snack at the food court (proper) and then went inside for duty-free shopping before heading back to Singapore via Hong Kong. Reached Singapore at 11.30am (around there) on Dec 12. Had a nice trip.

Back

2005-12-13T09:34:00.000+08:00

Finally back from the States yesterday late morning. Couldn't wait to eat Chinese food again, so wolfed down a bowl of laksa from the airport canteen. Got sick in the States, especially the last part. Ultra tired, slept from 6pm yesterday to 8am today. Woke up not long ago. Updates about my trip in the next post or two.

Whoopee

2005-12-02T21:52:00.003+08:00

Whoopee. I'm going to the States first thing tommorow. The western part. The three big cities, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and San Francisco. Packed our bags and prepared to go. Yay. Can't wait. Wonder whether I can wake up tommorow. Hope so.

Dec Holiday

2005-11-25T16:51:00.000+08:00

Yes, I'm going to the States on the 3rd of December. Cool. I will be going to the west coast area; Los Angeles, Las Vegas and San Fransciso. Quite a last minute booking, just booked it this week. Surprised that there were still places. That means that I get to skip 1 week of gym but I'll miss the class chalet.

Holidaez

2005-11-21T15:59:00.000+08:00

2 weeks of the holidays are gone and I haven't done much. Haven even started doin my holiday homework. Then still got dat CCA of mine. Must go back 4 times a week x 4hrs. Tiring hor. Sooner or later I'll get gymnophobic, ya? Still thinking on where to go this December for holidaez. My bro wants to go America Disneyland. I anything also can. Sigh... Holidaez quite boring.

Long time no Blog

2005-10-14T14:13:00.000+08:00

Ha, I haven't been blogging for the past 2 month or so. In this two month, lot's of things have happened, in and out of school. I haven't had time to blog because of the common test, my brother's exams, and many more. Sometimes I also don't feel like blogging. So, I'll make this post short and sweet (ok, maybe not sweet). Firstly the inter-class soccer tournament. Ok, we got kicked out in the first round, but I organised the tournament which was quite fun. Then we had lots of 'exciting' weeks before the common test then after common test, it was all play. Until now.

Malaysia 'Marathon'

2005-09-06T16:14:00.000+08:00

Ok, I've just came back from Malaysia yesterday night after the Tioman trip which takes that to 3 trips to Malaysia in 3 months. Went to Sarang Buaya last Friday and saw almost the same stuff as I saw during the Church Camp in June. My digital camera broke down again. Back for a night, then left for Tioman early in the morning on Saturday. Managed to get to school on time and took a about 3.5hr bus ride to Tg. Gemok and another 1.5hr fast boat ride to Tioman. Then we checked in to our resort rooms which was good but the air-con broke down on the first night. then we went trekking in the forest and mangrove while it was raining before going for a snorkelling lesson where we saw a big turtle and many sea urchins. The next day was a whole day of snorkelling at Tulai island where we took a bumpboat which took us 1hr. We snorkelled first and we saw lots of jellyfish. We then had our lunch at a beautiful beach where there were komodo dragons. Then we went snorkelling in a mangrove swamp but the water was too shallow and so we didn't. There wasn't anything nice at the mangrove and so we snorkelled back to our bumpboat and headed back. the ride back was very choppy but fun and exciting with the element of not knowing what will happen ande lots of funny stuff happened on the boat back (shan't elaborate). we finally got back and after dinner, went for a night time mangrove walk where we got to touch and hold dog-faced sea snakes before having a bonfire at the beach. The final day we went back to the mangrove for a survey and we collected some specimens and did a presentation before having lunch and taking a 'treacherous' walk to Melina beach where a guy talked about saving turtles. we walked back to our resorts and checked out before going to the jetting and waiting for the boat for 1.75hr which was very late. We had our dinner at an Italian restaurant before coming back to Singapore at midnight. I had a nice trip in Malaysia. Think of going back sometime again next time.

Printer Problems

2005-08-22T21:52:00.000+08:00

Recently, my printer has been causing me countless late nights. I dunno why, but my printer has always been stopping in the middle of printing and it just goes haywire, keep taking in more paper and printing crap on it. The printer is also quite slow, taking about 2 minutes to print a page of word document. My dad says that it is because of too much stuff in the computer, but I doubt so. My printer model is Epson Stylus photo 710 and I think it’s about 5 to 6 years ‘old’. Think it’s time to change a new faster and better printer soon.

Breaking Things

2005-08-22T21:51:00.000+08:00

This post was written on a Sunday night, and for the past few days, Friday and Saturday. I have been breaking my own things. On Friday I dropped my MP3 player and now it’s spoilt and I have to bring it for repair. And on Saturday I broke my orange glasses because I was wearing it in the car and sleeping. The funny thing is, I have a scared feeling in a few minutes before the thing breaks, and before I went to take my MP3 before dropping it, I was scared and I was scared before I went to sleep in the car. Thankfully, I managed to literally break the record by breaking things everyday by not breaking something today. Phew.

Dr William Tan

2005-08-06T17:59:00.000+08:00

These few days have been fairly ok with nothing much interesting going on at school or at home. Except for yesterday. I was at Carrefour at Plaza Singapura and I saw Dr William Tan. He was wearing a blazer and so we said hi to him and asked him how he was. Then we talked a little bit about the marathon last week and after that, we continued shopping. This man has been a very inspirational character for us.

UltraMarathon

2005-07-31T22:06:00.000+08:00

Yes! Dr William Tan completed his 24 hour UltraMarathon and did 607 rounds of the track (243.0076km, new world record). There were many people down there supporting him and I went there thrice- 6 to 8 (30), 10.30 to 11.45 (30)and from 4.45 to 5.30 (31) and I ran 10 or 11 rounds in total. The atmosphere was wonderful, even at night. Dr Tan was truly an inspirational chractor to the school and I. I bought a lot of foodstuffs and a twenty dollar signed poster with a bag. The shirts were all sold out besides the XL at 11.30 pm and all were sold out when I went back the next day at 4.45 pm. There were signed T-shirts by Dr. Tan for auction and I heard that the highest bid was $555. He finally completed his run at exactly 5 pm according to the clock tower and everybody was cheering him on which shows the Rafflesian spirit. Then he had a 'press conference' after his run and we asked him some questions. What surprised me was that no news channel has reported this amazing feat yet (10.30 pm, 31 July). Mabye he wants to keep this a secret until he gets his Guinness World Record. And a final word before signing off, I would like to say, "Thank You Dr. Tan for being asuch an inspirational role model for us. Keep on going!"
Visit this website for updates and reviews: http://www.shutternews.com/#

Long long time

2005-07-28T18:33:00.000+08:00

It's been a long long time since I've posted. Meanwhile, I've been busy studying for tests and doing homework most of the time. The other times I've been surfing the internet and I hope to buy something that I really like from ebay but my dad doesn't allow it. We had an inter-class soccer match last Friday against 1K and we lost 2-1 in the first half. Guess it was quite comical. Let in 2 goals in one end, and score a goal at the other end. German is getting quite boring with our new teacher and worse, he smokes. Today was Geog test and I think that it was ok. CCA has also started this Monday and we are very slack. Oh yeah. We had a RI lecture yesterday and the LT3 was sooo cold I went to the 'toilet' 3 times and slept non-stop for 1 hour. I guess I should sleep earlier.

Wow

2005-07-10T14:57:00.000+08:00

Two weeks have gone since I last posted. Time really flies. In this two weeks, nothing much has happened. Only three "exciting" things happened. First, I went to support the trampoline team at CCAB on Thursday this week. We got 3rd for C div and 1st for B div in over ten years. Didn't make it to this year's competition but will go next year. Second, I went to the 1421 Cheng Ho exhibition and I wonder whether Cheng Ho founded America. Anybody who knows the answer? Then on Saturday the Sec 1 GEP (inculding me) went to Raffles Hotel to watch a musical called "Admiral's Odsessy" Whic was again about Cheng Ho. School's getting more fun.

Back to School

2005-06-30T22:32:00.000+08:00

School is back in and I'm so un-used to the waking up times every morning compared to the holidays. But the first week of school has been an exciting one, new teachers, new timetable, swimming module and most of all, Youth Week. T-shirts were going for $3.50 a piece but I didn't buy cause' I ran out of money. By the way, I taught that the T-shirt was quite cheap.
CCA has also started and gym competition is coming and since I'm not in the competition, we did conditioning the whole training time. I don't feel like going to CCA tommorow.
The most shocking piece of news in the new term is that our German teacher will be not teaching us for about 1 term to go and teach another Sec 4 class whose teacher went for maternity leave and we'll be getting a new teacher. Moreover, she (our teacher) just found out today. Anyway, tommmorow is MUFTI day where we get to wear our own clothes to school. Yay.

2005-06-24T14:50:00.001+08:00

another one

2005-06-24T14:50:00.000+08:00

whee, a pic of myself at the hitachi pavilion from the internet

Another Holiday

2005-06-23T17:57:00.000+08:00

Whee. Just came back from Church Camp in Malacca. Had some fun moments such as the Go-kart racing next to the hotel where I paid 30 ringit for 10 minutes of it where I drove like hell (very fast). Our family also went to a restaurant which Zong Yi's mother recommended and we spent half an hour looking for it but the look was worthwhile as the oyster noodles were delicious (you should go and try that someday). We stayed in Century Mahkota Hotel which the rooms were a little run down but the beds made it seem like home. We spent 4 days and 3 nights there (quite short, really) and we came home yesterday night (my dad drived real slow on the way back). Nice trip.

2005-06-16T17:24:00.000+08:00

A picture on the third day where we queued up for about 3 hours for the Hitachi pavillion: this was after leaving the pavillion

Fascinating Stuff in Japan

2005-06-14T17:04:00.000+08:00

A lot of eye openers for me when I went to Japan.
A few things I found out about Japanese life, culture, heritage and technology

Japanese toilets are very clean
You can wash your bu** when water sprays from the toilet bowl in the toilets when you click a button
Their GPS system is very impressive
People do not talk in trains, nor do they use their handphones. They do not even make eye contact
People there are very friendly
They really recycle things there (9 rubbish cans each time)

World Expo 2005---愛・地球博

2005-06-14T15:38:00.000+08:00

Back home at last after a tiring but exciting week at the Learning Journey to the World Expo 2005 + a little bit of Tokyo. Experienced a lot of memorable moments and so I'll write a brief summary of the trip, day by day.

5th to 6th
left Singapore on an ANA flight (NH902) at 11.35 p.m. and reached Tokyo Narita at about 7 a.m. I managed to get about 2 to 3 hours of sleep on the plane. Went to Sea Life Park the first thing after we touched down where there was the big dome and thousand of fishes inculding b ig tunas inside the park (not the dome). It is a lot like Underwater World in Sentosa but better. Left my bag somewhere until we were about to leave the place.
We then went to Aqua city where we ate our lunch (ate 572 yen ramen) and went to Toys R Us for a while. Saw what I wanted at Toys R Us. The model train which cost about 9000 yen. Didn't get to buy it though, Mr Lim didn't allow us to buy. Some seniors, however went to buy some stuff and claimed that it was for their project work.
After that, we went to Miraikan where there were a lot of techno stuff, including the latest like the Asmino robot, how the Maglev works and the most impressive, the huge suspended globe which was made up from thousands of LCD screens.
We took a short walk to the pier and took a ferry across Tokyo Bay to Hinode Pier and on the way, we went under Rainbow Bridge which is a "staggering" 912 or 913m long.
Our final stop in Tokyo was at a Shabu shabu restaurant in Shibuya where the bean sprouts (tau gay) stank but the meat was nice and after the meal, we took a 3 half hour bus ride to Hamamatsu where we checked in to our hotel, Grand Hamamatsu Hotel at about 10.30p.m. and we went to our "favourite" convinence stall before retring to our hotel rooms.
7th June
The first day of the expo and we went to the Orange Hall in the Global House where we entered the Super High-Vision theatre where they showed us a video clip and they gave us an amulet where we hade to point the solar panel facing some LED panel and I thought that it would be a pain to the ear. We then went to the Mammoth Lab where they showed the real mammoth in a frozen container. We then went for lunch before taking the IMTS and visiting the European Pavillions where we wondered where the German pavillion was unitl we found out that it was at the other side of that long elevated walkway.
We then went to a buffet dinner near our hotel where I ate asparagus and before going back to our hotel rooms, we went to our "friendly" convinence shop.
8th June
The second day of the Expo and we went to the Japanese Pavillion which looked a lot like the Esplanade. We were treated to a lot of fascinating stuff, inculding the big globe where we entered. We then rushed to the German Pavillion where we queued 1 hour for a ride which took us through the history, technology and culture of the German community and I think that we got stuck in the ride for about 5 minutes. There was an exhibition about bionics after the ride in the pavillion. After lunch, we then went to the Circus world which was just a ride with some exhibits before going to the Mitushi-Toshiba pavillion in which we got to star in our own movies because of some advanced technology. We then had dinner which was chanko-nabe (type of stew eaten by sumo wrestlers) where I ate some tau gay which was tasteless and the whole table made a hoo-ha out of it.we had time so we went to a game and CD and DVD shop where I got a DVD for my music teacher. We then went to the convinence stall once again before going back to our hotel rooms.
9th June
The third day and we spent more than half the time in the Expo queueing up for the Hitachi Pavillion, but it was not a boring wait as we played Taiti with Mr Lim and borrowed his Nintendo DS and PSP to play. Mr Jee was there too and he helped us hold the card deck for a while. After queueing up for about 3 hours, it was disappointing to see that it we only spent about a 15 to 20 minutes in the pavillion, but it was a very exciting and eye-opening experience. We then went to the Sinagpore pavillion and I thought that it was not so exciting and there was not and attrctive factors besides the originality and creativity of the stuff and place. We then went for some last-minute shopping before leaving for Nagoya for a BBQ buffet dinner where we spend half of the time there trying to figure out why our food was not being cooked until we found out that the main switch for the gas was not turned on. Then I ate tau gay cooked "specially" by Mr Lim (again). After dinner, we then took a long and tiring bus ride back to Tokyo where we would spend our final 2 days where we would stay in Crowne Plaza Metropoitan in Ikebukuro.
10th June
We splitted up into our Tokyo adventure groups and left the hotel for Tokyo Tower by metro. The morning crowd on the metro was not as crowded as I thought it would be. We reached Tokyo Tower and got a discount to go up to the observation deck of the tower. We went up there and got a panoramic view of the surroundings. We even got to see the view downwards from the observation deck and we took some pictures lying down with our head on the window. It started raining and then we headed to Sony Tower where we saw the latest techonology which were cool and totally awesome. We then went to the top level of the showroom and we played all sorts of Sony's gaming machines there for about an hour. Time was running out so we headed to Asakusa immediately where we ate ramen and curry rice before meeting up again and walking down the long and famous (or historic) Asakusa street where there were a lot of shops selling a lot of historical stuff. we then headed for our Taiko Drum Session where I really enjoyed myself even though my hand ached all over. We then shopped at Asakusa street for some time before going to Akihabara where we could split up into our own groups except for the Sec 1s (which is...ME) who had to follow Mr Lim but I felt that it was good as he knew where all the good places were and he brought us there. Didn't buy anything there, however, as I did not see any good deals. Ate at Mac'donalds before shopping and time and time again, I left my bag there until Mr Lim reminded me. We then took the Metro back to our hotel where we had a mini party which was illegal at the lobby. I felt that we did not have enough time for our own planned activities at the start of the day and we could have spent more time doing what we have planned.
11th June
Last day of the trip and we went around Ikebukuro. Once again we could split up into our own groups except for the Sec 1s who like yesterday, had to follow Mr Lim. We headed to Toys R Us at Sunshine City where I wanted to get my model train wnd I found out that it only cost 2000 yen and so I got it immediately. We then headed to the animate shop across the road where they sold all those little balls and I got a few of them. We finally headed to Tokyu Hands where I got a few star wars figurines for my brother. I wanted to get more stuff there but there was not enough time. We made one final stop at an electronics shop where I bought a second hand Game Boy advance for 3780yen. Whoopee. And so before heading back to our hotel to leave for the airport, we stopped by at a 24 hour shop to get ourselves some packed lunch. We went back to our hotel and left for Narita Airport and we got there early so we spent some time doing our reflections and homework from the trip. We got on to our plane and we made the final flight back to where we belong, Singapore.

6 days have gone by spending my time in Japan. However, these 6 days were spent meaningfully and not a waste as I have learnt a lot of things there, not only from the World Expo but also about the Japanese culture and heritage and I have found out more about myself. I was really impressed about the friendliness of the Japanese and I wish to go back to Japan next time. And as one friend commented to me that you pay to go for learning journeys to do work, I think that you have to do work, but you learn in a fun and interactive way and find out more about other countries and at the same time, enjoy yourself.
Hope everyone had fun during the Learning Journey. I had. Lots of fun.

2005-05-31T13:59:00.000+08:00

First half of a year in RI and I'm still ready for it. GPA of 3.8 in the first term and I think that was quite high in the class. The holidays are here finally, I can relax. Told my parents that I'll finish all my homework before I go for the Japan trip. Busy now.

It is coming

2005-05-31T13:54:00.000+08:00

D day...5th June...11:35 p.m. 5 more days..... cannot wait

Japan Trip

2005-05-23T17:03:00.000+08:00

YAY... 2 MORE WEEKS

Gym

2005-05-20T07:58:00.000+08:00

I hate gym.

Relax

2005-05-20T07:57:00.000+08:00

Finally I can relax. My German test was over yesterday. Now I look forward to going to Japan.

CT is over

2005-05-10T21:48:00.000+08:00

Yay, it's over (It has been long ago) But I still can't play my XBOX because of my brother's exam which falls on this week and he will get distracted if I do. sigh... Anyway, I still have my German test next week. Gotta study. Good luck for all your tests.

2005-05-03T14:56:00.000+08:00

2 down, 4 to go

Mixed feelings

2005-05-01T23:07:00.000+08:00

The CT (Common Test: as known as Captain Torture) is coming and I'm preety scared. At the same time, I'm so excited that I can go to Japan.

Going to Japan

2005-04-17T23:44:00.000+08:00

Yay, it's confirmed. I'm going to Japan. However, Mr Lim has "threatened" me over the past few days. Never Mind. I will still be going.

So long

2005-04-12T18:14:00.000+08:00

Wow, I haven't blogged for such a long time since I was so busy. My father came back from Holand last Sunday and he bought a lot of chocolates and coffee and a lot of other stuff. The weekend has been quite tiring. And since school started, I been waiting for the results for the learning journey to Japan by Mr Lim. Hmmm... wonder whether I am going.

Oh No

2005-04-05T18:38:00.000+08:00

Today, our class got of to a very bad start. The worst in my life so far. Mr Lim blew his top and got really, really, really angry with us and he stormed out of the class. Oh oh.

Okays and All rights

2005-04-04T17:24:00.000+08:00

Today during assembly we had a talk on NE by Mr Jee. He was saying so many okays and all rights. I counted the number of okays and all rights he said in the last 5 slides plus the Q&A session which added up to 86 of them. Later Mrs Lim had a short 10-15 minutes talk with us and she said 45 okays and all rights in that period. Then Mr Lim reminded us something and he said 3-4 okays and all rights in less that a minute. Sooner or later, I'm going to get bored of all those talks.

Waking up myself

2005-04-03T20:34:00.000+08:00

Sigh, my dad is leaving on a buissness trip tonight. Guess I will have to wake myself up next week.

Lucky me.

2005-04-02T17:20:00.000+08:00

I almost lost my blogger account today. Phew.

Hi Blog

2005-03-31T18:52:00.000+08:00

Hi Blog, I am Ernie from RI in Singapore. This is my first post and I hope its not the last.