=Mugging Progress=
I don't know if my pace is considered slow or fast. I've covered more than enough for tutorials definitely. Revision right now is purely for maths and chemistry. Other subjects aren't there yet. But somehow I've found my motivation to do what I should do and I'm relieved I did.

=Windows=
I've just downloaded the theme for Windows Vista, the next windows OS coming to town, previously known as longhorn. It's quite cool I thought, after reading the review of it. The aim of the new windows is to simply tasks and make it real easy for newbies to handle. Vista means visual clarity according what Microsoft somehow has stated. The review of the site is at http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/winvista_beta1_01.asp. What I can simulate is only a portion of it. Here's the screen shot of my com. =) Looking forward to it, it'll be available at early 2006.

=NS=
Quite a lot of my classmates have gone for the NS checkup already. Not that many came back with PES A. I wonder what sort of training will the PES A guys be undergoing. I'm feeling kind of anxious about what will go on in there, but no use thinking about it right now. Hope it's nothing surprising... Ha.. At least I don't have to go back there to recheck PES status.

Esmond got selected for the pilot test sometime ago which seems interesting. Ha, but it's beyond my reach due to my myopia degree. =X

=Fever=
I've reached 38.3 degree fever on wednesday morning. It's quite terrible at that time, not only about the feverish effect but it also sends chilling pain sensation through all my bones. It's really nerve-wreaking... I was told that I curled up like a ball when I slept on Tuesday night.

Ok... my fever's gone but here comes the irritating cough and sore throat. I can hardly swallow my saliva without causing any discomfort. Now with the disgusting phloem sticking down my throat. Yucks..

=Life=
I heard from my brother that his form teacher has suddenly passed away on wednesday. (Yes, same day as my illness and several others including JY, Jeremy, Es, Ms Fong that didn't come to school also.) It's really too unexpected and I can hardly believe the reality. She's only about 20++, just became an official teacher and just got married and she just left the world like that for an unknown cause yet to be known. Perhaps everyone should fill their days with meaningful things, better to do things you always wanted to than to procrastinate and leave behind regrets. Tomorrow is something you can never be sure will arrive...

Recent tutorials and remedials have almost drawn the life out of me. I suppose it's due to the sudden change in lifestyle I'm facing that makes me so uncomfortable for this period. I've always lack the discipline to do the right things automatically. But I'm doing it right now. I want to be proud of myself for A level results.

Tutorials are ahead now. That should be the pace. Doing revisions for chemistry nowadays...

These are the photos I took some time ago and only managed to get this to my computer after I bought the cables yesterday. It refreshes the fond memories I've had with my friends and family. Here they are:

=Robotics=
This is the one taken during roboGP competiton. There are many things I've yet to see from micromouse competitions I've gone through in the past. The competition atmosphere is not that dead, haha and there's interesting designs for robots like what you can see... Yes, they are roboracers!









=Class Memories=
These are the class photos taken in school and at the 10/04 outings. I guess there are not many outings whereby 10/04 gets together all the time. I think I'll probably miss you guys a lot when I leave TJ. Thanks for all the fun time that was shared. =)

Yea~ Another day for me to blog...

=Today=
Jy, Es and me was supposed to meet up at 4 for the $1.60 movie as offered in straits times at orchard cathay cineleisure. However as expected, there'll be long queues of people going for the offer. When they reached there first, there already isn't any slots... I'm so disappointed. T_T A change of plan to watch a rented movie at Es's house. Since it's almost on my way home, I thought it'll be fine to go there. Fortunately, I talked to joel and wq for approximately 1 hr before leaving. Otherwise, I may have to stone in Rivervale Mall.

We watched white noise. I thought it'll be exciting, perhaps somewhat like 'Shutter'. Eh, I'm wrong again. The tempo of the show is generally slow with some exceptional sharp scares in between but mostly due to sound effects. The amplifier is good and luckily we didn't just give up when we thought there's no sound. The show reminds me of boogeyman, or at most slightly better.

=Class Cliques=
After computing lesson today, I had a discussion with wq and joel about class politics. Ha, it's quite fun to talk about that at a higher level, analysing everyone. Being in cliques has its pros and cons although there seems to be more cons than pros. It's obvious what cons are as the word 'clique' is already hinting of it. For the pros is that you'll really get to know a friend very well and someone to depend on. I guess that feelings beat having a lot of friends but none to confide to.

Just for some reason, perhaps a wrong mix of people together, I think. Ha, I sound quite gossipy but at least it's something new to talk to wq with. Haha. But joel touched my hair again.

=Robotics=
There seems to be a rough time during transition of positions. I feel that no matter what has happened, it's bad to call people names... For me, blog is something for many to read about. So there's some sense of responsibility involved when writing our feelings... Anyway, I really hope things do turn out better and all the best for their years in robotics. Will miss you all, =)

=JCT aftermath=
It has landed everyone either in serious despair or an infallible determination to do even better. My classmates haven't been doing very well compared to my seniors who took their JCT last year, did relatively better. Jy has been quite sad for some time already... I think cp's too.

Well, for me I'm going through a bit of both. I'm even more depressed after the talk with Mrs Leong. Haiz, do I really have to end up dropping a subject before I can do well? I haven't really decide what course to take on in university and thus holding on to 4 is still quite important for me. I hasn't fail overall requirement but this definitely isn't anyway near the standard I can perform. I don't want to face disappointment next time round.

=NKF saga=
I'm sure the news has indeed delivered much shock to everyone. With a pay so high, toilets so comfortable, holiday flights so high class, bonuses so attractive, who'll not have the urge to make a fuss about it? Especially when it's supposed to be a charity organisation. People didn't donate to make him that 'successful'. Ha, there's much more complications to this. Although NKF has in actual 30 years of reserves, there'll need to be someone popularly trusted to take over the management of it in order to allow people to regain trust. Otherwise, I believe the donation amount will be going downhill... Other charity organisations will also probably have hard time trying to persuade people to believe that theirs aren't money-conning organisation. Now is a time where full transparency should come to play perhaps.

=Misc=
Ha, friendster lately has launched a games section. Something I never thought it'll be. The classified sections already amazed me sometime before. But nevertheless, it's still quite useful.

I was thinking about opportunities for people to be singers. They say that looks aren't that important but height was never mentioned at all. But I guess it does affect to great extent. Or I mean I've never seen a short singer before especially for males. Then perhaps, it's just another thing to illustrate nothing is absolutely fair on earth.

A summary for this week's updates:

=Dating Video=
Hmm, it's interesting to see actually there's so much teens that have very open concept about sex be it casual sex or those involving relationship. The statistics say about 10% but it's definitely under-reported.

This girl Karen has about 50 sexual partners. Omg, that's really a lot. Why don't someone give her a right piece of mind about the real concept of true love? Maybe there's addiction involved but I think no one will like to feel that cheap about themselves.

For me, I don't really have a clear line as to where I'll allow dating to go. But still I don't see myself going far if I start dating now. Probably almost impossible. Ha, but I don't like the idea of casual sex anyway.

=GP Video=
It's about the effects of outsourcing due to globalisation. Outsourcing refers to the procuring of services or products, such as the parts used in manufacturing a motor vehicle, from an outside supplier or manufacturer in order to cut costs. Overall, I find the video quite interesting except for the saturated high pitch sound produced as the AV room is locked, thus unable to reduce the volume.

Can't remember if it's the Bangladesh or Bangalore indians that's featured... Should be the latter one. The way how their culture is transformed through outsourcing is very much similar to Singapore in the past. They have become rather westernized or americanized in just a short period of time. The difference of ideas shared by just 2 generations can be quite significant.

This leads me to think about whether that is the inevitable outcome of globalisation. However, the relative idea of americanisation is rather controversial I think. Since America happens to be the first to start such consumerism trend and other countries follow doesn't neccessary mean that they're incorporating American culture. If it's some other nation that start out as a super power, they will develop along the same kind of pattern I believe.

However, focusing on the call company alone which recruits large numbers of educated indians can already make their lives rather different. They are trained in American's accent. The 't' sound is being softened to sound like 'd'. 'Water' have to sound like 'wader'. Ha, I find it personally rather amusing as I've never really taken attention to nuances in pronunciation especially in English accent.

On the other hand, the idea of 'glocalised' as defined by the journalist of CNN is to embrace globalisation and yet localised it to their culture is pretty much demonstrated so far. Some festivals such as the Valentine's Day is not broadly accepted as they believe love is spontaneous. The indians also have close family ties that bond them very connected to one another. Another thing that freaks me off somehow is the pool of talents that are produced annually. Imagine how much competition there'll be when I enter the working pool. Will employment be unprecedentally challenging in the future? I suppose only dilligence can give me a better insurance for that...

=London=
Basically, I have no comments as to it being chosen as 2012's hosting venue. I suppose anywhere will do as long as the spirit of Olympic is there. Shouldn't that be the main purpose? Of course, the implications of it being chosen is far more attractive other than the prestige. Tourism and economic sector will benefit from it for sure.

However sadly, just after the day they won the venue for Olympic, it's being bombed by terrorists. I've scanned through a couple of lines from the news and I wonder if it'll make visitors drop their confidence of visiting London. I suppose so, but 2012 is still 7 years away, who'll know what lies ahead. Their last bad scale of deaths was during WWII when the german drop missiles on them I think.

=TJ VP=
Eh, another person has just become a vice principal in TJ. Oh man, how many vice principalS do we need? Addressing all of them during morning assembly will seem like a funny issue. Such a long list of names, ha.

=Computing Coursework=
Being dilligent will help but sometimes I just wish I were a little more smarter. Perhaps that will save me quite a great deal of effort and time. There's quite a lot of things I cannot grasp it very well. It seems to me that Maran and Quang Hung can... Haiz.. I shall try harder then.

=Misc=
For no reasons, I seem to reminicise the times when I was in NYJC. I miss all my friends there. Wonder how they're doing.

I hate people who will just be very nice to me only when help is needed from me. Other than that, they don't talk to me. Don't need to pretend to be nice. Even if you don't take pleasure in talking to me, just being normal will do.

I just hope my friends can be a little more caring...

This is what I found out from an analysis of a personality web site. This is interesting as the questions asked are somehow not related to my character or at least not directly. Most descriptions should be rather accurate I think.

Your view on yourself:

You are down-to-earth and people like you because you are so straightforward. You are an efficient problem solver because you will listen to both sides of an argument before making a decision that usually appeals to both parties.

The type of girlfriend/boyfriend you are looking for:

You like serious, smart and determined people. You don't judge a book by its cover, so good-looking people aren't necessarily your style. This makes you an attractive person in many people's eyes.

Your readiness to commit to a relationship:

You prefer to get to know a person very well before deciding whether you will commit to the relationship.

The seriousness of your love:

You are very serious about relationships and aren't interested in wasting time with people you don't really like. If you meet the right person, you will fall deeply and beautifully in love.

Your views on education

Education is less important than the real world out there, away from the classroom. Deep inside you want to start working, earning money and living on your own.

The right job for you:

You're a practical person and will choose a secure job with a steady income. Knowing what you like to do is important. Find a regular job doing just that and you'll be set for life.

How do you view success:

You are afraid of failure and scared to have a go at the career you would like to have in case you don't succeed. Don't give up when you haven't yet even started! Be courageous.

What are you most afraid of:

You are afraid of having no one to rely on in times of trouble. You don't ever want to be unable to take care of yourself. Independence is important to you.

Who is your true self:

You are mature, reasonable, honest and give good advice. People ask for your comments on all sorts of different issues. Sometimes you might find yourself in a dilemma when trapped with a problem, which your heart rather than your head needs to solve.

=JCT=
Got very lousy results this time. I think I scored last in computing. How outrageous... Perhaps I spend too little time in it. Maths may be better but due to the fact that it's an easy paper. Physics as compared to promos is very much below standard. On a rather high pressure to elevate my physics grades. As for Chem, I hope it won't be too disappointing. News of it so far isn't very positive. There's single digit mark for Chem in my class. GP is hard to spectaculate. It won't be anything good, that's what I can conclude for my past experiences.

=Birthdays=
Finally managed to get an opportunity to buy presents for mx and y3. I remembered last year mao xin was groaning about his unpopular presence as no one is willing to buy him presents except lz. Yea, he was telling me... and I happen to be one of the guilty ones. Haha. Jy and me decided to do a little work on the presents to make things even more meaningful for the couple. Haha. If there's more time, it'll be even better as we'll be able to sort things out nicely.

=Class Outing=
Aww... missed the class outing to Sentosa. Heard it was very fun even though few turned up. I thought probably the guys and girls will be playing separately and it'll be quite boring. Looks like this time, it's not. Ha...

=Sakae Sushi=
Yum... Thx kor for your sushi treat. Really so apologetic to cause such a big hole in your pocket. Ha. Mm.. It's my first time to eat there anyway. I hope I didn't appear too 'suaku'. Ha. Anyway, don't worry so much about your health. You'll be blessed! =)

=School Work=
I saw the lessons schedule for physics and chemistry while I was arranging the files last night and I happen to realise that the pace after June Common Test will be ultra fast. Probably there'll be no room for slacking anymore. Computing coursework will start on this friday... Haiz... I'm so panicky about it. Hope it won't end up like the second coursework. =<

Thanks kor for your present. Heez, I like it. =) I'll use it during A's.

Quite a boring day today. Wanted to run but in the end too lazy to. Naruto comics is really a lot much more ahead than the videos. It's already so cool with just static pictures, what more to say for the videos. So addictive for me, ha.

For those who find the story I posted before interesting, I found it in friendster bulletin... I shall try to post more of different varieties stuff in the future provided if I can remember what interesting sightings I've seen so far.

=JCT review=
I'm quite disappointed in my performance this time. Somehow, I already can foresee how things will probably go from now. I've never done that badly in physics before, damn... Moreover, it's ridiculous to spend my money on things like tuition when there's no significant improvement on my grade at all!

=Strange News=
Lately, the announcement of Apple to switch to using Intel chips has amazed me quite much. My first thought was to install the latest Apple Mac OS on my PC since the processor would be the same... However, as expected, they will have installed some protection to recognise if the hardware is the authentic Apple's one.

=Latest Recounts=
I was wondering how tall I will grow up to be when I was a kid. It just surprise me so much to see everyone relatively gigantic to me. Ha, in the end, didn't end up growing tall.. Aww, that's sad.

=Reflections=
As I grow much older than I was, I beginning to hate the control I'm in. Is it a blessing that I still have parents to control me or curse that I can never do things what other people will think it's definitely okay to do? I don't have an answer. I hope to get to work soon and be more independent. Only then, I can choose how I want to live my life.