This is Me

2009-04-25T23:27:00.003+08:00

17 Again was definitely a movie that left a deep impression on me. Aside from Zac Efron, there was something in the movie that tugged me to watch it on 2 consecutive days. Though a simple (and rather unrealistic) storyline, the movie seemed to connect with my life in a rather subtle way.

The core message the movie wants to get across is choice, and the regret that comes with hindsight. In the movie, Mike (Zac Efron) abandoned his college education for his girlfriend/wife. 20 years down the road, he greatly regrets his choices and wishes to have another chance at life. In the end, he discovers that in fact that was he would make the same choice all over again.

Though I have never faced such a drastic choice in my life, I feel that all the little choices I have made so far is pushing me in a direction I do not really want to go. This is why I can relate so well to the movie - I really don't want to wake up 20 years down the road and regret what I could have done at this age. For me, unlike Mike, I will not have a second chance to chase my dreams. I also want to make choices that even if given a second chance, I will make the same choice again. Regret is not something I want to live with for the rest of my life.

17 Again has taught me that I must make good choices while I am in a position to do so. In addition, making choices for selfish reasons may not always bring the greatest satisfaction. I want be somebody. I want to make a difference. Maybe it is time to start choosing wisely.

I Am Bored

2009-02-21T23:18:00.003+08:00

Rules: Use the first letter of your name to answer each of the following questions. They have to be real...nothing made up! If the person before you had the same first initial, you must use different answers. You cannot use any word twice and you can't use your name for the boy/girl name question.

1. What is your name: Shuotian
2. A four Letter Word: Sand?
3. A boy's Name: Shawn
4. A girl's Name: Selene
5. An occupation: Sniper
6. A color: Silver
7. Something you'll wear: Shorts
8. A food: Steak
9. Something found in the bathroom: Shit
10. A place: Singapore
11. A reason for being late: Stuck in a traffic Jam
12. Something you'd shout: Shit(again)
13. A movie title: Star Wars!
14. Something you drink: Soup
15. A musical group: Singapore Symphony Orchestra
16. An animal: Scorpion
17. A street name: Short Street
18. A type of car: School Bus?
19. The title of a song: Saga Maligna
20. A verb: Shoot

2009-01-10T10:10:00.003+08:00

Reading abtzy's blog felt like taking a hammer to the head. Even I was surprised at how self-centred I am for forgetting the most important thing in 2008, all the friendships I have kept and forged over a most stressful year. I guess I shall not do a friend by friend run-through like he did because I am really at a loss of words of what to say. What everyone has done for me over the past year is really too overwhelming to describe in words, but one thing is clear - the year would have been rather unpleasant without them.

So this post is a dedication to all those who have stood by me not only for the past year, all the years before that. They have helped to shape me into who I am today, for which I am extremely grateful, and also bore with all my flaws. So, I guess its time for me to thank everyone that has helped me so far. Thank You!

2008 Year In Review

2009-01-02T22:34:00.003+08:00

2008, if not very pleasant, was at least an eventful year. If this blog entry was a newspaper, the headline would probably be "A LEVELS" (caps included), since that, after all, is undeniably the most important event of the entire year. I thought of a cool name to give to my personal year of 2008 - "year of the gadgets" since I seem to have acquired many new gadgets (at my dad's expense) over the course of the year.

At the start of the year I can still remember sending Vivian an sms thinking about how old I was (Yes, I do keep very random memories like that). Ironically, the person I was at the start of 2008 feels like a innocent little kid now. No doubt I would feel the same way again next year, but it does feel that the blazing speed with which 2008 has passed has made me infinitely older (not necessarily a good thing in my opinion).

First up - studies. My results must have slipped to new lows in this year's assessments. I would avoid mentioning details here, but it would be enough to say that disastrous is probably an understatement. At the very least, I think I adverted a disaster at the A Levels which would probably bail me out of a lot of problems. Still, I think I could have done a lot better in the year if I had just put in that tiny little bit more effort or maybe just uninstalled crysis. One thing I was really pleased with was my SAT II score which basically meant that I avoided having to retake it (it would be a nightmare to have to retake both SATs) and it means that if I do well for my SAT I then I should be able to safely apply to any US university without them chucking my application in the bin within 1 min. 2008 does mark the end of my life as a full time student (for a while) and I am getting a break from studying for these 2 years in the army. Ironically I do feel like going back to studies after a mere 3 weeks in the army. -.- Maybe that would stop me from complaining about studies in uni.

Second - Band. 2008 was a mildly eventful year for the band. Atempo was our big event and I'm glad that we did a good job though personally I thought I could have played better. Nevertheless it was a great experience (especially playing at the esplanade) which I would definitely remember for a long time to come. There was the Japan trip as well of which the most memorable thing about band is probably the 10+ Alexander horns the Japanese band had. Totally shocking. Japan trip was my first trip overseas with the school (technically RI) but I got used to it quite fast (I guess I get used to enjoying myself rather fast) and of course had a lot of fun and spent lots of money, most of it on a camera which only has Japanese firmware. RJCSB also participated in the NBC (which I didn't play for) and got humiliated with a miserable placing. I guess it is a lesson for everyone to not get complacent and that other bands can be just as good or even better despite our confidence that we are a good band. Sadly I missed Coda IV which was apparently an amazing concert and I think I was being a very irresponsible comm member for RWinds. At least I learnt my lesson not to commit to something that I know that I can't commit to. Maybe I'll play for RWinds this year but that would depend on where I'm assigned to in NS. I do hope to keep in touch with my instrument and do hope to be able to join SAF Band.

Third - Actualy I don't really have a big category that I can consider as significant in 2008. I guess I can make a list of the gadgets I bought.

Apple iPod Touch

Ultimate Ears Super.fi 3

Logitech Noise Cancelling Headphones

Sony Playstation Portable (Free)

HTC Touch Diamond

Computer

Samsung SyncMaster 2253LW

Sony DSC-H10

Razer Death Adder with free Razer Mantis

Razer Lycosa

This list is not a way of bragging how rich I am. I created it to keep track of how much money I have spent on (mostly unnecessary) gadgets just because I thought I needed them or because they looked cool. Looking in hindsight, some of them seem to be a waste of money (why the hell did I need a new phone 2 weeks before enlistment?). Maybe I suffering from something like gadget addiction whereby I can't go by a month without buying a new gadget. Lesson to be learnt? - Be more frugal this year and buy only stuff that I truly need. Also, going for the top of the line model can sometimes be a waste of money when something less expensive can do the job equally well. Somehow I have a feeling at least part of my NS allowance is going into gadgets.

Music... I seem to have expanded my genres of music I listen to a little this year. I'm going a little into rock and actually finding it quite nice. I still stay away from metal and rap because I find the former too noisy and the latter too monotonous. Music is subjective though, so I have nothing against those who enjoy metal or rap. I still enjoy soundtracks, but I find that they are like fast food compared to restaurants, when compared to stuff like classical music (not in the junk food sense), but more like they compress the intensity into a bit-sized chunks for easy digestion. Currently I am still listening to the High School Musical 3 Soundtrack which I think is an amazing piece of work and really addictive.

My year in review seems to have gotten rather long winded and draggy. I think I'll end off with something short and sweet. One word to describe 2008 - Scream. Haha

2009-01-01T21:23:00.003+08:00

Are you sick of making the same resolutions year after year that you never keep? Why not promise to do something you can actually accomplish? Here are some resolutions that you can use as a starting point:

1. I want to gain weight. Put on at least 30 pounds. 2. Stop exercising. Waste of time. 3. Read less. 4. Watch more TV. I've been missing some good stuff. 5. Procrastinate more. 6. Drink. Drink some more. 7. Take up a new habit: smoking. 8. Spend at least $1000 a month on Ladies of the Night. 9. Spend more time at work. 10. Take a vacation to someplace important: like to see the largest ball of twine. 11. Stop bringing lunch from home: I should eat out more. 12. Quit giving money & time to charity. 14. Start being superstitious. 15. Have my car lowered and invest in a really loud stereo system. Get the windows tinted. Buy some fur for the dash. 16. Speak in a monotone voice and only use monosyllabic words. 17. Only wear jeans that are 2 sizes too small and use a chain or rope for a belt. Only wear white T-shirts with those fashionable yellow stains under the arms. 18. Personal goal: bring back disco.

2008-11-24T22:10:00.002+08:00

I must be really bored to do this after an extremely tiring class outing

1. What is your full name?
Chen Shuotian

2. Are you single?
Yes

3. What is your favourite number[s]
42?

4.What is/are your favourite colour?
blue and black (as long as it isnt surrounding my eyes)

5.Least favourite colour[s]
red? i find it hot, like literally

6.What are you thinking now?
how to finish this quiz soon and get to sleep

7. Are you happy with your life right now?
no, even though i should be

8.What are your favourite subjects in school?
civics, assembly ... it goes on

9. Do you shop at malls?
yeah, i probably know orchard road better than my school. Though i don't buy much now

10.Where do you wish to be right now?
flying in the sky (i'm daydreaming)

11. What should you be doing now?
sleeping

12.Do you have any crush on anyone?
yeah. and squished others

13.When was the last time you bought a clothing item?
yesterday (prom stuff)

14. What was the last thing you drank?
water

15. Do you hate liars? Do you hate backstabbers?

yes. a lot. although i do lie at times. i suppose i can hate myself can't i?

16. Can you make yourself sneeze?
no. wouldnt it be worse if you got halfway to a sneeze and stop?

17.Do you fall for people easily?
no... i'll get arrested by the police for killing people

18. What does your last text msg read?
Tell you what. Meet sgy at the mrt. We're walking randomly around. - sounds like i'm on some secret mission

19. Are you too forgiving?
no

20.How many windows are open on your computer?
2. what happens if you are using a mac?

21.Who was your last call from?
home for not going home

22.What do you do with most of your time?
waste it

23.Will you & your ex get back again?
under the assumption i have an ex... no?

24.Do you sleep with the TV on?
no. i find it irritating

25. Which of your close friends live the closest?
no idea. i live in isolation

26.Which item could you not live during the day?
clothes? people will die if they see me going around naked

27. Would you share a drink with a stranger?
such a philosophical question. if you share a drink, would you still be strangers?

28.How was your weekend?
boring

29.Do you believe ex[s] can be friends?
why not?

30. The last person you quarrelled with?
can't remember

31.The way to win your heart?
show me the money! joking joking

32.What did you do last night?
bought an slr

33. Do you have the same name as one of your relatives?
no. thank god

34.Are you looking for a boyf/girlf?
yeah and how the hell do i contact her while on my 2 year holiday camp?

35.One song that is meaningful to you?
i don't know... one of the high school musical ones? i like songs not for the messages but for the music

36.Do you twirl or scoope you spaghetti?
chopsticks?

37.Do you drink milk straight from the carton?
no i abstain from milk. take cheese though

38.How long is your hair?
no idea. just nice (and way too long by prom)

39.Do you like batman?
i like the gadgets but i think hes a guy whos just obssessed with his gadgets (i loved dark knight though)

40.Who was the last person who told you that they love you?
sensitive question

41.When was the last time you sang out loud?
this morning in the shower

42.What did you have for breakfast?
bread

43.Is your birthday on a holiday?
no...

44.Can you cook?
instant noodles

45.Where did you get the shirt you are wearing?

sportslink?

46.What was the reason for the last troubles you were in?
not mugging enough for 'A's?

47.which do you wear more? Sweats or jeans?
jeans. though they feel really uncomfortable now

48. When is your birthday?
19th september. why the random question

49. Do you swear alot?
hardly now. but i keep saying "shit"

50. What was your first alcoholic drink?
no idea. probably got it forced down by throat

51.Do you have any regrets?
more than there are stars in the sky

52. Who would you like to see now?

both a lot of people and nobody at all. im a being of contradictions

53.Have the cops ever come to your house?
no. i hope it stays that way

54. Are you a social or anti-social person?
anti most of the time. but not really that extreme. let's just say i'm quiet

55.Who are your best friends? Are you still friends with them?
this sounds worse than an econs essay?

56. Ever been in love?
hmm interesting question. isn't it always said that you never know whether you are in love?

57. Ever had braces?
yeah. teeth out of shape now though

58. What do you wear to bed?

t-shirts and shorts

59.Who was the last person who disappointed you?
myself

60. Do you trust people?
yeah. if they gain my trust

61. Who was the first person you talk to today?
my mum?

62. Who was the first person who text you today?
yonglin i think? about going over to pub

63. what was the first thing you did today?
isn't that the same as the breakfast question?

64.Ten people to tag
no thanks. i would rather not inflict this on others

2008-11-21T23:27:00.003+08:00

Three weeks passed in the blink of an eye. As we neared the end of the A levels I started getting nostagic feelings about whatever has transpired over the two very fast years. It really didn't seem very long ago that we were stuck in the MPH for orientation or meeting my beloved class for the first time. Now that it is all over, below the happiness that the stressful days of hardcore mugging is over lies the emptiness that follows the finishing of an important event. The feeling has not really sank in yet (in part due to an amazing first day after A levels) but I am sure over the next few days I would start getting mugging withdrawal symptoms. Don't get me wrong, I am really happy that A levels is over but I guess its just a sudden loss of direction or perhaps even a stop in the flow of life. An apt description would be like a car flying off a cliff (please no physics involved), since it is really like losing touch with the reality of JC life and finally letting go of everything (or almost everything).

I suppose this marks a new chapter in our lives. The days of stressful studying is finally over (for now) and at least for the guys we get to have a break from using our brains for two years (maybe we would prefer studying after that?). There are a lot of things I would like to do during this extremely short period of complete freedom. I would like to pursue some of the activities I have been neglecting due to the 'A's like badminton and band. Also this would be a great opportunity to try out some new stuff such as driving lessons. Also I would very much like to catch up on my games because I am feeling really deprived of games right now. But most of all, it would be to spend time with all my friends who have been beside me all these year and I have been neglecting under the (rather poor) pretense of mugging. I think its only fair to devote some time to those who have been making these two years a most pleasant experience.

It has been a long day and I am extremely grateful to all those allowed me to have such a wonderful day (ie. my class). I'm really looking forward to having a chalet next week and hope it turns into reality. =)

2008-11-11T20:43:00.002+08:00

I find it hard to believe that A levels is already more than half over.

Shoo! Study econs!

2008-11-02T22:14:00.002+08:00

This is it. The moment we have been waiting for since time immemorial.

wait...

no......

This is the moment where we all go to sleep.

Ok, forgive me for the lameness. I think my brain has been fried by the mugging.

What I really want to say is...

Good luck to everyone under the sun who is taking A levels!

Note to self:

If you panic, just take a deep breath and remember that you played a solo in from of 1000+ people. The A level paper will suddenly seem much easier.

LOL

2008-10-29T23:17:00.004+08:00

"Microsoft Launches Windows Azure, New Free OS" - from random internet news website

initial reaction - "HUH???" and blinks to see if I just went blind

followed by - "Is it the new joke of the day?"

then - "clicks on link to see microsoft's new method of scamming us"

microsoft should do something to change their brand image. the ads from apple arent helping the slightest

Quiz Time

2008-10-25T12:35:00.006+08:00

1. What colour is your phone?

Black with metallic green stripes

2. Who is the first person who comes under the letter M?
Magnus (probably wrong number considering how long ago that was)

3. Who's the last person you called?

AMKFSC (which nobody answered)

4. Who was your last missed call from?

Aaron

5.Who's the 2nd person who missed call you?

Home

6. Who's speed dial 2?

Home

7. Who's the 3rd person who comes under J?

Jefri

8. Who was your last received call?

Aaron (probably coz i missed his first call)

9. Who's speed dial no. 4?

Daddy

10. What is your wallpaper?
Razer logo (which goes really well with my phone)

11. How many text messages do you receive?
No idea. Quite little

12. Who's speed dial no. 8?
Nobody

13. What does the 5th message of your inbox say?
Should be lar. Call tomorrow morning lar. Should be fine - From Eugene Bong

14. Who's the first person who comes under B?
Bennett

15. Who was your last text message?
Rahul

16. Name every person you have text messages from
-.-

17. Have you seen the 101 Chuck Norris facts?
No.

18. Who's the 3rd person under U?
None.

19. What does the 3rd message in your outbox say?
People who dont recognize any brand other than nokia. The touch diamond looks really tempting but its quite ex. - Me about phones

20. Who is the first name on your phonebook
Aaron. Who has a name that starts with aaa

Name 20 people you can think of right now.Dont read the questions until you've named 20 people.At the end of the quiz, choose 5 people to do this
1. Aaron

2. Brian Cheung

3. Christopher

4. Eugene Bong

5. Jeremy

6. Kai Qing

7. Ming Yu

8. Paul

9. Rahul

10. Shu Hui

11. Vivian

12. Wen Chong

13. Xin Yi

14. Yong Jin

15. Zi Guang

16. Alan

17. Chester

18. Jin Jun

19. Karen

20. Ming Shan

lol the selection process was basically me looking alphabetically down the contact list and the first person on the list whom I'm vaguely more familiar with gets picked. I ran out and went back to the top. But I am not going to pick 5 people. Shall spare everyone the horror of doing this long winded quiz.

1. How did you meet 14?
JC1 when we got to go to our class the first time. The funny guy in the RV uniform.

2. What would you do if you never met no. 1?
things would be rather DIFFERENT

3. What if 9 and 20 dated?
Strange?

4. Will 16 and 17 date?
Erm... this isn't california

5. Describe 7
Highly sarcastic

6. What would you do if 18 confessed to you that he/she liked you?
Jump off Tojinbo

7. Who is 9 going out with?
As far as I know nobody.

8. when was the last time you talked to 13?
GP revision

9. who's no. 2's favourite band/singer?
No idea

10. would you ever date 4?
Again we are not in california

11. would you ever date 1?
-.- dont make me answer the same thing like 3 times

12. is 19 single?
No idea. I'm not nosy

13. Would you ever be in a relationship with 11?
I'm not a pedophile

14. School of 3?
RI(JC)

15. where does 6 live?
Near me? I think

16. what is your favourite thing of 5?
Lagginess?

17. Have you ever seen 10 naked?
Omg no. I'll get nightmares.

2008-10-24T20:40:00.006+08:00

I'm really proud to say that far from being disappointed, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of High School Musical 3. Having gone through quite a few reviews that vehemently criticised the film for its lack of plot and pure "bubblegumness", I would be lying to say that I went into the cinema without the slightest bit of trepidation. Of course I was proven that film is a very subjective experience and each person experiences the same film very differently. This film, in my opinion, is definitely one of the better (if not the best) films I have watched this year. Though I usually go for violent movies such as The Dark Knight (which I think was an amazing film), I think High School Musical 3 offered me a break from all the usual blood and gore in the movies I watch as well as a precious 2 hours away from the stress of the impending exams. Ironically I found the lack of plot (which was really obvious) adding to the attractiveness because it lets me focus on the music and the dance moves which after all is the highlight of the film. Not that I don't like having a good storyline, but if I really want to use my brain that much I would rather read a book (or do a HCI paper). And speaking of music and dance moves, this film really outdoes all the previous two TV movies. Extremely big musical numbers combined with incredibly complex dance moves, humongous sets as well as highly photogenic actors does help to make this musical a most interesting film. Add in the entertaining lines between the musical numbers and it was really two hours of pure fun. Not to say that this is a perfect film (there isn't anything like that), but it has been a really satisfying experience. But still, I think Disney idea of going on to High School Musical 4 is pushing things a bit too far. Well, I'm not here to criticise future films, and maybe it will turn out well. That said, I think High School Musical 3 is an excellent film and a great movie for someone looking to relieve stress. =)

2008-10-23T20:49:00.002+08:00

After an extremely long (not to mention murderous) year of waiting, High School Musical 3 is finally arriving on the big screen tomorrow. This is probably my most anticipated movie of all time, outdoing even Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. From what I have heard in the soundtrack, the music in this film is really amazing not to mention that numerous websites praise the movie for their great dance moves. I seem to have developed a newfound addiction to bubblegum pop. The movie is really hyped up (take a look at the magazines section of any shop and you will find out why) and I do hope it doesn't disappoint. I find those movie reviews that heavily criticise this film for lack of plot really quite hypocritical. It is after all, a Disney show and you really have to expect something more geared towards catering to kids, in other words, squeaky clean. Besides, this is a musical, not a thriller, so if you really do want to watching something more exciting about graduation, please watch Prom Night instead. Anyway I do not want to critcise anyone for their views and as I have said countless times, this kind of movie is really the love it or hate it kind. Actually I wasn't really going to this film with any great expectation about the plot. Its more of the music and the actors which I find so attractive about the movie. I shall keep an open mind tomorrow and hope its not as much of a disappointment as Star Wars. But I do think Disney is going a bit overboard with their plans for a next movie. I think 3 is a good number to stop and the fourth one will probably turn into High School Musical 4: Money Not Enough. Maybe Disney should start bring up more of the other series (like Camp Rock 2) and not keep milking this particular series. That's all I shall say about the movie tomorrow. Time to start praying that I won't be disappointed.

2008-10-19T22:54:00.002+08:00

Catalyst 8.10 introduced manual fan control for the graphics card. Obviously my usual instinct will be to push it to 100% and see what happens. Guess what? It sounded as though I had a lamborghini in my room (a really high pitched whine). I was brave enough to chuck a hand behind the exhaust pipe but it wasn't really that hot. Would have been quite funny if I actually burnt my hand from the hot air coming out. Don't underestimate that little thingy, it melted the sticker on the cooler. At least now I have operating temperatures that are like 10 degrees cooler than what I once had.

2008-10-07T16:11:00.003+08:00

1. Do you have secrets?
Probably enough to write a book about. It will never get published since it will bore people to death.

2. Would you fall in love with a boy younger than you?
How about no? I'm 100% straight

3. Do you enjoy going to sch?
Thanks to a certain mysterious event happening in a month's time, not really.

4. What would you do with a billion dollars?
Donate a million, treat all my friends to lunch, invest half of the remaining to multiply it, spend the rest on a com.

5. Will you fall in love with your best friend?
What happens if best friend is a guy. This quiz has some really wrong questions for me.

6. Which is more blessed, loving someone or being loved by someone?
Let me just put this as an analogy: You can't have a camera without a battery (don't as me why I chose a camera of all things)

7. What would be your perfect place of choice for a date?
Undecided

8. If the person you secretly like is already attached, what would you do?
*evil grins*

9. Is there anything that has made you extremely happy?
Not really but doing well for A Levels would. (please note that extremely is such a strong word that its difficult to find any of such instances)

10. List the artists you listen to.
Too many to list. I listen to about all kinds of music besides metal or rap

11. How would you see yourself in 10 years time?
Freshly out of uni, ready to fry chips for a living

12. Who is currently the most important people to you?
Friends?

13. What kind of the person do you think the person tagged you is?
Amazing friend of mine.

14. Would you rather be single and rich or married but poor?
Definitions of rich and poor clearly matter here. I would probably pick the latter option though

15. What is your favourite colour?
Orange,white, blue, black

16. Would you give all in a relationship?
To clarify matters lets define this as romantic relations due to context of this quiz. In that case, probably? If not why get into one in the first place.

17. If you fall in love with two people simultaneously, who would you pick?
iChoose

18. Would you forgive and forget no matter how horrible a thing the someone has done?
There has to be limits on this. Generally yes.

19. Do you prefer being single or having a relationship?
Both have their advantages. How about a compromised thesis statement?

20. 5 people I have tagged
Toughest question of all.

Brian, Wenrong, Ling Zhang, Karen, Ying Ling

2008-09-24T00:29:00.002+08:00

A BIG thank you to the amazing batchmates who surprised me with a most wonderful birthday celebration today (hope I don't sound sarcastic here because for once I'm not being sarcastic). It really wasn't anything lavish (though I have no idea how much was spent on the sparklers, quite a lot i think), but nevertheless it was still super fun and exhilarating. How lucky I brought along the camera, which was actually meant for the lan party but nobody could understand anything since it was all in Japanese (congrats to Shuhui for figuring how to delete photos). As usual there was a birthday cake which lead to a most amusing scene of Shuhui succumbing to the temptation of eating the most. Took tons of photos (including many unglam ones) and I thought the ones where we were trying to coordinate the sparklers was really cool. Pity I totally forgot how to adjust the image settings on my camera so the effects on my camera wasn't really that great. Well, it was an amazing birthday celebration and a really really big thank you from me to everyone who helped in one way or another.

Class Party at Yong Jin's house was really fun as well. Play like 4 games of dota and got owned at all the games where I was playing against human enemies. My farming technique completely went down the drain from all the months of not playing and it was made worse off by the fact that the heroes I chose generally had a delay between clicking and the actual attack. Obviously I was feeding like crazy because the sniper has absolutely no health at all and a simple coordinated attack from Zhuang Yan and Chen Xi took me out in about 10s. Besides dota there was also quite a bit of fun with the xbox Juanhe brought (thanks!) including best of 3 races with Bong which I eventually lost despite him using a manual transmission and tons of DOA while everyone else was playing table tennis downstairs. Haha physics in DOA are pretty "interesting". Thats all I shall say on that particular topic since I'm sure Yong Jin can give a much more detailed explanation. I suppose this was one of our more interesting class outing with rather good attendance and very little of the "sitting down doing nothing" stuff. Thanks to Yong Jin for being a great host and treating the whole lot of us to lunch (even though it was macs it probably costed a bomb).

It being nearly 1am, I suppose I shall just sum this post up saying that today has been a great day for me and once again thanks to all those who made it such a wonderful day. =)

btw yong jin, please learn that snipers are not meant to solo lanes especially when the enemy has stunners.

2008-09-17T20:13:00.003+08:00

Prelims is nearly over. Right now I just have a wierd mixture of relief of being nearly done with these 2 gruelling weeks, and anxiety about the results. At least I feel that I have adverted any major disasters this prelims and I should do fine generally besides the murderous chem paper 3. Physics Paper 3 today was surprisingly quite doable, proving wrong my expectations of a difficultly level that is at least as hard as the chem paper. Or maybe it is just that I am stronger in physics than in chem (though in my opinion I suck at both). Its time to focus on the MCQ papers which despite being MCQ, can be huge killers because the time allocated to each question is completely disproportionate to the amount of work needed to do each question. This time I better adhere to a strict timing strategy seeing how my physics MCQ in CT2 totally destroyed my marks.

Its my birthday in 2 days. How fortunate to have it coincide with the end of prelims =)

2008-09-15T22:28:00.002+08:00

come on, is it that hard to grow some eyes? :)

apparently so judging from how i knock my way around maths blindly

2008-09-14T21:35:00.001+08:00

Half Done or Half Not Done? =)

2008-09-05T22:24:00.002+08:00

Stumbled upon another pretty nice disney channel movie today - camp rock.

It is kind of like a knockoff of high school musical and especially with the continued milking of that particular line of movies, it might seem like another effort by disney to lure young teenage girls into spending huge bucks on a new movie.

BUT since the formula works, why not? it is after all quite a good movie and certainly more interesting than some of the theatrical ones i have watched, although i still do prefer high school musical. The songs in camp rock are pretty catchy and accompanied by some really nice dance numbers. Fairly simple plot makes it relaxing on the brain after all that mugging for prelims.

Hmm seems like this movie does have some sense of rewatch value (if theres such a phrase), and ill probably watch it again after prelims. Time to mug econs =D

Prelims Day 1

2008-08-27T23:07:00.003+08:00

GP didn't seem like such a disaster. At least I think I make some sense in my essay although it was rather depressing to have the guy sitting behind you write 7 pages when you only wrote 3. Compre was... weird since there was only one passage and the questions were mostly inferential. I randomed quite a few of them and the vocab was screwed up too. AQ was quite tricky as it had some strange phrasing that asking for the society's point of view instead of my own point of view. Being the weirdo guy I am, how am I supposed to know what society thinks? For randomness I do believe that higher education is not for everyone but I do want my own higher education. How elitist...

Doom is coming up tomorrow. H3 physics is probably going to be the most impossible paper for the entire prelims and its going to be ultra unpredictable because probably even the teachers have no idea what is coming out for A levels so they random the questions. That just means that its probably going to be disastrous paper for me and another underlined mark on my report card. Hopefully they will at least give us questions to choose from (you know, choosing your way to die is infinitely more pleasing than letting your teachers choose how you die). Hopefully I can achieve my target of a merit (or at least not fall short by more than 40%).

On a brighter note, I am probably going for comex tomorrow (as stress relief after H3) and deciding on whether I should buy a pair of noise canceling cans so that I can mug in peace for the A levels. Problem is that active noise canceling usually does not help with sharp, irregular noises, or high pitch noise (eg whistling), so I have no idea whether they would actually help me concentrate better. Maybe its just an excuse for me to dump the 100 bucks budget surplus I have right now but I really don't want to be wasting my money on something that I don't need (especially because I already have an excellent pair of headphones). Hmm at least even if I don't get anything I can still drool at all the stuff at comex (like the nvidia chassis).

Well, I should be going off to sleep right now. Don't want to risk falling asleep during H3 tomorrow.

2008-08-26T19:59:00.002+08:00

Hoping for a much elusive A for GP tomorrow. But of course that requires a miraculous improvement in my compre and a decent score for my essay. Better pray that I don't get bored of my essay halfway. Good luck to everyone!

2008-08-24T22:07:00.001+08:00

aah i cant play mixed doubles for nuts. i need to grow some wings and fly. =D

2008-08-18T00:07:00.000+08:00

and i forgot to praise Lin Dan's performance at the badminton men's singles final. Never seen before such a spectacular display of skill. Such a pity Lee Chong Wei didnt seem to be on form today.

2 Month Anniversary of Not Blogging

2008-08-17T23:40:00.003+08:00

I got bored of mugging so... koped this from abtzy's blog

1.What disappoints you the most?
Not living up to expectations

2.Where would you go if someone sponsors u a air ticket?
Around the world? Assuming first class of course. Its the journey that matters anyway

3.Whats your favorite things to do?
Listen to music, play games, play badminton

4.Do you think money can buy you happiness?
Temporarily probably. In the long run... we are all dead (random)

5.If you had one dream to come true,what will it be?
To experience all life has to offer (how cliched)

6.Do you believe in love at first sight?
Yes, havent experienced it before though

7.What are u afraid to lose?
My values and personality? A more tangible answer would probably be my friends

8.If you win one million,what would you do?
Treat all my friends to dinner, then buy a private yacht

9.What do you dream of doing in future?
Enjoying life and a job meddling around with chips

10.What do you want most right now?
To find my motivation. It seems to have went on holiday since ... lost track

11.Do you believe in fate?
Yes, but I also believe man can change fate. Reminds me of the GP common test question

12.What do you think it is the most important in your life?
My friends, as well as my goals and aspirations

13.Who are the ones that can make you very happy when you're super upset no matter when?
Haven't met anyone who can do that. If you think you can please tell me.

14.If you have a chance to choose, would you like to come back in time?
Yes, but whether I'll change anything is a different matter (maybe mug harder?)

15.What kind of music turns you on?
I like everything (well almost). Grand music or nice vocals would do nicely

16.What is the stupidest thing you have done?
Tons of them.

17.How do you feel when someone important ignores you?
Irritated, upset

18.What you like most about earth?
That its unique? I mean, who else has a planet with living beings on it?

19.What's the worst injury you ever had?
Nothing much. Too pampered since birth

20. Do you think long relationships are good or bad?
Good, as long as it doesnt sour.

instructions:Remove 1 question from above and add in your personal question, make it a total of 20 questions then tag 8 people to do this in your list, list them out at the end of this post. Notify them through their tagbox.

Erm no thanks i need to go to sleep.

2008-06-17T23:29:00.001+08:00

the end of all things

2008-05-27T00:44:00.001+08:00

it has been a honor

2008-05-25T13:47:00.002+08:00

Time really flies. It is one day before Atempo. Biggest concert of the whole year? Probably.

What do I feel?

Actually, I don't really feel anything. Its just a kind of numb sensation or perhaps self denial that the biggest concert in JC will be over in 2 days time. I am a little disappointed with myself with not practising hard enough for the concert, but I suppose what's done is done, and I can't do anything to change that now.

How will I play tomorrow?

Well, that of course depends on a whole lot of technical details which I won't bother to go into because it is extremely boring and mundane. I shall just make a promise to myself that I will push myself to the limit tomorrow, and really play my heart out. Every single note I play will contain the story of my life in band for the past one and a half years.

Band has been kind of a letdown these two years. No amount of technical skill will be able to replace the spirit that could have fueled our band. No point in playing emo music, if we are not even sharing the same emotions. I have always dreamt of playing in a band unified in spirit and emotion.

All is not lost. We have one last chance tomorrow to show the world that we can and will be united as one. One last chance to break down all barriers that stand in our way. Once last chance to make music as a band. Will we take grab this opportunity? I think we will. For all our differences and troubles as a batch, I believe that tomorrow will be OUR day. As I very strongly believe, we should not linger too much in the past, but instead do what we can to make a better future.

Music is not an indulgence, it's a necessity. We shall prove it tomorrow.

2008-05-23T23:37:00.001+08:00

free fall in the dark

2008-05-19T21:36:00.002+08:00

In exactly 1 week I'll be on stage at this time playing my heart out (hopefully). Not a very comforting thought you know. =)

2008-05-17T23:49:00.002+08:00

With Atempo at our doorstep I suppose its an appropriate time to look back at the beginning of the year and see if I have made any progress in my musical abilities.

At first glance it seems rather disappointing. High range notes only managed to increase by one note (not even stable at that). The entire upper range still rather shaky and thin sounding. Intonation is still not warm sounding enough.

Taking a closer look reveals that the situation is not as depressing as the initial examination. The huge sidelip I used to have is slowly but steadily closing in towards the centre, and while its still not dead centre its certainly close enough, and at a position where most of the air can actually be channeled towards. Of course this comes with an intonation improvement that I am quite proud of, which is quite a big sounding middle range and a relatively warm lower range (no im not being ego, i know that i still suck). Plus the occasional note in the upper range which I am able to play with quite a big sound. Playing technique somewhat improved by a bit for stuff such as tonging and slurs, though I admit I'm still rather psychomotor for fast passages.

Well, what does this mean? It puts me in a decent position to play for Atempo which has extremely horn intensive pieces. Stamina still poses a problem though but I suppose it should be too bad if I try to regulate my playing and not spend all my energy on the first half.

Its rather late. I should go to bed.

2008-05-12T22:37:00.001+08:00

may the dreaded email never come

and my salvation arrive soon

:D how exaggerated

dedicated to jinjun

2008-05-01T22:22:00.001+08:00

jinjun is fat

2008-04-21T20:42:00.001+08:00

dreaming that the ultimate ears super.fi 5 pro is 39 bucks is not a good thing

2008-04-20T21:16:00.001+08:00

the madness begins

2008-04-12T23:43:00.002+08:00

PW is the first A for my A Levels. Its my job to make sure its not the last. Getting an A is certainly an unexpected but nonetheless much hoped for surprise.

PW has been... an interesting experience. Complains aside, I can't exactly say that I've learnt nothing. First learning point would be the project itself. After all the research on Sir Berners Lee's invention, our beloved friend the World Wide Web, I guess I really managed to deepen my understanding of this miraculous invention. Second learning point... erm probably like how imba Juanhe is. It really escapes me how he is able to juggle all his various commitments and at the same time be able to churn up reports of such quality. Not to mention how demoralising it is to present our project right after him. That is probably part of the reason I wasn't confident of getting an A.

My deepest condolences to those who did not manage to get their A in our class. I really think that everyone in our class deserves an A simply for the effort they put in. Sadly, I'm not the teacher grading (not like I'll like to be), so there is nothing I can do about it. I shall not go on ranting about how unfair the grading system is - there simply is no point and I'll come off as hypocritical and arrogant. I'm sure those people who didn't get their A will do much better in their other subjects.

2008-04-09T22:37:00.002+08:00

"He carves away chunks of our freedom and bandages the wounds with tiny scraps of security!"

2008-04-05T23:15:00.002+08:00

Vaguely irritated that I spent almost the whole day on band stuff and accomplished no mugging at all (No I don't hate band, its just that I think I should put more effort into my mugging). Band practice was rather fun though, because Mr Oura decide to do Monument, American Salute, Jap Song (I cant remember the title, neither can I type it out in Jap) and Takarajima. Obviously with such a hardcore prac I totally died, but I suppose its a good death. Haha I'm just being random here.

Today is also the first RWinds Comm meeting. Me, being my usual suicidal self, decided to sign on as librarian despite two little tiny problems - 1. We have a series of small tests called A levels this year and 2. If I fail NAPFA I will get enlisted early and won't be able to play for the concert. At least today's meeting was pretty productive (everything is relative), and we did come up with some interesting ideas (for example, mass bridge in the varese). I think this year we are trying really hard to pull people in to play and also to keep a high level of commitment. So we basically came up with incentives to *cough*con*cough* people in. That was the main problem we discussed, aside from the usual mundane (not really) details like location and date of concert plus dealing with the schools.

One last point before I go and try unreal tournament - TCC is extremely expensive and I prefer the taste of subway.

2008-03-31T23:03:00.003+08:00

After taking just the briefest look at my archives revealed one huge flaw on my blog - I am extremely critical of things. Its always "this event was poorly organised" or "it was a complete waste of time" and stuff like these. While sometimes I may have a valid reason for being so critical, I think that I should not keep ranting about things and maybe start seeing the positive sides of things. Yup, I shall try to start appreciating things more and have more posts that actually praise well done events and stuff. =)

Play`08

2008-03-29T22:17:00.003+08:00

Play`08 is over =)

Do forgive me for all the sarcasm in the earlier post if you are offended. However, do not expect me to take back my words because I meant them and I still mean them. If you want me to say that I think the dry run was perfect and flawless, then sorry to disappoint you - I hate lying.

Well, for my usual concert review...

I suppose Play`08 was quite an interesting concert. The play was really entertaining and even seeing it for the second time did not induce boredom. Normally I would call this kind of thing "low class humor" but obviously that is being arrogant and idiotic. Trying to keep a straight face during the play is next to impossible.

Musically the concert was supposed to be disastrous, but we sounded way better than the dry run so I'm pretty much satisfied. While pirates was still filled with "impurities" as Rahul puts it, but obviously we can't sound exactly the same as whatever orchestra played pirates (even if skill levels were similar we are missing the tiny little group of instruments called strings). I couldn't really hear accurately on stage so I don't think I shall try to judge our musical standard. I played quite satisfactorily though so I'm pretty happy. =)

Hmm what else...

Couldn't really comment on all the instrument moving and stuff coz I was at H3 physics before the concert and stoning in the varese after the concert (yes I'm evil). Supper was really sad coz only 6 people went, thought it probably made it easier to find seats.

Great, I'm done!

Jinjun is fat.

Play Dry Run

2008-03-27T22:29:00.004+08:00

If you really hate sarcastic comments, or think that band is perfect, please do NOT continue reading.

ok... let me start with some positive comments (rather hard due to the lack of them). Well, I must really say that moving the percussion instruments was very efficient. Most likely it was because everything was planned out nicely and everyone knew what to do, so we just ended up doing what we were supposed to do instead of stoning around and appearing as though we were extremely busy. That is really a great improvement from past concert experiences and I must say that this part was really planned well.

Yes... that is all the positive stuff I can say about the rehearsal. Besides the instrument moving, I think that this dry run is probably an excellent example of how not to plan a concert. Lets start with stage management, or rather, the lack of it. It is extremely basic common sense that you need a stage manager if you intend on performing on a stage with a whole band. Such a clever assumption that everyone will know their places and move into place automatically (please, even tetris requires you to press the arrow keys to arrange the stuff). Obviously chaos ensued when the we realised that the half of the stage supposed to be occupied by the band was completely taken up by percussion instruments. If we had a stage manager, the person would plan out how the band is going to fit into the rather small LT2 stage and come up with something more efficient than the lovely idea of getting all brasses to stand while our dear friends the woodwinds (whos instruments generally are as heavy as our mouthpieces) get to sit.

This was really not helped by our standard of playing (akin to intel extreme graphics). As Rahul kindly put it, "worst. mutilation. of. pirates. ever." If even a non-musical person (sorry rahul!) puts it that way... I think we are really going to have fun tomorrow. "OH! But we are going to have a miraculous improvement and play like the London Symphony Orchestra tomorrow because its a concert!" Right... I'm going to turn into Barry Tuckwell tomorrow you know. Honestly I find such comments extremely disturbing at best and downright disgusting at worst. How in the world are you going to play well tomorrow when you are shivering from nervousness in front of the audience when today's run through made RI band sound like Tokyo Kosei. Yes, there are some parts which sounded decent, but the dry run sounded as listenable as fm radio on a car driving around a basement carpark.

Ok if you are getting bored of the sarcasm and ranting here one last point - the organisation. Saying that this event is poorly organised is probably as much as an understatement as saying that the Chery QQ is unsafe and slow. The lack of organisation is nothing short of astounding, while measures might have been put in place to rectify this, it was so last minute that it was just an empty gesture. "Well, why don't you go organise?" People will obviously ask me this in contention to my point of view. Simply said, I know my limits. I always believed that if I can't do something well and will screw it up, let someone else who is better qualified do the job. I will not try to "act man" and try to pull a one man show. Even if I were somehow to be forced into a position where I have to organise something that I believe that I will not be able to handle myself, the first clear option is to go consult others. Maybe it takes being a bystander to see how those organising loves to keep people in the dark and "just follow orders". Please, do you really expect us to do what we are supposed to do when there doesn't even seem to be a purpose to doing anything? As much as you would like to hope otherwise, we ain't robots or slaves you know.

Oh great! You got through the sarcasm and ranting! Congrats =) btw please come for Play tomorrow. I'm sure it will be a wonderful concert.

Im doing this because I can't post in the posts field:)

2008-03-22T00:20:00.001+08:00

2008-03-18T22:35:00.002+08:00

I really miss the days in RI when I aimed for full marks in Maths and got pissed because I got 58/60.

2008-03-13T21:46:00.003+08:00

Its supposed to be holidays.

I prefer to call it no-school-but-still-must-mug-at-home-days.

Common Test mugging has been extremely unproductive for the past few days (just look at the state my vectors is in). Somehow just can't find the motivation to mug hard. Playing 3hrs of badminton a day doesn't help with mugging either, since it leaves me so mentally and physically drained that I just want to sleep. Playing continuous badminton for a few days does bring a boost to my skills. I feel like upping my tension to 26lbs but obviously thats suicide the moment I stop playing regularly. Besides I'll probably break a string every week if I up the tension that much. I completed Jade Empire so no more temptation from com games (btw Jade Empire is really fun)

YDSP congress was held yesterday at raffles city convention centre. It was really elaborate and high class (including the food haha). Still can't decide whether its a good thing or bad thing that we weren't chosen to present (not like we had a chance with our level of preparation). If we were chosen then I'll probably stand at the podium, gape like a goldfish and die from stage-fright. Haha probably more frightful that any concert I've played in.

Animation portfolio writing workshop is tomorrow and will occupy the whole day. While I might not be considering a career in animation (coz i really prefer tinkering with hardware), I suppose the skills they teach will probably be useful in general too, like Prof Gan said yesterday, whats more important in university is the skills instead of the content.

Ok I shall go mug vectors now (or risk failing my maths)

2008-03-07T17:38:00.001+08:00

I love my new rodent and yoga mat!!!

2008-03-03T20:03:00.004+08:00

Hmm haven't posted here for a while

Anyway I went gym today at my house because there wasnt PE so I didn't have a chance to use the gym in school. The lat pulldown machine in my gym is really quite wierd because I have no idea what the numbers on the weights mean (they just put 1, 2, 3...) and it was designed such that it was extremely inconvenient to do the pulldown on the back. After hardcoring arm muscles I thought that I might as well go burn some fats so I went to do the cycling thing (and trying to fly at the same time) and I very stupidly set it to 20 mins. Obviously I died.

Ahh I can't wait till speed of the light is announced. Its will be released tomorrow afternoon (which I will be stuck in school so I guess I better go to the library to check it). Its extremely important to me because where it fits into the razer's product line will determine whether I get the death adder. Either it is stuck somewhere between the death adder and lachesis, in which case I'll probably get it, or it will be replacing the lachesis as the most imba mouse in razer's lineup, in which case I just get something to drool at. I still love my diamondback though, such a pity the skin is peeling off.

I love listening to star wars on THX certified speakers :)

Air Show

2008-02-24T23:25:00.004+08:00

Went for the air show yesterday (courtesy of DSTA). It might have been quite nice and such, but a glaring mistake in the organisation of the event is that the place is simply not capable of taking that amount of people. What resulted was very poor crowd control and extremely long queues. It took me 3+hrs to get from my house to the actual exhibition site, and considering that the train ride took at most an hour, some 2 hours was wasted on queueing and the horribly laggy bus ride. What the organisation should have done was to either restrict the number of tickets or to increase the number of days of the show.
The show itself wasn't very interesting, and the air display was so conservative that even claiming that it is exciting is way too much of an overstatement. Worse still, I discovered that my phone's camera was simply unable to acquire images at that kind of length, and taking photos with a phone is extremely embarassing with all those people using SLR and their footlong lenses. In the end I gave up on taking photos of the fighter jets (which appeared to be tiny dots in the sky) and instead tried to get some shots of the A380, which was the only aircraft fat enough to occupy more than 1 pixel on my phone's camera.
The exhibits itself I found rather boring, but I suppose aviation enthusiasts might have found it interesting, because me at the exhibition is the equivalent of the average girl at a tech exhibition (sorry for the stereotyping!). I wasnt really interested in the airplane displays either, and obeying the calls of my rumbling stomach i tried to rush off and get to city hall to meet abtzy.
Going to funan was well... decent. At least down there its more of "my territory" and so of course I find it more interesting. Managed to get a peek at the newly released Geforce 9600GT and also new intel processors I didn't even knew existed. Also there was a macbook air on display at some mac shop so of course I had to molest it a bit and try to pinch the touchpad (which felt a bit wierd but I guess it becomes intuitive after a while). I was also extremely tempted to try on the Shure SE530 but in the end decided not to be so shameless and contaminate those beautiful earphones with my earwax.

Of Headphones and MP3 Players

2008-02-21T22:51:00.004+08:00

A mid range player (eg. iPod Nano, all creative products) paired with default earbuds = Lancer Evo with bicycle tires

A iPod Touch/iPhone/iPod Classic paired with default earbuds = Ferrari Enzo with NTUC Trolley Wheels

A Cheapo MP3 Players (China brands?) with Shure SE530 Earphones = erm... are you sure that your shures aint from china as well?

2008-02-17T19:50:00.003+08:00

Having watched the launch of the Lancer Evo X, I must say that I was truly impressed by Katsuhiko Taguchi's skills. While I certainly pride myself in being able to drift rather well in NFS, watching him in action is seriously jaw-dropping. I feel extremely humbled by his ability to do things with the car that can usually only be seen in Hollywood movies. What makes it even more impressive is that he managed to drift with a AWD car which supposedly is not able to drift at all(as pro street claims).

The launch was actually a rather quiet affair (probably because of the lack of advertising and also the chingay parade happening at the same time). This meant that I had the opportunity to really spam photos and videos because the crowd was thin enough to allow me to get to the front. I really can't emphasize more that the Evo X is really a beautiful and yet affordable (somewhat) car. It was the first time I was able to witness the lamborghini-matching acceleration of the lancer evo, and it truly isn't just hype. The car just seems to cruise on the road as though its floating on a blanket of air. As I have said it more times that I can count, the Evo X owns our dear civic (which hasn't arrived) upside down.

Pictures!!!

2008-02-14T20:30:00.002+08:00

The best way to spend valentines day - playing badminton

2008-02-03T18:08:00.000+08:00

It has certainly been a busy week. With all the stuff that has been going on, I'm quite surprised to find myself still alive and sane at the end of the week.

Lets begin with Tuesday. We had to do our presentation at the selection for the Research@YDSP Congress. I suppose disastrous might be quite an appropriate word to describe it. Being completely unprepared (the first time we ran through the presentation was about 20 mins before the actual presentation), we ended up either reading from the screen, or for my case, reading from the script. While pointing to the screen might be useful in some cases to illustrate a point, turning your back against the judges and just reading off the points on the powerpoint seems like a pretty poor presentation technique. Not that my reading from the script was much better because I made the mistake of having too simple powerpoint slides, so I suppose all the attention was focused on me.

On to Wednesday. Maths tutorial test on P&C, Binomial Expansion and Power Series. I suppose it wasn't too bad for me because I managed to figure out Power Series the day before the test (with lots of help from Bong). Still, I could definitely have done better for it as I really had no idea how to do a few questions. Thank god the teachers decided to be merciful and did not try to murder us with the test.

Ah, Friday. Best day of the week. Non stop writing from 9-5. There was GP compre, followed by Physics SPA, Chem Mock SPA and H3 Physics. My hand was trembling by the time I finished H3. Having 2 SPAs on the same day and right after each other is an extremely good way to mess up your brain. I suppose I did fine for Physics besides forgetting to comment on the angle. Chem was quite funny because we didn't have to do the experiment at all (maybe because of the firebreathing incident?). Somehow I managed to finish the report before Mingyu which totally freaked me out and I had to check through all my working to make sure I didn't forget something essential. H3 Physics was some mad rush to finish the tutorial and besides the questions I have done (which is 3 out of 9), I couldn't understand a thing because Mr. Lim Boon Siong just rushed through every single question (with numerous "do, do, do..."s and commeting that it was very easy). So I decided to copy everything down in anti-piracy green ink.

Saturday. Band prac was not really very interesting. I seriously messed up my titanic solo though because my embrochure isn't that stable yet and I still can't maintain stability beyond C. I really need to practise more but I really can't find the time with all the stuff that is going on. Maybe I should just do mouthpiece buzzing for my embrochure.

Well, that's my roundup for the week. I really do need the CNY breaks next week to have a little R&R =)

2008-01-27T22:25:00.001+08:00

Strange sense of loneliness

Should I be surprised?

2008-01-23T22:20:00.000+08:00

i finally achieved a sub 12 in my 2.4! =) now its time to train my pull ups

2008-01-21T20:45:00.000+08:00

Yay my chin-ups went from 1 to 2. Ok I admit 2 is still quite miserable but at least I am showing improvement. It is probably the results of my spam badminton during the dec holidays and maybe a tiny little part due to my rather hardcore gym session last monday. =) I shall do more gym to make sure I get a silver (3 chin-ups didn't really feel that far off today).

2008-01-13T23:06:00.000+08:00

Embrochure changing is making progress. My low-mid range sounds way better but high range still lacking. I certainly didn't expect this much progress just from 2 pracs. Must work harder!!!

Sadly, my aurvanas look like they are going to die soon. I hope the few strands of wire left will not break (or else I will find out whether they are for grounding). I am really reluctant to purchase another set because this set still sounds fine and they are not exactly cheap. I shall try to make this pair last as long as possible.

2008-01-09T20:46:00.000+08:00

Today I finally started the process of rebuilding my embrochure. From scratch. I decided that my side-lipping was really getting too bad and the mouthpiece placement was so terrible that it was affecting my style of play, so I decided I shall correct what I started wrongly in Sec 1.

Correcting the embrochure consists of 3 processes. Firstly, the most urgent problem is side-lipping. Although I have a rather wierd teeth formation, my current side-lip was really too serious to justify that. Therefore, from now on I have to consciously push the mouthpiece back to the somewhat centre position which is more correct. Secondly, I have to correct the upper and lower lip placement on the mouthpiece. According to the book by Phillip Farkas, the correct positioning should be 2/3 on the top lip and 1/3 on the bottom lip. I feel that my current positioning is totally opposite of that. Trying the correct placement today really helped to create a less open sound on my low notes, but high notes are still a major problem probably because the muscles are not trained. Lastly, I have to substantially reduce mouthpiece pressure. While I am certainly able to scream up to a rather high range, the tone produced is completely unsatisfactory. Also, of late I realised that too much pressure means my dynamics in the upper range is extremely limited. Another side effect of heavy mouthpiece pressure is the reducing of stamina.

Great, I have identified the 3 areas I would have to work on (and hopefully see major improvement before Atempo). The most important thing of all is that I must have patience, since this is starting from basics, and advanced techniques won't be possible until I have at least achieved a passable embrochure.

2008-01-08T23:18:00.000+08:00

"Busy" is quite an understatement for today. School was fine, except that I found the lectures getting increasingly boring and tempting to sleep. However, I seemed to have gained a new sense of discpline during the holidays and hence attempted to keep a clear head during lectures. After school was cca fest rehearsal (which I was late for by nearly 1/2 hr because I got caught up at J8), and it was almost a TOTAL waste of time. Due to some wierd problems, our performing slot got delayed by almost 2 hours and since we have already moved over, we just had to stone around. What made it worse that when we actually got to do the sound check, we played so haphazardly that the sound check is rather useless. As Jinjun said, " How do I get the band to play well if we can't even play the piece?" I think that rather sums up our performance. After rehearsal, was CIP. Well, I suppose playing around with kids helps to destress, but during today's session the kids were extremely distracted and it was quite impossible to make progress (Being called "ah pei" didn't help). Plus, we are all amateurs at giving tuition which meant that we didn't know the correct teaching methods. I spent about 20 mins trying to teach a kid do division and in the end I think he still didn't managed to understand. So, I'm finally back home and hoping for some sleep, but I have a nice little present called physics tutorial waiting for me. Gone are the days of not doing tutorials. =(

2008-01-06T21:29:00.000+08:00

Primary school "class" gathering was today. It was organised by me, plus only finalised last night, which says a lot about the attendance. At least I kept my hopes low enough, so according to my criteria the turnout was a success. (criteria: >5 people=success). We had a total of 6 people (yunfang, yonglin, chungyan, petrina, mikel and me). It was a pity that some of the people might have come didn't come, even more because there wasn't really time to contact them.

Well, it pretty boring. I mean, how interesting can lunch get? Yes, we talked a bit, but that's about it. It was quite impossible to really try to do anything because school just started and people are so busy. I wish I had organised it during the holidays, but it was really too last minute and I was rather busy with Coda. So, I suppose today was as good as it could have been.

Some rather interesting thoughts after this outing, but they are probably too sensitive to put up here(They don't have anything to do with crushes or anything of that sort so please don't think along that line) Shall end off here. =D

2008-01-03T18:56:00.000+08:00

sometimes you have to look back to see how much you have changed. not necessarily in a good way.

The Start of Something New

2008-01-01T02:51:00.000+08:00

Each happy ending's a brand new beginning. 2007 has ended roughly 3 hours ago, and the year of 2008 is fresh and new. It is time for me to express some of my wishes for the next year, or what most people would call new year resolutions. However, these are more like "guidelines", rather than requiring me to follow them strictly. Without further ado, let me begin with the first one.

Smile more =) sounds simple right? but close friends should know that getting a smile from me is nearly as rare as jeremy not lagging.

Talk more. Not referring to serious stuff, but instead its more of a "talk more crap". yes. its not a typo. I do intent to talk more crap this year for my own and other's people entertainment. A big sorry to those who think I'm already crapping too much.

Mug. There is no denying that mugging will take the centrestage this year. There are common tests in march, SAT in may, Prelims in sept/oct and finally the tiny little event called A levels in November. I should realise that this is the one and only chance for me to enter into a university I am happy with, so I guess I would have to do a lot more mugging this year.

Play. Life without play isnt life. I fully intend to have a fair share of playing this year even with all the mugging going on. This means computer games and badminton. I suppose that I would have to cut down my com games though, but I would want to spend more time working on badminton. Seeing myself improve (although I still suck) really gives me a sense of accomplishment.

Band. This is just the pretty usual stuff about improving my playing. I'm like of lazy to decide on whichever note I should be able to reach by June or how fast a tempo I can tongue, so I shall make it simple. Improve tone. Thats all for playing. Well, for the batch, I suppose it would be my intentions to improve relationships with my batchmates. Yup, being antisocial isn't very fun.

Well, five major things next year I shall try to work on. This year wasn't such a great year for me, so I want to make the next year a year to remember. Finally, I would like to thank all my friends for... well being such great friends =) A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who has been steadily supporting me and encouraging me this year.

2007-12-27T11:02:00.001+08:00

Coda 3 was probably the biggest band event of the year (for me at least). 6 months of practice cumulated in yesterday's very successful concerts. While certainly it wasn't perfect technically, I believe that the most important thing was that everybody really enjoyed giving the performance. We did put our souls into the performance, and I think it showed. Technical parts of the performance are only a building block to making great music. Good bands may play good music, but a great band will use music to communicate with the audience. I think it is justified to say that we were a great band.

A big thanks to everyone who made the concert a success. Not only it was a great concert, but it was also a very fun experience. Playing with RWinds gives a sense of enjoyment that can't really be felt in RJCSB. Then again, RWinds is much more of a band than erm... Raffles Junior College Symphonic Ensemble. I do look forward to having Coda 4 next year (even though I might not be playing). =)

2007-12-27T01:44:00.001+08:00

Coda is over. Concert review coming up soon.

2007-12-25T23:38:00.000+08:00

Argh I raced too much today I want to puke! =(

2007-12-24T23:18:00.000+08:00

Coda 3 is in 2 days time and I can't exactly say that I am well prepared. Maybe its the lack of individual practice/sectionals which caused me to be rather unfamiliar with the scores, which is a rather bad position to find myself in since the pieces are rather complex and technically difficult. Whats making things worse is that my tone has not exactly been satisfactory these few days because ever since band fest my high notes had been extremely thin and my low notes too open. Normally the solution would have been more practice, but with 2 days left it is not quite possible to improve significantly, and I would run the risk of overplaying. Well, I suppose I just have to hope for the best on concert day and try to play as well as I can.

Band Fest

2007-12-23T08:55:00.000+08:00

JC Band Fest would probably be one of the more memorable experiences in band this year. While during the practices I kept complaining that it was way too tiring, I must admit that I felt a certain sense of nostalgia when I returned to NTU for my attachment.

The one thing that I truly loved during this period of 5 days was my section. I felt that at the end, we were not just a bunch of kids who are playing a free-for-all deathmatch, but instead united by our experiences and together hoped to make the concert a success. What is important about this is not plainly technical skill with the instrument. Being able to play an instrument well will not give everyone a common goal. Being able to play and instrument well will not unite the section. In the end, what really helped to bond the section together was really the fact that we were willing to open up and interact with each other. I am really thankful that I had such a great section, and it really helped to make my band fest experience fun filled and unique.

Coming to the technical parts, I suppose I could have done better. After quite a few weeks of break from my instrument, it was quite impossible for me to survive playing for 6+ hours every day for 5 days continuously. However, I still think that I played my best for the concert and I believe thats all that matters. Dr. Mazzaferro is the most amazing conductor I have played under, and I can't imagine what I would have missed if I didn't go for the honor band audition. The concert was one of the more enjoyable performances I have been involved in (probably because there wasn't really that much pressure).

Well, to round off, I suppose I can say that I have learnt much from band fest. Most important of all, I really have to thank my section for giving me such a memorable experience and putting up with all my crap.

2007-12-16T10:26:00.001+08:00

"Until now you have become the very thing you swore to destroy"

2007-12-02T21:18:00.000+08:00

Today's Hong Kong Open Male Singles was so cool!!! Lin Dan vs Lee Chong Wei really was a spectacular matches (especially all the dives). Both of them really had amazing footwork althought it was quite sad that Lee Chong Wei's stamina kind of died in the rubber set. Haha I'm happy that Lin Dan won though (was worrying about him during his rather abysmal performance in the first set). =)

2007-11-28T23:11:00.000+08:00

Even 10 years is nothing if I keep the faith.

omg saw an audi R8 today!

2007-11-27T21:19:00.003+08:00

Im neglecting too many things. Been daydreaming too much the past few days. =(

2007-11-24T23:09:00.000+08:00

moved to tears

2007-11-18T11:24:00.000+08:00

Currently obsessed with 3 games (3 demos in fact)

1. Crysis
2. Unreal Tournament 3
3. Need for Speed Pro Street

Crysis is no doubt one of the most anticipated games of the year. The demo itself already makes all other FPS games seem dull and boring. Its not just the eye candy (although watching the sunrise is amazingly beautiful and impressive), but also a combination of various factors (like the highly realistic AI and the completely believable physics) which helps to take the gameplay to another level. Its such a pity that almost no modern day com can play that game in its full glory, but the truth is that even at medium settings the game already completely owns other games.

I have never been a fan of the Unreal games. I just didn't really take an interest in the entire series until I downloaded the demo for UT3. While it might not really be such a spectacular game, it really makes a good game to really play for fun and not to like complete anything. What I love about UT3 is really the pace of gameplay which is probably the fastest I have ever seen (no time to think at all, just keep spamming left clicks).

NFS Pro Street is the next installment of the NFS series but it does take the racing out of the city and turns it into some track racing. While I do prefer street racing, I must say that EA has done a pretty good job on this game and the visuals really look much better than Carbon. The driving feels more realistic too (not to the extend of GTR 2 though) and most of all I love the cars. Previous NFS games were generally focused on american and european cars while Pro Street seems to shine its spotlight on import (Jap) cars. That makes it pretty clear that I'm going to love this game. =)

2007-11-11T21:42:00.000+08:00

Seems like my recent posts have all been rather vague and short. While there is certainly a reason why I keep them like that, I suppose its time for me to write something on my holiday life.

First most important question - "What Holidays?"

This is the sentiment held by many friends, and I cant help but agree. Yes, certainly I get to play a lot more KOTOR, but in the end it just doesnt feel like a holiday. The truth is that I feel even more busy than during school term, to the extend that I considered buying a notebook to keep track of all the stuff that I have to do (didnt buy in the end, handphone was enough). Having to coordinate efforts for my attachment and (non existent) CIP is already driving me crazy, chuck in band and badminton is just simply turns my life into total chaos.

While term break (as I prefer to call it) is certainly not quite what I expected, I suppose that it is not a total disaster. The best thing about not having to go to school is being able to play badminton almost everyday. I have to take the opportunity during this holidays to significantly improve my playing skills, and the only way to do that is to play as often as I can. This leads to rather suicidal plans such as playing 5 hours a day. =)

As for band, erm... what band?

Due to a completely wierd set of coincidences, I havent been able to attend band pract since the beginning of term break. Add that to my attachment which falls on every wednesday and its pretty clear that my attendance for band this term break is going to be abysmal. At least I have managed to get an instrument home to practise on but Im just a bit too lazy and playing at home sounds absolutely horrible.

Well, I suppose thats quite a long post for my term break activities. 3 or 4 hours of badminton tomorrow! YAY =)

2007-11-10T22:52:00.001+08:00

I can dream, can't I?

2007-11-07T09:52:00.000+08:00

I was silent, and still, only letting myself breathe, feeling the beat of my heart, and I could have stood there forever, in the shadows, and had my fondest dreams all fufilled.

2007-10-30T18:27:00.000+08:00

Guys (+xinyi) party at yongjin's house was really an enjoyable and enriching experience

It was an amazingly fun day with all kinds of different activities (actually only lanning and playing xbox). The xbox side was really funny, especially the time where yongjin and juanhe faced off in halo 2 with them pointing their guns at each others' heads and firing on a count of 3. Probably another highlight was yongjin's rather astonishing performance at DOA (but only with skimpily clan women). Somehow nobody seemed to be able to consistently defeat him, although button mashing works at times. Also the planned AOE match turned out to be quite wierd because even though yongjin insisted on using his lvl 32 account (the rest of us was level 1), which basically meant that he got a lot of freebies (like troops and resources), but in the end he still somehow managed to lose to me and rahul's army. Haha it was pretty funny and he dint want to get owned too much so he just resigned without me even having a single look at his base. I also found out that I totally suck at table tennis (maybe because of the different wrist movements from badminton? or maybe its just that im rather lacking in psychomotor skills). Lunch was sponsored by yongjin's parents (big thanks there), and we had dinner at superdog (vivocity).

2007-10-25T20:29:00.000+08:00

maybe it was all for the best

2007-10-24T19:34:00.000+08:00

It appears that I am losing whatever leadership qualities I have (not that I had much in the first place). After an entire year of taking the back seat and basically just following others, its just kind of hard to lead in anything. The first major problem is procrastination. Because of the increasing amount of stuff piling up (even though its after promos), I acquired this habit of just wiping everything from my mind and just not dealing with the situation. As can be expected, this leads to unnecessary delays and also a huge amount of inefficiency. The second problem is more of a mindset change. Towards the end of last year, I finally came to the conclusion that as a leader, you have to make your own decisions. There is no "someone up there" whom you can and should follow, instead it is completely up to you to decide what to do with whatever group you are leading. This basically means not to be afraid to make radical decisions and also be more decisive and not just blindly follow conventions (as Sharpay clearly puts it- "traditions change"). Now I find that I just cannot adapt to the circumstances, and I have gotten so used to following instructions that I lost the ability to give them for a change. Obviously if I wish to be a good leader I definitely would have to resolve this internal problems. Hopefully over the course of the next few weeks I will be able to make some progress in relearning these lost skills.

2007-10-22T21:42:00.001+08:00

I shall stop complaining about my mum. At least I didn't get a major screwing session for my rather abysmal performance at promos. I am pretty pleased with my overall, not because I did really well, but I think that I really got what I deserved and the marks are as high as they can possible go considering the amount of effort I put in. Shall try to work harder for next year common tests to push up my chem and econs and also maybe get an A for physics or GP.

2007-10-20T23:14:00.000+08:00

Its not usual for me to swear on my blog, but today makes an exception.
Some bastard stole my beloved pair of Nike AirMax shoes from my shoe rack outside my house. If I find out who did it, I will stuff the pair of shoes up his a**.

I better stop before this post becomes too gross.
Have to go queensway tomorrow to get new shoes =(

2007-10-19T23:05:00.000+08:00

PW dry run was today. I guess for me it could have been a lot better, but it could also be a lot worse (considering the state I was in yesterday). I suppose I will have to mug the script a lot harder so that I can abandon cue-cards on the actual day itself since I have this huge tendency to read off even though I clearly remember the points. The groups in our class were all pretty good although a lot of people seem to be reading from the script for quite a bit. I thought this dry run session was pretty useful because we did get a lot of useful comments on how to improve our presentation. Quite a well spent day.

I seem to thrive on evilness (slowly turning into Darth Nihilus?). I realised that after the whole thing was over I didn't even give a single positive comment about the people I was supposed to be commenting on. At least I haven't been using too much sarcasm today which would have been ultra evil of me.

Nonsensical Question of the Day: You mentioned that Wikipedia tries to adhere to a neutral point of view. However, is a neutral point of view always good?

2007-10-16T20:53:00.000+08:00

Finally, after weeks of having a completely white blog (because my old template died), I updated my template. Big thanks to Rahul who helped me photoshop my background and sort out my numerous problems with HTML coding. Besides the minor problems (like the repeating of background for resolutions higher than 1024*768), Im finding this new template far better looking than my old one =).

Another thing: I'm attached! haha how lame

2007-10-15T18:41:00.001+08:00

::Betrayal::

2007-10-15T13:47:00.000+08:00

Sports invigorate the mind.
But after four hours of hardcore badminton all I feel like is dropping dead on the bed.

2007-10-14T20:57:00.000+08:00

too much on my mind these days

i need to defrag my brain

A single voice, above the noise...

2007-10-11T20:50:00.001+08:00

Two totally screwed up days. I completely lost count of the number of times I have been scammed and wasted time for absolutely no purpose.

Maybe it took yesterday's meeting to make me realise this - If I were to have to choose between band and class, my class would definitely come first. Its not that I hate my batchmates in band, on the contary, I like them. But I feel like theres something missing in band, like its just a place to play music and nothing more. I am so delighted to find myself in a class where I am liked and included. Band, on the other hand, while I certainly have good friends, makes me feel that it is more of a free for all fight. Fine, tell me that I can be the one to make a difference and all the usual crap, but I just don't believe in it anymore. It would be amazing to see if band one day becomes as united as our class, but otherwise, so be it.

I must be mad to even bother writing this

2007-10-09T20:51:00.000+08:00

Meritocracy has become an accepted standard of governance in our society. Not only has it become part and parcel of the workings of our society, we are also proud to proclaim ourselves as a society governed by merit. However, is meritocracy really the best form of governance, or is it just another form of discrimination which takes the guise of promoting an equal society?

Meritocracy certainly is not without its merits. By establishing a system that makes appointments and gives responsibilities based on the ability of the person to do his job, it is an easy way to ensure that the job goes to the person most suited for it. This is, as we term it in economics, the “profit maximizing level”. The reasoning is simple, by putting in the most qualified person for a job, it would ensure that the job is done as well as it can be. Again, bringing in economics principles, this is known as “producing on the PPC”. Therefore, one can argue that meritocracy does ensure that society’s welfare is maximized in a sense.

However, there are major problems with meritocracy.

First of all, judging by ability is hardly wholesome. Without taking into account other factors as passion and willingness to work, judging a person by ability is definitely inaccurate. It is highly possible that a less skilled but highly passionate and motivated worker is able to do a better job that a more skilled counterpart who hates his job. However, meritocracy will choose the more skilled but less motivated worker simply on the basis that he is more talented. Hence in certain cases meritocracy may not be the best solution to making appointments.

Also, meritocracy is strikingly similar to discrimination. Discrimination is the process of rejecting subjects with undesirable qualities. Society condemns people who discriminate on the basis of race, religion and gender, yet the practice of meritocracy is yet another form of discrimination, one that society encourages. By selecting people because they are more talented, society is rejecting those with less talent, or “undesirable qualities”. The fundamental question is, “What allows us to judge others?” While judging others by their race, religion and gender is frequently unlawful and morally wrong, we often deem it necessary and right to judge others based on ability. However, what is the difference between these different criteria for judging, and in the end is it not just different facets of the same crystal? The justification is that it helps to maximize society’s welfare, but it is hardly morally upright. Are we going to give the excuse that it is all “for the greater good”? Denying others opportunities based on certain criteria is discrimination, and meritocracy, no matter how noble it sounds, is just another form of discrimination.

In the end, the most crucial question is the simplest of all – “If not meritocracy, then what else?” Indeed, the reason why meritocracy is so successful is not because it is perfect, but it’s the lesser of two evils. Judging people may not be morally upright, but it is impossible to offer everyone equal opportunities. As I would like to phrase it, “there can only so many people who own Lamborghinis in the world”. Because we cannot achieve a completely equal society, we just have to settle for the next best option, which is to reward people based on their skill and talent.

2007-09-27T19:00:00.000+08:00

28/09/2007
The Last Stand

2007-09-22T23:09:00.000+08:00

Random Photo During National Day Rehearsal

Random Photo #2 During National Day Rehearsal

Random Photo #3 During National Day Rehearsal

Chester after React (emoing)

View from 7th floor of A block

Another view from 7th floor (doesnt look like RI at all)

The crematorium (looks like a section of the pentagon)

Miss Wu's house during her farewell (juanhe representing our class presenting her with our card)

Zhuang Yan and Miss Wu =D

2007-09-19T16:18:00.000+08:00

The once-in-a-year event called my birthday falls on today. To keep this post short and sweet, I would like to say a BIG THANK YOU to all the people who helped me turn this birthday from absolute misery (because of a certain event around the corner?) into something at least worth remembering (not in a bad way). Yup. Thats all =)

"Love is like an RTS, if you can't handle the initial rush, you're doomed." - Mikel Syn

2007-09-17T20:12:00.000+08:00

Why are we able to master nuclear fission instead of nuclear fusion?

Ans: Man must destroy something before creating it.

2007-09-14T22:31:00.000+08:00

Invisible, yet omnipresent. Like a splinter in your mind, driving you crazy. Pressing down on you like the entire weight on the pacific ocean. Sapping the strength from your limbs, filling you with a sense of impending doom.

2007-09-12T21:09:00.001+08:00

life isn't a fairy tale

2007-09-11T20:03:00.000+08:00

Oh no... this just means another long period of obsession and madness. Not exactly a good thing right before promos

2007-09-07T22:55:00.000+08:00

Stop Being So Paranoid!!!

2007-09-02T20:10:00.000+08:00

3 major problems when I use a computer outside my house

1. Attempting to move the mouse to the right of the screen and staring into empty air at where the mouse cursor is supposed to be

2. Attempting to move the mouse cursor from one end of the screen to the other with a tiny flick of my wrist and seeing the cursor move by about 3 pixels

3. Opening up 10 programs and expecting cpu load to remain at about 20%

2007-08-29T19:39:00.000+08:00

I gotta say what's in my mind
Something about us
doesn't seem right these days
life keeps getting in the way
Whenever we try, somehow the plan
is always rearranged
It's so hard to say
But I've gotta do what's best for me
You'll be ok..
I've got to move on and be who I am
I just don't belong here
I hope you understand
We might find our place in this
world someday
But at least for now
I gotta go my own away
Don't wanna leave it all behind
But I get my hopes up
and I watch them fall everytime
Another colour turns to grey
and it's just too hard to watch it all
slowly fade away
I'm leaving today 'cause I've
gotta do what's best for me

2007-08-27T21:26:00.000+08:00

Everyday

of our lives,

wanna find you there, wanna hold on tight.

Gonna runwhile we’re young

and keep the faith

Everyday

from right now,

gonna use our voices and scream out loud

Take my hand;

together we

will celebrate,

Ev’ryday!

2007-08-26T18:57:00.001+08:00

YAY I GOT HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 2 SOUNDTRACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-08-23T22:51:00.000+08:00

After sitting in front of the com for 3 hours and getting a mild backache, guess what? I finished compiling my PW written report. Having accomplished this impossible feat, I feel a great sense of satisfaction. (haha exaggerated obviously). I am so thankful that I have been blessed with wonderful teammates who not only avoid habits like procrastination and giving low level work, they also make it a point to send in things ahead of time and of excellent quality. These amazing group members have managed to make our group a success, and as a result I have felt the compulsion to do my fair share, to make a difference. I hope that I can continue to do my work for the group and live up to expectations. =D

2007-08-21T19:14:00.000+08:00

Two long and painful days in what seemed to be perpetual torment. No, I haven't been to hell, but it certainly seems close enough. Having decided to attempt a blitz through my EOM yesterday, what I originally thought would take a mere half an hour ended up occupying my entire afternoon and a significant portion of my evening. After finally getting through the linguistic homicide (as coined by Rahul) of four university students and attempting some sort of analysis on the article, I went on to do the much dreaded write up for my YDSP research attachment application. In order to attempt to improving my understanding on the project topics (actually it was a lack of understanding), I had to go and research for the relevant topics online. While winglets was not particularly difficult to understand, it took up another huge chunk of time till about 11pm at night. Then it was the nightmarish process of attempting to understand the Electromagnetic Properties of Composites with Nanocrystalline Ferromagnetic Materials. As expected, google churned up nothing useful, so in the end after a couple of futile attempts at asking for help, I cobbled something together which made some semblance of sense and decided to hope for the best. Since it was already 11:30pm and the caffine in tea was not working to keep me awake at all, I had to sleep without mugging for econs test at all (a fatal mistake).

Time seems to have slowed down today. Maths lecture was so long and boring but in order to even have a chance at the "expected A" in promos, I decided to try and listen. While I could understand what was going on(more or less), it only ended up making me sleepier and messing up my already screwed up brain. Chem tutorial was fine though, since I was able to understand chemical equilibria. However, next was the major event of the day - our long awaited econs tests. It is probably have been an understatement to call it a disaster and obviously the fact that I had not study did not help at all. At least I attempted to answer the questions and decided against walking out of the LT as I was tempted to do. PW did nothing to improve my mood. After stoning around for the whole lesson, I realised that because I was sitting around the back, ever single time I wanted to get my EOM reviewed someone would get ahead of me. It was certainly not helping that each person took 1/3 of the lesson. So, PW ended with the realisation that yesterday's time could be spent much better mugging for econs or doing tutorials. After dragging my brain dead self to RI for lunch, we proceeded for our Physics Lab. Being brain dead obviously does not help with one's practical skills. I spent half the period attempting to set up the experiment, and as usual, refused to read instructions and instead of setting 25cm as the second height, I ended up setting it at 55cm. Therefore, I ended up redoing the experiment at 25cm and ate into my time for the final report. Because we were given about 50mins instead of the expected 1hr 10mins, obviously we were unable to finish on time. However, my graph was probably in a highly advanced state of screwupness as my two lines managed to coincide at the y-axis. Following physics lab, guess what? Relativity. While making the entirely false assumption that I would be able to catch up with the content by reading the notes at a certain time in the future, I decided to have some R&R (usually reserved for chem lectures). However, I made an effort to listen at the end of the lecture (where it was really quite interesting), but it would probably have been better off for me not to listen. Now, my brain is quite screwed up on thinking how the calculations to that particular problem using Special Relativity differs from using Galilean Transformations. Hence, my day ended with my brain utterly jumbled up and me feeling like I'm about to collapse any moment.