My day basically went like this: bio lecture-> lunch -> Fringe practice -> countdown meeting -> CIP briefing -> politely waiting for someone to finish preaching to me -> home.
Because I'm lazy I won't go into further details... But I'll try to talk about each briefly. And then go to sleep. The previous day I slept a lot, so this morning I slept for about 2 hours only, and then went to school, and dozed off for another hour.
Then it was bio lecture. Which was quite comprehendable. But the lecturer stopped at Chi-squared test! Which seemed so very difficult to me before, but after reading the frst example, seems pretty doable. It applies standard deviation (secondary school E math stuff) to see if a given phynotypic result deviates from the predicted theoretical result solely by chance, or if there's another factor involved. Well, after the bio lecturer we got a guest from Sumatra, Indonesia, who spoke to us about Orangutans. It was slightly OP-sque with things like "empowering the people" and "conflict between Orangutan and people" (the dude doesn't prnounce orangtutans in the plural form) being thrown out to us. I kind of pity him because we're really not a very responsive, attentive bunch of students. There was incessant murmuring... and of course, there was me, trying to read Chi-squared test.
I went for lunch at the RI year 1-4 side (i.e. seconday). Then I got invited to take free food from the buffet there. So, I dug in! But the desert syrup and chocolate cake got finished before I finished my fried rice, so I just ate the rice and two pieces of chicken meat for lunch. Didn't want to stoop to eating a second round of pasta (fusilli). Hmph. (:
Fringe pract was quite alright. Then I left when there was a last song to do.
Then, I rushed to get to Bugis for the countdown meeting at J.co doughnuts! I had to run around looking for a toilet to change in because the nearest toilet had its cubicles filled up even after a good five minutes of waiting. I ate two doughnuts for dinner: one that looked like a mini hamburger and another one with a very generous sprinkling of almond shavings. I was going to buy a Thai iced tea, but paying $30 for Science Focus and $8 for a play left me quite broke, and I forgot to top up the dosh from the ATM when I was leaving school. So I had to cancel the drink and went to Cold Storage to buy a bottle of iced lemon tea. Which I am drinking now.
The people speaking at the meeting were generally far too soft to be heard and the place too noisy, so I basically slacked until 6.45, and left to go for the CIP briefing.
Shaun, if you're reading this somehow.. CHANGE THE LOCATION. thankyou.
The journey to the briefing room was an onerous one with me passing through a very elegent, high-class place called Park(lane) Mall. I felt as though I didn't belong there and quickly left. The place looked very much like a high-end hotel the moment I stepped in, hence the sense of alienation. Then the YWCA (I think) lodge where the briefing was held was also quite high-class with the steps mae of nice wood dressed in a carpet. There was even a reception counter with a world clock behind the receptionist and those trolley thingamajigs you see in hotels. I think it's used by bell-boys. So... after the whole misplaced feeling that I had stepped into a world beyond what I was used to, the room where the briefing was to be held seemed a little run-down by comparison. I helped to distribute some pamphlets to all the seats and helped a person called Anna to fix a poster to it's stand, since I was slightly early. Then the briefing started after most people were settled down. I was probably among the youngest there with most volunteers being working adults. Oh, well, I'm sure it'll be a whole new experience doing my volunteer work! Since I'd be pressed to work hard and not slack around as I would be watched by these volunteers who really do care, and not simply teenagers who are doing it purely for the sake of CIP hours. Well.. actually, I'm doing it for both, but mainly for the spiritual fulfilment, since I don't really care about the requirements (already fulfilled the bare minimum of 12 hours for two years of JC). My attitude towards the Raffles Diploma (RD) is that it's basically a glorified piece of crappy paper that doesn't do anything at all, and you'll get your distinction etc as long as you do what you like to do. Since I'm now pursuing CIP as something to fill my life, I think the cert is quite useless. Same for physical fitness and academics and etc... Just give it your best shot, and the rewards will come naturally. There is no need to be all materialistic and do things just for the sake of more print on the RD.
Back to the WorldVision talk.
I think the briefing was quite inspiring. My only gripe is that the speaker didn't really enunciate properly and made some grammatical errors etc, but of course, to even speak to an audience, what more one who is largely the same age or older than you, already takes a fair bit of guts. And it's pretty nice to see that so many people out there have a heart.
...
After the briefing ended, I was trying to rush back home so I could finally sleep. And anyway, as this post goes to show, I reached home at about 10 and it's almost 2am now and I still haven't slept. Oh, well. Anyway. My phone died at this point in time. The rate at which my iPhone consumes battery life is astounding. And starting to get more than a little annoying. After pushing screen brightness down to the lowest it could go and turning off wifi and at times 3G, it still couldn't last beyond 13 hours? Geez. I need a mobile charger. When I see a nice one that isn't too expensive, I'll probably get it.
When I was about to enter Dhoby Gaut MRT, at street level, I got held back by a guy who asked if I could do a nice simple survey. Well, one thing led to another, and soon he was preaching to me about God and his church and telling me about the existence of "God our mother". Well, that was about the only thing I gained from that encounter, apart from a slip of paper with a URL which promises to elaborate on that drivel (okay, fine, expounding on what he said). Basically, I didn't really agree to whatever he said, but I simply had tog rn and bear it politely. I mean, what would have happened if I had just cut him short and said: "So, what's your aim?" And he would have looked shocked, and said that it was to try and con me into giving my phone number (which I did, cos it was in the survey) and to convert me into a member of his church, which promises to educae others about the true teachings of God. And I would have replied: "now look here, bud.... I may be tolerant of pretty much all religions but I don't appreciate being preached to. I think I'm fine the way I am now. Now, get lost. I want to get home and charge my phone and sleep after a long day." At which point he would either have known that he had lost a poor lamb gone astray or became angry and started to lecture me on how I'm going to hell and be damned eternally for the rest of my time after death.
...
Oh, well. I actually believe in most faiths, anyway. And I believe people should be allowed to believe in what they want to believe in. After all, what is the purpose of a religion? To teach that there's one true god? (I don't think so) I believe that religions are there to guide people along- to provide moral guidelines, to set the boundaries on what you can or cannot do, to give people something to believe in when they're down. But essentially, who creates the miracles? Is it not yourself, or a community? If you just believe in youself, then the need for a religion seems to be rather unnecessary. So I think I'm fine the way I am for now, because whatever I cannot overcome alone, I have friends and family to help me along. I do pray- I pray to whoever is willing to lend this poor soul a listening ear, because after all there is no harm in doing so. I whisper my troubles to those who are willing to comfort me. And I can pick myself up from there.
And about science: I feel that if I were to pick a religion, science would be my one true religion. Because however imperfect it is, it is the accumulation of the thoughts of scientists, of humans- dsproving, proving theories, trying to understand the world around us a little better, to use educated estimates to further the betterment of humankind, to try to limit the damage that we have to the environment, to try to reconnect back to nature. And sure, spirituality may be discovered one day to have scientific explanations- there is already compelling evidence- but so what? Is the fact that sound waves causing eyeballs to vibrate and see ghosts when they aren't there not magical in itself? Even if one day all the facts are laid out and accepted as the truth, it doesn't change the fact that something is just so magical. We have merely gained an insight into why we feel this way, but the feelings are still there nonetheless.
Because I'm lazy I won't go into further details... But I'll try to talk about each briefly. And then go to sleep. The previous day I slept a lot, so this morning I slept for about 2 hours only, and then went to school, and dozed off for another hour.
Then it was bio lecture. Which was quite comprehendable. But the lecturer stopped at Chi-squared test! Which seemed so very difficult to me before, but after reading the frst example, seems pretty doable. It applies standard deviation (secondary school E math stuff) to see if a given phynotypic result deviates from the predicted theoretical result solely by chance, or if there's another factor involved. Well, after the bio lecturer we got a guest from Sumatra, Indonesia, who spoke to us about Orangutans. It was slightly OP-sque with things like "empowering the people" and "conflict between Orangutan and people" (the dude doesn't prnounce orangtutans in the plural form) being thrown out to us. I kind of pity him because we're really not a very responsive, attentive bunch of students. There was incessant murmuring... and of course, there was me, trying to read Chi-squared test.
I went for lunch at the RI year 1-4 side (i.e. seconday). Then I got invited to take free food from the buffet there. So, I dug in! But the desert syrup and chocolate cake got finished before I finished my fried rice, so I just ate the rice and two pieces of chicken meat for lunch. Didn't want to stoop to eating a second round of pasta (fusilli). Hmph. (:
Fringe pract was quite alright. Then I left when there was a last song to do.
Then, I rushed to get to Bugis for the countdown meeting at J.co doughnuts! I had to run around looking for a toilet to change in because the nearest toilet had its cubicles filled up even after a good five minutes of waiting. I ate two doughnuts for dinner: one that looked like a mini hamburger and another one with a very generous sprinkling of almond shavings. I was going to buy a Thai iced tea, but paying $30 for Science Focus and $8 for a play left me quite broke, and I forgot to top up the dosh from the ATM when I was leaving school. So I had to cancel the drink and went to Cold Storage to buy a bottle of iced lemon tea. Which I am drinking now.
The people speaking at the meeting were generally far too soft to be heard and the place too noisy, so I basically slacked until 6.45, and left to go for the CIP briefing.
Shaun, if you're reading this somehow.. CHANGE THE LOCATION. thankyou.
The journey to the briefing room was an onerous one with me passing through a very elegent, high-class place called Park(lane) Mall. I felt as though I didn't belong there and quickly left. The place looked very much like a high-end hotel the moment I stepped in, hence the sense of alienation. Then the YWCA (I think) lodge where the briefing was held was also quite high-class with the steps mae of nice wood dressed in a carpet. There was even a reception counter with a world clock behind the receptionist and those trolley thingamajigs you see in hotels. I think it's used by bell-boys. So... after the whole misplaced feeling that I had stepped into a world beyond what I was used to, the room where the briefing was to be held seemed a little run-down by comparison. I helped to distribute some pamphlets to all the seats and helped a person called Anna to fix a poster to it's stand, since I was slightly early. Then the briefing started after most people were settled down. I was probably among the youngest there with most volunteers being working adults. Oh, well, I'm sure it'll be a whole new experience doing my volunteer work! Since I'd be pressed to work hard and not slack around as I would be watched by these volunteers who really do care, and not simply teenagers who are doing it purely for the sake of CIP hours. Well.. actually, I'm doing it for both, but mainly for the spiritual fulfilment, since I don't really care about the requirements (already fulfilled the bare minimum of 12 hours for two years of JC). My attitude towards the Raffles Diploma (RD) is that it's basically a glorified piece of crappy paper that doesn't do anything at all, and you'll get your distinction etc as long as you do what you like to do. Since I'm now pursuing CIP as something to fill my life, I think the cert is quite useless. Same for physical fitness and academics and etc... Just give it your best shot, and the rewards will come naturally. There is no need to be all materialistic and do things just for the sake of more print on the RD.
Back to the WorldVision talk.
I think the briefing was quite inspiring. My only gripe is that the speaker didn't really enunciate properly and made some grammatical errors etc, but of course, to even speak to an audience, what more one who is largely the same age or older than you, already takes a fair bit of guts. And it's pretty nice to see that so many people out there have a heart.
...
After the briefing ended, I was trying to rush back home so I could finally sleep. And anyway, as this post goes to show, I reached home at about 10 and it's almost 2am now and I still haven't slept. Oh, well. Anyway. My phone died at this point in time. The rate at which my iPhone consumes battery life is astounding. And starting to get more than a little annoying. After pushing screen brightness down to the lowest it could go and turning off wifi and at times 3G, it still couldn't last beyond 13 hours? Geez. I need a mobile charger. When I see a nice one that isn't too expensive, I'll probably get it.
When I was about to enter Dhoby Gaut MRT, at street level, I got held back by a guy who asked if I could do a nice simple survey. Well, one thing led to another, and soon he was preaching to me about God and his church and telling me about the existence of "God our mother". Well, that was about the only thing I gained from that encounter, apart from a slip of paper with a URL which promises to elaborate on that drivel (okay, fine, expounding on what he said). Basically, I didn't really agree to whatever he said, but I simply had tog rn and bear it politely. I mean, what would have happened if I had just cut him short and said: "So, what's your aim?" And he would have looked shocked, and said that it was to try and con me into giving my phone number (which I did, cos it was in the survey) and to convert me into a member of his church, which promises to educae others about the true teachings of God. And I would have replied: "now look here, bud.... I may be tolerant of pretty much all religions but I don't appreciate being preached to. I think I'm fine the way I am now. Now, get lost. I want to get home and charge my phone and sleep after a long day." At which point he would either have known that he had lost a poor lamb gone astray or became angry and started to lecture me on how I'm going to hell and be damned eternally for the rest of my time after death.
...
Oh, well. I actually believe in most faiths, anyway. And I believe people should be allowed to believe in what they want to believe in. After all, what is the purpose of a religion? To teach that there's one true god? (I don't think so) I believe that religions are there to guide people along- to provide moral guidelines, to set the boundaries on what you can or cannot do, to give people something to believe in when they're down. But essentially, who creates the miracles? Is it not yourself, or a community? If you just believe in youself, then the need for a religion seems to be rather unnecessary. So I think I'm fine the way I am for now, because whatever I cannot overcome alone, I have friends and family to help me along. I do pray- I pray to whoever is willing to lend this poor soul a listening ear, because after all there is no harm in doing so. I whisper my troubles to those who are willing to comfort me. And I can pick myself up from there.
And about science: I feel that if I were to pick a religion, science would be my one true religion. Because however imperfect it is, it is the accumulation of the thoughts of scientists, of humans- dsproving, proving theories, trying to understand the world around us a little better, to use educated estimates to further the betterment of humankind, to try to limit the damage that we have to the environment, to try to reconnect back to nature. And sure, spirituality may be discovered one day to have scientific explanations- there is already compelling evidence- but so what? Is the fact that sound waves causing eyeballs to vibrate and see ghosts when they aren't there not magical in itself? Even if one day all the facts are laid out and accepted as the truth, it doesn't change the fact that something is just so magical. We have merely gained an insight into why we feel this way, but the feelings are still there nonetheless.
No comments:
Post a Comment