Tired.

Emotional baggage, physical tiredness, etc. I really don't feel like blogging but it may be somewhat theraputic. I'm trying to re-achieve a state of normalcy.. Oh my, why must things turn out this way? Life seems so much like a drama now, and I'm caught in it. Sigh. So, anyway...

Something my mum gave me. Free samples... I finally tried the orange one earlier on. Didn't help much.

Again, sorry that it's slanted. But I'm really too lazy to rotate it, especially right now. What's behind the guy is actually his painting. It looks really life-like and all (the grass) and the three men and the grass monster behind look like they come from some video game somewhere. Which was the whole point... it looked better in the newspaper, with the proper orientation and all.





When I woke up from a too-long sleep, in which i finally dreamed (haven't done so in a very long time), I was pretty excited (but it's gone now). So here is what i sound like describing my dreams when i'm excited:

Hahahaha oomg!! Just had the coolest two dreams ever so I need to write them before I forget!! I dunno, how I just dreamed of such cool things but oh okay whatever right??

So here goes, the first dream”:

·         I got into some cool place with some class ppl... then I think it was a study gang kind of thingy and probably near evening period cos I think I remembered feeling hungry as I always do! Then  we were in some concrete looking place I think. I know three floors: all three are on top of a regular office building!  I think. Either that or they were all underground!.

·         So I think we were studying at the top of what im going to describe now:

·         Imagine a wall: then the wall stretches 3 floors, so the room at the top must go even higher.So the concerete wall, lit by like white lights, then business ppl or executives or smth below walking with a sense of purpose thingy with their collegues and blah.. So I think I was at the top of the room studying. But I cant remb the room. So the wall had a slit in it that holds a concrete sataircase, damn cool right?! Then the stairs had some sort of green but still mostly white backlighting underneath the stairs and hidden from virew. So it just keeps om ascending and going upwards.. cool. The concrete wall is also damn cool. Like Idk, got 4 repeating panels thingy?

·         So the 3 floors thingy. The first floor is for the not so good performing ppl. Then the second for better performers, I recall seeing something to do with Taiwan somehow. Then the third floor is for the great ppl who have it all and ther offices look like damn cool stuff. And the stair that connect all the concrete structures are also concrete. And from 1^st floor, the wide open expanse of concrete to the second floor, its just the conventional thing. Then for 2^nd to third floor its like some concrete winding up spiral staircase. So the top floor (kinda like a mezzanine) looks like someplace where the edges are glass panels for railings so those below on 1^st floor can stare up and see inside. So there’s like some kind of cool white painting with black circles and splotches thing that's abstract art.

·         When I went downstairs for toilet, i got lost after emerging. So I looked around and wandered around abit and when I finally saw the long flight of stairs then I went past some group of professional looking ppl and leading the fore was some woman in a striped shirt, some colour on dark blue, and then knee-length grey skirt that was very tastefully rendered. Then she was talking to her collegues and and as I passed her she MOLESTED MY BUTT OMG WTH. So I turned around and gave her a damn hard stare and I think she stopped while the rest of the group continues, I think to lvl 3, while she gave me a gentle stare and said sorry. And then went on to join her collegues.

Okay for the second dream:

I think this was in presumably my house, much bigger than before, a few storys high, and I thnk it was after the study session and we went to my house.  Then we went over fo dinner and then to mug again. So after food blah my batt was running low, mistook 3% for 30% after lots of whatsapp so I went to charge my phone in my room. Passed my sister’s room on the way and it’s like woahhh. Open concept, with the lights all off, but probably some roller system that allows privacy when she needs it. Then I thought she won’t be coming back but later she joined us for dinner. Then the room showed a long rectangle with length being length of the room exposed and breadth the hight of the room. So on the right side was her damn cool queen/king-szed bed with tasteful covers, forgot pattern and color. Then near the end of the bed (towards the left) was like some wooden thing that rose up, across the bed, and came down on the other side. Then the bottom of the bed was also in the sametype of warm wood, but horizontally instead now.

So after I came back I think YQ was helping my maid with the dishes in the post kitched and I couldn’t find someone else. Then later when I came back I think YQ was stuying at the wooden table that formed the outer of the kitchen. Like some long side table that originated from the kitchen and went around its single border. And my dad was back and staring at me with a bemused expression on his face cos it was pouring outsde and I said he could bring them back. Then they thanked me and I said no need thank my father cos I only say but it’s my dad who does the sending. And I was seating just outside of the kitchen at the far end of the bench. And my dad was right at the middle of the edge.

I  cant remebmber more omg )): want to remb! Architecture was cool, dream was very very cool!!! >.<

sorta a sketch here, but rest assured that the dream was muchhh better when i dreamed it! My drawing skills aren't that good and I could only remember fragments of stuff so... yeah that's about all that i can do. ): bai bai >.<

Some more interesting/ not-so-interesting stuff.

I wanted to do a funny GP essay about myself, with the stand, rebuttals, topic sentences and all. But I think it'll somehow be a little awkward. So I decided not to do it.

My mum brought back three packets of this. The other two uneaten packets are of a different flavour.
I found this sweet quite intriguing because the printed wrapper looks really cool, the trading card game thing inside baffles me (never played Yu-Gi-Oh! or Pokemon before) and the gummies irked me. The gummies looked like some kind of tadpole thing that was yellow in colour with a little bit of coloured goo enclosed near the top of the head that presumably was supposed to taste like an apple-cola mx, if you go by the label. I didn't taste much, though. So it was kind of like eating a gooey brain (sorry to anyone who's eating)... and then when I was done I peered inside the wrapper and there was the same goo all over the inside of the packaging. Eww.

 I finally bothered to look up this thing. I bought a sweetbox from Germany a few years ago when I passed by Munich on the way back from a choir competition with VS choir. I think it looked pretty cute back then (and now) and so I bought it. The sweetbox holds my old badges from primary school till now (The RJ school badge is probably going in too in another two years)... but anyway. So the label on my sweetbox is all in German, and I thought that "Doof" meant "stupid". It wasn't until I looked closely, saw something called "sheepworld", checked it out on Google and came across this image that I realised it meant "boring". So much for (apparently) great academic grades. I could have uploaded more pics that I found, but I didn't want to keep on clicking till I got to my Iphone, scrolled to the bottom of a 1000+ picture Camera Roll, and gotton the pic and repeated that a few more times. You see that I'm pretty lazy.

So, about my birthday. I don't feel like explaining at length because it's over now and the hyperness (or the happiness from being overwhelmed with Facebook posts and SMSes and a really fun activity with SL and TS) that lasted me throughout the day has long since evaporated. But in short, it was much more meaningful (and expensive) than my previous birthdays because I got to do a lot more things. My birthday's usually during the exam period, has been that way from primary to secondary school, so nobody has the time to celebrate with me, and so I just stay at home and try to study and eat some cake at night with my family. This year, I could go out and do all the things I missed out on. A little timeline to illustrate what happened (sans line):

- Went ice skating in the afternoon with SL and TS at Kallang Leisure Park. Some things happened along the way but I felt pretty damn happy while I was in the rink. Just don't talk about the number of times I fell. My butt still hurts. I need to become a better ice skater, because I want to ice skate again. It's really fun... if you're a pro who can go forwards, backwards, shuffle sideways, spin and do the figure skater thing (saw a cute little girl doing it. Was very amazed) and be a cool old man and skate with hands folded behind back... RAWR LETS GOOOO (:
- Went home. I'll gloss over this and say that I got to understand TS slightly better. I hope.
-Went out for dinner at Holland Village (Holland V). We ordered two platters for an average price of $40 each but since my sister just filled n a form and got a one-for-one card the bill was reduced by a pretty substantial amount. Apparently, posh Italian restaurants don't give you value for money, because each platter could probably feed just one person and we had to share two of them between three people (My dad, sister, and I). So we made do, and the chocolate cake that came free with the diner's card thing filled up our stomachs a little more after the main course was done. My sister kept joking that I had the "birthday luck" - The restaurant was originally full and we couldn't go in; then a space cleared up. We went in, had to go through to an outside, non-air con area, so I commented that it would be nice if we got to sit inside the restaurant near the chefs, because the ambience there was good. Voila! A table for four that was reserved was made free for us (lol). Then the choco cake was supposed to arrive only 2-3 days later if you placed an order, but the kind waiter went to check and a spare cake was brought out for me. The candle was lit (but seemed to extinguish any moment) and then when I was about to make my wish the lights in the area went out. The waiter said it was probably a power trip when the lights came back on after I made an impossibly long wish (Just wished for lots of things even though I guess I could only have one. I'm so greedy.)... so I guess he probably switched them off. My impression of the restaurant was raised a notch higher.
- Went to deposit my sis back at Kent Ridge Hall in NUS for her to mug till the wee hours for a paper the next day. Then I went with my dad to my grandma's house. I haven't visited her for so long ): Need to make more trips there soon.
- Went to pick up my mum at 10pm at the CBD. Then while walking along I got to chat with my dad, whom I usually don't talk alot to as well. So I got a rare chance to do something I usually didn't do. Then we went to eat satay at Boat Quay a short distance away. It was really crowded and noisy with the pubs mostly full and a gig going on but I had a nice view of the CBD across the Singapore River, so we just sat and ate. The sauce was nutty and really good.
- Went home, checked Facebook, got spammed, and spent an hour replying people. It's such a far cry from a few years back when the only few presents I would receive would be those from my closest friends and sister (my parents don't belive in gifts.)... but both would make me content.
So yea, all in all, it was a very, very enjoyable day out. Great memories to live by in future.

For now, though, I think I'll leave the memories to be relived in dreamland. My bed's calling out to me...

More random stuff.

I wanted to blog about my day out (one whole day out slacking cos of my birthday! >.<) But... I'll do that after I wake up. Hehe (; It's really very late/early in the morn now (5am). And if I don't sleep soon, I won't wake up till way after 12pm.
So I'll write about the easy stuff first.

1. My Eureka! keychain is well and truly dead >.<
The keychain was a token of appreciation by Biosoc cos I organised the bio practical component of an inter-secondary competition called Eureka!. There was bio, chem and physics... and theory and practical questions. I admire the clever candidates, because when I sat in for the theory round, I was beyond stumped. So anyway. The keychain was co-created by DSTA and DSO (defence, science and technology agency and defence science organisation respectively), and it was solar-powered and the first press of a button gave a lazer pointer that was really powerful; the second gave two LED lights and the third switched the device off. I was immediately taken with it and attached it to my pencilcase. Then after some time the LED lights stopped working, so i opened up the keychain and realised that one LED was detached. The solder had dropped off. Since I have solder but no soldering iron, I wasn't able to fix the LED lights.
Next, the laser light grew dim. I suspected it was because I hadn't been allowing the mini solar panel to get some light, and since it was the exam week, and I didn't think that such devices were allowed into the examination hall, I took the keychain off and let it get some sun in the afternoons. The laser light grew strong... but then even thought the supply of light remained constant over the next few days the laser grew slowly dimmer and dimmer, until it died out totally. So now the whole keychain can't function... RIP, my beloved keychain. You served me well.

2. Intelligent Design
I came across this short video on Khan Academy. Then I thought I didn't know what it was. Then I remembered... it's some American thing that most other schools don't teach (because intelligent design, unlike evolution, centres on God. But American schools taught it as an alternative to the Darwinian theory. I'm not too sure about the specifics, though.). So i didn't bother listening closely. Then I looked down at my phone (the KhanAcademy stuff are available as apps on Iphones) and saw some really cool pic (I'll edit this post later and add in the pic) that was linked to what the author talked about. He compared intelligent design (God creating a complex world out of a few simple rules) to the mathematical equation that produced the picture (a complex picture created from a simple mathematical recurrence relation (i think), Z(n+1) = Z(squared)(n+1)). This is what i gathered from the eight minutes of video time...
And the picture was created by subbing in values and black spaces were created where numbers did not run to infinity, and different colours being coded for by the different extents and ways that certain numbers ran to infinity on a complex plane.

Here it is. I forgot to rotate the image... but it still looks good no matter what, no? (:

Class outing thingy

Okay after some massive delays i can finally blog -.-

(oh wait oops more stuff came up... ):  )

*hugs domo kun* i think i accidentally made someone angry >.< sowwie.

Back to the day's events...

So we went to J8 rooftop to eat lunch (bought from stores around J8), then massive camwhoring ensued because i brought my camera for that to happen. No outing is complete without camwhoring. Hehehe.
Then I thought Vick and HR left early. Then they came back a few minutes later and I was kind of surprised.. like: "Who's birthday is it today? -.-" And they said it was mine and sang me a happy birthday song. So i just stood there feeling both incredulous and happy (sorry, english too powderful to replace happy with a better word) and okay, I tried to hurry up and stuff the cake into my throat so everyone could leave. No, wait, it wasn't a cake. It was expensive ice cream adorned with chocolate and the little plastic spoon provided was way too filmsy to cut off a chunk of flavoured ice. Well, fine, it did, eventually. After the ince cream partially melted.

I didn't eat the raspberries on top because I don't tend to like sour things much. So after I was finally done we all got to leave. (: Yayyyy.

Then I went to Popular with some others and bought myself a new A3 whiteboard and a new duster because the one that my sister bought for me for my birthday in secondary 3 (or was it 2? I can't remember) is quite dead already. It's kind of a tradition for me to buy something for myself as a birthday present (to myself) because apart from my big sister, and occasionally my second sister, I just get a birthday cake and/or a dinner outside and that's about it. Because I'm unlucky enough to have my birthday around primary and secondary school end of year exams. This year the exams ended early so I can celebrate... but I realised that I don't really know how to, due to the lack of prior experience. Actually i want to just lie back and relax for the whole day without caring about homework... but a specific someone told me that I should go out and have fun. Which led to quite a lot of things happening.

So I guess I'll blog about what's been planned after they've been done. I think i caused this certain someone.. well.. anyway I was being quite insensitive. Sowwie!!! I can't apologise enough >.<

Till then! -___________- argh still got to read so much stuff before i get to sleep.

A collection of random stuff...

Haha I think I lost the structure of my blog. No more eight-posts-a-month, no more elaborate language (maybe that explains why my GP is languishing), no more full stops to end my titles.

I felt pretty much alright in the afternoon after finishing the first post of the month at 6+, sleeping till 9+, and slacking around... Then a wave of tiredness and so on and so forth just overcame me at about 5+pm. It occured to me that all I've done so far today is to blog, do one and a half section C questions (the remainder of the 2009 chem promos practice paper that I didn't manage to finish before the chem promos... I did half of qn C1 while waiting for the chem teacher. I said something about keeping the identities of people secret but I'll duly thank her next year after graduating. I guess. Good teachers deserve their dues.)
...
Yeah. So I've been slacking the whole day, and suddenly life seemed so pointless. ): I think I'm in post-exam blues for some strange reason. Maybe it's a somewhat unconscious move to vehemently protest against attempting to finish up my loose ends from promos and get started on 3 new exams. Need to get my act back together...

So I went to bathe and felt considerably better. So here I am, trying to finsh up on blogging (this is the last post on what I wanted to talk about) and read one essay from a compilation of chinese essays by RI/RJ Chinese pros, and finish up my bio practice paper and get the hell to sleep. Rawr.

I guess I'll only be able to finish blogging before I decide to call it quits, though. Oh, well.

***
Okay, so after TY and JH (another JH, not me...) and SL and TS assault me with a barrage of words (oh, wait, they're at it again) I'm finally starting on this post again. zzz.

So without further ado, a few b (ARGH) * a few bizarre nuggets of information:

Why Old Things Are Good
Actually, I just want to talk about my socks. Lol. And then maybe extend the argument to more old things.
I own two pairs of socks, from some unknown brand, unknown because I can't find the brand swen on anywhere. Unlike my Converse socks which have the brand printed on them.
So these two pairs of socks, one white and the other grey, are now quite deformed and look more like cloth bags that roughly fit on to feet. A little bit like socks back in Ancient China where socks comprised of silk or cloth bags that were wrapped around the feet (or so I gleaned from the few episodes of old Chinese dramas I watched). They're actually quite comfortable because the tightness of newer socks isn't there and the socks somehow wrap themselves around your feet that make you feel like you never want to take them off again.

It's just like how I once used to own a pair of slippers from a pretty good brand (forgot the name, as usual) that I bought from Compass Point at Sengkang once in primary school for the very, very cheap price of $4. So i wore them for ages until the slippers had imprints of my toes and heels in them and were quite black from use (and quite thin as well). I remember once when a salesman peddling a cleaning product asked me to lend him my slipper and he tried (and failed) to get rid of the blackness. Then he awkwardly tried to steer the crowd back to how great the product was as I escaped from Heartland Mall. Well, anyway, this just goes to prove that old things frequently used are often emotional attachments of their owners. So when my slippers wore out finally I tried to buy the same one back again, but I couldn't find it any more. So i tried a pair of Bata slippers, but they were crappy. Then I bought higher-end Bata slippers. Still crappy. And since I don't often go out in slippers any more (hence the disappearance of a slipper tan line on my feet in primary school-sec2) due to a sad life and pure laziness, I still use that latest pair of crappy Bata slippers.

Why I Like House Crashing

1. I like architecture. So getting to someone else's house is a chance to gawk at the nicely furnished rooms, the beautiful house, the tastefully decorated living room... etc. Or maybe not. Once in my senior's house I saw a very nice sound system that had little black speakers delivering surround sound to the little living area (sofa, TV). I was there because us basses were preparing a special song for the chorale concert, composed by my senior. I admired his parents for their openess towards a modern design.
2. It's a sign that i'm accepted by the other party as someone close enough to visit their houses and view what is considerably private to them.
3. It's an opportunity to get to know the other party more. From the people in the house to the type of books kept and the absence or presence of a piano etc... so much more can be seen from a house visit.
4. I loathe staying at home because I don't study well at home. I study best at a table surrounded by a moderately noisy class but since that has left me along with my graduating from secondary school crashing someone else's house would do as well. For the first few hours, and provided that there aren't too many distractions around. And it assauges the boredom from staying at home from far too long. Especially during a holiday.

Why I'd rather stay at home to Study
(as opposed to the airport. Sorry that it sounds somewhat contradictory to the pointer above. I guess studying at the airport is even worse than studying at home, in a sense.)

1. When you're not very smart like me and attempt to study on chairs with a runny nose and a suspected oncoming fever and shivering even though you're in a jacket, studying at the airport can leave an indelible bad impression. Especially when you were doing math, and math was something you don't really like. Okay, is.
2. When you don't have to pay for a drink (probably coffee or tea) to get an artificial boost of energy to keep studying. Money is saved. And when you feel like sleeping.. just sleep. Trying to drag on and studying ineffectively for a few hours is time wasted when you can sleep, wake up refreshed and do the same thing in a much shorter period of time.
3. You can run to the fridge anytime to grab a drink or a snack to munch on. If you're anything like me, it's either Timtam's (whatever the hell it's called...), or frying a small egg and adding a little bit of spice and pepper and soy sauce, or cup noodles. Preferably tom yam for that zest.
4. There's absolutely no need to lug around thick files if they're already in your room.
5. You can sit in any position you want, blast the music out loud to keep yourself from falling asleep (party rock anthem works quite well for me) and study. Woot.

Promos Week

This'll be a short synopsis of what happened to me last week, and an attempt to study at the airport.

Okay, sigh...

Tuesday: GP and Chinese.
GP paper 1: I chose the wrong topic. I thought I could do the topic I chose, so i went on wth it... After narrowing twelve choices to three, I unwisely chose the worst choice among those three. The rest were really viable but oh, how regret only comes after you've decided and started on something... This is a consequence of reading the papers every day and trolling TOC (oops, haven't been doing that). I got a little too egoistic and thought I vould handle the question when in reality I couldn't. So it's probably either going to be pretty good because there's nobody for the marker to compare me to (since most people wisely stayed away from it) or it's going to be really bad because I didn't do a good job of writing my essay. The more I wrote, the more I felt that it was a bad choice... but with little time left, there wasn't any time to change topics and start on a new essay.
GP paper 2: Because my GP teacher said that the new marking scheme for summary would blah blah blah, and because of her advice to avoid generalisations... I found summary pretty difficult. Sigh. Then there wasn't enough time to complete AQ even though I thought i was pretty on task. Guess I should have written faster. Only compared one point, was halfway through another, and then hadn't even thought of a conclusion, much less write it.
Chinese Paper 1: Chose a different question compared to the two pro girls in my class again. Made me wonder if i'll die for essay again... especially when your teacher writes "see me!" in chinese in every single essay you hand up.
Chinese paper 2: Pretty hard. I think I got used to not doing open-ended cloze passages so I was drifting off in the last 30 minutes and didn't finish/know what to write for it.

Wednesday: Econs
I suppose if you are someone who gave up on econs and only read someone else's tuition notes and practiced a few graphs you won't expect to do well but still try to score..
Well...
I don't really feel like thinking about econs anymore =.=

Thursday: Math
I think I slept quite late before math. Then at 3am I got a runny nose and the tissue paper was full of red coloured liquid (my mucus tends to have the viscosity of water -.-)... then i was quite shocked. I guess it's because I rubbed my nose too hard before and the membrane just gave way. Shouldn't rub too hard next time.
Math was quite horrible. Enough said. Don't want to remember this one, too.

Friday: Bio
Got a shock when I saw that the time allocation printed on the cover page was only 1hr 15mins for a 60 mark paper. So I flipped open and in my worst ever illegible scrawl proceeded to attempt to do questions at a fast pace. But I still couldn't finish because for the second part of the essay question I couldn't think of points to spam and had to go slowly. And the adrenaline and my concentration was wearing off. I mean, how do I explain the role the structure of the Golgi apparatus has in its function? Sigh. So just when I thought of a last point and wanted to write it there wasn't any time left.
Then paper 1 was really sad as well because I finished the 20 MCQs in about 23 minutes (30 mins were given) and was checking through really slowly (brain dead by then)... then I spotted a mistake. I overlooked the word "gamete" and assumed it was somatic (normal cells)! So I was going to change my answer and then time's up. Arghh... every time I can get some marks, they always elude me...

Monday: Chem. Already explained what happened in the last post, so I'll talk about my preparation for it in the airport on Friday after the bio paper.
I ate lunch in RJ and went to the airport. Then I felt that the nice quiet environment in the MRT station would allow me to concentrate better. The only thing was the lack of tables, so I sat on a nice slab of granite and put my stuff on the cool stone and reclined and did some questions until some securityguard-looking woman came over to helpfully warn that $2 would be deducted from my EZ-link card if I didn't vamoose by the end of two hours in the MRT station. So I packed my stuff and tapped out from the place after 1+ hours. Was quite sad to leave because the architecture was really fascinating. Then I sat at Coffee Bean to do my MCQs (which were much tougher than expected and so took me 12 hours instead of an expected 8+ hours). The place didn't allow studying and put up "no studying" signs the last time I was there so I was somewhat angry with them then. Then on Friday there was a group of people studying at the airport.
I saw a VJ girl who studied with earphones on from when I came to about 7-8+ at night. Scary.
I met my Chorale seniors (a couple) and tried not to go over and spoil their great time together but since they asked me if I was awkward at one occasion I asked one of them over too see where I went wrong with my MCQ. She's like a nice big sister even though she's only one year older... I guess even an extra few months' difference do make one more mature (I hope).
The group of people over there were O'level students. I was quite surprised because I never bothered working that hard for my O'lvls.. Then I realised that one was still asking the other what a floodplain was (Geography elective) and the guy couldn't answer it very confidently. Oh, well... But more came to join their gang as time went by. And they stayed till quite late. According to S, the airport mugger who came to join me later, they were there every time he was there. Still, very scary...
Oh, and they absolutely don't look like sec 4s at all. They looked more like a bunch of J1s and 2s and I would never have known otherwise if I didn't see y old bio and physics and geog textbook lying on the tables.
...
Well, I guess i really don't like studying at the airport -.- I don't think i'm going back there again unless requested...

This sets the stage for my next post (full of random info).

After promos...

Sigh.
okay, yay promos are over and boo there's more stuff lined up for us unfortunate people.
But i guess i dont have it as bad as SL and TS who have to go for some Meet The People's Session all the way at Kembagan and the former arriving home at 12 midnight right after promos end... poor things.
There's so much that i missed out on blogging about ecause if i switched on the laptop i wouldn't have concentrated at all... not like i really did, anyway.

So i guess i'll have to start from the beginning... Well, it'll be in chronological order then (sort of) but starting with right now and then going back to yesterday and then from about a week back.

So i just woke up.

It's raining outside... I can hear the sound of rain, coming down in thick sheets, with the wind blowing in just a little, enough to chill my toes a little bit and lure me back to sleep... but I can't! Because I slept from 7 to 10 and then slept from 12+ to 5+. See, so piggy. Anyways on normal days it's probably about this many hours of sleep or slightly lesser, so I can't sleep back anymore. Can't close my eyes and be dead to the world and push away my growing pile of homework.

Something like, I originally planned to finally blog all the stuff that I've been wanting to blog about;
plan ahead for what I need to do for the rest of the month (bio O; OP; Chinese >.<);
transfer what my wonderful chem teacher told me during consultation into my notes (consulted her after chem paper);
and then sleep at about 11+. Because someone advised me to. (: And i guess if you cut out the 3 hours of naptime I slept way earlier than that!

So for yesterday:
Chemistry was the final paper. I had to write fast because I was afraid that I didn't have time, because of the previous paper on Friday (Bio, which was beyond hectic. I'll talk about it later)... But the first question took me about 20 minutes or more for 5 measly marks because it was a planning question and I forgot to read up. (Sorry, SL.) I got a reminder but then forgot about the reminder... So i had to close my eyes, scrunch up my face and attempt to recall how to do the planning thing. It's not like i didn't have help, though; someone messaged me a checklist of things, and said it was from a friend. I'm actually strongly against hints because I believe that one should study well and if he/she does so, the paper will be tough but yet doable, so I don't care much for hints, and believe that others shouldn't as well. I guess not everyone's like me. So I took a look at the checklist and then tossed it (my phone) aside.
And then guess what? Most/all (can't remember) of what was in the checklist came out. So I'm guessing that the one who created the list was a teacher who passed it around to students who disseminated them to the whole student population taking chemistry... except for a few. This is purely theoretical and comes from the fact that I spied some other guys whom I didn't know looking at the same thing on their phones. I guess this is a moral failure of sorts of Rafflesians. I don't say "us Rafflesians" because about 8 months into joining this institution, I still don't really feel as though my heart totally belongs here. Well, it will, eventually, but I'll gladly let nature take its course. So for now, I'm a partial outsider who can view what's happening in RJ a little more objectively without denial of what's afflicting the place*.

Back to yesterday before talking about the asterisk.

So in the end, the paper was easier than expected. I attempted a 2010 promo paper (last year's batch of J1s/ this year's J2s) and found the paper really, really tough. To the point where I didn't understand why i got 4 MCQs wrong (got others wrong too, but I understood why i was wrong for them) and didn't even know why I was wrong and so had to consult my chem teacher for it after the chem paper was over.
I also attempted a 2009 promo paper and it was about that level; i.e, doable, but not without guessing some questions and hoping for the best. Can't recall the questions now, but I know I found two options in one MCQ question equally plausible... so I had to randomly pick one. So I picked the non-mathematical explanation (it was an equilibria qn, so ratio of forward and backward rate constants thingy...) for it.

And I didn't manage to get around one or two marks worth of questions because there wasn't enough time. I calculated the answer on my scientific calculator (it was a 2m proving qn in section C that I skipped cos it looked way too challenging and went back to it after completing section A) but didn't have time to write because when I was halfway through writing I stopped to calculate and when I picked up my pen the invigilator said that time was up. Sigh. So that means that I didn't finish writing for a single full subject.

Anyway. The invigilator was ( I think) the one who invigilated my class for chem SPA. And have I ever said how informal bio SPA was? With the invigilator being my bio teacher and giving the entire SPA a relaxed feel with one very blatant warning on what not to do about 2 minutes into the exam...

So after chem paper, I was in conflict with myself. One part of me wanted to burst out laughing and go somewhere and play and screw bio O and OP and Chinese for the day, and hopefully beyond. Then the other part wanted to go for chem consult, go straight home after lunch, and finish blogging, reading the papers, playing piano, transferring chem consult notes, finishing up section C of 2009 promo practice paper for chem that I didn't manage to finish before my promos... and then sleep and continue studying. I mean, my A levels for Chinese are in about 27 days' time, you know? So I was smiling, and controlling my facial expression, and laughing, and stopping myself from laughing... Then finally went to sign on some sheet of paper for Bio O and then I finally got to leave the hall. Then I took my bag and went for chem consult to clarify the stuff I realised I didn't know while doing practice questions to revise for promos. So the serious side won out.

Then I went to dhoby ghaut where the rest of the class was (about half the class) and they were eating lunch and then having a cake to celebrate a classmate's birthday today. I turned up and everyone else was nearly done eating... Then while I was eating my vegeterian aglio aglio (or oglio? Who cares... maybe it was oligarch(y) oligarch(y). hehe) the stupid people brought the cake out... And when I was trying to eat a big bite of spaghetti the class was clapping their hands and singing a birthday song for the birthday girl. Paiseh >.< sorry miss birthday girl!! Then I finally finished, and the cake (banana chocolate) immediately arrived back at the table (the staff took it away again to cut it into 12 slices, one for each person there). So i happily ate my cake and laughed at the poor girls who couldn't really stomach the cake after their food. No, actually they could. My class has some extraodinary girls... Well, one gave away the outer chocolate cover to the boys and Jo ate the chocolate on the outside first and left the cake "naked" in the words of my PW groupmate. But Jo ate it all in the end! :D  (Since I like to keep my blog a little more seperate from private life, I don't use names generally... but Jo's shortform and etc. so those are okay. But others are full names and can't be used.)
...
So as you can see the I-WANNA-HAVE-MY-FUN-NOWWW side won out eventually, because I went to watch Johnny English afterwards with the class, sans SL and TS who had to go for MPS so they didn't have the time to stick around. It was quite hilarous but for the benefit of those who haven't watched the movie yet I'l kepe mum. The plot can get quite cliched at times but Rowan Atkinson pulls the script together. So it really destressed me after promos (not like i was that stressed, anyway... I didn't really work hard enough to really feel stressed.); enough to make me feel like slacking off even more and going to play pool/billiards. But then the guys wanted to LAN so I went home with the girls and Brendan (guess he's going to start preparing for his chinese O'lvls too... sighhhh). You wouldn't believe that Jo's such a klutz until you get off with her at the same MRT stop and realise that she still doesn't know where to exit from after a few months of living there (: (okay, fine, I've been living in the area for all my life, but that's not really important now).

***
So anyway about the asterisk thing.

During the last week or two before promos started, the lecturers (apart fom Bio) had already finished their curriculum to be tested, so what was being taught then had no relevance for promos. So people deserted lectures to go and study elsewhere. I don't know how long this kind of thing has been going on and whether other schools do the same, but I didn't, and don't like this kind of behaviour. I mean, studying for peomos is a good thing, but at least do it somewhere else. Or at the bare minimum, remain in the lecture theatre nd at least appear to be taking down notes while studying. Which was what I did. At least it's a slightly greater sign of respect for the lecturer who doesn't have to preach to a half-empty lecture theatre, and yet can do nothing about that. OKay, fine, the bio lecturer was admittedly crappy, and Dr Chan was being quite overboard (he came into the lecture and continued talking all the way for one entire period with the top two buttons of his shirt unbottoned and inserting sex jokes here and there blatantly... with some remarks about accepting those girls who couldn't find a boyfriend after graduating. If you read between the lines... -.-")

I'm sorry that I had to end it off on Dr Chan but my attention span is about an hour or so and it has been an hour or so. So...bye for now...