Tuesday, November 27, 2007

In Honour of You

By now the entire country must have known about the dragonboat incident which took away the lives of 5 young and decent men, Reuben Kee ,23 ;Jeremy Goh, 24; Stephen Low, 31; Poh Boon San, 27 and Chee Wei Cheng, 20.


You know, many young lives perished this year. There was that young RJC sportsman, a few army soldiers, and now this. They all didnt choose to die. They were just doing what they love, they were just living their lives. No one is offended, no harm is done to anything or anyone. But they had to go. Sometimes i really wonder what did they do wrong. Young lives, full of hope, full of promise...

You know, some people say suicide is cowardly. But for me, im too timid to die. Dont everyone ever dream of what big things they want to do in the future? Or about finding their eternal partner? Having a fun time with their children? Changing the society for the better? Great things, affecting ourselves or others... We all dream right? There's hope, there's possibility. But once you die, they're gone. Sometimes the hope is passed on, sometimes its not.

Sometimes i really wonder if death is that much uncertain. Wasnt there just an article about the random rates of young men dying on the rise this year? Those guys died without a reason. I too wonder what did they do wrong. And i wonder when will it be my turn. Each time another young folk die, it really saddens me. I dont know if my friends and love ones will cry for me, but i dont want to imagine myself crying for them, cause i'll probably die of dehydration.

People die all the time. It reminds me that i have to keep living my life to the fullest. At least the RJC sportsman created a new personal best, at least the dragonboaters just ended a race. They were all doing something they like. But somewhere, in some things, i bet they have not done what they wanted to.


Once you die, you're gone. You dont come back.


Goodbye guys. May your dreams and hopes live on, in honour of you.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Metal Gear Solid 3

Call me slow, but i just got myself a Playstation 2. Its not really worth it to buy Playstation 3 yet. Or rather i cant afford it.

My very first game is Metal Gear Solid 3. I found it a rather touching game. Okay, maybe only the ending. But its worth mentioning anyways. Spoilers ahead. Though i dont think anyone who wants to play it has not played it yet.



Metal Gear Solid revolves around a man called Solid Snake, a soldier who was cloned from a lengendary soldier by the name of The Big Boss. He's mostly involved in the elimination of a modern nuclear weapon called Metal Gear. To remove the threats of nuclear warfare, he resigns himself to the fate of destroying Metal Gears produced all over the world at the end of the first game in the series after knowing that he is injected with a virus which can kill him at a random instant. In the first game, he was called out of retirement to eliminate a metal gear. In the second game, during the first part, Solid Snake was to eliminate another metal gear. During the second part, a new main character with the codename Raiden was introduced but Solid Snake still did appear in that part of the game.

In the 3rd of the series, the game is about a man with the codename Naked Snake. It was very similar to Solid Snake so i thought it was about his past. During the mission, he was aided by a woman called The Boss (not Big Boss), his mentor and a legendary soldier too. Halfway through the mission, she revealed that she has deflected to the enemy side (betrayed her own country to cross over). It came as a shock and Naked Snake was given a new mission.

To eliminate The Boss.

After a tough fight, Naked Snake was forced to kill her. Then the truth was revealed. The Boss did not deflect to the enemy side. She was on a secret mission to spy on her country's enemy. However something screwed up and her country was blamed for invading international territory. In order to settle it in peace, The Boss must die. The truth must not be revealed. And she must die by the hands of someone from her own country. Naked Snake knew of the truth only after killing her, and he was awarded the title of the Big Boss for surpassing her. In other words, Metal Gear Solid 3 is about the Big Boss' past. For some reasons, i found the ending really touching. You should watch the video to the end.

Here a modified video about MGS3. It was an original scene from the game but the creators changed it slightly. It really makes me laugh like crazy. The woman you see in the video below is of course The Boss. And the man is the Big Boss. Its quite funny, you should watch it even if you didnt read my game description above.


Friday, November 23, 2007

For a job

My sister's friend works at Recruit Express. Since my sister knows that im looking for a job, i kinda got pressured to go. It was located at Ngee Ann City Tower A level 12. Call me a frog in a well, but i've never entered the tower before. What i saw amazed me. The first lift i approached says what is shown the photo below.




It clearly says that the lift goes to level 1,2,4,5,6,7 and 18-26. So i stood there looking stupid, wondering if i should take to level 7 and climb up or level 18 and climb down. Then someone walked into the lift and i felt that i'll just go with the flow. Upon alighting at level 7, i felt more stupid than ever. Thats when i realise that about 4 other lifts (there are about 8 lifts there i think), serve level 1-18 as seen below.


So i finally got to the office and waited for my sister's friend. He wasnt there when i reached so his colleague asked me to fill up the application form first. It felt stupid filling up the form too cause it was asking for previous-jobs info. As my previous post has stated, i have NIL experience, thus the form only took me a while to fill in. After waiting for a while, my sister's friend came out. He was very friendly, shook my hand, and mentioned that i look like my sister. Thanks ah, i know that long ago. Im not flattered. Then he said there will be an interview and i went "HUH?". -_- I wasnt prepared for an interview, though he says its just to know me better. I guess it wouldnt be that tough, and it wasnt. And guess what? In the middle of the interview, i saw a head popping into the corridor, and that guy waved at me (glass door). Its Jin Ken! My primary school classmate. We used to be great friends. We didnt get a chance to chat though. Its really a pity.


Anyhow, my sister's friend said he will keep a lookout for the type of jobs i want. But i'm really picky you know. Im enlisting on 11jan, and im not willing to sacrifice my whole holiday to work. So its kind of tough. But oh well, i'll do some temporarily jobs too while i wait.


Check out the Christmas tree in Ngee Ann City. Should have taken a shot from the front.


Thursday, November 22, 2007

The As thus far (IV)

The As thus far episode 4, or rather The Ending of The As.


The last paper is over. Physics Paper 1 on tuesday testing MCQs was ok. I felt that it was harder than usual A level standards but it was around Raffles JC prelims 2007. There were a few weird questions, such as question number 1 "What is a reasonable estimate of the volume of a wooden rule found in the lab?" and options given were 1.5 15 150 and 1500, all in cubic cm. Another question was asking for the frequency of violet light i think. But gosh, i cant even remember the wavelength of violet light.


Other than these, most were fine. But it still gives me a feeling that my A is flying away. But you know what? A levels 2007 is finally over. Thanks for tuning in.


Now for the next episode of my life...

Monday, November 19, 2007

First Job

Finally after 18 years of free loading, i went for the first job in my life, feeling pretty excited. As i am enlisting soon, i reckon any proper part time job will not employ me, thus i went for the temporary jobs. And my very first one is flyer distribution in Bukit Batok. Sounds easy, but its door to door. If it still sounds easy, for your information, its 2000 pieces per assignment, no less to get paid. That translate to about 20 blocks of apartments in Singapore. If it still sounds easy, read on.


On friday night, i recieved the reply mail, asking if i can make it for the assignment on Saturday. I told my friends about it and two friends agree that its an easy task. I even said "TWO HOURS AND A HALF SHOULD BE ENOUGH" and one agreed. How naive.

I went for my very first job with a little excitement, feeling a little nervous. But my boss was late (-_-) so the wait removed all those feelings. Anyhow, after the admin matters, i quickly set off for my blocks at 12.11pm. Suddenly i realised that all the blocks i'm assigned in Bukit Batok are old towns. Guess what? They're all built with weird structures, and for every floor, the corridors are blocked off. Simply put, every floors, the corridors does not link from one end to the other. The corridors only linked for every 5 floors. So what does that mean? That means, that i have to do double trips for every single block, unless i prefer to keep climbing down and up which obviously is a lousier choice as i will be doing work against the Earth's gravity. At first, i only walked briskly. Then i realise that i took too long for one block and increased my pace. Then i realise that by the time i reached the third block, i'm already drenched in sweat. Then i realise, that not eating before hand was a bad, bad idea.


When i finished the 4th block, i took a small break. I went to buy plasters for the blisters on my toes and i called my friend Yinning. For what? Lol, to grumble. Thats because i spoke to her the night before. So after complaining how tough the job was, i carried on. Most of the doors were closed. But sometimes there were a few that were opened. And once in a while, i would see another teenager just like me, lying on the sofa being a crouch potato. Then i recall how i always grumble to my younger brother about having nothing to do at home. At that point in time, i really wished that i had nothing to do. I rather that, man.

After my 8th block, i smsed my friend Leonard, to grumble too. On and off i recieve SMSes. A few from Danny and Gerald. When i reach my 9th or 10th block, i was already at the point that my legs are so numb from the pain that i just CHIONG the block, and CHIONG back down to rest, before i CHIONG up again.

The final moments of my first job came soon at my 13th block. It has 25 levels and by the time i reach the 20th floor, my knee abrasion came back. I couldnt climb the stairs anymore. I told myself that i had to do it (cause of the pay). And i struggled for the next 20 levels. I cant believe i managed to do it. But i strongly believed that anymore, i will die. So i SMSed my boss and tell him that im sorry that i cant continue. My boss was a nice guy and tried to help me ask his employer if he can give me half the pay. Today i received his SMS saying that it was approved. With graditude, seriously.

Guess what time was it at that moment when i gave up? It was 8.30pm. Remember what time i did start? 12.10pm. When i finished 1000 flyers, it was already 5pm. 2 hours 30mins? In the end i took double of what i claimed i will take.


Lessons learnt:
1) Do not use a sling bag to contain the flyers. Your shoulder will ache like crazy like mine now.
2) Wear shorts. No jeans, no long pants.
3) Wear a more comfortable top which absorbs sweat well.
4) Eat well before the assignment, and drink plenty of water.
5) New towns only, no more old towns for me.
6) Never ever overestimate yourself or underestimate the job.


Currently, i have a knee abrasion, 2 aching shoulders, 2 swelling thighs, and 2 blistering toes. And i smell like Tiger Balm now. I guess it was a good experience. But maybe it wasnt worth it for all my injuries now.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

The As thus far (III)

This week is inevitably the toughest period of time in my A Levels 2007. 5 papers took place this week. Physics Paper 2 on Monday, Chemistry Paper 2 and Economics Paper 2 on Tuesday, Economics Paper 1 on Wednesday and Chemistry Paper 1 on Friday. I would say this was a tough week and it didnt go as well as the previous papers. Reasons are stated below.


Physics Paper 2 for structure questions. It was, rather disastrous. When i flip open the booklet, the first question was about measurements. It was very easy, so i got thrilled, very high and excited. I thought "this is going to be easy and a enjoyable paper". But alas, good things must come to an end, after finishing the first question with joy and happiness, i flipped over to the second page. ELECTRIC FIELD. So i went "$%^&* electric field again??? Leonard is right, i got raped by Cambridge." So like, electric field came out in Paper 3 already, by right it wasnt expected to come out again. One full question somemore. So i told my friend Leonard "aiya no way it will come out" so he said be careful Cambridge rapes me. And there i was, getting raped by Cambridge in the middle of the paper. It was ok though, as was other questions. But there were really weird, such as "explain in terms of energy how the above nuclear reaction takes place" and the above nuclear reaction is just a normal reaction. Weird.


Then came the toughest day in my whole life, the only double paper day. Chemistry Paper 2 for short structured questions was ok. I finished everything before the time ended and had time to check too. But too bad, i couldnt remember what was diluted nitric acid used for. And i did 2 organic question parts wrongly. So thats 4 marks. Tsk tsk.

Then it was Economics Paper 2 for essay questions. What i really wanted to come out didnt. Question 1 was about demand and supply. It stated changes in taxes and income. The first part asked how tax changes will affect demand for different goods. The 2nd part asked how taxes and income changes will affect demand for different goods. I felt both were too similar, so i didnt do this question. Question 2 was about theory of price determination and firm behavior. 1st part asked how a monopoly determines its price and 2nd part ask if firms always set its price at profit maximising level. I was lucky to have studied this topic even though it wasnt popular. Question 3 was about market failure, requiring examples about externalities and if the government should make changes to current policy. Question 4 was about Keynesian Theory and Role of Government. Best question ever. Wrote 5 pages. Question 5 was about Balance of Payments, not my kind of thing. Question 6 is the rock-est question ever. "Discuss if Singapore is the best country to benefit from globalisation [25m]". Anyone who tried it is asking for trouble. In the end, this paper was pretty ok. But i wouldnt have high hopes at all.


Economics Paper 1 for case study questions is not very ok. What i spotted all didnt come out. I had hoped simple demand and supply question about oil prices, labour market or property market will come out for microeconomics and Forex will come out for marcoeconomics. None of it came out. Instead, it was about National Income Statistics which i barely studied for and Oligopoly. The oligopoly one was ok. Wrote a decent amount for it. But NY satistics was bad. Didnt know how to do the last part. :x
Overall it was a bad paper.


Chemistry Paper 1 for multiple choice questions was so so. But could have been better. I didnt do fast enough and couldnt do 1 question. A lot of people felt that it was more difficult than Paper 2 and 3. I felt that was about the same but it was more tedius. Tsk tsk...


1 last paper to go. Physics Paper 1 on tuesday. Then i can say goodbye to education for 2 years. Anyone getting tutor? I'm on it, meaning i want to be your tutor. Lol. Also selling TYS and guide books at low prices.

Saturday, November 10, 2007

The As thus far (II)

New look on my blog. Its incomplete, and i may need professional help. No matter what i do, the right column just doesnt fit in properly. The main blog posts column refuse to shrink too. Anyways, this is a skin i made myself, so no complains. The background is taken from Final Fantasy VII Advent Children. The left column consist of my profile, some links, friends' links, my tagboard, a music playing currenly playing 单向的爱 by 阿杜, my stats counter, my archives and google Adsense (coming soon). The right column consist of pictures of my favourite virtual characters as you can see. I'll be blogging on them soon. I've already posted stuff on Hitsugaya and Kenichi. The right column also have links to my previous posts, and im looking into categorising them into tags. Its suppose to be snowing, but i wonder why the animation which showed up in the preview didnt show up now.


Anyhow, this week, there were only 2 papers. Monday was Chemistry Paper 3 and Tuesday was Mathematics Paper 2. Guess what? Maths over, i wont need to touch it for a long long time. Thats a relief.


Chemistry Essay was ok. Its easy, but i'll admit that i didnt manage to finish everything, just as Mr Lim had predicted. All my classmates seemed to finish everything and checked everything through thoroughly. But on the bright side, at least i knew how to do most of the stuff. Perhaps if i had realise question 5 was proteins sooner, i would have focused on answering the questions instead of re-reading them to see which i should choose to do. I missed out a 5 mark part! Argh. So heartpain. Guess i'll just have to make it up in Paper 2 next Tuesday.


Maths 2 was easy. Truthfully, i felt it was harder than Paper 1, but all others commented otherwise. For the first time, i felt that A Levels finally had some challenge, but later i found that i knew how to do them afterall. I misread the Correlation question and ended up plotting the $%^& graph on paper. That took me a painful lot of time. I only managed to finish the paper in 2 hours plus. My classmates did the paper twice. Thats much more pro than me. Oh well. At least all the questions were easy. But i may have made a careless mistake in the integration question. 2 marks. Tsk tsk, but nevermind, Maths is over and it wont come back again. Not for another 2 years plus.



Next week is tough. Monday afternoon i have Physics Paper 2. Tuesday morning is Chemistry Paper 2 and afternoon is Economics Paper 2 (Essay). Wednesday is Economics Paper 1. How i wish Econs essay was on wednesday instead. Things will be fine after next week. Friday is Chemistry Paper 1 (MCQ). Its gonna end soon. Last lap, chiong ah!

Saturday, November 03, 2007

The As thus far

4 papers have been conquered, namely Tuesday's Physics Paper 3 (Essay), Wednesday's General Paper 1 (Essay) and Paper 2 (Compre) and Friday's Mathematics Paper 1.


Physics essay was ok. If there was a word to describe it, its "weird". Yup, weird. Very very weird. Its easy in a way, nothing crazy like those in the prelims. But its weird. You know? Weird. So weird i thought i flunked it at first. But later i checked with my intelligent friend found that most of the stuff i did was fine. Unfortunately Electricity had something against me and i couldnt recall how to do simple Electricity questions. Tsk tsk. Quantum was nice to do. The best part was in section B where you get to choose 2 questions from 3, one was about Thermal Physics, my worst and most hated topic. If you ask me anything about thermaldynamics, i can tell you that I DoN't KnOw (more or less).


GP essay was good and bad. Bad because when i looked at the paper, i strike out question 1, question 2, question 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12. And out of the 3 questions i didnt strike out, i lacked content for almost all 3 of them.

"Advertising is entertaining but rarely affects your choice, is this applicable to you?"

"Developing countries should not focus on tourism when they cannot even feed the poor in their country. Comment."

"Protecting the environment is impossible as countries consume more energy in order to progress. Discuss."

Economics wasnt really my cup of tea. Globalisation coupled with tourism seems to be too narrow. So i chose question 10, environment question in the end. Trust me, i was shaking from the start till the end. The good thing, i didnt really find this question difficult. But i was wondering if i should focus more on technology or environment but decided to give both in the end. I guess i linked the content to the question quite sufficiently, i hope.


GP compre was good too. It wasnt easy but at least its not difficult. And best of all, at least i could understand the passage just by reading it once. But you know, this is the first time i've seen an actual A lvls GP compre which contained a passage written by someone with a Chinese name. Maybe thats why the passage wasnt so chim. One interesting fact, "tillitating" means "aroused erotically". Guess what i wrote?


Entertaining. *Laughs*

Didnt have time to complete the AQ but i never had high hopes for that in the first place.


Maths Paper 1 was easy. Too easy. So easy that it freaked me out. Im sure many of my fellow TJCians asked themselves this question many times during the paper "Is this a trick question?". 5 marks for a 2 step working, 2 marks for a simple 1 step working. This is too much for my heart. Of course, there were parts i didnt know how to do either. But those were insignificant. I just hoped i didnt make too many careless mistakes.



i think most people have this. swollen finger. im a leftie by the way. and thats not a blister



a typical Mathematical Induction question. my favourite type of maths question unless its coupled with Sigma or Recurrence Sequence (conjectures)




my workstation in Sengkang Community Centre study room. its closing down in one month's time, just after my As



Onwards with the battle ahead, my comrades.