Alright, it's been a bloody long time since I last blogged, and that was about my (failed!) nickel carbonate crystals. OK, so it's not really considered failed, but it wasn't as nice as Kerrine and Catherine's crystals, or Alex and Rachel's. I'm really envious.
It turned out to be more of tiny bits of broken crystals instead of the fully formed, large ones Ms Kana so proudly displayed to us. I was so disappointed but after yesterday's Chemistry practical, I've come to the realisation that it's not the product that matters, it's the experience. Because really, I love Chemistry but certain factors are making me lose my patience with certain somebodies who annoy the heck outta me! That, my dear friends, is more than enough to incur my dark side.
Let's start with Monday this week, mm? Alright, Monday. First class: Physics. We entered the classroom, sat down and started talking, and waited...
....and waited....
.....and waited.....
After half an hour - 'Eh, why Ms Shirley so late one?'
After one hour - 'Eh, class cancelled is it?' 'No lah, Ronnie bluffing only lah!' (And there goes the whole debate on whether class was cancelled or not.) 'Eh, Jacob got Shirley's number right? Go call her or something.' 'Don't want!'
After one hour fifteen minutes - 'I love Ms Shirley, but she's not a good teacher lah.' (Yep, we bitch when the teach is away) 'Yalor, I mean, she's new and all that, this is considered her "probation" period mah.' 'Can we go complain to A Levels department or something?'
After one and a half hours - 'Yerr, tak mau tunggu lagi! Let's go makan!' 'OK! Go where makan?'
So everyone began the whole "Where to eat?" debate. Personally, I was already planning to go lunch at the cafeteria under Wisma E&C. It's walking distance from my block, and besides, I didn't like going all the way to the main campus and all that because I know that E&C is probably one of the cheapest places around (I eat rice with vegetables, some tofu or egg, and a meat and it's only about RM 3.80) and besides, I'm constantly fearful that if I take the bus to the main campus (where the food isn't really that grand) I might get caught in traffic and not make it back to class on time. And if there's one thing you should know about me, I'm paranoid about time. Really, it's like an OCD issue. It's affecting me really badly, because I tend to look at my watch out of habit, and then I'd assume that people would assume that I'm feeling bored.
Anyway, I went off to E&C while they finally decided to eat at UOA. After lunch I got a text from Jeya who was at the library. So I headed on up, and I met Jeremiah. We sat in the lib talking, then Jeremiah left to use the computer lab, leaving Jeya and me behind to discuss fanfiction. By the time ten thirty came, we were feeling a bit hungry but since we had food with us, we decided to eat and wait outside our classes.
So Jeremiah tagged along and we sat down and started having discussions about this, that and the other. By that time, Lily and her pal joined in. Had to split later since classes were starting.
Tuesday. Had Maths, after which we dashed off to Chem to do the ammonium iron sulphate crystals experiment. Since it was a double salt, Pavallam did the ammonium bit and I did the iron bit. When we were both done, we had to combine the two together.
The iron bit was a bit long-winded on the instructions but relatively elementary while the ammonium bit was shorter in instructions but looked more complicated. While filtering the iron solution I accidentally spilled a bit of the salt in so my solution had black specks. After consulting Ms Kana (yeah, thanks) I refilered my solution and mixed it with Pav's ammonium one so we can saturate it.
The bloody problem was, we had turned on the gas till the maximum and the flame was bloody burning, but the bloody thing took an awful long time to boil and saturate!! How awful was it, you may ask? It was awful enough to make me miss my lunch period.
So I had to dash off to Physics Lab (2 labs in a row make me sick!) with a killer migraine from the ammonium fumes and a growling stomach armed with only a packet of biscuits. Then in Physics we had to do some measuring experiment which was bloody awful. As usual, my results were crap. As usual, I borrowed my pal's results (in this case, Rachel's) and copied the whole thing. Shirley had said that we weren't allowed to leave before finishing the report, but since I'd done it and she said it was wrong and I had to redo it, I don't see why I can't leave at 2, which was the time we were off. So I brought it up with her and she gave a smile and gave me permission. Dashed off to E&C for some grub.
Met Jeya at the cafeteria, had chee cheong fun. And we were discussing the whole Merlin fandom and what pair do we ship and slash and all that sort, when one of the cafeteria ladies managing the economy rice booth came over and placed a plate of green beans omelette on our table. We stared at her, and she was like, 'Nah. Nak makan telur?'
So I answered hesitantly, 'Free of charge ah?' Call me kiasu or whatever, but we didn't even order the egg OK? Need to be sure. Then the Chinese aunty (the owner of the economy rice booth who I've been quite friendly with recently) was busy packing up the store and she said, 'Ya. It's free one.' So Jeya and I surmised that they were packing up for the day and we were like, WTH? Might as well eat the free egg.
Later, after lunch, we walked off to Wisma HELP for our Msian studies class, and since we were early (class starts at 4, we reached at 2 thirty-ish) we sat down and did a bit of homework (mainly Jeya reading fanfiction on her iTouch and me copying Rachel's stuff). After a while we got bored and decided to explore. Went up the elevator to level 5 for the DSA thing. Saw Rachel and returned her book. Then we didn't want to go back to Level 2 where our class was so we randomly stopped the elevator at all the floors, peeking out to check if there was anything interesting and ducking back inside when there wasn't.
So we were riding the elevators up and down Wisma HELP which was pretty fun and creepy at the same time. Then we went back to our class but it was still occupied with the law students so we sat outside and started talking about stuff.
However, the real fun happened during Msian studies.
Sir was writing a whole list of topics on the board, and Dhiren was telling me, 'Write down all the team members' names just in case he wants them. Hurry!' So we scrawled down the names of all the members just as Sir finished writing the list of topics. Then everyone's eyes went wide when they saw the title: Racism. Dhiren was super gung-ho about it, saying, 'Take racism! Take racism! I want that. Eldwin, later when you choose the title take Racism, OK?'
Even a couple of people came forward to ask Sir if they could take racism but Sir brushed them off. After he finished the introduction, he looked at the class. 'OK, I've got all the topics there for you.' He pulled out 3 marker pens. 'You can choose your topic.' Some people from the back rows started walking forward. 'First come first serve.'
Everyone literally broke into a run. Eldwin got up (we were at the front) and we cheered him on when 2 guys went past him. Then we saw Dhiren coming in from the side, literally wrestling the marker pen from Sir's palm, and shoving those 2 guys away and scrawling his name beside the Racism topic. Someone pushed him mid-word so his 'n' ended up with a long tail. But it was official: Racism was ours. Lily, Jeya and I were laughing so hard we were clapping him. Dhiren was like, 'Racism is mine! I book already!' And everyone were trying to pick the next best topics and stuff but it didn't matter 'cause racism was ours.
Then Zean Shiung was like, 'You know if we screw this up, the whole class will hate us?'
Then Sir called out, saying that he wanted us to write down our team members' names (thank you Dhiren for the suggestion!) as well as the definition of the topic we picked, examples and reasons why they existed and why they should be avoided. So everyone whipped out their cell phones and started googling definitions. It didn't help matters that the Wifi service was removed by some fellas so it took quite a bit of time before we could hand up the paper.
Wednesday i.e. today. Had an extra Bio prac. Quite OK, actually. My Bio teach's nice. After that we had Chemistry theory and Bio theory. Thanks to the shuffling of schedules since Maths and Bio teach were doing replacement classes, I'll be having 4 hours of Bio again tomorrow.
I still don't like college. I don't feel anything anymore. It's like I've been numbed to the point that I just don't care about college. I'm sitting on the fence. I don't hate college but I don't exactly like it either. It's just like secondary school minus the uniforms and stuff. People here are in their own groups and it's a bit hard for me to get a pal in my Group because everyone's got their own pal and I don't like talking much and so I think it makes me seem a little distant. Ee Lyn asked me today why I look so emo in the morning. Number 1, I'm not emo, I'm just comtemplating. And 2, why do people always use the word emo? It's overused and overrated and I hate it. It comes to the point where I'd enter my classroom early and just sit there in the silence and just....think.
It feels as if I'm delving deeper into myself, cutting off from the rest of the world. A sort of numbness takes over. I can be paying attention in lessons but it's like I'm split into two and half of me is in class listening to lectures while the other half is exploring things unknown. It's as if I'm deliberately distancing myself from them. Why, I have no idea. But I just do. I'm nice and friendly, but I think I'm a bit too serious for them sometimes. There's this sort of yearning inside me that I can't seem to fulfill. Some sort of intimate relationship with someone who knows instinctively what I'm about, the sort where you don't need words to convey what you think because the silence between you is comfortable and not awkward.
I'm feeling a sense of detachment, as if I believe it's the only way to keep myself away from the hurt. Like that saying, You can only hurt the ones you love? I think that's the reason why I move away. I don't know. I see shows on TV as a kid and I've come to the theory that if you want something done right, do it yourself. Want to protect yourself? Trust no one. Want to stay in one piece, emotionally? Act as if it doesn't affect you. And it's probably all bullshit, but these beliefs have been wired into my little kid system that it's now prominent in my youth self. I see things and I figure out how to make them better.
Like where I sit in class. I'm always in the outermost seat of second row, in the side of the class opposite the door. That way, my mind reasoned, I can always get up easily, cross the room and to the door, instead of shuffling past people or moving around chairs and all. Everything I do makes perfect sense in my head, but when I try to explain it, people don't usually get it. So I am content with just keeping everything inside.
I get moodswings. Lou wondered if I had manic depression disorder (read: bipolar). I'm quite sure I don't. But I can turn from happy and loud to comtemplative in a sec. Xin Wei was quite convinced I have ADD. So did I, since I seemed to be quite hyper and stuff, but I later checked that symptoms of ADD are similar to the symptoms that people who had hearing loss before have, so I'm attributing all those to the hearing loss prob. I'm sure, though, I've got a touch of OCD and paranoia somewhere.
And I'm not sure if something is wrong somewhere, but I've been getting headaches frequently, even more so since college started.
Cheers.
Wednesday 27 January 2010
Tuesday 19 January 2010
My Eyes Are So Tired I Feel Like Dropping Off
Today we made crystals in chem.
It was nickel sulphate crystals which we made from nickel carbonate (green powder) and sulphuric acid. Pavallam and I teamed up together and she went and measured the nickel carbonate while I set up the apparatus.
We started off on the wrong foot with Ms Kana 'cause instead of using a 100ml beaker to mix the acid and powder, we accidentally used the 250ml beaker! So she came around and told us off and we were cringing (think of Pain and Panic from Hercules saying, 'We are worms! Worthless worms!' to get my point). Hurriedly went and correct the mistake. Took us a few bloody tries to get the Bunsen Burner up because here in HELP, they use the Bunsen burners that are connected to the gas line and non of us had any idea what to do so there was quite a bit of experimenting before we got it right. Wasted quite a few matches along the way. Which is weird because I've got these same matches in my house and they burn for about 12 seconds (I used to count) before they went out but apparently it works differently in HELP's laboratory.
I took the first shift to stir the mixture and make sure it was OK while Pav placed the measured amount of nickel carbonate into the acid a little at a time. At first, it was pale green, and I was a bit envious of the deep, emerald green Fiona and Yvonne had while ours was a light pathetic colour compared to theirs. After adding a bit more nickel carbonate, however, our solution turned a nice green.
After determining that the solution was in excess (which was required), Pav decided to return to the weighing machine with the weighing bottle containing the remainder of the unused NiCO3 to check the amount of powder we did use. Just around that moment, Ms Kana was shouting out instructions. 'When you have determined your solution is in excess, take the weighing bottle and weigh it again to find out how much you used!'
Since we were in the front table, I turned around and casually mentioned, 'That's what we're doing.'
'Good,' she said approvingly. 'That shows you are a thinking student.' Smirks all around.
Pav came back and after doing the math, she told me it was 2.96g and I turned to the board. 'Hey! That's the exact number Ms Kana mathed out!' (New word: mathed. Noun? Definition: to determine by mathematical equations)
So we were both bloody happy about it. Later when Ms Kana found out, she explained that it was supposed to be in excess, so that meant we had to use more than 2.96g, a fact that we oh-so-conveniantly forgot about. But hey, screw it. The solution couldn't dissolve anymore powder lah. So Pav took up the stirring while I checked the flame (couldn't be too hot and stuff). Once stirring was completed, I filtered the solution while Pav started cleaning up. Fiona and Yvonne were around the same track as we were.
After filtering, though, we had to saturate the solution by boiling it again. Ms Kana had made a joke earlier about how some of her students glare at the solution trying to make it boil faster via mental powers. Since there wasn't much to do, I was joking around with Fi and Yvonne and I held out my hand, palm towards the boiling solution, Merlin-style...
...and had the shock of my life when Ms Kana said suddenly, 'Oh, so the magic power comes from your hand huh?'
I gave that sort of nervous laugh you would've encountered before and brushed it off with some BS. After saturating the solution, I was starting to get nervous 'cause everyone else was pouring their solution into a Petri dish while ours had just finished boiling. So Pav poured it onto the dish and a thin layer of crystal floated on the top, as well as along the sides of the beaker. We were quite pleased since the book said to stop boiling and pour into Petri dish when crystals are formed at the side, but we needed to check. So Pav took the Petri dish to Ms Kana and her answer was, 'Clever girl!'
OK, will admit that we felt quite proud. Everyone gathered around to see our crystals and Ee Lyn complimented it as well. But later we scared ourselves silly when we heard Ms Kana go, 'And it's no good if it starts forming crystals immediately after it's being poured out.' Oh, bugger. 'If it's white it's turning into an anhydrous salt.' Check for white. No white. Phew. Then when she checked out dishes, she glanced at one, 'Turning into powder for sure,' and another one, 'That's going to turn into powder.' Bugger, the second one was ours!
So now we have absolutely no clue if our crystals will turn out fine or not because of all the contradictory words she said. Honestly, if she wasn't such a good teacher...even now I'm starting to get a weird, without-basis, but undeniably bad impression about her.
Physics we did some experiments which was pretty boring. After which I headed straight to Wisma HELP for Msian Studies and met up with Jeya, who told me that Ms Kana was actually her father's second cousin! I mean, wth? Is nepotism alive and kicking in HELP now? I mean, of course it's not really nepotism but c'mon, must we bump into relatives wherever we go?
Had a really good talk with Jeya. And was crossing my fingers for the pres. Before we started had quite a bit of time, so I turned around and talked to Dhiren, who was saying to me, 'We can still put in a virus into his (Mr Asri, I think) laptop.'
'Really?' I was interested. 'How?'
He shrugged. 'You just write a virus and stick it into his laptop.'
'How do you do that?'
'Just download a virus-writing program and just send it to him.'
Shock, horror. 'Can you do that? I mean, isn't it illegal?'
He smirks. 'Yeah, but I'm a certified legal hacker.'
Whoa. Apparently Dhiren is a legal hacker (certified) by some higher powers (didn't catch that bit) and his uncle owns this hacking company where they hack into someone's site and try to get around the system and later report to the company about how to prevent hackers like them. It's a IT version of security consultancy.
'Ah.' I said; I have heard about this before. 'White hat.' Felt proud I did research on Timothy McGee from NCIS and followed the white hat link.
'Ha,' he seems pleased that I've heard of the term. 'You know about white hats? What about gray hats?' (P.S. White hats are ethical hackers)
'Uh...people who are the real hackers?'
'No that's a black hat. Gray hats are people who hack for money.'
Ooh. I learn something new every day. We watched the other teams hand up their pen drives. Dhiren was telling me, 'Or we could just plug in a 10-megabyte file which is so big he'll not be able to open it. Nothing wrong on our side, but his computer will have problem.'
Gave him a look because I wanted to get the pres over with lah, not sabo the lecturer's comp.
The boys, especially How, seriously exceeded my expectations for the pres. Seriously! How was such a genius at presenting; he even included examples for the definition of a Malay bit. And he was interrupted halfway when Sir told someone off for using their phone. Call from instructor, apparently. How dissipated the tension by saying, 'OK lah, I forgive you.'
After our pres, three guys came up to do the Factors of Migration of Chinese. Lily and I both noticed that the two red-shirt guys (one of whom was called Clarence Ang, I think; saw him raise his hand during roll call) were really cute. Then How, who seemed to know what we were thinking or just playing, leaned forward and asked us, 'Hey, those two guys up there very cute right?' Lily retorted that How was gay. 'No lah, that guy in my class one!'
Haha.
Later did I truly realise how crazy (in a good way) Lily is. Some examples of her craziness:
Example 1
Presenting Fella: ...and they were bought to Malaya by Long Jaafar.'
Lily: Hey, Short Jaafar.
Example 2
Presenting Fella: ...these are only small statistics because not many Indians came over and married local women.
Lily: Yeah, 'cause they married local men!
Example 3
(Presenting Fella points to a map of China during his presentation)
Lily: He looks like a weatherman.
It was nickel sulphate crystals which we made from nickel carbonate (green powder) and sulphuric acid. Pavallam and I teamed up together and she went and measured the nickel carbonate while I set up the apparatus.
We started off on the wrong foot with Ms Kana 'cause instead of using a 100ml beaker to mix the acid and powder, we accidentally used the 250ml beaker! So she came around and told us off and we were cringing (think of Pain and Panic from Hercules saying, 'We are worms! Worthless worms!' to get my point). Hurriedly went and correct the mistake. Took us a few bloody tries to get the Bunsen Burner up because here in HELP, they use the Bunsen burners that are connected to the gas line and non of us had any idea what to do so there was quite a bit of experimenting before we got it right. Wasted quite a few matches along the way. Which is weird because I've got these same matches in my house and they burn for about 12 seconds (I used to count) before they went out but apparently it works differently in HELP's laboratory.
I took the first shift to stir the mixture and make sure it was OK while Pav placed the measured amount of nickel carbonate into the acid a little at a time. At first, it was pale green, and I was a bit envious of the deep, emerald green Fiona and Yvonne had while ours was a light pathetic colour compared to theirs. After adding a bit more nickel carbonate, however, our solution turned a nice green.
After determining that the solution was in excess (which was required), Pav decided to return to the weighing machine with the weighing bottle containing the remainder of the unused NiCO3 to check the amount of powder we did use. Just around that moment, Ms Kana was shouting out instructions. 'When you have determined your solution is in excess, take the weighing bottle and weigh it again to find out how much you used!'
Since we were in the front table, I turned around and casually mentioned, 'That's what we're doing.'
'Good,' she said approvingly. 'That shows you are a thinking student.' Smirks all around.
Pav came back and after doing the math, she told me it was 2.96g and I turned to the board. 'Hey! That's the exact number Ms Kana mathed out!' (New word: mathed. Noun? Definition: to determine by mathematical equations)
So we were both bloody happy about it. Later when Ms Kana found out, she explained that it was supposed to be in excess, so that meant we had to use more than 2.96g, a fact that we oh-so-conveniantly forgot about. But hey, screw it. The solution couldn't dissolve anymore powder lah. So Pav took up the stirring while I checked the flame (couldn't be too hot and stuff). Once stirring was completed, I filtered the solution while Pav started cleaning up. Fiona and Yvonne were around the same track as we were.
After filtering, though, we had to saturate the solution by boiling it again. Ms Kana had made a joke earlier about how some of her students glare at the solution trying to make it boil faster via mental powers. Since there wasn't much to do, I was joking around with Fi and Yvonne and I held out my hand, palm towards the boiling solution, Merlin-style...
...and had the shock of my life when Ms Kana said suddenly, 'Oh, so the magic power comes from your hand huh?'
I gave that sort of nervous laugh you would've encountered before and brushed it off with some BS. After saturating the solution, I was starting to get nervous 'cause everyone else was pouring their solution into a Petri dish while ours had just finished boiling. So Pav poured it onto the dish and a thin layer of crystal floated on the top, as well as along the sides of the beaker. We were quite pleased since the book said to stop boiling and pour into Petri dish when crystals are formed at the side, but we needed to check. So Pav took the Petri dish to Ms Kana and her answer was, 'Clever girl!'
OK, will admit that we felt quite proud. Everyone gathered around to see our crystals and Ee Lyn complimented it as well. But later we scared ourselves silly when we heard Ms Kana go, 'And it's no good if it starts forming crystals immediately after it's being poured out.' Oh, bugger. 'If it's white it's turning into an anhydrous salt.' Check for white. No white. Phew. Then when she checked out dishes, she glanced at one, 'Turning into powder for sure,' and another one, 'That's going to turn into powder.' Bugger, the second one was ours!
So now we have absolutely no clue if our crystals will turn out fine or not because of all the contradictory words she said. Honestly, if she wasn't such a good teacher...even now I'm starting to get a weird, without-basis, but undeniably bad impression about her.
Physics we did some experiments which was pretty boring. After which I headed straight to Wisma HELP for Msian Studies and met up with Jeya, who told me that Ms Kana was actually her father's second cousin! I mean, wth? Is nepotism alive and kicking in HELP now? I mean, of course it's not really nepotism but c'mon, must we bump into relatives wherever we go?
Had a really good talk with Jeya. And was crossing my fingers for the pres. Before we started had quite a bit of time, so I turned around and talked to Dhiren, who was saying to me, 'We can still put in a virus into his (Mr Asri, I think) laptop.'
'Really?' I was interested. 'How?'
He shrugged. 'You just write a virus and stick it into his laptop.'
'How do you do that?'
'Just download a virus-writing program and just send it to him.'
Shock, horror. 'Can you do that? I mean, isn't it illegal?'
He smirks. 'Yeah, but I'm a certified legal hacker.'
Whoa. Apparently Dhiren is a legal hacker (certified) by some higher powers (didn't catch that bit) and his uncle owns this hacking company where they hack into someone's site and try to get around the system and later report to the company about how to prevent hackers like them. It's a IT version of security consultancy.
'Ah.' I said; I have heard about this before. 'White hat.' Felt proud I did research on Timothy McGee from NCIS and followed the white hat link.
'Ha,' he seems pleased that I've heard of the term. 'You know about white hats? What about gray hats?' (P.S. White hats are ethical hackers)
'Uh...people who are the real hackers?'
'No that's a black hat. Gray hats are people who hack for money.'
Ooh. I learn something new every day. We watched the other teams hand up their pen drives. Dhiren was telling me, 'Or we could just plug in a 10-megabyte file which is so big he'll not be able to open it. Nothing wrong on our side, but his computer will have problem.'
Gave him a look because I wanted to get the pres over with lah, not sabo the lecturer's comp.
The boys, especially How, seriously exceeded my expectations for the pres. Seriously! How was such a genius at presenting; he even included examples for the definition of a Malay bit. And he was interrupted halfway when Sir told someone off for using their phone. Call from instructor, apparently. How dissipated the tension by saying, 'OK lah, I forgive you.'
After our pres, three guys came up to do the Factors of Migration of Chinese. Lily and I both noticed that the two red-shirt guys (one of whom was called Clarence Ang, I think; saw him raise his hand during roll call) were really cute. Then How, who seemed to know what we were thinking or just playing, leaned forward and asked us, 'Hey, those two guys up there very cute right?' Lily retorted that How was gay. 'No lah, that guy in my class one!'
Haha.
Later did I truly realise how crazy (in a good way) Lily is. Some examples of her craziness:
Example 1
Presenting Fella: ...and they were bought to Malaya by Long Jaafar.'
Lily: Hey, Short Jaafar.
Example 2
Presenting Fella: ...these are only small statistics because not many Indians came over and married local women.
Lily: Yeah, 'cause they married local men!
Example 3
(Presenting Fella points to a map of China during his presentation)
Lily: He looks like a weatherman.
Example 4
(Lecturer talking about Parameswara and how he was running from Siam 'cause he killed Temagi)
Lily: Mm, Temagi. Sounds like some sort of food. Teppanyaki. Temagi.
Now you see what I mean when I said she was crazy.
Cheers.
Friday 15 January 2010
Knee Deep In History Isn't A Comfortable Place To Be
I am stuck.
My head hurts. I am on the brink of insanity. Overstatement perhaps but true nevertheless.
Malaysian Studies is a killer. Really. It's given me a migraine for the past few days. Hence the short post today.
See, lecturer for MS gave my group this title to work on: Factors of Migration of Malays to M'sia. And we've (meaning the girls in the group - the guys have all but disappeared) have been absorbing radiation from our respective computers/laptops trying to Google anything and everything related to the bloody title and we came up with negative numbers.
That's how bad it is.
Anyway, we've agreed on the intro and part of the mid pieces and our second discussion is at 10 pm on Sunday so if you guys can contribute anything let me know alright?
Our Moral Studies, on the other hand, was utterly fascinating. Ms Geetha went through with us on morality and how gray it seems at times and all. There was a bit when we were discussing pre-marital sex, and she asked who was for it. A number (mostly guys, as you can imagine) raised their hands. 'Why?' she asked. Some wise-guy answered:
'Practice makes perfect.'
Cheers.
My head hurts. I am on the brink of insanity. Overstatement perhaps but true nevertheless.
Malaysian Studies is a killer. Really. It's given me a migraine for the past few days. Hence the short post today.
See, lecturer for MS gave my group this title to work on: Factors of Migration of Malays to M'sia. And we've (meaning the girls in the group - the guys have all but disappeared) have been absorbing radiation from our respective computers/laptops trying to Google anything and everything related to the bloody title and we came up with negative numbers.
That's how bad it is.
Anyway, we've agreed on the intro and part of the mid pieces and our second discussion is at 10 pm on Sunday so if you guys can contribute anything let me know alright?
Our Moral Studies, on the other hand, was utterly fascinating. Ms Geetha went through with us on morality and how gray it seems at times and all. There was a bit when we were discussing pre-marital sex, and she asked who was for it. A number (mostly guys, as you can imagine) raised their hands. 'Why?' she asked. Some wise-guy answered:
'Practice makes perfect.'
Cheers.
Sunday 10 January 2010
Follow The Path And See Where It Takes You
Ever since I started college, I've been trying to figure out the answer to the one question that's got me thinking about for a very long time. It started way back when a friend and I were discussing what would happen after Form 5 and she mentioned that she was really excited for college to start. My answer was, 'Why?'
People I talk to keep telling me they're excited for college and again I asked why. I got answers like, College is a new start! You make new friends, learn new things! Besides, college is the time life really begins! Or something of the sort.
I don't get it. It doesn't make sense. So it's a new start. Good. You make new friends. Great. You learn new things. Brilliant. But. It's. Still. School. Sort of. Class would be a better word. I don't see people getting this excited for secondary. You're giving me that look that says, How can secondary (We're a Commonwealth country, people. Down here it's not called high school, it's secondary! Geez, get it right or go to US of A!) school compare to college? I say, however not? It's a new start. You make new friends. You learn new things.
Don't see a difference.
But still, I tried. People keep gushing on how college is a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and how much they like it. I tried, honest, I did. But until now, I have yet to find something I really liked about college. Sure, I like the classes, and the nice lecturers who inject a bit of wit into lessons, and the nice facilities and all, but besides that...
I can't seem to wrap my mind around the notion that college is this great, unattainable thing when to me, it's just an extension of secondary school. Till now, nada.
I'm not particularly liking college at the moment.
People going to my college will kill me when they hear, but I refuse to act like it's okay when it's not.
Anyway, I'm trying to study a bit of Physics before class tomorrow but I'm failing miserably when encountered with the computer. We've got college tomorrow.
I'm cheered. Truly I am.
People I talk to keep telling me they're excited for college and again I asked why. I got answers like, College is a new start! You make new friends, learn new things! Besides, college is the time life really begins! Or something of the sort.
I don't get it. It doesn't make sense. So it's a new start. Good. You make new friends. Great. You learn new things. Brilliant. But. It's. Still. School. Sort of. Class would be a better word. I don't see people getting this excited for secondary. You're giving me that look that says, How can secondary (We're a Commonwealth country, people. Down here it's not called high school, it's secondary! Geez, get it right or go to US of A!) school compare to college? I say, however not? It's a new start. You make new friends. You learn new things.
Don't see a difference.
But still, I tried. People keep gushing on how college is a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and how much they like it. I tried, honest, I did. But until now, I have yet to find something I really liked about college. Sure, I like the classes, and the nice lecturers who inject a bit of wit into lessons, and the nice facilities and all, but besides that...
I can't seem to wrap my mind around the notion that college is this great, unattainable thing when to me, it's just an extension of secondary school. Till now, nada.
I'm not particularly liking college at the moment.
People going to my college will kill me when they hear, but I refuse to act like it's okay when it's not.
Anyway, I'm trying to study a bit of Physics before class tomorrow but I'm failing miserably when encountered with the computer. We've got college tomorrow.
I'm cheered. Truly I am.
Distinction Is The Key To Success or What Makes You Stand Out From The Crowd
I am distinct.
Not unique. Distinct.
You might wonder what the distinction between the both are, but I assure you, there is a difference. Distinct is defined as "distinguishable to the mind or eye as discrete" while unique means "being without a like or equal". People like to declare themselves as unique, that there is not one person like them in the world. Indeed, I can't fully blame them; people around them, parents most often, tell their children that they are unique, individuals, special.
But if you think about it, just a little deeper, you'll realise that at the core of it, everyone is just like everyone else. Sure, they look different in terms of physical appearance, but what makes us, us is the influences around us. People are shaped by the surrounding factors. Some people might feel attracted by a certain factor e.g. a rock band while others might be influenced by another factor e.g. a boyband. Since unique is being without a like or equal, how can we declare someone as unique if they've got the same interests as a thousand other people?
There's a riddle that goes:
God does not see it; a king seldom does.
Constantly encountered, but oft not recognised.
Answer: An equal.
Only God is unique.
We may not be unique, but we are distinct. We share common interests, but there is still a part of us that is very likely to have almost to no contact with other people. That is the essence of ourselves, the tiny part that is fully us, unshaped and uninfluenced by anyone else.
I am distinct.
Take a stand.
Not unique. Distinct.
You might wonder what the distinction between the both are, but I assure you, there is a difference. Distinct is defined as "distinguishable to the mind or eye as discrete" while unique means "being without a like or equal". People like to declare themselves as unique, that there is not one person like them in the world. Indeed, I can't fully blame them; people around them, parents most often, tell their children that they are unique, individuals, special.
But if you think about it, just a little deeper, you'll realise that at the core of it, everyone is just like everyone else. Sure, they look different in terms of physical appearance, but what makes us, us is the influences around us. People are shaped by the surrounding factors. Some people might feel attracted by a certain factor e.g. a rock band while others might be influenced by another factor e.g. a boyband. Since unique is being without a like or equal, how can we declare someone as unique if they've got the same interests as a thousand other people?
There's a riddle that goes:
God does not see it; a king seldom does.
Constantly encountered, but oft not recognised.
Answer: An equal.
Only God is unique.
We may not be unique, but we are distinct. We share common interests, but there is still a part of us that is very likely to have almost to no contact with other people. That is the essence of ourselves, the tiny part that is fully us, unshaped and uninfluenced by anyone else.
I am distinct.
Take a stand.
Tuesday 5 January 2010
Just When You Thought It Couldn't Get Any Lamer
Note to self: Don't screw the bloody cap on my water bottle tightly because it's murder trying to unscrew it later when I want a drink. My forefinger and thumb is starting to peel. But the thing is, I can't help but screw it tightly 'cause I'm paranoid that if I don't, the bloody thing is going to leak water into my bag if I put it sideways.
Alright, first day of class. Came early and everything. Went into the room. Made some friends aka Yvonne, Fiona, Shar, Ee Lyn, Xin Yi (I think that's how you spell it), another Daniel, Kit and Yen. So we were there, waiting for the Maths teacher for one hour until a HELP aide finally showed up and said class was cancelled 'cause the teach had emergency leave. So everyone gumbled a bit and this guy sitting near the door (later found out that his name is Mark) asked the aide in a conspirating voice, 'Pregnant ah?'
Daniel (will refer to him as Meng from now on) and I decided to get something to eat, and we met Ee Lyn and her pal on the way, and she bought us to the cafeteria beneath Wisma E&C. The economy rice was not bad, quite cheap, and they also sold chee cheong fun.
Meng opted for the rice while I decided against eating 'cause I had a large breakfast. Then Fiona, Yvonne, Elle (yes there is another girl called Elle - thank God I intro-ed myself as Ely. And again, even the Chem teacher Ms Kana pronounced her name as Ellie. Gosh, people it's ELLE like the letter! L!), Lee Shean-Woei and Keisha (I think her name was) sat with us and then came the great epidemic that was bound to hit college kids sooner or later: The Contact Exchange Disease (CED). We were exchanging contact numbers like no one's bloody business but after all that, felt bored and so I left for the next class: Chemistry, in the lab which was named Curie Science Labs after Marie and Pierre Curie.
Sat at the tables outside, then ate a nut bar 'cause I was hungry. Finished it just as Meng and Ee Lyn entered, and a girl approached our table, asking if we are in Group B like she is. Turns out she's Su Peen from Korea and she's here for six years to study. So we started talking and all and went into the chem lab together.
Sitting at my table was Fiona, Yvonne, and Su Peen. In Chem, Ms Kana made us write down our general biodata and hand it up to her. Questions included name and conatct number, email address, parents' name and number, course we wish to take and what university. I wrote Biochemistry and University College Dublin. She then proceeded to tell us what we would be studying and all that as well as rules and regulations. Must wear lab coat. Must have goggles. Must wear close-toed shoes. Must wear long pants. Break any of these rules and it's get the hell out of my class.
Afterwards, she went through the biodata list and called us up to introduce ourselves, where we are from, where we stay and asked us to say something interesting about ourselves. In the beginning people were clapping, but by the time it came to me, they stopped. And Ms Kana was really funny and witty and smart. She's got a Bachelor of Science (Hons) and a Master of Science (Biochemistry), the exact same course I wanted to go for. I knew this 'cause in the paper she gave us which had our topics and all, a small bit at the beginning had her name and qualifications.
When she found out there were 3 pediatrician-wannabes (Ee Lyn was one of them) in our class, she nodded to herself. 'So that means I can leave my kids with you to babysit lah?' Yeah, you get what I mean. Khoo Jun Kit (remember him Puay Chai leavers? One of the smartest kids in school.) wrote on his biodata (Which university you wanna go to) and answered, Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, which ever university that loves me. Perasan-ed lah.
When it came to my turn I was a bit nervous 'cause I absolutely loathe these sort of getting to know you thing. But what the heck.... When she called out my name (mispronouncing it as usual) I corrected her before comprimising, 'You can call me Ely.' So I started with, 'Can you guys hear me?' 'cause you know I speak damn soft. A couple of guys (one of them I later knew as Andrew) gave me the thumbs-up.
'Hi, I'm Elyssia, but since people mispronounce my name all the time, you can call me Ely. I'm from SMK Taman SEA in PJ but I live in KL, don't ask me why. I am planning to go for Biochemistry in the future--'
Ms Kana cut in. 'Hey, I did biochemistry as well! You're just like me.'
So I laughed a bit and said, 'Yeah. And I'm planning to go to University College Dublin which is in Ireland or somewhere in Canada. I don't want to go to Australia because lots of people are going there and New Zealand is a bit too isolated. And UK and US is just...well,' and I gave a you-know-lah type of shrug even though I meant it as a I-don't-know-what-the-hell-to-say-so-yeah. And I sat down, the whole class started clapping for me again!!!
WIN!!
After that we had lunch and I went back to cafeteria to eat economy rice and met up with Fiona and Yvonne. Also met with Andrew, Rachel and Alex. Started the CED again. Andrew even remembered my name. He tried pronouncing it and then when I started to correct him, he was like, 'Wait. You told us to call you Ely, right?'
Nice. At least he tried pronouncing it.
Then went back to Curie Science Labs for Physics. This time I was smart and took the front table. Teach was Ms Shirley. We did the introducing thing another time, and when it was my turn I said my name, and that I liked Physics 'cause I had a good teacher (didn't mention that it was a tuition teacher, but hey, Mr Yeoh was a genius) and that I hoped to continue my Physics with that same like. Then she chuckled a bit and said, 'Wah, giving me pressure ah!'
After that she asked us if we had any questions. Andrew (I think) asked her age; she deferred it by saying that she was much, much older than us though she looked quite young. Early to mid thirties, I'd guess. Then she mentioned she's just started working here and she was the only female Physics lecturer in HELP. She then revealed that she had a daughter, seven weeks old. Everyone was a bit surprised 'cause, c'mon, her kid's seven weeks old and she's here teaching us? She explained that she had to since it was Jan intake, and when further probed, mentioned that her mother-in-law was caring for the kid.
Then someone asked her why didn't she bring the kid to work, and she shook her head, 'I don't have to. She's here,' tapping her head. So sweet I tell you! Then someone asked the kid's name, and she looked around, saying, 'We got a student here called Ely right?' Fiona pointed to me; again, she couldn't pronounce my name hence the Ely title. Ms Shirley nodded. 'Yeah, my daughter is called Elizabeth (pronounced Elle-lizabeth instead of the traditional E-lizabeth). My husband choose one. Yerr.'
The whole class burst out laughing.
After that she gave us a refresher and gave us some exercises regarding some prefixs and uncertainty. When that was done, we went home.
Oh, btw, went down earlier to pick up my sis from the car. It was raining, and the dog was barking like hell so I chained him to the door and let him in. Then I went and refilled his water and came back hurriedly when I heard my dad honking since he was dropping off my sis before picking up my mum. So I left the sliding door open and grabbed the umbrella, ran to the gate (which I'd unlocked earlier) and pushed it open to run out to the car. I held the umbrella in front of the passenger door and my sis was gesturing wildly at the sliding door. I turned around, saw my dog standing in the porch (still chained to the door, though with the rain and all you can't see the chain properly) and he was barking again. My sis was still gesturing wildly and I shouted at her, 'He's already chained up!'
One thing you need to know: my dog is the gentlest dog in the earth but let him out of the gate without a leash on and he bloody runs around like it's his personal playground. Seriously, we've gone through it many times where someone left the gate open accidentally, and since we don't usually chain the dog, he shoots out like a streak of lightning, and he goes around the whole bloody neighbourhood and refuses to come back till he's done. So he can run out like early morning and return at eleven at night. It's bloody frustrating, especially to Dad who had to run around to catch him. Coaxing the dog with food does not work. He'll only return when he's done.
Finally got sis out the car and when I was locking the gate, she told me that Dad was close to having a coronary because he thought the dog was free and he kept yelling at my sister, 'The dog's not tied up! He's not tied up!' and he was a bit hysterical apparently 'cause he thought dog was gonna escape again. Sis and I were laughing at that.
Alright, Eng Hoe's gonna murder me for writing a long post again but I can't help it so shut up yeah? All of you, tell me how was your first day of college right?
Cheers.
P.S. Eng Hoe asked if Meng was a potential bf just 'cause I keep on mentioning him. The thing is, he's the first friend I made on orientation and we've hung out since. But today he decided to go hang out with another bunch (since all the new friends he's making are girls, thanks to me) and I felt a bit betrayed (even though I had no reason to be since it's totally his choice and I can't force him to do anything) so no, he's not bf potential.
Alright, first day of class. Came early and everything. Went into the room. Made some friends aka Yvonne, Fiona, Shar, Ee Lyn, Xin Yi (I think that's how you spell it), another Daniel, Kit and Yen. So we were there, waiting for the Maths teacher for one hour until a HELP aide finally showed up and said class was cancelled 'cause the teach had emergency leave. So everyone gumbled a bit and this guy sitting near the door (later found out that his name is Mark) asked the aide in a conspirating voice, 'Pregnant ah?'
Daniel (will refer to him as Meng from now on) and I decided to get something to eat, and we met Ee Lyn and her pal on the way, and she bought us to the cafeteria beneath Wisma E&C. The economy rice was not bad, quite cheap, and they also sold chee cheong fun.
Meng opted for the rice while I decided against eating 'cause I had a large breakfast. Then Fiona, Yvonne, Elle (yes there is another girl called Elle - thank God I intro-ed myself as Ely. And again, even the Chem teacher Ms Kana pronounced her name as Ellie. Gosh, people it's ELLE like the letter! L!), Lee Shean-Woei and Keisha (I think her name was) sat with us and then came the great epidemic that was bound to hit college kids sooner or later: The Contact Exchange Disease (CED). We were exchanging contact numbers like no one's bloody business but after all that, felt bored and so I left for the next class: Chemistry, in the lab which was named Curie Science Labs after Marie and Pierre Curie.
Sat at the tables outside, then ate a nut bar 'cause I was hungry. Finished it just as Meng and Ee Lyn entered, and a girl approached our table, asking if we are in Group B like she is. Turns out she's Su Peen from Korea and she's here for six years to study. So we started talking and all and went into the chem lab together.
Sitting at my table was Fiona, Yvonne, and Su Peen. In Chem, Ms Kana made us write down our general biodata and hand it up to her. Questions included name and conatct number, email address, parents' name and number, course we wish to take and what university. I wrote Biochemistry and University College Dublin. She then proceeded to tell us what we would be studying and all that as well as rules and regulations. Must wear lab coat. Must have goggles. Must wear close-toed shoes. Must wear long pants. Break any of these rules and it's get the hell out of my class.
Afterwards, she went through the biodata list and called us up to introduce ourselves, where we are from, where we stay and asked us to say something interesting about ourselves. In the beginning people were clapping, but by the time it came to me, they stopped. And Ms Kana was really funny and witty and smart. She's got a Bachelor of Science (Hons) and a Master of Science (Biochemistry), the exact same course I wanted to go for. I knew this 'cause in the paper she gave us which had our topics and all, a small bit at the beginning had her name and qualifications.
When she found out there were 3 pediatrician-wannabes (Ee Lyn was one of them) in our class, she nodded to herself. 'So that means I can leave my kids with you to babysit lah?' Yeah, you get what I mean. Khoo Jun Kit (remember him Puay Chai leavers? One of the smartest kids in school.) wrote on his biodata (Which university you wanna go to) and answered, Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, which ever university that loves me. Perasan-ed lah.
When it came to my turn I was a bit nervous 'cause I absolutely loathe these sort of getting to know you thing. But what the heck.... When she called out my name (mispronouncing it as usual) I corrected her before comprimising, 'You can call me Ely.' So I started with, 'Can you guys hear me?' 'cause you know I speak damn soft. A couple of guys (one of them I later knew as Andrew) gave me the thumbs-up.
'Hi, I'm Elyssia, but since people mispronounce my name all the time, you can call me Ely. I'm from SMK Taman SEA in PJ but I live in KL, don't ask me why. I am planning to go for Biochemistry in the future--'
Ms Kana cut in. 'Hey, I did biochemistry as well! You're just like me.'
So I laughed a bit and said, 'Yeah. And I'm planning to go to University College Dublin which is in Ireland or somewhere in Canada. I don't want to go to Australia because lots of people are going there and New Zealand is a bit too isolated. And UK and US is just...well,' and I gave a you-know-lah type of shrug even though I meant it as a I-don't-know-what-the-hell-to-say-so-yeah. And I sat down, the whole class started clapping for me again!!!
WIN!!
After that we had lunch and I went back to cafeteria to eat economy rice and met up with Fiona and Yvonne. Also met with Andrew, Rachel and Alex. Started the CED again. Andrew even remembered my name. He tried pronouncing it and then when I started to correct him, he was like, 'Wait. You told us to call you Ely, right?'
Nice. At least he tried pronouncing it.
Then went back to Curie Science Labs for Physics. This time I was smart and took the front table. Teach was Ms Shirley. We did the introducing thing another time, and when it was my turn I said my name, and that I liked Physics 'cause I had a good teacher (didn't mention that it was a tuition teacher, but hey, Mr Yeoh was a genius) and that I hoped to continue my Physics with that same like. Then she chuckled a bit and said, 'Wah, giving me pressure ah!'
After that she asked us if we had any questions. Andrew (I think) asked her age; she deferred it by saying that she was much, much older than us though she looked quite young. Early to mid thirties, I'd guess. Then she mentioned she's just started working here and she was the only female Physics lecturer in HELP. She then revealed that she had a daughter, seven weeks old. Everyone was a bit surprised 'cause, c'mon, her kid's seven weeks old and she's here teaching us? She explained that she had to since it was Jan intake, and when further probed, mentioned that her mother-in-law was caring for the kid.
Then someone asked her why didn't she bring the kid to work, and she shook her head, 'I don't have to. She's here,' tapping her head. So sweet I tell you! Then someone asked the kid's name, and she looked around, saying, 'We got a student here called Ely right?' Fiona pointed to me; again, she couldn't pronounce my name hence the Ely title. Ms Shirley nodded. 'Yeah, my daughter is called Elizabeth (pronounced Elle-lizabeth instead of the traditional E-lizabeth). My husband choose one. Yerr.'
The whole class burst out laughing.
After that she gave us a refresher and gave us some exercises regarding some prefixs and uncertainty. When that was done, we went home.
Oh, btw, went down earlier to pick up my sis from the car. It was raining, and the dog was barking like hell so I chained him to the door and let him in. Then I went and refilled his water and came back hurriedly when I heard my dad honking since he was dropping off my sis before picking up my mum. So I left the sliding door open and grabbed the umbrella, ran to the gate (which I'd unlocked earlier) and pushed it open to run out to the car. I held the umbrella in front of the passenger door and my sis was gesturing wildly at the sliding door. I turned around, saw my dog standing in the porch (still chained to the door, though with the rain and all you can't see the chain properly) and he was barking again. My sis was still gesturing wildly and I shouted at her, 'He's already chained up!'
One thing you need to know: my dog is the gentlest dog in the earth but let him out of the gate without a leash on and he bloody runs around like it's his personal playground. Seriously, we've gone through it many times where someone left the gate open accidentally, and since we don't usually chain the dog, he shoots out like a streak of lightning, and he goes around the whole bloody neighbourhood and refuses to come back till he's done. So he can run out like early morning and return at eleven at night. It's bloody frustrating, especially to Dad who had to run around to catch him. Coaxing the dog with food does not work. He'll only return when he's done.
Finally got sis out the car and when I was locking the gate, she told me that Dad was close to having a coronary because he thought the dog was free and he kept yelling at my sister, 'The dog's not tied up! He's not tied up!' and he was a bit hysterical apparently 'cause he thought dog was gonna escape again. Sis and I were laughing at that.
Alright, Eng Hoe's gonna murder me for writing a long post again but I can't help it so shut up yeah? All of you, tell me how was your first day of college right?
Cheers.
P.S. Eng Hoe asked if Meng was a potential bf just 'cause I keep on mentioning him. The thing is, he's the first friend I made on orientation and we've hung out since. But today he decided to go hang out with another bunch (since all the new friends he's making are girls, thanks to me) and I felt a bit betrayed (even though I had no reason to be since it's totally his choice and I can't force him to do anything) so no, he's not bf potential.
Monday 4 January 2010
Free-IQTest.net
Free-IQTest.net - IQ Score
Yay! And when I went and checked what my score stood for, I was cheering again.
Why?
Because 120-140 is Very Superior Intelligence!!!
Last time I checked I got 115 which was Superior Intelligence, so I'm not sure if my IQ rose or if I'm getting too used to the questions and therefore it seems easier.
I'm going with the first option.
Oh, and here's the page I looked at in case you wanna know.
http://wilderdom.com/intelligence/IQWhatScoresMean.html
I liked this bit.
High IQ & Genius IQ
Genius IQ is generally considered to begin around 140 - 145, representing ~. 25 % of the population (1 in 400). Here's a rough guide:
115 - 124 - Above average (e.g. university students)
125 - 134 - Gifted (e.g. post-graduate students)
And it goes on but what do I care? At age 17, I, a Pre-U scholar, has the IQ of a post-graduate student. Haha.
Anyway, the reason I'm doing this is because there's a 10 year old genius in our Jan intake who is most likely going to be in our class. His name is Ainan Cawley and his dad's a Physicist. Apparently his two younger brothers are geniuses (genii) as well so it's going to be OMG.
Cheers.
Sunday 3 January 2010
HELP Orientation
It's Sunday and yesterday was my first day at HELP for the orientation. And we'll be having another one tomorrow, don't ask why. Class starts officially on Tuesday.
As I was saying, I got up at 6 (school time as usual), got dressed and everything and headed off to HELP since it started at 8. Reached at 7.30, sat in the car till 7.45 a.m. and promptly went off to register.
Which was good because after I finished registering, there were loads of people waiting to register as well. They had lines queued up alphabetically, and the first two lines (A-G and H-M or N) were bloody congested by the time the clock struck 8. So it was lucky I came early.
Was chatting on the phone with Erina dear who kept worrying that she was underdressed since she came in jeans and the girls she saw walking up to HELP wore mini-skirts. And then she got worried because she hasn't registered for HELP Jan Intake and she needed her dad's signature but he'd already left, claiming, and I quote Erina, that "You're a big girl now and you need to be independant."
Then Lou came by, and she lined up for her registration while Erina was busy panicking over her predicament. Somehow we met Chow Ern, Ivory and Ivan at the registration. Bit surprised really. I thought there were more Taman SEA people going to HELP. Misconception, it seems.
We were hanging about the registration when they ushered us into the conference hall. So I left Lou behind and went ahead with Rin and Ivory. After debating where to sit ("I don't want to sit in the front!" from Erina) we decided on one of the rows near the entrance. Erina's friend Kevin was due ot arrive so we booked places: one for Chow Ern (Ernie, she insisted, apparently), Ivory, me, Erina and Kevin in that order. But after Ivory and Rin ciao to walk around a bit, someone came and took Ernie's place. Then this guy came and sat in Kevin's place.
Which was bad since I didn't know how to shoo them off. I'm normally not that tongue-tied but hey, first day in a place I don't know lah. Cut me some slack. Tried calling Rin but no, she just had to leave her phone in her oversized, bottomless, blackhole-esque bag....
...which was right next to me. *sighs*
After a while only did they come back with Ernie and Kevin in tow, but after seeing the helpless look on my face and the girl that took Ernie's place, Ivory and Ernie went to find seats at the back while Erina not-so-politely (OK, joking) shooed the fella out of Kevin's seat. Then since Ivory's seat was empty, I gestured at it and yep, he took the hint and sat down beside me. Felt a bit bad so I apologised and we exchanged names and a bit of general info.
It seems that he was Daniel Lim from Penang, where people had never heard of HELP before. He came to HELP 'cause 3 of his cousins were here, and he was staying quite near the college so he walks here every day. He reminded me a bit of William Tang only with nicer features. But personality-wise, he reminded me a lot of Ben.
Then in between pauses by the lecturer, I was introduced to Kevin and I intro-ed Erina to Daniel. After a bit though, Kevin had to go out to finish registering (dunno what that was all about) and he came back later but after the lecturer went through the A-Levels bit, we checked the schedule and saw they were going to give some business/law lecture which Kevin had no interest in so he left early. By that time it was around eleven so we decided to take a break and the five of us (me, Daniel, Rin, Ernie and Ivory) decided to go makan at some mamak store.
Only thing was, mamak store was closed, so we backtracked and bought some stuff from Giant, and Daniel was properly introduced to Ernie and Ivory. He got a bit confused over Rin's name ("Erica, is it?" "No it's Erina.") but she didn't seem to notice. So after our foodstuff we were bored and decided to go back and hear the lecture because, what the heck, it was air conditioned. So we came back in time for the law lecture, where the lady was telling us something called Citizen's Right of Arrest (I think).
According to this law, we citizens have a right to arrest perpetrators if we see a crime being commited and bring them to the balai polis where the police will re-arrest them. The thing they emphasised on was you had to SEE the crime, and view it, witness it, not based on hearsay. And she related this true story that happened due to the misunderstanding of the law.
'It's Saturday, right,' she said, 'and let's say, tomorrow, Sunday, you go to Lake Gardens. And this fellow is walking along there when he hears a woman shouting, "Help! Help! Help!" And no, she's not there to advertise us,' which really got us cracking up because she said the Help bit in such a droll, monotonous way it really did seem a lot more advertising and less crying for assistance. 'What do you think is going on with the woman?'
Someone shouted out, 'Robbery.'
She nodded. 'Robbery. Good. In the next class I heard them say, "Rape."'
Which was privately what I had in mind.
'And so he sees this man running off in the opposite direction. He went up and whacked the guy, and got people to come and help, and everyone started throwing him on the ground and tying up his hands and brought him to the police station...where they found out he just happened to be jogging.'
She continued to explained how it would be like if the jogger decided to bring the bunch of people to court and sue them. Really interesting bit. Would be nice to pursue.
After that we had this stupid ice-breaking session, which I absolutely abhorred. ("The only way I'll ever enjoy an ice-breaking session is if they give us a block of ice and a large knife!") First they got us girls to stand because the A-Levels student council secretary was (apparently) looking for a girlfriend. Then when he didn't rise up to the bait, the emcee (also in the student council) cheekily commented, 'OK then. Guys, stand up. He obviously prefers men,' which got everyone hooting.
The president of the SC had this green T-shirt on which had the words, 'Blow Me.' Me, Rin and Ernie were laughing at that. Then the PR guy for the SC (they've even got a bloody PR guy!) who was using the laptop plugged into the projector was busy typing out their names and contact numbers. He even typed the words "I'm single!!!!" under the president's cell phone number.
That got people laughing.
After ice-breaking we went on the campus tour which was bloody confusing. Daniel sat beside me on the bus and when we were walking, Erina and Ernie were busy comparing heights and Daniel was telling me, 'Erina's very tall.' After a bit he glanced in the general direction and said again, 'That blue shirt girl is taller than Erina.' A beat. 'Oh, she's wearing heels.'
The tour was okay, but it was seriously hot as an oven that day. They kept bringing us to see the facilities which, due to it being a Saturday, were closed. Then we'd have enough and a girl was saying, 'Is there anything else to see?'
The tour guide nodded. 'Yes, the library but it's closed today.'
'Oh,' the girl replied flippantly. 'One closed door looks the same as the others. Let's go back to the shuttle bus.' She seems really witty. One of Jen Wei's pals.
We were halfway through the tour when it started pouring so we rushed back into the shuttle bus back to the main campus. Bloody cramped. At least I managed to get a seat.
Moral of the story, kids: Run for the bus and take the first seat available.
Cheers.
As I was saying, I got up at 6 (school time as usual), got dressed and everything and headed off to HELP since it started at 8. Reached at 7.30, sat in the car till 7.45 a.m. and promptly went off to register.
Which was good because after I finished registering, there were loads of people waiting to register as well. They had lines queued up alphabetically, and the first two lines (A-G and H-M or N) were bloody congested by the time the clock struck 8. So it was lucky I came early.
Was chatting on the phone with Erina dear who kept worrying that she was underdressed since she came in jeans and the girls she saw walking up to HELP wore mini-skirts. And then she got worried because she hasn't registered for HELP Jan Intake and she needed her dad's signature but he'd already left, claiming, and I quote Erina, that "You're a big girl now and you need to be independant."
Then Lou came by, and she lined up for her registration while Erina was busy panicking over her predicament. Somehow we met Chow Ern, Ivory and Ivan at the registration. Bit surprised really. I thought there were more Taman SEA people going to HELP. Misconception, it seems.
We were hanging about the registration when they ushered us into the conference hall. So I left Lou behind and went ahead with Rin and Ivory. After debating where to sit ("I don't want to sit in the front!" from Erina) we decided on one of the rows near the entrance. Erina's friend Kevin was due ot arrive so we booked places: one for Chow Ern (Ernie, she insisted, apparently), Ivory, me, Erina and Kevin in that order. But after Ivory and Rin ciao to walk around a bit, someone came and took Ernie's place. Then this guy came and sat in Kevin's place.
Which was bad since I didn't know how to shoo them off. I'm normally not that tongue-tied but hey, first day in a place I don't know lah. Cut me some slack. Tried calling Rin but no, she just had to leave her phone in her oversized, bottomless, blackhole-esque bag....
...which was right next to me. *sighs*
After a while only did they come back with Ernie and Kevin in tow, but after seeing the helpless look on my face and the girl that took Ernie's place, Ivory and Ernie went to find seats at the back while Erina not-so-politely (OK, joking) shooed the fella out of Kevin's seat. Then since Ivory's seat was empty, I gestured at it and yep, he took the hint and sat down beside me. Felt a bit bad so I apologised and we exchanged names and a bit of general info.
It seems that he was Daniel Lim from Penang, where people had never heard of HELP before. He came to HELP 'cause 3 of his cousins were here, and he was staying quite near the college so he walks here every day. He reminded me a bit of William Tang only with nicer features. But personality-wise, he reminded me a lot of Ben.
Then in between pauses by the lecturer, I was introduced to Kevin and I intro-ed Erina to Daniel. After a bit though, Kevin had to go out to finish registering (dunno what that was all about) and he came back later but after the lecturer went through the A-Levels bit, we checked the schedule and saw they were going to give some business/law lecture which Kevin had no interest in so he left early. By that time it was around eleven so we decided to take a break and the five of us (me, Daniel, Rin, Ernie and Ivory) decided to go makan at some mamak store.
Only thing was, mamak store was closed, so we backtracked and bought some stuff from Giant, and Daniel was properly introduced to Ernie and Ivory. He got a bit confused over Rin's name ("Erica, is it?" "No it's Erina.") but she didn't seem to notice. So after our foodstuff we were bored and decided to go back and hear the lecture because, what the heck, it was air conditioned. So we came back in time for the law lecture, where the lady was telling us something called Citizen's Right of Arrest (I think).
According to this law, we citizens have a right to arrest perpetrators if we see a crime being commited and bring them to the balai polis where the police will re-arrest them. The thing they emphasised on was you had to SEE the crime, and view it, witness it, not based on hearsay. And she related this true story that happened due to the misunderstanding of the law.
'It's Saturday, right,' she said, 'and let's say, tomorrow, Sunday, you go to Lake Gardens. And this fellow is walking along there when he hears a woman shouting, "Help! Help! Help!" And no, she's not there to advertise us,' which really got us cracking up because she said the Help bit in such a droll, monotonous way it really did seem a lot more advertising and less crying for assistance. 'What do you think is going on with the woman?'
Someone shouted out, 'Robbery.'
She nodded. 'Robbery. Good. In the next class I heard them say, "Rape."'
Which was privately what I had in mind.
'And so he sees this man running off in the opposite direction. He went up and whacked the guy, and got people to come and help, and everyone started throwing him on the ground and tying up his hands and brought him to the police station...where they found out he just happened to be jogging.'
She continued to explained how it would be like if the jogger decided to bring the bunch of people to court and sue them. Really interesting bit. Would be nice to pursue.
After that we had this stupid ice-breaking session, which I absolutely abhorred. ("The only way I'll ever enjoy an ice-breaking session is if they give us a block of ice and a large knife!") First they got us girls to stand because the A-Levels student council secretary was (apparently) looking for a girlfriend. Then when he didn't rise up to the bait, the emcee (also in the student council) cheekily commented, 'OK then. Guys, stand up. He obviously prefers men,' which got everyone hooting.
The president of the SC had this green T-shirt on which had the words, 'Blow Me.' Me, Rin and Ernie were laughing at that. Then the PR guy for the SC (they've even got a bloody PR guy!) who was using the laptop plugged into the projector was busy typing out their names and contact numbers. He even typed the words "I'm single!!!!" under the president's cell phone number.
That got people laughing.
After ice-breaking we went on the campus tour which was bloody confusing. Daniel sat beside me on the bus and when we were walking, Erina and Ernie were busy comparing heights and Daniel was telling me, 'Erina's very tall.' After a bit he glanced in the general direction and said again, 'That blue shirt girl is taller than Erina.' A beat. 'Oh, she's wearing heels.'
The tour was okay, but it was seriously hot as an oven that day. They kept bringing us to see the facilities which, due to it being a Saturday, were closed. Then we'd have enough and a girl was saying, 'Is there anything else to see?'
The tour guide nodded. 'Yes, the library but it's closed today.'
'Oh,' the girl replied flippantly. 'One closed door looks the same as the others. Let's go back to the shuttle bus.' She seems really witty. One of Jen Wei's pals.
We were halfway through the tour when it started pouring so we rushed back into the shuttle bus back to the main campus. Bloody cramped. At least I managed to get a seat.
Moral of the story, kids: Run for the bus and take the first seat available.
Cheers.
Friday 1 January 2010
Brand New Day
Hey all.
Well, tomorrow's a big day since it's the HELP Academy orientation. Yes, I am going to HELP for A-Levels. Sweet. Anyway, I've got to stop staying up late (by late I mean till past midnight) and get some early shut-eye tonight because the orientation's starting at 8.00am and I have to be there before that. Don't worry, it's not strictly in the schedule that you have to be there before eight, but I'm a bit paranoid.
And I'm trying to perfect my posture. Lately, my holidays comprise of me hunching over my laptop (which I'm on practically 24/7. Bad, I know) and I know I don't exactly have the best posture but it really hit me when I realised I was hunching so bad till my face was two inches away from the screen. So I've made up my mind to sit straight. Feel free to berate me if you see me hunching.
The good news: Good posture. Bad news: It bloody hurts my back. It's like you've been huncing so long it feels painful to sit up straight again because the weight of your head is completely on your spine again, and it's agony. But the funny thing is, when I try to hunch back, I am forced to sit up straight again. Mainly because it feels weird to hunch when all my weight is focused on my spine after so long.
So, I'm planning to buy some new trainers (read: sport shoes. They call them trainers in England though) cause now I only have one good pair and one not-so-good pair which I will not wear to college and I can't stand the idea of wearing the same pair of shoes consistently for a week without break. It's bad for your feet. And don't tell me to wear sandals or slippers because 1. If something bad happens (hey, the world's not safe anymore) I'd like to wear something I can run in and not have that annoying slapping sound when I do and 2. I'd be walking around the whole day to get to classes and all. Might as well get comfortable.
Besides that, I'm planning to go stationery shopping for a good, durable notebook. I've got 3, but I have a feeling that my purple notebook is falling apart even though it's got about half left. When I say falling apart I mean the only thing keeping it all together are strips after strips of cellophane tape (which, for some reason, I affectionately call "Spellotape" just like Lou) Really. I have no idea what happened to the binding. One day it was fine, the next day the whole book split from its cover. The second notebook I have is a dark blue one I got from a college amnd haven't used yet, but I doubt it be appropriate to show up at HELP's orientation using a KDU notebook. The third one I have is an IDP Australian notebook they gave us when they wanted us to sign up for IELTS but I dunno. I have an aversion to it.
Yes, I realise I'm being picky over something like a notebook, but I firmly believe that taste is everything. Don't buy something just because your friend has it, or because it's the new thing in town, but buy it only if you really like it. Taste is a way of defining one's self. I got that from a book.
It's weird though. Before I read that book I was the type who'd buy stuff just 'cause my sister has it or because my friend has it or maybe it was the latest thing in town but after reading that, I've started limiting myself to buy only what I really liked.
Like pens. All my pens must fulfill certain conditions.
1. The ink must be dark enough to be seen clearly but not so dark that it will stain my books.
2. The nib of the pen must be just right. Sharp and clean, not thick and dirty. Some of you may have noticed that I obsessively clean the nib of all my pens (especially my G1s) before I use them. And clean obsessively a few times if it's not clean enough. I like my words to look sharp and neat without smudges.
3. Must be smooth to write with. As a writer I tend to mentally narrate things in my head. Including mundane facts and details. I have this habit that manifests frequently where, if I'm watching a movie or something, I tend to third-person describe it in my head. Like, in Merlin, when Morgana was fighting a mercenary in The Moment of Truth, my head goes, Swinging the sword in a wide arc above her head, Morgana slashed the mercenary just below his chest, her fury manisfesting itself in a deep, red gash across his torso. Some of my favourites include Her slender fingers dancing across the keyboard as she typed it out and The pen gliding across the paper in a smooth motion. See the smoothness of the action and the way it flows together? Haha, crapping, but yes, it would totally kill the mood to have such a great scene in your head and when you try to put it to paper, your pen screws up. The mood's gone. Bugger.
4. Preferably it's not a retractable pen. You know, the type where you click the top and the nib comes out from the bottom. I've come to the conclusion that most ball point pens (for me) are of quite cheap standard and their ink is not dark enough/the nib is too thick and makes my words look miserably horrific. Besides, I get buggering annoyed when someone keeps clicking their pen repeatedly. Click-click. Click-click. Click-click. I feel like murdering myself.
Or at the very least, snatch the pen from the annoyance in question and jamming it through his throat like a shish-kebab.
People like YOU are the reason why people like ME need medication.
After experimenting with blah a lot of pens, I've narrowed it down to 3 types: the G-1 0.5 Gel pen which I'm currently using throughout my whole school life, the Faber-Castell 0.7 Fine SS7 ballpoint pen (even though I'm used to 0.5, I fell in love when the pen when I first used it) and a particular G-Soft pen that I received as a gift from the EdBoard. Forgot the brand but it was bloody smooth.
What else? Ooh, I managed to download Morgane by Jacqui McShee thanks to this Youtube to Mp3 converter I downloaded for free! If you want to hear the song, it's in one of the notes on my Facebook profile so look me up and click on notes OK? The link's all there. It's genius. It's from Excalibur The Celtic Rock Opera and it took me a bugger long time to search and realise I can't download it. Hence, the converter. It's all from Morgane's (Morgana's) POV and it tells about her feelings against Camelot and her half-brother, Arthur Pendragon.
I have a huge obsession with stationery. You could leave me in a shop like Popular and I'd go balistic at the pens and pencils and all the yummy notebooks. Yes, I'd like a spiral-bound notebook with separators that have pockets in them (keep notes and leaflets very well) as well as a nice, attractive cover on the front that screams my name whenever you see it. Well, not literally scream my name (that would be cool though) but just that when you see it, you'll know it's mine because no one else can pull off such an insanely-looking but cool notebook except me. Yes, bragging rights here.
Anyway, I'll probably be seeing Erina and Lou at HELP, not to mention Ivan and Hui Ying (was it?) who won the SASA scholarship. As well as this fella nicknamed Batman whom I'm anxious to meet in person...At least I got all my payments and everything done. Even had my student ID done when I was there before Christmas.
So, you people who read my blog, keep in touch with me, leave a note in my cbox, and just generally tell me stuff about your lives.
Cheers.
Well, tomorrow's a big day since it's the HELP Academy orientation. Yes, I am going to HELP for A-Levels. Sweet. Anyway, I've got to stop staying up late (by late I mean till past midnight) and get some early shut-eye tonight because the orientation's starting at 8.00am and I have to be there before that. Don't worry, it's not strictly in the schedule that you have to be there before eight, but I'm a bit paranoid.
And I'm trying to perfect my posture. Lately, my holidays comprise of me hunching over my laptop (which I'm on practically 24/7. Bad, I know) and I know I don't exactly have the best posture but it really hit me when I realised I was hunching so bad till my face was two inches away from the screen. So I've made up my mind to sit straight. Feel free to berate me if you see me hunching.
The good news: Good posture. Bad news: It bloody hurts my back. It's like you've been huncing so long it feels painful to sit up straight again because the weight of your head is completely on your spine again, and it's agony. But the funny thing is, when I try to hunch back, I am forced to sit up straight again. Mainly because it feels weird to hunch when all my weight is focused on my spine after so long.
So, I'm planning to buy some new trainers (read: sport shoes. They call them trainers in England though) cause now I only have one good pair and one not-so-good pair which I will not wear to college and I can't stand the idea of wearing the same pair of shoes consistently for a week without break. It's bad for your feet. And don't tell me to wear sandals or slippers because 1. If something bad happens (hey, the world's not safe anymore) I'd like to wear something I can run in and not have that annoying slapping sound when I do and 2. I'd be walking around the whole day to get to classes and all. Might as well get comfortable.
Besides that, I'm planning to go stationery shopping for a good, durable notebook. I've got 3, but I have a feeling that my purple notebook is falling apart even though it's got about half left. When I say falling apart I mean the only thing keeping it all together are strips after strips of cellophane tape (which, for some reason, I affectionately call "Spellotape" just like Lou) Really. I have no idea what happened to the binding. One day it was fine, the next day the whole book split from its cover. The second notebook I have is a dark blue one I got from a college amnd haven't used yet, but I doubt it be appropriate to show up at HELP's orientation using a KDU notebook. The third one I have is an IDP Australian notebook they gave us when they wanted us to sign up for IELTS but I dunno. I have an aversion to it.
Yes, I realise I'm being picky over something like a notebook, but I firmly believe that taste is everything. Don't buy something just because your friend has it, or because it's the new thing in town, but buy it only if you really like it. Taste is a way of defining one's self. I got that from a book.
It's weird though. Before I read that book I was the type who'd buy stuff just 'cause my sister has it or because my friend has it or maybe it was the latest thing in town but after reading that, I've started limiting myself to buy only what I really liked.
Like pens. All my pens must fulfill certain conditions.
1. The ink must be dark enough to be seen clearly but not so dark that it will stain my books.
2. The nib of the pen must be just right. Sharp and clean, not thick and dirty. Some of you may have noticed that I obsessively clean the nib of all my pens (especially my G1s) before I use them. And clean obsessively a few times if it's not clean enough. I like my words to look sharp and neat without smudges.
3. Must be smooth to write with. As a writer I tend to mentally narrate things in my head. Including mundane facts and details. I have this habit that manifests frequently where, if I'm watching a movie or something, I tend to third-person describe it in my head. Like, in Merlin, when Morgana was fighting a mercenary in The Moment of Truth, my head goes, Swinging the sword in a wide arc above her head, Morgana slashed the mercenary just below his chest, her fury manisfesting itself in a deep, red gash across his torso. Some of my favourites include Her slender fingers dancing across the keyboard as she typed it out and The pen gliding across the paper in a smooth motion. See the smoothness of the action and the way it flows together? Haha, crapping, but yes, it would totally kill the mood to have such a great scene in your head and when you try to put it to paper, your pen screws up. The mood's gone. Bugger.
4. Preferably it's not a retractable pen. You know, the type where you click the top and the nib comes out from the bottom. I've come to the conclusion that most ball point pens (for me) are of quite cheap standard and their ink is not dark enough/the nib is too thick and makes my words look miserably horrific. Besides, I get buggering annoyed when someone keeps clicking their pen repeatedly. Click-click. Click-click. Click-click. I feel like murdering myself.
Or at the very least, snatch the pen from the annoyance in question and jamming it through his throat like a shish-kebab.
People like YOU are the reason why people like ME need medication.
After experimenting with blah a lot of pens, I've narrowed it down to 3 types: the G-1 0.5 Gel pen which I'm currently using throughout my whole school life, the Faber-Castell 0.7 Fine SS7 ballpoint pen (even though I'm used to 0.5, I fell in love when the pen when I first used it) and a particular G-Soft pen that I received as a gift from the EdBoard. Forgot the brand but it was bloody smooth.
What else? Ooh, I managed to download Morgane by Jacqui McShee thanks to this Youtube to Mp3 converter I downloaded for free! If you want to hear the song, it's in one of the notes on my Facebook profile so look me up and click on notes OK? The link's all there. It's genius. It's from Excalibur The Celtic Rock Opera and it took me a bugger long time to search and realise I can't download it. Hence, the converter. It's all from Morgane's (Morgana's) POV and it tells about her feelings against Camelot and her half-brother, Arthur Pendragon.
I have a huge obsession with stationery. You could leave me in a shop like Popular and I'd go balistic at the pens and pencils and all the yummy notebooks. Yes, I'd like a spiral-bound notebook with separators that have pockets in them (keep notes and leaflets very well) as well as a nice, attractive cover on the front that screams my name whenever you see it. Well, not literally scream my name (that would be cool though) but just that when you see it, you'll know it's mine because no one else can pull off such an insanely-looking but cool notebook except me. Yes, bragging rights here.
Anyway, I'll probably be seeing Erina and Lou at HELP, not to mention Ivan and Hui Ying (was it?) who won the SASA scholarship. As well as this fella nicknamed Batman whom I'm anxious to meet in person...At least I got all my payments and everything done. Even had my student ID done when I was there before Christmas.
So, you people who read my blog, keep in touch with me, leave a note in my cbox, and just generally tell me stuff about your lives.
Cheers.
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