Good Friday

Finally got the chance to meet up with my primary school pals again yesterday. We weren't able to schedule a meeting during the March holidays so that was kinda a bummer. We pretty much ate and talked throughout the entire day, to be honest. We met at like 1pm at City Hall and had lunch at Thai Express, then we went to look for K Box. They later decided that it was too expensive and we went for more food at Secret Recipe. That eating and talking kept us busy till almost 6.

It was so good seeing them again, each of them doing well by themselves, Jin Yi with her tan lines, Xin Tian and Randi doing well in Poly, Ning Li in modern dance and well, Tim, Kat and I. It is kinda awesome that we are still hanging out after so many years. We left primary school 6 years ago, but now we are still meeting out to chill and talk. Even more so for Ning Li, have known her since I was like 5 and we are still in contact! :)

Had a really nice day out with the group and I think its a Good Friday well spent. Can't wait till the next holiday comes along so that I can meet up with them again! :)

Back to blogging

I haven't been able to find time to blog ever since the second semester last year. now with Project Work out of the way, I have just slightly enough time to blog. Though it has only been 3 months into Year 2 of Junior College, so much has happened within this short period, I'm involved in two projects, which are taking up a fair bit of my time and I now have juniors in debate which I can pass all that I've learnt last year to.

School has been going pretty well thus far, although I am still worried about not doing exceptionally well, rather, not good enough to attain my desired grades at the A Levels. I seem to have some trouble getting a score of more than 30/50 for my General Paper essay this year, which is quite scary to be honest, since everyone else has been improving so much and 30/50 just doesn't put me anywhere near the top anymore. Used to be proud of my GP score, and now it so happens that GP is the subject that worries me quite a bit. My other subjects are also nothing more of mediocre, which is pretty upsetting, since I am really not used to being an average student. Guess competition is way tougher in JC, way more than I expected it to be. So many smart students in class are starting to work hard, and it is showing, I really should start working as well, just so that I can still be of any competition to these classmates.

I've started paying more attention to TIME magazine after finding the application for it on my iPod Touch and a recent article especially caught my eye. The article, How to Classify a Million Galaxies in Three Weeks caught my interest and I found out about this citizen-science website, Galaxy Zoo, which makes use of online volunteers to identify and classify galaxies through answering a series of questions on the pictures of each of these galaxies they are given. This is not a game, this is real science, and I found that I really enjoy classifying these galaxies, it is almost like fulfilling my childhood dream of being an astronomer. I've classified 50 so far, and my interest does not seem to be waning. I'll see how it goes and probably update my progress every once in a while.

This is the first spiral galaxy I've helped to classify! :)

Reading List

Heh, its the holidays. Though, holidays filled to the brim with homework. Still, I've come up with a list of books I'd want to/ have to finish before I get back to school and resume reading nothing but notes, notes and literary devices.

1. American Gods - Neil Gaiman
2. Darkly Dreaming Dexter - Jeff Lindsay
3. Dexter in the Dark - Jeff Lindsay
4. Dexter by Design - Jeff Lindsay
5. The Assassini - Thomas Gifford
6. The Dangerous Days of Daniel X - James Patterson
7. 1st to Die - James Patterson
8. A Flash of Hex - Jes Battis
9. Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox - Eoin Colfer

And of course, our literature texts. Sigh.

1. Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit - Jeanette Winterson
2. Housekeeping - Marilynne Robinson
3. Proof - David Auburn

Post-trauma

Finally, the stress of the promotional exams are over, albeit the one for oral presentation still lingers. The promotional exams was one heck of a traumatizing experience. Stress of the actual examinations aside, I've never actually studied so freaking hard in my entire life. Not even for the O levels, which was like a series of national exams. The major shock was when I found out that I actually had classmates who were at risk or retaining or expulsion. This was a new thing for me, actually having to say premature farewells to classmates who I grew to like so much. I truly feel that expulsion should be reserved for serious offences, and not just another excuse to kick students that may not have been doing so well out of the school.

Though feeling guilty to say this, I did pretty well for the exams, way better than I had expected, really. Not only did I pass all my subjects, I managed to garner a B and two Cs while I was at it. This puts me rather at ease to fully enjoy my trip to Australia at the end of the year, though having felt the effects that the lack of consistent studying can result in, I am determined to not let this repeat. Hopefully, I'll have enough self-discipline to finish going through the pile of notes and readings I'll be lugging to Australia with me.

Also,after a 4-year hiatus, I've finally had the time to resume leisure reading. Though I'm still kept rather busy, and the speed at which i chew through the books is reduced significantly, I'm finally about to revisit the joy of reading, not for literary terms, not for economic concepts, not for historical content, but just for the sake of reading. I've started on the Artemis Fowl series after Timothy's recommendation, and I intend to finish reading the book, American Gods soon after that. Hopefully I'll be able to find a good book to accompany me on my trip as well.

Meh.

This may be old, but still enjoyable nevertheless.

Mad World

Heard this song a while ago, really liked the atmosphere of the song :)

Oddly creepy, but soothing at the same time.

Mad World

Gary Jules

All around are me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for the daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere
And their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide my head I wanna drown my sorrows
No tomorrow, no tomorrow

And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I ever had
I find it hard to tell you
I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It's a very very,
Mad world, Mad world

Children waiting for the day they feel good
Happy birthday, happy birthday
May they feel the way that every child should
Sit and listen, sit and listen
Went to school and I was very nervous
No one knew me, no one knew me
Hello teacher tell me what's my lesson
Look right through me, look right through me

And I find it kind of funny,
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you
I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It's a very very
Mad world, Mad world
Mad world, Mad world

Changes.

The week-long holidays came and went. Had to send off my beloved Literature teacher back to the states a few days ago, not looking forward to the teacher who is going to be teaching us though. So much to do, so little time, I was so tempted to go buy a budget flught ticket and fly off somewhere to hide in seclusion while waiting at the airport actually.

Despite the sad partings, I had a blast spending the night with Anna, Vincent and Zul, we even managed to stay awake for breakfast in town the following day lol. Not many shops were open, but still, the interaction was good.

Yeah. Not looking forward to school tomorrow. I need to escape to somewhere far, far away.