Tuesday, April 27, 2004

Sama seperti dahulu, tiada apa-apa kejadian menarik yang berlaku...kecuali apa yang telah berlaku Sabtu lalu selepas makan tengah hari.

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ONCE UPON A TIME,

after having lunch at Bedok's Burger King, I went to a Bus Station to wait for bus 222. A foreigner (or a Singaporean-- he's a caucasian) was standing beside me and I saw him holding a black book. When I took a furtive glance at the title, I was shocked-- it read "The Book of Mormon". I felt a bit uneasy because Ching Mien always says that the Mormons write their own Bible and do not follow the true teachings of Christianity. The only thing I know about them is that hundreds of years ago the founders of the religion were chased out of Louisiana and sought refuge in Utah (where the Mormon form of Christianity is the main religion today), and that they allow polygamy.

After awhile, I saw the guy moving towards me and soon enough he asked:"Hello, how are you today?" And I said:"tired..." "It's been a rough day, huh?" "......(nodding)" "My name's (Johnson or something), what's yours?" "...(uh...uh...)" "Would you like my card?" "Um...Sorry I don't feel like talking..." "It's OK. Take care." And he then walks away towards the MRT station with a colleague, who had already successfully given his card to someone.

THE END

Thursday, April 22, 2004

My blogging frequency is becoming rather irregular... oh well, what to expect with all the mugging and revision? I always think I don't stress myself to study enough, but already some of my friends think I study too much... ?? ...I don't know... maybe when you are doing better you just want to get even better...

But being hardworking now cannot change the past, as I have learnt through my Primary, Secondary or even JC School life but I always fail to rectify the situation. That's why I could only manage to get a Band2 for my Project Work (the grades are Band 1 (best), Band 2, Band 3, Band 4 and Ungraded)... I felt quite angry and disappointed that day actually, and my friends were all asking me to be glad with what I've got. But I couldn't, because now I know there are people who'll get 4A's for A-levels, A's in Chinese and GP, >1400 for SAT and a Band 1 in PW! In other words, I've lost a possible advantage.

Anyway, I want to congratulate my friends who did well for PW... Good Job!

Back to current issues... Last Saturday I went to the Singapore Science Centre at Jurong East for a hostel activity... the Lord of The Rings exhibition (only venue in Asia!!)... the entrance fee was $16/= but the hostel subsidised $11/= for us. Rather interesting display... there were many props displayed and also costumes, armour, video clips showing how the movie (especially the special effects) was created etc.

Tang Ning was relatively more hardworking than usual from around Thursday to Saturday because his parents were staying in the hostel. Most of the JC China scholars in the hostel play quite a lot (computer games, etc.)... they used to do quite well but they are deteriorating. They're still doing well for Mathematics competitions but not so for studies... most teachers in my class are quite irritated by Tang Ning's behaviour of playing truant, sleeping in class etc... They might have been different had they been studying in HCJC or RJC...

Anyway, nothing much else has happened these few days except the terrible incident at Nicole Highway which has led to (so far) 2 deaths. Sad...

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Beberapa hari ini Minh Huong muram aje. Dia kata bapa saudaranya meninggal dunia.... sedihnya... harap dia dapat menguatkan diri untuk menerima hakikat ini...

Tuesday, April 13, 2004

Hmm... Baru-baru ini saya telah memaksa saya sendiri untuk menghabiskan seberapa banyak kerja rumah yang saya boleh habiskan. Saya rasa itu satu rancangan yang bijak, terutamanya selepas MCT. Saya rasa saya sudah menjadi sekurang-kurangnya 3 kali lebih rajin berbanding dengan dahulu...

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What's best is that my efforts are already paying off... Had a lot of motivational boosters these few days: Mrs. Kitty Tan praised me for my neat work in preparing for Physics tutorial and Mr. Wong said I was the only one who passed up the Maths 'S' Paper Assignment in the whole class... but most importantly, I can be more confident nowadays in class and also don't need to worry if the teachers are checking on us (I had a bad experience once... got bonked on the head by Mrs. Lokman, my Chem tutor, using her Chem tutorial book... haha). Seems like only now I have the determination to stop procrastinating and slacking... I have been trying to shrug off my laziness like forever.
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Tiba-tiba saya teringat poster yang terletak di makmal Biologi di sekolah saya dahulu: 'Belajar secara istiqamah' yang bermaksud belajar secara sederhana tertapi berterusan...

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To tell you how lazy I am, in primary school, I got caned almost everyday because I didn't pass up my homework. I would be very happy if there was a week where I didn't get caned. I wonder why I never tried to do something about it... maybe it became routine to me? Or because I thought I could pull through without doing my homework? I don't know. I was still as lazy in secondary school, but the teachers were lenient (and they couldn't cane us)... and the grades were still OK......until I came to Singapore that is.
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Saya terkejut apabila terdapat peluang untuk belajar di Singapura. Tapi saya tidak sangka belajar di sini akan memberi saya begitu banyak tekanan kerana dahulu saya memang malas... Pada tahap 'A'-level, kemalasan dengan mudahnya menjejaskan prestasi saya... saya tidak boleh mendapat keputusan cemerlang dengan belajar pada saat-saat terakhir lagi...

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Had the second session of the PE elective yesterday... Bouldering is rather addictive I think... but yesterday I did even get to complete a single route... Oh well, at least I'm learning bit by bit... and I recover faster now. Last week it took me 3 days to take the strain out of my arms...

Wednesday, April 07, 2004

OK...this is the translation of yesterday's paragraph... (dedicated especially to Jeffrey)

Oh! Before I forget, this time I am supposed to write this 'blog' in Malay. But what a pity, I have nothing to write about already... Nevermind, I will write tomorrow! I want to try writing in Chinese as well... like what Jeffrey has already done... Hopefully in this way my standard of Malay (and Chinese) will not continue to deteriorate! To those that don't understand what I wrote, I apologize (I used an idiom here)... Don't worry, I won't write anything that will spoil your image or jeer (can't think of any simpler word) at you, OK? Thank you beforehand... (I will translate these sentences tomorrow, OK? hehe...)

Tuesday, April 06, 2004

Nothing really interesting has happened these few days except that I've got all my results back.

The biggest shock to me concerning my MCT results would be my Chemistry marks. Though I got quite low (55%--C), it was better than what I expected (45%) and also a 1% improvement from last year...

Other than that, I got 70.5% for Further Maths which I'm really happy about because this is the first time I got an 'A' for Further Maths! Can't really say the same for Maths though...I got 71% which was lower than what I expected and is most likely a 'B'. For Physics I managed to get into the top 49 list in school, at number 30 with 78% (there were only 49 people who got A after moderation).

Another great thing that happened is that I got 58% for General Paper (4% increase--that's considered a lot for me)! Hopefully that can bag me a B3.

I think I'll be getting AABC+B3 for MCT, up from ABBC+B4 from last year's Promo. Yay!

Hmm...got a bit carried away there, but I like to write down achievements to motivate myself... it's quite effective!

The minor news: Went to Tampines' Subway last Friday for the Study group with Winnie, Cliffton and Jeffrey. I was fined $2 for coming late for choir on Saturday.

I feel so invigorated now. What better time to study? Ciao!
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Eh! Sebelum saya terlupa, kali ini saya sepatutnya menulis 'blog' ni dalam Bahasa Melayu. Sayangnya, sudah tiada apa untuk ditulis... Tak apa, saya akan tulis esok! Nak cuba dalam Bahasa Cina juga... seperti apa yang Jeffrey sudah buat... Harap dengan cara ini tahap Bahasa Melayu (dan Bahasa Cina) saya tidak terus merosot! Kepada mereka yang tidak faham apa yang saya tuliskan, saya menyusun sepuluh jari meminta maaf... jangan bimbang, saya tidak akan menulis apa-apa yang mencemarkan nama anda atau memaki hamun anda, OK? Terima kasih terlebih dahulu... (saya akan menterjemahkan ayat-ayat ini esok, OK? hehe...)
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