Reflecting back on 2009, thank God for…

• Bringing me into New Creation Church and CAP5 care group, which I believe is by no coincidence, and allowing me to grow more spiritually there and get to know many great friends. I am very thankful for all the fellowship and support they have given me, and I am greatly blessed. And I’m sure everyone else is greatly blessed too.
• Allowing me to embark on a tour in the USA and this SEP journey in the USA for the next 6 months
• Granting me favour and wisdom in my exams. The last semester was probably the best so far, with most of the subjects which I took, I liked them (except for Math). Even so, Math was a miracle, and the CS and NM were great. The three projects which I had to do – A Wii Game for CS3249, a shuttle bus website for CS3240, and an advertising campaign for NM3215, all turned out to be awesome by His grace! He is ever so faithful! Also thanks to the wonderful groupmates which I had.
• Allowing me to experience to be the VP of nuSTUDIOS for a year. It has been a long and challenging time to juggle administrative stuff and the passion for film. Often, the admin stuff sucks your energy away from the passion, but it has been good times with Choices filming and the Durian Complex just before I leave. Even though it was tiring, it was a fulfilling experience!
• Granting me extra time and time more abundantly. It was almost a constant prayer last semester, and God never fails to expand my time to do all the things that I need to do
• For the scubacam website – it was probably one of the most challenging projects that I have done, and finally it is finished.
• For my new dSLR! To take wonderful photos! I should so start a photo blog.
• And lastly, 7 wonderful years of walking with Jesus.

(During the event, some people said the scarf looked not too bad, and I need to have the self-confidence to bring it on. My cousin said I looked like Rain? I guess I need to be less self-conscious and more Jesus-conscious! As You are , so are we!)

The place looked very familiar, then I realised that I went there before 5 years ago for VJC’s 20th Anniversary Gala Dinner. Ah…we had a cocktail reception before proceding in for the dinner. First time there was the ROM solemnization ceremony incorporated before the dinner. Quite interesting. The food was good, my favourite was the cold dish and the dessert was not bad.  Coincidentally, I met yongxue there. Somehow, he knew my cousin through his workplace. What a small world after all…

My cousin hired a pretty impressive video team, which did a short-film-quality MTV-like same-day highlights video, which showed what happened during the tea ceremonies in the morning. It was very cool, the colours were graded very well and the film-like HD quality was quite good. Some samples of similar videos can be found here.

Going to a wedding also makes one think about what would yours be like in future. But I guess it is too early for me to think about that now!

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School has been good so far. God is good, I have been praying for abundant time and God is certainly faithful in many occasions to multiply my time. On one occasion, I actually reached school half hour earlier. I also managed to finish my CS3240 report in 7 hours on the deadline itself, and the other projects are going on schedule. CS3249 has been the most interesting. Although the project – designing a Wii game – has little to do with the module name, Elements of User Interface Design, it is one of the most fulfilling projects so far.  I did not want to the usual design role, and hence I took up the courage to do the programming role for this project. I had to figure out ActionScript, which was my first time, as well as using the WiiFlash API to program the Bartender game (which another group designed). I had to find out with my teammates how to ‘pour’, ‘shake’ and map the cursor based on the infrared sensor. We managed to create a prototype last Monday, and it was fun and amazing to see the game work. Everyone’s been cooperative and the other groups were quite impressive too. NM3215 Advertising Strategies is going to be stressful as our report about Kia Motors is due next Friday and presentation after that. As for Maths, it is a struggle as always to learn and keep up, but by His grace, I will. NM2101 has been interesting but I hope it is not too difficult to score. Somehow, my essay-writing skills are going raw.

Last Monday, I attended the Kent Ridge Ministerial Forum with MM Lee as Guest-of-Honour. It was an interesting but short event as it was my first time in such an event hearing MM Lee speak life. Quite insightful and it is obvious that many people are still interested in politics and Government, just that most of our generation tends to be more nonchalant. MM Lee said that in order for our generation to survive the next 50 years, we need the ruggedness, roburst attitude, will make it, do -or-die attitude like our grandparents/forefathers and understand what it means to be poor. Our forefathers fight against all odds (just like how now Foreign Talent fight with us), and built the Singapore as it is today. I think our generation still has some way to go to learn that, living in so much comfort.

It’s week 10, and 4 more weeks to go. Not long later, after exams, and I will be flying off! For my SEP! To the land of freedom and liberty…in a flight that will cost as much as a computer. haha. I am looking for flights now, it is hard to find a cheap one. Trying to arrange to meet Josh P. there for Christmas too.

I REFER to yesterday’s reports, ‘PM signals a slower intake of immigrants’ and ‘A tip to students: Be driven about causes’.

I am a student at the National University of Singapore. I agree with what Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that bringing in foreigners will help ‘raise our standards and create a stimulating environment’.

I enjoy working with people from various cultures, having been exposed to them since Secondary 3, which is when the Ministry of Education brings in scholars from China and Asean.

However, at university level, there are sometimes too many foreign students competing for Singaporeans’ space to grow.

For instance, in a mathematics lecture I attended, almost three-quarters of the class comprised foreigners. During in- lecture quizzes, it was obvious that the foreigners were better than the Singaporeans, and so ‘stimulated’ the learning environment.

However, it has come to a point where the competition has become stifling and stressful. This is because, in most cases, the foreign students have already learnt lower-level maths and science in their home country. Hence, Singaporeans are at a disadvantage in studying the same subject together with them.

Besides, universities here should give higher priority in offering places to Singaporean students from polytechnics and junior colleges. It is like giving your own children priority in education instead of those of a stranger.

Why should we give priority to foreign students at the expense of Singaporeans? I feel sorry for Singaporeans who have no university place because of this.

Singaporeans should be given more opportunities to learn and grow. Otherwise, many of those who cannot secure a place in a university here will go elsewhere.

[In the Straits Times today]

Even joining CCAs now seem to be a burden than a joy to me. It used to be something fun which I enjoy doing, otherwise I would not have joined in the first place. However it seemed like things have changed over the months. The amount of planning and admin work is hindering my enjoyment. Maybe because I have done too much of these and they seemed so mundane. Or perhaps it I because the CCA(s) that I joined have a lack of sense of belonging. Not that they don’t have, just not enough I guess. Relationships and friendships are mostly subtle, except for a select few. By a sense of belonging I mean that we do things together – eating, celebrating, studying, relaxing. There are some components, but lack of others, which I have to look for in other groups of friends. (Or maybe some of us have different groups of friends for different purposes, that I’m not sure…) I would not say my social life is very satisfying, although it may seem happening.

I treasure it when good friends do things out of randomness and without much hesitation. Like how I went to play pool with a friend today. Like how a few of us decide to wear a common theme every Thursday (oops I forgot about it last week), how we decide to go for a movie within 5 minutes, how we play Left 4 Dead for 2-4 hours spontaneously, how we decide to go somewhere for a meal. These are the random moments which makes friendships special. While planned outings have their place in keeping in connect with people, the number of random outings shows the degree of spontaneousity and comfort level in your friendships. I think that is quite important. It is definitely more than a facebook wall or MSN message.

Sometimes, it is lonely when I have to do things alone, when I have to stay in school late alone, when I have to eat dinner alone, when I study alone. Although eating alone is a pretty common thing for me nowadays, I still prefer to do it with other people. I have many friends, but I feel lonely. I call it the “lonely crowd syndrome”. Is it because I have too many groups of friends? Or too few good friends who will be with me through thick and thin? Or is it because most people around my age have boy/girlfriends and they spend less time with their normal friends?

I still haven’t found what I am looking for.

The only thing I can look forward to now is going overseas and experience a different kind of life, and to look for what I’m looking for.

10 years after we graduate from CBPS, my friend organised a gathering with some of my primary school classmates and even 3 of our teachers. Some of us change, some of us still look the same. Some faces I don’t recognise, while some faces grew more mature. The teachers have progressed, the students have progressed too. The image of us in the teachers’ eyes are always the little kids running around. The image of the teachers in our eyes are role models which taught us for at least 4-6 years of our lives. (My primary school was really small and I actually had the same Chinese teacher for 5 years (who is also my art teacher) and same form teacher for 3 years and same PE teacher for 6 years.) Fond memories still remain.

I still remember how my friend and I would play the recorder as others sing songs on the excursion bus. How I joined Computer Club and Innovative Club and we create a model of a city with a train moving around using recycled materials. How I had my first experience in a WITS project presentation. How we made a lot of noise in class and tried to mimic some Chinese drama shows. How being a prefect means you can get food at the tuckshop (yes, that’s the word, not canteen) 10 minutes before everyone else. How someone can actually have a crush on you at the age of primary 5? How it rained as we hiked to our campsite in Pulau Ubin. How we ran around the field touching the trees at the edges. How we played “S-T-O-P STOP” at the back of the staircase. How we fed the fish in the gigantic pond. And many many more.

The building is still at Ang Mo Kio St 44. Sometimes I walk pass and wonder if I can trespass inside and peak at the memories.

And how we bid farewell to a school which is no more.

Chong Boon Primary School.

Forward We Strive.

In junior college, the box gets even more stifling. Two years, cram. Then wham. A little bit of time for your orientation games and what not. But then reality soon sets in and you have to start studying. Otherwise you won’t be able to go to a ‘university of your dreams’.

And then I thought, going to university will finally get me out of the box. Because finally, in university, you get to study what you like, and hopefully there will be less exams and more projects that you are interested in, instead of studying for the sake of studying. But I was wrong.

On the contrary, for some of the modules, the box is exactly the same. Cram. Wham. Mid-term tests. Exams. And oh, there are ten-year-series too. Just that irritatingly, there are no friendly answers provided. What? No answers? Then how to study? We got all the questions with no answers. Nevermind lah. Just keep whacking the questions. Do a thousand times, discuss with friends, until you get them right. Especially those mechanical ones must get right. Otherwise you will be pushed down the bell curve. Because everyone is expected to get those questions right. Projects? What projects? 10% only, what difference does it make to the total marks? The bunk of the marks still come from your exams. Why spend so much time on your project when its weightage is negligible in your final grade? Faster download the past year exam papers. More important. Quick quick, only have one week left to study. Oh, module over? Okay, let’s forget everything that I studied. Kinda useless anyway for next semester since I may not be using it anymore.

I sure hope that my higher level modules have less of the box. And more out of the box teaching and examination methods. No exam is good as everything is based on projects. Just like NM2208. I love it a lot because I do not need to cram anything for any exam. Excellent. Finally, I am out of the box.

The Singapore education system seriously needs to move away from the notion of exams. Singaporeans are trained in ten-year-series, and without them, it seems like we cannot survive. (Except for the super smart ones)

Went to school as normal. On Wednesday night had a runny nose. Was quite bad as I was perspiring (due to Panadol), yet I feel cold because of the cold. However, there was no high fever yet. On Thursday, it was 37.3 degrees again. I went to see doctor in NUS, but when I reached there, I didn’t have a fever as temp was 36.9. He gave me some runny nose tablets. Before I went for lesson, I took my temperature again. The temperature shot up to 37.9. It was then I decided that I should go straight home right now.

And hence, I am home now, can’t go for film camp BBQ Temp was 38.2 last night, hope it isn’t H1N1. Even if it is, it is treated as seasonal flu right now, and I heard one must pay like $200 to test for it. What’s the point? Fortunately, now my temperature is back to normal at 36.9 =)

Maybe I’ve been going out too often, perhaps my body just wants me to rest at home. It’s good to be at home without any worries or things to do. That’s what holiday is about, isn’t it? (Although I still have a lot of things to do…)