Month: February 2003

Chinese – 69/70 – argh…when

Chinese – 69/70 – argh…when will I ever get an A1???
English – Compre: 29/50, Overall: 66/100
E Maths – 23/25
A Maths – 36/40
Chemistry – 27/30

Physics die liao…the 3 resistors question is actually a parallel circuit which I dunno why, and the Iron question I got one part wrong. Sigh…

Mrs. Lee asked us to do group work on case study of Environmental Degradation. Waste cirriculum time of 4 periods in my opinion, but it makes lessons more interesting in a sense. Now trying the graphic organiser Inspiration software…hmmm…

that night I dreamt of

that night I dreamt of during CIP with my Primary School friends…lolz, with JunGang, HuiZi etc. hahaha am I crazy or what? Fancy during Flag Day with Primary School friends…There’s another time when I dreamt about moving house to Ang Mo Kio, a small 4-room flat just beside the MRT…yucks so small!

Today there was a musical by etc (Educational Theatre Consultants) called “Give me a break!”. At first they had background music, in which Shawn and Joel idenitified as a Chris†ian song called “Jesus Shine”, which I’ve never heard before. Amen, anyway! Then the musical talked about challenges we face in life, how a young girl got into a gang called “The Devil’s Angels” (hmmm…) and how it led her astray and how it somehow got her back in the Game of Life…it’s about making the right choices for the right path, because the Game of Life is about winning of losing, and WE are in control of it.

Terence and Derick very childish, kept hitting each other and such, disturbing each other, trying to “jack” etc….will they ever grow? Mr. You said one Jeremy Ho was very good, went to Mr. Tan Yee Kan and even asked him for permission to use D Lab!

Now, should I sell off my iPAQ now and get a e740? or wait for a supposedly newer brighter screen e750? Or don’t change? Or get LOOX? or get 928? aiyo

Also, I can’t seem to squeeze time for the English portfolio

Today supposed to have GTC

Today supposed to have GTC Annual Conference, but I’m here now because got some work to do and missed the computer 😀
Off to dinner now.

[ Saturday, February 22, 2003 ]

Today is the big day I’ve been waiting for….I’m playing the piano for YM Encounter! This is the second time, but the first official one with worship. The last time was only praise at the YM Camp, and it wasn’t that good, many mistakes I’ve made. I was very nervous, hope that I will not play wrongly, but I have no idea what to play for free worship. However, overall, this time was better. We met at 12 noon, and Joshua was the worship leader, with Jonnie and Marcus backup singers. Keith on drums, Wendy on bass, and Poline on electric guitar. Joshua couldn’t play his guitar due to lack of cables. What a waste, he’s a great guitarist and singer, much like Marty Sampson 😉

We played To Honour You, By Your Side (The “official” YM Camp song we say many times), Now That You’re Near (Joshua’s favourite I guess), Open The Eyes of My Heart, I Want to Know You More, Sing of Your Great Love, Making a Difference (didn’t know City Harvest Church produced this song in a CD, but funny, in Kazaa it displayed both Hillsongs and CHC), and Lord Reign in Me. The songs were great, especially played together in a band. Keith’s drums was extremely loud behind me, and the music was all together great and amazing. I was playing pretty okay, enjoying it very much. However, when Joshua asked me to intro Making a Difference, I did not know how to because I was still new and quite amateur. Then he decided not to stress me, just go straight into the song. Then Wendy tried to teach me a bit of how to play worship, but I was still at loss of what to play, because I only know how to play chords, and don’t know how to fill-in the chords.

During the actual worship, it was great to see the whole YM in front of you singing praises to the Lord as one voice like a huge choir. During free worship, when Pastor Eddy was talking, it was silence for a while. Then I know I had to play something, but what? Wendy and Keith hinted me to play something. So I tried to play something. Then I decided to play the melody of Making A Difference as Wendy said I could. And so I played with the chorus repeating and then the verse and vice versa. Made a few mistakes here and there because I wasn’t very familiar with the tune of the song 😉 However, when I was playing, the youth were singing along, which was great, and the voices sound very good, like a choir, just like Blessed’s All the Heavens reprise.

And so I played, after some time, got a bit boring so I changed song and played Sing of Your Great Love in the same way. Finally it ended. Phew! And we played Lord Reign In Me. Joshua said Pastor Eddy requested to end with a fast song, which I think is good and great. So much for that.

After Encounter, Weiyi gave me support and said it was good, much better than the last time. I was relieved. Louis, Jeremiah also said it was good. Then Jolynn said, “Call me next time when you’re free, we need to practise to be better! I forgot you were playing today, if not I’d come and guide you…” Joshua said…need more experience, he was there before 😉

Well, another time then, which will be in April.

So today was the last

So today was the last CA paper….yeah! E Maths was not too bad.

I was made known my Chinese marks…69…wah 1 more mark for A2!!! argh…seems that I didn’t really score well for the paper although the compre was easy. sigh, chinese sucks. Also saw the Chemistry Answers from Bingwen, guess I’ll get 20-25.

Today after school went to NYP with Alvin. We toured the School of IT, School of Design and School of Engineering. The Engineering students actually do some .NET stuff and create mobile applications for Pocket PCs…how come engineering also have these? I thought it’s more on IT :O…they created some funny soccer game, under the Embedded Applications Elective of the Diploma in Elections, Communications Engineering or something like that. The IT courses quite interesting, also have something on mobile devices and handphones. Design is what my brother takes, so nothing much new. The rooms are very densely packed, very thick urban jungle with rooms/labs all around you and no windows to look out into the open. A bit threatening and “scary”. But I guess poly life would be great, at least different from Secondary School and JC where it’s everything study study study….sigh It’s more of the practical side and hence more interesting, and I can develop my talents. It’s not about everything results…results. It’s more exciting and interesting, especially to study what you like. And who says you must go to JC to achieve? Who says you can’t go further education? You can! Hope God can lead me into my choice when the time comes.

Lolz, I saw Mr. Jonathan Oh touring the “Hall of Innovation” at the School of Engineering. Probably part of his Innovation Science thingy which Terence Lim is in….hmmm I waved at him and we were both surprised to see each other. Didn’t talk due to a glass panel between us. Also, I think I saw someone familiar….hmmm…maybe it isn’t Jeremiah’s friend, just familiar. Oh ya, also saw Cassandra from CBPS with her friends on my way to NYP….hmm just said hi.

Last few days wasn’t online….Tuesday

Last few days wasn’t online….Tuesday was studying for Chinese, and yesterday studying for Biology and Chemistry. Chinese and compre very easy, and if lucky, can get A1 for the paper. Biology is quite okay, Chemistry is chicken. Geography was okay too, at least I managed to write a lot, and A Maths was quite easy.

The education system really sucks.
Face it, as Mr. Wong said, we study whatever for these 2 reasons:
1. For General Knowledge
2. Because the Exams will come out.

More importantly, it’s on the second one. Do we really need so much “General Knowledge”? Trust me, 75% or more of what we are studying now aren’t needed in our future life and career, and we will also forget these 75% or more of these information we study after our exams. So we study for what? Exams. And this is the mentality it has been all the way back in Primary School. As Mr. Ho said, this is inevitable…that’s how the Education System works and it sucks.

And results of exams is how schools are ranked. How good you are is determined by results. Nothing else because no one invented a measure system to measure the “else”, i.e. the other aspects of our life. Hence, we are in this mentality that we work work for results. This is proclaimed in the movie “I Not Stupid”, where Jack Neo clearly shows what parents and students of the current Singapore society think, e.g. the famous for ITE: It’s the End….is it really the End? But that’s how we think.

We think too straight. Our path is always PSLE > O Levels > A Levels > Degree. Is that all? NO other *better or alternative* route? Life is boring!

So today is first day

So today is first day of CA…Physics die liao, although it was supposed to be easy, I did the arrangement of the resistors wrongly, hence I think about 4 marks gone since the questions are related. And it seems that I intepreted the aluminium foil question wrongly…hmmm…English was not too bad, although it’s only an hour instead of the usual 1.5 hours, but still able to finish. They are training us for the O Levels it seems, so that we have a sense of security as we have more time…

Tomorrow is Geography and A Maths sigh….been thinking that we are studying all these things without much use, wonder what’s the need for it. Then Matt and Zhan are debating in the school forums about the Total Defence Day speech, about threats on Singapore, police state, war etc. Zhan said that it’s more of Singaporeans being stagnant…hmmm…actually I’m quite happy with Singapore, and I’ve not much complains in the systems, and all those war threats are because the WORLD IS IN A MESS! Attack here and there…sigh…God can You please help us out of this miserable world?

I was searching the Net just now and found a site full of criticisms of Pentecostal churches….some weren’t really true, but why criticise one another when we should be united? It’s quite confusing for me too…even the Church is in a mess at times, and what the world it’s becoming to…

I managed to connect my iPAQ to my Denon Amplifier, and the subwoofer went boom boom boom!

[ Sunday, February 16, 2003 ]

lolz…saw this on a chio sports-like car on my way home from church

sigh CA tmlo and still got a lot of things to study for Biology, Physics, Geog etc….this CA is the most slack I think (I’ve said this for the past few CAs…)…seems that I’m getting more slack…

This morning, decided to go

This morning, decided to go to school for the IT Club meeting after all, since Alvin isn’t going, so I go alone a bit extra (also since it’s for O Level Leavers, not me :p). After long meeting, Mr. You also there, then Santosh asked me and Victor whether we want to be in the Emergency Exercise…hehe….fine anytime, so we are called “Friends”, in that during the exercise, we are supposed to console those victims or something like that…hehe interesting…it’d be in next month, it’d be fun then, since I’m part of it. Mr. Chia wrote our names down and went off.

Santosh saw my Victoriana Adidas T-shirt and was exclaiming, “Wah lau! Adidas T-shirt ah? So good….how much?” Free, I said :D. All complements of Mr. Khoo :p. Still can’t really figure out whether the colour is blue/navy/blue-black/purple/purple-black/black! Santosh wore his Red Cross T-shirt, and he said he amended the school crest to have the Red Cross logo….interesting…was thinking of it the other day whether he knows what the Cross really represents….would be interesting.

After that, went home and eagerly went into the Hougang MRT Civil Defence Shelter Open House. Took out my Ixus and snapped many shots, willl post up next time. Quite nice station, with interesting hand prints on the wall. It’s quite long, from one side of the train stretching to the other, with the Bus Interchange at one end and Hougang Mall at the other. Saw the CD facilities such as the decontamination chamber, blast-proof doors, dry toilets, flexible air tube, and other signboards and stuff. They had a train parked there, which was great and we could see the interiors and explore. Not much difference from the new current ones, just that it’s driverless, so can see the front/back, and the seats are larger, more colourful and more comfortable. Not much crowd except for schoolchildren on excursion.

Sigh, have to study….tried to study geography but dozed off a little while too….Okay, went to Alvin’s house for Chap Goh Meh dinner…and the 4th yu sheng I have this year and the last of course. Took some nice pictures of moon and night too, with long shutter speeds, very nice.

This morning, Mr Tan Yee

This morning, Mr Tan Yee Kan talked about the O Level registrations. Then we went to health check. We weren’t really organised, so we didn’t give Mr. Maran/Chia “a reason to praise us”. Mr. Chia walked by and asked who’s the monitor. He was surprised it was Santosh, (and Santosh related by “Oh !@#$, can’t you all be more orderly and I can do some academic work?”) and scolded a bit. He organised us and asked Santosh “Can I excuse myself now?” Haha. So the nurse was surprised that I wore specs. My right eye without specs is still 6/6 (hehe not bad eh?) while my defective left eye is 6/9 (last year was 6/12). This year, we measured our blood pressure and mine was 124/74…the nurse said it was okay. That nurse talked a lot….he told Santosh “You see girls, then your blood pressure higher lah. You in exam, also higher because nervous…”. Then she asked Edgar “Later Total Defence what time? For what? Singaporeans so many ks, where got love to country? Kiasee, Kiasu, Kia this and that…” Haha talk so much, do your job lah!

After recess, we commerated Total Defence Day in the Hall. There was Prof Bilveer Singh, a father of one of our Sec 4J guy I think. He’s lecturer in NUS in Political Science or something. The talk was about Singapore’s security challenges – International (Terrorism, War), Regional (JI, Islam, neighbours’ disputes) and National (within our community, harmony). Also talked about some jokes about how our country’s name came about. Then he told us about what other countries view Singapore as – Little dot, police state, etc. About how we should face this challenges, with other things surrounding us. That’s why we need total defence, with all 5 aspects so that we can face these challenges.

During the event, the audience, especially Sec 1s very un-Victorian. They clapped when there wasn’t a need to, whistled and shouted as if it’s a concert. Very bad. Mr. Maran/Chia wasn’t really happy and shouted at us at the end. As I said, the Sec 1s didn’t have their camp….so….sigh

Next week’s CA and I’m slacking here. No mood to study. Should I go for the New Paper’s Beyond O Level Seminar tomorrow? Alvin’s not free, working, so boring to go myself. So I should go to school for the meeting with Ivan and Vipul and Hozefa? Afternoon, studying Physics and dozed off :p Just now had a long talk with Mr. You about strategic planning for O Levels L1R5…hmm…

Today recess something bad happened.

Today recess something bad happened. I was refilling my bottle at my favourite water cooler in the canteen as usual. I finished and a stepped back, accidentally stepped on someone’s foot (I think it’s his foot), he tripped, and the plate of drumstick and bread he’s holding fell. 🙁 I said “Sorry….Why you standing behind me?” He replied, “I want a drink waht.” At first I thought it was just another Victorian I didn’t noe, but at second glance, I realised it was Zhongmin, my junior :-|. He walked off, seemed pissed off. After a moment, I caught up with him and said sorry a few times. I asked him, “You need me to pay you (to compensate)?” He say, “No need.” Then, he walked off, seemingly pissed.

I feel very bad, I walked around and sat down beside Desmond. Then I stared into space. I told Desmond what happened. Actually I wanted to eat, but now I’ve no mood to eat anymore. Desmond said, “Do what you should do, and you’ll feel better.” In the end, I bought Fan Choy and ate beside Richie. Was thinking about it as I ate, and told Richie about it too. Ironically, Zhongmin actually came to sit in front of us. After a few moments, he went off to sit with his Table Tennis mates….seemingly pissed off.

Feeling bad, I thought I should compensate him. I digged my wallet…..a $2 note. Then I decided to treat him a drink. After I ate, I walked to him and asked him whether he wanted a drink. He said, “Ni Ching Wo Ah? (You treating me ah?)” I answered and he requested for a mix drink. I bought for him (cost 50cents) and after that, I felt much better. 😀

Thank God. I always said christians have a >

From a CNN News Article

From a CNN News Article about a new Osama tape:

“This nexus between terrorists and states that are developing weapons of mass destruction can no longer be looked away from and ignored. As the president has said, 9/11 changed things,” Powell said.

The tape called on Muslims to “fight those who believe in Satan” and quoted the Koran as saying “you shouldn’t take the Jews and the Christians as friends and whoever helps them becomes one of them.”

It added that those who help America in a war against Iraq, “have to know that they are outside this Islamic nation. Jordan and Morocco and Nigeria and Saudi Arabia should be careful that this war, this crusade, is attacking the people of Islam first.”

Very interesting article: http://www.touchet1611.org/IslamReligionPeace.html
The verse that Osama quoted:

Sura 5:51 “O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people.”

So they are not supposed to befriend Christians and Jews. A person deep in faith should follow what his religon says. But look at what many Southeast-Asians are doing. Doesn’t this make them “unjust” according to their god? If that is so, if they are treated “unjust” for their god just for befriending (nice) people, then why they follow this god?

And this verse also disproves that Islam is a peaceful religion which is being protrayed by many Islamic leaders. They kept trying to say Islam is peaceful. Really? Cannot befriend people? If not, would be treated as unjust? Isn’t that being anti-social? You call being anti-social = peaceful? No way!

So this is the verse that many terrorists are working on, claiming for their jihad or holy war/struggle. War against Jews and Christians because they cannot befriend us that is. Now, no wonder all these things are happening. And the Islamic leaders term these terrorists as “extremists”. What’s the defination of extremists? People who take religion too seriously? What’s wrong with taking religion seriously? IF it’s wrong, then means they’re following a (false) religion which shouldn’t be taken too seriously….

Think about it.

God of the Bible, God of Jesus, God of Holy Spirit, never ever condemns anyone. God loves the world, he loves every sinner, even Osama. And he did not say cannot befriend enemies. He said “Love your enemy as your neighbour.” See the contrast.

From this webpage: http://www.touchet1611.org/IslamReligionPeace.html
And how about Muhammad. He was not sinless (Sura 40:55); he had 16 wives and 6 ‘others’. Sura 4:3 forbids more than 4 wives; he never performed a single miracle (Sura 17:91-95). And what about his love for his people? He did not die for anyone. There is no personal relationship with him… HE IS DEAD!

Well, Jesus IS sinless, he didn’t have any wives. He performed MANY miracles. He so loved the world that he died for us. There IS a personal relationship with Him in us. And, he’s ALIVE! Amen!