Cutie's Kibbleloss

it's mugging time!

2010-07-19T20:48:00.003+08:00

Captain: Are you ready kids?
Kids: Aye-aye Captain.
Captain: I can't hear you...
Kids: Aye-Aye Captain!!
Captain: Ohhhhhhhh! Who lives in the library in RJC?
Kids: PATRICK the STARFISH!
Captain: Diligent and clever and mugger is he!
Kids: PATRICK the STARFISH!
Captain: If mugging with muggers be something you wish...
Kids: PATRICK the STARFISH!
Captain: Then come to the library and study with him!
Kids: PATRICK the STARFISH!
Captain: Ready?
EveryBody: PATRICK STARFISH! PATRICK STARFISH! PATRICK STARFISH!
Captain: PATRICK .... THE MUGGER! Haha. (ba-da-ba-da-ba-da)

RI

2010-06-13T23:57:00.002+08:00

just a random thought: the only way for RI and RJ to become one school (RI) is to break down the geographical barrier between the 2 schools (i.e. some of us have classes over at the other side like junior block). Guess that'd never happen.

my 5 days for mugging chem are up. and i'm not really done with the mugging. wonder why i'm so slow this time. used to only need 1+ week to mug for CT/promo. maybe cuz CTs seem so far away even now. or maybe cuz there's harry potter and the deathly hallows beside me begging to be perused.

it's physics tmr!

revival try no. 7

2010-06-06T18:22:00.004+08:00

i know i haven't been posting on my blogs since jan this year.

that's 6 months haha i've told people that i've gotten bored of blogging but i guess the reason is i really don't know what to write anymore. In truth, i have tried 6 times to revive my blog but none have succeeded. i write for a while and get stuck and decide i'll continue later but i'd just stop. i guess another reason is just that i didn't find the time. maybe cuz i keep trying to blog about the big things like orientation where there is just so much to write. maybe i should go back to blogging about daily life first.

and so here we are. (: the past week has been torturous. forcing words into your brain wasn't as easy as i thought it would be. i seriously thought of giving up a few times but i guess the thought of having to retake SAT drove me on. i'm glad i didn't give up cuz the vocab list turned up to be really helpful. i didn't really do that well but i'm hoping i get higher than the last time. the essay this time was totally >< though. didn't know what to write. sigh.

had fun at mike's house. watching movie. their house is really nice. unfortunately, it's so far away. ):

oh badminton was fun too. i'd love to have played soccer but i was afraid of being thrashed haha. sigh. as i told jiggy, i really wonder what i'd be today if i had taken up a sport in sec 1. maybe i'd have more confidence. but den again confidence is not necessarily a good thing.

and so the mugging sessions come again. 3 weeks to mug PCME. rarh. i truly miss the sec 4 days...

okay i better post this before i save draft and leave it for later again. (:

in hope for a better blog,
PAT!

let's revive it!

2010-06-06T18:19:00.002+08:00

风走在我们前面
甩裙摆画着圆圈
花美得兴高采烈
那香味有点阴险

你在我旁边的旁边
但影子却肩碰肩
偷看一眼
你的唇边
是不是也有笑意明显

明明是昨天的事情
怎么今天我还在经历
一丁点回忆都能惊天又动地

想问个愚蠢问题
我们再这样下去
你猜会走到哪里

但请你不要太快揭开还沉默的情话
先让我多着急一下再终于等到解答
太容易的爱故事就不耐人回味啦
像这样触电
就够我快乐熔化

我们就耐心培养萌芽不要急着开花
反正有长长的日记等我们去填满它
在被全世界发现以前先愉快装傻
就这样触电
一直甜蜜触电
直到爆炸

像一年四个季节
都被你变成夏天
我才会在你面前
总是被晒红了脸

像一百万个秋千
在我心里面叛变
被你指尖
碰到指尖
我瞬间就被荡到天边

note to self

2010-01-11T23:25:00.002+08:00

stuff to note:
1. mug chem (by fri)
2. chem tutorial (by next mon)
3. econs essay (by thur)
4. GP find a file
5. highlights rehearsals
6. CO pracs
7. write cards!
8. GO RUN AND DO PULL UP!! zzz.

should i be signing up for more stuff? haix.

today was first day of school for this year haha. not bad luh. spent homecoming with HouseD haha. quite fun although it was a little boring standing on a chair holding a sign. haha. but okay luh. hm seems like our chem teacher is not bad just that it seems like i'll have to do my tutorials on time now haha. ms mok is our math teacher. hope she's nice like mr koh haha. (: econs was slack and matsuri was a relief.

sleep!!!

-PAT!

i'm determined to post this post.

2010-01-11T21:36:00.002+08:00

sigh. it's really been a while since i've posted on this blog. since the last post, i've

1. gone for council retreat and came back

2. yum cha countless times in countless different restaurants with countless different names (but they all look identical).

3. got forced by eugene gan to buy moments by exdee but got treated to ice lemon tea and seaweed chicken in return.

4. overtaken matt in photo count on facebook

i remember the days when blogging was my daily activity after school. kind of stopped it last year partly because i started to write longer stuff and most were saved as drafts and eventually deleted. but it's also because i kind of busied myself with too many things last year. this year it's all As (hope i get that for my As too). but let's first look at 2009 which was a super eventful year.

I remember myself being the super super enthu kind who wanted to sign up for 10 CCAs and couldn't really choose (okay lots of people were like me) so it was kind of weird that I ended up in Council and CO. I really wanted to join interact because i felt it was very meaningful and fun but ohh it's totally like my choir experience in RI.

okay wait im supposed to be reflecting on 2009.

so backtracking even more to dec 2008, i signed up for lots of programmes as advertised by yitao. i was basically the kind who couldn't really make up my mind what i really wanted to join and therefore joined all and see what i could get into. in the end, ycm was a bad choice and i kinda feel guilty that i wasted a slot for someone who could have done the job better than me. but shine was rather fun. haha. the people there are really nice (maybe just pubs but still...). haha. jackson still talks to me on weekends when he's out of camp so that's nice (: i guess the most important thing i learnt in shine was how to always be positive. song kwang was quite inspiring to watch. sometimes the things he says are quite cliched but you could see that he always stayed focused and positive and he was really passionate about what he was doing. i guess having a set goal and believing in what you are doing is very important. jackson was another person who really inspired me and he's really the definition of nice guy. haha. really enjoyed meetings with him around.

den there was chingay. haha chingay was quite fun but i guess i never really fit in with my group who were totally RAH-RAH to the max (i swear they are...). haha. they are really a crazy bunch of people luh. i really dreaded the training sessions but the actual event was fun luh. hahaha the fireworks were great and i got to see all the performers walk by. i guess it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience so i don't regret joining it. haha. i remember that becoming a motivator was also a yi4 shi2 de4 chong1 dong4 kind of decision but the experience was not too bad luh. more happening than ushers... haha.

and there was MPS. hahaha. i dunno what i should say about it leh. went for 10 sessions. quite fun luh but the timings are really bad like it's late at night. but i think you get to see different types of people luh. kind of messed it up at first but got a bit better later on before suddenly stopping to go (sigh it's kind of bad...)

but i guess YAH was the best experience. Joining as a member, it was a great surprise to suddenly find myself in an EXCO position and I'm really thankful for the chance. I guess initially, my commitment wasn't that good due to all the council stuff and CO stuff but the YAH BB was really good. Once again, I guess it's the people who make the event special. I really enjoyed working with YAH peeps because they are really friendly haha. Esp. loved my VM comm with Julia, Doria, Jeremy, Cas, Khanh, Terence... KENNETH! lol. if im a boss in the future, i'll definitely hire kenneth as my COO. haha. but i guess there are lots of takeaways for me from YAHBB. It's all about EQ i guess. how to make people under you work but make it sound like it's not work. haha. it's kinda hard. but i really looked forward to all our meetings and stuff. James is another inspirational person i've met and once again it's his passion and his determination to make YAH successful which makes him special. and of course his friendly yet at the same time strict personality made us all respect him. yvonne was a different type. the very warm kind of person and very friendly too. haha i loved interviewing with yvonne haha. it's super funny (: there's no dai4 gou1 at all!

WLC was the other external event. this was the super last minute but still very successful one. haha. WLC was really an interesting experience because there were like so many foreigners around me but at the same time, so many friends too! when i first heard of the project, it sounded like some PW bullshit and I thought it was never gonna work out. but somehow we managed to pull through. haha. although our duty was more of getting the speakers and stuff (which was the easier part), we had a tough time liasing with others (i still remember michelle scolding me over the phone for like 10min). haha. but we still managed to pull through somehow. there were so many memories from WLC. The airport pickup was the best. With me, kenneth and lumpy running around picking up people and people staring at me and wondering "why the hell is this boy carrying a sign saying world leadership conference". haha. at hotel81 trying to answer all the questions from the foreigners. on the first day, in the morning, packing all the stuff and seeing one whole long queue of people. and the times when we were all in the small room in the corner trying to mug but ending up slacking. haha. those were good times man. really enjoyed that week of my life. Once again, it was the people who made WLC a great experience. The peeps were really super enthu about everything even though some programmes were a little screwed up. That made everyone happy. And the friends around me who constantly made me smile and laugh. haha. OH! i remember the times we had lunch at kou fu too! haha. sighhh. WLC!!!

Back in school, CO was okay luh. I guess I had lots of fun prac-ing with perc with kweky, victor, liyuan, linghui, yongsheng... hahaha. and concert was rather fun too. but there was much more that i thot we could have done. sigh. still think the whole CO is rather segregated unlike band. haha. oh wells. but well a gold is still a gold so i'll take that (:

Joining council was probably my best decision of the year. haha. i always knew i was gonna find difficulties fitting in because council was full of rah-rah people and i'm not exactly the rah-rah people. i can only rah-rah with very close friends. but comparing a life with council and a life without council, i'd definitely have joined council. i'd probably have worked much much harder for elections. haha. i was kinda the type who 'okay loh get in den get in. don't get in den suan4 le4'. esp. after there was so much talk within CO that council was BADDD. hahaha. but honestly, council made my life so much more fun. starting with NAT DAY! haha. the month leading to nat day was seriously very very very fun. haha. all the nights spent with games gomm (i.e. penny and matty)... haha building memories through shared experiences. i'll never forget those memories. all the qian2 tu2s and stuff. haha. the pulling of white cloth around MPH. the AV stuff. haha. really enjoyed myself. I guess nat day isn't exactly the most happening comm around but i still enjoyed myself thoroughly and it made me more accustomed to council and get to know lots of other councillors haha. so that's good (: In the end, it was once again the people: Matty, Penny, Charlotte, Zeb, Weite, Justine, Xiner... who made the experience unforgettable. With council also comes HHhouseD. haha. i'll admit i wasn't really a house person in pri or sec school. all i did was participate in events i was really confident in like weiqi and maybe math. haha. i always thought that houseD was gonna be my last choice until joelynn came along. OH YES. council also meant council buddy and joelynn is a GREAT BUDDY! hahaha. omg. i think she's the best buddy you can find luh. we're still meeting for buddy lunches. (: at first i guess i was really shy haha but now it's better luh. we are more open with each other so we can talk more! (: she's a really a very very very very very EXTREMELY nice girl. hahaha. people usually say i'm a nice guy but she made me want to be more nice so u can imagine how nice she is haha. (: ANYWAY, back to houseD. haha. so joelynn caused me to want to join HouseD and so i filled in houseD as my first choice on my council sheet. i guess i fit in more to houseD than CCAD bah. haha. i remember the times when shanzhi called me to ask whether i wanted to join CCAD instead cuz they needed a drummer. haha. but i really am not rah-rah unlike jerald so i guess jerald was the much better choice. anyway i really love my HOUSED haha. i guess we are all rather shy (even MATT! maybe not sixuan though). haha and i always think that when shy people are put together, they are all not shy anymore because they can relate to each other better! haha. i dunno luh. that's how i think. but anyway, everyone is super nice. omg. haha. there are many shared memories once again including the HHpubs board memories, IHC MEMORIES. OMG IHC. hahaha. i never knew IHC was so fun. even sports

hmm also had IBN attachment last year. haha. this time the project wasn't as good but i guess it was passable. my presentation went not bad so it's okay bah. but once again, it was the people who made the experience fun. haha. shiane and shah and yuan han who were always with me in the lab office. lol. we spent lots of time together having fun haha. the best part was the heart attack we played and the forfeits hahahaha. so funny (: and den there was daisy, yar oo, sue and KELVIN! hahaha KELVIN! omg. some super weird guy hahaha. but lots of people say i look like him. haha. somehow he feels like my elder brother (maybe cuz he always bullies me). but haha he always made life much more fun cuz he just keeps talking and talking and talking. but he's super smart too. omg. hahaha. i want to be a bit like him in the future. damn smart and popular! hahaa. really loh. he can just talk to anyone on the bus to holland v and start talking about that person's project. haha. but the best part was when we sang together. hahaa. really fun (: some more he taught me a few singing skills. (: overall, IBN was very fun because of them! really enjoyed the lunch-es! hahaha!

i'm not sure what kind of impression i've been building up within the teachers. i hope it's a good one though. haha. sometimes, i think teachers get the impression that i'm the smart ass type who doesn't study but gets good marks.

i guess there were a lot of other small random stuff like the raffles perc thing that kinda failed. den there was RACE TO HEALTH which wasn't too successful either but was kinda fun (:

and of course the HK trip. hahaha. (:

so that was 2009.

i guess it was really the people who made my year special. So here's a special thanks to:

1. 4B'08 peeps who are still very close to me (:

2. 10S06R for the wonderful times in class haha.

3. HH HouseD for being super nice and funny!

4. Games Gomm for being wacky like matty (lol).

5. IBN peeps for the fun lunches and talk cock sessions

6. WLC peeps

7. NAT DAY PEEPS!

8. Super nice people like Joelynn, Jackson, James, Yvonne, SK!

it's not a very organized reflection. and there are many more special days to remember. i'll write it in another post! bye for now! (:

-PAT!

For HH from MATT: it's a bird! it's a plane! no, it's IHC SPORTS!!!111 okay no it's a bird

2009-10-24T22:46:00.001+08:00

HI HH!!! No, we're not dead, merely slightly knocked out from the all-too-recent Promos. Unfortunately for us and fortunately for you, our horsey house never stops being happening~~ Promos may be over but IHC SPORTS is coming up!!!! IHC Sports is so epic that it gets a bigger font (even though 3 days only lah, but still).

It doesn't take a H3 Math student to know that we're currently lying in 5th position. Does this mean we've been the worst house through and through for the whole of 2009? THIS ISN'T TRUE. It merely means that we made little boo-boos in Orientation and IHC Aesthetics, and with IHC Aesthetics' buff and manly elder take-steroids-every-day brudder, IHC SPORTS, coming up, the race is very much open.

"Okay", you may say, "why should I care about HH?? HH SUX LIEK S***." If you're one of the 0.000012135245% of HHians who think that way, by all means, take IHC Sports as an opportunity to showcase your talents and play sports that you would otherwise never have the opportunity to play in, with a chance to win FAME, GLORY, and most importantly, "IHC CHAMPION" T-SHIRTS. So that's why you should sign up!

Yet the other 99.999987864755% of us know that IHC is above individual glory. It's about proving once and for all that HH isn't half as bad as people make us out to be. Maybe you maintain that you don't feel for the house, but surely you feel a twinge of annoyance when someone carelessly says that "HH iz 4 nubs u gg". Maybe you claim that the house system doesn't mean anything, but then you are lying. Everyone regards the house system with some seriousness whether they know it or not. When you walk around school wearing a HH PE T-shirt, being a member of HH will be all you appear to people who don't know you. If you hang out at the HH House 'Ome every single morning, people will - whoops, we don't have an 'Ome anymore, bad example.

And because of this, we at the House D and House Comm feel that we all have a stake in IHC, and this is hence an appeal to YOU to sign up for IHC Sports events! You don't have to be Buff, Strong, or Handsome - though these would of course help. The only thing you need is your name, your class, your preferred events, and a pen.

Seeya at the sign-up boards!

Signing off,
your favourite (and only) House Directorate

Mojo Jojo

2009-10-16T22:54:00.003+08:00

2009-10-12T22:07:00.002+08:00

videos.

2009-10-12T21:44:00.002+08:00

Hmm PWWWW ><

他的风筝

2009-10-11T12:14:00.000+08:00

videos!

2009-10-11T12:02:00.003+08:00

here we go. 星光大道!

mm damn good (:

end of hiatus

2009-10-09T21:13:00.002+08:00

woohoo! finally finished promos (:

promos was a rather stressful period this year. more stressful than CTs definitely 'cause the mugging materials doubled. but i'm quite glad with the way i've done. (:

but now that promos is done, everything's back. YAH meetings, council work, pw... rarh. but at least it's a little more interesting than mugging. (:

anyway had some leadership workshop today. wasn't really looking forward to it. would have preferred staying in the chalet and playing cards but it was very worth it in the end. haha. we had lots of fun and learnt loads. let me try to remember as much as i can (:

hmm.

i thought the first speaker was quite impressive. haha. he was rather humourous and he kind of connected with us. and his joke on his bald head was really funny haha.

anyway, i was quite impressed by the 5 stages of leadership and how positional leadership is the first stage of leadership but the worst form of leadership. I think I'm in the second stage, the permission part. haha. but it's really interesting. eric feng talked about it later on too so i guess it's important.

another thing that impressed me was how he could spot people's personalities so accurately, especially sixuan omgg. he basically split people up as extroverts and introverts and then split each group into 2 further groups. It's quite scary how he predicted the way we behave so quickly. but i guess that's how first impression works. but at the same time, i think people don't stay in one group forever. i'm not sure about others but i change when i'm with different people. usually, with familiar people, especially guys, i'm an extrovert. i just feel more confident when i do stuff with people i'm familiar with. or if i'm with introverts, then i become more of an extrovert. it's quite weird sometimes haha. it's like in my current class, i'm considered a complete extrovert when in fact i'm usually not. i guess jun sheng feels the same way too. but if i'm with people i'm not so familiar with, i'm usually an introvert, the more friendly type. haha. i like to lead by serving. it just makes you feel good. that's the way i worked in CO and still the way i usually work in council. i like the feeling of helping people out. (: and when i'm by myself, i'm a complete introvert who, like Gordon said, would stare at the lift maximum weight and maximum no. of people and divide the 2 numbers to get the average weight. damn. hahaha. and i'll always think of things in a very logical way, too robotic at times for my own good. haha. a bit similar to kenneth.

then he mentioned about time management and the must do, should do, can do and why do-s. haha. i guess it's kind of true that we always do the must do and why do but we never do the should do until they become must do. that's the way i do things too. pw's the best example

the second speaker, eric feng, was very good too. he talked about many of his personal stories like how he used to fail at public speaking and how someone inspired to become who he was today. and he kept talking about his girlfriends hahahaha. so funny. and of course the story of how he motivated his indian friend. and oh the story of the strongest dad. that was quite inspirational too.

anyway a few things i really thought were very inspiring...

1. leaders need lots and lots of energy. i think that's really true and i lack it sometimes 'cause of lack of confidence. once again, it depends on who i am with.

2. then he talked about visions and how they shouldn't be long-winded and stuff. i guess that's very true. i keep saying that i try to make my trainings (in sec4) fun so that people will enjoy coming for prac but he said that if your vision is to have fun trainings, then the vision is set is wrong. it's kind of true that the long statements on visions are better stated in a few words like "healthy fast food".

3. another very true things is how people love attention. haha he thought two brilliant ways of continuing awkward conservations through "tell me more" and parroting which we just can't stop parodying haha. so funny... i guess i'm rather good at this somehow haha.

and then mr. lan's talk was quite okay bah. haha i kept laughing and smiling omgg.

hmm oh and i really want to learn the way the 2 keynote speakers today spoke. i remember learning loads about eye contact the other time in the YAH training. That was really helpful. Eric mentioned today about imagining yourself being rooted to the ground and that the roots grew to all 4 corners of the room and that the nervousness keeps going downwards. haha hope it works for me 'cause when i speak, my voice is usually okay but my hands will shake like crap. and i have to reduce my pause fillers omg.

oh and i realize good public speakers share a lot of their personal experiences. haha it somehow makes people connect.

then, he mentioned about the importance of making a good first impression by knowing how to connect with people by being interested in whatever they do and connecting with them through prior knowledge and the 4 techniques of elevate and AHHH crap forgot the other 3. go ask kenneth yong lol.

okayy that's all for now. bye.

PATRICK

promos.

2009-09-11T21:35:00.002+08:00

this september holidays have been quite sian for me. ):

i've been watching lots of videos and reading up a little. it's quite boring compared to going to school and seeing your friends. but hmm i guess it gives me time to expose myself to stuff different from those in school.

1. 星光大道

haha. got addicted to it since going to junsheng's blog. hmm. i like a few of the singers there. I think my favourite is 李杰宇.

haha. initially, didn't really like his voice cuz it's damn tight. but somehow i don't get bored of it unlike the others. hmm another few videos that I like!

this is 曲终人散. haha. the chorus is addictive.

i like 胡采书 too! (: hahaha. his voice is nice.

and 孙自佑. haha i think he can become a 主持人. he seems so calm on stage.

and the blower's daughter by antoni was good too. haha. i've listened to it before but his version sounds nicer, especially the part "the pupil in denial".

偏心 by 徐詠琳.

okies enough. tonight got another episode. really excited haha.

2. The Death Penalty

Hmm. After jiggy gave the link to this very interesting article about Texas possibly executing the wrong person, I started reading up on more cases of the death penalty. Here's the link to Jiggy's article: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/09/07/090907fa_fact_grann?currentPage=1.

The article brings you step-by-step in the death penalty process, all the way from the day of the crime to the police investigations, trials, appeals and finally the execution itself. Initially, we see how this man, Cameron Todd Willingham, is accused of setting his house on fire to kill his three children. All the evidence pointed to his guilt. Vasquez, the fire investigator, found various evidences that Willingham had spilled liquid accelerant and set fire to the house while leaving the house. The burn marks, the 'crazed glass' all pointed to this. Willingham even took care to block the children's escape path by blocking the escape route with a refrigerator. There was little doubt about his guilt and the defence lawyers appointed to him by the state didn't bother doing much work. He was eventually found guilty and sentenced for the death penalty.

Later on, however, upon analysis by several fire experts and interviews done by a volunteer pen pal of his, people start to question whether or not he really is guilty. Fire expert, Horst, showed that the 'evidence' used by Vasquez was based on ancient ideas about fire science. Better lawyers were appointed to defend Willingham. However, in the US, once a person is found guilty, the stand that a person is "innocent until proven guilty" disappears and the pressure lies with the defence to show that not only is the person not guilty, but that the trial was also conducted in an unfair manner. This meant that even if new evidence came up showing that Willingham had indeed not committed the crime, there was little chance of his appeal being accepted. Instead, the defence had to show that the jury had somehow made a wrong decision given the information then or that the prosecution had withheld information or that police investigation was questionable. With little of such evidence, Willingham could not prove his innocence and was not given a retrial.

I had always thought that only people who were found to be DEFINITELY guilty were put on death row. I'm not sure what happens in Singapore but its quite scary reading some of the cases in America.

There's this case about Carlos De Luna. He was accused for the murder of some stallkeeper and was the only suspect of the case. Even though there was another suspect, Hernandez, who has since admitted and even boasted that he had in fact killed the stallkeeper, his name went missing halfway through the investigation process. Someone had actually tipped one of the private investigators that Hernandez was the one who actually did the crime. However, no investigations were made as De Luna seemed like the prime suspect. There was little evidence against him except that an eye witness had pointed him as the murderer. And even the eye witness has said that he can't be sure whether De Luna was the murderer. He just described the murderer and when the policeman showed De Luna's mug shot, it fit his description so he said De Luna was the murderer. To me, that's definitely insufficient evidence to put someone on the death row, but of course that could be because I'm looking at the issue on hindsight.

And then there was Cantu, who murdered someone in an attempted robbery. The trial was based on an eyewitness, Juan Moreno, who was wounded during the robbery but he now says that it was not Cantu who shot him and that he only identified Cantu as the shooter because he felt pressured and was afraid of the authorities. Moreno said that he twice told police that Cantu was not his assailant, but that the authorities continued to pressure him to identify Cantu as the shooter after Cantu was involved in an unrelated wounding of a police officer. "The police were sure it was (Cantu) because he had hurt a police officer. They told me they were certain it was him, and that's why I testified. In fact, Moreno was shown the photo three times, with the last time being a year after the murder, before he identified Cantu as the murderer.

And there are many other cases. You can read them here: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/executed-possibly-innocent.

It's quite scary to see how people are charged with first-degree murder with the basis of usually just one eye-witness or even tip-offs from criminals in the prison. Someone even got executed just because the blood on his shirt matched the blood type of the blood found on the murder scene (he was involved in another fight the day before).

The possibility of executing someone who's innocent is horrifying. There's supposed to by a fail-safe system with all the appeal systems available but the notion that a person is "guilty until proven innocent" is weird. It makes it hard for someone to prove himself innocent, even if he has substantial evidence to do so. I suspect one of the reasons is that states do not want to show that they had made the wrong choice and came so close to executing someone innocent.

Also, it's painful to see how these people are represented by state lawyers who don't really care about the case. As Sister Prejean puts it.

The death penalty embodies the three deepest wounds of our society in the United States that we need to address. The first one is that it is mostly the poor who are scapegoated to bear the burdens of the society. Of the 3500 people who sit on death rows across this country, only poor people are selected to pay the ultimate punishment. There is a direct connection to welath and resources, because no matter what you have done, if you have resources, you get a very good attorney or a battery of attorney and you're not going to death row ... The saying goes Capital punishment means men without the capital get the punishment.

And the second one is racism. Nowhere do we see racism more than when we assign punishments for crimes that we are outraged about. Overwhelmingly, with the death penalty, people who are given it are there because they have killed white people. When homeless people are killed, when poor people are killed, there's not that same rage to go for the death penalty. Very often, in fact, there's not even a vigorous prosecution of the case.

And the third wound is our pension for trying to solve social problems through violence. The death penalty is one more military solution to social problems. And it basically is a profound act of despair and the only thing we know to do with killers is to kill them. The only thing we know to do to someone who has done a terrible crime is to imitate the very crime itself that we are trying to teach our children not to do.

Statistics show that Blacks make up 41% of the prison population but only 12% of American population.

A Russian writer once wrote that a society can always be judged on the way we treat our criminals because it's the test on how much humaness we see in people and whether or not we are willing or desire of throwing away some people or dehumanizing them and seperating ourselves from them and saying they are not human the way that I am human.

Should listen from 10:40-18:00. Her story is quite powerful.

And he said to me an hour before he died,"It's a shame that I had to come to prison to find love. Thank you for loving me".

The shocking thing I found about a murdered victim's family is how alone they felt and how people stayed away from them. And people tend to stay away from them because they don't know how to deal with their pain.

"I can't afford to have vengence because the hatred would eat me alive too and I would lose my life too" - Murdered victim's family

3. LOVE (:

Dr. Leo Buscaglia! (:

Thank you for being with me at my 11th hour. You know that I have always preached that no one should ever cry alone and no one should ever die alone. And the wonder of it is that I have one more hour of life and a captive audience. So I'm in paradise.

Here lies Leo, who died living.

And the wonderful thing is that death is so democratic. It comes to everybody. It doesn't matter how rich or poor, how wise or dumb, how amazing you are, how famous you are. It doesn't matter - it comes and it comes at anytime.

Recently I was in Chicago and I was hunting for the post office. I saw a man standing by the bustop so I went over and I said, 'could you tell me where the post office is?' And he turned and he said 'hey I know you, you're Leo Buscalosie!' ... 'I'm doing a lecture on finding your way to love' and he says 'Oh that's amazing. You're talking about finding your way to love and you can't even find your way to the post office!'

I am suspicious about experts. They are usually no wiser than any of us except that they are a little more organized and they have slides.

Religion is a celebration of life, a celebration of people, a celebration of beauty, a celebration of joy.

You don't love yourself because you are on an egocentric trip. The only thing that you can give to anyone else, including those you love with a passion, is who you are. So if you dedicate yourself to making yourself the most wonderful, the most incredible, the most unique, the most magnicifent person there is, not to stand in front of the mirror but to give it to everybody else. That's a beautiful goal in life. I want to give a perfect me.

There is someone for everyone.

20 22-year-old university kids and I asked them what are your mother's eyes. And 80% of them don't know!

Ah okay shan't put more of his quotes down. But anyway his talk is split into how you should love everybody, love yourself, love learning, laughing about yourself, to compromoise and to be thankful. It's quite simple but his stories are really interesting and funny (:

You should watch some of his other videos too!

haha click on related videos to see the rest of the lecture! (: really hope I can learn his pubic speaking skills haha.

4. xing guang again!

Woohoo! I just watched the latest xing guang videos! (:

haha her testimonial is pro seh. sing harmony with loads of singers (:

woohoo. (:

Anyway, I'm interested in reading Men in White. Lol. Read the Sat Special and it's so controversial (: hahaha. It's quite fascinating to see what happened in the early days in Singapore! hahaha.

5. 9-11 Controversies

Hm. Just watched this. But I don't believe it luh. Too biased liao.

haha shall go sleep now (: nights!

PAT!

END OF TERM 3!

2009-09-05T22:13:00.002+08:00

Woohoo! It's the end of term 3! (:

Term 3 has always been a busy term. And so it was. There was no time to stop and reflect and so here I am trying to think of what I've done in term 3 and seeing what great achievements I've achieved once again (ok. that sounds ego... haha.)

1. CTs
I thought my one week of mugging before the CTs were spent really well. I actually caught up with all the work which I was lagging behind due to all the match supports and external activities. I was aiming for AAABB but I guess AAABE was not that bad either considering that Econs was so tough (and I actually spent 3 whole days mugging for it.).

2. Nat Day
After that, it was one week of slack before a 3-week-chiong for nat day! haha. Those 3 weeks were super fun! Spending time planning for nat day, at rehearsals with Penny and Matty and ndpeeps were totally awesome. I totally enjoyed myself. I also got the chance to showcase my 'awesome' video-making skills taught by kennethyong haha. and of course, my organization skills (which I tried to emulate from kennethyong too).

3. HH
And after Nat Day, it was another week of slackin before house stuff suddenly came rushing in. House Comm interviews were awesome and fun (esp. if you get to interview with Matt. haha.). Then, there was the crazy 4 day mad rush for the pubs board and the HH membership and rewards cards! haha. That was really fun too (:

4. SPAAA
haha SPA was relatively well done so I'm happy! (:

5. Tests
Then, there was the mad rush to mug for the random (and irritating) tests in week 10. But I guess I did very well for that little bit of mugging. Econs I'm not so sure whether I did that well... But chem was not bad! 18/20 hahaha. I didn't even do any practice but of course I did mug quite hard haha. I surprised myself for the Math RA test. I thought I wouldn't do too well given that I didn't have any time to mug for it and I wasn't really practicing the RA stuff given the lack of time. But I guess listening in class was sufficient for me and I think I did quite well! (: Should be a passing mark (i hope).

Looking back, I guess this term 3 was not as terribly exciting as sec 3 when I went to Taiwan or sec 4 when I went to Shanghai. But nat day was very nice and I guess so was HH.

And Sept contains nothing but chionging PW and mugging for promos. I really hope I do well. I want to show that I can balance my commitments and academics! (:

and i need to stop slacking and start exercising zzz. if only there were a pool right outside my house. I'd go there everyday.

what a lousy post. rarh.

Patrick

woohoo (:

2009-08-30T21:39:00.000+08:00

Shark Debate

2009-08-30T00:00:00.002+08:00

The past week has been very exciting! (:

1. HH pubs board

I never knew that designing a pubs board was so exciting. haha. I truly enjoyed myself. And the product in the end was soooo nice. haha. let me put photos of it!

yay. (:

2. HH loyalty cards.

Although I wasn't involved in designing the cards, it was great seeing people getting envious about the cards haha. I'm glad i have the card too yay! thanks chanel!

3. Shark Debate

It was really interesting going for the shark debate haha. It was quite interesting hearing some of the viewpoints form Dr. Giam. To him, reducing the demand of shark fin soup won't do anything to help shark conservation. This is because 80% of shark catches come from fishing for subsistence. This means that only 20% are caught for trading. But his statistics are a little doubtful because he quoted some percentages wrongly.

Anyway, it was really interesting. Got to know lots of people too! I think I should go for such stuff more often. (:

all right got to go. there's yah filming tmr. gonna be exciting!

PAT!

HH stuff

2009-08-29T16:47:00.002+08:00

Dedicated to our dearest HH house capt: KOO SI XUAN!

For more on HadleyHullett, please visit: http://hadleyhullett.blogspot.com/

YEAHHH!

bye!

Patrick (:

A-Lin

2009-08-27T20:20:00.000+08:00

nice song intro-ed by edmund (:

New favourite song!

2009-08-23T22:09:00.001+08:00

WOOHOO!

Birthday Boy!

2009-08-22T22:13:00.000+08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JIE LIANG!

okayy empire state is a completely great place to dine haha. their chicken super big seh.

anyway, my current favourite singer is EASON CHAN! haha shall post some of his MVs.

haha go search for more of his songs. (:

bye (:

PATRICK!

AVE MARIA! (:

2009-08-20T20:43:00.000+08:00

From 200 pounds beauty haha. (:

2009-08-20T19:45:00.000+08:00

Heyhey!

I haven't posted since nat day finished right? Hmm that's 2 weeks. It's been a tiring 2 weeks with all the chionging of PW and stuff. Finally, today I have some time to rest. I'm running through my music and rating them now. Haha jap songs are quite nice. (:

Anyway, interviewing people is quite a fun process. I'm not sure how the interviewees thought of me but Chanel said I was the type who look very nice but ask super hard questions. hahaha. But at least I'm nicer than Matt okay. He's totally evil. >< Shan't mention the questions cuz I'm not supposed to.

Last weekend was spent totally on PW. haix. chionged out everything only to realize we did so much stuff wrongly. got to chiong again this weekend i guess. But I'm glad they had a physics lecture test on WEP and circular motion... made me go through my stuff again (: hahaha. at least now i know circular motion isn't that hard. aiyahhh but chemistry is getting really hard. I need to start mugging. BUT PW! RARH. and GP AQ's are irritating. I really don't know what to write. I'm just ranting on and on and on about something which I don't even agree on. zzz.

Anyway, HH stuff are starting to come out now. I'm super excited. Our pubs team is totally awesome. Sigh. So sad no events now. Haha. We are helping out pubs though since they have so much stuff on their hands. Haha can't wait for the stuff to come out!

CO hasn't been terribly exciting though. Haha. I guess it's always the part of the year where all the J2s leave and CO just feels empty. Sigh. Well at least perc still has 2 people haha and Kweky came to visit us on wed. We celebrated Val Teo's birthday with CAKE! YAY! got a big slice. hahaha. congrats to kenneth siah anyway haha.

I'm getting free-er and free-er by the day. Guess all the external stuff are coming to an end so most of non-academic stuff is just council now. and since my function is over, it's just houseD. I want to help out in another function though. If not I'll feel very boliao. haha.

But today was super fun. haha went to hodge lodge with edmund, jun sheng and zhiyu after school to play TABOO! LOL! SUPER FUN CAN!!! omg. hahaha. it was totally funny. I'm not a good guesser cuz my vocab sucks. haix. can't believe it. But it was still very fun. I think we made a lot of noise though. oops.

sigh boring days heh. luckily i'm seeing my friends everyday (: it cheers you up somehow.

okies bye! HH meeting @ 930 lol.

Patrick

Interesting stuff

2009-08-13T01:46:00.002+08:00

Been seeing some interesting stuff lately. Just thought I'd put the up.

Patrick!

THE RED PARADE

2009-08-08T01:09:00.015+08:00

hmm yup so it's finally over.

It's ended as quickly as it started. I guess that's nat day for you.

I remember feeling very seperated from the nat day comm. I didn't know many people in the comm when i joined. in fact, i wasn't even supposed to be in nat day comm in the beginning. by the time i joined, they already had 2 meetings, decided on the ICs and allocated everyone (including me) into sub-comms.

well, before we could even get to know each other well, it was time for break and CTs.

Once council break finally ended, we realized that we only had 3 weeks to go and that all that we had prepared so far was all useless due to H1N1.

Since then, it was a mad rush to get everything done. Games Comm was pushed from the carnival to the observance+prometheum ceremony to the splitting of the comm and den finally to interactive games+observance ceremony! It wasn't easy for any of us. We were staying back in school for meetings everyday to rush things out. It was then that I realized I enjoyed the company of nat day comm people and start to appreciate how nice all of them are. Everyday, during school, I'd be looking forward to the Nat Day meetings later on, wondering what exciting things were in store for us.

We spent so much time together designing boards, cutting stars, putting up posters... I've enjoyed every moment of it.

But the best part was still Games Gomm. We spent so much time together doing so many random things.

We spent one night writing numbers from 0000 to 1368 and pasting stars.
We spent one evening counting honey stars.
We spent three days buying all the prizes necessary.

For the past 2+ weeks, I've been seeing Games Gomm nearly everyday (except maybe Sunday) and I guess that's what we call "building memories through shared experiences"!

And I've truly enjoyed myself for the past 3 weeks. All the time spent with Penny and Matty were great. I mean we aren't exactly very similar. In fact, we are the most diverse comm (or gomm) ever. But I guess that's what makes us special! We make up for each other's shortfalls. And that's why we all have different QIAN TUs! HAHA.

Like I have a great qian tu in pasting stars. (:
And Penny has a great qian tu in math (surprisingly heh haha jk)
And Matth has a great qian tu in using big words

The rehearsals too were very fun. All the time spent in AV room with the AV peeps. haha. Although we did miss the fun downstairs, we had our share of joy and laughter upstairs with zhi yu and other stories haha.

And so, before we even knew it, the day came.

It came too suddenly for many of us. But we knew we could do it after all the work put in. Although we hadn't succeeded doing AV without any major screw up (even on the rehearsal on the day itself), we knew we would make it in the end. haha and we did! and we did even more brilliantly than expected. We incorporated a new element to our superlatives with the camera zooming in on the people. HAHA. Super fun! (: And we did the transition so smoothly. Even Zhi Yu was on task for the spotlight. hahaha.

It was a totally awesome feeling when you see your games work out better than you expected. Many people were very skeptical about the SMS Competition at first, for example. There were so many areas for screw ups like if the phone didn't work or if no one participated... But it worked out so well in the end. (: The superlatives too were better than expected. Not only were we on time, we also had so many funny moments. (:

Survivor would have been great if we had played it. But I guess the concert was still great even without it. Although much of our effort went into survivor, stuff didn't work out in the end and I guess that sums up Games Gomm. We keep changing our job scope and getting our proposals rejected but we just keep working on to make The Red Parade a special one. And we do it so well! (:

and before we knew it, it ended as quickly as it came. Comm singing came, the cheers started and the balloons fell. As everyone celebrated in the loud music, we emo-ed outside - probably because of survivor being cancelled and that everything was about to end. We were not going to meet each other as often again and it's kind of sad.

But before everything ends, I'd like to thank the 2 most special people in nat day to me - my fellow gommers! (:

TO MATTY:
Hey Matty! haha. I dunno whether it's yuan2 fen4 or what but I seem to be getting into the same stuff as you this year. There's ISLE, Council campaigning, HouseD and now Nat Day Games Gomm! haha. I'm really thankful cuz I've learnt so much from you and I've enjoyed your company and your jokes. We did a really great job for AV! And you're the IDEAS MAN in games gomm. You're always full of them haha. And your qian tu is so much better than mine! Sigh. Anyway there's still much more for us to do together for HouseD so we'll see each other quite often I guess. woohoo (: GO GOMMER 1!

TO PENNY:
Hey PENNY! hahaha. Firstly, thanks for teaching me a new song...

"I want my money back. I want my money back. I want my money back..."

"I'm just a little bit caught in the middle. Life is a road and love is a riddle. I don't know where to go, (forgot line), I've tried. But I don't know why."

Haha. YAY. now i know more songs than just boulevard of broken dreams heh. Anyway, you're quite a cool person who's funny (hole in the fringe heh) and nice. (: Thanks for volunteering to do backstage even though you had to be seperated from games gomm (sobs) during the concert. You've done a great job there! And of course, I'll never forget all the times we all spent together, making lucky draw tickets, buying prizes, filling honey stars, doing decor... Wouldn't have gotten to know you so well without nat day (:

"I WANT MY PENNY BACK. I WANT MY PENNY BACK" LOL. GO GOMMER 2!

OKAY PHOTO SPAMMAGE!

THE COOL NAT DAY COMM!

Pubs Board 1.

Pubs Board 2.

Pubs Board 2!

Pubs board 3 (1+2 gettit?)

Pubs+GOMM

GOMM+AV

Gomm after the red parade (:

GOMMER 1 doing what he always does.

YAY! GAMES GOMM FTW! (:

Patrick! <3

the past week

2009-07-23T15:57:00.002+08:00

haix should i go for YCM today?

this week has been a rather boring week. been watching/reading harry potter everyday whenever i have time. think i'm getting a little addicted. nevermind. i'll get over it as soon as i finish the book haha.

let me try to remember what i did for each day.

Monday was slack. released from school at 1130, i decided it was a great time to go to watch harry potter! especially since loads of people have already watched the movie and it was unlikely i could find someone to watch with me. I thought I'd managed to get Edmund and I tried to get others like Lumps, Jeremy and Casatrina to join but hmm i failed. In the end, only jun sheng go watch with me. But at least we got good seats for very cheap prices so i'm happy. (:

I thought the movie was rather good. I don't remember liking harry potter movies esp. the last few ones but somehow i enjoyed this one. Not sure why. maybe my mood was just great yesterday. or maybe cuz i don't remember the contents of the book so I don't realize some missing parts which I get rather irritated by. But overall the movie was good bah. Except the last part. omg. even i could make it more drama please.

hmm after i got home i went to watch harry potter and the order of phoenix. haha. CHO CHANG AND LUNA LOVEGOOD. omgg. hahaha i love their voice. aiyah esp. luna's haha. so cool. hmm. it's actually a little like lyn's voice. (:

den i turned mad and started reading harry potter againnn.. >< so sad i don't have the 7th book. so exciting.

tue was nat day meeting. nat day meeting was rather okay i guess. haha quite excited by the opening and the games. we need to make it super cool like taiwanese gameshows! (: RARRHH! go nat day! haha. working with krabbymooty and krabbypenny is quite fun haha. well well, we'll see what happens during workday.

yesterday was fun too. CO qing gong yan. haha. it was a little fail in the sense that there weren't any activities but at least i got to talk to perc mates again. haha. aiyahh. miss yongsheng, kweky, vic and liyuan so much. esp. yongsheng and his hand signs. unfortunately he was careful not to do it yesterday.. no fun. >< playing indian poker was fun too (: hope they'll continue coming to CO room to visit linghui and i. (:

okiess. shall go off now. bye (:

Patrick

thoughts.

2009-07-18T23:00:00.002+08:00

It's always interesting to see how people think of you or how others think of other people. it's quite surprising sometimes. ><

i really wonder how people think of me haha. The usual concensus would be nice guy who does nothing but smile/laugh. haha. Closer friends will know some of my inner habits such as koping food and being egoistic and trying to suan people but usually failing to do so ><. but I guess everyone thinks of everyone differently so it's always interesting to find out what someone else thinks of you. It's a good way to improve oneself (:

And since Charmaine did a short post regarding me, I decided to find out what she thinks of me. haha.

Seems rather positive. Maybe because I decided to display my positive side during WLC heh? haha okay no luh. Since I don't know how to put a link to this post I shall just copy and paste it here...

"One of the few first impressions I had of you during the World Leadership Conference was that you're always trying your best despite the odds. Once you've set your mind on something, you'll see it through to the end. That's something I got to learn from you.

Hmm.. I may be wrong but, my other impression was that you’re not always how you seem. Sounds weird but yup, that’s what I thought! Haha. You’re a really nice guy and fun to be with. I only noticed your quiet and shy side on the last day of the conference. Looks like we got quite a bit in common haha!

Thanks for your support the past few weeks. You listened to me when I was upset that time and gave me your opinions, cheered me on during my CTs.. Don't hesitate to approach me yea. I'll be glad to offer my help! Maybe we can find time to hang out someday? (:

This friendship is special to me too. I appreciate and cherish it. Thank you, Patrick! (:

P.S Hey you use a lot of smileys too ok! >.<"

Hmm. WLC may be just a short 5 days and we didn't really have much time to talk to each other but what Charmaine has said is rather similar to what I think I am.

I think my outlook of life is to take it simply. I don't like to think of life to complicatedly and that sometimes leads to me taking some issues less seriously than I guess I'm supposed to. Gets people pissed off sometimes.

I guess since primary school, one of my main aims when getting to know friends is to be as nice to them as possible. That's something that Christianity has taught me. I have no idea how but it was just the case... And so I like to think from people's perspective and see how they would like me to respond to them. It's kind of good since you're nice and there's less conflicts but it also makes you wear lots of masks and do things against your will. I guess one example would be when people talk to me, even if I don't understand, I'd still nod my head and laugh a little cuz I guess that's the response that would make that person most happy. It's kind of fake sometimes. But I won't regret doing this because I always believe that being nice is good (: I guess it's just the way I do things...

I also like the idea of helping friends out when they're having difficulties. Makes you feel like a real friend (:

about the shy part, I guess I'm heavily influenced by who I am with. But I guess it's the same for a lot of people. When I'm with my class or 4B friends or some people whom I can relate to easily, chatting to them seems so easy and that's why I guess I'm known to talk a lot of cock. ><>< It gets tiring sometimes but it's better than not doing anything... sometimes i wonder whether these people you can't relate to can be considered friends. haha. Isn't friendship supposed to let you feel more relaxed? Not sure.. haha.

And since I'm on this point, I guess I need to learn from loads of people on how to open myself up. I need to talk moreee! RARH. Sometimes, I regret not reading up more cuz my general knowledge approaches zero and when people start talking about movies/dramas/geography/history/news, I'm usually lost about what they are talking and in such a case, you can't do much except nod your head. Wonder how I can make up for that. But that's why I admire people like Sixuan and Matthew who can talk off their heads so freely. (: Oh and Chanel too, she's damn good at it hahaha. I think it's something to do with personalities luh because I'm not exactly alone in such problems. I bet lots of people face similar problems too. But it's always better to work on the problems and make yourself overcome them isn't it?

All right, this is a rather disorganized post. Need someone to do some summary/reorganizing for me ><

On another note, who wants a Green Tech WLC outing? (: Environmental Law had theirs today. AND WHERE'S WLC APPRECIATION DINNER! HAHA. (:

and must remember to bring yutian's markers. zomg. i think she's getting pissed lol.

Patrick

501th post.

2009-07-18T22:12:00.002+08:00

okay without even realizing it, i've passed the 500 mark of blog posts. (:

i think it's quite an achievement. i'm not really someone who writes a lot but somehow my blog posts all seem very long. and how my blog all started out was an even lamer story... Shall say it for the benefit of those who forgot/don't know.

My blog started cuz my Dad gave me 2 options when I was sec 2 to do in order to get a break time. Either do 1 assignment or set up a blog. Weighing the pros and cons and doing a simple cost-benefit analysis, i realized that setting up a blog was much easier >< so i did that. and it's become like that. I'm starting to regret what i put as my url for my blog but i guess it's all right and I can live with it. it's better than changing blogs all the time...

Hmm shall talk a bit about friday.

Friday was totally tiring. lessons were already tiring but followed jun sheng around after school for commz d stuff. supposed to be a slack-around session for me but randomly saw some nat day people so sat with them. ><>< hahaha. wth. my precious sleep time. ah nvm at least i got to know what's happening.

den after that went for an informal YAH meeting with Jun Sheng. Jiankai, Gloria and Melinda were there. haha. It's quite cool. They're making videos for YAH and they are super pro >< wth. can give kenneth a run for his money. hmm really looking forward to seeing their videos. anyway it's quite cool to have such meetings and get to know people sessions. esp. since gloria was the co-winner of the musical chairs and co-kanna-sabo-ed for nobody dance... haha.

so that was quite fun. (: but i totally just slept without bathing once i got home. zomg. this has been a tiring week esp. since i'm a little sick. ><

den today woke up damn early for college day. zomggg i totally wanted to sleepp till 12 noon but had to drag myself up. mm okay luh nothing much to do since this year's college day is smaller scale and since my duty area is rather ulu (outside SAC). In the end, I joined Ryan and Marcus at the lift area >< the food was good though.

haha had a nice time during dinner too (: it's interesting listening to what people think of others haha.

ahhh. okay nat day is coming up better now. at least krabbypenny, krabbymooty and krabbypatty have come up with a substantial proposal. haha. I really want to make it good. After all it's just 2 weeks of chionging before our function is over. Really want to make nat day superb (: I really want it to become like a taiwanese gameshow. zomggg. damn nice and funny.

Looking forward to YAH anniversary as well. I want to get a really good group of people to work with me hahaha. (: so fun.

ah. shall dedicate a post to James soon (:

ISLE is restarting next week too mmhmm.

Patrick

CTs!

2009-07-16T00:43:00.003+08:00

ah CTs are over and it's back to school.

Somehow, these CTs seemed to pass very fast (maybe because mugging time was only 1 week and test period 4 days) but it's given me a chance to catch up on a lot of work esp. Econs. I guess I need to thank God for giving me the ability to understand concepts easily. It's helping me a lot and I think it's a very useful skill.

okay so results.

P: A
C: A
M: A
GP: B
E: E

haha. rarh. I'm rather happy with my grades except physics where i had 8 marks worth of careless mistakes and Econs cuz i did Short Run for essay which meant that for the first 15 min or more of the test, I effectively got 0 marks.

Really happy for chem though and GP, didn't expect a B. ><

Was aiming for an A,A,A,B,B but I guess that was too ambitious. haha. I won't say I didn't make expectations because I only mugged for one week due to WLC because to be honest, I think I mugged more than enough but on the day itself, some stuff just didn't come out.

Well, time to look forward now. SPAs coming up. totally hate them.

Patrick

Goodbye

2009-07-13T19:25:00.003+08:00

It's all come too suddenly.

Hmm today, went for Sam's graduation ceremony. Hmm kind of glad for him that he's graduating haha. finally can go to work and dun need to keep slacking at home heh. He's been slacking around for the past dunno how many months playing dota and suanning me and watching movies zzz...

The commencement was quite nice. Everything was planned rather well but somehow it seemed to lack some element of what I would call "rah-rah". It's so different from the ceremonies in RI and RJ. Maybe it's just because I wasn't participating in the commencement so I didn't feel the atmosphere. But ah just a feeling.

- went to sleep -

Update: Wednesday

Ahh. just went for limelight 2009. It was superb haha. I just love band music. Some parts were a little boring and I didn't appreciate some parts as much as Lumpy did but it was really nice. esp. towards the end. Lumpy said they did well and their passion really showed through and I can't agree more. Towards the last few songs, you could see everyone (esp. jerald and the other 2 girls whom i dont know) swaying to the beat and you could see they were enjoying themselves. I really wanted to be on stage to be with them. It's just different when you are performing. But I guess I'll get my chance next time.

mm after concert had a fun time camwhoring with 4B people hahaha. damn fun please and i totally love the view at esplanade rooftop at night. ahhhh. should go there more often (:

mm had a chance to talk to people as well. hahaha. ying er was soooo funny but honestly luh, it was her ><... hahaha. but still she's soooo funny haha esp. her disappointed look at kenneth (: hahahaha. hmm oh saw Mr. Eddie Koh there too! managed to take a few photos with him (: he's such a cool teacher. A bit like Mr. Kenneth Kwok. Then, our row was the CCAD row so I saw loads of council people. And of course others like HongBo, Jeremy, Ziyi and loads of other people. It's just great to see friends around and have fun with them. Oh how can I forget Yutian and her scandal (: hmm shall post about CT on another post cuz this post is all about 4B and us getting high for limelight! haha. really damn cool can! at the end we were really damn damn high ><

ahhhh missing that feeling now. hoping tmr will be a fun day at school (:

Patrick!

personality test

2009-07-12T11:38:00.002+08:00

hmm just did some personality test on facebook. it's just 20 questions but i think the description is quite true.

Results!
Openness: 50%
Conscientiousness: 69%
Extraversion: 75%
Agreeableness: 88%
Neuroticism: 38%

Openness

This trait refers to the extent to which you prefer novelty versus convention. Approximately 5.5% of respondents have a lower openness raw percentage than yours. From the way you answered the questions, you seem to describe yourself as someone who is down-to-earth and prefers things to be simple and straightforwards. You might say that it just makes life easier if things don't change unnecessarily, that the arts are of no practical use to you, and that you think tradition is more important than others do. Your friends' descriptions suggest that they generally agree with this view.

Conscientiousness

This trait refers to the extent to which you prefer an organised, or a flexible, approach in life. Approximately 65.5% of respondents have a lower conscientiousness raw percentage than yours. From the way you answered the questions, you seem to describe yourself as someone who avoids foreseeable trouble through purposefully planning, and achieves success through persistence. From your responses it appears that you are reliable and prepared for life's challenges. However, your friends' descriptions suggest that they see you as someone who is more prepared than you think, and so they would put their trust in you to get something done.

Extraversion

This trait refers to the extent to which you enjoy company, and seek excitement and stimulation. Approximately 72.6% of respondents have a lower extraversion raw percentage than yours. From the way you answered the questions, you seem to describe yourself as someone who is energetic and active. Your answers describe you as someone who enjoys and actively seeks out social occasions, and that you especially enjoy talking with a big group of people. Your friends' descriptions suggest that they generally agree with this view.

Agreeableness

This trait refers to the way you express your opinions and manage relationships. Approximately 94.5% of respondents have a lower agreeableness raw percentage than yours. From the way you answered the questions, you seem to describe yourself as someone who is extremely easy to get along with. Your responses suggest that you would say you are considerate, friendly, generous and helpful and you consider most other people to be thoroughly decent and trustworthy. Your friends' descriptions suggest that they generally agree with this view.

Neuroticism (Emotional stability)

This trait refers to the way you cope with, and respond to, life's demands. Approximately 38.2% of respondents have a lower neuroticism raw percentage than yours. From the way you answered the questions, you seem to describe yourself as someone who is calm and emotionally stable. Based on your responses, you come across as someone who is rarely bothered by things, and when they do get you down the feeling does not persist for very long. However, your friends' descriptions suggest that they feel that you are less emotionally stable than you think. You project yourself as someone who gets stressed out by things more easily than you realise.

---

haha i think it's quite true luh.

but then i don't quite agree with all the career choices they provided me with which included nursing, education and accounting. haha.

actually, to be trutful, i dont mind getting any job as long as im working with friends. i guess that also means i prefer a job where there is more interaction with people. but of course, these people must be my friends and not the kind you interact for business. which is why i always dream of setting up some company/VWO with my friends (: wouldn't it be so cool! although we wouldn't earn as much as we may want to, we will still be able to have fun everyday!

wonder whether my dream will ever come true...

Patrick

music

2009-07-11T23:00:00.002+08:00

today i dug out one of the few music CDs that I've ever bought in my life which I purchased in ChangChun. It's some piano pop pieces. I bought it in China cuz it was damn cheap and had loads of songs (37 to be exact). But when I listened to it, was kind of disappointed cuz it was all instrumental with no singing. But today I listened again and realized I did like quite a lot of the songs. Decided to check the MVs out on youtube and found this song which I really like (:

omg. really nice.

today has been a relatively sian day. All day, I was reading wiki, finding out more about manchester united players lol. And of course some of the greatest managers of all time. Wonder why there is no hype about Barca manager even though he won the treble in his first season in charge in Barca. Isn't it such a great feat? But nvm, I'm still a Man U fan. Actually, I don't really know how I became a Man U fan. I guess it was influenced by my bro? But how exactly I'm not sure.

Also decided to start reading Partners in Crime by Agatha Christie. Bought the book years ago but didn't understand it then. Well, at least I understand it now but I think I bought the wrong book cuz the book is a parody of lots of detective classics like sherlock holmes and i haven't read any of them so i don't understand the parodies but I guess it's still an intersting read.

Tmr is Sam's graduation. Feeling glad for him (:

haixx. i feel super sian now. shall sleep.

Patrick

boredom.

2009-07-10T21:39:00.002+08:00

procrastination.

School today was all right. Wasn't exactly terribly exciting but I guess I survived it. (: I think Mrs. Low is a great Econs lecturer. She manages to explain concepts so well. The problem is that she goes through so much stuff in 1 hour that I think I've reached my saturation point and although I understand what she is saying when she says it, I kind of forget it right after that when she goes on to the next point. so i desperately need the slides ><

today, met Michelle and Mark's class in the lift while going up for math. zzz. Mark anyhow go publicize my chem and math marks... >< but good thing i was in the lift with mark. managed to kope one of his bread that he bought from breadtalk! WOOHOO!

and den after school, managed to catch up with Aaron Tang. hahaha. It was quite funny. Was walking with Jiggy and Jun Sheng to J8 to take bus and then saw Aaron halfway who was walking from J8 to thomson road so that he could take a direct bus home. Managed to persuade him to walk to J8. Then, at the crossroad, saw a 410 which was about to come so ran with Aaron all the way back to the 410 bus stop just in time for the bus. (: Had lots of fun talking to him again. Really reminds me of all the fun time we had together at bishan park catching spiders, at IBN pantry... It was a totally fantastic experience that I will never forget. just glad that we can still talk and joke around like the past (:

hmm after returing home, i've been slacking around and sleeping for most of the time. zzz. procrastination. let's list the things that i need to do...

1. SATS zzz.
2. PW - WR chapter 1 and presentation and survey results
3. Chem Tutorial

zzz. feeling sian again.

Patrick

School

2009-07-09T22:05:00.002+08:00

School nowadays has been rather slack. Thanks to H1N1.

It's been a while since I've been able to come home before 6pm but I seem to have done so for every day this week. Wonder whether this is something good or bad. I guess it's good because I can finally relax after such a tiring first half of the year and give myself some time to reflect on stuff. But it isn't that good cuz I find myself lazing around. Not much motivation to study now cuz the exams aren't even close. I guess that's the reason why I'm blogging so much this week. Not much opportunity to do so once H1N1 is over. (:

School today was totally slack. Lessons have been rather informal so far (esp. chem) because it's Post-CTs and today had 3 straight free periods 'cause PE was some short briefing. Not exactly a very exciting day I guess.

But during the break, got a chance to catch up with friends like Eugene and Jerald and Jie Liang whom I seem to be meeting a lot in school. And Yingmin too. i think i met her 4 times in school today. Even though we ran for council together, I guess we aren't exactly that close so it's just a smile and a "hi" everytime we walk past but I guess that's the way it has to be. Can't expect too many close friends in you life, can you?

Well, managed to spend some time chatting with Yuheng as well. I find her really very interesting. She reminds me of Wanen somehow. Always smile with big reactions whenever she sees a friend and super gullible. haha. I guess the only thing different between them is that Wanen whacks people but Yuheng doesn't. Or maybe she does just that I don't know about it? But yeah she's really interesting and nice to talk to. I need to learn her smile haha.

Chem lesson today was all right I guess. Still prefer Mrs. Kua's teaching. She totally rocks at putting the right concepts into your head. I'm not sure but I think that my chem results so far have been really good because of my good foundations laid in sec 3 and 4. So studying chem now takes much less time. Guess I'll have to go thank her some day (: But the new teacher is all right I guess. More of a "drilling-for-A-Level" teacher" and that'll help me a lot.

Math lessons are becoming a little bit more normal. At least the front part of the lesson was really relaxing because I understood what was going on. The back part was a lot harder but I still understood bits of it so that's good. I think this way of teaching is better than the previous method of starting hard before going back to the simpler stuff which I thought made it rather confusing. But I still very much prefer Mr. Kwa's way of teaching. (: But I guess that's just a personal preference.

haha the SHINE algorithm dance will be up again on Saturday at Iluma Bugis. hmm should I go?

All right, this is a very disorganized entry. Can't wait for CO to start again.

Patrick

Charmaine

2009-07-08T21:54:00.003+08:00

"Yesterday while I was leaving the lift, I had this sudden urge to smile. So I smiled at this maid who was about to enter the lift. And she smiled back. Totally made my day. (:"

- Charmaine

This post is dedicated to another of the special friends I made this year - Charmaine.

I guess at WLC, I didn't really have much of a chance to interact with many people. But one group of friends that I found at WLC was team NYP (: haha.

But like many friends, many of these friendships fade off very quickly. I'm glad I'm still talking to Charmaine though. I actually think we are quite similar. And hmm very similar to Jackson too.

We didn't really get to know each other much during the conference because of our busy schedules. But seeing her blog and chatting with her online randomly sometimes is usually quite comforting. Charmaine is a very sensitive person who's also rather sentimental. But what stands her out once again, like Jackson, is that she truly cares for her friends.

"I really wish there is someone in my life who could see through me each time I lie about my unhappiness."

I guess I feel this way a lot of times too. And although we aren't that close, she helped me out during a time when I was feeling down after WLC. Somehow, whenever I talk to her online, her smile manages to come through (maybe she uses a lot of smileys?) and it's a very relaxing feeling.

"... I want more than anything else to be a psychologist to make people happy. I may not be able to solve everyone's problems. But I can be a listening ear any time of the day, a shoulder to cry on, offering opinions from various point of views."

What she thinks and how she thinks relates to my feelings very well. Guess that's why we continue to be friends even as WLC has drawn to a closure and lots of friendships broken up after the short 5 days together. I sincerely hope that this one wouldn't though. Because she, like Jackson, has become one of my role models in life. (:

Continue smiling everyday Charmaine! And with your hard work and determination, I'm sure you'll achieve your dream! Thanks for showing me how a great friend should be! (:

Patrick

Jackson

2009-07-08T21:18:00.002+08:00

It's my third post today. Wonder why I'm in such a blogging mood. But I knew I just had to blog this post.

This post is dedicated to one of the special friends I've made this year in SHINE.

I've made a lot of new friends this year probably because of the various activities I've participated in. From Council and YAH to Chingay and 6R... But I guess one of the more special friends I've made this year is surprisingly not someone I meet very often. In fact, I think we've met less than 10 times. He's JACKSON from SHINE! (:

I guess joining pubs comm in SHINE was one of the best decisions I made this year. Comparing Yitao's SHINE entry to mine and maybe you'd figure why. I don't think that the pubs team is exactly a team of really pro people. Other than SK who has loads of knowledge about advertising, the majority of the team had zero knowledge about advertising before joining SHINE pubs. But what made us special was our character. And one person who really shined (lol) to me was jackson.

Everyone's first impression of him (including mine) would already be a good one. He's outgoing, always smiling and really very friendly. In fact, I always aim to be something like that. Looks like I've got a new role model heh?

But he's a lot more than just that. Especially during recent weeks when I felt a little down, he kept coming up to ask me how i was feeling. I wasn't exactly too keen on telling my problems to him at first because he isn't exactly that close to me. But eventually I told him a little and he gave me lots of good advice.

I guess I can't really say that much about a person whom I've only met 10 times but he's definitely a great friend to have. He always gives me support whenever I need it and I guess one great thing about him is that he always smiles. But the best thing about him is that he really shows his care for his friends. (:

And that's something I should learn.

Thanks Jackson for all that you've done and have fun in NS. With your smile and character, you'd definitely become the most popular guy in pulau tekong (:

Patrick

My great friends from 4B'08!

2009-07-08T19:44:00.002+08:00

"i am glad, that fate brought us together, to be what we are today. all of us, each with a different story to tell, from entirely different classes, to me i think that's really quite a miracle and a feat that i'm starting to get impressed. i think i can go watch the class video now, although i would prefer not to for fear of creating a swimming pool here"

- Kenneth Yong

"...but i guess it was really the day-to-day activities in school which really showed how close we were. having recess and lunch together as a class was usually the best times i had in school and talking cock with ying xiang and suanning him everyday was fun haha. sigh. won't get to do that next year... so 4B just owns."

- Patrick, Dec 08

Yay. Another inspiration from Kenneth's long post which I shall talk about.

Shall start by talking about last year's graduation night. Grad night was an emotional experience for many people. I remember seeing Jun Sheng, Kenneth and many others cry. Everyone was hugging each other, giving each other well wishes for the coming year. To me, however, it wasn't exactly that emotional. I didn't cry. I did hug lots of people but perhaps not with as much emotions as others. I believed then that RJ would be even better. After all, my classes always seemed to get better, didn't they. 6H'04 was great with Dewei and Max. 2H'06 was great with Edward, Ying Jie, Rich and Kejing. 4B'08 was even better. I guess I took for granted that being in such a great class like 4B wasn't a given.

This year, joining 6R, I was forced by many to think of withdrawing from Math RA to get out of a scholar class. But I firmly believed that this was the right class for me to be in. Just like 3B'07. But somehow, the feeling is just different.

Every day after school in 6R, everyone leaves the class. Tuesday epitomised everything. Class was dismissed from GP. I went to toilet for 2 minutes. By the time I came out, everyone was gone and I had to chase after Edmund so that someone could walk with me to the MRT.

It's just a different feeling from 4B. in 4B, everyone couldn't bear to leave the class everyday. We would stay in the class for some while, talking to each other after school joking around before going to the canteen to have lunch together and walking out of school together.

Luckily for me, in 6R, there are still a few really good friends like Zhiyu and Edmund whom i am rather close to now. haha. (:

But nothing will ever beat 4B. I finally understand after so long why people were so emotional during grad night. It's the feeling of not being able to be with 4B anymore. It's the feeling of leaving such close friends whom you have been spending nearly everyday with for the past 2 years. I still think of the every day incidents between me and Ying Xiang, me and jun sheng and kenneth and jinghui when i sit at the back of the class for chem. I still think of the times after recess when Jerald, Eugene and I would be drumming on the tables while people like Lumpy curse and swear on our lousy music. haha. I can remember the times when the whole class became so enthu about class decor, staying back to hang up the fantastic spider web (:

And to think we are still so close now makes our friendship much deeper than those I had in P6 and probably sec 2. Those were my best friends but they didn't stand the test of time. I, however, firmly believe that this 4B friendship will last forever.

"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

- Martin Luther King Jr.

Yup. I guess that's why we are true friends. It's because there is always something to talk about amongst us even though we have been friends for so long. We enjoy each other's company and I love each and everyone of you.

I don't really want to go talking about why and how all these happened because there are so many reasons including RA and stuff. I just believe that everything has a purpose and this happened because it had a purpose too. So I just want to end off with one question.

What would I be now without 4B'08?

Patrick

Family (:

2009-07-08T18:52:00.002+08:00

"my sister's been at orientation camp since yesterday. the house seems really dull and empty without her around. ... i think probably, besides my parents and my friends, the next person who has had so much impact in my life is my sister.

i probably haven't really thought through this before, but come to think of it now, my sister has really been one whom i can't demand more from. i mean, i don't talk to her about anything at all actually, not school stuff, not my troubles, nothing. but it's like, whenever i see her, whenever she says something to me, my life brightens up, instantly...

i love you, jie."

- Kenneth Yong

Hm I guess I'm similar to Kenneth in many ways. And to be truthful, I experienced what I guess Kenneth would be experiencing now 8 years ago. I remember vividly the day when I was on the boat to Pulau Tekong, sending Mike off on his army journey. I cried on the boat that day. It just seemed impossible that my brother was leaving the family after seeing him everyday for the past 10 years. It just isn't a good feeling. The family suddenly felt emptier.

Then, within 2 years, it was Sam's turn to go to army. It certainly wasn't a good feeling either. And Michael was off to USA in no time for his studies. I remember sending him off at the airport. I didn't really feel anything much while going to the airport. But at the departure hall, as we bid farewell, it took me much effort to resist my tears from flowing down. My brother was going to fly away to some unknown land for 4 years.

And within another 2 years, it was Sam's turn to go into university. He was going to live in the hostel which basically meant that he wasn't coming home often. He would probably return on weekends for a short while before leaving for hostel again.

Then, when I was sec 2, Dad went off to Hong Kong to work for a year. That wasn't exactly nice either. Although I don't really talk to Dad that often everyday, but I sleep with him every night (okay a bit weird but yeah...) and suddenly, my bed felt empty too.

Recently, with all the random stuff that I had to attend to, I used to come back home for dinner around once or twice a week. That feeling wasn't good at all.

Somehow, the family began to feel emptier and emptier. One by one, everyone seemed to be going on their own seperate paths. The dishes during dinner reduced from 5 or 6 in primary school to 2 or 3 now. Sometimes, I felt as if the everyone was leaving me behind. Sometimes, I feel sad that the age gap between me and my brothers had to be so large. Sometimes, I longed for a brother who was around my age. Then, we would be able to do a lot of stuff together. Sure there would be arguments and fights (and probably tickling), but it would definitely be fun.

Soon, Mike will be moving out and moving on with his life.

Soon, Sam too will be starting work. If it's in Singapore, I may be able to see him every night for a few minutes. If it's in Hong Kong, I'd probably not see him at all for a long time...

Is it down to fate that a family has to break up like this?

Sometimes, I long that my family was still in Hong Kong. Then, I'd be able to visit my cousins and have fun with them. As I look through many facebook profiles, I see photos of cousins going out together, having fun, having dinner. For me, I don't even know how many cousins I have. Other than 2 cousins whom I'm a little closer to, I have no idea how my other cousins look like. I have no idea how many aunts or uncles I have. Can these relationships be saved? Probably not. I returned to Hong Kong in sec 2 and we were nearly like strangers who were kept together at the dinner table, being forced to talk to each other because the other aunts and uncles were happily chatting away.

But that does not mean I hate my family. In fact, I love my family very much. I guess I just don't show it in actions. I think I haven't wished my family members a happy birthday for 4 years? I guess I haven't had a proper birthday celebration with a cake since primary school. People are still having "good examination marks celebrations" while to our family, getting back examination marks is just any other topic that lasts merely a minute or two. I guess it's good in a way since I don't feel much pressure when I do my exams...

I truly value the few minutes that I have with my family esp. my brothers whom I don't see often. I understand that they have to move on and I would have done the same thing as them if I were them too. I will treasure any time I have with my family. I will make sure that whatever time we have left will be spent well.

I thank my family for developing to who I am today. I think my parents are fantastic children-developers (for the lack of a better word). I mean just look at Mike and Sam. Mike was in a neighbourhood school in secondary school but that didn't stop him from becoming a top student in Berkeley. Sam too. I always think back of the story where he and Francis (some friend of his) were the only 2 people in the normal acad cohort to ever try the A-Math in the history of the school and probably in Singapore. In the end, Sam and Francis were the only ones in the entire school that year to pick up an A in A-math. Truly amazing.

And I always remember the days in the MRT in P3. We used to live in lakeside then because Sam studied in JJC. My dad works in Boon Lay and my school was in Paya Lebah. Dad used to take the train from Lakeside all the way to Paya Lebah before returning to work at Boon Lay. I remember my mom used to travel from lakeside to Paya Lebah to bring me home everyday. On the MRT, she would start testing me chinese ke4 ben3. omg. Everyday I would be cursing and sulking on the MRT but she insisted on doing it even though every one was looking at us. Then, when we were living in Tampines, Mom would bring me all the way to Ang Mo Kio for tuition, wait for me to finish before bringing me all the way back to Tampines.

My brothers too are a great source of inspiration. I remember telling this random RG career guidance teacher about my brothers and she said that I'd probably feel pressured because of them and she asked me to follow my own path. But to me, what they provide is not pressure, but rather an inspiration. An inspiration for me to believe in myself. Whenever I take a test, I always remember how my brothers used to ace their tests even though they faced such great difficulties. Whenever I play the piano, I always remember how pro my brothers are in singing and I believe that I can do as well. Whenever I go for a run, I always remember that Sam used to be the fastest runner in his dorm in NS and I believe that I can do so too if I work hard enough.

I'll never forget the times when Sam, Mike and me used to go down to play soccer nearly everyday.
I'll never forget the times when Mom would follow me wherever I went and painstakingly gave me Chinese tests, Math and Science assessments and even English spelling tests even though she herself had difficulties pronouncing the words.
I'll never forget the times when Dad would protect my "rest time" (which I remember lasted merely 30-60 min each day in primary school).

It is always painful to see someone leave the family for a long time. And I think it's just a matter of time before everyone just has to take their seperate paths and set up their own families and the whole process starts again.

I just want to say that I'll always remember whatever time that I had with my family and I'll treasure whatever time we have left.

And I believe that I can do it (:

Patrick

Everything has a purpose

2009-07-07T23:09:00.002+08:00

everything has a purpose...

i wonder whether this is true. i certainly hope so haha. cuz whenever i make decisions, i always keep looking back to see whether i made the right choice, and it kind of gives me lots of regrets which isn't exactly a good feeling.

i think i'm rather weird. i have 2 types of emotions usually.

The first type was the kind epitomised by the november holidays last year and something that i have been feeling these few days. This is the "damn sian" feeling where you feel like there is nothing to do. But then, you just don't have the mood to do anything except maybe watch drama (which i've been doing so often these few days) and the dramas somehow don't make you that happy after all cuz it makes you either sad because of the sad plot or just soooo envious about their lives. Neither of which are really good feelings.

The second type was the type I felt during term 2. It's the type which you feel when you see a week ahead where from mon to sat you return home at 9pm everyday and wake up at 6am everyday and sunday is the only day you can mug so basically there's no free time. It's okay when you're doing things that you like to do but when there are things that you don't like to do, it just isn't a good feeling.

I guess I need to balance the two.

And i need to find out what makes me happy and start doing more of that (:

I'll find a way to do it (:

all right all right. so anyway today was quite a slack day. chem lecture was rather simple. phy lecture was a little harder but physics to me has always been a go-home-and-mug subject so i guess not understanding much during lectures doesn't matter that much.

chem ct was rather good i guess but i figured i was rather lucky as well. so no point boasting about it.

GP was a little late in the day so my attention started to divert away...

oh yeah, got A*Star Scholarship. Hope the attachment will be fun like in sec 3. Pity there's no one to do project with. It's always better to have a group of friends around you (: but hmm david is going too. hope i can see him (:

Patrick

hm.

2009-07-06T23:38:00.002+08:00

it's 11:35 now.

not exactly a good time to start reflecting on what's happened this year.

but after reading LjS's blog, i decided that i should start reflecting too. after all, once the Post-CT mood ends i have no idea whether i'll still have time to blog. sighs. pretty reflective of this year heh?

hm. shall start off with a summary:

This year has been full of "firsts". I have no idea where I got so much courage to try out so many things I'd never thought of trying before. There were tiring times. There were times when I felt like quitting. There were times when I felt what I was doing was useless and I wondered whether I was better off going to sleep. There were times when I felt so bad that my heart completely just ached. But do I regret it? Not really. I only have one regret. But it's one big regret...

All right no more emo-ing. haha. (:

hmm just like in sec 3 and sec 4, i think what makes a year special is always the special events that happen during the year. It's always these things that you somehow remember. But of course, events isn't everything. Friends are another great part of my life. (:

hmm so this is what has made my 2009 so far so special!

1. Chingay
omg. haha. i must have been mad when i signed up in chingay as a motivator. >< hahaha. i remember the scene totally mannz. i went, realized i wasn't assigned and the guy asked me whether i want to be usher or motivator. i was thinking: i'm sure i motivator luh. but somehow, something in me told me to try something that i had never tried before. so i instinctively chose to be a motivator.

well, throughout the trainings, there were many times when i felt like i made a stupid choice. haha. i just totally didn't fit into the group. the entire group was filled with SUPER ENTHU people and although i wouldn't say that i'm not enthu at all, i just felt totally weird in the group. hahaha. so i remember dreading to go for chingay trainings. i didn't know anyone there! in the end, i tried to make friends and break into already-formed-and-bonded cliques but of course it wasn't really that nice.

but well, i enjoyed myself during chingay. i'm just proud that i challenged myself. although i may not have enjoyed chingay as much as i would have liked, the people were still rather interesting. i still remember amanda, tom, kenneth and vimilyn in my group. and of course jie liang (not 4B haha) and friends from HCI. it's not the kind of friendship which will last. but at least i learnt how to network and hmm some cheerleading skills that proved useful for council later on (:

i won't regret joining chingay because i challenged myself...

2. Interact Reject turned Councillor
OKAY the epic incident zomg.

I arrive late for interview...
Me (during interview): Hmm. I did a social documentary. (turns to rj guy) You did it too right?
RJ Guy: (stunned look)
Me (without thinking): WAH! you never do your homework ah!

The comments: Late/Rude.

Everyone whom I told this story to later on just laughed at how dumb i was. haha but as charlotte said, it may be a blessing in disguise because if I got into interact, I wouldn't go for council. (:

And although council isn't exactly my cup of tea, I will never regret joining council because if anything, it has already taught me one thing: how to be nice. (:

I have no idea why. but so far, the most important thing in council to me has been my brilliant buddy, Joelynn! (:

Somehow, she just inspired me to be nice hahaha. Nowadays, before I do something, I always think of whether others would be happy from what I did. I guess Joelynn somehow influenced me into doing this. Not that she explicitly said it or something. But hmm I guess she's just the very very very very nice kind of person.

Jerald said that we were the same type of person. Well, I'm not sure whether we're alike but I definitely want to be more like her haha. I wonder how a person can be so nice (:

and of course, i love my houseD. i really dunno how much we will do at the end of the day. but getting to know such a nice group of people is great. somehow, i feel more at ease in my houseD. (: must be the calming influence of si xuan? ahhaha. nat day hasn't been much but stuff will start coming in i guess. just hope that H1N1 doesn't ruin our efforts.

but whatever the case...

i won't regret joining council because i have become a nicer person from it...

3. RJCO!
RJCO has been a great decision for me. I guess if I joined band I just wouldn't fit in. Not sure why but I feel most at ease when im in CO. somehow, i just manage to talk better and smile more (: haha influence of kweky this time? haha. i really have no idea why mann. but throughout the entire year, i've loved RJCO. the events weren't exactly as great as they came in RICO. no great SYF, no great concert. but i guess at the end of the day it's always the friends that you make in your CCA that matters and in CO i've made some great friends (:

Kweky, Victor, Liyuan, Yong Sheng, Linghui! WOOHOO! XD

i won't regret joining CO because of the great friends I made in it...

4. YAH
Joining YAH has been a great decision. If there's only one thing that I can take away from YAH, it'd be the way that James works.

I admire James for what he does because he puts in his best efforts in whatever he does. And more importantly, he respects everyone and his honesty and smile always comes through everytime I see him. He isn't exactly good in everything esp. when it comes to tech stuff but he doesn't mind being laughed at. He takes it in his stride and because of his great character and smile (which I MUST LEARN), his friends will always help him out. In fact, whenever I don't go for a YAH meeting, i feel guilty cuz of James haha.

But most importantly, James believes in us. I think YAH has come a long way since the beginning of the year and much credit goes to James. He's the main driving force behind this group. He believes in all of us and gives us the space to work and come up with our own ideas and plans. When I get to work next time, James will be one of the role models whom I'll try to emulate. (: Hopefully, I'll be able to do so!

But of course, YAH isn't just about James. haha. it's about all the people as well. the exco, the advocates. I'll do another post individually about YAH when my term comes to an end. but if there is one thing that i regret about YAH, it will be that i didn't do enough. but definitely...

i won't regret joining YAH because of the great role models whom i can emulate now and in the future...

5. SHINE (:
Joining SHINE was also a great decision. Actually, not just SHINE. but more specifically, SHINE PUBS TEAM! WOOHOO!

haha i have to thank aiwei and benjamin for being great people in leading the team. they were totally great and without them we wouldn't have come through everything. but of course, everyone's work was important! SK was especially great with his advertising knowledge but the great thing was that everyone put in a lot of hard work to make things come true. I'd never imagine such a huge youth festival in Singapore. I'd never imagine being able to play a part in such a great festival and even giving an idea for the dance which came true! (:

I thank SHINE PUBS because they make things come true. They make me believe in what I do and make me feel that what I am doing is taken into account. They ensure that everyone's opinions are heard.

and of course, the people in SHINE are super nice. esp. jackson hahahha. dunno why he so nice. another inspiration for me to be nicer yay (:

I won't regret joining SHINE because they give meaning to what I do.

6. MPS
All right MPS! haha. haven't been going since May. but i've gone for 10 times. sufficient to know that MPS is a great place to learn loads of stuff if you have the time hahaha. too bad it's tuesday 730pm. i guess i just can't sustain burning my tuesday evenings every week until i find more time...

the people there are also very nice hahaha. esp. benjamin (: zomg. hahahaha. so sad that i didn't bid farewell to him. in fact my absence came really suddenly when CO started to kick in. sigh. shall go back one day to see them again (: hope i dont get killed for not going haha.

but what i really found meaningful about MPS was that I got to see how very lucky i was to have such a great family. i rarely listen to their stories. in fact, i think i've only done that 5 times? but when you sit at the registration table or usher them, you can see their face. more often than not, they have a smile on their face. they thank you for what you do. but deep down, you know that they are worrying. That to me was something powerful.

i won't regret joining MPS because i got a sneak peak into people's lives.

7. WLC
WLC was another great event haha. although the planning didn't go smoothly and there were several hiccups during the actual event, we still managed to pull through. the most amazing thing about it was how youths nearly single-handedly (okay maybe the ECO interns too!) organized such a large event.

When I first heard about WLC, i was totally in disbelief. I mean, in sec 2, going for beach cleanup already felt impossible. in sec 3, going to taiwan and changchun made me think there couldn't be any CIP that would ever be tougher than those.

Well, it seems like when you believe in what you do, the sky has no boundaries. What seemed impossible became reality in WLC and that was amazing. And to add to that, I could do it with all my great friends from 4B!

i won't regret joining WLC because it made me believe that nothing is impossible...

8. Others
and of course there were many other smaller events which made up the year. Race to Health certainly taught me lots as well regarding planning stuff and executing events. Signing up for the many scholarships and OSAP also gave me much exposure although I didn't succeed in getting any of them. Planning for Raffles Perc was also great because even though it didn't work out in the end, at least it gave us reason to meet up and have fun (: Orientation too was fun and together with Council IRT, I learnt that I should be more proactive in networking! ahhh. got lots to learn there. Participating in music feste was another fun activity!

9. Things to come!
Much more stuff will be coming my way from SHINE, YAH, council and CrimeZero. but for now, i can say that i don't regret whatever that i've done.

at least not now.

and i certainly hope i won't regret it in the future (:

Patrick

PW survey

2009-07-06T23:17:00.002+08:00

okay today was PW survey day.

so sad it had to be today. had to miss 3 hours of fun of badminton+table tennis. could have thrashed jiggy mannn. HAHAHA. aiyah! nvm.

anyway, went for YAH meeting in the morning. hahaha. errrr nothing much lol.

den PW survey. omg. we wanted to finish 150 surveys. i thought it would take like maybe from 12 to 8pm? hahaha ended up only take until 330 and we finish everything. (: not bad right! woohoo! PW is finally progressing zzz.

some epic incidents included asking people who i've asked before to do the survey, meeting the same guy at city hall and raffles place (we did the surveys at 2 places) and he gave me the laugh hahahaha. but the most epic one was someone who was smoking and doing survey. hmm seemed like the smoke burnt the paper ahaha. okay not that bad luh. but hmm (: i didn't see it sian.

haha after that went reference library to get more info on sharks. first time i'm so enthu about PW. i'm determined to do my best at whatever i do.

haix. today after YAH meeting, firdaus and benjamin started talking about NS. i'm totally not looking forward to it. hahaha. CAN THE 1.5 YEARS I HAVE LEFT PASS SLOWER. zomg. i can totally imagine myself 1 day before NS on my bed. omg. >< i'd be totally zzz. hahaha but i guess every guy has to go through and hmm i need to do it with an open mind (:

hm got to know a new friend in library today (: haha quite nice (:

okies gotta go bye!

Patrick

Cute video from SHINE festival!

2009-07-06T23:09:00.001+08:00

LOL cute (: from shine festival.

Patrick

woohoo

2009-07-05T22:20:00.002+08:00

mmhmm.

i shall get back into the habit of blogging (i hope)...

WOW.

okay i shall talk about friday's PW interview.

hmm. so i was the only one who could go for the interview cuz cihan and zhihua were both quarantined and zhiyu was down with a fever. well, at first i thot the only bad thing was that i'd have to wake up early which everyone knows i totally hate. ><

in the end, the walk into acres took 40 mins. OMG. hahahaha. ACRES is really hard to find mann. basically from choa chu kang mrt, need to take a bus to some place and walk in for 1.5km. doesn't really sound that bad bah. 1.5km take 40min? unfortunately, i took the wrong path and OMG haixxx... haha but at least the interview went quite well. (:

today was spent in the reference library stoning away...

ZZZ. I WANT TO SLACK! RARH.

why am i still feeling down sad?

Patrick

SHINE YOUTH FESTIVAL

2009-07-05T00:03:00.007+08:00

haha okies so CTs are over (finally).

sigh screwed up econs and probably GP but the other 3 should be fine except for some careless mistakes...

been slacking around these few days. Thursday was outing with 4B friends (: haha duplicity is super cool! omg. okay maybe for the first 1.5 hours, you look stunned and completely lost at what the whole movie is about. But towards the end, everything suddenly pieces together and WOAH. it's some big twist haha. really fun watch but not for those with no patience. need lots of brain work too which may make it unsuitable for a post-CT movie but nvm it was fun (: haha.

Kenneth's house was fun too! hahahha (: FOOD!

been watching nodame and shuang zi xing the past few days. hahaha. okay shuang zi xing is totally drama but damn exciting. haha it's quite cool (: fann wong (:

hmm. okay i said i'd do some wrap-up for SHINE youth festival so here it is!

SHINE YOUTH FESTIVAL OPENING CEREMONY 2009

1. MEET AND STUNT
It was totally fun (: hahaa. started off by going to NYC Somerset at 10am. den changed into the new SHINE shirt which is damn nice but a bit large. hahaha unlike in 4B, this time i sourced for the supplier but didn't design the shirt. hahaa. AIYAH no chance to showcase my brilliant art talent AHEM. ><>
OKAY! haha so cool right (: erps.

2. TAKE FAMILY PHOTOS ACTIVITIES and LUNCH (:
hmm. so after that we went there helped out a bit by going around to ask people about SHINE and take family photos (: hahaha. not bad not bad! so yitao, JACKSON and me went around asking. haha i think we succeeded around 4 times? LOL

den after that it was lunch at macs which was quite fun (:

3. CAMWHORING SESSION
after that CAMWHORING SESSION! hahaha. okay so went around taking photos with mascots (: WHY MASCOTS? haha because this year's SHINE OPENING CEREMONY had a MASCOT PARADE! omg. super cool can? hahahaha.

YAY LOVE THIS ONE (: HAHAHAHAHA!

woooo. blue hair (:

LOL BARNEY BITING HIS FINGERS >< AIYOH NOW H1N1 LEH!

haha this is cute (:

and this one also! HAHAHAHA. JIANKAI kanna pat on his head. (:

okay okay so that was the camwhoring session. later on, yitao, junsheng, bingxu, jiankai and i decided to go try out the JUMPER! hahahaha damn cool (: pics again!

oops. the other way round haha ><

4. MASCOT PARADE WITH YAH (:
HMM. den after that, we were off to the mascot parade! joined YAH in the parade cuz they needed manpower. hahaha. NOT BAD. we got loads of balloons and it was super fun! hahaha. OMG. we were singing all the way during the parade... stuff like:

1. yippie YAH YAH yippie yippie YAH!
2. YAH YAH YAH YAH YAH YAH YAH YAH YAH (in star wars tune)
3. Old mcdonald had a farm yee-YAH yee-YAH oh.

okay and more lame ones hahaha. OKAY PICS (:

5. OPENING CEREMONY WITH SHINE!
hmmm. so after that it was time for the opening ceremony and the now-famed ALGORITHM DANCE. hahaha. can't believe that it really materialised. it was first suggested as an idea for nat day '09 by JOELYNN. but den during SHINE pubs meeting, we couldn't decide what dance to do for opening ceremony so i suggested this (: hahaa thanks to the hard work of everyone (in fact i didn't do much except suggest the idea and go for one rehearsal), WE DID IT (: HAHA. super fun can. and the videos are damn cool HAHAHAHA.

YAH PEOPLE DOING THE ALGORITHM DANCE!

6. POST-SHINE LAUNCH
HAHA. okay den it was fun time (:

7. DINNER
AND OF COURSE. to end off, we had DINNER! at thai express! woohooo. damn nice (:

quite sad i didn't watch much of the performances though. hahahaha. hm yitao should be viewing my videos for the emcee AHEM.

haha. okay cheers, gotta sleep!

PATRICK (:

SHINE!

2009-07-01T21:38:00.002+08:00

haha quick post before i go back to studying. hmm. got some SHINE videos uploaded online so just thought i'd share them haha. looks quite cool! must do a post on SHINE opening ceremony after CTs...

1. ALGORITHM MARCH WOOHOO! (:

2. MASCOT PARADE

3. SUPERHERO CONTEST

4. Some costume thingy

YAY. back to mugging! (:

Patrick

WLC over

2009-06-22T22:03:00.012+08:00

okay i haven't posted for ages.

and i'm feeling sleepy after studying physics and totally dozzy after doing the tutorial for stoichio.

haha rj life has been totally hectic and it's like there's no breathing space but i'm coping and i'm enjoying it. much better than the dec holidays when i was stoning at home doing nothing until i finally got a job. lol.

i last posted in april lol. loads of stuff have happened since then.

1. Council
woohoo. i still don't think i'm really the council kind of person but when i first decided to try my luck in council, i always told myself that i was going to take it as a challenge. well, i'm still trying to adapt myself to the council stuff. Well, but i must say i've enjoyed everything i've done so far.

Match supports were especially good. Nothing could beat the final week of match supports in week 9. Starting with Tennis on wednesday which was the first time we could really use drums to cheer and the first time the 29ths were leading cheers haha. we started off badly but soon we were off to some really good cheering and the double gold added to the joy. den the ULTIMATE-MATCH-SUPPORT-DAY which was basketball and rugby on the same day. omg. that was a really fun day. basketball was the ultimate especially cuz my buddy JOELYNN was playing. woohoo. she looked sooooo cool man. hahaha. esp. her 3-pointers and fast break. omg. even justin foo was drooling ahem okay nvm. haha. we were behind by 13 points (i think, can't really remember but it was a lot) in the last quarter but we didn't give up hope. we were 9 points behind with half a minute left but we scored 2 quick 3-pointers and had a throw-in (errr at least in soccer that's the term) in the last few seconds. unfortunately, it wasn't our day and we missed the last 3-pointer. but the fightback was so great and the atmosphere was really good. rugby too was brilliant. we cheered our hearts out and although i must admit the atmosphere wasn't as good as the one last year, we won and everyone ran on the field after that to celebrate. it was really fun haha.

then, there was council camp which i can't talk much about except that it was a good experience that i'll never ever forget (:

then, council investiture which was fun haha. esp. the rehearsals where we got to talk to more people. and during council investiture. really felt very honoured being invested haha. (: and the mass photo taking after that...

Anyway, houseD has been going great as well with our first event coming up soon! haha looking forward to IHC too omg. this is soooo fun!

and nat day is coming up wahhhh this is gonna be some really hectic time for me manzz. GO GAMES COMM! haha. matthew and penny! (: haha i still remember penny's comment on MSN.

Me (at 11pm): hello
Penny: I don't like you to talk to me. Means got to do work. :(

lol... but well i guess it's fun (:

and of course my really nice buddy, JOELYNN! (: haha. treated her to dinner on the last week of school.

2. YAH
haha much has been happening at YAH too. was really sad i couldn't go for youth no tobacco workshop cuz of CO haha. the skit looked really cool (: but well at least i got to participate in the World No Tobacco Day. Got to see how real events really worked behind the scenes and got the honour of being a T-shirt competition judge with 2 other designers hahaha. not bad right! hahaha. and of course got to take lots of photos.

den there was YAH induction last sat. haha it was great getting to know more YAH people like jonathan, alice... wahhh and of course winning musical chairs was great (although the forfeit which was the dance wasn't that great haha). but overall, it was really fun and now i have more friends hahaha! (:

random yah induction pic haha.

3. SHINE
omg. shine is coming so soon. it's this sat! haha going for rehearsal tmr night. really hope the opening goes well (: WOOHOO! and there are advertisements at Somerset MRT LOL. so sad my face not there though booo. hahaha. but nvm, the SHINE people are damn nice. gotta dedicate a post for them in the future.

Random SHINE induction pic haha

4. RJCO
woah. RJCO got really hectic in May with SYF and concert. but it was really fun. all the late night practices and dinners haha. all the fun we had during rehearsals, helping each other out... i really love the people in CO esp. PERC! woohoo! anyway linghui is our new SL and i'll support her all the way! yay! (:

SYF wasn't as good but well at least it was a good experience and i enjoyed the pracs leading up to it. we didn't perform on the day but i enjoyed it. the fun we had haha... THE TOILET INCIDENT. omg. hahahaha. so funny. the bananas bought and given to lao zhou... the 3 hour piano session with liyuan. the lame jokes shared amongst ourselves. omg. soooo fun!

and den there was concert which was another great experience. shall upload the concert video for long teng here! (:

and hmm maybe a few a photos too!

5. World Leadership Conference
WOOHOO! WLC for the win mannn. it was a totally fun experience last week starting from sunday. on sunday we went to do hotel pickup and it was rather funny cuz it was our first time doing such stuff and we screwed up a little. haha. but still it was damn fun with kenneth and lumpy around. the participants looked shocked at first when they saw some 16 year olds receiving them but well they soon got amused by us esp. on the way back. haha. got to interact with some of them and i must say they are really nice.

then came the 5 day conference. it really passed by in a breeze but it was a great experience both before and during the conference. the planning for stuff, getting speakers, newwater, working with LDC for the amazing race. i've learnt a lot from them.

and during the conference, got to know lots of really enthusiastic people and i must say i'm really impressed by them. although the conference wasn't really that well planned cuz it was organized by youths most under the age of 19 but still the participants made the conference successful through their enthusiasm. everything from start to finish, from the icebreakers to the closing ceremony was successful because of them. really want to thank all of them haha esp. the NYP people (Charmaine, Ashsiqqin, Woonching, Shuhui) who kept me company in the group, Shawn for guiding me when i was totally lost in SMU and bringing the participants around singapore after each day ended, Phuong and Assad for being great leaders, Niwa and Edrian for being the best friends ever for GT! WOOHOO! and of course all the others from sita, priscillia, edo, karina... they made the WLC experience a much more meaningful one to me. the speakers too were great and the amazing race was ownage (: yay! thanks to halim and michelle (:

and of course, to the org comm who has made the conference possible. Yitao and Luyang the chairpersons haha. thanks for giving us the opportunity to take part in this conference. and of course my best friends from 4B. being together for 5 days during the conference enjoying ourselves. hahaha it was totally ownage (:

okies shall upload some photos.

YAY WLC FOR THE WIN! WOOHOO! (:

6. Random 6R pic

bye mr koh! And have fun in USA lol. (: remember to buy stuff back for me woohoo!

i thot this pic was quite funny lol.

7. MUGGING CTs
and now comes the mugging week. i'm still on track to complete my stuff but i have a busy week of mugging up ahead. hope i can keep up the good work. Physic's done except i'm still not very familiar with dynamics and gotta revise a bit of kinematics. but that's okay. started on chem stoichio today. finished the tutorial and i'm glad i didn't forget too much of the stuff. just need a bit more memory work put in and someone to teach me some other stuff. atomic structure finishing soon, was mugging on the train. nothing much but to memorize everything. thanks to the class test, i pretty much know what i need to know so i save the trouble of extracting info from notes. hmm. tmr shall finish up chem and start on math. hope to finish phy chem and math by wed yay (:

8. After CTs!
After CTs will be a hell of a hectic time, CO pracs will restart, Council nat day and IHC and events will come, Shine festival will have started and there'd be duties, YAH event coming up... hope i'll be able to cope (:

haha okay that's all for now! BYE! (:

PATRICK! (finally updated lol)

BLOG

2009-04-04T00:37:00.002+08:00

all right it's 1240 now. i have 20 more minutes before i definitely have to sleep.

So i shall blog for the first time in more than a month i think.

lots of stuff have been happening...

Firstly, HPB race to health was held on 28 feb and although a lot of stuff weren't up to expectations, i guess it was a real learning experience. It was after all the first time i was planning a CIP project and such a big-scale one too! but i certainly had fun with my OG mates and 4B mates and well i think the participants had fun too luh.

Then, there was YAH's first even for the year, the Youth Health Symposium (YHS). It was fantastic. The atmosphere, the programme, the presentations, the debate. everything was so interesting. and to do it with 9 great friends and 1 boss was even better. haha. somehow, YAH plans such big-scale events but still manages to do it in such a friendly environment. I love YAH because I am able to be myself when I go for meetings. The EXCO just rocks luh. haha and of course the Swensen's treat rocked too. had lots of fun chatting and talking about APPLE CRUMBLE. HAHAHA. omg. jiankai ><

SHINE has been going great too. I'm glad I signed up for the publicity team although all other RI guys signed up for programmes. Everyone in it is passionate and really interested in SHINE and I guess just really enthu luh. and they are all very nice so it's great. Just had a panellist meeting today and it went great. I thought my presentation was rather good. Could have been better but I'm improving on my confidence luh. I stumbled at the start but I got better towards the end. Overall, I'm really impressed by the ideas that publicity comm has come up with and I've been exposed to a lot especially with SK and Shawn and Jackson. They make me feel like being in RJ is nothing. haha i mean they're very nice and can do so much more stuff than me. (: and having SK around is like having free lessons on advertising techniques. haha. and his passion and the way he speaks is something i would like to learn as well (:

YCM has been quite different though. I haven't been going for many meetings so i can't really see the big picture of everything but at least I've made a few friends there. (:

Crimezero is coming up fine too. Just need to finish up planning of the training sessions, get as many volunteers as possible and I guess we'll do fine. WLC is however rather worrying. We're facing quite a few problems and it's gonna be hard. But I believe that Wilson would do whatever it takes to make it successful so I'm still optimistic about it.

Council campaigning was this week. To be honest, I didn't do much for campaigning. But, well I'll see whether or not I get in and decide on my commitments later on...

Another exciting thing coming up is ISLE! (: CAMBODIA HERE I COME YEAH!

haha. this certainly is exciting.

and i've been improving on lots of stuff including interviews and presentations. I've come a long way since the interact interview...

and of course, studies is another main concern. I'm keeping up rather well for now. I guess I'm doing rather well for Physics for the time-being. Math, although I don't understand some of the RA stuff, I can still do the A-level questions so that's okay. Chem has been all right too. just got to mug it for the upcoming test. Rather worried about how chemical bonding would be taught though. >< As for Econs, I'm still understanding what's happening. The main concern would be essay skills and memory work once again. GP and PW are going fine for now. (:

So overall, I've been doing fine luh. Some people feel that I'm going burn out but for now, I'm still going okay. So I'm fine (:

CO tmr (: YAY.

Patrick

blogpost

2009-03-09T20:51:00.002+08:00

hmm it's been so hectic recently that i've found little time for blogging. but life has been great (:

although there have been some concerns raised regarding my various commitments, i think i'm still coping well. Eugene asked a very good question today when we were discussing about the different university choices. He said that it is important to decide where you want to go and work towards it. UK universities seem to focus a lot on results while US universities focus more on the individual as a whole. I'm not sure how accurate this is but the philosophy that I've been using since the start of sec 4 and taught by a senior when iw as in sec 3 is "do the bare minimum for everything".

I know it sounds wrong but it's really about efficiency. By bare minimum, I don't mean getting just enough to pass my promos or get my A for PW cuz that would be dangerous. But I think what he meant is getting the best results using the fixed amount of time that we have. I've set aside Monday afternoons, Friday afternoons as well as Sunday for work which I guess would be sufficient. And of course, another thing I'd need to do is to read up more in the area of Econs and GP. It's the 2 subjects that I still don't feel confident in.

NAPFA (zzz) is another area that I guess I'll have to work in if I want to free myself for december next year.

And of course there are various other exciting stuff coming up.
CO: SYF + Concert!
Weiqi: Somehow I always look forward to the training sessions. (:
CZero: Coming up soon (:
WLC: more work to do but i guess the event would be great!
YAH: photoshoot+YHS
ISLE: yay! can't wait to go (:
Shine: coming up in july!

some people say im taking a big risk but i think i'll pull through!

Patrick

School

2009-02-21T21:28:00.002+08:00

okay it has been 3+ weeks since i last blogged and it's been 3+ weeks since i've joined 10S06R.

well, all i can say is that it's a special class. it's well-known to be a scholar class but there's much more to it that i guess many people won't know. The class is full of nice people and although we're all relatively quiet, quiet people tend to become more talkative together. haha. so there's lots of laughter during lessons (think tan xin during physics lol).

but mm the past few weeks have been enjoyable but really busy as well. YEC meetings, MPS sessions, Race to Health, Class Camp (:, music feste, YAH meetings to add to all the homework. haha but i guess i'm still coping fine. think i'm gonna quit entre soon cuz it clashes with weiqi. sighhh it's a rather big sacrifice cuz there are so many competitions in entre to participate in which i guess will be rather fun but at the same time, i don't really want to give up weiqi as yet. guess i'll just have to sign up for the competitions externally. should be quite fun though (:

so CCA-wise, i'm still in CO, BLYC, OneEarth and Weiqi. Wonder whether I can cope with these. Of course, if I get into council, I'd quit all except CO. haha but that's if i get in luh. most likely i won't...

hmm. but well everything has been going great...

MPS has been a rather fun experience, getting to know people from HC and other interviewers. although i've screwed up a few times, i'm improving haha and i'll get to know more people soon i guess (: mmhmm.

Race to Health was okay. the first CIP event that i've ever organized. quite fun luh. got so many OG friends and 4B friends and other friends around. haha. it wasn't as good as we would have wanted it to be but i guess we still did a relatively good job.

Class Camp was ownage (: damn fun. hahha. had lots of fun talking to 6R peeps during bus journey, hike, night talk, dinner, kayaking... omg. hahaha i wanna go again. the only bad part about class camp was the collldddd night and the irritating mosquitos and whatever insects. damn funny haha. we were singing songs along the way, speaking different languages, suanning each other, cheering each other... very fun haha. and of course class camp caused the birth of 1. apple 2. chay 3. octopus 4. flower... LOL. really hilarious. oh and i learnt how to sing happy birthday in vienamese from apple. woohoo.

Lessons have been going great as well. We have a great Econs teacher, a very funny physics teacher, a really nice chem teacher and a damn pro GP teacher. haha. OH PW TOO! HAHA. lessons have been rather fun too. and i'm still coping well. i'm ahead of tutorials usually by a week. so that's good mm. must continue that way yay sunday mugging sessions rock.

but of course, there are questions of whether im overcommitting myself. as i said i'm going to pull out of entre soon and if still cannot cope, i'll pull out of blyc bah. actly, a lot depends on how things go for the next few weeks. still adjusting to jc life. hmm.

but i shall be happy with how things are going for now. i should be more optimistic (:

happy birthday apple.

YAY!

Patrick

CO

2009-02-07T18:06:00.002+08:00

hmm shall first post a photo taken by our amazingly cool OGLs of HH06!

okay. so today was CO. haha errrr came 3 hours late for xz (meaning i came for nothing) partly because i thought it was optional and because i was dead tired from orientation. thought dazu was next but ended up having CO orientation. haha quite fun luh. somehow, i'm able to be myself more in CO than during orientation. maybe because i already know so many seniors and batchmates haha. but it was still fun. got to know a few people and yay i have a fellow batchmate in CO perc woohoo!

played soccer after CO haha quite fun (:

hmm still contemplating whether or not to go for bishan CNY party. zzz.

Patrick

chingay WONDERLAND + O'tiero

2009-02-07T16:41:00.002+08:00

woah. i'm finally blogging.

it's been a really tiring week, starting from fri last week.

Fri was chingay day 1! haha. it was a great feeling luh. totally fun. the waiting wasn't fun luh but in such an enthu group like M5 was really great. haha although i felt a bit like an outcast sometimes cuz everyone was so enthu but i guess i did learn something from that. but the parade was super fun luh. cheered non-stop for 1 hour before parade and .5 hour after parade. yay total fun. and also got to wave to performers and watch the fireworks up close as well as the fire crackers. although we didn't really get to see many performances, I high-fived with many performers haha so quite fun luh. one even joked with me cuz i was eating some chocolate den she said "WHY I DON'T HAVE" haha. quite fun luh.

Sat was chingay day 2! haha. i was surprised i still had the energy and voice to carry on cheering. this time we did VIP motivating. haha. it was much slacker but this also allowed us to watch the firecrackers up close which was totally cool. once again got to wave at performers. This time we even got inside to watch the last few performances including the part where the guy gets set on fire. damn cool haha. M5 was dancing around as if the place was a pub haha damn fun. and of course got to wave at performers again and wave at president Nathan, SM Goh, DPM and several others haha. it's been a really fun experience volunteering at chingay luh. i wouldn't mind doing it again yay! but i think the one coming up will be NDP. hmm...

all right so after that came RJC Orientation!

woahh haha fun luh.

Otiero was great haha. the storyline was damn funny, the dance was great joy and laughter too and the station games and amazing race got us interacting with each other. and of course, who can forget the war games, esp. STRIP ME IF YOU CAN! haha. omg. that was the most tiring war game i've ever played. ><

haha yeah luh it's been really a hell lot of fun. i joined the group only knowing aaron tiong but i think i've made an all right impression even though some thought i was emo. but i'm not okay! haha. hmm.

Thanks to:

OGLs - Leon, Elson, Meng Mei:
haha. although not exactly the most ra-ra type of OGL like titus (lol), but still you are all friendly and approachable. haha. i think that's helped our group in terms of bonding a lot. yay (:

Rebecca:
mm thanks for being a nice friend in the OG haha. and thanks for being so enthu about 28 feb CIP woohoo. okay i shall admit you're nice but ego at the same time yay

Casslyn:
haha although i didn't really get to talk to you much during the 5 days but i've never seen you not smile before so that's great haha. continue smiling always (:

Xinqi:
OMG. Natural-born leader #1. yay. super enthu and pro. haha makes me feel inferior sia. but yeah thanks for leading the group so well you've made us a much better team!

Jolyn:
haha i've enjoyed all the laughter during the dance sessions. zzz why did i have to stand in front of you. 出丑 luh. haha. but all the same, thanks for being enthu about CIP! woohoo.

Wan Ting:
ehh. didn't get to talk to you a lot either. but still, you've made many many contributions to the group and i'm sure we all appreciate your efforts (: see you around in school!

Yen Lin:
woohoo. thanks for being my wonderful dance partner and errr not minding my screw ups. i totally didn't know i was pairing with such a great dancer at first zzz. i kept looking at you for the next action and ended up doing the girls action oops (high five sherwin). hope you enjoyed the dance sessions as much as i did.

Mengxia:
haha it's totally cool that i got to know you through FOSL, know that you were very good friends with liwei and end up in the same OG. You're like casslyn, never stop smiling one haha. thanks for your nice note and hmm i'm sure we'll get to see each other some time again! oh and you're damn photogenic woohoo (:

Lisa:
haha yay to fellow bishan-er. your art totally owns. i still can't believe that you designed the card, i initially thought you bought it or something. you mentioned wanting to become an architect but your parents don't allow or something like that. hmm advice my friends always give me: follow your heart!

Tryphena:
haha. yay to the most approachable girl in our OG. i've enjoyed all the crap we've talked about including lumpy (yup he's crap. hmm.), chamber, RISE concert last year, cheers, institution anthem and many others. thanks for your note too! Hope to see you around in school!

Su Fen:
omg. hahaha 3.91 cannot remember names of OG people. but well you're really super super nice and funny haha. i've enjoyed watching your joking around with russell it's really amusing haha. and you made a great model on O night woohoo. really appreciate your enthusiasm and being so approachable (:

Ying Er:
hmm. haha another never-stop-smiling girl. although it was quite a pity that you couldn't join us for all the OG meals and stuff, you're really nice and a great friend to have in our OG. haha hope to get to know you better through the year.

Wei Rong:
woohoo. you're not full of guai4 lan3 luh. haha. your enthusiasm always got the group going and if not for zhi ming, you'd be the natural leader right? haha. thanks for being such a nice friend in HH06!

Kartik:
yay. thanks for being such a nice friend. haha. it was great getting to know you and joking around on the MRT, during the amazing race and on so many other occasions. Really glad to have such a nice guy in the OG!

Zhi Ming:
Natural-leader #2! haha. hmm your leadership and enthusiasm and joking-around has always got the group high! thanks for being a nice friend yay! and you'd better plan some outing with natural-leader #1 or we'll come haunt you. muahaha. (i sound like su fen. oops)

Yueda:
hmm it must have been hard for you to bond with the OG but i must say you've done quite well! In fact, I've talked to you and Zhang Liang quite a lot over the 5 days. high-five fellow math ra-er. woohoo.

Russell:
yay to our brilliant model. you're damn funny luh! esp with su fen haha. thanks for being such a nice friend and i'm sure i'll get to know you more over the year! i can try to crash band lunch? hmm wonder whether jerald would allow that lol. but yeah you're super nice haha.

Zhang Liang:
yup it must have been hard for you too, but hey! we've gotten to know each other quite well. enjoyed all the jokes we had along the way like hmm "I live in boarding". haha. jiayou for the coming year!

Aaron:
yay fellow "no sec 2 friends in OG" guy. hmm i guess you, like me, found it quite hard to get into the OG cuz we didn't really have friends that we knew beforehand to support us. but still you've done a great job esp. towards the end! and try to figure out the MRT game (:

Hari:
yay! haha. it's surprising how much we've gotten to know each other over the 5 days. you're very easy to talk to and i've enjoyed all the crapping around. hope you adapt to RI life and i'll see you around!

Sherwin:
hmm. it's surprising (once again) that my closest friend in the OG was actually you haha. I guess it's partly because we both didn't know anyone when we first came into HH06 but the more important reason would be because you're nice and we've got lots of common topics such as kairen. i've enjoyed all your VS stories and with your character and pro-ness (esp. in sports), i bet you'd do very well and become really popular in RJ! just be yourself (: hope we'll continue being great friends.

hmm. so Orientation has been super fun. all the fun we had at pastamania, discussions about modeling and presents, dancing outside j8 ><, chatting during amazing race, laughing over dance screw ups... these would be fond memories of otiero. thinking back, although i could have been more enthu and stuff, I guess I've done all right. At least i got to be great friends with everyone and i hope i haven't left a bad impression of myself haha. but yeah, these 5 days have been great fun and I hope we can continue being great friends even as Otiero comes to an end.

OUT OF IDEAS FTW!

Patrick

hmm.

2009-01-24T15:45:00.002+08:00

hm so this was a pretty tiring week for me.

no homework, no nothing but still tiring.

Monday was interact interview which i totally screwed up. nvm, i've gotten over it. haha.

Tuesday was quite fun. after school, kenneth, jerald, jiggy, lumpy and i were in SR block playing random games. haha. there was this part when we all just burst into laughing cuz of lumpy and couldn't stop for at least 5 min. >< haha laughter is infectious. can train abs lol. oh and tue was my first-ever meet the people session which was rather fun haha. got to know some other people and hear about some stories and get more advice on my JC and Uni life. oh and i got to meet Mr. Wong for the first time in my life. haha. he's a really nice person who loves to joke with us haha. too bad i didn't dare to say much after screwing up my interact interview. but i got to hear much from him like the people they meet during the MPS and other stuff like the lantern festival and CrimeZero and some programmes in JC. one month ago, i wouldn't have imagined talking to such an important person so informally. but seems like it's possible and fun too haha. looking forward to the next MPS.

Wed was FOSL. haha. surprisingly fun. the teacher was quite inspiring which was quite surprising as well cuz i thought it would be some dull teaching. we got to discuss a lot as well so we got to share our ideas of our CIP initiatives as well as our views on certain SL projects. so that's not bad. got to know quite a few like-minded people, guess that's my most impt takeaway. mm. hope to work with them next time. we'll see... (:

Thur was PLAYTIME. haha. went to kenneth's house to play. lol. quite fun yay. glad to have such nice friends. LF2 was funny haha. kanna owned. but nvm i blame it on the keyboard. hmm. after that, dinner was spent with RJCO peeps but i realized i was scammed cuz no J1s were there so i felt a little out-of-place. haha luckily had jimmy beside me so it was rather fun. happy birthday to victor and yiusum lol. got to know some of the J2s once again so that's great as well. Networking is impt yay. haha.

Fri was spent first at Entre. hmm not bad luh. im joining quite a nice CCA. i'm seriously considering studying business in Uni, so Entre should help me out in that. not sure whether i'd like to be a core member though. CO seems to need much more commitment than i expected. hmm. i'll see. there's still oneearth and chess. I've given up on math soc cuz i don't take i'll takeaway much from there anyway.

and today. so far, CO prac was okay luh. took me 1.5 hr to play first note but at least i had fun talking and playing drums outside. oh and soccer after CO was fun too. thanks jimmy for organizing. top scorer (or rather poacher) lol. top misser too though. oops.

cultural night later. omg. i haven't prepared anything. ><

HMM. i realize i'm always careless. Interact interview, emails... lots of stuff. so far, not much consequence, just didn't get into interact. but i'll have to change that. zzz. and i need to pay attention more to how i talk. i still randomly sprout out comments like "WAH never do your homework!". zzz. to friends i guess it's okay. haha. too used to being ego hur. sigh. nvm i'll try to do my best to change.

mm. still got some application forms to fill in and proposals to do. but nvm, at least i know i'm not doing nothing now.

gotta go prepare something for cultural night rarh.

Patrick

zzz.

2009-01-19T23:56:00.003+08:00

lol after thinking back on interact interview today, i just realized how much i screwed up. zzz.

my interact club chances look slim. sighhh really wanna join and help out leh crap lah why must the bus take 20 mins to come when it usually takes 5-10 only.

zzz. and stupid cough medicine rarh. i'm not thinking properly now. i've been careless twice today sian.

hope everything will turn out fine.

Patrick

sian

2009-01-19T18:46:00.002+08:00

feeling really sian now.

school today was horrible. 3 hours of talks in MPH. sigh. although the speakers were okay esp. the last one, i couldn't pay attention at all and kept dozing off. zzz maybe the cough medicine that i ate in the morning was causing all the drowsiness. in the end, couldn't take it and went home to sleep.

interact interview @ 440. lol. went there late cuz the bus took 20 mins to come. but it went all right luh. but i made the biggest screw up ever when i suggested that one of the interviewers didn't do his homework. HAHA. aiyah sian i think i was still drowsy. surprisingly, i wasn't nervous at all although my voice sounded really sick. it went all right luh, i forgot to same some stuff that i wanted to say but i guess they looked quite impress (i hope). haha. all i can wait for is the results on 11 feb. till then, i'll just keep my fingers crossed.

shall do some stuff regarding the perc concert to get things going luh. i still have no idea whether it'll work out but i hope it will. it's gonna be fun though.

oh anyway sunday was great fun. CIP was okay luh. first time giving out flyers. i performed quite all right. lol ended up having fun with jiggy and some other people who were giving out flyers (not the same CIP. those fast food restaurant flyers). haha damn funny we had fun suanning each other. (: lunch was idiotic. waited 45 min for a bowl of wanton noodles. zzz.

raffles perc meeting later was all right. contributed some ideas but im still unsure whether all these will work out. we better start working hard if we want this to be a success. but yeah we had fun with all the crapping and laughter and digressions.

den after that went back for CIP pack up. dinner was spent with P6 classmates at Zac's house. zomg. everyone changed so much except for me. well, dewei and max are still really nice so i'm glad. and the house was totally ownage sighhh. played pool and a few rounds of bridge before pizza and home.

time to stop slacking and start working.

Patrick

hmm.

2009-01-17T22:40:00.002+08:00

HMMM...

today was interesting.

early in the morning had to wake up for polyclinic. damn sian. i hate polyclinics for two reasons. firstly, there's waiting time of minimum 2 hours. secondly, you can't choose your doctor. so for the 2nd time running, i got a doctor who just gave medicine based on nothing else but what I said. so i went like "i got sore throat" and without even looking at my throat, she just gave the medicine. wth. i mean okay luh, polyclinics are cheap but service must at least be of a certain standard right. what if the patient doesn't really know how to describe his illness and uses the wrong term for his illness. then confirm get wrong medicine. i know for sore throat it's a little hard to misjudge but come on... at least give the patient a bit more attention and make him feel more assured right. i'm completely sure i won't recover even with the antibiotics she gave. zzz.

okay, nvm i shouldn't rant so much. afternoon was chingay. was late by half an hour cuz i decided to take a half-hour nap (which extended to an hour) because the cough medicine made me drowsy. zzz. but didn't really matter in the end. had some ice breakers because over 20 people from sin ming secondary joined us. haha got to know 4 of the boys there. lol. okay luh they're very quiet but after a while of trying to make them talk more, we became closer and started talking more. found out about their school, geog teacher, npcc and loads of other stuff. did much cheering today as weel which did nothing but made my sore throat worse. really hope i recover before chingay... zzz.

den went for CIP at bishan. okay luh. by the time i reached, nothing much to do except pack up. got the chance to meet up with the YEC vice chair Alex too. haha. he's a pilot zomg cool. so had a short chatting session with him and i'm now allowed to go for YEC meetings as observer yay so cool haha. hope i can contribute bah. i think it's quite cool to be able to do stuff for the community that you live in and with. and of course, i'll get to know more people which would be fun (:

had a great dinner and chatting session with jerald and lumpy recollecting wonderful memories of the past. but i guess it's time to move on. RJC will be a new start and i want to make it good, like 4B'08. but not to worry. 4B'08 will remain forever (:

tmr CIP again hmm.

Patrick

school

2009-01-16T22:16:00.002+08:00

2nd day of school today.

not bad luh. first got comm education talk got to know some procedures and stuff... den yitao and samuel came up to talk about their sig. quite impressive luh. i still can't see how i'd be able to talk like yitao in the future. haha super pro. must learn.

den sex ed talk was okay luh. not as boring as i thought it would be. had kejing, ben wee, edward and others like bryan around me so had some fun. haha... got one RG girl looks like some changchun girl who came to singapore. zomg.

den JUNSHENG'S BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION! woohoo! haha fun.

went for lunch first before bowling. zzz 1st game damn noob lol 38 wth. tie with shu jian at last position HAHA. but of course 2nd game improved and got a 61, tied 5th (10 people). not bad right. especially have to bowl right after jie liang who's some super imba leh. zzz. den had some games in arcade. quite fun haha. yay (:

den junsheng's house. woohoo. after 2 years, we finally went to his 1 meter square house which turned out quite spacious. haha. played a little of bridge there with lumpy ego-ing about winning his 5 clubs game with aces king of 3 suits and 7 cards (aces included) of another suit. lol.

dinner was at swensen's. had a nice time bringing jun sheng around northpoint... hmm. and anyway, dinner was quite bad cuz i ordered black pepper with loads of chilli and my throat totally couldn't take it haha. but okay luh now getting better. zzz. shouldn't have overestimated myself.

yeah so that was junsheng's birthday celebration.

can't wait for mine to come zzz.

Patrick

RJC HERE I COME!

2009-01-14T18:37:00.002+08:00

all right so open house today was a blast. at least for me.

cuz i got to play with RJCO peeps who are super nice. hahaha. super fun luh. RJCO somehow feels much more warmer than RICO. maybe cuz i was too stressed up dealing with juniors last year. but RJCO is fun and more fun haha. everyone there's just so nice to me i have no idea why either haha. but yeah so today went to school at 830 and began prac.

there were 2 performances. although both times there weren't exactly lots of people watching, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Xun Qi's a great conductor zomg chong3 bai4 haha. i had fun learning how to spin sticks from ziming and zongjin, having a few laughs with yongsheng, moving instruments with yet another accident which i shall not comment on (:

hmm. hope CO would continue to be fun yay.

anyway after that rushed off for HPB meeting. ended up half an hour late cuz 1. i left late and 2. i went to lavender instead of outram park. zzz. but yeah discussed a little. didn't really contribute much cuz i wasn't really sure about the proposal anyway but i guess i learnt a little on how to organize some stuff so that i'd have a better idea of how to do such stuff next time.

oh and signed up for a couple of CCAs. The main ones I'm looking at for now are:
1. CO (definite)
2. Interact
3. Boon Lay Youth Club
4. OneEARTH

others that i may just join cuz i'm either forced to join or maybe just join for competition:
1. Chess
2. Math

and entre i just indicated interest cuz i wanted to find out what they did so as to ensure that i don't set up a CCA that's already a CCA lol.

actually i was also interested in Photog and alchem and others luh but i guess the these 7 are already sufficient for me to choose from. Photog i shall learn from someone else hhaha.

and there are other commitments elsewhere so i guess i'll be kept rather busy.

hope 2009 will be a great year (: yay!

Patrick

random stuff.

2009-01-13T09:57:00.002+08:00

okay firstly, this is 会呼吸的痛. heard it on nina's blog and loved it.

secondly, stocks are really interesting.

when you see prices rise/drop rapidly and start wondering why it happened and whether or not if you had seen this stock a little while before, whether or not you'd buy it and earn/lose big bucks.

for example, this stock "EYE" rose from $8+ to $21+ in less than a day. haha zomg. imagine if you bought the day before. but of course it's very hard to predict such stuff. The reason for this stock's rise was that another company wants to buy over the company with $22/share. haha. so now the shares are valued near $22. wahhhh if only i bought this stock. haha.

but i guess i have to change my attitude with regards to stocks. i always aim for short term gains. but lots of people say that's almost like gambling cuz stocks tend to follow trends which can be analyzed but these trends only occur in the long run.

mm. but anyway as you all may have already found out, who's interested in joining me to set up a CCA in RJ. heard there's already an entre club but they do arbitrage which isn't the same as stocks. the only problem is that we are still underage but the main objectives of the club will be to educate students on how to analyze stocks to get the most benefits from it. It's something everyone will have to learn in the end so why not learn it earlier in life? We'll probably have talks and teachers to come in for informal lessons on investment. next time can earn money seh. (:

anyway...

i love the bridge. ooh.

k that's all for now. bye

Patrick

happy days.

2009-01-13T09:13:00.003+08:00

all right, so the last few days were rather packed. that's actually something to be proud of cuz my holidays used to be in the form of:

12 noon - 12 midnight: walk around the house and look at com
12 midnight - 12 noon: sleep

hmm.not bad actually (:

so, let's see what i've done since the new year began.

1 jan - sleeping at home.
2 jan - work
3 jan - 1st training for Chingay
4 jan - church + slack.
5 jan - errrr forgot. most probably slacking at home.
6 to 9 jan - work
10 jan - Chingay
11 jan - WLC meeting
12 jan - collect O level results
13 jan (today) - sick.

okay maybe it's not that interesting after all haha.

but chingay seems to be coming up fine. i'm not really that bonded with my group but my group totally 自 highs so that's fine haha. and with funny people like Tomimiiiiiiiii (that's a real name) around, it's really great fun. haha. but of course the flip side was that all the cheering made my sore throat worse.

O level results A2. mm was quite disappointed at first cuz i was aiming for A1 but I guess it's actually a great result given our class got some really strict marker. anyway after that lots of people spammed my house again for bridge mahjong and whatever.

WLC is coming up fine as well. The project seemed too ambitious for me at first but I realized that it would actually work! We've got wonderful contacts and a great team so that's good.

den of course, investment club. i guess the first thing is to get to know from yitao how to set up a CCA, den get a brief proposal to present to friends first and rope in people to form a team before we actually try to become a student interest group. I'm actually quite confident that all these should work out. but of course, i need to stop slacking. ><

and of course a new year and a fresh start in RJ. somehow i'm not really looking forward to it maybe because 4B's just too good to be true. But I guess RJ won't be that bad either...

Let's hope it's a good year. (:

Patrick

new year

2009-01-01T20:46:00.002+08:00

all right so the new year has finally come. (:

mm the past few days have been rather fun.

wed was CODA4 which was rather all right. haha. somehow the atmosphere wasn't there though hmm. but some pieces were really nice like in the mood. some kick-ass emcee-ing by jerald and hillary who tried to make the audience laugh with their rather lame jokes lol and some really hilarious moments in conducting added to the entertainment value of CODA4. haha symphonic bands are nice.

thursday was KENNETH'S HOUSE! HAHA. woohoo. total fun again. bridge, truth and truth, Texas Holdem (the normal version, the noob version and the COMMUNISTS vs. CAPITALISTS version) and lots more... ><

and since the new year is here, let's make some new year resolutions. hmm.

1. Academics
- Continue being hardworking! hope to achieve 3.91 again yay. (:
- Get into Deans list for phy, chem and math.
- MUG GP zz.

2. CCAs
- Do well for RJCO SYF
- Get into interact club and contribute lots
- Take another 2 CCAs? (thinking of OneEarth, Weiqi, Bridge, BLYC, Math...)

3. CIPs
- Do my part in YAH yay.
- Try to get into MPS and others?
- Do more CIPs (starting with Chingay)

4. Overseas!
- go for one free/cheap overseas trip again yay.
- overseas CIP hopefully

5. Weiqi
- hope to at the very least continue and retain my current standard
- at least help out in weiqi even if im not joining

6. Myself
- kope less food esp. in RJC ><
- be less evil lol.
- lie less (: oops.

7. NAPFA
- get a B for 2.4 zomg hard ><
- get a C for pull up (haix. must train again)
- get a D at least for standing broad jump (don't know how to train)

this list seems shorter than usual. probably cuz i don't know what's in line for me in JC. but for now that's the list.

k. bye.

Patrick

zzz.

2008-12-29T20:17:00.002+08:00

okay.

sat was some slack day. dental in the morning. cards in the afternoon. dinner with friends at night. zomg. ><

as for sunday, church took up 4 hours of my afternoon so nothing else done. but at least i went church...

as for today, went for a chit chat session for YAH in the morning. it was much easier than i expected. it was more like a briefing on what i would need to do and finding out about what job would suit me instead of whether or not i'd get in. but it seems rather interesting. there's a retreat next fri/sat which i guess i'll attend for some part. den there's the magic show thing on weekends and the symposium on 29 march. gotta remember all these stuff >< but at least i'm in (:

so yay to me. shine next xD

Patrick

hmph.

2008-12-26T23:45:00.002+08:00

So christmas was rather dry as i expected.

all right, i did get a great dinner and got treated to some uncle whose dancing was totally hilarious and made the whole mini performance much more lively. But didn't go church haha feeling guilty now zzz. and well, i still don't get why i'm celebrating christmas.

mm yeah thanks to liwei for the card. got 2 other small presents too.

and today was BACK TO WORK. haha. normal day. but Kate came over today so we had another 1 hour meeting. but not bad luh. at least that's the part that i actually learn something. i learn how modern educators think and she gave us a little foresight into future education.

basically, until now, she's emphasized on two main points (i think).

firstly, different education resources are created (such as scratch which we are working on currently) not only because we have to cater to different types of learners but more that school is too unrealistic in the sense that doing well in school does not guarantee that you do well at work. In fact Kate said that she had been scoring straight As in all her exams but when she came out she was stumped and lost and that's how she ended up here trying to improve the education system haha.

secondly, future education points to technology. It seems impossible now but she said that she foresees that futuristic classrooms will have indiviual work spaces where people work on different things simultaneously. there will be a centre area where people can present their work and stuff. something like our workspace now. it feels unrealistic now but last time when people taught just by using communication, books were seen as useless and not the way to go. It was believed that books would cause people to be unable to communicate their ideas well. But nowadays, reading books is such an integral part to education that doing away with it would be totally weird.

yeah. hmm.

so after work, went off to city hall for rjco christmas dinner. lol. $10 meal. mm not bad (: quite filling surprisingly. dinner was a lot of talk about NS. zomg. must be able to run 2.4 in 9:44 by end of J2. i'm like 12:34 now?? HAHA omg. i need to reduce to under 12 by the time i go to school. zzz. and i bet i can't even do a single pull up now. den went up to rooftop esplanade to play games. mm stuff like polar bear, concentration and continue the story lol. okay. i was surprised how involved i was even though i thought i wouldn't be. yiusum probably just dragged me in on the first game of polar bear and i never got out lol. and wth 2nd in concentration gets forfeit?? okay luckily forfeit was easy same as shanghai one haha. and continue the story was zzz. nvm...

haha but it was fun. i didn't know rooftop esplanade was a great place to have such games. can try with 4B next time ><

dental tmr zzz.

bye!

Patrick

merry christmas

2008-12-25T00:30:00.002+08:00

merry christmas to everyone out there (:

third day

2008-12-24T22:53:00.002+08:00

okay third day of NIE.

haha. okay so today was much less productive although today's job was relatively much harder. trying to programme stuff wasn't as easy as i thought. and nobody really had the mood to do stuff cuz everyone was either tired, sleepy or slack. lol. but at least we did some work on the osmosis thing where we added two variables and managed to programme it to some accuracy (although not according to the equation cuz i dont even remember the equation lol)

and well didn't do well to improve what i wanted to improve on.

anyway, today while walking from work, takashimaya called me (finally) to ask me whether i wanted to work. gave a straight no. zzz. sigh. shld have at least asked what i work as and when i'm working RIGHT! haha sigh. maybe i'll just call them back and errr try to ask for more details before deciding on the job. it may be a new experience after all. jesslin's job as custormer service still interests me hmm..

so i guess i'll call them up again asap and see what i can do about it. but currently, i'll have to work on my programming. Scratch's supposedly damn simple programming and i'm having problems with it lol. damn.

and i need to start on my forms again omg and start planning stuff.

another boring post.

all right FORMS.

Patrick

second day

2008-12-23T22:20:00.002+08:00

omg. totally just fell asleep after dinner without knowing it. zzz. if dad hadn't woken me up, i'd have slept till tmr morning. oops. haha.

mm. okay. so today's job was much MORE productive than yesterday.

we actually began on work almost right after we reached NIE. (: hardworking right! i call it self-discipline. so we started writing our respective reports on scratch, trying to convey our opinions in the most politically correct way (which is probably why KC finished first) and basically try to crap out everything that we could possibly think of. quite happy with my work. haha. it's not a lot different from report writing in which we've had loads of training for in RI. Very similar to Social Advocacy.

then after lunch (in which i had a fun time koping some veg from KC although he was not kind enough to give me his fruit juice), we gathered for a meeting with Kate (our boss). hmm. seemed more like a chit-chat session to me. wow i just totally chong2 bai4 jamie when it comes to english and talking. zomg. grammatically correct and structurally varied sentences just seemed to flow out of her mouth continiously. and my parents have always (esp. recently) complained that i just can't talk to people esp. strangers. which i agree. lol. i just can't talk to people i'm not comfortable with and that's a lot of people haha. i guess i'm the type who'll just shut up and heck care if i don't know whether what i say would do any harm to our friendship. i guess this may sound weird to some closer friends who think i talk cock a lot. lol but yeah, i don't talk that much to others which is something i badly need to improve on. i guess i'll just have to force myself to think of something to talk about the next time such situations arises even if i had to talk about the weather... lol. and i guess that's the reason why i signed up for some stuff like motivator for chingay and trying to get a place to help out for mps. hope i'll improve.

hm. so we had a bit of chit chat. had quite a lot of fun and well i'm glad that i've gotten so many more opportunities through IP such as SIMC and getting to do fun stuff like soc doc.

and after that gruelling 1 hour session we were on a high literally.

hmm thanks to liwei for my first christmas card. i'm not gonna send it by post though. hahaha. sorry too lazy to go find stamp. :P

woohoo. shld i go study now?

Patrick

first day

2008-12-22T21:19:00.002+08:00

okay. so today was my first day of work @ NIE.

morning was rather screwed up. met jamie at 730 to get to NIE by 9. in the end, our boss sms-ed us that something cropped up (don't want to say what ><) and well, we had to go to her apartment to look for her to find out what was our job. in the end, we took a taxi which turned a whole round around nanyang avenue which is quite big without finding her apartment. zzz. alighted and asked people around for directions and eventually figured our way there. taxi ride = $11+ wth.

okay. so our job's something regarding a new programming software called scratch which is supposed to be developed for educational purposes. hmm. well, i've not really tried using it, but going by the vids that we tried, there were some useful ones but at the same time, lots of not so useful ones (cuz it's free software and everyone anywhere can upload like youtube, so quite a lot of irrelevant stuff). also, it looks a bit like flash but i think the more important part would be the programming itself that the learning actually takes place. haven't tried programming something though.

but anyway, lunch was eaten at some cheap food court at NTU which is a stone's throw away from our office (not lumpy's throw). and the office totally rocks. there's brilliant facilities, a big LCD screen as our com screen, a relatively fast com with internet access, very nice chairs and a big resting area for ahem rest times. and it's a big room to the 3 of us so i'm not complaining.

it's nearing christmas which means the hols are about to end. i still have no idea what my jan will be like ><

bye (:

Patrick

sunday

2008-12-21T22:14:00.002+08:00

okay so these 3 days were nothing much.

studied a bit and slacked a lot.

damn. runny nose AGAIN. zzz. hope tmr will recover.

nothing much has happened these few days but i've bought a new camera for 399 and using the 200 bucks voucher that sam got for his youth olympics logo competition. haha quite ex. wanted to get a hp at first given the state of my current one but they didn't have the one i wanted so i guess it was fated that i got a camera instead. really nice camera but it's touch screen so may spoil rather easily gotta be careful...

hmm tmr got NIE job hope it's fun (:

k that's all nothing to blog about.

Patrick

hmm.

2008-12-18T22:46:00.002+08:00

i'm so thankful of Ms. Kek and Mrs. Tay for giving me the opportunity to go to Shanghai for free.

cuz that meant that i got to know Yitao who's just too imba.

just listening him talk makes you feel inferior haha. okay maybe not so bad lol.

but yeah, i've been finding opportunities to develop myself further these days and signing up for events which would help me gain a wider perspective of what really happens in society.

so for starters, i signed up for youth advolution for health. i'm still unsure what i'll have to do there but i'm supposed to go for a "chit-chat" session with them on 29 Dec so i hope that goes fine.

and chingay has been going on fine as well. haha that gave me an opportunity to become a first-aider for free. although it was quite boring esp. on day 1 at least i learnt a lot of useful stuff and can not-so-importantly suan non first-aiders and more importantly help out in emergencies. but i guess the fun has yet to come. i was asked on the first day whether i wanted to become an usher or motivator. i thot that ushering should be quite simple and i could do that anywhere so i decided to go for something that at least for me, i found harder. don't think it's easy to get the crowd to be enthu esp. for such an unenthu person like me so i guess it'll be good training.

i'm trying to sign up for meet the people sessions as well through yitao to see what goes on there and maybe help out in my community as well. and of course, improve on my speaking skills cuz as my mom pointed out quite correctly today, i'm too straight and can't think on the spot. haha so i guess this would allow me to improve on that and of course, get to know people's lifes and their problems as well. think it would be quite fun (:

so that's 3 events for now.

i'm still considering whether to try out as a sports presenter for YOG. registration deadline is 31 dec so i still got a few more days. and of course, shine and envoy. those would be harder to get in i guess.

but at least i can be proud of making a good start. less stoning at home yay.

next week shall start on NIE job. so it's not NUS. it's NIE. hahaha. but whatever. sounds quite fun. Jamie was saying how good it'd be. can't wait haha. YES! another fun thing to do!

hmm. hope i can continue studying my investing even with so much things to do. but i realize i study more on the bus than at home. distractions... haha.

but there's still a long way to go before i can reach the standards of yitao or even my brothers. haha. i simply can't imagine winning the top 10 out of 1400+ contestants in a logo design competition or winning money in an architect competition or winning a free trip to germany for an environment project. it just sounds too good to be true haha.

but more importantly i have to keep in mind to do stuff that i enjoy and that are useful and can improve myself instead of joining stuff just for the sake of joining. so far chingay, YAH and MPS sounds like good options to me (:

oh damn ford stock prices dropping. from 3.14 to 2.94 haha.

but the world is funny. the CEO of the largest credit card company in the world losing his credit card. the CEOs of the 3 biggest automakers in Detroit driving hybrid cars all the way to congress. lol.

oh and got into math RA. yay i seem to be getting a lot of what i wish to be getting (: i'm not gonna regret not trying phy or chem RA just because bojian got both chem and math. lol. it's one thing to be in 2 RAs. it's another thing to be good at it. i dont think i can do well in phy or chem RA so yup. here i am with MATH! haha. hope it's gonna be fun and enriching.

sigh. so jealous of nina. can go taiwan and hk wth that would be my dream trip for this hols. zzz.

but den again i know of at least 5 people who are going UK/US this year which makes it worse.

haha nvm. i shall go there next time if i can get a scholarship. (: but for now i'd be stoning in singapore under the hot sun.

BED, HERE I COME!

Patrick

wahseh

2008-12-17T22:47:00.002+08:00

okay so i'm finally a certified first aider.

tuesday started off with splitting up into motivators and ushers. and the stupid me who chose motivators had to venture off and part with my new found friends of monday. cuz the other 3 all ushers. walao. haha to make matters worse the first thing we had to do was to pair up with someone of the opposite sex to do bandaging. like wth.

okay so in the end, i paired up with some girl from nyjc who asked for my name yesterday randomly when i was walking out (cuz she thought i was from nyjc). and zomg. i fricking can't tie bandages haha. in the end the only thing i did was...

1. mess up her hair.
2. make her tie up her hair

lol. major failure. better not ask me bandage you. but anyway quite funny cuz everyone was having fun looking at our new "mummies". mmhmm.

okay so after that CPR, got seperated again. zzz. okay so this time had to make friends with HCI people. hahaha. okay luh they are quite nice. HAHA. we were laughing all the way esp. during the breathings and the compressions and having fun joking around with the dummy. oops. better not do that in real-life situations.

after lunch was the theory test which was rather simple. PASSED. WOOHOO. hahaha. in the end they only tested the italics portion which was rather simple.

First question: what bones can be found on the lower limb.

wonder where i studied this before haha.

but got the elbow one wrong oops but still pass.

den it was CPR. jie liang (not the 4B one, the HCI one) ran up to be the first to get tested and passed zzz. so i had to queue up and in the end i kanna my instructor who was the strictest around. couldn't believe how bad my luck was but anyway this happened.

i went up. first thing i said "hello, hello, are you okay". Immediate response "WRONG!" from instructor.

den i was like wth im sure. hahaha. think think think den remember OH SHIT haven't check for danger. haha.

but yeah she asked lots of random questions like:

1. what to do when there's a fishball in throat (do compressions)
2. what to do when rib bone break (do 1 hand compression)

zzz. i was like totally diao.

den i got scolded countless times because i wasn't counting loud enough, use the wrong finger to find the spot for compressions and doing CPR too slowly. hahaha oops.

but in the end PASS! WOOHOO!

there was this guy who kanna that instructor and stayed in there for 30 minutes before passing. pity him.

but at least now, i do know much more about first aid and i have a CERT! MUAHAHA. no longer suanned by dennis or kenneth.

so after that rushed off to city hall for kenneth's birthday celebration. ate at crystal jade although the xiao long bao was total scam. zzz $1 for one. wth. i can get less than 10 cents for one in china. hahaah.

den after that went kenneth's house to stay overnight. gossiped, bridged and citadel-ed. haha quite fun luh esp. when you have people like jinghui and KC to entertain.

today's rjco prac was ><. took me 1.5 hour to play my first note (new record!)

some more no sectionals so no gun he tao fun.

haix. but at least got to joke around a bit.

den nanyang poly concert was okay. it was CO and they performed feng nian ji and ju hua tai which we prac-ed today. >< and LONG TENG okay luh not that qi2 but got qi4 shi4. some more got yue liang dai biao wo de xin and the 4 man perc ensemble thing which was performed countless times during NAC. so quite familiar pieces. their orchetra isn't too good but they have a spam of people. omg... how they find so many people.

and there were these 2 kids who were super cute. cuz it was a charity concert so these 2 4 or 5 year old kids came up to thank the audience. haha their voice very cute and i believe they got the more applause than the orchetra >< hahaha. i think the conductor was not very professional but i guess he's damn young and at least he got audience interaction haha damn funny.

oh and met YY and junyu there. >< hahaha. and got to know 2 RG people who would be my batchmates next year. from guitar ensemble, den i ask them whether they know eugene they say no. den i was like errrr. haha but nvm i don't know the RGCO chair either except for the new one. haha when yitao first told me they were my next year batchmates i was like shocked and went "wth, so tall!" haha den kanna suan zzz.

and now im home. i need... sleep. badly. hahaha.

tmr is investment day!

Patrick

first aid

2008-12-15T21:21:00.002+08:00

zomg today's first aid training was tiring. i just collapsed on my bed after i got home. (even though i did sleep for ~1 hour during training...)

sitting 8 hours in the hall listening to 8 presentations isn't exactly very fun esp. when you don't know any friends there haha. luckily i got to know 3 guys from Yishun JC, some other JC (forgot lol) and chung cheng high. if not i could have just collapsed in there and get CPR from the trainer who was damn boring at times but super hilarious at others. stuff like:

"You know when a person is choking by asking him whether he's choking. If he answers yes, you know he is not because when you choke you can't talk... (pause) in fact, he's not choking, he's joking."

"there are many types of burns. Chemical burns, radiation burns, electric burns, rope burns, friction burns... (long list)... anymore types of burns? (pause, no answer). you all forgot two types of burns. Sideburns and turbans"

diao. O.o

okay, i have a whole lot of crap to mug before i sleep. won't want to repeat this course again just because i can't get 16 out of 20 mcq questions correct, can't perform CPR correctly or can't tie bandages. zzz.

k go bath bye.

Patrick

bolt

2008-12-15T00:45:00.002+08:00

woah okay so today went to watch bolt.

it was quite a nice show with very cute hamsters and dogs and not so cute cats but that is more than made up by the fat pigeons. HAHA. reminds me of madagasgar. anyway no love stories inside quite a simple plot with a few twists but still a rather nice watch. haha.

hmm. went for church today (like first time in 3 weeks? okay that's not very bad liao)... okay but mm today was 3rd sunday of advent which is about rejoice. so the gospel was about john the baptist who was baptised with normal water but jesus christ was baptised by the holy spirit. which gives us hope and pathed the way for God to come to our lives. hope i understood it the right way. haha. HMM.

errrr okay and bought a stationary bike for mom and dad to use. yay (:

okay i got to sleep. tomorrow first aid. zzz.

Patrick

zzz.

2008-12-14T01:33:00.002+08:00

hmm. blogging again.

friday was zzz AGAIN. OMG. i didn't know a typing job could be so tiring. it was even worse than repeating experiments countless times at IBN. hahaha. can train my ability to stay awake. kept needing to go and wash my face haha. but not bad. ~60 dollars. hmm. hearts did keep me awake a little too haha.

okay so saturday was all right. supposed to wake up early to study and den go out and meet liwei, zhaolin and the rest at 1230. ended up waking up at 12. sigh. such a typical me. but well, it's typical of me to make everything work out in the end too! so i errr was 30 mins late but in the end, we reached NUS on time. hahaha even after a 10 min traffic jam. so good right. no need to go there so early and waste time sitting around. YEAH! I ROCK!

okay after that it was... ensemble. okay so the NAFA grp was imba and got first. GE got 2nd and 3rd. sigh. bradell heights nvm bah try harder next time. (:

den perc. haha all my predictions went wrong. i predicted:

1st: GE
2nd: Symphonic perc
3rd: YQP

in the end it became:

1st: symphonic perc
2nd: YQP
3rd: GE

maybe because i play qin wang too much that i can spot more errors haha. but i really thot the ge one was very nice haha more qi4 shi4. YQP was all right luh but qin wang wasn't as good as last time's so yeah.

and den got free ticket for prize winner's concert. not very interesting except for the 10 year old very very cute zhongruan player. the zhongruan was bigger than her and she played it like it was her biggest enemy and she wanted to crush it down into 912490 pieces. so yeah that was interesting haha.

so congrats to YQP and nina and all others who have gained profit from the competition. can always come and treat me. (:

gtg sleep.

dreading monday and tuesday's first aid training. nvm. at least yitao will be there. (:

Patrick

tired

2008-12-11T21:11:00.002+08:00

zomg today was ><.

woke up early to go for NAC to support nina. the competitors were quite pro but no disappointments in the end. nina got 3rd and no one got first (meaning that the sponsors save $1000?) lol. reminds me of Sam's YOG logo design competition.

anyway, rushed off for work after that and arrived at 1130 woohoo! but today's work was zzz. here are the details.

No. of surveys to analyze: 450+
No. of questions: more than 10
Type of question: Open-ended
Requirement: must organize into a few different categories in a template given

i think my brain just died there. haha. ok exaggerating. but just looking at that excel file and reading and re-reading the comments to find out where to put the comment made me get a headache. sigh. in the end, took 7 hours to finish 1.5 questions. hong rui did 1.5 too. so we're left with around 10? wonderful. earnt 44 bucks today. not bad considering i went for NAC.

tomorrow working again. hope i can get 65 bucks. (:

and when will the people from chingay get back to me.. sigh. i can't decide lots of stuff now.

got to rest now. if not tmr my head will burst. bye.

Patrick

Calendar

2008-12-11T00:31:00.002+08:00

HMM. here's my schedule for the coming week

10 (today) - RJCO 12-830
11 - NAC 9-12. Work 1-530.
12 -
13 - Chingay? if not, NAC finals.
14
15 - Chingay?
16 - Chingay?
17 - NUS work
18 - NUS work
19 - NUS work
20
21
22 - NUS work
23 - NUS work

hmm. sigh how to fit in kenneth's birthday. sighhh can 14th?

anyway, really hope i get into the chingay thing cuz im keeping my dates free just for it. zzz.

and errrr found out about timings of RJCO prac next year which is wed 630-830 and sat 1130-?

which gives me a slight chance of joining RJSB which has prac on wed 2-6 and sat 8-1. hahaha. HMMM.

haha. i wonder... and i want to crash RJCO's cello section's prac cuz they seem quite pro. woohoo. den can learn cello for free zomg.

wonder how things will be in RJC.

bye.

Patrick

woohoo

2008-12-09T19:42:00.002+08:00

i'm finally bothering to blog regularly again.

these few days have been quite tiring, everyday got stuff to do but i guess jc will be worse. yesterday wasn't much though, just sleeping at home for 12 hours? around there.

today was work though. haha. zomg. i slacked quite a lot although hongrui didn't cuz i got the easier task. but still got praised for quick typing... like huh?? haha. got internet access this time though so it was a little less boring although hongrui can't testify to that.

signed up for chingay festival volunteer work together with yitao, hope i'll get in haha sounds fun. and i'll actually get trained as a first aider. so it's gonna be fun IF i get in. signed up as a leader and i'm supposedly the youngest there cuz the youngest age for sign ups is 16. haha. can't imagine leading 25 year olds but i guess there's always a first to everything.

hoping to initiate a CIP project and a small CCA next year. i've thought through a little. haha. i was thinking of making a Raffles Pop. haha cuz there's raffles rock and raffles jazz but why no pop! haha lumpy'll complain though oops.

or what about a Raffles Stocks Club where members learn investing and get a little money from the school to invest in stocks which is a little like what my brother is trying to do to me now haha.

anyway, it's official. i'm working at NUS! woohoo. 17-19 and 22 and 23.

need to start recording my "dates" on my calendar before i start forgetting stuff again.

what's happening to hk trip?

Patrick

owned.

2008-12-08T15:09:00.002+08:00

zzz.

i'm kind of felling owned now.

yesterday was shanghai peeps outing to ernest's house. ended up being one of the first there (supposed to start at 2 and i was there at 3+. hmm how early i am). but guess what. i realized that nigel's house was just across the road so i decided to go ka jiao him. ok i mean visit him. haha so he just came back from america so he showed me some photos and gave me some free food (YES!) haha. and as usual nigel was kind enough to give me some souveneir he bought from US which was some magnet of grand canyon. haha. quite nice luh but i still prefer the food and drinks hahaha. oops.

anyway back track to a few hours before that. yitao was supposed to meet me at city hall mrt at 215.

i reach at 220 and sms-ed him only for him to sms back at 230 that he had overslept and was still at home. LOL. zomg. haha. i finally found someone who wakes up later than me (except for Sam)...

and den i sms joel to ask where he was and he tells me he's at tuas. LOL.

ok. nvm. cuz due to the visit to nigel's house, i reached ernest's house at 4+ instead and joel and yitao were already there so i succeeded in not being the first there. woohoo.

so played a while of cards and bbqed. woohoo. the must successful bbq so far probably cuz everything was already prepared by ernest's parents and we had jun liang the brilliant cook so in the end, ernest and jun liang were cooking at the pit and we were standing there waiting for the food to come to our mouth. brilliant.

had a good talk with them, played some games (except chucky chucky which is O.O). overall it was quite fun except for some 冷场s. stuff like:

"I think we should stone around"
"NOOO... we are not statues"

"I think we should play hide-and-seek"
"yeah, I'll take the bus back home now and i'll win muahaha"

LOL. ok not funny. but anyway free bbq so im definitely NOT complaining.

Got some information from yitao too on how to own JC life which i found rather useful. sigh. now i feel like a complete useless guy after reading some people's blogs. here they are...

http://www.shaunchng.com/blogs/index.php (some poly guy's blog who is in the run for 2 scholarships and 3 universities including cambridge wth)

http://cl3v3riguana.blogspot.com/ (Yitao's blog. you can read the first few posts and realize that almost everything is either internships, radio broadcasts, go on newspaper, go on free trip to germany and what shit zzz)

ok. so now i aspire to be like them haha. i guess i'm quite blessed to have a good portfolio now already with all the IBN internships and SP internships as well as the MOE job i'm having now and the NUS job i should be getting. and of course, being in interact (although joining late) should help. and all the random shanghai, taiwan trips haha. yeah!

ok so i need to start looking out for stuff more often cuz currently i realize i miss lots of stuff cuz i don't pay attention to them. stuff like:

1. OIP zzz.
2. SYCO auditions. haha. nvm just join CCO.
3. competitions sigh.

ok. i need to organize myself too. i need a calender. shall get one now.

and zomg i should start reading again sigh.

Patrick

haix

2008-12-06T21:16:00.002+08:00

sigh i slept my afternoon away.

i was trying to read my investing and after 4 pages, i just collapsed into deep sleep. zzz. 4 hours wasted sigh. now i need to chiong investing again in the night. must reach 160 by today at least.

and yeah i've decided that i'm not going for jap courses cuz 1. i don't know whether i have steam to learn it till the end and 2. the prices are quite expensive. so well, i guess i'll just have to self-study my sec 1 and sec 2 stuff and borrow stuff from lumpy to mug and go for jlpt myself. sounds impossible.

took some time to read my previous blog posts as well. it's quite interesting to read what you wrote before cuz 1. it gives you memories of the past and 2. you get to see how you've developed. i found out that i used to love putting "..." and "yar". i've now developed to putting "yeah" and fullstops instead. haha. WOAH DEVELOPMENT!

one thing that hasn't changed though is that i still use lots of "haha"s. wonder why.

but i must say my 4 years in RI have been wonderful. i used to wonder whether RI students actually learn less than others because we do lots of other stuff like presentations. but i guess it's a give and take. we could have learnt much more knowledge if we just focused on teaching and mugging for exams. but we just did what was required for O levels + a bit more for each subject and widened the breadth of learning, with presentations, public speaking, project work, Research Education, attachments, overseas learning journeys, PSLs...

in fact it is the latter which i guess i'll remember for life and not whether or not i could differentiate some random stuff. if i hadn't gone to RI, there would be no shanghai trip, no dwen an, no PSL experience, no OIP, no IBN, no SP, no Go6P...

i once wrote this on a blog post on May 09 2007

realise my last few posts are all about mugging? sigh. i think im obssessed liao.

i hate it, but i still do it. for the sake of my future.

I really wonder at times, whether what I learn now, will be of any use in the future. As I study how monosaccharides combine to become disaccharides via condensation reactions, I ask myself why am I studying this? Do I really care? Is JC really where I should go? Isn't poly a much more practical option?

Sometimes I admire people like Ben Yong who dare to change. In sec 2, I took triple sci for a simple reason, it was expected of most RI students to study the three sciences. But people like Ben Yong, even though getting into all 3 science RAs, decided to just take 2 sciences and 2 humans, knowing that biology wouldnt be much use to him.

And sometimes I admire people like Jinghui who manage to be so carefree about his studies yet still perform at a relatively high standard. How does he do it? Should I be like him?

I wonder at times whether I should be in an IP school, studying in the RP. I ask myself, what have I learnt in sec 1 and I've totally forgotten them. I can't even remember the most basic of math, the number line.

Is the O-Level people really lagging behind? Or are we the ones who seem to be faster yet in actual fact, we dont learn a thing. We learn them, and after they are tested, we throw them away to make space for the next thing.

Probably the reason why they added in the EOYs. But is this the end? The things I learnt in biology in sec 1, taxonomy, digestive systems, photosynthesis. I can't remember a single thing about them. All I can remember is that I studied them b4.

And sometimes, I ask myself, is this what I really want? Will this help me in the future?

"...you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever." - Steve Jobs

This quote has been on my blog for quite a few months. Yet every time I read it, I reflect on what I've done. Have I really placed my dots at where I want them to be? Will they really help me connect to what I will become in the future?

What do I want to become in the future? That's another great question which I have practically no answer to. I don't wanna do anything related to biology cuz I simply hate it. I took it cuz I was "forced" to. Or maybe not. but still it really isn't my passion. None in the humans side either. Definitely not languages, I'm not talented in that area. Physics and Chem. and maybe math. and maybe economics, accounting, business, engineering... I ask myself am I interested in these stuff. The answer is I honestly dont know. But for now, it's the direction I will head towards.

And have the way I studied, has my life in RI, helped me in anyway to achieve this?

Sometimes, I feel that I would have done much better in some other neighbourhood school.

But then again, would I? Or am I just misled to think in that way?

Have I pressed myself too hard? Have I stressed myself too far? I really want to become like Ben Yong or Jinghui, but I just can't get myself to do so. It's just impossible.

For now, I'll continue it my way. But I really doubt this will help me. I've gotta change.

Change for the better.

well, i guess i can safely say now that i didn't make a wrong choice. i've had a wonderful time in RI with my friends and everyone.

and as the year closes, it's time to look forward again. hope that RJC's gonna be as fun or even more fun than RI (:

let's go!

Patrick

chung ling co interaction

2008-12-06T15:27:00.002+08:00

ok so today was interaction with chung ling co. hmm. well rixin co owns them but they own us so that says a lot. haha. their orchestra piece completely (which is by maybe about 500000 times) owns our ensemble pieces. haha. liwei screwed up a whole lot but expected luh. percussionist cannot keep beat. sigh. must prac with songs. bah nvm.

but anyway the interaction was more of moving instruments. had to carry the timp which has one wheel missing from one end of RJ to the other end of RI and back. zomg. haha back pain. ah nvm. den ice breakers was the usual whacko stuff. errrr ok luh a little fun.

den they showed us long teng. to be honest, our one 4 years ago, when thomas, yin kwan, TBL were still around was much better. haha. but that was 4 years ago. today, we can't do anything luh sigh. i really want to join an orchestra which can play really nice music haha like SNYO. damn pro. sigh. maybe i shld go for auditions for some external CO. all these 4 years, i couldn't been bothered to. even going for MOE camps where there are supposed to be a lot of pro people. maybe cuz by the time i know there's a camp, the camp is already on-going lol.

but anyway, i think our qin wang was a little better than their long teng. haha ours much easier luh but at least we are a bit more qi2. but of course that doesn't say anything about our lousy standards. they probably impromptu-ed long teng anyway and we have been prac-ing qin wang for a year and still screwed up (although it was our first try of the first part. the back part was nice though...)

hmm. so lunch and random walking around with them. not much to gain from such short interactions. just a souveneir which i thot was really nice (: HAHA.

and now im back and i need to start working on my investments.. oops.

bye.

Patrick

anyway next week plan:
sun - shanghai peeps outing
mon - stay with family for hari raya
tue - typing job
wed - RJCO
thu - nina's comp
fri - nothing (yet)
sat - NAC finals + winner's concert?

sigh... well at least i prefer the way my room is arranged now. (: it's kind of neater and i get to work near the window! thanks mom!

Patrick

lonely friday

2008-12-05T18:29:00.002+08:00

zomg i feel slack. i have done absolutely nothing except blog and here i am blogging again.

first and foremost, mike asked me to post this pic of dad lol. so i shall.

n shall post hana kimi ost again since it has disappeared from my blog.

IKEMEN Boogie - Hana Kimi OST

k i need to go read some stuff now zzz bye.

Patrick

2008

2008-12-05T01:22:00.002+08:00

hmm. so i'm finally gonna post about 2008.

2008 was an ok year. it's supposed to be my big year cuz it's my last year in RI. it's been fun but i wish i've been able to do more.

so well, here are the stuff that i experienced in 2008.

1. PSL
PSL was a great experience. spending 3 whole days + 7 PSGM sessions + first day + all the suanning from Matthew was extremely fun. although i wasn't SPSL, i must say i was a brilliant PSL (haha ego!). but i myself was quite surprised with what i could do. haha. i thot i would have some problems dealing with the sec 1s especially since i couldn't really speak well esp. loudly and well, i'm not the impromptu kind of speaker. but somehow i did it without knowing i could do it. i guess being a brotherly figure as Mrs. Maas suggested was good and doing stuff together with them made them respect me cuz at least they knew i wasn't just another slacker who was ordering them to do stuff. but yeah. it was hell fun. especially the first day and the 3 day camp. haha. if OBS kick-started 2007, PSL kick-started my 2008. seeing all the smiles from all the sec 1s after everything was the best reward i guess. (: 1Q OWNS YOU!

2. SIMC
SIMC was the high point in term 2. it was really a stroke of luck that i got to participate in this international competition. jeremy sia, who was supposed to be the leader of a team, had to go to korea for the dunno what competition luh. haha. so at track and field meet, Mr. Kwa suddenly came up to me and asked whether i'd like to participate and of course i answered yes. haha. once in a lifetime opportunity. and it was a good choice indeed. having nicholas and brian in my team, we knew we were going to get owned by barry, vincent and ivan and even ziyang, huiyao and alan but we didn't give up. we did our best, meeting up for long periods to discuss our solution and we did it! somehow we did it. although we would have preferred a better reward than just a second prize in the pre-site category, the experience was worth it. it seemed impossible at first to come up with an algorithm... the question looked almost impossible but somehow we solved it. though it wasn't exactly the best solution, we were so close to it. combining the greedy algorithm, and some genetic algorithm with our own method of rectangulation, we managed to come up with a solution that could easily match that of 2D cut logic. haha imba ownage. as for the on-site category, we too came up with an innovative solution which was simple to use and effective but unfortunately we didn't win a prize but it was a really great experience and i had lots of fun at NUS with everyone esp. interacting with the foreigners. and of course math RA this year was fun as well with me getting a double silver in senior and open woohoo!

3. Shanghai Trip
The Shanghai Trip was almost similar to last year's Dwen An Trip. Occuring in mid july, and in the midst of lots of CCTs, i somehow didn't even think before signing up. why? it was free. haha. who cares whether or not the itinerary is boring or whether i was going to fail my english or math cct which was gonna be on the day after i came back. and woah it was another great experience. although i must say the dwen an trip was still pure ownage, this was a brillian trip as well. firstly, it was free haha. i mean, free trip to shanghai + money given for us to spend, that's just fantastic right? and den, i got to know a bit of stuff involving aerospace which i knew nothing about at first. haha. although currently, i must say i've forgotten nearly everything, at least i'm proud that i once knew some stuff about aerospace ><. but the most important thing was the friends i made there. everyone there was nice haha. and we formed an IP club which was fantastic. in fact, we are meeting this sunday for a gathering! says a lot about us right. the time spent there was just too great to be true. at first it was me with 39 strangers going to a strange and super hot (40 degrees) country but it didn't take long before we got to know each other and making fun of each other and having loads of fun there. Jun Liang the mature and Ernest the i'm sin2x and you're cos2x from TJ, Lijie the "my hair is falling againnn" and Yitao the brainy from RJ, joel and me from RI, Tiansheng the sicko from HCI... haha we had lots of fun Indian Pokering and sabo-ing. (: den there was Chu Ming also from TJC with whom i had a lot of great escapes (like escaping from science centre to go visit some damn cheap mall and being asked to buy 黄色光碟)... haha. and hester from RV, and pauline the EC and many others hahahaha. it was a super fun trip. and of course i got to show off some of my cantonese speaking skills mmhmm. (: super super fun. and surprisingly, i didn't screw up my CCTs, with a respectable 18/25 for english and 25.5/30 for math.

4. CCAs
This year was another great CCA year for me. haha. firstly, i got started on interact with daqiao mentoring and well at least i didn't pon that much and the kids know that i'm patrick haha. it was fun getting to know the kids there, helping them out in any way possible and trying to make them better. although i can't say i've done much, it was still a good experience. the worst part was trying to keep them sitting but i guess it was part and parcel of the job haha. den of course soccer after the mentoring was the reward and it was always fun with guowei owning the kids haha oops i mean errr having fun with the kids. then, this year was my vchair year for RIweiqi. omg. haha. this is i guess the worst part. i did absolutely nothing for them and i'm sort of feeling very guilty. sigh. well, at least i did well in qiuping, getting everybody down, and making it count at the important moment and having fun with everyone there. haha secured another double 2nd. and an individual prize woohoo. and den there was RICO which had lots of ups and downs. but in the end, i did everything i thought i was supposed to do (except maybe attendance and attending exco meetings) haha oops. i'm not sure, but i think it's the usual pracs where you interact with your members that really counts as to whether or not you're a good SL. i didn't do as good a job as i would have wanted to. chu ming and cui cheng still aren't enthu but at least i somehow, although unknowingly, made liwei super enthu and zhaolin a bit enthu. hahaha. i really forgot how i did it but yeah, at least there's a little hope left for RICO perc. RICO this year was all about preparing the next batch for SYF so it wasn't really that much fun as last year. but at least concert was quite fun. not as fun as last year's but at least this year i got to perform with fellow RICO percussionists haha. last year was just too fantastic luh i loved every moment of it. this year, lots of screw ups, not a good end to things but at least, we performed. the special thing this year was of course the guest performances for RIGE and RISE. the RIGE one was more of getting a free ticket to RIGE concert but it was fun to be rehearsing with them esp. since 4B spams RIGE. RISE was the really nice one maybe except for the scoldings from Mr. Sze. but thinking back, it was quite hilarious. haha. 1st rehearsal, i still hadn't looked through my score. and the first thing he says is Variation M. *flip score, find variation M, STUN". omg. haha my solo? haha after approximately 5 mins of constant screw up, he gave us all up. haha but in the end, i managed to prac everything well until... on that day itself... i kicked the gong. oops. haha BAM. gong falls on stage. lol. that was the most epic, the string broke, panic broke out wthhh. omg hahah. it was really scary on stage but at least it's fond memories now haha. performing with jerald, benjamin, james, kenneth and bernard was a fantastic experience. YAY! (: bernard was especially nice for praising me for my timp strokes (which i thot was extremely lousy). haha i guess when you learn under singapore's best timpanist (at least mr. ngoh thinks so), it's hard to be that bad. and i love the pieces we played. yay.

5. 4B'08
4B was surprisingly even better than 3B which i thot was already some imba class. haha. added lots of close friends esp. jinghui, who is still losing to me 9-9 in 7HP and jie liang and lumpy. hahaha. but we had lots more fun this year than last year. all the interclass decoration where we stayed back together to decorate the class. and den there was raffles soccer league and i finally got my debut. haha. my debut was a 2-0 loss to some class but well, at least i wasn't to blame for the 2 goals (ahem. i wonder who was.). but immediately after that, i played a second game against the supposedly very strong 4T and we owned them 5-1. so that was cool. haha. i remember stopping saiful on a 1-on-1 situation when we were 1-0 up and getting a pat on the back from my teammates from it. haha that was very nice. and PE was fun this year for me because it was soccer! haha. the best match was definitely the one where i scored a hat trick including chipping over shu kiat. that was extremely fun. (: and i played as a substitute against another class as well, winning 2-0 so that was good as well. although we didn't get a 4th place finish like last year, at least i got to play yay. hmm. den EOY was another show of our class spirit where near or even more than 30 files were shared on the e-grp. haha. must thank lumpy for that hey? den we had class chalet which was another super fun event, pairing up with ben yong in bridge and owning everyone or playing mahjong and keep getting owned. oops. but i guess it was really the day-to-day activities in school which really showed how close we were. having recess and lunch together as a class was usually the best times i had in school and talking cock with ying xiang and suanning him everyday was fun haha. sigh. won't get to do that next year... so 4B just owns.

6. Go6P
We went even further this year, usually expanding our gatherings with lots of people joining. haha. shu jian, jinghui, lumpy, jie liang, shu kiat amongst many others. so it was more fun and more enjoyment. the best moment must have been the birthdays. junsheng's birthday was fun when we were making that HUGE card for him. jerald's one was the most fantastic where we went SINGAPORE FLYER. zomg. cool. that was a totally ownage experience. having so many friends up there high up in singapore. although it was only 30 mins, it was worth the money. and of course my birthday was fun too, getting so many presents (esp. love jerald's card, the soccer ball and kenneth's origami which is superrr nice), getting a treat to cafe cartel (sigh i was sick that day whyyy...), having fun playing MEP tennis ball soccer and sending jean off to UK. haha. it was all fun and more fun (: of course not forgetting all our outings to mind's cafe and our trips to S11 everyday during EOY period. this is the closest group of friends i've ever had (: haha actually i think i'm very lucky to have a really close group of friends everywhere i am. in P1-P4 it was YIP and NIGEL. we had lots of fun den. in P5-P6 it was SHIHAO, DEWEISON and MAXSON. haha those were damn nice times and the constant suanning of each other was the best parts. den in S1-S2, edward, yingjie, rich, kejing (in sec 1), with inclusion of many others like joshua, weijie, victor, jaryl (in sec 2) made my 2 years in 1H and 2H rock. and of course 3B'07 and 4B'08, it's Go6P. YEAH! WE ROCK!

7. RE
this year's RE was another great experience. haha although we didn't get another prestigious attachment to IBN, we did get a respectable one from SP and we did an even harder project to understand regarding some protein production (maybe cuz it's bio so i took much more time to understand what i was doing). but we did well in practically everything we did. we started off very slow but through the imbaness of the team, we pulled through again. distinction in YSC was wonderful haha. i remember all the rehearsals we had and all the screwups but we pulled through. and of course, there was RE congress. it wasn't as smooth sailing as last year. we didn't do well in the preliminary stages but we scraped through. we totally screwed up our semis but we still scraped through somehow (cuz they didn't eliminate lots of teams), and finally when it really counted, the team did what they did best, pulling off the best presentation when it counted to secure the gold+VIP in RE congress again. haha we screwed up the VIP presentaiton a little cuz of the wireless clicker which we were using which ran out of batt at the time of presentation but that was nothing compared to our achievements. working with nigel for the first time was a wonderful experience and i found out he's actually really nice haha. treat me to free food at his house sia. yay (: and of course the june attachment was quite fun especially cuz the lab techs were very friendly (: and getting to know cheryl and xinyu from NYGH there and helping each other out was fun... so RE was great. compared to last year, we had much more obstacles this year but we pulled through in the end and on hindsight, this project was no less significant that the IBN one.

8. Academics
my academics this year was fantastic. haha. i remember during OIP training last year, someone told me that we should do our bare minimum and get a 3.2. i was sort of errrr den probably cuz i was in a class where a 3.6 is at the lower end of the GPA spectrum. haha. this year, i made sure that i was effective. i made sure that everything that was counted was well done. i didn't aim for a top prize in level cuz i knew i didn't have the capabilities. but i gave myself a chance. i gave myself a chance to strive for an overall GPA of 4.0. everything that i did was not really that fantastic but it was good enough. and so i gave myself hope for a GPA 4.0. even in PR3, my GPA was still 3.96 and even before EOYs, it was 3.96. haha in the end, there was no GPA 4.0 but well at least i got a 3.91 and a respectable 78 for both english and chinese which i have never gotten 4.0 in my 4 years before. so it was better than last year. my physics was still a 90+. my chem only dropped by 2 marks probably cuz i screwed up fritz haber which costed me 5%. my bio went up (: my history was much better than last year. haha. no more getting bottom in class for both ccts. i scored above 80 for all my assignments except one which was 11/15 so that was great for me. haha. my first ever history 4.0. must really thank Ms. Morier (who was supposed to be very strict) and Mdm Yati haha. really great teachers. and of course 4B for all the notes shared. SS was another achievement. it was much lower than last year but well it was expected because it was Mr. Wong teaching this time. i aimed to get a 4.0 for every assignment and zomg i did just that. i got a 12/15 for the first essay, a 24/30 for social doc, a 12/15 for my third essay and a 24/30 for EOY. haha. talk about doing your bare minimum. ok luh my second essay was 14/15 so i got a 82 in the end. yay (: that was great cuz at least i know now that my humans don't suck that much. my english was another big improvement. haha i didn't screw up anything until EOYs where i screwed up my vocab (too indecisive during the test). but well 78 is still my highest end of year score ever for english so that's great. chinese was great as well. haha. having mdm yong as your teacher means that you don't exactly get too high marks for your assignments (ESP. ZHUAN TI ZUO YE). lol. but somehow, she had a good impression (i think) of me for the whole year and my zuowen average was 50 plus 3 model zuowens, 2 of which were for mid year and EOY. that was great. and of course nothing would have counted if i screwed up my Os but thankfully, my mad rush at the end in mugging chinese worked out. haven't got back my results yet but i'm happy with what i've done. haha of course, there was the mad mugging sessions in the library during EOYs that i'd never forget. thanks to jeremy for answering so many of my queries and keeping me focused during that period. if not i wouldn't have done that well for EOYs (: so 3.91 for this year. woohoo.

yup so that was 2008 for you. 2008 hasn't ended though and i'm looking forward to the jobs that i'll be having and of course the HK trip. (: so look out for more updates on 2008!

so, comparing 2007 to 2008, i must say there have been many similarities.

took this from last year's post. the red parts are the comparisons with this year that i've added.

1. OBS -> PSL
2. Math RA -> SIMC
3. 3B'07 with THE spirit! + Interclass soccer! -> 4B'08 (class chalet, soccer league, class decor)
4. Go6P! yeah! -> Go6P (upsized!)
5. IBNexperience! Astar! -> SPattachment
6. RE and the vip sharing sessions! -> SCI HUB opening vip presentation
7. Taiwan Dwen-An Trip!~ yay~! ->Shanghai Trip
8. Results! 3.87! -> Academics! 3.91!
9. Chess club and qiuping! -> Qiuping also
10. CHINESE ORCHESTRA and SPRING OF LIFE! <3! style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">-> RICO with long yin
11. OIP! CHangCHun~ the rocking team! -> hopefully hong kong trip (:
12. the beginning of a new journey in PSL! -> well that would be RJC haha.

hmm. so i guess 2008 was not bad as well! (:

took this from last year's post as well. it was a goal list for 2008. let's see how i performed (: red parts are what i'm gonna write (or wrote since you're reading it now and i've already written it. oh whatever.)

1.1 - Maintain 3.87 GPA! (DONE. 3.91!)
1.2 - Improve english vocabulary! sigh. i realise i have no synonyms for fantastic or brilliant. HMM! (errrr. zzz not done lol.)
1.3 - Improve CHINESE! O-levels coming! haha. but chinese is fun! (DONE! my chinese's better this year)
1.4 - Basically redo what I did this year cuz I think I did a great job. (all the review of lessons and marks and stuff...) (errrr ok what is this haha.)

2.1 - Hopefully get pro sec 1s in! (errr. not done. haha. but well got liwei and zhaolin)
2.2 - Train perc till there are at least 3 who can play impt instruments and 2 for smaller ones. (not done also. only 2 ok players wth haha)
2.3 - Make concert '08 a stunning success (sponsorship, concert booklet and stage plan) and of course everything else from Raffles Trail, CNY to concert with Mayflower (i think...) (partially done. concert '08 was stunning though sigh.)
2.4 - Have fun during interaction (hopefully it will take place) and if possible help out in RJCO or RGCO concerts (but probably they won't need help... ):) (Didn't take place)

3.1 - Achieve double 2nd in qiuping again. (DONE!)
3.2 - Participate in more competitions (not done)
3.3 - Hopefully rope in more people to come for training (lol not done. in fact i've been missing training cuz of math RA)
3.4 - Improve myself! Get to know more stuff. (DONE! haha. SWA trainings do help.)

4.1 - Embark on at least one BIG cip programme like taiwan or OIP this year. (not done. but at least i went for many small CIPs during march and june.)
4.2 - Start going for and enjoying INTERACT! and hopefully do my best in it. (DONE!)
4.3 - Become a more helpful, courteous and smiling person! (: Yay! (errr dunno lol.)

5.1 - Embark on TWO RE projects like the pro sec 4 this year! (not done)
5.2 - Work well for SMP. Learn research techniques and other stuff! do well for YSC! (DONE!)
5.3 - Get an SL project done up and make it good! Hopefully something like taiwan! (not done)
5.4 - Do well for RE congress. (DONE!)

6.1 - Continue playing the piano and play whatever I like! (: (DONE!)
6.2 - Continue improving snare! rolls! or doubles or whatever... (partially done i guess!)
6.3 - Play the timp more often. Practice rolls and tuning! (partially done i guess!)
6.4 - Try out drum set. Hmm... (not done)

7.1 - Make 3B and Go6P even better! (DONE!)
7.2 - Get some leadership positions and work hard for it! (whether it is in projects or CEC or the new students leaders thing...) (DONE! lol got saboed into CEC)
7.3 - Start training pull-ups and running unless I want to fail Napfa. HAIX. (DONE! i didn't fail muahahaha.)

haha so not a bad year luh. only regret is can't go taiwan or OIP sighh. but nvm. i'll get a chance some day (:

Patrick

rjco prac

2008-12-03T23:23:00.001+08:00

so wed was rjco prac. my... 3rd time? sigh. ok luh at least there's victor and kweky to talk to. if not practices would be ><.

dazu was the usual stuff with me playing no more than 10 notes for the whole 4 hours (although i came an hour late oops)

errr patrick fund was created by kweky to charge me for every minute i'm late, to be used to buy ice creams. wah seh. hahahaha. but if i come early, i get free ice cream. sighhh. not a good deal.

and den there was dinner which was weird.

and den dazu which was pure spam of drums. zzz. haha. keep repeating the same 2 bars for 10 minutes. omg. den proceed to next few bars and repeat for 10 mins again. omgomg... haha. hand pain.

haha but victor not bad sia. learn 1 year quite pro leh.

ok so that was wed.

thurs (today) was work@MOE ge branch.

haha. errr reached there on time but made hong rui wait for .5 hr cuz we went early and i went slightly late. omg. felt so guilty. but anyway reached there on time. and we did all the surveys and emails and stuff. haha very manual labour luh. in the end we were labelled very efficient (ahem.) hahaha. but yeah luh, quite efficient. more efficient den TDI camp anyway hahaha.

more typing to do next monday. i type so much today that at the end i wasn't even thinking when i was typing. but well not bad. $52.

tomorrow will be a free day. i desperately need to find somewhere to go. haha shld i go taka to visit yu chen? hmmm... or maybe i should pay a visit to sentosa. or maybe vivocity or liwei's house haha. zzz. i'll see.

had a weird talk with yuchen today. shan't comment cuz it's really really weird.

and congrats to nina. (:

and life gets mundane again. sigh.

Patrick

nac

2008-12-02T21:36:00.002+08:00

ok so just came back from nac preliminaries.

omg total ownage.

damn it. got totally depressed after watching all of them own me. esp. geco. zzz all ownage. sighhh.

i guess i shall just be contented with what i have now and try to improve. zzz.

anyway, some of you may be interested in the following stuff:

View the Night Sky @ The Observatory in Science Centre
Dec 5 2008 750-10pm. dunno luh haha but i think jerald may be interested.

errrr. yeah.

sigh everyone so ownage.

Patrick

what to do

2008-11-29T17:07:00.002+08:00

okok. so friday was SNYO night which was superb.

jinghui says the didn't play well but wth, it was good. esp. the polka and fugue. WOAH the feeling was shiok haha. fantastic concert. first time i see someone playing VCH organ woah damn cool haha.

den sat was nothing.

sunday was outing to dhoby ghaut to discuss hk trip which seemed quite fruitful but now, maybe not. not with so many people saying they don't want to go at least. sigh. i took quite some time to look for the best deals for hotels, interesting stuff to do in hk and everyday check the air ticket, trying to get everyone to buy before prices rise again and now 5 people have pulled out zzz. ok luh i understand that recent terrorists in mumbai and the bangkok airport closures may be some concern but it's hong kong! and think of other people too can. people really want to go and now that only 5 people are going, more may pull out because parents are concerned that 5 people may be more dangerous cuz smaller group. ok luh. no one is really at fault here. just ranting on my wasted time and effort if the trip doesn't materialize and by the time i figure out that im not going hk, tics to taipei would have risen and i wouldn't be able to go anywhere. wonderful.

sigh. ok nvm i shall just pray that everything works out fine.

ok at least sunday went for hhco concert. haha. supposed to be $15 concert but since liwei treat me so it was $5 in the end. bought card and colourpencils (for what... lol don't get the use of them) for wenyun, yuming (still dont know who that is) and xueling. and stupid liwei was late (as usual) so make me run all the way to VCH zzz. haha. the concert was... a much better one for sleeping compared to the SNYO one haha. it was lao ge all the way please zzz. should ask my father to go watch instead haha. all the chinese opera. we looked around the concert hall only to find 1 person younger than us. lol. but ok luh quite fun with liwei and nina around. somehow "dumb dumb" seems to be the new trend although i think that the phrase itself is "dumb dumb". still prefer "noob" and "imba", like "noob jinghui" and "imba patrick". haha. errrr yeah so after concert, went for a short mos burger supper.

mm. received a very very late b'day gift from wenyun which was O.O. haha nvm. very nice. xueling was being herself again with her loud-pitched screams haha. aiyah never scam her again. zzz.

hmm. i shall create a wishlist for christmas:
1. a trip to hong kong OR taipei this holidays
2. the job at NUS and earn around $800 this hols
3. VIOLIN COURSES. haha watching jinghui play and own me isn't a good feeling.
4. learn pop piano and pop composition hopefully someone can teach me for free sigh. i just can't get it although lots of people say it's damn simple. i think i'm just too robotic and can't improvise.
5. join RJCO AND RJSB and learn both cello and clarinet there. woah. if i do that, i must rock.
6. go figure out the piano diploma pieces and see whether i'd like to give piano diploma a try.
7. finish up on the investing books and start doing practical inveseting (:

yeah. will continue on the list sometime soon. (:

Patrick

omgosh.

2008-11-28T01:02:00.002+08:00

I NEED TO STUDY!

haha. but this week has been fun.

everyday from 7 to 1, there would be work in RI! haha. but well, it was fun because:
1. you get to work with 10 friends
2. you get to play bridge/hearts for a long time (we actually managed to play one entire hearts game)
3. you get to play soccer (starting from tennis ball, to small ball to full-size ball

hahaha.

den on monday, went mind's cafe.
on tuesday, it was piano teacher's house with emma. ok luh talk so much hahaha... but well, it boosted my ego somehow. reminds me of how i passed grade 8 with 0 prac at home until the last 2 weeks. lol. oh and the present was ><
on wednesday, liwei and zhaolin came over for some card games and basketball
and today last day we went to play soccer after work haha. damn fun. unfortunately, this seems to be the last time i'd be able to do that.

i'm still watching hana kimi although i'm slowing down...

i still like ashiya mizuki's life. and the music there.

oh and i can't go to hong kong for a month anymore sigh. so much for waiting and not signing up for jobs zzz. ok luh. i still believe that my holiday can be saved. and i've decided not to go taiwan this year luh. i'll just go hong kong and spend time with relatives and 4B! woohoo!

and now begins the search for a job again. i think i've been too indecisive. well, at least i got a typing job for one day next week with hongrui. (:

i wanna to learn how to play pop piano. i think it should be easy. and omg compose OSTs like hana kimi's. i think it should be easy too but need to learn zzz.

sigh so much for talking.

got to sleep now. and start again tmr. (:

k bye.

Patrick

ima ga daisuki

2008-11-26T00:00:00.000+08:00

mm. another song. (:

Patrick

monday

2008-11-24T21:08:00.002+08:00

today's a monday.

quite fun luh. went to school in the morning at 730 (first time waking up so early during the hols). anyway, we had quite a good time there working and slacking at the same time. fun to be working with friends (: haha and errrr lots of new catch phrases which i do not wish to comment on hahaha.

and den after that went to mind's cafe for some play time with 4B ppl. haha. omg. got a free lunch which consisted of a bit of chocolate, french fries, lots of lemon and peach tea, chicken, fish and chips and 4 hours of board games all for $5. (: YAY! of course there were gobstoppers and grape sweets. hahahaha. anyway quite fun luh. shouldn't have played epidemic though zzz.

$39 for one morning's work. not bad.

anyway, i'm watching hana kimi another time and the more i watch it the more meaningful i find it. haha. i admit the main storyline is really impossible and weird and some parts are DAMN FUNNY but illogical (like suddenly 12487290350 people come out from nowhere to argue with nakatsu. lol. stupid. haha. but still, it seems like living a special life isn't that hard after all (: and i really want to live a life like ashiya mizuki (not the part on going to an all boys school although you're a girl) but more like the parts where she cares so much about her friends and her bravery and omg she runs 50m in 5.9 seconds (although that's probably faked out) haha. and nakatsu too haha he's soooo funny when he's talking to himself. but yeah he's a good friend as well and very open.

i guess it isn't that hard to live a special life which i've always wanted.

omg. should i go hong kong for a month... zzz. i need to decide soon...

haix ok bye.

Patrick

(:

2008-11-23T19:42:00.001+08:00

IKEMEN Boogie - Hana Kimi OST

mm another song from hana kimi ost that i love (:

Patrick

HANA KIMI HANGOVER

2008-11-23T01:21:00.002+08:00

lol i want to learn jap! zzz.

haha after watching nodame and hana kimi, made me wanna learn jap but i think if i take lessons i'll start hating it again like i did in sec 2.

i guess all i can do is to dig up my sec 1 and 2 stuff and revise everything and den borrow the sec 3 and 4 stuff and study by myself. should be better that way. until i really need a teacher that is.

as for other stuff i haven't really gotten started on it. blame it on hana kimi hangover haha. zzz. but well friday was fun. went to see jun shneg and KC at the airport and surprised them a bit. it was a good break from my com which i have been facing for damn long now.

n i need to get back started on my investing lol. i've been slacking for quite a lot now.

there's a lot to be done. bad time to have hangover but wth. zzz. sigh why why why why why...

i want a special life (:

Patrick

zzz

2008-11-21T15:51:00.002+08:00

omg. i can't believe it.

listening to hana kimi ost actually made me depressed. very depressed. zzz. why ah. so weird. maybe the music is very impactful but i think it's more like thinking back of the drama. haha. too much fantasy involved. being in that school is just O.O and it's impossible luh. haha. so weird...

so i must get back down-to-earth. zzz.

anyway, finished my first book on investing n i realize i need to re-read some stuff. zzz. it's sooo tough esp. the lease part and the financial liabilties part. omg. can go faint liao. but i guess it's good progress. hmm.

hope i can get a job at taka. if not damn sian...

mmhmm. maris stella didn't do well for this year's psle... seems like the batches after us haven't been that good. ours was O.O got yuda, andrew tham and of course me! haha. n lots of people in ri.

i need to get out of my seat and do something useful. sigh.

ok. what a useless post. bye.

Patrick

hana kimi ost

2008-11-21T14:14:00.001+08:00

Ima ga Daisuki - Younha

Emergency - Hana kimi OST

Be Silent - Hana kimi OST

I am Lady - Hana kimi OST

Trap Happy - Hana Kimi OST

Is This Spiritual? - Hana Kimi OST

Sand Time - Hana Kimi OST

Men Of Paradise - Hana kimi OST

Boyz Be Ambitious!! - Hana kimi OST

I Cant Tell You Why (1st ver.) - Hana kimi OST

HA・NA・ZA Carnival - Hana kimi OST

Save Me - Hana kimi OST

St. Blossom - Hana kimi OST

Into a Nap - Hana kimis OST

4B'08

2008-11-18T12:11:00.002+08:00

hmm. finally starting on my tribute to 4B. (:

it's been a great time in 4B. i'm quite lucky to be able to get into a great P5 and S1 class but i guess 4B's really the best of the best.

let's recap some of the greatest events of this class.

so it began with the 1st day in school. i was quite sad that none of my 2H classmates could join me in 3B. luckily i knew mark and i knew jun sheng was a friend of edward. lol. that was all. but well, after the first day i got to know a few more friends and before we knew it it was OBS.

OBS was a great time for bonding and i got to know so many people through it. hmm.

I was in the same watch as Mark Tay (strong!), Brian Ho (Lol!), Eugene Gan (COOL! haha.), Han Bo Jian (bo bo... lol. jk...), (Lumpy) Lum Jian Yang (the dictator), Lee Jie Liang (pitch the tent!), Shu Kiat (LOL!!!), Ivan (MATHS!), Li Jinghui (DOTA!), Benjamin (Ban mian...), Long (WORK AND WORK AND WORK AGAIN), Ying Xiang (china!), Er Dong (sunburnt), Ming Jun (CHINA) and of course... me...

then, there was math RA which was totally (:. everyone there was so pro and it was the first time ever i'm not anywhere near the top for math grades. but it was fun studying with jun sheng in such an imba class and beating jun sheng time and again (:

then there were other events like interclass soccer which we totally owned! 4th place haha. woohoo to jinghui and the team.

and various random stuff like being 1st in napfa. LOL.

and den this year...

there were stuff like level CIP where we went around looking for houses to clean with no avail lol. and of course, interclass soccer again which although we didn't do as well as last year, at least i could play thrice! (: very fun haha. especially the 5-1 against 4T. (:

and den there was interclass decoration which was fun as well, especially the putting up of the spider web (:

and of course towards the end of the year, term 3 and 4 became even more fun with all the studying in the library together, sending of notes around, class chalet and all the outings...

but all these weren't the funnest of stuff. it was the time we had together in class, joking around during class, eating together for recess and lunch, poking each other on our way to the sci labs, suanning and imbaing each other. i guess these are the stuff which really bonded us together.

4B is a class full of talents. We have sporting experts like byong n blow, we have chinese experts like erdong and the scholars, english experts like tony, chem experts like barry, com experts like brian, even music talents like gan and han.

i used to wonder whether such classes would result in so much competition that in the end everyone does nothing but mugging.

but in the end, that wasn't the case. not that we don't mug... we rock in everything else too (:

it's been a fantastic year.

so here's a tribute to everyone in 4B:
[01] "SS EOY QUESTION HACKED"
[02] "灯红酒绿,一刀见血" "Do you think I'm strong?"
[03] sleepingg...
[04] "hi" (with that hand sign)
[05] "STOP POKING ME!" "老师，你为什么不看F1!"
[06] "TALK COCK" "DAMN FUNNYYY"
[07] "Patrick, you're white" (without looking at himself... haixxx self-deception)
[08] "ARGUE TO YOURRSELF, WHY YOU MUSTTTT BE EXISTTTT"
[09] acting dumb. oh wait he's dumb. (:
[10] "shhh... 我今天要high了!"
[11] "hi. i'm point mass"
[12] sleeping2
[13] "everyday you mock me" "STOP MOCKING ME"
[14] "(insert chim english or chinese)"
[15] "HAHAHA.AHAaHAAJEJTja" (spastic laughter)
[16] "MATHS!" "SS is the most impt subject in uni. everyone studies it" - JW (ivan stares)
[17] errrr... blown away liao.
[18] "我被骗来到新加坡。。"
[19] "GEOGGG" "CHEMMM" "I PRESUME IT TO BE SO"
[20] MGA'AM
[21] *#$^&!(#$
[22] *silence* (asleep)
[23] "JIHONG LAHHH" "THIS QUESTION SO SIMPLE. IT'S cos34uu240jajr sin2 49iqwej" :O
[24] "Mark is so pro"
[25] "Patrick, you haven't handed in your math assignment..." "pi is 180"
[26] *absent*
[27] (sorry calculating tan 24350342 without calculator)
[28] "Guys hand in your chinese homeworkkkkkk"
[29] (GPA 4.0-inggg)
[30] "CAOOO!"
[31] "shu kiat, stop acting like you can be me"
[32] "GUYS, IT'S CLE TIMEEE! PLEASE LISTEN TO MS. TANG!!"
[33] "GIVE ME A HUGGG"

mm. enjoy!

Patrick

hana kimi

2008-11-18T00:20:00.003+08:00

hmm like this song from hana kimi. (:

Patrick

today

2008-11-17T23:13:00.002+08:00

today was a totally weird day with various weird feelings.

but i guess it has ended up all right.

i'm finally getting my hols started.

went to find a job at taka today. wonder whether i'll get it. hmm. really hope i do.

watched 8 episodes of hana kimi today haha really funny.

and i'm on page 224 now so that's good progress.

hope everything will go well (:

Patrick

(:

2008-11-14T22:50:00.002+08:00

omg just came back from rgs drama.

LEG PAIN. omg.

haha ok nvm. quite fun. tried out pool and totally sucked at it. nvm i shall improve somehow (:

HMM.

Violet's drama was all right. haha. funny but errr ending quite lame luh. omg. it was totally diao.

but yeah, violet's acting was totally ownage haha. made me laugh countless times.

stuff like...
"I bought you milo cereal. Don't worry it's halal."
(staring at the running track) lol. reminds me of some people.
"We talk about stuff from head to toe." "WAHHHH WHAT STUFF!"

haha ok can't really remember but good acting. actually not really acting luh violet's just like that. AHEM. (:

hmm. den jiang outing was fun too. had a great time playing pool although i would have been more glad if i were able to aim a bit more accurately. nvm. good first try. at least it's less depressing than bowling RITE? YAY.

den there was the arcade incident where we wasted $10 trying to get violet a present but errr didn't work out. in the end bought a nice flower haha.

and den there was the slipper incident. LOL. was walking at dhoby ghout mrt when shu kiat stepped on my slippers AND IT BROKE. nvm shu kiat don't blame you haha (: but yeah leg pain now. haha. OMG. walking on orchard road, thomson road and errrr in the mrt barefooted isn't a good experience LOL. luckily there was han sheng and mark to carry me HAHA. got loads of stares from the passer-bys. ooooh and haha luckily i was allowed in. haha barefooted also can go watch drama not bad (:

listening to Vitamin C's Friends Forever again. it gives me much too ponder over.

but i don't think i should be emo-ing over all these.

it was really by chance that i got into this jiang class and it was a good choice too. (: i was choosing between jiang and zhou last year and i guess i've made the right choice. my chinese has improved and i've got loads more friends although i miss zhou people as well. but nvm.

"we will still be friends forever"

All the times we had together in class, dinner-ing, teacher's day, last day of class this year, today... they'll be good memories (:

hope we'll stay in touch.

to eric: thanks for all the fun times we had talking cock in class and on the mrt.
to mark: haha thanks for protecting me from shu kiat and errrr yeah being nice (:
to wenrui: thanks for being soooo funny in class haha.
to han sheng: thanks for all the fun you injected to the class and organizing today's event!
to rueyjer: thanks for being a nice friend (:
to yunhui: thanks for being THE chinese pro haha.
to wanen: thanks for being THE chinese pro 2! your reading in class is amazing. lol.
to xinyi: thanks for being THE chinese pro THREE! lol.
to anissa: errrr thanks for being quiet in class? lol... oops. haha i mean errr yeah thanks for being nice. zzz.
to jiawen: haha thanks for being quiet in class too. (:
to shu kiat: haha thanks for being sooo funny in class. 一刀见血 LOL!
to gilbert: lol. thanks for your imba 成语s in class.
to zhaoyang: haha thanks for all the fun mrt trips home (:
to violet: thanks for being errrr yourself, which till now i still think is weird but funny lol.
to keng yong: lol. thanks for being the 3rd quiet person in class (:
to the twins: lol. errrr haha thanks for keeping shu kiat quiet.
to goujun: ooooh. chinese pro FOUR!
to the 2 RJC pple: haha CHINESE PROS ALSO. omggg...
to han lao shi: thanks for all the lessons. it's not easy teaching such a noisy class but you've done great! the class is special because of you. (:
to everyone else: YAY! (:

and together we make a special class. a class made up of different types of people but who have a common aim! STUDY CHINESE! yay. ok and make friends (:

wishing all of you the best in the future.

Patrick