it's mugging time!

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

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

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!

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

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.

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

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

videos.

Hmm PWWWW ><

他的风筝

videos!

here we go. 星光大道!











mm damn good (:

end of hiatus

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.

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!

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 (:

Shark Debate

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

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

nice song intro-ed by edmund (:

New favourite song!

WOOHOO!