Street Soccer Game with Ex-schoolmates

When I spent some time today to actually read through my own blog, it seems that traffic has been rather slow. Posts are few and far between and comments are scarce at most. But now I have something to share after the spur-of-the-moment post a few days back to celebrate my joy at successfully entering the prestigious Hwa Chong Humanities Programme (not that other programmes are not prestigious. All Hwa Chong Special Programmes are highly sought after). Now that the excitement at entering my programme of choice with several rather close friends for company, I have more time and free mental capacity to carry out reflection and, my favourite, thought.

I woke up quite early on Friday to meet my ex-schoolmates for a game of street soccer at the basketball court in close proximity to my house. (It may seem comical to play soccer on a basketball court, but hey, its an informal game of street soccer la. We use the supporting columns for the basketball hoops as goalposts.）When I was in primary school, we would usually play soccer together every Saturday. Last year, I played less as sometimes I was back in school during the weekends. This year, I seldom joined them as I return to Johor Bahru less frequently and the increasing academic and co-curricular commitments for me and my friends prevented us from spending all our weekends playing soccer. Now that it is the school holidays for both students studying in Malaysia and Singapore, it is a good chance for us to play more frequently and catch up while doing some physical conditioning for form maintenance during the school holidays.

I noticed some trivial but interesting changes in our playing pattern since the first time we played together around Primary 5. Before, all of us chased after the ball (typical of children) without regard for any form of formation or tactics. Essentially, we followed the ball, not the captain, not the formation. Put even more simply, we were like a bunch of monkeys fighting for the ball

As I heard someone mention “walao. 全部人围在那边抢，像小学那时一样”. (okay, we generally don’t speak such cultivated and precise Mandarin, but its along the lines) a smile flashed across my face. It was rather humourous to realise suddenly in a flash of inspiration how much we have changed since the days we always quarreled big time over small things like whether its a free kick or penalty kick… haha. But on a more serious note, this simple trigger of my memory made me ponder over how much we have changed over the years. And fortunately, how our friendship simply transcends the changes. Not a great surprise actually, considering that our friendship had been forged by at least 4 years of studying in the same class.

We ended up playing from 0800 till around 1100, with only brief water breaks in between. While this may be because the pace of the game was not very fast and we were socialising as much as playing soccer, I feel that having familiar people to talk to and laugh with also helped keep up our stamina. Its actually possible to forget how hard you were sprinting in the previous minute when you are laughing over a joke popped by a friend (usually at somebody else’s expense, but always good-natured).

I know this cannot be put adequately into words, but what I want to say is: It sure feels good to catch up with friends from the past.

By the way, I just returned from a class gathering with ex-classmates. I will follow up with a detailed account soon. Enjoy the holidays, people!

2008 Sec 3 Class Allocation

Whoa… The SMB message announcing the results of our sec 3 academic options has just been posted. I am allocated my first choice for everything… That means I am admitted to the Humanities Programme, and I am taking Biology and ultimately I am in the Centre for Scholastic Excellence. I am happy. In fact, I think delirious is a better word.

I have been waiting for this  day since I completed the options survey on the school portal. I love the Humanities. But I love the sciences too. So now I am basically in a Utopia of mine. I will be focusing on Humanities under the Humanities Programme; But I will still be taking triple Science.

Basically, Yong Xiang, Foong Wai and Xue Zheng will also be entering into the Humanities Programme next year. That means I have 3 companians from 2B/2007. Not bad. Lit Xian may be taking some classes with us too. Since he opted for the Bi-cultural Studies and Humanities Programme.

Okay, thats it for now. Bye.

EOYAs

Finally, the long-awaited holidays have descended upon us. After a year of continuous schooling, this is a much appreciated break for me. On top of that, life at home is more comfortable than in the boarding school. In the last week of school, we had to complete the final hurdle before we are free to take a break from all the work and stress. It may not be something academically or physically challenging, but it is somewhat demanding towards the ability to stay focused. I have to say some of the activities scheduled for us in the last week was quite boring. Yes, just some.

On Monday, we reported to school for Festival of Sports and Health. It was quite a haphazard event as we, the spectators, did not know where to go. In the end, I went to read in the library with a few other people who were also supposed to “support” the athletes but didn’t know where to go. It was a rather uneventful day and I spent the afternoon sleeping and recovering from the exertion of the Outward Bound Course.

The following day was some assimilation programme for foreign scholars. We went bowling at The Superbowl. It was rather fun but uneventful. The afternoon was spent doing up the proposals for HSSRP.

Now on to something more unusual. On Wednesday, we went to watch a drama presentation by students from our school. Chern Yuen was one of the boys acting on stage that day. Frankly, most of the plays were not that good, except for one. What caught my eye was Soufflé with its’ well developed script and humourous satire. The acting was sufficiently well done to inject a breath of fresh air into an audience weary from the bombardments of less accomplished plays like “The Trial of the Righteous” (No offense to Yong Xiang, but the script was rather monotonous…). The play discusses the pretense people put on and the unique Singaporean obsession with foreign talent interestingly. Kudos to the cast and crew for bringing us much laughter.

I shall skip Thursday as it also consists of bowling and was rather uninteresting.

On Friday, the last day of school, we were brought to watch a movie at the Lido Cineplex, somewhere on Orchard Road. It is also on this day that our Report Books, containing the results we worked for throughout the year, will be given to us. Our math teacher, Mrs Chan distributed to us our report books after the conclusion of the movie, inside the cinema. I paralleled my MSG last year. It is, once again, a perfect 1.00. Without obtaining any exemptions this year, I had doubts on whether I would be able to get a perfect one again. But I guess I am still more inclined towards examination settings and scored rather well for the End-of-Year examinations. I am particularly proud of the 48/50 (though I think it should be 48/51) I obtained for Geography… This is my highest mark for an examination I think… Excluding Infocomm Studies. Most of the members of 2B obtained rather satisfactory results this year, keep it up,  guys. To those few who did not do as well, work hard and commit yourself in whatever you do. Even if you are in 3P, try to exploit your natural capabilities to the extremes! Make the best use of what is available to you!

Okay, I think this is it. This was a rather short post and I composed it under a distracted state( I don’t know by what) , so the language may seem disjointed and choppy.

Enjoy the holidays everyone!

Outward Bound Singapore @ Pulau Ubin

Since the school decided to change the Sec 2 annual camp from the Sarimbun Scout Camp to an Outward Bound Course, we had to go to Pulau Ubin for a 4 day 3 night course (the people over there at Outward Bound School refuse to call it a camp because it is thought that the word “course” denotes a learning experience. The course was supposed to be a learning journey for all of us instead of pure fun and physical activities commonly associated with the word “camp”). I have to admit that even before the fateful day of 17 October 2007 descended upon us, I dreaded the prospects of not getting to shower or bathe as often as usual and having to engage in hard physical activities away from the relatively technologically advanced way of life I was accustomed to. Certain rumours has it that participants of the OBS course had to kayak for protracted periods of time under the hot sun and risk severe sunburn. Judging from the red and raw skin of our Sec 3 seniors who went earlier this year, I was rather reluctant to go for the camp.

When I was told that I had high blood pressure (Wrongly, I think, judging from the fact that my blood pressure was certified normal by the Outward Bound School employed nurse after a bout of rock climbing) by the general practitioner at The Coronation Clinic, I did not felt much despair or anything at the prospects of not being able to join the rest for OBS. In fact, I felt quite relieved that I would not have to undergo 4 days of “hot and thirsty, cold and tired etc.” as stated by the OBS registration form. But on my long overdue visit to the Health Promotion Board, the doctor said that my blood pressure was normal and I am certified fit for “all types and grades of physical activity”, that includes an Outward Bound Course. I was once more disappointed that I had to go through the course. Among my greatest concerns were not being able to shower during the course.

My last hope at avoiding having to attend the course was being certified unfit by the doctors right before boarding the ferry to Pulau Ubin. That hope was shattered when the two middle-aged men who looked the part of doctors told me to “go ahead”. I was quite unhappy, I have to say, at having to go through the course after all. But those feelings were before I went through the course.

On the first day of the course, I was surprised by how we were supposed to do a lot of manual labour like cleaning and organising the store. I had wrongly assumed that an Outward Bound Course was supposed to be extremely physically challenging and I, being a NAPFA failure, would struggle to survive the course. I was thoroughly impressed by the ideal of “Challenge by Choice”, that means that we will set a challenge for ourselves based on our own assertion of our abilities and strive to overcome the challenge. Over the four days, there was not one activity that I was forced to complete but failed in. When I was not able to climb the rock wall, I was allowed to come down. You are supposed to learn both ways. If you reach the summit of the rock wall or meet whatever challenge it is that you have set for yourself, you will bask in the glory and satisfaction and learn to strive hard for what you want in life. On the other hand, if you fail to meet your challenge, you should also learn that it is important to set targets realistically and within your own expectations. Ideally, if a person fails to meet his/her challenge at first but succeeds after trying hard, he/she will learn that while some challenges are considered outside your own abilities, it is possible to achieve such targets eventually by striving hard enough.

The mundane things like cleaning dirty equipment and clearing the store also challenged my mental strength. At first, I was thinking that how we were wasting time and money coming to this camp just to do such things. To add to the situation was the fact that most of us was not willing to touch dirty or disgusting equipment and that we were more reluctant to wash and arrange things than attempting interesting and new things like kayaking and rock climbing. Maybe it was because we thought that such things are so normal and that we need not come to Pulau Ubin on a course just to do this. But now as I quickly assimilate back into the civilised and structured life I am so accustomed to, I look back upon the last few days and finally understood the significance of the seemingly “normal” and “common” work we slogged through reluctantly. Although it is more common to see washing and cleaning than kayaking and rock climbing, the important thing is that we were always looking at others do the cleaning and washing, be it mothers, maids or cleaners, and never doing a thing to help. So in terms of familiarity, washing and cleaning is equally high on the scale as rock climbing and kayaking. The cleaning and washing helped me understand that seemingly simple tasks may not be so simple and easy when you are the one doing it. Cleaners also feel that equipment stained with unknown substances from a dirty campsite is disgusting, but they overcome the mental challenge to touch and clean it. That is their job. We always think that a cleaner’s job is simple, but they may well have far greater mental strength than anyone of us. “Things are not always what they seem” as said by our instructor. How true.

I have seen many examples of people dreading OBS before going for it and then feel that it is very meaningful and fun after completing the course. Maybe it is in the structure of an Outward Bound Course that participants have to reflect on the course after it is over to reap the learning benefits. Extreme physical and mental fatigue is certainly not conducive for learning. It is now, while sorting out my muscular aches and four-days worth of stubble, that I reflect upon the course and feel that I really learned some valuable life lessons. I feel that my mind merely registered and remembered the events of the course and stored it for further analysis when there is enough spare energy and mental strength to spare for thought. I was under pressure for survival and there was not much commitment to reflection and thought as I was busy coping with the situation at hand and feeling the frustration in full blast. It also seems to me that my mind registered the events of the duration of the course in high definition, either because of the heightened senses under pressure to survive or I sub-consciously thought that the events were going to have a great impact on me.

In my watch (that’s what they call a group of about 16 participants), there were some interesting figures: Penyarah (The Speaker), Sekarang (The person who kept saying “Now” to any question), Yang Amat Kuat (The Person who exerts a lot of force in anything and everything, usually resulting in hilarious consequences), Yang Tidur di Kaki (The person who slept on my very-smelly-socks-clad feet) et cetera. While some of these people was a source of amusement to me and Kok Leong and to a certain extent helped me to survived the mental strain of the course, some of them really got onto my nerves. While I still do not agree with Penyarah’s rhetorical antics and Sekarang’s insistence on annoying everyone, I am now slowly understanding the importance of being a team player. You don’t have to like a person, but if he/she is crucial to your aims, you just have to play along with him/her or work around the problem. Normally working around such problems consist of assimilating, tolerating and maybe sometimes asserting yourself. It is important to accept and tolerate people of all kinds and types. While I may not be able to do that yet, that is the Utopian ideal to me.

Speaking of people, the one person who left a deep imprint on me was my instructor. Her name was Theresa. At the start, I noticed that the expression she wore was more soulful and less hard compared with the other instructors. I took that to be a bad thing as she spent a lot of time speaking and trying to make us learn something from every experience we went through, as a consequence, we were constantly lagging behind other groups. In the survival mode I was in for most of the course, I saw Theresa as a person who was not decisive enough. It was not until near the end of very course that I realised it is Theresa’s reflection and discussion sessions that made me learn so much and gained so much food for thought. While other watches had instructors that pushed them hard for performance and speed, we had an instructor that put most if not all of the emphasis on learning instead of physical challenge. I am not coming to any conclusions about which way is better, but I think it was a good experience having Theresa as an instructor. I value thought more than strength and the process more than the result. Thought requires an additional factor compared with the acquiring of physical prowess, opportunity. You can pump iron in the gym and work hard to close a 350 lb. gripper. But it is an opportunity to have something to think about that makes the difference between a a Strongman and a philosopher. And the it is the process that gives food for thought, not the end result. While my watch “Eng Soon” was one of the last watches to finish, I gained a great amount of experience to reflect and think about.

Theresa may not have made us the fastest or strongest, but she made us learn. I heard other instructor pushed participants to their physical limits and yielded high performance, efficient teams. Other instructors scolded and punished the participants for not following instructions. Not for once did Theresa scolded us during the entire course. But the tone she spoke in when she was disappointed with us made me feel the temperature drop a few degrees. The realisation that I had disappointed somebody made me felt sad, strangely. That reaction was something a scolding would never ever do to me. What I feel when somebody scolds me is cold, hard rage. The feeling of lost and the sadness at having disappointed somebody who wanted you to learn touched my heart the way the harshest scolding never ever could. Thank you, Theresa, for bestowing upon me such valuable lessons and such profound and meaningful food for thought. Thank you.

After the long, long, long and emotional rantings of mine, the reader may be feeling quite bored. I apologise for causing boredom if I did, but I feel it is important to share these thoughts and feeling that I am experiencing in high colour. Now on a lighter note, the part about belaying Kok Leong up the rock wall was really fun. The story goes that I pulled him up so hard that he can release three contact points and still not fall off. Some said that if I were to belay an even lighter person, I would be able to pull him up straight just like flag-raising. A comical picture, don’t you think?

Now, as I look back upon the sweaty and sticky events of the past few days, I feel that the Outward Bound Course certainly brought me great benefits. From dread for the course to actually liking the course; From thinking that washing and cleaning was useless to the realisation that there are some people doing washing and cleaning everyday; From thinking Theresa was indecisive to thanking her for making me learn so much… I guess the Outward Bound Course I attended was really a big, big journey. And like what my instructor said, our Outward Bound journeys do not end with the course; Instead, it begins when we finally return to our normal lives from the course. The course most certainly reaped more benefits for me than improving my fluency in Malay. Like working together with people (or speakers) who get on my nerves. ;P

“To Serve, To Strive and Not To Yield”

English Comprehension Assignment

Got back an English compre assignment we were asked to do by Mr. Phan sometime in the past. I think it was when Ms. Tan was absent from school. Surprisingly, and for the first time in my life, I got a high score of 70/80. It was a great shock for me as I remembered doing the assignment half-heartedly while half-asleep. After all, we were quite happy when Ms. Tan was absent, before we were presented with a comprehension assignment we were required to complete within 2 periods.

 I actually got a 22/25 for the comprehension section. Usually I get around 15 to 18 upon 25. More surprising is the 22/25 I got for summary. Widely regarded as my worst component, I went as far as getting 4/25 for one of my assignments this year.

 Maybe I was lucky (or tyco, in gamer lingo). Maybe I had some inspiration that day that gave me the ability to come to the realisation of the answers. Whatever the reason, I am happy with this result I got. It is not everyday that one gets to achieve the very high mark of 87.5% for comprehension.

Well. Good luck for everyone in the upcoming End-of-Year exams. Work hard and reap the results later. 

 Aim high. Achieve.

Chinese Oral Presentations

Recently, our Chinese teacher seem to like giving us opportunities to gain OP point during Chinese lessons. We were allowed to speak to the class on any topic under the sun, and this freedom has been fully utilised by students, with topics ranging from Wei Yao’s newly acquired crush to the use of vulgarities. During the first few sessions, around last week, the topics were largely humourous, such as the effect of a crush on Wei Yao’s attitude towards studies by Daniel. Sure, I appreciate a hearty laugh once in a while, but thought-inspiring issues are more the cup of tea for me. I seem to love academic debate (sometimes even bordering on argument…Hehe).

 Today, we had the usual session to give a last opportunity to those who are still in dire need of OP points, tomorrow is the deadline for teachers to input all marks and scores into the school system. Everybody got a chance to speak, including those who don’t need anymore OP points. Previously, only those deemed to have insufficient OP points are accorded a chance to speak. The looser criteria for a chance to speak today may be the explanations for better speechs and arguments (in my opinion, of course).

Bian He (who has 10 OP points…), brought up the topic of the few members of our class frequently thought of as lazy and who do not perform well academically. He, as a friend and class monitor, has observed some improvements in this group of people. People involved include Chee Shuan, Wei Yao, Daniel, Jun Wen, Alanson et cetera. Bian He observes that they have became more mature and aware of the importance of their studies since last year. I have seen the same change. While they still play cards during recess and after school, they seem more interested during lessons and more frequent involvement in class discussions is also observed. I feel very touched to see the efforts my classmates have put in to make a difference in their lives. Whether you succeed is not the issue. You may have regrets if you try and fail, but you will definitely have regrets when you did nothing to try.

After Bian He spoke, Alanson may have got some inspiration from what Bian He said and spoke about the same topic. This provides the onlooker with a different perspective as Alanson was one of those people widely regarded as lazy and not academically-inclined. Alanson surprised me greatly with a focused and emotional speech. The usually happy-go-lucky person that used to skip EP3 show his sentimental side. Alanson said that when he first discovered that he was in a class dominated by Malaysian scholars, he felt unhappy. But he has since assimilated into the community in 2B and likes the class. These were all confessions from the heart of Alanson, but what touched me the most was his closing sentence. He said that he will not be in the same class with us next year. Because he is “so close to 3P”. By that time, Alanson has became rather emotional. I think that sentence touched most of the class with its enormity; we, as a class, changed Alanson’s initial views at entering 2B entirely. From feeling that he is unlucky to enter this class, Alanson came to like this class so much that he felt sad at prospectively having to leave this class next year. I think he actually shed a few tears.

 What I want to say to Alanson is almost along the lines of what our Chinese teacher said. Given that you give your best, it is still possible to escape the fate of entering 3P even with your not-so-good results in the first three terms. Work. For yourself, for 2B, for us.

Are Vulgarities Acceptable in Today’s World?

A few weeks ago, I read a featured article on Wikipedia which says that until a UK law was officially abolished in the 1960s, it is officially illegal to swear in the UK. The law carried a penalty of a small fine, either five pence or something along the lines of it. At that time, I found this article rather humourous. Face it, swearing has became so commonplace nowadays among teenagers that if we were to be slapped with that punishment each time we swear, we will be bankrupt before we even join the workforce. It was the discussion about the use of vulgarities among us students during Chinese lesson today that got me thinking. This rather controversial topic was introduced by Nicholas Yeo, a self-confessed user of vulgarities.

 I gave my views on whether vulgarities are acceptable in today’s world and in what kind of circumstances are they acceptable and in what kinds of situations are they not condoned. Vulgarities to me are originally normal words that have come to become taboo during the course of human cultural evolution. To a certain extent, words that are considered uncouth and unrefined today have seen widespread use in the past. For instance, faeces was once upon a time known as “crap”, even in medical fields. This shows that whether certain words are considered taboo has got much to do with human intepretation.

Personally, I feel that use of vulgarities are acceptable if the person or persons on the receiving end are tolerant of vulgarities. I know that this may come across as a rather controversial view. However, it must be noted that I do not mean that vulgarities become good or beneficial in the event of tolerance. Acceptance is not the same as encouragement. On the same line of logic, if the receiving party feels uncomfortable hearing or seeing expletives, it is not acceptable. The meaning of a word lies not in it’s formal defination, rather, in the intentions of the user and the interpretation of the receiving party. Due to the fact that we may not be clear about the personal views and preferences of a person, vulgarities must only be used if absolutely neccessary or with the closest of relations. Even then, there should not be any ill-intentions in the heart of the user.

A person may argue that the use of vulgarities reflects poorly on the character and personality of the user and that the use of vulgarities is not “refined” nor “civilised”. Whether a person is refined or civilised is bound by the rules of human society norms. Therefore, it is rather safe to infer that if a receiving party is tolerant of vulgarities, he or she will not be offended and think that a user of vulgarities are unrefined or uncivilised. However, I feel the need to reinstate my point that I am not promoting the use of vulgarities unless absolutely neccessary or beneficial to inter-personal relationship.

In addition, vulgarities should also never be used in public places or in the presence of any strangers. This is because of the fact that we will not know the personal views of a person we are not close with towards the use of vulgarities.

 While I think vulgarities can be acceptable on the condition that the receiving person(s) are tolerant towards vulgarities, I still think that anybody who wants to project the image of a professional and cultured person should never use vulgarities in the presence of anybody else. While I confess that I am not able to and most likely never will attain the feat of not using any vulgarities, I do encourage those of you who pride yourself on your great self-restrain to try working towards becoming a better person.

 To those of you who think I am contradicting myself by saying that vulgarities are acceptable in a manner but encourage people to try not to use vulgarities so often, I have an explanation. While vulgarities may be accepted by some, it is not often that anybody will especially like the use of vulgarities. Most of the population still remain intolerant towards the use of vulgarities, regardless of the intention behind the word. So if most people don’t like vulgarities while some merely adopt a neutral stance and almost nobody really likes vulgarities over normal words, why use them? But I do not wish to give anybody the impression that stopping to use vulgarities is a simple matter. It is not. But a person who does not use vulgarities is definitely a better person than one who utter expletives at the slightest provocation (such as pain… =.=||).

Oral History Presentation and Geography Presentation

With a new and Australian teacher comes new teaching methods. We were required to give a presentation on life during the Japanese Occupation complete with interview transcript and analysis. Some of the groups actually interviewed war survivors they knew but I heard some groups actually faked the interview… **Chuckles**… We did not really have anyone to interview nor wish to. So the alternative action plan was to obtain the interview from the internet and analyse it. There were only so many interviews available online and some of them have rather poor sound quality caused by non-professional recording. I wanted to do something different from others and suggested to my group that we get the interview from the vast databases of the National Heritage Board Oral History Centre. And so the four of us journeyed to the National Archives adjacent to Fort Canning. After much time spent trying to find the location and plowing through the copyright issues, we finally obtained one part of the transcript of an interview with a Malay war survivor.

We brought to bear the issue of whether the Japanese especially favoured any race by looking at the tragic Sook Ching Massacre which was aimed specially at the Chinese community. Generally the opinion of the interviewee is that the Japanese treated all the races equally. But there was the issue of the Sook Ching Massacre. My personal interpretation is that the Japanese was fulfilling a functional need by eliminating the Chinese anti-Japanese elements. The Japanese did not treat the other races especially well, but they did treat the Chinese especially badly. This is one big difference. Hitler, although to not too large an extent, did treat the Aryans better while discriminating against Jews. However, I think the Japanese did not especially like any race in Singapore, whatever they did was not because of hatred or racism, rather it is because of a strategic or tactical need.

This presentation is one very good example of thought on the basis of knowledge. The historical records in the National Archives are knowledge. And a researcher draws the information from the archives, examine it and try to reach a conclusive interpretation of whatever the topic in issue is. By this direction of thought, the archivers’ jobs are more knowledge and fact based than thought based. Although they deal with historical sources, their jobs are to preserve and archive the historical sources without providing a personal touch or any interpretation to the sources.

Now moving on to the topic of the Geography presentation I gave on Monday. After watching the presentation on nuclear energy use by Shi Jie and Zhi Hao, I was prompted to think about the energy problem. First we have to establish firmly that we will DEFINITELY have to at least largely phase out the fossil fuels we are using today. It is simply far too inefficient, far too dirty and far too suited to monopoly by mega-corporates. It deviates from the currently hot issue about freedom. While we cannot discount the fact that human beings are not solitary animals, my personal take on this is to reduce the dependency on other humans or groups of humans to thought and information purposes. Ideally, every human being should be able to sustain his or her own life while still requiring other human beings to satisfy the primal instinct to communicate and to help develop thought through debate. This is to say that, by today’s standards, one very important aspect of human survival is energy. We can plant our own  vegetables and hunt or rear animals but we are not able to generate the energy we need to sustain life in today’s model short of getting your own firewood etc. Most of the population in the developed world use energy provided by a central producer such as oil companies such as ExxonMobil, Shell et cetera. Methinks that this is one very big liability in a human being’s survival. The halting of energy provision by these companies or whatever organisation it is that provide energy will effectively force a human being to revert back to the way of living people thousands of years ago adopted, without energy to aid daily work. Human beings may not be able to survive such a revert after countless evolutions to suit the less labour-intensive life today. Therefore I advocate energy self-sufficiency.

In view of depleting fossil fuels and the utter inefficiency of the IC engine, I think we should revolutionise the current way of getting energy towards a more self-sustainable and efficient way of getting energy, entitling every human being to the natural resources and energy as intended by nature. A complete revolution is the way to go, I think. But the great amount of cost and infrastructure is rather impeding for more different sources such as nuclear power. You have to modify your car to run on electricity to utilise the electric energy produced by nuclear means.

Therefore a transition period and system is needed. Something that can utilise the current infrastructure while it is being gradually replaced by newer systems. While you can start producing stock electric cars from today onwards. But what happens to your currently working IC engines? It would be a waste to dispose of them so we should use them till they are totally phased out. And that is what I was presenting on, biofuels.

While biofuels can be a long term solution to the energy problem as well, I think it is more suited as a transition. Biodiesels can be used on almost all diesel engines without any modifications and slight modifications are all that are needed to run E200 fuel on a gasoline engine. If full biofuels are not desired, a blend of organically derived fuels and conventional mineral fuels can be useful. All diesel sold in the EU is scheduled to be blended with small amounts of biodiesel in a few years time if I am not mistaken. While mineral fossil fuels are phased out. Biofuels provide a stopgap measure to the increasingly severe environmental problems we are experiencing today. If carbon neutral or even carbon negative biofuels can be derived in a feasible way, then we may well be able to use biofuels as a long-term measure. But in the event that even with our best efforts, biofuels can only slow down and not stop or reverse the greenhouse effect, we should take up the challenge of radical energy sources.

The only conclusion I can reach at this point in time is that one way or another, fossil fuels will be going. What will be the replacement will only become evident when currently ongoing research return their factual results to be the basis for consideration in the decision of the human race regarding energy sources. Once again, factual information as the basis for thought.

Weekends in the Boarding School

This post is not meant to be a solid record of any event that took place in reality. Most of this will be my my own thoughts and reflections. I ask you to bear with me. I still welcome feedback, though.

Last year, weekends for me were plainly chances to return home. I used to find returning to Johor Bahru a way to relax after a week of school. Eventually, this became obsessive, and I tried to return home every weekend. When there are obligations for me to fulfill in school, I would have chosen to return home after the activity for a very short visit. Put simply, returning home became an integral part of my weekly schedule. I actually spent more weekends in JB than in the boarding school.

From the start of 2007, the school became stricter on leave applications by Malaysian scholars to return home. We were advised not to return home every weekend. When this new policy was newly implemented, I felt rather uncomfortable about this. I went as far as to spend most of my weekends in the boarding school sleeping or otherwise lying on my bed, doing nothing. My mental state deteriorated quite severely. Most of my time in those days was spent looking forward towards the less-frequent-than-before visits back home. I was visibly less motivated than before. I procrastinated more and I think that contributed to my utter failure of a project this year.

It was after a few terms, around the start of term 3 that my mentality about this issue changed to what it is today. After a series of events including busy rehearsing for 王鼎昌 and going out for sup kambing with friends, I began to appreciate the benefits of spending weekends in the boarding school. I started to go to the gym in my free time, do my laundry, going for morning walks etc to kill time. Thought not exactly academically enriching, these activities are at least more meaningful than lying on the bed wasting time. Hardcore studying is just not my style, I hate cramming information without developing a passion for the subject matter.

I am actually beginning to like spending weekends in the boarding school! But that is not to say that I do not welcome the occasional trip back home. The familiarity and nostalgia back home never fails to get to me. I guess this is all part of assimilating into Singapore society.

 Dear reader, you deserve a pat on the back for putting up with my ramblings. Thanks! Leave a comment if you have any thoughts to voice, feedback actually helps me improve myself.

Hwa Chong Institution Boarding School Corporate Video Shooting and Other Events

Since EP3 stopped last week or so, Friday afternoons had since became free time for me. So right after school, I returned to the boarding school with a few friends. We were chatting and enjoying the cooling wind beside the koi pond when Miss Pauline Yee approached us. Seems like the boarding school was shooting the corporate video that afternoon.

We were asked to “act” in the video as members of the Hwa Chong Family. At first we were reluctant, but when Miss Yee said that some girls would also be present, the reaction changed immediately. Actually it was only partially for that reason, we can see the girls anytime soon. It was more like we were staying there for the heck of it and as an excuse to stay downstairs and continue chatting until later.

We spent around half an hour waiting for the cameraman and his crew to prep the shoot but the actual shoot was actually rather anti-climatic. All we were asked to do was sit down there and “do our own things” like “discussing”. So we just disregarded the camera crew and continued chatting. The shoot lasted a mere 5-10 minutes.

After that, Zhi Hao, Zhao Hong and I proceeded to the computer room to access the Internet. All of a sudden, Miss Pauline poked her head into the computer room and asked for a “few” people to act as audiences for a second session of corporate video shooting. However, seems like she did not really stuck to the orthodox meaning of the word “few”… Almost the entire computer room was emptied out by the time the shoot was in progress. We actually braved the rain (just a light sprinkle) for the sake of shooting the corporate video. Hwa Chong spirit, eh?

And after the 15-minute video shoot, I noticed that our dear classmate, Lit Xian, was in the Fitness Centre. I pointed out that observation to Zhi Hao and both of us decided to go to the Fitness Centre as well to join in the fun. Lit Xian had been running and was visibly sweaty when I entered the air-conditioned Fitness Centre. We greeted each other and Lit Xian continued on to mount the stationary bike. To my great surprise (I am a rather frequent user of the stationary bike), Lit Xian started pedaling as soon as he was on the bike. Huh? Don’t he have to turn on the power supply and input route profile? Apparently not. And he dismounted in less than 2 minutes by my estimation. Call that aerobic exercise? And and important thing to note is that he did not bend down to power the bike off.

Lit Xian left the Fitness Centre soon after, stating that he is going to the computer room. And so I went over to check the stationary bike out to see whether there is something amiss. Hahahaha. I observed that the bike was not turned on. Apparently, either Lit Xian, for all his other great abilities, did not know how to turn on the bike; or he just wanted to pedal a few rounds. Personally, I do find the former more probable, but I will leave this up to the reader to interpret.

And rewinding a bit, back to the 11.20 to 12.00 lesson, I have some interesting events to share. Ms Tan Yew Hui was instructing the class on grammatical errors we commonly commit. When she made the comment “this is the type of language you guys use on MSN, on your blogs…”, some students protested loudly “got meh?”. Somehow, by a twist in the realms of science unknown to mankind, this “got meh?” set off a major reaction in Ms Tan. She simply flared up and scolded the whole class.After the bout of loud lecturing, she asked me to “come up and conduct the lesson”. I was dumbfounded… Huh?? At first I though that I did something wrong, but at least she was rather calm and friendly when she offered me markers to use. Anyway, I discussed the grammar error correction worksheet with the class. At the end of the lesson, Ms Tan had cooled off considerably.

After the lesson, Aaron suggested to me that maybe she asked me to conduct the lesson while she cooled off from her recent flare-up. But whatever the reason, this was rather an experience for me. After all, it’s not everyday that a student get to conduct a lesson.

Something else, does the title remind anybody of children’s books? As in “Jack and the Beanstalk and Other Stories”… Haha. A shot of nostalgia in the very modern context of a blog. Ironic.