The Kangaroo and the Crab

Resting on the floor is an orange crab,

who looks so lonely and sad

Along came a kangaroo, who brought some tissue,
and with a new friend the crab is no longer blue.

Happy birthday Katrina and Joelle:) Now that the crab has moved house, the kangaroo is feeling lonely:(

:P

First day of the exams

Yesterday was the first day. Four papers- English paper 1, English paper 2, Chinese paper 1 and Chinese paper 2. They lasted all the way up to 5pm.

English Paper 1: My essay topic was "A typical rainy evening". I tranformed the rainy evening into an orchestra and the sounds into a symphony.

Lightning crack: Conductor's stick
Thunder: Opening chords of the symphony
Splashing footsteps: Cymbals
Sputtering engine of the bus: Tremeloes of a double bass
Car wheels scratching against the road shoulder: Bassoon
Car skidding and crashing against a truck: Impatient violininst making his violin creak because of the slow music and smashing it against a cello :P

English Paper 2: One comprehension and one summary, how long could it take? Of the 1 hour 45 minutes given, I finished the paper in an hour. It was not too hard, and I fell asleep on the table...

When I woke up, I realised that the hall was empty and my paper was the only one left uncollected! Out of shock, I woke up(for real this time). Dreaming while sleeping in the middle of the exam...Interesting...

For lunch, I had one of the best meals I had in school ever. Then we had a nice, long group chat on the lunch table before the chinese paper. That rejuvenated my energy for some reason.

Chinese Paper 1: At first I did not know what to write about, so I finally chose my topic and thought of the storyline after half an hour of thinking. TZY and joelle gave me the inspiration for the essay:)

The story is about how "I" lost a diamond 4 from a deck of cards belonging to my brother. Then "I" blamed everyone about it. However, when "I" finally found it in my pocket, I learnt about how we should stop blaming others and try to work on ourselves first. Thats it-one of the longest chinese essays I have ever written. The introduction of setting the scene was flooded with description and lasted one and a half pages long. The main conflict was recited in two and a half pages and I had a half page conclusion. For some unknown reason, I felt quite happy after finishing that essay.

Chinese Paper 2: Considerably tired out by the first three paper already, and it being in the late afternoon, I worked twice as slowly and got very restless for this paper and finished it just in time. It was slightly tricky but not too hard.

After it was all over, I went home (duh). That marks the end of the first day of the exams. :)

Bye Bye

Bye Bye to the year 6s of our school. This morning a graduation assembly was held for the year 6s. There was a speech, and a few performance. Some sentimental music, some songs and ending the assembly, a 10 minute demonstration on how to make noise. I have to say that the singer at the last part of this organized enactment of noise seemed as if he was being strangled, puffing out his screams breathlessly like someone screaming painfully and rhythmatically because his constipated shit can't come out.

It is sad to see the year 6s having spent 4 years in this school (they joined in year 3), and see them part. Some of my classmates might think that it is also a saddening thought since it is also the last day class 205 is together in our classroom, but I do not think so, leave that sadness till year 6.

We can go for outings and still do many things together. We are still in the same school which does not ban us from seeing each other during our free time. We still have the holidays and 4 more years ahead of us. I don't see why so many people are upsetting over this.

Just today, I received three notes. As my friend had said, this is as if the marking of the end of our togetherness- Bye Bye, this is what I have to say to you...we are never going to see each other again... By giving out such notes, it is totally depressing.

So, lets not be sad and just look forward to the exams and the outings thereafter.

A sparrow and a research congress

I shall start off this post with some things you can do when bored on the MRT.

-Take this chance to learn the name of roads you pass by. Improves memory and spatial thinking when trying to fit all the places and roads in one mental map.

-Observe pedestrians' movement and try to guess what they are doing. Once I saw a family carrying their luggages walking along a construction site. Wondered where they were going...

Unfortunately these can only be done when you are not in the tunnel. Here are somethings that can be done in the tunnel as well as above ground.

-Sleep. Simple enough?
-Think about a problem you find hard to solve everyday. The tunnel and the boring black walls passing by the windows will keep you off distraction. At the same time, being engrossed in the problem will make time seem to have stopped for you and when you come back to the "real world", probably you are already at your destination. Well, it works for me.

-Or if you are feeling physical, you can try tip-toeing and hold your position till the next stop, where you rest. Then, repeat when the train starts moving.

Note that I did not put reading in the list which is what many people do. I get dizzy when I read on a vehicle for too long, even for a smooth ride like the MRT. Besides, having to hold the book in a standing posture is not too convenient. When I sit down, it makes no difference in my preference because I just fall asleep.

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16/10/08 (Last Thursday)

A sparrow flew into class yesterday and roamed about the ceilings like a dare-devil, quickly yet carefully maneuvering its way above the chopping blades of the fans. I thought all it would cause would be some people screaming, but that was not the case. A commotion more of excitement than worry for the bird's safety erupted.

As it flew around for quite some time, it remained in the classroom. Some people wanted to keep it imprisoned in the class, others were sensible enough to think otherwise. As people closed and opened windows and doors like a war between two different sets of believes, the "closing side" emerged victorious.

The bird landed on top of the cupboard door. People gathered around it. E.H opened the cupboard door slowly which caused the bird's neck to be pressed against the ceiling. Some people tried to stop him, but he is someone who gets what he wants. Whats more, he is a guy with religion; see the irony?

At first, we thought that the bird was injured. I felt really sorry for it then while many were disturbing it. Why couldn't they have just left it alone? But after much disturbance, the bird finally flew out which was a good sign that it was not injured. People cheered, which I thought was quite funny. Why did they want to chase the bird out so badly, and for others why did they want to keep the bird captive in the first place? I think that had we just ignored it and let it fly out on its own, we could have saved a lot of energy and time. After all, we were about the leave the class soon...the bird was unlikely to stay there overnight, wasn't it? I looked at the drawing I was working on before all these started and suddenly, for some reason I did not feel like finishing it anymore...

Research Congress, 2pm, we went to the hall and sat in front of a projector screen showing the still and lifeless auditorium. It was boring. Out of boredom, Joelle, jk and I started playing I spy at the back of the line and started chatting after that. A piece of paper was passed down the line as the class decided to create a story with each person writing a word.

After the opening speech and a presentation was over, we left the hall surprisingly early. Though we were supposed to go around viewing the exhibits, many people just left. This gives rise to a question: Do we leave?

A group of people with me gathered and pondered about this question. We watched people going out and coming in the gate as I thought about reasons why they might have been allowed to go out but perhaps we were not allowed to. Maybe we should just stay back for a while and look at some of the exhibits since they are already prepared and meant for us to see, but someone thought that staying in school was a waste of time. Finally, out of slight peer pressure from that someone, I went home with that group.

Thinking about it now, it was quite a waste that we did not even browse through the exhibits or look through any art. This once in a year event, not as if it is held everyday, does not really waste much of our time other than an estimated 2 hours/year.

I think I should go along with my own will next time.

Basketball Training...

Ever since training has been move to monday, I had to wait for 5 hours before training started. This has pissed me quite much, especially when my friends and I finished homework and have nothing else to do. Thus, I decided to go once every few weeks.

Just last week, the basketball teacher-in-charge had a meeting with us and specially pointed out me and my friend's names for our unbeatable attendance at basketball training. He also pointed out the importance of CCAs and how it is compulsory to attend every session unless with a valid excuse. Well, looks like I have to just put up with this till the end of the year.

I don't think this is very fair. There is a friday training and we are allowed to attend it too. However, regardless whether we attended it, we still have to attend the monday training. Did they ever consider how long many of us have to wait? I say their system is not one of the bests in anywhere...

Without any choice, I just went for training last monday. The coach's face seemed to have change for a third time this year.

He told us to drink a lot of water before we started the excercises, which is naturally right. However, this was because for the next 2 hours, we were not allowed to rest or drink any water. I think that this is a considerably ridiculous way to train endurance, if that is what he wants.

After doing many lay-ups and shooting drills, we did ball handling. In one of the excercises, we were bending our back to pass the ball underneath our legs. Am I already not short enough?

Why did I ever join basketball...

Back from a Time-wasting Session

Yes, I just returned from some guy's house. What was I doing there? To meet up with this guy and another guy. What for? For a physics project. What project? To build a solar car.

We are learning about thermal physics, yet I cannot see the relavance between that and building a solar car, which to me is more of engineering. So why are we given something irrelavant? There is a solar car competition. So, I suppose the rest is self-explanatory.

These two guys and I went to East Point to get lunch for them and materials for our project. We bought sticks-ice-cream sticks, satay sticks etc. for the framework, and tennis balls for the bottle cap which we used as wheels. The queing up alone at NTUC fairprice burned some 20 minutes and I was getting quite impatient.

We went back to the house and had lunch and started on the project. We had no machines, so all our engineering were based on rough materials, which meant that many parts could not fit. We assembled and dismantled our frame several times with superglue, chisels to widen holes that could not fit (Chisel = hammer + screwdriver) and pliers.

Initially, we tried making a platform with lined up ice-cream sticks, but it was too heavy. We tore it apart and redesigned it a couple of times. Sometimes, our gears could not fit so we searched for more. Finally, we gave up and decided to use a "conveyor belt" system which generates relatively much friction. And later for some reason, one of the jokers took apart a working toy electronic machine gun and took out all the gears inside.

We had all the gears needed now, but still lacked an axle long enough. Someone soldered two pieces of steel axles together with lead which i purposely broke as it would have broken if used in the car anyway.

Finally, we devised a method of placing the motor upside-down under the platform beside the wheels that would possibly work with our lack of materials. It did not work. We put the motor right-side up and it worked thereafter. What a joke.

In the end, we messed up this poor guy's room successfully with wrappers, screws, tools, pieces of wood and tape and toys(including lego transformers, spinning tops and pull-and-go toys), and at last the front wheel drive mechanism was done. Unfortunately, being in the evening already and with the horrible solar panel efficiency, the sun was too weak to power it and we could not test it. Thus, session over.

What a waste of time when I could be doing something better like sleeping.

A quick recall of the Hydroponics Farm

Last week, wednesday to be precise, we year 2s went to Oh Chin Huat Hydroponics in Sembawang. 6 people including me talked rubbish on the bus. It was quite hot when we finally reached there, considering that we went in the afternoon.

First was a brief lecture on herbs and spices as we got to smell them. Some of the spices like spearmint and peppermint smelled quite nice, but the smell is so strong that they smelled bad.

After that, we were guided around as we saw "departments" like packaging, onion and garlic selecting and peeling, the germination room and many greenhouses. As we walked around, we were introduced to more herbs. The Lemon Balm smelled really nice with obviously a slight scent of lemon, and the ribena plant leaf tasted between sweet and sour, which was still acceptable by my tongue.

After the whole tour was over, we went into an air-conditioned shade for a debrief. Before we left, we were each offered a bag of hydroponics vegetables, which I do not know why, I did not feel like taking.

On the bus back to school, I was quite tired, thus I tried to sleep but failed. The rest of my class were really noisy at the back of the bus. My friend, who was just beside me, turned around and told them to kindly gossip about him softer as he could hear everything. A nice piece of his mind expressed in friendly terms.

The rest of the journey back to school, MRT station and lastly home was in deafening silence.