#498: DISCLAIMER- The Choice Of Picture And Song Is Not An Indicator Of The Author's Mood, FYI. They Are There Because The Author Likes Them.

I don't care if Monday's blue
Tuesday's grey, and Wednesday too
Thursday, I don't care about you
It's Friday I'm in love.

Monday, you can fall apart
Tuesday, Wednesday, break my heart
Thursday doesn't even start
It's Friday I'm in love.

- Friday I'm In Love, by The Cure

Tomorrow is Friday is First of May is Labour Day is A Holiday.

There's a pile of work to be done for Monday, and for that week:

1. SEA Hist Term Paper
- a killer on the Asian Financial Crisis, blimey!

2. SEA Hist Source-Based Practice
- 2 paragraphs required, kthxbyeimdead because I can't do SBQ to save my life

3. Math Assignment S1: Probability
- done! in an hour plus

4. Math Tutorial S2: Binomial and Fish Distribution
- I say "fish" because I can't pronounce "poisson" accurately, and not because I'm using it as a subtitute for a swearword

5. Int Hist Source-Based Essay
- for which Chow & I are presenting, and as previously mentioned, "I can't do SBQ to save my life", ARGH.

6. Chemistry Tutorial: Nitrogen compounds
- I slept throughout the series of lecture on this topic

7. Chemistry SPA
- HAH.

8. Answer some nonsense questions for GP
- GP questions make my head hurt because I actually have to think.

9. Study for Econs case study test
- S is for Econs

10. Study for Chem lecture test
- Organic chem ftw

11. SATs mugging shall commence
- for which I shall sign up to better my score so I have a fighting chance for Ivy League, maybe

12. RMUN Stuff
- I'm not doing much, so for the little I'm doing, I had better do something.

As the old adage goes, "Life damn tough".
And as they say, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." This can be intepreted in two ways: "Going" can either refer to, "Oh jolly good let's GO GET 'EM, TIGER!", or "OMGGXX let's zao."

I think the latter isn't an option because I have no O-levels to fall back on, and I want to finish the Raffles Program anyway.

Okay, so let's go get 'em, and get 'em good.

("Soft") Authoritarianism At Its Best

"ONE OF THE ASYMMETRIES of history," wrote Henry Kissinger of Singapore's patriarch Lee Kuan Yew, "is the lack of correspondence between the abilities of some leaders and the power of their countries." Kissinger's one time boss, Richard Nixon, was even more flattering. He speculated that, had Lee lived in another time and another place, he might have "attained the world stature of a Churchill, a Disraeli, or a Gladstone." This tag line of a big man on a small stage has been attached to Lee since the 1970s. Today, however, his stage does not look quite so small. Singapore's per capita GNP is now higher than that of its erstwhile colonizer, Great Britain. It has the world's busiest port, is the third-largest oil refiner and a major center of global manufacturing and service industries. And this move from poverty to plenty has taken place within one generation.

Lee managed this miraculous transformation in Singapore's economy while maintaining tight political control over the country. He was prime minister of Singapore from its independence in 1959 until 199o, when he allowed his deputy to succeed him. He is now "Senior Minister" and still commands enormous influence and power in the country. Since his retirement, Lee has embarked on another career of sorts as a world-class pundit, speaking his mind with impolitic frankness. He travels often to East Asian capitals dispensing advice on how to achieve economic growth while retaining political stability and control. It is a formula that the governing elites of these countries are anxious to learn.

-excerpts from
Culture Is Destiny; A Conversation with Lee Kuan Yew
By Fareed Zakaria

How can one not love, or at least respect and hold in high regard, the illustrious MM LKY?

#497: Awkward Turkey...

#1: If you're lucky, the bathroom cubicle you choose to take a leak in will have something interesting written on the back of its door, as such.

#2: SEA Hist notes on ASEAN. This drained our class fund real quick.

#3: Bombarding Jamie Sim with hearts on her 19th because we heartx her muchmuch.

#4: Sugar-coated biscuits of my childhood. I hated them then, but I like them now.

#5: Color-matches my skin and shorts.

#6: The newly-painted wall outside LT6.

#7: Abigails with one clean and beautifully bright blue wall.

#8: Taking liberties in an uninhibited, freshly-renovated classroom. Unfortunately, two teachers walked in on us right after this photo was taken.

#9: And the walls are colour-blocked omg!

#10: Neon-pink bandage with purple hearts from Blood Donation. The neon pink was very blinding in real life.

#11: Iron tablets to replenish whatever was donated. They are the exact same shade of red as my Ikea mousepad.

#12: Meimei at the threshold of my humble HDB executive apartment early one morning.

#496: Exercising Eighteen

Today, I exercised my first newfound right/freedom of being eighteen. As landmark as it sounds, the decision to do so was completely spontaneous, and on a whim. It may seem frivolous, given the nature of what I have done, but it wasn't. It's always been something that I was sure I was going to do at least once in my lifetime; I just wasn't sure when, exactly.

So when, was today.

No,
I did not purchase my first pack of cigarettes and take a long, nicotine-filled drag;
I did not buy alcohol and get drunk in a fit of I-am-legal-nehx delight;
I did not get signed up for driving lessons (pity);
I did not (and will not) fornicate. (Singapore's age of consent is 16, by the way)

I donated blood today, with no need for parental consent.
Being the good daughter I am, I asked anyway. This was because I distinctly remember my parents being very upset when I pledged my bone marrow for emergency transplant (i.e. they only come for my bone marrow only if DIEDIE they need it). So at assembly this morning, I surprized mum with a text:

"Hi mum can I donate blood"

I wasn't too sure if I was really going to do it anyway, because
(a) I'm afraid of needles, in contact with flesh.
(b) I wasn't too sure if I could spare time to queue.
(c) I'm afraid of needles, period.

But in the end, I did. And it was relatively painless, trauma-free, and comfortable. Plus I got free mineral water, milo, oreo, a "BE NICE TO ME. THIS IS MY FIRST DONATION." sticker, a fluorescent-pink-with-purple-hearts patterned torniquet, and two rows of iron tablets.

I'll do it again.

#495: Why Pi?

π

1. Besides my Myanmar book (which has horrified many), I am reading LIFE OF PI by Yann Martel. It's alot more fascinating that its synopsis, and the writing's hilarious. And you know, I'm a sucker for witty writing.

2. Come to think of it, π is a very fascinating concept. It is a fascinating number. It makes the world go round (literally!).

3. We like pie. Especially pies that are made at Ned's Pie Hole by him and a girl named Chuck.

4. I like pie too much to let it slip away.

5. π = 3.14 (to 3 s.f.)

Gape In Awe And Wonderment At The Power Of Kimchi

How Korean dramas with titles such as "Again, My Love", or "Knocked Out By Love", and are besieged with subtitles such as

The little cow in my heart
bleats a little song,

can cultivate a decently large English-speaking following, never ceases to amaze me.

#494: Pie

#1: This is what a crowd at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on Good Friday looks like.

#2: Self-inflicted dual-ulclers for the win!

#3: Click to enlarge, to witness RI boys ogling RIJC girls', er, rears.

#4: Chow's failed attempt at using his ruler as a launchpad for the ping-pong ball. Not only did the ball fly backwards, his ruler snapped in two.

#5: Class Notice Board that no one notices.

#6: For a spot of light reading...

“The Dell Theory stipulates: No two countries that are both part of a major global supply chain, like Dell’s, will ever fight a war against each other as long as they are both part of the same global supply chain.”

- Thomas Friedman

#493: Weekly Fads (Make A Comeback)

Weekly Fads, first posted in 2007, which was a grand 2 years ago! Woah, have I really had this blog for so long?! I constantly amaze myself (usually not in a very positive way, though).

***

Catch-Word Of The Week:
Nonsense

Pronounced As:
NON-serns

Context:
"I keep wanting to eat all that fried nonsense they sell in the canteen."

***

Song Of The Week:
Strangers

By:
Van She

Why:
It's addictive. Like fried chicken.

***

Worry Of The Week:
Should I retake my SATs Reasoning Test?

Why:
It's a decent grade, but it doesn't cut it for Top-10.

What Am I Going To Do Abourrit:
Worry, pray, and hopefully arrive at a decisive decision. Fast.

***

Activity Of The Week:
Readinig up on ASEAN, Myanmar, and more nonsense of that sort

Why:
Since I'm quite free, I might as well get as much of my H3 done as possible.

How:
So far, so good. I'm currently digesting a book on Myanmar that actually fascinates me.

***

Site Of The Week:
Raffles Vox

Why:
Because it's like Speaker's Corner, but not really.

***

Hype Of The Week:
Looking for a Fleamarket

Why:
KY and I are gonna make some money from our old nonsense and have loads of fun with it! (And end up swapping things and spending more money on other things we'll find, ha.)

***

Peeve Of The Week:
Ulcers

Why:
I have two on my lower lip, and they frigging hurt. I can't eat salty things without cringing in pain, and I keep having morbid urges to chew on the swelling my ulcers have made.

How:
I accidentally bit down on my lower lip. Hard. I drew blood, and voila.


***

#492: AESA

What's there to say when everyday everything is just the previous day put on replay? Oh sod it, welcome to my life.

Okay, maybe life isn't that boring. It's just that speaking in terms of blog-worthy happenings, nothing has been happening. Or nothing that I can/want to blog about has been happening anyway.

I try now.

I was attempting to write my econs essay yesterday, because I have vowed (in light of the recently concluded Common Tests 1, in which I scored terribly for econs. So terribly, in fact, that the verb 'score' cannot be used.) to better a better economics student. I made a pact with Hong Xiu last night, that we will become C-grade H2 Economics students by CTs 2, without external assistance (i.e. no tuition). So we will then proceed to score B in Prelims, and nab an A by the A's. It is an achievable goal, so Avid Economics Student Abigail (AESA) hits the books (okay, Book. namely, Sloman) ... soon.

So there, I was, attempting an ASEA last night until Hong Xiu sent me Strangers by Van She, and I was in love (as in, with the song). So I had to listen to the entire album and wound up not completing my essay. Oh well.

By the way, my CT results don't spell anything funny or rude, and actually don't spell anything in particular. This is because I did not score any vowels this time. So no U's (joy!), E's (I would rather my Econs get an E, and not only because Econs starts with E, but because it's better than a pitiful S), or A's. Can't call my results atrocious, but they're nothing to shout about either. I guess I'll have to be more diligent from now on (as I tell myself all the time).

Lately, I have been digesting "THE QUEST FOR IDENTITY: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS OF SOUTHEAST ASIA", and have made impressive progress. I have managed to abstain from foaming, headdesking, and even falling asleep. I have even been scribbling down useful quotations and information for an hour or two at a go. I feel as if I have been conquering Everest, but only to remember that THE QUEST FOR IDENTITY is just one of the many mountains in the extremely mountaineous mountain range of H3 History research resources.

Where's my pickaxe?

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Launched: 13 April, 10pm
Username: GATA4
Password: swordfish

I have a huge fleamarket craving right now.

As in, I want to visit one, not that I am craving like a fleamarket, dolt.

#491: Good Friday

No Good Friday service today, because of GOOD NEWS SINGAPORE tonight at Singapore Indoor Stadium. Because parents are on duty today, I'll be following them down 3 hours early, and I'll camp out on the steps and do History.

Have a Good Friday folks.

#1: PW results came out yesterday, and I guess all that torture was worth it (actually, it wasn't, because I think other schools have more lenient markers and hence still get their As with a report 20% the length of ours).

#2: Ivan topped 7A for Econs with this award-winning equation which he repeats every lesson (see #8 in this post). Well, I guess it worked.

#3: The Singapore Legal Service must be pretty loaded to hand out all these smart-looking post-it notes. But then again, the SAF must be even more loaded to be able to give out free blancos. Oh yes, I was doing my SEA Hist tutorial this morning because I am a diligent History student.

#3: I have so many notebooks! 4, that I can't live without:
(from left) Quotable quotes & nice lyrics notebook (Paper People, from Rebekah), Diary (Prints, from Priscilla), Vocab book (Paperchase, from Rachloe), Anything goes candy-colored notebook (that nice brand available at Taka, from KY).

#4: I really like purty notebooks. Except I always keep them for about a year, agonizing over what to do with them (because it pains me to destroy them with my nonsense), then finally digging them up in one of my biannual spring-cleans.

#5: She's ridiculous, really. I think she could have picked it up from me, though.

#6: Jesus carrying his cross to Golgotha - Jon Neo's Good Friday service invitation card.

#7: My bag, which Lye Yumin deems it as my "Woman-of-the-world" hobo bag, which I don't really get, but I like it anyway.

#8: Significantly numbered parking coupons on my leg.

#9: Yes, my birth date, 2009.

#10: Yona Lu brought me the most photogenically adorable birthday present.

#11: I love brown paper bags, but I love brown paper boxes more.

#12: And I love Yona's drawing.

#13: Stupidly, I only saw this bit after opening the box.

#14: Yes, I love Yona Lu, thank you very very much.

#15: Adorable, no?

#16: Eye candy. I adore.

#17: And they were delicious.

#490: Tragical

I know, I know. I've been an unreliable and undedicated blogger as of late (the phrase was adapted from Mr. Faizad declaring me a "not-so-reliable-and-not-so-dedicated-GP-rep" last week for not doing my homework).

This week hasn't been busy. As in, it still has been busy, but less in relation to pre-CT madness. The thing is that I've just been dead bored and dead lazy. I did have work pending - such as H3 History presentation, Hydroxy Compounds and Complex Numbers II (of which, I've completed OH-Compounds, and I'm almost done with the other two... joy!) - but I've been such a sorry bumkin that I couldn't bring myself to finish them up quickly.

Most importantly, I have to started on my H3 History Essay proper. Like, for real. No more planning to visit the National Library @ Bugis in the name of research, but actually really wanting to check the street market out and buy fried golden mushrooms. No more fooling around with library books, which I borrow in stacks (of 4, that is) to trick myself into believing I'm doing research of sorts. I mean, yes, the books are highly useful, but I think they would be much more so if I actually open them to read their content. And since our proposals are back from Cambridge (all approved), I no longer can have consultations with Ms Ng because there is some one-consultation-only policy for the A-levels (but I can "have many informal chats" with her). But I must get started, simply because I have no reason not to, plus I had better before the workload skyrockets.

By the way, some "403 Forbidden" page pops up periodically when I try to access my blog. I think it's the same page that pops up should you try to access Playboy dot com (because it is banned in Singapore, by the way). Bugger ye alle.

We get back Math, SEA Hist and Econs tomorrow, in that order.

#489: Eighteen

#1: Last Saturday whilst volunteering at ACM, I encountered my prodigious viola-wielding classmate, TOH XUE QIAN, who played intently and pretended not to notice Hsien or I who kept pointing at him.

#2: Balloons that were mostly blown up by me, with Hsien next to them.

#3: He did enjoy his food. And he was outside the museum. There was an sign that aptly described the scenario and hence this photo.

#4: This sign is pasted right outside our homeroom (A73).

#5: And Justin brought these from Aussie for us.

#6: Handbilling with my big little brother one night.

***

The follow pictures are the products of one Jonathan Neo liking the B/W effects and zoom function of my Nokia 3.2MP camera.

One of the many bags I use for school.

The following were taken from my sort-of-early-birthday lunch celebration that was very spontaneous and impromptu, but very very nice. We took 93 down to Serene Centre and ended up at some Japanese fusion food restaurant, and then proceded to the famed Island Creamery for dessert.

In about 11 hours I will be going on a coming-of-age megashoppingspree with mummy (who has the money). Like, total yayness.

Give me a reason
For life and for death
A reason for drowning
While I hold my breath
Something to laugh at
A reason to cry
With everyone hopeless
And hoping for something
To hope for
Yeah, with something to hope for

#488: Right Here Right Now

When it's quiet, does she hear me?
Jettisoned to the center of the storm
And I'm thinking I'd
Prefer not to be rescued

The moral of today's story is this: You Still Have To Study For International History.
Yes, I got a tragic score for Int-Hist CTs, and Mr Kwok was too kind when he ended off his commentary on my essay with "Fairly disappointing" (in almost-illegible script, that is).

Tomorrow brings Chemistry, which I have never excelled in and thus I'm not expecting much from it either.

It's been a while since I've mentioned anything remotely connected to music. So I'll just take this chance to tell you: MY MUSIC PLAYLIST IS GETTING WORNED OUT. Yes, I've been listening to the same playlist for the past month, and some of the songs have become somewhat lacklustre. The playlist comprises the usual suspect, Switchfoot, a later-but-not-so-recent fancy for Jack's Mannequin (despite the fact that their lyrics...well, stink...sometimes), my latest craze, Cut Copy, and other assorted songs.

Just to give you a sample of how inane Jack's Mannequin's lyrics can get, one of their lines go: "My life has become a boring pop song/And everyone's singing along." It made me go "gack!" when I heard it for the first time (now I ignore it).

Today was a welcome break from routine, not because it is April Fools' (surprisingly unsurprising today, actually), not because it is the start of a new financial year (just learnt this in Econs), but because it was SYF for RGSSB (i.e. Raffles Girls' School Symphonic Band, i.e. my former CCA).

So I ponned assembly and tried to take a nap on the 7th floor. My phone buzzed halfway through, interrupting my slumber, and it was Sherry on the other end demanding to know where I was. So we burst out of school to J8 to buy chocolates & have a quick lunch. Thereafter, right on schedule, we lunged into the MRT to Tanjong Pagar. Upon arriving at SCH after a mad dash, the nice guy at the door denied us access to the concert hall, and so we ran to the other end of the building, and found RGSSB. So we got into the concert hall after all, trailing behind RGSSB as they entered for their turn to impress the judges.

Personally, I thought they weren't too bad, and they were really impressive at certain parts. Like they were pretty magnificent with their starting for choice piece, because it was played in such unison. They got a Silver, in the end. But I'm really proud of Basses anyways because you guys were voluble, and were pretty much in tune (from afar, haha).

I came home and spent time online with Boredom. Then Ivan tried to initiate conversation because he was Bored as well. But because we were both so Bored, the conversation died. Just like how I'm going to for chem as well tomorrow.