Flashback - Aug to Oct 06

update (5/8) - O level orals... just had a similar experience in the form of debating auditions. still nervous as usual. ahh... so this was the period my turning point came.



school review (11/8) - still havn seen anyone else doing a school review. missin those days in sec sch and my classmates. plus i cant go back to GMSS ever again. the ratio of boys to girls in sec 4 is still about the same as my current class. my batch of o lvl students are indeed quite bad. in my class only 1 made it to jc. 6 not qualified for poly. the rest in poly or MI. even with my score im easily in the top 5 in class and top 20 in school. haha. that classmate.. thinking of it again he's quite a peculiar character. He made a big improvement in O levels, with l1r4 20. And that eraser he owes me still hasnt been replaced.

Forgotten! (15/8) - i shall see if i am more remembered this year.

Dreams of life (26/8) - still remains an inspirational song to me. Too bad i didnt start my blog like when i was a kid.. if not i could in a way go back to my childhood days.

Subject review (2/9) - english: still like it tho i didnt do well in it. as usual i didnt study for it.
biology: still deemed as a mindless subject. just memory work. so much easier after mugging.
chemistry: all about concepts. different way of learning, but about as easy as bio.
socia studies: source base is actually so easy to learn. all i needed was 1 piece of paper with SB qn formats. mugging needed only for essays. And thank God i only had 6 subjects and so didnt drop humans cos i got a2. i would have given up on it if not for wanting to go jc, and my l1r4 would have been 13 instead. cant get into dtrm.
geography: i said," only by God's grace can i do well in it." Tingting said,"then by God's grace it shall be." And by God's grace i got A2! Amen to that!
principle of accounts: true enough, a little error at the start caused me to have the whole accounts messed up in my o lvl paper. and i wasted much time correcting it.
F&N: my best-turned-worst subject. but i still like foood!
Mathematics: indeed it wasnt too late to buck up on it, and i did.
CLB: come think of it, maybe because of this i wasnt accepted into SRJC.
O lvl average: about 70%. 11.2% improvement.

The songs speak (8/9) - now that i have an ipod, i might wanna do i again some time! still looks fun.
caleb: are u all brenda wants? lol
ivan: poor guy still yearning for love. nvm.. its coming closer each day!
derrick: so have u been taking the right medecines lately?
jeremy: maybe the tide is high suggests he gets too high and goes frantic.
joel: have u found ur way back from the past?
Karina: joined dance. so can express herself in actions. good job.
Joyce teo: perhaps those arms are still wide open for u. found it yet?
Joycelyn: say im still ur angel!
Henry: his never-say -goodbye attitude has helped the church to manage its resources well.
Ting ting: wake up, stop dreaming! wahaha!!
Stacey: until now, still not feminine enough.
Claudia: save the summer sunshine for the beans. haha
Ryan: claudia has been running to him. hope no other girls did.=)
Lawrence: still have no idea what that could imply
Gabby: in the army camp, close to nature, the music's all around u.
Adeline: hope u gotten out of that middle!
Joanne: sometimes hate = love
Aikhong: not the queen, but not left out either
Daniel: u wanna make me be stacey's mom? no thx even if i can
Kaixin: may angels bring u here again. (but apparently she doesnt come at all)

back to old school (23/9) - would sure like to go again if there was one this year. hope more ppl turn up. still got many ive yet to see. and hope my form teacher doesnt give birth again at this time

1 down, 1 more to go (7/9) - blundered in prelims, blundered again in o levels. and no more chance after that. and now i can roughly answer those qns: 1. not good choice. 2.i heard of better jc's lecturers being really hateable like lots of sarcasm, moving at top speed and leaving students lagging behind, not caring about them n not helpful. from the testimony of an ex njc student. 3. The system of education and syllabus is almost same, but in much greater depth and width. 4. SG's education system breeds eliteism.

Failed fame (22/9) - havn go hear what the school song is like now. and i dun tink the students recognise the author. But its still really nice to have a legacy carried on. The vouchers have been all spent on games, which werent very good.

more updates next time

Happy Birthday Blog!!!

Today, 28th May is the birthday of this blog. It is now exactly 1 year old. And guess what.... there are 50 posts altogether. such a nice number. That means that i update on the average of about once in 7 days. The longest break is i think between sept 8 to 23 - 15 days. And the shortest break would be 0 days - 2 posts on new year's day.



Its really nice to go read older posts. its like travelling back in time and feel what i felt in the past again, bring back memories of old, or see how things have changed. And what better time is there than today? Its time to hit the time machine back to 28 may 2006, and travel forward from then.



Introduction (28/5) - yea i just hit the quota of once a week (on the avg.) And perhaps it is getting boring cos nobody seems to come by anymore.



(29/5) - i still rmb that dream and i like it. reminds me of another beautiful dream some time ago. I have not done that suntanning thing another time since then. sorta lazy.



(2/6) - haha i forgot about that whole incident alr until i read it. blogging keeps it stored. F&N courseworks... those were the days .. of agony. Artstravaganza and joyce teo's concert.. memorable events both of them. didnt expect the artsravaganza venue to be my future school.



Join me in this (5/6) - that activity.. only seen 1 other person do it after me, which is ting ting.



Another trip to dreamland (8/6) - memories of that special dream revived. I wish i continue to experience similar dreams .. tho its scary at parts.


All i want is YOU (16/6) - memories of the camp revived. why isnt there a similar 1 this year?

(24/6) -seems liek such a long time since i did that game. still got some pics not used. interesting details about the lizard.

Memories (27/6) - hmm i still like that song and listen to it till today. and all because of that post i made a big flop in my O levels english cause i tried to copy it. grr.

I have returned.. (7/7) - more comp problems. Now its still full of problems. including big ones like any USB device except the mouse unable to be used by the comp. So now its rather useless and i hardly use it alr. Memories of ESC revived. Still remember some of the kids. And that sickness... was a really dark moment while i was in it. My mom's absence may have been a factor. Glad im healthy from then on.

Week's update (21/7) - oh manz that post... i rmb i suddenly felt like a heretic then. didnt expect such strong response. And that period was when the comp would restart when i played games... couldnt play dota at home for 2 months so playing it again was such a valuable opportunity then.

coincidence? (29/7) - i still own those 3 prestigeous titles and i guess always will. haha. in addition i am the only john in jym cos john goh doesnt attend anymore.

ok... times out. will follow up on the rest of the month's archives another time. ^^

CCA frenzy!

I recently joined the debate club (broken off from CADC and is now an independent CCA), taking the number number of clubs, societies or ccas im in to 6. (but i may not be fully active in all of them.) They are debating club; a fully-dedicated-to-debating cca, campus crusade for christ; a christian cca dedicated to evangelism, Theatre compass; dedicated to stage productions like short skits, plays, musicals and dramas, CADC current affairs commitee; prolly educational about current affairs, school of business club; also no activity yet, and students union, which everyone is auto-in, but may choose to progress along the ranks by participation.

And these are the activities involved with all of them: weekly workshop for TC, weekly meeting for campus crusade; which clases with TC workshop so i have to alt, rehearsals for any TC production if im in it, campus crusade events like campus evangelism, training camps and maybe even mission trips, weekly debate lecture, debate intensive training programme for competitors (by some chance i may become one of them) and any special events organised by student union, CADC and SB club.

now I dont know whats got into me, but im getting too enthu with cca and inviting potential trouble with my school life. not sure just how much time all their activities would take up and may strain my time for schoolwork. and its not like i can always skip if i need more time cos sometimes i need to be there for some important events. if need for time should arise, i would have to quit some of them.

I was rather inactive in cca during sec sch.. just 1 cca and not so interested in it. I din expect poly to be so active in cca... but since it is, i found quite a number of them to my liking. Theres much more choice now - about 85 ccas compared to only less than 20 in sec sch. I dont join so many cca just to get more cca points. it only makes up a miserable max 5% of my total grade. But because after poly, i dun expect another chance to be involved in those stuff. So in a way its once in a lifetime learning experiences. if i went jc instead i may be struggling even with 1 cca, but poly is less intense and i got 3 years in my ccas. Time is very tight if i be active in most activities, but could be much better if i quit all of them. Perhaps all i need is some balance.

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now for a little sidetrack. this mini quiz is from freebie's blog and this my result (the actual thing cant work on my blog)

Your birth date: August 13
You don't love lightly. For you, love is always a serious undertaking.However, you are able to love many types of people. You can bring out the best in almost anyone.Love surprises you often. You never know when or where you'll find it next.
Number of True Loves You'll Have: 1
Number of Times You'll Have Your Heart Broken: 5
You are most compatible with people born on the 4th, 13th, 22nd, and 31st of the month.
http://www.blogthings.com/whatdoesyourbirthdatemeanforyourlovelifequiz/

gonna be broken 5 times. ouch! and happened before alr. only 1 true love and yet to be found. if its true then the true love must really be true and if the love is not true and it ends then there wont be any other true love. and the description.. yea it does fit me.
haha. but of course im not superstitous as to take it for real and believe this is my fate. its just for the thrill of getting some insight of ur future
anyway.. heres a questionable point. some ppl has multiple true loves, like phoebe has 4. doesnt make sense. if its true it will last forever and you wont need another. =)

In need indeed?

Today i was caught in a really difficult situation. I was going home from school at 8pm, after some cca thing. Since it was formal day, i had to dress up like an office worker. So i was at the bus stop waiting for the bus and i was standing at a corner, then this old man with a really rough face came up to me and talk to me. This is a translation from chinese of the conversation... may not be in order.

he: excuse me, how to i get to choa chu kang from here?

me: i not sure.. u can check the board over there (the bus routes)

he: bus? no.. i want to walk there.

me: its very far from here. u cant walk there.

he: can take mrt to there right?

me: ah yes got mrt to cck.

he: erm.. never mind... just tell me the direction i walk.

me: its really very far. cant reach there by foot.he: really cannot?

he: (after some hesitation) can u give me 3 dollars to take mrt?

me: i dont have money. sorry. (actually had, but thought he was out to cheat me)

he (desperately to himself): how am i going to get there? i got no money for mrt.. the ticket is 2.70 .. (and some other ramblings)

me: you dont have any money?

he: ya. i asked my children for money and they kicked me. (lifted up his shirt to reveal several small bruises on his belly) I walked all the way here from commonwealth .. i have to go to my sister's house at cck if i were to have dinner.

me: u have no money, then how do u survive?

he: i go to my sister's house. she will help me.

me: sorry, really dont have money to help u.

At this point, he started talking to himself sorrowfully and making weird gestures then sat down at a corner, and it kinda freaks me out. i thought he did that to get my attention, make me pity him and give him the money. Then after a while he turned to me again and really freaked me out... he was crying, face flushed and eyes were blood red.
(He started mumbling his sad story including repeat points from above. some of it included "i need to get there before i can have dinner" , i dunno how to go there" and "she has no telephone")

he: you dont want to help me, its ok, ill walk there.

me: how much u need?

he: 3 dollars

me: why dont u ask all those other people here?

he: no.. im scared.me: scared of what?

he: im scared of asking them for money.

me: then why arent u scared of asking me?

he: because i can see u r a learned and refined man (all the formal attire's fault)

me: they are not much different from me.

(he still refused to ask others.)He continued crying and muttering to himself and gesturing.. i did want to give him this time, but couldnt cos i told him earlier i had no money. Asking others to help him also came across my mind, but not after considering that they would also think he's faking.

After at least 10 mins but which seemed like eternity, finally my bus came and i couldnt wait to get away from him. i was still in a state of shock so i couldnt care about him. after i borded the bus i saw him walking out into a dark area.its really very drama and hard to believe, but after thinking through what happened and his account, it does make sense and im kinda convinced its real.

Even if its not, his very good act is well worth 3 bucks. And if it is, he must be in a really desperate and hopeless situation and its really bad of me not to help.Makes me feel abit guilty ... what will happen to that poor chap now.. roaming around looking for another formal guy, which is hard to come by at that time and place until maybe tomorrow. But i shall not worry too much. The birds of the air have no roof above their heads, yet God feeds them. how much more will He provide for His children.

Goodbye Farrer Court

The verdict is out - farrer court will be en-bloced. The 80% quota has been met. Not surprising, after a previous update showed that only 4 more sigatures were required. Obviously those 4 places couldnt hold out much longer. Many residents were in a hurry to clinch the deal and sell the units before the price should fall. Although the 'bubble' isnt expected to burst soon, ppl r just being kiasu because we were given a very good price. well in a situation like this, u can only be either kiasu or greedy. but actually yeah.. the price is alr so good, so i wun expect it to rise much more. better to be kiasu.

But i objected to the en-bloc not cos im greedy for a higher price, but cause i dont wanna move out of farrer court. I once even wanted to use farrer court as a heirloom, some time before the en-bloc idea came out. (now i noe it cant cos the lease is 99 yrs) It holds sentimental value more than any other place. I been living here since the day i was born, and since im not sum1 who goes out alot, i spend most of my time here. Although most memorable events happen outside, my home is like my shelter and refuge from the whatever hustle and bustle going on; a safe haven. A place i can find peace and quiet.

I like this place. the location, the position, and the view. im on the 8th level, and thats just nice, the same level as the canopy of that big angsana tree a few meteres away, so theres a nice view of the canopy, and shades from direct sun. around that tree there are also a lot of artificially planted bushes and short plants of diffrent colours and with flowers, and the rest of the area covered with a field of grass, making the view all natural and nice. A big old tree another several metres away would be covered in bright yellow flowers during a part of the year. Birds would frequently rest in these trees. sometimes there would be interesting birds, like some kind of white parrot, small blue or yellow birds and some pigeons not like the ones found pecking crumbs at some neighbourhood void decks in swarms. There would also be some animal visitors one in awhile, including a giant big-beak bird on my ledge when i was a small kid, praying mantis, a pigeon that made a nest among the aircon cables and recently a group of minahs coming into the kitchen, eating our apples and leaving shit on the table. On the other side of a wall nearby, i can see a big bungalow which belongs to a series of really expensive houses along leedon road. this bungalow is only rented not owned. when theres no occupants, a guard would be patrolling the compound day and night. when there is, the whole place including the plants there would be lighted up and there would be some festivity going on.
Outside the windows of the other side, the view is of leedon heights, which is separated from my block by just a small field, leedon road, and after a drop downwards, a small canal, and the footpath. The occasional passing of cars on leedon road as well as the people jogging or walking dogs along the sides of leedon rd and the footpath adds life to the area, making it not seem like a secluded place, yet not making it a busy place disturbing the peace. (the recent tunneling project very nearby has added a great amount of disturbance.) the view In between the leedon towers as seen from my window, is of a whole forested area, which i found out, is owned privately, with a nice big house in the compound. Farrer court is somehow mainly resided by midage workers or elderly. hardly see bunches of kids playing around. some buildings like mera saga, holland hill mansions, holland close HDB flats and the MOE building can be seen from my window. at a slightly higher storey, the ulu pandan CC, which is very near my former school, a singtel tower which is just adjacent to my current school and chimneys of the jurong industries sprouting fire can also be seen. sometimes at night, the fire can get real big and lights up the sky with an orange tint. if i would like the taste of a busy main road from the window, a small portion of farrer road is also visible. the absence of tall buildings nearby other than the leedon towers and block G allows me a good view of the vast blue sky and its clouds.

i dont know if i can find another place like this or better. we are already starting to spot good places to move to, and the best bet would be the dover or clementi area, near my school. i would then have to adapt and get used to living in a new home in a new area.. and most of all, leave the good stuff of farrer court behind. all i know is, things would never be the same.