Updates

Just realised I haven't been posting on this blog for a long time. So here's a quick update on ME: Results are going down. For some reason I can't fathom. So basically, with last term's 3.00 MSG taken into consideration, this term's MSG is going to be my lowest. Sigh, I wish I was back to my 2.67 streak again, which I got for the whole of last year before owning at EOY with a total improvement of 1.00, making it 1.67.

Ah well, I just have to buck up, it's only term 3, and there's still EOY to make up for my dramatic results so far I suppose. I just gotta look forward to the future and beyond. Wow. I sound like someone I don't know. Okay, nevermind that, that was random.

Back to the main point of the post. The update. Okay. I just found out today that retired people live shorter lives. People who are contented with their lives leave this place earlier. I know, that's depressing. But it's the truth. People who are never contented with their lives live longer, because they need to live to try and become more content. So they live longer. It has also been shown that people with an objective in life, or multiple objectives, are more happy than people without objectives.

Which brings me to my next point, which is actually about the school system. It's not about defaming my school or any school for that matter, but rather about the structure of the school system. Schools teach you about science, logic, empathy.. the list goes on. But something is missing. Emotion. Schools never teach you about emotions. The one thing that is potentially the most important thing in your life, and schools don't teach it. Of course, not that it's the school's fault, because frankly speaking, I don't think many students would pay attention even if they had an "Emotions" class in school. Just saying. Because emotions make us human beings. If you had or had not noticed, we only call ourselves "beings". Well, excluding extra-terrestrial(ET) beings, but I'll get back to that later.

Notice that our brain has 3 layers. Okay, I understand that you don't go around dissecting brains everyday, but just so that you know, our brain has 3 layers. The first layer of brain, of which our brain stem is also part of, is called the "reptilian brain". This is the brain in charge of the "fight or flight" instincts and reactions. All animals have this brain. It is the brain in charge of all physical movement. Basically, we can't do without this brain. Next is the "limbic brain". This deals with emotions and has a short-term memory. It allows the animal to sense the mood of its fellow animals and will react accordingly. Not all animals have this brain. For example, when a wolf in a pack gets bloodthirsty, his fever spreads throughout the whole pack in seconds. This is art of the limbic brain's function. And finally is the "neo-cortex". We are one of the few animals who have developed this third layer of brain, and as of now, no animal has made it to a fourth layer of brain yet. In essence, the neo-cortex is responsible for language, simulation and logic. communication stems from language, in case you were wondering. This neo-cortex is what makes us unique, what makes us find meaning in life. Yay for humans!

Back to ET Beings. We call them beings because we envision them to be like us, with a developed language and capable of complex thinking. Incidentally, this envisioning is also part of the "simulation" function of the neo-cortex as mentioned above. Who knows, they might actually exists and might also be thinking about us. What a cheery thought.

Though I still have plenty to write, it's already going on 12, or 0000 hours, and I still have a Chinese essay, a Chinese comprehension and 2 Chinese poems to finish up. Gah. I hate Chinese.

Patriotism in the World Cup

When North Korea played against 5-time World Champions Brazil, they dared not hope for victory. When their national anthem was played, one player actually burst into tears due to overwhelming emotion. After that, they proceeded to hold out against Brazil for the better part of an hour, actually scoring one goal against the 5-time Champions!

In stark contrast, France. Despite having some of the best players in the world, they lost 0-2 to unfancied Mexico. What went wrong here? Was there a lack in quality? No. Was the coach too incompetent? Well, maybe a little bit. But what really killed France was their players' lack of national pride. Most of the French team are earning hundreds of thousands of pounds a week with their clubs, a testament to their quality. But they do not earn anything at all when playing for their country. Is that the reason why they lost to Mexico? Because the French players have lost their fire and passion? I, for one, feel that way. Now, France is facing the very real possibility of an early exit. In order to progress, they must triumph over South Africa, the hosts, by a huge margin and hope that Mexico or Uruguay lose to one another. South Africa are hoping for the same result.

However, if you were to ask me who I'd place my money on in the South Africa - France match, I would say South Africa. Why? Because the Africans are proud to be playing for their country, in their very first World Cup in the world, on home soil. These people are in the deal for the pride, the glory of being able to represent their country, not for the money. There is no money involved unless you are the champions. North Korea is, by far, one of the lowest-ranked team in South Africa 2010. But they showed their mettle even against former World Champions who are high above them in terms of ranking. They have proved that, if you have the willpower and pride in whatever you do, impossible is nothing.

Poem

Below is a free verse poem that I just felt like writing =D See if you can guess the topic.

Bloodshot eyes and tired feet
As we get to the fever pitch
Waiting with bated breath
For the moment of honour
Of Glory.

With a swish as it flies
Though outstretched arms
Grasping wildy at thin air
The crowd erupts in joy
In Relief

Yet as adrenaline courses
through the veins of the victorious
There are those who are dejected
That they should fail to realise their dream
Of Triumph

One by one they trudge back
Through the mud where many had fallen
Now another agonising 4 years to wait
Before a chance would be offered
To right the scales of justice
And when that time comes again
It will be the time to shine
To Achieve

World Cup Fever!!!

First Match of the Cup (Group A)
South Africa 1 : Mexico 1. On the whole, I was surprised by this result. Mexico should have won it 1 -2 but they had an early goal disallowed. When Tshabalala (did I get the name correct?) scored in the 73rd minute, I thought that South Africa had the game in the bag. Then Mexico equalised just minutes from time. (For the record, I watched most of the matches)

Group A Match 2
Uruguay 0 : France 0. What the... This was not supposed to happen. France was supposed to romp home with a stunning display of football that would have us on our feet. What actually happened was that France really REALLY missed the atacking power of Thierry Henry and looked weak. Uruguay must be laughing their heads off.

Group B Match 1
Argentina 1 : Nigeria 0. A deserved win for Argentina, thought they should have scored a lot more, and Lionel Messi should have also got a hat-trick, if not for the acrobatics of the Vincent Enyeama. Though Argentina showed themselves to be match winners throughout the whole 90 minutes, it is noteworthy of Nigeria that they managed to stop Argentina from scoring on many separate occasions. Though Enyeama deserved most of the credit, his team was not completely hopeless either.

Group B Match 2
S.Korea 2 : Greece 0. A worthy performance from S.Korea, possibly indicating that they might repeat the success of 2002, where they made it all the way to the semi-finals. Greece were far too defensive as opposed to S.Korea, who dominated the game. Greece lost the ball far too easily and S.Korea capitalised on this mistake to deliver.

Group C Match 1
England 1 : USA 1. I am speechless. Seriously. England could have won the game with Gerrard's 7th minute strike but Mr Robert Green got it into his head to let the ball in after saving it. If you cared to watch that match, or the match highlights, you would have seen that it was effectively an own goal. If Fabio Capello doesn't drop Green, English supporters (myself included) will be seeing red instead. Speaking from a more objective perspective however, USA probably deserved the draw. They managed to shut down Wayne Rooney, one of the world's best strikers, and ultimately prevented him from doing much. Job well done USA, better luck next time England.

Group C Match 2
Algeria 0 : Slovenia 1. Yawn. What a boring match. I almost fell asleep last night while watching this match and it wasn't even 9 p.m. for crying out loud. Both teams played so defensive it was a miracle for them to attack. Algeria had 10 players in their own half for what seems like most of the game, while Slovenia were only slightly better. Then again, what can you hope to do when you run into the opposing half and get marked by 3 people? Then Abdelkader Ghezzal was sent on and almost immediately received a yellow card. Wow. As if that was not enough, 15 minutes later he was sent off for a deliberate handball. Slovenia capitalized and sealed the match.

Group D Match 1
Germany 4 : Australia 0. An impressive display by the German side, proving that they are serious contenders for the World Cup this year, as always. The Socceroos were outclassed all the way, although they tried their best. The Germans were just too fast, too creative for the Aussies.

Group D Match 2
Ghana 1 : Serbia 0. Serbia deserved a draw, but a stupid mistake by midfielder Zdravko Kuzmanovic denied them the point. Now, Ghana and Germany are joint first at the top of their group. Australia and Serbia have to win or lose it all. Though it is early to determine who will go through, Germany are the favourites to top Group D.

That's all for the 3 days of action in South Africa. Personally, I support England and the draw against USA was disappointing. England deserved a win and would have got it too, if not for Mister Green. Slovenia unfortunately capitalised on Green's mistake to top Group C with 3 points. Disappointing.

Still, England will probably top Group C as the remaining games against Algeria and Slovenia should be cake. They are both defensive sides, and with the like of Rooney and Gerrard, England should secure the full 6 points from both games. Which means that we'll be through to the knockout stages along with the USA. Which means that we get another shot at them again (Assuming that they are good enough =D)! Hope that England make it to the Finals this year and lift the Cup that they deserve! Keep your fingers crossed!

Museum Guide Sabatical-Continued

Today we guided 3 groups of foreigners through the National History Museum of Singapore. Personally, I felt that the Australians were the most restless and the Japanese were the most attentive. After we guided them through the different sections of the museum, we asked for their feedback. I will talk about them here. The Australians did not have mush to say, because they were not paying much attention in the first place. The students from Hong Kong(Hong-Kongese?) tried their best to phrase their comments in English, and they went along the lines of "...the guides were very enthusiastic...".

However, what I really want to focus on here is the reactions of the Japanese group. The group from Japan was, as you might think, very shocked at the deeds of their ancestors. One of the group had to struggle to contain herself, and it was not surprising. The history is obviously very different in Japan. However, we tried to tone down on the atrocities of the Japanese during the Japanese Occupation, though our job was to get the facts across. They were remarkably well, and at the end, they said that "...though we are shocked, we hope that Singapore and Japan will help each other from now on...". It is interesting to see their optimism and I hope that everyone who reads this blog also follows this ideal. Bearing grudges is fatal for both people.

Well, That's the highlight for today. Tomorrow, we will be guiding Joscelin Yeo, Nominated MP and former competitive swimmer for Singapore. Wow. More tomorrow...

Jack Neo Scandal(s)

This is a blog about Mr Neo's sex scandals. This is starting to become something of a common occurrence, these scandals. It's almost as if reporters have become sadists and would like nothing more than to cause an unlimited amount of distress on famous personalities who had sex with others. From Tiger Woods to our subject here, it is as if the reporters have gone on a roll. I personally feel that this is not healthy. Allow me to elaborate. Using the aforementioned example, Mr Neo's wife broke down at the press conference but the reporters still badgered her. I think that although they are constantly on the search for newsworthy news, this is crossing the line. It is as though you go to a terminally ill patient and ask him/her to describe their condition. Utter cruelty.

However, if all the allegations about Mr Neo having sex with other women are true, he must have had a good 15 affairs. I doubt anybody could stoop so low, not even the most lowly person. Therefore, I suspect that about 90% of these supposed scandals are just allegations, made by evil women who hope to have their glimpse at fame. I doubt that the real scandals have been exposed. Or maybe just the one. Anyone with a conscience would not expose their scandals to the public after what has already happened to Mr Neo. THey would confront him in private. Hopefully.

Basically, I think that Jack Neo should not have gone and done what he did because, well, he is married. However, we should not blow up this whole thing because it is his and his family's time of grief, and we should at least wait until such time that he has regained his composure before badgering him. Okay, forget badgering. Before asking him polite questions in a civilized manner instead of rambling on like barbarians. Not that I'm calling the reporters barbarians. I just think that they should leave him alone. Really.

Sabatical Week

My Sabatical is: Bilingual Museum Guiding. I would type this out in chinese, but i can't. Basically, I'm supposed to go to the National Museum of Singapore and training to be a museum guide. Wow. Oh, and as an added plus, we get to bring overseas visitors around the museum on Friday. They will be "people of importance" as well. All in a day's work I suppose.

Also, my sabatical started when everyone else's ended today. :( That's life i suppose. Today, we learnt how to guide people on a tour of the museum, which was basically a repeat of yesterday, but in Chinese. Ugh, Chinese. But I suppose it was necessary. After all, Singapore is a "bilingual Society" or something along those lines.

Tomorrow, we'll be going to the YOG complex and might even be selected to be a host at the YOG itself!!! Fantastic isn't it? More tomorrow! :)

TKAM (To Kill A Mockingbird)

Today, I will be blogging about some aspects of TKAM based on a MI (Multi-Intelligence) test I just took. For interested parties, I took it at this website: http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks3/ict/multiple_int/questions/choose_lang.cfm

From this test, I have gathered that I am supposedly a very logical person that likes music and being around with people. Supposedly being the key word here. As such, I am going to write a newpaper article about the burning of Miss Maudie's house(Fictional Character in TKAM)as part of my assignment. Note: this will be written in context; ie at that time, and not now

Atkinson's House Burned to Ashes

Late last night, Maudie Atkinson's house was burned down to the ground. As the courageous white men of Maycomb laboured to save what they could of her furniture, a startling fact emerged: Somebody had set fire to it. When asked about the matter, Miss Atkinson shrugged off the question, stating that it was due to her own carelessness and that she did not turn off her stove.

But was it?

Reliable sources show that merely leaving a stove lighted for the duration of the night will not, in fact, burn down your house. Perhaps it was due to Miss Atkinson's overwhelming kindness that she has overlooked the fact that this was obviously a horrific act of attempted murder.

But who was it?

As Miss Atkinson was on good terms with the rest of Maycomb, there was no reason for anyone to set fire to her house. Therefore, we must once again alert ourselves to the fact that the people outside of our community have tried to harm one of our own. The answer as to who did this unspeakable act of horror is, as it always is, the Negroes. Though we do not have evidence pointing towards a specific culprit, we can ascertain that it came from the community of Negroes. Yes, people of Maycomb, it was the Negroes who performed this despicable act. The target was the kind Miss Atkinson, which makes the act all the more despicable. Citizens of Maycomb, let us rally together and show that these attempts to discredit us whites will do no good, that we will remain strong despite these underhand methods. Let us give Miss Atkinson our all to help her rebuild her home! /end

Please comment on the above. I do not know if my tone was entirely appropriate and thus I need all of you to aid me in improving my work. Any comments will be greatly appreciated :)

HCI Cross Country

Today was Hwa Chong's Annual Cross Country meet. This was supposed to be held last year as well, but due to H1N1, it was canceled. Therefore, this year was my cohort's first Meet, along with the Sec 1s. I shall first give a brief events outline:
1) Flag Raising
2) Competitive Run
3) Non-Competitive Run
4) Prize Presentation
5) End

The whole duration was from 8 - 10 am, about 2 hours. I was not actually running, as I was marshalling for the runners. Please forgive me if the last few lines sounded slightly stiff, as I could not think of any other way to put this across. Moving on, the HSC had planned several things for today, not that they all went well. Wellfare initiatives that succeeded included the one where they sold isotonic drinks for tired runners. However, their attempts at trying to encourage people failed, mainly because some people simply had a bad attitude and did not want to run. However, I think that overall everyone enjoyed themselves as the HSC also played music throughout the run. Moreover, I feel that the Secondary 1s were very enthusiastic and almost nobody in their cohort walked.

As this year was the first year that we were marshalling for Cross-Country, the manpower allocation was not well done. However, since this is the first year, such mistakes are natural, and I am sure that we will all learn from them. That more or less sums up this entry, as I cannot think of anything noteworthy to say about today. However, I will be updating the timing of my next post which was supposed to be posted yesterday, so do watch out for that. That's about all.

HCI Council Day

Today was Council Day. what this basically means is that we have to wear our council uniforms for the WHOLE DAY, even in lessons. I know, that kind of sucks, because Council Uniform is Long-sleeved,, so it gets hot after a while. Like, after 5 minutes when the sun is up. Pant pant pant...

Anyway, we had an iLeague match that day with 1I1, so I had to bring a change of attire. For obvious reasons. (On a side note. we drew 1-1. Disappointing) As I had a March Camp OT Meeting, I had to change back into Council Uniform and report to Space. I shall not disclose the details of the meeting, but let it suffice to say that the meeting lasted until 4:20. With enough time to gobble down my lunch, I went to the poolside cafe to grab a bite to eat. When the HSC meeting started at 5:15, I was already full and contented. And no, I did not sleep during the meeting.

During the meeting, Timothy talked to us about the importance of wearing our Council Uniform for the whole day on Council Day. Namely, it was for the school to recognise us as councilors as they would otherwise not do so. (Note: I did not say this.) Basically, the different consortiums had their presentations on what they were doing for their consortium's welfare. Timothy also talked about how we were supposed to refer to ourselves as "I'm from iSpark (or respective consortiums), part of the High School Council..." this was to make us seem more united and not split up into different 'factions'.

This main point of the meeting was to brief us on what was going to happen tomorrow, on Cross-Country Day. (Basically, look at my next blog post :D) We spent over an hour deciding on the eventual price of the canned drinks, which was settled at 70 cents a can, at a rock-bottom price. All proceeds went to the HC Needy Pupil Fund. Then, the meeting adjourned because it was getting late. That just about sums up Council Day.

HCI's Secondary One Orientation - [Day One]

The title says it all. So, we briefed the buddies again at 7:00 and did 2 cheers loud enough for the Sec 1s to hear. I think we impressed them. Or they thought we were crazy. Either way, we felt good after cheering and started off on a high note.

Today the Sec 1s came early. Very Early. Some came at 6:45, way before we told them to come. On a side note, I arrived at 6:50. Moving on, we went to set-up at Kah Kee Hall (KKH) and were observed by at least half of the Secondary One cohort. It was kind of creepy, because we had to move the required logistics to the registration booths while the Sec 1s were scrutinizing us. However, we managed to start registration on time, which was at 7:30.

The original plan was for the Sec 1s to take their temperature, go to the registration booths and proceed inside KKH. This did not happen. Some Sec 1s completely ignored the registration booths and went directly inside the hall. They had to be chased out again to collect their souvenirs. Anyway, our AOS Jun Wei was trying to hype up the Sec 1s to no avail. They were very unresponsive. In the end, the hyping up failed and we had to usher them up to the auditorium for Mr Vincent Tan's address. I do not know what he said because Nicholas Kek(sharing the same surname as me!) and I were tasking with rounding up the late-comers. It was tiring work.

After the talks, it was 8:45. The Sec 1s were brought to their classes and given a proper introduction to their buddies. They also had to get familiar with each other through a series of Ice Breakers, as well as learning most of the cheers in their "syllabus". Our job now was to patrol the classes and make sure that nobody was causing any trouble. There was surprising little to do, other than demonstrating cheers and initiating them.

Next was staggered lunch cum seniors' talk. There's really nothing much to talk about here, so I'll be moving on. The Sec 1s were led to the auditorium for a music lesson by Mrs Chan, in which they learnt the school song. Diresctly after that was Dr. Hon's address to the Sec 1s, and I didn't know what happened there either. After the talks, it was flag painting. This tests the Sec 1s' creativity to come up with a design which was original and outstanding. Though most of them used our Secondary One Orientation Logo or the Hwa Chong badge, some really came up with good designs.

For the 2nd last event of the day, there was Mass Games which involved - you guessed it - water bombs. The different groups were supposed the bombard the other groups' newspaper-covered hula hoops and protect their own, but no prizes for guessing what happened. Here's a hint: a lot of buddies and OT members, including myself, got wet. Go figure. Mr Tok spoiled the high note with a preliminary CCA briefing and the day ended like that. Sounds anti-climax? Well we had a great debrief but the details must remain confidential. I sincerely apologise to all readers.