Crawling out of my pile of work.

ARGH. I stick by what I said, even though I said it as if I was in my own world, emmett. Ha. Ok, if only for the sake of saying it for the cathartic effect.

***

There. Loads of work to be done, but only so much time on my hands, as usual. I burnt up my whole weekend doing other stuff besides my work. So far, I've only finished a grand total of 10 Money and Prices MCQ! WHEE. Hm. Will have to finish as many MCQ questions (Money and Prices and Nervous System) plus half of my S chem questions *groans*.

MP attachment today was ok. The only useful part was the dialogue session with the ministers, namely Teo Chee Hean and Raymond Lim. We were given a list of questions to "plant" just in case there wasn't anyone to ask sensible questions on national policies. But hell. Those residents sure had a lot of things on their minds! Along the way, there were of course people like us who asked the prepared questions, so I was rolling my eyes whenever they asked the question to the ministers word for word on the script. Sheesh.

***

[edit] Yes, an entry long overdue. I hardly have the time and resolution to update my blog anymore. Funny how it actually comes down to resolution to blog and not just for the spontaneity and enthusiasm to write about my mundane life. Guess it's a sign that my interest in blogging is waning? Shucks.

Life over the past few weeks has been eventful, filled with stuff like the recital (oh. my. goodness.) and of course the NS medical checkup. Quick updates.

Recital went bad. Though not as bad as I thought it would be, I did play quite a fair bit of wrong notes here and there, amounting close to ten! Some were the 3rd notes, so they were fairly obvious...but others, I think I managed to get away with the playing of the left hand only. I lost the tenor halfway through his aria! Oh. That was the worst bit, definitely. I was trying so hard to bring him back into the piece after my suspiciously long piano "solo" and I impromptued quite a bit, like playing his part and slowing down...in the hope that he might come in. Wherever it may be. Thank God he did come in, in the end...but I still feel quite bad about it. Sigh. It all goes to show that I cannot perform after a mere two weeks of practice. And not two full weeks at that!

NS medical checkup was ok. The most awkward bit was when we had to pee into this little red bottle. It was so small! Sheesh. But that was the weirdest thing I've ever done. Took me a good 6 hours to finish all the tests, including the vocational test which consisted of a gazillion IQ-related questions. Couldn't answer most of the physics questions. So there.

Yay! Holidays are abound for the next few weeks. Can't wait!

You actually like GP?

Yes, I happen to genuinely like GP, Jiahui. =) Hm...I thought about it for awhile and figured that if I were ever going to be a teacher (not my first choice profession, I assure you. My mum can vouch for that.), I'd choose to be either a GP teacher or a french teacher at the MOELC. The reasons are more than apparent. At least for both the subjects, you have some control as to what you want to teach the kids! For example, my french teacher did a great job making lessons interesting during JC french and each time I see some of my friends still continuing to study the language, I whack myself across the head for not doing A level french. Then again, that would mean that I'd be in VJC now, hanging out in the chic and exclusive french LEP room with the other 4 french LEP students. Sigh!

Had to rush out of choir today much thanks to my indecisiveness. I never thought that I'd do the DELF B2 this year until Christl asked me whether I was going to do DELF B2 or DALF C1. Like C1?? That's equivalent to about 7 to 8 years of studying french! DELF B2 is roughly equivalent to the A level french paper so I figured I'd have more of a chance of passing, especially considering the donkey years since I last spoke, listened or even written french! Must buck up! Point being, today was the last day for the registration of the DELF exam. For you information, there are only four days for the registration of the DELF exam. Yes, four pathetic, consecutive days. And you can't even register online! You have to make your way down to the Alliance Française to register. SHEESH. The french embassy should really lengthen the time period for the registration! Imagine busy people like me (*coughs*!) who actually have to MAKE time to make my trip down, onlly to register for ten minutes. Absolute waste of time.

***

My granduncle was robbed in Malaysia by two Malay guys wielding parangs. And those two guys were really sneaky! They sat in a Mercedes Benz (all spanking new, even! Then again, it was most likely stolen!) all the time outside the house, waiting for the most oppurtune time to force my hapless and pitiful uncle to grab stuff from the house. They stole about $10,000 worth of goodies - just by brandishing that 6-inch parang!

"They were probably in need in money...maybe that's why they didn't kill him." - my mum

I instinctively had a reflex response to that statement. How could anyone rob someone even if he was desperate for money? I mean, it's unjust! And uncalled for. He could have worked for the money, isn't it?

Then I remembered that side of me who's always empathising with the alleged culprit. Am I being hypocrite? How can I argue for one stand when I'm discussing issues like these with my friends and yet not walk that talk when something similar actually happens to a close kin?

Sometimes, I think I'm too much of an idealist. I'm always believing in the better half of everyone...but then again, what's with the reflex response? Am I actually contradicting myself? Do I argue the other side of the story just so that I can be different? Special?

I'm going to try to marry the two ideas. Walk the talk, definitely.

***

So. Project Work results are going to be released tomorrow. I just want to get a band two. PLEASE. That's not being greedy, right?

Biology - 55. That makes a C under the new grading system which greatly eases the chances of scoring decent grades. It used to be that poor hwach students have to garner 75 or more marks just to get A for a subject. But not now! Everyone's rejoicing because now, you only need 70 marks! And for a B, you only need 60 marks, compared to an obscene score of 68 to get a B in the past. 68!! That's almost equivalent to an A in other junior colleges. Oh well. I'm quite happy with my biology result. What did I tell you? I tried a new method of studying and hey, it worked! I got the exact same result, with even a marginal improvement! Yay.

I'm totally confused by the human kidney. I need to read my notes! Argh.

***

Many programs during the weekends! Have I over-committed myself? Nah. Love the fun.

Gadget fever.

Great. Now I'm stricken with the horrible urge to buy every single little gadget in town that can play music, games or display little cute animations that are so sweet they'll probably give you diabetes when exposed for extended periods of time. ARGH! I must control my urges. Um. I mean...my strong urges to buy stuff!

Blame it on Apple. Why must they design such an ergonomically perfect device that has enamoured me? Bloody deception of beauty. BAH! I scoff. Ok, the iPod video is one of the most gorgeous inanimate object there is to have ever been invented, but I shall not succumb to temptation! I will live with my iPod mini, who has served me well over the past year (besides the way it hangs every now and then. annoying little thing.) I will not buy the iPod video!

And just when I was coming up with plan C about how I should go about getting an iPod video, my good friend Adora had the nerve to sms me about how she's going to get her black iPod video this Friday! ARGH. I'm so going to rob her. Ok. That's plan C there. Not much to plan for, besides an oppurtune time and some nifty fingers. Heh.

At least I'll get a chance to caress the sleek beauty once she gets it. Yay.

***

Chemistry is the buzzword for today. It seems like most of the tutors are in this giant conspiracy where they agree to set deadlines that fall on the same day! I can almost imagine them rubbing their palms together with that malicious look on their faces as they cackle and derive joy from the way we squirm and struggle with the questions. I spent two hours on two questions. And there were 6 of them. Alright. Given the other 4 were easy ones...so I completed those in about 2 hours as well. That's 4 hours worth of "postulate a suitable mechanism for the hydrolysis of peroxodisulphuric acid to hydrogen peroxide and sulphuric acid" for you! Synapses have been busy producing neurotransmitters! Ah. The pain of biology.

Never mind that. I couldn't keep the excitement in when I was left with two questions of S chem. Had a virtual scream over MSN with a friend and I can tell she was seriously freaked out when her monosyllabic reply of "good!" came around. Can't help but think that underneath the curt reply was her utter shock at me suddenly screaming a loud, resonant "YAAAAAY!" (with multiple "a"s at that!) in the middle of the conversation. Hm. I can be so weird at times.

***

Bought 5 new CDs for a steal. I am a happy boy now! Even my iPod is happy.

ARGH. I'm reminded of the iPod video again. Chant "I shall resist temptation" ten times in a row.

***

No friday next week! It's times like these that I feel charged up for the week, knowing that there's one less day of torture to go through. Especially when the Great Distress a.k.a. PE is being eliminated out of the picture. Wow. Look at the birds sing!

***

Wheeeee. Next week beckons. I shall face it with a smile. =D

Hell, it's been a long week.

I know this sounds really cliched, but it's really true - at least for the past week. So many things have happened and it's hard trying to record everything I thought about here. It's just too much.

My week started off bad. I forgot to take my S chem book to school when there was S chem on monday. I even contemplated whether to bring it or not the night before but decided against it since it weighs as much as the bloody chemistry textbook. Sheesh. Ended up having to slog through the afternoon completing the questions. Not that I knew how to do half of them anyway.

Choir has been...rough. "Psalm 150" is the only thing on every HC chorister's mind right now, 'cause it's so difficult I feel like crying even as I'm teaching it. Can you even imagine singing weird intervals like minor 3rds and 6ths and even diminished 4ths And that's not only two bars there. It's a whole flippin' 14 pages of them. And each one has a different twist, a different set of intervals to master, to memorise. Undoubtedly, this new song is the aural exam from hell - the kind you won't even bother trying to sight sing with one look at the accidentals that dot every alternate note! Hell, it doesn't even sound correct when you play it on the piano. Probably its only saving grace is that it sounds great when all the sections sing together in tune. God knows how hard we tried today. Oh well.

PE was ok, despite my rather paltry attempts at trying to lift my weight at the pull-up bars and jumping across that 2.2m ravine we meet every other day at the Standing Broad Jump station. It was...enlightening, if not the least bit embarrassing and humiliating. ARGH. At least I tried. That's all that matters, right?

I was very motivated after the Medicine talk the other day. But I can already feel the enthusiasm to mug my butt off beginning to wear off. Not a good sign, especially after what I discussed with Christl the other day during lunch. It's nice to talk to her since she's always offering very new perspectives on stuff and she's really insightful a person.

More work to do this weekend! But to compensate for that, I'm going out for the good part of Sunday. That'll work to soothe my nerves.

I want a iPod video! Dying for one, really!

solfege!

The choir tried something new yesterday at practice and it reminded me very much of my RV days. We learnt a song in solfege...well, more or less! Teaching the people who had little theory background was the hardest bit, but they caught on really fast. As much as it was helpful to them, I think it was also quite limited since we had little time and Edmund and I had to sing out the wrong bits to them. The leading notes and the subdominant notes were the worst! But every chorister makes those mistakes, so it's alright. Still! The whole feeling of learning a song so quickly thanks to solfege and combining it was very gratifying.

You know how chords that are perfectly in tune sort of have that extra "ring" to them? I think I'm hearing more of those now than before. It's amazing how the human ear is attuned to fifths and octaves, isn't it? How we're able to perfectly pitch fifths and octaves while intervals like 7ths (!!) and augmented intervals are much harder to get straight away. I wonder why. Do we even hear 5ths more often than other intervals?

I think I'm going to buy two CDs soon! I haven't decided which ones to buy...although the latest Carrie Underwood CD comes close to making the cut. I'm not going to buy the Jason Mraz songs now that I've gotten the songs from Nicole. Ha.