It’s easy to make a new friend
Broken english, broken chinese, but we made it through.
Random Things
November 24, 2009 
I’ll start this with an information : right now I’m in the internet cafe I used to go almost everyday when I was in Junior Hight School.
This shows that I’m no longer in Singapore. I’M HOME!
Though I’m not as ecstatic as I was 6 months ago, it feels really good to be home.
I want to talk about many random things.
Firstly, let me say for the hundredth time that I don’t like internet cafe in Indonesia. It’s mostly because all the guys do are playing online games, and for the girls, either they play the same games, usually they care for their Friendster, Facebook, or whatever. This is one of the reason I don’t like to open my Facebook account in an internet cafe. I don’t want to be a hypocrite.
Ah, and what am I doing here? Browsing, most of the time. And trying to figure out how to tackle General Paper in JC. TT__TT
I have with myself eight issues of Broader Perspectives magazine, a sketch book, 320 GB external hard-disk, a book “Basic Programming C – Java – C#” which I haven’t touched, a book “Page2 Primer – your guide to good english and greater knowledge”, and “Basic Kanji Book 1″. Basically, I have many things to do here 
And actually, right now I’m listening to my own voice
I think I’m really a narcissist. I enjoy recording my voice singing my favourite songs and listening to them. They are not great, though. I just enjoy listening to myself singing XD XD
Ah, have you read the book “Who Moved My Cheese?“
The book made Andi something, the one who held a high position in Metro TV – a TV station in Indonesia – left his job. From the book, I infer that we should not cling too much on something, for if that ’something’ is gone, you’ll be helpless. That’s why I decided to have a motto (since I never had one) : “Que Sera Sera”.
When you face a situation that you don’t want, it’s better to say “Que Sera Sera” and think what you can do to fix the problem, right?
This morning, my mother told me a story about my neighbour who met a girl in the hospital for mental sickness. This girl is said to be an unfilial child, for she abandoned her sick mother, and after the mother died, she sold the house and took away all the money.
Well, one day she was hypnotized by someone and lost all the money she had – 60 million rupiah (about US$600,000). Then she became mad and had to be hospitalized.
The fact that she became mad means that she cling too much on the money and she couldn’t let it go. Um, it was never hers from the start. It was her mother’s. My mother said it was karma, because she was unfilial to her mother. I think it was because she cannot say “Que Sera Sera” and go back to the starting point.
CHIJ Graduation Night 2009
November 18, 2009
Filed under School life
Tags: CHIJ Graduation Night 2009, CHIJ Toa Payoh
In the morning, after the graduation night, I have to :
- Close all the windows in my Mozilla Firefox about “prom hairstyle”, “enchanted hairstyle”, and “Carrie Underwood hairstyle” (my friends decided to do my hair like the main character in Enchanted)
- Stretching my body from 13.5 hours of hectic activites yesterday
- Massage my feet. I felt like tiptoeing for 5 hours non-stop yesterday.
- Tidy up my room. It’s a mess since yesterday 6 people spent 4 hours of hairdressing, putting on make up, etc.
- Delete 36 new messages in my yahoo account. Most of the emails are from facebook – new photos of me =_=”
It’s hard to be a girl. Now, I’m officially graduated from IJ.
Dewgie
Meet your new friend, Dewgie! She is a dugong.
I think I’m getting better at Inkscape. This picture only took me 15 minutes (well, in the first place, it’s very simple) XD
Okay, okay, gotta study. Ciao~ ヾ(^ ^ゞ =з =з =
After Geog paper…
I have Malay and Physics papers tomorrow, but I cannot resist the urge to make something after I find this inkscape. Inspired by chickenstrip, I want to make something, so this is it. It sucks, but I spent three hours doing this TT__TT while figuring out what inkscape can do. Later if I have time I will make something more decent.
Humanitites sucks
November 6, 2009
Filed under Rants, School life
Tags: Geography, Literature, O level, o level sucks, Social Studies
Everything that I “spot” for ‘O’ level humanities didn’t come out. I wonder why I haven’t gagged myself or thrown myself into Singapore River to be hit by DuckTour and HippoTour.
a
SOCIAL STUDIES
Venice was a very hot topic, and it DIDN’T COME OUT. Believe me, I still remember all the Doge did and that League of Cambrai was formed at 1423, and Ottoman Empire started intimidating Venice at 1509. I still remember what Great Council, Council of Ten, and Council of Forty in Venice were for. I only study 3 topics : Venice, Sri Lanka & Northern Ireland, and Bonding Singapore, in increasing order of priorities. The topics in ‘O’ level were Bonding Singapore, Globalisation, and Transnational Terrorism. I REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted Venice to come out TT__TT
Join the angry students in I Studied Venice For O levels 2009 but never come out for O levels 2009!
I didn’t join the group. It sounds pathetic. I just want to forget it already.
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GEOGRAPHY
I studied plate tectonics and river & coast like crazy. However, I overlooked one measurement question in Earthquake, and for river & coast, I studied about Soft Engineering Beach Protection measurements. The A and B questions for plate tectonic and river were VERY hard. At C question, they asked about the only measurement in earthquake that I didn’t study, and in river, they asked about management of river flooding. HEY! THAT’S THE MEASUREMENT IN WEATHER TOPIC. While doing the paper, I sobbed and couldn’t stop thinking ‘Beach coastal dunes is in Omaha Beach, New Zealand. Beach nourishment is in Miami Beach, USA’ 
Die.
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LITERATURE
I studied Jem. And Dill. And Atticus. And the minor characters. And the black community in Maycomb.
However, the questions were
1. the significance of having Scout as the narrator with 2 events
2. about ‘walking around in skin’ that is taught by Atticus and 2 events when Jem and Scout did so.
3. Passage-based question : a) Mayella, and b) Bob Ewell during trial.
Yes, I didn’t study Scout and the Ewells. I don’t like Scout. *sobs*
The author of the unseen prose is Catherine Lim. Yes, it is a story about Singapore. Gee, is it impolite to light your tobacco using joss stick? In the story, there is no imagery, metaphor, or simile. I fail to see any juxtaposition, paradox, alliteration, or repetition TT__TT
The worst thing is Literature is in the same day with Biology. Yesterday I slept at 3.30 AM to finish study Bio. In the end, the Bio paper was very easy. Too easy. It makes me scared.
With this, I fully declare my hatred for humanities. An A for humanities is a miracle.
I Studied Venice For O levels 2009 but never come out for O levels 2009!
I hate To Kill A Mockingbird
November 5, 2009
Filed under Rants, School life
Tags: Atticus Finch, Jem Finch, Literature, Scout Finch, To Kill A Mockingbird, what the hell
Firstly, Atticus is too good to be true. It’s unbelievable there is a person like that, who have a faith that everybody is a nice person (like what he did to Bob Ewell). If a 11-year-old girl says something like that, maybe it’s because she is still innocent, but it’s uncomprehensible that a grown up men like Atticus can be so naive that he fails to understand that Bob Ewell is mean.
This makes the book sounds like a fiction (yes I know it’s fiction, but I don’t like to regard a book or film as fiction). Since it is a man-made story and the main character is almost impossible to exist, I find the good lessons in the book fake. Is there any flaw in Atticus? Man is never perfect. It’s laughable to see that the only flaw of Atticus is that he is too kind and empathetic to the bad guy that he doesn’t realize the danger posed by Bob Ewell.
Based on personal opinion, I find that there isn’t any cool character in TKAM. The only people that I find cool is Aunt Alexandra and Mr. Braxton Underwood. But they are minor characters! Moreover, since I hate children, I hate looking at Jem, Scout, and Dill’s childish actions. I’m also biased against men, so I practically don’t like all the men in the novel, pardon me, be it Atticus, Heck, Boo, Bob, Jem, Dill, Zeebo, Mr. Avery, Stephanie Crawford’s boyfriend, anything. And I also don’t like Miss Maudie. She is not cool at all.
I know many people say the book is very good. There are many connections is every chapter. However, the book had been edited so many many times that it fails to impress me anymore. Actually, I simply hate the book because it is my ‘O’ level set questions.
And I HATE MEMORIZING QUOTATIONS. Why do I have to memorize quotations that I will not use for the rest of my life? I doubt my seniors still remember the quotations in Mockingbird. I will not brag to anybody at any party or any occasion that I remember the quotations from the book.
I have no problem with Unseen Prose, though. In fact, I quite enjoy it.
To-do list during December holiday
During December holiday, I should :
- Learn Mandarin (conversation only)
- Learn Japanese
- Learn English (for GP’s sake) (;’o')=3
- Learn how to draw
- Have a good time with my guitar
- Have a good sleep and eat a lot of food everyday
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I cannot go anywhere outside Kelapa Gading, since practically I have no one to drive me. My parents are working, you see. But it’s not a big deal. I don’t like going out anyway. It’s just… I feel my to-do list… is not very exciting
Partly, this is because I know there is a dreadful life in JC that is waiting for me. It may not be that dreadful, but almost all my seniors gave negative feedback, and I have to prepare for the worst, thinking I may not have a life for another 2 years for a better future *sobs*.
a
And what am I doing anyway, making a to-do list for December holiday in the middle of ‘O’ level. Maybe because I feel hopeless for my Literature and Biology papers TT__TT why do they have to be in the same day TT__TT and since I screwed up my Geography paper yesterday, I think I have to do very well in Literature (;_;)
Hey, update your blog
Why don’t people update their blogs? Even after they finish their end-of-year exam??
My roomate said : “Because time is money. And they are kiasu. If you don’t have time, then you don’t have money lor.”
Last Lesson
October 24, 2009
Filed under Lesson
Tags: CHIJ Toa Payoh, English Lesson, Ms Nicole Teo, Nicole, School, Teo
Soon, we will say goodbye to Ms. Nicole Teo, the best teacher that I ever have in 17 years :’(
Actually, when the holiday before O level started, we can send essays through the school e-learning portal so she can mark them and send them back to us. Yesterday was the last day (she said weekend is a family time, and she doesn’t want to use that to work), and it seemed a girl sent her an e-mail 
I let it to be the last lesson from Ms. Nicole Teo.
———
Blue is Ms. Teo’s response.
Firstly, I apologize for taking your time since I know you are busy marking the students’ essays, but I really want to talk about this to an English teacher. [It is precisely because I am busy that I like students who take the initiative to approach me with their problems. It is good that you are proactive.]
My English is not very good, [true] but surprisingly [‘surprising’ because you lack confidence and don’t give yourself enough credit], I got more than I deserved for my Mid-year and End-of-year English papers [you may not be good in your proficiency, but you are certainly not ‘poor’ The ultimate score you get is the result of a combination of factors, the key being your overall performance of the respective sections. Note that O lvl is very basic and not as difficult as you presume. Hence your impression that ‘you get more than you deserve’ is not entirely accurate. It is true that you will not do as well if the paper is difficult, but you are, in my opinion, a task-oriented student who is very capable of achieving a very good score. Have some faith in yourself!]. These were because somehow I got quite good marks for the comprehension [so, you know your strength, good], which lifted my English marks. I think I was just very lucky [I must confess that I am just as puzzled, but luck does not strike so often], since I never did very well in my comprehension practices. [you may want to consider why this is so]
After the End-of-year English result was released, many scholars’ marks fell down on the comprehension, and most of them felt lousy. [I know] Our tuition teacher consoled us by saying that the paper was hard [very true] and we definitely can do better than that on our ‘O’ level [even truer]. However, I fell down on the composition, and since I think I might not be lucky in ‘O’ level comprehension paper, I started to feel lousy [a very human reaction]. I think right now I’m having a confidence crisis. [I think it is more accurate to say that you are having a ‘worse confidence crisis’. Some of us are blessed with a happy disposition and A positive attitude; you are not one of those people. You are one of the most pessimistic capable students I have known through the years, due to perhaps, your rather grave personality + high expectations + sensitive soul]
Do you have anything to say to make me feel better or worse? [I am not sure if I manage to make you feel better or worse above. My main aim is not to ‘make you feel better’, but to make you ‘more objective and grounded’. I trust that you have the resilience to will yourself out of this desert. In fact, I find this little message of yours heartening; I know you have the tendency to encounter such emotional distress and psychological attacks, but I believe you have what it takes to overcome them. Your reactions may be a tack too depressing in my view, but I find the way you go about exorcising them very healthy. It is very ‘you’. Don’t worry too much; you must have faith in yourself and your ability. I am not referring to your O lvl, but your future. I cannot guarantee your performance in this O lvl, but I know that this willpower you possess will take you very far. Don’t be myopic by focusing too much on the grade itself. Just do your best and take things at your stride. Worry less and work more instead, then be satisfied with your effort. This is not the same as being satisfied with your results. Pls note the difference. Failures are part of life and being unduly worried over their possibility is the most wasteful way to live. Many people are pro-life; I am pro-living. I hope your live that spirit] I’m not looking for suggestion or words of consolation [good, for in principle, I don’t like to give them] since the paper will start in 4 days and nothing can change much [okay, you are very mentally sound]. I just want to hear what an English teacher (or you, specifically) has to say, so feel free to say anything [how’s my two-cents’ worth above?]=D
I’m really sorry if this is too long or if this disturbs you [not at all; you must exorcise your inner demon. There is a Dr Jekyll and a Mr Hyde in each of us. You must be master of yourself and your emotions. It’s okay to falter, but not all right to wallow too much. Give yourself a grace period to get over negative feelings; they are not only an obvious detriment, they are an utter waste of time if dwelt for too long] but we might never meet again, right? [right, but you’ll be surprised how small the world is. I feel the best approach is to make the best out of every situation, a mantra that can be applied to all people and circumstances, whether relationships, our talents, our happy or not-so-happy encounters. Just adopt a ‘Don’t worry, be happy’ attitude] So please let me do a selfish thing [don’t ever feel that it is ‘selfish’ to care for yourself. Another maxim I like to give others is this: only a person who can take care of herself is in the best position to take care of others. This is actually a principle first-aiders adopt: protect yourself first before rendering assistance to people requiring it. Caring for oneself is not selfish; caring for oneself at the expense of others’ misery is. You are not contributing to my problems. You must not see using others’ time as a big problem. I am the master of my own time and I can exercise my own judgment in dispensing it. Don’t you have enough to worry for yourself already?] for the last time =D
Thank you very much for your attention. It’s very nice to have an opportunity to be your student. [this is a mutual feeling]
PS : Ms. Teo, since you went to JC, do you have any suggestion for us to prepare for General Paper? Maybe you can recommend some books for us to read? [My best recommendation is for you to brush up on your current affairs. Writing is discursive in nature, where you are expected to be clear, logical and intelligent when framing your response. Heighten your awareness of social issues by reading up on current affairs and people’s views on them. Knowing more is your best safeguard against ignorance]
ALL THE BEST TO ALL OF YOU!
