Mind disturbing and the youth day.

Well, it's already the second half of the year. Nobody likes to admit but we have to face reality sometimes. Speculating the second half of the year contains health hazards. So I wouldn't do that on this blog. In case people crash and die. As always, to have a break and a longer weekend is a luxury. Like taking one gold bar out of the bank and returning five gold bars the following day. "Compensation for the lost time" is the favourite excuse or "we can't let you have time for yourself or else you'll become idle". Our benefactors have plenty to afford as a vendetta after the holidays. So Newton was right. His laws(not naming them for various reasons, eg the rules are not proven so any viewers online can slam this blog for trying to misquote newton)really applies more to life than to physics. If something good happens, something detrimental would definitely chase you down and it will hurt you. Sometimes I wish this blog can afford more, like ways to solve inflation and how to predict when the bus's coming(or not). But listening to a lecture during the week, it was for some report writing and the teachers showed us a sample of the report. After explaining to us all the beauty and details of the report they told us that there's a catch. The sample would not be accepted due to the length of it. And to end the lecture:" Please find your own ways to make the report acceptable." It stuck me with two things. In my mind I was thinking, " If everyone in the world can find their own ways, I think I have a home in Mars now." It wasn't the best of thoughts but it was very true, we can't do everything and showing us a "failed" example is definitely not going to help. Why waste our time on something impractical. It's like using the story and theory of Daedalus to inspire people to fly. The iniquity of the world just jumped a notch after that. My mind wasn't in its best state during the writing of the blog post, it was mostly because of the flu I got in the weekend and the chinese oral exam tomorrow, which I'm trying to think and speak the language(Ironically, I'm writing english). So if you think that whatever philosophical insights or the views above are crap(I know of some who are out there). Please ignore them. That's why I don't blog much, it always needs a whole lot of care in writing. School's coming back soon, I got lessons to catch and things to do and results to face. Clearly that's why I'm not feeling well. If not for theCrew and good friends, it would be tenfold worse. They say that an apple a day, keeps the doctor away, but does it include apples which fell from the tree and hit the head?

The Germans, the exam and the fox

Once a Dutch football pundit commended," In every tournament, the final always consists of the Germans and the Italians." Well, in a sense that is quite true, the Euro 2008 which so prominently featured teams like Portugal and Holland, the Germans were considered outsiders. Watching every local newspaper column in the build up of the tournament, it was all about how such(Deco and Co, Russia with their new talents...) teams would have won the tournament. When asked about the Germans, they all said, there's no hope and that the Dutch are better. What really would shut their mouth was how the Germans reached the final. But that was the good part of the story, the final was well sadly, very much like the Germans. They have went through 13 finals(including Euro2008) and just won 6. That is not pretty and talking about German efficiency, we can have a little doubt about that. But the Germans themselves are not surprised. Someone commented on Soccernet:" The only people who think that the Germans can come back from the 1-0 deficit are the non-German fans." So kudos to the Germans with their unique culture and fantastic football which made fans like me. Nobody remembers the losers but the biggest losers is legendary.
Apart from the Euros, there is the examination I received straight after the holidays. Well, who could say that he doesn't like the school after such acts of love? I really have no information or details of my results. That's not important to my teachers and I dread seeing them too. Especially some subjects which I think there is really no hope in. And the end's not there yet, with the chinese oral and listening just around the bent, one could hardly feel how fortunate that their circumstances are.
Finally a great tribute to the Firefox. I know it have been a few weeks since the arrival of Firefox 3 but it definitely deserves its share of respect. Not only freeing us from the clutches of the IE but even in a certain extent blocking off bullshits and bugs for the IE. One great example of why I hate and distrust the Microsoft have reignited me recently. On MSN, my friend's computer tries to send me viruses. I am wondering what in the whole IT rim are those people doing trying to allow msn as a medium for virus. I don't believe that of all their experts in the Silicon Valley, they couldn't think of a possible solution for such problems. Clearly they either don't deserve their pay or they are the people sending such virus. And my friend should really format or get a anti virus software for his com... That aside, it's just another week in school and I'll have to get used to life as a student again.

My holiday's over...

It was quite some time since I blogged. Not that I didn't have the chance. I spent about 70% of the time I am awake on the computer. This led to some people thinking I was dead or went to become a hermit(this was commented by my civics tutor when school started). No. I was just slacking away at home. The holiday sure was fast. One day I went out with theCrew, the other I was facing the examination of my Chemistry paper. From the point of a student, I didn't make use of my time during the holidays to catch up on your work, consult your tutor, get some tuition, go to the library. I didn't do any of the above save the last one. I went to the library. Now's that something to be proud. In the country I'm living in, either you hate the library or you embrace it as your second home. And it was such an unused place, people neglect the library, especially the new National Library(Now I'm sure that half of your either never went there before or only explore a few levels). But the library is the pride of the country. No other building can rival the knowledge that it offers to the public. So stop going down to the shopping mall and getting cheated by firms. But one very important fact to take note, I am in no way promoting the Library for those people. Actually, I got a very malignant feeling towards those li******ns, save the ones from Warhammer 40k. With a reference to Dilbert, you'll know why.
Dilbert is in his easy chair, reading a book.
Dogbert, sitting on Dilbert's legs, asks, "Why do you waste your time reading books?"
Dilbert replies, "Because reading increases my knowledge, and knowledge is power."
Dogbert then argues, "But power corrupts..."
"...and corruption is a crime..."
"and crime doesn't pay..."
He(Dogbert) comes to the inescapable conclusion, and his ears go up as he states, "If you keep reading, you'll go broke!!!"
Dilbert and Dogbert, hair and fur standing on end, stare at the book Dilbert has now abandoned on the easy chair. Dilbert protests, "Gosh! It always seemed so...so...harmless."
To which, Dogbert replies, "Oh yeah, the li******ns would love to have you believe that!"
See, therefore we should jettison them as soon as the technology of robot is matured enough. Hence, my role as a student during the holiday have been much of a opprobrium. But as a normal human, I wasted no time in playing games and enjoying my holiday. I got plenty of rest too. I get to wake up late and sleep late. Optimus Prime once said that"Freedom is the right of all sentient beings." Well, that such is true during the holidays. People get to go on a trip overseas and so on. One remarkable that happened to me was that I am now a full citizen of the country I'm living in now. I just got the passport and I get to enjoy the rights of being one and have to obey to the obligations and rules set by the country. Nonetheless, it was inevitable. Maybe I have taken this country to be my new root, ever since the communist invaded my backyard in my birth country. So yay to myself. That's the good part of my story. Here the tragedy, everyone get ready cos it's gonna get heavy. It was my examinations right after my break. And it was merciless. Right now, in the time plane when this post is written, I'm in the middle of the examination period. You may say that is suicide to be doing this during such a time. But I believe a post on the blog would not be as harmful as 1min of Korean drama. So let's hope the upcoming papers would not be so bad. Actually I'm quite speechless and flabbergasted to a certain extent to describing the exams. It was a hard blow. After just the 1st day, I lost all the energy and mental strength I recovered from the holidays. Now I'm suffering from memory loss, internal injury and repetitive strain injury of my right hand. With such health hazards, it would make being drunk a saint if you compare those two. Anyway, that's the end of this post I fear. I got a lot to catch up before the next paper...

theCrew outing and a summary of another week

Yes we did it. theCrew went back to mshs and we finished our very important mission of collecting our certificates and the pinafore run. It was well worth it to see back my old friends in the very same hostile environment where it all begins. The school never changed much since I walked off from it after the O levels. But there were some new features like a overhead shelter covering one part of the school. So when I stepped into the school, it was like Indiana Jones walking into the Temple of Doom. I sense danger with all the mindless and hapless students of the school roaming around like zombies. But my job was not to waste these people. It was to collect my certificate and escape before the impeding doom arrives. So I rendezvous with theCrew and started our ascend towards the General Office of mshs. I never liked that place. Cause all the big evils of the school are there, their job is not to facilitate students, but to humiliate students. Well I can recall all the instants where people told me how they got scolded when getting a form or when the person needs to leave early. I personally never went there often, since I know the risk involved. But that day was different. I knew I won't be coming back so I got to get the certificate. We stepped in and the personal at the reception table stared at us. That person knew we were graduates coming back to collect our belongings. So she initiated the attack. " What's your name, class and index number.." I clearly couldn't remember my index number. It was the toughest question posed to my in my status as an ex-student of the school. But lucky, with theCrew around, it was a piece of cake. My friend and classmate, Wei Ren said 5, and I wrote it down. Then the person came back with all the certificate and year book. We signed some stupid paper, collected the various items and went out, on the way we meet Mr Kwok and Chen as always posed all the stupid questions for him. It was our farewell gift to him I guess, after all those years of hardship under him. On the way to the bus stop, Jon and Elliot started playing their own games. And we just watched. Then we celebrated our victory with our 2nd most favourite food(1st was the ban mian in Roxy square), Subway. We ordered our sandwiches and tasted the flavour of victory.
The other days of the week meanwhile was not well spent, I practically didn't do much of anything. It was just some light reading here and there, went out for the Guitar BBQ which was another fun filled event. Saw the Pre U seminar sandcastle at the food court of East coast park. It is notable that there are still two more week of holidays left. I somehow feels that time during the holiday is much faster than in school. Meanwhile there is Euro 2008 to watch and I am ready to catch up on football again after the English Premier league ended. Yeah, so it's the end of another week.

The holidays and a letter from hell

Finally it is the holidays, I know it's a bit slow as the first week of holidays is nearing its end. But I had some things which required my immediately so I was out of contact and eventually out of the blogging world for some time. As in what the matter is, it would be discussed in the near future, as it would be quite interesting I guess. In my whole week of holiday, I meet with various milestones and experiences, didn't get to go on a holiday though, due to that important event. There was the elearning, which in my opinion can be considered a tragedy to the students like how the story of Iliad was to the Greeks. As least for me, you can say that things never went smoothly for me during the two days. The timetable clearly didn't serve it's purpose, but that's good in some way as you can access the system as when you like. The only problem was that the learning environment was not compatible with the legendary Firefox, which have for years served Takshun with such vigor and effectiveness that you can't say no to Open source software. I never liked venturing into Microsoft's products, not that I don't trust big corporations, but I always have a bad feeling when I use Microsoft's softwares(with the exception of Windows XP which I had to use). Like there's the "It's a trap!" from Admiral Ackbar. No choice, sacrifices had to be made for the greater good. So I installed Microsoft's IE7 to view the elessons. Sadly, I ejected into my Warhammer 40k after 2 mins of lagging with the lessons. So the time wasn't badly spent by me for elearning. When one door's closed for you, there would always be another opened. In the rims of the IT world, the gaming industry always welcome computer users with open arms. A side note, I found it quite slow of IE to incorporate tabs as to Firefox. So another victory for Open source. During the holidays, I found that my time could become much more flexible, I had cereal at 12 and then I watched TV in my pajamas, and I wondered how the TV got into my pajamas in the first place. Haha. Zheng Hui styled jokes aside. Really, I found that the world is more peaceful without our "benefactors" controlling our lives. I better savour all the free time I get before the dread examinations. Damn, the exam is really the major spoiler in this tranquility period. I have tons of unfinished lessons to get straight with before I can even gain entry into the exam hall. That's enough of exams, it gives me an instant headache thinking about it. Another event was that I received a postcard with a "Happy Grandparents Day" greetings on. Although it looks ordinary with the normal pictures, but one with an IQ of 50 would immediately be suspicious of who would send this "card" to a 17 year old. And to my dismay, it was from my most feared High school, calling me to go back to collect my certificate. Oh, I can't even type out the name of the school as it brings chills down my spine. I can see how the school manipulated me during my high school days to write down my very own address on the card. I bet I was drunk when I wrote it. But though disturbing, I too found it a little assuring that the school haven't destroyed everything that belongs to us. So I most probably would venture back to that place with theCrew. We're already graduates, what can do they do to us right? I hope I don't bump into my band, I'll be screwed as all the crazy and torturous memories return in my mind. Anyway that's all I guess. The holidays would be fruitfully used I hope, cause I don't really get much of these times.

Weekly report

It's always good to have a few days with no school before the official holidays. It was definitely well deserved since we work our ass off just for these few days for ourselves. If not for e learning. What's more, there was a schedule for us to follow. Congrats, so your live had been dictated once again by our "benefactors". These are times when you feel like turning off the computer. Frankly speaking, I found that anything related with education is screwed up. Would you play a game with educational purposes inside? Or correctly, nobody play games for their educational purpose. If that happens, what would happen to the people playing GTA IV? Of course, I'm an avid fan of the GTA series, so everytime there's a new GTA out, it makes me feels proud like a mother watching their baby walking their very first steps. So, we all should get the game sometime or another. That aside, I think my workload is basically cleared. With the exception of PW, which I think is the prime evil obstructing my free time during the holidays. I was uber busy during the past week so I didn't blog. Also there were some events which are big blows to me, as it really sickens me that past problems are haunting me again. One was the change of my maths tutor. I find it unacceptable that all this is happening now. It's already like a few months after our JAE and they suddenly want a reorganisation. Now I heard that we're going to get some other tutor which I don't think we can rely on. So we can say good game to our Maths. Some of the others are quite trivial and personal so it is meaningless to discuss it as people reading would have no clue about what it is. Sometimes we just try too hard getting what we want and we just don't have them. Say results, your favourite football team, your whatever. Don't make me think too hard, it's just a blog.... But I think I know why this happens. As statistics shown by Asok the intern of Dilbert: There is no correlation between your efforts and your rewards! Wow! Now that's assuring. Now you know how this world works, maybe you can plan for your future with more insights. That way at least you wouldn't be too disappointed. And if you see others feeling the same way. You can at least say."I told you so." Finally, there was the soccer game between our school and our eastern neighbour school, which is better academically and it was a good game to watch as both sides are good. Well we prevailed in the end because of some good play(during the 2 goals) and luck which kept our opponents at bay. So I aren't surprised with the results. As for that nothing much is quite fun besides the lunch outing with my CCA which is the guitar ensemble and we had fun together. So we finally have a holiday and a rest, which I really really need. But after that, it would be exams and stress and other problems. So here we go again, just like those good old days.

Life's give and take

It's been a long while since I blogged. You can say that this week is the hardest I've experienced in my current school. The whole school's tension and fiery was raised to a entire new level. A few significant events in the school, one was the allocation of PW group. I was fortunate to have some of the most reliable mates in my squad. I was also appointed the PW leader which I had to accept without any objection since my teacher in charge is a women not swayed by comments, somewhat of a iron fist ruler to a certain extent. But at least we saw her laugh and have some fun during her class. I wouldn't want to complain or criticise. Just hope that our group can get along with her and learn as much from her for our PW to be successful. The task of the project requires a hell lot of work and I had to make up a plan somewhere before it's too late to save ourselves. Besides that, we had two practical tests. One for Chemistry and one for Physics. I think that both were good. Since I did everything I could to the letter of what they told me to. But there is still one more upcoming spa. The teacher told us that it's going to be difficult. There are also tests too. I couldn't believe that they would fix everything on a single week. I wonder if that is due to the staffroom conspiracies. Which is something like:
In the depths of the maths department underground meeting...
Maths teacher A: " Damn it. The rumors are true. Those people from the Chemistry department have finally initiated Project SPA. They're trying to collect chemicals to finish the Van der Waals' cannon and oxidise our brains. I ever heard that they got the whole equation out already!"
Maths HOD: " Good grievous! Vito Volterra bless us! We got to win this. Stop their progress while you can, the great works of Issac Newton must not be losted. We're the sole protectors of it. Those people from Physics, what do they know about him. He's a mathematician! Not a physicist! $%^^&*^$#%. Put the maths test there to deter their progress. Everyone start setting questions NOW! Nobody is to rest until we got at least 20 marks worth of questions! And once we get our Fermat's Last theorem out, it's all over for them..."
Thus due to the internal feuds between the various departments, there can be no peace...
Of course this is just a story and no means to represent anyone. But it's always a wonder to me why there is a need of so many staff rooms. And they are far apart too. But I guess that teachers are humans too. They are just like students. They need friends, they hate other people who are not with them or they find disgusting. It's the human nature. But I am quite interested to know about staffroom politics. I don't believe in perfect harmony within the staffs. If you can't even find a stench of harmony between a small group of people. A movie about this could be interesting, we can learn a lot from it and it would even be in the Oscars by the start of next year. Of course these are some of my random ideas which I came across during this week.
Another interesting thing was that I finally lost to someone in my class for the position of class rep. There was a voting and sadly I lost. In the build up to the contest, it was quite clear that he would win by a big margin but in the end I put in a good fight despite doing nothing of gaining votes or publicising myself. But nevertheless, things in my reality are never perfect. In life it's all about giving and taking. We can't expect to do everything. Like if everyone's the rich guy, where's the poor guy? To be honest, the feeling of losing is never nice but somethings I got to admit it. I lost fairly and hold no grudges to anyone. I wish that I can be or have some leadership opportunities in the distant future and I know that there will be. So it was a bittersweet experience for me. What's more, there are more important things I value than these leadership things.
That somewhat concludes my week, there is only more to do, more to ponder I fear. The world have never been easy but now it suddenly got worse. Luckily there's still code geass to look forward to. And theCrew have much bigger plans for the world, so there's really no need to despair.