Scale

My class was “chosen” to “grace” the closing ceremony of the Singapore International Science Challenge (heck, why didn’t I give the initials). The bus ride into Ngee Ann Poly was just one nice experience, because honestly I’ve never seen soo big a campus ( not that I’ve seen many things ^^) There’s like more than 80 LTs as compared to nj’s 5, and there’s so many blocks meant for the various fields of study
Anyway, the conference hall we entered was like more than four times the size of LT5, and the ceremony was, as always, a waste of time. What can I say? It is entirely irrelevant to me, it’s not like research on snow puppies and their adaptations to the tundra climate interests me in the least bit. And I’m even less interested in who won the whole thing unless it is nj winning it (probably the same for every other nj student there). What made it funnier was the nj students were there for a gosu reason: TO CLEAN UP THE HALL. Really n1. Nj’s school admin is starting to remind me of cat high’s one : they’re both pretty good at wasting the student’s time. Yes, I know it’s important for the hosting school to have their students grace the event, but why couldn’t they let them at least view the exhibits? Otherwise, what’s the point of making so big a fuss out of it when the students can’t even be proud of it? I guess I spent 4 hours there only to get starcraft from kai sheng, and to watch really nice performances from the Indian dance and Chinese dance (I’ve no idea what’s going on in the Malay one nor the Western one).
I watched a dozen reps of starcraft right away because I want to be in-the-know on what to do in match ups I have no clue about. Reps are forever in high supply thanks to China and Korea, because it is a national sport in Korea where the top professional Lim Yo Hwan used to earn more than a hundred grand a year, and due to the fact that China’s rapid modernization leads to millions of teenagers having access to computers. I call it the right game at the right time, like it was just ten years back when starcraft first game out. It didn’t take more than a year for televised leagues to appear, then dedicated channels, and then matches held on open air stages, and even indoor sports stadiums, all in Korea that can boast to have a third of their population playing computer games, and more than 80% of the population is wired up to the net. It’s pretty much the same for China now for warcraft, as there are wars all over the various districts and high schools that would never happen on a similar level in Singapore. Hmph. I can still remember 2 years back during the global finals of WCG held in Suntec there’s this guy who said “how come the antimage can mana burn one?”. As if that wasn’t funny enough, he continued to ask “how come abbadon got razor that aura har?” It’s a pretty tragic thing, actually, to not know the history behind things you’re so interested in. Some people even thought that DOTA spawned a new custom map called standard game. Sighs.
Ok back to starcraft reps. The gameplay is pretty different, obviously. In starcraft, macro makes up 90% of your game performance, where else in warcraft it’s the reverse. It’s always a line of stuff fighting against a line of stuff, no early engagements, just expo and mass. No surrounds needed, no blocking, no early creepjacking to screw someone over. It’s just who masses the right units in the right position with the right expo spots and the right amount of money to tide you through the game. Now don’t start calling me a noob all over. Of course micro’s there to lockdown units or to move marines back and forth to medics. But looking at THAT MANY things dying and not being able to do anything about them sucks. I still prefer real micro :D Guess it would still take a long time before I’m used to macro-ing multiple unit structures and researching ugprades =/ While starcraft simulates a real warfare that gives the player the ability to oversee the process, warcraft simulates skirmishes that gives the player the ability to manoeuvre individual units tactically. Of course, both games require different sets of skills that I’m unable to master at gosu enough a level ^^
Last year, I went for a “motivational” talk whereby the speaker tells us knowledge in general. Of all the knowledge in the world, we’re only aware that 5% of it exists, obviously we’re clueless about what the remaining 95% is. Within that 5% which we’re aware of, we’re only able to understand (albeit not even fully for some) 1% of it. So just how much do we really know about the world around us? =)
In perspective, the enormity of the unknown puts everyone off. Hell, who doesn’t? Why would most people rather take a dive in a swimming pool than in the ocean? Sharks aside, the water is as real as it gets. Once you get to plunge in, you wouldn’t be amazed only at the depth of it. Have you bought your goggles yet?
K, I really amaze myself with the amount of rubbish in my head by this post alone =P
IT IS TIME TO MUG SC REPLAYS! Uh, I actually meant lets mug for common test! ... -.-‘

Name

Had to go to HCI today to help my brother get back his A level cert. Apparently my brother wants to spend his free time during weekdays to playyyy but hey who doesn’t? I bet I’ll need his help for the very same thing 2 years later. So I went over to HC with kaisheng who wants to play tennis with his friend. Some kind soul opened the gate at the top of the overhead bridge for us, and we’re left to wander on our own throughout the school compound. It didn’t take me too long to see that hc is like 10x nicer to look at than nj any time ^^ and there’s like a gazillion basketball courts/street soccer courts/tennis courts you name it its simply there
After grabbing my bro’s cert, I started to think about a choice I’ve made 3 months back. I chose to stay behind. Yet nearly a year back, I was thinking of how to tell gloria “thanks for showing me around during the open house, but I’m not coming.”
Now, honestly, given the chance, everyone wants to go to the best school there is. Who wouldn’t want to score 6 for O levels? Isn’t that what everyone wants to see on their certificate upon receiving it?
It’s simple to figure out why. HC’s a brand that’s pretty undisputed, next to rj. Everything good and nice is associated with it, be it being the champion at nationals of different sports, gold with honours of different performing arts groups at SYF, and of course, the number of As that appear on A level certificates that becomes so common a phenomenon that probability doesn’t even apply there.
The formula’s simple. Good rep = good funding (from so many donors that it’s a wise investment in maintaining the china look to keep em coming) also = good students + good teachers = good results = good rep. So what does this really mean for students there? It allows them to have an imba quota for H3 students (not complaining, I’m not working hard enough now to get it yet), a lot more slots for applicants of scholarships ( not complaining either, not interested in any now), and definitely easier job application in the future (good rep = looks nice on paper). According to my personality test, I scored 25 is to 1 (thinking is to feeling) for how much of which you use to make decisions. So now which part of my thinking got me to stay? I can only remember using my heart for a few instances, none of which is significant enough for me to recall. So yeah, n1 hj, apparently you’ve managed to make one decision without thinking. Isn’t hc the rationale choice? Is there something else in nj worth staying for? Yes, there is. Friends who you can’t simply make all over again can’t be found everywhere. Also, I warm up so slow that I’ll fail tests as often as I get tutorials wrong. Besides, you needn’t be in hc to get to learn from smarter people. Jiaxiang may have slightly lousier O level score than mine but I’m referring to this work half the time. People like mingwei couldn’t cross the road either just because he probably stoned through his oral last year =D. Is there a learning environment I’m missing out on? Nope. Not for a lazy bum like me ^^
My mum once told me something that goes like “would you rather be the head monk in a small monastery, or be a small monk in the bigger monastery?” Yes it sounds so corny it is making me laugh.It simply means that I get to “open my eyes” to the “real world” to see what competition really is like out there. And then there’s also the condemnation ever since I didn’t score well enough during PSLE to enter hc that I’m “lagging terribly behind” everyone else. I proved to mum once already during 9th Feb this year that she’s wrong. And I’m going to do it once more in a year and a half’s time. If only everyone can see things through each other's eyes.
Good rep’s pretty good. I just don’t intend to live up to one that doesn’t fit me.

Torque

Had to go to Tan Tock Seng on thursday. Its been at least half a year since I've seen my doctor Lim Wee Kiak, but the visit didnt turn out to be a better one =/ For the past few visits, at least i get to hear really NICE news like : "no cells leh, can cut down on med liao=)" now i dont even get to hear good news on my VA (visual analysis), which i always fail to pass :D just when i thought a new pair of glasses without scraches would help me out. I've no idea why the test is on how close to a magnifying glass your eye can function as, instead of reading CLEARLY.
After owning my eyes with LOTS of light, he concluded that there’s still “1+” amount of cells left. Then all the new doctors came and checked my eyes again with LOTS of light, and passed off comments in hope of getting approving responses from my doc. How’s it surprising that everyone wants to be under his tutelage – connection’s everything mah :D After everything’s over, I walked home with 1.5x the azathioprine I needed to consume -.-‘ Not that I’m complaining though, since anything’s better than more PREDNISOLONE that adds fat.
Went for my first squash “training” on Friday. Guessing why I added the inverted commars? I didn’t get to use the racket. Friday’s session was supposed to be a friendly against ns guys, and everyone was given a chance to play. The catch? I can’t even serve :D So Boon Hong said sorry nicely for making me come down, but anything’s better than stoning in front of the comp to watch MOON VS FOV series over and over again. Moon vs FoV series are always way better than any blockbuster movie. All you see is Moon staffing units which are have a coil thrown a them, FoV takes down Moon’s expos as though he has maphack on, and most importantly, how TRI-NUKES just > Moon’s heroes. I WANT MY MICRO TO BE JUST AS SEXY!!111!!11!11!
It matters a hell lot now after seeing SC2 footage : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqkOW9E9V10. k I’m willing to pay people to help me change my graphics card to play that :D
K that’s off point. Fact is, I have 11 months from now to learn to play squash. How well I’m going to do well in it as a CCA sort of matters to me, because I don’t want to be computer-ridden ^^ I know that I most probably can’t win anyone within the next year, but the feeling of trying really hard, win or lose, drives me the most. I know for sure that’s the reason why I managed to win my clan leader a few months back :D I’m going to bother to put in effort in training while I can. It’s simply what you do at any changing (pivotal) point of your life isn’t it ?

Pilot

YO! my first entry :D when i first downloaded prisonbreak (yes im uber illegal), the first episode was titled "pilot" and i never understood why. I was dumb dumb enough to watch that episode THRICE to figure out why its named that way. After reading a newspaper article on " a leak of a tv series's pilot", then did i realise what it actually meant :Dk, i just publicly admitted that im really stupid ^^ and yes you'll see more of that on this blog =/ i've downloaded linkin park's new album like a week ago thanks to soemone who's more illegal than me --> MINGWEI. If you're expecting a meteora-like soundtrack, you're really in for a big surprise. The music has changed so much since their last release that the only thing i could recognise is their voices ^^ and i was sooo darn tempted to delete half the songs because im turned off after listening to them, but that changed after listening to them again a few dozen times ( not that im enlightened, just that im low on songs HAHA). Anyway, i went to wikipedia to search for "minutes to midnight" and apparently theres this section that reads :On May 4, 2007, 10 days before its official world release, Minutes to Midnight was leaked. The following day, Mike Shinoda posted his response to the leak:[7]
"It couldn't be more exciting to give you all new music, especially after all the hard work we put into it. This album was almost a year and a half of experiments, mistakes, inspiration, and careful craftsmanship. We put everything we had into these songs, and want you to hear every second of it. I can't wait for you to absorb all the levels of meaning in the songs, and the layers of music, eventually forming your own ideas about what the songs mean to you.At the same time, a leak leaves out some very important parts of this piece of work. We put months of creative energy into the ART of the record, in the booklet, special edition, and big book...almost as long as it took to record hybrid theory [sic]. The album has amazing photos, lyrics, and notes about how the songs came together--it's the visual half of the record. On the other hand, the super-special-edition book is packed with exclusive images, stories of the making of the songs, gorgeous art, the CD and a DVD that tells the story, showing the actual moments of inspiration caught on camera. For me, it's almost hard to imagine anyone really experiencing this album without that part of it.Even the song sequence alone is very important. It's WAY different to hear the songs in a random order than to listen to this record from beginning to end. At the very least, if you've already downloaded the songs, do us a huge favor and listen to them in the right order...it'll be way more rewarding. "And after reading that, i feel touched enough to go buy the album (YES, IM DUMB DUMB I KNOW) next time any artists who find that their album has been leaked, just have to write that can already :D anything's better than whining about justice being done like some bands some time back ^^~~getting used to the vulgarities they're churning out now~