GCE O levels

An interesting event occurred today whilst i was on the bus home at around 12 pm. okay, some of your may be thinking: what the hell? HE TAKES THE BUS? for you information, i do take the bus. infrequently. and others might ask: YOU GET OFF WORK AT 12pm? Yeah. I do. especially when i'm on leave and i have to get back to camp to get interviewed by my CO.

anyway, i was on the way back, taking SBS bus number 12 (single decked, unfortunately) when a group of JC 1 students boarded the bus and started to yack about their GCE 'O' level results.

"Aiyoh! I got 17 points. Wonder which poly i should go to?"

"Nanyang looks fun, but then Temasek Polytechnic closer to my house le."

"Eh, remember this bus stop, this is where we were at when we "pon-ned" school for the first time"

And so the rambling continued while i listened with one ear and my iPod shuffle stuck into the other ear. this JC in the far eastern side of singapore did indeed have a reasonable crop of students, ranging from DHS to Maris Stella and some other girl's school with a dark green skirt and sheer, threadbare tops, presumably to expose their latest bra design to the male population. i digress.

and lo and behold, a few stops later, another O level candidate boarded the bus. and proceeded to take out her testimonial from her bag, and passed it to her companion who plonked himself right beside me. *mutter* (he was fat somemore). and there it was, right on top:

RAFFLES GIRLS SCHOOL. Tada.

Premier institution in the central part of Singapore, garnering 12 out of 21 high scorers (1 of whom happens to be my sister's classmate). For the record, my alma mater only managed to secure 8 out of the 21 slots, with dunman high school securing that last coveted spot. ah, the perils of grades competition.

and dammit, my sister got 6 points, 1 better than me. *mutter*. But i got 1A2, 1B3 (for languages, no less) while she got 2 B3s! Yay! That's what i called sibling rivalry.

anyway, the RGS girl in question (She has a name, which happened to be platered right on top of her testimonial: we shall call her JT), happened to have quite a longish testimonial. (and no you creeps, i didn't read any of it.) The ruckus that the other group of students made suddenly was replaced with loud "shushes" and plenty of finger pointing at the testimonial being read by the big fat guy sitting next to me.

I bet they were thinking: "Wah RGS, must be damn smart". low whispers followed, and they were having a soft but unmistakable conversation about JT definitely. all this while, JT was sitting there demurely, looking at her nails, looking straight ahead, looking left, looking right.. but not looking at the other group of students.

haha. i caught intellectual elitism in action.

and so, after a few stops, a guy among the group managed to conjure up enough courage to ask: "eh RGS Girl, you how many points for the O levels ah?"

i half expected her to smugly reply "6 points la, but i got 1 A2, shit cannot get nice result card, and my teacher wrote that i was an exceptional student. NO NO NO! the word is BRILIANT! GENIUS!..." you get the idea.

"16 points".

or somewhere in that region. ah well.

you can be a big fish in a small pond, or a small fish in a big pond, or any fish in any sized pond, but then, at the end of the day, grades really don't matter. really. People matter the most.

so stop condemming geps. cos we suck as well. at least i know i do:)



lip
ranting

Which School Should I belong To AGAIN?

Singapore Chinese Girls' school


which secondary school (singapore) should you be in?
brought to you by Quizilla

This is hilarious. Omfg.

lip
ranting

Who reads this shit anyway?

ahhh... so i did get a reply. and frankly, i read it with a touch of massive emotion. did i do something wrong? ok maybe i did. maybe i didn't. maybe i really did screw myself and my whole image or whatever over. and frankly. i don't care. it's a blog dearies, a web-log online, open the world. welcome to the world, the real world. there are people polarized over issues; war, children, people. and there's nothing wrong having different views. maybe i appear to be vindictive, maybe i am egotistical, self-centred, prejudiced, jealous, gullible and i stick my nose into every smallish issue i find interesting. well, that's what people do, and i happen to just put it up for public scrutiny; screw me you don't like it.

anyway, it's your judgement, your call and your views. either be brave enough to flame me and come scream in my face, or shut up and talk behind my back. i raised my views, he raised his views, we're equal. and really barnabas, being egotistical and stuck up is one of my flaws, and i recognize that. and frankly, i did say that me being me was the big reason why i wasn't really successful socially. and really, no one is really accepted by everyone. i'm satisfied with my lot in life, are you?

barnabas's response here. Love ya too dude:)


lip
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Yahoo Search

Hmmm I've had 2 link to my blog from yahoo searches. the first one was
justina lyrics (Yahoo)

and then the second one was
wong kok siew death (Yahoo).

Have fun with search engines, google your name, yahoo your enemies name. it's great fun:)

lip
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Dummy's Guide to being an Infantry PC

I wished i had that advice in the comments when I was commissioned. I think it would have been helpful:)

Excerpt:

Dummy's Guide to being an infantry PC

1. dun bring us all 'hor-lund' when you topo. If you do, apologize instead of just asking us to move faster to cover up for YOUR error without us knowing you Hor-lunded until later when our section commanders tell us over joketime. its a tough job we know.

2. dun self-garang at the expense of the platoon. we know when to wayang and if no one is watching, your garang-ness does not impress us. we are normally too tired to bother.

.
.
.
.

7. Listen to the platoon sgt and or the section cmdrs when in doubt unless they are dicks too (ask us). This is VITAL to mission success if you happen to be an instructor during active time and end up as a PC of an ex-active battalion for reservist. we sorrow with you if you end up as a PC of a fighting platoon made up of ex cooks, clerks, drivers and MPs. for that we do not pretend to profess a known solution.

The rest is here.

Hopefully i did a good job as a PC. Dunno le. Well, can read about Kwang Yong and Chee Siew's army lives in my sidebar. Had fun working with them:) xie le, bravo platoon 3 39 SCE!


lip
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Songs

I just finished uploading my songs:) It's damn good.

Here they are:
Justina
Justina (Chinese)
Dumb Waiter (Chinese)
Dumb Waiter (Sax)
Qi Chen

needs work
Last Home
My Jazz
Over The Rainbow

"Last Home" is by P.O.S.T, my previous band. Please post your comments on the songs yeah? We'll be doing more recordings, that means i'll need more server space on pacific net:) hehe.


lip
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Love

Some excerpts from www.wholivesnearyou.com, Siglap Area

What Is Love?

That person has to "torture" you at night in your dreams, you have to worry abt that person is doing or who she is hanging out with 24-7, that person has to make you feels uneasy when you talk to her... These are just some of many signs of when you are REALLY in love with someone.

love is not based on the outer nor inner qualities of the person. It is just something magical and definately unexplainable. You cannot control who or when you fall in love, as it just happens naturally. Remember this: Only time will tell if your initial attraction for that person is true and until you are very sure that you have indeed understood your love more than even her own parents, do not assume that it is love.

afta all these crap.. tt was wad i used tO believe.. nOw?~ i dont believe in such things anymOre..

Love sucks.

-br0ken

another broken-hearted person in the world.

问世间情为何物，直教人生死相许
在天愿作比翼鸟，在地愿为连理枝
天长地久有时尽，此恨绵绵无绝期

-长恨歌

lip
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Dumb Waiter Lyrics

Dumb Waiter
You're laughing, you're happy today
You're crying, you're slipping away
I watched all the stories play out on your face
as you sip your coffee i serve at my place

i know not all that you say can be true
i know i'm feeling much more than you do

and i hear your heels come down the hallway
and i grab the coffee cups and ashtray
because i know you want a conversation with me
just with me

so tell me all the things you wanted to say
to hear me telling you that you're doing okay
so you come and laugh and cry and die
just with me

you're laughing, he's with you today
you're crying, again he's away
i watch the stories play out on your face
as you and him drop by to eat at my place

i see the rouge put back onto your lips
i can't imagine his hands on your hips

and i hear your heels come down the hallway
and i guess it's just another day
and i'm wondering if you're being fair
fair to me, not to me

but i guess i'm just another waiter
who is good at making friendly banter
so i'm better off staying home watching tv
though i hope you come along and watch some tv

doo... doo... doo...


had a bad day today. MID car crashed into a tree, broke windscreen, to cover up, paid $180 for wind screen, shared among officer, specialist and driver. damn

and i think the song above really reflects me. sometimes


lip
ranting

to all lawyers

hope you don't get stuff like this in court

Dumb Things Said in Court

To quote some of my favs:

Q: Now doctor, isn’t it true that when a person dies in his
sleep, he doesn’t know about it until the next morning?
A: Did you actually pass the bar exam?

Q: Were you present when your picture was taken?

Q: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
A: Yes.
Q: And what were you doing at that time?

Q: Can you describe the individual?
A: He was about medium height and had a beard.
Q: Was this a male, or a female

more at the link above. it is damn hilarious:)


lip
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Gep pics

omfg. ugle people tend to be smart. or smart people tend to be ugly.

sheesh. then i rather be a dumb jock.

GEP 2004 reunion dinner photos. thanks to jared's blog.

I really think i am a control gep. haha. cos i'm good looking. sheesh. now i have the hanting disease. god save me.


lip
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Pics

EOCC picture


Memories


Dumb Waiter. For teh song

teachers and mentors

i went back to nafa on saturday. the place really struck me as to how big it was. as it, there were 3 campuses and me and wz had a hard time finding which one housed the school of young talents.

anyway, we arrived at 7:10, hoping to catch mdm fang before she had her masterclass. no such luck. her office was closed and we couldn't see her. so next best thing: attend masterclass.

bad mistake:). it was a happy occasion anyway, to meet my piano teacher again after such a long time. i'm happy that the arts scene in singapore is finally picking up, what with the 2 yamaha grands in her studio alone, with secretary and everything. glad to see that her old electric kettle used to boil water is still there:).

and of course, reminiscing the old times, in washington, in europe @ menuhin. Ah those were fun times.

for a quick stocktake: here's the rest of the gang:
Cheng Yu: medicine NUS
Qing Yong: medicine NUS
Weizhen: Arts NUS
florrine: A levels RJC J3
mingjing: A levels RJC J3
Diane: Full time music: New York
Jinghong: Full time music: Piano teacher? NAFA.
Rodney: medicine NUS
Keegan: go far, he can.

and the rest, well i don't know:) fill me up will ya? i think Yiling is with some other professor liao. all got their LRSM or some high level diploma paper, except for me:) well, at least i'm doing music production and composition. will be fun i guess.

good luck to all. and thanks mdm fang.


lip
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Sex Etc.

http://www.sxetc.org

i actually found the site interesting. here's to love. and to everything in between. hope you don't get hurt.

lip
ranting

The Budget

Budget for 2005 is coming out soon. These things interest a small minority, coffeeshop talk, talk over a drink, or in our case, small talk about cigarette prices in a cinema seat prior to Million Dollar Baby and after A Very Long Engagement (in french with English subtitles)

and i realised my capital letters are back. bad bad. i shall abhor capital letters. it's a style thing.

anyway, i went out with jesse, alex and jr last night, after a dinner with my dad's friends. all sji old boys, from the class of mah bow tan, george yeo era. and of course, wong kok siew, my chairman from ies who just kicked the bucket. seems like you can't outrun death. but kudos to his life, for people rememeber the deeds done while alive.

and i digress. dinner was a very polite affair, from my point of view, with the old boys being rowdy, digging up snippets from their 50 years of living or so. everyone is successful in their own way, be it uncle mike, the KFC manager (and his car buying for his sons; must remind my dad), or uncle leong, the financial industry guy. and frankly, i can't remember much of their sons, who are all around my age, in NS or just out of it. and there was the lawyer, who defended anthony ler and now also the car-boot killers (i dunno the details). all hugely successful.

i wonder 30 years down the road, will me and my friends be the same, playing mahjong on friday nights, going out for drinks and really just having a blast of a time again. seems like at that age, your best friends have to be guys, or your wives will complain:). ah well, let's not muse so much.

and the budget is out. seems like it's going to be a budget surplus again. after 3 years of deficits. and frankly, i wonder which other country does the first couple have control over singapore's political, financial and business direction. i think it's only in singapore.

and sorry if i canceled for a dumb reason. i shall stay far far away from now on. it's weird. after the debacle and everything.


lip
ranting

Musings...

From mrbrown.com

Excerpt:

Dear Mummy,

I am feeling very sad.

Today in school, Zhong Guoren — my classmate from China — beat me again, in a maths test. That boy is an unstoppable genius machine.

Last week, he beat me in sports too.

If he were not here, I would have come in first and gotten a gold. But because the Government says we must welcome foreign talents to increase our population and to improve our economy, I got a bronze instead. This sucks.

Ahh the perils of competition and global knowledge. and of course, there are thousands of Zhong Guorens out then, wait, BILLIONS in fact. and frankly, there's nothing we can do about it.

we can: take the the protectionist stand, and then die from it. Like the right-wing movement in Europe nowadays. Or we can challenge ourselves and fight to the death.

ahhhh.. a sea of bloody competition. or go create a niche for yourself. you ain't alone in the world anymore Singaporeans. Your economy is global, your outlook is global, you will have to work as hard as your ass can take it.

and i laugh at the premiership wanting to limit foreign players. what a clear cut case of protectionism in action.


lip
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Dumb Waiter

This is the very best we ever did. It sounds professional:). And it's good

Dumb Waiter

and the saxophone version of it
Dumb Waiter (Sax)

Go download and listen to it. It's freaking good.

lip
ranting

My Car.. I wished

Photos

My Hello is finally up, after configuring my firewall to allow it to access. Bah I hate computer stuff, anyway, more pictures. haha.


my iPod Shuffle


More Shuffle


Me!

Will attempt to figure out filmstrips and thumbnails now. Or if anyone wants to tell me, ah well:)


lip
ranting

Questions etc.

Had an interesting morning today, did a questionaire, which I thought was very good. So i shall post it up. Any comments, please just add them to my comments list. Hopefully, huiwen would have more views so she can finish her work:)

Thanks to huiwen for the thought provoking questionaire:

Many Singaporeans think of Singapore as pragmatic, materialistic, and so on. But, after the tsunami response, do you think that there's another, more positive, side to Singapore?

I think there has always been a positive side to Singaporeans in general, be it the cab driver who helps open the door, the guy at the bus stop giving directions, the gal on the street who returns a wallet. But most Singaporeans are generally of the “mind-your-own-business” kind. Even in New York/London etc. people tend to mind their own business more, mainly because the place is so densely populated and there is a lack of community feeling unlike small suburbs and towns.

So answer is: Yes.

Has the humanitarian effort been good for our "nation-building"?

Definitely. Nation building in terms of social responsibility, psychological defence and a good way to show the nation that the SAF can actually DO something (esp. engineers). 

Do you think the Singapore media has overemphasized Singapore’s efforts instead of focusing on the disaster itself? {the media used as a tool for inculcating national pride?}

My feel is that the media itself is given TOO MUCH of a role in the coverage of the tsunami. I have friends on the ground at Aceh, in fact I volunteered to go. But from reports there, when Kofi Annan, or some diplomat arrives, all humanitarian needs stop. And the VIP is given the free play to roam around with like an entourage of 2 million security people. Come On. It’s a humanitarian effort for goodness sake. Let the people on the ground do their work.

Plus media itself is given priority when deciding plane schedules and helicopter flights (quoting a Colonel from the SAF). Although information is priority at that point in time, you must remember that Singapore is down there to assist firstly, and then to report secondly.

My 2 cents.

Do you think the aid offered by our country is sufficient, too little or too much? And why?
(FYI: S’pore pledged conntribution of 15 million US dollars; relief operation involves more than 1200 military and civil defence personnel - of whom 900 are in Aceh, Indonesia. The humanitarian assistance provided by its military, medical and rescue teams is estimated to cost SGD 20m.)

No. It is the country with the most aid in terms of assistance. Again, I must point out the myth that is “aid” to countries. Most of the aid is just PLEDGED aid. i.e. US pledges and receives at a later point. Sometimes the aid money doesn’t arrive at all (as stated in media about some country. Can’t remember which one). And sometimes, the aid is just in the form of low interest loans that take ages to repay (and act as a asset to the nation itself). When you study economics and such, take note that countries such as US are in MASSIVE BOP deficits, debtor nations that can pledge 650 million dollars? Where are they going to get the money from?

And in Singapore context, we were the first ones in Melauboh. Remember that it is not money that counts, it is the help actually reaching the people in Indonesia, the work done, the facilities built, the comfort offered to a fellow human being; in short, the intangibles. These are the things that truly matter in human relationships.

And frankly, humanitarian aid always gets routed into the hands of bureaucrats and aid agencies who spend the money to entertain Kofi Annan when he arrives. Of every dollar of aid given, not everything gets to the people in need. In fact, only a small miniscule percentage arrives in the form of aid. And don’t get me started on aid in kind (clothes, bags, amenities etc.) Sometimes, these even end up in the tourist markets! Being sold off as tourist paraphernalia in the cities (yes, it’s true) read Jim Rogers’s Adventure Capitalist for more information and the evidence.

Do you have any worries about donor fatique?

No. I don’t donate. I prefer to let actions do the talking. And Singaporeans in general are generous, simply because we are rich. You have to be rich to even have enough money to donate.

How about concerns regarding corruption, mishandling of donations?

See above.

Last/ additional thoughts about this issue??

Nil. Tsunami was a great tragedy, but we must not forget the other tragedies in the world. It is easy for the US, for me to say, “ok, we have a tragedy now. Let’s donate $5/$500 million dollars.” Other ongoing tragedies are Iraq, Israel VS Palestine, Aids in Africa, Corruption in Russia, Muslim extremism in neighbouring countries, Cancer in affluent societies (due to overeating, conspicuous consumption of cigarettes, fatty foods.) The problem with the world is not the lack of money and food. It is a the lack of an equitable distribution of money, food and resources.

And of course, it is very easy to just talk about it

Interesting isn't it? You can comment too, maybe it'll have an impact. Or at least, have a differing view will ya? Don't be an apathetic Singaporean, we have too many of them around.

On another note, that was a nice V-day gift from B to J:). (I went on friendster dope). And i shudder to think what B was doing when he was photographed wearing his pants. haha. well, you just have to prove the critics wrong bruddah, and frankly, it is cool (kinda). Best of luck to you 2:)



lip
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Music and stuff

my band did some music today. quite good.

Justina in chinese and with lyrics. the english lyrics sound much much better imho.

Qi Chen.
chinese thingy. with lousy drums, because shar doesn't want to loan me her cousins' electronic drum thingy.

Dumb Waiter
a jazzy/swing number. piano and voice.

Thanks to Kuek (for lyrics), Jon Lau (on piano), Ben Cheah (Guitar) and Elliot (Bass). Please help us make better music by donating:) and if any one requires a band for gigs, please inform me. we'll be more than happy to oblige.

we're the leftovers:). i'll be putting this up on my sidebar too.


lip
ranting