A new reading log

I have started on my goal of reading a book every week, in what I call "A book A week". Now, I have created a reading log in this blog, showing what books I have read. Hopefully when a long break comes I will put in a more elaborate widget instead of a simple list, so you readers can better explore the list.

Anyway January is coming to an end, and February's coming right up. I have an idea for my blog for February, and you readers will see it on Monday next week!

BTW, if you haven't realised already, I have shifted my postings to Mondays and Fridays! ;)

Happy CNY!

To all the loyal readers of my blog, have a happy Chinese New Year!

From: Teacher Lax and his teddy (above) ! ;)

The value in old stuff

The school really has changed by a million miles and one. Just look at the (background of) my class photo of 101 '06 to get an idea of what I mean:
Look at the background of trees lining the corridor.They have since been non-existent, banished to nowhere. The brick-covered courtyard too, has since been covered with concrete, to use as an assembly area. The beauty of the old courtyard is also gone, forever.

The wise people say that the oldest stuff (ie. antiques) have the most value in them, for it is impossible to reconstruct an antique to it's aged but elegant exterior. How true must this be!

9A1s + what?

After my previous posts on whether I should downgrade my HCL, I began thinking about other stuff. New year's resolution, to be exact. I haven't thought of any new year's resolutions at the beginning of 2009, for I really do not know what to expect of 2009. As more than half of January passes by, I began witnessing events that sort of shaped my new year's resolutions. Here are my new year's resolutions:

#1: To perform well in school
To be more precise, this means excelling in band and in my academia (read: O levels). In my final year at BPGHS, I believe that I should impart all of what I know to my band juniors, and hope that use it to soar to greater heights in 2010. (You know what I mean.) Also, with the O levels coming up, I do sincerely hope that I get stellar results for my O levels. And you know what my target is: 9A1s!

#2: To be good to others
It occured to me that by helping random strangers on the road and being kind to random people, it helps to lift my mood. This means that I will carry out kind acts to people whenever the opportunity arises. This inculdes saying 'hi' to random schoolmates! Hi there!

Now to remember to keep these resolutions in mind in my daily life!

My money's on HCL

In my last post, I was blogging about whether I wanted 9A1s or not. I have since made a tough decision to continue Higher Chinese (HCL) . Seriously, I'm not too confident about HCL, but I believe that taking HCL would really test my mental willpower and academic abilities to the limit. Probably, this is what studying for exams is like: working very hard towards our personal goals.

And yes, I still aim for 9A1s, but this time, with HCL. Hopefully HCL doesn't let me down in the O levels ...

9A1s or what?

I guess I don't have to mention why I must be thinking about the question above. Sure, the O levels are coming real soon, and it may be worth the while to think about my goals for the O levels. However, I have a $1,000,000.00 question on hand: Shall I continue Higher Chinese, or should I downgrade to express Chinese instead? (I have such a question on hand since I got such a jia lak result in my O level Chinese.)

Being a reasonable person, I have summarised the pros of each side:

• Higher Chinese (HCL)
  
1. Can minus 2 points for L1R5 as long as I pass HCL
2. Can act as a backup against English Language
3. If go to JC, then there is no need to take Chinese
• Express Chinese
1. Less stress than HCL
2. More time for other subjects
3. If go to polytechnics (which is more likely), then there's no need to take Chinese anyway
4. HSK certificate can use to certify standard in Chinese

Weighing the pros of each side, I have tentatively decided to make the switch to express Chinese. However, I may change my mind if someone manages to persuade me to continue to take HCL. So, my mind's not set yet ... not yet, anyway.

Something orange

If I could paint an HDB block, I would definitely paint it in the manner above.

Change I cannot believe in

Many parts of our school had changed for the new. It seems we are discovering more every day. So I have created a nifty list that resides at the sidebar, that says "Change I cannot believe in". For now, here are the changes:

1. New PE T-shirt
2. New nametag
3. New canteen operators
4. New morning chime
5. New "changeover period" chime

However, one big question remains. Is this the end of all the changes, or is there more?

The Year in Review: 2008

In this post, I am going to highlight some of the momentous events in 2008 that I've experienced, according to the months.

1. January 2008
The start of the new year, I said my goodbyes to 201 and my "Hi"s to 3T2, new classmates, and Sec 3 life. The road ahead leads to forest, and what lies beyond the forest?

2. February 2008
Arguably the worst month that I've faced in my life, 3 setbacks occurred in a short timespan of a week in this month. Worse, they hit me from all around me. How would I recover from these setbacks?

3. March 2008
The scars left behind from the setbacks are starting to heal. Some types of scars are easier to heal than others, which might never recover. Should I focus instead on the hectic Sec 3 life that is catching up on me?

4. April 2008
The disputable performance put up by our band got a Silver award, when it could have been a Gold with Honours instead. I guess this has to be the law of entropy, where input is always greater than output.

5. May 2008
Finally, something to cheer about. The Mid-Year Exams were completed with great grades, healing one of my scars. Also, our NSC team managed to get to the televised round, which meant prime time coverage on national television!

6. June 2008
OBS has to the the highlight of this month. The gruelling 5-day camp at Pulau Ubin tested my physical and mental capabilities to the limit. This showed yet another of my scars has healed. Now, what about the last one?

7. July 2008
The filming of the NSC is definitely one main highlight of this month, but it is not the only one. My team of 4 winning the Electrifying Connections Competition has to share the spotlight too, for our team beat even the "ASEAN" team from our school! This brought a gourgeously big trophy back to school, courtsey of us!

8. August 2008
The team of me and Duc winning second place at the SPELLing Bee is the main event of this month. Winning yet another (petite) trophy, I am feeling quite exhilarated! ;)

9. September 2008
The numerous competitions that I've participated me netted me and my teammates some vouchers. Though no trophies were won, the vouchers were satisfying!

10. October 2008
This month, I went for a series of forensics courses. They really gave me an insight into the work of forensic chemists. Plus, it was fun to carry out the practicals, with all the advanced equipments and techniques!

11. November 2008
As amateurs, our team still managed to clinch 11th position in the National StrITwise Challenge, getting us 4GB thumbdrives! Also, I was awarded with the A*Star Science Award for Upper Secondary students. A nice sum of money was credited to me! Woot!

12. December 2008
Out of the forest and returning back to the new school compound is the star of this month, if not the holiday homework. In the new school compound, should I throw away memories I've had in the old Teck Whye campus?

So there you have it. How would 2009 be better (or worse) than 2008? I wonder.

The new school

Today we officially started school on the new compound. We might have the new school compound, but unfortunately, a couple of other things have also changed for the new. Here's some of them (for now, since there might be more things that have changed) :

1. New PE T-shirt
The new design, IMHO, in not nice loh. Our current PE T-shirt is OK what, so why is there a need to change the design of the PE T-shirt? As the saying goes, why fix something that ain't broke?

2. New nametag
Same goes for this. I have not seen the design of the new nametags, but seriously speaking, I think the new nametags, with the names embossed on the tags, is just superfluous.

3. New canteen operators
This is the one thing that I would dislike the most. Initially, I thought with 8 stalls at the old campus, the stall holders would come back with us to the new school compound. However, I got a shock when I saw all the stall holders were new! Apparently, the canteen has been outsourced to an external operator. Sure, the food might be cheap, but then the variety is limited. To cite an example, the vegetarian stall in this new school might be selling their food at up to 40% cheaper than the old stall holders, but then the old stall holders had more variety than the new ones. (Not to mention they serve in bigger quantities.)

Wow, that's quite a lot that has changed. I hope that there aren't any more such changes.