Saturday, November 12, 2005

a month has passed since i last blogged. heh heh heh, may be good this way, so u readers will always come and visit my blog to check if i blogged =P. ok so now i have, pls take your time to read, cos u dun always get to read alfred's entries. hahaha... ok im so lame.

anyway, the hols are here and while everyone is either slacking at home or partying down at orchard, i'll still be rather busy for the weeks to come. there's NRP Symposium to prepare for. yan zhi and i have to prepare a ppt to present in fron of an audience on our project. hmm... im not really anxious actually, cos i feel very fresh after the OP!! ya, we practiced quite a lot, so i guess both our presentation skills have improved greatly. the problem is getting good results. even after the symposium, i have to continue screening another 7 extracts on breast cancer cells, and each assay will take 4 consecutive days! oh gosh... and even when the symposium's over, we still have a 10 page report to write. whoo hoo... but things always come to an end. after a year of hard work at NTU, it is time to mark an end to this yr's research =).

and Bio O juz ended 2 days ago. hmm, i was really struggling to finish reading everything but i really couldnt. must blame myself a bit la, cos even though i had quite some time to spare during the weekend, i spent more time cycling then on the notes given oops. so yea, on wednesday, i spent the whole day in my study room, my whole table cramped with the bio notes and Campbell, then keep flipping here and there, trying to absorb every nitty gritty detail. onli managed to cover population eco and evo in Campbell. then the rest i read as much as i could from the notes given. Animal physio mainly. then i left plant physio and Biodiversity on thurs morning. wha, really so piah, chiong chiong chiong, even on bus 180 to boon lay mrt also keep flipping ferociously.

then reached NIE Gymnasium with gwyneth, liang zhen and zhen hao. so many students, and of cos la, largest cohort from RJC. we are actually the 3rd largest :-(. so anyway, we entered the gym, and it was quite huge, rows and rows of tables and chairs. so i sat at my designated seat: 85. pls bring me good luck. then i opened my pencil box to realise my mechanical pencil and eraser missing. oh gosh. then no choice, use a really blunt no-brand pencil and managed to find a tiny piece of broken eraser in the corner of my pencil box. PHEw...

it started at 2pm, and off we went. sections A and B first, 100 qns in total in 1hr 45 mins. actually there's just sufficient time la, and almost every qns i guess guess. of cos intelligent guess la haha. so many weird things in molecular bio, Zinc finger, then some sigma beta thing. wats that?! haha. after it ended, we were given a toilet break of 15 mins, and back we went, to do Sections C and D, also 100qns in 1hr 45mins. this time, the paper focussed more on Plant physio, Evo, animal behaviour and diversity. animal behaviour quite a lot leh and it wouldnt help if u read campbell haha.

so everything ended at abt 6pm. i emerged from the gymnasium freezing, even though i wore my jacket. later, liang zhen, gwyneth zhenhao and i discussed on bus, then i realised i got quite a lot of wrong answers. cos apparently, liang zhen, who swallowed Campbell, said that several qns came out directly from Campbell. oh wells... onli top 10% get into next round. Practical...

so Bio O aside, time to talk about life... again! haha... cos i realised, there's this long holiday in front of me, which isnt really long, onli just 1 month. without taking into acct the holiday assignments given to us by the school, i figured i could do some CIP and other non-academic stuff. havent clocked any hr this yr for CIP, im ashamed. so i discussed with pq abt some service-learning activity for the band. maybe we can paint the walls of the homes of the elderly? or music therapy lessons? we already found some organisations needing those service from the net. hmm... so pq and i will be organising it. for now, we have Noel Christmas Concert on 17Dec... also considered a form of service-learning, cos all proceeds go to the Spastic Children's Association. might as well advertise here:

The Hwa Chong Symphonic Band will be staging its annual Christmas concert, Noel 2005, on the 17 Dec 2005, 7pm at the Hwa Chong Auditorium. Tix are priced at $5 each! What are you waiting for? Come with your friends to celebrate Christmas with the band! Those interested, pls order tix by sms-ing Alfred at 97472854 or Pei Qi at 94756000 =).

ok, CIP aside, i also thought of going to university after the A levels. vanessa asked me tat day, Are you taking SAT? i then realised how little i know about it. i havent even though of what university to go to, whether US or UK? Dr Lee told me premium universities such as Duke. and the trend now is that most students would go to US, but UK universities such as Cambridge are just as good. hmm... so do i take SAT le? anyway, the registration deadline for SAT test on 3 Dec is already... err... Dead haha. so no choice, can onli register for SAT next yr 28 Jan. har... but i dun wanna take alone. will ask junhao and yanzhi...

should i pursue a career in medicine? research? biology? 2 factors come into play here - life and money. not that i'm money-minded or what, but i do think a stable income is really important for my family de mah. if i become a doctor, i think i'll have no life. u see, doctor like work everyday de leh, then i dun think got day off on Sat and Sun, though the pay is like, WOW! but i dun want to quarrel with my wife, about me spending little time at home and with kids.

how about a researcher? industrial? or academia? should i carry out research with a biomedical facility? then again, though i'll have a better carefree life, cos i get to go clubbing on weekends hohoho, but i wonder if there'll be a stable income. cos i dun think some research facility will feed you with $3000 a month w/o u generating any research findings lor. ya, so if i do not get results after 6mths of research, i bet i'll be kanna sacked. then should i do research and teach at the same time? i dunno, do i like teaching? hmm...

and it's time to exercise!! usually during weekends, i cycle more frequently. and apparently, cycling is becoming quite easy for me leh. i dun feel tired after an hr of intense cycling to Lot 1 or other uphill places. maybe shld go swimming and jogging a bit bah. aiyo, i worry for my swimming ability leh. must at least know freestlye leh, then i can confidently tell others "I KNOW HOW TO SWIM =)". but i'm 17 argh! how can learn from a swimming coach amongst pre-schoolers? i guess i must self-learn. sometimes i watch TV ar, then that Ian Thorpe cutting thru the water like a fish, i watch in awe. not at the body pls, he's wearing a swimming suit, but at his gracefulness and ease of swimming. freestyle LOOKS easy leh, but when i try in water, i feel so clumsy. cant even breathe when i twist my head. hmm... shld practice la...

im alone at home now. i kind of like it, i do my work in peace, need not worry abt what's on TV, where my mum's going, etc.

btw, lemme introduce u all to a song. Photograph by Nickelback. not bad la, this song, i find the guy's voice quite... peculiar. and quite a nice chorus too!

and also Let Go by Frou Frou. very nice tune throughout, and hwachongians may realise that the Modern Dance danced to this song for their teachers' day performance.

ok shall end off here. WHOA, this is a lot of words =). will write soon [a lie]