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Steven Lim
15th Jan 1992
Singapore
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Hello welcome to my site. Some disclaimers first: Everything written down here are just my pea's worth of opinion. You are not to take anything I mentioned against me. And I do not need your validation to live, for the record. :)
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The Singapore Solution
Written on: Sunday, December 27, 2009
Time: 12:46 AM
Original article from the National Geographic here: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/01/singapore/jacobson-text/1
By Mark Jacobson
If you want to get a Singaporean to look up from a beloved dish of fish-head curry—or make a harried cabdriver slam on his brakes—say you are going to interview the country's "minister mentor," Lee Kuan Yew, and would like an opinion about what to ask him. "The MM?Wah lau! You're going to see the MM? Real?" You might as well have told a resident of the Emerald City that you're late for an appointment with the Wizard of Oz. After all, LKY, as he is known in acronym-mad Singapore, is more than the "father of the country." He is its inventor, as surely as if he had scientifically formulated the place with precise portions of Plato's Republic, Anglophile elitism, unwavering economic pragmatism, and old-fashioned strong-arm repression.
People like to call Singapore the Switzerland of Southeast Asia, and who can argue? Out of a malarial swamp, the tiny island at the southernmost tip of the Malay Peninsula gained independence from Britain in 1963 and, in one generation, transformed itself into a legendarily efficient place, where the per capita income for its 3.7 million citizens exceeds that of many European countries, the education and health systems rival anything in the West, government officials are largely corruption free, 90 percent of households own their own homes, taxes are relatively low and sidewalks are clean, and there are no visible homeless people or slums.
If all that, plus a typical unemployment rate of about 3 percent and a nice stash of money in the bank thanks to the government's enforced savings plan, doesn't sound sweet to you, just travel 600 miles south and try getting by in a Jakarta shantytown.
Achieving all this has required a delicate balancing act, an often paradoxical interplay between what some Singaporeans refer to as "the big stick and the big carrot." What strikes you first is the carrot: giddy financial growth fueling never ending construction and consumerism. Against this is the stick, most often symbolized by the infamous ban on chewing gum and the caning of people for spray-painting cars. Disruptive things like racial and religious disharmony? They're simply not allowed, and no one steals anyone else's wallet.
Singapore, maybe more than anywhere else, crystallizes an elemental question: What price prosperity and security? Are they worth living in a place that many contend is a socially engineered, nose-to-the-grindstone, workaholic rat race, where the self-perpetuating ruling party enforces draconian laws (your airport entry card informs you, in red letters, that the penalty for drug trafficking is "DEATH"), squashes press freedom, and offers a debatable level of financial transparency? Some people joke that the government micromanages the details of life right down to how well Singapore Airlines flight attendants fill out their batik-patterned dresses.
They say Lee Kuan Yew has mellowed over the years, but when he walks into the interview wearing a zippered blue jacket, looking like a flint-eyed Asian Clint Eastwood circa Gran Torino, you know you'd better get on with it. While it is not exactly clear what a minister mentor does, good luck finding many Singaporeans who don't believe that the Old Man is still top dog, the ultimate string puller behind the curtain. Told most of my questions have come from Singaporeans, the MM, now 86 but as sharp and unsentimental as a barbed tack, offers a bring-it-on smile: "At my age I've had many eggs thrown at me."
Few living leaders—Fidel Castro in Cuba, Nelson Mandela in South Africa, and Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe come to mind—have dominated their homeland's national narrative the way Lee Kuan Yew has. Born into a well-to-do Chinese family in 1923, deeply influenced by both British colonial society and the brutal Japanese occupation that killed as many as 50,000 people on the island in the mid-1940s, the erstwhile "Harry Lee," Cambridge law degree in hand, first came to prominence as a leader of a left-leaning anticolonial movement in the 1950s. Firming up his personal power within the ascendant People's Action Party, Lee became Singapore's first prime minister, filling the post for 26 years. He was senior minister for another 15; his current minister mentor title was established when his son, Lee Hsien Loong, became prime minister in 2004.
Lee masterminded the celebrated "Singapore Model," converting a country one-eighth the size of Delaware, with no natural resources and a fractured mix of ethnicities, into "Singapore, Inc." He attracted foreign investment by building communications and transportation infrastructure, made English the official language, created a superefficient government by paying top administrators salaries equal to those in private companies, and cracked down on corruption until it disappeared. The model—a unique mix of economic empowerment and tightly controlled personal liberties—has inspired imitators in China, Russia, and eastern Europe.
To lead a society, the MM says in his precise Victorian English, "one must understand human nature. I have always thought that humanity was animal-like. The Confucian theory was man could be improved, but I'm not sure he can be. He can be trained, he can be disciplined." In Singapore that has meant lots of rules—prohibiting littering, spitting on sidewalks, failing to flush public toilets—with fines and occasional outing in the newspaper for those who break them. It also meant educating his people—industrious by nature—and converting them from shopkeepers to high-tech workers in a few decades.
Over time, the MM says, Singaporeans have become "less hard-driving and hard-striving." This is why it is a good thing, the MM says, that the nation has welcomed so many Chinese immigrants (25 percent of the population is now foreign-born). He is aware that many Singaporeans are unhappy with the influx of immigrants, especially those educated newcomers prepared to fight for higher paying jobs. But taking a typically Darwinian stance, the MM describes the country's new subjects as "hungry," with parents who "pushed the children very hard." If native Singaporeans are falling behind because "the spurs are not stuck into the hide," that is their problem.
If there is a single word that sums up the Singaporean existential condition, it is kiasu, a term that means "afraid to lose." In a society that begins tracking its students into test-based groups at age ten ("special" and "express" are the top tiers; "normal" is the path for those headed for factory and service-sector work), kiasu seeps in early, eventually germinating in brilliant engineering students and phallic high-rises with a Bulgari store on the ground floor. Singaporeans are big on being number one in everything, but in a kiasu world, winning is never completely sweet, carrying with it the dread of ceasing to win. When the Singapore port, the busiest container hub in the world, slipped behind Shanghai in 2005 in total cargo tonnage handled, it was a national calamity.
One day, as part of a rehearsal for the National Day celebration, I was treated to a veritable lollapalooza of kiasu. Singapore armed forces playacted at subduing a cabal of "terrorists" who had shot a half dozen flower-bearing children in red leotards, leaving them "dead" on the stage. "We're not North Korea, but we try," said one observer, commenting on the rolling tanks, zooming Apache helicopters, and earsplitting 21-gun salutes. You hear it all the time: The only way for Singapore to survive being surrounded by massive neighbors is to remain constantly vigilant. The 2009 military budget is $11.4 billion, or 5 percent of GDP, among the world's highest rates.
You never know where the threat might come from, or what form it will take. Last summer everyone was in a panic about swine flu. Mask-wearing health monitors were positioned around the city. On Saturday night, no matter how stylo milo your threads, there was no way of getting into a club on trendy Clarke Quay without a bouncer pressing a handheld thermometer to your forehead. It was part of the unending Singaporean state of siege. Many of the newer public housing apartments come with a bomb shelter, complete with a steel door. After a while, the perceived danger and excessive compliance with rules get internalized; one thing you don't see in Singapore is very many police. "The cop is inside our heads," one resident says.
Self-censorship is rampant in Singapore, where dealing with the powers that be is "a dance," says Alvin Tan, the artistic director of the Necessary Stage, which has put on dozens of plays dealing with touchy issues such as the death penalty and sexuality. Tan spends a lot of time with the government censors. "You have to use the proper approach," he says. "If they say 'south,' you don't say 'north.' You say 'northeast.' Go from there. It's a negotiation."
Those who do not learn their steps in the dance soon get the message. Consider the case of Siew Kum Hong, a 35-year-old Singaporean who thought he'd be furthering the cause of openness by serving as an unelected NMP, or nominated member of parliament. With only four opposition MPs elected in the history of the country, the ruling party thought NMPs might provide the appearance of "a more consensual style of government where alternative views are heard and constructive dissent accommodated." This was how Siew Kum Hong told me he viewed his position, but he was passed over for another term.
"I thought I was doing a good job," a surprised Kum Hong says. What it came down to, he surmises, were "those 'no' votes." When he first voted no, on a resolution he felt discriminated against gays, his colleagues "went absolutely silent. It was the first time since I'd been in parliament that anyone had ever voted no." When he voted no again, this time on a law lowering the number of people who could assemble to protest, the reaction was similarly cool. "So much for alternative views," Kum Hong says.
The Singapore government is not unaware of the pitfalls of its highly controlled society. One concern is the "creativity crisis," the fear that an emphasis on rote learning in Singapore's schools is not conducive to producing game-changing ideas. Yet attempts to encourage originality have been tone-deaf. When Scape, a youth outreach group, opened a "graffiti wall," youngsters were instructed to submit graffiti designs for consideration; those chosen would be painted on a designated wall at an assigned time.
Similarly, the government has maintained a campaign against the use of "Singlish," the multiculti gumbo of Malay, Hokkien Chinese, Tamil, and English street patois that is Singapore's great linguistic achievement. As you sit in a Starbucks listening to teens saying things like "You blur like sotong, lah!" (roughly, "You're dumber than squid, man!"), Singlish seems a brilliantly subversive attack on the very conformity the government claims it is trying to overcome. Then again, one of Singlish's major conceits is the ironic lionization of the flashy, down-market "Ah Beng" culture of Chinese immigrant thugs and their sunglass-wearing Malay counterparts. You know that won't fly in a world where the MM ("minister de-mentor" in Beng speak) has advocated "assortative mating," the idea that college graduates should marry only other college graduates so as to uplift the national stock.
Perhaps the most troubling problem facing the nation is a result of its overly successful population control program, which ran in the 1970s with the slogan "Two Is Enough." Today Singaporeans are simply not reproducing, so the country must depend on immigrants to keep the population growing. The government offers baby bonuses and long maternity leaves, but nothing will help unless Singaporeans start having more sex. According to a poll by the Durex condom company, Singaporeans have less intercourse than almost any other country on Earth. "We are shrinking in our population," the MM says. "Our fertility rate is 1.29. It is a worrying factor." This could be the fatal error in the Singapore Model: The eventual extinction of Singaporeans.
But there is an upside to all this social engineering. You could feel it during the "We Are the World" production numbers in the National Day show. On stage were representatives of Singapore's major ethnic groups, the Chinese, Malays, and Indians, all wearing colorful costumes. After riots in the 1960s, the government installed a strict quota system in public housing to make sure that ethnic groups did not create their own monolithic quarters. This practice may have more to do with controlling the populace than with true multiracial harmony, but at the rehearsal, as schmaltzy as it was, it was hard not to be moved by the earnest show of brotherhood. However invented, there is something called Singaporean, and it is real. Whatever people's grumbles—and as the MM says, "Singaporeans are champion grumblers"—Singapore is their home, and they love it despite everything. It makes you like the place too, for their sake.
The kicker is that things are about to change. In a famous quote, Lee Kuan Yew said, "If you are going to lower me into the grave, and I feel something is wrong, I will get up." But this is beyond even him. "We all know the MM will die someday," says Calvin Fones, a psychiatrist who runs a clinic at Gleneagles Hospital on Orchard Road. Fones likens his homeland to a family. "When the country was young, there was a need for wise oversight. A firm hand. Now we are in adolescence, which can be a questioning, troublesome period. Coming into it without the presence of the patriarch will be a test."
The great engine of cultural change, of course, is the Internet, that cyber fly in the authoritarian ointment. Lee acknowledges the threat. "We banned Playboy in the sixties, and it is still banned, that's true, but now, with the Internet, you get much more than you ever could from Playboy." Allowing pornography sites while banning magazines may seem contradictory. But attempting to censor the Internet, as has been tried in China, would be pointless, Lee says. It is an exquisitely pragmatic reply.
And so bloggers, like the satirist Mr. Brown and the urbanely pugnacious Yawning Bread, are free to broadcast opinions unlikely to be found in the pages of the government-linked Straits Times. As a result, more and more young people are questioning the trade-off between freedom and security—and even calling for freer politics and fewer social controls.
Last August, a wide-ranging speech by new NMP Viswa Sadasivan created a lot of buzz on the blogosphere: "I do lament our lack of freedom to express ourselves, and the government's seemingly unmitigated grip on power and what appears to be an inconsistent willingness to listen to public sentiment that does not suit it," Viswa said before parliament. "Accountability requires the government to go beyond lip-service in addressing the call for greater democracy … If not, people are likely to feel increasingly alienated."
Irked by Viswa's criticisms of the way some ethnic groups are treated in Singapore, LKY interrupted a medical treatment to angrily refute the "highfalutin" speech in a rare appearance on the parliament floor. The patriarch, in case anyone needed reminding, was not yet in his grave.
Singapore can be a disconcerting place, even to the people who call it home, though they'd never think of leaving. As one local put it, "Singapore is like a warm bath. You sink in, slit your wrists, your lifeblood floats away, but hey, it's warm." If that's so, most Singaporeans figure they might as well go down the tubes eating pepper crabs, with a couple of curry puffs on the side. Eating is the true national pastime and refuge. The longer I stayed, the more I ate. It got so I'd go over to the marvelously overcrowded Maxwell Road Food Centre, stand in the 20-minute queue for a plate at the Tian Tian food stall, eat it, then line up again.
On my last day, I climbed the hill in the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, at 537 feet the highest point on the island and the closest thing in Singapore to the jungle it once was. In the unexpected quiet, I returned to what the MM had said about Confucius's belief "that man could be perfected." This was, the MM said with a sigh, "an optimistic way of looking at life." People abuse freedom. That is his beef with America: The rights of individuals to do their own thing allow them to misbehave at the expense of an orderly society. As they say in Singapore: What good are all those rights if you're afraid to go out at night?
When I got to the top of the hill, I thought I might be rewarded with a view of the entire city-state. But there was no view at all—only a rusting communication tower and a cyclone fence affixed with a sign saying "Protected Place" and showing a stick figure drawing of a soldier aiming a rifle at a man with his hands raised.
Later I mentioned this to Calvin Fones, the shrink. "See, that shows the progress we've made," he said. "Until a few years ago, we had the same sign, except the guy was lying on the ground, already shot." And then, being a Singaporean, living a life he didn't believe possible anywhere else in Asia, he laughed.
Windows 7: Simplify what you do everyday. Find the right PC for you.
Movie 2012.
Written on: Friday, November 13, 2009
Time: 1:18 PM
FINALLY, my first movie outing with some 4Js after so many months (2 months to be exact) of endless work.
Watched with Kian Chuen, Jia Zheng, Zahidah, and Michelle.
Many of you might think it's similar to The Day After Tomorrow, but it is not.
What I really like about this disaster movie was that a wide variety of characters were introduced, representing different races, different nationalities and creed. Also, it's as good a time as any get to know our doomed-but-plucky characters better. Like divorvced and failed science fiction author John Cusack(Hope i get his name correct) who still loves his ex-wife Amanda. And I was soo touched by the stoic American President Danny Glover who is willing to stand by his country despite having the chance to board the spacecraft.
The fun part kicked in in the third hour of the show when we were overwhelmed by the big, brash over-the-top CGI disaster-porn. haha. To me, it's like a typical Emmerich, kinetic adrenaline rish with big stunts, especially the part where John Cusack and the Chinese worker being held up at one of the hydraulic gate, that's the part where at the back of your mind, you will be thinking: " will he die or not? Hope not though"
Now after watching the show, I think I will need to save 1 billion dollar for a 'Green passport' to board the spacecraft built by the Chinese, just in case they do really have it, and by chance the Mayan prophecy is correct for the end of the world in 2012! haha, one of the better movie I have ever watched, and enjoyed so much. (:
Speaking of which, I have yet to watch Haeundae (Korean -Tsunami) though I had the DVD already, and just that day, I watched Astro Boy and 500 days of Summer with my friends. Astro Boy is also another great show, if you dont mind the cartoony graphics. I would say Astro Boy's movie mainly revolves around social morales, especially nearing the end of the show. As for 500 days of Summer, hmm..I think it is much more suitable for girls. Guys shouldnt watch.HAHA.
PW, Checkmate!!!
Written on: Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Time: 12:07 AM
PW is PWNED!!
Perfect Abbreviation.
Now, NO MORE PW! yay..Hooray!!
You dont know how glad am I right now....
Finally, the torturous PW is over!
Having to spend almost a year of my life on this sickening PW, it is definitely worth to be mentioned on my blog, hence this validate my choice to dedicate this very post for my 'dear' PW! (Haa...I sounded like I'm writing Written Report)
Okay, bear with me a while, this post might be abit 'dry', but I feel the need to codify the trains of thought running through my mind now.
Truth to be told, I suppose any JC student will have heard about the countless numbers of swearing and curse about PW, to which a large mulitude have been contributed by no others but himeself. Even PW tutors would find PW extremely both 'mentally' and 'physical' challenging. Recall about the countless rejections and sleepless nights just for PW...Imagine PW, a H1 subject. Then how about H2 and H3 subs?
So, no one likes PW. Perhaps we should look at why it was even considered in the very beginning.
The accepted story runs that the MOE received unfavourable feedback from local universities that JC students were fairing poorly compared to their Poly counterparts in modules that require extensive teamwork.
The MOE’s solution: teach them how to work in groups at JC.
Hence PW was born.
I believe many students will whinge about PW for it being unnecessary jammed into our already overloaded 2 years of JC curriculum. The workload is tremendous combined with the what seems to be endless tutorial work to be done.
But honestly, I like the concept of PW, but I loathe the current form of PW.
Personally, I feel the current form of PW depicts how fail the education system is, what's with PI, GPP, EoM, I&R, WR, and OP!
PI- An aspect where students are expected to SPAM nosensical ideas.
GPP- This is the utmost stupidest aspect of PW. issint it suppose to be a draft of our WR? Then why are we doing draft after draft based on our DRAFT!? How silly!
WR- Undeniable, this component is probably makes the most logical and sense of PW itself.
EoM: Why the hell are we evaluating articles uh?
I&R- Another FAIL component of PW. Students are expected to declare own mistakes during their course of the PW, and eventually we are being GRADED ON WHAT WE SCREWED! How great!? U tell me!
OP- Together with WR, I would say that unfortunately, these are the only 2 that are more relevant to us.
And, I have absolutely no idea on what ground the Cambridge are inspired to have Conservation & Emergency as this year's PW Topic.
Emergency? If emergency can be safely solved by students, then why issit still called emergency?
I mean come on, give us a more interesting topic.
Tell us to innovate in a product that we can use it for our daily life. Something that holds potential in the real market, and not confined just within 'A ' level curriculum.
And also, not to mention the cotinuous rejections of group's ideas by tutor which left us with no other choice but the Conservation of Chinese Puppetry. How great ? It's total waste of time, effort, and I feel we are doing so just for the sake of doing so. Puppet Warriors? Spark the hope in Chinese puppets? Yeah, sounded nice, but how true are we passionate about it? How true are we confident about it?
Tell me to develop and innovate in windscreens for vehicles that are similar to those transition lens that will darken in presence of sunlight, and I can say almost immediately "YES! I am in!"
However, PW enthusiast like you know ______, can disagree with the above.
My suggestion for PW:
1. Shorten the painstaking process to atmost 3 months.
2. Remove PI, I&R, EoM.
3. Rectify marking criteria for WR, and OP! Include Individual efforts--to eradicate bloody slackers.
4. More relevant topic pls.
5.Why pay $36.00 for PW when we are expected to fork out own printing cost for the all the stuff.
6. EVALUATE tutor's efficiency before they are to be assigned as PW Tutor, ours is an EPIC FAIL! Seriously.
7. Pls DO NOT stop PW at our batch, let the upcoming J1s to DIE as well, yes I am becoming a sadist, but I dont care.
8. Assign MOE teachers into groups and let them try out PW, with students being their tutors! hahah.
Okay, I'm done!
PW Strikes Back!
Written on: Friday, November 06, 2009
Time: 10:09 PM
When I first told others about my WR being 50 pages long, excluding appendixes they called me mad.
Mad, they said. Insane, touched in my head. Stress finally did me in.
That day....
I had my Oral Presentation dryrun.
5.14 minutes long. Again, Mad, they said.
Today...
I brought my props to school.
And again, MAD was heard.
Dang it.
Painful Work + Windows 7
Written on: Sunday, October 25, 2009
Time: 6:38 PM
I didnt expect myself to get back here cause I thought I had long forgotten the password. But somehow I remembered after a few attempts.
Even so, I shoudnt be here still for I have to hand in the excruciating component of PW which is the Written Report by tmr.
Personally, I find PW EXTREMELY terrible for me. Because I find myself doing most of those PAINFUL WORK all alone. It is bad, very bad. Nevertheless, the content and stuff are still pretty okay. Hahah. That shows I'm good still, even without them. Bloody f**kers.
Wait till my Oral Presentation is over, I shall then give a full review to what most students like me would find it unecessary about the PW itself.
A little update about school, well, Promo ended 2 weeks ago, and results were known 2 days ago.
I thought life gonna be much relaxed after promos, but over 50 hours of PW lessons demised that to nothing but mere misery.
By the way, I had Windows 7 installed on my laptop, or rather upgraded from the devastating Vista version. Though it took some time to be upgraded, but I thought it was worth the wait when I saw laptop booting up in shorter time.
It is definitely much more speedier to navigate around and of course faster boot time. Anyone using Vista MUST upgrade to Windows 7 for goodness sake, spare yourself from frustration that you might have experienced with Windows Vista.
I will post some pictures next time, and for now, I got to get back to the sickening Painful Work and get it done! hahah. Cya.
Written on: Saturday, August 08, 2009
Time: 9:25 PM
Subject: It's about time I add a slight tinge of life to my dying blog before it really marks the end. I'm sure you readers (if any) have been waiting for this post of what it seems to come late. But be glad that I'm here, finally. More often than not, life has really been very very rough, with what we call piling work load and certainly time contraint is gradually defined as the 'killing'' factor. In addition, the school atmosphere became more tense as ever before, especially after our mid-year exams. The upcoming SPA and promo heightened the stress level to 200%, and I tell you, you will find the need to seize every moment of your time to accomplish something meaningful. By saying this, it means be it on bus, or MRT, and right now, I'm whining all this on my bus journey home, after tutoring programme at Ang Mo Kio. I'm doing so now because I know I won't have the time when I raech home later. So, next time when you ask any JC student "What's life?", don't be surprise to expect answers like "Study lo, what else but study?" or don't ever feel offended if they ignored you cause either they are rushing home to study or busying recounting some mathematical formulas in their head...
Date: Sat, 8 Aug 2009 21:25:58 +0800
X-Mailer: iPod Mail (7A341)
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 08 Aug 2009 13:25:52.0122 (UTC) FILETIME=[C03ACDA0:01CA182B]It's about time I add a slight tinge of life to my dying blog before
it really marks the end. I'm sure you readers (if any) have been
waiting for this post of what it seems to come late. But be glad that
I'm here, finally. More often than not, life has really been very very
rough, with what we call piling work load and certainly time contraint
is gradually defined as the 'killing'' factor. In addition, the
school atmosphere became more tense as ever before, especially after
our mid-year exams. The upcoming SPA and promo heightened the stress
level to 200%, and I tell you, you will find the need to seize every
moment of your time to accomplish something meaningful. By saying
this, it means be it on bus, or MRT, and right now, I'm whining all
this on my bus journey home, after tutoring programme at Ang Mo Kio.
I'm doing so now because I know I won't have the time when I raech
home later. So, next time when you ask any JC student "What's life?",
don't be surprise to expect answers like "Study lo, what else but
study?" or don't ever feel offended if they ignored you cause either
they are rushing home to study or busying recounting some mathematical
formulas in their head...
Though life now seems to be a painstaking toll, but what can we really
do? Slack off and die? Can't right!? So I would say perserverance
continue to work hard are the main key. Hmm... I'm sry if this post
seems a little dull. Sadly, I find myself less creative as before
especially after having knowledge continuously come crashing into my
brain! Even today! It was supposedly to be national day celebration,
but we ended school with consolidated chemistry lecture as they
covered a new chapter with us. That damn LT hall was warm and stuffy,
and there isn't any indifferent with suana. Okay la, my bus stop is
reaching so till I'm here again. :) Before I forget, HAPPY BIRTHDAY SINGAPORE in advance, a place where I
know my home is! Cheer on people!
Sent from my iPod,
Steven Lim
HEAT WAVESSSS~~~~
Written on: Saturday, April 25, 2009
Time: 10:35 PM
Can you feeel the HEAT WAVES over the past few weekends?
It sucks, big time! I wonder what's wrong with the erratic weather recently, but my guess is probably global warming taking its toll on us.
Perhaps its a sign for the end of world in 2012.
I'm saying all these because I just had my bath and now, I feel as if I had never bathed.
Today, I dont really have the intention to blog you see, but I'm here, knowing things will get better if I were to dump all my craps here.
Learning has never been so tough untill recently when there were lecture tests, and sad to say, failed my maths. Its no longer the one apple + one apple theory now. It has definitely evolved to a higher level, which I have to spend sometimes almost a day just to understand and finish my tutorial questions. JC is a place with many kicks around unlike those days in CVSS where kicks only comes in when exam approaches. It seems to be far cry of differences between secondary and JC, and to make thing worst, waves of stress are definitely coming in swiftly and drifting you apart before you could even realise it.
Self indivdual learning are getting ineffective in JC as well. Perhaps I should start looking for buddy for studying yar? Maybe just one or two will be alright, but having more than that will be too much. Well, hope for now is probably having a good study buddy who can really focus and helpful of course. But wait, any volunteers? haha.
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The Singapore Solution
Written on: Sunday, December 27, 2009
Time: 12:46 AM
Original article from the National Geographic here: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/01/singapore/jacobson-text/1
By Mark Jacobson
If you want to get a Singaporean to look up from a beloved dish of fish-head curry—or make a harried cabdriver slam on his brakes—say you are going to interview the country's "minister mentor," Lee Kuan Yew, and would like an opinion about what to ask him. "The MM?Wah lau! You're going to see the MM? Real?" You might as well have told a resident of the Emerald City that you're late for an appointment with the Wizard of Oz. After all, LKY, as he is known in acronym-mad Singapore, is more than the "father of the country." He is its inventor, as surely as if he had scientifically formulated the place with precise portions of Plato's Republic, Anglophile elitism, unwavering economic pragmatism, and old-fashioned strong-arm repression.
People like to call Singapore the Switzerland of Southeast Asia, and who can argue? Out of a malarial swamp, the tiny island at the southernmost tip of the Malay Peninsula gained independence from Britain in 1963 and, in one generation, transformed itself into a legendarily efficient place, where the per capita income for its 3.7 million citizens exceeds that of many European countries, the education and health systems rival anything in the West, government officials are largely corruption free, 90 percent of households own their own homes, taxes are relatively low and sidewalks are clean, and there are no visible homeless people or slums.
If all that, plus a typical unemployment rate of about 3 percent and a nice stash of money in the bank thanks to the government's enforced savings plan, doesn't sound sweet to you, just travel 600 miles south and try getting by in a Jakarta shantytown.
Achieving all this has required a delicate balancing act, an often paradoxical interplay between what some Singaporeans refer to as "the big stick and the big carrot." What strikes you first is the carrot: giddy financial growth fueling never ending construction and consumerism. Against this is the stick, most often symbolized by the infamous ban on chewing gum and the caning of people for spray-painting cars. Disruptive things like racial and religious disharmony? They're simply not allowed, and no one steals anyone else's wallet.
Singapore, maybe more than anywhere else, crystallizes an elemental question: What price prosperity and security? Are they worth living in a place that many contend is a socially engineered, nose-to-the-grindstone, workaholic rat race, where the self-perpetuating ruling party enforces draconian laws (your airport entry card informs you, in red letters, that the penalty for drug trafficking is "DEATH"), squashes press freedom, and offers a debatable level of financial transparency? Some people joke that the government micromanages the details of life right down to how well Singapore Airlines flight attendants fill out their batik-patterned dresses.
They say Lee Kuan Yew has mellowed over the years, but when he walks into the interview wearing a zippered blue jacket, looking like a flint-eyed Asian Clint Eastwood circa Gran Torino, you know you'd better get on with it. While it is not exactly clear what a minister mentor does, good luck finding many Singaporeans who don't believe that the Old Man is still top dog, the ultimate string puller behind the curtain. Told most of my questions have come from Singaporeans, the MM, now 86 but as sharp and unsentimental as a barbed tack, offers a bring-it-on smile: "At my age I've had many eggs thrown at me."
Few living leaders—Fidel Castro in Cuba, Nelson Mandela in South Africa, and Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe come to mind—have dominated their homeland's national narrative the way Lee Kuan Yew has. Born into a well-to-do Chinese family in 1923, deeply influenced by both British colonial society and the brutal Japanese occupation that killed as many as 50,000 people on the island in the mid-1940s, the erstwhile "Harry Lee," Cambridge law degree in hand, first came to prominence as a leader of a left-leaning anticolonial movement in the 1950s. Firming up his personal power within the ascendant People's Action Party, Lee became Singapore's first prime minister, filling the post for 26 years. He was senior minister for another 15; his current minister mentor title was established when his son, Lee Hsien Loong, became prime minister in 2004.
Lee masterminded the celebrated "Singapore Model," converting a country one-eighth the size of Delaware, with no natural resources and a fractured mix of ethnicities, into "Singapore, Inc." He attracted foreign investment by building communications and transportation infrastructure, made English the official language, created a superefficient government by paying top administrators salaries equal to those in private companies, and cracked down on corruption until it disappeared. The model—a unique mix of economic empowerment and tightly controlled personal liberties—has inspired imitators in China, Russia, and eastern Europe.
To lead a society, the MM says in his precise Victorian English, "one must understand human nature. I have always thought that humanity was animal-like. The Confucian theory was man could be improved, but I'm not sure he can be. He can be trained, he can be disciplined." In Singapore that has meant lots of rules—prohibiting littering, spitting on sidewalks, failing to flush public toilets—with fines and occasional outing in the newspaper for those who break them. It also meant educating his people—industrious by nature—and converting them from shopkeepers to high-tech workers in a few decades.
Over time, the MM says, Singaporeans have become "less hard-driving and hard-striving." This is why it is a good thing, the MM says, that the nation has welcomed so many Chinese immigrants (25 percent of the population is now foreign-born). He is aware that many Singaporeans are unhappy with the influx of immigrants, especially those educated newcomers prepared to fight for higher paying jobs. But taking a typically Darwinian stance, the MM describes the country's new subjects as "hungry," with parents who "pushed the children very hard." If native Singaporeans are falling behind because "the spurs are not stuck into the hide," that is their problem.
If there is a single word that sums up the Singaporean existential condition, it is kiasu, a term that means "afraid to lose." In a society that begins tracking its students into test-based groups at age ten ("special" and "express" are the top tiers; "normal" is the path for those headed for factory and service-sector work), kiasu seeps in early, eventually germinating in brilliant engineering students and phallic high-rises with a Bulgari store on the ground floor. Singaporeans are big on being number one in everything, but in a kiasu world, winning is never completely sweet, carrying with it the dread of ceasing to win. When the Singapore port, the busiest container hub in the world, slipped behind Shanghai in 2005 in total cargo tonnage handled, it was a national calamity.
One day, as part of a rehearsal for the National Day celebration, I was treated to a veritable lollapalooza of kiasu. Singapore armed forces playacted at subduing a cabal of "terrorists" who had shot a half dozen flower-bearing children in red leotards, leaving them "dead" on the stage. "We're not North Korea, but we try," said one observer, commenting on the rolling tanks, zooming Apache helicopters, and earsplitting 21-gun salutes. You hear it all the time: The only way for Singapore to survive being surrounded by massive neighbors is to remain constantly vigilant. The 2009 military budget is $11.4 billion, or 5 percent of GDP, among the world's highest rates.
You never know where the threat might come from, or what form it will take. Last summer everyone was in a panic about swine flu. Mask-wearing health monitors were positioned around the city. On Saturday night, no matter how stylo milo your threads, there was no way of getting into a club on trendy Clarke Quay without a bouncer pressing a handheld thermometer to your forehead. It was part of the unending Singaporean state of siege. Many of the newer public housing apartments come with a bomb shelter, complete with a steel door. After a while, the perceived danger and excessive compliance with rules get internalized; one thing you don't see in Singapore is very many police. "The cop is inside our heads," one resident says.
Self-censorship is rampant in Singapore, where dealing with the powers that be is "a dance," says Alvin Tan, the artistic director of the Necessary Stage, which has put on dozens of plays dealing with touchy issues such as the death penalty and sexuality. Tan spends a lot of time with the government censors. "You have to use the proper approach," he says. "If they say 'south,' you don't say 'north.' You say 'northeast.' Go from there. It's a negotiation."
Those who do not learn their steps in the dance soon get the message. Consider the case of Siew Kum Hong, a 35-year-old Singaporean who thought he'd be furthering the cause of openness by serving as an unelected NMP, or nominated member of parliament. With only four opposition MPs elected in the history of the country, the ruling party thought NMPs might provide the appearance of "a more consensual style of government where alternative views are heard and constructive dissent accommodated." This was how Siew Kum Hong told me he viewed his position, but he was passed over for another term.
"I thought I was doing a good job," a surprised Kum Hong says. What it came down to, he surmises, were "those 'no' votes." When he first voted no, on a resolution he felt discriminated against gays, his colleagues "went absolutely silent. It was the first time since I'd been in parliament that anyone had ever voted no." When he voted no again, this time on a law lowering the number of people who could assemble to protest, the reaction was similarly cool. "So much for alternative views," Kum Hong says.
The Singapore government is not unaware of the pitfalls of its highly controlled society. One concern is the "creativity crisis," the fear that an emphasis on rote learning in Singapore's schools is not conducive to producing game-changing ideas. Yet attempts to encourage originality have been tone-deaf. When Scape, a youth outreach group, opened a "graffiti wall," youngsters were instructed to submit graffiti designs for consideration; those chosen would be painted on a designated wall at an assigned time.
Similarly, the government has maintained a campaign against the use of "Singlish," the multiculti gumbo of Malay, Hokkien Chinese, Tamil, and English street patois that is Singapore's great linguistic achievement. As you sit in a Starbucks listening to teens saying things like "You blur like sotong, lah!" (roughly, "You're dumber than squid, man!"), Singlish seems a brilliantly subversive attack on the very conformity the government claims it is trying to overcome. Then again, one of Singlish's major conceits is the ironic lionization of the flashy, down-market "Ah Beng" culture of Chinese immigrant thugs and their sunglass-wearing Malay counterparts. You know that won't fly in a world where the MM ("minister de-mentor" in Beng speak) has advocated "assortative mating," the idea that college graduates should marry only other college graduates so as to uplift the national stock.
Perhaps the most troubling problem facing the nation is a result of its overly successful population control program, which ran in the 1970s with the slogan "Two Is Enough." Today Singaporeans are simply not reproducing, so the country must depend on immigrants to keep the population growing. The government offers baby bonuses and long maternity leaves, but nothing will help unless Singaporeans start having more sex. According to a poll by the Durex condom company, Singaporeans have less intercourse than almost any other country on Earth. "We are shrinking in our population," the MM says. "Our fertility rate is 1.29. It is a worrying factor." This could be the fatal error in the Singapore Model: The eventual extinction of Singaporeans.
But there is an upside to all this social engineering. You could feel it during the "We Are the World" production numbers in the National Day show. On stage were representatives of Singapore's major ethnic groups, the Chinese, Malays, and Indians, all wearing colorful costumes. After riots in the 1960s, the government installed a strict quota system in public housing to make sure that ethnic groups did not create their own monolithic quarters. This practice may have more to do with controlling the populace than with true multiracial harmony, but at the rehearsal, as schmaltzy as it was, it was hard not to be moved by the earnest show of brotherhood. However invented, there is something called Singaporean, and it is real. Whatever people's grumbles—and as the MM says, "Singaporeans are champion grumblers"—Singapore is their home, and they love it despite everything. It makes you like the place too, for their sake.
The kicker is that things are about to change. In a famous quote, Lee Kuan Yew said, "If you are going to lower me into the grave, and I feel something is wrong, I will get up." But this is beyond even him. "We all know the MM will die someday," says Calvin Fones, a psychiatrist who runs a clinic at Gleneagles Hospital on Orchard Road. Fones likens his homeland to a family. "When the country was young, there was a need for wise oversight. A firm hand. Now we are in adolescence, which can be a questioning, troublesome period. Coming into it without the presence of the patriarch will be a test."
The great engine of cultural change, of course, is the Internet, that cyber fly in the authoritarian ointment. Lee acknowledges the threat. "We banned Playboy in the sixties, and it is still banned, that's true, but now, with the Internet, you get much more than you ever could from Playboy." Allowing pornography sites while banning magazines may seem contradictory. But attempting to censor the Internet, as has been tried in China, would be pointless, Lee says. It is an exquisitely pragmatic reply.
And so bloggers, like the satirist Mr. Brown and the urbanely pugnacious Yawning Bread, are free to broadcast opinions unlikely to be found in the pages of the government-linked Straits Times. As a result, more and more young people are questioning the trade-off between freedom and security—and even calling for freer politics and fewer social controls.
Last August, a wide-ranging speech by new NMP Viswa Sadasivan created a lot of buzz on the blogosphere: "I do lament our lack of freedom to express ourselves, and the government's seemingly unmitigated grip on power and what appears to be an inconsistent willingness to listen to public sentiment that does not suit it," Viswa said before parliament. "Accountability requires the government to go beyond lip-service in addressing the call for greater democracy … If not, people are likely to feel increasingly alienated."
Irked by Viswa's criticisms of the way some ethnic groups are treated in Singapore, LKY interrupted a medical treatment to angrily refute the "highfalutin" speech in a rare appearance on the parliament floor. The patriarch, in case anyone needed reminding, was not yet in his grave.
Singapore can be a disconcerting place, even to the people who call it home, though they'd never think of leaving. As one local put it, "Singapore is like a warm bath. You sink in, slit your wrists, your lifeblood floats away, but hey, it's warm." If that's so, most Singaporeans figure they might as well go down the tubes eating pepper crabs, with a couple of curry puffs on the side. Eating is the true national pastime and refuge. The longer I stayed, the more I ate. It got so I'd go over to the marvelously overcrowded Maxwell Road Food Centre, stand in the 20-minute queue for a plate at the Tian Tian food stall, eat it, then line up again.
On my last day, I climbed the hill in the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, at 537 feet the highest point on the island and the closest thing in Singapore to the jungle it once was. In the unexpected quiet, I returned to what the MM had said about Confucius's belief "that man could be perfected." This was, the MM said with a sigh, "an optimistic way of looking at life." People abuse freedom. That is his beef with America: The rights of individuals to do their own thing allow them to misbehave at the expense of an orderly society. As they say in Singapore: What good are all those rights if you're afraid to go out at night?
When I got to the top of the hill, I thought I might be rewarded with a view of the entire city-state. But there was no view at all—only a rusting communication tower and a cyclone fence affixed with a sign saying "Protected Place" and showing a stick figure drawing of a soldier aiming a rifle at a man with his hands raised.
Later I mentioned this to Calvin Fones, the shrink. "See, that shows the progress we've made," he said. "Until a few years ago, we had the same sign, except the guy was lying on the ground, already shot." And then, being a Singaporean, living a life he didn't believe possible anywhere else in Asia, he laughed.
Windows 7: Simplify what you do everyday. Find the right PC for you.
Movie 2012.
Written on: Friday, November 13, 2009
Time: 1:18 PM
FINALLY, my first movie outing with some 4Js after so many months (2 months to be exact) of endless work.
Watched with Kian Chuen, Jia Zheng, Zahidah, and Michelle.
Many of you might think it's similar to The Day After Tomorrow, but it is not.
What I really like about this disaster movie was that a wide variety of characters were introduced, representing different races, different nationalities and creed. Also, it's as good a time as any get to know our doomed-but-plucky characters better. Like divorvced and failed science fiction author John Cusack(Hope i get his name correct) who still loves his ex-wife Amanda. And I was soo touched by the stoic American President Danny Glover who is willing to stand by his country despite having the chance to board the spacecraft.
The fun part kicked in in the third hour of the show when we were overwhelmed by the big, brash over-the-top CGI disaster-porn. haha. To me, it's like a typical Emmerich, kinetic adrenaline rish with big stunts, especially the part where John Cusack and the Chinese worker being held up at one of the hydraulic gate, that's the part where at the back of your mind, you will be thinking: " will he die or not? Hope not though"
Now after watching the show, I think I will need to save 1 billion dollar for a 'Green passport' to board the spacecraft built by the Chinese, just in case they do really have it, and by chance the Mayan prophecy is correct for the end of the world in 2012! haha, one of the better movie I have ever watched, and enjoyed so much. (:
Speaking of which, I have yet to watch Haeundae (Korean -Tsunami) though I had the DVD already, and just that day, I watched Astro Boy and 500 days of Summer with my friends. Astro Boy is also another great show, if you dont mind the cartoony graphics. I would say Astro Boy's movie mainly revolves around social morales, especially nearing the end of the show. As for 500 days of Summer, hmm..I think it is much more suitable for girls. Guys shouldnt watch.HAHA.
PW, Checkmate!!!
Written on: Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Time: 12:07 AM
PW is PWNED!!
Perfect Abbreviation.
Now, NO MORE PW! yay..Hooray!!
You dont know how glad am I right now....
Finally, the torturous PW is over!
Having to spend almost a year of my life on this sickening PW, it is definitely worth to be mentioned on my blog, hence this validate my choice to dedicate this very post for my 'dear' PW! (Haa...I sounded like I'm writing Written Report)
Okay, bear with me a while, this post might be abit 'dry', but I feel the need to codify the trains of thought running through my mind now.
Truth to be told, I suppose any JC student will have heard about the countless numbers of swearing and curse about PW, to which a large mulitude have been contributed by no others but himeself. Even PW tutors would find PW extremely both 'mentally' and 'physical' challenging. Recall about the countless rejections and sleepless nights just for PW...Imagine PW, a H1 subject. Then how about H2 and H3 subs?
So, no one likes PW. Perhaps we should look at why it was even considered in the very beginning.
The accepted story runs that the MOE received unfavourable feedback from local universities that JC students were fairing poorly compared to their Poly counterparts in modules that require extensive teamwork.
The MOE’s solution: teach them how to work in groups at JC.
Hence PW was born.
I believe many students will whinge about PW for it being unnecessary jammed into our already overloaded 2 years of JC curriculum. The workload is tremendous combined with the what seems to be endless tutorial work to be done.
But honestly, I like the concept of PW, but I loathe the current form of PW.
Personally, I feel the current form of PW depicts how fail the education system is, what's with PI, GPP, EoM, I&R, WR, and OP!
PI- An aspect where students are expected to SPAM nosensical ideas.
GPP- This is the utmost stupidest aspect of PW. issint it suppose to be a draft of our WR? Then why are we doing draft after draft based on our DRAFT!? How silly!
WR- Undeniable, this component is probably makes the most logical and sense of PW itself.
EoM: Why the hell are we evaluating articles uh?
I&R- Another FAIL component of PW. Students are expected to declare own mistakes during their course of the PW, and eventually we are being GRADED ON WHAT WE SCREWED! How great!? U tell me!
OP- Together with WR, I would say that unfortunately, these are the only 2 that are more relevant to us.
And, I have absolutely no idea on what ground the Cambridge are inspired to have Conservation & Emergency as this year's PW Topic.
Emergency? If emergency can be safely solved by students, then why issit still called emergency?
I mean come on, give us a more interesting topic.
Tell us to innovate in a product that we can use it for our daily life. Something that holds potential in the real market, and not confined just within 'A ' level curriculum.
And also, not to mention the cotinuous rejections of group's ideas by tutor which left us with no other choice but the Conservation of Chinese Puppetry. How great ? It's total waste of time, effort, and I feel we are doing so just for the sake of doing so. Puppet Warriors? Spark the hope in Chinese puppets? Yeah, sounded nice, but how true are we passionate about it? How true are we confident about it?
Tell me to develop and innovate in windscreens for vehicles that are similar to those transition lens that will darken in presence of sunlight, and I can say almost immediately "YES! I am in!"
However, PW enthusiast like you know ______, can disagree with the above.
My suggestion for PW:
1. Shorten the painstaking process to atmost 3 months.
2. Remove PI, I&R, EoM.
3. Rectify marking criteria for WR, and OP! Include Individual efforts--to eradicate bloody slackers.
4. More relevant topic pls.
5.Why pay $36.00 for PW when we are expected to fork out own printing cost for the all the stuff.
6. EVALUATE tutor's efficiency before they are to be assigned as PW Tutor, ours is an EPIC FAIL! Seriously.
7. Pls DO NOT stop PW at our batch, let the upcoming J1s to DIE as well, yes I am becoming a sadist, but I dont care.
8. Assign MOE teachers into groups and let them try out PW, with students being their tutors! hahah.
Okay, I'm done!
PW Strikes Back!
Written on: Friday, November 06, 2009
Time: 10:09 PM
When I first told others about my WR being 50 pages long, excluding appendixes they called me mad.
Mad, they said. Insane, touched in my head. Stress finally did me in.
That day....
I had my Oral Presentation dryrun.
5.14 minutes long. Again, Mad, they said.
Today...
I brought my props to school.
And again, MAD was heard.
Dang it.
Painful Work + Windows 7
Written on: Sunday, October 25, 2009
Time: 6:38 PM
I didnt expect myself to get back here cause I thought I had long forgotten the password. But somehow I remembered after a few attempts.
Even so, I shoudnt be here still for I have to hand in the excruciating component of PW which is the Written Report by tmr.
Personally, I find PW EXTREMELY terrible for me. Because I find myself doing most of those PAINFUL WORK all alone. It is bad, very bad. Nevertheless, the content and stuff are still pretty okay. Hahah. That shows I'm good still, even without them. Bloody f**kers.
Wait till my Oral Presentation is over, I shall then give a full review to what most students like me would find it unecessary about the PW itself.
A little update about school, well, Promo ended 2 weeks ago, and results were known 2 days ago.
I thought life gonna be much relaxed after promos, but over 50 hours of PW lessons demised that to nothing but mere misery.
By the way, I had Windows 7 installed on my laptop, or rather upgraded from the devastating Vista version. Though it took some time to be upgraded, but I thought it was worth the wait when I saw laptop booting up in shorter time.
It is definitely much more speedier to navigate around and of course faster boot time. Anyone using Vista MUST upgrade to Windows 7 for goodness sake, spare yourself from frustration that you might have experienced with Windows Vista.
I will post some pictures next time, and for now, I got to get back to the sickening Painful Work and get it done! hahah. Cya.
Written on: Saturday, August 08, 2009
Time: 9:25 PM
Subject: It's about time I add a slight tinge of life to my dying blog before it really marks the end. I'm sure you readers (if any) have been waiting for this post of what it seems to come late. But be glad that I'm here, finally. More often than not, life has really been very very rough, with what we call piling work load and certainly time contraint is gradually defined as the 'killing'' factor. In addition, the school atmosphere became more tense as ever before, especially after our mid-year exams. The upcoming SPA and promo heightened the stress level to 200%, and I tell you, you will find the need to seize every moment of your time to accomplish something meaningful. By saying this, it means be it on bus, or MRT, and right now, I'm whining all this on my bus journey home, after tutoring programme at Ang Mo Kio. I'm doing so now because I know I won't have the time when I raech home later. So, next time when you ask any JC student "What's life?", don't be surprise to expect answers like "Study lo, what else but study?" or don't ever feel offended if they ignored you cause either they are rushing home to study or busying recounting some mathematical formulas in their head...
Date: Sat, 8 Aug 2009 21:25:58 +0800
X-Mailer: iPod Mail (7A341)
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 08 Aug 2009 13:25:52.0122 (UTC) FILETIME=[C03ACDA0:01CA182B]It's about time I add a slight tinge of life to my dying blog before
it really marks the end. I'm sure you readers (if any) have been
waiting for this post of what it seems to come late. But be glad that
I'm here, finally. More often than not, life has really been very very
rough, with what we call piling work load and certainly time contraint
is gradually defined as the 'killing'' factor. In addition, the
school atmosphere became more tense as ever before, especially after
our mid-year exams. The upcoming SPA and promo heightened the stress
level to 200%, and I tell you, you will find the need to seize every
moment of your time to accomplish something meaningful. By saying
this, it means be it on bus, or MRT, and right now, I'm whining all
this on my bus journey home, after tutoring programme at Ang Mo Kio.
I'm doing so now because I know I won't have the time when I raech
home later. So, next time when you ask any JC student "What's life?",
don't be surprise to expect answers like "Study lo, what else but
study?" or don't ever feel offended if they ignored you cause either
they are rushing home to study or busying recounting some mathematical
formulas in their head...
Though life now seems to be a painstaking toll, but what can we really
do? Slack off and die? Can't right!? So I would say perserverance
continue to work hard are the main key. Hmm... I'm sry if this post
seems a little dull. Sadly, I find myself less creative as before
especially after having knowledge continuously come crashing into my
brain! Even today! It was supposedly to be national day celebration,
but we ended school with consolidated chemistry lecture as they
covered a new chapter with us. That damn LT hall was warm and stuffy,
and there isn't any indifferent with suana. Okay la, my bus stop is
reaching so till I'm here again. :) Before I forget, HAPPY BIRTHDAY SINGAPORE in advance, a place where I
know my home is! Cheer on people!
Sent from my iPod,
Steven Lim
HEAT WAVESSSS~~~~
Written on: Saturday, April 25, 2009
Time: 10:35 PM
Can you feeel the HEAT WAVES over the past few weekends?
It sucks, big time! I wonder what's wrong with the erratic weather recently, but my guess is probably global warming taking its toll on us.
Perhaps its a sign for the end of world in 2012.
I'm saying all these because I just had my bath and now, I feel as if I had never bathed.
Today, I dont really have the intention to blog you see, but I'm here, knowing things will get better if I were to dump all my craps here.
Learning has never been so tough untill recently when there were lecture tests, and sad to say, failed my maths. Its no longer the one apple + one apple theory now. It has definitely evolved to a higher level, which I have to spend sometimes almost a day just to understand and finish my tutorial questions. JC is a place with many kicks around unlike those days in CVSS where kicks only comes in when exam approaches. It seems to be far cry of differences between secondary and JC, and to make thing worst, waves of stress are definitely coming in swiftly and drifting you apart before you could even realise it.
Self indivdual learning are getting ineffective in JC as well. Perhaps I should start looking for buddy for studying yar? Maybe just one or two will be alright, but having more than that will be too much. Well, hope for now is probably having a good study buddy who can really focus and helpful of course. But wait, any volunteers? haha.
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About me
Hello my name is Steven and I'm a relatively good boy. I am a glutton and I eat the weirdest things you can ever imagine. No, I don't eat plastic, thanks for the offer but no thanks. I dont eat my veggies and I dont love celery. I can be as cold as an ice this moment and as hot as the sun the next. I like going around traumatizing people and irritating my friends is my forte.
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