Random:
Yes, I do think that Zheng Ning is damn chio.
And I would like to see a tanned Alwyn with crew cut and black rimmed plastic spectacles.
Chairs are bad for the environment. This is because in the production of chairs, metal ores are dug up, trees are cut down, and fossil fuels are burned during the production of chairs. All these lead to the degradation of the environment. Not only that, chairs themselves also degrade the environment after they have been discarded. Burning chairs releases toxic fumes in to air, leading to air pollution. Plastic and metal chairs can take a long time to degrade in the landfills, and even after they degrade, they leech poisonous substances into the groundwater, which eventually flows into the seas, leading to water pollution.
Water pollution poisons fish. At a first glance, this appears to be bad news for fishermen. However, we must recall that even though the fish may be subject to poison, most can actually still live in polluted waters. Those fish that get adversely affected are the larger predatory fish, as the small amounts of poison from the fish they eat tend to accumulate in their bodies, and their population will drop. As water pollution tends to kill the larger fish more, there would be less big fish to eat the smaller fish. As a result, the fish can multiply even faster since there are less things gobbling them up. Therefore, water pollution actually leads to an increase in the fish population in the seas, and hence water pollution is good for fishermen.
Therefore, we can safely conclude that chairs are good for fishermen. Since fishermen are part of the country, what's good for the fishermen are also good for the country, and since chairs are good for fishermen, the government ought to give tax incentives to encourage factories to produce more chairs.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Thursday, January 10, 2008
My last blog post as a civilian.
During last year and for the small bit of this year combined, the events that have occurred were somewhat bizarre. Although I really wanted to be in the National Team, I didn't quite see myself in it, so the whole Olympiad experience has been rather surreal. Some events that are pretty unlikely happened anyway. It has been hard to make sense of a lot of events, and I figured it would be easier to just take things as they come by. This could be why I'm not quite as anxious about NS as my parents and siblings and friends are.
I'm hoping to take the two years in army as a chance to learn as much as possible. Although I wouldn't expect NS to be a bed of roses, I'm sure that it would be an enriching and enlightening experience.
I remember in J1, Zilin told me that she was crossed with someone, because he commented on a lousy essay being "something that even an ITE student can come up with", and I didn't know why that comment pissed her off. I went back to my mother and sister, and they immediately picked out that it was derogatory to ITE students. That incident had left me thinking how horribly narrow my perspective had been all these while. Having spent 4 years in RI, I was not exposed to the people from neighbourhood secondary schools and ITEs, and had formed prejudices against them unconsciously. Hopefully, by being exposed to people from different strata in the society, I can gain a broader perspective of things.
In any case, for girls and people from countries without conscription, working for the military must sound pretty exciting. I mean, some ang mohs take a year off to work in an office or do community service in Africa after they graduate from High School, serving the military (especially in a combat position) probably sounds quite refreshing. I agree that life in the military is not something everyone wants to experience, but then again, it's not something everyone gets to experience.
People say that it's a waste of two years, but hey, compared to average lifespan of 80+, it really doesn't make that much of a difference. And for the RJ guys who are complaining that the girls in their batch don't look pretty, serving NS means that you're not going to be in the same batch as them again in university. We would go to university in the same year as Koh Zheng Ning!!! Doesn't that alone worth 2% of your lifespan?
Hanging around with a new bunch of people is going to be a test of my social skills yet again. I shall try to do better than I have done before. If I succeed, it could be rewarding.
Maybe I'm still young and idealistic. NS has a proven track record for turning people into cynics, but well, at least if I do, when I read this post again, I get to laugh at myself!
Ok, see you in at least 3 weeks. NS has a proven track record for killing blogs too, so I may not see you again after all.
During last year and for the small bit of this year combined, the events that have occurred were somewhat bizarre. Although I really wanted to be in the National Team, I didn't quite see myself in it, so the whole Olympiad experience has been rather surreal. Some events that are pretty unlikely happened anyway. It has been hard to make sense of a lot of events, and I figured it would be easier to just take things as they come by. This could be why I'm not quite as anxious about NS as my parents and siblings and friends are.
I'm hoping to take the two years in army as a chance to learn as much as possible. Although I wouldn't expect NS to be a bed of roses, I'm sure that it would be an enriching and enlightening experience.
I remember in J1, Zilin told me that she was crossed with someone, because he commented on a lousy essay being "something that even an ITE student can come up with", and I didn't know why that comment pissed her off. I went back to my mother and sister, and they immediately picked out that it was derogatory to ITE students. That incident had left me thinking how horribly narrow my perspective had been all these while. Having spent 4 years in RI, I was not exposed to the people from neighbourhood secondary schools and ITEs, and had formed prejudices against them unconsciously. Hopefully, by being exposed to people from different strata in the society, I can gain a broader perspective of things.
In any case, for girls and people from countries without conscription, working for the military must sound pretty exciting. I mean, some ang mohs take a year off to work in an office or do community service in Africa after they graduate from High School, serving the military (especially in a combat position) probably sounds quite refreshing. I agree that life in the military is not something everyone wants to experience, but then again, it's not something everyone gets to experience.
People say that it's a waste of two years, but hey, compared to average lifespan of 80+, it really doesn't make that much of a difference. And for the RJ guys who are complaining that the girls in their batch don't look pretty, serving NS means that you're not going to be in the same batch as them again in university. We would go to university in the same year as Koh Zheng Ning!!! Doesn't that alone worth 2% of your lifespan?
Hanging around with a new bunch of people is going to be a test of my social skills yet again. I shall try to do better than I have done before. If I succeed, it could be rewarding.
Maybe I'm still young and idealistic. NS has a proven track record for turning people into cynics, but well, at least if I do, when I read this post again, I get to laugh at myself!
Ok, see you in at least 3 weeks. NS has a proven track record for killing blogs too, so I may not see you again after all.
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Went back to school today in RI uniform. I initially intended to crash some J1 lectures, but I forgot to consider the fact that it's Wednesday, and the J1s end school early. Thus, I didn't get to crash any lectures. However, I got to screw around in CCA Feste. Sadly, Dr Chan banned a lot of demonstrations (partly my fault), so it wasn't very exciting.
I asked a teacher if the RI and RJC merger means anything for them, he said that the school didn't tell them anything. Apparently, RI and RJC weren't planning to announce it; it just so happened that some reporter got the scoop, and the schools had to tell them some things "so that [the reporters] have something to report, else they anyhow report then even worse right?"
Talked to Mrs Lim, my ex-former physics teacher. She said that she is thinking of suggesting to the school board that they hire a trainer for Physics Olympiad. If it follows through, then we'd have NUSHS and Ricardo to thank for raising the standards of the Singapore National Team. I'm sure that if RJC can afford Air Conditioned classrooms and an unused Plasma TV in the Library, they would be able to afford a trainer.
And this batch of J1s are very lucky. They have the Campus Super Star 2 finalist: Dance Queen Koh Zheng Ning! DAMN CHIO! I didn't dream that I'll get to see her in real life... *drool...*
Recently I watched an interesting debate. It was a debate on whether people should go for cosmetic surgery. Egypt was the proposition, and Korea was the opposition. The irony is that Egypt is an Arab Republic, while Korea is almost the Land of cosmetic surgery. I was sniggering all the way when the Korean representative was saying "Cosmetic surgery is the product of the misogynistic standards of beauty that men have set for women, yet many women still continue to subject themselves to such self-mutilation." As the judge pointed out, "It was as though the Korean women have suffered years of oppression by men, simmered their indignations for all these while, and took this debate as an opportunity to lash out at their tormentors."
I asked a teacher if the RI and RJC merger means anything for them, he said that the school didn't tell them anything. Apparently, RI and RJC weren't planning to announce it; it just so happened that some reporter got the scoop, and the schools had to tell them some things "so that [the reporters] have something to report, else they anyhow report then even worse right?"
Talked to Mrs Lim, my ex-former physics teacher. She said that she is thinking of suggesting to the school board that they hire a trainer for Physics Olympiad. If it follows through, then we'd have NUSHS and Ricardo to thank for raising the standards of the Singapore National Team. I'm sure that if RJC can afford Air Conditioned classrooms and an unused Plasma TV in the Library, they would be able to afford a trainer.
And this batch of J1s are very lucky. They have the Campus Super Star 2 finalist: Dance Queen Koh Zheng Ning! DAMN CHIO! I didn't dream that I'll get to see her in real life... *drool...*
Recently I watched an interesting debate. It was a debate on whether people should go for cosmetic surgery. Egypt was the proposition, and Korea was the opposition. The irony is that Egypt is an Arab Republic, while Korea is almost the Land of cosmetic surgery. I was sniggering all the way when the Korean representative was saying "Cosmetic surgery is the product of the misogynistic standards of beauty that men have set for women, yet many women still continue to subject themselves to such self-mutilation." As the judge pointed out, "It was as though the Korean women have suffered years of oppression by men, simmered their indignations for all these while, and took this debate as an opportunity to lash out at their tormentors."
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Breaking news! RI and RJC are merging, but RGS opts out. Since both RI and RJC are both so dear to me (though more dear to those not under EESIS), I feel obliged to indulge in wild speculations about this matter from the perspective of an average Rafflesian. Oh wait, I'm already an alumnus.
Now the merger of RI and RJC is really nothing but the restoration to the 1970's times. You could also claim that it is a copycat of the HCI merger. Either case, this announced merger not really a ground breaking idea(on hindsight at least). They started planning since 2004, the year which HCJC and TCHS (THE Chinese High School) merged to form HCI and started abusing their status by sending their J1 athletes to play B division. This exploit was fixed by the Singapore Sports Council the following year, so revenge is out of the question.
Of course, when large organizations act, it is usually not out of goodwill or for old times' sake. On the news, they representatives claim that the merger between RI and RJC means less admin work for both sides. However, I suspect that in reality they are going to get a lot more admin work, since they will have to gather feedback about this new thing, propose changes, and evaluate the feasibility of the proposals. 2008 will be a tough year for the teachers of both schools.
Surely there are some other benefits? RI doesn't need to rent the track and Multipurpose Hall from RJC any more; they just need to apply. RI prefects can go to RJC to book people who cut queue in the RJ canteen and 7-eleven. RI prefects and RJC councillors can alternately summon each other for match support (or they might even merge too, but I highly doubt so). RI boys can go study in the RJ library and RJC people can go to sleep in the RI library. Of course, VERY importantly, as mentioned by Ho Wen Jun, a larger pool of teachers. RI boys who are very 'on' could crash RJ lectures during Research Education (does it still exist? I really hope not) on the grounds that they are, after all, from the same school. From the looks of it, RI-RJC merger appears to benefit RI more.
Let's take a look at the CCAs. If RI and RJC merges, then they can have 6 year CCAs. This wouldn't be very much different from the status quo for Sports and Performing Arts CCAs. Clubs and Societies have a problem, though. RI Clubs are, frankly, war machines to help RI win competitions. RJ Clubs, on the other hand, are interest groups. Interest groups and war machines operate in a different manner, in the sense that minions of war machines are more elite and motivated than members of interest groups. You put the minions into the war machine, tell them what to aim for, and they will work hard at it, because they can see the goal. Interest groups don't have a goal unless they set it. "We love chem! Yay! ... Now what?" (Really, the natural thing to do is to cast an invulnerability spell on the members, and put them into a Chem Preparation Lab. I can guarantee unanimous support for the above proposal, unfortunately it is not entirely feasible.)
On the surface it doesn't make sense to merge Clubs from RI and RJC together, since they are so different. But we could promote the RI Science Club into a 6 year club, and split it into divisions for each Olympiad. From the crushing defeat at SPhO, RJC ought to realize by now that they REALLY need a war machine if they want to "reign supreme in ev'ry sphere". Currently an RI quiz team member can look ahead and see "NUS Physics", "Eureka", "VJC" etc. Stretching it to 6 years would simply be bringing (an) additional goal(s) into their line of sight. I foresee a side effect though. I suspect that some RJC Clubs currently survive partly because of their perceived elite status. When RISC is pushed to 6 years, some of the RJC Clubs may lose some of their stronger members to RISC, and the perceived elite status will be removed. This may kill off some RJC Clubs.
And of course, this plan wouldn't work if RJC don't hire trainers for the proposed 6 year RISC. RJC, please hire trainers. You've seen that it makes a difference. Since you wish to scrap A levels, you'll need to have something else to show that you are still good enough to do that a few years from now.
Speaking of the scrapping of A levels, it's not for the whole college. The scheme is called "Raffles Diploma" (a rip-off from NUS High), but it is a continuation of Raffles Academy (A two year programme for an elite group of Secondary 3 and 4 students). Only 100+ students will be doing Raffles Diploma per batch. Note that each batch of RJC has 1200+ students. Quoting statistics, in 2006 A-levels, 912 RJ students scored at least three As or more (the highest number among all the junior colleges). I think this pretty much justifies that the top 100+ students from RJC will pwn A levels anyway.
Some people are wondering why RGS is not in the merger. I'd suppose it's no surprise to Rafflesians. RI and RJC are next to each other. RGS is in the middle of somewhere else. You can't even take a direct bus from RI to RGS(Correct me if I'm wrong). And to RI boys, RJC is just RI with girls. It's almost the same uniform, crest, school anthem and school cheers. RJC was born when it was split from RI in 1982. RGS was split from RI in 1879. Big difference. Claiming that two schools so far apart physically, historically and culturally are one would sound superficial.
Besides, you'll need to change the School Anthem, since the melody of anthem is such that you'll only need to hear it once to know that it wasn't composed for girls. Compare "Come heed the call Rafflesians all" and "With God to guide the way". And I wouldn't expect the RGS girls to sing the line "The Sons of Singapore", when their own song has so many "Sisters" in it.
After RI and RJC merges, what shall it be called? Here are a few suggestions:
1. Raffles Institution(RI). Just reverting back to the same old thing. No harm done, really.
2. The Rafflesian Institute(TRI). Good for mocking Hwa Chong. TRI is also oxymoronic because TRI consists of two schools instead of three.
3. Raffles School(RS). "School" doesn't sound impressive enough for me. I'm sure it wouldn't impress the very school that coined the term "Raffles Academy".
4. Raffles High School(RHS). Sounds like a rip-off of NUS High. RHS also stands for "Right Hand Side".
5. Raffles College(RC). Sounds very nice, but RI+RJC doesn't qualify as a college, unless it teaches undergrad courses. It would be near impossible, but if they do try, it would be very interesting indeed.
Now the merger of RI and RJC is really nothing but the restoration to the 1970's times. You could also claim that it is a copycat of the HCI merger. Either case, this announced merger not really a ground breaking idea(on hindsight at least). They started planning since 2004, the year which HCJC and TCHS (THE Chinese High School) merged to form HCI and started abusing their status by sending their J1 athletes to play B division. This exploit was fixed by the Singapore Sports Council the following year, so revenge is out of the question.
Of course, when large organizations act, it is usually not out of goodwill or for old times' sake. On the news, they representatives claim that the merger between RI and RJC means less admin work for both sides. However, I suspect that in reality they are going to get a lot more admin work, since they will have to gather feedback about this new thing, propose changes, and evaluate the feasibility of the proposals. 2008 will be a tough year for the teachers of both schools.
Surely there are some other benefits? RI doesn't need to rent the track and Multipurpose Hall from RJC any more; they just need to apply. RI prefects can go to RJC to book people who cut queue in the RJ canteen and 7-eleven. RI prefects and RJC councillors can alternately summon each other for match support (or they might even merge too, but I highly doubt so). RI boys can go study in the RJ library and RJC people can go to sleep in the RI library. Of course, VERY importantly, as mentioned by Ho Wen Jun, a larger pool of teachers. RI boys who are very 'on' could crash RJ lectures during Research Education (does it still exist? I really hope not) on the grounds that they are, after all, from the same school. From the looks of it, RI-RJC merger appears to benefit RI more.
Let's take a look at the CCAs. If RI and RJC merges, then they can have 6 year CCAs. This wouldn't be very much different from the status quo for Sports and Performing Arts CCAs. Clubs and Societies have a problem, though. RI Clubs are, frankly, war machines to help RI win competitions. RJ Clubs, on the other hand, are interest groups. Interest groups and war machines operate in a different manner, in the sense that minions of war machines are more elite and motivated than members of interest groups. You put the minions into the war machine, tell them what to aim for, and they will work hard at it, because they can see the goal. Interest groups don't have a goal unless they set it. "We love chem! Yay! ... Now what?" (Really, the natural thing to do is to cast an invulnerability spell on the members, and put them into a Chem Preparation Lab. I can guarantee unanimous support for the above proposal, unfortunately it is not entirely feasible.)
On the surface it doesn't make sense to merge Clubs from RI and RJC together, since they are so different. But we could promote the RI Science Club into a 6 year club, and split it into divisions for each Olympiad. From the crushing defeat at SPhO, RJC ought to realize by now that they REALLY need a war machine if they want to "reign supreme in ev'ry sphere". Currently an RI quiz team member can look ahead and see "NUS Physics", "Eureka", "VJC" etc. Stretching it to 6 years would simply be bringing (an) additional goal(s) into their line of sight. I foresee a side effect though. I suspect that some RJC Clubs currently survive partly because of their perceived elite status. When RISC is pushed to 6 years, some of the RJC Clubs may lose some of their stronger members to RISC, and the perceived elite status will be removed. This may kill off some RJC Clubs.
And of course, this plan wouldn't work if RJC don't hire trainers for the proposed 6 year RISC. RJC, please hire trainers. You've seen that it makes a difference. Since you wish to scrap A levels, you'll need to have something else to show that you are still good enough to do that a few years from now.
Speaking of the scrapping of A levels, it's not for the whole college. The scheme is called "Raffles Diploma" (a rip-off from NUS High), but it is a continuation of Raffles Academy (A two year programme for an elite group of Secondary 3 and 4 students). Only 100+ students will be doing Raffles Diploma per batch. Note that each batch of RJC has 1200+ students. Quoting statistics, in 2006 A-levels, 912 RJ students scored at least three As or more (the highest number among all the junior colleges). I think this pretty much justifies that the top 100+ students from RJC will pwn A levels anyway.
Some people are wondering why RGS is not in the merger. I'd suppose it's no surprise to Rafflesians. RI and RJC are next to each other. RGS is in the middle of somewhere else. You can't even take a direct bus from RI to RGS(Correct me if I'm wrong). And to RI boys, RJC is just RI with girls. It's almost the same uniform, crest, school anthem and school cheers. RJC was born when it was split from RI in 1982. RGS was split from RI in 1879. Big difference. Claiming that two schools so far apart physically, historically and culturally are one would sound superficial.
Besides, you'll need to change the School Anthem, since the melody of anthem is such that you'll only need to hear it once to know that it wasn't composed for girls. Compare "Come heed the call Rafflesians all" and "With God to guide the way". And I wouldn't expect the RGS girls to sing the line "The Sons of Singapore", when their own song has so many "Sisters" in it.
After RI and RJC merges, what shall it be called? Here are a few suggestions:
1. Raffles Institution(RI). Just reverting back to the same old thing. No harm done, really.
2. The Rafflesian Institute(TRI). Good for mocking Hwa Chong. TRI is also oxymoronic because TRI consists of two schools instead of three.
3. Raffles School(RS). "School" doesn't sound impressive enough for me. I'm sure it wouldn't impress the very school that coined the term "Raffles Academy".
4. Raffles High School(RHS). Sounds like a rip-off of NUS High. RHS also stands for "Right Hand Side".
5. Raffles College(RC). Sounds very nice, but RI+RJC doesn't qualify as a college, unless it teaches undergrad courses. It would be near impossible, but if they do try, it would be very interesting indeed.
Saturday, January 05, 2008
Blog didn't die after 3 weeks. Whee!
As usual, I wouldn't blog about the most obvious things to blog about. I shall blog about a person with an interesting name. Katherine(or Catherine) Wicker. This name isn't particularly interesting. What's interesting is her pet name "Kitty". It's not really a pet name, since everyone calls her Kitty, and if a stranger (unless it be a policeman) asks for her name she'll introduce herself as "Kitty". You meet her for the first time and you go "Hello Kitty!"
It may still be fine right now, since she's 21. But I'll be interested to know the cut-off age after which calling a woman "Kitty" would sound plain weird. This is especially so in Western Culture where they are fine with calling their parents by name. Having your son call you Kitty is seriously... strange. What could be stranger than calling your mom "Kitty"? Calling your girlfriend's mom Kitty.
Kitty the person is quite interesting too. She studies linguistics in university. LIEK O.M.G. COOL. Among other things, she learns conversation analysis(study what the pauses in a conversation mean), voice analysis (find out if two audio recordings are from the same person), and phonology (classify, learn and produce sounds that form words in any language).
Phonology is quite cool! They have a system of classification of sounds by how it is produced, and each sound contains information about the mouth position and the air flow and throat vibration, and words are combinations of sounds. Tonal changes, clicks and inhalations are reflected too. *gasp!*
According to Kitty, this system of classification allows people to state specifically how one accent sounds like, thus helping them mimic and create accents if they want to.
They use big words. "Voiceless Uvular Fricative". Sexy. "Bilabial Implosive". Even sexier. The use of big and sexy words just to describe sounds- something so crucial to a conversation- allows you to kill a conversation with ease.
"What's the difference between 'whee' and 'wee'?"
"Well, 'w' is a voiceless bilabial fricative."
*silence*
Of course, one wouldn't need to use that ability too often. It's just cool to know that you can do it. (A parallel here is that there are people who learn to kill people with bare hands. It's not like they'll be using it, but it's just cool to know that they could if they want to.)
Speaking of sounds, here are a few tongue twisters for Singaporeans! Apparently they are not difficult for the British.
The Dentist's crisps fell into the wasps' nests.
Three thousand two hundred and thirty three twee thistle trees.
Red Loli Yellow Lorry (repeat)
_______
I've been wanting to blog about this for a long time, but I've never gotten down to it.
Some songs are made of long strings of nouns and adjectives. In my opinion, songs like these are demanding to be parodied. Examples include "Once upon a December" and "My favourite things"(in The Sound of Music).
I didn't blog about this before because I haven't thought of how to parody them yet. I would need some help.
As usual, I wouldn't blog about the most obvious things to blog about. I shall blog about a person with an interesting name. Katherine(or Catherine) Wicker. This name isn't particularly interesting. What's interesting is her pet name "Kitty". It's not really a pet name, since everyone calls her Kitty, and if a stranger (unless it be a policeman) asks for her name she'll introduce herself as "Kitty". You meet her for the first time and you go "Hello Kitty!"
It may still be fine right now, since she's 21. But I'll be interested to know the cut-off age after which calling a woman "Kitty" would sound plain weird. This is especially so in Western Culture where they are fine with calling their parents by name. Having your son call you Kitty is seriously... strange. What could be stranger than calling your mom "Kitty"? Calling your girlfriend's mom Kitty.
Kitty the person is quite interesting too. She studies linguistics in university. LIEK O.M.G. COOL. Among other things, she learns conversation analysis(study what the pauses in a conversation mean), voice analysis (find out if two audio recordings are from the same person), and phonology (classify, learn and produce sounds that form words in any language).
Phonology is quite cool! They have a system of classification of sounds by how it is produced, and each sound contains information about the mouth position and the air flow and throat vibration, and words are combinations of sounds. Tonal changes, clicks and inhalations are reflected too. *gasp!*
According to Kitty, this system of classification allows people to state specifically how one accent sounds like, thus helping them mimic and create accents if they want to.
They use big words. "Voiceless Uvular Fricative". Sexy. "Bilabial Implosive". Even sexier. The use of big and sexy words just to describe sounds- something so crucial to a conversation- allows you to kill a conversation with ease.
"What's the difference between 'whee' and 'wee'?"
"Well, 'w' is a voiceless bilabial fricative."
*silence*
Of course, one wouldn't need to use that ability too often. It's just cool to know that you can do it. (A parallel here is that there are people who learn to kill people with bare hands. It's not like they'll be using it, but it's just cool to know that they could if they want to.)
Speaking of sounds, here are a few tongue twisters for Singaporeans! Apparently they are not difficult for the British.
The Dentist's crisps fell into the wasps' nests.
Three thousand two hundred and thirty three twee thistle trees.
Red Loli Yellow Lorry (repeat)
_______
I've been wanting to blog about this for a long time, but I've never gotten down to it.
Some songs are made of long strings of nouns and adjectives. In my opinion, songs like these are demanding to be parodied. Examples include "Once upon a December" and "My favourite things"(in The Sound of Music).
I didn't blog about this before because I haven't thought of how to parody them yet. I would need some help.
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