I received an e-mail yesterday, and I thought I might want to share it. Some of you might have received it too.

The e-mail is as follows:

*Two moons on 27 August*
*27th Aug the Whole World is waiting for...*
Planet Mars will be the brightest in the night sky starting August.
It will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. This will cultivate on Aug. 27 when Mars comes within 34.65M miles of earth. Be sure to watch the sky on Aug. 27 12:30 am. It will look like the earth has 2 moons.
The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287.
Share this with your friends as NO ONE ALIVE TODAY will ever see it again.


Well, I am sure this is rather intriguing.
But let's clarify some things.

Mars was indeed closest to Earth on the 27th of August, as close as only 55,758,006 kilometers(34.65M miles) away from the Earth.
But that happened on the 27th of August in 2003, so people, if you missed it already, its over. As a matter of fact, this e-mail hoax has been passed around since 2003 and it appears every year around this time.

It is also true that Mars might not come as close as this till 2287, when we will experience another close encounter, but Mars actually come close to the Earth every 2 years, just not as close as it was in 2003.

But guess what? Mars never came close enough to be comparable to the moon when seen with the naked eye. Considering that the Moon is only 384,403 kilometres away, while Mars is 56 million kilometres away, and that Mars is only approximately 7.5 times the size of the Moon, you wouldn't really be expecting Mars to be the size of the full moon to the naked eye. In fact, Mars merely appeared twice as wide and 6 times brighter on the 27th of August in 2003. To keen observers, it appeared as a bright red star on a telescope.

Another interesting note would be that, if Mars ever appeared the size of the Moon to the naked eye, we would have things to worry about. That's because Mars would be so close that the gravitational pull of Mars will affect the tidal patterns of Earth so much that we will probably all be drowned, instead of watching the 'two moons' in the sky.

So if you got your alarms clock set to wake up at 12:30am on the 27th of August, forget it. Mars isn't coming.



P.S. If you really want to know, Mars next close approach this year is on the 18th of December, at a distance of 88.42 million kilometers, still considerably far compared to the 55.76 million kilometers recorded in 2003. The next closest approach is calculated to occur in 2018, at a distance of approximately 69.4 million kilometers. But of course, if you can wait till the year 2287, Mars will make another record close enough to match the one in 2003.

Labels: special articles

Straits Times Headlines today:
GST Hike: 1st profiteering case uncovered

From what I deduced from the news article, it is unethical to raise prices to earn profits from the GST hike. There is a Committee Against Profiteering(CAP) set up to deal with such issues.

Let's see. I do know of one particular price hike which is paricularly unreasonable.
The drinks stall in the canteen. It raised prices of every drink by 10 cents after the GST hike came into effect. Compared to the reported case in the newspaper article, which raised prices by 3.7%, our drinks stall has raised prices by 8% to 12.5%!
That, compared to a 2% GST hike.
They are just trying to earn more profits, using the GST hike as a shield(or would I say excuse?) to cover up their profit-making.
And they are earning from us students! How unethical can it possibly get?

You know what? I think we should persuade them to reverse their price hikes.

This is also not the first time that the drinks stall is upping prices without special notice. When they changed the Milo from a packet drink to a canned drink, they increased the prices by 20 cents. Now its a further 10 cents higher.

The first time I bought from the drinks stall, I had already noticed that its prices were much higher compared to the drinks stall in Catholic High. Now they are just getting more out of hand.

Don't ignore this situation by saying that 10 cents is just a meagre amount. If you are buying drinks from the drinks stall on a frequent basis, you are losing an extra 10 cents each time you do so. Not to mention that their prices are already outrageously above the normal price level in an ideal school canteen.

Oh and just another thing. The quality of the drinks are also getting way out of hand. Last time, they used to sell diluted soya bean. Now their soya bean tastes like bandung too. They are clearly mixing the holding containers of their drinks as they wish.

Why are we paying more for lower quality? This doesn't make sense. Not at all.
I am definitely going to do something about it.
Will you?

Labels: special articles

Alright. I watched 'High School Musical' recently. A bit late, considering it came out last year. Haha. I think its starring on TV this weekend, but I caught it slightly earlier =P

This movie is really nice. Not only are the songs nice, I like their dances too.
Don't miss this movie if you haven't caught it!

The last song came with a great dance.

We Are All In This Together:




Speaking about nice dances, here's a spectacular one by Samsung.
The synchronisation is amazing.

Labels: movie/documentary, special articles

This is not criticism. This is value judgement =]
I am just giving my own opinion here.

Around 2 weeks ago, Wendy Cheng(Xia Xue) posted a very controversial post on her blog, naming the top seven most disgusting bloggers in the Singapore blogosphere. [link]
That is, of course, not the very first controversial post, but it sure stirred up a lot of rife among the Singapore bloggers. Well, the famous ones at least.

For example, Steven Lim, who was named as the top most disgusting blogger in Singapore by Wendy, retaliated by hurling abuse at Wendy, or I would say, attempted to hurl abuse at Wendy, in a Youtube video. Honestly, its rather an amusing video. I thought he was more fluent in Hokkien than in English or Chinese. But out of all the Hokkien he used, it was just a string of abuse. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I saw it. It was the worst retaliation I have ever seen. What sort of an insult is 'chicken pie'? Haha. It did have some effect though. The video concreted the evidence that Steven Lim was the most disgusting blogger in Singapore. You can check out his retaliation here. Careful. There's a string of Hokkien abuse at the last 40~30 seconds of the video. [link]

Now, back to Wendy. I don't really frequent this blog, nor do I read it often. Its just that someone mentioned the controversial post and the amusing retaliation, so I thought I might check it out.
Now, I believe many of you have heard of her blog. Xiaxue. The most popular blog in Singapore. Wendy is also the host of 'Girls Out Loud', an English show I have never watched before, never heard anyone talking about before, nor have I seen an advertisement on it before. Weird. I think the show isn't running anymore, though I ain't very sure myself. One can't make sweeping statements.

Now, without digressing, ever since the first time I visited that blog, I have never been very approving of the blog. For one, the blog contains a tonne of expletives. Yea sure, according to a member of the public who wrote into the Strait Times, rude blogs have 'substance', which attracts readers to it.
But hey, there's not really a need to use expletives every few lines you see.
Furthermore, I feel that while she criticises people, she is just being hypocritical. The way she attacks others on her blog frequently about everything that is wrong with them applies to herself too.

But then again, I am not completely biased against Wendy. I applaud her for her blatantly honest blog posts and how she speaks up against everything that is wrong in society, even if the language is over-expressive.
We need more people who speak up against what is wrong than people who praise what is right. Knowing what is wrong can help to correct the problems in a system, and thus people should never hesitate to tell what is wrong.

By the way, I am not using Wendy's name to get something to write. I originally planned to blog about something today, but I shall leave it to tommorow.

Enough of the Singapore blogosphere then.


Geography class at 415 was very amusing today. For one, it seemed as if we were in an earthquake, cos the projector screen kept vibrating and there were loud stomping noises coming from the ceiling. Finally, after about 40 minutes of stomping and vibrating, Ms Zhu decided to go up and take a look. Omg.
The people up there had apparently been kicking a paper ball for the last 40 minutes. I am extremely amused. Lol. Life in AJ must be boring.

Alright. I hope you all like my new addition of countdown timers =)
Haha.

Labels: special articles, youtube

Have you ever read articles on solar systems other than our own?
In the areas of space research, you will realise that the time line is much longer than what most people would conceive.

It is said that the Sun would die in 5-7 billion years. But just before it does, it will start swelling and heating up, to 100 times its present size. It is also said that within 1 billion years, the Sun would be 11 percent bigger than before. So that means the swelling would be beginning in less than 1 billion years, heating up the Earth slowly over time, making it impossible for life when it becomes impossibly hot.
We are running out of time.

Scientists have begun hatching ideas to move the Earth. Yes, they plan to shift the Earth further away from the Sun slowly, so that we will still be around in 1 billion years. This involves maneuvering an asteroid about 100km wide(is that big?) through our solar system. Then Earth will be able to borrow some of the orbital energy of the asteroid and away we go from the Sun! If we do this every once in 6000 years, we will be moving away at a fast enough speed before the Sun engulfs us.

The problem? If we miss and the asteroid hits us instead... Remember how the dinos died? This asteroid is 6 times bigger than the one that was assumed to have killed all the cute little dinosaurs. Go figure.

We will also have to give up the Moon to accomplish this. No more Lunar Festival. Aw man. And we will have to get Mars to budge up for us to move out.

Ironically, all of this masterplan to save the Earth takes place and is calculated in thousands, millions, and billions of a year. Few humans even make it past a hundred. And so, if you ever wish to go into space research, remember that a 'brief' moment happens over a period of several thousands years and a 'long' wait is 5 billion years long.

But some people argue. Hey. What if we get hit by a comet before all of that happens? And Earth returns to an Ice Age??? Wouldn't humanity be dead by then to do anything?
That sure doesn't sound nice. But given my own estimate, Earth will be gone before the 10th millienium. Humanity is doing a darn good job at killing it, don't you think? And with a dead planet, civilisation would die too. So why are we so worried that an over-bloated Sun might just bump us out?



Replies ~ your tags:

cry(s): right. I hope we don't.

wilson: Super ownage. Lol. 2 people passed H1 Economics only.

p0h's|n: 67 days! Boom!

Labels: special articles

Miss Leong reviewed our midyear results in mass civics today. Well, we all know how 'fabulous' it was. No words could describe it other than atrocious, abhorrent and appalling.

One classic example was H1 Economics. 99.5% fail rate.
H2 Economics was no better. Approximately 92% fail rate. I can't remember the exact value.

As I sat through the review, I wondered if AJC was really ready for the 'A' levels. It made me wonder if the results at this point of time was the same for our precedent batches. Or are we the worst batch in AJC history?

The 'A' levels are only 96 days away. Assuming we divide the next 96 days equally to cover all of our 5 subjects, we only have approximately 19 days per subject. Is it enough?

Also, for the J1s, this is a gentle reminder that their promotional examinations are only 69 days away. How many of you reading this feel absolutely confident of grasping your basic concepts in these 69 days, while being hogged down by Project Work?

The exams are approaching, if you haven't realised. Yes. Its just like silent thunder. If you don't hear it, you assume its not coming. But when you do, and you start running to get out, its too late. You are bound to be caught in the downpour.

Good luck people. Start running today!



Replies ~ your tags:

cry(s): What's hypnotherapy?

Wakka02: I guess so then. Cya in er.. 3 months? Hah.

p0h's|n: haha really? thx. u too.

Its DBACABDDCC.
No idea what I just said?
Its code. Yep. Only the Ones will understand.

Anyway. I got tagged. So here goes.


Each player shall start by sharing 6 weird things about themselves. They will then tag 3 new players. And these 3 people who're tagged, will write a new entry giving 6 weird things about themselves.
No tagging back!


Weird Fact #1:

Whenever I am at home, I will go online. That's why I usually appear to be permanently online. Its a good idea to be constantly linked to the rest of the world at home. Haha. Some people have asked how I could study if I am always online. Well, its possible. Trust me.

Weird Fact #2:

I fell sick for a month. Falling sick is normal. But getting sick for 1 month is weird. I remember Mr Lim said that it was the '100-day cough'. I would cough for 99 days, then it would stop suddenly on the 100th day. I never reached the 40th day though. It stopped around that time.

Weird Fact #3:

I am clueless about soccer. Its after all, a stereotype that guys = soccer. Well. I don't have any idea about any famous soccer stars, neither do I watch soccer, and neither do I play soccer. Who ever said a guy must like soccer?

Weird Fact #4:

I am extraordinarily lame. Many people feel that way too. Haha. But I can be serious. Though its very tempting to create a cold wind. After all, we need to lower global temperatures, don't we?

Weird Fact #5:

I experience deja vu all the time, although there's less of it nowadays. Deja vu is defined by dictionary.com as the illusion of having previously experienced something actually being encountered for the first time. But the way I feel it, its as if I have seen the scenario before. And just before something happens, I know what is going to happen, what the next person will say. Its not an illusion. I have definitely been through the scene before. Its as if.. I experienced brief flashes of the future before that.

Weird Fact #6:

I have run out of weird facts.


Now I shall tag 3 lucky people to do this.
1. Chris
2. Poh Sin
3. Pui Kit



Photo credit from cszar.


Replies ~ your tags:

wilson: Yep. you too.

Wakka02: Well, maybe I will find them one day. Maybe not. The part I like most about Chasing Cars is the lyrics: "If I lay here, if I just lay here. Would you lie with me and just forget the world?"
Beautiful lyrics.

♂jw: I guess so.. I tried to focus on bringing it back a while ago. But I couldn't find it. Its.. lost. Either that or its trapped behind a psychological barrier I built myself. Now I can't break it.

cry(s): Yes.. emotions are immortals. Everyone has them. But mindpower can overcome emotions. Even immortals will fall. I got to convince my mind to let go first.

p0h's|n: Haha. Will try not to. Lol.

Labels: tag

http://laixinchu.googlepages.com/vectorsguide

Sorry. I got no time to blog today. I shall do the tag tmr.
Meanwhile check out the notes I compiled for vectors. It might help for next Wed's test.

His life was a routine.
Every school day he woke up, took a bath, and changed into his school uniform.
Then, he would pack his bag, gulp down a quick drink, say bye to his mom and leave the house.

Then, he would go to the lifts, push the button and wait for the lift to come.
The button would turn red and the lift would....

Wait a min. The button didn't turn red today.

He pushed the button again. And again. He tried the other button. Nothing happened.

You must be kidding me. Both lifts are down with me on the 11th floor?


As I trudged down 11 stories of stairs, I began to wonder what it would be like if we ran out of electricity one day. Civilisation back to square one, eh?

I called the lift service maintainence number and told them both lifts were dead. Whew. I didn't miss the train. One minute more and I would have missed it.



Alright. I am officially sick again. The people around me might have to endure 3 weeks of coughing again. Hais. Whenever I fall sick, it always takes forever to recover. Wonder why. I hope my coughing didn't disrupt the Geography timed practice today. Ken said I was coughing every 2 seconds. I swear it was 3.

My original purpose of starting a blog was to archive my life slowly, bit by bit.
As I read through my blog archives briefly today, I began to notice a pattern. It was too distinct for me to miss.

I have changed a lot. Its visible in the way I type my blog entries.
Previously, I never bothered much with typing properly. There's short forms everywhere and the sentences are never proper. Other than that, I used to flood my blog posts with smiley faces.

Interesting, huh? You don't see those anymore.

Well, one reason is because I don't smile as much. So the expression doesn't get onto my blog.

Another thing is that the cheery tone in my previous blog posts last year had died down completely. I just talk about everything in a monotone now. Its because I am no longer cheerful.

I used to blog about everything that happened to me each day. Oh, the homework. Ah, the food I ate. Something like 'Guess what happened to me today?' each day. Every minor thing used to seem so interesting.
Nowadays, I begin to blog less about myself, because I have become something like a blank book, closer to stone than human. I start talking about philosophy, about the world. There's more life elsewhere than inside me.

I feel like I am being crushed by something coporeal, something I can't see, yet I know it is there. I wish I could uncork my emotions, but try as I may, I cannot find the cork.
I forgot the time when I last felt true happiness, or true sadness. Because I seem to have lost all emotion. I began searching for it a while back this year, but no matter how hard I searched, I couldn't find it in myself. It's as if there was a void in my heart, sucking everything into oblivion. Is it suppressed? Or is it there no more?

I killed all my emotions when I wanted to stop the pain long ago. In the process, I sacrificed happiness and everything else. All the emotions. Gone.
Now I wish I can feel the pain again. Because after all, at the very least, I will know that I am human.

I apologise if I appear to be cold or ever appeared to be cold. I merely lost all my emotions. That's all.

I should have blogged about this 1 week ago.

Alright. So all my results are back. Not very pretty, I must admit.
In fact, I am ultimately disappointed at myself.
Where did I go wrong? Everywhere, I guess. I am going to reform my study methods and I am going to work harder.

I admit, the midyears was a major wake-up call to me. Since I got back half my papers last Friday, the disappointment have been so deep that it had inspired me to start studying at least 3 hours a day. Its time to get serious.

GP Phy Maths Econs Geog.
CDUUU.

That sure seems like a lot of Us. Not something to be proud of. With such grades at midyears, what can I possibly expect from prelims?
No way. I can't let this carry on.

I know I have been slack in my work. So its time to wake up now. 'A' levels is no more than 109 days away.
I am at the bottom 20% for more than half of my results.
I may have failed my Maths, but I can figure numbers.
If I am going to pull myself back together in 2 months, I am short of time.

Please. If you are reading this, and you haven't started studying, please please wake up now. Unless your grades are already at AAAA. If not, please start studying. 2 months is a very, very short time.


The Boiling Frog Syndrome

If a frog is placed into a stove of boiling water, it will jump out instantly.
However, if the same frog was placed into a stove of cold water, and it is slowly heated to boiling point, the frog will never jump out.
That's because it takes a jolt for the frog to realise that it is in danger.

Are you still slowly heating up in warm water? You are in danger. Don't wait for the water to boil. Because by then, the frog would have been cooked alive.


Replies to your tags:

Adfstrata: Yea. Its rather sad to see this happening. A corrupt administration always destroys the people under it.

crys: Is this better or the previous one better?

♂jw: Haha. Good for gp =P

Just now, when I was at Popular, I witnessed an incident.
A boy of approximately 4 years old took a CD-rom off the shelves and walked out of Popular with it.
When the alarm went off, the maid taking care of him was surprised and shocked at what he had done.
The boy refused to give the CD up and he was literally dragged back to the CD shelves and the maid wrestled the CD out of the boy's hands. The boy howled.
Later, I saw him telling his dad that he wanted the CD. His dad, likewise, brought him away. His cries could be heard from a mile away.

The boy couldn't understand why neither his dad or the maid stopped him from taking a CD merely placed on some shelves. He was, like a kid, oblivious of the term 'payment'. The innocence of a kid.

On the way back, I saw a girl of around the same age with her mom. When she suddenly saw a Coca-Cola can lying abandoned on a ledge, she went over, grabbed it and told her mom she wanted to drink. Her mom naturally told her to put it back. There were no cries, though. She placed the can back quietly.

The girl didn't understand why she couldn't drink her favourite drink from the can. After all, her mom had let her drink from the same red can before. Why not this can? She was, like a kid, didn't know that she shouldn't drink from cans lying around. The innocence of a kid.

I remembered my cousin once tried to ask his mom to buy him some toys. His mom, refused, citing that the toys were too expensive and she had no money. My cousin replied, "Just go to the wall and press the buttons and money will come out!"
My aunt didn't know whether to laugh or cry. A kid's perspective of a cash withdrawal machine. He was 4 years old then.

Ah. The innocence of a kid.

Labels: special articles

I just finished watching another documentary by Michael Moore. Sicko.
This one highlights the health care system in the USA compared to that of other nations.
I must admit, Moore does a twist on the way he presents what he wants to say, editing clips to emphasize his point and often to gain sympathy. Usually, he will drive his point home with a one-sided view which will give viewers a wrong impression.

But hey. Guess what? At least what he provided are some facts of the USA health care system which even critics can't deny. Its rather sad to see that the health care in once such a great nation is presently in the hands of insurance companies.

Its a "DUH!" that insurance companies are just like any business, profit-seeking and trying to reduce the possibility of issuing payouts. Which business wish to make a loss? That's the problem in the USA. With the health care system in the hands of insurance companies, you can expect the health care coverage provided to go to shit. It is said that 45 million Americans are insured. But there doesn't seem to be any point in getting yourself insured if insurance companies are trying their best to deny Americans their reimbursement when they get sick or hospitalised. The health care costs in the USA are horribly high, and medication costs are enough to drive people to bankruptcy.

As part of the documentary, Moore showed that a medicine costing US$120 in the USA only cost US$0.05 in Cuba. While I can't confirm that this is true, noone has actually stepped out to refute that claim, so I will accept it as possibly the truth. If it is true, how can prices differ by so much? We are talking about a 2400 times difference in prices here. Does this not highlight the corruptcy in the American health care system? Does this not show that something is actually wrong with the system? In one of the story coverage, Moore interviewed a man who lost one-third of his ring finger and his middle finger in an accident. When he reached the hospital, the doctor told him that it would cost him $60,000 to reattach his middle finger and $12,000 to reattach his ring finger. He could not afford it, so he only could pay to have his ring finger reattached. Where's the ethics in this? Did people become doctors to make profits or to help people? Shouldn't doctors treat anyone regardless of their financial status? In another story, a woman who brought her daughter with a high fever to the nearest hospital was actually denied treatment and was eventually escorted out of the hospital. Reason? The hospital contacted her insurance company and the company said that the baby was not insured in that hospital. Thus, the hospital refused treatment. The baby died on the way to the 'correct' hospital. What the hell?

Can you, living in Singapore, imagine going to the accident and emergency department of a hospital feeling terrible, and refused treatment because they found out you might not be able to afford the treatment? In the USA, some hospitals are known to pack such people into cabs and send them off to somewhere else, half-treated and in bad condition. Not just some old dilapidated hospital. Yes, even reputable ones.

The whole issue circulates around how health issues in the USA have turned into a massive profit-making industry. In my opinion, it is extremely unethical to put profits in front of the welfare of the patients when it comes to health care. After all, every life is precious. Each and every person deserve equal treatment, and the rich certainly should not be given the red carpet.

Some parts of Moore's film deserve questioning though. He compared the health care system in the USA to that of the health care system in the United Kingdom. Moore claimed that the people in the UK do not have to pay a single cent for their health care and their waiting times in the hospitals are extremely short(1 hour in UK compared to 18 hours in the USA). It is true that the UK provide socialised health care to the people at no cost, as the costs are paid for by tax payers. However, UK citizens have income taxes ranging from 10% to 40%. Their 'GST' is as high as 17.5% and companies are taxed 30% of their earnings. That's where all the money is coming from. Moore didn't mention that though. The impression he gives is that the people in the UK seem to enjoy infinite benefit with no detriments. Of course there are. The money must come from somewhere. Another thing is that the 'waiting time' he highlighted is that of the time taken for people to see a doctor. That's actually a minor issue. The UK actually is reportedly to have longer and longer waiting times from the point where the person is examined by a doctor to the point where the person receives treatment. The current waiting times are as long as more than 20 weeks at the moment. That is, if you see a doctor in January, you might only get treated only in June. Of course, this only applies to 'major' illnesses, depending how you define 'major'. They won't wait 5 months to treat your flu. By then, your flu would have gone away and 2 more bouts of flus would probably have passed in the meantime.

There are still many different 'real stories' depicted in the documentary, but going through all of them will turn this into a 5000-word essay. I guess the documentary can speak for itself. Do try to get your hands on the documentary. It opens up a new insight to the 'health care' in America. Of course, if you have watched previous documentaries such as 'Bowling in Columbine' and 'Farenheit 9/11' from Michael Moore, you would expect the same critcism of the Bush administration.

I still think the USA is going to the dumps. As a superpower(or is it still one?), it really sucks. Where else do you find a country which takes care of the rich, shoots each other with absolutely no reason, imbues terror into its people, throw people out of hospitals literally, and still claims that it is a wonderful and developed nation? Oh come on. Face it. The USA is being destroyed by the Bush administration. They spend so many years, so much money, and so many lives invading Iraq with claims of WMDs in Iraq, ignoring the decision by the United Nations forbidding them from attacking Iraq and end up finding nothing. I am so glad that Bush didn't manage to carry on with his presidency. If not, the USA would be gone from the world map before his next term of presidency ends.


By the way, why is it that everyday, we pledge to 'build a democratic society' when Singapore is actually a parliamentary republic. I mean, we are actually far from being a democracy, so isn't this quite ironic? Well, if you realise, we don't really fit the definition of a democratic nation. Ironic, isn't it?


And oh yes, the new song, "I Need To Wake Up" by Melissa Etheridge is dedicated to Live Earth Day, which is today. I will blog about Live Earth Day tomorrow. So you all are going to expect 2 long posts. Hah. Don't get too bored reading it. They are issues of concerns and are actually very interesting topics. Global issues, yes. If we all play a small part, we can change the world. Don't you think so?

Labels: movie/documentary, special articles

As part of the school's surprise package, we were told we would be having a career fair officially on the day of the career fair itself.
Patrick Lim actually told us the day before, but I don't really get why we were told so late.

Like any Wednesday, it was a day with plenty of breaks and few lessons. Wonder why.
I went for the talk on the Singapore tourism industry, followed by accountancy, and engineering.
Tourism didnt really interest me, since I am not really into the hospitability issue. Hah. Not that I am not hospitable. Its just that integrated resorts and casinos and the number of foreigners in Singapore doesn't interest me.

I went for accountancy after that. It was quite intriguing, though someone to my left was fast asleep. Haha. Everyone probably has different interests. I slept during the tourism one.
Accountancy seemed like a rather interesting career, and with the lack of accountants in Singapore, there seems to be prospects in this field. The job's apparently not an easy one though. They mentioned the Big Four in the accountancy field. And they appeared on the news today. It seems like the starting salaries for accountants have just risen again due to the lack of people in this area. Singapore is really lacking accountants, eh?

I went for the engineering talk after that. Previously, I thought of going into engineering, but I had no inkling what engineering was really all about. Ok, so i figured a thing or two from that talk. Its something about using resources to innovate and invent stuffs beneficial to the world. Interesting.
The person giving the talk was a rather hyperactive lecturer from NUS. He's really funny. Lol.


Considering all the information I took in during the career fair, I was quite sure I would be staying in Singapore to study. And trust me, the last career I will pick up is teaching. I don't like careers with a routine work schedule.
But few careers have a flexible one. Accounting? Engineering? Or something else?
I haven't dropped the idea of pursuing my interest in Psychology though. If I get a chance in the future, I might take on it as an extra interest.

Well, well. Picking a career seems like a tough choice. Its always important to pick something one is interested in. At least you will enjoy your job no matter how lousy it is. But that doesn't mean being a road sweeper if you love sweeping. We got to balance between the love for our job and the future prospects it will have.

So I guess that's it for the careers.


To quote a famous someone: "Don't know why they hold career talks when you all got no future. Such results how to get a career?"

In the short run, got to work hard for the results first. Haha. Think about the career later.


Anyway, of the results I got back, I passed Physics and I guess I will blatantly fail all my other H2s. I am holding some hope for GP still. I know I will fail Geography. Miss Zhu had to think for a while before saying: "I think some people passed."
That means a vast majority failed. Which will include me. Anyway, I don't know what to do about my Geography grades. Miracles will never happen. I guess I will have to work towards forming one of my own. No time to be depressed over the results. What's over is over. The time should be spent working towards new results!

For the prelims/ promos/ A-levels,
Good luck and all the best peeps. Jia you ba!

School has been horrible since it started.
For some reason, the canteen food tastes horrible once again.
The lessons are extremely boring.
The environment is stuffy and choking.
I feel like getting out of school.

I feel damn tired of school.
Damn tired of everything.
It feels like an ordeal in there.
Someone get me out.
I am sick. Sick and tired.
4 months left. I can't wait till I get out.

Like Zkai said,

Sian. Sian. Sian. Sian. Sian. Sian. Sian.

I want OUT!

After the career talk on the personality types today, I went to read up on my personality type - out of curiousity.
By the way, I don't like the fact that she used the photo of George Bush. Hah. But I liked her comment at the end.
"If this guy can be where he is today, we can be anything."
Nicely said.

Okay, so I am the ENTP type. (Approximately 5% of the population)

Quoted from Typelogic.com:


"Clever" is the word that perhaps describes ENTPs best. The professor who juggles half a dozen ideas for research papers and grant proposals in his mind while giving a highly entertaining lecture on an abstruse subject is a classic example of the type. So is the stand-up comedian whose lampoons are not only funny, but incisively accurate.


ENTPs are usually verbally as well as cerebrally quick, and generally love to argue--both for its own sake, and to show off their often-impressive skills. They tend to have a perverse sense of humor as well, and enjoy playing devil's advocate. They sometimes confuse, even inadvertently hurt, those who don't understand or accept the concept of argument as a sport.


ENTPs are as innovative and ingenious at problem-solving as they are at verbal gymnastics; on occasion, however, they manage to outsmart themselves. This can take the form of getting found out at "sharp practice"--ENTPs have been known to cut corners without regard to the rules if it's expedient -- or simply in the collapse of an over-ambitious juggling act. Both at work and at home, ENTPs are very fond of "toys"--physical or intellectual, the more sophisticated the better. They tend to tire of these quickly, however, and move on to new ones.


ENTPs are basically optimists, but in spite of this (perhaps because of it?), they tend to become extremely petulant about small setbacks and inconveniences. (Major setbacks they tend to regard as challenges, and tackle with determination.) ENTPs have little patience with those they consider wrongheaded or unintelligent, and show little restraint in demonstrating this. However, they do tend to be extremely genial, if not charming, when not being harassed by life in general.


In terms of their relationships with others, ENTPs are capable of bonding very closely and, initially, suddenly, with their loved ones. Some appear to be deceptively offhand with their nearest and dearest; others are so demonstrative that they succeed in shocking co-workers who've only seen their professional side. ENTPs are also good at acquiring friends who are as clever and entertaining as they are. Aside from those two areas, ENTPs tend to be oblivious of the rest of humanity, except as an audience -- good, bad, or potential.


Its interesting how some of the descriptions are closely related to what I love doing. Haha. Yea. I argue for the sake of it. That's what many people would tell me.
But the part about having little patience with those considered wrongheaded or unintelligent, I beg to differ. I can be very patient and willing to teach if the other party is willing to learn. But I don't deny that if I am approached with no intention of learning but instead, just for the sake of getting an answer, I can be impatient. Why even bother getting the answer with no intention of learning?
And I don't look only for friends who are clever and entertaining. I welcome everyone to be my friend. Haha.

The rest of the descriptions, I shall not comment on. Its up to you all to perceive I guess.

According to another website, http://www.geocities.com/lifexplore/entp.htm, occupations that require innovation will appeal to ENTPs, such as photography.
Haha. That might explain something.
Also, ENTPs want to be taught concepts rather than facts.
That's a good point. I don't like learning facts. If given facts, I will try to figure out the concept behind it.


Putting all the personality stuffs behind, I got my Econs case study and my Physics MCQ back today.
Econs.. well. I have never passed it. Anyway, some facts of the Econs paper are as follows:
1. The average score is 35%.
2. Everyone who did the question on global recession failed it.

Physics MCQ was still okay. Though I thought I could have done better.
I really hope I pass something. Haha.
Must I go into mugger mode?
12 hours a day or 12 minutes a day? Lols.


Replies to your tags:

veron: yea. haha. so when's the next? =P

Wakka02: ...

cry(s): Heh. Maybe.

Griffie: That's a self-generated assumption..

July 1st is a significant day. Yes its Terrence's bday. Happy birthday =)
But its also the day when Singapore's GST goes up to 7%!

Yes! Prices have already gone up! Inflation! I went to KFC today. Noted that the prices have all been upped. Seems like not every producer will be absorbing the rise in prices. While Singapore Press Holdings are absorbing the rise in costs, KFC is passing the tax burden down to consumers.

We will probably be expecting a slight inflation in prices, though the government is providing cash incentives to both SMEs and the general population to cope with the 2% GST hike.

If you read the news today, you would note that many people have decided to purchase lots of expensive goods before the GST hike to avoid paying the extra 2%.
It seems like an expectation of rising prices would prompt an increase in consumption level.

But hey. This 2% GST hike is deterimental to us students. Prices have inflated, but not all our allowances have. Effectively, we now have a lower disposable income. Since wages have risen for most occupations to balance up the purchasing power, shouldn't it do the same for us? Haha.

Alright. I don't really understand the intention behind the 2% tax hike, but I am unsure if it was really necessary. Like the government said, they don't need the money. So they shouldn't have destabilised prices in the first place. After all, consumers always suffer most from the tax incidence. The increase in wages definitely will not apply to every employed personnel since some greedy firms will want to take the benefits from the government for themselves - those that the government provide to facilitate a firms with the rise in prices.

Yea. Definitely disadvantageous to the general population. Even though Singapore is clocking the highest growth rate in the world, it doesn't mean the whole population is getting richer. It only means the rich are getting richer and the poorer are getting poorer. It always seems that way. This is widening the income gap, not reducing it.

According to the government, the purpose of the tax hike is such that the government will receive sufficient expenditure to spend on helping the poor.(Ref) But ironically, the tax hike will make the poor poorer. Unless they take the money, then start giving it out to the low income population. Then, I will agree with that. But for now, inflation!


On another note, at KFC today, I noted a lot of negative externalities coming from this guy in front of me in the queue. He gave very confusing orders, kept changing his orders, and ordered a bulk of food, thus slowing the queue to a standstill. The queue beside us had finished serving about 3 to 4 customers before the guy in front of me was done! Don't he know it will cause market failure? Lol.

Anyway. I promised not to explicitly name the guy on my blog, but only to identify him as MK, and that he plays chess. Its very discreet, isn't it? =))