Chinese New Year!

Yesterday's TJC Road Run cum CNY celebrations. Haha. Had a good 3km run in the morning. Haha. Feels a bit weird to have road run in the "staff category". Haha. Anyway I'm surprised that some of the senior teachers can run really fast! Haha. LOL. *Feels damn old*. Anyway CNY carnival was alright. I thought that the dunking stall was quite funny. Haha. Anyway heard that almost everything was sold out so that's great! Haha. On a side note, I finally got my timetable. I've got 4 CG's for H2 Math - 07,10,12 and 29/10. 3 science classes and 1 cross combination class. So far I haven't heard anything good nor bad from any of the classes yet, but I've done my research on the kids and they seem really fine, except one or two which i suspect will become quite tricky. Haha. Anyway I shall be optimistic and hope for the best.

After all the activities in school, went to Parkway with john to waste time. Haha. Yes, waste time. Coz we were supposed to meet jiaxin and gang at Bedok only at 5. And no one's home for john so he can't go home, so accompanied him to Parkway. Haha. Walked and shopped around. Bought some stationery and stuff for work. Haha. Then settled down at Starbucks for coffee. Haha. The Mocha is damn nice. Haha. My new coffee love after Latte. Haha. Anyway went to look at laptops. Compared Macs with the rest and the result was as expected - mac's still the best, in terms of overall performance, design and price. Haha. I shall get the 15" one as soon as I can get my uni computer discount. Haha. Yupz, continued to shop till like 4, before going home to drop off my stuff. Yes my mum finally caught hold of me and chased me to the doc. Got quite some scolding from my family doc coz despite my terrible flu, I went for road run that morning. Haha. And how did he know? Coz his son is in TJC! LOL. Kenna caught red-handed. Haha. Anyway the flu didn't bother me too much so I took my medication before going out again to meet my TMS 'family". Hahahaha.

Met them at Bedok to buy stuff for our reunion dinner! Haha. Went to NTUC to get the groceries. Haha. The place's damn packed! Haha. All the last minute shoppers. Haha. Anyway managed to get most of the stuff we wanted and we kept within budget! Haha. Amazing. Haha. After that we proceeded to Sheng Siong to get more stuff before heading to Jiaxin's home for reunion dinner.

Her mum's damn nice lah. Cooked curry for us in addition to preparing the steamboat soup. Haha. The curry was damn good, plus the baguette it was awesome.

Haha. Anyway had a really hearty and fun reunion dinner this year. Think I missed last year's due to my family issues.

The yu sheng without the fish but add in the bak kwa! Hahaha. Creativity. Haha. And watched some lame jack neo movie. Haha. Great laughter. Ice-cream which I can't touch was extremely torturous. Haha. Ginger bear that I finally tasted and quite liked it. Oh and it miraculously cured my cough! Haha. And not forgetting the childish chopstick fights! Hahaha. Such ridiculous fun! LOL! Love that close knitted-ness among us. Haha.

 

 

 

 

Too bad Karl and Crystal couldn't make it. Haha. Anyway it's great that we are able to keep in close contact even after leaving secondary school for like 4 years plus already. Haha. Really blessed to have this group of close friends. Hope everything stays as it is for the many years to come.

Don't we just love the polaroid camera. Haha. It takes photos that just looks and feels so niceeee. Hahaha.

Anyway had reunion dinner with my real family just now. Had a really sumptuous meal as well. Haha. My mum simply loves to host family dinners with loads of good food. Had a real yu sheng too. Haha. Damn nice to have it once a year. Really reminds me how 1 year has passed already. Haha. Anyway steamboat's not the in-thing already, grilling is! Haha. Had great fun grilling everything under the sun. Haha. Although I'm feeling quite guilty coz all the grilling has left my entire living room hall greasy and my poor maid have to mop it. Although I told her I should help, she said it was ok coz she's afraid I will create more havock! Hahaha. Had chocolate fondue for dessert. Haha. It's my first time trying after my bro's girlfriend bought us a chocolate fondue machine. Haha. Not the most successful attempt I must say, but it was alright I guess. Haha. These reunion dinners seems like just another dinner on the surface, but it's what keeps families closely-knitted. Traditions exist for a reason and I'm really convinced of the influence of family meals. Haha.

Just came back from the temple. It's an annual event to visit the temple past midnight of chinese new year eve. The temple's really packed with devoted people, all wishing the best and only the best for their families and friends. Haha. Although it's really quite a hassle to squeeze through the mobs of people holding on to suffocating bunches of burning joss sticks and praying, my family makes it a point to do it every year. It gives us a sense of security and hope, and I guess that's what keep most people going for the next year.

I believe there's a chinese tradition stating that the later we sleep on Chinese New Year Eve, the longer our parents will live till. Haha. So that's the reason why I'm still typing and clicking away on my computer way past midnight. Haha. Such superstitions may sound unrealistic to many of us, I would rather be safe then sorry. Haha. Kiasu Singaporean indeed. Haha.

Later I'm going for visiting! Haha. Haven't gone visiting these couple of years due to a series of unfortunate events. So yupz, it's gonna be pretty interesting and fun. Haha. Haven't seen some of my relatives in quite some time already, so I guess this chinese new year would be extra meaningful for me. Ang Baos! Haha. My last few times I would be able to collect Ang Bao's. Have to treasure it!=D

Oh and my TP test's coming. Having the jitters already. I'm just not confident of passing. I guess I should just try my best. And pray really hard.

Oh and not to mention my GEP interview on 26 Feb. Even more scary. Oh I must say the NUS admin staff is damn helpful. Got some dates mixed up so they initially scheduled my interview on the morning of 19th feb which I obviously can't make it. However, Mdm Devi from the GEP department was damn nice to reschedule for me despite the mistake being mine. A million thanks to her. Haha. Now I need to prepare really hard for the interview. Heard it's pretty nerve wrecking. Haha.

Full timetable starts for me after Chinese New Year. It's gonna get busy but yupz, hope I really enjoy it. Haha. I sacrificed 2 other internship opportunities for this so I hope I won't regret my choice. Hahaha.

On a random note, I just love 超级星光大道. Hahaha. Damn nice. =D

Anyway wishing everyone a...

Happy Lunar New Year!  

New Year Greetings from tjc:http://www.tjc.sg/CNY/cnyecard.swf

Adaptability

I guess the survivability of all organisms on Earth is predominantly based on it's ability to adapt to the dynamic environment we dwell in today. English naturalist Charles Darwin's expeditions and discovery of the concepts of Natural Selection and Evolution only backs this point up. Whether we are referring to the survival of a single-celled amoeba right up to a complex human being, the rule applies - the ability to adapt defines it's dominance and presence in this world.

Compare a salmon and a human. If we were to transfer the salmon from it's natural freshwater habitat to a foreign saltwater environment, it will die. However, take a human out of his comfort zone, lets say from the urban landscape, and place him in a tropical rain forest, he will still survive. This is despite the fact the the temperature, humidity and almost all geological and environmental factors differ tremendously. That's why humans are of a highest status of the food chain, while the salmon remains preyed at. This is the wonder of adaptation. It's true that as humans continue to adapt and evolve today, many things start to come into our control. However, it is still unfair to say that humans control everything on Earth - many things are still way beyond our control. Take natural disasters, epidemics as examples. These are still issues that even the greatest living organism on Earth - humans, cannot control. 

Almost everyone that has lived through this decade has experienced Mother Nature's wrath - whether it's the horrendous Tsunami that hit the Indonesian province of Aceh in 2004, or the immense gales of Hurricane Katrina that swept through even the most developed country in the world, The United States of America, in 2005, these are events that strike so suddenly that humans cannot react to it on time. This resulted in astronomical casualty rates and property lost. The wonder of human being's is his ability to adapt and change depending on the environment. We learn. For instance, after the Tsunami strike in 2004, countries worldwide begin to action to prevent a similar disaster. These actions range from the installation of Tsunami warning systems and developing advanced tsunami tracking systems to educating the people about the effects of Tsunamis and evacuation plans.

Disasters or obstacles are not necessarily the product of Mother Nature. Some disasters are simply the product of man's careless utilisation of the environment. An example would be Global Warming due to increased greenhouse gas emission today. Humans adapt by building more cooling mechanisms, alternative fuel sources and whatnot. This way, humans continue to strive in the ever-changing environment. Other organisms may not be as lucky. The rapid rise in temperatures has left many other organisms extinct. A recent example would be extinction of Brushy-Tailed Ringtails that once covered the mountain forests of Queensland, Australia. This is how humans have survived over the years, despite experiencing the worst of Mother Nature.

Widespread disease is another example of how humans are more adaptable than other organisms. Diseases mutate rapidly in the world today, through various means, whether man-made or natural. Take the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that struck the world in 2003 as an example. When the games - predominantly chickens and ducks - were infected with it, they slowly died out. However, humans are determined to adapt and survive. As such, they research on vaccines and put in place quarantine measures to curb the spread of disease. This has led to the disease being controlled and yes, humans survive another obstacle in their quest for survival.

When discussing the issue of adaptability, we should not restrict ourselves to the narrow confines of human against animal/plant. As resources are spread out unevenly throughout the world, which is in addition to the fact that every country has a different set of environmental and geological characteristics, every country has to adapt in order to survive in this treacherous world where, humans not only have to compete with nature, but among themselves. Countries worldwide differ greatly in their standard of living, quality of life and challenges faced. Take Singapore as an example. Being located at the tip of the Malay Peninsula, she's surrounded by resource rich countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia and even further up North - China. So how can the people of Singapore strive to achieve development in such a hostile environment? This is a challenged faced by the Singaporean Government and it's indeed commendable how far we've come. Singapore's advantage lies in it's geographical location. It's located at the centre of major shipping and air routes and is blessed with no natural disasters - neighbours Malaysia and Indonesia block them for us. Hence, we capitalised on this to build up Singapore as a hub for manufacturing, human resource development and tourism - all of which are more or less independent on the availability of natural resources within the country. In fact, we turned the disadvantage to an advantage. We made use of neighbours' resources to drive our manufacturing sector. We buy resources from them, only to sell them more value-added products. From this, we can see that the ability of the people to think out of the box is key in adaptation and hence survivability.

In this world that we live in, Charles Darwin's concept of "the battle of the fittest" is observed at all levels of organisms. First, I discussed issues of humans against animals/plants, followed by humans against mother nature, their own man-made problems and diseases, and finally groups of humans classified as countries against each other. It's very disheartening, but a true hard fact of life, to see people competing against one another at an individual level. People compete with one another, even within a single entity called a country. Once again, adaptability plays a critical role if one is to succeed within society as we are classified. I will use education as an example. The concept of education is to benefit everyone by presenting them a plethora of knowledge, life skills, culture, ethics, etc to help them be a better person. However, in the pursuit for a better education, people tend to lose their purpose along the way. People start to classify education institutions into castes or hierarchies. They rank them by status and quality, very often to satisfy their selfish inner desires of class and status. As such, as more and more people go through this education system that is losing it's purpose, the result is simple - people begin to become more selfish and become more and more concerned only with their own survivability. This itself is also an example of adaptability. Hence, in order to survive in this world, at some point in life, everyone will be on their own - a sad but hard fact of life.

When I read up on Singapore's Economic Strategies, it feels as if adaptability is the way of life today. Sad. But it's heartening to see the successes of human adaptability, most recently seeing that Singapore is investigating the possibility of dwelling into nuclear energy to diversify our energy supply. Ask anyone about nuclear energy in Russia and you would probably get a hostile stare from them, followed by 101 reasons why nuclear energy is not the way to go. Russians are scarred by the 1986 Chernobyl Disaster, which was the leakage of radioactive product from a nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, Russia, leading to a massive nuclear explosion. It was classified as a level 7 disaster, and fortunately the only one to date. Although it's indeed scary to hover the thought of a nuclear explosion, one should not rule out this extremely efficient energy producing method. Instead, we should look at how to improve on it and make it even more feasible, even for a tiny island-state like Singapore. That's adaptability in every sense.

Humans' determination to adapt amazes with endless possibilities indeed.

Ok I think this post is really really long already, so I shouldn't continue ranting away. It's nice to voice down my thoughts on today's current affairs and how it's linked to the past. I've always loved the Arts - economics, geography, history and social science (but sadly not literature..). I'm always intrigued by cross-discipline examination of topics, especially on environmental issues. That's essentially general paper for you and that's why I really do enjoy general paper. Haha.

Speaking of adaptability, I think it leads to habits. I'm beginning to get used to waking up early, going to TJC, teaching, preparing tutorials, attending lectures, having lunch with my RT/intern khakis, nua-ing in staffroom, then going home. It's not so much for the pay, it's about having something to do. Now I find it especially boring to stay at home. =X

P.S. Most importantly, Happy 21st Birthday to Wan Yee and Wan Ting! =D

Reminiscence

Woke up early today to have some prayers. Today's my grandfather's anniversary, so my cousins and uncles and aunts came over for prayer and breakfast. It's been a good 2 years since he passed away. I used to thought that I was like a bit cursed. Let me tell you why. It all started many many years ago, when I was in Primary 6. It's PSLE time and that's when my paternal grandmother passed on. I could still remember exactly when. It's the day before my PSLE English Oral Exams. Then just 4 years later, during my O Levels, my great grandmother passed away. I, too, can remember the exact day. It was the day before my Geography elective paper. I was really very panicky then. She passed on in the evening. Then we scrambled to prepare for the funeral. It's damn scary. I was damn sad at that time probably coz I have been living with my great grandma since birth, and thus was pretty close to her. So I was in no mood to study. But at the same time I didn't have time to study for my paper. So I busied my way through the night doing the preparations. It's only at around 3am, I began mugging like crazy before going to school at 7 for my paper. Thankfully she really blessed an A1 for me. And amazingly I topped the cohort for Combined Humanities (SS/Geog). Hahaha. 

Then another 2 years later, my paternal grandfather got a really bad heart attack during my A levels. Unfortunately he passed on only during the february after my A's. I also can remember exactly what and when it happened. It's the night before Bio Paper 3 for my A's. I was revising through my notes when my grandfather shouted for me. He had suffered quite a major heart attack. I too suffered a really great shock. I've seen how a patient suffering from heart attack looked like in TV programmes. But when it happened right in front of me, I was stunned. Screamed for my parents before running over next door to call my doctor neighbour over to assess the situation. He ran over and confirm the severity of the situation and my dad drove him straight to the hospital. My mum, bro and myself went over to the hospital too. It was damn scary. I had experienced how people moved on twice already and I was beginning to fear for the worst. I was actually prepared to skip my bio paper altogether already. I didn't really have the time and mood to study for it so I was really comtemplating dropping it. Anyway thank goodness my grandfather's condition stabilised, and I went home to wash up before going to school for the paper. Thank goodness I didn't drop the paper. My grandpa blessed me with another distinction.

But it was only in february that he passed on. The thing I was really touched about was the fact that although the doctor gave my parents the green light to take him home, coz he's time was almost up already, my grandfather refused to be discharged until I came over. I rushed back from Tekong and directly to the hospital. I was moved to tears man. I was amazed that hecould still recognise me. Yupz, So I took him home with my parents before he moved on the next day at home. I was really really sad, but loved as well.

That's why I always dread national exams coz I felt that I would like jinx some elderly in my family. thankfully my grandfather proved me wrong. I did mention to him about this before and I guess he really did correct my false beliefs.

I don't know why but I was always close to my paternal grand and great-grandparents. Yes I lived with them my entire life but it's more because my parents were always busy with work and didn't have much time to spend with me since I was born. hence, I grew this reliance towards my grandparents and great grandparents. And another key thing is that my parents were really strict and thus, I didn't dare to ask them for any presents or whatnot. The solution? My grandparents. Hahaha. They loved their grandchildren (or rather grandsons since incidentally all of us are guys) A LOT. Haha. And so do we. The simple acts of love by my grandparents that were really the moments that touched me the most and remain vividly clear in my mind years down the road. It could be just the act of frying an egg for breakfast or buying me a toy sword. That's what my grandma did for me. My grandpa was like a vintage techie. He loved his handphones. Haha. He could change handphones like once every 3 months. And each time he found a phone good, he would get another 5 more. Yes. Five more. One for each of us grandsons. Haha. That's why I was always blessed with good phones, not because I asked for it, but rather, he gave it to me because he found it good. I think he's so cute lah. Haha.

I think children today miss out on a lot, mainly because they live as nuclear families. The cost of living and change of culture of the society that we live in has altered people's expectations of family life. Couples adore time spent alone with each other, and dread grandparents nagging and ranting all their dissatisfaction out. As such, they lose the ability to interact with the elderly. This is what I saw when the kids did the newspaper/clothes collection for Go Green Day. When they talked to the elderly, they don't realise that the predominant language spoken by them in Chinese or dialect (mainly Hokkien/Teochew). And they do not know that chit-chatting with them can really make their day. Saying simple  thing's like '新年快乐' and '你好吗？' can really make them feel loved. And the best thing's that it doesn't cost you one bit saying it.

Maybe because kids today do not live with their grandparents, they lose the chance to learn an important language. Or rather, an entire culture. Take learning a chinese dialect as an example. When one learns it, they also learn the culture of the people they descended from. The mannerism, customs, etc. These are things passed down generations but are sadly being lost along the way, especially at my generation. For example, during my cousin's wedding, if not for my mum's and grandaunt's knowledge of wedding customs and procedures, it would have been a big mess. Whether or not we believe in these superstitions is one thing, but at least it will give us a sense of comfort and belonging. On a side note, some customary practices become redundant today, so it's necessary to trim in down to the most significant procedures such that the basic beliefs are observed, but not the extremely intricate and irrelevant details.

I guess it's on days like this that I get quite obsessed reminding myself of my past and everything. Probably because it's the few times that we cousins can get together and chit-chat. Anyway, there's this one thing that my mum and aunt said today that really made me quite emotional. "要是老爸（我的爷爷）还在的话，他一定很为他的孙子们骄傲... 个个都是大学生... 他一定到处炫耀的... 多威风喔... 要是他在活多两年就能当曾祖父了" This was actually my grandpa's wish. He wanted all of us to graduate from University, and wanted to be a great grandfather. Our grandparents' pride is based not on their children's success, but rather their grandchildren's. Too bad the latter can never come true, but I'm sure we will make his 1st wish happen. He was really proud of us, his grandsons. Haiz...

Go Green Day!

Yesterday's TJC Go Green Day. Haha. I was supposed to meet john abit earlier so that I could get the Go Green polo from him. Haha. But ended up I was later than him. Haha. Anyway met up with the RT/intern gang, before frantically searching for my OG. Haha. I was supposed to help out OG6A to go round collecting old newspaper and clothes. Haha. I love the benefits of being a teacher. Haha. Mrs Margaret Wong was damn nice to fetch me and Dr Allison to the Bedok Reservoir area to collect the stuff, while the kids take the bus there. Wahahaha. Yea we arrived so early that we went to have breakfast first. Haha. Yupz, just spent the entire morning till like noon collecting the stuff. It's a tough job I must say. Haha. But brings back pretty good memories from my own TJC days. Anyway I think this 10/11 batch of kids are a pretty nice bunch. Haha. Enjoyed working with them. Haha.

Anyway after the lorry came to collect the stuff, Mrs Wong was once again very nice to fetch me and Dr Allison to Bedok interchange. Haha. Yupz, I was supposed to meet my RT/intern gang for lunch. Haha. Ate at Pizza Hut. Haha. The entire place in occupied by TJCians. Haha. They swarmed the place. Haha. Anyway we were supposed to maintain a teacher's image, but I guess we didn't really do so. Haha. Madness. LOL. Anyway they ordered quite some food I must say. Haha. Had a really good time with them. Haha. They really make my relief teaching days much more interesting and memorable. Haha. Anyway after that me, John and Ser Yang left for Cityhall. Me and John were supposed to meet Vincent there at 4pm, but since we were still damn early, we accompanied Ser Yang around to shop for his friend's present.

Our dear ser yang trying to blend in with the surroundings. Damn hilarious. LOL. Anyway he's 2 years my junior, ie. from the 08/09 batch. Waiting to enlist and so here he is, doing internship at TJC. Haha.

Anyway, we walked like crazy lah. From Cityhall to Raffles City to Citylink, then to Marina Square then finally back to Raffles City to meet vincent. Haha. Yupz, then settled down for some coffee at Gloria Jeans. The Macchiato is really strong. Haha. Too strong for my liking. Haha. Anyway went to shop around before heading to GV Marina for movie. Haha. Watched 14 Blades. Haha. Pretty good show I must say. Haha. I think chinese kungfu shows just can't go wrong. Haha. Classic. And I think chinese history and everything's damn interesting. Haha. Maybe I should start reading up on some chinese history. Haha. Good stuff.

Super tiring day. Haha. And my voice is gone again. GREAT. Haha. And I still have class on monday. Damn. Haha. Hope my voice gets better by monday. Haha.

Taken for granted.

The Throat's Killing...

My throat feels as if it's stuck. Eating's fine, but not talking. The sexy coarse voice is back. And my nose isn't being too considerate. It's like a flowing like running tap.

The weather's the problem. It's darn hot. When standing under the sun, my skin feels like it's burning up! Haha. And alternating between the hot sun and the super comfortable and cold environment of the staff room ain't helping one bit. Haha.

I just feel like sleeping.. YawnzZ

Anyway today attended the JC1's 1st math H2 lecture. Haha. Feels damn strange to sit in the front row. Haha. I remembered during my JC days, I used to avoid the first row at all cost. Haha. Only Wang Nan sits there. Haha. Sudden switch of roles in a school. Haha. Feels weird but it's a matter of time before I adapt to it. Haha. Anyway the entire day was spent staring at tutorials. Haha. It's super taxing on the brain. Anyway I'm so proud of myself. Haha. Found 4 mistakes in the tutorial answer key. Haha. That shows I actually did my work and not copied k! Hahaha.

Sat's the college's Go Green Day. Haha. For the first time, the entire college is taking part. Haha. That's ALOT of green peeps running around Bedok collecting old newspaper and stuff. Haha. Gonna be pretty good I guess. Haha.

Omg CNY's coming. Haha. More Ang Bao's. Haha.

Can't wait for the next episode of 超级星光大道6. Getting more exciting le. Haha. Some talents beginning to show. Haha. And there's the PK. Haha. Exciting exciting exciting! Haha

GEP

NUS suddenly popped me this email about being invited for an interview for the Global Engineering Programme. Sounds damn cool right? Coz it is! Haha. I would have to drop my accountancy degree and complete my bachelor's of Chemical Engineering at NUS in 3 years, than go on to complete my Masters of Chemical Engineering at probably MIT or UC Berkley in 1 year. All expenses paid for. Damn scary! Haha. I doubt I can get it even if I apply. Haha. It's like damn competitive and it's throughout the entire engineering faculty lah. Damn scary. Haha. But what the heck. I shall just apply and see how it goes. Haha. And it comes with a scholarship.