I was feeling crazy and mean and reading Moses Soh’s MSN nick, which linked to a corny website called http://www.freewebs.com/friendshipweek. Piffle. Freewebs is so typical Moses Soh. It’s basically some RI Friendship Week promotion board.

Ahhh… the good old days of interrogating Moses Soh are… nostalgic. But I decided to do it again because I was feeling crazy and mean, as mentioned above.

“aqid” sounds like a noob.

Yup, and this is my weak attempt at a picture post for today.

Addiction is bad!!!!!

I’ve calculated that I’ve played roughly… a lot of Pokemon Diamond. But seriously. This game is really a lot richer than the previous games. I think I won’t be able to play even Emerald anymore without thinking, “Eew, shallow plot and 2D graphics!” I mean, I’ve only gotten 2 badges and somehow or other, already have nearly 12 hours on my game. In Emerald, 12 hours would get me at least 4 badges and half the game over and done with, not only because of difficulty, but also because… the plot is shallow. Plot is limited to fighting the bad organisations, Magma and Aqua. In DP, Galactic is not the only thing – you occasionally have to help people out, escort them here and there… yeah. I think I have to write a game review on this in the next RT issue after I finish the main storyline and try the post-E4 features, which are MANY. Or maybe, I shall go slightly deeper and openly advocate the strategic value of Pogeymans, and how everyone should learn to appreciate it as a fun battling system. Then I’ll get flamed and scorned at for still playing Pogeymans at 14. 14-plus. But it’s okay. Writing about games are fun, and as a entertainment sub-editor of RT (hem), I have to write about entertainment somehow or other anyway.

Wow. The four day weekend is a SHAM. There’s still lots of tests and assignments due on Wednesday, and I’ve already spent almost half the lengthy weekend just walking around and playing Diamond. Lol. So, I have to double up on my work and mugging! And blogging!

Mmm… Diamond.

The RT issue finally came out on Thursday! Then lots of people said my articles sucked.

Apparently some random exco member changed the results of the PSPvsDS article so that PSP won in all the categories. THAT IS NOT TRUE!!!!! I know. I purposely rigged it so that PSP and DS would draw! Grr… But I’m quite happy with the results. Now I need to write some articles.

Oh, and I became $57 poorer. And one Pokemon Diamond richer. I mean, there’s a 4-day weekend, and I ought to take advantage of it by getting my DP and playing fulltime for these four days! So… yeah. $57 is quite cheap. YH got his Pearl today or something, for $60. But he got a Palkia stylus to go along with it! NOT FAIR!

I have no idea how to set up my WiFi connection. I just hope it works… otherwise I might have to get a Nintendo Wireless Adaptor which won’t come cheap.

So… from next week on, I have a money-saving plan! I shall get my parents to buy muesli bars for my recess! Then I can also play Pokemon Diamond in school during recess or something. I can save $10 a week! $40 a month! And I can get two games every three months! YAY!

The way of the gamer is tough. I need…. A HOLIDAY JOB!!!!

Oh. And I have conjured up a theory about Teletubbies. I’m sure my classmates have mostly heard about the theory of mine that bares all and, um, conceals none. But I can’t post it here, because there are many sexual connotations, not to mention racism. But the stuff I CAN reveal without fear of being censured:

-Dipsy and Po have a carnal relationship.
-Tinky-Winky is gay.

Yeah. That’s about all. You can ask me in person to explain the theory in full. I have not found any incriminating evidence for Laa Laa, though. She escapes… FOR NOW.

Yay! For every year I have been in RI, we always had one day off due to fine sporting results. This is one of the rare moments when you sit back and think, Ah. All those tests, assignments every other week, muggers galore… it’s all worth it. So, we’re having a day off on MONDAY!!!!

Plus, Labour Day on Tuesday. Four days weekend! Which pressures me to get DP very soon, like tomorrow after school for example, to take advantage of the long break to get started on Pokemon. And I have a new bargaining chip, in case my parents have hardened hearts. I got back Chem CCT today. Don’t ask me why it was so late. And… I got 27/33!!!! Woots! At first I thought it was upon 30, with 3 bonus marks. But it’s upon 33 not including bonus marks, so… not too good. But it’s still a whopping 82%! And I believe, third in class! Yay for unexpected science test glories!

Today was math CCT. Zzz… our class was mugging like siao the whole day. I found it very manageable, for once! I think I can actually get above 25, and pull up my abysmal math grade :| But everyone other than Jonny (who was jumping and screaming after the test because he found it uber easy and did both bonus questions. Hmph. You have MATHS TUITION.) found stuff to worry about the test. Even the infallible Jarrell!

Wow. I finally have a rare moment to slack. Wait. Not as if I don’t slack everyday. But at least my conscience is clear when I slack now.

Thank you God for the good results and guiding me through the math test, even though I was without a correction tape!

Yay! A good day for slackers around!

I failed to catch the Man Utd / Milan match, since I was sleeping like a, um, sleeper. I shoulda watched it, since there were five goals!!! We might very well lose this thing still, since we won 3-2 at home and Milan only needs a 1-0 win at home to secure it. But still.. Then I woke up at 7, watched TV while having a Korean instant noodle breakfast (MSG FTW!) until 9++. I was slightly late for the Special Programme thing.

The thing was quite okay, except the lunch. They ordered McDonalds, which due to unfortunate circumstances, only got to be enjoyed more than half an hour after we bought them. Result? Cold and soggy fries, and only slightly warm burgers. The coke had lost all fizz, and was just cola sugar water. But never mind. I thought we would only have burgers, so having a meal was a pleasant surprise anyhow. And the guide was quite nice. But I went to all those places already, I think on some primary school Social Studies excursion. I specifically remember Kranji War Memorial, though I don’t think we went to the guns part of Labrador Park.

OH AND LISTEN TO THIS SONG PLEASE!

I posted it because I’ve been hooked on Avenged Sevenfold, this song specifically, and because this is quite relevant to the field trip we had today. Yeah… it’s about this soldier who blindly kills people. Slightly emo, and very cool.

I must find my Rubik’s cube!!!!! It’s, like, the latest craze in town, and could potentially relieve time in some extra-trying lessons of math or Chinese (with the totally useful relief teacher. Bring Mdm Zhang back!!!!!!!1111111 Why do all my Chinese teachers have to go on maternity!!!!) Plus, I should get addicted to that, not some random DS games, though Pokemon DP is also important. I should master the art of Rubik’s cube, do it fast, and then I can wow my classmates! Lol.

Also, talking about the Chinese teacher, she is so ______. Apart from having BAD HAIR DAY everyday, she treats us like primary school pupils, which is understandable, seeing as she used to be a primary school teacher -.- Like, when Chinese is the last period, this is her main lesson plan:

1. Give us a compo or compre. Say we have to finish it or else we can’t leave.
2. Proceed to talk talk talk for 20 minutes, distracting us from task at hand.
3. Someone (normally me, who have become exceedingly outspoken this year) complains that there is no time to finish.
4. She goes like, What! There’s still 40 minutes left! So much time!
5. Some other student (not me) will ask her a random question on the assignment. Now, even if the question is on something we’ve learnt before, NORMAL teachers would just reply, to refresh our memories or what. SHE will proceed to gasp, Huh?? I thought you have learnt this before, so I did not teach it. HAIZ, looks like I overestimated you guys. (of course not in English, but in her sickening Chinese voice that smacks of PRC. Even though she seems Singaporean.) Liek, wtf?
6. By now, half the lesson will have been gone. But she doesn’t care. She just sits there and does her marking. Then we all get slightly pissed.
7. Lesson ends. But we can’t leave. Some fast ones finish.
8. Eventually, like 40 minutes after lesson ends, she’ll leave and ask us to leave the completed assignments in her pigeon hole. Slowly, we either finish our work and leave in her pigeon hole (unlikely) or just sneak away and hand in the stuff tomorrow (likely).

I have made up my mind! Today, I was considering whether to take part in tomorrow’s 1.5km freestyle race. O.O I have never tried that before. Thirty laps! And considering only the leet swimmers will dare/consider to join such a race, we noob waterpoloers will probably be lapped three to four times. Ahh. But Brent has also decided to go, so we’ll probably just go together and pace each other, and get last or second last. Yay for moral support and earning points for the house! (which will, hehe, leave me in a better position to become HOUSE EXCO!!!! BWAHAHA!)

I’ll probably chicken out. But I’ll just bring my trunks tomorrow and see how.

Math test tomorrow, and I’m still blogging and surfing Pokemon sites. Whee!

Oh and everyone, please buy Rafflesian Times! You can buy it tomorrow, except that I, the leet RT guy, will only be selling it on Friday during lunch. This year is really different, it’s in colour or something and it still costs 50 cents! Plus, I wrote two spiffy articles in it this time! (one on the flawed RA system, I hope I don’t get kicked out any time soon. The other is a comparison on DS Lite AND PSP! DS PWNS!) Please please buy it. The only problem is, we only had 14 pages and the print had to be 16 pages, so we have 2 blank pages at the back or something, which made Ms Hanna really pissed at us. Oh, and look out for my name in the Editorial Team section! HAHAH.

I’ve been posting rather frequently.

Yay! Tomorrow is some dumb Special Programmes thing enriching lesson on life at some Battle Box/ Battlefield study thing. It will totally change my life and leave me a person better-equipped to meet the challenges of the future. Oooh. I feel adrenaline rush coursing through me!

On a sidenote, I present to you… Weird Rules of Raffles, Part One.

There were two people, Sean and Jun Yong. They went to the library and used Project Corner or summat. Then Jun Yong went to www.nba.com. Sean was doing his homework on the table or something. Then Jun Yong got caught. (while the people in the next cubicle were playing games and escaped punishment) Then Sean got punished for “not telling friend to stop surfing”.

The punishment is: Copy out Rafflesian Principle of Honour twice. Then write a 500 word essay on 20 reasons why they should not have done what they did. LOL. Oh, and apparently some Vietnamese scholars got caught for surfing porn. In the LIBRARY! Not that surprised though. Yu Hsuen told me the Viet scholars in his class asked him if he masturbated.

I have a dream, to become a Hullett exco member! Because, um, I love Hullett! H-U-L-L-E-T-T! Hullett FTF! (FTF= for the fifth!) Steadfast and versatile! No, I’m serious. It would be fun managing a house. I think all they do is create lame cheers and console us whenever we get thrashed in something. Problem is, I need to be nominated for interviews and stuff like that. I’ll get the los – I mean, cool and hip dudes – like Ben Ng and Rich to vote for me though. But this is only one step in my nasty plot to world domination! Bwahaha.

PE is significantly less enjoyable than the last module. It’s BASKETBALL, heck. The only reason I like it and am not getting completely owned is because I read Slamdunk! So I know all the technicalities and how to shoot and stuff. Slamdunk ROCKS! But I am nowhere nearer completing my collection of the 31 Slamdunk comics. I bought from like 1-15 plus #31 itself, with some missing in between, so it’s less than half.

Yay! I just realised that I can do commando pushups! WOAH SO PRO. On retrospect, it’s really easy, just a matter of speed and pushing yourself up high enough to get more time. I can’t think why I couldn’t do it in the past… But commando pushups don’t really serve any purpose, no? It’s just to show off.

The Day After… DP Release.

And strange, it seems more exciting than the DP Release day itself!

OK, so yesterday, Lumpy told me over MSN that he found an English DP selling in store near his house for $57. I didn’t believe him. Remember, we ALL thought that the game would only reach Singapore in May.

Then today, I went to Comics Connection in J8 to check. Yep, they were selling it. Bleargh, $61.90. But then again, Comics Connection sells the most expensive stuff. So I hopped onto the MRT, and went to Orchard, to Lucky Plaza! (that’s the place where I got my DS Lite. Darn, I just revealed it. But seriously, that is quite a good place to get your games. Lucky Plaza, for the most part of it, is a strip of stores that’s slightly underground, so you need to take half a flight of stairs to get to it. 80% of the stores, if not more, sell gizmos and games. About 90% of THESE stores sell games. Yeah. Plus, you can bargain! It’s not a fixed-price kinda thing, since they know there’re lots of competitors just next door or something. But also because of the no-fixed-price, beware of scammers who try to trick students/kids.

So I went to various stores. A few notable ones:

-One store sold it for $65. I made a face (the kind of nvm-no-big-deal-the-store-next-door-prolly-sells-cheaper face) and walked off. Then the guy mentioned something about a stylus, so I asked him again. Yep, for some reason the game comes with the stylus if you buy it from that store! Liek, wtf. I thought styluses only came if you preordered the game online.

-Another store had a price of $63. I asked for a lower price. Guy said $60. I made a face and walked off. Then I walked one round after visiting the stores and came back to the same spot. The guy noticed me and said, “How? $58 lah.” Then I said $55. Then he said $57. Wow. Same price as what Lumpy’s store sells it for, plus it’s so near my house, unlike Lumpy’s house in TAMPINES. I shall try to get $55 when I really go there to get the game.

-One dumb store, one of the last I went to. I asked one guy, “Do you have Pokemon Diamond?” And he asked, “PSP or DS?” LIEKWTF?? I mean, I don’t blame him for not knowing which game is what, but considering that a major shipment of Pokemon DP arrived at their store at most three days ago, that is some memory. So I deduce that he’s just, helping out. So anyway, their Diamond was sold out and they only had Pearl. Which they claimed was $79.

Omg Pokemon is coming to Singapore earlier than expected! I should have bought the game yesterday if I knew that they were getting the games at the same time as America.
–

Zzz. Must study for math CCT. I must win. Victory. Please.

Oh. Talking about that, I *ahem* will talk about how I earned my class marks.

Remember the last time when I approached Sir Vijay? Today during maths, he announced that he had “asked around” and decided to “give the marks”. Yay! I have saved the class! Lol. But now people like Jonny are damn pissed. This is what happened:

Case study 1: Mooty
-Got 6.5 upon 13. Sucky.
-Got zero marks for last question.
-Got three marks added for no reason.
-Final mark: 9.5! Nice!

Case study 2: Jonny
-Got 8 upon 13. Not bad!
-Got full marks for last question.
-Got zero marks added for no reason.
-Final mark: 8. Diao.

Once again, I emerge victorious with my imba tyco leet skillz. But I’m tired of scraping through liddat. I shall push myself to get at least 3.6 for maths and, um, become a thinker, leader and pioneer! Just like Paul Tern! Yay! Paul Tern is my hero!

(NB: from this post on, I shall include explicit or implicit references to Paul Tern, referring to him sarcastically as my hero most of the time.)

Yay! Friday! Touchdown on a brief two day holiday, before the barrage of tests and quizzes. But it’s okay, it’s okay.

Oh, guess what? Yesterday, I asked around and everyone revealed that they got full marks for the last question due to the Big Screw Up. Apparently, as always for math TAs, there are Set A and Set B. Our class did Set A. Set A was alright. Set B, the last question was screwed up in typical Rafflesian spirit, thus rendering it unsolvable. So, to make it fair, Set B takers all got full marks for the last question. To make it unfair, Set A takers all got full marks for the last question too.

Except our class, the one taught by Sir Vijay, Order of the Academy of Fine Math Teachers, First Class.

So, today, I plucked up my courage for the sake of the class and asked him about it. Our dear Sir Vijay responded that the three marks were only given for the Set B takers, and that Set A takers got a perfectly good question, so no marks would be awarded. At this point, I was in a state of mild confusion and fear of staring the great Sir Vijay in the face, so I backed a hasty retreat and packed my bag. But, I continued asking around, and the fact was that, every single Set A taker also got the full marks for the last question! So, on Monday, I’m going to remonstrate with Sir Vijay and beg for the marks. You see, in typical tyconess, I got 6.5 marks, while getting ZERO for the last question, since I hardly studied. So, if the full marks is given for the last question, I will be boosted by 3 marks, making my score a respectable 9.5/13. I admit that that would be very unfair to the others who got a few marks for the last question, but then again, math teachers were never fair, and I was always a lucky shit. Thank God for everything.

I must mug this weekend. I will slack for now, but later, I will have a very nice engaging session with Heymath. Then I will print out notes to study for Literature CCT.

(I logged into a teacher’s Edulearn account just now. I did not do anything and I logged off soon! Please don’t cane me I didn’t do anything wrong except be curious! Just that my junior found the password, you know?)

Yay! Another dumb post, bemoaning my sad, mediocre school life. I’m going to leave school with no school awards to my name. Stuff like that. Don’t think they will give anything special to Exco members. Like half the school is part of some random exco here and there. Ok, I exaggerate.

Got back maths TA! I projected a mark of 3/13 for myself the other time. Guess what? I managed to tyco some marks from the first question and my score is: 6.5!!!!!!!! All bow to my prowess. I am always so bloody lucky. 2/3 of the class failed. Jarrell got 4 marks :O so that’s the second time this year I’ve beaten him in any math thing. But then again, nowadays, our class is one of the worst in the cohort, due to the love-hate relationship with Mr Vijay which seems to be 100% hate these days. Things are not going well. Every lesson he’ll find a random person slacking or whatever and spend at least 10 minutes lecturing him. And worst part is, he does have a valid excuse. And we seem to be screwing up all the tests.

But fact is, in the opinion of our class, Mr Vijay does not seem to be an effective teacher. I dare not venture into any form of insult or whatnot, but Mr Vijay does not appear to understand that we are human too, and sometimes, we just don’t have interest, and we may swtich off and skip something. But most of the time, we ask him a question and he gets irritated, scolding us for having him to explain everything again.

Also, the time given for the math tests are laughable. The formula that Mr Vijay told us was used was: Time given = No. of marks x 1.5. But, how fair is that? I don’t think I will always finish a one mark question in as much as 1.5 minutes, and there are always “killer questions” that take more than 1.5x the number of marks they’re worth. Life requires some speed and focus, but we should be assessed on our ability, not the rate at which we rush through questions. We’re not even given time to check, and here we are, with carefulness advocated every other day. How fair is this? Is life just about how fast we can do stuff? As it is, not everyone’s a Kaushik SV, who got 99.5 for his math in term 1 and did the bonus questions in the CCT, finding them “not that difficult”.

I propose that we request for more time. This is just one of the school-related topics I plan to touch on today. Next post, I shall talk about the irony of calling for school spirit in the light of heaps of work and bimonthly tests.

We went to the kindergarten today for the first lesson, haha.

Jon says we should thank God for the perfect timing of the lessons, and I agree. It’s like, Kindercampus already has a period after lunch, 1.30-2.30, which we’ll be using. And we have just enough time to grab a quick bite, take the bus there, and after the lesson, we can take the bus back and still have enough time to slack around before CCA!

Oh, in case you dunno my RE: it’s literature related. We’re attached to this kindergarten in Braddell, we teach the K2s fairytales and theater basics, then get them to act out a gigantic play made up of different fairytales in July for their parents (it coincides with their dunnowhat skit festival or something). Yeah, it’s pretty rushed. But the timing of everything is really… wow.

So anyway, we went in. The K2s were being super super super hyper. They were running around, hiding below tables, looking at us and laughing/giggling, stuff like that. Post-Lunch Hysterics. Not until the principal/teacher/our mentor Ms Kow gathered them round and lectured them did we get quiet. I shall do basic class profiles of the people I remember. There are like 13 children, of which 4 are boys (but the boys are not very forgettable, unlike the girls.)

Alfonsus – that’s what I think his name is. Very hyper and talkative. Disrupted our lesson frequently, but at least he is responsive, and that encourages the others to participate too. Likes Ninja Turtles. Not very cute.

Tim – some cute guy who is introverted and we witnessed him being bullied by the others and his soft toy dog was constantly snatched away. It appeared all in jest as he laughed too, but later on in the lesson he stood up, went to behind our whiteboard and preferred to stand there instead. Jon and I theorised that he must have been bullied frequently, which explains his sad look. Poor thing. He is SOOOOO cute and looks half-Chinese, though I think he’s Chinese.

Jonathan – yep, a Jonathan. And naturally, he’s slightly weird. But he’s my favourite now! He wears glasses, which is unfortunate, but it makes him twice as cute. Then he may talk loudly at times, but he does really funny stuff and hand gestures and stuff. Slightly hyper, and I think pretty good friends with Alfonsus. I REALLY must make him the lead character, although Jon has other plans…

Shawn/Shaun/Sean – This is the last guy. At the start, he was uncooperative when we asked him to come out and introduce himself. He has a pai-kia face. Gets quite noisy at times, but most of the time uncooperative. So this is Jon’s theorem: he is very smart, but proud, and wants to tell us that he’s in control of the class. So Jon, with his inflated ego, believes that he can “fix” (his own word) Shaun, especially by making him the male lead. Lol, whatever Jon. And his theorem doesn’t end here…

Megan – Very quiet girl, similarly uncooperative when asked to come out. Jon CLAIMS that Megan looks at Shaun before she does anything. He CLAIMS that Shaun already influenced her to obey him. He CLAIMS that Megan is in love with Shaun. Oh my gosh, Jon. There is such a thing as SHYNESS, since we’re totally new to them and some people are naturally shy. Besides, looking at Shaun is not weird. Kindergarten crushes aren’t that uncommon. From my experience.

Charmaine – IMO cutest girl. Very responsive. She likes to draw and she told me she would like to act as a princess, so I should keep that in mind, maybe make her female lead, alongside Jonathan!

–

There are many more of course, but these are the ones I remember most clearly. So anyway, our lesson was pretty screwed up. We had planned games, but those needed lots of space for running etc, and we only had a corner. So the only game we had left was Charades. I included that since it would serve as gauge of their acting abilities. But those volunteers, like the super enthu Alfonsus, was either shy or didn’t know how to act the part. Looks like we’ll have to SOMEHOW teach them. Not that we’re experts ourselves.

The lesson finally ended when the school bus came for some of the kids. Then Ms Kow and some other teacher said that the lesson was quite successful. It was okay I guess. For our first foray at teaching kids. I have a feeling that when this project ends in July, I’m going to be quite sad. Kindergarten kids are so simple and happy. Maybe I should tell them that in 10 years time, they’re going to be all emo and wrist-slitting.

I think I shall start a blog about this project. Those SL people were right – Service Learning is so fun! XD