The vibrancy of JC life

Only 1 full week of official Junior College lessons with official timetables. And it feels like a gale—activities occurring one after another, of lessons and CCAs each in succession of one another, interspersed, confusing… more like a cranky old-fashioned car with a steamy bonnet and a choking pipe—exhaustive. Albeit fast-moving, it is paradoxically slow-moving overall: each activity passed very quickly because it was exciting and enriching, but due to the multitude of varied activities, it felt as if I’ve done so many different things throughout the week, making it the longest week ever. The transition from sec school was by no means difficult, as I finally convinced myself to keep up with the curriculum instead of lagging behind a bit to accommodate commitments for piano and rugby, then catching up in the end. This will not, and cannot happen anymore, as the curriculum is much more rigorous and compact (naturally), and that tutorials are based on lectures, and that if you lag you may never catch up in the end.

The lecture-tutorial system: a superior system to lessons. Lectures and tutorials are usually taught by different teachers, so the pace of teaching is standardized throughout the level. This is a check and balance to ensure that objectives for the week be upheld and procrastination almost impossible. This makes lessons all the more interesting as real teaching is done. So far, I’ve learnt at least a new thing per lecture/ tutorial. That is in and of itself incredible.

CCAs: the plethora of clubs which you can join is immense. Most are slack, some are not; you would just have to go for club orientations and check them out: the people, their organization and synergy. I’m hoping to contribute to some of the clubs… will reveal details later.

School activities: Interhouse activities, activities organized by council, activities organized by clubs such as law society, performances by the performing arts people, external speakers coming in for talks… almost anything under the sun. It is teetering on the edge before it overflows its confines to the label I call “too much”. But I don’t mind “too much”, though it might be too much. It just gives me more choices on how to spend my time. To all RJ people, What’s Up This Week (WUTW) would be crucial in being informed of all that is happening. Keep on the lookout and go for the best thing possible, keeping in mind the next best alternative forgone :)

Programmes: Special programmes on Monday’s protected time. Some programmes are held after school. MOE also has programmes like SRP etc for J1s, which are both a boon and a bane.

Admin matters: communication via emails is especially prevalent in JC. Any information disseminated is most likely going to your mailbox, accessible with a click of the mouse, eliminating any excuse that you might not have received it. I’m now checking and replying to mails very, very frequently. Not that it’s bad though; I get to know what is happening everywhere. I’m never at sea again.

Your OG and class: a few OGs are still active; most are descending towards a slow and painful demise as the context and excuse for outings and meetings diminishes. My OG, O’rh Horr, still meets before assembly, and we mug and talk about life. My class (CT group) eats together during common free blocks, but past the first week of lectures (aka real JC orientation), we don’t play games or go out. Planning to organize class CIP to increase bonding :)

So take heed, JC is going to be fast and furious. You’ll not be checked. You’ll pretty much be left alone, so self-motivation is important. I’m going to chart my JC life my own way. I’m going to attend many many activites and work hard for good results at the same time. What about you?



Just for laughs:

stargazing 2

Dummy's guide for sure-fire sure-succeed stargazing:
step 1. Get a laptop/ tablet pc.
step 2. download and install "stellarium"
step 3. Find a day with no clouds, no haze; find a place with no/ less light, no noise (save two noisy companions of a brother and sister)
step 4. take a compass, the laptop/ tablet with "stellarium", and perhaps a mat to lie down on. Head down to that place.
step 5. using the 3d star maps of stellarium, match them to the stars you see, aligning with the north/ south poles.
step 6. bingo! you are successfully identifying stars. You've now upgraded to a true blue stargazer.



Precisely what I did. This time round, the sky was extra clear, and I added constellations after constellations into my "life list". This was what (confirmed) we saw:

(seen before and again)
1. orion
2. Gemini
3. canis major
4. Auriga

more seen today:
5. canis minor
6. Puppis
7. Vela
8. Hydra (1 star)
9. Leo
10. Lepus
11. Perseus
12. Taurus
13. ... saturn!!!

So thrilled. Really can't believe the sky today man!!!! Going to sleep now. Still have rugby tomorrow.

RSN amazing race, others

Can't believe that my team actually got 2nd in Raffles Science Network (RSN) amazing race, in which we have to complete tasks at stations, get clues (anagrams) for the next station, and go to the next station to complete yet another set of tasks and so on. Joel Kek was with me as well as Nancy and Amy who are in J2. You could really tell that the race was fun because Nancy and Amy (apparently good friends and themselves voluble and loud in a huiyaoish way) were complaining incessantly amongst themselves before it started... by the time we finished the 1st station, lo and behold, they were enthusiastic about completing the next station already.

The tasks were surprisingly but thankfully relatively simple to complete. Maths Soc station was about 1. stringing a given set of numbers to obtain a specific objective number, and 2. finding the inherent flaws of the false mathematical paradoxes. Very interesting; we actually scored quite well for the first section. Medical Soc was a traditional pen-and-paper test... tikamed a lot. We had to collect items for astro's scavenger hunt, which was rather interesting. Bio Soc was a race against time as we had to answer questions to guess a word, with a letter of a secret word revealed every 3 consecutive questions answered correctly (screwed if you answer 3 wrongly). Sadly, the word "cerebellum" did not cross our minds. Nevertheless, we completed elements-stringing-into-words for Alchem fairly well, and proceeded on to the electronics station, where we racked our brains to determine the exact placing of resistors in an unrevealed box with 4 points where crocodile wires can be placed. To no avail. In the end, only the great Amyas (who set the question) could do; none of the participants actually completed the task.

BB eventually won 2nd, and BW 1st.

Math Olympiad Training on Monday was random, with IMO questions given to solve. I sat there stunned as Mr Lu kept saying "obvious", "naturally" (Huiyao: sir, not that natural leh) while explaining solutions, while some nodded their heads in enlightenment, while I didn't understand much. Intend to carry on though... hopefully next week would not be a repeat of today.

Met a few tutors for the past few days. All are of high standard. The GP tutor is particularly impressive: she is highly articulate, slightly wry, good at suanning, worked as a journalist in the Straits Times, and naturally has connections with the people in this field. Sounds good. I really need to progress full speed for GP since my starting point's so low.

1st week of rj

10S06p- chem, math ra class, with a dash of art and geog people... everyone's good in their own right. All are friendly; we played orientation games, and there was much participation coming from everyone.

shocks encountered throughout the week:
abrasion from scraping my face on the field during saturday's rugby training. very very worried... fortunately the wound healed well.

physics lectures: surprisingly funny with a very fun "McGonagallish" teacher.

Maths RA: very very good teachers; we had an excellent lecture about using the combinatorics/ "reasoning" way of thinking instead of the usual teaching of notations. Have to read ahead though... I have a nagging feeling that Maths RA'll be a flagrant violation of the sacred sanctified codified institutionalised "no child left behind" policy.

Piano: Hanjie's fingers are actually independent of one another, nimble enough to be controlled, finger by finger, by the great bao bao. feel very inspired to practice a lot to be just like him. 路漫漫其修远兮ah! Oh yes, Evan Ma is imba at piano too, with his amazing handwork in rigoletto paraphrase (another piece I gave up on)

fri: cultural shock during eve of valentine's day (i.e. a school day nearest to valentine's day). All the girls came with gifts etc for og and class... and the boys had nothing to give in return for such a kind gesture. Kartik and I were so paiseh that we actually rushed to Thomson Plaza in the middle of school to buy stuff for the girls. The rest succeeded in keeping the girls hanging about, so when we came back, we could present the gifts to them. The guys of 10S06P felt pleased with themselves.

signups: bb ppl called for interhouse debates. No more debates for me, I say... I've got too much commitments. But I'm going to sign up for a lot of stuff. I'm not going to sit back and wait for things to happen, circumstances to go my way, opportunities to come knocking at the door, everything presented in a platter. I'm heading out, I'm venturing out of my comfort zone, into unchartered territories, and try and try and try. Not holding back anymore.

To end off: (lumpy's fixation)
Mendelssohn's violin concerto!!!
Disclaimer: Can't say the following recording's the best, but it's decent. For comparison, please go on to youtube and search for more recordings.







To debunk the claim that I'm a boring pure classical person, I'm telling you that I'm not! I don't analyse classical stuff; I just happen to listen to them slightly more often. I like pop too, especially british pop, namely MIKA.



His live performance's not that good... but this song's great!

O’tiero: rj orientation 2009

Well-planned, well-executed, well done! Ogls were fun. Bb10 aka O'rhh-horrrrr was responsive, un-cliquey, friendly. Result: we got a successful orientation.

Had a few familiar faces: Han Sheng, Fayang, Shing Bo, Kevin, Long Chuan, Gerald, Alison, Cherie. Seen Lincoln and Tianyang in RI. No trouble getting to know the rest: Amanda, Chloe, Evan, Fiona, Zibing, Xinjia, Stella, Michelle, Zaf.

1st day was good; the usual icebreakers, running around, OG games, free ice-cream, OG dinner. Games were weirdly entertaining, especially the standing-on-chairs-answering-questions-add/minus-yr/opponent’s-chair-if-you-answer-correctly/wrongly. Following an offensive from the opponent, we decided to sabo them by always asking for their chairs to be removed instead of our chairs being added on when we answered the questions correctly (we peeped at the answers beforehand).

Joke: who are you? Fayang: Fayang. Which “Fa”? Fayang 的 “Fa”. Which “yang”? Fayang的“yang”. (So it is 发扬光大的“发扬”)。

2nd day was the best; we went around Toa-Payoh and Bugis for an amazing race, “200 dollars worth of Swenson’s voucher awarded to the top-five groups”. The passing-bottle game was difficult as we had to pass a bottle only with our chins and shoulders, but everybody was laughing and laughing, making it the game of the day. We adjourned to Manhattan Fish Market in Central for dinner and talked at the banks of Singapore River, with Zheng Xuan talking about JC and life—I realized then that we have a lot in common about our directions, ambitions. Oh yes, no prizes for guessing who ate “pol-lock” (pollock), played games and trespassed a bar at the roof-top while the rest (we) were at Central.

3rd day was IHC—rough and mentally tiring. For the first game, pairs of gals holding hands tear off pegs from individual running guys. I found it ok, didn’t really try dodging… but it’s said that Marcus Koe tried to sidestep the girls and got a sprained ankle. Fine during training, but injured in this game! 2nd game was chaotic, placing chopsticks in other’s bases, trying hard not to get caught. 3rd game was about running through lines of defence without getting touched by newspapers. As usual, the scale of these events was great, and the ogls handled them well.

4th day: dance and cheers and dance and lunch and home. Uneventful.

5th day: take 5. Played Frisbee with OG; “cepat” call was great as my team made short passes while outrunning opponents to score. O nite was only alright, the response being lukewarm as everyone’s tired.
Storyline: started out good, ended very abruptly, but already better than RI.

Batch dance: It’s a pity that we’ve practised for 5 straight days only to perform with a bad soundtrack…

But thanks guys for all the fun. Special mention goes to Zheng Xuan, Readon, and Ying Jing, especially Zheng Xuan who has been with us for meals and hosted OG outing at his house.