This morning was our first morning practice in preparation for SYF 07. The sound was quite good, didn't really expected it, because I thought in the morning everyone would be sleepy. So I had to skip breakfast because after morning practice we had to go back to class already.

During recess I spammed myself with food, because immediately after school I did a practice with some altos to attempt to correct some pitching mistakes as well as try to raise their volume and then immediately after that I did practice with quite a lot of tenors and basses to correct their pitching problem on the first 2 pages of Credo. I was having quite a difficult time doing that because the pitching was seriously quite off, after mixing them up to stand in a position whereby there is nobody of the same section beside them. In the end I dismissed them around 15 to 30 minutes later than the time I expected them to be dismissed.

Looks like it's less than 20 days to SYF, after which, and maybe after 1 or 2 more practices, it would be handover, officially. I just hope that within these few days I can help the choir as much as I can, not just for SYF, but maybe for their Pattaya competition and their future performances as well. I hope I can share with them all the singing techniques that I've acquired over more than 3 years.

And something which I ponder about often is that whether the choir appreciates what I am doing for them. Every time a practice ends, irregardless of whether it is just a normal practice or an extra one, I don't really find anyone thanking me. Same as for the SLs, I think no one thank their SLs as well. Maybe the choir thinks that we are Committee Members and we are supposed to help them, so if their singing is bad, it's our fault, and that we are supposed to help them correct their mistakes. Or maybe it's because we aren't helpful enough and what we are doing aren't doing any good to the choir at all. The only person who thanks me is probably Jonathan, who most of the time disagrees with me on certain issues but gives in to me anyway, which I don't really like.

Being an SC is really very difficult, especially if you are in a top choir. Aditya (classmate) made a passing remark that I am actually the SC of a top choir. So what? Great power comes great responsibilities. And I am not even sure whether we are achieving our target of maintaining the top choir in Singapore or not. During the handover last year, I made a promise to the choir that we will be the top choir in Singapore. Do I really have to take back my promise, or rather not fulfill it?

Today for Biology we started on a new chapter on Genetics. It's a really very huge topic because the notes Mdm Nabilha gave us for this chapter is like so thick, I think all the notes given for reproduction in plants and animals are around the same thickness as that genetics chapter alone. Somehow it's quite interesting, and we learnt to draw a diagram representing the traits in the parents, as well as the offsprings. It's quite troublesome though, because we have to practise drawing 10 of those diagrams. But I heard from her that it will surely come out in the exam asking us to draw for 5 or 10 marks (1 and 2 diagrams respectively).

Anyway, I was rather disturbed by one of the questions in the worksheet she gave. Click on the image to the right to enlarge, and read both questions 4 and 5. Yucks man.

This diagram thing is somewhat like Probability like we learn in E-Maths. I think it's rather simple to actually do the calculations rather than drawing the diagrams...

Speaking about E-Maths, we have actually completed the whole E-Maths syllabus already. There is one more chapter in the textbook that we haven't cover: Revision. Haha. One chapter called Revision and in the first page it went something like:

'Practice makes perfect' goes the saying. It is applicable for people learning games or art and also many other learning subjects. What do you think?

Wah, I felt very stressed in school this morning. Suddenly worried about choir stuffs.

So I auditioned the rest of the choir today, those who did not get auditioned. Basically, the whole audition sucks, really. I am listening to clash chords while I audition them in quartet, meaning 1 from each section. They just can't sing well. No self-competence in them, and all pitch go haywire. Since when did VSChoir become like that? Is it that I am having too high expectation on a secondary school choir, which I shouldn't be?

I have chosen 75 people, together with the help of SLs, into SYF. If I could have a choice, I would have chosen 35 instead of 75. Among the 75, I put quite a number into KIV, and after discussing with SLs, we have 20 in KIV and 55 in SYF. Not really an accurate one, because if I could have a choice, again, I would have put 55 in KIV and 20 in SYF.

It's only 3 more weeks to SYF, and SLs need to train harder on the members. We are already going to start morning practice on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays starting from this Friday. Furthermore, we are adding Tuesday and Sunday practice in addition to Thursday and Saturday. Friday's practice may be on as well. Very tense.

Today Mr Low spoke to the choir about themselves getting prepared for SYF. After that, he spoke to Jonathan, Pock Thong and I, and the thing that I remembered most from what he said is that no matter how hard the practices may get, the purpose is to let them enjoy the music, otherwise the music itself won't flow out.

Yesterday Mr Kwei went for balloting exercise to decide our slot for SYF. Later in the evening, Miss Lau smsed me and told me ours is on the first day, which is on the 17th of April -- 1 week earlier than what I have predicted -- and ours is in the afternoon, around 2pm plus. So I thought, nothing much, first day is probably better anyway.

Then this morning, while I was walking with Gabriel Chee (Band Major) to class from PE, I saw Ms Lau, and she told me that schools performing on the first day (same day as us) include Catholic High, River Valley High etc. I didn't really hear the others, because "Catholic High" alone attracted 100% of my attention away. Catholic High is the first choir of the day, which is also the first choir of the whole SYF competition for secondary school choirs.

This is quite bad, because we are competing with them on that day and awards will be announced at the end of the day. It won't be as though it would be announced only after the whole competition, no. Now with Catholic High face-to-face with us, it's going to be more difficult to obtain the top choir in Singapore, even though they are slot number 1 and we're number 14.

I have actually lost some hope on the choir already, but nonetheless (apologies for contradicting) I still have hope. I still want to prove that this batch of committee members can lead this unique batch of choir members all the way to be the top choir in Singapore once again. Problem now is that I have hope, I WANT to, but there are many people in choir who don't seem to share this vision alongside with me. Wei Liang doesn't seem to be serious in his work, SLs not drilling hard enough on the members, members themselves not paying the attention. So what if I have all the musicality in me, ready to share with the choir in order to produce good music? I can't possibility do that without their focus anyway. And back to the SLs, they may not know, but during combines it's very difficult for me to tackle all the basic problems the sections make. For example, if the Sopranos lack support, if the Tenors can't reach their high notes. If I am doing this all the time, 1) we cannot improve at all because I have to go back to the basics, wasting other sections' time when they aren't the ones making the mistake, 2) I cannot start on the musicality at all, which is so called the higher level sort of the music, and 3) I can't really listen out to so many mistakes regarding the BASICS, which is SUPPOSED to be tackled during sectionals, and this makes me even more frustrated in taking the combines. For example, Altos are too soft, not enough projection... how would I be able to proceed to some musicality (eg: give waves at this particular bar)? Or if basses lack concentration, because this problem was not solved during sectionals, I would have to ask them to focus (and not as though they can remain focus for a long time) and waste a lot of time of that.

Perhaps I may be wrong in these, perhaps I have left out some issues which cannot be tackled so easily anyway. I hope especially SLs can give me some feedback about this.

Today as I was walking back to school after PE, I chatted with Gabriel regarding SYF. Theirs is on the 9th of April (and CO's on the 3rd, which is very close already). He mentioned that they are trying to get as many members into SYF as possible, because even though they may be quality in the sound produced, 1) there would be a lack in volume, 2) what is VS CB for? A club whereby only good members can go SYF? I found what he said really very meaningful. Use it on VSChoir: if we get say 40+ people for SYF only -- now we don't talk about the volume -- the quality of sound may improve, and we may easily get our Top Choir in Singapore, no doubt, but thing is, VSChoir is still a CCA, and what's the point of having a VSChoir when only the good members go? What's the point of getting Top Choir when only the good singers go? Is it still a CCA anymore? Joining SYF and competing in it is an experience I think everyone in choir should have. Now I also understands fully why Mr Kwei allow the PRC Scholars to join SYF even though some of them may not be very good: it's an experience for them. Of course we cannot allow all members to attend SYF because of the limit (80 people), and because we really have to remove those singers who can't sing well, and may lead to the downfall of the choir very greatly, but other than that, the SYF team should have as many people as possible.

I hope things can progress smoothly from now until SYF, and by smoothly I mean improving gradually. Now as I look back at the past practices, I realised we have been slacking a lot, and now it's time to really buck up.

Anyway, good luck to the VSCO and VSCB for their upcoming SYF. Get Gold w/ Honours, where we can give a heartening speech on stage because all the spotlights are on the Sports CCAs.

Today when I went to the Physics Lab I saw a figurine (with head, body, legs, eyes, ears, everything, quite nice though not very neat) made of blu-tac, "sitting" on a block of wood. Some of us thought some creative/naughty student from other classes did that.

Then Mrs Setho suddenly said, "Guess who did that." We shrugged our shoulders.

"Mr Imran," she replied.

I lost my protractor some day during the holidays, so I went to the school bookstore to buy a new one. Unfortunately, all they have was protractors or set squares manufactured by Ahkan. I was warned by Mr Pang that Ahkan's protractors are not good because their accuracy is quite off. So in the end, I just bought one protractor yesterday at a shop below my house.

This morning I was looking at my protractor along with its plastic case, and I realised that there were some "matters needing attention" written at the back of the protractor casing. Lucky this was made in China, otherwise I wouldn't have known the meaning of those without the Chinese words. The picture to the left is the scanned picture of the cover.

Haha other people from my class were having quite a nice time laughing at the language. I think the company just went to some translator online and bluff their way through.

During recess I was quite sian, so I anyhow doodled on the whiteboard and eventually came to this (extended version):

To prove that graphs do not exist

Start off with integration...
∫(x² + 4x + 3) dx
= ∫x² dx + ∫4x dx + ∫3 dx
= (x³/3 + c) + (2x² + c) + (3x + c), where c is the arbitrary constant^[1]
= x³/3 - 2x² + 3x + c + c + c -------- (1)
= x³/3 - 2x² + 3x + c -------- (2) (because arbitrary constants do not add up)

Let's take (1) minus (2):
c + c + c - c = 0 (since they are equal)
2c = 0
c = 0

Now let's have a linear equation:
y = mx + c -------- (3)

and Einstein's famous formula^[2]
e = mc²

Converted into:
m = e/c² -------- (4)

Sub (4) into (3):
y = (e/c²)*x + c
y = ex/c² + c³/c²
y = (ex + c³) / c²
yc² = ex + c³

Because c = 0 as proven earlier,
0 = ex + 0
ex = 0
e = 0 or x = 0

Now we know e = 0 is not applicable because e = 2.718... ^[3]
Therefore, x = 0.

Sub x = 0 and c = 0 into (3):
y = 0 + 0
y = 0

Therefore, x = 0, y = 0 for any values of m, and for any given equations.

Epilogue: Because x = y = 0 for everything, graphs do not exist. If you start drawing a line on the graph paper, I would use THIS proof to tell you that you are doing the wrong thing. Perhaps the only thing you can mess with on the graph paper is drawing the axes and maybe drawing the origin only, since x = y = 0.

Oh by the way, I call this "rubbish", and when Mr Pang saw this on the whiteboard, he calls this "nonsense".

Yesterday we had a briefing on Victorian Challenge at the Auditorium, after which we went back to class and started brainstorming for ideas. Mr Ee was there with us, which he suggested quite a few. I think our challenge may come up with a combination of more than 1 challenge, but so far we haven't really decided on anything yet. Mr Ee told us to remind him to stop his lesson on Tuesday (today) 10 minutes before the bell rings so that we can discuss the Victorian Challenge again.

Anyway, Mr Pang teaches Maths quite fast. He's teaching Integration for A-Maths, while many classes are still doing Differentiation. For E-Maths, he started on Probability today, probably same as other class (probability of 7/10... ... ...). Well anyway, thing is we have done Vectors already, which is supposed to be done after Probability.

So today Mr Pang was teaching Probability, and was explaining about Events...

[Mr Pang] An example of Events is "It will rain today". Can anyone give me another example?
(Alvin raises his hand)
[Alvin] Sir, what are we doing for Victorian Challenge ah??

Haha suddenly no link. It's really very funny because it's totally unrelated to what Mr Pang was teaching and the question just came in suddenly. In the end Mr Pang just told us to stay back some day or whatever.

Oh yesterday I had my English oral for Prelim. My oral examiner was Mrs Poon, who was my sec 1 AFT, in which she retired because of leg injury somewhere in May 2004. The big photo at the wall of the heritage centre is she and her class anyway, which was taken really long ago.

Yeah so she came back and took us for oral. She still recognises me a bit I guess. Well, it was quite scary because she kept frowning at every comment I made about the picture as well as the conversation but in the end she smiled when I was about to conclude. Wasn't really nervous lah, since I had been going through oral for many times already, too used to the condition already, but just that it's my first time having a microphone in front of me. Mrs Poon didn't write much comments but I saw the marksheet and I scored roughly 75% of the total score.

Hmmm, today during Chinese I was feeling quite sleepy, so I was actually sleeping and constantly trying to keep myself awake during Mr Chew's lesson. Then VAGUELY I think I heard him say that we can have a short break to sleep for a while because we were quite tired. Then I think 10 minutes later he started lesson and I woke up, haha.

During Mr Ee's English lesson today I was also falling asleep. He was doing through Descriptive Essay, which isn't really my cup of tea, since I can't describe someone/something very well. At around 2.05pm when it was nearing the end of lesson I was still feeling quite sleepy, and he was nagging at us about some words being hyperbole, then suddenly Alvin raises his hand for a question.

[Alvin] Sir, what are we doing for Victorian Challenge??

Haha!!

This post is meant to be a RANT ABOUT HOMEWORK.

The school gives too much homework. Seriously. I'm writing what homework I'm left with.

1. English Comprehension. THREE of them. I will be done with ONLY ONE after finishing TWO MORE QUESTIONS.
2. E Maths holiday homework. Sadly, I have lost my protractor so I can't do some questions, but still, I am left with around one-quarter of it. ONE QUARTER.
3. E Maths normal assignment. I have no clue when we must hand in this, but I am not doing it. No time.
4. A Maths normal assignment. Same as number 3.
5. Physics Workbook. Until page 32?! Siao! Plus I dun understand the topic well, I can't do most of the questions. I attempted one or two pages before closing the book.
6. Physics Worksheet. I did the first page only, didn't bother to do the rest. Same reason as number 5.
7. Chemistry Workbook. Same as number 5 too.
8. Chemistry online quizzes. Same as number 5.
9. Chinese Essay.
10. Chinese Newspaper article report. How many? Not 1, not 5, but TEN OF THEM.
11. Biology Worksheet. No time.
12. CME assignment.
13. Social Studies Assignment. ONE WHOLE SOURCE-BASED QUESTION, OR 25 MARKS. Okay this one I admit was given very very long ago, just that I didn't do.

I hope that's about it. I won't type what I've done because it's actually quite little. But thing is, the school gives so much homework such that we have no time to do revision for our weaker subjects. This is especially true and should be directed straight to the Mathematics Department. Mathematics is my strongest subject (or 2nd), so I don't find why I must spend most of my homework time on Mathematics, which has contributed to about 30% of the homework load.

I must admit this so-called "holiday", which from dictionary.com means "a period of cessation from work", has been my least slack one so far. Firstly, I had a camp from Monday to Wednesday so I had to start planning and organising things from Saturday. There was practice on Thursday morning but I rushed home to do some homework, even though some of my choir friends went to each other's house. I even rejected Maung Myo's invitation to his new house on Saturday. However, despite all these of my leisure time being taken away, I still cannot finish my homework. Like I said, it's my least slack holiday so far. So it goes to say that there is simply too much homework for me to handle within this 9-day break.

Oh and I've not finished yet. Tomorrow (yes, tomorrow, MONDAY) is my Prelim English oral. I haven't really revised for it yet during the holiday, due to the lack of time. What should I do now? Panic? Let adrenaline rush through my blood vessels and cause breathing rate to increase, heart to pump faster and allow more glucose to be utilised?

Argh! Rawr!


Haix.

Okay, I've cooled down, so let's get back to reality.

I think our class is definitely going to ask Mr Pang for extension of deadline for both Maths and CME, so that one I can procrastinate a bit, well until I have finished my other homework. I'm sure (or I hope) he will understand our situation.

For Chemistry workbook, I think I am going to wait for Ms Yeo to finish teaching Energy Changes first, before attempting my workbook. Well, at least I have finished a worksheet. Also, the Chemistry Quizzes can wait, I think they will continue to be opened still.

As for Physics, I think the worksheet can wait. As for the workbook, I'll try to complete it tomorrow night or something. Have to read up on 2 chapters though. If I can't finish, I guess I will have to resort to copying Wei Liang's book.

English Comprehension can wait for a bit longer too, plus English is on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I hope Mr Ee can understand our situation too, as an Assistant Form Teacher of our class.

I will also try to rush through Biology worksheet and maybe Chinese essay tomorrow night, if I have time. As for the Chinese newspaper article report, I guess they'll be the last in my list, I hope I can be initiative enough to do them as soon as I have completed other homework, since Chinese 'O' level is in late May.

Social Studies assignment... hmmm... Tuesday night then, since I am having GeogSS on Wednesdays and Fridays.


And this will conclude my homework rant.

And this will conclude my March holiday for 2007. Goodbye.

Just some funny videos.

Some tricks done by a Japanese magician. Funny. [link]

A trick you can do while pitching. [link]

Some erm.. lame tricks by Cyril. You will get what I mean after watching. [link]

Choir camp has just ended.

I felt that it was quite all right, at least all activities were completed quite smoothly. We almost didn't have time to come up with the ranking for the teams, it was so last minute. Plus I didn't have enough sleep. I only slept for 2 hours on the first night because I was "interacting" with my seniors, and around 5 hours on the second night because of NCC Land's fire drill. That's why yesterday after showering at home I slept (at around 4.30pm) all the way to this morning at 8.30am for practice at SSCC, waking up at 10+ to have dinner before going back to sleep again.

Anyway after this camp I think I truly understand the purpose of telling ghost stories, thanks to Johnnie who indirectly told me.

Now I need to chiong through my homework already. I haven't started on any and I have too much to do.

holiday [noun]

Dictionary.com: a period of cessation from work

Teachers: a period whereby students are given a chance to slack, which they shouldn't, and should be bombarded with homework. Erm, we take it back. I guess that's still not enough homework. You see, so little homework, just a few worksheets that's all.

Right. "Little" times 8 subjects isn't little anymore.

Last week, Principal gave everyone a photocopied newspaper article on an ex-gaming addict. He spoke to us about this article somewhere last month as well, while he was revealing the past year 'O' level results to us (and when we had tremendous stress). So everyone had a nice nice big A3 size article about this:

Confessions of an ex-gaming junkie

Benjamin Toh was active in school until he became addicted to Maple Story, an online fantasy game. He spent hours playing the game, neglected his studies and eventually had to stay back in Secondary 3. The 17-year-old, who is from a top boys' school, looks back and tells Tessa Wong what went wrong.

"I HAVE been a gaming fanatic since my primary school days. I started with games like Red Alert and when I got older I got hooked on massive multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPG).

But my serious addiction started two years ago, with a game called Maple Story. It is a fantasy game where you can battle monsters and go on quests. My schoolmates introduced me to it in the middle of 2004, when I was in Secondary 2. I went home that day and immediately downloaded the programme and started playing it on my laptop. I just could not stop.

By the time I was in Secondary 3, I was rushing home from school and locking myself in my room to play it, often all the way up to midnight. Sometimes, I would play for over 10 hours a day, taking breaks only to go to the toilet or to gobble up my food.

My father is a logistics manager and my mother is an administrative assistant, and I am an only child with my own room. When they returned home at about 6pm, I would usually be playing Maple Story. They would tell me at least once a day to stop playing so much, but I ignored them. Back then, all I could think of was having fun.

My addiction was at its worst during school holidays. I have played up to 24 hours straight. Sometimes I would play up to 6am, then wake up at 3pm and continue to play again. I was also spending quite a bit of money on the game. I spent over $600 on Maple Story prepaid cards, which you can buy from 7-11 to redeem "cash items" in the online game. I skipped meals in school to save up for that.

I really became a totally different person.

Before this, I used to run in competitions and win medals. I was in the National Police Cadet Corps. But after I got addicted, I gave up almost all these things. I did not really have a social life too. My friends would call me about two or three times a day to ask me to hang out with them, but I kept rejecting them to stay at home to play Maple Story. They gradually stopped inviting me. But I didn't care, I was concentrating on playing my game.

Maybe it was part of growing up too, I was being rebellious. The more people don't want you to do something, the more you want to do it. My mother kept saying that if I continued playing I wouldn't do as well in my studies as other boys, but I just ignored her.

A lot of my older friends were playing it and I wanted to join them online. But they were already in polytechnics and had more time, I forgot that I still had secondary school to worry about, that I had to start preparing for my O-levels.

I started failing tests in the middle of 2005. I used to get about 60 upon 100 for my tests, then my marks dropped to around 30 upon 100 for nearly all of my subject tests.

It was dangerous, I felt I was losing direction in my life even though I was still happy-go-lucky during my exams, and continued playing a lot. It was only when my teachers announced that a number of students wouldn't graduate to Secondary 4 that I started worrying. Then I got my report card: I had passed only two subjects, English and Higher Chinese, out of seven. I had to repeat my Secondary 3. I was really depressed, and my parents were very upset.

My vice-principal said that she wanted to help push me to the next level, but I more or less made the choice to be retained. I realised that my studies were weak, and that I really wanted to get my foundation for Secondary 4 right.

Getting that report card was an eye-opening experience. I realised that I had to get over my addiction, and I just gradually stopped playing so much.

Other people helped too: My friends helped by refusing to play with me online, and my parents would confiscate my laptop sometimes. I have a new computer now, but I play only Maple Story and this other MMORPG called Audition for about two hours a day.

Life has been much better since I cut down. At the end of last year, I passed all my seven subjects and made it to Secondary 4. For most of the subjects I scored 60 upon 100 and in some I even scored 70 upon 100. Now, I also hang out with lots of new friends instead of being cooped up at home.

I am not really ashamed that I was so addicted. I still think playing MMORPG is okay, just that you really should not play it too much. You end up sacrificing a lot of time which could be spent with your family or doing constructive things. You end up throwing your life away on a game and it is just not worth it.

I guess this article won't apply to us, because being in a mugging class, no one plays Maple Story (I think only Alvin does, though). Like what Mrs Setho (Physics teacher) likes to say, "I am worried for you all, not because you all don't study, but because you all study too much." Haha. So, so far 3 of these articles have been pasted up on the notice board, each one edited in its own way. So one of the edited versions was:

Confessions of an ex-gaming mugging junkie

Benjamin Toh was active in school until he became addicted to Maple Story A-Maths, an online fantasy game a branch of Mathematics. He spent hours playing the game studying A-Maths, neglected his studies social life and eventually had to stay back in Secondary 3 jump straight to university. The 17-year-old, who is from a top boys' school, looks back and tells Tessa Wong what went wrong.

"I HAVE been a gaming fanatic diehard mugger since my primary school days. I started with games subjects like Red Alert Maths and when I got older I got hooked on massive multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPG) to harder and more challenging topics like solving quartic equations.

But my serious addiction started two years ago, with a game subject called Maple Story Additional Mathematics. It is a fantasy game subject where you can battle monsters solve equations and go on quests prove theorems. My schoolmates introduced me to it in the middle of 2004, when I was in Secondary 2. I went home that day and immediately downloaded the programme doing research and started playing it on my laptop studying. I just could not stop.

By the time I was in Secondary 3, I was rushing home from school and locking myself in my room to play study it, often all the way up to midnight. Sometimes, I would play mug for over 10 hours a day, taking breaks only to go to the toilet or to gobble up my food.

My father is a logistics manager and my mother is an administrative assistant, and I am an only child with my own room. When they returned home at about 6pm, I would usually be playing Maple Story mugging A-Maths. They would tell me at least once a day to stop playing mugging so much, but I ignored them. Back then, all I could think of was having fun studying.

My addiction was at its worst during school holidays. I have played studied up to 24 hours straight. Sometimes I would play study up to 6am, then wake up at 3pm and continue to play study again. I was also spending quite a bit of money on the game subject. I spent over $600 on Maple Story prepaid flash cards, which you can buy from 7-11 to redeem "cash items" in the online game Popular bookstores. I skipped meals in school to save up for that.

I really became a totally different person.

Before this, I used to run in competitions and win medals. I was in the National Police Cadet Corps. But after I got addicted, I gave up almost all these things. I did not really have a social life too. My friends would call me about two or three times a day to ask me to hang out with them, but I kept rejecting them to stay at home to play Maple Story study A-Maths. They gradually stopped inviting me. But I didn't care, I was concentrating on playing my game my studies.

Maybe it was part of growing up too, I was being rebellious. The more people don't want you to do something, the more you want to do it. My mother kept saying that if I continued playing studying I wouldn't do as too well in my studies as compared to other boys, but I just ignored her.

A lot of my older friends were playing learning it and I wanted to join them online in the library. But they were already in polytechnics and had more time, I forgot that I still had was in secondary school to worry about, that I had to start preparing and needed to relax for my O-levels.

I started failing achieving full marks in my tests in the middle of 2005. I used to get about 60 90 upon 100 for my tests, then my marks dropped increased to around 30 98 upon 100 for nearly all of my subject tests.

It was dangerous, I felt I was losing direction in my life even though I was still happy-go-lucky during my exams, and continued playing mugging a lot. It was only when my teachers announced that a number of students wouldn't graduate to Secondary 4 university that I started worrying. Then I got my report card: I had passed only two subjects, English and Higher Chinese, out of seven achieved full marks for every subject, all 11 of them. I had to repeat my Secondary 3 move up to university. I was really depressed, and my parents were very upset.

My vice-principal said that she wanted to help push me to the next level retain, but I more or less made the choice to be retained study less. I realised that my studies were weak too strong, and that I really wanted to get my foundation relax for Secondary 4 right.

Getting that report card was an eye-opening experience. I realised that I had to get over my addiction, and I just gradually stopped playing studying so much.

Other people helped too: My friends helped by refusing to play study with me online, and my parents would confiscate my laptop textbook sometimes. I have a new computer textbook now, but I play study only Maple Story trigonometry and this other MMORPG branch of Mathematics called Audition Calculus for about two hours a day.

Life has been much better since I cut down. At the end of last year, I passed all my only seven subjects and made it to had to retain in Secondary 4. For most of the subjects I scored 60 80 upon 100 and in some I even scored 70 upon 100. Now, I also hang out with lots of new friends instead of being cooped up at home.

I am not really ashamed that I was so addicted. I still think playing MMORPG studying is okay, just that you really should not play it study too much. You end up sacrificing a lot of time which could be spent with your family or doing constructive things. You end up throwing your life away on a game subject and it is just not worth it.

Today we were having Biology lesson on Sexual Reproduction in humans, when suddenly there was a tremor. I think most people in our class felt it and we were talking all about it suddenly. Like the ground was suddenly shaking slightly..

Then during English lesson the ground shook again. It was more prominent this time and my table was shaking as well. I think this came from an earthquake in Indonesia. Quite scary. Read at Yahoo!: Powerful Indonesian Earthquake Kills 70

I failed my Geography CA. This is the second time I failed a termly test/exam.. My first one was last CA2 when I scored 6/13 for Social Studies. I scored 11.5/25 for this CA1, of course adding a small percentage of assignment of 14/25, which makes the total an increase by 1.5 marks, so my overall percentage is still a D7.

I dunno how I am going to cope with this Humanities subject. Last year, I thought I didn't do well for Geography, so I told myself that I will depend on Social Studies to claim my marks back. Then I realised that I failed my Social Studies, so last year I wanted to depend on Geography. Now, the same thing is going on in my head, I am going to depend on Social Studies to get better marks for Geography Elective. But then again, as I am typing this now, I realise it is impossible. I can neither depend on Geography nor Social Studies. I am going to screw up my only Humanities subject. Imagine having a D7 in my 'O' level certificate...

Anyway, we were given 35 minutes to do a 25-mark question. The highest in the class was Dung who scored 15.5/25. Not enough time, maybe, but during exam we are more or less given that amount of time for a 25-mark question, so maybe that may be what I will be scoring.

Haix.

Yesterday, during Biology SPA, Miss Leow was invigilating us, and when we had around 13 minutes left...

[Ms Leow]: You all have four-- (holds for around 5 seconds while looking at the clock) -teen minutes left... or maybe less.

Hmm, it was very annoying because we were rushing through the last few parts of the experiment and her "four--" actually distracted most of us from doing what we were doing.

One or two minutes later...

[Ms Leow] You all have ten minutes left, or maybe more.

... I'd rather her not say anything.


Anyway, Mrs Setho insisted that we have our Physics SPA first before we go back to class to have theory lesson. SPA was generally okay, but I am still figuring how the equation works theoretically.

During her theory lesson, she was teaching about usage of electricity at all, and was mentioning that air-conditioners used a lot of electricity. So she digressed a little and asked who switchs on the air-con when they sleep. The response from our class isn't what I want to type here, but that at that same instance, Miss Leow was walking past our class (wearing a bright orange top), and we saw her raising up her hand as she walked past and waving it.. I supposed she was stretching herself. So some of us saw that and were bursting out in laughter. Haha.