(This post was actually meant to be blogged on Saturday night, but I didn't have time so here it is.)

Campus Superstar 2 (CSS2) is all screwed up. Once again it was more of a popularity contest rather than an actual serious singing contest based on judging. I understand that votes contribute to only 30% of the final score, reduced from the 70% as in the first CSS, but still, there was something wrong in deciding the actual CSS2 winner.^[*]

I am doubting the voting system. The way of tabulating the final scores was never revealed. You don't know how heavy the votes may constitute, even though you know it is at 30% of the final score. Let me show you an example:

X scores 90% from the judges. He received 200 votes.
Y scores 80% from the judges. He received 250 votes.

Superficially, if I give you the additional information that scores from the judges constitute to 70% of the total score, then you will say X is definitely the winner. But two of the many cases may occur:

X
Judges: 90% --> 63%
Votes: 200/250 --> 80% --> 24%
Total: 87%

Y
Judges: 80% --> 56%
Votes: 250/250 --> 100% --> 30%
Total: 86%

X wins

OR

X
Judges: 90% --> 63%
Votes: 75%^[1] --> 22.5%
Total: 85.5%

Y
Judges: 80% --> 56%
Votes: 100% --> 30%
Total: 86%

Y wins


Even if you may argue that the second voting system is unfair, I may argue that the first is unfair too, and subsequently none are fair. For example, what if we have 5 contestants, receiving different number of votes...
P: 5000^[2]
Q: 500
R: 499
S: 400
T: 300

If we use the first voting system, then P may win the competition straightaway (unless he sings really poorly and the judges failed him) because the other contestants' scores were all being pushed down. If we use the second system, then R may not be able to win Q even if he scores better than Q from the judges. In both cases, the voting systems are unfair to some extent (although unfair to different groups of people).

We are actually not looking at the possibility that the judges scores may be twisted to fit the way as it would be in the voting part of the second example. Meaning to say that I am using the score from the judges based on the total percentage they give. The system may change it such that the person with the highest score from the judges gets 100% of the 70%, the second highest gets 90%, next highest gets 80% etc.

Even though the system must be kept constant throughout every round to ensure that there is no biasness, there are still some problems with the system as seen in the above examples. It will be difficult to find a exemplary system such that it will be fair to every contestant. In some way this may contribute to Shawn's success in obtaining the overall CSS2 champion.

Okay enough about voting systems, lest I digress further into the conflict over voting systems between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland prior to 1968. Okay sorry that was random. But whatever the case, looking at Saturday's competition, I can only conclude that Singapore does not know how to vote.

Benjamin should win Shawn due to his singing. Maybe because Benjamin has less supporters than Shawn, he lost. I admit that this is quite a crucial factor in deciding a superstar. It won't help if you have a best voice on Earth, if you don't have supporters, you're useless.

How about Keely? Keely and Shawn scored nearly the same score from the judges (32 and 33 respectively if I'm not wrong, both upon 50). I strong feel that Keely should win the competition rather than Shawn. How can an "aircon" and "someone who forgets his lyrics on stage" win? Furthermore, Shawn has an unfair advantage: his balls haven't descend his voice hasn't broken. Actually, I'd rather see it as a reason for elimination, since 1) he cannot sing low notes, and 2) he may not be able to sing well and sing high^[3] after his ba.. voice breaks.

Some people may say that Shawn is cute. OMG lah this is totally bullshit. Singaporeans should learn how to vote. Based on SINGING, not sympathy like how you see Chen Weilian or a cute puppy on the street. The puppy may carry diseases. Come on, there are many secondary 1s in my school who are much cuter than Shawn. Furthermore, many people in my school think Keely is cute. And Keely shares the same surname as me! That's another reason why I think Keely should win.

If you look at it from a more general point of view, who do you think should win the CSS2 competition? You definitely want a student who is mature and can set an example in singing to all other Singapore students, right? Well, sad to say, Shawn lacks both of the qualities.

All in all, even though I seldom watch CSS2, and I only happened to watch a little bit on Saturday, I could straightaway tell that Shawn does not deserve to win the competition. Not his fault, I would say, but Singapore's fault. Come on, to those people who spent 3-digit, 4-digit and 5-digit sums of money on voting, think about it, aren't you deceiving yourselves?

Footnotes:
1) Person with highest votes gets 100%, next person gets 75%, next 50% (if there are). This is just a suggested example.
2) Due to some crazy people who anyhow vote.
3) Most male singers make it because they can sing high, and conversely, those who cannot sing high usually cannot make it. There are very few mature males who can actually sing very high.

[*] Update: Just read from wikipedia that it was back to the old allocation of percentage from the semi finals onwards (70% votes, 30% judges).

Inspired by Ernest. He didn't complete it, so I'll complete it for him. For the actual song "There's no place I'd rather be", click here.


It's VS I'd Rather Be

I've seen the clock tower in Hwa Chong
I've heard the school band of Tanjong Katong
I've seen the soccer fields
In which VS has nil ^{[See footnote]}
I've passed by River Valley
In Jurong
I've been offered IP in sec two
And NUS High which looks quite cool
But I want to stay in here
For reasons I have feared
I think of you each night and every day

Chorus:
There's no place I'd rather be
You'll always be a part of me
And even though I've roamed everywhere
It's still my home I long to see
This is where I gave my fees
To see my friends learn with me
So I'll take the bus and walk the streets
To be where I wanna be

[Repeat chorus]

Cos it's VS I'd rather be


Note: VS will only have a soccer field in late 2007/early 2008 after its shift to Siglap Link, even though VS has always claimed to have one.

XXX was playing Pokemon in class.

"Eh boy, what you doing?"
"(quickly keeps away handphone) Discussing, sir."
"Yeah, yeah."


To be frank, he saved a 3rd deck of cards from being confiscated today.

Happened quite a few times already. I shall type down how my form and assistant form teachers always greet us.


[Mr Pang]: Good morning.
[Class]: Good AFTERNOON sir.
[Mr Pang] (looks at watch and clock): Sorry, afternoon.


[Mr Ee]: Come on, hands by your side, let's wish each other. 1, 2, 3, good morn-AFTERNOON class.
[Class]: Good afternoon sir.

Getting 6 points for 'O' levels is just like bidding and winning 6S in contract bridge.

It's very hard to achieve, you feel a strong sense of satisfaction if you win, and the rewards are high.

Went to watch 2 movies on National Day eve: The Simpsons, with Jonathan, Shi Wei and Wei Liang; and Rush Hour 3 with Wee Bian and Wei Liang.

Before we went to watch The Simpsons, Wei Liang called Gabriel wanting to ask him to watch movie with us. Wei Liang asked, "Have you watched Rush Hour?" (try saying it aloud)

Shi Wei, who was with us also, suddenly asked, "Huh? Watch who shower?" He heard as: Have you watched her shower. Haha. Now we know what you are thinking, naughty boy.

Reminds me of someone telling me about Miss Pesvien Neo walking past 2 boys talking about meteors. One boy asked the other, "Have you seen a meteor shower?" and Miss Neo herself heard it as "Have you seen Miss Neo shower?"

Today was a pure slack day. We had the first 5 periods of the day with Mr Pang, so he spent the first period going through revision for CME test which will be held next week, I think. What he did was just to show us a powerpoint presentation, and he said...

[Mr Pang]: These 20 slides (of the powerpoint presentation) will actually summarise what... SHOULD BE taught during CME lessons over the past 2 years.
[Someone]: Sir, when was the last time you teach us CME?
[Mr Pang] (after pondering for a while): Last year.

I spent the rest of the lesson doing Biology work. Was very sian.

After recess was Biology lesson, and Mdm Tan had to leave early, so we had 1 free period. Plus there is no lesson during Chinese so 3 free periods total after recess.


...


Last Thursday was our Biology 'O' level SPA. We had *ahem* some *ahem* inside information *ahem*. Mdm Tan took 10 minutes going through the SPA just before the exam (but didn't tell us the topic). Then she said...

[Mdm Tan]: The topic will be on transpir- I MEAN transport and nutrients in plants.
[Class]: Ma'am, it's on transpiration!!
[Mdm Tan]: No, it's not! It's on transport.
(after a while)
[Mdm Tan]: Okay, please go have your SPA exam now, and it's not on transpiration!

In the end the topic came out to be... finding stomata distribution, aka transpiration.


...


Wei Liang is really damn imba. He managed to spot Chemistry SPA question (held today). Just before the exam he asked me how to do if the question asks for speed of reaction due to temperature. And abracadabra, the question came out to be exactly the way he said it! Imba.

Happy August.

Today during class Ernest was showing me an old trick using a $2 note where you fold the face of the 1st President and you can see him smiling and frowning at different angles. Didn't see this for quite long already so I had a good laugh. Ernest said I was crazy for laughing so much, but when I showed Shi Wei that, he laughed more than me! Then the money got passed around quickly and everyone was laughing at it, haha. I was laughing at them laughing.

I also showed the protractor casing (refer to March 21 post) to some people. Didn't know that many people were still laughing over it even though I have shown before.

I didn't know Miss Yeo can be so lame. She was teaching us macromoleculars and she said a rectangle can be used to represent C_xH_y bonds. We cannot use it for drawing the full structural formula though, because according to her:

You will get zero if you draw a rectangle. That's because a circle is the next pattern after a rectangle.