melt

Once upon a time there lived a king. This king had a beautiful daughter.
But there was a problem. Everything the princess touched with her hands would melt.
No matter what – be it metal, wood, plastics, anything her hands touched melted.
Because of this, men were afraid of her. Nobody would dare to marry her.
The king dispaired.
What could he do to help his daughter?
Hence, he consulted his wizards and magicians.
One of them told the king, “IF your daughter touches one thing that does not melt in her hands, she will be cured.”
The king was overjoyed.
The next day, he held a competition.
Any man that could bring his daughter an object that would not melt would marry her and inherit the king’s wealth.
Three young princes took up the challenge.

The first prince bought a very hard alloy of titanium.
Once the princess touched it, it melted. The prince went away sadly.

The second prince brought a huge diamond, thinking that diamond is the hardest substanec in the world and would not melt.
Once the princess touched it… it melted.
He too was sent away disappointed.

The third prince approproached.
He told the princess, “Put your hand in my pocket and feel what is in there.”
THe princess did as she was told, and she turned red.

She felt something…. hard, and held it in her ahnd. And it did not melt!!!

The king was ovrjoyed. Everybody in the kingdom was overjoyed.
And the third prince married the princess and they both lived happily every after.

What was the object in the prince’s pants?

*scroll down for the answer

Guess….

They were M&M’s of course.

They melt in your mouth, not in your hand.

What were you thinking?

aq training

It’s been quite a while since I’ve actually written something.

I’m really quite tired now @ 11 pm but still have to slug on.

Today we had AQ training. (for ppl who don’t know exactly what aq training is, it’s a part of my cca where we’ll train like crazy maniacs for 4 months for a competition )

What we did:

• Run-all-you-want stamina running buffet [1hr]
• Sets (X 4)
  1. 8 chin-ups
  2. 40 push ups
  3. 40 crunches
  4. 40 leg raises
  5. 2 rounds

During the run-all-you-can-in-1hour, I ran 25 rounds round the track intitially, but at the last 1.2 minutes, I chiong-ed and blazed round the track and did a total of 26 ROUNDS!!!OMG! A new record for me!

Under the sweltering heat from the merciless sun and constant torture of lack of water, I realised I could pull it through if I wanted it enough. Remember the video I posted 2 days ago? (refer to it below) I was singing the “Prince of Egypt” theme song “there can be miracles” under my bated breath for quite some time. Somehow, I felt very motivated, a feeling beyond words, when I sang that song to myself.

It’s amazing how a song can transform your performance, huh?

I felt like I wanted to give up many times, but I kept singing this song to myself and my pace sped up miraculously. I think it’s God’s divine help again. Praise the Lord!

The rest of the training was the usual sets, nothing much evcept we were dead tired at the end of it.

.school.

Speaking of “Praise the Lord”, I can’t seem to forget the harrowing experience today.

I was supposed to tell an anecdote (which i had already prepared), and then what happened? I rehearsed it such that it could be done under 3.2 minutes, but it ended up much more than that! In the end, Ms Kuang herself had to chase me off the stage! Haha. Damn paisei. But anyway, I hope I did reasonably ok in terms of presentation. I tried to pull this presentation off very humorously and light-heartedly. Hopefully my message and style went across to the audience.

there can be miracles

This song overwhelmed me, especially when the entire band of isrealites sang it.

Very touching.

And yes, there can be miracles.

busy busy busy

Haha. Apparently from the blog stats, some one searched “wincy tsang +teacher” on google search and came to my blog. I really don’t know how that happened.

(to those who don’t know who wincy tsang is, you’re missing out on a lot)

Today was a busy day (as most days are). It’s only 9:50 and my eyes are falling apart. I really don’t know why. It could be I was so used to sleeping at 3am watching amazing movies on dvds and waking up at 11am during the hols OR there’s much more stress and energy in sec 3.

The pressure is here to stay.

I made a few blunders in school already, and I really wish I could apologise to those people whom I’ve offended. But maybe they don’t know I’m saying a sincere “sorry” to them. I don’t know.

.my teachers.

My teachers are quite ok lah.

English: Ms Kuang (lit RA teacher also). She’s quite a nice teacher/feminist.
Maths: Mrs Ho. Approach is a little boring, otherwise it’s fine. (update: she’s nice!)
Chinese: Mdm Su. Quite strict lah but hopefully will help me IMPROVE MY CHINESE!!!
Geog + SS: Mr Yuen. He’s interactive, humorous and approchable. hurhur…
Phy: Mr Wee. Damn enthu.
Chem: Mrs Kua, who’s like semi-retiring for 4 months. Heard that she’s a great teacher.
Bio: Mrs Lim. I hope she’ll just pause for a moment during her lesson sometimes. She speaks like a bullet train, non-stop. But I guess she produces results?!

If you have any of those teachers before pls tag me here and let me know at my shoutbox. (you’ll see it at the menu when you scroll up) It’s intersting to discuss what amazing teachers we have @ Raffles Institution. Haha.

.my friends.

Mr Yuen (form teacher) did an arrangement of our seating arrangement today. Good if you saw the mistake in the last sentence. I’m so sleepy now. <yawn>

I’m currently seating with the one-and-only great nigel fong. Contary to popular belief and malicious rumours, he’s acutally quite a generous nice guy. He doodles during lessons. OMG. And somehow, we have exactly the same height (164 m) . We’re sitting right in front of the teacher’s table on the first row, meaning that we are the taller people in 3C. (it’s just that those behind happen to be the tallest, that’s all. i’m tall, ok?)

Kristian is a little pissed with me because of the chinese project, but i think i’ll partner with him for future projects to come. He’s very bubbly and lively, but a little more slack.

There’s some friendly disorder in 3C, I dont’ know what but we’re a very co-operative and less quarrelsome class with fewer conflicts than most classes. I called it a disorder because very very few classes have the 3C-atmosphere. But it’s a disorder I’d appreciate and really like for the next 2 years.

.homework and etc.

I’m in 2 RAs (phy and geog), so it gets a little stressful sometimes. Plus the high demands of AQ and other family time commitments like eating durians, I become really tensed up at times and just snap very nastily or make random nasty comments about things. I hope the people around me can understand that. Comment if you do.

Feeling a little discouraged right now, and I’ll be praying. Pray for me too! I really need His touch.

obs

When I was in the boat ferrying us back to mainland from Pulau Ubin, I was thinking if I should just write a one-word smart-alecky post like “cold” or “torturing”. Or maybe “shit-ty”.

But then, now in the comfort of my home (can you imagine – with ELECTRIC LIGHTS!!!!) and after 15 hours of continuous sleep where I closed my eyes induced myself into a semi-concious state (meaning actual sleep) in air-con (OMG!), I think I’ll change my mind and start posting a more detailed version of the things that transpired in OBS.

.the weather.

It is probably the most memorable thing after this. I can safely not consult any psychics from now on – every single prediction I made about the weather was 100% correct. No, it’s not some tyco crap. I kid you not.

Prediction 1: It would rain every single night. (made on the first night)
How it happened: On the first night, it rained like large cats and super large dogs. It rained on the second night and we went to sleep in the hall. It rained on the third night when we had no shelter. It rained on the fourth night but luckily we could sleep in the hall.
As an added bonus, it rained on the fifth when we returned hope, but I predicted that as well.

Trust me, it won’t rain tonight, and a few nights to come. There will be a dry spell. Mark my words.

Prediction 2: It would rain when we’re doing outdoor activities, but it would suddenly stop when we’re doing any indoor activities whatsoever.
How it happened: (an example) On the 5th day, it drizzled in the morning when we woke up. The rain stopped after that when we were packing. When we were packing our ponchoes in the open space, it rained. It rained till we returned home, then the rain stopped. Wow.

There’re many other examples, but I won’t bore you with them.

.the stay.

We were in the mobile course and wouldn’t get to enjoy residential like the other half of the cohort which stayed in super-comfy bunkers every single night. Damn. So we camped in tents like refugees for all the nights except the last where we could actually sleep in the shelter of a dirty and cold hall.

What a comforting thought.

Anyway, our tent (consisting renyong, nigel fong, choon how and I) was almost always pitched perfectly every night but it rained as if the heaven’s above had a drainage problem that saint peter had forgotten to repair. Refer them to Hup Lee or <some other neighbourhood name like ABC> Plumbing Services Pte. Ltd.

And the side of our tents got wet gradually, which seeped into our tents. It was one of the best swimming pools I’ve actually constructed. I mean, our haversacks were only soaked in and out.

.the activities.

Ok, they were quite good, especially the highlights. I’ll just mention them.

Kayaking – We kayaked for 7 hours straight, from 9 to 4 pm, circling Pulau Ubin. I love kayaking and swimmming, so I didn’t actually grow tired until only the last hour. My partner behind, ren yong, was tired from the start and hence didn’t do much. But it was ok. During the journey, we had Nigel Fong (yes, that nigel fong) who navigated us. I admit, I was impressed with his initiative. Such people seldom cross my path.

The rain, by the way, was random. Sometimes it would pour (really pour) for 60 seconds, then stop at once. Then it would drizzle for 10 minutes then suddenly pour for a few seconds, then totally halt. Lovely weather.

But in the end, I find this one of the most satisfying challenges that I overcame. I felt really good after that.

Obstacle height element – Quite fun and really challenging. I did this with Tanuj. It consisted of 7 wooden poles attached by chains at the side suspended from the ceiling. The distance between each pole increased as the height increased. I’m afraid of both height and depth, height being my chief fear. So even with a belay at the other end, I was afraid of falling. I grabbed on to the pole above me with the help of swinging and using Tanuj’s thighs. (sounds quite gay here) But I managed to grab hold of the top pole, and I am really satisfied.

Jungle hike - Nothing in the end, because we spent so much time doing the obstacle thing that we went straight to the campsite.

.the people.

I saw the difference between the character and behaviour *they’re different* of my classmates. I make absolutely no hesitation in expressing thanks and showing that I’m impressed to people who impressed me, so here’s my honour roll:

• ren yong (for certain reasons, i suppose?)
• nigel fong (surprise, surprise. quite a generous perfectionist. changd my impression of good people)
• joshua (his shouting does make people feel more “empowered” )
• conan (quite an enthusiastic person)
• kristian (chitty chatty, lively)
• fa yang (spirited and disciplined)
• daniel (quiet and serene)
• ying jie (smiles and looks positively at things. also knows how to be super-poser)

If you’re not mentioned here it’s not that I don’t like you, it’s just that you just need to work a little harder to make me impressed.

.the experience.

At the end of the 5-day horror trip that emptied my edusave account of $230 (with GST), I must say that I’m quite satisifed and proud of my experience in obs. i bought a lime highlighted green pencil case with the large “obs” logo. It’s been a long tedious journey for me but also a satisfying and spirited one. Maybe the stay and weather weren’t that good, but otherwise it was fine.

On the whole, this made me a more perceptive person with a better understanding of hardship and independence.

But thank god it’s over.

For now, let me eat my mango. my father bought it from thailand. iit’s super-juicy and super-sweet.

school & 3C

School.

I know it’s quite late to be posting this sort of thing now, but school’s been quite enjoyable or casually fun lately.

I know about half the class already but I’m still working on the rest, especially trying to differentiate between the names of the chinese scholars.

Wah. Sit with ying jie is really quite stressful. He’s fine, but is those chao-ji-mugger kind, I’m quite worried. But ok lah, I mean there are nice people in 3C, mainly because 3A-C are those “on-the-go” classes.

Well, supposedly.

I just remembered 2 new people’s names today. X) Quite good lah, considering I didn’t make much effort.

Anyway, back to school, I’m worried for the subjects.

Geog seems nice. At least the teacher is nice. I mean, he’s joking with us about Mr Wong’s (HOD for Humans) “passion for learning” catch phrase while introducing to us “Spatial <something><something> dimensions within a modern <something> city”.

We’re NOT doing O-levels, we’re NOT doing A-levels, we ARE doing U-levels. Yes, university textbooks costing >$100 each.

Chinese and Maths are things I MUST improve this year. The teachers quite qiong.

Then got Bio. Yet another (ms) wincy tsang. She speaks as fast as a bullet in a vacuum, and her expectations are quite high.

So our first bio formula is:

Textbook + Bio File = Stand outside class

Very shiok hor.

Must go for Raffles Trial tomorrow.

Better remember to wear full U.

Now it’s so late already, my parents asking me to sleep. Can’t I just enjoy staying up late for one night? Sigh… Anyway, good night.

new year 07 :)

Yay! It’s new year! I’m quite happy 2006 is over, actually. It’s a year of screwed-upness and idiosyncracies. It’s a year I won’t sorely miss.

Somehow there’s some magic in a new year – new things to do, new things to learn, new people to like, new vitatlity, and new underwear. (just kidding)

I have only 3 New Year Resolutions. They’re quite important – but I didnt’ set them for last year, I’ll just do it for this year.

• Make more friends and less enemies
• Work smarter (and MUCH less )
• Swim every week

Maybe I’ll add another one: update this totally new blog regularly! When I visit my friends blogs they seem to have this large gap when they post, sometimes a few months. Whatever la.

Anyway, I hope 3C will be a great class… in 07!

Happy New Year! (and God bless)