|
|
Monday, October 3, 2011
Hello I'm back!
Today is the day, The Day - The start of the O's. Honestly I'm very nervous right now, but I shall remain cool as it is said that if you freak out, you will start having Writer's Block for compos and not knowing how to do questions you could do before in Sciences and Maths. Today's paper is English paper 1 and 2, and it's in the afternoon. Before I continue, I shall share the past events since my last post. First, there was my Mum's 50th Birthday celebration at Langkawi, Malaysia from 16 September to 18 September, which was a Friday to a Sunday on the first week of school. The timing wasn't the best since I couldn't use my weekend to study, but I had fun. The place was a beach resort and I played many activites such as kayaking, beach soccer and etc with my cousins. I also took a cable car to the top of the mountain which was above the clouds. I don't take Geog, so I think that is the stratosphere or something. Sadly, it was raining before we went to the cable car, so the view was so foggy, you couldn't see any of the specticular view that you are supposed to see. But we waited, and soon enough, the sun shone for a brief moment and we had about 1 minute to see a wonderful view of the seas and mountains. Also they closed the suspension bridge which is also at the top of the mountain due to bad weather conditions hence it was a bit saddening. Overall, I enjoyed this trip and even though I was badly sunburnt, I would want to go back again. Next, I went through Grad Night. I have officially completed my secondary school life. On Grad Night I did not recieve any prizes, but I still have fun at the dinner and taking photos with my friends. Uh... Nothing else to say already. So with that, it was the study break for us. It's funny because I felt that I was more hardworking during school than during the study break. It's probably because I could stay back in school until NSP started, whereas I'm at home during the study break so I wake up late. Well I'm mostly prepared, so wish me luck and may I do myself, my class and the school proud! Btw, the actualy date of this post is 24 October, I just edited a previous post that I had not completed writing.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Well again it's been a while. Starting off with the highlight of the month - Victoria Challenge (VC)!!! VC is definitely an enjoyable experience for me. If you don't know what VC is, it is a challenge a class chooses for itself and this task has to be completed within 24 hours. My class decided to conduct a 1-day camp for the children of the Spastic Childrens' Association of Singapore (SCAS). Noble act indeed. Basically we split into groups and plan out fun activities for the children. These children are physically or mentally disable, so it affects their pace of learning. That's why they learn in the SCAS until they are capable enough to go into the normal schools. Now, I wouldn't say the children are less intelligent than us. In fact, to me, they seem like just normal children, perhaps just a little more hyperactive. What my group did was to conduct a treasure hunt at the playground of SCAS. We hid soft toys and the children are supposed to find them. We even put pictures and the names of the animal soft toys so that the children can learn about the animals. Honestly, it didn't go too well. Once the children entered the playground, they immediately starting running around, sliding down the slides, climbing here and there... However, seeing that they had fun, I am already satisfied. After all, that was our purpose of conducting the camp, isn't it? In the afternoon, the groups shifted roles. This time my group had to bring the children around. I brought my group around to play water activities, soccer, cookie baking and then sand art. In case you are wondering how old the children are, they are about 4 years old. In conclusion, I had fun conducting the camp for the children. It definitely was an enriching experience and maybe we should not take our "normal" learning abilities for granted. Because if it's something I learned, the children of SCAS are able to focus and concentrate on doing things. It is something we should adopt. After our activity at SCAS finished, it was roughly 4 p.m. I headed back to VS to slack in my classroom. In the evening, we watched X-Men First Class until at night when the rest of the class played Fifa on the PS3. I wandered around to see other classes finishing up their projects. For example 4E was painting the wall outside their class, some Sec 1 class was creating a "V1CTOR1an5" using small candles, etc. The classe s that had already finished were either sleeping or watching movies. Summing up my VC experience, it was fun. Too bad it's only a once in four years event. Also, it's a shame my class project did not physically leave a mark on the school, but I'm sure we left an impression on the childrens' minds. Even if they forget, at least we know we did something meaningful. Moving on to Mock Tests... The Mock Tests are crazy. 4 Tests in 3 consecutive days? There were SS and the three sciences. I did my best to study for SS and Chemistry, but Biology was just too much to learn in a short period of time. Why must they arrange it such that the tests are in the same week? I think it will be less stressful if it was one test per week. Anyway, the tests are over, I'm so glad, but whether I do well or not, that's beside the point. I guess there's no use crying over spilled milk, the tests are over. Lastly, Speech Day was on Saturday. I saw many of my seniors going on stage and receiving an award. This definitely has spurred me to do well, as I want an award! :3 I tried motivating myself. "On the results day, do I want to cry tears of joy or sadness?" Lol jk I won't cry because I'm a man (wah), but I definitely do not want to cry tears of sadness. Science O Level SPA skill 3 is over. I'm upset. I hope I get full marks for Chem and bio, unless some discrepancy such as careless mistakes (which I inevitably make) arise. But for physics, I should really slap myself >:( "To investigate how the temperature of water affects the bending of light" I directly copied off that line for my approach, when clearly, you are supposed to change "bending of light" to "refraction". Stupid me. I missed a chance to get 1.25 easy marks for my O levels. I really hope I can still get an A1 for physics. Other than that, the rest of the physics should be OK. Should. MT O level results are out soon. I do not take HCL as my Chinese is terrible. I really hope for an A1 or A2 (fingers crossed)  This is an interesting comic, but I realised it's too small to see the words, so here's a transcript. Panel 1: Being a mad scientist doesn't leave me with much time for friends. Panel 2: I don't want to be one of those lame sad scientists. Panel 3: So I discovered that when life gives you lemons... Panel 4: You give those lemons life! Panel 5: Lemonstein!
Saturday, June 25, 2011
It's been a while; my blog is mouldy, not to mention infected with CBox Bots; I seemed to have lost in interest in updating :(
Still, I have to motivate myself to keep this blog updated :P A lot has happened over the last few months, I really don't know where to start. Firstly, there was the X-country run. My timing improved by 6 minutes, from 29 to 23. This isn't remarkable to most people, but to me, a record is a record. After all, the run is about fun and a lot of running. Then, there was prelims. Honestly, I could have done better, and there is no way to sugarcoat the truth that if I don't work harder, there is no way I can enter any JC of my choice. It's true that everyone says in the O level, your L1R5 will be half of your L1R5 in Prelims. I'll be overjoyed if that were the case for me. 15 / 2 = 7.5 Still, I shall not be too stressed out about this, because there is always Prelim 2 to strive harder. Next, there was my brother's 21st birthday. It was held in Changi Cottage, which is a chalet by the beach. The place was more of a relaxing place, rather than many-facilities-to-enjoy kind-of place. The only bad thing was that it was held in the middle of my Prelims, and bring my studying materials there to study was a failure. I only read one page of my SS notes :P Ultimately, I enjoyed myself, as it was a fun party with many friends and family there. The cake was a grand 2-tier cake :D Also, I stepped down from the Prefectorial Board, as well as from Choir. First, I'll talk about PB. I was a Prefect for 1 year and 1 school term. Truth be told, I can't say I thoroughly enjoy it, but I absolutely do not dislike being a prefect as well. So being a prefect is more or less a bittersweet experience. In Sec 3, my class had a balcony outside. My classmates would often play soccer there. Being new to PB then, I really did not know how to stop them. I guess if I decided to stop them, I would be a hated person in the class. However, my teacher told me to do the right thing. So I did. My teacher then told me to be a prefect, there must be moral courage involved. I guess being a prefect is a thankless job, but someone has to do it, and to do it right. Being a prefect did make me get dissed by a few people, but at the same time, I guess it taught me how to be a better Victorian and leader. Moving on to choir. Unlike PB, I have more experience in choir. Choir has brought bittersweet moments as well. There were times where I got pumped by SLs and the Comm, and there were times when we all cheered and celebrated after a great performance or that we received the Gold with Honours award in the SYF. And then I became the Treasurer. Being a Treasurer does not mean I just settle monetary things in the choir, for that makes me a Committee member as well, and that means I have to set an example for my juniors, and help them out. Choir was a new experience to me. I was a Scout in Primary School, and it was my 2nd choice in the CCA list, choir being the first. I did not know what to expect in the choir, neither did I bother about the stereotypical comments about choir people. To be honest, I was more looking forward to getting an A1 for my CCA, I guess that thought changed after I entered the choir and when I became a senior. In Sec 1, I could not differentiate between my parts and other sections parts. I guessed I was singing Soprano countless times. Good thing my SLs did not know. :D In Sec 2, there was SYF. I guess the seriousness of it kicked in, and I learned my parts. In Sec 3, I became a Comm member. I tried to set an example to everyone, and motivate the juniors in my section to work harder. In Sec 4, there was SYF again. I guess since then I was a Comm member, maybe that's why I didn't learn my parts so seriously. It was a good thing I managed to perfect my singing of the songs. I mean, in Sec 2, I would replay Kucinta (that year's choice of song) over and over again until I could at least sing the song such that it met the requirements of my SLs. But in Sec 4 I guessed I slacked a bit. Hopefully I learned from this. Anyway, over the course of preparing for the SYF, there were many setbacks. First, the lyrics to Ronde (a French song, and one of our song choices) were insanely difficult to memorise. Even I had some mistakes. Mr Kwei said that difficulty-wise, 10% is the tune, 90% is the lyrics. And I agree. There was also the time we decided to practise in the auditorium, to get ourselves used to various venues, since we do not know how we'll sound like in the School of the Arts hall. For some freakishly scary reason, our sound and quality tremendously dropped when we sang in the auditorium. Mr Kwei would frequently cut us in the middle of the song to tell just we are off-pitch, sharp, flat, etc. It was frustrating and demoralising, which made me wonder if we had already sounded like that initially, or was it the venue which affected us this way. Fortunately, after a few practices, we did improve, and sounded better than we did in the music room. It was definitely a great achievement, and from then on, we "improved exponentially" as how Mr Kwei put it. During the actual SYF day, we all had butterflies in our stomachs. We knew we could get GWH, but will we screw up? Entering the hall and standing on the stage, I tried to put on a smile like we are supposed to. I scanned the area - there were a few choirs sitting in front of us because they had already finished performing, and in the floor above was the judges. I was nervous, but I focused on Mr Kwei and sang out. I keep telling myself that it would be my last performance (but actually it wasn't), thus I have to give it my all. We rush and went sharp for the second and third song, but overall it was OK. We did better in our usual practices, though. Kenneth Tay, who was watching the performance, said we were in the Gold-Gold with Honours range, so it will be difficult to determine our award. Many said we would get gold, while others kept high hopes and prayed for a Gold with Honours. We headed back to VS with heavy hearts. After we got back to school, we headed back to SOTA for lunch. I felt that it was quite silly that they made it compulsory for everyone to go back to school. This was not the case 2 years ago after our performance. So Jason treated some people to a Sushi Tei buffet, which was awesome. :D Then we slowly enjoyed our ice cream and headed to SOTA, waiting patiently for our results. Unlike 2 years ago, there was no TV outside that is showing the results announcing that was going on inside. However, I had a ticket to go in and listen to the results. Sitting in the chair, I got more nervous as the announcer says each choir and their award. At last, she reached choir number 21, which is VS Choir. I sprang from my seat and cheered loudy when she announced we got the GWH award. The judges who were sitting in front had to turn around and "Shh-ed" us. I sent the good news to Jason, who was outside, and he told the good news to every who was with him. SYF has been a tiring but fruitful experience, and we did not let VS down and continued the Gold streak, and adding another award to the school. Also, 4 years in Alto FTW :D Another significant event would be the ISG (Inter-Section Games). I played soccer for Alto. Even though I could also play Captain's Ball and Badminton, I decided to let the juniors get themselves involved instead. After all, the two sports above is not something I'm good at. :/ Anyway, I played as a defender, and enjoyed myself. Our scores: vs Soprano: 2-0 (win) vs Bass: 0-2 (lose) vs Tenor: 6-5 (win) The Tenor match was the most exciting. I persuaded Hendrik to join our side. He was about to play on the Tenor-side, with Rifdi, Jun Yew, Benjamin, Cheng Kan and etc. If he had not joined, we might not have won. We were intially leading 4-0, but the Tenors put up a good fight and fought back. Altos got 2nd place in soccer, 3rd place in Captain's Ball and 1st in Badminton. Overall, we were the winning section of ISG!! We actually beat Basses by a mere 1 point overall. Lastly, there is the June Holidays. The time now is past 12, the 26th of June. School starts tomorrow. I have mixed feelings about going back to school, but overall I do not want my holiadays to end. It sped by really quickly, one reason was that the first week was used for extra lessons. Anyway, I managed to complete my holiday homework (most of it), even all 4 E-Math and 4 A-Math Papers. However, I think I should also have spent more time studying, especially my weaker subjects such as my Humanities and Languages. It's back to school, which means back to a whole term of intense revision, and with Prelim 2 and Mock Tests coming up, I guess I cannot afford to slack. Of course, I do not want to have a burn-out as well. New term, new targets, new expectations. Yay you have reached the end. This has been a very mature and long post.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Today is a special day.
Today is my birthday! =) Initially, there were supposed to be 4 tests today, which is a total killjoy. However, in the end there was only the History one. Anyway this birthday of mine is quite special. It is one day before SYF. That means there is tons of pressure. However, it would be a perfect present should we attain a GwH. Hundreds of hours of practice has been put in for a mere 10 mins+ on stage. Is it worth it? Definitely. Anyway, for my birthday, it was an ice cream-like cake. Anyway the cake was not placed in the freezer, but in the fridge instead. Thus when I cut the cake, the cake was bleeding ice cream =P Back to talking about SYF. This is my last SYF and last performance in VSChoir. Time to give my best :)
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Ü
Wow, I have not been posting for nearly a whole month :O Anyway, nothing that eventful has been happening. I enjoyed my school holidays, although I must admit there was more play than work. :( SYF is in 11 days, and with that little amount of time left, hopefully we can practise well enough and attain Gold with Honours. Honestly, I must say that we have improved tremendously, having only switched back to SATB in January. However, did we improve well enough for a GWH? I really hope we attain a GWH to carry on the Gold-streak tradition. We also must avoid being complacent, because we are not the best of Mr Kwei's choirs, nor should we even be proud. Somehow I think if one gets complacent after overcoming an easy obstacle, his next obstacle will be impossible to overcome. So if all goes well, I'm certain we can get a GWH and also FULL DAY!!! :D On another note, my birthday is before SYF :O
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Ü
Hihi, So I'm on the computer again, but I'm still not allowed to use it unless for work purposes. :( A lot has happened since the last time. First, there is the Student Leader Investiture (SLI) , where the student leaders of the school are recognised. I received my Prefect badge :) I have almost been a prefect for a whole year, time really flies. Hopefully the badge will serve as a reminder when it comes to my duties not only as a Prefect, but in choir and in other situations. Next, there is the Singapore Youth Festival (SYF). No, the choir's SYF has not yet begun, but the intensive practice has. In my opinion, I think that we did a really great job switching from TTBB back to SATB, and our progress is fine, although we really need to maximise our remaining time till 12 April, which is the start of SYF, as well as my birthday. :) And if you don't know anything about what TTBB or SATB is, never mind. =P I'm sure there are more things to talk about, but I'll just use the CA1s as my last point because it is late and I want to sleep. So the CA1s... I did surprisingly well, although I did make a few careless mistakes here and there. I have not reached my dream MSG or L1R5 or Percentage, but I think I did better than expected. I'm sure I can improve much much much further. But anyway, I am feeling the stress of Sec 4 life. In my Chinese 议论文, the topic was "Do you think stress can enable a person to improve?". I briefly stated that a piece of carbon is able to become a diamond under pressure, but an egg will simply crack and break under pressure. So what about humans, what about me? :O In the conclusion, I wrote that a bit of pressure will help one to succeed, but that is a small quantity of pressure. The O levels are indeed giving tons of pressure. Well, there is only one way to attain good results, and that is through studying, consistent school work, and working hard. No matter how tough it will be on the road to the O levels, I won't break down and instead, propel forward. =]
Friday, February 11, 2011
Herro
Basically, I'm banned from the computer D: I only using now because I asked for permission. other than that, I don't think I'll be able to use very frequently now :( But on a brighter note, CNY was great, I lost a lot of money playing Blackjack but I had fun =) I'm a little upset that I messed up my maths test on coordinate geometry, and I made a few mistakes in my bio and physics SPA, but I'll be alright. My friend said it is better to make the mistake now, then in the O levels. I couldn't agree more, although the best would be to not make any mistakes at all. Enjoy the remaining days of CNY and good luck to all in the CAs. |
profile
Lie Wen12 April Tao Nan School - Victoria School Secondary 4D Choirister - Alto 1/Bass 2 tagboard
links
MY OWN BLOGVS 2A'09 Class Blog Choir Blog Aaron Alif Athanasius Benjamin Bok Woon Cheng Yu Clement Darius Eugene Francis Gerald Haziq Jason Koh Jason Lin Jia Peng Jonathan Kit Jonathan Teo Ken Kenneth Chiang Kenneth Tay Matthew Melvin Muzafar Nicholas Pandiyan Rifdi Sen Tristen Yong Xiang Ze Xuan Zhi Hao credits
Feat:Lily ColeDesign and Graphics by Kenneth Kennedicut Chiang |