Zero

I've been waiting forever to type that as the title of my post. Yes, it's finally over. That was definitely a very long twenty days, but it's all over and that's all that matters to me right now.

There was a class movie outing, which was sort of successful I guess. In any case it's the best we've ever been capable of. Watched Rapunzel in 3D on Jacob's suggestion ( >.> ) but it turned out to be quite an enjoyable movie: standard "Disney princess" movie with song and dance and cute animal sidekicks and love-conquers-all plots, but Disney has a brilliant track record of making all their movies entertaining and heartwarming at the least (them and Pixar will be the reasons why I never grow old of animated films). Interesting to note is that this is the first Disney princess movie in CGI (even The Princess and the Frog was purposely made in the more traditional sketched style). I don't know if I'm glad for their technological progress or sad for the abandonment of what I've always considered to be a Disney trademark. In any case, I'll always be impressed by Snow White and how the art style of the entire movie was more "blurry" and "washed-out" to fit the theme that Snow White was the fairest of them all. I just don't know if that kind of nuance is possible to pull of in a generation of movie-goers who demand crisp and flashy colours above all else.

After that, we had dinner at this place called the Music Cafe. Sadly, we missed Live Band Night on Wednesdays and DJ Night on Fridays, so there really wasn't much to the namesake while we were there. Of course, that didn't cause the restaurant to lower their prices T_T The guys were planning to LAN after that, but the LAN shop only had 7 computers left for 11 people, so I guess LAN will have to wait.

While at the Music Cafe, they were playing MTV on the TV there, and My Super Sweet 16 was airing, which caused many of us to start criticising the extreme decadence and self-indulgence of American youth, which of course is an over-generalisation given our current level of information. Still, it really makes you wonder if all that talk is really just sour grapes and not an actual display of maturity. After all, it's so much easier to get angry at a person if she's 16 and complains that her parents bought her a Nissan instead of a Mercedes for her birthday.

The storm is finally over, the open sea awaits, and I shall raise the sails and take the wheel... later. For the next feel days I just want to wallow in self-indulgent sloth

See no colour

Tomorrow is the last paper; tomorrow it all ends.

I have seas of paper covering my desk, all scrawled with rough workings from my revision. To my right, I've stacked up all the 'A' level question papers I could bring home. Every time I look at them, I think back to those few hours where I sat in that plastic chair and scribbled furiously on foolscap paper, and what I could have and should have done better. Yes, a lot of thinking, but ultimately it's all useless without action, like a barking dog without teeth. I know that the best way to move on from all this is to take action and learn from my mistakes, but this is, at least for the next two years, the end; where can I apply anything now? It makes my mistakes feel even more costly, because nothing useful can be gleaned from them. Regret is a useless emotion, and I'll definitely have my ways and means to suppress it in the coming months. I just hope that about 5 months from now, when we get back our results, I can eradicate this feeling for real.

I wish my rational and emotional halves can be separated. When I try and think rationally, my emotions cloud my judgement and cause me to focus on the favoured conclusion rather than the logical one; I try to make the evidence fit the conclusion rather than the other way round. And then when I try to think emotionally, my rationality steps in and points out all the holes in my dreams, reminding me why they will forever be nothing but dreams and making me plummet back to reality. I'd much rather never experience flying than have to endure the pain of falling after every sojourn in the skies; rather be born blind than have my sight robbed from me before I've had my fill of colour.

When I woke up this morning, I had the strange urge to discover some non-metal music. And so I discovered Little Boots. Granted, junjie introduced her to me quite a while back, but this is the first time I really went to listen to all of her work. In particular, I like this song:

It's not metal, but it's still not very mainstream either. It's kind of like indie electropop? (indie pop has always been an oxymoron for me) Personally I still can't bring myself to truly enjoy mainstream pop like so many masses in today's world do. Maybe I'm just weird. (who am I kidding, maybe?)

There's a class outing tomorrow :) I guess that's all fine and good, but we're watching that Rapunzel movie (what's the name again?) in 3D for $11 *heart breaks* I guess a last-ditch effort at class bonding takes precedence over a crying wallet. I can't decide personally if I still have hope that our class will find its spirit. I guess I've become used to a zombie class: half alive, half dead.

Maybe it's because I've never actually seen colour before.

Holiday mode

Every once in a while I get a revelation of how lucky I am to be living my life. I've been doing a bit of blog-hopping and read stories of friends who felt like misfits during their entire time in NJ, or never had anything go right for them. And then I look at my own NJ experience, with the most random, most retarded and all-round most awesome classmates ever, together with other like-minded friends around school who not only tolerate my nonsense but even contribute to it. When you think about it, what are the chances that you will be able to meet so many people who can click with you?

So I guess the moral of the story is to rely on your friends in the worst of times and cherish them in the best of times? I don't know, I've never been a very "moral" person (OK that came out the wrong way, now I seem like a cold-blooded serial killer).

I definitely need to start studying for physics soon, but I sure as hell don't want to. What I want to do is to hurry and get A/S ranking for all the acts in Sonic Colours and get all the red rings to unlock Super Sonic (you know I've never played a Sonic game where you can use Super Sonic in normal levels :( )! I'd rather keep my holiday mode turned on all the way than turn it off just for Monday :(

One

For the first time ever, I'm hoping that my graph theory pulls up my combinatorics. That's like saying "I hope my Chinese and econs pull up my maths." But anyway, what's done is done.

The first thing I did after the H3 paper was complete my Spider-Man game (finally! :D ), then went to watch Harry Potter with a bunch of 28s at Plaza Sing. I'm not really a hardcore fan of the series, but it was a nice movie overall. And I love the special effects of the death eaters flying through the skies :) Afterwards was dinner, then LAN. Got another taste of dota, starting to get the hang of it but still far from able to survive on my own without hand-holding from teammates haha.

Now that 'A' levels are nearly over, the stress and pressure is subsiding, which also frees up space for other thoughts to enter my mind. I guess these are thoughts that I've always had. Maybe I've been suppressing them for quite a while, but now without the distraction of exams they've all started coming back: things I wished I did, things I wish were so, but things that ultimately never occurred and I'm painfully aware will never happen. Well, the only way I've ever known to deal with stuff like this is to bury it and wait to become numb. Besides, now is definitely not the time for action.

Looking forward to a relaxing holiday filled with mindless distractions after 'A' levels.

Two

Physics was alright, but oh so many careless mistakes... Please please please don't let physics prelims repeat... I've lost all the confidence I used to have in this subject.

Econs was... oh wait I DON'T GIVE A CRAP ANYMORE BECAUSE IT'S OVER!!! :D At first I was still kind of bummed out for seemingly screwing up econs yet again, but right now I realise I simply couldn't care less. So yeah.

Tomorrow is H3 maths. Frankly there's not much point in mugging for a subject like that (believe me, I've tried with previous papers in vain), especially the night before, so I'm just gonna go in with a clear head and start spamming. And after that, liberation. I don't care of I still have a physics MCQ on Monday, my priority will be to finally complete Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions after sporadic plays here and there during the 'A' levels.

It's been a rough journey through this dark tunnel, complete with falls and scrapes and bruises, but when you can see the light, when you can smell the fresh air, everything in the past just melts away.

Four

The problem with MCQs is that if you think that the answer is different from the majority opinion and you believe that you can convince the markers to accept your idea if you had the chance, you won't get the chance, because all you're allowed to do is shade one measly rectangle out of four. For example, for question 5 of today's chem MCQ, many people will probably put 107 degrees, because that is the correct bond angle for PH3. However, what I zoomed in on was that the question didn't ask for the correct bond angle,  but the bond angle predicted by the VSEPR theory. In VSEPR, bond pair electrons and lone pair electrons are assumed to have the same repulsion, so the predicted bond angle would be the tetrahedral bond angle of 109.5 degrees, wouldn't it? Wouldn't that mean that the answer is C instead of B? Even here, it's mentioned that the VSEPR predictions may not be the same as the actual bond angles. If the question wanted the actual bond angle it would just ask for it instead of asking for what the theory would predict, right? Doesn't the weird phrasing of the question suggest that there's more than meets the eye? But it seems that absolutely nobody is convinced, and unless Cambridge and I think on the same wavelength this will end up as yet another case of me thinking too much.

Other than that, paper 1 was easier than papers 2 and 3, though that's actually not saying much. In fact I'd say that this year's paper 1 was still harder than that of previous years. Just hope that it'll be enough to tide me through the other horrendous papers to get a good overall grade.

OK, tomorrow is the dreaded physics + econs day, and I still have H3 maths the day after to prepare for while all the other people get to have a breather T_T So that's three papers and basically two days to prepare for them (since I'll be totally drained to the bone after tomorrow). I guess we'll see how it goes.

We Come Out At Night

Disappointed in myself.

Never mind the inability to perform academically, whatever happened to my basic duties as a student? Rotting away in my seat, hoping for the best while not preparing for it. I actually disgust myself right now.

I feel like I've alienated myself from my goals and dreams through my own actions and inactions, and now I'm paying the price: no aspirations for company, just my lone ambition. It's not really sadness or anger anymore. It's more of resignation. So I guess this doesn't count as a whiny emo post, right?

We Come Out At Night by Avenged Sevenfold. I think I can really relate to the lyrics right now:



Black and gray clouds willow in the balance as the sun falls.
Rain plays a heart warming tune, on the pavement.
Emotions stir.
A feeling of warmness, compassion; I feel at home.
Disguised by surroundings.
As the torn and left in the gutter seek vengeance on their mistreated lives.
The torn, left in the cold, seek vengeance on mistreated lives.
The torn, left in the cold, seek vengeance, mistreated lives.
A silhouette stands still; lone cactus on a warm summer night.
But the rain falls cold, and the moon shines bright.
Black as night; cold as ice; warm as home; ready to live.
Stars they shoot.; in a clear; across the sky; as does my time.
Waiting, wanting, feeling, emotion.
Crying, breaking, loving, nothing.
Clouds swallow the moon, and I'm alone.
Thinking good times, and why'd they go?
Falling down, breaking away from me.
Falling down, breaking away from me.
Fuck. 
I need this place to get away from you.
Clouds swallow the moon, and I'm alone.
Thinking good times, and why'd they go?

Wax wings

Lost control of emotions again. Sorry for the depressing outburst guys.

I guess in a way I'm just a "toad lusting for swan flesh", to quote a Chinese saying (that frankly looks disturbing when translated to English). Like how Icarus grew too arrogant and flew too close to the sun, now I must endure the punishment of having my wings melt off and plunge to the ocean below. Come Tuesday, I think I'll just stick to the ground.

On a random note, I don't get indie rock at all.

Five

I was trying to figure out why I'm so affected by the econs paper today. I don't think it's because I screwed up, even though I did, because I screw up all the time and it's never been this depressing. I guess it's because this time I made the mistake of thinking that after all the studying and preparation, I actually had an inkling of a chance at it. That, of course, was untrue. What am I angry at? Cambridge maybe? Not really, I think I'm just angry at myself.

Six

Physics was... alright? I hope so? It was, in Bryan's words, "scarily straightforward" for the most part, but DRQ and planning were completely alien, not unlike the dofu and bromobutane questions from chem. The DRQ was on sticking one end of a rod into a tank of hot water, and until now we haven't been able to come to a consensus as to whether or not the gradient of the graph for the wooden rod will be gentler or steeper than the metal rod, and anyway it should totally be gentler! (Yes, I'm asserting my opinion as fact on my blog, go on and sue me) Planning was equally weird, with a solar panel that doesn't generate electricity. I only noticed it ten minutes into starting the DRQ, after happily drawing my solar panel connected to a voltmeter and ammeter, that the solar panel has pipes sticking out of it. Turns out it's a solar panel meant to heat water and not generate electricity (I'm pretty sure those things have a proper name, but I'm also pretty sure I'm not going to argue with the people giving me my grades).

My modem absolutely refuses to remain connected to the internet for longer than 30 minutes at a time, which is seriously pissing me off because I'm using KM for last-minute econs revision and having to go downstairs, hit the modem and hope it does something every once in a while is not doing any favours for my revision or blood pressure *refrains from using vulgarities on his blog*. Now I'm imagining the millions of people all over the world who don't even have computers to begin with, and I feel kind of guilty over being pissed off about this... I don't know if it's a good or bad thing, but I very rarely have FML moments nowadays because I always end up guilt-tripping myself whenever I complain about my life. After all, what use is a blog if you can't rant all day over insignificant personal issues, right? Maybe one day I'll suffer from high blood pressure for bottling up my rage.

I've never been one to plan any goals, and now this is starting to worry me a bit. I have friends aiming for their AABB, AAAB, even AAAA for the 'A' levels, and quite honestly I still don't know what I want even at this stage. I guess when everyone else has such high expectations of you, you feel obliged to align your expectations of yourself with theirs, and then you become afraid that you can't pole-vault over that bar you set looming sky-high above you and simply choose to ignore it.

Damn it, econs is tomorrow. I'll report back if I survive.

Deja Vu?

First of all, this:

THA is now higher on my "awesome list" than ever before. If the rest of the album is as good as this (and judging from the album teaser, i think so) then Digital Veil will be their breakout album, just like what Fortress did for PTH.

Physics tomorrow. Truthfully speaking, I still can't keep my mind off econs even now, but I know I need to focus for this first. Priorities... Hopefully I won't get a repeat of prelim physics...

Sometimes I wonder if they're overconfident, I'm underconfident, or they're just plain better than me.

See, Blogger can totally look like tumblr if you keep your post short and squeeze your entire post in the title. Of course you'd also need 10 pictures taken from other tumblrs for every line of text.
(now just imagine that this block of text doesn't exist and marvel at the tumblr-ness of my blogger blog)

Seven

Obviously, two years ago someone was seriously pissed.
Then "someone" was put in charge of chem P2 Q2.

I think everyone was taken aback by that question. 22 marks out of 72 is more than 30% of the paper; that means that if you can't do question 2 at all, you literally cannot get an A grade for the paper anymore, even if you score full marks for everything else. To top it off, question 2 was an organic question, which together with the other organic questions in the two papers so far means that organic actually is an overwhelming component in our chem marks this year. Which, of course, sucks. Another thing I'm afraid of is that because there have been so many organic questions so far (and consequently little to no calculation), all the calculations will be crammed into the one-hour paper 1. I already have time management issues for "normal" MCQ papers, so one laden with calculations will be bound to crush me.

The Human Abstract recently released a teaser for their upcoming album "Digital Veil", and it's freakin' awesome:

It's so nice to see THA finally going back to their original Nocturne style (sorry Midheaven, but you were nowhere as good in my opinion. Except for A Violent Strike), with a mix of classical guitar and metalcore. And while I'll definitely be missing Nathan's voice on this album, the new guy (Travis, I believe his name is) brings the more traditional guttural kind of screaming that you find in other bands. It's not as unique, but it might not be worse. We'll see when the album comes out (25th Jan! That's before I enlist! :D ).

Another day's respite, then back into the battle again for physics and econs, two giants in a row. Even though physics is chronologically first, I think my focus will be on econs. Because econs is my weakest subject and I have to spend the most time on it even though, you know, it's the least likely subject I'll be taking in university.

Inefficient? Yes. Illogical? Yes. But the cogwheel doesn't protest against the failings of the machine; it cannot.

The battle rages on

I find it quite interesting that my blog hits skyrocketed because of people googling "4chan vs tumblr". And on that subject, I'm very, very surprised that 4chan didn't win. To fill in those who haven't caught wind of the results, tumblr pushed their attack forward a day early, resulting in both 4chan and tumblr going down for several minutes, but nothing devastating to either website and definitely nothing that could be considered an outright victory. Having said that, it still remains to be seen if 4chan will decide to make a revenge strike (which is well within the behaviour of /b/tards).

And by the way:

Heck yeah! Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions plays just as awesome as it looks man. Unfortunately, it also distracted me from revising chem for tomorrow's exam. But seriously man, this game is awesome.

The short weekend rest has passed. The battle shall rage on at daybreak.

4chan VS tumblr

So I mug for a few weeks, and apparently 4chan has declared war on tumblr. Damn, I'm getting out of touch with the Internet.

But seriously guys, 4chan is not to be taken lightly. I'm talking to all those tumblr guys with "Trust in David Karp" or "U MAD 4CHAN?" posted there and thinking that that little jpeg is going to do anything at all. The thing about 4chan is that it only has one user, and that user is Anon. He's anonymous, he's everywhere at once, and I'm not exaggerating in the least. 4chan successfully hacked into Sarah Palin's email for goodness' sake. They managed to identify a girl throwing dogs into a river from a low-res youtube video which didn't even capture her face properly, track down her home address and contact numbers, and constantly harass her in real life until she gave herself in for animal abuse.

All of you guys saying that 4chan is no match for tumblr obviously do not know enough about 4chan. Let's get this straight: if tumblr survives Operation Overlord, it's only because Anon got bored or showed mercy (the latter is highly unlikely, honestly). It's true that 4chan has initiated some failed attacks before, but that's only because they couldn't sustain their interest long enough to organise the attack. Now, there are ignorant little people saying that 4chan doesn't have the power to bring down tumblr, or worse still trying to counter-attack by trolling 4chan. Well let me tell you now, Anon is most dangerous when enraged; the ones who get trolled hardest are those who don't play dead (or outright die) after the first attack. And tumblr, unfortunately, has done loads to piss him off.

As for my thoughts on the actual attack, I have a very strong feeling that it's much much more than what they're revealing. Come on, do you seriously think that they would simply fit their entire master plan in a convenient little jpeg to circulate round the Internet? /b/tards are juvenile and immature, but they are certainly not stupid.

Eight

Now that the weekend is here, I can finally put up a proper post. I guess I'll elaborate a bit on the 'A' levels so far.

Chemistry was a bloodfest. Apparently it's not just me - the general consensus is that Cambridge really threw us a curveball this time. I don't really feel very good about how it went. I had to skip maybe 7 marks because of some stupid mathematical oversight, and I probably lost another 10 marks or so scattered around as careless mistakes or "I thought that was the answer" moments. In hindsight, I'm really starting to regret choosing question 2 (the infamous dofu question) instead of question 5, but I just panicked the moment I saw electrolysis used to purify metals. Oh well.

GP... I don't know what to think, really. As usual, I went in and gave it the best I could, but then again as usual you never know which way a GP paper might swing. All I know is that my essay only had 2 points, my AQ is woefully short, and judging by conversations with friends it seems I screwed up my vocab. All I can do now is cross my fingers and pray for a "quality over quantity" form of marking. Of course, that's assuming my answers have some sort of quality associated with them, which is yet another towering hurdle.

Maths, remarkably, was relatively easy compared to the other papers so far. Unfortunately, that brings its own set of problems, namely the bell curve working against you. There's already talk going on that this year's A grade cut-off may be raised higher. Thinking back to the careless mistakes made during paper 2 (forgot to root the variance before putting it in the GC! T_T ), I can't help but feel a pinch of worry.

Eight papers are left, but fate has saved the worst for last. Judging from paper 3, chemistry will probably not relent in the coming papers. To make things worse, physics, econs and H3 maths will make their debuts (especially worried for the latter 2) in the coming weeks.

But I have to stop whining; I have to stop worrying. The end is 16 days and 8 papers away, and there's so much to look forward to afterwards: grad night, pre-NS workouts (my enthusiasm surprises myself), Sonic Colours (released in Europe today!), playing Maplestory with the 28s for the heck of it (haha), new albums from Protest The Hero, The Human Abstract and Last Chance To Reason (hopefully at least one of them before I enlist), and of course the freedom of being momentarily unplugged from Singapore's education, at least for two years.

Come on, it's only two weeks and a weekend.

Nine

I couldn't sleep last night. Must have been because of the afternoon nap. And consequently, maths was quite the roller coaster ride.

Question 9. I did it three times. That's 40 minutes. Because I misinterpreted it twice. And I was stuck at question  10 for another 15 minutes or so, on a problem that can be solved by a quick look at MF15 (something I only found out after the paper).

This is one of those papers that I really cannot afford to screw up. If I don't have this, I really don't know what I have.

Have to ensure my eight hours of sleep for tomorrow's paper. Counter-intuitively, Paper 2 is my weaker of the two.

After a conversation with friends today, I now feel very pessimistic about GP. I sincerely don't want to let Ms Chua down, but what can I do now?

Econs paper next week. Damn it.

Ten

I can't really tell how I did for GP today. You never can for essay and language-based subjects (read: GP and econs).

My essay and AQ were shorter than I would've liked, but you can't always have what you want, can you (in fact, in GP that rarely happens)?

In any case, the important thing is that GP is over. For good. I'm sure there's something worth celebrating about that.

Tomorrow is maths. Finally a paper that I have some confidence in, but I mustn't get complacent. Don't want to have a repeat of physics prelims.

And now I'm reliving memories of physics prelims. Damn it.

I feel really drained right now; all I can think of is sleep. Sleep now, then maybe some maths later.

I type in one-sentence paragraphs to make my posts seem longer than they actually are.

Is it working?

Twelve

Chem today was... quite bad, honestly. Don't quite know what to make of it.

Dofu is trending amongst 'A' level candidates right now (chem 'A' levels insider joke haha).

Tomorrow is GP. Very little confidence, frankly, but as a consolation it will be the very last time I have to write an essay, summary or AQ ever again :D

OK I guess I don't hate GP that much. It's a sort of love-hate relationship. Hate being the majority, though.

I'll put up longer posts and elaborate on all the 'A' level proceedings after all this is over.

Maybe.

Thirteen

And so it begins.

Thirteen papers. I never really saw it that way. It makes it seem so much less daunting. Daunting nonetheless, don't get me wrong, but it's a much faster countdown than 21 days (or at least it seems to be).

Part of "A Violent Strike" is looping in my head right now: "Where's your bravery? What will bravery do for you now?" I guess to a certain extent it is true in this case. The time for plucking courage and beating down our inner fears has passed, and now is the time to charge into battle, oblivious to the risks but always conscious of the knowledge that we have acquired over the past grueling two years. Bravery, we should have plenty by now; now is the time to close your eyes and take the leap of faith.

Good luck guys :)

Thinking without acting

Well, it's November 8th: the start of the 'A' levels. Well, for the geography and history students, anyway. Best of luck guys! :)

When I finished revision for the day, when I settled down and am typing these words now, one thought came to my head:
My 'A' levels start tomorrow.


And then I start to tense up, and my heart beats faster, and I can feel just a hint of a cold sweat forming. I keep thinking to myself: have I done enough? Am I ready? What if I'm not? I can see myself grabbing and clawing at the ground as I'm being dragged towards the fateful day by the hands of the clock. My mind acknowledges that this day must come, but my heart, my animal instincts even, are telling me to run away from what is obviously a threat.

As bad as acting without thinking, is thinking without acting. I've done two years worth of thinking; now's the time to start acting out.

9 before 29

3 more days. 2 more days actually, if you don't count today (after all it's already close to 11pm). Every bone in my body wants to go into overdrive, to deprive myself of food and rest just to squeeze in those precious few more minutes of revision, but the mind must resist. As counterintuitive as it may seem, I think the important thing now are to clam the mind and quieten the heart. Oh, and reset the biological clock too. Can't be sleeping at 2am during the exam period, can we?

It's 3 days to the beginning, and 23 days to the end. Something deep in the back of my mind is already looking forward to November 29th, but the realistic part of me just keeps reminding it that November 9th has to come first. It's not the time for despair, but it's also definitely not time for celebration yet.

Recently, I started listening to The Human Abstract again, and I have to say that they're a much better band than I used to give them credit for; Nocturne is a really good album. And while the general consensus is that Midheaven isn't as good, I have to say that this particular song, A Violent Strike, is the song that is currently playing and replaying on my iTunes:



I think I shall sleep now, in an effort to reset my biological clock before the first paper. 11.10pm, what an early night. There was a time when "early night" meant about 10pm.

If you don't have hope, you have nothing

It's all happening too fast. The 'A' levels are literally the very next Tuesday, and I still feel very unprepared for it. But still, I think at this point, the psychological battle is the most crucial to win. All the countless hours of studies painstakingly given away these past few weeks will all be wasted away if you get crushed by the weight of your own self-doubt on the big day. Let's face it: the 'A' levels is a fight that is skewed very much against the student, and we walk in without much to cling on to but optimism, so it's the most important thing we have to safeguard the next few weeks. Really, if you don't have hope, you have nothing.

THE NUMBER WAS 69 D:

Yup, it's November the third sooo...

Why thank you, Grey Worldwide! :D

OK you probably guessed that I have no idea who or what is Grey Worldwide and I found this clip on youtube in under a minute. So anyway, I went out with a bunch of 28s to the plaza sing Carl's Junior to celebrate my birthday early. Last year on that exact same day (2nd November) we celebrated my birthday at that same exact place, immediately after Chinese A levels, and this year we were back there again. It's quite cool to have an annual birthday meal place haha. After we finished eating we played zhong ji mi ma (to those who don't know, take turns guessing a number between 1 and 1000, and the "winner" gets a "treat") with whatever condiments and free-flow drinks we could get our hands on (read: a LOT), which culminated in me eating a lemon wedge marinated in ketchup, chili sauce, barbeque sauce, mayonnaise, coffee, salsa sauce, salt, pepper and sugar syrup (to the best of my memory). At first it tasted like a horrible combination of thousand-island cream, celery, coffee and sugar, but (erm, thankfully?) after the first few seconds I couldn't taste anything but the stinging acidity of lemon juice. What an awesome way to celebrate a birthday man; and they haven't even started the taupoks yet :) So anyway, thanks to Bryan, Lionel, JP, Jaron, Chin, Nigel and You'en for the birthday treat man, I really appreciate that you guys bothered to celebrate with me despite the coming exams. And thanks to all the people who wished me (and are still wishing me :D ) on Facebook and Twitter man, I'll reply to them ASAP but I just feel like sleeping right now -_-

Anyway, I recently got hooked onto this awesome meme called troll science, where you come up with fringe science ideas that are so blatantly unscientific that they become funny. Example:
1. Cats always lands on its feet.
2. Toast always lands butter side down.
3. Tape a piece of buttered toast onto a cat.
4. Anti-gravity! :D
Yes, troll science is very epic and everyone should go check it out. Just remember that you need to differentiate between troll science and actual science, especially with exams looming so close.
(You can guess how much studying I must have done to have found this in the first place)

It's not you; it's me

OK, I feel quite guilty right now for more or less wasting my entire weekend away. That's 2 days gone. Or to put it in perspective, that was 2 days out of what was originally 11 at the start of the weekend, so I have basically wasted away 18.2% of my remaining time before the 'A' levels. 

That is not a comforting thought.

The worry that keeps swimming around in the back of my head right now is econs. I am absolutely horrible at it, I swear. Starting to have feelings of regret. Should I have taken geog instead? Or even (I can't believe I'm saying this) gone back to those frightfully unpredictable days of lit? There is not a a single drop of humanities blood in me at all, not one drop, but even discounting the "contrasting subject" syllabus requirement I don't have much of a choice (Me? Biology?) so there's really nothing for me to complain about. It just so happens that I'm a guy who can only do three subjects with any level of competency, in a syllabus that requires four. Nothing to blame but my own inadequacy. Which means I now have 9 more days to make myself adequate.