burnt off sept hols...

slept barely 4hrs everyday..

in exchange FOR A 1ST IN BIOTECH FAIR & $1000!!

wohooo! finally, the 3 days of biotechfair + 7 days of preparation have ended! it was a very rewarding experience despite the fact that i was very pissed with it at certain times...

during the days of preparation, since wed of the hols to 3 days ago, i have been sleeping at 2am everyday, either doing the poster, or the powerpoint. one of the most ridiculous day was monday, where we worked in school right after lessons, ALL the way till 9pm, after which the gates have to close and we went to the boarding school with mr goh and continued to work there. ALL THE WAY TO 11.30PM.... it was like some castasropic lightning storm happening that day.. it was raining SOOOO badly..

then tuesday they went off to set up the poster but i have to stay back since mr goh said 3 is enough and that they have to come back to sch in taxi later.. so i stayed in sch to do up the ppt and edit some parts.. (at lest dont have to screamed at by mr goh when he sees the poster ^^) when they got back we went to the study area to 'present' the ppt. at 1st we proceeded with the usual presenters, thats argon and lcy (+ ryan too, since he is more certain of his zone-inhibition part) then gohyy gave the same comments as the day b4 that argon is presenting way too slowly and hoe wei is too soft and slowly and lcy still has the bad habit of shaking his legs while presenting, else he can present quite well... anyway, then mr goh wanted to access my presenting abilities and made me present the ENTIRE thing once thru. i was like... can make me present just a part to access me then i familiarise the parts i have to present... but anyway, i ploughed thru the ENTIRE ppt.. i had a good start and gohyy was happy. he said i have the passionate and convincing and confident tone in me.. i was like =X.... then he insisted that how-so-ever we distribute the parts to present, i MUST start off the project since i can attract the attention.. just took those comments and went on.. then lcy had a go thru also and goh decided that lcy and i present for the biotech fair. i was SHOCKED. but its kinda ok since i still have a day of preparation.. i cant do things when last minute.. i get SHOCKED.

on wed i only had 1 lesson and i have to go off to the science centre already. we quickly got our prototypes and head for science centre. there was still a lot to do then, since i have not finish editing parts of the ppt the nite b4 (which i also stayed till 2...) and lcy and i didnt have another chance to practice together.. so we quickly set up our booth with our prototypes while i edit the ppt in a corner to prevent some peeping toms... when thru a few times with lcy and he 'give a lot of comments'.. it was inevitable that we got angry with each other half way since we were so stressed... it was abt 11 am then. we were expected to present to the judges at abt 1pm. then i wasnt feelin that bad yet since i still have time. then as we have our catered lunch at abt 12noon, we recieved news that we have to present earlier, anytime from 11.30 to 12noon. i was SHOCKED. its like OMG OMG!! WHAT TO DO!! HAVNT FINISH!! quickly goobled down the food and keep working and lcy continued with his presentation practice.. as the time nears, we quickly return to the booth and set up laptop and do the final touch ups to poster, prototypes, and the ppt.. then the laptop almost went outta battry earlier on and to our horror we only have 1 power point, of which we have already use it on the fish pump. then the grp opposite ours dont need any electricity supply had 2 freakin power points.. so lame... then have to borrow from them to charge it up just to plough thru the presentation to the judges..

then when the judges came, i was really really nervous.. ( and argon was no where to be seen, at the toilet having stomach ache as hoe wei claims) i rem goh saying that he knew 2 outta 3 of the judges but there were only 2 that day, 1 indian man and 1 chinese woman.. its kinda like talking to bangky or 041 since the accent is the same.... >< style="font-style: italic;">ORIGINAL indian accent this time.. so.. well.. TENSIONS GONE! so i did the introduction of the project pretty well.. just that lcy keep hovering behind me telling me what to do etc.. but i didnt really care.. it just gets up my nerves... irritating.. then lcy went on to his part.. he did pretty well, given that he rem almost everything that he rehearse b4 that in such a short time... but he hopped once or twice.. bad habbits are hard to change...

then when it come to Q & A hor, dunno why lcy keep fighting to answer the qns, given that he did the lest experiments and most uncertain of the experimental procedures.. thank goodness argon came back, and he could fend off all the qns on keeping fishes and fish diseases, while shan chin answered qns on experimental procedures and hoe wei helped with the zone inhibition parts. i prefer to stand away just in case i say something wrongly, unlike lcy who keeps fighting to answer qns (when he *ahems*)... i was kinda disheartened when the indian judge keep saying "but you did well" "you did well" is very positive but the "BUT" just cancels out the compilment..
anyway... after the presentation i was really relief and my throat was very dry... then we waited for 'the second round' as shan chin advised.. as he claimed, last yr his grp went off right after their presentation but were called back after some time to come back since they qualify for 'the second round' so we waited just as he adviced.. the second round never came.... we thought at 1st it would take some time so we waited.. and we killed time by roaming arnd science centre and playing arnd ^^ lolz.. like reviving childhood liddat... kinda cool since we dont have to pay for entrance fee ^^"... then after that got tired and we settled down back near the booth... do hw.. play hp.... sleep... wait.............

and wait........................................













and wait.....................















and wait somemore...........................................














ALL THE WAY TO 4 PLUS AND A WOMAN COME IN TO SAY THAT ALL OF US CAN GO HOME. that means, there is no '2nd round' for any1 this yr. i was like ..........!@#$ wasted so much time... haiz... then just went home from science centre....

thurs, we went back to science centre again for the announcement of prize.. so we confirmed that there was only 1 judging the day b4.. anyway.. when we were told to rise to welcome the guest of honour, we all stood up and clap.. then there was a series of anti-climax as a few grp who were late come rushing in the audi when the standing ovation was on... LOLZ so lame.. we clapped of soooo long and he havnt entered.. after 1 min he came in.. lots of speech...minister of sports and youth... science centre manager.. blahx.... ok finally prize award. at 1st we thought there wasnt any order of honour and the announcer will just call all the grps down to receive a cert of participation (COP) 1st, and then continue with winning ppl.. so when it reached Hwa Chong Institution, we were like getting ready to send argon down for the cert... then it SKIPPED our grp.. then it struck us that it went by order of merit and honour.. so we were like WOW!! we got a higher honour than COP!! we were so excited.. then the list went down to RI. at 1st we intimidated by the infestation of RI ppl in the audi as well as their well done posters and research work we witness the day b4. but when the COP list was read for RI, more than 70% of them got it.. and lcy was frantically clapping for their COPs. lolz~ after COP was consolation (sounds kinda zi bei honour...) we were thinking we would fall in this category, but NO... it didnt happen.. we were like'WE ARE IN TOP 3??!!" we were SO excited as the announcer proceeds on to the 1st 3. there we 2 3rd prize this yr..

'the 3rd prize goes to, *project title*, *sch name*, *name of ppl*' it was some girls sch but i cant rem...

we were praying HARD that we wouldnt be the 2nd one...

'the 2nd 3rd prize goes to......


'Isolation of Lactic Acid Bacteria strains and their spectrum of inhibitory activities against food borne bacteria' of Hwa Chong Instition! team members comprising ......................"

"WE WON THIS ZAI PROJECT AND ARE 1ST 2?????!!!!" the tension in us grew exponantially.. the suspense was hard to take... i was breathless and kept shivering and shaking...

'and the second prize goes to..... 'Using Essential Oils as Cockroach Repellant' of Hai Sing Cathalic School! team members are........."

"OMG WE GOT 1ST???? WE GOT 1ST????????" we were SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited!! we knew it have to be ours already! THE 1ST PRIZE IT IS OURS!!...

we were all so shaky and kept making speculations (though not announced yet..><)

'and the champion,'

heartbeat increased....

'the 1st prize,' breathing heavily....

'of this yr's Biotech Fair 2005..... '

clutching onto frens arms........

'goes to..............'

closed eyes......

'Anti-bacterial Protection against (Fish Diseases through the Introduction of Organic Extracts)'

heartbeat stopped
stopped breathing
losen my clutch
opened my eyes

when it was announced till 'Anti-bacterial protection against'.. cos you see, this name is different as the title on our poster. the title on our poster was and the words were different so i was temporary SHOCKED. so i thought for a while, 'is that us.. or did they forget our team's award somewhere in front..'

i regained my senses when she continued with the words 'fish diseases' and 'organic extracts' the 5 of us stood up and revealed our location in the audi. we were sitted all the way in the corner of the audi. every1's head turned back to the corner of the audi. eyes were staring at us. we 'dua-pai-ly' walked down from the high steps (and when i say high, they are.. 1 big step of the stairs is abt your feet to your knees) all the way down to the ground level. heads turned along the route we took down the stairs. cameras flashed everywhere. what a moment of PRIDE! we shook the hand of the minister, got our certs of participation and cert of merit for getting 1st.. (kinda lame that they say cert of merit but it was meant for the 1st prize.. and there were no trophies.. well there was 1 that we thought it was the trophy.. but it turned out to be the tolken of appreciation to the guest of honour ><) we wanted to sms mr goh, but then as usual we were joking how we shld attitude him.. cos he always so wet blanket us, say that we wouldnt acheive anything. in the end, everything turns out on the contrary of his belief. like ideas in action. 'THIS KIND OF QUALITY, REALLY CAN WIN FUNDING LAH.' in the end? we got $2000 from CitiBank. 'WITH THIS LOUSY POSTER, FEEL LUCKY THAT YOU EVEN GET A PRIZE' in the end? we got 1st =) so we were suggesting that we go back and throw the certs in his face and prove him wrong.. and that we wouldnt share the prize with him etc.. all those jokes la.. its kinda funny la.. the ideas we have to attitude him. but honestly we havnt been updating him and being fair to him.. i was thinking of getting a small gift for him to show our appreciation.

well supposedly refreshments were served but we have to get back quickly to tend our booth cos we expected lots of visitors and that we would be the 1 the minister visit. on my way back i called min zhe to share with him our news.. he COULDNT believe it either! i was still so happy and nervous .. still so jumpy... for the rest of the days of the presentation, i have to present in a more 'layman' way to suit the general public. cos the 1st day judging was presented to 'bio' judges. so have to be very bio as well.. but then to minister and general public have to be more general on what we did. so i had a good presentation with the minister and he fed (or shld i say OVERfed) our fish with our product. lolz. then cameras were flashing as he was feeding.. haha.. lcy missed the chance to interact with the minister as he was already been entertaining some indian visitors b4 the minister arrived. subsequently, all the other student competitors keep comin to our boothes asking for overview of our project.. man! so many visitors over night! just thx to the ribbon at the top of our booth that says '1st' lolz. then have to eat a bit and then present then eat again... haha i was practically repeating the same things over and over again for each presentation. lcy and i are so familiar with everything le so most was smooth going. qns asked were also more or less the same for the ppl.. except a few challenging ones... 11+.. 12 liddat not so many ppl le. some grps have also went back to sch. shan chin went back as well.. back the 4 of us remained in science centre playing arnd lolz!! so we skipped lessons, if you want to put it that way.. but we are exempted anyway, so it doesnt matter..

oh the $1000 is gonna banked into my account, since none of my other grp members are sinagporeans.. -_-".. yes... all the other 4 + mentor are all m'sians.... haha.. run away with $1000...

went back to attend the grand finals rehearsal. (Mrs/Ms) Foo Yang Yan was so firey (as usual) and was screaming throughout... i cant really be bothered by the rehearsal and just read the catalouge jh gave me.. and the bugle band was IMPRESSIVE. i have no idea why the sch chose the bugle band for the fanfare of the guest of honour's arrival. or rather, musically speaking, thats no fanfare. a fanfare must have that kind of repeated pattern with intensifying strength in it, but whatever they played sounded more like a march.. lolz was laughing that they would play the same song they always played during nat day etc.. lolz so they know another song eh.. oh yes and they had a conductor -_-" who wore the (DM) glove. and his conducting was dam funny. even funnier than the ACVM (Automatted Conducting Vending Machine, aka Ah Lim) i cant really see if he is conducting in 2,2 or 3,4 cause he keeps changing the direction where his hands were going. pls dont tell me thats theres TIME CHANGE for i wouldnt believe a short piece liddat would really have time signature change.. i think the band understood it as one jerk of his hand movements means one beat.. lolz seriously! he was jerking his every hand movement! anyway.. that aint significant... went home after that and slept all the way..zzzz...

and today, the entire day i was exempted from sch due to grand finals PD. all A and A* holders are to attend the Grand Finals today and recieve their prize after that.. so viewed the entire 10 science projects.. but b4 that we were 'encouraged' or shld i say 'attracted' to asking qns to the grps to win 'fabulous' prizes such as $30 popular voucher ><... everytime you ask a qns, your name will be taken down and you would be entitled to the lucky draw of popular voucher.. and there are ONLY 4 vouchers.. so lame.. then terrance's zebrafish grp was behind us and he was a really funny guy. just in case you dunno who he is, he was that a little bit more female hormones (aka sissy) guy who appeared in the chinese game show scholars of scholars. he was giving funny and critical comments thruout and exibited hilarious bahvior thruout.. LOLZ.. at 1st when the GF start, yi shan's bro went down twice to ask the 1st 2 grps qns and terrance was saying 'he really want the voucher is it' lolz!! well actualy he want it too as shown later... during the lucky draw of the vouchers he was praying so hard for it.. and i mean by PRAYING with palms together moving up and down... he was soo tensed when 3 of them were gone to 3 ppl who asked crappy qns.. and when it reached the last 1 voucher, he was devasted that he didnt get the voucher........ but the sec1 who sits RIGHT BESIDE him got it.. he was like !@#$%^... 'he better not get back or i will bash him!!' which he didnt la lolz...

then during the prize award ceremony to the GFlist, together with our grp, terrance was like cursing that gen-y plastic would get the 2nd prize instead when the list only had 2 names left. haha i was kinda fun cursing that they wouldnt get 1st.. and during the gen-y plastic presentation, when the members of the grp was giving out samples of their plastic to the judges, we were desperately hoping that they would smell it. CAUSE WE KNOW THAT THE PLASTIC THEY COME UP WITH STINKS... haha so if the judge smells it, they would be in trouble.. and they DID!! lolz! terrance was 'YES!! YES!!-ing" arnd.. haha...

then harhp got 5 grps in GF. for that, she got 3 $50 voucher and 2 $80 voucher since 3 grps that she mentored got in GF and 2 grps got the top 3 prize. so some1 was saying she had $310 extra income, not including the prize she got from the best mentor award.. lolz...

after that we still have to get back to science centre since theres public viewing of the biotech fair. we were kinda late and afraid that ppl would have the mentality that we are dua-pai after getting 1st prize. haha. well nothing much today. just a few general public ppl.. (not so general public afterall... they all seem to ask veyr bio qns.. seem to understand the bacteria names etc..) we were presenting as we were eating our mcdonalds lunch.. the photographer from straits times came and took some shots of us.. then argon didnt bring his attire and had to borrow from the other grp the blazer and the tie. thx goodness that we are only taking top half of the body.. quite some supporters came today as well.. mr and mrs goh... quite a few 3J ppl.. well they are the only sec 3s not involved in biotech that i see anyway... haha they insisted that i present to them in an informal way.. so it was kinda casual.. the day was smooth la.. except for 1 woman.. the evil one... i think shes there just to pinpoint our mistakes and cause trouble la.. as in i mean.. she approached our grp and 'demanded' a presentation. ok so i started out as usual. then she didnt allow me to really present lor.. she was already asking qns that will be explain later when i am presenting.. i mean, she asked how we made the special food used in the project when i was talking abt how we got abt doing the project.... BS la...the making of food will be explained later lor.. then she didnt really gimme chance to talk and just keep interrupting with question that will naturally be explained later.. she just cant let nature take its course and keeps interrupting. then some questions she posed were meant to shoot us down.. at that time only hoe wei and i was arnd, lcy and argon were roaming arnd. i had to pull them back to aid us when hoe wei was speaking to her.. she is darn difficult la! then the list of organic extract, she went thru 1 by 1. NO ONE has ever read thru the entire table of 30 food items... she read one by one. the chinese traditional medicin.. the herbs.. the spices.. and point out spelling error.. wrong characters in the chinese names of the TCMs.. dam sh*t.... i couldnt stand her anylonger and just dragged lcy to continue to present. i think shes a tcher from one of the competing schs and just want to make us feel that we aint as great as we were labelled...

ahh... then mdm lim and mdm leow came to visit us. but they were kinda late since every1 was packing up. kian hong came along too, and helped us carried some stuffs back to sch. so nice ^^ anyway, we were really happy to see mdm lim and mdm leow.. cos they really helped out in the lab. and never have i talked so causually with mdm lim b4 and seen her smile so broadly.. she always looks so stressed by work. but i really feel very happy to see the 2 of them, esp mdm lim smiling... she even repeatedly insist on helping us carry some stuff back to the LRC.. shes really nice..

anywa.. took 66 home.. kinda a long long ride.. from science centre, past by sch, then back home.. when i woke up from a nap we havnt even reach sch!! so slept on to little india area when sean unexpectedly board the bus and woke me up.. he was talking on the phone with liuzhen thruout and talking to me at the same time ><>

oh well... wow... have blogged for........ 2hrs 20mins le.. haha.... so much to say... it was a really rewarding experience for me lor.. the biotech fair had really unleased the speaking potential in me by allowing me to present to bio judges.. general public and even the minister.. i am to announce the results on monday as well. wow.. but i would still prefer my surrendipious approach of doing things. quite a good exposure and experience, not only in lab work, presentation skills as well since i never present to sooooo many ppl b4, public relations with minister.. other students..etc.. swarmed by reporters... that kind of pride and feeling.. all the hard works are well paid off....well till then, ppl check out straits times!