Wednesday, December 31, 2008
2nd book out was a hard earned one. had to do an equivalent of 440 of push ups to earn it. cant post details.
this hols season sucks. not becos of army. in fact i think i enjoy myself in army more than back at mainland. sometimes i wld rather not book out. disappointment and lack of enthusiasm just keeps hovering arnd me..
for starters, xmas is screwed. i gave out 10 presents for xmas. of which one of them cost me the effort, time and money of like 5 presents. so effectively i gave out 14 presents. number of presents i got back: 1. and that one is from my bunk mate back from army. it was never abt the material reciprocation (aka getting a present back in return). it feels as if i dont get enough of, for the lack of a better word, attention/appreciation... ok my perc section was nice to organise an gathering during my previous book out. period.
been hooked onto "how to save a life" by the frays. its my on-loop-emo-song right now. shi wei, my bunk mate, intro-ed me the song, claiming that he had the perfect song to relate to my experience last yr, where i severed ties with someone. the lyrics relate pretty well too.
Step one you say we need to talk [i sure did tell him that]
He walks you say sit down it's just a talk [he was like 30min late]
He smiles politely back at you [there wasnt really smiling...]
You stare politely right on through
Some sort of window to your right [the bus window was on my left]
As he goes left and you stay right [i left the bus but he stayed]
Between the lines of fear and blame [yes... confusion.. lost...]
You begin to wonder why you came
CHORUS:
Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life
Let him know that you know best [not sure if i did that]
Cause after all you do know best [do i?]
Try to slip past his defense [failed]
Without granting innocence
Lay down a list of what is wrong
The things you've told him all along
And pray to God he hears you
And pray to God he hears you
CHORUS:
Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life
As he begins to raise his voice [more of a cold war]
You lower yours and grant him one last choice [i did give a last chance b4 the last straw broke]
Drive until you lose the road
Or break with the ones you've followed [sure did]
He will do one of two things [indeed]
He will admit to everything [nope he didnt]
Or he'll say he's just not the same [actually he felt that he did nothing wrong]
And you'll begin to wonder why you came [yep, so why did you even turn up]
CHORUS:
Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend [and he was lost]
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life
i did ask myself on where did i go wrong. actually i always do when i feel that i dont get back what i think i deserve. that makes it quite frequent. perhaps i just have too high expectations. why am i even thinking back of such horrid memory...
happy new year.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
dear santa:
i've been a good boy. all i want this xmas is some company.
dax
~~~
its xmas. its book out day. yet i feel like crap.
feels as if my absence was not felt.
had so much anticipations and excitement for book out.
only to be disappointed.
would rather not book out if i had a choice now.
or is it that i have too high expectations?
merry xmas.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Thursday, December 04, 2008
im seriously out of time and im currently so hectic.
finally got prom stuff today when prom is tmr Oo. much thx to jeelun who accompanied me and helped me with the decision making. well he did buy a belt too after a dragged but futile attempt to struggle with his conscience. and i gave him a $15 topman voucher that i got from the purchase since i'd not have the chance to use it b4 it expires.
first to hong kong, then to tekong. im going hong kong for a short duration. after that i have to go tekong for a loooooooooooooong duration.
no time to do the intellectual post as promised =\
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
goodness, i have been mugging chem MCQ for the the entire day, and most prolly tmr morning as well prior to the one and only paper tmr afternoon. dam sian. so im here to do more of my 'news reporting'. 2 stories (im excluding the one about the white tigers and the supposed suicide attempt at the zoo):
- widow 'killed' by husband
- the worst is yet to be
A Brazilian woman has died after being struck by her husband's coffin when the hearse they were travelling in was involved in a car crash.
The 67-year-old woman was on the way to the cemetery to bury her husband, who had died the day before.
The hearse was struck from behind by an Alfa Romeo car, police said.
The coffin slammed into the head of the woman, who was sitting in the passenger seat of the hearse, killing her instantly, according to officers.
Marciana Silva Barcelos and her family were on the way to a cemetery in the town of Alvorada in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, for the funeral of her partner, Josi Silveira Coimbra.
The 76-year-old man had died of a heart attack on Sunday after attending a dance.
Following the accident, the driver of the Alfa Romeo was trapped for around 50 minutes in the wreckage and was taken to hospital where he was put under observation.
The driver of the hearse and a son of the dead man, who was also travelling in the hearse, were treated for minor injuries.
An investigation is now underway to determine the cause of the accident.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7722420.stm
~~
love till death. i feel real bad for the son. =\
~~
there arent any reports that i can found over this, but the details and the vid can be found on STOMP http://singaporeseen.stomp.com.sg/singaporeseen/viewContent.jsp?id=41849. the vid on Youtube is removed, neither do i feel comfortable uploading the disturbing vid here.
what happened was that a girl from ACJC was tied to 2 poles by her female 'friends' and got foodstuff thrown all over her in 'celebration' of her birthday. sources also say that her predicament was a result of her 'flirtatious' ways, where she goes arnd stealing ppl's bf. and she was deemed a 'slut' by her peers and hence the humiliating revenge on her. still, the behaviour is not appropriate. despite her cries for mercy, they continued with the 'ritual'. thats not the only disturbing moment. someone still asked her "you happy or not?!". the entire incident happened in broad daylight, right next to the canteen, but nobody had the moral courage (or maybe just dont have the moral rather) to stop the bullying. when someone tried to untie the victim, one of the antagonists shouts "you let her go i slap you ar". another one who tried got pulled back. cake and milk was poured and smeared not just on her face but into her shirt as well. and satisfying their sadistic desire, they decided to sing her a birthday song in the midst of her obvious agony. afterwhich they just stood around watching her in her awkward and helpless position. one even commented "doesnt she look gorgeous?". afterwhich, they said "ok! lets go!" and said goodbye to the victim, leaving her in ruins. as far as sources revealed, a staff came by as well to reprimand the students not for the atrocious act by for messing up the place.
birthday saboes are not uncommon. taupok, bonding, flagpole etc etc. while the intentions are harmless and in the name of 'fun' (dont ask me, i dont see how is it fun by piling one on top of the other or destroying a guys genitals by ramming them towards the flagpole), more often than not do we not realise the limits we have to stay under. in this case, the line has been crossed. i recall there was a period where flagpole-ing was quite prevalent. though the victims were struggling at the prospect of their predicament, they were not emotionally upset. so i think its still ok since more often than not the victims were laughing along (though i really dont encourage such acts and thank goodness it was subsequently banned). but in this case, the girl was obviously demanding them to stop and she was crying. this is a total humiliation to youths and to the school.
"JC some more" was some of the response to this issue. another one was "this makes us neighbourhood sch students not look so bad afterall! we are usually the ones being portrayed as hooligans". i think the point here is not just which sch we are from, its the entire society. juvenille delinquency has been on the rise lately, and its not "neighbourhood school student" who solely contribute to the statistics. the sad part is that we seem to be 'desansitized' by wrongdoings by "neighbourhood school students", and only shakened when the perpetrators are from "elite schools". Perhaps its the part of the media who sensationalize it when the latter occurs.
the worse is yet to be.
~~
who says we need GP to show that we are concerned citizens or mature individuals who think about issues. and yes, this are my views, not views that i give because its easier to argue so that i can pass a paper which 'evaluates' my ability to think and not be emotional.
3 more papers!
Friday, November 07, 2008
GP is OUT OF MY LIFE!!! GP is HISTORY.
(assuming i dont retake)
no longer do i have to write essays that portray me as a "mature and informed individual" when there are better avenues to.
no longer do i have to guess/misconstrue the meaning of up to five un-ubiquitous words that i most probably would never use in my entire life
nolongerdoihavetosqueeze2pagesofwordsinto120words and
think if there are other possible ways to express paraphrase the ideas
no longer would the 2 letters "AQ" when used together mean anything to me.
yay.
exams really do you bad...
i have never had nightmares before. at most weird dreams that i can just sweep away and continue sleeping. i had a really scary nightmare on thurday during my afternoon nap after chem P3. yea a NIGHTMARE during an AFTERNOON nap. goodness.
no...
not monsters
not creepy characters
not getting all 'U's for my 'A's
not the financial indices falling away dismally
not that *censored* won the US elections
i freakin dreamed that i cheated during the A lvls. omg.
its a little fuzzy, but the idea is that i SOMEHOW got access to the submitted papers, and i took it back to change my answers. then i had troubles returning my paper back for submission. for some reason i had to travel to Bishan, most prolly thats where all the exam papers were kept (in my dream of course). and for some reason, the journey to bishan was very long and tedious and scary. yea its all weird and illogical, dreams are like that, just like reasons why we take GP.
the dream most prolly sparked off becos i chose qns 2 instead of qns 4 for chem P3 =( when i woke up i was perspiring badly and my heart beat was very rapid and i was breathing very rapidly as well.
good lord. a nightmare like this. how ludicrous.
**
and contrary to popular belief (or rather, deception), A lvl isnt really easier than the ridiculously difficult prelims.
the only choice in the GP essay is that there is no choice (this is a parody of "the only lesson to be learnt from history is that there is no lesson to be learnt from history" from the GP compre, for those who are shaking-legs-and-not-doing-As-or-Os readers)
maths P1 was challenging but i managed. COSINE RULE freakin came out. the last time we ever used cosine rule was like in sec3 or 4 lor. but i managed to recall some remnants of it from some obscure corner of my memory and managed to derive it on the spot, so im quite proud of myself. maths P2, is what i'd rate as difficult. i have never rated a maths paper as difficult before.
bio P2 is like full of 'Suggest' qns. but essay was easy and spammable, so hopefully can offset. and the bio HOD claimed that this bio paper is of hwa chong standard. we're notoriously known for insanely difficult bio papers. if its any comfort, we take solace (or let ourselves be deceived) by that.
chem P3 was quite ok cos got lots of organic qns =) but i made a wrong choice to do qns 2 instead of qns 4 (just like prelims) =( hopefully can offset..
i heard physics not very positive either.. some qns can only write formula and cannot continue alr..
i must say, there must have been some sort of conspiracy to change their way of asking qns in some really UNORTHODOX ways so as to kill us. the qns are, seemingly, formulated in different ways as compared to past years.
**
actually the academic demand of A lvl is not stressing me out. its the lack of mental confidence and wild nightmare that are killing me.
exams do you bad. seriously.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
ok the previous post's rant wasnt actually the main motivation to blog.. this is (my recent craze with news).
there are quite a few good articles from the sunday times today. the political cartoons on page 27 are pretty good cos i actually had a chuckle or two. this is my personal favourite, by Luojie from the China Daily: (more of the cartoonist work can be viewed at http://www.cartoons.nytimages.com/portal/*wieck_search)

**
another article that i personally like (given that i love languages and linguistics) on page 30. its abt some of the financial words and their roots and origins. thanks to the review editor Janadas Devan. all credits to him. here goes:
Money
from the goddess of warning, Juno Moneta. offerings in the form of coins are then called moneta. Latin borrowed it to form moneo (warning). then to Old French moneie. then to english. so money = warning. how apt.
Bank
from Old Italian banca (bench). old bankers did their business on benches.
Bankrupt
from Italian banca rotta (broken bench). thats gonna hurt.
Securities
from Latin securus (free from care). if only thats the case.
Bond
from Old English band (a fastening belt)
Stocks
from Germanic stocc (tree trunk). just as the article wrote: " one would be sorely deluded if on concluded from this that company stocks, like tree trunks, always go up".
Broker
from Old French brokiere. they are the people who open casks of wine. English ppl borrowed it and its applied to pimps and panders and matchmakers.
Mortgage
from French. Mort (death) gage (pledge). how apt.
Panic
from the Greek god of flocks and herds, Pan. his physical appearance scares ppl, hence the link. therefore, the Greek panikos, Latin panicus, French panique, and then english panic.
languages are so beautiful. if only GP is half as beautiful =\
working hard towards 'A' lvls!
so its like some collect-them-all. all these orange-colour-based pieces of paper with the same words repeating itself on the same page like a tessellation. the top left hand corner is decorated with a little crest with a tiger and a lion holding onto a flag with a moon and five stars. the top right hand corner has a pretty little flower that says "Vanda Miss Joaquim". its a must-have for all guys out there. practically every guy out there would have the same collection as me. i have collected five since last year. the designs are as follows:
- "Central Manpower Base" in a wavy tessellation
- "Further Reporting Order" (limited edition!)
- "Notice Notification"
- "NS Documentation Reminder" (limited edition!)
- "Medical Appointment"
and FINALLY, the LAST of the collection:
6. "ENLISTMENT NOTICE"
whoopee! the "much anticipated" final installment is finally here! i've collect them all and im a happy boy! (of course i'd get another "super limited edition" one if i ignore the last one.. how can i ignore it with the sporadic, but persistent reminder in the letters about the Enlistment Act (Chapter 93) and the fine not exceeding $10,000 or/and an imprisionment for a term not exceeding 3 years should i not comply with the Notice)
**
somehow we are like bees. if you are the chosen one, you eat royal jelly and do nothing but just have sex. lay eggs, whatever, same thing. if you are female but not the chosen one, you'd be a worker bee. if you are born male, you have an important duty: have sex, and DIE:
"Several drones mate with a virgin queen on her mating flights a good distance away from the hive. Mating occurs in flight, which accounts for the need of the drones for better vision, which is provided by their large eyes. Should a drone succeed in mating it will soon die because the penis and associated abdominal tissues are ripped from the drone's body at sexual intercourse."
similarly for us, those born with penises have a duty, and that is to collect orange papers and follow the edict within. its natural selection at work, man. (actually theres no similarity, im just crapping)
meanwhile, i was checking out for more information about the creators of these orange must-haves for the guys on the website and logged on into the Exclusively Members Only Account (get jealous!) and i was warmly greeted with my latest collection status:
"Dear Mr PANG DA XIAN, SXXXXXXXX
You have submitted your personal particulars on Wed, 23 Apr 2008. Your medical appointment was on Mon, 14 Jul 2008 at 0930 hrs. You are scheduled for enlistment once you are certified fit for Full-Time National Service.
Have a nice day."
Such great service, "have a nice day" some more. and for their polite reminders, its just right that i reciprocate by returning to them National Service. i highly recommend boys of age to highly anticipate their chance to collect these must-haves. its really exciting. optional for girls, but hey why not give it a try?
disclaimer: i have nothing against NS. this post is just a vent of my frustrations with the inconvenient enlistment date
working hard towards "A' lvls!
Friday, October 24, 2008
hm an extra post, been wanting to talk abt this for quite some time. currently, my favourite number is currently 231.
~~
Zimbabwe's official inflation rate has surged to 231,000,000% as the opposition appealed to South Africa's former president, Thabo Mbeki, to rescue the historic power-sharing deal he brokered last month.
With the economy continuing its rapid collapse and no end in sight to the political deadlock, the World Food Programme today launched an appeal to feed 5 million Zimbabweans. It said that more than 80% of the country's population was living on less than £1 a day and nearly half is chronically malnourished.
The latest official inflation rate, for July, is twenty times higher than a month earlier. Independent economists, who have accurately estimated the true rate in the past, say that inflation this month will run into the trillions.
That has forced the government to allow shops this week to begin accepting US dollars and South African rand because the Zimbabwean dollar is now all but worthless.
The latest inflation figures will increase pressure on the country's president, Robert Mugabe to stop stalling over the composition of a new power-sharing government with the prime minister designate, Morgan Tsvangirai. The president is demanding security ministries such as the army and police as well as the finance portfolio even though foreign donors have made it clear that there will be no aid to revive the economy unless that falls under Tsvangirai's control.
Tsvangirai said today that the talks were deadlocked and called for Mbeki to intervene. "We have asked him to come over and he has said he will come over," he said.
But Tsvangirai said he retained confidence in the agreement. "We are confident about the potential of the deal," he said. "In the process of implementation, we have hit an impasse but not on fundamental contents of the deal.
"Unfortunately no progress has been made ... to bring the Zimbabwean people to the beginning of the path of recovery. Instead the economic crisis has worsened. We now live in an environment characterised by hunger, starvation, and we are days away from seeing people dropping dead on the streets."
Mugabe only signed what he called a "humiliating" agreement surrendering many of his powers because his government has no solution to the problems afflicting Zimbabwe, and that has not changed.
Its attempt to curb inflation with enforced price reductions only drove trade on to the black market.
The central bank removed 10 zeros from the national currency in August after rapid devaluation forced it to print Z$100bn notes that were worth only about 8p on the street when they were scrapped.
But the new currency continued the free fall as it dropped from about Z$100 to the pound two months ago to Z$2m to the pound before the government blocked electronic bank transfers last week.
Severe cash shortages, because the government cannot afford to print bank notes to keep pace with inflation, had meant that many people could at least use bank accounts as a means of payment using a parallel market rate. But that lifeline has now been cut.
The central bank said the transfers were used for illicit exchange deals and to overprice goods. "We have no option but to take this drastic measure in order to maintain sanity in the financial system," said the central bank governor, Gideon Gono.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/09/zimbabwe
~~

working hard towards 'A' lvls!
what usually happens during a divorce is the usual fight over custody and properties ya da ya da.. alternatively, you can force your ex-partner to commit suicide.
~~
A Japanese woman could face a prison sentence after killing off her virtual husband in a computer game.
The 43-year-old became so angry about a sudden "divorce" from her online husband in the interactive Maple Story game that she logged on with his password and deleted his digital persona.
She has been arrested on suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data.
The woman used the man's username and password to log in to the game and carry out the virtual murder in May, a police official in the northern city of Sapporo said.
"I was suddenly divorced - without a word of warning. That made me so angry," the official quoted her as saying.
The woman, a piano teacher, had not plotted any revenge in the real world, he said.
She has not yet been formally charged, but could face up to five years in prison or a fine of more than £3,000 if eventually convicted.
Maple Story players create and manipulate digital images called avatars - which represent themselves - while engaging in relationships and social activities and fighting monsters.
The woman was arrested on Wednesday and taken 620 miles (1,000km) from her home in southern Miyazaki to be detained in Sapporo, where the man lives, the official said.
Bad online behaviour is usually dealt with within the rules set up by online worlds, which can ban miscreants or confiscate their virtual possessions.
However, virtual crimes can also have consequences in reality.
In August, a woman in Delaware was charged with plotting the real-life abduction of a boyfriend she met through the virtual reality website Second Life.
A 16-year-old boy in Tokyo was charged with stealing the ID and password of a fellow player in order to swindle virtual currency in an online game.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/24/japan-games
~~
we have redefined social relationships and the ways crimes are committed with the constantly evolving Internet. i can speculate that in the future when this current wired generation reach their 70/80s, Internet crimes would have become the norm. the next time you divorce your virtual wife, you might soon see granny outside your doorsteps with a chainsaw. or stabbing you with a Benihime. (yea im still quite into the previous post abt snr delinquency)**
it was quite amusing to learn in the midst of studying that R&R could stand for Issues & Ideas to some ppl. and that the library toilet actually smell better than some ppl. and that mrs chong is actually quite zhai (learnt from consultation). in short, study hasnt been very productive -.- work harder!!
working hard towards 'A' lvls!
Monday, October 20, 2008
i have a perfect explanation for this; why im online again. i have to dl some revision materials =D
and of course to pointlessly blog abt latest news to delude myself that i am thinking over pertinent issues to prepare for GP.
we have the young doing it:
~~~
SINGAPORE: Two male teenagers were severely injured after they were stabbed during a clash between two groups of youths outside Plaza Singapura on Saturday night.
An eyewitness account said that about eight teenagers were engaged in a quarrel at around 10pm at The Atrium @ Orchard, just outside Plaza Singapura Shopping Centre, followed by a scuffle.
He continued to say that after most of the teenagers ran away, two youths in their late teens were left on the ground in a pool of blood.
Police confirmed that a fight had broken out at the location and that the injured youths had been sent to a hospital, but could not comment further at press time.
A friend of the two victims said that the group of about six teenagers had been in Plaza Singapura when they noticed another group of about ten teenagers looking at them with contempt.
He said that a face-to-face confrontation between the two groups ensued outside the shopping centre before a fight broke out.
He added that members of the other group then took out sharp weapons and slashed the victims in their stomachs.
On the scene, one victim appeared unconscious, while the other in severe pain.
Police are investigating the case.
- CNA/yb
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/383844/1/.html
~~~
and we have the old doing it:
~~~
While the majority of crimes committed by older Japanese involve petty theft, cases of murder, assault and violence are on the increase.
"There has been a huge change in the last 10 years," said Tomomi Fujiwara, author of the book "Bousou Rojin" ("The Elderly Out of Control").
"It can be a question of money for some of these people, but that is not the main reason we're seeing this problem now," he said.
Mr Fujiwara blamed the changing face of Japanese society for the spike in crime.
"In the past, elderly people were revered and cared for in Japanese society, living in the same homes with their children and families. That has gone now and they don't recognise their own neighbourhood or the people living around them."
Cases of the elderly becoming involved in crime include a 79-year-old woman stabbing two young women with a fruit knife in Tokyo after leaving a shelter for homeless people; a terminally ill 85-year-old man strangling his wife because he did not want her to go on living after his own death and a man in his 70s robbing a store in Nagoya at knife-point.
Japan has traditionally enjoyed low levels of crime and government statistics show that overall figures are falling, except among the elderly.
The number of people aged 65 or older convicted of a criminal offence stood at 13,739 in 1998; by last year that figure had risen to 48,597 cases. That number accounted for one in seven of all reported crimes and included 150 murder charges.
The Japanese government is spending Y8.3 billlion (£39 million) on constructing three new prison wards that are specifically designed to cater to the rising number of elderly inmates.
Many are repeat offenders who commit another minor crime shortly after their release simply to get back into a community where they are comfortable, warm, fed and have friends of their own age.
Mr Rujiwara also said many elderly people have abandoned politeness and understanding - values for which the Japanese are renown - and are now rude, demanding and threatening.
"I've seen it happen myself," he said.
"I watched this man shouting at a member of staff in a supermarket and then he went into the bank and did exactly the same thing again," he said. "I had never seen anything like it before."
As well as the dislocation from society and their families, Mr Fujiwara said the elderly were increasingly concerned about who will care for them when they become frail.
Japan's pension system is disarray, with thousands of workers' records lost, causing fears among the elderly that they will not receive any financial assistance.
"Society has already changed and now we have more economic problems, so I really don't see this situation getting any better in the near future," said Mr Fujiwara. "In fact, I'm sure it will get much worse."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/3213349/Japan-struggles-with-elderly-crime-wave.html
~~~
so the former is called juvenile delinquency. and the latter? senior delinquency?
moral of the first story, dont stare at other groups of people to avoid "staring fights"
moral of the second story, be nice to granny, or she may just poke you with a fruit knife hidden well behind her wrinkled smile. or maybe a well hidden katana in her walking cane just like Kisuke Urahara's zanpakuto Benihime in the anime Bleach.
***
crap aside, its quite disappointing to realise that our supposedly reknown low crime rate is being put to test with the recent rise in juvenile delinquency. causes? busier families? failure in moral education? hmmm. whatever the cause, the case of the escape of Mas Selamat from the detention centre has already shakened public's confidence with our internal security forces already. with rising juvenile delinquency, the last thing we need is grannies marching down the streets with a chainsaw slicing people into half. or gramps robbing banks with clown masks so as to get more money to pay up his road taxes and ERP charges and parking lot summons.
working hard towards 'A' lvls!