Chinese 'O' level

I'm listening to Power of the Horde now, so...

STORM, EARTH AND FIRE - HEED MY CALL!
Lol.

Hmmm... It's 31 October today, Halloween. Not really a big deal though, we don't celebrate Halloween here anyway... XD So... trick or treat? :P I wonder what does the 'trick' part mean... The children go wreck up the houses of those who refuse to give them candy? Maybe they set arson to the houses? :D



And look at what I just read on Wikipedia about Halloween...

Halloween, or Hallowe'en, is a holiday celebrated on the night of October 31. Traditional activities include trick-or-treating, carving jack-o-lantern's, Halloween festivals, bonfires, costume parties, visiting "haunted houses" and viewing horror films.

-Wikipedia on Halloween

Holy fucking shit!! BONFIRE?!?!? Why don't we celebrate it in Singapore too???!!!

Oh, today, the 31st of October, is Yuchi's birthday as well. But... (and a conversation from yesterday...)

Samy [Power is rising from the hands we hold together. I feel like I can go anywhere.] says:
Yo
Samy [Power is rising from the hands we hold together. I feel like I can go anywhere.] says:
Looking forward to your birthday tomorrow? ;)
™†¥Û©hÎB¥É†™-zZzZ -Alright. Now remember:There's a big difference between kneeling down and bending over. says:
no
Samy [Power is rising from the hands we hold together. I feel like I can go anywhere.] says:
Lol why not?
™†¥Û©hÎB¥É†™-zZzZ -Alright. Now remember:There's a big difference between kneeling down and bending over. says:
dunno
Samy [Power is rising from the hands we hold together. I feel like I can go anywhere.] says:
=.=
™†¥Û©hÎB¥É†™-zZzZ -Alright. Now remember:There's a big difference between kneeling down and bending over. says:
i jus don't relli care
Samy [Power is rising from the hands we hold together. I feel like I can go anywhere.] says:
I see...

...he doesn't care.

Oh well, I don't care about the fact that he doesn't care anyway. :P



Now, now, let me do some explanations. :P

I chose pink for the font colour because that's the colour he uses for his MSN nick. For the colour of the background (that's teal, right?), I wanted a colour that contrasts with pink, so I took pink, chose Invert Colors on Microsoft Paint, and I got teal.

For the two maps at the side, the left one is obtained from a Wikipedia on "Yuchi". o.O Apparently, there was this tribe in America named "Yuchi", lmao, and that map shows the original territory of the Yuchi Tribe, so I added it in. XD The one on the right is simply a horizontal flip of the left one. ;)

Lmao, I still remember when Sean and I went to Yuchi's house last year. He was chatting on MSN with Howchee, and Howchee found the existence of the Yuchi Tribe and started to ridicule Yuchi to no end about it. XD

Sigh, and October 31 is the day to another event: The day my Microsoft Office 2007 Trial expires after a free 60-day trial. :( I want to get it back, lol, but I've noticed that Microsoft Office 2007 comes with a bunch of other softwares, like Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Publisher, that I don't use and even don't care about, lol. So I checked Wikipedia, and found out that there are different editions of Microsoft Office, which comes with different software.

So I decided to get the Home and Student edition, because the only three softwares I need from Office are Word, Excel and PowerPoint, which happen to be all inside the Home and Student edition, and the only ones inside. I don't even care about the others, so why waste money buying them when I don't need them anyway? XD

So now, I have decided to buy Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007. :) *adds one more thing to wishlist* But holy shit, I went to check at www.microsoft.com, and it costs US$149.95! O_O Using the nifty currency converter provided with the Windows Sidebar on Windows Vista...



S$217.71!!! O_____O

If I work for $4 an hour and five hours a day... Hmm... I should be able to get it in a fortnight if I work hard... :P That's another thing to add to the wishlist, a good-paying job, ya?

And I started reading the manga Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE as well. I'm only on chapter 18, lol. But here's a few pictures from the manga that I would like to share. :)


Princess Sakura...


Princess Tomoyo...


Kuro-sama sugoi! XD
(means "Kuro-sama is awesome!" Fay always tell Kurogane this when he acts cool to piss him off XD)


Haha, Sakura and Syaoran look so cute together. :P


Syaoran and his kudan, looks so cool, lol. Sigh, too bad kudans are only in Hanshin Republic, so Syaoran can only fight with his kudan in that world. Would be cool if he can take his kudan along to other worlds. XD


Words can't describe how freaking cool that kick is. Just look at Kurogane, Fay and Mokona's reactions. XD


Sakura's luck never ceases to freak people out. XD

And some pictures from the anime Tsubasa Chronicle (who decided to have the same manga and anime have different names? -.-)'s second opening, It's (Lame name for a song =.=), featuring Sakura-chan.





She just looks so kawaii...

Oh yeah, I haven't blog about my new desktop background, right? It's been a few days since I changed it, can't believe I forgot to blog about it.

And here it is, featuring the manga Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE...



And finally, finally, finally, the "main event", featured as in the title of this blog post... today's Chinese 'O' level.

Like yesterday, *copies from yesterday's blog post again* I went to school and went through the benches located at the second floor, which has already definitely became a routine chore for me, as I look around for anyone I know. As usual, I saw Vernon there, among a crowd of 4R1 guys and two 4R3 guys (Kuan Hon and Terence), all of them revising E. Maths Chinese, of course. Who would revise E. Maths on the day of a Chinese exam? XD. Yoshida came a while later and decided to head to the classroom, and I went with him, leaving Vernon with the 4R1 guys. didn't come, so I went to class alone. I saw Huiling there and the two of us were waiting outside the classroom alone, until a while later, when Jovian came, followed by Vernon...

(As again, Italics text are what happened today that didn't happen yesterday.
Strikethrough text are what happened yesterday that didn't happen today.)

Can't blame Vernon for deciding to look through his dictionary for pieces of newspaper. XD

Funnily, two unexpected things occured during Paper I, lol. Firstly, Vernon got some slip of newspaper cutting in his dictionary that he did not know about, and it dropped out during the examination, lol. He quickly stepped on it to hide it from the invigilator, but Ephraim saw it first, lol. Secondly, Yoshida's electronic dictionary ran out of battery halfway. XD And I was complaining about having to use a book form of the dictionary. Come to think of it, it does have its advantage. XD Of course, Ephraim was ridiculing both of them after the exam, lol.

-Chinese 'O' Level Is Over!

Paper 1, not bad. We were allowed to take the question paper back, so I don't have to resort to memory to blog! Mwahahaha! XD

First two questions of Section A was about letter-writing. First question features a formal letter to write to an organization that helps save the victims of Southeast Asian countries suffering from flood, saying that you want to join their organization, and state your reasons. Second question is an informal letter to a friend discussing your opinions on schools organizing trips overseas to study.

I did the first one for obvious reasons. One, I suck in informal letters (that's for Chinese anyway). Two, I don't know a shit about schools going overseas (seeing that I never bothered to participate in one). There you have it, I went to do question one.

And did it rather shittily. :P Long story short, I just said, "Yo, bub, I want to join, 'cause as citizens of fellow Southeast Asian countries, we are neighbours and are obliged to help them during times of need. Let me join." XD

Section B, composition, features three questions. The first question was to write about a preparation process for a class performance during teacher's day celebration as a class chairman, and write what you and your classmates had benefit from this experience. I didn't waste much time canceling this question.

Second question, discuss how to improve the relationships between teachers and students. I don't know. As if they think I would bother to give a damn. If you asked me though, I'd say... Have students put as their MSN nicks "Let's all take our thick piles of worksheets and burn them for a bonfire during chalet!! XD" and the teacher to come and tell that guy "does it mean u did well? saw your comments about burning all the worksheets". -.-

By the way, in case you are wondering, that MSN nick is what I have as my personal message, and my Maths teacher told me that on MSN. =.=

The third and last question was a newspaper article reflection. Research shows that the employees are mainly the cause of problems of relationships between employees and maids. Discuss your opinions.

I did the third question, but that was because I have absolutely no fucking idea how to do the other two. So guess what? I decided to ignore the point in the question that "employees are mainly the cause" by adding "it is difficult to determine which side is the main cause", then proceed to write it from a neutral point of view, because hell if I know how to write why employees are mainly the cause, I don't have a maid. :D

Damn, I gotta admit, during the start, I thought I would have a lot of free time left, so I had a slow start, and guess what? I almost ran out of time. -_- Was rushing to finish it in the last half an hour, and phew, I managed to finish it with five minutes left. *heaves a sigh of relief, or sighs a heave of relief, whichever one is the correct one *rolls eyes** Can't believe I went to write 506 words in my composition about the employee and maid one. O_O Yeah, I went to count. o.O

Paper 2 isn't bad. I like how they set easy-to-understand passages. Not like the Chinese 'O' level paper in May, I don't understand a single shit from the passages. I really feel like giving a pat on the back to the people who set the paper. Good job on setting those passages. :)

Me like passages which are easy to understand. :D

Weird though, every time, my Chinese comprehension has long answers, about eight or nine lines, but this time my answers are rather short, only three or four lines, taking up less than half of the space available. O_O

Half an hour left. I was so bored I drew a lot of shit on the paper and vandalized it. XD I even sketched the invigilator's water bottle, which was right in front of me (my seat is at the front row, most right, which is just in front of the teacher's table). The teacher came, took a look at what I was doing, and I could practically picture him ask, "Oi, why the fuck are you drawing my water bottle?" XD

But five minutes later, he suddenly announced, "十五分钟。(means 'fifteen minutes')", so I thought maybe he comes from China and doesn't understand English (some Chinese teachers are like that), so instead of picturing him ask "Oi, why the fuck are you drawing my water bottle?", I now picture him ask "喂！为什么你在画我的水瓶？(means 'Hey! Why are you drawing my water bottle?')" XD

I was so bored spending that thirty minutes that I think I managed to successfully vandalize every page of the Chinese paper. XD Wait, except the cover page. Since people judge books by cover, I want to give a good impression by not vandalizing it. XD I even made up mathematical questions on logarithms for myself and see if I can do it. XD

Oh, I forgot to mention. Yoshida was wearing a black jacket and he zipped it up completely. Wondered if he doesn't feel hot? XD At the start of the day, when we saw him dressed up like that, we all laughed, and guess what he did? He wore his hood, hold an imaginary scythe and slash the air in front of him with it. DEATH GOD!! XD


No, not this one... :P

Got too close to Sin

Uh, I meant... Forget that. I got too, uh...close to Sin and my head's all foggy-like. So I don't know where this place is. Or even where I came from.

Okay, I'm exaggerating, haha, but indeed, my head's all foggy-like, but that was because my usual pattern of waking up late has been disturbed by the presence of exams early in the morning, so my lack of sleep made me take an afternoon nap just now, and after I woke up, well, that's what happened. So I don't think I can concentrate blogging like that... -_______- But well, I'm just gonna do my best. Yosh. :)

I like the sword Syaoran bought in Outo, Hien (緋炎, Scarlet Flame). It's an awesomely cool sword that can burst into flames, lol, and its damned kanji took me a fucking long time to find it. -.-







Oh, and you just have to admit. The looks on Syaoran and Kurogane's faces are priceless. XD



Today was E. Maths Paper 2.

Sigh... This morning was a mess. While preparing to go to school, I couldn't find my wallet, so I started to panic and rush around, looking around for it. Since I need the identification card inside my wallet to take the stupid exam, I even thought that I would be unable to take the exam (since I couldn't find the damned wallet anywhere), and I even started thinking of not going to the exam (since I can't take it anyway). The panicking is really a foolish act, because it refuses to allow me to calm down and realize that the wallet has been in my pocket all along. -.- Yup, owned. I don't need anyone else to tell me that. :)

Like yesterday, *copies from yesterday's blog post* I went to school and went through the benches located at the second floor, which is starting to becoming has already became a routine chore for me, as I look around for anyone I know. I saw Vernon there, among a crowd of 4R1 guys, mixed with a few people from 4R3 and 4R5, Lord Saradomin knows what they are doing there. *rolls eyes* all of them revising E. Maths. Vernon looks quite lost in that group, lol. When he turned around and saw me a while later, the two of us decided to head to class. Yoshida came a while later and decided to head to the classroom, and I went with him, leaving Vernon with the 4R1 guys.

(Italics text are what happened today that didn't happen yesterday.
Strikethrough text are what happened yesterday that didn't happen today.)

We did some last-minute revision for the paper outside the classrooms around the corridors before the paper starts. The invigilator came at around 7.35am, which took everyone by surprise, as they were always pretty late. ^_^ We were allowed in at 7.50am, though Elsen was late, lol, he made it only at 7.55am.

It's cool how many pieces of paper I have used for this exam. XD

The first question was really pesky. It was about two shops that deal with film photography, selling rolls of film (each taking 36 photographs), and printing those rolls of firm. One shop decides to sell four rolls of film for price of three, and the other decided to have a 20% discount for printing, so we have to calculate a bunch of shitty costs like, "This guy, being a cheapskate and a bastard, has to buy film from shop A and print at shop B to take advantage of the discounts there. Find his percentage reduction." or some other shit like that.

All the while doing this question, there was an angry thought in my mind: Oi, what the hell? It's time you start using digital photography already, man! Just take the damn picture, take your memory card out, stuff it into your computer and there your damned photo is!!

There's also another pain in the ass question on angles. It shows a diagram like this, and we are supposed to find the angles (marked by two black lines in the diagram):


My first impression:
What the fuck? Is this supposed to be a Spellbinding Circle...?

Or is this supposed to summon Exodia the Forbidden One...??

O.o

XD

So to do the question, I crapped up some shit, stating that the five sides of the pentagon share the same angle (which is correct, it's a regular pentagon), and also that the five sides of the star share the same angle as well (which is totally nonsense). o.O And so, through angles in the same segment, I somehow managed to make it look like the three angles at the each side of the pentagon are the same. o.O

Since each interior angle of a pentagon is 108°, I divided it into three and got the answer to the first two questions: 36°. Which I still totally have no idea how I got the answer. *blinks*

Ah, to hell whether I get this question correct or wrong. I don't care. -________-

Though it reminds me of two of Zoro's attacks in One Piece, one attack utilized with one sword and the second with three swords.

一刀流　三十六烦恼凤 (Ittouryuu: San-Juu-Roku Pound Hou; One-Sword-Style: Thirty-Six Pound Cannon)
三刀流　百八烦恼凤 (Santouryuu: Hyaku-Hachi Pound Hou; Three-Swords-Style: Hundred and Eight Pound Cannon)

XD

Yeah, and I felt like cursing over something. The Section B consists of pain-in-the-ass questions. One is about the standard question of "throw Particle E off the top of somewhere, his distance-time relationship so luckily follows a quadratic equation, so draw a curve and find out shit from it". The second one is of a cumulative frequency curve, a histogram and probability. If I knew, I would definitely want to do the second question, but guess what?

I missed out the line of instruction that reads "Do only one question from Section B." -______-

So screw it, I went and did both. =.= I only realized after I finished the paper, tied it up with the string and started checking. -_- I was less confident about my work for the first question, so of course I tore it off. What's the point of plotting that stupid graph when one can just use differentiation and find the answer to the question anyway? XD

The other questions don't seem to pose much difficulty, so who cares about them? XD

A funny thing happened while the invigilator was collecting the papers. She collected Kenneth's, then went towards the back of the class collecting them as well. When she was five tables away, Kenneth turns back, holds up his cover page and shout, "'Cher!" Lmao, he forgot to string his cover page onto his paper and hand it up! XD Larry, Cheng Kang and I, who are all sitting at the back and are aware of what is happening, started to laugh out loud, but the rest, who don't, didn't, lol. Vernon particularly looks confused. XD

I explained to bub what happened as the two of us left school though, haha. (Ephraim disappeared again, and Yoshida's exam started later, so naturally ended later, and we didn't bother waiting for him XD)

And lmao, this letter from the Postbag from the Hedge, Issue 24, in RuneScape is lame!! XD

Dear Council of RuneScape,

I hope you consider me important enough for writing a letter to you, but I have to express my worries about something:

I am very worried about the environmental condition of Gielenor! Every day tons of fires are made just for fun. I see people in big cities like Catherby burning long lines of fire non-stop.

Another worry is the high industrial rate of certain cities: there are so many furnaces used for smelting ores into bars, the furnaces are working non-stop every day! Impure iron ore makes the furnaces more dirty, so they have to work harder for the same amount of bars.

That is why I, a follower of Guthix (who really created this lovely place), would like you to make an "Environmental Council for Guilenor". They could take measures to make this place better for everybody (maybe some wizards can make a machine for that, but that's quite ironic).

Thanks,
The civilian-made Nature Guild, located in the eternal forest from the fairies

---

Dear affiliates of the Civilian-made Nature Guild,

Many thanks for writing to the Collected Appreciators of RuneScape's Environment (CARE). Although your letter was addressed elsewhere, Mr. Pete was kind enough to forward it to us.

You are right: the condition of RuneScape is getting worse. This is most clearly seen with the Kharidian desert, which is creeping north at a rate of one metre per year. It may seem inconsequential, but this rate is growing. Imagine RuneScape a thousand years ago – with forests, streams and grassland as far south as the Duel Arena.

The ice sheets of the north, too, are melting at rates that have serious implications to RuneScape. At current rates, we could see large-scale flooding of Lumbridge Swamp, Tutorial Island, Mos Le'Harmless and Catherby.

Although the current trend for Firemaking has had an impact on the levels of pollution, it is the move towards industrialisation that is the worst culprit. Dwarven technology alone produces 65% of emissions, and this will only get worse as they continue to manufacture and process.

The heads of the dwarven states refuse to acknowledge this, of course, as exemplified by Drorkar's popular thesis "1001 Uses for Soot: A Celebration".

While lies like these exist, our ability to educate the world about an overheating RuneScape is diminished.

Yours,
Kaqemeex, Chairman of CARE

The reply really sounds as if it was koped from a Geography textbook about global warming, with the locations changed to RuneScape locations... XD I feel like finding whoever wrote this letter and train my Firemaking level in front of him. I've still got at least thirty thousand Willow Logs left for me to burn, you know? ;P

English 'O' level and half a Maths 'O' level

۰Fym says:
A compuer mouse is a male or female?
۰Fym says:
It's a joke k, dun take it too seriously
Samy [Power is rising from the hands we hold together. I feel like I can go anywhere.] says:
Computer?
Samy [Power is rising from the hands we hold together. I feel like I can go anywhere.] says:
Hmmm
Samy [Power is rising from the hands we hold together. I feel like I can go anywhere.] says:
A male?
۰Fym says:
wrong, is female
۰Fym says:
why?
Samy [Power is rising from the hands we hold together. I feel like I can go anywhere.] says:
Hmm I dunno, haha
Samy [Power is rising from the hands we hold together. I feel like I can go anywhere.] says:
Why?
۰Fym says:
because ...
۰Fym says:
the compuer mouse........
۰Fym says:
uses
۰Fym says:
a pad!
Samy [Power is rising from the hands we hold together. I feel like I can go anywhere.] says:

Samy [Power is rising from the hands we hold together. I feel like I can go anywhere.] says:
Lol
۰Fym says:
HAHAHHAA
۰Fym says:
hope it brightens up your day!
Samy [Power is rising from the hands we hold together. I feel like I can go anywhere.] says:
Very dirty joke you have :)
Samy [Power is rising from the hands we hold together. I feel like I can go anywhere.] says:
:P
۰Fym says:
;)
۰Fym says:
my expertise
Samy [Power is rising from the hands we hold together. I feel like I can go anywhere.] says:
Heh
Samy [Power is rising from the hands we hold together. I feel like I can go anywhere.] says:
Thanks for sharing that joke with me :)
۰Fym says:
spread it!
Samy [Power is rising from the hands we hold together. I feel like I can go anywhere.] says:
Ok! XD

What better way to spread this joke by just posting it on my blog. I'm lazy, I know.

But wait, my mouse doesn't use a pad...



It uses a cloth!! XD XD

Lol, well, my mouse wouldn't work for my mouse pad. I believe it's because both the mouse pad and the optical light of my mouse are blue, so it somehow screws up and it won't work. Strange, it won't work when it's on the table, too. So I experimented with a few items, and it occurred to me that I can use my long pair of school pants, and it works. o.O But of course, no one in his right mind uses a freaking pair of pants as a mouse pad, so I had to find some old cloth in some hidden corner of my house. =.=

Today is the English 'O' level, which I ultimately believe is my freaking downfall to getting a ridiculously high L1R4 and L1R5, which will no doubt screw me and my future up real, real shittily, and half a Maths 'O' level. o.O Yeah, half. O.o Today's Paper 1, and we are having Paper 2 tomorrow. Get it? Haha.

I'm enjoying listening to D-tecnoLife on Windows Media Player now by the way, so don't mind if I start procrastinating on my blogging just to listen to some music. XD

Why am I mentioning this anyway? You can't tell it anyway. It's not like Instant Messaging. o.O

Where should I start this first after a summary of the day...? Ah, yeah, from morning of course. (Where else, from night all the way to morning, with time reversed? o.O)

After two weeks of not having to be tortured by having to wake up so early (we don't have to go to school for the entire first week, and the second week is mainly composed of 'O' level papers that start in the afternoon, at about 2pm or 2.30pm How I freaking missed those days :\), I couldn't get used to having to wake up at 6am, so I instead slept through half an hour of my handphone playing The World (the first opening of Death Note, and in this context, my alarm ringtone) and finally woke up at 6.30am, which after breakfast I fell right back to sleep again and literally had to push myself up. It was a harsh battle of mind against body, with mind shouting "WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WAKE UP!" and body shouting "STAY THERE! STAY THERE! STAY THERE!" It was literally a battle of tug-of-war. Oh well, good game, body.

After reluctantly waking up, I went to school and went through the benches located at the second floor, which is starting to becoming a routine chore for me, as I look around for anyone I know. I saw Vernon there, among a crowd of 4R1 guys, mixed with a few people from 4R3 and 4R5, Lord Saradomin knows what they are doing there. *rolls eyes* Vernon looks quite lost in that group, lol. When he turned around and saw me a while later, the two of us decided to head to class.

Only Particle E was there when we went to the classroom, sitting alone and reading his Reading Log, trying to do some last-minute revision for English. The two of us joined in as well. Luckily Ephraim was trying to remember the letter-writing format, because I have absolutely forgotten that letter-writing format is something which I need to remember and memorize in preparation for English exams, so I borrowed Vernon's and start cramming. Cram, cram, cram. Sigh. Exams are so torturous. If only I can just cut them down...

Cut them down...


Hoero, Zabimaru!
咆えろ，蛇尾丸！
Howl, Snake Tail!

*cuts exams down*

I am still free to dream, right? ^_____________^"

And then begins English Paper 1. Sigh.

I decided to do composition first, because ever since the day we were taught letter-writing, I have always sucked at letter-writing, so why bother to do it first? It's like having maths homework and chemistry homework. I like maths and hate chemistry, so naturally I'd first grab the chemistry... and do it? Nah. I'd grab it, muster all my force, gather all my strength, and throw it as far away as I can. :D Fifty bonus points if I can hit the Chemistry teacher's face with that shitty piece of homework! XD So yup, naturally, I'll do the maths homework first. Same concept here.


I can always fucking dream, can't I?

Oh, I noticed that my Chemistry teacher is a female, and not an old geezer, but oh well, we'll have to make do. I'm lazy to search through stupid clip art just to get a female teacher who looks easy to throw books at. =_=

Ah, now then I should realize, I should add a "50!" above the teacher's head. You know, like in classic arcade games, where the amount of points you gain show up somewhere on the screen? XD

Anyone who's not being lazy (man, I need an antonym for "lazy".) and thinks he or she can bother doing so, please do add in a "50!", upload it and put the image URL on my tagboard. I'll add the image in and credit you. XD

Back to the English 'O' level Paper 1. First question was some shit about building a new school and what school rules do you want to have. I can just imagine Ephraim thinking, "I want the girls to have short skirts!! SHORT!! " *rolls eyes* Sigh... NOTE: I DO NOT SUPPORT HIS SHITTY WAY OF THINKING, SO DON'T EVEN ACCUSE ME OF SUCH SHIT. Short, yeah. The most perfect word ever created in the universe to describe Ephraim.

Second question is a discussion essay. People nowadays are living longer than ever before. Explain what problems this might cause and describe some ways to dealt with these problems. Or something like that. In other words, it's flashing the huge words, in bright red and bold,


Yup. AGEING POPULATION.

And I just have to go and fucking spell it as "aging population". Fuck it. I'm so banging my head on the wall over this crap.

Oh well, let me console my poor soul a little bit and tell myself that although the British spell it as "ageing", the Americans spell it as "aging". :D Whoohooo, if I go to America, then I'd get the spelling correct! Who cares about British spelling, ya? It's America that pwn now! America who win World War II by dropping that atomic bomb! And what did Britain do? All it did was to hold itself against the Luftwaffe (German air force) in the Battle of Britain! Hah! They can't do much!

Random blog reader: But Singapore is in the Commonwealth of Nations.

Oh. Right. Fuuuuuuuuuck.

Random blog reader: Pwned, pal.

Shut the fuck up.

The third question is a personal recount question. Something about someone who doesn't live up to his or her reputation. Wait, is it "reputation", or some other word? Hmm... Can't remember much, who cares. I have always been a loser at writing personal recounts, so Lord Saradomin, please zap me with a Saradomin Strike if I go and decide to do this question.

Fourth question is... uh... It's getting harder and harder to remember those shitty questions, especially since I've took two papers after that. Let me think. Nope, I can't think of any shit. Can someone kindly come and enlighten me about the forth question? I'll give you a cookie. :) Or meh, I'll just wait for about two months and pop into Popular bookstore, take an English Ten-Years-Series and have a look (after checking out for new volumes of manga of course! XD).

Fifth question. Just one word. "Heroes". I slap my forehead, shake my head and sigh just when I see that. You try not doing that [referring to action of "slapping forehead, shaking head and sighing in case you don't know by the way ;)] when your class so affectionately nicknames you as "Hero" and you know that they are bound to make fun of you for that after the paper. To be honest, I was even believing that after stepping out of the classroom, someone would come and tell me, "Hey, Hero! Guess what I write? I wrote question five, and I write about you!" In which case I am prepared to draw my sword, shout, "バースト！兄弟！(Burst! Kyoudai!)" and slash him to death. Yup, that's the Shikai of my Zanpakutou! :D I can't be bothered to think of a better name, or should I say I believe a plain name is the best. So, yeah. XD I hastened to cancel the number "5" right beside the word "Heroes" on the paper.

Edit made on 11th January 2008:
After waiting for two months and two weeks, there finally are Ten-Years-Series stocked in Popular. Refer to the blog post on 11th January 2008 for more information. :)

Anyway, the five questions are:

1. If you were drawing up a set of school rules for a new school, what would they be? Explain which of these you think are the most important.
2. Nowadays, people live longer than ever before. What problems does this present and how can these problems be dealt with?
3. Write about someone who failed to live up to his or her reputation.
4. Write about some of the things in your country you value most and would miss greatly, if you had to live in another country.
5. Heroes

As you may have inferred from the stupid fact that I have went to misspell "aging" as "ageing" (), I have indeed do question two. I thought of it for a minute or so, then proceeded to have fun canceling out the numbers "1", "3" and "4" [I have already canceled out "5 ;)], deeming them as questions I have no idea how the fuck to do, and proceed to write one whole crap of junk about an ageing population, as stated in my Geography and Social Studies textbooks.

Ah, now's a good chance to take said textbooks, flip through them and see what points I miss out. Guess it'll help for my Social Studies if an "ageing population" comes out, but I highly doubt it. So... what's the point anyway?

When people grow old, they will be more prone to certain age-related health problems... Blah blah. More community-based services such as day care centres and home nursing care will thus be needed to help families look after their older relatives... Blah blah. Singapore's public areas will have to be equipped with more facilities suitable for senior citizens... Blah blah. Education, health services, unemployment, and water and food supply become critical issues. Hey, wait, what the fuck? Those are effects of a rapidly growing population, you moron!! Governments that provide pensions, social security payments to the elderly or retirement benefits will have to set aside more money for these purposes. Blah blah.

Fuck. I can't believe I missed out so many points. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

And how to solve the problems? *reads textbook*

Raise the retirement age, encourage families to look after their elderly and set up special old persons' employment security centres to provide employers with information and training so that their older employees can remain gainfully employed... Subsidise employers who hire older workers.... Set up job agencies which specialise in helping the elderly find employment...

FUCK! And what did I write?!

Try and increase birth rates.



The letter-writing part is even worse. Okay, first off, I'd like to shift some blame to the air-conditioning. It was so freaking cold, it gave me an urge to freaking hibernate!! (I added the Wikipedia link because I know there are bound to be people who don't understand the meaning of the word. ) Secondly, I'd like to shift some blame to the setter of this question, who made it too difficult, although in my really, really honest opinions, it wasn't so bad after all.

Yup. Totally lack of planning, totally lack of audience awareness, totally talk very little about the choice I made, totally just writing what comes into my mind, totally did not talk about the other two choices, totally ignored them, and totally just totally went to sleep after finishing it somewhat, because my brain totally could no longer take the cold temperature any longer and totally just had to totally hibernate.

"It appears she has a habit of using the word totally."

-Kyon on Haruhi

:P

And wow, I spent thirteen and a half minutes watching the second episode of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya just to find that quote. I only remembered that it is somewhere in the first episode (chronologically), but I can't remember the exact quote, and I can't find it in the novel as well, so, oh well.

Ah, might as well. *spends ten more minutes to finish watching the episode* XD

After finishing writing the letter, which I admit to be a screwed up piece of fucking shit, the cold temperature forced me to hibernate. Okay, it wasn't really that cold as to induce hibernation. I just fell asleep and was unconscious all the way until the invigilator announces the end of the exam (in a classroom of complete and absolute silence, except say for scratching of pens and the "tape-sounding thingy" in a liquid paper, it is very easy to hear the invigilator suddenly shouting, "PENS DOWN!!" :O Even if you are in a deep sleep. ;) Though if you can't hear it, I think you're screwed. XD). XD

So I'm prepared to be totally screwed up for English. I guess I should start praying to God.

Oh Lord Saradomin, and Haruhi as well ('cause I considered her a God now as well XD), can you please grant me a good grade for English? I won't be greedy, just a B4 will do! A B4 please!!

Lmao......

What the heck...? Yoshida was the LAST, LAST, LAST person I would EVER, EVER, EVER imagine to go and do that stupid question "Heroes"!! And guess what? Turns out he went to write about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Sigh.

Speaking of which, my two interests in RuneScape and swordplay are telling me something.

Interest in RuneScape says:
Do you know there's a new quest in RuneScape about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table??
Interest in RuneScape says:
It's called "King's Ransom"!!
Interest in RuneScape says:
Doesn't it sound fun?
Interest in RuneScape says:
I want to hurry up and go do that quest, man!
Samy says:
Right, right. After I get back membership.
Interest in RuneScape says:
Sigh... -.-
Interest in swordplay says:
King Arthur uses two swords, doesn't he?
Samy says:
Yeah, I believe that is the case.
Interest in swordplay says:
Which two swords do he use? What are their names?
Samy says:
Hmm... I only know of Excalibur.
Samy says:
No idea what the other is.
Interest in swordplay says:
I'll check Wikipedia.
Interest in RuneScape says:
Do you know that in RuneScape, there is a weapon named Excalibur that you get after completing the Quest "Merlin's Crystal?"
Interest in RuneScape says:
It has a cool Special Attack! You raise it up, shout "For Camelot!", and you get a defense boost!
Samy says:
Cool.
Interest in swordplay says:
... ...
Interest in swordplay says:
Hmmm... What I've seen so far, the other sword is not, I repeat, NOT Caladbolg.
Interest in swordplay says:
Caladbolg belongs to this man... uh... what's his name?
Interest in swordplay says:
Fergus mac Róich. Former king of Ulster.
Interest in swordplay says:
Whatever the hell.
Interest in swordplay says:
It's supposed to be a two-handed sword that made a circle like an arc of rainbow when swung, and to have the power to slice the tops off hills and take out several men.
Samy says:
Wow... Sounds freaking cool.
Interest in RuneScape says:
Dude, aren't we going off-topic?
Interest in RuneScape says:
You are searching for the other sword of King Arthur, right?
Interest in swordplay says:
Oh, right. Sorry.
Interest in swordplay says:
Hey, there's supposed to be a "sword in the stone".
Samy says:
The hell? Does it have a name?
Interest in swordplay says:
Nope. According to Wikipedia, some stories call it and Excalibur the same sword.
Interest in swordplay says:
Other stories tell them as two different swords.
Interest in swordplay says:
Nevertheless, there doesn't seem to be a name for it.
Interest in RuneScape says:
Weird. Let's just call it Rune Longsword. XD
Samy says:
Lmao. I can just imagine the 'good old times' (not really that good anyway :P) when I used to believe having a Rune Longsword represents pwnage XD
Interest in swordplay says:
Lmao! I just found this out!
Interest in swordplay says:
The father of Sir Percival, a Knight of the Round Table, is none other than King Pellinore, who broke King Arthur's sword in the stone in a duel!
Interest in RuneScape says:
Oi, oi, oi, just what the heck are you searching for?
Interest in anime says:
Can we hurry this up? Tsubasa Chronicle episode 25 is waiting...
Interest in swordplay says:
Sorry.
Interest in swordplay says:
Oh, found it.
Interest in swordplay says:
It's named Clarent.
Interest in swordplay says:
A sword of peace meant for knighting and ceremonies as opposed to battle, which is stolen and then used to kill Arthur.
Samy says:
What the hell?! Which bastard used it to kill Arthur?!
Interest in swordplay says:
Mordred, a notorious traitor who fought King Arthur at the Battle of Camlann.
Interest in swordplay says:
Go check Wikipedia yourself.

Okay. Arthur uses Excalibur and Clarent.

Somehow, I think of Vernon, through such a connection... Clarent is a sword. A claymore is a type of sword. Claymore is also the name of an anime. And the main character in Claymore is a girl named Clare (which incidentally shares the same first five letters as Clarent, King Arthur's other sword). And Vernon thinks that Clare is cute. (I don't think so though o.O) Get it? XD

Maybe it's just coincidence?

"There is no such thing as coincidence. Only necessity."

-Clow Reed

Lol, meh.

Before Paper 2, Faizal was panicking, "LIEK OH MY GOD, ANYONE HAS MATHS BOOKLET!? LEND IT TO ME TO REVISE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! OH MY GOD OH MY GOD!" and took quite a while before he finally calmed down and listened to me tell him that he has two hours to study for Maths after English Paper 2 ends. -_____-

Yeah, and during the wait for Paper 2, we were hanging around the corridors outside the classroom, trying to enjoy some warm temperature, as the classroom was just too damned cold. Vernon, wearing his black jacket, stands between Yoshida and I, and we feel as if it has gotten colder. Black is a good absorber of heat, and it's so obvious that Vernon's black jacket is absorbing all of our heat and making us colder. Oh well, what can he do, all of his jackets are black. XD

And Vernon was slinging his jacket over his left shoulder, it reminds me of Ichigo's father (whose name I just managed to remember a short while ago: Isshin XD)... XD



Paper 2, ah, not bad. At least I understand the passage (or I believe so o.O). The first passage is a rather simple passage about astronomy and astrology and stuff like that. I like these kinds of passage, lol. You learn something after reading them. XD The second passage was I think a science fiction story about a group of astronauts heading to the Mars space station after losing contact with them.

Oh, and the summary? *sighs* I got all the points I can, and I ended up with 207 words, when I'm supposed to have only 150 words. -.- After canceling all those although-necessary-but-I-have-no-choice-anyway "the"s, "a"s, etc., my passage is still left with around 175 words, although "the constellations of the Zodiac" has now become "constellations of Zodiac" and now sound freaking weird. I had no choice ultimately but to cut off some although-relevant-but-I-have-no-freaking-choice-anyway points. Argh. Damn, damn. Just pisses me off.

I finished the paper with half an hour remaining, and tried to sleep, but couldn't, as someone had come and adjusted the temperatures to make it warmer (good thing he did, my hands are starting to freeze numb.). So I ended up drawing shit on the extra pieces of foolscap paper, and somehow made up a new fire attack for my own character in the RPGs I often design when I feel I have too much time in my hands (:P): The Flame Cannon. It involves the right hand grabbing the left arm, the left hand transforming into a pillar of flame, and the flame shoots out at the target (right hand grabs left hand to prevent recoil, something like firing a bazooka :P). Okay, I admit, I got the idea from Tsubasa Chronicle opening, 1:24. Go look for it in YouTube if you are curious.

After Paper 2, we were, as I believe I have mentioned before, given a two-hour break before E. Maths Paper 1 starts, so Yoshida, Vernon, Ephraim and I were planning to go out to have lunch outside (I don't know about Ephraim, but Yoshida, Vernon and I were definitely planning to. I just included Ephraim because, nmaa, he always hang out around with us anyway o.O). Yoshida, Vernon and I popped into the toilet straight after we left the classroom (initially having discussion about the answers we wrote first though XD), and when we left, Ephraim was no longer in sight.

Argh, damn, Particle E must have went and used Minimize again. Just great.



Not ones to give a damn about Particle E, we left for Tampines Mart with our bags and went to have McDonald's for lunch.

McDonald's is crowded, man. About 85% of the people in there are from East Spring Secondary. It's as if that McDonald's is their turf, lol... There were very little empty tables, but luckily, just one table free. Reminds me, Hong Wei and I had once sat on that table as we studied in McDonald's before. XD

Vernon got owned, lol. He thought that I would have Chicken McNuggets, so he ordered, "Same as him.", not realizing that I had switched to eating McChicken about two weeks ago. And so, he got McChicken. With a loooooooooot of vegetables in it, which he sooooooo dislikes. Pwned. :P And oh yeah, I borrowed two bucks from Yoshida to buy lunch (didn't bring enough money )... Must remember to return him tomorrow...

I'm starting to think Yoshida is an esper, man. He went to take straws for us, but ended up taking four (even though there are only three people "in the party" XD). Later, Vernon used that extra straw to pick out and remove vegetables from his burger (I just had to go ahead and remind him how hard the farmers worked to grow those vegetables he's removing... XD). It's as if Yoshida has sensed the need for an extra straw, lol!

As there were three of us but four chairs in that table, Yoshida and I started dumping our bags to that extra chair. We then started assuming that Ephraim was actually sitting down there on the chair (since he's so minute, we can't see him, so like the presence of oxygen, you know it's there but you can't see it! ;D), and Yoshida acted so sad that Ephraim was "buried alive" by the "landslide" (imagine our bags to be huge rocks XD). I wanted to take a picture (to use for blogging of course, what else? To show off Vernon's Converse messenger bag? XD), but then I realized I didn't bring my handphone along T_T (I don't bother to bring handphones during exams). Sigh. So oh well, this picture will do.



As you can very obviously see, this shitty picture is done in less than three minutes, making full use of Google Image Search. XD

Yoshida furthermore decided to put his cup of coca-cola on the table in front of the piles of three bags. Reminds me of the cups of wine found in temples as offerings. XD


(It can't be any more obvious that I koped this picture from Lord Saradomin knows where... XD)

A while later, Ephraim did turn up. He took an extra chair from a table nearby, sat down, looked at the E. Maths booklet which he apparently has been holding onto and reading for quite some time, then declared he was hungry, got up and went to join the queue to get some lunch.

He was so short that, from my seat, which I deem pretty near from the counter, I cannot see Ephraim at all. Okay, maybe some strands of hair of his, floating around behind crowds of people. o.O

While he was away (for quite some time, I might add), we did some pranks to him. XD

One, Yoshida added something to his Maths booklet. XD I thought it was salt, yet Yoshida said he added sugar. Oh well. It's still funny anyway. XD

Two, I saw some, I don't know, baby seat? Children seat? Infant seat? Oh well, here's a picture I koped somewhere thanks to Google Image Search for your understanding.



Yeah, I saw some of those near our table, so I told Yoshida to remove Ephraim's chair. He did so, and I took the whatever-it-is-known-as chair and put it where Ephraim's chair used to be. XD

I think the whatever-you-call-it chair suits Ephraim much more than ordinary chairs, looking at his size. XD Vernon asked, "What would others think of us if they see a baby chair doing in our table?" What a sensible, mature boy. XD Even though he just turned sixteen yesterday, seems as if he has matured a lot, ya? :P Yoshida was so kind to put back that chair after Ephraim saw it and we saw Ephraim's funny reaction, lol.

Ephraim came back after a long time, telling us that someone queuing up with him asked loudly, "Oi, can someone tell me how this is fast food?" XD Nice one, unknown guy whose identity I probably will never know! XD

I decided to hint him about Yoshida adding sugar/salt in his booklet, so I told him, "Yoshida has added a certain element of the sea in your book. ;)" (Note: I'm assuming he added salt at that time.) All the while thinking that salt should be used to purify zombies in the Thriller Bark arc of One Piece. o.O

Later, I borrowed Ephraim's booklet from him, to determine whether it is sugar or salt Yoshida added. After flipping through the pages, tossing it up in the air and shit, nothing dropped out. Whether Yoshida did not actually add anything, whether he went to remove it after adding it, or whether Ephraim went to take it out, I do not know. o.O

And yeah, I would like to add that there's a bugger creeping me out in McDonald's. Some almost-bald kid with strands of hair popping up like a porcupine, off sitting in one corner in McDonald's and playing his laptop, using the free wireless access here, handphone on one side, wallet on the other. Some more he's using his a.c. adapter here in McDonald's, free electricity, bugger. Looking at his eye circles, I would have thought he had been here since last night, playing games on his laptop without anyone nagging at him. What a good life he must live. XD

Though reminds me, must be great to have a group of friends who have laptops and who play the same MMORPGs as you. Let's all go to McDonald's together and play the same MMORPGs together. XD Just imagine five people playing Castle Wars in RuneScape together, in the same world, on the same team. There's no need for Group Chat, MSN or Skype for communication, man, just coordinate with each other directly (why bother to MSN or Skype when the bugger's just next to you sipping his cup of coca-cola? XD). Whoohooo. Such free communication can result in pure pwnage. XD

Ephraim went on and left ahead first. By the way, I forgot to mention, Vernon was surprised at how fast Ephraim bought his food, even though the rest of us, including Ephraim himself, thought that he was damned slow, lmao. Reason being Vernon eats very, very slowly, and he must have thought that he can finish his food before Ephraim returns, which he ultimately fails to do so. XD

Vernon was quite full, lol, deciding to "abandon" his cup of half-drank coca-cola. What do you know, I decided to kope it and add it to my own cup, so I ended up drinking one and a half cups of coca-cola for lunch today. Boy, am I full! XD

The three of us went back to school and study outside the classroom with Zheng Wei and Yong Jin. I can't remember anything interesting that happened during that period to blog about, hmmm...

Oh yeah, I remember something about Vernon telling me that he hopes the pencil attached to his compass (link to Wikipedia included to avoid mixing up with the navigational instrument) won't snap, which reminds me, it's been a looooooooong time since I ever used my compass (or let it see the daylight as a matter of fact. I just keep it zipped inside my pencil box and almost never unzip it XD), so I'm not sure whether I need to sharpen it or not.

So, before the exam, I saw Larry sharpening his pencils, so I decided maybe I should borrow his sharpener quickly before the exam starts, in case the pencil in my compass is too blunt (since I haven't use it for a long time, you see, so I have no idea whether it is blunt or sharp o.O). I signaled to Larry, snap my fingers, flip my palm, do shit, but he didn't respond (Larry's back is facing me by the way). It's hard to attract Larry's attention while at the same time NOT attracting the invigilator's attention, I must admit.

Then I decided to check the status of the pencil in my compass, and ah, it seems to be all right. That's a relief, I don't really need to sharpen it. But then, Jasmine, who was sitting beside me (on my left) and behind Larry, saw me signaling Larry and asked if I want to borrow her sharpener, just one minute before the exam starts, when any interaction with other fellow candidates can be deemed as a dishonest act! Oh, what kindness, I'm so touched... T___T

:P

The E. Maths Paper 1 was okay, though there were two questions which sort of pisses me off.

One question gives a picture like this:


We are asked to add one straight line to make it have one line of symmetry. I spent around ten minutes staring at that picture, drawing shitty lines. Here are some of my attempts if I remember correctly:


Took me a while to realize the answer is like this:


-_-

And the second question, pisses me off even more. They give you this graph:



And you have to figure out the equation of the graph. For those of you crazy nerds who freaking memorize the whole E Maths textbook, you might have figured out almost immediately that this is a graph of y = a^x [which I knew only after the exam, while I was flipping through my maths booklet trying to find what is the correct answer :(], but I did not, damn it, and it took me twenty minutes, just trying to find out what the fuck is this stupid curve. I even tried plotting the graphs of y = x³, y = x², y = x¹ (straight line o.O), y = x^0.5 (confuses me for a while why I can only get a graph that doesn't have any points to the left of the y-axis -.-), y = x⁰ (which is in other words y = 1 o.O), y = x^-0.5 (confused me as well why there isn't anything to the left of y-axis -.-), y = x^-1, y = x^-2 and y = x^-3, trying to figure out just what freaking curve that is.

y = a^x... -.- SCREW IT!

Oh well, it's only a measly one mark. =.=

I left the school almost immediately after the paper with Yoshida and Yuhaimi.

And finally, I'd like to kope something from Samuel's blog. :D



It makes a lot of sense to me. So why the fuck are we studying when we know that we will fail anyway? XD

Phew, I'm finally done with blogging. I think this took me five hours... O.O Including breaks like dinner, games and anime of course. XD

Wow. This must be one of the longest blog posts I have ever made in quite a while...