30/1/14

Happy Chinese New Year!
Just get your red packets and some more pocket money I guess. Anyway I'll be doing my homework and watching Sherlock and probably TopGear as well.
Had the CNY celebrations in school today. It was alright, although I had the weird feeling the choir performance was pre-recorded. I don't know, the speakers didn't sound right. Anyway I'm doing my english current affairs portfolio. Relatives are visiting in about an hour. Oh boy this is going to be one unproductive day for me.
 GAWD CAWK IT BLOODY HELL EVERYTHING ON MY COMPUTER SCREEN IS ENTICING ME AWAY FROM MY HOMEWORK STOP DOING THIS TO ME I HAVE A BLOODY MATH TUTORIAL THAT I HAVEN'T STARTED ON AND EVERYONE IS GOING OVERSEAS MY LIFE SUCKS I  ACTUALLY FEEL A LOT BETTER AFTER TYPING THIS I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I'M DOING HALP.

28/1/14

Had Friday's timetable today. And we have no astronomy today so I got to leave school at 2 p.m. We managed to get the Mobius strip working, but then the wind was so strong it ripped the thing apart so we put it back together but it got ripped apart again. At least I took a video. Coolest thing I've done for a while.

Evolutionary biology practical was interesting. It involved tribbles. Oh well at least tomorrow's the last day of the week, then we have CNY which means relatives visiting and lots of computer games. Oh boy.
Went for a X-Ray today. I'll only get the results back in about a week, so there's nothing to write about it right now.

26/1/14

So anyway astronomy went quite well. Although only 3 year 1s joined. There's another one who is appealing against being put into dance club. Anyway we also have 1 set of fraternal twins, which is rather cool, and one of the new year 1s happens to be a girl. Combo breaker. Had a short practical session on Friday. Could see part of Orion. The sky decided to clear up just after we were dismissed, which was rather annoying.

Just finished my homework. I can hear thunder off in the distance. At least I think that's thunder. The past few days have been cold. Brr. At least I have my jacket.

23/1/14

Had a rather nice biology practical today. Used a light microscope. I could see quite a lot of stuff.

That's the light microscope we used. It's an Olympus one. We were supposed to prepare slides and then view them under the microscope, which was rather easy.
I like them. Unfortunately there wasn't much I could take away from this biology practical in terms of laboratory equiment.

And these are onion cells. I forgot their actual name. Anyway if you zoom in on the picture you can see a small ruler as well, which tells you how big the cell is. Each division on the ruler is 2.5 micrometres. Go figure.
And everyone was busy slicing up the onions with the scalpels because why not? And onions are tasty.

 And these are hydrilla leaf cells. The nucleus isn't observable but you can see the chloroplasts clearly. I also managed to get a video of cytoplasmic streaming. That's where the chloroplasts are moving around inside the cell.

If you look closely you can see the chloroplasts slowly moving around. Don't rush them.

Anyway besides these 2 they also required us to obtain cheek cell samples. And these are how my cheek cells look like.

They're quite irregular.
In several Western countries where oral sex is more common, it appears that students who do this may occasionally also find sperm cells. Ew.
Anyway we also decorated the massive window of our classroom. It's bloody amazing. I like it very much.

 JUST LOOK AT THE AWESOMENESS :D
On a side note, we made an extremely long Mobius strip with 5 sheets of paper, cut it in half, and then cut it in half again to get 2 long Mobius strips that were joined together. The whole thing was so long when we put it out of our classroom window it reached the 2nd floor. An our classroom is on the 5th floor. We'll be doing it again with more paper, just to see if we can't set the world record for the longest paper Mobius strip.

22/1/14

You're never too young to get cancer. Having biomedical training now.

And there was this band called Budak Pantai that came over to our school amd performed for us during ACE lesson, and they were bloody amazing. I liked them. I wish they come back soon.

21/1/14

How to work a STM:
1. Get a long roll of platinium iridium wire.
2. Attempt to cut wire into extremely short and sharp pointy bits.
3. Fail miserably, but since the wires look sharp enough you stick them onto the STM anyway.
4. Attempt to scan a sheet of gold.
5. Look at screen and wonder if that's how gold is supposed to look like.
6. Make around 20 more different wires just to see if the picture improves.
7. If picture does not improve you're doing something wrong you idiot.
And I still have no idea how gold looks like.
We had the biology Nobel thingy today. We're supposed to be doing something on blood types.

21/1/14

Just arrived in school. I had this weird dream about going to a massive Marks and Spencer store somewhere. I have no idea where. I think I was looking for jaffa cakes. Classroom has the lights off because Simrita is still sleeping. And Sean is trying to install a game on his computer. I have electives until 6. Bleh. At least I get to use a STM.

20/1/14

Watched Memento today. It was rather interesting. It's like they printed out the entire movie on paper, folded it in half and slotted the scenes in between each other. Most people only understood the whole thing halfway through the film. And we still haven't finished it. Still doing my english formative essay planner. Netball apparently had a landslide victory. Good for them.
Let's see what we can do at SAO.
Had astronomy training today about ellipses and things like that. Ellipses are interesting. The problem is the equations are hard to type but they're rather neat. Also they gave us a worksheet. It seems alright by astronomy standards. We get prizes for getting above 85.
HELLO THERE TANIA I'M NOT ACTUALLY SURE IF YOU'D BOTHERED CHECKING THIS BIT.
Our mentor put up some rather unglamourous pictures of our class during Orientation up on the board. I'm thinking of moving them somewhere else. I don't like to be sitting next to a picture of people looking rather silly.
However, the noticeboard is good for banging your head against in frustration.
Do you know how to build a snowman? Me neither. Had a chemistry practical today about rate laws and all that. Sodium thiosulfate and HCl. If you heat the sodium thiosulfate up to around 80 degrees Celsius it takes 3 seconds for massive amounts of sulphur to be produced. Chemistry quiz tomorrow. It should be easy. I should probably be revising for that. Anyway goodbye.
I also managed to take away 15 ml of 2.0M HCl solution. I have no idea what I'll use it for. Probably an emergency. Can 2.0M HCl do anything?

19/1/14

Not much happened for astronomy on Friday, we just learnt how to set up the astronomical camera thingy. We should be having pizza next Friday. Whoopee. I wonder which year 1s are joining. Anyway they're also sending us for the Singapore Astronomical Olympiad in March, which isn't too far away so I should start revising.
Got new earphones. I have no idea what they do but the bass is nice and they fit in my ear nicely and the sound is good as well.
Urgh need to prepare my math file for tomorrow. I do not want to write a 500 word essay about not bringing it. But at least I finished the tutorial. Whew. There's a chemistry practical tomorrow about rate laws and that sort of stuff. It should be easy.

15/1/14

And this is one of those days where I think about all the homework due tomorrow, and the one thing that comes to mind is "F***."

12/1/14

So I've started playing Minecraft again. THERE GOES ALL THE TIME FOR MY HOMEWORK. At least I've finished chinese and the rest. Although I still need to draw that table for the economics worksheet. What exactly is home economics anyway? From what I've seen it appears to teach you how to cook. Not very economicy. They should just teach you about the economics of houses and groceries. That might fit the title better. Anyway elective modules start soon so I can't wait to see how my modules are.

I should probably be revising chemistry. Oh well anyway goodbye unless I think of something interesting to put here.

10/1/14

CCA fair was alright.
It's interesting that Ann's younger sister is taller than her. I suppose this is another case of "Pei Hui" syndrome.
Not quite sure who will join astronomy, but as long as they're good learners and don't cause too much trouble it probably doesn't matter. And now me have 2 separate biology modules. One is advanced cell biology and the other one is evolutionary biology. Which uses Cornell notes. And Cornel is a type of ceramic maker thingy company. The spelling is different. I guess it probably makes revision easier.
It's only the 2nd week of the new year, so homework hasn't really accumulated yet.However I do have economics, chinese, math and some other stuff due on Monday, which isn't a very good thing. I'll just have to stop using the computer too much. And use my phone instead. Ok that sounded a bit silly. Nevermind.
And everyone says that they year 1s tuck in their shirt. They don't. Funny. But I'm alright with being the only person that does that. Now I understand I do like staring down everyone else and I have no idea why. It seems a bit weird. Actually I think I just want people to talk more to me. But then and again most of the time whenever me and my classmates communicate it's often with a lot of insults as well. I seem to be getting tired of that. But it is a bit funny but there's this pain in my chest and it flares up whenever I laugh/cough. So I've been keeping a bit quiet lately. Not sure if anyone's noticed. What's with Sean and Bianca/Hannah anyway. It's not that I don't approve. But anyway I don't watch anime. Not quite sure why. Or maybe it's because I just googled the anime and I know the ending. Or I can extrapolate from what has happened in the 13th episode. Ah whatever why can't the British make their own animated stuff actually I'd still prefer Doctor Who. I might be suffering from a lack of coffee and a need for sleep. That should be a game.

8/1/14

At biomedical training right now. It's a little bit sleepy. Almost finished decorating the notice board. It looks cool. PE tomorrow. I hope the teacher is alright. Anyway I forgot what I'm supposed to put here. Unicorns are fluffy.

I actually forgot what I was going to put here. Bugger.

6/1/14

Chemistry quiz tomorrow. That escalated quickly. Had economics and math and chinese as well. Math teacher spent the entire lesson telling us how to behave and laying out the rules. He seems alright, though I wonder why my classmates say he looks like me. He doesn't, in case you were wondering. Module registration starts tomorrow. I want to try the Nobel module thingys. Economics just taught us about profits and revenues and marginal profits and that kind of stuff. Temperature checking tomorrow. I have been coughing so hard I'm hurting all over.
Everybody is either attacking or defending the student council on the confessions page. How interesting. Apparently there are quite a few people who think those in the student council are twats who want to have fun, and then there are those who are saying you can't expect everything of the student council, and there isn't really anyone suggesting any real improvements to orientation, which is what this debate is about. It would be much easier for everyone if orientation served to orientate the new students with the school and its workings, instead of having a slightly silly storyline, lame jokes, silly water games that acheive no real purpose other than getting everyone wet and walking around Singapore doing activities that are supposed to bring the class together even though a class party/outing probably does a better job and probably costs less as well.
CCA fair on Friday. Wonder who wants to join astronomy club. Funny thing is that it's got a lot of males and not too many females. At least not too many females that contribute substantially during competitions. Actually make that none. In fact, searching for women astronomers brings up only 140 results on Wikipedia, and the only one I actually remembered before doing the search was Caroline Herschel. I have Horrible Science to thank for that. There was also another woman astronomer who happened to be a monk and apparently died in a horrible way. I think her name was Hilda. I do suppose I should stop now. Bye.
Actually no. Module registration starts tomorrow. Oh wait I already wrote that. Oh well. Just reminding you. English, chemistry and math tomorrow. Whee. And I am required to redecorate the astronomy club notice board as well. And I'm with Pei Hui and Simrita for the economics project group thingymajig.

5/1/14

Orientation doesn't exactly orient the new students, does it? Perhaps a 2 hour mentoring session would be nice, as well as tours of the school facilities. Then lessons. Just the basics and what they should expect for the rest of the year. It'll help them build impressions of their subject teachers as well. So far I've realised the only thing past orientations have achieved is tell everyone that a house system exists in our school. And probably tell the new people where the toilets are. I might be generalising. Oh well.
Hi! My name is Joe! And I work in the butter factory! Actually I used to work there. I'm unemployed now. Stupid economy.
Anyway it seems many people want to join astronomy club, from what my friends tell me. But then they don't like the late hours. Whatever.

4/1/14

So anyway we had the campfire yesterday and it wasn't really that big. However, the sky was alright and you could see quite a bit. Didn't get too many people interested in that unfortunately. Biomedical training is alright, if you try not to fall asleep.
Get well soon Shumacher.
So anyway last year I went to Thailand. It was rather interesting. They had cashew nut factories and bees and the beaches were full of people but I didn't do any swimming so it didn't matter. Also, stargazing on the cruise ship was good. Unfortunately there's quite a lot of wind at night so it's hard to keep the binoculars steady. You'll need a tripod. The food on the cruise ship was alright. They had coffee and pancakes. And honey and marmalade. I like marmalade. It's cool. My room was quite small. The bathroom was even smaller so there wasn't a bath tub but at least there was hot water.
I have a really good idea for MRT train carriages. It involves a sloped floor and turnstiles. I still need to work on it. They'll probably never accept it though.

2/1/14

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Gong Xi Fa Cai (that might have been a bit too early). Anyway we had orientation today. The storyline is basically Blackbeard had 4 children (Yellowbeard, Bluebeard, Redbeard and Greenbeard), and they go on an adventure to find treasure. Yeah. That kind of stuff.

Anyway during the holidays I mostly played computer games, but I also went overseas to Malaysia and from there I took a cruise to Thailand and back again. It was alright. There were elephants and beaches.