Personal Statement

Luckily, Jiaxin just reminded me just now that tomorrow is the day that I must hand up my personal statement. I have the misconception that the personal statement is handed up at 26th of August 2005 but instead, it is handed up on 26th of July 2005. So, I am pondering, ruminating and cogitating now about my contributions to my college. Hmmm, actually not a lot. So now, I have to write down my three strongest qualities or which best describe me.

Civic Mindedness/Social Consciousness
I have participated some community work when I have the free time. One of memorable projects that I have participated is the Service Learning Project. My participation in this project reflects my most strongly held values and I really know myself much better. I was assigned to be the In Charge (IC) of a group known as Spidey with my friend. So, we had the responsibility to look after 8-11 years old kids that were in our group and to liven up the spirit within the group. It was a certainly a tough job although it may seem easy because I must have the stamina. In the first day when the project commenced, I felt that I tend to be paranoid about the kids safety as I was very concerned. I told them to stay put together and if some of them were going to the toilet, I would be following so as to ensure their safety. During lunch, if there were some spare time, the kids were playing soccer in the mini field and I would be watching closely at them so as to ensure their safety. Much energy is spent on running around, chasing after naughty kids during the three days of the project. During free time, I also had to play with them and talked about the things that they liked about. One boy called Nicholas told me that he like playing Role Playing Games such as Red Faction and about controlling an aeroplane to obliterate the enemies. It was fun talking to him as I got to know him better. I also talked to some other kids in my group about their interests and encouraged them to bond together and be united. This is one way of allowing them to communicate more among themselves and to the ICs.

Perseverance and Determination
The days of doing community work were certainly memorable as I had learnt and acquired new knowledge. I also participated in Kampung Senang Charity Performance last year in Kallang Theatre. I had to learnt sign language which I had not learnt before. The teacher called Joyce taught the sign language class very passionately. She had opened the doors into letting me view the beauty of sign language. Although sign language was rather difficult to learn, the passion of Joyce in sign language spurs my interests towards sign language. After the first session, my classmates and I attempted to communicate with each other using sign language. We laughed together as we saw ourselves making hand actions for the first time. I had to learn the sign language in order to perform the charity show. I would spend some time during my December holidays just to familiarise with the newly learnt sign language. Later, I was assigned to the umbrella group. So, the whole sign language group and the umbrella group need to coordinate with the movements to perform. My classmates and I practised every Saturday night for about 2 - 3 hours just to familiarise with the constant changes to the formation. At times, I really frustrated about the constant changes to the formation but high morale of the group and the incessant encouraging words from the coach and Joyce push me further to persevere and to be more tenacious.

Adaptability and Flexibility
A time when I had to be more flexible than usual will be the period when my friends and I were assigned to organise the formations of the March Pass and to recruit manpower and settle the logistics for it. Two months before the Track and Field Meet, my friends and I were cracking our brains to brainstorm the formations of the March Pass. So I started to stay in school longer due to meetings with my friends to discuss about the formations of the March Pass. When the Track and Field is approaching, we stayed in school up till half past 8 in the night for every three days or so. I had to be more flexible and manage my time well during a period of three weeks before the Track and Field Meet. There were many changes to the formations of the March Pass and the logistics. Initially, we propose to use helium filled balloons but later abolished the idea because of the constraints that my friends and I encountered which is cost. So, we change our plan to use flags as adornments to make the March Pass Ceremony more grand.

Z Pop Concert

Today is a fun filled day yet and a tiring day and yet a sad day for me. This day is a day when I am experiencing many different emotions. In the afternoon, while I was on my journey to City Hall, I was boarding bus 147 to Victoria Street. In the bus, there were many acts of kindness as the youngsters and the middle aged people give up their seats to the elderly. First, when the bus arrives Upper Serangoon Road, I witnessed a middle aged woman giving up her seat to another old lady carrying a walking stick. That really made me happy. I was feeling happy at that time because it was a rare moment to witness such acts of kindness in a bus. When the bus approached Bendemeer Road, another middle aged woman was giving up her seat to another old lady who was walking unsteadily. The third act of kindness occurs when the bus was reaching Serangoon Central, another middle aged woman was giving up her seat to an old man. Three acts of kindness were displayed and I had seen them all in the bus 147 while I was going to City Hall. :)
Upon arriving City Hall, Diana, her cousin, and I went to the new National Library in Victoria Street. Upon arriving there, I was full of anxiety about tremendous amount of books located there and the wonderful and nice facilities being well installed in the newly opened National Library which opened yesterday. However, upon arriving there, I was astounded by the one rule in the library that we were not allowed to bring bags into the library. Maybe, the security guards were tightening their security as bags might contain bombs. Another thing that I felt strongly was that in lvl 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 of the library, there were no books. The books were situated at lvl 7 or above. So, in order to browse those wonderful books in the National Library, we had to use the escalator to go to lvl 7. Besides that, the books in lvl 7-11, the books were not for loan. They were only reference books. Sigh!!! Besides, the topics were very specific for each level. At level 7, the books were all about history of countries and in lvl 8, the books were all about business management. So, the books there were not really suitable for me to read for the moment. Furthermore, when I browsed one of the books there, that book entitled "History of the Middle East" gives a overview about the Middle Eastern countries. It talked about the many different aspects of life in the Middle Eastern countries. It talked about the society, economy, geography and politics in the Middle East. By the way, the things that the books were written were at the villagers level. The contents were very detailed and I think that those books were very suitable for research on the Middle Eastern countries.
After visiting the National Library, we went to Mac to have a rest and to eat. After eating for about fifteen minutes, we went to Suntec City Convention Centre to watch the Z pop concert. The concert was an eye opener as this was the pioneer time that I was going to a concert at such a massive scale with mayn famous singers such as JJ Lim Jun Jie, Tanya, Celest and many more famous singers. Basically, I found out that sitting down on the floor could be quite tiring as my feet were getting numb as I sat on the floor, cross legged, for a few hours. I witnessed the idea of image coming in when the celebrities were dressed up in a certain way that really depicted a certain personality. First impression is really important as in the case of the superstars as they need to be popular with the masses and having a good first impression certainly enhances their popularity. The climax was at 9 pm when JJ Lim Jun Jie finally appeared before us, attracting swarms of crowds, especially ladies and I could tell you that he was really talented. Firstly, he could sing well. Secondly, he could play piano and sing at the same time and thirdly, he could play the piano and his mouth at the same time. The term here "playing his mouth" refers to using one's mouth to create rhytms and beats. For JJ, he used his mouth to produce fast moving beats and rhytms that were indeed good. I loved his beats and rhytms and they made me feel like shaking my body.
After the Z Pop Concert, I went home by taking a bus and so I went to the bus stop just outside Suntec. However, the roads were still closed due to NDP so there were no buses plying on the road. So I walked to another bus stop. Then after standing at the bus stop a few minutes, two tourists were approaching me to ask for directions because they were lost due to bus diversions. But then, actually I was not really sure of the temproary routes that the buses take. So, actually, there were two ways. The first way is to take bus 111 to Stamford Road and take bus 147, 166, to their hotel. However, I didn't really know on how to explain which stop to alight because they were tourists and they were not really familiar with the places in Simgapore. The second way is to take the MRT and then transfer a bus to their hotel. However, the walking part to the MRT was really far from the bus stop where I was standing. So, I feel really sad for being unable to help them.
I have told this incident to Diana and I am grateful to her for consoling me and making me feel more relaxed. I believe that time can heal my wounds and my disturbance.

Class mood dull

For the past few days without Ben, there is fewer laughter in class from the Vanessa and Joanne gang. Yeah!!! The whole calss mood is a bit dull. Since Monday, life without Ben is like coffee without sugar. There is no sweetness and laughter in the class. Throughout the days in school, I am appalled to hear people asking me questions why I am so happy and why I am always smiling. Perhaps, I am practising the things that are advocated in the book about winning friends and influencing people. I don't know whether to behave in this way because this way of behaving is obviously very childish. However, many people including Miss Ong which is my secondary school p.e. teacher say that I look very young, like a 15 year old boy rather than a 17 year old. So, this is one of the image I present to others, as a boy rather than a man. Therefore, by right, I should act like a boy. Yesterday was a very memorable day. I have successful teased Katie and Ronnie. Doro comments that wordscan really sting other people. In the process, it brought laughter to the whole gang. I can finally sort of revitalise the mood before Ben was hospitialised in the gang to make them happy. However, that lasted for a very short time but within my heart, I felt a great sense of satisfaction. I felt that I had done something "great". Besides, yesterday's chess competition was a great success. The whole of group of the chess organisers had put down the heavy burden on them. Phew!!! For the recent few days, Alvin and I are passionately talking about games, about Trash. This game Trash is not a bad game. In fact, it is quite a cool game an trash are basically building blocks in the game. How I wish that in reality, this concept applies. Then, trash can be used as a resource rather than being treated as a waste. So everyone, please help whatever you can to save the environment.

Trip to East Coast Park to revise

For these few days, I am on a studying mood since all my teachers are pressurising us to study now to be prepared for A levels. Yesterday, I went to the Mac in Serangoon for revision with my friends. I had managed to finish my HCJC Prelims Paper and my Maths Mock paper. Woah!! After spending so much time doing these papers with many errors here and there, I finally completed the paper. In the night, I revised some of the topics studied in JC1 but in the end, I went to my dreamland.
For today, it is a sunday and my family was supposed to visit my grandma at her house. However, my grandpa called early in the morning just to inform us that my dad didn't need to visit my grandma as she was ill and it was raining. So, I was cooped in my home for the whole morning. In the afternoon, I went to East Coast Park to study and revise my JC1 topics. I was taking bus 76 all the way to Marine Parade and maybe because the bus driver was blur, the bus was going at a wrong route and upon realising it, he made one whole round at Geylang Road and Sims Avenue. Luckily, I managed to reach my destination. The wind was blowing continuously while I was looking intently at the physics textbooks. I finally revised ideal gases, superposition, waves. I still have a lot of topics to go.

Ben landed in hospital.

I just received this bad news today that Ben had injured himself and had been hospitialised. I felt a tinge oif sadness and worry within me. Actually, the whole class is very worried about me. At first, many of us are shocked upon hearing this dreadful news happening to our close friend. Ya, so today almost the whole class went to the hospital to visit Ben. When I looked at his face, he seemed to look touched and grateful that the whole class was visiting him. At the same time, he seemed to be in intense pain but he just tried to endure the pain in his fractured right leg. This is the first major accident that has struck one of my close friends. It sure impacts me greatly and makes me view life as very precious. I suddenly have this imagination of myself having an accident and landing myself on the hospital bed, my mum and dad will be very worried and my classmates will too be worried. I tend to be pessimistic but nevertheless, I wish to pay a tribute to all my organs in my body that thanks for being dilgent and hardworking workers. The whole body functions because none of the organs have stopped their operations. It may seem ridiculous but in fact, we are actually the brain and the rest of the organs are just our friends. These friends are really the best because they work for you without pay and they work incessantly from day to night and from night to day. These are the many things that I have learnt.

I have encountered a problem regarding more on my friend. One of my friends which I shall not state the name is the cause of the dilemma within me. Firstly, in the morning today, he asked me whether I wanted to attend physical education classes with him because since another of my friend had landed himslef in the hospital and other classmates including me didn't need to attend pe, for today, he was the only one that needed to attend pe lessons. So, he just wanted a person to accompany him to attend pe lessons. So he asked me whether I wanted to go with him to pe lessons later. I was quite fickle minded but I had clearly indicated a no in my answer. So in the end, he went home without attending pe lessons. The issue here is whether I have made a right decision just now. I have decided not to ask my friends because they have bias views against him and thus they will pass negative remarks about him. So, I had decided to tell this incident to my parents. My parents listened intently to me narrating the incident and about the probelm encountered. What they replied was almost what I had expected. They replied that my decision was correct, and besides, I should be more firm in making decisions. And they said that if I encounter a friend that liked to stick to others, I better stay away from him. These are answers from them. They are still whirling in my thoughts while I am thinking whether my decision is correct, fair and just to myself and to him.

Exam results

Exams are over and this week, I will be knowing my exam results. School went on as usual. During this period of time, I continued to play a little bit just to relax myself for the A levels. I have to admit that for this mid year exam, I did not put in much efforts. It was just that I put in some hours for practice. By the way, I have already known the results of my 3 subjects. I scored 76 marks for maths, 67 marks for my chem and 77 marks for my physics. So, I have only gp left. Sigh!! I think that I will do very badly for the paper.
For the past few days, let me recall what I am been doing. I have been playing Disciples 2 undead campaign and one good news is that I have already completed my undead campiagn. Woot!! I was very happy. Now, one of my goals is to complete the legions of the damned campaign which my brother has not completed. But for now, I play Heroes III as I certainly miss the fun turn based strategy gaming.
For this week, I will be teaching my students this Thursday. I have not completed my lecture notes on mole concept. I am starting to worry now. Besides, I have not finished with maths tutorial about continuous random variables. Sigh!!! My work is piling like a mountain but luckily I have done my gp homework about the failure of the Cancun summit. I took about 2 hours to complete the whole thing. What a waste of my time but nevertheless, I have learnt some things from this incident although I am not very familiar with it.

Exams over

Although it may seem a little bit too late to pen down my thoughts about the fact that my mid year exams are now over as it has ended last Thursday, I will still write down my feelings about it. First feeling or emotion that I have is the sense of intense relief as I won't have to study for a period of time. I can spend my time on other areas such as recovering my health and cough and playing games and to pursue my passion. Coincidentally, these few days are holidays and they act as long breaks for me to recover my helath.
Last Thursday, I had my tuition with my students. This time, I was more confident than the previous lesson probably because of the fact that I was more prepared and I had known them better during my first lesson. I had finished the topic about the particulate nature oif matter. I intend to give them a lesson on ionic and covalent compounds but later, I revised with them about mole concept since they had mini tests about mole concepts tomorrow. I hoped that they would have studied or revised a little about the test and recalled what I have said.
During these few days, I had watched movies and played some LAN games. On Saturday, I played LAN games with my friends which is Dota Allstars. It is a quite a new game and it has attracted a lot of people who are fans of Warcraft III. It really tests on one's speed and accuracy and also strategy. Based on my performance on last Saturday, I had one conclusion and that is I scored 0 points for all three categories. Congratulations for me scoring the lowest point overall. I think that games are tools that enhance our minds, to be quick and flexible and most importantly to think. However, constant patronising the Cybercafe certainly costs me a bomb. My expenses really shot up and hence I have decided not to go today.
Besides, on that day, I also went with my friends to watch a movie entitled "War of the Worlds". Initially, the story really allured me to watch it. It really criticised about man being complacent because of the fact that they think that they are the best race on Earth until one day, when aliens attempted to invade the Earth. These aliens also are very intelligent according to the movies. They have buried high technology robots long ago deep below the Earth and on one day, when there are dark and grey clouds hovering the big sky. People thought that they were just normal and ordinary clouds signifying that rain was coming. Actually, when thunder stuck, one could hear large sound seemingly the sound of electricity rather than the sound of thunder. One special point about the clouds was that the lightning always struck at one place. This is the first step to mankind's destruction as aliens travelled via the lightning to the robots deep underground. After that, there was an immense earthquake and the robots just came out from underground and started shooting the innocents. Many people died as shown in the movie while numerous buildings were damaged. Tom Cruise played the role of a father and he had been entrusted the responsibility to take care of his son and daughter. The first part was quite good as the movie mentioned about the father not having a good relationship with his son and his daughter would have asthma attack if she was frightened. For the middle part of the movie, it showed how the escape of the these three persons. The story was really realistic and good. The feelings displayed by the actors and actresses seem to be so real that a disaster has happened on a very large scale. The three of them were fleeing for their lives. In the movie, it had also shown the fact that man is selfish. However, for the last part, it had ended quite abuptly and I think that something is missing. For full details, watch the movie "War of the World".

Computer changed from Windows XP to Windows NT

My computer windows version has changed from Windows XP to Windows NT as there is a trial period for Windows XP. My uncle had volunteered to come to my house, to spend his time and trouble just to help and render assistance to me in my computer because the activation period for Windows Xp is going to cease. So, in the end, we spent the whole afternoon doing computer and IT stuffs.
Yesterday, I had my gp common test. For paper 1, the essay questions are quite difficult and I pondered in thoughts for the whole of yesterday about my essay. I felt that I should have attempted qn 2 which is about no one daring to be different. This is a very difficult question to attempt as I felt a loss of words at that time when I was writing my essay. Paper 2 is fine except that I feared that my summary and AQ was badly done.
For today, just now, I had my maths common test. The test questions were quite okay with me although there were some parts of the questions that I couldn't do. Many of my classmates were commenting that the test was quite difficult and I agreed to them for some questions. I hope that tomorrow's chemistry test will not be a torturing paper for me to do.

Busy day

I had a busy day. I woke up early in the morning at quarter to seven. My father was the earliest to be woken up yesterday. After that, I brushed my teeth and washed my face to prepare for this sort of wonderful day. I ate some bread coated with nutella and the bread tasted delicious. What a good thing to start my day.
Following that, my father gave us a lift to AMK MRT station as my mother, my little brother and I were going to my auntie's house to witness a wedding ceremony taking place. We reached there at around 8 plus. MY little brother and I chatted with my cousins and we watched tv shows while waiting for the bride to come.
At around 10 plus, the bride came and we all crept into one of the rooms in my auntie's house. Another auntie which is my mother's sister came into our room that we all crept in and shared the tales of what was happening when the groom Davis which is my cousin arrived at the bride's house. What I could describe was that the obstacles were numerous and were impeding and hampering the path to marriage. Besides, they were not very easy to be overcome. Davis had to eat biscuits with wasabi on it. That needed a lot of water to cool him down. After that, I heard from my auntie that he had to use a skipping rope and skipped 200 times. Wow, that's a feat.
So, the buffet commenced after the bride came and both the groom and the bride served tea to the elders.
Later, we rushed back home just to prepare for the night because at the same night, we had a wedding dinner. The place was at Raffles Hotel and that was my first time exploring that place and coming into this place which is quite special. We arrived at half past 5 to witness the signing of the marriage certificate as a committment to both parties and after that, we toured around the place. This place had lots of shops and the toilets were indeed special. When I entered the toilets for the first time in Raffles Hotel and used its tap, I attempted to use when I was using taps in my school and shopping centres. However, I pressed as hard as I could but no water came out. I examined the tap feeling puzzled until my cousin told me about the correct way to switch on the tap.
We arrived at the ballroom at half past seven. As all of us had nothing to do, I began to chat about games with my cousins about games as games are our common interests. Time really just flew by when we were happily chatting. The wedding dinner commenced at half past eight. Wow's that was early. The groom Davis and the bride Jaslin walked onto the red carpet, bringing a smile on their face, seemingly having tremendous amount of joy of being the main characters of this occasion. The wedding dinner ended at eleven o'clock.

Revision

For the past few days, I spent hours revising my chemistry. I attempt very hard to finish all my revisions and attempt a few questions in the chemistry Ten years Series. However, I cannot really grasp the concept in Reaction Kinetics, about the order of reaction and so on. Oh No!!!! I have this feeling that time is running out and I don't have the attention span to read the books for 3 to 4 hours in one shot.
For today, I just came back from the tutition centre. I saw how my friend Eng Choon taught. His way of teaching was very different from mine. He was very confident and he told the class about many of the expoeriences that he had. That took about 15 minutes. He was talking about the importance of studying, about how studying brightened the future. For me, I just try to do my best to explain the concepts to them about chemistry. Chemistry to me is a very interesting subject to learn.

Finished revising maths

Yesterday, I finally sort of finished revising my maths. I have done like 90% of the questions assigned to me to do in preparation of the maths common test. Phew!!! Now, I have two more subjects for me to revise and a gp essay to write. For yesterday, I spent most of the time studying at home until the late afternoon when Kun Jian called. I went out with him and together with two of my other friends Mee Siang and Jia Xin to Hougang Plaza to play LAN. We play Warcraft III Frozen Throne. I have not played or touched this game before so I don't have absolute experience in playing this game.
We play two matches. In the first match, I anyhow choose a hero with the ability known as lifestealer. I train it to have a ability of rage which I think is the best and poison sting and speed. After fighting around in the map, my hero keep dying. Agggh!!! Mee Siang and Jia Xin levelled up very fast to level 14 or something while I was still at level 10.
For the second match, Mee Siang helped me to choose another hero which was known as the Skeleton King. I train it to have a ability of magical bolt which can deal 300 damage and it could stun opponents for 2 seconds, rage, critical hit and vampiric aura. I feel that the vampiric aura is quite powerful as the skeleton king could heal itself when nearby allies were fighting against th enemies. Besides, I used the magical bolt whenever I saw Jiaxing's hero and Kun Jian's hero now. When they were stunned, my hero went over and fought with him. There was once that Kun Jian's hero was trapped by me and my allies. Therefore, I managed to obtain a kill. Phew!!! That was my first kill. I feel so happy after playing LAN with them although it costs $2.70.
I feel that life must be fun and boring at the same time. Fun as it, I must learn to relax and have fun. When I was playing LAN, time seemed to run past me quickly without me noticing it. I had fun especially during the second match when I had better idea of controlling the hero.

Grandparents going to China

Just now, my father and I went to the Changi Airport to see my grandparents of to China. Besides, I was hoping to look what Changi Airport looked like in the morning. There was quite a number of people at arounf half past 7 in the morning in the departure hall in Changi Airport. Many relatives or friends were there to see their relatives going offto overseas. As people were entering into the departure gates, friends and relatives waved their hands vigorously and the kids were smiling happily. There were long queues in the counters in the departure hall. At there then I knew that my grandparents were being accompanied by our relatives whom I did not know to Beijing. They were boarding CA 958 plane. Before entering the departure gate, the kids belonging to my relatives were catching cat and mice game. They chased after each other and having a lot of fun.

So, by now, they have already boarded the plane and on their way to Beijing. One thing I recalled was that my grandpa was talking to my uncle and then he asked whether that daughter belonging to my uncle was a girl. Then, everyone started to giggle including myself.

So, for the holidays, I have only this week left for me to buck up in my studies. I feel very fatigue and tired and exhausted and bored about all this studying. Besides, the fear of me making numerous careless mistakes keep lingering in my mind. That indeed makes me stressed.

Brave

Sigh!!! My little sister and my little brother made a huge din in the afternoon which made me so annoyed and irritated that I scolded both of them. That is one thing that I had done on impluse. I was unable to control myself and things started to spill out of my mouth. Luckily, I plucked up the courage and attempted to explain to my brother of my rationale of shouting at them. My little brother seemed to fathom what I was saying. Phew!!! I was very glad to hear that.
In the afternoon, I went to the park to study and revise my work. I had only done about three maths questions in around a hour and a half. Doing maths questions is a waste of time but it is a practice and it can reinforce my maths concepts although I had made quite a couple of careless mistakes. In these few days, I must really work very hard and stop slacking and relaxing but at the same time, try to overcome the fear within me by plucking a lot of courage to speak up and create a din.

A "Professional" Teacher

Yesterday was indeed a bad day for me. However, that bad day gave me a lot of learning points and experience. When I reached there with Eng Choon accompanying me, I felt nervous. Even when I was teaching, I felt nervous with eyes staring at me. First things first, when I reached there, my former P.E . teacher called Miss Yvonne Ong last time told me that my dress was inappropiate. Ok, I wear a T-Shirt with Daffy Duck in front of the shirt and shorts. Miss Ong said that I should have worn long pants and a T-shirt with a collar.
I have this misconception that I was going to have peer tutoring with the students. Actually, I should be behaving like a teacher. For yesterday's lesson, the students were all girls. They were quite nice and kind to me. They listened attentively while I was teaching them chemistry. Besides, for yesterday, I was not prepared for the lesson because I did not prepare any lecture notes before the lesson. Sigh!!! I should have prepared some notes for them to refer to. I think that this will be quite a good experience for me because I have learnt that being a teacher is actually not easy. A teacher has to do lots of preparations before coming for class. He or she has to plan what she is going to teach in the class. I will try to overcome the nervous in me and I believe that for the next lesson, I will be more confident in the class as chemistry is one of my favourite subject. It is very fun.

Me giving tution?

Yesterday, Eng Choon had called me on about whether I was willing to spare my time in giving tuition to the 6 secondary 3 students in kovan. I would be teaching chemistry. I accepted this offer because I thought that one day, I also would have to work. I have to get some experience from working and this is one way that I can do it. Initially, I felt nervous at the thought of giving a lecture to 6 students. Suddenly, there are so many "what ifs" in my mind. What if I cannot teach them well? What if I cannot crap lame jokes? What if they are bored at my lecture? However, for now, I have started to calm down and plan for my 2 hrs lecture.
In the first 15 mins, I will be like introducing myself and ask them their names and their interests to chemistry. In the next 30 minutes, I will be teaching or rather revising with them on the topic on the particles nature of matter. I will be asking them about the things that they have known. After that, there will be a short break of about 5 minutes.
Later, I will be like giving them homework to do for the next 45 minutes. I hope that the plan goe well and the tuition goes on smoothly.
Regarding to my mom's sickness, she has improved quite a fair bit although for now, she still has cough. Now, three family members in my family has cough. Sigh!!!!

Mom is sick

Yesterday, Mom is sick and she is down with a cough and a fever. She really looked frail yesterday as she had dizzy spells and her body temperature. Since I am the eldest in the house, I need to take the initative to take care of the younger ones. In the morning yesterday, my mo went to look for a doctor while I took care of my little brother and sister. My little sister also wanted to accompany my mom to the doctor. However, my mom was sick and thus she was unable to take care of her while she was going to the doctor. Therefore, I had to insist that she stayed at home. This resulted to her crying.
It is very hard to humor someone. I try all means to pacify my sister by trying to play with her and trying to read books with her which she liked doing most. It was really a hard time. After that, I taught her some fundmentals in badminton and she ceased crying. Phew!!! I felt really relieved and satisfied with myself for being able to pacify her.
For that day, I try to help my mom as much as I can. I try to help her in doing the housework and in cooking by helping her to handle the wok. So yesterday, it was my first time to cut the apple into slices which I don't previously been doing. I tried my very best but in the end, I was like digging holes in the apples instead of removing the seeds in the apple and cutting them into slices. Sigh!!! Perhaps I should have learnt to do more housework and learn to know how to cut apples.
I have to constantly like accompany with my sster since my mom is sick. She may look annoying but she is quite smart. Although she is only 4 years old, I treat her as 9 year old kid, being able to listen to instructions and being a bit hyperactive. So, I apply the skills that I have learnt in my SLP, about talking to her level and being patient with her. Woot!! The skills that I have learnt in SLP has so many applications in the real world. It has really benefited me. I have learnt much more than what I have contributed.

Visit by my auntie

On Saturday 11th of June 2005, my auntie and my cousin visit my house. We have a morning breakfast at blk 151 coffee shop. It is quite a happy gathering as my cousins and I chat about computer games and schoolwork while my aunt and my mom chat about current affairs and gossip about er u know things that they are interested in.
After that, my cousins and I went to my home and the first thing that all of us did is to surround the computer and use it to play computer games. All of us took turns to play the computer. All of us were enjoying the fun as we watched intently on the person on the hotseat, utilising his tactics to win a match. Besides that, we also watched some movie clips which were quite funny and lame. Although I had watched them before, watching them again still made me laugh and made me feel totally relaxed.
At around 10 plus, Yilin called me whether or not I would be going to shiqi's house to celebrate Rui Xian's birthday. I have to apologise that I cannot go as I have to take the responsibility to take good care of my cousins as they are the guests. Nevertheless, I wish Rui Xian a happy birthday an a good year ahead of her.
We have our lunch at around 2 plus in the afternoon. I ruminated why the lunch was a bit later than usual. After our lunch, it was back to computer games and gunshots were heard in my room as one of my cousins John, was playing the game entitled "Red Faction". He was playing online and was fighting against other online players.
At around 4 plus in the afternoon, all of us except my little brother Jun Wen went to the badminton court to play badminton. My little sister insists on going with us to play badminton. I was attempting to dissuade her from going with us as she is still young and besides, she doesn't know about playing badminton but in the end, my efforts were futile. In addition to playing badminton, we also played a bit soccer among ourselves in the mini soccer court near my house. I thoroughly enjoyed the outdoor activities because I think that I had felt bored being cooped up in my house and another reason for my jubliance is that I am able to make my cousins happy. Usually, one of my cousins called Germaine and her younger brother John have conflicts with each other and their brother Ian and me have to be peacemakers to ease the conflicts between them. John likes to win as scores does matter to him. Ian and I try to find reasons to make the game seem fair so that he won't feel angry or disappointed. I have learnt some things from their visit and the things that I have learnt are from SLP. SLP really makes me a different person.

Raffles Cup Competition

I shall give a brief summary of what happened during my Raffles Cup Chess Competition in Raffles Junior College. The competition commences on Monday 6th of June 2005 to 10th of June 2005. For the first round, my team battles and combats against RJC team B and the whole team lost. For me, I guess that I lost due to the fact that my opponent had trapped one of my rooks and ensue in it being eaten up.

For the second round, my team battled against SRJC team A. For that match, I have made numerous wrong moves that result to my loss in that match. That match's duration was a bit short as I have attempted to make my moves fast but sigh!!!

For the third round, my team battled against SRJC team B. I was very happy that I have won in this match due to the carelessness of my opponent. He presented me with a free rook for me to capture. I looked and scrutinsed carefully whether that rook presented to me was a trap. I analyse for a very long time and I had discovered that it was a fake trap. So, I happily captured his rook. This was the first match and the only match that I had won. I had a bit of fear during this point in time.

For my fourth round, my team battled against JJC. That match was a walkover since my opponent did not come to the venue of the competition.

For my fifth round, my team battled against SAJC. That match was an exciting match although my starting was a bit not good. One of my rooks was captured because my opponent has successfully trapped it. I have tried my very best to catch up with him. I had ruminated ways of breaking his defence but unfortunately he had seen my ploy. In the end, I lost to him. However, I was very happy with this match as this was the first match that I had ever played without fear and nervousness.

For my sixth round, my team battled against CJC. That match was certainly a long one. I had only 2 remaining horses while my opponent had 1 cannon and 1 horse. In the end, it was a draw.

For my seventh round, I lost due to my carelessness. In the last few moves, I didn't expect that my opponent will move sort of kiddish moves and in the end, he uses his rook to kill my commander. One conclusion from this match, don't underestimate kiddish moves.

I feel that I can certainly do much better in the Raffles Cup Chess Competition if I am able to overcome fear. In the first few rounds, I played my rounds with fear clinging on me which had disrupted my rational thinking and hence ensue in me making wrong moves here and there. The power of fear is certainly great but I believe that I am confident of overcoming it.

Lastly, I wish to thank shiqi and seek fong for making a din in the class 28/04. I am very sceptical that the fuss that they have made are true and I caertainly hope that they are not true. Nevertheless, I wish to thank them for the fact that they have been making feel loved, encouraged. The power of love is certainly a tool to overcome my fear. Thanks shiqi and seek fong.

Things to overcome:
Fear of Losing
Fear of Failures
Fear of not doing a good job
Fear of being late for a certain events

There are still many things that I have to be done within myself. So see you again some day.

Reflection of the Second Service Learning Project

Basically, I feel that the discussion on the second day of second Service Learning Project strikes and impacts me the most. This is due to the fact that the discussion about certain things such as the debrief, about the kids feeling distracted during the debrief, about how many of us feel irritated during the debrief when the kids are not listening to us are frank. People like Alvin just expresses their views sincerely without leaving any things behind in his minds. The points raised in this discussion are good. The discussion benefited me by a lot because I am aware of what people may think and surprisingly, many of us have the same thinking about the second SLP, about it being not as interesting as the first SLP. Although I am not very involved in this SLP in June 2005 due to chess competitions, I have felt that the reflection today is very enriching or perhaps even more fruitful than any other reflections. I have learnt a lot from people such as Alvin and Diana as they share their vast experience and knowledge with us as a class 28/04. In my mind, I also feel the urge to share my experience and I guess many of us also share similar feelings and are eager to share but is stemmed by a word called "fear". The fear of offending other people and imposing your thinking onto others stems me from speaking up. I always feel that everyone has the freedom to do something and by imposing them through your views and the rules that you have set, you are like restricing the amount of freedom that they should have.
The next factor that stems me from speaking my mind is the lack of courage. The issue in the discussion is quite controversial and nothing is absolutely right. It is a matter of whether the argument is convincing. For me, I come from a simple background, only know about the improtance of saving. Money to us is very important because our household income is not very high. Thus, we have scrimp and save whenever we can. I understand and hence I do not request for a handphone even til now in year 2005. So, I am one of the "rare" species of people that does not own handphones at all. Only about 10 % of Singaporeans do not own handphones at all. Besides, my hobby that I have and the experiences that I have is absolutely unique. Itr is true that everyone's experiences are unique and special but for me, my experience that I have is absolutely unthinkable. I read Transitlink Bus Guides since I was in Primary 3 and I like fiddling with the pens, imaging that I was a bus captain, driving a bus to the destination. I fear that my classmates are not interested by my experience.
I think that I cannot overcome fear. The feeling of fear is very strong. This is evident when I was in Raffles Cup Chess Competition. I lose two rounds due to mycarelessness and partially due to fear. I try very hard to control the fear and stop myself from being pessimistic but in my mind, the images of losing keep flashing. The fear within me has disrupted my thinking and my common sense. What should I do to overcome fear?

SLP games today

Today is quite a nice day for me. I had SLP in the morning. Our whole class 28/04 played games such as relay, blindfold and spiderweb. The comments from my classmates is that I am really very thin. I think that I have heard this since I was in primary school. As usual, I remain slim and thin.

I feel that I am very slacked nowadays as Chin Kai just called me to ask me about a math question that he had doubt about. I suddenly feel stressed. Sigh!!!! Kiasuism is striking me again.