well, today we went to school to surprise siaurui (: happy belated birthday! was great chilling out and talking over prata. wow, time flies...

just read the newspaper report, blackie was an engineer, 1 year into his job he decided to switch to teaching. he took charge of the nj squash and track team though that wasn't his core sport, but read up and took an interest in them...

ahh i don't know what else to say

it's blackie...

rest in peace

ahhhh the dragonboat incident...

(http://dragonboatplk.blogspot.com/)

deepest condolences to the families of:

20-year-old Chee Wei Cheng
24-year-old Jeremy Goh Tze Xiong
31-year-old Stephen Loh Soon Ann
23-year-old Reuben Kee En Rui
27-year-old Poh Boon San

"Those Who Live In The Hearts Of Others......Never Die"

I hope that's not blackie.

8393

wheeeeeee

adidas says there's an athlete inside everyone

how true. yesterday while queuing, was looking around the the people beside me. As usual, there were the big, black and manly guys, a couple of expats and the weekend warrior types. Then guess what? there were some ladies who look like they're in their 50s, some older people (who look like they're going to own me upside down during the marathon) and office workers (think shenton way executives).

quite exciting huh (: It's like some superman thing, where Clarke Kent hides in a telephone booth and 0.00001s later Superman appears. Everyone is powerful (:

ahhh i can't get past Baal in Diablo, i'm sure level 40 paladin still tio own.

wheeeeeeeee

i've waited 4 months, 1 more week won't kill. exciting!

mental toughness

wheeeeeeeee

today was race pack collection day, but overall i declare it orienteering day. champion orienteerer yo.

so it started at 7.30, where i got a lift from my dad to bus stop, took bus 14 to search for tower 5 of the old hdb hub in bukit merah. found it after some walking, talked to a nice grandma and the coffee shop auntie for directions, paid for the cpr course, then walk to tiong bahru mrt.

then to orchard wisma for dental, quite a cool dentist and assistant.

then to kallang. this is where the real adventure began. trekked around the place till i found stadium boulevard (thanks to a road sweeper aunties). SSC office was some weird thing lah, they just shifted into a new office, the receptionist directed me to a couch (huh?) then i met this guy who was the contractor of the new building (this is weird rite) and he took me straight into the office; we barged through (open lah) the glass doors and charged into the spots development group. the coordinator for NCAP was out! ggxx. but his colleagues managed to help me settle, then i casually asked her "so er... the public gets to come in like this?"

"No, not suppose to."

oops. anw the place quite cool, got pool tables and table soccer. looks more like a google-ish IT place. but one things that's quite sad, instead of a name tag on their tables, they have numbers. like sports development and management is SDM01, 02 and so on for their respective staff numbers. kinda weird rite.

ok, yay, then on to suntec. decided to chuck the street directory dad gave me into my bag, and walked towards the towering suntec buildings. then i realised it was a little tricky to cross all that expanse of kallang river, so went to find nicoll highway. piang, was imba hot, and imba far, so i decided to jog. in jeans and all. hahahahhaha

reached the marathon expo, wheeeeeeee, the queue was spilling OUT of the doors! how exciting! the helpers said min 2h wait. so i went for lunch (: read the ncap mental skills manual. interesting (: i can't wait for the course. tonight my bro hosting bbq at our house, i shall stay upstairs and read the main ncap manual.

the ncap course material is interesting.

"The mind cannot distinguish between an actual performance of a sport skill and one that is clearly imagined"

wheeeeeeeee

wheeeeeeee

another day at the office. got to do fun stuff... like more costing, write cheques and labour costs. cheques super fun, gives importance to the primary 1/2 lessons where you learn how to spell forty and ninety, and thousand! haha, got owned for that on the first surprise spelling in p2.

anw my nephew ( i sound old) did quite well for psle, he might just join the raffles family! haha, exciting (: and his 2 twin bros, who are 12 years younger than me, are starting primary one only next year. wow, primary school seems like a long long time ago.

yep, now that i'm free, (did i mention how much i love this 'it's my life' thing?), i shall go visit my teachers (:

tomorrow is a busy day, going to bukit merah, wisma, suntec, national stadium, maybe bukit timah and new balance warehouse.

right, mum showed me my phone bill, 20.2 minutes and 176 sms out of a free 150 minutes and 360 sms. wheeeeeee, shows i've been mugging hard (: hahahahhaha

1.5 weeks

wheeeeeeee

today was major chill out day (: played diablo, watched nickelodeon (: haha, luckily i went with dad to office, so the day turned out quite productive. actually i think working is fun (though probably 70% of the world would disagree). Yep, but there must a purpose, if not it does become boring. Usually i don't like doing the admin work, but this time it's different, cos we're chionging for a deadline, audit in 1.5 weeks.

1.5 weeks to marathon.. and 2 to prom! ahhhhhh

tomorrow is the start of mega intensive get fit(ter) plan, which goes against all expert's recommendations and professional advice. fun and exciting!

anyone up for some lifesaving (as in the course lah)

wheeeeee, i prefer writing out my application forms, handwriting ftw (:

hi friends, if you're interested to sign up for the heartsaver course (CPR certification) i can provide you the details. for a start it's $53.50 at Life Support Training Centre (part of SGH but nowhere near there). I'm attending the 6 Dec course, 3 more vacancies. But there are courses in January too.

Still about 75 vacancies left for NCAP level 1 (theory) course, go check out the SSC website if interested.

and rmb collect race pack this weekend (:

wheeeeeeeeee



woohoo watching the applet tracing the marathon route http://www.singaporemarathon.com/en/route/?sec=204&ssec=553

Will RGS be relocated to Bishan, nearer RJC?
Not in the forseeable future

exciting

wheeeeeeeee

this is super fun

i'm re-learning excel from the step by step book. Once i get through the next 300 pages, time to work something out for my dad (:

wheeeeeeeeee

sau said something super funny that day. "If you want to study physics mcq, just pia 24 hours, can do 24 years of tys!" haha, exciting

yay third floor is looking clean and nice. time to buy paint. the last time dad and me painted the house, we ran out of paint (and stopped somewhere before 3rd floor)

went for happy run today, 50 minutes! that's 9 minutes (15% improvement) off my record.

wheeeeeeee, i'm really enjoying this own time own target thing. hope everyone's having fun (:

back to more packing (:

today was exciting (:

btw yesterday i heard some strange noises in the kitchen, went to check it out, guess what? I saw a giant rat. exciting! we're trying to catch it but apparently it's too big to fit into the mouse trap.

got tired of diablo, in act 3 now, so did some spring cleaning. yep, spent the day rearranging plus cleaning third floor. woohoo i finally got down to cleaning my lego cabinet. 8 years++ of mould and dust. tried all sort of things to get it off, water, detergent, blutack... and guess what? hail the nail polish remover! it's super powerful (hm.. wonder what it does to your nails huh)

btw tip of the day: if you're storing your charts/posters, do not use rubber bands. When they melt=ggxx

yep, the last time i did a thorough spring cleaning was after a major exam. like psle. haha (:

going to crank up the gears on sunday afternoon (:

wheeeee, when my dad gets back from malaysia, happy hour time!

so after our 'last' paper today i stayed in school to do something very important. decided to be brave and just go to the pe dept and ask. yep, apparently no vacancies now, but i'm waiting for news (:

anw like what comrade says, thankfully geog is in the morning, another 3-4 hours of chionging wouldn't have helped much. haha, i like (:

life starts after A s? life continues (: i finished act 1 of diablo in around 3 hours, at valley of kings for act 2. wheeeeee, btw, my dad's really sporting, he played Command and Conquer that day, reflexes a bit slower than before, but his strategy was good (:

today doesn't feel real. haha, last econs paper forever! took the mrt back, the train was creepily empty. and the seats were cool, rafflesian green (: this morning was some mega too-much-time-to-kill, watched spongebob, fairly odd parents, and jimmy neutron. Spongebob was my favouritest episode! the lost episode of spongebob: the sponge who could fly (:

econs was nice, quite amazed that hwachong and anderson (i think) actually spotted the supermarket question. enjoyed writing my script (:

and guess what? tomorrow is our (almost) last paper, human geog. glad it's a morning paper. after that it's time for some real jogging (:

and also time to think about the future (: exciting!

wheeeeeeeeee

econs paper 2 is over! first 2 questions were mega weird, luckily it's a 6 choose 3 thing. exciting (: can't wait

3rd WC germany

physics today was a little weird, but it was still a good paper (:

just finished watching the germany championships races, quite sad, they broke up the janics-kovacs pairing, now they're rowing k1 (which they won all 3 races anw) Hungarians lost the K4 races, K2 they won one i think. The pairings/groupings for the hungarians all super different from their first world championship. The water strangely reminded me of bedok...

China and Japan put up a very strong showing, especially china, they got 2nd for some k2 race. South Korea was there too, how exciting (: more countries this time in the finals, there was venezuela, russia and ukraine just to mention a few.

yep, ok, few more days (:

favourite route

wheeeeeeeee

yesterday's run was so fun and exciting, i went for another one today! nice weather (: and guess what? I found the exit! prince george's park ftw (: thanks (: ran up that stretch of slope, yep, so this is officially my favourite route, took me 59 minutes

wheeeeeee, i've got big plans after As wrt running so won't get owned during marathon

turns out yesterday's route was only 7.5km, today's 7km (plus minus .5km), nice pace, so marathon in 6 hours= no sweat (: google earth (on my bro's com) is useful and i'll say much better at distance estimation than sg street directory. measured the distance manually on the street directory, it's closer to the google earth's estimate.

now to find a favourite 20km route. today was quite fun my bro went running too, he did 10 1km laps around our neighbourhood.

happy run (:

I saw a rainbow today (:

had a nice run ~10km in slightly over an hour, completed a loop from house to haw par villa, to the other side of NUS (near the nasi lemak/ cheese prata side), towards NUH, then back down the winding road. still couldn't find the exit from nus campus to kent ridge hall, shall make another attempt soon.

last few days of hardcore studying, come to think of it, physical geog owns all. Somehow the econs knowledge seems easier to absorb plus still can afford time to do practice questions for econs and human geog. btw i think study break/leave is a brilliant idea, i'm discovering alot of new stuff. what's that cheng yu, wen gu zhi xin is it?

wheeeee, few more days to go (:

the sky's no limit

The sky's no limit (:

wheeeeee, thanks pingni (: the article was really good. it's from some women's magazine but they have interviews with cool people. how exciting, this air force major used to take apart the radio, cassette player, and anything she could get her hands on when she was younger. wanted to be a pe teacher but signed on with saf. and guess what? you know whose photograph is on her table? her teddy bear! exciting!

went for a short run to celebrate maths, just 3 rounds to get the heart pumping. you know something is wrong when you feel breathless after 5 flights of stairs. haha, yea, something is really wrong, most people don't take the stairs anyway (: wheeeeeeee, studying=good for your heart, cos several weeks ago 2min 20s per round killed me, but today i easily ran 3 rounds under 6! then to the playground for a light 10! amazing how the human body works

fitness is an addiction. confirmed.

btw the huayu cool tagline this year "are you game?". and on another note, mr k tan is featured in the NSman magazine.

and the subaru champion lasted 77 hours, respect. (btw after the last guy fell out, 3 ladies were still standing)

anw the november national geog is especially interesting, there's an article about memory. how this woman can remember exactly what happened since she was 11, and how this guy can't remember anything at all. The memory storage parts of his brain got destroyed, so he only lives in the present, every day is really a brand new day to him. btw the human brain apparently has enough neurons to make sufficient connections to store all the written information in the world.

personal computer: 100billion bytes (that's 9 zeros)
library of congress print collection: 32 trillion bytes (12)
brain: up to 1000 trillion synapses

yep, and if you need to space out, try recalling your earliest memory. most people have/had childhood amnesia, so there's no memory before the age of 3 or 4.

hm.. when do babies start crawling? my earliest memory was watching my ah ma tend to my brother when he was still in some cot or something.

btw, saw the j1 guys' goals on the canoe board. all the best guys (:

yea, and on saturday my dad sent me a happy birthday sms with a cake, super happening. and my mum thinks i should go sign up for the subaru challenge, haha (this year too young, it started on 3rd!)

woohoo, nurture ftw!

let's see what happens after A levels, lots of exciting things to do. oh yarh, sau says i'm finally old enough to do fun stuff.... like run marathon! hahahahha

yep, i'm more or less (more lah) decided to take a year off next year. Going to make the best out of the time (it's almost 2 years come to think of it) and enjoy my independence. For starters, will be signing up for the cpr/first aid/lifesaving/kayaking courses, and the more exciting ncap level 1 (theory) coaching course. technical level 1 might be a bit tricky, since according to scf i have to be part of the national team, or an 'active school canoeist for 2 years'. there's always sea kayaking to start with plus the ASCA strength and conditioning course. we'll see how things go from there. like mrs deborah tan used to say, akan datang (wait and see)

hope to talk to people who will help me confirm my interest. but first, onward to maths paper 2!

wheeee

geog paper was good. really nice of ms law, mr lee and mr kamal to come and encourage us before the paper (: yep, first time i've mugged so hard for a paper (more than higher chinese)

went for a short run to celebrate, really short, 6 rounds. still can easily do 10, haha (:

clouds today were especially beautiful. must be the monsoon rains. looks like it's going to rain again soon

now time seems to be passing slowly (: savour the moment

an interesting comment from the GEP debate, 'nature sets the upper limit, nurture sets the lower limit'


hm.. how about nature sets the lower limit, nurture sets the upper? slight difference, but it's interesting to see it as a spectrum.

geog-ing time! this week's worth of exercise= physical geog

happy birthday (:

yay, i got 3 soft toys today, all pass (:

brother got me one orange and one red lobster toy, highly portable (: mum got me this big yellow smiley thingy, quite cool. dad bought dinner, and said 'go with your heart' interesting

luckily my brother forgot to get the cake. haha, don't like my birthday to be too formal (cake present card etc)

yep, geog is going well, never knew i had the capacity to remember all those facts. exciting! yep, been a great year, many more to come! yep, thanks for all the well wishes (:

now i'm officially 18, waiting for that big trip to temasek lagaar with dad. hahahah, happy hour yo!

wheeeeeeee

guess what day it is tomorrow?

wheeeeeeee

saturday lah

anw, today's maths paper was mostly doable, except the last question didn't really click. but it was a good paper overall, though like physics, they seem to focus on the 'smaller' stuff and give simpler questions for the big topics.

but who knows, the coming papers might be killers. then again, exciting!

wheeeeeee, thanks for the cake (: the cake didn't stand a chance, 2.5minutes (:

Is Singapore in a Golden Age?

Is Singapore in a Golden Age?

"A golden age is a period in a field of endeavour where great tasks were accomplished." -Wikipedia

According to the World Economic Forum, Singapore is now ranked 7th globally for competitiveness. The corporate tax rate will be reduced to 18% in 2008, just above Hong Kong's 16.5%. The Economist has hailed its education system, which consistently produce world-beaters in the Mathematics and Science rankings. Several weeks ago, US based Foreign Policy named Singapore as the most globalised country in the world, ahead of US, Switzerland and many others. That gave the comment, "Singapore is a developed country growing at a developing country's rate" GDP growth will be a sizzling 7-8 percent this year. Inflation hit an all time high of 2.7%, spurred by the property market boom, rising oil prices topping US$94 a barrel and worldwide increase in the prices of staples such as wheat and sugar.

It might be unusual for a small country to appear in the headlines, but that is precisely what Singapore is doing. Apart from the Singapore Airlines clearly stamping its mark as the industry leader with the first Airbus A380 flight, the largest plane ever to take to the skies, Singapore is also the world's leader in offshore marine engineering. The oil rig building sector is booming, with a US$0.6billion oil rig sold last year, followed by another recent S$1.7 billion sale to Petrobras, a Brazil-based company. Fueled by the 'hot' property market and the construction of the integrated resorts cum casino slated to open in 2009, the construction industry is at its peak. Salaries across the board have risen, and it is reported that crane operators can earn up to $8000, a fat paycheck, considering the average fresh graduate's pay is $2500. Not to be left behind by private sector pay rises is the civil service, which has also increased the salaries and pay packages to attract top talent.

1 in 5 residents in Singapore is a foreigner and this proportion is set to rise as Singapore continues to welcome foreign talent, both in part to tap on their expertise, and also to sustain a sizeable workforce as the ageing population problem, exacerbated by the low total fertility rate of 1.3children per woman, is tackled. With 4.5 million people on a small 700 square kilometres of land, working out to a population density of over 6000 people per square kilometre, one might think that this would perhaps be the limit of population size. Nonetheless, city planning for 2020 projects a population of 7-8million people.

It would be logical to assume that as the income gap, measured by the Gini coefficient, widens, the poor would inevitably be left behind. This is perhaps true as surveys reveal the bottom 30% of households actually saw their real income drop despite the favourable economic climate. Hence, in an attempt to reverse the downward trend, measures such as the Workfare bonus and the Goods and Services Tax offset package which will alone cost the government $5billion over 5 years, are implemented. Nonetheless, the pragmatism of the Singapore government dissuades any welfare system, instead encouraging the less well off citizens to work to improve their standard of living. Instead, various retraining schemes by the Workforce Development Agency and skills upgrading such as the recent courses introduced to develop the precision engineering sector are offered. For workers facing structural unemployment, computer courses at the local community centres and vocational training at the Institute of Technical Education are subsidised by the government.

Still, employment is flourishingly in Singapore, as the country makes a full comeback from the 1997 Asian economic crisis. Confirming this is the announcement that Singapore is officially at full employment. The jobless rate was a mere 1.7%, below the 2% figure benchmarked as the full employment level. The services sector contributed most to the job creation, as Singapore seeks to diversify its economy from the electronics industry, which was revealed as one of the most vulnerable sectors during the US sub-prime mortgage problem. This momentum will be sustained by new jobs in the tourism industry and the growing biomedical and pharmaceutical sectors, which recently received a US$1 billion boost from Novartis, a pharmaceutical company and other grants from the government, such as a recent S$6million to fund local entrepreneurship and innovation in the field. Biomedical research in Singapore is concentrated in the Biopolis, Science Parks I, II and III and One-north in the Buona Vista rea.

As Singapore explores new areas of specialisation, investment from foreign companies is set to help these infant industries take-off. Norwegian Renewable Energy Corporation picked Singapore out of 200 other locations for its US$6.3billion solar cell manufacturing plant. This ties in with Singapore's push to develop alternative energy sources. Households have not bore the full brunt of rising crude oil prices as most of the power plants are fired by natural gas from Indonesia. Maintaining diplomatic ties with its neighbours and other countries from afar is crucial to the survival of this island state. Singapore is an open economy, hence as more countries liberalise trade, it would largely be to Singapore's benefits. Hence, Singapore has signed 13 free trade agreements and other pacts with numerous countries in a bid to boost trade and relations. Most recent is the push for an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) charter to formalise the group.

The city is brimming with excitement as a slew of new developments take place. Apart from the renowned Esplanade Arts and Cultural centre, the Singapore Flyer will take its first ride in early 2008. Adding to the hype around the Marina Bay area is the staging of the Formula One grand prix night race next year. Other happenings surrounding the central city area include the construction of the Sports Hub to be ready in 2011, which will encompass an indoor Olympic size swimming pool, a new National Stadium, an Indoor Stadium, a multi-purpose sporting arena and a water sports centre.

On to other sporting events, Singapore currently plays host to the city leg of the Greatest Race on Earth, a series of 4 marathons. Just only in September, the Aviva Ironman 70.3, the first of its kind in Asia, was held here. Furthermore, the country has entered its bid for the 2010 Youth Olympics, if successful would place Singapore prominently on the sporting world map, and will be hosting the 27th Southeast Asian Games in 2013.

Indeed, Singapore at this stage looks exactly like what it set out to be in its National Day 2007 slogan, 'city of possibilities'. However, one must not forget the lesser mentioned obstacles its people overcame. What Singapore has today is not by luck or sheer coincidence; its people have sought to push the frontiers. It might be archaic to mention, but the endeavours of our forefathers in building this nation have clearly formed the solid foundation for the country's continual progress. It is thus up to the present generation of Singaporeans and soon-to-be Singaporeans from abroad to share a common vision and take the city, all 7-8 million inhabitants, towards a better future....

therefore, it is up to all of us to do our part and study hard for A levels! hahhahahaha

if you're reading this, please tag/leave a comment, whether i've gotten the facts and figures jumbled, or if you think the phrasing and paragraphing could be improved (: GP's over btw, just doing this for fun

maths tomorrow (: like what spongebob would say, "I'm ready!"