Online Idea Repository

It’s the last day of the first week of school after September holidays. Time really flies! The problem is that my revision doesn’t.

I think that I should be spending less time online and more time on my studies. All my classmates have already started revising (even yensoon!). I hope that I’ll not do as badly as I did during the Mid Year Examinations (C C E O C5 B4). Hoping to get at least A B C C B4 B4.

I’ll be off now. See you after promos! Good luck in your revision!

Status: Blogging
Mood: Irritated

I had to type this again due to computer failure. How curious - this has never happened to me before.

Today during PE I decided to play volleyball instead of my usual game of mini-tennis. I had hoped that this will break the monotony of playing mini-tennis as I have done so over the past few weeks. I managed to achieve this by waiting for all the tennis rackets to be taken before joining the rest of those who, like me, failed to obtain one. So we moved to the basketball court to play volleyball.

We started off just hitting the ball to each other without any particular aim. When the ball came to me, I grabbed it, tossed it up into the air, primed my knuckles and sent the ball straight up into the air. What I didn’t realise - until it was too late - was that the ball I had propelled into the air went so high up and so close to the high fence that bordered the basketball courts of the school that it was almost sitting on the fence. Then to my utmost HORROR it decided that life was better outside school (with less people bashing it around, no doubt) and careened into the canal which ran parallel to half the school like a moat.

With my heart in my throat, I bolted out of the back gate of the school, in time to catch a glimpse of the ball as it bounced off the walls of the canal and finally settled, floating in the murky waters of the narrow channel in the centre. Luckily, the canal was not full with water at that time.

As some students gathered around to watch, I made sure that the teachers were busy with the other students before jumping into the canal. I landed on both feet on dry canal ground on the right side of the channel of water, nearer to the school. Ignoring the pain as it shot up my legs like fire, I reached down for the ball and flung it up to the closest student. I had earlier planned my way out of the canal and made full use of the holes in the walls as makeshift handholds and footholds.

After all that excitement, I carried on with the volleyball game, but before that I made sure that my moss-green hands were scrubbed clean in the toilet.

Compared to the events earlier on, the rest of my day were peaceful and monotonous. How did I ever wished in the first place that school would start again? I missed the holidays already. Isn’t this real life irony?

Status: Getting ready for school
Mood: Elated

Finally, school is about to start once again! I had not done much revision for the past week and I’m hoping that the pressure of a new school term and the ever approaching first day of examinations will spur me to greater heights of discipline and motivation.

Gone are the days of sleeping late and movies! Time to start work.

Movies watched this week: A Cinderella Story, Garfield, The Terminal

Status: Digesting dinner
Mood: Happy

Turned out that today’s gathering with my friends was to celebrate my birthday! I could not make it on the actual date but nevertheless they invited me out for lunch and to watch a movie. We met at Cineleisure at Orchard, had lunch at KFC, then went to the cinema on the fifth floor to watch The Terminal.

The Terminal is a movie about a man who got stranded in the airport of New York City due to a war in his home country, which removed his legal right to enter the United States. With no way of returning safely to his home country and no rights, he had to stay in the airport. During his stay, many problems arose due to his inability to understand English, limited funds, airport security and staff. But he had since overcome these problems and learnt to speak English through books from the bookstore at the airport, obtained money by helping to build parts of the airport under construction, gained the trust and approval of the airport staff and also the friendship of a frequent flyer which eventually blossomed into love. Despite being constantly observed through cameras by the head of security, he manages to steer clear of the traps which the head of security sets in order to arrest him for breaking the law. He finally managed to fulfill his purpose of coming to New York City and obtained a signature from a jazz player for his late father, who had been a fan of jazz. Having fulfilled that purpose, he returns to a post-war home.

The themes of this movie include the value of friendship, the will to fulfill one’s purpose and the idea of destiny. This movie has touched me deeply and I have come to hold dear the friendships and other things which I had previously taken for granted. Though this movie had many points at which there was cause for laughter, it serves only as a sweetener for the bleaker points of the movie: the bitterness of war, the unfufilled hopes of people, the constant fear of aliens in a foreign country and lovers destined to be apart due to their differences.

I would say that I enjoyed myself tremendously today and as I return to the monotony of everyday life, I hope that one day, my purpose will be attained too.

Have you achieved your purpose?

Status: Blogging
Mood: …

Finally I can get to blog again! Something was wrong with Blogger these past few days… can’t publish my blog… Keep getting a timeout error. Anyway nothing really interesting happened these past few days. Just idling around at home doing nothing but occasional studying. How I miss the hectic school day!

I’m looking forward to my gathering with old friends at 1300 at Somerset MRT later. Have to rush now, see you later

Status: Idling
Mood: Bored

Today I did absolutely nothing.

Status: Staring at the computer screen
Mood: Detached

1000 - 1100: Further Mathematics Line A lecture (forgot to bring my notes)
1115 - 1225: Further Mathematics Line B lecture (extended time)

The start of the September Holidays means that the Promotional Examinations are closer than ever. Suddenly released from the pressure of a normal school day, I no longer feel the urge to study. Is this good or bad? Guess I’ll find out soon enough.

I watched Garfield with my family today. It proved to be a show suitable for all ages. The computer animation, special effects, plot, music, actors, animals, settings and audience made the whole movie experience truly enjoyable. Sitting in the theatre, one could watch a fat, lazy and sarcastic ginger cat prowling around his home, basically causing trouble and talking way too much for a cat who was also supposed to be lazy. This is one of those movies like Homeward Bound, in which almost all the animals know how to speak in fluent English. During the show, the exaggerated antics of Garfield never failed to induce a sudden peal of undistilled laughter from the youthful audience. Garfield charmed the general audience with body language, wowed the children with eye candy and amused the educated with witty comments. Funny moments during the show were when Garfield caused an avalance in his master’s house through the Domino Effect and was kicked out of his home, Garfield being chased by a pack of dogs from a dog show; Garfield discovered climbing a skyscraper through the ventilation pipes and being flushed out; Garfield almost causing a massive simultaneous collision of a terminal full of trains, among other things. I believe that the theme of this movie is about love and friendship. It is about the love which compels people to care about those who they hold dear to their hearts. It reflects the worrying one undergoes when a loved one is in jeopardy. This movie is a refreshing contrast to the bleak movie Collateral which I watched not too long ago. It brings hope to a world which is much deprived of love and too caught up with violence. As more people turn to violence as a source of entertainment, hopefully a handful of us will instead choose to adore rather than to admonish others.

As I look back at my accompishments these past eight weeks, I feel that I have not been stretched to my fullest potential. Hopefully, I will learn to prioritise my actions in the days ahead and weather the coming storm with confidence and wisdom.

Thank you once again for reading this.

Status: Reading
Mood: Neutral

Today is an uneventful, boring day. I woke up late, did some work, reformatted my computer, watched television programmes, ate lunch and dinner.

The only remarkable thing which happened today was that I managed to remove MySearchNow from Internet Explorer. The adware program added a search toolbar and a footer advertisement to my home page. I used a software called Hijack This to get rid of the irritating thing.

To you, I thank you for listening to my grievances. Hope to hear from you through the flooble chatterbox on the right.

Have a good night!

Status: Reading
Mood: Hyper

Today was a really good day! Everything had gone smoothly and I had little to worry about. Everything was under control.

0900 - 0945: Further Mathematics Line A Re-Test
1030 - 1200: Computing lesson (Data Representation)
1245 - 1700: Visit to the National University of Singapore (Mathematics Exhibition)

The highlight of the school day was the visit to NUS. I got to visit my dream faculty in my dream school. Isn’t that great? I felt joy for the first time in many weeks.

During the pre-tour lecture at NUS, I got to learn about Mathematics in Modern Society. The speaker was Associate Professor Goh Say Song, Department of Mathematics, National University of Singapore. The outline of the lecture is an introduction, followed by careers in Mathematics, applications of Mathematics, wavelets in image and video compression and the Department of Mathematics in NUS.

During the introduction, I learnt that the reasons for studying Mathematics are that it is the “foundation and language of scientific reasoning”; it “trains our analytical skill and logical reasoning”; it has many “applications in sciences, technologies, engineering, computing, economics” etc. Mathematics has been applied in movies such as Good Will Hunting and A Beautiful Mind. It has also been applied in novels such as The Da Vinci Code and Digital Fortress.

There are many careers in Mathematics. Contrary to popular myth that “a degree in Mathematics can only lead to a teaching career”, “a degree in Mathematics can lead to many possible careers”. Some of these careers include:
- Operations Research Analyst
- Financial Analyst/Planner
- Systems Analyst
- Software Engineer
- Computer Programmer
- Educator
- Mathematician
- Administrator

An Operations Research Analyst deals with problems on strategy, scheduling and inventory control. He or she uses mathematical models to help large organisations to operate efficiently. Some examples of these organisations include SIA and PSA.

Financial Analysts study financial trends and apply mathematical instruments to financial analysis. They can be found in banks, insurance companies, etc.

A Systems Analyst handles the processing, analysis and communication of digital information, using mathematical methods for efficient representation of digital information and computer security.

Next, applications in Mathematics include:
- Making movies come alive
- Listening to music
- Deciphering DNA
- Experimenting with the heart
- Defeating disease
- Designing aircraft
- Securing Internet communication
- Storing fingerprints
- etc

The mathematicians at NUS have been working on a project to develop an image and video compression technology termed wavelets. This technology is an improvement on available technology such as JPEG, GIF and other image compression standards and also MPEG2, MPEG4, DIVX and other video compression methods. It allows parts of the image or frame of video to be of a higher quality than the rest of the media to save disk space. These parts are termed as frame-of-interest and region-of-interest. I discovered that the technology allowed video to be compressed to a much smaller size (on average 100 times smaller) and somehow still retain 75% of its original quality, whereas technologies like MPEG2 retains only 50% of the original quality with a greater file size. This has great potential as people can now email home videos and photographs to their loved ones without having to worry about disk space constraints.

The lecture concluded with an introduction to the Department of Mathematics in NUS. The Department of Mathematics is split into Pure Mathematics and Applied Mathematics. Under Pure Mathematics, available subjects include algebra, analysis, geometry, probability and other “traditional” topics. Under Applied Mathematics, the subjects available include coding theory, cryptography, computational biology, financial mathematics, mathematical physics, operations research, wavelets and many more. The academic programmes offered include B.Sc./B.Sc. (Hons) in Mathematics/Applied Mathematics/Computational Finance and M.Sc./Ph.D in Mathematics (woah!).

After the lecture, we were led into the Department of Mathematics building where many exhibitions were held in computer labs. We were shown how wavelet technology works, how mathematics can be applied to everyday problems such as the most efficient route to take for mail delivery, how to design the most productive assembly line, mathematics used to discover n-dimensional space etc.

After the visit, our class decided there and then to have a class outing to have dinner at Plaza Singapura. We went there by taking a bus to Buona Vista MRT Station and taking the MRT to Dhoby Ghaut MRT Station. Once there, we decided to have our meal at Burger King. I had a wonderful time with my classmates while we travelled, discussing about the things we learnt during the visit and conjecturing our very own theories. At Burger King, I satiated my hunger with a Whopper and a small Coca-Cola.

After dinner, I went with some of my classmates to Bishan Junction 8 to watch a movie entitled A Cinderella Story. It was a nice show which reflects a lot of the original story but with an urban twist. Instead of losing the glass slipper, Cinderella lost her mobile phone. Small discrepancies aside, I feel that the true focus of this movie lies in the overall theme of standing up for one’s independence and choosing one’s way of life. I think that this is especially pertinent to Singaporean youth as I feel that young people like me are not making decisions for themselves but instead choose to follow the wishes and decisions of grown-ups. This might be a stereotypical view, but it certainly applies to myself, hence please do not be offended if you do not agree with my opinion.

A day of excitement ends. May the days ahead be filled with hope and endless surprises. Thank you for enduring through this, you are a great listener (reader) indeed.

Status: Reading
Mood: Guilty

Today is the last day of school Term 3! At last I get to rest for one whole week before having to go to school once again.

A lot happened in school today.

0740 - 0840: Further Mathematics Line B lecture (Linear Transformation)
0840 - 0940: Further Mathematics Line A tutorial (refer to next paragraph)
0940 - 1010: Break (Completed and handed up Computing tutorial)
1010 - 1110: General Paper lecture (Negative side of Science)
1110 - 1210: Further Mathematics Line B tutorial
1210 - 1240: Break
1240 - 1410: General Paper tutorial (went through Comprehension)
1410 - 1510: Project Work tutorial
1510 - 1640: Computing lecture (Data Representation)

During FMA tutorial today, our teacher was so angry with us that she went out of the class midway through the lesson. I was shocked that our teacher, always so calm and in control of her classes, had become so frustrated with us. I felt very, very guilty for all the times that I had disappointed her with my bad conduct. I strive from now onwards to work hard and do us proud.

Hope that tomorrow will be a better day…