Back from Malaysia

I went on a short holiday to Malaysia with my parents. We drove up to Kuala Lumpur from Singapore, the journey took about 4 hours including occassional toilet stops and meal breaks.

Malaysia can take pride in the North-South highway. I must say that the highway is well maintained and it gives drivers access to all the towns in the west of Malaysia (e.g. Malacca, Muar, Ayer Hitam, Kuala Lumpur, Seremban). I dream of the day when cars are driverless and can go at speeds of 300km/h which allow us to travel domestically in Malaysia faster. Even the KL airport is about an hour drive from the KL city because the airport is built in a remote area, away from the busy capital of Malaysia.

I visited relatives in Malaysia and savoured the delicious food there. I love their prawn noodles, wan tan mee, char kway teow and all the local delicacies. My relative brought us to a restaurant which is famous for its crab. It serves cheese crab, chilli crab, marmite crab, salted egg crab (signature dish) and ketchup crab. We ate the cheese, marmite and salted egg ones. I love the cheese crab - the thick cheese sauce complementing the fragrant smell of the crab made me drool.
It's the first time I ate so many types of crab dishes in one dinner.

The next great thing about Malaysia is the shopping. There's a shopping centre named One Utama which is alongside Bandar Utama Road. The shopping centre is so huge that we took more than 2 hours to cover the the first of the 4 storeys that make up the building. There're many shops there that you can really shop till you drop. You'll never find such big shopping centres in Singapore, never.

Malaysia's Putrajaya has also developed drastically. It's where all the government offices are located. It shows how cities in Malaysia will look like in the future. The street lamps are beautiful, the building structures are well designed and the bridges look like the miniature size of the golden gate bridge in San Francisco. It definitely left me a very good impression.

I didnt take pictures of the scenery in Malaysia though. I'm going to New Zealand soon, I'll take pictures and share it with you guys.

Happy Holidays everyone! :)

O Levels: Aftermath

The O levels was finally over 2 days ago. I spent the last two days playing my heart out. I spent my time doing a format on my computer, playing Half-Life 2, and all other games I've always wanted to play but the O levels deterred me from doing so. I also played basketball, went jogging and I'm thinking of going swimming today with my brother.

Come to think of it, the school holidays for the Sec 4s entering JC is so, so short! The -official- date of the end of the O levels is on 23 November. JC starts on 2 January 2005. That's only about ONE month of break. Students wanting to work have to think twice, foreign students wanting to return home for a long period may have to shorten their trip, and most of all, students who do not want to attend the first 3 months or want to enter Poly have a much longer break of 4 months! Booo!

I'm just being unlucky to be Sec 4 this year as the first 3 months crap will be scrapped by the MOE for the next batch of Sec 4 students the following year, wtf! I wonder why MOE even started this 3 months crap, they are crap.

I'll be spending only about 2 weeks in Singapore during the holidays as I'll be enjoying myself in other countries, away from the crap life of Singapore, Hurray!
Other than that, I'm looking forward to the chalet when I return from my trip. :D

I guess I can end this post on a happy note, especially when the O levels is FINALLY over! :)

Countdown timer expiring...

The countdown timer to the end of the O levels is expiring in less than 20 hours.
Soon, it'll be the end of my Secondary school life. Chemistry, being the last paper, is also the toughest subject to me.
I hope I'll do well for the exams on the whole, else my four years in secondary school will all be down the drain.
I'll have to go catch some sleep and prepare for the *final* exam paper tomorrow.

Good luck guys! :)

Error in O lvl Pure Bio paper

It has been confirmed by the Ministry of Education, Singapore that there was an error in the pure Biology O levels exam paper.
The question had a graph which showed the relation between light intensity and the diameter of the pupil of a human eye. Apparently, the graph was drawn incorrectly with the pupil of the eye becoming larger as the light intensity increases, instead of the pupil becoming smaller as the light intensity increases.
I wonder what Cambridge is going to do about this, but I don't think it'll make much impact as questions related to the graph constitutes only 5 marks out of the entire paper. I'd probably look to Cambridge striking out the question and converting the marks back to 100%. I hope their mathematical calculation won't go wrong too. :P

Halfway through the O Levels

It has finally reached the halfway mark of the O levels, with the language papers, and paper 1 of the Mathematics paper over and done with.
Comments? The Social Studies paper is quite tough, especially the source-based questions. I think I'm not good at answering source-based questions, thats why I don't take History :D
The Maths papers were alright, made quite a number of careless mistakes which may eventually cost me a grade. But what's done is done, no point regretting.
For Chinese, I think I'll get a B3 again. I didn't drill hard on the Chinese vocabulary, thus I only got 2 out of 5 vocabulary questions correct. Thats 6 marks gone. I'll lose marks in the zhao ju, and comprehesion sections too.

There're still the 3 science papers to go, plus paper 2 of E and A Maths... There's still a long way to go...*looking at the countdown timer above*

How smart are you?

> > Let's see how smart you are.........
> >
> > There is a mute who wants to buy a toothbrush.
> > By imitating the action of brushing one's teeth, he successfully
expresses
> > himself to the shopkeeper
> > and the purchase is done.
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> > Now if there is a blind man who wishes to buy a pair of sunglasses, how
> > should he express himself?
> > Think about it first before reading the answer...
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> > He just has to open his mouth and ask, so simple.
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> > If you got that wrong please - do not pass go, do not breed, just go
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> > a hole and hide.
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> > Below are four (4) questions.
> > You have to answer them instantly.
> > You can't take your time, answer all of them immediately. OK?
> > Let's find out just how clever you really are.
> >
> > Ready? GO!!! (scroll down)
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> > First Question:
> > You are participating in a race.
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> > Answer: If you answered that you are first, then you are absolutely
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> > If you overtake the second person and you take his place, you are
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> > Try not to screw up in the next question.
> > To answer the second question, don't take as much time as you took for
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> > If you overtake the last person, then you are...?
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> > Tell me, how can you overtake the LAST person?!
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> > You're not very good at this are you?
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> > Third Question:
> > Very tricky math! Note: This must be done in your head only.
> > Do NOT use paper and pencil or a calculator. Try it.
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> > Take 1000 and add 40 to it.
> > Now add another 1000.
> > Now add 30. Add another 1000.
> > Now add 20.
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> > Did you get 5000? Very good! You are "officially" STUPID now!
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> > The correct answer is actually 4100.
> > Don't believe it? Check with your calculator!
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> > Today is definitely not your day.
> > Maybe you will get the last question right?
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> > Mary's father has five daughters: 1. Nana 2. Nene 3. Nini 4. Nono.
> > What is the name of the fifth daughter?
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> > NO! Of course not. Her name is Mary. (Read the
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> > So-------How'd ya do?