when all is said and done

well i've got my results and they're more than pleasing, so i'm.... well... pleased.

also, i've finally finished my piano. i can't believe i'll never have to play a single scale or arpeggio ever again... unless i want to, of course.

just got back from penang. celebrated ah ma's eightieth birthday. twas fun, yes. nick and sara came down from the UK to celebrate it with us. FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN

now, i'm one day away from starting at HELP, and a few months away from aussie. HERE I COMEEEEE :)

Cleaning out my closet (literally)

GOOD BYE, ADD MATHS!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHA

and i'll never have to memorize geography case studies ever again.... ARGHHH.

i'll miss tectonics.

Literature Schmiterature

The very volatile love affair between me and Literature is in great jeopardy, thanks to the evil plot of Cambridge International Examinations.

Thanks, CIE. Thanks a bunch.

First of all, the Mockingbird questions. Now, why on earth would we want to dissect such a mundane passage (in my opinion, of course)? Why couldn't you have given us the court trial scene? Or how about the fire? Rabid dog?

Okay, i will admit that it was tons better than that idiotic Ms Maudie passage from the past papers, but SERIOUSLY. All i could do was comment on the pathetic nature of Bob Ewell in contrast to Atticus' "Gao Da Wei Meng" type personality. Okay not exactly Gao Da Wei Meng, but somewhere along there. He OWNED.

Bob Ewell... Ah, the poor man. His efforts to show off his spitting prowess certainly backfired. And as for Atticus, "he could be right dry sometimes".

NARRATIVE PERSPECTIVE. Thanks to Mr Beattie's constant "hammering", i actually bothered to include some "elements of narrative perspective". i talked about how initially Scout was just scared and worried for Atticus' safety, but in hindsight learns to appreciate the way he "forgave" Mr Ewell. Harper Lee almost manipulates the reader into feeling sorry for Bob Ewell having his "last shred of credibility" destroyed by the triumphant Atticus, despite how much the reader may loathe Mr Ewell.

Furthermore, i included some points about how the build-up of character in previous events and chapters had led up to this climatic display of attitude; Bob Ewell shows how DOH-BRAIN he is, and Atticus shows how diplomatic and composed he is. Examiners, i hope you like little chinese girls who write essays like these.

And i didn't even TRY to write the Scout essay. Erm... V-A-G-U-E!!!!!!!! TO DA MAX.



And..... we have As You Like It. Drama is always an interesting text to study because it's different. The passage question was just calling me to write it, while the essay question was simply a female dog. "Optimistic" and "happy"????? Well if it's not, that what is it??? I didn't even want to delve into the whole curmudgeonly nature of Jaques and the bawdy humour of Touchstone.... let alone the conflicts of the Forest of Arden.... EURGH. Passage question, thank you. Thank you for being tolerable.

DRAMATIC QUALITIES. Sorry Mr Beattie... I don't think i was able to include your favourite Drama element... Perhaps i should've looked into the way it was performed more. However, i DID talk about their excited tone which causes the audience to become excited too... so that's kind of dramatic qualitites, isn't it?

Court v.s. Country - I am very proud of myself that i managed to squeeze some of this nonsense into my essay.... actually, it formed quite a large proportion of my whole AYLI essay. Good stuff!



Now, the life ruiner... POETRY. Okay, don't get me wrong, i absolutely LOVE poetry. It's easy to write about, easy to analyze... Now here is where i get really worked up about the exam. Thanks to the A2 Literature gang, who have 15 minutes less than i do to write their essays, i assumed that the count down timer applied to me as well as them.

after finishing my second essay, i looked up at the timer only to find that i had "26 minutes left"!!! (When in actual fact i really had about 40 minutes before end of exam) I freaked out. I rushed my last essay without planning, i wrote it on the spot, my pen scribbled whatever came to my head. every essay skill that i had honed over the past 2 years immediately flew out of the window. just like that.

then when the timer sounded, i stopped writing. for some reason, everyone else around me continued to write. i was puzzled, oh yes, i was.

then the horrible truth came crashing down on me.
YOU STILL HAVE FIFTEEN MINUTES LEFT YOU EEJIT!!!!!


oh dear. WAS i mad.

So yeah. That's the big mishap, the big mess-up.
AND HOPEFULLY, THAT WON'T BE WHAT COSTS ME MY A* IN ENGLISH LITERATURE BECAUSE I FRIGGING DESERVE IT, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

a lovely discovery

i now know how to calculate matrices.

if:
AB=X
then B=A^(-1)X

but if:
BA=X
then B=XA^(-1)

so the inverse matrix follows the order of the original matrix!!!

AWESOME!

THANKS PETRA!
THANKS LOK YONG!
THANKS HUI LINN!
THANKS MUM!
THANKS WAI LIMN!

the woes of Additional Mathematics

DARN RADIAN AND DEGREES!
DARNIT!
DARN HAVING TO SWITCH IN BETWEEN MODES!!!!!

those little [R] and [D] symbols have begun to wreck my life into a pile of ruin. DARN THOSE RADIANS AND DEGREES!!!!! DARN PI!!!!!!!

essay.

come on, my lovely words.
flow
i beg you.

i know i don't see you
as often as i probably should.

why the coldness?
why the cruel refusal to
fill my mind?

my hands shake
and bright dots
form before my eyes
signs of this new madness.

please.

please appear.

returning to my mushroom amidst the stress

Tomorrow, I have Geography Paper 4. A rather useless paper, if you ask me, because obviously everyone is going to do super well on the "joke" Paper 5 and won't even need to look at Paper 4. Anyhow, no matter how much I try to shrug my shoulders and act like I don't care about it, I HAAAVE to at least try to study for it. I just must do a past paper, just to be on the safe side.

Geography is fun. You get to learn cool words like "wetted perimeter" and "rainshadow" and "quadrat" and "transect" and "demographic transition model" and "situ" and "attrition" and "hygrometer" and other various lingo. Sometimes, I want to do Geography just to be able to use these words in my everyday life.

"Oh yes, yes indeed, it's those darn agribusinesses that make our lives so difficult. If only they could just be nomadic farmers and be satisfied with that."

"No, it's not just desertification that's a problem. It's also the overcultivation and soil exhaustion. My, my. Those people don't know how to live sustainably."

"Haha! What a fantastic swash! This long-shore drift sure gets your adrenaline pumping! And the prevailing winds seem to be having a fine time this morning."

So yes. And I should probably be getting back to my work right now. I can't wait to write my literature essays. I'm really going to miss it when I'm in college.