doggy94-in-air

Concluding 2011, looking forward to 2012 =)

2011-12-31T20:14:00.001-08:00

2011 was an eventful year indeed. I have conquered several challenges and obstacles in 2011.

I can still remember on 31st dec 2010, when everyone was busy counting down for 2011, I just managed to rush back home to countdown with my family. (Because that day I was still working in NTUC Fairprice as a cashier from 3pm to 11pm)

All these seems to be happening yesterday. Time really flies. I started 2011 with the admission to Anderson Junior College after O levels results released. Then, in February, AJC orientation helps me integrate into my new study environment. Just before the orientation, I also ended my 2 months of part time cashier experience. Although the amount earned per hour is not a lot, the experience as a cashier is the more valuable than the money earned. I have learnt how to operate point of sale (POS) machine, accurately counting money and also made a lot of new friends of all ages. It give me a taste of what service industry is like, which may prove to be beneficial in the future. I am also impressed with myself for being able to withstand the long working hours. (1 week work 6 days, each day work 7 hours)

February 2011 was also the time when the new JC1s choose our co-curriculum activities (CCA). It was surprising that I have gone to an aesthetics cca without any music background. I chose harmonica band since I hope to learn a musical instrument. I like listening to music. Thus, I thought that it will be awesome if I can play music myself, not just being a passive listener. After 10 months of learning the harmonica, starting from 0 without music background, until now becoming in love with music. Music can really made me relaxed. When I felt quite stresses over my studies, I will practice my harmonica. The sense of achievement of being able to play a new piece of music made me feel over the moon. Harmonica really made me more appreciate and enjoy music. =)

Talking about studies, the major thing will be conquering Project Work (PW). PW is really time consuming and requires teamwork and every group members commitment. The journey of PW is definitely not easy, especially for me as my English is not that good. I felt very carefree now when there is no more PW. =) I have been spending nights and nights dealing with PW. Really hope that our hard work pay off when the result released in late march 2012.

2011 also saw me completed A level Chinese. It is definitely much harder than O level Chinese. I also have to quickly adapt to the new format of exam that is different from O levels. There is no more news review in A levels, forcing me to switch to writing narrative. It is a challenge to me at the beginning since I 2 years never write Chinese narrative and have already lost touch of it. But I still persist on and pick up the skills required. In A level Chinese, there is also 30 marks allocated for textual understanding, which will came from 1 of the 10 texts that we studied in the course of the year. The sad thing is that most people in my school predicted the text to come out wrongly. Although I have prepared a bit for the text that came out, I still lost at least 8 marks in that section as I never focused to study on that text. I now just hope that I no need to take Chinese anymore by acing it after result release in early march 2012.

2011 is also the year when I start to take up Economics as a subject. Economics has been an inferior term for me since I have not taken this subject before. After learning economics, I understand better of how things work in the market and economy. It is also an interesting subject to learn and is very different from the conventional humanities subjects, like Geography and History. However, it is not easy to score in economics. It requires a lot of thinking in a limited time period. I hope that I will be able to improve myself in economics in 2012.

General paper is a challenge to me. Weak in command of English really cause me to suffer a lot in this subject. Moreover, I have been writing English narrative in my secondary school. This made me even harder adapt to Gp, where it requires argumentative essays. I have merely scraped pass this subject in 2011. I really hope that I will get a decent grade for Gp in A level 2012.

Physical fitness have been a problem for me too. I did not managed to pass NAPFA in 2011. I knew that I must get at least a silver in NAPFA in 2012. If not, I will go in army early. Thus, I hope that I will become proactive this year in pushing myself all the way to meet the requirements.

International service learning (ISL) 2011 is also a significant event of the year. It happens in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, from 27 nov 11 to 11 dec 11. The long 15 days trip really allow me to grow in terms of my character development. It made me appreciate what i have enjoyed in Singapore. I also learnt to be grateful to others. The trip really lift up to the school motto , through inculcate the spirit of service in us. The skills that I picked up in ISL are unable to be found in normal school lessons. Thus, I really treasure the experience as well as the friendship forged in the entire trip.

2011 is a fruitful year for me, making new friends in a new study environment. I hope that 2012 will be better. 2012 is also my A level year. I hope that I will be able to persist on to score with flying colours in this last major milestone before going to army, then to university.

Happy new year to all my friends and family members. =) Let's not count the days, but made the days count. =P

Crossing from 2011 to 2012

2011-12-31T19:00:00.001-08:00

Celebrate 3 years of my blogging experience

2011-12-30T07:53:00.001-08:00

I still can remember the time when I started this blog is from October 2008, after I finished my sec 2 end of year exam.

The blogging experience have certainly help me in recording down the memories and events that I went through. This will prove to be very beneficial ten years down the road, when I look back on these memories.

Blogging have also help me in some ways in improving my English language, which is my weakest subject for the past 11 years of my schooling life. It helps me in practicing forming grammatically correct sentence with correct sentence structure.

Moreover, blogging makes me improve my IT skills significantly. I learnt different formats of videos and photos that can be uploaded on blogger. I even tried to use free online converter to convert files to other formats.

Blogging also give me a platform to share my wonderful memories with others. Hope that I can sustain the interest to maintain the blog in the future, without neglecting my studies. =)

Bukit panjang LRT adventure

2011-12-30T07:38:00.001-08:00

Today is my 1st time taking the bukit panjang LRT. I was with my very very awesome friend, Guo Dong. It was an enjoyable journey, enabling me to see the night life of bukit panjang. More beneficial for me is that I can experience how my friend get to school every morning. =)

New iPhone experience

2011-12-29T00:09:00.001-08:00

I finally got my iPhone !!! =) I have been using it for the past 2 weeks and I really enjoy it. Although the Siri function may not be accurate sometimes, it is still fun to use it. It's been a long time since I last post. To be exact, it's close to 1 year that I haven't post anything on the blog. Hope that I will have free time to post in the future. (but I know this seldom happens due to busy school curriculum)

O Level Results Released

2011-01-16T20:08:00.000-08:00

The day finally arrived. It's 10 January 2011, at 2pm, when our destiny are decided. We came one by one into the school hall. Nervousness could be seen on our faces. All 5 Express classes and 2 Normal Academic classes settle down in the hall with a burning question circling inside our minds these few days. How did I do for the O Levels 2010? There is apparently no doubt that everybody are worrying about their future at that moment. For me, I was especially nervous for my English results since I usually got C5 or C6. I knew that if I wanted to get into much better JCs, I must get at least a B4 for my English.

After Mdm Tong (Our Vice-principal) go through with us the JAE process to apply to post-secondary institutes, she began announcing our school performance this year. Although our school results generally regressed from Express course L1B5 of 13.8 (2009) to 14.3 (2010), our school produced about 19 students with 7 or more distinctions (A1 or A2). Upon hearing that my name is called and shown on the screen that i emerged as 11th place of our school level ranking with 7 distinctions, I was overwhelmed and astonished. I still couldn't believe this when I received my results slip from our new principal, Mr Manan, on the stage. The feeling was great and awesome !!! I gotten a B3 for my English and 7 A1 for all other subjects I took. My L1R5 improved from 11 in school prelims to 8 now !!! With 2 CCA Bonus points, I have 6 points, good enough to qualify to my wish JC (Anderson JC) that I aimed for. It's a fantastic job well done for me. With these wonderful results, I ended my secondary school life with a high note !!!

For my success, I must express my gratitude towards all my teachers who taught me or in other ways help me and a big thank you to my family who never fail to give me all their support emotionally. Special thanks to Mdm Komathi and Mrs Lee EK for your patience in teaching me English (My worst subject) in sec 4 and thank you for your encouragement given to me. I never let you down. I have improved my English from a D7 in sec 4 mid-year to a B3 in O Level !!!

I must also thank all my friends who gave me their support as well as their help in improving my English. Even we may be posted to different schools, we will remain best friends forever !!! Let our friendship last forever !!!

'O' Level Finally Ended ...

2010-11-20T06:07:00.000-08:00

It's a long time since I last posted something on my blog. Finally, my 'O' Level Exam had ended. It seems that time flies unknowingly. Apparently, it was shocking to realise that I have studied in school for 10 years already!

It was wonderful to have completed my secondary school studies. It was even more wonderful to be able to know so many friends in my secondary school. We chat together, eat together, play together, joke together, laugh together. All these memories flash through my mind now and then as I recalled the times we had together. As we are approaching the next journey of our life in either JC or Poly, I hoped that our friendship will be forever.

Picture this, how nice it would be for us to meet up & chat together in the future, bringing our kids along?

NOMAD 2008 - Geography Model-Making Project

2009-11-07T01:48:00.000-08:00

I participated in this interesting project of the school Night Of the Music, Art & Dance (NOMAD) 2008. The project was to make a model of 1964 Ang Mo Kio Town & another model of 2008 Ang Mo Kio Town. It aims to show the fast development of Ang Mo Kio Town over the last few decades. Our project team started working in February 2008, to prepare for the actual showcase of NOMAD 2008 in 4 & 5 July 08.

The 5 months of preparation is not easy. We need to research on how tall each building is, making over one hundred buildings. At the same time, dealing with the varying shapes of buildings. Moreover, we need to make hundred over trees, using wires & cloth. Making of the base is also tedious. We need to know the exact positioning of every buildings & dealing with the width of the roads. The base also need to be stable & allow trees to be poked into it.

Although it is difficult to complete the task, we still persist & finally made it. Here are some pictures of our hard work project. (The models are still displayed in the school)

Base of 1964 model (Not completed)
[Can you see the terrain?]

Base of 2008 model (Not completed)

Working area

Painted base

Part of the model completed!

The Signboard

Completed 1964 model

Completed 2008 model

Amazing work done, isn't it?

Biology Show 2009

2009-11-07T01:05:00.000-08:00

I have volunteered to help out at my school Biology Show 2009. It is a good experience for me to understand forensic science. The show was held early this year in school science hub. The show engaged the participants in finding who's the murderer among 3 given suspects in a scenario of murder case in school. The participants become young detectives, analysing the speech, footprints, finger prints, DNA of the 3 suspects, as well as, maggots on the body of victim.

Here are some pictures of the show.

Show details

Investigation Card

The crime scene

The Finger prints section

The Footprint section

The DNA section

The show starts ...

National Junior College - Secondary Maths Challenge (NJC - SMC) 2009

2009-10-21T05:29:00.000-07:00

I had participated in this competition in early this year. Although my team did not manage to win anything, but the experience we gain is very fun & beneficial. We get the chance to challenge ourselves with challenging maths question & seeing how the other teams from various secondary schools, such as RI & HCI, do in their finals.

Here are some memorable pictures taken at NJC.

Registration counter

NJC school environment

NJC Soccer field

Lecture Theater 1 (LT1)

Starting the 1h individual test soon ...

NJC Foolscape Paper

Breaktime at their canteen ...

Free food provided! Delicious!

My Certificate of Participation (COP)

Hope everyone enjoy the photos.

Singapore Fireworks Celebrations 2008 (Photos)

2009-10-21T04:57:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos taken from the fireworks festival 2008.

View of singapore flyer at marina bay

Seats in Green Sector

Singapore flyer at floating platform (Day)

Our entry pass

The Esplanade

Gate 5

Blue sector

Can you see the reflection on the floor? That shows how much rainwater there was.

Staircase SW2. That is where i stand guard on the 1st day.

Staircase SW6. That is where i stand guard on the 2nd day.

City skyline

Food! Available at the 1st floor!

View of Mandarin Oriental

Singapore Flyer at night

'Glowing' Esplanade

City skyline at night

Flood of audience

Guess what? It is drizzling. A 'canopy' of crowd.

Groups of satisfied audience leaving the floating platform

AMKSS NCC (Air) Unit blog

2009-01-30T06:18:00.000-08:00

Check out our unit blog at http://amkssnccair.blogspot.com/. Events photos can also be found.

Study Tips

2008-10-10T01:12:00.000-07:00

Mugging for exams? Try out the free practise exam papers in http://www.misskoh.com/ .

Singapore Fireworks Celebrations 2008 (2)

2008-10-10T00:29:00.000-07:00

Below is France Fireworks (Part 2).

Singapore Fireworks Celebrations 2008 (1)

2008-10-09T23:13:00.000-07:00

This event take place in the Marina Bay Floating Platform on 22nd & 23rd August 2008. I was one of the ushers there with my school. Wish you would enjoy my video taken by myself.

Below is France Fireworks (Part 1).

Happy Birthday to the Birthdayboys!

2008-10-09T22:45:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I couldn't make it for the celebration. Wish you an enjoyable time. :)

My 1st blogging experience

2008-10-09T22:33:00.000-07:00

This was my first ever blog that I have created on 10 October 2008. Hope everyone will enjoy my online diary.