Time to get outta Comfort Zone

Orientation Camp has come to an end, and we are now scattered like confetti into different classes. Some fortunate souls, like Florence and Amanda, get into classes with our OG members, but others like me are allotted to classes in which we do not really know a soul. It was quite a shock during yesterday's civic class. Among 25 of my classmates, 19 are IPs and they seem to know each other quite well. It was an honest feeling that we shared among our OG members----why don't just let us be together? Haha, that just does not work out!

Upon thinking today, it all seems that yesterday's worries were unnecessary. Of course, it is hard to get out of one's comfort zone, especially when one is with people he or she knows well, but it is really an exhilarating experience to mix with new people with new interests, new characteristics, and new ideas! In my class, the girls are very enthusiastic and outgoing, and the 3 ex-RGS councillors are pretty talented. My best friend is a SNGS girl--she likes Japanese comics and has attended Cos-play during the vacation! The boys, to my amazement, are equally awesome (that's Tat's catch-phrase) They are very willing to know about us, very respectful and gentleman-like. We played ice-breaker games today and everyone was very cooperative. That's Raffles Spirit!

It is my first time to wear full school uniform to school (with badge), and I am really very proud of being among so many awesome people. Now I have to wave goodbye to the old fond days of Orientation Camp and look forward to writing new chapters with 24 brainies and sweeties.

Take Five 12/02/10, I am looking forward to that! And...Class Camp!!!

College Spirit

It was the second day of our Orientation Camp. The Storyline carried on and the torch kept burning. We had fun when we learned the Batch Dance, Batch Song and school cheers, and our physical stamina was tested when we travelled out of the college for Operation EA. All these activities made me realise how senior Rafflesians carried out our school spirit, and I was really touched when they all went that extra mile to make us J1s feel at home.

During the Batch Dance, we had our dance partners assigned by senior OGLs. My partner was a Meris Stella guy. We cooperated quite well, especially due to the fact that Cheryl, our group leader, constantly told us how to twist our bodies. Anyway, maybe it's that my partner is from a male school, so he was actually quite shy at first. Thankfully the session was not over-taxing, so soon we carried on to learn the Batch Song, a "sweet"(as they called it) Dream Along With Me.

What really impressed me was the Cheers Session. It was supposed to be a time of "culture shock" when all Rafflsians clapped the beats and shouted out their cheers, but no! I was so touched when the girls taught me their cheers so earnestly and demonstrated the signals and beats so patiently and kindly. They were so considerate that I really felt at home, totally unlike the popularly adopted view of a potential "culture ultra-shock". So now I can proudly say that I've got the hang of all the learned cheers so far. Since they made me feel so included, I could do the Samba, Mat Rock and Raffles Jam (especially:P) just as well and enthusiastically as them.

The Operation EA was the highlight of the day. I could see that senior leaders really made a lot of efforts to make us feel fulfilled. Ryan Lee, our OG leader, was really "the best"! He did all the logistics so consummately and selflessly that I felt we could never thank him enough! With 4.5 kilo of water and drinks in his bag, two bagfuls of snacks in his hands, he walked at the front and displayed what Raffles spirit called for. Whenever we had problems with the task missions or we needed to consult station masters, he would take the lead and put our interests at first when everyone was so tired. He was the last one to have lunch when we enjoyed the air-conned environment and he bought doughnuts for each and every one of us when he was so burdened by his heavy bags and carry-outs. That was really how leaders should be like~(claps)

One great news: I've got my new school uniform, and it suited my hair fine^.^ Tomorrow I shall visit Nan Hua for video making and then got my luggage at NUSH. Life is getting busy, but just like what my House motto says, great people should "soar on the wings of courage".

G'alvea~

Good life~

First Day in JC

Today marked the beginning of my JC life in Raffles. It was a breathtaking experience. The Principal's briefing was really inspiring. I felt so touched at moments when Mrs Lim introduced the school values and how we should behave to be a Rafflesian, the one who "raises the flag when none flew before", the one who "stops competing and start excelling", and the one who is "original", who is "the change that he wants to see". It was my first time to sit in such a grand lecture hall, with my peers all with the same excited expression. I was in awe~

As for matriculation, I decide to take the conventional combo BCME. Though it is supposed to be tough, challenging, and mentally draining, I am prepared for it. Biology is a bold choice, because all the modules we learn will be closely related to molecular biology, which is what takes a lot of efforts. Another bold choice is Economics, a new subject which none knows its true colour. Despite these concerns, I feel so relieved when many others take the same combi as me, especially those in my House. They really make great companion!

It is really astonishing to feel that in Raffles you can freely exchange your minds and thoughts with others. I am allotted to Buckle Buckley House, and there are real interesting people! Three Vietnamese boys from RI, one Korean, one Chinese(which is me), and all others are RP people. They can play wonderful games and you never feel short of conversation with them. Maybe I just like the environment in JC, where everyone is willing to know anyone else. There is one problem here: most of them are RI and RGS students, and we are the few JAE ones scattered around them, which means I have to memorise a lot of names while they only have to memorise one, in the case like my House when I am the only newbie there. Thank God that I did not get any freshman trick!

Tomorrow we will have batch dance and Eat Out session at Orchard/Bugis, it will be a draining day so I must get over-hydrated for now, and have a nice sleep! Sometimes it is really sad to know that some friends won't be taking the same course as you, but, like always, you can always make new friends outside OG.

By the way, we had OG Dinner together at Junction 8 tonight. It was so cool and so near our school! J8 really has the potential to be our frequent hangout place~

Another exciting news: I am not the only one in my OG Group, a RI scholar is staying in the Morrison Dorm, just oppposite my lovely Moor. So I could just walk with him and not get lost!

Now I have to submit my matriculation online, bye~

Hope everyone enjoy their "first day" in JC!

Milestone

Two-Year Anniversary in Singapore!!!

On the Cusp of Maturity

Eighteen~ What a magical number!

It is so hard to believe that my 18 would come in this way: quiet but blissful, stressed but heartwarming, jittery but full of expectation...I know, on my road towards maturity, this has been a significant step, an inevitable step, and a beatific one.

Wishes from my old-time playmates evoked those beautiful memories with them. The familiar Tank's song attached with the mail suddenly made realise how much I had missed----their remembrance, my old love, my old petulance, and my old tantrums. All those episodes will be replaced by new ones when tomorrow comes----that is the magic of "18".

18, the end of the "blossom season", as well as the culmaination of the "rain season".

There is lightning and thunder tonight. Maybe the heaven is rejoicing with me, I mean, us...

01.11.2009

My juniors' one year anniversary of landing in Singapore, my first step----voluntarily and involuntarily, willingly and reluctantly----into maturity.

Into a season without any more tears, and any more heartbreaks.

Into my adulthood~

Let's say "HOORAY!"

Yeah. My whole 17 has been spent in Singapore, without a single step outside her. My whole 17 without seeing any of my family members, meeting any one of my old friends in China...

17 again? One cannot press "restart" button as one wants to. And I doubt I won't choose the same route:P

Anyway, 17 will be forever remembered for being the most important year in my life. It is my first time living my own life without my parents by my side, for the whole year.

Now thinking back about two years ago, when I just turned 16, it feels so long ago. We cut the cake on the newly decorated "bar" table. I wore a red sweater, peering out of the window of our 14th storey flat, and taking photos of myself.

These two years, I have seen too much cake-cutting, birthday song-singing, cheering...It is so amazing when people around me are growing and I do not feel myself growing, old. Time is fair. So here comes my moment:)

Today's original plan was to buy two small cakes for my sister and myself. But it was storming just now----Singapore's rain season comes in advance, strangely---- so we decide upon eating Chinese Dumplings instead. By 24:00, we will say our wishes~

Thanks for all those who have wished us, and thanks for all the wishes that are yet to come. It is great being remembered~.~

I am no longer a small kid. So no excuses for immaturity anymore:)

Hello. 18!

Days of My Past

I recall when I was young Oh~
I will play and always having fun
with the neighbour next to me

And we'll play until the setting sun
try to be "The Best" among the others
in a game call the "Spider battle"

It doesn't matter,
who is the best now
those were the days of my past

Few years later when I got to school and was late for lesson all the time
Always day dreaming in the class
till I don't even know the lessons done

Then my teacher always tell me
Never ever be lazy again
What can I do now
What can I say now
Those were the days of my past

As the days go on and on
I grew up and had my first love
Candle light and sandy beach
Finally give away my first kiss

Mother said I was too young to fall in love and
then I will one day regret so love was over
but I do miss her
Those were the days of my past

Just when I left my high school and
got my first job as a salesmen
working hard all day and night
no one there to lend a helping hand
Daddy told me not to worry and
said that I should go on step by step
Those were the days of my past

Then once day I settled down with the only one I really love
gona small family with two kids that is what I'm always hoping for
But I still remember having fun with all my friends when I was young
I miss my hometown I miss my old friend
Those were the days of my past

I miss my hometown
I miss my old friend
When will I see them again

Don't Quit

I chanced upon this when I browsed through the CEP materials that I had handed in on 13th, August. The familiar prose dragged me to the scene when the whole cohort of students sat in the hall, listening to a gentleman reciting the poem of an obscire poet.

Something has happened,but what was initially dealt as important seemed to lose its weightage. People are ageing, and age has given everyone a crust, like that on a refrigerated cake. We should focus on the reality now, though it is occastionally cruel. So let it be.

Nothing we can do can change the past, but everything we do changes the future. Not others' future, your own future...

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Don't Quit.

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low, and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must but dont's you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns
As everyone of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out.
Don't give up though the pace seems slow,
You may succeed with another blow.

Success is failure turned inside out,
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems far;
So stick to the fight when we're hardest hit,
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.

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I won't, you won't, she won't, and he won't, and the world will be a better place for us to live in.

For all the decent~~~and only the decent~~~

Game Theory

Game theory is a branch of applied mathematics, but strangely, discussions about it came during our literature lesson, and sparked off an animated debate.


It all began when one of our Prelim-exam articles, Kaff's short story "Survivor", grabbed our attention by its unique ending.

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A man and his sleigh dog were marooned on an iceland near the South Pole. Their fates were sealed if there was no plane to save them within one week. The man's survival prospects were bleak in the face of the harsh weather and the menace from the only living thing beside him--the dog.


For fear that his dog, a huge one, would overpower him and eat him up to avoid its impending starvation, he chose to act first. He began to hone a knife. The dog gazed at him curiously and the man believed that he saw fear crossing its face, but he went on his mission--facing the threat of death, no one could be altruistic.


He ordered the dog to come to him, and lifted the shiny knife.


The dog obeyed, albeit it flinched at first.


He was overcome by his conscience and threw the knife away the moment his dog approached him, and cried in the snow.


That was when the dog knew.


It circled around the man, hollering and bawling menacingly with its last strength. The man continued to whimper.


The dog stopped to lick his face with its warm, wet tongue, and the man who had been thrilled to bits, went up to hug the dog, tightly.


Two days later, an aeroplane circling around the area observed a shiny spot in the whiteness of the snow and spiraled down.


It was the knife.


So they were both saved, the man and the dog.
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The discussion was: if you were the man, would you kill the dog?


Some answers came within seconds:


"I won't. I don't eat raw meat. It was disgusting."


"No. Of course. I can't bear the thought of killing anything."


"Maybe...No, should not be...If it dare come near me I would kill it for sure."


"Yeah, I will hone a knife...but it depends whether I kill the thing..."


My answer:"No. Of course. My strength enough to kill a dog? Joking! I can't make it die even if I kill it, so why bother?"


The essence of the discussion, however, was not what we have discussed above. So our devastated teacher(after hearing our answers, especially the "no-disgusting-raw-meat" answer), envisioned a new situation.
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If all of you are arrested by a terrorist who divide you into two groups in different buildings and he gives each group a control pad that controls the bombs of the other group's building. If you denotate the others' building, you will be released alive. However, if the other group acts first and decides to bomb your building, you will die. Each group has three minutes to decide which action to take...

Will you press the "red button" of your controller?

We were literally divided into two groups in my class that were supposed to be put in the two buildings, and the three-minute discussion started. Within three minutes, we were supposed to message our teacher our mutual decision whether to "bomb" or not.

At the end of the three minutes, neither side pressed the "red button", so we both survived.
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In reality?

With people you do not know in the other building?

Both groups will bomb the other side, but the group I was in pressed the button first so the other group died.

With your family members in the other building?

Neither pressed the button.

With possible criminals?

For sure we both "bombed" the other side, but again there was the "time issue". Our group sent the message faster so the other side was blasted into oblivion.
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Mr. Cai(our literature teacher) came into a conclusion based on our reactions: if there are people we know, we won't bomb the building, but if they are strangers, off they die.

So he made the situation more complicated.

Inside the other building: 1 family member, 19 possible criminals. Bomb?

"Hmm...then..."

Inside the other building: 20 family members / friends or 20 possible criminals. Bomb?

"Uh-huh...well..."

Inside the other building: you don't know who they are, and how many of them. Bomb?

"Gosh! I quit!"
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"Wait, who are in MY building with me," I asked Mr. Cai.

"Your friends and family members."

"Then I will bomb them."

"What if you are with people you do not know?"

"Then... I won't press the button, and persuade people in my side not to. But if they do insist, I have nothing against it, either. The decision is beyond me, now."
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"So it depends on your 'fate'~" (everything seems to be about fate and luck...don't say it about exam:)
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We roared...Mr. Cai is a hardcore fatalist, so whenever we come to this topic, we feel like treading on landmines. Here he came...

It is actually a model of "game theory", in fact a situation of Nash Equilibrium (Note: John. Jr.Nash was the Nobel laureate for Economics due to his contribution to 'equilibrium concepts', and I have read a biography about him).

Nash Equilibrium:
If each player has chosen a strategy and no player can benefit by changing his or her strategy while the other players keep theirs unchanged, then the current set of strategy choices and the corresponding payoffs constitute a Nash equilibrium model.

Upon searching more into the topic, I made an appalling dscovery that Game Theory is also applied in the study of biology, in a concept called "biological altruism".

Biological Altruism:
A situation in which an organism appears to act in a way that benefits other organisms but is detrimental to itself. This is distinct from traditional notions of altruism because such actions are not conscious, but appear to be evolutionary adaptations to increase overall fitness of the species.

Examples:
Vampire bats, who regurgitate blood they have obtained from a night's hunting and give it to group members who have failed to feed.

Worker bees, who care for the queen bee for their entire lives and never mate,

Vervet monkeys, who warn group members of a predator's approach, even when it endangers that individual's chance of survival.

All of these actions increase the overall fitness of a group, but occur at a cost to the individual.
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Then I realise. "Game theory" is much more complicated in real-life application and many factors around you, coupled with your own choice and decision, will decide your fate.

Then it dawned me on the Cuban Missile Crisis:

What if either John.F. Kennedy or Khrushchev chose to press the "hot button" during the Cold War? A nuclear war?

Thank goodness they steered away from it...

Maybe they both knew well about the "game theory". Who knows? But thank goodness if they knew.