The Sous Chef has been testing my knowledge with revision sheets. I can remember shitloads of stuff about Cognitive Psychology. I thought I knew nothing, but I woke up at 4 am this morning and (of course!) found myself unable to go back to sleep. So I dredged up all my revised material and was aghast: it really is in there! Amazing. The skill in the exam will be applying what I know to answer the question (not to be taken for granted, but at least I know stuff)

What else has amazed me is how much the Sous Chef now knows about Cognitive Psychology. It's very tedious for him but he's been marvelous in testing me and listening to me blather on about the phonological loop and visuospatial scratchpad of working memory. He knows more than most about subliminal priming, Biederman's geons and can tell you the difference between agnosia, prosopagnosia and aphasia. He might even be able to tell you where the parietal lobes are and what the amygdala is for. Definitely NOT things he particularly wanted to know about. I suppose I should be thankful I'm not doing a degree in Geology (snore) or Theology (yawn) or Art History. I can whitter on about my subject of choice for blooming hours! (Hopefully up to three, which is how long the exam is).

Anyway, I am prepared. I feel confident I can do this. My biggest problem will be staying focused for that length of time (1.5 hours is about my limit for keeping on task). Wish me luck!

So, this morning I had the joy of completing the oral component of my VCE Chinese Unit 3/4 examination. I thought it was a rather interesting experience, so I'll share it with you, although I realize the chances of anyone caring are low.

Upon arrival at the Northern Metropolitan Conference Centre in Coburg (ha), I immediately noticed that things were a bit strange. You know how they usually try to make it as comfortable and stress-free for the poor examinees, especially during an oral examination? Well, for my examination, they had the area sealed off by some big-ass fences and a rather mean-looking security guard standing beside a closed gate to the only entrance, who refused to let in any examinees until 10 minutes prior to their designated exam time. Beyond the gate was lifeless, with no signs of people or movement, only large, grey, desolate buildings. A large sign next to him read in big, bold letters: "No parents beyond this point". A group of anxious and depressed looking examinees and parents stood around the gate, awaiting their moment upon which they will be subjected to the horrors behind the fence. As I joined the cold, huddling group, I noticed that this sight alone would have been enough to strike fear into the hearts of any examinee.

And then, my time came. The guard signalled to me, and opened the gate, ushering me in and instructing me to follow a path marked by signs that read "VCE Chinese oral examination", or something along those lines. Expecting the exam to have taken place in the large grey building directly behind the guard, I was mistaken, instead finding myself walking along a long, lonely and silent winding path that lead somewhere into the labyrinth of buildings.

After being guided into some building by the signs, a few white people ushered us around a rather unnecessarily complex registration and initiation system and took us to a different building, and we were instructed to be silent as we approached the intimidating glass exam rooms from a corridor. They sat one of us down beside the door of each room, and let us sit there and melt under the intense anxiety most of us experienced as we waited for the examiners to open the door. It almost felt as if we were preparing to be executed, that waiting for us inside each of those rooms was an electric chair or a firing squad. I sat there and the doors began opening, and I watched as my comrades were lured into those wretched rooms, one by one. A few minutes later I was the only one left, and my time soon also came.

Nothing of interest happened during my actual exam. I didn't do particularly well but it wasn't a total disaster either, and my examiners were reasonably nice and engagable, not icy, intimidating and morale-crushing like the examiners I endured for my first practice oral examination a couple of weeks earlier. So after going through a long, spirit-breaking process of actually reaching the examination room, the actual exam was something of an anti-climax, being fairly straightforward and lasting for what felt like a minute.

So much for a "relaxing environment". They had subjected us to a most stressful and even nausea-inducing environment in the lead-up to a hugely important examination. Fortunately I wasn't overly affected by it, having myself been in many nerve-racking situations that have, to a degree, trained me to effectively deal with pre-examination or pre-concert anxiety. But I could easily imagine a more emotional person cracking under the huge pressure and anxiety that one felt as he walked along that horrible path, or walking into the exam room shaken and stammering from the build-up of nerves that the pre-examination process created.

The moral of this story? Nothing, really. I just felt like writing a blog. But there is warning in this for those of you who are preparing for your Chinese 3/4 oral examinations in the coming weeks: be prepared to be subjected to some mind-fuckery just before your exam.

- Ruob.

Bio (last Friday) started off ho-hum but Paper 2 was a nightmare. It was like, the mother of all Bio papers. Short-chain amino acid binding and hydrolysis?

By the way, if you haven't noticed already, I've added a Twitter reading list to the sidebar; alternatively, you can also follow it (if you're interested in that sort of thing) on Twitter at @krysjez_reads.

IT'S THE END OF EOYS, WAHOOOO! xD

Amaths was pretty okaaaaay, I guess. I could finish the paper and surprisingly I could do log! ^^ I was telling myself before the paper that I shall skip log till the end, but hey, I just kept doing and LOL, it seems do-able, i guess. xD I don't know if it will be wrong or not, but haha, I guess I've tried.

Right. EXAMS POST-STRESSER NOW, GETTING BACK RESULTS. ):
But haiya, like what Uncle Teo♥ said, as long as I think I've put in much effort, everything should be okay even if you get poor results, and ignore what my mother said. (: HAHAHA. The last sentance, comic sia. HAHAHA. MY DAD ALSO SAYS SO.

Suddenly, I really felt like saying, "I love my family alot." They were there when I was going through my ups and downs (and even though Mum is like "YOU NEVER PUT EFFORT LAH!"), but I guess, they are the ones who know me best. My panic attacks comes crazily and I suffer from acute stomachache immediately but I could finish the papers (especially Emaths paper 2, which to me, was a doubtful feat.) HAHAHA. Actually I think I rock leh. Ahahah jkinggggggg. :D

I will catch up on many of my studies and I know it is beneficial to me. (: Taking my mother's car home & staring out of the window, I realised that chances are everywhere, but it is up to you to grasp the chance and make full use of it. I don't know if I've grasped my chance yet...but I know it's coming to me. ^^

HOLIDAYS, a word to rejoice for! ^^
I guess I will be heading to the swimming pool for extra trainings with Shuyi and Yileng, haha. Have lost my stamina but will get it back sooner! Also, I will mug hard, to prepare myself for the big 'O's! ^^ Outings with Roxanne and Liping or Rayna and Traris and Zoe will be the best. HAHAHA.

Have gotten back my Geog results, I scored kinda okay for it! Some parts wasted due to lack of time and studying but haha, I guess I'm feeling a-okay!

SHALL END HERE, Mum's asking me to go jogging and cycling with her!
<3

HOLIDAYS, HERE I COMEEEEEEEEE! :DD

纸飞机

孤单的风带走寂寞
却也连纸飞机一起带走
不知道在祈祷飞往方向
盼望那纸飞机降落你身边

拿一支笔写下了心愿
把思念折进去一起飞翔
不知道在祈祷飞往你肩膀
纸飞机是不是已靠你很近

没有真实生命的纸飞机
是否就因此失去了动力
一架没有灵魂的纸飞机
怕被风吹散到远方去

(纸飞机)我把爱恋射向空中的云朵
(飞哪里)希望你会接受我想给温柔
(该不该回应)大男孩的害羞你到底懂不懂
分隔两地没距离的天空
(纸飞机)你能不能微笑暗示你的心动
(飞哪里)带给我从所未有疯狂的悸动
(该不该回应)等待的一刻钟有种莫名颤抖
预感幸福即将占有我的心头

早已准备好我最甜美的笑
酝酿已久的爱只为你燃烧
(纸飞机在哪里)勇敢飞去哪里勇敢飞到哪里
(该不该回忆)有没有回忆能给我回忆分隔两地没距离的天空

But I will try to blog something at least once a week, even if it's just to let you know I am still alive and kicking, but I think that will be over the weekends. But you never know how often I will blog, because I do check my emails every day, and have a gander at the news, so will be a nice little surprise for you, and keep you guessing :)

I am not looking forward to this placement at all, it sounds very boring :( and the travelling will start getting to me by Wednesday night.  Two hours travelling a day, on top of a 9 hour shift isn't the way to go, and it will lead to a well and truly cranky Elle lol.

Other news, I have an exam on Tuesday, and needless to say I am unprepared for it, hmmm anyone think I am going to fail?! lol.

Your monitor's fine. It's called the Orton Effect. I'll have a tutorial on doing this in Photoshop after the exam. And that's an L for you kit lens users!

Okay, today's a year since I started photography, as a hobby, or more precisely, I got my 400D. I've learned a lot since then, but I'm still learning. It's a neverending process in everyone after all. I had a Lumix for a few months before the 400D. It took good photos, but lacked semi-auto exposure and manual exposure. There were only scene selections.

I never heard of reflex (or SLR) cameras before that. I only knew of them as "the big ones reporters use" and "make a noisy sound when taking a photo" cameras. I was more into scale models of cars. It was only when someone on a model car forum got a 400D I heard of them and saw the image quality. So, yes, I got it precisely a year ago. If I could see things that day right now, I would probably be playing with it right now, using the full-auto mode without any creativity.

Okay, off to study in a while. Have to go about memorizing about literature in Malay once more. Looking forward to the end of the exam. Is that positive, or is it the opposite?

I assure you this is not a dead blog. Being in my final year of secondary school and about three weeks from final exams, I am excessively busy with revision for this, that and the other as well as the miscellany that comes with this marvellously exciting period of change and transition (the annual Year 12 Teddy Bears' Picnic comes to mind, as well as my current preoccupation with finding something suitable to wear to Friday's "what-I-wanted-to-be-when-I-was-little" themed Dress-Up Day). If anybody has a Planeteers tshirt in a Large size, please be sure to let me know.

But I digress. The main function of this post is to alert my dear readers (and I know that you do exist, because Wordpress gives me all sorts of charts and graphs and tables detailing your most personal information and the ClustrMap on this site informs me that though my mother has more Australian views on her blog, I am killing her in the South American and European markets) to the fact that as I am inordinately busy, I am, as of the moment unable to provide my readership with new posts.

I will however *points finger inspiringly* promise to resume regular writing once the exams are over, which would be on Thursday, the 13th of November, at approximately 11.00am Eastern Standard Time. At that point, I will likely have a lot of time on my hands to do things like photograph and review Melbourne's nooks and crannies; as well as record some new musical titbits (which I have been promising to do for quite some time).

So despair not reader! Hope is at hand! The great Phillip Sandwich has not abandoned you completely, but is instead buried in subversive post-modern literature, history texts and news reports on the financial crisis written in Indonesian. I shall return November the 13th. Until then, I bid you adieu.

LAST PAPER TML, AND WOOH, I CANNOT WAIT LAH. (:
HAHAHAHA. I'm at my grandmother's house now, my aunt is bathing so I secretly used the computerrr. (: Teehee. xD

Yesterday I tried studying Amaths but to no avail. I'm planning to give up on amaths, heh. Idk lah, I just chionged Linear Law, Logarithms, Exponential, Alpha Beta rule, and Trigo. That's it. I'm treating the last paper as if like it's the end of eoys already, hah. Abit stupid, I know.

ANYBODY WANNA WATCH HOUSE BUNNY WITH ME?

Right. What else.

I saw something which made me want to puke. I won't say what, but really. It just disgust me. But heck. I don't give a shit, it's not related to me anyway. Whatever that basket does, it's none of my business. HAHA. Have been using basket very often, especially when I do log. HAHAHAAH.

I WANNA WATCH THE HILLS SEASON 4 EPISODE 10! *ROARS*

Someone is very...(fillintheblanks). I don't care anymore. Whatever!!!!!!!

HAHAHA OKAYOKAY. I gtg.
CHIONG LAST PAPER, THEN EOYS REALLY END LIAO I TELL YOU.

HAHAAHAHAH!

*siao liao.* xD

So..I'm out of the 2.1% based on that  graph. Superior Intelligence ! Sounds convincing. =D

I gotta stop doing IQ tests...

1 more exam week and I'm done !! Freedom !! oh... those sleepless nights...

During Business paper, I was accused of cutting down alot of trees...coz I used up a lot of paper..hahha... I wrote as much as I can coz there's really a lot of things to write... I hope I didn't end up babling to much about useless point =P

Oh well,after that paper, my friend jokingly said " Weng Chung, are u writing a novel ?"

I jokingly replied " Yeah ! I am ! "

Accounts...yikes...horrible disgusting paper...It was tough !! Felt like choking the teacher when I read the questions...Let me give u a comparison..

Our teacher told us there is fishes in the ocean...but in the exam, she asked for the name of different species of the fishes... boy, that is a weird comparison but u'll get it..

Maths...let bygones be bygones..

Accounts paper 2 on Monday...sure will be bombarded with devilish questions... oh yea.. our accounts paper 2 teacher said he will treat whoever who give him less thing to mark..that is handing in empty paper..lol

He did went round and tell some of us don't write so much during Acc paper 2 day when we frantically scribbling our points for Business paper...

Okay, too much time wasting on writing blog..back to studying !

That means my exams ended yesterday afternoon at 4.45pm. Haha! So.. It means that it is time for all-play no-work time. Haha! I'm totally going to go crazy for a while, just to get into the mood.

So.. Actually econs paper and math paper was alright. I could do them very well, especially math, I'm quite confident of getting an A for that. But then after that, geography was a killer. I chose the wrong question, should have done weathering instead of plate tectonics. CSE was alright, though I couldn't do the women essay and the SBQ. But what done is done. Now, it cannot be undone.

I think I'm going blind. I tell you, it isn't the first time. So.. Here's what went on.

I walked with the girls to the MRT station, was thinking of getting some bread and Mogumogu. But in the end, I only bought bread. But that's not the point. After saying goodbye to the girls, I crossed the road. Bought my bread, ate it and waited for my bus faithfully. I was waiting for 969. 969 is a SMRT bus, you know, electronic display board. So.. I waited, finally it came. I board it. Here's the thing, I ended up in Sengkang instead of Tampines. You know why?! Because I was on  965, not 969! I was like stunned. Nearly went to knock my head into the glass. How could I have made such a mistake?! It's not the first time too. Once, like 2 weeks ago, I board 859 instead of 969. Then I've also board 169 instead of 969 too. But I don't think the problem lies with my eyes, I think it's the board because I can perfectly see the display board of SBS buses. So.. Who has the problem now?

Ahhh!! Freaking mad. Yeah, I messaged Mellie and told her about it. Then she fell off her seat. If I knew that I was heading for Sengkang, I should have went home with her. Yeah.. Luckily, I knew my way around Sengkang, since I've been there so many times, for Yong Kang and Mellie's sake. Haha!

Been watching lots of animes these days too. Now, I'm currently catching

Yup. Don't really know how to use Wordpress, if you an't see it. Don't blame me. Cheers.

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What a day yesterday!
I saw my chinese teacher on my way to the RC and I had fun talking with Roxanne! We saw this little boy rollerblading and after staring at him, he made me feel so motivated. The boy was learning how to rollerblade and he fell down numerous times, but he never cried and stood up once again. Finally, he knew how to rollerblade even though he may stumble for a while. Thinking back, I may have fallen sometimes, but have I actually climbed up from the spot that I've fallen down? Or did I crawl my way till now? Looks like I have to improve on more, heh. (:

I WANNA WATCH HSM3, WTF WTF WTF. xD Since Rayna has been jio-ed, Roxanne and Liping shall go with me then! ^^ Hahaha.

I cannot wait for Kukup trip, I cannot wait to poke people's butt with the datalogger! *grins* (:

Listening to my brother's songs now. His computer also lag lor, complain about mine. >:(
However, I like the song Everybody's Changing by Keane. ^^ Very sweet, haha. My brother got so many old songs that we used to love. <3

Holidays this time won't be so much fun since I have to prepare for 'O' Levels to catch up with all those pros, you know.. -.- But haha, I will definitely go out with my buds and I'm gonna have so much fun. (: Hahah. Things will happen, but who knows? (: Of course, I will have to head back to the swimming pool for my extra (x100) training coz I didn't go for 2 mths and lost my stamina. >:( Then I shall get my BM with YiLeng and Shuyi, so sexcitinggggg!

I admit. My BROTHER'S PLAYLIST ROCKS. DDD:<<

Right, I shall stop here for now. Off to The Hills!
Then I chiong Amaths. Wooh-wee-wooh! xD
Spencer is a asscrack that deserves to die for ruining Lauren and Heidi's relationship!
Whitney the best...*dreams*

1) Big Tips. Working at the Ronj, Bates' student-run coffee shop, is always dope, but the tips are generally sparse. When parents are in town, they tip well. Maybe it's because they're used to tipping in the real world, where one might discard their change into a tip cup. Or maybe it's that the Ronj employees are wearing dirty clothes or no shoes and these lovely parents are trying to help us out during this economic crisis. Whatever the reason, the same tip cup that is usually home to spare dimes and nickels was overflowing with dollar bills.

2) A Cappella. Every Friday night of Parent's Weekend, all of the a cappella groups on campus put on a massive show at Lewiston's middle school. It's literally steps from campus and holds over 500 people. This year, the Crosstones, the group I am in performed songs from Gnarles Barkley, Jackson 5, and Sufjan Stevens. Other groups performed songs from acts like Flight of the Concords and Ray Charles. Here's a picture of my group on stage. *excuse the fuzziness*

3) Harvest Fest. This doesn't always coincide with Parent's Weekend, but it did this year. It's basically a "hippie fest" of sorts. Think girls with hair dressed in flowers, flowing dresses, lots of food, hemp sweatshirts on sale, devil sticks, tie-dye, and a vast musical green and grassy knoll. Not so bad if the parents stayed home.

4) Free Meals. This is a perk of having your own parents come up as well, but generally, us "orphans" (as we are so affectionately called) end up tagging along to a meal. It's also just a great opportunity to get to know some of your good friends' parents. Sometimes it's hard to really understand someone you've spent nearly every day with unless you have a good idea of where they're coming from.

5) Sporting Events. Almost every sports team in season has a home game on Parent's Weekend. So if you want to show off the athletic program to your parents, then you can head over to the turf, football field, soccer field, or rugby field and something is bound to be going on. This year, a bunch of my parent-less friends and I watched our field hockey team beat Conn College. It was fun, and it was a good opportunity to see a few good friends of ours play some hockey. Also, it was gorgeous out so it just nice to sit out in the Maine sun. Another photo:

6) Catching Up On Work. I won't tell whether I actually did this or not, but I definitely thought about it. Since my mid-terms are kind of spread between last week and the week after break, I thought I could dedicate some mind power to preparing for tests, essays, and take-home exams. Especially since many of my friends were busy with their parents off in Portland or just down the street, I planned on getting loads of work done. That said, I was up until the wee hours finishing papers this week. Oh well. Parents weekend without parents? Success.

Peace and then some,

Naima

~Sarah

Hi. I've been getting bored updating this blog - perhaps oversimplified wordpress templates can't really wholly please dirty, perverted, muddled and imaginative human minds for so long. Anyway, these past few weeks have been relatively more stressful than any other week I've had so far this year. Firstly, I had to extract the essence of 500 pages of my maths textbook and drink it like chicken essence - you know, when you position your index finger and thumb in the shape of a clothespin, and squeeze the nostrils tight to prevent the olfactory nerves from working along with your taste buds as you swallow liquified cock (male chicken), or hen (female chicken),  - in ten days, in order to do my IB Maths Internal Assessment. Okay, I know typical human beings should not be doing these kinds of things, but I guess being atypical is typical within the IB world. And then secondly, EXAMS. End-of-year exams. The good thing about these examinations, is that they're not a dreadful as the JCs' promotional exams (since the shit inside you won't be scared out of you by the prospect of being retained in JC1) or as hyperventilating and exhilarating as the counterpart IB school's - you know which school I'm talking about.

Anyway, to summarize my oh-so-enjoyable week:

Sunday - Tuesday: STUDY STUDY STUDY!

Wednesday: English SL paper 1. Wrote two pages of literary crap. I think I did quite well. Essay wasn't so much well-organized, though.

Thursday: Mathematics HL paper 1. Disaster. A cataclysm of undecipherable questions. As expected.

Friday: Chemistry HL paper in the morning. Chemistry rocks. Economics HL paper in the afternoon. Comme ci comme ça.

More exam papers next week.

Anyway,

there comes a point in time when everything you have written inside an exam hall seems convincingly worthy of getting the allocated marks. And then, at the moment you grab that precious time to meditate about the swift chain of events, where a year's worth of learning had been mercilessly compressed into a 2-hour 20-page examination paper, you begin to think, "Oh. Damn. Oh well."

Generally, I think I did way better for Chemistry and Economics than for Mathematics, which is like, umm, expected, since Mathematics was written in Greek. or Latin. Maybe French?? I wasn't really sure. There is something about this subject which frustrates me so much. No matter how much similar the math questions you practice are with the exam questions themselves, when the paper is set in such a way that the questions are twisted in a slightly different way, your brain refuses to twist along the same degree of insanity. And to think that I practised maths every single day for the past two or three weeks...

Well, perhaps the best possible explanation was that I sat on the tenth chair of the second column from the left. Whatever that signified.

They had this thing where the teachers wish you all the best and all right after assembly for us. I just cannot believe people actually cried. Like what the hell. Can't imagine the results day. Apparently, we're stone because we didn't. Sheesh.

We have Malay Language up for the first day, a subject which I either excel or just flunk completely. I'm concentrating more on Math, that, History and Living Skills. I don't know much about electricals. I can't say I've got no confidence for straight As but I don't want overconfidence in myself. Tuition teachers keep telling us that it's going to be easier than the trials because the paper's designed for candidates based in more rural areas, if you get what I mean. Still, I'm going to work for this. I got the cameras, except for the film ones, my 400D, 10-22mm and 50mm away until Sunday because they're with dad, who's at PD for a company trip or convention or something. Wish me luck for this exam, weather or not I'll be needing it.

Today, I went to school and went to the counseling department for an exit interview but failed to do so. There was no counselor to interview me. Actually, there was one counselor but she was still in a hangover from a school promotion. She asked me to come back next week because all of the counselors will be out of town until next Tuesday.

I then went home with a bad stomach ache from school. I supposed to have some plans in the afternoon. So, I got bedridden and watching some movies stored in my PC. I was watching "21" for the forth time. Just can't get enough the geniusity of Ben Campbell from Harvard University and took a Medical course. The movie was about counting the possibilities on how to win a Black Jack card game . Ben Campbell and his colleague gets to win $200,000.00 every weekends in "Vegas baby!". I wish I was him and go to casino bar every weekends and bet in a Lotto draws. If to do so, possibly that would make me a "Winner winner chicken dinner!". Not to mentioned, I like the soundtracks. One of them was already on my experimental mixtape that I made lately.

***

I'm planning to get a new hairstyle and color it into green or purple or silver. Would that be cool? hehe

THE PRESSURE! Exams are coming up next week and I've barely started studying! Gah! It's all because of those batch practices that require us to stay at school up to 5:30 pm, which means that we'll be reaching home at about 6pm, tired, hungry and so sleepy. In that kind of state, how can they expect us to start studying? We'll be too weak! We'll just fall asleep the moment we try to open our textbooks! In fact, it already took us HALF of the ENERGY we had left just to force ourselves to do our assignments GIVEN ON THAT DAY which in turn HAVE TO BE PASSED THE FOLLOWING DAY. Argh!

Anyway, I want the Intrams and the exams over and done with. I cannot wait for the sembreak! Finally, a whole week to just relax and not think of any homework or project...

Excited for the sembreak...:D