A life I hope would never end

Not so recently i saw this ridiculous article on the Straits Times. I had almost all but forgotten about it until I saw the article again while xtin was flipping through her GP file.

This man wrote in to the Forum to say that since there were programs like IP, thru'train, etc, JC was completely redundant. He advised the Education Ministry to rethink about the concept of JC, says that the syllabus thought during JC was redundant anyway.

After reading that article, I feel that this guy has got all his assumptions wrong. Either he was a complete nerd during JC, or else he must have pon school a lot of times. First of all, if JC was just about the idea of studying, then he must have a very sad life then.

First of all, JC is about the intoxicating mix of friends, CCA, and academic. Its like taking a cocktail of drugs, booze, driving, just more safe, and more sociably acceptable. Obviously, one does not spend all day mugging, neither does one spend all entirely with friends and nothing else. Its this exciting mix of mugging and friends, that is what JC is all about.

JC is also a time where everyone gets out the little kids mentality and be more independent. Make decisive choices, because the school lets you to do so. Its the open concept of studying, not mope in a small corner and memorise like crazy.

JC is also a time to try new stuff, experience new things. You know, if you have been dying to try something, then JC is the best time to try it. If your experience has been enriching, you can even write it down for your testimonial.

JC is also the last academic institution to wear uniforms. After that, no more uniting under the same banner.

I have been dying all my life to reach JC; primary was so superficial, homework so easy, naive thinking; secondary was slightly better but still a lot of restrictions. JC allows that freedom never before felt. And also when the homework starts to get more challenging. Whats the fun of easy homework? I am finally in a CCA that I actually have interest in, not some boring CCA that was a big mistake. Whats more, its the experience together with friends that add a lot of pluses to the whole thing.

So many good stuff, and this guy says 'Abolish JC' ??!! Go boil his head la. JC is the crucial bridge between university and secondary school. Destroy that bridge and..and I just dunno wad to say.

I hope this would never end..2 years is too short. Another year would be nice.

Problems and more problems.

Pardon me for being pessimistic, but I see lot of problems of the world nowadays. One can almost start to classify the list of major problems that can lead to world breaking down.

1. Political Problems.
The political situation between America and Iraq, Iran. The situation between China and USA. The situation between Singapore and its neighbors. These are like walking along a fine thread, war could break out anytime soon. Political instability is one problem that we are not going to get rid of anytime soon.

2. Environmental Problems. Thanks to human greediness and selfishness, we are suffering from the effects of several things. Destruction of habitats, species of flora and fauna going into extinction. Changes in weather patterns, scarcity of materials becoming more and more acute. This is not good at all. Perhaps we are not too late. But at the rate we are going, there’s no pulling out and turning back so fast. So maybe its too late after all.

3. Weather Problems. This follows from above. The world is suffering from a situation approaching that illustrated in “The Day After Tomorrow”. Freak weather patterns that are being observed all over the world. We have severe floods in Malaysia, and some minor(but considered very severe by our standards) floods in Singapore. In Europe, there are some very severe storms. My next prediction is that Europe is going to experience a very severe heat wave in March. By June, Australia bush fires will be stronger then ever experienced. And the forest fires in Indonesia is going to be all the more bigger during July. This means a haze problem even more severe than last year’s.

4. Energy Problems. This is one thorny problem. Energy consumption is rising without limit, at the rate we are going. But tappable energy on Earth is finite for the moment. Unless we have a major technological breakthrough that will bring the prices of alternative energy down drastically, we are facing a Malthusian nightmare. Until then, expect more quarrels, between Russia and Europe over oil, and be prepared for oil prices skyrocketing.

5. Viruses. Sars was just a few years back only. Bird Flu is an all time persistent problem. For ‘organisms’ about the length of a nanometer, it sure is capable of causing a hell of havoc, bring economies down. As birds are being massacred, prices of chicken and eggs are sure to go up. During this rainy season, a lot of bacteria and viruses are going to thrive in a lot of water logged areas, causing a breakout sooner or later.

6. Natural Disasters. Earthquake, tsunamis, have devastating effects. Capable of uprooting an entire city, or bringing down the Internet. We should relook our telecommunications. The Taiwan earthquake is one good lesson. How can we continue to depend our economic activities on the Internet if everytime there is an Internet, the regional connections breakdown?

7. Economic problems. With so many of the above problems, it is likely if anyone of the above worsens, then the world economy might take steep plunge.

Being a president or prime minister at this times is not easy at all. Its a wonder why would anyone still fight to strongly over such position.

Choice

Spending almost everyday in the school library has me reading a lot of new an interesting stuff. One, I am reading up on the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis; you know, to try and prepare and see if I can take a shot at writing that massive essay on for the MAS competition. About what I learnt in that crisis? I learnt that speculation on the economy tends to be self-fulfilling. And that Adam Smith's invisible hand can break down. Adam Smith says that each individual, acting in their own self interest would collectively, unconciously, act for the greater good of the society. It is as if there is an invisible hand guiding the economy. But, there can be times where this invisible hand can cease to work, where sound economic principles apparently break down.

It is not difficult to see a similar situation in game theory. Some times, everyone doing the most rational act, result in an irrational solution, in large groups of people. The most common example is the Prisoner's Dilemma. Each person, doing the most rational thing to do, ends up with the worst result. That's where the invisible hand cease to guide anymore.

On another note, we have been studying moral ethics for GP. In a way, moral ethics involve the same idea, making choices, how do you make choices, based on what principles, blah blah. It is incredible how everything links up together, like a gigantic web of links.

Choice, is the most difficult thing to decide in the world.

OG OG Oh Great Lala

Looking at the new J1s having OG stuff kinda brings back some nice memories about my own OG. I still remember exactly 1 year ago, i came into school with a certain degree of apprehension.

Back then, the first 3 days were the most fun of the orientation. Cos the first 3 days were arranged to let you acquaint yourself with the school and get to know other people outside your little circle. So, lots of time were dedicated to talking, playing nice small games. (Not those muddy muddy dirty stuff). Well i still remember playing murderer, mafia, whacko. Yea man, was I good at being murderer or the mafia. No one beats chai at the innocent face. I still remember some people rubbing their arms after getting whacked by me in Whacko. Ahaha, ruthless me back then. Hey, blame me for ungentleman acts, but I should say that when I play, I play 100% hard. Just the same with studies.

No pressure there, just play your way through, get to know people. Nice people. People whom 50% became OGLs themselves to pass on the delightful experience to the next batch.

"Summer days driftin away, to uh-oh those summer nights..uh well uh well a hur..Tell me more Tell me more.."

Ah I have firmly decided that quiet teachers shouldnt teach quiet classes. The deathly silence is too much to bear. Pressuring on us, pressuring on the teacher, plus the overwhelming urge to fall asleep.

Today, my chem teacher spent almost 2 hours on doing just 3 tutorial qns. Woo, even slower than my last chem teacher. -_-. Spent 45 min recapping old stuff, which is a very good idea, except that she covered nothing new, except to copy out stuff from the chem notes; which I think we can read ourselves. More than once I got lost half way, and didnt know which question she was at. Because she tend to wander a bit, and wandering in a soft voice is not a very good idea.

She asked us halfway whether we knew what a reflux was, whether we have seen a setup before. Silence for 1 min. For god sake, how could anyone not know what reflux is, if we have been writing it for exams for the past Promo exams!! Ok, maybe everyone knew what reflux is, but is just keeping quiet. Which is waste of time. The teacher was trying to elicit a response from the class, but the class was observing a moment of silence. Oh man, that is precisely why our old CT got chased away. So, I think either we speak up, or the teacher gives up trying to elicit a response and just plows on throughout the class. No need to ask a question and try so hard to a get an answer. Easier on us too. What the some teachers dont understand is that different classes have different needs. For our class, we are conditioned to listen quietly to the teacher and hurriedly copy tons of notes. We are not conditioned to ask and question and engage in a discussion.

And then, she asked about about the purpose of using a reflux. Hmm, I should clarify that the purpose of the reflux is to prevent the volatile organic substances from decomposing because you want the little molecules to be heated for some extended time. Once you understand that this is the purpose, you will see that to do this is to let the organic molecules evaporate and recondense back. So you need a Liebig condenser with a cap at the top. This way, you can both heat the molecules for extended period of time and still not decompose them.

Quirks of education