Little-Wonder.Net

25 October, 2003

More technology? Hah!

00:24:38 | Random Musing | writebacks (7)

A brand new Nokia 3100 was purchased for me by my father last night as an early birthday present. Actually, my mother was thinking of upgrading to an even better model but I insisted on Nokia 3100, because it was the cheapest phone I could find. I would feel really bad if my parents were to splurge on an over-expensive phone on me when I hardly use all the functions either. I am someone who prefers practicality…

But I would definitely miss my old phone, the Nokia 3310. Even though it had been giving me some problems recently, I must admit that it was the best phone which I had ever owned, despite it being almost obsolete now.

My mother also decided to get me something while we were at Sim Lim Square. After all, that place has almost anything technology related. Therefore, my mother bought a small digital camera which cost almost $190. The brand of the camera was some ulu-ulu brand, but at least it is usable. So now I have two digital cameras, one with a video camera function and one without. I am planning to bring the new digital camera when I head for my year-end holidays as it is so small and lightweight, compared to the big and bulky one which I currently own.

Project Work meeting tomorrow. Zhi Qi just phoned me up to remind me, jerking me up from my current relaxed and carefree mood. I just absolutely loathe, hate and despise Project Work! It is taking up too much of my time. So much for my initial plans to relax throughout the entire long weekend, doing everything which I want to. In the end, I have to slog for the whole of tomorrow, getting the Oral Presentation into shape and writing out our script…

I can’t wait for the whole of this Project Work nightmare to blow over next month, then I am able to wash my hands of it forever. Seriously, I would just scream at the next person who even mentions the words “Project Work” to me. Hopefully, I wouldn’t wake up tomorrow feeling grumpy… A negative attitude is the absolute last thing I need now…

The teachers have yet to respond to my email regarding the appeal for my friend E (refer to previous post). Don’t they even care about her at all? I know that Mrs Lim does not really like E and some of the teachers are just so irresponsible that they do not even want to hear any appeals from students for promotion, but E has tried so hard! I thought teachers are supposed to be understanding? E has the correct work attitude and she knows how to balance her time well between work and play, so why can’t my teachers give her a second chance?

23 October, 2003

Promotional Agony

16:57:43 | Random Musing | writebacks (11)

It is now official that I have passed all my subjects in the Promotional Exam. This was really unexpected, considering all the worries which I had about failing this exam and getting retained in JC1. At least now I can be at ease knowing that I had done well.

I am in a horrible dilemma now regarding a close classmate of mine, referred to “E” in this entry. Apparently, E didn’t do well in her promotional exams and thus, she is going to be retained in Year 1. E didn’t want to repeat another year, neither did I want her to, especially since I would miss her a lot. She appealed with my civics tutor but her request was turned down straight away. There was supposed to be a sub-test which all potential retainees have to sit for, and so I talked E into sitting for it. She agreed, but her request was again turned down by the CT as her grades didn’t meet the minimum requirement for sub-test entry.

E was miserable, so was I. At this moment, I am thinking up of ways and means to help her get promoted. Currently, I have appealed with our subject tutors, CCA heads and classmates, hoping that they would put a good word in and help E out. I have yet to know the outcome, but I am willing to do anything to make them agree, even if it means threatening them at knife point. This is a young girl’s education we are talking about, and this is something which was very important to her. I am not going to sit one side and watch helplessly as my good friend is forced to remain in Year one.

E has worked very hard, and I can bear witness to that. She heads for the library after school everyday to revise and she had spent countless hours practicing questions for the relevant subjects and whatnot. But in the end, she still wound up with 4 Fs, which is a complete waste. Please… if E is given an additional chance and is promoted, I will do all I can to help her improve her grades. She had also promised that she would work even harder if she were to be promoted.

Hopefully, my appeals for her would be successful. I really want to lift her up from her misery so that she can start enjoying her JC life once again. Otherwise, she would decide to pack up and go to a polytechnic, which means an additional 2 years wasted. She wants to get promoted and I am going to make sure that she gets her wish.

It’s ironic about how I was agonising about my results last week and now I am worrying for someone else.

On a lighter note, my parents had decided to buy me a new handphone tonight for my upcoming birthday, even though I hadn’t requested for one. For some strange reason, they just want me to upgrade. I am going to miss my Nokia 3310…

22 October, 2003

Results of Promotional Exams 2003

21:49:24 | School Life | writebacks (8)

Received most of my promotional exam results today, and what I have seen so far have been pretty uplifting. To think that all these days, I have been expecting nothing except to be retained in JC1 with the first impression that I would not do well. At this moment, I have 3 A and 1 AO passes, with the exception of General Paper, which results I have not received yet.

What surprised me most was Maths. Honestly, I did not even expect to pass Mathematics at all! Maths has always been my least favourite subject, and I am not very strong in it either. Mr Lim had always pointed out that my Mathematics foundation is weak, and that the number of careless mistakes which I unknowingly make would definitely kill me in the real A Level exams. No matter how much I try to be extra careful, it never works. In fact, the more I try, the worse it becomes. During the Maths promotional exam, I was rushing through the entire Maths paper, struggling to finish every single question in the stipulated time. So how on Earth could I have passed?

So miracles do exist after all.

However, passing all my papers does not mean that I can happily settle back and be satisfied with what I have. Despite having passed, most of these results did not please me one bit, especially Chinese and Chemistry, which I had just managed to scrape through. What is making things worse is the mere fact that the Chinese A Levels would be the week after next week. Have I studied? Nah! all my Chinese notes and stacked up in one corner, slowly gathering dust. Actually, I think even the dust would be much better than me in the subject, considering the amount of knowledge they would be soaking up by just laying there on my notes…

I am feeling more relaxed now, knowing that I have managed to cross this huge hurdle to head towards Year 2. I have heard from many people that the work done in Year 2 would be so much tougher and I would have to be prepared to work hard. So, I am aiming to enjoy my year end holidays to the fullest so that I can soak up as much enjoyment time before hitting the books once again in January 2004.

Sigh… Mr Wong Yew Hoong would be back in TPJC from next week onwards after being missing in action due to reservist callback. This means that my Chinese tutorial class can expect to receive a huge scolding from him once again due to our atrocious Chinese results (50% of the students in my class had failed). This would also mean that I would have to do some last minute shopping for reliable ear plugs to drown out the sound of his reprimanding. Either that, or I shall drown him out by imagining that I am watching a soap opera…