2005 Ending Soon

Like the title said, 2005 is ending soon.. in about 4 days. Wow. this is really fast...

Barely 4 days after Christmas, shops have all switched from playing Christmas carols to New year songs... Walk around some neighbourhood shops and you will see red -- literally. Chinese New Year Decorations have gone on sale in most shops...

Did I mention stress?? Seeing all these only reminded us how close it is to New Years, not to mention Chinese new year... There is a list to do, and on the top of that list is "spring cleaning" up the house!!

2005 could be said to have been very eventful, not to mention busy as well..
Below are some events classified into their related categories....

PERSONAL:

For starters, it is my secondary 4 year and thus, the 'O' Levels which is over now. Currently still sweating, waiting for results..
Problems also plagued this year, with unexpected bums in my studies which has cauesd un-necessary dilemmas.

This year also saw the unexpected outburst of the public due to the NKF saga (news article ) which I have blogged in an eariler post. Well the level of outcry only goes to show the level of trust which we have placed in all Voluntary Welfare Organizations.

Singapore:

Besides that, there was the execution of an Australian national which was caught smuggling drugs through our country..(news article ).... It escalated into a calls for boycott of our country's products and services by a small group of people. This really put the ties of the two countries in a test. This matter is not going to be put to rest so quickly as it had really split the Australians into two camps -- Those for and those against capital punishment. This case was also closely monitored by other countries especially Bali which has arrested 9 others for drug related crimes, better known as the "Bali 9" (news article).

The Education seen in Singapore has also changed, with more flexibility in admission to tertiary education. One example would be the Direct School Admission (DSA) which allows schools to accept pupils based on other qualifications other than the academic performance.

Global:

On the global scene, there has also been fresh attacks by terrorists which has revived old memories of past attacks as well as input new ones... Will this ever end?? No one knows...

China and Japan's ties were also in the rocks, with fresh protests to Japan's Prime minister's visit to the war shrine which honours class A criminals together with other war heros...(news article)... Ties are seen as improving.

Internet / Web Tech:

On the web technological front, there has been new trends in the current web. Long gone were the days of static content and slow internet connection. More and more people are connected these days. With the high proliferation of the internet, users are becoming more demanding. There has been talks on the current trends and many has come to classify the current generation of net as "Web 2.0".

Web 2.0 speaks of new trends like podcasting, blogging. It also includes new technologies like Asynchcronous Javascript and XML (AJAX), Ruby on Rails , new web APIs which promises a rich user experience. We also see guidelines from the World Web Web Consortium (W3C) becoming more deep-rooted in web development as web designers now starts conforming to markup standards. Because of this, Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT) and other standards dependent languages like XML can be implemented more easily.

Websites are now built using a combination of XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, Flash, Actionscript or even XML, mimicking desktop functionality and behaviour while taking away the pain of updating webpages for developers. AJAX has also lightened the load on servers reducing the amount of bandwidth consumed. Languages like javascript also make use of the Document Object Modal (DOM). Knowledge in this areas of development, which was once a bonus has now becomed a neccessity. Already, jumping between site areas fast are now deemed dull. Fading into new pages offers a much more pleasant experience.

Tags: Computers and Internet, Blogging, Internet, Personal, Weblog Life

Merry Christmas!!

Ho Ho ho!!

To all everyone in Singapore and those overseas,

Merry Christmas!!!

Cheers!

NKF Saga

I guess if you have been listening to the news, the NKF Saga came to another major junction. By that, I am refering to the release of the independent KPMG audit report a few days ago.

Thought it was already quite shocking when they revealed the ex-CEO's pay. Never thought the situation on the whole could ever be worse.

From what I could gather from the news, I am not really surprised at the reserves the company has, nor the expenditure or even the CEO flying first class. To be honest, I never even heard about the 30/70 rule. What I was most surprised was the excessive concentration of power to one person.
The whole structure of "power" of the upper echelons in the old NKF for a moment reminded me of past dictators.

It irks me to read from the audit report which stated that only 10 cents from every dollar goes to patients.
Was my compassion misplaced??
I felt like a fool to have urged my father to donate especially during the yearly NKF fund rasing charity show. But then, I don't think the level of betrayal me and my family felt was anywhere new what the artistes which risk wounds to perform stunts to raise money.

The confidence of people in these Voluntary Welfare Organizations (VWOs) has been shaken. Only time will heal it.
However, time is something these charities / VWOs may not have....
Sickness do not wait until a crisis is over before striking....
The patients do not have the time to wait....

I am, however, confident that the current board and CEO will set the record straight. The minister of health had acknowledged the poor coordination among regulatory agencies and a lack of clarity in lines of responsibility........ However, he assured that all these systemic weaknesses will be fixed within three months.

In this undeisrable episode, regulators have learned that they must follow through robustly even though it may cause unpleasentness and unhappiness (Mr Khaw's words) and relax because of historical successes of the organization in question.

In the coming months, we will really see the extent of damaged which has been delt to the NKF by the old board. Already, a substantial amount of people have dropped out of the monthly donation programme.

Will they return? No one will know for sure.

haha! yea...

Countdown!! Christmas is round the corner!! A season of joy and giving!! lalala...

But it is also the time I have to say bye bye to some of my friends who will be going overseas....
Well, for starters, my best friend, Jeremy will be off to London to study soon. I wish him a safe trip and hope that we will meet again... Maybe, erm 10 years from now at the class reunion sheduled in 2015.

Z.Y. is off to Italy, for 11 days. my Cousins will also be off to Genting for a few days... I myself won't be around online for a few days ....

Aside from that, can say I got myself or rather, thanks to Z.Y, he got me into Bleach, an anime currently showing in Japan... As you can see in the navigation bar in this page, I even added a "Bleach" section.

Blogexplosion is hiring people, but extra requirements like, "extensive knowledge in PHP, MySQL", I can't even try... Even then, will they hire a 16, soon 17 year old teen?? I doubt so.

Anyway, finally completed my month long redesigning of this blog... can say I discovered quite alot, although page load time may not have improved as I hoped... but it is a different from my old color schemes, alot brighter...

Graphics, Layouts were all designed from scratch. Spent about a day thinking about the layout and linkages alone. The whole site is extensible and based on CSS, making maintainance quite easy.

Holidays are fast coming to an end.. Must really start planning what to do.

quiet...

Ooops... have not been blogging for sometime...

Quite busy, if you count in trying to rush through 60 episodes of the Anime: Bleach within 4 days.
Went to my friend's house for a few days for the past week as well as catching some movies. Waiting for Narnia to come into cinemas.....

Holidays coming to an end too.... and I still have not finish packing my room. 2006 Chinese New Year coming early too... Must really complete clearing up the room soon.

Well.. today's the 14 December... Looks like a few of my friends will be flying overseas soon, if they have not already.... Looks like it is new year, new country for them... haha.

My computer seems to be outdated already.... Wanted to buy Quake 4 the other day, but sadly, the game requires at least an ATI Radeon 9700 or the X-series of graphics card. I only have an ATI Radeon 9000... Tech-geeks especially gamers may say that my computer is already ancients... sighz... really too bad...

At home now.... Working on a new layout for my blog..

Some may wonder why I seem to be changing all the layouts all the time..
Well, thats the only way I could get myself to learn....
Used to just copy and paste from website templates, with the exception of the current one here, which I coded myself, although some parts were not coded by me....

The new site will be purely made from Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Some elements like Flash and javascript tickers will also be added.Coding Markup stricty adheres to XHTML 1.0 or 1.1 Standards, with the exception of blogger inserted codes. Must make sure that the codes won't go outdated when World Wide Web Consortium (w3c) releases XHTML 2.0.

Well, back to my coding... Waiting for Bleach ep 61 too. Should be released in about 8 hours...

-out-

Exam Withdrawal Syndrome (EWS)

Thought it would be a nice first few days of rest after the exams..
But got Exam Withdrawal Syndrome instead. One moment you're mugging for 2 weeks 24/7 and then suddenly you do not have to do so anymore... It really feels weird. Got urge to study but no motivation to study. Very paradoxical.
Well I'm not the only one. A few of my friends are feeling the same too. Haha, wondering whether to start studying something extra.

Well I kept myself busy. Been trying to teach myself C++ and Flash/ActionScripting. Been brushing up on my CSS skills and usage also. Will be rolling out a new website design. Moreover thinking of building a CMS (content management site) to put history essays. But I guess that will come later.

Went to watch the Exocism of Emile Rose. Can say quite errie. However, the first show on exocism : "The Exocist" was scarier than this. However, this show is enough to spook anybody or even get them to start praying. 6 demons althogether. Permit me to exclaim : "my God!!!"

However, something had infuriated me today. Or rather, yesterday, once I finish this post.
I was accused of writing, actually tagging someones blog, which I did not.
I will not provide a full transcript of what happened, its between the parties involved. But I'll just give an overview..
Basically does a two letters mean anything?? One has to see "gs" and automatically think it is me. Come on! There are so many people out there with gs as their initials. Furthermore, my initials are not even "gs". For the record, its gyjz or gyeojz, as seen in my URL.
I get angry when there is no prove and somebody starts pointing fingers.
Whats even more provoking in the matter is that I specifically thought about my online nick and site branding, wanting it to be something special.
Why do I have to further shorten it?? I would gladly announce my nick on the site I post to, and I can say I am proud of the nick!

At least I'm glad that incident has been straightened out.

Better sign off now b4 I "over-rant". Got to sleep soon too! Have to collect my Secondary Leaving Certification today at about 8am.

cya =)

Password protected script

Hey xiiaomiin..
Copy the script below into the head tags
Remember to change the password and the prompt msg.


SORRY!! SCRIPT HAS BEEN TAKEN OFF BY THE AUTHOR
TO SAVE SERVER BANDWIDTH.......


Warning: the script above provides only basic password protection and is insecure. Like I suggested before, use diary-x if you really want to keep a private password protected blog.

Cheers!

O levels half way through!!

Wow. What a week! *takes a deep breath* This is it.. D-Day! Concluding 4 years of Secondary School life,I'm (or rather Sec 4 Students) are already into the 5th day of the 2 week long Cambridge-Singapore 'O' Level Exams.

Currently, Social Sudents, E.Maths, English Language, Biology,History 2158 (World Affairs), Literature are done with, including Chinese which we sat for in June.

My goodness! The questions asked can be really weird. For instance, History 2158. So many specific qeustions came out. out of 31 essays, 22 of them were specific. I've never seen so many specific come out in the previous years. Than there were some that were almost... (well I cannot find the correct word to describe it.)
For example, one of the questions: Outline the main events in the history of the Weimer Republic duting the years of 1919 to 1929.
If they want to cut the essay timeline, then cut more. That esssy is not much different from the 1919 to 1933 timeline. The difference is only one sentence which is "Hitler became the chancellor and rose to power in January 1933".
And what the he**!? An overlapping question of pacific war and SCAP?? If we were to write everything, from the bombing of Pearl Harbour , then the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, finally SCAP recovery of Japan, it would take us about an hour, way past the time limit of 1/2 hour per essay for 5.
Even our teacher, when found out about some questions like Tiananmen Square massacre and Deng Xiaoping came out, she control herself from exclaiming "those *~censored~* !!"

Biology Multiple Choice Paper 1 was almost relaxing. A 1 hour paper left most of us freezing in the air-condition hall for 35 minutes as most had already finished it in 25 minutes. You could hear some people stretching themselves in the hall.Although that cannot be said for the Biology Paper 2. There was an essay on eutropication (isn't that supposed to be in Chemistry??). Well I really hope I can do well in Biology. I don't really have high hopes. My fault actually. I cut myself during the biology practicals about 3 weeks ago. And it was a deep one. It took 2 days for it to totally stop bleeding. It just healed, with the outer skin / or you may called the epidermis (onsisting of the gradular and conified layer) still forming.

Just finish E Maths paper 2 today, and never did I expect the fibonacci sequence would make its way into the paper. Well, thankfully they did not ask how to find the n^th term. That would have taken some time. Anyway, can say we had enough time to do the paper twice... a situation totally the opposite from out prelimss. The prelims were disastrous, with many not completing the paper. Even though I completed the paper for prelim, I still got a B3 as I lost over 15 marks due to careless mistakes.

Anyway, taking a 3 day break before the next paper which is Additional Mathematics.Thats 5 papers off the list, with 4 more to go!!

one week left

Arrgh!! One more week left.....
breathe...breathe....

Three things:
~ Tagboard's finally back online.
~ I added a music player on the site for streaming songs.
~revised site terms to cover the new content

OK...thats it.... back to studies...

Hmm.. break-few

hmm... let me break my ban and give some updates...

Currently 2 'O' level papers, the Biology and Chemistry practicals are over. The Biology one has been disastrous, with me, cutting 1/3 down my finger. Thankfully it was my left hand. Took 2 days to stop bleeding. Anyway, its quite ok now.

Physics Practicals are tomorrow.

Anyway, Tagboards gonna be down for a while as Sep is switching hosts and my files have to be moved. All post have been backed up and I will find some time to upload it to the new server. However, the taggy is going to be down for a while.

To Manda: Yepz, I'll be looking forward to an team "inspiration" gatheriing.

To Jeremy: A link to Giam's blog is already up under links section.

Thats all... cya.

Stop!

Results are back. Sad to say, it was extremely disappointing.
So as I promised my self, I am hereby putting a self-inpose ban on
myself. Thus I will not be online for a long period of time. As such,
this blog might not be updated.
I will be back online to blog only after the 'O' Levels which ends in
November. So in other words, I will be back sometime around late
November or Early December.
For returning readers, thank you for your support.

Till then.... Sayonara.

153rd Anniversary Speech & Graduation Day

I am zonked/pooped after Saturday.

It was SJI's 153rd Anniversary Speech & Graduation Day..

Had to go to Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road) for a seminer in the morning before the going back to school for the 153rd Anniversary Speech & Graduation Day. Yew Liang had to be "kiasu" and asked us to report to ACS barker by 0800 hours when the seminer was supposed to start at 0830 hours. However, it dragged on till 0900 hours before starting. What's more? It ended at 1310 hours when it was supposed to end at 1230 hours!! Yawn!

Walked from ACS Barker to Nick Tong's house to play pool. Late, we head towards Tanglin Community Center, passing Singapore Chinese Girls School on the way. We were already late by then as the reporting time was 1530 and we were still in the cafe eating our lunch at 1540.

The graduation proceeded smoothly enough.. Below are some photos of it.

On the Stage: The Brothers, head of levels, principal and HODs

General view of the Founder's Hall.

Our guest of honour: Mr Lee Tai Yang Speaking. Wah!! this guy got a long story! He went through the whole timeline of his younger days... He recounted his school days term by term!!! "Term 1 was this.... Term 2 this happened..." and this went on for 50 minutes! Until he was handed a note asking him to end his speech. We were way overtime. And you will never believe how hilarious his speech was. You can see that he was not wes prepared at all!! Even the teachers laughing throughout his speech.

From Left: Mrs Lim our Form Tutor, Class Chairman Darrick and Zhi Kai (This was the scene before we presented a token of appreciation to Mrs Lim)

Last but not least, the class of 403(2005). As Mrs Lim, our form tutor puts it, A class of diverse talents!

Graduated!!!

Ooopps! Just Too much!!

Wah... pardon me.. never blog for a while... frequency of posting getting a bit erratic.
Prelims just finished and 'O' levels starting in 3 weeks time. Been bombarded by all those past-year-papers.

Getting little or no inspiration nowadays. *sighz*

Situation in Singapore still have not stabilized yet. I am talking about the dengue cases. It is still on the rise. Seriously, by now, you would think many would raise their guard and be more vigilant about water collecting in their empty flower pots etc. But NOoo... Many still take for granted. More responsibility is needed.

Talking about responsiblity, bloggers have, in recent weeks been thrown into the limelight again and again. Last time it was Sarong Party Girl posting well... photos of herself.. causing some uneasiness within the blogosphere, then it was the defamation of A*Star. Later, in September, which is this month, 3 bloggers were charged for seditious comments. And then yesterday's newspaper talking about the disciplinary action taken against 5 tertiary students which were all females. One of them was flaming a teacher for telling a girl off because she was wearing short skirts.

Oh come on! enough already. Ain't all those actions taken against the "offenders" enough to put people on guard?? Many are still not taking care in what they write. Do you think you can easily evade responsiblity online? With the explosion of blogging as a powerful medium and a point of "rally" it is fast catching the eyes of people. Popular blogs are a prove-of-concept. Some are even efficent in raising funds then fund raising events!!
People are sitting up and taking note of this phenomenon. Governments too are doing so.

Safe? whats safe online?? With growing affluence and widespread use of computers, it is not hard to track down anyboday nowadays. All you need is a piece of software and internet connection. Voila! information is effortlessly gathered.
Hide behind an online nick/handle?? -- Useless.
What you say online can even become a basis for losing your job! Already a few people have been subjected to this.
Some people have even classified blogs as the "dark-side" of the internet.

Viruses? Trojans? Worms? Phishing? Spamming? Identity Theft? Cracking? Flaming? Macro-Viruses? Spoofing?
Oh my goodness... How much more stuff must we add to the list? This is just nuts...

*Sighz*

JavaScript

Due to the JavaScript-dependent nature of my main site @ http://gyeojz.blogspot.com, I will maintain a non-JavaScript site http://gensephyr.blogspot.com

An increasing number of people, especially security gurus would disable JavaScript thus rendering my doument NAVigation and effects useless. This is because my NAVigation menu uses the onmouseover, onclick and onmouseout events. Without JavaScript enabled, they would not work. Same goes for the progress bar.

Posts will be syncronized across the two blogs @
- http://gyeojz.blogspot.com
- http://gensephyr.blogspot.com

Strong Signal !!!

Finally, prelim exams are over.
Can take a short break before studying for the main exams -- 'O' levels

I won't say much about my exams. Don't want to put my hopes too high. The higher I put it, the harder I will fall.....

However, something on the news made me sit up.
I guess it should be all round the internet, especially the Singapore blogosphere by now -- I am referring to the court proceedings regarding the few errant bloggers.

For those not familiar, 2, erm make that 3 guys were hauled up to court for passing racist remarks on a forum and blog respectively. It would no doubt be a "wake up" call to many, urging them take care in what they post online. These 3 are being charged under the 'Sedition Act' which was last used/invoked about 10 years ago.

EDIT: A recent news update says that if they are found guilty, they can be jailed for a minimum of 3 years / fined or both.

I don't know these people personally, and all the knowledge I have of them are inferred from newspaper reports. However, with the internet being "public domain", I felt that it was very insensitive of them to post those snide and crude remarks online, especially in a multi-racial society like Singapore.

This incident made many of us think:" should we continue blogging??" All these questions are quite pertinent when many people take to the internet which they felt was "safer" and they were more "untouchable". However, we often forget that laws targeing at "mass media" includes the internet too.

With the strong signal sent across in this case, I wonder how many people have stopped blogging altogether. Already, a few I know stopped this "habit / routine". "Not safe" would be a common answer you find among those who gave up blogging.

Many would argue that the action taken against these people were just too harsh, and we should let the online committee practise self-censorship. However, would this actually work??

To a certain extent, online censorship will work. I mentioned 'to a certain extent" because you can never be 100% sure that every single one of these "inappropriate content" will effectively be censored out. In forums, we don't have people to monitor 24/7.

Moreover, blogs are products of their respective authors and thus would reflect the authors themselves. This is what makes many blogs unique. If the authors were to make a mistake, it would get them into trouble.

Also, we must remember, inapporpriate content to some may not sound inappropriate to others. We all have different degree of tolerance. Thus a "self-censorship" may not work.

In this case, they have to bring these 3 guys to court also because of where they are -- Singapore.
Think: In a society like Singapore, where racial stability is on a delicate balance, a comment like theirs may have disastrous result. (Thank goodness it didn't happen). Taking the severity of their actions in to account, a harsh punishment against them is understandable.

So how?? What can we do? The best thing to do is to take care in what you say, be it online, or offline. I am sure many are careful in what they say on the streets or anywhere offline. We should start applying them online too (if you have not already been doing it).

Especially blogs, make sure you have edited out any undesirable comments before your "click / trigger" happy finger presses the publish button. It may be easy to retract what you say offine compared to what you publish online. Once published online, it is free to the world. It may be archived, kept in a proxy server, search engine etc. making retracting almost impossible.

Know where to draw the fine line between what is within or outside the law. No matter where we are, we are still governed by them. It is a fact we must accept.

(p.s. I have just edited my layout. Made major changes to it especially the menu. Any comments or problems with it please email me at antimatter.jz@gmail.com . Alternatively, you can tag me. Thanks)

Silence...

Erm...
I feel so guilty.
Never blog for so long.

Sorry for the silence of this blog...
Having my exams which will finish in 4 days time...
Will do a proper post and update after that...

Exams not going very well.... should be able to get a decent L1R5, but don't think I will meet my expectations. sighz...
Subjects that aren't supposed to be easy are easy. Subjects that ARE supposed to be easy are difficult. damn... last two papers. Must score especially in A.Maths paper 2 as I sort of screw up Paper 1. However, must not forget E.Maths too.

Anyway, also working on a new layout... trying to get the CSS working.

Well till then...

Sayonara.

just for fun

Found this interesting.
Got this from the show "有话就说 Let's Shoot" on Channel 8.

They were discussing on the topic: "why do people dislike chinese"
They asked a few students, how to read the statement below:

种花种种种种种种香

Well?? Doesn't sound right??

The correct way of reading is :
种 zhong(4) 花 hua(1) 种 zhong(3) ,
种 zhong(3) 种zhong(3) 种zhong(4),
种 zhong(3) 种 zhong(3) 香 xiang (1) .


(translation: when you plant different types of flowers, any type of flower you plant will be nice)


This is because the word "种" have multiple meanings and readings (多音多意）.

By the way, the frequency of my postings for the next few weeks will be a bit erratic as I am preparing for my Prelims as well for my 'O' Levels.

Hitler: rise of power

Check out an updated version at: http://fusedthought.com/2008/01/13/hitler-rise-to-power/

To my friend who asked for the Hilter Rise essay, here it is.

*start*

Hitler’s Rise to Power

Hitler rose to power in 1933 due to the unpopularity of the Weimar Government.

Hitler joined the German Workers’ Party in 1919 and became the leader in 1920 when it merged with the National Workers’ Party. He built up his party with his oratorical, organization skills and charisma. He created the Stormtroopers (SA) which broke up other parties’ meetings. He spread propaganda through publication of party newspapers and mass rallies.

The Nazi Party’s aims had appealed to the people. They propagated the “Stab in the Back” theory, accusing the government of betraying the state and the army by signing the armistice in 1919. They blamed the Treaty of Versailles for the loss of territories and reparations and the War Guilt Clause for disarmament. Hitler promised to ignore them and create a greater, stronger and authoritarian Germany when in power, through Anschluss between Germany and Austria and Lebensraum in Eastern Europe. He would introduce socialist measures, such as the nationalization of defense and public utilities, and increase old-age pensions. These aimed to stir up Nationalist feelings in the Germans and gain their support.

Weaknesses in the Weimar Government led to its downfall/rise of Hitler. For example, the government is based on proportional representation. This means that unstable coalitions will be formed as parties lack majority vote, making it hard to implement policies. Frequent collapse of these coalitions also led to democracy being rejected by the masses.

The President also has emergency powers to dissolve the Parliament and rule by decree. The government was also unable to maintain law and order. For example, it was unable to deal with the Spartacist Uprising staged by the left-wing on January 1919 and required the help of the Freikorps, a private force, to quell the violence.

The Weimar Government could not solve the economic problems. War expenses had almost bankrupted Germany. In 1923, Germany halted their consignment of goods, which led to the Ruhr Crisis when France and Belgium, invaded. The German government reacted to the invasion by printing more money leading to a massive inflation and the collapse of the Mark. There was a passive resistance by workers. People’s life savings were lost. Many turned to Hitler to solve their problems.

The Munich Putsch in November 1923 aimed to start a revolution to overthrow the government. He wanted to capitalize on the current failings of the state and thus seize power. However, it failed as he did not have the support he thought he had from the Bavarian Government. Hitler was caught and put on a trial which gave him and the Nazis publicity. The party was banned and Hitler decided never to seize power by force again. While he was in jail, the party was thrown into disarray, but he made use of Gobbels to spread Nazi propaganda.

Stresemann’s rule from 1923 to 1929 saw a decline in Nazi support. The Nazi Party seats fell from 32 in March 1924 to 14 in December 1924 and then to 12 in 1928. It was a period of economic and political stability. The Dawes Plan of 1924 successfully settled the reparations issue, convinced France to leave Ruhr, and secured US loans to stabilize finances. The Young Plan in 1929 reduced the reparation amount from ₤6600 million to ₤2000 million. Thus the Weimar Government gained popularity although Germany became dependent on US loans.

Stresemann restored Germany’s international status as a Great Power. He signed the Locarno Treaty in 1925 agreeing to western frontiers with France, Britain, Italy and Belgium, but failed to mention the eastern frontiers.

In the 1928 Kellogg Pact, Germany renounced the use of force and joined the League of Nations as a permanent member.

The Great Depression in 1929 was a critical factor for the rise of the Nazis. Stresemann, the best man to deal with the crisis had died, US loans were recalled. Wages declined, factories closed. Industrial production dropped by 42%. Currency collapsed. Unemployment rose from 1.4 million in 1928 to 6 million in 1932. The Communists got 120 seats, nearly 17%, in the November 1932 elections. The working class was unhappy as the government reduced social services, salaries and pensions of government officials and especially the unemployment benefit

The Nazis capitalized on dire conditions, spreading propaganda through films, recordings and posters of Hitler. Interest groups representing different sections of the population were set up to show that the Nazis understood their particular worries. Because of the unemployment, SA expanded as more people joined. Hitler promised to lead Germany out of its present misery and economic depression, maintain order, and get rid of Communism threat thereby restoring Germany to greatness again.

President Hindenburg tried to solve the problems from the Great Depression by suspending the constitution and ruling by decree. 5 successive coalition governments were appointed, but the problems still remained. This demonstrated a failure in democracy. Thus Nazis gained popularity.

In mid-1932, a group of Right-Wing politicians invited Hitler to power, hoping to capitalize on the Nazi support and gain popularity. By inviting Hitler into power, they also hope that it would be easier to control Hitler. Moreover, the feared another putsch. So, on January 30, 1933, Hitler legally rose to power.

*end*

If anyone else got comments on this essay, please do so. But please do not reproduce essay elsewhere without specific permission from me. Thanks.

Teachers' Day concert: M & M & M

Finally got a few pictures of our performance during the teachers' day!!
Our class band: M & M & M in action!!

Below are the pics.

14 singers!! Can u find me? haha 

flash presentation 

The Band: M & M & M

Database moved

No time to write a long post as I am heading to COMEX 2005 soon...

The tagboard has been successfully moved to a new server...
It may take a bit longer to load as I have more restriction on bandwidth as well as server upload and download speeds. The previous host, Sepwich, decided to pull the plug on hosting due to server space constraints.

New linux server hosting is by polarhome.

But I have serious problems regarding the posting process... so you may not be able to tag for sometime... A separate tagboard will be set up for the time being...

In the meantime, I will be trying to get another host with better specs.

Teachers day!!

To all teachers out there, in any corner of the whole: HAPPY TEACHER'S DAY!!!

Yesterday was the day we showed our class, 403's production to the school.
Had some last minute reshuffling before the performance.

403's production includes:
~ a re-written song lyrics: The Reason (by Hoobastank)
~ accompanying dance (Choreographed by Goutham)
~ a Flash/ActionScript presentation (programmed by Ray Chuan)
~ 4 Guitarists (3 electric, 1 base)
~ 1 Drummer (we "imported" him from CJC)
~ 14 Singers (an increase from the previous 8)

It was a huge class effort....
Anyway, we got quite rave responses. We were really rocking the house down.
Some teachers even came up to congratulate us!!

Other acts put up by other classes went well too, but certain tricks in the "magic" show became quite obvious when viewed from the galleries. The lower secondary boys were also awed by a band consisting of teachers (3 guitarist, 2 singers, 1 drummer). The drummer has drumsticks that looked like chopsticks bundled together!! haha.

First time I figured out all the doors to the Performing Arts Centre (PAC). We actually have about 7 different ways to get into the PAC!! I didn't know... I've always thought there was only 3 ways....

Went out for lunch with Crenshaw and the others. Crenshaw refused to take off his pink tie. He was flashing it all the way to Plaza Singapura. lolx...

Came home to have a nap, afterwich, went out with my parents again to Marina Square to have dinner. Surprisingly, meet Darrick, Anthony, Ircahn, Zach and a few others together with Mr, wong, Ang and Ms Chan, our teachers. It appears they had been "stalking" them since afternoon, and have not gone back to bathe after the morning's performance... goodness!!

Tomorrow will be English prelims already. Must get prepared. It is the final exam before the 'O' Levels and will count into our first 3 months admission into a Junior College. Must do well...

Anyway,
Happy Teacher's Day again!! =)

League of Nations

Essay on League of Nation

The League of Nations was established in April 1919 to deal with the difficult international problems.

The League, as well as the framework and structure is bounded by the covenant. It aimed to maintain peace through collective security. It consists of the Assembly, the Council, the Secretariat, Court of International Justice, the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the Mandates Commission.

The Assembly was the League’s debating chamber, consisting of not more than three delegates from each member state, with each member only entitled to one vote. The members met annually, dealing with international problems brought before it. It admitted new members and controlled the budget. It also elected non-permanent members of the Council. Any decision taken had to be unanimous.

The Council consisted of 4 permanent members Britain, France, Italy and Japan. Germany joined later in 1926. It also started with 4 non-permanent members of which one was Poland. This number was increased to 11 by 1936. They meet at least three times a year, and dealt with problems when the Assembly was not in session. It could organize sanctions against an offending state. All decisions had to be unanimous.

The Secretariat consisted of permanent officials acting as salaried civil servants of the League in Geneva. They do all the administrative work, preparing agendas, and writing resolutions and reports for f the League. The Secretariat was divided into different sections, such as finance, drugs, health and disarmament. Its first Secretary-General, Sir Eric Drummond, succeeded in his aim to develop a body of international civil servants that were loyal to the League as opposed to individual states.

The Permanent Court of Justice was based at The Hague in Holland since 1921. It consists of fifteen judges of different nationalities, elected by the assembly. They represent the world’s different legal systems. It dealt with legal disputes, as opposed to political disputes between states. It also advised the Assembly and Council if asked. However, decisions were not binding.

The international labour organization aimed to improve the working conditions by fixing a maximum working day and week, recommend appropriate wages for workers and lay down minimum entitlements for sickness, injury and old-age benefit. It also worked to ensure freedom for trade unions to organize their members to enjoy rights. It is associated to all League members. Non members could be elected in.

Commissions and Special Committees (or if preferred: specialized agencies) were set up to carry out much of the League’s work. Each committee/agency specialized in a certain objective.

The disarmament agency aimed to reduce armament in a great scale. It mad little progress as members could not agree on the issue. However, it did manage to reduce the arms ratio of USA, Britain and Japan to 10:10:7 respectively.

The Commission for Refugees, supervised by High Commissioner, aimed to repatriate and secure the welfare of people displaced by the war. They managed to restore 400,000 prisoners of thirty nationalities to their homeland.

The Commission for Slavery was aimed to reduce slavery worldwide. It asked members to cooperate to stamp out slave dealing. However, there were still reports of slave dealings in 1937. The commission inquired all members about slavery in states.


Any Comments?? Please Tag or email me.

Syncronization

Oh.. Another thing...
Posts from this blogger account will be syncronized automatically with my MSN spaces account so I don't have to blog 2 times...

~ http://gyeojz.blogspot.com
~ http://spaces.msn.com/members/gyeojz

Nonetheless, the blogspot/blogger account will take precedence over the rest of my blogs as it is and will always be my main blog (unless someone can come up with a free blogging service with greater flexibility & also without ads).....

Temp down....

Thank heavens my temperature went down... thought it would stay at 37.8

Well skipped school today.. I think will be able to return tomorrow. Actually I must return tomorrow as it will be the last day of lessons before the prelims.

Will generate a better post next time... better rest now if I wanna go back to school tomorrow.
HOpe the Rehersals will go on well... Wonder if Darrick has found out what to do with the other 20+ people....

lolx

I'm Sick

Sighz..

I'm Sick...
Fever... 38.2 degrees celsius

Couldn't do much today... Didn't even touch my work...

Haiz...

One wasted day.....

Countdown..

Countdown begins towards teacher's day and also the English Prelim Exam which will be held on the day after that....

Had rehersals for teacher's day today. Two more rehersals left and still not polished. Stayed back until 6pm with Darrick, Shi Xian, Zhen Cheng to discuss what to do with the mass of 20 people. What is confirmed is that we will have a drummer, 4 guitarists, 8 lead vocalists on stage, while 2 of us will be in the control centre of the PAC (Performing Arts Centre). Jeremy skipped the rehersal as he was going to Malaysia for the weekend.

Talking about going away, looks like more of my friends will be going overseas at the end of this year...
First it was Andrew, he's going to New South Wales High School in Australia.
Than Abraham also said he would be going to Australia.
Shi Xian would also be going over to his brother (i think)in Australia....
Grace will also go back to Shanghai in a few days time...

Why is everyone leaving??

sighz....

Our elective humans (geog/S.S.) teacher will also be leaving at the end of this month... he has resigned from the school, for a reason not known to us... But from what we could gather, it was some "staff politics".... How can he bare to leave at this crucial time of the year?! With 'O' Levels drawing near, he has to drop this bomb...

Regarding bombs, thought physics practical was going to be easy. However, that was not the case... ok, I would say that we will be able to pass, but definitely not well...

The teachers had warned us that prelims will be "tough" as they want to "scare us", but we didn't know they meant mass slaughter. Maybe that is an understatment?? "Murder" would be a better word.



~~~~~~6 days to start of prelims (main papers)~~~~~~

Scored!!

First time!! first time my 2158 essay get a 15. And part 1 got 12/14!! Wow!!

Chemistry practical on Wednesday wasn't that bad, but I left my Nike bottle in the science lab... forgot to take it out... damn it!! Don't know if it is still there... SOoooo absent-minded... haiz.. Can't go back in as the labs are currently out-of-bounds to students. oh well...

hrmph... after so long -- about a year, never go into computer lab 1, we went there today only to find the school had changed all the computers again!!
hmm... thats like the second time in 4 years! And whats more?
All 34 computers are Pentium 4, 3.0 GHz, 400MHz 512Mb RAM and running on ATI Radeon Graphics cards!!
I'm SOooo jealous... and we don't get to use it too.... sobz...

There will be another rehersal for teachers day tomorrow after the physics practicals... Looks like will be another long day at school....

Just realized that Mozilla Thunderbird could manage podcasts and get RSS feeds. lolx... was just listening to the Prime Minister's National Day Rally. It was fun watching “tau gay not enough --豆芽不够” and “tau gay never enough -- 豆芽永远不够” again..

haha...

Anyway, that aside, Physics practicals tomorrow. Two screw ups and I really pray that this won't add on to the count.

I got Microsoft Vista?? + BIo practicals

Micorsoft Vista (formly codenamed longhorn) will be arriving next year, hopefully in the first half. Screenshots of it were released on Microsoft Vista's site.

However, I couldn't really wait, so decided to do some skinning...
Downloaded this theme from wincustomize.
Credit for this theme goes to KoL

Can say I am quite satisfied. Looks like the real thing too! Although I can never emulate the engine behind Microsoft Vista.

Below is a screenshot of my current desktop...

My Current "Micosoft Vista" Desktop...


Lolx...

Biology pracitical yesterday was quite screwed. Ask us to compare visible features between W31 (carrot) and W32 (onion). Can't see and similarities or differences except for the layered appearance. Hope Chemistry Practicals tomorrow won't be as bad....

=)

Pardon...

hmm.. feel so bad... no time to write a good entry.
Prelim biology practical tomorrow... taking a break from it to write this...

Chemistry and Physics practicals will be on Wednesday and Friday respectively...

However, did catch the National Day Rally... certain sections were quite hilarious... especially the short video by Nanyang Polytechnic..

must mug...

Some Updates....

On this blog:
~ I have changed the tagboard back to my sepwich hosted one as I found out that cBox would deliver a popup everytime someone visits my site... I just can't stand popups and could not tolerate having the sight of one on my blog.
~ By the way, I'm wondering, who is "sofia"?? There isn't a "www.bignews.com". I am curious what info she is referring to...
~ A few more history 2158 essays will be coming soon to this site as I prepare for 'O' Levels. I hope readers will give their comments on it.


In Singapore:
~ President S.R. Nathan has been elected a second term after a no contest as no one else was eligible.
~ Looks like the problems not solved when TT Durai stepped down.... The new interim board of National Kidney Foundation of Singapore has called in the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) to come in. The scene does not reflect well, especially when people had just recovered from the events that were revloving around NKF which has led to Mr. Durai resigning.
~ However, NKF will be reducing the overall monthly dialysis charge, from S$200 to S$164, comparable to KDF and private centers.
~ Victoria Secondary School students has started a petition against the school from going co-ed. Many feel that it would erode the schools 120+ year old tradtion of being an all-boys school. Discussions well be held with the students on the matter.
~ Project Superstar finals have ended. Kevin and Kelly won the male and female divisions respectively. They will be releasing their debut albums in a few days time. They will meet again in a final "battle" to choose the overall champion. Sales of their debut album will contribute to their scores in the overall finals.


Global:
~ Outbreak of a new worm on the internet: ZOTOB. More information on this worm can be found on anti-virus vendor's website.
A link to the details on Trendmicro's site can be found here


ok... thats all...

Rehersals.

Rehersals.. rehersals..

Yea.. thats right.. rehersals for the teachers' day concert.

Damn. waited until 4 p.m. and still couldn't get started. Ray encountered some programming errors.
ok..ok.... maybe because we tried to be "extra", choosing flash presentation rather than powerpoint. Well, we wanted to make an impact....
I couldn't help Ray much... Although I may know HTML (who doesn't??), Javascript, C++ (a little) and Visual Basic, I am a complete "noob" when it comes to flash programming....
Oh well... I am going to learn it after 'O' Levels.

Overall, I think we still need to "polish" up our acts. Need to do a little choreography, and also curb some of our stage "frights".

2158 essay question was quite unexpected. Instead of asking for political and economic reforms, they asked for political and economic progress in the 1950s to 1960s.... Got us stunned...
In the end, I resorted to writing everything I posted in the last blog entry and added and ending paragraph referring to that time frame stated in the question (e.g. 6% economic growth in 1950s and 11% economic growth in 1960s) .

The Maths E.Maths test also came as a surprise as we were not "fore warned". Anyway, it wasn't that bad..... although it would have been better if we were given some more time to do .

SCAP --- Post-war recovery of Japan immediately after WW2

What the heck... don't think I can finish this long essay in half an hour..

oh well...

*Start*

Japan’s post world war 2 situation did not look promising. Most of her major cities lay in ruins. About 30 % of her industrial capacity, 80% of her shipping capacity and 30% of her thermal power were destroyed. Industrial production was only 10% of pre-war levels. Territories were all lost. There were food shortages and inflation. However, the Japanese accepted the presence of foreign troops as people are urged by the government to gracefully accept defeat.

Allied forces were to remain in Japan for 6.5 years from August 1945 to April 1952. General Douglas MacArthur was promoted to become the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (SCAP). The aims were to help Japan recover from war, as well as the demilitarization and democratization of Japan, converting its wartime economy to peacetime economy. From 1948, this included strengthening Japan’s economy. The creation of SCAP and the aims reflected USA’s concerns about the growth of communism in China and Europe. The costs of helping Japan amassed US$400 million by 1947.

Major political changes were made. During the pre-war, there was a deep reverence for the emperor since ancient times. In theory, he was seen as divine and ruled Japan. In reality he just accepted advice of ministers and had little influence over policy making. As part of westernization, a Diet or parliament was created. Members were chosen by the emperor, and thus, not democratic. However, the Diet’s power was limited and Japan continued to be ruled by officials and the old ruling class. The military also had lots of power. After the post war, Japanese had surrendered, asking only that Emperor Hirohito be allowed to retain his title and authority. Allies accepted this on condition that he takes orders from the SCAP. Under constitution, the Emperor had to renounce his divine status and also had no power over the government and could only act in matters of state on the advice and approval of the Diet.

The Diet became the highest organ and the cabinet of the state. It consisted of the Upper and Lower Houses, with the Upper House having 150 members voted on 6 year terms and the Lower House having 457 members voted on 4 year terms.

The Prime Minister and his cabinet were drawn from the Diet. All of them had to be civilians and not militarists. Cabinet followed the British modal and was responsible to the Diet. Both Houses had to be fully elected to prevent perpetuation of the old ruling class. Different political parties were also encouraged so that different views could be expressed.

Under the new constitution, the Judiciary was made independent. Governors of prefectures were made elective. Local governments were democratized and given more power. Japan was required to renounce the use of force and war, leading to its demilitarization. The Japanese Empire was dismantled, with 7 million Japanese troops and civilians brought back from mainland. Armed forces were disbanded, weapon stocks destroyed. This includes the seizure of private arms. All activities with militarist overtone were banned. War industries were restricted. The 25 war leaders including Tojo were tried by an international tribunal. 7, including Tojo were executed. Others were imprisoned. 200000 former military officers and high officials in government were purged and were forbidden to enter into the government again. As a result, new men were brought in and also made democratic reforms easier.

Economic changes were also carried out. Land reforms, which aimed to breakup landownership monopolies held by the Zaibutsu as well as strengthen economic and social positions of the middle class. The Zaibutsu were powerful families with huge business combines and controlled 80% of Japan’s business. 1946, land commissions were setup by SCAP to select land for buying and resale to tenant-farmers. Resident landlords have to sell part of their land to the government, cultivating the remaining piece of land. Absentee landlords (landlords who don’t live on their land) had to sell it to the government. SCAP gave technological advice and financial help. Farm size was also limited to prevent concentration. As a result, tenancy decreased, dropping from 46% in 1946 to 10% in 1950. Standards of living in countryside increased.

Zaibutsu were broken up, destroying over-concentration of power. Families were removed from ownership, control and position. Shares were confiscated and sold to middle income families. SCAP tried to break up the combines into smaller companies and introduced business fairplay by setting up the Fair Trade Commission, issuing regulations to prevent monopolies. However, when SCAP left, many Zaibutsu firms had reunited. Thus, the measures to destroy these zaibutsu were ineffective. Japan’s political leaders were closely linked to the Zaibutsu. USA did not understand the nature of Japanese capitalism. In the end, in 1948, the Zaibutsu were allowed to reform.

Trade Unions were set up to strengthen democratic forces as well as bring about a more equal distribution of wealth. Law was passed in 1945 to guarantee workers the right to organize strikes and engage in collective bargaining. In 1946, a grievance procedure for settling labour disputes was setup. 1947, a Labour law, which sets a standard for worker’s safety, working hours, sanitation standards, accident compensation and also the restriction on women and child labour. Thus, workers acquired protection and rights that were used to be denied to them. Number of union and union members also increased. However, unions soon became pro-communist, with some being dominated by communist leaders. So, in 1947, Unions received a setback when SCAP intervened to prevent a strike. SCAP allowed the Japanese government to restrict employees of state-owned companies from striking. In 1949, a Trade Union law was passed to ensure democratic control and prevent a possible takeover by the more aggressive Communists.

*End*

hmmm... I must really think of a way to shorten this....

Mao's domestic policies

I wonder how many marks my history 2158 essay for Mao's Domestic Policies will score...

hmmm...
below is my essay:

*Start*

Mao implemented political policies along Maoist lines after the fall of Kuomintang (KMT). Economic policies were also implemented to prove Chinese communism would be a success in bringing about growth in China.

In September 1954, the National People’s Congress was formed, with Mao Zedong as the first president and Zhou Enlai as the Premier. The CCP controlled elections and monopolized membership of the governing bodies. The country’s 18 provinces were also re-grouped to 6 regions with CCP committees at every level of administration.

Social policies targeting Women, Religion, Education and Welfare were passed. Women were liberated by the banning of arranged marriages and child-bride system. Divorces were also made easy. In education, emphasis was place on simple literacy. In religion, the 100000 missionaries in China in 1949 had all left by 1951 as people were increasingly turned to Marxist beliefs and connections were cut. In welfare, the Trade Union Federation was set up in 1950, reforming work conditions.

To concentrate the public’s attention on specific problems, the party organized the three Antis campaign against corruption, waste and red tape, and the five antis campaign against bribery, tax evasion, fraud, theft and spying. Offenders are sent to labour camps for thought reforms. Interest groups like the Young Pioneers are set up to allow for talent scouting and spread of party propaganda.

In industry, the first five year plan was introduced. It aimed at the development of heavy industries. Emphasis was placed on targets as well as technical education. Full communication was restored. Inflation also came under control, but Mao felt industrialization not suitable for China.

The Hundred Flower Campaign was introduced in 1956 to convince people of righteousness of communism. It was also to prevent a possible counter-revolution by those badly affected by the five year plans, Mao allowed people to vent their frustrations by airing their views on him, the party and its policies. Although the people were wary at first, the situation got out of hand. When order was finally restored in 1957, Mao decided that there was to be no more future invitations to open debate.

In agriculture, land reform was introduced in 1950. It aimed to take land from the land owners and distribute to the poor peasants, to increase produce and help in development of China. However, because land holdings were less than one acre, mechanization and new farming methods could not be introduced. So though peasant support increased, productivity was still low.

The Great Leap Forward was aimed to develop Chinese-style democracy, increase agricultural production and also overtake USA and Britain as an industrial power in 15 years.

Communes were organized, aiming to make China self-sufficient. It was a unit of local government, consisting of peasants, party members and soldiers. A party committee was to ensure that party decisions were adhered to.

The Backyard Steel campaign placed emphasis on steel, with improvements being made to the infrastructure. 600000 backyard steel furnaces were set up.

Though there was an increase in production of steel, coal and fertilizers, the quality of steel was poor. Infrastructural projects were incomplete. Besides, agriculture became neglected, resulting in famines from 1959 to 1961. This period is known as the three bitter years. Mao had to step down but still retained position of party chairman.

The Cultural Revolution was aimed to restore prestige to the CCP and gain support for Mao by removing opposition. Mao launched the Socialist Education Movement to get people back onto the path of communism. Revisionists and intellectuals were purged. He gained support from Lin Biao, the Defence Minister as well as the People Liberation Army (PLA). The PLA played an important role in governing the country and shared tasks of government with communist councils.

Students in Beijing formed military groups called the Red Guards. Schools were closed as curriculum was revised to get rid of capitalist influences. Red Guards began violence against people, and the police were ordered not to stop them. They killed about 400000 with thousands injured and imprisoned. The cult of Mao was set up, where Red Guards memorized the Little Red Book.

The PLA controlled central and provincial party organizations. Education was hindered. As a result, 120 million people under 45 were illiterate. The moderates were removed. September 1967, Mao attempted to restore order. Schools were reopened and Red Guards were called to re-educate themselves. The revolution officially ended in 1659 but lasted till early 1970s. It had caused much upheaval, but restored Mao’s power.

*end*

Erm... Any comments??

English orals..

Just two words.

"screwed up"...

Nothing more to say.

Results are back!!!!

Finally!! *phew* After 5 months of intense drilling by the chinese department and 2 months of waiting, out results for this year GCE 'O' Level Chinese Exams are back!

With hands shaking and hearts racing, I didn't have the appetite to eat my recess.. It was an in-nerving wait. Made worse when our chinese teacher refuse to reveal anything... It was unbearable... Worst of all, the only thing the teachers we spoke to will reveal is that our class passed (with a some cheers on our part in view of our mid-year results..).

Finally, judgement came. Our form tutor walked in menacingly... Don't know whats worse, her short speech or the waiting. Blah..Blah.. we were all thinking:"oh please... spare us the agony. Announce our results already!!"

Oh boy, this is the only time you would curse being the last in the class list....
Zhi Wei, B3.... Zhen Cheng, A1...Blah..Blah *would she hurry up?!*
Zachary, A1... Zhi Kai, A1.. ..Shi Xian, A2... Jeremy Yueng, A2...
*I'm next!! Please... Please....* Finally...my name... A1...

It took a while to sink in... I was still processing the information..
In my mind, it was like... A1 >> you sure?? >> nope she isn't kidding... >>A1 leh... >> *wide-eyed* >> Yes!!! >>oh well... now i owe my chinese teacher a meal because of a promise i made....

However, the most incredible comeback was still Zachary.... he had failed the mid-year exam just before this 'O' Level, scoring a D7, but "rose to the occasion" scoring an A1... That is a 6 grade difference!! I am sure everyone in our class agrees, we are happy, or I should say, very, very proud of him... A classmate who could barely speak a full sentence in Chinese had came back up..... It was all really his hard work....

My good friend Jeremy also did a lot better than he hasd expected. He had assured me minutes before he had gotten C6, in the end, he got an A2. He even got a distinction for his Chinese Oral!!
Wanted to go out together, for a short break. However, couldn't find a day when we were both free... Its just too bad...

Oh well... one paper down, 8 more to go...

用功读书， A1 前进！


EDIT:
How can I forget... Our class, 403 is going to perform in the teacher's day concert!!! Looks like we got through the auditions!!!
Crenshaw's Band went in too!!

Woot!!

Communism = Democracy??

Hey, don't look so incredulous... That was exactly what the Bejing students on the exchange program said.

Ok, Ok, we didn't exactly hear that directly from them. Our teacher who was there with them in our secondary 3 class told us about it. She had asked them what is communism to them, and this was the answer she got: Communism IS democracy.

Many would view communism and capitalist democracy as 2 totally different matters. However, to them, both seems to be the same. It goes to show how the level of exposure they have. Not to forget, they are only secondary 2 students. Thus it also shows how much Marxist and Maoist ideas are drilled into them.

From what we heard, the students were willing to talk about communism and China, but when sensitive topics like the Tiannaman Square incident, they stopped short, refusing to say anything. Even the teacher, who lived through that era refused to talk about it.

Well, we cannot say much about all this. History as seen from their point of view and the western as well as our point of view will never be the same. We aren't living in China and may never be able to or even get a chance to understand them.

The day was not all about communism, the sec 3s manage to get the Bejing student's views on Japan and also the outrage at Japan's Prime Minister's vist to the War Shrine.

But it seems that the chance of us getting to meet them will be slim. The departments decided that they are not suited for these interactions as there are huge communication differences, making interaction difficult.

Anyway, there are more pressing matters for sec 4 students tomorrow. It seems that our Chinese 'O' Level results as well as the other Mother Tongue languages will be coming back tomorrow. Looks like many would not be able to sleep tonight....

Anyway, good luck to all who will be receiving their results tomorrow!!

Earth Wire

So unlucky. Came online later than usual. The freakin' Earth Wire in our riser got cut by, of all people, painters!!! Don't know how the hell they paint. Don't know what type of brushes they use.... Metal brushes?!
My dad called and waited for them since 1.10 p.m. When I came home at 4.00 p.m. the site foreman and technician still have not arrived. Saying we are displeased would be an understatment. Wasted so much time......

Anyway, National day celebrations in school today. Just the usual -- mass, assembly, multi-religious prayers, Principal address, Education minister's letter, appointment of new EXCO members etc.
oh yar... *take deep breath*..... "HARISH MENON!! YOU OWE ME AN MP3 PLAYER!!!".
*Grrrr*.... better not get into too much details, it is making my blood boil....

On the lighter side, went to watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Augustine and Jeremy today. Augustine and I had to drag Jeremy along as he wanted to go home and mug *evil laugh*.
The show is hilarious. You'll get stitches after watching it. Won't say too much, don't want to spoil the show for those who have not watched....

Got a neck ache after it... we were sitting in the front row. The cinema was packed with students. The group of CHIJ girls sitting behind us were laughing their hearts out. One of them started laughing from the singing "gnomes" all the way to the end of the show!!!

Our school's Uniform Group Annual Parade is going on now as I type. This year will be special as it will be recorded and burnt into a CD, to be given to all passing Secondary 4 cadets as memento.
I can imagine Nathaniel getting damn nervous now... He has been a nervous since this morning...It was after some time before he told us why -- his girlfriend is coming down.
haha... I wish him luck!!!

oh and Happy Birthday Singapore!!!

Arrrrrrghh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hrrrrrmph!!!!! This is not a good day....
Slept for 11 hours straight under the effects of Actimin and still feel so pooped to do anything, Didn't even have the mood to watch T.V. !!
Almost miss my lunch, thereafter logged in to check my mails.
Then I found my hosting account at Sepwich gone as Sepwich.com has been suspended!!!

*wide-eyed* That means my personal website, forum and all my tagboard posts which are hosted there are gone if Sepwich doesn't come back!!!! NOOoooo!!!!

Arrgh!!!!! Had to set up an account at cBox to take the place of my Sepwich hosted tagboard.....

*tearing my hair off* Dunno how much more I can take today.... Luckily, this will be a long weekend becoz of National Day.

*Sobz*

No choice. I'll just have to pray that by tomorrow, all will be back to normal.......

Rocket Fuel and IRO

I wonder whether the coming exams as well as the Chinese 'O' level results which will be coming back sometime this month has caused everyone to be acting strangely. Andy went round our class, trying to pass thru a tennis racket.

On the other hand, out form tutor seems to have taken rocket fuel. Slides after slides of the powerpoint presentatiion were flashing past our eyes as her "trigger-happy" finger tabbed on the 'enter' key. She didn't even stop much. As a result, we finished the chapter of 40 over slides within one lesson. We were clueless as to what she was teaching or talking about. A few were even sleeping!!

RME today was fun. The guest sheduled to speak, called in informing the school he was going to be late. By the time he arrived, it was the end of the lesson. However, it was quite a hilarious session as our deputy principal Bro Mike turned the whole thing into an part-entertainment lesson. All the talk about those "bloody" terrorists had us falling off our chair. It was not just all laughter. Bro Mike, as a memeber of the Inter-Religious Organization (IRO) talked to us the importance of IR relationship. He also told us about the 4 levels of IR relationship:

Level 1: building of inter-religious friendships, and accepting people of other ethic background as a friend.

Level 2: working together, whether it is for a common goal/cause or any other projects

Level 3: telling or explaining your faith to people. REMEMBER: the aim of this is not for you to convert them, but rather get them to understand you and your religion better. When you understand and respect other people's religion and beliefs, you have qualified to be in this stage.

Level 4, being a bible / Quran / Sutra or any other religious academic. This has a more far reaching effect than Level 3. The basic idea is still the same. Explaining your relgion to others abeit to a larger community. Conventions are also held to enable people to discuss the their / or others religion, allowing you to gain knowledge of others. It is important to remeber that the aim is NOT for you to convert others. It is only to educate others about the religion.

Most Singaporeans should have qualified for the first 3 levels since we are living in a multi-racial and religious society.
Overall, it was quite an eye-opener, especially when we found out that their meetings are held in Geylang....

Auditions for teachers day was held yesterday, but the results are still unknown. Don't know if we were able to get in. However, the comments were quite favourable...

Well... we just have to continue waiting...

Misunderstanding generated in the last post...

Got quite a few commnets on the last article especially on my other blog titled "reality is a persistant illusion".

I apologise if anyone has found that entry too generalized. It wasn't meant to be a blanket remark.

I don't condone nor even desire to try and stop the usage of such words.
I must admit there is little or even no other words which can replace the word in its expression of anger, stress or displeasure....

However, a few commenters stated that there are "other more pressing matters" to give your attention to. But I am sure it is doesn't hurt to watch your language....

Care of usage is the most important, which seldom anyone would actually think before using it. Thus leading to undesired misunderstanding.

A short entry on it has already cause misunderstandings of some sort. Won't it be worse if you use it in front of other people's faces??

That said, I hope this entry will clear up any misunderstandings generated in the last post.

Are teenagers using F*** more often??

I have been thinking about what our deputy principal, Brother Mike had said. Have we really gotten more vulgar?? He has set rules on using vulgar words like "f***", assuring us that he will suspend any student who uses it, and also punish any teacher who don't take action on the offending student. However, I doubt it will have any long-lasting effect.

I agree that what used to be simple expressions like "it is very difficult", " it is a very hot day" has becomed "it is f***ing difficult", "it is a f***ing hot day". People, especially teenagers, have gone around, replacing the word "very" with "f***ing". Use of vulgar languages like these have increasingly become distorted and are fast becoming the "in" thing.

There is no need to catch a person in the act of saying it. With the explosion of blogs, you just have to look around and you will sure to pass a blog that has these expressions. More often, you will find that a blog containing such languages are popular.

Adults, may find that they are "mature" already, and can use this words loosely, or what chinese might say: "把这些脏话挂在嘴里". They, thinking that they have the right to use these words, but don't realise what effect these might have on their children. Though they may have warned their "young ones" against the use of such languages, but that will only make them want to use it more. Moreover, doesn't forbidden fruit taste sweeter?? I believe that was what got them, the "adults" to use it in the first place!!

Is this the the undesired side effects of a society that is starting to "open up"?? People exercising their "freedom of speech"??

The society at large is claiming to be more educated nowadays. But does education means the promotion of such words?

However, I feel that the usage of such words only goes to show their ineptitude at the language.

Hitler cool?? You've got to be kidding me!!!....

I can never believe I will hear that expression... Hitler cool?? They really have to get their facts right. If not, I suggest they go for a mental check-up.

Alright... Alright...you may think now, why I bring up the topic of Hitler and Nazism. Actually, I am referring to today's Straits Times (26/7/05) which was talking about this group of pupils from a secondary school, named "Hitler" as their group name and idol. They also commented that he is cool. Worst of all, they are History students!! Really, I wonder what's next... Maybe Stalin's great???

All the atrocities Hitler and other dictators like him have done, I don't think the title of "cool" fits them. OK.. ok... I agree that he has a little charisma, good oratorical skills and maybe a little eccentric, but I will never define him as cool. Probably these boys are jealous of his power and crave to have something like that. Somehow, I really think they have got their principles wrong.

Maybe we should let them think, how would they feel if they were living in that era under Hitler and his Gleichschaltung Policy (of Total Control)?

The Ministry's move to minimise memorising and regurgitaion of facts should have came a long time ago. At least it is better late than never.

This incident has yet again, like the previous debate on the chinese syllabus, shown us that, after years of development and advancement, forcing students to learn by memorising in this generation will not work. More often than not, the opposite effect (for e.g. causing him/her to dislike the subject) will be acheived instead.

"mood-less"

haiz.. no mood to really write a good post.

Homework, Homework, and more Homework.... I really have to de-stress.
Decided to tryout GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program).... I'm too used to the school's Adobe Photoshop program. GIMP interface though similiar to photoshop's, I still stumbled abit, trying to get a hang of the program.
I created the banner below just for fun.....



I obtained the artist impression of the antimatter reaction from the website of the
European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN)

Sorry readers, but I will write a better entry the next time. Till then...

Yes!! the long wait over!!

Made an unexpected trip to the new National Library. omg, you should see that place, the section on fiction already has about 16 bookshelves!! Imagine the whole library! There are 6 levels of reference section, seperated into the 4 languages and genre!! The whole place has 13 stories excluding the upper levels which were out-of-bounds at that time. They have the central lending library at the basement. The library even have newspapers from all over the world!! US, UK, China, Taiwan, India, you name it, they have it. Whats more?? Many are same day issues!!

Thought me and Jeremy would be the only few students there. oh boy.... how wrong we were. Students from other schools were already there studying when we arrived. Tables were all filled up.

However, our visit was spoilt by a security guard at the 10th level (i think). The freakin' guard asked us to deposit our bags in the locker. We didn't, thus we went up to the next level instead. When we came back down, we saw people walking in and out with their bags happily on the shoulders!!!! Such discrepancy on the 1st day?? It isn't a good start.

Visited Rockson Tan's blog ( i linked him ) on Kenneth Tan's recommendation. haha... had a hearty laugh. The entries were sometimes controversial yet funny. haha... so much expletives!!Reminds me of XiaXue (linked her too) ...however, her site got hacked.. its just so unlucky.

hmm... I don't think the world expected another bomb blast in London. But we've got to hand to to the British people. They didn't even flinch after the bomb blast. There wasn't even a rush to get out of the country. It just shows how determined Londoners are.
I think Singaporeans' reaction to the NKF incident was even more serious/severe than the Londoners after the bomb blast.

From my point of view, I seriously question the morality of another bomb attack. Its just senseless killings for no cause. I don't think that by doing this, they would accelerate the already escalating tension in the world.

I wish they would just fly themselves into some secluded area like the artic and denotate themselves there. This way, no innocent civilians will get killed, and they would get their wish of blowing themselves into smithereens.

Arrrgh!! Can't take it anymore

Its irritating! Especially when you waited so long for the book only to get the suspense "destroyed" by your friends. I really hate that.

Yea... thats right! I am talking about Harry Potter book 6. I think I am the only handful of avid readers which have not bought the book.
What's worse than not buying is having friends who, knowing that you have not read the book, rattle off the storyline and ending (yes, majority has already finished reading the book on the day of the release..). jeez, even the papers weren't that good either. The Straits Times gave enough clues for anyone to guess what would happen. haiz. Guess that couldn't be helped.

School today was such a bore. By the end of the day, there was only about 20 people left in class. Some had to go for competition, others had to go to cheer on our Track & Field team at their Nationals.
I really wonder if more tests are going to help us. We've been having tests this whole week.

We started the week off with "disasterous" monday. We had 4 periods of maths consecutively, with two periods devoted to a test, and it was followed by Chemistry, Biology and than Physics!! That almost left us "brain drained" by the end of the day. We were just too tired.
Today, we had a Chemistry test. Well, it was ok. Cannot really complain much. However, we will have a Maths test tomorrow, followed by 2158 (History) the following day. And what's more?! Tomorrow's Racial Harmony Day, and we, because we are Sec 4s, don't get to celebrate! While the Sec 1 to 3s are happy having their extended recess, we'll be shepherd into our classes for lessons!! *Sobz*

Well... sighz. Sec 4s... *WaH*... No life at all...

Compatability Improvement for my Blog

Just a quick post / update....

I have just changed the blog layout to improve compatability to other browsers as I noticed an increasing number of visitors using third-party browsers like Opera and the open-source Mozilla Firefox.

Majority of the Internet Explorer dependent source codes have been removed, Although I have allowed some, like the technorati searchlet to remain intact.

However, anymore editing may have to wait until I clear this week's flurry of school tests, unless I can find some time to edit.

However, blogging will go on as usual (i.e. I blog once every two to three days)

For the time being, there will also be no music on this site. The embed elements has been taken off until I am sure it will display and play properly in the third-party browsers.

(p.s. If you have any comments, please tag me at my tagboard, or email me.)

~JZ

1st Bloggers.sg Blogging Convention 2005

Didn't know had a blogging convention in Singapore as I didn't visit http://tomorrow.sg site for some time already.
Well, couldn't join the party anyway as I am still 16, below the cut-off point of 18 yrs old.

However, according to the reporter, the results of the convention was "neither riverting nor provocative", ppl "seemed guarded, as if uncomfortable without the protection of their online personas".

The blogging convention thus proved one thing, that technology is fast eroding our social skills.
Ok.... I know that many are familiar with the 'stereotypical argument' regarding this subject, but until now, i was as sceptical as anybody else.

Hiding behind and online persona and talking is one of the easiest things to do. Sometimes it is easier to ask for something online rather than face-to-face to prevent some awkward moments. I have experience that before and I am sure so does most of you out there.

Does that mean that we have to give up this online persona's as well as the 'security' people feel when hiding behind it? I definately do not think so.

As technology imoproves, so will communication thru the net. All this side effects will also be inevitably introduced. Just like medicines, they are beneficial if used properly. If abused, can caused undesirable effects. Even though people feel the ease to communicate thru the internet, we also must not neglect to develop our social skills.

hmm... Maybe it will be good to have a social skills workshop after having received this type of response...

We're 3rd. 3rd!!! Yeah!!

'C' Div finals have ended!! We're overall schools 3rd!!!
Hooray! We are back in the seeded squad.
Nice work you'all.
It is such a waste Jonas, currently placed at 14, couldn't qualify for the masters.
Anyway, must congratulate Melvin Swee, Daniel's brother, for obtaining 1st place for Singles, Quartet and All Events, with an average of 209.8

Here are the overall schools results:

Boys overall:
1st: Singapore Sports School
2nd: Anglo-Chinese (Independent)
3rd: St Joseph's Institution
4th: Anglo-Chinese (Barker)

Girls Overall:
1st: Methodist Girls School
2nd: Singapore Sports School
3rd: Tanjong Katong Girls School (I think)
4th: Raffles Girls School

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omg! While blogging, I found this.

from channelnewsasia.com

SINGAPORE : The National Kidney Foundation Board and its CEO, Mr TT Durai, have resigned.
Over the next few days, the Government will appoint an interim Board to ensure continuous operation of NKF's various dialysis centres.
It will also work on medium term tasks, including forming a new Board, appointing a new CEO, reviewing accounting practices, funding needs, and pricing and subsidy policies.
Pending completion of these reviews, the NKF will suspend all active fund-raising activities.
This follows the request of the NKF Board for the Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan's assistance to help restore public confidence.
And they offered to resign in order to give Mr Khaw a free hand on this.
They also asked that he help reconstitute a new Board and appoint a new CEO.
A Health Ministry statement said, in the interest of the dialysis patients and the NKF, Mr Khaw had agreed to help in this effort.
He stressed two immediate priorities: care for NKF dialysis patients should not be disrupted in any way and shattered public confidence must be restored.
At a news conference later, Mr Khaw stressed that he was not in favour of destroying an organisation in order to rebuild it unless it was a rotten one.
He said the NKF was not rotten to the core and a lot of good work had been done.
As such, his immediate priority is to build on the organisation's strong points.
And he will be working hard to find a new Chairman, hopefully, even by Friday.
Following the announcement, Mrs Goh Chok Tong also decided to relinquish her position as Patron.
This is to give the NKF a fresh start and enable a new Board to be appointed.
In a statement, Mrs Goh said this had been a sad and unfortunate episode.
But she hopes that Singaporeans will continue to support the NKF's efforts to help kidney failure patients and their families. - CNA/de

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As of 14 July, 2108 hours, the petition website has a total of37794 Signatures. Since it has already achieved its result, the petition will be closed on 14 July @ 2359hrs.

Gutterballs!! 'C'Div doubles

Went to support our 'C' Division Bowling team today.
Very tired now. Just got home.
Ears still have a " ringing" sound due to the bad mix of music and girls screaming.
Glenn was "heartbroken" when Iris cried..... but didn't go over to console her because her mother was there....

For the girls doubles, a team average of 131 will get you a second placing, which is quite a surprise for many.

This year, Singapore Sports School will make a clean sweep of the events. Two bowlers from the school had played an average of 207 and 206 today. It will be quite tough to un-seat them.

gosh! Don't know how many gutterballs I have seen today. I think it is the most I have seen for a national tournament like this.

I really feel that the atmosphere just isn't there.
haiz.....

Hiaz...More Copy Protection for CDs

I just wonder how many more restrictions the recording industry is going to introduce. I believe many, especially music lovers have heard the news. The recording industry is going to introduce a new software onto the CDs that prevent copying of the CDs more than 3 times whether it is the whole CD or even a song.

It just makes us wonder, whether all these are targeted at music pirates or music-loving consumers who support the artist (and also the recording industry) by buying original CDs. Although now there is those 2 for the price of 1, or even 6 for the price of 1, it just doesn't cut any ice. CDs are prone to destruction and scratches, so it is normal for people to have a backup. What if you have to reformat of the computer?? You will lose all the songs as well as the right to copy again because in event of a virus, you may not be allowed to backup before reformatting. Also, backing up items on a virus infected PC may just bring over the virus to your newly reformatted (and clean) computer!

Not only music, software manufacturers have been including piracy protection into almost everything they own. Though I respect the need for all these, it makes no sense for me to contact the software manufacturer to activate it everytime I reinstall the software, be it after reformatting or trying out other software that will conflict with it.
The bottom line?? Consumers are the ones suffering.

Recently, I have been switching some of my standard software into open-source solutions. For example, I have recently switched my email client to the open-source Mozilla Thunderbird. It is lightweight and powerful, thus starting up faster than my previous email client.

Below is screenshot of Mozilla Thunderbird
(p.s. email addresses are all greyed out for privacy purposes) :


As more restrictions are set on consumers, people will start switching to other solutions to keep the cost down. Every upgrade on proprietry software requires a certain sum of money. A Home User may not be able to afford an upgrade everytime. Discounts are also targeted and given to SMBs and MNCs.
With open-source software, upgrades are free. Though we must bare in mind that such solutions are not for everyone. It depends on the level of expertise as well as how secure and comfortable one is, at using open-source software. OPen-source solutions only has community-based support or even none at all. It does not have a dedicated customer support proprtietry software offers.

However at the rate open-source software has improved in terms of usablility, I think many will start looking into open-source solutions. And as more people embrace these softwares, help in this vast community will be easier to find.

Comments across continents

After the London blasts, media gurus all over the world has been flocking down to report on the incident. Many comments have also emerged since..

One thing is common among all. And that is the voicing of outrage over those atrocious incidents. Many governments have already stepped forward to repudiate these terrorist actions.

What was supposed to be a short war has already dragged on for a few years already. Security everywhere has been improved, especially countries which have been in the front light as a US ally.

But, the London blast has told us a few things
-1st, the preparations are not enough. We have overlooked or even neglected to remember that the Osama Bin Laden Terrorist network is a vast,far-reaching and well-organized network.
-2nd, it proves that the transport networks, as stated in the Straits Times, is "every conurbation's Achilles heel".

These small scale blasts may not have crippled the entire transport network, but the precision of these blast have no doubt took out najor parts of the network and shaken our sense of security.

Horrendous, uncivilized behaviour!

Just after celebrating the recieving of hosting rights for the 2012 Olympics, which was a surprise win over hot favourite Paris, the world was shocked again by the bomb blasts in London.

What are the terrorists targeting at?? The G8 summit is a highly probable cause. But the manner at which they do it is atrocious. Totally inhuman! Any country in this civilised world will condemn it. WHY?... Why target civilians?! INNOCENT civilians going about their daily lives!

Just WHAT do they think they are doing?!
Are just trying to catch our attention, showing that they are not to be messed with?? Trying to put across to us that the terrorists are the Aryan people?? If that is it, then they are nothing but the modern day equivilent of Hitler and Stalin.

In this world, everyone is EQUAL. REGARDLESS of race, creed or religion

These terrorists only aim to tarnish the image, trust and respect people have for each other. Trying to uproot the very foundation laid down over thousand of years of evolution. Throwing us back to a perpetual Cold War.

Diplomatic talks, meetings and relations is the pathway to get something done. Violence in this world will NEVER be condoned.

I just don't understand, what's so.... so glamourous in claiming responsibility for such atrocious acts? They must have lost their marbles. A nice white padded cell is where they should be in! It must be worth good money to find out what must them tick and also what goes on in their morass of neurons!!

Moving towards 2012 Olympics

Finally, the long-awaited results are out. London has won the bid to host the 2012 Olympics, defeating Paris, New York, Madrid and Moscow.
The final count was 54-50 with the British capital beating hot favourite Paris by just four votes.

London's victory was assured when Madrid were knocked out in the third round of voting. The majority of the Spanish backers switched to London, pushing them over the line.
Moscow was eliminated in the first round and New York in the second round.

The city plans to construct a new 500-acre Olympic complex in east London.
It last hosted the Games in 1908 and 1948.

(Source: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/olympics2012/)

Bye Chinese Orals! I won't miss you!!

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Finally!! Chinese Orals are over!! O-v-e-r.... over!!!
I was all jitters, seeing people leaving one by one... It isn't a nice
feeling to be last... From confident, you will become worried than paranoid. I was shivering from the cold by the time my turn came. (The air-condition in the hall was at full blast with only 6 perople inside including the teachers). Can say I screwed up the 'reading aloud' part. Not that I didn't know the words, I accidentally skipped one line. Luckily I realised in time.
The other two sections were good. The 日常话题 and the 报章报道 was on technology advancement - whether boon or bane, and Students taking part-time jobs in order to buy the latest products respectively. Questions were considered easy when compared to the ones on the 1st and 2nd day. Got back from school late and tired. Got quarrantined till 5pm because
of the Oral.

Skipped Bowling Meeting today, again due to the oral. However, managed to get a summary of today's meeting. I thought Sec 4s were given the option whether to go and support/ see the National Schools 'C' Division Bowling Championships, but that doesn't seemed to be the case. Will be skipping schools 3 days. In other years, I would have been jumping for joy, BUT I fail to see any 'joy' in this crucial year. Well, we'll just take it as a short "hoilday".

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