Xianz......

Zzz... that irritating teacher dragged the whole EXCO back to school today and held an 8hr long meeting...now I feel like dozing off and I still have to do stock check for the badges he didn't give out (a.k.a. about 500~1000 badges I think)


Signing off,
xXdaSimXx

Daily Digest 02/09/2008 *wait a second who am I kidding? Daily?*

I had my first Japanese lesson at the JAS today (oh well its more like a revision to what I learn at MOELC last term), and the trip there was awful. First the person i contacted to enquire about the shuttle bus service misunderstood me, so I ended up missing the shuttle bus. Then when I went to take a cab the driver kept dragging for time and went the wrong way. I ended up 1/2 hr late for the lesson but well at least I didn't miss out much-it was self-intro in that period of time. Zzzz tomorrow I still have a CCA course to attend and probably have to get up at 5am, so I'll stop here for now.

Signing Off,
xXdaSimXx
Tuesday, 2 September 2008
2140hrs

Homework Post: Random Issue-Robust training system key to long-term success in sports

Despite the fact I would really prefer to write a Daily Digest instead of doing this tiring essay for homework now, I guess it wouldn't help to put it off any further, especially since it is already late. Mrs. Nathan, once more I seek your understanding in the delay in my post.

Channel NewsAsia, Singapore News

Robust training system key to long-term success in sports
By Hoe Yeen Nie, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 31 August 2008 2053 hrs

SINGAPORE: Time, talent and a system to groom athletes were key factors that led to Singapore's success at the Beijing Olympic Games, according to the president of the Singapore National Olympic Council, Teo Chee Hean.

Mr Teo, who is also defence minister, added that Singapore has always been an immigrant nation and citizens cannot close themselves off to foreigners.

Speaking to the media at the sidelines of a constituency event on Sunday, he stressed that long-term success in sports does not depend on foreign players alone.

"What we want to do for a lasting legacy is to have a system in place. So even those who have come in here, say the table tennis team for example, they would not succeed if we did not have in place a good preparation and coaching system.

"So whether you're Singaporean or somebody from outside Singapore who wants to be a Singaporean and be part of the Singapore dream, we'll have a system which will bring you up, bring you to the peaks of excellence," he said.

Article extracted from http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/372920/1/.html on 1/9/2008, Channelnewsasia.com


MY REFLECTIONS

It is indeed a good thing to see Singapore finally winning at the Olympics, especially as many say, 'after a long 48 years', and is cause for celebration, as I believe Singapore has done. However, in the eyes of some citizens, this victory was not claimed by a true Singaporean, and as such is nothing to rejoice about.

I agree that it is not entirely due to the efforts of Singaporean-born Singaporeans that we have our success today. Singapore, to quote the Defense Minister Mr. Teo, "has always been an immigrant nation and citizens cannot close themselves to foreigners". Take for example, Lee Jia Wei, our star ping-pong silver medalist. She, for one, is China-born. Yet, she would probably know more about Singapore in comparison to some locals. My main reason for claiming this―the government has taken care of citizens like plants in a greenhouse over the years, and our people may possibly have become overly pampered.

Once again, there will be those who disagree, but look around us. Many examples present themselves before us how foreigners have claimed the top seats in Singapore. For one, Singapore hires Gurhka mercenary forces to guard our key installations, along with some other more important duties. Even our NS training regimes were formulated by Israeli invited by the Singapore Government as part of an exchange programme. Why all foreigners? Simply put, these foreigners know more and have far more experience in these fields than we do, and we need this knowledge to protect ourselves.

Take this from another aspect of Singapore. We are an island nation which mainly relies on trade to sustain itself, even during the British times when Sir Stamford Raffles just founded Singapore as a British colony. Even now, a portion of Singapore's economy comes from international trade. Being a nation without natural resources, we generally require foreign investors as well to keep the economy going. As can be seen, Singapore would have gone into non-existence if it had not relied on foreign 'assistance'.

Yet, all these 'assistance' would be irrelevant if we did not have our locals to sustain the basic framework. Without the government and the citizens, before and now, there would still be nowhere for any foreigners to come in to provide their services. Once more, I quote from the article, "whether you're Singaporean or somebody from outside Singapore who wants to be a Singaporean and be part of the Singapore dream, we'll have a system which will bring you up, bring you to the peaks of excellence", as spoken by Mr. Teo. I thus conclude my case that Singapore may not have been the product of Singaporean hands alone, but it definitely started with Singapore-something that every citizen here should be proud of.

And with that, I conclude the end of this assignment. I will try to post a 'Daily' Digest tomorrow, so here's a poem for now. To my classmates, see if you can guess who it is.

He is THE three-ear.
He has no face nor a mind.
He is real sour.

Enjoy the haiku =P

(Note to reader not in my class: if this description resembles you I really have no comment)
(Note to reader in my class: if this description resembles you, have a nice time fuming. This is revenge what you did to me for the S.S. project=P) *ROFLMAO*


Signing Off,
xXdaSimXx
Monday, 1 September 2008
2250hrs

Daily Digest (xD this is so not daily)

YARRRGH!!! Tomorrow I've got three assessments in one single day. Maths TA, Physics Quiz and Bio Prac Test. WAH!!!!! The bio prac test nid to memorise so much stuff xD. Anyway, I've juz managed to rush out my RE report with Mark juz in time for mr. Tan tmrw. Well its late already, so I apologise for the horrible grammar here. I'll try post again tmrw.


P.S. I've been going on a Rockman craze= =|||


Signing Off,
xXdaSimXx
2341hrs
Tuesday, 05 August 2008

Blog Assignment Term 2 (EL-SS) NOTE to Mrs. Nathan: here's your essay=D

Hi all,
this post is a continuation of the assignment from my previous post. Attached below, is my essay for grading for English. Shout-out to Mrs. Nathan: Here's the essay, and it's not late



**************************Essay start****************************

Democracy is an idealism originating from ancient Greece. The concept is that everyone is equal and should be given equal rights, whether it is human rights, voting rights and so on. In Singapore, the government claims that we practice democracy here. In my opinion, it is a mix of authoritarian capitalism and democracy we practice here, mainly due to a few distinguishing factors.

Authoritarian capitalism is usually practiced by single-party nations. Here, the PAP wins in numbers since the other parties usually have insufficient members to take the majority of the parliament, even if they did garner the support of the public. This form of political control also involves a lot of intervention in the economy and reliance on overseas economies. The main sources of trade in Singapore are controlled by government agencies and usually are more of import/export trade, which mainly relies on international trade. Singapore’s economy is able to survive on this type of free trade only because its geographical location gives it a perfect advantage as a stopover and a ‘middleman’ for trading, even in its early years, where Sir Stanford Raffles used entrepot trade to attract passing ships to stop at Singapore. This trade is mainly dominated by the Port of Singapore Authority nowadays.

Singapore also controls the law, and in doing so, the media. Although we often speak of democracy and equal rights in voting, the laws are often created and put in place by the government, claiming to be for ‘communal good’. Although it is true, it creates the illusion that we are given a choice in the matter when the contrary applies.

However, we cannot call Singapore’s government as complete authoritarianism, mainly because there is no such thing as political murders or disappearances, but in my opinion, there are no needs for such things—the people usually take the government for granted and give them full control.

Furthermore, we cannot completely exclude elements of democracy that have been put in place in Singapore’s political environment. We are given equal rights, regardless of race, language or religion, and the government has made some effort in gathering public opinions before making decisions on some matters, and it is on moral grounds that the judicial system usually metes out punishments, not by public appeal.

Thus, I find there is the importance and need to differentiate between democracy and authoritarian capitalism, and the political system Singapore practices.

************************Essay end*****************************


Signing off,
xXdaSimXx
Frisay, 30 May 2008
2052 hrs

Discussion: Blog Assignment: Social Studies-Democracy

Hi all,
this particular post will be dedicated to my school assignment on Social Studies-a discussion on democracy. In this particular post, I'll be be placing part of the discussion our Chinese scholars in class had earlier this morning. For anonymity purposes, I'll be calling them HJ and YJ.

Our statement of discussion: 'Democracy creates stability in a society'

HJ: I think that first of all, we need to specify what kind of democracy we should be discussing about. What is democracy, and what is stability? In my opinion, our main focus should be about representative democracy, which is most widely used all around the world.

YJ: All right. Since we know that U.S.A. is most renowned for its democracy, let's begin from there first.

HJ: I don't like to talk about specific countries, but I agree with the point that democracy creates stability. Democracy is always associated with elections and so it provides people with chioices to choose their leaders or policies. This gives people more freedom and thus the leaders elected would satisfy more people. Since most people are consented, conflicts will less likely occur.



To my classmates of 3J, please do add on by commenting on this post.
To Mrs. Ong, here's the discussion. Do follow up here when you need to (oh, and you're most certainly welcome to join in the discussion too=D)


Signing off,
xXdaSimXx
Tuesday, May 20 2008
2058 hrs

Daily Digest 15/05/08 (wait hang on was it bimonthly?)

Zzz. With so much CCTs and projects and all that rubbish that follows secondary school life, this *daily digest* has once again become a few and far apart post, but tonight being Thursday of Week 9, I shall take out 10 mins to come up with something interesting for this post.

'You have 2 cows' (you probably have heard of this but its funny so well...)

Code Lyoko

You have 1 cow and a bull. The bull becomes a computer scientist and gets trapped in a virtual world with his daughter, and the bull is kept there by a evil program, but the daughter cow is trying to avoid being captured by the program. There's also 4 cows who are friends and form a team trying to rescue them while reverting the chaos caused by the program

Death Note

You have two cows. One of them suddenly has the ability to kill off the other cows with the exception of the super-intelligent cow that keeps tracking the cow (who is also friends with it). You begin to notice that the cow is spending entire nights cramped up in the barn, and you notice it's the only cow in the barn that is still alive. You kill that cow, and take it's notebook to seek revenge on those who harm you.

Fate/Stay Night

So as I pray, "Unlimited Cow Works."

Fate/Stay Night (2)

You have two cows. One is actually some sexy female King Arthur, and the other cow is Red. The Red cow summons your future self, who is one hot bull, but that doesn't matter. And theres some other random girl, but who the hell cares. All you want is some Saintly Cup so you can get water to your favorite cow. Choose wisely, or else your cow's neighbor becomes evil, forcing you receive a limb donation from your future bull-self. Try explaining that one to your friends.

Fullmetal Alchemist

You have two cows. Cow one dies and you use alchemy to try to bring it back; cow two dies in the process and you lose an arm and a leg. You now have no cows, and are missing two limbs. You manage to reincarnate cow 2 into a cow shaped suit of armour. Then a third cow turns out to be a homunculus, and your mom.

LOL (= =|||) Source: http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/You_have_two_cows/2

P.S. another lame piece of crap:

MNB MND MNH MSS MIB
(to the students of 3J i suppose you should know what this means =D)


Well, till my Social Studies and English project next week I guess!!
Note: Three of my classmates will be on this blog talking rubbish, so if you see them remember to ignore anyone by the name of 'WK', 'wkgan2' or 'kiwi' cos' this person loves using expletives.

=D
Signing off,
xXdaSimXx
Thursday, 15 May 2008, 2214hrs

Homework Post: Social Issue - Recent Escape of JI terrorist Mas Selamat Bin Kastari

Yes, this post today is not a daily digest but as promised, my post regarding the recent escape of the JI terrorist Mas Selamat Bin Kastari. Dear Mrs. Nathan, I hope you'll be reading this by tonight.

MAS SELAMAT'S ESCAPE
Keeping faith in anti-terror cooperation
By Hoo Tiang Boon & Kumar Ramakrishna, For The Straits Times

MAS Selamat Kastari's audacious breakout from the Whitley Road Detention Centre was a startling and depressing turn of events in Singapore's efforts against terrorism.
According to reports, Mas Selamat made his getaway after he asked to use the toilet at the detention centre just before meeting his family during a scheduled visit.
He is still at large, and there is wide speculation that he will try to head for Sumatra, if possible, where remnants of his old Jemaah Islamiah (JI) network are believed to still exist and where there will be secluded 'safe houses' for him to lie low.
Mas Selamat, who had undergone military training in Afghanistan, is considered by many counter-terrorism analysts to be one of the more dangerous terrorists in the region today. He once harboured grandiose 'Al-Qaedian' dreams of hijacking a commercial aircraft in Bangkok and crashing it into Singapore's Changi Airport.
With direct links to the top echelons of the JI leadership, Mas Selamat was chosen by JI operations chief Hambali to head the group's operations in Singapore in 1999.
Mas Selamat was first arrested in Bintan in 2003 after fleeing to Indonesia in the wake of the Singapore Government's crackdown on JI operatives in 2001. It was only in 2006 that he was deported to Singapore after being arrested again by the Indonesian authorities in Malang.

DANGEROUS FIGURE
The longer Mas Selamat remains at large, the more legendary he will become among regional terrorist circles.Some may turn to finger- pointing in the wake of Mas Selamat's escape. This is unfruitful. Instead, what would be more important would be to look at the ramifications of his escape. Specifically, what does the escape mean, strategically and operationally, for counter-terrorism efforts in Singapore and the region?
First, the escape is likely to be hailed by existing JI members as an act of divine intervention - Mas Selamat, despite the odds against him, was able to miraculously beat Singapore's security system with 'spiritual assistance'.
Similarly, some extremists see Osama Bin Laden's continued ability to elude security forces - despite massive rewards for information leading to his capture and state-of- the-art intelligence technology - as the 'will of God'.
Mas Selamat's escape may well be interpreted in the same 'theological' manner. Indeed, like-minded individuals or groups with agendas similar to JI's may exploit the 'Mas Selamat escape' story for their recruitment and indoctrination purposes.
Second, JI has suffered a series of major setbacks over the past few years. The arrests of scores of its members - including prominent figures such as Abu Dujana, Hambali and Zarkasih - mean that while it remains a strategic threat, its operational capability has been severely damaged.
Now, as a result of this 'good news' (from JI's perspective), it is possible that JI will see the escape as a turning point.
The escape will, at the very least, constitute a timely psychological shot in the arm for JI's cadres. The longer Mas Selamat remains at large, the more legendary he will become among regional terrorist circles. This point should be borne in mind because he is one among a few JI radicals with bona fide 'strategic potential' in the sense that he is capable of re-generating a terrorist cell around him.
Third, there is concern as to whether regional counter- terrorism cooperation with Singapore might be affected. After all, Mas Selamat escaped after Jakarta handed him over to Singapore.
Singapore's strong reputation in homeland security matters has undoubtedly taken a hit. But it would be far- fetched to say that this reputation - founded as it is on robust fundamentals and a sterling track record - would be severely dented just because of one incident.
In fact, if there is a full and fair inquiry into the causes of the 'security lapse' that allowed Mas Selamat to escape - and preventive measures are taken to ensure there are no repeats - then some good may come out of this incident.
For instance, a government White Paper, identifying the key lessons to be learnt from this incident, would not only benefit operational agencies in Singapore and the region, but also signify a transparent and forward-looking attitude towards the whole episode.
In fact, the Government appears to be moving in this direction with the announcement of the formation of a committee of inquiry to investigate the matter.
Finally, it is possible that in escaping, Mas Selamat may have left a number of inadvertent signatures that would be invaluable to intelligence agencies in enhancing their operational insights into the wider network, if any, that might have lent him support.
The authorities have reason to believe Mas Selamat acted on his own, without the aid of a network, but the possibility has to be considered.
We must recognise that the war on terror is a long-term one. We cannot expect an unbroken string of counter-terrorism successes. There will be ebbs and flows.
Ultimately, what matters is that Singaporeans and our friends in the region rally together and keep faith in the ideals of tolerance and reason.

Article extracted from http://www.straitstimes.com/Free/Story/STIStory_212944.html on 7/3/2008, The Straits Times Online

MY REFLECTIONS

From reading this article, I have learned some new things. Firstly, I found out from my classmate that Mas Selamat had escaped exactly like how Took Leng How of the Huang Na case a few years back did - by asking to go to the toilet. This has led me to wonder why there should be a security lapse around the toilet, even in a detention centre. In my opinion, these people, who have commited crime, have also sent the message that in doing so, they are giving up their human rights of privacy and equality. Also, I would like to question why the police have not thought of this possible breach in security despite a past occurence. Of course, though, I am not questioning the credibility of the police force - after all they have protected Singapore's internal affairs safely for many years. Furthermore, a full inquiry will ensure that preventive measures are to be taken by all from now on, thus I feel that it is not all bad things that have come out of
Mas Selamat's escape.
From another point of view, his escape is bad news for security forces around the world, especially in the South-eastern Asia region for now. Despite the Government's, and many people's beliefs, I, for one, am not sure whether to put my bet on his currently still trapped in Singapore or his having escaped back to Indonesia. One thing is for sure - his escape will make him a legend, just like the article says, and a group of people, specifically the extremists lying low, will definitely attempt to seek him out and join him. This could mean trouble for the global anti-terrorist movement. It is precisely for these reasons that not just Singapore, but the whole world wants Mas Selamat caught and put behind bars safely, not being able to cause further harm to society.
I fully agree with the article's last sentence and I believe that everyone will share in my view. In this time of technological warfare, it is not just Singaporeans, but everyone against the terrorists and their outrageous behaviour, to stand up together against the ones attempting to spark the world into the next World War.

Daily Digest 04/03/08

Haiz, so busy with work I don't even have time to log on to this blog, but anyway, right now I've a headache as to whether I should write for my English assignment about the recent news or something from one of the Newsweek magazines which I ordered but never read. Instead of crapping everyone out, I shall recall an anecdote by my friend and me.

P.S. Pls do not take offence at this.

Your mama so fat, when she jump into the Singapore River, she created a big rift!
Your mama so fat, when she jumped off Sembawang, Pulau Ubin rose from the depths!
Your mama so fat, when she jumped on Gummybear, she flattened him entirely instead of bouncing off!
Your mama so fat, when she taupoked SIM, SIM got flattened!
(this is supposed to be an amazing feat since SIM is a humongous creature with about a few million tons of his fat stored in another dimension so as not to destroy this one)

= =|||
Hope that was funny, but if its lame to you, try this one.

YOU SO SLACKER, YOU HAVE TIME TO STARE AT THIS DUMB POST. zzzzzz

Well that's all for today folks. By Friday 2359hrs, I shall be back with my English assignment completed on this post. Hopefully it will not be about a lame joke where Malaysia 'welcomes' someone we should all know by now with the sign 'SELAMAT DATANG'.

Signing off,
xXdaSimXx
Tuesday, 04/03/2008, 2056hrs

Daily Digest 28/2/08

Ok I know it sounds silly calling this a Daily Digest when I post only about once a week, but never mind anyway. Tomorrow, I still have to stay back and wear that stiff uniform for the classification shoot, but oh well, I guess we have to pay the price of feeling uncomfortable if we want to look good sometimes like in CCA uniform. For now, Prof. Sim (me!) shall give a lecture on the Art of Farting to Suan

5 ways to suan people when you are farting:
1) Tell people they can't fart as well as you do.
2) Fart straight into their face and tell them your fart stinks more.
3) When in class, make loud farts which stink up the whole room and then suan your classmates they can't make such a pro fart.
4) Fart into their chairs then suan them that they just sat on your fart and have been infested by it.
5) Fart into their food and run away as fast as you can, meanwhile suaning that they don't have fart to propel themselves faster.

*End of Lesson*
Disclaimer: Pls do not attempt any of the above 'stunts' unless you are attempting to court a horrible experience where everyone runs away when they see you. Only meant for jokers who fart really well.

LOL xD = =


Signing off,
xXdaSimXx

Thursday, 28 February 2008, 2322 hrs

Utopian Society......Or Is it?

Imagine a Utopian society......
where Wangzilla suddenly butts in (those who dunno whats that its a big human looking gorilla)


CAN WE STILL CALL IT A UTOPIAN SOCIETY!?!?!?!?

LOL Never mind.

A materialistic utopian society.

Everyone is rich. Fatness is the new beauty.
Wangzilla is banned despite his X-treme fatness.
Good food is free and spawns everwhere.
School is all about learning how to be a greedy pig.


= =|||

Signing off,
xXdaSimXx

2214hrs
20 February 2008

Daily Digest 20/02/2008

I would love to describe how boring one of my teachers is. For confidentiality purposes, I shall not be revealing any names and I hope no one will take this in the wrong point of view that I am making a personal attack. I will hereby disclaim that this is not a personal attack, just the view of a student.

He simply loves to drone on and on, merely pausing on occasions to ask for questions. When someone does poses a question, he simply replies in the same unclear (at least to me) method he uses to explain at first. In my opinion, I would recommend that he teach as a lecturer or a private tutor instead.

I request that anyone who knows the true identity of the aforementioned teacher or me, that you do not mention names to sabotage my portfolio just for the fun of it. If you do not feel comfortable, please do post your view and I will read through.

Signing off,

xXdaSimXx

2052hrs

20 February 2008

First Post

This will be my first proper blog ever since my previous unsuccessful blogs which all merely contain "Under Construction" and truth be told, my main reasons behind this new blog is for schoolwork, but hopefully I can use this blog to improve my pathetic English. For now, this will be a test blog meant for schoolwork with a bit of me sprinkled here and there.

To the understanding of Russell Baker's techniques in his selection "On Becoming A Writer" that we discussed in class earlier today, he manages to sustain the reader's attention by foreshadowing in his previous paragraphs, allowing him to hold the reader in suspense as to how he is going to fail with the essay where he was true to himself and get scolded in front of the whole class. When he continues, he does a wonderful job with a long description of how Mr. Fleagle was reading his essay and how happy he felt at bringing joy to the class, thus holding the reader's attention over long paragraphs.

I end off here for now. Next time, I'll be back with not just a post full of homework but some reflections of the day.

Signing off @ 20:55hrs, 19 Feb 2008

xXdaSimXx