2013 resolutions

It's going to be a new year very soon! Lot's of hard work coming my way since I'm going to take my A Levels next year! 

I usually can't stick to my resolutions but I managed to stick to one of my most important 2012 resolutions - which was to not retain. HAHA. Here are my hopes for 2013 in mostly pictures: 

I stole this from Tumblr but this is exactly what I want! 

                            Except maybe the "sketching and painting" one, I really suck at art. 

Not gonna give up! 

Mind over Matter - A Levels ain't that hard!

Holding on to my dreams <3 td="td">

I'll try!

Until 2013, bye! Need to go and complete my homework! 

Time Flies

Time flies. It's the 28th already! So much homework left. I have only done 90% of chem. Just started on Math and since I suck at Integration I keep getting stuck and feeling demoralized by it. :X Am gonna go study with Zhiqi, Shami and Maal tmr at JP library. Hopefully i can concentrate! 

Studied at JE library with Wendy yesterday. Brielle was supposed to turn up and surprise her. But he already told her that he's coming -.- HAHA. Took a few Polaroid photos with them. Here they are :) 

Awesome 3some <3 td="td">

Brielle brought a souvenir each for Wendy and I from his trip to Hong Kong Disneyland! Thanks Brielle! :D 
The background is my chemistry homework. HAHA. I don't really have blogworthy topics at this point of  time. So I shall sign off. I will do a "My hopes for 2013" post on New year's eve! Till then, sayonara. :)

2012 Not-The-end-Of-The-World confessions

Many people on Twitter were doing 2012 The-End-Of-The-World confessions. In fact, that topic was trending! I never followed that trend though, because I strongly believed that the world wouldn't be ending. Revelations (the last chapter of the Bible) said that no one can predict when the end would come except for God. So if someone has predicted 2012, for sure it must be wrong. 

Anyways, I have decided to do some confessions too. Or maybe just things you didn't know about me :D Here goes.

1) I actually stalked my crush to his house when I was in primary school. Although I lost track of him halfway. I'd be a terrible detective. I'm really embarrassed to admit this. Took a lot of guts for me to admit. Well, if you ask the people I crushed on in the last several years, they can vouch for the fact that I'm a stalker. But my stalker tendencies have decreased over the years. I have never ever even thought of stalking a crush to their house after that one time in primary school. 

2) I am fascinated by all things weird and "unexplainable". Like crop circles, the Bermuda triangle, Area 51, spontaneous human combustions, alien sightings, the Nazca lines etc. I have read countless books on them. I however do not believe in ghosts, due to a religious reason again. 

3) I am currently insomniac-ish. Can't sleep until it's way past midnight. Either it's insomnia or my body clock is screwed. 

4) I like asking Siri silly questions. :D Sometimes it gives me really cool answers. 

5) I tend to take leadership positions given to me very seriously. Sometimes a bit too seriously. Stepped on many toes during my days as a prefect in secondary school. :/ Also, I can get competitive for top positions, like that of an Executive committee member. This is why I didn't join student council in JC. I didn't want to fall out with people because of my strictness when it comes to rule-following and my desire to be on top. 

6) I haven't even touched my maths and physics holiday homework. Only been doing my chemistry homework (because it's my strongest subject right now). Let's just say I will be doing homework on Christmas eve, Christmas day, Boxing Day, New Year's Eve, and New Year's day. FML.

7) I know I only seem to post happy/positive stuff about myself. But there are many sad things going on in my life as well. The only reason why I don't mention them is because they are too personal to share. 

8) I haven't exercised for the past 2 weeks. I am so screwed when school reopens and PE lessons start. Good luck to me. D:

9) My taste in books is not as mainstream as my taste in music. Yes, I do read the mainstream stuff such as Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Fifty shades of Grey etc. But I like to read books based on the 18th or 19th century too. Take my literature novel for instance. The Remains of the Day. It's about the life of a butler in England. Many of my friends will probably be bored reading it because the life of a butler can be rather mundane. However, I actually really like the book. :D 

10) I cannot get along well with Gemini guys. Saying this from experience. Actually, I get along well with them at first and then after some time we usually can't stand each other and drift away if we're friends. :/ From now on I am not even going to bother to get close to a Gemini guy. 

11) When I was in primary 1, I was being brought to the dentist in school but I was so scared that I ran away and hid in the toilet for the next two hours until someone saw me and informed the vice principal. I had stepped out for a while to take a breather. Everyone was looking for me by the way. -.- Man, I was a coward. I am so ashamed of my primary school days. 

Shooting In Connecticut

I am sure you all have heard about the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut  by now. What a depressing thing to happen. And it's not the first time it's happened in the USA. So many innocent lives were lost. It's about time the American government did something about the gun laws in USA. Normal people shouldn't be allowed to have guns without any valid reason. Maybe the American government could actually learn a thing or two from the Singapore government regarding this issue.

You don't see this kind of thing happening in Singapore, do you? It's pretty safe here. I can walk home alone at 2am in the morning and nothing will happen to me, despite the fact that I am a girl. The people here are actually afraid of the law. Makes me glad to be living in Singapore.

20 children were killed. Can you imagine dying at such a young age? So many dreams left unfulfilled. So many places unseen. So many things left to experience. I shudder just thinking about it.

Imagine if you were shot today (touch wood). If I were shot today, I'd die with so many regrets. Not having the chance to say goodbye to my parents and loved ones, not having the chance to take my A Levels despite the fact that I have already studied one year for it, heck I'd even regret not finishing the FSOG series. I guess when we read about such things only then do we not take our own lives for granted.

The kids who were shot...some of them must have been thinking of what they were going to do after school with their friends or family. They could have been waiting to go home and watch their favourite cartoon on TV. They were probably looking forward to Christmas. Maybe their parents had already gone Christmas shopping for them. Can you imagine how lonely the parents affected will feel this Christmas? It's unimaginable...the pain and the sadness. :(

Well, I pray that no other incident of such sort will happen again. The world may not end in 2012...but humanity certainly seems to be ending.

12/12/12

Happy 12/12/12 people! :D Numerology wise, it's a special day today 'cause there will be no repeated date such as this for a LONG time. I don't think my generation will be alive to see the next  millennium.

Went to school today to do some homework as I can't concentrate at home. My study partners were Mazi and Mabel. This is the second time Mabel snuck into JJC to study. xD

I wanted to discuss about 2 of the issues from the movie "The Greatest". The first issue is death. Life is the most fragile thing on Earth. Even more fragile than relationships, in my opinion. You never know when something might cause you to lose your life. What if...tomorrow never comes?

The movie made me realise that whatever I do everyday counts. And that I have to make every second of my life worthwhile so that if I were to die tomorrow I'd leave with no regrets. Gotta live like it's my last day everyday. :) And cherish every moment with my loved ones. :) But this doesn't mean I am going to party and drink and say YOLO. To cherish life means to do something meaningful with your life, not waste it away partying.

And the 2nd issue I want to discuss is the whole teenage pregnancy thing. Yes, I know people get carried away when they're in love but I think it's really dumb to not think of the consequences. If you are not able to support a child at such a young age, why get knocked up?! Like Paige from X Factor. She had a child at such a young age and she didn't marry the father of her child. I just don't get it...I will never let that happen to me. I wouldn't want my child to ask me where is daddy and why doesn't she have a dad like all the other children. :/

A good accident

Long time no post. I was on the computer yesterday when a pop up from Funshion popped up. I thought I clicked the cancel button but actually I had accidentally clicked on one of the movie they were recommending me to watch. So the movie started to load. I would've canceled it if the beginning scene hadn't been so eye catching. The movie was called "The Greatest" and indeed it was one of the greatest movies I have ever watched in the romance and drama genre. Some accidents are good :D

 THE GREATEST tells the story of Allen and Grace Brewer, a grief-stricken couple whose family has been pushed to the breaking point by the death of their older son, Bennett, in a car crash. When a young woman, Rose, shows up a few months later announcing that she is pregnant with Bennetts child, the Brewers are forced to take her in. At first, Roses presence threatens to tear the family even further apart but, eventually, her interaction with each of the Brewers proves to be the very thing that brings them back together. 

I know it doesn't sound that great from the synopsis above, but you must watch it to feel it. Cried at many parts. I would rate it 5/5. Definitely worth watching :) 

I have many issues from that movie that I'd like to discuss in my blog but not today. My mom is nagging at me to go shower and then do my homework. I'll probably blog tomorrow. Buh-bye :)

Here's the trailer: 

English and it's relevance to our society

Since I've decided to stay at home for the next few days in order to get into the study mood, I won't have much to update in terms of what I've been up to. So instead I shall talk about my opinions on certain issues. Thanks Ming Sen for suggesting that I do so. :)

I know the title of this post sounds like I am going to write a GP essay but fret not. I was watching this Bollywood movie last night called English Vinglish. It's new and I was upset 'cause I missed catching it in the theaters. One of my favourite actresses made a comeback in this film after not acting for about a decade. Also, the majority of the film was filmed in New York, which is one of my favorite places in the whole world(despite the fact that I haven't been there before). 

The protagonist, Shashi, is a housewife probably in her late 30s. Her whole family is fluent in conversing in the English language except for her and they often put her down because of it. Her daughter would make snide remarks about her pronunciation and was even embarrassed to bring her mother to her school for the Parent-Teacher meeting because the teachers usually speak in English and her mom can't. 

And then Shashi gets a phone call from New York. Her sister's daughter was going to get married. Shashi went to NY and enrolled herself in English classes. Soon, she made new friends there and also picked up English very quickly. Every sarcastic comment from her kids or her husband about her poor English would only motivate her to work harder. By the end of the four weeks, she was even able to give a long speech in fluent English at her niece's wedding. 

She said something in her speech that struck a chord with me and thus, I remember it.     " Family should make you feel good about yourself. Not put you down. They should respect you..."

Her daughter started to cry out of guilt when Sashi said that because she had often hurt her mom with her inconsiderate comments. 

This brings me to the point that I wanted to discuss. The importance of English in our society today. English is an international language. 

914,398,325

That's the number of people in the world that can speak English. I did some research. Haha. In order to survive in America and UK, it is most necessary to be able to speak and understand English. Let me give you an illustration by telling you what happened to Sashi when she went to New York before she learned English. Check out this short clip. Don't worry, it's in English :D

So if you have seen the clip, you can see how much it really sucks - the feeling of helplessness when you can't express your thoughts to another person. From young till now, I have always tried to keep my English up to standard so that I never have to face similar situations, especially because I want to live in US/UK next time. 

I am sad to say however, that my mom is not really good at English. She knows the necessary stuff and can carry out a conversation but if she was in Shashi's place in the video, she wouldn't know what to say either. :/ I made her watch this movie with me, hoping to positively influence her. 

The other day my mom and I went to a tailor's shop and asked if she sews curtains. She said yes so we asked her another question. The lady stuttered and stumbled and couldn't even form a proper sentence to tell us what she wanted to say. So my mom apologized to her and we walked away. The lady lost a customer because she couldn't communicate. I am not blaming her. I am just trying to make my point that even for those people who are already out of school, it's never too late to go back to school like Shashi and equip yourself with something that's going to help you in the long run! :)

This also brings me to something that I have in my bucket list. A few years after graduating from University, I plan to go to Bangladesh and teach the kids there English for free. You know, the ones in villages, who can't afford to go to school. I really hope that I will be able to carry this out. Helping people can be so rewarding :)

I also think that us students, who are still studying, should not neglect the English language. Yes, we can get by fine with broken English or Singlish in Singapore but what if you're sent overseas to conferences next time? Written English and spoken English are equally important! :)

I shall end my long blog post here. Till next time. 

PSYched at Marina Bay Sands

Chin and I reached MBS 2 hours before the gates would be opened to let the audience in. I wasn't surprised to see that the queue had already started. So Chin and I queued up and talked crap to spend the next two hours. Before we knew it, it was already 6pm and the bag checks had already started. After that we had to wait for two more hours for PSY to appear. By then my legs were aching like crazy from all the standing ><

But thanks to our early queuing we got relatively good standing postions!! I just envy the MBS members who got the VIP standing positions cus they were the closest to the stage. The show started with hosts Jean Danker and Dominique Lau. They introduced O School, a dance centre, and their crew performed Gangnam Style. After that one of the dancers taught the audience how to do the dance steps for the chours step-by-step.

However, it was really difficult for most of us to try it out because it was so squeezy that we could hardly move. xD And after that PSY came up on stage, the audience welcoming him with loud cheers and applause! The audience included toddlers sitting on their parents' shoulders, kids, teens, young adults, adults, and even the elderly! HAHA.

The first song PSY sang was Champion and it was my first time hearing it. It's really Catchy!! All of us were jumping up and down with our light-sticks. Mine was yellow. After that he sang Right Now. This was UH-mazing too!! Super duper catchy and club-worthy. Lastly he sang Gangnam Style. Let's just say doing the dance with him right in front of me, is way different from doing it while watching him doing it on TV. I was just watching him at the MAMA awards last night, where he won song of the year!

                                                                         Chin and I

It was an amazing night and I am so glad that I was a part of his first concert in Singapore. <3 i="i">