Here is how another story goes.

“HELP ME, DAD! HELP ME!!”

Her frightening sound of crying woke me up as if a quick, sharp blade just pierced through my heart. Pain. Intense pain.

This had been happening every night for more than a week. My body was as tired and heavy as a stone. But at this late hour, I had to calm her while murmuring her favorite lullaby I used to sing to her when she was a toddler.

The house was a dark cave at night; I couldn’t even find the switch to the ceiling lights. My hands carefully traveled along the cold walls, dirt-covered wooden shelves, and finally, I reached the door to my daughter’s room. “Click”. I unlocked it and struggled to find my way to her bed in the dimness.

It didn’t take me more than one second to spot her in bed, with her little body shaking uncontrollably. The silvery moonlight shone through the frosty windows and onto her bed, whose shadow fell silently across the room. Outside the house, the storm was roaring. Without hesitation, I darted forward to her, who was still shivering and crying. I put my arms around her shoulders, whispering her name.

She suddenly stopped crying and opened her eyes. Her beautiful, watery eyes. I smiled, “Hey sweetie, dad’s here. You’re safe.” I was ready to sing her back to sleep before I noticed something in her eyes.

Fear.

And the last thing I saw, was a dark shadow of death reflecting on my daughter’s beautiful, watery eyes.

Here is how the story begins.

It was a quiet, rainy night. A cool breeze gently brushed against my face. All I could hear was the soothing splash against the stone ground and over my ebony umbrella, and the steady heartbeat inside my chest. The silvery moonlight lit up the entire surroundings. The world has fallen into a quiescent tranquility. Only the peace was too transient before she agitated my mind.

At the end of this narrow path, on the rock cliff, she was standing motionlessly like a pearl-white marble statue. Her long, satiny frock was waltzing in the wind around her. Her shapely figure was stunning, seductive even, and her skin was pale and waxen. My breath came in shallow gasps. Everything turned into slow motion, and I was irrevocably drawn to this goddess of the moon. I couldn’t tell if she was aware of my presence, until she slowly and gracefully turned around and faced me directly, when time suddenly ground to a halt.

She wasn’t smiling, nor was she crying. I could feel her scrutiny on me, but I couldn’t see her eyes, or her nose, or her mouth, or her ears.

Her face was unvaryingly blank, even smoother than her silky hair.

My world was then filled with shrilly piercing scream of horror.

I was getting kind of emotional when Mr. Toh sang the Chinese song 且行且珍惜. It was such a beautiful yet melancholic poem, and I could feel what Mr. Toh felt about this farewell. I could feel the tears in my eyes. Honestly, I hate such occasions. I hate the moment when we have to say goodbye. Four years ago, I did once, and I was more curious than upset. Now, I’ve changed. We’ve all changed. Part of me is eager to leave for vacation and college, while part of me never wants to leave high school, which has been particularly long and meaningful to me. I’m afraid that once we leave here, we’ll never be able to have those intellectual, or not so intellectual, conversations during meals together. I’m afraid that once we part from each other, we’ll never be able to go shopping or eating or having fun BBQ at the beach together. I’m afraid that once we start our life anew, we’ll never be able to recall the good old times when we got lost in NUS or on some random streets and joked and laughed all the way.

This afternoon, both Mr. Toh and Mr. Ricardo sang better than Jeff Chang and Kelly Clarkson did, and I shall never forget the voices of the two, both of whom have been important persons in my life. It’s inevitable that we’ll part and leave here when the time comes, but we shall remember those important persons and those important moments in our life and cherish them with gratitude.

The Farewell Assembly for the Year 6 only lasted for an hour. Everyone received a graduation token designed by me; I feel proud about this more than I do about my Olympiad medals as no one will care about my winnings in science Olympiads but everyone will carry a key that embodies part of my heart which will make everyone remember our good times together.

Today is Oct 26. Exactly one month from today, on Nov 26, we’ll have our convocation.

For those who’re curious about my design, please read the emcees’ description written by me.

This key adopts the style of a traditional skeleton key. The school logo and the class year are printed on the two sides of the key bow. Our school’s mission: “Pioneers, Achievers, Thinkers & Humanitarians”, are engraved around the cylindrical shank. On one side of the blade, there is the name of the student. On the opposite side, our school motto: Experiment, Explore, Excel, forms an exponential term with the initial letter “e” as the base and the following letters, starting with a big “x”, as the exponent. Above the school motto, there is a simple planetary system model, representing the boundless knowledge of science and universe. Below the school motto, there is an amalgam of various geometric shapes, displaying the beauty of mathematics and the complexity of our world. The key itself symbolizes the knowledge we have gained and the bond we have forged during our four years’ study in NUS High. 

This picture carries a history of various events that we’ve been through together in the past four years. It contains beautiful and bitter memories that we’ll share and live forever. As I glance through the faces, I see stories and characters that uniquely define each of us, and can’t help but wonder: When will be the next time, after graduation, that we can gather like this and take a group picture? What will be missing? What will be new?

I can still recall how curious and excited I was when I first met each of you. There have been good times when we played and laughed together, when we scratched our heads because of the same problems, when we whined about a common deadline. There have also been times when we tried to settle any inevitable conflicts among us. Everything is only natural. But in the end, when we decide to go our separate ways, what memories we’d like to carry with us is a question for everyone to consider.

After all, it’s been my great pleasure to study and live with you through the most exciting and important years of my life. I hope the friendship we’ve forged will last as long as it could.   

At this time four years ago, I stepped out of Changi Airport and into the balmy, rainy night of Singapore. Everything, from weather to transportations to people’s accent, seemed so foreign. Did I fall in love with this place then? Do I now? I honestly don’t know. But it’ll always be special in my heart. It’s been exactly four years; I can call this place Home. My definition of Home may be disputable. But to date, one fifth of my life has been spent here. How can I ignore this simple truth that this place would remember some of the most important years of my life?

I was so young and ignorant when I first came. Bold and curious, I explored the places as if I was the great conqueror. With a bottle of water and a street atlas in hands, I wandered around Orchard Road, Chinatown, Little India, and so forth; I loved sightseeing. I remember one day, early in the morning, I took the MRT to Raffles Place, walked out of the underground station and to the riverside. Sitting on the bank of Singapore River, I enjoyed the cool breeze and gentle sunshine before the temperature ran up later. The riverside had a beautiful view. The museums and galleries were very much in classical European architectural style. The pubs along the riverside were colorful on the outside walls like a rainbow across the water. The sky was clear with fluffy clouds. I stood there still, taking them all in, and lost myself in time.

Four years passed in a blink of an eye. I’m no longer that ignorant boy. This place has changed so much since I came; I’ve changed even more. But there are always some things that never change. Things I believe in. Things I dream of. Things I chase after. Things I strive for.

In 64 days, all the good, old days will only and uniquely exist in my memories.       

Wandering alone under the moonless, rainy sky. This was my mid-autumn night.

After sending a letter to my beloved, I walked out of my room and into the rain. It was a cool, quiet night, the kind of night that I love.

As I passed by the buildings, I saw a cat resting calmly on a bench. Just a few steps farther, a smiling girl was talking into a phone. The children were running around, each holding a candle-lit lantern. I always thought lantern was a strange tradition here since I never saw anyone walking with lanterns lit on mid-autumn nights in China. Apparently this tradition wasn’t from China. Interesting.

I didn’t know where to head to. The supermarket? Perhaps. My store of bread and drinks was running out.

I love Backstreet Boys’ new song “Straight Through My Heart”. It’s a great companion to listen to while walking outside at night. Backstreet Boys' music had great influence on me as a teenager years ago. It introduced me to the music heaven in the West. To this day, they’re still my favorite, and their music means a lot to me.

Today isn’t really the special day. Tomorrow is. Oct 4, 2009. Remember something?

It’s been four years. Four years exactly.

I’ve had three mid-autumn nights just like tonight.

Peaceful. Cool. Quiet. Alone.

It’s almost a deserted place. My Space. It doesn’t mean I’m too busy to update it at all; on the contrary, my final semester has been really dull. But surely this is gonna end in two days, because my NUS module will commence this Wednesday. The module outline, tutorials and past year quizzes have made it clear that this course will be exciting. Haha! I desperately need some fun. Well, identifying peaks on the spectra and guessing the structures of the compounds isn’t nearly as fun as playing with forces and mechanics. Spectroscopy is so far mostly based on conjectures; there’s little certainty, and that occasionally makes me a little frustrated. Let me hope that NMR will make things better.

I bought the book “The Importance of Living” written by Lin Yutang from a book sale last weekend. For a long time I’ve wanted to read Lin Yutang’s work and now I’ve gotten the chance. Lin Yutang is one of the scholars that I appreciate and admire most, for he’s among the few who’ve actually understood the nature of Chinese people and the differences between Chinese and Westerners. I just encountered his pseudo-scientific formula and found it really interesting. According to Lin Yutang, wisdom is the combination of reality, dreams, and humor. And he said the Chinese are sensitive people who see things very realistically and has a good sense of humor. But they lack the ability to dream. Well, he got that right.   

I didn’t update my blog for almost a month. Well, it wasn’t really the most exciting month in my life. It’s become a habit of waking up at 0740 on Sat & Sun thanks to H1N1; the twice-daily (thrice, if on weekdays) temperature-taking exercise can be a little annoying sometimes when I want to enjoy a few more moments in bed. The good thing (and the ONLY good thing) is that I’m able to go down to the canteen and have breakfast on weekends; normally I may make my own sandwiches and milk or coffee. But it’s good to have the slices toasted and spread margarine (I doubt it’s butter.) over them. Just this afternoon, the residence office installed a toaster in every cluster’s pantry. It’s a very cute little white box. I’ll try to toast some slices this weekend.

The school is as it’s been. There’s always a teacher who could make me screaming inside and getting frustrated every year; senior year isn’t an exception either. But I’ve gotten used to self-study after three years of continuous practice. No school on Mon & Tue for the time being. As long as I won’t get the tutorial session for my NUS engineering module to be on Mon or Tue, I’ll continue to enjoy my lesson-less Mon & Tue (or you may call it the extended weekends). I’d like my tutorial to be immediately after the lecture on Wed. That’ll make my week perfect.

My economics class has shrank to an eight-people discussion group if you count our teacher too. I remember when the economics curriculum was introduced in my junior year, the classroom was fully packed with… 30 plus students during the first lesson, I guess? On the second lesson, the number of students dropped drastically to about 20. After a year it became fewer than 15. And now, it can’t even hit 10. I never think of giving up halfway, because not only I love economics, but also I was one of the advocates for introducing it into our school curriculum. Math and science can’t be everything in my life, in the end, for I’ve spent a little too much on them for the past four years.

The Ice-Age 3 was the first 3D movie I’ve ever seen in a movie theater (not count those educational stuff in the museums). It was hilarious; that’s the only word I can think of to describe it. Transformer 2 was a much greater piece than its prequel. Harry Potter 6, well, fairly speaking, it was a great movie, perhaps better than a few previous ones. But the real enjoyment could only be found by someone who has never read the books. I’ve read all the seven books and all six movies, and there are no surprises that can take me off-guard, no emotional moments that make me feel like sobbing, no exciting adventures that really get the adrenalin going. But I believe for the others who never know the story, this movie will be a great experience.

Nah I was kidding about the back-to-school anxiety; I don’t feel any of it now, probably because it’s gonna be the final semester of my high school. The end of my high school. Most of my friends from my former camaraderie entered universities almost a year ago. Now I can have a taste of what ya’ll were feeling then. Perhaps my feeling may somehow differ from yours because we’ve had totally different high school experience. But I think the cores are more or less the same: treasuring the final moments in high school while longing for a new start in college. To me, there’s something more than that: I left a country once, and now I’ll most likely leave another country, again. Moving from place to place isn’t really a good thing, because one has to be constantly seeking for a different sense of belonging and new friendships. Now I just wish the next place I go to won’t be as hot and humid as Singapore.

I’ve finished all the SATs, APs, and TOEFL in this summer. YAY! Now I’ve got no more standardized tests (The next one I’ll have is probably the GRE.). This feels great.

I can choose to enroll in two NUS modules; one is physics and the other engineering. Engineering is my higher priority because I wanna see what it’s like before I actually study it as a major in university. I never know how much the workload of a college module is, so I’m a bit hesitant about taking up both. And this hesitation is EXACTLY the reason why I SHOULD take up both, because whenever I faced such a dilemma, I always chose the TOUGH way. This happened when I was considering math major tracks and economics modules. Unless the timetables clash, I’ll take up two NUS modules.

Transformers 2 is awesome. Now I’m imagining what if either Optimus Prime or Megatron wasn’t revived. If Optimus died and never stood up again, the Sun would be gone and there would be no more Transformers 3; the producers definitely wouldn’t do that. If Megatron kept silent under the deep ocean, well, this Transformers 2 wouldn’t even be produced. So essentially both Optimus and Megatron are the Undead.

Michael Jackson is no Optimus or Megatron, unfortunately. Our King of Pop died of cardiac arrest yesterday. This is sad. Really sad. Michael Jackson has been one of my favorite singers, and his dances completely dazzle me. Despite his probable misdeeds and obsession with plastic surgeries, his contribution to modern pop music is more than significant. And his love for the famished people in Africa shall be remembered and carried. 

5 types of food I love:

1.  Mutton Hot Pot

2.  Beef Stew

3.  Pepperoni Pizza

4.  Chocolate Mousse with Raspberries or Strawberries

5.  Hangzhou-style Xiaolongbao

5 places I want to visit:

1.  New York City, USA

2.  Provence, France

3.  Rome, Italy

4.  London, UK

5.  Los Angeles, USA

5 writers whose books I like:

1.  Nicholas Sparks

2.  Jane Austen

3.  Lin Yutang

4.  C. S. Lewis

5.  J. K. Rowling

5 singers whose songs I like:

1.  John Denver

2.  Celine Dion

3.  Julio Iglesias

4.  Mariah Carey

5.  Whitney Houston

5 actors/actress I love:

1.  Tom Hanks

2.  Nicholas Cage

3.  Al Pacino

4.  Kate Blanchett

5.  Johnny Depp

5 movies I love:

1.  Forrest Gump

2.  Gone with the Wind

3.  Godfather II

4.  Schindler’s List

5.  Titanic

5 things that make me yawn:

1.  A long biology lecture delivered in a dull monotone

2.  Trying to write an essay but have writer’s block

3.  110010010111001… 

4.  A long bus ride after walking for the entire day

5.  After eating too much or drinking a glass of wine 

5 things about me that I want to change:

1.  Less math & science, more social sciences, arts & music

2.  Learn to play guitar in college

3.  Regain my once keen eyesight

4.  More time spent with my family

5.  Further improve my English                                                                                                                                                                                

The boredom with summer vacation has GOTTEN ON MY NERVES! Cheesecakes! I spent most of the day doing nothing really constructive: watching Hannah Montana or rolling on my bed. But I read essay books and rewrite word by word occasionally as well. Still, it’s nothing really fun that can keep me doing for the whole afternoon. And the sun has been so uncooperative; whenever I walk outside in the sun, I feel like a broiling chicken. Awwww.

I was so no-where-to-go that I got on the train and took a ride to the deserted northwest. Just kidding. Not real deserted. There’re some inhabitants. This analogy is good: if you say Singapore River and Orchard areas were like California, the place I went to was Tennessee. On my train ride to Choa Chu Kang, I could spot the turf club, war memorials, vast areas of prairies, lots of low-rise houses, as well as some 24-storey apartment buildings. Initially I didn’t decide which station I’d alight at because I didn’t know what the places got. Apparently I didn’t want to stop at a place where I could smell cow dung. So I kept my eyes on the surroundings of each station and found Choa Chu Kang somewhat attractive: it got a shopping mall beside the station! So let me what they got here.

Nothing impressive, really, but it was sufficient. The mall was in moderate size. There were Popular bookstore, Ajisen Ramen, Subway (I ate an Italian BMT there.), Giordano (Great bargain! I bought a dark brown leather belt for only $13. Lush. Normally it cost almost $30.), and many more. I was searching for a new earphone, because the spongy thing was almost peeled off the phone. But most of the earphones that looked appealing were too expensive. So by the time I left Choa Chu Kang, I didn’t buy one.

My next stop was Woodland. I was more familiar with that place because I had been there a few times before. I bought nothing there except that I tried the seven incher meal at Burger King (And it was HORRIBLE. Dry and tasteless.).

This afternoon, when the clouds finally covered the google-watt heater, I went to Jurong Point for a meal. Ok, three meals. First I had a small bowl of beef vermicelli (Tasty, but the amount is like bird food.), and then I grabbed a cold cut trio from Subway (six-inch, not foot long). Finally, after my brief shopping at Fair Price Xtra, I took away a double cheeseburger from McDonald and finished it before stepping out of the mall. At Xtra, I found a nice Phillips earphone. Foldable and lightweight. And it cost $17. Fair enough. And I suddenly realized that I’d better finish all the green tea I had before graduation. So my impulse brought me to the housewares shelves where the pots and bottles were located. I decided to buy a big (2-liter maybe?), plastic “container” (I wouldn’t call it a cup any more.). Just now I put two tea bags into the “container” and poured water in to half. And I finished three cups of tea while watching Hannah Montana. Hmm… it was really handy.

My friend Ma-noooo says guys who watch Hannah Montana are ABNORMAL. Untrue. I watch Hannah Montana and I’m perfectly NORMAL. LOL. Miley got a nice voice; I love her songs. The HM TV shows are kiddie stuff. Right. They’re reminiscent of my own childhood, when I used to watch TVs that taught lessons. Each HM show teaches the kids something: friendship, love, forgiveness, cooperation, and so on. And now I still think TV is a good way to communicate with the kids and teach them these important values of life.    

Now I have no more major exams in my schedule, after my second encounter with the SAT and a surprising TOEFL. Anyway, the scores will be out in a week. So meanwhile, I’m doing my essays and trying to relieve the boredom of vacation. Nothing fun’s going on right now. The weather is dreadfully hot. Unbearable under the sun. I don’t wanna go out. But staying in just makes me sleepy. UGH. I watch Hannah Montana to kill time. It’s actually very fun, although it’s all kiddie stuff. And I love Miley’s songs.

Awww… this is so dead BORING. I got nothing to write. Ok. I went to the west coast one evening. Sitting on the shore and listening to the tides hitting the rocks like slow beats of the drum, I stared at the boats floating far away near the horizon, like drops of white paint on a light blue canvas. Above were the giant, fluffy clouds like the skyscrapers. And there was the sun. Well, not exactly, because it was hidden behind those tall, whitish grey skyscrapers, rimming with silvery neon lights. I love the breeze on the seashore, even though it has the slight smell of seaweed. But it’s refreshing, like walking past the Starbucks. Later, when the world got dimmer, I walked through the sand and entered McDonald for some dessert. I ordered a hot fudge, cheap and sweet. But the chocolate was a bit too much and it became cloying in the end. And I got no water. UGH.

Ok. I’m gonna go out to have dinner, because the sun is setting now. I’m hungry.            

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

DAY 1: May 25, 2009 (Mon)

Today is the day before the actual programs start. All the international participants are arriving at NJC. For us, the local participants, we have a short briefing in the afternoon at NJC. The organizer gives us the goodies; everyone gets a water bottle, a towel, a SISC polo T-shirt, a wristband-like 1G USB drive (very cool looking!), a program booklet, and a name tag. We opt for the trip to Marina Barrage which is on the 4th day of the event (in the end they actually assign us to the other trip to NEWater factory…). After the briefing, we go to the exhibition hall to set up our posters. I’m appalled when I see all the A0-size posters right in front of my eyes. The rules specify that the poster size shouldn’t exceed 80 cm x 65 cm. I feel so stupid holding my poster which is only half of the size of an A0 poster while staring at all the huge posters pasting high on the boards at the booths. I think of re-print our posters and discuss with Roy. He’s much reluctant to re-print his poster because he has spent a day resizing it. In fact, I’ve also spend about one hour resizing it. I insist on my idea of re-printing them which Yanling finds out that most of the A0 posters are actually NJC’s showcases, but not the participating projects. Ah… fine then. We put up our small posters and then leave. I’ve not seen any international participants’ posters. I figure they are probably resting at the boarding school.

DAY 2: May 26, 2009 (Tue)

From today onward I’ll skip all the school events until the start of vacation. I’ll not be able to take the mentor group photo, which is quite sad to me. I can’t attend the talks (I don’t really mind, though. Mostly they are soporific.). I can’t get my progress report in time (It doesn’t really matter because I’ve already known what grades I’m gonna get.). I’ll fully engage in SISC day-and-night until Saturday afternoon. With Roy and Yanling, as well as our teachers-in-charge Mrs. Chong and Mr. Soh, this week will most likely be the most exciting and fun week of my life.

I wake up early to dress up in blazer and tie since the opening ceremony is in the morning. Mrs. Chong drives us to NJC (I don’t know how to thank Mrs. Chong, for being so helpful and kind during the entire week.). The opening ceremony is held in Ngee Ann Kongsi Performing Arts Theater (A very long name. In fact, we later find out it’s just LT 5…). The addresses given by the GOH and the principal are platitudinous. The Malay dance is in wonderful synchronization. The auditorium-like theater is bright and spacious; I can hardly believe it’s also used as an LT. We go to the exhibition hall to man our posters before lunch starts. The first person who comes to my booth is a teacher from the renowned Moscow Chemical Lyceum (a school that has published more than 1,000 papers in the past 16 years. I’ve heard that their projects are at PhD level. Sweet Jesus…). He asks me a few simple questions about graphene, LEED, and XPS. I ponder whether he’s really ignorant or he’s testing my knowledge. Three Australian girls come to my booth, bouncing and smiling. They’re very friendly and easy-going. It feels very natural to talk to them. I visit them several times later on. And we take a few photos as well.

The buffet lunch later is as nice as expected. There aren’t much to choose from, but every dish tastes good.

The organizer brings us to NTU School of Engineering for a visit in the afternoon. I must say that NTU’s architecture seems much more modern. The labs are bright and neat. The dean of engineering as well as several professors gives warm welcome addresses and interesting talks. But the lecture theater is freezing. Even if I put on my blazer, my arms and hands are still cold. Two Russians girls sitting in front of me are shivering. I decide to lend my blazer to them and put on my white shirt (It’s a very THIN shirt…). They are too shy to take it initially. But my insistence makes them accept it in the end. They thank me again and again after we’ve left NTU. And they become my friends.

For the ease of our discussion, Roy, Yanling, Mrs. Chong, and Mr. Soh all move into boarding school tonight. The future problem solving and design & build challenges are released online at exactly 2000. We gather in Mrs. Chong’s guest room (It’s comfortable with air-conditioning.) and work on the design & build challenge until 1 a.m.. This challenge is about constructing a chemical cell with a few metals, electrolytes, and other materials and building a LEGO car so that the cell will be able to power the motor and move the car by eight meters in the shortest possible time. We revise what we’ve learned in electrochemistry and propose a few designs to make the cells. But without experimenting, it’s almost impossible to tell which has the highest efficiency solely based on theories. So after discussing with Mrs. Chong, we decide to go to the school lab the next day and do some trial-and-error to test which is the best way. Since it’s quite late, our brains are kinda malfunctioning. We go back to sleep at 1:30 a.m. and wake up at 4:00 a.m. to refresh our mind and finish up the first part of the report.  

DAY 3: May 27, 2009 (Wed)

After finishing the first page of the report for design & build challenge, we go for breakfast before Mrs. Chong drive us to NJC for the judging of science research project. It takes the entire morning to judge all the 40+ projects. Each is adjudicated by two judges. The first judge coming to my booth is a PhD from ASTAR. A friendly man, he appreciates my project pretty much and asks a few questions which aren’t much problem for me to answer. The second judge, however, is a professor from NTU. His field of interest isn’t material science, but solar cell development. So I figure he doesn’t fully comprehend what my graphene project is all about and its significance. Besides standing by my poster and waiting for the judges, I wander around to see others’ projects and mingle with some of the friendly-looking people. Some of the girls from Russia, Korea and Australia are quite nice people. The boys from Moscow Chemical Lyceum aren’t talking to others at all; their English isn’t good enough to support normal conversation. Most of the time, they seem quite bored. I also get to know some of the students from Beijing, although most of the participants from China don’t talk too much, like the Russian boys. Anyway, I have a pretty enjoyable time chatting with all the people I meet.

After lunch, we wander around the exhibition hall, chatting with random people and waiting for the results. The results are released in an exactly the same way as in SSEF; the judges go around the hall, sticking the winners’ markers beside the posters. It’s completely reminiscent of the scenes at SSEF. The only difference is that this time the judges never come to my booth. I feel a little disappointed, because my SSEF-bronze-medal-winning project fails the SISC. But it’s not unreasonable as in the theme is about renewable energy sources and environmental issues while my project is about material science and physics. Fortunately Roy wins our school a merit award. Still, it’s a little discouraging as research is NUS High’s pride and strength. In the end, the champion goes to National Taichung First Senior High in Taiwan.

During the public exhibition, Roy and I both take a nap at our booths due to lack of sleep the previous night. Yanling goes back to school earlier because she doesn’t have a project. A guy from ACS(I) told some very lame jokes to us:

“What would a fish say when it hits a wall?” “Damn.” (lol)

“Why doesn’t a cat play poker in Africa?” “Because there are cheetahs!” (ROFLMAO)

Roy and I take a bus back to school after a briefing on the design & build challenge. Right after we come back, I call Yanling and Mrs. Chong and gather everyone in the chemistry lab to try the chemicals and build cells. That’s about 4 p.m. plus when we enter the lab. And we leave the lab at 10 p.m.. We have a short discussion with Mr. Murali and consider each possibility. In the end we decide to try every electrolyte to see which combination would yield the highest emf. We heat the electrolyte to near boiling, and then add in the agarose gel powder. After stirring, the mixture is cooled down. We pour the cooled mixture to the small container for it to solidify. Then we insert two pieces of metals and use the multi-meter to measure the emf. After hours of trial-and-error, we are finally able to yield an emf of 12 V, which is way higher than the required 9 V. We test the cell with a small light bulb. It doesn’t light up. We’re puzzled. I ask Roy to measure the current output, and the result stuns me. The current is only several milliAmpere. It can’t power anything! We feel quite confused and discouraged. All our previous discussions are on how to achieve the require voltage based on our gel cell design. We never consider the current. Agarose gel apparently has huge resistance, which takes up almost all the voltage. The voltage and current delivered to the motor or light bulb is extremely low, even though the emf is high. I feel that we’re doomed. Roy feels that the motor may still work. We decide to just try this design the next day and see whether it can power the motor. After packing up the stuff, we leave the lab, walking across the field under the moonlight and returning to Mrs. Chong’s room to finish up the report which will be due in less than 10 hours. During the experiments, Miss. Koh bought us Subways for dinner (Thanks to Miss. Koh!).

I’ve written the first part of the report, which is about background research. We still have to include the materials used, structure of the cell, and relevant calculations and equations. We research on all the redox reactions happened in the cell and calculate the emf based on reduction potential data. Roy is making a 3D model by using 3D Max Studio, while Yanling and I are writing the report. I feel so sleepy later after midnight that I ask Yanling to help me type. I close my eyes and tell her what to write. We keep working on it until 2:30 a.m. when all of us have become numb. We decide to go to rest first and meet again at 5 a.m. to consolidate the final draft.

When we meet at 5 a.m., we’re like half-dead. Still, we finish the whole thing, pack our laptops, and leave for NJC again.

DAY 4: May 28, 2009 (Thu)

We arrive at NJC quite early, so we get to start the challenge first. In our lab, there are two other schools: Canterbury School and High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China. They come in after we’ve started making the cell and the LEGO car. Yanling and I are in charge of making the cells while Roy alone is working on the car. It takes the gel too much time to solidify that I begin to doubt the quality of the agar. While waiting for the gel to be ready, Yanling and I cut the wires and prepare the copper and magnesium electrodes. Roy’s car is also finishing. We quickly install the six cells in the car and finish it when the proctors call “stop”. We connect the cells to the motor, and it’s not working. My heart sinks immediately to the bottom. I take a glance at the other two groups’ work. Theirs aren’t working, either. I feel slightly better. I bring our car to the race room and meet other teams. Some of theirs aren’t working like ours. But there are a few groups whose cars can move, such as the Japan’s one (I suspect that their parents are from Toyota and Honda…). I can’t believe it. Why can theirs move while ours doesn’t? We spent hours drafting the design based on principles of electrochemistry and testing our cells. And still ours fails. But for them, especially the international participants, they don’t have the facilities as we do while they can make the car move. It’s totally unbelievable.

I come back to the lab and tell Roy and Yanling about the other groups. We decide to emulate on the spot. Before the race there will be time for refilling the chemicals. We’ll just dump all the gel we make (This is heartbreakingly hurtful to me since I spent the two hours making it.). fill the cells with a solution and salt, and see how it works. We dump all the gel into the sink before I add in hydrogen peroxide to each cell. Then I sprinkle the table salt (Pretty much like how we add salt to fried eggs) into the cells before capping them and connecting the wires. The wheels aren’t rotating. Hell, it doesn’t work! But we don’t have time left before the first trial starts, so I just let Roy carry the car to the starting line and release it. Apparently it fails. Then he carries it back and we quickly dump the content into the sink again. This time we add in sodium hypochlorite and table salt. And it works! The wheels actually rotate, very weakly though! But still, we feel exhilarated. This time I rush to the starting line and release the car with a slight push. It moves about 70 cm before coming to a halt. The friction is too big and power is too low. And since we add in the chemicals in a rush, the salt hasn’t fully dissolved and the concentrations have yet been optimized. So, nothing but an epic fail in the end.

On our way to lunch, Roy keep sighing “I can’t believe it”. And I keep murmuring “conspiracy”. Roy says that this experiment defies the law of electrochemistry, and I can’t agree more on that. There’s no salt bridge in this chemical cell, but it still works! To me, the failure in both challenges makes me suspect the whole thing is a conspiracy that’s designed to screw us up. Later in the 2nd round, the top 5 teams are invited to answer a few questions posed by the judges. And here I don’t want to comment too much on that part.

So, feeling like half-a-loser, I board the bus to ASTAR Biopolis in the afternoon. We visit one of the biomedical labs in Helio building. We see machines that can scan a rat, measure its fat and protein contents, and report the data in grams (Amazing. Roy hopes that he can be squeezed into the machine. lol). We also see setups that shake the solution constantly (It’s more like a earthquake simulator to me, though, because the whole thing is moving back and forth very quickly.). The lab is bright and neat. I can see that it’s quite a comfortable and conducive environment for scientific research.

After we’ve all taken a group photo outside the building, we board the bus and go back to NJC. It’d be so convenient for us to leave for NUS High from Biopolis, but the organizer doesn’t compromise at all. So we’re brought back to NJC and released there. And we have to walk all the way out to Bukit Timah main road and take the bus 151 to go back to school. There’s a concert at NJC tonight, as part of the SISC program. Roy has lost his ticket so he doesn’t intend to come back to NJC later (He’s just indolent.). I don’t want to come as I’m very tired and we still have one more challenge to discuss. But at the same time, I don’t want to miss it either since it’s anyway part of the entire program and I want to experience the whole thing. So Yanling and I decide to get a cab and come together later.

I tell Yanling to wait for me downstairs at 7 p.m. so that we can go together. But I see no one when I come down. I call but no one answers. Immediately I know what she’s doing now: TAKING A NAP. A nap can ruin everything if one doesn’t wake up in time. After I’ve called her n times, I decide to come up to 11th floor and shout her name. Still, she’s not answering, and I feel a bit desperate. I don’t want to be late, so I decide to go alone. Just as I’m about to go out and get a cab, I get a message from Yanling, who tells me that she has overslept. I tells her to come down ASAP and wait for me outside the church. After another 5 minutes of waiting, she appears finally and we quickly leave in a cab. It’s already 7:20, and the concert starts at 7:30. It’s quite impossible to get there on time. Fortunately, when we get there, the concert has yet started because the GOH hasn’t come. Phew…

The whole concert X’uberance is way too awesome. I’m not sure if NUS High can ever catch up and meet that standard (It may take a century, I guess.). Their performances are so immaculate. I don’t know how to describe it in words, but I’m left in awe after each show. Roy, you shouldn’t have missed it.

After the show, Yanling and I sit beside the NJC Plaza and wait for Mrs. Chong to come and pick us up. We chat casually on random topics, mostly about China. After we come back to boarding school and meet with Roy, we decide not to stay up too late tonight. We will only draft out the ideas and presentation outlines. Nonetheless, we carry on our discussion until 1 a.m. plus when none of us has a clear mind.

DAY 5: May 29, 2009 (Fri)

Today is a relaxing day before the final challenge on Saturday. In the morning, some groups visit the NEWater factory and other other groups visit the Marina Barrage. We’ve opted for the latter. But the organizer assigns us to the former. The MacRobertson girls are with us, too. This is a good thing because they’re amazing company.

We take plenty of photos in NEWater center. The MacRobertson girls are really funny and hyper. But our tour guide, a 60+ garrulous man, is even more hyper. He talks about random things that are totally unrelated to water, and we laugh nonstop. For example, he mentions that reverse osmosis would eliminate the estrogen content in the water. And he tells us that if a guy consumes estrogen, he will becomes a gay; whereas if a girl does, she won’t be able to give birth. After him telling us this, we’re like ROFLMAS. Later on he says that if he were 20 years younger, he would go to Beijing and marry three wives. Sweet Jesus, Mother of God… And when we take photos of him, he strikes those very girlish poses, which makes us doubt his mental healthy and stability. I suspect that he may once get soaked in the NEWater tank.

Later we find a dragonfly outside the factory. But it’s not a common dragonfly, it’s a PINK one. A dragonfly wearing a pink outfit?! It leads us to nothing but the topic on estrogen again. LOL. The weather is pretty hot and I drink a whole bottle of NEWater on the bus. Then the MacRobertson girls say that I behave strangely after that as I keep smoothing my hairs.

After lunch at NJC, we go to NAKPAT for a briefing on the cultural mapping in the afternoon. We are divided into several groups and each group occupies one bus. This time, I get a chance to talk to a guy from the Moscow Chemical Lyceum (Because there is only one empty seat beside him.). He’s friendly, but his little mastery of English makes our conversation extremely difficult to carry on. Most of the time, I can’t understand what he’s talking. And he has great difficulties in putting his thoughts into words. I slow down my pronunciation of each word so as to make him grasp what I say. But his accent makes most of his sentences incomprehensible. I may get to understand what he means from his gestures and expressions. This is quite a unique experience for me. Anyway, he signs on my booklet. His name is Dmitry.

After visiting a cemetery and a hawker center, the bus brings us to Bukit Timah hill. I’m afraid that they will make us climb to the summit. The weather is excruciatingly sweltering. I have no intention of climbing up and down under such weather. I’m soaked before we actually start off. Fortunately, we only make a way through the jungle, return to the main path, and then walk down to the original point. On our way we see monkeys in the trees. To me, it’s nothing surprising. I’ve seen many monkeys in Singapore. Last time I visit Sentosa, a bunch of monkey actually besieges me and one of them claws at and injures my leg. It’s very painful. And I feel like kicking that creature to outer space.

Our final stop is Old Ford Factory. Initially when I hear the name, I think of a car manufacturing company (Great! We’re gonna see cars.). But to my disappointment, it’s now a historic site to commemorate the WWII. Although I’ve known the history of WWII well enough, I’m appalled to see how the Japanese brutally exploited the people in Singapore. Wish the world peace may last forever.

Roy, Yanling, and I go back to school together after the event has ended. We decide to meet after Mrs. Chong come back; she may bring some pizzas and food back for us. We all gather in her room later on and enjoy the pizzas before we start to finish up our preparation for the final challenge. We elaborate on each of the ideas about how to utilize new energies and how to make the utilization more efficient. I come up with an innovative idea, salinovoltaic cells. It’s inspired by the previous challenge. Based on the result of the design & build challenge, we may actually extract the seawater, which contains huge amount of electrolytes such as salt and hydrogen ions, into chambers and insert waste metals as electrodes so that we can generate certain amount of electricity. I think it’s a brilliant idea. It may not be applicable now, but in future, this idea may help (I’m gonna patent it.). We finish up everything by 1 a.m. plus and go back to sleep.

DAY 6: May 30, 2009 (Sat)

Today is the final day, and we’re gonna give the best shot. Before setting off, we meet at Mrs. Chong’s and go through the slides one more time. We arrive at NJC very early as usual. After submitting our presentation slides, we leave for McDonald for breakfast. There we go through the presentation the first time after eating, and we realize some parts that can be polished further. On our way back to NJC, we are lucky enough to encounter a traffic jam on Bukit Timah road, which slightly makes me a little worry. But in the end, we make our way back in time (10 minutes before our turn. Phew.).

Before the presentation, both Roy and I go to toilet. Big business (Crap! The challenge has got on my nerves.). I quickly put on my blazer after walking out of the toilet, button up, and put on the school tie. Smoothing my hair and shirt, I walk in the room with Roy and Yanling.

The whole presentation goes on pretty as expected. The judges, however, show little interest. Their expressions tell me they’re not only tired and bored, but also indifferent and fastidious. One of the judges’ bombastic questions prove my point. He keeps asking how much energy our proposed mechanism can save and how much it would cost. I admit these are relevant questions, but they aren’t valid in the current setting. It’s a proposal for the future, how can we know whether there will be an economic downturn or any natural disasters coming in 2049? There are manifold factors that can affect the reliability, applicability, and affordability of our proposals. Anyway, we think that we’ve done our best.

We come back to school to rest for a while before coming back to NJC again for the closing ceremony in the afternoon. All the awards will be released during the ceremony. The GOH gives a long and soporific speech that makes me yawn. After that, as the representative of our team, I go up to receive our certificates of participation. Later Roy goes up to receive the merit award for the research project challenge. We wait and wait for our school name to come up in the long list of awards for the future problem solving challenge. But unfortunately, our name never comes up again. I feel super depressed, so does Roy. I’m almost convinced that the whole thing just sets us up. Well, that’s very selfish thinking. There are valid and understandable reasons to our failure.

We dig too deep. Since we are from a math and science school, our knowledge about science is in-depth. And this ultimately causes our epic fail in the design & build challenge. From this, I realize how different theory and reality can be. Also, we are kind of too scientific and technological. In our final presentation, we give ideas like dye sensitized solar cells, piezoelectricity, and the innovative salinovoltaic cells. These are probably the most creative ideas I can give (Something like space solar panels may be cooler. But they are invalid in this case.). The judges, however, seem to have a completely different understanding about the problem than we have. They want a better and more impressive overall picture, rather than a very detailed and scientific proposal. From this, I realize that life is unpredictable. What we want may not be what we are gonna get. What we will get may not be what we want.

After all, I have plenty of stuff to bring home with me. First, this is my first time taking part in an international competition. It’s great to have such an experience. I’ve made friends from Australia, China, Korea, Russia, and so on. Also, I’ve learned a lot about chemical cells and eco-city through our intensive research and experiments. Last but not least, it’s the vivid and happy memory that I’ll keep for my life. This week is unprecedentedly fun and meaningful to me as I’ve met so many people from various backgrounds and get to engage in research and discussion in different areas.

To all SISC 2009 participants, I thank you for making this week one of the most wonderful and fun weeks of my life. And special thanks go to Roy and Yanling, for being great teammates day and night. Thanks to Mrs. Chong and Mr. Soh for their care and support throughout the event. You’re all amazing.     

It was great to have some fun chat over the lunch table with my gangs before the last exam, English essay test, started. I didn’t bring my wind-breaker like Levi’s shirt (All right. I FORGOT to bring it.). But the theatrette wasn’t as freezing as usual, perhaps because two out of the three proctors were females which were generally more afraid of coldness than males were. It was supposed to be merely a “test” that would constitute only 10% of the overall grade of this year-long module. But it was conducted entirely in exam format, which nonetheless made me a little uneasy. This modicum of “uneasiness” was due to my previous essay score which wasn’t quite decent by my standard. It was below my average performance in an essay-writing practice. I consulted my English teacher after receiving my red-pen-marks-covered essay. My discussion over my essay with her made me realize the subjectivity of judging an essay written by others. But how could I know whether my essay’s style and content would satisfy the marker’s stomach?

I sat down on my assigned seat, smiling down at the test paper and answer booklet. It’s a habit of mine to smile before an exam. If you ask me what or why I smile, I’d say I don’t know, either. Perhaps it’s just to ease my nerve, a mask to hide my uneasiness. But most likely it’s a boost of my confidence and strength. And this time I was relaxed enough to feel comfortable. There must be a topic that fitted me out of the six topics provided; I’d be in the worst nightmare if all six topics failed and emptied my brain of thoughts. As I turned over the paper and glanced through the topics, I slowly nodded to myself and thought there would be no nightmares this time.

It took me some time to ponder and plan. There were two topics, both of which were appealing. One was about poverty, and one about globalization. I was always inclined to topics on globalization because of some basic economics knowledge I possessed. So I didn’t hesitate for too long and started to plan my paragraphs by listing points and evidence as usual.

Writing itself took up all my time left until the last minute. I wrote five full pages, single-spacing. The word limit was 500-800. Apparently mine was way over 800. Fortunately my teachers weren’t so fussy about exceeding the word limit as long as I didn’t hand in more than two booklets. I felt that this time my essay would probably score somewhat higher.

After the exam had ended, I didn’t feel much relieved, because more tedious and difficult tasks were waiting for me ahead. I could continue to enjoy one week of Cola-and-movies-filled splendid sunny days before the week-long SISC started on May 25. In fact, my days can’t be any more near “splendid”, not only due to the SISC, but more because of the SAT and TOEFL in June. These two excruciating four-hour tests could drive any sane and sensible people stressful and mad. Here I want to say to all my juniors, especially those freshmen and sophomores, that you’d value your time and pleasure for now. Three years ago, I might have some extra mental preparation. But mostly I was just like many of you. As I grew, particularly after entering the adulthood, I found less and less fun, but more and more concerns. I still try to be the bright and easy self. But I can no longer shake off the pressure on my shoulders. Pressure coming from graduation, from exams, from transcript, from college applications, etc. How I miss the good, old days of childhood!

And the SISC… ugh! The problems were just generally released online. And my jaw really dropped when I read through the tasks. Build a chemical cell that can drive a Lego car through 20 meters in the fastest possible time? Development of a sustainable city? This is really something. I mean, I’ve never taken part in a similar competition that asks such innovative questions. Darn them. It’s going to be super fun. And I felt more stressed after I had seen the list of participating schools: Beijing No.4, High School affiliated to Renmin University, Shanghai High School, Israel Arts and Science Academy (the defending champion!), Moscow Chemical Lyceum, and so forth. Well, let’s start the showbiz.

All right. I start to yawn now… YAWN… time to go to bed. Tomorrow is a brand new day.

I’ve finally done all the six APs required. Phew~ And after today, no more high school physics. Well, when I look back on what I’ve learned from all the physics lessons from JM1 to now, I’d say that I’ve not only grasped dozens of scientific principles and theories, but also gained great insight into the world and nature. Physics makes my mind clearer and thinking more rational. And I can understand this world better, and see the hidden beauty of nature. People especially enjoy the feeling of release and pleasure when they get to understand something in life, don’t they?

Two weeks later, I’ll be busy with the SISC@NJC. I hope it’d be fun. Researching and building some prototype overnight won’t be a pleasant experience without fun. At least we must know what we’re doing. For the research project, I have to modify my graphene project a little so as to make it relevant to the environmental theme of the competition. The poster needs to be re-printed if necessary. My presentation script needs to be revised as well.

SAT is coming, right after my birthday. The same thing hopefully won’t happen again after a year. No more screwed-up essays or guessing-all-the-way verbal. I’m going to make it the last as well as my best.

There are 197 days left for me to finish up everything. Part of me desires to graduate and leave here for college, and part of me never wants to leave high school. High school is particularly long and meaningful to me. I'll have to leave without turning back. It won’t be easy to say goodbye. I’ve been longing for college life as well. I believe it’ll be another enjoyable, exciting and fruitful journey of life.

I’ve not updated anything for a month. What happened then… hmm. Let me recall. I did pretty well in the AP mock exams. That made me happy not because the grades would predict my actual performance in the real AP Exams --- I didn’t worry about AP Exams--- but because the grades would be used as substitutions for the school final exams results, which were often my concerns. At least I could secure As for my math and sciences modules based on my scores.

The SSEF prize presentation ceremony@Matrix Building, Biopolis, was an exciting show of NUS High. No matter how you measured it, the number of awardees or the prestige of the awards, NUS High was definitely the greatest achiever that rocked the palatial theater. I was there and I felt exhilarated and proud in that atmosphere. The plague wasn’t quite pretty, though. I like my stylish, Rio Tinto black-glass-transparent-words plague I received last year better. A Nobel laureate gave an intriguing and apparently spontaneous talk during the ceremony. I like the way he talked: animated, direct, and down to the point, unlike some of the politicians, whose words might adumbrate nothing constructive.                 

The Influenza A (H1N1) pandemic, ousted SARS and Avian Influenza (H5N1) from the threat, has become a red alert of the entire world now. Fortunately it’s relatively mild. China and Singapore are both safe. The U.S. now has the most cases, even though the flu originated from Mexico. Last week, we had several temperature-taking exercises every day. Now it’s been suspended.

The AP Stats went well. The MCQs were more difficult than I had expected. There were too little calculation and too many words, which made the problems very long, confusing, and time-consuming. The subsequent FRQs were much better. The calculations were anticipated and there weren’t any killers.

I’ve not revised mechanics or E&M for weeks. But still I’m quite confident about the two AP Physics C Exams tomorrow.

Why do I always feel so sleepy during the day... I hate this darn feeling that might cause me time-wasting.   

I gotta say that this movie amazed the hell outta me. It’s more than just a movie. It’s the worst nightmare that anyone could ever have, and a portent of the most disastrous calamity that would obliterate everything on Earth.

An eclectic amalgam of science, fiction, and religion, the thriller depicts the end of the Earth and human beings, as well as a new beginning of life on another planet. I’ve seen many science fictions about the end of the world, the extinction of lives on Earth, the higher power, etc. But none of them seemed as real and evocative as this one. Everything seems to be happening just in front of you: plane crashing on the highway, people being smashed, burning and screaming, off-rail train razing the subway, sun flare flaming the world…

But still, there is hope --- a new beginning of life, as implied symbolically by the Tree of Life. On another planet, there’s the dawn of civilization.

I was mentally stunned by the idea of the movie. Despite the dramatic and unrealistic effects, things are so REAL in the movie that they could possibly happen at any time. The good thing is that based on observations and statistical predictions, nothing as catastrophic as the sun flare would happen to the Earth in 100 years. It’s so fortunate that I’ll not be able to live to the end of the world and witness the devastation of all lives.