Holiday is here~~!!

In a blink of an eye, 2 weeks of schooling as a Form 6 student in Penang Free School is over. The Mid-Term Break is here, and will last for a 2 whole week. SWEET! Finally a break from seeing the same teachers everyday in school. Form 6 only have 5 subjects, therefore, only 6 teachers, whereas Physics has 2, and almost everyday the same teacher enters...

Though, my holidays are not going to be that enjoyable... As predicted, there are homeworks to be done (definitely teachers will give). Luckily, its not that much, just Chemistry homeworks (though, its a lot, MCQs, Structure Questions, and Essays. All has to be done in test pads and handed in the 1st day of school when it re-opens...

Not only that, I have to prepare my talk for MUET. 8 victi.... *AHEM* students were already called out to give their speech, and to me, Arvind was the best. Spoken like a true English man, I salute thee, Arvind. I'm gonna be talking about tuitions, as a necessary evil, meaning its necessary but its also evil... Points are pretty much listed down, the question is, how do I present it??? Just hope for the best and hopefully, the points won't slip out... A slip of a tongue is not the fault of the mind, but in my case, a slip of the 'mind' is not the fault of the 'student'!

Not to mention, I need to catch up on my Physics. I have an excellent teacher, Ms. Choong Lai Yong, teaching my class Physics, which is good. However, it HAAAAAASSSSS to be neutralised by appointing another teacher, a temporary teacher, Mr. Ooi Hooi Seng, to teach us Physics, and not only that, to teach us the difficult chapter, Kinetics of Theory Gases... I'm afraid what will happen to his teaching on the next chapters, as the 1st one is already that bad...

Of course, my holidays aren't all about studying, I do have a life. I don't plan on going to any movies in the holidays because my schedule is not flexible and some last minute activities/errands might just pop out.Not to mention, my budget is kinda tight... I'm planning to play Okami on PS2, and hopefully I could finish the whole story before school re-opens, otherwise I'll get addicted. Not much left though, after I stopped when I enter Form 6.

Amaterasu, Sun God.

Family communication is as usual in my home nowadays, nothing much has changed nor anything new has happened. Perhaps we should go out and maybe go to Batu Feringgi a few times during the holidays... Anyways thats all for now. I'll update either during the holidays or after school re-opens.

Signed off,
Teng Aun.

Orientation Disaster-ation

The Orientation games were held today, in school at 2.40PM. The Upper 6s planned games at stations for us to go to and well... play their game. When they divide ourselves into groups, my group consists of only 3 boys, and 9 girls...

Station 1: Technology Block, all members stand INSIDE a page of newspaper, and my group lost... Then, we have to obey the instructions in the paper and follow what it says. We lost again, therefore, the losers have to put makeups on their face. (my face was 'scarred' by a girl!)
Station 2: Basketball court, we have to spin 10 rounds then crawl under a desk, and pick up a coin with a pair of chopstick. We won, luckily...

Station 3: KH Block, we have to do a 'reverse' mirror image of the movements the senior is doing. I won, luckily...

Station 4: Prefects Quarters, some game involving limbo, stair climbing, bringing a ping pong ball in a spoon using your mouth, and dipping your hand into ice-cold water for a minute (that was the worse...). No winning group, I dunno why...

Station 5: Form 6 Block, they give us clues and we have to guess who is it... My group lost again, and we have to sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" 'gigi' version...

Station 6: Pond, we have to be blind-folded and then directed by other members to eat an apple hanging with a string... No winning nor losing groups. Then, we have to drink something thats a combination of Sprite, soy sauce and some other nonsense...

Station 7: Cricket Pitch, we have to feel the things that are inside the tin boxes. I felt a tentacle in my 1st box, and something hard with something slimy in the 2nd box. My guess was caterpillar in the 1st, and snail in the 2nd. It turn out to be a normal bug, and a smily rock...

Station 8: Volleyball court, we have to play volleyball with water balloons and cloths. Throw and catch the water balloon with the cloth given. Our group lost, so we have to pick up rubbish around the floor... Then we have to do a guessing game, we were seperated into 2 groups and the representatives will be covered with a big cloth. They have to guess each others names and good thing my team won.

Thats all the stations. Except station 8, the rest of the stations have water paints ready and were painting our face nonstop... Overall I gotta say it was fun, but some things were unnecessary... It could cause a lot of havoc, and the RC members were totally USELESS. They were only there to play, not to help. I just want a plaster (yes, a plaster, the most basic 1st aid item), they replied 'sorry we don't have it' and walked off, before I could ask for another stuff... They have a prom on the end of July, costing us RM58, and I refuse to go. No photos taken, since I didn't bring my camera, so thats it for now...

Signed off,
Teng Aun.

BOSLIB, here I come!

I've decided to join the Board of Student Librarians this year, after 6 years in Penang Free School... It seems that BOSLIB is the most suitable Board for me, the time slot for my duty fits perfectly into my timetable...

Today was the interview for the entrance to BOSLIB. With me are Chong Boon Wue, Brian John Dorai and some of my classmates, Ooi Chee Beng, Toh Ang Gie and Yeoh Kerry (I think thats her name).

Before the committees get ready for the interview, we were placed in the Form 6 section to... well... get nervous... and boy, don't I have butterflies in my stomach... After they got ready, an Indian girl, Boon Wue and I were called 1st for the interview, we have to proceed upstairs are were stationed into different booths.

My booth, consists of 2 female interviewers, and 1 male interviewer who is GREAT at shooting me with questions that left me blank...The questions were OK, until they ask what is my suggestion to improve the library, which make me totally blank... I don't know why, but I felt like I was attacked with so many questions compared to Boon Wue, who left about 10 minutes before I do.

The interview, overall, was pretty unpredictable. I couldn't say it was good or bad, sometimes I was speechless and sometimes I could answer. The results will be out on Friday, and I hope for the best.

Signed off,
Teng Aun.

Bye bye money.... *sob*

Today I burned a big hole in my pocket... Being only 2 weeks + had me spent approximately RM200....
As soon as I entered my class on the 1st day and the 'finance minister' was elected, RM1 was collected as a class fund. That was ok, FOR NOW.
I went to the bookshop to check the price for my reference books as SPBT wont supply books for Form 6. Was pretty shocked when I heard the price. RM106.50, smacked right on my face. Luckily, that was a set of reference books, including all subjects taken with chapters taught only up to the end of Lower 6. After a week, Mr. Tan Swee Guan came into my class and announced the MUET exams for Lower 6s which can be done at the end of the year (OCT/NOV), only to students with GCE-O (1119) of A1/A2 only. I signed up, and it costs me another RM60. If I were to retake it would cost me the same amount... Then, as usual, class fund fees collection again, for photocopies of notes, which I forgot the amount.
About a few days later, Pn. Malini came in with 10 tickets of "Phantom Of The Opera: The Musical". According to what she say, the principal supports the play STRONGLY, having all classes compulsory to sell 10 tickets MINIMUM. PFS will be PFS... who would support the play? So, the rule that applied to all classes when no tickets were sold is to collect RM3 per person, and the tickets become 'first come, first serve'... My class decided on a draw, so its fair to all. Yesterday, the Grand Old Lady (not the school, the senior assistant) insist on everyone in every class to pay up RM10. Reason? Cocurriculum... No other details given....

So far the expenses are...
Reference Books : RM106.50
Class funds : RM5.00 (estimate)
Cocurriculum : RM10.00
POTO (by L&D) : RM 3.00

These costs RM106.50, pretty reasonable come to think of it...

These fees are excluding the normal school fees, which will burn a bigger hole in my pocket (Its PFS for God's sake...). If it wasn't because of school needs, I will be advancing on my allowance for almost 3 months... Hopefully something bad won't happen that involves money...

Signed off,
Teng Aun.

Further Math, Yes or No?

The pressure is on, whether to take or not to take Further Mathematics as an optional 5th subject for Form 6... There are pros and cons to be considered before I make my choice...

Pros:
- Useful when I enter university (planning on Actuarial Science).
- A good tuition teacher that possesses great knowledge on that subject.
- I'm interested (if not, why bother....)
- Back up in case I screwed up a subject (any memorizing subject I'm not gonna do well for sure...)
- Some of my friends are interested too (so people wont pick on me on being nerd or something...)
- Gonna be applied in most jobs available.

Cons:
- No lessons on this subject during school.
- Good tuition teacher, but overly charged fee... (RM 90 per month, COME ON!)
- Need to drive to his place for tuition...
- Need a lot of time revising to score.
- Hard.
- CGPA counts 4 sub only (if I didn't do well, 1+1/2 years wasted...)
- Hard.
- Har......... have I said hard?

Pretty much the Pros and Cons balanced up, which makes it EVEN harder to decide. No use asking opinions, tuition teacher sure gives a 100% yes, seniors sure give 100% no, others will say up to you, including my family members....

Well, I would like to ask a favor of you fellow readers, please leave a comment on whether I should accept the challenge and take the subject, like a brave hero, taking a huge risk or just forget about it, like a safe citizen using the safest route but no harm will fall on him?

Comments are much appreciated, thanks (no poll made, considering not many people are visiting here, comments are much more meaningful).

Signed off,
Teng Aun.

Life in Form 6

Form 6? College? Matriculation? JPA? Foundation? Well... My choice is pretty much stated in the title. Yeah, its been only 2 weeks but quite a lot has happened, BELIEVE ME!

I registered myself into Penang Free School, which is the school I go to since Form 1. Same as the other schools, the first week was the orientation week for us Lower 6s. As usual, the PFS discipline teachers and prefects will check our attires, hair and nails, making sure they are... well... neat (yeah, short, but neat is what they call it...). Come on, we are pre-university students, let us go already...

Monday:
Speeches are dull and boring, similar to the speeches during assembly I have to attend every Monday before lesson. I gotta say the principal put a shame on PFS by speaking in rotten English and by saying the main objectives of us boys coming back to Form 6 is the girls.

Tuesday:
The next day was pretty much the same to the previous one. Speeches from subject teachers regarding the available subjects for Form 6 are the only thing that is useful to me on that day. The teachers are Ms. Choong Lai Yong for Physics, Pn. Ida Safura for Biology, Mr. Lim Weng Siong for Mathematics S & T, Pn. Akhbarhana for Chemistry, Pn. Molisa for MUET, Pn. Ruby for Pengajian Am, Mr. Hanif for BM, and many more for the Art Stream subjects. Then, there was an ice-breaking session, which I find pretty useless and embarassing at times... We were to group ourselves according to Birth Months, Shoe Size, Favourite colour, etc. etc. etc. Though, I was able to know a girl with the same birthdate as mine, and nearly the same time. If we were born in the same hospital that would freak me out!

Wednesday:
Today we get to tour around Free School, not that I need of. Come on, I've been here for 5 years, cut some slack and let us Free School boys skip this tour will ya? Unfortunately, they won't and we have seperate into 3 groups and proceed to the library, archive room and Pusat Sumber. Then, the Upper 6 Forms spare a little time and told us their experience in Form 6.

Thursday:
The end of our orientation week. Final, boring speeches by the administrations and then we were assigned to our respective classes. I chose Physics and dropped Biology, so my class is 6RB. Unfortunately, the original 6RB class is occupied by 1 of the Form 4 classes because their class will be renovated and turned into an archive room. So, off to the Biology lab instead. A 'Datin Tengku Putri' introduced herself as our form teacher, named Nur Raihan BT. Azmi. She pretty much marked a spot in our mind, by intro-ing with F*** F*** F*** and a few more !@#$%^&*() words....

Thats pretty much all about the orientation week. Then, we got transfered to the Chemistry lab because the Biology lab isn't the lab we were suppose to be in. Over a decade or so, the chemistry lab was in perfect shape and nothing went wrong. But with only 10 days of 6RB students, the chemicals were mixed up and one of the sink was broken, causing water to flow out from its back and front. Luckily there are drains in the lab or it will be flooded.
Reminder to self: NEVER use the chemicals in the back row for practical and experiments...

These are my teachers for my subjects. Ms Choong Lai Yong and Mr. Ooi HS, namely UBO for Physics (Supposingly Pn. Rosmawati, but she's on maternity leave), Datin Tengku Putri Nur Raihan for Chemistry, but changed to a teacher I yet to know her name, Mr Khor Bean Hwa for Mathematics T, Mr. Tan Eng Kheng for MUET and Guru C (anonymous) for PA. Since Guru C is an anonymous teacher, PA is our free period.

Thats pretty much everything about my life in Form 6 until now. However, I'm sure after the holidays my homework will stack up as high as Mount Everest...

Whenever anything new or any event is up, I'll post them here.

Signed off,
Teng Aun

The beginning....

To blog or not to blog, that was my question. Well, I guess I pretty much found my answer to it....
This is my 1st post and I am already out of words.... I am pretty bad at introductions and everything.... I guess thats pretty much all about it.
Thanks for reading!!

Signed off,
Teng Aun