Latest Update on my summer plans

Hey guys, change of plans. Instead of doing my reservist, I would be flying off early tmr morning to Seoul for an internship with their government till 19th June. After that I would still be having the Princeton program all the way till 31st July...and after that I would be in Hong Kong on the first of August.

It was great seeing, throwing, batting, kicking, eating and chatting with you guys yesterday. Han Yuan and Winfred--thanks for driving us around. It's always great to hear from you guys.

Things I ate in the past two days: bakkwa, tou hua, chee cheong fun, mee pok, bak chor mee, char kway teow, pulut hitam, pomfret, coffee pork ribs, curry chicken, roti prata bomb, mai pian prawn, shilin chicken cutlet, ya kun toast, qiu lian ban mian, mango, mapo toufu, satay, orh lua, qing teng, fried rice, shark's fin, abalone, baby octopus, roast pork, red bean soup, tang yuan, butter prawn, shi quan duck, etc etc. I can only remember this much. Oh yeah. Now time for kimchi.

See you guys in August--Han Yuan, see you in July!

My wings!

Well, a week from now I will be going through the toughest course here in Canada. However, half of the journey is done and the other half is in time to come. The truth is I cannot get through this without the support from all of you - my bestest friends! The moment the Canadian wings was pinned on my chest, images of all my family and friends (you guys) came flooding my mind and I was so happy. I cannot thank you guys enough but I hope to be back by the end of August to share my experience with all of you and also to have a good time all together with our usual lame jokes and lots of laughter!!

The best I can do right now is to let you guys have a peek of what went through till now. (the gist of it)

A little good news for you guys.. i dearly miss..

I flew my last official flight for graduation at approx 12.30pm (canadian time.. 6:30pm Singapore time)

I have achieved my Canadian Wings!

Thanks guys for the support.
Will blog with pictures soon.

Elitism and bullying among high-intelligence kids

Hey everyone,

It's been a long time since we've had a "deeper" post so maybe just allow me to indulge abit.

One other reason I came back home this Easter holiday is to obtain some information/data that will hopefully help me in my 2nd-year project (counts towards the exams, urgh). I had a range of topics to choose from and I picked one that I could remotely relate to in terms of retrospective experience: anti-social behaviour. After some consultation with my supervisor, I settled on studying different trends of bullying behaviour in adolescent schoolchildren.

And so I got in touch with Mr. Eng who was really kind enough to grant my request to conduct a student survey spanning across Sec1-4. I was initially rejected by his department since that's the school's standard protocol dealing with outsider surveys. But I politely requested a personal meeting with Mr. Eng, and with the help of some name-dropping (thanks D and I), managed to earn his approval based on a "personal favour" basis. I've since obtained 3/4 of my sample data and the results have been extremely interesting! Let's rewind a bit shall we...

There are two main focus points of my project. The first of which would be the presence (if any) of various types of bullying behaviour in a high-achieving and competitive environment such as our alma mater. The impetuses for bullying are numerous, ranging from physical discrimination (remember sextoy?), racial discrimination (remember VM?), social identity (remember urghsuckyourmommashit-chee) to academic achievement (mugger, nerd, geek etc). I'm sure it's not difficult for any of us (who are on this blog) to recall past incidents which may fall under the category of bullying (though they are definitely mild!). My aim was hence to find the proportion of bullying behaviour that falls under the category of academic achievement. For example, some top students coming from neighbourhood primary schools could have once been ostracised for being 'way too smart'.

The second focus point would be on elitism, especially among students who know they belong to the brightest bunch of kids in the country (remember ms. get-out-of-my-elite-uncaring-face?) Perhaps they could be a relationship between bullying based on academic achievement, and traces of elitist sentiments? My existing data has shown that elitism is real in top schools, but numbers are among a handful.

Well, I have no idea where all this research is going to take me, but I'm looking forward to running some analyses and forming some preliminary conclusions. Out of curiosity, what do you guys have to say about bullying and elitism? We can always recount memorable (sometimes funny) incidents that happened back when we were still young! =D

p.s. I pledged full anonymity to the school for doing the surveys. Would really appreciate if we could keep our discussion within this blog, and like we always do, keep secretive about all identities. Thanks guys!

Updates on my summer plans

Hey guys, I'd write a full post sometime soon alright? It's been a hectic few months for me (spring term is really nasty, no holidays at all). I just wanted to update everyone on my summer plans.

I would be reaching Singapore on 22th May 1230pm, on a Delta Airlines flight which cost USD990. The second cheapest airfare available is actually from SIA @ USD1400, but being a cheapskate boy, I would spend $400 more to make my butt more comfortable for 30hours when I could use it for a two-week holiday. My return flight is on 14th September 6am (yes, getting a cheap airline means getting bad timings).

I need to rush back home this time round to attend my eldest brother's wedding on 23rd May. After that, I would be heading back for reservist as OC of my own guys--I really didn't want to leave them, so I've worked out a plan with my CO to play with the system every year. Reservist from 7-11 June (with lots of KAH meetings and prep before that, so it's practically 2-week reservist for me).

After that, I would be leaving for Seoul, South Korea on 19th/20th June. I'd be there for 6 weeks for a research/study/seminar paid for by the school, with Korean lessons every morning for six weeks. I would be staying in the Ewha Women's University there--I honestly didn't know this when I applied. But, nonetheless, it's gonna be interesting I guess. The thing runs for 6 weeks till 31st July. I'm thinking of traveling for a few weeks in August! Anyone game? Nepal? Tibet? Mongolia? China? Japan? Pls let me know early cos I need to buy my Korea tickets in the next 2 weeks!

I understand that I'm gonna miss Eng Swen, who's coming back to Spore on 20th June and then leaving in July. Dang.

Thanks for all the birthday well wishes--facebook, email etc. I always love to hear from you guys 20000miles away. My birthday was really lovely. Did easter egg-hunting with children from the church, then played softball with some friends, then went for an evening jog around the river-lake with friends, then had a lovely dinner, then had a great time at service.

Can't wait to see you guys again. Even after knowing all the diff people from all over the world, you guys are still the best dudes ever.

Cheerios

I Hit It!!

Hey,que tal!! This place is as dead as lim chu kang cemetary...
Spent a good hour on this today,hope you guys like it. It's a spin off from Kevin Rudolf's "I made it", inspiration by J's post below.



Yeah
Coach Nelson Hero
Raffles Teams
Softball, play!!

I look up to the plate
And now the pitch is mine
Ive known it all my life
I'll hit it, I'll hit it!
I used to dream about, the ball he's throwing now
I know that theres no doubt.
I'll hit it, I'll hit it!

Known as the batter whom no one believed in me
But I never give up the fight.
Ya, but now on top.
Coach told me to let it go
The catcher called for inside high-h-h-h
I missed it.

I look up to the plate
And now the pitch is mine
Ive known it all my life
I'll hit it, I'll hit it!
I used to dream about, the ball he's throwing now
I know that theres no doubt.
I'll hit it, I'll hit it!

Bats Up, hella pitcher's burning smoke
Louisville never felt so heavy before
High ball, dropping and curve some more.
Inside rise, the ultimate strikeout ball
When I hit, hit it full of power
More power than I have seen from the superman
Stunna hitting, contact and the power
Thats how we do it, making hits making good plays
Top bracket, big batter making big hits
Over Kallang now turned archery range
Hit another foul ball, pitcher throwing hundreds
Then came the linedrive, what a stunna!

I look up to the plate
And now the pitch is mine
Ive known it all my life
I'll hit it, I'll hit it!
I used to dream about, the ball he's throwing now
I know that theres no doubt.
I'll hit it, I'll hit it!

Ooo I hit it
I hit it...
I hit It...
I hit it...
Yo ay Ay ay listen
See I dont play for glamour,and I dont care for fame
Im in this for the glove of the game
Funny how things can change
They didnt believe in me
Then they calling my name
Now look who's hitting
They didnt wanna know me back then
But ever since I hit a homerun
Everyone turned around
And now the base coach's calling 'downnnnnn!!!'

I look up to the plate
And now the pitch is mine
Ive known it all my life
I'll hit it, I'll hit it!
I used to dream about, the ball he's throwing now
I know that theres no doubt.
I'll hit it, I'll hit it!

[Pitcher]
Came to the batter, lookin like a slugger.
Pitched it to the catcher, straight down the center
Curve sinker riser, i'll just stay loyal
Boy we getting batters like we just found flour
Uh and thats word to my good friend
I'll strike first and leave the bullsh-t ball last
I lay it down so hard I got a bedrash.
And I just tell em to leave it when the ball pass
Staring at you from the top of the game man
I might drop the ball if I change hands
Uh it feel good to be here, busy in the circle got this b-tch swinging
Yo Moley!!

I look up to the plate
And now the pitch is mine
Ive known it all my life
I'll hit it, I'll hit it!
I used to dream about, the ball he's throwing now
I know that theres no doubt.
I'll hit it, I'll hit it!

I look up to the skyyy!!
I hit it!
Ooo!
Hit it, I hit it
Yes I did
(x5)
I hit it

For the glove of the game

After so many years, this sport is still what keeps us together. I had lots of fun over the weekend playing for ORA - thanks Moley and Dae for roping me into this! Initially, I was rather overwhelmed by some of the many concerns running through my head: haven't played a competitive softball match for over 6 months, haven't swung a bat for over 3 months, I look like a vampire etc. Must say, though, the feeling of standing in the diamond under the $#@%#$scorching sun (I'm a vampire) has never felt different. I seem to have forgotten all the thrills of simply anticipating the next play until Moley put me at first the other day. Frankly, the adrenaline itself sapped the energy out of me (sorry la i'm weak). To those who missed out on this, I wanna say I miss playing with everyone terribly so come back soon and join Funbari Hot Springs please.

I'll never want to stop playing.

p.s. Maybe I should form Cambridge Hotsprings United then bring them to Singapore and take part in league...

p.p.s. check out more photos on fb!

p.p.p.s. sorry my first post boring hahahaha