What a busy November for me! =^0^=

I would not be free for either the half of the days or either the whole day. This is so as surprisingly, the number my end of year holidays activities comparing to last year's, increased incredibly. This year 2007, is the year in which that I have the most number of activities going on during the end of year school holidays. Every year during the end of year holidays, I mostly spent my time reading novels, using computer, watching television and going to public libraries(plus a couple hours of window shopping ^^). I normally only go out to the public libraries(and the malls) once in a week during holidays. Even if when I go out with my friends, it's only for at most 5 times in the 2 months holidays. It seems to be very pitiful to me for most of my other friends seems to go out every day. In case you are wondering, I don't usually touch my textbooks at all during the holidays and I will leave my homework until the last few days before I will start doing it.

But this will all change!!! As this November, I have couple activities already planned and also some others to be confirmed. Let me start with those in which have been confirmed. (It's not all play and no work!)

I will be attending a course in which I signed up for(along with one of my good friend), when one of the teachers came to my class and asked if we are interested. This course has only limited places and fortunately, I am in the course! Sadly, my good friend is not but fortunately, there's one people who wants to back out of the course and so my friend(the back up as the teacher says)is in the course with me too! What's this course I have been mindlessly rambling about? This course is named Digital Gaming Development, which is one of the Advanced Elective Modules (AEMs) and our school will be collaborating with Temasek Polytechnic for this. This means that I will be going to Temasek Polytechnic to attend this course during 1-13 November 2007. Only 3 days are of half day session. I will upload a picture of my timetable here when I have time. The time in which the course will end for a full day session is 4.30pm. A typical half day session will end at 12.30pm if I am not wrong. Just in case you do not know, here's what I found about AEMs from Wikipedia,

AEMs may be used for polytechnic admission under the Joint Polytechnic Special Admissions Exercise (JPSAE) and the Direct Polytechnic Admission (DPA) exercise. They may also be used for credit exemption in subjects that are relevant to the pupil’s subsequent course of study in the Polytechnic.

Hmmm....interesting.

Besides that, I am also not free for the whole day from 14-26 November 2007 as I am going over to New Zealand for a exchange programme with Te Puke High School, a high school in New Zealand! This is going to be a 14 Days 13 Nights trip along with 3 key personnel (Mr Yong Kek Shoong (VP), Mrs Sukhdev Singh (HOD EL/Literature) and Mrs Chia Siew Ching (SH Pupils’ Welfare). It's a small group as only 30 of us(students)(30 is the maximum number they would take.)are going there. This is going to be the fourth time my school organized a twinning programme to Te Puke High School. We are traveling by Singapore Airline. The original total cost for the whole trip was $3449 but then the school informed us that due to a surge in prices of jet fuel worldwide, Singapore Airline is imposing an increase of approximately of S$140 per participant at 1st August 2007. However, as my school has been working with the travel agency, Global Adventure Consultants Pte. Ltd. which has planned the previous trips to New Zealand, for two months, the company is willing to absorb partial cost of the increase. Thus, each of the participant will now have to pay an additional of $70. This brings the total cost pf the trip from $3449 to $3519. Before you gasp and faint, I am happy to say that due to the subsidies offered, and also that I can deduct $500 from my Edusave, I only have to pay $1126.

This trip includes 5 day hosting with one of the Te Puke High School student's family so we can get to know about their daily life. If you interested to see the programme itinerary(and the places we are going along with some pictures) for this New Zealand trip, you can download it from my school website. Just check out my school at Wikipedia and you will know the link to my school website. I am very excited about this trip for this is going to be the 2nd time I am going overseas and 1st time I am traveling by plane! I am going to borrow a very big suitcase from one of my uncles who always go overseas for work purpose. Besides that, some other preparations for the New Zealand trip included getting a cheer ready, a powerpoint about Singapore, dance and song performance, a symbol/picture to represent yourself for the polo shirt.....

The symbol/picture I have already handed it up as the deadline was on 28/09/07(Friday). If you don't hand up by the deadline, your symbol/picture will not appear on the polo shirt. I stayed back after school yesterday(28/09/07) to do last minute work for the symbol/picture. At first I wanted to use the picture below,

but then I found the picture below


on the internet. But as my school library printer for student use is only able to print black and white(as seen in the picture below)
, I print out the picture in black and white. Hence, I had two pictures to choose from to put onto the polo shirt. I was troubled for both pictures were very nice. Then I realized that as the polo shirt colour is black(we choosed the colour ourselves), the picture might not even show up on the polo shirt at all. So I used the colour printer used by authorized people(I am a librarian so I can use it) to print out the coloured picture(shown again below) and used it as a picture to represent myself.

Below:The picture used to represent myself.

What do you think of the picture? =^0^=

Jam Band Competition On Youtube!

Remember the last time I posted about my school holding a Jam Band Competition during National Day Celebration Concert? If you don't remember, go HERE
to read about it. Below is an extract from my blog post on th Jam Band Competition along with videos of the song the champion band singer sang.

Below is the exact video and the song she sang(Kuang Biao)...
"Butterfly", Digimon Season 1 First Opening Song


Butterfly Original Full Song


Below is another nice song from Digimon

Digimon Tamers Opening, "The Biggest Dreamer" sang by Wada Kouji


In overall, the second band won the first place and the second place was given to the band our class and E4 class formed(the name of the band is "Fatal Attraction"). One thing
I am curious about is why on earth does all their costumes look like Cosplay or something? Not that I mind of course, I think that they did put out a good show.

So the whole concert ended with the Choir..... it's quite nice concert this year...is it possible for the school to host Cosplay next year???

I just realized that the videos of the 3 bands performance are available on Youtube! How slow I am! Some of our school students must have taken it using camera handphones during their performance. But anyway, the videos are below. Please note that the audio and image quality is not very clear so it might cause some of you to think that they are lousy singers. But I think that they are not bad. Besides, our school sound system is not exactly that great either. The microphones couldn't catch those words clearly even when people speak.

TOTAL OF 3 BANDS COMPETING FOR 1ST, 2ND AND 3RD.

Below:Champion Band Named "Kuang Biao" Song:Butterfly from Digimon(Original version see above in the extract.)Or you can view it HERE.


Below:1st-Runner Up Band Named "Fatal Attraction" Song:A Beautiful Lie by 30 seconds to mars(Some members are from my class!!!)Or you can view it HERE.


Below:2nd-Runner Up Band Named "This Tragic Affair" Song: Famous Last Words by My Chemical Romance. Or you can view it HERE.

UGLIES Quartet(introduction)

EXTRAS TO BE RELEASED ON 2 OCTOBER 2007

Countdown to EXTRAS!

Get this widget!

Ok! Here's the blog post I promised my friends!!! As some of you know from my last post, I am totally hooked on this Uglies Quartet which includes the books named UGLIES, PRETTIES, SPECIALS and EXTRAS. As far as I know, the US cover was the 1st edition of the Uglies Quartet that came out on the market. It was before other publishers got interested in the book and started publishing Uglies Quartet with other covers and language to suit the market they are targeting.

Below: UGLIES US Cover

Title: UGLIES
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Publisher: Simon Pulse
ISBN: ISBN 0-316-70129-7
Language: English
Media type: Print (Paperback)

Below: PRETTIES US Cover

Title: PRETTIES
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Publisher: Simon Pulse
ISBN: ISBN 0-316-70129-7
Language: English
Media type: Print (Paperback)

Below: SPECIALS US Cover

Title: SPECIALS
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Publisher: Simon Pulse
ISBN: ISBN 0-316-70129-7
Language: English
Media type: Print (Hardcover&Paperpack)

EXTRAS TO BE RELEASED ON 2 OCTOBER 2007

Below: EXTRAS

Title: EXTRAS
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Publisher: Simon Pulse
ISBN-10: 1416951172
ISBN-13: 978-1416951179
Language: English
Media type: Print (Hardcover&Paperpack)


How I Found This Book.
I came upon this quartet while I was in the public library scanning the shelves looking for something to read. The spine of UGLIES(right)and also the title,
caught my eyes. As to me, it's not everyday in which you find a person's face at the spine of the book. I grabbed the book, and turn it to the front cover. The title "UGLIES" along with the tag line "In a world of extreme beauty, anyone normal is Ugly" intrigued me. What's with the title called Uglies? A story about Ugly people? I read the summary of the story and was determined to give this book a try after reading it. I am glad that I have not made the wrong decision about UGLIES as I am absolutely in love with this book after reading it!
END OF HOW I FOUND THIS BOOK

INTRODUCING UGLIES
Set in a futuristic world where people are divided in three parts, it's compulsory for every person to have an operation once they reached the age of 16 years old. This operation will turn each and everyone of them into a Pretty. As for those who are under 16 years old, they are called Uglies. The main character is none other than Tally Youngblood, a 15 going on 16 years old Ugly who is looking forward to the long waited operation that will turn her into a Pretty. By becoming a Pretty, she will be able to enjoy the special privileges that comes along with being a Pretty. Not only that, she will get to live in New Pretty Town where New Pretties go to after the operation. Even though New Pretty Town and Uglyville are only separated by bridges, the life that goes on in there is worlds apart. While Uglies have to go to school and also to stick with a curfew, New Pretties does not have to stick with curfews and they only have to have fun. This seems like the perfect life for Tally Youngblood, but when a new found friend, Shay, enters the scene, a series of events follows that changes Tally Youngblood's life forever.

When one first encounter this book, perhaps they might think that UGLIES is only suitable for girls to read for the cover is quite misleading(due to a girl as the model) and the plot is based on a beauty theme. But I am only to happy to point out that this book is suitable for people who are interested in reading a science fiction and adventure story. This book is certainly suitable for ages. As long as you are interested in the story, there's no reason why you shouldn't read it with the reason saying that "It's not for me."! So to all boys who think that this is a girls' book, NEVER JUDGE A BOOK BY IT'S COVER! There are fighting scenes in it as well!

NO WAY!!!!!~~~Uglies Boxed Set...I WANT IT!!!

This sucks!!! I just bought Pretties($14.76) and Specials[Hardcover]($23.15) from Kinokuniya and Borders separately on 6 September 2007, Thursday. But guess what? When I reached home and went online, I found that Uglies Boxed Set(containing Uglies, Pretties and Specials) is due to be released on October 23, 2007 at a price of approximately $39.61(I convert the amount directly from USD)!!!! The total cost of buying the two books are already $37.91!!! So by buying the boxed set, I saved more and get more as the cover says "exclusive content inside"!!!! ARGGGHHH!!! How I regret not doing my research before I buy!!! I want to know what's the deal with the exclusive content!!! Somehow...I feel.....like...buying......the........boxed........set....... :p*I mean what's with the "exclusive content!!! Trying to guess about it killing me!!!"* Can someone be kind enough to give me money to buy it??? :x

Below: As you can see, it the boxed set...


Below: Cover of Pretties


Below: Cover of Specials