Quasi-Quote III

3 papers down, 2 more to go.
By my standards, today's Physiology paper could most probably be construed as a-okay. Unfortunately, the person seated in front of me during the examinations had to burst my bubble... by not doing anything.

Yes, I meant pure unadulterated idle. It was 15 minutes before the end of the paper that I began to notice the person in front of me conducting an indepth study into social behaviour at Multi-purpose Sports Hall 6. On his desk was his paper and optical mark sheet, meticulously arranged (with the cover page up) to announce to the world that he was done with the paper.

It certainly wasn't a I-cannot-do-this-paper-so-I'm-gonna-give-up look, but it was a this-paper-is-an-insult-to-my-intelligence aura.

Speaking from past experience, these supernatural beings in Pharmacy and Dentistry will conveniently borrow the dual-purpose bell curve to sound my death knell. In dedication to my impending doom, I proposed:

Roses are red,
Violets are blue.
Soon I'll be dead,
All without a clue.

Kelvin Lim

Quasi-Quote II

Equations equations and more equations...
This must be what an organic lifestyle feel like.

Time and tide waits for no man,
I wish I was a noman.

Kelvin Lim

Quasi-Quote I

Biochemistry today proved to be more than a challenge.
Now, I'm officially depressed by my inabilities.

If depression made the world go round,
I would have been flung off the face of Earth.

Kelvin Lim

IT'S HERE... AGAIN.

It's that time of the year again where I'll take on the arduous routine task of climbing up Mugger's Mountain.
If only the exams were graded upon how many textbooks one have, I'll most certainly ace it.

Before I start dusting my books, here's a short and yet poignant animation that has got me thinking about life.

And no, it isn't about suicide.

Uppity Udders

First, it was the bus fares.
Then it was the school fees.
And right after general election, as expected, it was the bus fares again.
Guess what, soon to follow will be the school fees.
And just when you thought you could take a breather, the GAHMAN delivers its ultimate 7% GST finishing move.


From:

GST to be raised to 7%: PM Lee

Angular Anger

Organic Chemistry for Engineers, CM1501 is one of the few core modules that I thought I could score in. I mean, a few equations and a little bit of memory work wouldn't hurt anyone, would it? However, this story is not about memory work or equations, but about the wonders of lab reports.

My first chemistry lab report totaled 3 pages with double spacing, and I got a B+. I was a little disappointed because I thought that following the exact recommended format as stated in the lab manual would suffice. It didn't help that my B+ was subsumed by the As that littered everywhere.

Of course, I was wiser for my second lab report and began looking around at others, only to be horrified that the average number of pages totaled 8 to 10 pages. I panicked and dumped in another 4 hours of work to spruce it up. Armed with a nifty cover page and a header with numerous NUS logos, I was sure 10 pages with 1.5 spacing would blow the lab TA off his/her feet.

With much anticipation, I waited eagerly to be rewarded for my hard work. Two weeks passed and I did get my report back. However, an unsightly curvaceous grade dressed in red flirted shamelessly with me.
And boy oh boy, all I saw was red. I flipped through my lab report furiously and noticed cursory ticks scattered across the pages. It was in page 3, that I spotted 3 words which attempted to prove to me that the lab TA who marked my paper could produce a string of coherant words.

"Talk abt m.p."? What mp? Do you want me to talk about the now infamous MP of Ang Mo Kio GRC, Mr. Wee Siew Kim and rant about the pros and cons of elitism in the Singapore society? Or does it refer to the Malicious Pink that is trying to disguise itself as red? I digress.

So what went wrong? The neighbouring lab group I asked had managed to score largely angular grades while those in my lab group were inundated by the doubly dubious rounded alphabet. It take much to conclude that my lab group was marked by AP gal. (AP stands for attitude problem. I will not bore you with how irritating that lab TA can be, so I'll leave it as that.)

I was troubled. So deeply disturbed that I decided to confront her to seek redress today.

Meekly and innocently, I asked AP gal with the most heartbreaking voice I could muster, hoping to tug her obviously non-existent heartstrings, "May I know what was wrong with my lab report?"

AP gal replied aloofly, "A B grade is okay, I didn't give much As anyway..."

As she flipped through the pages, she nodded and commented tersely that this was good, that was good... Then, I directed her to page 3, since the rest of the lab report were covered with inane ticks, that even Sherlock Holmes wouldn't make anything of them

She paused and attempted to look thoughtful, and justified, "Yes... You should have talked about the melting point of the compound. I mean you have to explain that the experimental melting point is less than half a degree apart (from the known melting point of a compound), therefore you can conclude the compound suspected is this."

WHAT?! IS THAT IT?! SO I GOT A B BECAUSE I OVERESTIMATED YOUR INTELLIGENCE AND PRESSUMED THAT PLACING MY EXPERIMENTAL AND LITERATURE MELTING POINT SIDE BY SIDE WAS OBVIOUS ENOUGH?! I MEAN MAYBE YOU MIGHT ALSO WANT ME TO EXPLAIN WHY M.P. STANDS FOR MELTING POINT AND NOT MINISTRY OF PEDOPHILE? THEN AGAIN, YOU SHOULD CONSIDER PASTING YOUR DEGREE ON YOUR LAB COAT COS I'M SERIOUSLY DOUBTING YOUR IDENTITY.

I mimicked her thoughtful "ohh..." and proceeded to give her a megawatt smile, thanked her and left the chemistry lab, while mentally shelving any plans for to score that coveted angular grade for this module.

Unitubular YouTube

3 weeks more and the whole of NUS will be inundated by anarchy and chaos. As the reported case of muggers continue to escalate, I have unfortunately fallen to the dark side and began indulging in music video hunting.

My first step into the cheesy world of pop culture was actually the now defunct British pop group, Steps. With horrid blue screen effects and Narnia lookalike costumes, this could just be one of the cheesiest music video for Steps.


When good girls grow up bad, we'll have "Crazy Chick" by Charlotte Church.


But before Charlotte began having issues with her tissues, she actually stepped into a "Brave New World" with this incongruently ludicrous animated music video


Thankfully, it was Imogen Heap to save the British music scene with a quirky song, Headlock!


Of course, the best is always saved for the last.
The can't-get-you-out-of-my-head song currently is from Belgian-born French singer, Lara Fabian, Adagio. Deliberately paced, the climax towards the end never fails to steal my breath.