Good week

Its been a lonnnng week.

Felt like a seven day week this week, with SDYC and all that. Going through SDYC, I didn't learn about saving the environment and all that crap. Instead I learnt something more valuable about myself.

I find it very hard to focus on a task or keep commitments that has nothing interesting for me.

SDYC was a shining example. When I signed up, I expected to have an awesome dynamic team of friends who I could have fun with while executing everything. Instead, I didn't really know my team all that well, and till today I till don't know some of their names. Granted, it was probably my fault for missing all those planning sessions and the pre convention camp. Although I had good reasons for doing so i.e New York and all that. But I'll be lying to myself if I said I wasn't the problem. If 403 or my close friends were directly involved, I wouldn't miss a session and I'd probably perform 120%. Instead, I woke up at 10am on a Saturday, and took me until 4pm to realise I forgot the SDYC GM today and no one called me.

So on SDYC itself, I busied myself with the unspoken important tasks, like making sure the food was here, constructing solar panels etc. On day three, I eschewed my duties, or lack thereof, to slack with KT, Danielle and Belinda by note passing. Later on the D&D, I hung out with the people not even in SDYC more than the people who were, going all the way to skipping out on the cleaning up later to hang out with more awesome people.

So from here, I realised that I don't mind very boring or unimportant jobs, as long as I do it with cool people that I like.

Speaking of D&D. It was pretty cool. Wingmaning KT for the first time that night. SOTA girls are super weird lol. And KT didn't seem to want to talk that much to the girl, stage fright? Ah well, suited up, danced a lot, and drank soft drinks to a crappy DJ. SDYC ftw. I'm just glad Dance CCA, Belinda, Jing Min and Bernard came. Otherwise that would have been a crappy D&D.

Anyway, I just read through all my posts on this blog to get a feel of myself, to write college app essays later. College app essays. Sigh. The biggest hurdle currently. I'm a pretty good writer. But when it comes to selling myself, I'm pretty stumped. I'm not introspective at all, and as I read through my blog, its mostly about observations in everyday life, dissected and reduced to bareness for analysis. Thus, I have to observe myself observing in order to come up with something interesting for the College councilors. I've been asking people around me to highlight my most obvious traits, but I need to find some sort of context to frame them in. Bottom line, college app essays are hard. I need a muse.

On the lighter side of things, I baked today! Went to Gerlynn's house after sports day with JM, Bern, Ming Yan and Gerlynn. We helped to bake the cupcakes that will be given out on Teacher's day celebrations tmr! Gerlynn supervised as JM and I helped to make the batter, put it in cups and put it into the oven. Bern and Ming Yan slept like pigs on the sofa XD We watched a really weird and M18 movie that Gerlynn bought o.O but starring Natalie Portman and Zooey Deschanel. Also helped with the icing on the top of the cupcakes :D

Don't eat breakfast tmr! :D

Best ideas come in the shower.

Like the title suggests, I got this idea in the shower; it concerns overseas university education and NS.

Here's the problem. When you turn 18, a fresh faced graduate from a prestigious high school. Intelligent and vivacious, you manage to score a place at an awesome US university like the Ivy Leagues, Engineering colleges like MIT or brand name business schools like Tepper. But wait! Since the school is so prestigious and awesome, you spot a statement on their website that sinks your dreams. "NO DEFERMENT IS ALLOWED"

Shattered. You'll have to compete for a place in 2 years and retake all the entrance exams you already got a good score in. You'll probably do worse, because NS will burn out your brain, you'll forget all your AP physics, math, chem, bio and what have you, and you won't have awesome college councillors to help you along the way.

All because of NS. D:

So here's a solution,

Defer NS for people studying in overseas colleges. Simple.

But before you cry foul, or shout elitism, listen to my arguments why its a win-win for both SAF and intelligent students.

Here's the plan:

If you are guaranteed a place in the 2012 intake of a overseas university that does not grant deferment, you are allowed to defer your NS until the end of your undergraduate studies, upon which, you return to Singapore to complete the rest of your NS, 2 years, no different from those who did not defer. Before going overseas however, you attend BMT for 3 months from January to March, after all the application stuff is settled. Since 2012 intake will start in August or Sept, that leaves plenty of time to prepare.

First, I'm not suggesting SAFOS, their overseas scholarship pays for overseas education and defers NS for those lucky enough to get it. Instead, I'm asking that those already guaranteed a place in a prestigious overseas university *that does not allow deferment under any circumstances* to be allowed to defer, scholarship or no. If the university allows you to defer, you should go for regular NS anyway.

You may say, "Doesn't that leave our NS force very short staffed?" But the number of people going to overseas universities is a tiny fraction of the entire year's population of NS recruits. Those going to local universities, or not going for tertiary education at all should attend regular NS. Thus, the majority of NS men serve out the normal time, and after 4 years, those returning after undergrad will join the NS men ranks as well,

You may cry "Doesn't that give those who defer an advantage?" No, those who opt for this has to serve two years of NS after their studies, and thus can't take a job, negating any advantage.

How does the SAF win? For one, they will have a batch of highly educated, highly experienced 22 year olds to serve NS. This will allow them to post them to more demanding posts, requiring more intelligence and thus giving more benefit to SAF who would otherwise have to fill these posts with the limited numbers of regulars. Examples would be aircraft technicians, officier posts, and IT experts. They'll also save themselves a lot of discontent over NS, and demands that the system be reduced or changed.

How does the students win? They get to continue their education seamlessly from high school to university without a 2 year brain melting break. They get to fulfill their highest potential, going to the best universities around the world, instead of having to settle for another one because of deferment. Their applications will not be tarnished by the fact of the 2 year deferment and have a higher chance of getting in. Singapore also wins by having a larger international academic presence and having highly trained scholars having to come back to Singapore instead of being headhunted overseas, thus having a more highly trained workforce.

This is not the final solution, and can definitely be improved to address the loopholes and include graduate studies too. Singapore has come to the point that having a more intelligent army is better than having a numerous army, the latter being a point inevitably being surpassed by other countries. NS should not fossilize, but instead, evolve to keep up with the times. Rigid bureaucracy will kill us all.

Guess who's back.

Wow. Long time.

I guess it would be a lie to say I've had nothing to write about in my blog. I guess the fact was that I'm lazy. Or that no one else was updating their blogs or those who do just locked them. Whats the point of a locked blog? Seriously. Locked blogs came out years ago, in paper form. Its like putting tape on your mouth and holding up a sign that says "I HAVE A SECRET".

I'm ranting again.

Well. Its been some time since APs. And SATs, and all the fun after-APs stuff. So first things first, yay! I got pretty good marks for everything and can safely say I won't ever have to take them again. After APs activities were pretty fun too!

I will be going through everything I did from APs to now.

Universal Studios with 403! Most fun I've had in a long long while. My extreme phobia of roller coasters really did get to me that day. I have no idea why people think roller coasters are fun. The human body was not meant to be accelerated and hung upside down, and my body was certainly protesting the very thought of going up in one. In the end, peer pressure won the day. Everyone in 403 were extremely thoughtful and encouraging, helping me stumble the deserted line to the Battlestar Galactica. In the end, I took the Human roller coaster, but was too freaked out to do the Cyclon side. One day, I swear. XD Besides all that, USS is a great place, and sentosa was really gone upmarket since the old days. It feels like Orlando or Cali now, you literally feel like you've left Singapore.

Rachel and Bernard's Birthday! An awesome time was had by everyone. Felt like a family gathering more than anything. We had a BBQ, had lots of wine, guitar playing in the cool night under the stars. I distinctly remember wishing it could last forever. 403 is awesome.

NEW YORK. GREATEST CITY ON EARTH. Check my Fb for photos. I really want to study there :D Columbia University, Morning Heights, New York City, New York, USA.

Also popped over to Washington DC. My dad knew the place like a pro, having been there quite a few times, he took us to the places US diplomats entertained other countries' diplomats. Amazing food over there. Also, strangely enough, no traffic lights. Seriously. Check it out.

Back to more recent times, 605 BBQ!

Juin Bin's house is pretty cool. There's like pools everywhere :D Good for throwing people into. Ronald got a caterer to provide awesome awesome food. Lamb chops, salmon, otah, all that good stuff. Broke out the good stuff, raspberry vodka (Y) Strong, with a strange aftertaste. People says it tastes like cough syrup. But having never drank much cough syrup, it tasted perfectly fine to me. Brought Ming Yan's shot glass from New Zealand, thanks a lot MY! :D Had about 6 shots. Usually, the shot glass was filled, and after passing it around the group, only half came back, so I finished it. :D

NINJA! Thanks to PhillyD and JM's quick thinking, we played a new game, NINJA! Awesomely fun game haha. When played down to two people, really looks like an actual martial arts fight XD Played a card dare game and eventually ended up with everyone in the pool, soaking wet. Tried playing Ninja in the pool, but it degraded to splashing around and grabbing each other into the pool, and soaking everyone else. We went to the main pool and held hands and swam in a circle singing National Day songs, waking up the rest of the condo. Probably got Stomped by some auntie with too much time and an internet connection. The security guard came down and got us out, trouble with the po-po D: He was amazingly good at catching us running around everywhere XD Very hardworking. In the end, we played a few more games, changed in a storeroom adjacent to the room. Oh btw, some people are easily fooled by sneaky knocking, heh heh. Not gonna say who. We went up to JB's house, and met his dog, who was pretty loud. Ended up only drinking 1/4 of the bottle of vodka. Unsurprisingly, I drank the most. But went home with a nice buzz. Best 605 outing ever.

Listening to Fallout New Vegas Soundtrack now. I love 1930's Jazz. So smooth and soulful. I wish I could sing like that. Fallout makes the best soundtracks, cos you have to listen to the same 20 songs for about 12 hours of gameplay time.

Fast forward to today.

It was, unexpected, to say the least. And the least shall be said. Bad decisions were made. Just hope I don't bump into the aussies tmr. That would be awkward.

College Apps taking up most of my time now. Admin crap is soul sucking. No idea how the college councillors take it. Now I'm stuck between whether I should Early Decision Columbia Engineering or Northwestern Engineering. Or UIUC. Bleh. Shan't talk about it.

So that's it. I'll try to post more frequently, to get the ball rolling again.