Funny Song About Mum

Intensive Maths Training

These two weeks (20 - 29 Apr) I will be having intensive Maths Olympiad training from 8 am to 5 pm, at NUS High. I will be excused from lessons and assessments during this period. This is because the selection of the final squad to represent Singapore for the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) 2009 will be held on 1 & 2 May. The test will have 6 questions, 3 questions per day and a total of 9 hrs (i.e. 1.5 hrs per question).

However, I have decided to continue attending my normal lessons. Otherwise there may be a lot of catching up to do after the selection test. But since now I have the opportunity to skip lessons, I will be skipping PE, ACE, Da Vinci, CCA, mentoring sessions and Maths.

Last year, 3 of the 6 representatives for IMO Singapore Team were from NUS High. Hopefully, some of my seniors can do NUSH proud by being selected this year!! I am 100% confident I won't be selected, but this is a good opportunity for me to be trained, and be excused from classes : )

Buffet Dinner at Parkroyal

Last Friday was my paternal grandmother's birthday. We went to Parkroyal at Beach Road for dinner.

There was a widespread of items, like fried rice, fried crab, roast duck, fish fillet, chocolate fondue (can dip marshmallow or waffles), cakes, large prawns, sushi, different flavoured roti prata, ice kachang, ice cream, etc. After our buffet, my cousins, my sisters and I mixed sugar, salt, friut juice, ice kachang ice, sprinkles, chocolate chips, molten chocolate (fondue which hardens when cooled) in water, just for fun as we had nothing to do. My sister drank a scoop and she said it was 'delicious'. I think the best food is fried rice!

High Tea at Sakae Sushi

Yesterday, my family went to Sakae Sushi for High Tea, at about 3.14 pm. We did not eat lunch. Everytime I go to a restaurant for buffet, I only pay for the child's price, for less than 12 years old, although I am almost 14. The waiter did not even ask, just assumed that I was in primary school. That is one advantage of being short. The nicest sushi there is not the sushi, but the brown wrapping beancurd as shown below. The most expensive one is the small red egg, which doesn't taste nice for me, also shown below. We could stay until 6pm, but my mother forced us to leave at 5.30pm. Anyway, I was so bloated that I would explode if I ate another of the small red egg. In the end, though we took 20+ plates of sushi, I still think it was not worth it as one's cost for dinner and lunch should be less than over $10 each, but we paid a total of about $80 for our family of 5 persons.

Too Busy

Someone (Aaron) complained that I have not updated my blog. Well, I have been very busy for the past 2 weeks.

Last week - 5 common tests - Maths, Bio, Chem, Physics, Geog; Chinese专题作业 '当大厨，做大菜' due

This week - English compre test, Bio project 4 due (Ecosystem Visit Field Trip report), Chem Journal assignment due (give a critical analysis of New Scientist Magazine article 'Liming fails the acid test'), Maths assignments and tutorials, Chinese tingxie

Coming: English book review 'To Kill A Mockingbird', Bio project 5 (Design A Terrarium), Geog project

Can this be considered an update?

屁股的笑话

老师在黑板上画了个苹果。
“这是什么呀？”
“屁股！”
“什么？”
“屁股！”
老师被气哭了，找来了校长。
校长来到教室，看了看，问：“谁画了个屁股欺负老师？” LOL

Translated to English:

A teacher drew an apple on the blackboard.

"What is this?"

"Backside!"

"What?"

"Backside!"

The teacher was so angry that she cried. She complained to the principal, who came into the class, took a glance at the blackboard, and queried, "Who bullied your teacher with this drawing of a backside?"

Math Enrichment Workshop

Yesterday and today, I attended the Math Enrichment Workshop organised by the Gifted Education Branch.

The first day was held at Duman High. All of us were divided into 20+ groups and we played some games in 2 groups. Not all the games were related to Maths. The non Maths-related games were to help us know our own groupmates better. After that, we were back to our groups and we did a sudoku. The sudoku was not a 9x9 one, but a 16x16. It's harder than I thought and the leader of every group was not allowed to tell us the answer. However, our leader cheated and gave us some hints. Other leaders probably did the same. After that we had our lunch and went for our concurrent sessions. Mine was on Graph and Vertex Colouring.

The next day, we were supposed to reach Dunman High at 8.00am. However, I proceeded to Marina Barrage directly and arrived at 1.30pm, as I had to go for AIME in the morning. I think I did really badly for AIME this year :( [updated on 7 Apr - checked the answers on AMC website. Luckily, I still got 7 correct! Hooray!!!!!! same as last year]. When we were at Marina Barrage, we solved some problems in stations. Some were rather easy while others were really troublesome and took some time to solve. We did not do a great job as we did not manage to solve all the problems. After that, we returned to Dunman High, did a survey, had a tea break and went to the auditorium to discuss the trail at the Marina Barrage. When they gave out the prizes, group 22 got 3rd and group 3 got 2nd. Group 3 was Jonathan's group, and I felt rather envious. When they announced the 1st place, it was group 4, that's our group!! When we compared our prizes, Jonathan got a pencil case, while our group got a BIGGER pencil case. It was really quite lame. Actually, it was a bag with a number of stationery items inside: correction tape, file clips, magnet clips, pen, highlighter and book mark.

Zoom Out (This is Cool!)

Maths Competitions

I just got my AMC10A (American Maths Contest 10A) results on Friday. My score is 144/150, as I have made a careless mistake in Qn 19 - calculated as radius <= 100 though the question stated r < 100. Agrh... but it is still an improvement over my last year's score, which was 139.5/150.

Though the results for AMC12B is not out yet, I checked the answers from the AMC website. I have left 4 blanks, one of which was a very easy question but I did not understand what was 'parenthesis' (actually, it means brackets) so skipped that question. I made more careless mistakes in AMC12B - after calculating the score, I think I should be getting 108/150 (it's quite bad, I know), nevertheless it is also an improvement over my last year's score, which was 103.5/150.

More competitions:
10 Mar - Asian Pacific Mathematics Olympiad (APMO)
17 Mar - American Invitational Mathematical Examination AIME I
1 Apr - AIME II
2 Jun - SMO Junior
3 Jun - SMO Open

Crayon Physics

Crayon Physics is a game which does not require Internet online access. The goal of the game is to get the red ball to touch the yellow star. You can draw several items with the crayon on the screen and these things will come to life. For example, if you draw a circle, it will become a ball. Like the Fantastic Contraction which I wrote about last time, this is a very addictive game. You can download the demo version for free, and the full version costs about $20. However, my friends somehow have gotten the full version without buying it (maybe they managed to find the registration key from the Internet). The full version include other kinds of things like rope, rockets and up to more than 80 levels. The demo version has only about 20 levels, which are quite easy stuff. This game is very much like the Fantastic Contraption, except that your building area is the whole screen and you can continue to build even if the ball is moving.

Below is a demonstration of how it works:

Criss Angel Magic Tricks (Cool!)

Criss Angel is an illusionist and magician, much like David Copperfield. Some of his tricks are quite amazing. They are usually quite unexpected and dramatic, even a simple coin trick.

Woman in half


Putting a hand through a person


Coin trick


Walk on water


Mirror tricks


You can search from the youtube how each trick is being done, by searching for "criss angel revealed" and the keywords e.g. "criss angel mirror tricks revealed".

Enjoy!

SBS 2779A

Yesterday I took a special trip to the bus stop next to Lavender MRT as I wanted to take the bus 107M on SBS 2779A. My mother told me that she saw the bus arriving at about 3.20 pm, on one Saturday. I reached the bus stop at 3.15 pm, just on time to wait for the bus.

At 3.25 pm, the bus came (luckily, I didn't miss the bus!). I flagged down the bus. Upon boarding the bus, the first thing I noticed was that there was no music (it was supposed to be a Nokia mobile music bus). I stayed for 10 minutes before alighting, and took bus service 61 back to Lavender again. Along the way, I saw SBS 9810x (service 31) but I couldn't take it as I was on a bus on the opposite side. Then I went home.

Bus

Below are the buses that I would like to take as they are special. '*' means I have ridden on the bus before.

Refurbished :

SBS 293Y (spare bus)

SBS 436C (spare)

SBS 2812L (157)

SBS 2818X (16)

SBS 2696E (80)

SBS 2779A* (107M)

(refer to picture on left)

SBS 2837R* (175)

Demonstrator:
SBS 997A (62)

SBS 1688K (163)

SBS 2888T (518)

SBS 8030L (174)

SBS 8031J (17)

SBS 8033D* (183)

SBS 9810X (31)

SBS 9888Y (25)

SBS 9889U* (166)

SBS 2988M (105)

TIB 905Y (941)

TIB 838Y (172)

TIB 1024H (913)

SMB 1H (172)

Happy 牛 Year

On CNY eve, I played the computer from about 7.30pm to about 5.40am. This is the only day in the whole year that I was allowed to play on the computer for a long time. There is a Chinese belief that when the children stay up late on CNY eve, the parents can live to a ripe old age. I just played some random games.

On CNY Day, we went to my cousin's house at Simei Green for lunch. I loved eating the baguas. We also watched some videos on the Youtube there and received some ang baos. After that, we went to my grandmother's house at Queenstown for dinner. We hardly did anything there, as most of my relatives had already left. Only my maternal grandparents, eldest auntie, 7th auntie and her children were there. We received more ang baos. I think I collected about $300 in total.

Our 4 days holidays are going to be over so quickly. I wish everyday could be Chinese New Year, then I can play on the computer for as long as I want on the eve of everyday. There will also be no school. We will also receive a lot of money from the ang baos everyday. Haha.

This Semester's Modules

This semester, my most-like to least-like modules are:

1. MA4105 Sequences, Series and Mathematical Induction. I always put maths first no matter what. This is a Year 4 module, the teacher Ms Sie is not boring, she is experienced and gives detailed explanation.
2. MA4107 Vectors in 2 and 3 Dimensional Space. This will be covered after the above is completed. I can predict that I will like this subject.
3. CM2104 Foundation Chemistry 2. We are learning chemical reactions. I just like the subject.
4. FA2102 3D Basic. I get to create the sculpture using clay. It's fun.
5. PC2110 Foundational Physics II. We are learning Thermal Physics, Optics and Electricity & Magnetism. I always like Physics as it is just like Maths, but the teacher is boring.
6. BL2101 Human Reproductive System. I don't really like Biology, but the teacher is thorough and gives a lot of information.
7. EL2103 Narration and Description. I am weak in language, but luckily Ms Lau (our form teacher) is nice, loud and clear.
8. GE2101 The Dynamic Blue Planet. Last year's module (on population, industrialisation and globalisation) made me dislike Geography, but this year should be better as we are learning about the earth.
9. Da Vinci. Very long, 3 hrs of research project every week.
10. PE. I hate to run under the sun and exercise.
11. CL2101 Chinese 2A. What can I say?

Actually, I am also attending Maths Olympiad training on Saturdays (3.5 hrs) at NUS Maths Dept. This is under the National Team training, no module credits are earned. If I must rank it, then it is after PC2110 and before BL2101. Though I learn new things in the training, most of the time the topics covered are quite cheem, probably JC level.

Do-It-Yourself Ice Cream

Today my family went to the Yuki Yaki restaurant in Marina Square for a Do-It-Yourself steamboat, Teppanyaki & Ice Cream Buffet. The steamboat and Teppanyaki (bbq on hotpan) are nothing unusual, so I shall not blog much about it. After our main course, we changed table and had our ice cream buffet. The same Teppanyaki pan was used but this time the thermostat was adjusted to a cold temperature, ready for ice cream making. We started to choose from a variety of ice cream flavours (passion fruit, tiramisu, chocolate, yam, durian) and made our ice cream using something like the Spongebob's spatulas.

My sister trying to scoop out the frozen ice.

Durian flavour with rainbow rice and chocolate rice toppings

We just poured coca cola inside the pan, to make coca cola ice cream.

Our newly, invented water melon fruit ice cream

We also experimented with sprite, orange juice, lemon juice, zapple and even plain water! Most of them tasted horrible. Zapple is probably the nicest.

Interesting Memory Metal

Nitinol is a metal alloy that is made from Nickel and Titanium. It is also called 'memory metal' or Shape Memory Alloy (SMA). Shape Memory Alloys have two distinct types of crystal structure, depending on whether they are above or below a certain critical transformation temperature. Below the critical temperature, Nitinol is flexible and can be bent easily into any shape. But once heated to the critical temperature, Nitinol shows its 'heat memory' by springing into its remembered shape.

What are the uses of Nitinol? One use is spectacle frames. Nitinol is soft, so the frames are comfortable to wear. But if they get accidentally bent, you can heat the frames using hot water, and they will spring back to their original shape. Currently Nitinol is quite expensive. But as its cost goes down, there can be many other potential applications. Another possible use is vehicle parts that will repair themselves after an accident.

The 'hot' wire video below demonstrates the properties of Nitinol.

Fantastic Contraption

Fantastic Contraption is simply fantastic. It is a very fun and addictive physics puzzle game. Just watch the video below or play this game (http://fantasticcontraption.com/) if you want to know what it is.



The purpose of Fantastic Contraption to move all red objects into a rectangular goal area. To do this, you are given a blue rectangular building area and various materials in which you can build your device. There are some obstacles along the way, to make it difficult for you to complete your task.

There's a tutorial to teach you how to play so I don't have to tell you the details. After you complete each level, you can look at other players' designs. Their designs are rated from 1* to 5*. Those with 5* are quite rare as they have to be extraordinary. You can publish your own designs by logging in, saving your designs and just publishing it. I have made my own designs but none of them are 5*, all of them are just 3* and 4*. One of my coolest designs is here (http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=4074261). I have no idea who give the ratings. You can also get the full version of the game for US$10. With the full version, you can make your own level and look at other players' levels. I didn't get the full version as it is too expensive, so I play only the free version, which is good enough.

Wishing All a Merry Christmas!

8 Days China Trip

We went for an 8 Days Nanning/Detian Waterfall/Scenic Guilin/Longsheng + Merryland tour from 13 to 20 Dec. We were on the coach most of the time, averaging 4-5 hours of travelling time a day. The longest was a 9-hr trip (to and fro) to Detian Waterfall which is the largest transnational waterfall in Asia, and was located between the border of China and Vietnam.

This is the Longsheng Terraced Fields - the Champion of the terraced field in the world. We visited the Zhuang minority village and had lunch served by the local villagers.

We went to the Merryland Theme Park, and took many fun rides, which were quite similar to those in Genting Highlands.

During the long coach rides, we passed our time by playing computer games. We had to remember to charge our notebook whenever we were in the hotels.

The Elephant Trunk Hill in Guilin.

Taken from a cruise ride on the picturisque Lijiang River.

In Lipu - the Silver Limestone Cave.

An unforgettable part of the trip was the toilet breaks. Some of the toilets were very smelly and dirty without flushing system and had no doors. Only the toilets in the hotel rooms were the cleanest.