My blogging history

This blog that I created about a year ago wasn’t my first ever. I have created numerous blog while growing up. The earliest record was during my secondary school days. I am certain till today that I had an even earlier blogging website, but I failed to trace it back to the original source.

So I was reading through some of the entries that I created while I was in secondary school and I must say, I am impressed in my English Language proficiency. Though it isn’t perfect, but at least my train of thoughts are good enough to be understood and I can at least articulate my ideas properly. With that being said, I have to agree, to my embarrassment, that I was extremely emo when during my secondary school blogging days. The blog lasted about 2 years, and I am pretty certain that it started during secondary 3. It was a period of absolute turmoil in my life. My dreaded promotion to being Band Major in a school band, and the final realisation of my sorry state of academic performance in secondary 1 and 2. It was rough, but at least I had a vision then. It is highly evident in this entry: http://mdjasriethepast.blogspot.com/2003/04/time-to-review-my-mission-statement.html

This blogspot was not the original location. I attempted to migrate my old entries to the blogspot from a different website, but I have a feeling that certain entries were missing. My latest entry was in June 2003. It shows my mid year results before my O levels. It was not good at all, but I had a vision as mentioned. I dream at that time was to go to a polytechnic and take up a Life Science course. As I was reading, a lot of emotions stirred up within me. On one hand, it was a side of me that I never fully accepted, but at the same time, the turmoils that I went through, somehow strengthen me and my resolve to see things through. You will also realised the number of song dedications that I wrote the my blog entries, cementing the fact that life wasn’t as rosy as what I had expected. It was a truly remarkable experience is all I can say during secondary three and four.

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I created a second blog to mark my new phase of life. To my surprise, I actually performed well enough to get into the course I wanted all those years in secondary school. So if i recall correctly, I attempted to create a new blog as a way to create a clean slate for my blogging life. The first post clearly states my background and the purpose of this blog. Scroll down for the first entry and subsequently, you will also see another mission statement being written. At this point of time I had already followed the book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People faithfully and it has truly helped reorientate my life for the better. I clearly remembered reading that book at the end of secondary 2, after realising that my hopes and dreams were on the brink of destruction. That book helped me to get back on my feet and I had been following its principles and teachings ever since.

That blog was active for about a year before I shut it down due to privacy concerns. But it was a good blog. I was able to write long, lengthy passages with ease and I was truly proud of my english again. Poly days were the best time of my life and judging from the way I write, there were ups and downs, but generally the ability to convey ideas and recall experiences shows the willingness to treasure these moments.

I read numerous posts in that blog and there were so many memories about lab work, report writing, lectures and all the modules that I took. One particular set of entries was the orientation day during my first days in poly. Below is the entire entry:

Nanyang Polytechnic Orientation Day 1

The orientation was a good experience for me. It took place on the 28th of June, covering over 2 days and it was generally fun, knowing the campus and meeting new people. As you already know, im in the School of Chemical and Life Sciences and there are 6 classes in my year, the biggest they say. Im in the second class, MB0402.

The first day when i arrived there in the morning, we have to be at the Theater for the Arts. I was quite nervous because of several factors. Its something new that im dealing with. You know, a totally new environment, it makes you venture out your Comfort Zones. Secondly, ive no friends to accompany me. None of whom i know were going to the same course as me so in a sense im totally alone.

When i got there, i got there just in time. There were alot of other students there already and soon we registered out names, collected our goodiebags and entered the theater for some welcoming talks and introduction to our OGLs. After the talk, our class led by the OGLs were taken to a tutorial room where we have to introduce ourselves. We were all quiet, meeting new faces and being too shy to talk to each other.

Generally during the first day, it was alot of talks here and there. As for me, i didnt really clicked to anyone of them in my class of 26, however im quite surprised that my class is quite diversified, after the introduction, my classmates were pretty much from all walks of life. Some were from malaysia and indonesia, some from neighbourhood schools like me and some from JC dropouts. My first impression about my class is that i can sense an all round talent as a class.

During the first day after lunch at Macdonalds, there were more talks but there were some activities as well, like treaure hunts and telematches. The telematch was fun. It took place in the hockey field and it was one of the last activities for the day. That was the time when i really felt a connection with my classmates.

The telematch was interesting. As a class, we were supposed to delegate 2 volunteers a girl and a boy to become mummies, that is to be wrapped up in rolls of toilet papers and to be transport at different checkpoints. I was the carrier as the other boys are and the girls do the wrapping. It was a frenzy!! Cheering and helping each other out to wrap as fast as we can to avoid losing. But in the end we were neither first nor last.

The second part of the telematch was a real bummer. As a class we were supposed to protect our mummies against a barrage of water bombs. At the same time some attackers one of them is me tried to make other mummies wet. In the end one of our mummies got wet and all the toilet paper were torn. Whats left was a girl who stayed generally dry.

The third part of the telematch was to gather all the mummies who survived the first 2 matches to buttpush other mummies and bring thier wraps down or to push them outside the ring. Our group didnt make it to the finals.

After everything, we took a group photo of all the student under the School of Chemical & Life Sciences. After that we head back home for another day of orientation…

Day 2 is here:

Nanyang Polytechnic Orientation Day 2

Day 2 of my orientation was definitely a surprise for me. Firstly, originally the plan was to hold only 1 day of orientation for my school. However it was extended to 2 days. I didnt complain as i actually thought that one day isnt enough for me. Secondly, on the second day of orientation, our OGLs told us that there will be a performance done by us to the whole school and we need to prepare within a certain time period.

The performance was the big event during that day. Of course we had the usual talks on choosing an elective module on top of your core ones. By the way, i took Japanese language as my elective module. Itll be my third language that ill be able to speak and write. As a matter of fact i already know how to write in Japanese and read (very slowly) on Japanese texts, especially Hiragana. Anyway, back to the talks, other than that, we had an Aids talk and also talks on discipline. The lunch was a catered lunch buffet and it was really great.

Before the actual performance, we have to prepare our skit that we decided to come up with within 1 and a half hours. At first we did not know what to do, changing from song item to skit to song item again to skit finally. Then comes the hard part… what are we going to performed. Someone suggested the advertisements and i thought to be a good idea. Another suggested the NYP Idol and it was also a good idea. In the end we did both, doing the NYP idol AND the advertisements.

I was put in charge of the Advertisements, actually i volunteered to oversee the advertisement department, coming up with all sorts of advertisements and elect who will do which. Another group did the NYP idol. I didnt see much what was going on but all i know is that they were doing their best in the item.

In the Advertisement department, I and afew others came up with the final few, namely Sunpage IDD, which was changed and suggested by one of my classmates to Sunpage IDD 666. It was really a good idea. Others include Ikea to tissue brand, Heineken Beer, and DHL advertisement. I delegated my classmates and my god!! They did really good. Acting was way above from what i expected. I mean, really they have shown their other side of them to me and my first impression was correct. Its a very well diversified class!!

Finally after the practice was done, we did a final rehearsal by putting the Idol department and the Advertisement department together. During the rehearsal, there were rough edges that needs to be smoothen out, but everything went smooth after that. Those that did not act in other roles were asked to become audiences and by the response it was really funny…

After the practice and the lunch, the big event had arrived. Everybody gathered in the Theater for the Arts for the show. Every class has to come up with something on stage and our class happens to be the third item on the random list. It was nerve wrecking. I happened to be the voiceover for various advertisements and a role in the DHL Advertisement. During our performance, when i observed the Idol performers, I WAS ASTOUNDED!! They did really great! The contestants have the courage to sing solo and make a fool out of themselves that even i cant do it! Kudos to them!! Overall both departments despite some errors and bumps they make on the way during the performance, i can see initiatives and improvisations in every one of them. Everybody did great!

Soon after that, other performances were generally quite good too. Some did song items while others did advertisements also. The most hilarious one that i will never forget is the alternate version of the milk ad, the “flower… flower… ORCHID” ad was change to: “rubber…. rubber…. CONDOM!!” LOL!! I laughed till my stomach ached!

After that, it was time for the result to see which class is the best class that performed well in both the telematches and the performances. Before it was read out, our class has no intention of winning or felt that we couldnt win. Looking back, our class was just mediocre, neither did too well in the games nor the worst perfoming class. But can you believe it? We won first prize. Yes, we won the first prize!! It was soo unexpected! No one in my class wished to aim for the first not expected our class to be the first, but we manage to become champion!!

It was the whole class’s efforts and im really proud of my class for emerging tops. After the whole prize giving ceremony, we distributed tons of chocolates and a little souvenir to everyone. Then we took a photo for the Helicase newsletter to be published and known to others that we emerged champion. Before that we had to go through a little ritual before finally becoming part of the SCL family, that is to drink this disgusting drink concocted by our fellow OGLs. It was a mixture of something really disgusting. We all “yamseng” gulped down and the end. This has been a tradition in SCL recently in NYP, that is to drink that disgusting black water.

After the ordeal, we were still shocked at us emerging champion then we said our goodbyes…

Upong reading that, I nearly shed a tear. Those were good days. Really good days. I missed them alot. Another typical day in school:

I passed my maths!!!
Yesterday had Maths E Quiz and i passed!!! i got 60% and im more than satisfied, considering me a sucker for maths….

However, im going to face bigger challenges when the teacher teaches Differentiation and Intergration, the 2 most feared topics. I heard from my friends that when they learn these 2 topics in Secondary school, A maths, they took nearly half a year to master to concept. But im taking learning and mastering the concepts in less than 3 months!! This is soo not fair!!! How am i gonna cope? And i bound to repeat this module!?

Anyway, enough rantings, after all the E Quiz, i went straight to the library to help a couple of my friends to photocopy part of the chemistry book, as part of a study aid to help them study chemistry related subjects. I photocopied alot and spent alot of time standing in front of the photocopying machine, turning page after page after page, to photocopy more than 100 pages of the book. It was really time consuming and something I hate to do. After all that done, i revised the notes on genetics, of the module Introduction to Molecular Biotechnology. The notes are really confusing and not in synchoronised order, or shall i say, written in “Engrish”. Lots of terminology are not explain really well and the explainations are half done and what not. No wonder our lecturer showed us videos on that topic during the lectures. The videos showned were soo much simpler to understand and its really easy to grasp the fundamentals.

While revising, Joash and Jamie were doing their proposal on lab safety. It was one of the “Engrish” mini project and they soo hilarious! While proposing on the issues of lab safety, they really came up with lots of outrages proposals like all staff have to get an A in safety test or they have to repeat their modules again. That is like sooo NYP’ish. Collaboration with the Civil defence to have a firestation located next to the lab, in case of fire, (is that necessary!?) and issuing out safety manuals to everyone who visited the lab. MUAHAHH!! All the proposals were outrageous and ludicrous and we had a good laugh, despite being in the library!

You can see I mentioned Jamie and Joash, good buddies of mine and still good buddies of mine in NTU.