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Disclaimer The reader accepts, on reading of this disclaimer, that the Internet is a vast wasteland of crap that spews out of human minds. This blog is no different. Any assumptions or conclusions that the reader draws from this blog are not the responsibility of the author, along with any physical or psychological harm that might result from the reading of this blog. Author The author is a paranoid, deranged and cynical misanthrope who records snippets of her life so that she will remember them when she grows old and withered. The identities of any names or initials on this blog are based on the assumptions of the reader unless otherwise specified, and the author claims no responsibility for them. Reality The author somehow got into medical school. Yes, you of the general public, shudder and fear the wrath of an inept doctor. Loves Reading, Maisy (my dog), tea, writing (albeit badly), piano, music, junk food. Hates Almost everything else besides the things mentioned above. Friends Bao Cheng' Bernice' Chien Young' Chun Hing' Claire' Faustina' Felicia' Ferly' Gloria' Irene' Irene & Jiaying' Jac' Jiamin' Jiasin' Jiaying' Lutheng' Karene' Marissa' Melesa' Mingyi' My fictionpress' Pamelia' Pei Rong' Qiu Ting' Rachel' Satires Site' Stasia' Sylvia' The Clique' Vinette' Wenjia' Xin Rong' Xue Ying' Yanne & I' Yanne & Jamie' Zeena' 203' Archives Chat area |
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
My last ever term of school started with a bang today. Yesterday, while Maisy and I were enjoying our lunch of KFC, my brother picked up the phone and told me it was from the school's music department. Wondering what it could be about, I apprehensively answered the phone. Anyway, I had a rehearsal with the orchestra today. It was worse than crap. I played like a sack of dragon dung (quote thanks to Ron Weasley), and it didn't help that I was 15mins late because we got caught in the morning traffic (it's surprisingly busy even at 7 in the morning). The orchestra was slightly too slow, resulting in me finishing a bar early for nearly every section. I tried slowing down, but it's hard, considering I've been playing at that speed for ages. And I think I'll have to adhere to their speed because the conductor adamantly refuses to accomodate me. Probably because the orchestra can't play it that fast, seeing that most of them were sight-reading it (it was the 2nd time they've actually SEEN the bloody piece). So it didn't go very well... What a *great* start to my last term of school. Waking up at the crack of dawn just to play that crappily. What more, I have a chem test, physics test and possibly have to present my lit oral tomorrow (considering only 1 person out of 6 has finished it. I think mine's good enough, but I could do with more time). Everyone was complaining about how they didn't have enough time, but I don't think it's a very good excuse, considering how they had the entire hols and a week before that to do it. I've done enough to do a decent presentation, but some other people have not even written beyond a 2 minute presentation (when it's supposed to by 5 mins, 6 mins max). Well, that's considering how most people haven't actually finished the chem calcs which we have a test on tomorrow. But that being said, nearly everyone did some form or other of extra revision work. Quite a few people went to the revision courses held at various venues, while others bothered doing extra exercises out of the textbooks (yeah, and not do their ACTUAL homework). I got slightly worried at my lack of study... Anyway, I'm tired. Need to sleep or I'll fall asleep in my tests tomorrow (not that I'm not already screwed). 11:01 PM Saturday, July 12, 2008 Reports came today! At least the academic ones did... Music one came yesterday. Gaby was really nice! She gave me an overall of A+, and every section an A+ except rhythm and technique (which she gave me As for anyway!). So that was nice... As always, the academic ones come a day after the music ones. These were unfortunately not as good... Yes, the marks were ok. Applic: 92 Calc: 93 Chem: 89 (argh, just 1 more %!!) Lit: 77 Phy: 88 Tutor's report was hilarious. She asserts that I 'offer a genuinely supportive attitude in the Tutor Group'. I suppose that yes, I do help people who run in at the last minute screaming that they don't understand something or don't know how to do a question on the day something's due... But other then that, I generally avoid going to tutor group. Haha. The principal wrote something too! She wrote 'you are well placed to do yourself justice in November, Jolene'. I doubt she'd appreciate knowing that I've been slacking off after the exams... They changed the format of reports too! Now, there's a little descriptive paragraph on what we've done. I expected to see nothing there for lit... They've also included stuff like 'uses class time effectively, works collaboratively, works independently when required, demonstrates organisational skills and works to the best of her ability', where you're given a little tick under 'rarely, sometimes, usually and always' where appropriate. Anyway, Applic: I got all always except for works collaboratively. A little amazed and surprised, I ventured onto dictionary.com to find out the definition of collaborative (not that I didn't know it, but I was just curious). The American Heritage Dictionary offers 2 definitions: 1: To work together, especially in a joint intellectual effort. 2: To cooperate treasonably, as with an enemy occupation force in one's country. I'm asserting a guess at the first. I suppose this category includes participation, because there isn't another category more fitting for it. I've given up participating in applic because he ignores me! And it's annoying when people don't understand stuff for ages, so I just droop off to sleep. I guess he actually notices... (I was under the impression he didn't care) Anyway, CD said that even though I'm an 'extremely capable mathematician' (I rolled around laughing on the ground for quite a bit), I still work really hard. I don't agree with that statement at all. I only did one of the 20 questions he set us for the previous chapter. He ventured on to say that I'm a confident student and that I 'enjoy the challenge of trying to solve the more difficult problems in the course'. Either he thinks frowns are signs of happiness, or he interprets my swearing to be shouts of mirth, but I DO NOT ENJOY HARD QUESTIONS. Then he went on to say that I am 'a friendly and cooperative student who works well with her peers in class and is always willing to offer assistance to other students'. HA, HA, HA. Cooperative? Probably doesn't hear my snide comments. Works well and willing to offer help? No damn way. He probably didn't see the time that I went red in the face with suppressed anger when helping the girl next to me. Wait, I actually think he did. He stared at me for quite a bit after that. Then again, I do bother helping people. To get them away from me. Calc was thankfully better. HW did say I am 'a very talented maths student' (which got a huge snort of laughter from me), but she was right in saying that I try to 'complete as many different examples as possible'. Yes, I skip questions that look the same in the homework. And she appreciates my contributions in discussions of problems in class! I was getting worried that she was getting offended... Oh, but she said I lost most of my marks in careless errors, and told me to check my work (probably because I prefer to sit there staring into space or doodle). She rounded off by saying that it 'has been a pleasure teaching such an INTERESTED and ABLE student and I wish Jolene all the very best for the TEE and her future academic studies'. The first half was absolutely hilarious. The last half was an 'aww' worthy bit. She's so incredibly nice. Heh, chem wasn't too good. VB hinted that I am not achieving to my max potential... She asked me to see her for help in extended answers. She seems to be deluded into thinking that I am 'capable of achieving at the highest level' (I remember her saying that in last yr's report). Bah. I feel guilty that I've been slacking off chem because it's my best subject (or was). I'd apparently gotten an overall of 95 in my tests! Which probably pulled my dismal prac mark (78%) to get an overal of 89 when put together with the exam. Oh, she said I was CHEERFUL too. HAHAHAHAHAHA. Lit was worse than chem... The OB gave me 2 usuallys! In works collaboratively, and... DEMONSTRATES ORGANISATIONAL SKILLS. WTF?!?!?! I meticulously holepunch and staple all my stuff and put it neatly in my file, along with a notebook! I also bring all my texts to class! Urgh! He's the disorganised one who left our oral reports for 2 weeks on his desk at home! And he said my 'encouraging performance' in my exam was a 'clear indication of her potential in the subject'. Of course, encouragingly DISMAL. It was my worst mark in lit this year! By at least 5%! Oh yeah, it shows my crap potential at lit. Heck, I'm definitely not going to count lit anyway, seeing it is 11% worse than my 4th best. Which brings us to physics! Which is still my 4th best. Doubt TD would appreciate it if I told him... Anyway, I think he started this report off same as last year. Tsk. He said I was 'talented' and have a 'very good aptitude', and congratualated me on getting the top mark in the exam! Nice! He then said I'm industrious and do my work to 'the highest possible level' (heh, my ass), and that I ask for help with difficult probs (he told me to keep doing it. I was starting to think he was getting annoyed). The last line was laced with irony though. If you remember, I told him at parent teacher that I don't like physics. I think he remembers (or remembered), because after getting the chem exam back, I proclaimed that I like physics better because my chem mark was worse, and he made disbelieving noises, and I assure him that it was shortlived. Anyway, he said that 'her enthusiasm and GENIUNE INTEREST in physics have made her a pleasure to teach'. Assuming it's ironic, it would mean that he absolutely hates teaching me, because I am a) unenthusiastic and b) have an ingeniune interest in the subject. Hmm... Interesting... So yes! Last ever report in my school life! On some counts (eg: working collaboratively, LIT, chem), it was pretty bad, but on the more hilarious ones, it was quite alright! Thankfully the report was hidden under a huge white envelope for my dad. I think the brother suspects reports would be coming soon, because he suspiciously asked what the white envelope was and I truthfully told him it was my dad's. Haha! Now I need to go hide it before he finds it... And it's past 1 in the morning! Argh! 12:32 AM Tuesday, July 08, 2008 The 2nd day of the hols just positively flew by. I did an old exam paper's worth of chem calculations, 2 questions from the next paper (we have to do 5 paper's worth of calcs as a holiday assignment), watched 2 movies, ate, slept, collected the mail, took maisy for a walk, had a shower and have been sitting and chatting to mel on msn for the past 2 hours! Anyway, seeing that I've just spent more than half the 4 days of hols that just passed sleeping, I thought I might just jot down the few things that happened in the last week of school that have remained behind in my brain. Firstly, Monday was pretty dull, especially with an applicable maths test right smack in the 2nd period of the day. Other than the fact that I utterly panicked when I first looked at the questions (the first page was probability stuff that was easy, but I have no idea why I freaked out), I thought I did crap, considering how I hadn't studied but spent the entire weekend chatting on msn and grumbling to anyone who'd listen about how I was so burnt out and couldn't be bothered studying. So yes, after the first period of lit (which is really torture... Boredom beyond boredom), we had to endure a maths test. Great. Then double physics. Even better. Then, after some boring talk on driving safely and not getting mortally injured due to car crashes, we had calc. What we did I don't even remember (I suspect it was some questions out of the textbook. We're always doing that). Anyway, HW gave our tests back and she went 'Guess who got 55/55?' at which I offered Jess' (the girl who gets crazily high marks, and who got 94% in that chem exam) name. Turns out I got the 100%. Which left me STUNNED. HW might have yelled 'stupefy' at the top of her voice for all I know, but I just sat there utterly bewildered. Firstly, I'd heard 54/55, and was already tempted to curse the person who got that into oblivion. Secondly, I didn't have time to study for that test, seeing that it was on the same day as the chem one, and a day after that lit seminar. Lastly, I was frantically studying for it during lunch, and freaking out because the others had said it was hard, and HW even gave them 15mins extra (they did it on the day the lit people were off on the seminar). The next day was thankfully more exciting! I got to sleep in till about 1 in the afternoon while the others were running around at the other end of perth! Bwahahaha... I was sick though. My flu got worse, as did my cough. So instead of doing the catchup homework which I'd intended to do, I just lazed around eating, sleeping and watching TV. Great way to spend a day, imho (considering the other alternative was sitting around watching people's bags while they ran around in circles, or ovals, for that matter). Wednesday was dull, and I think the weather fully agreed. It was cloudy the entire day I think... Double calc first thing in the morning was sleep-worthy. I finished the exercise in about twice the time I usually do, prompting HW to hover worriedly around and asking me if I needed help whenever I frowned. I didn't, but she pressed on and asked which question I was doing and told me the answer anyway. I wouldn't say I wasn't annoyed, which just made me frown more and prompted her to bug me even more (talk about vicious cycles). I then spent the free period after that dwelling on the lone question I couldn't do out of that whole exercise (which was unfortunately the last one, and the one HW couldn't do), and only realised that I'd been an idiot and not taken a power of 1 when differentiating a square root at the end of recess (yes, I spent the whole of recess, which was conveniently after the free doing that stupid ques). I left in 'high spirits' for lit. Physics was the usual, possibly worse. We had to do some stupid experiment (I had half a mind to throttle TD with his tie 10 minutes into it) which involved placing compasses near magnets and plotting arrows with them to look at the field lines around. It wouldn't have been that bad if we only had to do it once or twice, but we had FIVE FRIGGING DIAGRAMS TO DO. By the end of it, it was probably only the lingering thought of a detention, possibly a lawsuit that stopped me jumping up and swinging TD around my head with his tie. Instead, I settled for a retort of it being a patience test when TD sardonically asked if we were enjoying the task. Applic was just weird. CD stormed into class, declared our tests miserable, where he said that it was the first time in 2 years that the top class (aka us) had so many people who failed, then happily added that it was the first time in 2 years that someone got a 100% too. The class was divided on their feelings; some were apparently supremely confident (to the point that I wanted to reach over and smack them over the head with their books) while others supremely worried (like me, as I remembered my panic attack). CD then decided to keep the suspense by finishing off the chapter before giving us our tests back. So he went around the entire class giving back the tests, and I was positively about to burst into tears because I expected to be one of those who failed (he kept shooting dirty looks over in my general area, but it turned out that 3 out of 4 of those sitting in the row behind me hadn't done very well). Unfortunately, my test lingered near the end of the pile, and while Keisha was looking at her test disappointedly (with me hovering around anxiously), I saw him walk over to a couple of people on the other end and telling them 'well done'. Then he walked back over towards me with a murderous look on his face (ok, I'm over exaggerating a bit here), and me muttering 'oh shit' under my breath. Then he smiled and went 'well done Jolene, it's not very often that this happens'. Turns out I'd gotten 100%. Keisha had just been telling me that I probably did (about 3 secs before I got the test back), when I told her that she still owed me lunch for her poor judgement over my chem exam (it shut her up. HAHA). If it was possible, I was even more bewildered than for the calc test (at least I'd found it quite ok). I sat there for quite a while exclaiming that it couldn't be possible, while Keisha laughed at me. Humph. Anyway, CD then moved to the row behind me and asked the 3 people (whom he'd shot those murderous looks at) to see him about their tests. I thought he was a bit mean to them, especially when he snapped at one of them (who incidentally is my friend, is a boarder and is from Indonesia) that she should see him, and added in a tone that suggested she was highly irresponsible, and that she should have seen him earlier (because he'd asked when she was leaving for Indonesia and she said the next day). So that kind of tainted my joy at getting 100% in yet another maths test, and so did the chem lab quiz the period after. Probably because I'd not gotten over the shock yet. And Victoria was busy jabbering on about how she was only 1 of 2 people in her class who got one of the tricky matrices questions right. And I think she interpreted my stony silence for disappointment at my mark, for she asked what I got, and asked just for an indication as to whether it was good, bad or ok. I'd chosen just that very moment to have a drink of water, and so glanced at Keisha and nearly choked as we both burst out laughing. Victoria was pretty stunned at my reaction till Keisha exclaimed that I'd got a 100%. I then said 'you shouldn't have said that!' because I wanted to trick Victoria into thinking I'd done miserably, but the damage was done, and VB strolled in at that very moment. The lab quiz wasn't as great as the maths tests. I didn't get 2 of the indicators and the battery voltage (because I looked at the wrong equation. Argh), so I got 17/20, which prompted Shehjar to go 'that's really bad. What did you do? This is the first time I've beat you in anything!'. I gave her a scowl (actions say a thousand words indeed). Thursday was shitty. Got that lab quiz back (along with a disappointed look from VB), and had that lit textual analysis. For all I tried to plan and use the old baldie's methods, I RAN OUT OF TIME FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY ENTIRE LIT ESSAY-WRITING LIFE. I'm probably never going to use his methods again. And when I told him that, he went (in that superior tone) 'part of lit is being selective and choosing wisely'. Urgh. It's a pity (on my part) that he didn't have any hair, or I'd probably have yanked it all out of his stupid egghead. It turned out I wasn't the only one who was utterly depressed with how I went. Everyone was, as far as I knew. No one had enough time (oh come on, we had to analyse the whole prologue and opening of Medea, which is so full of litsy crap that you can't finish it in an hour), and everyone was so burnt out seeing it was that close to the hols. About 4 of us from our lit class trooped up to the other lit class in retaliation to the old baldie's teaching (synonym of boredom), and were greeted by chocolate biscuits that the (previously known as) old hag had brought in for them. Needless to say, we were all really jealous and only left when she told us he was waiting for us. So the 4 of us decided to try to ask him if we could watch a movie instead, and as we burst into the class, Shehjar went 'why did we even bother coming, he isn't even here' really loudly, but I realised (from the light bouncing off his shiny head) that he was fiddling around with the computer at the back of the room) and only pointed him out too late. Shehjar then asked if we could watch a movie, and I enthusiastically added if we could watch harry potter (the whole class agreed, and someone suggested looking at connotations in hp), but he snapped angrily, yes, ANGRILY at us not to waste his time. The entire class went silent and we were all seething. Who the heck is the one who turns up nearly half a lesson late sometimes? Or spends so much time talking about the plays he went to, or the ones he and his old students watched in London that took 4 hours? And now he comes and snaps at us not to waste his time?! Anyway, everyone tuned out of the lesson, me inclusive. I got really pissed off at him, and neglected to put on my usual pretence of listening. He didn't notice anything though. He was reliving bits of this supposedly funny play (I suppose it could be funny, but since it was him reliving it...), and no one laughed, though I was sorely tempted to go 'HAR, HAR, HAR' sardonically. It would probably have given him false hope that someone was interested and found it funny though. We had applic after that, which was swopped with Fri last period (considering how no one would have listened). Unfortunately, CD didn't go through the test, so I couldn't leave 10 mins early for my piano lesson (which was what Gaby wanted me to do). He would probably have tied me to the chair to have stopped me, being CD. So I only had about a half an hour lesson. Sigh. Which was a fiasco. Sigh. Calc was boring. HW didn't seem pleased when I asked her about a question in the holiday assignment that I was certain the answer was wrong. It turned out I was right. She spent about half the lesson on it and snapped at everyone to shut up so she could think (I didn't think telling her I spent about 5 minutes on it would have cheered her up. She seems to have this unpleasant idea that I think everyone's perfect and no one makes mistakes). Friday was useless. Wouldn't have gone if I hadn't needed to take all my books home. Physics was utterly boring. Despite TD's exciting promise of us trying to pop popcorn with our mobile phones (by the way, it is a HOAX, as I'd predicted it was), I walked into class to get a new booklet chucked into my hands and was told to do a boring activity on bridges on the computers. I asked him why weren't we doing the popcorn thing, but he said we were doing it at the end of the lesson. And I think it must have been the incredulous look on my face, because he cheekily went 'what, did you think we were doing it for the whole lesson?'. I actually did. Humph. Double free! The history people apparently had an essay on the last day of term. HAHA, SUCKERS! Chem: practice essay was shit. I completely lost my structure midway into the essay. Haha. VB tends to appreciate my ludicrous arguments though. In the last essay, I wrote something really wrong, but she said my argument was good although my point was crap (though not in those words, of course). Though I lost probably all my marks due to that. So I resorted to using connectives like however between 2 points as alike as a porcupine and a banana to attempt to link them. Hope she doesn't notice. Ah crap. Lit... Let's see. 6 people, including the old baldie turned up. Less than half the class. Initially it was 5, then someone turned up midway through the lesson. We just watched this movie 'Little Miss Sunshine', which had a drug scene in it. Someone asked the old baldie if we could analyse it. It was actually quite an interesting movie though (not just for the drugs)! End of term service was great. Keisha and I were probably 2 of about a dozen of the year 12s who bothered turning up, and we couldn't find any of the others there. So we decided to plonk ourselves in the middle of nowhere right at the back of the hall, but got told off to keep moving to the end of the aisle where TD was. He was standing behind the chair that Keisha wanted to sit in, and when I told him that we couldn't find anyone else, he said we could just sit anywhere today. So we were about to sit when he added to Keisha 'oh, but not here' and I asked why, and he said he was about to sit there. Ah shit. Keisha and I later said that people don't usually stand behind the chairs they want to sit in. It was pretty awkward sitting next to TD, especially when it came to the 'peace be with you' bit, where we had to shake hands/exchange greeting with those around us. Seeing that there were only 3 of us in our row (aka TD, Keisha and I), we had to shake hands with him (since there was no one behind us that we could turn to and it would have been incredibly rude and obvious). It was really awkward. I kept trying to see if he sung any of the hymns, but I don't think he did. Tsk... Not to mention me trying to hear him sing them. Anyway, as the last hymn finished (the music director played it a little more enthusiastically than he usually does. He did a heap of improvisations), I was fit to run, jumping up and down, proclaiming that it was the end of term, but I didn't. I didn't think anything could have spoilt my mood, but I was wrong, as always. The dean of curriculum came up and reminded us about reports coming during the hols (now that I think of it, they should be coming sometime soon. Ah shit), and that we year 12s had to study. Bah shit. And we cheered the staff as they left the hall first. Lucky them, but I, for once (considering the continuous wars I tend to wage with teachers), actually applauded sincerely. They've worked really hard, and I really thought they deserved it (or they deserved leaving school first anyway). I then went to borrow 3 books out of the library (harry potter 4 and 5 and 'a thousand splendid suns' by Khaled Hossein), while Keisha borrowed Kite Runner by the latter. Then I had to drag 3 bags home (didn't help that I brought my sports bag, even though I ponned sport. Haha... Hope I won't get a detention). Sigh. And I haven't done any work all hols except those few miserable chem calcs! I'm hoping tomorrow will be better, but I doubt it. I spent nearly all of today watching movies (watched Hairspray and Shrek 3. Didn't like the latter, the former was very entertaining and interesting). Oh well. What a long post! I'll probably be posting one soon on my school reports, depending on when they come. I bet they'll be pretty hilarious as usual. Am *excited* to see what the old baldie says of my participation (now that I'm making my snide comments more audible). Shall go to bed now! 10:52 PM
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