and i'm back with another whirlwind post.
saw in the newspapers, people complaining about how those students who can qualify for the top JCs decide to go to poly instead and deprive those with not so good marks from the place. for instance, someone complained that her daughter did not get ANY of the top 6 choices of poly course that she opted for because higher scorers was spoiling the market and pushing the entrance requisites up. i feel like i agree with these potential poly people. there is a reason why JCs are there. and that's for those people with the top marks in sg. there's also a reason why the polys are there, and that is for those who don't score as well. same as there's a reason why the ITEs are there. now i'm not condemning those students who decide to go to the poly when they qualify for JC. it is their choice after all. but i feel that, you do well enough, stop hogging places meant for those who don't. i know i'd get real pissed off when someone who should be in a better place decides go come to MY spot in a worse off place. am i making sense? it's like, a multimillionaire deciding that i want to live in a one room HDB flat in macpherson estate. like, hello? you can SO afford to buy a condo in some high class exclusive area, why are you depriving the poor plebians of a roof over their heads?
sure, they say that it's all a competition. if the potential poly students want to get into the poly, they have no choice but to fight those JC defectors (for want of a better word). so they are forced to work harder and get grades that match up to those who qualified for a JC. what, i ask you, is the damn point of that?? there are reasons why a person is labelled a poly student or a JC student, and that is precisely because of the marks. sometimes, most times in fact, the poor guy just can't get the required marks. no matter how hard he tries. why are you forcing him to die and give up a precious spot to someone who can get much better?
then again, yesterday's papers interviewed some teens about this, about why they choose the poly over the JC. they say that the JC doesn't have the course they are interested in, there's less stress in poly etc etc. so, i say, it's high time that the govt revamps the JC curriculum. it's obvious that the JC curriculum is useless to youths these days. and i completely agree btw. once it's becoming a disturbing trend that the top scorers in the cohort are choosing to abandon the route that is supposedly mapped out for them, that is, JC then uni, it's time to rethink the system. i've said it before, and i'll say it again. what use is an A-level cert??? how can it compare against a poly diploma? JCs have to update their system and make it more relevant to youths. else, this trend is not going to go away anytime soon.
moving on. something else i saw in the papers today. this is regarding the trend of so-called emo teens. it's talking about another disturbing trend about teens who subscribe to this 'emo' outlook. what's disturbing is that, this emo trend includes a very negative and self destructive outlook on life, which leads to teens slashing their wrists and engaging in self mutilating behaviours (emotional and physical). when i read this article, it immediately brought to mind a friend that i know. i may consider myself depressed, but i don't see myself as being emo. whereas, this friend, from what i heard recently, (haven't seen her cos she hasn't been coming to school), is engaging in these emo behaviours. and i think that well, it's stupid lah. yes, life sucks, life is cruel, the world is cruel. but that's life. as much as death seems like a very tempting and easy solution, it's a bit too final, no? life sucks but there's also parts of life that completely rock. "it is short, but it is wide." whatever happens now will pass.
recently, i've been playing with this thing called 2nd life. one of the tag lines of it came to mind when i was reading about the emo teens, which is, "get a second life!" *rolls eyes* anyway, did i tell you how much i love NM? i should have majored in it sia! anyway, the only reason i was playing with 2nd life is cos daniella decided that she wanted to hold this week's tutorial in the 2nd life virtual world. so, been spending the weekend, or parts of the weekend, trying to get used to the programme. I DON'T LIKE IT!!!!! ok, it's fun after a while, but it's complex to use, to me at least. my biggest problem with it is the way you control the avatar. i get really dizzy after like 5 minutes of use. it's hard to control the thing. or maybe it's just my comp lagging. cos it doesn't seem to respond well to my keyboard clicks. oh and, i realised that i've been going on and on and not explaining what exactly is 2nd life to people who may not know. and i know people won't know cos i had no idea what it was until recently. anyway, 2nd life is like this online 'game' where you create an avatar character of yourself and kind of 'live' in a virtual space. i think it's like the sims (having never played sims either).
was playing it yesterday and was chatting with this guy from denmark, whose avatar was called Rigor Heron. btw, in case you're on 2nd life, my avatar is Finduilas Fimicoloud. talk to me k!! i'm lonely on my 2nd life. anyway, random. ok, anyway, in 2nd life, you can chat with the other avatars who are well, real people. i think that's one problem that i have yet to overcome. cos i'm not used to talking like that in real time to people i've never met before. usually these kind of games, like myst or something, it's all pre-programmed. but this is like, REAL!! it's fun, but i've not yet gotten to the realisation that people on the other end don't know who i am. so, it's like, yesterday, i was talking with that Rigor Heron, and i accidently pressed something and i kind of, got teleported away from the 'conversation'. so i kinda feel bad, like i just walked out on someone kind of feeling. never mind. like i said, i gotta get it through my head that the person on the other end is not knowing me and the online me can behave differently from the offline me. and i don't know what i'm talking about, so i better stop right here.
oh ya, i found some short stories that i wrote years ago (like in sec4 or something) while clearing my cupboard. one day when i'm freer, probably i'll type them out and post them here. see how my writing style has changed since then. it's cool, reading my own writing years later. :D
mood: ok
listening to: rhythm of the night - valeria
