the blackboard grading system.

Out of 4 assignments, I got C for 3 of them.

For the last one, I got D..

...This is so not funny lor.

Btw, I had a very good nap during lecture just now.

When I told this to my sister over msn, she said:
dun worry, you are a singaporean. your standard is supposed to suck

=_=||

The funniest shit is that the average score for my course is around that standard.

the difference between smart and stupid people

I spent weeks ahead of the deadline in the library researching, hours poring over heaps of books, days spent carrying out extensive online research, countless late nights typing out the essay.

My friend spent her week before the deadline partying, getting drunk pissed, wasted, smoking weed, and 24 hours before the essay due, fooling around. One hour before the deadline, working her ass off to piece together a decent piece of essay, and asking me to come up with some ideas.

In the end, we both got 20 marks for our essay.

Being born stupid means I have to do 10 times the work of everyone else just to reach their standard. Being born stupid means I have to spent 10 times the amount of time and effort above everyone else just to attain the same level of understanding as them. Being born stupid means that I have to work harder than everyone else.

And, sometimes, I wonder why I bother putting in so much effort at all.

playing truant.

I have been skipping classes quite frequently because I have trouble waking up in the morning because I have trouble sleeping at night.

...This is not right. Nerds are supposed to attend EVERY SINGLE class.

emptiness

It's one thing to be sad and lonely.

But, it's another thing to be sad and lonely and decide to have unprotected sex, and during a visit to the doctor, get informed that there is a chance you might have contracted an STD.

Also, also, while you bitch about the Mainland Chinese who "do nothing but study everyday, and have zero social life," keep in mind that there are others out there who might be categorizing you as the girl who "do nothing but party everyday, and spend zero time on her studies".

These sad, sad lonely creatures. I really pity all of them. Trying so hard to fill up their life with booze, party and drugs. All they get at the end of the day is a sense of emptiness. And, perhaps, an STD.

Also, please open your eyes BIG BIG. Not everyone out there is a couple, there are many swinging singles. Not every couple is together because they genuinely want to, but not every couple is together just because they need someone to be with.

If you keep thinking he isn't worth it, then he probably isn't.

the great censorship in China

Just as I was getting fed up with the albatross of the classroom and being spoon-fed information, we were assigned to do our very first real hard news story.

We were given a lot of freedom as to how we wanted to go about doing it.

Since I've become much more politically-aware and immensely interested in the Tibetan's protestations taking place in China, I decided to cover the China's human rights violations campaign held at Federation Square.

Companies such as Google and Yahoo! actually help the Chinese government to censor out sensitive material, restricting access to web content for China citizens. Ironically, these are the companies that publicly state that they support human rights and freedom of expression.

Shi Tao, a journalist in China, sent an email to a friend in the US. When the friend published the material in the US, the Chinese government approached Yahoo! to get personal details of the source of the email. Without any questions asked, Yahoo! handed over personal details of Shi Tao to the government, including his name and address, which allowed the Chinese authorities to track him down and sentence him to 10 years in prison.

I love talking to random strangers and have so much fun interviewing them. But, it can get pretty hard garnering interesting answers, and most Asians are rather reluctant to speak up.

Since I have to be unbiased as a journalist in my report, I had to hang around waiting for Chinese faces to appear on a rather slow Friday afternoon. The first few Chinese people I approached avoided me like the plague. Also, I mistook many Chinese-looking people for China citizens, when they were in fact Korean.

Sometimes, I get really irritating and annoying answers out of interviewees. The one which I hate the most is when the person I'm interviewing turns the table around and I end up being the one getting interviewed.

Example:

Me: So, do you think such an awareness campaign is effective in highlighting human rights abuses taking place in China?

Interviewee: Err...I don't know. What do YOU think?

Me: Erm, I'm asking you the question, not the other way round.

Interviewee: Yeah, I know. But, what do YOU think?

Me: But, now I'm the one asking you the question.

Interviewee: (hyped-up) Yeah, but what do YOU think? I want to know your opinion.

Me: Well, okay. I think the campaign is very effective because it attracts the attention of the media and garners wide media coverage, so more people actually get to know about the internet censorship taking place in China. Because many people in China have absolutely no idea that their government censors the state media.

Interviewee: (Nodding head in agreement) Hmm....yeah, yeah. That's right. What you're saying is right.

Me: No, but that is MY opinion. You are not supposed to throw my own answer back at me.

Also, interestingly, some interviews stray away from the main topic.

Me: Thanks so much for agreeing to do the interview. Can I have your contact number please?

Interviewee: Er...I don't have a contact number because I just arrived in Melbourne yesterday.

Me: Well, okay...how about your house phone then?

Interviewee: Er...I don't have a house.

Me: Okay, can you just give me ANY number at all?

Interviewee: Yeah, okay, how about you give me your number, and I'll put it down.

Me: No, I can't do that! Okay, how about giving me a friend's handphone number?

Interviewee: Er....I don't have any friends. Would you like to be my friend?

Me: Do you really not have a number you can give me? Don't worry, everything will be kept confidential.

Interviewee: Okay, look, I have a friend's handphone with me right now. But, I don't know if it's right to give his number to you.

Me: Well, could you ask him then?

Interviewee: Yeah, okay. But, I can't contact him right now. How about I give you a call when I get his number?

Me: Okay, great.

Interviewee: So, would you like to be my friend? We could meet up for coffee or something.

Me: ...

I had been hanging around for 2 hours approaching random people who looked like they were from China to me. In the end, I found guys were easier to approach than girls, who were far less accommodating. They were either in a rush or turned me down flat.

My life-saver came in the form of someone munching on McDonald's. I was initially apprehensive about approaching her, but in the end, she turned out to be from China! I felt a huge sense of relief after so many failed attempts.

Since she was from China, and insisted on speaking English, I couldn't understand a word she was saying in the beginning. Also, she was a bit reluctant to talk about politics. In the end, we got along so well that we ended up chatting for over half an hour. She told me that it was my persistence that finally made her open up. In the end, the interview I had with her turned out to be one of the most crucial part of my news story.

not the biggest nerd

Friend: Do you know that Caucasian guy and girl?

Me: Yup, I went out clubbing with them once.

Friend: (incredulous look) YOU went clubbing?

Me: Yup.

Friend: You mean you went CLUBBING?

Me: Yup. (sarcastic) And I even smoked and took drugs.

Friend: (shakes head) I think, by the time you get to Year 3, you would have become bad and corrupted.

My friend cannot be more wrong. I am a nerd, and 10 years down the road, I will still be a nerd. 50 years down the road, and I will be an old nerd, if I get to live till that age that is. My purpose of blogging about this is to say that doesn't mean you hang out with people who sleep around, means that one day, you will end up sleeping around. Although it does happen, but I would like to believe that I am not a person who is easily influenced. And, also to tell readers, that although it is hard to believe it, there are bigger nerds than myself around.

protest marches and riots

In conjunction with May Day, there was a protest on the streets of Central Melbourne this afternoon. Men and women, young and old, marched on the streets of Melbourne holding up posters and signboards demanding more rights for workers. Even young children and dogs wearing customized T-shirts with words like, 'May Day' and 'More rights for workers' in support of the protest thronged the streets.

Needless to say, the protest march attracted a lot of attention from passers-by, who stopped to stare or take a couple of photos.

The group who led the protest were decked out in Scottish outfits, armed with heavy band equipments, blowing their trumpets and beating their drums.

On another occasion, April 30, a protest by taxi drivers jammed up the streets of Melbourne's CBD. Photos of a large gathering of taxi drivers, mostly of Indian ethnicity, were splashed all over the major metropolitan newspapers and dailies.

The cabbies whipped off their shirts and sat down in the cross-intersection road just outside the busy streets of Flinders Street Station. The protest occurred because of the fatal stabbing of a fellow taxi-driver. Transport system was disrupted and traffic brought to a halt. Within 22 hours, the government had acceded to most or all of the demands and requests of the cabbies, such as installation of safety screens and mandatory pre-payment of night fares.

This sparked off a copycat scenario the very next day. Commuters taking the train refused to pay their transport fares, to protest against bad service standards. And, when they were caught, they refused to pay the fines. They said that by doing so, the government will listen to them, and they were just following the example demonstrated by the taxi drivers.

hailstorm

My friend in Singapore tells me that the weather back home has been unbearably hot these couple of days, but over here, it's a totally different experience.

At one point this week, the temperature dropped to 8 degree celsius, and was so unbearably cold. In fact, it has been so cold that I experienced my first hailstorm today. For those who don't know what a hailstorm is, basically, it means the combination of ice and hard snow. When the weather gets so cold that it begins to rain ice.

So, instead of raindrops falling all over me, I had pellets of ice raining down upon me. Sweet.