Paulo and Chuck

Heyyyy humans!

Farhanah asked for me to do a book review on the 4J blog again so here I am!

Read Paulo Coehlo's books. They're good. :D His stories are not really very heart-pumping, dramatic action filled (haha see I listen in english class) BUT you get this warm fuzzy feeling when you read them.

And I'm not just talking about The Alchemist, although that's probably the best starter since it's a popular bestseller. I do believe he has a new book called "The Witch of Portobello" and I think it has nothing to do with enchanted mushrooms, so it makes for safe reading.

I've personally read The Alchemist, Veronika Decides To Die, The Fifth Mountain, Eleven Minutes and I was halfway through The Zahir before my sister decides to take away my reading rights by bringing the book to America. ):

I can't remember much about Eleven Minutes, though. Does anyone else experience memory loss when you get through a thick book? Like Harry Potter and the HBP. I can't remember anything except the ending, climatic part. Ehehehe.

In accordance to my sister's words, she told me that a particularly interesting part was when some dude buttered his toast and it landed buttered side up.

As you know, buttered toast always lands buttered side down, so he was really amazed and he went to tell everyone about how this miracle happened, and they went off to see the village old man who was omniscient and wise and all that.

The next day, the old man told him that the toast lands as it should, he just buttered it the wrong way.

HAHAHA.
I don't know which book that one is from, probably Like The Flowing River. And my sister told me that, so don't quote me.

Yes, go read his books and fall in love with them.

I've also borrowed "Survivor" by Chuck Palahniuk, who is the author of "Fight Club", which got made into a movie. Panic! At The Disco music fans might also want to know that P!ATD takes some of their song titles and stuff from his books, such as "The Only Difference Between Suicide And Martyrdom Is Press Coverage", taken from the abovementioned book.

It gets kind of disturbing, although it is really good hilarious satire. I'm only through a few pages, at the lobster part.

So okay. I'm going to do Chemistry now. What? I have nothing to say anymore, so I'm just going to say bye here. Bye.

P.S HARRY POTTER MOVIE/BOOK IN LESS THAN A MONTH!!!!

EDIT: I would like to say that Chuck Palahniuk writes excellently. But Survivor is probably not for hardcored Christians because it challenges the idea of God. It's not a book on religion (or rather, the lack of it) however, so if you've got a more or less open mind, read it! :D I love love this book for all its witty remarks.

To be honest the first few chapters were not that great for me, just more or less setting the background and characters for the story. You get to learn very interesting household skills like how to get bloodstains off fur coats and how to eat a lobster. Which is partly why I love this book.

It was only at about Chapter 30 when it started to pick up. BTW the chapters go in reverse order, so it starts with Chapter 47, so Chapter 30 isn't really very far into the book. Chuck Palahniuk's writing isn't exactly PG-13 though, in fact, it's kind of skimming the lines of M-18 or NC-16, but since we're not talking about a movie here, who cares?

I'm still not done, but I always spoil books for myself by finding out the ending. Hahaha. Bad habit. Oh well.

And quotes, one about the bloodstains and the others because I'm currently around that page. Read it and you'll know what I mean by challenging the idea of God. Then again, I think it has to be that way because the protagonist himself is quite jaded about this whole thing, but then I'm just not going to disclose who he is and why he's jaded and blah. Also because I'm so lazy that I don't want to type out this whole thing and turn it into a lit analysis essay.

"The secret is cornmeal and brushing the fur the wrong way. The tricky part is keeping your mouth shut."

"The same as if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, you realize, if no one had been there to witness the agony of Christ, would we be saved?"

"You realized the agent was right. You've never seen a crucifix with a Jesus who wasn't almost naked. You've never seen a fat Jesus. Or a Jesus with body hair. Every crucifix you've seen, the Jesus could be shirtless and modeling designer jeans or men's cologne."

Though the last quote is kind of pushing it because Jesus must have been emaciated after being locked up and all that. Love the body hair part, though.

heys people. hope you're enjoying life(i.e. alive and kicking) after about a month.
saw this on yesterday's chinese newspapers recommending Khaled Hosseini(author of "The Kite Runner", remember our ELit test?)

THE MOVIE IS COMING OUT THIS NOVEMBER!
additional information: this book had won much critical acclaim and the author won awards, duh.
it was on some NY bestsellers thing for 103weeks.
the book has been translated into 34 languages already.
total number of books sold globally is 4million.

the latest book from the same author is "A Thousand Splendid Suns".

CIP

Hello again
Those going for CIP meet at Tiong Bahru control station at 9.15 am sharp tomorrow.
Attire: class tee and blue skirt/white shorts
You don't have to bring anything
You guys know who you are so cya (:

P.S. This is just for those who have forgotten any of the above details. I've passed the message to those going.

Many greetings from a land far far away

Hi handsome dudes and pretty dudettes and respected English teacher!

I bring you all greetings from a land far far away!

It's called China!

Land of the good food!

So yes this post actually has another reason for being here. I would just like to say that I CAN'T GO FOR THE COMPULSORY CIP HENCE IT IS NOT COMPULSORY FOR ME.

And I will also miss the prelim orals because I will be in China until the 23rd.

Alternatively, maybe the school can send me the topic and I will happily record my reply in cassette tape format after I'm done preparing and FedEx it over.

Do I need to bring any proof? Boarding pass, etc. etc.? D: Let me know!

Also, please don't reply to this post because my connection is very screwy and it doesn't allow me to view LiveJournals, Blogs, or generally any online diary thing. So I can't view my own blog!D: !Ultra-sadness! I can't view comments as well. How did I see the posts for this blog, then? Well, there is something called Edit:Posts in the Dashboard. ;D

I can only post, which is why I am posting to tell Mr Faizad and Farnie. So yes, I have an excuse for creating this attention-seeking post.

Okay? Okay. Also, I can't find Zijing's DVD cause I can't find a DVD shop, which is super weird. But I think (I hope) I'm going to the city quite soon, so it remains to be seen. Just in case, tell Zijing not to get her hopes up please. : D

CIP

hey people I have excellent news for all of you!

I am hereby giving all of you the opportunity to put 6 hours of your horribly hideous lives to good use by joining in this COMPULSORY cip project that will take place next Thursday. 21/06/2007 from 10 am to 4pm.

It's a class initiated CIP so all of you have to turn up, rain or shine. It will probably be at this place - National Office, 254 Outram Road, Singapore 169051.

Please do not let the oral examination dampen your spirit of generosity and kindness, though I myself got into a minor state of convulsions when I saw that the orals will be one day before our CIP.

Given that this is a democratic society, I am officially giving all citizens of 4J exactly 20 hours (from time of posting), to voice out any excuses that have to offer so that they might not be able to go for this CIP.

Being the kind CIP rep that i am, I have told the coordinator that only about 28 people will be attending this CIP. So 6 of you lucky souls out there have the blessed chance to skip this CIP.
These 6 places will be filled on a first come first serve basis, so if you have an excusable reason, please leave a comment here or send me an sms.

Remember, at 2.15pm tomorrow I will send an e-mail to the coordinator for a final confirmation. So please pass the message on to all of your friends and see if they can make it. A gentle reminder - IT'S COMPULSORY

Good luck to all of you for the oral examination. I sense impending doom for all of us.

SEC 4 PRELIM EL ORAL EXAM 2007

Dear people (most of whom I have not seen for more than a month),

Heard of the saying "Absence makes the heart grow fonder"? Anyways I think we can all attest that it doesn't apply in this case.

I hope you have had some time to truly enjoy what essentially is your last holiday / long break before the dreaded 'O' Level exams. Remember to recharge, and come back re-energised and more focussed for Term 3.

At the risk of contradicting myself, I hope you have not forgotten your holiday homework. No referencing on the first day of school ok? I also hope that you have been in constant contact with the language. (reading the English papers / watching the English news / watching English movies, et cetera).

I am also posting your Prelim Oral Exam schedule here for your reference. Please help to remind one another about your exam dates. I believe Ms Choong has spent quite a considerable amount of time training you for the Oral exam - so do not let her efforts go to waste. Put into practice what you have learnt and try your best ok?

20th June (Wednesday)	0750 – 1000 hrs	Container Block R (3J & 3L)	4F	12	1 to 12	Ms Jaina Tan
		Container Block S (3H & 3I)	4B	12	1 to 12	Ms Dora Lee
		IT Resource Room (near the Conference Room)	4J	12	1 to 12	Mrs Jennifer Tan
	BREAK
	1020 – 1230 hrs	Container Block R (3J & 3L)	4F	12	13 to 24	Ms Jaina Tan
		Container Block S (3H & 3I)	4B	13	13 to 25	Ms Dora Lee
		IT Resource Room (near the Conference Room)	4J	12	13 to 24	Mrs Jennifer Tan

28th June (Thursday)	1450 – 1700 hrs	IT Resource Room (near the Conference Room)	4G	13	25 to 37	Mr Faizad
		Tutorial Room (near the Conference Room)	4J	10	25 to 34	Mrs Jennifer Tan
		Container Block R (3J & 3L)	4L	8	25 to 32	Mr Andrew Hook

Note to pupils:

1. Please take note of your scheduled examination date and do turn up punctually at the stated time, even if you are the last candidate of the day.

2. All candidates to report in full uniform half an hour before their shift begins.

3. 1^st candidate to begin silent reading and oral exam prep 10 min before he / she gets examined.

4. Unless for official or valid reasons, pupils are strictly not allowed to swap slots or absent themselves. If you are sick, you need to produce an MC covering you for the day.

Regards,
Ni Men Qing Ai De Ying Wen Lao Shi

revival of the class blog

i have just brought the class blog back to life for a moment on a thursday night while everyone's having a prison break supernatural heroes marathon, thank me very much. maybe everyone forgot their blogger passwords! i wonder how the class blog would be like after our gratuation8-( anyhow happy holidays everyone8-D

peishi, the great register number 23