Poetic Math

An excerpt from "Words of a Mathematical Mind", written as a script for a Math choral speaking contest in September 2005. It did not win any prize.

...

Take this simple question:
2x + 5 = 11 [Two x plus five equals eleven]
- (What?) - 2x + 5 = 11
It’s an equation
Solved by subtraction, and division or multiplication
Or try a function
f(x) = x³ –x² –x
With which you can do differentiation
Or maybe integration
And various other operations
Flowing smooth in calculating motion


Beyond theory, into reality
Far and wide across the air
From currency to astronomy
Doubtless to say, numbers are there
From symmetry to geometry
And all that you thought were merely lines
From intensity, to luminosity
Lighting up the golden mines
Into the riches, wealth, economy
Numbers dictating every little penny

...

Reading this again makes me think: Why go all the trouble to make this?
But then again I also think: What new things to try out in this world we're living in?

A ship at port would never sink;
But that's not what ships are made for.

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Opening message

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Go into the exam with a clear n positive mindset tmrw. Be confident n know that u r ready 2 face 2ur challenge. May god bless n guide u thro all ur papers. Good luck my little warrior. Just give ur best.

Sent: 19:51:18, 03/05/2007

Sent by one of my closest teachers in KMB.


(It was just one day before my IB final exam started. Come to think of it, I feel the need for some words of encouragement for my 2 upcoming subjects too (in the next 2 weeks)... Psychological conditioning, though probably a minor player in determining academic success, is still an essential component. It relights whatever is left of the human "fighting spirit" - that which refuses to give up even in the most dire circumstances.)

KMB Graphics

Mentor-mentee cooking activity

Sleepers (12:15pm, Monday, 05 Feb '07)
Hey, the girls sleep too. Just not caught at this time.

These are worth around 10k, at least

Phoowd!

You might not want to see this.

Dobby
The only thing I like in the laundry is the dryer, and the only time I like it is when I take out my heated clothes myself. No pressing/ironing/smoothening needed.
;-)

Now what's this kid doing?!

Fun in the Bio Labs

Practical: Rat's Anatomy

Before.
Codename: Stuart
Sex: Female
Mass: About 40 g
Status: Alive







After.
The skin is opened.
The heart beated faintly.
The gut is then opened and stretched to form a 40-centimetre organic hose.
The skull prised open to reveal the rat brain.






Practical: The Excretory System
Urine. After drinking 300 ml of 40% sucrose solution.










Practical: Blood Cells
Blood. Muni on the background. Natural expression.

KMB Glory Days Part III

...Fading glory...
(Prelude: The songs in the player were my "working" songs... they kept my brain running as I struggled for my World Lit and ToK. By the way, the "pause" button is there if you really want it.)

- CUT -
If were to summarize this post into two words, they'd be:
"busyness" and "flying".
- UN-CUT -

The pictures, from top to bottom, are:
1. Math Standardized Test - Topic: Differentiation/Integration?
(18 Sept)
2. My exhausted roommate, on a typical Friday afternoon
(8 Sept)
3. Waiting for a bus at the simpang, to send a bunch of seniors at KLIA
(12 Sept)
4. Immediately after school reopens - Raya Aidilfitri celebration
(6 Nov)
5. In an English class - Topic: Love
(8 Nov)
(All in 2006)

And read on if you want to.

The Big 4 haunted every one of us, on every single night. The heaviest of assignments in my experience so far. I mean, I've pulled an all-nighter for a few Form 4/5 folios, but what on earth is it that I'm tackling if even 2 sleepless nights gets less than 50% of my stuff done? I vividly remember my EE supervisor, Puan Bahariah, politely asking, "If possible, give it [1st draft] before the Raya break." And I did give her what I choose to call a half-draft. (22 pages. No kidding. And about 1,200 words.)


It was very much a call for disaster. And all the while, I was actually calling for even more disaster. DotA continued to be my staple weekend dish, occasionally with other custom maps such as RO and Dragon Ball. And a craze in the Block C computer fellas was the Insaniquarium. I even let my computer run several nights just to collect shells! And even under my desk, in class! (On battery power, with LCD closed, and "Low" CPU speed.) To top it all off, I spent 80% of my holiday time on NamelessRO. Very crazy indeed.

I went to KLIA about 3 times in total (George, Qing Xi and gang group, Meryl's solo departure, and Melvyn, Zi Dong and gang group). Perhaps it was supposed to ignite the fading fire within us who were then in IB year 2. What it did ignite was the desire to get out of KMB immediately! (Oh well... maybe it also helped in some other ways during the process.)



Our Uni applications were also underway. UKCAT, BMAT, PS, Mock Interview, etc... UK fellas were the busiest, followed by Ireland folks (And hey, I wonder why can't we apply to both UK and Ireland? Pleasing more people? But never mind...as if I bother). For me, it was the decision point. I talked to my dad on one morning, telling him that I was not going to take the UKCAT. It means no passport to a UK medical school. It also means I was roughly turning myself into an academic machine whose target is an absolute minimum score of forty points. My Melbourne craze heightened since then. So did my Aussie-support group, consisting mainly of Nad, Missa and Paw.

It was quite an anticlimax when the college decided to give us standardized tests in the final week (in the afternoons!). The decision was met with negative responses from students, with the most dramatic complaint/petition against our Malay A1 paper--it was eventually turned into a 3-day (or so--) homework. Our juniors, on the other hand, seemed very eager to have themselves tested, just like most of us a year ago.


More:
KMB Glory Days Part I
KMB Glory Days Part II

KMB Glory Days Part II

...Second semester unbelievably went in almost an instant. Five months felt more like five weeks (or was it five days?)

Newcomer

Perhaps our new belongings - particularly laptops - accelerated the pace of Sem 2. That was the time when we joined the seniors in DotA (Defense of the Ancients), CS (Counter Strike), some TV series (which I don't really bother to know), anime, etc. It was also the beginning of the Internet mini-frenzy at the concourse (people would practically rush to get the Wi-Fi/whatever signal the router gave out). And many blame P2P and other means of downloading as the main bandwidth-eater which slowed down everyone else's Internet speed. The laptops extended quite a dimension to our KMB life.

Academia

The main reason the laptops are there was actually to assist in all our IB assignments (but a few people did survive without a personal laptop. Impressive). In short, our Sem 2 assignments were:

• Math Portfolio (Estimation of Pi-the first major all-nighter)
  
• Malay IOP (for a few classes that couldn't do it in Sem 1)
• G4 Experiments (made us seriously think about our EE's)
• WorldLit (proposal, including draft of main points)
  
• IA: ITGS Project (the first few steps)
  
• ToK Essay (10 title choices...but maybe nobody penned down anything yet)
• (PREPARE, LOUD DRUMROLL): EE (title proposal @ criticism)
  

I usually personally refer to the bottom four assignments as "The Big 4", as they ate the biggest chunk of time, lasting into early Sem 4.

In retrospect, I can say that most of the assignments involve the formulation of a kind of "research question" or "investigative question", making us mini-investigators/researchers in virtually all fields: Literature, Social Science, Experimental Science, and Mathematics for a handful few. I'm not in university yet, but I anticipate more investigative work (of a much higher complexity) when I'm eventually there.

The Ball is Round

Many camps were organized during Sem 2, including the Homestay Programme, Banseke Camp, and ToK Camp. Gave us some relief from full-time KMB scenery. Phew.

CAS hours are still counting in, too, both via sports and clubs (and via sleep for some). And External CAS actually pressurized us when the folio was due. Extra 10 hours there (perhaps some would call them plagiarism hours).

Mondays afternoons were the time for Mentor-Mentee meets. Thursday afternoons for Chit-Chat for the Medics. For me, it somewhat helped in cementing my response to the dreaded 'Why do you want to become a doctor?' tagline in medical interviews.

'Ju' vs 'Se'

It's nothing; just a transitional state some of us have when pondering the fact that our seniors would sit for the final IB exam, then be free. Free for good. And free to fly soon, too. Actually it began when their sigh of relief started to show just as their assignment submission deadlines passed. Inspiring to some, but straining to others.

But that also means that we'd have a new batch of innocents, ready for us to pass on whatever rubbish talk and painful words and scary stories and..."11 months left" that we had.



Wanna see more?

KMB Glory Days Part I
KMB Glory Days Part III

Prayers and Thanksgiving

Prelude: I wrote this "Exam Letter" and put it up on one of the boards in the concourse just as the May 2007 papers commenced. Guess it's not the best time to put it up here, huh?

Ahh, it's up anyway. Happy reading...

Prayers and Thanksgiving

I think almost all of us are already familiar with prayers and thanksgiving.

As reflection during this exam season, here are 10 items that would go into my prayer and thanksgiving list:

I’m deeply thankful for:

1. Our teachers, for all the lessons they taught, whether academic or not

2. Friends, because the gift of friendship is free of charge yet priceless

3. Our parents, for the unconditional love and support they have shown

4. Everyone else here in KMB, for making KMB “KMB” (a place like no other)

5. God, for opening my eyes to see “Opportunity” when I see “Poor Little Puny” (Where did the ‘L’ go? It’s invisible; I no longer see the Loser in me.)

And I sincerely pray for:

6. Maximized mental prowess and intellectual capacity, for all of us, to tackle the IB exam (without getting a yellow/red card)

7. Tip-top health, to bring out the best in us (because the exam is like an examiner test-driving a car…and we’re like cars)

8. Calmness, just like the calm before the storm; there are tsunamis (extreme potential) in us!

9. Humility, because all that we’ve got is an entrustment from a higher power

10. Smiling faces, because the IB exam is just another pit stop in our life; it’s not the end.

:)

Creski

03 May 2007

KMB Glory Days Part I

Right from the orientation day on the first week of school, we KMBians have been injected with the idea of "keeping with the pace of IB". So if any of you juniors hear that, it's been passed down generations. Whether anyone actually sticks 100% to that principle, I don't know. But I do know of people who scored 40+ AND have neglected that principle.
Pic: Math HL exercises, 1st Sem


The first few weeks in class would probably show you who are the extremes in the class. On one end are the slackers. On another are the "kiasu"s. Then there are those in the middle. Or those who pretend to be in the middle, but are actually extremes themselves. As far as I remember, almost everyone in Semester I practically aimed for 45/45 IB points. It's a passport to university after all. So why not score full points, just like the straight A's in SPM? Is there anything to lose?

The later days revealed to me that there are things to lose by being too preoccupied with perfect Forty-Five. Otherwise, slackers wouldn't exist, and classes would be super-dull.

As shown in the image above, IB Mathematics HL demanded quite a lot if we were to maintain it at 7 all the time (I didn't manage to do that, although I wish I did). Bio and Chem were demanding in quite a different way because we did not immediately see the impact on our grades. That's why some actually lost a few of their Lab Reports. And to think about it, each report takes at least 1.5 hours to write (without compromising quality).
Pic: Writing up a Lab Report, 1am, 1st Sem


But the academic load in Sem I is not too unbearable. In fact, it's the lightest with respect to the other semesters. Thus there were those who aspire to hit 180 on the CAS hour counter within 6 months. It includes me. Every Tuesday night is devoted for martial arts practice. Several more hours are earned from Music Club. The fortnightly visit to a special school one hour's drive away earns 3 CAS hours per trip -- and pays 2 hours of owed sleep.

Pic: Chemistry HL Prize, 1st Sem

It was also in 1st Sem that most people started their hospital attachments. Seriously, if it were not for the compulsory documentation - the CAS reports - I think those visits would never give their full impact on us (or me for that matter).

To add to the cast in our "hour eaters" reality show, we have the "stupid compulsory things KMBians must do". Don't blame me only, because that's what the student community labels them. I remember a choral speaking activity for Mathematics, a Career Fair and an English Drama. On paper, the motive of such activities would probably be "to extend students' creativity beyond the classroom" and "to nourish the seeds of leadership in students". Yes, a noble intent. But we people are only people; and people like to do what people do best when there are fewer people instructing than following: whining.
Pic: Poster Presentation (Career Fair), 1st Sem


In a way, the rigidity of the 1st KMB Semester gives it its glory status, because that's when our hours are put into full use. One of my friends mentioned, "Sem 1 takde DotA, takde Anime. Bolehla bace Campbell malam-malam..." But not everyone thinks that way. Rigidity equals a robotic life, which is effectively no life at all. And in my opinion, supporters of either side of the argument are marked by a streak of internal conflict. It is, perhaps, a continuous challenge to strike the balance between being too carefree and too rigid, in the pursuit of happiness (in a rather unhappy place like KMB).



P/S: It was also in Sem 1 that I sent the first senior (super-senior, actually) in KLIA. He was my schoolmate back in La Salle, and now (then) headed for Queen Mary, Uni of London. Talking about selecting Uni's, it was only one month before he flew that he told me something that made me dumbstruck: "Which Uni? Just ask mommy. Mothers know best."


More:
KMB Glory Days Part II
KMB Glory Days Part III