A slight inconvenience

It's two weeks till exam time.

My zeal to study (which had been with me since the beginning of the semester) has gone M.I.A. as of last week.

Dam.

Transcendence

Now that I've been labled a mungkirer of janjis (which I guess is true... *hides from Sam*), I bring you this Update* (judging by the way I'm being hounded for them, I'm sure "update" will make it as a certain somebody's Word of the Year):

I am no longer a high school student.

Slightly stale news actually, as we got ceremoniously kicked out of school on the First of November via an elaborate procedure code-named the "Year 12 Presentation Night", which is often mistakenly dubbed the "Graduation Ceremony". What I still don't fully understand is why we leave school before taking our Tertiary Entrance Exams (TEE)**, which for unfortunate blokes like me, just ended last week when others have already embarked on their Leavers*** trip. Perhaps I never will understand it... I don't quite feel like expending brainpower to ponder its significance at the moment (this feeling might be due to my brain's shutdown after a few consecutive late nights though).

Presentation Night went smoothly, although I found out first hand that sprinting around the hall in formal attire knocks the breath out of you. The Year 12 group had an abundance of money left in their school account, so we donated almost $3000 to the school to get 2 new jarrah table-benches. Also, according to Sze En and Jiye, I am now a Duck****.

Wooden.

Now that the dreaded TEEs** have passed, many are wondering what to do with the 2-month holidays which are now at hand. Some have already spent a small portion of this time at Leavers***... I headed off to Rottnest Island for a day trip and got attacked by cute little quokkas, but that is another story. Other personal plans of mine include getting a job, learning to drive (Yes, I'm almost 19 and without a licence. So sue me.), and learning to cook my mother's famous fried rice. Yum. ^_^

Vicious quokka. Approach at your own risk.

I suppose, however, one of the most significant aspects of completing TEE** is the fact that I'll never again have to write an essay, talking about how and why I respond to texts the way I do. Is celebration premature though? I've performed quite crappily in English this semester, and I felt far from satisfied with my TEE** essays. If I fail again, I'm gonna be in Deep Poo*****. =/

Thing is, I've always been the type to shun debates and argument presentation. I happen to have have this overly-complexified way of thinking that makes me want to consider every possible aspect of a topic, even if it means thinking until the cows come home but still not reaching any conclusion. I hate it when I'm forced to take sides in presenting an argument. Hate it hate it hate it. It feels worse than a kid who's being forced to eat his broccoli. All the arguments I had to present in English, then, felt like lies to me. I'm also driven to fine-tune everything to death (possibly a case of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder), which is very deadly for exams. Take this entry for example... It commenced on 1 Dec 2006, was finished on 5 Dec 2006. At least I took breaks in between. =P

Nonetheless, English class seems to have done something to me. My opinions have been changing over the past year or so... Debating/arguing skills are survival skills. People make judgements about you based on your ability to express yourself, whether you like it or not (I still don't). I also seem to have become more annoyingly opinionated, hmm... Congratulations, Curriculum Council, you have successfully created a monster.

Moving on. With all this talk about language, here's a quote regarding my blog, copied verbatim:

"why/ does every single BLOG IN EXISTENCE/ have a title/ that was derived from long names/ most likely from a thesaurus" ~ MRod to the ARod, 9 July 2006

Intelligent conversation.

I also have a vague memory of someone else being plagued by perplexity over the title, but I can't seem to find the quote. Never mind.

Yes, I did look up the thesaurus while thinking of a title a title, but there's more to it than an attempt to sound impressive. Let's see who can work out the meaning behind my title, shall we? Hints:

1. Read this blog entry again.
2. Read the top and top-right sections of my blog's front page.
3. Read the dictionary. (The relevent entries, I mean... not the whole book =P)
4. Disregard all stereotypes and generalizations about my linguistic abilities.

P.S. First person to give me the correct answer gets a postcard from me. ^_^

*Update n, v - The (act of) detailing of events which have occured in one's life, for the consumption of Samanthas and Debbies in the blogosphere.
**TEE n - A high school competition, employed to determine which students can proceed as planned to university, and which students will need to find alternative pathways.
***Leavers n - A rite of passage for many Australian students who have completed high school. It is characterised by a mass exodus to popular holiday locations, alcohol consumption, energetic dancing, loss of virginity (if it still existed at the commencement of Leavers), and increased levels of worry among parents as they watch troublemakers get led away by the police in the news. (Note that this definition is true but constructed to position readers to respond negatively.)
****Duck n - An almost-common misinterpretation of the word Dux. Also a common name for a variety of aquatic birds which have wide flat beaks and webbed feet, and emit characteristic calls which are represented in English as "quack"s.
*****Deep Poo n - A term borrowed from Mr Epanomitis' vocabulary, referring to a very very bad situation which is comparable to being submerged in a filled septic tank.

The Fourth Dimension

Time is a fickle thing. The changes it brings can be utterly unexpected and unpredictable... within as little as a year, I've seen both dramatic and subtle changes in people and relationships. I'm know that this phenomenon isn't all that uncommon, but it's still interesting (and sometimes disturbing) to watch. Don't you just wish you knew what makes people tick? I sure do.

Anyway, it's that time of the half-year again when people breathe a sigh of relief to mark the end of exams. Well, that was last week. This week, some are breathing sighs of relief knowing that their academic lives are not doomed, while some others are less... delighted. I'm just grateful to be able to place myself in the former category.

Strangely enough, my physics paper fared better than either of my maths papers (gasp! =P) English on the other hand, is a totally different story. To think that I had made a firm resolution to NOT take up the subject upon coming to Australia... Thank you, Mr Young, for sending me into Panic Mode during our interview. If you hadn't suggested that I do History, I would never had abandoned my well-constructed plan and taken your next offer (which was Physics). Hmm, I'm even considering the possibility of doing something engineering-related in university. Yet another example of changes in time... (Too bad I had to abandon my childhood plans of becoming a private eye too! ;-D)

Speaking of which, I have only 3 months left before having to fill out a uni application form. And I still have no idea on what specific course to do. Help! ...I suppose we can always resort to good old coin-flipping... =P

Gee, university. That's a scary thought: I'll be ejected from high school for good in less than half a year. I sure will miss these days...

...but the fourth dimension only flows in one direction. Or does it...?