it's overrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. ):

y'know, thinking back, it's really been a long time. 5 busy, crazy yet deviously entertaining (see, i can totally entertain myself by using adjectives in running alphabetical order hurhur) months - and it's all over. :/

what an awesome ride, really. :D

i think the recount's going to be long and rambly, but i guess at the end of the day, what we took away from the whole experience wasn't just about the actual, concrete achievements, but more of the journey on the whole, as a whole team, with all the side-splittingly / awfully random ideas we come up with, our (almost ritualistic) messing up of the photonics lab before every episode and all. so as much as it's going to be hopelessly boring, i think i'm going to list down all the little nutty things we did along the way and all the tiny bits and pieces of memories (apart from all the usual stuff) that constitute the whole big thing. :D 'cos i think it'll make a lot more sense to me - and to the team, heehee. (: and when i say list, i really mean, List.

A: prelims!
1/ camping out at mcdonald’s before the start of it all, de-stressing by playing bridge with (ahaha i laugh) uno cards.
2/ sitting in the library at the science centre and going ‘oh no this is freaky’ over and over in our heads while listening to the (well) eventual champions getting interviewed about...how they fancy their chances of being eventual champions. D:
3/ crazy shouts of ‘go raffles!’ just before judging that were, hm, kinda loud, to say the least.
4/ actual presentation – our very own ‘national clown challenge’ parody of nsc, replete with stereotypical smart vs. stupid individuals + the All-Knowing One. (too bad mediacorp didn’t air it hurhur, it would have made for a lot of good entertainment. xD maybe it was the parody, oops.)
5/ our last word ending exactly on the bell! 1min 15secs, exact! (& drbutler ‘kow-tows’ to us at this point.)
6/ prelims part2 at biopolis; mobile library of campbell-reece + college physics, and our official introduction to pooh the nsc team mascot! (if stacey were beside me at this point, i’m sure she would hold squark up menacingly, whack me with it, and go ‘what about squark?!?!?!’ hahaha)
7/ huge rubbish bags for our bags and other stuff, cat’s 4 calculators!
8/ tummy grumbles through the quiz. D:
9/ using the toilets as a hideout just so that we wouldn’t be hounded by people wanting to interview us. we slipped away successfully. (:
10/ bridge at 7-11 again, over slurpee and cup noodles. michelle utterly fails, siyi/fanying wins most epically.
11/ hearing the names of all the other schools getting announced and fretting most nervously; tight hand grips and sweaty palms, and finally getting called out with 2 schools to go. rather loud exclamations, but we’re generally smiles all-round at this point.
12/ smiles get erased as we hear of the Killer Draw. O:
13/ ...and michelle goes off to wales+ireland that very night, hurhurhur.

fangying supplements the following:-
1/ cat, fangying and siyi arrive way ahead of reporting time, michelle reports early, and stacey comes very, very late. (no offence stace!)
2/ escaping from the toilets to 7-11 in record time.
3/ very audible curses and exclamations. D:
4/ drbutler's warnings.
5/ imitations for entertainment. :D

B: quarters!
1/ i still love the ice block at the climate change exhibition!
2/ cat with her almighty camera that takes pictures of anything, and everything. O:
3/ doing the usual rgs ‘let’s-just-sit-down-here-and-start-doing-stuff’ thing and discussing (albeit a little not-so-discreetly) presentation ideas.
4/ strategizing session #1 at mcdonald’s.
5/ the start of our epic thrashing of the photonics lab before each episode: abducting of markers, mahjong paper and other materials by the dozen.
6/ stacey obsessively smoothening the plastic bags for our props, michelle struggling with scotchtape that refuse to cooperate.
7/ coming up with crazy acronyms: apple-eating lifeform imbued with extraordinary notions and (word-i-forgot 1, word-i-forgot 2) imparting ‘exciting’ news. of all things, i seem to have forgotten the acronym that was my own, and have taken to remembering stacey’s instead. D:
8/ exciting times with bromothymol blue: being entirely crazy and devoid of all common sense, the rgs-nsc team throws away food colourings for not-exactly-very-reliable chemical indicators. water turned a pretty blue in rgs, but mediacorp water decided to Revolt, go acidic, and turn a murky green. D: various combinations of mediacorp water tried, to no avail. eventually, we robbed fellow competitors of their supply of drinking water - because it was the only thing that worked, and there was technically, more than enough to go around. xD however, rather disturbing that drinking water = basic.
9/ stacey introduces our trusty blank cue cards.
10/ !! make-up and hair-do. O: O: O:
12/ hitting 1min15s only the day before the actual presentation. D:
13/ disgusting blunders at crossword, and simultaneously going !! !! !! for the bio + quarks questions.
14/ 11 for presentation. :D
15/ last-minute buzzer question which was, seriously, a very close shave.
16/ chlorophyll question that was so wasted. -.-"
17/ oh oh oh, yummy polar bear biscuits! (:
18/ i sometimes still think of bromothymol blue as bromomythol blue...don't ask why. O:
19/ ...and don't comment about the shrek ears. all blame goes to stacey, i will be evil. xD
20/ this is not going in chronological order, but now i remember our pseudo-study-session at fangying's house haha. carmen blasting in the background + crazy anagramming in the foreground = how we (ahem) mug.

(oh, i forgot about the smart board training session thing haha. xD only notable thing that came out from that was um, us entirely killing the calibration of the board and all, hurhurhur. and yeah, strategizing session #2 at the amiphitheatre, hee.)

fangying supplements the following:-
1/ us thinking we can go from rgs to science centre in half-an-hour and making the smartest decision ever to take a bus. michelle is reminded of not-so-pleasant things on the bus. D:
2/ us ending up 15 minutes late for the smart board briefing, arriving only when everyone else had finished.
3/ ...and yet we weren't the latest.
4/ on a separate instance, some piano+violin+bridge spammage before four-fifths of the team cabbed down to science centre - almost late, mind you. i grawr at you. :E (haha kidding!)

C: semis!
1/ everyone else taps their feet impatiently while waiting for the late rgs girls. (oooops.)
2/ dechorionating embryos! stacey the brave holding the frog! feeling sad for two-headed tadpoles. :/ naming our very own two-headed tadpole taddy!
3/ people stepping into water features. (sorry, this one remains very funny.)
4/ sitting on the wooden platform underneath the great big biopolis tree and conducting our strategizing session #3.
5/ going D: O: !! at the presentation topic.
6/ important lesson for michelle: to not give crazy ideas like 'let's personify the scenario!'
7/ our most inventive set of props ever: plastic bags, cardboard, badminton racquets, drawing-block-tags and the like.
8/ 8-630 in school during apgc week. D:
9/ getting worried over the accuracy of our scientific information the night before actual filming: frantic phone calls, shrieks over phone calls, rapid flipping through campbell-reece, more shrieks over phone calls.
10/ grabbing just about any bio-related book off the shelves in the library just to check our facts, and finding most of them entirely Unhelpful.
11/ rehearsing at the teachers' resource area of the library while visitors from other school continually stream in and out for fps finals. (i shudder to think about what they might have heard / seen. D:)
12/ fangying rushing down almost immediately after touch-down! :D (amazing person she is, haha.)
13/ 'in the deep, dark recesses...' enough said.
14/ (insert objectionable, absolutely embarrassing exclamation here.)
15/ rehearsing with crinkly plastic bags, tags with either-too-strong-or-too-weak blutack. D:
16/ getting into the time of 1min 15s on the day itself. D:
17/ mediacorp going all up-in-arms about our plastic bags, major hoo-ha about miking. :/ msning & fangying & cat being the awesomest team ever and helping us to modify our props - and we ended with even more theatricality, yay. (:
18/ systole and diastole, diastole and systole. ): + other unpleasant Incidents during crossword.
19/ more happy news for presentation. :D
20/ fear the Umbrage of stacey when her correct dino answer is disputed. O:
21/ psyching ourselves to think that all the loud cheers and screams were for us even when we only had a rather pitiful supporter size of um, 5?
22/ slightly insensitive cheers, but well done raffles, really. :D

fangying supplements the following:-
1/ mediacorp filming with just about their entire staff when audience turnout was frighteningly bad. :/ (haha, insider information eh?)
2/ stacey gets her rightful 8 marks!

D: finals!
1/ reaching ntu awfully early, and listening to siyi's tarot card predictions. drbutler comes along and does not find 'the noisy one'. (no prizes for guessing her identity.)
2/ michelle is treated as an armrest, bagholder and other assorted items. (by the noisy one, no less.) :/
3/ getting all suited-up for the clean room, going 'yay i've seen this before' at the glove box and generally marvelling at photovoltaic productions. :D
4/ wonderful, wonderful food + drinks.
5/ ohoh, question during the lecture for the prof, and msning goes over to answer it after it all. that was amusing. (:
6/ msning 'fraternizing with the enemy', part 2, haha. xD
7/ more tarot card readings over lunch, with facebook discussions and the like. colonization of the table + sofa, hurhur. :D
8/ haha, fangying's entertaining sms conversation.
9/ us getting puzzled over the actual workings of an organic photovoltaic cell, going through confusing detours and admittedly, still not getting it even after it all. :/
10/ the decision to not act as electrons/holes was quickly reached.
11/ brenda is roped in for ideas; the side-splittingly funny indian pepper plant improvisations ensue.
12/ major brain jams, major uncertainties over slant of presentation.
13/ more conventional props this time round, but with not-so-conventional problems to solve. fangying shears chicken feathers from a styrofoam board, while michelle, being ever-the-childish, goes trampling through styrofoam bits as if it were snow.
14/ 'where's my pink pencil?' + 'where's my silver pen?' + 'i want my trusty black scissorssssssss!' = the most number of whines over stationery ever recorded in one preparation session.
15/ sec1s looking on in awe/fear/amusement as we rehearse.
16/ puns that no one can stand somehow find their way into the script. the enlightened angel talks about how the future of solar energy is going to be very bright indeed, the plant makes references to how the technology's going to take root in singapore, and the pessimistic person tops it all off by going on and on - 'i'm in despair!' (cue epic look.)
17/ siyi's breaktime puzzle with one missing letter. ):
18/ confusions over rehearsal timings, mad rush mad rush mad rush. O:
19/ hitting 1min15s on the day itself, and at the mediacorp toilet, of all places. O:
20/ close shave with anagram - not getting it on first glance, not getting it on second glance, and only getting it with the clue. O:
21/ 9 for crossword, finally. :D
22/ slightly dismal showing for presentation, but good nevertheless. :D
23/ the craziest way of deciding upon the answer for the judges' question - this does not bear recouting here, however.
24/ better buzzer round, though with a couple of wasted opportunities. :/ (lacteal! 1hour 1second! bacteriophage!)
25/ oh, before the actual filming, mediacorp's random permutations of the prize presentation ceremony, haha. rv and ri both go 'this is impossible' at select instances.
26/ repeated photo attempts with the rgs flag - it still flops a little in the photos though.
27/ awesome reception!
28/ cameras cameras cameras! :D

fangying supplements the following:-
1/ rgs being the earliest team (y'know, to prove that the imb thing was an isolated case hahaha - i'm kidding), and there being a grand total of 1 ri team member, 0 rv team members.
2/ tough attempts at the glovebox. D:
3/ us cramming to see the filament (?) burn during ri's turn.
4/ most embarrassingly, we find out that our clean room suits were put on, wrongly.
5/ 'stacey, stop jumping from table to table!'
6/ fangying is The master at ocd-ing over props.
7/ the belt plays hide-and-seek with fangying, because siyi stuffed it in michelle's lab coat earlier on. D:
8/ prop gets weighed down (pun unintended, pun unintended!) with 1kg of weights we sneaked out of the physics labs, haha.
9/ michelle is spotted eating breakfast in the car on the day of finals. D:
10/ the final slide on solar energy applications that was longer than just about everything else.
11/ siyi experiments with characterizing the various characters on the powerpoint: from talking plants with cavernous mouths to the pessimistic person giving a 'i-roll-my-eyes-at-you' look.
12/ cat brings her food into the toilet, and everyone immediately protests. cat says with a straight face, 'i'm throwing it away, unless you guys want it.'
13/ oversized blazers. D:
14/ solar cell diagrams infiltrating the boards of 314 and the photonics lab!
15/ target of kidnapping mission: 8 paper box covers.
16/ deja vu: winning the trial run, and eventually finishing second. :/
17/ someone asks drbutler if he's surprised by our presentations. drbutler tells us, 'yes, there's always a voice of reason, a voice of panic and a voice of scientific knowledge.'

...and that's about it, i think. (okay, who am i kidding. but yay, thanks fangying for all the supplements, haha. :D) on one hand, it's quite surreal that all of those marvellous and crazy happenings can fit into just that list, and yet on the other hand, it's also quite obvious that a list like that can never, ever do the whole experience justice. i guess you just have to be part of it to know exactly how it feels like it, so on that note, i really have to say that i've been extremely privileged to have been given this chance to take part and work with just the awesomest people ever. :D

so yes, shoutouts to the most amazing team ever! fangying stacey siyi catharine msning mrali and all the other wonderful teachers = the best team that anyone could have ever asked for. :D all the most abnormal things that we've done together as one, all the difficulties that we've braved together as one, all the times we've spent together as one, that really defines team rgs/nsc08, and i think that really sets us apart. mhmm, and regardless of the actual outcome, i insist that we're still winners in our own right. :D here's to even better times ahead!

well, that's about it i guess? sigh, all the wonderful times i'll miss haha.

it's overrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. ):

or zongmin, in english, chinese or - okay, not really otherwise.

rafflesian
111 (06) | 213 (07) | 414 (09)
tripscience/lit♥ + mep, crab! (:
RGSChoir♥: sop2/alto1 + appassionata!
RGSPB-fior, batch of 'o9! (:
waddlian :D
CAPper'o7!
OBS}hillary!♥
team rgs/nsc08! (:
RGS-ICYL08: FIXcomm!♥
wycf08, satb choir! :D
ISYF@SG09!♥

lives, writes, sings, plays the piano, and attempts to sound intellectual at times (conclusion: fails rather miserably).

loves music (almost strictly classical, hurhur & inclusive of faziolis!), literature (& also the sciences - no they are not in conflict), making hopelessly lame puns, laughter, white/milk chocolate, cheesecake, the world & the people in it. list not exhaustive, by the way.

wants the world to be filled with peace, joy and love, and also wants (perhaps a little more selfishly) to be happy, plus lead a life of purpose. that would be more than enough. (:

oh, and she likes embarking on her own 'free hugs!' campaigns after exams and the like; not really sure why. D: (at any rate, you can tell that she's random enough.)

amanda g.
amanda y.
baozhing
brenda l.
brenda s.
chanel
charmaine
chloe
darrell
deborah l.
deborah z.
elizabeth
fangying
fiona
frances
giovanni
grace k.
grace z.
iris
jacqueline
jane
jiaxuan
jingjie
jovina
kezia
leevoon
lisa
lynette
madeline
may
mengshi
michelle
natalie
nikhita
peiying
priscilla
samantha
sarah
seetteng
shanjee
shiaoyen
shermaine
shze hui
siyi
sophia
stacey
stefanie
suetping
tienli
vanessa
wanhui
wanjiun
weite
xinyuan
yeephon
yinleng
yujia
zeslene

111'06
213'07
rgs choir
thefugacious@wordpress!

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very plain, she knows; but this is probably herself in its entirety - nothing more than a compilation of perhaps-boring-to-you little things (and the occasional Important Event), but also nothing less than all the brilliant memories which constitutes her life, and perhaps yours.

also interpreted as an inability to express with other things but words (nothing more, nothing less!), although even words sometimes won't do enough. but she does like orange.

v2.0 (230208): maybe solid grey isn't that fantastic after all. but wordy is good, all the same. she's weird, she knows.

ver. i-pretend-that-it-is-3.0-when-i-know-it-is-not (070608): i am boring, take that. (:

v4.0 (200908): got bored, so cut down on the quasi-fanciful stuff even more. perfectly plain now, though somehow the background still doesn't work on safari / google chrome. ):