New year's eve

I don't get to run today too, since it's new year's eve and i've to prepare for the prayers this evening. My mom assured me that i'll be able to run tomorrow. I think i'm really looking pathetic asking people to follow me to the park nearby-i only need company for about 2 times, i should be able to figure out the way there on my own, after that. I just noticed this-THe humidity here is really low and so it's affecting my skin. I'm feeling itchy, now and then, especially on my back. The worst thing about it is that i'll have to put up with this for the next two months. God bless me...
My discman's battery just ran out. Well, i'm very much surprised that those 2 batteries that i found under an old drawer here can last me this long, especially when i listen to it for about 5 hous per day. My MP3 player finished its battery quite fast. I began using it with the discman began to be low on battery and it only lasted me for like 5 days. Guess i bought a low-quality battery. I got it at a supermarket nearby.
One more thing about the mosquitoes: About 2 days ago, at night, there were these mosquitoes(about 2 or 3, not 100)buzzing around me. I didn't really feel like sleeping and was surprised that they can still buzz in my ear when i'm(my entire body) inside a blanket. So, i got annoyed and put my earphones on and turned on my discman, so that i won't be able to hear the buzz. After about 5 songs, i felt sleepy and decided to go to sleep. After about 2mins, the buzz started again! Every night, there's this hi-tech thing that replaces a mosquito coil here. It comes in the shape of an air fresher that you see in cars. Well, that thing was turned on but there was no effect. I remembered that i had bought my insect repellent and searched for it in my bag and got it. But when i got to my bed and opened it, it spilled a bit and on my pillow. I simply took some from it, spread it on my ear (to stop the annoying buzzing) and spread the rest on tyhe pillow and turned it over. It worked very well.
Happy New Year, everyone!

Man, i didn't get to run today too. I went to buy some food for dinner. My grandpa and i went to this restaurant about 2km away to get the food. And that, and eating dinner took up the evening time. Well, at least now, i got used to the cold temperature here, and i no longer need to be under my jacket or sweater during the day. In fact, when i went out to a temple near by during the day, the sun felt pretty hot.
Study stuff: Today, i did differentiation, by first principles. Since i already knew this chapter, trying out the problems was super-fun, especially differentiating sin-inverse (x^2) from first principles. I was actually on the right track on that one, but i lost my confidence along the way and took a peep at the answer on the next page and got to know that i was doing the right thing. I should be getting on to Chemistry tomorrow. I only have until January 2nd to finish what i need to learn, before the actual lessons start. There is a slight change, today, in the lesson plan. From Jan 2nd onwards, lessons are from 430 in the evening to 730pm. I guess it's one hour each for chem, Phy, and math. Lesson days and Monday, Tuesday, ... Friday and (last, but certainly not least) Saturday. Ya, you might want to read it again, here: Saturday. And there is no holidays on the scheduled public holidays for the lesson days. I'm expecting lots of homework too, but it should be light on me since the other students are supposed to handle this, together with their school work. They are still having school and their government exam is somewhere on April. So, they have to cram for both this entrance exam and the government exam.

A new car

Today, i went to help select the colour of the car that my mom's sister was going to buy. There was some offer if it is bought before new year's day, so we were rushing. It looks quite fancy, charming grey colour. We were trying to choose between charming grey and red, but red was too dark. The grey looked more elegant. It was an hour's ride from home.I'm still working on parabolas, practising. I was supposed to go running today, in the evening, but the car thing popped up. So, maybe, i'll go tommorrow evening. I'ld love to run in the morning( the park is only open in the morning and evening), especially since the temperature range here is 18-25 deg. celcius. But my mom and others here say that i'll catch a cold. What's the point? I've been having a cold from several days ago! It won't really matter. Well, ya, it's a nice temperature to live in, but it gets really cold in the morning and i've to be wrapped in my blanket, even if i'm wearing a jacket. This is one of those places where a sweater doesn't make you sweat. But still, i don't mind running in the morning, really. The last time i got to run in a cold weather was when i went to New Zealand on a field Trip during my Sec4 years. It was really cold-There was smoke coming out of my mouth the minute i stepped out of the airport.

The new car will arrive on 5th jan or somewhere around there.

I'm planning to go on to ellipses or limits and differentiability tommorrow. Or depending on how i feel, i'll change to chemistry(organic chem).

One last thing: I HATE THOSE MOSQUITOES THAT BUZZ AT MY EAR WHEN I'M TRYING TO SLEEP. I'm generally tolerant of things, but this is way too irritating. I've tried all sorts of thing- going under blanketa and stuff, but it doesn't work. I'll have to put up that "all out" mosquito killer thing earlier today. Maybe then the room will be 'serviced' for me before i go to sleep.:)

Yeah! i managed to install the macromedia flash player into this computer, despite the rotten internet connection here!!I had to wait for 5 long minutes before the pop-up came up. Thanks to my patience. And i'm opening a new packet of chocolates! Butter Fingers! There is still about 3 more packets to go! And the new year sweets (should be) coming up soon. I should be gaining a alot of weight, i've been eating a lot of oily stuff too. I can't moniter my weight since i've left my weighing machine back at home. And the worst of the worst, i've not been running. I tried to get to the park this evening, but there was no one to accompany my. I need somebody to go weith me since i'm new here and it's easy to get lost with all those turns.
I did some math today. mainly parabolas: Vertex, focus and focal distance, lactus rectum and stuff...I'm told that i'll be able to go running tommorrow, see how first. But even if i get to go, it's going to be all ablout running again and again around this boring park for mayba an hour.

IIT course

Yesterday, we went to the centre to pay for my course. It was like an hour's journey from my house. At one point of the journey, i was the only one awake! At the centre, i learnt that out of 16 people in this city who took the test, 10 got selected and out of the ten, 3 did exceptionally well and got scholarship for the course (like 10, 25 and 35 % off) . I didn't get the scholarship. It's good enough that i got selected for it. I'm now very much convinced that this test is worth the 400 rupees($16) i paid for it. The first thing is the transparency and honesty of the examiners. The second thing is that the papers are sent to a far away place in India(Delhi) for marking. The entire course costs about S$950. Quite expensive, in this country. Especially when the classroom quality is so poor. Well, i'll just wait till the materials arrive. I've got to take several bags to the place on the first day to carry back all the materials. 4 hours per day, all weekdays, and they don't give holidays during public holidays. That's good for me since i want to get it done before my a level results are out. I don't want to be stuck here. Another thing is that i've a marriage to attend on the first week of february and so i'll miss 5 lessons there.
We wen t shopping during the evening. It was so tiring. I don't mind salking here and there, but the worst thing is waiting for my mom for like 30 minutes till she chooses the clothes.

The test results are still not up yet. My grandfather forgot to ask for my marks yesterday. I don't think i'll get back the question paper as they may be thinking of recycling the questions, especcially the IQ ones( which were already recycled). Yesterday, we went to this temple nearby. It was quite huge, being situated on a small hill( about the size of the one behind Yishun library back in Singapore). It consists of several smaller temples situated around and on top of the hill. After that, we went to a restraunt, also nearby. I ordered whatever i wanted and had a filling dinner. It only costed 100 rupees(S$4) for the four of us.After we came back, there was a power cut at about 1130 at night. We were just preparing to sleep. My grandfather had to bring in 2 (chargable) battery operated florescent lamps. It came back on ten minutes later. And guess what:
I was just bathing and there was a power cut!!!The light went off, together with the water-heater. But luckily, i had a bucket full of water ready to wash my hair. And also luckily, there was a window to bring in some sunlight to help my eyes (there's no windows in the toilet).
Let me talk about the details of the course i'm about to attend Well, it's supposed to start tommorrow, but the date is postponed to 2nd of Jan. 138 hours spread in this way: Lessons are everyday, at evening(so that the students here, 1 year younger than me, going to school, can still attend them), from 430pm to 8pm. It's expected to finish at feb 26th or something. So, i'll be flying back to Singapore the day after my last lesson. Hope my lessons end before my A level results are out. There are two things i forgot to blog about: Firstly, we went to a wedding reception several days back. The food was great, but for some reason, i didn't ewat much. Theplace was airconditioned and since it's naturally cold here, it was super-cold inside. But i felt okay once i ate the food. The second thing is a very happy news. Yeaterday, i was reading the local newspaper here, THe Hindu paper, and there was a sudoku at the end. A sudoku ia a mathematiacal puzzle, in which you fill in 81(9x9) boxes with numbers such that every rown column and 3X3 box has numbers 1-9. I've been trying these from the start of the holidays, and this one was the first one that i've managed to solve, all by myself. It took me about 45 minutes(i'm still a begginner) Here's my workings:
P.S:i miss my scanner: my camera did that job here.

Today is a good day. I got selected for the IIT course, miraculously. I was supposed to check the results on the net this morning, But it was not yet updated. My grandfather had to call them up to check.

I'm really going to fininsh this today: here are some more pics:

I'm standing infront of the signboard saying the name of the station: Kayankulam

I tried to get a copy of the economist magazine there, but it was not available. And the spicy buttermilk tastes great. Since it is a villiage, the train only stops there for about 3mins or so, which was really not enough for us to get ourselves and our stuff to the right part of the platform. So, as we were walking on the side of the train, looking for our number, which happened to be really far away, the train started moving. We quickly got ourselves and the stuff onto the train (possible since the train is really slow at first) and had to move along the packed compartments to out designated place. On the ride back, we had to share a compartment with a drunk guy sleeping on top. At first, we had our meal and then he came in and climbed to the top. At that time, we were having a conversation with some passengers sitting with us. He interrupted in the middle and from the way he spoke, it became quite obvious that he was drunk. My grandfather was asleep at this moment. The other passengers with us were the first to notice that the guy was drunk, since they understood his language. They then quietened down, trying to avoid him. I was next to notice, once he began talking in english. My mom was last to notice.We all quietened down then. I slept i the middle bunk and acted a look out to look after our things (although they were all locked and chained). We got off in the morning the next day( we boarded the train at 3 in the afternoon) and took an auto home. End of story.

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Not much happened today, I'll be going to a temple nearby in a short while. The results for the test will be out on the net tmr. If i don't get selected, i'll have to rely on some private tuition. I'll now continue and try to finish the journey: Keeping to the daily schedule there was quite tough, but i got used to it after the few days. There is this bell that rings at 4am in the morning and everyone is expected to wake up, shower and attend morning prayers in a big hall, seperate venues(halls) for male and female. The weather is quite cold, but it is tolerable with casual wear. For me, the 3 people in my room(incl. me) are competing for the same bathroom. My mom, ususally wakes up first and goes to bath, after which i'll wake up and bathe and rush down. Then, my grandfather will bathe and join me in the hall. During the prayers, i was quite ashamed some times since the westerners there could say the prayers more fluently than i could; i took a looong time to figure out the pronounciation and ended up saying only the front part of each line. Maybe, i'll be better when i'm as old as them. On one of the days, my grandpa was in the lift with a guy (and me) and he asked the guy where he was from. Well, he was from germany and has decided to stay there as long as he could. we met quite a lot of such people. And i noticed one more thing: Cakes here taste much better, mainly because there is a lot if icing and a lot of sugar in that icing. And needless to say, they are cheaper too. My mom spent a lot buying the cds and vcds there. Vcds that cost more than $30 in singapore only cost less that $10 here. After the morning prayer, there's tea and (for me) back to sleep. On some days i went exploring (with my mom, so that i won't get lost). Breakfast was at 8am, quite filling. You only need $1 a day to get 3 decent meals here (add 50cents for drinks). Then, there are religious lessons, which we didn't attend. After that, we have to rush for darshan, we managed to get 3, as we wished, during our stay. The people there were extremely kind. And then, when we came back, we got off the island by a boat ride. i took a few photos:

View of the newly built bridge from the shore

The bridge standing behind me Me standing infront of the bridge (with 58+59 steps)

(you can guess the time by looking at the shadow on my neck)

This is how the boat system works: The man (behind) has this super long stick(that's why it's out of the frame) , which he places on the riverbed and pushes the riverbed behind. By N3L, the riverbed exerts an equal and opposite force on the boat, so that the boat moves forward. Also, by looking at the shadow on my pants, you can workout that i'm facing the direction of travel of the boat (the angle of the stick is ambigous and thust cannot be used here).

The train's spring system

Merry christmas, everyone

Test today

As expected, the entrance test for the course was quite difficult. Ironically, the maths part was the most challenging, physics was fun, chem was ok. There was this very tricky and cruel question in math:

Given a is not zero and that a and b are real numbers, and that the equation ax^2 - bx+1=0 has imaginary roots, the value of (a+b+1) is:
(i) zero (ii)positive
(iii)negative (iv) depends on the sign of b

in case you were wondering, the answer is (i), go figure out yourself.
At first we were given this IQ test, just one of those you find on the internet. You know, the lived and devil thing and the number patterns. It would have been much more enjoyable if there were original questions. Then came the combined Phy, math, chem test. The IQ test was 1h and the other one was 2h. The PCM test had 75 question, 25 from each subject and NO CALCULATORS ALLOWED.NO. NOT EVEN FOR MATH (or physics, for that matter). I didn't really feel the loss of the calculator. My mom had asked me to even bginr my GC, just in case. But unfortunately, ther were no such cases. I was asked to meet at some school here. My grandfather came along, since the auto drivers here may not know the way there. He and my mom patiently waited(well, actually, they enjoyed themselves at a restraunt nearby) till the end of my test to bring me back.
And, I've officially given up on getting this computer to play videos. Something is wrong with the internet connection, it doesn't download quicktime, files and google toolbar. I'm trying to get the latest version of the windows live messenger and the internet explorer.
I need to blog about the school facilities at the test location;if i miraculously get selected for the course, i'll be having it there. Yeah, there are a lot of classrooms and the greens are quite nice, but the thing is that the classrooms there have NO FANS (no air-con too). Well, because of the cold weather here fans may seem unnecessary, but you need to have them for summer years. luckily i'll not be staying during those years. The second thing is that they are still using black boards and there are just benches and long tables for the students. The test was also not organised well. It was supposed to start at 9 and the invigilator came in at 850 and all of a sudden, the students at the entrance started moving up the stairs and everynoe else followed. Well, i didn't expect much anyway, since the test location and time was only confirmed yesterday.Okay, i'll stop complaining now, my grandfather told me to get used to it, he says it's a 'culture'

Test tmr

I can't really blog much today, as i may have said before, I'm trying the entrance test to an indian university, Indian Institute of Technology, here. so, i need to have some training. That's why i'm mugging math, physics and chem. Math is fun, phy is very different here and chem-ther's a lot of new things to learn, the organbinc chem is very alien to me;makes me feel as if i've not learnt anything about it at all... Well, i'm trying to attend a tuition centre here. The trouble is that they don't just take in anyone. They have this entrance test to decide if you are suitable for the tuition. And the test is tomorrow. And, i know nuts about ray optics in physics, solid state chemistry (all those crazy structures, BCC, FCC... and their properties) and not forgetting the organic chemistry( lots more of mechanisms and reactions to remember).
also, i'm beginning to miss Singapore already. I still have like 2 more months. Come with a helicopter and drop me a line(and another one for my luggage), that would solve the problem.
My grandma seems to have gotten used to our eating habits. She's cooking more vegies and less rice. My mom's sister travels quite a lot and she has bought and brought a lot of chocolates. So right now i'm helping to finish tose;it's really unhealthy. I've also been eating a lot of sweets and chips here. And i've not been running since the marathon. Well, there is a park nearby but it's only open early in the morning and at the evenings; i'm always busy at these times.
The discman that i brought here from singapore has been doing a good job. The battery has been lasting for nearly a month now. I found it rotting in an old drawer here. There's a AAA baterry for my mp3 player too!

I need to have an update on the daily happenings here and stop talking about the journey for a while. The weather is really cold here, i've to wear a 100% polyester jacket and due to the shortage of thick blankets here, (and also because of me being a good boy,), i let my mom use the thick blanket and i'm using 2 thin ones. The materres is good, i'm not using the one that was specially bought for my mom and me, one of the old ones since it's more comfortable and comfy. Also, i helped my grandparents figure out how to use the dvd player that they bought and also to get the computer's speaker and mic system, working. The phone system here is quite screwed up, i don't think i'm going to touch it. There are 3 phones. I'm not sure if one of them is working, but for the other 2 of them: one doesn't work when surfing internet, but the other one does. And for the one that has problem with internet, the internet connection goes dead when the phone is picked up. The cold here is not so bad, it's just like the air-con at the school's library. At least it's not as bad as it was in New zealand. I got stuck here in winter, i was told that it is better during the rest of the year. I heard there is a flood in Singapore, i can't access the straits times since i didn't subscribe and so i'm quite ill-informed. I've not been watching the news here. I've been trying to get my hands on a copy of The Economist magazine. I enjoy reading the articles there, expecially the special report. It's only S$6 here in india, so why not?

continued3

After refilling the petrol, we continued on the journey. There was one part where getting on the main road was unavoidable. I could see that there were no cars or Autos on the road, so every person on motorbike or cycle passing by was staring at us. Our 'smart' driver has attached a black flag to the front of the Auto, so that we wouldn't be caught. But when we were trying to make a turn to go on to the causeway to the island, we were stopped. There were several big guys, some with sticks, blocking our way. There was no choice but to use that road. So, our driver took that turn and had to stop infront of them. They told the driver to get out and pushed him here and there, trying to get him out. He was NOT supposed to drive on this day. The thing was that I didn't feel comfortable being stuck in this situation, when neither my grandpa or my mom, nor I could speak or understand the language(Malayalam, i think) there. Then my grandpa was saying something like "let the driver go, he an old person". My mom was praying and I was just staring blankly, as usual. One of the guy asked me where we were going. I lied to them that we were heading for the hospital. Emergency. But i guess it was obvious that we were going to Vallikavu, since we were heading for the bridge. Suddenly, a big fat guy(just describing, no insult) appeared and told the rest to let the driver go. It didn't really work at first. But he was then like slapping the driver's back, asking him to go off. Our driver did and we were safe. No injuries. Thank God. Then, till we reached our destination, we were getting stares from everybody along the way. Some were even pointing at us and saying something.After some time, we reached our destination. The Ashram was different from the rest of India-and also different from the rest of the places i've seen so far.
One main thing is the huge proportion of westerners there. The other thing is that everyone there was extremely kind, and every work there-cooking, serving, organising of prayers, building of Tsunami-relief houses, etc... is being done by volunteers-No pay. The place we went was quite badly damaged by the Tsunami, but it was now all cleaned and rebuilt. After unloading, we went to the temple area, where i had to wait super-long for the 2 to get the accomodation and darshan tickets. We were given a room on the 4th storey (but supposed to press 3 on the elevator, i took some time to figure this out) and so we couldn't get a view of the beach and everything. But, that's okay, since miraculously, we our room was next to another Singapore family- that family was staying tere, they bought the room. Immediately, we had to rush to get darshan. First, we bathed IN BITTER COLD water, since there was no heater-It's not poor service, but it's a form of discipline-kinda thing that we are expected to practice. It was okay for me, since it was afternoon and the weatrher was quite hot. We arranged some things and rushed down-but were too late and so we weren't allowed in.
Now, i've to talk about the drinks shop there. The first thing is that the fruit drinks and milkshakes there are super cheap- the pomogranate juice is less than a dollar(And it is the most expensive thing there), without ice. All the juices there are without ice. There is no need for ice la, the drink is served cold since the fruits were stored in a fridge. The cake there was also one of the most delicious i've ever eaten-a lot of cream and sugar. Then there was a singing session at night, before dinner. The dinner costs 7rupees-about 25 cents in s'pore. There is vegies and this special kind of rice(my mom told me tt it costs morethan the normal rice), which was fatter and tasted better than the normal rice, and soup. Simple, yet delicious annd it fills your stomach. We went to sleep on leather matteresses. (to be continued)

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okay...let me continue. Just before we alighted from the train, we got to know, through a neighbour in the train, that there was a strike at our destination and that as a result, there would be NO TAXIS OR AUTOS OR BOATS(we were trying to get to an island) to take us from the train station to Vallikavu. It was some communist thingy. Well, we certainly can't be walking there, since it's a one++ hour journey by taxi and we have our baggage. We would only be able to get a taxi after 12 midnight, when we would reach at 1 in the afternoon. My mom and I were quite calm, trusting that since we were going to a holy place and that God has safely brought us so far till here, He should have a plan or something for us to get there.
Once we reached, we brought down our baggage from the train and were left in an empty, HOT(sun) platform. There were these 2 guys who approached us with an offer. They would bring us to Vallikavu, taking the risk of being caught. They only asked for S$15 for the ride, so it was cheap enough and we agreed. They brought us to a place that was quite far from the train station and we got onto the Auto. It was a bumpy ride since he was avoiding the main road all the time. But since it was a long journey, we needed to get petrol and so he had to sneak into a petrol station to get a bottle of it. I'll continue tmr.

continued

I really want to talk about the life here, but i haven't finished talking about my journey. So, i shall continue(from after boarding the train and taking photos):
So, the train started. It starts off real slow. If you are outside, you can follow the train at normal walking speed to sprinting for upto about 1min. So it takes quite longer to accelerate. There were 2 stations near bangalore between which the train went at about human sprinting speed. Then, i was sitting by the window, looking out at the sceneries. There wasn't much to see at night, so i felt quite bored. We'ld reach our destination at only 1pm the next day, so i decided to go to sleep. And i forgot to mention- Since the train was late, we managed to have our dinner before the train started. There is a toilet and washbasin, together with seats, which you can turn into comfy beds when sleeping. Here's a picture i took:

See the 2 blue chains suspending the bed in the middle? These chains can be taken off, allowing the middle bed to become the surface to rest your back when you are sitting on the bed below. I took this pic in the morning. I felt like sleeping at about 10am, just before our early lunch.I woke up really early and took some pics of the scenery. I couldn't take the sunrise, forgot the reason why... During the night, our compartment had a few people travalling with us. They were talking to my mom and grandpa. I just smiled when i was introduced and didn't talk much, as usual. but the thing is that 'few people" gave me a bad impression of themselves by the way they were dressed and talked among themselves, although they were very polite to my mom and grandfather. Since i felt suspicious and didn't sleep till about 1150 at night, when they got off the train. and did i mention that they were travelling without a valid ticket? The train official came in only afterwards to check our tickets. My mom insisted that i keep my camera and hp in her handbag, which she has managed to camouflage very well. But i managed to 'steal' back my hp after a while. Oh ya- I got a SIM card here for my hp. here are the pics i took during the journey:

It's not a volcano, it's just the clouds blocking the top of the mountain

The train, curving it's way through

Just back from Vallikavu

It has been a long time since i went on an Indian train. It was quite a nice experiance, took a few photos. Photography was not allowed at the ashram, so my camera is still fully charged. My grandfather was super-amazed at the number of westerners staying there(i was with him and my mom). I met a guy from Singapore there, he was asking my mom for the s'pore's country code. Well, it's a wonder that he got the right person among the crowd there. The food was super cheap ther, since there was no service charge and also since it was to be affordable to everyone. Let me start my story from the begining. From our house at Bangalore, we had to take an Auto (Indian equivalent for the thai Tuk-Tuk. It's smaller, but looks the same) to the train station.My mom didn't let me take a picture of it since i "might drop the camera". It was a one-hour trip. We then had to join a long queue to find out which part of the train we were supposed to be at. We hired a porter to carry our goods, since we had to climb a staircase to get to our platform. We paid him less than a singapore dollar, which is the usual amount given to a porter here. We boarded the train just at the deparure time, but it started 30mins late. So, we took some photos: It's me, infront of my compartment in the train

Me inside the train

More later...Got to go mug chem

No title

Nothing much to blog about today... I tried to get my hp connected to the computer, but it needs the software for the computer to recognise it, and i left the cd in singapore. so too bad. Who needs hp to take photos? I've my loyal digital camera! ( I'll try to connect it soon) Life in India is okay, the food is nice and it's quite peaceful. Let's not talk about the living conditions, although it's worse than in Jln Bahtera. I'll be doing math today, i think. Even in math, there's a lot for me to learn, surprisingly. I'll be mugging physics on train, since i can absorb physics stuff in almost any conditions. Just hope that this plan is not cancelled. I was reading about the Indian railway system yesterday night. You know the transitlink book they publoished in Singapore that has info on the busses and MRTs there? Well, the book i read was its equivalent for the railway system here. I tell you, the entire system is damn mind-boggling. It's really a feat for them to have internet booking and entertain tourists. I haven't been running for very long. Dunno if i'll get a place to run here, there should be a park or something nearby... My legs have been resting too much after the marathon. May be i'll try to run fast and see if the pain comes up.
Well, that's all for today, i'll try to get to those pics uploaded
P.S I did sth really mischievous today-I'm amazed tt e really smart ppl in this house didn't catch me, may be they were too distracted.

a lot of stuff

okay.. today' s stuff first:i studied some chem today, there's a lot of new things to learn, especially in organic chemistry... .Now for yesterday: I tried to blog yesterday, but the minute i logged in to check my yahoo mail first, threr was a power cut and the computer went off...I was alnoe in the house at that time. Luckily, it was in the morning, and it lasted for only about 10mins. Bad, but not bad. After the power cut, i couldn't get the computer turned on. It turned out that i was pressing the wrong switch...I did chemistry yesterday too. Now for the flight journey: I tried to get my mom to go for s'pore airlines, but it was too ex, compared to Indian airlines. Well, it was very packed, every single seat was taken up and there was almost no space to put up our hand luggage, so the crew members had to go around, searcing for a place. They found it at the front of the plane, at the first class compartment. We were seated at the back of the economy class compartment. wow. How wonderfull...Well, at least we got a place...The food was nice, i was really starving. I took a few photos from the air, although qwe were told to swioch off all electrical appliances during takeoff. I just can't understand why-the exit lights of the aircraft were still on! now, isn't that an 'electrical appliance'? nvm... I didn't take any photos during landing, since photo-taking is banned on bangalore airport, should be some security reasons. After collecting our baggage we(mom n I) came out and found my grandfather, who was waiting with a taxi. I really wanted to get a photo of the traffic there-words are not enough to describe it. Well, i should be able to take some later, i guess. I'll be going off to Amritapuri Ashram tomorrow. It's a long train journey, i'll try to take lots of pictures, now that this computer has proven itself to be better than i first thought it would be...I'll be taking a test for a tuition here on 24th. You can come back after about 4 days, i'll not be blogging for the next 3 days or so.

In India!!!

Hello..
I'm in india now, i reached my home and ate my lunch. Very happy that the internet speed here is as fast as it is back at home. Furthermore, it's WIRELESS!!! I'm going to take down the countdown, cos i'm now fully healed from the marathon. I've just been getting a bit fat, or maybe it's my muscles or bones growing after the marathon. Anyway, i've lots to blog about, the airports, the flight and the traffic here and stuff. I took some photos too, but i shall not strech this computer too much, not now, maybe later. Keep those tags coming!

P.S: I do brush my teeth (go figure)

I'm kinda bored now, I should get some sleep now, but before that, i'm going to blog a bit:

I'm going to be leaving singapore in 4hrs time, so here's a list of things i'm going to miss

~~my dear readers, prepare for a lot of brackets~~

-my friends (glad that they are on friendster, and even my blog!!! YaY! msn...hmm, dunno if i can log in there)

-my comfy bed, together with the alarm clock that has been faithfully waking me up for the past dunno how many months, It's just going to wake me for one more time now)

-MY COMPUTER (I've put most of my files on a dvd-rw to help myself, if i ever need any of my files. I'm can show my pics to my family there too, and i've those on my thumbdrive.....)

-MY RADIO (No, it won't help if i bring it there, can't tune!!! I've been listening to this malaysian station [english] since sec3[obviously my favourite], so i'll miss it. nvm.. i'm bringing some cds, my cd player, which i don't normally use her[takes too much batteries] and my mp3 player [my mom doesn't want me to bring this, for some reason, i'll probably have to sneak it in, somhow.{dun worry, i'm very good at this}])

-My aircon (bangalore has a cold weather, but still i'll miss pressing tose nice little buttons on the remote)

I guess that's all for now, i need to get some sleep. This IS my last post before i leave s'pore. I'll panick once i wake up and i will have NO time to even switch on my comp. Oh yeah, dunno if i've mentioned this, but in order to maintain confidentiality, I will NOT open my blog page in the computer at my grandparents' house, under most circumstances.

`OFF TO INDIA`

before night meal

I am almost done packing now. The thing that i've yet to do are to weigh our things, eat and possibly get some sleep. Check-in will be at 5, flight is departing at 730. That's all for now, i guess. Unbelievably my family finished packing and now kinda ready to leave. Surprising...

This maybe my last post for a long time, i don't know if i'll be able to get to a internet centre in india... It may be a long time till i log in again. Keep my tagboard alive for me, I'll try and post pictures, if possible. My flight is tomorrow, at about630 in the morning.
I just found out something. I'll be joining people who are a year younger than me in the training and the exam. That means, if i had stayed in india, i'ld have taken the exam last year. Well, it's good that i've given myself an additional year to study, but if i had not appealed to be placed in primary 3 (instead of 2), i'ld have 2 additional years to study...
I'm packing some sudokus to entertain me during flight. I don't think indian airlines provides in-flight entertainment. This is the sudoku website(click). It's quite good. If you scroll down, you'll see the archive of previous sudokus and their solutions. Very neatly organised.

Riddle

Solve this riddle if you can, I created it(as you'll see for yourself):


you cannot see my hair, though i'm not bald. YOu Guess (who). Achooooo!!!YOu Get what i Am saying?? haha...


Here's another one that my friend gave me, i tried it and got till the part where i needed to download the picassa thingy. I thought it was quite good, actually. But i just don't feel like putting that thing into my computer. My computer right now has way too much imaging softwares. My camera, hp...

The countdown above is going to be running till i am fully recovered from the marathon. I just found out that i'm going to be attending a wedding at india. 3 day, i tell you, it's going to be sooo boring. I need something to entertain me. maybe i'll get myself a magazine or something...

2 days to go, to go

5 days after the marathon.. I'ld say that i'm 80% recovered. there's still this joint pain on my right leg and calf muscle pain on my right claf. I got to go and do asome packing, so can't blog too much, Yesterday, i was sorking on this sudoku, myfirst one. I go myself a tough one, shouln't have done that. I'm going to get myself some easy ones to work on during flight. Or I'll prepare myself for the entrance test that i need to take for the tuition centre there. My flight is on 10th dec, super early in the morning. I came across this photo when i was signing in to blogger: I just thought it was super creative, the handicapped thing on the top photo:

Singapore Marathon-5

yeah... it has been 4 days and blah blah blah... after gun time, but i'm still having traces of muscle aches. The exercise i had yesterday, walking around, seems to have helped very much. The injury i was talking about before dec 3rd is now about 85% gone, strangely. It only seems to appear if i run fast, but i think it has something to do with how i place my feet on the ground when running, whether it's slanted or straight. It popped up at the 21st km, the half way mark during the race, but the muscle pains that came after that were really worse and so it didn';t contribute much to the pain. Also, after applying some muscle rub it, it seemed to get better.

I was emptying my camera's 2 memory chips yesterday to prepare for the india trip. Man, i've lots to do and I HAVEN'T STARTED PACKING YET!!!

Nvm... back to the marathon. I had a few inspirational moments in it, as i was approaching the esplanade, i started to walk a bit and there was this guy who patted my back and got me to continue running, forgot what he said, but thanks, it helped (or my timing would've reached 6hrs)
Next, adidas was having this promotion on the race day, apart from our 2 tee shirts, there were people around with posters saying "impossible is nothing", i was quite inspired by that. Then, it was also having this 'reason to run' thing, in which you have a second bib tag on your back telle the reason why your are running. I'm not going to blog down every one i saw, but here are some:"To run like a dog for my god","B4 i get FAT""say hi! to me when you overtake me". Also the "because I can" poster or board, whatever you call it, at about the 38+ km mark, and the " Earn your finisher tee" thing, i think it came after the previous board. Then, there was these people from other JCS, who made me feel like chasing them when they overtook me. I remember chasing 2 guys from aj for like 6 km or so. Then there were some from tpjc. The rain was really motivating. Apart from making the 2 'cool' zones(It's just a mist thing) along the track redundant, it also motivated me to run faster. Listen to this. Before the rain came, i was approching the u-turn at east coast and i was thinking that I'ld finish the race before it starts. But too bad, it started when i was about a km after the u-turn. At this point, i was thinking that i can get to the finish line ASAP (by running faster) so that i can use my towel in my bag ( deposited at the baggage deposit) to wipe myself dry. Well, guess what, At about the 37-38th km, there was this steep uphill, about 30 deg. inclination, during which i felt my socks getting soaked.bad news. But after that, the rain stopped and before i got back, I was dry!!
Then, as i was turning in to the finish line, there were 2 people among the sidelines to whom i gave hi-5s to. boy, i should have given more, the camera man didn't take me in that pose at all! All the pics i got of me are very near to the finish line... quite sad. But at least i should be happy that i've got (7)picteres of me, leonard's got just one. see? it's not even proportional to the distance we ran...haha
I've noticed that i tend to write quite long posts lately, maybe it's because i won't get to blog so much in india, i dunno... i 'll just try again to put in the photos here:

my champion chip:)

National library

I dropped by at school today, before going to the national library. For the past few days, i've been thinking of ging there to see how the place is. Well, after getting there by bus and alighting at a bustop at bugis mrt which seemed familiar since i passed by it when we were doing pre-u seminar filming. After searching around, i found the place. I first went up the escalator, dollowing my instinct, only to find that the bookshelves were not there. It didn't take me long to figure out that the 'central lending library' was at the basement, something i couldn't have imagined. Yeah, the place was pretty big, but what is surprising is that while the reference sections of theis national library are several time the size of the ' normal' sections. I started with the 'foreign newspapers' section. I was just browsing through some of the newspapers. Found an interesting article, 'scary flight' on this New Zealand newspaper, which talked about a plane traveller's worst fears, like having a mother with a crying child/ a drunk, etc sitting beside you. Something that i must read before boarding the plane on dec10th. I was also reding some articles in the guardian and the new york times.
Also, there was the crossword puzzles, which i loved in the US newspapers. They were mathematical!!! they were called soduku or something like that. I couln'd work on them, so i decided to come home, do a search on the internet, print out a few and start on them. Should be quite fun. In the midst of reading these interesting stuff, i felt hungry, so decided to grab some bites at the breadtalk nearby. Oh ya... i also met Pei Yu at the library. After eating, i went back, but this time to the reference section, which was several stories above the normal one. I had to put my bag in a locker(free, compulsary) before i can get in. They had a very wide selection of mathematical/scientific magazine. Believe it or not, there was this magazine just for hyperbolic differential equatuions! YeS! that was the name of the magazine! I was on a monthly basis, i think. It contained research papers, quite mind-boggling. I also read some indian and chinese literature( they were bothe in english). After that, i went to browse through the other sections on that floor. I saw the Principia book, but since it was getting late, i could only look through a few of its pages. Then, i went up to the other ref. section, but it was on economics and arts. So, i wasn't very interested in them and i also didn't have the time to stay on. That's all for today.

AND i got my marathon photos!!! here:

wait.. maybe later, i'm having some trouble uploading
Also, i found out another thing: blogger is trying to move from the old to the new beta thing. They say that it'll take a month or so. So, should be quite normal to expect abnormal things during this period.First, the toolbar disappered, but now it's back:) but Now, i can't upload pics...It says 'We're sorry, but we were unable to complete your request'. nvm, maybe later

stat counter

WoW stat counter is so cool. i just enlarged my counter to 4 digits. It was easier than i thought. I could also see who has visited my website. I've had 3 visits from us and one from italy...cool! I worked on my lab for a while. The progress is slow, but i'm moving forward. I'm gonna think of some cool title for this blog. Something cooler than 'under construction'...looks like i've to stay here for quite long. nvm, it's quite comfy here:)

Maths...

Since i've been 'stuck' in my bed for a while for the past few day, i've been going through my math olympiad file. I saw some cool problems. The main topics i was looking at were number theory and pigeonhole principle. Quite powerful concepts. Haven't tried any problems yet. I'm still stuck at the differential equation.( dy/dx= x^2 + y^2 , find y in terms of x). I was told that it was not doable, so i guess i'ld have to pick up some new problem to work on. But i really learnt a lot while working on this differential equation (eg. i learnt how to solve exact, 1st order differential equations) . My friend asked me to try and seperate the variable. Well, i haven't tried it yet. When it comes to differential equations, I know how to combine variables, but not how to seperate them. It's just the reverse process that should involve introducing a parameter, reverse of the elimination of parameter when combining variables. I guess i'll spend a bit of time on it now...

Oh ya... I saw the nyjc's new mass dance on youtube. can click here to get there. Think it's a kinda remix.

AND there was also this leaked acjc mass dance video posted. It came up when i finished viewing the previous video. There's some argument going on on the page that may be worth checking out too...haha That's all for now. stay tuned! (back to my ODE)

p.s the O is striked, but it look like theta.


Well, it's time, so here's the video i was talking about. When it first played on the radio it sounded like quite a bad song. But upon further listening, it was very good, like their other songs:

Singapore marathon-4

I'm feeling the same pains today, but got used to them quite a lot. and YaY! the toolbar is back. I can add pictures and give links: so here goes. click here for an analysis of my race. it should bring you there. It's quite early in the morning, now. My sleep patterns have been disturbed since i slept too much just after the marathon.
During the race, when i was at the 5th km, the top runner was already at the 10th! It was like a u-turn course, so we cheered as he passed by. I also saw my friend on the course, running the marathon with me. He overtook me at the 20++ km, i think, after i overtook him at the 15th km. I was feeling quite tired after the first 21km and the fact that i've only finished half of the whole race was putting me down.
At east coast, i passed by a few barbacue pits, but stangely, i don't remember seeing the one at which we had the solico gathering. East coast looked really different, especially with the skipark. I didn't manage to see Kenneth, but i saw Haris, near the skipark. The powergels were quite useful, i ate 2 packets during the race and brought one home. It's still here on my table. At about the 34th km, i really began to wonder where i was. I was totally unfamiliar witht the surroundings, but of course during the marathon you just follow the ppl right infront of you. If you are the one infront, then there'll be a car with a timer on top for you to follow. Well, at that point of time, i sooo wanted to see the fullerton hotel, since it was close to our finish point. Is the prom today? think so... If i signed up, i'ld be limping around there. Well, the fullerton was visible when i turned in slightly after the 40th km. About 90% of the people around me were walking. I thought i saw Yazid at near the finish line, but don't know if it was him. I had 2 Hi-5s just as i was approaching the finish line, after which i decided to 'sprint'. yeah, i still had energy.
I had trouble removing my champion chip as i had to take off my shoe laces. I was sad to part with my champion chip, here the pic:


And glad to get my FINISHER TEE and my medal. (Personalised) certificate will be posted to me by email, expect to get it when i come back from India. Surprisingly, i managed to take the MRT home.

singapore marathon-3

Now my feet have stopped aching. I'm having some new pains at my shoulders.both sides. During the marathon at about the 30th km, my left arm got too tired of swiging itself and became quite painfull. I had several cramps too, mainly at my feet and joint muscles. My hand joints are aching too, imean the muscles there. My timing was quite bad, guess ill improve it next year. But the good thing is that i finished the whole marathon. click here for an analysis of my results. http://www.runpix.info/sin06/42/finord.php?LastName=5989 I can't do the link thingy the tool bar is till not there. i'll figure it out some time later today.

just afeter marathon

hello.. just finished the marathon. I'm really not in a state to blog cos i barely can sit upright...some back thingy. we started st 6am and i finished slightly before 12. The weather was not bad like last year. now my feet feels as if they've been squashed by some car or something. you probably can imagine the rest. i'll get my full analysis tomorrow...bye for now

Singapore marathon-2

Just had SAT. It was very tiring. About 4hrs, in total with some breaks in between. Mine was at ac's badminton hall, the temperature was just right. I'm going to sleep early today, cos of singapore marathon tomorrow morning. I'm expecting myself to take about 5 and a half hours to finish the whole thing. These are my targets:
1st 10km within 1h
1st 21km within 2h 20 mins
1st 30km within 3h 45 mins
42km- within 5h 30 mins

The longest dist i've run so far is 24km, so i expect myself to be walking at least 15km. But what i'm hoping for myself to be doing is to both run and walk from the 21st to about the 24th km, then i'll jog the rest of the distance. Hopefully, i'll still be fit enough to remove my champion chip(it's going to time me) and submit it. If not, i won't get my cert or medal or finisher tee. Here's a pic of my champion chip. I used my hp.

wait... it's not allowing me to put pics here, i don't see the toolbar, maybe some other time...

SAT

I'm going to take SAT 1 exam tomorrow. Wish i can get the same marks for it as my SAT 2, but that's almost impossible. I've been mugging almost the whole of today. The last time i took it, the time given was simply not enough and iwas also not used to the style of testing. So with practice, this time, it should be better. I was quite bored just now, so i went to check out the google book search. It has been upgraded. You no longer need to keep clicking a button for the next/previous page. You can just scroll up/down. Quite a good and necessary improvement, but i guess the downloading still works on the same principle: page by page. I was looking through the ussr olympiad book. One of my favorite problems is from there(it contributed to the 106 on my address and more precisely, the 2 in my previous address. rembr the 46582? i know you don't .. haha)

My friend will be fetching me to the test centre tomorrow. We'll be having lunch later(it's on him). Then after that, i'll come home, maybe blog and then go to sleep early after some streaching. Then, wake up at about 1am and prepare for the marathon.

I couldn't sleep yesterday night. i kept thinking of the marathon. Well, it's not exactly that i'm afraid, it's just that i'm a bit concerned if i'll be fit enough to board the plane to india on the 10th... and if the injury in my leg joint will get worse during the run. I went for a 18 km on my b'day and nothing happened. But the pain usually comes up when i run too fast. That's another important thing that i should mind: not to run too fast. Well, guess tonight is going to be the same. I don't mind.

Any way, i just came up with a better riddle: try this one: (weird that i've a strong feeling that i blogged about it this morning when i actually didn't. see the word better?)


you cannot see my hair, although i am not bald:
YOu Guess who. Achoooooommmm..... (you sneezed. oh yes, you did, don't argue!)

good luck in guessing..haha;) it's way too obvious

p.s: I really want to post a video (song) that i saw just after exams but i'm going to limit myself to 1 per month(This site is a essay-kinda blog, not a video one). Anyway, this post is quite long, so think i shall post it tomorrow or something.

Singapore Marathon-1

i just saw my 42km route for my s'pore marathon. It's just 2 days away. I'm gonna have a countdown for it.... If you wanna see the route it's here.Enjoy:)

Good to hear:
There will be manned First-Aid and Drinks Stations set up along the route, the first being at the 3km(instead of 4 last yr) mark and subsequent ones at approximately 1.5km(2 last yr) intervals.

Bad to hear:
The Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2006 will keep to about the same route as the one followed in 2005.
p.s Didn't know that the google dictionary accept 'wanna'. I spell-checked it and it was okay!

Links

My new template is under way... You can go here to check out if i added you in my links section. I should take quite long to finish working on this, maybe i'll finish only after i return from india or something. I'm gonna change the pics... When i was editing this post i saw this thing coming up at the bottom: The coonection to blogger.com has failed. Saving/publishing may fail. Wow it's good to know. It went off in a minute or so.

IELTS exam today....

Went for the exam today. In case you don't know, it's an English proficiency test for those who are thinking of studying or going to Australia. It was quite okay. There was listening, writing and speaking with the total marks distributed quite evenly. It was quite fun. The oral part was recorded in an mp3 player! When i was on my way back, i saw this vending machine and decided to buy Lays potato chips. Know Why? That column was in a condition such that if i put in the money, 2 packets would fall out. It was kinda stuck. But when i put in the money instead of the 2 i expected, 3 fell out! I was super-delighted. I felt quite bad too, so i left a Packet inside for the next person and took the other 2. Had to weight quite long for the bus. The thing is that, when i got onto the bus, i couldn't find my ez link card. I later found out that it was 'hidden' deep inside my bag. I decided to pay by cash-a dollar for the long journey. Well, looks like i spent for the extra Lays packet after all... ;)
I'm now preparing for SAT. It's the day after tomorrow, at ACJC. Hope i get there in time, cos the test is quite early in the morning.
i thought of a nice nick name for my self, today: YOu Guess(who), Achooooo...(you sneezed right? say you did and don't argue!) haha...
WoW i didn't know that my blog was so famous. I better change the number of digits allowed below to 4 or something...

EmErGeNcY

Something unexpected happened. I really have to change my blog address.... Dun worry. The next time it may change is after i come back from india. Goodbye now. I'll keep everyone informed. Sorry for the inconvienience caused...

new template layout coming up!

YaY! my experiment worked. Ya... you can click on the link below to have a peep. But it's going to be totally different, now that i've managed to succeed in applying a blogskin template to my test blog. i'm gonna change the pictures to give it a mathy look. Just wait...
btw, if you encountered the same prob as mine, blogger beta accepts blogskin html codes if it is in the classic mode. Jus go to the template tab n look below, you should know what to do next.
oh ya... I've been listening this song quite a lot of times. Esp during the exams since the radio station that i was listening to plays it several times a day. It's nice,here: (this video was tested on my test blog before appearing here)

Hope you enjoy it:) off to sleep now. I must really mug tmr

1 more thing... i'm just gonna have this thing fixed. I shall declare it here and now: I am NOT going to change my blog address anymore, cos it's now way too famous than i thought it would be at his point of time. SO, abt the math problems, i'll just put the ones on the front page next time lar... NOW i've to go all out to publicise my blog before i go off to india.

new hp

Saw this in Katrina's blog and just wanted to do that same. This is the 'elaboration' i owe you all on the new hp(ref: my first post, i think)

Good bye Sony Ericsson (same colour as below)

Hello Sony Ericsson K610im(same colour as below)

getting started:

Studying for IELTS now...I Learnt this when i was typing this post:Always save your post as a draft after you've typed about 3 sentences. Practice it! You may never know when it is useful. I wish google can bring in the automatic saving thing to the blog posts. They have that thing for the gmail.
Guess I've to do the marathon without much training. Played badminton today at school, and did some math after that. Anyway, it's going to be interesting to note how i feel after the 42km. Hope i can get home to blog( i mean not to the hospital). Everyone(except me) seems to be expecting everything to go well. If anyone wants to send me messages, please send them before 3am on 3rd of december. Wait a minute... seems to be a lot of 3s. If you add up the 1 and 2 (of december) you'll get another 3! hmm... interesting.
Anyway, I browsed through some blogskins yesterday and today. I am no longer looking for a mathy one, since i now know by experiance that the probability of finding such a skin that fits my needs is very low. I'm just looking for one that has the posts, tagboards and stuff on different pages and has a window of decent size. I found about 3 yesterday, the html code didn't fit into blogger nicely. I got a lot of missing end-tags message. I roughly know what it is talking about since i fixed that once, but even that didn't seem to work. I'm currently trying things out in my lab. Yeah, go on and click it, it's a link. Just don't tag me saying that it looks nicer than this blog- i know it does. okay.. back to studying.

ChesS madness

After several times of postoning and preponing it, i decided to meet Chiris today at school canteen. He agreed to teach me chess. I vaguely remember playing chess when i was super young. I dunno if i was good at it, but obviously, now i am not. Chiris was very kind to me: Apart from just teaching me how to play chess, he bought a magnetic chess set! I thought he was going to bring in ( and bring out) his own chessboard and so i was pleasently surprised. Should have bought him a drink or something...nvm... i'll have another chance to do that, i hope. i took down some notes. It was quite a mouthful of stuff to digest and that resulted in him winning everytime we played after the teaching part. But it's okay, because the playing helped me to memorise the moves so that i'll think better each time.
Met with Yi De and some other guy who seemed to be looking for him. Guess they met up to go to the school gym, but apparently it wasn't open because of ltc(i wish i voulenteered as a facil for it, but i think i shall do that next year. Any way my mom wouldn't allow me too, even if i wanted too.) I'm still looking for my a-level question papers. I managed to collect back everything except the s-papers, which is a good thing. I wish i continued to stay back that friday, because the papers mysteriously disappeared that afternoon. I was in library that day, mugging for physics-S, and decided to go home (i didn't come back) for lunch. I checked the room that morning and the papers were still there. Now, the office and those incharge couldn't explain the papers' dissapearence.
Dunno if i said this yet: I'll be sitting for this IELTS(needed to enter australian unis) exam this 30th and the SAT(needs no intro) on 1st and 2nd dec. I've to prepare for them too. That's an another reason why i can't afford to spend much time on my blogskin...

-ve

boy, i just panicked for a moment there... thought i couldn't log in... but i was actually trying to log in into normal blogger, not the beta one. well, today was quite a negative day, not that i was negative charged by an electric shock, but i went out a lot today with my mom and met a lot of ppl. As usual, when i meet new ppl, i'm always either super enthu or super quiet( it just depends on the time and the location, not so much the person...). I was super quiet today, so didn't get to talk a lot, and i was thinking of buying myself a new adidas shoe for going to india, but forgot to bring my race confirmation slip that will allow me to get a 20% off discount. SO i had to return back home... and what did i do at home???

i was transferring all my contacts from my phone to my computer. yes. ALL 180++ of them. Boring, repetitive and uncreative jobs like me really tend to put me down. Guess i've to do some math to get my mood up a bit.maybe a differential equation??? oh ya... i did some searching for a blog skin too. Iam getting quite tired of it. Just can't seem to find a mathy one that i want.i guess i have to resort to designing one myself. But i don't like putting thighs off, especially at this moment cos i dunno if i'll get internet access in india like everyday. i'll be busy preparing for iit. i 'm also thinking of learning driving and learning some programming. it'll be cheaper there. I'am putting up this things-to-do list on my blog, just ignore it. I must stay positive till marathon. it depends a lot on your mind than your body, you know? try it! jus go for a 21km, and you'll know.. yes you! shut down your computer, go out and run! haha... umm.. not a bad ending for today's post...=)

marathon entry pack & my blog

Went down to suntec to collect my entry pack... the bag they gave for this year was really cool. The organisers have beeen giving shoebags for the past 3 yrs(or longer than that, i've only been taking part for 3 years). But this year was a sling bag, that can be transformmed into a handbag-kind-of-bag. When we (i went with Leonard, remember?) were walking out, i managed to spot a place where they were giving out free goodie bags for early birds(1st 500 for the day). Since we were very early, we got one of those too. Lucky i spotted it before we got off. It was quite difficult to spot that early bird goodie bag counter and so, the queue wasn't that long. In fact, when we went in, the queue length was 2.5(me, Leonard, and another guy who was walking off. And yeah, i remembered to get myself a bus ticket. I'm only worried that i may get there too late... see my race starts at 6(considered quite late... 5:15 would be okay) and i'm going to board the bus at the nearby stadium at 5. This means that i've very little time for warm ups...But i am not too worried about it now, mainly because last year, i reached the stadium quite early and they let me up into the earlier bus AND it wasn't even half-filled! Hope i won't be screwed up this year...

Here a pic of my BIB no.










Wave if you see me okay? say hi or something: i'll need encouragement, doesn't matter if it comes in at the 1st or the 41.195th Km... that's all for today, i guess i'm still having trouble with my blogskin...I've signed up at blogskin.com, but i'm still browsing through. saw some interesting ones, but i want to create one myself. dunno how.

testing 2

hope this works....

wait.... no it doesn't. same problem...
WoW! i did sth and it din't make a diff???? lemme try sth else...


okay.. it was a set at some pacific time zone... now it's fixed..yay. now for the template...

time zone problem

it IS wrong... it's 2:31 pm now... i'll try to fix it and one more thing: it's 25th nov today... i'll fix that too..

testing 1

the time sown below seems to be wrong... just realised. another test...

Testing

This will be quite a long post, considering it's just to test. Before this i was working on those numbers that you see up in you address column. I was just testing this Blogger system out with an old e-mail address of mine, yoga2002@lycos.com (guess you don't need me to tell you how old it is...). It was really impressive. I can change every single thing(apart from my name, of course) that has to do with this blog! the address, template...i'm still having trouble with the template. see, it's now 2am and so i quite tired, especially after a month(nearly) long exams(incl 15 hours of maths). My brain is not in a position to get creative and choose a nice looking template, or WORSE, design one. So i just chose one that got itself downloaded first.

THIS BLOG ADDRESS IS GOING TO CHANGE. As i said, i'm still working on cubic equations, having finished the other three. I'm trying to tie in sequences and cubic equations together and it's kinda difficult. I'm also thinking of including another one

Today-new hp, went to temple to pray for exams, chat with friends, try to chat with friends(i like this one... haha...), AND this blog. i'll elaborate on these later. I'm meeting up with leonard tmr to collect my marathon entry pack. I'll have to elaborate on that too...wow.. looks like i've a lot of blogging to do... think i better force myself to sleep(music works for me) to avoid taking the wrong bus / train tomorrow.
i've to remind myself to get a bus ticket for the race day too. hope i remember.(if i don't i'll probably have to go back on sunday)