Seraphicera | From Russia With Love Seraphicera. <body>

SERAPHICERA ♠
_________________________________________________________________________________

I will wake up at 5am tmr...
Monday, July 13, 2009

And do my Math tutorials. Enough slacking on Math. Normal Distribution, Correlation & Regression and Sampling BY END OF WEDNESDAY.

At least Chem is going pretty darn alright mwahahaha.

Night.

SERAPHICERA | 9:58 PM |

(0) Comments


Fashion wars and relationships
Sunday, July 12, 2009

Studying, going for dinner and reading TIME and Economist and some entertainment magazines while my mom was buying everything on Michael Jackson.

Ok, I was gonna blog about this argument I had with my mom about fashion sense. Basically I got pretty annoyed at her narrow-minded judgement on my preferences, partially because they insulted my identity as a slight feminist (who dosen't believe in baby-doll/island wear stuff). I also indulge in winter-colored things because they suit my personality and appearance, and am not flattered at all by the fact that my mom labels me as 'boring' because I wear basically black, white, grey, navy and yea, you get the drift.

What got me most angry was her philosophy of 'you'll change once you get a boyfriend.' When I told her I'll never change, she said 'When you're in love you will do anything.' That really got me boiling inside because I have always stood for a girl's independence (emotionally, psychologically as well), unwavered by external circumstances. My belief is that I will never change for anyone, and if anyone can't accept me for who I am, I stay firm and he exhausts himself, eventually fading away because he either i) fails repeatedly at changing me or ii) cannot keep up with his own changed personality, for me (because some guys are weak like that). I have grown to center things on my own interests and well, at least for now I don't think I'll be very sympathetic in a relationship. Given the things I wanna accomplish in the years to come, I think this mentality will stand for quite some time.

That dosen't mean that I'm abstaining from relationships or ruling out the prospect of marriage (partially due to negative media portrayals of unmarried women). In fact, I want a long-term relationship some day, just that I'm currently very fixated on my own aspirations and I like my current freedom. And the relationship has to be one with nearly no strings, well 'visible' strings at least, attached. A bit of the 'runway model' (complete with smoky-eye makeup and icy cold portrayals) theme, compatible and intimate in private but mostly based on rationality rather than emotion.

Ok yea I'm going to sleep now. A whole day of Chemical Energetics kinda is draining. At least after this the weak topics are about half covered. Math is worrying, though. :( Been neglecting my favourite subject for very long now, though I spent the most time on it during the holidays.

Damn, my bed is covered with newspapers and notes, how to sleep? Argh.

SERAPHICERA | 1:02 AM |

(0) Comments


Man In The Mirror
Monday, July 06, 2009

How amusing. I am now starting hardcore MJ-listening sessions. A little too late, no?

Not for other things, though.

Biggest accomplishment of the century: Started prelim revision with Chemistry: Equilibrium (& Ionic Equilibrium but I ain't caring about Solubility Product until maybe a bit later, which is tomorrow)! Okay actually I started iHist CW Origins and Effects of the Collapse but it's not as grand as this Chem revival (after neglecting it during the June holidays). Wheehee.

Thorn in my flesh aka. the GP 'Philosophy' themed essay will be done later, and not 'deferred to final status negotiations' (as in all other cases). GP essays are such a bane.

In other news, been reading:
1. Online Moscow Times (HAHAHAHA)
2. Wikipedia: Georgian Civil War, First & Second Chechen Wars, Water Retention (HAHA), Parasitic Twin, Lakshmi Tatma
3. Everything related to President Obama being in Russia right now. (And 'Putin has one foot of doing business in the old and one foot in the new' -President Barack Obama)
4. US spells difficult days for Iraq soon, or something like that.
5. Swine flu cases are at 1,055 now but that news is getting boring.
6. Khodorkovsky trial

Actually after the whole day today the information on (3) increased a lot but I'll read later because I HAVE TO FINISH EQULIBRIUM and do Normal Distribution and design class page stuff.

Yesterday night I was reading Israeli-Palestinian and suddenly I heard this mysterious documentary going on downstairs and I shouted to my brother, 'IS THAT OCTOMAN!!!!!' and he was like (*scared voice) 'Yes!!!' and I was like OMGOMGOMG and ended up watching some lousy 55-year old man with 4 arms and 3 legs on Discovery for like, one hour. Sometimes in crucial periods like this I think I should stop everything that's not related to studies but again, isn't such knowledge (of conjoined twins and other such things like Khodorkovsky and water retention - the medical condition) valuable for life anyway? Ok, I admit that I waste a lot of time on Wikipedia finding out that English, Mandarin, Hindi, French, Spanish and Russian are probably the six most spoken languages (but Mandarin owns in terms of native speakers) and that San Marino is the oldest country and crap like all this but, despite wasting time it increases my knowledge, no?

Okay I stopped myself from like, reading every single thing related to Vladimir Putin today and started Chemistry so such an accomplishment, aye? Okay, gonna continue drawing ICE tables and finding pH of solutions, BYEBYE.

SERAPHICERA | 2:45 PM |

(0) Comments


The Star-Spangled Banner
Saturday, July 04, 2009

If you're reading this from Facebook, you should know that it's imported from my blog and I am in fact, still fasting from Facebook.

This week in a nutshell:
i. AABD for Mid-Year exams. Mixed reactions about the standard of the papers but to me, they were easy so yeah, not the time to be complacent.
ii. Fell sick. Finally recovering now. Cough mixture is love.
iii. 40-day fast from all drinks except Chinese tea, soya bean and plain water. No bubble tea is the hugest feat. Fast from fried food too. Nearly detox-ing aye?
iv. Downloaded MJ songs only after his demise. Sigh.
v. New classroom is love.
vi. Destressing for me now = watching inaugaration of Vladimir Putin, Dimitry Medvedev and uh, Russia-Ukraine gas disputes.

MSN banning for the day. And have been on another limited account for about the whole week. Shhh for those who know.

Happy Independence Day!!!

Too bad, I still prefer Putin. (Here with Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko.)

SERAPHICERA | 1:40 PM |

(0) Comments


Unproductivity of June holidays is questionable
Saturday, June 27, 2009

I can't believe my holidays are over. What I did is pretty meagre. This is what I did.

1. Went to Russia. Ha.
2. Math Revision Package until Mathematical Induction (To make myself feel better, this is Functions, Graphing, Sequences & Series, Summation, MI).
3. Revised on how to draw a differentiation graph.
4. Spent 2 weeks burying my face in Arab-Israeli/Kashmir.
5. Effects of the Collapse of the Soviet Union.

This is all I did. I didn't touch any Chem at all. This is worrying, because it's my worst subject. Damn. Bio is nevermind because I have been fond of inserting the chunk of info into my brain (ie. memorising) at record timings (and vomiting all out on the exam paper. Sheesh, I need to change). Okay other things I have been doing...

1. Reading up on governmental systems ie. presidential, semi-presidential, parliamentary etc; specifically that of the US, Russia, China and Singapore.
2. Reading up on Vladimir Putin and stockpiling pictures of him okay nevermind. (Btw, my 'History and People' image folder is dominated by 1. Putin and 2. Gorbachev.)
3. Stockpiling on patriotic/communist/nationalistic songs and even national anthems.
4. Watched Transformers. Watched Night at the Museum. Watched CO concert.
5. Went to the Esplanade/library on average 2 times a week combined to study.
6. DRAFTED A PROM DRESS DESIGN. Hahahahaha. Being inspired by Greek/Imperial Russian fashion.
7. Learnt how to tie half of Yulia Tymoshenko's hairstyle. Learnt how to spell Yulia Tymoshenko's surname. (She's the Ukrainian PM.)
8. Celebrated E-hui's birthday with the clique (:
9. Memorised Israeli presidents. Vaguely. (Ok actually this came naturally after (4) of the above list.) Only I now know who Mahmoud Abbas and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are, after reading up more on the current politics of the region.
10. DRINKING 8 GLASSES OF WATER A DAY LITERALLY!!!
11. Gained cultural insight on 1001 Arabian Nights and Rasputin and the Romanov daughers (though they were real).
12. Purged my laptop. Cleared it of unwanted stuff accumulated over the past year. Oh, my ultimate fail moment. Oh. It's actually a story.

My brother and I have a life.
Just a few days ago I discovered that my brother uploaded about 600+ photos (from 22nd May 2009) of his 'paper' Ba Sing Se (the city in the cartoon Avatar) in my laptop and damn, why didn't I notice it? Deleted all 600+ photos in slight annoyance. Realised that he could just upload them again. Confiscated the camera-laptop cable. Wanted to lock the laptop again but realised it wouldn't be a smart move because he will reclaim my speakers (which were transferred from him to me in return for using my laptop) and I need my speakers! I told myself therefore to be self-sufficient and buy my own speakers using my own allowance but he disputed that a. my allowance is our parents' money therefore nothing is mine therefore he has the right to everything and b. he can take the speakers by force! DAMN.

Johanna asked if talking would work. And despite him being nearly fifteen, peace talks have long ago failed and a while ago we fought a bloody war at the border of My Room and The Outside, for possession of the speakers. I won by using enough strength to slam the door in his face, leaving him trying to shoot paper bullets under my door for the next half an hour.

--Story ends here--

So. back to the holiday list.

13. Have rekindled interest (from Sec 2) to do Political Science as a second degree. Alongside Math, of course. But in this case, why am I doing Bio/Chem??? But again, throwing Bio and Genomics (<3) is pretty sad.
14. Filed my stuff. Nearly all my stuff.
15. Memorised the Russian (Cyrillic) alphabet.
16. Stuck diamantes on my graphic calculator and phone.
17. Discovered this shit-ass site called Uncyclopedia but had to quarantine myself from it later because it was getting too uselessly-addictive. I still heart Wikipedia.


Vladimir Putin and Mahmoud Abbas (but who cares about him in this photo) in Palestine

Okay, I can't really remember what else I did except that I'm quite pissed about the conclusion of my long-awaited holidays. As you can see, I was mostly increasing my general knowledge, I guess.

MSN bans soon. Facebook too. 1 2/3 month to prelims.



SERAPHICERA | 9:48 AM |

(0) Comments


I don't want anything more
Friday, June 19, 2009

I nearly wanted to say I hate emotion. I was reading the blog of this emotionally-inspired project, and I wanted to tell myself to stop reading about the Suez and Yom Kippur Wars and instead delve into the comforting, painful world of feeling. To empathise and to relate with others. To cry myself to sleep; whether out of distress, frustration, disillusionment or far-fetched idealism, there is the assurance of reassurance.

Instead the once again triumphant, rational side of me stood firm and closed the gates to emotion. I enjoy doting on this straightforward, ENTJ (MBTI) side of me and I love the things it does. Unfortunately, I'm now afraid to allow the over-manifestation of this unfeeling nature, for I've lost and alienated myself too many times due to this. Long stories. Don't ask unless you're truly interested.

But History pwns emotion. Politics pwns emotion. Mathematics pwns emotion. The indescribable feeling of satisfaction and power from knowledge far surpasses the struggle of drowning in that emotional whirlpool. I think I've grown once again to hate the seemingly uncontrollable side of human nature.

I don't want anything more
Than to see your face when you open the door
you'll make me beans on toast and a nice cup of tea
And we'll get a Chinese and watch TV
Tomorrow we'll take the dog for a walk
And in the afternoon then maybe we'll talk
I'll be exhausted so I'll probably sleep
And we'll get a Chinese and watch TV


I am inspired by people who bring radical change in short periods of time.

I hate stagnation.

I am brilliant, and the world will know and acknowledge that.

Tomorrow: Esplanade; History tuition with HC in the morning, studying with Johanna after lunch, dinner with Nelson.

Update travel declaration? Been to Russia and back.

(Oh yea, I have like, more than numerous Russian Red Army Choir songs now and if you wiki 'Alexandrov Ensemble discography', you'll find that so many of them are recorded in like, the mid 20th century. The only mainstream song I'm listening to now is Chinese by Lily Allen. I also got so hypnotised by Wind of Change by Scorpions that I went to get the Russian and Spanish version.

Everytime I think of the Six Day War I think of Syria, Jordan and Egypt being three sneaky muskeeters going 'Hee, hee, hee........' in nasal voices and having visible evil snares in the dark, stationed around Israel. One day, two days, three days... 'Do what, ah?' 'Keep looking silly.' 'O.K.' Dot, dot, dot, dot, dot... ... one fine morning... 'WAH WHAT ARE ALL THESE THINGS DOING HERE AH?' -Israel. *sends planes* 'BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG' DIE DIE DIE *turns east (or west?)* 'BANG BANG BANG' *BAMSLAMDIE* You just gained 300 EXP POINTS % of territory!!!!

Bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao!)

SERAPHICERA | 12:42 AM |

(0) Comments


Let P(n) be the proposition
Wednesday, June 17, 2009

















Reading Wikipedia in Spanish, being bored doing Mathematical Induction, being sleepy, listening to nothing but the Russian Red Army Choir...

Revision:
Functions
Graphing Techniques
Equations & Inequalities
Partial Fractions & Binomial Theorem
Series Summation & Series
Mathematical Induction
Differentiation/Apps
Maclaurin's Expansion
Integration/Apps
Differential Equations
Vectors
Complex Numbers
Permutations and Combinations
Probability
Binomial & Poisson Distributions
Normal Distributions
Correlation & Regression
Sample & Hypothesis Testing (Haven't taught)

SERAPHICERA | 5:12 PM |

(0) Comments


But to Moscow chicks he was such a lovely dear
Sunday, June 14, 2009

THAT'S IT. The hiatus has lost its zest. What have I been busying myself with lately?

I. Sleeping. The weather is such a killer. As I've mentioned 40 392 times, I auto-shutdown when the temperature exceeds 31.5 degrees Celsius. Or 32. But you get the point. So I spent Thursday and Friday sleeping 14 hours a day before I decided to wake myself up by visiting my 3rd home a.k.a Changi Airport today.

II. Doing that Math revision package. 2/3 done. Without bothering to do the er, basic questions.

III. Going out. For one, watched a very belated Night At The Museum II with Liang/Johanna on Tuesday. Buying like two Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen shirts. HAHA.

IV. Going to school at weird hours.

V. Splurging on food elsewhere. Not like we didn't go to Swensens earlier but within less than a week Edwin, HC and I went to Thai Express and then to school at night.

VI. Music taste polarised more. One month ago my music library was at least 50% mainstream. Now it's like 45% mainstream. Cause: Influx of classical and techno at the same time. It's amazing. My Recently Added list has Tchaikovsky, Russian Red Army Choir, Deutschland Uber Alles slotted inbetween T.A.T.U and Toy-Box. And Eiffel 65. I seem to have lost interest in mainstream for the time being.

VII. I am a Russian princess. My favourite Romanov daughter is Maria. I think the Tsarina Aleksandra is very beautiful. I have read nearly every account of Rasputin's life on the internet. My interest in Tchaikovsky's works has been re-ignited. I have pieces from Sleeping Beauty, Prince Igor and more sung by the Russian Red Army Choir (Alexandrov Ensemble). Serenade for Strings (Tchaikovsky) is love. I MEMORISED THE RUSSIAN ALPHABET. This is all the fault of Rasputin (Rah, rah) by Boney M.

VIII. I blinged some of my stuff. I am going to continue.

IX. The Ukrainian PM's (Yulia T-Ican'tspellhersurname) hairdo is my new inspiration. Yeah I learnt her crown braid already, just need to practise.

X. I think I have a crush on Vladimir Putin. I changed my phone wallpaper to his face. In Sec 4 I put one of Gorbachev and typed on it 'Please solve your problems before it's too late.' That picture had a great impact on my O'Level mugging. I don't know what's with me and Soviet/Russian politicians but they seem to have quite a profound impact on my life. DID YOU KNOW PUTIN IS 1.65M? Eight years of him being President and I never knew.







Ok church + lunch with the cell + City Hall/studying/dinner with Edwin + CO concert tomorrow later BYEBYE.

SERAPHICERA | 12:48 AM |

(0) Comments



Tuesday, June 02, 2009

he is undoubtedly the best I've seen and known in my entire life.

SERAPHICERA | 11:53 PM |

(0) Comments



Monday, June 01, 2009

SERAPHICERA | 12:51 AM |

(0) Comments


UniTunes in Diversity.
Sunday, May 31, 2009

4592 songs in an iTunes library isn't exactly on the higher end, considering I've seen people with 6K+, and heard of people with 8 and 10K. One thing I can (quite) safely claim though; I've one of the most diverse music libraries. Within the 4592 songs, you find everything from techno to classical, with mainstream, indie, jazz (this is the least, though), pop, rock and even some mandarin inbetween.


Evident already, from the playlists I have. Classical, Mandarin, Christmas, Disney? Classic Favourites btw, comprises of songs which your parents listen to. See, my library isn't even confined to the last ten years (though about 65% is made up of songs after around the millenium).

Now, who the heck has Coldplay, Maksim, Albert Hammond and Guang Liang in a Top-25 Most Played list?


Me, of course.

Well, favourited artist is Britney Spears with 80 songs.


This is the part of the classical playlist. Favourite composer is well, Tchaikovsky though I have other well-known (and less well-known?) people such as Beethoven and Chopin up there. Though this meagre aspect of my music library will still be under harsh scrutiny by Edwin Neo whose 700+ song-library consists of about 70% classical.


Can't help but boast about my variety of music, though. Andrea Bocelli, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Aqua in the same library? And haha, who has National Day songs ah. And Vengaboys? And Vangelis!!! (The soundtrack/New Age maestro. And I have Enya and Enigma as well.)


Ok, in case now you all think I'm weird... here are screenshots of the Favourites playlist, so that you know I've got mainstream music. And well, most of the library is still mainstream, so yeah haha.


Well... other things I've got include A LOT of soundtracks, like POTC and Star Wars, even Hairspray/High School Musical - OH I've to show you my HSM list.

ALL THREE soundtracks you know!!!



Yeah, and as I was saying, a lot of soundtracks, and even stage musicals. I've got Supercalifra-howeveryouspellit, Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera (as you've seen above), Notre Dame de Paris, Romeo et Juliette, Rent, Cats, and well I have other assorted vocal/opera things like Sarah Brightman, Alessandro Safina etc. If I scrolled the sidebar down you'll see a Vocal Favourites playlist.

Yet, my favourites playlist above tells you that I have Flo Rida! And yes, I have Akon and even Avenged Sevenfold. MCR, Paramore, Evanescence too. Well alright, you get it. And remember, I have songs which your parents listen to. I even have Video Killed the Radio Star (the first song to have a music video) and things like Puff the Magic Dragon (what's that, you ask?) :P .

SERAPHICERA | 10:25 AM |

(0) Comments


Sometimes in life you feel the fight is over
Saturday, May 30, 2009


Alcoholic picture yesterday. So, apart from that...

Skipped SC Carnival today because I was too tired after exams, but here are the three (christmasy) muskeeters/guides who went. Met them at Far East Plaza after inserting a couple of blonde extensions into my hair.


Having the luxury of time and having no urgent academic pursuits resulted in Jo and I trying out the Circle Line (oxymoron, no?) for fun. The extended Bishan and Serangoon stations were slightly fascinating. 'Til now it's still a bit difficult to visualise functional spaces on the other sides of neighbourhood MRT stations. Oh well. Cool cheap thrill, though. Pity the Buona Vista side isn't open, if not I can take from school to Serangoon straight and then 2 stations home. Freak Outram during peak hour.




Oh yeah, blonde extensions.


Gonna tidy the house a bit, and rush off to the airport. One-week-home-alone experience concludes at around 10pm. Well apart from seeing my family home, I'm at the airport very often, anyway. Just so you know; in case I'm missing suddenly, search the airport. If I haven't yet flown somewhere else, that is.

SERAPHICERA | 7:04 PM |

(0) Comments


Aimer, c'est rester vivant
Friday, May 29, 2009



Exams over, hello holidays. Mwahahahaha I wanted to celebrate today but Nelson has KI tomorrow and Edwin has Chinese on Monday, aww.

LOVED the Biology paper today.

Hmm I am going to get extensions tomorrow!!!! Hmm light brown or blonde? Or white?

OK it's time to start revision soon.

SERAPHICERA | 11:27 PM |

(0) Comments



Thursday, May 28, 2009

Chem, risky B I guess.

Right now I am very demoralised and very exhausted; I don't want to go on for Bio and History tomorrow. Whoever's reading this (in case some trend repeats itself), I have here my RF notes - tabulated in terms of 'Causes, Case Studies, Impact & Evaluation' but I am really far too tired. I won't screw this but I'll go for Biology first. I mean, revising Biology. I had studied earlier and I am going to revise now, in the hope that I'll have memorised things subconsciously (therefore making the task easier). But I think I'll collapse after Bio.

Today during Chem I threw 13 out of 80 marks because I knew I didn't study the +1 of the 7+1 chapters, and well; I can't exactly say if the paper's good or bad. I omega mugged for Organic and got myself stressed bonkers over it, but the paper was very tough. Ironically, I expected it. There's just a limit to how much I can pull my Chem up from a sub-pass grade, I guess.

At least I found compounds B, C, D and E and A was so near yet so far. Sigh. Eighteen marks was so appealing, though.

Damn, I didn't write my Thionyl Chloride (SOCl3 if you forgot) equation. Nevermind, sigh. At least memorising Iodoform was very very worth it.

:( I am very tired.

SERAPHICERA | 12:26 PM |

(0) Comments


Phenylalanine
Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Pile of Chemistry jokes, forgot half of them but here's one. You know what a phenol/phenyalanine/any benzene ring thing with one substituent looks like? Yeah. It's kinda like a bird's eye view of a guy having an erection. Ha ha ha.

So, saving my Vectors and Complex nos over the last few days or so was worth it but I should have focused more on Statistics. I touched none of Probability/ B&P and could manage about 80% of Section B, leaving me with a very risky A grade overall. Dang, if only I had studied. But it's too late for regrets now, at least I drew a very beautiful loci diagram. I also had an adrenaline rush in the morning - in the negative, stressful sense. Being positioned in front, centre of the examination hall didn't help very much.

But well, eventually calmed down and things were fine until I realised I didn't memorise any statistics formulas and was stuck at Q4. Went on anyway. Later I encounted another question requiring the formulas and being slightly annoyed, I decided to fiddle around with the cover page and used paper I chucked under the desk. To my huge relief, the cover page was staring at me with the formulas I needed. Whoopee, saved about five marks there. (:

Today's paper is a classic example of intelligence coupled with lack of preparation. Despite saving some marks I happily threw away others without even reading the questions thoroughly - knowing full well I wouldn't be able to do them anyway.

Well, Chemistry 7 (Organic) + the one Periodicity chapter which I haven't touched at all. Well, still revising Organic. At least I finished all Section Cs and Ds of the Organic TYS portion. Yay.

Random pictures and it's Chemistry again. Damn, should have snapped the sights at City Hall/Esplanade that day but we were too busy studying Biology.

As you will see, I use up a lot of space doing Math.










SERAPHICERA | 6:37 PM |

(0) Comments