Our World

We live on an planet which we cannot leave. Sure, astronauts have left the gravitational pull of the plant Earth, but for the general public, we will never get to leave this planet. Even if we could, we would be unable to go to another planet which would be able to sustain life - at least not in this lifetime. Interstellar travel is a very slow business and would take hundreds of years before we reach the next star, and maybe even longer before we reach the next habitable planet. Therefore we should take care of this Earth which we already have.

We can start by reducing our consumption of unnecessary items. This not only means that we buy less, but it also means that we should also prevent wastage. For example, food taken at a buffet should not be thrown away, unless of course, it is unedible. On top of that, simple things such as turning off electrical appliances when not in use, instead of leaving them on standby should also be practised. Contrary to common belief, an electrical appliance still uses energy even when it is not turned on. Another way to reduce our consumption of electricity would thus be to unplug items which are not in use.

Another way to reduce consumption would be to repair old items. Rather than junking them as soon as they wear out, when replacing certain pats of these items would enable the item in question to function well again, we should instead endeavor to repair these items. These items can be anything from shoes, bags, vehicles, and you guessed it, electrical appliances. Reducing consumption can also be done by not buying new items when the current ones still work fine, and by buying more energy efficient items.

Reusing is another way we can cut down on the amount of waste we produce. An industry's output is dependent on consumer demand. The more we buy, the more they make. This causes consumption of energy. Thus, by reusing, we will cut down our demand, and they in turn will reduce their output, reducing the consumption of resources and energy. Plastic bags can be used to pack rubbish, water bottles, refilled and reused, and clothes which have seen better days can be used as rags. On top of all this, the usage of reusable products such as tiffin carriers, tupperware, thermos flasks and melamine boxes (yes, melamine. It doesn't leach into food or drink) should be increased.

Last but not least, is recycling. It used to be my favourite, but recycling is less energy saving than the others. It reduces the amount of energy used to make new items, but if there is no need to get any new items, than there would be a greater reduction in consumption of energy. Either way, recycling is better than just throwing our rubbish into the landfill. While sending our recyclables to a centre might be troublesome to most of us, most of our sanitary engineers (read : pengutip sampah) are more than willing to go through our rubbish to get some extra income. Separating our rubbish will enable them to get all the recycleables possible, and reduce the amount of rubbish we send to the landfills.

We need to rethink the way we do things in life. Practising sustainable development and keeping our carbon footprint small needs to take priority in our lives. Otherwise, living in a landfilll may be the next big thing in housing development in the future.

Worlds Apart

The STPM trial results are out. Well, at least for SMK Seafield. Do you hear the moaning and sighing? You probably can't but to give you an idea of how bad we fared this time round, only one "A" was awarded between the subjects Mathemathics T, chemistry, biology and, as far as my sources can tell, physics.

One "A" for four subjects. Not one "A" per subject, one "A" for four. And, no, yours truly is not the lucky person with that "A". I am on course for 4 "A-". Now how sad is that? (Editor's note : At the time of writing, my complete results were not known. However, at the time of posting, my results were out, and I did get 4"A-". Hooray?)

The results are making every Upper Sixer worth his or her salt to sweat, panic and really start studying. Needless to say, the results we will get for STPM or even for pra-STPM will be better than this. The only thing I found amusing about this entire affair were not the results I was getting, but the way these results were obtained. Confused? Let me paint you a picture.

A person's results in an exam are almost always proportional to the amount of revising, practising and study one does before an exam. As I failed to do a lot of all three, my results were, to me at least, depressing but not surprising. However, the manner in which I found out the results of the other Upper Sixers was, as I said earlier, pretty amusing.

After receiving my bio results on Friday, I proceeded to dig up what the class knew about the general results of the Upper Sixers. The following conversation ensued.

Me : How many people got "A" for Maths?

Jamie : Three people, I thought. You, Ya-Pei, Rong Gen.

Me : No, I thought Miss Goh said that no one got an "A"?

Jamie : But you three still got "A-".

Me : I mean an "A", not an "A-".

We repeated the same process for biology, chemistry and physics. Every time I asked, I was talking about "A"s, while Jamie was talking about "A"s and "A-"s. Jen Chong, who was also listening in, also understood my "A"s as, well, "A"s. Towards the end, he gave a suggestion to end the ambiguity : 4.00. Nevertheless, the confusion between whether "A"s mean "A"s only or "A"s and "A-"s continued. This is not the first time. And all things considered, this will not be the last.

When I did my SPM, I would debate with my parents for hours on whether a "2A" was considered an "A" or not. From that experience, I always considered "A"s to be the plain vanilla "A" - no minus, whether single, double or triple. As for "A+", that's another story. However, when we consider "A"s as "A-"s and "A"s differs with the situation we are in. In my case in Form 5, others were getting "1A"s while I was only getting "2A"s. So to console myself and my parents over my failure to match others in their number of 1As, and in an effort to salvage my pride, I would say that a "2A" is an "A" nonetheless. In my current situation now, barely anyone has an "A", while I have a lot of "A-"s, so an "A" to me is the plain vanilla one, as I feel no shame in admitting so. As for Jamie's case, she is within striking distance of an "A", so to her, any "A" would do, regardless of the mathematical sign behind it.

The fact is an "A" is a plain vanilla "A". When people talk about "A"s, they want top grades, not some half-decent , semi-proficient grade. We change the goalposts when it comes to what is considered an "A" because of our pride. We don't want to be seen as inferior, or as unable to be able to score an "A", or as a waste of our teachers' time. We want to salvage our pride, show that we have done something, even if it is not the result we want, at least we are within striking distance.

But the fact remains that "A"s and "A-"s are worlds apart. An "A", as anyone who is familiar with the GPA system would tell you, would say it is worth 4.00, while an "A-" is only worth 3.66. In the quest for a place in the public universities of Malaysia, not only do Sixth Formers have to contend with the most idiotic placement system in the world, we also have to face competition from Matrikulasi students and other Sixth Formers. 4"A"s are worth 4.00. 3"A"s and an "A-" are worth 3.92. In the competition for places in public universities, that is a gap few can afford, especially if one is going for "critical programs".

The goalposts for what is considered an "A" and what is not will continue to change. Different people will continue to have different ideas on what "A"s are and how important they are. The quest for "A"s, in all their forms, will continue. However, one thing will remain the same. "A"s are worlds apart from "A-"s. One is a sign of excellence. The other is only a cheap imitation.

Worlds Collide

Most people in the Subang Jaya area pursue tertiary education after finishing Form Five. The main question, however, is where we go. Most people go to private colleges for their pre-U education, but some, like yours truly, went (and at the time of writing, still go to) to Form 6.

My batch is a relatively small batch. The competition between the biology class (6A) and the physics class (6B) for top marks is fierce, but I can't say the same for the social science classes, for we do not share the same subjects. Ok, maybe it is just two people (you know who we are) but both classes are always curious as to how well the other class fared. Nevertheless, as there are only 39 people in both classes put together, news spreads fast, and even social misfits like yours truly are able to get hold of the news. Maybe not everything circulating around, but that's another story.

So was the case when Ya-Pei's father passed away. I believe the information I received was third or fourth hand, but it does come around. So, as always, the two classes bonded together as they normally do when something like this happens. Plans are drafted up, collections are carried out (with a tin labelled "Derma untuk Kematian Pelajar 6B. If the situation was not so serious, everyone would have been laughing) and those on either side who needed comfort found it from one another. Like any decent person, I turned up at Ya-Pei's house. Not that I knew the father but my main purpose being there was to comfort the living.

Of course, I was not the only person with the same idea. So I found out when a classmate of mine was turning up (who wants to gatecrash alone?) and showed up at the same time. After the wake and subsequently after paying my respects, I proceeded to chit chat with a couple of my old schoolmates, after they were updated by Ya-Pei herself. I hung behind to watch and bid my time.

When Ya-Pei was done, she called my current schoolmates over. To me the group looked completely recognisable, minus one who I had not seen before. However, to my current and past schoolmates, this was the first time they were seeing each other as they were complete strangers.

For me, personally, it was as though my worlds had collided. One being the world I had come to know of as USJ 12, where I spent 5 years and made quite a number of friendships there. The other was of course, Seafield, where I am due to spend two plus more months there before leaving secondary school for good. I had always wondered how my two worlds would collide, but I had never considered it would have been during a funeral.

As in all planetary collisions, sparks fly. New planetary fragments form, asteroids leave and there is a big release of energy. For those of us who were meeting the first time, we formed new connections, found common ground and talked. For those of us who were old friends, we caught up on what we had lost out while "in the wilderness", found out how green the grass is on the other side, and reconnected. However, like all planetary collisions, it was brief. Nevertheless, I wonder what would happen the next time two of my worlds collide - it might not be USJ 12 and Seafield.

First Block

Posts here are by the week (hopefully) and are themed.

First Block : Worlds

Enjoy

First Up

To whoever it may concern :

By some accident or other, you have stumbled upon this blog. Maybe you don't know how you got here, or what you are doing here, but if you want to come here, then I guess you are in the right place.

If you intend to keep reading, regardless of whether this is the place you were looking for or not, there are a few things you should know:

1. This blog will get updated once a week at most. Well, at least until further notice. I might have to disappear for certain periods of time, but you will know when.

2. The entries are long, so take them one a day. Here, tl;dr stands for "Too long?;Do read".

3. Most of the posts here will be my thoughts, so I will not be chronicling my entire life here. Sorry, but there won't be many photos either. However, depending on what happens in life, I may use real life events as illustrations.

4. Hopefully I won't thread on any toes. If I do, let me know.

Here's to a long and prosperous blog.