Life of an Ambitious kid

Alrighty, there are two types of IGNITEthat I attended.

The first was the attachment in church where on Sunday, we attended the Pentecost Rally in St. Vincent de Paul. The other was the IGNITE Science Challenge 2013, the Chemistack competition. I’ll be talking about the Chemistack one.

Today, our team went to the Chemistack finals @The Science Centre, after qualifying for the Finals in the Preliminary round in ITE College East(where our luck+brains helped us win). Our team, TMS Chemistack 1, was to compete against 3 other teams, which made us a cluster. We had to leave during recess and miss the results for the other papers. Hmph.

Anyway, after “dragging” me to the foyer, we met up with Ms A, our Chem teacher and took a cab to the Science Centre. We were a little late(we weren’t), but by the looks of their faces, they seemed relaxed.

Oh yeah, in our team, there was Fz, Rn and…me!

We chat in the cab about the exam results and more of Chem. Heard that I did very well for the Chem exam and so did Fz. So in a split second, he turned to me and- “Challenge!”

Slow down there, skipper.

We got there, and walked to ‘The Marquee’ where the competition and prize ceremony would be held. Since we had some time on our hands, we got to explore the exhibits! Ahh so much fun. We then came across a funny looking electric chair which required a dollar to work.

How does it work? Basically, one had to sit on the chair and grab hold the two metal rods on the armchairs. Then insert the dollar, press Low or High Voltage, sit back and experience “electricity” flowing through your fingers(it was actually intense vibrations that felt like electricity).

Fz video-ed it while some girls from another school laughed to my crazy reaction during the shocking experience on my second try. I was able to get 600+ volts on the first try, but got to 1000 volts on my next! That’s an achievement. After some more exploring, we got back to ‘The Marquee’ and settled down before the competition started. Like before, Fz sat on the front seat to control the mouse while me and Rn sat behind him.

3..2..1..oh wait-

Technical difficulties…

3…2…1..Start!

We spent the first few minutes on the first place(mainly since our tiles were able to get us score quite big points). But our luck quickly diminished as the other teams started to catch up with us. On the quarter-hour mark, we were 3rd, and me about to tear my hair. But Fz seemed to maintain his composture and Rn bitching about everything that annoyed him and how unfair the system was, since the game was based on luck. Well, really. It IS based on luck. Sigh, and Rn even slipped in a “Fuck you” to me for ignoring. Like, why wouldn’t I after hearing too much of his annoying voice?

Whatever.

It was a nerve-wrecking time for our team as by the half-hour mark, everyone knew who would be on the upper hand, and who’d be the ones that are on the REAL battle. So yes, our team was against Bt Sec since we kept overtaking each other on the upper hand. INTENSE!

We all kept swapping tiles since the stupid element type cards were always screwing itself up by giving our team the lousy/useless one. By us, meaning our team.

At about 50 min, Bt Sec seemed to overpower us. We both clearly overpowered the other teams, but Bt was really gaining the upper hand. At 55 minutes, Bt started pulling away from us, going from 1000 to 1100, gaining big points round and round(They were getting the good cards while we got the really shitty ones). 

1 minute left, and it was pointless to attempt winning. They were 1300+ points while we were about 1090+ points. Obviously, our luck wasn’t fully there. But heck, we were second. But hey, Bt was a good sport by helping the other teams who were waaaaay lower that us. By the looks of it, the other teams seemed to enjoy themselves, helping each other out and having their choices made known with voices of earshot.(Does that even make sense..) Anyway, they seemed jolly and what funny things they did, I do not know, but I remember laughing with them since it sounded funny. And that boosted our morale to finish this. At least. YOLO, right?

3..2..1..”Thank you for playing!”

(Note that all this was REALLY watered down to a bunch of paragraphs.)

Immediately, we stood up to shake the other teams’ hands. And they seemed jollier than ever. I didn’t know about Fz, but Rn was showing is disappointment openly while I was just..still. For a while. And Rn just had to keep rubbing it in and say that we lost and…whatever. I was both disappointed yet glad that we did our best.

We left ‘The Marquee’ to explore the exhibits some more. Checked out the Earthquake-Room simulator, the typhoon room and a whole lot of amazing interactive exhibits. Bought some McDonalds’ food and we returned for the prize ceremony, where we waited for ages for the GOH to arrive. Had to sit through that not-so-interesting speech and watch a boring video montage which stopped halfway as the video player program screwed up and stopped working.(I was like “YESSS”)

On to the prize ceremony, after the winners of the first competition, Chemistack was next. So we went up to the stage, Fz-first, shook the GOH’s hand, got hold of the hamper, had our pics taken and got back to our seats.(This prize was for those who passed in the preliminary round) And wow, in that hamper contained 3 Phillips headsets and 3 thumbdrives! Awesome stuff.

After a while we got our finalists’ trophy and certificates. And from there, we left since there wasn’t anything to sit for anymore. (I know it’s rude, but I wasn’t the one who had the say)

After passing Fz some money for the ride, Ms A called for a cab and it arrived within 5 min. We all got in and she got off at the nearby mall to meet up with someone. So we then got to talk without worrying about our teacher being there.

Much of the ride home was about the exam results again and about the competition. Raihan bitching again, while I tried to take an Instagram pic of the hamper, before Fz and Rn opened it as quick as lightning. Aaaand out came the cool headsets and thumbdrives.

I spent quite some time admiring there cool gadgets that we earned. Man, such awesome stuff that we now own…

Anyway, I got dropped off outside my house and went on my way.

And that’s…TODAY.

(Other than the horribly amazing and demoralising grades that I got today.)

I’ve recently joined a youth charismatic group in church as an attachment for confirmation, called IGNITE. Today(or should I say, yesterday) was my second time with them and I experienced quite a lot. Get ready blog, for a heck of a post!
IGNITE FTW.

Hey blog.
So I’ve been gone for a while due to mid-year exams. It being over last week, I have a bit of time to blog before being busy with school stuff again.
Nothing much to say about the exams in general, since I know how horrible I did. English, paper 1 pulled me down as always due to time management.
Maths, history repeats itself as I seem to be in the same situation I was when I was sec 2.
Science was quite okay, considering how careless I was in some parts.
Humanities sucked to the core since I didn’t seem to get enough correct to pass. The last exam, D&T, seemed to be an unfair one. Our teacher, who so gladly set the paper, did not teach us almost half of the exam questions. The time spent was mostly on stories about what he comes across and whatnot. Free air conditioning and stories were mostly the stuff I guess. Fortunately, my enthusiasm towards the subject got me studying more than what we were taught. So I pretty much saved my friends’ asses by a bit.
Oh man. Can’t wait for the results.