I hardly ever use Internet Explorer since Mozilla Firefox was launched years ago. In fact the most compelling reason for my switch back then was the tabbed browsing offered by Firefox but now IE. Now it is an ubiquitous feature we find it hard to live without. But I kinda got stuck with Firefox as I find IE a little clumsy in web browsing.

The main reason I use IE these days is for web development purposes. CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) - the codes designers use to style the fonts and design of a webpage is a pain in the butt. Different browsers render CSS codes differently especially so with IE. Bloody IE, if not for your status, I would not even tailor my codes to suit you needs.

Anyway since I was on IE, I decided to log on to another Gmail account to check some emails. Yes, it’s the best way to log on to several Gmail accounts at the same time - use different browsers. Well I got a surprise when I saw this message on IE.

Nice trick Google. I like this sneaky way of sneering IE.

Someday in the future, if I have enough money to provide scholarships to others, this is what I will do. I will put up a full page colour advert on all the major newspapers  and run a month-long online ad campaign on all the major online media, portals, blogs to advertise my scholarship.

My scholarship will have NO application form. Yes you read me right. NO APPLICATION FORM.

The idea is, We have $$$ to be given out for scholarships.  But we are different from the rest. We don’t do things the normal way. Here’s the information that we will provide. An office address. An email address. Your task is to proof to us in the most outrageous, outstanding, radical way why you deserve to win this scholarship.

I love this idea. Students will scramble to crack their brains to be the most creative application since there are no application forms. They are encouraged to use whatever methods to impress. It can be low-tech stuff like sending a big colour package descriving your life in a postcard or sending in dozens of photos with short descriptions or high-tech stuff like creating a 5 minute video presentation of you skydiving explaining your reason or creating a website with support from members from you college and school or using faceboook and creating a group with 10000 followers why you deserve this scholarship. The idea is proof to us in a different manner why you are different. The key is the sky’s the limit. But one thing is certain - just sending in your resume and 10 page essays will get your application tossed into the bin unless it is accompanied by something unique and exceptional.

Send in you application in whichever way to the office address and/or email address to be evaluated. Only the most creative application will be shortlisted.

Your exam results, co-curricular achievements, personality, character and all will/should be reflected in the application. This is cool. This really shortlist the most motivated and determined people.

My 2nd round will be total hard-core business development, marketing idea/brainstorming, creative session individual presentation.

This is all about ideas and selling yourself. I like creativity. I think it’s understated in our current model. It is not being emphasized enough. Let’s go build creativity.

Oh I would love to give out 2 years bond or bond-free scholarships too. Hmmm….I would love to be surprised everyday during this scholarship application. Will I ever get to see this happen?

UPDATE: I was at Sime Darby interview on Monday and I sold this idea to them..Will they take it up? It will be interesting if they do.

I’ve noticed lately that I received quite a number of incoming links from search engines regarding the keywords, Asean, [tag]Asean scholarships[/tag], [tag]Oldham Hall[/tag], Victoria JC etc…..hmmmm….I wonder why….I guess it’s because the new batch of Asean scholars are coming soon to Singapore. If I’m not wrong the new 2008 Malaysians Asean scholars will be coming in on 18th December 2007? Haha….just like me last year, no time to enjoy after SPM…Only 2 weeks at most.

Anyway, when the scholarship letter arrives, it doesn’t state which hostel one is posted to. It simply mentions the hostel name and asks one to report there at so and so date and time. I was Googling around last year also to find out which college I had been posted to. I ended up doing a search at streetdirectory.com to look for colleges near my hostel.

Just to make things simpler, here’s a list of hostels and the JCs one will be posted to.

Oldham Hall – [tag]Anderson JC[/tag]
Victoria Hall – Victoria JC
Raffles Boarding – Raffles JC
Hwa Chong Boarding – National JC
NUS High School Residence – Anglo Chinese JC
Dunman High Boarding – Temasek JC
McNair Lodge – Saint Andrews JC

So which is the best hostel? Can’t really say much. But let me talk from my 1 year experience.

Just in case you are wondering, I’m staying in Oldham Hall, and goes to Anderson JC. I’m a direct scholar, meaning I came to Singapore only during JC level. I’ve just completed JC1 and will be in JC2 next year.

From experience and hearsay from other scholars, it seems like Oldham Hall is the best (ok dun kill me, I shall change to one of the best) place to live in. It has all the facilities one can dream of, except a running track (Near town la, no land!). It has air-cond in rooms (I’m surprised too when I first came last year, lol!), gym, indoor basketball courts, swimming pool, futsal court, music room, laundry service (free & unlimited number of clothes!).

The only drawback is it’s kinda expensive to stay in Oldham Hall and Anderson JC is a little far from hostel (35-45 minutes travelling time via public transport). We gotta pay around S$10 per month for aircond, S$1 per hour for internet and gym membership (not compulsory) is S$40 per year. Next year there will be wireless access but it’s not free. There’s some special plan from some private company and the price range from S$5 to S$22 depending on speed. And also since school is far from hostel, we have a chartered bus in the mornings which charges us around S$15 per month. It’s simpler and faster this way.

I don’t think I wanna babble much here about my hostel. I guess many of you are also hunting for information on which is the best JC in Singapore right?

Well, the Government has stopped releasing the rankings a few years back. But one can basically gauge the rankings of the schools from the cut-off points required by Singapore O-level students to enter these colleges.

This is an unofficial list but based on historical data and cut-off points the [tag]rankings[/tag] are somewhere like this.

1. Raffles JC
2. Hwa Chong JC
3. Victoria JC
4. National JC
5. Temasek JC

These are basically the Top 5 JCs in Singapore. I prefer to call them the Tier 1 JCs.

6. Anderson JC
7. Saint Andrews JC
8. Anglo-Chinese JC

The above 3 JCs I would prefer to call the Tier 2 JCs. Now don’t come killing me saying AC is better than SA or better than AJ. This is an unofficial list and the schools shuffle among themselves for better rankings every year.

From experience, the MOE usually places new direct Malaysian scholars in the above JCs. The only exception is Hwa Chong JC. I have no idea why direct scholars don’t go there….

Most of you might not understand this….Well it’s intended to be that way. This is a post that probably only Sye Yuet understands….

Sye Yuet, I’ve been doing some design work….not much of a design work here. Just playing around some fonts….What’dya think? The tagline and the font choice? I left 3 different types of fonts here. Well, I kinda like the top two fonts….

Remember my previous blog post about the vandalism I saw in Singapore. Well, I was at Melaka for my holidays and this is way cooler than the one in Singapore.

Before the vandal pixs, some random building pixs first….In the middle of old shophouses, there’s this one grand building here…..

Now for the vandal pixs proper….Look at the above! Great piece of art work right? Too bad that pick up truck must park there when I need to take a photo….

Pretty stuff….

And the highlight of the piece of graffiti…..This is just plain fabulous!!

Some final part of the vandal…..

[tag]Singapore[/tag] is spick-and-span. Clean toilets, no [tag]vandalism[/tag] etc. That’s Singapore’s image in the world….(and not forgetting the cliched Fine City nickname) But that’s not 100% true.

Took this pix somewhere near [tag]Paya Lebar MRT[/tag]. I was there to get to the shop that produces the customised mugger mugs that we made for Teachers’ Day (look previous entry).

To me vandalism is cool. It’s some sort of an underground arts scene. However perhaps the graffiti artists here ain’t good enough yet. They are just simply spraying some designs with black spray. I wanna see more creative design and more use of colours. Btw, is there a legal graffiti place in Singapore where artists just simply spray their talents out?

Oh..and took this pix too on the way to the mugs shop….Some digging work for the new MRT line going on….Real deep….and am amazed at the engineering feat…

Plucked this photo from I.Z. Reloaded. We just took our class photo last week. I told some of my classmates about this photo but they don’t believe. Nah, look at this pix. Now do you believe?

Anyway, some background to this photo, also from I.Z.’s blog:

The photo is not from a school in Japan but Singapore’s very own Anderson Junior College! It was taken in 2004 and it even made the local news back then. I found the following story by The New Paper on a forum. From talkgeek2me.com forums:

In a rash moment, these two girls from Anderson Junior College (AJC) locked lips for the camera - all for a wacky class photo.
They pulled off the joke under the noses of their form tutor and their classmates, when posing for an informal memento at the annual photo-taking session.

Now, the former Year One Science students say they did not mean it and are sorry for what they did.
However, it has caused unnecessary embarrassment to the college, their tutor and their parents…
AJC’s principal of five years, Mr Tan Tiek Kwee, told The Y Scene that the photo of the kiss was not a result of some fancy digital trick, as some suspected at first.
It was just a result of a ’silly prank’, he said.

The ‘fun’ pose, captured by a photographer from AJC’s Photographic Society, was for the class to keep.
As the photographer said ‘One, two, three’, the girls kissed on the count of three.