Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Anime Addition

Anime addition, manga too I am in. recently it's Love hina and Negima. Both by the same author! However Dragon Ball has got to be the best.

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Finished my applications at last!

At last I have finished my US application to Caltech, Princeton and MIT.
True freedom lies in front of me. No more sufferings!

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

A brief History of me

Malacca, the Historical City of Malaysia, the place where I was born, brought up, and became who I am.

My father was the first born of my grandparents and in my turn, I am my father’s first born son. This undoubtedly guaranteed me tons of love from my doting grandparents. That was why Grandpa and Grandma allowed me to watch cartoons for whole afternoons. They were English cartoons, mind you. Thus, I mastered my English together with my Chinese languages by means of the only media appealing to little children: cartoons.

Ever since I was promoted from Grade Three to Grade Five in my primary school for passing a national examination that tested students on their IQ’s, mathematics and language skills, I was considered outstanding. For a few times in my academic career, I obtained the first position in my class. This was the case until I finally entered into the top Form 3 (8th grade) class of the best boy school in Malacca, St. Francis Institution. There I found my challenge; a group of 51 bright students of which at least ten had always beaten me academically.

Of course I had developed a passion for reading by then. Reading had brought me from classics to Sherlock, from Asimov to sci-fi. So it is not too surprising that I read Buddhism books on my own. Beginning from the quest to find the meaning of life, I discovered my ultimate goal in life: to become a monk. Unfortunately, I had fallen into delusion and depression (as the result of lack of guidance) and had to choose between monkhood or to study for the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (Malaysian Certificate of Education) at the end of Form 5 (Grade 10).

It was one important decision in my life. Finally, heeding the advice of my family, friends and cousins, I chose to continue my studies. At that time, having to confine my cravings and deal with my depression, I was surprised to know that I had scored straight A’s along with 20 other friends, breaking the school’s record.

After SPM, I wanted to challenge myself with the hardest things in life. I reasoned that if I can do the hardest things on earth, I could face any simpler challenges in life. Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (Malaysian Higher School Certificate), the most difficult national examination in Malaysia, is taken only in Upper 6th form (12th grade). Normally, people do not like the idea of going to grade 12. However, the things that cause most people to shrink from naturally motivated the inquisitive me to take up. Without further ado, I entered Malacca High School, the second oldest school in Malaysia, to study my Pre-University course. Additionally, I took a very tough subject, Further Mathematics; in 2006 there were only about 100 people taking it nationwide.

Many people asked me the reason why I took this extra difficult subject. My reply was that it functions partly to challenge myself; partly for the sake of physics. Yes, I had ventured into non-friction physics in particular. Books like “A Brief History of Time” by Stephen Hawking and “The Elegant Universe” by Brian Greene had me hooked on to physics. So I read up on the concepts of quantum mechanics, relativity, string theory and even the history of the development of physics.

In December 2006, I went to the national training camp for the International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO). Naturally, after knowing that there was such an academic Olympiad, I aspired to go to the Physics one. We managed to go to the second camp.

After five days of learning university level first year physics syllabus, we had a test. As it turned out, I made it to the third physics camp along with 14 others from the whole country! The irony of this was that the second IChO camp clashes with the third IPhO camp. Again, I had to choose. That was an easy choice, however. I totally went for physics. My choice was paid off, as I was selected among the top five participants to represent my country in the 38th International Physics Olympiad in Iran.

This trip made me all the more determined to be a physicist. And now I realized that I had long left depression’s shadow. I am going to the stars. Being able to represent the country makes me confident that I am qualified to go to the top Universities in the world. This is the driving force that drove me on to apply for admission into the USA Universities to fulfill my dreams of becoming a physicist, then later in life… a monk.

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

I am a Mensan!

This news is quite old now. I took the Malaysia Mensa Society's Raven Advanced Progressive Matrices in August last year. The letter they promised to sent me arrived in October. Well, too bad I didn't get full 180, but at least I have 156. (I was quite surprised that my MIT Educational Counselor had called this high when, after asking around, there is at least 3 person in beta who beat my score, 2 of them got 180!)

By the way, Mensa is a society for the top 2% IQ in the world. The Malaysian Mensa Society had put a cut off point of 148.

From the end of STPM until now

After the last paper of Malaysian Higher School Certificate Examination on the 4th of December 2007, I had went to the public library of Malacca to borrow 3 books to read.
I had gone to vacation in Penang on 8th of December 2007 for yet another cousin reunion, straight away after that,
on the 13th, I had went to Kuala Lumpur to meet up with my parents.
On the 14th, I had gone up to Cameron Highlands with my family, including my grandparents and we came back to Malacca on the 16th.
On Christmas day, I had went to Kuala Lumpur yet again with my cousins and came back to Malacca on the 27th.
On the 29th, I went to Form 5 reunion party at night.

Happy 2008

It's the start of a whole new year, the end of good old 2007. As I am now doing my University application (yes still), I look back at 2007.
2007, the Year I started this blog
2007, the year I called advanced.
2007, the Year I took STPM.
2007, the Year I went to Iran, the year when I made many many International Friends. (most of my facebook friends are from the IPhO.)
2007, the Year I started to apply for University.

Now, 2008 will be the start of something new.