I was just getting into the chinese new year mood then suddenly, school’s open tomorrow. I mean WTF. Chinese New Year season lasts FIFTEEN days and we only get two days of public holiday?

I can’t get enough of clich�d chinese new year songs. The only time when I can sing along to Teresa Teng without being thrown rotten eggs at.

My dreams of being the next Singapore Idol is still very much alive, especially inspired after seeing the guy in the Singapore Idol advertisement getting such a large bowl of ice kachang! No shit.

she also got borg!

Chinese New Year is also the time when we can indulge in uglily decorated cakes without any guilt.

Next year please come quick, come quick quick!

http://www.todayonline.com/articles/97471.asp

Oh how so timely.

Poly fees to rise by $50 a year

Lin Yanqin
yanqinl@newstoday.com.sg

ALL five polytechnics in Singapore will be raising tuition fees by $50 for the academic year of 2006.

The fee hike, which brings annual tuition fees to $2,100, follows an increase of $100 last year.

We want more of your money please. Oh wait, you have no choice. Bwahaha. It’ll be another $100 next year.

Rising costs, such as manpower costs, was the reason given by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in a joint announcement by the polytechnics yesterday.

For example, according to the annual reports, Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s expenditure on salaries and allowances went up by nearly $4 million.

And Ngee Ann’s spending money on senior lecturers who couldn’t even get the formula of the volume of a cone correct?

“Formula of volume of cone? You should know, this is common sense.”

Then he proceeded to give me the formula for the volume of a sphere. How I wish I was half as smart as him.

At Nanyang Polytechnic, the same costs went up by about $6 million.

“New technology, new facilities, these are all continuous efforts on the part of the polys and MOE towards providing better education,” said Republic Polytechnic principal and CEO Professor Low Teck Seng, speaking on behalf of all five polytechnics.

The increase is being effected now rather than earlier because of the improved economy.

“There were no increases from 2002 to 2004, when the economy was not doing so well,” he said, adding that there are currently no plans to increase fees any further.

Of course, die die also must increase. Even our dear president got a pay rise of $114,900. The one man who does all the most important things in Singapore.

Prof Low emphasised that there were a variety of schemes to help financially needy students, should they have trouble with the increased fees.

More information about such schemes is available at the various schools’ websites.

Prof Low added that about two-thirds of all local polytechnic students currently receive some form of financial assistance through schemes like the CPF Education Scheme and Tuition Fee Loan Scheme and other study loans.

This includes some 10 to 20 per cent of polytechnic students who need financial aid in the form of bursaries and various self-help schemes to meet the annual tuition fees, according to a news report in August last year.

But Ngee Ann Polytechnic student Goh Peizhen shrugged off the latest increase.

“It’s only a bit when you compare it to the full sum of fees we have to pay,” she said.

I wonder who pays for Peizhen’s school fees?

Happy Chinese New Year indeed.

Probably the cutest contestant from Singapore Idol season 1. Pity she only got into the top 30 and eliminated pretty early in the show.

She also has this updated-once-in-a-million-years blog.

http://www.joannadong.com/wst_page3.html

- red ranger

I love Ribena too.

The “She�s so hott twhat i carnnot tyrpe and thwink prooeperliy” blogger Fireangel now has her own blog.

http://fireangelism.com/

Fireangelism le. Don’t play play. Nobody else but her can come up with a word as cool as that. Where do I get the registration form to join this cult?

If you’re not watching a movie, playing pool, buying anything; don’t go Orchard. Especially NOT Centrepoint. Unless you’re getting pussy willows for chinese new year to decorate your ugly, dull, boring room.

We were supposed to meet at 3.30 but for some profound reason, we ended up meeting at 4. OK, truth be told, we are both tardy, disorganized people.

So she was in her sexy uniform looking all adorable specially for me and after walking around pretending we are studious people when we went to Borders and Kinokuniya, we sat down for coffee at coffee bean. I got The Ultimate and she got the sweetest-but-no-matter-how-i-try-but-cant-stomach Caramel ice blended.

Anyhow, when we are done. We walked over to the bus stop and suddenly yan yan heard a camera clicking sound and this suspicious guy (who probably needs to go yun nam hair centre) walked away immediately.

Let’s just call this guy ‘cheebye’, technically, he’s just taking secret photos in our directions so he can sell them on ebay and he doesn’t look anywhere like a female’s secret place but ‘cheebye’ sounds good all the same.

Since I don’t have god like powers to show you all what exactly happened. This is a photo I got somewhere to illustrate the situation.

So instead of some hot sexy lingerie model, ‘cheebye’ probably got this in his camera phone.

This photo is so valuable that if you go sell it on eBay, I confirm you, highest bided item on eBay history EVER. No doubt about that.

Ok, American Idol have just started airing in Singapore. I dont intend to watch a single episode and you shouldn’t cause just look at this.

Unless of course you’re into little goldilocks wannabe.

But i digress. So some genius at mediacorp thought this up, since you’re watching AMI you must be planning to join SI. How about we try to tempt you to join our little competition?

Afraid that you’ll sound horrible during Singapore Idol auditions?

Don’t end up like the rejects from American Idol’s knockout rounds!

Watch American Idol on Jan 25 and 26 on Channel 5 and look out for the password that appears during the show.

Three lucky viewers will get a personal 1-hour vocal training lesson with Singapore Idol vocal teacher Babes Conde on Feb 1 between 7-10pm.

http://ch5.mediacorptv.com/wassup/ch5announcements/view/595/1/.html

Babes Conde? She must be a hot babe i thought. I was so wrong. But what the heck, it’s a singing competition, who cares if my teacher is one fat unattractive lady?

Anyway, so it’s your lucky day and you win a vocal training lesson with Babes Conde who teaches stars like Fann Wong, Christopher Lee, Donita Rose and Kit Chan how to sing.

Fann, Christopher, Donita singing?! WTF. She must be a hell of a teacher.

And whats that one hour gonna do? Make you into the next Celine Dion? At best, the next william hung (remember the real american idol? me neither).

More Babes Conde links:

http://www.dpa.org.sg/news/news_october_2001-2.htm
http://www.singaporestreetfestival.com/mentors.html

- red ranger

Mildly entertaining, predictable storyline. But I used to watch their TV series pretty rabidly (I wonder what I was eating then) so my inner nostalgic me gave in.

Who I recommend you watch this movie with?

The short Madagascar penguin squad thing at the start is also pretty interesting.

Rating: 3/5