Does fate really intervene?

You have all heard it before. People whine all the time about how life is unfair. But how many actually have the fucking proof?

Brace urselves because u're about to hear it again. I'll keep it simple.

I'm a very physically active person and I love to exercise. National Service called me and I was looking forward to having a good experience. Due to several problems I was initially put into PES D. After I was cleared, I was put into PES C. Now, I'm trying to get into PES B by applying for servicefit.

Sounds like a smooth transition but no. I have fucking hyper-thyroidism which makes CMPB think I'm a diesease ridden zombie incapable of doing anything more than slacking. To me, to slack is to suffer. Hell, I even planned to do my own exercises in NS if they don't torture me enough.

Needless to say, having this wonderful condition, which happens to affect females more (wow, just my luck, but then again, i've gotten used to my shitty luck), has almost limited my potential to be a fit person. Ask the army, they probably think I'm going to die halfway doing their pansy park walks.

As if that wasn't bad enough i found out my piss had protein in it. I did some research and found out that this could be caused by my kidney leaking out protein which was supposed to be circulating back into my blood stream. Now, how is that a slap in the face for someone who exercises to his best and ensures that he takes adequate amounts of protein, so that his body can have the best it needs? It's a fucking back slap combo'ed with a palm slap is what it is. Is life really trying to conspire to keep me away from acheiving my full potential?

Well. I guess we all can't be lucky.

Love, love is a verb, it's also a stupid word.

The biggest waste of time on this planet is this - Love.

It is what causes adolescents to stray from success, to give the wrong impression of the opposite gender, to ruin life from the very start of it. Little boy, you could be doing so much in your youth, yet you waste it on a girl because of feelings you are too weak to control.

Study hard, you may not become the next Einstein, but you will have a greater understanding of the world and become a more sensible person through education.

Learn driving, you don't become 'speed racer' but you'll be able to handle a vehicle.

Go to the gym, work out, hell work out the wrong way and you'll still have some sort of body to show for it, and become a healthier person.

Fall in love and you break up in the end, you might...

Have a heartbreak
Become depressed
Become obsessive
Lose your appetite
Realise the hole in your pocket was bigger than you thought, and subsequently not have enough dough to take the bus home.
Etc, etc.

The biggest waste of all, would be the time.

"Oh...but what a wonderful time we had, I'll never forget it as long as I live, I'll always -" blah blah blah.

Stuff it loser. You didn't gain shit, and you don't have shit to show for it.

Your parents didn't tell you stay away from relationships when you were young for nothing. They did it so that you weak-willed knuckleheads would have a god damn future.

And I do laugh when I see young couples. They brighten up my day with their foolishness.

Flawed, an understatement.

To say that the current admission system to polytechnics is flawed is simply put, an understatement. To all graduates of the O levels and other people trying to apply to polytechnics, you will notice they place great emphasis on passing five credits to be eligible for consideration into the courses you would like to enter.

To candidates who wish to enter engineering courses, or courses which deal in scientific knowledge and other proficiencies which require both maths and science, it is understandable for such requirements. Yes, they have made passing maths and science a criteria to enter. Why, many polys have even been so kind as to lower the english grade needed to enter to D7.

Here comes the problem. What about courses like mass communication and other more language centered courses? Sorry guys. You have to pass your maths and science to even be allowed to apply. Does it make sense that subjects like maths, science, accounts and commerce have absolutely nothing to do with your future intended course, yet pose a significant threat to those who are poor in them and try to enter such courses? You might be an english prodigy who can spell almost every single word in the dictionary, but hey, polys like a certain Ngee Ann are more worried you didn't have the sufficient maths skill to count the total number of hours to your break time.

Does it make sense that engineering courses which understandly place more emphasis on subjects like maths and science have their english requirement levied, while courses like mass comm cannot do the same for irrelevant subjects like science? I'll leave you to think about that yourselves.

You see, ironically, the english language is undoubtedly the most important subject in any course you take. A weak grasp of the subject would result in you, perhaps not understanding what was being taught and might lead you to interpret information falsely. Yet the requirement is lowered to a D7 for it. The same can't be done for mass comm however in retrospect to other subjects like maths and science. Ngee Ann is much more worried that your D7 in science might cause you to lose your balance while walking around in class, because you failed physics.

So, people with a genuine interest in such courses, and even those who feel they can excel when they are put inside them. Your instinct tells you to write an appeal letter. Why? Of course it's because you didn't meet their minimum requirements.

So you write the appeal letter, put in your best effort in showing them you have good english and that your flaws in maths and science have been made up by other documents that prove you are more suited to be a communicator, more suitable for the mass comm course.

And you receive a letter telling you, "we're sorry, we symphatize. You do not meet the minimum requirements and we cannot consider you."

If I met the minimum requirements why the heck would I be submitting through an appeal
letter?

So instead of going to people who are genuinely interested in courses like mass comm, what vacancies they have are given to people who have shown they won't be late for class because they know how to count the numbers on the clock. Hooray for having a C6 for maths.

People like me, people like us with a genuine interest in such things are left to choose a different path, which will have absolutely nothing to do with our abilities.

Ironically Singapore wants to nurture creativity, and wants people with talents to stand out. A better idea would be to nurture the pathetic student allocation system.

The wrong way, to a right place.

The singapore education allocation system has always amazed me. I never thought I would ever feel the true 'amazement' of it, but now I do.

Here's an example. In singapore, courses in most polytechnics appeal to people, most of whom have a strong desire to enter the particular course they like. There's only one problem. Supposing you have just finished your O levels. In your secondary school life you realized that you were different. Unlike other people in your class who mug for exams and frantically discuss study notes in the anticipation of the next big test, you run around doing something, which is unusual in the sight of school. You run around with a camera, creating short films as a labour of love and for the pure joy of it. It was what made you happy, what made you complete.

Unfortunately, as life always love to shove one up yours whenever the chance arises (although sometimes it's very well deserved), your lack of studying while doing your unique activities has left your O level results, in, to put it mildly, a puddle of mud. (maybe with a couple of worms too.)

While browsing through the courses available for post O level grads you stumble across a course, which is literally, the stuff of your dreams. This course, labelled, for instance "Film production", catches your eye instantly. Unfortunately what also catches your eye is the entry requirements, which unfortunately, you do not meet.

Your first reaction would be, understandably, "what the f--k? Why in the blue hell would I need to have credits in maths, accounts and science to enter this course? Of course the answer is, to fulfil the minimum requirements of having five credit passes. Makes sense, or does it not?

So being the filming devotee yourself, you appeal. Yes. The point of appealing is definitely for those who failed to achieve the basic requirements. In a hope that your actual experience and love for filming would come through, and you would be accepted.

Time to wake up my friends. Cause in the polytechnic's eye, a person who slogged through his O levels studying subjects which aren't even relevant to what the course offers, is a far better suited candidate than you, the camera toting youngster with big ambitions.

And congratulations to the polytechnic who made this decision. You have denied to a person who would have been right at home with your course, a chance to rise even higher.

Why? Just because he didn't slog through doing algebra and having the heart to memorize pythagoras theorem, and was instead doing exactly what your course teaches.

Well done to the polytechnics who only see the superficial results of the O levels, and refuse to see the individual's true ability and enthusiasm. You might just have destroyed a part of Singapore's hidden talents.

Recently created. Time to roll.

Okay, this is the first post, let's see how this goes.