Lols, while most of the 01-2006 were out there hiking and drawing maps, I spent the whole day learning stuff, not all that bad too, haha. So yesterday morning I went to school for the Interschool Philosophy Dialogue. My topic was 'Girlfriend from Hell' Hm... Ok I shall attempt to type out the whole topic here:
--Start of topic--
Alvin and Celine are in a deteriorating relationship, and the situation finlly turns ugly when Celine starts insulting Alvin with every derogatory comment one can ever conceive of (and in several languages, to boot).

Alvin, being the nice, likeable person that he is, and wo is certainly unaccustomed to being the recipient of such venom, says that he is hurt. Celine, the girlfriend from hell who is an expert at verbal blood sport (a skill honed no doubt during her career as a lawyer), laughs callously.

"Dont blame me for hurting you. My words will only hurt you if you allow them to. So it's your own fault if you're hurt."

On one hand, it certainly seems like Celine is right- if an obviously psychotic man came up to you on the street and started hurling abuse at you (perhaps because he imagines you to be an enemy of his), you would simply ignore him. On the other hand, an insult is designed to hurt, much like a sword is intended to cut. Obviously one would be cut by the sword regardless of how one regards it; likewise, the capacity of the insult to hurt would seem quite independent on of how one regards the words.

These two views seem compelling, but, at the same time, are incompatible (i.e. you ca only choose one). Which is right? Does the hurt Alvin feels depend on how much he allows the insults to hurt him?
--End of topic--

Lols, Lionel in my group was rather disappointed, because he claimed that he wanted some inputs from those of the opposite gender, and our group was made up of only guys, lol. But of course we all know what he is thinking...haha. We had quite a fruitful discussion, with many points covered that I havent thought of, and it really gave me a different perspective of the question, after the whole thing. Shant write them here to let you people think through it yourself, lol. Overall, it was quite a fun and interesting event, I never thought that an event can be just putting everyone in rooms and letting them talk, lols.

Then after the dialogue session, Jim and I went to J8 to get lunch, but halfway there it started to rain, lol. Had to run, lols. Now I appreciate the trees even more. Then got reminded of those at FC, was it raining there too? haha. Anyway, we had a quick lunch before running off to tuition, lol. 2 hours at maths tuition really doesnt help the tired mind, after a philosophy dialogue. Was dozing off at maths lesson, lol. Haha, so after maths I felt slightly more awake, and rushed back to Bishan to meet with Hiok Yang for geog project due. Was doing some stuff at Bishan library, and had some trouble first with the internet, then with the power. But in the end everything went ok, and we just kept everything, then helped Hiok Yang find books on Autism for his RE. Haha, found out that he too volunteered at the library before, lols. but he did the more boring job out of all the boring jobs. He was doing the sorting of books in the sorting room-'the centralised collection point of returned books or messed up books' Lols, at least I was doing more of shelving which was outside and moving around, haha. I found out that my skills in shelving proved to be useful, cos I had no problem looking for books just by their call number. lols, first realisation of that.

So after that we went out and went to take a bus. Lols, had some problems on whether or not we should J-walk (lols, dont want to write it out). But Hiok Yang sort of managed to trick me by saying that his bus is like reaching soon. And because I was such an easy target to trick, he managed to get me to J-walk, lols. Cunning. So from there I went directly to my grandmother's house since my family was there. Ate a dinner, then watched LOTR with my cousins on TV and played some random PSP games. Was really falling asleep that time liao, lols. Which is why it wasnt surprising when I went home and ate a lot again, then fell asleep quite 'early'. Lols, the philosophy of language. One problem is the definition of words. 1. Words are ideas, and different people can have different ideas of words. 2. Words have different meanings in different contexts. 'early' can mean 6am, 8pm, or even 1am. Lols, ok I should be too obbessed with philosophy now. Still need to do zuowen, SS essay and RE. Look forward to seeing them return from FC! Oh yes, and of course the extra day off- Youth Day! Which is the day youths do what youths should do! Homework.