why is it that flowers which attract moths and butterflies mostly smell sweet? why are these insects attracted by a sweet smell? flies are attracted to stench because the smell promises a breeding ground and food, but how about butterflies? flies associate stench with breeding ground because a rotting piece of meat produces a stench, and to the fly the meat is food and a place to breed. but to a butterfly, why did it associate sweet smell with sweet nectar from flowers? perhaps in the end it is all just olfactory.

why the random post above? simply cos i thought of that question earlier on.

another intriguing observation: why is it alocasia and amorphophallus leaves curl downwards in the direction the catipillar is leaning and eating? firstly, i doubt it is the weight of the catipillar because the curl downwards is too much to have been cause by weight alone. and secondly, the curling downwards seems to occur in less than a day, suggesting that the process of bending over is relatively quick, and also because the catipillar still had not finished its meal, suggesting that the leaf curled fast, because catipillars eat rather fast. is the curling induced by mechanical or chemical means, or a combination of both? is there a logical reason for the stem curling? and is this observation limited to the type of catipillar and the type of plant, in this case 2 genera from the araceae family? this observations do happen from time to time, but why is it that it doesnt happen 100%? out of the many catipillar attacks, only a minor few cause the above phenomenon. what makes these few catipillars so special? who knows....

Feeling lonely once more, and alone this time. contacts on the net whom i hardly speak to or speak to but wait in vain for a reply. the chinese exams are finally over with, though the euphoria associated with it was short lived. welcome back to the real world. welcome back to IB.

these past few days have passed so slowly, but yet so fast..

once again i would like to extend my thanks to those who have offered solace during this period of time. nothing much can be said, except that is over, and that life is indeed never a straight path. as i watched the wooden vessel enter the fire today, i could not help but feel a sense of loneliness and loss, and that it was indeed a final goodbye. i would never be able to look into her face again, but it is alright, because that is how i would like to remember her: to remember her as she was in the past.

nothing much happened today, except for the exceptionally strong wind early in the morning, which surprisingly did not break any leaves. read through some chinese notes today. but the mugging shall officially start from tomorrow onwards. Chui Shao Xiong shall learn more about chinese then he will ever want to in his entire life, mostly about the different social issues and how to appreciate essays. -.- he shall attempt to write an essay a day, if that is possible enough, and will end up carrying a ring file containing all his chinese notes around until the start of the exams.

ok back to the first person narrative, i envision life to get even harder than it is currently, and laugh when the yr5s complain about their life already. i do wish life would skip this stage and just move on 1 year ahead. and i do wish people would be more frank in life, anywhere anyplace, be it in school or the work place. for example: openly admitting "i AM back stabbing you" and so on....

tomorrow will be one of a few days of the year where i will feel sadder than usual, other than teachers day and chinese new year. all the memories always come back, of a spring long gone.

Hilarious that i somehow managed to merge two chinese essay questions together to form one. did not realise until the teacher gave back the paper, saying that i used good examples, and i automatically asked "but?". seems like a natural reflex action of asking what is wrong the moment a teacher starts speaking in a certain manner.

less than 2 weeks to go, admist all the chaos of school.

How much of a friend have i been these past years? that is a question i ask myself, but yet am unable to answer. all these years, just co existing with other people, under the loose heading of friends. always looked back at the past though i wish i didn't. always regretting some of the choices i made. always wondering how different life would be in a different setting, a different time. what if i chose to go to Victoria as a strongly wanted to in p6, since alot of my classmates were headed for there? definitely different friends, during experiences, and most likely, a different me.

have i been truthful to my friends? to a certain extent yes, but yet not absolutely. remaining silent about things does come under that i suppose. so when you do read this, please ask yourself, firstly whether i have been a real friend to you, and secondly, whether you have been a real friend to others.

my powers of ShortTermMemory(STM) are catching up. from schoolwork where i find it hard to remember facts of which i have no interest, to even my passion where sometimes my mind just goes blank when trying to recall something i know well. STM even stretches out to my memories of the past, which remain hazy and sometimes blank. bit and pieces here and there, but nothing more. what i try to recall and picture seem so unreal, as if they have never occurred before. so do the sad moments, gone within a day or two, forgotten within a few days.

was watching da chang jin today while eating dinner, and a particular scene was etched into my mind, at least for that period of time. it was about one character whose last wish before dying was to eat "summer grains", a type of rice once more before she died. those grains were given to her to eat when she was still young by her brother, who died shortly after. perhaps in the past, i would have brushed the scene aside, saying that rice was just rice. but now, perhaps from the general weariness of life or just another year added on, i begin to see the significance of plain, simple, rice and its true meaning, of how those grains could bring out true happiness before walking with death. appreciated the moment when she got to taste those grains once more.

inner conflict like Hedda Gabler, always wishing my life was more memorable through out of the way experiences, but yet still conforming to society. what if i took art in the past and art now? a whole of difference perhaps.

What is it that makes us human when there is so little that separates humans and beasts? was watching a video clip for chinese class today, where the topic of violence and abuse was covered. the saddest part was not even that of wives getting beaten by their husbands, but of how the aged are mistreated by their own children. heart wrenching lines such as "why don't you just die to save us the trouble" pierce the heart. and some of the aged do take it to heart, committing suicide when they deem themselves a burden upon others. is that how we want our society to be? everyone grows old someday, but yet so many shun it like a disease, describing the old as disgusting etc. what goes around comes around in this case.

when life gets put back into perspective, i finally realise the full extent of the sad state we are in, at least for me. imagine having to compete with your own schoolmates for a place in the uni you wish to get into. this is not even on a global playing field with other IB schools. if everyone gets 40+ points, and you get something like 38, you are not competing with the rest of the world to get into a uni, but rather, you are competing with the influx of 200+ students from your school in applying to top universities who have gotten 40+ points. steps up the pressure considerably doesn't it?

random moral of the above passage? : go to a random ulu university, chances of getting in may be better.

frankly, what matters most is not which university you are in, but rather to what extent is your passion? using my favorite obscure area of botany, just a check on google shows that famous botanist don't come from just a few unis, but originate from unis all over the world.

what constitutes bravery? that question came about as i was watching the life buoy advert. it featured one part about a boy carrying a kitten out of the storm when it was still raining, labeling the action as bravery.

have standards of bravery dropped so low? the definition by the freeonlinedictionary is: a quality of spirit that enables you to face danger or pain without showing fear. how many of us can attest to it? i would define bravery as harboring fears all the same, but still doing what needs to be done.

the next 2+ weeks shall be spent in solitary confinement. if i should ever express my desire to step foot anywhere near a shopping mall within the next 18days, please do remind me to stay home and study for the upcoming exams, which will take place in a sad room in the library. lol.....

there is only one way to die, when our system fails to function any longer. but yet there are so many ways to live, so many doors to choose from. just whether we choose wisely or not. after all, there is no respawn in this game.

to view the world with eyes of optimism, only to see it crumble away. what then would eyes of pessimism bring? come what may. though i tend to get depressed at times, i shall not be brought down by it, nor get stuck in a moment.