Hello world!

My first attempt at a blog in 4 years, after having tried - and finding myself too lazy to blog.

My name is Michael Ong. I live in Singapore, at the southern tip of Peninsular Malaysia, somewhere in Southeast Asia. I'm now currently studying in Anglo Chinese School (Independent), a junior college (i.e. high school) doing the IB programme. Like most other students my age, I intend to enroll in a university soon after graduating and hopefully get a scholarship too, though I will have to do my national service (conscription term) before that.

I suppose I'm not a very conventional person. I just don't seem to conform to most stereotypes about people (e.g. stereotypes like "nerd", "jock", "bimbo" etc).

I used to be a member of the air cadet corps in my school (here, units / squadrons are based on schools) for the last few years. Well, every year, appointments are given to the cohort of senior cadets to run the unit. Unlike most cadets, I chose not to aim for a high appointment, but rather decided to take part in the International Air Cadet Exchange and the Basic Diving course; I learned a lot more from both than getting any high appointment. At the same time, what I did as a senior was unusual in itself - I asked for, and basically got the higher ups to let me teach junior cadets aviation-related science so that they could understand more about airplanes.

Now, I'm currently in the swimming team and the science research club of my school - just following my other interests in sports in general as well as both the hard sciences and social sciences - modern international history, political science and sociology.

Given that, it seems only natural that this blog functions both as an outlet for my views on current issues as well as somewhere to showcase science stuff. The rationale is simple - through interacting with one another, we learn from one another - be it in political viewpoints or building a better mousetrap.

Also, everybody started out a newbie at some time or another. So have I, even though I am only starting to, as Isaac Newton said, discover the vast world beyond. Initially, I had trouble understanding all the technical terms, jargon and stuff and had to rely on the Internet and a multitude of kind forum posters and moderators to get answers (a big thanks to them). Hopefully, this blog can do the same for others in the same situation.

Seems a bit weird considering that this blog is functions both a an outlet for showcase of science stuff, but I never exactly conformed with the norm here, which is that both are generally incompatible and separate. And, after all, in the real world, both come together at some point or another. Note, this isn't a result of TOK or any of those nice sounding acronyms from IB, but simple common sense.

Hope everyone can connect to this blog in one way or another.

http://michaelsworkshop.blogspot.com.

Michael Ong

17 September 2008