Saturday, October 14, 2006

Jus' love 'em Teen Titans.

Here's a plot idea that will never be aired since the networks have cancelled the series, but anyway...

It's been nearly a year since Beast Boy has left Titan Tower to join Titans East. The undercurrents between Robin and Starfire have now resulted in them becoming officially an item.

The usually astute Raven appears to be thoroughly surprised by this development, while Cyborg's internal sensors and scanners had been picking up the signs of the budding relationship for quite a while.

But leadership is lacking at Titans East, and Robin is pursuaded to join Beast Boy to whip the East team into shape.

So Robin leaves Star behind at the Tower with Cyborg and Raven.

Titan Tower is feeling quite empty now, with just the 3 original Titans holding the fort...

Fighting super-villains and psycho aliens are business as usual for the team, but how can they fight what Starfire calls "Rekmas"? That's gonna be next season's biggest challenge. Stay tuned!

Friday, October 13, 2006

Another 2-year cycle has come to an end as we bade our JC2s farewell today. Officially, they're kicked out of the nest and by right should be soaring on their own as of now. Congrats, you guys, you've made it this far, so now it's time to really exercise those academic muscles we've been working you on and grab some serious air!

We, your flight instructors, will still be accompanying you along your way over the next couple of weeks, so feel free to continue dropping in on us for advice and more practice as you prep for the trials ahead.

And even as we were waving away our seniors in the morning, we opened our doors in the afternoon to the secondary schools, whose kids were anxious to get a glimpse of what a college campus looks like.

My duty (and thanks to NBS for performing above and beyond by sharing my load with me) was to answer general enquiries about the college, the subjects and the campus environment. Oddly enough, most enquirers only wanted to know if they were good enough to be accepted as students next year. Guess they have more practical and immediate concerns right now to be asking about anything else.

And so the Circle of Life is about to swing around again...

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Mel's been pursuasive. She got me to help the Drama Club put together a short presentation for our college open house tomorrow. Can't say that we had a lot of time to rehearse it; it's still pretty rough right now. Really, it's a skeleton plot and the details simply haven't had sufficient time to develop.

Disclaimers aside, working with the new bunch of Dramatists has made me miss the Drama Club and all our madcap activities.

It's so much fun to see a story develop from the various improvisational fooling about that happens when people are fully immersed in the serious business of play. Taking inspiration (ok, stealing ideas) from Tina, we got the kids playing with buckets, brooms and mops, and seeing the different kinds of things these household items can be used for other than what they were designed to do.

Among the things that came up, someone suggested "knights". We played around with stock characters from the old tales of chivalry and derring-do, and some stereotypical plot devices, and thus our "Arthurian legend" came into being. The best thing about it is that the ideas were almost entirely from the kids themselves. All I needed to do was to stitch together the loose ends, and voila!

We go on at 1630 tomorrow, so if y'all have about 10 minutes to spare around then, we could use your support! Anyway, hope our little visitors will like it.

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Lunch at Sloan Court Hotel with June. Amazing that we ended up there since we began the day intending to meet JY at ECP for cycling.

JY informs us she'll be late, Mom calls me at breakfast about some emergency (turns out Aunt needs to be rushed to the airport for her flight home), JY says she's not done yet, we drive Mom to church, JY says she's not done yet... and it's lunchtime already. :P

Sloan Court's great for a leisurely lunch. The restaurant is decorated like a Tudor-style hunting lodge, complete with replica weapons (though not necessarily hunting weapons) adorning the walls. I thought I saw a moose head mounted up there somewhere too.

There is a certain austerity to the place, like all the furniture and fittings have been there for a very long time. Folded-up coasters balance uneven table legs; underneath the table settings, the tablecloths are threadbare and worn; and the cutlery is all mismatched. But rather than make the place look unpleasant, it feels so comfortable, like home. No fuss, no pretense, no nonsense.

Food-wise, just go for the set-meal. We ordered the more expensive option: roast-beef which came medium (sigh, no blood). Every day is a different item on the menu. Lunch is between $10+ to $18+ depending on your choice of meat.

A bit nostalgic for me to revisit the place as well. This was the site of the first time ever that I got stinkin' pissed drunk. Hee hee. Hic. Ah, the momories...