The IKEA cafe's Swedish meatballs ran out on us while we were standing in line. Salmon and chix wings were next to go. We realized that today was an early-closing day, the kitchen being open only up till 1730, and we wound up with empty trays and rumbling tummies.

Next best thing was to run downstairs and grab 1kg of frozen meatballs for a nice, home-cooked New Year's eve dinner for 2. And yes, the meal is quite simple to put together. There are about 50 meatballs in a pack, and gravy powder to which you need to add some whipping cream to thicken. With boiled potatoes, a teaspoon of cranberry sauce and a glass of pineapple juice June bought in the Philippines, we're all set.

Spent the rest of the evening makin' nice with a vacuum cleaner hose, getting our floor spotless again before Old Man 2006 exits, stage left. But in less than an hour's time, it'll be a very "Happy New Year" to everyone!

Count down with me... 3... 2... 1...!

How did we human beings get to become the dominant species on this planet? It isn't because we have opposable thumbs, as some hacks might suggest. If it was, then we'd be facing competition against the other primates and a couple of squirrels in a triple-threat match to be "King of the Hill". But so far, we seem to be the only ones able to survive pretty much anywhere on Earth. For changing the environment to suit ourselves rather than adapting ourselves to suit our environment, no one else is in our league.

I think it's because we've made 6 good friends, and we've been leveraging on their strength ever since. They are: who, what, when, where, why, and how.

Our ability to ask questions means that we no longer have to accept status quo all the time. We can question our current situation, draw implications from conclusions to our queries, and plan ahead to implement our desired predictions, forecasts and outcomes. We dare ask, "how might our future be better than it is now?" No other animal does anything like this.

So asking questions has to be our #1 most important skill to learn. It has helped us crawl out of the mud, climb down off the trees and it will eventually take us to the stars -- if we so desire.

When I look at our approach to education, though, I have to wonder if we are teaching the right skills. School experience for the student is almost entirely just learning what the answers are. But if they didn't ask the question in the first place, why should they care about what the answer is, anyway?

Besides, the skill of answering questions is a nonsense skill. Answers are static, fixed. Answers reinforce the status quo. Answers force acceptance, giving the impression that nothing can or will change, um, because. Answers are always right, even though they may be wrong. What's the shape of the world? What's at the centre of the universe? Whatever the answer, people at one time believed it, though today, we believe in a totally different answer. And whatever we believe must be right. Right? Whatever.

When we teach students to answer GP questions, whether compre or essay, to me it seems like putting the cart before the horse. We ought to be teaching (or re-teaching) kids to ask questions first.

I believe that the right questions will answer themselves. So when they learn to ask the right questions, they'll learn something that's so much more practical and potentially more life-changing than just learning the right answers.

Will try this approach with my '07 kids. Hope they won't kill me for educational heresy.

The staff tour of farmland Kranji was a novel way to begin our 2-day end-of-year workshop. Between dodging raindrops and puddles, I got to handle a live bullfrog (slimy but oddly odourless) and rubbed up the fur of a farm dog and cat along the way. Like my noisy, chatty companions, the animals were equally sociable.

Apart from learning that bullfrogs are monogamous, and new vocabulary like "aeroponics" and "agri-tainment", I was quite taken by the approach of the Kranji stakeholders to deal with their individual and collective problems operating farms in S'pore.

For example, we have farms in S'pore??? Where do we have space to have 1 farm, let alone the 170+ farms that are supposed to operate in the area? Aren't farms far away, inaccessible, dirty, smelly places that are nice to visit but don't exactly offer top career choices for our children?

With public perception as such, they don't get much support from either the market or even our public institutions. Each farm struggles to survive, and people being what they are, S'poreans in particular, the temptation must be great to conflict and compete the hell out of each other, neighbours being at each others' throats for scraps of resources all the time. We all know what that kind of life is like.

But the Kranji collective impresses me with its ability to cooperate with each other, leveraging on each other's strengths rather than exploiting one another's weaknesses. They rightly identify their problems as obstacles to overcome rather than target each other as the source of their woes.

And even more impressively, they rely most on their ideas: always finding new ways to do things better. Our farmers ain't hicks. They're scientists, engineers, craftsmen, artisans and designers; market-savvy, well-travelled and well-connected. They're angry and frustrated 'cos it's a tough line of work, but they're also hungry and unwilling to just keel over and die without a fight.

And what I love is their attitude that ideas are meant to be shared open-source, instead of selfishly hoarded. I've always believed that an idea is only as good as it is shared. The further it spreads, the better it must be. Ideas propagate one another, and I guess farmers are best positioned to understand this simple truth.

Respect the farmer, urbanite!

Meet Swiss Cheese Man a.k.a. Holey Man, my stunt double in one of my earliest productions with MU. He's come home with me after all these years hanging around as a wall decoration at the MU studio in Cairnhill.

Yup, MU is leaving the premises and closing its doors for good. We had our farewell party tonight attended by many of our founding members as well as a number of our latest generation, and a few well-wishers and friends.

It's a little sad to see a chapter in my life close for good, particularly as I had been intending to reopen it at some point in the near future. But that's not going to be so easy now.

In fact, when I began with Education, one option I was toying with was to complete my contract so that I would have some credibility and some experience as a teacher, then return to MU to teach drama full-time. Guess I felt it was more necessary for me to remain in the system, as it turned out. Funny.

As various members took bits of props and equipment home with them as memorabilia, and as the reception table was little by little cleared away of snacks, cheese and wine, it was goodbye to old friends, some of whom are departing for other climes for who knows how long.

My holey shadow is a piece of my history. And he's come home.

Banjo by Weng

Housewarming at Anthony and Wendy's! We got to see the interior of their new pride and joy today after more than a year of anticipation. It's a cozy place, much of the design based on straight zen lines; right down to the entertainment electronics. I like the design concept for its urban functionality, though if June was present, she might find it a little cold if not for the touches of wood panelling here and there.

Potluck dinner for the third night in a row, and no, I did bring a Christmas fruitcake with me despite what I said in my previous entry. Scrooge I may be, but friends are friends after all. The usual crowd of Anthony's showed up for a pleasant evening.

Weng, in his usual fashion, got us to help assemble the presents he got for us. With empty cartons, bits of plank and cord, each represented household got at random an elastic powered wooden rifle or a 3-string banjo. He helped me tune my banjo and even strummed some discernable chords from it. Thanks, dude!

June wasn't able to join the festivities tonight. She had to pack for her flight to Manila tomorrow, returning on New Year's Eve. Safe journey, ok?

My inner Scrooge is acting up. I'm looking back on the last couple of days of stuffed-to-the-brim feasting, and I'm amazed at how much waste there is left after everyone's had their fill. Then there's the ritual of bagging the remains and distributing them as leftovers, knowing that in reality it's all going to the trash anyway. Just not all into the the trash bin of the host's premises.

I'm also looking at the amount of water I'm using to do the dishes and I'm perturbed that every drop that comes out of our taps is potable H2O, which is in such short supply in many parts of the world even in generally clean condition, and I'm using such a torrent of it to get my kitchen back up to passable health standards again. And no, I wasn't even the host.

I wonder if my personal policy on Potluck Socials is so wrong after all? All I do is show up at my appointment and contribute just my pleasant disposition and a healthy appetite. I'm sure to still "bring home" some leftovers since everyone's brought too much anyway.

Oh, and what if more people adopted my policy and there's not enough food for once? Simple. Pool cash, call pizza.

Let's spare a thought for the less fortunate next year.

Q-tip says, "Merry Christmas, everyone!"

Er... you too, Momo.

Arrive late at Christmas family reunion. Get relegated to the kids' table 'cos all other seats taken. Realize that the kids I'm sitting with and I remember as screaming, bawling, running-around in short pants minor annoyances are no longer kids. Some are already at the U, some just starting work. Funny, I don't feel any older but I should, shouldn't I?

For a theme park with limited thrill rides -- 2 mild 'coasters, a flume and a drop tower -- Ocean Park still pulls in the crowd even on a Monday. It's hard to imagine how one could spend a whole day there without getting bored at some point but, surprisingly, the experience was quite enjoyable.

For one thing, there's a lot of space to cover, whether on foot or by some other means of conveyance. The attractions are well laid out: the kiddy rides at the bottom of the hill, the thrills higher up with a glorious Pacific Ocean view, and the aquaria and show areas concentrated together near the peak. And sufficient toilet facilities -- very important. The park is easy to navigate and because it's all on a slope, walking from place to place can be quite a workout too.

Though there's little we haven't seen before in the centrepiece marine show, the presentation was lively and it's nice to see the animals so animated and motivated for their schtik. The carny games gave out enough prizes to tempt participation. It was amusing that a toddler won a large Santa plushie by accident, while Vince and I got zilch for our efforts.

Ocean Park is simple, without the flash and the thoroughness of concept of most American theme parks. Yet it still packs in the people. I hope our own IR on Sentosa can do as well.

Observation: in any given situation, a people can choose to be happy or unhappy. Good government recognizes the people's right to choose unhappiness.

Finally uploaded our HK holiday pix! There's quite a lot to wade through, so only if you're interested, ok? Click here.

HK turned out to be quite the holiday. Tiny freezing hotel room (but snug and warm under the blanket), no actual plan, just doing whatever our inclinations directed, weather permitting. More walking and shopping than I believed we would do. June says shopping in HK in December is 'nothing,' but if this was nothing, I'm all agog at what 'something' might be.

While people in S'pore were drowning in a 48-hour torrential rainstorm, we brought the sun and a nasty cold snap to HK. Although it rained on our first 2 days, we had gorgeous weather for the rest of our stay.

A couple of places of interest:

Ngong Ping 360:
A tourist trap featuring a fake old-style Chinese village, a couple of multi-media presentations, and a climb up to see the giant Buddha statue; but the Skyrail ride up the mountain is spectacular with amazing views of the countryside. Best to take the Skyrail one-way though, unless you just want to hang out with the tourists.

There's a side-deal at the bus terminus where they offer a 1-way Skyrail ride, then unlimited bus rides to anywhere on Lantau Island. We took the bus to Tai-O Village for the sights, sounds and smells of a local fishing port. Lots more photo-ops and interesting local delicacies that you don't find downtown here.

The Mid-Levels Escalator system:
We were looking for the longest escalator in the world (which is in Ocean Park actually), but our map pointed us to this exotic, innovative people mover instead. From Central, a series of connected escalators takes people up a hilly incline. It passes Hollywood Street (antiques and curios), SoHo (western-style bistros, but also where I finally got my hands on some Krispy Kreme sweetness), and up to where the rich people stay.

The escalators start the day going downhill so the rich people can go to work, but the rest of the day they all point uphill so people like us can explore and the rich people can go home at night.

Once at the top though, it's a long trek back downhill again. Considering that we spent the morning walking down from the Peak back to Central to save HK$11 on the Peak Tram, June and I had wobbly legs by the time we hoofed it back to Central -- again.

BTW, Central becomes Manila and Causeway Bay becomes Jakarta on Sunday.

Have a whole load of pix to be uploaded. Perhaps they'll tell the story better than I can. Watch for the link!

It's got Death, whimsy, tragedy and a cutsey kitty. And it's a short little 'toon. Watch "Death Kitty and the Fat Man" (no, NBS, it's not Anthony) here.

We're leaving for the airport in just over 12 hours and we're still not packed yet. At least Q-tip's been taken care of. She's boarding at the Pawfect Companion, which sent a guy over to collect her this morning.

While we're away, my in-laws will come over and cat-sit for us. In exchange, they get to watch free cable TV all day. The cats, though, may not be too thrilled with the prospect of having the TV on all day:

Behind the TV is Kaiser's favourite napping spot...

and Momo's too!

I went to Vivocity in the afternoon (instead of packing like a good boy) where 3 random thoughts came to mind:

1) It's counterproductive to make staff wear Santa hats if they're still gonna look grouchy at work. The effect is quite a turn-off, in fact. An off-season smile works better than a seasonal decoration for brightening a mall any day.

2) Superdog burgers are as fresh tasting as they claim to be. I don't know if it's my problem or theirs, but after polishing off a bacon cheeseburger, fries and coke, I was still hungry. The jury's still out on whether I'm a pig or if the burger's too small.

3) At PageOne bookshop I found myself again looking at books in the Science section though I was looking for books on media criticism. That's odd because I'm usually looking at fiction and other easy-reading material. I think my subject's changing me... and not necessarily for the better. Brrr...

Right. HK, here we come!

It's always exciting to man the reception desk. Look at all the chaos we have to deal with!

In case you haven't figured it out yet, Prom Nite photos are finally in from our official photogs! Check out some of their best pix here.

Only 1 more working meeting tomorrow, and then I think I'll just focus on being on vacation, at least until Christmas is over. Looking forward to departing for HK on Thursday. What's the plan? Eat, walk, shop, Ocean Park, y'know, mindless, fun stuff. Current weather forecasts say it's going to be wet, par for the course for us. Could get chilly, but not freezing.

Have to admit, I am tired. The break is welcome.

We've got Universal Studios setting up shop on the southernmost tip of continental Asia! I got my wish for exciting coaster rides within driving distance after all! That's the good news. The even better news is that by the time it's ready in 2010, I should be able to get in on senior citizen rates! "Please remove dentures and all other prosthetics before riding the Lethal Weapon 6 for your own safety. Thank you!"

While the politicos and moguls are talking about the impact the Genting-Star Cruises deal will make on tourism arrivals and length of stays, I wonder if Universal is considering to use the theme park here for more than just rides and family entertainment. The possibility of Universal setting up a real movie studio here using Asian locations and talent hasn't been discussed yet, but it's worth thinking about. For both Universal and us, there's an opportunity to break into cinemas worldwide with quality storytelling and high production values... can't blame me for dreaming, right?

Looks like we're putting a lot of our economic eggs into the MICE/tourism/hospitality/family entertainment basket in the coming decades. Are our current batch of students being properly prepared for this industry? I'm sure currently we can produce a very able, very competent crew of engineers who can fabricate and maintain the stuff in their blueprints, but who's designing the blueprints? We've got penny-pinching, meticulous accountants who are great at counting money, but whose money is it? And will all the service staff and the guys in funny animal mascot costumes be from our vast pool of foreign talent 'cos our own local employment-seekers are too self-centered, too individualistic and too easily embarrased (paiseh) to entertain our guests?

In our immediate future, our working population can no longer be made of unquestioning assembly-line robots. We need people who can relate to people, understand them and integrate across cultures without prejudice, and be less obvious with keeping an eye on the profit motive. We need people who can respond to rapidly changing situations, and be empowered and able to act on good decisions quickly. We need creative, imaginative people who can weave interesting and credible narratives with whatever abilities and talents they have on hand.

Our schools willl have to make the paradigm switch, as will our students and their parents too. Though our curriculum rigour need not change, our end result needs to be students who are knowledgeable, yet fun-loving, sociable, active and adventurous. All this, and a healthy dose of common sense too.

Am I asking a bit much? Yes, as long as we keep knowledge an individual, competitive, have-or-have-not commodity. Instead, if in our schools we can develop a culture in which knowledge is freely shared and open-sourced rather than individually hoarded (for obtaining meaningless marks on exams, no less) I'd say that would make content learning much less work, then at the same time we can learn to think and have fun too.

"I gave [a lecture] in The Hague, Holland, to an audience of people who teach in English-language independent schools throughout Europe. I should stress that they were not primarily teachers of English, whom I have for the most part stopped addressing, since I came to the conclusion several years ago that they are the educators least likely to depart in any significant way from their pedagogical traditions. I do not know why this is so, but it is a serious deficiency, since English teachers are better positioned than any others to cultivate intelligence."

Postman, Neil. "Defending against the Indefensible." Conscientious Objections (1988).

Ouch.

Thought it would have been fun to grab my laptop and go sign up for the free wireless broadband service that's available to us for the next 3 years. There are already quite a number of locations around the island that offer this service, and the opportunity to surf and blog on location was an appealing idea.

Nice idea, but it didn't work. Quite a number of people have already signed up for the service already, so it's not likely to be a network problem. Somehow, my laptop isn't configured to detect a wireless signal, so I felt like a bit of a chump lugging it around Marina Square and getting squat out of it.

I'll take the laptop back to our campus tech and see if she (what's her name now? I've heard it twice already but it won't stick in my memory...) can help me get unplugged. Or, more likely, she'll tell me it's because of some paranoid company security policy that my wireless feature has been disabled. Grr.

It's a pity our bowling team didn't survive the changes we underwent this year. With 2 of our teammates getting transferred out and 1 leaving the service, when we finally had a reunion today, it was like we'd split into 2 separate factions: Amy and I still with the college, while Anthony and Vince are now in the secondary school system. Yee, gone on his own way since early this year, was too ill to join us today.

It's a pity because the competiton in this year's league doesn't seem as intense as last year's, and we could possibly be flying high as a result. Still, it's nice to be able to bowl for fun and not kill ourselves trying to beat the next team's high game or whatever. Thanks for the game Boyz!

And tonight, we celebrated Adrian's and Mary's birthdays at Long Beach, ECP. We opted for a few simple dishes and none of the messy crab stuff. They have an unusual spinach cooked with century-egg and salt-egg. Looked weird, like a creamy mess, but tasted quite palatable as a topping for rice.

For dessert, we finished nearly half the Goldmine cheesecake which June and I bought from NYDC. The remainder, Jen took back to her office to feed her workers and volunteers. That's staff welfare!

Prom Night this year was at the Fullerton Hotel. And the students really dressed to the theme of "The Red Carpet". Amongst the memorable was the guy in the 1920's gentleman's suit complete with coat and tails, top hat and cane, whom the MC mercilessly made fun of. Most of the women looked sleek in their gowns and dinner dresses, and had their hair and make up professionally done. It's amazing to see our normally drab students transform into unrecognizably glam personalities with just a touch of effort. Ok, maybe more than just "a touch", I understand some of the do-packages were quite expensive. But for a night of good fun, good memories and great pix, it's worth it, right?

Tonight's menu was an Asian-western fusion buffet. I enjoyed the smoked salmon, and the steamed shrimp served on-ice . The sweet-sour fish was tasty too, and the duck confit was... rich (maybe what I mean is deliciously fatty, though I'm not exactly sure that was it). There was a crispy noodle that was oddly sweet, and the consomme was a little more sour than I had expected. By the time I got to the dessert table, there wasn't much left. I scrounged together a decent portion of bread pudding, a crunchy apple tartlet, a smooth chocolate mousse thing on a light cracker, and some healthy fruit for balance.

But what kept the party rockin' was a livewire MC who put together a repertoire of games that were entertaining, yet not too embarrassing for the participants. It helped that the students themselves were great sports and participated wholeheartedly. Makes all the difference in the world. It also helped that the MC had an assistant he kept abusing. Somehow, whenever he called for "Alfred", it was like playing off a foil of himself, so the humour had quite a self-deprecating quality.

If anyone is wondering why we staff at the VIP table did not participate at all in the games, it's because we were there as non-paying guests. Therefore, we had no business trying for prizes that the students had paid for. Good prizes too. Quite a number of shopping vouchers for quality stuff like from Kino, NYDC, Nike, Levi's and VivoCity. We also gave away an i-Pod shuffle and a nano, new models. The top prizes were sponsored: a night's stay at the Fullerton, and air tix for 2 to BKK, courtesy of Swissaire.

Congrats to Errol, our Prom king. He had a retro-aviator look (Top-Gun was what, early 80s?), and he had the showmanship to secure his votes, no surprise there. I don't know the prom queen personally, but I think throwing her fur stole into the crowd boosted her popularity somewhat.

Also, thanks, Amy, for the invite. I know our table was full of your cronies, none of us being senior staff deserving of VIP status, except the P of course, but we only responded after no one else did, so we did give everyone else a chance first, didn't we?

Currently reading Panic Nation by Feldman and Marks. Got through about 6 chapters so far, and so far the authors have been the bearers of excellent news! Everything we've been taught to fear about the food we eat is nonsense, according to them. They suggest that our precautions against consuming foods we think are dangerous to our health are actually the result of an "organized paranoia" perpetrated by well-meaning health-regulatory bodies who would rather err on the side of caution (and avoid expensive lawsuits) rather than good sense and good science.

Feldman and Marks cite study after study, across different demographics and over the long-term showing that there is no significant change to our life-expectancy even if we conscientiously reduce consuming "unhealthy" foods. They systematically debunk our fears through statistical as well as scientific analysis and expose the myths behind fat, "junk" food, cholesterol, salt, sugar and a whole bunch of other supposed poisons, toxins and carcinogens in our diet. In fact, by drastically cutting down on some of these substances, we might actually risk harming our bodies because we need them in certain amounts in order for our bodies to function properly.

Some facts they bring to light are quite eye-opening. For example, the cholesterol we eat does not and can not become the cholesterol that clogs our arteries. The two aren't even the same thing, having completely different molecular structures from each other. Sugar is a direct cause of tooth decay, but only contributes to obesity because it makes food taste better and therefore causes people to eat more food than they need. Salt intake is always properly balanced in the body of a normal, healthy person. If there is too much salt, the body excretes the excess through sweat and pee, but if there is too little salt the risk of heart failure actually rises!

If anything, Panic Nation advocates that we eat whatever we want without having to feel guilty about it. We just need to eat a variety of foods in reasonable quantity, like our ancestors have always done, and quit worrying that whatever we put into our mouths is going to kill us. I'll remember that next time I reach for a Krispy Kreme.

Myth: You can live forever if you only eat healthy food.
Truth: Life is sexually transmitted and always ends in death (Vincent Marks).

Further readings:
BBC News: Is junk food a myth?
A more balanced review: here.

My niece's classmate is a little girl who's so obsessed with gymnastics that she spends most of her life outside school in training. On the weekends, she attends dance classes for variety. Her academics, she just lets slide because she has no time to keep up with her homework, focused as she is on becoming a gymnast.

It seems that at her own birthday party, she disappeared from amongst her group of invited friends, and after a frantic search, was found alone in her room watching the Olympics gymnastics event 'live' on TV.

Currently, she's in Pri 4, which puts her at about 9 years old. It's rare to see such children in Singapore, with such drive, such determination to pursue a dream she has identified and claimed for her own already. And it seems she's good at what she does too, so it's not just empty wishful thinking.

Question is, should we let her get away with being academically ignorant? She may be talented in her own area of expertise, but is it acceptable that she sacrifices her knowledge of the sciences, mathematics, languages, and whatever else we teach in school, in order to excel at just that one thing?

In our society, we're very hung up about everyone acquiring some kind of 'basic education' from which we then determine who deserves what in our 'meritocratic' resource distribution system. But to some, having to demonstrate an ability in 'basic' could force them to lower their personal aspirations and abilities in an attempt to score a pass in mediocrity instead.

It's kinda' like Dexter of Dexter's Laboratory, boy genius in applied sciences, inventor of incredible gadgets, obsessed with attaining Ultimate Knowledge, then having to put aside everything so that he can go to school and learn that 1+1=2. A rigid education system may be great for equipping the unmotivated, but it stifles the high achiever.

I wonder if for our girl gymnast whether her education can proceed in a more practical way?

To complement her kinesthetic development, she'll need to learn bio mechanics in relation to the physics of motion; biochemistry in relation to health and nutrition; sports medicine and physiotherapy to deal with sports injuries; and by opening lines of communication with her fellow gymnasts from other countries she can learn several languages and international relations at the same time. It's just a matter of framing subject content in a way that is useful in supporting her passion.

How flexible might Education have to be to cater to such children? Well, here's one extreme but possible scenario: click here.

Edit 01:

These Finns seem to have got the Great Singaporean Pastime down to an art form! And they do it so beautifully, too! Could it be we're all Finnish(ed)?

It's very dangerous to leave me on my own on the weekend. When I'm left to my own devices, I usually end up spending money.

These I got from the Times bookshop at Marina Square. Should be loads of fun to read, but can also be used as source materials for tutorials.

Also went bowling at the CSC in the afternoon. Not a brilliant session. It was like 144 was my ceiling, attaining this exact same score in 3 separate games. Then there was the crappy 116, 119 and 122, which I will attribute to the pandemonium of a kids' party going on a couple of lanes from mine. Kids were running, screaming, and whooping it up with their noisemakers, occasionally darting across other bowlers' lanes unexpectedly. Pesky, annoying, distracting. Grr... pushing my low child tolerance to the limit.

Thankfully, they left in time for me to finish one last game in peace. Clean game, hitting a 4X4, scoring the lane's high game at 219. Oh boy, all that pent-up frustration.

Final 7-game average: 144. I swear, tomorrow's winning 4-D number will have some permutation of 144 in it somewhere. 1212? 4144?

June came home from work in time for a nice dinner at Tamoko -- mmm... salmon sashimi -- and dessert at Swenson's, Thomson Plaza. Yay!

Goodness. How important it is to use the English language properly. You can be a Hollywood celebrity, have the very best of intentions in seeking to comfort bereaved friends, eulogise a mentor and father-figure, philosophise on the fleetingness of life, and yet people are going to remember what you said with ridicule and contempt because you displayed a very poor command of the language.

Letter of Condolence, full transcript via USA Today.

Ms Lohan has some slight problems with her subject-verb agreement, but gets into more trouble with her use of prepositions. One major howler occurs in her opening sentence which unintentionally casts aspersions on Mrs Altman's fidelity and propriety due to the faulty preposition, "of". Not the most diplomatic way to address a recently-widowed friend, eh?

But her biggest problem is in writing run-on sentences and sentence fragments, which suggests that she transcribes directly from her thoughts. Few of us think in grammatical sentences, but we do bother to edit for linguistic convention in our written communication.

The quality of her writing deteriorates closer to the end of her letter, closing with some bizarre vocabulary.

If this specimen is representative of how people generally write today, then we English teachers can see two possibly outcomes: job security for life, or unemployment. Depends on how optimistic we are.

The school hols are now in full swing. It's also the time we hear horrible rumours of this college or that college decreeing that their staff must put in a compulsory number of working hours every weekday on campus just so that they look like they are still earning their keep.

I personally do not know if such draconian measures are actually enforced, but regardless of the fact that we do not operate under a fixed timetable in this period, there still is work for us to undertake. The difference is, we have to discipline ourselves to perhaps a more flexible work schedule because our deadlines are still fixed.

We also have a choice, to work on campus or off. The staff in our college seem to choose to work on campus, strangely enough, but I rather think it's a choice we've made for ourselves and not something imposed and enforced upon us by some authority.

So why do we rank-and-file employees still report back to our workplace even during the ostensible holiday period? I think it's because our work environment allows and encourages cooperation amongst staff rather than competition between staff. There is time to relax and socialize amongst ourselves in between all the busy-ness that goes on during curriculum time.

In this environment, we've been conditioned to hang out with each other on an almost daily basis, and we miss that camaraderie when we go our separate ways during the hols. Just the possibility of having lunch company is enough incentive for us to drag our sorry butts back onto campus and put in a good few hours of focused, constructive work -- voluntarily.

How does an organization build up a motivated staff? No need for complicated and expensive "team-building" programmes, much less a "compulsory" clock in-out regime -- more like a recipe for building staff resentment. We do need meaningful tasks; clear, reasonable deadlines; an inclusive, non-threatening work environment; "white space" for socializing time; and common mealtime slots while the fixed timetable is in operation. And let the hols take care of themselves. See? We don't ask for much. :D

After a break since September, NY conneXions is back with fresh updates and a new look!

We've had slight problems with our latest server migration (I've already fixed the link in my Blogrolling sidebar) and we've lost a few pages and pix in the process. And granted, the new design is still a work-in-progress, but it's great to be publishing once again.

Since it's the hols, we're presenting less campus oriented articles and more articles from outside sources instead.

Loga and co., thanks for keeping us alive even though you're all supposed to be on vacation! :D

Check out our new quilt cover from Aussino's kids' collection. A lovely pastoral scene that Kaiser can't resist being a part of. Always fancied himself living on a farm, that boy!

Finished my last invigilation duty today. Now I can sit down and plan for next year's programme. Went back on campus to have a think about the future of NY conneX, and a few fresh ideas came up. Would like to chat about them with my current staff first though, and see what they think.

Amy happened to be on campus, and HP was nearby so we lunched at Friends like we haven't done in what seems like a long time. I'm not so impressed with this month's set menu with a choice of fish 'n chips, teriyaki chicken or spaghetti for the main course. The quality is still there, but the options are a little bland this time.

Had a pot luck dinner at Aggie's place. A sort of small farewell for Vince attended by Lucy, NBS, Josh, ZC (special guest appearance!), me and June. We brought the dessert, partly financed by NBS, that June spent much of the weekend making. June makes a good almond jelly served with longans, and a konnyaku-style pandan/coconut layered agar.

Nice to be back amongst friends again!

Shopping at Taka with June who was looking to buy her sister some l'Occitane products as a Christmas gift. Spending over $150 including 1 item from the Christmas shelf gets an FOC handbag hand-stiched in France (so no 2 designs are exactly alike) and a small sampler pack. Sis-in-law should be happy with her eye gels.

Lunched at Ambush in the Taka basement. Strange name for an Italian pasta joint, but since it took us by surprise as we were stepping off the escalator, what the heck, right? Although we were miles from Ikea, we both were craving Swedish meatballs, so we were thrilled to see a Swedish meatball pasta on offer.

It was nice that the cashier informed us that the meatballs were made of beef and pork before we confirmed our order. I was tempted to say, "Thanks for the warning, I'm vegetarian!" but I kept my mouth shut.

The pasta and the meatballs were heavy, in a rich tomato sauce, served in a large bowl. We were already full about halfway through our bowls. That's a what a good pasta does. The remainder we slowly consume as we relax and enjoy each other's company while the meal lasts.

Quite affordable, too. Most pasta dishes are below $10 each, with an additional $3.80 to make a set. We took the garlic bread and soup, the other option being dessert and a drink. The complementary cold water from a dispenser was a thoughtful touch.

Gotta love the Amazing brothers Cho. The epitome of kindness and courtesy on the Amazing Race 10. They're the guys who played the game 'differently', forming an alliance with the weaker teams, sacrificing their own advantages to boost their friends' chances of survival.

They usually finished their tasks first but would wait for the other teams, gather everyone together, share their info and plan some kind of group strategy before moving on. They even gave up a lead they had to a team which without their help would have been eliminated for sure.

This gameplan of the Chos makes good sense in that if the Alliance could eliminate the stronger teams in the Race, then the brothers would face a much reduced competition towards the finish line.

The problem was, they didn't know when to draw the line between social grace and survival. They simply didn't do their math properly in this week's installment. Last place was between them and their final surviving ally. Yet instead of taking the early lead, they chose to wait for the mothers, intending to -- what? Cross the finish line together???

It is no surprise that the mothers ditched them and found their own way to the Pitstop, arriving 2nd last. The mothers know how to play the survival game. The Chos are out. And I'm not at all sympathetic.

Oddly enough, in todays Life! interview, the Chos have the impression that S'poreans are just as nice and polite as they are, if not more so. They haven't been reading our 'papers, lately so full of gripes about how spoilt we are about public transport, how blase we are about littering, how we need another Courtesy Campaign 'cos we don't say 'please' and 'thank you'.

Looks like S'poreans have it backwards. We think it's all about survival while forming cooperative alliances doesn't make sense to us. Social graces take a backseat as we charge ahead with our 'winner take all' neurosis.

Life isn't the Amazing Race. Our species thrives on cooperative endeavour. So yes, we do have a lot to learn from the Chos' game. But there are also times when survival does become a factor. We need to know how to recognize that point, cut our losses and let our self-preserving instincts take over. We're no good to anybody if we're dead.

It's about time to renew my passport. I tried out the Application for PassPort on-Line Electronic System (dear God, APPLES!) and it looks like a pretty straightforward process. Just a few fields to fill in with personal identification details, and the submission of a personal mugshot on .jpg file.

Ah, the mugshot. Here's where it gets difficult. The rules are stringent about getting the shot composed correctly. The second-hardest thing to accomplish is getting the background perfectly white. Try as I might, the best I could get was a grey wash. The lighting in my room simply isn't powerful enough to make my white wall look white. The camera flash doesn't help either.

The most difficult thing to accomplish is getting a nice shot of myself that actually makes me look good. So many imperfections -- the rules are clear against Photoshopping -- so I had to pick the one that made me look least like crap. Noone is EVER gonna look at my passport, got it?

Hope Immigration will accept the photo I submitted in the end. It took a lot more work than APPLES promised.

We should put up a quarantine sign on our front door. June's next to get the bug. What with Q-tip still coughing on and off, June sneezing and me doing a bit of both, our house has become a concert hall for the Influenza Symphonia in D minor.

This morning we both went to see our local Silver Cross medical facility. It wasn't as crowded as I had imagined and we got our consultations without much of a wait. The queue number was 21-22 when we arrived and we got 26-27. And there were 2 doctors available to share the load.

I love the labelling on the medicine packages they dispense. Clear print-outs with the name of the drug, its purpose and dosage. Gone are the days when we had to squint at poorly handwritten labels and guess what the heck we're ingesting. So for the record, I'm on a couple of decongestants, a codine mixture (drowsy warning), and an antibiotic. I don't usually take antibiotics, but this run of cold symptoms tells me some drastic measures are necessary.

According to the manual, there is an occasion in which the car will vibrate, make a strange noise, and will have some difficulty steering. Just as the manual said, it happened to M2. So I pulled over to the nearest parking lot to have a look. And there it was, a flat tyre.

Great! A chance for me to pull out my Mazda-issue toolkit and get some hands-on working on a routine maintenance procedure. One thing about Mazda's toolkit: it's cute, handy, packs away easily, and is almost completely non-functional. Specifically, the tyre iron is far too short and too fragile to unbolt the tyre from the axle. So try as I might, I couldn't get enough leverage to budge the nuts even a little.

So despite having figured out the jack and having my emergency wheel on hand, I still had to seek assistance. Thanks to Amy, I got hold of our local AA, though it was rather strongly impressed upon me by the Association that I should pay for my own membership rather than sponge off someone else's.

It was a case of tyre iron envy when I saw the equipment the AA guy was lugging around. But even then he had to use a makeshift lever extension to get my nuts loose [ok, now this is starting to sound rather rude -- whatever you're thinking, stoppit].

The emergency wheel is certainly no replacement for a proper road wheel. It's a dinky little wheel off a toy car, designed to get M2 to the nearest tyre shop for a new tyre asap. The nearest one was at the Caltex station opposite Nee Soon camp. Quite good service by Mr Shiok (yes, that's his name). He quickly replaced both front tyres and took the trouble to clean up the emergency wheel before stowing it back into it's compartment for me.

What caused the flat? Normal wear and tear, apparently. I'm just relieved it wasn't because I ran over a cat or some other clawed animal. So now I'm running 2 new Falken tyres in front (tyres get replaced in pairs). That, plus AA membership = $300+. It's enough to make me reconsider public transport...

... Naaaahhh!

Whoa. Too much video game addiction, real life got shelved temporarily while my superhero team has been busy kickin' ass in Atlantis, the Valley of the Spirits, Mephisto's Realm, Asgard, the Shi'ar flagship, the Skrull homeworld, and Castle Doom.

The quests are easy to complete on 'normal' mode, especially since you can beef up 1 or 2 of your favourite characters to near invulnerable levels. I did that for Wolvie and he's usually the one to save the day, being the last mutant standing. Invulnerable doesn't mean he's immune to falling off ledges though, it's one of the drawbacks of not being able to fly.

With quite a bit of the environment being destructable, fights are awesomely violent. Bits of scenery get smashed with all the pummelling going on, though sometimes there's too much happening on screen, you lose sight of your character only to find him (or her) again aimlessly bustin' up a harmless statue or some ugly furniture.

Not that I've been anti-social or what, but I'm still nursing this cold that I haven't been able to get rid of for more than a week now. It's been the most persistent to date and as far as possible, I'm trying to avoid passing it on to people. It's also making me irritable, so taking it out on game sprites can be quite therapeutic.

Picked up "Marvel Ultimate Alliance", an RPG-lite. Actually, it's more like a team beat-'em-up. There are 4 Marvel superheroes in a team. Including unlockable characters, there're up to 20 Marvel favourites to mix and match. The default team is already pretty strong: Cap Am, Spidey, Thor and Wolvie.

Each character has his or her special moves, and there are several ways to customize their attributes, powers and costumes. Levelling up is automatic, but there is also the option to spend points accumulated through missions as well as unique item upgrades to collect. The opportunity to create so many different permutations of heroes and experiment with which powers complement others the best is a fanboy's dream.

Not a lot of brainwork needed. Just mash buttons until all enemy characters have had the stuffing kicked out of them. Problem is, there're so many buttons to try out that a qwerty keyboard is not ideally suited to put all controls within easy reach of wildly flailing fingers. Customizing keyboard controls to your preference is definitely a priority before the action gets hot and heavy.

Storyline's basic. A mass consortium of evil-doers band together for some nefarious scheme necessitating an equivalent alliance of do-gooders to stop them. There is an element of distrust thrown into the hero camp as SHIELD, the sponsor of the alliance, seems to have a hidden agenda in the midst of all this chaos.

Lots of background info on the heroes, villains and locations to gather as well through interacting with numerous NPCs, and, boy, do they have a lot to yak about. The game's almost like a playable encyclopaedia of Marvel trivia, so even players who have no knowledge of the Marvel Universe won't feel left out in the cold -- if they have the patience to sit through every conversation.

Gameplay-wise, I would have prefered it to be more turn-based, like KOTOR, so there's a bit more strategizing involved in battles. But it's a lot more visceral this way, mindlessly bashing at enemies until they pop in a shower of points and power-ups.

It's going to be a long campaign...

There's a certain young person by the name of Lee, a permanent resident happy to go home to America, never to set foot on S'pore soil again. He's so proud to be American, so different from the rest of us, and yet, the nature of his complaints are so Singaporean, I think we brainwashed him better than he thought. It's pitiful.

His first anecdote about life in S'pore is about his trauma at being forced to sing our National Anthem. Like the rest of our students don't go through this experience? Getting them to sing early in the morning is like pulling teeth but we go through the ritual anyway. So what does he do to cope? He opens his mouth but doesn't say the words.

His response tells us a lot about his discomfort living here. He sings the anthem, but not really. He doesn't believe in it, he doesn't engage in it, he doesn't live it, and guess what? The consequence is, he feels left out, apart, alone. No wonder he's not happy. It's like what he's doing in his blog entry: mouthing off, but the words aren't actually coming out.

So he's pissed off at having to serve NS. What? Just because he's American born means he's exempt from serving community time for the community he's living in? After all, he admits he has a S'porean IC, so regardless of whatever has been written as his "Place of Birth", what matters more is, what's his current address?

The rest of his complaints are so familiar to us. We hear them in taxis, kopitiams and mahjong tables until they've become almost a part of our (apparently) non-existant culture. He complains about our govt, the poor standard of the Opposition in politics, the poor standard of spoken Mandarin... he's so at home with us whether he wants to admit it or not.

Ironically, he signs off as being from the "land of the free and the home of the brave." That's a bit of an insult to the US Marines actually facing life and death situations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and elsewhere around the world. It smacks George Washington in the face, whose citizen militia won American freedom. How brave can he be if he can't even take our NS training?

And he knows nothing about what being free means. According to John F Kennedy, "The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission." With his eyes always on the escape hatch -- going home to America -- our friend, Lee, looks like he can't wait to wave the white flag and retreat to what he thinks his home is.

Honestly, I'm no big patriot. I just think that with his attitude, Lee will never be able to call any place "home", whether here, or the US of A.

Oh, btw, his blog: http://leeeeeeeee.blogspot.com/2006/11/growing-up-in-singapore.html

In today's Life! section, Suzanne Sng muses, "I do not understand why men who show the slightest affinity to children are instantly desirable. When a guy professes to liking children, most women look at them through different eyes. They somehow suddenly appear more endearing, more evolved, more nurturing, more stable, more marriageable... "

Perhaps there is a bio-chemical reason for this phenomenon. Jennifer Barone reports in my December copy of Discover that:
"after comparing the brains of [marmoset] males with offspring with brains of childless males in mating pairs, [Princeton neuroscientists] Kozorovitskiy and Gould found that fathers not only had more connections between neurons in their prefrontal cortex, a region involved in anticipating consequences and attaining goals, but they also had more receptors for vassopressin, a neurohormone linked to social interaction and bonding."

Although they haven't tested to see if male human brains develop in the same way after fatherhood, Sng's casual observation suggests that the premise is probably true. That sort of means that childless human males in a couple relationship are basically slackers and have poorer social skills.

Heyyyy...! Whatchu talkin' 'bout, Willis?

Still feeling lousy. Best to remain in isolation for today. No point risking infecting anyone else unnecessarily. Hope 1 more day's rest will do the job 'cos the rest of the week I have places to see, things to go and people to do. Um... something like that.

The past week's been terrible. With Q-tip down, and now me, we've kept the air-conditioning off and because it's so hot at night, we haven't been able to sleep properly since the whole thing started. The past couple of nights we've taken to sleeping in the living room where the ceiling fan is, but that is also a trade-off.

"Wonder how much we'll save on our power bill this month?" he speculates, all panda-eyed.

Experimenting with the new Blogger Beta version. Everything looks more or less the same, but I'm having trouble integrating Haloscan comments. Bother!

Edit 01:
There, Haloscan works again! Thanks to LP!

The good news is that Q-tip's getting better. She's been quiet for much of the day and that's a relief for us. The bad news is, it's my turn to succumb to cold symptoms.

I didn't even finish my review of Little Shop last night because I couldn't think straight any longer. Suffice to say I enjoyed the production even though I sat through it with a swimming head and a stuffed nose.

Feeling worse today, trying to sleep it off...

It's been about a week now but Q-tip is still coughing. It was particularly bad last night: June and I were both awakened at the unearthly hour of 0635 this morning by an intermittent hacking from under the bed, and this is becoming a relatively common occurrence these days.

Time to bring out the big guns. I took Q-tip to Namly where she got an x-ray taken, which thankfully showed that internally at least there are no signs of injury or disease. So we're treating her condition as a viral infection and have added a steroid to her current prescription. Poor little dog.

In the evening, while Q-tip recuperated at home, June and I went to watch "Little Shop of Horrors". See? It pays to keep close tabs on the Drama Club, 'cos when there are stray tix we usually get first dibs.

Little Shop was a slick production, highly amusing and light and fluffy in its presentation. It's a musical based on the genre of the B-grade movie, so it's easy on the brain while the basic rock tunes and dance movement carry us through this tale of zero-turned-hero, but at what cost?

ST reports that Parliament has repealed our archaic laws on "unnatural sex". Guess that means that Zoe can "swallow" without guilt now, as long as she does it outside of the public eye. But seriously, I'm surprised that there was such a law in the first place. Who are we to demarcate what is "natural" and "unnatural"? Nature itself has set some remarkable precedents in the animal kingdom for reproductive practices that might seem utterly perverted by our reckoning!

By nature, most animals are promiscuous, apart from the wolf (ironically) and perhaps certain species of whales. As long as a mate offers the potential to sire a generation with strong survival genes, there's little loyalty between mating couples.

Mammals have no qualms about incest, and we human beings have taken advantage of this casualness by creating bloodlines of champion purebreds best suited for their utility in helping us get our myriad businesses done.

Some invertebrate species change gender on the fly, depending on the preference of their mate, or by some other biological trigger. Some insectoids literally eat their mates in their afterglow, a post-coital ritual that we find extremely difficult to stomach.

Nature is as wondrous as she is perverse in terms of reproductive techniques. So what exactly do we mean by "unnatural"?

I think one of the reasons why we put such emphasis on regulating our sexual practices is due to the perceived guilt associated with the guilt experienced by Adam and Eve when they discovered their "nakedness" after their "eyes were opened" (our laws derive from British Law, remember?). To us, we tend to link nudity to sexual perversion though, as evidenced by nature's innovations, that interpretation just seems tenuous at best.

So what was the "original sin" in our first couple seeing each other starkers for the first time? I propose that "nakedness" might refer more to the realization that they didn't posess anything they could call exclusively their own. Clothes, after all, distinguish one person from another. Clothes (apart from uniforms) establish our individual identities; and distinguish me from you, us from them. Clothes determine who's in and who's out, who has more and who has less, who should do this and who should do... eeew, that! And they separate the discrepancies with a barrier that is nearly impossible to cross.

So part of our original sin was to desire an identity separate from one another, and in Christian circles, apart from God himself.

Another part of our original sin was to realise that things from nature can be transformed from their naturally intended purpose and turned into other things that suit our selfish purposes instead. The natural function of a fig leaf is to transform solar energy into bio-energy to sustain the life of the fig plant. But to Eve, it became a fashion accessory that served the Very Important Function of decorating her nether regions with. I'm sure the fig could have done without a single leaf but to be fair, the fig needed it more. Adam probably found other uses for sticks and rocks that set in motion a dangerous chain of events leading to the state of our world today.

I think we've got a lot more to worry about than how people want to relate with one another. But then again, I'm no theological scholar. What do I know about this sort of thing?

I'm getting a lot of mileage out of my October ish of Discover. There's a book review of "AC/DC: The Savage Tale of the First Standards War". This book details the horrific things Edison (yes, the electricity dude) did, not in the name of science even, but in a desperate publicity campaign for his company.

I was thoroughly outraged because we usually uphold this man as a model of personal perseverance and meticulous scientific practice, but this pushes the envelope way too far. In my print edition, I have photos. Be thankful the online version doesn't. Refer to the review entitled, "Power Failure", from the link here.

Unrelated...

Declarative statement: Bowling is such a Zen activity.
Declarative supplemental statement: The calmer you are, the better you bowl.
Supplemental correlative: The better you bowl, the calmer you become.
Unnecerssary addendum: Just let all that karma flow through you, baby!

Bowling brings the bowler to centre; both physionomically and psychologically. Physically, we line ourselves up with our target. Our muscles click into place and lock-on. Our breathing slows to a halt. The heart slows in sync with our breath. Our thoughts focus until nothing remains other than our target and the line that connects us to it, seen only in the mind's eye.

If the throw is successful, we find perfect peace as we bring ourselves another step closer to perfect control and we prepare for our next throw. If we mess our throw up, most of the time we lose it. We cuss and swear and start blaming everything from our luck to the lane to our lack of skill, and that's the end of the game for us!

How did I do today? 155 for a 3-game average. Not too bad, considering I haven't touched that ball in months. Yeah, bowling lunches can be fun!

Q-tip is still hacking and has started to sneeze a little too. But otherwise she's still behaving quite normally, so I guess we'll have to let her cold run its course. I'm getting better at srynging her meds into her mouth, a much less painful process than making her swallow pills.

Lucy was nice and bought a packet lunch for the 2 of us, which we shared with Amy. And Mel joined us at the table as well. Considering how diverse our schedules are these days, particularly for those of us whose duties are off campus, it's such a morale booster when we do manage to meet and eat. :D

Poor Q-tip is sick. She's developed a bad cough and is bringing up phlegm. We took her to the vet, who isn't jumping to conclusions yet. We're just treating it like a normal sore throat with some antibiotics, antihistamines and cough syrup. But apart from the coughing, she's behaving quite as usual so I guess there's nothing to be too concerned about for now.

After taking Q-tip home, we went to explore Vivo. Can't say it stands out all that much considering wht the hype has been. Yes, it's got an organic design, it's got what might pass for a little busking activity, it's got a cool wading pool on the rooftop garden with a spectacular view of the... Sentosa Gateway. But most of the tenants are the same as any other shopping mall around here. But what was I really expecting, anyway?

1 more mall to do our Christmas shopping in.

Another irate letter to ST Forum:

Nov 4, 2006
Singapore drivers just refuse to give way

OKAY, I give up, I just don't understand, so perhaps a Singaporean driver can answer my question.

I have been driving for 30 years, in about 20 different countries and currently hold six driving licences. In an average year, I have to drive in four to seven different countries, always checking local road laws before doing so. I have now lived in Singapore for six years and have to drive all over the island on business.

So please explain why, when I indicate to move to another lane, even when it is to exit, nine times out of 10, the car in that lane will deliberately accelerate to prevent me from doing so, often causing me to miss my exit.

There has even been a government campaign to promote courteous driving, but it is obvious it has been ignored by the majority.

The other annoyance is that as new driver, I was taught to give way and raise a hand in thanks when given way to. But when I give way here, or let someone in front of me, there is normally a look of total disbelief, and rarely an indication of thanks.

Now driving is becoming more accessible to the next generation of drivers as cars become more affordable, there needs to be a real effort to change this 'I must be first' attitude. It's dangerous, it's immature, it's unnecessary.

Wendy Gorman (Mrs)

Actually, a lot of fluff. Mrs Gorman's beef is that she misses her exit because S'pore drivers don't "give way" to her. Everything else is just distraction.

Is it true that S'pore drivers are as ungracious as all that? As a local bus operator will explain: It's not that Mrs Gorman misses her exit because of inconsiderate drivers. It's because she doesn't change lane early enough that's why. Last minute want to change, wat you wan' the other drivers to do, ah?

Sorry, lah!

Hmm... considering how much driving experience she's chalked up, and she still can't adapt to local driving conditions, it doesn't say much for her learning abilities. OK, I'm being mean now.

I'm usually known to be cool under pressure. Unemotional, even. But there's a good reason for my tight control over myself. I make the absolute worst decisions when I lose it, and things get silly after that.

I haven't lost it for a long while now, but today I discovered that I have major trust issues and when I sense a lack of support, my entire facade crumbles. I say major trust issues because when I take charge of my own initiatives, I always picture myself leading the charge while my whole army is wandering off the battlefield somewhere behind me. A Quixotic image, I suppose.

So when I designated tonight as movie nite for the Dept, perhaps I had already deemed it to be a lost cause even before I announced it. Originally, only a small handful expressed interest, but by today, even those looking forward to it informed me to go "enjoy myself," and by this afternoon I lost my famous control and peevishly cancelled the whole thing, vowing to never ever set myself up for such disappointment again.

But it turned out that I had misread Mel's RSVP: that she and Wayne were still keen though Linc was unavailable. It was a very badly worded SMS, considering my mood when I received it. I thought all 3 were cancelling on me, leaving um... just me and Anne to enjoy a Dept movie nite. Not quite the critical mass I was hoping for.

When I got back on campus in the evening, Mel and Anne were still there and Wayne was on his way back from wherever he had gone. And like the army of "Deadites" facing off against Bruce Campbell, movie nite refused to die too.

So there were 4 of us, plus Vince who dropped in for a while. Pretty decent of Mel, Wayne and Vince who've watched the movie before to spend the evening with me anyway. And Anne, I think, had a blast as the only first-timer watching "Army of Darkness".

And now, stuffed with Mel's hi-class biccies, Orville Redenbacher's microwave popcorn and Coke, we're thinking maybe we'll have another screening of another movie, hopefully sometime soon. We'll see...

Whoever sat for today's paper has made history. This was the last General Paper being offered at 'AO' level, so congratulations to y'all. Funny that the group I invigilated didn't seem too impressed when I announced this fact at the end of the paper. Go figure.

There. Didn't I always say that GP application questions aren't always gonna be "which passage is more relevant/reflective/representative of your society"? Just because we had one (or two?) exemplar questions from the Syndicate doesn't mean that they are all going to be like that forever.

After all, the AQ is meant to be a thinking, and sometimes critical thinking, question. No model answer to emulate, no template to follow, just you and your wits appreciating the problem set before you and dealing with it logically and reasonably as best you can.

This morning's paper was an open ended one on an issue that any normal teenager would angst about. It's an issue that lurks in their hearts and occasionally causes teenage outrage particularly when an authority gets involved. A gift question, so to speak. But because it didn't appear to follow the standard pattern of questioning that they've trained for, not a few students fed back that they "didn't know what the question wanted".

I hope those weren't my students...!

Big meeting at HQ for all KI tutors. The Ministry people arranged for a formal presentation to us from 3 uni profs speaking about concepts of knowledge as viewed primarily through eastern and western perspectives. Our speakers were profs in math, soci-sci and philo. High octane brains there!

I realized how western-centric we are in the way we think and view the world. Math, for example, as we understand it, seems to have come from a Euclidean tradition (Greek mathematician, Euclid, wrote the book on it, describing the work of mathematicians before him) in all its abstract purity. It's all clinical in its conceptulizations of points and vectors and angles and other numerical relationships, all logically presented in ascending order of complexity. It's just like the way we teach it!

Whereas Eastern mathematics has more to do with practical and pragmatic problem-solving (refer to the jiuzhang suanshu) in which the problems have more to do with human relationships and transactions rather than just pure numbers alone. This seems like a very strange way to go about trying to count things, particularly (as Prof Pang explained) since the solutions to the problems were simply provided in the book without a working.

And yet, while the Eastern tradition appears so alien in nature, the way we calculate today has more to do with Eastern counting frames (later bastardized into the venerable abacus), than the way the Greeks did it using algorithmic tables (like our modern log tables) to count 1+1=2. Whoa. There's a revelation!

Also fascinating was the presentation of an ancient Indian philosopher, Sankara whose ideas of reality as a tripartite notion (mind-body-atman) seems to me to parallel Plato's cave analogy and even the Judaeo-Christian belief in a triune God, though the parallel is more convenient than it is accurate.

The mind boggles.

Well, JC2s taking the GP exam tomorrow, this is what you've worked on for nearly 2 years now. 05S7D, 05A6, 05S6A, I've only taught each of your groups for 1 year, perhaps less, but I hope it's enough.

And if you're reading this entry at this late hour, maybe it's time to switch off your comp and get some sleep. Don't forget to wake up with a fresh mind tomorrow! For what it's worth, have a good paper, y'all!

The visual image of yours truly in Speedos is a pathetic attempt at sensationalism and really is scraping the bottom of the barrel for something creative to say. It's been like that all week and, as is obvious, there've been several days on which I've given up trying to say anything at all.

Re-reading my past entries, it's like I'm having some kind of identity crisis. Am I writing a diary? review column? news commentary? edu-torial? I don't know any more. It's something I have to sort out and soon. Whatever.

Anyway, we had a big staff meeting today. It was a mass reflection exercise of the various aspects of college life from management, staff and student perspectives. We carried it out in a "speed-dating" format: 5-6 of us staff gathered around one of several small tables, all pouring our hearts out on a topic specific to our table. A half-hour of for-the-record soul-searching, garment-rending, sitting-in-ashes discussion later, and we're off to another table, trading partners and a new topic to verbally dissect.

Don't know how the other table discussions went, but I ended up discussing student leadership at a couple of my tables.

The general consensus seems to be that students don't move, or do anything else for that matter, unless and until a Teacher has to not only tell them to do it, but also HOW to do it. It seems like we're raising up people who are good at carrying out orders (and those orders have to be very specific) and little else. Sure, there is a tiny handful who try to go beyond their programming to do something on their own accord, but for the vast majority it's more like input-output, stimulus-response, which can be quite draining and fruitless for everyone.

I think part of the reason is that our culture still does not encourage enough risk-taking, and the other part is that we don't appreciate students' efforts enough.

For reason #1, we staff have an idea of what is the "right" way to do things and how to go about meeting our desired objectives. We apply our standards to what the students are proposing and then we take over, running roughshod over their proposals, critiquing every minute detail and then take over both responsibility and execution of the project from the students (like we don't already have enough to do). No wonder we are stressed out and overworked, while the students have no confidence in themselves.

Reason #2 ties into reason #1. As staff, we haven't learned to say, "thank you," nicely to our students. Instead, during post-mortems for events we launch into salvos of "why didn't ___ work?" "what went wrong with ___?" "why didn't you do __?" focusing on the negatives and worrying that praise will swell their heads and they'll get complacent next time.

I'm not saying that we should celebrate mediocrity, though. What I am saying is that our attitude should be more appreciative of the work that has been done, while the students themselves look for how things can improve through their own observations of their own performance so that "doing better next time" is is a natural part of the process rather than an imposition from on-high. And, senior students should teach their juniors so that lessons learnt in one generation are not lost to the next.

Sometimes, we staff are so pressed for time -- particularly as the JC curriculum has a mayfly life-cycle of effectively only 18 months -- that we expect instant perfection. Of a developing student leader, that's asking a bit much.

Nice day, today. JY joined us for bicycling at ECP. At least we're making an effort to start our "healthy lifestyle" routine again. That's been dead for quite a while already, now I think about it. Well, good. I seriously need to get back in shape. Then maybe during the December break I can wear my thong Speedos with pride once again!

Hmm... now, where are we going for our vacation this year...?

Looks like one way or another, I'm pitching in whatever I can spare into next year's drama effort. Even if drama doesn't come under my portfolio. I love being a drama queen too much, I guess. And thanks, Drama Club for the unexpected card. It is nice to be appreciated!

Met with Mel and Tina this afternoon to finalize the small sticking points of our collaboration. Not much to iron out, actually, other than a couple of admin details. The rest of the afternoon we just yakked about inconsequentials over tea and some gu niang pastries in the lobby cafe of the Intercontinental. The pastries, I left to the 2 gu niang, though they were nice enough to let me have the things that didn't appeal to them.

All I ordered was a pot of Earl Grey to keep me company and happily scoffed the cast-offs. And there were still some left-overs by the time we finished.

Celebrated Jen's belated at 1827. Each of us ordered a set dinner and though the original idea was to mix and match dishes, we ended up just focusing on what we ordered for ourselves instead. 2 reasons: 1) the food was excellent, and 2) the portions were too small to share equitably.

We also met tonight because our friend, Lawrence, was back in town visiting, and he brought his friend, Aaron, with him. It's Aaron's first trip to Singapore, so we tried to advise him on the must-do things while he's here. Too bad he's on such a short trip. He's on business for this organization called Compassion, exploring the ground here for church organizations who are keen on helping them raise funds for needy children.

I'm not sure we gave Aaron a proper Singapore experience, though. 1827 serves Thai-fusion cuisine, and the dessert Adrian brought was from an Italian pastry shop. A bit atas, rather than heartland, which I think he would actually prefer. Anyway, there was talk of taking him to red-light district Geylang for durians, but our dinner ended pretty late and the riverside stroll around Boat Quay left us too tired to indulge ourselves in this horrific 'Welcome to Singapore' initiation ceremony.

Well, guys, have a fruitful meeting tomorrow, and maybe we'll see you again in December!

Just been unexpectedly reunited with a long lost pal. Dan, the Man, whom I thought was supposed to return to TO after his wedding in '01 (or was it '02?) stayed on here after all, had a kid, and DIDN'T tell me! For the last 5 years or so, I thought there was this gulf of Pacific Ocean between us, when in fact, he hadn't gone anywhere.

I've known him since he was in his pimply teens -- a lanky, affable chap -- in his 20's he started hitting the gym and bulking up, and today he's responsibly married, employed and paternal. In fact, it was this afternoon's invigilators' meeting at CJ that I bumped into him, as a fellow invigilator, and currently teaching math at a top-ranked college in Bishan.

Wow. Hopefully, we're now both a lot more mature these days. Let's not have another incident in which we nearly get run over by a train again, ok?

Mimi and Q-tip anticipate a treat! 

Brekkie is served, courtesy of Rocky Master's at the Expo. PIE!

Steaming pie insides. There really is a moist, hot beef stew in here! 

Took the dogs, Q-tip and Mimi, to Tanjong Beach for a swim. Keeping our fingers crossed worked. The haze was below 50, and all things considered, it was quite a nice day. We went early, so the beach wasn't crowded, though not too far from where we had spread our mat, some kids were playing some kind of game with a frisbee. They weren't very good at either throwing or catching, but they were making happy teenager noises, livening up the place a little. And, no, in case you were wondering, they didn't bother us with their noise. We could still nap through their game.

Lunchtime found us at the Colbar. Dog-friendly place, not too far a detour from Sentosa and quite reasonably priced. Uncle looked exceptionally cheerful today, and took my order with a smile. Service culture seems to be spreading. The Colbar makes good sausages, I found out. Short, fat pork sausages, crackling, crispy skin holding together a juicy, fragrant mince of pig meat. Gorgeous.

Had to spoil my day of brainless activity by catching "The Prestige" after dinner. This head-scratcher of a movie made me work to figure out what was going on. 2 rival magicians each holding a massive grudge against the other obsessively try to outdo each other's tricks, sabotage each other's performances and steal each other's ideas. Hard to decide who to root for because both are equally driven and vicious in their game of escalating revenge.

But the plot is just a distraction from what we are led to really want to see: how a magic trick called "The Transported Man" works. And as any good feat of magic, the answer is right there in plain sight, though the audience will always overlook it.

But as we begin to unravel the 2 magicians' secrets, we have to ask ourselves if learning how their tricks work was worth it, or if we were better off not knowing. At the lengths that magicians go to create their illusions, the audience would rather marvel at the deception rather than believe the painful, obvious truth.

Curiosity compels us to ask, "how did he do it?" But in this movie, curiosity really does kill the cat. There is such a thing as too much info.

And now a report on education in the UK!

This week has been a gold mine for the release of annual studies on Education as it is implemented around the world! And yet, all these reports do is to just add statistical credibility to what we already know about education systems in general via casual observation, experience and common sense.

Britain's annual Nuffield Review now tells us that kids don't appreciate what they're studying because neither curricula learning objectives nor the manner in which they are being taught match their aspirations. Moreover, there is so much emphasis on tests and exams that kids are just studying to pass exams instead of finding real value in applying their lessons to real-life.

Further compounding the kids' misery is the number of new policy initiatives stemming from their government's continuous tweaking of their education system. So schools are just struggling along, trying to follow all the different policies as best they can, though the results show no value-addedness in any real sense.

And the school environment is still too competitive between the various institutions -- and therefore by inference, between students -- to be able to create for them a more holistic, cooperative learning experience that they can benefit more from.

Wow. Poor Brit kids.

As usual, you can download the ST summary here.
The full Nuffield Review 05-06 doesn't look like it's been uploaded yet, but it should be soon. Give it a day or two. You should be able to find it on their homepage, along with several other articles on UK education.

Such has been my life this week. Nothing more exciting than reading the papers, print periodicals, online journals... If I'm not careful, I might actually become a teacher one day! Grumblegrumble...

Happy students don't necessarily do well in math, according to a study by the Brookings Institution's Brown Centre on Education Policy.

"Real student engagement is not about keeping students happy, boosting their self-esteem, or convincing them that what they are learning is relevant; it's about acquiring new knowledge and skills and pursuing the activities that contribute to that attainment," the report said.

Instead, the Center's Director (the aptly-named Mr Loveless) suggests in the report that an over-emphasis on trying to make students happy in class could actually distract the students from their core learning objectives.

The report bases its conclusions on math test scores taken from around the world and a correlating questionnaire relating to students' confidence in, enjoyment of, etc. the subject. American children claim to be very confident in math and enjoy math a lot, but still score below the International Average in their tests.

The results shouldn't be surprising, though. You can give a kid the best, most comfortable, most entertaining environment to learn in hoping to enhance the kid's motivation in a subject, but if the kid enjoys the environment too much and doesn't study, the result is still a foregone conclusion.

So, regardless of how entertained or how bored you are in class, there is only 1 secret to academic success: study hard. No two ways about it. Sorry.

Read a summary of the report ("koped" from ST) here.

The full report (a large 1mb .pdf file) here. Check out page 12 onwards for its findings on the happiness factor, and page 18-20 for a direct comparison between American and Singaporean student responses.

Former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, is proposing some radical changes in Education in the US:

I've advocated, for example, paying kids in the 7th through 12th grade the equivalent of what they would make working at McDonald's if they take math and science and get a B or better. Overnight you would change the culture of poor neighborhoods in America. We ought to be honest and say math and science are harder. They're extraordinarily valuable to the country as national security and economic matters. Cultures get what they pay for. We currently pay for rock stars, movie stars, and football and basketball players. Shouldn't being a child prodigy in math be at least as important as being a child prodigy in basketball? Also, I'd allow anyone with substantive knowledge to participate. If you're a retired Ph.D. in physics and you'd like to come in one hour a day to teach physics, I'd let you. No union dues. No credentialing. And I'd argue that if you let everyone in the country who knows physics teach physics, with no credentialing, you'd have a better outcome. Finally, there's no reason to believe that an 1820 school model has any relevance to the 21st century. It's terrific only if you think kids today are going to work in a textile mill. School should mimic reality, not defy it. Almost everyone you know who wants to learn either learns part-time or by immersing themselves for three to five days. They don't go and sit for one hour a day ad nauseam.

Discover, October 2006.

These few days and over the next couple of weeks, we staff are all stressed out worrying about our kids' performance in the end-of-year exams. We worry if they are motivated enough to study their materials, and if they really do value their learning enough to do their best in their tests. This annual hand-wringing ritual is a time-honoured tradition, but that's probably what Gingrich is suggesting putting an end to.

The school Gingrich envisions turns secondary school students into state employees, being paid to study. Their main subjects are math and science and they don't sit in school all day for a year. Instead, they have a much reduced time table, are paid for their time on condition of their maintaining good results, and by "part-time" I guess he means that for the rest of the day the kids are actually off-campus applying themselves in the real-world on some corporate attachment or apprenticeship programme.

This idea pretty much opens up Education to market forces. It's practical and pragmatic. It's so crazy out-of-the-box it just might work to raise the level of competency in not only math and science but also in entrepreneurial and corporate survival skills.

It also means the end of a centrally controlled education system, but let's be realistic: it's the free market, not the bureaucracy that rules the 21st century.

So far, the ideas look good on paper. Wonder what it would be like to actually live under this new system though?

All the movies are about sex and violence. Time for censors to act

I turned to the cinema pages of the Life! Section in the Straits Times last Saturday and noted the sort of movies being shown in town. (Why? Did you actually intend to go watch a movie? Or do you have fun conducting meaningless surveys)?

The main themes focussed on violence, crime, death and sex. Here are some of the movies:

. The Black Dahlia - about Hollywood's most infamous sex murders; (it's got Scarlett Johansson in it!)

. Dead man's shoes - about revenge; (dunno, not on my must-watch list)

. Silk - about spirits; (the critics ravaged this one)

. Death Note - about death; (duh)

. The Departed - a crime drama; (based on the critically-acclaimed HK movie, "Infernal Affairs")

. Wet hot sake - about sex, sleaze and sensuality; (if you insist on watching this movie in THAT cinema, please remember to keep your umbrella handy)

. My Summer of Love - more sex and sleaze. (do some research before passing such judgement, please)

The other movies are about inconsequential events. These are time-wasters and sad to watch:

. Talladega Nights - about brainless and crazy people with fast cars; (talk about Cinéma Vérité)!

. World Trade Centre - a disaster; (well, it was a bit long and draggy)

. Rob -B-Hood - no theme. (gambling gangsters having to care for a baby and being reformed by the experience. Gross.)

These movies do not provide any wholesome and meaningful lessons in life. (Since when did we ever rely on Hollywood to teach us the ways of enlightenment)? The more a person watches them, the more he would be made to feel that life is hopeless and meaningless. (The more we read your article the more we are made to feel that you judge books by their covers).

Movie directors are happily ripping off the public by giving (Giving? Where do you get your free tickets from?) us worthless movies that harm us. It is useless to bar only children and those below 18 from watching these movies as the tasteless pictures in the media continue to defile good sense and morals. (We do too bar adults who are succeptible to being morally corrupted by watching movies! It's called, "being selective because cinema tix for ordinary folks are so bloody expensive!").

Where are our educators? (I'm off-duty). Why are they silent on this sad state of affairs? (You haven't been reading my blog). What does our conscience tell us about such movies being screened in public? (That we can exercise personal judgement and discretion in the choices we make for ourselves)? Do we have a conscience at all? (Flawed logic: appealing to authority).

One may argue that we have a choice not to watch these shows. (Exactament!) But if it [is] Hobson's choice everyday with such low quality movies, where is the freedom for one to choose a wholesome and good movie when none is available? (Um, you tend to set your bar a teensy bit high).

What about the public's right to see good movies? (Bad movies are more fun to review). And why do we create for ourselves a famine of morally enriching shows? (We create? What was the last morally uplifting movie you produced)?

A movie that is worthwhile watching would give hope to the viewer about the meaning of life and its purpose. (There's a Monty Python movie with that title).

A good movie should result in stirring a person's mind and heart to do good for society. (People programmed to do good by watching movies. I dunno, that seems a tad worrisome. "A Clockwork Orange" anyone?) It should focus on wholesome family values of love and care, and respect for the elders and the government. (Wow! There's a concept for a new Peter Jackson fantasy movie)!

How should we rate a movie for its value? We should not give ratings to reflect its popularity based on violence, crime and sex, but instead focus on good values such as kindness, gentleness, love, peace, goodness, faithfulness, self-control and joy. (We don't appreciate good values unless we see them against a suitable counterfoil. Good stories are about conflict. Or you could just watch Sesame Street every day instead).

Unfortunately, none of these good values can be found in the movies mentioned above. (One only finds what one looks for, Grasshopper).

Movies that espouse the desirable values are rare. These are 'Chariots of Fire' (It's now become the standard musical sountrack for every slo-mo running sequence) and 'Akeelah and the Bee' (and how we do value kids who can spel difikult wudz). I particularly enjoy watching Jack Neo's portrayal of our primary school system in 'I not stupid'. (Guess you could identify with the characters of the pushy parents).

Yet if it remains only a portrayal of our country's meritocratic education system, it alone would not be able to help us make further progress. (Boy, you don't ask for much, do you)?

It is not enough just to point out society's ills. The movie's director should have concluded the show with lessons on corrective measures for the public. (I've got your "corrective measures" for irrelevance right here! Now, bend over!)

I would like the Board of Film Censors to critically review and evaluate the quality of the movies currently being screened in public. (You would like to be appointed Head Censor).

The guiding principle of the authority should always be driven by good and responsible values that promote hope, compassion and love. (If you look closely enough, you'll find that such values are key factors in conflict resolution in most narratives, regardless of genre and subject material).

And it should not be influenced by the public's lust for sex (but we're not having enough babies as it is), violence (movies don't make us violent; other people who are jerks make us violent) and death ("lust for death" sounds a bit oxymoronic) that leads to a sense of hopelessness for the viewer. (You're right. You'd better stay at home, a safe distance from any cinema).

George Lim Heng Chye

Online Forum letter in the ST, 17/10/06.