Another oddly disjointed entry by yours truly. Crazy week.
 
It's a bad day when I have breakfast at 3 in the afternoon. And what I ate was a cup of Korean instant noodles that has been mouldering away in my cupboard since I visited Korea 2 years ago. No worries, though. The expiry date said it was still good until August. That's cutting things a bit close. Glad I remembered I still had it. Saved for a special occasion, eh?

Sadly, I've been so busy that I've had no time to shop for my RHD outfit. Like I said earlier, this week is one of the mad ones. A2's taking quite some trouble over dressing for the occasion tomorrow and I don't want to let them down so I'll just have to improvise somehow. Must also remember to bring my dica (Korean slang for "digital camera"). Time to update our old CT photo album!

Ds. June Tan in one of her sermons mentioned a curious fact of wildlife. When a mother eagle senses that her chicks are ready for flying lessons, she applies the most practical of pedagogies: she picks up each chick (actually mom eagle doesn't have many chicks, maybe one or two at most) and physically flings them from the nest. As they fall (they live high up on the cliffs, so there's still some time before they hit ground zero) they instinctively flap their wings and before they know it, they are soaring off into the wild, blue yonder, ready to take care of themselves, leaving the safe but dull old nest behind.

Flinging time is here. Flap hard. Flap and soar.

Taking a short break from preparing my portion of this week's lecture material. It's now the eleventh hour and I'm still hard at work. Gaah! *Panics*
 
Something I've been a bit embarrassed about that I will reveal now: Remember the entry made a few weeks ago about the Toilet Uncle being replaced by another sanitation officer? Toilet Uncle is still here, no sign of him being replaced yet. His social skills haven't improved, and he looks like he's going to remain here for the long haul, despite everything he said earlier. Happy for him that he still has a job, but I swear, that man lives in an alternate reality!
 
Also, Cat Auntie has been a feature over the last couple of days. She is in some financial difficulty now, on account of her age and medical condition and the fact that her three kids don't seem to be helping to support her even now that she's unable to maintain a proper job. Everyone has recently found grounds to reduce their financial contribution to her upkeep and it looks like she's in dire straits. It's sad that someone who has a heart for even the strays in the neighbourhood hasn't got kin who have much of a heart for her.
 
It's ironic that the prize winning Commonwealth Essay that we looked at in class was also written along these lines. Neglecting our elderly is becoming a national pastime. No wonder we're a bit cynical about having our own kids. It seems we are more financially independent if we save up for our old age rather than fritter our wages away on our own self-created parasites which we call our children. The ROI just doesn't seem worth it anymore. Whine, whine.
 
Sorry. This invective isn't directed at my young audience, whom I know aren't this irresponsible. I just feel bad for Cat Auntie and I hope things will get better for her soon, though I don't know how that might be possible. Bummer.

Blaah! I hate it when I develop symptoms but not the disease. I've been sneezing and leaking from the nose all weekend, with the occasional hack, but I still feel healthy. Well, healthy enough not to warrant an MC anyway. BTW, I wonder if anyone else experiences this but sometimes when I cough suddenly, it feels like I've compressed part of my brain against the inside of my skull and for an instant I get a blinding headache as a reward. The only way to prevent this unpleasant sensation is to have advance warning that the cough is coming, then press down on your skull hard with both hands so that when the cough comes the pressure on both the outside and inside of your skull equalizes and your brain is prepared and left unperturbed. I have a theory that fever develops in most cases of the flu not because of flu viruses but because of bruised brains. Just a theory.
 
The papers finally got round to printing this year's winning Commonwealth Essay Competition entry. Maybe we'll look at it in class tomorrow? Here's the link, but again it won't last long. The story is packed full of dualities: ancient-modern, young-old, faith-cynicism, empowerment-disenfranchisement, male-female, East-West, hi-tech-lo-tech, lasting values- temporary materialism, you get the picture. I guess it's not bad for a "2-hour rush job," eh? It's still a bit rough, but not bad.
 
Got to lecture this week, and fuss over the Racial Harmony Day event at the same time. Still, the excitement everyone's generating over getting their costumes together by Wednesday is quite a fun ride. Even the staff can be heard conspiring over who's going to wear what or who's going to borrow what from whom. Now I'm under pressure to find something suitable to wear too. What fun! It's like Halloween's come early this year! This week is already promising to be hectic. Just bring it!

Just clicked on the Doom 3 website and after years of promise and development there is an actual release date published. August 3 2004, which is so darned close, my palms are getting all sweaty thinking about it. Oh, the anticipation...
 
Time to go shopping for hardware, la, la, la...
 
The National Day loooong weekend now has a purpose and a meaning! If you don't see me again, you'll know what's happened. Just alert the proper authorities, oh, and my wife too. Tell her I love her... out! bzzzzzt...

Busy, busy day. If Cikgu Ibrahim hadn't reminded me about today's Racial Harmony Day celebration/forum at SMU I would have slept this morning away in the midst of a fine thunderstorm. The celebration might have been more fun for the crowd of primary school kids who were taken on a discovery tour of the Botanic Gardens by their assigned student leaders; but for me it was like been there, done that. Literally speaking, because our college had exactly (well, almost exactly) the same programme two years ago to celebrate Teachers' Day. A good idea is worth recycling on an ever increasing scale.
 
I took a greater interest in the forum, especially with what the 2nd speaker had to say about her CDC's NE Youth Ambassadors. Ms Phua seems like a very passionate, bubbly personality who genuinely loves working with youth. What I liked about her presentation was that she emphasized very strongly about what our youth can do once we give them enough trust to have a free rein to do their "thang." Her approach to NE is so simple and yet so real -- provide an environment where youth can mix it up and form strong and lasting friendships. That's all the NE that our youth need; and I believe her. Our "system" suffers from too much micromanagement and it turns out lots of kids who are crippled in imagination, motivation, and confidence, so it's great to see that there are civil servants like Ms Phua who has her head screwed on right.
 
Already the forum has got some ideas sizzlin' on the backburner, but now isn't the time to discuss them. I need to do a little further research before I can verbalize what's going on in there.
 
A number of issues from this morning resonated in Mean Girls, which I managed to catch this evening. Cady's observation that schools are places where adults don't trust youth to do the right thing applies in our context as well as in hers. This lack of trust is truly a terrible thing. Within her school is a society in microcosm, fragmented along racial, linguistic, fashion, intelligence, cultural and lack-of-cultural faultlines. The obvious distrust between the different groups rests on such a hair-trigger that it takes a single malicious event to cause the whole society to erupt into violence and chaos. It's funny to watch in the movie, but it's not half so funny as we apply the same model to different parts of our world where people are fighting, killing and dying for the exact same reasons.
 
Ha! Only the NE coordinator could turn a high school chick flick into an NE lesson for Racial Harmony Day. Hope I haven't spoiled it for you!

Looky that! WYSIWYG editing in Blogger! About time too. Maybe now uploading pix won't be such a pain. Coloured text too. Wonder when I'll ever use that? I run a serious blog, I do.
 
I think I'll give poor old King Arthur a skip. Everyone's been saying how disappointed they are with the movie. Straits Times, MSN, even Yee said that it was dreary and tiresome to watch. Then again, it seems Yee didn't like Spider-Man 2 either, so go figure. Maybe it'll show up on HBO one of these days. I can wait. But people are saying that Mean Girls was funny (in a mean sort of way, of course) and while I hadn't had any intention of watching another High School flick for a while, this one might be worth consideration.
 
Couldn't go watch KA today, anyway. Someone's going to get some serious frequent visitor mileage at our house from tonight. Yep, Mimi's visiting again and this visit could be a trial to see if she can put up in our house permanently. The poor old girl is becoming marginalized at Mom-in-law's house, what with the 2 young grand kids who are learning from their mom to keep Mimi at arms length [Don't they know that kids who play with dogs grow up to be well-adjusted adults? No, I didn't have a dog to play with as a kid. Explains a lot, don't it?]. The only one who has time for Mimi is June's sister, but as she flies out of country so often, Mimi is usually left alone. That's why she is always happy to come visit us; she gets so much attention from us she finds it hard to say goodbye when she has to go home.
 
This won't be an easy decision for us to make, though. Mimi is adorable and is a lot more of the dog that Q-tip isn't. Mimi is affectionate and loves company, but she scares Momo. On her last visit, Momo spent 2 days behind the washing machine, occupying her time by chewing on the washer's drainage pipe. It has so many holes in it now, the kitchen floor floods whenever we do the laundry. I was also quite mad with Q-tip this evening for ignoring the nice new newspaper I laid down for her, and took a leak in the kitchen instead. Our kitchen is a tiled one, so her pee got into all the gaps between the tiles so there was a liquid waste grid stretching all the way to the kitchen drainage hole for me to clean up. *faints*
 
Mimi isn't the most disciplined of house trained dogs either, so...
 
Well, if June really wants to keep Mimi, I won't object. In this case of "love me, love my dog," I really do love the dog too. As far as I can tell, I'm the only non-member of the family that she has welcomed and accepted so wholeheartedly. Everyone else she barks violently at. She's family to me too, and I can't turn her away. Momo will just have to learn to cope.

Congratulations to Joanna who's delivered her second daughter, Judith. I think Vince and a few others went to visit her to deliver their well-wishes in person. I couldn't make it today, so I might have to deliver a small token through her Mom who lives only a few doors away from my Mom. Funny that we have been growing up on the same street for years, never knowing each other, then suddenly ending up as colleagues in the same college. Well, I guess it's not such a coincidence after all. Singapore isn't that big a place, and we don't have that many people.

Thought of going to catch King Arthur on opening night, so I made it home early to meet June, have dinner and go. But June said the movie only rated 2 stars in the papers, so she wasn't in a hurry to go see it. Maybe tomorrow, then.

And for those of you who want to be thoroughly disturbed about human life and our role on this planet, and that everything you ever believed is a (benign) lie, then have a read of "The Science of Discworld II: The Globe," by Terry Pratchett,et. al. If you have a Renaissance enough of a mind, you will be treated to a tongue-in-cheek disseration critiquing (not criticizing, mind you) all the disciplines of the Western world. Nothing is scared; from religion (if you are sensitive about people critiquing your religion, the authors ask you to just think of it as a critique of someone else's religion, not yours), the Arts (visual, literary and dramatic), science (theoretical and applied) including quantum physics, some philosophy, some economics, and lots of history, all wrapped up within the framework of a rib-tickling story involving wizards and elves. This book is a little gem of an eye-opener and I would love to recommend it to all GP students. A lot of issues we usually discuss in GP are discussed in this book too, but in a very readable presentation. However there are only 2 copies in the Drum so, first come first served.

This book may have been the only thing keeping me sane (ok, I'm being dramatic) through the MY marking period. I needed to touch base with good, analytical but humorous writing quite frequently or I would have lost all objectivity reading nothing but barely legible exam scripts over that extended period of time. I only read Pratchett in small chunks during transit between locations, and during other more discreet personal operations, and that's probably why it took me exactly 14 days to read it from cover to cover.

Read it and pause to think about the implications Pratchett, et. al. postulate about life on Earth as we know it. Go on, I dare you!

Tried something silly with Mei's blog. I had no idea this would happen:

The Potion Maker
hoshi_no_koemium is a translucent, dusty brown powder obtained from the heart of a shrew.
quid est veritasium is a translucent, grainy scarlet powder drained from the eyeballs of a mountain goat.
Mixing hoshi_no_koemium with quid est veritasium causes a violent chemical reaction, producing a milky sky blue potion which gives the user protection from angry glares.
Yet another fun meme brought to you by rfreebern

Whoa... that just sounds about right!

Oh well... here's my formula:

The Potion Maker
quid est veritasium is a translucent, grainy scarlet powder drained from the eyeballs of a mountain goat.
Mix with quid est veritas! Username:
Yet another fun meme brought to you by rfreebern

Boy, the last two entries were a pair of downers. Well, I didn't promise "happy happy joy joy" all the time. I am pursuing the truth and that's my way of getting my thoughts out in the open else I'll always be wondering why I am feeling the way I do. This is a teacher's blog after all, and occasionally I am going to talk about my job. Today, though, I'm much happier.

Had another great session with the Drama Club. The seniors organized a teamwork building event for the juniors. The usual stuff: "crossing the river" on pieces of cardboard planks and building the tallest free-standing structure using unlikely building materials. Fun activities which everybody got involved in, no one was left out. Proud of the fact that everyone made it across the river together despite losing a few valuable planks; and that the chaos of the two drinking straw structures suddenly gelled and became two visually arresting, sturdy 3-D objects that did stand on their own. The structres were supposed to stand for just four seconds, but both would still remain standing right now if we hadn't had to trash them as we cleaned up after ourselves.

It was also encouraging that the envisioning exercise threw up a lot of enterprise and some far-reaching goals that are very much in-line with what the advising staff are hoping to accomplish. The fact that the club independently came up with these goals without any consultation from us means that we are on the same wavelength and I think the juniors are mentally ready to take on these new challenges.

Just think: Halloween might still go on this year; my long hoped for busking festival might see light of day at last; our travelling road-show could just hit the road; and our collaborative theatrical event is now a possibility. And there were other suggestions as well for other fun and exciting ventures. All very ambitious, but now that the vision and the spirit have coincided the groundwork can now begin. I hope the flesh, though, is ready to cooperate.

Today we also introduced Melissa, the new staff advisor to the Drama Club. Between now and next year with all these potentialities needing realisation, we sure appreciate the extra pair of hands. Welcome aboard, Mel!

We finished off our meeting with another round of Captain's Ball, though I wasn't able to join in today. Apologies, guys! Gid went crazy with his camera, and I would love to get my hands on the pix so I can u/l them into the Drama Club album for everyone to see. It's been getting a little dusty lately. How 'bout it, Gid?

Today's entry isn't flowing too good. Getting stuck in lots of places and that's a sign that I'm on the wrong topic. Have to delete everything and start again, hoping a new tack will emerge and I can write more fluently again.

Hmm... rushed to finish my CT's comments so we can get the MY results printed and signed and ready for collection by Parents' Day next week. Didn't have a lot of imagination left to draw on so pretty much everyone got similar comments. The best I could do was to word each student's comments a little differently, with one or two exceptions for various reasons. My last batch of students had a little contest comparing who had the longest comments in their reports, but I don't think it will happen this year.

A2 is in need of a success that will inspire everyone in the group to press harder. Such depressed results as occurring this MY is quite damaging to morale and I feel the discouragement. Dealing with failure especially when one knows one shouldn't be failing is horrendously tough. What went wrong? Am I really as good as I thought I was? These are some of questions we ask ourselves in these situations and we sink into self-doubt and worse still, resignation. I sincerely hope this cascade can be arrested for all our sakes.

Everyone in A2 has the intelligence and the knowledge to do really well, and enjoy doing it at the same time. So why are people not reaching their potential? I know little about other subjects, but for GP I believe what's missing is their patience and persistence especially to examine other people's ideas, and to piece together their own.

On one query, I suggested rereading the answer written in order to catch language and logic mistakes and the response to my suggestion was, "Isn't that very time consuming?" Interesting question that says a lot about the strategy adopted to answer exam questions. It tells me that in the 90 minutes given for each paper, the idea is to fill up the entire time allocated by writing 800 words or thereabouts.

Despite the advice constantly given -- that planning, proofing, editing (sometimes even rewriting) are all components that can be reasonably budgeted for within the time limit, many students feel 90 minutes is too short to write a good paper and too long to keep their attention focused on a single task. Teenagers are seldom patient. They want to get things over and done with quickly but for some tasks, the best results come with patient development, and in not being satisfied with the easy answers.

In our training, we learned that education's aim is to change behaviour by learning better ways to accomplish our tasks. Logically then, unless behaviour changes, results cannot improve. I'm not talking about classroom micro-management here. Kids will be kids, regardless, thank God for that. I'm saying that the tricks you already know can only take you so far. We are teaching you new tricks that will get you further, so start practicing them and using them and see for yourselves how far you can go.

Not quite the entry I meant to write, but I guess this must have been on my mind. I couldn't think of anything else.

Spent part of the day typing up Civics Tutor's comments into the system. Some comments came easily, others I saved until tomorrow which is the actual deadline. Comments are almost like fortune cookie slips, except that the fortunes aren't doled out at random. Each student deserves some thought and must be encouraged in the right way and reminded diplomatically where to buck up. There is, however, one common denominator and that is the lack of enthusiasm in joining in a discussion. So basically everyone got a note about that.

This reticence is not unique to A2 and it's not unique to this time period either. It has been the GP tutor's lament, probably ever since GP was introduced as a subject at the 'A' Levels, and it's a phenomenon that's likely to stay until GP is scrapped for something else. Now, THAT could be a long time away.

It's probably a cultural thing, though again, it's not unique to this region either. It was quite this way at York U during most of my tutorials there as well. It was a situation that I hadn't expected when I got there. While I thought the whole tutorial would be scrambling to say something, a pattern emerged that there would only be a small number of contributors and always the same people. I had classmates who were Irish (I think I caught the interest of an Irish lass, but she never made her intentions clear), Greek (I took an interest in a Greek miss, but she made her intentions quite clear), Austrian, Yugoslav, Black, Carribean, Italian, Iranian, Israeli, Korean, Indian... oh, and a couple of Anglo-Saxon whites too. Regardless, tutorials generally were quiet affairs with mainly the tutor talking and just some occasional comments from the group; that is to say one or two members of the group.

In some tutorials, it was me and a couple of others. I must have been quite an irritating Hermione Granger type, only I was never as smart nor did I try to be. Where I could, I was just trying to live up to the culture of my expectations. There were other tutorials I completely froze up in. Like that course in Women's Studies that was mostly populated with working, part-time studying mothers who were vocal and spoke from painful personal experience. You just had to respect what they said. Besides, I didn't spend too much time on my readings for this course 'cos I was in one of my lazy periods. I was in 4th year taking a 2nd year course and it was easy to underestimate.

Hmm... applying hindsight, it was usually in the tutorials that had the best looking, eligible females that I might have participated most in. It's not the best way to win dates, though, given the low desireability of the know-it-all type, but it's a male instinct to flaunt whatever is available just to gain some attention. Ah. I think I have found my problem. No one in my CT seems remotely interested in each other in that way. The males and the females go their separate ways and there isn't enough er... chemistry to sustain discussion, intelligent or otherwise. It's bad when there is only one active couple in the group because they cut themselves off from the others, but when everyone is either a potential mate or a potential rival for an eligible mate, that's when discussions just might start getting interesting. That's why heavily male populated groups don't do well -- all rivals, no potential mates -- so they are either apathetic or self-destructive. I'm not sure what happens to heavily female populated groups though. I don't know of any to form a case-study.

So that's it. The best motivation for impressive results is the interest in getting the attention of the hunks or the babes (note the plural) in the group. I'm sorry, folks, my hands are tied.

Mom has returned from Alaska and Vancouver after a whole month. She didn't say much about Alaska but then again, too many people were asking her about different things so it was hard for her to gather her thoughts for a completely coherent account of her adventures. From what I could hear, she went berry-picking a couple of times, ate a lot on the cruise ship, and caught up on old times with our relatives living there.

Her last activity before boarding the flight home was to pick a few pounds worth of blueberries for us from a berry farm. We had blueberries for dessert tonight. I think blueberries are better served as a jam or a sundae topping. They don't leave much of an impression fresh. It was a different story with the peaches. Beautiful, firm, round peaches, juicy and sweet to bite into. Mom gave one to us to take home but I knew it would never leave the dining table alive. I know what fresh fruit smell like and this peach smelled fresh. Off-the-tree fresh. All it took was a quick rinse and between June and me we tore into it like rabid piranha. It disappeared so quickly that Mom never saw it go. She was still looking for our peach as we were going home 'cos she thought we had forgotten it and had left it behind.

Coincidentally, today is also our niece, Brenda's birthday. My sister's second kid. June bought for her a pretty denim summer dress from Guess Kids. It had some floral embroidery on the bodice and once Brenda grows a little bigger, she should look real nice in it.

My sister has herself got back from Bath so Mom and Sis swapped travel stories. My brother's PC has degenerated beyond repair and has now been rendered into its component pieces. My brother is, likewise, in pieces over it. When he saves enough cash, he'll have to go shopping for new parts; but meantime, he'll have to settle for buying time at cybercafes for his 'net fix.

Me, I wanted to go mall pounding, being bored at home and slightly claustrophobic. But it poured in the afternoon and I couldn't go anywhere. Oh well.

Oh, it's a bit weird to laugh about this but I found this link in Ali's blog.

Rooftop BBQ with NYeDC 


The rest of the crew -- havin' a great time! 

Thanks guys for a long-overdue get-together. And thanks to Yee for offering this most unusual location for our BBQ. A large gutted house, a makeshift rooftop bbq area, a georgeous unobstructed view of South and West Singapore, a skyful of stars and a bunch of excitable kids telling spooky stories by candlelight all add up to an entertaining Saturday evening.

It is heartening to see our juniors and seniors mixing so well together without inhibition. The juniors are an animated lot and it will be interesting to see what we can do with them by next year's Drama Night. I think including some of them in our SYF production was a great idea: everybody working on the same task rather than subcontracting separate tasks to separate groups.

Thanks 'sif for getting everything organized. It was supposed to be a party where everyone gets to hang out and have fun, but I acknowledge that for the organizers it's work as well making sure everyone has a good time. From communication, to administration, to logistics, thank you for so ably putting it all together and in such a short time too.

It's tough getting back in gear for the regular term activities. Looking at the MY results, there's still a lot of work to be put in and everyone has to be involved in making the effort. Since the time we started in year 1, improvement has been steady but we've reached some kind of plateau at this point. If we can just push a little harder at this pain barrier, things should start becoming more pleasurable. OK, that sounds a bit vague.

What I mean, O virgins of writing, is that I believe everyone I teach is capable of writing because they enjoy writing. Else they won't have blogs and journals and stuff. The skills in blogging and in essaying are the same -- language, subject content, analysis, structure -- are the same because we are aware of our audience, and we write for them even as we unburden ourselves of whatever's inside us by writing about it. The only difference is that in essaying, the audience is slightly different and hence the product must adapt. Either form, the audience still hopes to be entertained and as a bonus, enlightened. It's this difference that seems to be causing the bottleneck of ideas flowing into the essays and I hope we learn to adapt to this difference quickly.

4 or so months to pass on my skill in bridging the gap between informal and formal writing, a skill I am particularly proud of and has served me very well since uni days (go check out the link in the sidebar for a glimpse at the campus). With the combination of abilities in discussion, research and essaying, I could afford to be the laziest student on campus, a major procrastinator of work ('rah, bow to my prowess... whenever you can get round to doing it), still have a good time doing whatever I wanted and still graduate with some decent credits. I may not be the best teacher (I know I'm not, seeing how lazy I am) but I have something you all will want, so come and get it. I'm not selfish about things like this.

When people see good results as a side-effect of the person they develop themselves to be, instead of the main target and focus of their lives, then education actually starts making sense.

The people who live in Woodlands are so lucky to have Causeway Point, particularly if it's within walking distance from their front doors. There's so much variety of things to look at and lots of space to just walk through. June came home raving over the fish & chips from the food court last week, the night she went to watch the Moscow Circus without me (apparently I didn't miss much, she says). Taking advantage of a relatively free evening, I accompanied her tonight for a rather generous helping of fish & chips each for dinner. I must say the Australian style of breaded fish is a tasty alternative to the British battered style, which is unhealthily filling. The chips are ordinary French fried potatoes, plenty enough in quantity to be highly satisfying. They gave ketchup, tartar sauce and a slice of lemon for each dish, but I felt that something was missing -- yup, a dash of vinegar just for a little extra kick. We also ordered a side of NZ mussels, served battered and they were very fresh. Yummy. June remarked that if we lived in the area, we'd walk over every night for dinner. Then we'd get really fat from being spoiled for choice over the many interesting food varieties around the place. Now, that struck a chord. Before I left the house, I grabbed my old belt -- the one I wore during York U days -- and to my horror, when I put it around my waist, the end of the belt couldn't even touch the buckle. In the last 12 years I have gained at least 10kg. Back then I was working out quite regularly but I could never gain the weight I wanted to bulk up properly. Now I'm at the weight I wanted, but the shape just isn't there any longer. It's not to say that we never get what we want, it's just that more often than not, we don't get everything we want at the time we want it. Crap!

Whoa! Totally stream of consciousness entry. No paragraphs, not counting this one. Never said I'd set a good example every time, did I?

Don't mind me. I'm just celebrating the end of my marking of the MYE compre scripts! YES! I DA MAN! My brains are scrambled, I've depleted 2-and-a-half brand new red ink pens, I've spilled blood all over numerous scripts, and my pets are getting bald with all the pet therapy they've been providing me with. Hey, even if you have just one pet, you can cope with a lot of stress. Unless it's a goldfish. Petting living, breathing, warm fuzz (no, I wasn't talking about that -- behave yourself!) makes all your troubles disappear, possibly faster than alcohol does. Sorry, asthmatics, you'll just have to settle for a stiff crotch, 'scuse me, I mean scotch. Or a really big inhale of your inhaler. Or something. Wha? Oh, nothing, I'm just delirious, 'sall... 'gnite!

Just made it onto campus to continue marking. Happy Youth Day! No Q-tip in tow because I'm bloody late and there's no time to get her ready. I can't afford to lose any time now, except maybe to make a quick blog entry. Heh.

You can guess why I'm late. The Greeks 1, the Portuguese 0! Watched the match through half-closed eyes and saw Charisteas head in Greece's and the game's only goal on the replay. Good for the Greeks! The underdog wins this one.

Well, what should you have expected from the guys who sailed across the sea, whacked the general of the greatest army in the East, burned down his hometown to the ground and toasted marshmallows in its embers afterwards? And they did it this time without a wooden horse too! Thanks to the civilized game of soccer, Lisbon should be safe from razing -- as long as the England fans have gone home already.

You must be up to your eyeballs listening to me complaining that I am up to my eyeballs but, oh yeah, I still am. Went to college to mark today and I realized that I could have brought Q-tip with me so I can have an occasional pet therapy session every 4-5 scripts. I think she'd love the outing, I know I need the destressing. Maybe I'll do that Monday morning (if I can still wake up from Portugal vs Greece, heh heh!). I'm making full use of my coffee mug now, but must always remember that it's almost twice the size of normal coffee mugs so 3-in-one coffee must never be drowned in more that half a mug full of water, else bleeah!

Not many staff on campus today but Boon Sin was pretty hyper about taking some of the year 1s to the National Stadium for the Youth Festival thingy. It was tough eavesdropping on her conversation with Agnes about caps, sunshades and other solar protection when I'm stuck indoors and will most likely continue to be all through next week as well. Gripe, gripe, gripe. Don't know what I did to deserve it, seeing as I've been a bit grouchy recently, but Boon Sin kindly packed for me a mini curry puff, a samosa and a potato ball that had been left over from some function earlier this morning, for my lunch. Was quite touched at this unexpected kindness. Sweet kid, that.

June took advantage of the absence of that pest of her husband this morning to spruce up the house, including clearing out the fridge that probably contained stuff that expired in '02 or earlier. Correspondence that might have had some relevance a year or so ago dumped. Dog bathed. Floor mopped and vacuumed. 2 cycles of laundry completed. By the time I got back, she was wiped out. Poor thing. I think she deserves some appreciation. Any suggestions?

Update:
Heard strange industrial noises coming from the kitchen and went to investigate. Looks like June's got her second wind. It was the blender that was making all that noise. June's working on baking a Milo-banana cake using a recipe taken from Australian Women's Weekly (print version). I came out just in time to help her stir the flour into the butter-egg mixture which she had just blended. Now she'll work out the lumps left by my deft blending hand. Wonder where she gets the energy? Love the girl!

Still plodding along with scripts which come and keep on coming in a never ending stream. The deadline looms and I'm still so slow....

A quick note then about the mini staff 'revolt' I mentioned some time ago. Situation was that someone had observed that the driveway leading up to the roundabout in front of the Drum's main entrance took an awkward left turn for those driving onto campus. If either the driver or students crossing the road there were not careful, there could be a nasty accident. Not willing to take any chances, that someone (don't ask who, I don't know either) suggested that instead of turning left and circling the roundabout clockwise as usual, we should drive anti-clockwise around the roundabout, thus avoiding the awkward left turn. The wheels were set in motion immediately (who says the College doesn't move fast?) and we got arrows painted onto the road indicating the anti-clockwise direction for motorists to drive around the roundabout. Getting dizzy yet?

Problem was, most people ignored the arrows because the anti-clockwise direction contravened the general "keep left" rule of the road, while some obedient folks disobeyed road safety rules and complied with the controversial markings. Cars started to meet head-on in the crowded space in front of the Drum and thus a bigger problem started emerging.

To solve this mess, the decree was passed down from on high that henceforth, we would follow the arrows as laid down and paid for by the College fund. Thus began the revolt. The basic premise of the staff was that traffic laws must not be violated because even if staff complied there was no guarantee that non-staff driving into the College would likewise comply because they would not know to apply this esoteric rule and would naturally follow instinct and take the clockwise path instead. Moreover, by taking the anti-clockwise path, at the point that drivers switch from the usual "keep left" rule to "keep right" instead, cars would meet head-on again once they have negotiated the roundabout and had to switch back to normal "keep left" again.

If by now you have no idea what's going on, let's just simplify things by saying that the staff revolt was aimed precisely at avoiding this confusion for ourselves, parents, suppliers and guests, and of course our students. We felt that the awkward left turn was a small price to pay to keep this pandemonium from ever being created.

Today, during our 2-and-a-half hour long staff meeting at which this issue was an item on the agenda, the uppers confirmed that the issue has been resolved and the case is closed. The decision was ultimately based on a formal letter from the LTA which stated in no uncertain terms that under no circumstances are existing traffic laws to be violated. So that's that. The arrows have been washed off and we get to keep our safer, more sensible option, the awkward left turn. I hope everyone's happy now.

Students, do us a favour now: try your very best not to get KO'ed by a car anywhere near the roundabout area, please.

I am officially on strike! I refuse to mark another script. I am going absolutely potty making judgments on other people's written work and making decisions that they are not likely going to be happy with. Over and over again. For hours on end. I want a break and I'm claiming one now!

I'm sitting in front of Watson now, having spent the night far, far away from any comprehension script. I'm wearing a blue t-shirt that June bought for me from Bossini last week. At the bottom left corner of the t-shirt is a plastic label with a little red spider motif embossed upon it. I'm wearing it today for the first time, and for a special occasion. June bought a similar t-shirt for us to wear to watch Spider-Man 2!

SM2 is gorgeous! A roller-coaster not in the sense of thrills and spills, but rather of emotional responses to the conflicts the characters (yes, in the plural!) go through. While the main focus is of course on Peter Parker, each supporting character is similarly under one crisis or another that is neither overplayed nor overblown but realistic and believable within the context of their situation.

What works is that the superheroics and colourful costumes only play on the edges of the story and are really a metaphor for the internal battles that rage within each character. The story is a human one. It's about Peter Parker, Mary Jane Watson and Harry Osborne, and Otto Octavius. Even the villain, Octavius, has a reason for being, a conflict triggering his madness. I've never seen Doc Ock in this light before -- a noble, brilliant man struggling for control over the amoral technology of his own making. Ock's robot arms likewise almost have a personality too, and a primeval motivation for their actions: fight to survive, kill or be killed, fulfill your raison d'etre. Each arm can act independently but always in concert with its partners; which must be hell to choreograph but such a marvel to watch.

The Parker-type is a character usually played as a buffoon and a loser by the likes of Adam Sandler and Ben Stiller. Sam Raimi's Parker could have been played that way for laughs too, but there is a fine line between the clown and the tragic hero. The difference lies in the character's mortality, and not their pain. Pain is comedy, death is tragedy. Sandler and Stiller are clowns because despite the pain their characters endure at no point in their movies is there any actual danger to their mortal being. Parker's motivation is in constantly fighting death (his own and everybody else's); heck, it originates in the death of his mentor and father-figure. The driving force is darker but the stakes are higher and it's what makes Parker a hero.

The lofty "messages" such as "we are responsible for the choices we make," and "we are responsible for the gifts we are given," are balanced out by "we don't have to face our responsibilities alone." The latter is a message that is so important but we always neglect to consider it whenever we focus on just carrying out our duties, responsibilities and obligations, and we think it's all so overwhelming.

Watch SM2 for a morale uplift! Don't waste the weekend!

On a slightly different note, here's a link to England's Euro Cup hopes which I place here to commemorate their fighting exit from the tournament.

I'm just a kid
And life is a nightmare
I'm just a kid
I know that its not fair
Nobody cares
'Cuz I'm alone and the world is
Having more fun than me tonight
-Simple Plan, "I'm Just a Kid"

OK, I'm being childish. June's gone off to watch the Moscow Circus in Woodlands, and I'm stuck at home with papers to mark. No, not that she wouldn't let me go, but I knew I couldn't make it. It's quite different from when I took my 'O' Levels. Then I really was a kid, and I really got left behind to study whenever my family went out. Fat lot of good it did my grades... but I'm not bitter.

So now I'm >ahem< more mature and I've got my priorities aligned with my responsibilities, but it doesn't matter; being left behind still sucks.

Guys, after you take your last paper tomorrow, have a great long weekend! Enjoy on our behalf, can?

Forgot to mention: I discovered what a 'vegetable dosa' is from the prata shop downstairs of my place. It's a dosa that comes stuffed with coleslaw! Yuck! Next time I'm sticking to my usual masala dosa. The potato stuffing tastes much better, and it's cheaper too.

Today's entry is in recognition of the Toilet Uncle who keeps the public toilet next to our NTUC Fairprice open. He also accumulates used cardboard boxes and sometimes currently-being-used cardboard boxes, and roots through garbage bins for recyclable stuff to sell to supplement his income. You could say he's one of the catfish in our pond.

Smokes too much, drinks too much Guinness and many a night stares out at the world through a haze of mild intoxication. White-haired (though not always looking elderly), skinny, and walks with a limp and in possession of erratic interpersonal skills. A friendly enough fellow with a lot of angst kept mostly under control. Mostly.

We are quite wary of him because his behaviour can be quite unpredictable. When we walk down his corridor we don't know if he's going to wave and smile, or pretend to threaten our dog, or pretend to be terrified of her (or pretend that he's pretending), or complain about his life with statements that make us feel guilty about ours.

Uncle: Hello! Chi4 bao3 le4 mei2 you3? (Usual greeting in Mandarin)
Us: Hello! Chi4 bao3 le4! (Usual cheery rejoinder)
Uncle: Wo2 zhen3 tian1 hai2 mei2 chi1... ("Well, I haven't eaten all day...")
Us: Oh...! >blink, blink<

We just don't know how to respond after that. If we knew it was a one-time thing we wouldn't mind helping him out with a meal, but we know that we are going to see him every day so are we meant to invite him to dinner with us night after night? Being sympathetic can lead to such an undesirably complex relationship.

Anyway, I mention him today because after tomorrow he will be replaced by someone whom, he says, did him out of his job. Today he was clear, lucid even and he wasn't pretending. Despite everything, he's become a part of our daily routine and we are sorry to see him go.

We've managed to keep our relationship as minimally simple up to now. For that, he deserves a place in my memory (no, it's not like he's going to die or what!), so here's to our Toilet Uncle! Cheers!

OMG so little time, so much to do. And I'm moving so slowly too. It's like that when you first start marking, you never know what to expect in the answers you read. It takes time to see the various permutations that are possible, and once a pattern starts emerging then things can go much faster. But for the moment I'm still at the feeling swamped stage. And tired. Oh, I mentioned that before, didn't I?

Glad I only had one relief invigilation. It was this afternoon during the math paper. 1 hour relieving Fook Khim the next relieving Weng Heng. It is so hot in the 3rd floor classrooms. The heat reflects off the sunshade over the gallery and bounces directly into the room. Even the fans going at full blast can't do much about it. Hardest thing about invigilation is staying awake. The students have their minds at full steam working out answers to their test questions, the invigilator has no stimulation at all, whatsoever, nada. Just stand, sit, walk around and constantly watch whatever non-activity is happening, or rather not happening in the room. There are occasions when you black out for a split-second -- your head jerks backwards because your neck muscles no longer function, or if you're standing you suddenly pitch forward as your mind forgets to fight gravity while it reboots.

I had to keep myself awake repeating song lyrics in my head. Today it was "Truly, Madly, Deeply" by Savage Garden and "Song for Whoever" by Beautiful South. It just so happened the latter song was what Cara insisted on playing in her car as we drove to our unofficial staff canteen for lunch with our usual lunch crowd. The song stuck in my head for a while. I also had to imagine wild but impractical lesson plans for my classes just so I could keep the mental gears going to stay awake.

Oh yeah! Cara let me drive her car back onto campus after lunch. The controls are so sensitive and I had quite a time getting a feel of how much pressure to apply to the accelerator, the brakes, and trying to remember my driving theory at the same time. Just before the college gates, Anthony remarked that I must be getting the hang of it 'cos I just hit 40kmh. Idiot.

OK, wasted enough time... back to marking!

Bad news: Mimi went home today. Good news: Q-tip's no longer limping. No, good news and bad news do not always have to be related.

Our new vicar preached at our service for the first time but I'm sorry to say I fell asleep through most of it. Guess he didn't leave much of an impression on me. It's just that I've been tired over the weekend and I'm still tired right now. Building up the energy to go back to disciplined routine is part of the problem and maybe the other part is insufficient sleep due to too many late nights these past few days. And I don't have to study for exams, so I really do sympathise with the students. But I have a marking pile that is no joke either. Marking is almost a routine, assembly line job except that it also requires exceptional creative thinking and interpretive skills as well as an evaluative mind that can decide whether the words written (sometimes deciphering the handwriting is an additional task) can possibly make any sense in relation to the question being asked, and how well, before allocating a quantitative value on the latter.

It's such a paradox how mentally taxing this mindless exercise can be. No wonder I'm zonked...

That's the best I can do for a group shot! Seldom is everyone in the same room together. 

June's day must have been terrible. While I was on campus entertaining myself invigilating the GP mid-year exam, June took Mimi and Q-tip out for their daily constitutional. It was a little too late for Mimi 'cos she had a diarrhea problem from the beginning of our corridor all the way to the elevator, much to June's horror when she discovered why Mimi seemed to be dragging herself when she's usually so eager to get out. After locking up the 2 dogs again, June spent most of the morning armed with kitchen towels and a bottle of water trying to clean up the mess and trying to look inconspicuous to our neighbours. Stuff of nightmares, but one she couldn't wake up from.

Last time this happened, it was Q-tip who couldn't wait to get downstairs. She left a neat little pile in front of our neighbour's front door. After cleaning up, June bought a 4D ticket with the number on the front door and guess what? She won $4000 on that ticket! Doubt we'll be so lucky on this transaction. And no, June says, it wasn't funny.

Got some interesting feedback over the mid-year paper. There were 2 camps with widely differing opinions: one thought the paper was "quite fun" and the other thought the questions were "weird," particularly the AQ. Let's just say that students who prepare to answer GP questions by some magic formula are generally going to be disappointed because no such formula exists. Besides, if there was a formula to the AQ, then the purpose of the test would be self-defeating. A question requiring the use of flexible thinking is hamstrung if the answer was a formulaic one. Let's hope more students are in the "quite fun" camp.

Got so much marking to do now, with so little time to do it in. No way I can procrastinate because these deadlines are cast in stone. If I can't meet the line, I will definitely be dead, and not just me but there will be a cascading effect on the other markers as well. Can't afford to be the weak link in the chain so back to work I go!

England!!! The Brits put up quite a show, full of fire and guts. Unfortunately, the game was soccer and the better team won. Portugal looked like they were playing with extra players, so able to gain ball possession they were. They had better passing, they intercepted better and they had much better ball control than the Brits who couldn't string a series of passes together. Individually, the Brits have brilliant players -- Owen's first goal took a really deft touch -- but as a team they just don't work. However, it really adds excitement to the umpteenth power when in the dying minutes of Extra Time, England, trailing by a goal, still manages to unexpectedly pull back one to equalize and push the game into a penalty shootout. Gutsy, but futile, considering that the team by then comprised players that are better suited to defending than scoring goals, whereas Portugal had by then brought on a strike force in force. The result was almost a foregone conclusion with Beckham messing up his penalty shot yet again. So some big names are gone from the competition: Italy, Germany and now England. It was still a great match to stay up for. Excellent drama.

When I regained consciousness, I decided that Q-tip's limp looked worse than before so we made an appointment with our family doctor at Namly Animal Clinic. The charges are a bit high there, but the service and care are worth it. We couldn't leave Mimi behind or she'll get jealous of Q-tip's "outing" so I brought her with me as well. One guy, me, with 2 dogs, trying to get a taxi in the mid-afternoon. It's an exercise in frustration what with a never-ending stream of cab thieves and anti-canine cab drivers and 2 squirmy dogs in their carry-ons. Good thing I left early.

Dr Chan met us as usual and heard the story of Q-tip's flying leap off the bicycle at ECP. She poked and prodded around Q-tip's forelegs and observed her running around. "Nothing to worry about," was her diagnosis; perhaps just a bit of post-traumatic pain (translated in English: a sprain). So we're to give Q-tip lots of rest and she should be ok pretty soon. Plenty of rest is not a problem, she sleeps about 20 hours a day on average anyway. She also got a couple of anti-inflammatory tablets (liver flavoured) for the pain. So as not to waste Mimi's trip, Dr Chan gave her her long overdue shots, for which Mimi was grrrr...ateful.

And now it is my honour to declare the month-long vacation period officially over. >muted cheers all round< Hope you guys are ready for tomorrow's GP mid-year, and for the subsequent papers next week. Best go sleep right away, you'll need it when you see what we have in store for you. Heh, heh!

Mom-in-law's gone to Kukup for the weekend so Mimi's back with us again! 

I am 29% evil.




I try to stay away from evil deeds but succumb to temptation every once in a while. I'm not quite on my way to hell but I certainly have some explaining to do.


Are you evil? find out at Hilowitz.com


Evil laughter index rates a 'Heh heh' and still not quite a 'bwa ha ha!'

I am so dumb. England vs Portugal is tonight -- early Friday morning! That means I can stay up to watch the game after all! This deserves one big DUH from me. *DUH*

Heh. This is one instance when my stupidity works for me rather than against me. I feel so embarrassed. Lucky I don't teach math.

Hmm... I'll miss the France vs Greece game then. French class vs Greek tenacity. Maybe this one will prove to be the better game to watch. Limited supplies, unlimited wants.

Looks like everyone's hard at work and even I'm trying to get back in the swing of things again. That's right, all the last minute work, all the anxiety that everything I wanted to get done isn't going to get done after all. And it's just so aggravating that the Euro Cup matches are going to keep me up all night so that when morning comes, I'm too grogged out to focus on getting my stuff done. Something's got to give pretty soon and I hope I can make the right decision as to which one.

The great tragedy is that England plays its quarter-final match on Friday night but we've got to report back in College at 7am the next morning, so there's no way I'm going to be able to watch it 'live.' Next best thing: tape it and watch the match in the afternoon, all the while avoiding like mad any news about what the final score is. Good bloody luck! Avoid Anthony, avoid Vince, avoid, duck, cover... OK, so I do fancy England, but I seriously doubt their chances of going much further, Rooney notwithstanding. He's just one kid after all, and now everybody's going to be on their guard against him, shutting him out like they're doing to Owen.

On the homefront, now that Q-tip's been shaved again, it's become obvious that she's limping as she is favouring her front right foot when she walks. She hasn't been complaining of any pain, even when we conduct a hands-on examination on her and there doesn't seem to be any swelling, so I hope it's something that will take care of itself soon. She's still capering and running about quite happily so maybe there isn't really anything to worry about.

One of our missing strays, Lung-Lung, has turned up again and she's been taken for neutering by someone other than us! Her ear's been "tipped." It's encouraging that other people in our neighbourhood are doing their part to care for our strays too.

Have also got to mention this one little girl who looks Malay and who has a real affection for our four-legged friends. Reminds me of Elmira from Tiny Toons. Tonight she was running around with Flirt in her arms. Flirt loves the attention apparently, and didn't seem to want to be rescued. The kid had a long, nasty scratch down the side of her right arm but it didn't deter her from looking for more cats to hug and squeeze. Scary thing is, she's got a thing for Q-tip as well and insisted on carrying her for a while. Q-tip's a bit afraid of her rough handling, but I'm more worried about how her parents would react to her proximity to our dog if indeed she is Malay. She's such a cute kid, but another one to tiptoe around if we spot her from afar.

We haven't seen Joyce in such a long time. It was nice to see her again seeing as how our schedules are so hard to coordinate and we've had to call off some of our previous meetings because of this or that.

We finally met for dinner at Ikea, which is convenient for her as she lives close by, and by unofficial tradition, it's where we usually meet for a Christmas meal, though we haven't done so for the last couple of years. I don't know how the 'tradition' started. Maybe it's because the first time the three of us had a meal together there, it happened to be around Christmas time. It was also the first time June encountered Swedish meatballs and was horrified to see how many of them Joyce and I put away together. Back then, Ikea served plates of 10, 15 and 20 meatballs. I would systematically demolish the 20 while Joyce scarfed down the 15. June played safe and had the salmon instead.

Today, Ikea only serves the 10. No 15, no 20. Wonder why? Anyway, the 3 of us had a plate each and they still are really very good. The dish is simple in presentation: just the meatballs covered in a brown gravy with what tastes like a cranberry sauce dip. We also ordered 8 chicken wings perfectly fried -- juicy inside, crispy skin with some substantial nibbling on the tip as well. June doesn't eat skin and Joyce was aghast at how much skin June was discarding from her wings. She even discarded the tips, disregarding Joyce's cries of "sacrilege."

Beware of Ikea's soft drinks fountain. The drinks are pretty fresh and froth up easily, leaving you with what you think is a full glass but is actually half effervescence. This is especially true of the root beer, the froth of which takes quite some time to dissipate. It's also easy to overflow your glass as you're filling it up and leave an embarrassing mess on the counter, not to mention making your fingers unpleasantly sticky. The drinks come cold enough already so don't bother wasting an already small glass capacity with ice cubes.

Managed to grab a slice of apple pie and the last chocolate truffle cake from the dessert counter. I don't like cooked apples but I downed the apple pie remains after the 2 girls refused to eat another bite due to their being overstuffed. This was after I polished off the chocolate truffle cake which I hadn't realized was meant for sharing. >burp< It was rich, moist and deliciously chocolatey and which, I'm sure, June would have collapsed from if she had even one bite. Too rich, too smooth, too much of a good thing. >contented sigh<

Ikea furniture is nice, but it's the cafe that keeps us coming back.

Guess who's got a haircut today? 

Gaiman's "Neverwhere" was a fun read. With Gaiman you play the game of "spot-the-myth" as he throws in elements of familiar old stories in an interesting plot of his own. The "melting plot," so to speak. Let's see... Alice in Wonderland, though London below is much darker and more dangerous; the Marquis of Carabas is a common pen name derived from "Puss in Boots;" Mayhew undertakes a spirit walk with the prerequisite spirit guide; and there's even a unsubtle reference to the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, though the Marquis can hardly be considered "Christ-like." Messrs Croup and Vandemar, Victorian assassins, are dangerously humorous, displaying intelligence, ironic wit and a sense of pride in their own malevolence, akin to that of Jack the Ripper. There is a sort of Blyton's "Magic Faraway Tree" likeness to the Floating Market; and Perseus' labyrinth is guarded by a centuries-old escaped pig rather than the Minotaur. London below comprises the literal manifestations of the quirky place names of London above. I may be stretching things a bit but the description of Down Street reminds me of how the impact crater looks like in Final Fantasy 7. There is also the gathering of the Fellowship as every quest requires the different abilities that each member can bring to the party (although we can only guess at what Mayhew's abilities are, "normal" as he is); the betrayal of the Fellowship (never fails); and when Mayhew returns to familiarity again he does so a la "Wizard of Oz" style.

It's great fun that Gaiman is able to take bits and pieces of all these old familiar stories and integrate them with icons of popular culture of our contemporary period although the environmant created is dangerous, chaotic and insane. Yet, it's the promise of adventure and the idea that anything's possible that make London below so much more preferable to mundane, predictable, well-planned and organised reality. At the end, the Marquis stands at the door and invites you [wow, another Biblical allusion] to come live in the realm of fantasy and chaos. Don't always take the realistic, pragmatic route but be free to choose freedom. I think that's Good Advice. We need to acknowledge that life is more chaotic than we admit and when we can do that, then things become more possible for us, and Doors open!

eeps... my book review just turned into a sermon.

A minor argument over queue jumping results in the stabbing death of a man who had gone to place a bet on a Euro Cup match. The perp was caught on CCTV and is now being sought by the authorities. Who needs terrorists when there are crazies who commit murder over such a petty incident? This story was in yesterday's news but the link won't last the week so if you must read the story, read it fast.

Well, I can say I bought my first 4D ticket today. No, it wasn't for myself but for my mom-in-law who usually gets June to make the purchase 'cos it's more convenient for us to do it for her than if she was to do it for herself. Today, however, June was right in the middle of preparing our dinner when the call came through. Being unable to turn her attention away from the sizzling, bubbling pots and pans on the stove, the next best option was to send the more dispensible of us to the Turf Club outlet to acquire the precious ticket.

This late in the afternoon, the line at each counter is long and the evening sun shines directly into the betting store making it a hot, tedious shuffle towards the clerk. Meantime, I'm flipping the betting slip to read the instructions on how to place a 4D bet and trying not to look like such a virgin at the same time. The instructons were clear enough and I've seen June fill in the form once or twice so I got the hang of it pretty easily.

I went to join the line, which by that time had already spilled onto grass. As I did so an elderly uncle-type collided with me. 2 pairs of hands immediately went up and a barrage of profuse apologies erupted between the both of us. I guess I'm not the only person today who read yesterday's papers.

I successfully purchased my ticket (0220, Big, $5; what kind of number is that?) and now I just hope that win or lose mom-in-law isn't going to conclude that her son-in-law is either a charm or a jinx. I only went to place a bet because it was an "emergency" situation. I hope "qing3 jiao4 Min bang1 wo3 mai3 ma3 piao4" isn't going to be a regular occurence from now on. *fingers crossed*

Had dinner at Jen's place. Simple affair, well, relatively simple as Jen's house is a major crossroad for assorted drop-ins ranging from family to neighbours, to friends of various family members. Our party comprised me and June, Adrian and Mary (who brought her dog, Millie to see her mom, Ashley). Adrian is now obsessed with deciding which car to purchase, having test driven his latest 3 options (a BM, a Lexus and a Merc) this morning. He is now canvassing our opinions on which car we think he looks best in. I told him I think the BM, since the other 2 seem more like the type elderly gentlemen would drive, but then I could be wrong. >shrug< Don't know much about the car market 'cos I'm not in it. My cars are virtual.

June brought over the agar she made today in teddy bear and rabbit shapes. Simple pandan flavour in the first layer and a hand-squeezed coconut milk base layer. Nice, firm consistency and not too sweet. Jen's home-made guacamole starter was delicious -- so good I took some home on my t-shirt. Last time it was Ragu sauce. My t-shirts get nervous every time I take them to visit Jen.

We discussed how antisocial June and I are with our neighbours. It's true. We'd climb the stairs if we see our neighbours get in the lift before us, we quickly and quietly slip into our front door to avoid attracting attention from our neighbours who always keep their doors open whenever they're home, we check if the coast is clear from our door peephole before we leave our house. When we do these things, it doesn't seem so wierd to us, but talking about it, it really does seem that we are a pair of neurotics. Definitely not kampong-like behaviour but more consistent with city dwellers from NYC. June says she wasn't like that before she met me, and I believe her.

OK. You must think I'm totally nuts, but I make no excuses for my behaviour. My social circle is small, tight-knit and I like it that way. As I experience life, I sense that when people treat you well, it's because there is a potential in you that they think they can exploit in return. I hate being evaluated in terms of how much profit I can make for others and therefore how much they are prepared to invest in me.

It was like this when I was working in the private sector, then I got tired of providing service so that people like Ong Beng Seng and Kwek Leng Beng could get richer and richer. Actually I hardly made them a cent, but it was the principle, you see? It was so pointless helping someone already rich get richer, when I thought the right thing to do was to help those who were not yet rich create opportunities to become rich for themselves. So, among other things in my life, I decided to dump the private sector and teach instead. Great. Big philanthropist I am. Besides, it's fun and there's holidays and stuff.

Funny how your mind wanders, jumping from topic to topic like this. Oh well, this blog is supposed to be self-reflective anyway. Ended the evening watching "Along Came Polly" which was sweet and funny, light entertainment for all. A pleasant evening.

Ravenclaw! Some might see you as a bit haughty, but
that's just because they lack the intellectual
capacity to be worthy of your presence. You see
little difference between enlightenment and
entertainment; learning experiences are
tremendously enjoyable for you. And remember,
kids: just because you're brilliant doesn't
mean you're studious!


A More Unique Hogwarts Sorting Quiz
brought to you by Quizilla

Thanks 'sif!

So much for taking my time with DVC. It certainly is a page turner. The plot is like a scavenger hunt leading from one clue to the next and is full of puzzles that the reader can get caught up in and try to solve for himself. The puzzles are relatively simple -- anagrams, riddles and substitution codes -- easy enough for the reader to be intrigued with yet solvable within the scope of the reader's abilities, if he had the time and inclination to do so. DVC keeps you hooked because you have to find out if your guesses were "correct."

The material in DVC may be disturbing to the more religious of us, but there is no new information that is presented (which was mainly what I was looking for). It's essentially a mystery story enveloped in the familiar conspiracy theories of secret societies with hidden agenda, using material from already published sources. The Code itself has little to do with Da Vinci himself, but refers to the clues left behind by a murder victim for our protagonists to follow through (so don't be fooled like I was).

Some character names are literally applied, like Fache, which means "don't f**k with me or I'll tear your head off" or something like it, although the word won't translate in Babelfish. Maybe it's an outdated usage. Sauniere is a name closely related to the Grail legends, and Sophie (as in "Sophie's World") means "wisdom," which is itself a clue to one of the major puzzles presented.

The suspense is created the usual way -- hunters being hunted, needing to finish their quest before they are stopped by one force or another. Their mandatory betrayal should also come as no surprise since there are few suspects to eliminate in the first place. Brown plays the so-near-and-yet-so-far game of "pass the parcel", a childishly simplistic, yet effective means of maintaining intrigue. Each layer either reveals a reward (plot progression) or a forfeit (a setback or obstacle to overcome). Either way, you just have to keep unwrapping the parcel until you reach the central prize. Yes, Brown does provide a final payoff although he also provides enough clues for you to guess what it is one or two layers too early before the end.

The Grail theme is used in games like the Broken Sword trilogy and in "Gabriel Knight: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned." It's fun to mess around with mythology and try and tie the old legends into our own lives. I just wish I had known DVC fell under this category before I bought the book. Duh, the book's spine says "Fiction".

Went absolutely stir crazy. Got fed up with my pasty self cooped up in my musty old room indulging my obsessions and trying to get some work done at least. Bored out of my skull, which is strange because once my idea of perfection was being solitary but now, solitary has become so booooring! Does this mean I've become more mature... or less?

Too much electronic stimulation, can sense my brain turning into total slush. Just had to get out and do something, buy something. But it's hard to be creative in your activities when you're so out of touch with what's happening in town. So I went to Kino at Bugis Junction to look for some reading material for a change. Why there? I swung by Sim Lim (again) to see what's up first. Staggered through SL Square with an armful of Xeroxed flyers advertising the best buys of the day but there's still nothing I want. It's impossible to avoid the people (I'm being charitable, they're touts actually) hanging around the escalators and escape without being handed something. While you're trying to avoid one, another will stick a flyer in your hands when you're not looking! The establishment should scatter recycling bins around the mall where we can stuff all these unwanted materials. I just folded my stack up and dumped them in the trash. A serious shopper KNOWS what he wants.

Thankfully, Kino stocked the books I was looking for, Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" (DVC) and Gaiman's "Neverwhere." I didn't expect to find the latter since I've not been able to find it before on other book shopping expeditions, but there it was sitting in the Fantasy section instead of Fiction (interestingly, Kino displays all fiction titles under the Literature section, how undiscriminatory). Brown was so much harder to find. I thought there would be piles of his book around since it's such a bestseller, but it wasn't in any section I looked. Then I happened to pass a restocking trolley just about to be wheeled away by a Kino staff and there it was! I grabbed a copy before it disappeared from sight. Now, I'm not so sure about DVC. My interest perked after Broken Sword and it's allusions to Templar mythology, but Brown is starting to read like a crime mystery novel although I expected more. Well, I'm committed already and I'm determined to finish DVC before I begin on "Neverwhere." It could take weeks since I can only read while in transit. Whatever. I need the stimulation of the written word every now and then.

It's a great feeling knowing that when you go to sleep tonight, you don't have to wake up early if you don't want to.

Too much durian in me. Got 3 fruit stalls downstairs selling durians and a wife who cant resist. 3 days in a row we've bought durians and I've like got my fill for the year! (Easy to say now, but if June wants durian tomorrow, I'll still go for it)! There's no medical equivalent for the term, but "heatiness" is a real phenomenon. I can feel it doing nasty things to me although I can't describe the symptom exactly. I must remember to keep hydrating myself throughout the day unless I want to fall sick, which I definitely do not. Especially when an MC isn't going to do me any good at this time. Remind me to drink lots of water, ok?

Just a note to mark the mid point of our summer vacation. Piles of work left to complete (hey, it's a working vacvation) but I can proudly say I have completed 112 of 111 campaign races in NFS:U and can consider myself as having finished the game. My pearlescent green Miata made me sick to look at it so I changed it for a Nissan Skyline GTR but I finished the game switching back to my trusty Miata but this time in pearlescent yellow which looked a bit better. Over the weekend I picked up Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon, an adventure game published quite a while ago although I hadn't paid it much attention at the time. The story revolves around conspiracy theories involving the Knights Templar and a smattering of mythologies from different ancient cultures. Puzzles are quite easy to solve, so the game wasn't much of a challenge. I've already finished it, though I might have done so earlier if not for the game crashing once and me forgetting to save a major chunk of my progress and having to backtrack quite a way to return to where I was before the crash. Mental note: please Save often. Thank you.

OK, enough fun. Maybe it's time to look at your in-tray and appreciate the growing stack of real-life to-do things -- stuff you are paid to do, eh? Groan.

Stayed up to watch England snatch defeat from the jaws of victory from France last night! All through the match I kept telling myself that the French were playing so much better, stringing passes together, taking adventurous shots at goal, while the English were just content to pack their penalty box with men and clearing to touch without much thought to counterattack after their solitary first-half goal.

Barthez must be over the moon having saved a Beckham penalty. I thought the England captain was too casual taking the shot, and I knew he would rue his flippancy. But the French just had to keep the suspense right down to the very last couple of minutes to scramble a last gasp win from an almost certain loss. Zidane showed real class with his two dead-ball shots, cooly slotted in with no mistake, within a minute of each other to break the hearts of English fans around the world (wow, so drama). The French deserved their victory with their never-say-die fighting spirit. They have really stamped their quality on this year's European Cup championship, and they are certainly the team to beat.

After the match the camera panned over the English supporters and their faces were so shell-shocked. The French supporters were, of course, delirious. Me, I'm sleep deprived but satisfied. Who would have believed it? A Hollywood script couldn't have done better.

Mom's gone off to, get this, Alaska and she's extended the usual tour package so she can spend more time in Vancouver to meet up with our relatives there. Mom, the social butterfly, while Dad stays home all alone, just the way he likes it! I think I take after my Dad. I don't like meeting new people, related or otherwise. I've always found people stressful to be with. That is, I don't purposely go out of my way to say "hi" to just anybody. It's like, after the initial greeting, what then, you know? Nah, I'm not good with people at all. Give me a task to work on with someone, ok, our conversation has a purpose and a meaning. On a social level with no immediate goal to achieve, "???..." It does get uncomfortable.

Samurai Jack says, "... most people talk too much without actually saying anything." I've got nothing against small talk, it's just not my kind of thing.

Sorry. Getting sidetracked. I just wanted to say that the family continued our Sunday dinner even though it was a last minute arrangement. Dad didn't have enough food for all of us at such short notice so we had a pot-luck instead. We celebrated Father's Day a week early as my sister will be out of town next weekend to visit Bath, England. Man, I'm stuck in Singapore all through this hol. Maybe I'm more like my dad than I dare think!

Tried to fix my bro's PC while he wasn't home, but it looks like it's beyond repair. I feel a little responsible because it previously belonged to me and I let him buy it over cheap when I got it upgraded last year. His keyboard registers though the keys don't function and when it shuts down Win ME, the OS shuts down but the hardware doesn't. The reset button doesn't function either. He's going to need a new PC but I'm not about to let him inherit Watson (my current PC) just yet. An upgrade is in the works, true, but again, not so soon. As I mentioned before, there's no pressing need to upgrade yet. But if he gets himself a new PC, who's going to inherit Watson when his upgrade is due? What a dilemma.

Q-tip explores ECP at last! 


Ready in the cockpit, waiting to blast off! 


And we're off! 


Deep sea exploration 


One seriously wet dog who needs a bath! 

Had a great day today with beach, bike and bimbo dog. It was Q-tip's first time out at ECP and her first bicycle ride too. There must be some discrimination going on at the bike rentals because when the rental clerks cottoned on that we wanted a basket to carry our dog in, they wouldn't let us have any bikes. Is it a safety thing or what? So we had to do it the underhand method. June parked herself some distance from the next bike rental outlet then I went to get a bike with basket for myself. Having scored a bike, I went back to get a second bike, somewhat smaller, for June. Only then could we load up Q-tip and show her the sights. How bothersome.

June ended up with the basket as it was so low-slung on my bike it dragged on the front tire. We thought Q-tip would freak out in the basket but from the outset it looked like she was really enjoying the ride. She was smiling all the way, tongue hanging out, very relaxed on the towel we provided for her comfort.

She didn't like swimming, however, not like when we were at Sentosa a few months ago. The waves were higher and stronger at ECP and she just couldn't cope. Swimming was over in less than 5 minutes before we headed back to return our bikes.

We got the scare of the day when on the way back, Q-tip temporarily misplaced her brain and jumped out of the basket from the moving bike. Both June and I narrowly missed running her over as she landed badly -- belly up instead of on her feet. She must have suffered some shock as well, immediately righting herself and running aimlessly across the grass verge with me in hot pursuit. It took a while before she recognised my voice again and slowed to a halt in sitting position. Whatever was she thinking? Q-tip doesn't have the guts to jump off the sofa; what could have posessed her to jump off a bike? A mystery to solve before we take her on another biking expedition.

We rode very slowly back to return our bikes (again one at a time) this time holdng very tightly to Q-tip's leash in case she decides to take another unauthorized skydive again. No incident, this time.

Home again and Q-tip's got her bath and is nice and fluffy again. In need of grooming, she is.

Went for dinner at The French Stall, on Sembawang Road opp. Khatib Camp. Nice French bistro. The layout is half indoor dining and the other half al fresco. June and I both ordered the same beef set but replaced the Aubergine dish with French onion soup. The soup didn't disappoint in taste but presentation-wise I'm still looking for a French onion soup that comes with a layer of mozzarella completely covering the top of the soup bowl, the way I'm used to in TO. Also, maybe it's because most people don't like it, but the soup came devoid of parmesan. I had to ask for it and it came freshly grated in a saucer; that's service! French onion soup needs a generous sprinkling of parmesan to fully bring out it's flavour. Try it, you won't regret it (unless you already can't stand parmesan, that is).

I ordered the Beef Entrecote to remind myself of the one thing I was specially looking for when I visited Quebec City those many years ago. I had heard that this dish was a specialty of a particular eatery in the old part of QC (by old we mean that that part of the city hasn't been updated for 200 years and is now a major tourist attraction). Mom and I managed to find that particular restaurant and the beef, as I remember, was really special. At The French Stall, the entrecote was juicy, tender and came in a tasty creme sauce on a bed of potato gratin. It's nice that when we asked for our steaks to be done rare, they were actually served rare. Some places, you ask for rare they give you medium because they can't stand the sight of blood or something.

The choc cake for dessert was nothing to rave about. It just... was. Next time, I'll try the lamb and maybe follow up with the ice-cream thing we saw carried past our table. Altogether, the meal cost us a few cents short of $50. Ouch. What the heck! It's payday!

Had another sweat-a-thon this morning and I think we're making progress. Lena came to join us so we have one more member of our team getting a feel of the routine. She's picking up quite fast, but then, she has a good background in dance anyway. Had a look at the actual location and, boy, it's a lot of ground to cover. That's going to add to our sweat output, that's for sure. It feels funny, muscles aching yet it's a healthy thing to do. Well, it would feel better if I didn't screw up my knees. The left one is a bit wobbly now. I hope I haven't done any real damage to it, but I don't see how I could have. Maybe it's just not used to this kind of stress, not having done anything like it for so long already. To everyone involved, thanks for all the hard work, and I promise, we will improve!

I did manage to catch The Punisher at Bishan J8 in the mid-afternoon. Was starving since I hadn't had anything to eat since the Oreos-Os for breakfast. Wanted to line up for popcorn and coke (great -- healthy exercise not being supported by healthy diet) but I just barely got my ticket before the movie started. Then I realized that perhaps I could have lined up for food after all 'cos the pre-show commercials ran on for quite a while. Good thing there were no ads for food products, else...

As expected, not many in the audience. Just a few Marvel fanboys and that's about it. The run isn't going to last long. You have to be a fanboy to appreciate a movie like this. After all, the lead character is a psycho who's lost everything. How else do we expect him to emote? He's just grim all the time, no emotion left in him. With the death of his entire family -- and I mean cross-generational extended family on both his and his wife's side in the same hour -- and his own attempted murder, he evolves into what is basically the Angel of Death on his 'resurrection.' Nothing supernatural about his return to the living, it's like the Bride in Kill Bill. The assassins just didn't finish the job well enough.

It's not really giving away the plot because it's quite obvious what game Punny is playing from the time he sets his plan for revenge in motion. If you haven't got time to watch 4 hours worth of Othello at the Arts Festival, you can get a quickie version with lots of guns and explosions in The Punisher. It's not as 'cultural' but it's probably more fun. There's even a tip of the hat to Homer's Iliad ('Troy,' for the more pop culture inclined) at the end. I won't say which part 'cos again it's quite obvious.

So we have a story about a loony who does terrible things to terrible people who did terrible things to him and to other people. It's hard to support a guy whose cruelty and spite matches that of the one who caused him harm to begin with. The Punisher is not a character we sympathise with. He is not a hero, not a role model but rather an unnatural disaster that befalls evildoers who deem themselves above the law. Maybe that's why this movie is so disturbing. The lead is not one to root for, not one to cheer for. Apart from the misfits and outcasts of society who become Punny's inadvertent neighbours, one of whom suffers for his sake, they, I think are the ones who show true courage, standing up for what they think is right: friendship, community, family. And they don't have guns either.

Do I recommend it? Go if you like the Punisher already, or if you like guns, bombs and fisticuffs to go with your popcorn. If you're still interested, be warned: it's been censored to NC16 although it was released as R in the US.

My CD-RW is giving trouble again. I've managed to burn two CDs worth of stuff before the burner seems to have given up. The device doesn't seem to be recognised any longer and I'm getting frustrated. I can't tell if it's a problem with the burner or if I've bought a bunch of bad CD-Rs. There! What do you know? It's started burning again! That's good news then. 'Unreliable' is how I would call it. Sometimes will write, sometimes won't. It's so annoying!

Exciting that our CT T-shirt is in the works at last! Nige seems to have got the colours problem solved and we should be able to wear it soon. After the hols we hope, eh, Nige? Now, I haven't actually seen the design yet but I'm hoping to, if one of you will forward me a copy. Thanks!

As far as movies are concerned, it's a quiet week with nothing opening that I'm really dying to watch. The Punisher is opening tomorrow but it got quite bad reviews in the papers today so I doubt June will be interested to go watch it. I'd still support it as Frank Castle is a pretty interesting character in the Marvel universe where everyone is super-powered but Castle only has his training and combat smarts to rely on. He's at an obvious disadvantage, yet he can hold his own if he has to. Maybe I can go sneak off to watch it tomorrow, after our work out session, on my own, which I haven't done for a long time already. At one time, I wouldn't watch a movie with company 'cos I always found company too distracting. Also, I couldn't find anybody to go with, which was sad. It was always either one or the other.

OK. Disks burned at last. It was such a waste to burn a single track on a whole CD so I randomly stuck in a bunch of filler tracks to use up all the space on the disk. Hope the work out crew will be happy.

Ouch. Body hurts again, especially my right butt which seems to have cramped up. Rythm and movement sure is taking its toll but it's worth it, just to be able to move and sweat again. I gotta get the moves down, but it's difficult. It helps that the music has a strong beat but while I can execute specific moves, stringing them together in sequence addles my poor brain. Maybe that's it! Use less brain and just move! Let's try that next time.

I'm sort of ok if there is someone to watch for cues, but on my own, PANIC! Oh well, I guess we're doing fine for the first two sessions. Things must improve from now on!

Jong Yann and I are the first ones to try out the steps, having had a headstart last week. Today Cara and Jeremy came in and while Cara should be able to pick things up pretty quickly, Jeremy looks like he's under a lot of stress. It'll be interesting to see how fast Lena and Thaddeus are going to pick up since they've already missed the first few sessions and we have to catch them up soon.

Really have to thank our instructors for taking time off to help us work out. You guys are already so busy that helping us isn't necessary but we really do appreciate you for it. To chief instructor, S_, you've been so patient with us, the uncoordinated, going over the steps again and again for our benefit. To H_, R_, and er..., sorry I can't remember your name, thanks for keeping us company and showing us what the more advanced of us can do.

As for NSF:U, I'm now third in the rankings driving the most obiang Mazda Miata MX-5 fully kitted out internally and externally, wearing a coat of 'pearlescent' green paint, and floating over a pulsing pink neon undercarriage. What to do? It's the only way to attain a 5-star reputation in the game world! In reality, I hope I never meet my car in a dark alley in the middle of the night. It'll make the Bengest Ah Beng go blind.

Met June for dinner at Yishun Central in my sweaty t-shirt, fresh from this afternoon's workout. Apparently, I was an affront to her olfactory sense. As soon as we got home, she banished me to the bathroom where I took an early shower for once. I can go sleep right after 'Smallville' if I so choose, and maybe I will. I am that tired.

You are a Technologist. You may not have any magic
--but you either don't want or need it. Whether
you are a spear-throwing Barbarian, an Imperial
Mechanist or even a humble Tailor you build
what you need, rely on your own strength and
follow your own path. You are happy doing your
own thing and thinking your own way. You are
extremely self-reliant and have a hard time
trusting others.


Which Magical Order Are You In?
brought to you by Quizilla

Well, that description seems to fit! See entry below:

You know your mind is empty when you cut yourself off from the rest of the world. Then you go look for things to fill it up with, not necessarily healthy stuff either. Anything to pass the time, break the boredom, and procrastinate from doing the things you really should be doing instead. When June left for the flea market again yesterday, I was left to my own devices and I decided to spend my time alone again at the PC. All day. Not doing anything profitable, just immediately gratifying and terribly frustrating at the same time.

Same thing today. Was supposed to join the rest of the men >ahem< for the staff hike but when I woke up it was pouring rain and I thought I should pull myself out on account of the weather. I don't know if the hike was called off, I just didn't go. Lazy bum! Spent the day with the PC again (his name's Watson, by the way) while June was at the office.

What's Watson got that's been holding my attention? 'NFS:Underground,' that's what. I'm developing blurred vision, risking epilepsy and suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome and for what? The satisfaction of moving up the ranks of an entirely ficticious racing circuit for the glory and honour of building the most Ah Beng looking car imaginable. As your successes mount, so do the car accessories accrue to your disposal until you can drive around the ultimate Bengmobile, complete with chassis modifications, neon highlights and blinking lights. An addictive RPG, if you can see it from that perspective, and an obsessive gamer are a deadly combination. I'm feeling quite ill now. I wonder why?

Hmm... I missed an entry last night, and I'm not bowling tonight either. Wow, just look at all the stuff I haven't done all weekend. Thanks, NFS:U! Should I feel guilty?