Ooh... look at the date. It should mean something I guess, but nothing feels different.

I am still behind on certain obligations, but am accepting a few more regardless. Cara invited me to be one of the staff speakers at the Farewell Assembly to represent the Arts fac and I will most likely accept. For me it's an opportunity to remember and state for the record my memories of this year and have others share in them at the same time. Cara thinks I will be an entertaining presenter, but I have my doubts about that. It's hard to be cheery and light-hearted when the occasion is to say good-bye. I know my heart will be heavy even though I will probably be sporting a mad grin throughout the ceremony. Letting go of the familiar and facing the unknown -- next year's batch -- is a difficult thing. I will be a year older and they will be a year younger, and the gap widens. How will I relate then?

What's left as of today's date in terms of formal curriculum time numbers as four tutorial and two lecture slots. It's all countable on the fingers of one hand now (unless you count them all at the same time, duh. Well, I once had a classmate who had six fingers on his right hand...).

After the prelims, the next step for them is the free-for-all last few weeks where they work at their studies according to their own time-table as they negotiate for personal time with their respective tutors. This is where the true learning begins. These mad few weeks, students are really left to their own devices, to involve themselves in independent learning; not as an "educational initiative" but rather as a practical necessity because there really will be NO MORE LESSONS! The quantum leap in their learning at this time will be tremendous, as long as they fully engage in and take responsibility for their own success. Free from the formal curriculum, students will actually find time to study. Or slack-off. I hope for all their sakes that they choose wisely, and take the option that's right for themselves.

The Earth swings once more around the sun, and time marches relentlessly onward...

It's so irritating! Must be my week to pick up viruses. Norton just discovered I downloaded a 'hacktool' from who knows where. Going offline again to kill the bloody thing! Damn it!

Past few entries have been rather inward looking. My computer, my room, my (lack of) health. So many other things happening around me that are historic, spectacular and amazing, like LSL becoming PM, the nation turning 39 last week and the debut of Singapore Idol, but all I can think about is me, me, me. I must be losing my perspective.

Today, the countdown banner reads 79 days to 'A' levels. To the students it means 79 days left to work towards making their year-and-a-half in college as profitable as possible. Sometimes, the countdown can be a major discourager rather than a motivator. 79 days left, not enough time to study, might as well just give up and enjoy life before the end (now THAT's 'eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die'). I hope they don't adopt this view, though. That's the pessimist's half-empty glass. Of course, there will be the incorrigible optimist who sees 79 dys as 'plenty of time left to study,' which obviously isn't true either.Yup, let's all have a perspective check and make the best use of the time we have left together.

To me, 79 days left means just a few days left before my nest is empty again. I'll miss this brood a lot. I've probably learned more from them than they have from me, but then it's because I've discovered long ago that every encounter, on condition that there is full engagement, is a learning experience, and a fulfilling one at that. Anyone who learns this idea and appreciates it can claim to be properly educated. Anyone with academic achievement without learning this has learned nothing at all.

79 days to the parting of our ways. These last few days, let us walk together. Let's not let this happen, eh...?

This picture made me really upset. I hope it's a fake.

As I look around my room, it occurs to me that I have way too much stuff. Most of it is probably junk and needs to be thrown away, but it's all still here, hanging around me, not allowing me to move on with my life. I'd take a picture of my desk, but I'm too ashamed of the way it looks right now to let anyone see it. Take my word for it: I've got an accumulation of letters and old bills, flyers, brochures, tatty magazines, media disks, assorted packaging that used to contain PC peripherals or software, a nightmarish tangle of cables connecting Watson to everything he's supposed to be attached to, an empty snack container, scattered stationery and mainly, no place for me to do any actual work on. My little bookshelf is crammed with books, as it should be, but other er... things squat there as well, and the shelves are sagging under the weight.

I like a mess -- it has a 'lived-in' look but when I can't find a comfortable space to do what I need to do, I get the feeling enough is enough. Some drastic junking is going to have to take place soon. There is so much unnecessary blockage that must be cleared or all that inertia is just going to pull me down.

Jen commented last week that when she visited us when we had just moved in she was amazed at how neat and sparse our house was. At how little we had. It's not like we went on a campaign to acquire things, it's more like we got the things necessary for our daily needs but just couldn't be bothered enough to discard the packaging that came with them. What Jen said sparked a memory of our place back then. I liked it that way too. Can I now go back and embrace the freedom of having nothing again? Well, a large garbage bag or two would be a start, oh, and if I could find a way to get all this stuff recycled responsibly that would be nice too.

June, this is my war. I know you'd love to help, but the mess is my mess, the desk is my desk, and so the responsibility to dump the junk is mine too. Let's see... when would be a good time?

Ahh... it's great to be back online again. Back last week when everything seemed ok with Watson, little problems started cropping up over and over again eventually leading to a totally unstable OS, shutting down and restarting endlessly as soon as XP booted up.

In desperation, I reformatted my hard drive and reinstalled XP from scratch and *fingers crossed* things seem to have regained some normality again. Lost a lot of files in the process, but they were mostly junk files that I can live without. All my important files are in a separate disk altogether, though that disk needs some tidying up now.

Short entries this week. Marking deadline too close to play the fool now. Focus...

Temporarily going offline. ADSL modem driver becoming unstable. Need fix...

Having an extremely boring weekend, which is good because I haven't had one in a while. Swamped with the marking of Term 3's common test and while we've got our deadline extended to Thursday, I'm stll hard pressed to make it. It'll take every ounce of discipline and determination to get it done, so wish me luck folks.

The one healthy thing I did today was to take a short walk around Yishun Park with the dogs. I'll take whatever exercise I can because my recent weight gain is quite worrying. Last night my weighing scale read 80kg, way over the limit for my height. I suspect I started gaining weight since I began having a regular 3 meals a day, and what I usually have for lunch now is almost, if not more substantial than dinner. It's weekday lunches at our unofficial canteen that's to blame for this. I've not eaten so well before we discovered GFC (a.k.a. Gerald's Favourite Coffee-shop, no, I don't know how that name came about). Must restrain myself from now: regardless of what the others order, I have to order much less for myself. Noodles then while they have rice. Still have to decide what I can do to exercise more. Hmm...

Anyway, while I'm geting these petty details sorted out in my life, here's a link to someone who is observing Hurricane Charley over in Florida. Hope she and her family will be ok.

Joined Mary, Jen, Adrian and June for dinner at Thai 1827, the Thai-fusion restaurant of the Art House (or what used to be the old Parliament House). Mary's a regular figure there as she works in the building so she arranged dinner for us. It's nice for us to be able to meet up again over a meal; our schedules are so unpredictable it's a rare occasion when we have a free evening together.

June and I were first to arrive, on time as usual, Adrian joined us 15 minutes later, and we waited for at least half an hour before the three of us simply had to order first or starve to death waiting. Told you everyone was busy. Ordering a la carte would have been an expensive proposition, but the restaurant offers a 3 or 4 course set for $30 and $38 respectively. The set comprises any combination of starter, soup, main course and dessert followed by a coffee or tea.

My starter was a Vietnamese-style maguro maki using Viet spring-roll skin to hold the maguro slice and vegetables together. My spicy beef soup wasn't all that spicy, but the beef chunks were tender and went well with the mystery dip provided. I ordered the rack of lamb (this is Thai?) which was light and delicately flavoured, with a fine layer of fat for the added yummy factor at the cost of mounting calories. Dessert was a goreng pisang a la mode: deep fried banana fritter coated in cinnamon powder and served with a scoop of coconut ice cream. It was a little too sweet for June's taste, but I enjoyed it. *burps satisfyingly

We discovered at the end of our dinner that Thai 1827 throws in a birthday cake with the wait staff singing the birthday song with any table reservation on the occasion of a birthday celebration. The cake came from the restaurant's sister operation, The Stage Door, and it seemed to me to be a mango sherbert cake, though I'm pretty sure there's no such recipe. It was very cold, like an ice-cream cake, only more ice less cream. The first mouthful was a refreshing, sour surprise that quickly resolved into a pleasant mango flavour on the aftertaste. Nice cake. Wonder what they did with the half we couldn't finish? We were so full by then.

Jen was nice and drove us home from downtown. Adrian's given up his idea of buying a car. Now he just wants to save up and retire as soon as possible. He must have been talking to his Mom. Hee hee.

A couple of pix:

Our nicely set up table, too bad it's missing FOOD!


The 'after' picture. We waddle home. 

There. Finally deleted a .exe file infected with the spybot.worm. Persistent little irritant just would not leave and always popped up again after I thought I had got rid of it. This time I edited my Windows registry manually, then started Windows in "safe" mode so the .exe file would not be loaded into Watson's memory thus eradicating the "no-write" access it usually has. I hope I'm completely virus-free now, but let's see, shall we?

Totally physically worn out, having had a male bonding session with the guys in a kickabout in the basketball court during CT period. Gals were off learning to groom themselves properly (ha ha). It'll be the guys' turn next week, so I wonder what I'm going to do with a bunch of gals during CT next? Suggestions?

Discovered that I am really getting old. Can't run for long, wheezing and panting away, quite unable to turn with the ball and beat opponents like I used to do oh, 15 years ago? Weak joints don't support this kind of body weight and I ended up on the floor a couple of times too. Still, we played in the midday sun, under which only "mad dogs and Englishmen" would dare venture outdoors. *consoles self

Rehearsal went quite well today, I thought. We seem to be getting the steps sequenced together and the routine doesn't look like so horrifyingly difficult any longer. Now, if we could just get a bit more confidence, sharpness and slickness, and a whole lot more 'tude, I think we got a show. Couple of rehearsals more should do it!

Here's the text of the article I wrote for Contact, the Ministry's newsletter about happenings in schools. I wasn't inspired this afternoon, so this was a laboured piece of writing. It's quite long, so please bear with it. I tried to be factual but the journalistic lingo, I feel, is lacking. It's about our Cultural Adventure:

Most people take their immediate neighbourhoods for granted. They commute between their workplaces and their homes and spend so much time in either location that they seldom notice the neighbours they live with, and the community around them is usually ‘out of sight, out of mind.’ For Nanyang Junior College, this National Day commemoration event, held on 6 August 2004, aimed to open up Nanyang students’ minds to their own ‘backyard’ by organizing a walking tour around the community surrounding the campus.

Decked out in eye-catching red and white, NYJC students and staff began the celebration in the newly constructed gallery facing the college track. The ceremonyof the flag-raising accompanied by the Concert Band, the solemnity of pledge taking, and the Principal’s reading of the Minister of Education’s National Day Message to Schools grounded the festivities in the serious matters that are the nation’s independence and social cohesiveness.

The college’s Dance Society followed up with a celebratory dance number incorporating different dance styles, and the Drama Club presented a light-hearted reenactment of the Japanese Occupation and the racial riots of the past and postulated what would happen to Singapore in the future if we forget our history.

After a rousing round of community singing, the NYJC Community Adventure got underway. Civics Tutorial Groups from JC1 and JC2 competed against each other to reach their checkpoints and, once there, complete the tasks allocated to them. Accompanied by their Civics Tutors (one CT by the Principal, Mrs Ho Woon Ho, as well), each group walked routes that took them past the various community features such as Neighbourhood Police Posts, Community Clubs, sundry shops and marketplaces where the students could observe for themselves people’s lives beyond the college fences.

Each checkpoint, housed within common areas and void decks, posed activities that were both fun and challenging, but they all emphasized group participation, cooperation and communication in order to succeed. Groups performing the tasks were also competing against each other and received points according to how successfully they met their challenges. The points accumulated towards some attractive hamper prizes at the end of their Adventure.

All groups gathered in the college hall for a final round of community singing before the prize giving. There was much spontaneity as students sang, clapped and jumped along with the music, formed conga lines that snaked through the hall, and the occasional, if brief attempt at “body surfing” by some members of the crowd.

In college there are few occasions for staff and students to let their hair down. NYJC fully took this opportunity to do so, and learned to appreciate each other beyond the usual classroom context. Nation-building begins in the hearts of all citizens. These occasions make for lasting bonds, and are hard to forget.

Well, an echo anyway of what went on from a PR point-of-view. Wish I had read the Cikgu's email properly, though. Contact only wanted a 150-200 word write-up. Sigh. Time to exercise those old summary skills...

Haven't done one of these in a while!


You are Tifa.

What Final Fantasy VII Character are you?
brought to you by

Wandered a little further in the dark, hunting monsters, trying to stay alive, ammo constantly running worryingly low. Monsters teleport in, sometimes from behind, and sometimes they swarm. Hmmm... whatever happened to the rule that different monsters will fight each other first? They must all have had a change of attitude after Racial Harmony Day. Now they all just want to beat the snot out of me, and they seem to be cooperating too.

Lots of wild waving of the ol' weapon around, keeping track of multiple hostiles, trying to prioritize each one before they get too close and getting frustrated during reloading sequences, being ass-kicked while getting the next clip in and ready to fire.

Don't know which I like better, the chaingun or the plasma gun. If I was the aesthetic type, I'd go with the latter 'cos the plasma discharge is pretty, and also hard to miss. I think somewhere along the way, I missed out on getting the BFG. Must have left it in an area I forgot to explore. Hope I can pick up another one soon, or else I'm really going to regret it. Oh, I do like those little sentry bots, walking machine-gun turrets that shoot monsters while I hang back and bring up the rear. Not too many of them around, though.

Yes, my social life has taken a turn for the worse again...

I looked at last night's pix and decided that they're terrible. My cam's crap when taking night shots. Still, y'all gets a coupla' samples:


Aloha! To my cousin and his blushin' bride.


Just a section of the feast. Not a traditional luau menu, but still a great feed!

The nightmare that is Doom 3 is finally over! With me desperately trying different combinations of install configurations, I accidentally discovered that it wasn't the install disks that were the problem. It was my DVD-ROM drive that was being finicky. Doom 3 installed without a hitch on my secondary CD-RW drive. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

Now installed, I've been through the first couple of missions and one thing I can say about it is that the environment's dark. Not gothic dark, just absence of light dark. Things jump out at you or fall on your head while you're frantically pointing your piddling little weapon all over trying to locate the thing that's screaming and causing your screen to flash red at the same time. It's scary to hide things in the dark, of course, but it's also plain annoying because id's put so much work into creating the environments and the monsters, but you just can't see them so well 'cause it's dark. Some balance would be nice.

Haven't been able to do much Dooming, though. When I went online last night, and again this morning, I went surfin' naked. Don't get excited and drool all over your keyboard. I mean I went in without my trusty Norton Internet Security (NIS) and Anti-virus 'cos I had uninstalled them the night before in hope that by doing so I could load up you-know-what. Apparently, uninstalling Norton is easier than reinstalling it. The one time I go surfin' without Norton, I download a bunch of viruses that are still persistently hanging to shreds of their miserable existence in my hard drive. If they have spread to other people's PCs I am sincerely sorry.

I called Symantec technical assistance and I actually got to talk to someone who really did help me with my situation. Whoever you are, many thanks for working through National Day and solving my problem for me. I finally got my NIS installed and the viruses are now more or less rendered harmless, and I should be protected from any further attacks. *crosses fingers

My system is up and running again after three days of teeth gnashing anxiety. There are still some niggling little problems left in Watson to solve, but after all I've been through, I'm just grateful for small mercies (oh, did I mention that before?).

OMG! I'm back on-line at last! Where have I been for the past day? Lots of fear and trembling, lots of cussing and swearing, lots of mental anguish and several attempts at violent acts beyond all reasoning. If you think all this has something to do with Doom 3, you are mostly right. Trouble is, I haven't got past the Doom 3 installation screen yet!

I want to scream and cry and string the longest chain of multi-lingual swear words together for the uncensored Guiness Book of World Records, but I still haven't got the bloody game running. In the process, I did some desperate things like uninstall my Norton Virus-scan, Norton Internet Security, and did a reinstall of my Win XP, thus effectively wiping out my ADSL connection to the 'net and I've only just managed to regain my connection again after lots of trial and error. My document and picture files remain undamaged, as far as I know, and now that I can surf again I am just relieved of this small mercy. I have a bone to pick with the dealer of my wayward PC game, but let me just install all the other programs that I know are still working first.

Odd thing is, the installation disks worked perfectly on the dealer's PC when I brought it in to exchange yesterday. His PC is in worse shape than mine, but no problems with installation. They just refuse to work on my PC. Pah! Why should I be so special?

Alternated today between taking the dogs out, to inducing hypertension trying to get Watson running again, to attending my cousin's wedding lunch and dinner which happened to be quite fun and helped take my mind off Watson for a bit. Maybe I'll u/l some photos later, when I'm not so tired. Perhaps more tomorrow, and BTW, Happy National Day!

Boo hoo hoo! It's not installing properly. Looks like a faulty installation disk. Back to the dealer I go tomorrow. Aaaarrrrggggghhhh!!!

I must say it's great to be proven wrong about our teens. Today's festivities were such fun because everyone got themselves involved with the activities that went on today. My earlier observations were inaccurate because the context of the involvement was totally inappropriate then as opposed to today's. It's hard to be festive on demand, as was the case on Tuesday (just scroll down). The social setting -- neat, sequentially arranged rows; uniform attire; ritual responses by command; mundane announcements and pronouncements -- everything set up to exclude 'fun' from the proceedings. Sing-alongs just can't be conducted in this environment.

Today was a whole different thing altogether. People wore what they wanted (within guidelines of course), moved as they pleased, arranged themselves by social groups rather than by subject groups. They spontaneously jigged, jumped, waved, ran conga lines in the hall, and chorused out of turn, and everyone was really having a good time. Wonder what school would be like if every day was like this?

For a peek into our National Day '04 event just click here. This would be from 03A2's POV, naturally!

Here's a couple of samples:


Can't resist. We look so 'patriotic,' all in red and white.


Community Adventuring. Dunno what 'nette has swallowed.

Must commend NYeDC 04-05 on your first public performance. You've shown guts to perform on such an unusual space, worked well together within your tight schedule, and with minimal 'teacher' input. Crowd response was generous from where I was sitting (inadvertently sandwiched between VP1 and Cikgu Ibrahim). Most importantly, you've shown the hunger to perform and this kind of spirit is going to be the driving force behind our quest for eliteness. Oh, I have some pix of the performance, so up on the NYeDC board they go!

Here's another sample:


NYeDC's renditon of "Home"

Had another 'workout' after everything was over. (I started way late because of an unexpected screw-up with a CIP I was helping to arrange. The email I received contained the line, "To add value... your students are invited to..." which suggests to me that attendance was optional and refusable. Duh. "Invited" in civil servant speak means "go or die." So I suddenly had to arrange transport for 20 students who will be serving their CIP in a more important capacity than they had been briefed). Anyway, the routine is coming together and it's no longer the monster it was when we first encountered it. I am still in need of polishing and constant revision, but at least confidence levels are higher now.

Thanks to June for doing my shopping for me and getting me that most desired piece of software >bwa ha ha!< that I have had no time to go get for myself. And now for more sleepless nights...!

And then there are days when we feel snappy, impatient and when stress lowers the boiling point of blood until minor irritations make us want to bark at people who are slow or forgetful or just unaware. On these days, the less said, the better.

Show a couple of stray cat photos instead, taken fresh today.


This is Girlfriend, Bubbles' first girlfriend


Nabiki is from Girlfriend's first litter. We don't think Bubbles was the father, though.


Funny Eyes and her family living up on the coffee-shop rooftop.

I guess we can call this period the mid-term break. With classes to run, National Day to gear up for, various admin ranging from examinations to fund raising to External Validation, new CCA leaders to break in, Racial Harmony Day (thankfully over, along with the embarrassment of giving away moldy prizes), holding consultations with students outside curriculum time, learning steps for our 'workout' routine, and tons of new marking to muddle through, the long weekend is certainly going to be welcome.

Before this job, my life has never been this active (I like to think this is being 'active') and in many ways, I think that this kind of activity is likely to keep me positive for a long time to come. Some stuff I could do without, of course, but most of it is, well, quite fulfilling.

Don't know why I feel embarrassed about saying that, but perhaps I feel that I've got more than my fair share of fulfillment right now while many people are still struggling with their daily lives. I am thankful, but it still is tiring, and right now, I need the break. So this long weekend has been long awaited and longed for. So rest, mark common tests scripts, and Doom 3, although I have yet to go buy it. It's supposed to be in the stores today but I just haven't had the time to go see it for myself. Obsessed gamer, what can I say?

With all this in mind, I refer to the conversation I had with Vince during lunch about promotions. Knowing myself, if there was an opportunity to be promoted but lose all this chaos as a result, I would seriously think twice about movin' on up. Being on the frontlines dodging bullets is still a lot easier than moving to HQ and having to decide what orders to give next. Told Connie managing naughty children is way better than managing naughty adults. Takes one to know one, eh?

Better go mark stuff now, or lose gaming time over the weekend... buh bye!

Council has the unenviable job of motivating the unmotivatable. Inexperienced, the Councillors use every trick they know or can improvise in order to elicit some cooperation from a tough crowd too full of teenager 'cool' to join in as a member of the community in community events.

Yes, teens don't want to be seen as 'conformists' doing the will of the authorities. That would be so uncool. Teens are individuals -- 'no one can tell us what to do.' So they conform to their own brand of uncooperativeness. Thus united, no one can tell one teen apart from another. The only ones who do stand out are the Councillors who boldly, some say stupidly, stand in front of a hostile audience and hope to get some kind of positive reaction, but usually, expectedly, in vain.

Councillors try every trick in the book to help them get their jobs done. They cannot command, no one respects them that much. They try cajoling, but no one takes them seriously. They know that the student body holds them up as objects of ridicule, so they can only entertain as clowns can. And when they make mistakes, as they did today, everyone reviles them for being insensitive, or not being serious, when really they are at their wits' end.

Teens will not even follow their own student leaders. Teens choose rather to follow their own inertia, their own self-imposed ennui. They are a depressed, repressed bunch we are supposed to feel sorry for, or we don't care very much for (insert your own favourite catch-phrase here). They are unwashed as they are unloved. No matter. Teens are like that everywhere in the (developed) world. And when they grow up, they become accountants.

The failure at this morning's assembly was not the sole fault of the Councillors. But they are the scapegoats, as they are everytime they try to do their jobs. Councillors, you are brave and foolish. Can we add resilient to your list of qualities too?

An afternoon conversation got me thinking about the nature of love and why it seems so elusive to some people. Do we try too hard to find love, do we overanalyze situations, do we lack a sense of commitment, are we constantly plagued by uncertainty so we never recognize it even when it hits us in the face? Or are we just looking for love in the wrong place? Perhaps it's all of the above.

Or perhaps there is no love to be found in the first place?

Before you get up in arms and accuse me of pessimism, nihilism or worse, let me explain. After today's conversation it occurred to me that love and life might not exist on the exact same timeline but that love is always one step or more slower than life. The reason why people can't find love is because they are looking for it in the present when love can only be found when we look backwards into the past. It is in our memory that we recognize if the things done for us, words said to us, gifts given to us were done, said or given in love or for some other reason. Time would have proven the worth of the gesture.

What other reasons could there have been? At the time of doing, saying or giving, there is always a nagging suspicion (that varies in intensity) that there could be ulterior motives or misunderstanding behind the gesture. We worry that when we receive a token of affection, the giver could have just meant to be polite, or was confused, or under some kind of pressure, or they could be really out to take advantage of us. So within the moment there are too many suspicions, too many doubts to be able to see love for what it is.

As a relationship sustains itself and as it matures, we can look back and over time realize that, as we grow old together, the love we sought has been there all along. Love is clear in hindsight; love follows us through our lives, and it is pointless to pursue because it never exists in our future (or even in our present) but rather in our past.

So, the harder we chase after love, the more frustrated we get. Love isn't for the impetuous, the impatient or the ungrateful. It is the privilege of those who have maintained strong relationships over the long-term. So appreciate those who are close to you today, and know that love is there even if you can't see it.

So ends the sermon of the day.

Looks like Singapore isn't the only place in the world with a stray cat problem. Check out what's going on in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Look up http://www.saveagato.com for more details!

In MSN today:

From More Things You Need to Be Told by the Etiquette Grrls (EGs), Lesley Carlin and Honore McDonough Ervin

• Polite boys stand when a girl enters the room, and when she departs. Actually, everyone, regardless of gender, should stand when an elder, or a very important person, enters or leaves. Boys should open doors for girls. Please actually hold the door for the girl, instead of merely flinging it open and running through, leaving her to sprint through before it slams. Open the door and step to the side while the girl passes through (perhaps saying, "After you," if she hesitates). At this point, the girl should politely thank the boy. He then says, "You're welcome," and, when she is through the door, goes through it himself. See, dear reader, this is really quite simple!
• Girls precede boys through every door except revolving doors. Boys, if you encounter a revolving door [like at the Fullerton] when you are walking with a girl, you should enter it first so that you may push the door. (Of course, you should not push it too fast, so that the girl has to leap like a gazelle to enter the revolving door you've set spinning out of control.)
• Boys graciously give up their seats on buses, trains, etc., when all the seats are taken and a girl is forced to stand. Simply say, "Excuse me, please take my seat." He should also offer to assist her with her luggage, especially if she is obviously attempting to heave her heavy Pullman suitcase onto the awkwardly placed luggage rack. (Girls, of course, should immediately thank the boy for his kindness.) Again, the same principle applies to when the elderly, the infirm, the obviously frail, or the pregnant are standing, no matter your, or their, gender.
• It is very nice for a boy to help a girl into her coat. Just stand behind her and hold the coat by the shoulders while she puts her arms into it. There is no need, however, for you to button it up for her [darn!], or help her on with her mittens.
• In a bar, if there is no table service, it's nice for the boy to fetch the drinks.
• Very old-fashioned, polite boys sometimes order for a girl in a restaurant. Now, if you're going to do this, you should inquire what the girl would like to eat before placing the order with the waitress. It would be very bad for her to have to correct you because she breaks out in terrible hives when she eats shrimp, for example. Also, you really have to be a traditional, perfectly chivalric boy to pull this off with grace, since your waiter at, say, Bennigan's probably isn't going to expect it.
• If a boy has asked a girl out on a date, he should pay. This is just the polite thing to do. If for some reason the girl has done the asking, then the responsibility of paying is hers. Under no circumstances should anyone on a first date reach for the check and demand the other party pay up! In longer-term relationships, you may find yourselves switching off occasionally, as both parties will be making plans, and this is fine. The EGs just think it's nicer to alternate than to have both of you reaching for your wallets every single time you go out.
• When you are taking seats at a theater, concert hall, movie theater, church, lecture hall, etc., the girl precedes the boy into the row of seats. In a restaurant, when the maitre d' is leading you to your table, the girl precedes the boy.
• When a girl is taking a seat at a table, the boy pulls out her chair for her. This is a maneuver that takes a bit of practice to be done gracefully, however. (The EGs have heard embarrassing stories of teenage boys who know they should do this at, par exemple, the prom, but get a bit over-zealous and yank the chair completely out from underneath their poor dates. Not a pretty picture, dear reader).

Something about this 'etiquette' thing makes the modern guy's skin crawl. But, hey, if the ladies like this sort of thing, it's a small price to pay for their company. Until you bump into that ol' gang of yours, that is!

I survived the day a little short of breath. There's a nasty phlegm build-up in my bronchial passages though I haven't started coughing yet. Decided to skip this afternoon's rehearsal to prevent weakening my body further through physical exertion. Apologies to everyone involved.

Found out that the abandoned canteen where we were to have our in-line skating lesson last evening was out-of-bounds to students AND staff because it no longer belongs to our campus and it's scheduled for demolition so it's quite dangerous to hang out in. I wonder where the lesson was moved to?

Must also confess spending another point six k again, this time on an LG 17" LCD monitor. Gave my brother my 17" CRT to save him $200+ since he is on such a tight budget. (I sound so noble, don't I?) Helped him pick his parts which the dealer assembled, and for what he paid I think he got a really good bargain. His new system can take a slew of upgrades, more than my current could ever handle, so he's quite future-proof. Between his and my purchases, he paid less for his new system than I paid on my upgrades. There is no justice!

As for me, I repaired my stupid RAM problem without having to go to the dealer's. Actually the RAM wasn't the stupid one. Now I know: RAM has to be placed in the computer in descending order, i.e., biggest chip goes in slot 1 and then downwards from there. With a lot of ham-fisted pulling out and shoving back of VGA card and installing the memory chips in different configurations, I finally figured it out. So now I'm running 1024Mb worth of memory like I paid for. Yay! Now I have to figure out why my new benchmark is lower than my previous when I was using less RAM. It's going to be a long night...

It's getting to mid term and it's good that students are already approaching me for consultations on their GP. What's taken them so long? The best lessons are really with tiny groups and 1-to-1 sessions. We talk, we think, we discuss and the teaching becomes so effortless because the student/s learn without noticing it. Full engagement counts so much towards our ability to learn.
Conversely, large classes are counterproductive. No one learns, everybody distracts everybody else, or else are cowed into compliance so that the work done begins and ends in the classroom with little to show for it in the long run. No wonder parents pay for private tuition, the Sports School and other elite schools are deliberately keeping their classes small, but we civil service types face larger and larger classes each year. When accountants run the show, I guess this is the kind of logic you can expect: low costs and high profits tend to override wisdom and reality.

Fine. Enough editorializing and getting sidetracked. I just meant to say that as the time draws ever closer, I'll be expecting more students looking for more of my time. I look forward to it. Let's get some real learning done, and done right.

I must note my expenses for the day: at least a sixth of a kilo dollars, mostly spent on a new 9800 pro :) and 512Mb of RAM that doesn't seem to be working!!! Watson isn't detecting the new RAM at all, pretending that it doesn't exist >___<. Hey now, wassup? Think I'll bring him back to the dealer tomorrow and find out what's wrong. Still, the pro board has nearly quadrupled Watson's performance from my previous ti4200, according to 3DMark2003. Watson now proudly wears the "Fueled by Sapphire ATi" sticker on his chassis next to his power button, and when I can get the stoopid RAM to work he'll be prouder still. For the VERY curious, here are Watson's specs as of today.

This evening I was supposed to join ODAC for an in-line skating lesson in the abandoned canteen. I would have gone if I hadn't reached home in the afternoon then realized I had left my keys back on campus! Must've left my brains on my desk at the same time, if you ask me. So I grabbed a cab, drove back, ran to the staff room, grabbed my keys, left my brains alone, ran back to the cab and drove home. 16 wasted bucks for the round trip, and a lost half hour or so too. I was so annoyed! Didn't feel like going anywhere again after that. Hope the next round  of in-line lessons will start again soon. Bah!

First set of block tests over for this term, and another one to go next week. The marking load is mad again and only 3 weeks to finish the marking. When am I going to have the time to do it, I wonder? Please don't say that's what my National Day long weekend is for 'cos I've got erm... other things planned. Must work really hard this weekend then, else I'm going to regret it. *psyches self up*

Stress of External Validation is over for me, having gone through my interview today. My group represented the CCA and enrichment aspect of the college and I think we managed to convince our Validator that we have a pretty good CCA programme in place. At least the round table chat was amicable and we were backing each other up with our answers, and everyone was smiling, which I'll take as a good sign. Questions about student leadership, interdisciplinary collaboration and alignment to overall Vision, Mission, Goals came up.

If anything, the interview helped me see how closely knit our CCAs have become in helping each other out in our various college activities; even more so than we have been in the recent past. The Validator asked us to think about how we can evaluate the effectiveness of our current programmes in terms of helping our students become the people they need to become. I guess the best way is for our students to tell us what they think of the experiences we put them through after they move on to the next and subsequent levels, so, oi, people, feed back, ok?

On the homefront, Mimi's come to stay with us again. This time for 2 weeks, after which we'll decide if her residence will be with us permanently or not. We'll see...

As the sun slowly disappears behind the darkening horizon, we sadly bid goodbye to the senior members of NYeDC, who officially, though informally, have stepped down to focus now on ace-ing their 'A's. It's been a wild ride, with lots of ups and a few downs and it's been a pleasure working with you guys. The last official thing we did together was to approve the new NYeDC leadership and I think the line-up is certainly a promising one. It's sad to see 'sif and co. go but you all have outgrown this little sandbox and bigger and better things await you now. While you're out there pursuing your dreams, we'd love to have you back once in a while to play with us again. (Gwyn, where are you?)

Congratulations to Fazli and the newly minted Exco. You've stepped forward to take over the reins of some ornery ol' horses, and as you asked, so shall you receive. NYeDC is now in your hands so let's ride on to greater glory. As far as your expectations go, the goal this year is "elite CCA." What does that mean? Here's my 2-cents worth, and see if you agree:

• All members are immediately recognizable through their unity of spirit and bearing.
• Despite the homogeneity of college uniform, all members wear their Drama badges with pride. As such, the uniform must be worn in such a way that the badge looks bigger than it actually is.
• There is so much passion for theatre and for productions that members, whenever they gather, talk drama as a reflex rather than as an item on an agenda.
• All members must have an attitude of train and re-train in pursuit of perfection. Nevertheless, less-than-perfection will never be an excuse that overrides the desire to perform.
• All members will use every learning opportunity during club activities to connect with and support their academic learning.
• Remember that the best performers can be either introverted or extroverted in their personality. No one is to be underestimated in their ability to deliver on their promises.
• If things seem overwhelming to the individual, the group rallies behind and supports the effort. Do not hesitate to seek assistance from fellows or tutors.

Notice I haven't mentioned anything about awards. Awards don't make a CCA elite. An elite CCA wins awards. So let's focus on making our CCA elite first, then the awards will come in as a side-effect.

We've already taken the first few strides towards elititude, thanks to our seniors in shaping the unity and spirit that lives in NYeDC today.  NYeDC 04-05, get your 7-league boots on and grab a big stick. We've got some hiking to do!

OK, change gear...

June rescued a tiny kitten from a storm drain during her stray cat run before dinner. It had fallen in and couldn't climb out again. So June reached in and pulled it out, then returned to the table where I was sitting and asked if we could adopt it in case it was dumb enough to fall in the drain again. This was a serious consideration, especially after June had earlier said that Mimi is likely to come live with us permanently very soon.

We went back to look at the kitten again after dinner and the stupid thing had now fallen into the monsoon drain which was next to the storm drain and was much deeper. The kitten was frantic, making such pathetic mewing noises hoping to attract a rescuer. With a resigned sigh I opened the grating over the drain, lowered myself in and fished it out. Good thing it wasn't afraid of me -- I wasn't going to chase it all through the drainage system in North Yishun just to save its life.

Fortunately the rescue was easy, but now I had a new kitten on my hands. Oh dear. Unable to take in another stray, June had a brainwave. Perhaps the Malay provision shop people might take it in, seeing that they are kind to the strays around their vicinity. Smart idea, though it wasn't the provision shop that took the kitten, it was the young Malay girl working at the pet (fish) store who did. Hope they'll be happy together. We'll keep tabs on them.

Everyone's  tense over the upcoming External Validation exercise the college is going through this week. Preparation for an important assessment is understandable, and everybody's thinking, "what if we screw this up? what if I screw up?" Indeed, what will happen? Ideally speaking, whatever the report says it simply means that certain college operations can be done better if we were to make certain changes in our current practices and procedures; or that under our current standards of assessment we are doing fine, so can we see if we can reach a higher standard by the next assessment? The whole exercise is no more than a learning experience but people, knowing people, are likely to take things more personally than objectively. Hence the preoccupation about not screwing up. Hence the added stress though it really is unnecessary.

Fear of recrimination, reprisal and blame, if anything, is a lousy motivator. After meeting parents even a couple of days after Parents' Day, it's clear that fear is at the heart of parent-child relationships and in many cases the cause of an unhealthy rift between the two. Parents obviously want the best for their kids, so by the same token, why can't we trust that our kids want the best for themselves? Unfortunately, by focusing on criticizing the negatives rather than encouraging the positives, both kids and their parents get the impression that they are striving for opposite goals rather than the same one, hence the perception that attempting to communicate with one another is a futile, even counterproductive exercise. And from there it's a downward spiral to heck.

Kiasuism is a trait Singaporeans are proud to identify with, but it's about time we started doing things because we see the worth of the activity rather than because we fear the consequences of not doing them (or screwing them up). I bet we could go a lot further, with less than half the stress.

Starting to obsess over getting new hardware for my computer. In fact I went temporarily insane and mulled over the idea of having a complete system overhaul and giving my brother all the parts I want to change so he can have his computer up and running again. Then reality kicked in. Bah!

Went to Sim Lim to drool over peripherals again and decided that for the price I had to pay for upgrades, the difference in performance was negligible and simply not worth the outlay. Besides, I just received my annual bill for one (yes, one) of my insurance policies, the amount due would buy me a beautiful new PC with all the bells and whistles I could want. Arrggh! Opportunity cost strikes again! So my brother isn't going to get hand-me-down parts from me any more. He's going shopping for a brand new system for himself this weekend and I'm just tagging along to advise him.

No, that's not true. There's still enough in my piggy bank for a graphics card and RAM upgrade. I still have a few days to think about getting a Radeon 9800 pro to beef up my system just a little. It's the only thing that will make any significant impact on performance anyway. Anyone interested in a slightly used Nvidia GeForce4 Ti4200? Using the latest driver it's still working a treat!

Day started early again, it being yet another last Sunday of the month. We were running a little late with our breakfast sandwiches and missed our bus. Not wanting to arrive any later, we caught a cab which was way faster than the bus-MRT ride could have ever been. We arrived 10 minutes early, and we were for once the earliest contributors at the Friendship Sunday breakfast. (Oh, wait, not counting the time we brought sandwiches and then discovered that there was no Friendship Sunday event that month! Doh...!)

We also found out that we had a reputation of being the last contributors to arrive every month. That is, everyone was complimenting us on the prompt sandwich delivery for a change. Usually it's more like saving the best for the last. Thank you.

Budak Pantai were our guest performers this month. The name of the group translates from Malay as "Beach Boys," so I guess the guys who gave us "Surfin' USA" and "California Girls" were the inspiration for this talented group of acapella musicians. As we had arrived early, we could watch them working over their pre-show preparations. It's nice to see performers who are professional enough to focus on setting up their tech properly rather than going over the motions of their performance in a last minute rehearsal. It shows confidence in the performers and an attention to details that are usually taken for granted -- the technicals: e.g., sound checking and balancing -- that if not prepared well and well before-hand could just as easily ruin a good show.

The members of Budak Pantai are all professional career people who only sing together in their spare time. One of the members happens to be the reigning "Singapore's Brainiest Lawyer." It must be great to be so multi-talented.

Their performance was light-hearted and good-natured, though very focused. Their voices harmonized well and their arrangements of familiar religious chorales are as surprising as they are refreshing. Their rendition of a Christmas carol that I've for the moment forgotten the title of was sung to a catchy Caribbean rhythm with faux accent to boot and was almost danceable to. If we had given them more time, they would have given us more of their cheery, improvised patter but we only gave them 4 songs and it all ended too quickly, I thought.

Nice to see Kit again who is making a whirlwind drop-in from Manchester to surprise her dad (my uncle) on his birthday. The whole family on my Dad's side had a local buffet lunch at the Peninsular Hotel. The food was only so-so, but the company was excellent. Discussions about the upcoming beach wedding party pretty much went nowhere as both groom and bride-to-be were simply allowing things to happen rather than making any actual plans for the event. Their laissez faire approach might upset a few people, but it's almost modus operandi in my family. Particularly amongst the males. Heh.

It's the aftermath of Parents' Day and the final wake up call to students who think the finals are still far off in the distance. It's a bit rude to bring parents in to play the role of tolling bell, but they have the right to know how their investment in the futures of their offspring is paying off. Different reactions from different parents, not always predictable by the results we deliver. I observe them all and I think of my own parents and the sleepless nights and grey hairs I have given them in my time. The worry, anxiety, concern, and , yes, underneath it all, the love they have for their kids; I've made Mom and Dad experence all that as well.

I know what it's like to deliver a poor report to the old folks: the initial apprehension, delay up to the absolute last minute, followed by the sharp words, the tears, the disappointment, the advice the admonishment, blame and worse. None of it makes any difference though. It doesn't make things better, it doesn't make things worse. It just... happens. Occurs, as if it wasn't happening to you. There's always another test or assignment to fail tomorrow, anyway. And so the cycle goes.

All this I experienced at 'O' level, and by the time I failed to get a cert from the VITB (ITE now) it was just resigned acceptance. My point being that my students are showing results today that are better than mine ever were when I was their age, but parents will always fret over what has not succeeded and discount that which has been accomplished. Fact of life for parents, I suppose, though it doesn't make life any easier for their kids.

Kinda' makes me wonder about my ability to raise a child.  I was at Mom's place for dinner tonight and the chaos and noise the 3 grandkids were making was sloooowly driving me insane. My sister's kids are already quite obedient and manageable. Nevertheless, from the excited, raised voices competing for attention, to the roar of cascading toys and components of toys and accessories being tipped out of their container, to the incessent screeching of some unfortunate miniature vehicle being dragged over the floor by ungentle hands, I could not bear to imagine life continuing throughout the day like this when only a few hours' of exposure could already elevate my stress to near unbearable levels.  Next time someone asks me when I'm going to bring another screaming child into this world, I'd like to know if that someone is offering to take care of it on my behalf first. Ooh...! How bitchy!

Tired. Still having trouble sleeping at night. Then woke up seriously late today: 7am! Missed assembly, a first for me this year. Still feeling like I'm on the brink of a Great Big Flu outbreak but it's just tantalizingly out of reach. It's not like I'm looking forward to it, but I just want to get it over with. Spend a couple of days in bed, douse myself with medication and I'll be fine again. With my luck, it'll hit during the National Day weekend when I really won't need it. Not with the promise of Doom 3, and my cousin's most novel beach wedding party to attend. Please, no!

Attended the SYF Drama Finals with 'sif, or should I say we both got a ticket each? 'sif, as Pres, deserved to go while I needed to see for myself what kind of a standard a Gold award play reached. Won't do too much of an evaluation here until after I've compared notes with 'sif over what we both saw. One common element that I noticed was that Gold standard plays run heavily with emotion and melodrama. People scream at each other and there's quite a bit of crying. Strong central characters are also a must, even if supporting cast are only so-so.

Left Chinese High early, before the results were announced. Too tired to last till then. Besides, I had a chance of beating the crowd at the bus-stop. I knew the performers' supporters would stay to the end. My strategy didn't pay off, however. The northbound bus from town was already full of passengers and it was a long ride home standing in the bus. At the Upper Bukit Timah area, my stomach reminded me to have dinner so I alighted prematurely at the most well-lit settlement to look for food. There happened to be a Killeney Road Kopi Tiam in the midst of a number of seafood restaurants lining the road. I stopped to order a Hokkien mee and a Coke. Under the circumstances, I just wanted to eat something and balek kampong ASAP. Sated, the lazy bum hailed a cab and rode home in comfort.

'sif messaged me the results: Play of the year by ACJC, Actress from MI, Actor from VJC. No arguments from me. Looks quite fair. Congrats to them all!

Have to psyche myself up to meet the parents tomorrow. Parents are supposed to be our partners in bringing up "our" kids, but when did this notion come into the picture? I don't remember having my parents roped in to keep me in check after 'O' levels. The assumption then was that having attained secondary school education, we were qualified to work to support ourselves and our parents no longer needed to monitor us so closely any longer. Nevertheless, it's probably going to be interesting for me to get to know my class through their closest sources. I wonder what embarrassing stories I will hear tomorrow *rubs hands in glee*.

Caught Will Smith in I, Robot. Pretty ok movie though nothing to rave about. Questions of trust abound as allegiances and suspicions flow quite fluidly between persons and robots. It all starts with a suicide under suspicious circumstances and a trail of clues that follow lead to... well, let's just say that it's bigger than just a question of who killed whom.

Can we say we are truly free as long as we live under the law? When does programming become sentience? When does law become trust? And when trust becomes the guiding principle, is there any further need for the law? Perhaps that's it, then. Where there is no trust, we have the rule of law. Only when there is trust, we can abolish the law and then we can be truly free.

A little disturbing, the depiction of the storage of obsolete robots. In that scene, we could ask if we can equate programming with nobility (i.e., the act of being noble, I'm not talking about royalty).  If it is just a reaction to the program, does self-sacrifice count?

So many questions. But questions are at the heart of the story. Each clue deliberately leading to another question rather than providing an answer. Makes perfect sense to me. I've always maintained that whenever faced with a problem, all we need to do is ask the right question and the solution presents itself.  Takes a sharp mind, though, to ask the right question.

Quite a philosophical movie then, a bit understated a vehicle for Smith, but it shows he's maturing. Whatever. I'd watch a Will Smith movie any day.

 

Must take a quick moment to be oh, so proud of A2's mid-year overall results. You've topped the Arts fac with the most number of passes in your subjects, and Farisa's made the Arts Honour Roll, so indulge me while I *beams*.

OK, high over. I hope A2 is able to get some encouragement from the results and push on harder to do themselves even mo' betta. The results were just quantitative, not qualitative; and you guys know that there's still ground to cover before you're really ready to face your final test.

Your success is no reflection on me, but rather on yourselves and your own efforts. There are still a few more assignments left before the end, so let's go all out to make one success feed subsequent successes. You should now be wary of overconfidence, but some confidence in yourselves is good for you too. Pack your bags with all the confidence you can carry and no more. Right. Move out!

Oh, and congrats to Sanjeeda (Drama Club) too for topping the Arts Honour Roll, if you ever find this entry.

A2's looking sharp! :) 

Addendum: Forgot to mention Ray and Chun who performed in the final dance number. Did A2 and Team Pegasus proud. Thanks, girls!

Happy Racial Harmony Day, everyone! The day began like a nightmare. I was so nervous about today's proceedings, I think I actually fell asleep at about 2am. After 1 and a half hours' of beauty rest, I woke up abruptly at 4:30 am and I couldn't get back to sleep again, though I resolutely lay in bed and tried my best to relax.

The early morning thunderstorm brought both dogs, Mimi and Q-tip, running over clamouring to be let on the bed and sleep next to us. About that time I had to get up and drag myself onto campus, so I regretfully left them all nice and snug in bed to catch my transport.

The rain made so many people late today, including one of my comperes! Both were supposed to meet before 7, but by assembly time Compere 1 hadn't shown up yet. Compere 2 was freakin' out backstage, dreading the possibility of shouldering the show alone. Just before curtain, the dancers who had prepared the dance items were nowhere in sight, and I was running all kinds of disaster scenarios in my head. The Principal had just publicly thanked Cikgu Ibrahim and me just before the show and I wondered whose head would have rolled (mine probably) once the curtain opened and noone was behind it.

But wonder of wonders, both comperes appeared and pretty much everything went on as scheduled with only a couple of minor hiccups. The Principal was impressed with the dance numbers, rough though they were, and lamented that some of the more outstanding performers were not with the Dance Society. The participants of the RHD quiz were so very sporting and answered the simple (and I mean simple) questions with such enthusiasm and spirit, quite uncharacteristic of the usual NY "cool" apathy.  Special mention must go to Sarab and Sonia who improvised a comic routine when both came forward unexpectedly to answer the last question. Their exchange came across as natural and real because, being siblings, it probably was.

A2 looked such a treat today, all the colours and borrowed costumes, as you can see in the picture above. Check out our album for more pix! (A2, this album entry looks rather bare so help me u/l the shots you took today to fill it out. Thanks!) I was a little miffed when various people couldn't see that my outfit was authentic of contemporary Hawaiian national dress, but instead decided I was just impersonating a beach bum or a tourist. The shirt was a real Aloha shirt I bought in Maui and the shell lei (well, it was a bit small) was a souvenir from the Hawaiian Cultural Centre in Oahu. So there!

Had an interesting time with Drama Club later this afternoon arguing over how the succeeding Exco lineup should look like. It's ironic that the decision makers are mostly the current and departing seniors who are deciding on the people we, the staff advisors, will be working with from now on. We have our input, of course, but we do trust the seniors, who have had more contact with their juniors than us, to make the right decision in the end.

And Mimi went home today. The experiment worked quite well, in fact. All of us are slowly adjusting to relocating Mimi to our premises. Mimi also needs to get used to living with us, accustomed as she is to living at her current home. For the moment, it looks like Mimi will have 2 homes from now on :)

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.