Up and running with a new hard drive, but Watson still seems unstable for some reason. Some programs run slowly and others, like Nero, won't run at all. But at least I can still make quick blog entries.

Bowling practice was hopeless today. There was only Anthony and me as everyone else was busy. Just as well, because we were only allowed a lane for an hour. The place was booked for the rest of the night. I hate time limits as they make me rush each delivery. The bowlers in the right lane next to ours had little sense of etiquette. They kept distracting us by taking their turns to bowl whenever they felt like it even though we might have had already lined up our shots and were ready to deliver. Simple rule: don't bowl when the bowler in either adjacent lane is aiming.

No inspiration + time pressure + rush + distractions = Lousy score (114, 139, 129). Bleeah!

Back online again, though I don't know for how long. I have a hunch it's my hard drive being driven too hard that's causing all this instability.

Seeing as there was an article in yesterday's papers about actress/model Eileen, I was going to write my own expose on when I met her in person, before she became famous, but it became impossible due to Watson's inexplicable behaviour. I still might if anyone's interested.

Hope to be blogging properly again real soon. Stand by...!

This is absolute crap!

Watson's gone all screwy again. Had to format C: and reinstall Win XP AGAIN! Something is causing this instability and now I think it's hardware. Now, how am I going to trace what the problem is?

Too angry to make a proper entry. For the record, I'm pissed!

Happy bdae to Jen (centre)! Jen's flanked by us on the right and her dad and someone we don't know on the left.

Celebrated Jen's birthday at Poison Ivy, the little restaurant outlet of Bollywood Veggies, an organic vegetable farm on Neo Tiew Road (where's that?). The restaurant is named after (who else?) Ivy, who together with her hubby own the farm. Ivy herself is quite famous personality in women's sport in Singapore.

As the farm produces organic vegetables, our dinner almost literally came from the back garden. The chili padi, bananas, brinjal (eggplant), ladies' fingers, to name a few greens were of course fresh, but my plebian palate couldn't distinguish between organic and inorganic(?) vegetables. Regardless, the buffet-style dishes were delicious especially the banana curry (bananas+grated coconut+cinnamon sticks), the eggplant curry and the tender lamb. Yes, LAMB, and no, it wasn't a vegetarian dinner. June pigged out on the wadai.

I don't usually like local desserts but the consistency and flavour of the tapioca cake, the kueh ko swee, and the banana cake impressed me. The kueh ko swee particularly, since grandma died and took her recipe with her.

If eating vegetables constitutes a healthy diet, then this place can be considered pretty healthy. That, the red wine and the quiet, rustic, away-from-it-all ambience, and air-conditioned comfort make this place a great afternoon hangout. Indeed, it's only open for lunch and tea from Thursday to Sunday only. Dinner tonight was possible due to special arrangement -- Jen booked the entire restaurant for her guests!

One problem is that the restaurant is so out of the way, it took 2 calls to 2 cab operators before we could book a taxi to take us home. If we are ever going up there again, we'll have to go with someone who's driving.

There are worse ways to spend an afternoon than at The Dubliner's. Fortunately, there we were for lunch, Anthony, Vince, Amy, me, and Cara joined us later, as usual. We were saying hello to an old friend, now retired from the education service. Ken used to teach GP with us and ran the Drama Club (then ELDDS). Just before the '03 batch came in, he decided it was time to move on and took his pension back home in Oz.

Today he's en route to Thailand mixing business with pleasure, no doubt, and he's stopped over for a couple of days to catch up with his mates here in Singapore. He's going to KTV the night away with them, then be on his way tomorrow. Ah... yes, the life of globetrotting luxury. Well, he's paid his dues and he's entitled. More power to you, Ken!

It was such an enjoyable afternoon under the trees, slowly demolishing a beer-battered fish and chips, and discussing Ozzie politics and journalism (inspired by Amy) with a pundit. It was so enjoyable, I decided to dump my afternoon tasks and get them done some other time (priorities, you understand). Now I'll have to work on Saturday, so much for prevailing personal policy, but the tasks are important and need to be done before next week.

Dubliner's is as generous with its portions as ever. Usually, fish 'n chips comes with a wedge of lemon, but we got half a lemon each. Plenty of hot, crispy-outside-fluffy-inside fries and 2 large strips of beautiful, smooth, white cod in batter. But when Vince's shoulder of pork arrived, my jaw dropped and my fish dish suddenly paled in comparison. To think Amy and I agreed that we were feeling carnivorous today but in a moment of folly ordered fish instead. Vince's 'pork shoulder' was 2 awe-inspiring chunks of pig meat, and oh, the thickness of dripping pig fat, and the crispy, crackling pig skin topping it off. Instant jealousy, I tell you. Also possibly instant cardiac arrest if I tried to swallow that lot down, so perhaps it was for the best that it stayed out of my reach.

Instant noodles for dinner. What a show-stopper.

I want to kill the sidebar calendar for one reason. It's ugly. But for now it's serving a purpose, so I'll spare it. I thought that around this time things would be winding down towards the year-end hols, but what we are now reducing in curriculum time, we are making up for it by having "sharing sessions" and "seminars" at cluster level and beyond. This morning I received news that I was selected to give a short presentation at the Cluster "Blue Sky" Carnival in which various schools in our cluster will share things that they have done that could illustrate what "teach less, learn more" (the Ministry's new buzzword) means.

To be selected is an honour, I suppose, and the presentation is only for a quarter hour slot, so not much of a demand for my blood, sweat and tears. But I wonder what you guys think about my sharing the "I&E" assignment you worked on in the 2 I&E days early this year? Considering I had so much to learn from the number of problems that surfaced during the actual execution of the assignment, would I dare present it and claim it was a success? At best, I can honestly say it was a well-intentioned exercise that had a lot of bugs in it. If there was any learning to be gained from it, I guess I got the lion's share. Hee hee.

So that's one more thing added on my to-do list. There's also the annual NE-coordinators' meeting and there are some interesting things on the agenda... but I won't mention anything more until I've heard more.

Turned down an invitation to bowl at the Grassroots Club. Legs are still aching from Monday's practice, so not wise to aggravate them further. Spirit willing, flesh weak. What can I say?

Unofficial tutorial sessions are the most enjoyable for me. Small group, everyone paying attention, me being asked questions and responding to each individual's specific concerns and tailoring material on the fly to cater to different students' particular needs. Helps also that they are really scared, and I do sympathize with them. Potential 'A' grades in pretty much every subject, but royally screwing up in GP. That's frustrating, but easily explained. Any idiot can study and score 'A's (er... once again, no offense meant), but with GP you can't study something and expect to pass because of the effort spent therein.

Instead, the students' task is to use the content they have already and shape it into the answers they have been asked for. It's like being given plasticine in kindergarten. Kids love plasticine. They squish it, roll it, mould it, sculpt it, and make a complete mess out of it. They love the way it feels in their fingers and how it smears on their faces. They love the control they have over the malleable mass. And when they're done, they have something of their own which they have created and the original lump or slab is no longer recognizable. Sometimes even the original colour has been mixed up with some other hue and the whole thing looks like sh*t. But it doesn't matter. Regardless of what it looks like, the teacher will say things like, "nice dinosaur, Kevin," or, "that's a handy club, Ah Seng, now please stop hitting Amy with it."

No kid is going to preserve his or her share of the plasticine in its shrink wrap and not take it out to play with it. No kid is going to protect its pristine condition and return it to the teacher when it's milk and cookies time because the teacher is most likely to diagnose the kid with some kind of developmental problem. Yet, when they go to JC, the same kids who used to have such fun now work like mad to preserve their content and to return the exact same content to their tutors; then they wonder why they are doing so badly. That's the kind of toil they engage in (or think they are supposed to engage in) and they wonder why they're not having any fun with GP at 18 years old. Where do our youth get their strange ideas from?

Was busy handing out plasticine to various kids today. Will continue to do so over the next couple of weeks. There's plenty to go around.

Tutorials may be over but the pressure's still on. Students are booking free-for-all consultations with their respective tutors around their scheduled lecture slots; so just to make things easy, I'll put this blog's calendar (see sidebar) to good use once again to indicate times that have already been booked with me. I'll take bookings on a 1st come 1st served basis. For the moment, I'm relatively free so I can be flexible and the best time slots are still open to negotiation.

Started working with Cara on our testimonial comments for the Drama Club seniors. Hope to finish by tomorrow so their respective Civics Tutors will have something to say about their CCA involvement. Have yet to work with Mark on our farewell tribute to the Class of '04 in next week's Graduation Ceremony and there's my own CTs testimonials to compose. Devise a simple mime demo for Connie and her sharing session in Nov. Erm.. couple of other things as well before next week too. Guess I'm just reminding myself while everything's still fresh in my memory or I will forget one thing or another and lots of people will want to kill me over it.

Had to destress, so we went back to bowl at SAFRA this evening. Amy showed up and did fairly well for a beginner, but Anthony was way off his game. A few months off-practice and rust sets in bad. Good thing we're starting our training early for next year, eh? My game was quite satisfactory: 151, 116 (there's always 1 off game), and 147. Let's just keep that up, shall we?

Edit 01:
Has anyone noticed that Blogger is really slow in updating our Profiles? Or did I do something wrong?

Popped Quill into the VCD and I have to say that this narrative is the most devoid of conflict I have ever come across. Quill is the most ordinary dog ever and his biography is so bland, it's beautiful.

Quill's name comes from a dictionary entry as his first trainers name their dogs in alphabetical order as they arrive for training. In advanced training, his instructors notice that he has no particular talents and from time to time they comment on his ordinariness which eventually becomes his most outstanding feature. There is nothing in the story that indicates his rising above this label. His most significant contribution is that he worked as a seeing-eye dog for a feisty chairman of a society for the disabled and a champion for disabled people's rights . Quill's job doesn't even last very long, though it's no one's fault except, perhaps, circumstance. He leads a long and relatively useful and happy life until he returns to his first trainers' house to live out his final year.

There. He was born, he was educated, he worked, he made some friends, he made some people happy, he lived to a ripe old age and then he died. This plotline breaks every convention of how a story should be constructed. The cardinal sin -- no conflict. Yet in so many scenes, my eyes just could not stay dry. It is in how much he was loved, how much people depended on him and how committed he was in doing what was needed of him that is the heart of the story. Though the camera's focus is on Quill, the perspective is from the many people who have to say, "goodbye," to him as he moves from one development phase to another. That is the really sad part, the part where the tears freely flow; it's in the letting go, no, make that the letting grow.

Quill's life is the sort of life we all desire; without all the distracting frills that we want added on to complicate things for us. Quill's life is A Very Good Life. We should be so lucky.

For the first time in almost a year, we walked to Yishun Central for breakfast, taking Q-tip with us. Since some idiot wrote in to Streats to complain about people bringing their pets to eating establishments and the Health authorities confirming that such a practice was frowned upon, we were quite put off our weekly routine, until today when we just couldn't be bothered about it any more. It's time to conveniently forget what was said before and let old habits surface again.

On the way, we stopped to feed Dasher's Auntie and All-eyes in the void deck across our block. Then we took care of ourselves with (not very good) kaya bread and boiled eggs from Central's S-11. Yes, boiled EGGS, which we have been deprived of for a month thanks to the Malaysian poultry and egg ban.

Home-grilled chicken legs for dinner to celebrate the partial lifting of the ban too. At least prices have almost come back to "Reasonable" again. Chicken and eggs, how we used to take them for granted. Well it has been a tough month.

Spent most of the day in a nearly vegetative state. We glued ourselves to the TV watching the ending of the Amazing Race:4 and the entire season of AR:3. Quite zoned out now.

Happy birthday, Yan! You're lucky to have such good friends who are fun and creative and confectionarily gifted! Hope you had a great day!

>>Fast Forward to this evening. We were at the Sun Plaza Kopitiam for dinner. June had the personal steam boat which I thought looked rather large for a single consumer. She recalled that the last time she ordered it, the person behind her ordered it too, but to share amongst a family of 4. They didn't look all that well off and they didn't order anything else. June felt bad that the amount she was wolfing down was enough to feed a small family. It didn't help matters when the children stole envious glances at her every now and then. An unpleasant memory.

After dinner, we were still early for our movie so we picked up a couple of travel guides from the library and June found Quill (Jap movie about a puppy who becomes a seeing-eye dog) on VCD in Sembawang Music Centre which she instantly purchased (the VCD, not the Centre), sucker she is for cute puppy movies. Me too, actually. We also saw Van Helsing on VCD, but she held back 'cos she wanted the DVD format instead. Funny it isn't out at the same time. Maybe the DVD hasn't cleared our censors or something.

Resident Evil: Apocalypse ROCKS! The sequel is so much more enjoyable than the original. RE kept the action confined in an underground science research facility, so the game was basically well-armed professional soldiers vs. zombie nerds, geeks and assorted eggheads, and a malevolent AI. Nevertheless, only Alice (Milla Jojovich) and Matt, her husband(?), survive the original RE, overwhelming force of numbers being on the side of the zombiefied socially inept.

RE:A releases the zombies into Raccoon City itself and now the mix of characters and their respective skills and talents is much more dynamic. The main crew comprises a superhuman Alice; Valentine, a disgraced female cop; Olivera, and abandoned Umbrella Corp security guy; Teri, a TV news reporter; and a well-armed gangsta with considerable street smarts; pulled together by a wheelchair bound scientist, Dr Ashford, who sends them on a mission to rescue his daughter in exchange for passage out of the city before it becomes 'sanitized.'

As with most zombie movies the zombies are mostly incidental. It's clear that the 'Evil' comes from a source other than the shambling, moaning, ravenous, ugly people themselves. The heart of RE:A is of course the frequent use of a wide array of weapons and explosives with digital sound turned up. The fight sequences are so fast they are barely coherent, yet each punch and kick makes almost palpable impact, breathtaking to watch. Occasional popcorn-spilling shocks, flying fists and feet, stylish gunplay, spectacular explosions, and a practically indestructable Milla Jojovich, what's not to like? Big grin for RE:A! When's the DVD coming out?

Nice to see scenes of TO, which doubled in the movie as "Raccoon City." Seeing the CN Tower and the beautiful, UFO-shaped City Hall again... ah, the nostalgia.

'tis the season for writing testimonials for 03A2. It's time for me to exercise my memory and recall all the things we've been through in the 7 terms that we've been together. I need to reflect on how much each individual has grown and matured, how much they have really learned about life and their place in society; an evaluation that could perhaps be more valid than any academic results from a single exam will ever show because it is based on personal contact and experience. It's also my last duty as a Civics Tutor.

I hold my CT with a loose (lax?) hand, letting things take their own course rather than shaping the group within specific and expected parameters. My people need to forge their own identity, and I'm only there to tweak, not to engineer. And today, I feel that my work is almost done. My people are almost independent of me and I can sense my obsolescence setting in, as it should. CT period was interesting in that about half the group was fully engaged in a brainstorm- planning process for an event that the group members felt truly motivated to organize. The plan was as concrete as it was complex, and everyone had something to contribute to the discussion. There was no need for any "supervision" and like it or not the event will take place for certain. After all, the event is an important one!

True, in the grand scheme of things, a project like this has no earth-shaking consequences, but to see the passion and the ideas being slung around and the sequencing and allocation of tasks to different people, what we couldn't "teach" in PW was happening right there without any prompting from any Ministry directive, and I was very happy to let it continue. A small project like this one develops skills and confidence that translate into more ambitious projects later, as long as the planners approach them with the same energy and the same sense of worth.

Unfortunately, not everyone was included in the project and it was a bit awkward for the rest of us. I could only distract those of us who were not involved with some administrative procedures, but eventually they found other ways to keep themselves occupied. Every social group has some clear divisions between the members and in order to maintain group cohesion these lines must be respected as they were today.

Hmm... this entry's a bit cryptic. Perhaps I'll clear things up tomorrow, if I feel like it. Meantime, people, may your project prosper!

Every performance run without an adequate or proper rehearsal is always a nightmare for me. I've learned that I tend to work on my own, not utilizing the human resources available that would actually help me reduce my load and my stress if only I had mobilized it earlier. And I guess that's a major part of the problem, getting things done earlier, which I find impossible to do because I'm not organized like that. I'm not someone who calls people together for meetings, or to plan stuff, I'd rather handle things on a need-to basis. But up to a point, I realize I can only be in one place at a time, doing one thing at a time. A team would expand my coverage, and my control over the situation and I wouldn't have to live through the process worrying about what's going to be happening next.

The Security Seminar (previously called the S-cube Seminar) for our First Years was not the disaster it might have been, but I felt things were out of my control even though I was the college rep in-charge of it. I believe what Agnes said (perhaps in jest) to me, that today I was the least popular guy on campus because I kept everyone back when they could have gone home to study or otherwise prepare for their promos next week. I felt really bad about that, and I felt even worse when Cikgu handed me a loudhailer and sent me into the canteen to chase stragglers into the LT with it. Trust me, I used it sparingly. I felt it was just wrong.

I have nothing against the Seminar, but I wish it didn't have to feel like such an imposition on my part to make the students attend it. I tried to paint it in a positive light, but it is thoroughly disheartening to hear not interest generated from a new learning opportunity but rather requests to "be excused" from it for one reason or another. I never mentioned "attendance is compulsory," because it really shouldn't be. The information promised should have been interesting enough, and of concern enough for everyone to attend on their own accord, but the dismayed groan I elicited when I said that attendance would be taken felt like another nail in my coffin.

The students did attend the Seminar, close to full capacity the LT was. The Seminar turned out ok with the efforts of the MDC's OTT performance which was appreciated by the audience. But I felt, by the quality of the majority of the questions asked during the forum, the students got exactly what they expected/wanted from the experience -- nothing. How do we convince our students that we organize things like these for their benefit, and not that they attend these things for ours? One thing's for sure: my rep must be so bad now, I couldn't stay on as a Year 2 tutor next year, but I'll have to start fresh with the new batch instead. Hello, PW!

Well, I bumbled my way through again, then drowned my sorrows with KTV, a pasta dinner and good company. The song I chose didn't have pinyin lyrics, but everyone sang along prompting me with the words and I seem to have passed my audition for the KTV contest. Now to practice, practice, practice until I have a credible performance. I will NOT show up as comic relief. Shah, Anthony and I were a bit helpless while the rest of the group sang in Mandarin; Jong Yann easily outclassed all of us; Amy, Lynnette and Vince were OK; Mel preferred the English stuff though she could hold her own in Mandarin, but it was Thad who stole the show, displaying a proficiency of Chinese literacy that surprised us all. Let's also just say Thad didn't need the mike, such gusto that boy.

Sorry for the long rant. Pasta dinner at the Bishan Olio Dome. Penne in garlic mushroom cream sauce. Yum. How could I be unhappy after that?

I think I have everything set up for tomorrow's S-cube Seminar. Everyone needing to be briefed has been briefed. AV (including simultaneous video feed into LT3)... check. Furniture set... check. Air-conditioning for the 2 venues... check. Ooh, heck! I forgot the gifts for the guests! Oh, well, something to put on my to-do list for tomorrow, then. I think the logistics are mostly ready. Hope the audience is too. *crosses fingers

It's the Mid-Autumn Festival and families have hit the parks and open areas to frolic on this brilliant moonlit night. Traditionally, the learned would sit outdoors to drink tea, admire the radiance of the fullest moon of the year, and be inspired to compose poetry. Nowadays, the outdoors is full of youthful pyromaniacs laying clusters of lighted candles in void decks and on concrete walkways while waving sparklers in their sweaty little paws. The younger ones carry lighted paper lanterns or the less traditonal inflated plastic lanterns powered by AA cells accompanied by a badly synthesized looping clip of music. It's a great excuse for a family outing, to have an after-dinner picnic under the stars, and share moon-cakes filled with sweet lotus-bean paste and sometimes one or more salted duck egg yolks for luck.

Wish I had brought my digi cam with me when I went to Mom-in-law's for dinner tonight. Her living-room window overlooks a small playground and a fitness park. Tonight, the scene was almost magical, with the flickering clusters of yellow-orange flames identifying different family groups, the smoke and the activity; and the best thing about it was that no one had organized any of it. Real families, having real fun on their own accord. Who says tradition is dead in Singapore?

Dinner at Fran & Margaret's

Finally caught up with Fran Conan and his wife, Margaret. If you think Fran, the ang-mo looking fellow on the right, looks familiar you've probably seen him in various local TV productions playing token ang-mo roles. His biggest role was the terrorist in MediaWorks' Frontline (like it says on his T-shirt). Anyway, he's a great guy and a real professional to work with, whether onstage or behind-the-scenes. This could be our last opportunity to meet up with him and Margaret as they are returning to Winnipeg soon. Since he can't take back his rather extensive videotape collection (video format from here isn't compatible with Canada's) he gave us his entire set of Amazing Race tapes up to Season 4. June is so thrilled.

We had a simple dinner at the Conan's. A vegetable-shrimp stir-fry and Fran's specialty crock-pot pork rib stew, made from pretty much anything he could get his hands on in the kitchen and thrown into the pot to slow cook until dinnertime. He said he threw in some Grand Marnier, hollandaise sauce, barbeque sauce, a selection of assorted herbs and spices from his spice rack including some clumpy tumeric, honey, worcestershire sauce and dark soy sauce along with potatoes and celery. Margaret surprised him by throwing in some black mushrooms and fungus when he wasn't looking. The stew was delicious and the 4 of us cleaned up, leaving little room for dessert, Wall's fruit cocktail, which I like.

Nevertheless, we just had to make room for a glass of his brother's homemade Canadian ice wine, which was very sweet. Ordinarily, ice wine would be quite expensive on the market so we couldn't pass up the opportunity to sample something so hard to come by.

As they are leaving soon, they need to rent out their flat until they can legally sell it on the open market, but they're having difficulty finding a tenant, times being as they are. Anyone whom you know might want to rent a 5-room HDB in Punggol?

We're going to miss Fran and Margaret. Take care, guys!

Our guest artist at service this morning was Señor Alvaro Sanchez, guitarist extraordinaire. He treated us to a medley of traditional and contemporary worship songs on his Spanish guitar. He also used a very modern-looking electric guitar and a full sized harp, just him making beautiful music on stage. His fingers were so deft, simply flying over his strings, even providing his own drum effects while playing the melody of The Little Drummer Boy on his electric. Sr Sanchez doesn't need a band, he and his guitar are one.

I mention him because he is giving a seminar/workshop on guitar technique and talking about Music as Worship on 29 Sept evening at St Andrew's Cathedral. Perhaps there might be some who might be musically and/or worshippally inclined, who might want to take this opportunity to learn from a master musician himself. All welcome, no religious experience necessary. I wish I brought back the flyer so I can give more details, but I guess I could find out more if anyone's interested. Oh wait, I found a link to the online plug here.

That's great music, then this afternoon while randomly surfin' I found this. I guess if you like Asian music and "half-naked Korean boys..." this site's for you. Look for the chin2.mpg link and if the video doesn't play, make sure you get the latest DivX codecs first.

Yep, not a very eventful day.

Edit 01:
Whoa! Talk about coincidences. I was just reading this Yahoo news article on US soldiers writing blogs about their experiences in Iraq and how some of their commanders are reacting to this new development, when this guy wanders onto my site as I'm reading. Wonder what he thinks of my stuff, considering how trivial my experiences are (no offence to you guys) compared to his. To CBFTW and all your "Allies," stay safe and keep on bloggin', 'k?

We mark the passing of John Burb, who was paid a visit by the Reaper only hours after his retirement. The family was in a shambles, his wife, Jennifer, had to be consoled by the psychaiatrist, then spent the rest of the evening practicing on the piano. Daughter, Judy, simply couldn't get the hang of raising her son, Marco, properly. Everytime she wanted to bond with him, he wanted to sleep. When he wanted her attention, she was too tired. Marco spent much of his time playing with the water in the toilet and making puddle after puddle on the bathroom floor.

On Marco's birthday, Judy invited a number of guests over to celebrate, but only 3 of her friends showed up. Sad. But just as the party was getting good, the Party Mood Indicator suddenly declared the party a "Disaster" for no explicable reason. Then it became clear. In full sight of everyone, the Reaper visited again and took Jennifer with him. Everyone burst into tears and Marco was traumatized. Poor kid.

Anyway, the good news is, Judy tracked down Marco's father and it was a good thing they were still crazy about each other. So Brandon has moved in to take up the slack left by the now absent grandparents.

Potential problems for the family: Judy and Brandon are both Slackers and both Romantics, which means that they are not likely to remain faithful to each other. Judy is also a couple of days away from becoming Elderly, while Brandon is still young and virile. And Jennifer's ghost haunts the house every now and then...

Stay tuned to the next installment of The Sims 2: The Burbs in Pleasantville, QEV version.

The marking's over for me, but now there's the marker's report to put up and the feedback session to plan. Amidst all this, the ill-timed J1 Security Seminar is also scheduled for next Wed, and I have yet to finalize the arrangements. The AV, the furniture, the students' briefing, the Civics Tutors' briefing. Well, I've sort of done it before, so I dare say I'll live through it again.

But at least I got the Security info books distributed to the J1 Civics Tutors today. I batched over 800 books by CT strength and I personally delivered them by hand to the respective CTs. I made use of one of the office chairs we had salvaged from the old building as makeshift trolley, wheeling the piles of books around the staff room and making a mega racket as the chair wasn't about to take the abuse quietly. Kim Seng stopped to ask if I had found a new way to amuse myself. I assured her that I was in no way amused even if everyone else was. Think I pulled a muscle in my right leg what with all the lifting and pulling, fetching and carrying that was going on. This old man better take care of himself too.

Lunch was at Casurina Road. Small Japanese place, reasonable set lunch, especially good on Friday because there's a selection of Japanese-style fish for the main course (cost: $7.50 per set). Vince and I had the salmon sashimi, Boon Sin the grilled salmon, Amy the unagi set and we ordered another grilled salmon for Cara who whirled in to join us late (stuck in traffic), gobbled everything down in record time and whirled out again even before we realized that there was dessert still pending. She was on an invig break which meant she only had less than an hour to drive out, eat and drive back before Pete, whom she was going to be relieving, would start making noise. Or explode. Or end the paper early out of sheer boredom. Or something drastic.

We had also ordered an "ika mayo," which turned out to be steamed squid nesting under a thick blanket of Japanese mayo. It made for a gorgeous little appetizer while we waited for the main course to arrive. Dessert was a generous scoop of macha or green-tea ice-cream which had a satsfyingly, erm... full flavour is the best I can describe it. Since I offered to pay for Cara's meal as she had already disappeared, I devoured her dessert in partial compensation. Yummy.

So much for KTV, everyone seems to be busy this evening. We've tentatively postponed it to next Wed, subject to further confirmation. Oh, yeah, better call Fran and set up a dinner date for tomorrow night. We're inheriting all his Amazing Race videos from Season 1 onwards since he won't be bringing them back with him when he returns to Winnipeg next month.

Edit 01:
Got this off free_spirit's blog:

eXpressive: 2/10
Practical: 7/10
Physical: 5/10
Giver: 1/10
You are a RPYT--Reserved Practical Physical Taker. This makes you a Stoic.

You are intelligent, rugged, disciplined and profound. Even if you're saddled with a desk job, you are starving for the outdoors. You are very slow to warm up to people, and people are slow to warm up to you, but once they know you they never forget you.
You do not get much attention from your target sex, and this means you can feel unloved or unwanted. This is not the case! You are just a hard nut to crack, and your social anxiety leaves you overlooked or outside the frame altogether. What is good for you is increments of low-interaction group activity, like sports or outdoor work. The person who can chop wood with you will melt your heart.
In a long term relationship, you are loving and devoted. You are calm in a conflict until your partner presses your buttons -- it's never the problem at hand that gets under your skin, but how your partner handles it. Don't take offense! Sometimes it's just the only way your partner knows how to express things.
You would never cheat, and your approach to sex is conventional and almost prudish. But sex for you is a release and a necessity of life, and you have a sense of entitlement about it that can be trouble. Make sure your partner is comfortable and satisfied -- by communicating both in and out of the bedroom -- and you will be more satisfied yourself.
You may take a lot of what your partner does for granted. Make a special effort to reward and validate him/her, and you will be repaid in spades.
You have nice legs. *ahem*

Of the 103202 people who have taken this quiz, 4.2 % are this type.

Not a bad description, I must say. If you want to take this personality test, here's the link.

P is taking great pains to spruce up the professional image of the college. She reminded us staff of all the rules and regs relating to our proper dress code during this afternoon's contact time. No flip-flops or sandals, fine; no bermudas, fine; no sleeveless and/or belly-button revealing tops, fine; no round-necked t-shirts, fine; we didn't really see the problem as no one wears this stuff on a working day anyway. She clarified: on dress-down Fridays too. Oh. On dress-down Friday, collared polo shirts only, not even house t-shirts or CCA t-shirts, or CT t-shirts. Oh... These rules and regs apply to staff returning to college during holiday time as well. Oh! During holiday time we are to dress in smart office wear, no casual days at all. Doh!

Interesting that this item is on the same agenda as the item about how our annual performance ranking is going to be calculated. Apparently there's a significant component from our perceived professionalism of conduct.

Fine. I'll do my part to enhance the professional image of the college. Since the concept of dress-down Friday is illusory at best, it's back to normal working dress as usual. Sorry, folks, you'll never see me in our CT t-shirt. I hear good things about the design, though. As for the hols, I'll stay away from campus unless absolutely necessary. No need for thanks, it's the least I could do.

And dinner was just fine, thank you. 1st Aunt's birthday, and we celebrated it at the Keppel Club's Kippo of the Tung Luk group of restaurants. Mom is gallivanting along the Silk Road (yeah, she took off straight after she returned from Alaska), so the empty space at the table meant June and I got a temporary promotion to the "uncles and aunties" table. Most of the food came my way as the elders don't eat much, 8-courses worth, I think.

I was most impressed with the cold starter; cold lobster fruit salad served in two halves of a gutted cantaloupe topped with a lattice of mayonnaise. Everything else that followed was as one would normally expect from a formal Chinese dinner, excpet that I didn't detect much MSG useage, and the dishes were quite light and tasty without being overstated. Let me see... pre-starter birthday buns (peach shaped), hot & sour soup, steamed garoupa, scallops in a deep-fried potato basket, a venison dish, noodles and red bean soup for dessert.

I was substantially full after dinner, but not uncomfortably stuffed, considering that I had seconds and thirds while everyone else practically pecked 'round the platters. The birthday cake was a white cake with mint cream between the layers. An unusual flavour, not unpleasent like it might have been, but also nothing I would crave any time soon.

And then I wonder why I've been gaining weight. Hope I can fit into my dress pants tomorrow.

It's over for the prelims (for mostly everyone I know) and for my prelim marking as well! I breathe again. It feels good to have done something before the deadline for once. Even when I received a "bonus" essay from Nirmala who discovered one of my questions mixed up in her pile, it was little effort for me to work on it as I was already in a pretty good mood.

Lunched at Gardens market to follow up from yesterday's lunch. The noodle stall guy who so looks like a surfer dude had closed his stall early today (or maybe we were late) but we were there for the satay. After Gerald's few sticks of beef satay yesterday that we shared, we were instantly hooked and just had to go for more. Waited for Mel to finish class at 1:40 then we were off, me, Amy, Mel, Bhagia. Cara joined us later.

The Hokkien mee stall auntie knows Mel pretty well -- yeah, they go waaay back -- and her Hokkien mee isn't bad either. Not clumpy or mushy but each individual strand integral to itself, and the gravy has a slight hint of seafood, which was nice. Unfortunately I couldn't finish my plate as our table got precision-bombed by a flock of mynahs arguing amongst themselves overhead. When the lime seeds I neatly piled up on the side of my plate suddenly scattered themselves around the table, I knew I'd been hit. Cara likewise had to abandon her mee pok due to the high possibility of fallout or at least splash damage. We'll be back though! No birdbrain is going to come between us and our lunch again!

There's a Karaoke contest organized by the CCS for the LEAP carnival and Jong Yann is madly signing staff up for it. I was game (JY can be quite pursuasive) but the catch is that it must be a Mandarin song. Right. Ah. I promised her a rendition of 'ke1 ren2 lai3' just to keep Team Pegasus' house points riding high (we're running 2nd overall, btw, despite our disastrous track & field showing). Regardless, JY is organizing us staff who badly need remedial lessons to have a karaoke session on Friday. Sounds like fun, so wth, unexplored territory we go! Life on the edge, yeah!

Taking a break from Simming. Must re-look my priorities for the Burbs and their soap-opera of a life. Instead, I vegged out this evening in front of the TV again. Channel 8 OTT drama serial and the season finale of The Amazing Race 5. Way ta go, Chip and Kim!

And at last, the final score:

> Today's tally = 7
> Cumulative total = 104 + 1

Oh, the blood. The carnage. And the survivors, who will pick up the pieces of their shattered egos, learn from their mistakes and move onward to the bigger battle ahead. Gentle[people], lock and load. Prepare to rock 'n roll!

I'll be done with the marking tomorrow, I just know it! That'll give me time to do the other stuff I've been neglecting -- arranging S3 Seminar next week (my next biggest headache), bunch of admin including testimonials and performance review updates, and whatever else I don't remember but i'm sure other staff will help remind me. Oh, and maybe get some teaching done on the side.

And of course, time to look after the exploits of my little Sim family, although I'm a bit apprehensive of current developments at this time. I've taken Jennifer to the top of her career as a business tycoon and she now goes to work in a helicopter. John is a medical specialist but he looks forward to retirement, which I think I will reward him with ASAP. It's Judy, the daughter that's the main crisis right now. Well, none of her family thinks it's a crisis but I'm personally getting a little freaked out.

Judy's aspiration is Romance and that means she wants to string along as many lovers as she possibly can as her main purpose in life. I've had to balance her social life with her career on the Slacker track (Hint: if you want quick cash early on this path, choose the bunnies). I managed to hitch her up with 6 other Sims though she wants to go for 10. I made the mistake of inviting most of her lovers to a house party and 2 of them caught her Flirting with yet another Sim. The 2 smacked Judy around for a while and now their relationships look irreparable. That's not the problem.

Next, in an effort to preserve the Burbs' DNA, I "encouraged" Judy to do a public WooHoo with two different lovers on separate occasions in the family hot tub and now she's an unwed mother whose child, Marco, is of indeterminate lineage. The mystery will be cleared up once I can access his family tree, but until then we're shrugging our shoulders. That's not the problem.

The problem is, now that there's a baby in the family I'm at a loss as to how to proceed! How do I make sure the baby is well taken care of? That there's someone around to look after him when his mom's out working or fulfilling her ambition to WooHoo as many times as she possibly can during her lifetime? Having John retire is the best thing, since looking after his grandbrat is now his current goal, but it's not going to be a permanent solution because he doesn't have much longer to live! It's not in Judy's aspirations to get married so once the 2 grandparents have met the Reaper, Judy's on her own. Juggling time between career, lovers, life partner(?), baby, now that's stress. Hmm... if anything, what this game has taught me is that I am a confirmed infantophobiac. Everything was peachy fine until the baby came and now it's ruined everything. It's all chaos now, then again, it was an important step to preserve the family line. Aaarrrggghhh!!!

And from real life, here's the penultimate scoreboard:

> Today's tally = 7
> Cumulative total = 98

*Sings* Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow...

Not much happening. Everyone's caught up in the last week of marking and getting the curriculum going again for the last couple of weeks before Farewell Assembly. While I stay at my desk to mark, everyone else has a favourite hiding spot for a little peace and quiet while they concentrate on clearing their piles of prelim papers. Even organizing lunch is difficult now as everyone scrapes together the time needed to complete their tasks.

Still, I went for lunch with Vince and Cara, who brought her Mom along. Close family bonds, what can I say? Apparently we were at her Mom's fave chicken rice place down along Braddell Road, so it was her turf.

Chicken's ok, I guess, considering it's frozen and flown in from Brazil or wherever, but this is the one place where I can't get liver to go with my chicken rice. I'm usually fine with gizzard to substitute for liver, but the first time accepting gizzard here was also my last. It had a suspicious pinkish tinge to it and it chewed like galvanized rubber, so never again. Someday, we're going to have to arrive early enough to get some real chicken liver. It must be good since it sells out so fast.... Yes, someday.

The scoreboard reads:

> Today's tally: 8
> Cumulative total: 91

So close now!

Must be the weekend syndrome. Can't seem to get much work done, it's just too painful. Mostly vegged out in front of the TV, catching the tail-end of CSI: Miami (AXN), A Cook's Tour (Discovery T&A), Superstructure (Discovery), and back to AXN for The Amazing Race 5.

Anthony Bourdain, in A Cook's Tour, showed off some of the good eats here in Singapore, though I sensed that he was holding back his enthusiasm a bit. Apparently there's a Chinese restaurant that prepares food for the customer only after a consultation with and diagnosis from the in-house Sinseh. Must be somewhere deep in Chinatown as the lady translator spoke a strange form of Singlish. Bourdain tried the Malay food in Geylang Serai Market and although he wasn't impressed with the food-court style set-up he declared the food, once served, to be delicious. He also sampled murtabak from Tekka Market ("awesome"), and the Makansutra guy brought him to Sin Huat Eating House in red-light district Geylang. The name of the restaurant is quite appropriate, don't you think? Here, Bourdain overcame his revulsion of frog legs and went to foodie nirvana over the signature dish, Sri Lankan crab bee hoon ("crab the size of your head"). Kinda makes me think, why don't we ever go to these places to eat; just what are we missing confining ourselves to all plastic, all hygenic, assembly line food that we usually eat?

TV addict did get a little marking done. Here's the score:

> Today's tally = 6
> Cumulative total = 83

Can anyone say, jia1 you3?

Edit 01:
Wow! A link to Chef Bourdain's own description of his dining experience at Sin Huat! Here.

Sampling the wonders of the 5-day week. I used to have a policy about it -- it was once sacred to me. When I was studying I mugged like mad (relatively speaking, of course) from Monday to Friday, and when Friday evening came along I totally fasted from work until Monday came again. It's time to revive old habits. Yes.

Today wasn't a complete fast though. I marked, but I also watched John and Jennifer Burb grow into an elderly couple and their daughter, Judy, become an adult. I've helped them all with their careers and their relationships, though Judy didn't get much attention initially. I think from now on, it'll be Judy's story and I'm now trying to find her a boyfriend or two or three, as she desires. Indulgent "parent," I am.

So very tired of the food served at the coffee-shops downstairs. Same thing all the time so we went to Northpoint's Pasta Cafe for their linguine primavera in tomato sauce. It was the sauce I've been craving all this week, for some reason. Dunno why. Wandered around Popular for travel books (watch this space) but couldn't find any. Pah!

Swenson's 'Ice House' for dessert. Fresh, clean tasting after-dinner treat; nothing more than vanilla ice-cream, some little butterscotch topping and a sprinkle of ground up roasted groundnuts for texture. Feels light going down because there's no chocolate anything to be found in the sundae.

Total stands as follows:

> Today's tally = 6
> Cumulative total = 77

Getting close to the end, though it's still a stretch to go yet.

Holy cow! 4 a.m. already! I been a baaaad boy! Spent too long in Pleasantview, neglecting all my other needs. At this point my personal stats look like this:

Hunger: medium
Comfort: low
Bladder: very low
Energy: depleting fast
Fun: way high
Social: medium
Hygiene: very low
Environment: low

You guessed it! The Sims 2 has finally hit the shelves and everyone's favourite human life-in-a-fishbowl desktop toy is back and better than ever! Spent pretty much the whole evening getting myself reacquainted with the controls and gameplay and trying to manage (manipulate?) the lives of a young suburban family that came prepackaged. The Burb family has 3 members, Dad, Mom and daughter and for the moment, I'm playing their lives almost like my own: slightly introspectively. This gameplan may not work well for the daughter who's Aspiration is Romance. She doesn't meet enough people, but I'm focusing on getting her grades up first (ain't that typical?).

This game is so open ended that watching your Sims fail is as fun as helping them succeed in life, sometimes even more so as they tend to become neurotic and fall prey to all sorts of unpredictable, irrational behaviour. However, as a gameplayer I do my best to fulfil the goals set for me in the game, so I generally have happy shiny, well-adjusted people living in this little house in Pleasantview. Perhaps when I'm more facile with the game, then I'll start 'helping' my Sims get what they fear most rather than what they aspire towards. That'll screw them up nicely, and then the fun and hilarity can begin.

Meantime, I'm neglecting my real life and my real marking which stands thus:

> Friday's tally: 5
> Cumulative total: 71

Must make up for it this uh... afternoon.
bhyclare.lgtmb//g... zzzzzzz...!

Between marking, invigilation and not much else, life has ground almost to a halt. Hate to think how this life might translate in the coming year when the 5-day week gets fully implemented in college. You'd think that we'd be celebrating a 2-day weekend, but that's just only one way to look at it. The days of work may have been reduced, but the hours we have to work remain the same, it's just that with the new scheme, we have fewer days in the week to do it all in.

This backlash doesn't afftect just us teaching staff but all our students as well. We have so many students and staff, but so few tutorial rooms to use that the time we're supposed to be saving is going to be spent queuing up for space to have lessons in. We can still expect to start our days before 7:30 a.m. but don't expect to knock off before 6 p.m. or thereabouts. We're all looking at 11-12 hour days 5 days a week just to have an extra day off on the weekend. And we haven't factored in our CCA committments yet. God help those of us who have 2 CCAs and have to supervise them both 2 of the 5 working days in the week since CCAs won't be held on Saturdays either. Then we have stuff to do in our so-called free-time: the marking, the lesson preparation, the research, the committee meetings, staff training... who would have guessed so much misery might come out of working 5 days a week?

Actually, the idea isn't bad. The execution, though, is always the problem. The rationale behind the directive is to reduce the workload from 5 1/2 days to 5 days, but the implementers will still demand 5 1/2 days work to be done in 5 days instead. Ah, well, it happened in Genesis too. The people complained so the Pharoah ordered that brick production be doubled, while straw be reduced by half. The civil service was just as efficient and pragmatic then as it is today.

Stuff we bitch about at breakfast. Wanna trash out problems honestly, avoid having committee meetings. The informal meal where no one takes things, each other or themselves too seriously is the ticket.

Sympathies to Jong Yann who is having a wisdom tooth problem today. Hope her dentist will be able to do something about it tomorrow.

I've been sort of good, despite having a chemistry invig duty in the afternoon:

> Today's tally = 12
> Cumulative total = 66

Rewarded myself dining in with June: Classic Greek (with feta, moza and edam cheese, yum!) + Meat Lovers' pizza from Canadian 2-for-1.

We wish Anthony good fortune as he leaves for Paris tonight with the Singapore national team to compete in the Championnat du Monde de Petanque 2004 -- that's the Petanque World Cup to translate from the French. The competition will be held in Grenoble where he will be travelling to once the team gets acclimatized in Paris.

Forewarned of his destination, some of our colleagues (I'm tempted to mention them by name 'cos it would be fun, but I won't) accosted him this morning to place their orders for LV merchandise which, apparently, is cheaper when purchased at the source. What better way to train one's stamina and competitive acumen than fighting tourists and bargain-hunters over luxury items at rock-bottom prices? So thus, and over breakfast, we bade him fare-well.

He should be boarding his plane right now so, Anthony, the hopes of all Singapore lie with you and your team to deliver what Ronald and Jia Wei couldn't at the Olympics -- a medal from a world competition! No pressure! We'll also be happy if you came back with an Eiffel Tower paperweight or an LV wallet or something. We're nice people.

As you might imagine, my morale for marking is pretty low today after all that excitement. Here's the score so far:

> Today's tally = 9
> Cumulative total = 54

Fatigue is setting in. Must take it easy...

I have to be honest. I love the prelim and mid-year exam periods. It is such a rare thing for me to have breakfast on Tuesday morning as lessons usually begin immediately after assembly. But today, students are taking their papers, and I can concentrate on clearing my pile of essays, and that's pretty much it, as I wasn't down for some exam duty or other. Breakfast itself isn't worth mentioning apart from the fact that it was a necessary rest-stop and energy recharge procedure before being able to face that rather daunting pile of marking again.

Lunch at GFC, same-old same-old, but in the afternoon, Amy developed a craving for ice-cream and she kindly surveyed whomever in the English Dept was still in the staff room to see if anyone else wanted a snack. She took our orders for different kinds of ice-cream and soon returned with a whole bunch. I got a very chocolatey Nestle Cornetto -- the topping comprised little chocolate spheres and chocolate sauce in alternating segments, and even the cone had been dipped in chocolate. It was slightly melty so it didn't last very long. Better in my stomach than on my desk, or worse, on someone's essay, eh? It went well with my afternoon coffee.

A small morale boost and here's my score for the day:

> Today's tally = 15
> Cumulative total = 45

Heh, so proud of myself!

Had lunch at The Dubliner's and I must say, it's nice to be back.

Back? Yup, this downtown Irish pub now occupies the site where once had stood the Orchard School of Arts and Commerce, where at the ripe old age of 23 I attended class hoping to pass my 'A' Level cert.

In most respects I was a model student, except where wearing the uniform was concerned. The Principal and her hubby were starting to introduce some idiotic uniform rules, and I, having been through 2 years ('O' Level holders did not qualify for 2.5 years' service) of wearing camo-green military uniform, plus the fact that I was legally an adult, was not about to comply. I tried to compromise by wearing a white button-down shirt with blue jeans, but I could tell it was only a matter of time before I'd get on some unpleasant list or other. Providence then opened the door for me to take my studies overseas, thus avoiding any unnecessary confrontation. I tended my resignation with glee.

Many years later, I'm back at the exact site of my last Singaporean Alama Mater and I'm lunching on shepherd's pie with my teaching colleagues who are here for not just the food and the um... malted beverages but also for a pleasant environment in which to continue their prelim marking (yes, call me obsessive).

Lunch at The Dubliner's is at a 30% discount off menu prices, though I don't know how long this promotion will last. Shepherd's pie, as I discovered, seems to be a mutton(?) stew covered over with a thick layer of fluffy potato mash for the pie crust. The meat is a very fine mince, stewed very tender and the dish generally goes down easily with small-talk and sips of liquid refreshment. I wonder if it really is mutton, though. The stew is so fine, I'm not absolutely sure, but won't shepherds lose the trust of their sheep if they went around smelling like mutton? Sheep are dumb.

Eating al fresco is quite a pleasant experience here. Partially shaded by tree foliage, we sit and dine as shadow patterns alternate with sunshine spots on the cobbled terrace. The gentle trickle of water from the landscaped waterfall add to the ambience of a lazy afternoon, but we were there for a reason. For me and Gerald, it was strictly lunch; for Vince and Anthony, after lunch was marking time. It was still early afternoon when I left them there to slowly ruminate over the imponderables that are students' answers to GP questions.

I caught the MRT home for some pet therapy... and to update the scoreboard which reads:

> Today's tally = 11
> Cumulative total = 30

Spent most of the day marking essays and am now wondering what we have failed to teach. Normal, rational arguments generally follow this pattern:
If A = B
and B = C,
then A = C. That's logical, right?

The essays I've been marking generally look like this:
A (therefore) = C.
And that's all!

The answer (A = C) may look the same BUT the process and the development of the answer simply doesn't make sense because the linkage (B) is almost all but ignored. Typically, this kind of argument works if you were the Dictator of a banana republic and because you repeat it often enough and loudly enough your people will start to believe you. However, try this kind of reasoning with a group of rational people and it's goodbye, Senor Presidente, as your shoulders bid a fond farewell to your head.

I've also been doing some math (oh horrors!). A balanced argument doesn't seem as important as it might appear. An essay with a strong, well-presented, cohesive argument may score a maximum of 18 out of 30 marks for content even if it is "not necessarily balanced" (quoted from the essay marking scheme). But an essay riddled with contradictions because balance is poorly argued (worse -- forced because it is "required") risks scoring a maximum of 12 out of 30 content marks for making a mess of the argument. That's the difference between a D and a C grade, and it could be all the difference in the world. Those of you consistently scoring D and below, please take heed.

If this rant isn't making sense to you, please go find a GP tutor to speak to BEFORE you take the exam for real. If there's a problem, let's fix it now!

After blowing off steam, heeeee...re's the scoreboard:

> Today's tally = 14
> Cumulative total = 19

And we're off and running!

And so the nightmare begins. Prelim marking is going to make me look back over the next two weeks and remark that I once had a life. A lovely stack of essays await their fate as I turn Freddy Kruger again and hack and slash until I am waist deep in mire and gore. I think we've been here before. Deja vous.

I think just to motivate myself, I'll run a daily scoresheet on the number of essays I've marked. It'll be inspiring to see this figure advance as my stack regresses. But in the meantime, I'll also be dealing with assorted distractions like sleep and meals. I guess this is the only way we tutors can keep you company as you struggle through this difficult period. We comiserate through mutual suffering. Fair?

Did the statue thing again today as I will be doing another three more times in the next two weeks. I modelled for "Stamford Raffles (standard)","lout and lampost", "slut at her dresser" and "Buddha's meditation on a writing surface." Too bad there weren't any AEP students around to immortalize me in an 'A' Level sculpture submission. Invigilation in 03-49 is not a pleasant thing. The room looks smaller than the others and when the students bring their belongings in and place them along the front and side walls, there's hardly any space left to walk. It becomes claustrophobic and it gets worse when the first few bars of "Heart of Gold," by Johnny Hates Jazz, starts repeating over and over in your mind for no apparent reason. I was thankful to Mei Lian who subbed me for 25 minutes each paper, and for some mindless administration that shut Johnny up for a while.

> Initializing 'Marked Essay Scoresheet'...
> ... Initialized
>
> Tally 'Marked Essay Scoresheet'...
> Number of Essays marked today = 0
> Cumulative Total = 0

>sigh< I'd better get started.

Edit 01:
8 hours later...

> Today's tally = 5
> Cumulative total = 5

Well, it's a start, I suppose.

The NE course was quite enjoyable, though I was the only one representing our college. Should have invited some others to join me as it felt a bit lonely and strange, and I think a few of our staff would have enjoyed themselves too. Anyone interested in storytelling would have benefited and those of us (like me) who love stories but can't tell one for beans got a real boost in our storytelling abilities as the presenters slowly built our confidence up step by baby step.

To be honest, most of the NE stuff was forgotten as we learned to craft tales from our personal experiences and from a chosen story that we had to prepare last night. At least, I was more interested in learning the skill to see how it might apply to GP and to lit. After all, storytelling is such a forgotten art form that only a select few know how to do it really well, and the rest of us don't seem to bother with it so much any more.

As our opening speaker, Gopi, said, today we let other people tell stories to us, usually large corporations under the behemoth known as "Hollywood." We now rely so much on 'realistic' visual stimulation from TV drama and cinema SFX that we have lost the need to listen to each other and create for ourselves individual interpretations of reality using our own imaginations. Instead of sharing a common vision, we are all plugged into the exact same one and we lose ourselves in the process. No wonder we are now having so much trouble with studying literature -- the subject forces us to utilize the brain 'muscles' that we have allowed to atrophy due to a severe lack of constant exercise, all thanks to the convenience and attractiveness of modern electronic media.

The seminar showed me a couple of things. First, storytelling is an acquired skill, and anyone can pick it up regardless of how incompetent one may feel initially. Second, the craft is really honed in the telling of stories in front of an audience, not so much in the rehearsing of the story beforehand (i.e., to be a good storyteller you must tell stories). Third, simple stories work best for both teller and audience -- don't get too clever or creative or whatever; a delivery that is natural to oneself always works best. Fourth, we all love telling stories, despite what I said earlier. That's why some of us blog, right? The rest of us just yak till the cows come home.

Since storytelling is such an important skill, perhaps my next batch of year ones will begin first term next year just learning to tell stories. GP as a subject can wait. What do you think, folks?

Other notes: Apollo Hotel fed us really well. Lunch was a luxuriously long 1-and-a-quarter hours at the all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant. Must especially mention the salmon sashimi which was so fresh. Haven't tasted sashimi this good since that breakfast at Kansai Airport's Takashimaya last year. The spread was generally light and dainty, so you always felt that there was room for one-more-plateful... This includes the meat dishes, fish, chicken, satay and whatever else there was (I'm not big on buffet meats, myself) and the desserts as well. And, yes, we must always make room for dessert. The brownies (a bit sweet), American cheesecake (cut to look like tiny sailboards), chocolate cake (that looked like nougat on a chocolate base), and ice-cream bythetubandhelpyourselfthankyou. *waves to Jenny and Bina who kept me company at the lunch table. MINDEF officers, if you must know.

Oh, and one more point. Jack Neo didn't show up after all. He was scheduled for tomorrow's session but since the organizers combined both sessions into today, Chan Soo Sen (him with the big portfolio), today's keynote speaker, spoke instead.

OK. To all who are taking tomorrow's GP prelim, go sleep now. Come in with a fresh mind and a rested body. Good luck and enjoy your paper tomorrow!

Today I checked TRAISI, our online course planner. I knew I had sort of applied for an NE course scheduled for some time around now but I wasn't too sure when. I also didn't know if my application had been successful. TRAISI confirmed the approval of my application and informed me that the course is on, like, tomorrow. Gasp. Good thing I checked else there'd have to be explanations a-plenty justifying why I didn't attend a course that cost the college $250. I don't think a sheepish, "I forgot :-P" is going to be sufficient.

Now it looks like my free Friday has become a full-day event. 8:30-6:00. And I have homework to do to prepare. The course material is a whole bunch of folk tales and stories which we have to look through since we'll be discussing them to some length during the hands-on workshop sessions. Jack Neo is the invited guest speaker, so it could well be quite entertaining. Still, a whole day of activity... I don't know.

Health concern: lower back pain that's lasted almost 4 days now. Think I'm starting to walk like an old man. Scary thought. Must've screwed up my back sitting on my butt too long hunched over Watson's keyboard a couple'a days back. When will I be free to get my spine straightened out again? Hopefully, it's just another temporary ailment.

Also, for the record, after patient preparation, training and quite some persistent stalking I finally caught Latias. There. I've made full use of my bragging rights. 'nuff said.

Bored at home so I went walking around the Heeren in the late morning. Checked out the DVDs at HMV, but didn't see anything I wanted. Actually, I was more like pretending to shop around but really I was watching the episode of Friends that HMV was screening. It was the episode where Chandler and Monica were being interviewed as potential adoptive parents of a baby. Despite Monica's desperation in trying to capitalize on a mistaken identity, Chandler's honesty shone through for a happy ending.

Lazy afternoon, not getting anything important done. Dinner found us at Blk 419 again but this time we ordered the Thai fish head curry for a change. This dish is a specialty of the coffee-shop here and we've noticed that it's a favourite amongst many of the customers, but it always looked way too big for just the two of us to handle. It was good that the coffee-shop could handle a dinner-for-two order. We had half a fish head in a gorgeous tom yam gravy and a side of kangkong to go with our rice. The combination of spices is still making it's presence felt in my stomach, but there's no denying that dinner was delicious tonight.

Uneventful. *purrs with satisfaction* this is as a vacation should be.

My 'normal' entry of the day:
Spent a pleasant afternoon with good food and good company. A week ago, Jo invited Boon Sin to lunch. Boon Sin made some phone calls and Jo wound up with more folks at her door than she had initially expected. Apart from me and my potato salad (good guess, Gid); there were Vince and BS (who shared the ice-cream); Agnes (chicken wings); and Bhagia (chicken curry). Avian flu? What avian flu? Jo herself prepared the staple -- bee hoon with lots of crunchy fried shallots.

I think we were prepared for more people than for who eventually showed up, so there was food in abundance. Light, silly conversation around the table with BS bearing the brunt of the jokes. BS also took care of entertaining Jo's older daughter, leaving the rest of us adults free to yak and eat. Learned Agnes is giving up her car and Vince will be too once his stint as CPE is over in December. Hmm... I ought to feel guilty about that since I turned down the "opportunity" first, but I'm relieved, really. Not having a car multiplies the stress of CPEship by a lot.

Q-tip hasn't gone out for 2 days straight already. Strangely, we've been too busy to look after this detail. Maybe I'll go fetch her leash now...

This entry was inspired by Mei's blog. Last minute tips for handling the General Paper essay, just before the Prelims. If this issue is of no interest to you then don't bother reading on...

Gather materials that are current by having a daily read of the newspapers. News that tends to get repeated every day is worth paying attention to.

Use the news as relevant to your question -- drop names (people, places, organizations), refer to incidents, but don't waste time retelling the stories.

Choose questions that you have the most to say about. It doesn't matter if you don't have an opinion on the issue at the time you choose the question.

Give some thought to what the question is essentially about. Most of you answer to the topic but fail to pay attention to the question. LISTEN to the problem first before you go blindly solving something you don't really understand.

Completely answer the question in 1 paragraph within the first 20 minutes of the paper (if you answer the question in the sequence the question is presented in, it's hard to go wrong). By this step, you would have formed your opinion on the issue and not before. This paragraph becomes your introduction para.

Develop your essay according to the sequence of points you raised in the intro.

Do not bring up new points in the conclusion. Conclusion must agree with the intro. You may conclude with an insight into human nature, or about society, but only within the context of the points you have raised and discussed.

Balance: your job is to NEGOTIATE a fair position between 2 conflicting points of view. Your position must be realistic and fair (repetition for emphasis). Remember that both conflicting parties are idealistic children, but you are the rational adult arbiting between the both of them. Do not sink to their level.

Refer to the following web resource for more general instructions on essay writing and language use: OWL at Purdue.

Try hard to get a good grade in the prelims. It'll give you confidence in preparing for your 'A's.

English Lit advice:
My best advice is, unless you are dealing with early 20th century poetry, do not first approach your texts with your brain. Instead, pay attention to what your senses are telling you, i.e., your sense of sight (imagery, metaphor, simile), sound (rhythm, rhyme, metre, alliteration, other sound effects), touch (texture), not so important are smell and taste. When you can discuss what your senses are telling you, then only can your brain start processing how the author/poet is attempting to manipulate the reader into fully participating in the story, to see things in the first person instead of in the third.

Being intelligent (brain smart) doesn't help in lit. Being able to utilize our 5 human senses helps us appreciate lit a whole lot more. Remember: no author sits down to write "literature." People write to people and they make contact using the tools that are common to everyone, our 5 senses. Everyone connects, but lit students see how the connections are made, and appreciate the author's craft in doing so.

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Today's the kind of day you smash your hand down on the snooze button of your alarm clock and continue sleeping. You wake up disoriented, suddenly remembering it's Monday morning and your wife has left for work before you. Then you remember that it's the first day of the term break and snuggle back into bed enveloped in the best feeling in the world.

Not for long, though. I still had to get on campus by 11 for a Drama Club meeting. Just before I left, I had the urge to smoothen out the living room carpet which had somehow got scrunched up in one corner. I was about to beat it back into place when the messy corner miaowed. Momo had found a new hiding spot to nap in. Stupid cat.

Drama Club looked like it had everything in order, but during the discussion, Mel and I took a sudden interest in Chinese mythology. I went off to Popular at Northpoint and picked up some research material for further study. Perhaps it's the fault of the authors, but the myths I scanned through were dry, boring and episodic. Formula looks quite simple: something happens (usually on a fairly regular basis); someone does something about it; there is some kind of result; and that is why some custom or other is celebrated to this day. Fine, most myths follow the same pattern, but there is usually more drama to the telling of the story than what I've been reading. Hope the other books I bought aren't going to be as bland.

Met June for dinner at the Crystal Jade la mian place at Northpoint. The noodles and soups taste fresh and healthy, though a bit expensive. Still, the noodles, are hand-pulled on site so I guess we are paying for the extra effort, though I can't afford this luxury every mealtime.

Also did a bit of grocery shopping for tomorrow's pot luck lunch at Joanna's house. Bought russet potatoes, celery, spring onions and Kraft mayo; so guess what my contribution is going to be?

Watched a documentary on Hong Kong's dim sum on Discovery Channel last night which made me hungry. So this morning's breakfast we settled for an el cheapo coffee shop version downstairs of our flat. I must have a peasant's taste for dim sum as I find the expensive, restaurant version too rich (read "oily") and fanciful for my blood. According to the documentary, our breakfast menu comprised a "large chicken bun," "prawn dumplings," "steam-and-sell (a rough translation of siew-mai)," and some other standard things that didn't feature in the programme. We were too full to face lunch after that.

Yan had gone home so I decided not to bother her after all. That left 2 things to do today: go watch the petanque international at Toa Payoh's petanque courts and the SAF Open House at SAFTI.

Anthony and Weng had gone through a lot of trouble organizing the tournament, so I thought I'd go lend them my support. Weng and one of the team's youngest instructors -- a Sec 1 kid with a seriously aggressive playing style -- taught me the basics of the game while Anthony warmed up for his match against Australia.

Concept is simple enough: each player has 3 metal boules (balls) and the idea is to throw the balls to land as close to the target ball (the jack) as possible. When all the players have exhausted all their throws the player who has the nearest ball to the jack gains the point and a new round begins.

Players have to decide how to make the best use of their throws to ensure that their boule is closer to the jack than their opponents' at the end of the round. Players can simply throw their boule to land as close as possible to the jack (pointing) or they can knock their opponents' boules away from the jack with their throw (shooting). That's about the sum of what I learned today. Maybe I'll attend a couple of training sessions next week to see if I can be any good at this game.

We left before Anthony finished his game against the Aussies. We sat and watched for what felt like an hour and the score was 5-2 in favour of Oz at the time. They were going to keep playing to 13 points, and we decided we couldn't wait that long. Wonder who won? I believe the match was for 3rd placing in the secondary tourney.

The weather turned nasty on us so SAFTI will have to wait until next year for our visit.

It was a strange experience sharing my blog in an impromptu show-and-tell at an IT course I attended today. The course was about how to create a website for our Civics Tutorials and there was some sharing on getting resources to help maintain the site and other materials to help our students with their study and other needs.

My show-and-tell was unplanned and haphazard and I doubt anyone else but the instructor knew what I was talking about. On hindsight, I should have focused on showing them how easy it was to create and maintain a blog page using the WYSIWYG and html interfaces, and how all the other plug-ins fit into the Template editor as simple lines of html coding. But, as usual, my mouth got away from me and I just showed them the various features of my page without telling them how it was done, which was why they were there in the first place. Maybe next time K decides to teach the course again, I'll offer to co-instruct with her and do it right (if she'll have me back again!).

My page is too unfocused to be a proper CT web page, but I don't mind experimenting with it. Hence, I'll try install a calendar in the sidebar next to remind us all of what few important dates there are left in this year. Let's see if I can do that right now...

Edit 01:
There. Calendar up and running. Not quite what I expected, though. Still have to click the button on the sidebar to see it. As best as I can figure, I've uploaded the prelim timetable, though I won't vouch for accuracy. It's an experiment, after all. Feedback to me what you think of this facility. I'll update the calendar with other important dates if you think it's useful.

Dropped in on Pris. She was looking tired and it was sad to see Her Voraciousness on drips for a change. Found out that Yan is in hossie too for asthma. Might drop in on her tomorrow; Yan, be warned!! Must nag y'all again to take good care of yourselves. How worrisome...

That's it! The last day of formal curriculum for our current JC2s. Time is now yours to manage and though there are still some common exercises for you to work on and we're still around to help you out right until the last minute, you really are on your own. Enjoy the September study break next week and 3A2, please look after your health. Too many of you are falling sick at such a crucial time. Work as you must, but it's important to have adequate rest and a proper diet as well. So much to nag, so little time...

Me, I'll be around for personal coaching if you feel you need it. Call me and let me know when you want to drop by so I can schedule my time accordingly. That, and I'll be doing my best to conserve my own energy for the next mad round of marking prelim papers. I've maxed out on invigilation duties so my marking tme is going to suffer badly. This deadline is unalterable, though, so good luck to me.

Started my destress protocol from this afternoon with a long, leisurely lunch with Vince, Cara, Amy and Anthony at the prata place. Coincidentally, we all wanted some kind of byriani today, except for one order of Maggi mee goreng. It rained heavily and we had to run from table to table to find the best seating to avoid getting splashed. The noise on the aluminium awning was loud, though no more so than the noise of hand tools coming from the bike repair shop immediately next door. We were determined to have a nice lunch so we resolutely sat and ate and yakked until our other committments became pressing and unavoidable. Unfortunately for Sarab, I kept him waiting through lunch before I could attend to his administrative detail. Sorry, dude!

Finally caught AVP tonight. As with the first AVP comic book series (and in the Alien movies), the main character is a tough, resourceful woman who survives the ordeal while others around her fall like flies. Feminism isn't an issue one would expect to pop up in a genre like typically male dominated science-fiction but the Alien franchise is full of women's issues.

The movie was exciting though limited by the artificial environment of an isolated island in Antartica thousands of miles away from the next habitable landfall, and buried under 2000 feet of permafrost. So the implications of this earth-shattering secret from ancient history doesn't hit the world with any impact at all. It's like observing a tempest in a test tube, and then going away knowing a little secret that noone else in the world is likely to share, or even believe.

Aliens take the form of their host bodies. This fact was established in Alien 3 and in AVP. I was just thinking, wouldn't it be unfortunate for an alien if it's host was a bunny rabbit or some other fluffy small herbivorous mammal? Oh, the complexes it might have to live with, growing up with it's bretheren who had picked their hosts more sensibly. OK I'm getting silly here.

Quote of the day: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend," Alexa Woods in AVP

Had a weird dream. I dreamt I had woken up at 8:10am and I was in a panic 'cos I was missing a class at the U that started at 7:50am. Then I woke up for real and I got into a real panic 'cos it was almost 7am and I was late for real. There was no way I could make it from home to campus in time for 7:25am assembly but I still managed to arrive just as assembly was ending, so I guess I didn't miss much.

Disturbing that 3A2 is so under the weather. Fever and other ailments have ravaged my CT. Pris is in the hossie just after 'nette came home. Various other absences blamed on some bug or other. Time to take precautions like not sharing food and drink, which sounds anti-social but considering that goodwill isn't the only thing that's being passed around right now I think it's good advice. Apart from prepare for the prelims, please take the coming hols to rest and recover.

The year has been that stressful for all of us. The hip-hop crew gave me a souvenir coffee mug bearing the inscription: "I'm not over the hill, I'm still climbing, and that's why I'm tired all the time." Thanks for giving me a reason for my fatigue. Getting tired trying to keep up with you is worth sweating for.

Gave up AVP tonight for Singapore Idol. I will catch that movie someday, I just don't know when. Idol contestants not so outstanding this week. They all look like they have worked hard at their shot tonight, they've all got decent voices, but nothing that I can imagine a true star might have. Tough fight tonight then, though I can't really care who moves on to the next round.

Fragmented entry. Hate when this happens.

Day of rest. A timely one too, physically exhausted as I was. Too many late nights, too many early rises. Sound familiar? I'm glad I could use today just to unwind.

Woke up at a luxurious 7:30 a.m., in time to bundle Q-tip off for her quarterly haircut, then it was just me and the cats. Got bored after a while so I met June for lunch at her workplace. Wanted pasta, but Fiestamama's had a pretty standard and limited pasta selection. Went for the daily set instead.

According to June, the restaurant doesn't get very good business. Can't imagine why, though. Servings are generous and the food is well-presented, looking like it has been prepared with a lot of care. And reasonably priced, too. The set lunch comprised a brothy chicken soup, seafood/fruit salad, beef medallions for the entree, an odd Thai sweetcorn-red ruby dessert, and coffee or tea; and all for $9.90 before tax. Perhaps one thing that might keep customers away, though, is that the hot beverage arrived at the table first instead of last, which could offend purists and etiquette-mongers; or perhaps their choice of rap music to accompany lunch might have had something to do with it. I'm not sure which.

Planned to go watch AVP tonight, but got held up at mom-in-law's where we celebrated my nephew Shaun's 1st birthday. M-i-L went through a lot of trouble cooking up a festive dinner menu and by the time we blew out the candle, it was too late to catch our movie. Nvm. Tml we'll try again.

What a great Teacher's Day! Judging by the publishing time of this entry, you can tell I didn't have the chance to blog yesterday. So many other things keeping me occupied.

The 'workout' crew debuted our hip-hop number -- the one we've been working on since June. People said nice things about the item, and from my own perspective, it felt good, performance-wise, mistakes notwithstanding. Well, cheers to crew members; Staff: Cara, Jong Yann, Lynnette, me; Students: Hasif, Ramzi, Jane, Jasmine; guest breakdancers: Daniel, Leon; Choreographer, Chief make-up, Solo and Boss: Shyadina. Thanks, everyone, for your patience, committment and belief in us, and for imparting just a little bit of your talent to us, keeping us one step further from premature aging.

Photo time!


The crew showin' a little 'tude


Celebrating a great experience

For more pix of our backstage and post performance antics click here. 3A2, hope you don't mind me using our Webshots account to host these pix that aren't exclusively ours. And thanks for the boxers! Could be the start of new wardrobe trend for me. Love the colour too!

Lunched at Country Manna (Gardens) with Thad, Anthony, Cara, Mel, Amy and Shahida. Someone couldn't resist the cheap Tiger. Too bad yesterday was the last day of the promotion period though.

Had to get costumes ready for staff dinner. The theme was "Movie Night" and our table had the idea of going as Hogwarts School. NYeDC, honestly, we both came up with the same idea, though independently of each other. Because of your item in the concert, it took some soul searching before we agreed to proceed with our plan even though it might have been misconstrued that we ripped your idea off for ourselves.

Dinner was standard 8-course Chinese at the Royal Plaza Hotel, same location for the last 3 staff dinners. Same routine of presenting long-service awards to staff of the 3 schools, same compulsory speech by a rep of our SMC. But our table (No.9) rocked! We made off with the prize (memo pad holder) for the movie title identification puzzle with the only perfect score. We won 3rd best dressed table (a handy clothes peg basket), and 3 of our table members; Yee, Cara and me along with Agnes and How Wie won the movie trivia quiz (a cool water bottle). So in terms of dinner games, NYJC, in particular, table No.9, came out tops. We're definitely sitting together again next year!


Making magic at the Teacher's Day staff dinner


The Hogwart's table with 2 guest Olympians

More photos!

Phew! Almost done. Went for after-dinner drinks with Vince, Anne, Cara, Amy, (a very tired) Anthony, and were properly introduced to new PE staff, Victor and Chew Ring. Weng popped by to wish us a happy Teachers' Day too. Long day, but a lot of fun. Thank you, everyone.

Finally, it's showtime! Came home late from the College's Teachers' Day concert rehearsal and am now thoroughly sweaty and exhausted from the experience. Part of the reason why we ended so late was because of the scheduled power outage while the construction workers did something with the circuits in the new building. The outage occurred later than scheduled, and hence, all our other plans got pushed back. Spent a long time hangin' out backstage before it got to our turn. It was great to finally get a chance to chat and gossip with our crew. It's all been work, work, work so far and it's nice for us to interact with each as friends now. We ran our item once and >phew< no need to repeat.

Now I'm home, there's still a few things I need to prepare for tomorrow's programme. I'll just work on that now, and hopefully get to sleep soon. Big day ahead!

June needed help preparing sandwiches this morn. We both woke up late, no surprise there. Bird flu meant no egg mayo from us, and we suspect is also the cause of Tony's absent bee hoon as well. People had to make do without two breakfast favourites, but hey, hope the chickens get well soon.

New guy preaching in today's service. A very energetic American who couldn't stop bouncing around and delivered a schizoid message. I suppose it was innovative having someone on-stage for a brief role-play during the sermon, but keeping him there and talking to him from time to time, referring to him sometimes as himself and sometimes as his role-play character, while at the same time talking to the audience(i.e., us) gives one the idea that, yes, at times there can be too much innovation. His message: hardship is God's way of refining us, and that there is a greater purpose to our lives than is obvious to us right now. Solid message, he just has to work on his delivery, in my humble opinion.

Had dinner at S.T. Restaurant (coffee shop, actually) bro-in-law, Irwin's, treat for the family. Food took a while to arrive, but the rice and dishes we ordered turned out to be pretty good. No, I won't do a coffee shop food review, though. Spelling the names of the dishes is already quite a pain.

On the way home, I received a distressing phone call from a concerned parent. Sad to say there is a confirmed case of dengue fever in 3A2. Around this time last year a number of staff and students went down with dengue too. Hope this isn't the start of a new epidemic. 'nette, please recover quickly.