Finally caught "V for Vendetta" with June. A very GP-ish movie asking the question, "Terrorist or freedom fighter?" Also, lots of questions dealing with justice, politics, religion, bio-ethics, the arts, and the media. Juicy!
June points out that this isn't essentially the action flick that the trailers promise, but I appreciate the slower pace that develops the plot layer by layer, revealing more and more of the mystery behind the dystopia the world has become for the characters in the movie.
The bomber, V, who models his appearance and ideals after Guy Fawkes is the lone voice daring enough to point out that the emperor has no clothes. Everyone else has been cowed and/or become disinterested by a monolithic, authoritarian, oppressive regime, where people "disappearing" after a late night visit by the police is almost routine.
In order to rile up the people out of their resignation, stupor and apathy, V first catches everyone's attention by blowing up the Old Bailey in London and then throws down a challenge. V names his next target, the Houses of Parliament; and the date, the next year's Guy Fawkes' night. To the authorities, it's "try-and-stop me;" to the people, it's a rallying cry for revolution against the incumbent government.
So begins a chain of events that V orchestrates. His vendetta is against those people in power who had literally made him the monster he has become. His call for revolution is in earnest, but his job, as he sees it, is to clear the way for the people to rouse themselves and reclaim for themselves the freedom taken from them by the High Chancellor's Nazi-like Norsefire Party, and not to do it for them.
V judges the people's will to act through Evey, whom he shelters when she inadvertently gets implicated in the Old Bailey attack. Through Evey, we catch glimpses of V's elaborate scheme to bring down the governemnt. Her response to V's activities mirrors the sentiments of the people who, though subdued, are far from the sheep the government takes them for.
Despite the effort the government puts on the political spin machine, the public sees right through the media and privately sneers at the whitewash. Emboldened by V, pockets of dissent rise in small acts by various individuals, each one building to encourage other acts that are increasingly daring. Even Gordon, a highly regarded late-night talk show host and a seeming member of the political elite reveals his own dissent in his final broadcast, a blatant parody of recent events featuring V making a complete laughingstock of the High Chancellor, and the viewing public makes no pretense to hide its laughter.
The plot places great importance on us getting to know the individual, mundane details of a number of characters' biographies. One of the characters only exists in flashback, but even her story is told if only as pencil scribblings on some toilet paper. The glaring ommission is V's own backstory. We never really know him apart from fragments of others' memories and inferences, though through an exquisite deception we will get to know him better than any of the other characters in the movie. As V proclaims, "Artists lie to expose the truth. Politicians lie to hide it."
In any case, V represents an idea, not a person. The people, though not sheep, feel alone in their dissent. It takes an immediately identifiable icon of utter audacity, to unite them in small, insignificant acts of rebellion. After all, compared to the complete and spectacular obliteration of a venerated public building, what is a little spray-can vandalism of a public poster by a kid wearing an identical mask to V's?
V, the bomber, sets things up so that he isn't the one to deliver the coup de grace on the Norsefire administration. That final act isn't for him. Change has to stem from the collective will of the people, not the will of a single idealist. The people themselves have to decide what they want, take action and wield People Power once again; and all V's efforts lead the people to this point.
Within a year, V lays down his challenge, instigates the people to play his game while making their way smooth and enacting his vengeance all at the same time. V fulfills all his promises by the end of the movie, but do the people do their part as well? Will they betray him in the end? No spoiler from me about that. Go watch this brilliant statement on ideas and people and politics to find out yourself.
"V for Vendetta" goes on my list of top movies for 2006.
Saturday, April 01, 2006
Got to drive the Swift back to college after lunch. Being used to M2, I was extra careful in handling an unfamiliar car, and may have driven a little slower than the cars behind me would have liked. The Swift takes some getting used to, being that it seems to have been designed for someone more compact than me to drive comfortably. It's probably because I didn't bother to adjust the seat to suit my bulk (I didn't have time to customize the configuration properly), that's why the ride back felt like quite a tight fit.
Everything about the Swift has a lighter touch than M2; the steering, the cornering, even the hand-brake came up so smoothly with minimal application of strength. Nice touches, but I feel too oafish to handle such refinement for long with confidence. I know it's just illusory, but I was afraid bits of the Swift would come off in my hands as I grappled with them, the way I do with M2. Fortunately, I left it in one piece back at the campus parking lot for Amy to reclaim later, after her lunch with HP and Vince.
In the late afternoon-evening, I rediscovered bowling in Hougang with Vince. After a frantic week searching for a fellow Pegasii to partner me in next week's college bowling challenge, today I got the news that staff do not have to pair up by House any longer. Staff form the 'Open' category and compete directly against the students.
We needed to at least try out the lanes at our competition venue, so Starbowl Hougang it was. It's very easy to throw strikes here. The pins fall quite easily. The lanes seem to favour the straight-down-the-middle kind of balls, so I should have a slight advantage. But from an 8-game series, my score tended to fluctuate between the mid-120s right up to the 190s, but the frustrating thing was that I couldn't string 3 solid games together for a decent 3-game total score. That would be crucial to doing well next week.
Next, I need to go register us for the tournament... hope there're still some slots left.
Everything about the Swift has a lighter touch than M2; the steering, the cornering, even the hand-brake came up so smoothly with minimal application of strength. Nice touches, but I feel too oafish to handle such refinement for long with confidence. I know it's just illusory, but I was afraid bits of the Swift would come off in my hands as I grappled with them, the way I do with M2. Fortunately, I left it in one piece back at the campus parking lot for Amy to reclaim later, after her lunch with HP and Vince.
In the late afternoon-evening, I rediscovered bowling in Hougang with Vince. After a frantic week searching for a fellow Pegasii to partner me in next week's college bowling challenge, today I got the news that staff do not have to pair up by House any longer. Staff form the 'Open' category and compete directly against the students.
We needed to at least try out the lanes at our competition venue, so Starbowl Hougang it was. It's very easy to throw strikes here. The pins fall quite easily. The lanes seem to favour the straight-down-the-middle kind of balls, so I should have a slight advantage. But from an 8-game series, my score tended to fluctuate between the mid-120s right up to the 190s, but the frustrating thing was that I couldn't string 3 solid games together for a decent 3-game total score. That would be crucial to doing well next week.
Next, I need to go register us for the tournament... hope there're still some slots left.
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Whole college staff attended a course on "Brain Based Learning." Do a Google search on this phrase, and a lot of material pops up on it.
From what I gather, it's a theory about understanding how the brain functions, then tailoring the learning experience for our students accordingly. In this way, we take advantage of the brain's own workings in order to maximize the amount of stuff our students can absorb in every lesson and retain over the long term.
It sounds like a useful idea, after all, if we could apply such techniques to creating learning strategies that our students can use for better results, then by all means, y'know. But a theory like this one -- which is apparently still in its experimental stages -- requires a full course-load to appreciate and understand. We compressed it down to about 4 hours yesterday afternoon, and it felt like something got lost in the translation.
It didn't help that the delivery by the instructor was supposed to be the model we were meant to follow in our own lessons.
The session involved lots of quick personal discussions about the little bite-sized chunks of info he presented. There was lots of movement -- he constantly moved around the room while expounding nibblet after nibblet of wisdom; and he constantly got us to move around as well, moving with our chairs from table to open space, while changing partners for our little discussions. These discussions were supposed to allow students to check each other's comprehension and recall of the lesson material so far, and correct as necessary. And they were frequent.
He taught us to give our usually complex instructions one-at-a-time so that there would be no confusion amongst the students as to what was expected of them, and would willingly comply because there was no ambiguity in each instruction whatsoever. He taught us to say, "thank you," to our discussion partner for sharing and to celebrate with enthusiastic applause anyone's contribution to the larger group.
Sounds good, doesn't it? Then why did I feel throughout the session likeI was being treated like a kid with attention deficit syndrome? And why did I feel that I was being exhorted to treat my students similarly, like complete idiots who can't even tie their own shoelaces? And why did the idea of dishing out step-by-step instructions make me feel like a psycho with control issues?
Maybe I'm just old-school after all. I'm used to learning from long, quiet stretches reading from dusty old books with minimal yakkity-yak from anyone else around me. I don't have the attention span of someone who was raised by Sesame Street as a toddler and prefers to surf the 'net rather than search for answers in real life.
Well, maybe that's how it's going to have to be for this generation's bunch of learners. The Americans seem to favour it, anyway. Wonder why?
From what I gather, it's a theory about understanding how the brain functions, then tailoring the learning experience for our students accordingly. In this way, we take advantage of the brain's own workings in order to maximize the amount of stuff our students can absorb in every lesson and retain over the long term.
It sounds like a useful idea, after all, if we could apply such techniques to creating learning strategies that our students can use for better results, then by all means, y'know. But a theory like this one -- which is apparently still in its experimental stages -- requires a full course-load to appreciate and understand. We compressed it down to about 4 hours yesterday afternoon, and it felt like something got lost in the translation.
It didn't help that the delivery by the instructor was supposed to be the model we were meant to follow in our own lessons.
The session involved lots of quick personal discussions about the little bite-sized chunks of info he presented. There was lots of movement -- he constantly moved around the room while expounding nibblet after nibblet of wisdom; and he constantly got us to move around as well, moving with our chairs from table to open space, while changing partners for our little discussions. These discussions were supposed to allow students to check each other's comprehension and recall of the lesson material so far, and correct as necessary. And they were frequent.
He taught us to give our usually complex instructions one-at-a-time so that there would be no confusion amongst the students as to what was expected of them, and would willingly comply because there was no ambiguity in each instruction whatsoever. He taught us to say, "thank you," to our discussion partner for sharing and to celebrate with enthusiastic applause anyone's contribution to the larger group.
Sounds good, doesn't it? Then why did I feel throughout the session likeI was being treated like a kid with attention deficit syndrome? And why did I feel that I was being exhorted to treat my students similarly, like complete idiots who can't even tie their own shoelaces? And why did the idea of dishing out step-by-step instructions make me feel like a psycho with control issues?
Maybe I'm just old-school after all. I'm used to learning from long, quiet stretches reading from dusty old books with minimal yakkity-yak from anyone else around me. I don't have the attention span of someone who was raised by Sesame Street as a toddler and prefers to surf the 'net rather than search for answers in real life.
Well, maybe that's how it's going to have to be for this generation's bunch of learners. The Americans seem to favour it, anyway. Wonder why?
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Yesterday was my first meeting with the PUS kids as a full group. Between Gerald and me, we've to decide how to allocate specific tasks to them based on how they auditioned. Some kids naturally fit into their roles, but the others aren't so clear. We'll be scratching our heads over those kids for a while.
So tired last night, I fell asleep watching House on AXN. Even the nasty doctor's barbs couldn't keep me awake long enough to find out whether a young man's multiple system failure was caused by his fiancee's insatiable sexual appetite or not.
Today was likewise another long day. Met the J1 Journalism kids at the production meeting. They seem a bit wary of their surroundings for the moment; but once we really throw them in the deep end they'll start getting comfortable and learn to swim, I hope. One J1 proposed to write a regular column on PC/console game reviews -- a dream come true for me! Hope the others find a niche for themselves soon.
Couldn't stay to share pizza with them. Had to run off for in-line 'blading lessons which the College arranged for interested kids. Why do I need lessons? Because there are certain skills -- like the crossover -- that I require more basic training in before I can execute them. In a way, I learned to run before I learned to walk. Now I'm taking remedial classes.
So tired last night, I fell asleep watching House on AXN. Even the nasty doctor's barbs couldn't keep me awake long enough to find out whether a young man's multiple system failure was caused by his fiancee's insatiable sexual appetite or not.
Today was likewise another long day. Met the J1 Journalism kids at the production meeting. They seem a bit wary of their surroundings for the moment; but once we really throw them in the deep end they'll start getting comfortable and learn to swim, I hope. One J1 proposed to write a regular column on PC/console game reviews -- a dream come true for me! Hope the others find a niche for themselves soon.
Couldn't stay to share pizza with them. Had to run off for in-line 'blading lessons which the College arranged for interested kids. Why do I need lessons? Because there are certain skills -- like the crossover -- that I require more basic training in before I can execute them. In a way, I learned to run before I learned to walk. Now I'm taking remedial classes.
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Good evening, everyone. My name is Xmac and I have something to confess. I'm a teacher, and I blog.
The Sunday Times today asks, "Should teachers blog?" I take exception to being singled out for my profession and being questioned for my decision to post my scribblings on-line. The first concern ST puts forward is that it might be psychologically damaging for students to read what their teachers actually think about them. Second is that teachers can get into trouble with the Ministry if they grouse about their work, colleagues and school environment.
The latter arguments could be applied to anyone else in any other profession as well. People in other industries have been fired before, so we've learned to be a bit more circumspect airing our views in the public arena, just in case. Hence, the bland, politically correct points of view I've been putting forth here. Score one for perhaps over-cautious self-censorship, zero for being a sensational, attention-grabbing, audience-attracting sponsorship magnet that will allow me to give up my day job.
The first concern -- about fracturing students' delicate egos -- is a little tougher to address. It really depends on our motivation for blogging. If it's just a carthartic release from stresses at work, then a teacher sending mixed signals in person and on a blog means that neither message has the credibility to be taken seriously. Both messages stem from masks that the teacher wears: suppressed emotion in person, vented emotion on-line, and neither are reflections of honest, reflective thought.
Venomous words can and do sting, but the difference in blogging is that people go looking through search engines for things other people say about them, and when they find unpleasantness they get upset. Isn't that asking for trouble in the first place? Our students need to learn to take honest criticism, but they also have to learn to discern which critique to take with a pinch of salt too.
The other motivation for teachers' blogs is to communicate with their students directly on-line, where everybody 'lives' in the same community as equals. These blogs aren't just random rants about anything and anyone in particular, but they are about reaching out to students with reminders, nags, advice or concerns; establishing a platform for sharing common resource materials; or even showing students that their teachers are human too and that they do have a life after school.
To say that teachers should or should not blog is asking a nonsense question. You could substitute "teacher" with any other profession, and you'd get the same nonsense answer. Blogging isn't a matter of "should/not," it's more a choice of what we do with the technology available, for whichever audience we have chosen to address.
Words can build up or they can tear down. I hope I've been doing more of the former than the latter here for my visitors. That is my choice.
The Sunday Times today asks, "Should teachers blog?" I take exception to being singled out for my profession and being questioned for my decision to post my scribblings on-line. The first concern ST puts forward is that it might be psychologically damaging for students to read what their teachers actually think about them. Second is that teachers can get into trouble with the Ministry if they grouse about their work, colleagues and school environment.
The latter arguments could be applied to anyone else in any other profession as well. People in other industries have been fired before, so we've learned to be a bit more circumspect airing our views in the public arena, just in case. Hence, the bland, politically correct points of view I've been putting forth here. Score one for perhaps over-cautious self-censorship, zero for being a sensational, attention-grabbing, audience-attracting sponsorship magnet that will allow me to give up my day job.
The first concern -- about fracturing students' delicate egos -- is a little tougher to address. It really depends on our motivation for blogging. If it's just a carthartic release from stresses at work, then a teacher sending mixed signals in person and on a blog means that neither message has the credibility to be taken seriously. Both messages stem from masks that the teacher wears: suppressed emotion in person, vented emotion on-line, and neither are reflections of honest, reflective thought.
Venomous words can and do sting, but the difference in blogging is that people go looking through search engines for things other people say about them, and when they find unpleasantness they get upset. Isn't that asking for trouble in the first place? Our students need to learn to take honest criticism, but they also have to learn to discern which critique to take with a pinch of salt too.
The other motivation for teachers' blogs is to communicate with their students directly on-line, where everybody 'lives' in the same community as equals. These blogs aren't just random rants about anything and anyone in particular, but they are about reaching out to students with reminders, nags, advice or concerns; establishing a platform for sharing common resource materials; or even showing students that their teachers are human too and that they do have a life after school.
To say that teachers should or should not blog is asking a nonsense question. You could substitute "teacher" with any other profession, and you'd get the same nonsense answer. Blogging isn't a matter of "should/not," it's more a choice of what we do with the technology available, for whichever audience we have chosen to address.
Words can build up or they can tear down. I hope I've been doing more of the former than the latter here for my visitors. That is my choice.
June's taken a fancy to visiting Hokkaido in the summer. Apparently, there are vast fields of lavender and sunflowers to admire, and the seafood couldn't get any fresher. So it was off to the NATAS fair for us to see what packages were on offer.
We started out looking at group tour packages. Groups are about 20-30 strong, and being sociable with so many fellow holiday-makers for the entire trip didn't appeal to us at all. It wasn't that our Korean tour of '03 was such a terrible experience; it was just inflexible and we couldn't be independent of the group at all. It was only when we extended our tour for another 2-3 days in Seoul that we felt like we'd escaped the herd and we were free to waste our time and money on whatever we ourselves wanted, rather than on stuff the tour organization decided we should.
From our initial research today, we got bolder and started asking around for free-and-easy tours instead. But the tour operators showed us how expensive such expeditions could be, simply because we couldn't get bulk discounts.
There was a section of the travel fair that caught our attention. 2 huge video walls screening sights from Hokkaido. The organization doing the screening ran a fly & drive tour, i.e., fly there, pick up a rental Toyota, drive yourself around Hokkaido aiming to arrive at the designated hotel for the day by nightfall.
There are recommended stops between hotels but because it's a self-drive tour, we can pick and choose which locations to dally at, which to skip or even run off on our own if we knew of some other place that would capture our interest more. Howzzat for flexibility? Well, apart from having to make it to the right hotel to sleep in at night, that is.
One of the rental cars on offer is the Toyota Prius, 1.5l hybrid, running at 35.5km/l, with on-board GPS nav system. Sweet! And accommodation is entirely 5-star including meals and most have a hot spa facility free for guest usage. Wow.
The cost at Twin rates: $2888 for EACH of us, which is steep. But if we went Dutch, though still a pinch, is barely affordable. Then we discussed the package some more with one of the guides for this tour who clarified that there are other expenses such as gas, parking, tolls, entrance fees, lunch, etc., that aren't covered in the packaged rate. A more realistic cost figure would be closer to $4-5K each. And we're like, "oh...!"
Pity. Maybe if we saved on going anywhere this year, we might consider this package again next year. Meantime, I know June's still searching for better options...
We started out looking at group tour packages. Groups are about 20-30 strong, and being sociable with so many fellow holiday-makers for the entire trip didn't appeal to us at all. It wasn't that our Korean tour of '03 was such a terrible experience; it was just inflexible and we couldn't be independent of the group at all. It was only when we extended our tour for another 2-3 days in Seoul that we felt like we'd escaped the herd and we were free to waste our time and money on whatever we ourselves wanted, rather than on stuff the tour organization decided we should.
From our initial research today, we got bolder and started asking around for free-and-easy tours instead. But the tour operators showed us how expensive such expeditions could be, simply because we couldn't get bulk discounts.
There was a section of the travel fair that caught our attention. 2 huge video walls screening sights from Hokkaido. The organization doing the screening ran a fly & drive tour, i.e., fly there, pick up a rental Toyota, drive yourself around Hokkaido aiming to arrive at the designated hotel for the day by nightfall.
There are recommended stops between hotels but because it's a self-drive tour, we can pick and choose which locations to dally at, which to skip or even run off on our own if we knew of some other place that would capture our interest more. Howzzat for flexibility? Well, apart from having to make it to the right hotel to sleep in at night, that is.
One of the rental cars on offer is the Toyota Prius, 1.5l hybrid, running at 35.5km/l, with on-board GPS nav system. Sweet! And accommodation is entirely 5-star including meals and most have a hot spa facility free for guest usage. Wow.
The cost at Twin rates: $2888 for EACH of us, which is steep. But if we went Dutch, though still a pinch, is barely affordable. Then we discussed the package some more with one of the guides for this tour who clarified that there are other expenses such as gas, parking, tolls, entrance fees, lunch, etc., that aren't covered in the packaged rate. A more realistic cost figure would be closer to $4-5K each. And we're like, "oh...!"
Pity. Maybe if we saved on going anywhere this year, we might consider this package again next year. Meantime, I know June's still searching for better options...
Saturday, March 25, 2006
June and I met JY, Tonn and Thad at ECP. Bicycle rental for me and the 2 girls, the guys 'bladed. We covered pretty much the entire stretch of beach on either side of the McD's, about 2 hours of cardio-vascular activity for us.
Put all the calories lost back with interest at lunchtime. Went to Swenson's at Parkway Parade where I ordered the unhealthiest-looking thing on the menu: the Cheesy Beef Burger. But it was the first time I have gone into a Swensons and left without ordering ice-cream. Dessert we saved for New Zealand Natural: mocha almond fudge+walnut butterscotch for me, and chocolate ecstacy+vanilla classic for June. Mmm...
M-i-L signed Q-tip and Mimi up for a "Dog Parade contest" at this RC block party in Toa Payoh this evening. The programme involved some karaoke items, a balloon artist, and us, the canine celebrities of the day.
Each handler did a catwalk (how ironic) with our dogs who were mostly dressed to impress the audience. There were a couple of nudie entries like the retriever and the westie, but it was the smaller, dressier dogs that got the gasps and the applause. And the photo ops.
The contest results were exactly the same as the last time: Q-tip (Miss looking-fab-in-her-faux-Burberry's-trenchcoat) was 2nd runner-up; Mimi (Miss Personality/Photogenic) emerged the Champion. They won a doggie hamper (sponsored by Annie's Pets Corner) and a trophy each. So Neopets.
More pix here.
Put all the calories lost back with interest at lunchtime. Went to Swenson's at Parkway Parade where I ordered the unhealthiest-looking thing on the menu: the Cheesy Beef Burger. But it was the first time I have gone into a Swensons and left without ordering ice-cream. Dessert we saved for New Zealand Natural: mocha almond fudge+walnut butterscotch for me, and chocolate ecstacy+vanilla classic for June. Mmm...
M-i-L signed Q-tip and Mimi up for a "Dog Parade contest" at this RC block party in Toa Payoh this evening. The programme involved some karaoke items, a balloon artist, and us, the canine celebrities of the day.Each handler did a catwalk (how ironic) with our dogs who were mostly dressed to impress the audience. There were a couple of nudie entries like the retriever and the westie, but it was the smaller, dressier dogs that got the gasps and the applause. And the photo ops.
The contest results were exactly the same as the last time: Q-tip (Miss looking-fab-in-her-faux-Burberry's-trenchcoat) was 2nd runner-up; Mimi (Miss Personality/Photogenic) emerged the Champion. They won a doggie hamper (sponsored by Annie's Pets Corner) and a trophy each. So Neopets.
More pix here.
Friday, March 24, 2006
Began the day with news that my timetable will increase by 4-and-a-half more hours per week, which I kinda' expected it would. The difficulty is in getting myself acquainted with another bunch of J2's who are already used to one tutor and now have to get used to a new one: me. And I only have 6 months or so to get them up to standard for their 'A's, though as of right now, I'm told, they aren't doing very well. A challenge, then.
Also began preparations with Vince, Nirmy, Cynth and Boss Lady for a 2-hour long presentation on critical thinking for a bunch of Ps and Vice-Ps of our cluster. When we gave this presentation to our own staff sometime last year, we never expected the upper-echelons to take us so seriously and offer us to such scary levels. Hope we won't disappoint.
1 piece of good news I did receive was that my request to push back PUS submission deadlines was cheerfully granted, so we -- me, Mel, Gerald and the PUS kids -- can breathe a little easier next week.
Went to lunch with Amy and Dee. I haven't had a Han's black pepper steak in nearly 10 years, but it's still quite good value for money. Food-court style steak with emphasis on "pepper." It burns lips, tongue and stomach, but what a feeling! I extinguished the flames with an iced lemon tea, and unless I'm mistaken, it isn't the usual post-mix crap but the real stuff -- real tea, real lemon, real cold. The set also includes garlic bread (slightly over-toasted walnut bread) and a slice of mystery fruit (which I declined to touch). $7.50 for the lot. 10 years ago when I was dirt poor, this was a luxury meal. Today, it's comfortably affordable. Life is good.
Joined Vince almost immediately after lunch at Friends to keep him company while he marked exam scripts. I still had a bunch of scripts too, so it was quite a productive hour of marking and having tea. Discovered that Friends offers a home-made variety of vanilla ice-cream which is beautifully rich and flavourful. It even has traces of raw, ground-up vanilla beans speckling the white, creamy goodness. This is one place to remember for ice-cream.
Spent the rest of the evening photographing the O2 Finale dance party. Not sure why even, 'cos no one's been assigned to write the story. But if it's pix you be wantin', you can get 'em here.
Also began preparations with Vince, Nirmy, Cynth and Boss Lady for a 2-hour long presentation on critical thinking for a bunch of Ps and Vice-Ps of our cluster. When we gave this presentation to our own staff sometime last year, we never expected the upper-echelons to take us so seriously and offer us to such scary levels. Hope we won't disappoint.
1 piece of good news I did receive was that my request to push back PUS submission deadlines was cheerfully granted, so we -- me, Mel, Gerald and the PUS kids -- can breathe a little easier next week.
Went to lunch with Amy and Dee. I haven't had a Han's black pepper steak in nearly 10 years, but it's still quite good value for money. Food-court style steak with emphasis on "pepper." It burns lips, tongue and stomach, but what a feeling! I extinguished the flames with an iced lemon tea, and unless I'm mistaken, it isn't the usual post-mix crap but the real stuff -- real tea, real lemon, real cold. The set also includes garlic bread (slightly over-toasted walnut bread) and a slice of mystery fruit (which I declined to touch). $7.50 for the lot. 10 years ago when I was dirt poor, this was a luxury meal. Today, it's comfortably affordable. Life is good.
Joined Vince almost immediately after lunch at Friends to keep him company while he marked exam scripts. I still had a bunch of scripts too, so it was quite a productive hour of marking and having tea. Discovered that Friends offers a home-made variety of vanilla ice-cream which is beautifully rich and flavourful. It even has traces of raw, ground-up vanilla beans speckling the white, creamy goodness. This is one place to remember for ice-cream.
Spent the rest of the evening photographing the O2 Finale dance party. Not sure why even, 'cos no one's been assigned to write the story. But if it's pix you be wantin', you can get 'em here.
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Another satisfactory day of marking. Maybe it's because most of the essays I'm marking actually have some decent current affairs content and language usage. And most essays come in legible handwriting too.
A few of these scripts overshot the 800 word limit too, so I'm going to have to advise some students to be more concise. But there are a couple of other students who turned in scripts lazy as heck, who tried to pass off clever rhetoric as arguments, cliches in place of of evidence, theories instead of facts.
The general problem for this tutorial group is that they present topical knowledge (of which they do have some, thankfully) without likewise presenting a clear opinion on the topic. It's a start, at least.
A few of these scripts overshot the 800 word limit too, so I'm going to have to advise some students to be more concise. But there are a couple of other students who turned in scripts lazy as heck, who tried to pass off clever rhetoric as arguments, cliches in place of of evidence, theories instead of facts.
The general problem for this tutorial group is that they present topical knowledge (of which they do have some, thankfully) without likewise presenting a clear opinion on the topic. It's a start, at least.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
I was a good boy today for having put a major dent in my marking load. Hope I can keep it up and not get distracted with other activities over the next few days, then I can start wearing all my other hats again with a clear conscience.
Rewarded myself by watching my "Mirrormask" DVD this evening. Weird. Most of the movie takes place in a dream. It's a blend of 'live' action with Henson puppetry with CGI, and often it's hard to tell which is which.
Gaiman's designs are as surreal as they are bizarre. Strange creatures like headless storks that make up a police contingent, dove-apes that prefer swinging to flying, a spider that doubles as the Black Queen's eye, petrifying tendrils of darkness that sweep relentlessly across the cityscape... the brain works overtime interpreting the visual stimulus and trying to make sense of it all.
The experience is like having a nearly 1-hour long hallucination without having to consume drugs. I kinda' liked it for the story, but the surreal elements got too much for me. I'm pretty sure my own dreams are less fanciful, more realistic -- and I found this dream hard to accept and believe in after a while. Thankfully, the movie is relatively short.
Think I would have enjoyed the story more reading it than watching it. But that's just me.
Rewarded myself by watching my "Mirrormask" DVD this evening. Weird. Most of the movie takes place in a dream. It's a blend of 'live' action with Henson puppetry with CGI, and often it's hard to tell which is which.
Gaiman's designs are as surreal as they are bizarre. Strange creatures like headless storks that make up a police contingent, dove-apes that prefer swinging to flying, a spider that doubles as the Black Queen's eye, petrifying tendrils of darkness that sweep relentlessly across the cityscape... the brain works overtime interpreting the visual stimulus and trying to make sense of it all.
The experience is like having a nearly 1-hour long hallucination without having to consume drugs. I kinda' liked it for the story, but the surreal elements got too much for me. I'm pretty sure my own dreams are less fanciful, more realistic -- and I found this dream hard to accept and believe in after a while. Thankfully, the movie is relatively short.
Think I would have enjoyed the story more reading it than watching it. But that's just me.
Monday, March 20, 2006
Marking season is upon us again, but Vince found time to make up for his rain check from June's dinner. NBS, who was likewise absent with apologies last Saturday, joined us at Shima Aji for the sashimi buffet.
The raw fish, as usual, was delightful. I tried the tempura shishamo -- done so crispy there was nothing left to waste. And with the delicate little fish eggs rolling around on the tongue, it was quite an experience. It had a strong fish oil taste, though, like a dose of cod liver oil with every bite; so I could only manage downing 2 fish before the law of diminishing returns kicked in.
Washed down with lots of wasabi and green tea, it really was a good dinner.
The raw fish, as usual, was delightful. I tried the tempura shishamo -- done so crispy there was nothing left to waste. And with the delicate little fish eggs rolling around on the tongue, it was quite an experience. It had a strong fish oil taste, though, like a dose of cod liver oil with every bite; so I could only manage downing 2 fish before the law of diminishing returns kicked in.
Washed down with lots of wasabi and green tea, it really was a good dinner.
Sunday, March 19, 2006
We took Mimi home to M-i-L's this afternoon. Mimi's had a long vacation with us -- about 3-4 weeks -- in which she went out with us quite a lot. She won't get many chances to take car rides when she's home, but we feel that at least she won't be so starved of human company there, compared to our place where for much of the day there's only Q-tip and the cats to entertain her.
Mimi may be a noisy little thing, and combined with Q-tip the mess they make can be quite a headache, sometimes, but we're going to miss her. Always following us around, snuggling up to us whenever she gets a chance, asking for tummy-rubs, going mad whenever we come home... Q-tip could learn a thing or two from her.
Hope the folks at home remember to keep brushing her teeth.
Mimi may be a noisy little thing, and combined with Q-tip the mess they make can be quite a headache, sometimes, but we're going to miss her. Always following us around, snuggling up to us whenever she gets a chance, asking for tummy-rubs, going mad whenever we come home... Q-tip could learn a thing or two from her.
Hope the folks at home remember to keep brushing her teeth.
June's big day yesterday. Celebrated at (relatively) dog-friendly Sunset.
It was a simple affair: called a few friends together, made dinner reservations, ordered a cake from Awfully Chocolate, picked out a token gift from Mintmark & Co.... There were still a couple of hitches and hiccups 'cos I'm not exactly the best of social event organizers, but things went mostly according to plan.
Happy birthday, June!
Saturday, March 18, 2006
Friday, March 17, 2006
Got the dogs professionally shot at Pets Cover Looks as we got a coupon for a free photo shoot at their studio. The shoot was indeed free, but we paid $388 for the photos on a CD. Made a nice pressie for June!
A few more of their better shots, click here.
Met up with Adrian at Northpoint. While waiting for him to arrive, I bought "The Constant Gardener" and Gaiman's "Mirrormask" on DVD.
Then we went for dinner at Bottle Tree Village (pix above). Very ulu, very dark and narrow road to drive down to get there, but the view across the Straits of Johore is quite something to behold. Food's quite good -- Chinese restaurant zi cha stuff. We had their homemade tofu; fresh, crispy French beans; beef with spring onions; and half a huge fish head cooked with bitter gourd which we couldn't finish. Quite reasonably priced too: $61 for the 3 of us, considering the location.
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Unpleasant news in the ST Obituaries today. This kid who occasionally came over to my place to play with my sister has passed on. The two were best friends since kindergarten (SVDP), in primary school (CLGC), secondary school (SJC), then college (CJ). Then finally their education and career paths took them in separate directions, though they still kept in touch quite frequently.
In Beijing, she caught the flu but thought nothing of it at the time. Before long, it developed into pneumonia. Further complications brought her immediately into ICU and that was it.
No, I didn't know Erica well. To me, she was just my kid sister's playmate. And I didn't recognize the photo in the papers either. I knew her as a child, but never as a career woman nor as a mother. And I didn't expect the child to go so soon...
Someone I knew; someone I might have got to know better, but didn't.
In Beijing, she caught the flu but thought nothing of it at the time. Before long, it developed into pneumonia. Further complications brought her immediately into ICU and that was it.
No, I didn't know Erica well. To me, she was just my kid sister's playmate. And I didn't recognize the photo in the papers either. I knew her as a child, but never as a career woman nor as a mother. And I didn't expect the child to go so soon...
Someone I knew; someone I might have got to know better, but didn't.
I think I'm losing the patience required to be a real PC game player. Either that or I'm a total loser for getting my butt handed to me on a plate so often, and hence resorting to cheating with GOD mode just to finish Q4.
I no longer have the dedication to try and try again, slowly figuring out the right combination of tactical maneuvers to help me survive the next onslaught of beasties. This is especially taxing in the later levels when bigger, tougher, heavier armed enemy critters continue to respawn without end. As soon as you down one, another pops up and goes immediately for your jugular.
Forget it. Just invoke "invulnerability" mode and finish the game. Done. Now I can go back to normal life again.
Normal life, for example, means meeting up with real people like Amy for lunch, then having Vince join us for another quick bowling session at the CSC.
I no longer have the dedication to try and try again, slowly figuring out the right combination of tactical maneuvers to help me survive the next onslaught of beasties. This is especially taxing in the later levels when bigger, tougher, heavier armed enemy critters continue to respawn without end. As soon as you down one, another pops up and goes immediately for your jugular.
Forget it. Just invoke "invulnerability" mode and finish the game. Done. Now I can go back to normal life again.
Normal life, for example, means meeting up with real people like Amy for lunch, then having Vince join us for another quick bowling session at the CSC.
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
NY conneXions only has 1 article this week 'cos it's the March hols, but yesterday's futsal event was too big a deal to leave unreported. Read the story here.
Spent the afternoon cycling Ubin with Vince, NBS, Lucy and Mr B.
Spent the afternoon cycling Ubin with Vince, NBS, Lucy and Mr B.
Whoa! Spending too much time on Stoggos, not enough time on Bloggos.
Anyway, the college hosted a joga 3 futsal event for the students yesterday. It was quite exciting to watch the organizers set up 4 futsal courts in the parade square and from there build up a carnival atmosphere with lots of happy, pumped-up kids running around and actually having fun.
I would have liked to participate, but people worry for me and my doctor's orders, even if I don't worry so much for myself. So I contented myself with my digi-cam snapping shots for NY conneX instead.
The highlight of the event was a special guest visit from the Brazilian futsal squad. They showed off their ball skills in a number of exhibition matches against our student teams. The Brazilians were clearly there to give us a feet-on demonstration of "joga bonito," or "play beautiful," and not to massacre their challengers like they might have.
Missed the close of the event 'cos of other work commitments, so I don't know which student team won the tournament eventually. Bah. Information incomplete.
Finally got some company for bowling in the evening. Vince and me, and we both seem quite out of practice, ending a 6-game session with decidedly average averages. We've received our invitation to sign up for the Ministry league again, but we really have to consider whether such a commitment is feasible this year.
Anyway, the college hosted a joga 3 futsal event for the students yesterday. It was quite exciting to watch the organizers set up 4 futsal courts in the parade square and from there build up a carnival atmosphere with lots of happy, pumped-up kids running around and actually having fun.
I would have liked to participate, but people worry for me and my doctor's orders, even if I don't worry so much for myself. So I contented myself with my digi-cam snapping shots for NY conneX instead.
The highlight of the event was a special guest visit from the Brazilian futsal squad. They showed off their ball skills in a number of exhibition matches against our student teams. The Brazilians were clearly there to give us a feet-on demonstration of "joga bonito," or "play beautiful," and not to massacre their challengers like they might have.
Missed the close of the event 'cos of other work commitments, so I don't know which student team won the tournament eventually. Bah. Information incomplete.
Finally got some company for bowling in the evening. Vince and me, and we both seem quite out of practice, ending a 6-game session with decidedly average averages. We've received our invitation to sign up for the Ministry league again, but we really have to consider whether such a commitment is feasible this year.
Sunday, March 12, 2006
It's been a long 2 days wandering around the planet Stroggos fraggin' Stroggs. What? They'd do the same to me too, if they saw me. Actually, they have been rather kicking my butt in turn, and making me quite annoyed. Loaded up Quake 4 on Friday night and I'm still working my way through the levels.
Dunno why, but I'm enjoying this game more than Doom 3. Many scenes are as gory and disturbing -- the waste processing plant was particularly horrid -- but maybe it's because there are more NPCs to interact with and who are actually helpful that makes the difference. Characters you come across either restore your health or armour, upgrade your weapons or offer new ones, and join you in firefights, so you don't often feel completely alone. Also, it doesn't give me motion sickness when I play, so I can enjoy the game for longer stretches than the previous one.
This year so far has been great for my wallet. I don't get so many opportunities to go out at night now, seeing how busy everyone is. Even June's new job makes her keep much longer hours than she likes. And with my own schedule, it's really hard to find common leisure slots in which I can have a proper go-wild-and-crazy time with the Boyz. The upside, of course, is that I get to save on expenses. This month I was surprised that payday seemed to have come earlier than usual. Maybe it's a good opportunity to build up my travel fund again...
Meantime, there's always Watson for company. 'scuse me, there's an ex-commanding officer of mine who's been captured and transformed into an unstoppable killing machine by the Makron. They're all after my blood now so I'm gonna have'ta smack'em all upside the head with my BFG an' show'em who's boss. Back to the trenches...
Dunno why, but I'm enjoying this game more than Doom 3. Many scenes are as gory and disturbing -- the waste processing plant was particularly horrid -- but maybe it's because there are more NPCs to interact with and who are actually helpful that makes the difference. Characters you come across either restore your health or armour, upgrade your weapons or offer new ones, and join you in firefights, so you don't often feel completely alone. Also, it doesn't give me motion sickness when I play, so I can enjoy the game for longer stretches than the previous one.
This year so far has been great for my wallet. I don't get so many opportunities to go out at night now, seeing how busy everyone is. Even June's new job makes her keep much longer hours than she likes. And with my own schedule, it's really hard to find common leisure slots in which I can have a proper go-wild-and-crazy time with the Boyz. The upside, of course, is that I get to save on expenses. This month I was surprised that payday seemed to have come earlier than usual. Maybe it's a good opportunity to build up my travel fund again...
Meantime, there's always Watson for company. 'scuse me, there's an ex-commanding officer of mine who's been captured and transformed into an unstoppable killing machine by the Makron. They're all after my blood now so I'm gonna have'ta smack'em all upside the head with my BFG an' show'em who's boss. Back to the trenches...
Thursday, March 09, 2006
"The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing." Socrates
Y'see? NBS and I have widely differing opinions as to our expected end results for KI students. No doubt we both want them to eventually become wise beyond their years, but we seem to be disagreeing on what to consider as progress milestones.
For me, I look at the culture schoolkids are raised in today and I see an environment in which kids are taught to shut up and accept "knowledge" from whatever higher authority. Kids don't go to school to ask questions; but rather, they go to answer them. So after 10+ years of such conditioning, kids believe that answers are more valuable than questions; and if they don't have immediate answers, they think they're screwed for life.
The education system tends to be prescriptive. It doesn't encourage curiosity, but instead gives the impression that whatever isn't in the syllabus isn't important, and therefore there isn't any need to find out more than what's in front of the nose. Questions probing beyond tend to fall somewhere between "impertinent" and "irrelevant," and more often than not are quashed by a teacher's icy glare.
The child's eventually learns to recognize what are potentially inappropriate and/or embarrassing lines of inquiry and self-censors verbal articulation of thoughts that need clarification or further explanation, though such questions may hold valuable keys to gaining a better understanding of the concept being considered. This self-censor -- which has the power to save "face" -- is unfortunately also the biggest stumbling block to a child's learning ability.
The self-censor is an important socialization tool. It prevents misunderstanding between people, and it alerts us to sensitivities of the concept under discussion. But under repeated conditioning it kicks into overdrive and we can't be bothered to argue with it any longer. We take the easy way out and stop questioning altogether.
Most of us live under the tyranny of the self-censor for the rest of our lives. We're too afraid, too embarrassed, too polite to ask questions any longer. We remain quiet, content to absorb information but not engage it, and so our learning ends once we leave school. The KI student works to overcome this fate, taking back control from his/her self-censor so that he/she can reclaim the freedom to question and be curious once again.
As for our field trip to Parliamant House on Wednesday, our KIds showed the will and the audacity to ask about things they didn't understand, or about discrepancies between their expectations and what they actually observed. The questions may not have been profound abstractions showing off how smart they were, but rather admissions that they didn't know what was going on and yet they wanted to find out anyway. This, to me is what learning is all about. The answers they got to their queries were quite satisfactory, and compared to their seniors who tended to just sit quietly, I'm sure the KIds got more out of the visit.
NBS isn't wrong about wanting to be more ambitious for the KIds. As we progress, they will learn to raise the level of their queries. But after having had only 1 term with us, they are already starting to become curious about their world again. That, to me, is a stumbling block removed. Heh. Between NBS and me, I think we're going to see our 1st batch of KIds through ok.
Y'see? NBS and I have widely differing opinions as to our expected end results for KI students. No doubt we both want them to eventually become wise beyond their years, but we seem to be disagreeing on what to consider as progress milestones.
For me, I look at the culture schoolkids are raised in today and I see an environment in which kids are taught to shut up and accept "knowledge" from whatever higher authority. Kids don't go to school to ask questions; but rather, they go to answer them. So after 10+ years of such conditioning, kids believe that answers are more valuable than questions; and if they don't have immediate answers, they think they're screwed for life.
The education system tends to be prescriptive. It doesn't encourage curiosity, but instead gives the impression that whatever isn't in the syllabus isn't important, and therefore there isn't any need to find out more than what's in front of the nose. Questions probing beyond tend to fall somewhere between "impertinent" and "irrelevant," and more often than not are quashed by a teacher's icy glare.
The child's eventually learns to recognize what are potentially inappropriate and/or embarrassing lines of inquiry and self-censors verbal articulation of thoughts that need clarification or further explanation, though such questions may hold valuable keys to gaining a better understanding of the concept being considered. This self-censor -- which has the power to save "face" -- is unfortunately also the biggest stumbling block to a child's learning ability.
The self-censor is an important socialization tool. It prevents misunderstanding between people, and it alerts us to sensitivities of the concept under discussion. But under repeated conditioning it kicks into overdrive and we can't be bothered to argue with it any longer. We take the easy way out and stop questioning altogether.
Most of us live under the tyranny of the self-censor for the rest of our lives. We're too afraid, too embarrassed, too polite to ask questions any longer. We remain quiet, content to absorb information but not engage it, and so our learning ends once we leave school. The KI student works to overcome this fate, taking back control from his/her self-censor so that he/she can reclaim the freedom to question and be curious once again.
As for our field trip to Parliamant House on Wednesday, our KIds showed the will and the audacity to ask about things they didn't understand, or about discrepancies between their expectations and what they actually observed. The questions may not have been profound abstractions showing off how smart they were, but rather admissions that they didn't know what was going on and yet they wanted to find out anyway. This, to me is what learning is all about. The answers they got to their queries were quite satisfactory, and compared to their seniors who tended to just sit quietly, I'm sure the KIds got more out of the visit.
NBS isn't wrong about wanting to be more ambitious for the KIds. As we progress, they will learn to raise the level of their queries. But after having had only 1 term with us, they are already starting to become curious about their world again. That, to me, is a stumbling block removed. Heh. Between NBS and me, I think we're going to see our 1st batch of KIds through ok.
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Considering I've had about 3 hours of sleep between yesterday and today, I still feel pretty good. For one thing, the latest edition of NY conneX is online! And for another, I'm anticipating that apart from a couple of administrative chores tomorrow, I can get some make-up rest time in the afternoon. Oh, wait, there's still a pile of essays left to wade through. Whatever. There are only 24 hours in a day after all.
NBS and I have very different opinions about how our field trip to Parliament House went this afternoon. Because Parliament was in session -- today they were debating the budget for MoM -- we got to sit and observe the proceedings for about a half-hour. It wasn't exactly a full house, but a number of recognizeable people were present, including the PM and SM, and Mr Chiam too.
During the 'education' part of our visit, while the JC2s remained quiet, our KIds jumped right on the Q&A session and pestered our patient guide with question after question. NBS lamented that their questions weren't particularly intelligent. They were mostly procedural and speculative questions and perhaps they seemed like a waste of time to answer.
But to me, the level of questioning wasn't important. The fact that they were asking, and treating the guide as if he would give them answers (which he did) rather than tell them to shut up (which he didn't) showed that they were actively engaging the content, if not necessarily the substance, of the learning experience.
So instead of sitting and absorbing like sponges like everybody else, they pushed ahead and sought out further information than was immediately obvious. If they picked up this confidence from just our first term together, then I think we're moving KI in the right direction. And I'm quite proud of the KIds after today's session.
NBS and I have very different opinions about how our field trip to Parliament House went this afternoon. Because Parliament was in session -- today they were debating the budget for MoM -- we got to sit and observe the proceedings for about a half-hour. It wasn't exactly a full house, but a number of recognizeable people were present, including the PM and SM, and Mr Chiam too.
During the 'education' part of our visit, while the JC2s remained quiet, our KIds jumped right on the Q&A session and pestered our patient guide with question after question. NBS lamented that their questions weren't particularly intelligent. They were mostly procedural and speculative questions and perhaps they seemed like a waste of time to answer.
But to me, the level of questioning wasn't important. The fact that they were asking, and treating the guide as if he would give them answers (which he did) rather than tell them to shut up (which he didn't) showed that they were actively engaging the content, if not necessarily the substance, of the learning experience.
So instead of sitting and absorbing like sponges like everybody else, they pushed ahead and sought out further information than was immediately obvious. If they picked up this confidence from just our first term together, then I think we're moving KI in the right direction. And I'm quite proud of the KIds after today's session.
Monday, March 06, 2006
Had dinner at Miss Clarity, recommended by Yee 'cos it's right downstairs from his new workplace. A bunch of us were there just to unwind and sample the set meals on offer. Even Avril, who's gone over to the Ministry, joined us for a little light-hearted evening company.
Sets here range from $8.80 to $15.80. I had a lamb chop set at $12.80. 3 chops of tender, juicy lamb, though this little lamb seriously needed counseling at Weight Watchers. Wonder how Vince's lamb was?
It's nice to see how at home June is with everyone. Doubt I could fit in with her colleagues in the same way. And I was really amused that she knew stuff about other people in other departments on campus that even we didn't know about. She has her sources!
So glad to have the opportunity to chill out with the guys. We're all so busy in the daytime, it's great to be able to spend a couple of hours just hanging out and chatting about inconsequentials over food. Cheers, ppl!
Sets here range from $8.80 to $15.80. I had a lamb chop set at $12.80. 3 chops of tender, juicy lamb, though this little lamb seriously needed counseling at Weight Watchers. Wonder how Vince's lamb was?
It's nice to see how at home June is with everyone. Doubt I could fit in with her colleagues in the same way. And I was really amused that she knew stuff about other people in other departments on campus that even we didn't know about. She has her sources!
So glad to have the opportunity to chill out with the guys. We're all so busy in the daytime, it's great to be able to spend a couple of hours just hanging out and chatting about inconsequentials over food. Cheers, ppl!
Sunday, March 05, 2006
Considering we live in a region and a through a history that is so volatile and so civilization-threatening that it takes a cool, confident, tenaciously committed team of thinkers and do-ers (for example, Raja and his colleagues in the MFA) to even dare take the lead in keeping a lid on things; and in an economy that is so literally cut-throat it defies common sense to even think about surviving in (as the brains and entrepreneurs of STI have chosen to face head-on regardless), you have to wonder what our fate is going to be like in 20-30 years time when these whining, overwrought, stressed-out, burned-out kids start taking over our industries and our political machine, and we are too old to work any longer.
Please don't write a sentence like this in your GP essays. Be kind to your tutors. Thank you.
Please don't write a sentence like this in your GP essays. Be kind to your tutors. Thank you.
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Here's a bonus for us car drivers: a video clip of a jaw-dropping display of synchronized driving, apparently from the early 80's. Here.
Last night was the Chinese society's drama presentation. A double-bill generally featuring dead people. Must be the latest trend or something.
The first item centred around a retarded boy. Or rather, because the boy was retarded, attention went to him by default. Maybe it's just my bias, but I'm fed-up of the tendency to milk the character of the 'retard' for sympathy and cheap drama. It doesn't take a lot of skill to literally "play the fool." Just act irrationally by randomly and abruptly changing behaviour patterns, and absolutely refuse to engage the script except in response to such stimulus that triggers off the most basic of reptilian brain functions.
It would have been better if the script had at least tried to develop some complexity to his character, but instead all it led up to was his inexplicable self-defenestration. Basically, he was stupid, therefore he fell out the window. That's one way to put the audience out of our misery, I suppose.
The second piece was an improvement from the earlier one. A delinquent kid gets pretty much into everyone's bad books. His little girlfriend discovers the grief that lies behind his unmotivated hyperactivity (ooh, ooh, oxymoron), while his superstitious granny makes him confront it, bringing him back into society's fold once again.
A more coherent plotline in this one, more realistic towards human behaviour and experience. The interaction between delinquent and granny had its amusing moments, especially when granny attempts to exorcise spirits from him, and the moments between him and girlfriend were quite sweet.
Strange choice of set placement in which the park set is smack centre-stage flanked by living-room set on SL and dining-room SR. It looks like there is a park in the middle of the apartment, when the two locations start alternating with each other. Visually confusing but one gets used to it after a while.
And, yes, there's still a tendency to rely on the blackout, but at least scene changes are much faster, reducing wait-in-the-dark time to a minimum.
Chinese Society's annual "Bai Yun Gang" event has its own identity and a very strong support base of students and alumni. It was nearly full house in LT4 last night, and it's sold out tonight as well. Hope NYeDC can capture similar commercial success, as well as critical success this year. Break a leg, guys!
The first item centred around a retarded boy. Or rather, because the boy was retarded, attention went to him by default. Maybe it's just my bias, but I'm fed-up of the tendency to milk the character of the 'retard' for sympathy and cheap drama. It doesn't take a lot of skill to literally "play the fool." Just act irrationally by randomly and abruptly changing behaviour patterns, and absolutely refuse to engage the script except in response to such stimulus that triggers off the most basic of reptilian brain functions.
It would have been better if the script had at least tried to develop some complexity to his character, but instead all it led up to was his inexplicable self-defenestration. Basically, he was stupid, therefore he fell out the window. That's one way to put the audience out of our misery, I suppose.
The second piece was an improvement from the earlier one. A delinquent kid gets pretty much into everyone's bad books. His little girlfriend discovers the grief that lies behind his unmotivated hyperactivity (ooh, ooh, oxymoron), while his superstitious granny makes him confront it, bringing him back into society's fold once again.
A more coherent plotline in this one, more realistic towards human behaviour and experience. The interaction between delinquent and granny had its amusing moments, especially when granny attempts to exorcise spirits from him, and the moments between him and girlfriend were quite sweet.
Strange choice of set placement in which the park set is smack centre-stage flanked by living-room set on SL and dining-room SR. It looks like there is a park in the middle of the apartment, when the two locations start alternating with each other. Visually confusing but one gets used to it after a while.
And, yes, there's still a tendency to rely on the blackout, but at least scene changes are much faster, reducing wait-in-the-dark time to a minimum.
Chinese Society's annual "Bai Yun Gang" event has its own identity and a very strong support base of students and alumni. It was nearly full house in LT4 last night, and it's sold out tonight as well. Hope NYeDC can capture similar commercial success, as well as critical success this year. Break a leg, guys!
Friday, March 03, 2006
Field trip: NEWater plant with NBS and a few KIds. Hadn't counted on there being a primary school group on the same tour, and a bunch of senior high school exchange students from India as well. 80 little monkeys, a handful of trying-to-be-dignified-in-their-blazers-and-ties teenagers, and then there's us and our kids, casual as they come.
The tour, of course, catered to the lowest common denominator; the below-10 crowd. Hence the Barney-style presentation with toilet humor thrown in to keep the small boys happy. But the kids were the life of the tour, regardless of how I usually feel about them. They were lively, responsive, curious, and rambunctious. Without them, and the tour leader displaying remarkable skill, patience and good-nature in dealing with their shenanigans, the tour could have devolved into the #1 cure for insomnia. Well, maybe not. Perhaps the presenter might have been prepared with a repertoire of adult jokes for an older audience?
Oddly enough, there wasn't time in the presentation for a proper Q&A session. Many times the little ones' hands popped up but they were never allowed to ask their questions because the content material just kept steamrolling along. Is that why when they get to college level, noone bothers to ask anything any more? Too much content to memorize because there is no other avenue on which to engage the material? Noone to ask of because "you're supposed to know the answer already! What have I been talking about for the last half-hour?"
Guess that's my key take-away on this trip: the difference between GP and KI. Conventional GP kids make it their job to know the answers. KIds make it their job to regain their curiosity and start asking questions again. Hmm... if that's the case, then perhaps all college kids should have a dose of KI first, since GP seems to be the more advanced stage of this two-step process.
The tour, of course, catered to the lowest common denominator; the below-10 crowd. Hence the Barney-style presentation with toilet humor thrown in to keep the small boys happy. But the kids were the life of the tour, regardless of how I usually feel about them. They were lively, responsive, curious, and rambunctious. Without them, and the tour leader displaying remarkable skill, patience and good-nature in dealing with their shenanigans, the tour could have devolved into the #1 cure for insomnia. Well, maybe not. Perhaps the presenter might have been prepared with a repertoire of adult jokes for an older audience?
Oddly enough, there wasn't time in the presentation for a proper Q&A session. Many times the little ones' hands popped up but they were never allowed to ask their questions because the content material just kept steamrolling along. Is that why when they get to college level, noone bothers to ask anything any more? Too much content to memorize because there is no other avenue on which to engage the material? Noone to ask of because "you're supposed to know the answer already! What have I been talking about for the last half-hour?"
Guess that's my key take-away on this trip: the difference between GP and KI. Conventional GP kids make it their job to know the answers. KIds make it their job to regain their curiosity and start asking questions again. Hmm... if that's the case, then perhaps all college kids should have a dose of KI first, since GP seems to be the more advanced stage of this two-step process.
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Since I was at the petanque courts to photograph the kids in training, June and I took the chance to catch "Underworld:Evolution" at the Eng Wah across the street.
Cool movie. Almost non-stop violence and gore as werewolves battle it out against vampires, from medieval times to the present. Not much of a reason given as to what they're fighting about, though. Then when the vampires run out of werewolves to fight, they fight amongst themselves. Last ones standing get to kick the last (who also happens to be the oldest, biggest and baddest) werewolf's butt. Brilliant!
And some stylo costumes mostly in the scruffy leather category. It's a treat to see Kate Beckinsale run around in her cat-suit. It's even more of a treat to see her out of it. Heh. ;)
Cool movie. Almost non-stop violence and gore as werewolves battle it out against vampires, from medieval times to the present. Not much of a reason given as to what they're fighting about, though. Then when the vampires run out of werewolves to fight, they fight amongst themselves. Last ones standing get to kick the last (who also happens to be the oldest, biggest and baddest) werewolf's butt. Brilliant!
And some stylo costumes mostly in the scruffy leather category. It's a treat to see Kate Beckinsale run around in her cat-suit. It's even more of a treat to see her out of it. Heh. ;)
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Got my GP tutorial working on writing up proposals for the use of the 'Opportunity Funds' being allocated to all schools from this year's annual Budget. The idea is to boost the finances of neighbourhood schools so that they don't lose out so much against the better-off self-funded institutions in terms of providing enrichment programmes for the students.
Some schools are considering using the money to subsidize out-of-country field trips and IT expenses for kids from families which can't afford such luxuries (some call them necessities) outright. Other schools want to expand their library collections, and introduce programmes that offer training in non-academic lifeskills. You get the idea.
I wondered what students themselves might come up with if they had a say in the application of these funds, hence the proposal-writing exercise. While there were a couple of groups in which the membership just coudn't decide amongst themselves what they should propose to buy, there were a couple if interesting ideas that surfaced.
Use the funds as seed money for each class to use as capital to set up and operate a small business, perhaps for a finite period of time and in competition with one another. The other suggestion was to equip and train a group of students in the fine art of clowning. I thought these ideas were excellent! So much potential for independent, self-motivated learning in many aspects of life.
Schools are making their own decisions as to how to use the bonus income. Some schools want to consult parents as to how to spend the money. But since the money is meant to be used for their sake, shouldn't the students have a say too?
Some schools are considering using the money to subsidize out-of-country field trips and IT expenses for kids from families which can't afford such luxuries (some call them necessities) outright. Other schools want to expand their library collections, and introduce programmes that offer training in non-academic lifeskills. You get the idea.
I wondered what students themselves might come up with if they had a say in the application of these funds, hence the proposal-writing exercise. While there were a couple of groups in which the membership just coudn't decide amongst themselves what they should propose to buy, there were a couple if interesting ideas that surfaced.
Use the funds as seed money for each class to use as capital to set up and operate a small business, perhaps for a finite period of time and in competition with one another. The other suggestion was to equip and train a group of students in the fine art of clowning. I thought these ideas were excellent! So much potential for independent, self-motivated learning in many aspects of life.
Schools are making their own decisions as to how to use the bonus income. Some schools want to consult parents as to how to spend the money. But since the money is meant to be used for their sake, shouldn't the students have a say too?
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Had to make a decision. Consulted the Journalists and they agreed that a weekly publication was indeed too stressful to write for. Decided we can focus on delivering more quality if we published every fortnight instead. We'll have time to look through the stories in more detail and correct factual errors and other oversights. Perhaps investigate things further without the added pressure of meeting impossible deadlines, and do homework, and mug, and de-stress all at the same time. Next ish comes out in a week's time, then.
Monday, February 27, 2006
I've for a long time wondered what the etymology of 'milo dinosaur' was. I ordered one today at lunch and took the time to observe it. It looked larger than the regular milo, anyway, which could account for the size association, though that's a bit of an exaggeration.
A milo dinosaur, for the uninitiated, is a large iced milo sprinkled over with a respectable mound of chocolatey milo powder, forming a little brown mountain at the top of the mug. As the milo powder comes into contact with the cold fluid milo, it petrifies -- that is, it clumps together and hardens into rocks of different sizes.
Soon, the lumps of milo 'rocks' fill up the gaps between the ice cubes and the concoction becomes increasingly difficult to stir.
Like the bones of an extinct dinosaur get trapped and frozen within layers of geology, so too does a milo dinosaur become bogged down in a sticky quagmire as the chocolatey sediment settles and hardens inside the beverage. And maybe that's where the 'dinosaur' can be found.
There are days on which I feel the same way. Stuck in a rut, immobilized and clinging to the old days, while everyone else has already gone ahead. The trick is not to be a dinosaur in a fast-paced, ever-changing world. The call is to move on, move on; adapt and change, or stagnate and die. To the world, it makes no difference whether you do or you don't. To you, of course, it does.
A milo dinosaur, for the uninitiated, is a large iced milo sprinkled over with a respectable mound of chocolatey milo powder, forming a little brown mountain at the top of the mug. As the milo powder comes into contact with the cold fluid milo, it petrifies -- that is, it clumps together and hardens into rocks of different sizes.
Soon, the lumps of milo 'rocks' fill up the gaps between the ice cubes and the concoction becomes increasingly difficult to stir.
Like the bones of an extinct dinosaur get trapped and frozen within layers of geology, so too does a milo dinosaur become bogged down in a sticky quagmire as the chocolatey sediment settles and hardens inside the beverage. And maybe that's where the 'dinosaur' can be found.
There are days on which I feel the same way. Stuck in a rut, immobilized and clinging to the old days, while everyone else has already gone ahead. The trick is not to be a dinosaur in a fast-paced, ever-changing world. The call is to move on, move on; adapt and change, or stagnate and die. To the world, it makes no difference whether you do or you don't. To you, of course, it does.
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Since she had her teeth done yesterday, Mimi's developed a pretty horrid cough. She coughed through last night and late this morning she started coughing up some nasty phlegm that scared us enough to take her back to the vet to find out what's up.
We found out that part of the procedure for administering anesthesia during her dental work involved the insertion of a tube down her throat that might have caused some irritation. It didn't help that when she came to, she started barking the place down -- frantic because she couldn't identify a familiar face nearby. In fact, the vet called me an hour before the appointed time to collect Mimi and Kaiser, 'cos Mimi was "very stressed."
Today, the vet gave her an anti-inflammatory shot and an antibiotics shot, and prescribed a codine-based cough mixture as well. Oh, and 2 weeks worth of antibiotics tablets too. That's a lot of medication for a little dog to handle. Hope we know what we're doing.
We found out that part of the procedure for administering anesthesia during her dental work involved the insertion of a tube down her throat that might have caused some irritation. It didn't help that when she came to, she started barking the place down -- frantic because she couldn't identify a familiar face nearby. In fact, the vet called me an hour before the appointed time to collect Mimi and Kaiser, 'cos Mimi was "very stressed."
Today, the vet gave her an anti-inflammatory shot and an antibiotics shot, and prescribed a codine-based cough mixture as well. Oh, and 2 weeks worth of antibiotics tablets too. That's a lot of medication for a little dog to handle. Hope we know what we're doing.
Saturday, February 25, 2006
Poor Kaiser. Took him to the vet for The Operation. June had to work this morning so it was left to me to handle him and Mimi who had a dental appointment.
We felt quite sorry for Kaiser because the last tom we took for fixing came back quite bloody and looked like he was in pain when we released him back to his hangout place behind our usual coffee-shop. But Kaiser doesn't seem to be feeling much of the after effects of such a potentially traumatic procedure. Apart from sleeping a little more than usual, he seems quite like his old self. No blood, for one thing, and he can already jump to the top of the TV by himself. Maybe it's because he's still technically a kitten and doesn't know what really happened to him this morning. Well, we've got 3 days' worth of pain-killers for him just in case.
Mimi's dental health is quite terrible. She had to have 5 teeth extracted, and unless she gets a regular dental regimen she's going to become a toothless little old lady soon. We got a small package of doggie toothbrushes and toothpaste from the vet, and I hope when Mimi goes home, someone will actually take the trouble to see to her brushing "at least 3 times a week" like the doctor ordered. He will review her progress in 3 months' time.
We felt quite sorry for Kaiser because the last tom we took for fixing came back quite bloody and looked like he was in pain when we released him back to his hangout place behind our usual coffee-shop. But Kaiser doesn't seem to be feeling much of the after effects of such a potentially traumatic procedure. Apart from sleeping a little more than usual, he seems quite like his old self. No blood, for one thing, and he can already jump to the top of the TV by himself. Maybe it's because he's still technically a kitten and doesn't know what really happened to him this morning. Well, we've got 3 days' worth of pain-killers for him just in case.
Mimi's dental health is quite terrible. She had to have 5 teeth extracted, and unless she gets a regular dental regimen she's going to become a toothless little old lady soon. We got a small package of doggie toothbrushes and toothpaste from the vet, and I hope when Mimi goes home, someone will actually take the trouble to see to her brushing "at least 3 times a week" like the doctor ordered. He will review her progress in 3 months' time.
Friday, February 24, 2006
Finally, after a month and ten days since I placed my order, I finally collected my new contact lenses from Mr Leow. About time too, as my current pair are starting to feel quite grungy. While at the shop, I got a spur of the moment SMS invite from Anthony to join him at Yishun SAFRA for a spot of bowling. Since he was already there on business, he thought of using the lanes as well.
So it was that only 2 of the Boyz only had time to bowl only 2 games each, just for old times' sake. The reality is, looking at our present schedules, I'm quite pessimistic about the Boyz ever getting back together and staging a comeback at the Ministry's bowling league this year. Too many duties, too many commitments, to much responsibility. I guess in 2006, the Boyz finally grow up.
Of course, I didn't realize how much I've personally grown up until I returned home after dinner -- and realized that my brand new contact lenses had gone missing on me. I searched everywhere for them but they'd vanished. I thought that perhaps I'd left them in M2, but M2 didn't have them either. $300 lost, and still having to wear grungy lenses for another who knows how long. Then it all came back to me. I'd stuck them in my back trouser pocket on my way up from the parking lot in the first place, for safe-keeping. And there they still were, safe and sound.
Somewhere along the line, I've jumped past middle-age and gone straight to senility.
So it was that only 2 of the Boyz only had time to bowl only 2 games each, just for old times' sake. The reality is, looking at our present schedules, I'm quite pessimistic about the Boyz ever getting back together and staging a comeback at the Ministry's bowling league this year. Too many duties, too many commitments, to much responsibility. I guess in 2006, the Boyz finally grow up.
Of course, I didn't realize how much I've personally grown up until I returned home after dinner -- and realized that my brand new contact lenses had gone missing on me. I searched everywhere for them but they'd vanished. I thought that perhaps I'd left them in M2, but M2 didn't have them either. $300 lost, and still having to wear grungy lenses for another who knows how long. Then it all came back to me. I'd stuck them in my back trouser pocket on my way up from the parking lot in the first place, for safe-keeping. And there they still were, safe and sound.
Somewhere along the line, I've jumped past middle-age and gone straight to senility.
Thursday, February 23, 2006
In the dim recesses of my memory [no lah, actually I looked it up], I recall a number of 03A2 people were part of the PUS team in '04. As a PUS newbie, I'm shouting out for any advice you guys can give me from your perspective as actual participants in the event.
Advice on how you feel you should have been prepared, the stresses you faced, how to keep this year's batch motivated and happily working together, group dynamics, equipment and other logistical requirements , pretty much anything that can help me recruit and gel a team of diverse roles, interests, genders, and talents together will be much appreciated.
Let's see, Mei, 'rah, 'sif, Fifi, Iqbal and Drama Club alumnus, Sam W, a little help over here, please?
BTW, the latest issue of NY conneXions is online with a new look and a new server! Still got a few design issues but I guess it's going to have to be a work-in-progress. The news don't wait for nobody! Credit for the cover photo goes to Amy :) which got me wondering if we should offer a small token every week for any NY student who submits the 'photo of the week'? Just thinking aloud. Click here.
Advice on how you feel you should have been prepared, the stresses you faced, how to keep this year's batch motivated and happily working together, group dynamics, equipment and other logistical requirements , pretty much anything that can help me recruit and gel a team of diverse roles, interests, genders, and talents together will be much appreciated.
Let's see, Mei, 'rah, 'sif, Fifi, Iqbal and Drama Club alumnus, Sam W, a little help over here, please?
BTW, the latest issue of NY conneXions is online with a new look and a new server! Still got a few design issues but I guess it's going to have to be a work-in-progress. The news don't wait for nobody! Credit for the cover photo goes to Amy :) which got me wondering if we should offer a small token every week for any NY student who submits the 'photo of the week'? Just thinking aloud. Click here.
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
The task for my other co-curricular activity has finally come to light. I'll be taking 30 kids into NUS during the June hols to participate in the PUS. Yes, the annual week-long JC presentation attended by big shots who want to know how our youth view the upcoming future for themselves and for the nation.
At a briefing session this afternoon, our college got the part of the presentation that generally focuses on how we can:
1) adapt ourselves to meet the challenges of the 21st Century,
2) shape our foreign policy to open up new frontiers of exploration and make new friends along the way (shades of Starfleet!),
3) take advantage of I&E and R&D to keep ourselves relevant and in tune with meeting the needs of tomorrow's markets,
4) keep intact our ties with our traditional values and heritage, and
5) leverage on education to prepare our young for the future.
But the main question for us is to see how traditional businesses can continue to survive and thrive in the new KBE. Yes, the question seems to stereotype our college, considering the old running joke associating us with oil lamps. Whatever.
My problem with the question is that there isn't really any particular business that we can call "traditional." We might associate a product, or a process, or a business model, or even a management model with being "traditional," or some combination of the above; but the business itself either keeps reinventing itself -- it moves with its extremely fickle customer base -- or it dies, plain and simple. So why beat ourselves up over the loss of "traditional" businesses? In the capitalist (open/free) market that we have chosen to deal in, there is no room for sentimentality; only the fittest will survive.
The kids will have to resolve this dilemma, framing their solution within the 5 main points above. They only have 15 minutes to make a presentation and 30 minutes to address questions from the audience to do it in. This task will prove quite... challenging.Especially since I haven't got 30 kids yet and the presentation proposal is due in 9 days or so.
At a briefing session this afternoon, our college got the part of the presentation that generally focuses on how we can:
1) adapt ourselves to meet the challenges of the 21st Century,
2) shape our foreign policy to open up new frontiers of exploration and make new friends along the way (shades of Starfleet!),
3) take advantage of I&E and R&D to keep ourselves relevant and in tune with meeting the needs of tomorrow's markets,
4) keep intact our ties with our traditional values and heritage, and
5) leverage on education to prepare our young for the future.
But the main question for us is to see how traditional businesses can continue to survive and thrive in the new KBE. Yes, the question seems to stereotype our college, considering the old running joke associating us with oil lamps. Whatever.
My problem with the question is that there isn't really any particular business that we can call "traditional." We might associate a product, or a process, or a business model, or even a management model with being "traditional," or some combination of the above; but the business itself either keeps reinventing itself -- it moves with its extremely fickle customer base -- or it dies, plain and simple. So why beat ourselves up over the loss of "traditional" businesses? In the capitalist (open/free) market that we have chosen to deal in, there is no room for sentimentality; only the fittest will survive.
The kids will have to resolve this dilemma, framing their solution within the 5 main points above. They only have 15 minutes to make a presentation and 30 minutes to address questions from the audience to do it in. This task will prove quite... challenging.
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Attended an investment seminar organized by CitiBank this evening. The fact is, our savings are meagre and we're spooked that if we continue to keep our spare cash under our pillows (not literally, of course) instead of investing it for higher returns than the bank's fixed deposit or CPF, there just won't be enough for us to retire on [yes, we're thinking far in advance for once] and still maintain our current lifestyle.
Ideally, what we should have is a stash of wealth that will last till the day we croak, and perhaps some left over to tidy up the mess we've left behind. We also have to hedge against the inflation rate and the GST, which won't stay at a mere 5% for long. Then there're those geriatric medical expenses to think about; and for the moment we don't even have kids to plan for and already the finances look like there won't be enough to go around if there were any more of us.
When you talk to an insurance agent, as we did sometime in the past week, your financial life is always going to look bleak.
Hence, today's seminar which we decided to attend to evaluate our options apart from buying yet another life insurance policy. We heard about building a portfolio of investments that balances risk with growth. That, for best results, we should diversify our equity as far as possible in terms of the proportion of stocks and bonds we own; across different industry types; and across different countries in the region and worldwide.
In other words, bet on a whole bunch of horses so that the winnings of at least one horse will cover the losses of the other horses and leave a fat profit besides. The bank's fund managers are there to help us to intelligently pick which horses to bet on so that we don't risk all on a stupid, random crap shoot.
Too much info to absorb all at once. Didn't help that both June and I zoned out during major portions of the presentation. Still, the idea of putting some money to work to generate more money seems like an idea worth considering...
Ideally, what we should have is a stash of wealth that will last till the day we croak, and perhaps some left over to tidy up the mess we've left behind. We also have to hedge against the inflation rate and the GST, which won't stay at a mere 5% for long. Then there're those geriatric medical expenses to think about; and for the moment we don't even have kids to plan for and already the finances look like there won't be enough to go around if there were any more of us.
When you talk to an insurance agent, as we did sometime in the past week, your financial life is always going to look bleak.
Hence, today's seminar which we decided to attend to evaluate our options apart from buying yet another life insurance policy. We heard about building a portfolio of investments that balances risk with growth. That, for best results, we should diversify our equity as far as possible in terms of the proportion of stocks and bonds we own; across different industry types; and across different countries in the region and worldwide.
In other words, bet on a whole bunch of horses so that the winnings of at least one horse will cover the losses of the other horses and leave a fat profit besides. The bank's fund managers are there to help us to intelligently pick which horses to bet on so that we don't risk all on a stupid, random crap shoot.
Too much info to absorb all at once. Didn't help that both June and I zoned out during major portions of the presentation. Still, the idea of putting some money to work to generate more money seems like an idea worth considering...
Alternating between high energy and being wiped out. Last night I was brain dead. Watched my first ever “Desperate Housewives” and “Grey’s Anatomy” while in that state.
Sunday, February 19, 2006
JY was sick today, so she didn't go 'blading at Bish Park like she usually does. That left Mr and Mrs Popular 'blading solo; no, make that Mr Popular 'cos Mrs Popular was still resting her injured knee and decided instead to walk Q-tip around the park.
So none of the other 'regulars' turned up either, except for Chewy who, likewise, was still resting her injured knee. The 2 girls and dog ended up chatting under a cafe umbrella at the 'blading rink. I believe they were swapping horror stories about the service at local bridal boutiques.
'blading solo meant that I could pick up the pace a little, and in 3 orbits I was about as tired as our usual 4-5. Must have been daydreaming too 'cos a kid on a bike rang his bell once to warn me he was right behind me, and I totally lost control, wiping out as he overtook me. That was embarrassing, just as I was thinking I was getting good, too.
Oh, and on an unrelated note, it's M2's birthday today! How quickly they grow up!
So none of the other 'regulars' turned up either, except for Chewy who, likewise, was still resting her injured knee. The 2 girls and dog ended up chatting under a cafe umbrella at the 'blading rink. I believe they were swapping horror stories about the service at local bridal boutiques.
'blading solo meant that I could pick up the pace a little, and in 3 orbits I was about as tired as our usual 4-5. Must have been daydreaming too 'cos a kid on a bike rang his bell once to warn me he was right behind me, and I totally lost control, wiping out as he overtook me. That was embarrassing, just as I was thinking I was getting good, too.
Oh, and on an unrelated note, it's M2's birthday today! How quickly they grow up!
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Spent the evening at SRT watching "She Chose," a double-bill of 2 female-driven plays by NTU's Hall 15. I was there to support Mei, who, despite having been in the cast of The Odyssey only "for the SYF points," is so far the only one in that group who has taken on a major role in another stage production since, as far as I know.
This production had "amateur" stamped all over it. In general, the most irritating device was the interminably long blackouts between scene changes, sometimes lasting longer than the previous scene even. The other thing was the background music that looped non-stop even while the characters were speaking.
Both plays focused on the female cast: the male actors were only there for their female counterparts to act around. The males played fools, idiots, and bizarre nutcases; no one real; whereas the women at least got roles in which they made choices that drove the plot on. Hence, I presume, the title.
The first play, "Love Edifice," was inconsistent between scenes. It sort of alternated between concrete, abstract and (somewhat self-indulgent) multimedia. It opened with an elaborate wedding procession, the only point of which was to tell us that a couple got married. In the couple of scenes in which the men and the women told the audience how they classified the opposite sex, there was a lot of posing according to the speaker's description, but the movement served mostly to distract from rather than enhance the text. The multimedia slideshow portrayed the progress of the characters as couples in various stages of matrimony. But this information was already evident from the script, so it really wasn't necessary to rehash it, even if there needed to be an excuse to be fashionable and use multimedia.
"Hungry," the second play, likewise suffered from too-muchness. Almost every character went o-t-t with devised movement and similarly artificial speech patterns designed only to make one character appear different from another.
Even the character of Death maxed out the stage-direction that Death should be "neither masculine nor feminine." But the half-male-half-female costume and make-up suggested that Death was BOTH rather than "neither," a very different meaning altogether. This portrayal made the actor play up his feminine side just to counter the fact that he was male, so Death ended up effeminate instead. Moreover, the gender of Death was never an issue in the story, so the painstaking effort to portray its androgyny failed to make any point whatsoever.
If anything, the director's main fault is that she attempted to do too much of everything everywhere, without considering the payoff to character development and audience satisfaction. But that's a mistake usually made due to inexperience and, perhaps, learning from poor precedents.
Mei, if you're still reading, this is where I talk about you. In an asylum of contrivance and artifice, your character comes across as a perfectly normal, ordinary human being. Major kudos to you for keeping it real. If anyone chose in this performance, you did. You chose the pacing of your lines and movement; your spot-on timing and delivery. Where lighting was patchy, you chose to stand in the light where we could see you.
There were a couple of moments when you spoke with your back to the audience, though, and occasionally you succumbed to peer pressure and likewise went a little o-t-t, but you were in control of your character for the most part. You thought about your character and made yourself become Sarah rather than simply put on an external mask or persona.
Without sounding too biased (I hope) it was your performance I enjoyed most this evening because in that hour, you and Sarah were indistinguishable from one another. So, great job, Mei! Glad I could get to see you backstage, and I hope to see more of you on-stage soon!
This production had "amateur" stamped all over it. In general, the most irritating device was the interminably long blackouts between scene changes, sometimes lasting longer than the previous scene even. The other thing was the background music that looped non-stop even while the characters were speaking.
Both plays focused on the female cast: the male actors were only there for their female counterparts to act around. The males played fools, idiots, and bizarre nutcases; no one real; whereas the women at least got roles in which they made choices that drove the plot on. Hence, I presume, the title.
The first play, "Love Edifice," was inconsistent between scenes. It sort of alternated between concrete, abstract and (somewhat self-indulgent) multimedia. It opened with an elaborate wedding procession, the only point of which was to tell us that a couple got married. In the couple of scenes in which the men and the women told the audience how they classified the opposite sex, there was a lot of posing according to the speaker's description, but the movement served mostly to distract from rather than enhance the text. The multimedia slideshow portrayed the progress of the characters as couples in various stages of matrimony. But this information was already evident from the script, so it really wasn't necessary to rehash it, even if there needed to be an excuse to be fashionable and use multimedia.
"Hungry," the second play, likewise suffered from too-muchness. Almost every character went o-t-t with devised movement and similarly artificial speech patterns designed only to make one character appear different from another.
Even the character of Death maxed out the stage-direction that Death should be "neither masculine nor feminine." But the half-male-half-female costume and make-up suggested that Death was BOTH rather than "neither," a very different meaning altogether. This portrayal made the actor play up his feminine side just to counter the fact that he was male, so Death ended up effeminate instead. Moreover, the gender of Death was never an issue in the story, so the painstaking effort to portray its androgyny failed to make any point whatsoever.
If anything, the director's main fault is that she attempted to do too much of everything everywhere, without considering the payoff to character development and audience satisfaction. But that's a mistake usually made due to inexperience and, perhaps, learning from poor precedents.
Mei, if you're still reading, this is where I talk about you. In an asylum of contrivance and artifice, your character comes across as a perfectly normal, ordinary human being. Major kudos to you for keeping it real. If anyone chose in this performance, you did. You chose the pacing of your lines and movement; your spot-on timing and delivery. Where lighting was patchy, you chose to stand in the light where we could see you.
There were a couple of moments when you spoke with your back to the audience, though, and occasionally you succumbed to peer pressure and likewise went a little o-t-t, but you were in control of your character for the most part. You thought about your character and made yourself become Sarah rather than simply put on an external mask or persona.
Without sounding too biased (I hope) it was your performance I enjoyed most this evening because in that hour, you and Sarah were indistinguishable from one another. So, great job, Mei! Glad I could get to see you backstage, and I hope to see more of you on-stage soon!
Friday, February 17, 2006
One thing I've enjoyed about Friday so far this year is that it's practically the only day of the week that I can drive out to have lunch at the correct time. Technically, I have a 90 minute break but it takes time to organize a feeding party so in practice it's about an hour both to eat and commute to and fro. NBS and I have to be back for afternoon tutorial.
Vince drove today, me riding shotgun, while Amy and NBS tried to make themselves comfortable in the back seat amidst the, um... assorted administrative paraphenalia, spare attire, and other debris and detritus [word of the day: I swore to use it in today's entry, by hook or by crook!] that usually occupy the aforementioned space.
For some reason, all through lunch (at Ivin's btw) I seemed to be continually teasing and needling NBS, and feeling like a little kid again, taking great joy in tormenting a younger sibling, revelling in simply being mean. Guess it was either me taking the opportunity to be childish, or she was just walking around with an illuminated target painted on her back.
Fortunately, she didn't take it to heart. And I felt a bit sorry, so after tutorial I gave her a lift home with civil conversation and no further incident.
Vince drove today, me riding shotgun, while Amy and NBS tried to make themselves comfortable in the back seat amidst the, um... assorted administrative paraphenalia, spare attire, and other debris and detritus [word of the day: I swore to use it in today's entry, by hook or by crook!] that usually occupy the aforementioned space.
For some reason, all through lunch (at Ivin's btw) I seemed to be continually teasing and needling NBS, and feeling like a little kid again, taking great joy in tormenting a younger sibling, revelling in simply being mean. Guess it was either me taking the opportunity to be childish, or she was just walking around with an illuminated target painted on her back.
Fortunately, she didn't take it to heart. And I felt a bit sorry, so after tutorial I gave her a lift home with civil conversation and no further incident.
Thursday, February 16, 2006
NY conneXions is in the hands of the people, at last!
The 'ol rag finally made its debut with a launch party at lunchtime today. We had a couple of soft-rock numbers from a band Ming and May put together; plus the Dance Soc., and Samuel T to pull in the crowd while the D&J members handed out copies to the gathering audience. More pix here.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
We collected our first print edition of NY-X from the printer late this afternoon. It's finally ready for distribution, on time, as promised, so we can breathe a huge sigh of relief. Then, of course, we wait for the reviews...
The paper isn't 100% perfect, as there are a couple of formatting and typo errors that still managed to slip by our most anal of scans, but I think it's better to be dissatisfied with our work and resolve to show improvement next time around rather than be self-satisfied and become complacent as a result.
This evening, Vince and I arranged to buy Amy a "thank you" dinner for her help in editing and laying out our paper. On the way, after picking up June from work, we found ourselves outside the Esso station on Stevens Road. I stopped for gas and as M2's interior was quite muddy from the weekend's adventures, we went for full-service and got him washed and vacuumed. And a very thorough job it was too. $8 in all, plus an additional $1 for vacuuming the trunk as well.
Met Vince and Amy at Shima Aji, Esplanade. Apparently, nothing makes Amy happier than an offer of raw fish, and this place has an all-you-can-eat sashimi menu, amongst other Japanese buffet dishes. I discovered that regardless of how fresh and tasty it is, there can be a limit to the amount of salmon and tuna sashimi I can actually eat in one sitting. Overate, as usual, and feeling a little bloated now...
The paper isn't 100% perfect, as there are a couple of formatting and typo errors that still managed to slip by our most anal of scans, but I think it's better to be dissatisfied with our work and resolve to show improvement next time around rather than be self-satisfied and become complacent as a result.
This evening, Vince and I arranged to buy Amy a "thank you" dinner for her help in editing and laying out our paper. On the way, after picking up June from work, we found ourselves outside the Esso station on Stevens Road. I stopped for gas and as M2's interior was quite muddy from the weekend's adventures, we went for full-service and got him washed and vacuumed. And a very thorough job it was too. $8 in all, plus an additional $1 for vacuuming the trunk as well.
Met Vince and Amy at Shima Aji, Esplanade. Apparently, nothing makes Amy happier than an offer of raw fish, and this place has an all-you-can-eat sashimi menu, amongst other Japanese buffet dishes. I discovered that regardless of how fresh and tasty it is, there can be a limit to the amount of salmon and tuna sashimi I can actually eat in one sitting. Overate, as usual, and feeling a little bloated now...
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Dented my head again. June hid my V-day gift in my pillow -- again -- and it left quite an impact on my cranium as I settled in for the night. When I regained consciousness, I discovered she'd bought me 2 DVDs: "Batman Begins," and "March of the Penguins." How sweet! :)
Decided to have a nice, romantic dinner while we watch the sun set at... Sunset. Busy night for the little airport establishment; 2 cars ahead of me driving into the parking lot, and 1 car right behind. As we were leaving the premises, another 3-4 cars arrived. Of course, the reason why we were leaving was that Sunset is closed Tuesdays. Heedless of the potentially lucrative Valentine's Day possibilities, Tuesday-off means Tuesday-off. I respect the integrity of the proprietor in not taking advantage of the festivities to jack up his prices and fleece the fleeceable, beguile the gullible and rob the hopelessly romantic.
With Q-tip in tow, there are only so many other places we could activate as Plan B. We tried Jerry's, but the outdoor dining area was fully occupied. Plan C: Porridge Culture across the road. Ok, so not quite the dinner we had planned, but it just had to do.
For what it's worth, happy Valentine's to y'all!
Decided to have a nice, romantic dinner while we watch the sun set at... Sunset. Busy night for the little airport establishment; 2 cars ahead of me driving into the parking lot, and 1 car right behind. As we were leaving the premises, another 3-4 cars arrived. Of course, the reason why we were leaving was that Sunset is closed Tuesdays. Heedless of the potentially lucrative Valentine's Day possibilities, Tuesday-off means Tuesday-off. I respect the integrity of the proprietor in not taking advantage of the festivities to jack up his prices and fleece the fleeceable, beguile the gullible and rob the hopelessly romantic.
With Q-tip in tow, there are only so many other places we could activate as Plan B. We tried Jerry's, but the outdoor dining area was fully occupied. Plan C: Porridge Culture across the road. Ok, so not quite the dinner we had planned, but it just had to do.
For what it's worth, happy Valentine's to y'all!
Monday, February 13, 2006
Not feeling particularly inspired today. Most of the morning I was on duty advising kids who were trying to decide on signing up for one college or another now that their final grades are out. Ostensibly, my role was to give advice on matters relating to my subjects, but most of the inquiries were simply about whether their exam scores will qualify them for admission to our college.
It’s quite flattering that there are kids who want to apply to us after having experienced a term with some other colleges. But if they only have borderline scores, we can only commiserate with them a bit, and inform them that their postings are solely determined by the Ministry, based on strength of demand, and not by us. We also had to advise a few to be realistic about their commuting distances, besides their academic placement.
4 hours of repeatedly giving this kind of advice to kids and their parents made me numb pretty quickly. I’m thinking, what the heck, y’know, at least at their age, they have a choice about which JC to apply for. At least they qualified. Many other people didn’t.
It’s quite flattering that there are kids who want to apply to us after having experienced a term with some other colleges. But if they only have borderline scores, we can only commiserate with them a bit, and inform them that their postings are solely determined by the Ministry, based on strength of demand, and not by us. We also had to advise a few to be realistic about their commuting distances, besides their academic placement.
4 hours of repeatedly giving this kind of advice to kids and their parents made me numb pretty quickly. I’m thinking, what the heck, y’know, at least at their age, they have a choice about which JC to apply for. At least they qualified. Many other people didn’t.
Sunday, February 12, 2006
Edit 01:
Saturday began early -- for the chance to win $10k "worth of prizes" in the TD car rally. Not sure if it was the dangling carrot that was our main motivation, but I'm certain that my team looked more forward to spending some quality time with each other, doing stuff we would not normally be doing.
There were 5 stations in all, scattered around the island. As each location represented a different aspect of Total Defence, there were 5 different kinds of activities for us to accomplish. There was a bonus activity: a scavenger hunt for various small articles that added to our overall total.
Station 1 was the NTUC in Marine Parade where we had to buy items for a personal emergency kit without exceeding the cost of the $20 voucher found in our clue package. Here, budget shoppers, June and NBS proved their mettle and we got everything on the list, plus the bonus items as well. Theme: Psychological Defence.
The URA Building was our next destination. Basically a scavenger hunt for information scattered around the numerous exhibits and displays on 3 floors dedicated to the organization's PR dept. We didn't do so well here, only completing about half the quiz paper before time ran out. We could have been better organized as a team, but the exercise was somewhat boring anyway. So much for Economic Defence.
The Civil Defence Training Centre was Station 3. Vince and June aced the CPR exercise, while NBS and I amazed our assessors by putting out the fire in our test pan almost at the instant they started their stopwatches. All I was thinking about was that I really needed to use the bathroom -- fast -- and that somehow translated into a more powerful jet from our extinguisher. Ha ha.
Vince and I were almost a complete washout at SAFTI, though. In the indoor electronic shooting range, he scored 2 out of 35 targets with his M16, while I, with a SAW, got absolute zip. I had always wanted to shoot a SAW ("Guns & Ammo" once billed it as the Best Light-Machine Gun in the World a long time ago) so I jumped at the chance. But looking through the apature immediately dried my eyes and my vision went foggy. So I just pointed the weapon at whatever seemed to be moving and randomly sprayed rounds hoping to hit something. Guess that didn't work. No wonder I'm no longer serving NS. Sigh.
The final station was back at the starting point, ECP. Here we, as a team, had to score as many goals as possible in 120 secs. against a lone defender from the junior squad of the SAF S-league soccer team. Despite the lack of experience amongst half our team members, we still managed to score 2 goals, which was ok, I suppose.
All through the route, we stopped to pick up all kinds of rubbish to complete the long list of side-quest items, but we didn't really put our heart and soul into trying to get every single thing on the list, like Anthony's team did. Learning point: photos or reasonable facsimiles of the objects on the list are just as acceptable as the actual objects themselves. Keep that in mind for next year.
No, we didn't win. But we got some nice souvenirs for participating, including a hydration backpack each. Could be useful for 'blading. Maybe if NBS doesn't want hers she can give it to JY?
Celebrated the end of a long day at Swensen's, J8. Phew.
----------------------------------
Woke up at 5am on the floor of the study. Had some pix to upload of Saturday's Total Defence ExplOrally (that's "Explo-rally," not "Expl-orally"), but the day's adventures must have taken quite a toll on me. A short rest to clear my head turned into a 6 hour delta-state affair, in which I had the most bizarre dreams.
Am now famished. Need breakfast. NOW. Pix will follow, perhaps later today.
Saturday began early -- for the chance to win $10k "worth of prizes" in the TD car rally. Not sure if it was the dangling carrot that was our main motivation, but I'm certain that my team looked more forward to spending some quality time with each other, doing stuff we would not normally be doing.
There were 5 stations in all, scattered around the island. As each location represented a different aspect of Total Defence, there were 5 different kinds of activities for us to accomplish. There was a bonus activity: a scavenger hunt for various small articles that added to our overall total.
Station 1 was the NTUC in Marine Parade where we had to buy items for a personal emergency kit without exceeding the cost of the $20 voucher found in our clue package. Here, budget shoppers, June and NBS proved their mettle and we got everything on the list, plus the bonus items as well. Theme: Psychological Defence.
The URA Building was our next destination. Basically a scavenger hunt for information scattered around the numerous exhibits and displays on 3 floors dedicated to the organization's PR dept. We didn't do so well here, only completing about half the quiz paper before time ran out. We could have been better organized as a team, but the exercise was somewhat boring anyway. So much for Economic Defence.
The Civil Defence Training Centre was Station 3. Vince and June aced the CPR exercise, while NBS and I amazed our assessors by putting out the fire in our test pan almost at the instant they started their stopwatches. All I was thinking about was that I really needed to use the bathroom -- fast -- and that somehow translated into a more powerful jet from our extinguisher. Ha ha.
Vince and I were almost a complete washout at SAFTI, though. In the indoor electronic shooting range, he scored 2 out of 35 targets with his M16, while I, with a SAW, got absolute zip. I had always wanted to shoot a SAW ("Guns & Ammo" once billed it as the Best Light-Machine Gun in the World a long time ago) so I jumped at the chance. But looking through the apature immediately dried my eyes and my vision went foggy. So I just pointed the weapon at whatever seemed to be moving and randomly sprayed rounds hoping to hit something. Guess that didn't work. No wonder I'm no longer serving NS. Sigh.
The final station was back at the starting point, ECP. Here we, as a team, had to score as many goals as possible in 120 secs. against a lone defender from the junior squad of the SAF S-league soccer team. Despite the lack of experience amongst half our team members, we still managed to score 2 goals, which was ok, I suppose.
All through the route, we stopped to pick up all kinds of rubbish to complete the long list of side-quest items, but we didn't really put our heart and soul into trying to get every single thing on the list, like Anthony's team did. Learning point: photos or reasonable facsimiles of the objects on the list are just as acceptable as the actual objects themselves. Keep that in mind for next year.
No, we didn't win. But we got some nice souvenirs for participating, including a hydration backpack each. Could be useful for 'blading. Maybe if NBS doesn't want hers she can give it to JY?
Celebrated the end of a long day at Swensen's, J8. Phew.
----------------------------------
Woke up at 5am on the floor of the study. Had some pix to upload of Saturday's Total Defence ExplOrally (that's "Explo-rally," not "Expl-orally"), but the day's adventures must have taken quite a toll on me. A short rest to clear my head turned into a 6 hour delta-state affair, in which I had the most bizarre dreams.
Am now famished. Need breakfast. NOW. Pix will follow, perhaps later today.
Friday, February 10, 2006
Still hee hawing my way through. Stayed on campus till late, editing stories for the NY-X print edition with Vince and Amy until Auntie really, really had to lock up and go home. We broke for dinner at Cartel, Gardens, then off home for further editing, still keeping in contact with the two by MSN. And that was just last night!
After barely 2-3 hours sleep, we're back on campus rushing the final edits before submission to the printers.
This donkey is so lucky to have such willing assistance from two great pals and he is grateful.
We finished the final edits early this evening, and now the roughs are with the printer, ready for a more professional layout job, though I daresay we did a reasonably credible job struggling with MS Word as a layout programme. We've worked like mad, and there were lots of silly, frustrating obstacles throwing up unexpected panic moments, but we survived.
My only regret is that we didn't specify for some of our Journalism students to be attached to us as we worked so they'd see for themselves how many steps and processes their stories have to go through before it appears, as if by magic, on A3 newsprint.
The students have to learn to take over the job from us, leh. It is their paper, after all!
After barely 2-3 hours sleep, we're back on campus rushing the final edits before submission to the printers.
This donkey is so lucky to have such willing assistance from two great pals and he is grateful.
We finished the final edits early this evening, and now the roughs are with the printer, ready for a more professional layout job, though I daresay we did a reasonably credible job struggling with MS Word as a layout programme. We've worked like mad, and there were lots of silly, frustrating obstacles throwing up unexpected panic moments, but we survived.
My only regret is that we didn't specify for some of our Journalism students to be attached to us as we worked so they'd see for themselves how many steps and processes their stories have to go through before it appears, as if by magic, on A3 newsprint.
The students have to learn to take over the job from us, leh. It is their paper, after all!
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Well, NY conneXions issue #3 is up and running! Half the stories this week were written by our JC1 reporters so, hey, welcome aboard! As usual, I'll put a link here for easy reference.
If things go according to plan, we'll be migrating the site to a new server [and launching a new look too!] by 21 Feb, so this issue should be the last one with any ties to "The Red Pill" which shall be finally put to rest after a troubled existence.
Don't know what the originators of the Red Pill think of how their brainchild has morphed over the last few years, but I hope the spirit behind the concept still lives on in NY-X.
Since yesterday's online update, I've already started editing for next week's PRINT edition. Yup. Next week, NY-X gets a limited dead-tree run. Because of the complexities of printing, we're cramming to the tightest of deadlines. Stories to edit, stories to chase then edit, stories to prioritize, a photo-shoot to call... all done and confirmed by Friday morning so that the printer can help us with the layout, the final approval, the colour seps, the printing, cutting and delivery on the morning of Thursday next -- Launch Day.
Online publishing seems so much less complicated, but there's nothing like holding a piece of paper hot-off-the-press, getting heady with the scent of printers' ink coating the finger-tips black, and devouring the printed word that burns a hole through the conscience of the school *lightning flashes majestically and a hush descends as thunder prepares to make an entrance.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. There's the donkey work to be done first. Hee haw.
If things go according to plan, we'll be migrating the site to a new server [and launching a new look too!] by 21 Feb, so this issue should be the last one with any ties to "The Red Pill" which shall be finally put to rest after a troubled existence.
Don't know what the originators of the Red Pill think of how their brainchild has morphed over the last few years, but I hope the spirit behind the concept still lives on in NY-X.
Since yesterday's online update, I've already started editing for next week's PRINT edition. Yup. Next week, NY-X gets a limited dead-tree run. Because of the complexities of printing, we're cramming to the tightest of deadlines. Stories to edit, stories to chase then edit, stories to prioritize, a photo-shoot to call... all done and confirmed by Friday morning so that the printer can help us with the layout, the final approval, the colour seps, the printing, cutting and delivery on the morning of Thursday next -- Launch Day.
Online publishing seems so much less complicated, but there's nothing like holding a piece of paper hot-off-the-press, getting heady with the scent of printers' ink coating the finger-tips black, and devouring the printed word that burns a hole through the conscience of the school *lightning flashes majestically and a hush descends as thunder prepares to make an entrance.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. There's the donkey work to be done first. Hee haw.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Rushing out the final edits to tomorrow's issue of NY Connexions. Everyone's been working so hard and under such tight schedules too.
And then, this close to deadline, Kaiser has to go and smash the porcelain vase of artificial flowers June bought to brighten up our house for CNY. Stress, man! Must go clean up before someone hurts HIMself on a shard. Grumble...
And then, this close to deadline, Kaiser has to go and smash the porcelain vase of artificial flowers June bought to brighten up our house for CNY. Stress, man! Must go clean up before someone hurts HIMself on a shard. Grumble...
Monday, February 06, 2006
Took M2 back to the Mazda workshop for his 20k km servicing. Yup. Have already travelled the approximate equivalent of a road trip from Singapore to Luxembourg and back within the few days shy of a year from the time he began driving with me. [In case you want to know how I came up with this comparison, I used a distance-between-cities calculator, here.]
Amazing how many Mazdas show up at the workshop daily. It's like a clinic that starts filling up with patients when the doors open first thing in the morning. Some patients, like M2, are there for a routine physical. There are many others who are there for assorted scrapes, bumps and bruises, like the one in the parking bay next to mine, whose owner was a little grumpy and understandably so.
There was a newish-looking M3 that drove in whose rear end had caved in. It was probably a truck that left a long bumper-like indentation on it's rear fender. As it drove past me in the workshop, the trunk popped open on its own and flapped helplessly along as the driver sought a bay to put into. I could barely hold back my tears.
I inquired about repairing the scrape along M2's left rear door. The mech advised me that it wasn't worth the $400 to get it knocked back and resprayed as the scrape wasn't so deep that there was a risk of corrosion. So M2 will have to live with his scar. Guess it adds character. Hur.
Amazing how many Mazdas show up at the workshop daily. It's like a clinic that starts filling up with patients when the doors open first thing in the morning. Some patients, like M2, are there for a routine physical. There are many others who are there for assorted scrapes, bumps and bruises, like the one in the parking bay next to mine, whose owner was a little grumpy and understandably so.
There was a newish-looking M3 that drove in whose rear end had caved in. It was probably a truck that left a long bumper-like indentation on it's rear fender. As it drove past me in the workshop, the trunk popped open on its own and flapped helplessly along as the driver sought a bay to put into. I could barely hold back my tears.
I inquired about repairing the scrape along M2's left rear door. The mech advised me that it wasn't worth the $400 to get it knocked back and resprayed as the scrape wasn't so deep that there was a risk of corrosion. So M2 will have to live with his scar. Guess it adds character. Hur.
Sunday, February 05, 2006
JY and Thad 'bladed into Bish Park from Bishan to join June and me this morning. Well, actually me, 'cos June's resting her knee for the next x number of weeks. Incapacitated, June contented herself browsing through the latest Her World, and looked after Q-tip who got to go out to the park and hence, was the only one to gain from her accident.
Getting more daring, JY suggested we try out some other pathways in the park she hadn't taken before. Some steep downhill runs, and a couple with quite sharp turns too. Alarmingly, her courage got the better of her ability, and she took a few nasty spills. She now has a bruised knee in almost exactly the same place as June's. It's like they're Corsican Sisters or something.
JY's injuries don't seem as bad, though. But Thad and I had to be firm with her and insisted that she learn to brake properly before she becomes so adventurous again. She wasn't hard to convince. Sensible girl.
Will insist on the same condition once June recovers and wants to strap on her blades again.
Getting more daring, JY suggested we try out some other pathways in the park she hadn't taken before. Some steep downhill runs, and a couple with quite sharp turns too. Alarmingly, her courage got the better of her ability, and she took a few nasty spills. She now has a bruised knee in almost exactly the same place as June's. It's like they're Corsican Sisters or something.
JY's injuries don't seem as bad, though. But Thad and I had to be firm with her and insisted that she learn to brake properly before she becomes so adventurous again. She wasn't hard to convince. Sensible girl.
Will insist on the same condition once June recovers and wants to strap on her blades again.
Saturday, February 04, 2006
Went with June to recce ECP as a possible blading venue. As long as we stay away from the central area where the McD's is, it's a long stretch of beach and it isn't as crowded as we thought, even on a Saturday morning. All along the way there are soft drink and ice-cream vendors, so as long as we bring some cash with us, we'll always be well provided for. A 100 Plus, btw, only costs $1.
There is one major snag, however. We encountered another slope (just 1 significant one), and for June, it was pretty much the same story. June + slope = disaster. My intention was to take the slope first to assess the risk factor for her, and I judged it to be unsuitable for her skill level. But when I turned to go back to advise her, I saw she was already on her decent and there was nothing to do but see how things played out.
Actually, she took the slope pretty well. She stayed on her feet all the way down, so the safest thing for her to do was to simply ride it out and slowly decelerate once she reached level ground. Instead, when it looked like she had arrived safely, she did an equivalent of jamming her brake. Given her velocity, the sudden stop was the very worst thing she could have done. She twisted herself around her injured knee and, well... She's hobbling around again.
I'm now quite convinced that for everybody, there are certain skills that we will never be able to learn beyond a certain level. For me, it's lower primary mathematics and pre-school conversational Mandarin. For June, it's confined-to-the-rink in-line skating.
Celebrated M-i-L's birthday at Jumbo, Gardens. Dumb Chinese seafood restaurant waiter joke of the day: "If you're in a hurry, you can order the Soon Hock. If you can take your time, you can order the Later Hock." Right.
There is one major snag, however. We encountered another slope (just 1 significant one), and for June, it was pretty much the same story. June + slope = disaster. My intention was to take the slope first to assess the risk factor for her, and I judged it to be unsuitable for her skill level. But when I turned to go back to advise her, I saw she was already on her decent and there was nothing to do but see how things played out.
Actually, she took the slope pretty well. She stayed on her feet all the way down, so the safest thing for her to do was to simply ride it out and slowly decelerate once she reached level ground. Instead, when it looked like she had arrived safely, she did an equivalent of jamming her brake. Given her velocity, the sudden stop was the very worst thing she could have done. She twisted herself around her injured knee and, well... She's hobbling around again.
I'm now quite convinced that for everybody, there are certain skills that we will never be able to learn beyond a certain level. For me, it's lower primary mathematics and pre-school conversational Mandarin. For June, it's confined-to-the-rink in-line skating.
Celebrated M-i-L's birthday at Jumbo, Gardens. Dumb Chinese seafood restaurant waiter joke of the day: "If you're in a hurry, you can order the Soon Hock. If you can take your time, you can order the Later Hock." Right.
Friday, February 03, 2006
The campus newspaper can be quite a painful balancing act. It's role is to be the platform for student voices to give their thoughts on things happening around them an airing. Yet, since the publication is also a reflection of the college that is accessible to all and sundry, we also have to be aware of our Admin's sensitivities and not air dirty linen in public view.
Our current feature story, based on the information our assigned reporters have amassed so far, put them in a difficult position. It looked like that there was a lot of negativity towards a major event that took place just recently. Our reporters had a dilemma: report "the truth" and face the cancellation of our fledgling news agency by a wrathful Admin; or embellish and pretty up the story and claim that it was an unqualified success, and lose all credibility with our readership who will view us as yet another "propaganda" tool of the powers-that-be.
We discussed the issue and came to the conclusion that neither was an acceptable option. Tracing further, we discovered that what our reporters took as "truth" was information provided from only one particular point of view. The issue hadn't been examined from sufficient counter-perspectives to be given a fair public hearing. So immediately one reporter took off to interview another source, who happened to be available, cooperative, forthcoming and honest in providing an alternative viewpoint.
For the last few weeks, we've been struggling with the identity of our 'paper. Should it be a sensational tabloid, a boring event-by-event scribe, a critical commentary, or what? After today's discussion, it looks like we're trying to make every opinion count. To see from multiple angles. To broaden perspectives on issues. To point out where improvement is needed. And to initiate dialogue that will facilitate such change for the better.
Noble words. Let's hope they aren't also famous last words.
Hmm... would this entry count as the NY Connexions manifesto?
Hmm(2)... I don't think every single story we write needs this level of nobility. That would also benuts unrealistic. But when there is a need to take an editorial decision, then perhaps this should be our guide.
Our current feature story, based on the information our assigned reporters have amassed so far, put them in a difficult position. It looked like that there was a lot of negativity towards a major event that took place just recently. Our reporters had a dilemma: report "the truth" and face the cancellation of our fledgling news agency by a wrathful Admin; or embellish and pretty up the story and claim that it was an unqualified success, and lose all credibility with our readership who will view us as yet another "propaganda" tool of the powers-that-be.
We discussed the issue and came to the conclusion that neither was an acceptable option. Tracing further, we discovered that what our reporters took as "truth" was information provided from only one particular point of view. The issue hadn't been examined from sufficient counter-perspectives to be given a fair public hearing. So immediately one reporter took off to interview another source, who happened to be available, cooperative, forthcoming and honest in providing an alternative viewpoint.
For the last few weeks, we've been struggling with the identity of our 'paper. Should it be a sensational tabloid, a boring event-by-event scribe, a critical commentary, or what? After today's discussion, it looks like we're trying to make every opinion count. To see from multiple angles. To broaden perspectives on issues. To point out where improvement is needed. And to initiate dialogue that will facilitate such change for the better.
Noble words. Let's hope they aren't also famous last words.
Hmm... would this entry count as the NY Connexions manifesto?
Hmm(2)... I don't think every single story we write needs this level of nobility. That would also be
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Our lunch circle seems to have expanded a little this year. Though we've lost Anthony due to staff movement, we're getting to see more of NBS, HP, Dee and Josh, and our culture of picking on one another over food still continues.
Today, we carried out our character assasinating, aspersion casting multilogue at Friends (how ironically ironic) at Gardens. Good food, good company.
Today, we carried out our character assasinating, aspersion casting multilogue at Friends (how ironically ironic) at Gardens. Good food, good company.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Now back from a nice, long break over the CNY period. Apart from visitations to kin (though I must admit, not as many as I might have made), I've also been revisiting the worlds of KOTOR2 in a determined effort to make it as a Dark Side Force user for once. The story plays out differently depending on your avatar's alignment and I want to see the Dark Side version now.
Playing Dark is tough, well, for me, anyway. It's not that the game gets any harder -- in fact, some Dark powers are incredibly effective and spectacular to use -- but the choices one has to make in order to be Dark so rubs me the wrong way. For the moment I'm sort of playing mildly Dim (alignment, not IQ) because I can't stand to see people suffer without wanting to help them somehow, given the powers at my disposal. To be properly Dark though, you've got to abuse your powers as you take advantage of the situation, and if the suffering increases or you end up directly or indirectly causing the sufferer's death, well, them's the breaks, honey.
I'm such a lousy Dark Sider that I've been barred from a major plot juncture in the Shyrack Cave on Korriban. Apparently, only those strongly aligned either way can enter and experience further plot development; whereas those less committed to either cause might have to bypass this rewarding side quest and continue with the main story. I also lose out on character bonuses (special powers or attributes) simply because I'm so half-past-Sith. Where I am now in the plot, there doesn't seem to be any more opportunities to push my alignment any further as it seems to be almost an all-out straight fight to the finish from this point -- no need to make psychotic decisions anymore because "psychotic" will now be the automatic decision, regardless.
I like KOTOR because it allows me to explore my personal values. Yes, it's just a game, but precisely because it is a game that's why whatever decisions I make shouldn't matter, but they do. Even though my limited, virtual decisions affect only virtual puppets that follow a set of scripted responses, I still feel terrible when I steal from them, or cheat them, or hack them into little bits with my supercharged lightsabre just for some paltry personal gain -- some credits here, a useable item there, or some small increase in experience and/or Dark alignment points. If you had the power of the Force, what would YOU do with it?
And on a side note: after many, many attempts, I finally hunted down and captured Latios this evening. 'nuff said.
Playing Dark is tough, well, for me, anyway. It's not that the game gets any harder -- in fact, some Dark powers are incredibly effective and spectacular to use -- but the choices one has to make in order to be Dark so rubs me the wrong way. For the moment I'm sort of playing mildly Dim (alignment, not IQ) because I can't stand to see people suffer without wanting to help them somehow, given the powers at my disposal. To be properly Dark though, you've got to abuse your powers as you take advantage of the situation, and if the suffering increases or you end up directly or indirectly causing the sufferer's death, well, them's the breaks, honey.
I'm such a lousy Dark Sider that I've been barred from a major plot juncture in the Shyrack Cave on Korriban. Apparently, only those strongly aligned either way can enter and experience further plot development; whereas those less committed to either cause might have to bypass this rewarding side quest and continue with the main story. I also lose out on character bonuses (special powers or attributes) simply because I'm so half-past-Sith. Where I am now in the plot, there doesn't seem to be any more opportunities to push my alignment any further as it seems to be almost an all-out straight fight to the finish from this point -- no need to make psychotic decisions anymore because "psychotic" will now be the automatic decision, regardless.
I like KOTOR because it allows me to explore my personal values. Yes, it's just a game, but precisely because it is a game that's why whatever decisions I make shouldn't matter, but they do. Even though my limited, virtual decisions affect only virtual puppets that follow a set of scripted responses, I still feel terrible when I steal from them, or cheat them, or hack them into little bits with my supercharged lightsabre just for some paltry personal gain -- some credits here, a useable item there, or some small increase in experience and/or Dark alignment points. If you had the power of the Force, what would YOU do with it?
And on a side note: after many, many attempts, I finally hunted down and captured Latios this evening. 'nuff said.
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Monday, January 30, 2006
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Happy Lunar New Year!
After last year's MSG poisoning incident, and the near-altercation between Uncle and some pushy lady-patron of the year before, this year we decided to ring in the Year of the Dog with a home-cooked clan reunion dinner instead of a restaurant-do. After tonight, we all agree that we had the right idea. No fuss, no pressure, no MSG, no unwelcome guests at our table. Here, everyone is family and in this assurance we can rest easy.
The occasion didn't call for carol-singing, but we got out the trusty keyboard anyway, and with cousin Lyn thumping on the keys, wesang croaked through a selection of oldies (from the '20s!) to keep ourselves occupied until the final countdown.
In 3... 2... 1...
After last year's MSG poisoning incident, and the near-altercation between Uncle and some pushy lady-patron of the year before, this year we decided to ring in the Year of the Dog with a home-cooked clan reunion dinner instead of a restaurant-do. After tonight, we all agree that we had the right idea. No fuss, no pressure, no MSG, no unwelcome guests at our table. Here, everyone is family and in this assurance we can rest easy.
The occasion didn't call for carol-singing, but we got out the trusty keyboard anyway, and with cousin Lyn thumping on the keys, we
In 3... 2... 1...
Had quite a decent time immediately after Friday's X-country run. For us, whenever we can manage the time, we like to lunch at Tomoko, Casuarina Road, on Friday afternoons because of their osakana special. We get a light set meal involving some form of fish. Usually for me, it's salmon sashimi. With miso and a couple of other side dishes thrown in, it's a pretty good buy for only $7.90.
This time, there were 12 of us in 4 cars -- a much larger group than what we're used to, but then, most of us were also there to catch Memoirs at Lido later.
On the way to the movie, I tailed Amy's Swift as closely as I could thinking she knew the best route into town, and possibly the best parking as well. Discovered she's not infalliable after all: we both took a wrong turn, making a wide detour Westwards. As a result, by the time we arrived, we very nearly missed the movie's opening. Guess it's time I learned to trust my own instincts and not rely on her so much for driving advice any more. Haha.
Memoirs was quite stylo. Lavish sets, costumes, quite eye-catching cinematography, rich in production values. But the storyline was disappointingly simplistic and predictable. Here, I was hoping Zhang Ziyi would turn into some psycho-ninja-warrior and end up kicking half of Tokyo's ass in increasingly creative ways for her childhood mistreatment, but it was more like a Cinderella story instead. I felt the conclusion was abrupt; grinding to a halt rather than ending with >ahem< a bang. Maybe I just have the wrong idea about Geisha?
After our group parted ways after the movie, June and I had dinner at Tonkatsu. Seemed appropriate ending to the day's All-Japan fest.
This time, there were 12 of us in 4 cars -- a much larger group than what we're used to, but then, most of us were also there to catch Memoirs at Lido later.
On the way to the movie, I tailed Amy's Swift as closely as I could thinking she knew the best route into town, and possibly the best parking as well. Discovered she's not infalliable after all: we both took a wrong turn, making a wide detour Westwards. As a result, by the time we arrived, we very nearly missed the movie's opening. Guess it's time I learned to trust my own instincts and not rely on her so much for driving advice any more. Haha.
Memoirs was quite stylo. Lavish sets, costumes, quite eye-catching cinematography, rich in production values. But the storyline was disappointingly simplistic and predictable. Here, I was hoping Zhang Ziyi would turn into some psycho-ninja-warrior and end up kicking half of Tokyo's ass in increasingly creative ways for her childhood mistreatment, but it was more like a Cinderella story instead. I felt the conclusion was abrupt; grinding to a halt rather than ending with >ahem< a bang. Maybe I just have the wrong idea about Geisha?
After our group parted ways after the movie, June and I had dinner at Tonkatsu. Seemed appropriate ending to the day's All-Japan fest.
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