500W of pure power

As work commences on the living room false ceiling tomorrow, William advised me to get the cables for the rear speakers of the home theatre system ASAP so he can get them installed and concealed overhead. Since Mega needs about a week's notice before delivery, I thought I'd save some time by driving down to the main outlet at Katong Mall and collect the set myself.

How difficult could that be right? Five small speakers, a sub-woofer and a little DVD console pumping out 500W of raw audio power: should be no problem getting it into M2, especially if it's all nicely packaged together.

What emerged from the stockroom was a crate that measured nearly the length of my entire armspan, and no-joke heavy. I wrestled it up two flights of escalators, and manhandled it partway down the street, finally stuffing through M2's passenger side door with the seat folded flat.

When I got to the new place, I dragged it into the elevator to my floor and dropped it off in the living room that still looks like a war zone. I dug into the box to find the required cables which I left in the storeroom for the electrician to install tomorrow. Then because it wasn't secure to leave the whole sound system alone in a vacant flat, I lugged the whole thing back down again and back into M2. Drove a short distance to M-i-L's place where I heaved it up into another elevator, and down another corridor and finally into temporary storage next to M-i-L's TV.

There was a little label on the packaging that I hadn't noticed earlier. It read "22kg: 2 person carry". Pengsan, I tell you!

Renovation works in progress (II)

New House WIP
Today went pretty much devoted to the new place. Our breakfast plan was to hit IKEA first thing it opened this morning, but to our horror the cafe opened half an hour earlier than the main store, 0930 instead of 1000. So when we arrived on the dot at 10, the cafe was already crowded out with snaking lines for food extending well beyond the cashier stations. Just a half hour late and the mee rebus ran out. We had to settle for the french toast set, which also wasn't bad.

Our main purpose was to get sheving for our bomb-shelter/store room.  Between Tong's Hyundai and M2, we managed to ferry all the wooden planking back to the new place. Tong has also offered his assistance to assemble the shelves for us once the renovations are complete. Thanks, Tong!

Well, the pix above is what the new place looks like as of today. All the floor tiles in the kitchen and the two bathrooms are hacked and ready for a fresh layer of tiles. The existing wall tiles are being plastered over, hence the nasty blackish colour of the kitchen and bathroom walls.

I've always wondered what goes on in a coocoon as the worm undergoes metamorphosis. Now I know.

Feathering the nest

Continuing to exchange real simoleons for home furnishings. We bought a TV with a home theatre sound system thrown in for cheap and the refrigerator.

I usually let June nose around for good deals, and she found Mega Discount Store, United Square, where we met Clarence who took the trouble to explain the minute differences between modern TV features and demo'ed different TV models for us to compare. Because Mega isn't part of a larger chain, it offered us a customized discount package that was somewhat more competitive than those advertised by the big players in the Saturday papers.

Still in search of a sofa and a dining room set. We have yet to see any designs we like at a price we can stomach.

F1 weekend

Edit 01:
Oops... someone's not happy with our F1 after all. But then again, Ferrari didn't have a particularly good race, so I'm not surprised.
__________

Considering all the concerns I have over PW as a subject, it looks like in real-life we S'poreans can bring big, ambitious, even audacious projects to life, and make the world gawk and pay attention after all. I'm referring to last night's F1 race through our city streets glammed up with the beautifully-lit skyline backdrop of the finncial district. I've never seen our city look so gorgeous before, and I guess it's because I've been taking it for granted.

Or perhaps the TV functions as a pair of Emerald City glasses, making things appear more glorious than in reality? I was watching the race on my living room set, just an ordinary one mind you, and already the visuals were just stunning. The Supreme Court, Fullerton Hotal and the sight of those legendary supercars growling through the intricate lattice of Anderson Bridge just blew me away. What a grand first impression to leave viewers around the world, especially if they'd been watching it all on HD. That would have been unreal!

Regardless, many people seem to be giving ecstatic reviews of this weekend's excitement. Granted the Americans and Canadians were only interested in the results, but at least Alan Henry of UK's Guardian gave us a glowing report in his reporter's blog.

It was nice to be described as fast, efficient, and systematic, but it was also excellent to hear other words describing how innovative, gutsy, and even "magic" our ability to pull this one off was. These aren't words we would commonly associate with ourselves, knowing we (and other people) tend to view ourselves as rather staid and conservative. But there you are, concluding the first-ever F1 night race in spectacular fashion, when we S'poreans want something, we'll go all out to make it happen and a half.

PW kids, are you paying attention?

Know-it-all

We certainly do have dilligent kids. From the essays I've been grading, it's quite obvious that they've been studying. Oddly enough, it looks like masses of them have been studying the same things. I've encountered the same facts, the same examples, even the same stock phrases faithfully reproduced in essay after essay. So there's no question that they are a truly hardworking bunch. But, sigh, if only GP rewarded hard work alone, each of them would get a stellar grade.

As I've said before, having knowledge is a good thing, but the more important thing is the ability to select the relevant bits of knowledge and use them to solve the chosen problem. Simply providing a list of facts that have some relationship to an identified topic isn't going to get anybody top grades.

One problem is that many of the other subjects the kids are taking push the idea that if they would just memorise, they will pass score. Their track record shows that they're right, and we in GP get drowned out; the lone voice in the desert crying, "Think! Apply judgement! Argue your case!" But in the end, it's still easier for the kids to deliver a bunch of facts, and wonder why they are just barely passing. Or not.

It must be scary living as a teenager today, though. I get the impression that they are actually living vicariously through their textbooks. 'Cos even when the information from their notes and textbooks are outdated or even goes against what should be common daily observations, the notes and textbook 'facts' -- in an occasionally warped and twisted form -- still come out in their essays. If it's in the textbook, it must be right. Can't argue with that logic.

So I'm not all that surprised that our kids know squat about contraception, a real-life issue. It doesn't come up an any subject that they're preparing to take an examination in, so it isn't important. It isn't in the textbook either, so, y'know, like, whatever. As for 'experimentation' there's enough info in the old sec 4 bio textbook to figure out what goes where, but it kinda' ends there. Hence, the few teenage pregnancies a year. The other teens are probably too busy studying. Probably.

Renovation works in progress (I)

The new place is now a mess of wires, and everything that could be dismantled or unbolted off the walls and floor has been carted off by the gremlins.

The major noisy work will begin Monday, but in the meantime the house has been quietly gutted in preparation.

Today was also our first appointment as sellers of our current place to meet our buyers at HDB. Necessary approvals and permits acquired, we are now committed to the sale. Our buyers intend to move in without renovations, but that will have to wait until we finish ours first.

Mel leaves Ma for MA

So here we are at the airport again, this time to see off Mel. Us and a small horde of people, family, friends, students, all gathering for a brief hug and group photos; something to remember her by until she returns next year. That's Mel, drama till the end.

Guess she heard about the industry's move to take in only graduate teaching staff and wanted to get an early leg up.

Of course, our Boss mentioned other things apart from our qualifications. He's also talking about what and how we should be teaching our kids in his latest big speech: something about our curriculum shifting more towards skills and values in addition to knowledge.

I'm a little puzzled 'cos we've had a curriculum like that all along, in a little known, obscure compulsory subject we offer at JC level called... the "General Paper".

Because...

Once in a while, especially when I'm drowning in essay marking, I need to remind myself why.

Hi society, hi stakes

Wah! Even "social escorts" in S'pore need a uni degree to qualify. Everybody else how? No business awreddy! Li'ddat how to compete?

Is this already in our market?

I wonder if anyone's thought of bringing in the FitFlop to our market yet? Apparently they've been selling like mad in the US for about a year or so, and there's every reason to believe they will do just as well here.

Here's the concept: it's a trendy flipflop (a.k.a. rubber slipper) that looks sporty, feels comfortable to wear, and promises to provide an additional workout as the wearer walks by adding some resistance to each stride. So, toned calves, thighs and glutes while you walk to the wet market, anyone?

As far as the workout goes, 20/20 trashed that idea with its own independent study, but people still love them for their comfort and design. The only drawback I can see is the exorbitant pricetag of about US$50 a pair. But consider how those awful Crocs have invaded our fashion scene: when they first arrived they were also selling high, and whoever brought them in first would have got the biggest share of the pie.

The FitFlop should be a hot seller since we seem to wear flipflops all year round. If anyone's looking around for a new business opportunity, this one might just be a winner!

Edit 01:

Arrgh! Should have researched a bit more. They're already here!

Another applicaton of CERN's atom smasher

CERN scientists must be happy 'cos they have a new pickup line: "Wanna check out my Large Hard-on Collider? It'll give you a Big Bang like you've never had before!"

I tried to work in something about a "black hole" somewhere, but it just sounded rude.

Feel free to add on if you want.

Swamped

... blub... blub... blub...!

Hafari for tiles

Tiles go on the floor, tiles go on walls. Tiles serve different purposes and come in various textures and a multitude of colours. Tile shopping is a big headache 'cos if we didn't know what we wanted, we wouldn't know what we wanted. The options are just too much for novices like us to handle.

Not to say that we wouldn't have got it right eventually, we're not completely aesthetically impaired after all, but the selection process would have taken a lot longer if we didn't have Linewerkz to help narrow our choices down for us.

William brought us to Hafari on Balestier to buy tiles for our kitchen, bathrooms and a small foyer area for the entrance of our unit. I didn't get the name of the first sales rep who attended to us but she was all bright-eyed and eager to show us around. What impressed me about her was her ability to switch from Mandarin to perfect English with a little hint of an unplaceable accent, but quite plainly not Singlish. But while she was cool and professional, she passed us on to her colleague, Thomas, whom William knew personally.

Animated with his explanations, in possession of excellent product knowledge, willing to take a chance with his recommendations, Thomas was easy to talk to and we could trust his taste in the matching of tiles to our design. As June said, it was a relief to get service from someone who had the passion for his trade and someone who firmly believed in the worth of his product. Someone who can make the consumer happy that the purchase was money well spent.

A scruffy sendoff

One more leaving the fold. Mel's got a year's study leave to read her M.A. in the UK. We'll just have to enjoy the peace and quiet until she returns next fall, even more littlemisssmartypants than ever.

Scruffy Murphy's was a great choice for our little party. We booked ourselves into the private lounge and just kept ordering food indiscriminately off the menu -- except for veggies, Jo-jo and Derek, who were slightly more particular.

Food's good. Mostly an Irish pub menu featuring finger foods including yow! spicy wings. Let's see, we also ordered things like the portobello mushroom salad, eggplant lasagna, and I remember downing more shepherd's pie than I intended -- that good. Various orders of burgers filled in the gaps for people who had gaps left to fill.

We were very happy that Lucy and TSL joined in the festivities, 'cos usually they leave the rioting to us. This evening we welcomed them into the mob, and hope it won't be just a one-time thing.

Bye, Mel! Have a great trip, and don't forget to come back!

In other news, we now officially hold the keys to our new place. No time to waste, the renovations begin Monday.

Life follows the Sims

It's like playing the "Sims", except it's for real. The design for our new house is in, and tonight our friendly electrician dropped by to discuss how we wanted to locate our lighting points, cable TV and telephone access, power outlets and switches.

Instead of pointing and clicking with a mouse, we were verbally trashing out our options, making and taking suggestions and advice, and otherwise negotiating our way around what will work to our satisfaction and to the Linewerkz concept.

William was also on hand to assess what needed to be hacked and dismantled from the existing premises. The false ceiling, false beam and the kitchen setup will have to go to make way for the redesign. The existing display cabinets that limit our already small floor space will have to go too. What were the previous owners thinking when they talked to their designer back then? Destroy! Destroy!

We're expecting a mad weekend as we go shopping for wall tiles, laminate flooring (to lay over the expensive but egregiously coloured granite floor tiles, which are an utter waste to hack but at the same time impossible to live with), lighting fixtures, and anything else that will get everything ready for work to commence this coming Monday. The process of destructive creation is about begin!

Our immediate neighbours next door are a bunch of FTs housed there by their employer. They happily cannibalized the old fridge the previous owner of our unit left behind for them. Hmm... not really sure why I brought that up.

The Xmac is [out]

How is it that evenings like this one have become so scarce? I'm taking an enforced break from responsibility, decisions, frenzied activity and controlled panic -- elements of which in different combinations have coloured my so-called off-duty hours of late. If it isn't office deadlines, it's been housing, finance, legal headaches that have been slowly eroding my stamina and enthusiasm, turning me into the walking zombie I am today.

Just so happens I found a window of opportunity to sit in front of the TV and laugh hysterically at the weirdness that passes for "America's Got Talent" or shed tears of joy when an actual talent gets discovered. Never know what emotions will get dragged up to the surface next on that programme; just buckle up and enjoy the ride. Else I'm camping out on Face, or contemplating the fate of my creatures on "Spore", or updating this blog with the latest self-indulgent drivel.

And for one night this week, maybe even practice what I've been preaching and hit the sack early for a change.

And the award goes to...

Time to announce the winner of the "Who wants to design a house for Xmac" contest: After much debate, handwringing and sleepless nights, we decided to award the contract to Linewerkz.

Designer and part-owner, William Tan, won us over as he was able to give us the confidence that our project was in good hands. He impressed us with his ability to deliver on his promises during our initial meetings, and was prompt and precise every time. We felt assured that he would take personal responsibility for the entire project from design stage to the coordination and overseeing of the various phases of the project until the official handover. His willingness to work with our other sub-cons and ensure that what they install conforms to the theme and image he has drawn up for us is definitely a plus-point. But other than that, he proved to be passionate about his projects and takes pride in both his work as well as the company he represents. He gives us the assurance that six weeks from the start of works, we'll be able to move in happily.

As far as the concept and design goes, it's all the straight-line geometrics that both June and I like. Steel and glass balanced off with the warmth of wood; bright, open and airy spaces; a high-tech, modern look overall. Sweet. We found William to be flexible and accommodating in the way he customized the details to our suggestions, but he was firm about the integrity of the design that really is his baby.

And at this point, I add a note of gratitude to May, whose interest-free personal loan is paying for our home reno.

New house: 'Before'

New House
Today I converted almost all my liquidity into a fixed asset, which the slideshow above depicts. The shots are no great feats of artistry, merely an archive of the 'before' of the big renovation project. I believe we've decided which designer to go with based on the strength of his vision. And if all goes well, the 'after' shots will show an amazing transformation. Or at least there'll be a more spacious look and a more unified theme holding the entire concept together.

Interior conflict

Oops. We may have started a price war between two interior designers, both of whom are in the running for a contract to renovate our new digs. We like the concepts both have presented so far: lots of clean, geometric lines; very urban in the use of glass, wood and steel for a fresh, classy city-dweller look.

Both are competing with each other to deliver a quotation we can accept without everyone going bankrupt. Considering how little we can actually afford, we can see that both guys are working really hard to secure our patronage.

It's going to be tough making a decision between the two. One has matched our price requiements already, while the other will let us see his new proposal tomorrow. Ultimately, we have to remember that it's just business and nothing personal, but we'll soon have to make a decision to let one go. That's just how it has to be.

Thai visitors

June's Thai colleagues dropped in on business, and we took care of their R&R like we did the last time. Apart from the opportunity to break from routine, these corporate visits mean that it is our duty to eat well and to find things to do in the name of keeping our visitors entertained.

One highlight was the five of us polishing off an entire Peking duck along with a number of other dishes at the Mouth Restaurant in Chinatown. We also took them on a whirlwind evening tour of Sentosa where they took a cable car across to the Jewel Box to rendezvous with us and M2 again. Spent the rest of the evening sipping Singapore Slings at the Long Bar.

Saturday was shopping for souvenirs at Mustafa's followed by an excursion to the Bird Park where neither June and I have been since, I don't know, forever. The place is greener than I remember, the enclosures now almost completely blended in with the natural landscape. Fed some lories and watched the pelican show, but other than that we didn't see much else due to time considerations.

Our tour service extended to taking them back to their hotel to collect their luggage before seeing them off at Changi.

Hmm... if ever I was considering a 2nd career...!

Happy birthday Linc

How disappointing that we neglected to bring our appetites with us when we went for dinner at the Rice Table. Seven of us finished off most of the first round of dishes, but over-ordered on the second round. Although the food (a variety of Indonesian-style nasi padang dishes) was good, we could only stare guiltily at the leftovers while we sat gorged full, though achieving far below our vaunted potential. And it was all the more tragic because we were at an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Regardless, we still had a profitable evening meeting up with Linc to surprise him with a cake. Though his candle went out with no problem, the tiramisu cake that Wayne and Ton_y bought had frozen solid. It proved impossible to cut with the dinky toy knife the confectioneries thoughtfully provide for this purpose. So Linc got to take the whole cake home with him. Happy birthday, indeed!

Photo credit: Mel

Spore infection

As a game, Spore kicks butt -- mine in particular. A peacenik pacifist approach to conquering the galaxy is doomed to failure and I am watching my empire crumble to dust against a hostile alien intruder and learning that sometimes the best defence is indeed a good offence.

Time to rebuild anew, perhaps with a better strategy that balances diplomacy and trade with self-defence and a mind bent on colonial expansion. Doing favours for other galactic civilizations does no good at all when an implacable foe arrives at the back door guns a-bristlin'.

Spore, first and foremost, is a creative tool for designing creatures and their accoutrements; their buildings and vehicles that they will use to explore and influence their environment as they climb the evolutionary ladder. There are so many shapes to play with. Each part allows its dimensions to be further toyed with, and they all snap together in so many different ways, in perfect symmetry too if desired. With a tool this simple to use, any Philistine now has the power to be an artist. You can check out my designs, for example.

But it's no fun just designing stuff. Our designs have to be tested to see how they respond to some form of context -- in this case, the game environment -- and to see if our creations live up to our expectations. The fun thing is, everything we create goes on the "Sporepedia" to be shared with other Spore players around the world. So apart from stock designs, the creatures and things that populate my game environment have been created by other players, while my creations might show up in theirs. How cool is that?

As for the game itself, the first four stages of evolution are quite easy to achieve. Just gather enough resources, tools and population to bludgeon all competition into submission. "Bludgeon" in this case could mean either overwhelm them with violence leading to extinction or with such a degree of love and warmth that they capitulate out of sheer weariness and agree to become your BFF... forever.

The game truly begins when your creatures evolve to the spacefaring stage. Compared to the tiny tidal pool from which your first single-celled organism eventually outgrew, the galactic map is huge, with a near limitless number of places to explore, missions to accomplish, colonies to establish, friends to make and enemies to destroy; and all the time growing and evolving the capacity to dominate everything. Or be dominated. It's an equal opportunity universe.

Spore: First Contact

Spore has been keeping me busy for two nights already. It's like having a virtual Lego set with so many diferent bits, each as customizeable as we are able to imagine and the possibilities are endless!

The badge above lists the things I've created so far, and I don't think I have been very creative at all. I just hastily threw some bits and pieces together, tweaked and aligned them so that they don't look too weird, then chose the colour scheme from the stock palatte (though there's a custom palatte for players with way to much time on their hands).

Apart from building things, which in itself is fun, there's a game to play too. Too early for a proper review now. I'm just about ready to launch into the main part of the game: galactic domination. That should hold my attention for another couple of days or so...

Will report back when the galaxy is mine! Mwa... ha... ha...!

Redneck central

I totally understand how the good residents of Gardens feel about the prospect of having a thousand foreign workers suddenly settling into their neighbourhood. There are too many dichotomies to resolve before we can expect a harmonious coexistence.

"Foreign" in the sense that the workers hail from another country is only a surface issue. What's more scary about the situation is that Gardens, a peaceful, sleepy, family-based neighbourhood now has to deal with a new tribe of settlers that are anything but traditional Gardens residents -- alien in so many ways. The biggest problem is that all the 1000 potential new neighbours are young males who have absolutely no testosterone curbs at all in the form of wives, or at least long-term girlfriends, and the biggest testosterone damper of all, children.

This is a legitimate fear as the families of Gardens have more prosperity than ba**s while the reverse is true of their new neighbours.

To expand this argument, our tiny nation faces the exact same problem when we relocated to this region. All around us are young, disenfranchised males living in our neighbouring countries, while we are the only bright spot, dripping (at least in their eyes) with cash and playing virgin princess to all of ASEAN. That, for some reason, is something we haven't learned to fear. Or perhaps we haven't opened our eyes yet to the precarious position we're in?

This must be true of the commenters in the ST discussion board regarding an FT's letter asking for better treatment. Despite what they claim, their display is certainly not exemplary of S'porean solidarity. It's bullying, plain and simple.

I'm amazed at the depth of vitriol these people harbour and are willing to let fly at the slightest provocation. Excuse me, but when we made the choice to go cosmopolitan and open our doors to the world, it was irreversible. The world you guys are hankering for, the sleepy village with the slower pace of life, mama cooking kampong chicken for dinner while you work an honest day's wage in the padi fields is gone. We didn't have to entertain strangers then, because we had nothing to attract them here.

But now, everything's different. We wanted to be the gateway to the world, and so the world is here. And what shall we do with our invited guests? Shall we wring them dry of their hopes and dreams, and whatever little they have in their wallets and send them back from whence they came -- which is really what you are proposing -- or shall we treat them with the hospitality that we promised, and help them fulfil their dreams like we fulfilled ours a generation or so ago? And what stories of us do you want them to take back home? That we are honourable friends and solid neighbours, or that we are a bunch of gangsters who know not in whose turf we have set ourselves up?

Look, all the girl wants is to be treated fairly. Stop behaving like there isn't enough to go around because there is. Goodness... if ever there was a redneck central in the S'pore...!

Youth Entrepreneurship Conference 2008

Spent the day at RP, participating in the Youth Entrepreneurship Conference. First, I have to say that if I were 16 years old today, I'd pick a poly over a JC anytime. Sounds like heresy, but at least based on first impressions, the difference between the two institutions is quite stark.

I suppose there are reasons why there should be such a gap. The poly is a direct route to working life, whereas the JC is only a stepping stone to a uni campus so a JC can afford to provide two extra years of childhood for its students before they proceed to the next level of... not work but further study.

No uniforms, just a dress code. Poly students express themselves by the products they purchase directly from the market. Whether it's hoodies, funky Ts, trendy jeans, or whatever else, they dress like how people of their age are supposed to look like. That puts them directly into the real world 'cos they are making their own choices as to how they wish to fit in. Every poly student is an individual. There's a confidence about them, and they carry themselves with dignity that comes from the knowledge of having attained a measure of adulthood.

That's so unlike our JC kids who continue to wear a uniform that they've been wearing since kindergarten, made to stand in rows, and there's always some adult who's directly responsible for their work, discipline and well-being. So wide is the gap between them and the world. 16-18 are formative years for a young adult, and I'm worried the JC approach may be teaching them to simply conform to external norms and pressures, rather than guiding them to find themselves and create the niche that they will occupy in society in time to come.

Kids who go to JC are supposed to be the cream of their crop. They deserve better.

The Conference made me rethink the model for our future economy that I've been envisioning in the last couple of entries. My initial concept had a serious flaw: it was inherently selfish, overly competitive, and ultimately unsustainable.

There also has to be a measure of social responsibility -- people doing things to benefit people. Catering to just the better-off will only enrich the already-rich, while everyone else continues to be exploited. That's about the kind of economic model the Roman Empire had just before it fell. Let's not go there. I missed a step so let's backtrack a bit.

For the first time, I paid attention to what Elim said about channeling profits back into the community through Social Enterpreneurship. That's not just a cynical PR exercise by big business, they really do look at methods to pick the downtrodden up by their bootstraps and put them on an even footing as the rest of society. It's not just the segment that have traditionally been lacking in cultural capital, but also the disabled ("disability is only a matter of context"), the psychologically afflicted, and the elderly poor that can benefit from Social Entrepreneurship initiatives. Basically we help them discover what they are good at, and what they like to do, put a value on it and help them find a market that will pay for it. Again, customization is the key. Now, that's a sustainable business.

So a major correction in my economic theory. How our country will survive is by creating opportunities that will raise the competitiveness of the traditionally non-competitive -- that's a huge market indeed, especially in our immediate region -- so that the overall wealth of the region increases and everyone will have the means to obtain whatever they need or want, and there'll always be someone who can anticipate and supply the demand. And, you know what, that's a much more wholesome enterprise to get into.

And on a separate note, M2 has come home at last! In biological terms, it seems he had the equivalent of a bad sprain, and thankfully nothing worse. He had his dents beaten out and resprayed, tires rebalanced, wheels and steering realigned, and he's running again. Now I'll just have to deal with the insurance company. >.<

Ubin... almost

So much for our plans to cycle at Ubin. Our fears of rain washed out the strongest of resolves, and so for the second time in a row, Ubin got taken off our holiday schedule.

Dinner went on as usual, though -- even without paying the penance of sweat, huffing up and down the slopes on bicycles beforehand. Nothing comes between us and our steaming dishes of black pepper and chilli crab, cereal prawns and steamed fish. That plus a couple of other side dishes and a large bowl of potent tom yam soup. Nine around the table: Amy, Mo-jo, B-lo, Ton_y, Mel, June, me, Wayne, NBS.

Changi Village may have been a bit far, but our meal at Qi Feng was good value for money. $25 a head, and the black pepper crab was one of the juciest I've had, ever.

Total commute time: 3 hours. Honestly, if we're aiming to wean our people off their cars and take public transport everywhere, we've got to get used to a much slower pace of life. Can you say, "shaka shaka, no wiki wiki"? That's what it's probably going to boil down to.

Domesticating the male: Tip 47

I'm sure there's a biblical verse that supports this truism. Husbands 4:13, or somesuch.

Whiny haiku of an unrepentant driver

Time taken to campus by car: 20 minutes
Time by public bus: 1 hour 5 minutes (including transit time)

Haiku follows:
I don't want to commute, I want to live.
Friend, M2, please get well soon!

I now await some smart alec's comment that I CAN read a book while I'm on the bus. Or provide some other equally astute tree-hugging advice.

Speakers Corner is now open

Speaker's Corner is now open for outdoor demonstrations! Our first legal demonstration lasted a whopping 10 minutes! With no overturned cars and burning effigies! Well, it's a start.

All we've ever heard about since before the lifting of the ban is how quickly and easily protests degenerate out of hand, resulting in injury and arrests for people, damage and destruction to property... like the madness in Thailand in the last couple of days.

So, how are we going to create a peaceful demonstration that can make people sit up and take notice? If nothing else, we S'poreans understand (believe it or not) the power of tongue-in-cheek humour in making our displeasure palpable to the powers-that-be. Case in point: the Buangkok "white elephant" incident. It's because of the previous ban that we've become so clever at demonstrations aimed at the brain and the heart, rather than the fist and random throwing objects.

Think when I have time again, I'll ask the kids to consider what issues they'd want to protest, and maybe get them to design the form their protest is likely to take. It's their world that's opening up to them, and I am curious as to how they see it. Or perhaps they are too contented to raise any protests at all? I wonder.

Grounded

Poor M2 has gone through a lot with me, but this latest mishap is by far the worst. The impact bent in my right front wheel which took the brunt, and the steering has gone out of alignment as a result.

I felt very sorry for him as he stood by the roadside, hazard lights blinking, and as he sat at the IDAC impound awaiting attention. What he must be thinking about his hopeless owner who seems to be treating him like a bumper car!

He'll be one battle-scarred veteran of the Highway Wars once he gets out of the shop. Yes, he's finally getting treatment today after a day and a half of administrative ping-pong.

Apparently, my insurance coverage does not entitle me to a temporary set of replacement wheels, so for the next week or so I'll be reorienting myself with public transport. So far it's been expensive. Cab rides cost a lot these days, while the bus-MRT connections mean allowing for more lead time to get to where I'm going.

Still, I'm thinking I'm lucky that neither of us was going at speed when we collided. If we had, I probably wouldn't be around to keep posting entries. Glass half full view.

Ideas, passion and the new economy

Check out this ST report entitled "Passion comes first for Gen Y". That's what I meant about our new economy thriving on new ideas that appeal to those who are willing to pay for them (see entry of 26/8/08). Notice that not all the ideas are particularly "innovative" as such, but they do address the needs of people -- vendors and clientele -- who want more out of life than just the daily grind.

These enterprises tend to be rather project-based: short-term, flexible, mobile, and promises some development potential, though few are likely to ever grow into empires. The preparation for such a dynamic economy begins now for our kids. Wonder if the experience of PW is sufficient?

M2 in the shop

This is just a journal entry to record that M2 had to go into the shop today. All I will say about the matter is that M2 is limping quite badly though fortunately, there were no human injuries. Beyond that, I'm too upset to discuss it further. :(

Wall-E, survivor generalist

Recalling a tutorial I had a couple of days ago with x17. They don't much like the emphasis the industry is putting on their all-roundedness. It's too much pressure, they say, meeting their expectations in academics, plus other areas like sports, community involvement, leadership initiative, and the million and forty-seven other items they have to juggle per 24-hour cycle. If only they could specialize, they say, then they'd become the best athletes, or artists, or scientists, or whatever [and then we wouldn't have to import FT to help us win silver medals... mutter... grumble...].

Silly children. Knowledge is an interconnected web of the same basic ideas chain-linking in a myriad different combinations. Areas of specialism arise from certain configurations of knowledge that don't exist in isolation of one another. An athlete trains his muscles, but to succeed he must also be able to coordinate his muscles in concert to deal with the ever-changing competitive environment he will constantly be tested in. That movement is at the same time aesthetic, scientific and mathematical; and when we consider teamwork and crowd support there's an element of the social as well. Likewise, any other area of specialism might emphasise a particular type of knowledge, but all other areas will also come into play at some point or another.

Our mistake was to draw the boundaries between the different "knowledges" so squarely that studying five subjects now takes five hours because each one has to be studied separately from the others. Sadly, that's the strategy firmly subscribed to by most parents and educators, and so it becomes the strategy that most kids are harnessed to too. I believe the top students are the few who know how to use only one hour to study five subjects, then they have the time to excel at all the other stuff outside of curriculum time as well.

I bring this up because I watched Wall-E today. How does a little trash-compactor robot become the last survivor on the planet? It isn't that he abandons his programming -- his specialism, if you will -- in fact, his "directive" the only reason that gives him the drive to keep on going when all his fellow Wall-Es have finally succumbed to the elements and now rust by the wayside.

What makes Wall-E a survivor is that he has learned how to learn. While he is a highly competent trash-compactor, he's also become accomplished in repair and maintenance tasks, and has developed a sense of the aesthetic, hence his attempts at interior decoration. He's constantly assessing the utility or beauty of the odd things that he finds in the garbage, bringing them home with him when they pass muster. He doesn't always get things "right", but perhaps his learning is mainly facilitated by the fact that that there isn't any around to tell him that he's "wrong" either.

It's a little disturbing to see him cannibalizing his inert fellows for spare parts, but he can't be faulted. They're not going to need their parts any more, anyway. After all, they never learned anything more than their programming and so they lived and died doing the one thing they were meant to do: compact trash. And that's the way many people live their lives today too.

Trust me, the above is no spoiler for the movie. That's merely the preamble, which we should sort of have already grasped from the trailers. So you can still go watch what's probably the cutest (without being saccharine-sweet) movie of the year.

Teachers' Day 08

Edit 01:
The gift left in my pigeonhole was from NYeDC. I missed seeing them too. Thanks actors and crew!

---

Teachers' Day is an opportunity for staff to receive some affirmation for what we've been doing with our kids through the year. I'm especially appreciative of the short notes, like from YY, and even the offline Twitters collated into greeting card form that may or may not come with attached knicknacks or snacks. Which is why I may have committed a little social faux pas by not being personally available to receive x23's pretty hand-made card and gift that I discovered in my pigeonhole later.

So where was I? Thinking the festivities on campus were over, I headed off home to rest for a couple of reasons. I was tired out after the week's exertions and the dinner the night before. I had to gather my wits so that I could return to campus that afternoon and have a difficult consultation session regarding an essay topic I had very little knowledge about.

And, I had to stock up as much sleep as possible because at 0400, I and June were at the airport with Amy, B-lo, Mel, and Sha: HP's immediate posse which attempted to give her surprise #2 by seeing her off at her point of embarkation. Turned out we were surprised that she was ready for us with her own hand-written notes of affirmation to us when we arrived. Seems she was tipped off by Jxxh's slip of tongue at some point.

So anyway, my thanks to everyone for their words, thoughts and well-wishes this Teachers' Day. :)

'Live' at the Park Royal

At the risk of being killed by Mel and Bernard, I caught their performance last night on video and posted it online to share. The vid starts out quite shaky 'cos their item started before I could get to a good vantage point, but the shakes and sound quality do get better somewhat once we're past the introductions.

Presenting Mel & Bernard unplugged with the songs, "Rainbow Connection" and "What's Up"! Take it away, Mel!

Table behind the pillar

We're having our annual combined dinner with our feeder schools. It's an opportunity let our hair down a bit and generally behave in ways we don't often show our kids. Must set good example, you know?

Anyway, this year's theme is "Retro-F1", so of course Sha dressed for the occasion in this stunning gold jumpsuit. Won't she be the cause of several nosebleeds on the grid?

Sha's outfit would probably take the award for being most relevant to the theme, but Wayne's should take the award for being most last-minute creative. He wore a red polo to which he adhered the labels of well-known F1 sponsors, making him look like, I dunno, pit crew or something.

Yay! The most happenin' table in the entire ballroom. With Mel, our resident lounge singer and Wayne, the purveyor of contraband liquid refreshment which he kept hidden under the drapery, our table was noisy and ridiculous.

That we were positioned behind a large pillar that completely obscured us from the stage and the VIPs added to the merriment. And there was much to make merry about. The MC, for one, did not connect with us well. He used the wrong language for the occasion, and the entertainment he brought with him put Amy's eyeballs in danger of rolling out of her head. The little getai girl singer with the bare midriff and butterfly tattoo on her waist was more uh, eye popping, though. She could sing, too.

And speaking of singing, Mel and Bernard had a whale of a time, belting out two numbers as the College's contribution to the evening's entertainment. Singing along to Mel's unplugged rendition of "Rainbow Connection" and "What's Up" and being her raucous, adoring groupies confirmed that hiding us behind that huge pillar for most of the night was probably the right thing to do.

Fallow field

It's over. NBS and I have had our last class as joint instructors pioneering what was "the new subject" from two years ago. I'm not absolutely sure about the reasons for discontinuing the course apart from the fact that NBS is moving on at the end of the year, and I haven't the confidence to take the whole job on alone. The classes I've had have been stimulating and we've had many fun discussions, so it's disappointing that it's come to an end. But perhaps it's the best move for me too, 'cos I've felt diffused with too many different subjects to plan for and I need to refocus myself.

As for the new subject, it'll lie fallow for now. A cultivated field needs to replace its nutrients after a couple of harvests. I'll be looking for a new farm hand in the meantime.

Cross my palm with silver...

Had a consultation with ZH who is thinking about taking philo at the uni. He was wondering what philo majors ate after they graduate. At first glance, philo doesn't appear to be a practical subject that lends itself to too many job openings for work that actually pays money. I told him to clear his JC hurdle with the best grades he can get for all his current subjects first, then if he still wants philo at the uni, go for it. Simple cause-effect: flunk 'A' levels, no uni. No uni, no philo. A nicer tutor might have given him the glass-half-full view instead. Whatever.

As I continued to discuss The Future with him, my crystal ball predictions for the job market and the economy overall looked something like the following:

In our region, it's clear that there's no way we can compete along the industrial manufacturing line any longer. Even in high-tech manufacturing, we're going to be hard-pressed. Anything we can make, our neighbours can make cheaper. They have the materials, lots of hungry human resources, and the desire to match us in economic success and prosperity. They are already moving into their own industrial age and they'll easily edge us out of the game if we're not paying attention.

Fortunately, we are. We know our neighbours are aiming for self-sufficient bread-and-butter issues, and so we have to move on to a new niche -- the "knowledge-based economy". In other words, we're in the business of selling ideas. Hence, our job market will need thinkers and creatives, and probably creative thinkers plus those who can manage and channel the right brain-power to the areas that need them the most.

We'll be developing in areas like education, the arts, entertainment, industries that can produce unique -- and therefore valuable -- objects and/or experiences. We'll also be brokers for thoughts and ideas, perhaps in technology transfers or political-social-ethical theory, like Athens might have been to the ancient Greeks. ZH, philo may not be such a bad choice after all.

For us, mass production has taken us as far as it can go. Our clientele can no longer be the mass market because our industry can never expand large enough to supply the demand from a growing mass of newly affluent peoples from our neighbouring countries, not to mention India and China. They can more than adequately mass manufacture for their own people anyway, so they don't need us for that. Where they are becoming competent in providing the necessities of life for their people, we will be providing quality of life.

We have to target a clientele further up the value chain from the ordinary masses. Customization is the way to go, ideas and designs that distinguish the better off from the riff raff. We're talking about smaller value-added industries creating [whatevers] in exclusive quantities that a higher class of people are willing to pay a premium for.

It's the only strategy that'll help tiny us survive in a world that is slowly but surely growing overwhelmingly humongous day by day. We will survive by creating, then making peoples' dreams come true. While the world learns how to live longer and better through their increasing capabilities, we'll survive by giving the people something to live for.

The reality is, our competitive arena is never going to be a level playing field for us. We are too small, too weak, and too helpless to compete head-to-head with any of our neighbours. So we have to ask ourselves what game we are playing so as to take our best advantage. I propose that we are at the dog races. All the thoroughbred greyhounds lined up, whichever crosses the finish line wins.

However, in this game, we're not any of the greyhounds. If we were, out of the starting gate, they'll eat us for breakfast. No. We're the hare -- a tiny, defenceless, fuzzy thing mounted on a track that the dogs chase in order to motivate them to run faster. The hare represents to the dogs the possibilities that could be, and is always moving faster than the pack. It cannot afford to be caught because it will be torn to shreds, but that also means that the race is over and everybody loses.

In case you haven't noticed, life here is already like that. If our future progresses along rational lines, our future promises to be quite exciting. It's up to us to convince ourselves that in the next 10, 15, 20 years, this is the place to be and make it happen.

Film Fest 08

Stayed late on campus to support Sha's film fest. Basically, it's the official launch of her kids' self-shot, self-edited movie. Won't say too much about the movie itself 'cos considering the kids put it together without much experience and advice, it wasn't too bad a job. Yes, there were the usual jump cuts, odd camera placement, continuity gaffes, occasional gaps in the plot and a couple of the perennial voice-over blackouts (they never learn year after year); at least the storyline was generally coherent, and the talent took personal risks playing in uncomfortable situations and the performances, though cliched, were mostly believable.

But the film fest was also an excuse for a handful of us to take some time off work and have some great laughs over dinner and a quick supper at the AMK garden McD's (free parking for the first hour!) where we analyzed Sha's movie to shreds in her presence. HP, though officially no longer fellow staff continues to spend her last few days here with us before her departure towards the West and the Grand Adventure that awaits her. B-lo and Wayne rounded up our little group tonight.

Bolt or blot?

Usain Bolt wants to have fun. Bolt runs for a living, and as of the now-concluded Beijing Olympics, he's the fastest man in the world.

To be able to accomplish a feat no other human being has been able to makes his exuberant claim to be "number one" a statement of fact, though he may have made a bit too much of a meal of it on international television. As fellow human beings, we can take some pride in the physical proof that our frail design has broken yet another seemingly impossible limitation; but to see Bolt's index-finger waving in-your-face celebration on a 50+" LCD HDTV must have pushed IOC Pres, Jacques Rogge's I-so-want-to-smack-his-face button.

Rogge's job is to keep the good image of the Olympics. Scenes like Michael Phelps celebrating with family and loved ones after yet another record-breaking achievement are heart-warming and represent the spirit of sportsmanship that the Games upholds. That makes for nice family entertainment, and Rogge isn't about let his beloved Olympics degenerate into a quad-annual WWE-fest any time soon.

Though Bolt got his smack, he still remains unrepentant. To him, that display was just about him being himself, having fun, enjoying a great day at the office and entertaining the crowds the way they want to be entertained. And it was great for the ratings too! So what's the old man's problem?

Two guys on opposite ends of a tug-of-war rope. Traditional idealist vs Media-savvy punk. But if Phelps, a guy with more reason to be proud of himself, can behave himself in front of the international media, Bolt's excesses put a blot on his achievement. Grow up, boy!

Shopping spree

Put out another wad of cash for fixtures and fittings for our new place. Sinks, taps, crappers, showers, and a water heater for our two bathrooms, and a hob and hood set for the kitchen.

Seems we got a good deal from this lobang of Tong's. We got varying discounts on each item, depending on the branding, and a small overall discount if we paid cash outright.

It was funny to see all of us us emptying our wallets and counting all the cash we had brought with us to qualify for that last discount. May helped out a lot with her own cash in hand while the store accepted the balance via NETS payment.

So, slowly, painfully, our new premises are coming together.

Farewell, HP!

Full shots viewable here: HP’s Farewell

We played a dreadful trick on HP. We arranged to throw her a going-away dinner at Josh's place, then at the last minute this afternoon, a significant number of us either called, SMS'ed or personally conveyed our apologies for not being able to attend due to some pretext or other. It was a little heartbreaking to make her feel so disappointed, but there was no other way to pull off the surprise we planned for her.

So when we seemingly popped out of nowhere while Josh was giving her the grand tour of his house we gave her quite a shock, and she couldn't stop laughing for a while.

While we ate, we watched Li crash out of the Olympics third place match in table-tennis. Almost a repeat performance from Athens, last time around. The Chinese are just too good.

And, as efficient as I knew them to be, Amy & Co pulled out a cake with a candle on it for me. It was a rich chocolate/white chocolate confection from Bengawan Solo. I'd already blown out a candle at M-i-L's last night, but I guessed my pals opted for surprising me today 'cos there really wasn't any time to do it yesterday. Thanks ppl!

Now, back to HP: anyone fancy an early morning drive to the airport?

Bloodsuckers Top 10

more graph humor and song chart memes

Consider today's ST report on the S'pore's Top Ten absconders of other people's moolah. Out of ten, SIX represent the legal profession. You draw your own conclusions.

Templates and worksheets and kids

Template worksheets are a horror to me. They bore me with their routine fill-in-the-blanks repetition, leaving little scope for outside the box thinking. The point of the template is to think within the box/es provided in any case. It's an extrinsic form of discipline, forcing a particular and artificial flow of thinking through an equally artificial problem, giving the impression that there is only one path to a solution.

But that's just me. I discovered today that kids and templates are a marriage made in heaven. How to make kids sit and focus on a piece of work? Give them a template exercise and they'll be furiously scribbling away, trying their darndnest to fill up the empty boxes like a salaryman attacking a sudoku puzzle. And I sit there with one raised eyebrow wondering why it's gone so quiet all of a sudden.

True, it's an exercise we've done several times over already, so the familiarity must have something to do with it. The structure helps focus and discipline easily-distracted minds to the routine task.The steps to solving the problem are spelled out and the expectations are clear. Or clearer, anyway, than just a blank sheet of paper and a mess of possibilities.

Me, I learn intuitively and introspectively. I enjoy the freedom to explore, to pick up ideas, and arrange them in different kinds of odd combinations. Must be due to the lack of education I received during my formative years. To force me to think within a set framework -- and grade me for compliance -- is quite an anathema to my personal develoment, and I was in my day quite a hopeless student.

But the kids are different. Mainstream-schooled, they need their structures and their scaffolding. For them, step-by-step is the way to go. Fine. Point taken.

A chink in the armour

I'm as proud as any S'porean (apart from the regular gripey malcontents on STI) about our paddlers' team silver at the Olympics. The team did well enough to demolish its opponents in its group, and fought tooth and nail in the semis, but despite its steamrolling success it didn't pick up enough momentum to beat the last opponent, China, in the finals.

I realise to ask for a gold would appear ungrateful, but I am playing a game of "what if?". Could Li, Wang and Feng have taken Zhang, Guo and the other Wang? It may have been difficult, but not impossible since all are top-ranked competitors in the sport. So it isn't in capability that our team faced a disadvantage.

No, what worked against us was having too much respect for the opponent, both in its top seeding and in its partisan home support. This really was China's party, and we tiny upstarts weren't in any position to make them cry if we wanted to. And we didn't want to, anyway; it wasn't in the unwritten 'script'. Perhaps in a more neutral country we wouldn't have been so overawed.

That's one mental block our athletes have yet to work around. We tend to play for what SHOULD be, not what MIGHT be. Our nation can be embarassingly audacious in many respects, but not yet in the sporting arena.

To add another two cents, here's an observation from an armchair critic about our silver medallists: They give away too much about their emotional state in their body language at the table. There's annoyance, frustration and resignation written as clear as day on their faces and postures. While it looks like great passion and drama for a television audience, it's also a dead giveaway to their opponents as to who has the upper hand. They may play excellent ping-pong but horrible poker.

The key to a winning game is in maintaining composure under pressure. An upright stance and a cool face even when losing reflects attitude and control. It can be difficult to master, emo beings that we are, but it pays dividends. "If you're putting up an act for others to see, you can end up fooling yourself too," according to tennis player, Kay Kay Magi. And that bit of self-deception could be just the thing to turn a match around.

And it doesn't even have to apply in just sport.

*Er... no pun intended in the title. Honest.

Olympic silver for our girls

Not often a Head-of-State's national address gets upstaged by a sporting event on primetime TV. Still, it was a match of national importance, an historic occasion and something to cheer about in gloomy times.

The final score was 3-0, but the girls had already won before the match started. They didn't go in to turn the world on its head; it was quite enough that they delivered on their promise. An Olympic silver in a team event to break a near half-century drought is, indeed, something to celebrate.

We certainly do have great girls, go-getters all; inspirational, competitive, showing fire and determination and a lion-hearted fighting spirit. Fabulous, brave, beautiful to behold. We're proud of our girls, including the little swimmer who was the toast of our town not too many days ago.

My question is, where are us guys in all of this? Our national achievements are running on women-power alone, while we guys are either too wimpy, or having a too beer-swiggin'ly good time watching our better halves on TV to match them in ambition and drive.

Perhaps we've identified with our lion city too closely?

It's probably why the PM's so worried. The lion-lioness metaphor isn't working. There ain't no little cubs swelling our pride. But honestly, if I were a lioness myself, I'd be a tad suspicious of the local gene pool too.

"The Littlest Hobo" leaves town

And just like that, HP's gone. Was so busy, I didn't even get to say 'goodbye' on her last day. Yes, her official farewell dinner is still to come, but there's a Space in her cubicle now where there once was a friend.

We'll miss HP a lot. She may have appeared understated, but she kept things sane within the general chaos of dNYel. She was a deep, calm reservoir of hidden strength and yet, suddenly revealing an adventurous spirit that we could not tie down. Next stop: TO, a dear, familiar city full of treasured memories I myself would love to revisit one day.

Bon Voyage, HP! We'll keep in touch via FB.

Post scriptum:
Ok, I'm sorry. After two weeks of being infected with a cyber-virus caught from the iCTLT and spouting nonsense like a blithering idiot (B-lo's new vocab of the day), I believe the embarassing madness has run it's course and I've finally returned properly to Earth.

I promise no more mindless rantings reminiscent of a novice with his first commission, all starry-eyed and empty-headed. No more talk of "change this" or "change that". I'm realistic enough to know that the more talk, the less change. So I'll stop pretending I'm working 24/7 for the good of "my kids". I'm Off-Duty, remember?

On the cusp of industrial revolution

Well, there it is: the Boss is taking us into our next stage of industrial evolution. It'll be more customized towards the individual student. We're going to teach in more innovative ways and the kids have to learn to innovate on their own too. It'll be important to ground the kids in solid theory, but they've also got to see how theory applies in a way that is relevant to their lives.

As excited as I am about these sweeping new changes, I still have to keep my ear to the ground and see who else is likely to rally around this cause. This is a revolution that starts from the ground up. I'm not about to lead this charge by myself.

Terrorizzzz...

Was planning to make a note of attending this afternoon's industry-sponsored seminar on terrorism and how the third speaker, my ol' pal Cherry-ann, made quite an impact on my female companions with his learned, yet boyish charm. But I didn't realize just how fatigued I was. Crashed and burned on the living room carpet and only woke up past midnight so that I could finish my beauty sleep in bed.

This entry has obviously been back-dated.

Swollen and puffy

Fell sick again with a nasty allergic reaction to who knows what. Apart from the usual asthma-like inflammation in the lungs, the left side of my face swelled up, and I felt puffy and irritable throughout the night. Couldn't get much sleep as a result, maybe two hours at the most.

Swelling went down a bit in the morning, though still noticeable. Went to work in my glasses and probably scared the kids showing up for class like that. Got a prescription of anti-histamines and an anti-inflammatory to help me sleep better tonight, and hopefully I'll be in a better frame of mind to interact with the kids tomorrow.

Still curious about what might have been the allergen. Likely suspects: the Pacific clam surprise in my dinner, the Japanese strawberry ice-cream I had for dessert, or Maui. Stupid cat has a new game: ambush owner from the back, sinking his claws into the skin as he climbs his way up to perch on said owner's shoulder like a pirate's demented parakeet. Underneath my shirt, I look like a scratching post. And that boy's claws aren't exactly the most sanitary things on Earth either.

Avoiding all three things tonight...

It's the guy's fault!

With all the talk and concern over our recent baby issues (or rather, lack thereof), and with the revelation that our government is initiating policies focused on putting the boot to husbands' backsides, here's an interesting counter-perspective based on a US parenting study that lends support to what I've already intuitively known: having kids does not necessarily make one happy.

Question is, am I happy now, without having sprouted forth a genetic host to transport my genetic legacy through another generation? I'd say I was fairly content. I don't know how I could be any happier, but I do know how my encounters with other people's kids have often ruined my usually benign disposition towards the human race.

Just this morning I overheard a male voice saying, "I'll give you money if you'll be a good girl." Under normal guy-girl conversation, this line would have led to interesting possibilities, but no, when I looked he was just a dad trying to convince his bawling tot to get off the cheap ride (which again under normal circumstances is an interesting proposition, but no, he was just being a dad).

In man-speak what the dad was saying roughly translates to, "why the #%* isn't this RC working? Maybe if I #*$! bought a ^~!* upgrade, it might ^*%# work better?" We're looking at a guy who has lost control over both his finances and his dignity right out in the public eye. Definitely not a happy situation for any guy to be in. If this was a scene in a movie, he'd be the one providing comic relief, losing to a little girl like that.

This isn't the first time I heard this cry of desperation. When I see parents with their kids, more often than not the interaction is of a high-tension nature, a contest of wills. On one side, there's threat and authority, on the other manipulation and emotional blackmail. Perhaps I have a jaundiced eye, but I am not encouraged to give up my current state of mental health and overall well-being for what looks like a lifetime of negative return.

It'll be interesting to see what new initiatives the relevant Ministry intends to roll out in the next few weeks. What could they possibly say to convince us guy-folk to turn in our frat-boy beer hats and settle for a life of domesticity, barefoot and pregnant?

Trying to be funny on TV

Local English TV debuted two new sitcoms this evening, "Calefare" and "First Class". The former looks at the lives of the people cast as extras in film and TV shoots. The latter is about the goings-on in a secondary school and, um, not quite sure what else 'cos we didn't get past the introductions of the characters in the first episode.

I wondered about the word "Calefare". It seems to be a word used only in the local entertainment industry. The recognized term is "extra" so where did this odd-sounding noun come from? The closest etymology I can conjecture is from the French term, "le faire", which means "to do [it]", which makes sense. It is for the extra to do and die. But the "Ca" part eludes me. Can anyone offer assistance?

English drama has been pretty dire on local TV (still is) because it has never moved past playing stereotypes. And bad stereotypes at that. What English TV has yet to twig on is that TV is a very different medium from theatre. I know theatre, and I know that there is room to play with form and presentation because theatre is an inherently artificial environment. The characters need to appear larger than life, with clearly defined characteristics because much of the context (that word again) they exist in is created with a lot of fill-in-the-blanks in the minds of the audience. Theatre couldn't be 'real' if it tried.

The audience for TV treats the medium as 'real', though. The TV camera can transport the audience to real locations and 'converse' with real people. News, documentaries, chat or magazine programmes, reality TV all exploit the audience's belief in the realism TV presents. The TV camera is a mobile device that can shoot from any location in 3-dimensional space, so there is no reason for the audience to make allowances for any theatrical backdrop, or be in any way limited by the theatrical convention of the '4th wall'. The camera brings the audience to intimate proximity with the characters on-screen and that gets pretty real for us, moreso than theatre ever could anyway.

MediaCorp tends to hybridize both media, but it doesn't work. The sets are real locations -- or at least realistic locations -- but the characters are just unbelievable. They are like 2D cartoon characters superimposed on 3D space. In the pilot of "Calefare" we have a diva actor who is all diva, a wistful Bollywood has-been, a spaced-out snarky rocker chick who speaks like Raven of the Teen Titans and plays 'dead' quite well, and the usual raft of characters from any local school skit featuring 'local people'. Likewise in "First Class" the range of teacher-types and student-types is as predictable, and played to death already. No need to elaborate, you already know what I'm talking about.

Despite the promising issues that can be explored in sitcoms involving extras and school-based high jinks, if the characters don't develop any personalities soon, we'll have yet another crop of English TV drama that won't surpass the quality of a Power Rangers series, or maybe LWT's Mind Your Language at the most.

This is not to say that the use of stereotypes on TV cannot make successful TV shows. We know how popular the Power Rangers franchise is, and MYL was more than a laugh and a half, but MediaCorp also needs to mind its audience and mind its own medium if it wants to raise the level of English TV comedy in the S'pore.

I'll be watching...

43 today

"Celebrating the S'pore spirit" in the comfort of my living room, watching the parade on my 29" TV. The sensation wasn't quite the same as being there, but it was the next best thing having failed to score tix this year.

Instead of joining in the crush of 200,000 revelers at Marina Bay, I quite happily took a break from it all and spent most of the day alone at home basking in peace and quiet. My only company was the pile of essays that I've been slowly gnawing my way through over the past week. June, on the other hand, was doing the more sociable and cosmopolitan thing, joining her colleagues at her FT boss's condo taking Korean cooking lessons.

I wonder if it's because I wasn't at the parade in person (or maybe that after last night's spectacular opening of the Beijing Olympics there wasn't much we could do to even compare), but our 43rd birthday seemed quite a bit understated. It sort of crept up on us, there was this evening's bang and whoopee, and now it's all over.

Oh well, anyway, happy 43rd, Spore!

Momentary self-consciousness

Was my previous entry as irritating as I thought it was when I re-read it? Some information should just stay in the classroom where it belongs. I have to remember that I'm a blogger who, by the way, teaches; and not a teacher who blogs. I'm sure there must be more interesting things to talk about.

No context, no comprende

In adapting to Learning 2.0, there's bound to be a huge conflict between the holistic, customized, student-centred curriculum that we hope to develop for our next generation of learners, and the tried-and-tested assessment of the pen-and-paper nature that we're used to.

Immediately on my return from the conference, I had scheduled a practice exercise to prepare the kids for their test next week. Here's a piece of text, read it. Here are a bunch of questions about the text, answer them -- and don't copy anything from the text. How stimulating is that?

So, we want our cake and eat it too. We all agree that assessment is an essential component of the learning process. It shows the progress of the learner, the accuracy of the learning, the suitability of the pace of instruction, and lots of other important data for tracking the learning process. And yet, because we are introducing diversity, applying multiple-intelligences to bear on our students' learning, and encouraging them to take ownership and responsibility over their own learning process, when it comes to taking standardized tests it seems like allowing everyone to run free for a while and then suddenly yanking on their leashes and bringing them all back to the kennel we told them they were being released from. In this model, their learning is still about the test, whatever our intentions were.

There is a way to reap the benefits of both worlds. The one missing factor in the above model is context. The idea is to teach the kids beyond the requirements of our tests, to stretch them so far that the test is like child's play to them. We aim our sights higher, push the kids further, no so much making them grind harder for their test but rather to put them in real-life situations in which they can see how the theories they are reading in their textbooks actually do make the world function.

As for my exercise, I decided I wouldn't torture them with sit down, shut up, do your work. The topic was about the declining regard today's society has for the institution of marriage. Although the topic is a real, current concern for adults, it seemed quite remote to the kids until working together in small groups they started contextualizing the issue for themselves. Before attacking the given text, each group had to make some important decisions first. Each group had to decide which interest group it represented; it had to decide who their audience was; and it had to decide what the problem was that it had to advise on, given the interest of the group. For example, a group might decide that it was playing the role of a happily married couple advising another couple on the verge of divorce how to salvage their marriage. Now that they had a reason for looking at the text and they had a specific problem to solve, they seemed to be in a better frame of mind to begin the exercise.

I still feel they aren't quite ready to handle the pen-and-paper exercise yet though. I need one more step and that is for each group to script out a dialogue based on the characters and the problem they need to resolve, and then for fun (multiple-intelligence thing) we'll have a little drama presentation so that everyone will be able to view what initially seemed like a mundane problem from many different perspectives, some of which may be somewhat self-serving, but none absolutely right or absolutely wrong. But all relevant to answering the Application Question that is the whole point of the Paper 2 Comprehension.

I haven't even mentioned how the use of Web 2.0 could vastly enrich the kids' engagement in this exercise. As it is I can see already that I going to need a lot of time to get everything done. Which is why I have a problem: the kids' standardized test is scheduled for next week. I may not have the time to prepare them for it if I go with what I propose. Hmm... decisions, decisions.

iCTLT: Day 2

Bernie Trilling and the spiky ball of central control

Let's take a balanced approach to Web 2.0

One final chat before bringing the festivities to a close

If yesterday was about the possibilities this whole Web 2.0 thing can open up to us, today we focused on the nuts and bolts of how it should function as we bring IT and Education closer together.

The Korean delegation presented a fun "Digital Textbook" they're developing for Elementary English. It was fully interactive and incorporated lots of multimedia surprises including sound and video clips and animations. Kids could self-check their progress, communicate in real-time with each other and with seonseng, and post work to be graded all entirely online. If I put a user-defined spin on this idea, with the proper instruction and the tools available, my 16-17 year-olds could customize their own GP textbooks, couldn't they? Let's let that idea percolate for a while...

Many speakers today talked about making learning contextual. Bernie Trilling said that "questions and problems drive learning," not content in isolation of everything else. Cheryl Lemke made a point that learning should take place at the community level so that there is an interconnectedness between the learning and its application to society. The individual needs of the learner, the skills they need to become facile in, and the talents they can develop all play a role in this new landscape. If we haven't been playing at this level before as teachers, we either will, or we have to, depending on how we choose.

Yesterday, we talked about transforming the world with technology. Today, we put people back into the equasion. Technology has only given us a means to shake more hands than our ancestors may have ever dreamed possible. But it's still going to be the needs of the people and our sense of responsibility towards each other and to the world that will determine what we do next after we say, "hello." Technology can transform and keep transforming, making us all uncertain and insecure about where we're at any point in time, but it's still going to have to be people teaching people or there's no longer any point to our learning.

I had a fabulous time at this conference. Lots of ideas to steal from an array of inspiring, sensible, practical people keeping an eye on the future, yet working to realize it in the here and now.

Hope John Connell doesn't mind my links to his blog, but he's got such succinct notes from the keynote speakers:

iCTLT '08: "Mind_shift, Culture_shift" by Cheryl Lemke

Talk to my lawyer

Got an inside look into the legal proceedings behind our real estate transactions. In typical blur fashion, we arrived at our lawyer's office with no documents whatsoever. So she had to sign the legal documents with us in good faith, trusting we'll fax over everything we need in our portfolio in the morning.

Linda worked out our cash balance, our individual CPF contributions, and all legal and stamp duties we were liable for. Satisfied that we were still living within our means (a bit late anyway, now that we've got pretty much done deals), we signed on several dotted lines... and now we can proudly say we have engaged a lawyer to represent us on issues concerning our physical estate.

As long as we fax over the stuff tomorrow.

International Conference on Teaching and Learning with Technology: Day 1

The unveiling of IT Masterplan 3

Sir Ken describes a holistic learning matrix

Mitch Resnick on technology, education and creativity

Can't help gushing, but what a rush Day 1 has been. Apart from watching our new Boss unveil our industry's latest IT Masterplan, we also had two illustrious keynote speakers, Sir Ken Robinson, of the ouch-inducing "schools kill creativity" TED address; and Mitch Resnick of the Lifelong Kindergarten, among other things he's doing for MIT.

Inviting these two critics of education systems that have seen little change since the Industrial Revolution tells those of us at implementation level to prepare for a new revolution in education. With the technology that's available to us now, there exists the potential for a tremendous explosion of new ideas and new means of expressing them, but we have to let go of the purely economic, purely functional, assembly line approach to education in order for it to happen. We're moving into an era of teaching and managing creativity, and it's happening right here, right now.

While it might be a tool to achieve "results", we can no longer use fear to drive our kids like we used to. They've got to be happy to come to school and learn whatever it is they are learning. If we say they can only be happy when they receive their Certificates, it's too late because by then they have become "set for life", literally. Learning in this way is only a means to an end, but paradoxically it also puts an end to their means. I'm just saying.

Personally, I've never been so turned on by events like this one; but today I'm accumulated half a small notebook of scribbled thoughts and ideas. I need some quiet to reflect and figure out possible implementation strategies and I'd love for some sensible person to help harness my wild imagination and make it real and workable. Dunno who yet, so I'll just leave it open and see what (or who) Providence turns up.

Anyway, for my personal reference, the following links are John Connell's informal transcripts of some of the key proceedings from yesterday and today:

iCTLT '08: Education 2.0
iCTLT '08: Sir Ken's Keynote

International Conference on Teaching and Learning with Technology: Day 0

The Seminar title was promising enough, "Web 2.0: The Power of Learning in a Networked World". But it looks like even Web 1.0 has yet to kick off in this region. Here's an analogy straight from this afternoon's experience: When I walked into the conference this afternoon, there were already some people seated, waiting for the event to begin. We were all individually scattered, keeping as much physical distance from each other as possible.

In a "networked world", the idea is that we'd walk into an environment that we'd find information about each other very quickly, establish common grounds with each other and begin trashing out ideas and opinions almost the instant we met each other. That wasn't happening. Instead, we sat apart, kept doing our own things trying not to attract attention to ourselves until a familiar face walked through the door, and only then to cluster into a node of discussion. Turned out that me, Kev and Wan became the noisiest node (imagine that!) simply because three of us came from the same institution, whereas everyone else came either alone or in a pair at the most.

Because physically we weren't networking as a whole, it was obvious that no one was networking online either. With the exception of yours truly and his little blog, I suppose. And even then, I'm not much of a networker, either. So instead of me learning from more experienced Web 2.0 users, it became more of a session where our speaker, J Connell, tried to convince the rest of his audience to at least get started with a personal blog, and see what happens from there.

Connell also showed us some other useful tools as well, such as RSS aggregators and other means of sharing information amongst a smaller, personally defined audience rather than jumping straight into the wild and wooly world wide web itself. So at least out of this afternoon, I got a clue about some new toys I could start playing with.

Don't know what the situation will be over the next couple of days at the Conference, but I gather so far that I am one of the pioneers in the transformation education is about to undergo now that human knowledge is shifting to occupy an increasingly electronic space. I still have a lot to learn about this promising medium, but because we already have the infrastructure, we might as well figure out how to use it to its best advantage.

To me, that best advantage is to let each learner create his (or her) own "learning environment", sourcing their own materials, experiences, and mentors for whatever it is they want to learn. From the diversity of experiences, a class -- whether physical or online -- becomes a home node for a group of learners who teach and learn from each other. That of course means that the teacher can no longer be the "source" (and we'd be deluding ourselves if we think we still are in this day and age), but an orchestrator of the learning that goes on in the class. That'll be a major task for us, in keeping flexible enough to work all that cacophony into some kind of music that everyone can make sense of.

With the web, there is no more need for content, just relevance and coherence, tempered with strong values. We're rewriting the entire book of pedagogy, and for me, it's cool to be starting on page one.

Q-tip attends the Singapore Dog Walk 2008

Took Q-tip to socialize with her fellow genus at the annual Singapore Dog Walk, West Coast Park.

Despite the day being so hot, Q-tip turned her nose up at the water we brought for her from home. What she's drinking is cold Ice Mountain mineral water we bought from a vendor here.

For Q-tip, it was sort of a partial walk and a partial carry. Poor thing had no stamina to complete the full course.