Hello World! England 2011: Day 2

Official (and possibly mandatory) banner shot. To be used in our review presentation and other PR material.

A full breakfast of bacon and sausage and eggs with sides.

Think the kids are here on holiday? Not while there's learnin' to be done. Lake Districts National Park guide, Ben, gets the kids measuring footpath erosion to determine the extent of damage tourists like us are causing to the pristine landscape.

I should also mention that it's the hottest day of the year, according to Ben. Unshielded by cloud cover, the sun produces brilliant illumination that makes our surroundings look so picturesque, but we're melting. Burns and tan lines all-round! Nobody thought to bring sun-block. Duh.

On to the pretty little village of Grasmere to sample the local world-famous speciality, gingerbread. Also to view the Wordsworth family churchyard plot and just chill for a bit.

This shop was especially hospitable. The jolly proprietor gave our guide a whole bag full of Kendal mint cakes to share with us and the kids. He also went around with a large tray of jelly babies, and offered free samples to passers by.

Next stop, Rydel Mount, home of W Wordsworth for the rest of his life after upgrading from dove cottage. Who said poetry never amounted to much of a living?

A view of last night's youth hostel from the water. We're moving on to Bowness for dinner...

Dinner being a slice each of gammon, turkey and roast beef; with stuffing, Yorkshire pudding and all the veggies we wanted. The place? Crown Carveries in a row of shophouses called Lakeview.

Day 2 complete, on to the Travelodge, Burton and call it a night.

Hello World! England 2011: Day 1

I'm in England! To be precise, at this point I'm in the Lake District and this is a bunch of kids from college who are on tour with me. Their first educational stop off the plane is Dove Cottage, home of W Wordsworth.

Wordsworth's actual cottage, external photos -- as expected -- allowed only. Inside, the cottage is quite cramped, for a two-storey edifice. People were obviously much more sociable and smaller-built then for the cottage to accommodate a family, domestic help, frequent houseguests and a dog. Quite a number of Wordsworth's personal belongings on display, so there's a real sense of connection to the man and his period in history.

All the kids, finally together for a group shot.

Our accommodation for the night: a Youth Hostel facing Lake Windermere.  Quite cosy, though the rooms are meant to be shared three or more to a room. I have a room to myself: a perk of being a chaperone. So it's me with a choice of top or bottom in my bunk bed, or the mattress on the floor. Toilet and shower facilities are communal, so guess who's waking up early to make the best use of them?

Wholesome, hearty, nutritious university style hostel food. Thick tomato basil soup, pasta in beef bolognaise sauce and a sweet apple crumble. Stuff to shovel into mouth and stomach in large quantities. Happy.

A view of the lake from the edge of the bay. Our hostel is the building on the left. We have a grand panoramic view of the lake and the hills on the far bank. My room faces behind -- a glorious vista of the back alley and the neighbour's backyard.

Day 1 settled. Shops close early around here, so there's nothing to do but admire the scenery and turn in for an early night.

Morpheus visits

Time for some pictures of a sleepy kitty

She's been so active all day. Finally, a chance to enjoy a little stillness and silence.

Doesn't this pix make you want to pop off to bed right NOW?

P.S. as I'm typing, Grimm is asleep on my tummy. Shh... don't wake the baby...!

Victim of the puppet-masters

I've been nursing a figurative sore head over what I perceived to be unnecessary intrusions of a certain committee into a certain project I've been supervising. Never before have I encountered such a bunch of controlling, narrow-minded, meddlesome worrywarts looking over my shoulder and telling me how I should run my own business. The level of trust that I once enjoyed from the previous management has now been replaced with a new batch of paranoiacs bent on oversight at every decision I make. It's intolerable!

That was a few days ago. Today, I've calmed down some. Having talked things through with my project members, I guess it's good that the committee did make their recommendations after all. A neutral third party saw some issues that were blind spots for me, being too close to the subject matter, and alerted me to potential hazards in my processes.

Fine. But I'm still going to greet them with a surly, pouty face whenever I see them. I won't give them the satisfaction.

Meet the family

Time for Grimm to meet the family. Maui seems to have taken quite a shine to her.

Yep, here he's looking at her like he's eying a nice, light snack.

Three cats in a frame is about all I can manage. Kaiser's gone off to sulk somewhere else.

Looks like the start of a beautiful friendship... once they finally stop punching each other to establish who's Boss in these here parts.

I should have taken my mom

An unexpected day off on a non-peak period day, coupled with some great weather, and it's off to Universal Studios, no questions asked! NTUC and DBS discounts make the entrance fees more attractive on days like these. 

This is one of the reasons why we're here... the 'Revenge of the Mummy'! Here we have a decent coaster with something of a story that perpetuates throughout the ride. With pyrotechnics, cool lighting effects and parts of the ride taking place in blackout, it's quite intense for someone queueing up thinking 'thank god, I'm not riding a roller coaster'. Warning signs are all around, so there's no excuse for being unwary.

Our reward for braving and defeating Imhotep... a dandy souvenir snapshot with Queen Nefertitty!

And the real reason why we're here is because of these two bad boys, the BSG Human/Cylon dueling rides! Only the best rides ever -- within the scope of my limited coaster riding experience. The Human side is already quite intense with lots of tight loops to negotiate. But the Cylon side is a suspended coaster which means that every loop and twist is amplified from the riders' pov. We're frequently head-over-heels, facing nothing but cloudy blue sky or hard, unforgiving floor beneath, our breath taken away by the sensation of high-speed flight. In many other theme parks, this one would be the most crowded; but the screams of the brave few were enough to keep most other people away. Only in S'pore, right? Oh well, more for us, then!

So, what else is there for non-thrill seekers to do at USS? Well, there are a number of (yawn) milder rides that are still kinda' fun, though not exactly mind-blowingly so. There are lots of shows to catch, mostly involving singing and dancing costumed mascots that are lively and reasonably entertaining, and there's this: Waterworld. Only two shows a day, with lots of flash-and-bang, collapsing structures, high-speed water shenanigans and rope traversing. It's way more fun to sit in the soak zone 'cos the action is right in your face, as are the water jets, sea-craft spray and the characters' sloshing buckets which they use to motivate audience participation. It's ok, in our climate our clothes dry out in no time.

Oh, I was a little anxious about the crowd situation on an off-peak day. Normally, I am crowd averse but theme parks are exciting only when there are people jostling shoulder-to-shoulder while standing in queues waiting for their turn at the rides. There's nothing sadder than an empty theme park. I shouldn't have worried. The place was packed full of tour groups enough so it sounded noisy and happy, and yet not so much that wait-time was interminably long per ride. Best of both worlds!

HP asked for an assessment of the activities here at USS. I say there's quite enough to do and see for a full day of fun and entertainment for everybody -- just a little more so for coaster freaks. BSG! BSG!

Renewal

Once again, the torch of leadership passes on. 2011's Exco has given way to the newbies of 2012 who must now take the helm and chart their own way. With every batch, NYeDC has raised its accomplishments bar. But I truly take my hat off to 2011 for having the vision, the work ethic, the belief in the worth of their shared goals, and the -- yes -- administrative strength to pull of one of the most successful seasons we've had ever.

The newbies now, led by CJ, will have to step up a lot to fill the space their predecessors have left behind. Shammo and Co are a tough act to follow, but they have been an exceptional bunch which was able to capitalize on all their individual strengths and cover for each others' personal weaknesses. Hope the noobs will find their feet soon. We have a reputation to uphold thanks to our success at Drama Night last weekend. Let's see what 2012 can do to take us further on!

The Grimmest of days

Haven't been updating for so long. Spent the last three plus weeks Exec Producing Drama Night 2011 and working 14-15 hours a day juggling between class and stage. Brain dead by the time I get home every night :p

I don't begrudge the time spent, though. When I see the kids working so fervently on a common goal -- the show -- and note the many sacrifices they were making to make it a great show, I knew enough to step back and let the creative juices flow.

Too bad outsiders of the club will never see the energy, drive and gusto amidst the blood, sweat and tears invested in the production. Everything from the set (including Rapunzel's tower and Cindy's fireplace) was made from scratch out of huge sheets of art board; the various hand props comprising fairy tale paraphernalia all painstakingly designed, manufactured and hand-painted by the kids themselves There was no distinction between "Actors" and backstage crew -- everyone lent a hand regardless of their place on stage.

Of course, multi-tasking like that caused us a lot of heart attacks too. Rehearsals could not begin in earnest until the set and prop items were complete. Hence the many days of long hours, hard work, angry parents and teachers, stressed-out security guards anxious to lock up after us, and tired kids.

We'd never attempted a full-feature length play before. A full 90-minute monster which went through several rounds of writing and rewriting right up to full-dress rehearsal. New sound and lighting cues kept throwing off what we'd settled on in previous rehearsals, constantly confusing cast and crew.

Honestly, by the time we could work with full runs it was already production week and rehearsals were dire. My fellow Exec Producers were casting sidelong glances at each other wondering how we could put such a show up for public display. At $8 a ticket. It would have been a real pity if the show flopped, considering how much work everyone put into it.

Despite our misgivings, opening night was a blast! Energized by a boisterous audience thrilled to see their friends on stage, the kids gave their all, fully committed to their roles and -- er, mostly -- alert to their cues. There were mistakes, but the kids covered well for each other, and the crowd was forgiving. Likewise for 2nd night, though the crowd was mainly parents and walk-ins.

It was altogether a fantastic run for us. We made the audience laugh at the right places and impressed with a quality performance that people are going to remember and talk about for a while. The kids will face a reality of pain when they return to their regular schoolwork now that the season has ended, but I think it will be worth it. Through these last weeks, the kids have experienced a kind of magic that will never leave them. They've made some very good friends who've suffered with them throughout the production, and that's a bonding that cannot easily be erased. They've led and organized themselves in a joint project they all believed in, and they've grown in confidence and stature as a result of it. Their peers are going to look at them with a new respect from now on.

NYeDC has reached a new level of theatrical professionalism, and I and my fellow Expros are really proud of the club for moving us so far forward towards my dream.

For rehearsal and production stills, check out my Webshots album.

In the meantime, June has picked up a new kitty whom I shall name Grimm in honour of our production.

Miao!

Business as usual

And so the dust has settled, the rhetoric spent. It is a brand new day, but perhaps not exactly the one we were promised. On the whole, our voters voted for status quo, business as usual. The Workers gained a lot, the incumbents lost a little by way of vote share. So while there is movement towards more alternative voices in public debate, the electorate has been careful not to jump at making radical changes too quickly.

What the Workers proved is that the GRC system is not as undefeatable as is widely claimed. As long as the Opposition can field a credible, capable and trustworthy team to rival the incumbent, they will win the backing of their voters and their seats in Parliament. This election has already thrust several potential Opposition candidates into the limelight, so if they can get themselves together and prepare for the next election their challenge will be even stronger.

In the meantime, the incumbents have been shaken enough to make a campaign apology for past mistakes and they have a lot of catching up to win back the voters they have lost since the last election. But really, the writing is on the wall. This election has been the most exciting one in a long time. During the campaigning there was a sense that the results may not be the forgone conclusion they were in the past. With the massive turnouts at the rallies and the incumbents put on the defensive with practically every ward being contested, the people are beginning to aspire towards a less lopsided Parliament. But not so soon.

The Workers have their chance to prove themselves more than just fiery campaigners who can talk a good fight, but as the MPs their voters have mandated them to be. If Hougang and Aljunied can deliver both the goods and the alternative voice they promised in their speeches, the next election will prove to be even more exciting.

Time to choose

When it comes down to it -- and it HAS come down to it -- I only need the government for one thing: to just do for the common good whatever I, the individual, am unable to do for myself. All I want is a system that functions cleanly, efficiently and without bias to take care of the material wellbeing of society in general.

The arguments put forward during this round of election campaigning generally boil down to one key issue:  to have a government with a heart for the poor little individual person. Me. But by the criterion above, that's quite the antithesis of the reason why we need a government.

And anyway, I think that if we, the people, already have no heart for one another in the first place, then having the government take over that responsibility on our behalf isn't going to change diddly-squat for anyone.

I know who I'm voting for, and why. Do you?

A couple more Grimm pix

Drama Night details revealed! The kids unveiled this huge banner last night. Did I mention the Drama kids are quite ambitious this year?

The J1 cast in partial costumes.

I know which seat to take

I'm alive! Alive, I tell you! Survived a harrowing drive from downtown back to campus with two girls squashed under a 2m long art board that took up almost all the space there was in M2's driving compartment. It was raining, it was night-time and visibility was poor, with me sitting up as straight as I could so I could peer over the board through the windscreen. The rear window was completely obscured.

Art supplies were for the set of Drama Night which we are making on our own, from scratch. With one girl kickin' in the front seat and the other sittin' in the back seat, both complaining bitterly about how crammed M2 was and if I would ever consider upgrading to a lorry, this must be one of the craziest things I've ever done for NYeDC.

A Confucian family

Dear diary
Mommy and daddy are squabbling again. Every 4-5 years, mommy can't stand it any more and throws a hissy fit at daddy's excesses. Daddy can be a bit of an a** at home, focused as he is on work but not taking as much time out to sayang us as we'd like. Whenever there's an argument, daddy can only say that he knows best... etc. He's really not very articulate at home.

Mommy feels especially indignant because daddy earns so much money, but our household sees so little of it. Parts of our house are falling to bits, but he only seems interested in fixing the bits that he feels most at home in first. Mommy is mad that daddy didn't take his housework seriously. He forgot to clean the drains, and they overflowed twice in 50 years. Also, some of our siblings are not so well-off because they have difficulty finding good jobs, but daddy doesn't see fit to take away the privileges of our more successful brothers and sisters to help them. After all, if we're so concerned for our needier brethren, then we should help them out of our own initiative and not let them depend on handouts from him all the time. Selfish man.

Another of mommy's pet peeves is that he makes us siblings who are working chip in to fund his many hare-brained investments which, as the stock market goes, you win some, you lose some. Daddy is such a dreamer, driving mommy nuts with his impossible schemes -- and though some of them actually do come true, they're exorbitantly expensive and guess who pays for them? Fortunately, for all our losses, we haven't broken the bank yet and our wins are still enough to keep us decently watered, fed and clothed and our house is still the envy of the neighbourhood.

And despite mommy's shrill insistence that we're all on the verge of poverty, most of us do earn enough money to occasionally splurge on mad things like good food, movies, expensive handbags, new cellphones, big-screen TVs and high-speed Internet access -- though we don't have all that much money to buy them without thinking it over a few times first. But it sure would be nice if we could just buy whatever we wanted like rich people, wouldn't it?

Daddy allows the neighbours' kids to drop in and visit, and sometimes they have sleepovers with us. Mommy doesn't like them very much because they aren't very well-behaved, they're dirty, smelly and poor and she feels that they are just sponging off our goodwill. She would chase them out of our house, if it were up to her. After all, Daddy's too busy at work all day, so who's going to clean up the mess they're making and stop them from snatching the spoons out of the babies' mouths?

Mommy can't help thinking like a housewife, always demanding for her money... now, complaining that daddy isn't helping out in the house 'cos he's spending too much time outside making crazy deals or cozying up to his buddies from around the world. She doesn't like how he can't discipline his children properly, like my bro, Mas, who has rage management issues. He threatened to break some of our nice home furnishings and hurt some of us because... well, we don't really know why. All daddy could do was to talk nicely to him but he ran away from home. Fortunately, because daddy's good friends with the neighbours, they helped to find Mas and bring him back. Now he is safely sitting in the corner until he has a change of attitude.

That's the one thing I worry about mommy. Daddy can be an indulgent, neglectful and fairly absent Asian father with terrible parenting skills. But mommy is quite insular, especially with her regard of our neighbours toward whom she is quite openly hostile. Left to her, I'm worried that she will throw our friends out (except the ones we can entice to do our housework for us) and not let us play outside either. Her view doesn't stretch beyond the four walls of our house, and her agenda doesn't extend towards maintaining good relations with our neighbours. But because our house is the envy of our neighbourhood, we're likely to become a target for people to throw rocks at, if we're going to act all uppity and unneighbourly towards them.

If we were self-sufficient and lived in the middle of nowhere, we can afford to be parochial; but we live and thrive because we have been able to maintain our relevance as the centre of everywhere. Even if we don't take the paranoid view that our neighbours are homicidal maniacs on a hair-trigger, the worst thing they can and probably will do is ignore us when we cease to interest them any further. Fact is, we depend on the goodwill of our neighbours for even our basic necessities. Let's see how quickly we turn to cannibalism once our household supplies run out.

With daddy looking out and mommy looking in, both become total jerks around this time. Fortunately, our family has rules about quarrels of this sort. Mommy and daddy will rage at each other, call each other names and try to sway their children to support one or the other through threats, bribes or pure undiluted vitriol. But once the haranguing on both sides reaches its apex, it stops. Everything calms down again and life goes on.

It's looking like a Grimm Affair

Our Producer reviews her grand plan for Drama Night 2011

The minions, hard at work

What would we ever do without our blocks? They are the stars of every Drama Night since we got them!

Mirror, mirror, on the... hey! Are you paying any attention to me?

"Flames! Flames!"

Let the sparks fly

What's going down in our little dot these next few days is the showdown between the two main factions of people that comprise our national electorate.

In the Champion's corner is the lightning bolt -- a spark of electricity that powers every comfort and convenience we depend on in modern society. With electricity, everything we want we get in an instant, at least those of us who are wired up into the system. Electricity operates safely only when insulated. It prefers being left to function on its own as the more resistance it encounters, the more heat it generates at the expense of work output. Electricity is determined to drag us kicking and screaming into the future, but with its relentless pace always pushing forward and outward, only those who can keep up benefit the most, while the rest get left behind.

In the Challenger's corner is the hammer, a symbol of manual labour, requiring human muscle and motor skill to operate. A hand tool for the individual worker building plank by plank, nail by nail, the hammer needs the community cooperation of the sort the Amish rely on to build their barns. Everyone rolls up his sleeves and pitches in out of friendship, kinship or some other social obligation -- no one is above his neighbour in this effort. The hammer builds a close-knit but closed-off society whose particular traditions and values identify others as unwelcome strangers and outsiders. But in the age of electricity, the hammer just seems a bit obsolete and slow as an implement of work.

Progress vs tradition; individual opportunity vs social solidarity; insulation from the people's views vs insulation from the world's realities. In about a week's time, we will again get to choose our path for another political term. As always, our choices seem so mutually exclusive.

Not going down well

Cats are hair-tearingly contrary. After our last vet's visit, we bought a pack of Hill's Prescription Diet T/D Feline Dental Health so that Momo could clean her grungy teeth while she eats her meals. At first, she wouldn't touch  the stuff, though Maui and Kaiser who have no teeth problems went for their new diet with no trouble. Eventually, hunger got the better of  Momo and she too ate. Hours later, she threw up everything. Silly girl ate without chewing, the precise action of which would have cleaned her teeth. I give up. Anyone want a slightly used bag of dental care kibble?

Moral support

Helping a kid with her project. She wants me to respond to a qualitative survey about the state of moral education in schools today. Q+A follows:

What is lacking in the system of instruction in the teaching of moral education in S'pore schools and how can we get around this problem?

What's lacking is a common set of standards upon which to clearly determine "right" from "wrong" in specific cases. What we do have is a vague set of general guidelines as to what kind of social behaviour can be tolerated in public, but true moral education would impart what behaviours are self-disciplined, whether in the public eye or in private, knowing and trusting that everyone else in society believes in and adheres to the same standards, likewise.

Why we lack such a clear set of common standards of moral behaviour is because we live in a pluralistic society which accepts differing interpretations and applications of moral behaviour as prescribed by the official religions and followed by their adherents. However, since we live in a secular society, these religions have no basis to enforce their brand of morality on their own adherents, let alone people who follow other faiths. Hence, our society can only enforce a general social code of behaviour which is codified in our laws and statutes that although regulate our social behaviour, do not seek to interfere with our private behaviour, and hence, there is no basis to lay down a standard moral code for all S'poreans to accept and follow.

When it comes to moral education teaching in schools -- especially in secular schools -- we cannot by definition teach moral behaviour since that is under the jurisdiction of whichever religious institution each student belongs in, we can only teach what can be considered pro-social, or socially responsible behaviour and that's as far as we can go. Although schools have no authority to prescribe any particular moral code for our students, we can get around this problem if we teach from an Authority we DO have: our legal framework which is the only standard that applies to all citizens and residents regardless of individual beliefs. That will have to be enough.

How is the teaching of moral education carried out in your school(the school you teach in)? What are the modes by which moral values are transmitted formally?

In the practical sense, 'moral' education at JC level is prescribed by topics of discussion and presented to the students in interactive sessions such as in CT period via various forms of media ranging from printed handouts, to performed morality plays ('live' or on some other form of recorded media), or by a guest speaker with some authority or expertise on the issue in question. As for the modes of transmission, direct discussion of the issues and sharing of stories and personal anecdotes tend to stimulate memory retention the best.

Do you think moral education should be taught within classrooms or are there other methods which may prove more effective?

Moral education belongs to institutions that are most concerned about moral behaviour -- religious orders. They have the backing of an omniscient being who is present and watching a person even in his or her private life, and thus can truly address a person's morally driven self-discipline. Schools can't claim that their Principals have a similar power (although there are some Principals who can be quite scary), so all we can offer is assistance and lessons in making pro-social choices (as opposed to morality which usually offers a Hobson's choice, which is no choice at all) when faced with such dilemmas in life.

Annual family outing

Our family outing involves three cats and a dog on a visit to the vet's. They are long overdue for their shots and today happened to be a clear day on all our busy calendars.

The cats are like kids. We have to grab each one and stuff them in their individual portable cages before we can load them in the car. That IS the standard procedure, right? But as always there's the howling, the screaming and tears -- mostly from me, as Kaiser (such a disagreeable boy!) gashed my finger with an ill-placed claw. I'll wear the scar for a few days, I'm sure. Otherwise, everyone arrived safely at the vet's eventually, singing lively choruses in the trunk all the way through the whole trip.

For routine cases like ours today, a trip to the vet is a laugh-a-minute. But while we were there, it happened that a couple of other pet owners had to make the decision to sign the dreaded pink form. Maybe that's why pets don't like seeing the vet. For us, we get sick, we consult a medical practitioner, we go home with bags of pills and stuff. But for pets, a trip to the vet could potentially mean taking one last ride in the car. :'(

System error

Starting to rethink the utility of content. Firstly, because I'm now on the committee producing the stuff in large, predigested quantities to be regurgitated for the benefit of our little fledglings. Secondly, because after today's in-class exercise I've come to the conclusion that for some pockets of children, they are truly lacking in intelligence.

Before you haul out the pitchforks and torches, I don't mean 'intelligence' in the sense of being able to process information (although that outcome has yet to be empirically tested). I mean that they are deficient in 'intel', knowledge. In other words, they're ignorant. There, I said it. Now you can pick up your riot gear again.

All the processing routines I've instructed them in to date is sound, but while my attention has been on designing the synthesis, analysis and application software, the kids do not already come equipped with even a basic hardware reality interface input module. Translation: today when I tried booting up, my system immediately crashed with a "No keyboard detected" message.

Prior knowledge processes new knowledge, but today's flood of new information from the prescribed data package was almost entirely new knowledge. It was neither accessible nor manipulable because there was little to no prior knowledge to contextualize the new knowledge in. Attempting to run a processing routine with no/minimal/garbled input results in a divide by zero error. Exactly what happened this morning: unintelligible printed text in, unintelligible scrawled text out. Brilliant.

Despite my disdain for 'airplane' games involving baby food, I have to accept that many of our kids haven't yet grown the requisite teeth to chew grown-up food on their own. True, we're working to rebuild them from the inside, but we can't let them starve in the meantime. Mashed carrots, anyone?

Communication let me down

I take back what I said about one of the non-majority parties needing an image consultant. It's the majority party that needs one more. Seriously, they're going with 'incentivize the vote' as their campaign platform? Instead of making us feel good about voting majority, this approach sounds like we're being made to feel bad about not voting majority.

Guilt is a poor marketing tool and though many mothers wield it with alarming efficacy, it simply isn't the best motivator of confidence for children who are growing up.

If netizens are turning unfriendly towards them, it's not because of what they're doing or even what they're saying, but rather how they've been presenting national agenda to the voting public. Good news or bad, delivery is the key to win support. They claim the best plans and the best interests of the nation at heart, and the most forward-looking mechanisms in place that work, but communication isn't their strongest asset right now.

They'll have to fix their message, or more and more people will want to change the messenger.

Getting stiffed

Francis thinks he's being discriminated against at Changi Airport. His flight to Perth got cancelled and...

"...after waiting for more than three and a half hours in the queue, we were told to go home and return the next day for a confirmed flight and to claim reimbursement for taxi fare.

As we were leaving the counter, a hotel representative approached us and asked us whether we were passengers of QF72 and if so, he would take us to his hotel for an overnight stay and the next morning, after breakfast, drop us back at the airport. As we were not told of this arrangement by the counter staff, we approached them; they quickly gave us an identity tag and asked the hotel representative to take us to the hotel.

We wanted to seek an explanation from the counter staff regarding the practice of asking local passengers to go home and foreigners to stay in a hotel..."

Wait, it makes sense for locals to go home because they have a home to go back to. And foreigners are likely to stay in a hotel because that's what hotels are for. This claim on grounds of discrimination is farcical!

And now Francis wants compensation from Qantas for his stay at this hotel.

Dude, how is this Qantas' problem? Some shady character offers you an night in his unnamed hotel. He doesn't claim to be a representative of Qantas, so he's likely to be a hotel tout whose pitch you fell for. In fact, as you say, the counter staff already said that you could claim for taxi fare, but you thought you could squeeze out a free night's stay in some cushy hotel at Qantas' expense too. Nice try.

I'd sympathize with you, being a fellow traveller getting fleeced everywhere I visit -- but trying to turn it around and trumping up a frivolous claim against someone else to compensate you for your own gullibility is a touch too desperate. I'm sorry for your loss, but the best comfort I can offer is, Kuah Kuah!

Teach less doesn't mean teach less

When we take the idea of "Teach Less, Learn More" too literally, we get the idea that there is some kind of reduction in the curriculum and that what schools were once meant to teach now becomes the burden of parents, and as a result, "slack" teaching staff.

Actually "Teach Less" doesn't mean teach less, in the sense of less content, less curriculum, i.e., less quantity. What it does mean is to stop being so full of ourselves and teaching the way teachers think they should teach, but instead look at the specific needs of our learners and teach the way our learners learn best.

The call is out for teachers to be less pedantic, less didactic and to put an end to filling our classroom time with inane teacher talk (a sin I'm quite guilty of, ha ha), and learn ourselves to be quiet, listen to what our students have to offer, give space for them to work. In other words, we teach not as authoritative, top-down "Teachers" but be fellow learners with our students, co-involved in constructing a community of learning.

This philosophy may be more difficult at some of the younger levels. It's hard to be a fellow learner if your fellow students are a bunch of 40 juvenile monkeys going stir-crazy in a crammed classroom eight hours a day. And with kids, it's important to show them who's Boss and instill in them a healthy respect (fear works too, apparently) for learning.

But at higher levels, it becomes necessary for the kids to start learning on their own. That's the time to let go and apply TLLM -- gradually.

Upgrade mania

The PM's taking flak from disgruntled e-authors over a shoot-from-the-hip response to a sensitive question posed by a young voter. What the PM said was tantamount to a bare-faced statement that wards represented by the majority party get priority when it comes to estate uprgading programmes. The implication that there is bias in assigning who gets to stand at the head of the line for the "good things" rankles an electorate that believes in the Democracy of its political system.

I wonder if I could spin a more politic reply to the question on why a non-majority ward looks rather shabbier than the majority ward next door...?

"Young man, I fully sympathize with your situation. Estate upgrading is a right of every constituency regardless of representation. Bright and shiny new covered walkways, bus stops and elevator upgrades are in high demand in all constituencies and everyone has the right to expect them.

But because they take time to complete, we can't upgrade everyone all at once. Thus, at least some estates can remain conveniently functional while others have to live with the inconvenience of dust, noise and odd detours as they undergo upgrading. Upgrades also cost a lot of money, so we have to even out the costs over time rather than spend everything in one lump sum.

As to why your estate seems to be lagging behind your neighbours', I assure you it isn't so. However, your constituency stood behind your representative's platform of less stress, slower pace of life and above all, lower cost of living. Thus it's logical that being the most frugal of voters, your constituency is the one most willing to put up with a slightly shabbier appearance for a little while longer than the others. Even if they don't look too glitzy and ultra-modern right now, it'll be a shame to replace your current facilities when they are still functional, still good, anyway.

There's no need to stress ourselves and rush things. See? Everything Singaporean voters want, no matter who represents you, your Government has already provided you with. I know you can be patient. When your facilities really need upgrading, the funds will definitely be there for you. :)"

Can I write the King's Speech, or what?

Irradiated

Japan is dumping radioactive water into the sea? I envision boatloads of comic-book fanboys crowding Japanese beaches, hoping to get bitten or stung by an irradiated sea-critter, thus gaining powers beyond the ken of mortal men.

Ooh, what's the number for the Japanese tourism agency?

It's dead, Jim

It's done. Officially killed NYeDC's IFD performance, which during last night's rehearsal started to take shape, but still not enough to be fully developed by Thursday. However, there's no stopping this show from proceeding at another special time of the year with a more compatible theme.

Edit 01:

If ever a political party needed an image consultant! What's with the NSP's uniform? The bright orange colour reminds me of US correctional facility inmates' coveralls:

Whoa, Nelly!

Once in a while, you have to rein back the kids' enthusiasm and give them a reality check. NYeDC jumped headlong into agreeing to stage an item for the upcoming IFD assembly programme while we're already neck deep in Drama Night rehearsals. If they'd let me look at the script they chose earlier, I would have said there's nothing in there remotely indicative of either "International" or "Friendship" without a serious reworking of its original intention. Not that we haven't done anything like that before, but this one especially would have taken time, certainly more than the two days remaining till curtain.

Now considering very carefully whether to do the unthinkable and pull the plug on this performance. Usually, my approach is that the show must go on, but this one...?

Among the cats

Two plush pups are what we brought back from our visit to Mdm Wong's Shelter for strays. Each plushie is worth a $10 donation towards the upkeep of the numerous dog and cat residents there.

We were supposed to partake in the open house tour this morning, but took a detour into the cattery before our group could even form up -- and spent our whole visit among the Purring Ones. The tour organizer must have wondered where his two prodigals had disappeared to.

I never knew cats could be so deprived of human affection. In every enclosure we entered, we were swarmed by cats rubbing up against our legs and meowing to be stroked and petted. No, they weren't after food or water 'cos they had that a-plenty in large plates already, just a friendly voice and a gentle hand to make them happy. And, boy, were our hands busy as cat after cat got its share of mussin' and fussin'.

A particular kitten in a cage was particularly memorable because it was so adorable. Bright-faced, striped on the back, and spotted on the belly, but sadly crippled in the hind legs. Such a feisty little monster, nonetheless, as it acted up for our attention, actually climbing the bars of his cage despite having back legs that wouldn't support it. Silly thing reached out and grabbed my finger when I wasn't looking. It sank a tiny, tiny claw beneath my skin, drawing a drop of blood. Is that cute, or what? With that kind of spirit, and Mdm Wong's care, I believe it'll regain the use of its legs again soon. Then the world better beware!

Thinking of swinging by again one of these weekends to drop off supplies and pay the inmates another visit. Any other animal-lovin' human being wanna make the trip to Pasir Ris with us?

Don't get your Hops up

I expected a lot more from 'Hop', coming from the same studio that gave us 'Despicable Me'. Maybe it's because Easter lacks the commercial mythos that Christmas has embodied so richly that there's little there to connect us with the characters in Hop. Neither the traditions nor the rituals associated with the Easter Bunny are familiar to us, so we don't really care if we don't get our Easter baskets this year. We never did, anyway.

What's left of the movie is the familiar theme of slacker sons disappointing their fathers. EB runs away from his *groan* Easter Island home to chase his rockstar dreams -- the heck with inheriting the mantle of Easter Bunny from his ageing predecessor. In Hollywood, Fred has no idea what he wants to do other than 'something great', but since nothing like that has approached him yet he remains in a perpetual state of employment limbo, which does not amuse his father [hmm... sounds familiar, heh].

When 'toon Bunny meets live-action human, we have an 'Odd Couple' pairing -- and the accompanying gags therein -- while they help sort each other out. But when Fred is mistaken for having killed EB by the no-nonsense Pink Berets, EB has to make the ultimate sacrifice to save his friend. At this point, the Prodigal Son becomes a badly (barely?)-disguised Messiah figure whose 'resurrection' facilitates reconciliation with their respective fathers.

'Hop' is mostly a series of cheap running gags (which isn't so bad in itself) but with little depth of character development. Without a serious antagonist (Carlos, the chick, is at best a distraction), both EB and Fred can only fight their fathers' aspirations for them and their own egos simultaneously, which for an animation is a bit too inward-looking. Mixing animation with live-action limits the potential for out-of-this world situational wackiness, which is what we're looking for in an animation in the first place. Lol moments there were, but they didn't really string together for me.

Too bad. The cartoon magic formula didn't happen here. Hop away, l'il bunny. No carrot for you.

Usurped!

It's a relief to get Rod finally back on board to direct Drama Night. We've never left it till so late before to begin preparations, but the kids have been matching their abilities to their ambitions and, in fact, have a plan meticulously crafted out and are determined to see it through.

In less than eight weeks, through thrice weekly evening rehearsals the show will go on. The kids have worked out exactly what they intend to accomplish at every session till curtain: recruitment, training, blocking, logistics, publicity, they've practically usurped the need for staff advisors and are running the theatre all on their own.

And we have Rod to ensure the QC and the professional experience. I like the way he works because he has a very keen eye for detail and nuance. He'll say if what the actors are offering is not working, but in a diplomatic way while suggesting other options to experiment with. Need I say, comedy is his forte? The kids are getting an education in how much hard work goes into getting laughs from the audience.

Now that I have the kids' assurance that they've taken full ownership of production, I can focus my attention on documenting their process with my trusty digicam. If I can get the publicity crew's assistance in this, so much the better. Expect more pix soon!

Like almost new

Nothing like having a freshly serviced M2 to drive around in. Fresh oil and filters, tyres rotated, wheels aligned, and a new layer of wax to make him look spiffy again. And floor mats vacuumed too -- a slight source of embarrassment for me because while I'm paying for his daily wash, that's only for the outside. Inside, I haven't bothered to maintain, so he was starting to get quite grungy where it matters most.

The main difference is that he's regained his responsiveness to the lightest touch. Have to remember to avoid my usual ham-fisted approach to gripping the wheel and stamping on the brakes. Not for the next 10,000 kliks, anyway.

Caution: contains content

It's a familiar problem: kids think all essay questions are actually the same question. Give them a set of 12 to choose from and whichever one they pick they will invariably interpret as, 'what can you recall about (topic x)?' Then they respond accordingly; with a spew of random facts about said topic and not much else.

Hence the danger of focusing too tightly on 'covering content' in our syllabus. Content is a drug we push and the kids are our willing dopeheads. Being able to memorize content gets them high because they can sense a tangible outcome from the effort expended in hoarding up this precious resource only we, the gurus on the mountain-top, can provide.

What gets them down-to-earth again is when they try to recall in an essay what we had indulgently doled out to them in class, but for their written effort we fail them for 'not answering the question'. Because they fail (at least to meet their own expectations) they crave more content, so we give them more content and it's a never ending cycle.

Conclusion: having as much content knowledge as a kid's brain can store never helped a kid answer an essay question satisfactorily. In GP (and I suspect in any other essay-based exam) the test isn't on what a kid can recall per se, but on how well the kid can use what he can recall in the most appropriate and succinct way. Therefore, by first learning the skill of addressing an essay question, the kid can make the best use of what little content knowledge he has and bring it all to bear on answering the question. Of course, the more content he has, the better substantiated his answer will be, but at least he knows how to answer the question regardless.

I'm saying this because our current kid demographic has to fulfill higher expectations than ever. In the not-too-distant-past, we were happy that they could even pass. Given enough content, most could scrape through get by. But today, our kids expect A/B 'quality grades' -- and they're capable of meeting those expectations with the right kind of training.

It's back to the old drawing board for us to design out methods that don't work for today's expectations even if they had worked well enough yesterday; and design in new methods that are needed for a new breed of kids with new expectations.

Cutting edge industry, we are!

They return with tribute

It was nice of a trio of graduated students to unexpectedly return and say 'Hi' to their former tutors early this morning. They brought a little tribute with them too, in the form of fruit, processed cocoa products and a handwritten thank-you note. Always nice to receive windfalls, but nicer to see that they've been able to take and use the skills and ideas we offer to move themselves ahead onto the next stage of their lives.

Ve haf plans...

Look what came in the mail: a 'Special Edition' of our Town Council's newsletter informing us of major upgrades to our neighbourhood yet to come. This arrived hot on the heels of news of the upcoming elections.

The campaign message is clear. The incumbents have long-term plans for our overall comfort, prosperity and property values. It's a statement of how our tax dollars are being responsibly spent and will be returned to us as a collective benefit... provided no change in the status quo.

It's hard to argue political abstractions when faced with practical, material issues put this way. Guess this marks the first salvo fired across the Opposition's bow in our constituency. I look forward to a lively debate over the next few weeks/months.

My spring break in lovely Kirkwall

Spent a few days in Kirkwall. Don't believe the vacation hype -- the place is a dump! The official leadership literally lost its head in the recent Qunari uprising, but the nobility are too weak and the people too frightened to elect a new Viscount. Meantime, the Templar military has filled in the gap and established martial law on the excuse that the local Mage Circle has lost control of its mages. Rumors fly about that mages are consorting with demons and are practicing Blood Magic, not that the two activities are mutually exclusive of each other.

Meantime, the city is overrun with Ferelden refugees fleeing their Blight. As if there weren't enough poor people on the streets as it is, these Fereldens just made the poverty index nosedive just by being here. Nowhere to go, the lucky ones will take on any kind of indentured servitude; the rest, who knows?

Accommodation is cheap, but you get what you pay for. The Hanged Man is a tavern with rooms and... that's it. The signage out front is a figure of a Templar suspended by his ankles and the whole thing swings freely in the breeze. Quite ominous, really: I never went close enough to find out if the figure was just a dummy or an actual Templar. In this part of town, I wouldn't be surprised one way or the other.

Where I stayed is also the favourite hangout of the Champion of Kirkwall and his cronies. The Champ got his title by single-handedly putting down the Qunaris I mentioned earlier. That's saying something, considering an ordinary Qunari is already huge, powerfully built and a religious fanatic to boot, but to defeat their Arishok in a duel must have been quite something to behold.

Actually, the Champ's beardless dwarf buddy tells me that the Champ ran around the arena screaming like a girl while taking occasional over-the-shoulder potshots with his magic staff until the Arishok keeled over and died. True story. Anyway, though they still get some respect around here, I think they're just another bunch of trouble makers looking for a fight. Get a job, you people!

Streets filled with marauding gangs; out-of-control militia; the occasional wave of creatures from the Stygian depths... the final straw for me was when Kirkwall experienced it's first -- and probably most spectacular -- act of terrorism that obliterated a rather important civic edifice, and presumably everyone inside at the time. With the Templars and the mages each blaming the other for abuses and atrocities of the past, this event was the excuse to openly tear into each other, engulfing their whole crappy city in the flames of civil war.

I get the feeling there are several neighbouring nations looking on very intently at all this trouble brewing in the Free Marches and are by now assessing threat, risk and opportunity...

Whatever. My bags are packed and I'm going home. Had a great time and all. kthxbye. Watch it, I'm just a tourist!!!

Project Crackdown

Ok, a delicate issue, so language will be a bit more circumspect than usual:

Head Office has identified certain unfair practices in the conduct of project appraisals. Some branch offices have been practicing unauthorized procedures to advantage themselves in the award of 'A' grade work, but in so doing have contravened the spirit of independent enterprise. Head Office has been clear in censuring such practices and hopes to level the playing field for all candidates once again.

I, for one, am appreciative of the stern action taken by Head Office. It proves to me that the higher ups really do have their heads screwed on straight. It's about time we put the emphasis back on quality rather than quantity.

The dragon's signature

Launch day for Dragon Age II! And look! I've got my paws on the Signature Edition. That's a fancy name for the Early Bird Special in which they pack into the game a few additional premiums at no cost, such as fancier armour, weapons and bonus other stuff as well.

... not that I'd necessarily find a use for every single tchotchke in the box, but it's the satisfaction of Having a bunch of additional toys to play with for free that thrills. Who knows? One or two may yet prove to be actually useful in aiding my hero's 'rise to power'. And even if I let them languish untouched in my inventory, that's my prerogative. So there.

But for now, said game lies pristine in its box. Currently too tired and too busy to start a new campaign in dragon-slaying. The pix is just for drooling over. Soon, soon...

Broadcasting 'live'

Sports Carny, and I'm stuck in the announcers' tent 'cos J2 NYeDC volunteered to be the announcers for the day. The job may sound like a cushy assignment compared to all the sweating, huffing and puffing of physical competition going on all around us, but in reality it's a frenzy of activity inside the tent too.

Apart from the many, varied and random announcements requested through the crackly walkie-talkie set; the odd staff in-charge or any other staff with some instruction or other; the students who have either found some item or lost one; and the 100 Plus vendor with the occasional reminder to keep hydrated and drink his *FREE* isotonic beverage; there had to be entertaining banter and interviews with random participants who happened to be passing within microphone range; and the lucky draw to run. Sometimes all at the same time. :p

Thankfully, the J2s this year are a strong bunch, ever hyper and willing to give their all. They took every demand in their stride, stayed cool and soldiered on through the day with unflagging spirits. Great job!

Results driven

What exactly constitutes a good result?  At today's release of 2010 'A' results, I had students bawling their eyes out. Gracie had achieved grades many others would have killed for, yet she felt she hadn't done well enough. Chiam exploded in tears 'cos (I found out later from an objective source) she did better than she'd expected.

What's 'good', I suppose, boils down to our results meeting and exceeding our own expectations in relation to what society sets up as standards of achievement. The latter being constant, the higher our expectations of ourselves the harder it becomes to be satisfied with our performance.

Was I happy, then, with my results? Because I felt my methods seriously needed vindication after last year's debacle, my expectations may have been higher than realistic... Ok, it is anomalous that I can be so concerned about results. After all, I keep espousing that the process is more important than the product, don't I? But this time I strongly believe in the process I'm developing, and so I expect to see the results.

Impartially speaking, what I got was a clear improvement from last year. But I don't exactly feel wildly ecstatic about that. I'd rate 2010 as a meh.

Teacher's remarks: Can still do better.

No happy ending

These days, I can be so tired that when I take a supine position on the floor for a shut-eye, I may not even stir for a couple of hours. Not even if Maui's taken it upon himself to give me a massage with the additional claw-extension-and-grip technique. That's a feline specialty. I know what he's been doing 'cos when I wake up, there are tiny, little holes on the skin of my stomach. Fortunately, I heal quickly.

Nepalese dining

And just like that, Jen K is flying off again in the morning. Bade her farewell with a Nepalese dinner at Shish Mahal (Albert Court). It was quite an economical meal comprising naan, tandoori chix, mutton kurma, vegetable pakoras and a spinach dish. Conclusion: Nepalese food isn't much different from regular Indian fare.

Must commend the with-a-smile service. Very warm and obliging, prompt too.

Long-overdue reunion

These past few weekends, we've been taking Q-tip to the Botanic Gardens for fresh air and exercise. Good that every time we go, she's able to walk a little further without getting tired.

Today, this water monitor decided to go for a little stroll too.

The reunion at this table was literally between old friends who haven't seen each other in years! With Jen K flying in for a rare visit, it was the one opportunity for us all to drop everything and catch up.

Quite possibly the last lo hei of the year for us. It's no longer CNY, after all.

Signage at the kopitiam: No Food, No Drinks, No Cross-Species Hanky-Panky. Wait, what...?

The write stuff

I'm linking Martin Jaques' TED Talk on the rise of China not so much because of the content of his presentation, but rather to observe that the audience isn't busy scribbling notes trying to take it all down. At TED, we can listen to so many great minds speak about our times but we don't bother writing down what we're hearing?

What does that say about us and our egos when we insist that our kids write down everything we say in our piddly little lectures and tutorials, like as if we were spinning pure gold from our mouths?

Oh, if you want to listen to Jaques, go ahead. Interesting guy. Don't mind my ranting.

Noise to signal

The kids have completed something of an in-house survey regarding how they view themselves, and their personal goals and traits. Interestingly, the majority of them claim that they study best alone, isolated from external distractions. This I believe. When we set our minds to study, we don't like any unnecessary noise that would disrupt the signal we're trying so hard to focus on.

But the kids are now on the threshold of having to distill more knowledge from more information that they have ever encountered before. Alone, they're going to have a terrible time coping with such a deluge of material. That's why we put them in classes -- so they can work together, and help each other in the distillation process.

From this level onwards, study becomes an increasingly social process. We're looking at big concepts that have to do with life, human behaviour, and power relationships, for example, and are considering the many facets making up the big questions that we as a species have currently no answer to. What can a class of 16 year-olds do to make any headway in a task this huge? Same thing as the rest of humanity is doing: share our observations with one another and hope the pooling, sifting and combining of our collective thoughts and ideas will eventually help us make sense of it all.

So the class is like an old-time distillery, with lots of processes to break down the raw materials and lots of hands to make the machinery work. The finished product is a fine cognac to look forward to. This is the knowledge that the kids will take away from their cooperative labours. The best thing about a good liquor is that it can be further shared and enjoyed in a social environment, or taken into a private study to be savoured at one's leisure. That's when studying alone really comes into its own.

Three little words make all the difference

Which are the three most important words in any human language? 'I don't know'.

Which are the next three most important words in any human language? 'Let's* find out'.

At this point of human intellectual development, we've encapsulated the total cognitive objectives of primary and secondary school. If the kiddies can prove that they can recall all the facts they've been told about the world, they get a pat on the head and can move on to JC.

At JC, they learn the next three most important words in any human language: 'I don't believe'.

The shock for the kiddies when they arrive at our doorstep is that everything they'd learnt before may be a lie. Or at least, as far as GP is concerned, that they should treat everything that purports to be non-fiction (including their own textbooks) with a dose of healthy skepticism.

This step is key to significant intellectual development for JC kids because it unlocks new brain capacities, helping them to approach their studies as inquirers and testers of knowledge seeking understanding, rather than as mindless information sponges nearing saturation.

To understand leads us to the next three most important words, 'I got it!' After which the next level would then be, 'Let's work together'. If they can get to this stage of mental preparation, they're ready to benefit from uni education.

Sadly, many of our undergrads enter uni still thinking like secondary school students, their two years spent in GP notwithstanding. I wonder why?

*I'll accept concatenations as a single word

A little taste of dragon

Dragon Age II is nearing release. But before the main course arrives, Bioware has deigned to present us with a little appetizer of a demo in which we play through the opening sequences of the actual game, and have a taste of a key mission scenario. It's just an introduction, really, to the new game mechanics and to some of the NPCs that will be tagging along in our hero's party.

No spoilers: it's exactly the same scenario that the developers used in an earlier webcast though this time we, the players, finally get hands on and play it our way, our style. Although gameplay is familiar, the tweaks still need some getting used to. Enemy characters now attack in multiple waves which means a lot more hacking-and-slashing than before. While that's great for scoring level-up points, it requires a bit of stamina to grind through every fight before moving on to the next checkpoint -- which could be yet another fight or plot-advancing cut-scene. Loser gamers like me who have short attention-spans may occasionally have difficulty keeping track of the battle and end up dead. Oops. Retry...

I found the opening to be quite a hand-holding experience, like I was being guided on rails from one plot element to the next. Hopefully when I get my hands on the real thing, the game world will feel a lot more open-ended with more places to explore and more NPCs to chat with.

The graphics have had a major upgrade. The character movements are more fluid, varied and energetic, with special attacks landing with visible power. Bodies fly when hit, occasionally disintegrating in fountains of gore when they succumb to particularly nasty hits. Every visual element stands out in sharp relief against the background, nice, but this kind of effect also looks cartoony, lacking a focal depth of field that would give a better illusion of reality.

Since the party in this demo offer a limited mix of ranged, melee and magic abilities there's also a chance to test out party tactics in battle. As usual, this will take a few more plays through to figure out -- yes, I'm slow -- but I believe I'll get it by DA2 release day, March 8. Bring it on!

Fighting obsolescence

Edit 01:
Oops, perhaps there's a little misunderstanding. This post is not about me quitting blogging. I'm just commenting about the changing nature of the blogging audience. There are many different online apps to target specific audiences with specific material. For example, if I need to address the student population, I use the campus online forum. To contact my immediate group of students I'm experimenting with other apps such as FB, which is a different account from the one I use to keep in touch with my social circle. This blog will be less targeted, more random in content, but it's still functioning. Thanks for reading! :)
---------

I think NYT says it all in its article about blogs losing their appeal. Doesn't mean I'm giving up on blogging, but considering the frequency and quality (or rather, lack thereof) of my recent activity here, it's obvious that I'm no longer as anxious as I once might have been in getting my daily spiel out into the ether.

I think blogging still has its uses, and I'll keep returning to make self-indulgent posts because I'm odd like that. This space will continue to be a dumping ground of random thoughts and ideas, perhaps as a focal point or aggregator of the various bits of information I encounter that cause a synaptic spark to ignite somewhere in the ol' grey matter, though like everyone else I'll be keeping in touch with my audience -- that has recently become very fragmented -- through alternative online apps as appropriate to their disparate needs and interests.

You have five minutes... start talking!

With the new J1 oral defence assessment component, I'm using the Pecha-Kucha movement to inspire the kids. The general PK rule is 20x20, that is, 20 PowerPoint slides set to auto-advance at every 20 second interval which amounts to a presentation slightly less than 7 minutes long. Each slide contains minimal text to avoid distracting the audience from the speaker, while the speaker learns to make a sharply focussed presentation with no time for kerfuffle.

I think it's a fun and creative means of getting the kids to develop their communication skills, and it should certainly help them prepare for their oral component during their end-of-year Project Work assessment as well. Might as well start them off early, I say.

But for the purposes of our J1 newbies, their first oral exercise will only last three minutes. If you're doing the math, that's 9x20. That's fine by me. Who knows? We just might be reviving the movement here in S'pore with our little experiment -- it seems to have died out a couple of years ago. Wouldn't that be a hoot?

The King's microphone

I suppose the human interest part of 'The King's Speech' was the contrast in the relationships of the two royals and the foreign-born commoners they have come to depend upon. Edward VIII, Prince of Wales and heir to the British throne, abdicates for the love of American divorcee, Mrs Simpson; while George VI, Duke of York and second in line reluctantly takes up the crown in duty to his country, coached by Australian speech therapist (unqualified), Lionel Logue.

But what interested me more was how the introduction of wireless broadcast media changed Everything. The media brought down and magnified the most human frailties of both royals, Edward and George. In going public, Edward's improprieties rendered him unworthy as a king, whereas George's stutter made him unable to speak with confidence in public, and if not for Logue's unconventional methods would have made England lose confidence in itself.

While the media were making traditional royalty most frightfully human, on the other side of the Channel they were deifying the most common of commoners, Adolph Hitler, who knew exactly how to use them to amass the nearly blind loyalty and adoration of a nation. The Brits were still struggling to deal with radio, but Hitler had already mastered both the audio and visual imagery of film to awe his audience and intimidate his opposition.

The rise of the mass media heralded the end of the power of royalty over the people. Edward and George both recognized this sweeping new change, and perhaps for the first time in history the crown princes of an empire were so loath to follow in their father's footsteps. Edward practically disqualifies himself from the crown, leaving George to make the best of it. Thanks to Logue, George does well enough to galvanize a shaken Britain to prevail over the German war machine.

And now I'm mulling over historical events not covered in the movie (although I expected them to be). Perhaps what won the war for the Brits was the calm resolve that resonated from the voice on the radio. It sought not to whip the masses up into a frothing, mindless rabble but rather reminded them to stay human despite the hardship they were facing in the dark days to come. What lost the war for Herr Hitler was possibly what started the war in the first place: his need to fill airtime with an ever-escalating choreography of excitement, culminating in the orgy of violence that was WWII with himself taking full credit as producer, director and star in order to keep the people mesmerized and pliant under his leadership. Hitler lost it because he ran out of ideas on how to keep the A Hitler Show on prime time TV without eventually grossing out his audience and making them tune him out.

Too bad they don't give Best Actor Oscars to inanimate objects. The nominee representing 'The King's Speech' should have been the shiny BBC microphone and its supporting infrastructure. They were what the movie was about in the first place.

Congrats to the piano ppl

Hi Shaun
Please convey my congratulations to the Piano Ensemble for a magical, memorable evening at "PS I Love You".

From the opening scene, you had the audience hooked and rooting for your Romeo and Juliet. For me, the magic was in how much you all grew over the course of our journey together. How far you have come as stage performers, ready to shine in all aspects of the performance whether it was behind a musical instrument or putting it all on the line with the risky business of "acting".

I hope you all believe now that the audience appreciates the actor's clarity of intention far more than intensity of emotion. You have proven that there is no such thing as a "natural" talent for acting, but that acting is merely a trained skill honed by practice and perseverance. often beyond one's comfort zone.

The Piano Ensemble owned the stage tonight with a smooth, inspired interweaving of a varied selection of music with a simple but utterly engaging storyline, brought to life by the energy of a cast that truly believed in the value of what it was doing. In other words, I thoroughly enjoyed tonight's show!

To the Piano Ensemble, thank you for allowing me the experience of working with you. Your dedication, your work ethic, your willingness to learn and your eagerness to experiment (the stuff many of you threw in that we didn't rehearse took me by surprise and delight) have showed NYJC that you guys don't just rock at piano, you guys DO THEATRE!

And thank you for the unexpected plaque that is now decorating my desk in the staff room. It'll make a great souvenir of all the work we went through together for the sake of an evening we can be proud of... and I'm sure the SPCA greatly appreciates.

May you all continue to seek success in your future endeavours! 

Regards
Xmac

All the world's a stage

The year's barely begun and already I sense it will be unlike any other. As it is, it's been one nearly non-stop slog albeit with a CNY break in between. But most days are long and draggy, many evenings filled with one rehearsal or another, and I'm tired.

It's a self-inflicted pain, however. The NYeDC kids are running full tilt, volunteering at any opportunity they hear about, and when they volunteer, we staff volunteer right along with them. And they're not done yet. I'm looking at the list of upcoming events culminating in Drama Night with dread anticipation. So many things they have planned, so much energy and ambition, so organized and presenting better thought-out proposals than I've ever seen before, and for once my first instinct isn't 'no, we can't do that...'. Rather, it's the opposite: 'Yes! Go! Do!' even though their plans will take me through activities that require more work than this lazybone slacker is used to.

With all this going on, my attention today was on the piano kids and their Full Dress Rehearsal of this Friday's piano concert. This is me volunteering as drama coach for the simple reason that they could really use one. It's also this group that's been filling up my evenings so far. This group has been terrific to work with. They know they can't act their way out of a paper bag, being convinced their talent is only in music, but they've put in so much time and effort into preparing for this concert they were desperate enough to accept my direction without question.

It was an interesting experience to take these kids out of their comfort zone and watch them develop the show to the level I was watching today. There were lots of compromises between what they were comfortable doing and what I could get them to do. Given time I believe I could have pushed them further, but they've done well, nevertheless, to present 'P.S. I love you', a piano concert packaged within an adaptation of Romeo & Juliet.

The important thing is that they now agree with me that acting isn't so much a natural-born talent but a trained skill. They surprised me today with some voiceover improvisations during the rehearsal, so yes, I do believe the piano kids are becoming quite comfortable as actors too. It's a step forward for them as a performing group. For me, it was an opportunity to provide another bunch of kids with a form of theatrical experience to broaden market interest and the talent pool in campus aesthetics. In other words, just doin' my job, ma'am.

As the next few weeks progress, that job scope is looking to increase significantly as other deadlines approach. Yes, it's going to be an interesting year.