My worst fears were realized at the KTV contest this afternoon. I don't know where to put my face now. I tried my best to practice and rehearse my song over the last week or so, and I thought I had it down pat. I was fine yesterday, though Amy said I needed a more exciting delivery. Then this morning, as I ran it through my head again, I lost the tune! It kept coming out flat, and I knew it. Nerves, anxiety, whatever, and everyone else was turning in pretty good performances too. They sang in tune, inflected, presented with confidence and even when the KTV machine broke down from time to time, contestants could still sing acapella to quite an awesome degree.

I was the last contestant, and considering the acts I had to follow, I think I lost it on stage. My opening 2 lines came out flat, as I had been rehearsing all morning, wrongly of course, and even between verses, I kept pitching inconsistently sometimes high, sometimes low. I knew I had to do something drastic or the contest will end on a truly sour note. I couldn't do that to Jong Yann, could I? So I did what I said I wouldn't do. I played it for laughs. And, boy, did they laugh. I hope the J1s will remember me as the guy who made them laugh instead of the guy KTV'd worse than Bill Hung.

A memory I must exorcise. *resolves to do much better next time -- it won't be difficult.

Oh, you want results?
3rd place: Amy
2nd place: Chong Meng (math dept)
1st place: Cara!!!
(OK lah, Cara's voice is mellow and under control, the kind of voice people like to listen to while nursing a good cognac. Now she's got a trophy to display on her desk too).

Invited to Settler's Cafe tonight for coffee and boardgames. Stand by for review...

Edit 01:
There seems to be a slight discrepancy in audience size at the KTV contest. The day before, I failed to comprehend that the tutors will sing after all the student contestants have had their turn and not after the student audience had left. The whole of the JC1 cohort (or what was left of it) was present to witness my >ahem< performance.

We might be taking this KTV contest a bit too seriously now. This is the first time I've seen a contestant list for a Mandarin KTV contest, half of which is populated by the English Dept, including yours truly. Jong Yann's done a great job of recruiting a rather unusual mix of staff across departments, but as the big day is coming closer -- tomorrow, actually -- she's looking increasingly stressed out. What's Mandarin for, "Relax, girl!"?

We went in for a quick rehearsal this afternoon, then the bombshell dropped. We'll only be performing after the students have been dismissed. Hey, here we are about to embarrass ourselves in public with our nan2 ting1 accents, but noone's going to watch us do it? I can identify with the Player in Ros & Guil when the two disappeared in the middle of the Tragedians' performance. The regular person is going to be relieved, no doubt, that the pressure of performing in front of a 'live' audience is off, but the performer feels a bit let down.

Nvm. When it was my turn at the mike, I discovered to my horror that I had brought my Jewel case but left my disk at home. Mr Blur strikes again. So I mumbled off 4 lines of chorus acapella and that was about enough for me. Not satisfied with our rehearsal, Vince, Cara and I converged on Amy's to use her (parents') KTV machine. Amy kindly drove me home to grab my disk first, then we had a late lunch with Q-tip at the coffee-shop downstairs before heading back to her place.

Evening found me and June at Sky Captain ATWOT, a boy's comic book fantasy with giant robots, transformable technology, ray guns and sky and sea battles, all set in the period when comic books started to appear in the US. Everything, including the storyline, is campy and retro so expect improbabilties at every turn. The movie is designed with the same comic book style, well, maybe more like a graphic novel. Flat lighting makes the actors look 2 dimensional to match the CGI they perform in front of. The CGI looks like water-coloured backgrounds with slightly washed out colours and blurry edges. Beautiful visuals in spite of, or perhaps because of, the fact that most screen elements aren't 'real' to begin with.

The relationship between Captain and Polly is a complicated one. They are constantly bickering with and bitchin' at each other and they remind me of a non-couple I know who share a somewhat similar relationship. Heh.

We offically bade farewell to the Class of '04, whom I will remember with much fondness though I didn't exactly show this when we finally dismissed them this morning. I realise I may have made a mistake in not having a private venue for "famous last words" with them and what I wanted to say was instead lost in the perfunctory distribution of personal records and parting momentoes. Strange. Even my farewell address on behalf of the Arts faculty was a "safe," vague, over-general piece of waffle that masked the issues that I really wanted to address.

I know you read my entries online, but that's no excuse for not properly saying a personal "goodbye" to you exclusively as a CT. It's the coward's way out as there's nothing like hearing the spoken word in person to judge the veracity of that which is spoken. When I needed to, I failed to gather my thoughts and speak, too distracted with too many things going on, too overwhelmed with the end of things, too overawed by the new beginning of things, and numbed by it all. But even I have to get used to the fact that the Eagle's Nest is now suddenly empty, and a new breed of chicks are arriving in the spring.

The JC experience is just a stepping stone to bigger and better things. 2 years is the shortest length of time a student spends in any academic institution around here and as such JC really is a transient affair; only a preview of things yet to come. Yet because of the age at which you come under our charge, whatever you learn and whatever skills you acquire are going to have a major impact on whatever else you do with the rest of your lives. Like it or not, you were the elite of your 'O' level cohort and we hope you've survived your elite training even though you may not feel your eliteness right now, considering your final test is still just ahead.

In reality, we don't teach subjects -- we simply give you options. And we train you to see and make options for yourself. Thus, you should never be in a position in which you chose a course of action because you had "no choice." It's the most miserable of existences to live with "no choice" as an excuse for something stupid you might have done, and it's the biggest mistake anyone can make. Whatever happens in your lives from now, let it happen as a result of an option you exercised rather than be led around by the nose all the time. Make things happen, people.

Most importantly, maintain your friendships at all cost. They, above all, are what kept you sane through this surreal period of your lives, and they will see you through even more surreal periods of adult life ahead. We human beings are social creatures that thrive on cooperation in order to stay competitive in this big scary old world. I was telling the truth about being jealous that you share a special friendship with each other that I will never be a part of. Eighties, your social dynamic has always facinated me. There's a movie waiting to be made of your exploits in time to come, I'm pretty sure of it.

What do your teachers want of you? We know that at your level of academic training, it is entirely likely that in not too many years from now, we just might be addressing you as, "Sir," "M'am," "Your Honour," or perhaps even, "Your Excellency." It will be our proudest moment when we do, yet at the same time we hope that when you become a decision-maker at such a level, you'll make the right decisions for everyone (particularly us!). And even if you don't reach such a calibre, we want to be assured that you are at least able to make the right decisions for yourself as a socially mature, responsible adult.

Not too much to as for, is it?

The past 3 days' postings don't count. I feel like I've been on a long vacation and I'm a bit disoriented now that I'm back.

Indulged in spending more money on Watson over the weekend and reloading him with all the programs I am used to having at a finger's touch. Hopefully, his new hard drive will hold out longer than the old one, and with twice the capacity (80 gigs) I won't have to worry about having space for my games for a while.

Games. The Burb family is totally wiped out and I'll restart their soap opera again soon. NFS:U, gone and I'll have to rebuild my 'pearlescent' yellow Bengmobile again from scratch. Doom 3, what can I say? I'm feeling the effects of my age quite acutely. Doom 3 is gorgeous, but I confess I can't play for long owing to the motion sickness I quickly develop as I trudge through the framerates of Mars Base. If I ever want to get an MC, I'll just play for a couple of hours and I'm good to go. And it'll be a genuine illness too. Then while I'm chillin' out at home I can play more Doom 3 to pass the time and there we have a truly viscious cycle that'll go on ad nauseam, literally.

I'm avoiding my immediate task at hand -- preparing tomorrow's farewell address to our Seniors on behalf of the Arts Faculty. I'm supposed to work with Mark (sci-fac staff rep) so we don't talk at cross-purposes, but neither of us have had the time to meet even though we knew this was coming from a long way off already. We might have called our joint address the "Mark and Min(dy) Show" but I guess it wasn't to be.

When you feel you're performing to other people's expectations, that's when anxiety sets in and you're paralyzed. Too many people have told me how much they're looking forward to what I have to say, or that they expect me to liven up the proceedings, etc., etc., so now I'm at a complete loss as to what I really should say. For a 5 minute address. People want me to be funny, but I don't feel funny. It's a farewell: I'll be lucky just to hold it together and say something without dissolving into tears and embarassing myself in front of everyone. The truth is, I will miss the Class of '04, and that isn't helping my sense of humour one bit.

Sigh. Enough delay. Let's get back to work.

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

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

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

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

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

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

This is absolute crap!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Instant noodles for dinner. What a show-stopper.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dinner at Fran & Margaret's

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yep, not a very eventful day.

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