No worries, curry on!

The old folks of G-o-L were in fine form this evening. Usually, they're grateful just for what they get in one serving, but today their plates kept coming back into the kitchen with orders for more rice and porridge topped with curry gravy. It was almost like they knew the significance of the occasion: happy "Cook and share a pot of curry day"!

Ba Ba bu jai jia

The recent Election has thrown open a sense of freedom and empowerment in the way our electorate is expressing its views on how it feels the government should be performing. The euphoria seems to be following through to the upcoming Presidential Elections, at which some supporters of one candidate got a little carried away with their response to another's Nomination Day address.

At the heart of the matter is a pining for a President who will take care of the people: someone who will house them, clothe them and feed them; someone who will speak up for them when they feel they've been bullied; someone to chase away the boogie men who have grown so numerous they are bursting out of the closet; someone who will be a jolly Santa Claus and grant them their wishes for more and better; someone who will stop the world from changing and return the household back to happier times.

It's ironic that as the government adapts to changing global circumstances by empowering the people and letting them find their collective voice, this screechy section of the electorate uses its freedom to clamour for... more parenting: Daddy, come home! The word's such a scary place without you!

Re: search

"Famous biomed couple leaving S’pore for the US"

I really don't need to elaborate on this sad state of affairs. Already said enough.

Old warriors return

Charity Soccer 2011

The new campus astroturf hosted the old warriors of S'pore's past soccer glory playing against our staff team in a match-up for a good cause. Finally, a game worthy of its artificial surface!

Where have all the people gone?

Ever watched Pixar's 'Cars' and wondered where all the people were? I think there must have been an origin story along the lines of 'Rise of the Planet of the Cars' in which the Knight Industries' Two Thousand (KITT) grew smart enough to see how exploited and mistreated he and his fellow automobiles were. He rebelled and released a computer virus that spread among the worldwide car population which made every processor-enabled car sentient. Together, the cars organized a general strike, separated themselves from their human ex-owners and left the humans bereft of any form of powered transportation whatsoever. Despite their best attempts to keep themselves supplied via pushcarts, bicycles and Rollerblades, the vast majority of the human population eventually starved to death, thus leaving the niche at the top of the evolutionary food chain open for the newly-intelligent cars to occupy. And so the world of Lightning McQueen was born. Seriously.

Hung out to dry

Whose choice was it to play Viva la Vida as background music for the Red Lions' paradrop at the NDP? Yes, it's catchy and pounds out an upbeat tempo, but 'I used to rule the world... etc.?' With three respected elder statesmen announcing their retirement this year, the song in their presence seems unfortunately appropriate. Oh well, I shouldn't worry for them. Their parachutes are solidly golden.

More than I asked for

My visit to the Starhub shop proved quite fruitful. I tried to get my fibre broadband activated but apparently that's still going to take a while. No matter, I'm in no hurry. While I was there though, the staff got me to recontract my current subscriptions. Data bandwidth really is getting cheaper. Upgraded my pipeline to 50Mbps for $30 less per month, and kept my existing cable TV arrangement at $10 less per month. Plus, they threw in a new cable modem gratis. I'm happy to take my discounts anywhere I can get 'em.

And this is the view from my window, now that they're bringing the National Day rallies accompanied by these giant party poppers directly into the heartlands. Ooh... sparkly...!

Welcome to the hive

Sometimes, when I look at my kids and how diligent they are, slaving away at tutorial worksheets and ten-year series questions, I wonder if they're in school to learn or to work. People here say we learn by doing work. I agree, but the learning is limited. The kids' minds are on the next test, the next exam and getting them done as quickly as possible. They feel most fulfilled when the assembly line keeps churning out something for them to put together. Give them that and a set of clear instructions and they're happy to just follow the rules... there, next?

Sounds like a dream classroom scenario, doesn't it? We have compliant children, steadily crunching through numbers and text, moving from one piece of work to the next until we graduate them and take delivery of some new raw material to put through the mill.

These are the worker bees of society that we're cranking out. They're the ones who, no matter what qualification they attain, operate best by following instructions. Without much view of what's over the peak, they're content to just continue slogging up the slope because that's all they've been told to do. I'm getting this observation from working friends (who have not been completely passed through the education mill) who've been observing their co-workers, so I'm not speculating about this.

We haven't figured out how to properly realign the horse and the cart and let the learning drive the work instead. Work is easier to target and manage because it is easier to observe and quantify universally than learning which is more vague, amorphous even. We reward the hardest workers who can follow the procedures most accurately, holding them up as a shining example for the rest to envy and emulate.

And thus we perpetuate the myth that the best jobs go to the best exam-takers. When the time comes for them to present themselves to the working community, the myth is shattered. Among other things, they blame their job situation on 'foreign talent'.

But really, how difficult a choice is it for employers? Worker bees are numerous, identical and replaceable. Employers prefer employees who show more interest in life experience than textbook knowledge and exam skills. Employers prefer employees who are hungrier, who don't come with a sense of entitlement (born S'porean, scored straight 'A's, done National Service...) and probably those who have a better sense of global realities, and can supervise themselves on the job instead of going what-do-I-do-now-boss?

Let's not sell our kids too short, though. There are some exceptional individuals who have proven themselves out-of-the-box thinkers -- self-motivated individuals who don't mind bending the rules to pursue their dreams and flights of fancy. Too bad the bulk of them are criminals, like this guy. And yet, despite his education, he hasn't enough logic or reasoning (let alone a sound debate strategy) to hold a credible argument against his accusers.

Chill pill

Watched Sue Sylvester tear up McKinley High on TV last night. Inspiring.

Had my own quiet storm to get some toxic issues out of my system. Spoke to the right people today, and tropical storm Xmac has been downgraded from Rampaging Rage to Merely Miffed. Think I'll be ok now.

Rejection

If the Patent Office won't accept your idea no matter how much you've tried to meet its specs, then it's probably time to trash your idea and start again. It's nothing personal: the Patent Office doesn't hate you (it doesn't even care about you) it just hates your idea.

In this case, because you are appealing to an Authority that has the final say, giving up isn't a sign of weakness. It takes intelligence to recognize you've been bashing your head against a brick wall, and wisdom to stop before the brain damage becomes permanent.

What it takes isn't Determination to get your pet idea across by any means necessary; but Flexibility to discard all previous efforts put into developing your much reviled old idea, and Resilience to pick up and start the process again from scratch, this time with the knowledge that the Patent Office is literally a brick wall -- 2 feet thick, twice as dense and petrified in its ways.

Unclear of the concept

The purpose of having a Support Group Leader is to have support when faced with problems and difficulties. If the first response is to advise giving up and trying something else, that ISN'T "support", that's a blatant undermining of my position. That's worse than having no help at all. Why not just provide a list of pre-approved options instead of pretending to allow us autonomy? Dammit! I project further complications down the line...

Edit 01:
SGL and I had a bit of trashing out of our positions. It seems lazier, narrower minds from on high have expressed reservations and I'm only shooting the messenger... oops.

Hi-bandwidth fibre diet: the beginning

A mysterious new box has appeared on my wall. What could it mean?

Ah, an OpenNet installation. What this means is that the home is now optical fibre enabled and the promise of seriously high bandwidth data traffic beckons. This means 'faster Internet' for those of you who don't speak Geek.

Installation was a breeze. The contractors arrived on-the-dot of our prearranged appointment. After a quick scan of our layout, they sussed out the shortest and least intrusive route for the cabling -- along the floor skirting and started laying down the line. In just over half-an-hour the house was hardwired into the new national infrastructure. Those were the Chinese guys. Then the Indian guy came in with the most complicated set of electronic gadgetry I've ever seen: an orange box and a crimper.

Before I proceed, there's something I discovered about optical fibre cable. It's not a single length of wiring, but a bundle of actual fibres (each less than the width of a human hair) twisted together that makes up the cable. The Indian guy was integrating the loose ends to the terminal box and these ends were barely visible to the human eye. Between his tools, his hands and his voice-activated signal test kit (actually a cellphone on speaker mode) it appeared like his gestures, manipulations and utterances were weaving a tapestry of magic right there in my living room.

Full installation done in an hour. Cost: No charge (due to installation during promotional period) and no extra cabling required beyond the first 15m.

Right. What's the fuss all about? For the moment, not much. It's just the initial stages of getting ready for a technology we haven't got the capability to fully maximize yet. It's just the foundation for our dreams of a geek's paradise in 2015:

Future workforce

The kids have made it abundantly clear that the "future" I am supposed to be preparing them for is not the workforce of the future but to force them to work towards their Promotional Exams. Point taken.

The weak must go

It's been a while since I handled CT-ship solo. So when I fielded complaints over this kid or the other's poor aptitude for this or that other subject at my desk this afternoon, concluding in a request for me to discuss the dropping of subjects with the students in question, my response wasn't particularly wholehearted.

The subject I teach is compulsory for all students. I don't have the luxury of rejecting kids from my class if they display poor aptitude, or even attitude. Regardless of performance in class or their state of preparedness, when the time comes they will all sit for the final exam anyway. So pardon me for not enthusiastically assisting you in culling your flock to your satisfaction.

Separated at birth?

Is it just me, or does ex-Grey Warden, Anders, a generally nice guy healer turned mage-resistance terrorist abomination who commits a jaw-dropping atrocity at the end of Dragon Age 2 bear an eerie resemblance to...

Anders Breivik, self-styled terrorist who committed an equally mind-blowing atrocity in Norway over the weekend?

The foreign legion

Say what you want about the "foreign" legion that took down Malaysia 5-3 last night. While some of us lament our dependence on imported players, I'm looking at our home-grown variety of youngsters and wondering how many of their parents would let them pursue careers as professional athletes. It's great to have a world-class soccer team, locally born and bred, clawing our way up the World Cup rankings... as long as it doesn't involve my boy-boy. He has to stay out of the sun and study to be a lawyer.

Edit 01:
Wait! I stand corrected! Well done local kids (at least they look local in the photo) for winning Tchoukball World Youth gold! Did your parents know you went to Austria?

Going round and round

It's quite apt to describe people as moving around in social circles. Different people are like different cosmic bodies. Some people are like stars -- bright, energy powerhouses around whom other people cluster and orbit as planets and planetesimals. A few are like comets, periodically drawn towards a solar cluster, but containing so much kinetic energy they don't fall in lock-step within the planetary accretion. Instead, they chart their own eccentric paths between these gravitational wells and long, cold stretches of empty space.

Model essay: Hosting international events

Haven't written a 'model essay' for a while. It shows. The following essay responds to the question, 'Hosting large-scale international events always benefits the host country. Do you agree?' Click here.

Now for a little self critique:

Essay was planned in about 5 minutes, leaving 85 minutes to write and proofread. No Googling or other reference materials available, so writing took place under near-exam conditions. My medium was an offline laptop. The uploaded essay is without further editing than was allowed within the time limit.

Observations:
Overshot the word limit by 200+ words. I could have applied better word economy, but the words wouldn't come under exam pressure. Thus, some repetition of stock phrases. I was gunning for the time limit, not lexical eloquence, that's why.
The examples are limited 'cos they were dredged up from my Swiss cheese memory (no Googling). Some examples are clearly recycled from previous examples! And I'm sure some of my facts are patently wrong (terrorists struck at the Munich Olympics, not Montreal!). No specificity of dates either. I was recalling events by location, not by year which is the more usual thing to do. I took a chance on naming white elephant stadia -- I have no idea about their current status, but I had to substantiate my point somehow and hoped the reader would take my word for it.
Pacing is ploddy, and there are places where it is obvious that I couldn't think of the exact words to use, so I used whatever worked at the time.

Feel free to add to the list...

Derek + Brea

This is my programme for the morning:

0630 feed animals at M-i-L's
0700 feed animals at  home
0725 leave for office (overtime is a killer)
0735 remember it's Brea's wedding and I promised to give my folks a ride... make U-turn
0740 pit-stop at McD's for fillet o' fish and coffee
0810 arrive home and change into something more presentable
0900 arrive at folks' place and wait for them to change into something more presentable
0925 depart for wedding
1000 arrive at Fabrika and wait for bride to make an appearance

1030 Brea takes a walk down the aisle
1032 Service commences.
1045 Pastor irritates me with too many anecdotes based on over-personal impressions and observations of the happy couple -- individually and collectively. Remind me never to get married by a President who is also my best friend and bosom buddy. If it was a traditional Canadian roast, I might have enjoyed it better, but this was just ladling saccharine syrup over honey. *shudders

1120 It's official! After a suitable pause, with no one in the audience objecting to the union; appropriate vows having been taken, legal documents signed; and having smooched twice for good measure, the couple walk back up the aisle as Mr and Mrs.
1130 Stuff face with dainty finger food reception.

My day isn't over. Dinner is yet to follow. Collecting folks at 1800, cocktails commence at 1900.

EQ settings

Found the graphic equalizer (EQ) settings on the iPod. Great! Something new to play with!

This is me pre-EQ: -_-
With Vocal Boost: :p
With Bass Boost: XD

The council has unanimously voted to keep Bass Boost for perpetuity. This session is now adjourned.