I survived the day a little short of breath. There's a nasty phlegm build-up in my bronchial passages though I haven't started coughing yet. Decided to skip this afternoon's rehearsal to prevent weakening my body further through physical exertion. Apologies to everyone involved.

Found out that the abandoned canteen where we were to have our in-line skating lesson last evening was out-of-bounds to students AND staff because it no longer belongs to our campus and it's scheduled for demolition so it's quite dangerous to hang out in. I wonder where the lesson was moved to?

Must also confess spending another point six k again, this time on an LG 17" LCD monitor. Gave my brother my 17" CRT to save him $200+ since he is on such a tight budget. (I sound so noble, don't I?) Helped him pick his parts which the dealer assembled, and for what he paid I think he got a really good bargain. His new system can take a slew of upgrades, more than my current could ever handle, so he's quite future-proof. Between his and my purchases, he paid less for his new system than I paid on my upgrades. There is no justice!

As for me, I repaired my stupid RAM problem without having to go to the dealer's. Actually the RAM wasn't the stupid one. Now I know: RAM has to be placed in the computer in descending order, i.e., biggest chip goes in slot 1 and then downwards from there. With a lot of ham-fisted pulling out and shoving back of VGA card and installing the memory chips in different configurations, I finally figured it out. So now I'm running 1024Mb worth of memory like I paid for. Yay! Now I have to figure out why my new benchmark is lower than my previous when I was using less RAM. It's going to be a long night...

It's getting to mid term and it's good that students are already approaching me for consultations on their GP. What's taken them so long? The best lessons are really with tiny groups and 1-to-1 sessions. We talk, we think, we discuss and the teaching becomes so effortless because the student/s learn without noticing it. Full engagement counts so much towards our ability to learn.
Conversely, large classes are counterproductive. No one learns, everybody distracts everybody else, or else are cowed into compliance so that the work done begins and ends in the classroom with little to show for it in the long run. No wonder parents pay for private tuition, the Sports School and other elite schools are deliberately keeping their classes small, but we civil service types face larger and larger classes each year. When accountants run the show, I guess this is the kind of logic you can expect: low costs and high profits tend to override wisdom and reality.

Fine. Enough editorializing and getting sidetracked. I just meant to say that as the time draws ever closer, I'll be expecting more students looking for more of my time. I look forward to it. Let's get some real learning done, and done right.

I must note my expenses for the day: at least a sixth of a kilo dollars, mostly spent on a new 9800 pro :) and 512Mb of RAM that doesn't seem to be working!!! Watson isn't detecting the new RAM at all, pretending that it doesn't exist >___<. Hey now, wassup? Think I'll bring him back to the dealer tomorrow and find out what's wrong. Still, the pro board has nearly quadrupled Watson's performance from my previous ti4200, according to 3DMark2003. Watson now proudly wears the "Fueled by Sapphire ATi" sticker on his chassis next to his power button, and when I can get the stoopid RAM to work he'll be prouder still. For the VERY curious, here are Watson's specs as of today.

This evening I was supposed to join ODAC for an in-line skating lesson in the abandoned canteen. I would have gone if I hadn't reached home in the afternoon then realized I had left my keys back on campus! Must've left my brains on my desk at the same time, if you ask me. So I grabbed a cab, drove back, ran to the staff room, grabbed my keys, left my brains alone, ran back to the cab and drove home. 16 wasted bucks for the round trip, and a lost half hour or so too. I was so annoyed! Didn't feel like going anywhere again after that. Hope the next round  of in-line lessons will start again soon. Bah!

First set of block tests over for this term, and another one to go next week. The marking load is mad again and only 3 weeks to finish the marking. When am I going to have the time to do it, I wonder? Please don't say that's what my National Day long weekend is for 'cos I've got erm... other things planned. Must work really hard this weekend then, else I'm going to regret it. *psyches self up*

Stress of External Validation is over for me, having gone through my interview today. My group represented the CCA and enrichment aspect of the college and I think we managed to convince our Validator that we have a pretty good CCA programme in place. At least the round table chat was amicable and we were backing each other up with our answers, and everyone was smiling, which I'll take as a good sign. Questions about student leadership, interdisciplinary collaboration and alignment to overall Vision, Mission, Goals came up.

If anything, the interview helped me see how closely knit our CCAs have become in helping each other out in our various college activities; even more so than we have been in the recent past. The Validator asked us to think about how we can evaluate the effectiveness of our current programmes in terms of helping our students become the people they need to become. I guess the best way is for our students to tell us what they think of the experiences we put them through after they move on to the next and subsequent levels, so, oi, people, feed back, ok?

On the homefront, Mimi's come to stay with us again. This time for 2 weeks, after which we'll decide if her residence will be with us permanently or not. We'll see...

As the sun slowly disappears behind the darkening horizon, we sadly bid goodbye to the senior members of NYeDC, who officially, though informally, have stepped down to focus now on ace-ing their 'A's. It's been a wild ride, with lots of ups and a few downs and it's been a pleasure working with you guys. The last official thing we did together was to approve the new NYeDC leadership and I think the line-up is certainly a promising one. It's sad to see 'sif and co. go but you all have outgrown this little sandbox and bigger and better things await you now. While you're out there pursuing your dreams, we'd love to have you back once in a while to play with us again. (Gwyn, where are you?)

Congratulations to Fazli and the newly minted Exco. You've stepped forward to take over the reins of some ornery ol' horses, and as you asked, so shall you receive. NYeDC is now in your hands so let's ride on to greater glory. As far as your expectations go, the goal this year is "elite CCA." What does that mean? Here's my 2-cents worth, and see if you agree:

• All members are immediately recognizable through their unity of spirit and bearing.
• Despite the homogeneity of college uniform, all members wear their Drama badges with pride. As such, the uniform must be worn in such a way that the badge looks bigger than it actually is.
• There is so much passion for theatre and for productions that members, whenever they gather, talk drama as a reflex rather than as an item on an agenda.
• All members must have an attitude of train and re-train in pursuit of perfection. Nevertheless, less-than-perfection will never be an excuse that overrides the desire to perform.
• All members will use every learning opportunity during club activities to connect with and support their academic learning.
• Remember that the best performers can be either introverted or extroverted in their personality. No one is to be underestimated in their ability to deliver on their promises.
• If things seem overwhelming to the individual, the group rallies behind and supports the effort. Do not hesitate to seek assistance from fellows or tutors.

Notice I haven't mentioned anything about awards. Awards don't make a CCA elite. An elite CCA wins awards. So let's focus on making our CCA elite first, then the awards will come in as a side-effect.

We've already taken the first few strides towards elititude, thanks to our seniors in shaping the unity and spirit that lives in NYeDC today.  NYeDC 04-05, get your 7-league boots on and grab a big stick. We've got some hiking to do!

OK, change gear...

June rescued a tiny kitten from a storm drain during her stray cat run before dinner. It had fallen in and couldn't climb out again. So June reached in and pulled it out, then returned to the table where I was sitting and asked if we could adopt it in case it was dumb enough to fall in the drain again. This was a serious consideration, especially after June had earlier said that Mimi is likely to come live with us permanently very soon.

We went back to look at the kitten again after dinner and the stupid thing had now fallen into the monsoon drain which was next to the storm drain and was much deeper. The kitten was frantic, making such pathetic mewing noises hoping to attract a rescuer. With a resigned sigh I opened the grating over the drain, lowered myself in and fished it out. Good thing it wasn't afraid of me -- I wasn't going to chase it all through the drainage system in North Yishun just to save its life.

Fortunately the rescue was easy, but now I had a new kitten on my hands. Oh dear. Unable to take in another stray, June had a brainwave. Perhaps the Malay provision shop people might take it in, seeing that they are kind to the strays around their vicinity. Smart idea, though it wasn't the provision shop that took the kitten, it was the young Malay girl working at the pet (fish) store who did. Hope they'll be happy together. We'll keep tabs on them.

Everyone's  tense over the upcoming External Validation exercise the college is going through this week. Preparation for an important assessment is understandable, and everybody's thinking, "what if we screw this up? what if I screw up?" Indeed, what will happen? Ideally speaking, whatever the report says it simply means that certain college operations can be done better if we were to make certain changes in our current practices and procedures; or that under our current standards of assessment we are doing fine, so can we see if we can reach a higher standard by the next assessment? The whole exercise is no more than a learning experience but people, knowing people, are likely to take things more personally than objectively. Hence the preoccupation about not screwing up. Hence the added stress though it really is unnecessary.

Fear of recrimination, reprisal and blame, if anything, is a lousy motivator. After meeting parents even a couple of days after Parents' Day, it's clear that fear is at the heart of parent-child relationships and in many cases the cause of an unhealthy rift between the two. Parents obviously want the best for their kids, so by the same token, why can't we trust that our kids want the best for themselves? Unfortunately, by focusing on criticizing the negatives rather than encouraging the positives, both kids and their parents get the impression that they are striving for opposite goals rather than the same one, hence the perception that attempting to communicate with one another is a futile, even counterproductive exercise. And from there it's a downward spiral to heck.

Kiasuism is a trait Singaporeans are proud to identify with, but it's about time we started doing things because we see the worth of the activity rather than because we fear the consequences of not doing them (or screwing them up). I bet we could go a lot further, with less than half the stress.

Starting to obsess over getting new hardware for my computer. In fact I went temporarily insane and mulled over the idea of having a complete system overhaul and giving my brother all the parts I want to change so he can have his computer up and running again. Then reality kicked in. Bah!

Went to Sim Lim to drool over peripherals again and decided that for the price I had to pay for upgrades, the difference in performance was negligible and simply not worth the outlay. Besides, I just received my annual bill for one (yes, one) of my insurance policies, the amount due would buy me a beautiful new PC with all the bells and whistles I could want. Arrggh! Opportunity cost strikes again! So my brother isn't going to get hand-me-down parts from me any more. He's going shopping for a brand new system for himself this weekend and I'm just tagging along to advise him.

No, that's not true. There's still enough in my piggy bank for a graphics card and RAM upgrade. I still have a few days to think about getting a Radeon 9800 pro to beef up my system just a little. It's the only thing that will make any significant impact on performance anyway. Anyone interested in a slightly used Nvidia GeForce4 Ti4200? Using the latest driver it's still working a treat!

Day started early again, it being yet another last Sunday of the month. We were running a little late with our breakfast sandwiches and missed our bus. Not wanting to arrive any later, we caught a cab which was way faster than the bus-MRT ride could have ever been. We arrived 10 minutes early, and we were for once the earliest contributors at the Friendship Sunday breakfast. (Oh, wait, not counting the time we brought sandwiches and then discovered that there was no Friendship Sunday event that month! Doh...!)

We also found out that we had a reputation of being the last contributors to arrive every month. That is, everyone was complimenting us on the prompt sandwich delivery for a change. Usually it's more like saving the best for the last. Thank you.

Budak Pantai were our guest performers this month. The name of the group translates from Malay as "Beach Boys," so I guess the guys who gave us "Surfin' USA" and "California Girls" were the inspiration for this talented group of acapella musicians. As we had arrived early, we could watch them working over their pre-show preparations. It's nice to see performers who are professional enough to focus on setting up their tech properly rather than going over the motions of their performance in a last minute rehearsal. It shows confidence in the performers and an attention to details that are usually taken for granted -- the technicals: e.g., sound checking and balancing -- that if not prepared well and well before-hand could just as easily ruin a good show.

The members of Budak Pantai are all professional career people who only sing together in their spare time. One of the members happens to be the reigning "Singapore's Brainiest Lawyer." It must be great to be so multi-talented.

Their performance was light-hearted and good-natured, though very focused. Their voices harmonized well and their arrangements of familiar religious chorales are as surprising as they are refreshing. Their rendition of a Christmas carol that I've for the moment forgotten the title of was sung to a catchy Caribbean rhythm with faux accent to boot and was almost danceable to. If we had given them more time, they would have given us more of their cheery, improvised patter but we only gave them 4 songs and it all ended too quickly, I thought.

Nice to see Kit again who is making a whirlwind drop-in from Manchester to surprise her dad (my uncle) on his birthday. The whole family on my Dad's side had a local buffet lunch at the Peninsular Hotel. The food was only so-so, but the company was excellent. Discussions about the upcoming beach wedding party pretty much went nowhere as both groom and bride-to-be were simply allowing things to happen rather than making any actual plans for the event. Their laissez faire approach might upset a few people, but it's almost modus operandi in my family. Particularly amongst the males. Heh.

It's the aftermath of Parents' Day and the final wake up call to students who think the finals are still far off in the distance. It's a bit rude to bring parents in to play the role of tolling bell, but they have the right to know how their investment in the futures of their offspring is paying off. Different reactions from different parents, not always predictable by the results we deliver. I observe them all and I think of my own parents and the sleepless nights and grey hairs I have given them in my time. The worry, anxiety, concern, and , yes, underneath it all, the love they have for their kids; I've made Mom and Dad experence all that as well.

I know what it's like to deliver a poor report to the old folks: the initial apprehension, delay up to the absolute last minute, followed by the sharp words, the tears, the disappointment, the advice the admonishment, blame and worse. None of it makes any difference though. It doesn't make things better, it doesn't make things worse. It just... happens. Occurs, as if it wasn't happening to you. There's always another test or assignment to fail tomorrow, anyway. And so the cycle goes.

All this I experienced at 'O' level, and by the time I failed to get a cert from the VITB (ITE now) it was just resigned acceptance. My point being that my students are showing results today that are better than mine ever were when I was their age, but parents will always fret over what has not succeeded and discount that which has been accomplished. Fact of life for parents, I suppose, though it doesn't make life any easier for their kids.

Kinda' makes me wonder about my ability to raise a child.  I was at Mom's place for dinner tonight and the chaos and noise the 3 grandkids were making was sloooowly driving me insane. My sister's kids are already quite obedient and manageable. Nevertheless, from the excited, raised voices competing for attention, to the roar of cascading toys and components of toys and accessories being tipped out of their container, to the incessent screeching of some unfortunate miniature vehicle being dragged over the floor by ungentle hands, I could not bear to imagine life continuing throughout the day like this when only a few hours' of exposure could already elevate my stress to near unbearable levels.  Next time someone asks me when I'm going to bring another screaming child into this world, I'd like to know if that someone is offering to take care of it on my behalf first. Ooh...! How bitchy!

Tired. Still having trouble sleeping at night. Then woke up seriously late today: 7am! Missed assembly, a first for me this year. Still feeling like I'm on the brink of a Great Big Flu outbreak but it's just tantalizingly out of reach. It's not like I'm looking forward to it, but I just want to get it over with. Spend a couple of days in bed, douse myself with medication and I'll be fine again. With my luck, it'll hit during the National Day weekend when I really won't need it. Not with the promise of Doom 3, and my cousin's most novel beach wedding party to attend. Please, no!

Attended the SYF Drama Finals with 'sif, or should I say we both got a ticket each? 'sif, as Pres, deserved to go while I needed to see for myself what kind of a standard a Gold award play reached. Won't do too much of an evaluation here until after I've compared notes with 'sif over what we both saw. One common element that I noticed was that Gold standard plays run heavily with emotion and melodrama. People scream at each other and there's quite a bit of crying. Strong central characters are also a must, even if supporting cast are only so-so.

Left Chinese High early, before the results were announced. Too tired to last till then. Besides, I had a chance of beating the crowd at the bus-stop. I knew the performers' supporters would stay to the end. My strategy didn't pay off, however. The northbound bus from town was already full of passengers and it was a long ride home standing in the bus. At the Upper Bukit Timah area, my stomach reminded me to have dinner so I alighted prematurely at the most well-lit settlement to look for food. There happened to be a Killeney Road Kopi Tiam in the midst of a number of seafood restaurants lining the road. I stopped to order a Hokkien mee and a Coke. Under the circumstances, I just wanted to eat something and balek kampong ASAP. Sated, the lazy bum hailed a cab and rode home in comfort.

'sif messaged me the results: Play of the year by ACJC, Actress from MI, Actor from VJC. No arguments from me. Looks quite fair. Congrats to them all!

Have to psyche myself up to meet the parents tomorrow. Parents are supposed to be our partners in bringing up "our" kids, but when did this notion come into the picture? I don't remember having my parents roped in to keep me in check after 'O' levels. The assumption then was that having attained secondary school education, we were qualified to work to support ourselves and our parents no longer needed to monitor us so closely any longer. Nevertheless, it's probably going to be interesting for me to get to know my class through their closest sources. I wonder what embarrassing stories I will hear tomorrow *rubs hands in glee*.

Caught Will Smith in I, Robot. Pretty ok movie though nothing to rave about. Questions of trust abound as allegiances and suspicions flow quite fluidly between persons and robots. It all starts with a suicide under suspicious circumstances and a trail of clues that follow lead to... well, let's just say that it's bigger than just a question of who killed whom.

Can we say we are truly free as long as we live under the law? When does programming become sentience? When does law become trust? And when trust becomes the guiding principle, is there any further need for the law? Perhaps that's it, then. Where there is no trust, we have the rule of law. Only when there is trust, we can abolish the law and then we can be truly free.

A little disturbing, the depiction of the storage of obsolete robots. In that scene, we could ask if we can equate programming with nobility (i.e., the act of being noble, I'm not talking about royalty).  If it is just a reaction to the program, does self-sacrifice count?

So many questions. But questions are at the heart of the story. Each clue deliberately leading to another question rather than providing an answer. Makes perfect sense to me. I've always maintained that whenever faced with a problem, all we need to do is ask the right question and the solution presents itself.  Takes a sharp mind, though, to ask the right question.

Quite a philosophical movie then, a bit understated a vehicle for Smith, but it shows he's maturing. Whatever. I'd watch a Will Smith movie any day.

 

Must take a quick moment to be oh, so proud of A2's mid-year overall results. You've topped the Arts fac with the most number of passes in your subjects, and Farisa's made the Arts Honour Roll, so indulge me while I *beams*.

OK, high over. I hope A2 is able to get some encouragement from the results and push on harder to do themselves even mo' betta. The results were just quantitative, not qualitative; and you guys know that there's still ground to cover before you're really ready to face your final test.

Your success is no reflection on me, but rather on yourselves and your own efforts. There are still a few more assignments left before the end, so let's go all out to make one success feed subsequent successes. You should now be wary of overconfidence, but some confidence in yourselves is good for you too. Pack your bags with all the confidence you can carry and no more. Right. Move out!

Oh, and congrats to Sanjeeda (Drama Club) too for topping the Arts Honour Roll, if you ever find this entry.

A2's looking sharp! :) 

Addendum: Forgot to mention Ray and Chun who performed in the final dance number. Did A2 and Team Pegasus proud. Thanks, girls!

Happy Racial Harmony Day, everyone! The day began like a nightmare. I was so nervous about today's proceedings, I think I actually fell asleep at about 2am. After 1 and a half hours' of beauty rest, I woke up abruptly at 4:30 am and I couldn't get back to sleep again, though I resolutely lay in bed and tried my best to relax.

The early morning thunderstorm brought both dogs, Mimi and Q-tip, running over clamouring to be let on the bed and sleep next to us. About that time I had to get up and drag myself onto campus, so I regretfully left them all nice and snug in bed to catch my transport.

The rain made so many people late today, including one of my comperes! Both were supposed to meet before 7, but by assembly time Compere 1 hadn't shown up yet. Compere 2 was freakin' out backstage, dreading the possibility of shouldering the show alone. Just before curtain, the dancers who had prepared the dance items were nowhere in sight, and I was running all kinds of disaster scenarios in my head. The Principal had just publicly thanked Cikgu Ibrahim and me just before the show and I wondered whose head would have rolled (mine probably) once the curtain opened and noone was behind it.

But wonder of wonders, both comperes appeared and pretty much everything went on as scheduled with only a couple of minor hiccups. The Principal was impressed with the dance numbers, rough though they were, and lamented that some of the more outstanding performers were not with the Dance Society. The participants of the RHD quiz were so very sporting and answered the simple (and I mean simple) questions with such enthusiasm and spirit, quite uncharacteristic of the usual NY "cool" apathy.  Special mention must go to Sarab and Sonia who improvised a comic routine when both came forward unexpectedly to answer the last question. Their exchange came across as natural and real because, being siblings, it probably was.

A2 looked such a treat today, all the colours and borrowed costumes, as you can see in the picture above. Check out our album for more pix! (A2, this album entry looks rather bare so help me u/l the shots you took today to fill it out. Thanks!) I was a little miffed when various people couldn't see that my outfit was authentic of contemporary Hawaiian national dress, but instead decided I was just impersonating a beach bum or a tourist. The shirt was a real Aloha shirt I bought in Maui and the shell lei (well, it was a bit small) was a souvenir from the Hawaiian Cultural Centre in Oahu. So there!

Had an interesting time with Drama Club later this afternoon arguing over how the succeeding Exco lineup should look like. It's ironic that the decision makers are mostly the current and departing seniors who are deciding on the people we, the staff advisors, will be working with from now on. We have our input, of course, but we do trust the seniors, who have had more contact with their juniors than us, to make the right decision in the end.

And Mimi went home today. The experiment worked quite well, in fact. All of us are slowly adjusting to relocating Mimi to our premises. Mimi also needs to get used to living with us, accustomed as she is to living at her current home. For the moment, it looks like Mimi will have 2 homes from now on :)

Another oddly disjointed entry by yours truly. Crazy week.
 
It's a bad day when I have breakfast at 3 in the afternoon. And what I ate was a cup of Korean instant noodles that has been mouldering away in my cupboard since I visited Korea 2 years ago. No worries, though. The expiry date said it was still good until August. That's cutting things a bit close. Glad I remembered I still had it. Saved for a special occasion, eh?

Sadly, I've been so busy that I've had no time to shop for my RHD outfit. Like I said earlier, this week is one of the mad ones. A2's taking quite some trouble over dressing for the occasion tomorrow and I don't want to let them down so I'll just have to improvise somehow. Must also remember to bring my dica (Korean slang for "digital camera"). Time to update our old CT photo album!

Ds. June Tan in one of her sermons mentioned a curious fact of wildlife. When a mother eagle senses that her chicks are ready for flying lessons, she applies the most practical of pedagogies: she picks up each chick (actually mom eagle doesn't have many chicks, maybe one or two at most) and physically flings them from the nest. As they fall (they live high up on the cliffs, so there's still some time before they hit ground zero) they instinctively flap their wings and before they know it, they are soaring off into the wild, blue yonder, ready to take care of themselves, leaving the safe but dull old nest behind.

Flinging time is here. Flap hard. Flap and soar.

Taking a short break from preparing my portion of this week's lecture material. It's now the eleventh hour and I'm still hard at work. Gaah! *Panics*
 
Something I've been a bit embarrassed about that I will reveal now: Remember the entry made a few weeks ago about the Toilet Uncle being replaced by another sanitation officer? Toilet Uncle is still here, no sign of him being replaced yet. His social skills haven't improved, and he looks like he's going to remain here for the long haul, despite everything he said earlier. Happy for him that he still has a job, but I swear, that man lives in an alternate reality!
 
Also, Cat Auntie has been a feature over the last couple of days. She is in some financial difficulty now, on account of her age and medical condition and the fact that her three kids don't seem to be helping to support her even now that she's unable to maintain a proper job. Everyone has recently found grounds to reduce their financial contribution to her upkeep and it looks like she's in dire straits. It's sad that someone who has a heart for even the strays in the neighbourhood hasn't got kin who have much of a heart for her.
 
It's ironic that the prize winning Commonwealth Essay that we looked at in class was also written along these lines. Neglecting our elderly is becoming a national pastime. No wonder we're a bit cynical about having our own kids. It seems we are more financially independent if we save up for our old age rather than fritter our wages away on our own self-created parasites which we call our children. The ROI just doesn't seem worth it anymore. Whine, whine.
 
Sorry. This invective isn't directed at my young audience, whom I know aren't this irresponsible. I just feel bad for Cat Auntie and I hope things will get better for her soon, though I don't know how that might be possible. Bummer.

Blaah! I hate it when I develop symptoms but not the disease. I've been sneezing and leaking from the nose all weekend, with the occasional hack, but I still feel healthy. Well, healthy enough not to warrant an MC anyway. BTW, I wonder if anyone else experiences this but sometimes when I cough suddenly, it feels like I've compressed part of my brain against the inside of my skull and for an instant I get a blinding headache as a reward. The only way to prevent this unpleasant sensation is to have advance warning that the cough is coming, then press down on your skull hard with both hands so that when the cough comes the pressure on both the outside and inside of your skull equalizes and your brain is prepared and left unperturbed. I have a theory that fever develops in most cases of the flu not because of flu viruses but because of bruised brains. Just a theory.
 
The papers finally got round to printing this year's winning Commonwealth Essay Competition entry. Maybe we'll look at it in class tomorrow? Here's the link, but again it won't last long. The story is packed full of dualities: ancient-modern, young-old, faith-cynicism, empowerment-disenfranchisement, male-female, East-West, hi-tech-lo-tech, lasting values- temporary materialism, you get the picture. I guess it's not bad for a "2-hour rush job," eh? It's still a bit rough, but not bad.
 
Got to lecture this week, and fuss over the Racial Harmony Day event at the same time. Still, the excitement everyone's generating over getting their costumes together by Wednesday is quite a fun ride. Even the staff can be heard conspiring over who's going to wear what or who's going to borrow what from whom. Now I'm under pressure to find something suitable to wear too. What fun! It's like Halloween's come early this year! This week is already promising to be hectic. Just bring it!

Just clicked on the Doom 3 website and after years of promise and development there is an actual release date published. August 3 2004, which is so darned close, my palms are getting all sweaty thinking about it. Oh, the anticipation...
 
Time to go shopping for hardware, la, la, la...
 
The National Day loooong weekend now has a purpose and a meaning! If you don't see me again, you'll know what's happened. Just alert the proper authorities, oh, and my wife too. Tell her I love her... out! bzzzzzt...

Busy, busy day. If Cikgu Ibrahim hadn't reminded me about today's Racial Harmony Day celebration/forum at SMU I would have slept this morning away in the midst of a fine thunderstorm. The celebration might have been more fun for the crowd of primary school kids who were taken on a discovery tour of the Botanic Gardens by their assigned student leaders; but for me it was like been there, done that. Literally speaking, because our college had exactly (well, almost exactly) the same programme two years ago to celebrate Teachers' Day. A good idea is worth recycling on an ever increasing scale.
 
I took a greater interest in the forum, especially with what the 2nd speaker had to say about her CDC's NE Youth Ambassadors. Ms Phua seems like a very passionate, bubbly personality who genuinely loves working with youth. What I liked about her presentation was that she emphasized very strongly about what our youth can do once we give them enough trust to have a free rein to do their "thang." Her approach to NE is so simple and yet so real -- provide an environment where youth can mix it up and form strong and lasting friendships. That's all the NE that our youth need; and I believe her. Our "system" suffers from too much micromanagement and it turns out lots of kids who are crippled in imagination, motivation, and confidence, so it's great to see that there are civil servants like Ms Phua who has her head screwed on right.
 
Already the forum has got some ideas sizzlin' on the backburner, but now isn't the time to discuss them. I need to do a little further research before I can verbalize what's going on in there.
 
A number of issues from this morning resonated in Mean Girls, which I managed to catch this evening. Cady's observation that schools are places where adults don't trust youth to do the right thing applies in our context as well as in hers. This lack of trust is truly a terrible thing. Within her school is a society in microcosm, fragmented along racial, linguistic, fashion, intelligence, cultural and lack-of-cultural faultlines. The obvious distrust between the different groups rests on such a hair-trigger that it takes a single malicious event to cause the whole society to erupt into violence and chaos. It's funny to watch in the movie, but it's not half so funny as we apply the same model to different parts of our world where people are fighting, killing and dying for the exact same reasons.
 
Ha! Only the NE coordinator could turn a high school chick flick into an NE lesson for Racial Harmony Day. Hope I haven't spoiled it for you!

Looky that! WYSIWYG editing in Blogger! About time too. Maybe now uploading pix won't be such a pain. Coloured text too. Wonder when I'll ever use that? I run a serious blog, I do.
 
I think I'll give poor old King Arthur a skip. Everyone's been saying how disappointed they are with the movie. Straits Times, MSN, even Yee said that it was dreary and tiresome to watch. Then again, it seems Yee didn't like Spider-Man 2 either, so go figure. Maybe it'll show up on HBO one of these days. I can wait. But people are saying that Mean Girls was funny (in a mean sort of way, of course) and while I hadn't had any intention of watching another High School flick for a while, this one might be worth consideration.
 
Couldn't go watch KA today, anyway. Someone's going to get some serious frequent visitor mileage at our house from tonight. Yep, Mimi's visiting again and this visit could be a trial to see if she can put up in our house permanently. The poor old girl is becoming marginalized at Mom-in-law's house, what with the 2 young grand kids who are learning from their mom to keep Mimi at arms length [Don't they know that kids who play with dogs grow up to be well-adjusted adults? No, I didn't have a dog to play with as a kid. Explains a lot, don't it?]. The only one who has time for Mimi is June's sister, but as she flies out of country so often, Mimi is usually left alone. That's why she is always happy to come visit us; she gets so much attention from us she finds it hard to say goodbye when she has to go home.
 
This won't be an easy decision for us to make, though. Mimi is adorable and is a lot more of the dog that Q-tip isn't. Mimi is affectionate and loves company, but she scares Momo. On her last visit, Momo spent 2 days behind the washing machine, occupying her time by chewing on the washer's drainage pipe. It has so many holes in it now, the kitchen floor floods whenever we do the laundry. I was also quite mad with Q-tip this evening for ignoring the nice new newspaper I laid down for her, and took a leak in the kitchen instead. Our kitchen is a tiled one, so her pee got into all the gaps between the tiles so there was a liquid waste grid stretching all the way to the kitchen drainage hole for me to clean up. *faints*
 
Mimi isn't the most disciplined of house trained dogs either, so...
 
Well, if June really wants to keep Mimi, I won't object. In this case of "love me, love my dog," I really do love the dog too. As far as I can tell, I'm the only non-member of the family that she has welcomed and accepted so wholeheartedly. Everyone else she barks violently at. She's family to me too, and I can't turn her away. Momo will just have to learn to cope.

Congratulations to Joanna who's delivered her second daughter, Judith. I think Vince and a few others went to visit her to deliver their well-wishes in person. I couldn't make it today, so I might have to deliver a small token through her Mom who lives only a few doors away from my Mom. Funny that we have been growing up on the same street for years, never knowing each other, then suddenly ending up as colleagues in the same college. Well, I guess it's not such a coincidence after all. Singapore isn't that big a place, and we don't have that many people.

Thought of going to catch King Arthur on opening night, so I made it home early to meet June, have dinner and go. But June said the movie only rated 2 stars in the papers, so she wasn't in a hurry to go see it. Maybe tomorrow, then.

And for those of you who want to be thoroughly disturbed about human life and our role on this planet, and that everything you ever believed is a (benign) lie, then have a read of "The Science of Discworld II: The Globe," by Terry Pratchett,et. al. If you have a Renaissance enough of a mind, you will be treated to a tongue-in-cheek disseration critiquing (not criticizing, mind you) all the disciplines of the Western world. Nothing is scared; from religion (if you are sensitive about people critiquing your religion, the authors ask you to just think of it as a critique of someone else's religion, not yours), the Arts (visual, literary and dramatic), science (theoretical and applied) including quantum physics, some philosophy, some economics, and lots of history, all wrapped up within the framework of a rib-tickling story involving wizards and elves. This book is a little gem of an eye-opener and I would love to recommend it to all GP students. A lot of issues we usually discuss in GP are discussed in this book too, but in a very readable presentation. However there are only 2 copies in the Drum so, first come first served.

This book may have been the only thing keeping me sane (ok, I'm being dramatic) through the MY marking period. I needed to touch base with good, analytical but humorous writing quite frequently or I would have lost all objectivity reading nothing but barely legible exam scripts over that extended period of time. I only read Pratchett in small chunks during transit between locations, and during other more discreet personal operations, and that's probably why it took me exactly 14 days to read it from cover to cover.

Read it and pause to think about the implications Pratchett, et. al. postulate about life on Earth as we know it. Go on, I dare you!