Parents' Night on campus. The annual ritual of calling in parents of current year 1 kids to see for themselves that we're a decent college and that we'll take good care of their kids should they decide to stay on after 1st term.

Staff instructions are to "mingle with the crowd and make 'em feel welcome." Uh huh. Me? Mingle? When I already have problems mingling with my own friends when I get invited to their parties?

Well, I tried. I patrolled up and down from the staff room and past the wall of orbs to LT4 and back several times looking for any parent that might want to have a chat. No one did. A couple of my students waved in my direction, though their parents were engaged elsewhere, so after a while I began to feel like campus security instead of faculty staff. Yellow plaid short-sleeve shirted, college tie wearing campus security on foot patrol. No wonder nobody wanted to talk to me.

I hung around during the panel discussion with the Heads just in case Boss Lady got asked something she couldn't respond to about my subject. Fortunately, the parents were sensible enough to ask only a couple of basic questions about KI, so Boss Lady didn't need my help to field them. Otherwise, with a cordless mike in my hand...

Still, after formal talks had ended, I found myself face-to-face with a couple of my more enthu KI kids and their moms whom I spent some time bringing up to speed about this esoteric new subject their daughters had decided to take. Nice folks, neither critical nor cynical, but genuinely interested people. Hope I didn't get carried away and promise the moon again.

A well-deserved prata supper with Amy and HP. Long day.

Thoughts wandering again. Came up with this nonsense that I won't insist on everyone reading. Read only if you want to induce a headache. Click.

3 weeks into the new year and already it feels like we've been on the job continuously without a break. It's pointless to reminisce how spontaneous we were last year, running off to snack or do silly things whenever we felt like it. This year, our schedules and disparate agenda make even maintaining group cohesion difficult enough; though I still believe that once we get used to our new routines we'll learn to adapt to each others' once again. Today, I put the brakes on attempting to schedule recreation time into a weekly appointment book. Having to organize my whole life -- including when I can have fun -- just feels so... wrong.

The furore over draft dodging since Melvyn Tan's slap on the wrist, and the subsequent proposal to stiffen laws and penalties shows once again that we would rather do the right thing to avoid punishment than do the right thing because it IS the right thing to do.

Seems that when Melvyn 'got away' with 'only' a $3000 fine for all the years he didn't serve his National Service, those of us who did our time became all indignant and upset that his sentence was so light. What? If we had known that dodging NS would only cost us $3k we would have gladly paid up and thumbed our noses at Uncle Seng? As if.

I'm not trying to defend Melvyn for what he did, nor decry the non-consequences of his naughtiness. What I'm worried about is the fact that NS men appear to feel more strongly against the lightness of one defaulter's punishment than for the value of their own contribution of service to the place they call 'home.'

If the sentiment is truly such, then the main reason behind our serving NS is the fear of being severely punished if we don't. This attitude suggests that when we consider NS, we see an option -- either serve, or be punished. Most of us choose the former to avoid the unpleasantness of the latter; nevertheless, the latter may still appear to some of us as a viable choice. But if we think there is a choice in the matter, we are dead wrong because there is really no option: either serve, or the consequences will be far more severe than what the courts can throw at us.

It's true. It's here. It's now. What NBS and I have been preparing for all last year has become a reality. Today we officially launched our KI tutorials with our 20 students, just the exact number that we agreed is our maximum limit.

After our introductory spiel, we had a Q&A session during which the kids wanted to assess our confidence levels in leading them in a pioneering direction, and what if they don't pass it this year? Typical.

Anyway, the Gutter Boyz and our, um, groupies celebrated the birthday of one of our own. Ate at the Manhattan Fish Market, Plaza Singapura. We ordered 3 sets of flaming seafood platters for 2 (for Anthony and Wendy, Yee and Amy, me and June) while Vince and NBS went ahead and ordered their own things. The seafood platter comes in a large saucepan and comprises some blowtorched (hence flaming) shrimp, calamari, oysters and a large chunk of battered fish on a thick layer garlic rice and fries. Made for good eating, but the portions were so large that we couldn't eat it all.

Finally presented Anthony with his farewell gift. Today seemed like a good opportunity since most of us who signed his bowling pin happened to be around for this occasion. Guess he won't be forgetting us in a hurry. Heh.

1st cross-dept "professional sharing" session. Reps from (L-R) PE, Arts, English, and Math Depts attend.


Chinese Dept and, um... Staff Welfare?


It may be the year of the dog, but I hope people will buy these pups for the right reasons.


A preview of Q-tip's CNY outfit.


Who could resist picking up this little furball and giving him a squeeze?

The report about the naked salesman in the papers is cause for a raised eyebrow at least. Not that the guy was in the buff but that his neighbours took the time and trouble to make a police report to get him arrested.

I mean, sure, the guy was nude, but he was in his own house where he should expect a modicum of privacy at least. After all, a man's home is his castle, or maybe it was while the Brits were still here. What exactly is he guilty of? If you look at the pix in the papers (which out of good taste I won't upload here), he's engaged in his morning ritual of shaving his whiskers. Hardly anything to be concerned about there. "But he's not wearing any clothes!" as a neighbour might complain. Sure, but how did you get to see so much detail? The pix undoubtedly came from a police or press camera with a TELEPHOTO lens, rigged to catch him in the act (of shaving). Now, that's an invasion of his privacy, period.

The poor sod's being held for psychiatric evaluation pending further punitive procedures. The guy plainly isn't nuts. He might have been naive and stupid but definitely not psycho. So why did he do what he did? Simple: He doesn't look into his neighbours' bedroom windows, but forgot that his neighbours might look into his. After all, there's no indication that he was even aware that he was being watched. He didn't jump up and down, or wave, or do anything else that might have suggested that he was attracting the attention of anyone, though if he had then it would have been a different matter altogether. He just went about doing what everyone else normally does in the privacy of one's house, albeit sans attire. That's a crime?

It's typical of Singaporeans to approach the authorities to solve a problem for them, rather than work it out amongst themselves. Things would have been much better if his neighbours had just talked to him first, but they opted to slap criminal charges on him instead. We don't live in a problem-solving culture, we live in a problem eradication culture. Unthinking and unsociable is the Singaporean mindset.

So now they've ruined the guy. Publicly tarnished his reputation, stigmatized him with a criminal record, questioned his sanity, deprived him of his freedom, and probably strained relations between him and his wife for good measure. All just so that they don't have to see a naked man any more. They didn't just get rid of the nudity; they got rid of the man too. My children feel so much safer now, thanks to their civic consciousness. Thanks a bunch.

If I were him, I'd go find a good lawyer and file a counter-suit: invasion of privacy, defamation, wrongful accusation, and for social and psychological damages for starters. With his back against the wall, it's his only recourse.

The sun has finally shown us some face after having disappeared behind rainclouds for more than a week. It would have been a great day for outdoor activities, but since June will be unable to bake her fab CNY cookies this year -- her new job's been keeping her too busy -- we went to buy some, like normal people.

Some TV programme June watched recommended Poh Guan Cake House (Blk 531 Upp. Cross St.) so we picked up our nian gao from them along with a tin of love letters. The floor above Poh Guan houses a food court that did very nicely as an alternative lunch venue to the more popular ones at Chinatown Complex and Maxwell Road Market. The Hokkien prawn noodle soup was tasty enough, and though I've tasted stronger, this one held its own quite well. There were long lines at other stalls too, so this place should be worth exploring further when we have the time.

Dropped in on Mr Leow. My contact lenses are way past a year old and my eyes are demanding new ones. Good to know that my eyesight is still stable, and Leow is even thinking of reducing the power a little. Says they'll be ready before the new year.

We acknowledged the sun closer to evening time. Dinner at ECP hawker centre where we got excellent beef noodles from the stall where you have to wait in line for about 20 minutes (or more? I occasionally fell asleep while waiting, so my sense of time is a bit screwed) before you even get to place your order. Then an after dinner stroll on the beach with Q-tip. We have so missed the sun.

June's gone shopping with S-i-L, so what's an old man gonna do on a Friday evening? Why, lots of things! After work I went straight to SAFRA for a little 'secret training,' but the lanes were packed out with screaming schoolchildren, so I took the wisest course of action and beat a hasty retreat. Didn't even stay long enough for my parking to cost anything.

Went home to feed the animals, then still feeling restless I decided to take the longest drive I could think of -- to Popeye's at Terminal 1 -- blasting the i-Pod along the way. Lunch had digested quickly, and I could almost taste that chicken.

Knew I had depleted my finances before leaving the house so a quick stop at the ATM at the airport and... no wallet!

I swear, Alzheimer's is out to get me early. I'd left the house without credit card, NETS card, ID card, Driving Licence; nothing but the clothes on my back. If Alzheimer's had struck then and became full-blown amnesia, I'd be wandering around on the runway before being picked up by the local authorities and kept in a "safe place" until someone thought to come and claim me sometime. Soon, hopefully.

Thankfully I still had my cash card so I could pay 42 cents for parking. Drove straight home to make sure I hadn't lost my wallet somewhere en route. I hadn't. It was simply a case of "left in my other pants." Now I'm just too lazy to go out anymore. Guess I wasn't meant to leave home tonight.

Maybe I can find some cup noodles in the pantry...

We have divided up our training workload between ourselves as of this morning. NBS will be the grown-up of our team and I, the rebel child. How professional.

Tweedledum to my Tweedledumber, really glad to have you on board! :)

There's so much going on right now, even pausing to take a breather is a bit of a luxury on campus these days. The work seems never-ending, with people from various quarters reminding me of things yet to be done, deadlines getting close and commitments yet to be fulfilled.

But it's also an exciting time because a lot of what I'm involved with seems really worthwhile, with positive benefits to look forward to in the long run. Apart from KI which is for the most part unexplored territory for everyone, starting up a campus newspaper -- for real, like the Planet, or the Bugle -- has been keeping me awake just thinking of the possibilities.

Yes, it's going to be an incredible slog to get things started. We need to establish our identity, our credibility, and work with a sense of purpose, urgency and responsibility, and our reward is in our increasing readership and in perhaps sparking off intelligent, purposeful debate amongst our students, staff and the community beyond. Wow. Bold, ambitious words coming from a sloth like myself. But there's nothing like getting in on the ground floor and pioneering something new that gives a guy a rush.

Gotta thank Amy who's taught me a lot from her own experience today, and the KI kids for their initial reviews of our news website. We've launched our first issue, but there's still a long way to go before we can even get the design, layout and content looking more professional. In this respect, since both staff advisors and student writers are all co-learners in the news publication business, progress may be slow but hopefully steady as well.

Hope our readers will be patient and not lose faith in us while we work on getting it right.

What used to be "The Red Pill" is now in the process of rebranding. Currently known as NY Connections (or ConneXions), the writers for the now defunct publication have now turned their attention towards more tabloid-style journalism with weekly updates and lots more focus on personalities and human interest stories particularly from within campus. Well, that's the plan, anyway.

We've already soft-launched the inaugural issue and hope to meet our most demanding publication schedule without fail. Let's hope the news coverage will also be relevant and popular with the student body, to keep our motivation (and readership) up. Else, it's gonna be a loooong year.

Finally caught Lion-Witch-Wardrobe, NBS making history with us again by staying up till past midnight. Must say it was doubly excellent of her to join us as she had watched LWW once already.

I dunno. Somehow, reading the Narnia series in my younger days may have been the more magical experience for me. Not that the movie didn't have exciting bits -- like the escape from the slowly unfreezing waterfall or the grand-scale battle sequences -- but the hand of deus ex machina seemed to be working too obviously, making escapes too convenient and victory too easy.

Even Aslan's supreme sacrifice didn't have all that much impact on me since the narration didn't bother to build his credentials much further than mythical being, talks a lot, shouts very loudly. His resurrection being due to a quirk in the interpretation of a pretty in-your-face and literally carved-in-stone clause in the law of Deep Magic was also a bit of a let-down. I expected more of Aslan than just counting on being released on a technicality.

OK. So Lewis wrote the story as a close parallel to the Gospel, but of course it isn't the Gospel else he'd have bred a whole new religious sect, the Narnites, or something. Still, by being so derivative, it only goes to show that potatoes really don't boil twice.

So much rain. Non-stop since this morning. Wonder if it affected the big civil defence exercise of this morning? Yes, the one announced a couple of weeks ago to be a surprise "attack" on our public transport system, though not TOO much of a surprise to prevent panic. I wasn't using public transport today, so I guess I missed out on the excitement. Well, apart from seeing a squad of Gurkhas armed with machine-guns and their culturally identifiable khukri emerging from City Hall MRT station. Anyone with a 1st-hand account of what was going on in the tunnels at Ground(s) Zero? Inquiring minds wanna know.

June and I were at Sunday service at 9am. It's the 1st time we've entered the new sanctuary since it opened in November. Wow. We haven't been to service in that long, huh? We have been naughty. Anyway, the space is hi-tech cool in design. Lots of glass and steel, with stone and laminated wood to keep things warm. Lots of sharp angles and hard edges, especially in the pews. After a while, I got tempted to use the nice, soft kneeler as a seat cushion instead, but propriety prevailed -- this time.

The cross forming the centrepiece suspended above the stone altar is a nice touch. Contrasting with the rest of the techno theme, the cross is a simple perpendicular arrangement of 2 hewn tree trunks which appear neither processed nor finished; but rather left in more or less their natural state.

And since the new sanctuary is built below-ground, it should be cool and well-shaded enough to be a great place for prayer and reflection during lunchtime downtown. But it's strictly BYOB -- bring-your-own-bible. Too bad I don't work downtown anymore.

Got rained out of our blading plans. At least we had a nice kaya toast breakfast with JY at J8, though blading was out of the question. Met Chewy who was at J8 too, accompanying two of her students who were participating in the 93.3FM DJ audition today.

By about midday it didn't stop raining, so June and I abandoned everyone to go for lunch. Thus we were not around when JY decided to take a shot at the auditions herself. Definitely an interesting development here. Maybe we're witnessing the start of a dramatic career change for our good friend? We'll see, when the results come out next week.

Hard to believe but about year ago, I attended my niece, Rachel's, 1st month celebration; and today, she's already a whole year older. Happy birthday, little Rachel!

The obligatory dance party to mark the end of O1 week.


Wonder if we'll ever see the kids this lively again?


Council puts the "hop" in hip hop.


Whoa! Who put the lights back on?

Nearly killed a motorcyclist on my way home from the party. Stupid idiot went straight on a turn-left lane while I was turning left from the adjacent lane. Good thing I took the turn slowly while he charged straight across my grille, else I'd still be scraping bits of him off my radiator right now. Imbecile.

JC1 Orientation activities take us to Sentosa today.


After my recce of this place on Tuesday, I just had to come back with more people.

Spent the day on O1 duty on Sentosa in the bright sunshine... rain... sun... rain... The weather couldn't make up its mind at all. Must have been quite frustrating for Amy and her crew to decide between dry and wet weather plans. My sympathies.

I appreciated the outing despite the weather. It was a refreshing change from the usual routine of the curriculum. And June could join me outdoors too -- on what might be the last few days of her involuntary "extended leave" from work. She got a job offer while we were sitting on the beach. The job pays slightly less than her old one, but she likes the location and the change of industry. The news boosted her spirits tremendously and the Billabong outlet got a happy shopper as a result.

Back to the old grindstone tomorrow. TGIF.

Gosh. Mei's comment raised my eyebrows a bit. If after spending 2 years on GP and not knowing what its purpose is, then that really is my fault for not making it clear. I'm not making that mistake again with my sole GP tutorial this year. For the record, the purpose of GP (as I define it) is as follows:

The GP student should learn to...
1. Observe things that are not right in society/the world.
2. Empathize with the situation.
3. Seek to understand what’s going on (from different points of view).
4. Evaluate the situation from a socially responsible, moral/ethical basis.
5. Make decisions to initiate/facilitate change for the better...
6. in a respectful, yet authoritative manner.

I think most of the problem is that I/we tend to focus almost exclusively on step 6 -- which is where the essay and the comprehension exercises actually fit in -- while conveniently forgetting to train students in the previous 5 steps beforehand, where the meat and potatoes of GP actually are. See what happens when we all focus on working for grades instead of working to develop the self as a person first?

Sorry, guys! Thank God you all passed anyway, despite the oversight, eh?

Subject combo talk for KI today must have been quite funny to watch if a movie camera had been pointed at the audience from behind my shoulder. Apparently, when I start talking about something I've prepared, I can seem to go on forever. I had been given a 10 minute slot, but my spiel ended up "way over the time limit" according to official feedback. The camera would have picked up lots of hand signals from the peanut gallery where the staff were sitting as various colleagues would have been gesticulating frantically for me to cut, cut, cut it short. But wrapped up in the excitement of having a cordless mike in my hand, and focused on the crowd of newbie students, I kept going like the Energizer bunny.

Scary thing is, I may have oversold myself and KI. At the Q&A session, a lot more students approached me with questions about the new subject than I was prepared for. There is a limit to the number of students I can take on, though I didn't actually mention this because I wasn't quite sure I'd interest enough kids to even come close to it. I hadn't thought of the possibility of an oversubscription, yikes! Well, until tomorrow's subject selection exercise, I shouldn't speculate. And I hope that whatever I promised them today, I won't let them down if and when they do sign up.

Joined Vince and Amy in the evening on a final recce of Sentosa before the College descends upon it en masse on Thursday. We needed to see what the condition of the beach was like after the big new year's eve party. We also needed to get entry tix for a small hoarde of kids and staff in advance. Actually, that was Amy's job. I think Vince and I were just there as comic relief.

Had a good dinner at the Sakae Sushi on Siloso Beach. On weekdays, when there isn't much crowd, the conveyor belt does not function. Sushi is made fresh in the kitchen and the salmon sashimi was very fresh. Wasabe was a little flat, but the meal was enjoyable nonetheless.

Guess everyone's busy gearing up for the new term. Me too. This year, I'm taking on KI, what I used to call the New Subject in these previous pages. My first duty is to inform the new batch of J1s about this new option they have in tomorrow's subject combination talk, and hopefully -- if I don't scare them off first -- NBS and I will have some students to teach this year.

I've generally drafted out what I want to tell the kids, so since I've put some effort into the text, you might as well read it too. Click here.

'Cos it's new to me, I'm open to guidance in the instruction of this subject, so feel free to comment and let me know what you think, 'k?

The gas burner gets a workout at our Yishun Dam cookout. Franks 'n beans, scrambled eggs, Spam, corned beef and pork, and assorted junk foods on the menu.


Q-tip makes friends with Celine and CW.


What we think of Ribena-Smirnoff!


Didn't we do this at Rach's place exactly 1 year ago?


It only takes a spark...


Somehow, pyromania and celebrations go hand-in-hand.


Happy New Year, Q-tip!