Heaven is waking up from a good, long sleep. The sun is bright outside, but inside the room is a shade of rose-pink-peach reflecting the colour of the walls and the curtains that diffuse the heat and glare of the outside world.

Next to me, June is still asleep, nestled amongst her cat-shaped cushions. In between us, Q-tip has just roused and is looking up expectantly, hoping for an outing soon. She offers up her tummy for a rub, her tongue hanging out appreciatively as I indulge her.

Around us, Momo and Kaiser are at play, jumping on and off the bed in pusuit of each other to avenge a bite or a scratch, though neither can remember who started it first.

And it's a Saturday, in the midst of a long vacation. No agenda, no worries.

Aaaaaahhhhh....!

Oh my head... I haven't slept in the last 40 hours. Every year around this time I will invariably do something stupid and make a mess of Watson's systems.

Yesterday began promisingly enough with a nice, informal remedial GP session in college. In the afternoon I decided to go check out my old haunt, Sim Lim Square. If there wasn't a game I could pick up from there, then my quest would truly be hopeless.

I picked up "Onimusha 3," a console port, though as I began reading the manual, it was almost with instant regret. The controls on the keyboard look like a nightmare to operate. Different combinations of keys held down produce different effects or movements, but what they actually do I can't qute figure out from the poorly translated instructions. For instance, under "Basic Attacks" we get "It becomes 'Care' while CTRL is being pushed. At this time, it becomes an axis movement to the enemy unit, it enjoys the enemy's back, and it can enjoy "Advanced play"...' Huh? So I haven't installed the game yet 'cos I'm still busy scratching my head over the manual.

How I messed up Watson is a different story. At Sim Lim, I also thought it would be a good idea to invest in a video-capture card so I wouldn't have to depend on the mercies of the hypertension inducing Pentium II in Com Lab 1 any longer.

Video-capture requires a lot of hard-drive space so I happily formatted an unused partition on my c: drive. "Format" instruction (usually) = disaster. My mistake was simultaneously running other applications while the drive was still in being Formatted. Windows crashed, never to be restarted again. June said she didn't know whether to pity me or whether I deserve my disasters. Thanks.

So yesterday turned out to be more expensive than I thought. I ran out to buy a new hard-drive for a fresh, clean install of Win XP. With the new drive, I was able to recover my valuable, sensitive files from the crashed drive, so thankfully I didn't lose too much this time.

From last night till now, it's been a tedious, repetitive task of loading and configuring all my programs the way I want in the new c: drive. What fun. Yay.

It was quite an experience returning to CSC in the afternoon for bowling with Amy. Some girls' school team occupied more than a quarter of the lanes. I couldn't tell if they were there to train their motor-skills or their vocal cords. The entire alley was bursting with their incessant cheering, sometimes coordinated and sometimes not. If this is how they are when they're just training, I feel sorry for their opponents in actual competition.

Sharing the next lane to us was a senior citizen. He was friendly enough to give Amy more tips to improve her technique, but he was a little disappointed at our stamina. We only lasted 5 straight games while he was ready to quit only after his 13th.

Wonder if that's the kind of retirement I'm looking forward to? Nothing to do but bowl the afternoon away. I like bowling, but I don't think I like it that much. And oddly enough, I really don't think I could face the prospect of living out my retirement alone. Maybe I'm not tired enough yet to appreciate being re-tired?

Actually, we quit to go watch "Over the Hedge" with HP and Vince. A very clever movie, I thought, about the conflicting drives a society has in a modern, high-tech world. Modern, urban living has its great promises of a more convenient lifestyle. Mostly, it has to do with having the ability to accumulate food without effort, to eat whatever we want, whenever we feel like it, and still be able to leave a mountain of waste behind after we're done.

To the people who actually need to work to eke out a hand-to-mouth existence, urban living promises an unimaginable paradise. But the cost of such a lifestyle is high: people become selfish, suspicious of each other, use each other for their own personal gains, and ultimately the trust that ties a society together breaks down.

Ooh, ooh... and the NE guy in me also sees in the movie a tiny little community surrounded by 1) neighbours with high fences, and 2) the need to interact with them somehow, 3) with ingenuity, innovation, adaptability, and tenacity in order to survive. And yet, in overcoming the threats and dangers we face, we must never forget that our social bonds and family ties are the only things that make our society hold any meaning for us, whether we succeed or fail.

Oh, btw, the movie was hilarious too, despite all the NE talk. Go watch!

Saw my first (dunno if it'll also be my last) batch of PUS presenters through their presentation this morning. Of the 3 presentations in our grouping, ours by far was the most entertaining. I thought so as I was watching it, and other audience members likewise confirmed it too.

Ours was short, and though we had a serious message, we played it for the laughs anyway. What to do? Ours opened the entire series of Parallel Presentations and it had to set the right tone: lighthearted, fun and not taking ourselves too seriously.

Between video clip and 'live' action on stage we went for seamless transitions, props that actually had a purpose for being, and clear characterization without having to resort to labeling (literally), and without cynical, snide, self-deprecatory asides as if to say, "this is just a piece of theatrical posturing; we're embarrassed to be showing you this." We -- unlike everyone else -- were proud to embarrass ourselves in front of our audience and we got our points across succinctly and got some laughs as well.

Before y'all think I'm looking at the whole thing through rose-tinted glasses, let me say that while we put in a lot of time and effort over the presentation, we could have prepared Mich and Yogs better for the Q&A. They were so tense and uncomfortable trying to field their questions, but clearly their stage fright got the better of them in this totally unrehearsed section. They're good at impov comedy but improv serious takes bit more preparation.

But well done to our team on the whole, video and 'live' presenters alike, for being not boring; for being yourselves on-stage and off; and for all the silly, mad ideas that didn't need a lot of discussion over but just freely offered to anyone who would run with them and see them though to their logical end. Your presentation should be a memorable one for your audience :)

Late afternoon returned to ECP to cycle with Amy and HP. Didn't stay long 'cos I abandoned them to fetch June for our dinner appointment. It was at the Delhi Restaurant, a tandoori place on Race Course Road. Organized by Jo and Aggie, our dinner company also included Lucy, Vince, NBS and Ron. Food was cheap and plentiful and tasty though not spicy (though the tandoori mixed-grill flambe was spectacular); the service was attentive; and the company was stimulating. A nice, agenda-less evening.

Took our drinks at the prata place at Rosyth.

So much to do despite the vacation. Yay!

Finally, the 1st day of PUS arrives. Our motley crew prepares to invade PGP residences. 

Awaiting processing in AC comfort 

The check-in counter, where Mel and I bid our children farewell and assured them they were in good hands. They grow up so fast...!

Having abandoned our charges, Mel introduced me to Edward, the Western Food operator at the Business canteen. Y'all at Kent Ridge should know what I'm talking about, ya? We ordered 2 lemon fish with pasta/mash and split a cheese-pork wurst. Lunchtime must have been over for quite a while, judging by the empty tables and how cold the fusilli was. But Edward's brownie was excellent, warm and fluffy from the microwave with hot Hershey's chocolate sauce on top. Dying to try his apple pie next time.

Perfect summer weather in the afternoon. Went 'blading on ECP like I've wanted to for so long. Tried adding on my newly discovered track to my existing one. That would have taken me from the East Coast SAFRA Resort to Fort Road and back.

Cannot make it. Nearly died, not from lack of CV endurance but from lactic acid poisoning. My legs were so badly cramped by the time I got past the McD's I had to take frequent rest stops to get my legs responsive again. Then they'd carry me another short distance before I had to stop for another break. It didn't help that when I tried stretching one muscle to relieve the pain, another would immediately cramp up, so it was just a string of agonized cries and curses while I sat and tried to get my legs in working order again and again and again.

Gave up by the time I hit the lifeguard tower west of the McD's and doubled back stiff-legged back to M2. I had parked at the lot just east of the food centre. It was a long and painful journey back.

Well, we can always try for cycling tomorrow.

I was complaining to June about the lack of PC games available in the stores these days. Or rather, the lack of titles I was interested in. It's funny that back when I didn't have any money, I wanted to buy the whole shelf. Today, with some measure of spending power, I'm just staring at the shelf, eyes glazed.

What's on the shelf these days? Let's see... shoot-em-ups and wargames in 1st person and 3rd; the Sims and its myriad expansion packs; driving games (some allowing shootouts between cars); Myst spinoffs and knockoffs; and some budget puzzlers and re-releases for the nostalgic. Been there done that.

Wonder if my tastes have changed, or if there really isn't anything new out there any more?

Disappointed, I did some surfing and found a couple of things that managed to amuse me for a while. Zuma from Shockwave, a match-the-coloured-balls-and-make-them-disappear-before-they-overwhelm-you game with an Aztec theme can be played for free online. It offers some quick-thinking action, though the online version tends to be limited and repetitve after a while.

I also found a little treasure (subjectively speaking). AGD Interactive appears to have taken over the license of the original "King's Quest" series. They've remade this antique -- no make that "pioneering" -- graphic adventure game and re-released KQ1 and KQ2 in VGA format. For you whippersnappers out there, that means moving sprites on flat background only and no system-sucking 3D polygonal whizz-bang-crash nonsense. They've even added in a music track and a speech pack to make the games more up-to-date, say c.1995.

I'm not saying games of the past were "better" than they are now. Graham, our avatar, is seriously lacking in intelligence and pathfinding ability. He walks off ledges, cliffs, beanstalks; drowns and gets crushed by falling rocks all too easily, which means we have to baby-step him through the more dangerous environments to prevent a reload scenario. I was clicking and yawning my way through KQ1 yesterday and I'm still only about halfway thorough. But if I was going to be bored anyway, I might as well be bored for free.

... I'm getting old.

Edit 01

Today, 2 dogs, and a chance to hit Tanjong Beach. Unfortunately, 2 humans got an attack of the lazies and inadvertently fell asleep in front of the TV just after lunch. Fortunately, while we slept, the afternoon rains came again, so our beach trip would have been a washout anyway if we had made it.

What we did accomplish was a cursory exploration of the Pet Resort in Seletar Farmway. We need to find a nice place to board Q-tip when we go to Bali in a couple of weeks' time, and we thought maybe a change from her usual would be nice.

Just off Jalan Kayu, the Pet Resort looks like a farm from the outside. Inside, there is quite a bit of space for the different animal enclosures. Here, there are goats, ponies, a flock of weird-looking birds with what looks like a spray of fireworks on their heads, a flock of huge geese, and 1 awesome stork so large it had an entire enclosure all to itself overlooking a pond. Nice digs. The place is like a petting zoo, except there is a warning not to get too close to Woodstock, the stork. Frankly, he doesn't need the warning sign. If I ever encounter a bird that size in the wild, I'd give it a wide berth. You won't have to tell me twice.

They have puppies and rabbits for sale too. We saw the cutest jack russel on the POS counter, his new owner coughing up well over a grand for him. "His mother's a champion," declared the new owner proudly, and I suddenly thought of the fact that people used to be bought and sold like that too at one time, and in some parts of the world, still are.

What did the dogs think of the place? Q-tip doesn't seem to think much at all. She's just happy to have an outing, doesn't care where. Mimi, however, didn't like it at all. From the time we stepped into the place, Mimi became a portable fuzzy jelly, trembling at 5.1 on the Richter scale. I can only guess that she sensed this place was where owners left their animals, and she was afraid we were thinking of abandoning her there too. Ignorance is bliss, yes, Q-tip?

In the end, June decided this wasn't the place for Q-tip. Most of the boarders are large dogs, the kind that stress Q-tip out just by sniffing her behind. Doubt she'll be very happy having to stay there with them for the better part of a week. So it's back to Dominic's for her after all.

Today's date, 27 May. I looked through my previous 2 entries on this date in '05 and '04 and I just realized that I never did mention the significance of this date before. This was the date of our wedding dinner, held at the Art Museum, way back in 2000.

It was a free-and-easy buffet dinner, a pretty much do-it-yourself affair. With good friends coordinating the deco and proceedings, the only thing we had to worry about was the imminent thunderstorm about to break over our heads, threatening to wash out our OUTDOOR celebration. It all came down to prayer, and lo and behold, (according to our guests) the storm had broken all over the island, except for a tiny patch of clear sky over the Art Museum that evening. Our little wedding miracle.

The 22nd Council whom I invited also experienced a miracle that evening. The Councillors discovered our stash of red wine and they got busy conducting their own, um, communion service. And they were happy.

Wonder why I never mentioned this before?

We're back at the mid-year break again! What can I say? A short break, some unstructured time to myself. Time to rest and recharge, and to figure out my next step now that the JC2s are only half a year away from their 'A's. PUS begins full swing next week and there are still some niggly administrative details to solve -- like where the spare PUS t-shirts are, and what to do about a little boy who "wants to go home" already, even before summer camp starts. Holiday remedials and marking to catch up on, and a new set of holiday assignments to keep me going. Oh, and then there's a trip to Bali to look forward to.

Rambling again. My brain's already packed and gone on vacation... la, la, la...

It's a conspiracy, I tell ya! All week I'd been looking forward to a free afternoon and I got one today, PUS kids deciding to postpone rehearsal in favour of SPA preparation. The plan was to drive out to the East coast and put in some 'blading time along the beach.

It was brilliantly hot and sunny in the morning and it looked like all systems were go! But just as I was about to get into M2 and drive off, the South China Sea picked up and dumped itself on our heads. Ironically, we happened to bring up Murphy's Law in today's KI tutorial. I couldn't have planned a better object lesson.

Free weekday afternoons go either one of two ways. Healthy, as in getting a sweaty cardio-vascular workout in the sun if the weather is good; or if the weather is inclement as it was today, unhealthy, as in sitting on my fat ass, clogging up my arteries with junk food. More often than not this year, it's been the latter option. Presenting today's choice menu:


You guessed it! This isn't the campus cafeteria.

"There is no spoon," but there are, however, a couple of sporks and the remains of my lunch. 

I never thought I'd enjoy PUS much. When I began this year heading up NY conneX and PUS, I thought the former would be a challenge, the latter a chore.

After all, based on what I've observed of PUS in previous years, staff involvement has been focused on doing everything necessary to ensure that the College's presentation doesn't embarrass the College in the midst of all the other Colleges and the VIP in attendance. That's a lot of pressure to be under, and that tends to bring out the control freak in the person-in-charge. No one enjoys working under Hitler, and unless you're an innate fascist, you won't enjoy being Hitler either.

I personally wasn't relishing my turn on the throne this year. Becoming a despot involves too much work for these lazy bones to appreciate. Fortunately, I didn't have to go there. This bunch of PUS kids is the most animated, spontaneous, anarchistic, narcissistic set of students I've ever lost control over, and if anyone asks, they're running the show, not me.

In many ways, 'rol is at the core of our presentation. It was his vision that developed into the video shoot everyone ad-libbed their way through. No script, just a rough briefing, a couple of walk-through rehearsals, 2-3 takes in our 5-shot sequence, and that's a wrap in a 3-hour weekend shoot. Joining him on the presentation team are Mich and Shin, and that's it -- our comedy trio.

While the video forms the frame, our presentation is 'live' on stage and it's the 3 of them that carry our assigned topic -- how to make traditional businesses viable and relevant in the new knowledge and research intensive economy -- to our audience. The 3 of them together are a riot to watch as they improv their way through their rehearsals.

'rol and Mich play a couple of KBE savvy bimbos advising a manic depressive, slightly suicidal kaya toast seller (Shin) how to update his business in a presentation we call, "My Business is Toast!" Even today, during the preview presentation at Assembly period for the JC1s, the 3 were still doing improv on stage!

The 3 of them are a Dictator's nightmare, but I'm truly grateful that they are a bunch of kids willing to constantly put themselves on the line, constantly trying out fresh ideas regardless of how many times Mel and I have to tell them, "cut back/stoppit/NOOooo!"

I'm also grateful that my co-staff, Mel and Gerald aren't control freaks either. We're just waching our version of PUS take shape almost all by itself. This year, PUS really belongs to our kids, and that's something for them to be proud of.

Momo, my cat, can think inductively.

Inductive reasoning refers to the ability to predict an event through the repeated observation that under certain conditions the same event has occurred before, and therefore under the same conditions the event will happen again.

Momo has this irritating habit of following me out of the house when I leave for work in the morning. She loves to run out into the corridor and sprawl on the cement floor, rubbing her body on it for a couple of seconds (so embarrasing), and then running off to another spot where she repeats this silly behaviour. Eventually, I'll catch up to her and carry her back into the house, and she's contented.

Lately, Kaiser has noticed her behaviour and he's looking like he wants to copy what "big sister" is doing. I cannot handle 2 cats running around in my corridor unsupervised, so I prevent them both from going out, much to Momo's disappointment. This has happened several times already.

These last couple of days, when Momo sees Kaiser walking towards the front door where she's sitting waiting for me to open it, Momo makes an annoyed noise and stalks off back towards the kitchen to finish her breakfast. She doesn't even wait for him to come near the door any more, she just gives up. Poor girl.

Guess I shouldn't be surprised at Momo's intellectual prowess. Pavlov proved that dogs think inductively too.

'blading again at Bish Park since... a long time ago, it seems. Only JY joining us today, but it was a pretty rushed 2 rounds before we had to part company. JY had her personal affairs to take care of, and June and a few of her colleagues wanted to drop in on another colleague of theirs who's feeling lousy this week.

June and I went to Toa Payoh in search of a stall that sells Japanese seaweed. It's supposed to be incredibly packed with vitamins and other health enhancing goodies, for a pretty good price too. We found the stall at the end of the Hub, near the POSB ATMs.

The vendor let us sample different recipes he concocted: 2 different varieties of seaweed in sesame oil, garlic, sliced chilli, can't remember what else. Despite my prejudices, it tasted quite good. Except I thought he had let his sample soak too long in the oil and it had got a bit soggy.

June. bought. a lot. of. seaweed. Fortunately, it wasn't all meant for us, but her colleagues as well.

We collected June's colleagues at the MRT station and I deposited them at their sickly colleagues' block. I declined to accompany them upstairs, taking the opportunity to sit in the quiet void deck and actually try to get some marking done. It felt a little anti-social doing that, but, y'know... marking.

Began Saturday bright and early at NUS for the PUS on-site presentation rehearsal. After a general briefing for all participants, the LT space was ours to have a quick run-through of our script and tech, but it was difficult getting started because of several briefings going on at the same time for various aspects of AV and furniture arrangements. Of course, nothing could get started until 1 particular college finished a completely irrelevant briefing of its participants right in the middle of the presentation floor, which I thought was quite inconsiderate, especially when everyone is already pressed for time.

Our presenters looked nervous and didn't quite know where to stand as there was this huge console counter occupying centre-stage instead of an empty space, like as we rehearsed in college. In fact, this dumb object took up so much space, a lot of the movements we devised have to be re-looked, re-thought, and re-designed. Basically, I was counting on getting a stage with wings. What I got was a narrow strip of floor space for my presenters to stand in...

I realize I'm starting to talk nonsense here. It's almost 24 hours since I wrote that last paragraph. What happened was that I saved this entry, then went into the living room where I found June asleep on the carpet. I was too tired myself to wake her so we both spent the night on the living room floor.

What else I meant to add to this entry was that we had College Day in the afternoon with P giving his first ever College Day speech, and how serious he sounded. Not quite his usual off-the-cuff humour as he was so conscious of being formal in front of his Board and his predecessor.

As soon as was humanly possible, a small party of us made a bee-line for Thai Express, J8, for a quick meal before our screening of "The DaVinci Code." It's worth a review, but not today. Still not feeling all that coherent. :P

Squaresoft recently released a DVD movie following up on the characters that featured in Final Fantasy VII. "Advent Children" was an impulse buy for me, though my expectations weren't really high for it. After all, a 101 minute CGI movie wasn't going to recapture the blood and sweat and magic of the epic game FF7 was.

My instinct about "Advent Children" wasn't wrong. It was mildly interesting to give some limelight to Reno and Rude of the Turks -- the Turks were quite amusing adversaries in the game -- but the movie doesn't really develop the story of Cloud and company much further though 2 years have passed since their adventures in Crater.

In this movie sequel, there is an epidemic sweeping through the city of Midgar. Cloud himself has become infected, though he doesn't want his friends to know about it. What's worse is the rise of 3 Cloud-clones who seek the resurrection of uber-bad guy, Sephiroth, whom they think will lead them in their quest for world domination or whatever.

It was disappointing that the main characters -- all 7 of whom had rich backstories in the game -- are relegated to simply playing muscle in this movie. The gang shows up for the final punch-up, but it's mainly Tifa that reaches out to Cloud on a personal level while the others just keep monsters off his back.

Without the interactivity of the game interface, without the time taken to flesh out the characters, without the ability to make wacky combinations of "materia" just to see their effects on enemies, the FF7 player just sits and drools watching the events of "Advent Children" unfold, rather than being involved in the process of making it happen. The movie experience thus pales in comparison to the game. Bleh.

Still, the video footage from the movie has become rich material for spawning parodies of itself. Check out YouTube for a bunch of FF7 silliness. You might start with this one, entitled, "The Real Story."

NY conneX is now updated every Thursday. Issue #14 is ready for public perusal: click here. We've got a diverse lot of articles this week, from our exploits at Makan Mania, to touch rugby, to a review on the goings-on at this year's E3 in Los Angeles.

Now that the publication can more or less take care of itself, I can now free myself up to focus more on increasing our readership. Where else but in the Education industry can a guy hold a Chief Publisher job for 6 months then immediately switch hats and become Publicity Head for the next 6? There's never a dull moment...

Looks like our creative Mr Sim is really going ahead with the plan to halt Apple's i-pod sales via litigation. How Singaporean is that? If we can't compete on a level playing field, we claim the other guy's cheating, take him to court, hope that we have more resources than he does to survive a long-drawn out and expensive process, eventually bankrupt the guy, and Game Over! We win!

This strategy has been decisively effective against our opponents before: certain individuals who are generally unloved by the public, and, in some cases, are even an embarassment to be associated with in public.

ST's editorial cartoonist depicted Creative's foray as an intrepid David facing off against a formidable Goliath. Right.

Goliath, as the Bible portrayed him, was a yutz who deserved what he got from the shrimp. What Creative is contending with is quite a different animal. Apple-heads have reason to love their Macs, and for better or worse,podders love their pods. Apple is more than just a company to be taken down; for many of us, it a culture and a way of life.

And, yes, though Creative is a Singaporean home-grown model of entrepreneurhood we bow down to and worship, lots of Singaporeans ourselves have spurned the Zen for the pod. Perhaps we are irrational to do so, but "cool" is something we'll pay for once we can afford it.

The court battle isn't about pod sales here, though. The suit seeks to halt pod sales in the US itself -- Apple home turf!

Inasmuch as Goliath was unwelcome on David's backyard, David himself would have been just as obnoxious if he walked through Goliath's front door, totting his home-made uzi and gunning for a head shot.

In short, I doubt Creative would please anyone in this rather un-creative adventure. But I take my hat off to Sim and his organization for their audacity.