Still busy with marking. New topic: Should scientists be concerned with moral issues? Should be lots of scope for an interesting discussion, particularly as we consider the duties, obligations and responsibilities of the scientist to self and to society, and how the scientist might cope with conflicts between his/her professional conduct and his/her personal ethics especially in the more controversial fields of study.

It's interesting to note, however, that our students still place more emphasis on memorizing and reproducing their lecture notes as verbatim as possible rather than actually considering their material and discussing what they understand with respect to the question. Regardless of our push towards thinking skills, our students still rely on memory as the key indicator of their intelligence, and assume that we will reward them for it.

About half a year left to patch up the damage. It's a living.

Watson ate a fairly long entry. No, didn't save it. Complacent, lah. No morale to retype. Not tonight, anyway. Bah.

DSCN0714

DSCN0714,
originally uploaded by Xmac2005.

The authorities want to know everything! First, MDA fines people who do not report that they do not own a TV. Now the General Office wants to be informed if we notice that there are no defects in the toilet!

Guess it's always nice to know you're doing a good job!

Marking season begins anew. Currently marking a question on whether the Internet has made a positive or negative impact on our society. The students generally interpret the question as requiring them to point out as many 'net applications and services as possible and decide if they are "good" or "bad." But "impact" is more than being just about features, functions and (side) effects. It refers more to how the 'net has made certain irrevocable changes to our society because of its nature and because of how we use it, and to evaluate if we have bettered our lives/selves/society through these changes, or if we are now worse-off than ever because of these changes.

Once again, I ask myself if I am expecting too much from the kids. But then again, why should I lower my expectations to accommodate them when they will benefit so much more if they can rise to meet them instead?

In other news, we took Abby to her new home last evening. She wasn't happy with the arrangement and we felt like we betrayed her, allowing her to become so comfortable in our house, then pushing her away to live in an orphanage, so to speak. Hope she can find a more permanent home with nice people to look after her soon. Sigh.

Since yesterday we've accumulated a mass of exam scripts to mark. But it's the last weekend of the June hols so we're having 1 last fling before getting stuck back into our marking loads again.

Went with June to watch Silent Hill. Silent Hill 3 -- the game -- creeped me out but the movie came nowhere close. What a disappointment. The movie tried its best with the use of darkness and fog; deep, steep stairwells; and amazing environmental transformation effects. The music was atmospheric, as were the sound effects; all adding up to a creepy ghost town with some pretty disturbed residents, human and otherwise.

A movie is no game, though. Firstly, we know very well that the protagonist isn't going to die halfway through the movie 'cos that'll be the end of the narrative, right there. Um... you know what I mean, right? In the game, at least there is a sense of danger that your avatar could perish in spectacular fashion, and even though that eventuality simply prompts a reload, you still have to think about possible solutions to get past the hazard to continue the story.

Secondly, in the game, you control the pacing of your avatar. You can take your time to observe the surroundings and take in all the ghastly details, building up a sense of dread about opening the next door or descending a dreary staircase. In the movie you're just rushed through the process, following along, having no say in the decision-making process. It's the difference between a carnival ghost train ride and personally exploring the house with a reputation for being haunted in your neighbourhood.

Thirdly, the game makes you feel almost completely alone and friendless whereas the movie crams in too many other characters who seem to want to help. Not that everyone can be trusted, of course, but generally the movie loses the sense of isolation that might have been another fear to exploit.

The monsters in the movie are also quite disappointing. Well, they weren't all that scary in the game either. They were just obstacles to get through to the next objective, but still... The zombie nurses in the game put my nerves on edge, mostly because of their disjointed, misshapen bodies and their disturbing, shuffling gait. But the nurses in the movie have to be played by real people, and they got what looked like a company of modern dance performers to imitate the movement of their game counterparts. Unfortunately, I saw the dancers, not the movement, so another highly anticipated thrill lost.

As in many other horror stories, it's the people that are the real monsters. Fanatic, extreme, self-righteous, conformist, sheep-like human beings that do really nasty things to other people because of their differences. In that respect, at least, the movie got it right.

Some bits also probably censored for the NC-16 rating. The censors with their sharp scissors are the scariest of all.

Oh, my. Vacation's over already. 4 weeks blew by just like that and tomorrow it's back to the old grind again.

In Bali (and I suppose in many other parts of the world too) the kids take their exams first, then they enjoy their holidays. Here in Singapore, we let the kids have their holiday first so that they can use the time to study for their exam which we administer as soon as they come back to school. Pragmatic till the end, we are.

Hope the kids are ready for GP come daybreak!

Meet Abby. We are temporarily sheltering her while a place is being prepared for her at a home for stray cats in Punggol.

Meantime, we're also hoping someone will adopt her for good. She's already sterilized and uses the sandbox instinctively. She's gentle and affectionate with us, though she doesn't get along well with Kaiser at all. She'll probably have a hard time living with so many other cats at the home.

Any takers?

Just to balance things, Bali wasn't all that terrible, in case you got the wrong idea from my last entry. It was quite a culture shock at first seeing what it means to have tourism as the main source of income for these folks and hence, every tourist becomes a juicy fruit to wring dry. Once we got wise to this pattern of behaviour, we dealt with it and we really did enjoy our stay.

There were nice people around too. Like the free shuttle bus driver who took us back to our hotel anyway, even though we boarded the wrong shuttle by mistake and the route took us in the opposite direction from where we were going. Also the folks in the main establishments smiled at us a lot but didn't try to make over-friendly conversation, thankfully leaving us alone to browse. And once June got the hang of bargaining, she played the game well and we did get some good rapport from the sarong dealers on Jln Pantai Kuta, where the traditional market is located.

And people aside, Bali is really beautiful. The environment varies so much, from beaches both calm and tumultuous; terraced agricultural greenery; grand mountains and great lakes.

We were there to relax, and relax we did: We half-slept in a large sheltered massage bed on a cliff overlooking the Indian Ocean at our hotel in Tanah Lot.

We alternately baked in the sun on the beach in Benoa and dipped in the hotel pool to cool off so many times we lost count of our trips back and forth -- well, I did anyway, June just slept under a large umbrella on the beach.

We got to watch World Cup soccer matches every night on our room TV, or on the big screen in the pub if we wanted.

In the 2 spa sessions we had, we were steamed, skinned, tenderized, basted, marinated and boiled with flowers.

We shopped and we ate... what more could we have asked for on a vacation?

And in any case, we hadn't intended to bring much rupiah back anyway. And we didn't. Mission accomplished!

Got away from it all those past few days with no computer and no Internet. And, strangely enough, no withdrawal symptoms either. I was vacationing in Bali, and though I said we didn't need a plan, maybe we should have had one anyway.

My impressions of Bali:

The people have one staple diet -- radish & sotong soup. The radishes are usually those just fallen off the radish truck while the sotong are simply blur. And they get eaten for breakfast unless they get smart, fast.

There is an unquiet desperation for the tourist dollar in Bali. hawkers and street vendors are everywhere, all asking to know where you're from, and most try to make civil chit-chat until you realize that they have something to sell -- some decorative nonsense, or the promise of the adventure of a lifetime, or a sight you'll never see again and if you haven't seen it, you haven't been to Bali. Some vendors aren't even that civil; they crowd around you, blocking off all possible polite exits and shove their wares in your face, while undercutting each other 's prices to entice a deal.

It's sad 'cos they destroy what would otherwise be a scene of breathtaking beauty. For example, the rice terrace and the view of Lake Batur that our cab stopped at on our day-tour we couldn't wait to leave because of the vendors who effectively cut off the scenery while they surrounded us. It's even sadder that there doesn't seem to be anything else they could be doing to make a decent living.

Most of the attractions, even public parks, require some entrance fee and even the ancient Besakih temples required a donation (US$7 per pax recommended) for a guided tour.

Some vendors go so far as to simply be plain dishonest, like the lady who insisted I buy a sarong or I wouldn't be allowed to visit the temple. So, sotong that I was, I bought the sarong she wrapped around my waist at a price that would have allowed her to retire after lunch. It turned out that as long as I wore jeans (which I was wearing at the time) I would have had no conflict with the dress code anyway.

There was this little kid at the Besakih temple who placed a small flower on June's pouch and refused to take it back. He kept chanting, "gimme money" repeatedly and kept following us until our guide advised us to put the flower on the ground and walk on.

Then there was this jolly cab driver whom we engaged to take us from Kuta to our hotel in Benoa. He engaged us in loud conversation and offered to show us where we could see a beautiful sunset "near our hotel" so we said, "ok," as long as it was on the way. It wasn't, and we had to pay an entrance fee to go in, and the cab driver encouraged us to go explore and take photos, though it was nowhere near sunset yet. And he kept his meter running all the while. AND as we were still unfamiliar with the denominations of Indonesian currency then, we seriously overpaid him his fare and he didn't return any change to us. This we discovered only on hindsight when June suddenly wondered why she was so short of cash.

These people really got fat on June the radish and me the sotong, but these experiences hardened our hearts to all street vendors and cab drivers from then on. We said, "no," a lot, and many times we didn't see anybody, we didn't hear anybody and we just kept walking. June made it a point to bargain for everything and we faithfully counted our money and our change till it became a little embarrassing.

And, no, we weren't impressed with the local food either. The decent places to eat were just as expensive as fast food, the menu items didn't seem to offer much variety; and the cheap places to eat would have qualified for a stunt on "Fear Factor." No thanks.

The really sad thing is, we didn't mind spending more on established businesses and multinationals. We couldn't bargain these rates but we happily forked over our hard-earned savings to them anyway. I guess if there's a product or service we want, we're the type to go get it without the provider's effort. But if there's something offered to us that we don't want, no amount of persuasion is going to make us feel good about paying for it. And so our tourist dollar still goes into the hands of the corporations, and away from the hands of the locals whom we were there to "help out" in the first place.

I have photos, of course. A whopping 80+ I've uploaded that mostly tell the tale of our travels. The slideshow takes a while to load, so please be patient. Click.

Bali beckons. Departing on a Valuair flight in the late afternoon, arriving at a destination neither of us know anything about, apart from a quick flip through a travel guide or two. No plan, just our flight schedule and hotel bookings, no idea what we're going to be doing once we get there. Actually, that's all the plan we need. We're on vacation!

JY's mom's wake was in the void deck of her HDB block. By her tradition, JY couldn't leave the area while the wake was in session, because the immediate family of the deceased had to keep replacing the big joss stick whenever it looked close to burning out. This meant that JY spent 2 nights straight in the void deck, only taking a couple of hours break in between to rest.

June and I joined her late last night to keep her spirits up. We brought the 'X-men' Monopoly set that June had bought for me a couple of birthdays ago, along with other games and reading materials in preparation for a long night.

It was the first opportunity to tear open the Monopoly set, and the 3 of us enjoyed a silly, not completely by-the-rules game all the way till about 0400 hrs this morning. By then, we were all drained so JY went to sleep in her uncle's car which he had kindly parked just in front of the void deck, and we went home.

We rejoined her at about noon for the procession to the crematorium. There was a simple cermony for the closing of the casket, during which JY had to focus on her mom instead of on her guests and well-wishers, and... well, it was clear she missed her mom a lot.

It was the same at the crematorium. The ceremony seemd designed to alternate between procedure -- routine behaviourial response -- and moments of silence and stillness for reflection and personal emotional response. The balance between the 2 responses helps the bereaved deal with the loss and brings closure at the same time.

JY, you've had a really trying ordeal to get through and you've had to be strong all the way. We won't be around next week, we'll be in Bali, but you have no shortage of friends who will be there for you. Hope you get some rest soon, and try to enjoy what's left of your vacation. Let's go 'blading again soon, ok?

Cashing in on World Cup fever is the Swiss tourism board which is targetting female tourists while their men obsess over the competition. Check out the latest TV commercial here.

The voice-over goes: "Dear girls, why not escape during the summer's World Cup... to a country where men spend less time on football... and more time on you!" Notice what the beefy Swiss dude is doing by the time the voice mentions, "you," and you can see how he wants to spend time with you.

Must be a version of Swiss humour, or the ad agency deserves a good talking-to.

JY's mom finally succumbed to the ravages of the Big 'C' this morning. We knew of her illness for several months now, and JY herself has been very strong about it. Even today she's been going about making sure to get the procedures right for the final send-off on Sunday. She's been busy making arrangements with the relevant authorities and welcoming and entertaining her visitors who've come to pay their last respects.

We haven't been able to actually sit and ask her how she feels about the whole thing, though. She's been treating it very matter-of-fact for the moment, as if she's nothing more than just a part of the entire process. It's a coping strategy that seems to be working for her. Guess she'll also be glad to know she has friends who'll support her through this rough patch.

Meantime, if anyone wants to leave JY a message of sympathy, especially if you know her, just drop a comment and I'll pass it on. Or better yet, if you know how to contact her directly, please do.

The hard part about being on vacation is that by now, pretty much everyone I know has skipped town already while I'm still waiting for my turn to go. And now that June works till late at night, that means that I'm left to my own devices for most of the day. And I'm beginning to get a taste of what retirement is like, after all.

There's a lot to prepare for, considering that there will come a time when we can't work any more. It's not just the financial part, there's also the sense that there isn't much else we can do that will mean anything more to anyone. Physically, mentally, it all just falls apart on us until 3, 2, 1, time's up.

Financially, we prepare ourselves through our insurance policies, investment plans and our savings; but most of us don't think beyond our day-to-day employment. We give of ourselves to our jobs and our companies thinking that's all the time we have in our daily allotted 24 hours, but we forget that regardless of how faithful and loyal we are to our jobs, our employers are under no obligation to be as faithful to us in return. After all, the Company has a longer life expectancy then we do, so all the faster it will replace us when we can't keep up.

When our jobs are taken away from us, we're seriously lost. After all, that's all we've ever lived for over the past few decades of our lives. Suddenly, we have time on our hands, and though that may seem like a luxury to us busy working people today, it's only because no one has time for us any more. Their lives still go on, and our's just become irrelevant, being no longer in the same context.

It doesn't have to be this way, though. The office is just one place to build social contacts, but it has a time limit. There are other places that we can build other social bridges that don't have time limits: family, for example. We can also nurture and develop other interests besides what's immediately relevant to whatever's keeping us busy, whether it's studies or career. And don't feel guilty that it's a "waste of time" because though a career will grind to a halt one day, our lives shouldn't have to.

I'm especially vulnerable to retirement irrelevance because it suddenly dawned on me that I'll be reaching retirement age at least 10 years earlier than the folks I hang out with. So in case anyone asks why I don't give 110% to my job like everyone else in the working world does, I just have the Bigger Picture in mind.

What I said about Onimusha 3, I take back. Sometimes, you have to put the manual aside and play the game for yourself. There's a bit of a learning curve, but tutorials are built into the game itself. Playing on a keyboard is quite unwieldy, but you can't go too far wrong on a hack-and-slash RPG lite.

The game has cinematic ambitions, employing Jap heartthrob, Takeshi Kaneshiro and French action movie star, Jean Reno, as the 2 main characters the player controls. The plot is one heck of a mess involving Samurai, demonic time-travel experiments and French special forces. Disregarding all theories of time-paradoxes, the 2 heroes trade places in time and despite the 500-year difference between them, have to cooperate with each other somehow to get time sorted out again, and go home.

O3 is a more arcade style RPG, rewarding fast reflexes over problem solving. There are several in-game puzzles that hold some useful items, but the more fun thing is mastering the "Critical" moves -- 1-hit kills that can chain together in a mass slaughter of enemies, releasing the most number of "souls" that you can use to heal, upgrade weapons and armour, invoke special magical attacks, or become invincible for a short period of time.

So it's beat up on monsters, upgrade, and beat up the next boss all the way till the end. Some bosses are quite tough, so I've learned to close in, block, hit, RUN AWAY, heal (if necessary) repeat until they die. If only I could learn to time my "Criticals" better... my current technique is so inefficient, unglam even.

And as Capcom is wont to do, there are mini-games and new costumes (like Samurai Sam's silly-looking cowboy outfit) to unlock just to encourage replaying the game once you've finished it.

Grand, cinematic scale in-game movies though the script is quite cliched -- cringeworthy sometimes -- but this is one game that keeps throwing surprises at the player, and that keeps the fun factor up.

Not often we staff get to glam up. JY's on MC duty tonight for Chewy's wedding dinner. 

June and the blushing bride, Chewy. 

I've been a good boy and not picked up any new traffic offences for a straight 365 days! As of today, my horrendous 13 DIPs have been erased, the slate has been wiped clean and all is forgiven!

Let's not have to live through that ever again! Drive safely, folks!

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.