Looks like one way or another, I'm pitching in whatever I can spare into next year's drama effort. Even if drama doesn't come under my portfolio. I love being a drama queen too much, I guess. And thanks, Drama Club for the unexpected card. It is nice to be appreciated!

Met with Mel and Tina this afternoon to finalize the small sticking points of our collaboration. Not much to iron out, actually, other than a couple of admin details. The rest of the afternoon we just yakked about inconsequentials over tea and some gu niang pastries in the lobby cafe of the Intercontinental. The pastries, I left to the 2 gu niang, though they were nice enough to let me have the things that didn't appeal to them.

All I ordered was a pot of Earl Grey to keep me company and happily scoffed the cast-offs. And there were still some left-overs by the time we finished.

Celebrated Jen's belated at 1827. Each of us ordered a set dinner and though the original idea was to mix and match dishes, we ended up just focusing on what we ordered for ourselves instead. 2 reasons: 1) the food was excellent, and 2) the portions were too small to share equitably.

We also met tonight because our friend, Lawrence, was back in town visiting, and he brought his friend, Aaron, with him. It's Aaron's first trip to Singapore, so we tried to advise him on the must-do things while he's here. Too bad he's on such a short trip. He's on business for this organization called Compassion, exploring the ground here for church organizations who are keen on helping them raise funds for needy children.

I'm not sure we gave Aaron a proper Singapore experience, though. 1827 serves Thai-fusion cuisine, and the dessert Adrian brought was from an Italian pastry shop. A bit atas, rather than heartland, which I think he would actually prefer. Anyway, there was talk of taking him to red-light district Geylang for durians, but our dinner ended pretty late and the riverside stroll around Boat Quay left us too tired to indulge ourselves in this horrific 'Welcome to Singapore' initiation ceremony.

Well, guys, have a fruitful meeting tomorrow, and maybe we'll see you again in December!

Just been unexpectedly reunited with a long lost pal. Dan, the Man, whom I thought was supposed to return to TO after his wedding in '01 (or was it '02?) stayed on here after all, had a kid, and DIDN'T tell me! For the last 5 years or so, I thought there was this gulf of Pacific Ocean between us, when in fact, he hadn't gone anywhere.

I've known him since he was in his pimply teens -- a lanky, affable chap -- in his 20's he started hitting the gym and bulking up, and today he's responsibly married, employed and paternal. In fact, it was this afternoon's invigilators' meeting at CJ that I bumped into him, as a fellow invigilator, and currently teaching math at a top-ranked college in Bishan.

Wow. Hopefully, we're now both a lot more mature these days. Let's not have another incident in which we nearly get run over by a train again, ok?

Mimi and Q-tip anticipate a treat! 

Brekkie is served, courtesy of Rocky Master's at the Expo. PIE!

Steaming pie insides. There really is a moist, hot beef stew in here! 

Took the dogs, Q-tip and Mimi, to Tanjong Beach for a swim. Keeping our fingers crossed worked. The haze was below 50, and all things considered, it was quite a nice day. We went early, so the beach wasn't crowded, though not too far from where we had spread our mat, some kids were playing some kind of game with a frisbee. They weren't very good at either throwing or catching, but they were making happy teenager noises, livening up the place a little. And, no, in case you were wondering, they didn't bother us with their noise. We could still nap through their game.

Lunchtime found us at the Colbar. Dog-friendly place, not too far a detour from Sentosa and quite reasonably priced. Uncle looked exceptionally cheerful today, and took my order with a smile. Service culture seems to be spreading. The Colbar makes good sausages, I found out. Short, fat pork sausages, crackling, crispy skin holding together a juicy, fragrant mince of pig meat. Gorgeous.

Had to spoil my day of brainless activity by catching "The Prestige" after dinner. This head-scratcher of a movie made me work to figure out what was going on. 2 rival magicians each holding a massive grudge against the other obsessively try to outdo each other's tricks, sabotage each other's performances and steal each other's ideas. Hard to decide who to root for because both are equally driven and vicious in their game of escalating revenge.

But the plot is just a distraction from what we are led to really want to see: how a magic trick called "The Transported Man" works. And as any good feat of magic, the answer is right there in plain sight, though the audience will always overlook it.

But as we begin to unravel the 2 magicians' secrets, we have to ask ourselves if learning how their tricks work was worth it, or if we were better off not knowing. At the lengths that magicians go to create their illusions, the audience would rather marvel at the deception rather than believe the painful, obvious truth.

Curiosity compels us to ask, "how did he do it?" But in this movie, curiosity really does kill the cat. There is such a thing as too much info.

And now a report on education in the UK!

This week has been a gold mine for the release of annual studies on Education as it is implemented around the world! And yet, all these reports do is to just add statistical credibility to what we already know about education systems in general via casual observation, experience and common sense.

Britain's annual Nuffield Review now tells us that kids don't appreciate what they're studying because neither curricula learning objectives nor the manner in which they are being taught match their aspirations. Moreover, there is so much emphasis on tests and exams that kids are just studying to pass exams instead of finding real value in applying their lessons to real-life.

Further compounding the kids' misery is the number of new policy initiatives stemming from their government's continuous tweaking of their education system. So schools are just struggling along, trying to follow all the different policies as best they can, though the results show no value-addedness in any real sense.

And the school environment is still too competitive between the various institutions -- and therefore by inference, between students -- to be able to create for them a more holistic, cooperative learning experience that they can benefit more from.

Wow. Poor Brit kids.

As usual, you can download the ST summary here.
The full Nuffield Review 05-06 doesn't look like it's been uploaded yet, but it should be soon. Give it a day or two. You should be able to find it on their homepage, along with several other articles on UK education.

Such has been my life this week. Nothing more exciting than reading the papers, print periodicals, online journals... If I'm not careful, I might actually become a teacher one day! Grumblegrumble...

Happy students don't necessarily do well in math, according to a study by the Brookings Institution's Brown Centre on Education Policy.

"Real student engagement is not about keeping students happy, boosting their self-esteem, or convincing them that what they are learning is relevant; it's about acquiring new knowledge and skills and pursuing the activities that contribute to that attainment," the report said.

Instead, the Center's Director (the aptly-named Mr Loveless) suggests in the report that an over-emphasis on trying to make students happy in class could actually distract the students from their core learning objectives.

The report bases its conclusions on math test scores taken from around the world and a correlating questionnaire relating to students' confidence in, enjoyment of, etc. the subject. American children claim to be very confident in math and enjoy math a lot, but still score below the International Average in their tests.

The results shouldn't be surprising, though. You can give a kid the best, most comfortable, most entertaining environment to learn in hoping to enhance the kid's motivation in a subject, but if the kid enjoys the environment too much and doesn't study, the result is still a foregone conclusion.

So, regardless of how entertained or how bored you are in class, there is only 1 secret to academic success: study hard. No two ways about it. Sorry.

Read a summary of the report ("koped" from ST) here.

The full report (a large 1mb .pdf file) here. Check out page 12 onwards for its findings on the happiness factor, and page 18-20 for a direct comparison between American and Singaporean student responses.

Former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, is proposing some radical changes in Education in the US:

I've advocated, for example, paying kids in the 7th through 12th grade the equivalent of what they would make working at McDonald's if they take math and science and get a B or better. Overnight you would change the culture of poor neighborhoods in America. We ought to be honest and say math and science are harder. They're extraordinarily valuable to the country as national security and economic matters. Cultures get what they pay for. We currently pay for rock stars, movie stars, and football and basketball players. Shouldn't being a child prodigy in math be at least as important as being a child prodigy in basketball? Also, I'd allow anyone with substantive knowledge to participate. If you're a retired Ph.D. in physics and you'd like to come in one hour a day to teach physics, I'd let you. No union dues. No credentialing. And I'd argue that if you let everyone in the country who knows physics teach physics, with no credentialing, you'd have a better outcome. Finally, there's no reason to believe that an 1820 school model has any relevance to the 21st century. It's terrific only if you think kids today are going to work in a textile mill. School should mimic reality, not defy it. Almost everyone you know who wants to learn either learns part-time or by immersing themselves for three to five days. They don't go and sit for one hour a day ad nauseam.

Discover, October 2006.

These few days and over the next couple of weeks, we staff are all stressed out worrying about our kids' performance in the end-of-year exams. We worry if they are motivated enough to study their materials, and if they really do value their learning enough to do their best in their tests. This annual hand-wringing ritual is a time-honoured tradition, but that's probably what Gingrich is suggesting putting an end to.

The school Gingrich envisions turns secondary school students into state employees, being paid to study. Their main subjects are math and science and they don't sit in school all day for a year. Instead, they have a much reduced time table, are paid for their time on condition of their maintaining good results, and by "part-time" I guess he means that for the rest of the day the kids are actually off-campus applying themselves in the real-world on some corporate attachment or apprenticeship programme.

This idea pretty much opens up Education to market forces. It's practical and pragmatic. It's so crazy out-of-the-box it just might work to raise the level of competency in not only math and science but also in entrepreneurial and corporate survival skills.

It also means the end of a centrally controlled education system, but let's be realistic: it's the free market, not the bureaucracy that rules the 21st century.

So far, the ideas look good on paper. Wonder what it would be like to actually live under this new system though?

All the movies are about sex and violence. Time for censors to act

I turned to the cinema pages of the Life! Section in the Straits Times last Saturday and noted the sort of movies being shown in town. (Why? Did you actually intend to go watch a movie? Or do you have fun conducting meaningless surveys)?

The main themes focussed on violence, crime, death and sex. Here are some of the movies:

. The Black Dahlia - about Hollywood's most infamous sex murders; (it's got Scarlett Johansson in it!)

. Dead man's shoes - about revenge; (dunno, not on my must-watch list)

. Silk - about spirits; (the critics ravaged this one)

. Death Note - about death; (duh)

. The Departed - a crime drama; (based on the critically-acclaimed HK movie, "Infernal Affairs")

. Wet hot sake - about sex, sleaze and sensuality; (if you insist on watching this movie in THAT cinema, please remember to keep your umbrella handy)

. My Summer of Love - more sex and sleaze. (do some research before passing such judgement, please)

The other movies are about inconsequential events. These are time-wasters and sad to watch:

. Talladega Nights - about brainless and crazy people with fast cars; (talk about Cinéma Vérité)!

. World Trade Centre - a disaster; (well, it was a bit long and draggy)

. Rob -B-Hood - no theme. (gambling gangsters having to care for a baby and being reformed by the experience. Gross.)

These movies do not provide any wholesome and meaningful lessons in life. (Since when did we ever rely on Hollywood to teach us the ways of enlightenment)? The more a person watches them, the more he would be made to feel that life is hopeless and meaningless. (The more we read your article the more we are made to feel that you judge books by their covers).

Movie directors are happily ripping off the public by giving (Giving? Where do you get your free tickets from?) us worthless movies that harm us. It is useless to bar only children and those below 18 from watching these movies as the tasteless pictures in the media continue to defile good sense and morals. (We do too bar adults who are succeptible to being morally corrupted by watching movies! It's called, "being selective because cinema tix for ordinary folks are so bloody expensive!").

Where are our educators? (I'm off-duty). Why are they silent on this sad state of affairs? (You haven't been reading my blog). What does our conscience tell us about such movies being screened in public? (That we can exercise personal judgement and discretion in the choices we make for ourselves)? Do we have a conscience at all? (Flawed logic: appealing to authority).

One may argue that we have a choice not to watch these shows. (Exactament!) But if it [is] Hobson's choice everyday with such low quality movies, where is the freedom for one to choose a wholesome and good movie when none is available? (Um, you tend to set your bar a teensy bit high).

What about the public's right to see good movies? (Bad movies are more fun to review). And why do we create for ourselves a famine of morally enriching shows? (We create? What was the last morally uplifting movie you produced)?

A movie that is worthwhile watching would give hope to the viewer about the meaning of life and its purpose. (There's a Monty Python movie with that title).

A good movie should result in stirring a person's mind and heart to do good for society. (People programmed to do good by watching movies. I dunno, that seems a tad worrisome. "A Clockwork Orange" anyone?) It should focus on wholesome family values of love and care, and respect for the elders and the government. (Wow! There's a concept for a new Peter Jackson fantasy movie)!

How should we rate a movie for its value? We should not give ratings to reflect its popularity based on violence, crime and sex, but instead focus on good values such as kindness, gentleness, love, peace, goodness, faithfulness, self-control and joy. (We don't appreciate good values unless we see them against a suitable counterfoil. Good stories are about conflict. Or you could just watch Sesame Street every day instead).

Unfortunately, none of these good values can be found in the movies mentioned above. (One only finds what one looks for, Grasshopper).

Movies that espouse the desirable values are rare. These are 'Chariots of Fire' (It's now become the standard musical sountrack for every slo-mo running sequence) and 'Akeelah and the Bee' (and how we do value kids who can spel difikult wudz). I particularly enjoy watching Jack Neo's portrayal of our primary school system in 'I not stupid'. (Guess you could identify with the characters of the pushy parents).

Yet if it remains only a portrayal of our country's meritocratic education system, it alone would not be able to help us make further progress. (Boy, you don't ask for much, do you)?

It is not enough just to point out society's ills. The movie's director should have concluded the show with lessons on corrective measures for the public. (I've got your "corrective measures" for irrelevance right here! Now, bend over!)

I would like the Board of Film Censors to critically review and evaluate the quality of the movies currently being screened in public. (You would like to be appointed Head Censor).

The guiding principle of the authority should always be driven by good and responsible values that promote hope, compassion and love. (If you look closely enough, you'll find that such values are key factors in conflict resolution in most narratives, regardless of genre and subject material).

And it should not be influenced by the public's lust for sex (but we're not having enough babies as it is), violence (movies don't make us violent; other people who are jerks make us violent) and death ("lust for death" sounds a bit oxymoronic) that leads to a sense of hopelessness for the viewer. (You're right. You'd better stay at home, a safe distance from any cinema).

George Lim Heng Chye

Online Forum letter in the ST, 17/10/06.

For once, a relief staff got a send-off in style. We bought CQ high-tea at the Goodwood Park Coffee Lounge and bade him farewell as he takes up a new job in the banking sector. Guess the boy was destined for greater things. Heh.

High-tea here comprises a spread of local hawker foods of which I enjoyed the laksa best (no hum, unfortunately). A surprise find was the apom with caramelized banana gravy -- I haven't seen this dessert for a while. And though June's assessment was that the actual cost of the spread was quite cheap -- she knows the f&b market pretty well -- at least they provided us with ice-cream from Mövenpick. Undisputed quality there, according to Baggy.

But amidst the face stuffing, the shop-talk and the vacation-planning, we also had to remember that the guy who hung out with us for several lunches, a couple of dinners and a 4-day road-trip is on his way out and up, and hope that we have left him some good memories to take with him.

See you around, CQ, and good luck!

I'm tired of Lady Croft's company. Yeah, I am playing "TR:Legend" 'cos it came bundled with one or the other of my recent hardware purchases. But cool, smart and jiggly as Lara is, I need a dose of the real world once in a while.

As it happens, I'm running around unsupervised today (June had to go work) and in times like this, I usually end up spending money. I decided to spoil myself lunching at Corduroy & Finch along Bt Timah Road, just before Sixth Ave. Always wanted to go there since the treasure hunt of last year (we thought it was a checkpoint for one of the clues) but never got around to it.

The place reminds me of a New York deli, except it's spotlessly clean and the staff are polite, service with a smile, y'know, and look like they're happy to work there.

French onion soup topped with emmenthal was nice, but even better when on request they provided a generous portion of shaved parmesan which I happily dumped into the tureen. Parmesan thickens the soup and gives it a kick, which otherwise tends to be quite bland.

The chix sandwich was more like a chix salad served between 2 thick slices of bread. It came with sliced hard-boiled egg and a thin sheet of emmenthal. Mmmm... beautiful. I made the mistake of asking for the sandwich to be toasted though. I never learn. Toasted bread -- particularly around the crust -- causes mouth lacerations. My upper palate and tongue have been nicely scraped raw and have gone temporarily numb. Hopefully, I'll get my tastebuds back by dinnertime.

Washed it all down with ginger beer, Bunderberg, I think. It was cool and soothing, just the thing for when you feel like you've been Frenching a cactus.

Grand total: $31 for a lunch for 1. Consider myself well and truly spoiled!

Jus' love 'em Teen Titans.

Here's a plot idea that will never be aired since the networks have cancelled the series, but anyway...

It's been nearly a year since Beast Boy has left Titan Tower to join Titans East. The undercurrents between Robin and Starfire have now resulted in them becoming officially an item.

The usually astute Raven appears to be thoroughly surprised by this development, while Cyborg's internal sensors and scanners had been picking up the signs of the budding relationship for quite a while.

But leadership is lacking at Titans East, and Robin is pursuaded to join Beast Boy to whip the East team into shape.

So Robin leaves Star behind at the Tower with Cyborg and Raven.

Titan Tower is feeling quite empty now, with just the 3 original Titans holding the fort...

Fighting super-villains and psycho aliens are business as usual for the team, but how can they fight what Starfire calls "Rekmas"? That's gonna be next season's biggest challenge. Stay tuned!

Another 2-year cycle has come to an end as we bade our JC2s farewell today. Officially, they're kicked out of the nest and by right should be soaring on their own as of now. Congrats, you guys, you've made it this far, so now it's time to really exercise those academic muscles we've been working you on and grab some serious air!

We, your flight instructors, will still be accompanying you along your way over the next couple of weeks, so feel free to continue dropping in on us for advice and more practice as you prep for the trials ahead.

And even as we were waving away our seniors in the morning, we opened our doors in the afternoon to the secondary schools, whose kids were anxious to get a glimpse of what a college campus looks like.

My duty (and thanks to NBS for performing above and beyond by sharing my load with me) was to answer general enquiries about the college, the subjects and the campus environment. Oddly enough, most enquirers only wanted to know if they were good enough to be accepted as students next year. Guess they have more practical and immediate concerns right now to be asking about anything else.

And so the Circle of Life is about to swing around again...

Mel's been pursuasive. She got me to help the Drama Club put together a short presentation for our college open house tomorrow. Can't say that we had a lot of time to rehearse it; it's still pretty rough right now. Really, it's a skeleton plot and the details simply haven't had sufficient time to develop.

Disclaimers aside, working with the new bunch of Dramatists has made me miss the Drama Club and all our madcap activities.

It's so much fun to see a story develop from the various improvisational fooling about that happens when people are fully immersed in the serious business of play. Taking inspiration (ok, stealing ideas) from Tina, we got the kids playing with buckets, brooms and mops, and seeing the different kinds of things these household items can be used for other than what they were designed to do.

Among the things that came up, someone suggested "knights". We played around with stock characters from the old tales of chivalry and derring-do, and some stereotypical plot devices, and thus our "Arthurian legend" came into being. The best thing about it is that the ideas were almost entirely from the kids themselves. All I needed to do was to stitch together the loose ends, and voila!

We go on at 1630 tomorrow, so if y'all have about 10 minutes to spare around then, we could use your support! Anyway, hope our little visitors will like it.

Lunch at Sloan Court Hotel with June. Amazing that we ended up there since we began the day intending to meet JY at ECP for cycling.

JY informs us she'll be late, Mom calls me at breakfast about some emergency (turns out Aunt needs to be rushed to the airport for her flight home), JY says she's not done yet, we drive Mom to church, JY says she's not done yet... and it's lunchtime already. :P

Sloan Court's great for a leisurely lunch. The restaurant is decorated like a Tudor-style hunting lodge, complete with replica weapons (though not necessarily hunting weapons) adorning the walls. I thought I saw a moose head mounted up there somewhere too.

There is a certain austerity to the place, like all the furniture and fittings have been there for a very long time. Folded-up coasters balance uneven table legs; underneath the table settings, the tablecloths are threadbare and worn; and the cutlery is all mismatched. But rather than make the place look unpleasant, it feels so comfortable, like home. No fuss, no pretense, no nonsense.

Food-wise, just go for the set-meal. We ordered the more expensive option: roast-beef which came medium (sigh, no blood). Every day is a different item on the menu. Lunch is between $10+ to $18+ depending on your choice of meat.

A bit nostalgic for me to revisit the place as well. This was the site of the first time ever that I got stinkin' pissed drunk. Hee hee. Hic. Ah, the momories...

Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center" calls to mind Taily's question: "What is the worth of a blade of grass?" In the awful carnage that occured on the day that changed the world, Stone focuses his attention on just 2 police officers trapped in the rubble.

McLaughlin and Jimeno, 2 of 5 volunteers who swallow their fear and venture forward to assist in the evacuation of the towers. But here's the thing: before they even have had a chance to help anyone, the sky has already fallen on their heads and they lie buried 20 feet below visible light.

Stone ignores the major tragedy and loss of life and keeps our attention on the efforts of the two men who though separated and out of sight of each other keep each other alive by exchanging stories about their loved ones.

When word gets out that the two are still alive, the news mobilizes whole battalions of emergency and rescue personnel. Though only a few men can actually work on extricating them, due to the tight confines they are trapped in, when they each finally break the surface, the welcome they get from the hundreds of PD and FD volunteers is overwhelmingly tremendous. Everyone is just so happy to see them alive, and anxious for them to return home to their families.

Only 20 people got pulled out alive from the wreckage in which nearly 3,000 perished. Jimeno and MacLaughlin were numbers 18 and 19. But as in the story of the lost sheep, there is great rejoicing when the single lost sheep has been found.

What's the value of a blade of grass? Taken out of context, it means nothing. But when we connect its roots to the field it belongs in, it's true value is actually quite astonishing.

Horrid haze hangs heavy.
Hostile heat harms historical habitats.
Hacking, heaving; holding hanky handy.
Hope heaven hastily halts haughty human hubris.
Health, hurry! Hie hither home!

It's the mooncake festival tonight, and I've taken my 2 nephews down to the playground to bask in the light of the full moon. So many other kids down here with us, swinging their lanterns and sparklers. Some are busy trying to set the playground on fire with such arrangements of candles as are usually seen on a psycho's shrine to the object of his obsession.

Apparently, amongst all this lunacy, traditional Chinese scholars are meant to drink tea and compose poetry. That explains the few lines above that begin today's entry. Yes, it's supposed to be poetry. And it's about current affairs too.

So there.

What is, "family"? Family is a beat-up old VW bus. The horn is broken and sounds intermittently, attracting all kinds of embarassing attention. The clutch is broken so it needs to be push-started, everyone putting their weight behind the machine until the starter can kick in and 3rd gear can be forced into engaging. Since the bus is now on the move, it has to be boarded one at a time on the run.

The first few times this process occurs, it's a mess of coordination, and getting moving seems pretty touch and go. But on further repetition, a system slowly emerges and eventually it becomes smoother and smoother, almost effortless.

A family may be completely dysfunctional, comprising every manner of misfit who can't even get along with their own closest kin. But the nature of the family is to bind people together as one, whatever friction is generated between its members. And when 1 family member is threatened, all differences get set aside and the family faces the threat together.

Whatever am I talking about? I must say no more or I might just spoil the fun when you go watch Little Miss Sunshine. This movie would've passed under my radar if Shah didn't highly recommend it. She wasn't wrong, and now I'm highly recommending it too! Whaddaya waiting for? Go!