Teachers behaving badly

What would the kids say if they ever saw their so-respectable teachers behaving like kindergarten children while playing 4-player "Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party" on a Wii? On that rather disturbing thought, thanks, Amy, for arranging tonight's fabulously hilarious CNY steam-boat dinner!

To say we had fun would be an understatement. :D

Hi, NBS and HP! Glad y'all could make the party too!

Life at the Improv

Improv games can be quite intimidating to have to engage in. Tina is making the kids do a lot of improv as a means to workshop and devise scenes from completely unrehearsed scenarios.

It's both amusing and annoying when the kids try to "take control" of the "situations" they find themselves in. They will gather for a chat about who is supposed to do what to create the scene, sort of mentally rehearsing their scene before they play it out. What's amusing is their elevated stress levels as they plan and project; what's annoying is that instead of watching a scene, the audience only sees a gaggle of kids huddling in a circle trying to decide what "should" be.

While there is a time and place for meeting and planning, much of what happens in life is unexpected and unrehearsed and it's important for us to improv through many potentially ridiculous situations in which "should" goes out the window in favour of "is".

Improv works when the players simply respond to whatever probable or improbable proposition is made to them through their fellow players. If someone suggests there is a giant spider behind their backs, the other players will accept such and move the scene along by simply responding to the fact. But scenes grind to a halt when certain players start dictating how the other players "should" react, or when players dispute the offer -- basically going into denial.

We play the same game in life. Much of what we encounter are unrehearsed scenes where the only rule is to accept the offer (good or bad, happy or sad, etc.) and move the scene along. Where we mess up in life is when we try to control the uncontrollable, or when we deny the probablilty or even the justice of what is happening to us.

Remember, our job is to move the scene along. Failure is when we bring our scene to a grinding halt.

When evil is evil, and good is clueless

The first movie I pick to watch this year was an orgy of of gore and senseless violence. It's about killing with perfunctory efficiency using small-arms, blades, and whatever else within grabbing range that can send a guy to meet his maker without the fuss and bother of a fair trial before a jury of his peers.

Enough clues? Yes, I watched "Punisher: War Zone", featuring everyone's favourite Marvel non-super non-hero psychopath, the Punisher. And the preceding paragraph roughly summarizes the plot.

This is by no means a critique of the movie. I take my hat off to director, Lexi Alexander, who courageously dispenses with a long, convoluted plot and opts in favour of dropping us straight into the world as Frank Castle himself views it: war with no end, any threat to the innocent is expeditiously removed because the good don't have a clue how to take care of themselves.

The only complication Castle finds himself in is that sometimes we can't immediately tell good from evil, and he has to come to terms with a mistake he makes while pursuing his own course of justice.

P:WZ is no summer blockbuster. I'm glad it doesn't even pretend to be. An acquired taste, then, and definitely not meant for everyone. There are few high points and even then, few as they are, they are tinged with uneasiness. There are "funny" moments, though we laugh only because there's no other way to deal with the brutality of the dispatch. There's a sense of, "Yes! Justice!", but at the same time, "OmG, what a way to go."

Welcome to the world of the Punisher. Thankfully for most of us, we don't live there.

Darwin Award candidate

Something should be done about dangerous barriers

I WISH to highlight the dangerous crossing for pedestrians walking to Thomson Plaza from Jasmine Road.

There is a side road at Thomson Plaza, near the Starbucks outlet. It has four lanes, one for cars and taxis to enter, one for cars to exit the carpark, and two for trade vehicles to enter and exit the delivery area.

There are two barriers across the lanes for trade vehicles and a zebra crossing across the other two lanes. As the traffic there can be heavy, most people use the zebra crossing. But one must negotiate the lanes for trade vehicles before reaching the crossing.

Recently, as I was walking to Thomson Plaza, I decided to go through the lanes for trade vehicles to get to the zebra crossing. One barrier was down while the other was up. It was about 1pm and there were no security guards stationed there. As I walked between the two barriers, one came down and hit my head.

I stumbled into Thomson Plaza for help and sought medical attention at a clinic. The doctor who attended to me told me that she too had been hit by the barrier, but that her umbrella had shielded her from the blow.

I wrote to the mall's management on Dec 21, five days after the accident, to ask them to rectify the problem. I have not received a reply.

Clarice Tan (Mrs)

(STI online Forum, 2 February 2009)

-------------------

Madam

The injury to your head must have been quite serious for you to be raising via the local dailies this oversight of due diligence. One possible countermeasure to prevent a repeat occurrence of this eventuality is to avoid walking under raised barriers altogether. This simple and basic precaution has saved thousands of heads from similar Blunt Force Trauma attempts committed by such wayward barriers as you have had the misfortune to encounter, and millions of dollars in medical fees thereafter.

You raise a legitimate concern regarding the lack of security guards stationed at the barriers. The emergence of sensor-equipped automatic barriers has completely eradicated the need for a manual labourer to perform this operation, forcing yet another uncle to undergo retraining in order to find alternative employment. Perhaps you'll be good enough and employ one to hold an umbrella above your head while you go strolling to the mall from now on?

Nevertheless, we must make allowances for some people who insist on swimming in the crocodile pond even after seeing the lifeguard on duty being devoured. To them, we present an award for thinning the gene pool, hence making the future safer for our descendants.

Hiking Henderson

Hiked the Southern Ridges with Cat and Sam. It was an excellent day for trekking as it was neither too hot nor wet enough to favour bed and blankie over the great outdoors .

It was also an opportunity to meet Sam's folks again, old friends they are from TO days. They did well to keep up with us most of the way, but eventually they left us young 'uns to finish the trail, or rather, until we reached the Hort Park before turning back.

Have to apologise to Cat for turning down her lunch offer. We'd already had it in our minds to reward ourselves with Belgian mussels, and we would not be turned from our culinary objective. All I can say is, we were not disappointed. Mmmm... mussels.

Jen hosted us at dinner at her place. We sampled her experiments with sambal pasta, chix rice balls and her apple juice/7-Up beverage and pronounced them most savory. No leftovers -- is that a compliment to the chef, or what?

A quick shoutout to Felicia and Jessica, new friends Jen introduced to us over dinner. Hi!

Girls and gaming

When I was considering a marriage partner, one characteristeric of the girl of my dreams was that she would enjoy video gaming as much as I did. I could see us pairing up online and adventuring together, hacking and slashing our way to wealth and glory, at least in the virtual world.

June, who I married, is no gamer. All our adventures have been in the real world, and online I still game solo. That is, until she discovered PS on FB.

PS is a game she plays online with her FB friends. It's partially a home-builder's dream in which a key objective is to furnish and decorate the player's virtual home with all the splendours of opulence as the player can afford with the credits earned through playing the game. The player's avatar likewise gets decked out with the the rarest and most lavish couture and accessories virtual money can buy. In a sense, it's transferrance at work: our materialistic fantasy life actualized through a game that rewards pro-social behaviour and a keep-up-with-the-jonses motivation for keeping gameplay fresh and active.

Because of the competition to accumulate wealth, there has developed an almost real-world economy for the game world. Real people -- friends and strangers -- are talking to each other through an online forum inquiring, offering, trading, begging, basically bartering virtual items for the rarer and more in-demand commodities. That, I guess, is where the real fun is.

Now June and May have plunged themselves into the PS game world and are now serious traders in hard-to-acquire goods. It started with a stroke of luck in running across a hot item and making a good trade, spinning off enough capital to seek out more... rinse, repeat, make more profits.

Oh, and I get to help out too, questing for stuff they are likely to sell, and because they are the more market-savvy ones, I leave the selling to them.

So I've got my wish, after all. My wife and I are in a non-violent adventure to acquire obscene amounts of virtual social standing and commensurate ostentation, though I'm kinda' missing the gore and tension of a more visceral survive-or-die struggle. Still, it's a start.

Shoulders of giants

So good to have Tina back to guide the Drama Club this year. Steph did a fantastic job last year, but with the ambition and scale of my vision for the Club, I think Tina has the influence and standing to make it happen.

Hey, I can so dream big, ok?

Settled in

Finally, we can say we've completely moved into our new digs. The last room is clear of our stuff and we can see the floor once again. Operation Spring Clean has been a resounding success. We're so proud of ourselves... well, mostly June. Heh.

Already we can say the cats have settled down as well. They're so comfortable, they've already destroyed our brand new sofa! Poor sofa.

Years in the making

Haven't seen Lil and Mike for a while, but they've arrived from TO to catch up with us, bringing their little one in tow. This meeting, several years in the making, saw us convening at the PS Cafe, Dempsey Hill, to devour pastries, sip beverages and share accumulated gossip about our absent friends we used to hang out with long ago. Here we are considering how to divvy up five profiteroles drowned in dark chocolate sauce among seven of us, with more desserts to follow.

The company looking totally stuffed after a good feeding. We shared a variety of a la mode cakes. Yums.

We came to the conclusion that we should meet more often than just once a year. We were once a tight knit bunch way back in TO, and there's no reason why that has to change, even though some time has passed between us since we last saw each other.

Urgency bordering on desperation

Between reunion dinner and reunion coffee, June and I took Aunt Shirls to absorb the atmosphere of Chinatown on CNY eve.  This is the first time Shirls has dropped by to celebrate CNY with us, so we thought it would be most memorable if we plunged her straight into the heart of the dragon itself.

As expected, Chinatown was bursting at the seams with bargain hunters, last-minute shoppers and tourists. Human physical contact was frequent, limited mostly to shoulder charges and elbow jabs; though I must add in a non-threatening form, just enough to avoid traffic from seizing up altogether. Stallholders hawked their discount prices over portable amp systems adding to the general chaos and confusion.

We we there only from about 2000-2100, early enough to soak up the excitement without feeling a complete loss of control over the situation. Any later -- say around midnight -- all bets are off. By then, most people would have been done with their reunion dinners, and prices would have reached rock-bottom, triggering the buying frenzy of the patiently circling, milling, gathering crowd. No, we were long gone by then, the only purchase we made was a new pair of flip-flops to replace Shirls' shoes which were giving her blisters.

Must make a note of the public restroom facilities at Chinatown MRT which under no circumstances I would have even approached except in dire necessity. Surprisingly, despite the crowd and its urgency bordering on desperation, people arranged themselves within orderly queues behind their unit of choice and patiently bore out their turn.

My particular *ahem* need was for the cubicle, for which I had to wait a bit longer. Butt instead of the hellhole I was expecting I found myself in a clean, dry space with lots of TP to spare. Even the seat was spray-free, if a tad warm. It was a pleasant surprise because the crowd comprised a large proportion of people who do not have a particularly strong reputation for their toiletry habits. Perhaps it's time to rethink the stereotype.

Made it back to Dad's for the usual family coffee and riot to count down the new year.

I live at mumble, mumble...

Here's an interesting article about place names that have changed in meaning due to changes in language use over time. Once respectable addresses are now the butt of jokes, much to the embarrassment to the good folks in residence there.

Perhaps they should now just opt to have their correspondence via email instead. Like for example, arsewankerzorz@whateveremail.com.

Last minute spring cleaning

One day before CNY eve. A day dedicated to collecting pork from the market, collecting Aunt Shirls from the airport, and collating piles of no longer wanted assorted detritus, taking what's recyclable to the newly discovered recycling point downstairs where we hope it will find a new lease of life somewhere, somehow, as long as it isn't cluttering up our second bedroom any more.

A little last minute spring cleaning before the Ox takes over the new calendar year.

Baring boobs ends in bum deal

Eh, this isn't fair, is it? "A FILIPINA [pub employee] was fined $1,000 on Friday for appearing topless while dancing at a pub in Duxton Hill."

The story goes on to say she was dancng in front of a bunch of male patrons when the cops walked in. How come no one followed up on the culpability of those unnamed male patrons? I'm sure their modesty had been soooo outraged.

All quiet in the Tower

Three Titans are all that remain from the previous battle. But now Starfire has left Earth to patrol the intergalactic pathways around her home planet, Tamaran. Raven has grown much since, and is now the guardian of the extradimensional planes. Cyborg, the sole Titan still based in Jump City has his hands full with the never-ending chaos of a city fraught with imperiled citizens at every corner.

Titans Tower is often quiet now, but Cyborg is grateful that Raven still checks in on him and the mortal realm every so often. With so much going on, Jump City needs to rebuild a new team of heroes... and quickly. Could Poison Ivy be a likely candidate?

Another possible plotline for the non-existant Season Six of the Teen Titans animated series.

Yes, Mr President!

I confess to having attempted to stay up to watch Obama give his inauguration speech 'live' on CNN, but my brain initiated shut-down immediately after Biden's swearing in. Despite the long wait for things to happen, I wasn't bored, just tired.

Fortunately I could still catch a recording of it on the web:


A down-to-earth speech, practical and touches on many pertinent issues challenging the world today. It's about people having to work hard, in mutual cooperation, holding fast to strong values and looking towards a brighter future. The message is mundane, but a necessary reminder that if we are to progress forward, first we have to rebuild the economy and repair our foreign policy from basics in order to remake our present from scratch.

Gosh, suddenly I'm speaking in the first-person plural. There's something about this speech that seems to apply to everybody, whether American citizen or not.

A change of leadership

It's only a few minutes before the change in US leadership becomes official. Media hype has built up Obama's Inauguration into some kind of historical event, and the sense of it, the excitement, the expectation and anticipation are almost palpable.

The man bears the weight of the world on his shoulders. People are expecting big things from him, but in general all we want is a little more peace, a little bit more spending money. Not sure how he's gonna pull it off, but we put a lot of faith in that which is new, and for him to actually become President already signals big changes in favour of the optimistic.

I never realized how deeply-felt this change of leadership was until I came across this clip of Grade (Primary) School kids reading their letters of congratulations to their new President Elect. So young and already so politically aware.


The eyes of the world are on the man, even the children's. Could we be expecting too much? We won't know for a while yet, but in the meantime, let's just soak in the euphoria of this historic Inauguration first.

Civil servant makes a splash, gets a public dunking

For all our cosmopolitan aspirations, the vast majority of us S'poreans are still very much a kampong people. We keep a close eye on each other's behaviour and expect that all of us should conform to a certain standard of decorum in our public conduct.

That's probably fine in most situations -- we do want an orderly and safe public space to live in -- but when we set our expectations on the basis of pettiness and envy and enforce them through punishment, or in this case, public censure, I think we're causing our own brain drain. We're chasing away those who appear "different" and narrowly defining our society as only accepting of those who are equally small-minded and conformist as the rest of us.

So a top Civil Servant makes a splash of his publically-funded wages by taking a long vacation with his family to bond over exotic Parisian cuisine. And he has the temerity to publish his travelogue in the local press. But because the rest of our incomes are going down the toilet with this economic climate, we get upset because this "insensitive" individual refuses to put on an unhappy face and wallow with us in the dumps of despair. It rankles further because we feel that it's our taxpayers' money that has gone towards funding his high life, and so we can take the moral high ground to question if this is how our hard-earned taxes are to be frittered away.

The S'porean mind is complex and hard to fathom. We tell our kids to strive for success, to do everything it takes to raise their lot in life. Do better, work harder and above all, earn more money so life can be more comfortable for them and their family. And then we have this backlash directed at someone who has attained the S'porean Dream and is living the way his parents had hoped he would one day.

It's an interesting message we're sending our kids. Perhaps more than our National Pledge, that dusty old Ribena ad has done more to dictate S'porean existance for the generation that still remembers it. Two kids under a tree are having a conversation that goes like this:

'What are you drinking?'

'Ribena. My marder say it is good for me.'

'Can I have some?'

'Yes, but not too murch.'

It seems moderation in all things is the expected norm, so much so that we're now dictating how one's earned income should be spent to maintain par with the Tans of the underclass. All the more so when said income comes from taxpayer dollars. Let's see, which government department did he work in? Ah, Environment and Water Resources. Now, how much would we pay for our relatively low levels of pollution in our densely packed urban landscape? For the garbage disposal efficiency that so many of us discard our junk without thought to where it all goes, apart from away? For the swarthes of green oases blended integrally and seamlessly with our buildings and roads? For the crystal clear water from our taps we drink, wash and play in with no fear of falling sick upon contact? These conveniences are our taxpayer dollars at work. If we still lived in squalor in an environment made of crap and he was livin' it up, I'd shout "crucify him!" with the rest of the mob, but in all good conscience, I can't because I don't.

And consider this: what has he bought? Some international exposure, some new knowledge, a new skill, a cultural exchange and a potential partnership with a world-renowned institution. If only our own vacations were so focused and purposeful. Most of us just hop on a bus and drive through city after city bleary-eyed just to come home and say that we've been there. Guess we get what we pay for.

It's not the over-the-top vacation expense that worries me as much as the public response to it. It's a response that will drive our best and brightest away from our doors. If they're not appreciated here, they have the means and resources to move elsewhere where they and their money are more welcome (and good riddance because they were spoiling our kampong anyway with their extravagant lifestyles).

Even more scary than that, we're implying that dreams and aspirations have no place in our society because they don't -- or shouldn't -- come true. We take a perverse delight in tearing others down if we don't make the grade ourselves. In a different kind of society such stories tend to be celebrated instead. Think Forbes' "Made Bank?" programme on Channel 5, for example. Such societies comprise a population that is enterprising, innovative and optimistic. They're also a people that are proven to be able to pull together as they stand through hard times.

I don't know how we're going to respond as a people to this current economic situation. But if today's story is any indication, the biggest problem we face isn't the financial crisis. It's Small Penis Syndrome.

Dim sum brekkie

One more reason to celebrate living up North: taking a morning stroll up Admiralty Hill to work up an appetite, then feasting on delectable dim sum at the Dragon Phoenix perched right up there on the summit. Ok, maybe I'm overdramatizing the location a bit, but it's fun to imagine.

According to the website, the restaurant runs under the chefs whom between them have concocted some of most popular local dishes as we know them today. The take the credit for chilli crab, and the now ubiquitous annual yu shang without which no new year would be complete.

But we were only scouting the dim sum for a new year brekkie with the Wongs, and I believe we've found the perfect spot this year (last year we ended up at McD's because of a misunderstanding over our reservation at some Chinatown restaurant -- never again). Here, as long as we show up at opening time we're practically guaranteed a table. Being out of the way has its perks.

How's the food? Best pushcart dim sum I've had, ever. You know how when at a certain point the oil and grease suddenly cause you to feel like you've run into a brick wall, right? Not here. I felt I could keep ordering more and keep going. Everything was light, impacting only the tastebuds and not the stomach. Even the lo mai gai didn't just sit in my gut and make me wish the meal was over... there I was ordering egg tarts for dessert.

Cost for June and me: $40. That sounds a bit expensive, but if we had brought more people with us, the per capita cost should reduce quite significantly.

For us, the question about where we could get a good dim sum meal has now been laid to rest. Hike up the hill, and then to burn off all those calories hike back down again.

My job's in "Jeopardy"

New hat to wear this year: gameshow host. dNYel is taking one day during the J1 orientation week to run a department programme. My job is to organize and host the gameshow segment. We'll be playing Jeopardy, a very popular TV staple in the States.

Of course, our version won't have as much flash. It'll be cobbled together using PowerPoint and whatever else we can scrape together from college resources. CL dept has been kind enough to lend us their buzzers and electronic scoreboards, so today Gerald and I assembled the rather archaic looking system together and, by golly, it works! It's entirely manual, but if we can hide the manpower behind the machines -- and all the cabling that reminds me of a mass of entrails spilled all over the floor -- the whole setup should look quite impressive for our standards.

I like Jeopardy. It's a test of knowledge for the contestants, but there's also a wide range of general knowledge the audience can pick up just by watching the game. If the audience has something to root for, it should be all the more fun for everyone. Can anyone say, "inter-house game"?

What's next for NYeDC

Executive Decision: Drama Night 09 will be a festival of 10-minute plays.

Rationale: To immerse more club members in the full experience of producing a theatrical performance from beginning to end.
To offer leadership opportunities -- student Directors will source and adapt a script of their choice, scout their own talent in the casting of their play/s, and schedule and conduct the training and rehearsals necessary for a credible showing on Drama Night in mid-May 2009.

Role of external instructor: To provide training in basic theatrical skills for the club members; train student directors in the skills, duties and responsibilities pertaining to their role; ensure the quality and high standards expected of all plays submitted for Drama Night 09.

Incentives: To offer recognition in the form of Awards in the categories of Best Direction, Best Performance (Male), Best Performance (Female), Best use of Light, Best use of Sound, Best Ensemble Performance, Best "Bumph!". Rubrics to be worked out.

Long Term possibilities: 10-minute plays are minimalist and hence portable, and can be offered in collaboration with other theatrical organizations involved with community theatre, thus providing students with exposure to a public audience.
If our Awards establish themselves as being based on good, solid professional theatre practices, in subsequent years we might consider inviting other institutions to submit their own entries in addition to our own to widen the talent pool.
NYeDC becomes more like a talent training and support agency for young aspiring theatre practioners rather than just being only an interest group.

If you've read this far, my apologies. I'm working out the details of our contract with our instructor, and this stuff's been on my mind. See, work's already begun.

Hmm... hope Tina will be agreeable to this new direction for the club. Doubt I'll be able to pull this one off without her experience and clout. *crosses fingers...