Doctrine of equal misery

My experience with the Service was not a particularly pleasant one. It was arguably the lowest two-year point of my life. In the capacity I served, I had no identity, no autonomy, no society, and I saw myself as mere cannon-fodder and slave to all. My proudest accomplishment was being singled out to exhibit my latrine-cleaning prowess, though my admiring audience left behind a stampede of bootmarks all over my spotless floor while they inspected every pristine surface and nodded their approval.

But it was my Service to my nation, and if it saw fit to deploy me in such a manner, then that was my duty. So I protected what was mine and thus earned my Citizenship with a monkey-wrench in one hand and a toilet-brush in the other. The Service was a humbling experience for me, and I probably still bear some psychological scarring from those days, but unlike my fellow citizens writing in today's Forum pages I see no reason for our new citizens to share that experience with me.

It's with a misplaced sense of fairness and justice that today's letter writers are proposing some kind of equivalent Service for our new citizens. But insisting on equal misery is neither constructive nor effective for the purposes of national security. Military service isn't primarily for the purpose of making people unhappy (although that might be a consequence) but it is for the purpose of keeping our nation safe from the threat of external armed aggression.

Unless we're already under attack, a rational defence force isn't likely to stick a gun into the hands of just any turnip that fell off the turnip truck and give it instructions to guard the nation with its life. From a security standpoint, it isn't wise either to give a newbie citizen access to our sensitive sites and facilities, or give him much opportunity to rise in the ranks such that the top brass could possibly comprise of his fellow first gen newbies. Yet, if we don't give them these opportunities but still conscript them into our military, there'll be cries of discrimination, making everybody defensive and nervous around everyone else. Best wait a generation or two, when they've sunk in their roots deep, then they'll actually consider what's ours theirs too, and therefore worth defending.

Besides, the military isn't the only line of defence we have. Our defensive doctrine relies on five pillars working together: military, civil, economic, social and psychological defence, so in reality everyone contributes to our overall national defensive strategy. I'd rather let every citizen serve where they can contribute best. For the newbies, that's in the pillars of economic, social and psychological defence, maybe civil too. But to serve in the military we'd have to build some trust over a couple of generations before we let them wear the green No. 4.

And to the letter writers, you may yourselves have worn the green as your Service via military defence. But going public with your stinky attitudes is actually undermining at least two key but undervalued pillars: social and psychological defence by your petty, unfriendly, jealous, shortsighted, us vs them mentality. Sure, you've served the military, but your Service counts for nothing if you do a Disservice to our overall defence strategy.

Steamy surprise

In commemoration of a certain special event that took place, oh, quite a few years ago, June and I had a little celebration at Jumbo@Dempsey. And this bad girl was the very highlight of the evening.

It would have been a sacrilege to sully her pristine purity with any kind of sauce: black pepper, chilli, or otherwise. Served plain, she's been steamed to perfection with just a dash of rice wine for flavour, on a bed of silky smooth steamed egg. She's Marilyn Monroe wearing her favourite nightwear, Chanel No 5. Gorgeousness, indeed.

Lookit the size of the claws on this magnificent crustacean! The claws were so big, they weren't cooked all the way through. The meat at the pointy tips were gelatinous and faintly translucent. Biting into them released the saltiness of brine that shocked the tongue. But I tell you, the texture of the meat was so smooth and tender that it was all down my gullet before I realised I was eating unintentional crab sashimi.

I may have had a couple of runs to the bathroom since then. Coincidence? Probably not, but even if it was, for a crab like this, it was certainly worth it.

Must also sincerely appreciate the good folk on campus, Amy, B-lo, HP, Jojo and Wayne for the most excellent surprise gift of... yummy options that I know exactly what to do with -- before the year is over. Why so long? There's a matter of appeasing my conscience first before I act, and that could take a little while. Meantime, many thanks, my friends, for commemorating the occasion with me too!

Converting the heathen

Considering my own religious background, I really shouldn't be discussing this. There's been quite some unhappiness over the enthusiasm of my fellow believers in making converts out of the heathen. Up to a point, even I get uneasy about this practice because it just comes across as hard-sell. And it's easy to see how that enthusiasm can rub people the wrong way, living as we are in a society that values religious plurality.

If we don't proselytise, we're told we're not doing our part in the great harvest that our supreme authority wants us to bring in while we still can. So being able to proselytize is an integral part of the belief we have the freedom to enshrine in this society. But I also believe that my freedom to swing my arms ends where your nose begins. And this is the balance we have to accept, living in this society of ours, where everyone else's beliefs are equally accepted and respected.

Because of our religious freedom in this society, no one is about to curtail our freedom to express our beliefs, even the ones entailing making converts. But no one asked us to be obnoxious and offensive in exercising those rights either. Perhaps it may be beyond my limited wisdom that there is indeed a place among us for our full-time walking religious billboards with their fervent deathbed-stalking-fanaticism (they do have the best of intentions, really), but I don't think we need to pursue proselytising so aggressively. All the time.

If we truly lived up to the ideals espoused by our beliefs, people will see in us something of the divinity that we purport to represent. When we walk the walk, people with the, um... more existential questions will have the confidence that we can also talk the talk, so we don't have to accost random people, they'll come to us instead. I may be being somewhat judgemental, but that's how real, effective proselytisation takes place.

Sure, easy to say. Have I done anything of the sort yet? Er, as far as I can tell, no. Then again, what do you expect from the family's black sheep? Baaa...!

Noone wants to see the back of a pickup

I'm not exactly sure why it is but private car drivers will absolutely avoid driving behind a pickup carrying a cargo load of people. It doesn't matter how many passengers there are, even a lone rider is enough to put a wide buffer between the back of the pickup and the car directly behind it.

I've seen cars frantically signalling (if they're polite) then switching lanes as quickly as humanly possible just to clear the rear of such offending vehicles. That's pretty dangerous road behaviour, and I don't quite understand the rationale behind this traffical bizarreness. But monkey see, monkey do, I've picked up this habit too and dance the ol' lane-change switcheroo as safely as I can. I can only speculate on the following possible reasons:

1) Pickups have a speed limit -- slow -- and no one wants to get stuck behind one of those things for long because we all have places to see, things to go and people to do. Three minutes ago.

2) The passengers are not secure in their seats, and at any time can get flung out back, denting the car immediately following.

3) No one wants to make eye contact with a hoarde of tough-looking manual workers 'cos no one wants to see them for the people they are, but are happier to just let them work behind the scenes, out of sight, out of mind.

There's nothing we can do about 1) and 3), but at least for 2) there are going to be new safety regulations regarding their personal security being transported in pickups, so no more fling-dings to worry about any longer.

Oh, wait. There IS something we can do about 1) and 3)! The Traffic Act should make it compulsory that the only passengers allowed to be transported by pickup are babes in bikinis. That way, every male driver will absolutely want to plant himself behind a pickup, and that might bring the overall highway speed down to safer levels.

Over the mountain, not over the hill

A couple of the ladies from our local Everest climbing team, Joanne and Yi Hui, dropped by on campus to deliver a motivational talk. It was an easy going session with a pair of very ordinary gals-next-door who have done some very extraordinary things.

Their message is typical of many Singaporean success stories. Dream big; learn from the best; plan everything knowing that sh*t happens anyway; take small progressive steps training like mad; be persistent in asking for financial and moral support; be open about the scary stuff; go it alone but as a team; set realistic goals; get the job done; be humble about the accomplishment; give motivational talks and write a book about the adventure. More or less in that order.

Nice girls with a story to tell their grandchildren.

Back to God

Attended my first burial service. It was a plot at CCK Lawn Cemetery on which there is no room to stand around, other than on top of the plots of the other previously depated. A couple of hymns, a short message by the Pastor -- just long enough to allow the mechanical excavator to complete filling up the hole -- and a prayer of blessing for the family.

We lingered just a little longer for a little chitchat and for the immediate family to shoot some commemorative pix. Then as a group, we turned to walk towards our cars, leaving one of our own behind, beneath the peaceful, sombre, silent lawn, returning the body back into the hands of God.

The bravest of us

Yesterday, a kid in tutorial asked me if I had to choose between brain and body, what would my choice be? I shot back quite arrogantly that I already had both so I didn't have to make the choice. Well, it was an impertinent question meant to disrupt the session, and sometimes my mouth shoots off faster than I can control it.

Not too long after, Dad texted me about the passing of my eldest cousin. Tshoong was indeed someone who didn't have the choice between brain and body. At some point earlier in life, he developed a condition that atrophied his muscles so badly that he lost all motor-control over his whole body. Whatever was happening in his brain was firing off all the wrong impulses through his nerves, causing him to become a mass of twitches and tics that never abated.

I can imagine how frustrating that must have been for him. There was a perfectly good mind trapped in a ruined body. Even the simplest normal human function that we take for granted, for him he had to depend on other people for assistance.

It wasn't this condition that killed him in the end. He'd lived this way for many years already, anyway. The docs signed off that it was a heart condition with a diabetic complication that eventually took him.

Thinking back on the question if I would choose mind or body, I don't know if I would have the courage as Tshoong had to maintain his mind and intellectual faculties for as long as he did, even when he didn't have the body to carry it around in. And it's only now that he's still... and at peace at last.

This is my Facebook status update for today, preserved here because I wrote it with him in mind:

[Xmac...]

gathers with the clan. Black umbrellas and the rain.

Time to rest now, cuz.

Among his generation, he was the bravest of us all.

Yo, Joe: the technological arguments

Good stories often reflect philosophical debates. By that proposition, "GI Joe: ROC" has a decent story to tell. Here we have two antagonists, both equally well-armed with highly advanced technology. Both are out to establish order in the world: the Joes by maintaining the status quo, MARS (it's a pre-COBRA universe, hence the title) by changing the balance of power through force, intimidation and deceit. We know who the good guys are already.

ROC contemplates the use of technology:

MARS' tactical philosophy is to place technology within the individual soldier, effectively making each one a super-soldier but simultaneously eradicating morality and independent thought, and placing the army's total control in the hands of a single Commander. MARS troops are dedicated, dependable, unquestioningly loyal, but ultimately dispensible. They're basically no fun.

The Joes apply technology to the outside of the soldier, encasing him in an Iron-Man like armoured suit that also effectively turns him into a super-soldier, but with a crucial difference. The soldier can take off the suit and become human again. The Joes' humanity comes through in situations requiring moral decisions (apart from the ones that involve consideration for trash-the-place, make-things-go-boom 'cos that's the default option); but also in the expression of emotion (a small issue for Scarlett); and in being committed to a cause by volunteering rather than coercion -- even if it means countermanding direct orders from Authority and/or risking personal sacrifice.

Despite ROC being quite the Saturday morning cartoon-inspired CGI thrill-fest, I got a better story our if it than I had expected (I have very little hope left in this Summer's releases). ROC clung tenaciously to one consistent through-line: the application of technology can only solve the immediate problem at hand, so can we put technology aside in order to make the really human decisions that count for the longer term?

Pickin' my brain

Been spending the past few weeks since term began living inside my own head. It was a necessary condition in order for me to deconstruct my thought processes and bare the dissected bits of my mind for all the kids to see.

Partially that's because Amy, Sha and I are responsible for the GP lectures this term and we're using our air time to fine-tune the kids' abilities in approaching essay questions with intelligence, scope and logic. It's also because Liz, Jojo and I are organizing the 'enrichment' programme this term that I felt we really needed to examine our own fundamental literacy skills, breaking them down into tiny sequential bite-size pieces so that the kids can see an order and a process at work when they think through possible approaches to their essays and comprehension papers.

I've been examining my own hare-brain as a model for identifying the system I use to improvise answers to essay questions. It's something I do that I take for granted as instinctive, but I've been quite surprised to realise that I do actually have a systematic approach after all. It's just never been articulated and spelled out so precisely before.

Likewise, in terms of the comprehension paper -- which I think is quite an archaic artifact from the Dark Ages -- I discovered (again from improvising in class) that there is some sense to it after all. The main lesson to learn from the compre exercise is not how to answer the questions per se, but rather to ask the right questions as a means of accessing inaccessible texts and thinking critically through them.

I know I haven't been specific at all about what I've discovered about my processes, and what I've been instructing the kids in based on my findings. I'd like to divulge more details but I should observe the kids' performance over the next couple of weeks first to see if using my newly developed methods will really help them improve. It could be disappointing to count my chix before they're hatched, so I won't just yet.

But what I have observed lately has been encouraging. I had some good discussions with some very interested kids today, and there's some demand for me to further elaborate on what I've developed so far too. That tells me the kids see some potential in it, and perhaps some hope as well.

Well, hope it does them some good, and I'll share more if it does.

Need help sleeping?

"You'll be amazed" got repeated a number of times by a speaker who couldn't stop being amazed at today's industry conference on the New Media. I'd already attended a presentation by the classification guys in their HQ a couple of months back, so his information about how we classify the media here isn't exactly new.

What amazed me was that the people in the audience kept harping on issues relating to the quality of our local media content (which they felt was basically trash) whereas the topic of discussion was more like media regulation. It became a complaints session rather than the enlightened discussion that I was hoping for. Then again, an engaging dialogue no matter how trivial is always more entertaining than blinking in silence, and it was fun to watch our speaker squirm at the unexpected turn of our questions.

What else is amazing is this NYT report that people with insomnia are seeking help online, such as through the imaginatively named SHUTi 9-week programme, and other sleep restriction methods. There's even online "cognitive behaviourial therapy", and some programmes might cost US$20-30 when they become commercialized.

Psst, I offer a very similar online service to all insomniacs -- for free with instant results. Just read my blog.

Saving the world

I wonder if there's any merit to this OSU study regarding the impact human populations have on the environment? It seems like a no-brainer, but if we accept that mass human activity is the primary cause of climate change, it should stand to reason that the human population has exceeded the planet's capacity to provide resources to sustain all of us.

Solution: reduce the number of people back to a more manageable level and the planet would be able to start healing itself again.

Of course, it would be rather impractical to just machine-gun down all the unnecessary people in the world. That would be an environmental disaster all by itself, 'cos, like how are we going to dispose of so many bodies responsibly? Burial on that scale is sure to cause further deforestation 'cos nobody wants a mass grave in their backyard; cremation is out of the question 'cos we're trying to reduce our carbon footprint, not create a whole new cloud of CO2 and soot to choke up our atmosphere any more than we have already.

So, fine, we have to let everyone who's alive right now continue to live, but have fewer babies. The study projects that "in the United States, the carbon legacy and greenhouse gas impact of an extra child is almost 20 times more important than some of the other environmentally sensitive practices people might employ their entire lives – things like driving a high mileage car, recycling, or using energy-efficient appliances and light bulbs."

By this reasoning, I could defend my right to not have kids, live like a pig and still feel good that I'm saving the world, one carbon atom at a time. Yes.

The Parade that tried too hard

I guess I had to be there at the Parade to appreciate the spectacle, but watching it over TV (even in HD) wasn't quite as stirring. Cringeworthy, a couple of bits were even.

Some very sheltered people may have had their objections to the couple of girls dancing on poles during the Parade but for all the bluster, this storm in a B-cup only got two seconds worth of air-time overall. I thought the entertainment prior to the President's arrival was in far worse taste.

I don't know if anyone else felt the same, but I was especially put off by the Mark Lee and Suhaimi skit for the schoolboy standard of narrative in their retelling of the apocryphal Sang Nila Utama legend. Fine. "Heartland" humour if you want to call it that, but if our neighbours immediately South of us want to kick up a fuss, they can legitimately do so for the "insensitive" and "insulting" remarks the two clowns made about them. Lighten the mood, by all means, but try not to start a diplomatic incident at the same time. Please. They might send more haze over here in retaliation.

Immediately following was another eyeball-rolling narration, this time thumbing our noses with impunity at the very real threat of terrorism. They made it look so easy: snip a wire (think it was the red one) to defuse a "bomb", then chase around some hooded assassins on boats until they run out of fuel and give up. That's how we deal with terrorism over here. Right. On the one hand, it was purely national propaganda, on the other we're "just asking for it", tempting fate like that.

The remainder of the Parade went on as it does every year without much further hoop-la. National songs and formation dancing shoehorned into some theme or other, climaxing in a shower of fireworks that always mitigates the direness that had gone on before.

I like a birthday party as much as any other little kid, but hiring Bozo the Clown to provide the entertainment doesn't always work. Sometimes he just gets abused and kicked in the groin for his efforts. And maybe I'm being a party-pooper 'cos I didn't get my invite this year. Boo.

Up for a breath of fresh air

Disney-Pixar's "Up" has shot straight to the top of my list of fave movies for Summer 2009. It was funny, it moved me to tears, it was fantastic dreams and painful reality, all sensitively packaged together with absolutely spot-on timing, along with a palatte of colours that so aptly matched the different moods depicted in this animated treasure.

To say any more would be spoiling it for anyone who hasn't watched it yet. Just go and get the high of the season. :)

Not so jolly buccaneers

PM Lee's ND message comes in two parts: we have tough times ahead, though we have been weathering well so far; and it's been our ability to hang together as one crew that things haven't been as bad as they might have been.

Tough times and rough seas are nothing we can control. They happen and will continue to happen the way weather does. I'm a bit worried about our crew though, because there still exists a mutinous element that think they can handle our ship on their own without realizing that in order to survive our ship is getting bigger, and as such we need a big enough crew to man every post. There simply isn't enough of us to homegrow our own crew, so we have to take on crew from all ports of call, whomever believes in us and our adventures to lend us a hand.

The one thing we have to recognize is that we aren't a British battleship, with crew from scurvy deckswab to pantalooned Admiral all subjects of the Queen of England. We're a just little pirate ship looking to expand, and our crew comes from wherever, and whatever condition they come in.

"We did not start out as one people. Our forefathers were different peoples from different lands, who had come to Singapore to seek better lives for themselves and their children. But our formative years fighting for independence, then striving as a new nation to survive against the odds, brought us closer together. Each time we were challenged, we responded as one, everyone pulling together and working for the common good. And each success further cemented our cohesion, and helped us to meet the next challenge," says Cap'n Ah Loong. But some of our oldest and crustiest sailors on our decks are getting a tad resentful of the newcomers, and that's not really healthy for overall crew morale.

Among other things, they resent that many newcomers speaka no English. Odd that it's exactly the same complaint as that of the homegrown gripers on board the other bigger pirate ships, The US, Canada (well, maybe not so much) and Aussieland. It's even odder that I would say we only need to put in a little more effort to communicate rather than just give up and demand service in English at all cost. A little more patience and consideration from us will go a long way to encourage our newbie crew towards learning our tongue even as we strive to figure our theirs. That's the fun of living in a polyglot world, but many of our people simply don't have that kind of time to waste. Pity.

The other thing that this segment of homegrown crew have against the newbies is that the former feel somehow deprived of certain entitlements having to share the deck with the latter. Look at the comments that go with this Forum letter (trust me, the comments are way more interesting) to see how some people go all frothy at the mouth over this issue. But really, if we don't make the newbies feel welcome, they aren't likely to want to hang out with us for too long. They'll just take their share of the booty and bolt as fast as they can, and our recruitment problems will never abate. We resent them for coming, then we resent them for leaving. We're the unhappiest people on the Seven Seas.

Look. The asteroid has already hit us. The change in our climate is so drastic, so fundamental that our world has changed forever. We adapt and evolve with the times, and be small, nimble and omnivorous as our mammalian ancestors were; or be wiped out like the dinosaurs that couldn't accept the change. Or in local terms, the "true-blue" Singaporean is the one holding his breath until things go back to the way they were.

My birthday wish for my nation: Once and for all put aside our petty differences and prejudices, hoist the Jolly Roger, put the bow straight into the storm, and sally forth towards new adventures with a yo ho ho (and a hefty bottle of rum)!

Baba King rules the Expo

A face from the past reappeared. Seeing Phillip again takes me back to the dark days of the Service where we spent a few months in a mechanics' course on the the repair and maintainence of the AMX-13 armoured fighting vehicle, a WW2 relic even back then. Actually the days on course were the brighter days with more freedom, shorter hours and less responsibility. The remainder of my 2 years in Service were best passed over quickly.

Today Phillip runs Baba King. Don't underestimate the quality of the cuisine from the fast-food sounding name. Arby introduced the place to us as a must-try, hence the drive up to the Expo for a Peranakan lunch.

We had the usual babi pongteh and chix buah keluak, staples of Peranakan fare, cooked very tender and flavourful. The sides were quite intriguing: a traditional otah -- the kind where the fish is still intact rather than mulched up into a paste -- baked brinjal (eggplant) with lots of chilli sauce and a homemade black sauce concoction to take the purple edge off the taste, and where I find the taste of ngoh hiang (I have no translation for this... um, five-spice roll?) too overwhelming, this version is more subtle in flavour which I prefer. For dessert Arby recommended the pulot hitam served with a liberal spoonful of XO in the mix, but my history with alcohol has not been a happy one, so I opted for the gula melaka sago instead. Served with sprig of mint, the sago pudding finished light and refreshing.

Whomever Phillip is keeping in the kitchen has got to be a Nyonya treasure. Baba King is about authentic Peranakan food, and what we get here is quite a match for the food we had in Malacca, a.k.a. Nyonya Central.

Finally managed to squeeze a good lunch with friends out of this week. We picked a great place, and I found an old friend. Now I'm happy. :D

P.S. The silly BFC non-meeting in the morning did wonders for my spirits too. It was painful to watch President Tommy struggle through the food on his plate, but the company was good and I'm grateful for the break.

Projections, not prognostications

Attended a lecture by Peter Schwartz, author of Inevitable Surprises. His Wiki entry calls him a "futurist", and in fact his lecture was about examining today's trends and extrapolating from them how future scenarios might play out.

That was kinda' cool because part of our GP lectures next week will be about evaluating our preparations against future crises. Also because during this morning's heated discussions at our weekly level meeting, quite a number of similar or related themes came up and got debated over. Good to know we are keeping up with the times.

In summary, our biggest problem right now is climate change which we are no longer in a position to avert, we simply have to get used to the fact and adapt as best we can... and try not to make it any worse, while we're at it. And by not making it worse, fossil fuels will be priced out of anybody's reach because if not, global warming will make the planet unsustainable long before we run out of fossil fuels to burn. But current technology will help us keep our beloved cars running thanks to developments in hybrid, fuel-cell and electric drives. Until we find a better substitute, we'll be turning to nuclear energy, but with much smaller-scale reactors. Recent advances in biotechnology will prolong our life expectancy: those under 30 today have a good chance of undergoing anti-ageing treatments and be able to replace worn out body parts with new body parts grown from their own stem-cells, or bio-mechanical parts. They could live for a couple of centuries with this new direction medical technology is taking. Sadly, those of us past 30 today have screwed up our bodies too much already to fix, though we could still live up to 150 or thereabouts. That would mean SM Goh's estimate that we need to keep our workforce going till the retirement age of 75 is a slight underestimate. Because of our recalcitrance in reproducing ourselves and hence the greying population of post-centenarians who refuse to grow up, we have to expect lots of demographical movement as we continue to attract talent to pick up the slack (and here I think the faster we accept that as reality and quit whining over the so-called FT problem, the better it will be for all of us). The control of water will become a major issue and will probably be a flashpoint for major future conflicts. Another source of trouble are places in the world where there are large numbers of young males who for the lack of females to impress tend to violence instead. But I guess if they just focus on beating each other up and leave the rest of the world alone, they'll just be thinning out their numbers to a more manageable level. Come to that, I also suspect that the idea of getting 70 virgins in heaven after you die originally meant "in your dreams, buddy" or in Singlish, "tang ku-ku!", but somehow some people started to take the idea literally. So people will keep blowing themselves up, and that will be a factor in how the future will shape up, though apparently not a very big factor (Schwartz was a bit vague about this point). Meantime, China and India will become the strongest economies on earth, along with some of the other knowledge-based economies this side of the Greenwich Meridian, us included. Where we stay on the edge of the curve against the Chindian giant will be in pushing education and R&D, particularly in much needed areas like green tech, biotech and water purification, as well as serving as a model for effective social order and good governance that others can learn from. Two scenarios could play out in shaping our view of the near future: if the US can recover out of this economic crisis it would continue to be a major player influencing the world, although sharing power with China the way it once did with the Soviet Union. Or, if the US goes into decline because it cannot recover, then world politics will be dominated by China, and going by China's historical record of centralizing power supported by vassal states, that's not looking like too rosy a picture. So power relationships will be organized along the lines of institutions and rule-of-law if the US recovers, or by the Chinese concept of "guanxi" (interest and alliance) should China emerge as the sole superpower of the 21st century. While all this is going on, the people of the developing nations will be starting to get hooked on cheap to free Internet content -- basically free knowledge -- and by the power of Wiki and Google will slowly pull themselves up by their own bootstraps (heck, they'll pull themselves up by their own toenails if they had to) and slowly join the rest of us in the 21st century.

There, I think I got most of the lecture down here. Note that I didn't make a point to memorise all this info -- I didn't bother to write anything down until now, in review mode. But I did my readings before the lecture, I listened intently to the lecturer and matched new info with stuff I already knew (HP patiently bore the brunt of my frequent comments and other random utterances; we all need friends like her). Yeah, we were prepared to be bamboozled by brainy bombast but, to our great relief, we got a great lecture in good-humoured plain-speak instead.

Parenting styles over time

Teaching the kids to make quick comparisons between past and present society, especially for questions in the context of "today's world". Here's a look at how parenting trends have changed over time. Comments at the bottom of the article are interesting as well.

What do I remember of my teenage years? Strict discipline at home, but near complete freedom to go gallivanting outside the house without overt adult supervision. As long as I let the folks know where I was and when I was expecting to return home, I was pretty much on my own. In case you are wondering, I never abused the privilege. Trust was a precious commodity to earn and keep back in the day.

That's kinda' like what the article describes about parenting in the '50s. I'm not that old, of course, but maybe back then it took about 30 years for the parenting manuals of the '50s to get here where my folks could read and apply their wisdom on their beloved firstborn.

Life in the DRVBGA

The stress of deadlines must be getting to me. Here in the Democratic Republic of Very Busy Go Away, little behaviours I would never have noticed before are beginning to irk me. I'm getting sensitive to slights that I would otherwise have just laughed or shrugged off. This is not a good time to be socializing. There're too many tasks on the checklist for that right now. Like a bear with a sore head, I'm not very good company to keep, anyway.

Short live the DRVBGA!

No big loss

Because of the National Day weekend, this week promises to be a short one. But that means regular deadlines have also been shortened as a result, and this term I've found myself with quite a number of deadlines to meet. You do the math.

The sign on my desk on campus says, "Very Busy. Go Away." Doubt anyone will see much of me this week.

Reduced and abridged

How much fun can a dead English bard be? When the Reduced Shakespeare Company comes to town with their show, "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)"...

With that opening title, eyes tend to glaze over as certain memories play back akin to those of post-war trauma victims. That's how it is with most of us and Dead Bard. For some reason, he's compulsory reading on Liberal Arts English undergrad courses, and O horror, horror, horror! The pain! The pain... [wait, no. that was from "Lost in Space"]. We read words, words, words, and still couldn't for the life of us make out the matter from the art.

So why subject ourselves to The Works? Because whether you know Shakespeare or not, you'll split your sides laughing. Good to the Company's promise, we get all of Shakespeare's plays (sort of) AND all his sonnets (er... sort of) in under two hours. Just with all the unnecessary bits cut out.

The comedy isn't merely from the interpretation of the texts, but also from playing with genre, throwing in the occasional local reference, and messing about with fourth-wall stage conventions. That means the audience in the front row seats are often part of the hilarity, though at some point the whole audience gets to play a part in a scene as well.

In the end, it's not a big deal if you didn't like Billy Spears to begin with. If you like theatre, and if you can take two hours of gut-bustin' laughter, there's good enough reason to go catch The Works.