Mmm, more mussels

First, I have to apologise to Cat and Sam for taking a rain check on our lunch date. It completely slipped our minds that June and I had a prior engagement for a detoxing treatment until we got a late reminder yesterday.

We'll get our dates right next time, 'k?

Anyway, after detoxing we went straight back to devouring this lovely pot of Belgian mussels (moules au vin blanc). We've had our eye on Oosters at Suntec City for a while already, and since we were in the neighbourhood, we couldn't pass up the opportunity.

All we needed between ourselves was this 1kg pot of mussels, cooked soft and tender, simmering in this clear vegetable soup that was knockout delish. But that's not all, this order also comes with a side of fries and two dipping sauces: creamy mayo and honey-mustard. That would actually have sufficed, but we got greedy and shared an onion soup as well. A bit salty, that one, but a liberal sprinkling of parmesan put things right... for me, at least.

Although this place prides itself with its range of imported beers, it served ice-cold water to us two cheapos at no charge. Nice.

Rag(dolls) against the Machine

"9" is a melange of plot elements from "Terminator", "Half-Blood Prince" and PS3's "LittleBigPlanet". The leading characters are LBP's Sackboy-like ragdolls numbered from 1 to 9, each with his (or her in 7's case) own personality traits. They are mechanical beings physically, but are animated with a life force that is a source of both energy and intelligence for them.

The ragdolls are the only semblance of life remaining on a completely devastated world that has seen a global war between organic life and machines, with the machines coming out tops. Nothing biological has been spared, and in a macabre twist to functionality, the self-replicating machines salvage human and animal bones to incorporate into their own designs.

The ragdolls are hopelessly outmatched as they seek sanctuary from the marauding machines. It is only when 9, the latest and most improved model, awakens that sanctuary is no longer an option because he holds the secret to bringing life back to the world. He just has to discover what it is first, by piecing together the clues left behind by his creator. Complication: he doesn't get it right the first time and as a result makes a bad problem even worse.

This was a fun movie to watch because the trials these tiny ragdolls have to undergo seem so insurmountable. The balance of combat strength between them and their mechanical adversaries is completely asymetrical, but they do prevail with ingenuity, cooperation and a pretty strong survival instinct. But frail as they are, some sacrifices are made along the way.

It may be animated, but it isn't cute. It has rather dark themes too, so it's not really meant for the kiddies. Just as well. I'd say with the complex story, the drama and pathos, and the quirky bizarreness of the entire concept, "9" is one of the better movies of this year.

On the 5th day, he rested

Tired of my labours, I took the day to just enjoy lunch with NBS whom I haven't seen in ages. Well, since Monday, anyway. She's been doing me a small favour of which I don't have the liberty to discuss here. Spoilt myself with a carbonara and an RB float at New York New York. Not sure what my Wii Fit taskmaster would say about that, and I don't intend to find out. The Wii stays off today.

NBS noted how I've been spending the week wandering the island alone. I have to acknowledge that that is the reality of my situation. Looking ahead, when it's time for me to retire, the people I hang out with now will be only just peaking at their careers. There's a gap of a whole decade at least before the oldest of them will be able to join me rocking our chairs, together on the porch of our retirement home while we watch the world go down in flames.

But what the heck am I supposed to do for 10 years until then? And in the meantime, a lot of things could happen in 10 years, especially for someone that advanced in age. So either I get used to my own company, or I keep right on working and staying relevant to the world. Thus all the more reason for me to keep fit, healthy and active now, while I'm still able. After all, retirement is for old people, not me.

Thankfully, there's still June, though I wonder how she'll cope with a sexagenerian juvenile in the house? But why scare myself now? All that is still far off in the future. Let's just cross that bridge when we get there.

Knees, quads, glutes

Healthy activity du jour: A short but intense burst of 'blading at ECP

Distance: 5-6 km

Time: 1 hr.

Mundane stuff for today. Think my wheels are getting worn out 'cos I'm moving only with a lot of effort, and it's difficult to pick up any significant speed.

Felt the burn early in the knees, quads and glutes. But the pain went away as I kept pushing, and after a while, I felt I could have pushed further than I actually did. Guess that means I'm making good progress.

Kinda' makes me wonder how I'm going to find the time to keep up all this healthy activity when term begins again next week. It's almost like work and being healthy are mutually exclusive propositions.

Segway adventure

Today's healthy activity: er... well, it wasn't all that strenuous, actually. Segway riding along Tanjong and Siloso Beaches

Distance: does it matter?

Time: 1 hour

I've always wanted to ride one of these things. They seem so practical to use, so easy to get around with, and they look like a lot of fun too.

The Segway is really an expensive kick-scooter without needing the kick. The motor is battery-powered, charged from an ordinary wall socket.

The controls are intuitive, easily picked up as soon as you get on board. Lean forward to move forward and the further you lean the faster you go. Likewise lean left and right to wheel in the direction of the lean. To decelerate, lean back or return to vertical to halt. The handle grips mostly function as a point of reference so you brain knows which way to lean, but they don't actually steer the device. Just shifting your weight does the trick. Oh yeah, the handles are also a way to steady yourself over bumpy terrain.

Sentosa is the only location in S'pore that operates the business of Segway riding. The facility is at Beach Station where they offer a basic fun package, and a beach "adventure" -- guided, of course. I opted for the latter. Cost $35, and because I was alone I got a guide immediately (normally, there's a 1 hour pre-booking for a guide).

My guide was an affable chap who engaged me in easy conversation throughout the ride. Because it was just me and him, and he seemed to think I could handle my Segway with ease, after a while he raised my speed limiter from 8km/h to 20. I still couldn't catch up with him, though, and I didn't really want to. Didn't want him to think I was some kind of danger to myself and others and cut short our ride. He took the pix, in case you're wondering.

Riding the Segway is effortless fun. Once the speed limiter is off, it really moves. It requires only a little fine motor control and is quite maneuverable even within crowds of pedestrians, up and downslope even.

As a workout, it didn't work anything to speak of. Maybe an hour in the sun helped me to sweat out toxins, but that's about it. But if anyone (LTA?) is thinking of cutting off vehicular traffic from the CBD and Orchard areas, Segway rentals could be one way to do it!

Bedok Park Connector finally found!

Today's healthy activity: Cycling the Bedok Park Connector.

Total distance: 12.4km (return)

Timing: 2+ hrs

This is the reason we never found the Bedok Park Connector, though we tried several times before. The entrance is blocked by all these construction barriers.

Finally, the entrance -- found! A steep flight of stairs leads to the tunnel under and across the ECP. There's no slope; bikes have to be manually carried down then up the stairs.

First checkpoint: Strange radio tower at the Guards' Camp.

The cycling path takes us on a tour of people's backyards and under the MRT line.

Across the canal is Big Eater, where we feasted on salt egg crab the other day. We had no idea how close we were to the elusive Park Connector we had been looking for.

After a number of traffic light pedestrian crossings, we finally reach an overhead bridge. Please alight and push your bicycle across.

Looking back from the bridge. The sky is overcast, though no rain. Perfect weather for bike-riding. No tan lines!

Earlier on, we had a little argument whether this was a canal for drainage or a concretized river. Turns out the former. The water filling the canal earlier represented high tide from the sea. The closer to the source, the drier the canal is. Can't be a river, then.

Finally, objective achieved. ECP to Bedok Reservoir Park. Discovered several other Park Connectors branching out from here. Decided not to push it but u-turned and headed back the way I came. Scroll back up slowly for the route details.

Lane workout

Today's healthy activity: bowled three straight games. Focused on keeping centred, balanced and vertical through the line-up, push-off and follow through. Also conscious of breathing and maintaining a steady rhythm, more like yoga rather than a strength/cardio workout. Everything felt aligned, except the release which tended to be inconsistent and untidy. Need more work there.

Three game average: 153, not too bad considering I haven't bowled in months.

Up early for Tiong Bahru tsui kueh

First day of the September hols. Not really much of a hol, just a short break from routine. Woke up early nonetheless for brekkie at Tiong Bahru market. Dunno why but I had a craving for the famous tsui kueh from there. Early because there we had to beat the crowd.

Parking was already crappy by the time we got there (though I got lucky with a lot just at the market entrance). Whole place has been upgraded. It's now a two-storey complex with the wet market on the ground floor and cooked food upstairs.

Was worried that the food would have been likewise 'upgraded', but the tsui kueh is still good, the shell maintaining its silky smooth texture, and the chye poh (pickled radish) filling a delicate balance of salt and sweet. Not too oily.

Oh, this stall is the one with the less flashy signage. We picked it 'cos it looked more genuine. Think we made the right choice.

Feel the burn

Since I got myself a Wii Balance Board, I might as well try putting in about 30 minutes of fitness activity regularly from now on. By stating my intent here, I'm hoping it will be the motivation I need to keep me going if my commitment should waver.

According the the Wii Fit assessor, my Wii Fit age is still quite a few years below my actual age, so that's good news. But my BMI is high so I'll be working to reduce that figure to a more acceptable level.

There is quite a variety of exercises on the Wii Fit um, game, that work on balance, strength, aerobics and yoga. They are surprisingly intense (or maybe that's just my level of unhealthiness talking) and as we progress, more exercises get unlocked.

These aren't exactly the kind of exercises to build Arnold-grade mass, but they're non-threatening, with encouraging virtual instructors that praise and analyse performance on-the-spot.

As of today, my Wii Fit age is 36 years. Let's see if consistent daily workouts really do have any effect on my 2-month goal...

Exhibitionist

Got to see what life was like on the other side of the exhibition counter. I'm not usually the go-to guy for this sort of thing, but times being what they are...

Anyway, iLine needed a partner with wheels and a little muscle for the heavy lifting, and since Amy wasn't available, nor X, Y or Z, I was the next logical choice. So both iLine and I set up our booth at Cedar's career festival thingy to publicize our college as an option for the girls' next port-of-call on their way up the Education pyramid.

Our collaterals were the three standees we used as the backdrop, and our giveaways: our standard flyers, our custom bottles of distilled water, and our little bags of AAA-grade rice. It was the rice that was unusual enough to be the first item to disappear from our display. They made great conversation pieces 'cos the girls wanted to know wassup with the rice?

Truth be told, I'm not actually part of the crew that gets sent to these events, so I don't actually know the standard pitch that go with these materials. However, this was an opportunity to invent wild associations about how rice is a staple, it's nutritious, it's down-to-earth, and its triple-A grade is meant to symbolize the triple-A experience they will receive in our care, should they become our students next year. Oh, and it also reminds us of home and family, which as a college, is one of our more identifying and endearing features... if you like that kind of thing.

There were other more mundane questions as well, practical things like our cut-off, curricula and co-curricula programmes, success rates. The usual.

Not sure we made that great an impact in the end. We were only one out of many competing exhibitors, after all. I guess I'll only know when I see some familiar faces in my tutorials next year.

The lull

And now we have come to the final official test the class of 08 will be taking before their finals at the end of the year. I've taught them everything I know, I've consulted everyone that wanted consultation, and I can only sit back and watch reality put the endgame into gear for them.

This evening is one I'll enjoy sans guilt... before the grading begins again. Tomorrow.

Night Safari, almost

Today will be known as the day we almost made it to visit the Night Safari. But this being a school night, and the fact that we still have work tomorrow morning, our collective weekend anticipation dried up as the day progressed. Thank reality for bringing us back to our senses.

Meantime, what used to be the North Pole is experiencing such drastic climate change that it has temporarily become the Sahara Desert. Yes, the air-conditioning has broken down again. :p

Rah rah for Sports Resort

The perfect Teachers' Day off is with "Wii Sports Resort" that comes with the much anticipated Wii Motion Plus attachment. All it takes is a quick update from the game disk, and we're good to go.

Sports Resort is the new Wii Sports, with more games to play and all set within a coherent theme: the resort island of... Wahu! Now, doesn't that sound like all-out fun? It is, with a tiny element of cute to boot -- I love tossing Frisbees for my little doggie to catch. He jumps somersaults to celebrate perfect catches.

The Motion Plus attachment really does add a dimension of fine motor control to the old remote controller. As I swing my controller, my sword in the fencing game moves exactly the same way, as does my table tennis bat with more precision and accuracy than before. Now, losing a game cannot be blamed on a dodgy controller, it's down to player skill alone.

I miss tennis and baseball from the previous incarnation but Sports Resort makes up for them with lots more games and challenges in so many varieties. Now to find a few more friends to play with...

Teachers' Day 09

X23 are always bright, cheery and enthusiastic, and here they are celebrating Teachers' Day with me. I appreciate their gift of a notebook (the paper type) with their personal messages written in the pages. I'll also thank x06 for thoughtfully feeding me with a tray of tarts, and for a little cactus plant that I promise to take good care of. Erm, my last cactus plant came from June, and it died within a month due to over-care. Think I watered it too often and it drowned. Will do my best not to let that happen again. Also x17 for the hand-made card with a group photo of them wearing H1N1 masks with big smiles drawn over them. I've had three great tutorials from this batch, quite a pleasure to teach and I will miss 'em when they graduate... too soon.

This is the campus think-tank. We got interviewed by campus news on our role and function since we are making a publicity push for our committee and our activities. Doubt we're in the brain-trust because we're particularly smart. It's more like telling the college that if we can think, then everyone else should have no problem. Something like that.

Wandered far afield for lunch to celebrate. The usual lunch party found out the hard way that Baba King was closed on Mondays. Activated Plan B: Big Eater (Upp Changi Rd) for seafood in the afternoon. Their specialty was the salted egg crab. Despite the dubious-sounding combination, it turned out pretty ok. Heh, as long as the crabmeat is firm and chunky, I'm giving it the thumbs up.

Cheers, everyone! And have a happy Teachers' Day!

Laughing till it hurt

In the entire cinema hall, I was laughing the loudest at the antics of Bruno. Was I trying to prove to the rest of the audience (just a handful of us today) that I "got it?" -- every single prank, every single awkward moment, and laughter was my best way of covering up the embarrassment?

I dunno. As a movie, "Bruno" is genuinely situationally and absurdly funny, but at the same time playing a caricature along with real people who won't see the joke, let alone play along with it, it felt like SB Cohen was trying too hard to get the laughs. My laughs. And I guess I kinda' felt bad for him, and I did pay for two movie tix to watch him in action, so I felt obligated.

The Cohen formula is to piss people off by making them encounter the things they revile the most. And surprisingly, these people still respond to the silly Bruno with more restraint than we'd give them credit for. They still try to salvage some dignity from the inimaginable situations they find themselves in with him, and as far as possible still try to treat him with some measure of respect.

What results is that "Bruno" has to go to great lengths to sacrifice his own dignity to get some kind of reaction that at times I don't know if I'm laughing at the reactions or at Bruno himself. Whichever it is, it is funny, I am laughing, but the humour is painful. It's one of those cases where someone has worked so hard at something that you feel bad if you don't reward the effort.

Oh my red face and aching ribs.

Wrap. Print. Party!

A production still from last week's shoot. Here we see Weng briefing his talent about the coffee mug scene. Coffee looks pretty strong in this photo.

At the wrap party tonight, Weng debuted his rough cut for the entire cast and crew. I must say, although the raw footage didn't look like much, after editing and with the inclusion of the mood-setting background music the final product looked very good indeed.

Most importantly, the client was pleased as Punch with it. Said he had plans to air the final copy around the region. He can't wait to see how the regional offices will react to it.

As for my role, I had a single line of dialogue and a shot of my very talented left arm holding the coffee mug. Yes, that one in the picture.

Teachers' Day dinner interruptions

Usually at Teachers' Day dinner, our objective of enjoying our meal counters the MCs' objective of interrupting our enjoyment with silly games and activities to "enliven" the evening. At tonight's dinner, the role of the latter fell to me, Fen, YF and iLine, to deliver a programme based on the theme of the Oscars.

To be honest, we weren't all that prepared for the task even though we'd agreed to it months ago. The scripting mostly comprised a flurry of hasty email back-and-forths based on a rough guideline of the programme and coordinating MC patter in English and Mandarin. We were still scripting lines right up to our sequence run -- I wouldn't call it a rehearsal 'cos we were only running lines and not working out movement, traffic patterns, transitions and technical coordination.

Adding to the nerve-wracking situation were the many dynamic changes in programe, including a formal toast by the VIPs that was not previously scheduled. And although the programme was going faster than expected we were instructed to hurry up even faster. We ended up saying goodbye to everybody before dessert! I think that was win-win for all of us. Heh.

But this is the job of the MC. It's not theatre where there's time to figure things out and plan for contingencies (and even then things still do screw up). For us MCs, we ran lines for the formal bits of programme -- it's the formal bits that are the most scary 'cos it's unseemly to mess up people's names and titles --and here, reading off cuecards became an absolute necessity for me. My runs without cuecards were disastrous.

But rehearsals apart, most of our air-time was ad lib, going with the flow and trying our best to converse coherently between Fen and myself in two separate languages. Oddly enough, I felt more relaxed with the ad libs than the formal bits. It was fun to run the games and introduce the performances 'cos then I could focus on what was necessary rather than fret over not getting it wrong.

Fen and I had a great table to retreat to in between stage appearances. Thanks for keeping food for us, encouraging us with chatter, playing our games, impromptu rehearsing the formal toast with me, and doing some behind-the-scenes running that was necessary to keep the programme flowing smoothly. My on-stage tribute to you guys was sincere, if inadvertently cut short by an over-enthu Fen.

MC'ing for a combined three schools needed more prep time. There were many niggling mechanical problems, gaffed lines, moments of awkward tongue-tiedness, nervous voices cracking, for a functional but unpolished product. Nevertheless, we had excellent tech support in Events Architects who improv'ed effortlessly with us yet were very understated and nearly invisible the whole time. Their presence covered up a lot of sins.

Overall, I think we did ok. Not great, but a serviceable job despite our nerves and inexperience. It helped a lot that the audience was as generous as it was.

And now, I'm going to take a whole weekend off. Zzzzz...

Criminals, all of you!

Whoever designed the survey for Ipos may have arranged it such that our local intellectual property watchdog got only the feedback it wanted to hear. TNP summarises:

"IN THE real world, almost all of the 100 Singaporeans polled by The New Paper believe that stealing goodies from a store is wrong.

But they feel it's okay to illegally download copyrighted material from the Internet. In another survey of 1,011 Singaporeans done by the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (Ipos), released this April, about 44 per cent of Singaporeans think that illegal downloads of copyrighted material is not considered theft."

The more people appear to have unlightened views about respecting intellectual property, the more justification Ipos has for continuing its crusade. And the more reason it has to consider punitive measures, like the new 'three strikes' law, against these all these unrepentant criminal scumbags.

But take a look at the two survey questions given to the respondents:

1) Is it wrong to illegally download music, movies and shows?

40% of total said NO which shows how hardcore recalcitrant they are to willfully commit an illegal act.

If it's illegal, then of course it's wrong, hence 60% said YES. But the answer might have been more interesting if the question had been, "Is it wrong to download music, movies and shows?" Chances are, remove the word "illegal" and 100% will say NO. And since they aren't admitting to committing an illegal act, 100% of them won't think they are criminals.

2) Is it wrong to buy pirated CDs, VCDs and DVDs?

Only 26% of total said NO, which means most people DO think buying such stuff is wrong.

Of course buying pirated CDs, VCDs, and DVDs is wrong. Why waste money on pirated goods when you can download the same thing for free (see Q1)? Duh!

Ipos needs better, less confused, less ambiguous data if it really wants to act in the best interests of society. As it is, they see criminals everywhere, though the people don't quite see themselves as such. Getting all litigious isn't the solution. Enforcement doesn't make a law right, not if the people aren't convinced it is in the first place.

The industry's next leap forward

For the week I'm having, I suppose this is a good reminder why. Presenting our industry's new 'mantra' that'll take us into the 2010s: Lead. Care. Inspire. Not sure why the first word refers to a toxic heavy metal, but we'll do our best.

Bolts of intellect

I suggested before that we human beings take pride in the athletic successes of world record breakers like Usain Bolt because we take them as proxies of ourselves and our own achievements. Boris Johnson, writing for the Telegraph, goes a step further suggesting that Bolt's achievements could be an indication that we are continuing to improve: "faster, higher, stronger," and because each successive 'A' Level reaps an ever increasing harvest of 'A' grades, he asks, "why not cleverer," too?

At the heart of this debate is the issue of grade inflation, and the dumbing down of the curriculum which his critics lambast him for. It's not that Johnson ignores this possibility -- he readily admits to it himself -- but he offers a more optimistic position than his critics can stomach.

In exam-crazy Singapore, our 'A' Level curriculum in math and the sciences makes my own head swim. As it is, our primary school math already makes me stare and blink blankly at the questions the little tykes have to work out. The 'A' Level timetable is a marathon sprint event, the kids being swamped with so much of revision, homework, tutorials, remedials, consultations, it's no fun being a JC student any more. Academic rigor we have... almost to the point of mortis, if you ask the kids themselves.

But curriculum and exam results don't impress me. They're a poor indication of intelligence, biased as they are to a particular kind of left-brainedness. If I were taking my 'A's in JC today, I'd probably be curled up in the corner of a darkened room awaiting my next sedative shot by the time I got to my prelims. It's the fact that our kids actually survive the stress we put them through and are still able to move on towards their next step in life that I respect about this generation.

I'd like to think our kids are getting smarter, at least for for the simple reason that more kids than ever are getting access to an education. Sure, they may not all be able to handle a chemistry paper set in the 60's like some of Johnson's respondents were suggesting, but that's because the kids taking their 'A' Levels in the 60's were truly the creme de la creme of their cohort, both intellectually capable as well as being able one way or another to finance their further studies.

Besides, the 60's generation didn't have access to electronic secondary memory systems (Google, Wiki...) they had no option but to store everything they learned within their own biological primary memory. In that capacity, they were limited to only what they had memorised regardless of how much that might have been. So perhaps they might have been smart in that sense but they could only deal with information stored within the realm of their own heads, and only if they kept updating it manually.

Public education made intellectual development available to pretty much everybody. That might have meant a bit of levelling out of the curriculum towards an average, certainly not as high-level as what it might have been before, but a drop from the top meant a raise in the smarts of everyone else.

And where Johnson's critics pooh pooh computing and the 'net, it's because they see these newfangled developments as inert, inanimate objects rather than the living network of streaming information that actually runs under the hood that our kids are tapping into. The only problems we're facing on this front is the immediacy of access due to the clumsiness of our current interface technology, and the literacy skill that we need to develop in our kids so they can navigate it.

When we figure out these speedbumps on the highway of digital intelligence, we can do away with our archaic biological memory based exams and set exams that are not just open-book but open-'net. They'll be answering exam questions through the usual Wiki and Google, but also through online forums, chats and other forms of interaction with real people (friends, strangers, idiots and experts alike) interactively and collaboratively. That'll be more realistic to the digital age. After all, what's the equivalent of an "exam condition" in the real world today? A power failure or system crash, I suppose, which doesn't happen too often to be a concern.

What if Bolt runs under 60's conditions, the critics posit? Would he still run 9.58 secs? The answer is, it's not the 1960's any more. Times have changed and we have changed with them. We have created the conditions under which running 100m in 9.58 secs is possible, and that is the story of human progress.

Are our kids smarter today? I don't know if we have got the conditions for intellectual Usain Bolts to exist just yet, but on the whole our kids know more and have access to even more useable information than their parents did and way more than their grandparents ever did. That's a good enough yardstick for me.