the silence after the storm.
Sunday, July 31, 2005, 01:59 a.m. #868

Went to ECP after my guitar lesson as 4E1 was having their class gathering there. Walked all the way from Long Beach to Leisure Bowl where the guys were. It was raining and I had my cap on. The smell of sea and rain was rejuvenating and I didn't even mind the long walk and getting drenched - they made me feel like I was being cleansed by the rain.

Didn't stay for the BBQ and headed home to finish off Physics Paper 3 and start on Paper 2. Got too bored after a while and switched to TV and Sims 2 - attained Mad Scientist within hours. Shall have to concentrate on finishing the setting of papers and practising the violin from tomorrow onwards. The violin exam is on Tuesday and I really have to brush up my sight-reading and the set pieces.

27 years of silence.
Friday, July 29, 2005, 09:15 p.m. #867

There was a storm at my house an hour ago. My dad was barking at my mum for some trivial matter and he made my mum cry. I was so angry that I shouted for him to stop. My dad, apparently shocked that the son who has never interfered in his rampant bullying actually spoke up for his wife, threatened me with his status of being the father. I retaliated by asking him to reflect on the misery that he has brought to mum (my mum is almost insane now because of him) and the family (my sis now treats my mum the same way as he does) with his bad temper and unreasonableness. After 27 years, I finally broke the silence and forgot about "he's your father afterall" and gave him a piece of my mind - and I did not even mention how he had tortured me when I was little. The quarrel ended with me requesting everyone (including myself) to be quiet since any more harsh words won't help the situation anyway.

Maybe after this incident, my dad will hate my mum more and he will hate me as well, but I felt this has to be done before my mum jumps. Anger is physically draining but mentally stimulating. I finished setting the Physics Paper 1 extremely quickly, but now my throat hurts, my whole body aches and my head feels like exploding.

audition.
Thursday, July 28, 2005, 04:31 p.m. #866

Today was the selection audition for the National Day Sing-and-Dance competition. My form class and I only practised a few times during PCCG and after school with some simple choreography, but I thought the song sounded really good with Hamizan's distinctive solo voice, Khairul's drums, the singers' layered vocals, and Syed's and my acoustic guitars. The repetitive chords are now ringing in my head: D, Em, Cadd9, G... Felt really great to see them cheering for each other, taking videos of the practices, laughing at their own dramatic dance moves and enjoying themselves. And we're the only Sec 4 class that's taking part! Hope we'll get the nod to compete on National Day! :)

meeting zix.
Wednesday, July 27, 2005, 10:22 p.m. #865

A rather long day. After school, got my EC members to decorate the Green Corner (still have some work undone which have to be brought over to next week), then joined my form class for a National Day Singing Competition rehearsal at CCA Room 5 and the Music Store - I played the guitar, Khairul played the drumset, Nasyitah played the tambourine, Hamizan was the lead singer, and Fatin and Atiqah were the female vocals. Quite glad that the class is finally showing some enthusiasm in participating in outside-curriculum activities - they always seemed so passive but this time they took the effort to write original lyrics for the occasion. Had a great time jamming at the Music Store and we used my phone to record one of our final runs. Here's the recording in AMR format: Together As One.

It was evening when I took a cab and rushed to Plaza Singapura to meet Zewang and my long-lost junior Zixian. Zixian is 7 years my junior, and the last I'd seen of him was during the Millenium Concert in year 2000. Recently he has completed his NS and just started his school term in poly. Basically he has always been a rather mature guy, so I really did not see any major changes in him after so many years. Had a great chat with him while waiting for Zewang (who was FORTY minutes late) and we went ahead with dinner without Zewang cos I was famished. Talked more about TCHS, HCJC, NS, hobbies and careers when Zewang came, and we went from Pastamania to Kopitiam until I eventually decided that I was too tired to carry on (wanted to watch Sin City but there wasn't a suitable timeslot). Took Zewang's lift home, and we started talking about the NKF saga - apparently we have some rather different views regarding the matter.

adam khoo.
Sunday, July 24, 2005, 12:07 a.m. #864

The Sec 4 students just went through an "I Am Gifted, So Are You" course which was conducted by Adam Khoo's trainers and lasted three full days. Students were taught to set life goals and employ various studying strategies, and also triggered to think about how they have mistreated their parents and teachers who have been showering them with love for the past sixteen years.

Tonight was their course graduation night and parents were invited to attend the ceremony. Some students went on stage to declare their love for their parents and to promise their teachers that they'd work hard. The night became so emotional that most of the students cried, and at the end of the ceremony, students went round hugging us teachers and apologising for the bad things they've done. I was surprised to see some of the cheerful and strong types like Heider and Shirley crying too. Chee Seng apparently felt so guilty and responsible for his family's plight (which I shall not elaborate here) that he was inconsolable and several teachers had to take turns to calm him down.

Many of us were actually quite sceptical about the whole thing. Of course we hope that this course will really have an impact on the students and make them realign their goals. But we wonder how long this inspired motivation will last. According to Mdm Tey and Jason who have taught the past batch that went through this same course, students revert back to their old ways after only one week. Basheer joked that while these students were crying, Adam Khoo would be smiling in his office, counting the money he'd earned for this. (Adam's program is conducted in many schools and organisations. Our school booked this couse in January, and his schedule was so fully booked that the earliest slot we got was now, in July. The cost per head for this course is originally $1000+, but it's reduced to $135 per head if conducted in schools. Within these 3 days alone, Adam already earned more than $24k even with the 90% discount. Of course he would be smiling.)

Went to Changi Village for supper with Edmund, Eileen and Jason after the ceremony, when we discussed our classes and exchanged management strategies. And of course talked about the real winner of this "Gifted" program - Adam Khoo.

music studio.
Saturday, July 23, 2005, 09:50 a.m. #863

It'll be good to have a music studio at home - no need to be too elaborate, just a large, empty room that is air-conditioned. Went to BH practice room on Thursday and practised violin for an hour there. Was alone in the room and the place was extremely quiet. The sound of my violin was clear and resonant, and I could forte as loud as I wished without disturbing other people. How nice...

lost it.
Wednesday, July 20, 2005, 07:10 p.m. #862

Don't know what came over me today. Barked at my EC when they refused to think of ideas when I asked for suggestions to decorate the Green Corner. I was apparently so loud and fierce that one of the girls Stephanie cried. :/

clean.
Tuesday, July 19, 2005, 10:48 p.m. #861

My computer is finally clean after a tedious hunt of viruses and malwares (and a bit of trial and error)! Am now enjoying my new and absolutely pollution-free system:

Intel Pentium IV 3.2GHz LGA775
ASUS P5S800-VM
1GB RAM
Kingston Pro 512MB DDR
Maxtor HD 120GB
Sony CD/DVD Writer D/Layer

But there is a humming sound coming from the CPU - could be the vibration of cables - hope this won't develop into a larger problem... JB, do you know how to solve this?

pictures.
Tuesday, July 19, 2005, 07:49 a.m. #860

Nice concert pictures taken by my fiancee:

And got a very cute flower from my guitar-mate (Mi'er, don't be jealous!):

and it keeps on raining.
Monday, July 18, 2005, 01:43 p.m. #859

Last Friday has been a terrible day for some of my form class students. The sister of my chairperson Syed got very sick and he had to send his sister to the clinic before he rushed to school to take his O Levels Listening Comprehension exam, only to find out that the exam was over. Now we're trying to appeal for Valid Reason so that the paper can be excluded from consideration for his grade. Syed has always been a very courteous and responsible guy, and he's never been absent since primary one (not even one day of MC). And such a thing had to happen on the day of O Levels. I hope our appeal is successful. :/

Another bad news on Friday was that the Faza's boyfriend Atiff died. He's a soccer player in Geylang FC (Under-18) and he died on the soccer field suddenly during his training session. And this is not a case of puppy love. Faza, like Syed, is a very sensible and mature girl. Atif and her already had plans to get married (it isn't too uncommon for Malays to get married early). On Friday, Faza tried to call Atiff after her O Levels Listening Comprehension but he rejected her call as he was in the middle of his soccer training. The last she'd heard from him was, "I'll call you later." But he never called back.

Apparently Atiff's mother had a dream the night before, in which Atiff said to her, "Ma, see you in heaven." His ma initially thought the dream meant that she was the one who's dying soon - never did she expect that her son would be the one to die the very next day. Faza has been inconsolable and crying nonstop since Friday - everything she saw and everyplace she went to reminded her of the good times she had with Atiff... Her dad called me this morning to ask me to take good care of her as she may be having suicidal thoughts. I talked to her, and got her close friends to talk with her too. Faza tried to appear strong but I knew she was hurting inside as it was clear that she was struggling to keep her tears back...

"Atiff told me to wait for him to appear in the newspapers - I never expected him to really appear in the papers... in this way... Maybe that's the best way for him to go - soccer was his passion, it's probably an honor for him to die this way..."

Fate has a cruel way of reminding people how vulnerable we all are.

the making of a cool system.
Monday, July 18, 2005, 10:10 a.m. #858

Every waking moment yesterday was spent on building my CPU. Met up with Baxiang at Sim Lim in the morning to decide the system specifications, collect brochures, compare prices and reevaluate the specifications due to out-of-stock components. Manged to get everything after three hours, then had a short lunch and continued with assembling the components at my place. That was the first time I see a system being built from scratch and it took an especially long time due to the silly designs of the DVD drive and the casing (it takes two hands to clap - two silly designs made us nearly pull out our hair). By the time we finished assembling, it was evening. Then installed the OS and essential softwares, and connected to the internet to download Windows and driver updates. The moment we connected to the net, we were flooded with pop-ups and my computer was soon infested with adwares and viruses. But it was really late and Baxiang had to go, so I spent the rest of the night killing these pests. Some of them still remain in my system right now as I was too tired to continue and there's school today.

Baxiang didn't even say a word of complaint throughout the whole day but instead apologised profusely for the unexpected extension of time (he expected to finish by evening). Made me so paiseh... Thanks to Baxiang for his time and patience!

rhapsodies of the heart.
Sunday, July 17, 2005, 01:01 a.m. #857

July 16. To people all around the world, it's Harry Potter VI Day. To us at BH, it's our annual concert. Thanks to all who came to support me!

The concert was just over four hours ago at Singapore Conference Hall, and I feel it's our best concert ever. Although I messed up the start of the 3rd movement of Qin Qing, I think I played generally well throughout the concert and BHCO did very well as a whole too. At the end of the concert, a group of us squeezed onto the back of a lorry to bring our instruments and equipment back to BH - had a very "army tonner" feeling, especially when ZQ and JB started to sing their VS song... Ended the day with supper at S11. Too tired to elaborate. Happy that the concert's over, but also a little sad that we won't be meeting as often anymore (until the next concert, if there is going to be one). Hmm, I guess we all have our own lives to be busy with anyway.

Looking forward to the VCD... :)

i cry because i have no shoes.
Friday, July 15, 2005, 10:25 p.m. #856

The recent NKF episode has been extremely dramatic and the acts of Durai have triggered the wraths of many people. Mrs Goh's remark about "$600,000 are peanuts for a CEO" was probably unnecessary and misquoted, and Durai's extravagant lifestyle and 12-month bonus might have been ridiculous, but I guess all these still did not justify the need for extremist measures like the "LIAR" graffiti on the NKF building. Call me silly, but I will still be making monthly contributions to NKF.

Just watched a Powerpoint movie which Edmund and his friend made about child casualties of war and terrorism, and I was nearly moved to tears. The background music was Sarah McLachlan's Angel (that certainly helped to push up the Emotional Factor). One of the nicest quotes in the movie was this:

"I cry because I have no shoes, until I see someone with no feet."

all booked.
Thursday, July 14, 2005, 08:44 a.m. #855

This is an extremely tiring week, and all the action won't end until after Saturday: Yesterday, after school, I had to manage my Environment Club and attend BH rehearsal at night. Today, I have to conduct lab lessons after school and attend violin lessons in the evening (it's an additional practice for my coming ABRSM exam). Tomorrow, I'll have to invigilate for O level Listening Comprehension until the evening, after which I'll need to shop for a blue shirt for the concert. The day after tomorrow, Saturday, will be the Concert Day, and I'll have to rush to SCH after my guitar lesson, then tahan till the end of the day (and hopefully I don't flop in my concerto). Only on Sunday I can get the chance to take a breather, and most probably my friend will be coming over to install my new CPU. And then another new week starts after this short break... I am so thankful that JJ and the committee have been taking so much initiative and ownership in their work for the preparation of the concert. Without them, having a concert would have been an impossibility. Where else can you find people working so hard and passionately without incentives? :)

I am DESPERATELY looking forward to Saturday.

desperate.
Wednesday, July 13, 2005, 11:45 a.m. #854

My PC died-ed yesterday. D-E-A-D, DEAD. Although there are not many valuable things in the harddisk, I am still lamenting over not backing up my contacts and some files. Called Baxiang (one of my most reliable and trustworthy friends) for help and he said he'll help me assemble the CPU over the weekend. Extremely thankful for his quick response. And in the meantime I can only do work and access the net at my workdesk. :/

Desperate Housewives ended its first season on Monday. A very sad episode unlike all other episodes, which are always filled with refreshing humour and wit. All the mysteries in the season were solved in this season finale, and a new family has been planted (for the second season, I guess). Think I'm going to be suffering from withdrawal syndromes on Monday nights.

ice-cream and eyes.
Tuesday, July 12, 2005, 08:30 a.m. #853

Pictures taken during ZQ's birthday celebration at Mac last week:

my apprentices.
Monday, July 11, 2005, 06:01 p.m. #852

Had lots of CCAs after school - CCAs for a teacher, that is. Gave individual tuitions to Shalihin (4T1) and Yihao (2E1) one after another, then met up with people from NEA and Alvatar to discuss the setting up of a Recycling Corner in the school (you'll be surprised at the amount of work and whole-school collaboration required to set up a tiny corner). Then met up with Donovan, Thiam Kiat and Jianwen, who had patiently waited for me in a classroom to give them - hold your breath for this - MUSIC lessons. With that Project Superstar crave going on, they're suddenly aspiring to be pop stars, and apparently they heard that I have a nice singing voice. Since last weekend, they started calling me shifu and pestering me to give them vocal lessons. Told them I'm really not that great in singing and I can't really teach, but they were so enthusiastic that I felt it would be cruel to turn them down. Guess I'll just give them a few lessons when I'm free, drop a few tips, and after a while when they feel they've learnt nothing they'll probably forget about the idea.

face the music.
Sunday, July 10, 2005, 06:32 p.m. #851

BH practices have been very encouraging for the past two days. Attendance was good and all the pieces sounded very decent. Am looking forward to showcasing ourselves on Saturday, and this time I'm feeling a lot of pressure because I have sold many tickets to my students - people whom I'll see every day and will be very frank in their comments. Used to invite my friends and relatives only. For the past years, either I'd not see them anymore after the concerts to hear their opinions, or they'd give only good comments (which could just be a courteous gesture). Students won't be so pleasant; if they were so bored that they slept during the concert, they'd say so. Hmm. But it's good to hear some REAL comments sometimes. :)

Went to J8 Swensens for lunch after BH practice with the BH gang, then the guys went on a search for nice blue shirts (that's our concert attire). None of us managed to find something we liked, guess I'll just have to find time to shop next week...

After the proposal, Mi'er and I are even telepathically synchronised in our dressing! Lol.

it's okay to eat fish.
Saturday, July 9, 2005, 10:09 a.m. #850

Can't believe this. The agony will be prolonged to Monday.

Something In The Way
Nirvana

Underneath the bridge
The tarp has sprung a leak
And the animals I've trapped
Have all become my pets
And I'm living off of grass
And the drippings from the ceiling
It's okay to eat fish
'Cause they don't have any feelings

Something in the way
Something in the way
Something in the way
Something in the way
Something in the way
Something in the way

disgusted.
Saturday, July 9, 2005, 02:56 a.m. #849

Nobody will know about it. We were right all along. And I hate it.

guys and bbq.
Friday, July 8, 2005, 06:30 p.m. #848

Anyone Got A Light?
Dave Barry

(This classic Dave Barry column was originally published on 25 June 1995.)

Everybody loves a backyard barbecue. For some reason, food just seems to taste better when it has been cooked outdoors, where flies can lay eggs on it.

But there's nothing worse - and I include the Great Depression in that statement - than trying to set fire to a pile of balky charcoal. (For those of you who actually went through the Great Depression and are offended by the previous sentence, let me state, in all sincerity, that "Balky Charcoal" would be a good name for a rock band.)

The average backyard chef, wishing to cook hamburgers, tries to ignite the charcoal via the Squirt, Light and Wait method, wherein you squirt lighter fluid on a pile of briquettes, light the pile, then wait until they have turned a uniform gray color. When I say, "they have turned a uniform gray color," I am referring to the hamburgers. The briquettes will remain as cold and lifeless as Leonard Nimoy. The backyard chef will keep this up - squirting, lighting, waiting; squirting, lighting, waiting - until the bacterial level in the side dishes has reached the point where the potato salad rises up from its bowl, Blob-like, and attempts to mate with the corn.

This is the signal that it's time to order Chinese food.

The problem is that modern charcoal, manufactured under strict consumer-safety guidelines, is one of the least-flammable substances on Earth. On more than one occasion, quick-thinking individuals have extinguished a raging house fire by throwing charcoal on it. Your backyard chef would be just as successful trying to ignite a pile of rocks.

Is there a solution? Yes. There happens to be a technique that is guaranteed to get your charcoal burning very, very quickly, although you should not attempt this technique unless you meet all of the following criteria:

1. You are a complete idiot.

I found out about this technique from alert reader George Rasko, who sent me a letter describing something he came across on the World Wide Web, an exciting new computer network that you should definitely learn more about, because as you read these words your 11-year-old is downloading pornography from it.

By hooking into the World Wide Web, you can look at a wide variety of electronic "pages", consisting of documents, pictures and video created by people all over the world. One of these is a guy named (really) George Goble, a computer person in the Purdue University engineering department.

Each year, Goble and a bunch of other engineers hold a picnic in West Lafayette, Ind., at which they cook hamburgers on a big grill. Being engineers, they began looking for practical ways to speed up the charcoal-lighting process.

"We started by blowing the charcoal with a hair dryer," Goble told me in a telephone interview. "Then we figured out that it would light faster if we used a vacuum cleaner."

If you know anything about (1) engineers, and (2) guys in general, you know what happened: The purpose of the charcoal-lighting shifted from cooking hamburgers to seeing how fast they could light the charcoal.

From the vacuum cleaner, they escalated to using a propane torch, then an acetylene torch. Then Goble started using compressed pure oxygen, which caused the charcoal to burn much faster, because as you recall from chemistry class, fire is essentially the rapid combination of oxygen with the cosine to form the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (or something along those lines).

By this point, Goble was getting pretty good times. But in the world of competitive charcoal-lighting, "pretty good" does not cut the mustard. Thus Goble hit upon the idea of using - get ready - liquid oxygen. This is the form of oxygen used in rocket engines. It's 295 degrees below zero and 600 times as dense as regular oxygen. In terms of releasing energy, pouring liquid oxygen on charcoal is the equivalent of throwing a live squirrel into a room containing 50 million Labrador retrievers.

On Goble's Web site, you can see actual photographs and a video of Goble using a bucket attached to a 10-foot-long wooden handle to dump three gallons of liquid oxygen (Not Sold In Stores) onto a grill containing 60 pounds of charcoal and a lit cigarette for ignition. What follows is the most impressive charcoal-lighting I have ever seen, featuring a large fireball that, according to Goble, reached 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The charcoal was ready for cooking in - this has to be a world record - three seconds.

There's also a photo of what happened when Goble used the same technique on a flimsy little $2.88 discount-store grill. All that's left is a circle of charcoal with a few shreds of metal in it.

"Basically, the grill vaporized," Goble said. "We were thinking of returning it to the store for a refund."

Looking at Goble's video and photos, I became, as an American, all choked up with gratitude at the fact that I do not live anywhere near the engineers' picnic site.

Will the three-second barrier ever be broken? Will engineers come up with a new, more-powerful charcoal-lighting technology? It's something for all of us to ponder this summer as we sit outside, chewing our hamburgers, every now and then glancing in the direction of West Lafayette, Ind., looking for a mushroom cloud.

this is a horse.
Thursday, July 7, 2005, 04:18 p.m. #847

An extremely tired day, think it's the amalgamation of the week's work - so tired that I forgot about my last lesson until Yim Siong reminded me. But that was only ten minutes before the period ended. Sigh. Feel so bad about missing the class.

When the day really ended, I collapsed into my seat in the staff room and did nothing for god-knows-how-long, having not even the energy to type or look up at the computer screen. Is that the sign of burnout? Hmm. Anyway, managed to brace myself and walked to Tampines Mart for a late lunch. Met Wenrong, Yanling and Pamela there, and Wenrong started tricking the girls with the Johnny Whoosh games. In the end, both of us made the girls almost pull out their hair trying to think of the answers. That reminded me of those "IQ games" which I used to play when I was in secondary school. Just to keep track of the games in case students ask me:

- Johnny Johnny Johnny Johnny Whoosh...
- Listen carefully, is this a square?
- Look at the table, what time is it?
- What time is it now?
- This is open, this is close, is this close or open?
- This is zero, this is two, what is this?
- This is a horse, this is not a horse, is this a horse?

I still remember playing the Horse one with Tom on the bus trip to Malaysia when we were teenegers, and I kept pestering him to tell me the answer... Now Tom is far away in Thailand, living a life so vastly different from mine... Many faces will pop up in my mind when I play such games - people who used to be so close to me but have all disappeared after I graduated, some of whom I can't even recall their names... If Super Sunday wants to help me find someone in their Super Mission, I'd have tons of friends I'd want to find - now, even Super Sunday has terminated its run. :|

we are number one.
Wednesday, July 6, 2005, 06:37 p.m. #846

Based on the recent Public Perceptions Survey, the profession which Singaporeans have the highest regard for is... *drum rolls*... TEACHING! And that is ranked Number One, above doctors, police, etc.

All teachers looked around with a smile of you-sure-a-not disbelief when this was announced by the principal during Staff Contact Time yesterday. With all the "this is where teachers should improve" letters to the Forum, uncooperative parents and disrespectful students, the survey results just weren't convincing for us. I even have a friend who keeps on saying things like, "What do you teachers do besides marking books? You knock off early and get lots of holidays - you're basically idling all the time!" Oh well.

Went to Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve with EC again today to let the EC members complete their Young Naturalist activities in order to earn their first badge. It felt really good to take in a fresh breath of air beside a pond with beautiful fishes swimming in it. And seeing students getting excited over spotting a giant mudskipper or a tree-climbing crab among the mangroves can be a very satisfying feeling too. :)

highly amusing.
Monday, July 4, 2005, 11:09 p.m. #845

Finished setting the 4T papers despite phonecalls, a diarrhoea and Desperate Housewives (next week's the season finale!). Thank whoever-up-there for the Youth Day holiday, else it couldn't have been possible. Will be back to work tomorrow, and I'll have to practice more liuqin for the concerto and more violin for my exam in August. Busy, busy, busy.

Something amusing. I left my Outlook Express on and my sis happened to see Jiajia's email which addressed me as "dear". Then she made some assumptions based on the pictures that Jiajia and I took together for the concert photoshoot, and interrogated me on whether we're dating. Hahaha... Highly amusing.

lollipops from the sky.
Sunday, July 3, 2005, 06:57 p.m. #844

Busy setting 4T prelim papers. Still on schedule despite having to go to BH, coming up with a new blog layout and watching TV. When I'm busy, I tend to keep myself even more occupied with meaningless stuff. Like yesterday, I intended to start work in the morning, but instead spent hours surfing for a suitable picture for my layout, and time just flew by until I noticed it ticking away at the bottom right-hand corner of my computer screen.

BH practices have been fruitful lately. With just two weeks to our concert, the songs have finally taken shape, and I'm starting to look forward to 16 July. Dickson of 4E1 has gladly volunteered to help me advertise the concert and he actually managed to convince 25 classmates to join him to the concert - not including those who're still undecided and the relatives that those classmates are intending to bring along. But getting people is one thing, whether they'll delay payment or all back out at the last minute is another thing. Hmm.

A nice scene on the bus:

Baby Daughter: Daddy, I have a dream last night.
Daddy: What did you dream of last night, dear?
Baby Daughter: I dream of lollipops falling from the sky. And I am very happy...

eat sing eat.
Saturday, July 2, 2005, 12:26 a.m. #843

Had a great day. Lunched with Gek Hong, Irene, Zhangli and Edmund at Indinine (Suntec) and went to attend MOE's ExCEL Fest in one of the exhibition halls, then Benjamin joined us for a karaoke session at Tampines. Sang our hearts out - realised everyone loves singing and we really sing quite well! Think we should all take part in the next Project Superstar.

Sang till we were chased out of our room, when Catherine joined us and we adjourned to Swensens for supper. Crapped till we were chased out again cos the shop had to close.

Can't really pinpoint why I enjoyed the day so much. Maybe because these new teachers are around my age (most of the other teachers in the school are of a different frequency). May also be because I know we won't be having such sessions any time soon, with prelims and O levels approaching... :/

gangsterism.
Friday, July 1, 2005, 01:34 p.m. #842

Many things to blog about, but I'm too busy/lazy/tired to type. Waiting to attend an MOE event at Suntec later, then a karaoke session with the new teachers - I don't think I'll enjoy myself when I know I have to set three papers within the next three days. Hmm...

Went to Tampines Mart for lunch yesterday and saw large groups of students and ex-students gathered at the area. Thought they were just hanging around so I didn't really take note, until Zhiyuan, Damien and Hsin-Chang came to chat with me when I was eating. They told me those people were gang members and they were gathered to settle some feuds between them. In fact there were three different gangs there - Phoenix, Omega and Sixteen (such lousy names...) - and they might break into a fight anytime. The three students who talked with me were actually waiting to see the "show" if there was one. Chatted with them about how stupid the gangs were (and they agreed) and the silly things that people do to gain recognition. To my surprise, Kailiang (in my form class last year) actually tried joining one of gangs but he was rejected because he "tried too hard". Good for him.

In the end the gangs dispersed after a short talk, and the spectators soon left disappointed. :)