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monoPOLY Friday, June 29, 2007, 07:33 p.m. #1354 Brought students to a certain polytechnic to attend an award ceremony for a science competition which they have taken part for the past few months. Participating teams came from secondary schools which ranged from top schools to international schools and neighbourhood schools. The guest-of-honour was the principal of that polytechnic, and he arrived together with several of his staff. After delivering his speech, the GOH disappeared discreetly. His staff stayed behind, and one of them actually took out his laptop and started emailing and doing work on the wireless network, when the award-winning students were presenting their project. He was sitting in the front row and it was a rather cosy lecture theatre with the typical slope, so all of us who were seated behind could see what he was doing very clearly. I thought that was rather rude, for someone who's in the education business (with all the kids watching behind), and especially when he was representing the hosting school. If he's not interested, he could have just gone back to his own office to do his work, and not show all of us that he was totally care-less. The kids have spent months working on their projects - even if their project titles seemed juvenile (I didn't think so), we should at least show some basic form of respect when someone is presenting. Anyway, we ignored that guy (who probably sensed our stares and stopped his work later - or maybe he had already finished his work), collected our certificates of participation, had some nice refreshments, and made our way back to school. At the school foyer, we came across a booth selling boardgames at less than ten bucks each, so I bought Scrabble (Disney edition) and Monopoly (Star Wars edition with collectible character tokens), since I've always wanted some boardgames at home but never bought them as they're too expensive. To my surprise, my students didn't know what is Scrabble, and asked me how to play it. Hmm. This was the first time that I felt the generation gap so greatly - the first games that these kids played were probably on the computer? If I'd told them I used to play with erasers and rubber bands, they'd probably stare at me like I belong to the museum. Haha. the nano-lifespan Thursday, June 28, 2007, 10:50 a.m. #1353 The lifespan of iPod nano is one year. One year ago, my nano refused to be detected by iTunes, and the computer showed error messages like no device is detected, or a certain file is corrupted - which means I couldn't recharge or transfer new songs to the nano. Brought my nano to the Apple service centre just before the one-year warranty ran out. Got a brand new nano. Now, one year later, my nano is experiencing exactly the same problem again. It seems to me that the nano has been intentionally timed to give problems after one year, when the warranty is over. This time, I searched online. Apparently this is a rather common problem experienced by many iPod users. I read through and tried out many solutions (those troubleshooting suggestions on the Apple website were useless), and eventually one simple solution from an iPod user worked. All I need to do is to unplug my computer's power and wait for half an hour. After that, reconnect the power plug and the computer will be able to detect the iPod nano again. Why hasn't Apple fixed this bug when it has been around for so long? And why don't they post this simple solution on their website? Is it because it's too humiliating to accept the fact that a layman managed to solve their colossal problem with a simple solution? This would have saved Apple thousands of replacement iPods! In any case, my iPod nano is working again, thankfully. But the problem keeps coming back periodically, so I have to perform that 'unplug and wait' procedure quite frequently. I don't regret the purchase because the cool and functional design is still unbeatable by other brands. But for those who are considering getting an iPod (or even the iPhone), do take note of this. the right way Monday, June 25, 2007, 06:48 p.m. #1352 Last Saturday night was the finale of the annual Adam Khoo Workshop for our graduating students. As usual, after going through three days of workshop, most of the students were overwhelmed with remorse of how badly they've disappointed their parents and teachers, and some of them went on stage to voice out their love, regrets and promises. I shan't elaborate on my scepticism about such emotion-evoking workshops and their shortlived effects since I must have blogged about this years ago. Instead I'll talk about an observation made by a fellow colleague, who noticed that most of the parents who turned up were Malays. Malay parents really show their love and support for their children more readily than Chinese parents. During school events like Sports Day, when parents are invited to attend especially when their children are participating, usually only Malay parents will turn up to cheer for their kids. Are Chinese parents really so occupied with work and housechores? Don't Malay parents have to work as well? My parents, for example, have never stepped into any of my schools before (except for registration on the first day). They have never attended any of the school functions except for my graduation ceremony in NUS. I guess, somehow Chinese parents feel that as long as their kids are doing fine, there is no need for any overt display of support or love. This might have worked in the past, when families and schools had a greater control over their children (read: corporal punishment was in place) and the children didn't have many sources of influence - when we were young we somehow understood that discipline was a way of love, and even if we didn't understand this at that time, we were at least patient and well-behaved enough (and probably dumb enough too) to tolerate until we became mature enough to understand it. Even when we steered off sometimes, our environment (the emphasis on discipline and morals) made us aware of what was the "right" way. But now, youngsters seem more 'lost'. They seem more fragile, and seem to need more guidance and direction. This is especially true for those children who have less achievements in school, and have a lower self esteem. They are being exposed to too many kinds of influences and temptations, and when they sometimes just want instant gratification, they are quick to grab onto anyone or anything that appeals to them, which may or may not be desirable. The family's support and love may just be the constant reliable source of recognition and instant gratification that will lead them towards the "right" way as they're growing up. Parents are usually quick to nag, scold or punish when things go wrong, but do they praise and show concern as often when things are doing fine? I guess my point is, everyone wants to be loved. Parents should show their love for their children, no matter how busy they are - not that they don't love their kids, it's just that they sometimes don't show it. Kids have so many appealing distractions around them that they don't see and feel this "love", and some of them may seek other sources of instant gratification. Kids nowadays really demand more attention. In this aspect, we Chinese should probably learn from the Malays, who tend to be more close-knit and are more comfortable in showing their love and support within the family. charcoal works! Sunday, June 24, 2007, 10:17 a.m. #1351 Those who have known me for a long time will know that I have a problem with sweating, and I sweat a lot when I'm playing instruments. Every time after I finish playing my violin, I'll give it a thorough wipedown to make sure not a bit of sweat remains. This works fine as almost all parts of the violin are very well-varnished but I simply cannot wipe off the sweat on my chinrest as the wood there is quite absorbent. As a result, my chinrest smells really 'manly' - not that kind of sour or saltish smell of sweat, but just the 'guy' smell - the girls can go smell a guy's bath towel if you don't know what I mean. It's like the essence of men. The crystallisation of androstadienone. In order to get rid of the 'essence', I have tried a strad pad - a comfortable pad placed over the chinrest, but sweat still permeated through the strad pad. I have also tried cleaning the chinrest with a bit of water, and even a bit of soap when I was desperate, but the smell still didn't go off. Then the saviour came along! One day Mum brought home a series of charcoal products - charcoal pillows, charcoal seat cushions and charcoal sachets. Those sachets contain crushed charcoal and are to be placed in the bedroom to absorb moisture and smells. I put one of these sachets in my violin box for a day, and voila! The smell is gone! Now I place a small towel over the chinrest whenever I'm playing the violin to ensure it doesn't become smelly again - the simplest solution seems to work the best... Just want to share this with anyone who has the same problem as me. Mum bought those charcoal stuff from a departmental store, but I guess we can make our own charcoal sachets? feisty dinosaur maroon panda Sunday, June 24, 2007, 09:23 a.m. #1350 Listened to a couple of new albums lately. Here's a quick review of some of them: "The Reminder" by Feist. Most of the song arrangements are acoustic to showcase her clean and lyrical vocals. A consistently absorbing album full of indie pop, jazz and Motown, among others. Perfect for a lonely, lazy evening. "Beyond" by Dinosaur Jr. Reminds me of those good old days in the 90s when the grunge scene was vibrant, when bands simply enjoyed themselves on their guitars and their music thrills and excites the listeners. And this album truly sizzles and thrills. "It Won't Be Soon Before Long" by Maroon 5. A very listenable pop album infused with likeable elements of psychedelic rock and R&B. Not a single boring moment, with all the smooth ballads and sleek readily-hummable pop melodies. "Person Pitch" by Panda Bear. The entire 7-track album feels like one very long anthem full of loops and layers. An experimental and imaginative play of sounds. anything Wednesday, June 20, 2007, 09:04 p.m. #1349 Everyone who lives in any part of Singapore, however remote, would have been seeing the ads of Anything and Whatever wherever we go - some of the catch phrases are actually quite cleverly coined. But I wonder how long this novelty of 'not knowing what you're getting' will last, when in fact, we CAN know what we are buying if we want. I realised the cans have Ingredients printed on them, so we can actually quite easily guess the contents of the cans before opening them. For example, if you find chrysanthemum under the Ingredients, you are most probably going to get chrysanthemum tea in your can of Whatever. So if you don't mind ravaging through the cans at the kiosks or coffeeshops, you can choose what you want to drink out of Anything or Whatever. Just make sure the coffeeshop uncle is the friendly kind before you do that though. =) On the other (rather unrelated) hand, Anything and Whatever reminds me of some very nice songs which I highly recommend, each of a different genre: Anything - Martina Topley-Bird Whatever - Oasis Everywhere - Pink Martini How - The Cranberries i can never reach the dark side Monday, June 18, 2007, 12:22 p.m. #1348 Been trying to get a tan all my life. I'm the type whose tan would wear off within a few days so I thought it'd be better for me to start off with some suntan a few days in a row so that the tan would be darker and more lasting, thereafter I may maintain the tan by suntanning once every weekend (don't know whether this logic applies). Last week was the only week when I'd be free in all afternoons, so I'd been looking forward to it. 
So, on Monday, I went to Changi Coastal Walk, applied a bit of sun protection and walked all around the boardwalk and beach (don't expect me to just lie down and sunbathe, I'll die of boredom). The scenery was nice and serene, and there weren't many people around - they were either fishing or strolling - perfect for those 'postcard' photo shots. It would have been a wonderfully satisfying afternoon if not for the absence of those much-wanted UV rays. There was the sun, but most of the time it was covered by stratus clouds. During those brief moments when the sun was not covered, I still felt no stinging feeling on my skin at all - it was the kind of friendly, cosy sun which I would appreciate on picnic days, but that was totally disappointing when I was wanting a tan. Hmm. Fine, I thought, so I didn't get any tan on Monday, but there's still the rest of the week! Then Tuesday. Cumulonimbus clouds all over. And Wednesday. A torrential storm. By Thursday I'd given up on my suntanning plans since two days of tanning would hardly have any effect on me. Sigh. In my whole life, I'd only been dark twice - when I was in the army, and when I was working at the construction site... Think I'm theory results Saturday, June 16, 2007, 11:25 p.m. #1347 Finally got back my ABRSM Music Theory Grade 6 results. I scored Distinction! So happy... I thought I would fail the melody composing section as my melody sounded horrible (although it's grammatically correct), and it turned out that I scored 19/20 for that section! Quite surprised actually. The teacher said I'm going to receive about 50 pounds as the reward from ABRSM. Woohoo! =) Attended the orchestral practice at night. Quite confident with the two pieces already - just hope the attendance gets better. Got a lift from F when the practice ended (so nice of him to detour to send everyone home) - it was quite awkward on the car as I was the only student there - the rest were music teachers and they were talking about the concert and I didn't know whether it was appropriate for me to comment. Hmm. four eyed monsters Friday, June 15, 2007, 09:03 p.m. #1346 "I don't know what to say. This is the problem with talking. You know? You never get to say the things that you wanna say, and then when you get the chance to say it, words are not enough. So you just lock up. You don't say anything. And that's when you hear silence. Or worse, you don't. You hear some filler, something that takes up the space, filling the gap that's there because you don't know how to say what you really wanna say, or it can't be said." Have you watched "Four Eyed Monsters"? It's a 71-minute feature film which has participated in countless film festivals and is now screened entirely free on Youtube for a week (one day left, I think). A film about communication, and the lack of. A true story about lonely people, and specifically two lonely people who decided to get into a relationship where they'd communicate through any means besides speaking (until sex and doubt turned their relationship sour)... Hilarious at times, and poignantly painful at times. Beautifully filmed, emotively edited and unpretentiously raw. An ingenious collage of modern relationships, considering it's filmed on an almost non-existent budget. If you have no time to watch the film now, download it first (it's legal) and enjoy it when you're free. Totally worth it. i need regimes Friday, June 15, 2007, 04:44 p.m. #1345 Have been going to Bedok Camp for a voluntary physical training program for the past few weeks. Signed up for it as it would satisfy my IPPT requirement for 2007, and I knew I'd need some push to make me exercise during the June holidays, or else I'd just end up slogging or surfing the net in front of the computer. That must be one of the most constructive things I've done in these few weeks, besides those other things that aren't done for myself: building up the Science resource website, setting exam papers, preparing worksheets, giving extra lessons to graduating students, negotiating for school banner designs... all these don't even benefit myself personally. At least those workouts make me fit and happy. And I even made a new friend there - a teacher-wannabe who's still in NUS. That's a real bonus, when it's so hard to make new friends who aren't just the hi-bye type as we get older. Don't know whether I'll still continue exercising when this 4-week program ends. By then the new school term would have started and I'll probably make excuses like I'm too busy. Ha. heroes Tuesday, June 12, 2007, 01:48 p.m. #1344 Finished watching the first season of "Heroes". Although the concept feels like a direct rip-off from the epical "X-Men" series, and there are several loopholes in the plot, and the finale really isn't satisfying enough for me, I thought it's already a massive feat to put together a fantastical world like "Heroes", with so many superpowers, so many major and recurring characters, and to develop the characters and link all of them together convincingly towards a common story arc within 23 episodes. Watching the series feels like reading comic issues - in some issues the story rushes breathlessly forward, while in some, nothing much happens at all, but there are just enough family drama and pyrotechnical climaxes sprinkled throughout the series to keep you wanting to know more, and you don't even want to miss a second of it. ("Heroes" carries a free-online graphic novel as well, which fills in the gaps of the drama series - I'll probably be catching up on the comics tomorrow.) A great, great series that should be watched by everyone. Go watch it! Will be looking forward to the second season... Save the Cheerleader! Save the World! dismissals Sunday, June 10, 2007, 07:56 p.m. #1343 This happened a year ago but I only got to know the truths to some of the stories recently. I used to have a colleague S who taught humanities. I have never worked with him before as we belonged to different departments and committees. The only time when we talked was when I was playing the guitar after work one day and he happened to pass by. He asked whether I had a table of chords, so I went online to print out one for him. Since then, we never had much interactions. But there were several stories about him, which were shared in the office at that time. N once saw S walk out of his car at the school carpark, leaving the car in the middle of the road, with the engine still running and the car-keys at the ignition. N called out at S but S just walked on. In the end N parked the cars for S and returned the car-keys to S in school. S seemed shocked when he saw N dangling his car-keys in front of him. We concluded that S was probably very absent-minded. There was once when I relieved a class, and I saw fragments of a pair of spectacles on the OHP. I asked the class whose specs were those. They said they were S's. Apparently he was so angry with the class that he took his specs off, crushed them into pieces and stormed out of the class. That happened a day before. I thought S might have needed some consolation, but he disappeared for a few days after that. There was a period when S had a cast on his neck. Two days later the cast was removed. We remarked at the fast recovery. When we were having the Sec Two camp, S was supposed to be present but he wasn't there. Then the teacher-in-charge received a phonecall from S saying that he was lying on the ground in the middle of a shopping mall then, as he had just been robbed and nobody around would help him. Another teacher went to his rescue, and true enough, S was lying on the ground of the shopping mall, crying. I can't remember whether a police report was made. There was once when S was coaching a new teacher, the teacher asked S a question which he couldn't answer. He said he would go back to his seat briefly to find the answer. After quite some time, S still didn't return, so the teacher went to S's seat, only to see papers and books all over the floor, and S was throwing stuff around, mumbling to himself, "I know the answer is here somewhere..." The teacher was scared stiff. S often told his closer colleagues in school that he lived in a cardboard hut and he had cancer. No one knew whether the story about his "cardboard hut" was true, but when his colleagues got suspicious of his illness because of some inconsistencies, he confessed, "I lied. Sorry, I have this condition actually - I cannot control my lying." Those friends were very disappointed with him. Before S went home, S would ask whether anyone needed a lift. Several teachers took a ride on his car before, and these people never dared to go on a second time. According to them, S drove very recklessly, sometimes turning back his head to chat with the people at the backseat, without watching the road and having both hands off the steering wheel. S was dismissed suddenly one day. Apparently he NEVER HAD A LICENSE. That was a criminal offence, so MOE had no choice but to sack him. And we surmised that S probably had some mental problems as well. What puzzled us was, how did he get into the teaching profession in the first place? Did he pass the interviews and check-ups? Wouldn't he pose a threat to the students with his unstable emotions? Why was he allowed to stay even when the school was fully aware of his condition? (There was a major panic when he disappeared during exam period and the management had to distribute his marking load to other teachers at the last minute - so the school knew.) Nobody knows where S is now. Working elsewhere? In jail for driving on the road without a license (for years)? Nevertheless, regardless of whether he became like this before or after teaching, he's a reminder for all of us teachers to be mindful of our sanity. And all of us hope he's doing well now. P.S. The poet-playwright Alfian bin Sa'at has recently been dismissed from his relief teaching job despite receiving good feedback from the management and students, and MOE refused to explain the reason behind the dismissal. If S could remain in the teaching profession for a few years despite his mental instability (until his criminal offence was discovered), what could Alfian have done to deserve the sudden dismissal? I suspect this has to do with the controversial works that Alfian has produced, but does that make Alfian a greater menace than people like S? swissflex Thursday, June 7, 2007, 03:35 p.m. #1342 Got my new pairs of specs! It's a pair of Swissflex. Semi-formal and chic. Because it doesn't have rims to block off light to the lenses, now I see things as bright as when I'm wearing my contacts. The specs are also so lightweight now that I don't even feel their presence - shall need some time to get used to that, I guess. Was so happy with the new specs that I splurged more on a pair of sneakers which I chanced upon. Only 22 bucks! Irresistible, right? Started watching "Heroes". Have been waiting for the season to end so that I could watch the whole series at one go. The first episode wasn't very impressive. Guess it'll get better later on since it's so critically acclaimed. butchering and rebirth of old songs Wednesday, June 6, 2007, 06:00 p.m. #1341 I nearly fell off my chair when I heard the Chinese version of Aphrodite's Child's "Rain and Tears" on TV just now. It's the opening song for a Taiwanese series on Channel U at 6 pm on weekdays, and it's probably sung by some talentless boyband. Their rendition was unmusically mechanical and absolutely awful. In order to understand my horror, you will have to tune in to experience it yourself. That's a classic example of how substandard singers may "butcher" good songs. Another complaint is about the China production 神雕侠侣, which is being played recently on Channel U on weekends. The big-budget series blatantly re-used several songs (including the theme song) of the movie 天浴. It is needless for me to say anything more about how brilliant that soundtrack was (the theme song was sung by the godly 齐豫), the point here is, since they had such a big budget for the series, why did they have to recycle an entire soundtrack of a well-known movie? (The movie may not be familiar to many Singaporeans because it was R-rated, but it's actually a Golden Horse winner and watched by many in China, HK and Taiwan.) Somehow I felt the series deserved more original, good music (the opening song is not too bad but it's a little too piercing for me), and not share a soundtrack with another totally unrelated movie (天浴 was about the desires and misfortunes of a country girl). The same can be said for an earlier China production of another 金庸 story - 天龙八部, where they also re-used the entire soundtrack of a classic RPG game 金庸群侠传. That was still justifiable as not many people have played the game, and the game was 金庸-related anyway. But this time, re-using the soundtrack of 天浴 was just so wrong - it didn't "butcher" the songs, but it somehow tainted my original feelings and memories for the songs. On the other hand, I observed that the people in charge of Mediacorp trailers nowadays have quite a good taste for music. For example, the recent trailer for one episode of "Prison Break" used Portishead's "Seven Months" to portray Michael's internal struggle between his conscience and actions, and I thought those few seconds of the song truly fitted the mood and dilemma at the moment. Other recent great choices of songs in trailers include the aforementioned "Rain and Tears" for a Mediacorp Chinese production, Bjork's "It's In Our Hands" and "Venus As A Boy", Mika's "Love Today" and "Lollipop", Linkin Park, Beck, Radiohead, Lamb... For someone like me who is easily "turned on" by music, such details are greatly appreciated. Good job, Mediacorp! Seven Months Portishead How can I forget you Disregard how I feel Silently listen To the words I can't see As long as I have tried As low as I can be I will never resign myself From the trial I seek Why should I forgive you After all that I've seen Quietly whisper When my heart wants to scream There's no time to rest Or to reconsider For this cruel unsaid Won't concede wedding sirens Monday, June 4, 2007, 09:31 p.m. #1340 Divorce seems to run in the veins of our family. I have written in earlier entries about how all my cousins are divorced (yes, all, except for one who just got married - to an American in fact, and is living in America now), and then today I heard my aunt is getting divorced too. It's sad to see this happening repeatedly in the family. This may be an ongoing 'general trend' and it does not mean my marriage is going to be wretched as well, but this 'trend' is really despairing to me, and it does make me lose faith in the concept of marriage, bit by bit... Well, I probably won't need to worry that much when I'm not even getting married in the near future. missing talents and monies Monday, June 4, 2007, 09:07 p.m. #1339 Didn't follow the first season of Campus Superstar so I decided to watch the first preliminary round of the new season today. Got to see half of the 20 finalists, and I must say I was quite surprised by the low standard. Most of their singing was all-over-the-place and seriously cannot-make-it. Was even more surprised when one of the obviously lousiest singer received the highest score from one of the judges. Did he hear some special qualities that escaped my untrained ears? Out of today's ten, I only saw one girl and one boy (that very popular youngest contestant) who had real potential. Hope next week's ten are going to be better. Have you heard about the recent AGO's audit of ministries and statutory boards? Those missing millions may be 'peanuts' in terms of public monies, but they are nevertheless losses that require careful attention and review. I'm not sure whether we're going to hear about this in the national news anytime soon (this was only briefly mentioned in the Straits Times in a tiny article)... indices down Monday, June 4, 2007, 03:11 p.m. #1338 Gave a two-hour lecture-cum-tutorial session for my Sec 4 students just now. It feels great to teach for just two hours - especially in the hot, humid weather of Singapore, teaching in non-airconditioned classrooms for several hours can be physically and mentally draining (and yes, I don't quite blame students for feeling uncomfortable and distracted sometimes). Teaching for two hours straight also allowed me to finish teaching one concept at one go (it was half-lives and radioisotopes for today) and have some practice at the end - the lesson feels more complete in this way, instead of having it in parts of short 30-minute periods. I think the students understood better too. Wanted to stay back in the afternoon to do some admin work but the school cockpit is down again, and it is going to be down for a week. How timely. We are supposed to complete some student profiling by the June holidays. Hmm. Went for an eye-check just now for my new pair of glasses (the lenses of my old pair are turning yellow). The optometrist said that both my myopic and astigmatic indices have gone down. And that's after one year of wearing contact lens regularly (in the past I often switched between glasses and contacts)... This either means that regular wearing of contacts improves eyesight, or that those indices drop with age. I'm more comfortable with the former reason. :) gently down the stream Sunday, June 3, 2007, 03:19 p.m. #1337 Alexi Murdoch's debut album "Time Without Consequence" was released exactly a year ago, but I only discovered him recently when his song "Home" was played in one of the episodes of "Prison Break"... row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream, gently down the stream... and I fell into a hypnotic trance together with the character who jumped to his death in the show. His other song "Orange Sky" has also been used in popular series like "Prison Break", "The O.C.", "Ugly Betty", "House" and the movie "Garden State". Not an album which will be instantly appreciated, as all the songs sound very similar - dusky and tender - but you'll soon realise that each song tells a different story that is both turbulent and intimate, and these songs will stay around in your head for a long time with their haunting charm. joost Friday, June 1, 2007, 06:14 p.m. #1336 Just started Joosting. For the uninitiated, Joost is basically a program which allows you to tune in to a wide range of TV channels online. Unlike Youtube, all video shows on Joost are legal, and you can watch full videos at a high resolution. There's a bit of everything for everyone on Joost: movies (the indie ones), magic (I learnt a few card tricks!), hobbies (learn how to play the guitar in one of the programs), computer games (learn about the good, the bad and the boring), cartoons (there's Aardman Animations!), MTVs (Asian MTVs included), 'live' concert recordings (even classical ones), sports (soccer, wrestling, car racing, etc), comedies (there's Just For Laughs!), TV series (not those big-name ones though), documentaries (learn about a cat's world in one of the programs)... You may not be glued to Joost now as the programs are afterall not those well-known ones that you'd be dying to watch, but it nevertheless offers an additional option whenever you are feeling bored blog-hopping online or waiting for a download to complete. The Joost team is currently in negotiations with bigger networks like FOX - so stay tuned! |
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