The Diving Bell
Sunday, March 30, 2008, 08:44 p.m. #1482
Mas Selamat looking for a room? Or is that a reminder for us to call the police if Mas Selamat comes to rent a room? (Found this near my block and thought it's an ambiguously funny notice.)
Found time to watch The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Le Scaphandre et le Papillon) - the true story of an ex-Elle editor who was totally paralysed (except for his left eyelids) due to locked-in syndrome after a stroke, and wrote an entire book by blinking. He died ten days after the book was published. Very nifty camera work - shot from the perspective of the man trapped in the "diving bell". And surprisingly positive and humorous despite the gloomy theme.
Finally finished setting all the test and exam papers. Quite a relief after the past few rather gruelling weeks of paper-setting and project-juggling. The projects aren't over yet though.
And on Thursday I received a big surprise. I'm promoted - to the highest rank that a teacher can possibly achieve. Of course I can still go further if I move on to the management level (e.g. HOD, senior teacher, etc) but I totally have no intention to do that - I just want to teach. It's a surprise because I thought one of the requirements for that rank is that we need to teach for decades, and actually I didn't think I did all that much to deserve that rank. In fact there are only a few teachers in the staff room who hold this rank, and I'm the youngest among them - this is not a good thing - I know there are already some small talk and speculations going on in the office, but I suppose all that will pass after a while.
I only wish there is peace at home for just one day. Just. One. Day.
Scarcely Good Friday
Friday, March 21, 2008, 04:54 p.m. #1481
To paint an accurate picture of how busy I am right now, let me list the events that I'm in charge of (includes all stages of planning, logistics and execution) within this short span of four weeks:
(1) Earth Week - a week of exhibitions, games and contests to be conducted for the whole school.
(2) Collaboration with National Library Board and Drama Club to conduct a workshop for Tampines residents at the national library.
(3) Happy Toilet Programme - three weeks of leading a class of Normal Technical students to come up with a theme to decorate two toilets and paint them.
(4) A 2-day Science workshop for 12 classes of lower secondary students.
(5) A school-wide training for teachers on Problem-Based Learning, conducted by external trainers.
(6) An outreach programme (includes display booth and presentation) to promote my school in one primary school.
(7) A workshop for cluster primary school teachers to clarify their misconceptions in certain Physics concepts.
Most office workers probably only need to work on one or two major projects in a year. In four weeks, I already have to undertake seven. That's on top of my daily teaching and marking load, CCA, other unnecessary meetings that I have to attend, other projects (with later deadlines), and the fact that I still have to finish setting test and exam papers (eight papers in total) within two weeks.
How can the Good Friday be good for me?
P.S. One of my ex-students recently sms-ed me to tell me that she intends to sign the bond for teaching. Without discouraging her, I told her to reconsider her options. Asked her to try out relief or contract teaching and talk to a few full-time school teachers first before actually signing. In my reply, I included this line, "It takes more than passion to teach."
Beneficent Mr Robinson
Thursday, March 20, 2008, 07:58 p.m. #1480
Finally received the award for my last year's music theory results! According to the accompanying letter, it's the Hedy King Robinson Prize for Theory of Music:
The prize has been generously endowed by the late Mr James T. Robinson Jr. of Phoenix City, Alabama. It is named in memory of his wife Hedy. Mr Robinson felt that although excellence in performance was often rewarded, high standards in the study of music theory were neglected. He therefore decided to offer this prize to help redress the balance.
The letter made me very curious about this Mr Robinson. His life must have been a very fulfilling one - together with his wife.
No More Stressed
Thursday, March 20, 2008, 06:56 p.m. #1479
Okay. Stressed Teacher has finally closed down his blog. Have enjoyed his posts all along - always brutally frank, humorous, poignant, insightful and satirically positive (he should write a book) - I've always felt comforted to know that there's another fellow teacher out there who's experiencing the same things as me. But I've also expected such a closure to come one day. After all once his identity is revealed, there's no way he can continue blogging so truthfully.
You see. Teachers are saints who aren't supposed to see the negative side of things or be perceptive - we should just accept all the sh*t and turn them into beds of roses with our whiteboard-marker-wands.
Once
Sunday, March 16, 2008, 09:35 p.m. #1478
Watched a few more movies, but didn't manage to finish all as intended. I'm glad I watched Once.
Once is a warm, simple movie about a guy (Glen Hansard) and a girl (Marketa Irglova) - they don't have names in the movie - the guy is a guitarist, a busker, and he fixes vacuum-cleaners; the girl is a florist, plays the piano, and has a broken vacuum-cleaner. They met on the streets, fell in love with each other's music, and in turn fell in love with each other. The whole movie is full of very beautiful, heartfelt songs sung by the couple (both Glen and Marketa are professional singers actually), who're very much like Damien Rice and Lisa Hannagan, both in style and vocals - only that their music is more "earthly", more "commoner". "Falling Slowly", the song which won the Best Song in the Oscars, is just one of the many gems found in the soundtrack, which (together with Juno's) is on perpetual Repeat mode in my i-Pod. The open ending is bittersweet, realistic, and un-Hollywood - which makes the movie even more humbly moving.
I'm Not There is a biography of Bob Dylan, with his whole life broken down into seven stages, each separately portrayed by a stellar cast of Marcus Carl Franklin, Ben Whishaw, Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, Richard Gere and Cate Blanchett. The movie was a little too artistic for me, but I thought the actors were uncanny (especially Cate Blanchett and Ben Whishaw).
Michael Clayton is a legal thriller about an attorney's (George Clooney) battle with the murderer (Tilda Swinton) of his colleague. The movie didn't work for me although Tilda bagged the Best Supporting Actress in the Oscars. Actually thought the movie's too bland and event-less for a thriller.
Kung Fu Dunk (功夫灌篮) is a commercial pleaser that didn't please me. Thought there're too many irrelevant subplots and characters (to make up a 'stellar cast' for box office, I guess), and everything's too plastic. Felt like the movie was made to satisfy Jay Chou's boyhood fantasies.
The sudden influx of music-related movies (Once, La Vie En Rose, I'm Not There, August Rush, Juno) is pampering me too much.
Theoretically Over
Saturday, March 15, 2008, 10:43 p.m. #1477
Took my ABRSM Grade 8 Music Theory Exam today at SMU. Went together with GY after we revised together at Kovan, and we were nearly late because of a woman who snatched our cab, and the untimely traffic jams which slowed us down (we should have taken the MRT). No thanks to the cabdriver too, who couldn't drive us to the right building even when I'd showed him the map. By then we only had three minutes left before the exam would start, so we gave up on the driver and got off the cab and ran around to find the correct place (yes, we literally ran - the SMU students must have thought we're mad). Luckily our sense of direction was good, and we managed to find the exam room. The moment we ran in and sat down, the exam started.
There are 5 questions in all - Q1 to complete a trio sonata passage, Q2 to complete a keyboard passage, Q3 to compose a 16-bar well-modulated melody with given opening, Q4 and Q5 to answer questions based on two given orchestral scores. The total duration was three hours, so I planned to spend half an hour on each question, leaving half an hour for checking. I did the questions in the order Q4-5-1-2-3. Everything went fine as planned, except for the final Q3, where I spent nearly an hour without realising it - only knew I had five minutes left when the invigilator announced it. By then I was only at my tenth bar, so I rushed through to compose the final six bars, having not much time to check the accidentals. The given opening was a cello passage in 2/4 with demisemiquaver patterns (which meant that there're many notes to write). My key changed from G minor to D minor to C minor to G minor - sharp, flat and natural signs were flying all over the page. Extremely error-prone.
Got out of the exam hall feeling quite gloomy as I didn't check the rest of the paper, and my Q3 must have been full of careless mistakes (I can't sing the notes accurately in my head whenever there are modulations), but I felt better when I met up with GY. Apparently she had a lot of difficulty with the paper as well. And the more we talked about our answers, the more we felt unsure of how we'd performed. That reminded me of those old days when I was a student - I'd leave the school immediately after exams so that I wouldn't need to compare answers with anyone.
In any case, I'm just glad that the exam was over. After waking up early on Saturday mornings to attend theory lessons for the past two and half years, I'm finally free! Woohoo!
P.S. SMU students dress quite shabbily eh? Always had a very good impression of SMU students - they always look so 'hip' and clever in the advertisements - but from what I saw today, even the more "geeky" NTU or NUS students dress better? And when I came across a bunch of students and asked for a general direction, they didn't even know where the faculties are! Boo.
Atonement
Wednesday, March 12, 2008, 12:09 a.m. #1476
Intended to write the reviews only when I've finished watching all the movies, but I simply couldn't contain my thoughts after watching Atonement.
Atonement is the story of how the accusations of a jealous, brooding little girl (Saoirse Ronan - her eyes are chillingly haunting) radically ruined the lives of her elder sister (Keira Knightly) and a promising, young man (James McAvoy). An extremely powerful movie, with one of the most enthralling editing and musical score I've ever experienced in recent movies. And the depressing darkness still lingers for a very long time even when the painfully heartwrenching end-theme has finished playing. The movie scored the Best Picture in Golden Globe and BAFTA, but the Oscars only awarded it with the Best Original Score. It's my favorite movie so far in my week-long marathon, and I really think Atonement should have won the Best Film, instead of that Old Men show.
No Country For Old Men tells the cat-and-mouse story between a cold-blooded professional killer (Javier Bardem) and a man who found a satchel full of money by chance (Josh Brolin). Not for the faint-hearted, as the insane eyes of that bloodthirsty Javier Bardem (together with his unique weapon and fate-deciding coin tosses) are enough to give people endless nights of nightmares. Yep, he truly deserved the Best Actor win in the Oscars. But I thought the movie was overly-long and indulgent, despite the critical acclaim.
La Vie En Rose is the story of that famous French singer Edith Piaf. Marion Cotillard was perfect as the title role, and that is clear from the numerous Best Actress awards that she's garnered (including the Oscars). Piaf's true life was probably too dramatic for drama - even the congested film, which highlighted only some of the key events and had to breeze through some others (in order for the movie to be of a reasonable length and pace), couldn't contain all the tragedies that the actual Piaf has undergone. A beautifully nostalgic movie, nevertheless.
Juno turned out to be a pleasant surprise. It's the story about how a sharp-tongued teenager (Ellen Page) came to terms with her unplanned pregnancy. Relevant, sincere, light-hearted, memorable, hip, clever, funny and bittersweet. Plus (a BIG plus actually), the soundtrack was simply B-R-I-L-L-I-A-N-T: teenage pop with a tinge of country influence. No wonder it won the Best Original Screenplay in the Oscars. My favorite, next to Atonement.
August Rush is a story about a musical prodigy (Freddie Highmore), who was separated from his musician parents (Keri Russell and Jonathan Rhys Meyers) since birth. Can be quite corny and overly Hollywood at times, and Freddie's character felt like a copy of Bjork's in Dancer In The Dark, where she hears music everywhere, even in noises. The difference is, the music in Dancer was great, but here in August, the music can be quite jarring at times. Freddie's character likes to play the guitar by hitting the strings on the fingerboard - which is fine if it's just for a few virtuoso sections - but he does that all the time. And Keri Russell looked stunningly beautiful with her cello - but I couldn't help wondering how the strings could vibrate properly with her hair all over the fingerboard. A feel-good movie with too many rough edges.
Rewatched Lust|Caution (色|戒) for the second time. This time, the unedited version. Actually I didn't think the censored scenes were very essential to the original - in fact I felt they slowed down the flow of the movie. Well, maybe it's because I'd watched the edited version first, and those emotions couldn't possibly be more intense when I was watching the same film for the second time... I just didn't feel that painful emptiness this time.
Warriors (投名状) was another pleasant surprise for me. Initially thought such "blood brothers" storylines have been so over-played and cliched in Mandarin movies and I couldn't possibly like it (only watched it because of the big cast), but I actually felt really involved with the movie and was deeply moved by the way the movie ended.
CJ7 (长江七号) was quite disappointing. The child actress's portrayal of a boy was flawless - but still a little too plastic even for a comedy. Except for this girl and that very likeable alien creature, the rest of the movie was quite pointless. It's no excuse that it's supposed to be a family-oriented movie made for the Lunar New Year: after such a long introduction about how the alien dog CJ7 came along and how the family came to accept it, I think there should have been some development after that, but the story ended quite abruptly with little or no substantial development at all. Leaving some space for a sequel, maybe?
Glad to be able to catch up with all these movies - didn't have the time and energy to do that during the school term. All right. Eight movies down. Seven more to go!
Friday
Monday, March 10, 2008, 07:28 a.m. #1475
Friday had been a long day. Had my annual lesson observation by my superior - luckily the lesson went very smoothly. It was also my full day, which means that I had to teach non-stop from the start of the day up to past noon, with only a half-an-hour break, which I'd used up listening to my trainee teacher who broke down due to a few disrespectful, academically weak yet ungrateful students. One student actually shouted loudly during her class that she's incapable and the previous teacher was much better. She was utterly hurt by the comment but she managed to suppress her tears until she left the classroom.
The trainee teacher was from HCJC, and I guess the experience of teaching in a neighbourhood school must have been a great culture shock for her. I shared my own experience with her, and told her that coping with difficult students is really part of the learning process, and what she's experiencing is the reality in heartland schools - we simply cannot expect things to be as rosy as what's happening in the better schools: if she's able to accept the fact and do the best that she can, she'll be able to find much satisfaction in the job. After all those destructive kids are a minority (I can't say that this is true for all classes, but it's true for her Express classes) - we have to concentrate on the majority, who are interested to learn.
Actually I was quite glad that she cried. It showed that she cares. And that she wants the kids to learn. I used to have a trainee teacher under me who was from VJC. She was so proud of it that she looked down on our school and insulted the "cannot-make-it" students behind their backs. I nearly wanted to tell her that I was from HCJC and I wasn't even boasting, but I decided I shall not stoop as low as her - hanging on to a piece of past "glory" that doesn't even mean anything.
Oh yes, back to Friday. So I had my first meal at 5 am, and my second only 10 hours later, at about 3 pm. We had a "staff bonding lunch" at Seoul Gardens.
For once, Seoul Gardens food actually turned out to be quite palatable (the coffee-marinated chicken was good!) and I enjoyed the lunch with my colleagues. Guess I was too hungry. Only remembered why I hated Seoul Gardens so much when I got out of the place, smelling quite badly and feeling very sticky. Think they should really invest in a good smoke removal system to get rid of all that greasy steam.
And so my one-week holiday has finally begun! Will be spending the week setting exam papers, studying for my Grade 8 music theory exam on Saturday, and going through a week-long movie marathon, with about 15 movies in my to-watch list. Started watching a few of them yesterday - shall write all the reviews at one go at the end of the week. Hope time moves slower. =)
Hello, Paradise
Thursday, March 6, 2008, 07:02 p.m. #1474
In this week's American Idol, Jason Castro sang one of my all-time favorite songs, "Halleluja". He did a wonderful job with his very vulnerable-sounding voice but I feel he sounded too much like the legendary Jeff Buckley, so the surprise factor wasn't that high for me.
On the other hand, David Archuleta has done it again with "Another Day in Paradise"! There's a bit of pitch problems here and there, but it's really amazing how he's able to reinvent those old classics and make them sound new and even more affecting. And he's only 17!
I also really enjoy all the guy and girl rock contestants for this season. Each of them has a very different "rocking voice", but regrettably many of them seem to have faltered over the weeks... Hope at least one of them gets into the finals. Here's David Cook with his brilliant rendition of "Hello":
The Weird Cabbie
Wednesday, March 5, 2008, 08:15 p.m. #1474
Am I just paranoid? Or are the people around me plain unlikeable? First, the umbrella ladies. Now, a weird cabbie.
Today I took the cab after a long day of work. Thought I could take a short nap, but the driver started burping loudly, non-stop. Fine, I thought, maybe he drank something gassy and he needed to get the air out. So I just left him alone.
Then he stopped burping. And he started whistling, out of tune, and out of wind (more aptly described as 'lau hong' in Hokkien), along with the songs playing on a Chinese radio station. The non-music was really unbearable. He must have been really tone-deaf - probably even deaf - to be able to tolerate such piercing out-of-tune sounds in such a small, enclosed space. Fine, I thought, maybe the whistling helped him to stop the burping.
Then he started talking about Mas Selamat and the impossibility of his prison-break. At some points I thought he was trying to strike a conversation and I should probably be friendly and show some response, but whenever I tried to say something, he didn't seem to hear me and just went on rattling about his theories. So I concluded that he probably just wanted to hear his own voice.
Just when I was thinking things couldn't get any worse, we came to a halt at a traffic junction, and he started punch-massaging his laps with his fists. Oh well, I can understand that cab-drivers need to massage themselves once in a while as they sit in their cab the whole day. But this man was punching himself so hard and violently that the whole cab shook along with his blows.
Glad that I reached my destination two minutes later. I couldn't imagine what he was going to do next.
The Umbrella Ladies
Monday, March 3, 2008, 09:36 p.m. #1473
I was waiting at the bus-stop when these two umbrella ladies came along. I was going to be late for my violin lesson then because of a bus which only arrived twenty minutes later. Isn't it frustrating when your destination is just five busstops away? It doesn't make sense to walk the distance and get yourself all sweaty and tired, yet if you want to take a bus you may have to waste a ridiculous amount of time waiting for it. It's even more vexing when after the long wait, two or more of the same bus arrive at the same time.
Anyway this entry is not about the consistently inconsistent bus schedule. It's about the umbrella ladies.
It'd rained earlier but the rain had stopped. However these two ladies in their late thirties still kept their umbrellas open even when they were standing under the shelter of the bus-stop, as if the bus-stop was not already crowded with people because of the late bus. That was not all. They were apparently so engaged in their conversation that they felt the need to keep swaying, with their umbrellas, like they're filming some MTVs or something. And they stood right in front, where their unflattering figures and giant umbrellas had obscured everyone's view of any incoming bus.
I was already very irritated by the late bus by then and I really felt the urge to say, "Hello, the two umbrella ladies in front, it's not raining at the bus-stop: no sun, no rain, no need umbrella, you know?" But immediately a possible caption in the Forum page appeared in my head, "Rude teacher bullies elderly at bus-stop". So I kept my cool. Thought of telling them off politely but I figured my tone couldn't possibly be good when I was already jumping mad with the late bus.
So the umbrella ladies kept on dancing under their umbrellas, until their bus came. Before mine did.
The world is so unfair, huh? :/
Beadboy
Sunday, March 2, 2008, 10:17 p.m. #1472
My sister has been crazy over beads lately. These are two of her first works - nice eh? And the boy is a gift for me. Stick skinny, just like me! =)
Imagine
Sunday, March 2, 2008, 02:49 p.m. #1471
Nowadays I'm so busy that I only have time to catch up on the newspapers, practise violin, and watch the recorded American Idol during the weekends. I do take a few short breaks in between work to do a bit of Facebooking, but that's about it - when I reach home I'm usually too exhausted to do anything else.
And so I watched last week's American Idol. Had goosebumps when I first watched David Archuleta's rendition of John Lennon's "Imagine". Paula described my sentiments most aptly, "That was one of the most beautiful songs ever written, and one of the most moving performances I've ever heard." Didn't think this classic could be sung convincingly in any other way until I heard David's rendition. Think the ending phrase was a little too overly decorated, but the performance was nonetheless very touching indeed.
So what does it take for music to connect with people so intimately? Coincidentally my guitar teacher said something that struck a chord in my heart yesterday, "Sometimes when we play a piece, we may feel something about it and at the end of it we may feel a sense of achievement, but to another person who's listening, the piece may not be so extraordinary after all." It's true really. Sometimes I may feel emotions flowing through my fingers when I play but my sister who's listening beside may not be all that impressed. Maybe music is just a self-indulgent thing for me. But what is this missing key that would translate our feelings to reach out to the audience? I wish I'll know the answer someday.
