rain and snow at chalet
Tuesday, November 28, 2006, 09:06 p.m. #1229
Been raining for the past two days of my form class's chalet at Downtown East. Luckily the rain cleared for us to start BBQ-ing in the evening. Then the kids started playing water bombs and throwing flour at each other. I thought I'd be safe since I was BBQ-ing. Apparently I was wrong. Was drenched and covered with flour from head to toe. Had to put an end to their "bombing" when they got too excited and their bombing range began to intrude other people's pits. Clearing-up of the aftermath was more tiring, as dried flour wasn't so easy to wash away. But it was fun. And very memorable. All of us were shivering while waiting to bathe - some went to the public toilet as they couldn't wait (and one of them saw some "things" that she shouldn't have seen but I shall not elaborate here).
Played cards with the kids for most of the rest of the time. The response of the chalet was good - nearly three quarters of the class turned up, and about half stayed overnight. Played Xbox, watched DVDs, played cards, told ghost stories, had Mac delivery for supper after midnight. 2N1 was also having their chalet, and coincidentally, they were just beside us. In the early morning, Sam, Yanw and Wanw dragged me out to play cards with them until the guys got tired of playing.
That's probably the last time our class had fun together. Will surely treasure the memories. :)
violintalk
Monday, November 27, 2006, 09:18 a.m. #1228
EL's housewarming party yesterday. Nice place, and she's really lucky to have a father-in-law who's a furniture maker. The couple didn't have to spend a single cent on the furniture for the whole house.
Chatted with my violin teacher on MSN for four hours last night till early morning. Never imagined that we'd have so much to talk about - her violin teacher, students, family, violins - also found out that she's two years younger than me (when she is already the mother of three)! She also wanted to recommend me to a symphony orchestra so that I can gain more exposure and learn from the experience, but I told her my skills are too disgraceful and I don't want to spoil her reputation... Here are two Youtube videos of four cool dudes playing strings in unconventional ways - quite exciting, must watch: Bolero; History of Music.
my desk partner
Saturday, November 25, 2006, 10:53 p.m. #1227
Performed for my music school at VCH just now. The string orchestral pieces were horrible. Everyone entered at different times, no thanks to the conductor, whose conducting was vague and erratic - even the teachers agreed with me. I screwed up my parts too, no thanks to my desk partner, who suddenly decided and insisted to use his scores, and to my horror, when I started playing I realised the scores didn't have bowing or fingering marks! Nearly fainted on stage. Of course I maintained my composure, but I played terribly.
Anyway, my desk partner is quite weird - my other friend who was in the string orchestra also noticed. Not only does he talks to himself, he stares at people from the side of his eyes when he walks past. During rehearsals, he is the only one who practises when the conductor is talking, and he plays the loudest and the most out-of-tune, but he seems very pleased with his music. He also presses his bow on the strings so hard that his notes are all screechy. He taps his shoes on the stage and waves his bow to and fro at the empty bars to count the beats, but he still enters at the wrong places and is always out of tempo. While the guys were told to wear black pants for the concert, he wore a pair of light gray pants today. In an attempt to be friendly, I tried to start a conversation with him in one of the rehearsals and found that he's taking his final year in NUS Life Science. When I told him I'm presently teaching, he contorted his face and made a sound which I interpreted as a snort of contempt. I don't know whether he's aware that he's a little too eccentric for comfort. If he does, it's okay - I have nothing against him as long as he doesn't turn murderous. If not, I wonder how he is going to face the world when he starts working and continues to live in his own strange world.
blogtrails
Saturday, November 25, 2006, 05:17 p.m. #1226
Some things that happened in the past few weeks made me wonder whether blogging is advisable at all. Someone read an entry which I wrote several years ago and requested for me to remove it - the entry wasn't offensive or anything, but I might have been too blunt and wrote some insensitive things. I was very willing to remove the entry, but somehow Pitas didn't allow me to edit anything that has already been placed in the archives. Wrote to the Pitas admin but they didn't reply. I felt really bad and told that person about the situation. He replied that it's all right and we shall all move on. But I knew this wasn't all right.
And then there's another totally unrelated incident, where my friend stumbled upon my other friend's very old, abandoned blog. There were some very angry words directed at many named individuals, and they weren't very polite.
Maybe in the past when blogging wasn't such a big thing, all of us thought that only our selected close friends (and probably a few strangers) would read our entries. Obviously this is not the case anymore. Now everyone is reading blogs like nobody's business, and bloggers can easily be tracked down using search engines like Technorati. Even if we have learnt to be anonymous and to keep our entries mild, our old entries may come back to haunt us one day if we used to be "irresponsible" in our writing. Even if we switch to a password protected blog, the old blog will still stay on the Net (pioneer hosts like Pitas do not have the "Delete Blog" option) and someday someone may still read it. I don't regret for what I've written in the past, but I don't wish to hurt people unnecessarily - that's never my intention when I blog. Hmm.
torrential rain
Friday, November 24, 2006, 10:49 p.m. #1225
The torrential rain this morning was scary. It's the first time I saw the drain along Old Tampines Road so full of water (it's usually dry) - in fact there was so much rainwater that it overflowed - it takes more than a regular storm to fill a drain that is so long, wide and deep (about two to three men's height). Water was gushing ferociously and it almost engulfed the little bridge across the drain. Took the following pictures at the busstop beside the drain when the rain cleared, and everyone at the busstop was talking about the unusual storm... So what was I thinking then? I wished I was sleeping at home. :/
carevolution
Thursday, November 23, 2006, 08:29 p.m. #1224
I got the Individual Outstanding Contribution Award! And I'm the ONLY person in the school to get it! And the award includes a sizeable sum of money! Was so shocked when I knew about it, especially when I feel there are more deserving candidates around... Am still in a state of disbelief right now, but I guess I really have to thank S - my direct superior who nominated me (and probably supported me during the OCA meeting).
Attended the Carevolution workshop on lesson planning for pastoral care. The trainers were very passionate and full of ideas. All along, I have been rather skeptical about PC lessons and their effect on students. But after the course, I feel really important, and I want to make PC lessons meaningful and fulfilling for my students. The trainers understand the present youths very well and they have been working with difficult children, so their knowledge and experience really inspired me to be as inspiring as them, to instill the proper values in our children - and this task is especially important now that the kids are so - pardon me for not thinking of better words - self-centred and insensible (sometimes).
Apparently it is not entirely the kids' fault that they try their hands on stealing, tattoos, smoking and drugs - the pre-frontal cortices of their brain, which is in charge of rational thinking, will only be fully developed by the age of 25. So, during their teenage years, kids act mostly based on their limbic system, which is in charge of emotions - it's fully developed by the age of 7. (Of course there are people whose pre-frontal cortices mature earlier.) This explains why they prefer instant gratification rather than delayed rewards - when they feel like getting a tattoo or shouting rude remarks, they just do it, and then after doing it they don't know why they did it too. It also explains why they only study those subjects where the subjects teachers are nice, and give up on those where they dislike the teachers - their feelings govern what they do, without much rationalizing. In addition, for the present MTV-generation, their attention span is only 2 seconds - which is why present movie/MTV/TV frames change every 2 seconds - no wonder the elderly people complain that watching TV nowadays gives them headache - the frames change too fast and they're not accustomed to that! It is a real challenge to capture the attention of this MTV-generation... Am full of ideas now, about how I can help these kids - and I hope this inspired mode lasts.
P.S. Besides taking charge of emotions, the limbic system also forms memories by integrating emotional states with stored memories of physical sensations, like how we attach certain memories with certain scents, songs, tastes, textures, sceneries...
drawn together
Wednesday, November 22, 2006, 12:08 a.m. #1223
After watching a string of forgettable movies like "The Guardian", "The Covenant" and "D.O.A." recently, "The Banquet" (夜宴) really seemed a lot better. Maybe it's the Shakespearean script that made it so compelling. Or the strong cast (葛优、章子怡、吴彦祖、周迅、黄晓明). Or Tan Dun's soundtrack. Or the vivid portrayal of darkness amongst the glamour through the use of colours. The movie is not exactly impeccable, and despite its often pompous and unnecessarily long "words of wisdom", it tells the tragic tale of love, power, revenge and innocence rather convincingly. Recommended if you are able to sit through 131 minutes of tragedy.
Finished watching the first season of "Drawn Together" on Youtube, and I'm still watching the second season right now (thanks to Jon's recommendation), and I highly recommend it - if you are open-minded and old enough! It's a hilarious cartoon series about 8 cartoon characters on a reality show, and it's full of jokes, spoofs and puns that poke fun at silly reality shows, Hollywood movies, Disney, cartoons, TV series, video games, pop songs, celebrities, history, government conspiracies, religion, racism, homosexuality, stereotypes, sex, fetishes, human anatomy, self mutilation, obesity, drugs, violence, slavery - in other words, mostly everything that is WRONG, sinful, dirty, insensitive, offensive, blasphemous, crude, lame... You will never find this cartoon on national TV or in DVD shops here. And it's definitely something which I cannot recommend to kids below 21. :)
changes, for good or bad
Monday, November 20, 2006, 11:27 p.m. #1222
Willy and Summer's wedding dinner last night at the Intercontinental Hotel had been very special. Firstly, the food was great. Next, the door gifts included a little teddy, a red drawstring pouch and a really classy leather passport holder - which wasn't too common as a door gift. Then, there was a guitar duo who played 'live' and sang in all languages (English, Mandarin, Italian, Hokkien... you name it, they sing it), and they even went to each table and answered dedications towards the end of the feast. Lastly, it was the matrimony of two wonderfully nice people! How many other things can be more worthy of celebration?
Also found out during the dinner that one couple that has been together for nearly ten years has officially broken up. That's really quite shocking for me, to be hearing it from the party involved personally. And I couldn't bear to probe further.
Attended a full-day course at Ngee Ann Poly today. It was on how to make lessons interesting and relevant for our new generation. To be fair, I thought the facilitators generally did a great job - one of them even gave out soft toys to participants who answered her questions correctly (and I mean those BIG soft toys - they really had a BIG budget for this course) - but I was so bored (or probably tired) at one point that I got out of the room and took a nap on the sofa outside. Bad example for my students eh? :/
P.S. Downloaded and installed the Vista Transformation Pack which changed the look of my Windows XP to that of Windows Vista. The interface looks really cool and refreshing now, with better layouts, nice icons and translucent windows. You can download it here - it's been recommended in The Straits Times (Digital Life), so it can't be too bad.
the procession
Sunday, November 19, 2006, 04:03 p.m. #1221
早上在巴士站等车时碰上了一场出殡仪式，出殡队伍在马路上行走，一时间把狭窄的实笼岗路堵得水泄不通。看着出殡队伍，我不禁有所感触，甚至一度热泪盈眶。然而，我并不是感叹生命无常，而是看不过出殡队伍的行为。游行的队伍里，有人在微笑，有人在聊天，有人在喝水、吃东西。不错，亡者已故，仍在世的家属，生活还是得照常过下去的，但能有什么事情是那么迫切，迫切到这些人不能腾出一点点时间，好好地、诚心地为这位亡者送行的？对于出殡仪式的必要性，我没有什么坚定的看法。但，既然决定要举行这么一个仪式，我觉得它就应该是庄严、肃穆的，以表对亡者的尊敬，要不然索性不要举行什么出殡仪式了，不是吗？
the little umbrella
Sunday, November 19, 2006, 09:08 a.m. #1220
A few days ago when I was on my way to school, I came across a boy and his mother who were walking in a drizzle. The boy had a little umbrella while his mother walked beside him without one. In order to get his tiny umbrella over his mother, the boy stretched his umbrella-holding hand high up, and jumped up and down desperately as he walked, as he was not tall enough to reach his mother's height. The mother initially told the boy she didn't need the umbrella, but the boy insisted. She eventually took over the umbrella, and the two of them walked on under the puny cover.
A pity that I was too slow in reaching for my camera phone.
the action-packed week
Saturday, November 18, 2006, 06:35 p.m. #1219
It's been a really busy week which didn't allow time for me to blog. Here's some quick updates:
The Monday with some last-minute assignments
Strategic Planning Day One at Changi Village Hotel. Not much has been covered despite the long day. Was told to set up a new blog and come up with instructions on how to blog by tomorrow, so that I could present to the teachers as reflection upon the Strategic Planning was to be done on a blog this time. The blog should have been set up by someone, but someone else misplaced the address, username and password. Spent the night making the blog and presentation slides.
The Tuesday karaoke in JB
Day Two of Strategic Planning. The morning part was fun! I was one of the facilitators to bring my group around the Changi Village Hotel to experience the sights, scents and tastes of Changi. Very refreshing to take a stroll in the beautiful scenery - sea, greenery and all - under the morning sun.
Went to Johor with Ed, EL and ZL when the half-day session ended. Sang our hearts out at Neway Karaoke at City Square. The place is big and comfortable, the sound system is good, the price is low, the service is tip-top, and there is FOOD! Should sing in JB more often. Had dinner at a sub-standard Japanese fastfood restaurant, and had supper at a roadside coffeshop after that - had some great traditional coffee and toast which cannot be found in Singapore anymore - those kinds that remind you of the old times when you drank coffee from a saucer... Tastes of childhood.
The Wednesday at chalet
Handed out the streaming results to my form class in the morning - most of them got into the class of their first choice - really happy for them. Then conducted a SPA practice session in the afternoon, settled the payments for my vacation at New Shan, and went to 2E1's chalet at Downtown East at night. Apparently the kids did not know how to start a fire for the BBQ, so I had to get my hands dirty. Hmm.
The Thursday with the "school rule" and free gift
A PCCG meeting in the morning. Yep, I got roped into a new committee again, hmm. And my first meeting with them did not give me a good impression. Firstly, the meeting started half an hour late. Then, I had a little tiff with SG over the issue of whether students should be allowed to leave their books under the table. I felt that the practice was totally harmless and it was unnecessary for students to bring all their books home every day and bring them back again the next day - they should be responsible for their own learning and decide for themselves whether they need to bring selective books back. But SG insisted that it's a "school rule" and younger teachers should not "give in to students so as to become their favorites", and leaving books behind in the classroom will tempt people to steal. I thought it's quite ridiculous to penalise everyone just because of a few thieves who will find something to steal anyway if they really wanted to. And, does that imply all women should stop wearing jewellery, so as not to tempt the thieves? Shouldn't everyone be responsible for their own decision? Why can't we give students the option of leaving books in school then? Eventually, SG still concluded that it's a school rule so all of us should administer it so that everyone speaks the "common language". She also said that all these are in the school handbook and the young teachers should read such things to the class carefully at the start of the year. I don't know whether she was unhappy with young teachers or just me. (Anyway, when I ploughed through the school handbook later, and I found no rule that stated that books cannot be left behind in school - her own rule probably became the school rule.)
In any case, after the short, heated argument which the chairperson of the meeting was unable to address, we got back to business for a while. But one hour later, the chairperson suddenly went off when the rest of us were discussing, and never came back. The rest of us called her but she didn't pick up the phone. In the long three hours that we waited, we settled some details without the chairperson. By that time, it was already past one o'clock and all of us were hungry. Decided to dismiss ourselves. And then we saw the chairperson was watching the children practise circus arts at the foyer. Nearly fainted.
Then went to Singapore Powers for a briefing, and went to Faber House to redeem a lucky draw gift (a bluetooth adapter). But the gift didn't come without conditions - I had to listen to a girl talk to me about a holiday club for two hours. She was nice and warm at first, but when I indicated that I was not interested at all at the end of the session, she became extremely rude and acerbic. Did she really expect me to sink in 15k to join the club just after listening to 2 hours of sweet-talk? Chided her for her rudeness. And I got the bluetooth adapter anyway. :)
Met up with YY, SZ and ZW at The Vila'ge after that, had a sumptuous feast, and talked till late night.
The Friday with some cheap flicks
The first official SPA assessment in the morning. Think the students did well. Finally managed to get some fulfilling sleep in the afternoon after the past few short nights. Went for keyboard lesson in the evening, and met up with Jon, ZX and ZW after that. Had some great food at Tong Shui Restaurant (香港茶餐厅), where we watched a few C-grade Hong Kong movies and chatted till late night.
Finally! The week is over! Hope I can get some quality rest in the next week.
the lady who uses chanel coco
Sunday, November 12, 2006, 04:14 p.m. #1218
The Lady is an aristocratic leader who seldom communicates with others, in fact she has been seen on several occasions to tell off her subordinates openly in front of others.
And she always makes some very classic, self-UNaware speeches. There was once when she talked about an expensive personality test that she has taken, "The left brain uses logic while the right brain uses feeling. Most people are able to use only one side of the brain effectively: some people are left-brained, while some are right-brained. The test showed that I am whole-brained." The statement is quite a no-brainer really, and all of us who know her question the accuracy of that expensive test.
But The Lady really thinks that she is a popular person. She claims that whenever she does dipstick interviews among people, they always say that they are quite happy with her as a person and as a leader. I mean, who in the world would dare to tell her otherwise right in her face?
Then there was another classic moment last week during a meeting, when everyone was already seated but the seats around The Lady were empty, and she jested, "How come nobody wants to sit beside me? Am I very smelly? I happen to use Chanel Coco, you know? That's an expensive brand and it's supposed to be very good, you know?" We smiled - we had to, right? But nobody budged. And I noticed several pairs of eyes rolling. :)
the monkey act
Sunday, November 12, 2006, 08:38 a.m. #1217
Had theory and guitar lessons in the morning yesterday, then spent hours looking for HN's birthday present just before her birthday party. The party was nice, although at one point we were playing Truth or Dare, and I was dared to jump like a monkey - and it was caught on video. -_-
Left the party early for an Edvox rehearsal, but when I went home to pick up my violin, my very seductive bed enticed me to just rest for the day. No one could have resisted that. :)
cosy bay
Saturday, November 11, 2006, 01:08 a.m. #1216
A really long day. Had SEM consensus meeting in the morning, SPA lab practice session in the afternoon, keyboard lesson in the evening, then went to Nijumaru (a cheap and good Japanese restaurant at Cuppage Plaza) for dinner with Ed, ZL and EL, and had a drink and long chat at Cosy Bay, where the nightview was serene and beautiful on the tower, if not for someone who's practising on his trumpet (quite badly) some distance away.
(View from the top of the tower at the very cosy Cosy Bay)
Talked a great deal about our work and the stories around us. S, the colleague who has been promoted to become my supervisor, recently asked me to write something about myself as she wants to nominate me for Outstanding Contribution Award. Her past actions make me quite doubtful about her true intentions. Many people have come to warn me about her as she has been doing some things behind my back to put me down - then why does she want to nominate me now? Has she been misunderstood by everyone all along? Or does she actually have other ulterior motives? I guess I shall just remain neutral for the time being.
the archer
Wednesday, November 8, 2006, 10:37 a.m. #1215
A huge arrow hit me yesterday, when I have just come back to work from reservist. Was told by H to bring student ambassadors to a primary school to promote our school, as she couldn't make it (H is the overall in-charge of Public Engagement). So, at the last minute, I had to take over the coordinating of students and a short presentation for the primary school kids. Luckily the event went well. The students did a brilliant and lively presentation, my talk went well, and the interaction session was a success too. Apparently, the previous trips to other schools over the past two weeks have been quite disastrous, according to my colleague, as everything was too disorganised. I am not very surprised - just look at how H could suddenly take leave and be so eager to pass the responsibilities to someone who's absolutely clueless. She probably didn't want to be the one to oversee and witness a potential mess again.
Just glad that everything went fine.
so i think i can't dance
Monday, November 6, 2006, 08:55 p.m. #1214
Don't you like watching "So You Think You Can Dance"? I never liked watching dances (except those gymnastics ones), but watching those dancers on SYTYCD really gets me all charged-up and very happy. Their energy is so infectious! And I'm very envious of people who can captivate others with their body movements. I am just so clumsy. :(
selamat malam
Sunday, November 5, 2006, 07:57 p.m. #1213
After reading "Bach, Beethoven And The Boys", I was so inspired that I finished "The History of Classical Music" (by Stuart Kallen) and "The Dynamics of Harmony" (by George Pratt) during my reservist. The first book briefly described the pivotal developments and musicians in the course of music history, while the second book was almost incomprehensible for me with its indepth discussions on harmony.
Reservist has been fine. Two weeks went by quite quickly in the company of good old friends. And it's comforting to know that I'll just need to go through reservist two more times (to fulfill the ten-year requirement) and I'm done with the army. There're many stories to tell but I can't remember them. But I remember there was one day when the whole lot of us were going to the cookhouse for lunch and we strolled past a marching platoon of NS boys. Hua actually raised his voice and shouted a command, which wasn't a marching command actually - he shouted, "Selamat malam!" - and I thought it was immensely funny. I think the NS boys paused for a split second wondering whether the unfamiliar command came from their sergeant. Haha.
And I've got to admit that I'm getting older... My IPPT results have gone from Gold, to Silver, to Incentive, to failing by twenty seconds in the 2.4 km run this year. Maybe I should start going to the gym. Hmm.
One of my reservist friends is a musician. He plays the bass guitar in a band and also writes music for aspiring singers. He even has a recording studio to produce music for these people. For the past few years, he has indicated interest of collaborating with me, but it seems we never got the chance. This time, he sent me an MP3 of a Chinese pop song which he has written for a duet, and asked me to add some Chinese instruments to the song and go to his recording studio one day to record my part. Am quite excited. Have written some erhu parts to the song as I thought its sound is the most appropriate, but I don't think my playing is good enough to be recorded... Anyone interested? (There're no monetary rewards but you will be credited when the CD is out.)
toilet under construction
Wednesday, November 1, 2006, 00:12 a.m. #1212
This is the state of my bedroom right now:
This is what is left of my toilet:
And I'm now typing in the middle of all this mess and dust. *cough*