Cool! Blogger finally allows picture posting directly onto to the post. Actually, it's been available for some time, but when I first tried it, there were problems with the uploading, so this is the first successful upload. For a long time I was using the Hello software...this should be much easier to work with. I have bought another plush some time back, so as to unite the happy couple in Bleach anime. Now Rukia (the girl plush) and Ichigo (the guy plush) sit happily on my desk, though once in a while terrorized by the big gray dog plush about ten times their size. I can only upload this now because the trusty bluetooth adaptor has only just found its way back to me since yesterday.

I went shopping today for a short while in the afternoon. My mum is nagging me again for saying that I'll stay home the whole day to rest from my flu, and breaking my word yet again, as well as not taking good care of myself. I think I'm recovering already though. My throat isn't that sore anymore, but there's still a persistent cough. Today I bought another cheerful polo-tee. Actually the shop I went to had many pieces of clothing that are well-designed, but are way too expensive. I bought my polo-tee for $39 bucks, which is actually beyond what I'm normally willing to pay for a polo-tee/t-shirt, but it was so...comfortable. If not for the fact that I'm foreseeing grass-eating next month, I would have bought more clothes from the shop. I think I'll try out pastel purple next. As Sherry pointed out earlier, the colours that are close to pink suit me better. Pastel purple seems like the next closest colour. Or maybe pastel orange or yellow...hmm...soft and light colours.

I finished another anime series today, Wolf's Rain. The storyline isn't that fantastic, although overall, it's still a pleasant watch, it's more or less just am average anime. So it did not leave enough of an impression to warrant a review. Now I'm onto a new series, Z.O.E. (Zone of the Enders) Dolores, some sci-fi futuristic space and mecha anime. It seems promising from the start. The hero is a middle-aged man, struggling with being a good father. Pretty humourous premise, considering the background environment is sci-fi.

I don't like National Day. Hmm...that came across funny. Actually I have nothing against Singapore celebrating her birthday, but it's all the peripheral stuff that gets to me. I don't like the preceeding weeks to National Day Parade because everytime there's a rehearsal, the planes roar past my area, since I live relatively near. And because I live that near, the road closure always affects me. Since I attend Sat service, the bus always takes eternity to crawl past the Padang side, because the rehearsals are always on the weekends naturally. Maybe I'm not wildly patriotic anyway. I remember most of the time years back, I use to take naps during the NDP, and only wake up to watch the fireworks. In more recent years, my mum made it a new tradition that I watch the whole thing with her. I think what one of my friends said is right; I must actually go down and attend a NDP live to soak in the atmosphere. Watching it in the comfort of home just doesn't quite cut it.

Essentially I'm complaining because I waited 25 min for 197 yet again, and the bus took a whole extra 20 minutes to reach church, crawling along the city hall area. Being on the bus stuck in a jam always gets me on my nerves somehow. Especially when there's a whole big group of people talking loudly behind you, and blasting music off the handphone set. I think that maybe, just maybe, the innovation of having handphones being able to play MP3s is a bad one, especially since there are many who lack civic-mindedness. How can anyone be so presumptuous to assume that a whole busload of people would enjoy hearing the music you enjoy? I don't like making racist comments, but seriously, most of the time when I am on a bus, being disturbed like this, it's usually one big Malay gang of friends responsible, usually teenagers. Either that or one big gang of chinese bengs, talking loudly with vulgarities flying everywhere, and playing with ringtones, of varying ages. Hmm...considering I view the chinese ah-bengs as more crude, maybe it isn't so racist an observation anymore.

Balaclava outing fell through. Elaine rang me up to say she's too tired from jumping around in SonicFest yesterday. Actually I was having a headache the whole time, and have the blocked nose characteristic of flu, so I would have rather stayed off the alcohol anyway. In the end, J, Chris and I went down to play pool instead. I lost the first match against J, but in the second game, I cleared the table!!! J cleared 5 balls before he missed, and I was far behind. Then I started potting the shots one by one until it was only the black ball left. It didn't even register to me I was clearing the table until J suddenly said, "Hey, that was the 7th ball." I was so stressed over the last shot, not wanting it to miss, but I made it. Heh. Always am afraid of poor finishing. Now the only thing left is to at least on par consistently with J. Hmmm, but then again, it would be sweeter if I had opened the shot and cleared table. Ah well. Something else to work towards.

Administrative tasks marred a day which would otherwise be relaxing. I was trying the whole morning to contact a colleague who I needed to find out something from, but he was totally uncontactable. In the end, fortunately, I found another colleague who could advise me, and got some things settled in time. There are times when I seriously wonder why some people bother carrying handphones with them.

I went shopping with Sherry in the evening. Today was another fruitful shopping spree for me, and apparently for her too. I bought a polo tee from 37 degrees, a short-sleeved shirt from U2 (again...I missed a couple of good ones the last time), two short-sleeved and one long-sleeved shirts from G2000. It's definitely a conspiracy - so many places are having massive sales and discounts. The next year I see Great Singapore Sale, I'll wait for a month to hit the clearance sales. I'm now very much officially broke. And I shudder to think of next month's credit card bill...

I must try to squeeze out some money by tomorrow, since I have to pay for the upcoming spookshow tickets, and Balaclava. I'm finally going to check out the place. I've been curious about it for as long as it was opened. I was at Suntec earlier, and wanted to reserve seats for tomorrow, but their policy is a week in advance!! Gosh. These joints never cease to amaze me with their policies. First it was Thumpers with the 28 age limit, and now this. My my, I think these places are really raking in big bucks from the way they are running things. Just imagine the number of people they are pushing away...

Note to self: open a pub when I retire to earn good money. Along with a comic/manga/anime/rpg cafe for interest's sake.

Today was a long, long day. On a positive note, I think I have finished almost all the things I need to do way in advance. I've finished setting questions for the Prelims, preparing my share of the remedial questions for two weeks, marking assignments, preparing assignment answers for everyone, and etc. As far as I can tell, I have freed up my time during free periods now, and I can go meet my weak students for 1 on 1 remedial sessions. I have been meeting quite a few students since last week. They actually came to look for me to ask me questions, mostly ten-year series. I'm very happy with that. I've always felt that for the weaker students, it is ideal if they come looking for me, rather than I force them out, although the latter is sometimes necessary. If it's on their own initiative, at least I know they are motivated to work for it. Now at least I know the weaker students are really starting to be concerned over their work, and are actually practising the ten-year series questions on their own!

Argh. Administration never ends! I have still have to update some PEARLS thing (frankly I also dunno what the heck it stands for, but it's some CCA grading system) for my AVC. The stupid thing is that when I came into AVC last year, I had no one to show me the ropes. So now I must go pick it up to key in attendance I think, and some other nitty gritty detail updates. The next stupid thing is that since this year's batch, PEARLS has been scrapped. So I have to go and pick up a system just to do some tedious data entry for last year's batch of students, and that's it. Bleah. To me, 'admin' and 'SPA' have become almost cuss words.

It's a small world after all~(line can be read with the sound of little kids' voice singing the line in the head) My cell leader actually knows the new contract teacher! I mean, I only blogged that a new contract teacher joined us, and as far as I know, Adrian only knows that his colleague had quitted to join teaching, and seems to have gone to a junior college, and wah, bullseye! Same person. Name matches, and so I went to ask her if she worked at Exxon Mobil before. Apparently, adding her, the latest batch of new teachers consist of mostly chemical engineers actually! I'm no longer exceptional, along with just one more chem-engin-trained colleague. Now we have five! Bwahaha. Hmmm...today the 'concerned colleague' count goes up by 1 again though - another colleague went, "The new teacher not bad right? Quite sweet hor. Can consider..." Argh. Do I look like I'm planning to pursue any available colleague or something?

I was leaving the school with my colleague, Lisa, this afternoon, and we bumped into her naughty class along the way. Even from a distance they were grinning and giggling away. I already know what they are naturally assuming, and Lisa blur blur thought they were just cheeky and happy, and were laughing over some private joke they had in her class earlier. They were boisterously going, "Bye, Ms Choo!" one by one, and then finally, a group of them added, "Bye, Ms Choo's friend!". -_-

Yep, at 17 and 18 years old, JC kids are still silly and cute.

I went for pool yet again! Haha, as Elaine mentioned, my life nowadays seem to revolve around pool and anime. Well, there's still movies and shopping! Just that these day, there aren't that many good movies to catch, and I didn't have spare cash for shopping till this month. Today's matchup was J, shups! and me. I didn't play as well as I usually do when playing alone with J. There were some really good games, and quite a few spectacular shots, but overall, just not as precise as a couple of days ago.

There's a new contract teacher who came in today. A young lady, to fill the shortage for year 1 teachers I suppose. The moment she came in, a colleague came up to me and said, "Not bad ah, increased options for you." Here and there, some other similar comments arose. Suddenly I realize once again I am the resident bachelor of the chem department apparently. Even though another couple of colleagues seem to be single and available, I don't see them getting similar comments. Hmm...dunno whether they are concerned, or just teasing me for recreation.

Ah no, eating instant noodles for supper again. Somebody stop me, before I get fatter again!

I broke another 'promise' today. For the past 2 days I have told my mum I would stay at home, and eat dinner. But so far, I've always seized the opportunity to go out when friends asked, so I only fulfilled the dinner-at-home part. Yesterday was pool, and today was shopping! Actually, I had a headache and sore throat (hmm...still have leh) when shups! called, but I really wanted to buy some new clothes. I'm sick of wearing the same things to school. I do have many shirts and all, but not all are comfortable enough, so they are worn much less than the nice cotton ones that let me breathe and not perspire like mad.

When I reached Orchard, I resolved to buy clothes. And my first purchase is...a chemistry ten-year series! The moment I walked into Orchard MRT, I remembered that I'd been meaning to buy the latest TYS all this while, but never found the time to drop by Popular bookstore. After this purchase, I definitely wanted to get clothes; it would be so strange to have come to Orchard only to buy a TYS, wouldn't it? In the end, I bought 3 shirts and 1 pair of pants. All within a hundred bucks! Um...part of my change-my-wardrobe-for-new-season budget. Bwahaha. Isn't it ironic though that the shops have a larger discount on more items after the Great Singapore Sale is over? I am now very convinced the whole GSS is just a grand big hoax. I have seldom been able to find anything purchase-worthy during GSS all this time.

I think I should sleep early today. I target 12.30 am. Heh.

I've just returned from another pool session with J. Yesterday we also played, but with shups! and Bao. The games last night generally were mediocre. I still couldn't figure out the gap in consistency between yesterday and today. Today's a lot better, although win rate is only about 1 in 4 games. But the wins and losses always fall within the span of one turn, i.e. if J or I get one more turn, we would probably win, but we don't get the chance. However, I also recognize that the gap of my 1 win against his 3 wins ratio is almost entirely due to placing. Usually I make erroneous placings nearer the last few shots of my first turn, and the tide turns. I suppose as long as I haven't reached the standard I set for myself, I would still practise often. Sigh.

This blog post will be about...anime! Kinda.

I've just finished watching one series a few days back, titled Samurai 7. I suppose those with extensive knowledge about film, especially Japanese, will ask me if it's actually Seven Samurai, which was a 1954 classic. Samurai 7 is based on the exact same storyline and characters, but set in a somewhat sci-fi environment. In brief, a group of peasants, who were terrorized by bandits, decided to hire samurai to help defend their village and chase away the bandits. However, they have nothing to offer but the rice they produce. Somehow, they manage to attract seven samurai, each with their own unique motivation to help them. The difference between the anime and the original classic lies in that the bandits in the anime are actually mecha (giant machines/robots).

This is another good anime. The characters are so vividly carved out, and the storyline is engaging. The battle scenes are excellently done, although exaggerated to the max...imagine a human samurai wielding a normal katana able to leap up possibly 5 storeys into the air and slice up a giant laser-gun wielding mecha of that height. Other than that, the anime is compelling in the development of the friendship between the various heroes. The most interesting thing is that romance is hardly ever there, and whatever romance factor in the anime seems only for the purpose of creating tension between the main characters for a while. Seriously, I think this is one aspect that I attribute respect to film and anime makers; I think Hollywood has produced too many serious or action films that has romance somewhat randomly or inappropriately thrown in, almost as if just to create something to have an excuse to bring in some famous actress.

The line that stuck in my head was when one samurai survived a defeat in battle, and another samurai encouraged him with, "To live is to win; to die is to lose." A gritty statement, that does not really seem philosophical, but I was thinking for a while. Sometimes we overvalue our failures, and get crushed by them, and we feel overwhelmed by tough circumstances and all. However, if we seriously think about it, only in death we suffer defeat in the sense that there is nothing more we can do anymore. As long as we live, we have the power to get up and walk again. Hmm...I'll keep that thought in mind so that next time I can do (radical) suicide prevention! Heh. In fact, the anime was so compelling that I have decided to search for the original classic Seven Samurai to watch it. I'll buy it if it's affordable enough...but I think it would be challenging to locate a 1954 Japanese classic movie.

The past few days, I have been following a new anime Beck. Now, I've always liked a few genres of anime, specifially

1. mecha, such as Evangelion, Gundam, and etc
2. sci-fi/futuristic, such as Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell, and etc
3. fantasy/magical, such as Record of Lodoss War, 12 Kingdoms, and etc

but Beck definitely does not fall in the usual categories. It is an anime so realistic it feels like it can be made into a teen drama serial.

The story revolves around a 14 year old boy Yukio, who is very ordinary and leans on the loser side. By some chance, he meets a 16 year old boy Ryuusuke who is playing in a band, and his life slowly changes. The girl he likes gave Yukio a CD to listen to, and he started enjoying rock music. Ryuusuke gives Yukio an old guitar, and he began to learn it with great fervour. A middle-aged man who used to be an Olympic competitor started training him in swimming because of a funny bet, and he also started teaching him how to play the guitar. Eventually he joins the band that Ryuusuke forms, named Beck, after Ryuusuke's seriously weird-looking dog, and the anime captures the struggles that a band trying to make it big faces.

There is nothing unbelievable in the whole anime; it is gritty, down-to-earth, and utterly realistic. Yukio slowly grows more confident by sheer effort, and being recognized. For instance, the school bully tried to embarrass him by volunteering him for most of the swimming competition events, and to everyone's surprise he managed to clinch second and first places, due to his intensive training by that middle-aged man. I haven't finished watching the whole thing, but it is absolutely riveting. It's about a teenage boy, who finds his passions, and gives heart and soul to live them out. The music in the anime is absolutely awesome! Other than the starting and ending tracks, the rock music that the band in the anime jams out is excellent! To be honest, watching this anime was so stirring, plot and music-wise, that I felt the urge to pick up guitar again (I stopped halfway before). Maybe I'll put it as December holiday agenda. I'd always given myself either a project to complete or something to learn every long holiday anyway...

The scenes that leave me the most impression though are between Yukio and his form teacher though. The first time round his form teacher calls Yukio to the staff room, and was talking to him about his slipping grades. He had heard that Yukio's playing in a band, and was advising him against it. When Yukio tried to leave, the form teacher raised his voice and said, "In all my twenty years of teaching, none of my students ever became a singer! You are wasting your time!" In another scene, he told Yukio that he had to change his choices for high school, because his results had deteriorated so much that he could no longer make the average grade required. He reminded Yukio that if he did not study hard during the summer break, he's not going to make it. He also added, "It's ok to want to enjoy your youth, but everything you are doing now does not equip you with any skill when you grow up."

Those two scenes made me sit up and think about my current role as a teacher. If I'm in the shoes of that form teacher in the anime, I would think that my natural reaction would be similar. The way that it is now, it does appear that in general, if you don't have good grades to go into good schools, and get a good degree to arm yourself with, finding a well-paying job may be more challenging. I have told my students that they should know what they want to do in life. Think about their dreams and passions. Yet somehow up till now, I have yet to meet one that is truly confident and passionate about a path less travelled, such as musician, chef, writer...whatever does not fall into the stereotypical 'good' jobs such as lawyer, doctor, engineer, and etc. In the absence of such certainty about what they want out of life, the rational and safest approach would of course be to study hard to get good grades so that one has the power to choose later when the opportunity arises. I seriously pray that I don't become one of the cynical teachers who tears down a young man or woman's dream just because it doesn't sound credible. I am still waiting for some student, who has out-of-the-box ambitions and is passionate about them, to cross paths with me. I think I would so love to groom him or her, or at least, spur them on to their dreams with encouragement.

I've just returned from Bar None. The original plan was to go check out Thumpers at Goodwood Park Hotel, and the whole bunch of us were there already. I tried to dig out info on the age limit of the place, but couldn't find any info anywhere, so we decided to risk it. Only when we reach there did we see the ridiculous age limit for guys: 28!!! Gals, 23. I can see that they want to draw in the working adults crowd, but 28 has got to be the highest age limit I have seen for local clubs thus far. We queued up anyway, and at first this lady at the reception came by, and asked to see our ID. She took a look at each of our ICs, and returned to us without saying anything. At first, we thought we made it, and by the time she saw all the ICs, she told us that all of us cannot enter. However, Weiling ended up going in with a 26 year old guy, before joining us at Bar None later. My theory: the four of us guys queued up together, so the lady could easily reject us all. We should have each gone in with a girl, whereupon the lady would find it hard to allow the girl in, but turn the guy away. I will test out the theory some other time.

In the end, we went to Bar None. This time round, at least I know the age limit is 25 for guys, and all of us could make it, except J, so the poor dude went off to join his friends for KTV instead. I bumped into a couple of friends there - a junior from TJC, and notably the girl I had previously bumped into at my colleague's wedding, and subsequently at Borders on the same day, was in the same queue for Bar None. At first I thought she didn't see me, but she later popped over to say hi. I'd actually forgotten her name (rare, considering my elephant-ile memory), and in the meantime I was frantically searching through my handphone contact list. Good thing I found her name before she came over. Phew...

The place wasn't as big as I thought it would be, and it was full house today, jam-packed all the way to the door almost. I liked the music selection, which ranges from pop to dance to trance music. The drinks were alright, not too dilute, although I couldn't feel anything when I drank a screwdriver in one breath, and later on, another glass of mix that Steph couldn't finish. The coolest part though was the live band. I couldn't really catch the name, but I thought it sounded like 49ers. They played songs ranging from pop to rock, retro to alternative. There were three lead singers who took turns, and they had excellent voices. I think this should be the first live band I could jive to all the way. Solid music there. Wendi Jacobs popped in after midnight, but I think she was the only celebrity I saw there tonight. I like Bar None...a rather cool place to club. I think I will be going back again some time or other.

I'm back to my dangerously monstrous appetite again. I had a plate of chicken rice and a bowl of laksa for lunch. Eeks. I need to exercise in proportion to my eating at least.

I was supposed to meet shups! for pool this evening, but the poor girl kenna food poisoning. Then J happened to message me to jio me for pool, so the plan didn't have to change, just the company. Heh. I enjoy playing pool with J alone. It always feel like personal training for myself. Today's win rate was super low; he was very precise today. The only consolation is that at least the games I won were fair and square, not because he goofed up a critical shot or gave me a foul, excluding one in which he 'self-destructed'. The most important thing is that I finally discovered the problem causing my inconsistency, or rather, I discovered the cure for it. Maybe we'll play again tomorrow too. Or clubbing perhaps...?

Train, train, train!

Today turned out to be another long day, but rather enjoyable. It's Racial Harmony Day in TJC today! I had a ethnic looking top to wear today, thanks to Huijun (pic of the top below). I'd thought it looked a little Malay, or Indonesian, but then the general remark is 'which race is that supposed to be?' or that it looks bohemian. General feedback is good though, so not too bad...although my sports class was laughing away when they saw me, but refused to comment about the top. My general response is that I'd wear anything to not wear a shirt with the (difficult to match) green TJ tie on Wed. Incidentally, my colleague Tun Leng (in the pic below) disbelievingly commented that one of her female students commented that I'm handsome when I happened to walk past them one day. I don't know whether to feel happy that there's actually someone who thought me handsome, or to take offence that my colleague said it so grudgingly and disbelievingly. Frankly, I don't find myself good-looking, and so I agree with Tun Leng - everyone really got very different tastes, but at least I don't think I'm ugly enough for her to be so cynical...bleah.

Two of my classes didn't wear any ethnic costume at all, and ironically, my normally low-energy class was very much alive today. All the thirteen girls in that class wore ethnic costumes, mostly saris (but only one girl among them is Indian), and fortunately for them, I cut short my lesson with them, and they eagerly wanted to take photos. I took a few photos with them, and a few photos for them (so many cameras they brought!), but they have yet to send them to me, so I can't post them yet. That bunch of girls look fabulous today though; the class looked extremely colourful.

I managed to escape the staff conference because the Power 98 fm DJs I invited to give a talk today came earlier by mistake. Originally I slotted them for 3 pm, and then the DJ I was liasing with requested the time to be shifted up to 2.15 pm...I agreed, but later found out that there was a mass talk at that time slot, so I called her to shift it back to the original 3 pm. I didn't realize she works the night shift, so when I called her in the morning, she groggily answered, and apparently forgot about it. I've come to realize that there are people who can function on autopilot when they are awoken in the midst of sleep. They can talk to you, respond to you, and the moment they put down the phone, bam! They fall back to sleep, and forget that you ever called. Anyway, so the three of them who came down were early, so I entertained them till 3 pm. Gladly, actually.

The DJ who came down is Soo Wei (the one I awoke), a producer Jeremy, who's accompanied by his wife. They are a really warm and humourous bunch. I brought them to the canteen for lunch, because they haven't eaten, but regretfully I think most of the stalls were closing and all, so they didn't look like they enjoyed the food much. Heh. So much for quality...So there I was, talking to them for about an hour, and it's as though I have known them for a long time. They are that warm and friendly. I suppose that's what it takes to be a radio personality huh? The turnout was less than I expected. I had thought that the years 1 might just stay because the DJs come in right after the mass talk, but my guess missed. There was only about maybe 40 students, in the big auditorium. I felt kinda paiseh, but they were fine. They really engaged the students very well, and I can clearly see why they are in this profession. And I got some freebies at the end of it! I was practically laughing throughout the presentation.

Except right at the start. When they began the talk, I sensed that the aircon was off. My AVC student thought so too, and I quickly called up the school's Operation Manager (OM).

Me: Can you help me switch on the audi aircon? Thanks.
OM: For what?
Me: I'm using the audi now. There's a Power 98 talk.
OM: (Curses.) How come you never book?
Me: I did. It's on the college calendar.
OM: (Angrily) The college calendar is not a booking. It's only for notifying people.
Me: Yeah, I know. I booked the venue online also.
OM: Is it? (Accusingly) When did you book?? The online system not working.
Me: I booked last week. Either Tue or Wed. The online system cannot be used to book since this week only.
OM: (Couldn't pin the blame on my booking) Then you expect me to check everyday meh? Never mind. I switch on the aircon for you. The aircon not working very well ah (um...like real it isn't), so if I switch on after just switching off and it goes wrong, too bad ah.

Background: The OM is supposed to check the online bookings everyday and print out the bookings to pass to his workers so that they can lock/unlock as needed.

Me: (Pissed but controlling it) Thanks. I really appreciate your help (um...like real I meant it at this point...).

I was talking to the worker who came to switch on the aircon, and we were talking about the issue. Now the poor workers can't access the online system, so the only reliable way is to do a manual booking in this venue-booking file. However, the staff has been instructed to do all the bookings online, so the only bridge between the two systems is the OM who prints it out for the workers. Clearly from what he said, he didn't check the online bookings today. And he sounded as if he was putting the fault on me. I can take a scolding when it's my fault, in which I would be profusely sorry, but if there is one thing I hate, that can piss me off, is to be accused of something I know I didn't do, or didn't do wrongly. And the worker was telling me that prior to me, there was another problem at LT1, in which there actually was a booking, but none of the workers knew and they locked it up.

If not for the fact that I don't want to get onto the OM's bad books (because no matter what, he is a key person still, and if he's not happy with you, he can really drag when it comes to something you need urgently), I would have stormed into his office and blasted him. Kau. "Then you expect me to check everyday meh?" Duh. Yeah, of course. That's what he is supposed to do everyday. It's his job, darn it.

Doesn't Peter (guy on left) look like a Catholic priest or something? Everyone was going around making jibes on that.

Today was supposed to be a fairly short day, but after adding to it remedials made it draaaag. I dug out some flash animations for my lecture, and started with a summary of the last (self-deemed sucky) lecture, going real sloooow overall. In the end, I'm still relatively fast. I checked with the students I teach who are taking the biochemistry option and are not currently taking 'A' level biology, and they found the pace comfortable today. True enough, they found the last lecture too fast.

I had a triple period and a one period break before the lecture. Following the lecture was a tutorial period, an hour remedial with my weakest class, and then another hour remedial with my happy class. That's about a four-and-a-half periods straight of talking! That stretched from 11.20 am to about 3 pm. My happy class was so thoughtful; one group bought me a couple of sandwiches, and another group bought me a bun, on their own accord. I was quite touched, frankly. Heh. They are a really sweet bunch.

My mum has been following the new series on channel 8 at 9 pm, by the name of Destiny. The show seems fine enough, but the advertisements are a killer. Sheer overdose of Joanne Peh! The show already stars her, and every commercial break, she comes on in different ways. One is a Magnolia advertisement, one is the Lux advertisement, and there's still a Citigems advertisement (the one with Fiona Xie). I don't know how they choose to rotate these, but every commerical has two of the three being shown. Argh. Her big white smile is blinding me to death.

I had lessons today in the new containers on the school compound. Honestly, I'd always thought containers are long, big, and narrow, and I couldn't imagine how a classroom could fit. I guess I was quite ignorant, because the classrooms in the container were in fact, slightly larger than the average classroom around.

I finally ate at Sofra today. The restaurant has been around for a long, long time, and I have passed it so many times, but have never stepped in. Today, I tried the Turkish food, and it was nice. The price is pretty good too, with main courses under $10 even. The bill only escalated somewhat because of drinks and desserts. However, the portions were too small for me still, and I needed the dessert to be full, but then again, it's probably the fault of my monstrous appetite.

I caught Sin City in the evening, and up till now, I still am not sure what to make of it exactly. The whole film is done in stylish black and white, with colours only for strategic visual purposes, such as red for striking clothes and especially blood. Blood is one thing not lacking in this movie. Blood is spilled throughout, in a wide variety of ways. The movie is definitely violent. Extremely violent. Yet, it is a violence that is so excessive, and done in such exaggerated manner that it seems ludicrous, comic, and somehow can't be taken seriously. The whole cinematography captures the visual style of the graphic novel I suspect. The dialogue is definitely comic-style - curt, with some grit and wit.

However, one thing the movie is for sure - it is dark. Visually, morally, and even spiritually. The heroes in the show are almost amoral, and unscrupulously achieve their ends. The element of vengeance in the heroes far exceed those of the typical good-guy-wreaks-havoc-on-the-bad-guys genre. Certainly, there is also no happy ending for the characters, at least not in the fairy tale feel-fuzzy-and-warm kind. Two of the villains in the show are either Christian or Catholic, with Elijah Wood playing an extremely creeping looking Christian cannibal. Morbid is quite an understatement to describe this movie. The whole show is an overdose of sexuality and violence. Frankly I don't know how to rate this movie. It is visually engaging, but essentially is three bloodbaths stringed together in three linked short stories. Definitely not for the faint-hearted, or the intolerant Christian.

Incidentally, someone has replaced T.T. Durai, and opted not to take any salary. After the 'peanuts' fiasco, I would say that is a really wise move.

I thought I would be a good boy and stay at home the whole day today, but J asked me out for pool. We only played about close to 3 hours, but we played many games. I was on good form today! Although I still win much less games than J did, but it's usually a close fight. At one point, he commented that my playing is starting to resemble his (in the sense of some trick shots he usually likes to attempt, and the placing), and I thought that's a really good sign. Heh. I think I played better today than yesterday. I was telling J that I think I need to play against him one on one like tonight in order to improve. Playing against a much better player forces me to plan more, and be more careful with my shots.

The guy who owns Pool Fusion (Ang Boon Lay, who got bronze medals for international competitions) was there today, and I saw him practising alone. Suddenly I remembered something that shups! commented before, that although we keep trying to play and improve, we have not sunken in that kind of effort. When I saw him train, he was practising tough and trick shots the whole time, by himself, and although I would find it boring if I were to do the same, I also recognize that it is the best way to train for consistency. But I don't think I can muster that kind of dedication yet. Or spend that much money. Heh.

Sigh. Another round of over the moon and back to earth again. Actually, it's more like plunged into the deep blue sea. An old song keeps running through my head the whole night.

Que sera, sera,
Whatever will be, will be.
The future's not ours to see,
Que sera, sera,
What will be, will be.

I think I haven't been praying enough over what I ought to, and relied too much on human strength. Once again, I relearn the value of surrender. The hard way. God, I trust Your timing and Your wisdom.

I went to play pool to distract myself a little. It was the first time I played with Linus, a new member to my cell, and Richard, a mutual friend. They played quite alright, so now our cell pool kakis have just increased again. I played well tonight. Largely accurate, with solid placing. I made quite a lot of trick and spectacular shots too. I just hope I can maintain this kind of standard. Still quite erratic for my taste, considering how my playing deteriorated rapidly near midnight.

Somehow, playing well doesn't cheer me up tonight though.

I think I gave a really stoned lecture today. The main cause of that was not because of lack of sleep, but rather that I'm covering a topic which is not exactly that familiar to me, and I'm lecturing a lecture theatre of students 95% of whom have already learnt about Nucleic Acids in their biology subject. And because of the overlap of content, I went through the powerpoint slides rather quickly, and had little else to add, unlike previous topics I had lectured. I think I must have come across sounding bored. Sigh. Never mind. I shall work on something more interesting for the next lecture on the coming Tue.

In the evening, I met Elaine for (her) dinner, and we went down to Esplanade. We had some time to spare before meeting Steph, Collin and J, so we roamed around and checked out Baybeats, a showcase of amateur bands, most of which are from Singapore. It was quite cool actually, and I don't recall seeing the Esplanade so crowded usually. The riverside was very crowded, and we were having a good chat by the river, with nice live band music in the background. I noted something interesting though, and this is not a racist observation, but of all the band competitions, such as this Baybeats and SPH's (or was it Straits Times') School of Rock, I think the majority consists of Malays. I'm wondering if they are more in to such events, or maybe they have an affinity for music. Most of the Malay bands I've heard perform who do rock or alternative kind of music are pretty good.

By about 9 pm, we met Collin, and we went to DXO, a new (NTUC-owned) club which took over the location where Embassy used to be. It is interesting that previously I had never heard of the club when it first opened, despite the hype, and I only chanced to see it when walking past Marina Square the other day, and heard on 91.3 fm the very next day info on an event which would be held there. Originally we wanted to check out Bar None, which I am still keen on checkng out, after being refused entry a few years back when I did not meet the age limit, though a friend tried to sign me in by VIP guest list. (How can they call themselves Bar None when they obviously barred me? Heh.) However, it seems that there's a high cover charge for Fri and Sat nights for Bar None, so I suggested DXO as an alternative. Drinks were going at $10, and proceeds were going to Awareness for Aids, which I thought was at least a good cause.

At the entrance, they were giving out some freebies, one of which was a condom. I think the condom has become an icon that is naturally associated with aids in all the local campaigns, but it still feels funny to get one while going to a club. I actually disposed of it before I left, in case I leave it lying around, and my mum sees it, and begin her paranoid wondering of what I have been up to. I'd rather save myself the agony of explanation if she'd assume the worst. Some WKRZ DJs were there, serving drinks. Maia Lee (of Singapore Idol fame) was there too behind the bar counter, and only today did I realize she's actually quite short. There was also the lead girl who acted in the sitcom Ah Girl years back, and only now as I'm typing the blog do I realize that the Cynthia I've been hearing on air early each morning is actually her.

Anyway, the place was fairly big. The first floor held the dance floor, a bar counter, and seats scattered over a few areas. The second floor held the member's area, a non-smoking area with many seats for chilling, and a big outdoor balcony kind of place where there is a small stage with a live band, its own bar counter, and the customers sit on the floor, Japanese style. I thought the place was nice actually. The music they played was pretty cool too, good grooves and all, but the dance floor was uninviting. Up to 10.30 pm, there was no one on the dance floor. After that, here and there, a couple of guys or gals would dance a bit. That was about it. Near midnight, we got bored, and went nextdoor for supper. I think it's called Glutton's Place, owned by Makansutra, and it looks a bit like Smith Street. Open air concept, with a row of stalls. It looks rather newly opened, and the food there is not bad at all, but starts from $4 onwards. I bumped into a friend there who was having a break in the midst of night cycling, and he joined us a while. Poor dude went back to his cycling, and it began to rain a while later.

We headed back to DXO after supper, and at 1 am, the dance floor had more people dancing, but still very empty. Somehow we didn't feel motivated enough to join in. Considering it is a Friday night, and that the place is actually not bad at all, I was surprised at the number of customers who came. Part of the reason we didn't feel like hitting the dance floor was also that the whole place seem saturated with ang mors. I'm not xenophobic, but it feels like an expat hangout, which again is surprising, considering that it is a NTUC club. Not what I was expecting, but maybe I underestimated the establishment. I think it's bound to be so, if the young crowd of ages 18 to 21 is not drawn in. My guess is that particular age group makes up a sizable proportion of clubbers, which may be why the dance floor was way under-utilized. I think I still got the groove in me, but this is not the right place to club. If I go to DXO again, it would be to the outdoor balcony section most probably.

I had quite a long day in school today, but managed to finish almost all that I set out to do, including some extra stuff. Alright! Tomorrow I shall lecture on a fairly alien biochem topic, and I haven't looked through any of the slides yet. I am still thinking of doing some flash animation to illustrate protein synthesis. Ambitious is an understatement.

Acting on impulse, Sherry and I headed down to eat Katong Laksa after school. We hung around to talk a bit, and we were counting the number of TJC students we spotted walking past the coffee shop. At one point, she got emotional about something she was talking about, and had tears in her eyes. At that point in time, other than feeling sympathy, I was wondering if there happened to be any TJC student around, because it would look really weird if some student saw the two of us at a coffee shop talking, and that she was crying. I can't imagine the possible speculative rumours that may fly all over the place. To be wrongly associated together is one thing; to be wrongly assumed to be making a girl cry is a totally different matter.

I met FiOne, Owen, and some new people at Terra Cafe, Bugis. The food was quite good actually, as I remembered, and the set meal was only $10. My savoury rice was very worth the money. I finally collected a couple of plush toys (picture below) from Owen, who kindly helped me purchase them. After dinner, we hung out at the jazz lounge in Hotel Intercontinental. The ambience is not bad, until some cigar-smokers came along and plopped themselves at the adjacent table. The jazz band and singer were not bad too, but their performance lasted only 40 minutes. Still, it felt pretty cool to chill out like this on a weekday night.

I received a new anime Samurai 7 from a colleague today. Yay! Something to watch in the coming days.

A blur picture of the jazz lounge, with the live band in the distant background. Need a better camera...

My plush toys! Kurosaki Ichigo (anime Bleach) on left and Kakashi (anime Naruto) on right~

Today was a long and eventful day. It started right in the morning during assembly. I am bringing in Power 98 fm next week to give a talk to the students about what it's like being a DJ, so I had to make a morning announcement. Now, throw me in a LT to lecture chemistry, I have no problems, but somehow as I stood on the podium and saw the whole school, including the staff, looking back at me, I was nervous to the point of almost trembling. What made it worse was that last night I had a restless sleep - the kind where you know you dreamt a lot, but waking up unable to remember any of it. So there I was, trying to remember all the details in my (groggy) head, and not having written down a note to refer to, and gave the announcement. Later on, colleagues asked me why I spoke so slowly, and a little monotonous. Nervousness + sleepiness = bad public speaking.

Highlight of the morning assembly: our new Vice Principal (joined us about 2 weeks back) came up on the podium before the school anthem, and commented that he is new, and didn't know the lyrics well. He also said that since the school always sings the anthem inaudibly, he would read out the lyrics as we go along. I was standing behind the podium after making the announcement, and could see the whole school, and most were smiling/giggling away. He really read out the lyrics for almost the whole anthem, and then the disc hung. Of all the bad timing in the world! (And I, being the AVC teacher in charge, naturally panicked a little.) So he sang the remaining portion. Off-key at parts, because he's not familiar with the melody. Many people were commenting about how amusing the whole thing was, but I think he did a pretty bold thing, and it did get the students singing louder today.

I was back to rushing some admin before my lessons start, and then I had to cover a colleague's civics duty (actually for the whole of this week), but fortunately (or so I thought) it was mass civics. I was heading for the auditorium when a colleague rang me up urgently, telling me that the projector is not working in the theatrette. So I rushed towards the theatrette, and along the way, I bumped into another colleague, who told me that there was no one on duty inside the auditorium! There are times when I really hate being the AVC teacher-ic. Really. I rang up the AV tech, and he was having lunch outside, and my new assistant teacher is not familiar with all these things yet. Sigh. I rang up the people involved, and checked the auditorium. Turned out that the student involved ended the previous lesson late, and so was late. Fortunately one of my students was free to help, so that was solved. I rushed down to the theatrette after that, and spent a long time trying to test out whether it is the projector fault, or the cable, but to no avail. In the end, I got a student's thumb drive, and transferred my colleague's powerpoint presentation to the Smartboard, and at least got the lesson to run.

I realized that the talk of the town is about NKF's CEO T.T. Durai at the moment, and his big fat salary. Apparently, the news reported that someone went to vandalize the NKF centre's wall this morning. After the court hearing where his $600k annual salary had been announced to the whole world, about a thousand people had withdrawn their monthly donation pledges, and more are pending. Most people lamented at how their donations did not go to the people who need them the most, and all. I suppose that he, being the CEO, a monthly salary of $25k may be justifiable, but no matter how I look at it, a bonus of 12 months of salary still seems excessive, especially considering the nature of the organization. I read elsewhere that many have sent letters requesting or demanding that he quit. Most on the street being interviewed commented that they would stop donating to NKF. I think this is another big blow following the news on how much reserves NKF actually kept, which already put off many. However, the request that the CEO quit comes across as plain silly to me.

Clearly, he is doing his job. Clearly, the beneficiaries are receiving help. Removing the guy solves absolutely nothing. The problem with him, essentially, is just the big fat salary. Wouldn't a better solution be to restrict the bonus he draws? That way, the money stays within the organization. The beneficiaries needing and receiving help, and him drawing a huge salary, are clearly disparate issues. In order to address the latter issue, withdrawing donations is obviously a poor solution, since it directly affects the former. Suppose nothing is done to change the situation. If many people cancel their donation pledges, and NKF takes in less money, does anyone honestly think that the CEO would take a pay cut so that the same amount of money goes to every beneficiary? There's a reason why he's holding on to his cushy salary. The only people who can remotely do anything about this is the board of directors he is under.

Essentially, if everyone thinks that not donating is a good way to deal a blow at this guy, it seems clear to me the only one who suffers is the patient.

I stayed up till 2+ am last night to finish my current anime Fantastic Children, and it's great (I resisted the corniness of saying it's fantastic...) . The story begins mysteriously with this bunch of creepy looking 11 year old kids who seem to have lived through 500+ years in history, and it slowly unravels to reveal a sci-fi plot. Then, as the central characters discover their origins, and someway midway, the whole background is gradually revealed, and two love stories central to the whole plot unfold, and the entire mystery in the first 13 episodes suddenly makes perfect sense. There is an excellent plot twist at the end that I could never have guessed, because the whole series of episodes sets me up to think it's something else altogether, and it has a beautiful ending. I haven't watched a touching anime like this in a long time, much less to expect it from one that's sci-fi in nature. I still don't like the drawing of the characters, but the gripping storyline more than made up for it. I am waiting eagerly to exchange anime series with two other colleagues, so I have more titles in store to watch! Bwahaha.

Today was a long day of waiting. Originally some of us who came into TJC together wanted to have a small lunch gathering, because we realized that it's been a long time since we last had lunch together. All of us seem to have different schedules, and have been drowning under work (for me, I think I'm still swimming in the work...maybe backstroke). One poor colleague finished lessons at 10+ and had been waiting for us for a long time. I came back from lessons at around 1, and somehow the rest wanted to wait for this other colleague who finishes at 1.30. By the time the last one came in, the colleague who finished earliest was ambushed by another teacher to discuss some work. After waiting for one another for a long time, lunch was very late. I was supposed to go out with another colleague to buy some stuff, including stationery, and she was ambushed by students at 3 pm because she was waiting for me to come back from lunch. Interesting chain reaction of consequences here. In the end, after she finished attending to her students, we left the college around 4 plus.

I bought some cheap VCDs! Laserflair is having some clearance sale, and some titles were going for 2 for $12, 2 for $16. I need to restock my collection, since my ex had taken back a long while ago the titles she bought and left at my place. No cheap sale for DVDs there though, so I'll wait to buy some better titles later.

A colleague had to undergo operation for her tonsils, and is away on MC for 3 weeks. She left behind some things unfinished, including 4 lectures and SPA marking. My Level Head came to me saying that he's still very unfamiliar with the topic, so I volunteered to take over the lecture on Nucleic Acids. Anyway, I only took one miserable module on biochemistry in chem eng, and attended a brief course on biochem last term. So my carefree lecture schedule this 2nd semester is interrupted. Why am I so helpful? Haha...I'd better start preparing...I think this Fri will be my turn to lecture. Heh.

I spent the whole morning doing paperwork. Some purchases to settle, and I dug out pages after pages of info on projectors on the vendor's website, only to later discover that the vendor was for a contract not for MOE, which makes it still viable, but a lot more paperwork to do, if we were to purchase through that vendor. If a system such as this exists to make the purchasing easier, why do I still have to go through everything online, and print out everything to submit along with several other forms? I don't see how it cuts red tape, and the way I see it, the paperwork is still there, except now we have to copy and paste all the information out from the web, sort it, and print it. Bleah. It is so not user-friendly.

I had a triple period with one class today. After finishing going through the exam solutions, I gave them a serious wake-up call about the urgency of the imminent prelim and 'A' level exams. Right after that, I wanted to resume tutorials, and they stopped me, suggesting that they do reflection on their (poor) results, discussion on study methods, and etc. Essentially, they did not prepare their tutorials, and were trying to squirm their way out. All this after a stern wake-up call. Argh. There are times when I feel like I'm just wasting breath, and it's all futile. They are still not taking their work seriously!!! I can see why IMH has a high number of teachers in their patient list, along with other care-givers. I also suspect that teachers may rank among those most highly susceptible to high blood pressure.

I stayed at home today to catch the finale to Desperate Housewives! Regretfully I missed some episodes here and there, but still I caught the flow of the plot largely. I think it's a great show. Besides the bevy of pretty actresses, what kept me hooked on the show was essentially how the plot slowly unravelled, and all the deep dark secrets coming together nicely. I always enjoyed shows where there is no outright baaaad villain, where the bad guys are very real people, driven by circumstance. In this show, it's exactly that. The people who have done bad things were all due to circumstances/obsessions/desperation/love. And the best thing is that it's just a season finale! Meaning that there would still be another season! Woohoo~ I'm sure, though, that the new black family that moved in will be central to the next season's plot, since the writers should have exhausted the backgrounds and histories of the current (main) residents. I can't wait for the next season; seldom am I hooked on anything on TV...

Ok, back to my anime~

This must be one rare weekend for me to have not gone out on both Sat and Sun. I was practically watching a new anime series Fantastic Children the whole weekend. It was cryptic at the start, and I didn't like the drawing of the characters, but the complicated sci-fi plot turned out to be a well-woven love story actually, and I was hooked, so I didn't mind hiding out at home.

Yesterday's cell group was very interesting. One of my boys, Jonathan, wanted to share a 'sermon' with the cell group, so I let him. Although he seems ill-prepared, incoherent at some points, and said some things that raised my eyebrows and needed correction, his enthusiasm does carry through. In the very least, he seemed quite serious about becoming a missionary at age 30. He actually plotted a list of 25 destination cities/countries, and how many people he wants to take with him. Some of the things he shared weren't exactly theologically sound, but I guess that can come with some grooming and training. He mentioned that he wanted to serve as a leader in TouchKidz, which was the place I was serving (equivalent to Sunday school) when I took them into my care, and originally I had thought he might not be ready, and wanted him to consider carefully when would be a better time to go into serving. However, now I think I should just let him try, if he really wants to, and try to help him become ready as much as I could. The latter is my role as a spiritual parent, not the former. If he really has such big dreams for God, how could I be the one who slows him down?

I love Fridays because of this year's timetable. I don't have tutorials, and only have lecture and meetings to attend. It gives me enough time to finish up a whole bunch of disgusting admin work. We had a meeting today to discuss the June Common Test, and from the way it looks, the passing mark for 'O' and 'A' pass is about to hit an all-time low in history. Very alarming news actually. I think all the tutors are panicking over the students more than they are about themselves. I had the wonderful task of sieving through pages and pages of vendor information on the not-user-friendly system in order to pick out projectors to buy. Now I know there's at least one more job I would not have done if I weren't in teaching - purchasing. Along with occupations involving admin. Yuck yuck.

I had intended to leave early today, in hopes of catching forty winks before I go out for a game of pool, but I ended up having a chat with a couple of colleagues. For a couple of hours. Just when I planned to leave (again), my fellow AVC teacher asked me, "So later on go where for meeting?" It's only then I suddenly remembered that I was supposed to go for the AVC handover in the late afternoon. No wonder when Collin was asking me about pool, I told him I had something on in school till quite late, but subsequently proceeded to forget cleanly about it. Good thing I had lingered around to chat, or else I don't know what to tell my comm members when they look for me...that I'm actually at home instead of at school? -_-

I came home for a nice dinner, and met shups! first at Bugis. I accompanied her for her dinner, and we went to Restaurant Hoshigaoka (I think that's the name) at Bugis Junction. The food was not too bad, according to shups!, and I ordered a gelato dessert which was very nice, and very expensive. However, everytime I step into a Jap restaurant to eat, I would always remember the sashimi buffet at Ikoi restaurant. I just have to go back there again!

Pool was not bad, but all of us (except J) had a horrible start to the evening. It took us quite a while to get the 'feeling' right. We played rotating teams, and I didn't win that many matches, but at least there were a few nice shots. I think I really should petition for the Billiards club in TJC to include pool. Imagine how late I would be willing to stay in school till if there was a 9 ft table available. Bwahahaha.

I just discovered that among the new teachers, the guy who is assigned to join and help me out in AVC is an anime collector! Bwahaha. Now there's him, me, and the colleague who went to China with me. We can now form an anime ring! Sharing is caring, as they say.

I went to watch Initial D with some colleagues, and I thought it was pretty good. As one friend puts it, if you had watched Initial D anime, you would be disappointed; if you hadn't, you would enjoy the movie. I didn't really follow it, so I found the movie quite enjoyable. The plot was very simple, and the cars didn't look spectacular or anything, but the racing scenes were superbly captured, right down to the screeches caused by the drifts. Almost made me want to learn how to drive, and buy a fancy car. Almost.

We watched the movie at Marina Square's GV cinemas. I hadn't been there while it was being renovated, so when I went, I was utterly surprised by the new look, and disoriented. I couldn't picture the layout of the place after walking around for a while, which is quite rare. Marina Square remains the one shopping centre I can't get used to. Now it looks very chic, and has a lot more stores. There's one section that reminds me of Heeren's Annex, because it sells very streetwear kinda stuff, which wasn't there in the old Marina Square. There are many new restaurants as well, and I guess when it fully reopens, it might make an interesting visit, although I still consider it rather out of the way.

On my way home, I saw many policemen at City Hall mrt patrolling, and I was wondering whether it's due to the terrorist attack on London. Reportedly a thousand people injured, and 45 dead. This is indeed a rude awakening, especially after the 911 incident has long faded away from memory.

I thought I had a lot of time before my first lesson of the day to do all the nitty gritty admin work, but it took a heck of a long time to sort the various sections of the papers out for each class, and total up their scores. I did up an excel file to analyze the students' performance, even up to question by question, and it looked terrible. The average score of the whole class ranged from 33 to 42 among my three classes! Argh. And the most disturbing thing is that my colleagues were still commenting, "Wah, average 42 is not bad leh." This cohort really si wu zhang shen zhi di (die without burial place = die jialat jialat).

I went to class to distribute the papers back, and to go through the answers. Bearing what the head of counselling had said about the possible mental state of the students, I decided not to scold them or anything, but just remind them of the grim reality that the prelims and 'A' levels are really not that far away. It is only now that we teachers are regretting removing the March common test. What we had meant as a benefit to the students merely postponed the panic that might wake them up by 3 months, and now the students have a much shorter runway to start worrying and picking up on their academics. I tried to encourage one class about their potential to do well, and one student commented, "Cher, your acting better than Stephen Chow leh. Joke also very funny." -_- Talk about low self-esteem...they couldn't even accept encouragement, and thought I was kidding. Sigh.

I had to cover the civics tutor duties yet again today. I'm getting quite used to it by now actually. I think, given the next few months, I would have seen quite a number of classes I don't teach. I accompanied a class to today's mass civics talk, which was on Love Matters. It's actually a session about love, dating, intimacy, pregnancy, abortion, and STDs. What I find strange is that something so comprehensive, interesting, and I thought was important was given a mere period to complete. The whole thing. How on earth do you cover all those big topics in 45 min, in one sitting? Something is wrong with the allocation of time, if you ask me. Anyway, it was presented by one colleague mainly, and she, this motherly funny figure, made it extremely lighthearted. What I didn't count on was that she would use me for humour (which I should have expected, because that's what she does to me on a regular basis in the staff room anyway).

She was throwing an open question to the classes about the 5 qualities one would look for in a dating partner, and then to indicate which of those will be the same qualities one would for in a life partner. I think it's a good exercise for these kids, to think a bit about this thing, frankly. Then she told them, "We will also get Mr Low to share about his criteria ok?" -_- I counted less than 5 offhand leh. Cham. I only need to think a bit about this. Fortunately, she didn't have enough time to pull me into the water. She was then reading out the lists of criteria from the students, anonymously of course, and when she saw "cute" listed, I don't know what got into her, and she went, "Cute? Like Mr Low lah." I flipped a bit, and replied to the classes to ignore her. She continued, "Not cute meh? Is Mr Low cute?" Some were laughing, and a bunch of girls at the back exclaimed a yes, in jest I assume. I was sooooooooo embarrassed lor. She went on, "Who thinks Mr Low is not cute? Raise your hands." Obviously nobody would dare raise. I commented aloud that it was a unfairly biased question. I told my colleagues about this over lunch, and they were having a good laugh. One colleague said that if she was there, she would raise her hand very high. Hahaha...

During the contact time, we watched this video on the results of MOE's survey on public perception of teaching. Surprisingly most of the results were good, except when it came to working with parents and community or something like that. A whopping percentage actually agreed on items such as 'teaching impacts lives', 'teachers are doing their work professionally', and one item involved ranking various occupations on their perceived contributions to society, and 'teacher' was ranked first. Honestly, I couldn't believe it. Not that I don't believe that we contribute a lot, but rather that the public eye views us so. Seriously, I don't recall many people I met outside, or after a long time, giving me a positive reaction when they ask me what I do. Or when a person is considering teaching, the typical friend's advice would go, "Are you sure or not? " and lists down a whole bunch of cons, and I see this happening not just to myself and a whole bunch of other friends.

I hung around a bit to finish up some admin, and had dinner with a couple of colleagues. My 3 hours of sleep last night lasted till I reached home, and I concussed till about 11 pm. Hmm...after a long holiday, my body not as resilient as before already.

I had today (as in Tuesday) off too! It's a day off for the students because of all the SYF and sports events that they won, and behind the scenes, it's to give another marking day for the teachers. Fortunately, I had rushed the marking before last weekend, so I get to enjoy another day of holiday~

I had lunch with shups! today, which is her favourite (Bugis) Teppanyaki, but today's portions were horrendously inadequate. After lunch we shopped around a little. I bought a sling bag! Surprisingly, from Bossini, which I didn't expect to have a bag that I would like, and fitted my criteria. Later, we went to catch A Lot Like Love, the Ashton Kutcher film. I don't really like the guy, but he's quite alright in the movie. The show was better than I thought it would be, although I realized that the romantic comedies in recent years thrived largely on quirkiness and not the sentimental sob-sob kind of romance stuff of maybe older films. The only thing I really don't like about the movie is the really casual sex in there. Predictable ending, but lots of funny little parts. I'm not sure if it was worth the $7, plus $1 booking fee which was totally unnecessary because I forgot that 1) it's a weekday afternoon and 2) it's Shaw Towers.

Since we were in the immediate vicinity of Pool Fusion, we could not help going to play pool for a while. We were quite evenly matched today. I had streaks some of the time, and so did shups! Overall, I thought we both played pretty well. My shots today were largely accurate, and placing was good too. If I could play like this and keep it up, adding some improvement every time, I can definitely reach the standard I hope to attain. It's still a long way off though, but I can see it now. We cut short our game for dinner with some friends, because it's Weiling's birthday dinner!

We went to this restaurant at Chijmes, called Gyu Kaku (something like that), which is a do-it-yourself grill kinda place. A bit like Seoul Garden, except that it's not a buffet, it's more expensive, but the food is better. I enjoyed the food actually. While waiting for our transport to arrive, I tried to talk to someone I had a misunderstanding with in hopes of reconciliation. Considering that I've lost track of which attempt this was, and I was still snubbed, I think I had done all I could and should, and I think this is the first friendship I decide to abandon once and for all. Even for me, I can only take so much. I am not God; my grace has limits. I am not proud, but I still have my dignity. I guess this must have been the lowest point in the day.

After the dinner, we headed out to Party World at Shenton Way for karaoke. We sang for 4 hours all the way till 2 am, which would explain why I am blogging at this time of the night when I have school tomorrow. Still, it was very fun, and I think it's worth the repercussions tomorrow if I should be zombified in class. I really ought to sleep already...sigh.

Today turned out to be a long day, and I've just reached home at about 3+ am in the morning. I started the day early going for combined service at Expo, and bumped into the uncle of one of my boys, who also happens to be the head of the touch-silent (deaf-mute) ministry of my church. We had an interesting chat for the duration of the train ride, although for some time, we had to talk across this Indian fella seated between us. Under such circumstances, if I were him, I would have offered to exchange seats, but he was too happily plugged into his music.

Worship was great! My boys and I were dancing and jumping around in the front. One thing I definitely thank God for is that my boys are quite uninhibited in worship now. I think the kids in their age group in church generally are full of energy, but I think some things are good to start from young. At one point, before I had these boys with me, I had 'grown old' in praise and worship, i.e. didn't want to jump around anymore. My excuse was that I perspire easily and heavily, and it's really gross to be in such a state during worship. However, once my boys joined me, something became different. Firstly, I wanted to role-model for them what worship can be like. The second thing is that God has rejuvenated me through them. I really don't see how I can stand still during praise while my kids are bursting with energy. I'm waiting for their energy to slowly infuse their spiritual uncles too. Heh.

Originally I had wanted to rush home and catch a nap before going down to a barbecue, but J was complaining about the sudden lack of company, so in the end, we went to Marine Parade to play pool. He was still winning most of the time, but at least most of those games I came pretty close. I think I played well today; at least I was giving him a run for his money...haha...One thing I don't like about going out in places in the east side is that I know I would surely bump into TJC students, since most of them live around this area. True enough, there was a bunch of them at Classic Pool where we played. I don't teach them personally, but I recognize the councillors, and they definitely recognize me because I had lectured the cohort before. A couple of them were friendly enough to wave to me. Maybe I played better today because I was conscious of the students possibly seeing me play, and didn't want to look bad. Haha...it's a matter of dignity.

J and I made our way after that to the SAF chalets off Changi Village. It was a looooong way there. Changi Village always makes Pasir Ris seem accessible in contrast. The barbecue was organized by my cell leader's gf for her girls and their brother cell group, and we were there by extension. Strangely I had little appetite...hope I'm not falling sick or something. It is definitely rare when I can't eat a lot. Anyway my time there was characterized by two main things - teaching Flash MX to a friend (of all the times and places!) and playing Taboo with a bunch of teenagers. For the uninformed, Taboo is a game in which a person receives a random card with a word/term/phrase on it, and a list of taboo words which he cannot use to describe it, and the rest will try to guess the actual word. They broke many rules of the game, and in fact, they have devised a variant of the game, but it was a lot of fun. The few who were describing were very animated, very creative and very amusing. Since the game is all about communication, it was interesting to see how they tried to describe the various items. References to handphones and games, for example, came out so amazingly often that I thought back on the times I played Taboo, and saw the huge disparity in the way we describe the same things. Generation gap perhaps...

I hitched a ride out of that ulu place, and by some twist of circumstance, I met up with my ex, totally impromptu. We headed down to a coffee shop in Siglap at 10+, and chatted till 3 in the morning. We had so much to talk about. It's been so long since we last met up and had a good talk, and so many things had transpired in the months following our breakup. We talked about work, friends, but mainly about our current...umm...romantic interests, and we were encouraging each other about it, and dishing out advice. Seriously I am really glad that while I had lost her as a girlfriend, I still have her as a good friend, as someone I can be absolutely candid with. That is a precious thing in its own right.

I resolve to sleep like a pig to tomorrow afternoon. A perk of teaching: extra public holiday! It's Youth Day on Sunday, and I get a day off on Monday! How cool is that?

I just came back from 6 hours of karaoke! It could have been 6.5 hours had I not waited 40 min for a stupid 147, but more on that later. It was quite a last minute thing actually, because my cousin only messaged me this afternoon about it. I survived Shin again, and I sang my heart (and lungs) out. My throat seems to be on the verge on giving way anytime soon right now though. It was beastly expensive on a Sat night (about $24 per person), but considering that we squeezed an extra 2+ hours from the package, I figured it wasn't too bad. I had fun~

This long stretch of entertainment was preceeded by a long stretch of conference. I was at church at 8.30 am in the morning, and met my pastor outside. He was about to get breakfast, so he asked me to join him. I was updating him on my boys, and received a breakfast treat in the process. Once everyone who could have turned up arrived, we began the day. This was the Gateway Cities Youth Conference, hosted by the youth network I'm in. Foreign delegates from many important cities around Asia were invited over to Singapore, to give a presentation about their home cities, so that we would have a clearer picture of what is happening in the body of Christ all over Asia, particularly the youth, and we have specific things to pray for. Basically we would worship a bit, have some presentations (today covered Japan, China and Malaysia), followed by prayer over those nations. It was interesting to hear from these delegates, who are mainly youths themselves, but at one point, it was dragging too long, and even I, who usually have no problem keeping awake, was finding it hard to stay awake. I didn't doze off at any point, but I was getting really tired.

The most fascinating thing about the conference to me was the little segment right at the end, where one of the pastors made our two head pastors of the youth network do a slow dance. The two of them are married to each other, and today marked their 22nd anniversary. The lights dimmed, and they danced, supposedly ignoring the presence of us 700 onlookers. Yet, it was so romantic and sweet. I can safely say that although the audience kept deathly quiet, you can see a collective 'awwwwww' spelled out in the air. Wow...love that lasts a lifetime. Isn't it the dream of all to have? I hope I could pull off something like that when I'm married 22 years next time. Their daughter came on stage to pray a blessing for them, and she started crying while praying. In the end, all three of them hugged, and if I could have taken a snapshot of that moment, it would spell 'happy family' all over.

After the conference, my cell and my boys went down to Anchorpoint to grab dinner, and one of my boys followed Collin and I to Clementi. This was the frustrating point in time where the bus 147 didn't come, but as Collin said later, I also believe that the 40 minute wait was for a specific purpose that God had in mind. While we were waiting, my boy out of boredom started sharing many things. He told us about him sharing the gospel with an old lady, who later on received Christ after his mother followed up on her. He showed me his booklet for taking notes, and in the front, he wrote a pledge to serve God and be equipped for missions. He shared about his dream of becoming a preacher when he's 30, to go and plant churches in other countries. As I listened, I was thinking that this is coming from a 13 year old kid. Half of me was proud of him, and the other half remained skeptical.

As we boarded the bus that came eventually, he showed me another booklet. Some time ago, he smsed me saying that he was writing a book. At that time, I didn't really take him seriously. But when I saw the booklet, I saw his seriousness. Although it was largely a collection of sermon and post-encounter session notes, it had his own input written in there. I won't even comment on the English, but beneath the immature product lies an enthusiastic heart. Suddenly I saw the childlike faith, which we adults sorely lack sometimes. In fact, I think it's precisely because we are adults that we overcomplicate things. Loving God is really much simpler than we make it out to be. God spoke in that instance, and dealt with me there and then.

I saw the ugliness of my heart, tainting all my good intentions. I have always wanted the best for my boys. I have always been praying to God to make them men who will surpass me, to inherit my strengths but not my weaknesses, and do the things I have not done or cannot do. Yet I have capped their potential with my earthly judgment. I saw their lack of discipline, their immaturity, their playfulness, their poor communication skills, and etc, and in my mind, I had already capped their potential. In my mind, I had already projected how long they will take to have a certain level of understanding of God and the bible, to progress to leading their own cells, and etc, and sorely, sorely failed to see them through Jesus' eyes. They are young, and they are small, but for some of them, the faith in their hearts is plainly big. They, at least, have passion, which some of my G12 brothers and myself can definitely use a boost in.

God in that moment used a 13 year old boy to really humble me, and teach me something really important. Who am I to assess how powerfully God can use my boys? In the bible, God didn't call scholars, educated people, and etc to do His work; he called shepherds and fishermen. The skills that I was thought that my boys required and lacked are really, in fact, secondary. It has always been an issue of the heart. They are surely growing to know God more than I had imagined or expected, and I really ought to thank God for molding them. Come to think of it, I'm the one who is sorely lacking faith - faith to see the full measure of what God can do in each of them. Hmm...I disappoint myself in my role as a spiritual father.

Ah no, I have 3 hours left to sleep before I need to wake up and rush for the combined service at Expo!

The day began with a hearty breakfast. Similar to the other day, each department sponsored some food, so I had a couple of sticks of you tiao, chwee kweh, and roti prata. Then it's time for more marking! My marking of the remaining ten classes was interspersed with a long lunch, AVC duty, a briefing, and some admin matters, but it was all done at last by 2.30 pm. Bwahaha! And then I had to attend to even more admin...needed to make some more big purchases. Bleah. Some of the government online systems, frankly, have one of the worst navigation menus. During the briefing, our new vice-principal introduced himself. He's rather humourous, and looks quite amiable. Anyway, not like I'll be working closely with him, so that doesn't really matter. Heh.

I rushed home to catch a quick nap...unless a person is teaching, I don't think he or she can fully grasp how draining marking is. Seriously, my heart goes out to the General Paper tutors. I cannot fully grasp how much more draining marking essays (with probably horrible English) can be. After that, I rushed down to Singapore Expo for the prayer meeting. In terms of number of stations, technically, the Expo station is only like 8 stations away. But between Tanah Merah and Expo, the wait is looong. And I got to see the crowds. Goodness, there were so many people going to Expo for the prayer meeting, the whole place was utterly congested. I'm imagining what it will be like when my church moves there for service...fortunately, I just found an alternative. Apparently, bus number 12 drops by Expo, but I wonder how long the bus journey is...

Anyway, I went to the meeting with absolutely no idea what it was about. The big hall in Expo was almost packed, and it was a grand sight to behold. I took a few (blur) pictures with my handphone, but one of my boys is still holding on to my bluetooth, so no uploading...The whole session was praise and worship, prayer and preaching scattered through the 3 hours. One of the invited speakers, David Allbritton, was amazing. He spoke with such passion I think he's walking dynamite. Apparently he has led at least 17000 people to Christ, on one-on-one basis, not counting big events. Inspiring, to say the least. He said something interesting. "If I gave you 5000 bucks for each person you led to Christ, I'm pretty sure you'll go find out how to witness...it's not about whether you know how to, but whether you want to." If I reflect honestly, I think sometimes it's also not about whether you want to, but an issue of getting past all the reservations about how the other party will take it, whether it will affect your friendship, etc. Sometimes, I actually think it might be easier to witness to strangers like he did, than to people you really value a lot, provided your skin is thick enough to take the first step.

What struck me was the second last wave, Love East Timor. The churches in Singapore are rallying to render assistance to the country. There was a video about what is going on, but I'd seen it before during one of the church services. Tears just came to my eyes. Not that the video was touching, but rather, I felt the grief of God over the nation. I don't think I'd been very sensitive to the Holy Spirit lately, so I suppose the fact that I can feel this so strongly must had been the presence of God being very strong in the place. I believe what Rev Moses Tay said was true - East Timor is on the top of God's agenda for nations right now. Come to think of it, I haven't been moved to pray for something so strongly in a long time, but I will pray for that nation.

On a side-note, 7-eleven is opening a branch at the block in front of my block. I'm rather happy about it actually. Not that I buy things from 7-eleven very often, but I suppose there's at least a convenient option of buying snacks or instant noodles at 3 to 4 am in the morning when I'm still awake and dying of starvation.