Today was a packed but fun day - packed even though I had no official lessons. I spent the bulk of the time doing some administrative things, preparing for next term's lessons in advance, because I'd be going on reservist duty, so I had better tie up all the loose ends first. Inbetween, I found some spare time to teach my colleagues Jonathan and ZH how to play Magic the Gathering. I don't recall how we ended up talking about it last week, but in any case, they were curious, so this week, I brought some decks along to teach them. Come to think of it, I think teaching is in my nature. I remember in secondary school, I used to teach my classmates (almost like free tuition...hmm...I should have been more entrepreneurial...). In JC and Uni, I explained lectures and notes to my classmates, who then did the tutorials, which I borrowed, so it was a symbiotic relationship. In army I taught a group of camp mates how to play Magic the Gathering. Other than my brief stint of tuition some time ago, I've been teaching all this while! Heh.

In the evening, I went to attend the birthday party of a friend SY. She held a gathering at this Mind Cafe at Prinsep street, which is essentially a board games place. These joints are springing up all over the place just like bubble tea shops years ago. Talk about jumping on the bandwagon. My table was filled with strangers. In fact, I don't think I know anyone else there other than birthday girl and her brother. Unfortunately, I do recognize many of their faces. They were from or still are in my church. The alarming thing is about half of them used to be in FCBC, but had left. Half is a big proportion indeed. Anyway, I received a compliment out of nowhere, surprisingly. SY introduced me to her friends, and told them my occupation. The usual response is disbelief, which I would take as a good thing, since most people have an impression that teachers are mostly nerdy, or boring-looking. This friend of hers looked shocked, and blurted out, "Such a good-looking teacher!"

I felt so flattered. Bwahaha. But I think she probably meant to say "Such a cool-looking teacher!" Important distinction there, but in any case, a compliment is still a compliment. Hehe.

My table's folks were certain they did not want to exercise their brains too much, and so after changing a few games, we ended up with Monopoly, but Lord of the Rings edition. On an incidental note, the rest of the people at my table were all ladies. After playing an hour plus of monopoly, I fully realize why I don't like the game. It is absolutely mindless. It's almost purely luck, and no real strategy involved. Give me mahjong/bridge/Magic the Gathering any day. Heck, even Risk is better mental exercise. The best part of the party was not the booze (that I hardly drank...), or the food (which I hardly ate...mum cooked big dinner for me), but the fact that I met up with the birthday girl, and especially her brother, whom I have not talked to since army days. When I was in the army, he was in the same cell group as me. After that, he went to Australia to study, and we lost contact more or less. We spoke on occasion over ICQ (suddenly this sounds so primitive), but that's about it. I chanced to meet him off Plaza Sing last year, but didn't get to talk to him.

Considering that he disappeared down under for so many years, it is extremely heartening to hear that right after he came back, he rejoined the church, and that while he was there in Australia, he attended a local church there. Especially because SY, his sister, is one of those who left FCBC. She is someone I'm still speaking to from time to time, trying to encourage her to return to church (and God), but am still unsuccessful. I'm also happy to hear that he's getting married this July, to his girlfriend (whom I know) of 4 years. Feels like I found a long-lost brother after all these years...

I realize that I'm blogging less frequently now. Anyway, that's because I'm devoting a lot of time and attention to the expansion of my homepage. Right now I'm trying to do up a site to showcase my portfolio, including my penwork pieces (those that I still have with me, that is), and some graphic design stuff I've done (which still exist in my harddisk, of course). Too many ideas, too little time.

Skipping the nitty-gritty details, few things happened in the past few days. More interesting things include going to Sim Lim Square with my colleague Evie, and gf, to help Evie assemble a desktop. To be more precise, I went along with her to help her pick the components that should go into her desktop, and leave the assembling to faster experts from the shop. One irritating thing about technology is how fast it progresses. Her computer right now costs just as much as the one I got for myself (and am still using now) a couple of years back, and her computer's specifications are almost exactly double that of mine, be it RAM, chip, and all. Fortunately, right now it seems to be a battle of fast, faster and fastest, and my fast computer is good enough for me. At this point, I don't think the gap is as big as it used to be, and am no longer tempted to keep up with the times. Come to think of it though, I am still tempted to get a PDA phone, but it's sooooo beastly expensive.

I finally went to K-Lunch today. After maybe a month-long hiatus, due to my gf's long-running illness, and the busyness of other kakis. I think compounded with the fact that I've been absorbed in my web design that I've not been even listening to pop songs, I feel extremely rusty. Looking at the newest songs released, I see none that are familiar. It took a long time to warm up the vocals too, made worse by a slightly blocked nose. Maybe now that my gf's recovered more or less, I may end up at K-Box more often. Anyway K-Lunch is really dirt-cheap...we sang for about 3 hours, and the bill came up to $12.85, for two of us. Goodness, with a cost like that, I really no longer see the point of going KTV at night where it costs way more than double that, not counting cab fare.

I went to play pool in the evening today with my cell guys as well. Another thing I am passionate about but am feeling rusty in doing. Today's standard was just average, I estimate. Sigh. I am playing too little. I think I really should go and set up some recreational pool for teachers after school; there's already bowling and tennis ongoing right now, so why not pool too? We have a pool table in one of the rooms that will be converted to a students' lounge anyway. Let me find some initiative in myself and get a proposal out someday soon.

I just admonished my class on Fri. After a couple of months of showing grace and understanding, I decided to throw in the towel. Now, these days, there are many advocates of reasoning with kids instead of punishing them and using negative reinforcement. For those who are psychology-illiterate, it means that using punishment to make them not do something bad, or wrong. The advocates, who stem mostly from the western countries, feel that punishment is not a good thing, since it causes emotional hurts, and yadda yadda. After observing about 2 years of teaching, I have come to realize that it is crap. Reasoning only works for people with some degree of maturity, self-awareness, and desire for self-improvement.

I have tried in many ways to convince my students (especially those in my form class) why they should be working harder academically, for the future's sake, amongst other things, such as disciplinary issues, and etc. I think a rare few heard what I have to say. The rest are just taking everything for granted, and cruising along. I see many parents nowadays who worship their children. Yeah, I do mean worship, because the kids seem more important to them than life, and they would never doubt a single word the kids say, and even abet their certain behaviours (such as missing school). I look at the children of my generation who have frequently seen the use of the cane whenever we do wrong things (in the home), received scoldings, beatings, and etc, and frankly, I don't see the effects of trauma and all the crap the psychologists talk about. I think the saying "Spare the rod and spoil the child" is very apt still. I think we still grew up well, and whole, and upright. More importantly, disciplined. Not that there is no worth in what is ideal; of course, reasoning with the child is important. However, wrong behaviour ought to have consequences, and reasoning after punishment can help the child understand why he is being punished, rather than just meting out a punishment in anger. No, I am talking about the other extreme, where parents let the kids run amok. I have no evidence of this of course, but looking at some kids out there, I think I can guess the way the parents brought them up, and for the life of me, I can't see how a lack of punishment can help a kid who, say, runs around the mrt the whole time, grow up better.

Hmm, I digress. I think I practically spilled out the background processing in my brain that made me decide to implement consequences for my students should they fail certain expectations. Like the saying "Spare the rod, and spoil the child", I prefer a close Chinese version "玉不琢不成器", which literally means that if you don't chip away at a piece of jade, it can never become an instrument, or a vessel - something to that effect. The chipping away denotes discipline of course, and I want to see my students become people of worth someday. So yes, I shall not be soft-hearted, and spoil them in the long run.

The other saying worth noting would be "子不教, 父之过. 教不严, 师之错" - I sure am not going to let it be my fault.

The latest addition to my homepage is now complete, which is a collection of photos related to school, i.e. school events, colleagues, and etc. Check out the Living Room, and look out for the new photo frame button added to the shelf. On to the next webpage!

The Living Room

I finally managed to catch Fearless today, and I think it's an excellent movie. I am still wondering why the friends who have watched it only told me it's a good movie, or the action sequences are not bad, because I think the movie is heavy, meaningful, and inspiring, which is not something I would expect from a pugilistic film. I will review the movie in detail, because the movie triggered off many thoughts, so beware of imminent spoilers. Since I'm only able to catch the movie so late after it started screening, I think most others who would have wanted to watch it would probably have already caught it.

The movie begins in 1910, and then almost immediately goes into a flashback to 30 years ago when the protagonist Huo Yuan Jia (霍元甲), played by Jet Li, was just a sickly child. His father forbids him from learning martial arts because of his asthma, but he loves it so much that he secretly practises, to the extent of having his good friend Jin Sun write his calligraphy for him. Yuan Jia went to the arena to watch his father duel a man from another martial arts house, and saw his father withhold a death blow to the opponent, only to be defeated thereafter. The opponent's son mocked Yuan Jia, who challenged him to a fight, and lost miserably. He swore that he would never be beaten in that arena ever again, and he held true to that vow.

He had not understood why his father withheld that blow, and grew up to be an arrogant man, who was mercilessly vicious in the arena. He also avenged himself by defeating the kid who beat him up long ago, who now had also grown up to be a pugilist of notable fame. Jin Sun, on the other hand, had opened a restaurant, and Yuan Jia goes there to drink often, attracting followers because of his fame. Jin Sun advised him on his way of life, and warned him against welcoming every Tom, Dick and Harry to be his follower, because his followers were just chalking up bills on his account. A crucial story point was when one of his followers returned, severely beaten up by another strong pugilist Qin Ye (秦爷), who he had yet to defeat to be number on in Tianjin.

He goes to Jin Sun's restaurant to pick a fight, and despite his friend's advice, he went ahead to challenge Qin Ye to a death match. The friendship splintered at that point, and he defeated the opponent, and dealt him an unnecessary heavy injury to the chest (unnecessary because it was evident that he had already won the fight before that blow) that killed the man hours later. Qin Ye's godson then sought vengeance, and murdered Yuan Jia's mother and daughter in their sleep. Bereaved, Yuan Jia went to Qin Ye's house, and took the godson's life. Even in his maddened state, he could not bear to kill Qin Ye's wife and daughter, and fled. Although the film is classified as NC16 for violence, and the movie till this point has been bloody and violent, I feel that the movie's message is that the consequences of violence is unimaginably grave. Yuan Jia's mother and daughter's death was brought about by his hunger for power and pride. His plight seemed even more deplorable when he then found out that his follower who was beaten up essentially was the one at fault, having harrassed Qin Ye's wife, which led to his beating, and that the rest of the followers who knew about it did not tell him about it. The good friend whom he lost in that process turned out to be right in his warnings. That was a heavy moment in the film, and he broke.

He tried to drown himself in the river, but was rescued by villagers. He spent the next few years in the village, helping to plant padi, and the blind woman who was taking care of him helped him out of his misery with her little pearls of wisdom. Fortunately the movie did not lapse into soppy romance, which I thought it might have, so thank goodness it did not betray the excellent premise of the story. He returned to Tianjin, only to find the signs of western culture's infiltration into China. His servant kept the house intact all this while, and stands as an example of loyalty, which was incidentally the theme of today's sermon in service. Anyway, he found out that his good friend had helped him pay off his debtors, and looked him up, hoping to borrow money. Jin Sun turned him down upon hearing that he wanted to go back to fighting, but after he realized that Yuan Jia wanted to stand up to the ridicule of the Westerners against the Chinese people, he supported Yuan Jia's cause.

Yuan Jia challenged O'Brien, a herculean man, to a fight and won, at the same time saving the man from certain death, earning the respect of all present, and regaining the dignity of the Chinese. The action sequences are excellent throughout the movie, and it seems that Jet Li has not lost his touch yet. It's unfortunate that this would be his last martial arts flick. Jin Sun, in order to support Yuan Jia, closed down his thriving restaurant business to open a martial arts academy. The depth of friendship and loyalty (ah, loyalty again...relevance to the sermon once more) was impressive, and I found that element in the film to be an extremely strong point. It would appear that without Jin Sun, Yuan Jia would probably not be able to achieve all that he did.

A Japanese businessman plotted Yuan Jia's downfall, and sent him a challenge to face 4 of the best fighters from 4 countries. He defeated a boxer, a spearman and a fencer fairly easily, before facing a Japanese warrior. Before the fight, the two men met for tea and they had a very deep talk about the philosophy of battling, and earned each other's respect. Now, I've always upheld the view that Chinese Wushu and Japanese Bushido are superior martial arts to that of the Western world's hack and slash. Even fencing, which I view to be an elegant fighting style, does not come close. Essentially Asian martial arts embody more than just techniques - it's about philosophy, and ways of living. Ethics, morals, principles, life philosophy and more. There is a certain spirit involved, that is different from that of the West, although perhaps the concept of knighthood is a close parallel. Therefore, I found the last battle between the Japanese warrior and Huo Yuan Jia to be particularly memorable, because they both embody the idea of honour in their fight. In the end, he was poisoned to death, but his Japanese opponent admitted defeat, knowing that if not for the poison, he would have died from one particular blow. That unjust ending, and the death of the protagonist lend a certain weight to the movie, and to the cause that he was fighting for, which was to stand up to the West for the dignity of the Chinese people. Admirable indeed, although after some research, I found that in real life, Huo Yuan Jia died of slow poisoning, which was something planned and carried out by some Japanese over a long period of time that destroyed his lungs.

I rate the movie 5 stars - a serious, powerful film, aside from the spectacular pugilistic action.

Yesterday I went to the sanctification meeting at Touch Centre, and it was great. Although the message wasn't new to me, I felt God at work in the place. It's been a really long time since I was last in Touch Centre auditorium, so it felt kinda nostalgic, with the pews and all. It's pretty squeezy though, compared to the individual seats of TCT, or the current Expo hall, especially since some girls along my row kept squeezing in a few more friends. I knew that I still haven't fully recovered from flu when I started jumping around during praise and worship, and the calves got so tight, and I was short of breath.

Hence, today, I decided to take care of my health and just be an official, rather than take part in the road run. We were all back in school today, for the annual Road Run. The whole college was in high spirits, and it was interesting to keep a lookout for my students who participated. I was at the emcee 'booth' the whole time, because I'm in charge of AVC, and had a pretty good view of the track. As usual, everyone forgets to give credit to AVC during acknowledgements, and I think my exco guys (myself included) are getting quite sick of that. Maybe one fine day we should all just go on strike, just to let people notice the existence of the people helping to keep the events going. To think the higher-ups always suggest giving the members more recognition whenever I bring up the issue of too little people wanting to join AVC, and this is what happens. Come on, if even a simple mention of the club's name during credit rolls is not achievable, what else can be offered? Sigh. Maybe one fine day I'll shut the club down and force all staff to undergo AV equipment training, so they can do everything themselves when they need to...it doesn't hurt me, since I'm already doing that whenever the AV technician is not around anyway.

The things that are taken for granted are usually only appreciated only when they stop working. Like the aircon, or something.

I went to the tabernacle worship this evening, and it was crowded. Unlike last year's, today, God spoke to me about a great many issues, and I was weeping away right from the outer courts. In the Holy of Holies, out of nowhere, this guy prayed for me. As he prayed, suddenly he mentioned how God used me to bless him, and when I turned to see who it was after he was done, I realized he was a student in VJC who attended the same School of Leaders (SOL) 3 class with me. Two years ago, I invigilated the 'A' level examinations in VJC, and happened to be the one in his classroom. I recognized him from SOL3, so I talked to him a little, and left him with a "God bless you". Just now while he was praying, he said that the moment then was what God used to remind him that God is always with him, even right there in the exam hall, and he thinks that's how he got his 4 As. Interesting little experience - one never really can tell how and where God can use a person.

A brief summary of the past 3 days - one word: flu. Many students were bugging me about what I did on Valentine's day, whereby my (pained) reply was along the line of 'what can 2 sick people do?' Rest and recuperate. She did drop by my place on Tue, when I was the sicker one. The full blow of the flu's lethargy hit me on Tue, but interestingly enough, at the end of the day's lesson, my sore throat cleared up more or less. By Wed, I was feeling somewhat better, and spent the day quietly resting. Same as today. In any case, it is quite rare that I can recover without seeing the doctor, as many friends can testify.

The days are strikingly hot lately. The sun is scorching every afternoon, and it is only Feb! I cannot imagine how hot it will become when we approach May, when the heat wave typically comes. Right now, I'm already thinking of how I'll perspire when I go for reservist in Mar under such a sun. Eeeks.

I've been wondering about something recently. First I heard about the armed robbery at a lottery outlet. Some days back, there was a case about a nightclub owner being shot (5 or 6 times) to his death in his apartment. Of course, these are two separate cases, but...how did they get the guns? For the life of me, no matter how criminally I try to gear my brain, I cannot conceive how to smuggle in firearms. In the past, it's once in a blue moon where you hear anything about some crime committed where the felon carried firearms; most of the time it's just knives or some other simple weapon. At most, if there was anything about a gun, it might have involved the gun of some police officer or guard who shot himself in acts of suicide. Is there some easier route to bring in a gun these days or something? Scary notion there indeed, especially since security in past years have been steadily beefed up because of terrorism threats, and one would have thought that it would become increasingly difficult to pull off something like this.

First, to air some thoughts.

A few weeks ago, I made a barbed comment during a lecture that has returned to haunt me. I was doing a lecture, and the students came in late, as usual, and couldn't settle down for a good fifteen minutes. I waited for them to hush themselves, but students' "shhhhs" fell on deaf ears, and I had to step in still to sternly ask for cooperative silence. This has been happening week after week, and it is just plain noisy disruption, and a waste of lecture time. I had let it rest at that, but later, when I was showing a slide of an example in the notes, due to lack of time, I asked them to only copy the final chemical equation and fill in the simple working of a couple of lines of numbers themselves. When I wanted to move on, I hear murmurs of protests. I was surprised, and commented something about my instruction being just copying the equation, and that they must be copying the working, which they shouldn't be. I waited moments more, and tried to move on, and again, same protests.

It shouldn't take that long to copy that short a working, whereupon I made the comment that has made me infamously known as The Sarcastic Lecturer: "First I had doubts about your attitude; now I have doubts about your intelligence." Apparently the sarcasm worked to its intended effect, and jolted many students. Apparently also, it worked too well, and I heard that many students were upset by it and all. Now it has gone one big round, and some parent raised a complaint indirectly about it.

It seems odd to me for a few reasons. 1) The students who didn't give any trouble ought to realize that they aren't the ones my remark was meant for in the first place. 2) Does having doubts about someone's intelligence necessarily imply that the person is stupid, as some seem to take it? 3) If the comment actually makes them take offence, then they may in fact be the guilty ones responsible, and shouldn't they reflect on what is wrong, rather than thinking that I'm someone sarcastic who has insulted them? After all, the only reason why I had to rush through that lecture is precisely because the lecture has been delayed every single time by the students themselves who can't keep quiet or come in late, strolling, trying to find friends, and seats (when half the lecture theatre is available).

This is a weird era, where authority figures are losing power. Just look at National Service, and the power of the servicemen. After so many incidents have occured, now even officers are cautious as to punishments meted out and all, because this is a generation who can easily lodge a complaint. Look at the schools, where what was previously a thing done in the past that no one would bat an eyelid to has sent a school principal out of job. Not that I'm keen to whack a student's head with a jotterbook or something, but it's sad to think that after embarking on the corporate mindset that students (and parents) are our clients, the axiom of "The customer is always right" would show up to cripple us. True, the methods of the past may have effects on the psyche of some, but who is to say that the current trend of leniency would work better? There must be some proverbial wisdom in the saying, 'Spare the rod, and spoil the child'.

I shudder to think that the wired generation is becoming a mired generation.

That aside, the other day, one of my students was trying to sell me roses and chocolates for Valentine's Day, to which I replied that I wouldn't bother getting such un-unique presents for my gf. Indeed, why bother getting such things when I can give her something that cannot be bought anywhere in the world? A pen-work portrait drawn by yours truly, complete with a nice wooden frame! Bwahaha. Unfortunately, I don't have a scanner, so I could only capture the portrait with my trusty handphone camera, hence the low resolution. Heh. (Blogger's picture posting is acting cranky on me now, so I have to use a primitive method, i.e. Hello software to post the picture.)

Tada~ Portrait of gf~

Fri 10 Feb

This is the second day in a row I'm eating steamboat buffet dinner, only this time, it's with my gf's cell group. I wonder why everyone suddenly wants to have steamboat...is it because of the festive new year mood? The one we went to is along Beach Road, beside Beach Hotel. There are 3 such places along that same stretch, but they are usually bustling with business. It's interesting though. A few years back, they are just normal coffee shops, selling normal coffee shop stuff like chicken/duck rice, fishball noodles and the like. Suddenly, all swapped to 麻辣火锅. Anyway, it's really 一分钱一分货, because the steamboat place I went to on the previous place charges almost double, but there is a difference in freshness of the seafood, and meat, that is sufficiently telling. The Beach Road ones charge about $12, and has a narrower selection.

The more interesting contrast is the company; my cell group guys are almost carnivorous in choice of food, whereas my gf's cell group's girls and boyfriends are almost herbivorous. And they didn't eat prawns! Very un-Singaporean at a buffet - the usual expected scenario is to grab the most expensive foods. So I ended up eating almost all the prawns myself, utterly surprised. The other weird thing is that all 6 of us there loved pig's liver, which is surprising. Another oddity was that all 6 of us were either teachers or going to become one soon, covering from Pri Sch to JC and even ITE!

After dinner, we went to catch Fun with Dick and Jane. After some reviews that marked it as an average show, I came out pleasantly surprised. The show was funny, and not really in the typical slapstick Jim Carrey humour. I think it helps that the whole movie reeks of a corporate satire, so some scenes appear more as a mockery than slapstick. I think Tea Leoni is quite adept at comedy now, and I recall liking her performance in the fairly recent movie Spanglish. Jim Carrey looks considerably older now, but his face and expressions are still very...elastic. I think he's one Hollywood celebrity who cannot afford to go for Botox injections; he would lose his power to entertain if he can't move his eyebrows or something anymore. Heh. We even took a photo with the movie poster, all the while tempted to strike the same pose (but one succumbed to actually do it).

Sat 11 Feb

My cell leader's getting married in April! So exciting! Although I've been an emcee for my cousin's wedding before, this is the first time I'm more involved in the planning and all. All the helpers and the couple held a meeting today at my cell leader's house to discuss roles and responsibilities. I am in charge of doing the presentation for him (yeah the groom-and-bride-baby-grow-up-to-adult-then-meet kind), and will be one of the best men that day. Massive planning and logistics involved for a wedding, I realize, and there are close to thirty people involved for the entire day. I was thinking to myself that if I'm capable of it, I would opt to do most of the things myself. Bwahaha. Especially the presentation. I must think of something other than the typical photo montage that I can accomplish myself for my future wedding, without employing professionals.

I think I'm falling sick. Blocked nose and sore throat. Bleah.

It has finally ended. I am simply...incredible. Bwahaha.

















1.37 million+. No way will I try to beat that record anymore. I'm da man! Woohoo! I also note that the game has stretched over 6 hours in the span of 2 days. Scary.

I was hanging around in school till quite late to finish up some work, because I had a dinner with my cell groups (my own adult cell, and the boys under me). After I was done, I went back to playing Bejewelled 2 yet again.

I just couldn't lose.

I thought I could finish playing by the time I needed to go, but I just kept on surviving. At the end of it, I realized that...I am the king of Bejewelled 2! This is probably the last game of Bejewelled 2 I'm gonna play, because I doubt I can ever beat this high score, which incidentally is not finalized yet, because I still haven't lost yet. I left the laptop to hibernate, and hopefully I can resume the game some time tomorrow if I can squeeze out a free period or something. If I can't, then I guess the high score remains as this spectacular figure. Check it out~
















From the previous high score of 185612, I am now at 844340, which is 4.5 times the previous score! Bwahaha. The inane things I am proud of. Heh.

The cell group went down to Xian De Lai restaurant along Liang Seah St for steamboat buffet. My cell group guys can really eat. For meat, there's like 5 pieces per plate, and we order in the tens. We go like, "Miss, 20 plates of beef! 10 plates of fish!" everytime we order and reorder. We ate, and we ate, and we ate. The waitress looked horrified when we reordered the fourth time or something, and we still asked for ten plates of meat. I ate a lot of prawns, which were fresh, but I broke out in hives momentarily on the face. I usually do eat prawns a lot, so it might be something else altogether that I was allergic to. In any case, the hives subsided rapidly, so I was fine. The food was fairly good, and the soup base was delicious. When they say it's spicy, it was an understatement. The spicy chicken they served was so hot that after we took a few small pieces, all our lips look beestung thick and red. The price stated is $17.80++, but after a drink, GST and etc, the price hit about $23 per person. Apparently the soup is charged at $5 per hot plate set up.

After that, we went down the street to Dessert House to grab some dessert. Yeah, we really can eat a lot. I had mango sago at $3.80, which was not bad, and the ice was amazingly smooth. As my cell brother puts it, the ice feels smoother than dou hua (beancurd).

The current ministry mantra of TLLM (Teach Less Learn More) is taking its toll on me. Compared to last year's batch of students I taught, the current JC year ones has a reduction of 45 min of tutorial time per week. Right now, I am seeing an unprecedented phenomenon: the tutorial lagging behind the lectures by a whopping 3 topics! Most of the time, it ought to be just 1 topic behind, so that when the students attempt the tutorial, the topic is still relatively fresh in their minds. Sometimes when time is insufficient, it might at most become a lag of 2 topics. What we are seeing now, though, is ridiculous. Everytime my class requests that I release them early, in my mind I am thinking, "These people don't know what they are in for." I hope this does not lead to an unprecedented number of make-up lessons. Argh.

I was momentarily free while waiting for my gf to eat lunch with me, and I accomplished this:

















I beat my previous record by a whopping 40000 points thereabouts. Bwahaha. Ah, the little joys of life that distract me from the mundane.

I realize that I'm having a flood of inspiration when it comes to web design currently, with half a dozen ideas on what new extensions to my homepage to add, but I also realize that I'm having a drought of inspiration when it comes to poetry. Oddly enough, I haven't written anything for months. I guess blood brudder Yuren is right - pain and sorrow make better muses than general happiness. Come to think of it, all things considered, I'd rather have more happiness and write less. Heh.

Today's post is related to cabs. First, the angry thing. I was waiting for a cab for quite a while to send my gf home, to no avail. Then this family of 3 walked past us, and stopped within 3 metres and started flagging away. I was totally pissed off. It's one thing to try to steal someone else's cab; most people I see who 'subtly' cut queues by walking in front of me have the guilty conscience to look sheepish when they were doing it. The average person would probably walk some distance down. This family just planted itself a few steps down the pavement from me. I think it wasn't so much the queue-cutting that pushed me over the top, but the blatant rudeness to do it so in-my-face.

The cab that did stop for us had a front-seat passenger - the cab driver's wife. At first we thought that the lady in front dropped a guy off from the back seat, but the passenger who alighted was exclaiming, "No, no, that's the wife!" So we took the cab anyway. The couple was conversing in Malay most of the time, until my gf asked them something that got them talking to us a little. I think it's pretty sweet. I think the cab drivers who work night shifts have it pretty bad, in terms of family life. They work late at night till morning, and then they sleep through the day, when maybe the wife is at home and awake. By evening, they are out, and that's probably when the kids are at home. It wouldn't be a bad thing for the wife to ride along here and there. Of course it felt a little weird being in the cab just now, so it's a fairly naive notion, but I still thought it was a sweet gesture to be driving the wife around, even if the guy's at work actually.

Desperate Housewives is back! Considering the simple fact that I am a second-hand TV-viewer (just like second-hand smoke, I happen to watch only because I'm in the living room with my mum who is watching TV) at best, for me to be following a TV series, even if loosely following, is quite rare nowadays. I think the show has one heck of a storyline - a tightly woven plot with just enough mystery and suspense to keep you in anticipation for the next episode, and with absolutely neurotic and idiosyncratic characters. Maybe I should block out Monday nights and keep them free... Bwahaha.

Wed went by rather quickly. The day was fairly packed with lessons, to an afternoon lo hei session in school for all the staff. I went back home to catch a quick nap and went to the Youthnet 144 and leaders meeting. The sharing by Ps Julie was pretty interesting, and I think she makes an excellent speaker. It would be so cool to have the female pastors take the pulpit once in a while to preach. Thu was a long day. I have only 2 two-hour lessons, but one starts at 9.15 am, and the other starts at 3.15 pm. It is always a dreadful wait inbetween, even if I fill up the time gap with admin or preparation work. The weirdest thing is that I see the same class for four hours in the day, by their request, for a better timetable (for them) presumably. It felt alright for me, but I'm not sure if they were suffering from an overdose of chemistry.

I had planned to jog today with some colleagues originally, but I think I felt the onset of flu. Despite the slight sickly feeling, I'd thought I'd give it a shot still, but by afternoon time, the sun was scorchingly hot. It was so unbearable that I scrapped the idea completely. Blazing sun + not feeling well = bad idea to jog. I popped by my gf's place for dinner, and the lethargy hit me so hard that I concussed for a good half an hour there I think. Good thing I fell asleep actually; the nap rejuvenated me enough to meet my friends for a session of pool. Today's turnout was nostalgic. Other than shups!, there were SK, JL, and KT, who I haven't met for a long time. In fact, I think the last time I played pool with them could be half a decade ago! We used to play almost every Saturday when church service was still held only at Touch Centre, Marine Parade. I couldn't join them anymore after I followed my pastor over to the Bukit Merah site. Therefore, this was a pool reunion. We played for quite a while, and despite a rusty start, after some time, we all played pretty well.

This is the way it should be - more pool sessions! Bwahaha. Now let me think of how to usurp the current billiards room in school...