- Proverbs 13:24 - He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.
- Hebrews 12:8 - If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.
Friday, June 30, 2006
McCrea gets stiff 24 years for killing two.
That is the headline on the front page of today's Straits Times. I wonder if anyone else sees the word 'stiff' in there as ironic, because I sure do. Is this really a ruling in Singapore's court of law? Hmm let's not dig too far into the past - Man killed child (Huang Na), sentenced to hang; man killed factory worker claiming to chicken out of a suicide pact, sentenced to hang. Briton killed chauffeur, claiming manslaughter, and subsequently killed chauffeur's PRC girlfriend by suffocating her by tying plastic bags over her head, gets a 'stiff 24 years'. First case, child was disposed in a cardboard box. Second case, woman was dismembered and body parts were disposed of in several locations. Third case, chauffeur was chopped up to fit a wicker basket. Both corpses were disposed off in a car. Comment on McCrea's case in the article says, in verbatim, that it was his hiding of evidence that damned him. Oddly enough, the hiding of evidence seems consistent with the previous two cases, and McCrea gets a 'stiff 24 years'. So much for damnation. The man who killed two gets a lighter sentence than the two men who killed one.
I know that there was a promise made to not deliver the death sentence as conditions to his extradition, but still, I don't see how this McCrea evaded a life sentence. The killing of the chauffeur, if mitigated as manslaughter, could be justified for that 10 years of jail term, but I don't see how the killing of the chauffeur's PRC girlfriend, clearly in cold blood, did not warrant a life sentence.
This reminds me of yesterday's article, which raised some minor uproar among some of my female colleagues. A man who molested his maid on several occasions was fined $5000 instead of caning and jail because he was terminally ill. I can understand why the judge withheld a caning sentence out of compassion, since he did have a tumour in his neck which left him with only a few years to leave at most. Only a fine though? Very reassuring. The next terminally ill person who is rich enough to fork out $5000 can go around molesting anyone then.
Is this really Singapore's court of law? I have always thought that our courts dealt out harsh and severe sentences, and if I remember what the lawyer who conducted my law module in university said, he mentioned that our local philosophy is to deal a harsher sentence so as to deter future offenders. I thought that idea was a good one, but perhaps that philosophy has moved on along with the previous Chief Justice.
I am very disturbed by these rulings.
I will watch the news to see if Tiwary's killing of two flat mates will earn him a death sentence, and in the Filipino-maid-killing case where the corpse was disposed of in Orchard Road, whether the maid perpetrator would get a death sentence.
That is the headline on the front page of today's Straits Times. I wonder if anyone else sees the word 'stiff' in there as ironic, because I sure do. Is this really a ruling in Singapore's court of law? Hmm let's not dig too far into the past - Man killed child (Huang Na), sentenced to hang; man killed factory worker claiming to chicken out of a suicide pact, sentenced to hang. Briton killed chauffeur, claiming manslaughter, and subsequently killed chauffeur's PRC girlfriend by suffocating her by tying plastic bags over her head, gets a 'stiff 24 years'. First case, child was disposed in a cardboard box. Second case, woman was dismembered and body parts were disposed of in several locations. Third case, chauffeur was chopped up to fit a wicker basket. Both corpses were disposed off in a car. Comment on McCrea's case in the article says, in verbatim, that it was his hiding of evidence that damned him. Oddly enough, the hiding of evidence seems consistent with the previous two cases, and McCrea gets a 'stiff 24 years'. So much for damnation. The man who killed two gets a lighter sentence than the two men who killed one.
I know that there was a promise made to not deliver the death sentence as conditions to his extradition, but still, I don't see how this McCrea evaded a life sentence. The killing of the chauffeur, if mitigated as manslaughter, could be justified for that 10 years of jail term, but I don't see how the killing of the chauffeur's PRC girlfriend, clearly in cold blood, did not warrant a life sentence.
This reminds me of yesterday's article, which raised some minor uproar among some of my female colleagues. A man who molested his maid on several occasions was fined $5000 instead of caning and jail because he was terminally ill. I can understand why the judge withheld a caning sentence out of compassion, since he did have a tumour in his neck which left him with only a few years to leave at most. Only a fine though? Very reassuring. The next terminally ill person who is rich enough to fork out $5000 can go around molesting anyone then.
Is this really Singapore's court of law? I have always thought that our courts dealt out harsh and severe sentences, and if I remember what the lawyer who conducted my law module in university said, he mentioned that our local philosophy is to deal a harsher sentence so as to deter future offenders. I thought that idea was a good one, but perhaps that philosophy has moved on along with the previous Chief Justice.
I am very disturbed by these rulings.
I will watch the news to see if Tiwary's killing of two flat mates will earn him a death sentence, and in the Filipino-maid-killing case where the corpse was disposed of in Orchard Road, whether the maid perpetrator would get a death sentence.
posted by MadPoet : 11:29 PM Thursday, June 29, 2006
Wed 28 Jun
I got to wake up late today because of my off in lieu, but I spent the previous night working on a poster for my colleagues who are setting up a booth for the upcoming ExcelFest. I made my way down to Tampines Safra's Sakura restaurant for a buffet, because some colleagues were treating the chemistry department, due to their recent promotions/confirmation. The train journey to Tampines was in fact shorter than the bus journey to Safra. I waited almost 15 min for the bus, and the bus driver slowly sauntered to his driver's seat. He still didn't open the bus door, and was there casually filling up some log books. When he finally signalled us to board the bus, he still didn't leave the depot after everyone got on. He was there filling his books, and after he had reversed a short distance out of the depot, he drove back into the depot for two girls who were trying to catch the bus. I acknowledge this was gracious of him certainly, but the second time he reversed out of the depot, he saw a fellow bus driver, and stopped in the bus park, opened the door to talk to him for a min! Little wonder my colleagues were asking me why my face was black. It took me 25 min to reach Tampines Safra after I reached Tampines, and the place was like 3 bus stops away from the interchange?
The food was good enough for the price, and I think I mostly ate the sashimi which was about average grade. The lamb chop was quite nice though. After that I went home to rest a while, before making my way to cell group. Short evening, if not for the continuation of the poster design.
Thu 29 Jun
It's back to school again! A mid-week break can be quite refreshing too, compared to a long weekend. It neatly chops the week into two short parts, which makes it more enjoyable. There was a department meeting which I missed because of my TA lesson, but I made it in time for the free food. Hmm, lots of free food this week I realized. Anyway the caterer was Qi Ji, and the food was pretty good. There was laksa and popiah, some otah and sotong balls, and all were tasty. I'm quite sad to hear that my HOD would be moving on to headquarters by the end of this year, and then to further her studies. She is an extremely capable, dynamic, and humourous superwoman, and frankly, I think she helmed the department very well. She hits it off with the students because of her wacky humour, and I think the kids will be probably sad to see her leave. I wonder if by blogging this, I am disclosing information I shouldn't be...but no one told me to keep mum about it. The good news is that my current level head will be promoted to take over her place. I've always enjoyed working with him because he is a non-bureacratic red-tape-disliker who is no fuss and no frills, so at least I know there won't be any unnecessary meetings spent on useless discussions. Although I think the staff room will seem a lot quieter when he moves to the HOD level downstairs.
In the afternoon I was supposed to join my colleagues for bowling, but they changed the venue last minute to Tampines Safra because Katong's bowling alley was packed. Considering my waste of time yesterday getting there, I decided not to join them. However, since I was already out of the house, I made my way to Bugis Junction for a while by myself. I saw a whole bunch of TJC students, who probably went there after their last June Common Test paper. I managed to find a nice polo-tee, but I think the design may be a little too loud to wear to school, even if it's casual Fridays. The irony is that this polo-tee alone costs more than my previous three pairs of jeans purchase. Ouch.
I added final touches to the poster I have been working on, and I'm finally done for the day! Hmmm I forgot to tell my class tomorrow that I have a lesson observation by my level head. I hope they aren't shocked when he comes in. Heh.
I got to wake up late today because of my off in lieu, but I spent the previous night working on a poster for my colleagues who are setting up a booth for the upcoming ExcelFest. I made my way down to Tampines Safra's Sakura restaurant for a buffet, because some colleagues were treating the chemistry department, due to their recent promotions/confirmation. The train journey to Tampines was in fact shorter than the bus journey to Safra. I waited almost 15 min for the bus, and the bus driver slowly sauntered to his driver's seat. He still didn't open the bus door, and was there casually filling up some log books. When he finally signalled us to board the bus, he still didn't leave the depot after everyone got on. He was there filling his books, and after he had reversed a short distance out of the depot, he drove back into the depot for two girls who were trying to catch the bus. I acknowledge this was gracious of him certainly, but the second time he reversed out of the depot, he saw a fellow bus driver, and stopped in the bus park, opened the door to talk to him for a min! Little wonder my colleagues were asking me why my face was black. It took me 25 min to reach Tampines Safra after I reached Tampines, and the place was like 3 bus stops away from the interchange?
The food was good enough for the price, and I think I mostly ate the sashimi which was about average grade. The lamb chop was quite nice though. After that I went home to rest a while, before making my way to cell group. Short evening, if not for the continuation of the poster design.
Thu 29 Jun
It's back to school again! A mid-week break can be quite refreshing too, compared to a long weekend. It neatly chops the week into two short parts, which makes it more enjoyable. There was a department meeting which I missed because of my TA lesson, but I made it in time for the free food. Hmm, lots of free food this week I realized. Anyway the caterer was Qi Ji, and the food was pretty good. There was laksa and popiah, some otah and sotong balls, and all were tasty. I'm quite sad to hear that my HOD would be moving on to headquarters by the end of this year, and then to further her studies. She is an extremely capable, dynamic, and humourous superwoman, and frankly, I think she helmed the department very well. She hits it off with the students because of her wacky humour, and I think the kids will be probably sad to see her leave. I wonder if by blogging this, I am disclosing information I shouldn't be...but no one told me to keep mum about it. The good news is that my current level head will be promoted to take over her place. I've always enjoyed working with him because he is a non-bureacratic red-tape-disliker who is no fuss and no frills, so at least I know there won't be any unnecessary meetings spent on useless discussions. Although I think the staff room will seem a lot quieter when he moves to the HOD level downstairs.
In the afternoon I was supposed to join my colleagues for bowling, but they changed the venue last minute to Tampines Safra because Katong's bowling alley was packed. Considering my waste of time yesterday getting there, I decided not to join them. However, since I was already out of the house, I made my way to Bugis Junction for a while by myself. I saw a whole bunch of TJC students, who probably went there after their last June Common Test paper. I managed to find a nice polo-tee, but I think the design may be a little too loud to wear to school, even if it's casual Fridays. The irony is that this polo-tee alone costs more than my previous three pairs of jeans purchase. Ouch.
I added final touches to the poster I have been working on, and I'm finally done for the day! Hmmm I forgot to tell my class tomorrow that I have a lesson observation by my level head. I hope they aren't shocked when he comes in. Heh.
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Mon 26 Jun
It's back to school today! It was a mad rush right from the start of the day because Chemistry was the first paper for the year 1s. Certain items were missing, and I was running to and fro to replenish them, because I think I move the fastest and so I volunteered. Inbetween I still had to rush off to give a test to my TA class. I guess this is the drawback that comes with straddling Integrated Programme and mainstream, but then I get a break when my TA classes have electives, so no nett loss for me. Heh.
After that it was 4.5 hours of marking. I at least managed to get part of the essay question I set to mark, and I managed to finish 22 classes! Bwahaha. I am Supermarker! (Marks) faster than a speeding bullet. No prizes for guessing the next spoof picture that will appear on this blog.
Tue 27 Jun
I managed to track down, recover, and mark the last 9 classes today by 12.50 pm, amidst a breakfast bonanza in the morning, and administering two hours of tests to two TA classes. Bwahaha. Tomorrow I am claiming an off day, because of election official duty 2 months ago. The only downside is that there is a lunch treat by the promoted and confirmed chemistry tutors at Tampines Safra, so I still have to make my own way there. Sigh. I am toying with the idea of going to school first and hitching a ride, but I think it would look like I'm rubbing dirt in my colleagues' faces when I (1) show up in home clothes (2) show that I finished marking my share long time ago. So I guess I will catch a bus there after all.
I bought three pairs of jeans today! Bwahaha. Tada~
The grand total comes up to...$30 only! Hehehe. It comes from some factory outlet kind of shop. It's a steal. Two of the pairs of jeans are Unionbay, a fairly reputable brand, and the other one I have never heard of, but it looks nice enough to me. I think these are sold at such cheap prices because they are manufacturers' rejects or overrun, but I found only very minor defects if any. I think they are definitely worth the money. Bwahaha.
It's back to school today! It was a mad rush right from the start of the day because Chemistry was the first paper for the year 1s. Certain items were missing, and I was running to and fro to replenish them, because I think I move the fastest and so I volunteered. Inbetween I still had to rush off to give a test to my TA class. I guess this is the drawback that comes with straddling Integrated Programme and mainstream, but then I get a break when my TA classes have electives, so no nett loss for me. Heh.
After that it was 4.5 hours of marking. I at least managed to get part of the essay question I set to mark, and I managed to finish 22 classes! Bwahaha. I am Supermarker! (Marks) faster than a speeding bullet. No prizes for guessing the next spoof picture that will appear on this blog.
Tue 27 Jun
I managed to track down, recover, and mark the last 9 classes today by 12.50 pm, amidst a breakfast bonanza in the morning, and administering two hours of tests to two TA classes. Bwahaha. Tomorrow I am claiming an off day, because of election official duty 2 months ago. The only downside is that there is a lunch treat by the promoted and confirmed chemistry tutors at Tampines Safra, so I still have to make my own way there. Sigh. I am toying with the idea of going to school first and hitching a ride, but I think it would look like I'm rubbing dirt in my colleagues' faces when I (1) show up in home clothes (2) show that I finished marking my share long time ago. So I guess I will catch a bus there after all.
I bought three pairs of jeans today! Bwahaha. Tada~
The grand total comes up to...$30 only! Hehehe. It comes from some factory outlet kind of shop. It's a steal. Two of the pairs of jeans are Unionbay, a fairly reputable brand, and the other one I have never heard of, but it looks nice enough to me. I think these are sold at such cheap prices because they are manufacturers' rejects or overrun, but I found only very minor defects if any. I think they are definitely worth the money. Bwahaha.
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Sat 24 Jun
I went to support the magic show of one of my boys today. All things considered, it was mostly a two-men effort, and considering that, it was pulled off quite well. I think he must had been disappointed at the turn-out, since not many people came in the end, and according to him, most of the people he invited pulled out last minute. I think he did a good show, and was entertaining. Strangely enough, although most of the time he is unable to talk much when you converse with him and ask him for thoughts and feelings, when he is on stage, he is a radically different personality. The confidence and courage is there when he is performing, but lacking elsewhere. Likewise his eloquence is restricted to sms-es and not in real life conversations. Is this the curse of the digital age? I don't think he is alone in this.
At night, I had supper with my gf and her dad, who happened to be in the area. We went to this coffee shop off Lavender Food Court, which boasted only of a drink stall and a mixed pig innards stall named Cheng Mun Chee Kee. I ordered pig liver and stomach soup, and it was really delicious. The soup base was very thick and flavourful. The meat was all tender and succulent, except the liver which I find to be slightly overcooked and was a bit tougher than I would have liked it to be. Other than that, it was a sumptuous supper. To think that I have ventured to Lavender Food Court so many times without noticing this humble little shop.
Sun 25 Jun
Today the church was packed because of a kids' carnival and the Miracle Catch weekend. Interestingly enough, although none of the people I invited went, I did a lot of sharing of the gospel. My gf's cell member brought along a friend, who I was sharing the gospel with, because she didn't seem certain of what was going on, and I was roped in to explain. The second was with a girl from China, whom my own fellow cell member brought. She had many, many questions and doubts regarding the faith, but was genuinely seeking answers. Originally I just sat in to listen, but after seeing a certain similarity in her logical and rational thinking to my own long ago, and that my cell leader was replying her based entirely on scripture and hence not connecting well, I decided to butt in and give my two cents worth.
After that session with the girl, I recognized an interesting thing. I think my own intellectual curiosity, which initially hampened my encountering God, now proves to be a valuable aid. I think many people who have yet to know Christ ask essentially the same questions that I did, and now I see the value of my own journey. I think it takes one logical, rational and scientific person who believes in God to at least start to convince a fellow logical, rational and scientific person who doesn't believe in God. A rational person who doesn't believe in God cannot possibly accept answers that begin with "the bible says", because he or she doesn't even believe that the scriptures are necessarily true in the first place. Of course, the acceptance of Jesus comes only out of affective and emotive response, and very rarely through rational thinking, but then it's a good start if the rational mind at least can have reasonable answers to the questions, which is something I have always sought to do, and am still doing, for instance, on my own metamorphosis site. I believe that my logical mind has a divine purpose, and this is probably it.
I went to support the magic show of one of my boys today. All things considered, it was mostly a two-men effort, and considering that, it was pulled off quite well. I think he must had been disappointed at the turn-out, since not many people came in the end, and according to him, most of the people he invited pulled out last minute. I think he did a good show, and was entertaining. Strangely enough, although most of the time he is unable to talk much when you converse with him and ask him for thoughts and feelings, when he is on stage, he is a radically different personality. The confidence and courage is there when he is performing, but lacking elsewhere. Likewise his eloquence is restricted to sms-es and not in real life conversations. Is this the curse of the digital age? I don't think he is alone in this.
At night, I had supper with my gf and her dad, who happened to be in the area. We went to this coffee shop off Lavender Food Court, which boasted only of a drink stall and a mixed pig innards stall named Cheng Mun Chee Kee. I ordered pig liver and stomach soup, and it was really delicious. The soup base was very thick and flavourful. The meat was all tender and succulent, except the liver which I find to be slightly overcooked and was a bit tougher than I would have liked it to be. Other than that, it was a sumptuous supper. To think that I have ventured to Lavender Food Court so many times without noticing this humble little shop.
Sun 25 Jun
Today the church was packed because of a kids' carnival and the Miracle Catch weekend. Interestingly enough, although none of the people I invited went, I did a lot of sharing of the gospel. My gf's cell member brought along a friend, who I was sharing the gospel with, because she didn't seem certain of what was going on, and I was roped in to explain. The second was with a girl from China, whom my own fellow cell member brought. She had many, many questions and doubts regarding the faith, but was genuinely seeking answers. Originally I just sat in to listen, but after seeing a certain similarity in her logical and rational thinking to my own long ago, and that my cell leader was replying her based entirely on scripture and hence not connecting well, I decided to butt in and give my two cents worth.
After that session with the girl, I recognized an interesting thing. I think my own intellectual curiosity, which initially hampened my encountering God, now proves to be a valuable aid. I think many people who have yet to know Christ ask essentially the same questions that I did, and now I see the value of my own journey. I think it takes one logical, rational and scientific person who believes in God to at least start to convince a fellow logical, rational and scientific person who doesn't believe in God. A rational person who doesn't believe in God cannot possibly accept answers that begin with "the bible says", because he or she doesn't even believe that the scriptures are necessarily true in the first place. Of course, the acceptance of Jesus comes only out of affective and emotive response, and very rarely through rational thinking, but then it's a good start if the rational mind at least can have reasonable answers to the questions, which is something I have always sought to do, and am still doing, for instance, on my own metamorphosis site. I believe that my logical mind has a divine purpose, and this is probably it.
Friday, June 23, 2006
Thu 22 Jun
My gf's cell leader, Jac, invited her cell girls and affiliates a.k.a. boyfriends to her place for dinner. So, as a privileged affiliate, I went along as well. While waiting for another affiliate to come pick us up, I chanced upon the K Pie next to MacDonald's at Clementi, and I think the pie tasted excellent. I let my gf try it, and she bought one for herself. Later we decided it was good enough for us to buy 9 to bring over to the dinner. Maybe we should start a franchise in Bedok. Opposite my school! Haha. Wild thought.
Originally I was skeptical regarding Jac's cooking skills. My reasoning was that she is under my classification of 'rich kid', and I thought that the usual rich kid would not know how to cook. When we went there, she had the misfortune of a blackout while preparing the food, so she prepared the food in our presence. It was quite a feast on its own, added with the pies we bought. She bought brie cheese and biscuits, with some toasted bread. There was a big bowl of shepherd's pie, which I hadn't eaten for a long time. She grilled some scallops wrapped with bacon, as well as zuchini, peppers and mushrooms, followed by grilled dory. My gf made some coleslaw for the dinner as well. We had a bottle of chardonnay to complete the dinner. I was suitably impressed, and we all lamented that we should have brought her suitors along to increase her 'market value' further.
At the end of the dinner, we watched this section of Steven Curtis Chapman's concert, which tells an incredible story, and I think it is worth sharing here. I think it is worth writing a proper devotional over, but that would be another time. In the 1950s, a group of 5 missionaries went into the jungle of Ecuador in order to bring the gospel to the Auca indians, which is a tribe known for savagery and violence. All 5 men were young, graduates from good universities, and were married with children. They managed to make contact with the Auca indians, and all was well originally till one day they failed to contact the headquarters. The air force came in to search, and all 5 were found massacred and thrown into the river. Instead of hating the indians or blaming God, two of the wives and a sister of one of the missionaries felt convicted that they had to finish the work. They located a Auca indian woman who had fled from the tribe and was living in a neighbouring village, and learnt the language, and translated the bible. Slowly they reached out, and converted many members of the tribe. Today that tribe is called the Waodani, and they have given up their violence and savagery, and call themselves God Followers. One of the Waodani who was involved in spearing the original 5 missionaries to death invited Steve Saint, the son of one of those missionaries, to stay with the tribe. Steve Saint uprooted his whole family, and moved into the Ecuador jungle to live with the very people who have killed his father, because he understood the love that his father and God had for the tribe. At the end of the concert, Steve Saint appeared together with his 'Grandfather', who is the very man who killed his father, to give their account, and it was powerfully moving.
There are many causes for which men kill; there are very, very few causes for which men would lay down their own lives such that others may live. On reflection, I think my faith is comparatively tiny - at this point in time, I cannot envision myself abandoning everything and go into a place where I may lose my life in order to preach the gospel. What is most moving is the fact that Steve Saint could be reconciled the very man who killed his father, and love him as family. No matter how I look at it, I think there is only one force in this world which can bring about this kind of reconciliation, and that is the love of God.
Fri 23 Jun
My gf got baptized today! And she was chosen to share her testimony with the congregation, along with two others. How cool is that? I am delighted. I bought her a bouquet of flowers, a heart-shaped cushion and a nice baptism card. As evidence of my expected bias, I only got her two sisters in Christ, who were also getting baptized, a stalk of daisy each.
I think baptism is a joyous occasion indeed.
Girls have it even better. During their baptism, they receive flowers, balloons, cards, soft toys, placards (seen instances before), books, and etc. And guys? A card. And maybe a book. Girls get gifts from girls and guys. Guys usually just get gifts from the guys, which also explains why the presents are so...dull. It is the same reasoning I tell people that guys actually don't really need to bother getting nice shoes - girls look at girls, guys look at girls, so no one looks at guys, and if a guy is really fortunate, maybe the face gets noticed, or the clothes...but nobody really reaches the feet, so nice shoes are insignificant. Heh.
My gf's cell leader, Jac, invited her cell girls and affiliates a.k.a. boyfriends to her place for dinner. So, as a privileged affiliate, I went along as well. While waiting for another affiliate to come pick us up, I chanced upon the K Pie next to MacDonald's at Clementi, and I think the pie tasted excellent. I let my gf try it, and she bought one for herself. Later we decided it was good enough for us to buy 9 to bring over to the dinner. Maybe we should start a franchise in Bedok. Opposite my school! Haha. Wild thought.
Originally I was skeptical regarding Jac's cooking skills. My reasoning was that she is under my classification of 'rich kid', and I thought that the usual rich kid would not know how to cook. When we went there, she had the misfortune of a blackout while preparing the food, so she prepared the food in our presence. It was quite a feast on its own, added with the pies we bought. She bought brie cheese and biscuits, with some toasted bread. There was a big bowl of shepherd's pie, which I hadn't eaten for a long time. She grilled some scallops wrapped with bacon, as well as zuchini, peppers and mushrooms, followed by grilled dory. My gf made some coleslaw for the dinner as well. We had a bottle of chardonnay to complete the dinner. I was suitably impressed, and we all lamented that we should have brought her suitors along to increase her 'market value' further.
At the end of the dinner, we watched this section of Steven Curtis Chapman's concert, which tells an incredible story, and I think it is worth sharing here. I think it is worth writing a proper devotional over, but that would be another time. In the 1950s, a group of 5 missionaries went into the jungle of Ecuador in order to bring the gospel to the Auca indians, which is a tribe known for savagery and violence. All 5 men were young, graduates from good universities, and were married with children. They managed to make contact with the Auca indians, and all was well originally till one day they failed to contact the headquarters. The air force came in to search, and all 5 were found massacred and thrown into the river. Instead of hating the indians or blaming God, two of the wives and a sister of one of the missionaries felt convicted that they had to finish the work. They located a Auca indian woman who had fled from the tribe and was living in a neighbouring village, and learnt the language, and translated the bible. Slowly they reached out, and converted many members of the tribe. Today that tribe is called the Waodani, and they have given up their violence and savagery, and call themselves God Followers. One of the Waodani who was involved in spearing the original 5 missionaries to death invited Steve Saint, the son of one of those missionaries, to stay with the tribe. Steve Saint uprooted his whole family, and moved into the Ecuador jungle to live with the very people who have killed his father, because he understood the love that his father and God had for the tribe. At the end of the concert, Steve Saint appeared together with his 'Grandfather', who is the very man who killed his father, to give their account, and it was powerfully moving.
There are many causes for which men kill; there are very, very few causes for which men would lay down their own lives such that others may live. On reflection, I think my faith is comparatively tiny - at this point in time, I cannot envision myself abandoning everything and go into a place where I may lose my life in order to preach the gospel. What is most moving is the fact that Steve Saint could be reconciled the very man who killed his father, and love him as family. No matter how I look at it, I think there is only one force in this world which can bring about this kind of reconciliation, and that is the love of God.
Fri 23 Jun
My gf got baptized today! And she was chosen to share her testimony with the congregation, along with two others. How cool is that? I am delighted. I bought her a bouquet of flowers, a heart-shaped cushion and a nice baptism card. As evidence of my expected bias, I only got her two sisters in Christ, who were also getting baptized, a stalk of daisy each.
I think baptism is a joyous occasion indeed.
Girls have it even better. During their baptism, they receive flowers, balloons, cards, soft toys, placards (seen instances before), books, and etc. And guys? A card. And maybe a book. Girls get gifts from girls and guys. Guys usually just get gifts from the guys, which also explains why the presents are so...dull. It is the same reasoning I tell people that guys actually don't really need to bother getting nice shoes - girls look at girls, guys look at girls, so no one looks at guys, and if a guy is really fortunate, maybe the face gets noticed, or the clothes...but nobody really reaches the feet, so nice shoes are insignificant. Heh.
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
I went back to school today for a curriculum design course that stretched from 8.30 am to 5.30 pm, with a briefing before it at 7.45 am. Somehow, today didn't feel like it was still the holidays. The course was engaging, although the real content only kicked in somewhere after 10.30. The first two hours were jam-packed with activities, probably to break a bit of the ice, and get us moving.
There were sufficient activities to keep us occupied throughout, and there is some interesting and useful content I picked up along the way. However, my hands were very distracted and I made...
Blu-tack sculptures! Tada~
The toilet bowl with faeces was done by my gf actually, and other colleagues were similarly 'engaged' to produce other works of art like dice. It's a hand holding a hotdog bun behind the toilet bowl...the arrow is supposed to imply the natural flow of things, if you get what I mean. Heh. My sculpture on the right is of a hand, with a watch on the wrist, holding a ring, and a hand with a rose around it wrapped around the watch. Umm...evidence of multitasking.
I rushed down for cell group right after the course ended. I took a 1 hr 10 min bus ride from the school all the way to Bukit Merah, which was awfully long had I not stolen a half-hour nap midway. I went for my favourite fishball noodle stall, which was closing already. I realize the power of 交情 and being a regular customer (when service was still at Bukit Merah) today; the aunty called out to me when I walked past and offered to cook me a bowl, and that she would substitute fishcake for fishballs because there were not enough fishballs already. So nice! After she cooked that one bowl for me, she continued packing up. Bwahaha.
Cell group was interesting today...Adrian made us do an hour of devotion and prayer. He passed us this article by Ps Cho Yonggi, who heads a 800,000 strong church in South Korea, and it was really enlightening. So enlightening that I have a lot of ideas for my devotionals and other articles brimming at the top of my head. I have been typing non-stop since I came home, and this blog post is only a small part of my output. Cool.
There were sufficient activities to keep us occupied throughout, and there is some interesting and useful content I picked up along the way. However, my hands were very distracted and I made...
Blu-tack sculptures! Tada~
The toilet bowl with faeces was done by my gf actually, and other colleagues were similarly 'engaged' to produce other works of art like dice. It's a hand holding a hotdog bun behind the toilet bowl...the arrow is supposed to imply the natural flow of things, if you get what I mean. Heh. My sculpture on the right is of a hand, with a watch on the wrist, holding a ring, and a hand with a rose around it wrapped around the watch. Umm...evidence of multitasking.
I rushed down for cell group right after the course ended. I took a 1 hr 10 min bus ride from the school all the way to Bukit Merah, which was awfully long had I not stolen a half-hour nap midway. I went for my favourite fishball noodle stall, which was closing already. I realize the power of 交情 and being a regular customer (when service was still at Bukit Merah) today; the aunty called out to me when I walked past and offered to cook me a bowl, and that she would substitute fishcake for fishballs because there were not enough fishballs already. So nice! After she cooked that one bowl for me, she continued packing up. Bwahaha.
Cell group was interesting today...Adrian made us do an hour of devotion and prayer. He passed us this article by Ps Cho Yonggi, who heads a 800,000 strong church in South Korea, and it was really enlightening. So enlightening that I have a lot of ideas for my devotionals and other articles brimming at the top of my head. I have been typing non-stop since I came home, and this blog post is only a small part of my output. Cool.
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
I finished watching another anime series today, titled 'She the Ultimate Weapon'. Despite the apparent cheesy sounding name, the content is not that cheesy. The first episode introduces a girl who can transform into a weapon of war, capable of mass destruction, and her boyfriend, and momentarily it appears that it will be a teenage love story set in a high technology setting. However, as I watched the series, I found that there is actually a prevalent war theme that becomes increasingly bleak, despite the little love story, which surprisingly alludes to premarital sex and adultery (nothing graphic...just implicit). It is a serious end-of-the-world story, despite initial appearances, and the fact that many major characters perish along the way due to war attests to the seriousness of the plot. The whole series has two prevalent voices of narration, which is the boyfriend mainly, and the girl, and what I like about it is that the narration is very well written pensive prose. However, I don't like the ultimate weapon thing; if the series had been about the bleakness of war revolving around two fully human characters who cannot be together, I think it would have made a spectacular anime - as it is now, I think it is merely average.
I caught the 全民创意争霸赛 at night, just to see whether Singapore TV has given Japan TV a high compliment, and it has. As they say, the highest compliment you can offer sometimes is mimicry. The performances weren't bad, but I think it is still a far cry from the standard than 超级变变变 has displayed. However, since the local show is in its early inception stage, I shall suspend my initial judgment of it.
What I really can't stand is the voting system. I think it is too prevalent now, and it is very irritating to see, for me. Whatever happened to the good ol' judges' verdicts are final era? I think it must be the fault of some extremely clever marketing strategist who presumed that the audience would be more engaged if they had a say in determining the outcome (which is true). Oh yeah, not to mention, rake in millions of dollars from the sms and calls. I think it is a perfectly acceptable medium to conduct charity collection, for example, but for such events, I feel it is a total rip-off. Methinks American Idol could have spawned off a legion of such systems of judging. I mean, one sms costs 60c! I can't imagine the money the companies make off of this. I think what I cannot stand is the fact that this money-making system preys on the loyalties of people, be it fans, friends or family of the participants. It is almost as if they are obligated to blow the money. I mean, if I had a friend who made it to, say, Singapore Idol, I think I would vote as well, just that I can't estimate how much I am willing to spend...guess that depends on the depth of friendship, and the idea that I'm being ripped off 60c at a time because I am a true friend just sucks big time, even though I haven't been placed in such a position yet.
I caught the 全民创意争霸赛 at night, just to see whether Singapore TV has given Japan TV a high compliment, and it has. As they say, the highest compliment you can offer sometimes is mimicry. The performances weren't bad, but I think it is still a far cry from the standard than 超级变变变 has displayed. However, since the local show is in its early inception stage, I shall suspend my initial judgment of it.
What I really can't stand is the voting system. I think it is too prevalent now, and it is very irritating to see, for me. Whatever happened to the good ol' judges' verdicts are final era? I think it must be the fault of some extremely clever marketing strategist who presumed that the audience would be more engaged if they had a say in determining the outcome (which is true). Oh yeah, not to mention, rake in millions of dollars from the sms and calls. I think it is a perfectly acceptable medium to conduct charity collection, for example, but for such events, I feel it is a total rip-off. Methinks American Idol could have spawned off a legion of such systems of judging. I mean, one sms costs 60c! I can't imagine the money the companies make off of this. I think what I cannot stand is the fact that this money-making system preys on the loyalties of people, be it fans, friends or family of the participants. It is almost as if they are obligated to blow the money. I mean, if I had a friend who made it to, say, Singapore Idol, I think I would vote as well, just that I can't estimate how much I am willing to spend...guess that depends on the depth of friendship, and the idea that I'm being ripped off 60c at a time because I am a true friend just sucks big time, even though I haven't been placed in such a position yet.
Monday, June 19, 2006
Sun 18 Jun
I met my network pastor for lunch, and treated him. Actually, the opportunity merely presented itself, as I was supposed to meet him to discuss something, and due to a lack of time to eat before service, I went to pack lunch for him. So it was a (spiritual) (grand) father's day treat. After service, prayer meeting and cell group, I went over to my gf's place and we watched Keeping Mum.
That is actually a recent movie, starring Rowan Atkinson. I remember really wanting to catch it when I first saw the trailer, but I currently can't recall the circumstances that deprived me of watching it when it screened. Anyway, it is typical British humour, that thrives on witty dialogue, and quirky behaviour. As such, I enjoyed it thoroughly. In fact, I am very impressed with the title of the movie alone, as it actually could mean three different things in the context of the movie. Another movie I wanted to catch but missed recently is Munich, which I bought along with Keeping Mum. I guess I will catch that another day.
Interestingly enough, I think the movie DVDs and VCDs are hitting the shelves earlier and earlier after the movie's release. It used to take as long as half a year to a year some years ago, but in the last couple of years, it seemed to have accelerated to about 3 months...sometimes could be even a month after screening. Even though some movies are screened in the states earlier than here, the gap is usually in the span of weeks anyway. Maybe the companies are worried about piracy and bittorrent? Hmm.
Mon 19 Jun
I went back to school for a meeting. For lunch, my level head and I went out to Lagoon. I had a nice plate of braised duck rice, and pig liver soup (from different stalls), and both were tasty. The more fulfilling thing was that I managed to finish up the work left undone, so there are only administrative loose ends left now. I could have finished my work earlier if not for a distraction along the way.
One of my boys in my cell group has decided to leave the church, and for reasons that I still do not find satisfactory or meaningful. However, what hurts me more is that looking back at previous occasions and more recent ones, I realized that he has not been truthful on many accounts, and deceitfully denied many things he had done, till I have to interrogate the facts out of him, and discipline him accordingly. I do know that he could not be held solely responsible for the outcome of many problems he was involved in, but for his own actions that he chose, they were most certainly poor or wrong choices. I do hope that he finds what he is looking for, out of the couple of years of friendship we have had thus far, but I feel that the way he left had been too irresponsible, and out of the heart of a spiritual parent, I also have the harsh hope that he finds a cell leader who loves him enough to discipline him firmly.
A couple of verses spring to mind:
I met my network pastor for lunch, and treated him. Actually, the opportunity merely presented itself, as I was supposed to meet him to discuss something, and due to a lack of time to eat before service, I went to pack lunch for him. So it was a (spiritual) (grand) father's day treat. After service, prayer meeting and cell group, I went over to my gf's place and we watched Keeping Mum.
That is actually a recent movie, starring Rowan Atkinson. I remember really wanting to catch it when I first saw the trailer, but I currently can't recall the circumstances that deprived me of watching it when it screened. Anyway, it is typical British humour, that thrives on witty dialogue, and quirky behaviour. As such, I enjoyed it thoroughly. In fact, I am very impressed with the title of the movie alone, as it actually could mean three different things in the context of the movie. Another movie I wanted to catch but missed recently is Munich, which I bought along with Keeping Mum. I guess I will catch that another day.
Interestingly enough, I think the movie DVDs and VCDs are hitting the shelves earlier and earlier after the movie's release. It used to take as long as half a year to a year some years ago, but in the last couple of years, it seemed to have accelerated to about 3 months...sometimes could be even a month after screening. Even though some movies are screened in the states earlier than here, the gap is usually in the span of weeks anyway. Maybe the companies are worried about piracy and bittorrent? Hmm.
Mon 19 Jun
I went back to school for a meeting. For lunch, my level head and I went out to Lagoon. I had a nice plate of braised duck rice, and pig liver soup (from different stalls), and both were tasty. The more fulfilling thing was that I managed to finish up the work left undone, so there are only administrative loose ends left now. I could have finished my work earlier if not for a distraction along the way.
One of my boys in my cell group has decided to leave the church, and for reasons that I still do not find satisfactory or meaningful. However, what hurts me more is that looking back at previous occasions and more recent ones, I realized that he has not been truthful on many accounts, and deceitfully denied many things he had done, till I have to interrogate the facts out of him, and discipline him accordingly. I do know that he could not be held solely responsible for the outcome of many problems he was involved in, but for his own actions that he chose, they were most certainly poor or wrong choices. I do hope that he finds what he is looking for, out of the couple of years of friendship we have had thus far, but I feel that the way he left had been too irresponsible, and out of the heart of a spiritual parent, I also have the harsh hope that he finds a cell leader who loves him enough to discipline him firmly.
A couple of verses spring to mind:
If it is this heartbreaking to be a spiritual parent, I can only imagine what a physical parent has to undergo.
Saturday, June 17, 2006
I went to Sentosa today with J, and two of my boys. The first thing I noted was that Harbourfront hawker centre really has nothing worth eating. Everything I have tried so far is just ordinary fare. If anyone can recommend me something good to eat there, please let me know, else I will make sure I eat my lunch before going there. The second thing I noted was that the whole place looks drastically different from my last memory of the place. There are a lot of new buildings and structures there that makes it look very modern and new. There is a whole new pickup and drop-off point at one end of Siloso beach. I think Sentosa also imported sand. No joke, I think fine sand was imported and dumped onto the beach area nearer the water. There is a dramatic difference in the texture and the hardness of the sand in that area, and it is visibly whiter than the sand further up. The shoreline has an obscene amount of driftwood, so I don't know how all the people can be playing games at the shallow waters without knocking into the planks.
The third thing is to never go to Sentosa on a Saturday. It is ridiculously packed. I left Siloso beach at 4 pm, and I reached Harbourfront interchange at 5.45 pm. 1 hr and 45 min just going round the place on the bus, and then waiting in an abysmally long queue at the departure centre.
I think I could feel myself growing old in the queue.
The third thing is to never go to Sentosa on a Saturday. It is ridiculously packed. I left Siloso beach at 4 pm, and I reached Harbourfront interchange at 5.45 pm. 1 hr and 45 min just going round the place on the bus, and then waiting in an abysmally long queue at the departure centre.
I think I could feel myself growing old in the queue.
Friday, June 16, 2006
I spent the late morning to early afternoon at my eldest uncle's place. Today is the death anniversary of my maternal grandfather, and all my aunts, uncles and my mum have gathered to pay respects. I have not attended this since I was a kid, and the reason that my mum wanted me there this year was that she wanted my grandfather to 'see' me now that I have a career and all. I don't understand the concept of that; according to their beliefs, you mean the spirit of my grandfather is stuck at the tablet, and unable to see me anywhere else? Weird leh, considering that the same spirit can 'bless' my third aunt, so she claims, who lives a few kilometres away, and she won a little bit of money at Toto. And people say Christianity is full of contradictions; methinks, if any, Christianity surely isn't alone.
I went to play pool with J for a couple of hours. I had very poor finishing today. For the many games that I played well enough to lead him, I just couldn't manage to sink the black ball, and gave him enough time to recover and beat me. Out of the more than a dozen games, I only won one. Sigh.
Just like the advertising campaign that United Emirates has been using, I am very convinced that soccer is a powerful unifying force that crosses boundaries of nation and race. As I came home, I saw Chinese and Malay uncles, sitting with Thai and Bangladeshi foreign workers, outside a Thai-owned provision shop, watching a soccer match on a 21" TV, cheering and jeering away. Indeed, there must be a universal brotherhood of soccer fans, be it people who play the sport, play only computer and console games of the sport, bet on the outcomes of the sport, or watch soccer matches only, or a combination of the above-mentioned.
Me - I'm just thankful I have no part in this.
45 min first half + 45 min second half + 15 min interval = waste of almost 2 hours of my life. I could have watched 6 episodes of anime. Or a movie. I could have beaten some high score in my games. Yes, it is painfully obvious I belong to the minority of men who wants nothing to do with soccer whatsoever. At most, I will play soccer, if only for the exercise. I recall a period in my youth when I played Championship Manager, a soccer (management) game, for the main reason of understanding what in the world my close friends were talking about, and have some inkling as to who, for instance, Eric Cantona, the famous equivalent of maybe David Beckham back in my secondary school days, is. Last time, I used to care about being alienated in conversation amongst people who talk nonstop about soccer, especially those with a ridiculous familiarity as if they know the players personally; nowadays, I still think it is rudely alienating, but I don't really care anymore. I view them with the same pity that they, I'm sure, would feel for me if I were to talk about anime all the time. Heh.
I went to play pool with J for a couple of hours. I had very poor finishing today. For the many games that I played well enough to lead him, I just couldn't manage to sink the black ball, and gave him enough time to recover and beat me. Out of the more than a dozen games, I only won one. Sigh.
Just like the advertising campaign that United Emirates has been using, I am very convinced that soccer is a powerful unifying force that crosses boundaries of nation and race. As I came home, I saw Chinese and Malay uncles, sitting with Thai and Bangladeshi foreign workers, outside a Thai-owned provision shop, watching a soccer match on a 21" TV, cheering and jeering away. Indeed, there must be a universal brotherhood of soccer fans, be it people who play the sport, play only computer and console games of the sport, bet on the outcomes of the sport, or watch soccer matches only, or a combination of the above-mentioned.
Me - I'm just thankful I have no part in this.
45 min first half + 45 min second half + 15 min interval = waste of almost 2 hours of my life. I could have watched 6 episodes of anime. Or a movie. I could have beaten some high score in my games. Yes, it is painfully obvious I belong to the minority of men who wants nothing to do with soccer whatsoever. At most, I will play soccer, if only for the exercise. I recall a period in my youth when I played Championship Manager, a soccer (management) game, for the main reason of understanding what in the world my close friends were talking about, and have some inkling as to who, for instance, Eric Cantona, the famous equivalent of maybe David Beckham back in my secondary school days, is. Last time, I used to care about being alienated in conversation amongst people who talk nonstop about soccer, especially those with a ridiculous familiarity as if they know the players personally; nowadays, I still think it is rudely alienating, but I don't really care anymore. I view them with the same pity that they, I'm sure, would feel for me if I were to talk about anime all the time. Heh.
Thursday, June 15, 2006
I went over to ZH's place on Tue to play mahjong. His house is big! His 5-room flat has 4 bedrooms and a living room, which is a rarity these days. The newer 5-room flats are all 3 bedroom, a living room, and a dining room (area). For a house that has only two people living in it, he sure has a lot of computers. He has 3 desktops sitting in his study, 1 desktop in his entertainment room for gaming apparently, and 2 laptops, and that is excluding the 2 laptops he and his wife are issued by the school. He has many speakers hooked up, a DVD recorder, mixer (yet to be hooked up), x-box, karaoke system, home entertainment system, all in his entertainment room, and a whole cupboard full of code 1 DVDs. If I were rich, my entertainment room would look pretty much like that.
It's the first time I played 3-person mahjong, with 'joker' tiles in it. The games went pretty fast. My colleague, Ivan, was scarily lucky. I fought hard to remain positive in winnings, and in the end, I survived at a $3 win. ZH, the host, lost a total of $27. You do the math. Ivan and I then went for dinner. We wanted to walk to Tampines interchange from ZH's place, but after bashing through a lot of flats, we ended up at Tampines West. So much for direction sense. I had a sinful dinner - a bowl of mushroom ramen, a full pancake, and cheese fries.
Yesterday I went for cell group. There were only 3 of us - my cell leader, Collin, and I. Interestingly enough though, we had a long heart-to-heart talk, which technically would be harder to elicit if there were more people. Collin and I also realized that Adrian really has a very different value system from us. Not that we didn't know this already, but we didn't anticipate such a big difference. Anyway, I managed to tell him some of the things that have been weighing on my mind for a while, and probably on Collin's, so I think it was a fruitful conversation.
It's the first time I played 3-person mahjong, with 'joker' tiles in it. The games went pretty fast. My colleague, Ivan, was scarily lucky. I fought hard to remain positive in winnings, and in the end, I survived at a $3 win. ZH, the host, lost a total of $27. You do the math. Ivan and I then went for dinner. We wanted to walk to Tampines interchange from ZH's place, but after bashing through a lot of flats, we ended up at Tampines West. So much for direction sense. I had a sinful dinner - a bowl of mushroom ramen, a full pancake, and cheese fries.
Yesterday I went for cell group. There were only 3 of us - my cell leader, Collin, and I. Interestingly enough though, we had a long heart-to-heart talk, which technically would be harder to elicit if there were more people. Collin and I also realized that Adrian really has a very different value system from us. Not that we didn't know this already, but we didn't anticipate such a big difference. Anyway, I managed to tell him some of the things that have been weighing on my mind for a while, and probably on Collin's, so I think it was a fruitful conversation.
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
I decided to change the banner at the top of my blog. After brainstorming on how I can change my blog, I realized that I like it the way it is. All those fanciful blogskins available on the web are nice, but I want something simple to navigate; I don't want too many internal scrollbars as my blog posts contain way too many words. In the end, I think I still prefer a template that I designed myself.
Changing the banner is perfectly fine though. I changed it to the Jabez prayer, which is something that Senior Pastor suggested that we pray everyday. So I might as well put it up to remind myself. This simple design is inspired by Ps Eugene's comment during the leaders' meeting that the 'let your hand be with me' part of the prayer feels more like a loving father guiding and protecting his child than a helping hand to the rescue.
Changing the banner is perfectly fine though. I changed it to the Jabez prayer, which is something that Senior Pastor suggested that we pray everyday. So I might as well put it up to remind myself. This simple design is inspired by Ps Eugene's comment during the leaders' meeting that the 'let your hand be with me' part of the prayer feels more like a loving father guiding and protecting his child than a helping hand to the rescue.
Monday, June 12, 2006
Does anyone else find it ironic that the tagline for the upcoming local variety show 全民创意争霸赛 has a tagline that asks whether Singaporeans have creativity when the show itself is a total ripoff from Japan's 超级变变变? So much for creativity...
Fri 9 Jun
I went to play pool with shups! and J in the evening. I think I finally regained some sense of the game, and realized the little mistakes I made in the last session. At least I was playing consistently more or less the whole evening, and pulled off some tricky shots too. In some games, I was denied victory by an accidentally snook or more, so I think the overall win/loss of the night was quite acceptable. I need a few more games to regain the original form still. Sigh...I miss the good old days, especially when church was still at Marine Parade, when I can play pool a few times a week. Ah well, looks like I have to compensate with my other hobby, anime, then.
Sat 10 Jun
I went down to Bukit Merah to support one of the boys in my cell group. He has developed a keen passion for performing magic, and has planned to stage his own little magic show on Jun 24, and is rehearsing seriously. Unfortunately, I was the only one who went down today, so I think I'd better get the cell more involved in this. He hasn't perfected his craft for sure, but he should be able to do a decent show and entertain though. I hope he can take this somewhere good. After that, I spent the evening accompanying my gf who was down with a cold.
Sun 11 Jun
There was a guest speaker for service today from YWAM. He was fairly interesting, but the downpour outside drowned out his voice somewhat. I realized Expo ceilings are very noisy once there is heavy rain. I also noticed that throughout his preaching, I was asking myself 'What's his point?' I think I'm too used to the pastors in my church who almost always break the sermon into three main points, and mention them right at the start. I think it helps frame the processing as we listen. Even my own devotionals I try to write it in a similar style, because I think it is a reader-friendly manner. My network pastor called for a short prayer meeting after service, and I had cell group right after, before heading down to keep my still sick gf company.
Mon 12 Jun
I am finally a good boy today because I'm staying home the whole day. I haven't done that in quite a while, I realized. I managed to finish Initial D Second Stage as well as the movie while I was home. The whole series thus far had been entertaining, although it isn't a really fantastic anime. The characters from the Second Stage and onwards are drawn much better than in the First Stage, although I still don't really like the style. The CG animation for the cars has also improved greatly, and it looks more realistic, especially with a licence plate that is not blank like in First Stage. The Initial D anime movie manages to conclude all the loose ends reasonably well, and I think if I can find the Fourth Stage DVD anywhere here. I think it is high time to upgrade to DVDs. So far I have been watching the DVDs I bought from KL last Dec, and I think the resolution is much better, and I like having the choice of Chinese or English subtitles. Therefore, I shall stick to collecting original DVDs, but I'll still keep to bargain hunting. I hope the shops I regularly check out have a big sale soon. Bwahaha.
I also just finished watching Full Metal Alchemist - The Conqueror of Shambala. I think many people who have watched the anime series were not exactly very satisfied with the ending. However, looking at the movie, it seems to me that it was deliberate, as the movie finally reunites the two brothers. The storyline appears to be a decent continuation of the series, although the English subtitles were really inadequate. Even with my pathetic knowledge of that little bit of Japanese, I can tell that the subtitles were quite off the mark at several points, making it difficult to follow the story. I think I'll wait for some time before I rewatch it with the Chinese subtitles.
It looks like I can clear off quite a few anime series this holiday, if I keep this pace up. Maybe I should squeeze in another KL trip this Dec to go restock. Maybe I can make it an annual pilgrimage of sorts. Bwahaha.
I went to play pool with shups! and J in the evening. I think I finally regained some sense of the game, and realized the little mistakes I made in the last session. At least I was playing consistently more or less the whole evening, and pulled off some tricky shots too. In some games, I was denied victory by an accidentally snook or more, so I think the overall win/loss of the night was quite acceptable. I need a few more games to regain the original form still. Sigh...I miss the good old days, especially when church was still at Marine Parade, when I can play pool a few times a week. Ah well, looks like I have to compensate with my other hobby, anime, then.
Sat 10 Jun
I went down to Bukit Merah to support one of the boys in my cell group. He has developed a keen passion for performing magic, and has planned to stage his own little magic show on Jun 24, and is rehearsing seriously. Unfortunately, I was the only one who went down today, so I think I'd better get the cell more involved in this. He hasn't perfected his craft for sure, but he should be able to do a decent show and entertain though. I hope he can take this somewhere good. After that, I spent the evening accompanying my gf who was down with a cold.
Sun 11 Jun
There was a guest speaker for service today from YWAM. He was fairly interesting, but the downpour outside drowned out his voice somewhat. I realized Expo ceilings are very noisy once there is heavy rain. I also noticed that throughout his preaching, I was asking myself 'What's his point?' I think I'm too used to the pastors in my church who almost always break the sermon into three main points, and mention them right at the start. I think it helps frame the processing as we listen. Even my own devotionals I try to write it in a similar style, because I think it is a reader-friendly manner. My network pastor called for a short prayer meeting after service, and I had cell group right after, before heading down to keep my still sick gf company.
Mon 12 Jun
I am finally a good boy today because I'm staying home the whole day. I haven't done that in quite a while, I realized. I managed to finish Initial D Second Stage as well as the movie while I was home. The whole series thus far had been entertaining, although it isn't a really fantastic anime. The characters from the Second Stage and onwards are drawn much better than in the First Stage, although I still don't really like the style. The CG animation for the cars has also improved greatly, and it looks more realistic, especially with a licence plate that is not blank like in First Stage. The Initial D anime movie manages to conclude all the loose ends reasonably well, and I think if I can find the Fourth Stage DVD anywhere here. I think it is high time to upgrade to DVDs. So far I have been watching the DVDs I bought from KL last Dec, and I think the resolution is much better, and I like having the choice of Chinese or English subtitles. Therefore, I shall stick to collecting original DVDs, but I'll still keep to bargain hunting. I hope the shops I regularly check out have a big sale soon. Bwahaha.
I also just finished watching Full Metal Alchemist - The Conqueror of Shambala. I think many people who have watched the anime series were not exactly very satisfied with the ending. However, looking at the movie, it seems to me that it was deliberate, as the movie finally reunites the two brothers. The storyline appears to be a decent continuation of the series, although the English subtitles were really inadequate. Even with my pathetic knowledge of that little bit of Japanese, I can tell that the subtitles were quite off the mark at several points, making it difficult to follow the story. I think I'll wait for some time before I rewatch it with the Chinese subtitles.
It looks like I can clear off quite a few anime series this holiday, if I keep this pace up. Maybe I should squeeze in another KL trip this Dec to go restock. Maybe I can make it an annual pilgrimage of sorts. Bwahaha.
Friday, June 09, 2006
These last two days finally felt like the holidays have begun, now that I can shake myself temporarily free of work. There are still some things left unfinished, but I'll wait to feel more inspired before I begin. I managed to finish some anime in the meantime...
The first one that I completed was Full Metal Panic - The Second Raid. It is a continuation of the previous Full Metal Panic series, but the whole thing seems like a showcase of cool or weird villains, with a loose plot thrown in. There is good character development throughout the whole couple of series, which was why the Fumorffu spinoff was so humourous, because the characters have very defined personalities (to make a joke of). The animation quality was excellent, as I would come to expect of more recent releases. I think more and more anime seem to have some CG (cinematic graphics) thrown in for machinery to add more realism perhaps. The series was overall enjoyable, but not fantastic, especially because the ending felt somewhat abrupt to me.
The next was Appleseed the movie. I bought this quite some time ago, but never got down to watching it. I think it's because of the time commitment; normal anime episodes are only about 20 min long, so I can easily slot them in when I eat, or when I multitask with MSN and all, but to watch a full movie, I need to devote an hour and a half to watching it. Implicitly, sometimes I'm just not home for a long enough stretch of time to watch it or I'm busy online on MSN late at night. The animation in Appleseed was very different. I think the animators fused CG animation with frame by frame drawing, so the end result looks stark and clear, but somewhat plastic. I think when they try to make the characters more 3D-ish lifelike, but retain the big eyes of anime characters, it looks...plastic. The plot itself is simple, with a post-apocalyptic feel, and I wonder if it would have been better as a mini-series that span a few hours in total, because the movie felt like it could do with more flesh in the plot.
The third anime I just finished is actually a pretty old one, but I had originally avoided it, because I didn't like the way the characters were drawn. Interestingly enough, it was after watching the Initial D movie (the Jay Chou one, not the anime one) that I was curious about the plot. So last Dec when I went to KL, I bought a box set that has Initial D stages 1, 2 and 3 Extra. Still, I put it off because of the excellent anime Monster, and only just began watching it. Although I still think the characters drawn look ugly in general, the cars do look good in CG animation, and the plot is engaging.
Contrary to what people may think, I actually do like cars, just that I'm adamant about the fact that it is too costly to own one, and hence I do not bother acquiring a licence. I generally avoid anime that focuses on a sport (e.g. soccer, basketball, tennis, and etc), because I thought it is one kind of boring to watch one match stretch over several episodes, but somehow the car racing in Initial D doesn't bore me. I think the anime fleshes out the characters' personalities very well, and makes it interesting because they generally feel human, in a naturally flawed kind of way. Some anime series feature personalities that are too perfect, which makes it surreal inadvertently. Anyway, I enjoyed Stage 1, and now I'm going onto Stage 2.
Now the next brainteasing game that got me hooked is Sudoku. I love applying logic to solve puzzles actually. Bwahaha. Need to exerise and oil my brain a bit. I haven't been using it to do challenging enough things lately.
The first one that I completed was Full Metal Panic - The Second Raid. It is a continuation of the previous Full Metal Panic series, but the whole thing seems like a showcase of cool or weird villains, with a loose plot thrown in. There is good character development throughout the whole couple of series, which was why the Fumorffu spinoff was so humourous, because the characters have very defined personalities (to make a joke of). The animation quality was excellent, as I would come to expect of more recent releases. I think more and more anime seem to have some CG (cinematic graphics) thrown in for machinery to add more realism perhaps. The series was overall enjoyable, but not fantastic, especially because the ending felt somewhat abrupt to me.
The next was Appleseed the movie. I bought this quite some time ago, but never got down to watching it. I think it's because of the time commitment; normal anime episodes are only about 20 min long, so I can easily slot them in when I eat, or when I multitask with MSN and all, but to watch a full movie, I need to devote an hour and a half to watching it. Implicitly, sometimes I'm just not home for a long enough stretch of time to watch it or I'm busy online on MSN late at night. The animation in Appleseed was very different. I think the animators fused CG animation with frame by frame drawing, so the end result looks stark and clear, but somewhat plastic. I think when they try to make the characters more 3D-ish lifelike, but retain the big eyes of anime characters, it looks...plastic. The plot itself is simple, with a post-apocalyptic feel, and I wonder if it would have been better as a mini-series that span a few hours in total, because the movie felt like it could do with more flesh in the plot.
The third anime I just finished is actually a pretty old one, but I had originally avoided it, because I didn't like the way the characters were drawn. Interestingly enough, it was after watching the Initial D movie (the Jay Chou one, not the anime one) that I was curious about the plot. So last Dec when I went to KL, I bought a box set that has Initial D stages 1, 2 and 3 Extra. Still, I put it off because of the excellent anime Monster, and only just began watching it. Although I still think the characters drawn look ugly in general, the cars do look good in CG animation, and the plot is engaging.
Contrary to what people may think, I actually do like cars, just that I'm adamant about the fact that it is too costly to own one, and hence I do not bother acquiring a licence. I generally avoid anime that focuses on a sport (e.g. soccer, basketball, tennis, and etc), because I thought it is one kind of boring to watch one match stretch over several episodes, but somehow the car racing in Initial D doesn't bore me. I think the anime fleshes out the characters' personalities very well, and makes it interesting because they generally feel human, in a naturally flawed kind of way. Some anime series feature personalities that are too perfect, which makes it surreal inadvertently. Anyway, I enjoyed Stage 1, and now I'm going onto Stage 2.
Now the next brainteasing game that got me hooked is Sudoku. I love applying logic to solve puzzles actually. Bwahaha. Need to exerise and oil my brain a bit. I haven't been using it to do challenging enough things lately.
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Mon 5 Jun
I went back to school today for the AVC June camp. I managed to get quite a lot of work done in the early hours of the day, fortunately, so that leaves me with only some loose ends to tie up at home. I finally got to interact with the whole club on a closer level at last. So far, I have only talked to a few of them who happened to be doing the duty I was overseeing. Day 1 went smoothly at least - the kids had training in the equipment, and I had work to do. I went out with them for dinner, and then returned for movie screening at the theatrette. There was some miscommunication, and we ended up being stranded outside the gate for half an hour. Sometimes tight security can be a real pain, even though I recognize the importance of it.
By the time the members were ready to hit the bed, it was almost 2 am, and it was then that I met the current committee with my fellow AVC teacher-in-charge Jonathan to discuss who would be in the next committee. By the time I hit the time, it was almost 4 am.
Tue 6 Jun
I think I was too tired to do much work the whole day. Worse still, lots of little things went wrong, and I was running all over the place to settle issues about keys, bypassing alarms and all. In the evening, the students had a barbecue. I wanted to be a bystander, but at some point, I realized that they do not know how to start a proper fire, and I went in to rescue an almost extinguished trough of charcoal. Somehow, in the past few barbecues where I decided not to be involved, I still ended up starting the fire. *Prodigy's Firestarter song plays in my head. Sadly though, neither Jonathan and I ate much, even though we each sponsored $50. Vaguely I remember blogging about the same thing last year, about last year's barbecue. The students were crowding round to get food for themselves, and at some point, we decided that the teachers ought to be gracious, and let the still-growing students eat more. Optimistically speaking, I am protecting myself from carcinogens from the overcooked food, and germs from the undercooked food.
I think students nowadays really have less etiquette. I remember when I was a student, we would always offer teachers food first. It's just a matter of respect for authority. Or maybe it is just an issue of unfamiliarity. Or maybe they were just starving. I don't know for sure. What I do know is that I will eat something substantial before I go to any students' barbecue from now on. Better to just accept the fact that times are indeed different, and expect less.
Wed 7 Jun
I went to K-Lunch with my gf in the morning! Yay! It's been quite a long while since we last went to sing karaoke. My voice only warmed up when we were half an hour to leaving. Still, it is fun. It's always good to have something to do that both of us really enjoy. Maybe I should try to get her hooked on pool. Hehe. In case any of you are wondering, I wrote that on purpose - my gf reads my blog of course.
Before I went for the Youthnet leaders' meeting, I detoured to Funan to find an AXS station to pay my tax. I guess the progress package given out earlier should nicely cover it; problem is I've already spent that! Sigh. Since I was at Funan, I detoured further to Challenger to go test out speakers. I think I've found the most affordable one with the best sound already; what is left to do would be to find the place that sells that model the cheapest. Hehe.
I went back to school today for the AVC June camp. I managed to get quite a lot of work done in the early hours of the day, fortunately, so that leaves me with only some loose ends to tie up at home. I finally got to interact with the whole club on a closer level at last. So far, I have only talked to a few of them who happened to be doing the duty I was overseeing. Day 1 went smoothly at least - the kids had training in the equipment, and I had work to do. I went out with them for dinner, and then returned for movie screening at the theatrette. There was some miscommunication, and we ended up being stranded outside the gate for half an hour. Sometimes tight security can be a real pain, even though I recognize the importance of it.
By the time the members were ready to hit the bed, it was almost 2 am, and it was then that I met the current committee with my fellow AVC teacher-in-charge Jonathan to discuss who would be in the next committee. By the time I hit the time, it was almost 4 am.
Tue 6 Jun
I think I was too tired to do much work the whole day. Worse still, lots of little things went wrong, and I was running all over the place to settle issues about keys, bypassing alarms and all. In the evening, the students had a barbecue. I wanted to be a bystander, but at some point, I realized that they do not know how to start a proper fire, and I went in to rescue an almost extinguished trough of charcoal. Somehow, in the past few barbecues where I decided not to be involved, I still ended up starting the fire. *Prodigy's Firestarter song plays in my head. Sadly though, neither Jonathan and I ate much, even though we each sponsored $50. Vaguely I remember blogging about the same thing last year, about last year's barbecue. The students were crowding round to get food for themselves, and at some point, we decided that the teachers ought to be gracious, and let the still-growing students eat more. Optimistically speaking, I am protecting myself from carcinogens from the overcooked food, and germs from the undercooked food.
I think students nowadays really have less etiquette. I remember when I was a student, we would always offer teachers food first. It's just a matter of respect for authority. Or maybe it is just an issue of unfamiliarity. Or maybe they were just starving. I don't know for sure. What I do know is that I will eat something substantial before I go to any students' barbecue from now on. Better to just accept the fact that times are indeed different, and expect less.
Wed 7 Jun
I went to K-Lunch with my gf in the morning! Yay! It's been quite a long while since we last went to sing karaoke. My voice only warmed up when we were half an hour to leaving. Still, it is fun. It's always good to have something to do that both of us really enjoy. Maybe I should try to get her hooked on pool. Hehe. In case any of you are wondering, I wrote that on purpose - my gf reads my blog of course.
Before I went for the Youthnet leaders' meeting, I detoured to Funan to find an AXS station to pay my tax. I guess the progress package given out earlier should nicely cover it; problem is I've already spent that! Sigh. Since I was at Funan, I detoured further to Challenger to go test out speakers. I think I've found the most affordable one with the best sound already; what is left to do would be to find the place that sells that model the cheapest. Hehe.
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Sat 3 Jun
I met up with a couple of old friends from my chem engin class at Coffee Club, Takashimaya. We had a lot to talk about this time round, since our lives seem to have many updates in recent months. One is getting married, the other took a major career change, and we were musing that maybe by the next few times we meet, we may be dragging kids along. Time really flies by. I have been teaching for 2 years already, and it still feels fresh in my mind when I was first posted to TJC. Age is certainly an inescapable pursuer.
In the evening, I met J for pool. I think it's about 2 to 3 months since I last played pool, which is a sad fact indeed. Now that J has found a stable job, and my last term was hectic, we couldn't really find time to meet in the first place. That guy is still as deadly accurate as ever, and I needed a few games before I warmed up. This is bad...I think I've deteriorated to an average player once again. More practice!
Sun 4 Jun
After service, J brought us to Xian De Lai restaurant to treat us - first pay from new job, and birthday treat. We had been there once before, but J was in China then, so he now wanted to try the super spicy food we told him about. It's a steamboat buffet restaurant, but it isn't as cheap as the Chongqing steamboat restaurants that have popped up all over the place. The cost was about $25 per person, but the food was of really good quality. I seriously think the guys in my cell group have monstrous appetites. We ate, and ate, and ate. We ordered meat 5 plates at a time. Yep, I think buffet restaurants suit my cell the best.
After we ate a ton of food, we went to...eat some more! We went to Ah Chiew's to eat dessert, which is just on the opposite side of the road. I had mango sago, and here's a shot of it:
$3.50 for this dessert, which is moderately priced, but it tastes delicious. Hmm...I think I've been having too much mango desserts. Even what I drank at Coffee Club yesterday was mango tango, and the day before I had mango dessert at Ice Monster. Mango overdose!
After that, we headed down to National Stadium for the Global Day of Prayer. A total of about 24000 Christians from various churches came together for prayer, along with other nations of the world. Here's a shot of the stadium:
I forgot to use the night mode, so there is some noise. In any case, I think I managed to capture the crowd present. Anyway, that's my cell leader Adrian praying in the left foreground. Personally, I didn't quite like some of the praying part; I think growing up in FCBC has made me feel that prayer should be active and personal. However, certain parts of the prayer was led by some reverend, and we have this little sentence to say every now and then, which I think is something from more traditional churches. I don't know for sure, but I remember it was like that in the catholic churches I once visited. Not that it is wrong or bad, but I think I'm just not used to it. My thought is that if I'm not engaged in the prayer actively, then how do I engage God when I'm just reading off the text? Anyway the whole time we alternate between praying and singing worship songs, and I find it nostalgic to sing some of those songs, because one thing about FCBC worship is that once some new songs are introduced, we sing them almost every week, so much so that we have little room left for the older songs. In any case, I'm glad I was there to witness such a big movement here in Singapore, and I am sure there are many more of these rallies to come.
I met up with a couple of old friends from my chem engin class at Coffee Club, Takashimaya. We had a lot to talk about this time round, since our lives seem to have many updates in recent months. One is getting married, the other took a major career change, and we were musing that maybe by the next few times we meet, we may be dragging kids along. Time really flies by. I have been teaching for 2 years already, and it still feels fresh in my mind when I was first posted to TJC. Age is certainly an inescapable pursuer.
In the evening, I met J for pool. I think it's about 2 to 3 months since I last played pool, which is a sad fact indeed. Now that J has found a stable job, and my last term was hectic, we couldn't really find time to meet in the first place. That guy is still as deadly accurate as ever, and I needed a few games before I warmed up. This is bad...I think I've deteriorated to an average player once again. More practice!
Sun 4 Jun
After service, J brought us to Xian De Lai restaurant to treat us - first pay from new job, and birthday treat. We had been there once before, but J was in China then, so he now wanted to try the super spicy food we told him about. It's a steamboat buffet restaurant, but it isn't as cheap as the Chongqing steamboat restaurants that have popped up all over the place. The cost was about $25 per person, but the food was of really good quality. I seriously think the guys in my cell group have monstrous appetites. We ate, and ate, and ate. We ordered meat 5 plates at a time. Yep, I think buffet restaurants suit my cell the best.
After we ate a ton of food, we went to...eat some more! We went to Ah Chiew's to eat dessert, which is just on the opposite side of the road. I had mango sago, and here's a shot of it:
$3.50 for this dessert, which is moderately priced, but it tastes delicious. Hmm...I think I've been having too much mango desserts. Even what I drank at Coffee Club yesterday was mango tango, and the day before I had mango dessert at Ice Monster. Mango overdose!
After that, we headed down to National Stadium for the Global Day of Prayer. A total of about 24000 Christians from various churches came together for prayer, along with other nations of the world. Here's a shot of the stadium:
I forgot to use the night mode, so there is some noise. In any case, I think I managed to capture the crowd present. Anyway, that's my cell leader Adrian praying in the left foreground. Personally, I didn't quite like some of the praying part; I think growing up in FCBC has made me feel that prayer should be active and personal. However, certain parts of the prayer was led by some reverend, and we have this little sentence to say every now and then, which I think is something from more traditional churches. I don't know for sure, but I remember it was like that in the catholic churches I once visited. Not that it is wrong or bad, but I think I'm just not used to it. My thought is that if I'm not engaged in the prayer actively, then how do I engage God when I'm just reading off the text? Anyway the whole time we alternate between praying and singing worship songs, and I find it nostalgic to sing some of those songs, because one thing about FCBC worship is that once some new songs are introduced, we sing them almost every week, so much so that we have little room left for the older songs. In any case, I'm glad I was there to witness such a big movement here in Singapore, and I am sure there are many more of these rallies to come.
Friday, June 02, 2006
I must be getting old. I spent the whole of the late morning to evening shopping with my gf, and my legs ached at the end of the day. We went down to Sim Lim square first, because we both needed to get things. My speakers are on the verge of dying. First the monitor went, and now one speaker's connection is down. I seriously believe that technology nowadays really have built-in obsolescence, possibly a conspiracy among manufacturers to force people to keep buying new products. Grr. After testing several speakers, I decided that I would get Altec Lansing or Creative, because the other brands aren't that good. In the end I didn't buy anything yet, because I didn't manage to find a shop that let me test the speakers I was eyeing.
For lunch, we went to Fatty's Restaurant at Burlington Square. I've been there once before, and I thought the food was good. This time round, I decided to try something else, so I ordered the fried beef kway teow:
It tasted really, really good! The beef was tender and succulent, and the kway teow was flavourful. The only complaint is that it was quite oily at the bottom. The seafood soup that we ordered was pretty delicious too. I think I'd eat there when I visit Sim Lim Square. For dessert we went to this shop Ice Monster at Bencoolen Square just opposite, which sells desserts. We tried this mango sherbet with mango pieces and milk concoction, which was delicious too, though very sweet.
We then headed down to Orchard to do some shopping. I was planning to get a pair of sneakers, or some kind of casual shoes. So far, I've been wearing my Caterpillar shoes to work and church and out, and I think I like the shoes enough not to want to wear it out so quickly, especially since there's some jumping around every Sunday during service. Still, I didn't manage to see anything that catches my eye. I think nowadays the Great Singapore Sale offers better deals than before. When it first came out, I remember thinking that the sales that came after the GSS (to clear stock probably) had better discounts. Since last year, I noted that many shops really do slash prices quite a fair bit, and the credit card companies do throw in pretty good promotions to get people to spend more as well. Consumerism is bad; savvy consumerism, I suppose, is forgivable. Heh.
After that, we headed down to Plaza Singapura to meet my blood brudders. Blood brudder Yuren was celebrating his birthday there, starting with a Crystal Jade Kitchen dinner and then X-Men 3. We were there early, so we shopped around a bit. I ended up with my sole purchase of the day, which was a cross pendant for my gf. Still no good shoes in sight apparently. Dinner was good, as usual. Also, as usual, there was a 2o-min barrage of advertisements before the movie started, as I have come to commonly expect of Golden Village. The movie was surprisingly short, coming up to maybe 1 hr 50 min, compared to the previous two which were over 2 hours.
I am amazed by how the scriptwriters have completely deviated from the original X-Men comic plots, although they kept most characters largely intact in terms of character and background. Just as the first two movies, I think the Archille's Heel of X-Men movies is that there are just way too many characters they try to showcase in so short a time. There is just too little character development when a dozen well-known actors/actresses are clamouring for screen time. In fact, X-Men 3 to me seems like some of those actors/actresses wanted to quit the set, and the scriptwriters conveniently arranged their characters' deaths in the movie, because the deaths were so abrupt and seemingly unnecessary. By the way, if you haven't watched it yet, take note to stay past the credits to see a less than 10 sec part that shows you one character actually didn't die. I still like the show overall, but I think the storyline is not as rich as the previous two, and I had a 'you mean that's it?' going in my head when the supposedly climatic fight ended.
For lunch, we went to Fatty's Restaurant at Burlington Square. I've been there once before, and I thought the food was good. This time round, I decided to try something else, so I ordered the fried beef kway teow:
It tasted really, really good! The beef was tender and succulent, and the kway teow was flavourful. The only complaint is that it was quite oily at the bottom. The seafood soup that we ordered was pretty delicious too. I think I'd eat there when I visit Sim Lim Square. For dessert we went to this shop Ice Monster at Bencoolen Square just opposite, which sells desserts. We tried this mango sherbet with mango pieces and milk concoction, which was delicious too, though very sweet.
We then headed down to Orchard to do some shopping. I was planning to get a pair of sneakers, or some kind of casual shoes. So far, I've been wearing my Caterpillar shoes to work and church and out, and I think I like the shoes enough not to want to wear it out so quickly, especially since there's some jumping around every Sunday during service. Still, I didn't manage to see anything that catches my eye. I think nowadays the Great Singapore Sale offers better deals than before. When it first came out, I remember thinking that the sales that came after the GSS (to clear stock probably) had better discounts. Since last year, I noted that many shops really do slash prices quite a fair bit, and the credit card companies do throw in pretty good promotions to get people to spend more as well. Consumerism is bad; savvy consumerism, I suppose, is forgivable. Heh.
After that, we headed down to Plaza Singapura to meet my blood brudders. Blood brudder Yuren was celebrating his birthday there, starting with a Crystal Jade Kitchen dinner and then X-Men 3. We were there early, so we shopped around a bit. I ended up with my sole purchase of the day, which was a cross pendant for my gf. Still no good shoes in sight apparently. Dinner was good, as usual. Also, as usual, there was a 2o-min barrage of advertisements before the movie started, as I have come to commonly expect of Golden Village. The movie was surprisingly short, coming up to maybe 1 hr 50 min, compared to the previous two which were over 2 hours.
I am amazed by how the scriptwriters have completely deviated from the original X-Men comic plots, although they kept most characters largely intact in terms of character and background. Just as the first two movies, I think the Archille's Heel of X-Men movies is that there are just way too many characters they try to showcase in so short a time. There is just too little character development when a dozen well-known actors/actresses are clamouring for screen time. In fact, X-Men 3 to me seems like some of those actors/actresses wanted to quit the set, and the scriptwriters conveniently arranged their characters' deaths in the movie, because the deaths were so abrupt and seemingly unnecessary. By the way, if you haven't watched it yet, take note to stay past the credits to see a less than 10 sec part that shows you one character actually didn't die. I still like the show overall, but I think the storyline is not as rich as the previous two, and I had a 'you mean that's it?' going in my head when the supposedly climatic fight ended.
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Tue & Wed, 30-31 May
On Tue and Wed, I spent both whole days at NUS for a Nanoscience course. Most of the lecturers were pretty interesting, and I was listening avidly most of the time, other than the moments I was distracted with Sudoku. I mainly remember eating a lot. There was a tea break before lunch, lunch itself was provided for as well (my first time attending a course that covers lunch), and a tea break later in the afternoon. The food was surprisingly good.
I have always been fascinated with nanotechnology. In fact, in the last 2 years when my students were discussing career prospects and university courses with me, I had already been telling them that life science won't be the biggest thing for long, because the market is getting saturated, and a graduate with a degree without Masters or phD won't go very far. I told them that the next big thing would be nanotechnology and precision engineering, because everything will be built smaller and smaller. In fact, even life science involves nanotechnology in terms of drug delivery, for instance.
The hands-on session largely include microscopes, and the theory behind most of what was shown and discussed revolved around physics and chemistry, and I could only barely remember some of those concepts from years ago. Here's a shot of me working on the Optical Tweezers, which involves using powerful laser light to generate a force strong enough to manipulate items a micron in size.
Here's a shot of a machine used for laser lithography, which involves using laser light to write on carbon nanotubes. I wrote my surname in 繁体字, but I think I miswrote it a bit, on a square space about 100 microns. Fascinating stuff there.
The bright spot is the glare of the laser light's reflection off some surfaces. I think this is one of the few courses I found really interesting to attend, and the irony is that the course was originally meant for physics teachers.
After the course ended, my gf and I went to meet my cousins KX (who's working at NUS), and HJ, who was on the same course coincidentally, for dinner at Ikea restaurant. Here's a shot of what my gf and I ate.
Meatballs and chicken wings are a must. I especially like the chicken wings because they are crispy, tasty and not soaked with oil like those BBQ wings that you can get in hawker centres. I had a curry fish set (in background), but the curry was lacklustre, the rice was a little hard - only the fish was nice, and they gave two big slices of the fish at that.
I bumped into my cell leader at Ikea, coincidentally, whom I was supposed to meet for cell group subsequently anyway, so I got myself a free ride down to the meeting place. Three days into the holidays, and it feels like the days are longer than my average school day.
Thu 1 Jun
I still had to wake up early to go down to NIE. Today I am officially $1700 poorer, paying that sum as an admin fee to NTU for my Masters in Education programme. Originally many of my colleagues were interested, but one by one they wavered, and now only my level head, my gf and I remain. I waited 1 hr in the queue, unbelievably. There was a bottleneck in the last station, which caused a secondary queue to form, and none of the staff bothered to direct the new people to the first 2 stations for payment, so we queued in the wrong queue for a while, and I was informing those behind me so that they would not make the same mistake we did. I suspected that it was meant to be only one queue, so this was an unexpected situation, but still, I think it was a poor oversight to choose not to rectify the situation with signages or opening up a separate queue for clarity's sake.
I wonder if the 3 year course would make my schedule a whole lot busier...
On Tue and Wed, I spent both whole days at NUS for a Nanoscience course. Most of the lecturers were pretty interesting, and I was listening avidly most of the time, other than the moments I was distracted with Sudoku. I mainly remember eating a lot. There was a tea break before lunch, lunch itself was provided for as well (my first time attending a course that covers lunch), and a tea break later in the afternoon. The food was surprisingly good.
I have always been fascinated with nanotechnology. In fact, in the last 2 years when my students were discussing career prospects and university courses with me, I had already been telling them that life science won't be the biggest thing for long, because the market is getting saturated, and a graduate with a degree without Masters or phD won't go very far. I told them that the next big thing would be nanotechnology and precision engineering, because everything will be built smaller and smaller. In fact, even life science involves nanotechnology in terms of drug delivery, for instance.
The hands-on session largely include microscopes, and the theory behind most of what was shown and discussed revolved around physics and chemistry, and I could only barely remember some of those concepts from years ago. Here's a shot of me working on the Optical Tweezers, which involves using powerful laser light to generate a force strong enough to manipulate items a micron in size.
Here's a shot of a machine used for laser lithography, which involves using laser light to write on carbon nanotubes. I wrote my surname in 繁体字, but I think I miswrote it a bit, on a square space about 100 microns. Fascinating stuff there.
The bright spot is the glare of the laser light's reflection off some surfaces. I think this is one of the few courses I found really interesting to attend, and the irony is that the course was originally meant for physics teachers.
After the course ended, my gf and I went to meet my cousins KX (who's working at NUS), and HJ, who was on the same course coincidentally, for dinner at Ikea restaurant. Here's a shot of what my gf and I ate.
Meatballs and chicken wings are a must. I especially like the chicken wings because they are crispy, tasty and not soaked with oil like those BBQ wings that you can get in hawker centres. I had a curry fish set (in background), but the curry was lacklustre, the rice was a little hard - only the fish was nice, and they gave two big slices of the fish at that.
I bumped into my cell leader at Ikea, coincidentally, whom I was supposed to meet for cell group subsequently anyway, so I got myself a free ride down to the meeting place. Three days into the holidays, and it feels like the days are longer than my average school day.
Thu 1 Jun
I still had to wake up early to go down to NIE. Today I am officially $1700 poorer, paying that sum as an admin fee to NTU for my Masters in Education programme. Originally many of my colleagues were interested, but one by one they wavered, and now only my level head, my gf and I remain. I waited 1 hr in the queue, unbelievably. There was a bottleneck in the last station, which caused a secondary queue to form, and none of the staff bothered to direct the new people to the first 2 stations for payment, so we queued in the wrong queue for a while, and I was informing those behind me so that they would not make the same mistake we did. I suspected that it was meant to be only one queue, so this was an unexpected situation, but still, I think it was a poor oversight to choose not to rectify the situation with signages or opening up a separate queue for clarity's sake.
I wonder if the 3 year course would make my schedule a whole lot busier...
