Today was quite eventful. My TA1 class was supposed to do a presentation on atomic structure. One group put up a skit, which was very amusing. Generally all the groups were well prepared in terms of content, except that they all missed out something important. They are a pretty entertaining class to teach.

I was disappointed twice today. I found some of my form students skipping a mass talk, and I think this has been an ongoing issue for a while. My AVC students also got into some trouble with the vice-principal, likewise requiring discipline. Sigh.

After school, the chemistry department held the Synthesize 2007 competition, using the card game I designed. Some participants or classes did not turn up, and had a walkover, but that was a handful of maybe five students. My supervising professor showed up, and thankfully, he gave the go ahead to do this as a research project. In fact, he seemed quite interested in what was happening during the games as well, and gave some recommendations for improvement and what can be researched into. A lady Ph.D undergraduate, who had done some research on using models to teach organic chemistry with a class in the school, also came down to take a look, and she was quite fascinated by the game, and gave me positive feedback. I think in general the students had fun playing it, so as a game designer, that point alone was satisfying to observe. One student came up to me to tell me that the game really helped him piece together his organic chemistry reactions, and that gave some pedagogical value to what I have come up with. I need to analyse the surveys in greater detail to see if there was benefit, but for a first run, I am quite pleased with the turnout. I also managed to note down several issues and problems to help refine the game and competition setting, so that would help a second run of the competition.

I am excited! Since the lecturer for my Master's tutorial said that action research should revolve around something we're passionate about, I think working on this would be very much ideal. I really like the way this thing is developing.

I had a long and busy day today. There was a meeting in the morning, and then I was off to do marking, because I graciously decided to spare my students from doing too many tutorial questions last minute, so I opted to return them the practical scripts earlier. I then had a remedial with my class, rushed off for a quick lunch, and was back for a tutorial and then a practical. After the smoke and dust cleared, I was off to prepare for the big day tomorrow.

The chemistry competition is going to take place tomorrow! It's fascinating how the whole thing has developed. Originally, last year the year 1 team of tutors had this action research project called 101 ideas, which was to collate some new/interesting/fun ideas for teaching certain topics together. I came up with the idea for a card game for organic chemistry, and I tried it out with some colleagues. One of the senior teachers in the team really liked it, and let one of her classes try out the prototype version, and they were very enthusiastic about it, to the extent of volunteering to help us make more sets, and to organize a competition. That idea stuck with us, and we thought that for this year, our action research project will centre around the game, and to develop it further for pedagogical use. Then a colleague suggested to me to collaborate with NIE, whereupon it hit me that I can use this for my Master's research! And what I write for the research can be used for presenting the idea for some teaching conferences and all. Killing many, many birds with one stone. Let's see if my supervising professor is agreeable, and what he advises tomorrow as he comes down to witness the competition.

I know I am in the right profession. Every year I see my different giftings show up relevant to what I do in school, even though it does not directly relate to the teaching itself. Cool.

In the evening, I had a reunion with my old church friends. A long time ago when I was in the army, I went back to TJC to help out the campus ministry there. Interestingly and ironically enough, almost all the leaders then have left for various reasons, and most of the cell members are still around. Today, after so many years, we finally got together again, and boy, was it nostalgic to meet some of them. The weird thing is that no one really changed. Our zone supervisor looks not a day older than the time I knew him, except maybe a little more weight round the waistline. Another guy looks almost identical, except cooler haircut. The girls almost all look the same, except for different hairstyles. I think my face looked the most different, since I was gaunt back in those days. We ate at Waraku, behind Centrepoint, and the food was quite good. It felt very authenically Japanese because some items on the menu I do not see in other Japanese restaurants, and those are the foodstuff I see the characters eat in the anime I watch.

I ordered this for dinner.
















No, I wasn't being greedy. This is one set by itself. The rice was a big portion furthermore, sprinkled with shredded egg, salmon roe, one each of prawn, squid, salmon and tuna sashimi. The udon had largely vegetables and some fishcake, but the udon itself was soft and good. This costs $13.80, which I think is quite a good price for the food. I like it enough to want to check out the other items on the extensive menu. I feel really thirsty now though, but I can't pinpoint whether it's because this meal had too much MSG, or because of the ice cream I ate at Haagen Dazs afterward.

One odd thing happened at lunch time. I was crossing the road with my colleague when her student greeted her, and me, though I don't know her. She then went on to say, "Cher, your specs very nice...because of you, I went to get this!", pointing to her white-framed funky specs. Hmm. I didn't know that inspiring others in the teaching profession included this.

School ended fairly early today for my gf and I, so we went out. We were shopping at Marina Square, and we chanced upon Kym Ng filming something there. Here's a shot of her, although it's distant and a bit blur.

















They were already filming this one scene for some time by the time we were there, and they were still filming for a long time to come. And she was in this awkward posture the whole time! It sure isn't easy to be an actor or actress. Anyway, this is what it looks like in the whole area.

















And they were filming this odd scene with a guy whom I did not recognize, carrying a sword and point it at her. We were so curious what the heck the thing was about, but didn't have the patience to stand there through the whole thing.

It was off to service as usual today, except that there was a guest preacher this week, and he was one amusing man. He shared many personal life stories, which made it very engaging and humourous. We celebrated Bear's birthday today, and we got her a cake and a soft toy, which, wasn't a bear, contrary to what I thought they would get for her, for her namesake. I had a short cell group, and afterward, my gf and I were waiting for blood brudder Junzhong to come and pick us up.

We were having a double birthday celebration for him and blood brudder Shaofeng. On blood brudder Zhenxing's recommendation, we headed off to Seafood Paradise restaurant at Defu Lane. We parked at the back of a factory, and circled around the back. At that point, frankly, it didn't look very promising. Once we went round the bend though, we were greeted by this modern venue with chic decor. The wind was scarily strong and chilling today though, and we picked a spot with some minor protection from the wind.

We ordered two chilli crabs, some braised tofu thing, vegetables with mushrooms, oyster omelette, sweet and sour pork, crispy chicken, and seafood fried rice. The conclusion was that the food was amazingly good. The seafood fried rice itself was tasty. The oysters from the oyster omelette were the freshest I have ever tasted on an oyster omelette before. The chicken was very crispy, and it was the kind with the skin on top, and a thin layer of meat below, much like the Peking duck. The mushrooms were big, tender and juicy, and the vegetables done well. The tofu was served in delicious gravy. The chilli crabs had superb gravy, and the meat was extremely fresh. The only thing that tasted ordinary was the sweet and sour pork, which was the usual coffee shop zi char standard. It came up to about $21 per person, which was decent considering the two big crabs we ordered. I am definitely going to find my way there again some other time, when there is an occasion for it. Excellent food.

Wed 24 Jan

I finally memorized the names of the students of my TA1 class, which I am relieving for this term. It's not an easy thing to do, considering I see them only once a week. I think they are quite an interesting bunch, and I guess I'll miss teaching them when their rightful teacher returns from maternity leave.

After school, the whole college was mobilized to distribute flyers for the upcoming Old Clothes Collection day. It was a mass exodus of green as the whole school left for Bedok interchange, and that's about 1500 students. My class was assigned some blocks at Bedok reservoir, so we made our way there. The whole process took a much shorter time than I expected, and I had enough time to go home and change, and have dinner, before heading out for cell group. I waited more than ten minutes before 197 came, and then I realized I left my wallet at home, so I had to head back to get it, and ended up late for cell group. We hung out at MacDonald's after cell group to eat a little supper and chit-chat, which I think we haven't done for eons, so that was great.

Thu 25 Jan

I had to go down to NTU with my colleague Lisa to check on a few students assigned to be our mentees. The TA3 students were away on attachment, and my group happened to be taking on a physics project, but were having some issues there. We left the college at about 9.30 am, and tried to get a cab, but to no avail. There weren't any empty ones at all, and adding salt to injury, some woman went in front of us to cut queue. Worse still, it was raining as we waited. After waiting for 20 min, we gave up and called for a cab, which took another 10 min to arrive. The journey took another half an hour, before we reached the place, after getting lost a bit inside NTU and having to ask some students for directions. I bumped into an ex-student of mine there, and asked her for directions to the building, but she didn't know. That was ironic, because the last time I bumped into her when I was at NTU, she was having lunch at the canteen inside that very building. I called the professor we were supposed to meet, and he told us he was coming.

He arrived an hour later. My colleague was actually rushing to head back, because she had lessons at 12.30 pm. We actually booked a cab for 12 noon, and was about to give up, but he turned up at 11.40 am. The best thing was that we settled the issue in about 5 min of conversation. We headed back to college after that, and managed to make it back in time. We actually spent 80 min on the cab to and fro, and 80 min of waiting for the cab and for the professor, just to speak to him for 5 min. Frankly, it feels like it's not quite worth it. I guess the higher you climb, the more of other people's time you get to waste.

My gf and I headed to Suntec for shopping, stopping by New York, New York for dinner. My favourite dish turned out a little disappointing as the best pork chop I've ever eaten deteriorated to mediocrity, being grilled insufficiently. The new lemon-flavoured candy floss was a redeeming factor though. My gf managed to find some nice shoes, but I have yet to find nice shirts, especially short-sleeved ones, to add to my working wear collection since late last year. Grrr.

Fri 26 Jan

I finally cleared my lecturing! I can't remember when the next one is, but if there is, it's surely far, far away. I also managed to clear a ton of administrative work, and packed up the last parts of my table and cupboard. The Masters' course tutorial was quite interesting today. The professor teaching today was sharing a lot about the research he was doing, and he was very humourous, and wryly cynical about many aspects of Singapore. The best thing was that he managed to finish extremely early and let us go off. I love that, and I usually try to let my own students off early whenever possible as well.

My gf and I headed for White Sands to eat dinner at Sakae Sushi, and I think the tempura and udon there was particularly good. I think it must be the chef there, but somehow the cooked food tastes surprisingly good at this outlet. We shopped around a little bit, but didn't end up with much. Personally, if I stay at Simei or Pasir Ris, I would be dead bored. There's nothing much to walk around and see at the shopping malls there, though Eastpoint had improved to some extent.

Sat 27 Jan

I managed to jog again today, and I think I ran about 2.6 km. I actually wanted to jog in the morning, but I overslept till 10.30 am. However, seeing the excellent weather, which had little sun and plenty of cold wind, I went to jog anyway, and took a scenic route around the Kallang river area. I think I was slow, but at least, I got my cardio working. And my legs were not protesting as much, so I take it that the stamina is slowly recovering.

I headed to Clementi in the evening to wait for Junhao to pick me up. We were both heading to our girlfriends' cell group barbecue. Before he arrived, I managed to pick up firestarters from NTUC, order a chocolate cake, pay off bills for both my credit cards at the AXN station, and purchase some excellent pies, in the span of under 20 min. I am fast. Bwahaha.

I knew there must be a catch to our being invited as affiliates, and true enough, we had to start the fire for the girls. Fortunately, that seemed to have become my forte, after many years of experience of barbecues. There was too much food, including excellent satay, and oddly enough, stingray without sambal, and as I am blogging this, I am still bloated. It was pretty fun though, and the highlight of the day involved rescuing a soft drink bottle from the middle of the swimming pool. Don't ask how it got there in the first place...

On my way home, I witnessed a mass exodus of people, mostly in red, as I passed by national stadium. There were so many patriots who went to support Singapore in the key match today apparently. I would think that most people who enjoy watching soccer would rather watch the EPL, hence the people who did bother to be there at the stadium tonight, despite the drizzle, must indeed be patriotic. Especially since getting out of there, whether by public or private transport is an absolute nightmare.

Sun 21 Jan

Finally, a Sunday I can wake up late after ten weeks. After several weeks of resolve that was thwarted by rain, I managed to start jogging once more. However, my legs were aching after only jogging about 1.6 km. Sigh. It's been 10 months since I did any serious exercise I think, and my body is far from the fitness it once had. Fortunately, the aching legs did not stop me from jumping and praising God during service.

I had a short cell group, and managed to catch the free shuttle service to Simei. Frankly, I didn't know that the extension to Eastpoint has opened. My gf and her sis went shopping, and I found myself an interesting manga shop. My gf told me that there is a World of JJ in Eastpoint, which was a shop I frequented when I was in army back in Choa Chu Kang, because it sells Magic cards! I went there, and I found two boxes of 'unwanted' cards in the shop. I originally only wanted to skim through it a bit, and come back another time, but my gf sweetly offered to help me look through the cards, and roped in her sister. So we poured through thousands of cards in an hour, and I managed to grab a whole bunch of useful stuff. In fact, at one point, she wanted to look through the second box, and I had to stop her from it. I've got a great gf! Heh.

Mon 22 Jan

It was a short day today, so I came home quite early. I was watching the 7 pm Channel 8 show about teaching with my gf, and the whole time, we were going, "So unrealistic!" I think the show is trying hard to follow in the rebellious footsteps of one of my all-time favourites, Great Teacher Onizuka, but given the context of a Singapore school, so many parts look surreal. I think even relief teachers do not have the audacity to dress as casually as the main character does, or speak to permanent teachers with such irreverence, or be entrusted with a big task of making a video for a competition, or am free enough to go around tailing students, to the extent of following one to a sleazy KTV lounge. I'm just wondering if MOE sponsored the show or something for a recruitment drive...

Tue 23 Jan

I finally met a JC1 class I'm supposed to relief for half a year for practicals. The shocking thing was that out of the whole class, there were only 3 guys. After teaching classes with mostly guys in them, this was a rare oddity. I spent some time after class to pack my table, and it is now satisfactorily neat. Everything now has a tray or a drawer to belong in. Bwahaha.

I met an old friend for dinner after school, and he was late for an hour because of something cropping up last minute from a client He is an investment banker, and after his telling me of what happens at work, I find it an unenviable profession. The pressure and politics alone are scary. I was telling him that there were two professions I ruled out right from the start. One of them is banking/investment, and the other is a doctor/surgeon. Although I think the latter is a noble profession, I think I cannot handle the pressure of having someone's life in my hands. Similarly, for investment, I think I won't be able to take it if I lost half a million bucks of someone else's money or something. In fact, because of my principles of obligation and responsibility, I think I would feel worse than if the money was mine.

The irony has really come full circle - Subutex is now the most abused drug in Singapore. The drug that is supposed to rid addicts of heroin addiction has now replaced the drug in popularity. I know it's a serious social problem, but everytime I hear news about Subutex abuse, it amuses me to no end once the idea of irony kicks in. Talk about backfiring. Big time.

The other piece of news that bug me is the controversy of allowing sale of organs. I really can't stand it seeing arguments that go along the line of 'Other countries allow it, so why shouldn't we?' Great. U.S.A. allows the sale of guns, and so should we? Look at where that has brought them. Columbine, and other similar killing sprees. The only thing I see is that once the sale of organs is allowed, it only means that the rich has better means at their disposal. It only may lead the desperate to sell their kidney or something for needed money, or worse, to attack someone else for their organs. Considering the recent financial survey that informs us that the rich are getting richer, the moderate have gotten nowhere, and the poorer are lagi more jialat, wouldn't this meant that the rich can get healthier, the moderate will get nowhere, and the poor will be missing organs. Gee. That's really swell.

Wed 17 Jan

I'm back to lecturing at last. The topic I was supposed to lecture since last year was postponed multiple times till now. I had fun watching the TA1 class doing an activity which they got carried away doing, and almost earned my wrath if not for a few students who were wise enough to recognize the irritation on my face. There was a long staff conference, before I went home for dinner, and headed down for cell group. I was partnered with Macson for sharing, and we had quite a good chat. Before recently, there were three PRC guys in my cell who had been having cell group separately with my cell leader, but now, they have been regularly joining all of us, so I'm getting to know them better. He's a really interesting guy actually.

Thu 18 Jan

I was ploughing through some work in the day, waiting for my only lesson of the day in the afternoon. Because of my role in IT committee, I had to assist in the distribution of tablet PCs to the TA1s. They were, of course, abuzz with excitement unveiling their new toys, but at the same time, I heard so many questions from them that made me wonder if they were really digital natives, as their generation is supposed to be. In any case, looking at their faces made me feel as if I had just placed a loaded revolver in the hands of toddlers.

Fri 19 Jan

I was supposed to have blogged today, but blogger.com failed me. Originally, my Friday shouldn't be packed, but I was overwhelmed with many little things to do. We are finally going to test run my card game on a bigger scale, and see if it works. I had a batch of scripts to mark, and then the massive load of stationery arrived, and I had to be manual labourer along with some colleagues. I don't see why the deliverymen from Popular refused to help us bring the goods up to the third floor, claiming to be in a hurry; I would have thought that they were obligated to send it to wherever necessary in the address, which was the very reason why we bought in bulk in the first place. Anyway, now my table is reorganized to neatness once more.

In the late afternoon, we headed off to our Masters' Course, where an infamous lecturer took us for the session. This was the same lecturer who, upon our telling her that we had to attend our staff dinner at Mt Faber at 7 pm, told us we could leave early at 6.45 pm when our tutorial is at Pasir Ris. She almost didn't give us a break, and was talking away for almost 1.5 hours straight, before she finally recognized the fatigued expressions on our faces, and gave us a break anyway. It was a huge surprise to be done by 6.45 pm actually.

My HOD dropped my gf and I off at Ikea Tampines, and we went to Courts to have a look. We were dead hungry, so we checked out the cafe. At first, we were dismayed, looking at the narrow selection, and the almost (small) foodcourt-ish layout. The food turned out to be not bad actually. I had teriyaki salmon with butter rice, and personally, I found the salmon better tasting than Ikea's poached salmon. My gf had nonya curry, which was pretty thick, quite spicy, and had tender chicken meat in it. The main gripe though was that there were no potatoes. In any case, the food turned out better than we thought, though nothing spectacular. We walked around Courts, and idly checked out the things there. Nothing seemed like an attractive enough bargain though.

Sat 20 Jan

It's Magic the Gathering Planar Chaos Prerelease tournament at Expo! I managed to drag a colleague down with me to play, and we started in the morning. The cards that were in the decks that I opened were pretty good, but for this tournament, we had to pass our cards to the right twice. In the end, the cards I got from this rotation turned out subpar, and I could only win 2 out of 4 rounds. The only good thing was that in the lucky 'draw', I won another booster pack, so I managed to cover the price of the tournament with cards. My colleague won 3 out of 4 rounds, which was excellent, since it was his first tournament. It was fun, and worth the hunger and the waiting.

Mon 15 Jan

I went home fairly early today in order to check out my newly delivered Compaq Presario laptop, courtesy of Starhub's promotion. I spent some time to install quite a few programs to get it up and running well, and man, it looks pretty sleek. At least, it looks so much better than what I was expecting from a freebie. Now all I need is a proper laptop bag, which this laptop didn't come with. Ah well.

Tue 16 Jan

I had a meeting in the morning, and it looks to me like every start of the year is chock full of meetings. I had a remedial with my (unprepared) class, and a tutorial, and then a whole bunch of us colleagues headed down to Bras Basah's Popular to get office equipment. I was spreading the news that now Popular does delivery for purchases of at least $150 (it used to be $300 apparently), and was trying to gather more interested parties so that we could accumulate our purchases to hit $150, and get all the stuff delivered to the school rather than carry it all ourselves. At first, I was wondering whether we would even hit $150...and the end result? Check out the receipt.

















That piece of paper, with all the items in small font, is longer than a computer keyboard! (That's not my keyboard, by the way...) In the end, we hit $150 more than twice over at a grand total of $393.20, and I only humbly contributed about $35 worth of purchases. Scary. I think we were quite a spectacle with the huge pile of files, trays, filing cabinets, reams of paper, and etc at the cashier. We spent a huge amount of time to sort out the receipt and each person's bill. Now I have more than enough storage to neatly file away many more things, and I can slowly build of tower of filing cabinets to obscure my cubicle from view. Bwahaha.

Sat 13 Jan

I hibernated most of the day away. The weather was extremely conducive for sleeping, so that was what I did. Anyway, lately I feel extremely tired, and I suspect I still haven't gotten used to waking up so early in the morning again, since I typically sleep at 3 to 4 am in the holidays.

Sun 14 Jan

Today marks the last day of my nursery duty. After ten weeks of waking up early on Sunday, it is finally over. Not that I was particularly looking forward to leaving, because the 3 to 4 year old kids were really adorable, with the exception of some spoilt and irrascible ones, but I think it's just the satisfaction of completing what is required. Here are some shots of the kids in David's Club.


















The kid with the eyes closed (bad timing!) is David, and he sticks to me a lot every week. He's quite a good natured kid, except when he's near a particular naughty friend of his and he gets a little out of hand. Most of the time during colouring, he asks me to draw guns/trains for him on the back of the paper. The one who looks like he's jumping towards the camera is Jeremy. He was quiet at first, but after he warmed up to my gf and I, he has been sticking to us as well.






















This boy is Darran, and he's a really obedient kid. The first few weeks he came, he started the day crying or sobbing, because he misses his mum and brother. After some time, he finally settled in, and for the last two weeks, I see him smiling all the way. One of the few kids who can colour within the lines.


















This boy is Elliott, and he was one of the first boys I was looking after. He's the most sociable of the lot, because he doesn't stick to any particular adult, and can follow any leader, or play with any kid. I think he's quite a good looking kid, but I think the photograph isn't clear enough. He is quite hyper, but at least he stops when you tell him to. Every week, he draws something destructive on his colouring sheet though. If not fire, then it's a tornado. I like this kid a lot, because he is full of imagination, and describes what's in his head vividly when he draws.

I'm going to miss these kids. The only things stopping me from going back are that I have School of Leaders training to make up for and the timings clash, and that it's super early in the morning. If I go for this, I have to wake up almost 4 hours earlier than usual, compared to the case where I just go for the Youth Service. Anyway, I think I'll drop by once in a while when I feel like it.

Junhao, his gf, my gf and I went for lunch together at the Bedok Food Centre off Bedok Camp. Junhao's family operates a prawn mee and popiah stall there, and the prawn mee part of the stall is newly opened, so we went to try. I tried to pay his mum, but she refused to take the money, so we got a free lunch. The next door stall was a drinks stall, and my gf went to buy two sugarcane drinks, but the aunty there refused to take the money after she realized that we were with Junhao, and then sent two more drinks over. I feel super embarrassed to receive such favours actually, especially when I don't know them well. We headed back for service, cell group, and the usual, topping it off with dinner at my gf's place.

Tue 9 Jan

I headed down to NTU with some colleagues to meet with some professors who we liaised with for attachment projects for our TA3 students. We spent a long time hunting down the rooms of the professors, and because of the delay, I couldn't rush back to school in time for my actual lesson. At least I thought the professor for the physics side seemed reluctant to help, but I gradually realized that it was merely because he hadn't thought it through fully, and was as yet unprepared. Still, the premise of the projects the students are going to be engaged in seems genuinely interesting.

I was looking at a video clip on Youtube about the fireball in the sky on 7 Jan. Apparently my boys were at Vivocity's top floor open space, and witnessed the entire thing. I'm curious as to the identity of the object, as yet undisclosed by the relevant authorities. Oddly enough, I recall the tagline on the Navy (or is it Air Force?) advertisements I always see on the MRT trains: "There is no such thing as an unidentified flying object". Hmmm...tough luck.

Wed 10 Jan

Today, there were strings of meetings in the morning and night, with lessons inbetween. Everything was packed almost continously till the late afternoon. The TA1 class I'm relieving a colleague of for a term seems to be a fun bunch, and I hope I set a good foundation before I hand them back to the rightful tutor. I rushed home for dinner, and then for cell group. It's a really long day.

Thu 11 Jan

The day was long because I had a late lab, so inbetween I managed to work on a lot of preparatory stuff.

I managed to complete the series Salaryman Kintaro, and it was really good. Although the animation seems to be a bit old, the storyline was engaging throughout. The protagonist Kintaro was the leader of a huge motorcycle gang, but after he got married and his wife died giving birth to his son, he decided to disband the gang, and join a proper company to raise his son. Because of his honest and earnest character, he started bringing change to the company in extraordinary ways, mostly unintended. The premise is reminiscent of Great Teacher Onizuka, but that the rebel is now a white-collar worker, rather than a teacher. What is intriguing about the show is that it features intense politicking, corrupt commercial practices, and yet a character who stays constant and unwavering throughout. To me, the animation seems to be a social commentary on the deplorable state of the workplace in Japan, with the salaryman gradually losing voice, identity and drive. Cool stuff. Now, on to School Rumble Semester Two!

Fri 12 Jan

I finally received the results from last semester's two MEd modules: A and A-, after a very long wait. I missed perfect CAP by that tiny bit...grr. Today we resume the MEd course at Meridien JC, and the lecturer today is from Hong Kong, and he is very entertaining. After showing us his profile, I found out that he is from FCBC too, no doubt under Ps Chan Hon Sek. The odd thing was that he said he found me familiar, but I couldn't for the life of me think of how that could be possible. Maybe I have a common face. Or maybe it's just someone else with similar spectacles...

Sun 7 Jan

I had fun during nursery duty today. I was supposed to act the role of the prodigal son while someone narrated, so I gave it my entertaining all. The rest were commenting that the kids were riveted, which is no mean feat. The guy who acted as the father in the story turned out to be one year younger than me actually.

After service, my gf and I went down to Parkway Parade to eat lunch at Sakae Sushi. I still have one $20 voucher to use, so that paid for two thirds of our lunch. We had dessert at Venezia before heading down to Mandarin Gardens for a makeup lesson in our MPC course, which was the only one we missed (when I was down with that muscle-weakening illness). There was actually a change in venue, which didn't occur to us until the day itself. Another thing that didn't occur to us also was that our friends, Andrew and Sabrina, who we recommended the course to, were scheduled to start on the same day in the same place. So we were initially surprised when we bumped into them there, then later realized that we ought to have known. The facilitators were pretty articulate, making them more engaging than our original facilitators.

I went home to have dinner with my mum specially, because it is tradition to celebrate my birthday on the lunar calendar with her, although I don't particularly bother about this other birthday the Chinese have. I managed to finish another small part of the game I am devising for chemistry. Bwahaha. I love working when inspired - ultimately efficient with time.

A backdated comment: there's this bak chor mee place off Telok Kurau, down the same row as the famous Fei Fei Wanton Mee, which has bak chor mee that is only above average, but comes with lard that is currently the best I've ever eaten thus far.

Tue 9 Jan

I was busy troubleshooting some IT issues for a colleague till I almost forgot to eat my breakfast. I met my chemistry class for the first time today, slightly more than half of whom I have not taught before. They look like a lively bunch, so I think it should be interesting to teach them along with my 05/06 group. Let's see how tomorrow's tutorial turns out.

I tried taking a night shot with my N73, and it turned out alright. There was a nice twilight sky in the evening just now, and this is the view from my corridor.

Thu 4 Jan

Nothing much happened today. I found time to eat breakfast with my gf, an early lunch with ZH, and then a second lunch with two other colleagues. My gf came over to my place later for dinner, and then off she went to her cell group. In the meantime, I started work on a new idea I have for an action research project. Here comes another chemistry game, which I hope will turn out to be as fun as I think it will be. Heh.

Fri 5 Jan

I had a meeting in the morning, then waited till 1 pm to attend a Civics Tutor seminar (compulsory for all). Apparently there will be some major revamp to the civics lessons, and the external vendor that came to give a presentation was pretty good, and the material looked promising, or less more engaging than showing the class a long essay-ish thing to read and reflect upon.

Sat 6 Jan

My gf came with me to J's place for lunch and mahjong. J decided to cook, so we got a free lunch. He cooks quite well, although he has a high tendency to use potatoes, tomatoes and carrots. They seem to be his staple favourites.

Mahjong today was overwhelmingly good. I self-picked (自摸) about perhaps seven or eight times in the one round we played, four of which were 平湖, and once was the last game of the day, and I won full (满台). I was the sole winner, and made history by making J lose money the first time since he came to Singapore. At 10c/20c, I won $22.60...I suppose this covers for the other time's unbelievable loss at Sharon's place. Heh.

Tue 2 Jan

In the morning, I went to send my colleague off at the airport. She courageously took a big pay cut and left for Shanghai in order to teach at an international school there for the experience. A bunch of us who were on closer terms with her were there, but I think as long as she is pursuing something she really wants, I'm happy for her.

After that, we had breakfast at the Burger King at T1, and then I went over to my gf's place to have half a lunch, because I was due to eat lunch at my spiritual father's house. I made my way to Punggol, which I think is really out of the way. I had to go all the way to Pasir Ris to take a bus, and only one possible bus, to his place. Without a car, it looks bad. I have to take a bus out of Punggol, and where do I reach? Pasir Ris! One far end of Singapore. Great. It is also underdeveloped. I think this is a sad chicken-and-egg case. There were promises of development of facilities, shopping centres and etc to lure people to stay here, and some took it up, but not enough. Without enough people, no developer was willing to invest and pump in money because there wasn't enough critical mass. Without the developers coming in, the place is underdeveloped and few people move there to increase the population, and so nothing changes. I suppose HDB would continue to try to draw people there by lowering the prices perhaps, or make the flats more attractive, and hope that developers would come in after that.

We were supposed to have a combined gathering with the girls from my leader's wife's side, but apparently only one of twelve turned up, and that was because she's my G12 brother Eric's girlfriend. Still, we played cards and Taboo, which was really fun, even with so few people. I think the Taboo version we played, which is an local update, was so much friendlier than the usual version which had many references pertaining to US culture. Next time when I get my own place, I'll make sure I'll stock up some board games to entertain non-Xbox inclined friends, and Taboo is in the shortlist, along with Cranium. Heh.

I rushed home to finish some work, which took me about 3 hours to complete. So considering the 'official' start of my holidays till today, the last day, I effectively spent less than ten hours on work overall. That's a great statistic if you ask me. Bwahaha.

Wed 3 Jan

It's back to school again! I also found out that my less-than-ten-hours of work could have been further shelved actually because my two teammates have yet to start their share of the work. Ah well. There are many things going on, but few things involve me, so I was still able to have a fairly relaxed first day of school.

In the evening, I went down to Ps Khong's 1728 and Leaders' Meeting. It was a good session as he shared his heart with us. He actually has a great sense of humour, which doesn't come out as smooth and natural during service. At least, he managed to inspire me sufficiently to be excited about what will happen in 2007. As usual, the meeting ended pretty late, and I reached home around 11.30 pm, leaving me with enough time to finish the last two episodes of Blood+ though.

The anime is pretty engaging, with some high-tech treatment of vampire lore, which has been classified as Chiropteran species in the anime. There's genetics and science involved, reminiscent of the Blade Trilogy in some way, since the protagonist is a high-school girl (looks like one at least) weirding one mean katana. The story moves with some twists and turns as her background unfolds, and although it is not spectacularly good, it was at least interesting enough to warrant my watching of all 50 episodes of it. There is some major conspiracy involved as well, and it echoes, oddly enough, the alleged accusation that the US created enemies to unify the country through the 911 incident; in the anime, the US government did precisely that, creating monsters in order to unify the country and have control over other countries. Fascinating stuff, especially if the anime was made before the 911 incident. Now I'm on to a comedy Salaryman Kintaro, which is reputedly GTO-style in the workplace instead of a school.

Sat 30 Dec

My gf and I went over to the house of our friend Sharon, whose wedding we were emcees for recently. It was far, far away off Yio Chu Kang, and quite inaccessible unless you have a car. Although it's a nice condominium with pretty good facilities and scenery, I think I value the convenience of location far more than any of these things. We snacked on all the goodies Sharon brought back from her honeymoon in Hokkaido, including lots of chocolates and pistachio nuts. We had steamboat for dinner, which, I think is the healthiest steamboat I've had in a while. We had some wanton, prawns, fishballs, a few plates of vegetables, and etc, but no pork, beef, chicken (except what was used in the soup base), or related innards. We hung around the swimming pool for a while after dinner to chit chat, then we headed back to the house to play mahjong.

I lost the most. I don't mind losing, but the games were really bad. I hardly made it to wait for the last tile at all. Somehow no matter what I was forming, the tiles that I draw were almost entirely useless. The whole round I only won one time. Even Sharon's mum, who couldn't believe I keep losing, came over to verify if (I am guessing) I'm actually a poor player, or that I really had no luck (her perspective). In the end, she walked away concluding that it was 邪门, and that maybe the fan behind me was blowing all my luck away to the others. Being a Christian, the only answer is that God didn't want me to win. Later, I learnt that this was a lesson in humility, and that God told me that I should remember that He is the one in control of every circumstance, so no matter how good I think I am at the game, it was not within my power to control anything. Hmm...God speaks through mahjong too! Heh.

Sun Dec 31

Today was going to be a long, long day considering that I spent about 4 hours on Fri night, and then about 3 hours last night because of the mahjong game. Nursery duty was frustrating at one point when one of the kids turned extremely uncooperative and I had to discipline him, which didn't change anything much still. It is scary how some kids can be this spoilt, throwing tantrums to get their way. If I had kids and they did that, I think I would either ignore or punish them for that. After a lunch at Hall 9, I had a good talk with my spiritual father. Originally we were both supposed to meet one of my boys who ended up extremely late, so we had time to chat.

The service was extremely powerful today. After the sermon, Ps Khong and Nina prayed for everyone who went forward, which was maybe almost all 3000 youths. They were praying for the Holy Spirit to fill us, and man, the Holy Spirit's presence was extremely strong. I haven't felt Him so clearly for a while. Before I went forward, since we were called forward block by block, I already could feel the Holy Spirit moving. Everytime Ps Nina walked over to the side of the hall where I was standing, I wept a bit, because the Holy Spirit was moving in front of her. Almost everyone who went forward were slain by the spirit with just a touch from her or Ps Khong. When I was near the front of the hall waiting to move over to the line where I could be prayed over, I was trembling, and tears welled each time Ps Khong was walking past. In fact, I felt the Holy Spirit move past even before Ps Khong did, and I estimated that the Holy Spirit moved about 4 persons ahead of senior pastor. When I was in the line, I was trembling intensely and crying even before Ps Nina reached me, and I was slain when she lightly touched my forehead, and I started wailing for a while before I felt peace.

It was simply awesome.

I think we all need a powerful touch from God at least once in a while to recharge our faith. Also, I think everytime non-Christians debate with me or discuss their doubts, deep down inside I always think to myself that although I am trying to hold my ground using logic to answer logical doubts, in the end, it doesn't matter much. I think very few people can be linguistically convinced by logic to accept Jesus unless they actually bother to do extensive research into history and archaeology. The everyday non-Christian arms himself with a few doubts that seem good enough to debunk what Christians say and throws them at every Christian that try to share with them, and sadly, many Christians aren't prepared to handle these questions and doubts. I have sought to not be an unprepared Christian by seeking intellectual, logical answers to many questions, but I have come to realize after dispelling the doubts of many non-Christians that it is still utterly pointless in itself (though I'll still stick to my principle of logic).

Most of them are not raising these doubts to get them answered so that they may believe. They are only using them as a shield, and when that shield breaks, they only run away most of the time rather than to give in. If they were truly looking for answers, they would seek knowledge in historical and archaeological facts, or even visit a church to see for themselves. So it always comes back to one thing - a supernatural experience which instantly renders all logic useless. Everytime I get slain, I wish that the same experience could be felt by all the non-Christians I have been trying to reach, because if they were in my shoes, they would not be able to raise any more questions, because the answers are no longer important once they know inside their hearts that there truly is a God.

After service, a whole lot of us headed down to Adrian's house, since we had time to spare before the church countdown. We played Cranium, and it was fun. I have a couple of friends who keep telling me that it is an intellectual game, and that they are sure I would love it. They were right. I find it fun, and other than that, I am good at it. My team was leading by a lot to the point I was feeling embarrassed about doing all the clay sculpting and drawing tasks that I wanted to replace Adrian as the umpire and not play. Collin was in my team and he was saying, "No challenge leh", and he was right to some extent; I wanted out because the game was fun, and it is supposed to be fun, but being too good at it takes away the fun for people who were far behind, and I think that makes it no longer fun for me.

We went back to Expo for the countdown party. The theme was retro, and for a while after we started a typical praise and worship session, I was wondering what in the world is retro about this. Then I finally got it when nearing midnight, there was one long medley of praise and worships songs we used to sing in church many years ago before the recent 'rock music' transition to sing songs by the more radical, rocking, youth worship bands.

Mon 1 Jan

Happy new year everybody!

Nothing much today other than sleeping to recuperate needed rest, and to do the work that I have been procrastinating about.

I did manage to finish an anime series Black Lagoon though. I blogged about it before when I caught the first season, and I just finished season two. Excellent stuff. Bloody, violent, but the characters are extremely intriguing, and there is a tremendous amount of psychology involved everytime they talk, and it makes the characters very lucidly three dimensional. I hope there would be a season three. Although the last episode wraps up the story arc so far, it looks like more can be done to further the stories of the protagonists.