Friday, March 30, 2007
I guess the fact that I forgot how many days I had not blogged implies how busy I am...
Mon 25 Mar
I start the week with a lack of sleep as usual. Nowadays I feel more fatigued than before, probably because I am trying to do more things within less time. Sometimes it is quite amazing to see how much I can achieve when there is sufficient focus and determination. There are some things that I just can't make myself proscrastinate. It's funny. I really think somehow I'm trying to make up for all the previous slack years of my life when I was studying (except for Chemistry, aptly enough). I went to my fiancee's house to spend time with her, and at the same time, did some work. I will hang in there. I am at the threshold of completing the bigger things. Bwahaha.
Tue 26 Mar
When I'm not at lessons, I'm working on something. I pushed myself hard and did not give myself time to slack or relax, just so that I can finish the major pieces of work I need to do early, and then rest later. I believe in suffering first so that I can enjoy later (先苦后甜). In the afternoon, I was originally supposed to go home to do work. In the end, I had dinner with my fiancee at the eblackboard place (but we both concluded that the western food actually isn't that fantastic, but just cheap for the quality), and I walked her home so that I could carry her laptop. I ended up lingering at her place, and did work there instead, for the reason that her room has air-conditioning, and mine doesn't, and it has been ridiculously hot these days.
The end of the world should be coming soon I guess. The weather has become more freaky nowadays. Maybe this December we'll see snow in Singapore or something.
Wed 27 Mar
I spent most of the time cooped up at my cubicle trying to rush out several items for impending deadlines. Somehow the pressing things of this term (maybe even this year) ended up needing my attention around the same time. The mass civics lesson today was quite interesting. This guy, who won some awards at Mr Singapore before, came down to talk about grooming to the girls and guys in separate sessions. I thought it was good before he mentioned some things that I never knew, and I already thought I was fairly knowledgable, so that was a pleasant surprise.
After the staff conference, I headed home for dinner and went down to my network meeting.
My pastor shared some interesting things about slavery and sonship, and it was a good session, but I guess that was an issue I had overcome a long time ago already. I went home and, you guessed it, did even more work.
Thu 28 Mar
Thursday is the longest day of my week. I had lessons first thing in the morning, and I return to do work, grab a quick lunch, and have three hours back to back after that. I managed to finish the remedial package I am in charge of designing, and some other miscellaneous work. I rushed home to clear some more school stuff, and together with my second aunt and uncle, and my mum, I headed to Seafood Paradise to meet my fiancee and her family, aunt and cousin.
The boss invited us over for food-tasting, and we tried out their dishes. We had previously discussed the idea of having the wedding dinner at his restaurant, and he gallantly agreed, despite not having done one before, and a risk of losing more business than he would earn from us. I guess he operates on trust heavily, because the food-tasting was on the house, even though we have yet to make any deposit. I guess it looks like most probably my wedding dinner is going to be held there, unless I suddenly need to invite a few tables more of guests, which I assume to be quite unlikely. We found a back way out of the area, only to discover it wasn't as deep inside the industrial estate that we thought it was. In any case, the quality of the food should make up for the inconvenience of reaching the place.
Fri 29 Mar
I did some work and had a meeting with the guy who was in charge of the slides for last year's roadshow. I had redone the whole thing in a new concept, so he is supposed to help me fill in information I may not know. In any case, he seemed sufficiently impressed with what I had done, so I guess that's coast clear for it. All the relevant people have liked it thus far. I had a remedial session with my students playing the card game I devised, and some showed signs of improvement, while one nearly drove me up the wall.
This week's masters' course was the beginning of a series of presentations of 40% weightage. Fortunately, my turn will arrive the Friday after Good Friday, so I still have two weeks more to prepare. Bwahaha.
Mon 25 Mar
I start the week with a lack of sleep as usual. Nowadays I feel more fatigued than before, probably because I am trying to do more things within less time. Sometimes it is quite amazing to see how much I can achieve when there is sufficient focus and determination. There are some things that I just can't make myself proscrastinate. It's funny. I really think somehow I'm trying to make up for all the previous slack years of my life when I was studying (except for Chemistry, aptly enough). I went to my fiancee's house to spend time with her, and at the same time, did some work. I will hang in there. I am at the threshold of completing the bigger things. Bwahaha.
Tue 26 Mar
When I'm not at lessons, I'm working on something. I pushed myself hard and did not give myself time to slack or relax, just so that I can finish the major pieces of work I need to do early, and then rest later. I believe in suffering first so that I can enjoy later (先苦后甜). In the afternoon, I was originally supposed to go home to do work. In the end, I had dinner with my fiancee at the eblackboard place (but we both concluded that the western food actually isn't that fantastic, but just cheap for the quality), and I walked her home so that I could carry her laptop. I ended up lingering at her place, and did work there instead, for the reason that her room has air-conditioning, and mine doesn't, and it has been ridiculously hot these days.
The end of the world should be coming soon I guess. The weather has become more freaky nowadays. Maybe this December we'll see snow in Singapore or something.
Wed 27 Mar
I spent most of the time cooped up at my cubicle trying to rush out several items for impending deadlines. Somehow the pressing things of this term (maybe even this year) ended up needing my attention around the same time. The mass civics lesson today was quite interesting. This guy, who won some awards at Mr Singapore before, came down to talk about grooming to the girls and guys in separate sessions. I thought it was good before he mentioned some things that I never knew, and I already thought I was fairly knowledgable, so that was a pleasant surprise.
After the staff conference, I headed home for dinner and went down to my network meeting.
My pastor shared some interesting things about slavery and sonship, and it was a good session, but I guess that was an issue I had overcome a long time ago already. I went home and, you guessed it, did even more work.
Thu 28 Mar
Thursday is the longest day of my week. I had lessons first thing in the morning, and I return to do work, grab a quick lunch, and have three hours back to back after that. I managed to finish the remedial package I am in charge of designing, and some other miscellaneous work. I rushed home to clear some more school stuff, and together with my second aunt and uncle, and my mum, I headed to Seafood Paradise to meet my fiancee and her family, aunt and cousin.
The boss invited us over for food-tasting, and we tried out their dishes. We had previously discussed the idea of having the wedding dinner at his restaurant, and he gallantly agreed, despite not having done one before, and a risk of losing more business than he would earn from us. I guess he operates on trust heavily, because the food-tasting was on the house, even though we have yet to make any deposit. I guess it looks like most probably my wedding dinner is going to be held there, unless I suddenly need to invite a few tables more of guests, which I assume to be quite unlikely. We found a back way out of the area, only to discover it wasn't as deep inside the industrial estate that we thought it was. In any case, the quality of the food should make up for the inconvenience of reaching the place.
Fri 29 Mar
I did some work and had a meeting with the guy who was in charge of the slides for last year's roadshow. I had redone the whole thing in a new concept, so he is supposed to help me fill in information I may not know. In any case, he seemed sufficiently impressed with what I had done, so I guess that's coast clear for it. All the relevant people have liked it thus far. I had a remedial session with my students playing the card game I devised, and some showed signs of improvement, while one nearly drove me up the wall.
This week's masters' course was the beginning of a series of presentations of 40% weightage. Fortunately, my turn will arrive the Friday after Good Friday, so I still have two weeks more to prepare. Bwahaha.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
I just finished watching a 13-part anime series Love Pheromone. It's a superhero spoof, and every episode is split into two parts, one featuring Love Pheromone, and the other, Geddou Otome Tai. Both groups live in the same city, so there are some overlapping events. Love Pheromone claims to be allies of justice, but they wreck so much destruction in the course of justice that the city is afraid of them. On the other hand, Geddou Otome Tai is a group of five sisters who have magical powers, and they are the children of two villainous underlings. They are prompted by a little female demon to do evil, but in the course of their wrecking havoc, things always go wrong and they end up doing good things. It's quite funny at times, but the plot is not to be taken seriously of course. Comparing this to Dokkoida that I watched before it, which is also a superhero spoof, I think Dokkoida has more heart. Now it's on to a relatively old anime that I keep forgetting to watch: R.O.D. It's not related to the army version of R.O.D. that I am so looking forward to, but it's Read or Die. So far the first few episodes have been very promising, but I wonder when I'll have time to finish it.
Cell group was interesting today. My fiancee's sister brought a couple of guy friends to service, so the two guys, plus herself and another of my fiancee's cell member joined me for cell group. One of the guys was trying so hard to have a badass attitude that it was amusing to watch. I had a separate talk with my boys afterwards, which went into overtime, but it was good. Several issues surfaced, and I think it was a good time of sharing.
Cell group was interesting today. My fiancee's sister brought a couple of guy friends to service, so the two guys, plus herself and another of my fiancee's cell member joined me for cell group. One of the guys was trying so hard to have a badass attitude that it was amusing to watch. I had a separate talk with my boys afterwards, which went into overtime, but it was good. Several issues surfaced, and I think it was a good time of sharing.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Thu 22 Mar
Teaching TA3 looks set to be interesting. The students I had taught before formed a minority among my two classes, so there are quite a few new faces. It is yet another day where I have only time for a short break just to have lunch. After classes ended, I went on to mark the mock SPA scripts of my year 1 relief class last term. Apparently, I do not need to relieve that class any more, but I must still finish my last official task of marking before handing over the class to the next unfortunate soul (unfortunate for having to take another class...that class itself is far from being problematic). Anyway, I didn't have enough time to clear the marking, and had to attend the Strengthsfinder workshop from 3 pm to 6 pm.
The workshop itself was quite good and engaging, but I see pockets of resistance from certain tutors who didn't like the system, or were concerned that our superiors would have a copy of our strengths profile. It is a weird reaction to hear, and I still don't see anything bad about it. In fact, if I were a HOD, I think knowing what the staff under me are strong in would help me deploy them far better. Anyway the dissidents were all from just one department, so I guess it's no real cause for concern. I think it would be quite useful for a civics tutor to know the strengths of the students as well, so that in the absence of volunteers, a theoretically sound committee can be selected. Just running some ideas off the top of my head. This profiling at least is way more personal, useful and interesting than the previous Big 5.
I accompanied my fiancee to the doctor after the workshop because she was down with influenza. Later in the night after I went home, I rushed like mad, and finished my 5000 word literature review. One down, one to go. Three weeks ahead of schedule. Bwahaha.
Fri 23 Mar
Today was a deterioration from the past few days. Not only did I only have twenty minutes for lunch, I still had to do marking while I was eating. I realized one reason why I am having less time these days. I am in frequent dialogue with my chemistry subject head lately because of TA3. She is new to the integrated programme, and sometimes asks my opinions on certain matters because she is unsure; on the other hand, I go to her for advice or resources regarding content sometimes because of her wealth of experience. Furthermore, because I am also a member of her action research team, we are often in discussion. Sometimes it feels odd when she comes to me for advice though, because she used to be my tutor when I was a student in TJC. So the moral of the story is, I'll never know how much I can learn from my own students, now or later. It will be a long time away before any of my students may end up returning to TJC to teach though.
The masters' course tutorial was quite fascinating. The lecturer has left NIE to start his own consultancy firm, and is working only as part-time staff for NIE. He is humourous, friendly, approachable, knowledgable in his subject matter, obviously well-read, and able to illustrate ideas clearly. He strikes me as not being very organized, but his style is more impromptu because, as he explains, we who are adult learners learn differently, so half the session felt like a big FAQ session. Ironically, it is a lecturer who has left NIE that strikes me as a good example to follow in teaching. After the lesson ended, I headed down to visit my sick fiancee. On the way there, I talked in depth with one colleague, also taking the course, and he confided many things to me that I previously was totally ignorant of. There were quite a few behind-the-scenes things happening in the school that I wasn't 'high-level' enough to encounter or know, so it was eye-opening information. He also gave me some good advice regarding career paths in teaching, so now I have a slightly better idea of what to work for.
Sat 24 Mar
I stayed home till the late afternoon to finish another big chunk of work. I'm beginning to see the light at the end of this tunnel. Hopefully the light does not belong to an incoming train, as they say. I just don't know when the next tunnel will arrive though. I headed down to visit my fiancee, who is slowly recovering. Her cousin came by to visit, and I tried out this game Lumines on his PSP. Man, it was really addictive. I think my mind is easily hooked on puzzle games. I was even (loosely) considering getting a PSP for the sake of this game, until I found out that there is a Xbox version. The weird thing is that I don't remember ever seeing it at all.
Teaching TA3 looks set to be interesting. The students I had taught before formed a minority among my two classes, so there are quite a few new faces. It is yet another day where I have only time for a short break just to have lunch. After classes ended, I went on to mark the mock SPA scripts of my year 1 relief class last term. Apparently, I do not need to relieve that class any more, but I must still finish my last official task of marking before handing over the class to the next unfortunate soul (unfortunate for having to take another class...that class itself is far from being problematic). Anyway, I didn't have enough time to clear the marking, and had to attend the Strengthsfinder workshop from 3 pm to 6 pm.
The workshop itself was quite good and engaging, but I see pockets of resistance from certain tutors who didn't like the system, or were concerned that our superiors would have a copy of our strengths profile. It is a weird reaction to hear, and I still don't see anything bad about it. In fact, if I were a HOD, I think knowing what the staff under me are strong in would help me deploy them far better. Anyway the dissidents were all from just one department, so I guess it's no real cause for concern. I think it would be quite useful for a civics tutor to know the strengths of the students as well, so that in the absence of volunteers, a theoretically sound committee can be selected. Just running some ideas off the top of my head. This profiling at least is way more personal, useful and interesting than the previous Big 5.
I accompanied my fiancee to the doctor after the workshop because she was down with influenza. Later in the night after I went home, I rushed like mad, and finished my 5000 word literature review. One down, one to go. Three weeks ahead of schedule. Bwahaha.
Fri 23 Mar
Today was a deterioration from the past few days. Not only did I only have twenty minutes for lunch, I still had to do marking while I was eating. I realized one reason why I am having less time these days. I am in frequent dialogue with my chemistry subject head lately because of TA3. She is new to the integrated programme, and sometimes asks my opinions on certain matters because she is unsure; on the other hand, I go to her for advice or resources regarding content sometimes because of her wealth of experience. Furthermore, because I am also a member of her action research team, we are often in discussion. Sometimes it feels odd when she comes to me for advice though, because she used to be my tutor when I was a student in TJC. So the moral of the story is, I'll never know how much I can learn from my own students, now or later. It will be a long time away before any of my students may end up returning to TJC to teach though.
The masters' course tutorial was quite fascinating. The lecturer has left NIE to start his own consultancy firm, and is working only as part-time staff for NIE. He is humourous, friendly, approachable, knowledgable in his subject matter, obviously well-read, and able to illustrate ideas clearly. He strikes me as not being very organized, but his style is more impromptu because, as he explains, we who are adult learners learn differently, so half the session felt like a big FAQ session. Ironically, it is a lecturer who has left NIE that strikes me as a good example to follow in teaching. After the lesson ended, I headed down to visit my sick fiancee. On the way there, I talked in depth with one colleague, also taking the course, and he confided many things to me that I previously was totally ignorant of. There were quite a few behind-the-scenes things happening in the school that I wasn't 'high-level' enough to encounter or know, so it was eye-opening information. He also gave me some good advice regarding career paths in teaching, so now I have a slightly better idea of what to work for.
Sat 24 Mar
I stayed home till the late afternoon to finish another big chunk of work. I'm beginning to see the light at the end of this tunnel. Hopefully the light does not belong to an incoming train, as they say. I just don't know when the next tunnel will arrive though. I headed down to visit my fiancee, who is slowly recovering. Her cousin came by to visit, and I tried out this game Lumines on his PSP. Man, it was really addictive. I think my mind is easily hooked on puzzle games. I was even (loosely) considering getting a PSP for the sake of this game, until I found out that there is a Xbox version. The weird thing is that I don't remember ever seeing it at all.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
It has been a mad rush since Monday when school reopened. It didn't help that it poured so heavily that I couldn't get a cab because of the sudden appearance of a lot more people who were unscrupulously intercepting cabs by going in front of me, and ended up reaching school late. The timetable was drastically shifted, so I ended up fire-fighting (a.k.a. solving problems on the spot as they popped up) almost all the way. I only found a 20 min space for me to eat lunch, and the rest of the time I was doing work.
The same thing happened for Tuesday as well, but at least it felt like things were settling down, and I am regaining control of the situation, and my management of time. Tuesday was chock full of meetings. The chem year 2 team met to discuss SPA marking, and then I met the chem year 1 team to present to them my idea of how to teach gas laws in a more engaging way like our IP programme, and then I met my publicity head to show her my completed powerpoint. Although I know my ultimate approval stems from God, it still feels good to have people appreciate my work. Especially when I had poured in a ton of brain juice and hard work into it. I think for this year, my ideation part of my strengths profile is kicking in really strongly.
As of today, after clearing more work and administrative tasks, I think I'm comfortably ahead of time by a bit again. Today I had my first ever combined civics lesson. It was odd because I was a relief for another relief - a colleague is on honeymoon, and her co-civics tutor was supposed to take over the lesson, but he didn't really want to do it (because he doesn't like using Powerpoint and stuff like that) so he asked me such a favour. Personally, I didn't mind helping him out of course, but I still can't help feeling intruded upon, because I see my civics time as a private time to communicate with my class, especially when many of them I only see once a week. Anyway, it was a novel and interesting experience. Hopefully the last though.
I went home for dinner and headed for cell group. We threw out many things for discussion today, and I think many ideas we had bottled up surfaced when my cell leader wanted a change. Although our ideas were not in agreement with his initially, I think it was great that everyone in the cell contributed their two cents' worth, and we had a concensus of what we wanted to do and achieve. Interesting times are ahead!
The same thing happened for Tuesday as well, but at least it felt like things were settling down, and I am regaining control of the situation, and my management of time. Tuesday was chock full of meetings. The chem year 2 team met to discuss SPA marking, and then I met the chem year 1 team to present to them my idea of how to teach gas laws in a more engaging way like our IP programme, and then I met my publicity head to show her my completed powerpoint. Although I know my ultimate approval stems from God, it still feels good to have people appreciate my work. Especially when I had poured in a ton of brain juice and hard work into it. I think for this year, my ideation part of my strengths profile is kicking in really strongly.
As of today, after clearing more work and administrative tasks, I think I'm comfortably ahead of time by a bit again. Today I had my first ever combined civics lesson. It was odd because I was a relief for another relief - a colleague is on honeymoon, and her co-civics tutor was supposed to take over the lesson, but he didn't really want to do it (because he doesn't like using Powerpoint and stuff like that) so he asked me such a favour. Personally, I didn't mind helping him out of course, but I still can't help feeling intruded upon, because I see my civics time as a private time to communicate with my class, especially when many of them I only see once a week. Anyway, it was a novel and interesting experience. Hopefully the last though.
I went home for dinner and headed for cell group. We threw out many things for discussion today, and I think many ideas we had bottled up surfaced when my cell leader wanted a change. Although our ideas were not in agreement with his initially, I think it was great that everyone in the cell contributed their two cents' worth, and we had a concensus of what we wanted to do and achieve. Interesting times are ahead!
Sunday, March 18, 2007
I spent Friday evening and the whole of Saturday at the G12 conference. I was working on my assignment on Friday morning, and made some progress. It turned out to be more time-consuming than I thought to just review the literature I found. G12 conference was great. Although much of the content is the same every year, the impartation of faith and anointing is fresh every year. I learnt from the teachings of course, but more importantly, I felt a surge of faith from the conference. On Saturday's evening session, I felt God's presence and love so strongly that I cried during worship. Normally at most I shed some tears and that was about it, but this time, the tears just kept coming. And I was sitting at the fourth last row of Expo Max Pavillion, so that is very far from the stage. I somehow still had this silly impression that God's presence is most intense at the altar (stage) and diminishes with distance, but apparently, that's not true of course.
The best part was that when I was on my way home yesternight, God gave me a very specific message to share with my boys today about boy-girl relationships, and I was greatly puzzled. That usually is not the kind of things that is shared in cell group, so I was wondering if I heard wrongly. In today's service, Ps Caesar Castenallos was preaching, and most of what he was sharing was about finding a mate, and the content of what he preached overlapped a big part with what God told me to share, so I was reassured that this was the rhema word, unlikely as it initially seemed to me.
I just came back from a wedding dinner of a colleague at York Hotel. I originally thought it was a relatively unheard of hotel, but the food turned out to be quite good actually. They screened a video which was an animation of how the couple met, and it was quite manga-ish. I was wondering if that was an externally hired service, or that it came with the wedding package, or that their friends did it. I was thinking of doing an animation too, but I am not sure if I have the time, capacity or expertise to pull it off. Ah well, I'll wait and see how things go first.
The best part was that when I was on my way home yesternight, God gave me a very specific message to share with my boys today about boy-girl relationships, and I was greatly puzzled. That usually is not the kind of things that is shared in cell group, so I was wondering if I heard wrongly. In today's service, Ps Caesar Castenallos was preaching, and most of what he was sharing was about finding a mate, and the content of what he preached overlapped a big part with what God told me to share, so I was reassured that this was the rhema word, unlikely as it initially seemed to me.
I just came back from a wedding dinner of a colleague at York Hotel. I originally thought it was a relatively unheard of hotel, but the food turned out to be quite good actually. They screened a video which was an animation of how the couple met, and it was quite manga-ish. I was wondering if that was an externally hired service, or that it came with the wedding package, or that their friends did it. I was thinking of doing an animation too, but I am not sure if I have the time, capacity or expertise to pull it off. Ah well, I'll wait and see how things go first.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
I stayed home the whole of yesterday to do work. I was trying to make an animation of gas molecules randomly moving in a confined space, able to collide and rebound off one another, and obey the laws of the conservation of momentum. It doesn't sound very complicated right? But the coding is disgustingly difficult. I admit that I do not have the expertise to write the actionscript for such a flash animation, and had to scour the internet for something close to what I wanted to do, and tweak accordingly. Only by this morning did I finally succeed in producing what I wanted.
The rest of the time was spent scouring the internet too, but for articles for literature review. The presentation and assignment deadlines are drawing very near, and I am supposed to have reviewed at least 15 articles so that I can write my research proposal, which is another assignment. A 5000 word assignment, and a 4000 word assignment. The worse thing is that I am going to do research on the card game I created, and man, it is hard to find any relevant literature on card games, or even games at all, without having subscribed to any of the journal repositories that charge money. I think what I do have is a lot of dogged determination. After searching through thousands of listings (I went through about 20 pages of 50 listings per page in four searches...that's about four thousand titles), I eventually found a grand total of sixteen relevant, free journals/ebooks. Now that is an achievement on its own.
I was rushing work so that I could attend the G12 conference this evening in peace. I am a little behind schedule, but I think I should be able to catch up with my intended progress by tomorrow morning. The G12 conference was great. What Ps Caesar Castellanos shared somehow boosted my faith, and made me envision something that I would not have previously dared to believe in. If his church could save a million souls in three months, why can't Singapore come to know Christ?
The rest of the time was spent scouring the internet too, but for articles for literature review. The presentation and assignment deadlines are drawing very near, and I am supposed to have reviewed at least 15 articles so that I can write my research proposal, which is another assignment. A 5000 word assignment, and a 4000 word assignment. The worse thing is that I am going to do research on the card game I created, and man, it is hard to find any relevant literature on card games, or even games at all, without having subscribed to any of the journal repositories that charge money. I think what I do have is a lot of dogged determination. After searching through thousands of listings (I went through about 20 pages of 50 listings per page in four searches...that's about four thousand titles), I eventually found a grand total of sixteen relevant, free journals/ebooks. Now that is an achievement on its own.
I was rushing work so that I could attend the G12 conference this evening in peace. I am a little behind schedule, but I think I should be able to catch up with my intended progress by tomorrow morning. The G12 conference was great. What Ps Caesar Castellanos shared somehow boosted my faith, and made me envision something that I would not have previously dared to believe in. If his church could save a million souls in three months, why can't Singapore come to know Christ?
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Today is shopping day! I think my fiancee and I haven't really shopped properly for a while, since we have been busy. We met Collin, my G12 brother and financial planner, to discuss some further investments of our CPF first, and after that, we headed over to Bugis. I bought two tops, one of which is a Superman tee, which I have been wanting to buy for a while now since it is quite fitting for me this year to wear it...haha. It's 9 bucks anyway. I love Up To 70% Off sales. Bwahaha. My fiancee had a bigger catch, with a dress, and many tops. We chanced upon Goldheart having a 20% off on wedding bands, so we went for that. We went to other major jewellery shops, but their wedding band range was either too dull and boring, or too expensive. Goldheart had a big enough range, and was within budget after discount, so now we have our wedding bands ready. I think we should be able to get a church venue soon, and all I need now is confirmation from the restaurant, so things are well on their way.
I finished a short 12-episode anime Dokkoida, and it was quite hilarious. The plot revolves around a poor, jobless young man who was approached by a little girl (from outer space) who needed someone to pilot her company's transformation belt. The remaining episodes revolve around the young man Suzuo, and a superheroine from a rival company, and three criminals who were temporarily released from space prison in order to assist in the testing of the power suits. Why is it funny? Well, Suzuo's suit Dokkoida looks like a super-deformed (as in big head small body), blue Ultraman wearing diapers, literally. The superheroine works with a squirrel-like animal who is assigned to her by her company, and she guzzles beer like water. One criminal is a little girl who can mold clay into huge monsters, only that they look cute, like fresh out of Maplestory or something. Another criminal is a dominatrix who can whip her slave into transformation, but he usually doesn't change into anything useful. The last criminal is an old inventor who makes odd mecha, and have a penchant for playing harem-type computer games. The whole storyline is absurdly funny, but hey, there's actually a storyline with a nice climatic end. I think I'm on a comedy anime streak here. The new one I'm watching is called Love Pheromone, also about superheros, and likewise takes an oddball angle to it.
I waited with my fiancee for a cab just now near 11 pm, and it was extremely frustrating. Out of the 9 cabs that didn't pick her up, two were green and then changed to busy as the cabs passed us, and they were empty with no On Call signs. One was On Call, and three drivers stopped to ask for where we were headed, and waved us off when we told them Bedok. The other three simply drove on without stopping, and were empty, with the green light on top. Come on, is it worth driving around empty for a while just to get that extra 10% surcharge? Once in a while I see this happening, but it feels gravely disgusting when 8 out of 9 empty cabs that went by did so without proper reason. And the cab that did stop to pick my fiancee up had actually turned into the road behind the market much earlier when it initially turned into North Bridge Road, and only came out after 11.30 pm. Bleah. Spoils my day. Guess GEMS doesn't really work for the cab industry.
I finished a short 12-episode anime Dokkoida, and it was quite hilarious. The plot revolves around a poor, jobless young man who was approached by a little girl (from outer space) who needed someone to pilot her company's transformation belt. The remaining episodes revolve around the young man Suzuo, and a superheroine from a rival company, and three criminals who were temporarily released from space prison in order to assist in the testing of the power suits. Why is it funny? Well, Suzuo's suit Dokkoida looks like a super-deformed (as in big head small body), blue Ultraman wearing diapers, literally. The superheroine works with a squirrel-like animal who is assigned to her by her company, and she guzzles beer like water. One criminal is a little girl who can mold clay into huge monsters, only that they look cute, like fresh out of Maplestory or something. Another criminal is a dominatrix who can whip her slave into transformation, but he usually doesn't change into anything useful. The last criminal is an old inventor who makes odd mecha, and have a penchant for playing harem-type computer games. The whole storyline is absurdly funny, but hey, there's actually a storyline with a nice climatic end. I think I'm on a comedy anime streak here. The new one I'm watching is called Love Pheromone, also about superheros, and likewise takes an oddball angle to it.
I waited with my fiancee for a cab just now near 11 pm, and it was extremely frustrating. Out of the 9 cabs that didn't pick her up, two were green and then changed to busy as the cabs passed us, and they were empty with no On Call signs. One was On Call, and three drivers stopped to ask for where we were headed, and waved us off when we told them Bedok. The other three simply drove on without stopping, and were empty, with the green light on top. Come on, is it worth driving around empty for a while just to get that extra 10% surcharge? Once in a while I see this happening, but it feels gravely disgusting when 8 out of 9 empty cabs that went by did so without proper reason. And the cab that did stop to pick my fiancee up had actually turned into the road behind the market much earlier when it initially turned into North Bridge Road, and only came out after 11.30 pm. Bleah. Spoils my day. Guess GEMS doesn't really work for the cab industry.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Sat 10 Mar
I had a short jog in the morning, and did some work before I accompanied my fiancee to the IT Show at Suntec City. It was unbelievably crowded. When I was coming out from Citilink towards the bridge to Suntec, there was a human jam so bad that the people weren't moving. In the end, we navigated towards Marina Square, and walked one big round over to Suntec City, and did some shopping in the meantime. I bought a top from Buffalo, which I list as one of those shops which I would not bother stepping into till there's a Up To 70% Off sale. The top, after 70% discount, still costs about $36, but the material's good at least.
We squeezed our way into Suntec Hall 4, where my fiancee bought printer cartridges from Epson. It's cheaper, but not quite worth the hassle. In the end, we were so disgusted by the sheer numbers of the crowd we left after buying the ink, and went to Anderson's for some ice cream, and Crystal Jade for one basket of xiao long bao, before heading home to rest.
On the spur of the moment, we met my fiancee's good friend, who stays near my place, for mahjong. We played from 8 plus till about 4 plus in the morning, and I think it's rare that my fiancee would stand staying up for so long (but she had 12 hours of sleep the previous night, so that explains it). We both lost money to her friend who was on an odd winning streak despite being a novice, and making many big mistakes which we closed an eye to. I am now utterly convinced that even with all the skill in the world, you can at most increase your odds of winning, but you can't affect how things turn out in the end.
Sun 11 Mar
I went for service as usual in the afternoon, and had cell group before going over to my fiancee's place. She was making scones, and I helped whipped some milk into cream. This is one area I'll admit I'm inept in. Heh. We went to Pizza Hut for dinner proper, and I am now absolutely certain personal pan pizza is the only way to go. The crust is so much thicker and crispier than the regular version. Unless it is a large group, I would go for personal pan for sure.
Mon 12 Mar
I went back to school for a short while to give remedial to some students. I actually brought along my laptop so that I could do work at my fiancee's place. In fact, the cool thing about taking a bus ride to school (and it took 50 min today, to my disbelief) is that I can do work on my laptop on the bus! I actually managed to finish a decent part of the powerpoint I'm preparing for this year's roadshow.
At my girlfriend's place, I finished up the whole thing in a few hours, and typed all the tutors' comments that I am supposed to finish by end of next week. I love being me. I think I may actually finish all my work by Thursday and go for my three-day church conference in peace. I think God would expect me to finish my work before going to Him anyway, since it is an issue of responsibility and stewardship. After all, God did call us to excel in the works of our hands. In any case, I think the powerpoint I did up should be a huge improvement to the previous one. I hope it looks professional enough for my new 'boss' of my new committee.
I had a short jog in the morning, and did some work before I accompanied my fiancee to the IT Show at Suntec City. It was unbelievably crowded. When I was coming out from Citilink towards the bridge to Suntec, there was a human jam so bad that the people weren't moving. In the end, we navigated towards Marina Square, and walked one big round over to Suntec City, and did some shopping in the meantime. I bought a top from Buffalo, which I list as one of those shops which I would not bother stepping into till there's a Up To 70% Off sale. The top, after 70% discount, still costs about $36, but the material's good at least.
We squeezed our way into Suntec Hall 4, where my fiancee bought printer cartridges from Epson. It's cheaper, but not quite worth the hassle. In the end, we were so disgusted by the sheer numbers of the crowd we left after buying the ink, and went to Anderson's for some ice cream, and Crystal Jade for one basket of xiao long bao, before heading home to rest.
On the spur of the moment, we met my fiancee's good friend, who stays near my place, for mahjong. We played from 8 plus till about 4 plus in the morning, and I think it's rare that my fiancee would stand staying up for so long (but she had 12 hours of sleep the previous night, so that explains it). We both lost money to her friend who was on an odd winning streak despite being a novice, and making many big mistakes which we closed an eye to. I am now utterly convinced that even with all the skill in the world, you can at most increase your odds of winning, but you can't affect how things turn out in the end.
Sun 11 Mar
I went for service as usual in the afternoon, and had cell group before going over to my fiancee's place. She was making scones, and I helped whipped some milk into cream. This is one area I'll admit I'm inept in. Heh. We went to Pizza Hut for dinner proper, and I am now absolutely certain personal pan pizza is the only way to go. The crust is so much thicker and crispier than the regular version. Unless it is a large group, I would go for personal pan for sure.
Mon 12 Mar
I went back to school for a short while to give remedial to some students. I actually brought along my laptop so that I could do work at my fiancee's place. In fact, the cool thing about taking a bus ride to school (and it took 50 min today, to my disbelief) is that I can do work on my laptop on the bus! I actually managed to finish a decent part of the powerpoint I'm preparing for this year's roadshow.
At my girlfriend's place, I finished up the whole thing in a few hours, and typed all the tutors' comments that I am supposed to finish by end of next week. I love being me. I think I may actually finish all my work by Thursday and go for my three-day church conference in peace. I think God would expect me to finish my work before going to Him anyway, since it is an issue of responsibility and stewardship. After all, God did call us to excel in the works of our hands. In any case, I think the powerpoint I did up should be a huge improvement to the previous one. I hope it looks professional enough for my new 'boss' of my new committee.
Friday, March 09, 2007
Wed 7 Mar
It's another busy day at school. Nowadays I use lecture time to do work, so I bring my laptop along to the lecture and multitask. I feel stretched at this point in time, and I like it. I went out with my civics class for lunch, and it appears that I was the only one to interpret "CG bonding" for civics lesson as "let's go out and eat". In any case, I still think the best bonding or fellowship occurs over a hearty meal. I relish these mini outings with my class, especially because I don't directly teach a number of them who do not take chemistry.
I came back in time for staff conference, and we were given access codes to do a new profiling called Strengths Finder. It's a profiling test that lists the top five strengths of a person, and the philosophy of it is interesting - that usually a person does not have enough time to overcome his weaknesses, and work on his strengths, so this tool aims to let a person focus on maximizing his top five strengths. Mine turned out to be, in order of emphasis, Ideation (generation and love of ideas...definitely accurate), Strategic (self-explanatory), Learner (I do like to learn new things), Woo (stands for Winning Others Over, which I assume refers to power of persuasion), and Achiever (the drive and desire to achieve). I think my profile turned out to be very fitting, compared to some colleagues who found a couple of listed strengths dubious or misfitting. I think this is way more informative and better than the previous one, Big 5, which gives useless statistics and tells me things I already know about myself, especially since I am introspective in nature.
I rushed home for dinner, and then headed for cell group. Today's cell group turned out to be very long, but many things were shared and communicated, so I guess nobody was complaining.
Thu 8 Mar
I think I'm stretching myself in so many directions because of my Ideation part working in tandem with my Achiever part. So I seek to excel and produce something meaningful when my mind keeps generating new ideas. Nowadays I'm almost always working on something. In fact, it has reached the stage where I work on my design stuff (newly acquired Corporate Communications role) as a form of leisure from my mainstream curriculum design and action research in two fronts. When a person is doing one type of work to relax from doing another type of work, it's evidence of being stretched.
After school, I headed home for a short rest. I was supposed to meet Shups! and J for pool in the evening, and before that, I thought I could squeeze a trip down to Burlington Square to redeem my free home theatre system from buying a LCD TV from Samsung. That in itself was quite irritating though. I went down to the redemption centre a couple of weeks ago, and the people said that there was no stock, and asked me to leave my name and contact number down so that they could inform me when the stock arrived. There was no call all this while, so I rang them up today, and the guy said that the stock came in some time ago, and it probably would not last till this Sat. Since I'm not free tomorrow because of my Master's course, I had to collect the thing today. I was held up by a traffic jam, and when I collected the system, it was in one huge box that stood up to my waist in height. There was no cab in sight, and I managed to persuade the two of them to meet me at Burlington Square instead where we could eat dinner at Fatty Wing's, which turned out to be quite good as usual, and play pool nearby. I guess the sight of two men (J graciously helped) carrying a big home theatre box along to play pool attracted quite a few queer stares, especially those at the pool parlour. I took a couple of games to correct my aiming, and played fairly well. Placing today was poorly executed most of the time though.
I wish I had more time to play more often, but I guess with age, responsibilities and commitments grow, and take greater priority than personal enjoyment. I reckon this to be evidence of maturity perhaps - to be able to lay down personal rights so as to spend time on things deemed more important than those for self-gratification.
Fri 8 Mar
Finally, the end of term. Although I foresee working on many things through the holidays, at least I am master of my time, and I can resume my nocturnal working hours without having a severe shortage of sleep every day since I can wake up later. There was a meeting today with my second action research team, and my subject head was pushing for one idea to be done, but realized that there was no one with the expertise to do a e-learning web-based package.
Except me. Who is technically only a guest member of her team, since I am teaching a different level.
Being too skilled in something too few people are able to do can turn pretty detrimental. I was roped into a second committee (now two committees beyond my scope of duties!) precisely for the same reason - too few colleagues know how to use Photoshop and do design well. I politely replied her that I had the expertise, but what I did not have was time. I think people perhaps forget that beyond all these things I am working on, I still have a flat to renovate soon, and a wedding to prepare for. I think if not for the Achiever part of my profile, I wouldn't bother taking on so much since I have perfectly legitimate reasons for declining. I think the most fitting expression for this is in Chinese: 能者多劳 (the capable get more work to do).
It's another busy day at school. Nowadays I use lecture time to do work, so I bring my laptop along to the lecture and multitask. I feel stretched at this point in time, and I like it. I went out with my civics class for lunch, and it appears that I was the only one to interpret "CG bonding" for civics lesson as "let's go out and eat". In any case, I still think the best bonding or fellowship occurs over a hearty meal. I relish these mini outings with my class, especially because I don't directly teach a number of them who do not take chemistry.
I came back in time for staff conference, and we were given access codes to do a new profiling called Strengths Finder. It's a profiling test that lists the top five strengths of a person, and the philosophy of it is interesting - that usually a person does not have enough time to overcome his weaknesses, and work on his strengths, so this tool aims to let a person focus on maximizing his top five strengths. Mine turned out to be, in order of emphasis, Ideation (generation and love of ideas...definitely accurate), Strategic (self-explanatory), Learner (I do like to learn new things), Woo (stands for Winning Others Over, which I assume refers to power of persuasion), and Achiever (the drive and desire to achieve). I think my profile turned out to be very fitting, compared to some colleagues who found a couple of listed strengths dubious or misfitting. I think this is way more informative and better than the previous one, Big 5, which gives useless statistics and tells me things I already know about myself, especially since I am introspective in nature.
I rushed home for dinner, and then headed for cell group. Today's cell group turned out to be very long, but many things were shared and communicated, so I guess nobody was complaining.
Thu 8 Mar
I think I'm stretching myself in so many directions because of my Ideation part working in tandem with my Achiever part. So I seek to excel and produce something meaningful when my mind keeps generating new ideas. Nowadays I'm almost always working on something. In fact, it has reached the stage where I work on my design stuff (newly acquired Corporate Communications role) as a form of leisure from my mainstream curriculum design and action research in two fronts. When a person is doing one type of work to relax from doing another type of work, it's evidence of being stretched.
After school, I headed home for a short rest. I was supposed to meet Shups! and J for pool in the evening, and before that, I thought I could squeeze a trip down to Burlington Square to redeem my free home theatre system from buying a LCD TV from Samsung. That in itself was quite irritating though. I went down to the redemption centre a couple of weeks ago, and the people said that there was no stock, and asked me to leave my name and contact number down so that they could inform me when the stock arrived. There was no call all this while, so I rang them up today, and the guy said that the stock came in some time ago, and it probably would not last till this Sat. Since I'm not free tomorrow because of my Master's course, I had to collect the thing today. I was held up by a traffic jam, and when I collected the system, it was in one huge box that stood up to my waist in height. There was no cab in sight, and I managed to persuade the two of them to meet me at Burlington Square instead where we could eat dinner at Fatty Wing's, which turned out to be quite good as usual, and play pool nearby. I guess the sight of two men (J graciously helped) carrying a big home theatre box along to play pool attracted quite a few queer stares, especially those at the pool parlour. I took a couple of games to correct my aiming, and played fairly well. Placing today was poorly executed most of the time though.
I wish I had more time to play more often, but I guess with age, responsibilities and commitments grow, and take greater priority than personal enjoyment. I reckon this to be evidence of maturity perhaps - to be able to lay down personal rights so as to spend time on things deemed more important than those for self-gratification.
Fri 8 Mar
Finally, the end of term. Although I foresee working on many things through the holidays, at least I am master of my time, and I can resume my nocturnal working hours without having a severe shortage of sleep every day since I can wake up later. There was a meeting today with my second action research team, and my subject head was pushing for one idea to be done, but realized that there was no one with the expertise to do a e-learning web-based package.
Except me. Who is technically only a guest member of her team, since I am teaching a different level.
Being too skilled in something too few people are able to do can turn pretty detrimental. I was roped into a second committee (now two committees beyond my scope of duties!) precisely for the same reason - too few colleagues know how to use Photoshop and do design well. I politely replied her that I had the expertise, but what I did not have was time. I think people perhaps forget that beyond all these things I am working on, I still have a flat to renovate soon, and a wedding to prepare for. I think if not for the Achiever part of my profile, I wouldn't bother taking on so much since I have perfectly legitimate reasons for declining. I think the most fitting expression for this is in Chinese: 能者多劳 (the capable get more work to do).
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Mon 5 Mar
Today the school declared a half day, so for lunch, the whole staff went to Quality Hotel for a lunch buffet. In all honesty, out of all the food there, only the porridge item and the chicken of the chicken rice were worth eating. After lunch I went to take care of my poor fiancee who suffered from a sprained ankle and food poisoning from yesterday's dinner. I accompanied her to the chinese sinseh near her place, who can really, really multitask. At one point in time, she may be attending to five patients, since some of them were on the bed, with some funny heat radiating device or massager of sorts, so she attended to them in turn.
In the evening, I went with my fiancee and her mum to Seafood Paradise, the place I went to with my blood brudders on my birthday. We were trying to negotiate with the restaurant to allow us to do a wedding at their restaurant, even though they have not done wedding events before. The place though is out of the way at Defu Lane, and the price isn't very cheap, but the food is superb. We deliberately tried items that would likely be on a wedding dinner menu such as sharks' fin, ee fu noodles, and etc, and they all came out tops. I must say, that has got to be the best sharks' fin soup I have tasted in a restaurant, and the fins were in sizable chunks rather than the thin wisps I usually see. However, there are issues because we want to have it on a Sat, and closing the air-conditioned side of the restaurant for us may incur a loss for the boss, so he still needs to consider. I'm still praying for it!
Anyway, after consulting several married colleagues and friends, I realized that getting married really burns a big hole in the pocket. Already, I think I am very blessed that my fiancee is down to earth and practical, and prefers saving the money to do up the house than to have a big proposal ring and things like that. From the stories I heard, it sounds quite ridiculous. For instance, most of the time, I hear about people buying 0.5 carat proposal ring, which easily costs close to 5k. If the bride side is teochew, they would require the four gold items (earrings, necklace, bracelet, and ring), which easily costs a couple more thousand at least. Added to this is the bride price, or some variation of it, which covers a big range, but let's look at a more average cost of about $2888, so round it up to 3k. Now that, without considering money for flat, renovations, wedding dinner reception, and ang baos for brothers and for the sisters who block the door to the bride, is a whopping 10k basic. Considering renovations cost 20k and above, resale flats may be above valuation, and assuming that the ang baos from guests cover the wedding costs, the total cost at least is 30k, but most probably would hit nearer to 40k and above. And this is just a conservative, optimistic estimate. Is it any wonder that people are marrying later and later? Or is this problem unique to graduates who earn more and therefore the bride's parents would expect more?
Tue 6 Mar
I feel busy at work. There are many things to do lately because I have taken on a large share of work beyond my usual scope, and my TA3 classes have not started yet. Once that kicks in from Term 2 onwards, I will have 10 hrs of teaching added to my current schedule. I am curious to see how I will manage everything, and still have quality time for God, church, my fiancee, anime, pool and whatever else.
And settle my new house.
And settle the wedding.
I think maybe I'm taking on so much just to be able to say this to the face of my students or my cell group boys, "Don't give me crap about being busy or not having enough time." I aspire to become an example of good time management...heh.
After school, I found enough time to go home, have a jog (good, I still can clear 2.4 km even after pausing my jogging since the road run), and then head off to Youthnet leaders' meeting. I think I will find time to go and buy myself a nice Superman t-shirt.
Today the school declared a half day, so for lunch, the whole staff went to Quality Hotel for a lunch buffet. In all honesty, out of all the food there, only the porridge item and the chicken of the chicken rice were worth eating. After lunch I went to take care of my poor fiancee who suffered from a sprained ankle and food poisoning from yesterday's dinner. I accompanied her to the chinese sinseh near her place, who can really, really multitask. At one point in time, she may be attending to five patients, since some of them were on the bed, with some funny heat radiating device or massager of sorts, so she attended to them in turn.
In the evening, I went with my fiancee and her mum to Seafood Paradise, the place I went to with my blood brudders on my birthday. We were trying to negotiate with the restaurant to allow us to do a wedding at their restaurant, even though they have not done wedding events before. The place though is out of the way at Defu Lane, and the price isn't very cheap, but the food is superb. We deliberately tried items that would likely be on a wedding dinner menu such as sharks' fin, ee fu noodles, and etc, and they all came out tops. I must say, that has got to be the best sharks' fin soup I have tasted in a restaurant, and the fins were in sizable chunks rather than the thin wisps I usually see. However, there are issues because we want to have it on a Sat, and closing the air-conditioned side of the restaurant for us may incur a loss for the boss, so he still needs to consider. I'm still praying for it!
Anyway, after consulting several married colleagues and friends, I realized that getting married really burns a big hole in the pocket. Already, I think I am very blessed that my fiancee is down to earth and practical, and prefers saving the money to do up the house than to have a big proposal ring and things like that. From the stories I heard, it sounds quite ridiculous. For instance, most of the time, I hear about people buying 0.5 carat proposal ring, which easily costs close to 5k. If the bride side is teochew, they would require the four gold items (earrings, necklace, bracelet, and ring), which easily costs a couple more thousand at least. Added to this is the bride price, or some variation of it, which covers a big range, but let's look at a more average cost of about $2888, so round it up to 3k. Now that, without considering money for flat, renovations, wedding dinner reception, and ang baos for brothers and for the sisters who block the door to the bride, is a whopping 10k basic. Considering renovations cost 20k and above, resale flats may be above valuation, and assuming that the ang baos from guests cover the wedding costs, the total cost at least is 30k, but most probably would hit nearer to 40k and above. And this is just a conservative, optimistic estimate. Is it any wonder that people are marrying later and later? Or is this problem unique to graduates who earn more and therefore the bride's parents would expect more?
Tue 6 Mar
I feel busy at work. There are many things to do lately because I have taken on a large share of work beyond my usual scope, and my TA3 classes have not started yet. Once that kicks in from Term 2 onwards, I will have 10 hrs of teaching added to my current schedule. I am curious to see how I will manage everything, and still have quality time for God, church, my fiancee, anime, pool and whatever else.
And settle my new house.
And settle the wedding.
I think maybe I'm taking on so much just to be able to say this to the face of my students or my cell group boys, "Don't give me crap about being busy or not having enough time." I aspire to become an example of good time management...heh.
After school, I found enough time to go home, have a jog (good, I still can clear 2.4 km even after pausing my jogging since the road run), and then head off to Youthnet leaders' meeting. I think I will find time to go and buy myself a nice Superman t-shirt.
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Sat 3 Mar
All along I thought cow cat doesn't recognize me by sight, because I often walked past him without him responding. Today I didn't do my cat call first, and slowly walked up to him instead. When I was within 30 cm of him, he looked at my feet, looked up at me, meowed and came over to my legs. It was then that I realized that it wasn't that he couldn't recognize me - he couldn't see me from far. As I recall, I think cow cat must be close to 11 years old, since he was a young cat when I moved here a decade ago. That, I think, is the human equivalent of 80+ to 90+ years old. Hmm. I don't want to think of the inevitable.
I just finished an anime series Samurai Deeper Kyo. At first, it seemed like a powerful-samurai-fights-more-powerful-samurai series, with some ninjas thrown in. However, the mysterious background of the protagonist Demon Eyes Kyo unravelled so gradually but well that the anime was beyond average. Furthermore, there is quite a complicated plot underneath it all, so I think the whole series turned out to be quite good, even though there were plenty of fighting. However, I have two gripes about the anime. The characters, while quite richly fleshed out, seem to take abnormal actions from time to time without clear indication of motive. So somehow the characters feel unnatural, making me ask, 'Why would he do that?' or 'Why would he help that guy?' The second was that although the first 24 episodes build the story up well, the ending 2 episodes somehow didn't live to my expectations. It wasn't a bad ending, but I think it could have been done better. Kyo at one point supposed to have mastered this style which has four schools, but in the end, he used only one new move throughout the last episodes, which felt anti-climatic.
Now it's time to move to a new anime Kirameki Project. It's supposed to be a spoof of the giant robot genre, and it does have some quirky sense of humour. Good that it is only 5 episodes long.
Sun 4 Mar
I had service and cell group with my boys as usual. I bumped into a student of a class I'm relieving for this semester, and she looked utterly shocked to see me there.
In the evening, it was a meet-the-parents session where my mum finally met my fiancee's parents. We went to East Coast Seafood Centre to have dinner at Chin Wah Heng (I think that's the name) Seafood Restaurant. The whole thing went quite well except for two things - the first is that neither my mum or her parents have a clear idea of the traditions involved, so we didn't finalize anything, and the second was that the food and service turned out worse than we last remember.
All along I thought cow cat doesn't recognize me by sight, because I often walked past him without him responding. Today I didn't do my cat call first, and slowly walked up to him instead. When I was within 30 cm of him, he looked at my feet, looked up at me, meowed and came over to my legs. It was then that I realized that it wasn't that he couldn't recognize me - he couldn't see me from far. As I recall, I think cow cat must be close to 11 years old, since he was a young cat when I moved here a decade ago. That, I think, is the human equivalent of 80+ to 90+ years old. Hmm. I don't want to think of the inevitable.
I just finished an anime series Samurai Deeper Kyo. At first, it seemed like a powerful-samurai-fights-more-powerful-samurai series, with some ninjas thrown in. However, the mysterious background of the protagonist Demon Eyes Kyo unravelled so gradually but well that the anime was beyond average. Furthermore, there is quite a complicated plot underneath it all, so I think the whole series turned out to be quite good, even though there were plenty of fighting. However, I have two gripes about the anime. The characters, while quite richly fleshed out, seem to take abnormal actions from time to time without clear indication of motive. So somehow the characters feel unnatural, making me ask, 'Why would he do that?' or 'Why would he help that guy?' The second was that although the first 24 episodes build the story up well, the ending 2 episodes somehow didn't live to my expectations. It wasn't a bad ending, but I think it could have been done better. Kyo at one point supposed to have mastered this style which has four schools, but in the end, he used only one new move throughout the last episodes, which felt anti-climatic.
Now it's time to move to a new anime Kirameki Project. It's supposed to be a spoof of the giant robot genre, and it does have some quirky sense of humour. Good that it is only 5 episodes long.
Sun 4 Mar
I had service and cell group with my boys as usual. I bumped into a student of a class I'm relieving for this semester, and she looked utterly shocked to see me there.
In the evening, it was a meet-the-parents session where my mum finally met my fiancee's parents. We went to East Coast Seafood Centre to have dinner at Chin Wah Heng (I think that's the name) Seafood Restaurant. The whole thing went quite well except for two things - the first is that neither my mum or her parents have a clear idea of the traditions involved, so we didn't finalize anything, and the second was that the food and service turned out worse than we last remember.
Friday, March 02, 2007
Thu 1 Mar
I lethargically went back to school today. I tried eating rice during lunch time, and it went down relatively alright, so I take it that I'm recovering. My appetite shrank though, and depending on whether I look at it as a glass half full or half empty, it may be a blessing in disguise if I consider the eventual wedding photo shoot. It is a super long day today though. I spent most of the time working on some readings because I was due to meet my supervisor in the afternoon, and inbetween I was helping different colleagues with different things that cropped up.
After meeting my supervisor, and at least getting a bit clearer on where I should be heading for the research, I went for a discipline committee meeting which I was invited along to give comments. That lasted till 6 plus, and by the time I got home at 7 plus, I was famished, which was of course a good sign for someone who just recovered from food poisoning.
Anyway, I think hunting for a church and hotel/restaurant is turning out to be quite a nightmare. I mean, up till now, I never knew that it was so expensive to be renting a church venue. It ranges from 1.2k upwards! And that does not include all the decorations that we have to put up ourselves and the catering. I think when I was younger and not working, I must have contributed to the 'lugi' list of the friends who invited me to their church weddings when I gave like ten bucks in the ang bao. Now I stand highly enlightened and corrected. Furthermore, not every church we enquired was available, or worse, helpful. I mean, if not for the fact that my own church is unavailable, I wouldn't need to resort to renting other churches now, would I? Sigh. At this rate, I think I'll just resort to having the wedding in TJC. I'll save more than one thousand bucks right away when I use my own school auditorium for free. I think that puts things in perspective.
Hotel hunting is worse. I think when I reckon that 17 Nov turning out to be a good date on the almanac (for the older folks' benefit) was a good thing, I really did not anticipate that the hotel ballrooms would be fully booked. Every single hotel thus far. And restaurant too. At least, those that have a credible reputation. I wouldn't mind a cheaper alternative, but I want the food to be good in the least. Right now, it's either doing away with the whole thing or settling for a wedding dinner on the Sun or Mon following. The former would displease some relatives; the latter would make it more troublesome for ourselves. Either way, it's back to the same old complaint that to-be-wedded couples usually state - the whole big wedding thing is just done to please other people. Namely the older folks. I think friends and colleagues couldn't care less if the whole thing was just reduced to a nice and simple church wedding and buffet reception. Suddenly I see the sense (common sense, not moral sense, of course) in why people would choose to elope.
Fri 2 Mar
Today was another long day. Almost from the time I stepped into the office and took my laptop, I was in the board room churning out presentation powerpoint and compiling results with my colleague for today's 'A' Level release. It was a highly tense, busy, and exciting time inside the room. There was almost palpable tension at some points when some colleagues asked the wrong (busy) people for the wrong things. Me, I just concentrated on my work, which I technically volunteered for, seeing that my deputy HOD of IT is all alone, and that he's a good friend of mine.
I had a short breather and then I had to set up the hall for the big event. This year, I'm somewhat detached as I did not teach this batch, and was concerned only for a few students, namely my small cohort of AVC students, and two repeat students who I used to teach. I'm greatly relieved that the two repeat students got straight A's eventually, and my AVC guys did rather well. The whole place was a mixing pot of emotions, seeing many cry, cheer, hug, laugh...for the students, it's a once in their life thing; for teachers, it's a biennial emotional roller-coaster.
After the whole thing was done, we braved a thunderstorm to attend our Master's tutorial before returning to college to scavenge for some fish and chips in our school event. At least this time, we managed to arrive early enough, thinking back on our late arrival at the one at Mount Faber last year. After the dinner, my fiancee and I headed down to check a nearby church, which turned out to be rather old, somewhat worn, but somehow endearingly cosy, with very pretty stained glass all around. I think we just found a church we wanted, and the cost is at an expected 1.3k thereabouts.
Unmarried church friends of mine, be forewarned. Budget wisely.
I lethargically went back to school today. I tried eating rice during lunch time, and it went down relatively alright, so I take it that I'm recovering. My appetite shrank though, and depending on whether I look at it as a glass half full or half empty, it may be a blessing in disguise if I consider the eventual wedding photo shoot. It is a super long day today though. I spent most of the time working on some readings because I was due to meet my supervisor in the afternoon, and inbetween I was helping different colleagues with different things that cropped up.
After meeting my supervisor, and at least getting a bit clearer on where I should be heading for the research, I went for a discipline committee meeting which I was invited along to give comments. That lasted till 6 plus, and by the time I got home at 7 plus, I was famished, which was of course a good sign for someone who just recovered from food poisoning.
Anyway, I think hunting for a church and hotel/restaurant is turning out to be quite a nightmare. I mean, up till now, I never knew that it was so expensive to be renting a church venue. It ranges from 1.2k upwards! And that does not include all the decorations that we have to put up ourselves and the catering. I think when I was younger and not working, I must have contributed to the 'lugi' list of the friends who invited me to their church weddings when I gave like ten bucks in the ang bao. Now I stand highly enlightened and corrected. Furthermore, not every church we enquired was available, or worse, helpful. I mean, if not for the fact that my own church is unavailable, I wouldn't need to resort to renting other churches now, would I? Sigh. At this rate, I think I'll just resort to having the wedding in TJC. I'll save more than one thousand bucks right away when I use my own school auditorium for free. I think that puts things in perspective.
Hotel hunting is worse. I think when I reckon that 17 Nov turning out to be a good date on the almanac (for the older folks' benefit) was a good thing, I really did not anticipate that the hotel ballrooms would be fully booked. Every single hotel thus far. And restaurant too. At least, those that have a credible reputation. I wouldn't mind a cheaper alternative, but I want the food to be good in the least. Right now, it's either doing away with the whole thing or settling for a wedding dinner on the Sun or Mon following. The former would displease some relatives; the latter would make it more troublesome for ourselves. Either way, it's back to the same old complaint that to-be-wedded couples usually state - the whole big wedding thing is just done to please other people. Namely the older folks. I think friends and colleagues couldn't care less if the whole thing was just reduced to a nice and simple church wedding and buffet reception. Suddenly I see the sense (common sense, not moral sense, of course) in why people would choose to elope.
Fri 2 Mar
Today was another long day. Almost from the time I stepped into the office and took my laptop, I was in the board room churning out presentation powerpoint and compiling results with my colleague for today's 'A' Level release. It was a highly tense, busy, and exciting time inside the room. There was almost palpable tension at some points when some colleagues asked the wrong (busy) people for the wrong things. Me, I just concentrated on my work, which I technically volunteered for, seeing that my deputy HOD of IT is all alone, and that he's a good friend of mine.
I had a short breather and then I had to set up the hall for the big event. This year, I'm somewhat detached as I did not teach this batch, and was concerned only for a few students, namely my small cohort of AVC students, and two repeat students who I used to teach. I'm greatly relieved that the two repeat students got straight A's eventually, and my AVC guys did rather well. The whole place was a mixing pot of emotions, seeing many cry, cheer, hug, laugh...for the students, it's a once in their life thing; for teachers, it's a biennial emotional roller-coaster.
After the whole thing was done, we braved a thunderstorm to attend our Master's tutorial before returning to college to scavenge for some fish and chips in our school event. At least this time, we managed to arrive early enough, thinking back on our late arrival at the one at Mount Faber last year. After the dinner, my fiancee and I headed down to check a nearby church, which turned out to be rather old, somewhat worn, but somehow endearingly cosy, with very pretty stained glass all around. I think we just found a church we wanted, and the cost is at an expected 1.3k thereabouts.
Unmarried church friends of mine, be forewarned. Budget wisely.