Tuesday, August 28, 2007
I am following the recent furore due to Odex's legal action against downloaders of their licensed anime, since I myself am an anime fan. I'm not sure what are the exact legal proceedings that occured, but Nominated Minister of Parliament Siew Kum Hong has neatly captured the legal mumbo-jumbo on his blog.
For those who are not yet in the know, Odex sent out many letters in May demanding an out-of-court settlement, a.k.a. compensation, from many illegal downloaders of anime that the company has licensed, and the money was in the range of $2000 to $5000, according to reports thus far. The most hard-handed I've heard so far is the case of a 9-year old boy being fined (so far the sum seems to hover between $3000 to $5000 according to different sources), and had to cough up the money in instalments.
I have a pretty big anime collection as of the moment, and a large part of it is purchased original VCDs and DVDs. I had been buying originals since I started collecting until one fine day when I couldn't find anything new that I wanted available on the shelves, and waited, and waited, and waited. Eventually I went to watch anime off the web. I find that the local market is not moving fast enough for anime. I am not talking about anime that are currently showing in Japan or something that admittedly one can only acquire by downloading from fansub pages. I am just talking about anime that may be one or two years old, but have yet to reach our shore. That aside, the larger problem, which is cited by the anime community in outrage against Odex, is that the originals suck. I totally agree with that opinion, especially because I hold at least 80+ titles in my collection that are original, most of which are licensed by Odex, and I think I would know well enough.
Considering the anime I had bought ages ago when all the subtitles were in Chinese, at least those subtitles were more precise and made sense, but all the names were really hard to catch, especially since they were in traditional Chinese. In more recent years, the subtitles had changed to mainstream English, but they were highly inconsistent (names would change between episodes, and it was evident that there were multiple subbers who weren't in communication with one another), and full of grammatical and spelling errors. In fact, worse still, the translation sometimes made no sense whatsoever, and I, with my limited grasp of the Japanese language from just watching anime, could also tell that some translations were totally off. Hence I can identify with all the people crying foul since Odex has a monopoly of the market and yet dishes out crap. And now they are using a forceful tactic to drive fear into the community.
It is a weird dilemma. I recognize that the basic point that downloading is illegal is a moot point, and also that Odex claiming compensation for damages and legal fees and all off those poor souls seems legally justified. In fact, nothing seems legally wrong with what they are doing, except maybe the breach of confidentiality since they have acquired the IP addresses and identities of the downloaders from Singnet, and I think Starhub, which is in the grey. But somehow, as an anime fan, I similarly feel outraged. I'm pretty sure that there will be some backlash, and I doubt that having a legal threat hovering above the heads of people will boost their sales by limiting the downloading. If anything, I think people will just be totally turned off by the whole thing, or find alternative means. If the anime subculture in Singapore is substantially big and linked worldwide, then I guess this will be yet another incident that will add to the list of things Singapore are known for internationally, along with the caning of Michael Fay, banning of chewing gum, death penalties, and etc.
I don't know about others, but if Odex hired good subbers (or even dubbers), I would have no qualms buying more titles, since I like having a nice box set to store and collect (hence my huge mess at home presently). If Odex had improved the quality of the anime it released, I'm sure they wouldn't be under so much fire right now.
For those who are not yet in the know, Odex sent out many letters in May demanding an out-of-court settlement, a.k.a. compensation, from many illegal downloaders of anime that the company has licensed, and the money was in the range of $2000 to $5000, according to reports thus far. The most hard-handed I've heard so far is the case of a 9-year old boy being fined (so far the sum seems to hover between $3000 to $5000 according to different sources), and had to cough up the money in instalments.
I have a pretty big anime collection as of the moment, and a large part of it is purchased original VCDs and DVDs. I had been buying originals since I started collecting until one fine day when I couldn't find anything new that I wanted available on the shelves, and waited, and waited, and waited. Eventually I went to watch anime off the web. I find that the local market is not moving fast enough for anime. I am not talking about anime that are currently showing in Japan or something that admittedly one can only acquire by downloading from fansub pages. I am just talking about anime that may be one or two years old, but have yet to reach our shore. That aside, the larger problem, which is cited by the anime community in outrage against Odex, is that the originals suck. I totally agree with that opinion, especially because I hold at least 80+ titles in my collection that are original, most of which are licensed by Odex, and I think I would know well enough.
Considering the anime I had bought ages ago when all the subtitles were in Chinese, at least those subtitles were more precise and made sense, but all the names were really hard to catch, especially since they were in traditional Chinese. In more recent years, the subtitles had changed to mainstream English, but they were highly inconsistent (names would change between episodes, and it was evident that there were multiple subbers who weren't in communication with one another), and full of grammatical and spelling errors. In fact, worse still, the translation sometimes made no sense whatsoever, and I, with my limited grasp of the Japanese language from just watching anime, could also tell that some translations were totally off. Hence I can identify with all the people crying foul since Odex has a monopoly of the market and yet dishes out crap. And now they are using a forceful tactic to drive fear into the community.
It is a weird dilemma. I recognize that the basic point that downloading is illegal is a moot point, and also that Odex claiming compensation for damages and legal fees and all off those poor souls seems legally justified. In fact, nothing seems legally wrong with what they are doing, except maybe the breach of confidentiality since they have acquired the IP addresses and identities of the downloaders from Singnet, and I think Starhub, which is in the grey. But somehow, as an anime fan, I similarly feel outraged. I'm pretty sure that there will be some backlash, and I doubt that having a legal threat hovering above the heads of people will boost their sales by limiting the downloading. If anything, I think people will just be totally turned off by the whole thing, or find alternative means. If the anime subculture in Singapore is substantially big and linked worldwide, then I guess this will be yet another incident that will add to the list of things Singapore are known for internationally, along with the caning of Michael Fay, banning of chewing gum, death penalties, and etc.
I don't know about others, but if Odex hired good subbers (or even dubbers), I would have no qualms buying more titles, since I like having a nice box set to store and collect (hence my huge mess at home presently). If Odex had improved the quality of the anime it released, I'm sure they wouldn't be under so much fire right now.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Thu 23 Aug
Today was supposed to be the start of the Gateway Cities Youth Convention, but I received fairly last minute notice that I was due to be present at a discipline committee meeting. I find it quite amazing that I got 'arrowed' to attend yet again. So far, I think for the teachers not on the discipline committee, they attend on some kind of rotational basis, and it seems to be very infrequent in the range of maybe once a year. I mean, about half a dozen teachers are invited to attend, and we have close to 160 staff. The meeting takes place once a term, so it seems unlikely to attend more than once.
This is my second time.
Technically third, but I couldn't make it the last round. It's all these little things that drag me down in an already busily mad term.
Fri 24 Aug
I had a relatively short day today in school, but filled with logistics issue for Homecoming Dinner. Now that my Corporate Comms head had filled me in on what I have to do for Open House (what do you know...logistics), I think I'm ready to flip over and die when I hear the accursed L-word of logistics. After school, my fiancee and I headed to our new place to clear out the fridge. Anyway, the fridge we bought had some issues, and there was condensation at the fridge doors, which apparently is not a common problem. In any case, Samsung was nice enough to give us a one-for-one exchange, so we awaited the delivery. Fortunately they came as early as we could, and we managed to make it to our Masters' course in time; actually, we were close to 25 minutes late, but I guess we had little choice in the matter.
After the tutorial, our colleague dropped us off at Ikea where we had dinner (mmm...meatballs!) and went to buy some other items we were still lacking. The most important thing being a big rug centrepiece for the guestroom. Other than making it look way less bare, it is to protect the parquet flooring from the mahjong table and chairs. We bought a rug that was on discount, costing $259 instead of $459, and it is a whopping 2.3 m x 2.3 m in dimension.
Sat 25 Aug
Today is the first official housewarming day! I invited my cousins over, originally to play mahjong. In the end, because one of my cousins and his wife brought their little 10-month old baby over, we had no opportunity to play mahjong since they were busy taking care of the kid, and I guess the baby girl was the centre of attention. Unfortunately, my cousin didn't manage to buy and bring over a mahjong table, so that, I guess, was the bigger reason. I guess he wouldn't be able to fit a wife, a baby in a baby-chair, and a mahjong table in his car with no 'butt'.
In the end, we settled for watching Campus Superstar finals after the evening. I'm glad that Keely won for the girls' side since she obviously sings better (Shawn was a surprise dark horse win, if you ask me, and I still don't think he sings well...must be the cute factor), but I sure hope that VJC won't use that as an advertising point for Open House...
Sun 26 Aug
I had service as usual, and today's cell was more of an informal chit-chat session than anything else because I had only two boys with me. They seem quite excited by the fact that I'm getting them over to my new place, and they want to 'camp' over. I think they are just after the Xbox 360 actually.
Mon 27 Aug
I started the day with prelims meeting that lasted all the way till my first lesson. That was followed by lunch, and plain work, work, and more work. These days I am feeling very wearied because of all the administration thrust upon me to do. I don't mind long hours spent with students for remedial and all, but all the menial tasks not related to teaching are getting to me. Especially considering the fact that I am somehow involved in every single event. I think all the higher-ups seem to have forgotten the facts that I am taking a Masters' course part-time, and preparing to get married. Either that or they really think very highly of me. Somehow I believe it is most probably the former.
I had dinner with my fiancee and we went to look for a decent mahjong table. We managed to find one at the same furniture shop we got our dining chairs from, and so we ordered two more chairs along with the mahjong table after we realized that our dining table is big enough to take a total of 6 persons.
Today was supposed to be the start of the Gateway Cities Youth Convention, but I received fairly last minute notice that I was due to be present at a discipline committee meeting. I find it quite amazing that I got 'arrowed' to attend yet again. So far, I think for the teachers not on the discipline committee, they attend on some kind of rotational basis, and it seems to be very infrequent in the range of maybe once a year. I mean, about half a dozen teachers are invited to attend, and we have close to 160 staff. The meeting takes place once a term, so it seems unlikely to attend more than once.
This is my second time.
Technically third, but I couldn't make it the last round. It's all these little things that drag me down in an already busily mad term.
Fri 24 Aug
I had a relatively short day today in school, but filled with logistics issue for Homecoming Dinner. Now that my Corporate Comms head had filled me in on what I have to do for Open House (what do you know...logistics), I think I'm ready to flip over and die when I hear the accursed L-word of logistics. After school, my fiancee and I headed to our new place to clear out the fridge. Anyway, the fridge we bought had some issues, and there was condensation at the fridge doors, which apparently is not a common problem. In any case, Samsung was nice enough to give us a one-for-one exchange, so we awaited the delivery. Fortunately they came as early as we could, and we managed to make it to our Masters' course in time; actually, we were close to 25 minutes late, but I guess we had little choice in the matter.
After the tutorial, our colleague dropped us off at Ikea where we had dinner (mmm...meatballs!) and went to buy some other items we were still lacking. The most important thing being a big rug centrepiece for the guestroom. Other than making it look way less bare, it is to protect the parquet flooring from the mahjong table and chairs. We bought a rug that was on discount, costing $259 instead of $459, and it is a whopping 2.3 m x 2.3 m in dimension.
Sat 25 Aug
Today is the first official housewarming day! I invited my cousins over, originally to play mahjong. In the end, because one of my cousins and his wife brought their little 10-month old baby over, we had no opportunity to play mahjong since they were busy taking care of the kid, and I guess the baby girl was the centre of attention. Unfortunately, my cousin didn't manage to buy and bring over a mahjong table, so that, I guess, was the bigger reason. I guess he wouldn't be able to fit a wife, a baby in a baby-chair, and a mahjong table in his car with no 'butt'.
In the end, we settled for watching Campus Superstar finals after the evening. I'm glad that Keely won for the girls' side since she obviously sings better (Shawn was a surprise dark horse win, if you ask me, and I still don't think he sings well...must be the cute factor), but I sure hope that VJC won't use that as an advertising point for Open House...
Sun 26 Aug
I had service as usual, and today's cell was more of an informal chit-chat session than anything else because I had only two boys with me. They seem quite excited by the fact that I'm getting them over to my new place, and they want to 'camp' over. I think they are just after the Xbox 360 actually.
Mon 27 Aug
I started the day with prelims meeting that lasted all the way till my first lesson. That was followed by lunch, and plain work, work, and more work. These days I am feeling very wearied because of all the administration thrust upon me to do. I don't mind long hours spent with students for remedial and all, but all the menial tasks not related to teaching are getting to me. Especially considering the fact that I am somehow involved in every single event. I think all the higher-ups seem to have forgotten the facts that I am taking a Masters' course part-time, and preparing to get married. Either that or they really think very highly of me. Somehow I believe it is most probably the former.
I had dinner with my fiancee and we went to look for a decent mahjong table. We managed to find one at the same furniture shop we got our dining chairs from, and so we ordered two more chairs along with the mahjong table after we realized that our dining table is big enough to take a total of 6 persons.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Sun 19 Aug
While I was expecting my expanded cell group, in the end, only two of my boys showed up, others absent for various reasons. Sigh. Service was fun and nostalgic since it was our 21st anniversary this year. Considering that I've been with FCBC for a decade, I had only begun at the halfway mark. After service, originally I didn't plan to hold cell group because one of my boys said he had to leave early, but in the end my two boys hung around to chitchat, along with my fiancee's cell group. It is good that there is more interaction between them. Heh.
Mon 20 Aug
The day of reckoning is finally here. After being notified of what I was (suddenly) involved in for the opening of the school's research centre for East Zone, I had been busy coordinating with my colleague, ZH, to get things going. I still feel aggrieved that I couldn't be at the centre itself to oversee my card game being played by students for all the various visitors and guests, not so much as wanting recognition but that it is after all my pet project. My colleague later filled me in on all the positive comments from the guests, so that was affirming indeed.
The whole programme ran rather smoothly with a few minor hiccups (that would be undetectable to the audience, hence "minor"), considering the fact that we had to toggle between four laptops to make things run as smoothly as possible. Although it might have killed me in terms of effort, but frankly, I wouldn't have minded doing the presentation powerpoint because the quality wasn't what I would expect for something to be shown to so many bigwigs. Fortunately no one was foolish enough to think that it was my work, else I would be gravely insulted. Even at my worst, rushed for time and whatever other reasons, I still would not be able to produce something that mediocre. Likewise my colleague ZH was frowning away at the video that was shown (but that video was alright in my opinion, just that it is very simply made to the trained eye), and I know he has similar expectations and standards for videos as I have for powerpoint presentations.
Another colleague happened to ask me, "Eh? What were you involved in for the opening?", to which I gave a very resigned reply, "Is there even one major college event I'm not involved in?" The only difference between events is the extent of involvement. Minimally I'm taking charge of the AV side. Alternatively I could be doing some IT-related stuff like presentations. Now I've received a newer mandate of handling logistics beyond mere AV. Great.
Tue 21 Aug
Today was a packed but short day, and my fiancee and I headed to our new place to do some work and rest a bit before going to the Masters' tutorial in the evening at 6 pm. It is the last tutorial for this module at last! It has been quite disgusting to have lessons twice a week, especially since we have to prepare for this tutorial as there is a lot of class participation involved. We finally ended early for once at 8.30 pm, but there is still a final bomb in two weeks' time, which is an examination. Sigh. And an 1500-word assignment. Double sigh. It doesn't help that I still have many logistical things to settle.
In a moment of reflection, I realized that in the last couple of weeks, I have been complaining too much. While it is true that I am being taxed to the max (there's a nice ring to that phrase), God reminded me that I did ask in prayer to be stretched and challenged. I think that's God's diplomatic way of saying "You asked for it" to my face. In a more positive light, I can see it as opportunities to prove my worth, so I shall continue to excel in what I do, and keep my mouth shut from gripes.
Wed 22 Aug
I've been experimenting with the timings in the last few days. I found out that one train leaves Pasir Ris at 6.50 am, and that one gets me to the bus stop at Tanah Merah at 7.02 am. However, the bottleneck is the bus, and if I missed the buses that come near 7 am, the next bus comes at 7.10 am thereabouts, and I just barely make it to school on time. I tried going to the train station earlier and earlier, and eventually caught the 6.42 am train. That train gets me to the same bus stop by about 6.57 am, but again it depends on when exactly bus 12 or 38 arrives, and sometimes I take 31 if it comes right away, and I can still reach school at 7.10 am. I have been trying to catch the 6.35 am train, but I have been missing it by a minute or so yesterday and today. I guess this is a form of iteration? Haha.
Lately the days have been filled with meetings, for whatever purposes. The team had a prelim meeting discussion in the morning, and then some of us went opposite to grab some breakfast before coming back to do work and go for class. Today was supposed to be Teachers' Day celebrations for the year 2s, since they would be going on study break in the coming week. Originally I had agreed to join them for pool in the afternoon, but a couple of days ago, I found out that there was a focus group discussion meeting about the integrated programme in the late afternoon, so in the end, we settled for a lunch at Pizza Hut in Bedok, and my class gave me a treat. Why did they have to schedule a meeting today of all days? In the end, I didn't go down for my network meeting either.
While I was expecting my expanded cell group, in the end, only two of my boys showed up, others absent for various reasons. Sigh. Service was fun and nostalgic since it was our 21st anniversary this year. Considering that I've been with FCBC for a decade, I had only begun at the halfway mark. After service, originally I didn't plan to hold cell group because one of my boys said he had to leave early, but in the end my two boys hung around to chitchat, along with my fiancee's cell group. It is good that there is more interaction between them. Heh.
Mon 20 Aug
The day of reckoning is finally here. After being notified of what I was (suddenly) involved in for the opening of the school's research centre for East Zone, I had been busy coordinating with my colleague, ZH, to get things going. I still feel aggrieved that I couldn't be at the centre itself to oversee my card game being played by students for all the various visitors and guests, not so much as wanting recognition but that it is after all my pet project. My colleague later filled me in on all the positive comments from the guests, so that was affirming indeed.
The whole programme ran rather smoothly with a few minor hiccups (that would be undetectable to the audience, hence "minor"), considering the fact that we had to toggle between four laptops to make things run as smoothly as possible. Although it might have killed me in terms of effort, but frankly, I wouldn't have minded doing the presentation powerpoint because the quality wasn't what I would expect for something to be shown to so many bigwigs. Fortunately no one was foolish enough to think that it was my work, else I would be gravely insulted. Even at my worst, rushed for time and whatever other reasons, I still would not be able to produce something that mediocre. Likewise my colleague ZH was frowning away at the video that was shown (but that video was alright in my opinion, just that it is very simply made to the trained eye), and I know he has similar expectations and standards for videos as I have for powerpoint presentations.
Another colleague happened to ask me, "Eh? What were you involved in for the opening?", to which I gave a very resigned reply, "Is there even one major college event I'm not involved in?" The only difference between events is the extent of involvement. Minimally I'm taking charge of the AV side. Alternatively I could be doing some IT-related stuff like presentations. Now I've received a newer mandate of handling logistics beyond mere AV. Great.
Tue 21 Aug
Today was a packed but short day, and my fiancee and I headed to our new place to do some work and rest a bit before going to the Masters' tutorial in the evening at 6 pm. It is the last tutorial for this module at last! It has been quite disgusting to have lessons twice a week, especially since we have to prepare for this tutorial as there is a lot of class participation involved. We finally ended early for once at 8.30 pm, but there is still a final bomb in two weeks' time, which is an examination. Sigh. And an 1500-word assignment. Double sigh. It doesn't help that I still have many logistical things to settle.
In a moment of reflection, I realized that in the last couple of weeks, I have been complaining too much. While it is true that I am being taxed to the max (there's a nice ring to that phrase), God reminded me that I did ask in prayer to be stretched and challenged. I think that's God's diplomatic way of saying "You asked for it" to my face. In a more positive light, I can see it as opportunities to prove my worth, so I shall continue to excel in what I do, and keep my mouth shut from gripes.
Wed 22 Aug
I've been experimenting with the timings in the last few days. I found out that one train leaves Pasir Ris at 6.50 am, and that one gets me to the bus stop at Tanah Merah at 7.02 am. However, the bottleneck is the bus, and if I missed the buses that come near 7 am, the next bus comes at 7.10 am thereabouts, and I just barely make it to school on time. I tried going to the train station earlier and earlier, and eventually caught the 6.42 am train. That train gets me to the same bus stop by about 6.57 am, but again it depends on when exactly bus 12 or 38 arrives, and sometimes I take 31 if it comes right away, and I can still reach school at 7.10 am. I have been trying to catch the 6.35 am train, but I have been missing it by a minute or so yesterday and today. I guess this is a form of iteration? Haha.
Lately the days have been filled with meetings, for whatever purposes. The team had a prelim meeting discussion in the morning, and then some of us went opposite to grab some breakfast before coming back to do work and go for class. Today was supposed to be Teachers' Day celebrations for the year 2s, since they would be going on study break in the coming week. Originally I had agreed to join them for pool in the afternoon, but a couple of days ago, I found out that there was a focus group discussion meeting about the integrated programme in the late afternoon, so in the end, we settled for a lunch at Pizza Hut in Bedok, and my class gave me a treat. Why did they have to schedule a meeting today of all days? In the end, I didn't go down for my network meeting either.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Wed 15 Aug
I finally managed to have a rest and eat breakfast in the staff lounge. This is a luxury that I have been unable to enjoy except maybe once a week or fortnight. Considering my efficiency and state of busyness, I can only conclude that I am given more to do than my colleagues of equal rank. Not that I'm the only one of course, since I can see quite a few fellow sufferers who are doing more than they should, but if this is my workload at my current rank, and if I should get promoted, I wonder what output the school will expect of me to produce. The performance bonus next year had better reflect the contributions I made. I'm not going to say flippant things like "it's not about the money"; at this point in time, I am so wiped out that personal satisfaction, unlike last time, is no longer enough to drive me to complete so many things beyond my usual job scope. I need the money, and a bigger bonus indicates that the school notices, recognizes and affirms my effort. Don't get me wrong - I won't deliberately take on more things so as to get a bigger bonus, but rather that since more things keep ending up on my lap, they had better compensate me good.
After the staff conference in which we find out that we have even more things to do, as usual, I made my way to Hair De Vogue to cut my hair, at long last. I had been so busy with the renovation and moving in that I actually had no time to cut my hair. I had dinner with my fiancee, and then headed down for cell, and inbetween detouring to my old place to check for letters. Cell group ended later than scheduled, and I timed myself to see how fast I can get home to Pasir Ris from Bukit Merah central with my walking speed. My fiancee takes more than an hour to get back to Bedok, so I wanted to see if I could fly. In the end, I took exactly 53 minutes. A feat, if you ask me, since the Redhill MRT is really far away from where I have my cell group. In any case, 53 min on public transport that late in the night on a weekday with school the next day is draining, especially after a long day at work. I can see why my fiancee is always exhausted when she has cell group at Bukit Merah.
Thu 16 Aug
Another long and tiring day, ending with a remedial. The guy who was doing a hanger system for the house had come in the afternoon, along with a guy from Samsung to fix my DVD player tray, so by the time I went home, the system was nicely in place, and the player worked fine. I tested it with an anime DVD disc which had only .avi files, and it could play the disc! Bwahaha. Wow, a new level of anime enjoyment! Now I can watch my anime (the ones that are in .avi format only though) on the 40" TV screen in the living room when I am eating meals! Hehe. The money for the TV is well-spent. I think the same thought whenever my Xbox 360 is running. I'm beginning to really like my new place.
Fri 17 Aug
I was rushing to set a question for a graded assignment for the students, which was followed by a meeting to discuss the Prelim questions. I went back to do a little more work before grabbing a quick lunch, had a class, and went to attend another meeting. I still do not understand why I am made logistics head for the Homecoming Dinner. I am flattered that I am the lowest ranking teacher among the other heads and subcommittee heads, but I would have thought my involvement in all the prior major college events should have spared me from such big responsibilities. Not to mention the coming College Open House. I wouldn't mind a bigger bonus of course, but I would think that this must be one of the toughest ways to get extra cash.
After the meeting, I headed down to MJC with my fiancee for the Masters' Course. I had thought that this lecturer was the easygoing kind, and may end before the scheduled 7 pm, but unfortunately, even after the airconditioning was automatically shut down at 7 pm, he continued to ask some general opinions about the course and the logistics thus far.
He instantly got a ton of responses centering around the fact that we are currently having tutorials twice a week. Not what a person would expect going for a Masters' programme that is scheduled to spread out over 3 years.
Our colleague dropped us off at Pasir Ris, where we went home, dumped our stuff and headed over to Tampines to grab some food and buy some things we need for the house. We bought three big plastic containers, and some other miscellaneous items, and upon reaching home, I finally unpacked my English comic books to store in these containers, whereupon I discovered, to my horror, that I had not sorted out the books at all, and they were all in plastic bags in the order when I bought them. Thus began a long and arduous process of sorting out all the comic books, and my fiancee had a glimpse of another aspect of my past.
Sat 18 Aug
Today I continued unpacking my stuff, but this time, it was the Chinese comics, which fitted nicely into another container. The third container was for all my textbooks, books, and artwork related stuff, and I showed my fiancee yet another piece of my past. I showed her the drawings I did from Secondary School to Junior College, including penwork, pencil sketches, crayon pieces and coloured pencil pieces. I also showed her this attempt of a fantasy novel that I wrote during my 'O' levels period. I am inspired with creativity at times when I am supposed to be stressed. I think that's just my brain's way of handling pressure. In any case, I think few people I know had produced so much output in creative works in their lifetime even. Sometimes I wonder if God had given me these gifts for something greater that I missed out on. I guess I'll never know till I meet Him in heaven.
I finally managed to have a rest and eat breakfast in the staff lounge. This is a luxury that I have been unable to enjoy except maybe once a week or fortnight. Considering my efficiency and state of busyness, I can only conclude that I am given more to do than my colleagues of equal rank. Not that I'm the only one of course, since I can see quite a few fellow sufferers who are doing more than they should, but if this is my workload at my current rank, and if I should get promoted, I wonder what output the school will expect of me to produce. The performance bonus next year had better reflect the contributions I made. I'm not going to say flippant things like "it's not about the money"; at this point in time, I am so wiped out that personal satisfaction, unlike last time, is no longer enough to drive me to complete so many things beyond my usual job scope. I need the money, and a bigger bonus indicates that the school notices, recognizes and affirms my effort. Don't get me wrong - I won't deliberately take on more things so as to get a bigger bonus, but rather that since more things keep ending up on my lap, they had better compensate me good.
After the staff conference in which we find out that we have even more things to do, as usual, I made my way to Hair De Vogue to cut my hair, at long last. I had been so busy with the renovation and moving in that I actually had no time to cut my hair. I had dinner with my fiancee, and then headed down for cell, and inbetween detouring to my old place to check for letters. Cell group ended later than scheduled, and I timed myself to see how fast I can get home to Pasir Ris from Bukit Merah central with my walking speed. My fiancee takes more than an hour to get back to Bedok, so I wanted to see if I could fly. In the end, I took exactly 53 minutes. A feat, if you ask me, since the Redhill MRT is really far away from where I have my cell group. In any case, 53 min on public transport that late in the night on a weekday with school the next day is draining, especially after a long day at work. I can see why my fiancee is always exhausted when she has cell group at Bukit Merah.
Thu 16 Aug
Another long and tiring day, ending with a remedial. The guy who was doing a hanger system for the house had come in the afternoon, along with a guy from Samsung to fix my DVD player tray, so by the time I went home, the system was nicely in place, and the player worked fine. I tested it with an anime DVD disc which had only .avi files, and it could play the disc! Bwahaha. Wow, a new level of anime enjoyment! Now I can watch my anime (the ones that are in .avi format only though) on the 40" TV screen in the living room when I am eating meals! Hehe. The money for the TV is well-spent. I think the same thought whenever my Xbox 360 is running. I'm beginning to really like my new place.
Fri 17 Aug
I was rushing to set a question for a graded assignment for the students, which was followed by a meeting to discuss the Prelim questions. I went back to do a little more work before grabbing a quick lunch, had a class, and went to attend another meeting. I still do not understand why I am made logistics head for the Homecoming Dinner. I am flattered that I am the lowest ranking teacher among the other heads and subcommittee heads, but I would have thought my involvement in all the prior major college events should have spared me from such big responsibilities. Not to mention the coming College Open House. I wouldn't mind a bigger bonus of course, but I would think that this must be one of the toughest ways to get extra cash.
After the meeting, I headed down to MJC with my fiancee for the Masters' Course. I had thought that this lecturer was the easygoing kind, and may end before the scheduled 7 pm, but unfortunately, even after the airconditioning was automatically shut down at 7 pm, he continued to ask some general opinions about the course and the logistics thus far.
He instantly got a ton of responses centering around the fact that we are currently having tutorials twice a week. Not what a person would expect going for a Masters' programme that is scheduled to spread out over 3 years.
Our colleague dropped us off at Pasir Ris, where we went home, dumped our stuff and headed over to Tampines to grab some food and buy some things we need for the house. We bought three big plastic containers, and some other miscellaneous items, and upon reaching home, I finally unpacked my English comic books to store in these containers, whereupon I discovered, to my horror, that I had not sorted out the books at all, and they were all in plastic bags in the order when I bought them. Thus began a long and arduous process of sorting out all the comic books, and my fiancee had a glimpse of another aspect of my past.
Sat 18 Aug
Today I continued unpacking my stuff, but this time, it was the Chinese comics, which fitted nicely into another container. The third container was for all my textbooks, books, and artwork related stuff, and I showed my fiancee yet another piece of my past. I showed her the drawings I did from Secondary School to Junior College, including penwork, pencil sketches, crayon pieces and coloured pencil pieces. I also showed her this attempt of a fantasy novel that I wrote during my 'O' levels period. I am inspired with creativity at times when I am supposed to be stressed. I think that's just my brain's way of handling pressure. In any case, I think few people I know had produced so much output in creative works in their lifetime even. Sometimes I wonder if God had given me these gifts for something greater that I missed out on. I guess I'll never know till I meet Him in heaven.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
I have finally moved to Pasir Ris!
On Wed, I did the final packing of my computer and some other items that I do not want the movers to transport, and on Thu, my G12 brothers Eric and Collin came down to help out. Each of them drove, and my mum managed to borrow two trolleys from the minimart downstairs. My fiancee came to help out as well, so we managed to bring my Xbox 360, Xbox, liquor, PC, and some miscellaneous important items over to the new place first. The fact that I was computerless made me abstain from blogging and MSN, so if anyone was wondering where I disappeared to, this accounts for Thu and Fri.
Thank God It (was) Friday, which happened to be a school holiday, and I managed to completely pack almost all the items neatly into boxes. Moving house is troublesome indeed. This is the third time I've moved, and I'd like the statistic to remain at that number. My fiancee and I went down to our bridal studio to decide on the final layout of the album, and that was quite quickly settled.
On Sat morning my second uncle-in-law came down to help out with supervision, i.e. looking after the stuff when the movers left some things at the lift landing. They were very efficient, and careful with all the things, so I was quite pleased with that. Loading and unloading everything took about two hours in total, and the bottleneck was due to the fact that the lift serving every floor was very much occupied since this is an estate for the elderly after all. It took almost the whole Sat to unpack almost everything, but some things I had to leave in boxes because there was no proper (i.e. nice looking) storage space available.
The big problem though was that there was no internet connection, and Starhub told me that the earliest appointment I can make with the technicians is next Tue. Hence I remain unconnected for these few days. Worse still, I hadn't bought any fans yet, so I had to depend on the natural wind to ventilate and cool the various rooms, other than switching on the aircon. Going to Expo for service on Sun was much faster for obvious reasons, and the best part of that Sun was that I had two salvations in the cell group. One of my boys brought two of his schoolmates and both received Christ! Actually, it was quite odd. Originally, during the Sinners' Prayer, I saw a hand go up to indicate wanting to receive Christ, but I was quite sure that hand belonged to another guy whom Collin brought. So when Senior Pastor gave the invite for the people to go to the front if they had said the prayer, I was expecting that guy to go, but the two boys my boy brought went forward! That puzzled me to no end, as I thought my eyesight must had gravely deteriorated. Also, originally, I thought the two boys weren't sure of what they were doing, so the consolidator present and I shared the gospel to the two boys, and thank God, they knew what they were choosing to do.
It took me a while of getting used to, now that I'm suddenly moved to a much bigger house. The two storey aspect gave me a lot of exercise. I expect to see stronger calf muscles in due time. The silly thing is that I have to sleep in the guest room till I marry my fiancee because there seems to be some taboo about me sleeping first in the queen-sized bed meant for us. I wanted to wake up early on Mon to explore the bus route, but in the end, I overslept by 20 min. I took a train to Tanah Merah to transfer to another bus, and still managed to reach school early.
Today, I had to rush home early because Starhub's technician was coming down. So now I'm back with my internet connection! Woohoo! The dumb thing was that I was charged an additional $128.40 for cabling, because my wiring contractor under my interior designer left the wires at the junction box above the main door, and had not run a cable to the electrical riser for the connection to be done. Ouch. My interior designer had better reimburse me the money incurred due to his worker's neglience.
In the evening, I had my Masters' course tutorial. I went over to White Sands to eat, only to discover to my horror that I forgot my wallet. Then I remembered that I still had the Kopitiam card which had some stored value left, and that rescued me from walking back home to retrieve my wallet. The course stretched all the way till 9 pm when the airconditioning switched off, and I think I was seriously busy the last couple of weeks.
On Wed, I did the final packing of my computer and some other items that I do not want the movers to transport, and on Thu, my G12 brothers Eric and Collin came down to help out. Each of them drove, and my mum managed to borrow two trolleys from the minimart downstairs. My fiancee came to help out as well, so we managed to bring my Xbox 360, Xbox, liquor, PC, and some miscellaneous important items over to the new place first. The fact that I was computerless made me abstain from blogging and MSN, so if anyone was wondering where I disappeared to, this accounts for Thu and Fri.
Thank God It (was) Friday, which happened to be a school holiday, and I managed to completely pack almost all the items neatly into boxes. Moving house is troublesome indeed. This is the third time I've moved, and I'd like the statistic to remain at that number. My fiancee and I went down to our bridal studio to decide on the final layout of the album, and that was quite quickly settled.
On Sat morning my second uncle-in-law came down to help out with supervision, i.e. looking after the stuff when the movers left some things at the lift landing. They were very efficient, and careful with all the things, so I was quite pleased with that. Loading and unloading everything took about two hours in total, and the bottleneck was due to the fact that the lift serving every floor was very much occupied since this is an estate for the elderly after all. It took almost the whole Sat to unpack almost everything, but some things I had to leave in boxes because there was no proper (i.e. nice looking) storage space available.
The big problem though was that there was no internet connection, and Starhub told me that the earliest appointment I can make with the technicians is next Tue. Hence I remain unconnected for these few days. Worse still, I hadn't bought any fans yet, so I had to depend on the natural wind to ventilate and cool the various rooms, other than switching on the aircon. Going to Expo for service on Sun was much faster for obvious reasons, and the best part of that Sun was that I had two salvations in the cell group. One of my boys brought two of his schoolmates and both received Christ! Actually, it was quite odd. Originally, during the Sinners' Prayer, I saw a hand go up to indicate wanting to receive Christ, but I was quite sure that hand belonged to another guy whom Collin brought. So when Senior Pastor gave the invite for the people to go to the front if they had said the prayer, I was expecting that guy to go, but the two boys my boy brought went forward! That puzzled me to no end, as I thought my eyesight must had gravely deteriorated. Also, originally, I thought the two boys weren't sure of what they were doing, so the consolidator present and I shared the gospel to the two boys, and thank God, they knew what they were choosing to do.
It took me a while of getting used to, now that I'm suddenly moved to a much bigger house. The two storey aspect gave me a lot of exercise. I expect to see stronger calf muscles in due time. The silly thing is that I have to sleep in the guest room till I marry my fiancee because there seems to be some taboo about me sleeping first in the queen-sized bed meant for us. I wanted to wake up early on Mon to explore the bus route, but in the end, I overslept by 20 min. I took a train to Tanah Merah to transfer to another bus, and still managed to reach school early.
Today, I had to rush home early because Starhub's technician was coming down. So now I'm back with my internet connection! Woohoo! The dumb thing was that I was charged an additional $128.40 for cabling, because my wiring contractor under my interior designer left the wires at the junction box above the main door, and had not run a cable to the electrical riser for the connection to be done. Ouch. My interior designer had better reimburse me the money incurred due to his worker's neglience.
In the evening, I had my Masters' course tutorial. I went over to White Sands to eat, only to discover to my horror that I forgot my wallet. Then I remembered that I still had the Kopitiam card which had some stored value left, and that rescued me from walking back home to retrieve my wallet. The course stretched all the way till 9 pm when the airconditioning switched off, and I think I was seriously busy the last couple of weeks.
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Mon 6 Aug
I had a long day today, made longer by a remedial, and a student who asked to meet me but in the end couldn't make it because PE dragged too long. I headed home as soon as I could, and continued the second leg of packing. I cleared away all the notes and readings from NIE's one year course, and I believe that in there lies at least one dead tree worth. It was a lot of paper. I think the course is very environmentally unfriendly. I managed to pack all my liquor into one suitcase, complete with bubble wrap and lots of newspaper for added protection. After all, I haven't opened almost all of them, and I wouldn't want them to meet untimely demise. I will probably move them over with the help of my G12 brothers, and my computer too. There are some things I think I'd rather do it myself than to leave to the movers to handle.
I couldn't get any mover who had Sat free in their schedule after calling several companies I found off the web. I also note, however, that the rates charged by these companies are pretty steep. In the end, my mum managed to locate the mover who helped us move to our current place, and he quoted us a decent price, considering that he would help us dismantle the big furniture, and reassemble at the new house for us. So exciting! D-day to moving house: 11 Aug!
Tue 7 Aug
I had a busy day in school, and went home as early as I can to continue packing. One of the things I found painful to throw away was my Playstation 1. It was my companion when I was in the army. I spent more than 99 hours 99 minutes and 99 seconds on Final Fantasy VII and VIII on it. I was so tempted to keep it, but I guess what kept me disciplined in my packing is this question, "Would I have time to play it again?" I don't even have enough time to complete my Xbox games, and now Xbox 360 games, so I really don't see why I would bother. My anime fitted nicely into this big cardboard box that originally contained a 26" TV, and my clothes (not even all of them) took up four boxes on their own.
After some packing, I rushed down to my new place to dump some smaller items there, and then ate dinner with my fiancee before heading to MJC for our Masters' tutorial. I think the timing can't get any worse than this. I planned to move house this weekend quite some time ago, and the schedule for the second module in this semester came out last week, and it starts this week, of all weeks. So this is the week where I have to spend two evenings attending two tutorials. Great. Today's tutorial even exceeded the 6 to 9 pm slot until the airconditioning was shut off. Argh.
I came back to do more packing, and as I was clearing out another cupboard, I discovered some of my old artwork from secondary school days. I also unearthed two sets of acrylic paint which were given to me by my sec 2 art teacher when I was graduating (she was still trying to persuade me to take art at 'A' level then), and the paint is still usable! Goodness, that is 13 year old acrylic paint!!! Another painful thing I threw away - my fantasy novels. The pages were yellowed, with brown patches, so I had to get rid of them. Still the same question: would I have time to re-read these? The answer, of course, is no, so I mercilessly threw away my David Eddings' trilogies and quintet, Dragonlance novels from my Dungeons and Dragons era, and a couple of less known fantasy titles. I'm sure doing a way more thorough job of this than Lunar New Year spring cleaning.
I had a long day today, made longer by a remedial, and a student who asked to meet me but in the end couldn't make it because PE dragged too long. I headed home as soon as I could, and continued the second leg of packing. I cleared away all the notes and readings from NIE's one year course, and I believe that in there lies at least one dead tree worth. It was a lot of paper. I think the course is very environmentally unfriendly. I managed to pack all my liquor into one suitcase, complete with bubble wrap and lots of newspaper for added protection. After all, I haven't opened almost all of them, and I wouldn't want them to meet untimely demise. I will probably move them over with the help of my G12 brothers, and my computer too. There are some things I think I'd rather do it myself than to leave to the movers to handle.
I couldn't get any mover who had Sat free in their schedule after calling several companies I found off the web. I also note, however, that the rates charged by these companies are pretty steep. In the end, my mum managed to locate the mover who helped us move to our current place, and he quoted us a decent price, considering that he would help us dismantle the big furniture, and reassemble at the new house for us. So exciting! D-day to moving house: 11 Aug!
Tue 7 Aug
I had a busy day in school, and went home as early as I can to continue packing. One of the things I found painful to throw away was my Playstation 1. It was my companion when I was in the army. I spent more than 99 hours 99 minutes and 99 seconds on Final Fantasy VII and VIII on it. I was so tempted to keep it, but I guess what kept me disciplined in my packing is this question, "Would I have time to play it again?" I don't even have enough time to complete my Xbox games, and now Xbox 360 games, so I really don't see why I would bother. My anime fitted nicely into this big cardboard box that originally contained a 26" TV, and my clothes (not even all of them) took up four boxes on their own.
After some packing, I rushed down to my new place to dump some smaller items there, and then ate dinner with my fiancee before heading to MJC for our Masters' tutorial. I think the timing can't get any worse than this. I planned to move house this weekend quite some time ago, and the schedule for the second module in this semester came out last week, and it starts this week, of all weeks. So this is the week where I have to spend two evenings attending two tutorials. Great. Today's tutorial even exceeded the 6 to 9 pm slot until the airconditioning was shut off. Argh.
I came back to do more packing, and as I was clearing out another cupboard, I discovered some of my old artwork from secondary school days. I also unearthed two sets of acrylic paint which were given to me by my sec 2 art teacher when I was graduating (she was still trying to persuade me to take art at 'A' level then), and the paint is still usable! Goodness, that is 13 year old acrylic paint!!! Another painful thing I threw away - my fantasy novels. The pages were yellowed, with brown patches, so I had to get rid of them. Still the same question: would I have time to re-read these? The answer, of course, is no, so I mercilessly threw away my David Eddings' trilogies and quintet, Dragonlance novels from my Dungeons and Dragons era, and a couple of less known fantasy titles. I'm sure doing a way more thorough job of this than Lunar New Year spring cleaning.
Sunday, August 05, 2007
Hmm...a five day post. I must be getting too busy for my own good.
Wed 1 Aug
It is another day packed with work that left me with but a period for lunch. Adding to the misery was a SPA standardisation meeting with the year 1 team, which was very long because we had to discuss both skills B and C, and that there were many disputes and drawn-out discussions. These arose for several reasons - three of the people present were new to SPA marking, I had been marking with a different team, and although the marking is essentially the same, the perspectives that they see things are just different to me, so it took me a while to figure out what they were saying. Sigh. I need to bring up to my HOD this deployment issue. Now that I'm straddling both JC2 and TA3 (equivalent of JC1 for the through-train), I seem to be involved on both levels. Considering that I'm doing the full load for JC2 already, everything else I'm doing for TA3 is above and beyond. This is the season where after braving it, I think I am fit to wear a Superman logo on my shirt. My school load is already above the average person's, and added to that was the renovations, now the preparations to move house, plus some marriage-related preparations, church and ministry - right now, I feel like a juggler.
After school, I headed home for dinner, and went to TCT for Youthnet Leaders' Meeting. The sharing of testimonies was inspiring, but more excitingly, Ps Eugene challenged all the teachers to prayer-walk their schools. This is one busy year in terms of church activities as well, but it sure is invigorating.
Thu 2 Aug
My long day on Thursdays has been extended further by virtue of remedials. I shall henceforth term remedials as necessary evils. Thankfully my remedial students were mostly prepared for class, willing to learn, and all except one, turned up. It appeared that they had learnt something and benefitted somewhat, so I guess the extra time was well-spent. After school, I was talking to a student of mine when she started tearing. We went somewhere we could talk, and she shared with me her problems and worries, and after a while, I realized that there was nothing much I could humanly do, and offered her a prayer, so she became the first student I had blessed in the 100k campaign.
My fiancee and I headed down to our new place to do heavy cleanup. We swept the floors and mopped like mad, because there will be major deliveries tomorrow. We discovered a few more minor flaws as we cleaned, but we'll leave the fixing to after I move in. Now the house looks like it's in move-in condition; being able to comfortably walk around the place without dust and debris sticking to the soles is wonderful.
Fri 3 Aug
It was yet another packed day. I was doing work on my computer, at remedial, or in class for lessons, and I had only about 40 min for lunch, which was my only break the entire day. Right after school, my fiancee and I rushed down to our new place by cab, because there were deliveries scheduled today. Now my new house has a L-couch, a queen-sized bed and mattress, a new mattress for my mum, two armchairs and two chest of drawers. And some other small items from Ikea. The only sad thing is that I made a miscalculation, and the L-couch doesn't fit nicely into the entertainment area space; it is just enough for a person to squeeze past.
Sat 4 Aug
It's my fiancee's birthday today, but we were prepared to spend a quiet and not birthday-ish day. There were two deliveries to the new place today that we have to be around for, and more importantly, there were people coming to install roller blinds for our windows. We spent the whole morning to noon time cleaning the house and window grills, and I foresee household chores taking up a lot of time in the future. That is the flipside of having a big house I guess. In the afternoon, when everything we wanted to finish by today was done, my fiancee's mum called and said she would be coming down.
We met her at White Sands after doing some grocery shopping, and had dinner there. Then we met my fiancee's aunts who also came along to check out the house, and they brought along a cake. I didn't plan to buy a cake because there were only two of us, and originally we thought of just getting a small cake to celebrate, but we couldn't find anything small enough for two at White Sands, so this was just nice. Suddenly the house got a lot rowdier with the visitors around. We finally started up the fridge today to cool drinks for the guests. My fiancee's sister was coming over as well, and she brought my fiancee's cell leader, and one other cell member along as well. Out of the blue, there were eight people in the house, so this became a premature housewarming / birthday celebration.
Sun 5 Aug
I went to service and cluster prayer meeting in the afternoon, and came back to finish some work, and started clearing out trash. I needed to throw away all the junk I had amassed which would not be following me to the new place. I was filtering through all the cards I had gotten through my entire life. Till today, I had thrown away a single one. I originally wanted to throw them all away, but some come from good friends that I'm still in contact with; others reveal some aspect of my youth from what a friend wrote which felt significant enough to retain. I threw away many, many cards, and these are not the well-wishing cards. These were card games that I used to play, fantasy art cards I used to collect, and etc. I think I collected a lot of stuff since I was a kid. I unearthed my eraser collection from my past! These were the really old school erasers with the countries' flags on them. I must say, I think my geography (regarding countries and flags) must had been ten times better in primary school than now, since we used to 'fight' with erasers in those days.
It was somewhat painful when I emptied those things down the rubbish chute. It is like throwing away a part of my past, and worse still, money I had spent when I was younger. I suppose I have to stick to the Chinese adage to make myself feel better: 旧的不去,新的不来 (I'd translate that as "until the old is gone, there is no room for new things").
Wed 1 Aug
It is another day packed with work that left me with but a period for lunch. Adding to the misery was a SPA standardisation meeting with the year 1 team, which was very long because we had to discuss both skills B and C, and that there were many disputes and drawn-out discussions. These arose for several reasons - three of the people present were new to SPA marking, I had been marking with a different team, and although the marking is essentially the same, the perspectives that they see things are just different to me, so it took me a while to figure out what they were saying. Sigh. I need to bring up to my HOD this deployment issue. Now that I'm straddling both JC2 and TA3 (equivalent of JC1 for the through-train), I seem to be involved on both levels. Considering that I'm doing the full load for JC2 already, everything else I'm doing for TA3 is above and beyond. This is the season where after braving it, I think I am fit to wear a Superman logo on my shirt. My school load is already above the average person's, and added to that was the renovations, now the preparations to move house, plus some marriage-related preparations, church and ministry - right now, I feel like a juggler.
After school, I headed home for dinner, and went to TCT for Youthnet Leaders' Meeting. The sharing of testimonies was inspiring, but more excitingly, Ps Eugene challenged all the teachers to prayer-walk their schools. This is one busy year in terms of church activities as well, but it sure is invigorating.
Thu 2 Aug
My long day on Thursdays has been extended further by virtue of remedials. I shall henceforth term remedials as necessary evils. Thankfully my remedial students were mostly prepared for class, willing to learn, and all except one, turned up. It appeared that they had learnt something and benefitted somewhat, so I guess the extra time was well-spent. After school, I was talking to a student of mine when she started tearing. We went somewhere we could talk, and she shared with me her problems and worries, and after a while, I realized that there was nothing much I could humanly do, and offered her a prayer, so she became the first student I had blessed in the 100k campaign.
My fiancee and I headed down to our new place to do heavy cleanup. We swept the floors and mopped like mad, because there will be major deliveries tomorrow. We discovered a few more minor flaws as we cleaned, but we'll leave the fixing to after I move in. Now the house looks like it's in move-in condition; being able to comfortably walk around the place without dust and debris sticking to the soles is wonderful.
Fri 3 Aug
It was yet another packed day. I was doing work on my computer, at remedial, or in class for lessons, and I had only about 40 min for lunch, which was my only break the entire day. Right after school, my fiancee and I rushed down to our new place by cab, because there were deliveries scheduled today. Now my new house has a L-couch, a queen-sized bed and mattress, a new mattress for my mum, two armchairs and two chest of drawers. And some other small items from Ikea. The only sad thing is that I made a miscalculation, and the L-couch doesn't fit nicely into the entertainment area space; it is just enough for a person to squeeze past.
Sat 4 Aug
It's my fiancee's birthday today, but we were prepared to spend a quiet and not birthday-ish day. There were two deliveries to the new place today that we have to be around for, and more importantly, there were people coming to install roller blinds for our windows. We spent the whole morning to noon time cleaning the house and window grills, and I foresee household chores taking up a lot of time in the future. That is the flipside of having a big house I guess. In the afternoon, when everything we wanted to finish by today was done, my fiancee's mum called and said she would be coming down.
We met her at White Sands after doing some grocery shopping, and had dinner there. Then we met my fiancee's aunts who also came along to check out the house, and they brought along a cake. I didn't plan to buy a cake because there were only two of us, and originally we thought of just getting a small cake to celebrate, but we couldn't find anything small enough for two at White Sands, so this was just nice. Suddenly the house got a lot rowdier with the visitors around. We finally started up the fridge today to cool drinks for the guests. My fiancee's sister was coming over as well, and she brought my fiancee's cell leader, and one other cell member along as well. Out of the blue, there were eight people in the house, so this became a premature housewarming / birthday celebration.
Sun 5 Aug
I went to service and cluster prayer meeting in the afternoon, and came back to finish some work, and started clearing out trash. I needed to throw away all the junk I had amassed which would not be following me to the new place. I was filtering through all the cards I had gotten through my entire life. Till today, I had thrown away a single one. I originally wanted to throw them all away, but some come from good friends that I'm still in contact with; others reveal some aspect of my youth from what a friend wrote which felt significant enough to retain. I threw away many, many cards, and these are not the well-wishing cards. These were card games that I used to play, fantasy art cards I used to collect, and etc. I think I collected a lot of stuff since I was a kid. I unearthed my eraser collection from my past! These were the really old school erasers with the countries' flags on them. I must say, I think my geography (regarding countries and flags) must had been ten times better in primary school than now, since we used to 'fight' with erasers in those days.
It was somewhat painful when I emptied those things down the rubbish chute. It is like throwing away a part of my past, and worse still, money I had spent when I was younger. I suppose I have to stick to the Chinese adage to make myself feel better: 旧的不去,新的不来 (I'd translate that as "until the old is gone, there is no room for new things").