The Three Languages by the Brothers Grimm

as the new school term draws near, i ask myself: "What is real education?"

An aged count once lived in Switzerland, who had an only son, but he was stupid, and could learn nothing. Then said the father, "Hark thee, my son, I can get nothing into thy head, let me try as I will. Thou must go from hence, I will give thee into the care of a celebrated master, who shall see what he can do with thee." The youth was sent into a strange town, and remained a whole year with the master. At the end of this time, he came home again, and his father asked, "Now, my son, what hast thou learnt?" "Father, I have learnt what the dogs say when they bark." "Lord have mercy on us!" cried the father; "is that all thou hast learnt? I will send thee into another town, to another master." The youth was taken thither, and stayed a year with this master likewise. When he came back the father again asked, "My son, what hast thou learnt?" He answered, "Father, I have learnt what the birds say." Then the father fell into a rage and said, "Oh, thou lost man, thou hast spent the precious time and learnt nothing; art thou not ashamed to appear before mine eyes? I will send thee to a third master, but if thou learnest nothing this time also, I will no longer be thy father." The youth remained a whole year with the third master also, and when he came home again, and his father inquired, "My son, what hast thou learnt?" he answered, "Dear father, I have this year learnt what the frogs croak." Then the father fell into the most furious anger, sprang up, called his people thither, and said, "This man is no longer my son, I drive him forth, and command you to take him out into the forest, and kill him." They took him forth, but when they should have killed him, they could not do it for pity, and let him go, and they cut the eyes and the tongue out of a deer that they might carry them to the old man as a token.

The youth wandered on, and after some time came to a fortress where he begged for a night's lodging. "Yes," said the lord of the castle, "if thou wilt pass the night down there in the old tower, go thither; but I warn thee, it is at the peril of thy life, for it is full of wild dogs, which bark and howl without stopping, and at certain hours a man has to be given to them, whom they at once devour." The whole district was in sorrow and dismay because of them, and yet no one could do anything to stop this. The youth, however, was without fear, and said, "Just let me go down to the barking dogs, and give me something that I can throw to them; they will do nothing to harm me." As he himself would have it so, they gave him some food for the wild animals, and led him down to the tower. When he went inside, the dogs did not bark at him, but wagged their tails quite amicably around him, ate what he set before them, and did not hurt one hair of his head. Next morning, to the astonishment of everyone, he came out again safe and unharmed, and said to the lord of the castle, "The dogs have revealed to me, in their own language, why they dwell there, and bring evil on the land. They are bewitched, and are obliged to watch over a great treasure which is below in the tower, and they can have no rest until it is taken away, and I have likewise learnt, from their discourse, how that is to be done." Then all who heard this rejoiced, and the lord of the castle said he would adopt him as a son if he accomplished it successfully. He went down again, and as he knew what he had to do, he did it thoroughly, and brought a chest full of gold out with him. The howling of the wild dogs was henceforth heard no more; they had disappeared, and the country was freed from the trouble.

After some time he took it into his head that he would travel to Rome. On the way he passed by a marsh, in which a number of frogs were sitting croaking. He listened to them, and when he became aware of what they were saying, he grew very thoughtful and sad. At last he arrived in Rome, where the Pope had just died, and there was great difficulty as to whom they should appoint as his successor. They at length agreed that the person should be chosen as pope who should be distinguished by some divine and miraculous token. And just as that was decided on, the young count entered into the church, and suddenly two snow-white doves flew on his shoulders and remained sitting there. The ecclesiastics recognized therein the token from above, and asked him on the spot if he would be pope. He was undecided, and knew not if he were worthy of this, but the doves counselled him to do it, and at length he said yes. Then was he anointed and consecrated, and thus was fulfilled what he had heard from the frogs on his way, which had so affected him, that he was to be his Holiness the Pope. Then he had to sing a mass, and did not know one word of it, but the two doves sat continually on his shoulders, and said it all in his ear.

From Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Household Tales, trans. Margaret Hunt (London: George Bell, 1884), 1:136-138.

A Story to Remind

I've read this before but it's so good to be reminded:

Once upon a time there was a boy with a very difficult character. His father gives him a bag full of nails and tells him to drive one nail in the garden fence every time he loses his patience and/or has an argument with someone.

The first day the boy drives 37 nails in the garden fence.

In the following weeks, the boy learns to control himself and the number of nails driven in the fence gets lower every day: the boy discovers that it is easier to learn to control himself than to hammer nails in the fence.

At last, the day comes when the boy does not drive any nail in the garden fence. Then he goes to his father and tells him that today he did not
Need to hammer any nail.

His father then tells the boy to take out one nail from the fence for every day he succeeds in controlling his temper and not loosing his patience. Many days pass and finally the boy can tell his father that he took out all nails from the fence.

The father brings his son in front of the fence and tells him:
My son, you behaved well, but look how many holes you left in the fence

It will never be the same.
When you have an argument with someone and tell him bad words,
You leave him with wounds like these ones.

You can stab a man and then take the knife out,
But you will always leave a wound.
It does not matter how many times you say sorry, the wound will stay.
A wound caused by words hurts just as bad as a physical wound.
Friends are rare jewels, they make you smile and support you.
They are ready to listen to you whenever you need it,
They are behind you and they open their heart to you.
Show to your friends how much you love them.

A few lines to think about...

Give people more than they expect

When you say ”i love you", mean it...

When you say ”i am sorry", look into the eyes of that person

Do not ever make fun of other people’s dreams,
Love deeply and with passion.
You may get hurt, but it is the only way to live your life to the full.

Do not offend and judge other people according to how their relatives behave.

Speak slowly,
But think quickly.

If someone asks you a question that you do not want to answer,
Smile and ask him: ’why do you want to know?'

Remember that the greatest love and the greatest success involve the greater risks.

When you lose, do not miss the lesson,

Remember the three "Rs":
- Respect yourself
- Respect others
- Responsibility for all your actions.

Do not let a small misunderstanding ruin a great friendship;
When you realise you made a mistake, correct it immediately.

Smile when you answer the phone, who calls will be able to hear it in your voice.

Self-Mastery

this article on "Self Mastery" is rather good.

it's worth the long read.

Nothing left to photograph

it comforts me greatly to know that i'm not the only one who had the rather awful experience of being treated like a terrorist suspect, just because i was taking pictures of lovely things that interest me (and which were not military or security installations or whatever).

(read the comments box of my blog entry on Sembawang Black & white houses to know what i am talking about)

soon, we may not even be able to take pictures on the streets, just in case the guy walking behind you is an American.

durh!

this was taken in Labrador Park. A bunch of fishermen were fishing.. i guess i'm lucky no one stopped me cos maybe in the vicinity of a 10km radius was a US warship or something??

hmph!

Bukit Chandu: Singapore's last stand against Japanese invasion



nice and quiet place. read about Bukit Chandu.

war is evil.

when did the world become such a nasty place?



as i was admiring and taking pictures of these pretty black and white houses in sembawang last sunday, my friend and i were suddenly accosted by no less than 2 police cars, 8 police officers and two soldiers on an open truck with a mounted machine gun who circled us twice and finally stopped and surrounded us.

since we had entered the compound via one of several unmanned gates, and there were no signages whatsoever which had prohibited us from doing so or taking pictures, we didn't see how we could have done anything wrong.

i was wrong.

this police guy (whom we later found out was an inspector no less) stepped forward and asked us, in this suspicious and slightly sneering tone (which was immediately off-putting): Why are you all here? What are you all doing here?

i replied: We're taking a walk and looking at these black and white houses cos we find them very interesting. is it ok to take a walk here? we see no one stopping us at the gates and no signages saying we cannot do this.

and his reply: Oh, so you find them interesting? What do you find interesting about them? (his tone was now even more sacarstic, mixed with disbelief - he really was bad at asking questions, no doubt..) Where are you all working? Is this for your work? (yes, it seems that everything that people do in Singapore is only either for money or work.. sigh.. sad, right?)

not trying to point out his ignorance, i tried to be educating: "These are black and white colonial style houses. They are historical features and i just find them architecturally interesting, like the ones at Portsdown Rd. Is there anything wrong admiring them?

this other smart aleck police guy (i think a staff sergeant or something) then blurted out: "The ones at Portsdown Rd never mind cos other nationality staying there. if you want to take pictures, no problem. but here, cannot cos you know (which i didn't) there are a lot of Americans here (a fact which i didn't care about, anyway, since i wasn't there to see them). and you know after Sep 11 (blah blah blah - i lost him after a while)...

Anyway, they were obviously unconvinced by our story and asked to see the pics i took, which i gladly showed them (since they didn't show much anyway, durh!) and proceeded to take down our details.(probably to track us later??.. sigh..)

as if this wasn't annoying enough, this inspector guy came back after a while and started asking us some really dumb and irrelevant questions, to which we looked at him in bafflement .. finally, i realised that he was just trying to delay time so they could check their master database for records about us.. i was annoyed and asked him if they were actually doing that and then told them straight in the face that they could have just told us they needed to do that instead of being sheepish and beating about the bush and looking rather foolish trying so hard and poorly to engage us in lame small talk.

this other guy then sacarstically said "Never mind, you don't like the police anyway" to which i could only reply (while trying not to roll my eyes) "i don't think i ever had any opinion about the police" and his reply just made it so hard for me not to cringe at his childishness "cos they don't take down your records what.." durh! wouldn't words like that just make u so annoyed??

and to make things even more annoying, the second police car drove up at this point and one other police guy asked to see the digital pics again. "Again??" i asked " your colleague has already seen it!". and then this second police woman began repeating the whole story again about how they needed to protect the residents of the place etc etc.

our moods dashed, we left the place straight after the rigmarole and went for a coffee instead.

initially, i was annoyed at the whole event. but after thinking a while, i realised that ultimately, it was really because of the lack of wisdom, tolerance and understanding of the very people who were supposed to be the leaders of the world, and because they just love to get into wars and kill each other and declare themselves and what they believe in to be right that has led to the world becoming a more and more unsafe place everyday..

it was at that point that i realised i needed to pray.. so so much.. :(

Photography Volunteers Needed!



Date: Sunday, 4th July 2004.

Event: The Streetwise Run is a nationwide campaign to deter juvenile delinquency and promote community awareness of youth issues. It is organised by Beyond Social Services and supported by the National Youth Council and is part of the Milk Money Fund.

The campaign will comprise a series of awareness programmes that culminates with a Youth Day Celebration at East Coast Park, Carpark F2 after the run. The celebration also features a youth concert and carnival. It promises to be a meaningful Youth Day Celebration for the young, the young at heart and those with a heart for the young!

Who They Need: Volunteers to take photographs at various venues.

I was approached to help as well as to spread the world.. think you should be able to email them @ mail@beyond.org.sg

and remember...

"A candle loses nothing when it lights up another" ... :)

Metal Can Pinhole Camera

Lomography.com has clearly run out of things to sell since the Lomo LCA.. now they are trying to rip people off selling them metal cans (yes, your milo tin) with a tiny hole in them - Paint Can Camera for 65 USD!!



Please don't buy it!! I've made a pinhole camera with a Cheezels container before - it's really quite easy and even more satisfying when you can create your own camera from scratch! And you get to eat Cheezels too!! yum... if you need to know how it is done, email me. I'll try to teach you..

Click here to view spooky self-portraits taken with my Cheezels container at the playground downstairs.. here's one:

My Japanese name is

Hara (wilderness) Ayumi (walk, deeper meaning: walk your own way).

Take your real japanese name generator! today!

Created with Rum and Monkey's Name Generator Generator.

I am the wild one who walks my own way... wahahaha...

Puss in Boots: Shrek 2

"Out, damned spot! Out, I say!"

As the show last night drew gently to an end, I noticed that most of the cinema had fallen into a thoughtful silence. Other than the soft sniffling and the occasional ruffle of a tissue produced to wipe an unexpected tear. the audience was deep in thought..

And I thought how extraordinary it was.

Clearly, the show had struck a chord in everyone, but in different ways... On one level, many of us (even me?) can no doubt relate to either one of the characters Joel or Clementine – the complete opposites who meet and fall in love and then find that their apparent difference makes them collide more often than they expected, an irony considering that that was why they were attracted to each other in the first place… cos the difference had made them both better people.. with more exciting lives.. or whatever..

Then of course there’s the obvious question – if you could live life all over again (clean slate and all that), would you? Go back to a certain point in the past, in your relationship with someone, and live it all over again – this time, hopefully avoiding the painful mistake that you made.. the last straw/s that broke the camel’s back.. A friend had told me a couple of years back (a day after an especially painful breakup with his girlfriend) that he wished he had something like 'Norton GoBack' (something like Microsoft’s System Restore) so he could go back five months and do something to prevent their first nasty argument from happening.. I remember that straight after he said that, we both mused over it silently for a while and finally had to agree, it wasn’t much point unless both of them could remember what had happened.. and moved on from there instead..

The truth (as it was powerfully brought out in the movie) is, given the exact same circumstances and the same two people with the same tendency to make the same decisions and to react in exactly the same way, things are just going to happen ALL OVER AGAIN, when the two people meet again! As Cherie Carter-Scott says in her book 'If Life Is A Game, These Are The Rules', “Rule Four – Lessons are repeated until learned. What manifest as problems and challenges, irritations and frustrations are lessons - they will repeat until you see them as such and learn from them.” So that’s a bit of fruit for thought..

Lastly, I find myself musing over why sometimes, we hold on so desperately to mementos from the past – things that certain people have given to us – not because we like these things, but because of the sentimental value they possess for us… while it is understandable to do so for people who may no longer be with us (on Earth), to reminisce over the times we had with someone who has since moved on into other relationships just seems so.. I don’t know… regressive.. then again, that’s MY opinion..

Oh well, so much for musings.. Go watch the show if you can ‘cos it’s ending soon – Jim Carrey isn’t at all the annoying rubber-faced Jim Carrey you normally see.. He and Kate Winslet are brilliant in this show..

How to make a hweeling

Ingredients: 3 parts intelligence 5 parts crazyiness 1 part beauty

Method: Stir together in a glass tumbler with a salted rim. Add a little wisdom if desired!

Username:

Personality cocktail from Go-Quiz.com

3 Fat Virgins Unassembled
Produced by Buds Youth Theatre
Written by Ovidia Yu



Performance Venue: The Play Den at The Arts House (1, Old Parliament Lane)

Performance Dates: 16 July 2004 (8pm), 17 July 2004 (3.30pm & 8pm), 18 July 2004 (3.30pm)

Ticket price: $25 & $20 (student concession) [plus $1 handling fee]

Tickets available from The Arts House Box Office at The Old Parliament House
By Phone: 6332 6919
By Fax: 6334 9695
By Email: tickets@toph.com.sg
Website: http://theartshouse.com.sg

General enquiries: budsyouththeatre@yahoo.com.sg

Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind

i watched this and i loved it.



How happy is the blameless Vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd.

— Alexander Pope

i'll blog more tomorrow..

today's trivials

i bumped into one of my (ex)students at the bus stop today while i was going out wearing this:

instinctively, i turned away before she could see me and pretended to sms, thinking to myself "Oh no! cannot let her see her JC teacher wearing a bright orange tee with three monkeys!"

after managing to escape onto an SBS bus that came along the following minute, I started thinking to myself, "eh? what's the big deal?"

it's funny (and certainly tragic) how becoming a teacher has a way of making me rather self-conscious, sometimes to the point of being rather fearful.. sigh.. if I saw my teacher in the past wearing a t-shirt like this, i'll actually think she was rather funky, eh?

hahaha.. oh well.. what to do...

enjoyed an unexpectedly eventful evening at Arab St, lazing at the supercrowded (and everything also "sold out" cos very famous) Cafe Le Caire, eating yummy braised lamb and lamb kebabs with bismati rice, downed with iced mint teas and ending off with relaxed and heavenly puffs of shisha (water pipe with apple-flavoured tobacco)..

as it was Arab Heritage Week (which wasn't really the original reason why we were there - so we were very lucky indeed), we were treated to some fine Middle Eastern live music from Egypt and endless belly-dancing by voluptuous women with thick folds in the middle, jiggling their stuff..

how fun.

new toys

my sis just bought Pingu and Pinga to add to our collection of stuffed dolls...



aren't they the cutest things in the world??

haha.. i love stuffed toys... Pingu has his own website here and will be at Marina Square between 12 and 20th June at 3 and 7 pm.

just found some time to upload some of my pics from Sikkim - take a look - i was inspired after watching the movie "Travellers and Magicians" a couple of week ago.. it was filmed in the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, which looks every bit like Sikkim..

Shangrila..

my bangkok trip

traffic bottlenecks, calf-deep flashfloods and sweltering weather aside, bangkok is beginning to look like a really great city to live in.. at least for a while..

thai folks are in general gentle and friendly, and definitely a lot more relaxed than the typical Singaporean, the food is almost always cheap and delicious (as long as you don't mind the occasional overdose of MSG), booze of all kinds is plentiful and impossibly affordable, the mix of weekend street markets and upmarket shopping areas continually and reliably provide that heavenly shopping experience that singaporeans are known to visit bangkok (almost exclusively) for.. thai traditional and foot massages go for S$10 for a full hour.. and now they have a nice skytrain that looks almost entirely like the MRT before we had ezlink (down to the gantry and signages)!

in short, i had fun.. and i got to meet up with an old friend and her hubby, which is always really nice.. :)



click here to see these pics in details (2 pages)..

the chatuchak weekend market continues to amaze, albeit in an often very distressing way - at the pet section, we saw, amongst others, the following being sold: cats, dogs, rabbits, box turtles, tarantulas, hundreds of clownfishes, squirrels, koi, sharks (yes, sharks - i've got a picture there), mongoose, green tree snakes, cobras, chinchillas, fishes of all sorts in tiny air-filled plastic bags.. it was a whole zoo there..

i'll see if i can find time to upload a few more in time to come (no promises.. very busy..)

the transit of venus

i witnessed the "once every lifetime" transit of Venus across the sun today, "a sight that no one on Earth had ever seen before"..

(see news here)

it looked like this when i peered through the telescope set up by the students of the astronomy club in school..



i feel so lucky..

Minolta Prod 20's

in a fit of unexplained madness (quite unlike me), i bought this supposedly limited-edition compact Minolta camera just now for a little sum..



it's not incredibly expensive but now i've got another camera in hand! :O

i'm mad.. i'm truly camera mad.. i should be restrained... help me!!!

oh well.. if you want to know more about this camera, this site says it best:

The camera which Minolta which rode condition in outdated boom of eighties limits sells. The Minolta PROD 20's, being conscious of the styling of the European-American of 20 age camera, those which were designed it seems. With limitation sale only of the Japanese country, there is no with something and design likes and purchases. Those which with the dead stock item are displayed at the store it seems. Because it is limitation sale, in world 20000 unit limited items.
As for the body nickel chrome plating is administered with the brass make, but contents are simply the compact camera. The electric battery is exchanged, it has become L type Leica faked that you remove the bottom cover entirely. Price of that time: 48,000 Yen / $400.00us case attachment . c1990/8

hahahaha.. don't u love weird English..

My True Nature?

Your True Nature by llScorpiusll
Username
The quality that most appeals to you:	Intelligence
In a survival situation, you:	Act crazy as a diversion
Your hidden talent is:	A beautiful mind
Your gift is:	An iron constitution
In groups, you:	Perfer to act as security
Your best quality is:	Your insightfulness
Your weakness is:	Your lack of focus
Created with the ORIGINAL MemeGen!

umm.. what do YOU think?..

::: Visions & Illusions - Reconstruction of a City :::



have been busying myself helping a good friend and his two kakis set up their ultracool but rather large art-architecture installation piece on the third floor of 21 Tanjong Pagar over the past 2 days or so.. it's always so fun to be involved in a creative endeavour and to mingle with people with these crazy and abstract ideas.. haha..

their work is part of this Singapore Arts Festival visual arts exhibition "> Visions & Illusions - Reconstruction of a City" which is held at two places: 21 Tanjong Pagar, which is just opposite Maxwell Market, above Ya Kun Toast (yum yum) as well as the St James Power Station near WTC (ala Tate Modern of London), involving some 50 artists.

this is sciSKEW collaborative's idea:



read about it here.. Inhabitations: NYC-SIN

i think the whole exhibition's quite cool. don't miss it! :)

H	Healthy
W	Wild
E	Extreme
E	Earthy
L	Lively
I	Irresistible
N	Naive
G	Great

Name / Username:

Name Acronym Generator from Go-Quiz.com

education

The Day After Tomorrow

we walked out of the cinema last night strangely "spooked" by the show "THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW"...

even though the scenes of devastation and mass destruction were pretty far-fetched (computer graphics lah!), and it is definitely not the first time we see Hollywood wiping out large pieces of the world in incredibly short periods of time - think Godzilla and King Kong -(and surely NOT the first time we see the rest of the world - especially the Asian/ME/African/SAm developing world - looking to the US for solution and wisdom like it's some kind of Saviour - bleah!), the effects were pretty darn good... maybe the best i've seen thus far.. very gripping i have to admit..



i think this show was supposed to trigger us to think about what we would do if the "world were to end tomorrow - or the day after tomorrow?".. but for me at least, i didn't feel the effect of it at all (neither did my sis, who watched it on the same day).. maybe cos this is Hollywood after all and all Hollywood shows have happy endings.. eh? ..haha.. still, it's interesting that they did manage to highlight some real environmental issues, enough to make me and my sis come home to surf the web to read about global warming and becoming carbon neutral citizens..



umm.. how's that gonna reconcile with my desire to buy a car?.. how many trees do i have to plant? or do i have to build a windmill??

The Black-and-White World

got this bit of gem from Robert Kiyosaki's "Rich Kid Smart Kid" ... i don't know if the story is true or not (as many people have sceptically questioned everything he's written) and it's rather long but i love how much this story strikes a chord with me on what "real intelligence" really is:

"Lessons from Mom and Dad

The number of single-parent families I see today concerns me. Having both a mom and a dad as teachers was important in my development. For example, I was bigger and heavier than most kids, and my mom was always afraid that I would use my size advantage and become a bully. So she really stressed that I develop what people today would call "my feminine side." As I said, she was a very kind, loving person, and she wanted me to also be kind and loving. And I was. One day I came home from the first grade with my report card, and on it the teacher had written, "Robert needs to learn to assert himself more. He reminds me of Ferdinand the Bull [from the story about a big bull that instead of fighting the matador sat down in the ring and smelled the flowers the fans were throwing...coincidentally one of my mom's favorite bedtime stories for me]. All the other boys pick on him and push him around, although Robert is so much bigger than they are."

When my mom read the report card, she was thrilled. When my dad came home and read the same report card, he turned into a raging bull, and not one that smelled the flowers. "What do you mean the other boys push you around? Why do you let them push you around? Are you turning into a wimp?" he said, noticing the comment about my behavior rather than my grades. When I explained to him that I was just listening to Mom's instructions, my dad turned to my mom and said, "Little boys are bullies. Learning how to deal with bullies is important for all kids to learn. If they do not learn how to deal with bullies early in life, they often grow up allowing themselves to be bullied as adults. Learning to be kind is one way of dealing with bullies, but so is pushing back, if and when kindness does not work."

Turning to me, my dad asked, 'And how do you feel when the other boys pick on you?"

Bursting into tears, I said, "I feel terrible. I feel helpless and afraid. I don't want to go to school. I want to fight back, but I also want to be a good boy and do what you and Mom want me to do. I hate being called 'fatty' and 'Dumbo' and being pushed around. What I hate most is just standing there and taking it. I do feel like I am a sissy and a wimp. Even the girls laugh at me because I just stand there and cry."

My dad turned to my mom and glared at her for a moment, letting her know that he did not like what I was learning. "So what do you want to do?" he asked.

"I'd like to hit back," I said. "I know I can beat them. They're just little punks who pick on people, and they like picking on me because I am the biggest in my class. Everyone says don't hit them because I am bigger, but I just hate standing there and taking it. I wish I could do something. They know I won't do anything, so they just keep picking on me in front of everyone else. I'd love to just grab them and punch their lights out."

"Well, don't hit them," my dad said quietly. "But you let them know in whatever way you can that you are not going to be picked on anymore. You are learning a very important lesson in self-respect right now and standing up for your rights. Just don't hit them. Use your mind to find a way to let them know that you will not be picked on anymore."

My crying stopped. I felt much better as I wiped my eyes and found some courage and self-esteem reentering my body. I was now ready to go back to school.

The next day my mom and my dad were called to my school. The teacher and the school principal were very upset. As my mom and dad entered the room, I was sitting in a chair in the corner, splattered with mud. "What happened?" my dad asked as he took his seat.

"Well, I can't say that the boys did not have it coming to them," said the teacher. "But after I wrote you the note on Robert's report card, I knew something would change."

"Did he hit them?" my dad asked with great concern.

"No, he didn't," said the principal. "I watched the whole thing. The boys began teasing him. But this time, Robert asked them to stop instead of just standing there and taking it . . . yet they continued. He patiently asked them to stop three different times, and they just taunted him more. Suddenly Robert went back into the classroom, grabbed the boys' lunch pails, and emptied them into that big mud puddle. As I rushed over from across the lawn, the boys then attacked Robert. They started hitting him, but he did not hit back."

"What did he do?" my dad asked.

"Before I could get there to break it up, Robert grabbed the two boys and pushed them into the same mud puddle. And that is how he got splattered with mud. I sent the other boys home to change their clothes because they were soaking wet."

"But I didn't hit them," I said from my corner.

My dad glared at me, put his index finger over his lips indicating that I should shut up, then turned back to the principal and teacher and said, "We will take care of this at home."

The principal and the teacher nodded their heads as the teacher said, "I'm glad I was witness to the whole event developing over the past two months. If I had not known the history leading up to the mud puddle event, I would have reprimanded only Robert. But you may rest assured that I will be having the parents and the other two boys in for counseling also. I do not condone throwing the boys and their lunches into the mud, but I hope now we will see an end to this bullying that has been going on between the boys."

The next day there was a meeting between the two boys and me. We discussed our differences and shook hands. At recess that day, other kids came up to me and shook my hand and patted me on the back. They were congratulating me for standing up to the two bullies who were also picking on them. I thanked them for their congratulations but also said to them, "You should learn to fight your own fights. If you don't, you will go through life being a coward, letting the bullies of the world push you around." My dad would have been proud hearing me repeat his original lecture to me. After that day, the first grade was much more pleasant. I had gained some valuable self-esteem, I gained respect from my class, and the prettiest girl in my class became my girlfriend. But what was more interesting was that the two bullies eventually became my friends. I learned to bring peace by being strong rather than allowing terror and fear to persist because I was weak.

Over the next week, I learned several valuable life lessons from both my mom and dad from this mud puddle incident. The mud puddle incident was a hot topic of discussion at dinner. I learned that in life there is not a right answer or a wrong answer. I learned that in life we tend to make choices, and each choice has a consequence. If we do not like our choice and consequence, then we should look for a new choice with a new consequence. From this mud puddle incident, I learned the importance of being both kind and loving from my mom and being strong and prepared to fight back from my dad. I learned that too much of one or the other, or only one and not the other, can be self-limiting. Just as too much water can drown a plant dying of thirst, we humans in our behavior can often swing too far in one direction or the other. As my dad said the night we got back from the principal's office, "Many people live in a black-and-white world or a right-and-wrong world. Many people would have advised you, 'Never push back,' and still others would have said, 'Push back.' But the key to being successful in life is this: If you must push back, you must know exactly how hard to push back. Knowing exactly how hard to push requires much more intelligence than simply saying, 'Don't push back,' or, 'Push back.'"

My dad would often say, "True intelligence is knowing what is appropriate rather than what is simply right or wrong." As a six-year-old boy, I learned from my mom that I needed to be kind and gentle...but I also learned that I could be too kind and gentle. From my dad I learned to be strong, but I also learned I need to be intelligent and appropriate with my strength. I have often said that a coin has two sides. I have never seen a one-sided coin. But all too often we forget that fact. We often think the side we are on is the only side or the right side. When we do that, we may be smart, we may know our facts, but we also may be limiting our intelligence.

One of my teachers once said, "God gave us a right foot and a left foot. God did not give us a right foot and a wrong foot. Humans make progress by first making a mistake to the right and then making a mistake to the left. People who think they must always be right are like people with only a right foot. They think they are making progress, but they usually wind up going in circles."

I think as a society we need to be more intelligent with our strengths and our weaknesses. We need to learn to operate more intelligently from our feminine side as well as our masculine side. I remember when I was angry with another guy at school back in the 1960s, we would occasionally go behind the gym and fight with our fists. After one or two punches were thrown, we would begin to wrestle and get tired, and then the fight would be over. The worst that ever happened was an occasional torn shirt or bloody nose. We often became friends after the fight was over. Today kids get angry, start thinking in the less intelligent "right and wrong" thinking, break out their guns, and shoot each other...and that goes for both boys and girls. We may be in the Information Age and kids may be more "worldly" than their parents, but we could all learn to be more intelligent with our information and our emotions. As I said, we need to learn from both our moms and our dads, because with so much more information, we need to become more intelligent."

Am Was I Evil?

I am was 70% evil.




"I'm getting there. I haven't done all the damage I could do but I've done quite a bit. I'm just over the border into the Evil Zone."

Are you evil? find out at Hilowitz.com

umm... actually, i think i was pretty darn evil in the past.. scary thing is, i was actually quite honest in this test.. grr... but i'm a lot better now.. really...

*imagine me with the innocent look of the kitty in Shrek 2*

.. hahahah... but yes, all thanks to God I'm a much better person now.. :).. i'm sorry if you were one of those people hurt by my past evilness.. but i'm sure you've forgiven me by now..

The Spirit of Olympism

two days ago, i attended this long and boring talk in school and a mention was made about the "Spirit of Olympism".. since the Olympics are coming, I decided to read up a little about this rather abstract concept and stumbled upon, serendipitously, this wonderful website..

Olympic Spirit

it suddenly dawned on me that ALL that i ever believed in, in terms of personal achievement, global peace, and a world where all can work together and play together in brotherhood can actually be summed up in the single term "Spirit of Olympism"!

Essentially, the Olympic Spirit encompasses:

- the desire to better oneself physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually, i.e. individual efforts to conquer distance, time, physics, and self-defeating attitudes.

- the spirit of cooperation, understanding, and unity, i.e. the promotion of world peace, consisting of learning to respect one another's unique qualities, to work for another's success, to partake of one another's wisdom, and to aspire to live together in harmony as members of the human family.

In Detail:

What is Olympism?
Olympism, though new to many, was coined by the originator of the modern Olympic Games, French educator, Baron Pierre de Coubertin (1863-1937):

"Olympism is not a system; it is a state of mind.
It can permeate a wide variety of modes of expression
and no single race or era can claim to have a monopoly on it.

More than the Games.
Baron de Coubertin's dream was to create in the youth of the world a personal attitude of self worth and dignity that would extend far beyond the formal Olympic Games themselves. His consuming thought was to celebrate the health, values, and athletic talent of youth, to honor the individual athlete, and to unite the communities of the world in peace. It was his hope that through sport, the youth of the world would become better acquainted with the nations and peoples of other countries without regard to sex, race, color, or religious beliefs. Ultimately, this harmonious discipline of body, mind, and spirit helps each person to understand, as Socrates said, "His chief and proper concern: Knowledge of himself and the right way to live."

True Competition.
A second attribute of Olympism is the development the ability to play fair as one plays for fun. As in the ancient Games, animosity and hatred are put aside during the Olympic Games as individual athletes compete against themselves to excel for the pride of their nation.

The Ideals of Olympism.
Baron de Coubertin summarized the Spirit of Olympism in five ideals which were established as a part of the first modern Olympic Games held in 1896. These goals continue to shape the Spirit of Olympism today:
- To help develop better citizens through the building of character that accompanies participation in amateur sports.
- To demonstrate the principles of fair play and good sportsmanship.
- To stimulate interest in fine arts through exhibitions, concerts and demonstrations during the games, and in so doing contribute to a well-rounded life.
- To teach that sports are played for fun and enjoyment.
- To create international friendship and good will that would lead to a happier and more peaceful world.

isn't this just so wonderful? :).. or maybe i'm a dreamer.. if so, yes, i dream of World Peace and i believe that one day, we might just have it.. hopefully in MY lifetime..... i wonder if they will uphold the spirit of "ekecheiria", "the sacred truce" this year...

which happy bunny are you?



congratulations. you are the "you smell like
butt" bunny. you're brutally honest and
always say whats on your mind.

brought to you by Quizilla

Yann Martel's Life of Pi

what a marvellous book!

Life of Pi



read it - you owe it to yourself to expand your imagination and the way you view the mysteries of life, God and all there is to our existence....

"Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced."
— Soren Kierkegaard

"The most beautiful thing that we can experience is the mysterious."
— Albert Einstein

as a friend of mine puts it quite aptly.. "This book will make you believe in God".. :p

Quotes to Encourage A Disheartened Soul

to my dearest friends who are downhearted and feeling sad... this is for you.. it is long but let that be a measure of how much i care for you..

"Attitude is everything. It motivates action, which increases productivity and improves morale, which perpetuates a positive attitude." - Robert Urich

"We can change the world when we change ourselves. And the energy of our consciousness, like the energy of all light, continues into the eternity. When there is light in the soul there will be beauty in the person. When there is beauty in the person there will be harmony in the home. When there is harmony in the home there will order in the nation. When there is order in the nation there will be peace in the world." - Chinese Proverb

No matter who says what, you should accept it with a smile and do your own work. - Mother Teresa

We can often do more for other men by trying to correct our own faults than by trying to correct theirs. - -- Francois Fenelon

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. - -- Eleanor Roosevelt

You can have anything you want -- if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, do anything you set out to accomplish if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose. - Abraham Lincoln

Remember that if the opportunities for great deeds should never come, the opportunities for good deeds are renewed day by day. The thing for us to long for is the goodness, not the glory.
- F.W. Faber

Blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting. - Elizabeth Bibesco

I searched through rebellion, drugs, diets, mysticism, religions, intellectualism and much more, only to begin to find that truth is basically simple - and feels good, clean and right. - Chick Corea

The measure of a man is what happens when nothing works and you got the guts to go on. - Tex Cobb, boxer and actor

When you cannot make up your mind which of two evenly balanced courses of action you should take - choose the bolder. - W.J. Slim

To do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, to contemplate the beautiful thing: that is enough for one man's life. - T.S. Eliot

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen. - Sir Winston Churchill

Nature does not bestow virtue; to be good is an art. - Seneca

When a work lifts your spirits and inspires bold and noble thoughts in you, do not look for any other standard to judge by: the work is good, the product of a master craftsman. - -- La Bruyere

My centre is giving way, my right is in retreat; situation excellent. I shall attack. - Marshall Ferdinand Foch (1851-1929), supreme commander of allied forces in 1918.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. - American poet Robert Frost (1875-1963)

I believe with all my heart that civilization has produced nothing finer than a man or woman who thinks and practices true tolerance. - -- Frank Knox

We are fallible. We certainly haven't attained perfection. But we can strive for it, and the virtue is in the striving. - Carlos P. Romulo

The best portion of a good man's life is the little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love. - William Wordsworth

Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently. - Henry Ford

Because of my title I was the first to enter here. I shall be the last to go out. - Duchesse d'Alencon, refusing help during a fire

A friend is one who sees through you and still enjoys the view. - Wilma Askinas

Never mind what others do; do better than yourself, beat your own record from day to day, and you are a success. - William J. H. Boetcker

Physical courage, which despises all danger, will make a man brave in one way; and moral courage, which despises all opinion, will make a man brave in another. - -- Charles Caleb Colton

A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner. - English proverb

Most true happiness comes from one's inner life, from the disposition of the mind and soul. Admittedly, a good inner life is hard to achieve, especially in these trying times. It takes reflection and contemplation and self-discipline. - W. L. Shirer

Our real duty is always found running in the direction of our worthiest desires. - Randolph Bourne

Who is the happiest of men? He who values the merits of others, and in their pleasure takes joy, even as though t'were his own. - Johann von Goethe

No man is a failure who is enjoying life. - William Feather

We come into this world crying while all around us are smiling. May we so live that we go out of this world smiling while everybody around us is weeping. - - Persian proverb

Trials, temptations, disappointments -- all these are helps instead of hindrances, if one uses them rightly. They not only test the fibre of a character, but strengthen it. Every conquered temptation represents a new fund of moral energy. Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before. - James Buckham

Man has been endowed with reason, with the power to create, so that he can add to what he's been given. - Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) Russian dramatist and writer

The various religions are like different roads converging on the same point. What difference does it make if we follow different routes, provided we arrive at the same destination. - -- Mahatma Gandhi

The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials. - -- Chinese proverb

The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That's real glory. That's the essence of it. - -- Vince Lombardi

Simplicity of character is the natural result of profound thought.

Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control. These three alone lead to sovereign power. - Lord Alfred Tennyson

To live in the presence of great truths and eternal laws, to be led by permanent ideals - that is what keeps a man patient when the world ignores him, and calm and unspoiled when the world praises him. - Honore De Balzac

When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us. - Helen Keller

Some day, in years to come, you will be wrestling with the great temptation, or trembling under the great sorrow of your life. But the real struggle is here, now, in these quiet weeks. Now it is being decided whether, in the day of your supreme sorrow or temptation, you shall miserably fail or gloriously conquer. Character cannot be made except by a steady, long continued process. - -- Phillips Brooks

That's what it takes to be a hero, a little gem of innocence inside you that makes you want to believe that there still exists a right and wrong, that decency will somehow triumph in the end. - --Lise Hand, describing Irish journalist Veronica Guerin, who was killed as a result of her investigations of Irish organized crime.

I find that it is not the circumstances in which we are placed, but the spirit in which we face them, that constitutes our comfort. - Elizabeth T. King

No pleasure philosophy, no sensuality, no place nor power, no material success can for a moment give such inner satisfaction as the sense of living for good purposes, for maintenance of integrity, for the preservation of self-approval. - Minot Simons

Our greatest happiness in life does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits. - Thomas Jefferson

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children...to leave the world a better place...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

You can stand tall without standing on someone. You can be a victor without having victims. - Harriet Woods

The nobler sort of man emphasizes the good qualities in others, and does not accentuate the bad. The inferior does. - Confucius

Enjoyment is not a goal, it is a feeling that accompanies important ongoing activity. - Paul Goodman

A day dawns, quite like other days; in it, a single hour comes, quite like other hours; but in that day and in that hour the chance of a lifetime faces us. - Maltbie Babcock

Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself - and be lenient to everybody else. - - Henry Ward Beecher

Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame. - Alexander Pope

The beauty of the soul shines out when a man bears with composure one heavy mischance after another, not because he does not feel them, but because he is a man of high and heroic temper. - Aristotle

The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become. - Charles Du Bos

Class is an aura of confidence that is being sure without being cocky. Class has nothing to do with money. Class never runs scared. It is self-discipline and self-knowledge. It's the sure footedness that comes with having proved you can meet life. - Ann Landers

When we associate with the virtuous we form ourselves in imitation of their virtues, or at least lose, every day, something of our faults. - Agapet

Nothing is ever lost by courtesy. It is the cheapest of pleasures, costs nothing, and conveys much. - Erastus Wiman

Adversity is the trial of principle. Without it, a man hardly knows whether he is honest or not. - Henry Fielding

We can often do more for other men by trying to correct our own faults than by trying to correct theirs. - Francois Fenelon

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. - William Morrow

Some day, in years to come, you will be wrestling with the great temptation, or trembling under the great sorrow of your life. But the real struggle is here, now, in these quiet weeks. Now it is being decided whether, in the day of your supreme sorrow or temptation, you shall miserably fail or gloriously conquer. Character cannot be made except by a steady, long continued process. - Phillips Brooks

Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a heaven for? - Robert Browning

‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death. - Thomas Paine

a parting gift that you leave with malice will follow you through life

Man's greatest actions are performed in minor struggles. Life, misfortune, isolation, abandonment and poverty are battlefields which have their heroes - obscure heroes who are at times greater than illustrious heroes. - Victor Hugo

of nude bodies and tissue chopes

Kai and I had a blast yesterday at Studio Miu (in Taka 4th floor) charcoal sketching a rather fine male specimen ... erhm.. haha.. for those a little disappointed at the lack of detail on the ... er.. private parts.. trust me, it's darn difficult to draw it when the model is looking right straight at you.. haha.. oh well.. guess you just have to imagine it?? hahahaha



it's great connecting with my creative side again..:).. sometimes, with all the rigours and demands of daily life, finding that little bit of time to nurture what little artistic talent we have becomes so difficult.. a fantastic 3 hours just letting my hand, grasping a sticklike piece of willow charcoal, glide intuitively over sheet after sheet of newsprint paper, under the wondrous guidance of master artist Teguh Ostenrik.. i cannot conceive of greater joy.. :)..

Update: Just a point of interest.. is anyone out there willing to volunteer to pose for my friend and I to sketch?? We are desperate for more practice!! hahahaha..

on another note, here's an evidence of tissue choping* i witnessed at Ikea yesterday while I was there for kopi...



according to my friend, this is a purely singaporean phenomenon.. how embarrassing.. :|... i almost took a piece to wipe my mouth.. haha..

*chope - (verb) local slang meaning "to reserve". Example: It's free seating at the concert, we need to get there early to chope seats for our group.

quote of the day

"If you think back & replay your year...
If it doesn't bring you tears,
either of joy or sadness...
Consider it wasted."

(From the TV series, Ally McBeal)

life's myriad possibilities

dad suggested that i take up Taichi (Yang style) at the community centre.

mum thinks i should join her and her "auntie" friends for line dancing (gulp!.. imagine cowboy hats and leather boots.. yeeehah!)

kai says we should join the figure sketching classes at Studio Miu at Taka, taught by famous Indonesian sculptor Teguh Ostenrik... we will sketch.. nudes!! :D ..

another good pal says i should join either the ultra cool Exotic Dancing (for ladies only) or Salsa lessons at Attitude Dance Studio that she attended recently.. Very popular classes taught by this very sexy friend of mine - Linna - who appeared in the Sunday Times recently! I've got such cool friends.. erhmmm.. :p

this holiday is chock full of possibilities! .. and i still have to find time to study my Spanish, work out at the gym, and spend time with people who matter to me.. :)

anyway, managed to sort out troubling eye infection (thanks to wonderful docs at Eye Clinic NUH) and straight after, i was hit by a short bout of cough-flu that seemed to have affected everyone else before that.. guess i was weakened by my string of visits to the hospital.. oh well, thank God my health has recovered more or less.. my advice to everyone?

Drink more water and eat more fruits... :p



Life is good.. :) I feel so blessed.. i can't help but smile..

Which Earth Angel Are You?


Elemental

Often described as "a breath of fresh air", that my friend is exactly what you are. Your soul is of the powerful and ethereal family of the elemental spirits. With your impish charm and striking sense of humor and optimisim, you are constantly surrounded by friends and admirers, many of whom watch you from afar, beguiled by your magnetic personality and wit, but too shy to approach you. People of your origin often find themselves in the entertainment industry, as they love to make people laugh and feel better about life. You are most likely fascinated by the origin of fairies, elves and other magical beings, and feel a sense of inexplicable clarity when you watch such movies as Harry Potter and Lord Of The Rings. You live for your dreams and most likely your closest friends are other Elementals and Wise Ones, the reincarnated witches and wizards you worked alongside in a past life. You love animals and nature and are greatly angered at man's abuse of it. You hide your anguish behind a beautiful smile and dazzling eyes. Don't let the world's drudgery weigh your wings down, as the human race is counting on you for its sense of morale and hope, which is forever being tested. Stay true to yourself, and one day it will all come together.

how flattering..

brought to you by Quizilla (via Kai)

HiFly Carnival giant inflatables..

Timewasting Quiz (from someone’s blog)

1: Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, find line 4. Write down what it says:
telling others how to succeed. But along with my partners, in (from the book “A Millionaire’s Notebook: How Ordinary People Can Achieve Extraordinary Success)

2: Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What do you touch first?
My Cambridge Soundworks speaker.

3: What is the last thing you watched on TV?
Some Korean drama thing my mum was watching… not very interesting..

4: WITHOUT LOOKING, guess what time it is:
12.00 pm

5: Now look at the clock, what is the actual time?:
11.55 am. I have psychic perception!!

6: With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?:
The sound of the fan.. it’s been a hot day..

7: When did you last step outside? what were you doing?
Slightly before 9am. I went to the hospital to check out my eye (again..)… stupid infection is back.. grrr.. but I’m positive this time.. it’s not getting better but it certainly isn’t getting worse..

8: Before you came to this website, what did you look at?
ST Interactive.

9: What are you wearing?
”Home clothes”: a 2001 Terry Fox Run t-shirt and beach shorts… relaxed..

10: Did you dream last night?
No.. I reckon I was so comatose from fatigue my capacity to dream failed on me.. .

11: When did you last laugh?
About 5 minutes ago… fooling around with my sister and a stuffed toy.. haha… I laugh all the time..

12: What is on the walls of the room you are in?
A gouache on cheese cloth painting by some Chinese artist I bought a couple of years back from Raffles City

13: Seen anything weird lately?
Yes, yam mochis. My sis just gave one to me. It’s quite nice.

14: What do you think of this quiz?
I think it’s silly and timewasting.

15: What is the last film you saw?
Facing Window, by Ferzen Ozpetek.

16: If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy first?
A sea-facing studio apartment. Then I’ll buy a Peugeot 206 to park below it.

17: Tell me something about you that I don't know:
Sometimes, I’m just pretending to be smart when I’m really not.. haha...

18: If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?
I’ll make everyone more tolerant and accepting of others' differences.

19: Do you like to dance?
Yes… but I’m not that good..

20: George Bush:
I don’t like him. He is belligerent.

21: Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?
umm… I don’t know... probably something really unusual but not embarrassing

21: Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?
umm… I don’t know too...

22: Would you ever consider living abroad?
definitely… so far, the places I like are London, Australia, Brazil.. even Japan.. umm.. probably not the US.. I don’t’ mind trying out China…

23: What is the name of your closest neighbour?
actually, I don’t know my neighbours at all though we smile politely at each other every time we happen to synchronise opening our front doors..

Fool.com: I Am Beyond Super Sized

"Spurlock goes berserk, eating nothing but McDonald's food for 30 days straight, and apparently he paid the price, putting on 25 pounds and generally doing some bad things to his body. That sounds plausible, but who in their right mind would eat cheeseburgers every day for a month? We have to take a little personal responsibility for our actions. If we don't, there's a price to pay for living high off the Quarter-Pounder. We put on weight, our arteries harden, we develop heart disease. Give McDonald's a break. Its biggest crime is giving the people what they want. "

(read the rest of the article*)

writer Bob Bobala is convinced that the documentary film by Morgan Spurlock, Super Size Me, decrying the evils of McDonald's, will not cause the public to react negatively to the company - Afterall, who doesn't know fastfood isn't exactly what you will call a healthy diet??

sometimes, i really can't help but think that the Americans come across looking rather silly ....

*from Motley Fool - one of my all time fave sites for investing stuff, aimed at the man/woman-in-the-street... go check it out, fren.. :)

Facing Window (La Finestra di Fronte)

a line from the movie by director Ferzen Ozpetek said something like...

"If you want a better world, you must demand it..
You must not just dream of it.."

i could write tonnes about this lovely Italian movie but i'll just say that this one line stuck with me..

life.. to fill it with regrets?.. or hopes?.. or dreams?...

... how much would it take for me to achieve a better world.. for myself...? do i see a better world with less hate, suffering, selfishness and senseless discrimination...? more tolerance, openness..?

do YOU see a better world? what does YOUR better world look like?

the holidays beckon...

grrr.... my somewhat gruelling (i don't exaggerate..) ten weeks of teaching practice has finally come to an end..!!

ten weeks of lesson planning, observations, reflections and waking up early to take pictures of stunning sunrises (plural?) before rushing to school.... ten weeks of singing the National Anthem and saying the National Pledge... ten weeks of mingling with angsty 17, 18 year olds in the throes of growing up and entering the adult world but who are not quite there yet ... ten weeks of canteen food... ten weeks of chalk dust and whiteboard marker stained hands...

for now, we shall not see anymore lovely sunrise at hweeling.blogspot.com for a while... waking up early will now mean waking up at 7am at most... hopefully, we can get to see more lovely sunsets overlooking even more lovely places instead.... heh heh.. i'm dreaming of a nice holiday... just sitting there, with a book, good company, a drink by my side, having good conversations... ok, you get the drift.. :) ... hopefully, i can use this month to brush up on some language skills, my photography, do some sketching or painting, start working on putting my India photo album together into something decent, work out at the gym....

got two classes of my students to give me written feedback today and was surprised most actually found me ok.. phew.. ok, not that i was perfect.. got a bunch of constructive feedback that i must definitely work on.. like talking a bit too fast.. and not being entirely clear in my explanations.. . i've actually been told by my supervisor that i ask rhetorical questions in class.. Rhetorical questions?? haha... imagine being asked a rhetorical question by your teacher who then pauses, stares at you and expects an answer.. hahaha..

but a few actually like my voice.. haha.. erhm... :).. that's quite a compliment.. shows that at least i don't sound like some comic character.. or have a particularly piercing or jarring voice... a few find me too serious and firm, a few find me too lax.. umm...

will sit at a cafe and ponder on what they say..

weekend




every weekend should be this fun...

more blog news..

Yahoo! News - Blog-Tracking May Gain Ground Among U.S. Intelligence Officials

golden homes



i saw this sight from my window yesterday at around 5pm and couldn't resist taking a couple of shots with my digital cam.. a few minutes later, it poured cats and dogs for a good two hours or so.. the evening was nice and cool and the smell of rain lingered on till late into the night.. i love the smell of the air after a rain..

can't wait for this week to come to an end.. next week will be the final week of my teaching practice at a real educational institution in singapore, with real students, real teachers and real classroom problems.. the end of a part fun part stress part agony experience and then i can look forward to another short holiday before we're finally told our destination for the next three years..

these two weeks have been a spinning mix of excitement, uncertainties, heart-stopping highs, revelations, friendships and all things that make life challenging but meaningful...

i'm looking forward to this weekend.

the power of visualisation



i want this car i want this car i want this car....

sunrise 28 apr 2004



i didn't do this morning's sunrise justice.. was rushing out of the house and decided to take just a few cursory shots... came back just now to look at the pics and could only find one decent one.. which is the one i just posted above...

it was A LOT more beautiful than what you see here...

nonetheless, this is for my friend who's feeling stressed.. cheer up.. :) ... the weekend is almost here... :)!!

China targets blogs in latest censorship of Internet

BEIJING: China is targeting blogs -- diary-style personal pages for Internet users -- in its latest attempt to censor the increasing popularity of the Internet in the country, according to a rights group.

Two sites hosting blogs for thousands of people -- who express their views about news, themselves or anything they want -- have been shut down by the government, the Paris-based media rights group Reporters Without Borders said.

One of the blogs, "BlogBus.com," hosted more than 15,000 blogs that have now been made inaccessible, the group said in a statement.

(see full story)

Internet censorship of blogs??.. the most deplorable form of censorship. no less.

cute

Luke Chueh's Acrylic paintings are so cute...

another rather strange site..

kill bill gates

this is amazing..

Escher's "Relativity" in LEGO

architecture in singapore

Studio Jay Dokken | Kampung

look at singapore architecture in a new way..

some of his comments (you have to click the little media button below the arrow) are sheer hysterical....

i thought people were being mean when...

they wrote, like in this blog:

"William Hung's "Inspiration"



Wow, it's bad. Really bad. Worse than you think. By reducing William Hung to a solely auditory phenomenon, Inspiration leaches all the joy in his goofiness and replaces it with sheer sonic horror. It's like listening to karaoke only you're not drunk and you're not with your friends. "

until i heard it for myself..

gulp...

i think it's a crime to put a CD like this on the market... i'm sorry if i come across really mean... trust me, i'm not normally so critical... but just don't let your kids hear any of the songs.. it may keep them up all night...

behold the cross!

moment of yolk



this morning's sunrise was a little different..

mother's day cake



check out: Obolo Original | Cake of the month 2004

a moment to treasure



when i saw the sunrise this morning, i was blown away....

i never knew i could witness a sunrise as stunning as this in my little garden city ... and from my apartment window... glancing nervously at my watch to make sure i wasn't going to be late for work, i ran to grab my digital camera and managed to snap but two shots before the sky brightened, almost in the blink of an eye..

i almost missed it!

it suddenly dawned on me that many things in Life are really like that... a moment of indecisiveness, hesitation, procrastination and the opportunity passes you by, never to be seen again.. imagine if i stood by and just wondered if i should take the picture.. after a minute or so, the whole process of decision-making would have been pointless..

so i believe in following my intuition.. my gut feel.. though i have frequently been accused of being a daredevil of sort, taking risks of all kinds, seemingly without care of consequence or repercussion, it's really only because i'm afraid of missing an opportunity which stares me in the face.. just because i was afraid... or worried about what others would think....

I believe I should live Life the way I believe..

(this stunning picture is dedicated to my new friend... happy one week anniversary! :) .... thanks for giving me the courage and reason to do so..... and thank God for all the wonder and beauty in my life... :)

dumb joke (via email) .. too good not to be shared..

A middle age woman decides to have a face lift for her birthday. She spends $5000 and feels pretty good about the results.

On her way home, she stops at a news stand to buy a newspaper. Before leaving she says to the clerk, "I hope you don't mind my asking, but how old do you think I am?"

"About 32," was the reply. "I'm exactly 47, " the woman says happily.

A little while later she goes into McDonald's and asks the counter girl the very same question.

She replies, "I guess about 29." The woman replies, "Nope, I'm 47." Now she's feeling really good about herself.

She stops in a drug store on her way down the street. She goes up to the counter to get some mints and asks the clerk this burning question. The clerk responds, "Oh , I'd say 30." Again she proudly responds, "I am 47, but thank you."

While waiting for the bus to go home, she asks an old man the same question. He replies, "Lady, I'm 78 and my eyesight is going. Although, when I was young, there was a sure way to tell how old a woman was. It sounds very forward, but it requires you to let me put my hands under your bra. Then I can tell you exactly how old you are."

They waited in silence on the empty street until curiosity got the best of her. She finally blurts out, "What the hell, go ahead." He slips both of his hands under her blouse and under her bra and begins to feel around very slowly and carefully. After a couple of minutes of this, she said, "Okay, okay,...how old am I?" He completes one last squeeze of her breasts and removes his hands and says, "Madam, you are 47." Stunned and amazed, the woman says, "That was incredible,... how did you know?"

The old man replies, "Promise you won't get mad?" "No", she said.

So he replied, "I was behind you in line at McDonald's"

will you still love me tomorrow...

this is sweet.

teaching practice is becoming more challenging by the day.. other than the endless amounts of lesson planning, there is the constant uncertainty that accompanies us whenever we step in and out of a half-dead class... sometimes, at the end of the day, we wonder if we have made a dent of a difference to anyone at all..

for a profession that is entirely people-centered, it's easier said than done to "just do our best" (something that many kind souls have been telling me to do...) after all, our results and our sense of achievement are determined almost entirely by the impact we have made on other people, not on the amount of teaching we have done in the classroom ...

these past few days have been scorchingly hot in the daytime, turning classrooms into furnaces.. sometimes, even i feel sleepy when i walk in, only to be blasted by the heat from the oven-baked walls... the kids are comatosed after hours of endless lessons and nothing seems to be effective in reviving them.. except for occasional lame jokes such as:

Q: Why did the bee cross its legs?

A: Because it couldn't find a Bee Pee (BP) station .

teaching is hard.

sunrise surprise



this morning's beautiful sunrise added a much needed touch of comfort to my rather bad day at school...

updates leh?

the explanation for the dearth of updates on my blog is simply that i've been real busy and distracted.

yep.

very distracted indeed.... :p

haha.. being a bit secretive here so bear with it..

funky pinhole cam

there's no doubt about it.. i'm constantly and abundantly blessed in those things that really matter to me.. photography, travel, career, friendships, a wonderful family and other inspirational figures in my life....

someone just lent me this fun plastic pinhole cam... see GAKKEN OTONA NO KAGAKU



now i've a new toy to play with... :) it takes normal film but requires no battery whatsoever..

i take first and then show you, ok? :p

in the meantime, look at the results of a pinhole photography experiment (called 'Emulsification') this Japanese guy did with some giant glass balls... he custom-made these giant glass globes and then coated the insides with some photo emulsion thing before covering the outside with black material and foil, leaving only a small hole at one end. He then leaves the whole glass ball out in the garden to capture the scenary.. I guess at the end, he removes the outside covering and illuminates the globes from the inside to complete these amazing creations..

the Japs are truly imaginative and creative!

The Psychology of Color - According to Dr. Max Luscher

i found this Color Preferences Reveal Your Personality test in the school computer and tried it..

here are my results...

PROBLEM UNDERLYING THE PRESENT STRESS -- Works to strengthen his (her) position and bolster his (her) self-esteem by examining his (her) own accomplishments -- and those of others -- with critical appraisal and scientific discrimination. Insists on having things clear-cut and unequivocal.

DESIRED OBJECTIVE -- Seeks an affectionate relationship, offering fulfillment and happiness. Capable of powerful emotional enthusiasm. Helpful, and willing to adapt himself (herself) if necessary to realize the bond of affection he (she) desires. Needs the same consideration and understanding from others.

CURRENT INAPPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR -- Circumstances are such that he (she) feels forced to compromise for the time being if he (she) is to avoid being cut off from affection or from full participation.

like all online personality tests, the results are unsurprisingly accurate....erhmm....

spent the long weekend doing a stock-check on my current state of existence, looking for answers and affirmations... also managed to go for a run at East Coast, went swimming twice (including once to the very exciting Jurong East Swimming Complex with best pal Kai) and work out some fresh changes to my current weekly work/play routine..

i'm ready to face this new week with a smile on my face. :) Thank God!

i already gave my best..



cool tee for guys available from New Urban Male.. heh heh..

Minolta DSLR

this is going to interest only those keen on photography but anyways...

for the longest time, Minolta die-hard loyalists like myself have been asking "When is Minolta going to introduce a DSLR?".. we've waited patiently, but ever so often we'll break down, lament how Minolta has "let us down", threaten to dump all our Minolta gear (a frightening array built up over the years) and switch to the rival brands which have come up with one after another of these pro digital cams, seemingly with little effort and at temptingly great value..

but still we hung on.... and finally.. THIS!



announced at this year's PMA Convention... due in Fall 2004.... looks so sleek..... so perfect looking... except for that ugly long row of text at the top.. grr..... why can't they just leave it as "Minolta"?? funny font too..... sigh..

so far, we don't know enough about this camera except for the bit of info released.... (see more info on sites like this one)..

"The new camera is tentatively named the Maxxum 7 Digital and it will be based on the Maxxum 7 film body (the Dynax 7 outside the U.S.). It will be a 6.0 megapixel camera with an APS sized image sensor and it will be fully compatible with the Maxxum system including all Maxxum 35mm lenses."

There is also an anti-shake technology in the camera body - not in the lenses - which allows every lens used with the camera to have this anti-shake function! Isn't that so cool? :)

Just as I was about to calculate how much I should put aside every month from now on to ready myself for the hefty purchase once the camera is launched in "Fall 2004" (i.e. Aug/Sep), I suddenly realised that there is one huge concern I didn't actually think of earlier.... considering that it is only 6 megapixels (sounds like a lot but not all that impressive once you consider how quickly technology is changing nowadays), one worries if Minolta will promptly come up with Version 2.0 no more than 6 months later,

What will happen then? ... no doubt us Minolta fans will be hopping mad again..

sigh.. to save up or not to save up? that is the question...

Remember The Cross -|---

On this day, let's remember what Jesus did for you and me....

"The Christian teaching about who crucified Christ is not that the Romans or the Jews or whatever people happened to be there did, but that you and I did, and that all human societies without exception are involved in the crucifixion of Christ. Northrop Frye's " ... this is something to keep in mind as you watch Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ... it's definitely NOT an anti-Semitic movie...

No one can truly fathom the pain and suffering Jesus experienced on the cross to redeem us. It was a divine exchange: we took His good and He took our bad. Totally unfair, but that was how much Jesus loved us.

Isaiah 53 lists this exchange.

On the cross, Jesus ............................. So that we might
was devoid of beauty .......................... have His beauty
was rejected .........................................be accepted
was a man of sorrows ..........................have joy
was despised ....................................... be esteemed
carried our sicknesses and pains ........ be healed
had no peace ....................................... have peace
bore our sins and shed His blood ......... be forgiven
did not have anybody speaking for Him before God .......... have a High Priest in heaven speaking for us forever

On the cross, God laid on Jesus the sin and filth of the whole world, and the wrath and judgement of God came upon Jesus like no other man has ever suffered or will ever suffer.

For three hours, darkness covered the earth while Jesus experienced pain and torment that was unimaginably hideous and vile when He took on His own body our sin and sicknesses. When Jesus died, God tore the heavy veil in the temple that separated man and God, thus signifying man’s eternal acceptance into His presence.

Having exhausted His wrath, God raised Jesus from the dead and He now sits at the right of God in heaven as our High Priest. The precious blood of Christ, once shed, forever settles the need for judgement of sin on man.

Now we have a permanent right standing with God, and complete access to Him to bring all our requests, big or small. He loves us with an everlasting love and we are forever His children, beloved by Him.

Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
John 1:29



(text reproduced from the new creation church website: What Jesus Has Done For You)

alone i watched the moon last night

The Purpose of Education

i picked up an old copy of Time Magazine dated Sep 11, 2002 today and on the cover was a montage of pictures and a row of text that simply read "9/11 One Year Later"

Expecting to find little else besides the special report on the Sep 11 incident, I was hence surprised to find a four-page article in the magazine on Unit 731 - the notorious biological and chemical warfare experiment lab used by the Japanese imperial army during the Second World War.

for those old enough to have caught a documentary movie several years ago of the same name ("Unit 731"), you will be familiar with the horrors of this so-called research centre, used during WWII, where Japanese scientists conducted cruel and sadistic experiments on Chinese POWs and civilians for some 13 years until they were forced to surrender in 1945. Hapless victims were frozen alive to research frostbite, burnt alive to study on human combustion, stuck into vacuum chambers until their bellies exploded, infected with plague, anthrax and cholera viruses and germs, and subjected to vivisection without anesthesia. Some even had their hearts cut out while they were fully alive. Even though i was quite young when i watched the movie with my parents, these images were indelibly and vividly etched in my mind..

many questions came to my mind at that time, and with the reading of this article, they once again resurfaced in my consciousness..

can people really be so evil?

does human evilness have any limits?

most importantly, after years of so-called "civilisation", is mankind any "better" than before? or worse?

in my radial ponderings, i started surfing the net for what is the TRUE purpose of education... after all, if this is what I am supposed to be working on at this point in my life, I should at least know there is a deeper aim (or maybe even divine purpose) to why I chose or have been chosen for this profession and not anything else...

and rather pleasantly, I chanced upon this in The Seattle Times: Martin Luther King Jr.: "The Purpose of Education "

Education must also train one for quick, resolute and effective thinking. To think incisively and to think for one's self is very difficult. We are prone to let our mental life become invaded by legions of half truths, prejudices, and propaganda...

We must remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character--that is the goal of true education. The complete education gives one not only power of concentration, but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate. The broad education will, therefore, transmit to one not only the accumulated knowledge of the race but also the accumulated experience of social living.

If we are not careful, our colleges will produce a group of close-minded, unscientific, illogical propagandists, consumed with immoral acts. Be careful, "brethren!" Be careful, teachers!

So true! Education for the purpose of developing a mind able to think on its own and a moral character able to stand for what is right.

with so much priority given to academic achievement compared to everything else in most schools now (a sad situation considering all that is being done and proposed at the governmental level to correct this), there is certainly room for worry... a developed society that is morally and socially lacking... what's the point, eh?