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"Did they come out right?"






"Don't worry, even if they didn't, I know Photoshop."






"Yea, that's what I was gonna say. Nowadays, you can do almost anything with Photoshop."







"Yea, so I'll fix it even if it doesn't."








And indeed, it didn't really turn out in the end. :( But others did. Like this one:


















And this:









A more Morpheus-Like look, because I couldn't get the proper lighting. (^^!)







And this:



A bit blur, cos he kept moving. Darn!






And what I got in return:







And my favourite:



DREAM DANGEROUSLY. How cool is that??






And now can I go all otaku?






Of cos I can. It's my blog.






AAAAAAAAHHHHHNEILGAIMAN!!!!!!!!HE SIGNED MY BOOKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NEIL GAIMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





ok, otaku fit over. :)

Indeed there has been a lot of dust gathering in this blog... (^^!) the tolls of working and blogging at the same time... *sigh* And of course the highlight of this one week being the chance to meet ONLY THE GREATEST COMIC WRITER OF ALL TIMES, MR NEIL GAIMAN HIMSELF in Kinokuniya. *mad giggly laughter*

The queues were insane by the time I managed to run down to Kino after work. When I first arrived up the escalator, I saw a bunch of people queueing already, near the foreign languages, so I followed the queue to find the end.

I walked past graphic novels.

I walked past the chinese comics.

I walked past some japanese comics before FINALLY i saw the end of it! And mind, I still had NOT seen the signing table itself!

That was at 3. I waited there with a good mystery novel, till I happened to meet Mega, who had skipped work halfway to come down. (^^!) Got her priorities right, she did. And together we queued till Slayer came as well.

And by this time, the queue had already stretched all the way to the Chinese books section. (^^!) No doubt about it, queueing IS the national pasttime. Especially for something they really, really want.

But at least...... I got my books signed....... *dreamy look*

And he's really nice in person? He'd take the time to say a few words to everyone, even though they kept rushing him for more signatures, and, and, he's really sweet, and, and,and a funny cliched thing, but he somehow seems bigger in real life? And almost Morpheus-like...

*Sigh*..................................

But damn to the Kaiser, who met him on TWO occassions and got a damn cool signature on one of his books. *hmph*

---

Already it's been my 2nd week at Neko Primary and I now only have 2 more weeks to go before going back into Nie. Has it been that fast? And I've already landed myself with a sore throat after ONE day of shouting at one particular class. Has anyone ever tried getting a class of 40 havocky boys to sit down and keep quiet? It's almost an impossible act...

Thankfully I have one thing in my mind keeping me sane: Which is the thought that I don't have to be in their class for much longer... mwahahaha... the advantages of a relief teacher means that you're usually only in their class for one day, so you don't have to care too much about trying to teach them. (^^!) I was pretty much just trying not to let TOO many of them run over me at once, while storing lessons for future usage in my mind...

Not fierce enough being one. Hmmm...

But for the time being... Must. Drink. Lots. Of. Water. *cough cough HACK!*

Here's an interesting situation that arose when I paid a visit to a friend of my parents, known here as Aunty Mok.

Glancing at the 1001 knick knacks she had around her house, [she makes my room look spotless] I noticed a basket with some small, round, chocolatey-brown things inside. I was curious as to what they were, cos they looked like some strange species of truffles to me [I donno why truffles popped to mind] so I finally asked Aunty Mok what they were.

"Oh, they're mandarin oranges!"

"What?" Total disbelief.

"Mandarin oranges, from New Year!" She took out one of the 'oranges' from the basket and held it out for me to look at. Even at closer range, it didn't look any more 'orangey', and in fact, resembled more a chocolate muffin.

"Erm, from which New Year is that?"

Turns out that if you leave the oranges alone, in about 6 months, they'll turn totally brown all over, if you're lucky enough that they didn't grow fungus instead. Then, you can peel off the skin, and leave it in boiling red bean soup. The soup is supposed to taste fantastic after that. Even when she peeled off a piece of the skin, I could smell a strong, tangy orange smell coming from it.

Hm. Would be an interesting science experiment for decomposition and then Home Econs.................. :p

Something is so wrong with my Firefox! *wails* Everytime I click on the icon, the browser doesn't load, but yet IE and MSN works... Small comfort........ *hmph*

So let me gloat: It's a Monday morning. I woke up at 10, because it's a SCHOOL holiday, and I'm getting PAID for all this.... WAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Kinda makes up for the rest of the school year where I have to wake up at 6... :p

It felt almost weird, rolling out of bed, looking at the time on my handphone, and thinking, "Hm, half the school day gone." when it was only 10 in the morning. I've almost got into the roll of things at school, and will [hopefully] be observing classes next week with 2 experienced teachers. Thankfully, both are upper primary teachers. [phew!]

The strange effect about this job is that I just don't miss DF anymore. *Collective Gasp!* Well, in a sense, yes. The moment I wake up, I'm off to the bathroom to get ready for school, and then in school, I'm too engrossed watching the kids or relief teaching [whatever little of it last week] to even think about him. After school, I come home for a while, and then I bathe and get ready for tuition. By the time my tuition ends, it's almost 10 at night.

Where got time to think about boyfriend? Hahaha... [though u can see the baggy effects of this lifestyle on my eyes. Dang...]

But in a way, it's good. This way, I don't spend all my time fantasizing, analysing, agonising over him anymore, and I have a healthy life outside of him and my incessant blogging.

But I still have time to think up this little entry one day:

---

What is love?

A while back, while Turtle and I were on the bus heading to NIE, he handed me an issue of Today.

"There's an article in there, which you MIGHT disagree with, and call me sexist or something, but I think you should read it."

A pretty bad intro, if ever I heard one, but I read the article anyway.

The article was written by a woman who'd been blissfully married to her husband of cantremember how many years, and the article was about how she attributed the success of her marriage to subservience.

The author wrote that she'd once been a hot-blooded feminist [whether she burnt her bras or not, she didn't say] till she got married. She then discovered that the key to a successful marriage [or hers, anyway] was that women had to be submissive to their husbands, to listen to them, and to support their decisions and be loyal to them in all affairs. In return, their husbands would respond to this by being more responsible spouses, seeing the weight of decisions rested on them.

Of course, in writing so, she neglected the one crucial flaw of her argument: The formula is only successful if the men are responsible and caring husbands in the first place. Can you imagine 'serving' a guy who was a drunkard, a wife-abuser, or who had absolutely no respect for other human beings in the first place? Or even staying by his side and 'supporting' him till the end of time?

I think most women would do what I would do: Pack the bags, leave for Mother's with the kids, and give him a proverbial kick in the ass before I left.

It just goes to show how terribly varied relationships are all around us, I guess. No one formula can really apply to every couple, and trust me, I learned this the uncomfortable way. (^^!)

But the article did make me think of how relationships have evolved over a span of a few generations. Think about how it was during our grandparents' time. The practice of bethrothing your children from birth was still practiced then, and it was common if you didn't get to meet your future spouse till the day of your wedding. [the time till then spent fervently praying that he wasn't terribly deformed in one way or another]

But divorce was rare. Possibly one reason for that was that there were fewer lawyers then [duh] but also because men and women accepted that this was the guy they were going to have to live with, and so they may as well make it a smooth ride as much as they could. After all, if there was no way to get out of the marriage, then you had an onus to learn to live with each other as much as you could.

Who read the article in the ST [i donno when] about the couple with the record for the longest marriage in Singapore? They had been married in their tender teens in China, and the husband then went to Singapore to look for work, as a lot of men did then. His wife waited 5 years in China with her in-laws before he finally sent for her to join him there, and they lived in Singapore forever more. (0_0)

And I used to grumble if I didn't meet up with DF for a week or more..........

I digress. My point being it seems that our grandparents were willing to stick with each other as much as possible because the concept of divorce was not as known, or socially accepted then. [I speak mainly of Asians, btw, being unfamiliar with the history of divorce in Western countries] In our parents' generation, divorce became slightly more common, but divorce rates were still low.

[I have no official statistics to back up all these btw. They're all based on my general impresions, and of the people I see around]

Now? We've become affluent and independent enough, such that if ever hubby doesn't live up to your expectations, or if he leaves the toilet bowl seat up one too many times, it's off to the lawyers you go. Divorce has not only become cheaper, it's also more socially acceptable nowadays. What did the old mantra go? "Attached can break up, married can divorce"

Have we lost something in all this?

As a generation, we're probably more picky and more demanding in our relationships than either our parents or our grandparents. Our spouse/boyfriend has to be the ONE. He has to meet all the requirements in our own mental list we compiled since adolescent. He has to support the family. He has to be kind, understanding, listen to our views blah blah blah.

A few would probably think he has to be rich, or have nice teeth or something, but I shall not touch on those people. (^^!)

So what's the diff? People over time have always been looking for that one special someone. We're always on the lookout for the one special love, whether we recognise him or not on the first glance. If we think the guy doesn't fit, we chuck him, and start the hunt anew. Whether we are attached, engaged, or married.

"He wasn't the same man I married" Sound familiar?

But just how many people find love at first sight anyway? No relationship is totally perfect, even if they seem so on the surface. There are bound to be problems between 2 parties one way or another, or things about each other that drive you crazy.

Which is why maybe the keys for a successful relationship is not love, but rather the ability to settle conflicts amiably, to compromise, and to always have an open mind.

Even if you find the right man and you marry him, can you have any guarantee that he will remain like that for the rest of time? Maybe he will change. Maybe he will fall in love with some other woman. Maybe he'll find out he's gay. *peng* Should that happens, how willing are you to stick with the relationship? Or will you bail at the first signs of trouble?

[btw, the one thing I will NOT put up with is abuse. NO MAN has the right to abuse others, most of all his wife and kids, whether physically or verbally, and deserves to get his ass kicked big time]

I wonder whether our culture and our generation has become so used to the idea of getting what we want, that we are less unwilling to work it out over time. That we must have the man now, and that he must remain like that for the rest of his life. Hmm...

Ponderz..................

---

Btw you guys have to realise that the only reason I can write so detachedly about the whole thing is because I'm on the right phase of my menstrual cycle. :p Gimme a few more weeks and I could be writing about something else altogether...

Lower. Primary. Kids. Are. Hell. To. Teach. Nuff. Said.

As a distraction [and a form of therapy] here's a new website I found full of those irritating yet sometimes entertaining stuff we sometimes find in our email.

Here's a driving joke from the site:

What to do in the event of a car accident

A woman and a man are involved in a car accident; it's a bad one. Both of their cars are totally demolished but amazingly neither of them are hurt.

After they crawl out of their cars, the woman says, " So you're a man. That's interesting. I'm a woman. Wow, just look at our cars! There's nothing left, but we're unhurt. This must be a sign from God that we should meet and be friends and live together in peace for the rest of our days".

Flattered, the man replies, "Oh yes, I agree with you completely, this must be a sign from God!"

The woman continues, "and look at this, here's another miracle. My car is completely demolished but this bottle of wine didn't break. Surely God wants us to drink this wine and celebrate our good fortune."

Then she hands the bottle to the man.

The man nods his head in agreement, opens it and drinks half the bottle and then hands it back to the woman.

The woman takes the bottle and immediately puts the cap back on, and hands it back to the man.

The man asks, "Aren't you having any?"

The woman replies, "No. I think I'll just wait for the police.... "

MORAL OF THE STORY:
Women are clever, evil bitches. Don't mess with us!

From: Bore Me - The Best of your Inbox

Quick, spam your friends now...

A natural wanderer

A night of suddenly cancelled tuition allowed for some father-daughter bonding.

After dinner, I was complaining and whining to my dad about Neko, and I said something like how I could face more discipline problems with boys in the future.

"Well, now you're getting a taste of what your own teachers went through" Daddy grinned.

"Excuse me, I was a well-behaved kid during school ok?"

"That's not what your teachers said!"

"Huh? What did my teachers say to you?" This was new. I never really knew that my teachers got exasperated with me enough to call my dad up.

"Like during excursions? You were always wandering off by yourself and pulling your friends along with you!"

"No I didn't!" I truly had no memory of this happening. Then again, I know my memory sucks...

"Yes you did! Especially when your class went to the zoo! We used to go there very often, so you knew all the shortcuts! And you would wander off by yourself while your teachers took the class on the proper routes!"

"Are you sure??"

"Yes, this happened for EVERY excursion you went for in school! And you would pull your usual gang of friends along with you! Your teacher would do a headcount, and when she realised that some girls were missing, she would immediately start a search for YOU! You were always the ringleader!"

"Sure or not??"

"How do you think your teacher knew the number to my special line, the one that no one else calls?"

My deficient memory refused to pull up memories, though I vaguely remember one day in the old museum, when I suddenly found some other exhibit in the other side of the museum more interesting, and snuck off with my friend. We spent an hour or two wandering through other areas of the museum before we finally rejoined the rest of the class, much to the ire of my already irate teacher.

Then I remembered the British Museum and the Louvre. I remember walking along with Juls and the rest for the start of the journey at first, before my eye was caught by a particularly interesting exhibit. I started reading the description of the exhibit, and when I finished and I looked up, everyone had disappeared. (!!!)

I walked around a while, but I couldn't find them. I walked ahead, hoping to catch up with them, but I didn't. I retraced my steps in the hope that I would find them, but I didn't. In desperation, and irrationally afraid that I would be lost and stuck in a foreign country for the rest of my life, I started hunting for a payphone to call Juls, and that's when the Turtle found me and I rejoined the group.

Even when I recently went to the Vatican exhibition with DF, I was steadily ahead of him in the exhibits, because I read the cards faster than he did (^^!) It wasn't long before we were totally separated, and I had to retrace my steps to reunite with him again. Thankfully it was a small space, so no chance of totally losing me, like in Europe (^^!)

Hm. What can I say? A born wanderer...

I FINALLY GET TO BLOG.

What with modules in NIE, conky PC, [got hit by serious adware software] and tuition at night, I'm starting just what is the size of the pile of shit I may have gotten into. Bad signs include no life at night, increasing feelings of fatigue, inability to drag myself out at 6 in the morning, [bleah] and what looks suspiciously like eyebags under my eyes.

Ergh.

Not only that, I haven't been able to buy comics, [will be going down to buy later! I swear!] or my regular 8 Days, and of course NO PRATA FOR B'FAST. *cries profusely* Can life get any worse than this???

Ok, I dramatise. :p I'll get used to it, but I'm guessing what you guys really are interested in [besides anything to do with DF] is how my first day at school went.

Can I first say for the record, I think the communication channels between Moe and Neko broke down somewhat? They had no idea I was gonna come into school till I called the admin office on Mon. Then when I came, the senior teacher I was intro-ed to said they didn't receive any official communication from Moe till yesterday. *duh*

This despite that I received news of my posting last Thursday.

So what did I do on the first day, if they had nothing for me to do? The ST said I could sit in the office, and sort of 'absorb the atmosphere'. Or perhaps, he meant, 'sit here and don't do anything to cause any trouble'.

Nah, he's a pretty nice guy.

So I sat there, in the office, idly flipping through a Neko handbook.

Then it was recess.

Then I finished the handbook, so I searched my sparse bag in desperation, and found a book about research into the teaching of Social Studies in schools. [Yenn, Turt, it was the research book they included in our 'orientation gift']

I alternated between falling asleep, pretending to read, and actually reading for about 4 hours.

Then school was over, and it was Contact Time.

The teachers bustled around me, and then I went up at 2, sat there till 3, and finally made my way home.

Like, I'm so filled with the desire to teach. (^^!)

I could have talked with the other teachers, I guess, but... I guess I sorta went into 'survival dao mode', which is to act 'dao', and make myself as invisible as possible. (^^!) Worked a charm, the other teachers must have wondered why I was so interested in The Use of Stories in Teaching Social Studies. [one of the more interesting papers]

Then everyone looked busy and bustling, like they had something to do, and it became a sort of situation where I was the only one standing idle, while everyone else was running around me, so I decided to sit and ignore everyone else instead.

Not a good move, admittedly, but one I'm too used to for my own good.

It became almost that I wished they were severely shorthanded, so that I could have been chucked into intense teaching from the start. At least I would have used some energy in the meantime. (^^!)

Ah well, these are the normal starting blues I guess. Hopefully from tom, they'd give me some relief teaching and I'll actually be able to do something.

Keep wishing me luck.

Updates from my Job

I can almost feel the lack of sleep weighing down my eyebags... urgh...

My tuitions on sat and sun morn have officially commenced once more, and I've been vainly trying to pull myself out of my very-comfortable-bed at 730 on weekend mornings to fulfil my educational duties to those in need.

Sometimes I wish I was just that little bit more irresponsible.

So if you've been on my MSN list, you'll know that I've been posted to a semi-famous primary school very near my house, which we will call Neko Primary School. [if you think about it, you'll know why I called it that, and which school it is] And I'm FREAKING because it's an all boys school and I came from an all girls one.

How da fish do you handle boys?

On the one hand, most boys will take blows [figuratively speaking, of course] better than most girls, who will simmer and glare at you with red hot pupils and silently plan your demise in their little ribboned-ponytail heads. On the other hands, most girls would not pick fights and come to blows with each other and attempt most of the things that, well, boys will do. :S

My only consolation is that I probably won't be taking up much REAL teaching duties, seeing as how I'll be there for only 4 weeks. [or rather I'm PRAYING i won't be taking up much teaching duties] Most likely, I'll be doing a lot of observation, co-teaching, and maybe relief teaching. [hopefully the school will be a single session school]

And of course, there will likely be much more stories on the Mis-Educators blog because of it. :S So keep supporting that site. I've just posted a link for stories from an English teacher teaching in Japan, so you guys can go there. It's tres funny, it is, the things that happen there. :p Makes me [almost] thankful I'm teaching in Singapore. :p

And I just remembered: I suspect one of my kids' parents could be teaching in Neko Primary!!! :0 right now I'm praying that she's not, and at the same time, hoping that she's not in that school! Let's keep the Tutes and Schs separate, ya?

Keke done for now... Wish me luck and that I survive the 4 weeks... :S

This morning started out all wrong.

FIRSTLY, tuition kid who was supposed to come in the morning cancelled last minute. As in she SMSed me the message LAST NITE at 130AM and I read it at 730 this morning. WTH??? What for I wake up so early in the morning then???

Never mind, I thought, console yourself by going for breakfast and have your favourite roti prata and teh ping. As thoughts of crispy prata and fragrant curry filled my mind, I looked out the window, and saw the cloudy horizon filling with dark clouds and a cool, misty, rain-like wind blowing into my face.

Oh kuso, I thought, and then as if by magic, the heavens burst upon to rain their showery blessings upon me.

YEEEAAARRRGGHHHHH.................................................................

So FINE i'm STUCK at HOME, with the PC again.... I decide to open up Freehand and draw up a new cartoon for the Mis-Educators blog. [inspired by Yenn during lecture. Go take a look]

Pen. Stroke. Erase.

Pen. Stroke. Curve. Delete.

Pen. Stroke. Curve. Fill. Undo. Delete.

Pen. Stroke. Curve. Fill. Undo. Delete. Swear. Curse. Threaten all manner of unholy acts upon the PC.

You get the idea. (^^!)

And I still gotta rush off and bathe and meet Turtle before going to school.

For a 4 hour tutorial.

And it's still raining, albeit a light drizzle.

oh kuso.....................

Another update on Mis-Educators on my rather eccentric lecturer...

Hate her? Saboh her online!

Yesterday's Digital Life supplement in the ST ran an interesting article on the dangers of online sabotage. Did you guys realise that it's NOT illegal for someone to post your personal details online?

I remember a Xiaxue post where she wrote about the revenge she wrought on a girl who had [unfairly, she judged] stolen a cab from her. If I remember correctly, I think she even jumped into the cab to confront the girl and even took photos of her on her handphone camera.

So ok, whatever. Then later on, she realised that the girl had been giving a highly-biased picture of her through some online forums. [Well, simply put, the girl was talking bad about her lah] In a fit of righteous indignation, she went on to post the photos of the girl and the boyfriend online, linked the girl's blog, the friendster profile, and any other online paraphernalia the girl had online. She even gave instructions on how to bypass the Javascript password prompt the girl had on her blog.

Considering the daily visitor statistics to Xiaxue's site average in the 1000s, you can imagine what happened to that girl's blog. :p

But you can already see from this that it's not difficult to find and put information about a person online. Even for a person who retains an anonymous facade like I do, a truly determined person could probably hunt out clues on my blog to find hints to my identity. [good luck trying. I have over 2 years of archives]

Worse still, someone who knows me in real life, should he/she have a sudden flash of hatred towards me, can post as many personal details as they know online. For my close friends, this would include my real name, my handphone no, my address, and, if you want, you could probably steal my underwear and sell online. [not that any of u would want to do so....... right?]

And you know the best part? NONE OF THIS IS ILLEGAL.

That's right. If I type on my blog now "Ah Neow lives in Jalan Anak Kambing Blk 123 #12-345 and her phone number is 98765432. She's a damn sexy chio bu so call her now!" it's NOT illegal. Even if Ah Neow gets 1000s of phone calls from that one stupid post, she cannot even sue me for harassment.

Scary huh? So moral is: Don't totally piss off your friends.

There is a little clause in the law: The law in Singapore can only make an arrest, if it can be proved that the information I posted led to a crime being committed.

So if I type: "My friend Ah Kow is living in [insert district 10 name] house no 124. You can't miss it! It's the big white house with lots of begonias in front! He's going on holiday from this friday to monday. I told him better change that rusty lock for his gate, or at least buy more than one lock for the house, but he don wan. Scally his house kena rob ah! So much jewellery he leave in his brown cupboard in his bedroom!" it's still considered legal.

ONLY if some stupid burglar decides to rob the house BASED solely on the information above, bungles up the job, gets caught by the police, and admits that "Yah lah, I read the boredslacker blog then I know that guy going on holiday mah! How I know I so xia suay you will be taking kopi break there at that time??"

THEN can I be charged under the law.

Luckily for me, I do NOT post much personal information online. I've seen blogs where they put photos of themselves, their house, their friends, their boyfriends, their dogs, their mother's underwear, [ok, I've never seen the last one. Heh.] and can't help but think: If people recognise you on the streets, talk about you, express many unfair opinions about you ["Wah lau, her mother wear so obiang panty ah?"]

Whose fault is it? Haven't you sort of invited the comments by posting all this up?

Thankfully for me, I've never encountered too much of this kind of thing from my humble little blog. There's something to be said about being one of the xiao ren, as the song goes.

Oh, and remember my previous post on defamation? Digital Life also posted some more information.

"Ah Kow is a bastard" implies Ah Kow was illegitimate. If he wasn't, he can sue.

Then how about "Ah Kow is a f**king bastard"? Will the law sue me for using f**king? After all, he is a normal, functional human male is it? That's not defamatory is it?

"Ah kow is an incompetent idiot" implies he cannot do his job. This damages his reputation, so he can sue. But he can't sue you for using "idiot"

"idiot" and the like are common expletives, so "no matter how vulgar, are generally not considered defamatory." according to the article.

"Slut" and the like implies that the woman sleeps around, but it's an expletive too, so the judge would probably determine whether it's defamatory by looking at the rest of the message.

So in other words, that means that I cannot sue people for the following statement:

"boredslacker that BITCH! What a f**king fool! Always writing a bunch of f**king crap on her blog! Why doesn't that SLUT just go f**k her IDIOT boyfriend already?"

But if they write:

"boredslacker is clearly unfit to teach at any level. You can see how irresponsible she is, from the casual use of foul language on her online web log. She is clearly very incompetent at her job"

THEN you will receive the letters from my lawyers. :)

A quick note: I've set up the Mis-Educators blog for anything school-related, so you guys can check that out for my misadventures, yea? I'm not putting them on this blog, because I got other plans for that one in the future :p so take a read once in a while, k? Arigatou...

Btw, don't spread the news of this blog to gahmen frens, ya? You never know when Da Ge is watching......

Mis-Educators

And for other entertainment, check out what one creative genius did to the fountains at Taka...

Terrorists Poison Ngee Ann City

Too bad, might've been more interesting if he'd used Tiger instead...

Day 1 of Servitude

This next post is coming to you at another ungodly hour, but this time I'm at home, frantically typing away to finish this post so I have time to run out, eat prata, [food at NIE suckx. Will try to reduce eating there as much as possible] and stone on the train all the way to Boon lay. Thank God I have a good book with me. :S

As of yesterday, 20th June 2005, 9am Singapore time, I officially became a trainee teacher, employee of Ministry of Education, of the gahmen. God help us all, and especially the children who will be under me.

Anywayz, as from the last post, Yenn and I successfully managed to get to campus, and find the locations of the LTs without getting too lost. :S Aside from a slight hiccup. Heh.

The day went by rather smoothly, I guess, since it was just 2 briefings we had to attend on future modules, one of which starts TODAY and goes on till Friday. Talk about a crash course! The way I hear it, the course I will take for 6 months is like a doctor shoving half a dozen pills down your throat, shaking you hard till it all goes down, and then kicking you out his clinic door, demanding that you be healed and healthy NOW! :S

Ok, that's a strange analogy, but my brother's nursing drug guide is in front of me right now, so that's what I came up with :p

The GTs [GTS, GTT, and now GTK] were also astounded at the number of ex-classmates, ex-schoolmates and ex-dunnowhat that we came across in the canteen during a break. For the Bizaders, we saw LEROY of all people. [taking into account he was a first-class hon student, you can roughly guess how much the Ministry will be paying him. :S] Then there was Ron L, who'd worked in private for 6 months, and then went to contract teaching, and a couple more people Yenn recognised, but I didn't. For CJC-ers, Krys, I donno whether you remember Soo from C2 last time? Yea, she's a teacher too.

*Peng* Quite the reunion there :S All these souls, disillusioned and disenchanted by the private sector, and thus heading into teaching instead. :S Only to join more disillusioned and cynical souls like Yenn and I. Good choice of career.

Then after another briefing, the GTs headed for the queue for registration [which would give us stuff like our matric no, orientation pack, time table etc etc...] only to find a queue which rivalled the Great Hello Kitty Fiasco of 2000. Wah liao kuso leh! We decided, no point, and went to Jurong Point for lunch instead, resolving to settle it another day.

Pretty much, that was the end of the day at NIE. I have one crash course module this week, [bleah] and another Teacher Prep one next week for 2 weeks, and I'll be posted to a school!!! :S:S:S Remember that doctor analogy just now? [double BLEAH] It's all in line with the latest Ministry initiative to let trainee teachers try out the teaching world to decide whether it's for them or not. Granted it's a good idea, but YEARGH! I NEED CLOTHES! [scrambles around frantically for pants and Giordano shirts]

Brekkies time now...... wish me luck and let's see how the first module goes..... :p

BTW, might consider starting another blog in future, dedicated solely to exploits in NIE... will consider and post any updates on this blog...

This post comes to you courtesy of the free Internet post at Jurong Point Shopping Centre. [Slow, but what can you do? :p]

It is now 8am on a Monday morning. I have a almost drunk cup of [very weak] Lipton tea, Yenn is still queueing for her food, and I have a overwhelming desire to be back in my bed, woken at 9 by my radio, and then head to my favourite coffeeshop for my dua-kosong-teh-ping breakfast set instead of sitting here in the goddamned early morning with a cup of weak tea and 2 eyebags forming. (-_-)

Plus, I decided yesterday that the DF is an absolute BLOCK. (-_-!)

We happened to be talking yesterday, albeit in extremely indirect hits, about him not spending a lot of time with me.

The whole thing could be boiled down in 2 statements:

Him:
"Physical affection isn't everything in a relationship. A lot of relationships start with a lot of sweet nothings, and then end up in nothing, because the 2 parties realise in the end that all they had were those sweet nothings and nothing else."

Me:
"Yea, but IT WOULD BE NICE TO HAVE SOME OF THOSE SWEET NOTHINGS ONCE IN A WHILE!!!"

Towards this point, we were walking across the bridge opposite Fullerton, that crossed the Singapore River.

"Hey, you see that bumboat on the river?"

"Yea?"

"You wanna a closer look at it?" And at this point I attempted to dunk him into the Singapore River. [Wonder if dragonflies can swim. Hm. ]

So hence, my conclusions for this morning:

Internet connection and keyboard sensitivity at McDonald's sucks. [yea, the keyboard's slow to react to .]

Lipton tea is one of the weakest teas ever on the face of this planet. [my kingdom for a teh ping...]

My body has not adjusted to a system of waking before the sunrise yet. [I'm so screwed when school, as in actual teaching, starts]

And lastly,

MY BOYFRIEND IS A BLOCK.

Time for more tea...

I should never be allowed near people when I'm in the midst of PMS (-_-!)

The mood swings have been getting progressively stronger as I grow older for some reason. I don't know whether this is due to 1) Me eating less sugar than I did in school 2) My hormones going out of biological whack 3) My overactive imagination

It's nuts! I wake up in the morning, somewhat ok, a bit of running nose from a bout of cold, but ok. Then I walk out for breakfast, and I get depressed thinking about my life, my work, my relationship, and I swing the other way. As in down, down, down the other way.

If I meet a friend, or if I'm with someone, my moods stabilize, or I swing towards the upwards way. [reminiscient now of several very, very unsavoury jokes I cracked about someone when out with Candle and Yenn. hm, could've been due to that.]

And now I just chatted to DF online, and in a mood of crankiness typed out something to him [for privacy's sake, I'm not putting it out here, ya? You never know who's reading these days] He replied with something else, and I tried to explain, and he asked some more, and I ended the whole thing with "must be a miscomm" (-_-!)

And I dunno whether HE's cranky at me now, cos it almost 'read' like that on MSN, but I feel cranky at myself now, and his words almost look as if he's mad at me, for one stupid statement typed the wrong way, and I'm alternating between 'pissed' and 'upset' and I hate this biological cycle and I hate these swings, and my brother is hounding me for HIS turn on the PC and I'm now like "URGH!"

I need a nice, huge milkshake........................... preferably vanilla........................

With ice cream................................

Because I picked up a Pen and I couldn't stop....



800X600 wallpaper, 100% done in Photoshop.

Sometimes the effect of a few simple lines ain't too bad... And a Pen tool and tons of blending modes does help too. :)

I'm baaaacccckkkkk.............

Yea, my 'break' from the com worked better this time. 2 whole days away from the Net! A new record! *breaks open the Johnnie walker* And how did I do it, without severe withdrawal symptoms and chaining the computer shut?

Er, a new anime DVD set. :p

Much obliged to Yenn who purchased the Twelve Kingdoms DVD set for me. O yay mi canto!!! :D :D :D In my last few obligation-free afternoons, I've been watching this fantastic series over again, filling in the blanks where I missed the episode on Arts Central.


The cast of the Twelve Kingdoms. Click here for more information on the series

So it's been a pretty, heh, uneventful time for me :p the highlight of the week being the sneak preview of Batman Begins I watched with Yenn last night. It's not a bad movie, but I'm prejudiced by the fan syndrome. Which means when I see parts that never happened in the original Batman mythology, I get a sense of fan-righteous indignation. And trust me, that happens quite a bit. :p [though not as bad as when I watched the X-men movie]

So lemme spice up my blog with something ordinary [and non-political. No more of those, ugh! Too many comments!]

---

I went to my tuition kid's place just the other day, hoping to receive my pay for the month. Instead, she tells me that she hadn't got the money, and that she'd pay me next week.

I wondered why, since this lesson was originally a postponement of a previous lesson last week, which means her parents must've given her the cash already.

This is the story she told me: :S

"I was sick that day, that's why I had to cancel tuition at the last minute [tuition with me, in which I was going to get paid] and I used the money to take a cab go to the doctor."

Me: "There're tons of doctors 5 minutes from your house."

"My dad insisted I go to his company doctor at Peninsula Plaza. (I wonder at some parents sometimes. Your kid is sick, and you ask her to go all the way to city to see doctor? And doesn't the savings on the doctor bill get wiped out by the cab fare she incurred while going there?) So I took a cab there with my brother.

So around 1/4 of the money went towards the cab fare, and the doctor's fees." [fair enough, I grudgingly grant you this, since you were sick]

"Then we went to Adam Road for dinner, and spent about $90."

KUSO KITANAI! [I didn't really blurt that out in front of her] How did you spend so much at a hawker centre of all places???

"We took a cab to Adam Road [by this time, the brother's girlfriend had also joined in] and we ordered a loooot of food. We ordered barbequed stingray, mee goreng, roti john, etc etc etc" The rest of the food were lost to my brain. 2 thoughts circled in my brain, mainly my money! and sick also can eat so much ah?

How da fish could 3 people have eaten so much bloody food and spent so much money at a hawker centre, for pete's sake?? Even when my family of 4 go out to eat, we don't even spend more than $50 at most, food and drinks! [and those who've seen my family know that we are no small eaters] And all out of MY PAY?????

The story continues "Then we had to send my brother's girlfriend home, and she lived in Depot road." And again, the brother's girlfriend's cab fare came out of MY PAY. KNS. "And then we made our way back home."

Excuse my French, but I feel very xiaxue-ish right about now. KNS! Take my money and then spend until like that! Brother's girlfriend cabfare also paid by ME! And because of that I have to go back to her house on another day to get the cash! (-_-!) If she even remembered to get it from her parents!

This is ridiculous expenditure man. $90 just to eat at a hawker centre? And then got to send the girlfriend back home somemore? Doesn't the brother have his own money at all???

I'm not pissed that she used the money to go to the doctor. I'm even ok with her using it to take cab there, since I know how sucky it can be to take a bus when you're sick. What I'm pissed about is that she and her brother seems to have freely spent my hard-earned money, and also her parents' hard earned money, to just buy anything they want and of all things, to send girlfriend back home!

And I'm extra pissed because I need the cash, being short of cash this June holidays. I still owe Yenn and my brother money, and I need the cash to pay them back, [at least partially, anyway] and also for my own expenditure. I'm already short and needy of cash this period, and this girl and her brother just freely spent my pay like nobody's business, and just nonchalantly think that they can just postpone my payment.

KUSO. Blardy irritating students.......

---

Ok, ok, to calm down, here's something for all of you to play with.

Typedrawing is an online drawing pad, that allows you to do text-based drawings. As an example, this is one that I did. Click to go see.

Cute eh? The site even allows you to upload your work, and display to everyone. :D

To try it out, go here

Heh, I couldn't resist this one from Kennysia:

Congratulations boredslacker, you are...

Finicky Feline of finickyfeline.liquidblade.com

You may seem sweet on the outside but behind you hide a sharpened claw. You have the observation skills of a forensic detective and can see right through people easily. You attract attention, both good and bad, but more bad than good. You've seen more assholes in life than a proctologist. The bad ones tries to screw you over but quickly learnt that its a bad move because you enjoy screwing them back accordingly.

Which Singaporean Blogger Are You?

Sadly enough, I don't even read her blog... :p But I like the sharpened claw part. Speak softly and carry a big stick, is what I like to say... :p

I switch on computer, as usual.

I open Firefox, as usual.

I go to gmail, as usual.

I open my account, and see...... 12 new comments on my blog.

NOT as usual!



So apparently, my post on the 2 homeless siblings got tomorrow-ed, and a whole bunch of people went to my site as usual. (^^!) What was more unusual in this case was the number of comments this post generated. [Usually people just read, and then promptly forget it the next day, I think :p]

[People just love to rant about the gahmen in Singapore. Tip for making blog famous: Write potentially incendiary rant about gahmen in Singapore and then tip off a few websites about your blog. Warning: May result in lawsuits if post is TOO fiery. :p]

Some of the comments, and my thoughts on them:

- Jesse wrote:

"What about the thousands who are able and going for job interviews week in week out, and eventually forced to look for/settle on jobs paying far less because of cheaper foreign alternatives."..."A voice should be put first and foremost to this group of people. The perk of certain governments is to place an onus on MNCs and local companies to provide a decent wage as well as job security."..."Usually what is allowed to happen in sg are rampant job cuts and then re-employing when the economy picks up. Why should employees pay for the sins of bad management and capitalism?"

Hm. This left me a little uncomfortable, frankly. My view is that cheaper labour arises as a result of market differences. Labour in China IS cheaper that labour from US because of differences in their labour markets. [size being the most obvious factor, and obviously, I speak of workers with the same skill level, for eg, construction workers in China and US]

And from a purely economic point of view, if you can get the same amount of labour for a cheaper price, you should, in order to lower costs all around for the end consumer. If you can get groceries at Johor for a much cheaper price than in Singapore, why not go to Johor? (^^!) Malaysia has a comparative advantage in providing cheaper consumer goods than Singapore. Hence Singaporeans will flock to Malaysia to buy their groceries.

And of course, when I put it that way, economics becomes much more palatable to the average consumer, but when put in terms of jobs, everyone gets protective. (^^!) Though I understand the rationale behind it, I feel, you can't really have your cake and eat it too.

And also, for the government to "place the onus on MNCs and local companies to provide a decent wage as well as job security" actually smacks of some protectionism to me. Which in the end is never good for any economy in the long run.

---

Karpace has written a blog entry in response to mine, at his blog. His main stand is that we have a right to demand more from the gahmen, given all the taxes that we give to them. [you really have to read the full thing to get an idea though]

And my stand is: So why aren't we doing more? We write to the newspapers, we rant on websites like Sintercom and Tomorrow, and we rant to our kakis at the kopitiam over cups of teh. But these are not constructive actions. These are not going to get us positive results, other than a momentary publicity on the Internet.

If we really feel that we deserve more from the gahmen, then why aren't we demanding it from them? Why aren't we doing more than we are currently doing right now?

Maybe in a sense, we are actually too comfortable with the situation to want it to change. It's like, you live in a flat, and the roof drips when it rains. It irritates you at first, but then, decent housing at this price is hard to find, and so you continue staying in that flat and just remember to take out the buckets everytime it starts to pour.

Maybe we just got used to the dripping.

---

- Then comes this interesting little exchange:

At 7:11 PM, June 12, 2005, jseng said...And after a while, it's enough to make you gasp in exasperation and make you wonder why no one ever says something like "We should come together, and do something about this." "We should write a petition" "We should organize some rallys"Got. that's why we took things into our own hands and started tomorrow.sg

And some Anonymous Someone replied with:

Wow. Mr Seng, so are you admitting that wanting and acting to do something about how life is supposedly hard in Singapore, instead of just whining and ranting is a reason why Tomorrow.sg was started? Isn't that what the article is really about? I wasn't under the impression that Tomorrow wrote petitions, organised rallies or engaged in pro-active civil activism or reform in this country to improve your own lives. I thought it was just a meta- blog without an agenda. What are you trying to say? I try not to take you too seriously all the time, but this latest blurb of seng-ism is hard to ignore. Go ahead and make a joke of this.

And then jseng replied:

Yo Mr Anonymous. You have to try harder to troll me haha. I am pretty much immune to all these sort o insults.ps: Sorry bringing the troll here at your site.

And Anonymous said:

I ask you a legitimate question and you accuse me of trolling. What more can I say? Have a good day, James.

And I think: Am I missing something here? Er, if you got something against someone, or Tomorrow.sg, can you please do it somewhere else? It's kinda beside the point in this blog, and for this topic.

Seriously. Sheesh.

---

Adinahaes had a more compassionate view:

"heyjust wanted to say that not all poor/destitute people are like that pair of siblings. For every one person like that, there will be others out there who are genuinely in a fix. I have friends who are social workers and they've met families in dire need of cash but who had their water/electricity cut off because PUB refused to grant them a grace period.Some of them did not even have the money to take a bus to find a job.There will always be people looking for a handout, but lets not lump them together with the truly unfortunate."

Agreed. For the record, my post was more about those who couldn't help themselves, rather than those who truly were in a fix over external circumstances. Some lines from the post:

"for some people, I don't really know whether they deserve the help or not. Because from what I see, they aren't doing enough to help themselves."

"If you had lost everything you had due to some external circumstances, say tsunami, or economic crisis, I'm inclined to give you my pity. It's not entirely your fault this happened to you, and I can see why you might need that leg up.

But the extra leg up is just that, an extra leg up. It's not something to support you forever, like a chair. It's meant to give you that one boost so that you can start climbing out of this shithole on your own."

I feel sorry for people who are in such destitute states. I don't believe that anyone should have to live like that. But if I help you, it's with the intention of helping you stand on your own two feet.

Let's use another analogy here. If one of my tuition students was weak in Maths, from a natural inability to comprehend numbers, then I understand that you need the additional help from outside, since you will not be able to pass Maths on your own.

But I will NOT do your homework for you all year around. The purpose of my tuition lesson is to enable you to be able to eventually pass Maths on your own. And this is what you should gain out of my lesson.

My post targets those people who expect help to be given to them all the time, because of their circumstances. My opinion is: You cannot expect to rely on people's goodwill forever. Better learn to take care of yourself.

---

Anyway, from Sunday's papers, I read that the Wongs have moved back into their flat, and will be moving into the 2nd flat after selling this one off to HDB. Hopefully, they will be able to make something of their lives after that.

Hidden Underbellies

We moan and groan in Singapore about how life is hard, about how things are expensive, jobs are hard to find, and how the gahmen could do more for its people.

This is a particular pet topic of Turtle's. The way he talks sometimes, about how wonderful the welfare system is in Sweden, and how uncaring our government is, and how it could do more, give more, pay more to its citizens, make you secretly wonder whether he's turned commie on you, and make you want to place bets with Jules on how long it takes before the ISD carries him away. (^^!)

And then I read about people like the Wongs, in today's Straits Times.

The Wongs are a pair of jobless siblings, 47, and 48, who have been living in the void deck of their block for about a week now. They've done that because they received a notice from HDB stating that HDB intended to acquire the flat, because they hadn't paid the instalments on it for the past 5 years. (^^!) The Wongs took it as an eviction notice, and moved all their belongings to the void deck. They even cordoned off an area of the deck, claiming their territory with raffia string.

On first glance, [or rather, after reading the first paragraph] you may feel a stab of sympathy for the Wongs. It's like another example of Big Brother shoving poor needy Little Brother and Sister out the door, because they didn't have the money to pay for their flat, and living them out in the cold, lonely snow [ok, no snow in Singapore] confiscating their home, and making himself richer, and them poorer. [cue to evil laughter here]

And then I read the rest of the article.

The letter from HDB was NOT an eviction notice. HDB did NOT confiscate the flat from the duo, since the brother was still in possession of the keys to the flat. It was a notice to "inform them of the board's intention to acquire the flat" and the Wongs could still approach HDB to work out a payment plan for themselves, which would allow them to keep the flat. The Wongs apparently read the notice to mean that they had been evicted, and the sister even indignantly said,

"How can they tell us to move out, and now tell us that we have to move all our things back?"

Not only that, but help had been repeatedly offered to the siblings over 6 years, and always solidly refused. Food had been left at their door, which went untouched. [they preferred to pick up discarded vegetables at the markets for food]

They had another 2-room HDB flat, fully paid up and left behind by their deceased sister. Thus, they could sell the flat they were living in back to HDB, which would deduct their arrears, and move them to their sister's flat. This would still leave them about $160,ooo to live on, and a roof still over their head.

They could rent a HDB flat for about $26 a month. $13 a month for a roof over your head seems a pretty fair deal.

They refused all options. According to the sister, "Our mother told us before she died never to trust anyone and sign anything. If not, we will surely be cheated. We don't want to pay. We want to go to a welfare home. What's welfare if we have to pay for it?"

Now my response becomes: WAH RAO EH. People help you. You don't want. Then what you want?

There's a lot about the story of the siblings that intrigues me. For one, they're not exactly very old. They're 47 and 48, and while they might have trouble finding a job, it won't be impossible for them, even as a cleaner or a dishwasher or something. Even with a cleaner's job, they'd still have enough to live on, and pay for the rental of the HDB flat of $13 each a month. [considering that now they're subsisting on discarded vegetables, I'd say their food needs aren't that expensive. (^^!)]

I'm not sure what education they have had, but considering they're asking for dishwashing jobs in the article, and from their replies, I'd say they weren't university graduates. (^^!) So fine, you won't be able to get some highflying corporate job earning you thousands a month. Is it so bad to rely on a <$1000 salary as a cleaner or a Macdonald's waitress or something?

And importantly, have they been looking for jobs at all?

And they haven't always been poor apparently. From the article, you learn that their father owned a chain of hardware shops, but apparently had gotten cheated of everything. That's when the family became very suspicious and untrusting of people too.

According to a neighbour, the siblings never seemed to work, hardly left the flat, and relied on their mother to pick up discarded vegetables for food, and sell drink cans for money.

My question now becomes: What have these 2 siblings done to help themselves?

They are suspicious that HDB will cheat them of their flat. They refuse to touch their sister's flat, because the sister never helped to feed their mother. [although it looks more like the mother had to feed them, rather than the other way around] They don't want to go to a welfare home unless it's free. (0_0)

It's starting to look more like a matter of pride and abject laziness lor. The more I read, the more I'm like, "Eh, please lah.." You're in that kind of bottom-of-the-hole situation and then you refuse to do these things to help your situation, out of some weird sense of pride. People's help and generosity can only go so far you know.

This is like that 22 year old guy who used to beg at Orchard Underpass for money. He wasn't sick, he wasn't disabled, he wasn't stupid or retarded, [as far as I could see, anyway] so what was he doing there begging? He was just unwilling to get some job and content to sit there and wait for people to give him money.

And then Turtle comes in and raves about the gahmen and how they never help the people enough. (0_0) Sorry to say this, but for some people, I don't really know whether they deserve the help or not. Because from what I see, they aren't doing enough to help themselves.

If you had lost everything you had due to some external circumstances, say tsunami, or economic crisis, I'm inclined to give you my pity. It's not entirely your fault this happened to you, and I can see why you might need that leg up.

But the extra leg up is just that, an extra leg up. It's not something to support you forever, like a chair. It's meant to give you that one boost so that you can start climbing out of this shithole on your own.

Even the more affluent people are guilty of this. My father complains from time to time that "the gahmen should..." Yea, yea, all familiar phrases by now. (^^!) And even in the forum pages, you see people who write that "the authorities should..." "The government should..." blah blah blah.

And after a while, it's enough to make you gasp in exasperation and make you wonder why no one ever says something like "We should come together, and do something about this." "We should write a petition" "We should organize some rallys"

Then yea, there's the usual complaints as well. "I'm too busy at my job" "I have to look after my kids" "How to watch my ch8 serials??" [Ok, so maybe that last one was a bit off]

Or the best one yet. "The gahmen will never listen to us" Well, is that an excuse for not even trying? Or an excuse to give up?

Because if you're off put by the idea that someone will object to what you're saying, and you're not willing to face the adversity that your ideas may bring, are you sure you are at all passionate about your ideals? Maybe to you, you'd rather live with the problem rather than face the can of worms that it could potentially bring up.

I'm not sure whether that makes you a total coward, or a person who fully doesn't believe in what they're saying.

Crap. We're a nation of people who're just waiting for the next handout.