Jul/Aug 2007 holidays

Again, I plan for my 1-week hols:

So here's my to-do list:
1. Teach guitar to church people [have identified people; started with Wan Loong, Angela, Amos, Andrew]
2. Meet friends I seldom meet up with [Nat, Samuel, Amy, Chong Kiat TBC]
3. Learn driving [practical test on 18 Sep]
4. Prepare Mastering Money & Taming Your Finances lesson plans & make relationship seminar arrangements for mid-Aug and mid-Dec 07 respectively [in progress; arrange with Matthew]
5. Watch VCDs and DVDs [50 First Dates, Aviator, Boogie Nights, Pulp Fiction, Pursuit of Happyness, Tommy Igoe's Groove Essentials, Worms 2]
6. Buy guitar [Epiphone $299 offer at Swee Lee?]

Hell Week

And it's finally over. Finished my practicum with comments of 'outstanding' and 'many good things' coming from my CTs and Principal, but all in all, just glad to learn so many things and get it over with.

I think I left an impression with my students in 4 Earnest & Youthful and Tennis CCA. Some of them were kind enough to give me gifts & cards too! I'll miss them. Hope to see some of them in P5 next year.
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Managed to write six lesson plans, so maybe it's worth it.
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I'm spending my Saturday writing lesson plans and marking. How sad is that?
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What a week it's been, and it ain't over yet. Lesson plan afer lesson plan; 10 in all for this week alone. Plus I've got observations over the next two weeks [three in all] which means I need to plan for a more kilat lesson. Just two more weeks to go! I shudder to think what next year's practicum will be like.

Solo expedition

Went cycling for 1.5hrs, covering 14km while I toured the whole of Sengkang all the way to Jln Kayu. Can't wait to try it again. Also saw a 1m-long monitor lizard. Too bad I couldn't get a photo.

Going Solo

Went on my first maiden solo bike ride. Left the house at 1745hrs to rush to the Hougang Interchange to get my EZ-Link card checked out but was 5 min late. When they say they close at 6pm, they really mean 6pm.

Dejectedly made my way to Jasmine's house for dinner.

Why do I even wanna walk anymore when I've got my bike?

26" Motachie MTB with Shimano gears & brakes

Finally bought my bike, a black beauty at $337.

Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix

Plot from Flixster:
With their warning about Lord Voldemort's return scoffed at, Harry and Dumbledore are targeted by the Wizard authorities as an authoritarian bureaucrat slowly seizes power at Hogwarts.

My take:
Not the most exciting but I found the storyline thoroughly engaging.

1,000 posts

A big thank you to all my faithful readers who have seen this blog from its humble beginnings [May 13, 2003] and indulgent posts, to the more interesting content [I hope] we have today. Here's to 1,000 more!

Melissa Theuriau

Thirteen Ghosts

Plot from Flixster:
Cool sets, gory make-up, and frantic energy are given high priority in this glossy remake of William Castle's 1960 haunted-house chiller. The original boasted its "Illusion-O" ghost-viewing gimmick, so this remake's producers--as they did with 1999's The House on Haunted Hill--up the ante on Castle's showmanship by spilling ample amounts of blood, guts, and ghoulish glory. The plot's essentially the same: An impoverished family inherits a luxurious haunted mansion, only this time it's an elaborate, maze-like mechanism of glass, gears, and Latin incantations--"designed by the devil and powered by the dead"--with a cellar full of tormented, undead souls. As the family (including Tony Shalhoub and American Pie's Shannon Elizabeth) enlists the aid of a psychic (Scream alumnus Matthew Lillard) and a ghostbusting paranormal (Embeth Davidtz), this updated 13 Ghosts grows loud and ludicrous, trading shocks for yuks and nuance for nonsense. It's fun, to a point, after which it's just exhausting. --Jeff Shannon

My take:
I like the Resident Evil feel of it, but the rest of it was quite a bore.

Eczema excoriation

I'm getting quite frustrated. My skin was so bad today it felt my whole face had swelled up. It was really scary. I think it was the stress I felt from my first observed lesson.

It's really frustrating as whenever I don't put the steroid cream it gets inflamed, and when I do it peels like mad. I really need a breakthrough.

Football fracas

Yes it happened again.

I didn't lose my temper again but I did walk off the pitch in protest. The reason is simple.

We were playing a man down, but still managed to hold our own, racing to a 5-1 lead thanks to a brace from me. You would agree that we were winning not because we were better, but because we were playing better.

Anyhow, at the beginning of the second half, Matthew, who was on our team decided to swap with Darrell. For what reasons only they know. If it is to correct an unfairness in the teams, I'm afraid they only tipped it the other way. As a result, they went into a 6-5 lead by the end. Our team was demoralised and I felt it was all so unfair how we worked so hard to establish a lead, only for the other team to change a team that had already been decided at the start, and hence secure an unfair advantage. They looked pretty chuffed when they scored the winner, but where's the pride in that?

At that point I walked off not because they won, but more of how the whole thing stank of inequality. And I suspect there were other reasons for the swap then just helping the other team. Let's just say perhaps two people wanted to play on the same team.

I did not shout at anyone, but at the end, I coolly told them my reasons for my walk-off to register my protest and disillusionment with the whole situation. As far as I'm concerned, it may be just a game, but at least let it be a fair game. Who wants to win or lose unfairly?

It's water under the bridge now; I hope they don't take teams that have been selected lightly and frivolously in future.

Went for dinner afterwards with Amos, Kenneth and Teckseng, among others, so everything should be OK. Think Ben should be alright too.

Sinusitis

At least I think that's how it's spelt. Feel some fluid in my sinus, a cavity behind your nose and eyes, such that when I tilt my head down, it causes it to hurt. It's supposedly inflamed and is causing my skin to infame accordingly, in addition to causing my eye to tear. Taking antibiotics and on MC for today.

Transformers

Plot from Flixster: Our world will be changed on July 4 when aliens make Earth their final battleground in Transformers. As the forces of evil seek the key to ultimate power, our last chance for survival rests in the hands of young Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf).

My take:
I was torn between giving this one four or four-and-a-half stars. in the end, the cutting-edge effects and Megan Fox pushed this up to almost perfect. The effects were so real that the transition between CGI and real-life scenery was seamless. Megan Fox can't really act and has only one look throughout the movie, but who cares? As Shia LaBeouf put it, "Oh my God!"

I peed next to Harry Kewell!

yes I have a new claim to fame. I was in the same toilet as Harry Kewell. I was next to Amos who was next to Teck Seng, who was next to the Australia and Liverpool left winger. Some of Kewell's pee probably splashed on Teck Seng and vice versa.

Didn't manage to get an autograph but it didn't really matter, though Jasmine was quite affected. Managed to see the whole Australia team dining at Modesto's, Viviocity too, inc. Messrs. Cahill, Schwarzer, Emerton, Viduka etc.