Asking a Judge to Save the World, and Maybe a Whole Lot More by Dennis Overbye of The New York Times

More fighting in Iraq. Somalia in chaos. People in this country can’t afford their mortgages and in some places now they can’t even afford rice.

None of this nor the rest of the grimness on the front page today will matter a bit, though, if two men pursuing a lawsuit in federal court in Hawaii turn out to be right. They think a giant particle accelerator that will begin smashing protons together outside Geneva this summer might produce a black hole or something else that will spell the end of the Earth — and maybe the universe.

Scientists say that is very unlikely — though they have done some checking just to make sure.

The world’s physicists have spent 14 years and $8 billion building the Large Hadron Collider, in which the colliding protons will recreate energies and conditions last seen a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang. Researchers will sift the debris from these primordial recreations for clues to the nature of mass and new forces and symmetries of nature.

But Walter L. Wagner and Luis Sancho contend that scientists at the European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN, have played down the chances that the collider could produce, among other horrors, a tiny black hole, which, they say, could eat the Earth. Or it could spit out something called a “strangelet” that would convert our planet to a shrunken dense dead lump of something called “strange matter.” Their suit also says CERN has failed to provide an environmental impact statement as required under the National Environmental Policy Act.

Although it sounds bizarre, the case touches on a serious issue that has bothered scholars and scientists in recent years — namely how to estimate the risk of new groundbreaking experiments and who gets to decide whether or not to go ahead.

Continued here.

Roma 0-2 United

Cops: 3rd-Graders Aimed to Hurt Teacher

A group of third-graders plotted to attack their teacher, bringing a broken steak knife, handcuffs, duct tape and other items for the job and assigning children tasks including covering the windows and cleaning up afterward, police said Tuesday.

The plot by as many as nine boys and girls at Center Elementary School in south Georgia was a serious threat, Waycross Police Chief Tony Tanner said.

"We did not hear anybody say they intended to kill her, but could they have accidentally killed her? Absolutely," Tanner said. "We feel like if they weren't interrupted, there would have been an attempt. Would they have been successful? We don't know."

The children, ages 8 and 9, were apparently mad at the teacher because she had scolded one of them for standing on a chair, Tanner said. A prosecutor said they are too young to be charged with a crime under Georgia law.

School officials alerted police Friday after a pupil tipped off a teacher that a girl had brought a weapon to school, Tanner said.

Police seized a broken steak knife, handcuffs, duct tape, electrical and transparent tape, ribbons and a crystal paperweight from the students, who apparently intended to use them against the teacher, Tanner said.

Full story here.

Batman son of Superman!

This is a real IC scan, folks.

United 4-0 Villa

Horton Hears a Who!

Singapore 2-0 Lebanon

And so Raddy's Lions get points on the board with a comfortable 2-0 home win over Lebanon, though it should've been more. Such profligacy in front of goal will be ruthless punished by the Uzbeks and Saudis and Indra and company really need to buck up.
------------
So early on in the campaign, and it's already make or break for the Lions. After an expected 2-0 loss to Saudi Arabia in Riyadh, Singapore must win its games against Lebanon to have any hope of progressing, home and away. We must then scrap for points against the higher-ranked Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan at Kallang and hope for an upset somewhere in Beirut. If anyone can do it, Raddy Avramovic can.

Freeze!

Singapore 0-0 Australia

Non-Mandarin speakers lose out in job market

I refer to Nur Rashidah's letter "Non-Mandarin speakers lose out in job market?" in The New Paper on 26 Mar 2008.

I think it is important to distinguish between preference and necessity, and blind equality and common business sense. I believe that most companies that stipulate prospective interviewees to be proficient in Mandarin are doing it out of necessity and are exercising their business sense. Although English is taught as first language in schools, it is also common that many Singaporeans are more proficient in their mother tongue. Given that there are over 70% Chinese in Singapore, it is fair to assume that a fairly large number of these companies' customers or clients are more comfortable in speaking Mandarin. It would be remiss of them to ignore that telling statistic and not ensure that most of their staff are proficient in their customers' lingua franca.

It is true that this requirement does not "benefit" non-Mandarin-speaking job-seekers, and they probably are losing out. It may also be "unfair" to them, but until Singapore truly manages to make English its first language in reality rather than ideology, I'm afraid this is likely to perpetuate.

Sweden 0-1 Brazil

Alexandre Pato scores with a sublime chip to give Brazil a 1-0 win over Sweden.

Journalist joins pro football team for a week

This has always been a dream - to measure yourself against the best in football and see where you really stand. Well, Jen Chang of ESPNSoccernet.com got that chance with Charleston Battery, a team in a division below the American MLS, and realised three things:
1. It's hard to call for the ball from a teammate when you have no idea what his name is.
2. It's hard to shake loose and even find space from pro defenders, especially in confined spaces.
3. Pro players keep the ball very well. It's almost a waste of time to try to grab it from them.

All true, and he makes more candid and self-depreciating observations here.

Have-Your Mascara-No

Javier Mascherano and Liverpool are livid at what they see as being made a scapegoat for Ashley Cole's referee-baiting over last weekend. In truth though, the Argentine hardman got everything he deserved, and maybe more is in store for him.

Since he got referee Steve Bennett's first booking, he was constantly taunting Bennett for the rest of his short time on the pitch, whether it was a United or Liverpool foul. His limited command of the English language was apparently limited to vulgarities and he got his unpleasant mug in Bennett's face every chance he got.

You could tell Bennett was exercising great patience, and his dissent over Fernando Torres' booking, however civilised, was the last straw.

Really, after being booked and knowing the emphasis on respecting referees, he should know better. He didn't and really has only himself to blame. How Xabi Alonso must wish he had put more effort into restraining him from stalking Bennett.

Just now

This must be one of the most misused phrases in the English language. Singaporeans have taken to mean something that happened in the past, but it actually means something happening presently. "I was about to take the dog for a walk just now. But it's started to rain." What Singaporeans mean is "just then".

French lesson

Jars of Clay's Much Afraid

Empty again
Sunken down so far
So scared to fall
I might not get up again

So I lay at your feet
All my brokenness
I carry all of my burdens to you

Chorus:
All of these things
I've held up in vain
No reason nor rhyme
Just the scars that remain
Of all of these things
I'm so much afraid
Scared out of my mind
By the demons I've made
Sweet Jesus, you never ever let me go
Oh, sweet Jesus, never ever let me go

So happy to love
Yet so far to go
You lead me on to where I've never been before

[Chorus]

Camilio Villegas - Spider-man of golf

A daughter's love

A father's love

Honesty

Letter published in The New Paper, 17 Mar 2008, p26
Some furore in The New Paper over how netizens were only to keen to say that they would not donate money to a Chinese national suffering from leukemia simply because he wasn't Singaporean. The crux of the article was the discrepancy between Singaporeans' opinion on an online poll and in a face-to-face (F2F) poll.

In the online poll, 80% of respondents said they WOULDN'T donate. In the F2F one, 90% said they WOULD. This is a swing of opinion that is unfathomable. Psychologists say that this is a result of something they call social desirability - interviewees give answers they think the interviewer wants to hear, so as to be accepted by him/her. Even if this was true, this is virtually a 180-degree turnaround!

I don't think by any measure that netizens are more honest - on the contrary, I think the World Wide Web's anonymity has conceived a very vocal minority emboldened by a false sense of bravado to respond to all issues cynically, so as to gain the approval of their peers. It's apparently a popular thing to be anti-establishment, so we hear. Press these people in a F2F interview, and you'll hear a different story.

I conclude that in a poll of opinion, the medium is very important. While anonymity has been proven to be important to honesty in an interview, the rather flippant nature of the netizens' response suggests that online polls and forums aren't the way to go either. Netizens (I hate that word) can easily hide behind fictitious nicknames and avatars and post whatever they want, which is what has happened here. Are they more truthful? No.

I believe the answer lies somewhere in between - an anonymous phone interview perhaps? That's one for the researchers to think about.
Source: The New Paper, 14 Mar 2008, p10

Dead Sea mud

Was walking in Raffles City when I got stopped with the familiar eczema question. "Here we go again," I thought. Happened to be this non-Asian guy, and we were waiting for Angela to choose jelly bean flavours, so why not?

Turned out he was selling mud from the Dead Sea, supposedly packed with minerals. I tried it on my wrist and must say I could feel the sulphur opening up my pores and everything, and perhaps absorbing the toxins and whatnot.

I was very impressed with his (he was a Jew named Ziv) unimposing attitude. We Singaporeans have much to learn. As he put it, when he tried to sell something, some Singaporeans tried to sell him something too!

Anyhow, it's a discounted $60 for 750ml of it. Expensive for mud, surely, but I was close to giving it a shot. But on Ziv's advice, I'm gonna do some research first. =]

You can find out more, like I did, at http://www.cleopatraschoice.com/dead-sea-mud-benefits.php

Global warming? What global warming?

While Singapore is in the throes of global warming and rising sea levels, it is perhaps ironic that we have experienced one of our coldest days and months since 1934. 13 Mar 2008 (Thu) was one of the coldest days on record - 21.8C - but I couldn't even remember it. We have record rainfall this month of March, when it is usually preposterously hot, as well as a record low mean temperature of about 25C. What gives? But I'm not complaining - I LOVE THE DRIZZLES!

Mas Selamat Kasturi's escape

Prison Break has its MS (Michael Scofield). Now Singapore has our very own MS: Mas Selamat. By now, you should have heard that Mas Selamat bin Kasturi, the former leader of Jemaah Islamiyah's (JI) Singapore branch, has escaped. While that is worrying enough, the way he escaped is even more worrying.

Firstly, this guy limps real slow. Apparently, he escaped from the not-so-high-security Whitley Road Detention Centre when he was being brought to the toilet. As Angela attests, having gone there on a learning journey recently, there are guards, high fences, cameras and other security features. Are you telling me he gave the guard the slip, hobbled to the gate in prisoner garb and ran away into the forest with no guards in hot pursuit? And that during the time he escaped at 1605hrs, no one raised the alarm?

Something tells me it must be an inside job. How do you explain the relative ease with which he escaped? It's Prison Break on a B-grade scale. According to Minster for Home Affairs Wong Kan Seng, an investigation is underway. An explanation is due. I believe heads will roll.

I was also quite perturbed by a guy interviewed at Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal for his views on the affair. "I don't feel anything much. Just disappointed, that's all." Oh, I see. Why exactly do you feel disappointed? Did you personally contribute something to his security which explains your disappointment in the lapse? Such apathy.

Gurkhas

We know who they are, but how do you pronounce it? A former police officer volunteered goo-ka, but that sounded terribly rude. Dictionary.com says gur-ka, which sounds more plausible. Little Miss Whoops (Jasmine) suggests asking the Gurkhas themselves. Can you see her walking up to the guards at the Istana? Oh no...

Ken Lee - Bulgarian Idol

Any comment is not enough. This is definitely the video of the year.

Port Dickson recce

Was that the most tiring recce ever? Yes.
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Off to Port Dickson for a day trip to recce the Church Retreat site. Watch here for updates.

BBC: Penang abandons pro-Malay policy

The Malaysian state of Penang says it will no longer follow a controversial central government policy favouring ethnic Malays above other citizens.

Penang is one of five states now controlled by the opposition, after elections on Saturday saw big losses for the governing coalition.

Malaysia has had a policy of favouring ethnic Malays in jobs and education for almost four decades.

The large Chinese and Indian minorities have become increasingly angry.

Correspondents say it was largely this anger that led to the dramatic election results over the weekend.

Equal opportunities

Lim Guan Eng was sworn into office as head of state in Penang, after his Democratic Action Party (DAP) won a convincing election victory.

As soon as he was appointed, he immediately targeted the central government's long-standing New Economic Policy favouring ethnic Malays.

"We want to run the state government administration free from the New Economic Policy that only breeds cronyism, corruption and systematic inefficiency," he told reporters.

"This is also a government that believes in equal opportunity and social economic justice. We are here to build a dynamic Penang for all," he said.

The policy was started in the early 1970s, to increase opportunities for the often poverty-stricken ethnic Malays - giving them preference in jobs, university seats and access to services.

But many Malaysians - even some Malays - say that it has only benefited an elite few.

Election upheaval

The country's large Chinese and Indian minorities - who make up more than a third of the population - have become increasingly critical of what they regard as blatant racial discrimination.

Ethnic Indians held a large protest rally in November which attracted more than 80,000 people.

Mr Abdullah's National Front coalition suffered its worst election result in five decades in Saturday's elections.

It won more than half of all seats in parliament, but still suffered unprecedented losses.

An alliance of opposition parties won seats in the states of Penang, Kedah, Perak and Selangor, and the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) retained control of Kelantan, leaving the governing coalition in control of just eight states.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7289509.stm

The Simpsons Theme on classical guitar

Letters to the press

1. Who's gonna unlock the bomb shelter doors in time of an emergency?
2. Why can't we connect the Hougang Ave 7 park connector to Upp Serangoon Rd? After all, park connectors are supposed to connect!
3. Why no performance bonus for Dip Ed-ers? Where's the incentive to go for distinctions?
4. If it's too dangerous for pedestrians for cyclists to be on the pavement, and too dangerous for cyclists to be on the roads, where on earth do we go? We'd prefer the road anytime if it was made safer; the pedestrians really slow you down when they walk ba-long-long.
5. Fines as punishment for everything, from train disruptions to spitting to late payments.

Real-life The Simpsons

Zack Kim plays The Simpsons Theme

Simon's Cat in Cat-Man-Do

Simon's Cat in Let Me In!

Take, send, bring, fetch

What's the difference?
Take: here to there and accompanied by the agent e.g. take my child to school
Send: here to there without accompaniment e.g. send an e-mail
Bring: there to here e.g. bring the books to me
Fetch: here to there and back again e.g. Fetch, Joey! (throws stick)

Connie from Britain's Got Talent sings Somewhere Over the Rainbow

I was literally dumbstruck watching her sing. She truly has the voice of an angel. Those two absent front teeth really sold it for me. =]

Mind reader

http://www.quizyourprofile.com/guessyournumber.swf
Can you figure out how they do this? It's really simple if you think about it - quite an insult to the intelligence.

The perfect storm he did not see coming by Abdullah Osman, Today Online

NO MATTER which way you look at it, the Malaysian election was a referendum on Mr Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's leadership and the Prime Minister lost badly. Not only did Indian and Chinese voters rebuff the leader of the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, but the fall of Kedah, Perak and Selangor to the opposition is emphatic proof that MrAbdullah's love affair with the Malay heartland is over.

Hurt by a combination of bread-and-butter issues and a poor choice of candidates, Mr Abdullah has come to represent everything negative about the ruling coalition — indecisive and tolerant of excesses.

His biggest mistake: He did not read the signs. He underestimated the gathering of a perfect storm.

Already, the daggers are out and, true to form, the first to take a stab was his predecessor Mahathir Mohamad. Urging Mr Abdullah to resign, Dr Mahathir said: 'He has destroyed Umno, destroyed the BN. He should accept 100 per cent responsibility. I am sorry but I apparently made the wrong choice.'

Quite clearly, given the election results, it will be difficult for Mr Abdullah to stay on as presi-dent of the United Malays National Organisation (Umno) or as Prime Minister of Malaysia for very much longer.

In all likelihood, there will be a period of consolidation, during which he will appoint the Cabinet, repair the severely-damaged Gerakan and Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), restore a sense of calm to the ruling coalition and country before handing over the reins to his deputy Najib Tun Razak.

As Malaysians survey the debris from the poll, surprise and fear have come together in a heady mix.

Surprise that the all-conquering BN machinery could not secure its customary two-third majority in Parliament. Surprise that the most industrialised state, Selangor, will be governed by the opposition.

But also, there is a fear. Will there be a period of heightened tension, perhaps even riots? Will foreign investors shy away? Will the country's politics become so divisive that nothing will get done?

The answers: No. No. No.

If there is one clear winner, it is Malaysia.

For too long, the country has been going down the road of ethnic polarisation, corruption, racial dominance and religious intolerance. That is why the Chinese and Indians have felt like second-class citizens, and resented the likes of Mr Hishamuddin Hussein and Mr Khairy Jamaluddin, whose kris-wielding acts at the Umno assembly were used to the hilt by the opposition.

For the middle-class, the likes of Umno stalwart Zakaria Deros, who managed to build a palatial home without any approvals, have come to represent the unacceptable face of Malaysian politics.

Perhaps now, with a strong opposition that seems committed to a multi-racial and multi-religious Malaysia, there will be less of a tendency to only see policies through the lenses of one race.

Perhaps, now Malaysian politics will be re-calibrated back on the road to moderation. This election will change Malaysia forever, and as it is dissected and critiqued, here are several early predictions:

A two-party system may be emerging

It is early days yet but Malaysia could be witnessing the start of a two-party system. When Malaysians voted for Democratic Action Party (DAP), or Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS), or Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) candidates, they believed that they were voting for an alternative to BN.

Whether this two-party system comes to fruition will depend on DAP-PAS-PKR running their states well and not fighting over the spoils of victory. Still, the Malaysian voter has never had it better.

Voting may no longer follow racial lines

For a long time, the Indian and Chinese voter has not supported PAS, fearing its Islamic agenda. Not anymore. Chinese and Indians voted for PAS candidates across the country, including in urban seats.

For Indians, the rationale was simple: their years of supporting Umno, MIC or MCA candidates had not yielded major benefits for the community, so they were willing to give any opposition the chance.

Meamwhile, the Chinese believe that Umno has become more fundamentalist than PAS in some respects. From a marketing point of view, there is little to separate Umno from PAS these days.

Similarly some had feared that this election might have a polarising effect, with Indians and Chinese on one side, and the Malays supporting the ruling coalition on the other. This has not happened.

Instead, voters from across all races supported change.

This was the perfect storm when issues that have been percolating for two years came to a head.

For the Indians, it was the demolition of temples, marginalisation, cases of Hindus converting to Islam, and the manner in which Hindraf leaders were treated by the government. For the Chinese, it was crime, an erosion of language and cultural rights, nationalism and fear of the revival of the Malay agenda. For the Malays, inflation, crime and the excesses of Umno politicians unsettled them.

These groups were, in fact, united in their belief that Mr Abdullah had fallen far short of the targets he had promised. Yes, the economy grew by 6.3 per cent, but the gains were not felt on the ground.

Voters expect to be heard

When Mr Abdullah announced his line-up, there was an air of resignation even among his supporters. They had been pushing him to drop many old faces and discredited names and to create an aura of renewal around the BN. He dithered, reluctant to unsettle the ground. Many ended up crushed.

Similarly, he was urged to drop MIC chief Samy Vellu but felt he could not desert a friend in this time of need. Mr Vellu was also defeated. Mr Abdullah clearly misread the ground. Malaysians wanted change, and when he could not offer them that, the voters took matters into their own hands.

Anwar Ibrahim is back

Say what you like, but Mr Anwar Ibrahim is back in the fray, this time as a real player. Despite efforts by the media to demonise him, his stinging attacks on the government for corruption, his championing of issues close to the hearts of non-Malays and his charisma have made him a key figure in the election.

His party, Keadilan, won 29 seats in Parliament, indicating that an electorate looking for a strong leader has forgiven his shortcomings.

For the country, the next few months will be challenging. How the BN negotiates its reduced majority in Parliament and deals with a resurgent opposition will hold the key to the nation's political stability. In the longer term, its ability to respond to the aspirations of all Malaysians and make the necessary changes will determine just what Election 2008 really means: An aberration, a defining moment for a less race-based approach to politics, or a sign of worse things to come.
Source: http://www.todayonline.com/articles/242023print.asp

Why do donuts have holes?

The question as to why doughnuts have holes has been raised by dozens of bakers over the years, but most agree that the answer to this sticky question lies in the fact that the interior of these fried cakes would not cook fully without a hole in the center. In short, the consistency of a doughnut lacking a hole would be, quite simply, doughy.

Another riveting theory as to the origin of the bulls eye in the doughnut holds that a sea captain named Hanson Gregory, while manning his post one stormy night, found it impossible both to steer his vessel and to eat his fried cake. Out of sheer frustration, and probably out of hunger, he impaled his cake over one of the spokes of the ship's wheel, thereby creating a finger hold with which to grip the cake. Quite pleased with his ingenuity, Mr. Gregory ordered the galley's cook to fry the cakes in that manner henceforth.

Whatever the reason for the hole in the doughnut, this fried cake, with or without a hole, has been incorporated into the diets of people throughout the world for centuries. In fact, archaeologists found petrified fried cakes with holes amongst the artifacts of a primitive Indian tribe.

Many credit Dutch settlers to America with introducing the non-holed olykoeks, or "oily cakes," to this continent, and with their subsequent popularity.

There is no disputing the fact that the fried cake became the rage in New York and in New England, and that before long, it became the specialty of coffee shops. Fried cakes came into their own in 1673, when a self-made New York marketing guru, Anna Joralemon, made their purchase at the market possible.

To this day, doughnuts, in any shape or form, remain married in our minds to coffee and police officers, and are here to stay.
Source: http://www.coolquiz.com/trivia/explain/docs/doughnuts.asp

Seeking God

Met up with Zikai and had another long but productive discussion on myriad issues. Here are a few things that struck me:

Firstly, my healing has a higher chance of coming if I'm constantly seeking and pursuing God and being in His will. A no-brainer, but surely one of the most difficult things to discipline myself to do. It is all the more important if I'm to be responsible to those under me and if I expect them to seek God likewise.

Secondly, doing things for God is not the same as allowing God to do things through you. I find myself very busy nowadays and anticipate that I'll only get busier. I need to ensure that my busyness, however important for the church, does not get in the way of the things that God has in store for me.

Next, a little cud to chew on.
1. If we are baptised in the Holy Spirit, where are the signs and wonders God promised?
2. Why are we not experiencing God's powerful presence daily, when He is unchanging?
3. Why are there so many people leaving the presence of God untouched and unchanged?
4. Where sinners used to chase after Jesus, why are sinners finding church Pharisical and shying away from it?

Finally, two books I'd like to find the time to read:
Kim Clemens' Call Me Crazy but I'm Hearing God
Tommy Tenney's God Chasers

Jesus heals

Experienced God's miraculous healing power personally on Sunday in a powerful way.

I was practising for service on the bass when I realised that I was beginning to get a terrible headache. Strangely enough, it seemed to affect only the right side of my head and I could feel my skull bones aching. There seemed to be a pressure not dissimilar to that of sinusitis. It was more acute when I ran my tongue along my teeth. The moment my tongue crossed the front incisors from the left to the right, I could no longer sense my tongue touching my teeth.

Eventually I had to go lie down. The team came to pray for me and after that I went to lie down again. As I was lying there, my parents told me that it wasn't really nice to be lying there but I couldn't appreciate that thought at the moment. Then Zikai came and said it was OK if I couldn't play, and that I had to decide in three minutes. I mumbled something in reply and just lay there.

Not a minute later, I just felt the ache and numbness just melt away from the right side of my face. It felt as if someone had just pulled it off. I got up right away and felt as right as rain.

I went on to play for the service and gave a testimony later. I'd never experience God's healing so vividly and immediately before. I believe that if God can heal me of this, then eczema is within his job scope as well. But only if I seek him, which brings me to my second post.

20,000 hits!

Not too long ago we celebrated 10,000 hits - now we've doubled it! Thanks and keep reading!

Foong Kee wanton mee

The search for the excellent yet elusive wantan mee continues. Apparently, many people rate this one called Foong Kee at 6 Keong Saik Rd, just off Outram Park. Jasmine and I wanna try it next Friday! Fei Fei wat your heart out!
Photos: http://ieatishootipost.blogspot.com/

The South African petri dish: The sexist culture thrives

Sexism is well and truly alive in the world. If you want to find the hotbed of it, look no further than the sunny climes of South Africa, previously home to apartheid and now the breeding ground of worryingly sexist behaviour.

Apparently, South African women have had enough, with hundreds of them marching through Johannesburg with signs declaring "We Love Our Miniskirts!". The spark that lit the tinder was an incident at a taxi stand where a young woman was unceremonially disrobed by taxi drivers and hawkers, apparently for showing too much skin. They went on to touch her private parts, taunting her while pouring alcohol on her head. The alcohol, of course, is another problem for another article that probably fuelled this disparate reaction.

What's even more shocking than this is the prevailing apathy and narrow-minded view that the high incidence of rape in South Africa (50,000 reported annually, with some activists claiming as many as 1,000,000) is the fault of women who express themselves over-zealously through fashion. That is to say, mini-skirts.

One such idiot is taxi driver Thulani Nhlapho, 21. "If you are wearing a mini-skirt, you give the impression you want to be raped. You respect yourself when you wear a longer skirt. We respect women who respect themselves."

Going by his flawed reasoning, men in running shorts and little else better watch out or they are really asking for it.

Another such Neanderthal is car guard Edwin Ndlovu, 29. "We laugh because they are naked. As a person, you have to control your feelings. It is difficult when women are naked. That's how some men end up raping women."

I really hope he isn't speaking from experience, because it really is a poor excuse. Maybe jewellers should stop displaying their wares because robbers can't control their feelings? Made-up excuses aside, he really needs to check the dictionary to distinguish between underdressed and naked.

I am shocked that such blatant sexism still exists in the 21st century, but there you go. If there's one country that needs sex education, South Africa should be right at the head of the queue.
Source: The New Paper, 6 Mar 2008, p. 22

Folding the best paper airplane

Doing an activity on origami so I thought the children should learn how to make the best paper airplane ever. The first one here was featured in the Times:


This next one was looks so weird, I don't know where to begin. You can find it here:


This one is called the Dragon. Who knows why.

Torres double hat-trick

Just look at El Nino's snap half-volley of Dirk Kuyt's deflected cross: they don't teach this at finishing school - you can't. You either have it or you don't. Ruud van Nistelrooy had it, as did Romario, Ian Rush, Ian Wright and few others. And now, Fernando Torres picks up the mantle with two consecutive Premier League hat-tricks, making him only the fourth player to do so.

National Environment Agency: Let's clean up!

This must be the lamest TV ad out there now, and I see it all the time on TV Mobile. Four young hosts whom I really don't care about strut about in front of a green screen. The graphics are good but the acting is really worse than, say, Triple Nine, though that'd be insulting to James Lye & Co.

One of the guys has a ridiculous side-parting not seen since the days of the Donald Trump combover. He has the gall to say, "If I can do it, so can you!", it being keeping the environment clean. He even had the thumb pointing to himself and the snap of the wrist to point a finger to the viewer. Like, seriously, do I care who you are? This is a celebrity endorsement without the celebrity. NEA really does need to make better use of taxpayers' money by getting bigger bang for their advertising buck.

Inconsistency giving the FA a bad name by Jon Carter, ESPNSoccernet

If the past few weeks are anything to go by, the definition of 'violent conduct' in the English dictionary needs updating.

With a host of unpunished tackles flying in that would be deemed dangerous on a rugby pitch and red-cards being given out for the slightest indiscretion, the Football Association's four-man Regulatory Commission seem intent on creating more problems than they solve.


Frank Lampard gets his marching orders, but he won't face a ban...

... while Jeremie Aliadiere gets a red card against Liverpool for raising his hands.

Accused of running one rule for 'rich' and another for the 'poor', the panel have hardly helped their case with the decision to rescind Frank Lampard's straight red card for a push on West Ham's Luis Boa Morte, yet choosing to give Middlesbrough's Jeremie Aliadiere an extra game's ban for a light slap on Javier Mascherano a week earlier.

While the Chelsea midfielder did not strike his opponent in the face (as previously thought by the referee's assistant), his attempts to kick out at Boa Morte, who should have been similarly dealt with for his part in the proceedings, smacked of something we have seen all season - petulance - and the FA need to address the consistency in which they deal with such actions.

Lampard's behaviour, while not in the spirit of the game, was certainly not 'violent', or worthy of a three-match suspension; but then neither was Aliadiere's and both were clearly seen by the referee, who could only go by the letter of the law.

Middlesbrough accused the FA of a 'travesty of justice' after they were told that their appeal had been 'frivolous' and were forced to accept a additional one game ban for their player for supposedly wasting the FA's time. With this affront still fresh in their minds, it is understandable to see why they are angry when the situation seems so different for teams like Chelsea and Liverpool.

The fact that Mascherano was let off without even a yellow card while Aliadiere is forced to sit on the sidelines for four games may have incensed the Boro board; but news of Lampard's reprieve will only increase their sense of injustice.

The FA's decision to treat a similar incident differently is not just worrying for the state of the game, but an insult to the entire procedure and this kind of inconsistency has happened across the leagues all season.

On the same day as Newcastle's Joey Barton was let off for cuffing Villa striker Shaun Maloney round the head due to 'inconclusive' video evidence, Hartlepool defender Sam Collins' dismissal at Southend United in February was rejected as 'frivolous' and the player incurred an extra game suspension, despite being harshly adjudged to have used an elbow.

To punish a club for trying to aid their player appears odd and now the appeals process for any red-card has to be given serious consideration by clubs who run the risk of angering the FA and increasing the length of the ban.

To add to the level of inconsistency perpetuated by the FA's panel there have been terrible tackles, missed by the officials, which have gone unpunished all season and should have merited retrospective action.

While Lampard's 'violent conduct' against West Ham at the weekend got all the attention, Claude Makelele somehow managed to get away with a over-the-ball stamp on Julian Faubert, who was lucky to avoid serious injury. Makelele was not even booked and there have been numerous incidents which have not been deemed worthy of investigating.

Under FIFA guidelines, retrospective disciplinary action can only been taken if an incident was not seen by the referee or if there has been a clear error in judgement. Quite what constitutes a 'clear error' remains up for debate, but surely if the referee had seen it properly then he would have acted.

Understandably the FA do not want to be seen to contradict the men in charge, but these kinds of incidents will keep occurring if nothing is done. Referees are human after all and the whole point of the video panel is to provide back-up for an official when he makes a mistake.

The trouble is that the FA are so blinded by maintaining their good name that they are willing to gloss over incidents that make them (or their officials) look bad.

With a host of incidents occurring already this season which the FA have failed to take any action over, including tackles by Michael Essien, Craig Gardner, Dirk Kuyt, El Hadji Diouf and Emmanuel Eboue; the most recent example comes in the form of Reading's Stephen Hunt (himself no stranger to controversy).

A meeting of Lee Carsley's studs with Hunt's shin at the start of February provoked an angry reaction from the Reading man, and yet the powers that be deemed the tackle unworthy of a second look, despite that fact that it was totally missed by referee Mark Halsey.

Quite simply, the FA panel should be capable of resolving these incidents retrospectively with the application of common sense. In addition, they should also be able to reduce a three-match ban to just one-match for players who are found guilty of petulance or improper conduct, as in the case of Lampard and Aliadiere.

A rule, retrospective or otherwise, that would deal with the occurrence of a red-card which does not constitute 'violent conduct' is sorely needed. Other examples have sprung up recently, with Willam Gallas' petulant kick on Nani in Arsenal's FA Cup defeat to Manchester United a classic case, yet situations like this are continually ignored by the FA because they don't want to undermine their officials.

Ultimately, if the FA's review panel are ever going to gain credibility in a footballing world which is getting increasingly harder to police, the decisions they make have to be consistent. Too often there are precedents which are not followed and the smaller teams are left feeling that they are treated differently to the cash cows.

The theory is that with the application of some common sense then it shouldn't represent too much of an undertaking to improve their decisions. However if the FA continue to put their own image before the good of the game, then don't hold your breath.
Source: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=513410&root=england&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos2&cc=4716

Means testing

This letter was published in The New Paper on 5 Mar 2008, p24.
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I was not sure previously what means testing meant, but I must comment that Mr Khaw Boon Wan's method of assessing the amount of subsidy a patient receives for Class B2 & C wards is a breath of fresh air. He has done away with the rigid system used so widely in our Government and introduced what can only be described as a fairer and more flexible system. Instead of one inflexible income ceiling, there are now as many as 16 different stages spanning $2000 in average monthly income, each with a difference in subsidy of only 1%. If everyone was to follow suit, we may never see the words 'falling in the gap' any more in The New Paper's human-interest sob stories.

For example, for the C Class wards, a family earning $3200 and below gets an 80% subsidy. Previously, it would not be uncommon for someone to earn, say, $3300/month and fall in the gap completely, getting no subsidy at all. This practice forced people to desperate measures like asking their employers to pay them less just to meet the income requirements. As we speak, come couples applying to buy new flats are caught in this conundrum, earning just above $8000 and qualifying only for resale flats. With this new means testing system, it is hoped that such borderline cases will be dealt with greater mathematical sympathy and flexibility. The more exhaustive the range, the fewer unfortunate borderline cases there will be.

Now if only the other ministries could follow MOH's lead and correct their inflexible systems to better cater to the needs of Singaporeans. Knowing our Government, they'll probably adopt a prudent wait-and-see attitude. May I stick my neck out and say they should start developing them immediately: Mr Khaw's means testing looks every bit a winner.
Reference: The New Paper, 4 Mar 2008, p10-11

Love is..

"Love is feeling like you have known her for a lifetime, yet wanting to spend a lifetime with her." - Aaron Wong

Can your hair ever be too smooth?

DHL ad

Why wedding dresses are white

Son asked his mother the following question:
"Mom, why are wedding dresses white?" The mother looks at her son and replies, "Son, this shows your friends and relatives that your bride is pure."
The son thanks his Mom and goes off to double-check this with his father.
"Dad, why are wedding dresses white?"
The father looks at his son in surprise and says, "Son, all household appliances come in white."
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Before I get hammered for this, I did some research, and this is what I found:

White did not become a popular option until 1840, after the marriage of Queen Victoria to Albert of Saxe-Coburg. Victoria had worn a white gown for the event so as to incorporate some lace she owned. The official wedding portrait photograph was widely published, and many other brides opted for a similar dress in honor of the Queen's choice. The tradition continues today in the form of a white wedding, though prior to the Victorian era a bride was married in any color except black (the color of mourning) or red (which was connected with prostitutes). Later, many people assumed that the color white was intended to symbolize virginity, though this had not been the original intention. (It was the color blue that was connected to purity.) Today, the white dress is understood merely as the most traditional and popular choice for weddings, not necessarily a statement of virginity.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedding_dress

So there you go. Both the father and mother were not quite correct, but not quite wrong either. =]

Men, men, men

According to The New Paper, 51% of Singaporean men would carry their girl's handbag. Sissies.

80% of men would pay for the date. Well, if women want equality they'll need to pay for it.

91% of men would send the girl home. I assume they have a car?

Total Defence Day

Two readers have replied to the sweet potato article, saying exactly what I wanted to say if I had mustered the courage to go against MOE policy and write to The New Paper. Kudos to Kiara Chua and Matthew Lee, who basically said that it was unfair to stereotype students as spoilt due to the different lifestyles they have, and that the academic staff should have been put through similar treatment to prevent hypocrisy. I rest my case.
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28 Feb 2008, 1834hrs
Read in our favourite TNP today about Total Defence Day. You know, for a front page headline and page two story, I thought they'd entrust it to someone better than two newsroom interns. I do know how difficult it is to write a piece in a few hours, so my sympathies there.

But what followed was a very biased piece whining about how soft and spoilt our children are nowadays. The blame was laid very squarely at the children's feet, but I feel this is very unfair. While I agree that some of them do have life good and could be taught better manners and behaviour, is it really the children's fault that they don't know how to eat sweet potato? Or that they complain when there is the fan in the classroom is turned off? Children nowadays have a very "different lifestyle", as a vice-principal astutely put it. The children can only experience what they are put through. If the parents do not put them through relative hardship, are the children to go looking for it? Don't blame them for being spoilt when there are people more than willing to spoil them with air-conditioned comfort and domestic help.

And please don't blame them for complaining at being hot after PE or recess in a stuffy classroom. Classrooms are relative heat sinks; having been in front of one many times, I know how it feels even with the fan on. On a hot afternoon, it can really stifle the life out of you. I actually pity the children, especially those with skin-related problems. I can imagine how they would have itched and scratched. It is really unfair to put them through such discomfort and imagine that they will accept it gratefully as a lesson. I'm sure our pioneers did grumble here and there about the discomfort as well.

Personally, I can identify with the students who complained about the staff room having air-conditioning. Is Total Defence something only our young should learn about? What does it say to them when the teachers justify the importance of Total Defence in the sweltering classroom and then retreat to the cool climes of the classroom to curse Total Defence Day? It's like justifying talking during the national anthem and then pulling out children for talking.

How can children be content with what they have when they haven't had the opportunity to compare it to anything else?

Now, regarding the sweet potato. Personally, I don't mind the stuff. But you are comparing an adult to primary school children. Surely they are allowed to protest if they are given something they've never tasted before to eat? I imagine that adults would complain at being given fried grasshoppers, so why do we expect a different reaction?

It's simple really. The New Paper has always been willing to treat our education system and children as a ever-present story generator. They rise up in mock outrage when mundane things happen and stir up a hornet's nest at the slightest inkling of a story. It is unfair, unhelpful and honestly irritating.

Bad English

If our newspapers are the paragons of good English, then I'm afraid we are doomed. Just within two sports pages in The New Paper, I found these gems:

"We received an overwhelming number of mails for the question: Who would you want as striker in your team - Wayne Rooney or Fernando Torres."

OK, since when is mail countable? And when does a question not have a question mark?

"This match will be free entry to public, compliments of SAFFC."

So much for the S-League.

"Matches as follow:"

Is the letter 's' at a premium here?

Disgusting.

Haze

The haze is back, but not as bad. Those Indonesian idiots are at it again. And how is the Asean Charter supposed to help with their perpetual pollution?

Oops!

Another exciting episode in Jasmine's catalogue of mishaps.

Q: Jasmine was opening a box of chocolate biscuits which was wrapped in foil. Think Arnott's Tim-Tam. Upon pulling the tray out of the foil, a stack of the biscuits promptly dropped to the floor. Why?

A: Simple gravity, my dear readers. She had failed to see big blue words emblazoned across the packaging that said 'THIS SIDE UP' and had opened it upside-down. Sigh.

Writing activity

Observed a writing activity conducted my Ms Lim Swee Ching. Ms Lim is my main CT and she's really, really nice. Prepared a file for me and all. If only all CTs were like Kok Siang and her, and the world will be a better place.

She did what I did not think was possible - take P3 kids through a four-period lesson:
First, she revised some good practices in writing, alluding to the introduction, ending, adjectives, adverbs and direct speech.
Then, she gave detailed instructions for group work, before releasing the children to generate vocabulary for the group composition.
At every point, she tried to stretch this above-average class by rejecting some of their simple words and asking them to try harder. This was stretching the children in practice. They were also advised to refer to their writing guides for ideas.
For weaker groups, she provided them a list of words that described emotions. This was differentiated instruction in action.
She then consolidated the groups' work and showed good examples to the class, including some of her own words.
The children were now tasked to write a composition in their group. Cue pandemonium, pen grabbing, arguing over who goes first etc. right? Wrong. By and large, this class was able to distribute work thanks to their well-defined roles of leader, quiet captain, resource manager and timekeeper. Only minor intervention was required.
Work all done, these pupils were supposed to write individually the next lesson, where it'll be graded and recorded. Let's see how it goes.

William Gallas: Captain Underpants

Many have come out and said that William Gallas should be stripped of his captaincy. Here I present Exhibits A and B.
First, he kicked out at Nani when Arsenal were 4-0 down. Then, in another match against Birmingham, he kicked advertising hoardings and sat down by the touchline crying like a baby when Clichy conceded an injury-time penalty. Tony Adams and Patrick Vieira must be hiding their faces.

Nani seal juggling

This is class. Really rubbed salt into the Gunners' wounds. Got the Gunners' knickers all in a twist.

Excursion to Singapore River

Went with 3 Meticulous to the Singapore River under the blazing hot sun. They were quite a handful though I could empathise given the weather and the inability to hear the guide at any given time. The girls are fine really - already have some favourites - but the boys seem to have ants in their pants. I don't know how some of these more experienced teachers build up a tolerance to rowdiness. I hope I'll find out one day.

Church Retreat meeting

Had our first real meeting with the Church Retreat workforce. Working with Pastor Nettie is a breeze - our responsibilities, the agenda etc. were already prepared - such is the effectiveness! Seems that I have the most to do: I hope I can balance this with board responsibilities, practicum and wedding preparations.

Kickboxer breaks leg

If you thought Eduardo's was bad, take a look at this.

Real Madrid 0-1 Getafe

Wah, stupidity. Arjen Robben thought he'd scored then half the team went to celebrate. But someone was offside so Getafe counter-attacked 4-on-2 and scored, for real this time. Stoopid. Rafizah, eat your heart out!

Jasmine Tang vs Eric Tsang

Jasmine has lost her voice and doesn't know where she put it. Now she sounds like Eric Tsang, the guy in the middle who hosts Super Trio. I can't talk to her without laughing. =]

Eduardo's broken ankle

Wedding meeting

Angela, Yewhock, Sharon, Jasmine and I met for the first time to outline what we needed to do for our 23 May 2009 wedding. There were so many things to discuss over dinner at New York New York that we started getting stares at the 3 1/2 hour mark. We managed to achieve a lot and basically everyone knows what to do. Plus a bonus: we got our queue number for Damai Grove - 589! And there are 676 flats to choose from so we confirm can get a flat. Just depends how picky we are.

How to fold a t-shirt in two seconds

Twister

Flixster Plot: The largest storm to hit Oklahoma in more than half a century is brewing, and it promises to drop multiple twisters into Tornado Alley. It's the storm that two rival groups of scientists--Jo Harding (Helen Hunt) and her band of brash university students, and corporate-sponsored Dr. Jonas Miller and his sleek, crack cadre with their state-of-the-art research vans--have been waiting for to earn their place in meteorological history. Each team wants to be the first to launch their own equipment pack inside a twister to transmit valuable scientific data about tornado behavior. But to do so, they must put themselves directly in the path of the marauding monster--and stay always just ahead of the swirling twister, anticipating its every move. Adding to the charged atmosphere, Jo's soon-to-be-ex-husband, meteorologist Bill Harding (Bill Paxton), reluctantly joins Jo and his old crew for this last, epic chase.

My take: Amazing graphics for the F5 tornado. Not bad for a 90s movie. And I think I saw Rob Schneider somewhere in there. Can anyone verify?

Dilbert's In-duh-viduals

"We were given our yearly evaluations and handed our objectives for the upcoming year: "Everyone must exceed the Team Average in sales dollars." My boss explained that this was not a case of exceeding a previous average; all ten of us were expected to be above whatever our current average was."

"I love it when it stays light out until it gets dark."

"If my father were alive he would be turning over in his grave."

"I'd like to wish a happy 15th anniversary to our extinguished colleague."

"Man, I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous!"

"You couldn't pay me to work on commission."

“They’re going through paper like it grows on trees.”

Listening & Speaking lesson plans

Finished both, including my calculator activities. Now for practicum.
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Took me ages to complete one. I think I'm gonna just die at practicum.

Under the Tuscan Sun

Flixster Plot: After a brutal divorce, Frances (Lane) is persuaded by her friend Patti (Sandra Oh) to take a tour of Italy--where, on a whim that she hopes will rescue her from her desperate unhappiness, she buys a rundown villa and sets out to renovate it. Along the way, she gets advice from a former Fellini actress, meets a scrumptious Italian lover, and helps support Patti after her own relationship derails. The conclusion of Under the Tuscan Sun holds no surprises, but the deft turns and observations along the way are delightful. Lane carries the film effortlessly but surely, exuding both heartbreak and re-awakening passion. --Bret Fetzer

My take: Nothing special here, just a well-written story that ends all too familiarly.

Boogie Nights

Face/Off

Flixster Plot: At his best, director John Woo turns action movies into ballets of blood and bullets grounded in character drama. Face/Off marks Woo's first American film to reach the pitched level of his best Hong Kong work (Hard-Boiled). He takes a patently absurd premise--hero and villain exchange identities by literally swapping faces in science-fiction plastic surgery--and creates a double-barreled revenge film driven by the split psyches of its newly redefined characters. FBI agent Sean Archer (John Travolta) must play the villain to move through the underworld while psychotic terrorist Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage) becomes a perversely paternal family man while using every tool at his disposal to destroy his nemesis. Travolta vamps Cage's tics and flamboyant excess with the grace of a dancer after his transformation from cop to criminal, while Cage plays the sullen, bottled-up agent excruciatingly trapped behind the face of the man who killed his son. His attempts to live up to the terrorist's reputation become cathartic explosions of violence that both thrill and terrify him. This is merely icing on the cake for action fans, the dramatic backbone for some of the most visceral action thrills ever. Woo fills the screen with one show-stopping set piece after another, bringing a poetic grace to the action freakout with sweeping camerawork and sophisticated editing. This marriage of melodrama and mayhem ups the ante from cops-and-robbers clichés to a conflict of near-mythic levels. --Sean Axmaker

My take: Typical overcooked John Woo largesse.

The Recruit

Flixster Plot: "Nothing is what it seems" in The Recruit, a guessing-game thriller that employs plot twists and conflicting loyalties as its primary raison d'être. Surrounded by potential deception, a newly recruited CIA officer (Colin Farrell) must determine if his manipulative instructor (Al Pacino) is being honest when he identifies Farrell's fellow recruit and love interest (Bridget Moynahan) as an enemy "mole" assigned to steal a dangerous computer virus from CIA headquarters. While claiming to offer an insider's look at CIA training methods, this engrossing yet ultimately predictable plot is pure Hollywood fantasy; any resemblance to reality is purely coincidental, leaving the perpetually unshaven and scruffily coiffed Farrell to fend for himself in Pacino's cynical arena while tracing his familial roots in the spy game. Wearing its cleverness on its sleeve, The Recruit is an adequately elaborate puzzle of perceptions. "Everything is a test," as Farrell soon realizes, and attentive viewers will enjoy piecing it all together. --Jeff Shannon

My take: Pretty riveting stuff. Nothing special though.

The Stockdale Paradox

Something Pastor Koo mentioned that was rather interesting in his sermon When Life Sucks:

"Retain faith that you will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties. At the same time, confront the brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be." - Jim Collins in Good to Great

The name refers to Admiral Jim Stockdale, who was the highest ranking United States military officer in the “Hanoi Hilton” prisoner-of-war camp during the height of the Vietnam War. Tortured over 20 times during his eight-year imprisonment from 1965 to 1973, Stockdale lived out the war without any prisoner's rights, no set release date, and no certainty as to whether he would even survive to see his family again. He shouldered the burden of command, doing everything he could to create conditions that would increase the number of prisoners who would survive unbroken, while fighting an internal war against his captors and their attempts to use the prisoners for propaganda. At one point, he beat himself with a stool and cut himself with a razor, deliberately disfiguring himself, so that he could not be put on videotape as an example of a “well-treated prisoner.” He exchanged secret intelligence information with his wife through their letters, knowing that discovery would mean more torture and perhaps death. He instituted rules that would help people to deal with torture (no one can resist torture indefinitely, so he created a step-wise system—after x minutes, you can say certain things—that gave the men milestones to survive toward). He instituted an elaborate internal communications system to reduce the sense of isolation that their captors tried to create, which used a five-by-five matrix of tap codes for alpha characters. (Tap-tap equals the letter a, tap-pause-tap-tap equals the letter b, tap-tap-pause-tap equals the letter f, and so forth, for 25 letters, c doubling for k.) At one point, during an imposed silence, the prisoners mopped and swept the central yard using the code, swish-swashing out “We love you” to Stockdale, on the third anniversary of his being shot down. After his release, Stockdale became the first three-star officer in the history of the navy to wear both aviator wings and the Congressional Medal of Honor.

You can understand, then, my anticipation at the prospect of spending part of an afternoon with Stockdale. One of my students had written his paper on Stockdale, who happened to be a senior research fellow studying the Stoic philosophers at the Hoover Institution right across the street from my office, and Stockdale invited the two of us for lunch. In preparation, I read In Love and War, the book Stockdale and his wife had written in alternating chapters, chronicling their experiences during those eight years.

As I moved through the book, I found myself getting depressed. It just seemed so bleak—the uncertainty of his fate, the brutality of his captors, and so forth. And then, it dawned on me: “Here I am sitting in my warm and comfortable office, looking out over the beautiful Stanford campus on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. I’m getting depressed reading this, and I know the end of the story! I know that he gets out, reunites with his family, becomes a national hero, and gets to spend the later years of his life studying philosophy on this same beautiful campus. If it feels depressing for me, how on earth did he deal with it when he was actually there and did not know the end of the story?”

“I never lost faith in the end of the story,” he said, when I asked him. “I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade.”

* * *

I didn’t say anything for many minutes, and we continued the slow walk toward the faculty club, Stockdale limping and arc-swinging his stiff leg that had never fully recovered from repeated torture. Finally, after about a hundred meters of silence, I asked, “Who didn’t make it out?”

“Oh, that’s easy,” he said. “The optimists.”

“The optimists? I don’t understand,” I said, now completely confused, given what he’d said a hundred meters earlier.

“The optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say,‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.”

Another long pause, and more walking. Then he turned to me and said, “This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”

To this day, I carry a mental image of Stockdale admonishing the optimists: “We’re not getting out by Christmas; deal with it!”

Source: http://www.jimcollins.com/lib/goodToGreat/ch4_p83.html

Test item construction

I can't believe I put in so much work to try and get an A by doing P5 geometry. Why do I try so hard for? I don't even get a bonus for good results; the futility of it all.

Sunshine

Flixster Plot: Fifty years from now, the sun is dying, and mankind is dying with it. Our last hope: a spaceship and a crew of eight men and women. They carry a device which will breathe new life into the star. But deep into their voyage, out of radio contact with Earth, their mission is starting to unravel. There is an accident, a fatal mistake, and a distress beacon from a spaceship that disappeared seven years earlier. Soon the crew is fighting not only for their lives, but their sanity.

My take: Angela, special effects aside, I still don't see what the fuss is about.

Budget 2008

Two main goodies from Minister Tharman:
1. 40% subsidy for part-time degrees at local universities:
This will save me about $10K. It'll help Jasmine and me out in our savings too.

2. $600 in Growth Dividends:
I think this is the amount I should be getting. Money's money!

Gems reunion dinner

Well, it was a reunion of sorts, as we haven't had ALG meetings since last year because of the restructuring. I was so glad 16 people came; I had no idea so many would come. Thanks to all of you for making the supreme effort to come from all over the island. It wasn't the best laid plans as we gave up the steamboat idea to go to a kopitiam instead, but in the end it was OK. Thank God.

Here's looking to a blessed Year of the Rat for Agape and Gems!

A Whole New World recording

Urbanwire alumni

Met up with Mr. Yee, Keh, Haris and James at the Urbanwire launch party. It's now been five years since my time there. The emperor hasn't changed at all, but it all feels like another part of my life altogether. Miss Agnes, Karene, Jude, Sab and the lot. Those were the days. "In the forest..."

Readers' Theatre

It's finally over. I think we did well despite some last-minute changes to the timing in the morning. Our combined cab fares came to $50! The performance went ok, but I wasn't so sure about the assessment. There's a vast difference between stuff that'll work in theory and what happens in reality. I haven't quite grasped it yet.
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4 Feb 2008, 2159hrs
My groupmates selected my script as the one to be performed, despite being half-completed. I hope to repay their faith in me. That means sending it out by tonight. The good news is I do feel a little energised, so I might be able to pull this off.
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3 Feb 2008, 1959hrs
Managed to get the skeleton out, thanks to Jasmine. Now it's some intra-solar system getting-to-know-you party, seeing the planets' orbits have not intersected for 4.6 billion years. So the Sun invites all of them for a house-warming (geddit?) party. Interesting conversations entail.
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2 Feb 2008, 1059hrs
Learnt some new befangled EL integration strategy where students perform by reading from a script that's been dramatised from a fiction or (less commonly) non-fiction text. Our assignment requires to write one such script and perform it at Juying Primary. It's supposed to be 15 minutes long. I'm just thinking of the sheer number of words I need to fit in. And it's due Monday. =[

Richard Clayderman's Ballade pour Adeline

Old skool man.

Ambigrams

These refer to words that look the same whether you look at them upside-down or right-side-up. An alternative to this is one word that looks different when you look at it either way. This is one that reads as Chinwei and Yuenhar at the same time!

You can find more at http://ambigram.matic.com/ambigram.htm

Legalese

Aiping was asking me to interpret a section of the Companies Act of Singapore. It didn't seem like English at all, and I concluded that even lawyers need English teachers. A sentence of over 60 words ran on without a single comma, semi-colon, colon, hyphen or whatever - it just ran on and on, conditional clauses and other sentence fragments notwithstanding. Here it is in all its glory - you make sense of it:
"Accounting records and systems of control"

4) If accounting and other records are kept by the company at a place outside Singapore there shall be sent to and kept at a place in Singapore and be at all times open to inspection by the directors such statements and returns with respect to the business dealt with in the records so kept as will enable to be prepared true and fair profit and loss accounts and balance-sheets and any documents required to be attached thereto.

New Police Story

Flixster Plot: Inspector Wing of the Hong Kong Police Force has become the victim of a gang, led by the evil Joe. When his entire team is killed, Wing becomes a hapless drunk, feeling guilty for the deaths of his team. A young man with a troubled past pretends to be a police officer working on the case with Wing, to get him back on his feet and begin an adventure to get revenge on the evil Joe and his Gang of Five, especially when it becomes personal.

The Source of Love

A radical reevaluation of spiritual beliefs is on the cards for island resident Chen Hon-ming (Chung King-fai) in Christian movie The Source of Love. Viewers meet the aging school teacher as he reaches the end of his career, threatened with redundancy yet working hard to support his ex-junkie daughter Kar-yi's schooling abroad. At home Chen's wife keeps pulling away his wine bottle, he's out of touch with his stuttering preacher son Ah Kit and his senile father has been packed off to an old folks' home.
Chen's simmering troubles start to reach boiling point after Kar-yi sneaks back to Hong Kong pregnant and single. When the young woman makes her return known with an arrest for assault, dramas come to a head and it's not long before religious messages put forward by Ah Kit gain increasing strength.
The Source of Love presents a belief-reaffirming rather than evangelist message in a straightforward and pleasing production. Shot on 35 mm, Stephen Shin's movie is a low-key affair largely focused on faith and a family unit, and the Christian theme dwells on difficulty in persuading people to reject traditional customs for new beleifs. Chen in particular is suspicious of a foreign god, and others point out the apparent uselessness of practices like worshipping ancestors. Study of writing is used repeatedly to show Christianity's relevance in a Chinese setting, showing again and again how the character for "lamb" connects to characters for "eternal" and "righteous". A paper cutout technique to produce a cross and key Chinese and English words also appears more than once.
Noteworthy asides appear in spirited comment on contemporary issues, like Hong Kong's falling English standards and rising unemployment, to keep the production current and some successful light comedy dots the script. An uninteresting side story with local gangsters also runs concurrent to the main narrative. Location work is anchored on peaceful Cheung Chau island settings, while brief diversions into the city include interesting environs like Sai Ying Pun. The score by Chan Wing-wah ranges from acoustic guitar to overly dramatic arrangements, at one point drowning out a prayer. Chung King-fai and Tomi Wong turn in classy performances as parent figures while Peter Yeung Kwan adds subtle humour to his grandfather role. Elsewhere Taiwanese singer Samuel Tai is fine as an evangelising youth, cheery Scott Smyth shows more command of Cantonese than acting and Gabriel Harrison appears briefly as an unpleasant ex-boyfriend who exits with a brick to the head. The movie is dedicated to the late Roy Chiao, who commenced work on the production before his death in 1999.
Source: http://kowloonside.com/movies/thesourceoflove.html

The Longest Yard

Flixster Plot: Pro quarterback Paul Crewe and former college champion and coach, Nate Scarboro are both doing time in the same prison. Asked to put together a team of inmates to take on the guards, Crewe enlists the help of Scarboro to coach the inmates to victory in a football game "fixed" to turn out quite the other way.

My take: Oh this could've been funnier, if Astro hadn't bleeped out every other word. Can't you say 'shit' anymore?

Chinese New Year

An uneventful affair this year, with low takings in ang pow and even lower in entertainment. Eat, sleep, watch TV, read a book, type out an assignment, scold a cousin/nephew/niece, swat mosquitoes/flies etc. The only interesting things were learning poker and driving my cousins' cars.

Why Me, Sweetie?

The Skinny: Uneven romantic comedy which is as magnificently manufactured as they come. The film ends much better than it begins, but that isn't necessarily a saving grace. Louis Koo and Cherrie Ying fans will probably be happy, though.
Review by Kozo: Though he started in the horror and triad genres, Louis Koo has since become Hong Kong Cinema's romantic comedy golden boy. The Man with the Tan has played romantic foils to such screen queens as Gigi Leung, Sammi Cheng, Cecilia Cheung and Miriam Yeung, and the result has been generally profitable if not overtly good motion pictures. Koo has thankfully shown good comedic presence, and has never been afraid to poke fun at his own ladykiller image. Why Me, Sweetie?! plays to those strengths, and Koo performs gamely. However, that doesn't necessarily mean the film is good.
Koo is Don, a studly baker who runs a small but popular bakery in Beijing. An avowed player, he nevertheless is smitten by Ding Ding (Cherrie Ying), an American Born Chinese who charms him with her energetic, offbeat ways. Despite knowing that Don is a player, Ding Ding allows herself to be roped in, and things actually seem to head somewhere for the two. Then the plot device hits. When Don seems to have totally fallen in love with Ding Ding, he suddenly turns red and collapses. When Ding Ding sees him next, he's back to being a total player, and professes not to know her. And, given Koo's smarmy performance, it's hard not to believe him.
But Ding Ding learns the truth thanks to the intervention of Dr. Chie (Tats Lau), Don's longtime pal. Chie tells Ding Ding that Don has a selective memory disorder, which he gained due to the tragic death of a former lover, who ironically looked exactly like Ding Ding. Chie believes that Ding Ding can somehow help cure Don, and even if he isn't cured, the two can continue their relationship anyway. They use a notebook of Ding Ding facts, temporary tattoos, and many pictures to constantly remind Don of who he's supposed to love. And it seems to work, for a while at least. But can the two actually make a long-term relationship work when one is a part-time amnesiac?
The concept for this romantic comedy is utterly manufactured, but that's no real surprise. Given the fact that most Hong Kong—and even American—romantic comedies feature a paper-thin premise, one should be able to forgive Why Me, Sweetie?! for its narrative silliness. Sure, all of the couple's problems could easily be solved if Don visited a real brain specialist (Chie is actually a dentist), but if that happened the film wouldn't be able to employ its nifty Groundhog Day/Memento devices. Since Koo is dashingly handsome and Ying is refreshingly adorable, it should be a pleasure to watch the two fall in love again. And again. And yet again. It's like five movies packed into one.
However, instead of five movies packed into one, Why Me, Sweetie?! feels like one movie stretched on for eternity. Director Jingle Ma makes his actors look good, but his pacing and construction leave a lot to be desired. The film starts with lots of needless fast motion, overdone histrionics, and sometimes grating comedy. Then the film does a complete flip-flop and gets overly dramatic and saccharine for a protracted second half. It's like Ma felt obligated to give us both comedy and drama, but didn't know how to intertwine the two. His inability to handle the material makes the manufactured pathos seem magnified and doubly obvious. The result: an uneven and annoying film that manages to affect, but only because they lay it on so thick at the end. Romantic comedies are preferable if the audience isn't pummelled into buying it.
Still, the actors are certainly attractive and even charming. Koo and Ying both overact like idiots during the silly scenes, but they handle the dramatic sequences decently. Koo is convincingly lovelorn and teary, a combination that probably sends his swooning female fanbase into throes of ecstasy. And Ying possesses a photogenic charm and energy that's very winning. She could have the makings of a real star, though she should sometimes take it down a notch. Like most ingenues, she doesn't really know how to regulate her performances, and spends too much time mugging and pouting. Hopefully she'll find a way to tone it down in the future.
Then again, this could all be Jingle Ma's fault. In the past, Ma has taken good resources and made workable entertainment, but his actual ability to craft a film has never been established. His direction of a script seems arbitrary and without any discernible purpose, and he's never shown the ability to direct actors. This can be seen in the uneven performances of the leads, and in the no-name supporting characters, who are utterly faceless and uninteresting. Ma is lucky to have Louis Koo, Cherrie Ying and Tats Lau (in an amusingly droll performance) to bring some life to his manufactured script, which possesses the depth of your average kiddie pool. Ultimately, Why Me, Sweetie?! has far too many cloying and unnecessary moments to make it a truly compelling motion picture. But it also has a lot of Louis Koo and Cherrie Ying, which could be enough for some people. (Kozo 2003)
Source: http://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews/why_me_sweetie.htm

My take: Cliched, but all in all not too bad. Quite enjoyable.

Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat

Flixster Plot: Today is a special day for Conrad and Sally Walden--even though they don't think it is. It seems that Sally and Conrad, different as black and white, have pushed their single mom, Joan Walden, to the limit. Conrad's endless rule breaking has his mom seriously considering military school for her son--an idea planted by her just-this-side-of-smarmy neighbor and suitor, Lawrence Quinn. Sally, tightly wound though well-behaved, has bossed away every friend she has, and divides her time between upbraiding her brother and putting new 'To Do' lists in her junior palm pilot. And all the while their mom is just trying to keep domestic peace while balancing a successful career as a real estate agent for her germophobe boss, Mr. Humberfloob. However, on the Saturday that she is to host her company's party, Joan's preparations have fallen prey to Conrad's shenanigans. Thus, she lays down a mom-sized decree: Sally and Conrad are not to leave the house while she is at work; furthermore, they are forbidden from making a mess or misbehaving in any way. The kids are left with little to do besides sit and stare out of the window, while their babysitter, Mrs. Kwan, dozes in the den. Until their unexpected guest--a six-foot-tall talking feline, sporting a red-and-white-striped stovepipe hat--appears. The original party animal himself arrives to turn their world upside down by showing Sally and Conrad that "it's good to have fun--but you have to know how!"

My take: Lame shit. Watchable for Dakota Fanning alone.

Brain teaser

What do these words have in common?
Banana
Dresser
Grammar
Potato
Revive
Uneven
Assess

Answer: No, it is not that they all have at least 2 double letters.
In all of the words listed, if you take the first letter, place it at the
end of the word, and then spell the word backwards, it will be the same word.

De Coder's Cafe

Board game haters beware! There's a new board game cafe in Newton called De Coder's Cafe. They have an interesting pricing system so it might be worth checking out once. Check it out: http://www.decoderscafe.com/index.htm

Christian lo hei

Red envelope which contains pepper
“Praise the Lord, for peppering us with your loving kindness.”

Green envelope which contains five-spice powder
“Praise the Lord, for accepting our labor as a fragrant offering to His plan.”

Fish
“Praise the Lord, for the grace of God to be fishers of men.”

Oil
“Praise the Lord, for the oil that keeps us burning in this fight of faith.”
“Praise the Lord, for anointing us with the oil of joy.” (Psa 45:7)

Plum Sauce
“Praise the Lord, for the sweetness of your Words sweeter than honey to my mouth.” (Psa 119:103)

Crackers
“Praise the Lord, for the street of pure gold that you have prepared for us to live in eternity.” (Rev 21:21)