I once was lost
home to a blogger formerly known as lost
Yes
Aug 15th
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails.
Singapore story
Aug 10th
It’s the day after National Day, and though I hadn’t noticed it earlier, I decided to read Janadas Devan’s The real Aug 9 – and the one we celebrate (from yesterday’s paper) after seeing it specifically mentioned in a blog I follow. It offers an interesting perspective – that we lack identity because we did not really striven for independence as a lone island nation, because we are very much an accidental baby, the unwanted cast-off from a federation of former British colonies.
I wonder what my nation would be like today, if history had taken a different path? What if Lim Chin Siong, for example, had indeed gone on to become Prime Minister? What if the Chinese-educated, presumably pro-Communist, wing of the early PAP had not been removed from power, and had instead a major part to play in the development of Singapore over the past half-century (perhaps at the helm, even)? Would English be my primary language today? Would I have a concrete roof over my head and be happily enjoying a broadband internet connection? Would we have become a Chinese colony instead?
Don’t get me wrong – I do think there is plenty that can be improved with the current administration, but I do think that all things considered, they’ve done pretty well thus far. And while I suspect that we might not be quite as developed if we had gone down this alternative path, I wonder if as a people we might have a stronger identity, and perhaps even simply be… happier?
(Somehow, this feels like the concept of a Singaporean Elseworlds-style comic waiting to happen.)
Bits and pieces
Aug 10th
Seems like I’ve somehow gone into photoblogging. It wasn’t really a conscious thing – I just tend to take the random photo on my (phone) camera, so I figured this is probably the place to upload them and ensure they don’t just disappear into obscurity forever.
Kinda like that old Project 365 of mine, except the updates are nowhere as regular.
- It seems I haven’t really broken out of my comfort zone very much at school – I’ve been assigned back to my old CCA (Guitar Ensemble), although that was also very much because they desperately needed another teacher there (two of the three teachers-in-charge had just left) – I would actually have liked Photography Club, really! The room’s still pretty much the same (and older, which is somewhat icky), except that the Chinese Orchestra no longer shares the place (no more timpani to mess around with). Their door has also since become the main entrance to the room.
- I was eating tim sum when I noticed that some of the baskets they were using had the Japanese character no (の) on them. With my limited knowledge of the language I identified that as the possessive particle, although interestingly enough they seem to have subtitled it as the Chinese word zhī (之). I wonder if the Japanese form is really derived from that?
- I went down for a ‘coffee talk session’ with George Yeo at a McDonald’s in Hougang, and while it wasn’t really particularly enlightening, I came to realise that you can quite easily volunteer to help out for the Meet-the-People Sessions. Since I’ve some interest in finding out more about the problems that trouble my fellow countrymen, I’ve decided to give some of my time helping out. I’ve gone for one session so far, and I think I will be going back for more.
Round the island
Jul 31st
- Visited Tampines 1 for the first time recently. It seems almost sad that the typical ‘latest place’ to check out tends to be newly-opened malls, but I suppose that’s just the way it is in urban Singapore. It seemed nice enough, especially if you live in the area, but I guess the main attraction for me would be the UNIQLO outlet – I quite liked the label when I was in Japan, and the prices don’t seem to be marked up too much over here. There’ll be a new branch opening in a more central location soon, though, so I don’t think I’ll really be visiting Tampines 1 very much.
- The Singapore Food Festival has just recently passed, and on the last day I happened upon a stall near my house that was selling (apparently Tunisian) kebab. It looked decent enough – made of real chunks of chicken instead of just processed meat like they do in the UK – but unfortunately it didn’t match up to the memories of the wonderful gyros meals I had in Athens. There’s something about roasted pork slivers that chicken just can’t emulate, I think.
- The (not-so-)exciting Google conference room. I ended up going for the AdSense workshop in the end, and though it was really rather boring (going through tips that are mainly available on their websites), at least I’ve earned some geeky bragging rights. Their beverage bar in the conference room was amazingly well-stocked, though – they had Yakult and even Orangina, which I actually really enjoy but find to be rather rare and expensive these days.
An atheist's prayer
Jul 30th
laptop is saved! praise be to the flying spaghetti monster! may his noodliness bless this lowly hard drive that it might lose no data during recovery tonight. ramen.
Is it normal to be simultaneously offended and amused by this? On the one hand, it is clearly condescending towards theism with the invocation of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, but on the other, you’ve got to hand it to the author for the clever play on words…
Tweet-bate Step #1
Jul 28th
I’ve come up with a WordPress site that I’m planning to use for the first phase of my unit on debates (yes, we’re teaching that at my school, which is simultaneously cool and scary, considering that I actually know very little about them). The plan is to tap on their existing expository-writing skills and their love for things web-related to bring them through topical discussions, culminating in a mini-debate held conducted via Twitter.
I’ve no idea how successful this will be – in my head it could turn out awesomely well, or turn into an awesome failure.
p.s. Any ideas about the title for the site? I started with ‘Talking Point’ and that seemed somewhat blah. ‘In Focus’ isn’t much better, really.
Another year
Jul 26th
Seems like for some reason, I only need to clear my army fitness test by October 2010, which is a year later than I’d initially thought – great news since I can currently only do one pull-up (versus the required six).
So now I’ve got another year to prepare, or perhaps deteriorate even further. Yay?
School days
Jul 21st
- Flu season in Singapore leads to many teachers being out of action, and classes getting isolated (if a substantial percentage of the class is sick). I was asked to relieve a colleague for one of these isolated classes, and instructed to wear a mask while teaching them. I wonder if these masks will ever gain as widespread an acceptance as they do in Japan?
- I’d idly asked one of my Chinese students in my form class about the contents of his water bottle (greenish liquids with lumpy things really attract attention – I could easily guess what was inside, but I’d just never seen Chinese tea in a school water bottle before!), and a few days later he proceeded to give me a box of tea leaves. I don’t know if this is the norm in China, but I accepted it thinking maybe it’s a cultural thing to be so trigger-happy with gifts. Hope I’m not breaking any rules by doing so!
- It was Racial Harmony Day today, and the Parents’ Association set up some booths selling ethnic food. I got myself a Peranakan set meal which was really hearty and quite delicious – the stalls were starting to close by the time I got there, so the Indonesian stall just gave me a free piece of fried chicken as well. Mmm.
Going to Google
Jul 20th
I wasn’t all too interested when I first read this, but I later thought it might be a great chance to check out Google’s Singapore office (I’m current not really that into optimising AdSense revenue, especially since mine is a rather small operation). Still, I was too lazy to apply, and so I missed the first deadline.
Today, though, a second chance revealed itself in my inbox, so I’ve decided that perhaps this was a sign for me to go down to look at the geeky paradise that is Google (woohoo!) and meet other money-minded geeks (err… woohoo?).
It should be an interesting experience, even if I’m currently not all that interested in the actual agenda.
Favourable exchange rate
Jul 17th
So apparently the Straits Times is saying that the Euro is worth something like 0.2 Singapore cents. I guess this is the perfect time to head to Europe for a vacation.
