Sweet Rain

The ongoing downpour is so enjoyable. The cold wind makes everything so much more comfortable.

Clothes Tighter, Pants Can't Buckle!

Yes, sadly all the weight gain these months has rendered some of my clothes non-wearable. When it happened, an advertisement from the late-80s, 1988 I think, popped into my head. I wonder if anyone still remembers that Scott's Emulsion advertisement.

衣服本來剛剛好 怎麼現在釦不上
為什麼

桌子椅子那麼小 小房門也鑽不了
味道好

成長成長我已成長
(Growing Up Growing Up I'm Growing Up)
比一比看 誰比誰高
(Come let's see who's taller now)

司各脫鰲魚肝油 陪伴我一起成長
(Scott's Emulsion I like you, you help me to grow)
Mmmm 我喜歡啊
(Mmmm I like it)

River & Bird

Was at The Esplanade today. Felt really bored and went out cycling. As I passed through Shenton Way, it was like a ghost town. Besides buses and the crowd at the Telok Ayer market, there was practically no one around. I could have weaved through all 5 lanes and still not get knocked down but I was not feeling suicidal.

When I reached The Esplanade, I headed over to the outdoor theatre arena and just sat by the banks of the Singapore River. There were plenty of people around. Families, couples, babies, tourists. To me, I felt a sense of tranquility as I sat at the second last step before falling into the river itself. Seeing the sun set behind the Furuma hotel. The gentle breeze. I looked up and there was a bird soaring. I am guessing it is either an eagle of a gull of some sort, my knowledge of birds was never great. Ocassionaly it dived to the surface of the water to pick something and then continued to glide around the Marina Bay area. It all just seems slightly calming.

Bookshop Hunting

With my renewed interest in The Teenage Textbook, I went out book hunting! Haha. I managed to find my copy of The Teenage Textbook at home but as I do not have a copy of The Teenage Workbook, it was time for a walk of the bookshops. With the book being first published in 1988, I wonder if any first hand reprinted vresions are still available. Started off at Times the Bookshop at Centerpoint, where I came up zero, I then tried Kinoyuniya at Ngee Ann City. Over there, I managed to find 2 copies of The Teenage Textbook still available but I wanted The Teenage Workbook. I finally found myself at Borders. I had all but given up as Borders update their catalogue pretty often and I did not have high hopes there. However, I was surprised! The nice young lady manageed to help me find the book and even she was surprised and looked sheepish when she handed me the book. Haha. She looked so cute when she blushed as she handed me the book. YES! I finally got The Teenage Workbook!

The Teenage Textbook

I wonder how many people still remember or know of the local novel "The Teenage Textbook" and the sequel "The Teenage Workbook". Written in 1988 by Adrian Tan, it was made into a movie in 1998 starring Melody Chen. It chronicles the life of a group of students in the fictionous Paya Lebar Junior College. Mui Yee, the main character, is a very sweet but shy girl. She is joined by her good friend Sissy Song, who is a babe in all aspects but studies. Then, there are the male leads of Chung Kai, Mui Yee's "Mr Average" boyfriend, and his lusty-and-lisping friend Kok Sean.

The sudden thought of this book was ignited by my recent finding of the entire movie being made available on YouTube. Yes, the video streaming service from that decadent country. Anyway, who is to complain when I am using the blogging portal also from that decadent country. Back to the main topic at hand.

Yes, "The Teenage Textbook Movie", has been made available on YouTube in its entirety and it was a trip down memory lane. I was but a fat lad just shy of 18 years of age when the movie was released in Singapore. I still remember like it was only yesterday. I was totally head over heals with Melody Chen who played Mui Yee in the film. She was so sweet and smart. I am never one who goes for gals with sexy curves or a pretty face. Seeing Melody in the movie, her character was the ideal girlfriend in my mind at that time and still is now. Around that period I was attached to my then ex-gf, it irritated her to no end to see me going ga-ga about Melody Chen and she felt that Lim Swee Tze, who played Sissy, was much prettier. Well, if she could swoon over Leonardo Di "Crapio" in Titanic, there is nothing wrong with me admiring Melody/Mui Yee.

I feel that even with the passing of time, many of the issues in the books or movie even are still pretty relevant today. Naturally, the biggest flaw in the book was about 16/17 year olds driving legally in Singapore, then again, the rest of the story is interesting enough for one to gloss over this fact. If you do get a chance, head on down to YouTube.com and watch the movie. I don't guarantee that you will love it but I guarantee that you will at least not feel that you have wasted your time watching it. Me? After finding out about the link, I watched it 3 times over 2 days!

On a side note,
In the movie there is a song written and sung by local gal Geraldine Ho, better known as Ger. The song title is called "My Special Angel". I really like the melody (no pun intended) and felt that the lyrics is really meaningful. When Geraldine wrote the song, according to her website, it was a tribute to her grandpa who had just passed away and to her former principal at Saint Theresa's Convent.

As I listened to her song, it got me thinking, do we all have a special angel somewhere. I gave it some thought and immediately it came to my mind that "My Special Angels" are my Granny, who has passed away just a couple of years back, and my Mum. However, I kept thinking, it is easy to identify a Special Angel from within the family but how about from without. For two days, I thought and pondered. Do I have a Special Angel outside? I always kept moving in my life that I do not really keep many friends. From among my friends, is there a Special Angel? After much consideration, when I almost gave up, it dawned on me. Or rather she dawned on me. Who is this Angel, you ask? Well, I would like to keep it a secret. I do not know if this person realises that she has become a positive factor in my life and even I was amazed when I realise that she has, in a way, become My Special Angel.


Geraldine Ho's My Special Angel
Took for granted of those days
Thinking nothing's gonna happen in my way
Know I'm wrong and I regret
For the things I did and things I've said
Come back to my life once more
So my aching heart won't hurt no more

I'm telling you
You're my special angel
Show me the way
It's just that there is no one who can
Ever take your place
Bring me back the days before
There is so many things
You have to learn from us all

I questioned why you left that day
Didn't say goodbye and left your way
A wave is only what you gave
The image will never fade away
I memorized the things you've said
And I'll carry it on until I'm dead

I'm telling you
You're my special angel
Show me the way
Those children needs your loving
In each and every way
All I want is only you
Take me now take me far away

Tears before my eyes
Hanging on forever
Shattered dreams go broken
In all through their lives
Words you always said before
Tell me now that you'll leave no more

You're my special angel
Show me the way
It's just that there is no one who can
Ever take your place
Words you always said before
Tell me now, that you'll leave no more

Cause I know that you're the one
I'm waiting for

Laptop Kaput

My laptop is as good as dead. After 7 years of use, the final straw of its constant monitor crashing and system hang-ups, is the lost of function of 2 of the keyboard keys. Of all keys to lose function, it had to be not one but two VOWELS! I and O. Sigh.

Random Things Heard On TV 2

From BBC's Quite Interesting Series "C"
Earth
It is a common misconception that the people of the Middle Ages (approximately 450-1517 AD) believed that the Earth was flat. Not since the 4th century has there been any written records or evidence anywhere that indicated the people from back then thought the Earth was flat. In fact, the people of that era thought and wrote that is was round. It is believed that it was the American writer, Washington Irving, who started this lie. The Greeks and people like Chauncer, knew that it was round. In the 13th century, Roger Bacon wrote about the curvature of the Earth, way before Christopher Columbus set sail for the Americas. Even Columbus thought that the Earth was pear-shaped.

Ideal Age
According to a survey done in UK, the ideal age anyone wants to be is 17 years old. Another finding from the survey was that, from the point of view of the males, the ideal age of the female partner should be half their age plus seven years. This means that if the man is 40 years old, the woman should be 27 years old; or if a man is 30 years old, the woman should be 22 years old.

Exams
Exams and marking of exam scripts were not invented until 1792 at the Cambridge University by a Professor of Chemistry. Before that, you were asked, in Latin, questions on your field of study and awarded a degree based upon your answers.

Lawyers & Sperm
What do Lawyers and Sperm have in common?
One in fifty million have a chance in becoming a human being.

Camels & Leopards
What do you get when you cross a camel with a leopard?
You get a nice fireplace rug that you can have a hump on.

Random Things Heard On TV

From BBC's Quite Interesting Series "A" and "B"
Anti-Americanism
In London colloquial slang, Americans are known as "Sceptic". If you don't like Americans, you are known as "Antisceptic". To play on the word, you can also be a "Listerine"

Prince Albert
"Did Prince Albert did a 'Prince Albert'?" somebody once asked Prince Philip. "What is a 'Prince Albert'?" asked Prince Philip to another person softly. No one had the heart to tell him that "Prince Albert" is slang for a cock-ring.

Airplane Food
Anything that is White is Sweet
Anything that is Brown is Meat
Anything that is Green, Don't Eat!

The Mistake of Pausing
The late, lamented, great Sir John Gielgud was directing a young actor at London's West End once, and the young actor was pausing a lot, as young actors tend to do. Geilgud said to him, "Oh Stop! No, no. No, no. You must never pause. Never pause in the West End. I paused many years ago and during the silence, I hearda voice from the third row go:'Oh! You hedious beast! You've just come all over my umbrella!'"

Toilet Paper
Green Bay, Winsonsin, USA, is the Toilet paper capital of the world. Invented in 1902 in Green Bay, it was not until 1935 that they were at last able to advertise it as "Splinter-Free"

Birds and Chocolates
Chocolates are not only poisonous to animals but to humans as well. A piece of Smarties is enough to kill a small bird. The lethal dosage for humans is 10kgs or about 22 pounds at one sitting.

Clitoris
The clitoris is the only organ in a male or female body that is decorative and designed purely for pleasure. It has no other purposes or uses and has 8000 nerve endings, twice the number on the penis.

Perception
Sir Thomas Beecham, a famous conductor, once observed to a female cellist, "Madam, you have between your legs an instrument which can give pleasure to thousands and all you can do is scratch it?!"

Isolation

Isolation is a fact of life
I don't know if there is any way you can prepare for it
Yet, it is so easy to cure

Most of the time isolation is self-imposed
Sometimes by shutting people out
Sometimes by inviting people in
And sometimes by hiding alone inside an old barrel

Sometimes it is by losing faith in the very things that keep us going

We lean on each other and seek solace where we think we will find it
But sometimes it is just unavoidable
There is nothing you can do
But embrace the isolation and walk out on your own

Alone

Send Somebody A Smile

This song has been going around in my head recently and just wanted to share it here. It is the Singapore Kindness Movement theme song "Send Somebody A Smile" by Rai from the local duo of Jack & Rai.

Send Somebody A Smile (SKM) - Rai (Jack & Rai)

Come on and show me a big smile
I got something special in mind
And I know it might not seem much
It's just a simple plan to give a helping hand, so

It's something we can all do
Today, tomorrow, me and you
We could bring some cheer to this world
Come on everybody, every boy and girl, singing

Once in a while
You got to send somebody a smile
A thought is how you start to change the world
Come on and share it
Come on and share it

A little kindness is easy to bring
Anything, even a cheeky little grin
Little by little we can make things better
Around the world we've got to stick together, singing

Once in a while
You got to send somebody a smile
A thought is how you start to change the world
Come on and share it

Something big or something small
Be proud of your actions and stand up tall

Once in a while
You got to send somebody a smile
A thought is how you start to change the world
Come on and share it

Once in a while
You got to send somebody a smile
A thought is how you start to change the world
Come on and share it
Come on and share it
Come on and share it
Come on and share it, ooh

String Of Weird Dreams

Been having too many weird dreams ever since I left Teaching. Been dreaming of
- my granny who had passed on a couple of years back
- people I have not seen for a long time
- colleagues from past companies
- past love interest
- students
- difficult teachers in the school I was teaching at
- surviving a bizarre airplane-balloon-type aircraft mid-air explosion

All were pleasant, none was antagonistic. Even those whom I had problems with, it seemed that in lala land, everything is well and fine. Hmmm....... Must be subconcious acting up again.

Medics @ Blood Donation

I was surprised when I found a group of SAF medics on duty at the Bloodbank@HSA yesterday. Apparently this group of medics are serving their high-key ICT this year by helping out at the Bloodbank. Interesting. At least now the nurses at the Bloodbank need not be so swamped and can concentrate mainly on the poking and collecting of the blood, leaving the medics to help out in pre-donation and post-dressing. I was chatting with one of the medics while I was there and did not even realise the big needle going in and that 500cc of my blood had already been cllected until the nurse came over and asked me to press on the opening. Haha.

STOMP!

No, not that stupid Straits Times thingy where evidence of all sorts of wrongdoing is shown but the authorities do nothing about it. Rather I am talking about the performance group STOMP!

My mum had wanted to watch their performance and asked me to purchase the tickets. Her treat as I am still very much no-value. Haha. Anyway, I bought the tickets only 2 weeks back but was really really lucky to get central seats which were only 12 rows from the front. Not too shabby I must say. Great view! The performance was wonderful too. Much better when I last saw them in 1998. Then again, back then the performance was at the Kallang Theatre and I was sitting at the last row at the circle seat. That is the furthest seat possible and I had fallen asleep.

Everyone at the showed enjoyed themselves and at the end of it there was even a standing ovation! HWAH! Haha.

A Game From My Childhood

Many of us had played video games when we were young. These days many of the young people around, like my students, are flooded with various consoles and games. They are more familiar with games such as Dynasty Warriors, Wii Sports, Halo, World Of Warcraft, Maplestory. How many of you still remember the classic games of the 80's when video games first came about? Pong, the very first console game ever from Atari. Does anyone even knows who or what Atari is nowadays? How about the evergreen PacMan? Many an arcade centre, games room and what have you not would have had this arcade classic sitting around.

Towards the end of the 1983, the console world had a crash of epic proportions that nearly wiped it out of existence. To many people it would mean that there would be no such things as Playstation 3, XBox360, Nintendo Wii. In fact in the early 2000s, one gaming console company did finally throw in the towel and decided to concentrate on just game development. Remember the Sega Dreamcast anyone?

However, back to the 1980s, with the devastation of that era, a game had to come about to save the industry from disappearing into oblivion. That game which saved all the later day consoles was the one and only, Super Mario Brothers.


Released in September 1985 in Japan and subsequently in March of 1986 in North America, it not only saved the video-console market but it made Nintendo, a Japanese company, and the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) a main stay of the American video-gaming console market. The NES was the second console created by Nintendo and the very first console from Nintendo to be released in America and fore-father of the Nintendo Wii. To many of the people born in the 1990s, they may not be all too familiar with the game but to those born slightly earlier, it was a game that defined an era. Nobody, be it someone who played video-consoles or those who stayed away from technology, not know of the game. Even if not by name, they would know the all too familiar game tone of it. Kudos to the Mr Koji Kondo for composing the tune to the game. No game had ever come close to the popularity of Super Mario Brothers and it was only surpassed most recently in terms of sales by Wii Sports, another Nintendo classic.

Below are 4 videos I found relating to the Super Mario Brothers. The first one was from a tv program in 1988 which introduced the NES and Super Mario Brothers. The second is a clip showing a group of high-school students in America doing a "live-action" skit of the game in a talent contest. The third is a recording someone did at the performance of "Play! A Video Game Symphony" in Oslo, Norway, and it entails the Super Mario Brothers theme. "Play!" had previously performed in Singapore back in 2007 during the Singapore Arts Festival at The Esplanade Theatre and I hope for their return soon. The forth is a group from China who used bottles filled with water and a remote control car to play the Super Mario Theme.

Another Friend In

I have a former colleague who had been passed over for a promotion from Assistant Engineer to Engineer even after getting his degree from NTU and was very upset. We used to work pretty closely last time, even though he was working in Process while I was working with Equipment, and always had a good time during breaks. Back when I left the company, he had asked me if it was worth giving up being an Engineer to be a Teacher. We had a couple of good chats while in the cleanroom and I had encouraged him to give Teaching an opportunity as it becomes available to him. The company has been too harsh on mistakes at times and I felt that anyone working in the fab was just waiting for that one incident to remove us so that newer and cheaper staff may be brought in. Also, personally, I had always wanted to go into Teaching because I wanted to give something back to society......and perhaps I was too cheapo to give big to charity or not smart enough to be a Doctor.

Anyway, couple of weeks back he gave me a call and told me he had just returned from an interview at MOE HQ. He had applied to be a Primary School Chinese Teacher and wanted to find out more about the Teaching environment in Singapore's primary schools. I assured him that he should be able to do fine and not to worry too much. Of course there are the usual "In-Group" or "Power-Clique" in the schools and they generally do not like Mid-Career entrants such as ourselves but they generally do not touch Chinese teachers. Why? I did not tell him then but I personally think it is because these people do not see Chinese teachers as a threat to them climbing up the Leadership Track. I personally have great respect for Chinese teachers, they have the most thankless jobs of all the subjects and with the government removing the need for a Mother-Tongue subject when applying to local universities just to prevent a brain drain, alot of students are simply turning a deaf ear and giving no respect to them.

Got a call from him again couple of days back and he told me that he had received an SMS from MOE. He asked me if it was the same for me back then and I told him yes. I congratulated him and wished him all the best. He knows that I really want to return to Teaching and said that he hopes to attend NIE at the same time with me. We had a good laugh and I told him that I hope so too myself. Now if only MOE will forgo that report from my previous experience and give me another chance.

A Sad Week Of Natural Disasters

This was a week where bad news kept coming one after another in terms of natural disasters in Asia and the South-Western Pacific.


Sunday (27 September 2009)
- Typhoon Ketsana (Category 2) continues to cause much damage in Metropolitan Manilla, Philippines.


Monday (28 September 2009)
- Typhoon Ketsana which had caused major damage in Philippines landed on the Asian main landmass and continued to wreck havoc in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.


Tuesday (29 September 2009)
- Local Time 06:48, UTC 17:48, SGT 01:48-30Sep
An 8.0 magnitude Earthquake occured off the south of the Samoan Islands, causing a Tsunami which devastated both Samoa and American Samoa. Effects of the Tsunami could be felt as far north as Japan.


Wednesday (30 September 2009)
- Local Time 17:16, UTC 10:16, SGT 18:16
A 7.6 magnitude Earthquake occured off Central Sumatra, Indonesia. Although there was no Tsunami, the tremors caused many buildings to collapse in Padang city and it could be felt as far away as Singapore and West Malaysia. The tremors took only a mere 3 minutes after the initial quake to travel and rock my flat at the south of Singapore.


Thursday (01 October 2009)
- Local Time 08:52, UTC 01:52, SGT 09:52
A second Earthquake, this time measuring 6.6 in magnitude occured further south of Sumatra, this time off the province of Jambi and more destruction occured. Again the tremors could be felt in Singapore and West Malaysia.
- Local Time 14:07, UTC 01:07-02Oct, SGT-09:07-02Oct
A strong aftershock of magnitude 6.3 occurs south of Samoa, creating even more damage and tension to the disaster hit regions of the Samoan islands.


Friday (02 October 2009)
- With Philippines still struggling with ongoing rescue efforts due to the damage caused by Typhoon Ketsana (Category 2), another super-typhoon, Typhoon Palma (Category 4), is poised to make landfall soon and is expected to head towards Taiwan thereafter
- With the "Crucial-72 Hours" after the occurance of an earthquake about to expire soon, Indonesian rescue efforts are serverly stretched, especially since West Java had experienced an earthquake only in early-September which caused massive landslides, to reach the trapped survivors.


This is a very bad week for all and many countries are stretched to provide rescue and disaster relief to the disaster hit countries. My thoughts goes out to the people in the following countries and I wish that all will be well soon
- Indonesia
- Philippines
- Vietnam
- Cambodia
- Laos
- Samoa
- Tonga
- American Samoa