Met up with Sim and Jing today! Gosh, it was so enlightening. HA ha I can't believe it, we actually spent time discussing pedagogy and deep questions about learning. WA ha ha! a dinner with sec school friends who were (ahem) quite notoriously lazy in sec school and mischeivious, now discussing who were our best teachers, how to best teach youngsters and what is learning all about.
"surprises abound man... And like he bizarre Forrest Gump says life is like a box of chocolate-- I don't quite agree. Life is not just like any box of chocolate, it is like that chocolate bar in INdia which I greedily gobbled up to find a cocoon in the center. Yes! that is more like it. You'll never know what you're gonna get in it. Ok other than fats, guilt, heaty-ness, worms are a surprise; a cocoon doubly more so. Yes, you'll never know what you're gonna get in it...(shivers)[makes me think of tape worms--apparently 20% of the population has tape worms] Ha ha Maybe it is more accurate to say Life is like an intestine, you'll never know what you're gonna get in it...(ok ok stop the lame-ness)
Goodness, it's so fantastic to hang out with the old bunch of friends. What am I ever gonna do without them..always full of surprises and never ceases to amaze..
By: Nippy | Thursday, July 27, 2006 at 11:04 PM | | 
Met someone today with such a gentle nature, I finally understand a little of what 'wanting to own someone' means.
By: Nippy | Tuesday, July 25, 2006 at 10:21 PM | |
Bintan was great! Li, I had a lot of fun and I think I really needed it. The beach makes it all worth it, but the price--being trapped on a tourist island, our (financial) survival skills were really put to the test. It didn't feel at all like being in Indonesia, it felt like being in a futuristic Singapore after a serious inflation. $6 milkshakes, $3.50 mineral water.. ok the list goes on. When it comes to crazy sky high prices I can never complain enough. Still it was fun, despite tourist town traps.. I loved the beach there. Especially our dip at night with stars and all. And the ulu corners of the beach with no one around just the sea and us!
Getting away once in a whie is so vital to keeping me sane, and giving me some time to think about things that matter to me. Outside of all the nitty gritty daily necessities and things which need to be done. So I'm really glad you asked me along--even though my pockets are burnt through and through.
I miss it. The white powdery sand (which the sua-ku me thought was fake originally) which is apparently how real sand is suppose to be like (I just found out, poor (me)Singaporeans)...The calm sea, the breeze, the time to get in touch with ourselves and nature. Of course, it is resort nature not the real thing, still, one can dry up and shrivel if one just live day to day to day work work work. Thankful, for the spiritual, physical, emotional (everything) get away, and the great travel companion and friend I have in you. I can always share things with you. Experiences, good and bad, deep questions about our lives on earth, stupid things we do, crappy jokes and yes, quarrels about things which matter to us. Looking forward to our next trip together! And remember, our promise to go back and do our mermaid stunt!
By: Nippy | Sunday, July 23, 2006 at 10:29 PM | |
After watching a downright crappy film so foul 'that hell itself spewed it again". I watched a fantastic, FANTASTIC (with emphasis) movie! "Unbearable lightness of being"--Philip Kaufman's movie.
Being--an unbearably light phenomenon? Maybe we really just float along, without ever sinking into life genuinely. Always just barely touching the surface of the substance of it. barely even submerged into our moments to moments, we are fleeting and unbearably light.
The show made me feel unanchored, free in a funny sort of way (even if this freedom is really just illusory)--uh-oh I can feel a philosophical storm brewing somewhere in the distance of this post. So better flee it and let the lightness overtake. Take me where-ever.
By: Nippy | Thursday, July 20, 2006 at 8:32 PM | |
I know I told Felicia I shall not talk about "Pirates of carribean" but the temptation to thrash it is too great. I simply cannot resist. It is a shit show! Urgh! Ok. I hated it to the core! It is stupid and a lousy Hollywood blockbuster out to cheat fans of the first Pirates of their money and time. Ok now that I have gotten it off my chest. Maybe I should think about why I hated the show so darn much.
1) the story was shit
2) The characters were rubbishly established
3) there were lots of actions 90% predictable put there only to awe the audience, but honestly we are really all too mature for that kind of stuff. I sat through the show going, "ok they are probably gonna jump onto that (and they did) and then this would happen (and it did) and the list goes on...
4) the jokes were terrible (totally un-funny). There is a difference between silly-rubbish slapstick actions and good jokes. I only laughed twice throughout the whole thing. What the first "pirates' did so successfully--not allow good jokes to degnerate into pure nonsense. The sequel reversed completely (equally successfully)
5) I hated how Elizabeth swann was a screamer, the archetype 'female schemer', a failed feminist and a floppy character who could have been eliminated from the story with little or no effect on the storyline.
(The part when she had a chance to prove her worth by shooting at a large target of hanging barrels, she screamed and was caught by giant squid, only to have Cpt Jack save the day..)
6) The sea monster was totally unterrifying. It was lame watching horrified faces when the sea monster is soooo ridiculous. A giant squid? Cant' they be more original? give me a break.
7) the villain was so un-villainy. He was in all aspects a pathetic villain. once again totally unterrifying. I was hoping someone would laugh at his bad makeup. But apparently all the extras were told to act really scared as best as they can at the silly mask.
8) They tried to inject some kind of theme or coherent meaning into the show. They really tried. Black Pearl=freedom? Cpt jack's honest streak. Too bad it all came out a jumbled mess. With everything neither here nor there. Cpt jack is neither selfish nor noble, the black pearl is neither very treasured not worthless (cos apparently after letting it get swallowed by squid, they are planning to get it back again.)
9) Characters from the first just convenient pop up in the second pirates, wth no explanation offered they are suddenly totally opposite. Comodore turned drunk. Villain who has died is resurrected to become a hero. Everything in the film was too convenient.
10) The show said nothing afterall. Everything that happened in the show was erased. We are all back to square one. Then why bother even watching this movie? MIght as well just skip it and watch the 3rd.
Ok, I rest my case.
'stinkin' Pirates'.
If looked at it in another light, perhaps this show is too true to itself. It was a bloody cheat--just like a pirate.
By: Nippy | Tuesday, July 18, 2006 at 11:16 PM | |
Writing is an impulse. Most people with blogs will probably testify to that. Sometimes, you just need to write to prove your existence. (Nah, no lah, unless you're such a bad case). I exeggerate. But It is true, I just have that impulse to type and write this very minute. It's been a while since I even felt like writing. Ok, maybe it's work, maybe it's normal human mental block. But I'm glad I'm back, for now at least. Just sitting here on a sunday afternoon, letting my fingers go unleashed on the keyboard, hearing a good old voice in my head. ha ha. this is great.
Post-block trauma. hah. Just want to ramble freely, cos work just doesn't give me the chance to talk cock.
Relief teaching, a misnomer. no relief what so ever.but it's so refreshing to interact with sec school kids. They are full or RUBBISH. All sorts of crappy excuses and weird logic. But hey, who am I to destroy their first nature: Nonsensical. Hey that's what being a teeeanger is about, ha ha must embrace it while they can. I am quite convinced school rules are totally redundant and stupid. And it is quite scary how school uniforms makes everyone look the same. We dont' realize it when we ourselves are students. But as teacher, it is shockingly uniform. You look into a sea of white, with generally blank faces. ha ha but then again, it is only my 5th day so far. For the past few days, this thought keep popping into my head once in a while: Communist. Ok, I'm weird.But Schools are really like mini communist states. (never mind, go figure that one out yourselves).
I realise I'm older (not old yet, I'll never admit it even when I'm 109), lost my teenage rage already, quite thankfully. I'm not gonna be stuck with spare angst.
Work, as usual drains, and is, in all probability, the main cause of my block. I must try and make myself swear never to let work consume me. haiz but knowing myself, it is probably pointless to make promises. Might as well just keep reminding myself as I go along. Hope I don't screw up minds of the students, it takes longer to unteach them wrong things wrongly learnt than right things wrongly taught, so it is better to teach the right things correctly. Ha ha ok, I'm bored.
Ta ta (for now at least)
By: Nippy | Sunday, July 16, 2006 at 2:52 PM | |
A short walk on stage
three years, no wait,
16 years of being the student, the daughter, the child
a new found freedom?
still a question
putting that studnet side of me aside
to put on a new me
a teacher. (responsiblity)
expected to start giving after all these years of receiving
a new sense of meaning
an abundance of excitement
a feeling of passing years,culmulated growing up
when I saw my parents pride. and many other parents' pride
not of me. as much as of having given all these years
to see a cermony which marks a change.
I myself felt little
but alot of gratitute,
just very thankful--my parents feel happy.
For now,
it is a short goodbye to schooling..
By: Nippy | Tuesday, July 11, 2006 at 8:45 PM | |
My sis is back and she has had a massive shoppingn therapy.. so massive, she's gonna need further treatment! (I love this photo! damn cool!) waha ha-endless cycle!!! Yipeeeeeeeeeeeeee........weekend. Now that I'm working my sense of time is divided into following:
-looking forward to lunch time
-lunch time
-looking forward to knocking off
-knock off
-look forward to fridays (week end)
-look forward to week end again!
HA ha damn funny! Oh well, at least I still feel alive.
By: Nippy | Saturday, July 01, 2006 at 12:22 AM | |
