No one fell sick, so it was a day off from invigilation for me today. So far it's just been lazing around, unproductively, or productively, depending on how you want to look at it, lets see, I have finished 2 graphic novel's from the library, Spider-Man Blue, and Superman: The Movie and Other Tales; followed Michael Scofield's latest attempts at breaking out of Sona; read another chapter of Portrait in Sephia, stopping because I couldn't bear how they were about to amputate Severo's foot.

Meanwhile, the Athlete demonstrate how cool it'd be to be able to stop time, and play good music to boot.

Diving today at Hantu was an eye opener, visibility was as expected, not fantastic at 2-3 metres, the water was filled with sediments but there were corals! Quite a bit too and alot of fish and other unusual creatures. Sea horses, Starfish, Nudibranches, Flat Worms, A giant Sea Urchin! At Hantu, you trade quantity for diversity. 

Diving was tiring though, and my lungs are quite sore now.  It might be because my technique is bad. I need to work on my buoyancy control. I was struggling, really strugging, to stay submerged on the first dive and even kicked Debby by accident, my guide and buddy who's really experienced, and kept pointing out the more unusual creatures to be. Thankfully there was some improvement on the 2nd dive, although towards the end, when my tank was almost empty, the same problem cropped up again and I am sure she must have found it a hassle babysitting this amateur. Sorry! 

 

Only a huge volcanic eruption will save us all now. Only the total elimination of industrial emissions will succeed in limiting climate change to a 2°C rise in temperatures, according to computer analysis of climate change. I just don't see any hope. Whatever reduction achieved by the EU and a handful of other countries will only be negated by the inevitable increase as a result of the economic development of China and India. We are just not moving fast enough. It will take decades before the world gets its act together and finally start reducing carbon emissions, by then much of micronesia and the maldives may already be submerged. It will be a much sadder world without polar bears that we bring our children into.

The eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991, pumped aerosols into the atmosphere and cooled the global climate by about a degree. It seems to me, only a huge volcanic eruption of a similar scale will save us now.

Scandinavian, the new cool.



Gorgeous video, wonderful tune, thank you Sarah.

"Milk chocolate peppermint reminds me of you, Josephine." Regret-laced sentiment, they could be part of the lyrics to some song . There was a chocolate sale in school today. For $11 I got myself 3 large slabs of Cadbury's Dairy milk chocolate peppermint, the same one we went crazy over in Australia, the same one which kept our spirits up on all the long drives. 3 large slabs to last awhile; to reminisce on.

This job makes me want to be good, good as in, I'm not sure if I can describe it properly. The kind of good I used to think, and maybe I still do, was naive, the kind of good where if you saw a drink can on the ground you'd pick it up and carry it with you as you look for a dustbin to dispose of it properly. The kind of good which makes you appear 'soft' - you know what they say about nice guys finishing last.

 I went along with the cross country team for their training at Bukit Timah Hill today, after school. There's just something about being responsible for the well-being and behavior of 39 girls, I don't know how to put it. I guess I had to be good, role model and all and I realise I liked being good. We ran up the steepest slope I have ever seen, at the beginning of the trail, all the way up to the summit, twice. On the 2nd attempt quite a few of the girls were lagging behind, the slope was a killer with all the lactic acid building up, some of the girls could not take it and had to stop. One particular girl, a tiny girl named Megan was left behind, she was breathing heavily and looked as if she was going to faint. I was the rear runner, so naturally it fell upon to me to look after her.

I told her to stop for a rest. And when she had calmed down, I could have just asked her to go back down like the 2 other girls, but she had already cleared the hardest, steepest part and I knew the rest of the route up to the summit was all about mental strength, so I was determined for her to complete the route. I stayed with her, encouraging her. We would start running for snatches before stopping for short breaks when her breathing got too heavy. It took awhile but we finally ran up to the summit, where the rest of the team was waiting and they were clapping and cheering her on and it felt really satisfying.

It rained early in the morning after the rugby, (which was hardly worth staying up for, although the free pizza and hot-dogs probably kept us awake)  and the game at Nanhua was postponed due to the poor condition of the pitch after the rain and it was a good thing because I think 3 games in a day would have killed me. 2 games under the scorching sun, 11-1 and then at 3 to 5 has left me burnt a shade of red and even after a long bath I am sweating.  Victory in both games btw, 8-2 and 4-1 respectively : )

Driving back home, it felt like every bone in my body was aching, my head was throbbing , but in a perverse sort of way, I kind of enjoyed the sensation, after running your guts out and sweating buckets, the cool air from the air-conditioning usually taken for granted was heavenly, and my body seemed to just sink into the car seat, and the music from the hi-fi especially soothing.

After the dinner to celebrate Guoyang's ROM, my cousins came over, and I decided we should take some photos together since we hardly do that - they were impressed by the new(old) phone I got.

 Like my phone?

Oh and before I forget, here's a big shout out to my dear buddy in Ithaca, 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIMIAN!!!

This link is for you, a small birthday present hahahaha

     Evening turns to night as I drive out. Unconsciously, I think of her.

And regret slips in.

 

                             

  Any film with Danny Boyle's (Trainspotting) stamp on it will always catch my interest. I did not have a prior idea as to what 28 Days Later was about when I entered the cinema a couple of years ago but I knew it had to be good, after all, Danny Boyle was behind  the camera and it was written by Alex Garland, who also wrote The Beach. It turned out to be a zombie flick, but I was not disappointed, it was gripping, Boyle's vision of a post apocalyptic London was frightening and believable, it allowed me to suspend my disbelief and I was rooting for Cilian Murphy and his small group of survivors as they searched for a way out in a country infested by virus ravaged zombies after their flesh. 

I caught the sequel 28 Weeks Later on DVD last night. With Danny too busy with Sunshine, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo directed and I was keen to see if it would be as good. It was entertaining, faster paced, with a bigger budget this time round, you had bigger action - helicopters, snipers on rooftops, flamethrowers; more blood and gore - check out the helicopter scene and you will know what I mean. Then you had all the gorgeous aerial shots of a deserted and desolate London, but for me the most powerful and memorable moments in the film, apart from the helicopter on zombie scene were probably the least costly - Robert Carlyle's running across grassy  meadows near the beginning with a zombie mob hot on his heels, he is racked by guilt, he keeps getting flashbacks, to how he had cowardly left his wife to die in the house earlier. The group led by Doyle the Delta Sniper with a conscience, resting at a deserted amusement park overgrown with weeds and the kids sit on a broken carousel, innocence lost. There was alot more character development, alot more heart in the first instalment, but the sequel has it moments, and you can't say it wasn't entertaining, it will be worth your time. In fact I think I am going to watch it another time now, before lunch. 

For zombie flicks, you can't go wrong with 28 Days. Forget Resident Evil.

Emo before lunch.

She greets the day with her hair wet. She asks them to vacate the building, because she's got a plan they don't know yet, and if it goes wrong there will be no one to see.

If she could just get the word out, god-knows she's trying, but they are watching her with their eyes closed. She's always stuck with the old route. Does anyone knock when they barge in to beat her down?

Will you come back? It's all she wants to know. She knows she's part of the problem too. Could she let it go? It'd take a miracle, so that's what I am praying for.

Thanks to One Day In May, where a translation has been posted, I now fully understand the lyrics to 志明與春嬌 or Peter and Mary, which before, due to my limited understanding of Hokkien, I wasn't able to appreciate fully. Ah Shin likens a relationship to a movie in which Peter and Mary are the protagonists.

Zhiming (Peter) doesn't know what to do, or why his lover no longer loves him.
Chunjiao (Mary) has long since stopped listening, all that talk was pointless.

志明真正不知要按怎　為什麼　愛人不願閣再相偎
春嬌已經早就無在聽　講這多　其實攏總攏無卡抓

They walk to the Danshui coast, This love story, oh no one's watching now, no one is listening to them anymore.

走到淡水的海岸　兩個人的愛情已經無人看　已經無人聽　啊

For you and I, the best thing is to stop here, you no longer have feelings for me.
Let's end it right here, since you don't love me anymore.
For you and I, the best thing is to stop here, you already have no feelings for me.
Don't be sad anymore, don't make me love you if you don't love me

我跟你最好就到這　你對我已經沒感覺　到這凍止　
你也免愛我我跟你最好就到這　你對我已經沒感覺　
麥閣傷心麥閣我這愛你　你不愛我

Zhi-ming's mood is really cold, the wind's so strong, you [Chunjiao] have such a hard heart.
Chun-jiao, if you don't want to act in this film with me, then let's just agree that the show's over - our romance is over.

志明心情真正有影寒　風這大　你也真正攏沒心肝春嬌你哪無要和我播　這齣電影　咱就走到這位準嘟煞

Today is Blog Action Day, "On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone's mind - the environment." - I learnt of it too late so I haven't got anything to put on but I got this off another blog, it's about the vicious cycle of airconditioning. It's a good read and I'd like to share this with all of you, my friends. Do take some time to look through it. I hope this will inspire everyone to make the effort to at least turn up the temperature a bit.

Air Conditioning- Boon or Bane?

It is worth pointing out that comfort, Singapore style, is not seen in egalitarian terms. Air- Conditioning is a selfish technology: one of its paradoxes is that its net effect is an increase in heat. As a prodigious consumer of energy- it accounts for one-third of Singapore's electricity use- it contributes significantly to global warming.

Cherian George - Singapore The Air-Conditioned Nation

Here is a dilemma for us in Singapore. Our dependency or air-conditioning is already enormous & apparently still growing. In 1988 less than a fifth of households had air-conditioning. By 1997 more than half had air-cons & by 2003 the figure is more than 70% of households in Singapore. However, if that is any consolation, we still rank below Japan which has the highest air-con ownership in Asia. On the other hand in China, Vietnam, India & any other Asian countries it is still less than 1% of all households.

So is the air-conditioner a luxury, an aspirational symbol or a necessity?

When I was young air-conditioning was considered a luxury that few people enjoyed. Certainly, although I came from a relatively affluent background, I did not sleep, study or travel in air-conditioning. When we were hot we had a big glass of ice water-already a luxury- or used fans.

Today, most of us are used to working, traveling, studying & playing in air-conditioning. Even some of our streets are now air-conditioned. Certainly, on hot muggy days I am inclined to agree with M.M. Lee Kuan Yew when he said that air-conditioning was the greatest discovery of the millennium. All of us have experienced the exquisite sensation of coolness on entering an air-conditioned room or the greater productivity of working/studying in an air-conditioned environment. But that was before global warming became the hot topic it is today. We know now that using more air-conditioning adds to the warming of the earth which will mean more hot days with more demand for air-conditioning.

So do we have to forgo the comfort of air-conditioning if we are to become carbon neutral? Or are those of us who can't give up the addiction to feel guilty about enjoying air-conditioning? I feel that there is a lot we could do to reduce our dependency & still enjoy the benefits of cooler air. Here are some observations for your comments.

-Did you know that a study done at NUS by Leow Kim Guan for his M.A. thesis showed that when subjects( all Singaporeans) were allowed to adjust the room temperature every 10 minutes their preferred temperature of optimum comfort was 25.4 degrees C? How many thermostats in Singapore are set at that temperature here?

-Why do we continue to dress for colder climes - ties, jackets, suits, pashminas-when we would be much more comfortable & environmentally sustainable in tropical garb? Is it really comfort or unthinking bad habit?

-My daughter could not bear the freezing temperatures in her lecture halls in JC despie her thick jacket. She said she couldn't think for shivering . She is now in Boston where she is well-known for her high level of tolerance for cold which everyone finds surprising for someone from the tropics. Perhaps she was conditioned by Singapore air-conditioning.

-A visiting environmental lawyer from the World Bank was appalled when she tried unsuccessfully to increase the thermostat setting in her freezingly cold hotel room & was told by the staff that it couldn't be done because that was the norm for 5- star hotels i.e a choice between very cold, freezing & arctic (except that global warming is resulting in the arctic being less cold ).

-Should bus drivers be allowed to keep the air-conditioning running when they are the sole occupants of their buses parked in nature areas such as the Botanic Gardens or Sungei Buloh where visitors who go to enjoy the outdoors have to breath in large lungfuls of their fumes & hot air instead of the fresh air which we go to enjoy?

-Did you know that Inuka, the Singapore-born polar bear at the zoo does not have air-conditioning in his enclosure? The authorities say he is acclimatized even though, unlike us, he has no sweat glands & has fur that is specially adapted to retain heat. Well if he can survive & remain active in Singapore without air-conditioning I think the rest of us could make more of an effort to live without air-conditioning-or less air-conditioning to begin with.

Rewind! It smells like teen spirit. Dump the mouldy cassette tape, I got myself a second hand copy of Nirvana's Nevermind CD ($10) in a revisit of teenage angst. I was 13 when Kurt Cobain shot himself, too young to feel anything. I guess in today's context, for me, it would be as if someone like Chris Martin shot himself or someone from Mayday was run over by a trunk (touchwood), I would be distraught like the millions of youths all over the world in 1994. In fact, it was his death which led me to his music, to Nevermind, and it is simply a masterpiece. I think Cobain's music appealed to us, teenagers and youths because it distilled all the pain and angst of growing up; the disconnect and confusion inevitable for the majority of us as we come to terms with an imperfect world. 

Played badminton today after like a million years which is actually since secondary school and it was good fun, something I wouldn't mind doing more often. I hate it when people roll their eyes when I tell them I am going down to Sungei Buloh to look at the birds. It's really enjoyable! I feel more relaxed, more at peace when I am close to nature.  When they think nature, most people would prefer to go to the Zoo, because that's instant gratification, you get to see all the big ticket items, the Tigers, Lions, Giraffes and Elephants, in a nature reserve you need to look a little (or alot) harder, but you will be rewarded.

Lovely flowers to greet visitors near the entrance.

Stork-billed Kingfisher proudly showing off his beautiful colours.

Gandalf the Grey Heron, looking grumpy. 

Sunset, with Castle Aerie in the distance.

Join me the next time anyone?

More effective than any MOE advertisement will ever be, was being at the sec 4 graduation ceremony today. When the graduating cohort got up on stage, some with dark shades, some wearing Shrek ears, or with tiaras perched on their heads, some with pirate eye patches, and they were holding hands, singing songs, singing the school song with pride, and then after all the songs came the tears, sorry to say goodbye, it was such a powerful feeling, heartwarming, it made me realize what a meaningful profession teaching is. I am alot more sure now that I want to give teaching a shot.

So I finally finished marking. You'd have thought the hard part was over, but the checking for consistency and the entering of marks into the system is proving to be a real pain in the ass! The system is soooo slow, I can watch a snail crawl across from one end of my desk in the other in the time it takes to "Save". It takes a minimum of ten minutes to complete, which is why I am blogging now, and a certain teacher whom my friend Darren thinks has quite a sweet smile is getting on my nerves! Since my first week, everytime she sees me she starts complaining, whining about this and that, she's complaining about the system now, and I can only say to her, "it's the same with me, just be patient!" I hate it that I keep having to think of words to placate her when I don't give a heck.

From Mitch Albom's new book. These few stanzas, O how they move me. 

Almost all humans have a weakness:

They yearn for love that refuses to give,
But abuse the one that gives all
It is often till they lost the love they took for granted,
That they realized how much they have lost,
And how foolish they are,
To spend life chasing after the love which they cannot attain,
Instead of cherishing the time with the ones who love them

But humans will be humans
For they never know whether the love they are chasing after
Is really worth it,
Or not,
Till they fully attain it,
Or totally lost it

But no matter what choices we make
Always,
Always value those who love you,
Truly

Stand by them when they need support
Defend for them
Leave a shoulder for them
Appreciate them,
And express it to them

For you never know when they will leave you
At the most unexpected moment
And when that happens
You will beg
For One More Day
That you can spend your life with them
Again

Whose power would you want if you could have one (not including Peter's)?




Claire Bennet's ability to regenerate.

Candice's ability as a shapeshifter.

Isaac Mendez's ability to paint the future.

D.Lo Hawkin's ability to pass through solid objects.

Molly Walker's ability to find people.

Hiro Nakamura's ability to travel through time and stop time.

Eden's ability to persuade people to do her will.

  Linderman's ability to heal the sick.

Nathan Petrelli's ability to fly.

Micah Hawkin's ability to manipulate machines.

Ted Spreight's radioactivity.

Matt Parkman's ability to read minds.

From my previous post, you can more or less guess which is my favorite power. Leave a comment, tell me yours. :)

The first few days it was pretty much unbearable but now, I have become quite adept at daydreaming. I'd walk around the class, along the aisle between the desks pulled apart, students behind them locked in grim concentration, and then come back to my desk, settle into a comfortable postion, lean back onto the wall, maybe cross my legs, and my mind would take me off on adventures. Today I became Hiro in Episode 1, Season 2 of Heroes; in Kyoto; I jumped through time and space, searching for Peter.

If I really could travel back in time, I would do so many things differently; but then again, there are some things in your life, people, events, you wouldn't want to change, precious memories you wouldn't want to lose, and, if everything is interlinked; change one small detail, and you affect everything that comes after, what would you lose? and what could you keep? Where would you start? And it all comes down to Mayday's revelation on the cover of their "Just My Pride" Album, "If we really could turn back time, nothing we have today would be as precious"


Incidentally, like Hiro, the Fab 5 are in Japan now, preparing for their Jump! Tokyo concert this Sunday. It seems Japan's the place to be now. Silly Susan's in Uji, Kyoto and loving it.

Changi Airport last thursday.

(As Cali and Lynette will attest, not quite forgotten her name yet)

The lyrics are golden. It's exactly how one feels when you want to get over the pain of loss. No matter how hard you attempt to forget or not care, you can't help but remember and wonder how that person is doing.

I was at Sungei Buloh yesterday, at the theatrette for the talk by Ria Tan,  <Secret Shores of Singapore> and it was really really good! Most Singaporeans, because of their experience with the murky waters of East Coast Park, may not believe it, but there are coral reefs in Singapore, still rich with marine life. Even Dolphins have been spotted!  Singapore's reefs harbour close to 200 species of hard corals and a good variety of other marine life, and Ria showed us plenty of pictures as proof of that. You can see for yourself here .  

Chek Jawa and our Southern Islands, these are our natural treasures, we need to spread awareness about them. The more people who appreciate these treasures, the higher the chance they will be conserved. I also found out about a group of conservationists and nature enthusiasts who regularly dive around the southern islands, their next scheduled trip is on the 28th Oct and I am gonna to sign up with them to see for myself!  To borrow the motto from Wild Singapore .You can make a difference! Explore! Express! Act! 

I have been practising the blur-flash technique. Today at the Colbar: