conclusion of Msn and Facebook Experiment: It's Not working, its about the same, except for weekends, about 3 more visitors per day.
maybe i'll try it again when i'm famous
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
Great Art, Okay Relatively Mediocre Art
is made of 2 parts creativity, 1 part inspiration, and 1 part sleep deprivation. feel free to substitute any ingredient with hallucinogens
the art scene
The local art scene in singapore? cannot make it la
that's what you typically hear from any singaporean
typically
but why?
why do our people feel so bad about our own abilities at something that should be intrinsic, something that should be a part of life?
here's the thing, just because someone is bad at something doesn't mean it cannot make it.
think about it, if we felt that way towards everything that we were bad at, how would our major industries be?
soccer: it's about as much a national sport we will ever have. how many of you agree that local soccer is vibrant and youthful? those who answered no, watch a bit more news and read the new paper more.
then how many of you would agree that its' something we're actually good at? we don't have the capacity to go global, not now, probably not in 20 years. but have faith in that there will be people who are passionate enough to take that chance and push it all the way there.
now back to the art scene. no matter who you ask, people, young, old, student, office worker, they are going to say that our local art scene is boring and/or non-existent. if you ask them why, they will give a variety of reasons, like not enough culture, too much science and tech, not enough exposure, blah blah blah
excuses.
i am a very practical person. if i ever become head of any creative project, i will make sure that everyone is of a different nationality, or culture. i appreciate what other perspectives and viewpoints that only people who have been brought up differently can bring to the table. but under no circumstances will i give any preferential treatment, because then there's no point, might as well give him the director's chair and sit back.
If i could only pick one "artist" for the lack of a better word, i would pick locals, because we share the same heritage and it would do the community a favor to know that it is possible to make it in the art scene
but lets' tackle the reasons one by one,
not enough culture. really? our culture is everywhere from hdb to shopping malls, we just choose not to look because its' nothing fancy to look at. we have many traditions which are unfortunately dying with the previous generation. here's an example, have you considered this to be apart of the singaporean culture, malay weddings in void decks, followed by chinese funerals. or the wet market, selling all sorts of food we don't even know the names of. these are all parts of our heritage and yet the young are choosing to "disown" them. we always complain that they are not interesting, yet we spend hours upon hours googling whether we should call people -chan or -sama. why is it that we are so fascinated by other cultures that we frame them up and romanticize them, while letting our own deteoriate. Are we really helping anyone? we have this very strange attraction towards being high class, like wearing branded lolex and heavy necklaces. because we came from migrants, understandably, our traditions revolve around practicality and family, because that was the only thing that they had in the past. now our "traditions" revolve around materialistic goods and making a good impression. people gradually become somewhat disgusted by the ways of old due to its down and dirty nature and we become 'stuck up'. as a gentle reminder to those still unaware, not all culture is "high" culture
and you're complaining that we don't have enough culture, open your eyes
when has too much focus on science and technology ever been a hindering factor? if an arts-oriented little boy or girl, and by arts i mean fine arts like painting, grows up in a place like silicon valley or bangalore,india and wants to become a great artist, he/she will find no problems other than that which he sets on himself. remember the old adage, if you can believe it, you can achieve it? i don't see why that doesn't apply here. if little johnny likes to cook, he and hopefully his parents will find ways to help him be the best he can be, even if he is surrounded by people who only know how to knit sweaters. if little jane loves making movies, she too can do it, and nobody can tell her otherwise.
so then, why do we still have a "bad local art scene"? people aren't willing to take the leap, but not without a good reason. think about it, considering that he likes both equally, if a person has an equal aptitude in both dance and maths, naturally he will pick maths and take jobs like accountancy, because its more secure. its like if a person had aptitude in both medicine and politics, he will take medicine if assuming that everything else remains constant,(i.e ceteris paribus). our art scene remains shaky because people aren't willing to take that leap of faith. its' kind of like a vicious cycle. initially, the poor art scene makes it difficult and risky to make a good career out of it, then nobody joins due to the risk and it doesn't help the community, then lack of people joining means the scene won't improve and so on.
not enough exposure, another excuse people like to hang around their tongues. since the birth of the internet, this has become an obsolete justification for just about everything. click of the mouse and you will see results in the thousands. so why don't we have a booming art culture?
singaporeans not willing to give other singaporeans a chance. make sense? given the choice between an foreign musician vs a local musician, almost everyone will choose the foreigner, but yet mediacorp did a survey with a "blind" music test and found out that people are equally, if not more receptive of local bands. but yet the moment we realize its from someone from the same land, we suddenly reject it, even without listening to it first. did the chords become mangled the moment you realised that singaporeans produced it? no. are we really so "opposite-of-xenophobic"? ah but author, you must muse, aren't you a little hypocritical to say that since not a single song on your playlist is from a local band. actually that is true. but not for the reason you think? over about 4 years of listening to 987fm, i have quite a small collection of what i find are good local songs, unfortunately, being the rarities that they are, it was impossible to download just 1 single track like the others. and i don't like the idea of purchasing a whole album just for one song i will eventually put on loop.
i'm not really blaming anyone for this predicament that we're in. actually i'm blaming everyone equally so you shouldn't feel too bad about it. our art scene cannot be one where all the initatives are top-down. only when people start to initiate their own brand of art, then it becomes "sustainable" in a sense.
actually after all that, our arts scene isn't as bad as you think it is. aparrently Forbes,(or somebody, i can't really remember) thinks we are among the top 10 locations with a booming arts scene. many world class productions like cirque du soleil and avenue q are coming down to perform here and our artistes are going abroad to act. that's' a tall order for a country with only 40+ years of history.
so the next time you start romanticizing about the fashion scene in milan or the gourmet chefs in paris, why not contribute to your own society. maybe when you grow old and you look back, you can tell your grandkids, i helped to make it happen.
www.lightamillioncandles.com
that's what you typically hear from any singaporean
typically
but why?
why do our people feel so bad about our own abilities at something that should be intrinsic, something that should be a part of life?
here's the thing, just because someone is bad at something doesn't mean it cannot make it.
think about it, if we felt that way towards everything that we were bad at, how would our major industries be?
soccer: it's about as much a national sport we will ever have. how many of you agree that local soccer is vibrant and youthful? those who answered no, watch a bit more news and read the new paper more.
then how many of you would agree that its' something we're actually good at? we don't have the capacity to go global, not now, probably not in 20 years. but have faith in that there will be people who are passionate enough to take that chance and push it all the way there.
now back to the art scene. no matter who you ask, people, young, old, student, office worker, they are going to say that our local art scene is boring and/or non-existent. if you ask them why, they will give a variety of reasons, like not enough culture, too much science and tech, not enough exposure, blah blah blah
excuses.
i am a very practical person. if i ever become head of any creative project, i will make sure that everyone is of a different nationality, or culture. i appreciate what other perspectives and viewpoints that only people who have been brought up differently can bring to the table. but under no circumstances will i give any preferential treatment, because then there's no point, might as well give him the director's chair and sit back.
If i could only pick one "artist" for the lack of a better word, i would pick locals, because we share the same heritage and it would do the community a favor to know that it is possible to make it in the art scene
but lets' tackle the reasons one by one,
not enough culture. really? our culture is everywhere from hdb to shopping malls, we just choose not to look because its' nothing fancy to look at. we have many traditions which are unfortunately dying with the previous generation. here's an example, have you considered this to be apart of the singaporean culture, malay weddings in void decks, followed by chinese funerals. or the wet market, selling all sorts of food we don't even know the names of. these are all parts of our heritage and yet the young are choosing to "disown" them. we always complain that they are not interesting, yet we spend hours upon hours googling whether we should call people -chan or -sama. why is it that we are so fascinated by other cultures that we frame them up and romanticize them, while letting our own deteoriate. Are we really helping anyone? we have this very strange attraction towards being high class, like wearing branded lolex and heavy necklaces. because we came from migrants, understandably, our traditions revolve around practicality and family, because that was the only thing that they had in the past. now our "traditions" revolve around materialistic goods and making a good impression. people gradually become somewhat disgusted by the ways of old due to its down and dirty nature and we become 'stuck up'. as a gentle reminder to those still unaware, not all culture is "high" culture
and you're complaining that we don't have enough culture, open your eyes
when has too much focus on science and technology ever been a hindering factor? if an arts-oriented little boy or girl, and by arts i mean fine arts like painting, grows up in a place like silicon valley or bangalore,india and wants to become a great artist, he/she will find no problems other than that which he sets on himself. remember the old adage, if you can believe it, you can achieve it? i don't see why that doesn't apply here. if little johnny likes to cook, he and hopefully his parents will find ways to help him be the best he can be, even if he is surrounded by people who only know how to knit sweaters. if little jane loves making movies, she too can do it, and nobody can tell her otherwise.
so then, why do we still have a "bad local art scene"? people aren't willing to take the leap, but not without a good reason. think about it, considering that he likes both equally, if a person has an equal aptitude in both dance and maths, naturally he will pick maths and take jobs like accountancy, because its more secure. its like if a person had aptitude in both medicine and politics, he will take medicine if assuming that everything else remains constant,(i.e ceteris paribus). our art scene remains shaky because people aren't willing to take that leap of faith. its' kind of like a vicious cycle. initially, the poor art scene makes it difficult and risky to make a good career out of it, then nobody joins due to the risk and it doesn't help the community, then lack of people joining means the scene won't improve and so on.
not enough exposure, another excuse people like to hang around their tongues. since the birth of the internet, this has become an obsolete justification for just about everything. click of the mouse and you will see results in the thousands. so why don't we have a booming art culture?
singaporeans not willing to give other singaporeans a chance. make sense? given the choice between an foreign musician vs a local musician, almost everyone will choose the foreigner, but yet mediacorp did a survey with a "blind" music test and found out that people are equally, if not more receptive of local bands. but yet the moment we realize its from someone from the same land, we suddenly reject it, even without listening to it first. did the chords become mangled the moment you realised that singaporeans produced it? no. are we really so "opposite-of-xenophobic"? ah but author, you must muse, aren't you a little hypocritical to say that since not a single song on your playlist is from a local band. actually that is true. but not for the reason you think? over about 4 years of listening to 987fm, i have quite a small collection of what i find are good local songs, unfortunately, being the rarities that they are, it was impossible to download just 1 single track like the others. and i don't like the idea of purchasing a whole album just for one song i will eventually put on loop.
i'm not really blaming anyone for this predicament that we're in. actually i'm blaming everyone equally so you shouldn't feel too bad about it. our art scene cannot be one where all the initatives are top-down. only when people start to initiate their own brand of art, then it becomes "sustainable" in a sense.
actually after all that, our arts scene isn't as bad as you think it is. aparrently Forbes,(or somebody, i can't really remember) thinks we are among the top 10 locations with a booming arts scene. many world class productions like cirque du soleil and avenue q are coming down to perform here and our artistes are going abroad to act. that's' a tall order for a country with only 40+ years of history.
so the next time you start romanticizing about the fashion scene in milan or the gourmet chefs in paris, why not contribute to your own society. maybe when you grow old and you look back, you can tell your grandkids, i helped to make it happen.
www.lightamillioncandles.com
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Investiture
Today marks the day the 21st ends their term
today marks possibly our first ever outing as a council
today is a good day
surprisingly, there was no recounting of good old days, no tears, no memories
everyone was just overjoyed with the sheer joy of it being all over
maybe it's a good thing
it's good to feel this good
right?
anyway, had a great dinner at the end of the day at sakura
feels good to be in the company of friends
www.lightamillioncandles.com
today marks possibly our first ever outing as a council
today is a good day
surprisingly, there was no recounting of good old days, no tears, no memories
everyone was just overjoyed with the sheer joy of it being all over
maybe it's a good thing
it's good to feel this good
right?
anyway, had a great dinner at the end of the day at sakura
feels good to be in the company of friends
www.lightamillioncandles.com
Monday, July 20, 2009
This
this is just an exercise to see who would have cared, anyway while you're here, might as well enjoy and have some fine reading
Sunday, July 19, 2009
I am reminded
as i go about my days of typically avoiding homework, among other things, i sometimes forget that where i really want to go is britain. and subconciously, i will always put australia as my top choice when i go about and be exposed to media of many kinds.
and then i get reminded again
Proof there is a benevolent god. hahas
and yes her voice is sexy as hell.
Q.E.D (Check It up). Case In Point
Today 19/7/09, I am reminded of the joy of going to britain, even though i never went there before.
actually, sometimes i feel a little scared. my dad used to tell me that sometimes when you think that you know a certain country is going to be full of gorgeous girls or guys (for the ladies), and then when you go there, all those you seem to meet are always butt ugly. for instance, Japan, any nerd who watches anime will tell you that its their first choice if they ever had to migrate, hell they would even do it if they didn't need to.
but sadly, it's not how the media portrays them. korea is the same, australia is the same, hell even china is the same. and thats' speaking from experience.
so there is still that little inkling of fear, of disappointment really. Keeping my fingers crossed, however that helps.
oh yeah, and i finally finished reading Y: the last man. awesome comic/graphic novel, however you like to call it. it was 60 issue long and took 5 years. it starts off very exciting, then slowing down and then followed by even more excitement with a nice little ending, that's a little bittersweet. anyone who wants to read can ask from me, i have a thumbdrive of the whole set
someday, i'm going to write about why i hate reading novels.
www.lightamillioncandles.com
and then i get reminded again
Proof there is a benevolent god. hahas
and yes her voice is sexy as hell.
Q.E.D (Check It up). Case In Point
Today 19/7/09, I am reminded of the joy of going to britain, even though i never went there before.
actually, sometimes i feel a little scared. my dad used to tell me that sometimes when you think that you know a certain country is going to be full of gorgeous girls or guys (for the ladies), and then when you go there, all those you seem to meet are always butt ugly. for instance, Japan, any nerd who watches anime will tell you that its their first choice if they ever had to migrate, hell they would even do it if they didn't need to.
but sadly, it's not how the media portrays them. korea is the same, australia is the same, hell even china is the same. and thats' speaking from experience.
so there is still that little inkling of fear, of disappointment really. Keeping my fingers crossed, however that helps.
oh yeah, and i finally finished reading Y: the last man. awesome comic/graphic novel, however you like to call it. it was 60 issue long and took 5 years. it starts off very exciting, then slowing down and then followed by even more excitement with a nice little ending, that's a little bittersweet. anyone who wants to read can ask from me, i have a thumbdrive of the whole set
someday, i'm going to write about why i hate reading novels.
www.lightamillioncandles.com
Saturday, July 18, 2009
I've Forgotten What I Want To Write Again
I Started looking at some cool gifts like comics words BAM ZAP wallpaper and then i forgot that i had opened blogger
I Made A Revelation Today, all this time the only characters i really enjoyed watching in those really irritating disney shows were the supporting characters, like that pianist girl from high school musical (she's cute), the black dude with cornrows from that's so raven and every other actor in hannah montana, except anyone who has the last name cyrus and those actors that just show up in 1 show and then subsequently for all the ridiculous renunions
Even when i was young
maybe that's why i prefer shows where there is no real distinct MAIN characters, or more than 4, like friends and even stevens and leverage.
but house is still awesome.
harry potter comes out this week, actually came out. the producers who decided to make the book into a film hit the jackpot of all jackpots.
the harry potter film formula can be broken down into:
3 parts cockney (British) accented kid actors
1 part tween fans who are willing to spend ridiculous amount of said franchise
1 part plot that has already sold millions to said fans
and 2 parts awesome CGI effects only possible thanks to said fans
it's what made twilight popular !! although they skimped on the actors
i keep forgetting what i want to write
I Made A Revelation Today, all this time the only characters i really enjoyed watching in those really irritating disney shows were the supporting characters, like that pianist girl from high school musical (she's cute), the black dude with cornrows from that's so raven and every other actor in hannah montana, except anyone who has the last name cyrus and those actors that just show up in 1 show and then subsequently for all the ridiculous renunions
Even when i was young
maybe that's why i prefer shows where there is no real distinct MAIN characters, or more than 4, like friends and even stevens and leverage.
but house is still awesome.
harry potter comes out this week, actually came out. the producers who decided to make the book into a film hit the jackpot of all jackpots.
the harry potter film formula can be broken down into:
3 parts cockney (British) accented kid actors
1 part tween fans who are willing to spend ridiculous amount of said franchise
1 part plot that has already sold millions to said fans
and 2 parts awesome CGI effects only possible thanks to said fans
it's what made twilight popular !! although they skimped on the actors
i keep forgetting what i want to write
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Shirt printing day
yesterday marks my third trip to queensway of memory, my second with regards to shirt printing
i went with sam to print some shirts for council. its still a damn long bus trip. met her in school after her lessons and then took the stupid 153 bus.
anyway, we reach there and we go to the shop where we called beforehand, on the phone he quoted 13.50. which i was like, okay not bad. we didn't have any print out of the design, just a soft copy in the thumbdrive. he showed us the catalogue and i saw, easily the most useful catalouge i will ever see in my life, why? it showed the different fabrics and colours with the cardboard over to keep it intact. it was a little weathered, but i would have still offered to buy it from him. anyway, sam wanted to see how it was printed, she wanted silkscreen printing EXACTLY. and i was like, i know a version which sucked but i didn't know the name. the guy said he wanted to see the design, so we had only the thumbdrive and he couldn't see it because the guy with the laptop wasn't here today. so we just looked the shirts he had as samples. sam couldn't find anything nice. so we went somewhere else. we also couldn't see a print sample because most of the shirts he does are for teams, so there are like jerseys and giant block names and numbers.
so went went upstairs and the first shop we saw was, well, professional, professional enough. she had the same sample catalogue, but the thing that probably set her shop apart was that she had shirts for you to try and an actual changing room. so she was talking to sam and i got out my paper with the details and i overheard something like $12.70, i was like ok, we can check it out. so we stayed there for some time trying the size and all that. after what, 45 minutes, we decided on the "right" blue, which on decision, thought, WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE FROM MY ORIGINAL BLUE. anyway, it wasn't even my blue, it was the threadless'ss blue. we had to re-arrange the sizes because the shirt was a bit different from ours. but anyway, we were about to finalize all the details, then we realised one person we forgot, so we scrambled through all the lists and realised that we actually forgot one, and more importantly it was our teachers'. good thing right, lucky. well, we got the numbers down and then at the end, i saw at the price at the receipt, $17, the red light started going off in my head, and i was like giving this look to her, because the auntie was staring at us and it would be embarrassing to just scream out WTF. she also had this look like "i don't know". exactly what she didn't know i was confused. did she not know what i was trying to say without opening my mouth. was she confused about the price like me. was she thinking what in the world could make my face turn like that.
so she signed the receipt and the i paid the deposit. we walked out to the outside of the tattoo shop and i was like, wth so expensive i thought you said $12, then she also didn't know, so i said call her back and ask her about the quote at the start. so she did, and the shopkeeper said she would slash the price by a dollar. i doubt that would cut into her earnings by alot.
anyway, sam wanted to eat at ikea's, so we went there, and basically there were a lot of people. there was a queue where sam conveniently took her apple pie from, because "the queue was for the cooked food, you can just take the food from the counter." so she just took it and paid at the register where there is a significantly shorter queue. she asked me to get some shrimp on a bread, which i then promptly went there, stared at the counter for 5 minutes, while people were looking at me and then found nothing, i went back and she got it herself. and i also dropped a dollar on the floor without knowing, because she apparently gave me 6 dollars while i only took 5.
so i waited while she ate and started to observe the people around ikea. anyone notice that there are a LOT of middle aged people there. the ikea is becoming the one stop place where people go to feel more high class about themselves. its like the sushi restaurants when they opened, where people who go there surprisingly aren't japanese. come to think of it, i have never seen a japanese in a sushi restaurant ever. anyway, we went to subway because i wanted to eat there. i was ordering the sandwich while i realised i had only 2 dollars after paying the deposit, so i said you do take nets right. they didn't, so i panicked and asked sam for money, she didn't. i asked for the nearest atm which was downstairs. i ran down, but it was UOB, so i decided hey man, maybei could take my card and charge me a little for it. i tried twice, both failed. i ran over to ikea using the overhead bridge and finally got my money. i paid the guys from subway and promptly ate my footlong. footlongs are good. sam is quite disgusted by the amount i eat. hahas. anyway, that there was another chapter in my book of goofs, complete with the birthday incident. i bet i could make a killing selling my autobiography as a comedy book. hahas
no one asked me about the donating blood thing yet? what are you waiting for.
www.lightamiliioncandle.com
i went with sam to print some shirts for council. its still a damn long bus trip. met her in school after her lessons and then took the stupid 153 bus.
anyway, we reach there and we go to the shop where we called beforehand, on the phone he quoted 13.50. which i was like, okay not bad. we didn't have any print out of the design, just a soft copy in the thumbdrive. he showed us the catalogue and i saw, easily the most useful catalouge i will ever see in my life, why? it showed the different fabrics and colours with the cardboard over to keep it intact. it was a little weathered, but i would have still offered to buy it from him. anyway, sam wanted to see how it was printed, she wanted silkscreen printing EXACTLY. and i was like, i know a version which sucked but i didn't know the name. the guy said he wanted to see the design, so we had only the thumbdrive and he couldn't see it because the guy with the laptop wasn't here today. so we just looked the shirts he had as samples. sam couldn't find anything nice. so we went somewhere else. we also couldn't see a print sample because most of the shirts he does are for teams, so there are like jerseys and giant block names and numbers.
so went went upstairs and the first shop we saw was, well, professional, professional enough. she had the same sample catalogue, but the thing that probably set her shop apart was that she had shirts for you to try and an actual changing room. so she was talking to sam and i got out my paper with the details and i overheard something like $12.70, i was like ok, we can check it out. so we stayed there for some time trying the size and all that. after what, 45 minutes, we decided on the "right" blue, which on decision, thought, WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE FROM MY ORIGINAL BLUE. anyway, it wasn't even my blue, it was the threadless'ss blue. we had to re-arrange the sizes because the shirt was a bit different from ours. but anyway, we were about to finalize all the details, then we realised one person we forgot, so we scrambled through all the lists and realised that we actually forgot one, and more importantly it was our teachers'. good thing right, lucky. well, we got the numbers down and then at the end, i saw at the price at the receipt, $17, the red light started going off in my head, and i was like giving this look to her, because the auntie was staring at us and it would be embarrassing to just scream out WTF. she also had this look like "i don't know". exactly what she didn't know i was confused. did she not know what i was trying to say without opening my mouth. was she confused about the price like me. was she thinking what in the world could make my face turn like that.
so she signed the receipt and the i paid the deposit. we walked out to the outside of the tattoo shop and i was like, wth so expensive i thought you said $12, then she also didn't know, so i said call her back and ask her about the quote at the start. so she did, and the shopkeeper said she would slash the price by a dollar. i doubt that would cut into her earnings by alot.
anyway, sam wanted to eat at ikea's, so we went there, and basically there were a lot of people. there was a queue where sam conveniently took her apple pie from, because "the queue was for the cooked food, you can just take the food from the counter." so she just took it and paid at the register where there is a significantly shorter queue. she asked me to get some shrimp on a bread, which i then promptly went there, stared at the counter for 5 minutes, while people were looking at me and then found nothing, i went back and she got it herself. and i also dropped a dollar on the floor without knowing, because she apparently gave me 6 dollars while i only took 5.
so i waited while she ate and started to observe the people around ikea. anyone notice that there are a LOT of middle aged people there. the ikea is becoming the one stop place where people go to feel more high class about themselves. its like the sushi restaurants when they opened, where people who go there surprisingly aren't japanese. come to think of it, i have never seen a japanese in a sushi restaurant ever. anyway, we went to subway because i wanted to eat there. i was ordering the sandwich while i realised i had only 2 dollars after paying the deposit, so i said you do take nets right. they didn't, so i panicked and asked sam for money, she didn't. i asked for the nearest atm which was downstairs. i ran down, but it was UOB, so i decided hey man, maybei could take my card and charge me a little for it. i tried twice, both failed. i ran over to ikea using the overhead bridge and finally got my money. i paid the guys from subway and promptly ate my footlong. footlongs are good. sam is quite disgusted by the amount i eat. hahas. anyway, that there was another chapter in my book of goofs, complete with the birthday incident. i bet i could make a killing selling my autobiography as a comedy book. hahas
no one asked me about the donating blood thing yet? what are you waiting for.
www.lightamiliioncandle.com
Thursday, July 09, 2009
In The Shower
Got this idea when i was in the shower
to teach politics, let the students run for a presidential election
sounds simple enough
many of my friends has problems in this topic because they lack the necessary jargon or lexicon in the topic, like socialism, liberalism, secularism, etc
a simple and engaging way to let them learn is through an election.
let me explain
a lecture style of half hour before lessons to teach and half hour to discuss.
Step 1: make sure you have at least 5 weeks, preferably 10 weeks, to play around with the syllabus.since it can be used to encompass many topics like ethics, science, politics, government, singapore identity, blah blah blah, it is justifiable to use that much time, i think. i dunno
step 2: split the class up into 2 halves, preferably 10 on each side. either simply use just split them into halves by their seating arrangement, or let them do a questionnaire on political ideology, like abortion, pro or anti, that kind of thing, which i think is better.
Step 3: nominate a presidential candidate, among other positions. this can be done by students completely or to speed things up, the teacher nominate 3, ask for any additional volunteers then the individual groups, hereby called parties, vote for their own candidate.
Step 4: choose the other positions, obviously the other students also need to do some work. so they could either decide themselves or let the teachers decide.
they will preferably have jobs that either suit their personality or strengths OR clashes with them, putting them outside their comfort zone. jobs include,
(i'm avoiding the departments so that the individual students do not further segregate themselves.)
Campaign Manager- basically a leader, inconsistencies or problems will be referred to him
Organizer- Any event, i.e rallies, fundraiser, speeches, explained later, will be planned by this guy. justifies each and any event that the party wants to organize.
Press secretary- writes and monitors public reaction through the media.
Account manager- writes any justifications for spending or earning
Publicist- separated into 2 different forms of campaigning, getting the message across and negative campaigning, such as smears.
each job is taken by 2 people. for most writing exercises, what they need to do is write up on various campaigning that the party plans to do. so essentially, each person write around 1-2 page as to why certain actions should be taken when things happen, which as the teacher, you make happen, using the simple AREEC structure, as a guideline.
and for added fun, you can compile all the write ups and make it a report!
so naturally things must happen throughout the election to keep things interesting. for the US 2008 elections, the economy crashed, so that was interesting to watch. i think the teacher can "organize" several interesting things to happen like maybe radical teens riots across western states, for example. so each candidate must think of ways to tackle the problem without compromising the votes.
i think the natural way that it should end is with a "televised" presidential debate. send out an open invitation to anyone who is remotely interested to watch. write several questions and watch the presidential candidates argue it out. let the team prepare for maybe a week, but then again can you ever really prepare for anything televised.
There should only be a population of 1 person, who is the teacher who ultimately decides who wins, based on thier performance and/or policies. of course the teacher can make up statistics on the fly to reflect an actual voter base, just to give the students an idea of how and who to target for more votes.
just the overview, not very simple but hey its' cool.
for the actual lessons, as an average, if each class is given 3 hours per week, in 1 hour lessons, the first lesson can be a lecture of a particular topic, followed by certain probing questions like, should any government act like this? for example. the 2nd lesson should be a fake newspaper article that shows like certain trends or events that has happened, like the israel conflict, along with the aftermath of the actions they took last week, and then give them time to work out what actions they want to take. the 3rd lesson can be handing up of the report at the start of the lessons, and then a comprehension practice, preferably on the same topic. then corrections will be gone through the 3rd lesson of next week and so on.
i think many questions that they will ask themselves during the discussion will be AQ like questions, but thats just my guess.
this is a rough idea whiteboard that i have. obviously there are many loopholes and problems that i, due to tiredness and lack of will to write, failed to recognize. to the future me, if i ever become a teacher, keep this in mind.
In my future home, there will definitely be a giant whiteboard for me to put my ideas.
oh yeah, and some people from my school went to shave HER head for charity. i quite respect her for that even though i don't really know who she is. i like to think i would have gone if i had some friends to do it with me. i realised that many or the moral decisions i make depends on whether it's convenient for me or not, even though i REALLY REALLY want to do it. for example, i want to donate my organs when i die and i want to donate blood now when i'm still young. i never really found like any event or like roadshow promoting it, ever, just a lot of flag days and tin cans.
i'm gonna tell jelena now.
www.lightamillioncandles.com
to teach politics, let the students run for a presidential election
sounds simple enough
many of my friends has problems in this topic because they lack the necessary jargon or lexicon in the topic, like socialism, liberalism, secularism, etc
a simple and engaging way to let them learn is through an election.
let me explain
a lecture style of half hour before lessons to teach and half hour to discuss.
Step 1: make sure you have at least 5 weeks, preferably 10 weeks, to play around with the syllabus.since it can be used to encompass many topics like ethics, science, politics, government, singapore identity, blah blah blah, it is justifiable to use that much time, i think. i dunno
step 2: split the class up into 2 halves, preferably 10 on each side. either simply use just split them into halves by their seating arrangement, or let them do a questionnaire on political ideology, like abortion, pro or anti, that kind of thing, which i think is better.
Step 3: nominate a presidential candidate, among other positions. this can be done by students completely or to speed things up, the teacher nominate 3, ask for any additional volunteers then the individual groups, hereby called parties, vote for their own candidate.
Step 4: choose the other positions, obviously the other students also need to do some work. so they could either decide themselves or let the teachers decide.
they will preferably have jobs that either suit their personality or strengths OR clashes with them, putting them outside their comfort zone. jobs include,
(i'm avoiding the departments so that the individual students do not further segregate themselves.)
Campaign Manager- basically a leader, inconsistencies or problems will be referred to him
Organizer- Any event, i.e rallies, fundraiser, speeches, explained later, will be planned by this guy. justifies each and any event that the party wants to organize.
Press secretary- writes and monitors public reaction through the media.
Account manager- writes any justifications for spending or earning
Publicist- separated into 2 different forms of campaigning, getting the message across and negative campaigning, such as smears.
each job is taken by 2 people. for most writing exercises, what they need to do is write up on various campaigning that the party plans to do. so essentially, each person write around 1-2 page as to why certain actions should be taken when things happen, which as the teacher, you make happen, using the simple AREEC structure, as a guideline.
and for added fun, you can compile all the write ups and make it a report!
so naturally things must happen throughout the election to keep things interesting. for the US 2008 elections, the economy crashed, so that was interesting to watch. i think the teacher can "organize" several interesting things to happen like maybe radical teens riots across western states, for example. so each candidate must think of ways to tackle the problem without compromising the votes.
i think the natural way that it should end is with a "televised" presidential debate. send out an open invitation to anyone who is remotely interested to watch. write several questions and watch the presidential candidates argue it out. let the team prepare for maybe a week, but then again can you ever really prepare for anything televised.
There should only be a population of 1 person, who is the teacher who ultimately decides who wins, based on thier performance and/or policies. of course the teacher can make up statistics on the fly to reflect an actual voter base, just to give the students an idea of how and who to target for more votes.
just the overview, not very simple but hey its' cool.
for the actual lessons, as an average, if each class is given 3 hours per week, in 1 hour lessons, the first lesson can be a lecture of a particular topic, followed by certain probing questions like, should any government act like this? for example. the 2nd lesson should be a fake newspaper article that shows like certain trends or events that has happened, like the israel conflict, along with the aftermath of the actions they took last week, and then give them time to work out what actions they want to take. the 3rd lesson can be handing up of the report at the start of the lessons, and then a comprehension practice, preferably on the same topic. then corrections will be gone through the 3rd lesson of next week and so on.
i think many questions that they will ask themselves during the discussion will be AQ like questions, but thats just my guess.
this is a rough idea whiteboard that i have. obviously there are many loopholes and problems that i, due to tiredness and lack of will to write, failed to recognize. to the future me, if i ever become a teacher, keep this in mind.
In my future home, there will definitely be a giant whiteboard for me to put my ideas.
oh yeah, and some people from my school went to shave HER head for charity. i quite respect her for that even though i don't really know who she is. i like to think i would have gone if i had some friends to do it with me. i realised that many or the moral decisions i make depends on whether it's convenient for me or not, even though i REALLY REALLY want to do it. for example, i want to donate my organs when i die and i want to donate blood now when i'm still young. i never really found like any event or like roadshow promoting it, ever, just a lot of flag days and tin cans.
i'm gonna tell jelena now.
www.lightamillioncandles.com
Saturday, July 04, 2009
PhD
see more Funny Graphs
getting to call yourself a doctor is probably the most compelling reason, for me, srsly
i need a new blog where i can post pictures more easily, blogger sucks at that.
anyway, i was a chomp chomp with my family jus now, jelena smsed me to say that she saw me and called my name but i din hear. note to future people who may do that, FUCKING DON"T. i spent the whole meal looking for her, i was like looking up every time someone with longer than shoulders hair was around.
i was looking back everytime i took 2 steps.
i even goddamned looked around the whole hawker centre looking, even at the corner where there's nothing but people minding their business and looking at you.
what's worse was that she took bloody forever to respond. so i was like anticipating , and then i looked at my phone, then i looked at it again, then i looked at it again, then i set to to general profile, then when i shifted my seat i thought it vibrated and looked at it, AND THEN she responded.
its incredibly irritating, especially when i was eating. its' like if people told you a riddle but didn't tell you the answer. you keep thinking about it and didn't even know that you got it right.
anyway the college day celebrations was just now.
i know its the 20th college day and its supposed to be a big ceremony. but i think there was too much commotion over one day. i mean i could understand if it was for some big sponsorship or donation, but i doubt whatever they are giving can't be worth more than what you're shelling out.
i think its very much a thing about image. it's like a formality kind of thing. it's hard to ignore this event completely and you don't want to look like a kind of cheapo in front of guests even though it's ok to deprive other areas of funding, like ava. but its my opinion anyway.
and to be very very objective about it. it was not very interesting. it wasn't so much a celebration as it was a large scale gathering of people to tell them about our history and achievements, and that getting this principal was not a completely bad idea. the only really interesting part was when uncle henry and the drinks stall auntie got the service award. and of course some of the teachers as well, some more than others. but henry and the auntie got the loudest of it i think.
both the speeches were way too long and uninteresting. thorough out the speech i was thinking about what kind of face i should give next time i take a picture. it looks something like this :O and i also thought about how close a person has to be to be violating your "personal" space. generally if you were to stretch out your hand, from the tip of your fingers to the bottom of your palm is where most people whould be if they were talking to you 1 on 1. from that point to your elbow is if that person is talking about something very serious and for some reason wants to tell only you, like you have been blacklisted by the terrorists and he should be telling you about it. from your elbow all the way to your person is when a person i hugging you, if he/she is not, you are legally allowed to kick him in the groin or slap him/her. ok i made up the legal part, its more like socially tolerated.
i can't remember what else i have been thinking about for the past week. but i know it was quite a good week for me. i slept only like twice during all the lessons of the week. for some reason, i feel very confident and scared at the same time. its quite contradicting.
i also debated with elizabeth yesterday about religion, well it was more like i was invalidating her religion in particular. i find that i have to say different things to different people to convince them. that's why people are never fully convinced when they debate. because when they debate, they are only fact checking their own arguments. meaning, if pro and anti-abortion people debate, they always argue on the basis that they are correct as opposed to why the other side is wrong. so you can't ever fully convince the other side that they are wrong. this fact becomes more obvious when it comes to religion because priests already have an assumption that the bible is absolute, its' not possible to even hypothetically argue on the grounds that it is not, that's why its all from quoted from the bible. while scientists or atheists argue on the merit that it is POSSIBLE that it may be wrong and we should look for other sources for evidence, priests can't really do that. and worse still there is no real compromise for that assumption, its not like saying, it is possible to both earn money in a capitalistic way AND reduce pollution at the same time. you can't say you have believe in a bible.
anyway i have 2 very simple theories about the world, but it's incredibly difficult to convince people of it
Faith is irrational and
Either be happy or constantly try to improve, you can't have both. in order words, if you keep trying to improve, you will never be happy for a long enough period of time. i had a better phrasing in my head but i couldnt get it out.
faith is irrational is surprisingly hard to explain for some reason.
annyway, think about both of them, it's interesting to read the responses even though i know no one will bother, like all the past post pleaing for a reply.
www.lightamillioncandles.com
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