new kid on the blog

The education system of Singapore was taken to a fair trail at a kopitiam in Bedok. With me was a film maker friend of mine who absolutely believes that his son must be home schooled. His argument was that the school system is a system that forces every individual to conform, thus, to the students who can’t conform OR couldn’t figure out what in the world to conform to because they are way above it anyway, it’s detrimental. Thus, he says individualised learning is a must. And he also says individualised learning exists everywhere actually, whether you notice it or not. If a students sits in a classroom and listens to a teacher, he is actually interpreting the information on his own and using it the way he understands it to suit himself. And that applies to everyone. And I mean everyone, including yourself.

I stand with him on this point, but,

I still stand by the fact that a child MUST enter a school system, not because I think it works but because by putting a child in a system that doesn’t work, you are effectively teaching the child what works. Also, school is more than just books. It’s about social contact, it’s about dealing with people, it’s about finding the jerk in the group and not lending him your lunch money or seeking the nice friend whom you can rely on, probably the rest of your life. Life, yes, it’s about life. School is like the Petri dish in the science lab that prepares the young seedlings for the real environment. Of course, I stand by his theory about how some people just can’t conform.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not garnering support in any way for anybody here. I totally respect his opinion and he totally respects mine and it wasn’t any argument of sorts. In fact, I quite enjoy our conversations every time we meet precisely because of his profound view of things.

There’s no point really to this blog. Just something for you to think about.

Now for those of you Sylvester Stallone or Bruce Lee wannabes who are training with skipping ropes, or jump ropes (to sound that bit more macho), be warned.

Do remember to adjust your ropes to the correct length to prevent slapping youself in the back of the head or on you toes. Now you have to listen to this good advice from me because I’ve got the bruises to prove it, which effectively makes me Bruised Lee. Also, if you are just getting the hang of your rope, don’t attempt to do that two spins one jump thing that Mohammad Ali does because mere mortals have to take things one step at a time and again, I’m Bruised Lee.

Here’s a good link: http://www.drjump.com/ It’s even got some sort of calculations to determine the…well, nevermind.

To think jump ropes were just pieces of strings.

Peace.

I have a major pest problem in my house, so I got one of those cheap granular pest poison. Not flashy designer stuff Baygone, but (insert cheesy advertisement music) Top Gun Brand, "Kill Ants, Kill Cockroaches, Kill All". It’s not even grammatically right, but really, it doesn’t matter. Ants and cockroaches and all can’t read, as far as I know, though I suspected at one time when a bunch of cockroaches ate an entire page off the ending of a Graham Greene novel.

That’s reader’s digest for you.

Well, this made in China stuff really works!(geez, can you imagine ANYONE saying that line?) My cockroach problem has been reduced, significally.

Until yesterday that is.

Now if any of you had used on of those pest baits, you will notice that occasionally, after they had eaten their fill, they start doing a Jackie Chan (read: Drunken Master) and start acting all wierd, walking reeeeeeally slowly in circles. It may be a high art form right now at the Singapore Biennale, a taiji competition or you trying to get your downgrade letter to escape your next reservist, OR it is a poisoned cockroach.

I deduced it to be the latter because:
1. It is a cockroach
2. It has to be poisoned because Top Gun claims it "Kill Cockroaches", bad grammar and all. And when they Chinese say they can, they can (ok, joke, haha)
3. It died soon after.

Now all of you have seen cockroaches before they die. They don’t just point a wavering finger (leg?) at their alleged adversary and drop dead with a stream of blood flowing out of the side of their mouths with a strong drumming music in the background. No. They turn belly side up and start waving their legs in the air, feelers and all.

Now when this cockroach was doing just that, belly side up thing I mean, another cockroach came along and guess what he did. Now I assume this cockroach is a him because, well, I don’t know. Anyway, this cockroach, came along, and started EATING his poor comrade. Right there, right then. Like, Oh! A victim of an accidental poisoning! Let’s eat him!

So this guy, he started nibbling away at his old buddy’s tummy while his buddy look on at his own tummy being eaten, legs and feelers still moving and all. So now, the poison probably spreads from the eaten to the eater.

Now ain’t you guys glad I didn’t have a camera on hand at that time.

Till next time. Peace.

The movie’s good! Good acting, good storyline. Go watch it!

The wisdom of Microsoft: If there’s something wrong with even one teeny weeny piece of hardware you got there, we will irritate you by ceaselessly restarting your computer, and if you want extra information, you need to have at least the intelligence of a rocket scientist to be able to change your settings so that a blue screen would appear. Now this blue screen, or what the internet community now nickname the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), it’s a wonderful piece of technology. It tells you that there’s SOMETHING WRONG with your computer, but of course, you know that already. So you shall spend endless hours testing each and every single piece of hardware you have in that pathetic computer you have there until you realise it doesn’t make economic sense to be spending hundreds of man hours troubleshooting and getting a good wig to replace the hair you have ripped out that you will buy a new computer. Which makes us very happy.

And don’t even think about getting an Apple.

Due to the recent confusion my name has caused (don’t ask) that involved a native Beijinger, I found out the way I write my name, in Chinese, is archaic, that is, outdated, that means, woo hoo!!! I’m cool!!! Now eat dirt all you O level Higher Chinese A1 losers!!!

Anyway, this is my name 皋驹 (gao1 ju1). Now if you can’t see it, there’s a tool in your browser, I’m pretty sure, that can zoom right in. That’s the way I should write it now. I used to write the character “gao” in a way only me and the people who live with me know, which means, officially, this Lee family has an official code we can identify each other with. Well I can’t describe it to you but I managed to do a vague impression of it in Photoshop. (Note the difference in the bottom half; it’s almost invisible to the naked eye, to quote some really intelligent sounding people on TV)

Apparently, 皋驹 (gao1 ju1) means Young Horse (驹) of the highlands (皋). Wow. I feel so Dances with Wolves now. If I had a brother, he might be called Young Bear of the Low Lands, or if I had a son, Young Cat of the Void Deck, to keep with the times.

So there. My name. As, I quote, John Proctor in The Crucible, “Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life!”

Yea, exactly.

“Ferior” should be a word. It should be the antonym of “inferior”. For example, X brand washing powder is ferior to Y brand washing powder, or The Sergeant is ferior in rank to the Private.

Yea I think so.

Typing this using my new Samsung 15″ LCD monitor, just $199 at the PC show! What a steal.

I’m back!!! My first post after my computer’s repaired. Fantastic. Works like a dream now, so far. Had a great Sunday today. Met a friend for a vegetarian buffet at Somerset, great food, great service, great company.

Yep, that’s it.

Met Munkao, an old buddy from Secondary School, recently. Yesterday to be exact. He’s now an artist based in Kualar Lumpur. www.munkao.com

My friend, Lee Tong just started a blog. http://bruisology.blogspot.com/ If you have no idea who he is, or don’t want to have anything to do with someone calls himself Bruise Lee (NOT a typo error), well, just check out his rather interesting pictures.

Just visited the dentist. She’s a female dentist whom I’ve never seen before as my regular dentist needed to attend an urgent meeting. Okay guys. One note of advice. Never ever ever ever crack bad jokes with a female dentist. Never. A male dentist would have at nudge-in-the-ribs-hey-hey-buddy reaction. A female dentist…well, this was what happened.

She said, “How may I do for you today?”

And I said, ” Well, just checking if everything is in place where they should be.” (YES YES, it’s a bloody cold joke but well…try being a comedian on a dentist chair)

Well, she whipped out her mouth mirror (what in the world do you call that?), shoved it in my mouth and said, with a straight face, at least a straight enough face behind the surgical mask, that all my teeth are there.

Sigh…