My sis got her hands on the new jingle for Cadbury chocolates! Check it out if you like that jingle too!

Hmm… actually hor, are you guys really interested in reading about the conference meh?

I got bored writing about it after one day. In fact, I did not even write a lot about it yesterday. Only a little introductory paragraph saying what went on and stuff. I think I forgot to mention that I went for a Sports-for-Life walk prior to the conference. And it so happens that on the day of the conference, the traffic jams was ridiculous. I was suffering all the day maintaining the half-clutch with my van feeling the muscles weep.

I guessed the only thing I remember from today’s sessions was the change in perception I have about IT. Weird, considering that I studied computers for years. Now I have finally seen the light. Computers are LIVING THINGS. They evolve. They are to be treated as biotic elements in our ecosystem. They are foreign invaders that we have to tame.

We will NOT see computers and IT as innovation. They are no longer “new-ish”. Hence, from now on, they are just appliances like our toasters or microwares. Finally, since they are to be treated as LIVING THINGS, it is not about using them. It is about building relationships.

*Ra fondlers his laptop lovingly*

Keynotes:
- Allan Luke
- Peter Freebody
- Yong Zhao

- by Xyan

Switching on the lamps
Yet it remains dark
The sun is blazing in the sky
Yet the heart is frozen

Unfeeling
Uncaring
Am I an angel or a devil?

If I were a terror
Where is my foe?
Waving my sword valiantly
But I have nothing to slay

If I were a lover
Where is my bride?
A soul full of tenderness
But half of my bed stays bare

If I were a follower
Where is my captain?
Great devotion and loyal faith
But blind to the mission in my path

If I were a general
Where is my army?
The youthful flag-bearers
Lonely secrets of my art

The cries of the youth
The screams of the youth
Am I the darkness or the light?

Switching off the lamps
Yet the sparks linger
Under the randy storm
Succumb to the burning heart

= = = = =

Today marks the first day of a 3-days conference organized by the Centre for Research in Pedagogy & Practice (CRPP) which I am attending. The attendance was overwhelming with over 2,500 participants and delegates from all over the globe gracing the occasion. After the opening speech by the Dean of CRPP, the Director of NIE and our Minister for Education respectively, the first keynote speaker, Kathryn Au, offered an insightful view of how literacy had evolved over the past century. The second speaker I attended was Joel Spring, whose witty evaluation of how we are all victims of the Consumer Model Education struck a chore in me as I renewed my determination to not let the next generation suffer as I did.

Gandhi called his peace movement the "Experiments with Truth".

One of the main reasons why, despite all the advances in contemporary sciences, there remains many unsolved problems in our world, is that science taught to the younger generations ignored the fundamental issue of life.

The English-speaking world, such as me and my peers are over-exposed to the Western philosophy which resulted in us mistaking that our quest for knowledge is the equivalent to the search for truth and the meaning in life.

But the ultimate purpose of our lives is not to search for truth, but to seek happiness. And happiness is achieved only by cultivating values.

How do we cultivate values?

We simply need to experiment with what is true.

When shot with an arrow and bleeding, it is pointless to ask what make the arrow was. The type of wood and the quality of the arrow-tip is unnecessary. Instead, we ask how to stop the bleeding, clean the wound and dress it for recovery.

*fuck you*

Alright, I know that hand signal is highly inappropriate of a teacher. But I don’t see the need to be a hypocrite. I had my fair share of ungentlemanly behavior. I used the “fuck” word quite a bit. But honestly, I rarely use it as an exclamation. But as a verb, I used it so much that there is really no point in keeping count. You just cannot count something like “fuck”.

So what do I used for exclamations? Well, I dare say I’m pretty well-versed in KNNBCCB and its variations. So my point is… this finger is really pretty mild coming from me.

Had the incident happened in a different place and time, my fist could well be on someone’s face. I believe I fight better than I dance. I was not always goody-two-shoes.

Alright, I’m pissed. And mind you, I don’t get pissed all that often. After a good night sleep, I will be able to be civil and friendly again.

- by Xyan
Once upon a time, a highly skilled mason was in the employment of a great and wise king. Although the mason had demonstrated his skills and abilities countless times, he was never happy. It was a time when people are contented living in wooden huts and stone houses are expensive to build.

But the wise king knew that the building of stone houses was the way to advance their society. Often, he would counsel the mason telling him of the importance of his work. But his words were in vain.

Finally, the king decided that he will not longer tolerate the poor attitude of the mason and told him to leave. But before dismissing the mason, the king wants the mason to build the grandest castle in the kingdom.

Being his last project, the mason decided to just do the minimum. Even with the lack of effort, a decent castle was completed. On the last day of the mason’s employment, the king surprised him by making him the gift of the castle he had just constructed. Touched by the king’s generosity, the mason wept and begged for forgiveness.

The compassionate king decided to forgive him and commission another castle for the mason. The mason never complained again and built many grand and wonderful castles for the king.

= = = = =

First day at Mayflower Secondary. Only one comment: I like the school-tie.

I think it's asleep. Shh...

Your Birthdate: August 21

Being born on the 21st day of the month (3 energy) is likely to add a good bit of vitality to your life. The energy of 3 allows you bounce back rapidly from setbacks, physical or mental. There is a restlessness in your nature, but you seem to be able to portray an easygoing, "couldn't care less" attitude. You have a natural ability to express yourself in public, and you always make a very good impression. Good with words, you excel in writing, speaking, and possibly singing. You are energetic and always a good conversationalist. You have a keen imagination, but you tend to scatter your energies and become involved with too may superficial matters. Your mind is practical and rational despite this tendency to jump about. You are affectionate and loving, but very sensitive. You are subject to rapid ups and downs.

“Famine occurs as a result of greed, pestilence as a result of foolishness, and warfare as a result of anger.” – ND

Nothing in this world is truly constant, especially human emotions. We can wake up feeling grumpy, or excited. We feel hungry, for food, for mental nourishments, for companionship. But we hunger for them at different times of lives. We are animalistic and rut like beasts sometimes but are highly cultured at others. A piece of good news will send us into rapture and a piece of sad news can easily plunge us into misery. In short, we do, and already are living through the entire spectrum of heaven to hell as we go about our daily business. The place to find both heaven and hell is in our hearts.

And sometimes… we feel anger… often…

And rightly so, for anger is one of the most neutral of emotions, aligned with neither heaven nor hell. It is hell when we are angry the self, and drowning in rage. But there is also a heavenly sensation to be felt when we are angry with the injustice and the wrongs in this world and making a determination to create victories with our lives.

But all manifestations of anger have one thing in common. They hurt the body, and destroy spiritual peace. As nothing is constant, nobody stays angry forever. But should one walk away from a creature of anger and allow time to subside the fury pulsations?

Others may do so but not me, for I will never “walk away” from anything that I care about. I will enter the fire knowing full well that a certain degree of rationality will be loss in the flames, and that I run the risk of being burnt. I care not. Burn me as you will, for I will never cease to try to reduce the fuel of destruction. I will pray wholehearted for the right conditions and to continuously attempt to plant the seeds of happiness that will one day bloom and flower in splendid glory.

I am not foolishly brave. I am just dicing in a long-haul gamble that I cannot afford to lose.

You know your life is getting too predictable when the coffee-shop aunty knows exactly what you want to order for dinner the moment you appear.

The weather is kind of weird too. I cannot see any raindrops falling from the sky. Yet the floors are wet and puddles are forming.

Five Cornetto cones in a row. I need to be kinder to my stomach. I need to start jogging regularly too.

Oh mine! it appears that I had not blogged for a week already. Oh well, that meant one thing. I am busy. Practicum is over and I will be posted to Mayflower Secondary School from next week onwards. I had no idea what to expect. Oh well…

YCF is finally entering its final stages. We had our first training at Damai Secondary School this morning. It is a nice school with excellent facilities. As the focus of the dance shifted from the tapping to the formation, the bulk of the work is also being passed from Beckie to me. She had been truly wonderful doing the greater share of the chereography so far. Must thank her well. I’ll need more life-force to see me through this campaign.

I am also nominated into the main committee to prepare the activities for the ASD in June. Busy times ahead indeed.

My dear mother had also proposed that I buy a new flat with her now so that I will have a home to call my own when she goes. Touchwood!! I wish she lives long and well…

But I’ll look around. Won’t mind having a flat to my name. So now I’m officially flat hunting.

In the midst of all this, I prepared this!


Thanks Keith! Credit to you for helping me obtain this gift. And ya… my gift-wrapping skill still suxs.

Someone: Heya bro, you free on Sunday morning?

Ra: Nope.

Someone: Oh, so… which church do you go to?

Ra to Self: Huh? Did I mention anything about going to a church?

= = = = =

Right, I studied in mission schools from kindergarten to Junior College. I have been to church countless times, but that does not mean you should assume that I go church on Sunday mornings.

Fine, I am going to talk about God. Wait a minute, what is a Buddhist like me doing, trying to discuss God? For the record, Buddhism is atheistic if you accept the meaning of that word to deny the existence of an external entity that governs over us. Before that, I have to set a few disclaimers. Mainly because I know that there are some very decent Christians who read this blog and I have no intention of offending anyone. Basically, I just want to do my bit in creating understanding between various philosophies. Hence, I will only discuss based on the commonly accepted tenets of Christianity while acknowledging that there is great diversity of understanding within the Christian faith. So I may generalize a bit here and there.

Actually, it is really difficult to talk about God because it is pretty clear to me that every individual conceptualization of God is not uniform. Since the time when humans decided that they are no longer monkeys, humans started worshiping all kinds of times, from trees to rocks to the sun and the moon. And yes, monkeys and donkeys too!

But as society matures, many religious ideas cease to work and have to be replaced.

There was an Abraham’s God, a strict father, a creator, a protector and punisher, a giver of law. This God required Abraham to sacrifice Isaac and authorized quite a bit of killing.

Then there is Augustine’s God. This one inherited many prevalent ideas from the mighty Roman Empire and judged all humanity based on Adam’s original sin. Humans are fundamentally flawed here.

Next is Michelangelo’s God, a personal God as depicted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. This concept helped to liberal humanism. This god lives, judges, punishes, sees, hears, creates and destroy like us. The only liability I see is that we may assume that this god loves what we love and hates what we hate. The seed of discrimination is highly probable to grow here.

And there is also the omnipotent God which is really difficult for some to reconcile. If God is all-knowing and all-powerful, then he could have prevented all the sufferings in this world. If he cannot, he is impotent; but if he can but choose not to, he is not compassionate. Maybe one can argue that it is all a test and so forth. Those who passed the test may agree with you, those who fail will throw **** at you.

And then there are some who are beginning to argue that God is not apart, but an integral and fundamental part of the human being. This eternal and truth that resides in us is the source from which we can draw compassion, wisdom and courage.

When I heard this latest definition, I was like; this is starting to sound very familiar. This perspective is highly consistent with Buddhism. We merely call this the Mystic Law instead of God because, firstly, this is not personified being, and secondly, the name God in its traditional definition, does evoke an image of a personified being.

What happened long time ago, was that when Jews and Christians and Muslims looked to the heavens to fill their spiritual void, Buddhists dug into the depths of their own lives. I have a “God”. But because it is not a personified being but a Law that governs the rhythm of the cosmos and all phenomenon, I call it the Mystic Law and its name is Nam-myoho-renge-kyo instead of Yahweh.

So, am I still an atheist? You decide.

Days of “soaking” in 新谣 and picking up guitar again and another KTV session today, I have decided to make a confession on this blog. There are people who wondered why I needed to exaggerate all my singing efforts. And the truth is: I really have no choice because I want to enjoy my singing. I cannot hear music, I can only feel it.

As a continuation from some aspect about me revealed in my previous post, I have a slight hearing problem. No, I am not deaf. But I suffer from a condition known as tone-deaf in my left ear and slightly, but not as serious on the right. That is, I cannot differentiate C or D or E or F. I can only hear a sound. It was this reason that I was always rejected from joining choirs when I applied.

To those who have no idea what tone-deaf is...

For example, I can hear the DO RE MI FA SO LA TI individually, but DO-RE and DO-MI will sound the same to me. Ear-phones cause pain to my ears and I get unnatural ringing sound periodically.

Hence, to a music lover, this handicap is no different from a cripple who loves to run or a tuberculosis patient who loves to swim. This little secret remains one of my most painful. But I will not lose heart. I take courage from man like Beethoven. And that is also why Ode to Joy have the ability to drive me to tears.

Back to my guitar practice.

爱唱歌的小男孩

Qing mentioned that those who pay attention to the lyrics of a song when hearing it for the first time are more "Art" than "Science". But I pay attention to the lyrics first, even though I perceive myself as a computer geek; mainly because melody doesn’t agree with me. But once I catch a melody I like, I will devour it.

My ears!

Whenever there is an activity to highlight the importance of our senses, the sense of sight always takes center stage. How often do we use the blindfold when we play orientation games and such? It is easy to identify with the difficulties of the blind, and to evoke the charitable spirit in us.

But lesser in the limelight are those who lost their other senses.

Personally, I have always had this phobia of losing my sense of hearing. And it happened today again. Shortly after arriving at ITE College East for the visit, my ears started ringing. I panicked. Every sound I hear is given a 50% discount and I had great difficulties following the conversations with my friends throughout the day.

There were plans to go to KJ’s in the afternoon. I felt bad not going as I was the one who suggested that he plays host after all. But I needed to rest my ears. I will hear nothing but Daimoku for the afternoon. Hence, I just provided a lame reason and excuse myself.

Sorry guys, hope you had a good time.

= Alexander the Great =

“Alalalai!”

5.3 Mentor and Disciple Day

I had just completed the trilogy on Alexander by Valerio Massimo Manfredi. It had been a wonderful adventure following the journey of Alexander the Great. Alexander was a man who understands the spirit of mentor and disciple. It was his determination to keep the heroes he loved in his heart that fueled his dreams of unifying the known world.

Alexander conquered the ancient Persian empire and continued to advance ever east, all the way to India. Along the way, he did his best to integrate the Persians and Indians into his courts in an attempt to demonstrate to his Greek contemporaries, who discriminated against non-Greeks, that all of humankind is ultimately one.

“What is my task today? It is to fight. What is my task tomorrow? It is to win.” – Victor Hugo

Alexander’s childhood teacher, the famed Aristotle, once wrote a letter warning him: “Make Greeks your friends, but treat the Barbarians as you would animals or plants.”

But Alexander did not agree. He asserted that it is not birth, but education, that determines whether a person is civilized or a barbarian. He replied: “A good person is my friend; an evil person is my enemy.”

The last day of practicum. Photo-taking with some of my students. Gonna miss 'em.


Left my camera unattended for a while and this is what happens... LOL...