Space and Time

Gmail has breached the 5 GB mark for mailbox size.

There is so much I want to do before the end of the year to prepare for next year...

Cheers!

Balancing Act

Polarising Sheets

I have another video up on YouTube.

The Campus Observer

An article written by an NUS student about "emo".

YouTube

My first YouTube video!

Gmail

Check out the super-cool "behind the scenes" video of Gmail.

Fame

It's been a long time since I last posted.

September Holidays have come and gone. My first Teachers' Day has also come and gone.

Teaching at PJC has been very fun.

Let me now introduce the main star of this post...

Thin-Ideal Media and Women’s Body Dissatisfaction: Prevention using Downward Social Comparisons on Non-Appearance Dimensions (Ann-Marie Lew, Traci Mann, Hector Myers, Shelley Taylor and Julienne Bower)

Medicare's Search for Effective Obesity Treatments: Diets Are Not the Answer (Mann, Traci; Tomiyama, A. Janet; Westling, Erika; Lew, Ann-Marie; Samuels, Barbra; Chatman, Jason)

The second article is very famous (e.g.), and the full-text is available.

PJC Open House

Tomorrow is PJC Open House!

Life has been good, and busy.

While I Live, I Learn

If it doesn't rain tomorrow morning, I should be cycling to PJC. Soap, shampoo, shoes, towel and a change of clothes are waiting for me at my desk. I think I have socks there, but will bring a pair just in case. Oh, and will bring along a cheap little raincoat. I hope there isn't something I've overlooked! A belt!

They are still having their mid year examinations, and I've just completed my share of the marking. Lessons start next week, so I'm looking forward to interacting with them via mechanisms other than through the exchange of scriptons, which are a type of virtual particles mediating the force of subject mastery.

There was an RI reunion last Saturday, which was pretty fun! The two conditions for proper reminiscence are people and place, both of which were present on Saturday night. A very respectable turnout from 4F. Question on many people's minds was "Where is Ruimin?"

I really need to make sure I keep fit. After all, I need to take IPPT this year. I should set some target for myself, like maybe 10 chin-ups. My latest triglyceride levels are good, but my LDL cholesterol levels are pretty bad.

40 Minutes

That's the time it took me to travel the distance from my place to Pioneer JC by bike on Thursday. Moderately brisk pace with minimal load. It's roughly 10.5 km according to the street directory.

This is comparable to the time it takes for me to walk to the Boon Lay bus interchange, wait for and take bus 180, then walk to PJC. The one time I took that bus (which goes along the same route as the one I cycle along), the journey was about 25 minutes. If I don't take a feeder bus, it's still a 10 minute walk to the school from the bus stop.

Will try to cycle to school when I can, once I figure out the necessary (where to park my bike, where to shower, shoes and clothing arrangements). Traffic and timing might be tricky. Should avoid rush hour. Weather needs to cooperate. Cannot be carrying much stuff when cycling.

Exercise is good for you. So is the feeling of overtaking a car.

New Bicycle

Aleoca Crossbreed X.5 700C 21 Speed Hybrid Bike, from Carrefour (Plaza Singapura).

Raison d'être: occasional commute from home to work and back so I have one more way to incorporate exercise into my daily routine.

Customer Service

For the first time in my life, the supermarket cashier lady (at NTUC) thanked me when I said I didn't want a plastic bag! Thanks to the good efforts of BYOB day.

I was pleasantly surprised that the guy from Subway at Jurong Point remembered that I liked my footlong sub packed in two halves. And I just found out that the Garden Patty has cheese in it... Is cheese grown in a garden?!

If a hair loss treatment doesn't work, you lose hair. If a weight loss treatment doesn't work, you lose weight?

Pioneer

I've been posted to Pioneer Junior College (PJC).

They're building Pioneer MRT station outside my block, but unfortunately, it's not near to PJC, which is in the Choa Chu Kang area, near MINDEF.

This is my last week at Juying Secondary...

Looks like I won't be able to play tennis again this week... on Thursday they want to go to SOFRA for dinner, as a get-together before we go our separate ways after Practicum.

Sunday morning tennis is also put on hold because Ni is overseas... All this when I'm itching to play because I just bought new Wilson Pro Overgrips (Yellow), and Prince wristbands.

My current addiction: Mitsuba Peanut Crackers (ISO PEA!)

Debian "lenny"

Debian GNU/Linux version 4.0r0, codenamed "etch", was released on April 8th, 2007. I am now switching over to the "testing" distribution codenamed "lenny".

It's been a rather long time since I last posted. In short, my Teaching Practicum in Juying Secondary is drawing to a close. I have one more week in the school, and they are having their mid year examinations, so no classes to teach, only invigilation. Will be going back to NIE after that, and get my final school posting, to begin teaching as a full-time teacher from the start of Term 3.

4 am

It's been a crazy time. Woke up at 4 am today to prepare for today's lessons. Slept at 4 am yesterday preparing for lessons.

Was admitted to NUH for 3 days last week during the March holidays, from Tuesday to Thursday. My CK levels were highly elevated, and I was at risk of acute kidney failure. Felt fine otherwise. Was unable to use my laptop in the ward because there were other patients on heart monitoring devices.

Weird thing is that my cell phone charger died halfway through my stay, so my phone died and I bought a new charger on Friday.

Teaching has been a real learning experience, facing lots of challenges and learning new things each day. Had a wonderful experience with my Secondary 1 kids who were so excited about coming up to the board to show their answers.

Not much time and energy for floorball these days, especially with the hospital scare. Season is ending soon, and there's a crucial game this weekend that we need to win to ensure we are not relegated.

It was Staff Games Day today, so we played "floorball" out on a grass field with sticks that are about half the length of my floorball stick. Played volleyball after that too.

Hurricanes Victory

We won today's game against Team Taz 8-3. The results aren't out on the website yet, but should be there soon. So we're no longer at rock bottom of the table after today. Might I just take the opportunity to draw your attention to the goal I scored in our first game against Skools Floorball.

I haven't been "courted" (fielded) much recently, which is disappointing. I guess I'll just have to impress the coach more during trainings. Today's game was at Tampines, the court is longer but narrower, and a long, long way from home. Bought a chaptek from the shop at Tampines Sports Hall.

NUS Nemesis has recently gone on a giant-killing spree, beating Motorola Red Flamingoes and Nhac Tre No 1. One of our star players, Magnus, is flying back to Sweden tomorrow. Our next game will be that much tougher.

Updated my "teaching sciences" website with some stuff. Stumbled upon a rather interesting clip of a computer recognizing sketches.

Oh, and if anyone is concerned, my finger is now noticeably less swollen, though it is still a little puffy and hurts a little.

Lyrics

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance
Never settle for the path of least resistance

Hope You Dance, Lee Ann Womack

If God had a name, what would it be
And would you call it to his face
If you were faced with him in all his glory
What would you ask if you had just one question

One Of Us, Joan Osborne

If I had just one question, I would probably ask, "how do I stop suffering in this world", but it would not be complete without enquiring if I should even try. Yet, "how to" is an infinitely more useful question than "should I".

The Weekend Before I'm a Teacher

Sprained my finger yesterday when I carelessly hit away a basketball that was not quite in my reach. It's pretty swollen now, but can still play floorball. Had a few games of Captain's Ball with my maths classmates in NIE before we head out for our practicum.

I was trying to provide a link to a site about Captain's Ball butbut couldn't really find one. The game is basically like netball, except that the "net" is someone on your team standing on a chair to catch the ball for the team to score.

Handed in my Physics Test Construction Assignment today. Got my bike repaired, replaced the inner tube of the rear wheel that had leaked. Saw some students from Juying at the marketplace as I waited for my bike, filling me with anxiety and dread.

How am I going to connect with these students? I've been to America and back, but still I've really only interacted with the more overachieving crowd.

Cycled over to the school to have a look, didn't quite go in because there was a sign advising visitors to sign in with the general office first. The school is tucked away in a little corner of Jurong, next to Juying Primary, which is next to a military installation (that seems to be undergoing construction). It seems that the school field is "shared", there were signs pointing the way but I didn't quite pursue it as I was on my bike, and the path was rather makeshift.

So I start my practicum there on Monday. Exciting and scary. Need to spend the weekend doing some administrative preparation for it. Got a floorball game at Tampines Sports Hall on Sunday. Is there any point saying that we need to win this game? But we do. We haven't won a single game yet.

Attending this talk on Mental Wellness Through Resilience (PDF) tomorrow. The PDF file seems a little malformed on my computer though, with a bold swathe of grey running down the left side from the IMH logo right through to the HPB logo.

NIE Supervision Coordinator

My NIE Supervisor for my practicum is Associate Professor Kwek Leong Chuan. Seems like quite an interesting guy, has research interests in quantum information science.

Will be contacting him on Monday (tomorrow). Will also be contacting the Principal of Juying Secondary.

Have a floorball game against Skools Innebandy in a few hours. The results of the games played so far are less than spectacular for NTU Hurricane. Will we pull off a miracle with our Swedish Hurricane back in town?

In other news, a fellow teacher trainee at NIE and an advocate for GNU-style freedom has found his way to this blog. He had a letter in the Straits Times forum on 1 April 2006, about the Singapore Government adopting the OpenDocument Format (ODF).

Interesting, because I was actually working in MINDEF when it made the switch to OpenOffice.org, and got to see the ground-level implementation process and the reactions of staff when this change was forced upon them.

Interesting, because I once had a letter in the forum too.

Won't it be lovely if Microsoft one day becomes compliant with open standards?

We Didn't Start the Fire

Translated into the Singaporean context very deftly by Hossan Leong.

The video file is pretty big, but worth it. Unless you don't have broadband, in which case I don't even think it worth your while coming to my blog.

Theory and Practice

Woody dreamt that he was dribbling a floorball across the court. It was a pretty muddled, distorted dream.
Here's a photo of my floorball stick, with free background elements thrown in for the composition.
I planned to finish 3 pieces of work today. At this point I'll be happy if I finish one. In which case I had better get cracking.

Singapore Biennale 2006

I'm quite tickled by the quote at the end of this article:

"Everyone thinks that Singapore is a very clean place," one local says. "But that's not true. We just employ a lot of cleaners."

NIE Practicum

The school postings for the practicum are out. As noted by yjblog, there's some incompatible JavaScript on the practicum website. Can either disable JavaScript when viewing the site, or use a script with GreaseMonkey on Firefox/IceWeasel to show all the "hidden blocks".

Anyway, I guess the more pertinent matter is my school posting. I've been posted to Juying Secondary School, which is about as far as NTU is from my place. Will visit the school one of these days to take a look, since it's NIE e-Learning Week 2007 anyway.
One important thing would be to find out if there is a vegetarian stall at the canteen. If you're interested, you can read the school report, which is actually a speech given by the Principal, Mr Abdul Harris Sumardi, in 2006. There's also a quick 1-page school write-up.

Blame it on the Weatherman

This is last year's news, but I'll get it off my chest anyhow.

The rain has been really bad in December and early January, with several flooding episodes in Singapore.

Our flight back from Penang on 17 Dec 2006 was unable to land due to bad weather and turned back to Kuala Lumpur International Airport, where we awaited word from Changi Airport and watched the aircraft refuel.

I've never had such an experience before, not even when flying into and out of Newark Airport when it was snowing.

The perverse insistence of the rain has also cancelled several tennis sessions, though of course nowadays I don't play tennis because the floorball season is so demanding. And the rain seems to have increased the number of mosquitoes around.

Anyway, we had quite a fun, eventful trip in Malaysia, what with the drama of the return flight, and her dad's rental car hit by an unknown vehicle while parked outside the house.

We stayed a while in Ipoh, and watched quite a bit of HBO and National Geographic in the hotel room. Rain takes out the satellite TV signal; was watching the supernatural thriller Fallen and there were just a few minutes left when suddenly the screen blanked.

The rain these days has been insane.

dear doctor

morbidity fascinates you
nothing is scary anymore
as you pull apart the body
to fix it
you know you can put it back
stitch it up
close the wound

transactions

a poet
buys time
with rhyme
buys space
with his face
buys love
with a dove

Dental Floss

I have a pretty twisted relationship with dental floss.

It's quite a painful affair. I have scars on my fingers from where the floss cut my skin.

Like an addict, I'm forced to shift the position of the floss on my finger towards fresh, virgin skin. Forced to endure the protestations of tender flesh as the floss tightens its grip to squeeze in between a wall of teeth.

Firefox Upgrade

I now use (Debian) IceWeasel.

IVP Floorball 2006/2007

NTU didn't have a very successful IVP season this year. We won our first game against SMU 3-0, then had a terrible game against ITE. We lost 12-3 in that game.

SMU managed to hold ITE to a goalless draw, and NUS had beaten ITE 3-1, so we just needed to get a win over NUS to qualify for the semifinals.

We scored the first goal to lead 1-0 in the NUS game, but the final score was 3-1 in favour of NUS.

We have one last match, to play for 5th/6th. So that's that. My first and last IVP tournament. It's been a good run.

Goal!

In our first league game of Skools Floorball vs NTU Hurricane, we drew 2-2 at the final whistle. SF was up 2-0 when I scored the first goal for Hurricane.

Back to School

The tennis courts at NIE have all been resurfaced, according to schedule. NUS has still to get its act together regarding the tennis courts.

The school term has begun again, and there's less tennis for me this time around. I'm on the NTU floorball team, and our first IVP game is this Wednesday night against SMU.

At least, with floorball, the rain can't stop us!

Also playing for NTU Hurricane in the Singapore Floorball League (Division One). There's a match practically every weekend.

I guess this also means that the holidays have ended, and I have to confront the fact that I have done almost no programming over the holidays. All I did was write a Bash script to rename files in a folder (e.g. DSCN0045.JPG becomes DSCN1045.JPG if I want an "offset" of 1000).

Now to write a lesson plan to teach the multiplication rule for probability (for independent events).

By the way, I bought a floorball stick. The picture there is pretty small, but that was the only one I could find online. Feeling a little too lazy to take a picture of my stick. I had it shortened by about 4cm because the 101cm shaft was too unwieldy.

For these five weeks before the teaching practicum, I have classes at 8:30am for four days a week, except Thursday, which starts at 10:30am. But classes all end by 12:30pm every day!

New Year's Resolutions

To be less procrastinative.