The Music Playlist:
For those who have been visiting my blog, they should have noticed that I have included a nice little function - a music playlist to feature all the songs which I personally like and would love to introduce to the people reading my blog. I have not found a way to write in Mandarin so everything in the music playlist has to be in Hanyu Pinyin. My apologies to all those who may have little or no understanding of how Hanyu Pinyin reads as.
Nevetheless, the music playlist fulfils its basic objective - getting what I believed to be timeless good songs across to people of all ages. If you have noticed from the list of songs, I have included both relatively new and older songs in the playlist so that there is a variety of songs to choose from (in case some of the songs happened to be "unbearable" to some of you out there - I personally have not acquired the taste for heavy and metallic rock music from the Western cultures).
Obviously, there is no way to convince people that my selection of predominantly Mandarin songs are acceptable to everyone who may be listening to one of them right now, but I hope music lovers can still listen with an open mind and learn to appreciate music, whatever the genre, singer or time in which it was composed. After more than sixteeen years dabbling in music, I truly believe that music is one of the best creations of mankind and we should always be free to allow music to express some of our thoughts and feelings. Long live our love for music!
The Playground:
Two days ago, I was waiting at a playground for one of my lessons to begin because I had came a little early. Watching two of the kids clambering and having their fun on those large, colourful, metallic structures on those modern, carpeted playground set me thinking about the playground I used to play in when I was very young. It was made mostly of cold hard concrete, metal chains and lots and lots of sand and that was like more than ten years ago...
That playground was definitely more primitive than those we see around the neighbourhood these days but the experiences with the older types of playgrounds were educational in their own ways. From young, I learnt, through various incidents, that concrete is harder than my bones (bruises), metal chains are rougher than they look (abrasions) and sand contains quartz which can be as sharp as glass (cuts). My grandmother would be dabbing away at my wounds and I would be frowning and wincing away then. Hahaha...
I have not gotten any chance to play on those new playgrounds, probably due to the fact that it would be strange to do so at my age now but I suppose there are new lessons to be learnt at the playground since the structural content of the new metallic-carpeted playgrounds are so different from the older concrete-sand ones.
One thing is for sure though - no amount of classroom teaching can substitute the hands-on experiences at the playground. If you have been away from a playground for quite some time now, maybe you can just hop into one and re-learn those lessons again at the playground. After all, what could be a better way to learn things through a process of fun and laughter? Go get your dose of playground and get your hands-on fun now.
The Engineers on the MRT:
Yesterday, I was returning from a lesson on a long MRT ride back home and I had that rare opportunity to have four engineers standing beside me rattling off about technological gadgets. I am very sure that they are engineers because they were talking about complex technical issues within those gadgets and I could make very little head or tail of what they were talking because their language was peppered with loads of technical jargon. However, it was still fun to be listening in to what they said about MP3 players, scanners, printers, faxes, video cameras, cellphones, etc and I was admiring how much they knew about the field of work.
For me, I already knew from my primary school years that I would never become an engineer because I was never interested in reading those technical manuals and explaining to others how machinations work. I remembered there was a problem with the sound system at the backstage before an important concert then and a couple of the more technically-inclined team members were rambling about how to fix the problem. I tried very hard to follow their line of discussion but was totally confused. A few weeks of subsequent study into technical know-how yielded only disinterest and lots of dozing. By then, I decided I won't be an engineer when I grow up, much to the chagrin of those around me as they cited good pay and prospects in the careers of engineers.
My work philosophy remains the same after all these years - I want to enjoy what I am doing so I'll never have to work a single day of my life. My answer today: =D
Things won are done; joy's soul lies in the doing.
By: William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, Act 1, Scene 2 Greatest English dramatist & poet (1564 - 1616)
(Image source: Goran, 11 Jan 2006, stock.xchng)
(Quote source: http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/3071.html)
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