Channel U's tele-movie "The Promise" 《 向日葵的约定》

Channel U is showing a new telemovie called The Promise 《 向日葵的约定》 on 27 Dec 2009 at 9.30pm and I am hoping to encourage more readers to view the movie because I thought it will be a good showcase of acting and songs. The story is about how two young lovers are trying to realize a romance of innocence and purity (the girl is suffering from a aliment which renders her to be child-like whilst the boy is quite lost with his own directions in life). How will all these work out in the end? Stay tuned tonight.

I came to know of it when XiaoHan started advertising her song composition of 《受保護》 on Facebook and wanted the readers to write in to collect the song from Funkie Monkies Productions instead of ripping the song off from the Internet directly.

For those who are interested in the song, here's the youtube video preview (it's not the complete song version) and if you are further interested in the song, please either click on XiaoHan's blog or within the youtube video itself and follow the instructions there to write in to get the song.

I have already gotten my copy of the complete song version from Funkie Monkies through email but I refuse to upload the entire song up here because I think they are collating data for those appreciative of the song and I don't want to spoil their deliberate efforts here. I also want to support the song because the song is completed locally by a local singer and a local songwriter. Long live music by Singaporeans! ^__^

Without further ado, let's hear the shortened version before you decide whether to apply to grab the song from the original producers.

Song Recommendation for Dec 2009
龔芝怡（芝麻）作曲、演唱，並參於編曲的《受保護》
小寒作词


A
心疼你一臉無能為力
你最不擅長演戲
反讓我更愛你

心領了你的小心翼翼
是怕我會委屈
傻瓜別怪自己

B
有你深愛過的我
有甚麼事談不妥
乖 聽我說
過你要的生活

C
我們其中一個幸福
好過兩人都不知足
你懂我最愛哭
眼淚並不表示我怕孤獨

這一刻最大的幸福
是錯下去前說不
分離不苦 這不算苦
不要想著彌補

我不是個孩子 無須再 受保護

A
別以為我的心像瓷器
心碎並不是委屈
是成長的必須

別小看這一路的回憶
它會開成感激
給我存在意義

B
有你深愛過的我
有甚麼事談不妥
乖 聽我說
過你要的生活

C
我們其中一個幸福
好過兩人都不知足
你懂我最愛哭
眼淚並不表示我很無助

這一刻最大的幸福
是錯下去前說不
分離不苦 這不算苦
不要感觸

D
不要反覆 不要反顧
不要愛她吞吞吐吐
女生最恨戀人還想保護
上一段追逐

C
我們其中一個幸福
好過兩人都不知足
你懂我最愛哭
眼淚並不表示我很無助

這一刻最大的幸福
是錯下去前說不
分離不苦 這不算苦
不要想著彌補
我不是個孩子
無須再 受保護

我因為愛了你
無須再 受保護

The Mayan Aztecs and their amazing calendars

(Warning: Some of the paintings and illustrations contain explicit images of violence, torture and death and thus may be unsuitable for viewing for young children who may be reading this entry.)

I am not selling any idea that the world will end in the year 2012. I am just saying we have a lot to learn about these mysterious, ancient and yet incredibly advanced civilizations. If only the colonial explorers studied together with these civilizations instead of eliminating them, we could have preserved so much important history and knowledge that may actually help mankind evolve better than we are doing now.

We really need more peace instead of war amongst ourselves.

A Sand Drawing of World War II by Kseniya Simonova

Kseniya Simonova is a Ukrainian artist who just won Ukraine's version of "America's Got Talent." She uses a giant light box, dramatic music, imagination and "sand painting" skills to interpret Germany's invasion and occupation of Ukraine during WWII.

And I thought it was a beautiful story told...enough said.

Amazing Sand Drawing @ Yahoo! Video

Burning In The Heat of Singapore

Movie Review: Taken (2009)



Watched the movie "Taken" today and I thought the movie was nice because it had really realistic action scenes throughout a heart-stopping journey where a father (who retired voluntarily from some secret service job) had reluctantly gave his permission for his teenage daughter to go to Europe for a holiday, only to discover to his dismay that she was kidnapped by a vicious group of Albanians who ran drugs and prostitution rings.

Determined not to lose his daughter, he embarked on a one-man mission to save his daughter within a window of 96 hours before she would be forever lost in the human-trafficking businesses in Europe. The movie was an eye-opener about how insidious such crimes were in hoodwinking unsuspecting young girls on holidays and then whisking them off to sedate them with drugs to be sold for prostitution and the movie culminated when the father finally came face to face with the crime lords responsible for such illegal businesses, whom the former deal with harshly. As what one movie reviewer on yahoo said, you won't even notice the movie's 90+ minutes because it was one well-paced, hard-action movie mixed with ingenuity and quite some violence. It's NC16 because of the violence so for those blog readers wanting to go catch this movie, do take heart before stepping in.

It's really warm - I am literally cooked by the stifling heat that has permeated Singapore for the past week. Trying to enjoy the break after Campus Superstars 3 competition but the country has more or less transformed itself into a sweltering furnace to burn the rest.

Still I have managed to grab some entertainment here and there to take my mind off from those performance commentaries nights. Here are some of the games that have been keeping me happy.

Restaurant City - Facebook Game Application
I have always been intrigued by cooking and this is one game I really enjoyed because as an owner of a restaurant, you are to answer daily food quizzes (within 10 seconds) to gain precious ingredients to make new starter, main or dessert dishes for your ever-hungry customers. Alternatively, you can try exchanging ingredients with your friends. With those ingredients, your assigned cooks and waiters will start serving those dishes (visible from the screen) and starting collecting bills for you to upgrade and renovate your restaurant.

Money is hard to come by so I was trying my best to give my restaurant a posh look without spending too much since after every 3 hours, the assigned cooks and waiters will be exhausted and you either have to let them sleep or feed them really expensive sandwiches (each costing $200!). I still have many dishes to learn and I am hunting for ingredients everyday. Anyone has eggs and cheese to exchange? Hahaha.

Civony - Free Browser-Based City-Building Game


Pardon the small screenshot because most of the icons in the game are small. Although very similar to the earlier Imperial Ages game that I played a few months back, this one is even more complicated with valleys on the map screen for your armies to capture for increased production of lumber, stone, iron or food. The valleys (grasslands, hills, lakes, deserts, swamps) are constantly changing their levels, which determine the number of defenders guarding the valleys. The game also features heroes whom you can either hire from the inn or capture from valleys. You can grow these heros through an experience system and reward them with money or medals which can increase their popularity, experience and skills in helping you to manage your cities or lead your armies.

Another main drawing point is the alliance that I am in - most of them are actually working adults or graduates from various universities across the world from USA, Australia, Canada and we have been bantering and chatting about various issues across cultures whilst waiting for our buildings in the cities to be completed. The jokes are fast and witty so I am having just reading and laughing at how they are hurling those jokes across the alliance chat.

Going back to my civony and restaurant game now! Will update again soon! ^__^

Appeal To All My Beloved Blog Readers: Earthhour on 28 March 2009 8.30pm to 9.30pm

And yes, Earthhour is upon us - a united effort by the peoples of the world to switch off all lights and lighting appliances within your human reach for 60 minutes in a bid to help reduce the pressure on Earth's natural resources. Do help spread the word on the internet and blogs and let everyone participate in this event.

This blog post is an appeal from me to all of my beloved blog readers to join in the effort to make the world a more sustainable place for us all. Since the beginning of mankind, Earth has given us water, food, shelter, and whatever natural resources she could spare in creating the lifestyles we are enjoying right now. I thought it will be nice for all of us to do her a favor and let her rest for a good full 60 minutes.

All I ask of you blog readers is 60 minutes of your time without the use of any electrical appliances which can generate light. I believe with the creativity and intelligence all of you have out there, we can make do without lights for 60 minutes from 8.30pm to 9.30pm Singapore Time on 28 March 2009 Saturday.

So what can you do with 60 minutes of self-imposed blackout to return the favor to Mother Earth? Here are some suggestions:

1) Take a stroll outdoors. When is the last time you took an after-dinner stroll instead of rushing to use the television (which generates light as well), or the computer (which generates light), or take a hot shower (if it has indicator lights, it uses light too)? How about a nice stroll outdoors, weather permitting, to digest that heavy dinner this coming Saturday? Bring along your family and friends and have a good chat along the way.

2) Sing or play your musical instruments or even draw in the dark. For those music enthusiasts blog readers, why not try to sing in the dark or play your musical instruments in complete darkness? Get in touch with the song, piece of music, or even piece of drawing and you may be pleasantly surprised how it sounds or feels in a situation of darkness.

3) Talk on the fixed line phone (remember to switch off the lighting features in your phone, if applicable or possible) and have fun talking to your family, friends or loved ones over the phone in complete darkness. Seduce each other using your voice or have a good laugh over a good joke in darkness.

4) Hold a candlelight vigil session. If you really need to use lights during Earthhour for any emergency issues at hand, let's get back to the basics and use the more sustainable candle again. It's romantic, environmentally-friendly and it's fun. Use candles to move around during Earthhour and become the explorer of your house in the dark. Do be careful and remember to stick to fire-safety rules because of the naked flame of the candles.

5)Take a nice short nap during Earth Hour. So many people in Singapore are constantly sleep-deprived. Since you are participating in Earthhour, it would be a good idea to use the opportunity to grab some good, well-deserved rest from all the lighting intrusions or online devices. Switch off your handphones (most of which would have lighting) and sleep tight. When Earthhour is over, you will be much more energized and doing Mother Earth a favor as well.

Have a fun and memorable Earthhour! ^__^

Mild Audio Concussion From St James Boiler Room

St James Boiler Room Drinks Outing:

Just came back from a social drinking gathering with my VIP friends at Boiler Room at St James Power Station.

The music is punishing for my sensitive ears so I am like half-deaf from the outing, smelling of Chivas and vodka and slightly dazed from the spotlights, noise and body-crunching.

Sacrifices like these are necessary in my life - attend such events to see and be seen, to experience and be experienced but it's still punishing for one's health. Still, it was an enjoyable outing.

That is one of the reasons why there is an age limit to places like those - if you are too young, you may not have the discipline to know when and how much is enough.

There is still some problems uploading two of the photos that I have taken so I think I will just describe some of the highlights of that outing on last Friday night.

We were trying to finish one of the VIP friends' liquor - vodka and Chivas and we spent a good half of the outing playing the 猜拳 guessing game, having a lot of fun sabotaging one another. The game became increasingly difficult to concentrate as the liquor started to kick in and we actually increased the difficulty by disallowing anyone playing from pointing at the losers or risk drinking with the losers as well.

One of the VIP friends played a naughty prank by asking a very beautiful waitress to sell some tequila shot drinks to me and being the good sport and not wanting the beautiful waitress to keep persuading, I caved in for one of those really hard-knocking stuff. It was really powerful but thankfully I finished in one mouthful as the group desired.

The main highlight was the cross-dressing act by some of the resident entertainers and the jokes went really wild, sparking laughter and applause throughout the dark audience area as everyone crowded to watch. Three members of the audience were struggling to keep up with the extremely quick-witted entertainers and were made to do some dances and stage acts to please the crowd before they could be released back.

The Counseling Session For The Confused M60:

I spent a good number of hours over the phone and two extraordinary long outings to try and help the Confused M60 because she was still vacillating over her next career move as well as struggling to put her complicated past behind. The counseling finally reached an end after a long talk over nine hours where most of the time was spent listening to The Confused M60 pouring out all her grievances and letting her thoughts bounce back from my perspective.

I suppose sometimes, when people are down, all they need are a few words of kind advice and aplenty of listening time. As she finally settled down to her decisions, I was glad to be of help and hope she could move on in her life and eventually find her goals of success and happiness.

I took the above shot of trees against a blue sky and beautiful streaks of white clouds in the background whilst I was on the move during the week, thinking of how to help the Confused M60 without letting her sink into depression and despair.

We are in some ways like trees, with more or less the same life functions yet unique in our own ways - our thoughts, actions and behaviors branch out in so many different ways. Some of us will have more leaves; some may have more branches; some may have deeper roots. I told the Confused M60 "Your life may be different from many of your peers, but you are destined to live your life, beautiful in its own way. The moment you stop comparing against other people using invisible criteria, you will start enjoying the life you are given"

The Three Kingdoms Story:

I finally took enough of my remaining free time to finish up one of the three campaigns of the game, defeating Cao Cao and rescuing Emperor Xian from captivity. The end campaign reward animations were really funny with Cao Cao throwing a tantrum at one of his generals and hurling that general straight onto the camera lens until the latter slided down in pain.

The following screenshot showed a more benevolent Cao Cao as he looked at another general with concern as they retreated from the campaign map. And yes, all those characters you see in the screeshot below will be present during the game and you will have to defeat them in various scenarios - check out their dull-looking eyes of defeat. I loved the illustrator's work.

Campus Reunion Concert 2009:

I met up with one of the Campus Superstars graduates to collect the tickets for the abovementioned Concert, scheduled on this coming Saturday 21 March at Raffles Hotel Jubilee Hall. It's nice to see these graduates continuing their passion for singing way long after their stincts as contestants and culminating into a concert. I heard response for the concert is good despite the recessionary times and I want to give them the due support to cheer them on.

Undoubtedly, I will also be looking forward to see how far they have improved since the last time they sang publicly and hope I'll get a good night's worth of entertainment. ^__^
The Campus Superstar graduate was held up when we met up and I camped at this nice cosy cafe at the basement, taking a shot of the beautiful round mirrors decorating the walls and sipping my iced chocolate drink.

Sociological Trip to Career and Education Fair 2009 and Mall Exploration of Kallang Leisure Park

Sociological Trip to Career and Education Fair 2009:

A couple of days ago, I met a old friend whom I had lost contact during my school days by chance on a MRT platform. I'll name this friend as the Indecisive M60 because she comes across to me as a very indecisive person who considers her options in things, reconsiders those options 30 minutes later, re-reconsiders those options 1 hour later and starts all over again in another two hours. And she speaks fast with a quick temper, just like a General-Purpose Machine Gun (one of which is known as an M60).

Still, the Indecisive M60 is my friend and I believe in fate, believe that our chance meeting has a purpose because she was in trouble then - needing a job to tide her over as she was dependent on her parents on and off for quite a number of years ever since we last parted. Apparently, her character seemed to have a disconcerting effect on many of her colleagues and workplaces and she could not fit into any of those jobs thus far. The Indecisive M60 made a couple of calls to me after our chance meeting and she mentioned about going to the Career and Education Fair 2009 at Suntec City on last Friday to see if she could find some direction for her life there. Being the only friend who was available on Friday to accompany her, I said yes and off we went to Suntec on that day.

The Career and Education Fair 2009 was not that crowded on a Friday morning at 11am because most of the more enthusiastic and eager 120-000 strong crowd came in on Thursday itself. The Indecisive M60 and I began touring the place and she went on speaking to the various exhibitors and recruitment executives of a number of booths there. While she was busying herself, I was observing the rest of the crowd doing their work - Economy seems to be worser than what the news reported because I could see the tinge of desperation in many of their eyes - hellbent on getting jobs, sitting anywhere on the floor to fill in whatever forms they could lay their hands on and listening extremely intently to the various speakers there giving mini-speeches about their recruitment drives' expectations.

Two hours later, we were driven out of the Fair by our hunger pangs and we settled at New York New York for lunch. As she was jobless for the past three months, lunch was on me and the Indecisive M60 was so happy that she ordered her favourite foods there - some salmon tuna sandwich, orange crepes dessert and green tea while I had the recommended cranberry turkey sandwich and some blueberry float drink. A nice relaxing lunch later, we roamed Orchard Road in the afternoon where she related how she had spent miserable months in her house with nothing to do and how lonely she felt after graduating from school as so many of her friends parted ways due to the diverging responsibilities of life.

I advised her the following: Do what we humanly can and leave the rest of life to work things out themselves because the more we try to grapple with life, the more struggled we are and thus we will never be as happy as we wanted ourselves to be. The indecisive M60 finally made her decision at 4.30pm at a Long John Silver's restaurant where we stopped for a drink (her treat this time because I wanted her to still remember the pride to pay for oneself and the joy to pay for others - and gladly she understood my purpose). We parted ways at 6pm on Friday and I wished her all the best in her new direction in life.


Ta-da! The title board outside Career and Education Fair 2009 at Suntec City. The sun just came up inside the exhibition hall.
The Marina Bay Sands Resort recruitment booth was packed with people trying to fill in forms to go for interesting jobs like croupiers, theme park managers and event management executives. I took zero photos of people because I thought it was not the right place to have people's faces in such places - most of them seemed with their belts tightened already.
The Blueberry Bling Bling Drink at New York New York - I was jokingly teasing the waiter "How come it's blackish and not bluish in colour?" And the waiter was smiling away as he left without answering.
This is the Cranberry Turkey sandwich with Foccacia bread which I ordered. Pardoned the blurred shot because I was really hungry by then so I could not wait to get started. Believe it - it's absolutely delicious but I did not manage to finish both halves (sobs) because the Indecisive M60 grabbed one half of it and shoved one half of her Salmon Tuna Sandwich on my plate instead. Boohoohoo...

Mall Exploration at Kallang Leisure Park:

Yesterday was a study appointment with The Busy Bee because she had wanted to study for some finance course but could never bring herself to do so given the kind of distractions she always surrounded herself with - sleep, tv, food, movies. Hahaha. And as I was one of those few friends she had who could sit still for hours on end to study (well, I had my game design to think about at least) so we went to try and study at Kalland Leisure Park because there were Coffee Bean and Starbucks Coffee outlets there.

We met at Kallang Indoor Stadium at around 12.30 pm and lunch was the first item on the agenda. Having a good, non-foodcourt meal was important to both of us because we made the effort to travel all the way to the fairly-deserted Kalland sports area to study, we chosed Mushroom Pot to have our meal. We ordered a Deluxe Set Meal for Two which had quite a spread of food (I did not take photos of the food because I wanted to have a day off from photographing my outings) - there was two small bowls of rice, two bowls of herbal-tasting mushroom soup, a plate of beansprouts fried with mushrooms, a plate of deep-fried sotong with wasabi sauce dip, a plate of chilli fried chicken pieces, a plate of beancurd steamed with mushrooms and we topped those off with tea and orange juice. It was one good meal over a quiet restaurant and when we had our fill, we hopped over to Kallang Leisure Park which was just across the road.

It was my first time there because it was not one of my favourite mall haunts but I liked the place - medium-sized with spacious interiors and there were actually very interesting niche sports competitions being held there - a remote-controlled auto race and an figure-skating competition at the ice-ring. The Busy Bee gave me a quick tour of the place and being the movie fanatic she always is, she tempted ourselves enough to buy movie tickets for Marley and Me at this independent movie theatre called Flimgarde and we went off to Starbucks Coffee to study before the movie began in an hour's time.

One hour at Starbucks Coffee brought some solace from walking and while The Busy Bee was reading and writing notes to prepare for her examinations for her finance course, I was browsing through my magazines, reading the theory of evolution as well as crusader maps because I was still trying to find some realistic settings for my medieval game design. I finally settled on a choice of five cities and the time was up for the movie.

The movie was very simple and touching because it was so realistically portrayed without any deliberate action or CGI - about the highs and lows of life and how a dog managed to interwine its life with chaos, mischief and loyalty until the final days of its live. The ending was less than satisfactory because it did not show that much about what happened to the family after the death of the dog but I loved the parts where the family had to struggle with their ideal lives, made incredible sacrifices and got all frayed up when the dog, Marley, started all its havoc in the house and out of the house again.

The movie ended around 5pm and we went off to the Cold Storage Supermarket, trying to complete ingredients for a cake the Busy Bee was trying to make and after a hour of running around the shopping aisles, we left Kallang Leisure Park with two plastic bags of food and ingredients. The Saturday outing ended at 7pm when I helped the Busy Bee lugg the stuff back near her place because she was already exhausted and still nursing an injuried hand.

Happy Valentine's Day 2009

Happy Valentine's Day to all my blog readers!

It's another supposed non-official holiday to celebrate romantic love on this planet so for those readers who continue to find meaning in romantic love - my congratulations and well-wishes to you all!!!

I always mused to my friends around me that romantic love is like a game with no definite rules, no definite rewards and no definite penalties. I would like to think of it as a chessboard located on a constantly-moving rubics cube. There are no fixed pieces on the chessboard and there are no fixed black and white squares for the players to move their pieces. Whenever the players turn the rubics cube shaped chessboard, the game takes on a new perspective and the rules change again for the better or for the worse. That is why nobody in the world can say they have it all set in the realm of romantic love because people, issues and circumstances change constantly.

Nevertheless, romantic love is still such an important aspect of human existence because it is one of the differentiating emotions that separates us from the beasts and the non-animated objects on this planet. It drives human beings to say words, do things, perform heroic deeds, make a fool of themselves for the sake of their loved ones and if it affects them deep enough, they would do all those things again and again willingly.

Some people in our lives would have encountered multiple episodes of romantic love; some would have continued one single episode, some relived their memories of old episodes in their minds; some may undergo positive or negative transformations from previous episodes of romantic love while others may continue to crave for new episodes to happen.

Whatever your individual situation or perspective of romantic love is, let's make today a happy or at least a peaceful day over whoever or whatever activity you choose to spend this day over.

Once again, Happy Valentine's Day to all! ^__^

Online Surveys & Market Research

What are we looking for in a love relationship?

I found the above cartoon strip through Kewei's blog and it's about the quest for love. I thought it was a nice perspective at the things we are looking for in a relationship and maybe we have been looking at the wrong places all these while.

That's my take on the cartoon strip's theme. Don't take my words for it. Why don't you readers click the cartoon above and follow through the next buttons to see if you have your opinions about it?

Have fun! ^__^

Personal Thoughts about Proposed Changes to Primary 1 and Primary 2 Students in Singapore

I recently saw two pieces of news regarding some proposed changes to Primary 1 and Primary 2 students in Singapore and I have some personal thoughts to blog about. First, the articles:

S$4.5b to be spent in next 10 years to revamp primary school system
By Hoe Yeen Nie, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 27 January 2009 1917 hrs

SINGAPORE: Big changes are in store for Singapore's primary school system. Over the next ten years, more schools will be built and more teachers recruited on a budget of S$4.5 billion.

But what will surely get the attention of parents is a plan to do away with examinations for students in Primary 1 and 2.

Senior Minister of State for Education Grace Fu, chairperson of Primary Education Review and Implementation (PERI) Committee, said: "We'd like our students to enjoy the process of learning, and therefore having assessment that is tailored to the way that we teach is important.

"Having them sit through very important year-end exams may not be the best idea and I think there are better ways of assessing their progress. We can find better substitutes than just a one-off examination at year-end."

Instead of examinations, the PERI Committee has recommended that schools introduce bite-sized tests for Primary 1 and 2 students, and for parents to be given regular updates on the children's progress.

Telok Kurau Primary School did just that in 2006, but some parents were concerned about the changes where assessments take the form of project work and oral presentations.

Wilbur Wong, principal of Telok Kurau Primary School, said: "They say, 'Oh! Now you don't have the mid-year exams, how do I know how my child is? How do I know how much they have learnt?' But the reassurance needs to go out to the parents that no final year exam doesn't mean no assessment."

To change the way children learn in schools, all Primary 1s and 2s will also get more exposure to sports and the arts through their curriculum.

This comes under the new Programme for Active Learning (PAL) where students will have to participate in modular activities in two broad areas – Sports & Outdoor Education and Performing & Visual Arts. These activities will take up to two hours each week.

The broad strokes of these initiatives were announced at the Education Ministry's (MOE) Workplan Seminar last September. Since then, the taskforce led by Ms Fu has held several public consultation exercises to hammer out the details.

The PERI Committee has recommended that 18 new primary schools be built to aid the move towards a single-session structure by 2016. It has also suggested that schools should have the flexibility to decide on their start and end times.

MOE will work with the Land Transport Authority and school bus operators on transportation issues once the recommendations are accepted by Education Minister Ng Eng Hen.

More facilities will also be added for more voluntary welfare organisations (VWOs) to provide student care services.

Ms Fu said: "We have a segment in our society where the children may not have a good home environment to go back to. It could be that their parents are working or they may have problems at home. So the child needs a safe environment in the school where a VWO could help them."

The report by the PERI Committee was the result of discussions with educators and the public.

A lot of public feedback was given to the suggestion to recruit only degree-holders for teaching positions by 2015.

The committee said it recognises the need for MOE to improve the standard of its teaching pool, but it said interest and aptitude should always take priority, no matter how academically brilliant the applicant may be.

And besides plans to beef up MOE's pool of teacher aides, more training will also be given to existing teachers.

- CNA/so

(Article Source: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/405140/1/.html)

废除低年级考试 小三生负担或增
29 January 2009 2123hrs
薛淑慧

新传媒新闻报道，小学教育检讨及执行委员会建议教育部，以单元测试来取代小一和小二学生的所有学段考试，受访补习中心大多认为，这并不会减轻孩子的压力，反而会加重他们应付小三考试的负担。

平日下课后，不少小一、小二的学生，除了上补习班，还得参与其他课外活动。

学生说：

“我有去其他地方学英语和华语。”

“有学画画。”

“还有汉语拼音。”

受访补习中心认为，这反映了父母望子成龙，望女成凤的心态，因此即使废除了低年级学生的考试制度，相信仍会有不少父母，继续让孩子上补习班。

小博士教育集团经理蔡玉婷表示，“这里的家长们也明白，也了解到新加坡是个竞争力很强的国家，所以如果不尽早让孩子们补习，孩子们可能追不上。”

业者表示，如果善加利用废除学段考试后所腾出的时间，将有助于小一小二生获得更全面的教育。不过如果处理不当，孩子到了小三时，可能会被考试的压力，压得透不过气。

蔡玉婷说，“会第一次年终考试的压力和更沉重的课程，因为又有增加了科学这个新科目。”

Whiz-Land教育与咨询董事经理约翰帕特认为，“小一小二的课业压力将推至小三，而小三生却没有低年级生应有的备考能力，这将加重他们在小四小五和小六的学习困难和提升试卷出题的挑战。”

受访的业者担心，如果单元测试的次数太频密，这反而会削弱学生对它的重视。再加上如果分数最终没有算到成绩单里头，这反而会减少学生对考试的动力。

小学教育检讨及执行委员会将在今年3月，把最终的报告和建议呈交给教育部。

(Article Source: http://www.xin.sg/article.php?article=28313&st=dtl)

Second, my personal thoughts:

1) Format adjustments - Bit-sized tests for Primary 1 and Primary 2 students may not be effective because unless bit-sized tests are also introduced throughout the entire primary school systems all the way and abolish PSLE, those tests will not prepare the students for the very different form of learning from Primary 3 to Primary 6. Imagine the chaos when the students who had gotten used to learning bit-sized tests are then to change to textbook based and final exam formats? Nothing has been mentioned about how to help those who may be maladjusted to the system switches at such a young age. It seems that the Ministry of Education just assumes that the students can smoothly transit to a completely different form of learning.

2) Suitability - Bit-sized tests will add even further pressure on the Primary 1 and Primary 2 students because they will have to be constantly at their toes throughout the entire two years to make sure their "continual assessments" are not poorly done to drag down their overall changes.

Of course, proponents say this will be a good way to push students to work hard throughout the year rather than cram for the final couple of months but we are talking about very young students who may not even be getting used to public schools, let alone project work and oral presentations which involves complex team and presentation skills.

3) Training of teachers - It may sound cool to train very young students who are able to form into teams, actively research and present their findings in stunning presentations but are our school teachers properly-trained to know how to handle teams, team-related problems and accurately assess the quality of the research and presentations?

I already have ongoing complaints from people around me that there are problems of free-loaders during project work, conflicts between team members, research being aided by overly-protective parents and marred presentations due to stage fright. Does the Ministry of Education have enough experience in tackling such issues before allowing these new myriad of problems plague those young students?

4) Psychological Barriers - Let's face it - not every student is suitable for teamwork, research work, oral presentations, sports, outdoor education, performing and visual arts. Imagine that kind of psychological strain when students, especially at their nascent study years, start to realize that they may be so far behind those who are exceptionally talented in one or more of those areas.

Of course, one may argue that it is a blessing for the nation to discover the truly talented ones and nurture them from young but what about the average Joe or Jane? Are these students to suffer the possibly self-imposed, peer-imposed, teacher-imposed or parent-imposed sense of inferior complex and start to wane in their interest in being basically educated since they realized their average creative competencies will never be able to match those talented peers?

Are the education system or the school teachers ready and properly-trained to address and dispel such a possible pervasive sense of hopelessness in the average Joe or Jane, or just leave them to their fates as what it is being done now in schools with "bit-sized tests"?

5) Implementation feasibility - Let's look at the infamous workload of teachers in Singapore. If the new proposals go through as being said, teachers will have to provide even more regular updates on the progress of each individual student to their respective parents. My personal thoughts now shift to the following questions: How much more time can we squeeze from the average school teacher away from lesson planning time, lesson time, marking time, department meeting time, CCA time, upgrading time, seminar & workshop time, parent-meeting time to do those regular progress updates?

Are the school teachers trained to properly communicate such minute progresses to the parents who may not understand how such minute progresses work at all? What happens if there is a conflict of opinions about those minute progresses between the teachers and the parents? How much more time and effort are needed to resolve those conflicts and do the Ministry of Education have the means to do so?

To conclude - I think the Ministry of Education has good intentions to vary the education system to make it more interesting and nurturing. But if they try to actualize such a drastic change to these young students without considering the above-mentioned questions, it may actually make things worse.

As of now, schools with such bit-sized tests have already forced students to sleep far fewer hours every night just to make the datelines each week or even every few days and these older students are already suffering from education trauma because they neither have enough rest for their bodies, enough time to digest the information and skills which they might have acquired or enough space to flex those skills because weighing on these bit-sized tests are still the looming shadows of the final exam papers - PSLE, O Levels and A Levels.

Is our education environment, students, teachers and parents even ready for the bit-sized tests at any school level? We seem to be still struggling with no clear solution in sight. Dare we impose such chaos on our young Primary 1 and Primary 2 students?

I hope not.

My Birthday Celebrations 2009

It was my birthday yesterday so here's a blog post to tell my blog readers how I spent the day. After so many years of celebrations, I did not expect much anticipation and excitement because I am not a greedy person wanting of much from others. It was a half-day work for me so I spent the morning working as a normal person all the way till 12pm before I headed home.

There was a simple home celebration with my family members with red eggs and a birthday cake (strawberry-flavored) and that sort of took care of my lunch part I of the day. After that, my mother, in her usual festive mood, was raring to go to the nearby market for another round of Chinese New Year preparatory shopping and I obliged so off to the market we go. She bought and I lugged quite a few items - a box of mandarin oranges, a couple more CNY decorations, loads of vegetables, some pork cuts and some garnishing and condiment items. Lunch was eaten at a normal coffee shop with much fanfare because the items were pretty heavy and the weather was too hot to move elsewhere.

The afternoon was spent reading and finishing up on a book called Conquests of Alexander The Great. I like reading the occasional classic epic and history books because they provide knowledge of how the known civilized world came about. The book detailed how Alexander became a leader of the ancient Greece through a combination of wisdom, cunning and coercion, leading an improved and united Greek army across many different lands to conquer them, spread the Greek cultures and customs, whilst slowly assimilating other civilizations' practices.

Alexander was both being praised as a brilliant diplomat and strategist, as well as being criticized as an arrogant and overly-ambitious leader. In any case, I thought he was still a pivotal person in bringing about the spread of various cultures and languages which made the world what it is today. With the book finished, I took a nice, lazy two-hour nap from 3.30pm to 5.30pm. Yes, be jealous, because naps are becoming a luxury activity in the hectic-paced Singapore but my work and lifestyle grant the occasional naps and I love my sleep, away from the crazed rush of the world whenever I can.

By evening time, I got myself ready for the evening celebration with my VIP friends. The Changed Man had planned for an evening celebratory dinner at Melben Seafood Restaurant, famous for its crab special dishes so all the VIP friends who could turn up converged there at. After about one hour of waiting, nibbling on peanuts, chatting away at the economy, Obama's inaugural speech, the work, the bedsheets (yes, the ladies were yakking about which bedsheets to buy) the food finally arrived.

We ordered some fried vegetables with mushrooms, some fried yam sticks, and some really delicious buns which we used to dip in the sauce of the crab special dishes. Not in the picture were a dish of black pepper pork ribs as well.
We also tucked in two crab special dishes - this one is the butter crab and it was really nice with thick crab meat hidden inside those huge pincers. The sauce was buttery with a tangy peppy taste. The other was the claypot crab with noodles which was also very delicious. I did not take a picture of it because two VIP friends were too close to the claypot. They don't like their identities to be made known on the Internet thus so I could only take pictures of the food instead. Sorry for the few photos taken because I was too busy talking and eating with my hands. Hahaha.
The aftermath of the celebratory dinner, which lasted about one and a half hours, over delicious food, hilarious jokes, coy teasing and satisfied smiles. As I rarely eat crab during my normal meals, I thoroughly enjoyed the dinner, nibbling through every possible nook and corner of the crab to find those succulent meat. Blurp~~Hahaha.

It was a good celebration - needless of any presents when the company is so fun-loving and joyous. These are extremely busy VIPs who took precious time and effort to convene together for my birthday. My grateful thanks to each of them! ^__^

Photo Extracts from Vivocity and Marina Bay Countdown Parties 2009

First blog post of 2009. Happy New Year 2009 to everyone of you out there!!!

The previous year was quite a bad year of disasters - terrorists attacks, natural calamities, economic mess and casualties of good people. Let's hope this new year will usher in a better year for everyone.

I did not go for the countdown parties yesterday night because I was quite put off by the crowd squeeze of such mega-events so I took some time away instead. Nevetheless, I had managed to extract some of the more interesting and beautiful pictures from two of the largest countdown parties in Singapore to share with my blog readers who may or may not have attended or wanted some sort of photographic souvenirs but could not capture those ideal shots last night.

The following three pictures were contributed by a friendly Facebook user, x[t] who kindly gave permission for me to publish these very valuable closeup shots of MediaCorp celebrities who were onstage during the VivoCity Countdown Party. Once again, thank you to x[t] who probably went there hours ahead to secure such a position for these shots.

For those familiar with Project and Campus Superstars, from the left - Teresa Tseng (CSS 1), Diya Tan (PSS 2), Carrie Yeo (PSS 2), Keely Wee (CSS 2) and Shawn Tok (CSS 2).
For those familiar with MediaCorp acting and hosting celebrities, from the left - Rui En, Felicia Chin, Jeanette Aw, Dasmond Koh, Zhong Qin, Christopher Lee and Dai Tian Yang.
This was probably taken moments before the final countdown begins and we can see the ladies were waiting while Shawn Tok was himself onstage to the puzzled look by Sugi (PSS 1).
The ladies enjoying themselves when the stage fireworks came into play. Teresa, Carrie, Keely and an unknown celebrity having fun celebrating.

The following fireworks photographs were extracted from the official photography competition at the main website of Marina Bay Countdown Party 2009. Kudos to the hardworking photographers who captured such extraordinary shots of the fireworks this year.
An explosion of orange and green fireworks which look like a giant windmill turning on three pillars of red.
Red and purple - royal colours lighting up the beautiful night skyline of Singapore at the Marina Bay area.
Looks like sunflowers in the night skies with fireflies hovering atop of those flowers. The 10,000 bluish spheres were visible on the surface of Singapore river.

That's all for now. Have a great holiday and year ahead! ^__^

Superstar Virgo Cruise 4D3N Penang-Phuket-Singapore Trip (16 Nov 2008 to 19 Nov 2008)

I went on the above-mentioned cruise trip with my two parents because they have been wanting to go on a cruise for a few years but I just could not find a suitable time and trip for them until now. There weren't as many photos as I would like because I had to take care of the two of them for the entire trip but I tried to sneak in as many as I could while on the move, in between breaks.

This is taken just after I cleared the immigrations at HarbourFront Cruise Centre. It's the long bridge to the Superstar Virgo ship and there were actually mascots later on entertaining the embarking passengers further down the bridge.
This is the room in which I would be spending my time resting onboard the ship. The beds were comfy enough and the room was actually spacious for three with a decent bathroom and toilet. The only complaint I had about the room was that the blankets weren't warm enough and I had to use the greenish bed covers as a blanket because I was sleeping atop (see the folded bed at the left hand side against the wall).
The central reception area decoration piece - The Three Bronze Horses. They remind me of the four Bronze Horses in Venice. Majestic, aren't they? The piano in front was meant for entertaining the guests at the reception but I supposed he wasn't on duty yet. Hahaha.
Superstar Virgo finally left the cruise centre and I took this whilst the ship was leaving. It's the kind of view that people won't get unless they are departing Singapore by sea.
I will miss Singapore for its comfort and security for the next four days so adios! I am away on adventure in Penang and Phuket!
Ah...the sea breeze blowing in my face. The ship was heading out to the Straits of Malacca and you can see the tankers parking neatly in the Singapore waters. Can't do the Titanic foredeck thingy because the place was out of bounds - maybe the Captain was worried someone might fall overboard?
Ocean waters everywhere. You can see the island lands of Sumatra in the foggy distance but my stomach is already grumbling - I wonder what's the food onboard like?
This is breakfast on Day Two before we embark on the shores of Penang. Ain't too bad - buns and butter, wafers, sausages, scrambled eggs for a breakfast buffet, washed down by orange juice and a plate of salad. Got to get ready for the shore excursion later, right?
Whilst eating, I looked out of the windows and captured the first sunrise of Penang onboard. It's going to be a good day ashore.
The sea mist makes Penang rather sleepy but in the distance, as the ship approaches, the excitement builds, so does the challenge, because my parents could not really walk well on their feet due to their ancient age.
I finally managed to get all three of us safely onboard the jetty and a lot of people were busy snapping away with whatever recording gadgets they had on their hands - I just took one because everyone seemed rather tense on the ferry - I wonder why...
Penang's cruise centre under construction. Notice the iconic Muslim dome atop of the tower? I hope it will be ready when I step foot on Penang the next time round.
As the ferry closes in even further, another shot taken of a beautiful colonial-styled clock tower.
The jetty taken from onboard the shore excursion bus. There were a number of drivers trying persuade the shore excursion groups (numbering some 1,000 people) to take their vehicles for transport instead but true to the Singapore safe spirit, almost everyone chosed the excursion buses instead, leaving disappointed locals behind.
Penang is still quite behind development in certain parts of the ferry area - this motorcycle rental shop reminds me of those on Pulau Ubin island in Singapore. Corrulgated iron sheets coarsely constructed into small huts to shelter those really old types of motorcycles.
Our very first family meal at Penang Queensbay Mall Level 1 - it was some chicken rice themed restaurant and it costs RM40 with three plates of different flavoured chicken, jelly soup, drinks, bean sprouts and some delicious pastries as desserts.
The Queensbay Mall in Penang - their Christmas decorations were already up and running and I thought it was thoughtfully designed but most of the shops sold more or less the same things as Singapore so there wasn't much to shop around for even though the mall was superbly maintained with one distinguishable difference - the security guards there carried large automatic weapons and combat shotguns behind their backs. Scary...
This was taken onboard the shore excursion bus on our way back - the shop houses reminded me of those in Chinatown and Serangoon areas in Singapore. Pretty much the same since most of the people in Penang are Chinese Malaysians.
The building opposite Pranglin Mall of Penang, which was really chaotic because there were so many shops randomly located and the escalators were a killer - located on the far side of each level so my poor parents had to struggle between the levels. Pranglin Mall was the worser mall even though the items were cheaper than Queensway Mall. I did not bothered taking shots inside so I took this shot instead, where I was intrigued by the louvered designs of the windows. I hope Phuket has better things to see.
The sunrise at Phuket island was mesmerizing. The sun looked incredibly big there but the rays were gentle and soothing.
The aft deck of Superstar Virgo before I disembark for the shore excursion at Phuket. I rarely go to the aft deck because it was full of screaming children playing with those water theme rides and structures there. I need my peace and quiet for this trip without children thundering around.
This was taken whilst on the move along the long jetty walk to Phuket's Patong Beach. It was a difficult shot because I risked falling off the floating jetty planks but I thought it was worth the while - sleepy Patong Beach at 0730hours local time. The longtailed boats were still moored at the beach, making the whole beach seemed idyllic.
On the hillsides of Patong Beach are all the resort houses - I heard from the tour guide, Mr. Gobi, that Patong Beach lost nearly 300 souls during the Indian Ocean Tsunami so I could still see some resort houses under reconstruction. The tsunami wave was 6 metres high then.
The Pornthip Sea Store was one of the excursion stops and it sells a lot of sea products which many grabbed - my parents bought a number of food items from this shop and I got myself some gifts for my VIP friends.
The Sri Burapa Cashew Nut Factory sells a lot of cashew nut related products as well as other items found in the earlier store as well but the crowd was densely packed and I noticed sparrows were resting at those ceiling lights since it was an open air building. My father was busy tasting all the food products samples whilst I was just admiring the view and drinking some cashew nut drink. Haha.
Thainam restaurant was where the shore excursion trip lunch would be prepared. The entrance was really grand without marble pillars and flooring and exquisitely decorated railings. The beef and chicken was really nice but I was not impressed with how they prepared their desserts and rice. Still, it was an enjoyable break from the excursion.
The Central Festival Mall in Phuket was big and beautiful with a number of interesting shops, especially the booth stalls selling trinklets. My parents bought another batch of items there whilst I got myself a nice shirt inside for 600 baht and some presents for my students at 500 baht.
Already back onboard Superstar Virgo but the ship had not left the harbour yet so I went onto the deck and took some scenic pictures of Patong Beach.
Some of the beachs were isolated and I thought it must have been nice to visit those beaches (accessible only by swimming or by boat or by snorkelling there). However, the shore excursion lasted only from 9am till 4am so there wasn't enough time.
The glittering sea illuminated by the sunset at Phuket Island. Time to look for my next meal onboard.
This is taken inside my favourite restaurant onboard - Bella Vista, a classy western styled restaurant where they served what I considered the best food onboard. The dress code was strict but it seemed most of the passengers could not cared about it. I still wore my best shirt and pants there every time though.
Oops, missed the Central Festival Mall shot. Here it is.
Another shot of Patong Beach, fully awoke. See the sail boats and the umbrellas opening up in the distance? Time for the beach tourists!
Breakfast at Bella Vista on the last day consisted of buffet breakfast and I ordered their special of the day - pancakes. They looked really hard but tasted soft and creamy inside with raisins though. Hahaha. I love pancakes for breakfast and tea.
Lunch at the Mediterranean Buffet was alway filling. Cabbages, stewed lamb, fried fish fillet, salad, cakes and pudding. Yummy...
It's been days onboard without computer or newspapers access. Internet access onboard costs $13.80/hour and there was only Bangkok Post newspapers onboard so I had to make do with what I could. I chose a nice spot inside the library onboard and read through the entire newspapers.
The dinner at Bella Vista before we disembark back to Singapore. I had skewered beef while my parents had some pork chops and cabbage wraps. I will miss the sheer variety of food onboard though. Hahaha...munch munch munch.
Back at HarbourFront Cruise Centre where we had to wait 90 minutes at the taxi queue because most of the taxis were "on call". It was really tiring lugging everything and waiting but at least I brought my parents back safely with a camera load of pictures and a mind load of beautiful memories and experiences. Time to crash back to bed when I reach home. Zzzzz....