Sunday, March 19, 2006
Friday, March 17, 2006
On fire
"Set a man a fire, he'll be warm for a day,
Set a man on fire, he'll be warm for life."
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On another note, hurray for ronin (although its one day late)
The concert was quite good though, too bad for the idiots who sat down. For the misinformed, ronin's a local band who play nice "gay love songs".
Crazy Son!!!
So having come to grips with the sad and flatulent realisation that the holidays are coming to an end, I finally worked myself into a state of mind that would allow me to think about it without suffering a nervous breakdown.
The point of course, is that it wasn't really a break, not in the purest sense of the word. I mean, we are supposed to be having a break right, and I might be a bit old-fashioned here, but I have always thought breaks involve a fair amount of idling around with nothing important to do, which is an excellent way to spend time actually. I contend that no one who hasn't idled an afternoon away can seriously claim to have enjoyed life, but that's a different story. But noooo, the teachers must insist on loading us with enough work to erm, ' keep you occupied for the entire holidays'. I mean, phew but that was the most elaborate piece of anti-logic I have ever heard. And you don't want to hear about the others ( you seriously don't..)
So, now that having our hols occupied with homework is perfectly fine, I suggest that they take the fiction a step further and make us go school during the hols, for the purpose of refreshing us for the new term. This would also be to the advancement of education and humanity in general, becuse can you imagine all these youths idling their time away without doing anything productive.. ? Plus, imagine all the extra time we have for studying.
Yeah, I know we are supposed to be hard-working and diligent, you know the usual do-not-rest-on-your-laurels and all, but seriously, what are laurels for, except... maybe, for us to rest on .. a little..?
The point of course, is that it wasn't really a break, not in the purest sense of the word. I mean, we are supposed to be having a break right, and I might be a bit old-fashioned here, but I have always thought breaks involve a fair amount of idling around with nothing important to do, which is an excellent way to spend time actually. I contend that no one who hasn't idled an afternoon away can seriously claim to have enjoyed life, but that's a different story. But noooo, the teachers must insist on loading us with enough work to erm, ' keep you occupied for the entire holidays'. I mean, phew but that was the most elaborate piece of anti-logic I have ever heard. And you don't want to hear about the others ( you seriously don't..)
So, now that having our hols occupied with homework is perfectly fine, I suggest that they take the fiction a step further and make us go school during the hols, for the purpose of refreshing us for the new term. This would also be to the advancement of education and humanity in general, becuse can you imagine all these youths idling their time away without doing anything productive.. ? Plus, imagine all the extra time we have for studying.
Yeah, I know we are supposed to be hard-working and diligent, you know the usual do-not-rest-on-your-laurels and all, but seriously, what are laurels for, except... maybe, for us to rest on .. a little..?
Thursday, March 16, 2006
End of Days
I must have watched one of the lousiest movies ever produced in the Seen and Unseen universe yesterday, something about a black scientist trying desperately to stop a meteorite from crashing into the Earth and ending 4000 years of continual bungling the planet has suffered at the hands of humans. The bad guy was (gasp! surprise surprise !) a fat, drawling general. As a matter of fact, I have come to the general conclusion that there must be some correlation between the degree of villainy of a character and the size of his belly - I mean just look at Batman, James Bond and Mike Myers ( oh wait, Mike was the good guy....oh well...).
I did not finish the movie so I am unable to tell you whether the meteorite did succeed in its noble cause. But sigh, it is time to return to less cheerful thoughts..
I did not finish the movie so I am unable to tell you whether the meteorite did succeed in its noble cause. But sigh, it is time to return to less cheerful thoughts..
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Byronic Verses
Oh and Lord Byron apparently wrote the following rhyme in a lavatory cubicle, no doubt while offering his daily supplication to Cloaca the goddess of the bowel:
O Cloacina goddess of this place,
Look upon thy suppliants with thy smiling face;
Smooth and consistent let their offerings flow,
Neither too rashly swift nor too insolently slow.
What a man!
O Cloacina goddess of this place,
Look upon thy suppliants with thy smiling face;
Smooth and consistent let their offerings flow,
Neither too rashly swift nor too insolently slow.
What a man!
The End is G
nat: Whats the end of everything?
ken: The Apocalypse, Ragnarok, The End of Days,
The Final judgement, Armageddon....whatevernat: er.... no, actually its G.
i love the way kids think
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Oh and i found out that Francis Bacon rose to prominence by betraying his friends, so he would no doubt have known that knowledge is power through the ripe lessons of experience. So he might not have been drunk or pompous, at all, when he uttered it ; although the highest compliment i can accord to him right now is that he would have no doubt made a businessman par excellence had his birth been delayed for a couple of centuries.
On an entirely unrelated note, i can't resist putting forth my humble opinion regarding the recent exam results. That the top scorer this year did not do quite as well as the one last year must come as a huge tremendous blow of disappointment to the general public ( at least that's what I think... after all we have been spoiled for the past two years by students achieving an ever increasing number of A's). I mean, we all know that two scores ( gasp ! literally! ) of A's does really sound quite ludicrous, but it makes us feel so incredibly good.... But never mind that.
Anyway, this is symptomatic of the education system ( and i mean education systems all around the world in general, nothing personal see ) - it seems to me that education has more or less degenerated into a race in which the main, no wait, only, objective is to score as many A's as possible. Where this is not possible, when there are no public examinations for example, the students generally measure themselves against other students and some even have the audacity to equate education with ... with... ahh...okay... a battle ( there I have said it ! phew). I don't mean to be contentious but seriously, whatever in hell is the problem ?! Has the proud business of educating oneself and culturing one's mind degenerated so much it is now regarded as nothing but exams ?
If someone would be so kind as to enlighten me on this subject, I would be infinitely obliged to you, whoever you may be.
On an entirely unrelated note, i can't resist putting forth my humble opinion regarding the recent exam results. That the top scorer this year did not do quite as well as the one last year must come as a huge tremendous blow of disappointment to the general public ( at least that's what I think... after all we have been spoiled for the past two years by students achieving an ever increasing number of A's). I mean, we all know that two scores ( gasp ! literally! ) of A's does really sound quite ludicrous, but it makes us feel so incredibly good.... But never mind that.
Anyway, this is symptomatic of the education system ( and i mean education systems all around the world in general, nothing personal see ) - it seems to me that education has more or less degenerated into a race in which the main, no wait, only, objective is to score as many A's as possible. Where this is not possible, when there are no public examinations for example, the students generally measure themselves against other students and some even have the audacity to equate education with ... with... ahh...okay... a battle ( there I have said it ! phew). I don't mean to be contentious but seriously, whatever in hell is the problem ?! Has the proud business of educating oneself and culturing one's mind degenerated so much it is now regarded as nothing but exams ?
If someone would be so kind as to enlighten me on this subject, I would be infinitely obliged to you, whoever you may be.
Sunday, March 12, 2006
Darn. I just found out that this blog can have hardly any claims to originality as well now, adding to an already impressive list mentioned in an earlier post. As a matter of fact, the words idle and ramblings are so wildly popular among bloggers that I almost feel sorry for adding another one to this extravagant buffet of idleramblings.
Anyway, I just discovered after attending a certain seminar that I have an innate dislike for business mantras. They are usually so indelibly meaningless, that I suspect that they must have been created by a group of linguitic terrorists who sat around a round table (pun intended), deliberating on the latest piece of imbecility to inflict upon an unsuspecting public. I know I am being terribly biased here, but that's okay 0 a perfectly objective view would be so ... boring.
I mean, catchphrases are usually bad enough ( catchphrases ! ..... Jesus, I mean, just look at the word !) but why anyone would want to put on a public display of idiocy in the name of serious business is just beyond my comprehension. To be fair, it wasn't always like this; things actually started going downhill when a certain gentleman by the name of Francis Bacon proclaimed that 'Knowledge is power' which has since been so overused and overabused that even Frankie must be turning in his grave, besides unleashing a whole Pandora's box of other such phrases .... Since I am feeling particularly benevolent today, I will spare the poor reader from other examples. I also imagine Frankie must have been feeling a little pompous when he said that, or else he was drunk, but here I digress.
So at this seminar I attended very recently, the speaker was proudly proclaiming that the brain is truth-seeking and thats why it is important to feed the brain with the necessary knowledge in order to achieve business success. This was followed by a couple of minutes of silence, in which we marvelled at the nature of the profound truth that we have just been privy to. I mean, that is some revelation, right up there with ' Assume and you make and ass out of u and me', or something along that line. All these, of course, can be conveniently found in books titled ' 10 Easy Steps to Business Success'. But I might be wrong. You have to be pretty good at business to publish, sell and laugh your way to the bank even with books like that, so they might have a point after all.
But never mind, English is nothing if not malleable, and if a language is capable of such beauty as in ' Good night sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest', I am sure it is capable of accommodating mantras to business success as well.
Anyway, I just discovered after attending a certain seminar that I have an innate dislike for business mantras. They are usually so indelibly meaningless, that I suspect that they must have been created by a group of linguitic terrorists who sat around a round table (pun intended), deliberating on the latest piece of imbecility to inflict upon an unsuspecting public. I know I am being terribly biased here, but that's okay 0 a perfectly objective view would be so ... boring.
I mean, catchphrases are usually bad enough ( catchphrases ! ..... Jesus, I mean, just look at the word !) but why anyone would want to put on a public display of idiocy in the name of serious business is just beyond my comprehension. To be fair, it wasn't always like this; things actually started going downhill when a certain gentleman by the name of Francis Bacon proclaimed that 'Knowledge is power' which has since been so overused and overabused that even Frankie must be turning in his grave, besides unleashing a whole Pandora's box of other such phrases .... Since I am feeling particularly benevolent today, I will spare the poor reader from other examples. I also imagine Frankie must have been feeling a little pompous when he said that, or else he was drunk, but here I digress.
So at this seminar I attended very recently, the speaker was proudly proclaiming that the brain is truth-seeking and thats why it is important to feed the brain with the necessary knowledge in order to achieve business success. This was followed by a couple of minutes of silence, in which we marvelled at the nature of the profound truth that we have just been privy to. I mean, that is some revelation, right up there with ' Assume and you make and ass out of u and me', or something along that line. All these, of course, can be conveniently found in books titled ' 10 Easy Steps to Business Success'. But I might be wrong. You have to be pretty good at business to publish, sell and laugh your way to the bank even with books like that, so they might have a point after all.
But never mind, English is nothing if not malleable, and if a language is capable of such beauty as in ' Good night sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest', I am sure it is capable of accommodating mantras to business success as well.
Monday, March 06, 2006
Global Citizens...
Well today something really interesting happened in the audi after chapel.
"Jennamen,toda- and ladies, today i'm going to brief you on WOW 2006."
Somehow im reminded of a certain survey we had to complete late last year. Here's a little post off acxis (mine and my split personality's inspiration).
"Right, so theres a lil briffing in the audi in the morning and me thinks that all they're gonna do is tell us how to do the "online survey" and our individual passwords and stuff.
Nope.
Here are some quotes
"Jennamen, i hope that you'll give intelligent responses and not... your personal response."
"You can make negative remarks... but do it in a positive way."
"Jennamen, we completely trust that you will take this test seriously and make intelligent responses"
"Holistic education... CCAs excel... Commited and innovative teachers.... incredible school spirit"
--------------------
On TWO occasions, we were told to give "intelligent" responses and not our "personal response".
"For the sake of the school..."
"Survery conducted by non academic staff to make sure that no one will influence your decisions"
Oh em gee, we had such a difficult time controlling our laughter and i think the teachers didnt mind coz (some) thought the briefing was friggin ridiculous too."
Oh btw, quote of the day:
"my dad got robbed as he came home from malaysia last night.
by the police."
Oh i do have some comments about a specific phrase often heard nowadays, but i'll leave it to next time.
It goes something like this: "...in the interest of class spirit..."
"Jennamen,
Somehow im reminded of a certain survey we had to complete late last year. Here's a little post off acxis (mine and my split personality's inspiration).
"Right, so theres a lil briffing in the audi in the morning and me thinks that all they're gonna do is tell us how to do the "online survey" and our individual passwords and stuff.
Nope.
Here are some quotes
"Jennamen, i hope that you'll give intelligent responses and not... your personal response."
"You can make negative remarks... but do it in a positive way."
"Jennamen, we completely trust that you will take this test seriously and make intelligent responses"
"Holistic education... CCAs excel... Commited and innovative teachers.... incredible school spirit"
--------------------
On TWO occasions, we were told to give "intelligent" responses and not our "personal response".
"For the sake of the school..."
"Survery conducted by non academic staff to make sure that no one will influence your decisions"
Oh em gee, we had such a difficult time controlling our laughter and i think the teachers didnt mind coz (some) thought the briefing was friggin ridiculous too."
Oh btw, quote of the day:
"my dad got robbed as he came home from malaysia last night.
by the police."
Oh i do have some comments about a specific phrase often heard nowadays, but i'll leave it to next time.
It goes something like this: "...in the interest of class spirit..."
Sunday, March 05, 2006
First Post
After having dallied for a day, I finally decided to work on my virgin post, although I have already been beaten to it by my more industrious, erm, split personality. I know the concept of 'working on' something is hardly fitting for a blog that unabashedly claims to be nothing but idle ramblings, but ah well, everyone has to start off somewhere...
This blog, after all, makes no claims to profundity, or to having any intellectual value, it is merely, as the title so subtly suggests .... idle ramblings, borne of an essentially idle mind. It might taken as a testament to my inane boredom, but for some reason or other, i have decided to start a blog with my split personality and dutifully update it periodically forever and ever hereafter .. amen. Okay that was a lie. Obviously. No one should keep a blog, or a diary, and vow to update it periodically, because it would inevitably degenerate into a mechanical account of one's life, which is exactly what a blog should not be ( such humility .... tsk tsk .. really..). Or ( but do keep this to yourself won't you? Its so ... embarassing ), I might just be making excuses for my laziness...
So thats about it this time. I know, as an opening, this is hardly ' Four score and seven years ago... ' or ' Friends. Romans and countrymen', but this must suffice for whatever humble purpose I have sought to achieve with this short post ( which is to say, nothing). Plus, i really must get back to my game now.
This blog, after all, makes no claims to profundity, or to having any intellectual value, it is merely, as the title so subtly suggests .... idle ramblings, borne of an essentially idle mind. It might taken as a testament to my inane boredom, but for some reason or other, i have decided to start a blog with my split personality and dutifully update it periodically forever and ever hereafter .. amen. Okay that was a lie. Obviously. No one should keep a blog, or a diary, and vow to update it periodically, because it would inevitably degenerate into a mechanical account of one's life, which is exactly what a blog should not be ( such humility .... tsk tsk .. really..). Or ( but do keep this to yourself won't you? Its so ... embarassing ), I might just be making excuses for my laziness...
So thats about it this time. I know, as an opening, this is hardly ' Four score and seven years ago... ' or ' Friends. Romans and countrymen', but this must suffice for whatever humble purpose I have sought to achieve with this short post ( which is to say, nothing). Plus, i really must get back to my game now.
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Disclaimer
Constitution of http://idleramblers.blogspot.com
Article 1 - Nature of http://idleramblers.blogspot.com
The administration and users of http://idleramblers.blogspot.com do hereby declare the above website to be strictly friendly banter between myself and my split personality.
Article 2 - Legal infringement
Should any statement made either in haste, anger or immaturity, they should not be used against the owner of the statement in any legal manner. (Refer to Article 1)
Article 3 - ...
...
...
...
...
Article 14 - Freedom of Speech, Assembly, and Association
(1) Subject to clauses (2) and (3)
(a) every citizen of Singapore has the right to freedom of speech and expression;
(b) all citizens of Singapore have the right to assemble peaceably and without arms; and
(c) all citizens of Singapore have the right to form associations.
(2) Parliament may by law impose
(a) on the rights conferred by clause (1)(a), such restrictions as it considers necessary or expedient in the interest of the security of Singapore or any part thereof, friendly relations with other countries, public order or morality and restrictions designed to protect the privileges of Parliament or to provide against contempt of court, defamation or incitement to any offence;
(b) on the right conferred by clause (1)(B), such restrictions as it considers necessary or expedient in the interest of the security of Singapore or any part thereof or public order; and
(c) on the right conferred by clause (1)(c), such restrictions as it considers necessary or expedient in the interest of the security of Singapore or any part thereof, public order or morality.
(3) Restrictions on the right to form associations conferred by clause (1)(c) may also be imposed by any law relating to labor or education.
Article 1 - Nature of http://idleramblers.blogspot.com
The administration and users of http://idleramblers.blogspot.com do hereby declare the above website to be strictly friendly banter between myself and my split personality.
Article 2 - Legal infringement
Should any statement made either in haste, anger or immaturity, they should not be used against the owner of the statement in any legal manner. (Refer to Article 1)
Article 3 - ...
...
...
...
...
Article 14 - Freedom of Speech, Assembly, and Association
(1) Subject to clauses (2) and (3)
(a) every citizen of Singapore has the right to freedom of speech and expression;
(b) all citizens of Singapore have the right to assemble peaceably and without arms; and
(c) all citizens of Singapore have the right to form associations.
(2) Parliament may by law impose
(a) on the rights conferred by clause (1)(a), such restrictions as it considers necessary or expedient in the interest of the security of Singapore or any part thereof, friendly relations with other countries, public order or morality and restrictions designed to protect the privileges of Parliament or to provide against contempt of court, defamation or incitement to any offence;
(b) on the right conferred by clause (1)(B), such restrictions as it considers necessary or expedient in the interest of the security of Singapore or any part thereof or public order; and
(c) on the right conferred by clause (1)(c), such restrictions as it considers necessary or expedient in the interest of the security of Singapore or any part thereof, public order or morality.
(3) Restrictions on the right to form associations conferred by clause (1)(c) may also be imposed by any law relating to labor or education.
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