because of
paramore rocks more than I can say
marry me hayley!!
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Thursday, October 16, 2008
the weight of glory
Hey guys. No, this is not about how stressed out I am about my overwhelming all-the-rage-ness. (I wish it were). It's a book (more like a compilation of orations) by C.S. Lewis in the 1950s, titled "the weight of glory"(omg u can read so many chapters for free!)
I've never read any of his books other than the screwtape letters, probably because i'm too ill-equipped to take in more than the surface.
Because it's my first time reading his ideas, I find it very interesting how the society he described (pre-popular TV, pre-gossip girl, pre-internet) hasn't changed much since. Though I've always been having a suspicion that people retrofit their lifestyles to TV and literature. It's a chicken-and-egg question between TV drama and real life high-hormone emotional struggles.
But, I digress. I particularly related with the inner ring, which talked about what we call cliques today. It's kinda hard to imagine my dad sporting the then-latest curry-pok hairstyle or my mom with her hippest curls to try to fit in. But such exclusive groups and its pertinence date back to the Victorian era, at least.
I'll cut and paste you some lines from the chapter the weight of glory:
"There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations -- these are mortal..... And our charity (to each other) must be a real and costly love, with a deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner -- no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrement itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses."
Yep. Overall I think it's a good read. Especially since though he's a Christian writer, he's not cliched (people took his lines!) and it's mostly a no-holes-barred commentary and he addresses some issues (like your secret longing to belong and sniggering at people who didn't) which the subconscious you didn't even dare to bring it up to you!
AND
My arowana just died. Watching him swim sideways with occasional jerks is something I definitely don't ever want to see again. I wonder why I feel so sad about it. I never used to feed him and never got too close to him cause I didn't want to give him a shock. Though it was a cheap buy at $168 I think the greatest loss was watching him struggle and not knowing what we could have done to help him.
It was an oversight on our part cause just before dinner, we changed more than half the water at one go, unbalancing the pH level and temperature.
I've never read any of his books other than the screwtape letters, probably because i'm too ill-equipped to take in more than the surface.
Because it's my first time reading his ideas, I find it very interesting how the society he described (pre-popular TV, pre-gossip girl, pre-internet) hasn't changed much since. Though I've always been having a suspicion that people retrofit their lifestyles to TV and literature. It's a chicken-and-egg question between TV drama and real life high-hormone emotional struggles.
But, I digress. I particularly related with the inner ring, which talked about what we call cliques today. It's kinda hard to imagine my dad sporting the then-latest curry-pok hairstyle or my mom with her hippest curls to try to fit in. But such exclusive groups and its pertinence date back to the Victorian era, at least.
I'll cut and paste you some lines from the chapter the weight of glory:
"There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations -- these are mortal..... And our charity (to each other) must be a real and costly love, with a deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner -- no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrement itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses."
Yep. Overall I think it's a good read. Especially since though he's a Christian writer, he's not cliched (people took his lines!) and it's mostly a no-holes-barred commentary and he addresses some issues (like your secret longing to belong and sniggering at people who didn't) which the subconscious you didn't even dare to bring it up to you!
AND
My arowana just died. Watching him swim sideways with occasional jerks is something I definitely don't ever want to see again. I wonder why I feel so sad about it. I never used to feed him and never got too close to him cause I didn't want to give him a shock. Though it was a cheap buy at $168 I think the greatest loss was watching him struggle and not knowing what we could have done to help him.
It was an oversight on our part cause just before dinner, we changed more than half the water at one go, unbalancing the pH level and temperature.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Monday, October 6, 2008
the post for which i'm too drowsy to think of a title
interesting article about how it's possible to blame anyone for anything
i'm off to bed.. can't feel my body after popping that flu tablet
good week everyone!
i'm off to bed.. can't feel my body after popping that flu tablet
good week everyone!
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
the weekend is here!
YEA~ baby. Tomorrow's public holiday plus some days off gives me a 6-day weekend! Now.. how am I going to spend it??? Give me some ideas!
Yesterday I was surfing around and I found this novel (to me) way of teaching kids how to write essays. It's so amazingly simple I wonder I've never been taught this way in school!
Teachers have broken down in my class so many times (we weren't even the worst around), we got tired of acting sorry and quiet, and getting our class rep to run after the teacher. A recurrent jeremiad is the whopping stack of homework they have to assess. I'm guessing that this gives them more homework, depriving them of their life. When they erase the line between work and rest, the joys and pains of teaching becomes a blur and what might have once been sufficiently enjoyable becomes a daily torture after the first period with the nasty class.
SO. I'm suggesting, for the primary to pre-U level, that they farm out the work which don't really need the teacher to do personally to a programme, leaving them more time for work that don't evoke binary answers. If a computer does it, the teacher can see the mistakes and strengths of the class in a chart, and can have access to each individual students performance according to topics. Which is basically what teachers do when they assess the homework personally, right?
Assuming that kids don't stop receiving essay assignments and suddenly find that all their homework are MCQs, this might actually shear off the lethal tumour which was once the educators's time. And the workplace suddenly becomes a garden burgeoning with creativity and a deeper insight into the mind and the desire to learn, which for some of us was being murdered slowly and stealthily since the day we had to ace all our exams.
Yesterday I was surfing around and I found this novel (to me) way of teaching kids how to write essays. It's so amazingly simple I wonder I've never been taught this way in school!
Teachers have broken down in my class so many times (we weren't even the worst around), we got tired of acting sorry and quiet, and getting our class rep to run after the teacher. A recurrent jeremiad is the whopping stack of homework they have to assess. I'm guessing that this gives them more homework, depriving them of their life. When they erase the line between work and rest, the joys and pains of teaching becomes a blur and what might have once been sufficiently enjoyable becomes a daily torture after the first period with the nasty class.
SO. I'm suggesting, for the primary to pre-U level, that they farm out the work which don't really need the teacher to do personally to a programme, leaving them more time for work that don't evoke binary answers. If a computer does it, the teacher can see the mistakes and strengths of the class in a chart, and can have access to each individual students performance according to topics. Which is basically what teachers do when they assess the homework personally, right?
Assuming that kids don't stop receiving essay assignments and suddenly find that all their homework are MCQs, this might actually shear off the lethal tumour which was once the educators's time. And the workplace suddenly becomes a garden burgeoning with creativity and a deeper insight into the mind and the desire to learn, which for some of us was being murdered slowly and stealthily since the day we had to ace all our exams.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
another random post
Hey guys! Sorry for slacking on this blog. You know how sometimes when you face a giamongus mountain it makes you just wanna slack at the foot of the mountain, instead of climbing it as you planned? Yup that's me now when it comes to SO many things.. For example, one mountain is improving my sight-reading! =(
While googling for how to run a happening youth camp (ahhh!!), I suddenly remembered a friend who was telling me that he feels people in church can get so fake sometimes, and he didn't see any value of being in a community who was so judgmental of him.
Let's assume that he's not hypersensitive. That led me to remember also the old notion of church being a collective of imperfect people (as popularized by switchfoot). While some of us are frowning upon another fellow Christian for not doing the right things, we are all equally in need of help to be a better person, to better the world in all its dichotomy.
I don't know if this short discussion can be called a discussion (my brain's busy in the alimetary department). But anyway I got to go now. I'll end off with a fun fact!
After years of study techniques workshops my schools made me attend, I knew that the number of hours you spend sleeping are as important as those you spend studying, but not why. But I was convinced only after finding out that getting a good night of sleep after a long day of learning helps consolidate memory formation of the prior day.
Tata!
While googling for how to run a happening youth camp (ahhh!!), I suddenly remembered a friend who was telling me that he feels people in church can get so fake sometimes, and he didn't see any value of being in a community who was so judgmental of him.
Let's assume that he's not hypersensitive. That led me to remember also the old notion of church being a collective of imperfect people (as popularized by switchfoot). While some of us are frowning upon another fellow Christian for not doing the right things, we are all equally in need of help to be a better person, to better the world in all its dichotomy.
I don't know if this short discussion can be called a discussion (my brain's busy in the alimetary department). But anyway I got to go now. I'll end off with a fun fact!
After years of study techniques workshops my schools made me attend, I knew that the number of hours you spend sleeping are as important as those you spend studying, but not why. But I was convinced only after finding out that getting a good night of sleep after a long day of learning helps consolidate memory formation of the prior day.
Tata!
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