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I was the stand-in parent for today, since my younger brother’s school was having its meeting sessions with parents, and it just so happened that both couldn’t make it today. I am glad that his school actually holds these sessions: I remembered Mom was asked only once a year back in my own school, and she would always ask (nicer word than nag) about my stacks of homework. At that time, I had established a personal vow to finish my homework in the empty classroom, right after classes, finish my revisions, then return home. Of course, within this time I also made sure to visit the computer room to cure my addiction to Netscape’s wonderland (please don’t let Mom know I confessed on my blog!), which usually meant that I reached home around 5 to 6 pm. Unfortunately, I did not have any real semi-formal outfit to change into, so after rummaging through the cupboard for a full 3 seconds, I picked out a plain white t-shirt with some simple graphics, and that pair of jeans last worn a full 3 weeks ago. I hoped that at least my turn-out looked reasonable enough to be taken seriously. True to my suspicions, the form teacher was unapproving of the choice of the stand-in parent. I probably looked more like a heavily eye-bagged teenager with my tucked out t-shirt than someone meeting a teacher. I hoped I didn’t break any parent-teacher meeting protocol in the process. Teacher was really kind and friendly. She handled everything without breaking the sweat, and repeated the same advice for probably the umpteenth time that afternoon without missing a beat. There was barely even a sigh when I asked some questions to hide my ignorance. I was impressed. Of course you got impressed when you are not the one being processed by the system. I didn’t think about my teachers too much while I was under their tutelage. They used to take a long time to correct assignments, and explained about their work load. I accepted that answer, but as an excuse. Yet, for the first time, sitting in front of my brother’s teacher on a non-school day, I admired her professionalism and perseverance. Teaching is probably one of the few professions that definitely require a genuine love and passion, in order to trod undaunted in the face of mounting paperwork, stressful meetings, assignment targets, examinations, compulsory curricular activities, meetings with anxious parents - all these on top and above balancing the needs of different kids, keep said kids out of trouble, and be their counseller. Did I mention they also have to teaching? To my brother’s teacher, if you happen to come across this blog post: thank you so much for being a teacher - I am extremely humbled by your sacrifice (I guess Mom would have been a better person to talk to, but she’s busy working); hopefully I didn’t dispirited you too much during our 7-minute chat. I hoped that you got a bit of a break here, since the parents before me actually hogged you for the better part of 20 minutes each on a Saturday afternoon! Teachers rulez. There was supposed to be a branch outing today. Something cropped up in branch today. The outing was cancelled. I am now at home writing this. Somehow, I have trouble constructing cohesive statements, and am reduced to writing in simple sentences. I declare that I am not under the influence of any form of medicated drugs, have at least 7 hours of sleep, and have brainstormed for the past 30 minutes. This is the 7th post I have written in the past 3 hours, and nothing I have typed seems to make sense to me. Help! (I hope a power nap helps, because that is what I am going to do now!) Update 1: Looks like the nap has caused the cloud to lift a little, but the world is still a bit hazy. This is getting a bit worrying because I am feeling a lot like what Steve Pavlina felt on the 2nd day of his polyphasic sleep experiment.In case you would like to learn more about polyphasic sleep, visit the mini series on his experiment.While you are there, you might want to read up about his thoughts on becoming an early riser. Besides this, there is this man in Vietnam who hasn’t slept in decades! Update 2: Till now, I have made 4 posts which I don’t feel comfortable posting - for some reason I feel that there is something wrong with the writing, you know, the kind that seems like you weren’t yourself when you first wrote it? Now I just have to wait for morning to come (and hopefully my wits too), and I’ll be just fine. (Hope this make sense, because I keep having this naggy feeling that it doesn’t.) A huge flame war broke out over on Bing De’s blog yesterday, at or around 9 pm Singapore Time. The issue at hand? A post describing how administrative jobs discriminate against males, and speculation on why that is so. A reader contested the claim, countering that with examples of discrimination against females in certain job fields. I’ll ignore the personal attacks this same person has made on the tag board, since it tends to cloud the issue with personal indignation. I was quite amazed to find the days fleeting past so quickly! The computer clock shows that it is Tuesday right now, but when I check it again, it surely will show Tuesday again (next week, I mean). Time sort of creeps up on me now that I am having fun at home. The flab is coming back with a vengance, I am sure of it. Not only does it look more menacing than it ever did, I can’t really sit down in a chair comfortably without the announcement of it’s presence. And my trip to the swimming pool today actually made me doubt if I am actually actually the “elite of the battalion”. I am sure you would be if your belly did heaved a jiggle right when you took off your shirt in the public changing room. So I went on a binge: an obsession with clocking laps. I swam continuously for more than 16 rounds, which made me quite tired, like a dog running on a treadmill for hours. So, a dog is a scout? Or are scouts dogs? (Check out results 3 to 8 ) By the way, result number 2 does not look very reassuring to me… Everyday, I see more and more friends joining multi-level marketing companies without getting a full picture of what these “opportunities” usually entail. I don’t claim to be more knowledgeable about this than others, but having actually joined a MLM (that’s where my $200 went, as mentioned in the other post), I got a first-hand insight into their tactics. When you first join the company, the pressure would be upon you to purchase a set. They don’t physically pressurise you, but through the talk (complete with plain A4 paper and pen), they would imply the disadvantages of not investing in at least one piece of the product, and using it for yourself. They seemed to adjust their marketing pitch to your personality. I cannot vouch for this observation, since I did not stay there for long enough to see everything but the recruitment/marketing process. In my case, they told me that all the uplines in the company did purchase a set of the products themselves, regardless of whether they could afford it. It was brutally effective that I forgot about my mother’s (and universal law of money) advice: Never spend more than you can afford to, even if it were for investment, never ever go into debt because of it! A small storm is brewing in one of the forum boards that I participate actively in. One member asked if the young people of our generation are able to survive if everyone were retro-teleported to the war-torn years of 1940s. Interesting question in itself, and something that I am sure even you have a speculation upon. |
