Need to mug for my term test. (Another coming in 2 weeks time and 2 presentations to come)
That's a comment from my Dad, after taking the MRT to work for these few days during the morning rush hour. The reason? He couldn't get into the train for 3-4 consecutive times because it was jammed packed with people by the time it hits the 5th station. I still remember that 10 years ago, my sister's advice to me was "go to the rear end or front end platforms, you have a higher chance to find a seat there". Now, you will be happy if you could find a standing space in any part of the platform.
The problem? Decision makers are living in an ivory tower totally disconnected from ground. They use figures and big theories and ideals to make their point rather than basing it from experience. We are living in their blind spot.
After driving for a couple of years, I find it harder and harder to go back to public transport, especially the MRT. It just feel like going into a jail for 30 minutes just to get to your destination as you are trapped in the little standing area. Did I mention that I dropped a piece of tissue in the MRT recently but couldn't pick it up without elbowing someone or hitting the fellow behind with my behind? That is ridiculous for an off peak train.
When will my photos be uploaded. I want to blog about them. Meanwhile, you may ask me for the link to view my official ROM pics. It's considered private so I will give access to people I know only. If you are too shy to ask for it, I might choose some of the photographs to be featured here sometime soon.
On the other note, the laser is finally aligned. It took 3 different experts (me not included as I'm a complete newbie to alignment of lasers) almost a week just to get that laser spot focus on the right plane at the right spot for the nanoscience electives. I hope none of my students would accidentally misalign it as it will screw up affect the rest of the people doing the practical after them. Now we can do some carbon nanotubes trimming.
Urm... this is not a post about me and sucre the day after our ROM. But rather the few pictures that I took the day after, being able to relax a bit and get some nice pics. All post processed unlike most of the other pics I used to post, which are virtually out of camera raw kind. Enjoy!
xiaobudian making her sand man
Moulding her sandman
xiaobudian's discovery
little princess went to join xiaobudian later, she played hard to get initially but couldn't bear to lose out to play
Grandpa's care for his grand daughter
Kids should play with kids
Well, my journey's just beginning and the ROM is just marks the start of a year long preparation for marriage. Getting relatively good news from all around so far. Wonder how long would this marital luck bliss continue.
Some random pictures, some taken by myself and others taken by our mutual friend. Thanks for her help and hope she had fun using my mistress Alpha. Pre - ROM photos only. Will take time to put them up and get the video downloaded too.
Something as the door gift that we prepared by hand together to thank our guests for attending our ceremony.
Little Prince and Princess
Random deco of the chalet/car
After a year, this car decal finally make sense
Our ring bearer xiaobudian pulled out of the ceremony at the last
Think those reading will complain if I never put any photos of myself there right. Here ya go. I believe my hair was so stiff and filled with chemical that I could cause severe damage to any living organism that came near to it. But what a day!
Looking forward to the actual photographer's photos in a few days time.
Was too busy to take photos at the end of term 3. So have to 'kup' photos from other teachers to post here. So this batch of pics are private pics. Sorry, no bigger shots to look at.
Don't think anyone will complain about their photos being featured here.. after all I can't recognise most of them!
Ok.. I'm pushing the limits here.. Barely recognisable. Kept wondering why teachers have to put up an item during "Teacher's Day". Ain't we suppose to sit back and relax?
D&D for teachers that night. The most innovatively dressed table and the table with the most prizes won that night
Guess who were the hosts that night. (Man.. there's a gravity defying bit of hair there)
No prizes for guessing who're in the photos and no prizes for guessing our theme for this year
Yikes!
Upcoming toy for the future
Current toy
Real soon..
Saw something on the ST Forums online today.... Some smart guy substitute the scenario of school and teaching with law and enforcement and it become absurd when you read it. Well, this is one good way to see if something make sense or not. Whether is it applicable in all situations, I'm not sure though. But it sure is interesting. And to end with Thirumoorthy in place of Timothy, sweet.
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Reason is the key towards teacher-student respect I WOULD like to comment on the on-going discussion on the problematic teacher and student behaviour in schools.
I believe much confusion lies on the nature of respect, how one should gain it and who should demonstrate it first.
In a modern civilised world, people function in society by dealing with logic and reason that makes them mature gentlemen and gentlewomen. Such civilised people are naturally given respect by others for their ability to think and behave logically and reasonably, and to be charitable.
In cases where the practice of logical and reasonable thought and behaviour is deficient in schools, it would manifest into improper and unruly behaviour whether from teachers or students.
If a student does not follow the rules in class, it is the onus of teachers to find out the true reason for such behaviour which could be disruptive towards learning, instead of being evasive by blaming it all on the student and punishing them. Punishment as a form of deterrence resolves nothing and does not prevent recurrences of the same problem.
I do not believe in the effectiveness of physical forms of punishment as they do not deal with the true causes of students' unreasonable thought and behaviour. Such punishments do not demonstrate good reason and civilised behaviour to be modelled after. Any dysfunction in a student's reasoning judgment and behaviour should be properly resolved by reason and understanding.
If teachers do not wish to understand the true causes of students' rule-breaking by engaging with them, then they would be seen as being immature to constructive reasoning and thus lose the proper respect and reasonable treatment.
Besides the imparting of knowledge, education in schools also includes the responsibility of educators to demonstrate maturity through the teaching of reasonable thought and behaviour. Such good practice in schools would ultimately have a beneficial influence on students as well as society.
Timothy Tang Nam Yen
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Reason is the key towards law enforcement
I WOULD like to comment on the on-going discussion on law enforcement and criminal education in Singapore.
I believe much confusion lies on the nature of respect, how one party should gain it and who should demonstrate it first.
In a modern civilised world, people function in society by dealing with logic and reason that makes them mature gentlemen and gentlewomen. Such civilised people are naturally given respect by others for their ability to think and behave logically and reasonably, and to be charitable, and not be simply enforcing rules by the book.
In cases where the practice of logical and reasonable thought and behaviour is deficient in a particular nation, it would manifest into improper and unruly behaviour whether from law-abiding citizens or hardcore criminals.
If a citizen does not follow the rules of the nation, it is the onus of law enforcement agencies to find out the true reason for such behaviour which could be disruptive towards law enforcement, instead of being evasive by blaming it all on the criminal and punishing them. Punishment as a form of deterrence resolves nothing and does not prevent recurrences of the same problem.
I do not believe in the effectiveness of physical forms of punishment (e.g. caning) as they do not deal with the true causes of criminals' unreasonable thought and behaviour. Such punishments do not demonstrate good reason and civilised behaviour to be modelled after. Any dysfunction in a criminal's reasoning judgment and behaviour should be properly resolved by reason and understanding.
If law makers and enforcers do not wish to understand the true causes of citizens' rule-breaking by engaging with them, then they would be seen as being immature to constructive reasoning and thus lose the proper respect and reasonable treatment.
Besides the enforcement of laws, law enforcement agencies in any nation should demonstrate maturity through the teaching of reasonable thought and behaviour. Such good practice in a nation would ultimately have a beneficial influence on criminals as well as the law-abiding citizens of Singapore.
Mr Thirumoorthy T.
New phone. Finally got my hands on a Cybershot Phone.. I hear reviews that the Cybershot phones have a decent camera function so I gotta check it out. No doubt its decent for the average user but guess there is much room for improvement. Here's some shots and short explanation why. (I wish I have more time to blog about it man)
The flash seems to push up the ISO, and the pictures will turn up with a characteristic Sony water colour effect due to aggressive noise reduction on what definitely is a tiny sensor. This is to maintain the 1/250 s shutter speed I guess but image quality will be affected by it nonetheless. But 3mp means that I get the real estate to crop in a camera phone for the first time.
Outdoor shots, shutter speed can go as fast as 1/1250 s, still f2.8 but ISO 80 only
In bright lights, the image quality is more than decent. The trees are sharp and I could see that it may be sharper than my Alpha with the telephoto lens. But of course I'm looking at 3mp against 10mp and a whole lot of difference in focal length. Just for sake of comparison.
Digital zoom till max on one of the HDB flats.. Real ugly... yikes.. wonder why will they uprez a crop pic by so much that it is practically useless by this size. Zoom ratio - 16x (My H1 only offers 12 x optical)
For some fun, here's some pics of my year 4 class doing examinations... hehehe... but the amount of chromatic aberration will make me faint especially in that 16x digital zoom version.. purple monster rule here.
In short... this is more a phone than a cybershot. Why? I don't even know the focal length in 35mm format and other nitty gritty details of a camera. Little to no photographic controls over ISO and stuff. No exif information recorded in jpg. Simply put.. too many cybershot features are missing to truly let me consider it as a camera first, phone second. Plus, image stabilization is a must given the difficulty in holding the phone steady.
anyway.. here's my guess on those nitty gritty stuff
Aperture is fixed at f2.8
Shutter speed ranges at least from 1/8s to 1/1250s based on my 20 shots or so, need more testing to confirm
ISO from 80 to 400
focal length still not known but seems like >35mm
Plus
Interesting package of a camera in the size of a phone
Proper flash instead of LED light
Lens cover (finally)
Good quality images in good light
Minus
Purple monster
Over compression
Lack of photographic controls (That I use)
Not so accurate white balance indoors
Limited dynamic range (based on my snapshot judgement)
More gimmick than a real camera. Think my old almost 6 years ago Sony P3 did better even though it has less pixels!
Ah... that's all folks... 1 more day and year 4 will celebrate.. Good luck! Though I doubt anyone of them will see this tonight.
The simple yet pretty large place for the short yet important ceremony
Side view of the bungalow in the morning
Front view of the bungalow
The place is so nice that one friend just couldn't help herself in enjoying the morning sunrise
Nice scenery nearby for photographic opportunities
Getting ready and making do with alternative arrangements
Trying the one big face each photo thing.. But don't think I got everybody here
So just did a 3 big faces in one photo
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