The Past Remade - Part III

The Past Remade

Through the dimming sorrows
And joyful glees of life's experiences
Consequences of choices made and those not
We are carved, fashioned and shaped
Into the very symbol of our own self-perception

Bygones etched, engraved
Within our hearts, within our minds
Yet ever fluid, inconstant
Alternating their forms, with each new occurrence
Dissimilar cognition of what was once understood

Ever changing
In each moment, with every encounter
In new light, with new eyes
The past, viewed again
Reclassifying what was once good, bad and unknown

Ever developing
Through each realization, each comprehension
Bringing new hope, new life
The present made worthwhile
The future made hopeful

For each passing of time, brings forth
Epiphanies of oneself
Meanings of life's meaning

The Past Remade - Part II

This is the only other song that I find describes me so well. One of my theme songs. Not quite as abstract as the one before (Though the ones that describes me best are mostly abstract) but enough in itself for a sense of enchanting purpose that dwells deep in my soul. First done by Metallica and now remade by Lucie Silvas, this particular version by the songstress is the one I hold dear. It brings about the true feel of the song, without the need for distortions and overdrives but rather the simple tunes of a piano and violins.

Enough said, click on the play button in the embedded player and enjoy.

Nothing Else Matters - Lucie Silvas

So close, no matter how far
Couldn't be much more from the heart
Forever trust in who we are
Cause nothing else matters

Never opened myself this way
Life is ours we do it our way
All these words, I just don't say
Cause nothing else matters



Never care for what they do, no
Never care for what they know, no
But I know

So close, no matter how far
Couldn't be much more from the heart
Forever trust in who we are
Cause nothing else matters

Never care for what they do, no
Never care for what they know, no
But I know

Trust I seek but I find in you
Everyday for us, something new
Open mind for a different view
Cause nothing else matters

So close, no matter how far
Couldn't be much more from the heart
Forever trust in who we are
Cause nothing else matters

Cause nothing else matters

The Past Remade - Part I

I've been meaning to put this on my blog. It's kind of been one of my theme songs since I first heard it done by R.E.M. those long years ago. The lyrics are so abstract and beautiful at the same time. It describes me so well. I guess you can see where I get my influences for my poems from. Now that it has been redone by Ryan Star, my favorite rocker, his version has definitely become my favorite. Click on the play button in embedded player below to listen to it.

I'll be posting up another song after this that was redone and also one of my theme songs. For now, enjoy.

Losing My Religion by Ryan Star

Oh life, is bigger
It's bigger than you
And you are not me

The lengths that I would go to
The distance in your eyes

Oh no, I've said too much
I haven't said it all

That's me in the corner
That's me in the spotlight
Losing my religion, yeah
Trying to keep up with you
And I don't know if I can do it
Oh no, I've said too much
I haven't said it all

I thought that I heard you laughing
I thought that I heard you sing
I think, I thought I saw you try

But that was just a dream
To try, cry, fly, try
That was just a dream
Just a dream, just a dream

Savior

The trials of the mundane
Persistently hounding, haunting
Like a devouring addiction
Unwanted yet real, needed, required
For a sense of existence

A maya eclipsed in shadows
Of doubt, desperation and fear
Uncertainties of the unknown
For there can be no surety, surely
In the everyday and of every other days

Struggle of life, the only factor
To which all humankind are made equal
And yet disparities of its form, intensifies
The strife of those already stricken
The weight of those already burdened

In all this, I wade
Encumbered hands aiding those hampered

Through my actions, a sweat dripping brow of effort
My thoughts, a myriad of consequences
My heart, a confluence of empathy
With comforting utterances of vague clairvoyance
Imparting hopeful hopes and wishful wishes

For these were all I could offer

To ease the weary, those fatigued of life
In the perceived impending darkness
Seemingly blanketing bright dreams

My hands, my mind
My empathy, my faith
My soul, my love

For these are all I can offer

No hero, no warrior, no angel, no savior

Just a man, like other men
A meaningless existence, finding purpose

A Larkin We Go

Five days of the school holidays have passed and with me being mostly in Singapore for the majority of the time it was kind of a relief when my parents told me if I wanted to tag along with them into Larkin, Johor, Malaysia. It's been quite a while since I've been there, with my parents or otherwise. And though I frequent Johor Bahru, the nearest and more urbanized area of the large state of Johor on a weekly basis, it kind of reminds me too much of Singapore.

It also gave me a chance to give my Fujitsu digital camera that I bought from a friend of mine a few months back a little run out.

So we were out quite early in the morning and took the usual route we'd normally use. Got on bus 161, switched to 911 and walked to the Singapore Immigrations Woodlands Checkpoint. Couldn't take any pictures here for obvious reasons. Once we completed the ritual of clearing Customs, we just hopped onto any available SBS buses that plyed along the Causeway. That's the bridge that links my tiny island nation to the huge Malaysian Peninsular. Only have a single picture of it, not a good one in any case. Was on a bus and it was sort of the only shot I could get without any other large and long vehicles blocking.



Once we've cleared Customs on the other side, its on towards Larkin Bus Interchange while riding on a number of Malaysian buses.

Got a couple of snapshots I've put into a strip for a sort of overview of the place. Guess what the common theme is......... heh.

It sort of looks like the bus interchanges here in Singapore, except they have a lot more buses and its way more chaotic, smoggy and bustling with people. I mean, what would you expect, this is the place to be in Johor if you need to get to the other states in Malaysia.

The commercial section of the interchange itself is quite a mix of differing retail options. I mean they got a wet market (didn't get a picture of that), pharmacies, clothing outlets, etc, etc. I'll just post the pictures.


The inner sanctum - sort of


Food! Something similar to Singapore


More food! Muahahaha...


The common hobby among Malay people - playing checkers


Got my haircut here.


Just a shot that I thought looked nice - Don't know who those people in front of me were


Another random shot of the parking area of the interchange.


Took this while on the way back. Something about this reminds me of when I was in Indonesia.

I know my photo-taking skills aren't quite up to scratch yet...... Need more practice I guess...or a new digital camera ...heh.

Had a fun time while I was there. Never felt more like a tourist.

I've also been having a ball with this new program I just installed a few days ago - Google Earth. It's great. Gives me a satellite view of almost the whole world. Just type in the place you want to 'fly' to - Alberta, Canada for eg and it'll zoom there. Or if you know the longitude and latitude of the place, even better. Coolest thing is the amount of detail you get to see, zoomed or otherwise. Though I have to admit that the pictures haven't been updated for some time. but otherwise it's still worth a try. There's also a feature where you can upload pictures of that particular location (longitude, latitude thingy) should you have them. Going to try to do that soon. Once I'm able to take better pictures that is........

Building the blocks of the future

When I woke up late today, I honestly thought this day was going to suck in a really bad way. You see, I had this workshop that I signed up for. I knew that'd it would be held during the school holidays. What I didn't know at that point in time was the location. The Singapore Science Center. That's right, the one located in Jurong, the far west area of Singapore whereas I stay in Hougang, the northeast of Singapore. It's a good hour and a half journey on Singapore's efficient public transportation.

So get this, I woke up late and had to rush to get ready. As a result I didn't have breakfast and forgot two tools I thought of bringing today, one of which was the essential tool for functioning in Singapore. That's right my cell phone. The other was my digital camera. And I only realized this when I was already halfway through the journey on the MRT - mass rapid transit (it's kinda like the subway system in the US except it doesn't just move underground). Anyway, being sleepy as I was, I missed the station I was supposed to drop off on to switch to another line (There are 2 main lines - North/South line, the Northeast line and the East/West line). Seeing as I was quite strapped for time, I got off at the next nearest station - when I woke up of course - and took a cab there.

Upon reaching the Singapore Science Center, which is a cool place by the way- though I haven't been there in close to a decade - I then remembered that I had forgotten another important item from my bag. The course notes.

I made my way into the lecture studio nonetheless. Would have taken pictures of the place to display here if only I had brought my digicam. Either way, most of my colleagues were already there and some of them were already having their personal laptops installed with the software that we would be using during the workshop. Although I brought my own laptop I was more interested in acquiring free wireless internet access. There wasn't really a need to anyway, seeing as my school would be bringing school laptops with the programs already installed in them. So I was basically YouTube-ing and IM-ing while everyone else was getting ready. Got some free Milo too, courtesy of my boss, who surprisingly showed up for the workshop.

The theoretical aspect of the workshop, which was the first half, was amazingly not as dry as I expected. Prof. Chris Rogers managed to give a kind of familiar, friendly atmosphere to it which certainly helped matters in delivering the theory of robotics and how it is being implemented to help raise students' interest in academic subjects. I, of course, managed to assess all this while watching Letterman on YouTube. The practical aspect of the workshop was cool though. We were given this Lego RCX (don't ask me what this abbreviation means), told to assemble it into a mobile vehicle, upload the program from our laptop on what we wanted the vehicle to do and basically move. I thought it'd be easy but it got kind of embarrassing when me and my buddy for the day needed a Secondary (Elementary) school student to help us out with the assembly and operation of the RCX.

There was an objective in the end where we were needed to send our mobile RCX over a distance and for it to stop right before a Lego angel we were asked to make in between. All this with only being able to manipulate the time in which the vehicle can move through the Robolab program. Me and Avni (my buddy for the day)'s mobile RCX had a Lego angel on top of it........ I really wish I'd brought my camera so that I could take a picture of it. After a few trial runs we were almost able to do it. Almost, meaning running over the other Lego angel that was waiting at the other end. Oh well, at least there wasn't too much of a need to alert the ambulance.

All in all it was a good experience and something that would essentially benefit students in terms of hands-on learning. I don't know if I would personally incorporate this into my lessons as of right now. In the future perhaps, when I am more settled and comfortable with the current work load.

The workshop was run by the Center for Engineering Education Outreach. Programs, videos and curriculum developed for robotics used in teaching academic subjects can be found at Lego Engineering.

Check em out.

New Toys!

As promised the pictures of my new toys. Nothing special but hey it'd give me something to do for the whole week that I'm free, considering that my plan to watch a concert was canceled and most people in my local social circle are busy with their own interests and commitments.


An Ethernet Storage Adapter


My headset and mic combo


My D-Link wireless router


Last but not least, my webcam

One thing is for certain though, I'm going to have a lot of time to write and I hope this would be the catalyst that would sustain me till the next long break.

Books, Football & Warriors

It's amazing how I haven't been able to find the time to write on here and how much my manuscripts has stalled lately. Maybe I'm battling too much with the eternal forces of Kronos instead of trying to cut a deal with it. Or maybe I tried to and got the short end of the stick. Either way, I've got the whole of the coming week off (in theory anyway) since its the school holidays over here, so I figured, why not try to kick start something I should have always been doing.

Work wise, it's been relatively weird. I guess that's the closest word in the English language I can think of to aptly describe the feeling I'm getting. I still do not see myself as a teacher even though I have been teaching a single non-academic subject for a few months now. Maybe its because I felt as if I haven't made a difference or perhaps it is a difference I am not able to perceive as yet. Added to that I would be shifted to a different set of more challenging students in the next term with a different set of subjects to teach. So I guess somebody must've thought I did a pretty good job.

Been playing a lot of Football Manager 2007 as of late and I'm proud to say that my team, Blyth Spartans (theres a certain sense of irony here which I'll point out later) are already in the Championship in England and doing nicely in 6th position with 3 more months of the season to go. That's not the most notable of my achievements, though most who play this game would not actually classify them as achievements. Basically I've managed to sign some of the more notable names in British football if not world football. Granted they are already old fogeys as the year I am currently playing in 2010 but the quality still remains:-

GK - Roy Carrol
DR - Kewullay Conteh
DC - Chris Coyne
DM - Gavin McCann
AM - Nick Barmby
AM - Gaizka Mendieta
AM - Lee Bowyer
AM - David Dunn
ST - Marcus Bent
ST - Duncan Ferguson (retired)
ST - Julian Joachim (retired)
Quite a catch for a relatively unknown team ey. I'm hoping that these oldies would be able to influence and tutor the young-uns that I have. Onward Spartans! Heh.

Got myself some new toys recently and have been testing them out rather intensely the last few days. A big appreciative thank you to all the willing victims...err...I mean helpful friends who have indulged me since. I've basically gotten myself a new headset and mic accessory, a webcam, a wireless router (no it ain't a Linksys) and a storage adapter. The webcam needs some extra lighting cause the feedback I'm getting is that I kind of look like a faceless shadow... Can anyone say Myrdaal? Definitely need to get a desk lamp or something. Router is working splendidly. I can now access the net on my laptop while I'm on the ground floor of my apartment building. Signal strength seems quite good as well. The headset and mic thing is a Godsend as I've been meaning to find a cheaper - if not free - way of communicating with my pals overseas and those locally as well. Next up is for me to find a VOIP program with relatively cheap rates for me to bother my victims..err... friends on their landlines and cellphones. Muahahahahaha..... did I just laugh out loud?

Haven't actually had the time to take a picture of these items but once I do, I'll post em up in my next entry.

There were a couple of movies that I had wanted to catch and were featured in my previous posts. Sad to say that I missed Eragon but friends of mine who did watch it weren't too impressed by the director's take on Christopher Paolini's first book. I myself can't say much till I see it with my own eyes - DVD grabbing time. I'm still waiting for Rocky Balboa to come out here. It's scheduled to be released this month though I'm unsure of when, exactly. I was supposed to catch The Last King of Scotland but found my own timetable a bit too congested to fit that in. A good thing a friend of mine already has a DVD of it.

The one movie I did manage to catch though was a real beauty. Frank Miller really outdid himself this time. That's right, I'm talking about 300. The battle of Thermopylae, pitting 300 free Spartan warriors (Blyth Spartans - see the irony) against the masses of Xerxes' Persian army. It wasn't the battle itself but the manner in which the film was done that was just so freakishly, aesthetically pleasing. Well, what would you expect from a Frank Miller film. The story in itself was well written and the pace of it was surprisingly easy to follow. I'm definitely getting a DVD of this for future viewings.

That's all there is for now that I feel about writing on. There are a few other stuff that I'd like to share but not now, I guess.... Another time.