古池

蛙飛び込む

水の音

furu ike ya

kawazu tobikomu

mizu no oto

Listen! a frog,

Jumping into the silence

Of an ancient pond!

One of the most famous haikus written by Japanese Poet Basho, which I first heard of when I was taking my Japanese classes at Churchill College, taught by the amiable Mikiko-sensei, who introduced the poem to us and asked us to do a translation of it. And now, I come across it again in the book: "Totto-chan - The LIttle Girl at the Window". I shall drop an email to Mikiko-sensei later. :)



Anyway, so I've been reading Totto-chan, and I find it to be such an inspiring book! I honestly can't remember if I've read it before - my sister claims we have the book lying on the bookshelf somewhere... But what the heck, I've already bought a copy.

If you're ever feeling down and out as an educator, I suggest reading Totto-chan for some inspiration. Though there'll never be a Tomoe Gakuen in Singapore, I think it reminds us that education should be about inspiring children and not just about rote learning. I don't want to give too much of the story away, but it's such a beautiful story that you should all read it (kudos to the translator Dorothy Britton!)

There were a number of beautifully translated verses I wanted to share, but i forgot to bookmark them and I can't seem to find them now. The only one I can find is:

"Something from the Oceans & Something from the Hills" - which was a requirement at lunch to bring something from the oceans and something from the hills in their lunch boxes - a balanced diet basically.

Labels: Books, Japanese

So once again, I decided a couple of days ago that I was gonna go for the Singapore Bay Run (formerly known as the Sheares Bridge Run + Army Half Marathon), and I realised that I B(u)ay run already... lolx. I ran a blistering (read: blisters on arches of left and right foot. Left foot blisters measures about 2cm by 3cm... ouch) time of 2:22:42 - a record (read: slowest) time ever! It's damn boring running alone (why oh why Lester, do you have exams!!!), plus with the blisters after 7km, it was a pain to be weaving in and out of the human traffic. The view from the Marina Barrage was stunning though - I wished I had my camera with me.

Some statistics of my run.
1. My first 6km was covered in 33.5 mins.
2. Thereafter, I covered the next 4km in about the same time. ;p (well, actually it was 10km in 1hr 2 mins)
3. In 2 hrs, I covered just short of 18km.
4. I drank about 7 cups of water (the small one!) at least - 100 plus during the race is a godsend. The last water point manned by the military police was quite amusing - they were blaring the sirens from their MP bikes, plus had signs that said speed checks (not less than 8km/h)!
5. I ate a banana during the race!

And ZOMG, i am so tired right now. Had to be up at 5am this morning, after only less than 4 hours of sleep. (hardly the SAF safety requirement.. ;p) I shall turn in for an early night tonight!

Labels: Running, Singapore

srsly, this has got to be the best internet slang I've found so far - at least the definitions are... totally pwns the other ones...

Definition from the Urban Dictionary

ROFLCOPTER
The superior being of chatspeak, 'roflcopter' out takes down all lollerbladers, lmaoplanes and various other outlawls. Pilots of the roflcopter often enjoy a nice crispy ZOMGBBQPIZZA and some lolmonade. Children also enjoy a good ride in the roflcopter, as it spreads smiles and festivals known as the 'lolapalooza' across the world.

Captain Sloloman of the elite omega roflcopter squad enjoyed a fresh ZOMGBBQPIZZA and a cool lolmonade after his swift victory over the lollerbladers, lmaoplanes and outlawls and returning safely to the lolapalooza.

Are you ROFLYAO yet? ;p

PS: there are also other definitions of ROFLCOPTER on the urban dictionary (click link above) which I shall leave you to discover for yourself. :)

Labels: Internet Slang, Muses

It's not something I usually do, but I bought a copy of 8 days today. I must say it's a far cry from the absolute trash that used to be in there (it's only mildly trashy now. But there's a brilliant article on the Olympics though. I liked the alternative perspective given.). But still, it was fun catching up on things like celebrity gossip - which includes stuff like who's f**king who in the industry. Now I've got your attention. :)

Anyhow, what I really want to post are these two videos. Sarah Silverman made a "I'm Fucking Matt Damon" video as a fifth anniversary "gift" to then boyfriend Jimmy Kimmel. They've since broken up - no reason given (apparently). So here's the first video:

on the bed, on the floor, on a towel by the door, in the tub, in the car, up against the mini-bar

lol. I loved the way Matt Damon came in the first time with that line! hahaha

If you thought that video was funny, it's nothing compared to what Jimmy Kimmel's response to the video was. You've got to keep watching till the end man - it's ROFLMAO-material. ;p (omg, that cameo by Josh Groban... class... ;p)


Let me know what you thought of it anyway... :)

Labels: Muses

Comic from the Economist:



(from the latest issue of The Economist)

Labels: Muses

*gasp* - if you remember one of my previous posts, I said something about converting the "Floating Platform" at Marina to a football pitch. Apparently, this is already in the works! (and was announced some time in April this year i think)

(news article from Yahoo news)

SINGAPORE : It has been turfed resplendently green and the lines have been drawn. When goalposts with nets are fitted at both ends, the facility will be ready for football action.

The Singapore Sports Council say matches can be held there after Formula 1's SingTel Singapore Grand Prix 2008 race on Sep 28.

Football enthusiasts will be excited, because for the first time games will be played on an artificially-turfed pitch floating on water against a spectacular Singapore skyline that will surely whet the players' appetites.

Bizarrely, some tourists actually saw it first from the Singapore flyer! (photo from Four Go RTW) You can make out the floodlights and the penalty area, etc..

Hopefully, the prices for the tickets will be nothing like the F1 race, or the Brazil vs Singapore match.....

Labels: Muses, Singapore

(damn, Louis got to the word degustation before I did, so I shall just settle for durian fest... especially since durian fine-dining/tasting wasn't quite the case.... ;p)

Anyway, on National Day, being patriotic citizens as we were, we had a feast of our national fruit - the durian (imported from our friendly neighbours from the north of course) - at a price tag of $20 (per person), which wasn't too bad considering the generous portions of mao shan wangs, d666 (satan's breed), red prawn, green bamboo and the good ole d24.
(labels were needed so that we knew what we were eating... hehz)

And of course some cam-whoring photo-taking... ;p

Fruit wars...
oh, the randomness in this shot...

Verdict? Well, I think the mao shan wang was my favourite - for its lovely taste and texture. And D24 comes in a close 2nd. The rest? well, i guess i don't really mind the red prawn, but the green bamboo and d666 were a little too fibrous and big for my liking....

Labels: Food, Singapore

ZOMG, w00t, OMGWTF.... (and more)

The above are what I'd use to describe the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony. The production of it is simply mindblowing, and the execution flawless. The human formations which involved like the population of Singapore were incredible, to say the least. One can only imagine the amount of rehearsals that have taken place before today. The segments were creative - I loved the giant scroll in the middle -- took me a while to figure out how it could be done. (my "solution" of how they did it stems from the fact that the cost of this olympics is something like US$40billion? - completely defines the chinese saying of "if you have money, you can even make ghosts push the ink" [very directly and losely translated. but meaning, doing the seemingly impossible])

If you've missed the ceremony, i'm sure there's bound to be repeats of it on TV, if not, it'll be on Youtube or something..... Don't miss out on it...

(seriously, when is the Singapore contingent coming out????)

Labels: Olympics

this is just to remind myself to talk about my pet rock tmr... ;p

also, i've changed the title to my last post, and i'm lovin' it!