Home-schooling

Photo from Google

Attendance in a government primary school is compulsory for every child living in 1984-ville but fortunately the law still has some sense left in providing exemptions.

The state of affairs in most government schools do not make them desirable places for education and development. A message needs to be sent out that parents can take control of their children's education and development. You have a choice. Who said that every child who reaches the age of 7 must go down that dark path? There is more to homework, assignment and grades. I'll say this again to people in authority:

SINGAPORE DOES NOT HAVE ANY NATURAL RESOURCES EXCEPT ITS HUMAN TALENTS

so please stop making it difficult for kids to grow!

Let's hope something gets done before the spirits of too many children are crushed under the weight of unnecessary burdens.

You want creativity? Then learn to let go.

You want dreamers and achievers? Then learn to live with dissension.

Let me say this again:

SINGAPORE DOES NOT HAVE ANY NATURAL RESOURCES EXCEPT ITS HUMAN TALENTS

The big move...NOT!

Perhaps it is fitting that I'm moving this blog to a new site on the first day of the Lunar New Year...

...after all the trouble Wifey's having with Blogger, we decided to search for an alternate free blog host and found what seems to be a pretty good one at wordpress.com

so the not-so-big news is that I tried to move my blog over to Wordpress.com and fell flat on my face trying. Don't have my own web server so I couldn't do much with the templates and themes. Even trying to edit the posts in HTML format proved to be a trying affair.

And I'm too cheapo (freepo?) to pay to get some hosting space on the web...

blah...

I'll stick with blogger.com for now

Oh, if you're really interested, you can view my failed attempt here

Not gonna waste anymore precious CNY holiday time doing this...

Lunar New Year

Photo from Google

Received an e-card from my brother today. It got me thinking about greeting cards and how they have changed from the physical to the virtual form. I remember granny asking me to send greeting cards to my dad when I was a kid. It was funny because I was sending a card to a stranger, my parents being estranged from each other and granny being my main caregiver. Looking back, I can only guess the reason why granny wanted me to do it. Nobody in the extended family ever once attempted to reconcile my parents. Only now, with my own daughter squirming in my arms, am I beginning to realize that children bear the consequences of their parents' or caregivers' actions.

Well, it's another Lunar year ahead. I look forward to the journey with Wifey and Faith. It will not be a cake walk but then, again, taking the right path was, is and will never be easy. God give us strength to tread where few have gone.

Parenting

So I had some time to think while commuting with Faith in the cab for the past 2 mornings. About personal transport, about bonding, about managing time but mostly about the intangibles of having a family. There are no stock answers for why people have families. For whatever reasons, it keeps me human. Lots of joy, lots of heartache. Maybe that's what it is to be human...

A reprimand

Photo from Google

Reprimanded the class for the first time. Felt quite bad after that. Good thing was I didn't raise my voice. Didn't think screaming would work anyway. Wifey tells me I have a stern face when I'm serious. Hopefully I didn't scare the kids too much. Let's hope I remember that I'm not dealing with university undergrads anymore but 15-year-olds here...

Committing financial suicide...

aka The Evils of Owning Personal Transport

aka Buying and Maintaining A Car


Photo from Google

...managed to spend almost $30 on a single round trip in a cab last evening. Buses and MRT are not exactly baby-friendly, especially so after a long day at work and the last thing you'd want to do is to carry a wriggling baby in rainy weather, on a crowded bus where you can smell the next guy's after-shave (or the lack of).

So Wifey and I are going window-shopping for a car this weekend. Yes, the emphasis is on the term "window". Strictly to test the market and discover how financially bankrupt we really are :-p

Sugestions anyone? Something slightly less expensive than an SL perhaps?

Going to school...

Photo from Google image search

Faith spent her first day in school and she took to it quite well. I am beginning to understand the anxiety that parents of school-going kids feel on the first day. It is the worry about how a child will react to a new environment and how the staff will treat him/her, and not so much about academic results. I think Wifey and I suffered from separation anxiety instead of Faith. Maybe she's too innocent to know. Maybe she takes to strange environments better than us. Whatever it was, it marked the start of another phase for her - and us, too.

cranky night

Wifey was up through most of last night trying to pacify a very cranky Faith. Sometimes there isn't much we can do except to be by her side. Maybe dealing with colic is an avenue for parents and babies to bond. After all, it is only by going through trying times together that people bond. Maybe this is true for families with infants. Come to think of it, I'd feel pretty strange if Faith had a fuss-free infancy. Not much to learn about responsibility and sacrifice, is there?

Anyway, she'll be going for the first of 3 Infanrix hexa (a kind of mercury-free vaccine) shots today. Pray with me that there will be minimal adverse reaction.

after a long break

There's always a clustering of holidays around the end of a year and the start of another. It's nice to get long breaks. Proper work starts tomorrow afternoon and I'm going into this with mixed feelings. My hope is that I won't lose focus on what I want to do - provide a listening ear and some encouraging words to people lost in this crazy world. It would be nice to be able to do so for a living. I wouldn't go so far to say that I'm going to make a big impact in anyone's life - that's not up to me but God.

Having time to spend with the family is important too. We move through life too often with muddled priorities - at least that was the way I did it. Thanks to Wifey and Faith, things in life are slowly becoming clear. My friends from church are a big influence in my life too, keeping my feet firmly planted on the Stone that holds all of us up.

and you're beautiful
and i am weakened by the force of your eyes
so shine bright
to separate the truth from the lies

Show you love
by Jars of Clay

The weight of Glory...

Image from Google

so I've lost 3 kgs over the past fortnight, probably caused by the hectic rush to complete my thesis and to settle into a new work environment. I'm now 1 kg away from what I weighed during college days, when I was most fit and packed with muscle. I suspect the weight loss this time round was a result of a loss of fat without any gain in musculature. Anyway, it's a good thing my weight didn't drop to teenage years when I was only 63 kg at 1.76m. At that time, I was so scrawny that one of my uncles suspected I was on drugs.

Spent the weekend with the church guys at some run-down golf resort in JB to map out directions for what we're going to do in the coming year. A very strong message that came to me was this:

Go to the ant, thou sluggard; learn from her ways and be wise

LT asked the visiting pastor about work commitment, which turned into a whole discussion on priorities in life. And I learned that the mundane decisions we make everyday have far-reaching implications in how we conduct our lives at a higher level. I mean, would I take a promotion at work if the higher portfolio's going to eat into family time? Is it merely getting more money that drives us to work longer hours or the fear of what will happen if we don't? Do we have the courage to walk away when things at work get out of hand?

I need to be wise indeed. When to work hard and when to let go. We need the weight of Glory to be upon us for all these decisions.

On a lighter note, we will attempt the stanchart marathon again with the ladies joining us for the first 10 km. Let's see how the preparations turn out through the year. Maybe something good will turn out from this expanded running group.

The men in my life

No, this is not a comment on homosexuality.

It is about father-figures in my life.

Or the lack of it.

A list of substitute fathers in my life. I guess, taken together, they make up the role model I needed at various points.

First Uncle - Confucian

Second Uncle - Resourceful

Third Uncle - Charismatic

Fourth Uncle - Stoic

Fifth Uncle - Cynical

Mr Francis - Civic-mindedness

SHC - Street-smarts

Mr Ngin - Friendliness

EC - PR skills

Uncle Chan - Generous

CK - Forgiving

Well, now that I'm a father.

How shall I do this? Perhaps taking examples from each and every one of those men that influenced my life. Forgive me the mistakes that I will make and grant me strength to see things through to the end.