Moving House

On 29 Sept 07, I was activated by my beloved girlfriend. It was like country going to war, in times of need, NSmen are called upon to defend their nation. My "slave" mode was activated, the greater cause - house moving.

I had only moved house twice before, from Bedok to Pasir Ris and from hostel to home. Both were very different experiences. When I moved from Bedok to Pasir Ris, I was of age 13. I didn't really have a lot of responsibilities. All I was tasked to do was to keep my clothes, my stationary and help out with carry some small items, after all, I was a weak scrawny boy.

Hostel moving was a whole lot different though. I was amazed by the amount of junk I collected! Alot of supposedly useful stuff was piled up in my good friend's room (all the stuff we used to cook). On that day, I made nearly 10 trips up and down 5 stories, from my room to the carpark. My legs were jellified by the end of the trip. My dad's car was literally filled to the brim and he could not use his rear view mirror. It was a horrible experience, that was just a single hostel room.

Yesterday, I had my first hand experience of house moving as an adult - no more kiddy privileges of carrying all the small items. I think I burned as much calories equivalent to 2 Mac EVMs. From 930 am, we moved boxes, furnitures, applicance from Kembangan to Punggol. 3 round trips later, my arms were jellified, my entire body coatedwith sweat, oil and grime. Even reservist wasn't so tough, this really reminds me of the outfield days in OCS.

Strangely, the greater reward seemed to come when I lay down to rest that night. It's been long time since I slept so heavily. Hehe... I woke up early and played my computer game while Tatty was still sleeping. She was sleeping so soundly, so soundly I could hear her breath out loud! Hah! Now she can't say I snore loudly, coz she breaths loudly when she sleeps!

It

www.auctionuniversal.com

Hmm... Yet another interesting business idea from my primary schoolmate.
This time round, it's a form of reverse auction model. You bid as low as you want for the item that you want to buy, but the catch is, the lowest unique bid wins! So if you have superb maths and are really lucky, you can actually win the item for a very low price!

The only catch is, you got to bid and each bid attempt costs a dollar or two. It depends on the item really. There is no time limit on the auction item but rather a bid limit. Let's say Nintendo WII has a bid limit of 300, that means a total of 300 bids will be accepted before the lowest unique bid wins! Well, I think it is a good business model.

Man... will more people please bid on his Nintendo WII? the bidometer is stuck at 1.5% i think.
Me wants a Nintendo WII!

My 3 weeks "holiday"

Yay! Serve the nation! Honestly, when I first received my SAF100, I wasn't exactly elated. It was a call of duty, a passage of ritual every able bodied male Singaporean has to endure. At least I can give thanks for being able bodied. Hallelujah!

Initially, I was rather disgruntled about how shabbily my workplace handled my replacement. I was also concerned about picking up loose ends after I return. As the day goes by and I perform my duty of protecting the nation in more subtle and sublime ways - read contributing to economy by going for numerous tea breaks. The 10 of us boosted the following economies briefly: coffee, sugar, condense milk import, bread and kaya making. I soon realise that caffeine and sugar high induces happiness when taken twice a day at mid morning and mid afternoon.

How time flies in good company! I enjoyed learning new stuff, knowing new friends and learning from their very diverse characters and experiences. It did induce some jealous pangs as well, temporary of course, but I decided to keep my mind focused on the treasures in heaven instead.

Well, holiday is ending soon, I wake up later than usual, reach home early than normal. I'm gonna miss reservist!

To teach or not to teach, that is the question...

3 months into my teaching, just dipping my toes into the lava pit.
A lot of thoughts come to my mind, spiral career change, coming out to do some business on my own after the bond. I've been thinking quite a bit on my future, where will I be in 10 years time, checking out opportunites, planning ahead yadah yadah blah blah...

Then it dawned upon me, am I actually running away from teaching? A calling which I chose to pursue as it held more meaning and meant more to others than myself? How are all those career options supposed to be more meaningful than being an engineer, which is what I was supposed to do.

Am I running away? For the first time I felt suffocated by the school adminstration. It's only 2 months into the job and I'm beginning to understand what many of my predecessors claimed,

"I love the teaching, but hate the 'whole package'"

For those who don't know, 'whole package' includes the following:

Last minute changes in workplan. (reasonable i think)
Extra curricular stuff. (Just a little from every subject = heaps load of work)
Endless meetings. (erm.. can i go mark now? do my admin?)
Colleagues who love whispering in hushed tones. (Stop the bitching!)
"Stretching you to the max potential" (Thinly veiled disguise for a volley of arrows...)

No wonder the attrition rate for educators is so high, go figure. Yeah, I'm whining, but hey, you don't know how "pang" cat poo is until you step in it, wanna try? *squish squish...*

The Vicious Cycle... Breaking Free...

As I sat in the MRT on the way to church for a retreat, I started flipping through the Bible.
I have never ever read through it systematically. Even when I was reading His Word more regularly in the past, I read randomly, relying on His Guidance to point me in the right direction. Doesn't sounds like a good way to read, but it works, strangely...

The book I read this time round was Judges. Judges in ancient Israels rule and guide the Israelites, like a king of some sort. Okay, I better get to the point soon. The book of Judges relates how the Israelites betray their covenant with God time and time again. God's wrath was brought onto them, they were conquered by their neighbours. They led terrible lifes under the yoke of foreigh rulers and when they could not take the suffering, they repented and asked for forgiveness. Each time their prayers were answered and were rescued by God.

It seems that painful memories never lasted long. Years after their rescue from tyrannical rulers, they forget their punishment and repeat their old mistakes. Somehow, I feel that I am in the same shoes as they are. Sigh. Many times I have done wrong, asked for forgiveness and repeated the same vicious cycle as the Israelites. God has been lenient to me though, I didn't get conquered by evil school mates or bullied by my neighbours.

Friday, 7 September 07, 7.15 p.m., my only thought is, I want to break free from this shitty vicious cycle.