Paws-to-Ponder: Education or Fixation?

If I complete my educational course in 3 years instead of 5 years, does it mean that I know more than someone who completes his course in 5 years? Does it mean I am more intelligent than someone who takes 5 years?


This concept of 'education syllabus' is a dodgy thing. On the one hand, we want to make sure people go to school to learn about all topics in the whole-wide-world so we are knowledgeable and can be useful persons. On the flip side, it's not easy to determine how much is enough to build a useful individual. Also not easy is to determine how long a course should be to allow a student to absorb everything that matters.


The spaces in between is giving lots and lots of leeway for opportunistic behaviour. All sorts of certifications and guidance books are rolling in the moolahs, each claiming to be the most effective and valuable of its kind. Amind the competition, we seem to have lost focus on what we had set out to achieve at the very beginning.

All focus now in education is to quickly score a lot of marks. I see textbooks outlining the sections in syllabus vs out-of-syllabus. I hear professional seminars being conducted by exam setters to discuss with certified teachers the topics that will be included in upcoming exams - so these teachers can tell their students which topics to pick for best marks. Quality of education seems to have taken the backseat.


I recently fell prey to one such certification. Paid a hearty grand for a place in an examination and 6 'official' textbooks which didn't tell me much about what I was studying for. A quick check with fellow exam mates revealed that I wasn't the only one who doesn't understand the textbooks. Everyone else had flocked to various online resources to download copies of other secret-sauce textbooks. On my end I had to resort to a combination of (1) official textbook, (2) secret-sauce textbook, (3) wikipedia.org to prepare for my examination. 


The examination itself, was to me some sort of mockery. The examination operating procedures were rigid and numerous. I felt like a prisoner! There were so many questions in the exam paper and the focus was on how well you could regurgitate rules and formulae - which nobody does in real life.


Why did I do such an examination, I really do not fully understand. I think it's part greed, part impetus. I think I wasted my couple of months to prepare for the exam.


Lesson taken, lesson learnt. I will be careful in selecting the courses I register for in future and make very sure they are courses that are meaningful to me! No time to lose, man!
♥

Underwearther

Oops typo.
I meant to say I've been a little under the weather. The flu bug has finally caught up on me. It's hard not to get sick with infectious people at home and work. I just feel sleepy all day long, even now it's really hard for me to focus as I'm writing.

Studying while nursing a flu and nagging cramps is the pits. I gave up and gave in to R&R blogging. Putting in a short entry while letting the pdf notes download run its course.

Gosh it's hard to stay awake. I'm going to fall asleep any moment so I bid you good night in advance.
♥

Hey Watch It

Whoa what happened, 2 months zoomed past in a twinkle of the eye. 


Over sporadic moments at the daily grind I get these random shots of creative juices in my blood but didn't get to pen them down nicely. Now I've stocked a mountain of half completed brog entries, each one wriggling it's little pinky in excitement to see the world. Taking the opportunity to do a free advertisement for the book Love, Pinkie, the lovechild of my friend Christina vs her inner-self.


I admire them, my peers and writers. Maybe I'll join in the party?
Watch this space, more to come when June arrives. Oh boy, I can't wait.
♥

Curly my Wurly

I've been yearnnning curls in my locks. Today I took the plunge and went to Artz Hair at #02-67 Hong Lim Complex to cut and perm my locks. 
Just going to do a short review here.


My stylist today was a middle aged lady who calls herself Ah-Kam. Ah-Kam's really an Aunty but I addressed her Da-Jie (hopefully) to grease her ears a little. I learnt from Ah-Kam there are a total of 3 stylists working there. Two men and she's the only lady. Apparently Ah-Kam takes Monday off but she was working today to fill in for a colleague.


Ah-Kam's a sweet lady. While working she's fully focused but while waiting for colour/perms to set she's chatty, sharing a little about her life. 


Ah-Kam is really experienced in wash and cuts - I can tell because she constantly measures the hair proportions, checks with me if I'm uncomfy about anything, keeps me clean and dry in between hair rinses, and is really gentle/precise in washing my locks not tugging or scratching too much at my scalp. I totally enjoyed the wash and cut experience. It was also a hygienic experience because they used clean towels and protection-sheets.


The perm she recommended me today was known as 'body perm'. Just as the name suggests - body perms give volume to the hair so you appear to have more hair. A more popular option that I will try next time is the digital perm which is rather popular nowsadays. 


Looking at my final hairdo now, I think Ah-Kam's perming skills are not as good as her wash/cut skills. 
+  A major plus point on the perm is that Ah-Kam didn't frizz out my hair! I have fine hair which frizzes out quickly when treated. She was careful to check the progress of my curls during the setting phase so my hair quality is okay.
+  Ah-Kam knows that perming too closely to the root will generally 'date' the hairdo and suggested I perm from about ear area and downwards.
-  A not-so-good point is that Ah-Kam does not know how to sculpt the perm into a nice shape. All the curlers were draped at the same level at around my jaw-line - something you see in 80s hairdos. 
-  Also, the cut was done before the perm - meant it was hard to gauge the final hair length. Now that the curls are completed, my hair looks drastically shorter than what I wanted.


Overall I would recommend the cut/wash/treatment and simpler colouring/rebonding services under Ah-Kam's watch. My final bill today was $75 for cut/wash/perm and $25 for treatment. If you have your DIY treatment creams at home I guess you can opt out on the treatment.


And the final look:

Artz Hair (a.k.a. The Styling Shop)
Blk 531 Upper Cross Street 
#02-67 Hong Lim Complex 
Singapore 050531 
Tel:6536 3613 
♥

De-Cumber with Cucumber (with restraint)

Whaaat a relief the pain is marginal/bearable/livable now albeit the cavity which persists in the wall of my throat. If I could, I would like to photograph it daily to show you the progress (much like how ladies document their pregnancy) but it would take a circus performer to do that - and I am oh-ho-hoo surely not a circus performer.


All the 'cooling' stuff is working. Most remarkably, Mr Cucumber is doing a meaaaan job healing the abyss in my throat. But all this cooling stuff is also doing meaaaan things to my bowels. Subtly put - I have no meat to my s--t!


I acknowledge I have an improvement point to make my 'subtle' be more subtle.


So if you have to have a take-away point from today's brog material, take this:

Cucumber does wonders for reducing swells but when ingested frequently in large quantities make you.. have no meat to the s--t.

Until we meat again..
♥

Shoo the Bloos

What an eventful start-of-week led by a headache on Sunday night, high fever on Monday, and wrecked throat on Mon-Tue. It's the first inflamed 1cm ulcer I ever seen or ever had in my throat at the base of my tongue. Certainly hurts a @#$% lot each time I take a saliva swallow. 

Now I bombard it with lots of 'cooling' food and drink, hoping the swelling and pus reduces quickly so I can eat nice food again!

I want to shoo-shoo-shoo-shoo-shooooo the whole ulcer down! 

Bad things gooo, good things come. Bad things gooo, good things come. 

TODAY marks the 10th year since PushyPanda had given me my first Valentine's Day gift. Such a sweetie, this one. So many happy memories > bad ones. I can't even remember the bad ones now.

Finally Flowers...

Mystery gift for Pushy

Thank you many times over my dear PP. Love Love Love!

♥

Smellier up There

The air is dank. It's smellier up there.
The party has split but the clowns remain, 
I hope they leave me alone.


The air is dank. It's smellier up there.
I trod with courage on my path,
To the life I want to own.


The air is dank. It's smellier up there.
The angel holds a "DANGER" sign 
And I greet with grateful tone.


The air is dank. It's smellier up there.
I see the monkeys rattling the tree
To fight for corporate throne.


The air is dank. It's smellier up there.
The ape is dressed in pearls and heels
A disguise so easily blown.


The air is dank. It's smellier up there.
That's not where I want to be,
Where conscience is postponed.


The air is dank. It's smellier up there.
I shrug off all this enmity,
Leave them in their own insanity,
Take humour in their vanity,
For they are ludicrous to the bone.


*sniff sniff* 
What died in here?!
Glad it's neither on me nor from me.


♥

Life's-Little-Inconveniences: Dry Wet Wipes

Ever so often I have visitors coming by my desk not to say 'Hello' but to open my foot-locker middle drawer to pull out my packet of wet wipes to wipe their greasy hands.

How nice.
With my O.C.D. tendencies I feel my mental scale tipping over from the 'TOLERATE' marker to the 'NO MORE MISS NICE POSER' marker.

I'm certainly amazed that these visitors have developed an acute familiarity on the arrangement of my drawer and the contents within. I'm even more impressed when they display no shame in helping themselves to stuff in my drawer. But the thing that makes me F-L-I-P is that after they are done ravaging my wet wipe pack, they carelessly close the sticky flap leaving HuMonGous GAPS at the side.

AND - to you out there who have general intellectual capabilities - Tell ME, what makes wet wipes wet??
-----> MOISTURE, innit??!

AND - to you the same bunch of fellas - Tell ME, what happens when you leave GAPS in the wet wipe packs?
-----> Horror of Horrors.. My wet wipes DRY OUT!!!

HoBoy. Am I ANNOYED on days I have greasy fingers and reach for a wet wipe only to find it totally DRIED OUT! D-R-Y as a bone! My wet wipes, all of it WASTED!

AND because I want to avoid gaps, I even add sticky tape on the sticky flap. But guess what, Mr I-Don't-Care still leaves gaping holes in the wet wipe pack.

AND because they don't bother to ask, they don't realize I ALREADY have an opened pack of wet wipes. So they reach into my drawer to open a brand new pack. And then there was Two. TWO half packets of wet wipes drying out simultaneously.

Gaaaaaaaaah Losers leave my wet wipes alone if you can't keep them proper!


Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.............. I HAAATE YOUUUU

xx

Rainy Days Over and Out!

The sky's glowing again after the rainy days have come to pass.

Once again, my mind is clear like the sky.
2011 ended with a Bang! and without saying goodbye, it left us and 2012 came in its place.


The choppy beginning of 2012 will mar my memory of a once-beautiful place. Well, things happen. So despite it not being beautiful, it does not qualify yet to be hideous.


Of what I refer to, those who know will know, and those who not don't need to bother. Because I have stopped bothering too.


The mind is an irony. You do your best and give it all you can and when there is no more to give, you experience a certain calmness, and thereafter you feel empowered. 


This seems to me like a process of learning, of rebirth. Empowerment because you know you stuck-to-your-guns and gave your truest opinion, and for any mind that cannot be further swayed, it is not because you have done poorly in selling your idea but is instead due to the universal truth that we are all different. 


Our paths are different. Our priorities are different. Our thoughts are different.


There is not a single person who is superior than all others. There is not a single person who is lower than another because of different views. We are all different.


And because I am different from another, I am able to tell for sure the persons I do not wish to grow into. I will be who I truly am, even if there is someone to disagree with this approach. I want to make my decisions with no regrets.

"There is Only One Success - to spend your life in your own way" - Christopher Morley

♥

Penang: Food, Friends, Fun, and more Food

No journey is tiresome, if travelling companions are fun-loving dudettes.

Aghh.. Work begins on Tuesday.

♥

It's Finally January

Ah, good ol' Jannie. Well, well, how are you?


Good? That's nice to hear. Myself? Good as well. I've recently returned from the 2 holidays that I spoke of some weeks back. I had so much fun you could say I played to my heart's content. Just feel a little wistful right now, missing the days that I could simply play all day and rest thoroughly, not giving hoot-hoot (two hoots) about deadlines.


Alrighty, got my Aussie Masterchef to catch on TV. Now you be good now and stay on the safe side. None of those earthquakes, war, famine, floods, fighting or killing, ye hear?!


♥