A Mind of My Own

When I graduated, someone passed me a book, an autograph book to put in my peoms or wishes in it. I could pick any page to put it in and used that page. No limits. The only limit was that I had a blue and black pen. I didn’t have other colours to beautify that page that stated that I had autographed it. Somehow, I managed, abeit simple because I’m not artistic neither am I creative. All my words were limited to “Great to have you as my friend!”, “Study hard!”, “Stay funky!”, etc.

Later through the years, that tradition died. I never saw anyone pass me anything to write and neither did I. The blank beautiful books were expensive, they still are. I didn’t have the fortune of owning 5 or 10 to keep.

I wonder where did I keep the ones I had.

Times Bookshop issued a letter of apologies to the authorities recently. An adult said that she was “really shocked. There are suggestively drawn frontal nudity graphics, showing women’s breasts and men’s private parts. The book shows how kids could make money by producing their own porn.”

The news on Channel U showed a comic book with a busty lady with all her private parts covered. So, what was wrong with that comic despite being shrink-wrapped and with a warning label on it? It was wrong to be sold in the Book Fair at Suntec, that’s all. It was also wrong to let the kids know that they can make their own porn too. Channel News Asia has the story covered here.

I thought our local authorities are stringent with the imports of such books. How did the comics ended up in the shelves of major bookstores? Censorship is so tight here, so how did it slip? The books are definite best selling since some have run out of stock. Aye, shows how deprived of sexual contents we are, aren’t we?

Science books have changed a lot since I studied primary school. The human reproduction is drawn with all the parts named so that the children would know and understand the human body. Seems that such diagrams are allowed. So how do we know how much sexual content can be contained in any book?

While we are allowed diagrams on the human reproduction system, no other visualisations are allowed. The changes in the biology books for secondary have been changed too. Debates such as abstinence from sex and the way to protect girls from being young mothers have been raised but there has been no real conclusion. Perhaps we’ll be still debating this. Pre-marital sex is still not acceptable.

Others have argued that if we don’t know how the partner does in bed before marriage, then when we marry, we don’t enjoy, how? Provoking thought but if sex is all we want, then why marry? To be official to have it?

Update: I must be using the wrong analogy here by comparing biology books against porn. I re-iterate, how did that comic book slip through the relevant authorities though?

It’s a pity that University of New South Wales (Australia) decided to pull out of its venture in Singapore. However, I’m truly shocked that the students here pay the same amount as their students on their homeland. $26k to $29k is no small amount to be cough up every year. Despite that they get scholarships to study in Sydney for the affected students, it still does not include lodging, food and transport. These are basic needs.

Their reputation is truly affected because they have decided to pull out abruptly in just 3 months. Even the lecturers who have uprooted to come here to teach are affected. The consequence is not just the 148 students, the teachers and the students’ families are also affected.

The moral of the story is, take up a course when it’s been here for more than 3 years. So, you won’t have to be uprooted only to be told that you have to uproot again.

There’s a severe communication breakdown. I don’t understand why certain things that was requested, I gave but the most important party never received. I had a call this afternoon from the tuition agency and the lady claimed that I didn’t give them anything. I thought everything was to go through one person and that was the tuition coordinator?

So all these 2 months I thought wrong. What went wrong? I don’t want to figure that out. All I know is that the coordinator did not do her job well. She told me nothing that would get me my pay. All I know is that every month, they’ll get a cut from the pay and the student is supposed to get an online account to access the papers. However, the mother didn’t know anything. It was the 2nd time I have told her. I guess the mother does not have good memory.

I truly wonder why the heck do I have to give them an amount every month. Other agencies get the 50% in the first month and the money goes to the tutor from the 2nd month onwards directly. Why is there a big round just to get my pay?

I only want to help the student and earn something extra. I’m not going anywhere. Why can’t I get the money from the student’s parents and pay them the amount instead? Why can’t I make life easier? Why…. Never mind. I just don’t want to be cheated. If I get cheated, I will announce to the whole wide world. Don’t you worry.

Sweet 18 is being re-run on Sundays. The recent episode showed Jung-shook being called to attend Hyuk-joon’s university reunion dinner. Jung-shook was asked immediately which university she had graduated from. She felt that it would be a lost of face if she told them she wasn’t from one and started a story of being a graduate in an Italian university. However, she was nearly caught when being forced to sing an Italian song on the stage.

Hyuk-joon rescued her by singing a song of his own. This made Jung-shook’s affection for him grow further. At the end of the reunion, Hyuk-joon said he would forget the fact that she lied about her academic credentials. Jung-shook was upset because he could have told the audience the truth instead of helping her when she told him the reason.

[via Photobucket uploaded by Rilank] This episode reminds me of why we study so hard for a degree but forget that others may not have the fortune to even get a degree. We look down on those who don’t have one. We have always held the thinking that by holding a degree, we’d get a good paying job. All we want is to be able to eat 3 meals a day and have a roof over our heads.

Holding a degree doesn’t necessary mean that we are clever. We are just book-smart. Can we survive the office politics? Can we be street-smart? Are those rich entrepreneurs degree holders?

The place where we live in tell others that we are rich or middle-income or poor. The job that we are holding tells others what our income level is. If we are rich, we are admired. If we are poor, we are pitied. What kind of lives are we living?

I received a call from someone asking if I was able to take up a tuition assignment. No introduction from where she was calling from or who she was. I was stunned in the 1st 5 seconds before recovering my wits to ask her what subjects and the level I was supposed to tutor. I agreed to take it up since it’s twice a week although the pay was little. I had to earn something, hadn’t I?

She said she’d get back to me. She called me back in 5 minutes saying, “Hi, it’s me again.” Yea but I was thinking who are you? Never introduce yourself. It’s rude. The parent wanted fixed mornings and was unable to accept evenings. Oh well, it was fine by me. Maybe she needed a full time tutor instead.

On reflection, maybe she was not trained to be a tuition coordinator. On the other hand, maybe I should take up tuition coordinator as my part time. I would be having 2 part time jobs and earn some cash. Maybe not since I like giving tuition instead of calling the parent and tutor back and forth.

I’m so nervous about tonight. My first tutoring after 8 years. That’s very long. I don’t know if I’m able to field the child’s queries later. I sure hope I can continue to tutor the child. I need to earn some cash. I can’t be idling at home without any income.

I have done some research on the subject’s syllabus just in case as a reference. I pray for tonight.

[via Webshots]

I feel so ashamed after reading this! I haven’t been reading for a long time! The most recent book is Hallowed Bones by Carolyn Haines. I still have to return it before the date due. I miss reading. Library has books but there were times I hate it when there are missing pages. The best worst part about those missing pages were that those were the most exciting and crucial to the next event.

Books are my friends. I can devour one 300-page in 2 hours I can go on diet when reading. The kind where I don’t eat and drink for the whole day with my mom hollering at me to bathe, eat and drink.
Time to hit the books!

Web Worker Daily has introduced not only ways to manage your To Do Tasks but also something else that I have a weakness for; blank journals with printed covers that are just delectable! Gosh!

The journals are sold by Paper Blanks. I feel like buying some of them! My favourites are Bleu Wrap, Violet Wrap, Calligraphic Shufa (Can someone confirm if the Chinese characters translated to English other than Light is correctly translated? The 1st is called Simplicity but I think it means vegetarian 素, Peace should be 平 not 泰), Mirror Jewel, Back Pocket Mini, Back Pocket Flexi Mini and Embellished Manuscripts.

Aren’t those designs just delectable? I’m so in love!

2006 has passed. The year where there were changes in my life besides others. I took 6 exam papers, a step nearer towards the degree. Start of the project and hoping that just the project for the year would do some help. It didn’t.

I fell ill for 3 weeks which made my parents worried. That wasn’t nice. Giddy and light-headed wasn’t what I was looking for just after my papers. I borrowed The Da Vinci Code from an ex-colleague, watched the movie and found that movies often change the scenes and don’t often go according to the books. That is because of predictabilities.

I had a change in my love life. Met a bastard who had the cheek to contact me after 3 months as if nothing had happened. Got together with DD who dotes on me very much. Changed company where I am less complaining which is not healthy. Negative vibes don’t help us in our lives.

Attempted to organise dinner gatherings with friends that changes got out of hand in December which made me unable to meet up with DD. Fell in love with the idea of owning a cat. I did had a fancination with dogs when I was younger. Didn’t actually own one in the end since my mother would flip. She nearly flipped when my sister had a hamster and added one more later which both passed away.

Started to exercise again at least once a week. Shall have to start again since I am no longer having the washboard thin stomach.

Bought a few expensive stuff such as a PDA phone, dinner for 5 at Quality Hotel and laptop for my lil brother. Nearly bought a car due to impulse. However, I still like to own a car, hopefully, I can afford one this year. It’ll be nice to go BBQ-ing at East Coast Park with a car to put in all those stuff.

There are a few things I’ve missed out for the year 2006 but I guess these are more memorable for me. I’ve decided to do away with New Year Resolutions since I don’t remember them after that. Pinning them on my table won’t help either, I just feel guilty.