But I went to school yesterday.

Mon, 19 Sep 2011
1 min read
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From a book I got at a book swap I went to over the weekend:

There was a story which my father and mother used to tell people about me when I was a child. They had said to me one day, “Today we are going to take you to school.” At the end of the day they asked me, “Did you like school?” I said, “I loved it.” The next morning they got me up early. When I asked why they were doing that they said, “You have to go to school.” And I said, crying, “But I went to school yesterday.”

— V. S. Naipaul, Half a Life, p. 22 (my emphasis).

Lynn Lee and Wikileaks – more scandalous news.

Mon, 5 Sep 2011
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(Conversation conducted via SMS)

Lynn Lee @ 6.40pm: LOL – I’m sitting in Aunty Vera’s car and [redacted]. Aunty Vera says [redacted] is like “Shylock Holmes“. Hahaha! So cute lah, she.

Laremy Lee @ 9.11pm: New surrogate daughter now, are we? LOL. Was washing Le Poots just now; it is so hamsum now. How’s life post-Wikileaks?

Lynn Lee @ 9.19pm: It’s okay, lah, but I’m so tired – [redacted]. Instead I have to drink copious cups of Milo for comfort. Thanks, anyway, for everything. You’re a good porklet.

Laremy Lee @ 9.21pm: Eh, no worries. It’s, like, you’re Vincent Chase and I’m Eric Murphy and I’m just clearing the way so you can walk. Haha! *snort*

Lynn Lee @ 9.22pm: Haha! That’s such a good quote (along with Shylock Holmes, of course). You should put it on your FB.

Just following instructions… Although after this, I think she will never communicate with anyone ever again.

Or perhaps only if they sign some kind of non-disclosure agreement beforehand.

ADDENDUM: Just got scolded after she saw the post.

In my defence, at least I redacted important information.

*sulks*

Mix-tape.

Mon, 5 Sep 2011
2 min read
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So it was Teachers’ Day last week.

I think my, er, advice worked – I received enough Ferrero Rocher to set up my own distribution centre.

Jokes aside, one present which stood out was the Teachers’ Day video done by 10A04.

Initially, when they bounded up to me to give me the DVD, I was like, “Wow! Mix-tape for me?”

I was genuinely elated; I remember thinking: Wow, these piglets have grown! They put their PW skills to use and realised that a mix-tape would be a great gift for me because:

  • I like music,
  • Mix-tapes have symbolic value, in that they hearken back to an era that I often romanticise, and
  • Mix-tapes have artistic value, in that the choice of songs are not arbitrary but curated in order to achieve a certain effect on/send a certain message to the listener e.g. I’ve chosen these songs that I know you like because I want you to know I care, or I’ve chosen 12 of my favourite songs because I want to share my music with you (a deeply personal gesture, IMO).

Sadly, my happiness lasted for a while, because I soon found out that:

  1. It wasn’t a mix-tape, but a video, and
  2. ALL THE OTHER TEACHERS THAT TAUGHT 10A04 ALSO RECEIVED THE SAME VIDEO.

Wah lao eh! Felt somewhat cheated lor. LOL… Kidding, ya.

I really like the video; in fact, I like it so much that I want to share it with all of you here:

Click on this link in case you can’t see the embedded video.

Nice right? (BTW if you want to watch more stuff by Ansen Goh and Co., check out “A Measured Distance Away” and ObscuRed.sg .)

I’m so glad they came together to do this, not only because the video shows how much they’ve grown as a class, but also because receiving the gift has made me re-evaluate my ‘preferred present list’ – I’ve just included a section called ‘Digital Art’.

So thanks, kiddos, for all the love. I’m proud of all of you.