Summing up before moving on

"Hello, I don't have anything to print at the moment... Sorry about that."
“Hello, I don’t have anything to print at the moment… Sorry about that.”

Wow! That was a long hiatus.

Besides publicising a couple of events/articles I wrote (what’s worse: some posts are backdated D:), I haven’t posted regularly since late October.

No prizes for guessing why – I was busy with many things and I thought I’d list them briefly here for posterity:

(To be honest, I don’t really like consolidated posts like these; I feel they’re a bit of a cop-out and besides, if the moment has passed, we should just let it go.

But I know I need to sum up what’s been going on before I can move on to two very important upcoming posts I need to make.)

  1. I was stuck in deadline purgatory for quite a fair bit.

    For one, I contributed an article to Article (LOL) for the Singapore Biennale 2013.

    Singapore Biennale 2013 media preview
    Singapore Biennale 2013 media preview

    The Biennale is pretty awesome, BTW, so do check it out if you haven’t already done so.

    Spirit level; level spirits
    Spirit level; level spirits

    I also contributed a couple of theatre reviews to The Straits Times Life! section – you can read snippets of the articles here.

  2. Scooter issues… ZOMG. Read the updates here.
  3. Took a short trip up to KL to escape for a while + do some writing + take a holiday since I can’t take one until March 2014 (explained in a subsequent bullet point).

    Fierce Curry House in Kuala Lumpur
    Fierce Curry House in Kuala Lumpur
  4. Moderated New Word Order featuring Dan Koh, the Singapore Creative Writing Resident 2013.

    Me and Dan at the reading (PHOTO CREDIT: Joanna Koh)
    Me and Dan at the reading (PHOTO CREDIT: Joanna Koh)
  5. I can’t go on leave yet because… I started a new job!

    What’s it about?

    I’m not going to discuss what I’m doing because I want to devote a post to this.

    So all I’m going to say is: news embargoed until further notice.

  6. Was a groomsman and a dinner emcee for Lucas Ho’s wedding.

    Pooters got in on the act too! Unfortunately I haven't managed to repaint it.
    Pooters got in on the act too! Unfortunately I haven’t managed to repaint it.
  7. Celebrated SG Tipsy Trivia’s first anniversary! And we received some media coverage too.
    Oh – and guess who was at that evening's SG Tipsy Trivia!
    Oh – and guess who was at that evening’s SG Tipsy Trivia!

    BONUS: Surprise Siew Kum Hong.

So it was a busy but fun two months, hence the radio silence.

Adventures in teaching Boom by Jean Tay (Part II)

Yikes! Very overdue but I’m going to post this regardless because I’ve been meaning to put it up.

How does Tay create an atmosphere of melancholy in this passage? Explain your answer with close reference to the passage.

So when we last left off, I was busy making the horses thirsty.

One of the ways in which I did so was to allow them to devise their own exam questions – in a structured manner, of course.

Without going into detail, I crafted the lesson with the objectives of making the students:

  1. Revise the question requirements for the O-Level exams; and
  2. Think about the issues in the particular passage, and thereafter the text.

While carrying out the lesson activity, this happened:

Student A: (reading out what he had written) “How does Tay create an atmosphere of me-lan-cho-lee –”

Student B: (from the other end of the classroom) “Eh, what melancholee – you think what, this one Indian food ah?”

Student C: “Ya lah, later you go to Lew Lian there the Indian stall you tell them, ‘Uncle, I want two kosong and the curry you gimme melancholee one’ and then you see what happen after that.”

Temporarily could not take it because was laughing so hard, so had to tell the students to give me a moment to finish laughing before we carried on with the lesson.

New Word Order featuring Dan Koh

New Word Order featuring Dan Koh

Emerging from deadline purgatory to post this: come watch and listen to readings of writings by my friend Dan Koh, who will also talk about his experience as a Singapore Creative Writing Resident!

I’ll be moderating the session too, so even more reason to go!

Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2013
Time: 7.30pm
Venue: Play Den, The Arts House
Price: FREE!

Register at http://nwo-dankoh.eventbrite.sg/ .

See you there!