Nature vs Technology

Diana's 21st Birthday

It was a night of high. Alcohol for the guys, and more alcohol! Some people lost their senses, including the birthday girl who ended up sputtering nonsense in a very enthusiastic manner. We all crammed into the cosy function room which grew a bit too loud for sanity levels. Thus, the stupid things we do in the photos...

The bird that flew into the classroom

It was a dull routined weekday morning. The students slumbered about their tables while the teacher bore on the topic of "science". Some of their eyes were fixed blankly at the whiteboard full of ugly scribbles; others looked about everywhere: the ceiling which had a cobweb at the corner, the notice board which had been decorated by the class; and some eyes were obviously closed.

This are the lives of all the little children aged eight to nine; trained to sit quietly in a room, gaze blankly at the teacher and the whiteboard, while trying to cram all the "knowledge" into their tiny heads.

Something unexpected happen today. A break out of the sit-and-stare blankly routine. A bird swooped into the class through the window by accident. The students all jumped up and squealed with delight. They got off their seats and followed the bird around the classroom. When the bird flew a little closer to their heads they ducked down with excitement, shrieking with laughter. That was something they never experienced, they never got so close to an animal before. All they know about birds and animals were from textbooks and pictures they saw, and from the ugly whiteborad that they were made to stare at.

The teacher felt out of control in the midst chaos. She raised her authoritative voice, and the booming voice instructed the kids to restrain their happiness to get back to their seats. Using a broom she chased the bird out of the room. Order was back, the children were subdued. There felt a dull thud in their hearts. The excitement lasted only for a minute. And now, back to their oppressive routine.

The girl who sat next to the window was more privileged; she stared longingly into the garden that was beside the school, wishing everyday she could be there playing with nature, studying nature in the garden as part of the science curriculum, instead of having to see words on the white board replace nature to learn about science......

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Does the story sound a tad familiar to you? Well, thats how I grew up, and I was the girl hoping to get away from the classroom.....

I'm a popping fan!

How cool is this man!!!! Real cool!!!

What is it to be fully human?

Many people think that studying sociology is just to observe society: the trends and phenomena that different societies and cultures experience. But what I come to discover thus far is not just trends, graphs, and patterns in society.

Sociology also explores man's need to be whole, to be fully human. Afterall, society is shaped by the imagination and worldview of mankind, thus society adapts to our needs as well, and at the same time we are socialised to be of a function to contribute back to society.

The essence of humanity is not just leading a very secular, practical life. We need the sacred and the profane aspects of living. Sacred is something that is transcendant or out of the ordinary life, while profane is the secular life. Some people might not agree with me that life today needs a sacred component, especially in the modern, rational scientific world. But the sacred aspect today does not just present itself in the religious or mystic sector, even things like watching fantasy movies, going on a exotic holiday, playing computer games, takes one out of the mundane life into something one can fantasize, escape into another strange, transcendant exotic world.

Man is a spiritual being who is not contented to deal with the realities of this world. Our minds can transcend reality into mysterious realms, as reflected in our stories, our beliefs in the supernatural, in our ability to create fantasy films. But then again, how do you define reality, given that all taken theories are not absolute, but relative?

So I say, to be fully human is to seek the unknown, to escape out of the 'ordinary' life at times. No matter how modern we are, we still have similar tendencies like our ancestors. After all, we are still humans. :)

Just food for thought... I'm too saturated with doing all my term papers now... need to leak out some intellectual gibberish into my blogging sphere.....

NUS Open House

Today and tomorrow is the NUS Open House, and I got posted by my office to mann an information counter booth. Haha... lets see where I got posted to... in a far away place from the happening spots of the Open House, the place of the bus terminals, Kent Vale. Nobody alights there. Nobody in the right mind will go there if they want to attend talks or see the exhibitions. Its the place where birds-also-dun-lay-their-eggs. (鸟不生蛋的地方） And I sat there for NINE HOURS on a BUS STOP BENCH. Record time.

The only people who alight there are: 1) the people living at Kent Vale, namely professors and their families 2) Lost sheep who took the wrong bus and ended at the terminal, looking extremely lost and puzzled when they are forced to alight from the bus.

And there is this thing I don't understand about professors and their family outings.... I saw a family who look like they were going out on an excursion... small kids with hats, and maybe some swimming attire, a float or two.. and they want to take a bus to the NUS swimming pool. Later in the evening they return with NUS goodie bags. So outing with their family included attending the NUS Open House, and playing in campus swimming pool. How exciting.

And I sat there under the bus stop for hours and hours, watching bus after bus come and go, and the heat was stifling, very occasionally with wind blowing, and the Kent Vale terminal was empty except with buses parked at the far end. I tried to do my readings, but it was too hot and stifling to read. So I lazed around the bus stop bench. It was so hot, and time stood so still (no people, no activities) it felt like I was somewhere in a rural area hot and dry, and occasionally balls of dry grass will roll pass me...

Picture taken from the bus stop.... at the hottest hour of the day.... do u see the ball or dry grass in the middle?

NUS Biathlon

Took part in the NUS Biathlon yesterday with Nicole and her older, bigger version of a twin sister Yvonne.
Ack.. East Coast was not as fun as Sentosa. To start with, the waters of East Coast are filthy. Filthy filthy. And the current was strong. Pushed me way off track, which I had to spend a whole lot of energy swimming back to the shore. The sea water sucked. I actually swallowed some of it!! YUCKS!!! It tasted of kerosene. And there were sea monsters in the sea (the water was so murky I couldn't see a thing) which kept biting my limbs... I think they are sea bugs. Ouch. Along the way, people kicked me and I kicked many others too... I felt many hands brushed my butt and I felt my hands brush many butts too.... ahahhaa...
The running route was misleading. Many times I thought I reached the U-turn back to the finish point, but the turning point was way ahead. Very sunny too... I think I started running at around 11.30am... since my swim was at 11am...
Yep, but the feeling of completion still feels the best. The swimming and running periods were torturous and I questioned myself why did I even take part in this thing. But after thinking about it, its worth it after all, even though I was one of the last again.. but its the experience la..

Kudos to Nic and Yvonne, think they completed the whole thing in a very short time... and thanks for the access to showering facilities and the erm... you-know-what.... it saved my day!!!

Then after that I met up with Melvin the pro-biathlete, supposed to go for lunch... But the biathlon was screwed up for the competitive teams... the champion chips were mixed up!!! Meaning the positions of the winners were all mixed up. And there were a whole lot of other politics involved in this race thingy, some complaint lodged against unfair playing etc.... And I stood around for nearly 2 hours waiting for him to settle all the stuff... And I witnessed someone screaming her head off at him for a good half an hour in the middle of nowhere... whoa... the rain started coming down and they still stood there with her crying and screaming at him... what a scary woman... ahahhhaaa...

Actually if I didn't know roughly about the context they looked like a drama serial couple having a row under the rain... and I stoned at them under the tent...

Then it poured when we wanted to hail a cab.... had to get shelter behind a public toliet while calling for a cab. The toilet sure smelt great. Stupid me didn't bring umbrella. And I didn't bring a whole lot of other things that day. Sigh.

Today is the post-event, I think my body was overstimulated from the exertion yesterday, couldn't sleep very well. But woke up today feeling like I accomplished something.

I hope the pictures will come out soon....