New perspectives

Actually, it's pretty cool.

I can wake up whenever I want. I can watch football if I want. I can go play football whenever I want. I can go wherever I want. I can stay in school for as long as I want.

That part of me left yesterday.
The heart of me is strong today.

And for today, I can and I will spend the whole day marking my scripts 'cos I'm pretty lagging there.

Sunday morning I'll be off to football again. I so look forward to it! I just hope the sun has some mercy; I don't want to be any darker!

Just woke up actually. Haha. Shall go get lunch.

Here it is...

Ok I've had enough speculation and nonsensical KAYPOHNESS of students pestering me.

So I shall say it here. This is also a basic test of your inference knowledge.

Once upon a time, there's someone called Miss Confidential.

Well, don't ever mention that again. =)

Cie la Vie!

Boys like Girls

I feel like a hero and

you are my heroine.

I really like this line. Nice lyrics.

Rainbow

Well yesterday when I was going home I walked down the stairs and was going to my car when everyone said there was a rainbow. I ran back up to office to grab my lousy camera. Camera is now in the car. So I'll upload my versions later, which compared to the one above, is nothing impressive.

Meanwhile, enjoy this wonderfully beautiful picture taken by another teacher (name on the picture itself)! He sent it to all staff. I'm sure he doesn't mind the photo being used since he put his name on the pic itself, so do give him credit!

Pictures can tell a thousand words. But just being there; standing there seeing such a clear rainbow - wow. Life is worthwhile.

Marking

Today a student came and asked if we'd be getting back our tests soon. I told her I haven't finished marking. She said I must mark faster because they want to study hard and want to look at their mistakes/results. I looked at her face, and I felt so guilty.

This has been a terrible term. Boss told me that the more stressed you are, the more you don't feel like doing work, i.e. procrastinating. And that is what I've been doing.

Week 8 already. I'll definitely finish all the markings I owe the world by the end of this weekend.

In other news, I'm terribly confused over something. Ah.

Cope

Today I've relinquished my role as the CIP coordinator. Yup, that's right. I had a good talk with my direct boss, HOD Humanities, and then HOD Pupil Welfare.

I told them I couldn't cope, and they perfectly understand. I told them I want to focus on being a good form teacher, focus on teaching well, and focus on NE and YOG, and not forgetting about NCC. It's enough. I have so many piles of marking too.

I will work hard.

Dinner with mum

Well dinner with mum was great.



We talked about many things. Relationships, work (she's a chinese teacher) etc.



It's been a longggggggggg time since I sat down and had dinner with her. CNY reunion dinner excluded.





=)

Dinner tonight

I'm bringing my mum out for dinner. =s

It's gonna be quite awkward I feel, but I've decided it's time to do something, and I do have stuff to tell her.

As I'm typing this in the office, it's raining.

Emo SIAHL!

Haha, just now 3 of my students told me that 'siah' isn't something pleasant? I'm not sure.

Maybe I'll say EMO SEY!

Argh whatever lah hahaha. Back to work.

Of hair cut and a tan

Today it seems as if everyone is intrigued by a simple hair cut, and how much darker I've become?

Simple: Played soccer. I did put on sun block, but it was just too hot. I already mentioned it.

Hair cut: As short as I can go lor. Saves money. $10 a haircut so expensive. Some of you don't think it's nice. It's ok. I myself don't think it's nice. But it doesn't matter haha. I'm not really into hair.

Cluster games

Saturday morning was fun fun west, which means all the schools in the west cluster came together to compete in a series of games.

Our cluster won! Which means all the schools in the cluster each won a NINTENDO WII SET WAHHAHAHA!!!!

YES YES YES!

Poor people like me who cannot afford to buy wii, will finally get to play, somehow.

Today's soccer match. Won 5-4. Scored 1.

Wooo getting darker every week. Too dark is no good, but it's better than too fair.

Just me and my little red pen.

When the night has come~

and the land is dark~

and the moon is the only~

light you'll see~

Pic obtained from http://searchcio-midmarket.techtarget.com/cioDecisions/images/vol2iss5/cio_v2v4_career1.jpg

A night in the life of Mr Ng:

1130pm-1am: Emo hahaha!

1am-4am: sleep

4am: mark mark mark

Can't wait for school hours to end. It's Friday! I love NCC!

Stupid. (Warning: psuedo vulgarities included)

Now I just feel fcuking stupid.

But trudge on, Mr Ng. Mark those assignments. The night is still young.

Another hot and cold day.

Now you finally realise why I label my blog as such?

One:
I perspire so damn easily lah. Just standing anywhere with no wind talking I'll perspire already.
I get cold so damn easily too. Need jacket in staff room.

Two:
I have predominantly two moods.
I'm either emo, or hyperactive most of the time. Haha. Students can testify.

Today was a much better day than yesterday. 雨过天晴. I'm touched by certain actions today.

As for THE issue, I have decided to not bring it up, because I trust everyone to be old and mature enough to handle it. That said again, I'm watching everyone much closely this time. I will be a good form teacher for the class.

After assembly, I went back to settle some CIP stuff. That's right, I'm the main coordinator for CIP as well.

At around 3.30pm I went to the field to support our softball team! Good try guys! You will definitely do much better next year!

Then I went to borrow a basketball from the PE dept, and played with the CRAZY bunch of mostly ex 2-6'08 guys.

I totally enjoyed myself man. It's just full of thrash talking, scolding one another (for fun of course) and laughing at one another. I miss playing with the sec 4s of 2008 too. Hope they're doing fine now.

The finale was when my NOOBIE team and I, who seemed to be on drugs and was so 'high', lost to the RABBIE team haha.

At 6.30pm I went back to pack. Left school. Went to run 4k. Much slower of course. 30minutes. Bought dinner.

Now I'm back, having just eaten. Gotta go shower now and start marking again.

Random conversation of the day:

Location: At the basketball court.
Student: Mr Ng, aren't you supposed to be marking our test?
Mr Ng: =x

心雨

Spent a couple of minutes to quickly run through some blogs.

I've read yours, about how you are angry. I want to say a few words here, just for you.

这两个月来 ， 我认识的你， 是多么的懂事， 多么的有活力。今天你的一举一动，是有吓倒了我。但我的确明白你的感受。 若我早点发现， 我一定会设法阻止事情闹大。

In fact, I remember few weeks ago I did 'talk sternly' about this very issue. I just had a feeling something was amiss.

我们长大了，凡事都能商量。 我真的希望你不要对这班的人感到‘不爽‘。大家毕竟是同班同学， 还有最少两年的日子得一起过。 多一事不如少一事。

Lastly, 别傻了！希望你的手能快点康复。

(translation: basically I said I know you as a matured and active girl and I am shocked by your actions today. I do know how you are feeling, and if I had found out earlier I would definitely have prevented it from happening. We're older now and everything can be done peacefully. We're a class, for at least 2 more years. Let's stay together as a family. )


I'll make things right. I will.

New phone

Even my dinosaur era non-camera phone died on me, so just now I went to 7-11 to buy one of those phones. S$89.

Also, new song. Yeah that Justin Timberlake song I mentioned. Damn nice.

Today

I don't even know where to start =/

Well, I was being very sarcastic for one class. I don't care if you hate me.

Later on, I have total strangers coming up to tell me that I am a very bad form teacher.

Tried talking nicely. But I guess teenagers nowadays don't understand this concept.

Mission failed, but a new beginning for a record.

I did not run 8k. =(

After 8 rounds (3.2k) my right achilles tendon began to hurt a little, so I decided I couldn't last 8k today. I then stepped up my pace and finished 5k.

In 28mins 45 seconds! My fastest timing since army days!

It might not seem impressive to some of you, but do bear in mind that long distance was never ever, ever ever my forte.

Some day, just some day, I'm gonna be able to finish 10k easily without feeling pain all over the body.

Gosh I'm old.

Well, gotta continue marking. Mark mark mark. Must work hard! Students work hard doing their homework and class work; I must also work hard marking them!

Tomorrow is gonna be a longgggggggggggggggggg day. Meeting 3-5pm argh! I rather be with my ncc cadets. -_-

What's that song?

You know, on radio nowadays.

I think it's a collaboration between Justin Timberlake and a rapper of some sort.

What's the title? Anyone please help me.

Well, the announcement has just been made, that the school is closing in 30minutes.

Been marking and marking. =(
Soon I'll be going for an 8km run. Hopefully I'll be too tired when I get home and I can sleep properly tonight.

Wednesday already!

Common test

Good luck to all taking their common test starting from tomorrow and another subsequent Tuesday.

I personally don't like this common test system because the first period (plus half the second period) will be eaten up. So to the nooblets of s3-8, we'll be missing two valuable lessons! Argh!

To everyone especially S3-2, jiayou oh!

Derby 1-4 Man Utd

Yeah.

Heard my favourite player, Giggs, gave a man of the match performance.

Did I watch it? Nope.

An interview with Mr Ng

Hi everyone, welcome to the interview with Mr Ng.

Reporter: Hi Mr Ng.
Mr Ng: Hello.
Reporter: So, I've heard you've been emo recently. Why's that?
Mr Ng: I rather not say.
Reporter: Some students are worried that your mood will affect their learning environment. What have you got to say about this?
Mr Ng: Oh when I'm in school talking to people, I should be fine. Just that I owe many people many things, especially unmarked homework. I'm working on that.
Reporter: Have you done any work over the weekend.
Mr Ng: Nope.
Reporter: ...
Mr Ng: Yup...
Reporter: Ok now thank you for the interview Mr Ng.
Mr Ng: No problem.

In my room.

And it's so quiet.

I think I need to talk to somebody, but I don't even know where to begin?

Stoned

Now I don't wanna go to school either.

Haha.

C'mon Mr Ng you lazy slob.

First, time to go get dinner.

Sigh.

Don't sigh!

End of monologue.

The day of 14th Feb 2009

I'm beginning to feel that there is a higher spiritual power frigging toying with my personal life.

It could be the weirdest sentence ever spoken by a teacher, but every moment I spend outside school, I feel like shit.

Relax and unwind

I was almost late today. I left home at 7.10am and managed to park my car at around 725am and quickly went to the hall.

I gave lollipops to my form class. I wrote them a letter too. I hope they read it.

Happy Valentines' Day.

After school, I had a quick YOG meeting. Then I went to play soccer with some of my sec 3 students. Well was just standing around and chatting. At 3pm NCC guys (including me) played a game with the lower sec soccer team.

This is a classic lesson on how teamwork and passing will win a team who seems to be bigger in size and speed. First half we kinda played 4411 and I was the lone striker. -_- Not my usual position but at least I get to play! 2nd half I played as a central midfield player.

Score was 2-2. I should have scored in the first half but I scuffed a shot straight into the goalkeeper's arms. Ah well.

After the game I ran 3 rounds with NCC Part A. Eh Part A if you're reading this, you need to run faster than that ok!

Stayed around and discussed about NCC camp with other NCC teachers.

At 6.15pm went back to my office, showered and packed up and left.

What a great afternoon. Doing every single thing except work. Haha.

Fallen

I've fallen. All day long I've talked about having resilience and being able to bounce back.

Emo times..

If I don't smile at you it's not 'cos I'm angry. You just can't expect everyone to smile all the time.

I am thankful for all my wonderful students, especially those from 3-2.

Another event off my chest

Well, finally finished both TD+YOG presentations at assembly.

To be honest, the lower secondary assembly was a lot better. The technical glitch earlier was a killer, but let's not blame anyone, and kudos to the AVA team for always trying to rectify the situation! Thank you humble people of AV PA Club!

Because of the fact that you guys took longer to settle down, I was afraid that we'd be short on time and so I pretty much rushed through.
But seriously, we've to stay united as One Singapore!


Ah today was just not as good. I had 3 lessons immediately before the Assembly, and my voice was so strained. I was in the worst mood too. I feel much better after the presentation because it's one less thing to be done, but when I reflect upon the incident again, I feel terrible. Argh. I appreciate the notes some of you students gave me. Really. Thanks.

Thank you everyone for your very enthusiastic responses today!

You all cheered as if you all were watching the World cup final man!

So that's all for Total Defence. I think on Monday I'll be reading the Total Defence message to the school.

Cooling down in the office. As usual, so hot in the hall; so cold in my office. WHY AM I BORN THIS WAY, MUMMY? (maybe I'll follow Mr Brown and write a dear mummy article - ok only my ss students will understand this)

Meeting from 3-5pm!

More importantly, I'm meeting Miss Confidential for dinner tonight, at a confidential restaurant in a confidential place.

2 more days to Valentines' Day. It's also friendship day. Have you prepared your gifts?

Note: gifts need not be expensive.

Embarrassing slip of the tongue

Just came back from a Sec 3 class.

I wanted to tell some of the students to not take offence of something I'm about to show, and instead of saying 见怪，I said something along the lines of 见挂。 I must have been mixed up with 牵挂。Haii, I could have just said “不要在意。" Serves me right, trying to ACT PRO. Haha.

Oh so embarrassing. And I take pride in my Mother Tongue too! As a son of someone who's a Chinese teacher, as well as having taken Higher Chinese in my secondary school days, this is totally unacceptable!

Time to 面壁思过!

Running is my zen.

Today,

I wasted time to TALK (because I didn't scold) to a sec 4 class because they were behaving like primary school kids.

I had a good talk with one of my direct superiors, and hence I was a lil late for class. My apologies.

The assembly presentation went pretty well for me. Thank you all for your kind attention and enthusiastic response. After the assembly Mr Zahed met us and we discussed on how to improve for Thursday's Upper sec assembly. A big thank you to all the volunteers as well. We'll have to look through the list and unfortunately not all of you will be chosen.

At 2+pm I went back to office and relaxed a bit, and chit chatted with colleagues. I did some printing and lesson planning. At 4+pm I went home. At 5pm I watched "Whose line is it anyway" on starhub channel 18, and then "The Simpsons". I went to nap from 6-7pm. Then I went to Gombak stadium and ran 15rounds (6km) at a moderate pace of 35mins. I bought dinner.

I just found out today that my latest favourite drink is Honeydew Soya Milk from Mr Bean. $2. So nice.

Running is my zen. I love to run, and I wish I had more time / energy to do so. When I run, I don't have to think about all the problems in the world. I can either feel the wind beating on my face, or I can listen to Muttons to Midnight, which is totally funny.

This post is totally boring I know. I have to go shower now and do some work. I owe too many people too many things. =/

Well, 3 more days to Valentines' Day.

Sombre

We learnt this word during today's CME lesson.

It's pronounced as "som-ber".

1: so shaded as to be dark and gloomy
2 a: of a serious mien : grave b: of a dismal or depressing character : melancholy c: conveying gloomy suggestions or ideas
3: of a dull or heavy cast or shade : dark colored
— som·ber·ly adverb
— som·ber·ness noun

To hear the pronunciation, go to:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sombre

Total Defence Day Assembly

Just finished a quick rehearsal with a fellow teacher (whose identity you will find out tomorrow) about tomorrow's assembly presentation on Total Defence and Youth Olympic Games.

So very hungry.

And still, in a not very smiley mood. But you bet I will be cheerful on stage tomorrow. =)

If you're my students, I sincerely ask you for your understanding and empathy, that I will return you your marked assignments soon.

Thought of the weekend

Money can't buy happiness.

I had a terrible weekend. I don't even know where to start.

Fri night: Fell asleep watching benjamin button. Plot is interesting. It's just not exciting enough for me, plus I was so tired I guess. Miss Confidential wasn't too pleased. I would be upset too if my date dozed off watching a film with me. Ah well.

Sat: Got mobilised by the army. In camp the whole day till 9pm. Took a cab home and fell asleep.
Missed the safari zoo run. http://www.safarizoorun.com.sg/ Miss Confidential couldn't go alone, so that was $76 wasted ($38 per person; though we did get a nice polo tee and some stuff in the goodie bag, we missed the experience.)

Sun: Actually managed to wake up to go for the vertical marathon. Figured I shouldn't waste the $20 registration fee. http://nvm.ntusportsclub.sg/ Reporting time was 0630hours. My 3rd time at this event. Didn't hit my target timing, but then again, I didn't really train for it, plus this old bag of bones is trying its best already. After that I went to play soccer.
I then slept my whole Sunday away.

Gotta go for meeting soon. Cya all in school.

Yay

Gonna watch the curious case of benjamin button later.

Thought of the day

Perhaps I smile too much. Hmm.

A gift from down under

My super sweet Miss Confidential went to Australia few days back and look what she's got me!!!

AWWWWW!! Koala bears are, to me, one of the cutest animals in the world, because they look very toot. (ok in proper English, they look very dazed?) Still trying to find a proper place for it. Cleared my table over the hols, and it's only 5 weeks and it's full of stuff again. Ahhh...

WHAT A busy day.

Well, I will now attempt to blog about what every student blogs about: his or her day.

Today I went to a lower sec english class, and 75% did not bring their files for file check.

So we did what I shall call now as my favourite thing: staring at the clock watching the time go by so slowly and never get it back again.

The SS classes were alright. I hope you all remember to bring your workbooks, and pay more attention.

Class contact time:
Everyone please bring $3 (exact change) and your tie tomorrow for photo taking. A little upset at the end when there seems to be a dispute about the designs of the class t-shirt. C'mon, you can never be 100% satisfied.

Please learn the following word:

Compromise.

2pm I had a wonderful meal with the Humanities department. Meeting ended at 4+pm. We shared learning strategies and resources about SS. Really useful.

Then my next meeting with the YOG comm. YOG = youth olympic games. This is the biggest thing to hit Singapore, and our school will embrace it totally.

Next week I'll be up on stage (with another teacher) to talk about Total Defence and YOG.
ALL OF YOU BETTER CHEER FOR ME AND NOT FALL ASLEEP! HAHA. -_-''

So it's almost 630pm and the school is closing. Argh. How was your day? Feel free to use the comment button. Not everything must be written in the tag board too mah.

Of naked news and Lou Hei

Well, there goes the first month. POOF just like that.

For those seniors fighting hard, you know my next sentence.

ONE LESS MONTH TO THE BIG N / Os!

In today's CME lesson, I discussed with my class the hottest topic recently, and that is of the naked couple that appeared in Holland Village on Saturday night.

Read more here:
http://youth.sg/blog/2009/01/28/naked-couple-walk-down-holland-village

We talked about respect. Respecting different cultures. They are probably not insane, but they should respect the Asian conservative culture here, even if they feel very comfortable in the nude. Respecting yourself. Why let everyone take pictures of your body, especially your private parts? What happens if they are all on the internet? Do you want your future spouse to be famous or infamous for such an incident? Similarly in the same vein of thought, why not show more respect to yourself?

I also reminded the class that every photo they upload on the net is available for the world to see. I am not qualified to be the policeman to stop people from uploading pictures of themselves of course, but just a reminder, that you respect yourself and know how far you can draw your line, and not to cross it.

Fun lesson. =)

After school, the staff went to Sakura @ Jurong West for the annual Chinese New Year Lou Hei. Had the lunch buffet there too. Especially liked the dory in cream sauce and grilled unagi. No pictures because I did not bring my camera and my normal phone is spoilt (still have not sent for repairs) and I'm currently using this dinosaur era phone with no camera function -_-

Kinda tired. Shall finish watching Desperate Housewives and then sleep, I think.

Australian Final 2009

Federer lost. =(
Nadal won 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-2 in 4hours and 23minutes.


Read more here:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/02/01/sports/AP-TEN-Australian-Open-Mens-Final.html?_r=2&hp