Trying something diff

There I was attempting to complete my TMA for the 2nd time when I had an urge for something salty and tasty. Realised I had a couple of potatoes and some leftover grated cheese, I decided to re attempt my potatoes brisquet.

Ingredients. Produced 4-5 brisquet.
1. 2 potatoes
2. grated cheese (mine is a mix of mozzarella, Parmesan and cheddar)
3. finely chopped parsley
4. salt to taste.

Instructions.
1. Grate the potatoes.
2. Placed them on a napkin and squeeze the juices out.
3. Mixed the cheese, the parsley into the potatoes.
4. Form patties, much the same way you'd form beef patties.
5. Shallow fry them using any oil you like, I used grape seed oil.
6. Served.

It took me some 10 minutes to prepare and some ten minutes to fry all of them. It took Adam only 5 minutes to eat four of them...

Its so hard....

Its so hard to concentrate. So many things on my mind. The death of one of my uncle left me dumbfounded. The fact that I'm totally relying on my wife's source of income is worrying, the fact that I've yet to complete or even starts on my TMAs is a great cause of concern. Felt like a cow going into the slaughter house.
Anyway, read in the news today, that an Ang Moh person was convicted and thrown in jail for throwing his Thai wife out the window. They were at a fourth floor apartment when that happened. I thought, oh my, this is like CSI. But its Singapore, no hollywood style excitement here!
Apparently his mom is sick and he was upset that his Thai wife was not giving the attention that he thinks he needed. Hah hah. So he waited for her to fall asleep, went into the room and he flung her out of the window! How cool is that?
Whats even cooler is that she survived, albeit bleeding from the head, spent some time in our very world class hospital and wanted him to be released from Prison. Hey this is no Hollywood. You can't just go into the police station and tell those boys in blue, "thanks for all your help but I think you could let him out now." Awesome. But whats not cool is when its stated that he is a good provider, etc etc. I mean, so what if he is a good provider. He flung you out of the window! Imagine if like me, she stayed in an apartment 16th floor up!
Anyway, Adam now has a blog. Its in www.lead.com.sg so I don't think it accessible to the public. He is writing alot now. I'll see if I can get him to post in blogger.com

Its so hard...

Doughnut Recipe

2 eggs
2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of sugar
2 cups of flour
3 teaspoon of butter
1 teaspoon of baking soda
Milk

1. Cream sugar and butter together, add beaten eggs.
2. Mix and sift dry ingredients.
3. Add dry ingredients to mixture. Add milk. Mixture should be very soft.
4. Form into a ball and roll to one-half inch thickness.
5. Cut and fry in hot oil.

Hope that helps!

Kinderchef

While I was contemplating as to how I could attempt my TMAs, Adam went to Kinderchef today. There was a celebrity present, Chef Bob. He cooked pizza using a slice of french loaf as a base. He made a cookie too. He enjoyed the session. Took some pictures.



The picture above shows the teacher that accompanied Adam. Did not catch her name though.



That's chef Bob.

Doughnuts

Adam came back from Kinderchef all excited of what he did in Kinderchef. Kinderchef is a cooking enrichment class conducted by Iman. Anyway, he was telling me so much of the doughnuts that I can't wait to try them out at home. We went over the cheklist and we have all of the ingredients but one. Baking soda! What the heck is baking soda? Since Su is not at home, I'll guess I have to leave it to her then. Heh heh...
By that time, the excitement has died down and he is now xboxing...
Will be going to tutorial later. Oh my, it had been such a cold day, my joints are aching.
Anyway, for those who are interested in strawberries, the Korean strawberries sold in NTUC nowadays are very sweet. If not for the fact that strawberries may trigger another gout attack, I had only a couple. I bought them for my dearest wife anyways.

Adam's shoes

It has been three months since Adam went to Greendale Primary. Since then, he has made new friends and and experience a whole new level of teacher talk. Teacher talk? The way teacher talks to the kids, the very unnatural way of talking. I mean we, human beings do not talk like that when we talk to other human beings right? Think of teacher talk as an abberation of mother talk.
Anyway, Adam has got into a pretty good routine I must say. Only last week, he took out his assessment books and finished his homework, all without being told. I planned it such that 3.00pm will be his work time. He can do anything he wants from the time he got back from school until work time.
A funny thing happened the other day, well him, not me. He walked straight into a lampost! He was coming back from school and he was distracted looking at a friend of his that he smack straight into the lampost. It was funny, but both me, wifey and grandparents were not surprised. I mean, when he was in Iman, he walked straight into a bush!
His weeknights and weekevenings are quite eventfull.
He'll have swimming on Tuesdays, ngaji on Wednesdays, library on thursdays with his mum and piano on fridays. Not to mention Madrasah on Saturday morning. He seems to be coping well. Will be updating again.

This is so stressed.

Only two more hours till my TMA submission deadline. And I'm blogging and facebooking! Crazy!

99000

I read in an article that it is expected to have 99000 people who will lost their job. Its getting very real. At first, one would think that it'll not affect us, Singaporeans I mean. But if the numbers do come true, imagine how it must feel like for those involved. Some may be lucky to have saving to tide them over, but for how long? What will happen then? And imagine the stress people are feeling now, thinking that they may lose their livlihood.
I have friends, who are zipping around, travelling to overseas destinations, talking about buying new cars and all, all painting a rosy picture to their aquitances. But it is not that rosy. The person sitting next to you on the bus, is probably thiniking as to how to feed his or her children in the coming weeks! Its that bad.
I have friends who resigned from jobs, because they don't like the environment. Who does? If you like your environment, then its not work. But in this times, there are mouth to feed and bills to pay.
I'm sitting here, on my bed, listening to the sound of tyres splashing on the wet road. I wonder, will it affect me? And if it does, am I fully ready?
I guess the answer will be yes, it has already affected me, and no I can never be ready. People close to me have their lives changed because of this recession. A relative had to spend time away from her son just so she could work and bring $1.5k back home. Another close friend, has fallen sick thinking as to where is he going to get the money to pay for his house instalments.
Many of my colleagues or ex colleagues seems to be living in this bubble, sterile inside, translucent to see through. They see what they want to see. They see misbehavior, they see dirty unwashed uniforms, they see borrowing and lending of money to buy food for luch. Its what they don't see that makes me wonder. I'm not one to judge, but I want to know, what is it that makes them unable to see, or empathise. Perhaps, its their lot. Perhaps they can't do anything about it. Perhaps they don't bother. I don't want to judge. I want to know.
I want to know what will happen to my neighbour who has two kids and husband only earning 1k per month. I want to what what will happen to another neighbour who owes a bank 1.4k a month on car instalments. Sheesh!
All I'm saying, it time one be prepared. Spend some time in putting some away. It might just come in handy.

TMAs

Been sometime since I last log in. Been busy finishing my TMAs and now I've got three more to hand in a couple of weeks. As to what I've been up to, well, its what I've not been up thats interesting. My leg was hurting real bad last week that I've to used a wheelchair. I felt so useless; I cried myself to sleep. Took me three days to be able to stand up without support. As a result, I missed my tutorials and a lecture. It won't be so bad except the TMAs could do a lot of help.

Because of a lack of driving, my Jet FC went down. So went to JB once a week for the past two weeks instead of my normal twice a week routine. Just went in last Wenesday in the afternoon. Left the house at 11am and reach back home by 1,40pm. Managed to catch Adam as he was walking home. Heh heh. Spent some RM$100 on groceries too!

Now as I sat here watching and Adam practising his piano, I can smell the pizza baking in the oven. I made a half and half. What I mean is, I used Ranch dressing as a base on half of the pizza and a traditional tomato, garlic and olive base on the other half. Just a few minutes more for me to see if it'll taste nice.

Actually, me and the whole family seems to be doing fine. Athough I've yet to be broke, there are some belt tightening that needs to be done. Its o.k, I'm living well with $150 dollars in my bank account. Su is doing well with $800 and Adam hmm, lets say he has a long way to go in understanding the concept of savings.

Still hoping for the GST credits to come in and Su's pb to come in. It'll be really useful I bet. Anyway, my job is to study and I better do it well. Else, why would I need to tighten up my belt for. I need to make this worth it. Its not a nice feeling not to be able to buy new stuff, especially Cds, DVDs and er...oh yeah, car stuf. But hey, if a friend of mine can do it, I's sure I can.

stopped...

This is so funny, that I'd stuff it all the way in the "why are there stupid things happening to me" category.

Today, as usual I had my Unisim lecture on Science (not really on the science subject but I'll talk about it in a bit). As usual, I went to JB to top up my petrol. As usual, I had easiest of time going in and going out. But, it was the going back part which made me wanted to cry out.

I was stopped, at the police check point, just after I had my car inspected my customs in the Singapore side of the causeway. This young officer, told me to wind down the window and asked for my passport. No sweat right, I mean he is doing his job. So he took my passport and began looking at the pages. From my rear view mirror, I can see another officer, looking through the windows and so on and so forth. But this guy, the passport holding officer started to make small talk. He looked through it and then asked, "Where are you going?" I mean hey, where does he think I'm going. "Home." I replied. Appearing to be shocked, he asked me if have a house in Singapore. I mean, I so wanted to say, "No, actually I'm a Filipina. I don't leave here, I got lost on the way to Cambodia!" What the f?
He continue looking at my passport and noted that I went in once a week. Seriously, if he had paid attention in math class, he would have known I went in twice a week.
An awkward silence then developed. The other officer was still checking my car, (I especially like the rims) and the guy was still flipping through my passport. I know he was trying to stall for time but hey, he could just put the passport down and waited. Suddenly, I heard an all clear and he awkwardly gave me back my passport.

I felt stupid being stupidly asked those questions by stupid people who does not know what stupid is. Just wasting my time.

Anyway, today's lecture has something to do with a Darwin and a Wallace. They focus on why Darwin is highly acknowledge while Wallace is not. It also boils down to the boundaries set by science by the scientists themselves. For example, as in it is difficult to actually have a definition as to what is religion, what actually is Science. If science belives in the material world, then what about the study of paranormal. If that is included, would that not be in the realm of being religious? Definition is important and in this case, we could be having scientist studying religion, but then again, what is religion? Is islam a religion? Why is it so? Is Buddhism a religion? Is Islam like Buddhism? What are the similar characteritics of Buddhism and Islam, Would football hooliganism have the same characteristics? What about scientology? Is that religion?

We studied Darwin's inabiliity to publish what he found out during his trip on HMS Beagle. We studied as to why Wallace, was not accepted as a professional scientist but then maybe he was ahead of his time.

Its half past midnight. Let me re read this post again tomorrow and post more stuff to make this post clearer.

Routine

I changed my routine today, abit, not much. After I've send my wife to work, I went to East Coast Park. Thought of giving my 20mm a good workout. But the day was gloomy and the light was flat. So I ended up walking briskly to the jetty and back. Not a bad workout for myself if I do say so myself. At least I didn't find myself limping.
Looking at the flatness of the light, I was quite excited as I made my way to the jetty. Only to find that it's closed for renovation. Nparks are replacing the railings, I think. The sign states that it should be ready in feb 09, but duh, its feb 09 now!. As I walked back towards the car, I realised that the park has changed significantly. There were constructions going on nearer to the jetty. I hope it'll do the park good... like more green space rather than grey.
Pictures below were taken on the way back.



I want to go to Tiong Bahru and do some street shooting. Anybody interested in joining me?

seasonal

There must be a reason!
My dad was readmitted to CGH, last Sunday (discharged yesterday). While he was there, my cousin was admitted for stroke (she is still there) and yesterday night, got a call saying that another cousin had passed away. Heard he had a fall in the bathroom. Sigh. Very depressing.
I guess, I should be grateful that my dad is still around and both he and my mum are in very good spirits. My mom, was diagnosed with nose cancer a few months back by the way. And I'm worried for not being able to buy a new phone!

Journal

My new tutor, Chitra, suggested to us to start journal writing. She said it could provide the spark needed to complete the assignments. I say, Yeah! We should all do it. Its a great stress reliever.
Anyway, just came back from M5 tutorial class by Manulife. Met some interesting characters there. It sure made the class more meaningful.
Anyway Citra is my Az 1031 tutor. The topic was about religeon or more importantly the study of religeon. Don't know if it made any sense to you guys but the study of religeon differs from religeon study. One is a formal undertaking to learn more about the why of religeon while the other would be a forma or informal way to know more about a particular religeon.
The topic begins by understanding the difficulty in defining religeon. As to why one needs to define religeon would be the fact that defining it would make it easier for one to study it. Definitions are clear precise but flexible enough to preclude others which are not religeon. But then, how does one define religeon. Ninian Smart model of dimensional characteristics could also include fervent soccer fever as being a religeon.
Anyway, it 11.45 pm now and I'm suppose to wake up early tomorrow.
Thus I am tired.The picture below was taken when I went to Batam.

Car-ed

No go, that's what they said. I exceeded the mileage by 500km and they said they won't be honouring the waranty. Screw them. I'll do my own service.
Damn, long day tomorrow.

Car

I think I'm partly at fault. My car is nearing its end of the its warranty period. It had hit 100000km and so I decided to send it to the agent for serviced. Damn! Agent just called and told me to leave the car overnight. He said that the mechanics are still checking out the complaints I made regarding the car. So now, I'm car less until tomorrow afternoon; I hope.
So I can't fetch Su and and I will be travelling by train and bus to Unism tomorrow. Sigh. I hope I can the car sooner than "3 or 4 pm".
As to what are those faults, all minor but I had to say it...
1. A "wOng" sound when I turn right.
2. The signal stick won't reset itself when I turn right.
3. The car is getting bumpy at the back.

Also sent the car there to get its oil change.
Wish me luck.

First!

There were many first this past few days. Hmm, where do I start?
Well of course, the most dramatic one was when I received a call at 5.00am in the morning from sister, saying that my dad was in the hospital. That was a first for me; receiving such a call. To make matters worse, my mom was already admitted in NUH two days before and my dad was warded in TTSH. After that call, my head felt like it was going to explode. Went to visit my dad after sending my wife to school.
Another first was related to Adam. Monday was Adam's first day buying food for himself by himself during recess. Turned out he ate the sandwich that Risa prepared for him and used the time saved from queuing to play games with his friends. Not a bad idea.
Monday too was the first lecture of my second module in Unism. This module is on the study of religeon. Quite baffling. The lecture was carried out by this English guy who hardly has a British accent. Looks eccentric if you asked me, the girls thought he looked quite handsome.
Oh, I went to JB after class. That was a first after a long time. The new CIQ is very winding. I ended up at the red lane instead. I got lost for a bit and with the help of somebody on a Singapore registerd motorcycle, I'd managed to find my way back home. Went again on Thursday morning.
First time going to a hotel in Batam. Will be there during CNY. I hope everything will be alright. Quite excited actually.

Books

Went to Unisim to collect my books today. Not as dramatic as the first time when I did that. This time, I collected two boxes though instead of one as I'm taking two modules. Went to Unisim with Adam and Su and Risa. Had dinner there too.
Adam came back from school telling me that he spent all of his $2 on a mechanical pencil and a notebook. Rather than raising my voice, I asked him as to what could he if he wanted to buy a drink. After a few moments of silence, we then agreed that he could buy anything that he wanted but he is to make sure that he'll have enough for food and drinks.
But he was so proud! Yes he was proud being able to buy things with his own money. When we went to Unisim for dinner, he was very active in buying his own food. On one hand, we could see that his confidence has grown but on the other hand, well, I think he is spending too much.

Packed

My mornings nowadays are very free. That is from the time I'm back from sending Su and till Adam comes back. After that its non stop fatherly duties.
In the meantime, I've been teaching Risa a thing or two about internet and email.
When Adam comes back, he'll usually have lunch after that a hotchpot of activities. Of course, the priority will be completing his homework. After which, it'll be revision of Maths and English. He seems to be able to rest from 5.00pm onwards. But then again, he'll have piano from 6.30pm, or he will be out of the house for his ngaji from 5.30pm. So I guess, its really true, he is a busy boy. I've signed him up for swimming and that'll keep him occupied for Tuesday afternoon. Monday and Wednesday, he is off to Woodlands for ngaji. Thursday is his P.L.A.Y day and he will be in school until 3.30pm. Piano lessons are on Friday evenings and Saturday mornings are for madrasah lessons. Not that I'm pressurising him but I think it's important that he'll be kept occupied with a variety of activities. I also think that it is important for him to have a routine.

Ex

Washed the car today.
Did 40 push up and 4 sit up.
Went out for dinner...Sigh.

Ex

Did some exercises today, so from today, I'm going to log in what I did.
50 sit ups
20 push ups

Young coconut for breakfast.
Normal meals for lunch and dinner.

My aim, is to be able to fit into a swimming trunk by mid year.

HA HA HA

Phew

What a year's end. Am so tired. Never been tired being on holidays. Went overseas more than twice, technically speaking but it was worth it. The drive to Penang was an eye opener and my wife did a significant amount of driving on the way back to Port Dickson. Anyways, the photos here are pics from my trip to Ubin. Went to Ubin with my ex colleagues from Holy and it was a swell time. We wanted to take the taxi to Chek Jawa but ended just sitting at some coffee shop near the jetty. So last Sunday, we decided to go to the zoo. We've packed and I even made egg sandwiches. But the queue was so long. The queue to get tickets into the zoo stretched from the ticketing booths all the way to the bus stop and beyond. So, we decided to go to Ubin again. It was me, wife, Adam, Yan, Wan and Joy. I have to admit, the drive to Changi Village from the zoo was quite a distance, but I've driven to Penang...
So we took a bum boat ride to Ubin, cost us $2.50 each, one way and once we reached there we took a taxi to Chek Jawa. Never been there and so happened did all of us. We did enjoyed ourselves though. It was a tiring walk along the boardwalks and it was not the lowest of tides. But we did managed to catch glimpses of Fiddler Crabs, mud skippers, monitor lizards and believe or not, the nipah fruit. Thats where attap chee comes from. We spent some three hours in Ubin after which we took the boat ride back to mainland. We were lucky as it started to rain heavily on the ride back. If we were still at Chek Jawa, I guess we would be drenched. Bought dinner at Rasa 21 in Tampines and brought it back to Woodlands.
Oh, visitor center is a real house nicely restored. Its beautiful. The jetty used to be a private jetty that the owners used to access the house. I strongly recommend that one check out the tide times before going though. More pictures in the album.

Penang

Just came back from Penang some two days ago. Still very tired. Drove there and back.
Its like
Sing-PD-Penang-PD-Malacca-Sing.
10 days altogether, felt like ages. Great to be back.

Must

I must be sick today. Its 2.35 pm and I've not bathed. I've not changed my clothes and I'd would readil fall asleep if given the chance. Glad the bed is in the other room. Been sleeping the whole morning. Well not exactly the whole morning, most of the morning.
Woke up at 6.45am and prepared sausages, toast and half bolied eggs. Wife and Adam were still asleep. While wating for them to wake I fell asleep on the sofa. Adam woke me up for breakfast but I'd ended up in my room only to wake up at 2.00pm. By that time, Su had already prepared lunch. So I had lunch, fried rice and sushi. Adam made sushi. They were nice.
Now I'm hanging out the laundry but Su decided to do the dishes and the lack of space prevented me form finishing. So, here I am, waiting for Su to leave the kitchen.
I'd really must be sick. I'm so tired. Must be the rain during the bbq with the cvps people. I wonder if any of my friends and their kids are affected.
It was a wonderful bbq though...

Ubin

Went to Ubin today. A friend's idea of a simple get together almost got ruined as there was no food!
Took the boat from Changi Jetty and it costs us $2.50 one way. Reached there and the restaurant selling halal food was closed. So we had to wait for another friend to bring us food from Changi. Ended up eating nasi ayam penyet while the non-muslims ate at one stop ubin restaurant.
Was there from 12 noon till 4.00 pm. Not exactly an active affair as we just sat and talked. I had four coconuts though. A very nice environment, where kids actually still ran barefooted.
The weather was quite warm and we ended up another hour in Changi Village drinking pineapple drink. Next meeting will be a seafood dinner in JB!

Camp

Went camping at East Coast of Friday. It's Sunday now and I'm still recuperating from my back ache. Anyway, Adam and Wawa loves it and I lurve it when its time to go back!

I seem to have problems posting pics into my albums so I guess I'll just post them in my blog.

Adam's Kids Fiesta

Was looking at the pictures I took during Adam's graduation concert. Was really happy for him. He really is a nice boy. He has lots of friends and he enjoys being in their company. I can also see that they enjoy being with him too.
It was a grand affair. More than 100 tables. It started from 11.30 am to 5.00 pm. It started with a bang and ended with lots of tears, among teachers, parents and pupils alike. I can't blame any of them, it was such an emotional moment. If any of them are reading this, I would like to thank Ustzh Ain, Tch Ain, Tch Azlin and all of the staff in Iman Tampines for they have not just touch Adam's life but ours too.
Its is this moments that we longed to hang on to. These moments that we cherished and wished they would never go away. But reality always prevails. These moments will passed. Adam may have met his friends for the last time that day. It saddens me as I too have lost touch to too many good friends. I remember the heart wrenching moments when I have to let go. I can't express my feeling to anybody then. It was really, a very heartache period.
Anyway, tomorrow is Adam's second day of his holidays. Need to plan activities for him. I wonder what will be new and exciting for him? He has taken an interest in the television and that is one companion that I'm not too proud of. I think I'll have him conduct experiments at home.

Last Concert.

In less than 24 hours, it'll be Adam last concert as a K2 student. After which, we can all look forward in him starting a new chapter in his life, one as a primary school student. How time flies. It was as if it was only yesterday that Adam was in his cot next to our bed. Thinking about how fast he has grown brought tears to my eyes. I wonder if he'll ever sleeps in our bed again, or whether he'll let us hug him again. He is now 6 going on 7. He is a head shorter than one of his kindergarten teacher. That too brought out the tears as I'd remembered the days when he went to school still wearing his diapers.
Tonight, as I lay next to my wife, I noticed her white hairs. I'd begun to notice that we have changed. Adam has changed too. I hope he'd change for the better and I wish the best for him is yet to come. He is only 6, yet he is so mature for his age. I am so lucky and blessed by Allah for this son of mine to come into my life.
Today was Adam's orientation day at Greendale Primary. As usual, I'd expected and received a boring talk by the principal after submitting the necessary documents. Adam is placed in primary 1-1, and he seems to be not the tallest in class. He was led by one of the teachers to his classroom while Su and me has to sit though the talk given by the P on school rules and such.
An hour after which, we then proceeded to pick up Adam from his class. His class is on the second floor right next to a flight of stairs. His was the class nearest to the canteen. and the toilet. He was quite animated when he described what happened in class.
He told us that he visited the toilet, the canteen. When the teacher asked his name, he said his full name which was quite long. He said that even after the teacher made him repeat his name, she still could not find it on the namelist. He was then asked to point out his name on the list, which he did, and noted his register number as well. His register number is 16 out of a class of 30.
We then looked for the school uniform queue which we found to be very long. As we had pre-order his books to be collected this Friday, we decided to buy the uniforms then as well. We had his food for recess to be catered, but that arrangement is for the first two weeks. After which he can choose to buy his own food for recess.
I'd found out that he needs to be school by 7.40am in the morning and he will be dismissed by 1.30pm except on Thurday when it'll be a PLAY day. On Thursday, he will be dismissed at 3.30pm.
All in all, I'm excited that I'm here to begin this new chapter with him. But sadness has yet to lift its finger on me as I recollect the days when he was in the cot sleeping next to me, in my room and that I'll not have those days again.

FC...

≈
This pic showed that on 24th October 2008, I'd travel 341.1km slightly above three quarters. At this time, no additives has been added to the car.The second picture shows that I'd reached 299.8 with the needle quite far off from the three quarter mark. This is the first time I added a fuel additive bought from an Esso outlet in JB.

The third picture showed that I'd travel 391km just as the needle past three quarter mark.
The fourth picture is after I'd added a fuel additive bought from an Esso outlet in Upp Changi Road North.

The last picture showed what I'd got at nearly the half way mark. I put this up for my own records but you may derive your own conclusion if the fuel additives do work or not. And by the way, I'm driving a trajet 2.0l cvvt. The last picture was taken in Esso JB where I refuel with about 46l. That works out to be 10.91km/l. Not much, I know but much better than some Jet who could get 300-400km in one full tank.

Better.

Leg felt better today and was all fired up to go somewhere after being in bed the whole of yesterday. So off we went to Changi, hoping to catch some shots while we were there. Not a good time to take good pictures anyways, the sky was gloomy and the pain was coming on again. So, together with my Adam's 5d and the 20mm 2.8, I tried.
Reached there around 10.30 am and we had the usual, nasi lemak, for breakfast. While we were enjoying our breakfast, the lunch crowd started to build up. The very well know nasi lemak stall at the corner started to snaking queues. I'd prefer the other nasi lemak stall though. So me and my wife had nasi lemak, adam had 4 epok-epok. Together with ice-milo, ice milo dinosaur and a cup of hot teh, we were all set.
We then went for a walk towards the bum boat jetty. I observed several key changes such as the jetty and some parts of the beaches. Adam refused to take the boat to Pulau Ubin so we ended up walking up to the topside of the jetty. Wished we had went in the boardwalk trails. Should have been fun.

Off we went to my in-laws place and from there, we caught High School Musical 3. Honestly, I'd give it a ten for its entertainment value. May be kiddish, but its entertaining. And the plot, well, the plot is real. The move made me flashed back to the period when I was sitting for my A levels. I sure missed my friends. The things that we did together, such as cycling around the island, disturbing the girls and of course, the presentations during GP lessons. They were killers, but I grew fond of them. High School Musical 3. Cool website too.

film

http://photo.net/columns/joshroot/filmtown/

The url above is a new column on using film. As for me, I too missed using it. Maybe for the wrong reasons. Its not that film gives a better picture, its not that film is cheaper, far from it, but film provide less convenience than digital... What??!! I'm complaining that digital is too good... Yeah, its just too good. You could buy almost any P n S and start shooting. Most probably often enough, there will be shots that are acceptable for you and to you. And if there aren't manhy photo editing software are available for you to do some "modification". Digital just takes some of the fun away from taking pictures...
Consider the steps missing when you chose digital.
1. You have to consider which brand, type, iso rating for film...
2. Where to process ur films...
3. The magical or dissappointing moment when you opened that paper mailer with your pictures in it.
4. The fact that if you could not hack it is the results of your skills and not because you do not know how to use your computer.
5. And the fact beatiful sound of film rewinding and advancing in your camera.Sigh...
6. And what about exposure...You really need to know about exposure. With so many auto levels on Photoshop and the likes, who cares? But I for one, you need to care... Because no amt of PS skills could bring a darkened pic back to life...

Exposure, its so important that digital seemed to have staple the sheets of that chapter altogether. I mean, my son could take beautiful pictures as he is able to preview the shots and then make adjustments, but does he know the concepts of f-stops and shutter speeds, the constraints of them...He is 6 years old. He is no genius.

Will continue.

Leg pain

Its 9.05 pm now. About 4-5 hours since my last post. My right leg is still in pain but is numbed somewhat. I still could not walk normally, and I'm having a pretty bad limp. Don't know if I could make it to the toilet. I really should have stayed away from those rempeyek...

Leg pain

Am feeling sharp pain in my right leg now. It came very fast. I think I felt the first sensation of pain about ten minutes before I could not even rest my foot on the floor. No swelling though. Had to limp to the study room to post this entry. Took two 50mg of declofenac and two tabs of colchichine. From experience, it'll take some 2-3 hours before the pain medication takes effect. I can feel some vibration in my leg now. Pain seems to be moving all around in it. Had to ask dad to fetch adam. This is my first attack in more than six months. The longest it has ever been. There was a time when I had attacks every other day. But those atttacks are manageable. I limped to school then.

Oh well, I'm sweating now and I can feel my hearbeat beating very fast. Must be due to the pain.
Will update soon.

General Will

General Will as define by Rousseau is the will of the state and is the product of reason. As such, if an individual who is logical were to come down to reason, he would allow himself to follow the general will as that would be the best decision as decided by the majority. Thus if an individual were NOT to follow the general will, he is thus considered not free. The state has the right to make him be free in forcing him to follow the general will.
For example, during a vote to find the general will of the state as to whether to have a nuclear power station, the vote favours the presence of the nuclear station. This thus becomes the general will. As the general will is a result of logical thinking and reasoning, this is thus taken as the best options a state should take.
If an individual is against the presence of the nuclear station, then his thought run against the "most correct thought". As such, that individual would be wanting something that is against the general will. Acting against the general will is considered as doing something which is wrong, which the individual should not want. Thus that individual is enslaved to his particular will, and as he is enslaved, thus he is not free. The state then has the right to promote freedom by ensuring that that individual is not enslaved and should follow the general will of the people and should allow the presence of the nuclear power station. The state should be allowed to used force as necessary to force the individual to be free. This idea of forcing individuals to be free has lead to totalitarian rules in several cases.
Rousseau.
If a vote has been taken, can we consider Rousseau idea of the general will to be equal to democracy?
Democracy, two similar but with fundamental differences.
Simple democracy, where ever opinions from every individual counts in making decisions. Quite similar to have a family discussions on where to go for family vacations. It is here that democracy differs with Rousseau. Rousseau believes that there should be one options and that options is one that has been voted on by people using logical reasoning. Rousseau does not believe in considering the opinions of many others and that will include their particular wills. For example, the general will of the family are to go and visit Penang, but the son is of an opinion to stay a day at KL. The family hears his opinion and takes that into account. As such they'll be a day or two late to reach Penang. If every member of the family opinions were to be taken into account, the family may not even reach Penang especially when there are many members in the group.
Another drawback of simple democracy would be the fact that EVERY member has to be consulted on EVERY matter that pertains to the state of which that individual in a part of. Would that be a very efficient arrangements. If every Singaporeans opinions were to be noted for every matter, for example, the position of ERP gantries, the type of HDB houses to build, it may be too troublesome. As a result if asking and noting down opinions becomes too complicated, governments may just NOT asked for opinions.
Next we come to representative democracy. In this environment, people elect representatives to enact and enforce laws on behalf of themselves. Would this be considered an environment where the state should be run that the people govern themselves, How does the people govenr themselves when decisions are made for them and not BY them. Decisions are made by the representatives they elected. And thus Rousseau contents that the right to govern themselves are only apparent on the day the vote for their representatives. Here, the people do not vote for laws to be enacted or passed or to be made redundant but to vote for people to be elected into government who then makes decision for them.

Skin

My mom radiotherapy sessions has ended. Besides the fact that she now coughs, unable to eat chicken rice yet, she is in high spirits. Doctors said she is recovering very well. And she still wants to go to JB, I guess things are looking up for her. She has lost some 12 kg since the treatment started but she sure likes the fact that she is smaller than me. That's my mom...

So bad

Been a bad 24 hrs for me. Firstly, I scored only a 51 for my TMAs, that got me really upset. But the one that really got me was the fact that my Melayu is so bad, I can't even complete a K2 assignement for Adam. Sigh...

So for today, I've sent Su to school at 7,00am. After which I bathed and read the newspaper till 9am. Had breakfast with Adam. And now I'm coaching him in his Malay revision. But not after I went to Jalan Kayu to buy eggs. $5 for 30 eggs. Not bad, quite big.
Not being a good tutor though, Adam just said he is hungry. Sigh...
I think we are having nasi lemak today.

Swelling

Body has started swelling again and I don't mean I'm getting fat. The meats and the proteins during the Hari Raya feasting must have crystallised themselves again. Sigh. Now it hurts at my left hips, the sole of my left feet. Went to JB today. Brought mum along. She said that her radio sessions are almost done. I hope the cancer gone. She is such a fighter. I mean, she can't eat, she can't pissed and yet she walks faster than me to take a look at the buffet line. We went to Jalan Padi Emas today to service dad's car. It's near, in fact, next to angsana shopping center in JB. While waiting for the car to be serviced, we had lunch at Osman's restaurant. Wished I had taken some pics. I had mee goreng (very nice), and my mom had beef murtabak (which she took only a bite of) and a bowl of chicken soup. She then pack some rice and dishes for dad. Cost us RM21 for a meal for four. It took about 45 minutes for the car to be serviced. I had the engine oil, the oil filter, the spark plugs and one of the tyres air valve replaced. Cost RM35. Of course, I brought my own oil filter, engine oil, and spark plugs. I usually buy my oil here. But this time, dad chose Mobil 1 5w-30. I'd personally would choose a 0w-20 oil but then. He got it for $13.50 per quart so that means about $54. I'd go for amsoil. Then we went to angsana and it was here that I regret not bringing my cam. The salesgirl at the kuih bahulu outlet has this pair of huge, er slippers (yeah slippers). And she wore the er slippers covers so tight... Oh well. As for me, I bought for Su a tub of bahulu, 10 tabs of declofenac (painkillers), 50 tabs of colchicine (gout medicine) and refresh eyedrops for Su. Smooth driving to the immigration, as usual. Only we were stuck at Singapore customs. As usual. Reached home 2.20 pm. Just enough time for dad to take over the car to send mom for another radiotherapy sessions. As for me, I went up to my parents place and played Total annihilation...again.