tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67014502012-01-14T04:14:06.124+08:00small place for small thoughts.Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.comBlogger401100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-20211789513453247672008-11-16T19:44:00.007+08:002008-11-16T20:57:37.226+08:00

Last night, we caught a documentary on the telly about Bill Gates' role in revolutionizing the world of personal computers. Ironically, the same apparatus that gave Microsoft its success - people connected via their PCs - is now making its continued domination close impossible. Once a titan in determining people's computer habits via the MS compatible software they sold, MS now has to fight with

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-53442514090000825372008-07-07T07:21:00.002+08:002008-07-07T07:23:48.253+08:00

Today is the first day E goes back to school for another semester at the MGMS. Like all young toddlers, Dylan’s been trying to cope with the many changes in his life including getting used to sleeping in his new big boy’s bed, and last night was the second time he has been waking up at 5 kicking and screaming, soothed only by his milk bottle and even after then he’d stay awake. I’m not sure if we

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-48212518257120458552008-01-26T19:14:00.000+08:002008-01-26T20:07:53.148+08:00

A confession - It's been difficult living under the same roof as the inlaws. And to some degree, coming back here to Cambridge and having a room to call my own is liberating. To be fair to them, Dylan's grandparents are completely loving to me, always asking if I've eaten and offering to buy food or take me out. I reciprocate by ensuring that I keep the mess in the house to a minimum, and don't

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-57909000334560187142008-01-20T21:48:00.000+08:002008-01-20T23:38:21.731+08:00

So I turned 30 two Sundays ago. I joked with my eldest brother that now I'm in my thirties, just like him, so he can't just think of me as a baby anymore. But honestly, it feels a lot more complicated than that. In the past year, I've felt more inadequate about myself, especially my ability to be mother and take care of someone else other than me, than I ever was as a 19-year-old, cocksure and

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-17840917352857864462007-07-18T13:06:00.000+08:002007-07-18T13:16:10.823+08:00

I realise, now, after two and a half years, that I am how I choose to portray myself. That's the beauty of language - the ability to reflect using orthography (printed letters), at the same time, re-defining and re-creating the selfhood through this. And through that show the different facets that altogether show a patchy picture of who we are. Now, as a mother, time and priorities constrain my

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-1104404219813159152004-12-30T18:33:00.000+08:002004-12-30T19:20:21.240+08:00

Villa. A name that conjures images of serenity - an italian countryside, vineyards and cottages covered in creepers, bathing in the temperate summer sun. Women in thick frocks and aprons, bare-footed and laughing, crushing grapes underfoot. Villa is the name a small village - big for Atauro standards notwithstanding - at the south eastern bend of Atauro island, Timor Leste. Hardly the idyllic

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-1104138273083791382004-12-27T16:31:00.000+08:002004-12-27T17:18:35.313+08:00

Six months. That's how long the online silence has lasted. The brainjuice persona lives, yes, but she's in a comatose state right now, and I'm trying hard to resuscitate her. Trying. Wasn't till now, when the year starts winding down and people around me start valuing friends over work a bit more that I, too, am forcing myself to sit down and write. In the meantime, what's happened? - Lee

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-1088069010128837172004-06-24T17:10:00.000+08:002004-06-25T15:52:05.296+08:00

We set out to leave Gunung Ledang "resort" at 7 in the morning, after spending the 1st night out in some aluminium huts. Morning call at 6am. Breakfast at 6.30. 7am, everyone is geared up, from the youngest at 13 years, to the oldest at fifty-something. Decked up for a good long Sunday climb. And suddenly, the CumulusNimbus which had been obscuring the morning sun, let loose the rain with a

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-1088067445346641432004-06-24T16:50:00.000+08:002004-06-24T17:09:46.633+08:00

In crazy times like these, when all the world just seems to be spiralling downwards in a dizzying blur and sometimes I cannot decide whether to be angry with the Korean government for failing to save the poor man from getting beheaded, or to be even more resolute in wanting governments to send the signal that such cowardly acts will not stop them from doing what's right, when the media

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-1087801581183297092004-06-21T14:51:00.000+08:002004-06-21T15:07:33.783+08:00

"As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit--just as you were called to one hope when you were called--one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-1087372579448278682004-06-16T15:44:00.000+08:002004-06-16T16:03:25.480+08:00

From where I stand, next to the window, some 54m from ground level, the six-lane dual carriage-way snakes its way south towards the National University Hospital. The sun is out, and again I find myself wondering what I'm doing in this cold place and not out there when the weather is this beautiful. The sun casts the long shadows of the neatly lined trees (these have become a sort of icon for the

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-1086950823315432042004-06-11T18:39:00.000+08:002004-06-11T18:51:32.846+08:00

1) A beautifully sunny day that makes you wish you were at the beach with as little clothing on as possible. 2) Students who remember and miss you for everything that you are and some things that you aren't. (refer to entry entitled "Teacheriologist in action!") 3) Fridays. 4) Free Lunches funded by Staff Welfare funds for dear colleagues who bid farewell to start new lives in Oz. North

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-1086690335192376752004-06-08T18:12:00.000+08:002004-06-08T18:46:36.510+08:00

He walked with her ahead of the photographer, hand in hand, as his childhood friend chased after their shadows with the camera in his hand. They strode over the fairway under the bemused observation of staff working on the golf course, with strong gait, confidently, freely. The intensity of the evening sun could not be more perfect than it was now, and they basked in it. On normal days the

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-1086689010302592722004-06-08T18:03:00.000+08:002004-06-08T18:03:30.303+08:00

More shots of flower on dress. love the way the sunlight bounces off the petals and the side of my dress. 

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-1086688869536307902004-06-08T18:01:00.000+08:002004-06-08T18:01:09.536+08:00

Textured shot: I like this one particularly - silver embroidery on duchess satin. Simply sumptious! Notice the sparkle of the beads!  

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-1086688675386569112004-06-08T17:57:00.000+08:002004-06-08T17:57:55.386+08:00

Yellow orchids 

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-1086688555180566652004-06-08T17:55:00.000+08:002004-06-08T17:55:55.180+08:00

Walking the fairway to the horror of many a golfer 

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-1086688499990839052004-06-08T17:54:00.000+08:002004-06-08T17:54:59.990+08:00

Artistic shot... this one. 

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-1086688396669691092004-06-08T17:53:00.000+08:002004-06-08T17:53:16.670+08:00

Here... catch the hand bouquet! 

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-1086340441149484722004-06-04T17:12:00.000+08:002004-06-04T19:04:58.426+08:00

Hi DW, I don't know you personally. In fact, I don't even know your name. You probably don't know mine either, and to be perfectly honest I wouldn't be writing to you like this if not for the rather exceptional circumstances I stumbled upon these last couple of days. Let me elaborate: you see, brainjuice is confessedly a rather lazy, certainly inconsistent blogger. The only times she really

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-1086259395264086922004-06-03T18:25:00.000+08:002004-06-03T18:50:51.946+08:00

A proud announcement, although tremulously made, seeing how little time I may have to actually make new entries in this blog... In the long break since the last post, I have changed jobs. Sadly, I cannot be referred to as teacher any longer, at least for the next two years of my stint here at MOE HQ. While my counterparts are well into their first week of the school holidays, I continue in my

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-1083920399699515112004-05-07T17:52:00.000+08:002004-05-07T17:57:09.860+08:00

Inconsequential conversations... just recalling table talk. Fragmented impressions of a dissolute Friday afternoon. Conversation over lunch today unearthed more than just trite discussions about the Nan Chiau principal who stepped down last week after whacking a well-deserving teenage girl on the head. We paid lip service to the whole notion of teachers losing their dignity at work today,

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-1083922022344467792004-05-07T17:03:00.000+08:002004-05-07T17:34:47.153+08:00

The students pointed me to the common thread that ran through the 5 ancient civilisations: fear of death and the afterlife. In ancient Egypt, pharaohs made monuments of their own deaths in the shape of the pyramids, in the hope that they will attain immortality in the afterlife. Today, the pyramids appear immortal, enduring some 2800 years later. Carthage, in the face of impending doom

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-1083734866157599192004-05-05T13:17:00.000+08:002004-05-05T13:34:52.200+08:00

Teacher: You have just spent 40 minutes presenting on Egyptian civilisation and the Carthaginian Empire and you have no idea why it's relevant to us today??? Student: Er... yeah. Teacher: So why do we need to know all this? So much detail about the Punic Wars, Carthage, the pyramids and the mummy thingamajigs? What on earth have we been stupidly copying notes down for? Student: Because....

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-1083653230630102932004-05-04T14:36:00.000+08:002004-05-04T17:14:44.530+08:00

The flower is you gave me sits prettily in a vase, the leaves intact on her sturdy stem, framing the splendour of her bright yellow petals. It's beautiful - unspoilt, like a virgin bride. It's a picture of total and perfect loveliness. I am the tainted one, with crumpled, ruffled, sat-on petals. Yet you still find me lovely. Thank you!

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-1083651948062862432004-05-04T13:52:00.000+08:002004-05-04T14:57:48.763+08:00

Forgiveness The poison of a grudge is coursing through my veins, and it's leaving bitter taste in the mouth. I don't like it at all - it colours my view of you. "For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became dark and their hearts were darkened." - Romans 1: 21 These lenses through which I perceive you - these spectacles of

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-1083649920787470772004-05-04T13:42:00.000+08:002004-05-04T13:56:02.326+08:00

At dinner Him: So what happens if you stay after June? Her: I guess I'll have to take over the prac crit paper for Lit. Him: What's prac crit? Her: It's the unseen element in the Literature A-level examination - there are 3 papers in total - 2 on set texts and 1 on unseen - that's the prac crit paper.... and ... Him: .... I can see it when I start losing you, you know that? When the

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-1083649319994107112004-05-04T13:35:00.000+08:002004-05-04T17:27:20.716+08:00

"Sorry, I may not let you go after all in June." "What?!" The intricate power play between the principal of a premier newly independent junior college in Sinapore and the teacher deployment unit of the Ministry of Education. I'm Malcolm in the middle. 17 vacancies, and MOE posts 5. I'm the bargaining chip - "How can they take teachers away from us (referring to me) and not give us any good

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-1083306935732010502004-04-30T14:33:00.001+08:002004-04-30T14:39:53.420+08:00

The reason why there have been no posts in recent days is I quite simply have no time in the office anymore to blog. Too much to do, too little time to complete doing them. Will try to redeem the time soon as far as I can help it. Please forgive me!

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-1082422314388198562004-04-20T07:59:00.000+08:002004-04-20T11:56:42.530+08:00

Happy Birthday. 7 years ago, I found you quite the unlikely candidate as a Singsoc ex-co member. Rather, it was interesting that our friendship should occur in the context of us as committee members of an organisation that effectively hindered so many of us from going out there to experience London as a Londoner - what for? The Singaporean crowd was so cushy and comfortable. So on hindsight,

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-1082089822187187972004-04-16T11:54:00.000+08:002004-04-16T12:48:55.186+08:00

Some people we meet loom larger than life. As a young girl, they were mostly fictional. Christopher Reeves playing Superman- his dark brooding but kind eyes and that straying lock of hair - Back to the Future star Michael J.Fox in spite of his comparatively diminutive size was god-like to my pre-pubescent eyes. As a teenager besotted with Shakespeare, Hamlet and Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-1082011717041810482004-04-15T11:55:00.000+08:002004-04-15T14:52:33.950+08:00

Naked in the changing room. shed clothes, fluorescent bulbs underboard, underfoot. Full-length mirror. White light - Imperfections exposed. A single, almost luminescent gown - duchess satin embroidered in silver thread - embellished with beading across the bodice of the bustier hangs off the wall - splendid in length - virginal in conception. I stare - first at my all too inadequate bust

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-1081933375956604002004-04-14T12:56:00.000+08:002004-04-14T17:09:48.920+08:00

There several things in my opinion that make life worth living for, and one of them is good dinner conversations. If it is a good dinner conversation with someone you just met - it promises a lifetime of good conversations, and even great friendship. But where the friendship has already endured through many years of growing pains (jc friends fall into this category in particular) and

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-1081739710844480542004-04-12T10:51:00.000+08:002004-04-12T12:25:45.310+08:00

Things to accomplish today before I call it a day: 1. Target to mark 10 scripts. Just 10! 2. Organise my desk and locate lost - instructions to students to maintain and organise their files, marking scheme, vcd on "10 Things I hate about you", sock. 3. Coordinate with bookshop lady on the number of files going out to each class, and then with the printing lady on the print-outs students need

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-1081408056050436902004-04-08T11:57:00.000+08:002004-04-08T16:35:26.030+08:00

She panicked. In a fluid moment of poetry and slapstick comedy, the one and only key to the grand piano that stood for ages, aloof and lonely in that dark auditorium, slipped out of the key hole, slided down the shiny ebony lid and disappeared through the yawning slit widening as the slippery inkblack keyboard cover shut. It disappeared into its dark abdomen, shocked into silence by the

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-1081137903620090772004-04-05T10:54:00.000+08:002004-04-05T12:34:00.560+08:00

The pronoun of intimacy. It indicates relationship, signals closeness, suggests at the position the dominant "other" has in one's heart and life. It's "you" as opposed to just "him", or "her" or "they" - its "you" as in "you and I" .... the whole concert of "us"-dom. For brainjuice, "You" are that elusive memory, the unclosed chapter, the perpetual protaganist, the demons in her mind, the God

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-1080875604360558012004-04-02T07:11:00.000+08:002004-04-02T13:36:34.326+08:00

To quote a friend who has recently met God, when I sms'd to ask if she and her husband prayed to accept Christ: "how can I not believe he is God? A carpenter's son who is only 33yrs old. teach and heal pple with alsome wisdom and unexplainable power. His word read by many generations and still makes sense 2day.... Who is this man if he's not God? he is for sure not human. we love him. we wish to

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-1080804313433400042004-04-01T14:37:00.000+08:002004-04-01T16:31:50.780+08:00

Magic is the flutter in the stomach when your eyes meet, or the warmth that spreads through your veins when your lips touch. .............But magic can also be treacherous - it is the sting that lingers long after the harsh words have been exchanged, the searing realisation when the magic has died , followed by the scalding suspicion that it is only a matter of time, to quote one Hamlet, that

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-1080715865856764552004-03-31T14:11:00.000+08:002004-04-01T08:44:43.826+08:00

It seems that by general consensus and a few opinionated journalists, although life in the 21st century is measurably and quantifiably better than 30 years ago people are more miserable than ever. Jason Hahn, who writes for 8 days (for what it's worth the opinion pieces in the TV and trends magazine are sometimes quite illuminating!), has this to say: " I don't know about you, but I'm very

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6701450.post-1080711788165850452004-03-31T13:58:00.000+08:002004-04-01T08:43:56.280+08:00

Just one more day. One more day to the 1st anniversary of the moment Mr. Formerly Traffic Policemen Now Officer Driving License hands over a sheet of white paper to a tremulous Brainjuice, half afraid of a bad April Fool's joke ("You passed... just kidding!"). A quick check over the white piece of paper speckled with many little squares and circles on them confirmed her joy - it said "Passed" on

Brainjuicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08387729913277516269noreply@blogger.com0