rant rant rant...

I'm just rambling, so forgive me if this post seems all over the place.

First things first: I confirm must buy new laptop liao!

Was trying to upload Dan Brown's Digital Fortress ebook into my PDA. However, I didn't know that syncing my PDA with my laptop requires the "TCP/IP network transport" which is "not installed" on my laptop! In other words, my laptop cannot:
1. surf the net
2. log onto MSN
3. sync PDA with laptop (new!)

All that my laptop can do now is:
1. document-processing
2. document-accessing
3. printing.

Wanted to ask Dean if I can enjoy special rate if I choose to buy the IBM thinkpad. Been wanting to email him and ask, but I keep forgetting everytime I go online. Shall email him right after I post this blog.

Speaking of forgetting, I forgot to claim last Monday's MC through Pac@Gov... again! Must remember to do it on Wednesday! Skali I can't get my $10... :(

Thank God for the Deepavali and Hari Raya Puasa hols that are coming up, which means the O and A level candidates have a super long break till Friday! (and I have no invigilation! :) ) However, what's making me depressed is that I've no plans over this long break! It's very sad. I'm sure all my friends have something on during this break, and all I can do is just stay at home, read my books, watch De-Lovely on VCD, probably try some su doku puzzles (which I can't seem to get down to doing at home)... whoa! That actually sounds like a lot of things I could do at home! But not conducive when parents are around, as they will go on rambling about how I'm wasting my life away. Have thought of going out on my own, maybe to read a book, scout for a laptop or catch a movie (oliver twist is out, and it's $1 off for teachers and students at shaw cinemas!!!) But if I do, mumsie would probably think I'm crazy.

Driving's s**t today. Dunno what's happening to me. Sent dadsie to the polyclinic early this morning, and while leaving the polyclinic, kena horned by this stoo-pid P-plate-driver nissan sunny while I was going into the main road! Horn for what? I didn't cut into your lane, what! I'm very sensitive to people horning at me, cuz I hardly get horned at, and I hardly horn at people. And while driving home from school, on the PIE filtering into the centre lane, this motorbike suddenly appeared on my rearview mirror close up. Where did that bugger come from?!?!? I checked my blind spot ma, and I didn't see him! Des, Des, Des, must be more careful on the road, understand?!?!?!

OK... so much for rambling and feeling bored and sorry for myself. Time to really get a life!

updating my blog...

yes, i've received feedback that it's been a while since i've updated my blog. which is true. (and a revelation that people actually DO read my blog... eh heh heh...) but nothing eventful has been happening to my sad, boring life... till today, that is... eh heh heh...

actually, nothing much happened today too. had saturday morning duty in school. was ok. entertained myself on MSN, checking mail, doing up the worship songs and ppt slides for Jenny's wedding. waited for a student's mum to come, and she only did just past 1pm, when school is supposed to be closed... *sigh* that's part of the calling of a teacher, i guess... :(

went for the 1st alumni choir rehearsal today, after a break of... 5 months? did take 6's rendition of Silent Night, and Morten Lauridsen's O Magnum Mysterium. realised how totally unfit we were! *gah* i was taking breaths all over the place! but it sure felt good hearing such good sounds again!

had a good time catching up with alumni ppl too. went for dinner at beng sim sin at tanglin halt rd. had wanted to adjourn to the cheng tng stall after that, but realised it was closed, so settled for post-dinner at west coast macs. had a good time catching up, and also admiring one another's phones and taking photos with one another's phone camera. (am too tired to upload photos now, tho...)

ok... there! i've finally updated my blog. not that many people read it anyway. but to those who do, PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT... or at least LEAVE A TAG! lemme know my blog's been read! please! your readership determines the life of this blog! thank you!

on MC today

realised i've not been blogging for a while.

am on MC today - my 3rd MC this year. woke up this morning feeling nauseous and giddy. which led my mother to think i was pregnant. (duh!) doctor said it may be due to low blood pressure. of course coupled with not enough sleep and a bad diet i had last week - really junk food all the way since last thurs!

was glad i took MC today. wasn't really looking forward to what was happening in school. Learning Trail for the P6ers ain't too bad, but it was what was happening after school - SEM meeting (groan), choir practice (double groan). but part of me was also feeling guilty for not going to school cuz i still have to key in remarks for my class, of which i am about one-third done. dunno when the deadline is too. Thank God for this day of rest. Better make use of it - which means that I shouldn't be on the comp too much.

rest now... till later...

my 50th post!

Yes, www.blogger.com tells me that i've reached my 50th post.

so, to commemorate it, this are words of wisdom from Terence Leong via an MSN conversation:

"you can either be a leader or a micromanager.. take your pick".

hmm... well... nothing great about being either; you either get s**t or more s**t. so I'll just not pick any of the 2 and be a sucker...

:)

hot, and aching all over!

"It's getting hot in here, ..."

(next line censored... :p)

yes, it should be illegal to be this hot! have done nothing physical today, but i'm already sweating all over!!! my whole body is aching from the badminton game yesterday. it's great effort and pain standing up from my seat and getting up from a lying-down position... how to play for the Juying Badminton Championship on wednesday in this state?!?! *sigh*

i've yet to finish marking my math papers. my kids are doing real badly. they all claimed it was difficult, but how much easier can i set?!?!?! but their answers are really atrocious! my MSN nick now says, "Desirée will die a premature death thru marking...!" Really...

Got this word puzzle from charles. anyone game to try this? if you know the answer, leave a comment... :)

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I managed to get it right, but all I got was just a pat from myself on the back... :(

How boyish or girlish am I...?

You Are 50% Boyish and 50% Girlish

You are pretty evenly split down the middle - a total eunuch. Okay, kidding about the eunuch part. But you do get along with both sexes. You reject traditional gender roles. However, you don't actively fight them. You're just you. You don't try to be what people expect you to be.

How Boyish or Girlish Are You?

Today is a suay day for driving...

I'll explain why... patience, ok?

Went down to the car in the morning, preparing to drive to church. Lo and behold, my car is struck with bird droppings! *gah* thankfully i had a wet cloth, but it took me a long while to get all the droppings off! and i didn't have any water with me. so cleaned the most obvious ones, then sped off to church. Remind me never to park next to the wheelchair lot again... never!

Anyway, went to church today, played for service. Was quite ok, tho i thought rehearsal was better. Discovered to my horror that i didn't bring my wallet, i.e. i'm driving without a license. So i zao SG and went home to pick up my wallet. but still met SG for lunch, much to my mum's bewilderment... oh well...

(OK... this one maybe cannot be considered suay - in fact, it should be considered heng that i didn't get caught... :p)

Had lunch at lao3 di4 fang1 - economy rice stall at Holland Drive. Today very suay day for makan too - no sweet and sour pork! :( Upon returning to the car, more bird shit! *sigh* clean again...

Drove to Leng Kee... nothing out of the ordinary.

Met PL, Sufen and KT to play badminton at ACS(I). Now I'm more convinced that badminton's not my game. And jiapaling all my strokes together - from tennis, squash to badminton.... all got mixed up... :( and all PL's frens all so competitive one... all count score kind, when all i wanted was just a friendly game, with just plain strokes and all.. :( oh well... at least it's gearing me up for the Juying Badminton Championships this Wednesday...

Drove to HV for dinner. Couldn't find parking lots at HV itself, as expected, so decided to park at the swimming pool. And there was just one empty lot! Thanking God, I took it. Thought today was Sunday i.e. free parking, so didn't put coupon... More bird shit... more cleaning... :(

Walked back to the car after dinner. Saw this little slip of paper on the windscreen. Didn't look like those adverts I see every morning on my windscreen. Got out of the car to look, and, as though I half-expected it, I had my 1st parking ticket! Dang! My 1st driving offence since I got my license 2 years ago! So anyway, for posterity's sake, I took a photo of the parking ticket...

Thank God no demerit points, but it's still equally depressing. Hmm... is it a sign...? Am really sensing that I will get myself into a traffic accident very soon.... :( or am i just paranoid...?!?!?!

And as if that was not enough, while driving home, this TIBS cab and this nissan march were infront of me. the nissan march was clearly overloaded with passengers at the back. but anyway, both cars were swerving out of their lanes so dangerously - they can't even keep at their own lane! there was an instance they nearly collided with each other! and both parties seem to be oblivious to their reckless driving! wassup with singaporean drivers, man...!!! *grr*

Wanted to wipe out all traces of me getting fined, so that dadsie won't fine out, so I went to the AXS Station opposite my place hoping to clear the fine. But, my fine will only be in the AXS system after 2 working days... :( sigh... total waste of time, can't settle it, can't wipe out any trace... :( So i went home and told dadsie about it, and of course he scolded me... :(

Logged onto MSN, and started to bitch to everyone I saw online. It helped that I put a very depressing nick, so everyone was like wondering what happened. Thanks to all you guys who heard my sad sad story and comforted me... :) Yes, I know i'm attention seeking, so all the more thank you for entertaining and humouring me... :) too depressed to mark today. will continue in school tomorrow.

Must remember to pay fine.. must remember to pay fine... must remember to pay fine...

COE prices have fallen... again!!!

Yes, you've read it. As of yesterday, COE prices for Cat A are now at $11,991, and Cat B at $11,002. Very low! And now all my colleagues are saying that the best time to get a car is now. As for me, I still think COE prices will continue falling. Just wait till after CNY next year. But for now, am looking forward to reading Saturday's Classifieds to see the new list price for cars...

Had a real good time yesterday. KOK was alright. Terry and I met earlier to sing first; PL, Eunice and Joy joined us later. For once, we don't have the problem of "oh! we're running out of time! let's just do one verse and chorus". In fact, many a times, it was, "eh, we got no more songs already. can someone pls put a song in?". Think it's cuz there're too few ppl, and the ppl combi not right. Really wish that we can have an purely SG3 KOK sometime soon...

Worship prac was excellent! For the first time in a long while, I really felt good after worship prac! Everything just clicked! Of course it helped that there were many experienced musicians in the band this time - ppl like Charles, Paul and Neil. We even could manage to jam some pop stuff...! Cool! Should get Elaine to put us as a fixed band, man! I really enjoyed playing bass with this band. And for once, I'm "at one" with the church bass! It responds and sounds the way I want it to, without me having to adjust anything! Really felt good - felt musically refreshed. It would be better if I felt spiritually refreshed too... Let's hope all things go well on Sunday...

We saw a rostrum surrounded by potted flowers at the foyer of ACS(I) after rehearsal. True to form, the theatre-studies-student Allan naturally took his place at the rostrum and started waving ala some big shot. This is what I call practical application. Neil and Charles, who so happened to be beside Allan, had to be his "bodyguards". This really called for a photo moment. A shot of this cute role-play, courtesy of my K750i:


(from left: Neil, Allan, Charles)

Well, Neil sure looked the cut for a bodyguard, while Charles looked... erm... a bit... dazed? Eh, get into character, leh! :p

Treo 700!

On Digital Life today, they announced the launch (and sellout) of the new Treo 700, the PDA-phone which operates on Windows Mobile! Now we're talking. Have been eyeing on the Treo 650 for a long time. Am really attracted to it cuz of the built-in QWERTY keyboard which makes SMSing a breeze. But am resistant on changing to the Palm interface, after having used Pocket PC for such a long time. But now that there's a Treo using the Pocket PC interface, ...!

Am eyeing on it... Hope it does come to Singapore. It can take its time, since I just upgraded my phone. Hopefully they'll accept trade-in of phone and PDA together...

Must start saving $$$...!!!

Thank God for exams!

Really!

Now, before I get flamed, let me clarify that when I said the above title, I meant the invigilating part, not taking the exam! Seriously, never felt so free since this year. It felt very good! I had all the time in the world to clear my admin stuff! Now that my table's neater thanks to Jenny, I've more motivation to do work. Let's see... what did I do...? I keyed in my CA2 marks, did the staff climate survey which I will b***h about later, edited the chords for tmr's worship prac, all this on top of being approached by colleagues at my table, chatting on MSN, answering and composing the tons of SMSes re: tmr's series of events... It's considered very productive already!

Yes, time to b***h about the staff climate survey.

MOE has gotten this 3rd-party company Forbes to come up with the biennial staff climate survey, which must be done by all teachers in the school. There are like about 100+ questions in all. The 1st 50+ questions are alright, with very straightforward statements which require agree/disagree answers on a scale of 1-6, with 7 being "not applicable". What I found most ridiculous was the 2nd page of the survey, when they asked qns like how many hours we have contact with our students in class, how many hours we spent planning our lessons, preparing tests and worksheets, setting exam papers, invigilating, how many hours we spent planning school activities, CCAs, etc. etc. etc. C'mon! What do they expect? That we document down everything we do in a day?!?!?!?! Like, "4 Oct 2005, 1pm-1.30pm: Answer staff climate survey"...?!?!?!?! How do they expect us to remember what we've done in one year and how much time we spent on?!?!?!?! So I just anyhow gave a figure. Let them question why I'm so busy/slack. Whatever way it is, it will reflect badly on the school, won't it...?!?! And the worse part is, after fabricating a figure, we're supposed to add up the total number of hours as what is reflected above! Gotta waste time doing elementary math too! Goodness! It's really insulting our intelligence as teachers! Might as well include qns like, "Number of hours spent on surveys, etc." At least the half an hour I spent will be of use here.

Anyway, am really looking forward to tomorrow - going for afternoon KOK, then church worship prac at night. Let's hope all goes well tomorrow. Still gotta continue keying in marks, mark my CME projects, etc... Work is neverending.