The Rants of the F.B.I.

Laaate shipment.... better late than never.

2012-02-12T23:34:00.000+08:00

Finally, my Amazon shipment has come in.... Bad package... but I got refunded the shipping fee. So all's good. And Skyrim too. YAAY!! Listening to it now. Fav track so far is Sovngarde.

Master and Slave

2012-02-10T19:28:00.001+08:00

Students and Teachers continuously swap roles in the Master & Slave analogy.
Teachers got to be comfortable being both.
Students got to know when they are the slaves and learn to be confident when they are in the Master's role.

Time Value of Money

2012-02-09T23:02:00.002+08:00

Time Value of Money:

Students: I pay school fees. The more time I spend in school and in doing my work, the more value my money has. YAY!!!

Staff: I am paid with school fees. The more time I spend in school and in doing my work, the less value my money has. BOO!!!

Staff Epilogue: But we still love you, Students. AWWW!!!!

Nothing to post??

2012-02-05T20:20:00.002+08:00

Yeah... just doing my laundry now.... dum dum dum... I don't know what to post.... been gaming. Might be able to complete the story of Enslaved today. I hope I can... Also got a new digital comic book, The Eternals, by Neil Gaiman. So far my pet peeve about that is that its yet another "beginning story". Sure, the main characters are supposedly immortal and have been around for maybe a million years... but the way the main protagonist is brought into being an eternal is just like any other "beginning story".

I kinda miss a story that does not involve the characters becoming what the story is about from scratch. Why can't they already be? Like TinTin... I might just go continue reading that one... at least from the get-go he is already a famous reporter... there's no story on how he becomes one. There's just... the story.

Ok... back to folding clothes.... got 2 loads to do tonight.

Ice Cream....

2012-02-01T19:39:00.001+08:00

I got a lot I want to tell you... But I'm going to go for some ice cream first. hahahahahaha

CCA Day

2012-01-27T23:37:00.000+08:00

Its a big day... Not a big week but with a damn big ending.... 15 hours at work today... I'm pooped... but in a way, mentally hyped. Got to keep my energy up for tmr. More worried for the Scouts than for the PA. But pur PA booth may be bigger than expected which would then eat into the Scouts even further... Hmmmmmm......

The plasticine ball analogy...

2012-01-26T18:33:00.001+08:00

A child is like a little ball of plasticine we teachers get to play with. Everyday, this plasticine ball gets bigger and bigger. Nothing we can do to stop that growth.

But we can do something about moulding and shaping this little plasticine ball.

So, teacher, adult, parent, whoever you may be..... What are you going to do with your little plasticine ball?

Getting rid of stuff.... Donating.

2012-01-25T00:15:00.001+08:00

Finally moving along with putting WPM behind me...

Re-packed the last of the Bundle to the Jungle kits, all 10 of them. 6 Beginners, 2 Intermediates and 2 advanced... Didn't have enough for some of the stuff, as in what I'd plan to put it, probably used it along the way in scouts or what... anyhoo.... All the bags are identical to each other at least, and their contents.

Gonna give them away to St. Andrew's UG boys on FAS, pending what the teachers say... Also gonna give away 2 boxes of the DVDs... let every UG member have one....

ah well, just needed to clear space at home.... Quite glad I get to do something useful with it, in some sense... the spending is too far behind me but if I do look back, I'm giving away like $3,000 worth of stuff.

On another note, i finally finished the Skyrim Main Quests today. Quite climatic, but there's nothing to it at the end... just back into the game world as if nothing happened. Wasn't too hard. Looking forward to working towards platinum. I hope the hanging thing doesn't cause me problems. Also, completed the main storyline in Modern Warfare 3 yesterday... And watched 2 movies.. Its been a good holiday for my entertainment catch up I think. haha

Childhoods and Educations

2012-01-21T23:22:00.001+08:00

If not for Childhood, there would not be teachers.

Don't take away a child's time for fun and learning by forcing him through school just for the sake of getting good grades.

Academic failure is NOT a negative benchmark of success.

Back to Square 1

2012-01-20T23:43:00.000+08:00

Single and certainly available again.

School's going ok..... People are still fun. Had the chance to conduct a full class lesson. I think I did ok in terms of getting the class engaged... I think perhaps they can move faster. But its a delicate balance of keeping their interest by letting them ask and answer questions and moving the subject along by covering topics. very delicate.

Pretty much the same with scouts.... I think, whether I like this job or not will depend a lot on my approval rating from the students and staff.

hahahaha.. I am so vain. oh well. That's who I am.

Chinese New Year Taxis

2012-01-20T23:37:00.001+08:00

Manjans manjans everywhere.

When you want a taxi they're not there.

Educating the young

2012-01-16T21:58:00.001+08:00

Educating the young is a massive undertaking in balancing giving (them their freedom to make mistakes), taking (time away from them for disciplinary issues and lessons to be taught), and allowing some things to happen even when you know the outcome and have an instinct to intervene.

First Meet

2012-01-16T01:55:00.000+08:00

So... met the father, older brother and brother in law of a girl today.... might might not work out, see how it goes.... don't think I have much else to say at this point.

Not too bad... should be meeting the rest of the family next week. pics of the girl look good. haha

Silent Heroes

2012-01-10T23:03:00.001+08:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16467852

What caught my eye is "Cheetah the chimp appeared with Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan in Tarzan films from 1932-34 - he died last month at the age of 80."

Wow... 80 year old actor Chimp. Way to go animal kingdom!!

Unreliable

2012-01-10T18:32:00.002+08:00

Ahh.... finally hit the first wall of this maze called Office Politics.

Time to navigate.

My thanks to all of you who've been with me this far, but the rest of the journey I must undertake alone. There is no end, there is no exit. I'll die at it, or I'll be good at it. Or it'll take the mickey out of me, in which case...

Love you guys. Muack!!

Quiet week....

2012-01-08T23:50:00.001+08:00

Bah.. just had to say something.

In the midst of a laundry night... Killed my first Mammoth, Troll and Giant today in Skyrim. Bloody things are ridiculously hard to kill.... then again, I was only at level 4 and 5 when I attacked them. Cheated my way by hiding in a house and attacking from there. HAHAHA

Well, going to go back to Skyrim now.

War Horse

2012-01-05T01:42:00.000+08:00

Pretty good movie... More emotional than action orientated. Typical Steven Spielberg.... And I cried.. well, teared near the end.... hardly do that with movies these days. It was really good lah...

Big day tomorrow... i mean in a while.

2012-01-03T02:34:00.000+08:00

So... I still haven't decided what daily thing I want to do with my blog... but I've got a big day tmr... First day of school....

The schedule's gonna be hectic... I still haven't got my head around it.. my plan is to just see where I need to be at any given time. mostly it'll be PA duties since there're no lessons tmr.

Its going to be a sight. Hope it all goes well for everyone.

2012

2012-01-01T13:23:00.005+08:00

Maybe the world will end this year.... quite hoping it would. Exciting.

Anyway, happy new year my dear blog.... I'm still deciding what daily routine I want to do to you, like the Word of the Day thing we did last year....

Otherwise, well, 2 more days of a small break before heading back to work.

End of an "era"

2011-12-31T00:32:00.000+08:00

So.... That's the end of this Word of the Day thing:

Forgotten English words from a calendar I got for Christmas 2010. One word for every weekday, and one word for the weekend in 2011.
Guess that's it... 300+++ entries into my blog dedicated to this.. some have been mixed into my personal thingys....

and poof!

Old woman's luck

2011-12-31T00:30:00.000+08:00

Having the wind in one's face both going and returning; Oxfordshire. - Joseph Wright's English Dialect Dictionary, 1898-1905

Tachydidaxy

2011-12-30T00:30:00.000+08:00

A short method of teaching. - Joseph Worcester's Dictionary of the English Language, 1881

Giglet

2011-12-29T00:30:00.000+08:00

A merry, light-hearted, playful, romping girl; a giddy, silly, thoughtless girl; a wanton, a strumpet. Hence, gigleting, laughing in a foolish manner; trifling behaviour. - Joseph Wright's English Dialect Dictionary, 1898-1905

Giglot, a female laughing or playing wantonly. - Walter Skeat's Specimens of English Dialects, Westmoreland, 1879

"Away with those giglets too, and with the other confederate companion." - William Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, 1604

Fighting with support.

2011-12-28T18:35:00.001+08:00

oing to war with God on your side is like driving through Serangoon Road on a Sunday at high speed with alcohol in your body.

What in this god damn world makes you think you can have it all so that someone else will suffer for you?!?!?!

Bulkateer

2011-12-28T00:30:00.000+08:00

A person who judges by the bulk or size, and overlooks the real merit. - Maurice Weseen's Dictionary of American Slang, 1934

Climacteric

2011-12-27T22:20:00.001+08:00

By the climacteric system, seven years was declared to be the termination of childhood; fourteen the term of puberty; twenty-one of adult age; thirty five, or five times seven, as the height of physical and bodily strength. At forty-nine the person was said to have reached the height of his mental strength or intellectual powers; at sixty-three, or nine times seven, he was said to have reached the grand climacteric. - T. Ellwood Zell's Popular Encyclopedia of Knowledge and Language, 1871

Pants without a belt.

2011-12-27T03:35:00.000+08:00

There's no need to keep holding my pants up without a belt when there's no one to keep holding it up for.

Pretty much the same with everything else yeah?

Nothing Interesting....

2011-12-27T03:25:00.003+08:00

I kinda wish I prioritised more time to just share my thoughts here....
All I've been posting, mostly, recently is just the Word of the Day crap... and that's coming to an end in a few days... I can't believe I've been doing it for a whole year...

Perhaps I'll find something else to post again daily for 2012.... But right now... well, I got a new toy, a PS Vita... Hardware's cool.. software is still coming up and ready to be exploited I guess... I have started playing Skyrim finally, but now I got another PS3 game to complete and Uncharted on the PSV... Plus a new Tintin book to read and to finish Endless Nights of the Sandman series so I can start on Death....

It seems I have so much I want to do that I have not even started what I need to do, which is the video for school... And that was due last thursday, deadline extended till Wednesday... Which means I really got to go and sleep now so I can be awake tmr to do the thing.... But I think I'll either listen to some music now, to sleep, maybe read a little of something, or just catch up on the news... something simple you know.... a little bit of happy time before waking up to reality and needing to get a whole bunch of work done.

Bah... I love you my dear blog... Just a little rant and I already feel just that little bit better. Thanks for keeping me company.

Dwale

2011-12-26T00:30:00.000+08:00

Error, delusion; deceit; heretic, deceiver [c. 900-1300; related to] Old English dwela, dweola, and dwala, error, heresy, madness. Dwal-kenned, heretical. - Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1897

Pig-cheer

2011-12-24T01:06:00.003+08:00

The word is used in Yorkshire, and applied especially to dishes made from the viscera of the pig. Christmas was formerly, as now, the principal season of pig-cheer. - T. Lewis Davie's Supplementary English Glossary, 1881

Davered

2011-12-23T00:30:00.000+08:00

Wandering in mind; silly, senseless. Davering, riding or walking in a dazed condition. Scotland, Northern England. - Joseph Wright's English Dialect Dictionary, 1898-1905

Thy heart is like the daver'd rose. - Edward Capern's Poems, 1864

Daverdly, Dowdy, unkempt. - Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1893

Kissing-bunch

2011-12-22T01:12:00.002+08:00

A bush of evergreens sometimes substituted for mistletoe at Christmas. - Thomas Wright's Dictionary of Obsolete and Provincial English, 1857

The old "kissing bunch" is still hng in some of the old-fashioned cottage houses of Derbyshire and Cornwall - two wooden hoops, one passing through the other, decked with evergreen, in the centre of which is hung a "crown" of rosy apples and sprig of mistletoe. This is hung from the central beam of the living-room, and underneath it is much kissing and romping. Later on, the carol-singers stand beneath it and sing God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen. - Peter Ditchfield's Old English Customs, 1901

Bristol man's gift

2011-12-21T00:30:00.000+08:00

A present of something which the giver pronounces to be of no use or of no value to himself. - Henry Reddall's Fact, Fancy, and Fable, 1889

Gry, anything of little value, as the parings of the nails. - Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language, 1755

Indignagger

2011-12-20T00:30:00.000+08:00

To argue with a master. - Morris Marple's University Slang, 1950

Vita Vita Gooood Gooood

2011-12-19T05:31:00.002+08:00

HAHA, so far reviews of Vita sales look good on Day 2 of its launch in Japan...

I hope it does go well... I'm getting one as soon as my game shop in Junction 8 have a local version myself.

Yeah... really hoping it all goes well. Kinda want Sony and the Playstation brand to do well coz its given me hours of entertainment and company.

I can't wait to get a hold of the hardware too... But I know the PSVita2 or second gen of the machine is going to have even better hardware... but if I waited for "even better hardware", I'll never get anything.

Vernissage

2011-12-19T00:30:00.000+08:00

A day before the exhibition of paintings on which exhibitors may retouch and varnish their pictures already hung. A private view of paintings before public exhibition. [From the French word vernis, varnish.] - Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1928

Varnishing-day, a day before the opening of a picture exhibition, on which exhibitors have the privilege of retouching their pictures on the walls. - William Whitney's Century Dictionary, 1889

Weeeeeek gone...

2011-12-17T15:58:00.003+08:00

Wah lau.... living alone (with a cat) is relatively boring but somewhat pleasant at the same time....

Dishes are done... laundry is ahead of shedule... Coffee table is neat... just need to get around to cleaning up the kitchen and I think I can more or less sustain this kind of lifestyle....

Still damn sad there's no one to share it with.... But I've got plenty of boring things to do like complete my Assassin's Creed and watch the dozen or so movies that are waiting to be watched...

Ah well...

Bastard-scurvey

2011-12-17T15:56:00.000+08:00

A kind of leprosy. - John Brand's Brief Description of Orkney, Zetland, Pightland-Firth and Caithness, 1883

Tutting

2011-12-16T00:30:00.000+08:00

A landlady who wished to have a tutting gave notice of her intention to all her female acquaintances, whether married or single. At the hour specified, the visitors were regaled with tea but on the removal of that, the table was replenished with a bowl and flasses and exhilarated with potent punch, when each guest became a new creature. At this time the husbands and sweethearts arrived, paid their half guinea each for the treatment of themsevles and partners, joined the revelry, and partook of the amusements. This custom, which was confined to the lower orders, is now very properly almost abandoned. - J.E. Brogden's Provincial Lincolnshire Words and Expressions, 1866

Animadversion

2011-12-15T00:30:00.000+08:00

Serious consideration or observa[ation]. - Nathaniel Bailey's Etymological English Dictionary, 1749

A taking notice of a fault with some degree of anger, serverity, or dispatch. - Daniel Fenning's Royal English Dictionary, 1775

An observation made upon a book after duly examining into the merits of it. - Thomas Dyche's New General English Dictionary, 1740

Reproof; severe censure. - John Walker's Critical Pronouncing Dictionary, 1835

Walkist

2011-12-14T16:20:00.004+08:00

One who participates in a walking match. - William Craigie's Dictionary of American English, 1940

As soon as the door is once opened to such abominations . . . a whole host of similiar terms should rush in and try to make a lodgement. Hence no sooner had men's ears become somewhat accustomed to hear a pedestrian called a walkist, than the man whose rifle brought down the largest amount of game became known as a famous shootist. - M. Schele de Vere's Americanisms: The English of the New World, 1872

Outherod

2011-12-13T00:30:00.000+08:00

To excel or exceed in bombast, magniloquence, or violence. From the characteer of Herod who, in the old miracle plays, was always represented as arrogant. - Edward Lloyd's Encyclopaedic Dictionary, 1895

Higgler

2011-12-12T15:22:00.001+08:00

One who sells provisions form door to door; one who buys fowls, butter, eggs, &c. in the country and brings them to town to sell. [From] higgle, to beat down the price of a thing in a bargain; to sell provisions from door to door. Hence higgledy-piggledy, corrupted from higgle, higglers carrying a confused medley of provisions; in a disorderly manner. - Daniel Fenning's Royal English Dictionary, 1775

Fidicinales

2011-12-10T18:01:00.001+08:00

With anatomists, the muscles of the fingers called lumbricales, from the use they are put to by musicians in playing some instruments. - Nathaniel Bailey's Etymological English Dictionary, 1749

From fidicen, a harper. - Richard Hoblyn's Medical Dictionary, 1859

Fidicinal, of or pertaining to a player on stringed instruments. - Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1901

So drama

2011-12-09T13:10:00.001+08:00

Woke up earlier at about 8am put a load to wash and went back to bed... just woke up a few mins ago...

i had such a detailed elaborate and really sad dream....

was living with the girl i love and her family... things not going well, socially around the community.... did something with the girl i knew would get me into trouble.... real trouble with the authority... some kind of king or lord or steward or something like that... was quite funny... we sneaked out of the house through the floor boards, took a train, was almost caught by this fat train driver, looks like the station guard in the first harry potter movie, but with a decidedly less friendly face... blue overcoat, cap, chain, whistle and all... anyway, we escaped, me and the girl, but getting into a train on one platform, walking through the train to the other end, was only 3 carriages long, like the circle line trains, but it was an open air station.... backyard, industrial kind of slump of a place... but the station was decent enough...

anyway, walked through the train and got off at the next station crossed over and got back on the original platform and went about our trip... by this stage we had already done the deed, though i don't specifically remembering this part. i know we insulted the king / steward / lord etc... not maliciously, but just stated what he really is... guess it was an insult... you'll see why later nearer the end of my dream....

finally we went back home, and climbed back into the house from the basement through the floorboards... i remember walking up the stairs, towards her room, but did not go in...i think i just told her I had a a good time spent with her.... before i got to my own room, someone came knocking on the door.... yep... "all king's men".. come looking for me and my girl.... so i went down, with her dad... at first i was cordially invited into dialogue with the boss.... so i was like, ok, perhaps i'm not in such deep trouble after all, so i said yes... and i walked out... but before I walked through the door i saw two guys standing just behind the door and i became suspicious and changed my mind.... while being convinced to continue, folks from my girl's family came to my rescue and talked to the guards. but the guards then basically got to the point and said i was gonna be executed for my insolense... essentially... i remember panicking at this stage... like WTF.... (i still don't know what exactly I did wrong other than insult the fellow).... anyway, one of the guards, the main guy seemed to just be following orders and was in cahoots with my girl's father... so he didn't insist on dragging her out of house to hang her as well, as long as he just got me....

well, what happened was the father grabbed some orangey liquid, squirted some into his own eyes and started screaming in pain... in the confusion i ran back to the house, climbed into the space under the stairs and down through the floorboards and out onto the backstreet and into the next house...

then someone came bashing in, pretty sure i was dead at this point, but it turned out to be a guy relative of the girl and he grabbed me and tried to hide me in the bathroom or attic or something, and the soldiers came storming in, though there seems to be a bigger problem going on for them, some kind of civil unrest, anyway, the streets become rather chaotic... but this one soldier in the house starts yelling at the guy friend, must be something along the lines about getting out coz then there was silence.... so i tentatively went out and was on the ground floor when another soldier comes barging in the now blown out front door... as he walks in through the dust and smoke i remember hiding behind a sofa... those wooden kinds with see through legs. then he gets on the floor and looks around and see me... and just as he's about to call out and shoot me, i remember seeing him fumbling with his gun, guess its hard to swing a rifle around you while you're on the floor, my guy friend comes in again and shoots or stabs him, don'tknow which, darkish, dusty, but i saw his eyes pop out and blood spurt out his mouth... then my guy friend comes along, pulls me to a corner of the 1st floor and we start hacking up the floor boards to get into the basement / space below the house... eventually we break up a space big enough and get down into the basement to wait while the commotion on the streets died down....

eventually, i guess, i went back to the original house, my girl's house and find her crying in wait... after all the huggy and smacks, she said that what we did was such a stupid thing to do and that i shhouldn't have agreed to go along... and i replied that i knew the risks but i didn't do it to insult the king coz i hated him or what, i did what i did for her... more crying blah blah.... and then her bro, some kind of modern day alchemist, with goggles around his eyes and conical flasks with a clear liquid in his hand, asks if we're together, and we just look at him and he just says he approves...

and then I woke up.

detailed dream... so detailed......... i wish i was kept in it actually...

Lime-juicers

2011-12-09T00:30:00.000+08:00

A nickname current among seafaring men for the sailors of the British merchant marines. [Now limey.] - Henry Reddall's Fact, Fancy, and Fable, 1889

Commorant

2011-12-08T18:05:00.001+08:00

Abiding, dwelling, resident. Of water, standing, not running away. Adapted from Latin commorantem, to tarry, abide. - Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1893

Dog-Latin

2011-12-07T00:43:00.001+08:00

Barbarous Latin, such as was formerly used by lawyers in their pleadings. Now applied to "medical Latin." - John Hotten's Slang Dictionary, 1887

Also kitchen-, bog-, garden-, or apothecaries'-Latin. - John Farmer's Slang and Its Analogues, 1905

Parvati Patil

2011-12-07T00:40:00.001+08:00

Playing LHP5-7 now... nearing completion to 100%.... anyway, free playing one of the levels and have chosen to do it with Parvati Patil.... Its giving me the tingles. the actress was a rather pretty girl no? HAHA, okok... can't say the lego version looks much different than the other lego girls, but I am still getting all the tingly just thinking about her. heh heh heh...

Eh, don't get me wrong ah... its not about the sex... she seems a nice enough girl though....

Love Mutton...

2011-12-07T00:38:00.001+08:00

Love, Mutton, Chicken and Wish. How I want to see what's your dish. Give't to me now or give it to be then, but make sure what you give me is not a Fish!

Dildrums

2011-12-06T00:30:00.000+08:00

Childhood nonsense. "To tell Doldrums," to talk wildly. - Walter Skeat's Specimens of English Dialects, Westmoreland, 1879

Dildrams, strange tales; especially in the phrase to tell dildrams. Lancashire. - Joseph Wright's English Dialect Dictionary, 1898-1905

Necrologist

2011-12-05T12:54:00.001+08:00

One who gives an account of deaths. - Noah Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828

Maturescent

2011-12-03T21:28:00.001+08:00

Waxing ripe. - Nathaniel Bailey's Etymological English Dictionary, 1727

Approaching maturity. From Latin maturesco, to become ripe. - Daniel Lyon's American Dictionary of the English Language, 1897

Mrs Priscilla Krempl... from me, on behalf of us AEDs.

2011-12-02T01:28:00.001+08:00

My dear fellows,

We come here together not to mourn.... but to celebrate...to celebrate the life of my friend, our mentor who's calling back to the Creator comes as a shock to all of us.

We grieve, not for the life lost, but for the many lives left unchanged by her absence.

I... WE, as trainees in NIE had the absolute priveledge of experiencing her in her final days. I speak on behalf of all my classmates... no, I speak on behalf of all my brothers and sisters in Education that were touched by our dearly departed. Allow me a moment to compose my thoughts and elaborate a little. Please do not be saddened.

It is with great joy I share with you that without her humour, vigour, candor, love and compassion for her calling as our teacher and mentor, many of us would not become the backbone of the education system we have today, nor would we have developed and cemented our passion for it.

Mrs Krempl, Priscilla to some, became our friend in the short few days we had the joy of being her students. Her devotion to her job, and us, truly made a difference in our attitudes to what we do. We saw in her an examplary example of what we were to emulate. In doing so, because it may go unmentioned, I want to make it loud and clear:

Her passing does not go in vain simply because she loved us so much, that we too, newly minted Educators, want to, and I truly mean it... with all sincerity, pass on the joys of learning onto our youths. The changes, so good and so pure, from her heart, that she made in us will now have the chance to be passed onto our students of our own. I cannot see anything but Good from this snowball effect. And that is what we want to Celebrate, my dear fellows.

50 years from now, some child is going to grow up with the same values, or compassion, love, devotion and dedication that our dearly departed passed onto us this last few weeks, the last few weeks of her life.

God may have a higher purpose for her now, but He too, saw her value in her life that he gave her the opportunity to pass on her character before being called back. And she took it. If I had to swear, I'll swear, on behalf of all of us Educators, that we will not waste her efforts. If I had to swear it, I'll swear that with our hardest work and deepests efforts, we will carry on changing lives as she changed ours.

Some of you may have known, maybe not, I had the opportunity to have had my life changed, 180 degrees, solely based on my friend, Mrs Krempl's believe in me, during my darkest days while I was a student and she my Principal. Most principals don't get into the detailed affairs of their students, preferring to leave it to their 'teachers' and 'school counsellors'. But Mrs Krempl came down from her high pedestal, if she ever was on it, and very.... very directly changed me from a basket case into who I am today. If you know me, if you like me, if you see in me good, sincerity, drive, compassion and the willingness to aid others, then let me tell you now that these values I have in me did not come from my family or my friends or from myself. These values, the Who I am today, is who Mrs Krempl made me to be. It is with a sad regret that I am only now putting these into words, 11 years after the deeds.

I can only imagine the many, many other lives she's changed for the better over these years and beyond, and I celebrate each of these change as I do her own, now, at the very end.

While I cannot speak much for my Scouts, or for St. Andrew's School, not because I did not share these aspects of my life with her, but because I was just a small piece of the greater whole of which she had an effect on.

So, my dear fellows... Let me remind you, we may mourn and grieve our dearly departed, but let us not forget that we will see her impact forever more. These memories which we will cherish forever may be all that is left of her now, in our world, but it is these very memories that keep her spirit alive and continues to guide and inspire us.

I ask you now, to take a moment to cement these memories into our hearts. Let us carry on what she has done so that we too may live a Good and Blessed life with all due care for our fellow man and for the children, that we now have to care for, without the continued guidance of our friend, Priscilla.

Wedge-floating

2011-12-02T00:30:00.000+08:00

Concentrated, strong. There is an old saying that camp cooks test coffee by dropping an iron wedge into the pot. If the wedge floats, the coffee is too strong. Ozarks. - Vance Randolph's Down in the Holler, 1953

Fause-house

2011-12-01T00:30:00.000+08:00

A vacancy in a stack for preserving corns. - John Jamieson's Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language, 1808

A hollow made in a corn-stack, with an opening on the side most exposed to the wind, for the purpose of drying the corn. Scottish form of false and house. - Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1901

When the corn is in a doubtful state by being too green or wet, the stackbuilder by means of old timber, makes a large apartment in his stack with an opening in the side which is fairest exposed to the wind; this he calls a fause-house. - Robert Burn's Halloween Note, c. 1820

Allworks

2011-11-30T00:30:00.000+08:00

A man-servant employ'd by a farmer in all sorts of work he has occasion to set him about . . . He is the lowest servant in the house and is not hired for the the plough or the waggon particularly, but to be set about anything. - Samuel Pegge's Alphabet of Kenticisms, 1735 - 1736

End of the road.

2011-11-29T18:29:00.001+08:00

The end of the road doesn't always end in a brick wall.

Callipygian

2011-11-29T00:30:00.000+08:00

Of, pertaining to, or having well-shaped or finely developed buttocks. The name of a famous statue of Venus. From Greek kallos, beauty, and pyg, buttocks. - Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1893

HAHA, a cute ass? Nice ass? Beautiful butt.... ahh.... the loins tingle.

Bedfellow

2011-11-28T00:34:00.001+08:00

such a looooong explanation lah... basket.

The simplicity of ancient manners made it common for men, even of the highest rank, to sleep together; and the term bedfellow implied great intimacy. Lord Scroop is said to have been bedfellow to Henry V [as found in Shakespeare's Henry V]:

Nay, but the man was his bedfellow,
Whom he hath cloy'd and grac'd with kingly favours.

After the battle of Dreux, in 1562, the prince of Conde slept in the same bed with the duke of Guise, an anecdote frequently cited to show the magnanimity of the latter, who slept soundly, though so near his greatest enemy, then his prisoner. Letters from noblemen to each other often began with the appellation bedfellow. - Robert Nares's Glossary [of] the Works of English Authors, 1859

This unseemly custom continued common till the middle of the last century. - Rev. T. F. Thiselton-Dyer's Folk-Lore of Shakespeare, 1884

[Before he became president in 1860, Abraham Lincoln was known to have often slept with his best friend, Joshua Speed, while the two were travelling.]

Doggerybaw

2011-11-26T01:45:00.001+08:00

Nonsense. - Jabez Good's Glossary of East Lincolnshire, 1900

Drum-roll payment

2011-11-25T00:30:00.000+08:00

Not to pay at all. No soldier can be arrested for debt when on the march. - Ebenezer Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1898

Condiddle

2011-11-24T00:30:00.000+08:00

To convey away secretly. - Walter Skeat's Specimens of English Dialects, Westmoreland, 1879

Condiddle my heart away please....

2011-11-23T19:37:00.001+08:00

Why won't someone condiddle my heart away?? Am I to be stoic, cynical and generally a lonely asshole for the rest of my life?

perhaps....

oh well.... can't hope to hope, trust trust, wish for wishes, fear fear, hate hate and love love and all that....

Time will pass, and so will I walk through it dwelling on my thoughts... only later when I can see the present in the past might I regret not being by my side during these lonely times....

Shinnicked

2011-11-23T00:30:00.000+08:00

Benumbed, paralysed with the cold, especially when accompanied by contraction of the muscles and violent shivering. - G.M. Story's Dictionary of Newfoundland English, 1982

Wive

2011-11-22T00:30:00.000+08:00

To marry. This word is not quite obsolete. Wive and thrive is a common colloquialism. "Her, whom the first man did wive." - Charles Mackay's Lost Beauties of the English Language, 1874

And this is probably the base word for wife.

Goliardery

2011-11-21T01:00:00.000+08:00

A satyrical species of writing very current among churchmen and others in the Middle Ages in which the vices or peculiarities of ecclesiastics are mentioned and reprobated. From Goliardus, a monk who wrote satirical pieces in the ninth century inveighing against the luxury of the clergy. - T. Ellwood Zell's Popular Encyclopedia of Knowledge and Language, 1871

Wonder why "satirical" is spelt two different ways here..... hmmmmm

Platinum!!

2011-11-20T17:41:00.001+08:00

YES!!!! HAHAHA, finally got the platinum for Uncharted 3... the last trophy, Survivor, 75 enemies ina a row without dying was quite hard. really hard.... instead of doing a repeated chapter, as the guide book suggested, i had to do a continuous playthrough.. but i didn't count the number of enemies.. so I can't say for sure which one was the correct way...

BUT YES!!!! Now I'm installing Skyrim.. .although I don't know... I might end up playing Lego Harry Potter years 5-7 first... I can't decide which one to do... I might just install skyrim, see the starting then go to LHP2. See how see how... having a small high now having just conquered Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Airle-penny

2011-11-20T00:30:00.000+08:00

This word is of remote antiquity and refers to an ancient custom of giving arrhae, or presents, from a man to a woman on their entering into a contract to marry. The present was generally an annulus, or ring, and in reference to the sanctity of the engagement the gift was subsequently called a God's pennie. Though in its primary signification it imported a spousal gift, the lapse of time has converted the use of the word to earnest money given to bind any bargain. - William Toone's Etymological Dictionary of Obsolete Words, 1832

Arle, money given in confirmation of a bargain . . . when a servant is hired. - Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1888

Sounds pretty much like a dowry to me...

The way I dress?!?!

2011-11-19T00:08:00.001+08:00

It was suggested to me that... well, rather, it was indicated to me that girls don't like me coz of the way I dress... That it looks like I didn't care, about the way I dress...

The way I dress?!?!?! I don't know if I want to react with a laugh or a sigh...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

or

Haiz....

Guess I really don't care. Well, I know my dress style... (here I go defending my position)... I see myself as an outdoorish rugged looks are not important kind of person.. so I guess that's reflected in my Berms, Pouch, leatherman, waterbottle, Polo T, inner shirt, sports shoes kind of dress when I go out for casual outings...

And When it comes to work, without need for decorum, Same top, polo T, inner shirt, but with long pants, or cargo pants...

And when decorum is considered, like setting an example for my students or attending a special function, my minimum is a short sleeve shirt tucked in, pants, dress shoes or boots and I can go as far up as Suit and Tie, if the occasion calls for it...

The way I dress.... hmmmmm.... I guess its honest feedback...

And just to put it out here, the list also included talking too fast and too much....

I guess these are just reflections of my personality really..... So I can't really say that there's something wrong with me.... But I can choose to, and I do, accept that yeah, sure, people are not going to like me or my personality and there's jack shit I can do about it.

I'm guessing that if I'm being judged on my outlook, or external impression kind of thing than it'd be wrong for me to conform. I'd rather change for someone willing to get into and share my personal space than for someone to stay outside and comment about me...

Isabelline

2011-11-18T00:30:00.000+08:00

A pale brownish-yellow colour; from Isabelle, a princess of this name. - Charles Annandale's Dictionary of the English Language, 1897

The archduke Albertus, who had married the infanta Isabella, daughter of Philip II, King of Spain, . . . determined to lay siege to Ostend [Belgium], then in the possession of the heretics. His pious princess, who attended him in that expedition, made a vow that till it was taken she would never change her clothes. - Joseph Taylor's Antiquitates Curiosae, 1819

Contrary to expectation, it was three years before the place was reduced, in which time the linen of her highness had acquired a hue which . . . was much admired and adopted by the court fashionables under the name of "Isabella color." It is a whitish yellow, or soiled buff - better imagined than described. - Frank Stauffer's The Queer, the Quaint, the Quizzical, 1882

Park the biscuit

2011-11-17T23:38:00.001+08:00

To sit down. In the biscuit, in the buttocks. "[Make one mistake] and you get it in the biscuit." Hot in the biscuit, greatly excited; sexually stimulated. - Hyman Goldin's Dictionary of American Underworld Lingo, 1950

Squeeze the biscuit, to cath the saddlehorn while riding. - Ramon Adam's Western Words: A Dictionary of the Range, Cow Camp, and Trail, 1946

Detrain

2011-11-16T23:13:00.001+08:00

Leave, or cause to leave, a train. [Like deplane. Why not deboat also?] - Gilbert Tucker's American English, 1921

Vinipote

2011-11-15T20:06:00.001+08:00

A wine drinker. - Henry Cockeram's Interpreter of Hard English Words, 1623

A wine-bibber; a drunkard. - Thomas Blount's Glossographia, 1656

YEEESSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-11-15T01:14:00.001+08:00

HAHHAHAHAHA

its 1.14am now... I should be sleeping... but I am.... RIDICULOUSLY ECSTATC!!!

I've just completed uncharted 3 on Crushing. In just 3 days and a few sessions of playing. OH MAN... yes, one of the fights near the end was sooo damn hard... but I got the guide book and it helped... I AM SOOO HAPPY HAAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!

One more play through to get all the medals... and then just a quick mop up for the remaining trophies... But I think I've got the hardest trophies already... oh man.. i am so elated right now... What a challenge it was.... Phew...

But I should be sleeping... tmr's going to be another long day.... bah.

Assassins Creed coming in. and I still got Skyrim to do... hehehe... mmmm... actually i've got some video work needs doing but... oh man.. not now. Now, I am Uncharted 1 2 3 Crushing!!!! completed player.

:D

The Twins

2011-11-14T23:29:00.001+08:00

Fantasy and Reality are like non-identical twins. Knowing one allows you to reference and deal with the other.

Egg-wife-trot

2011-11-14T22:12:00.001+08:00

An easy jog - such a speed as farmer's wives carry their eggs to the market. - William Carr's Dialect of Craven, 1828

Death

2011-11-13T18:10:00.001+08:00

Death is but part of the experience of life.

Chop chop snip snip shaaaave

2011-11-13T14:52:00.001+08:00

I'm just bored, waiting for my turn to get my haircut. So here i am,
just flogging from my phone. Once this is done, i'm going to do some
shopping for snacks for class. Allocated half an hour for that so i
hope this haircut doesn't take too long.

Tailor's mense

2011-11-12T18:44:00.001+08:00

A small portion left by way of good manners. In some parts of the North it is custom for the village tailor to work at his customer's house, and to partake of the hospitality of the family board. On these occasionsthe best far is invariably provided; at least such was the case when I was a boy; and the tailor to shew that he has had enough, generally leaves a little on his plate, which is called tailor's mense . . . [From] mense, decency, propriety of conduct, good manners, kindness, hospitality. - John Brockett's Glossary of North Country Words, 1825

After Uncharted 3

2011-11-12T14:24:00.001+08:00

HARD!!!!! YES!!!! Now... onto Crushing..... Yeesh... the things I torture myself with.

Must admit, the ending for Uncharted 3 is welcomingly easier, relatively, than the ending for Uncharted 2... but the quick way the baddies died is a taad bit dissapointing... and he lost the ring... bah....

Still, the gameplay's as excellent and ridiculously hard as ever.... brought me to my limits of frustration. I really got to be quicker with the aiming sticks. And there's not a lot of Elena.. only one sequence. Still, she's pretty than before, if not just a little less homelier....

Malahack

2011-11-11T07:50:00.001+08:00

A word ludicrously fabricated which means to cut or carve in an awkward and slovenly manner. - Rev. Robert Forby's Vocabulary of East Anglia, 1830

Quiet moment

2011-11-10T22:09:00.001+08:00

I would trade everything, everything, I have, for a quiet moment with you.

Tears of the tankard

2011-11-10T20:03:00.003+08:00

The drippings of liquor on a man's waistcoat. - Francis Grose's Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1796

HAHA, I get a lot of this when I drink from my water bottle... always some silly little droplet here and there.

The Devil and Heaven

2011-11-09T18:52:00.001+08:00

Its the ability to stare the Devil in the eye and telling him to Fuck Off that make us truly worthy of a place in Heaven.

Sadded Little Me

2011-11-09T18:33:00.000+08:00

I think I know why I am feeling down.... or perhaps I think I know why....

I could be.... or have... exhausted all my energies at work, probably on the relationships I'm trying hard and harder and harder to maintain... but some barriers are impossible to overcome I guess.

I could be.... feeling the lack of meaningful relationships in contrast to all the meaningless material wealth I have at home...

Probably the later I'm feeling.... Lacking meaningful and purposeful and refreshing relationships. And the scary part is that its just been a few months since I'm complaining about this... the cycle is getting shorter and shorter. Perhaps I will really fall into a state of continuous depression soon and that'll be the end of me... Perhaps.

Oh well.... What comes will come. Life just sucks at the moment.

Whiffler

2011-11-09T18:10:00.002+08:00

An officer who heads a procession and clears the way for it. The whifflers in the civic processions at Norwich carry swords, which they wave to and fro before them. - Hensleigh Wedgwood's Dictionary of English Etymology, 1878

An officer who preceded a procession, clearing the way and playing a flute. - William Toone's Etymological Dictionary of Obsolete Terms, 1832

The old term for fifers preceeding the body of archers who cleared the way, but more recently applied to very trifling fellows. [From] whiff . . . a slight fitful breeze or transcient puff of wind. - Admiral William Smyth's Sailor's Word Book, 1867

Depressed

2011-11-08T20:23:00.000+08:00

The day started out pretty normal.... but for some strange reason, I'm feeling quite depressed and down at the moment... maybe its coz I'm hungry, maybe its coz I'm convinced I'll be in the grave by 30... maybe its because I was just that little bit happier a few days ago... not sure if I even was actually.... but I guess that's relative....

Ah well....

Cowse

2011-11-08T20:22:00.002+08:00

To pursue animals; Western England. - Thomas Wright's Dictionary of Obsolete and Provincial English, 1857

To wander about idly. - James Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, 1855

To court, make love to [spelled course]. - Joseph Wright's English Dialect Dictionary, 1898-1905

Feuilleton

2011-11-07T22:18:00.002+08:00

In French newspapers, or others in which the French custom is followed, a portion of one or more pages marked off at the bottom from the rest of the page and appropriated to light the literature, criticism, etc. Adopted from French, from feuillet, a diminutive of feuille, leaf. Fueilletonism, aptitude for writing feuilletons; feuilletonist, a writer of feuilletons. - Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1897

Phlogiston

2011-11-05T18:50:00.001+08:00

An exploded chymical name for an imaginary substance, thought to be a constituent part of all inflammable bodies. - William Grimshaw's Ladies' Lexicon and Parlour Companion, 1846

The existence of phlogiston was denied by Lavoisier in 1775, and though stoutly maintained by Priestly, belief in it was generally abandoned by 1800. - Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1909

Guy Fawkes Day today.

Vampires in the building....

2011-11-05T16:18:00.004+08:00

Donated blood today....

There's nothing to it... other than the THREE needles they happily stab into you and do an freaky evil laugh each time. And when you look into the nurses eyes just as the needle goes in, you can see it flashes a really Evil Blood Red... with a look of lust and sheer desire.

I swear they enjoy being vampires in broad daylight. Also probably why they cannot step out of the building in the daytime. They really suck you up damn fast lah... i lost my 450ml of blood in about 3mins only. That's daamn fast. and they wanted to stab me again for a second dose... but then decided against it. Guess they realised that if they were greedy they might be sought after with wooden stakes and silver crosses.

HAHA, actually it was really nothing.... I just get really tense before the needles go in.

Jangle

2011-11-04T00:30:00.000+08:00

Gossiping, idle talking; to jangle one's time away. - Thomas Darlington's Folk-Speech of South Cheshire, 1887

To quarrel, argue angrily. Hence, janglesome, quarrelsome, noisy, boisterous. Northern England, Scotland. - Joseph Wright's English Dialect Dictionary, 1898-1905

Riding the stang

2011-11-03T22:05:00.005+08:00

A punishment among the vulgar; inflicted upon fornicators, adulterers, severe husbands, [etc] . . . Offenders . . . are mounted astraddle on a long pole, or stang, supported upon the shoulders of their companions. - John Brockett's Glossary of North Country Words, 1825

Stang, a strong piece of wood on which the carcasses of beasts are suspended by the sinews of the hind legs. - William Carr's Dialect of Craven, 1828

Knight of the grammar

2011-11-02T00:46:00.000+08:00

A schoolmaster. - Albert Hyamson's Dictionary of English Phrases, 1922

Knight of the pen, a clerk or author. - Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1909

My pledge

2011-11-01T01:36:00.000+08:00

I seek to Serve, by leading.
I seek the Will to bring those around me together, in unity or not.
I seek God, for wisdom and clarity.
I seek to bring Happiness, for those that have none.
I seek the Desire to rule, in just or without.
I seek to Love, whether to be loved or not.
I seek to Help the weak, shall the strength fail them.
I seek to Comfort, for I have found none.
I seek to bring a Smile onto those that need it.
I seek to Give, and for nothing to be given back.
I seek to Remember, those that will be forgotten.
I seek Death, should Life betray me.
I seek to Destroy, those that would harm the innocent.
I seek the Power to do Right, whether it taketh my life or my soul.
I SEEK TO INFLUENCE, THAT WHICH I AM DOMINION OVER, be it person or thing.

I. AM. SHAMIR!!

Rack rides

2011-11-01T00:30:00.000+08:00

A phrase used when the clouds are driven rapidly by the wind. - F.T. Dinsdale's Provincial Words Used in Teasdale, Durham, 1849

Oneirocritick

2011-10-31T00:30:00.000+08:00

An interpreter of dreams. - Stephen Jones's Pronouncing and Explanatory Dictionary, 1818

Oneirocritical, belonging to the interpretation of dreams. - Daniel Fenning's Royal English Dictionary, 1775

Oneirocriticism, the art of interpreting dreams. Oneirocracy, oneirocriticism, Oneirologist, one versed in oneirology. Oneiromancer, oneiromantist, oneiropolist, one who divines by dreams. Oneiropompist, a sender of dreams. - Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1909

Rediscovered.

2011-10-29T18:21:00.003+08:00

ITS SOO ANNOYING.

When you hear a piece of music somewhere in public... Know you know it but don't know what it is. Then it gets stuck in your head and ... changing perspectives... I know I had the CD before... before Mp3s really... and now for some reason that CD is missing...

Well, there's iTunes.. but i can't find it there. And I still don't know what the track is....

So I had to go and find the CD first and look at the track listing.... First I tried using iTunes to see if any of the tracks was really the one I was looking for.... to no avail.... then YouTube occured to me... so I went through the tracks, yep, found versions of most on youtube... still no.... was about to give up hope... and then I tried one track again just to hear what the middle of it sounded like... looked like a good movie score....

AND BEHOLD!!! IT WAS WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR!!!!

http://youtu.be/gonKhSIBP54

Oh man.. the part starting at about 48s is amazing. AMAZING.

BUT I CAN'T FIND THIS TRACK ON iTUNES. AND WHILE I FOUND THE CASING FOR THE CD IN JOHN'S COLLECTION... but the casing was empty. EMPTY!!!! Actually it might have been my casing that got lost into his collection over the years.

SO ANNOYING. iTunes doesn't have the album.. and I while I could find various variations of the track, had to buy a few just to listen to more than just the preview coz the tracks contain something similiar but not the exact.

Best I could find was similiar melodies but nothing as impactful as the one on youtube which is EXACTLY what I'm looking for.

Really don't want to download it. And have already spent $3 USD on tracks.... am now thinking I'm going to have to buy the CD... if I can find it... probably have to Amazon it. Don't know... EMI Singapore published disc. Probably never going to find it again.... GRRRR!!!!!

Apanthropy

2011-10-29T18:09:00.002+08:00

A species of melancholy characterised by a dislike to society. - Robert Hooper's Compendious Medical Dictionary, 1839