October 2003

Having not been - 10/13/2003






Very active in writing on these pages lately - I am pleasantly surpurised by this strange new look - it's as if text is not enough - or is not distant enough from thought and now must be accompanied by font and colour.  But of course, one does not need to participate in all that - though the ability to insert images on these pages should be a useful function.  Of course forgive me for being absolutely clueless about these things.  i'd like to think that the primary function of text is to convey that complex relationship between our thoughts and the world.

Been busy with the end of the year.  I'm coming to the end of sort of a four-year cycle with teaching, having seen sec3 through to J2.  I guess that's a pretty interesting kind of rhythmn to follow.  The next kind of cycle that I want to try is doing sec one all the way to year 6 - there are some opportunities for that now - in our "varied educational landscape".  And I want to teach in a single sex school.  But till then, I'll be content to play along and smile pleasantly at this wondrous concoction called the educational system. 

Ok - really wanted to make sure my OD was still alive ...

Don't laugh at the bald man - he was much smarter than many brains put together and working in the same direction - and much more knowledgeable.

 

 

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so ...who's that bald manz??? [j.O.n. E≤]

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haha, yah. who's he? [AnGeL^6587]

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It really was an interesting 4 year ride with you. [eagle eye]

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that website says he's "Michel Foucault" (although i think Michel is a typo :P isit?) yeah mr lim yer entries r inspiring... -shaoxuan

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no mistake. michel foucault - french philosopher. -fey





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FouCault - 10/17/2003






The bald man - probably the most dazzling philospher of his generation.  At least the most radical in terms of renewing (or challenging) how the social studies are approached.  His methods / approaches / theories apply to a wide range of disciplines - from history, literature, sociology, psychology -

Quick thoughts on foucault -

The author is dead -

deny "common sense" - look instead for the "constructedness" of systems - that appear natural - speech, routines, classifications - are the manifestation of power relations - of power seeking to systemise, to "naturalise" inequalities.

Crime - reform is a meaner more subtle form of subjugation.  The Law, a tyranny not only of the body but enjoining the mind and the soul to be subservient to a politics that erases its traces by defining criminal and outlaw through the structures of language.

Madness - the shadowland of sanity is hardened - made distinct - drawn apart - with the overlaps occulded.  Therapy - manacles over the being -

The individual - don't privilege it.  Don't believe you exist primarily as yourself - but examine the forces that constitute your being.  If there is to be freedom to be found - the consciousness of the how we are contructed is a semblance of freedom.

THeory is practice.  Theory that ceases / is not relevant does not even enter into the world.

Discourse - dug / found - rooted in historicity.  A fascination with how structures imbue themselves with reflexivity and order.  The historicity of truth is part of its being - situated truth makes plainer where the appropirations exist -

"The indignity of speaking for others"

"soemthing essential is taking place : ... the tracking down of all varieties of facism, from the enormous ones that surround and crush us to the petty ones that constitute the tyrannical bitterness of our everyday lives".

Who sings for those who once knew the Spirit?

 

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Sounds interesting... but to be honest I've never heard of him... have any specifics to share? Might pick it up in my free time, harhar... [Grandioso]

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never heard of him as well.. but it does interest me though [enfant terrible]

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=) [public_prosecutor]

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ok let's see.. not so nice to talk bout my prelims results online since it's like nothin to be proud abt.. CCC.. oh well slosh of sangrai came abt coz i ws looking for s words! ya know how hard it was to find a 's' drink? if not slosh den wat? haha i'd love to have dinner wif the rest of the class man.. and if u're free, can ya pls help us wif a cool gathering before mingde goes into ns? [i||uXioN]

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Depression - 10/27/2003






Part two - but there ain;t no part one cause it didn't get saved cause I was too slow in typing it all down and it got timed out - I must say that save for the occasional burst of rage I am coping with all these dying ones around me quite well.  Dying ones around me - they like to sing the songs of death like they were melodies made for the voices that had nothing better to hum.  My lips are sealed about your thirty something angst might as well get it now before you kill yourself at sixty.  how the world goes revolves and turns on its back like a walking snail slugging across the race track then crack goes its shell and all its goo splats - a memory on the road.  I pick up snails once in a while - I avoid stepping on them most of the time.  Am I or you snailing in the wrong race, out of place while we dance the misstep - and walk out of synch - slug along really - in the dance of time?

 What I had for breakfast ...

good ya?

geddit?

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hey mr lim! hope u're doing fine at hcjc =) [Alt^John2]

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ewww. [AnGeL^6587]

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you're not satan...and you don't have kids

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morbid.. but i like..



sprinkle salt on the snail and watch it shrivel in the hot morning sun, a more peaceful and less dirty way of removing from this world [enfant terrible]

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That's a little... disturbing...

Type out your entry in word first before pasting it over... a lesson I learnt a long time ago after countless bouts of rage and unmentionable curses... [Grandioso]

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Am I or you snailing in the wrong race, out of place while we dance the misstep - and walk out of synch - slug along really - in the dance of time?



I often ask myself that too. Maybe that sprinter on the track will by chance launch a swift kick that will send that snail sailing across the length of the track. What a way to feel the wind upon its face, huh. :-p

[Tempest Blue]

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Quick as quick can be ... - 10/30/2003






If, you've wondered about how words and poetry could be fused with the lean tautness of science and math, I would highly recommend that you read Quicksilver, by Neal Stephenson.  One of the few things that I read that actually got reviewed by Life! (2 days ago) - well sort of reviewed - it's a glorious read - and halfway into the book (I'm at page 451) with most of my evenings with the book propped on my chest (it's a heavy book so I can't lug it around and read it on the bus ...) I think that anyone who is interested in the way knowledge gets constructured, coverted, contested and circulated should dip into the adventure.

It's sort of a geek's book I suppose, tracing the famous dispute between Lebiniz and Newton (about who REALLY discovered calculus) in a most tangential (you're suppose to snigger)fashion.  Favourite bit so far - Newton conducting experiments as an undergrad at Trinity, Cambridge, sticking a stick into his eye and using thus manipulating the curvature of his lens and taking measurements ... I suppose science practicals used be be much more imaginative ...

Check it out ...

http://www.nealstephenson.com/

Oh - plus for some unfathomable reason, the first edition hard covers are going at 27 buckeroos (20 % off the cover price of 33 ) at Kino.  which is really strange cause the paperback costs 44 bucks ... another reason to get the book ...

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Interesting! I guess I'll go dig up tuesday's Life! section and see what it really is about.



I didn't understand what you meant at first about

"I will move into a mode of abstraction - where observations are merely reflected thought" until I read a few of your other entries. Such 'cheemalogical' abstraction!



Very interesting Diary indeed!:-)



~random noter [Tempest Blue]

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Ah okay I'll be sure to pick that up as well - couldn't find the Foucault book you recommended at either Kino or Borders, so I picked up another one of his instead. Of course with exams coming up haven't read much - but so far, it's very... confusing, haha. [Grandioso]

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Bloody COmputer - 10/31/2003






In an age of maximum security where everyone thinks that their info is important or precious - you have passwords to get for the slightest function.  Passwords used to be the secrets of chlidren's games, parts of myth and fairy tales (rumpelstiltskin... yes i stand corrected forgive the desperate spelling) - unreal.  But the reality of passwords have taken on a whole new bloody inconvenient real world irritating impediment to my efficency as a human being.

I'm rather a sluggard when it comes to admin work but I try my best.  I fill in the forms that are NECESSARY which means a good many I don't bother to fill in - shoot that reminds me I need to fill in the ACTUAL attendance file - and I haven't done that since June cause I keep my records separately ... shoot - looks like I need to go back to school TML - shoot ... anyway this week I managed to log myself out of TWO MOE systems because I can't remember my bloody password

Actually - I've got a system that makes my life straightforward.  Just Have One Password.  All my stuff is governed by One PassWord.  And I really don't care if people can Hack into my MOE systems and like give themselves 25 CCA points ... But the trouble begins with systems that refuse to allow me to USE my password over and over and insist on me changing it.  Some systems even complain that adding a single digit at the end of the password isn't enough.  So - I change these passwords into strange variations of the original and get screwed.  Of course I write them down ... SOMEWHERE - but when you need to access your info immediately - or need to update something and get LOGGED OUT it's damn irritating.  Plus I read somewhere that it actually costs something like 100 buckeroos to reset the password ... really?  And the best thing is this message that one gets - You've been Logged out of the system - contact your systems administrator.  I actually tried FINDING OUT who the systems administrator is/was - to no avail.  So I shot off random e-mails - I suppose that's what keeps some people busy ... no wonder I appear slack ... cause I ...

Anyway - I'm passwordless - but at least I have a name ... and have recalled a bit of a poem ... relating to a sort of passage - and passwords I suppose ...

Who is stronger than hope?  Death.Who is stronger than the will?  Death.Stronger than love?Death.Stronger than life? Death.But who is stronger than death?                                            Me, evidently,Pass, Crow.

from Examination at the Womb Door by Ted hughes

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Haha that's the first time I've seen you use mild swears... Cool thing about the fairy tales, never did notice... [Grandioso]

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rumpelstiltskin? =)

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ryn: thx for the link. I'll go check it out in borders soon. Haven't figured out from the review what genre the book falls under,(historical fiction?) though i suspect its the kind that resists any kind of generic classification.



I have 3-4 levels of security p/w . crucial ones that involve $$( banking, phone, ISP), impt ones e.g ICQ & email, and couple of generic ones for fun & games related [Tempest Blue]

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[i||uXioN]

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u noe wad...

i have the same problem...

ttx y i have two close frenx who can memorise my atm pin, among other stuff...who cares if it's not safe....i dun have enough money anyway. [psst]

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=) i guess we'll have to live with it. so much for the 'IT = convenience' equation huh... [public_prosecutor]

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actually they do have only ONE password these days. it's called GDS or something. but i've lost mine since ACSI doesnt use MOE systems very much. :)



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Ah - but the breeliance of MOE is that the Global DS password is used for "ALL" systems except ... pac@gov, traisi and cockpit - damn "smart" right...? [limitlim]

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well, how about 2 passwords and alternating between the two? :) [::orange::]

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haha, sth similar happened to me yesterday too... forgotten my pin coz i remembered it by sequence, not the numbers...

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