working @ DInosaurs

Walking with Dinosaurs!

Some updates about my life! I have been working at Singapore Science Centre as a show host, part of the Dinosaurs: A T-rex named Sue and friends exhibition. Basically the job involves bringing visitors through the exhibits. Pays pretty well, a pity I only get to work like 2-3 days in a week. Come find out the longest dinosaur, most ferocious dinosaur and view the world's most complete T-rex! For more info, pls visit Dinosaurs!

I met up with an old group of army friends during Selestine Birhday celebration, many of them I haven really kept in contact with. Somehow, the prideful me dint bring myself to talk to Jon, somehow the words just dint flow. I wont say that I am petty but am still pretty sore about being accused of a fair-weather friend or simply I only look for him when I have some favours to ask from. Had the urge to message him to meet up but somehow I dint, i do not know what stopped me, perhaps its a prideful self, that i refuse to take the first step. Yah, i know it's freaking childish over here but perhaps its time to let bygones be bygones.

I met many others from Faculty of Science during my stint at the Science centre . basically we the showhosts are supposedly the '19 who did well in the interview out of a possible 100+' and that we were vocal and can interact with visitors etc. Indeed, i am indeed rather impressed with some individuals, while I was kind of stuggling with some of the dinosaur names and scientific terms here and there, there was one who was there explaining to a group of us about evolution, fossils, Dna replication etc. Though he was a life-science major, he was really well-read and it was only later I realised from a conversation that he was a yr 2 TSL. Another friend i talked to was a Yr 3 Chem major, I learnt that she actually was doing a second degree in SMU concurrently and she in fact had taken over the biz of her father to run 3 counry clubs in Singapore. Pretty cool!

Ok, thE main point here is that these 2 groups I met recently were so distinctively different that it struck me. Not about the former being less vocal or less rich, but somehow the lifestyles each group led were very unalike. While one group works, bring s home a pay packet, forced by the 'gahment' to save a small amount through CPF, while squanders away the rest on clubbing and pubbing. The topic of discussion can range from which club has the chioest girls or when to go to Malaysia to get more cigarettes? Another group, on the contrary, despite being the same age, are still studying ,thinking of going overseas for exchanges, or those who were fortunate enough to have a family business of fortune to inherit from. The topic of discussion for the latter group is probably about where to go to for the next holiday or which stock is the best to invest in.

i do not know what exactly I am illustrating here, it's definitely not a case of the rich gets richer while the poor gets poorer, but its about the different segments of society and the way the way they lead their day to day lives. Perhaps the big question is whether one's education will shape one life chances in the future, the job you do, the friends you hang around with and the lifestyle you lead. I am not sure whether I make sense here, but its again just a passing thought.

What's up this week;
Wed: To head down to DHS to sign the Relief teacher form, darn it a trip down just fo rmy signature
Thur: Dinosaurs
Fri: Dinosaurs
Sat: Release of Results and BIG day to make my decision. (Had a false alarm that one was able to check his rusults on the science intranet. One senior manged to know his overall cal for this sem, but apparently NUS eas fast enough to remove the link, argh I can't wait)

Life after exams

Random Thoughts III

It's been about 1.5 weeks after exams, somehow the inertia to blog and change the blog layout is still there.

DHS level 2 camp @ Sarimbun: My intial thought was that I be a camp facilitator, boy i was quite wrong. being a relief teacher during the camp then meant that I do not have to use the dirty toilets over at Sarimbun, sleeping in air-conditioned bunks with pillows and most importantlt Polar puffs for tea brought by the principal himself. Teachers are indeed a privileged lot. Spoke to come teachers about certain issues. Basically 2 thoughts summarized:
1) There is no such thing such as equal opportunity for everyone in the education system. Many a time, there is no perfect allocation of resources and when the school actually has a fund to subsidise deserving students for enrichment activities, . So now who defines who are the deserving students? Meritocracy seems to be the answer and this reminds me of a phrase which Mr Kiw said “ 机会是留给做好充分准备的人。”My trip to US back in 2000 did open my horizons and guess I really benefited from the subsidy back then.
2) Always thought that the integrated programmes at TJ and VJ will somehow be more 'superior' to that offered by DHS and they will prob attract the best brains and cause a brain drain in the school. I even asked myself what choice I will make if all the hype about integrated programmes was during my era. The promise to go to an institution with supposedly less rules, more freedom and better track record for A levels? Or is the friendship bonds, CCA and caring teachers that will keep me in DHS? Though DHS has no track record for A levels, it does have an excellent one for Os, and the teachers actiually reasoned out that these colleges do well because they absorb good students from DHS in the first place.
Well, this education system has become so commercialized that there are advertisements outside 158 busstop depicting a group of Vi pupils lying on a patch of green grass with the caption 'The grass is greener on the other side'. One wonders where VJ gets this advertising budget from, somehow i do not see how the money spent on advertising will have a direct impact or value-add a student currently studying in VJ. This is probably how some ministries spend taxpayers' money?