morals from sept hols
i have good news and bad and worse news...
good news: i studied all the chem i think we were thought
bad news: i barely touched the others...
worse news: my wonderful smart classmates went mugging at the local CRASH COURSE centre...so now, they are super-prep-ed up...
this week, i am FORCED to consider our one part of our mentality and the reason of education, so let me start on my opinions on the first issue:
well, i'll start with a story: i went to the dentist...on the way, every genius knows you should have dinner first or else you could have problems later after seeing the dentist. so i sit down (you have the imagine a little boy sitting at the 4-seat table, with another 4-seat table next to it so it seems like a 8-seat table) while my parents get their food...then out of the sudden, these three elderly people come by and ASSUME (yup, thats the key issue of mentality: ASSUMPTION) that no one is sitting with me, and just come and sit right next to me and in front of me.. let me write you an illustration:
x=me
.=empty seat
*=where the elderly pple wanna sit
before
. . . .
-------
TABLE
-------
. . x .
after
. . * *
-------
TABLE
-------
. . x *
and being assuming pple, they auto assume that i am alone. so i told them that my parents were sitting there, then they were kind of shocked (i think to hear me speak to them...but that's an assumption too), so they moved...
after after
* * . .
-------
TABLE
-------
* . x .
wow...and they came from that side of the table too...wonder what gave them the idea that my side is better...
ASSUMING things is not good...(unless you are assuming worse-case scenerios which is actually good or you are assuming factors for some science project which also is good) but the main idea is that assuming that just because the situation looks like this means that you can do what you plan, there might have been other matters that are not seen that could easily make your life harder if you had went on with your plan of assumption.
it also gets kind of irritating...i went to the local macdonald's nearest to my house (of course i don't go alone..i went with my cousins,maid and my mum)(personally, i don't agree with hiring of maids, but my cousins aren't me so i guess i'll pass this subject till another time) and then there is group of at least 6 youths who just hog the center tables, let me sketch out the area plan for you:
x=my cousins,maid,mum,and me
.=empty seat
+=another family
*=youths
** ***
.||. -- ---
.||. *| |**| |*
-- ---
** ***
x x x + +
- --- ---
- --- ---
x x x + +
k, my FAQ-styled drawing isn't good, but i hope you get the general idea. anyway, mac doesn't have many 8-seat tables..the 8 youths on the right table are actually koping spare chairs from neighbouring tables...so one youth naturally ASSUMES that the nearest empty movable chair is free and takes it, happens that its one of the +s, and another family is already there, and all the tables are actually taken (alas, the lady went off to wash her daughter's hands, hence two empty seats,one screwed to the floor, the other movable) my mum being the hawk-eyed one immediated called at the boy who quickly places it back just as the mother and her daughter return.
wait, thats one part of the mac-ssumption issue, here's the other half:
my mum thought those were from my sch! (hahahahaha) well, if they didn't speak chinese all the while, i would have thought so too(judging by what kind of clothes they wear) (but i have a more analytical thinking-perspective than my mum)here's the reason why they're not from my sch: A)they speak chinese the ENTIRE time in macs; B)there are girls among them; C)common sense says that there are WAY TOO FEW of my sch guys in the area of Jurong West (max of about 3 i think)...continuing with moral, ASSUMING THINGS MAKE AN ASS OUT OF YOU AND ME (get it? ASS_U_ME, ASSUME!!!HAHAHAHA)(my bro thought me that)
next plot: the muggers strike again.
of course if you actually read, you'll remember that i mentioned that my mostly mugger classmates went for a crash course in all the subjects we take (i think song and i are the only two oblivious to this, either that or it's just me)..if you were in my position, two things come to mind: 1) they have no confidence in what they have learnt for the past year,nor their teachers' ability to disceminate their knowledge and have learnt NOTHING these 1 year and 9 months; 2)they are muggers, ye who can throw-up an entire textbook without actually knowing applications of anything inside [ok, on these guys, slight ability to do applications, mostly already stated from book]
and, of course, the more obivious fact that they desperately want to get promoted
despite the fact they are my friends and all, i completely don't trust most of them (lucas ,jake,adriel,chinsan,dsong,binru,kt,maky fall under the catergory of "COMPLETE TRUST", the rest waver inbetween "trust" and "forget it man"). i mean, come on, can you trust someone who is so..so...lifeless...WE HAVE LESSONS FOR A REASON! there is no excuse not to pay attention (hey, i sleep in class but at least i can read up on what i missed, but thats another issue altogether)...this problem i believe has reached EVERY SCHOOL, its the most screwed up conception of what education should be.
dad's definition of education: "go there, learn as much as you can, and prepare yourself for life. if you need this textbook again once you get a job, you have failed life's test."
education isn't about the A's, it's about preparing heart,mind and soul for the future.(k, i really deeply believe in such things as preparing heart,mind and soul. i for one sure believe in soul)its not about now, its about 10~20 years from now.
like how my dad said and my bro testifies to that statement: "when you become an engineer, you should be able to take your textbook and burn it with no regrets. in paper, solving a simple problem such as finding the height of a building is easy; but in real life, thats when the fun really starts. everything MUST be etched so deeply in your MIND that you don't have to think, you know what you are going to do, how to do it such that it is easy, and finally, get the answers quick."
education was never about being first in class, its proving to yourself that you have what it takes to reach that potential of that occupation...no, not just occupation, LIFE. it was never about money...if you think about it, education was never so commonplace. Greeks considered educated pple highly (look at plato and aristole, the early teachers); Jews considered their teachers of law and Rabbi very highly, Jesus was a teacher; in ancient china, scholars who really studied ended up as officials (this one is more like study of applications, so its more free-ended, more complex than just vomitting info)
recently, my dad taught my youth class the difference of being knowledgeable, and being wise. being knowledgeable is to know things, being wise is to apply what is learnt. It's like a handyman with his tool box: the knowledgeable handyman knows which tool goes to which screw; but it's the wise handyman who brings what is necessary to do the job (lightening his load),can use the tools to its maximum potential (application) and finally can improvise in a worse-case scenerio (Further forms of applications). it is good to know, but it is better to be wise. wisdom is not from man.
i need not remind you of shawn tan...you can read about his screwed up money views in the earlier post.
kk, end of moralistic daniel mode...i don't think my mind can continue any longer...
so now to end of year, here's my plan:
1)study hard for exams
2)after exams, do some drawings to boost moral
3)finish up the two poems i've just started (more prose than poem actually, got to ask bro for help)
4)catch up on sleep
5)pray REALLY HARD that someone i know gets into IB, and that someone isn't in my current class, someone sane preferably
6)practise piano like no tomorrow...except for the fast songs..(ie minxian...that song play so fun and nice..then the pain of holding my hand permanently in one octave span catches up after the song..)
7)learn how to increase hand-size...so that i can play that song more often..i forgot title...
8)read books (how i missed that)
9)play badmintin with zanna
10)finally do some sane stuff instead of put up with my class necessent completely ridiculus behaviour..(i mean, it's not correct of a 16 year old guy to act like that)
11)get someone video tape the day that i'm sick from sch...i wanna see who does all the IT stuff in class...i don't believe that anyone one else can handle that post
12)say goodbye to cyberac, and HELLO POSITION AT ACPRESS (hopefully)
13)say hello to my new teachers of year 5 (hopefully a good class)(if i get Mr. A.Chew for any subject [hopefully chem or TOK, best if both], i'll go over there and hug him...haha)
14)get my life back the way it was when it was sanest...i think thats last year's me
15)learn how to flash productions and do some of my own and make it famous at NEWGROUNDS...my aim is to be as good as vinne veritas...that guy is one good animator
thats enough for now
the really future-future plans
-1)get a life steady
-2)get a place in university for further studies
-3)get a girlfriend (though this one is by far the MOST far-fetched plan i have)
-4)get a job and give life a good kick (haha)
p.s this post took exactly an hour and a half, you should at least read till when my thought-ful/POD side of me tires out.(aka before my 29-part plan)
good news: i studied all the chem i think we were thought
bad news: i barely touched the others...
worse news: my wonderful smart classmates went mugging at the local CRASH COURSE centre...so now, they are super-prep-ed up...
this week, i am FORCED to consider our one part of our mentality and the reason of education, so let me start on my opinions on the first issue:
well, i'll start with a story: i went to the dentist...on the way, every genius knows you should have dinner first or else you could have problems later after seeing the dentist. so i sit down (you have the imagine a little boy sitting at the 4-seat table, with another 4-seat table next to it so it seems like a 8-seat table) while my parents get their food...then out of the sudden, these three elderly people come by and ASSUME (yup, thats the key issue of mentality: ASSUMPTION) that no one is sitting with me, and just come and sit right next to me and in front of me.. let me write you an illustration:
x=me
.=empty seat
*=where the elderly pple wanna sit
before
. . . .
-------
TABLE
-------
. . x .
after
. . * *
-------
TABLE
-------
. . x *
and being assuming pple, they auto assume that i am alone. so i told them that my parents were sitting there, then they were kind of shocked (i think to hear me speak to them...but that's an assumption too), so they moved...
after after
* * . .
-------
TABLE
-------
* . x .
wow...and they came from that side of the table too...wonder what gave them the idea that my side is better...
ASSUMING things is not good...(unless you are assuming worse-case scenerios which is actually good or you are assuming factors for some science project which also is good) but the main idea is that assuming that just because the situation looks like this means that you can do what you plan, there might have been other matters that are not seen that could easily make your life harder if you had went on with your plan of assumption.
it also gets kind of irritating...i went to the local macdonald's nearest to my house (of course i don't go alone..i went with my cousins,maid and my mum)(personally, i don't agree with hiring of maids, but my cousins aren't me so i guess i'll pass this subject till another time) and then there is group of at least 6 youths who just hog the center tables, let me sketch out the area plan for you:
x=my cousins,maid,mum,and me
.=empty seat
+=another family
*=youths
** ***
.||. -- ---
.||. *| |**| |*
-- ---
** ***
x x x + +
- --- ---
- --- ---
x x x + +
k, my FAQ-styled drawing isn't good, but i hope you get the general idea. anyway, mac doesn't have many 8-seat tables..the 8 youths on the right table are actually koping spare chairs from neighbouring tables...so one youth naturally ASSUMES that the nearest empty movable chair is free and takes it, happens that its one of the +s, and another family is already there, and all the tables are actually taken (alas, the lady went off to wash her daughter's hands, hence two empty seats,one screwed to the floor, the other movable) my mum being the hawk-eyed one immediated called at the boy who quickly places it back just as the mother and her daughter return.
wait, thats one part of the mac-ssumption issue, here's the other half:
my mum thought those were from my sch! (hahahahaha) well, if they didn't speak chinese all the while, i would have thought so too(judging by what kind of clothes they wear) (but i have a more analytical thinking-perspective than my mum)here's the reason why they're not from my sch: A)they speak chinese the ENTIRE time in macs; B)there are girls among them; C)common sense says that there are WAY TOO FEW of my sch guys in the area of Jurong West (max of about 3 i think)...continuing with moral, ASSUMING THINGS MAKE AN ASS OUT OF YOU AND ME (get it? ASS_U_ME, ASSUME!!!HAHAHAHA)(my bro thought me that)
next plot: the muggers strike again.
of course if you actually read, you'll remember that i mentioned that my mostly mugger classmates went for a crash course in all the subjects we take (i think song and i are the only two oblivious to this, either that or it's just me)..if you were in my position, two things come to mind: 1) they have no confidence in what they have learnt for the past year,nor their teachers' ability to disceminate their knowledge and have learnt NOTHING these 1 year and 9 months; 2)they are muggers, ye who can throw-up an entire textbook without actually knowing applications of anything inside [ok, on these guys, slight ability to do applications, mostly already stated from book]
and, of course, the more obivious fact that they desperately want to get promoted
despite the fact they are my friends and all, i completely don't trust most of them (lucas ,jake,adriel,chinsan,dsong,binru,kt,maky fall under the catergory of "COMPLETE TRUST", the rest waver inbetween "trust" and "forget it man"). i mean, come on, can you trust someone who is so..so...lifeless...WE HAVE LESSONS FOR A REASON! there is no excuse not to pay attention (hey, i sleep in class but at least i can read up on what i missed, but thats another issue altogether)...this problem i believe has reached EVERY SCHOOL, its the most screwed up conception of what education should be.
dad's definition of education: "go there, learn as much as you can, and prepare yourself for life. if you need this textbook again once you get a job, you have failed life's test."
education isn't about the A's, it's about preparing heart,mind and soul for the future.(k, i really deeply believe in such things as preparing heart,mind and soul. i for one sure believe in soul)its not about now, its about 10~20 years from now.
like how my dad said and my bro testifies to that statement: "when you become an engineer, you should be able to take your textbook and burn it with no regrets. in paper, solving a simple problem such as finding the height of a building is easy; but in real life, thats when the fun really starts. everything MUST be etched so deeply in your MIND that you don't have to think, you know what you are going to do, how to do it such that it is easy, and finally, get the answers quick."
education was never about being first in class, its proving to yourself that you have what it takes to reach that potential of that occupation...no, not just occupation, LIFE. it was never about money...if you think about it, education was never so commonplace. Greeks considered educated pple highly (look at plato and aristole, the early teachers); Jews considered their teachers of law and Rabbi very highly, Jesus was a teacher; in ancient china, scholars who really studied ended up as officials (this one is more like study of applications, so its more free-ended, more complex than just vomitting info)
recently, my dad taught my youth class the difference of being knowledgeable, and being wise. being knowledgeable is to know things, being wise is to apply what is learnt. It's like a handyman with his tool box: the knowledgeable handyman knows which tool goes to which screw; but it's the wise handyman who brings what is necessary to do the job (lightening his load),can use the tools to its maximum potential (application) and finally can improvise in a worse-case scenerio (Further forms of applications). it is good to know, but it is better to be wise. wisdom is not from man.
i need not remind you of shawn tan...you can read about his screwed up money views in the earlier post.
kk, end of moralistic daniel mode...i don't think my mind can continue any longer...
so now to end of year, here's my plan:
1)study hard for exams
2)after exams, do some drawings to boost moral
3)finish up the two poems i've just started (more prose than poem actually, got to ask bro for help)
4)catch up on sleep
5)pray REALLY HARD that someone i know gets into IB, and that someone isn't in my current class, someone sane preferably
6)practise piano like no tomorrow...except for the fast songs..(ie minxian...that song play so fun and nice..then the pain of holding my hand permanently in one octave span catches up after the song..)
7)learn how to increase hand-size...so that i can play that song more often..i forgot title...
8)read books (how i missed that)
9)play badmintin with zanna
10)finally do some sane stuff instead of put up with my class necessent completely ridiculus behaviour..(i mean, it's not correct of a 16 year old guy to act like that)
11)get someone video tape the day that i'm sick from sch...i wanna see who does all the IT stuff in class...i don't believe that anyone one else can handle that post
12)say goodbye to cyberac, and HELLO POSITION AT ACPRESS (hopefully)
13)say hello to my new teachers of year 5 (hopefully a good class)(if i get Mr. A.Chew for any subject [hopefully chem or TOK, best if both], i'll go over there and hug him...haha)
14)get my life back the way it was when it was sanest...i think thats last year's me
15)learn how to flash productions and do some of my own and make it famous at NEWGROUNDS...my aim is to be as good as vinne veritas...that guy is one good animator
thats enough for now
the really future-future plans
-1)get a life steady
-2)get a place in university for further studies
-3)get a girlfriend (though this one is by far the MOST far-fetched plan i have)
-4)get a job and give life a good kick (haha)
p.s this post took exactly an hour and a half, you should at least read till when my thought-ful/POD side of me tires out.(aka before my 29-part plan)
posted by Titus Leon at
11:55 PM
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