October « 2009 « JEWELLE TAN

Facebook Games

A 5 year old boy recently stunned me when he announced that he is going to play game … “In FACEBOOK”!

Lately I have began to notice that many of my friends are into the games in Facebook. Even though I blocked all games notifications (sorry folks!), I still get insights of their gaming activities by status update comments such as “...go rest, I’ll fertilize your farm” (Farmville) or blog posts “Love it very much because can race, bet, fish, buy and collect many things” (Pet Society).

I get requests to join certain games or accept certain gifts almost every day that I am very curious to explore these games myself.

But so far, it remains a passing wonder.

How can I look after any virtual pet or cultivate any online garden when my time online is sporadic throughout the day. There’s too much news to read and digest, pictures to sort and edit, friends to catch up with and the most necessary but least appealing task, completing paid assignments.

But perhaps I can use this to placate my daughters who have been pushing me for pets (such as a horse!) and at least, there won’t be expensive spending on stuffs like horse supplies.

But then again, I don’t wish to relive the times when virtual gaming ruled our days (and nights) as university students.

“Seeing” the image of buildings sprouting or abandoned (SimCity) in your mind even though the computer is switched off. Fighting off the brainwave of new strategies to win a battle (Warcraft) when you are supposed to be asleep. Or as one of our friend who had it worse – the sight of him ducking left and right as he furiously tapped on the keyboards (Doom) for one whole day and night and finally shouted for backup player as he bent over and puked is something I will not forget.

So for the time being, there is no gaming for me.

28Oct

Where The Money Is

Filed in Brunei Life Leave a comment

Recently I was told of an Asian expat who despite having lived and worked in Brunei in executive positions for more than 10 years – did not know that generally, oil and gas industry pays the highest.

It was funny to hear this person hyperventilating when told that there are engineers or even posts like designers (not fashion or interior of course) in the many oil and gas related companies in Belait district who get higher pay than his managerial post.

You’d have to imagine how such well known information can escape anyone who lives in Brunei.

Perhaps it was lost along the 120 km (approximate distance between Bandar Seri Begawan and Seria)? Or maybe this person lacked regular contact with other Brunei residents, locals or expats. As if he did, he is bound to have come across one of those oil and gas workers who commute daily to Belait district or even someone who knows someone who would know this information.

I wonder how he will react when he knows how much oil platform “labourers” or welders or even divers (“Is that even a job?!” I can already hear him say…) get paid or even how much higher their insurance premiums (with no Medicare supplement) are, due to the nature of their jobs.

Still the lure of high pay won’t always keep anyone from leaving this industry because at the end of the day, money is not the only factor that guarantees job satisfaction.

25Oct

Learning Challenges

Filed in Thoughts Leave a comment

Recently, a small boy proudly told me that he now knows that “2 + 2 is 4″.

Coming from a 6 year old child who has been in kindergarten for 2 years, this is perhaps nothing spectacular. But knowing the challenges that he faced in learning even the simplest thing, I was as pleased as he was.

This episode, of seeing his face lighting up as he came to me to report this achievement, reminded me of an encounter I had with a former student, several weeks ago.

He was known as a “slow student”, struggled in class and was basically not expected to amount to much. Even though I did not deal with him often then, I tried not to be too impatient whenever I do and perhaps this was the reasons why even after 7 years of no contact, he still remembers me.

But what’s more surprising than this were the two things that he said to me.

First, he offered me a job.

He explained clearly of a company and the basic job description. If I was looking for a job, I would definitely be interested because he then ended this with a “if they like your work, they will give lunch allowance”.

Next, when he saw my car, as expected he gave a complimentary comment. But what was unexpected was he then told me of a car for sale – which cost less than a tenth of the price of my car.

The price comparison is to show that while others might call it naive or even foolish for him to even bother me with such a car – I thought he was gutsy. The kind of mentality that makes a good salesperson.

I cannot imagine any of my other former students who could surprised me with 2 like-sales pitches as he did – in less than 5 mins of talking to me.

He might not be able to master basic mathematics or even produce a composition at a Primary 6 level but he is clearly not totally incapable of anything. But he has to fail school because he could not cope with mainstream education yet was not qualified for special education.

There is a possibility that the small boy may fall into the same ending if his condition is not properly addressed and the best way to teach him is identified. I am afraid that he will end up being known as another failure in society, when it was actually the system that failed to help him.

19Oct

Small Talks

Filed in Humour 2 Comments

One thing about my father is how at ease he is with strangers.

This is also the trait which gets us to do things we’d never, in our mind-our-own-business kind of ways, get to do. For example, during our trips in the 90s, either on our Los Angeles or Orlando vacations, he managed to get permission for my younger brother to sit on a real Harley Davidson.

Not from a showroom mind you, but from a group of real deal American bikers with bulking biceps, tattooed arms, long beards and all. I simply stood on the side, hardly breathing, imaging the headlines in next day’s papers.

And travelling with him is fun because we can go to any place knowing nothing and end up knowing lots of insider stories because he can chat with anyone easily.

Just imagine, he is the kind of taxi passenger who will leave a taxi ride, with the driver coming out the car to shake hands- because they have exchanged all kinds of stories that sometimes we would know the background of the driver and even his family!

I just wished that one of the taxi which we took during our recent trip together was his.

18Oct

Photographers

Filed in Interesting Events We Attended 2 Comments

Last night’s anniversary dinner was perhaps the only event for this school covered by the most photographers with lens that meant business.

With the likes of Jan Shim, Husini Bakar, Gavin Goh and Gembo – men known widely for their photos (and interest in photography) – surely no guests were left indifferent to see them walking around, pointing their long lens capable of capturing sharp images of (for example) smudging make-up even from the far side of the big (un-air conditioned) hall.

However, parents of performing kids were delighted to see them. We were thrilled to see those lens focused on the the stage, from all sides of the hall, when our children, dressed in their brightest were doing their routine.

We also ignored smug looks from other parents whose kids behaved like proper little adults when our kids chose to enjoy the rest of the show – with their scarlet cheeks and blue eyelids (by this time, my daughter’s Estee Lauder-ed lips were licked clean of any colour), wild laughter and energy that came from being high on adrenalin – making themselves conspicuous subjects for these photographers (while we parents) hoped that they won’t just look and be amused.

Because we know that, while annoyed glances will be forgotten the next day, beautiful pictures will last a lifetime.

The question now is how to get them to show us those pictures, hopefully stored with online backup, before the albums are forgotten when they start on their next photography outings.

*Picture courtesy of Gavin Goh

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