Sometimes I wonder, what is the problems with learning habits? or towards tasks that we have to do?
... to be continued ....
26 May, 2010
25 March, 2010
Late!!! Again!!
Heard over the radio today ... people have been attending talks about the topic. One generalisation reported on radio that I agree totally. One will never be late if you are genuinely interested in keeping the appointment. You are late simply because you are just not bothered. Period .... Be it for an appointment with friends, going for lessons, attending schools, reporting for work, going for dates etc. And most often, blame will be pushed to transport uncertainties, someone holding you back for some matters ... there's always a million and one excuses to justify your lateness (and we know that it can't be true if it happens on more than 2-3 occasions).
Just about last week, as reported in the Straits Times, professional trainers have been earning lots of money while training company staffs in various aspects of professionalism. Rate ranging between few hundreds to $1.5k per hour .... yes! PER HOUR. Apparently, these trainers are in high demand as companies regard these fees as small change when it comes to increase the productivities of their employees. Let's see ... if I work for 30 hours months, I can buy a new car every 3-6 months, or a new bungalow every 1-2 years. Not Bad!!
Amusingly, all these power talks that we have been attending one time or another. Somehow, it had been mentioned before throughout our learning years ... be it in school or from our parents.
Sometimes, I will relay my "Didn't I tell you so ..." logics to my charges who had attended such "power talk" workshops.
Having such negative feelings towards the above, it does not mean that these "talks" do not have values in themselves. They do serve as a good refresher for people as they are journeying through their hectic lives and forgetting the basics that they had experienced in the long past. So, it is good to attend some once in long while, that's when I have to behave against my skepticism.
I had seen school students who were delinquents in school but once they are attending private schools that can mean anything starting from $400 per month, they appear to be more focussed in their learning. Hear it too often from ex-students, school teachers are good and cost next to nothing (for singaporeans at least) but the students come to realise that fact only when they step into the real world. Strange human mentality!
Just about last week, as reported in the Straits Times, professional trainers have been earning lots of money while training company staffs in various aspects of professionalism. Rate ranging between few hundreds to $1.5k per hour .... yes! PER HOUR. Apparently, these trainers are in high demand as companies regard these fees as small change when it comes to increase the productivities of their employees. Let's see ... if I work for 30 hours months, I can buy a new car every 3-6 months, or a new bungalow every 1-2 years. Not Bad!!
Amusingly, all these power talks that we have been attending one time or another. Somehow, it had been mentioned before throughout our learning years ... be it in school or from our parents.
Sometimes, I will relay my "Didn't I tell you so ..." logics to my charges who had attended such "power talk" workshops.
Having such negative feelings towards the above, it does not mean that these "talks" do not have values in themselves. They do serve as a good refresher for people as they are journeying through their hectic lives and forgetting the basics that they had experienced in the long past. So, it is good to attend some once in long while, that's when I have to behave against my skepticism.
I had seen school students who were delinquents in school but once they are attending private schools that can mean anything starting from $400 per month, they appear to be more focussed in their learning. Hear it too often from ex-students, school teachers are good and cost next to nothing (for singaporeans at least) but the students come to realise that fact only when they step into the real world. Strange human mentality!
16 March, 2010
Scandals, Anyone?
Strange how celebrities got embroiled in scandals time and again. US presidents, senators, Tiger Wood, Jack Neo etc...
Back in those days when extra marital affairs were commonly accepted as a way of life. Mind you, they still are for some in these modern times. I had seen several instances of wives turning a blind eye to the husbands' trysts .. as long as they put bread on the table or more likely to be - do not bring those diseases into the family.
I had encountered people committing suicide upon discovering they had contracted sexual diseases, and leave their families to cope with the loss. Sad, but true, the evils of the most ancient deadly sins. Look for the "Seven Deadly Sins" in youtube if you are interested (I first watched it on cable)
And to top it all, its also rightly put that money is the sins of all evils. Those celebrities may have started off poor or not so well-off in their early years. Once they become stronger financially or in reputation, then ... tsk tsk. Perhaps its more logical to have enough and not too much, but then, who will complain with more money.
Tiger Wood's reason is pretty fresh to me though. As reported in one of our local papers, there is this urge that cannot be contained. How much of that is true, I am not so sure and have no wish to pursue. To me, an excuse can thinly be disguised as a legitimate reason.
On the other hand, some people have the charisma to influence others even if the perpetrators are not rich, like those leaders of cults that had surfaced in the news time and again. Or should it be said that some people are easily influenced by people who capitalised on their weaknesses? Perhaps its just the unfortunate timings that put the 2 people together... fate?
Back in those days when extra marital affairs were commonly accepted as a way of life. Mind you, they still are for some in these modern times. I had seen several instances of wives turning a blind eye to the husbands' trysts .. as long as they put bread on the table or more likely to be - do not bring those diseases into the family.
I had encountered people committing suicide upon discovering they had contracted sexual diseases, and leave their families to cope with the loss. Sad, but true, the evils of the most ancient deadly sins. Look for the "Seven Deadly Sins" in youtube if you are interested (I first watched it on cable)
And to top it all, its also rightly put that money is the sins of all evils. Those celebrities may have started off poor or not so well-off in their early years. Once they become stronger financially or in reputation, then ... tsk tsk. Perhaps its more logical to have enough and not too much, but then, who will complain with more money.
Tiger Wood's reason is pretty fresh to me though. As reported in one of our local papers, there is this urge that cannot be contained. How much of that is true, I am not so sure and have no wish to pursue. To me, an excuse can thinly be disguised as a legitimate reason.
On the other hand, some people have the charisma to influence others even if the perpetrators are not rich, like those leaders of cults that had surfaced in the news time and again. Or should it be said that some people are easily influenced by people who capitalised on their weaknesses? Perhaps its just the unfortunate timings that put the 2 people together... fate?
03 March, 2010
Design for? .. and other matters.
Attended an interesting course last month, about Designing. Something that I had never thought I will attend.
The interactions with the lecturers at Ngee Ann Polytechnic provided some new knowledges. Certainly gained some new perspectives in teaching designing as well as some new approaches to help my charges.
It was mentioned that ex-NP students were commenting tough life at the Uni. Personally, one of my ex-charges commented, "In school, a query from student will get '10 times' of answers in return. In Poly, you have to ask a question in 10 different ways before you can get an answer"
Basically, what they are doing in Poly is what I have been trying to expose my charges to, albeit at an earlier time. Teaching them to be independent so that they can face the real world outside. It is getting very difficult to "teach" the school students in this way, not with the kind of pamper that they get in this modern age. The day finally came for one of my ex-charges to tell me that he is the only one in his poly class to be able to source for the appropriate material for his project by himself.
Which led me to think .... What the current students are lacking, the basic necessities of respect for the speakers, be it during lesson or while attending a public speech. We are not even talking of respect for teachers, but merely a common courtesy to at least pretend to be attentive while some one is speaking. How can you learn while some one is sharing and you are engaged in your own conversation? Why waste your time to attend in the first place and go somewhere else instead?
Then there is rebuttal of being forced to attend, but then again, if forcing is in place, why is it not working its effect in the first place? To me, lame excuse for being a social misfit. Sadly, we often see such socially unacceptable behaviour with adults too.
The interactions with the lecturers at Ngee Ann Polytechnic provided some new knowledges. Certainly gained some new perspectives in teaching designing as well as some new approaches to help my charges.
It was mentioned that ex-NP students were commenting tough life at the Uni. Personally, one of my ex-charges commented, "In school, a query from student will get '10 times' of answers in return. In Poly, you have to ask a question in 10 different ways before you can get an answer"
Basically, what they are doing in Poly is what I have been trying to expose my charges to, albeit at an earlier time. Teaching them to be independent so that they can face the real world outside. It is getting very difficult to "teach" the school students in this way, not with the kind of pamper that they get in this modern age. The day finally came for one of my ex-charges to tell me that he is the only one in his poly class to be able to source for the appropriate material for his project by himself.
Which led me to think .... What the current students are lacking, the basic necessities of respect for the speakers, be it during lesson or while attending a public speech. We are not even talking of respect for teachers, but merely a common courtesy to at least pretend to be attentive while some one is speaking. How can you learn while some one is sharing and you are engaged in your own conversation? Why waste your time to attend in the first place and go somewhere else instead?
Then there is rebuttal of being forced to attend, but then again, if forcing is in place, why is it not working its effect in the first place? To me, lame excuse for being a social misfit. Sadly, we often see such socially unacceptable behaviour with adults too.
21 February, 2010
Genius? Anyone?
Came across a documentary called "Fragments of a Genius" on cable tv. Interesting how they (the geniuses) are called "Idiot Savant" - they are actually people who are autistic but possess one or more remarkable "gifts" from God.
Scientifically, it was said that only the part of their brain that controls logical thinking are impaired in some ways and the impairment actually enable other parts of the brain to process other kind information in enormous chunks that is not possible with ordinary people. Furthermore, the lost of logical thinking led them to "Think" in a creative and yet unexplainable ways that baffled scientists.
The "Savants" featured are:
Derek Paravicini, who has a keen ear for music - being able to play a tune after hearing it for the first time; able to repeat 10 piano notes (max numbers of fingers one has) concurrently; able to use the piano to duplicate the music from an orchestra of 50-60 instruments - all after hearing it for the first time. Even the music scholars are amazed at his ability.
Stephen Wiltshire, who has a photographic memory of architectural structures (like geometrical shapes) and able to sketch them in details after seeing them for the first time, right to the details of the number of columns, windows or steps. Yet he has problems with counting and simple additions. As I had found out from YouTube, he has been painting city landscapes all over the world after only having taken a helicopter rides in each of these cities once.
Another one is a "dates" genius (cannot recall the name) who can tell you the day, of a certain date and year exactly, and faster than one were to key into a computer program to calculate. Ironically, he is not able to do simple additions.
Having tickled my curiosity, I found another savant in YouTube, Kim Peek. He was the man that was modeled after in the show "Rain Man" by Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise. He has the remarkable ability to remember almost everything (98%) he read from a book. He speed reads as well, taking about 10 sec to read a page which ordinary person may take about 3 minutes to complete. His father said that he is also able to use each of his eyes to read both sides of the opened book concurrently. He is permanently stationed in Salt Lake City Public Library which houses more than 10 thousand books; which should keep him busy for a while.
All these savants are showing clear signs of autism. As one of the least autistic savant, Daniel Tammet explained, "He remember numbers as a series of colours and patterns". He has the astonishing ability to recite the numerical notation of the Mathematical PIE (3.14159...) up to 22 thousand digits (and it took him about 5 hours to recite it). On top of this, he managed to learn the Icelandic language in 1 week (the locals said it is the most difficult language to learn on earth) - and he had to be interviewed on the local television in that newly-learnt language after the 1 week period. He seems to be one of the rare savants to possess more than one unusual "skills". Accordingly to Daniel in one of the YouTube clips, there are only about 25 savants in the world.
In another YouTube clip, I found that in Japan, there are schools that are teaching students to use the abacus and further development will lead them to learn speed-calculations. Maybe there are ways to train a genius?
Is there a "genius" in you? I think we do to a certain extent. Sometimes, it is whether we are able to discover our strengths and further develop them to put them into good uses.
Something for you to think about: as Kim Peek said, "You do not have to be handicapped to be different, everyone is different".
Note: All these YouTube clips can be found with the names of the savant mentioned above.
Scientifically, it was said that only the part of their brain that controls logical thinking are impaired in some ways and the impairment actually enable other parts of the brain to process other kind information in enormous chunks that is not possible with ordinary people. Furthermore, the lost of logical thinking led them to "Think" in a creative and yet unexplainable ways that baffled scientists.
The "Savants" featured are:
Derek Paravicini, who has a keen ear for music - being able to play a tune after hearing it for the first time; able to repeat 10 piano notes (max numbers of fingers one has) concurrently; able to use the piano to duplicate the music from an orchestra of 50-60 instruments - all after hearing it for the first time. Even the music scholars are amazed at his ability.
Stephen Wiltshire, who has a photographic memory of architectural structures (like geometrical shapes) and able to sketch them in details after seeing them for the first time, right to the details of the number of columns, windows or steps. Yet he has problems with counting and simple additions. As I had found out from YouTube, he has been painting city landscapes all over the world after only having taken a helicopter rides in each of these cities once.
Another one is a "dates" genius (cannot recall the name) who can tell you the day, of a certain date and year exactly, and faster than one were to key into a computer program to calculate. Ironically, he is not able to do simple additions.
Having tickled my curiosity, I found another savant in YouTube, Kim Peek. He was the man that was modeled after in the show "Rain Man" by Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise. He has the remarkable ability to remember almost everything (98%) he read from a book. He speed reads as well, taking about 10 sec to read a page which ordinary person may take about 3 minutes to complete. His father said that he is also able to use each of his eyes to read both sides of the opened book concurrently. He is permanently stationed in Salt Lake City Public Library which houses more than 10 thousand books; which should keep him busy for a while.
All these savants are showing clear signs of autism. As one of the least autistic savant, Daniel Tammet explained, "He remember numbers as a series of colours and patterns". He has the astonishing ability to recite the numerical notation of the Mathematical PIE (3.14159...) up to 22 thousand digits (and it took him about 5 hours to recite it). On top of this, he managed to learn the Icelandic language in 1 week (the locals said it is the most difficult language to learn on earth) - and he had to be interviewed on the local television in that newly-learnt language after the 1 week period. He seems to be one of the rare savants to possess more than one unusual "skills". Accordingly to Daniel in one of the YouTube clips, there are only about 25 savants in the world.
In another YouTube clip, I found that in Japan, there are schools that are teaching students to use the abacus and further development will lead them to learn speed-calculations. Maybe there are ways to train a genius?
Is there a "genius" in you? I think we do to a certain extent. Sometimes, it is whether we are able to discover our strengths and further develop them to put them into good uses.
Something for you to think about: as Kim Peek said, "You do not have to be handicapped to be different, everyone is different".
Note: All these YouTube clips can be found with the names of the savant mentioned above.
20 February, 2010
The Start of "The Revival"
It has been a very long time that I last blogged, been about 5 years so far.
Amazingly how things had changed as I grew up, or rather, technologies had changed our lives. My army days were the time when mobile phones meant "brick" (actually bigger than a house building red brick, a normal house-sized telephone handset, with circuits that were housed in a hard-cased brief case) powered by a car battery and only the top executives can afford as the subscriptions were very pricy, not to mention the exorbitant air time charges.
As with most people, making calls outside meant that you had to prepare enough 10 cents coins or carry a phone cards. Quite often during normal civilised hours, you had to wait in queue just to use the public phone.
People wanting to contact you while you are outside meant that they will have to page you on your pager, and someone may have to devise some special codes to transfer a message. Those were the "ANCIENT TIMES", but they were much better than my parents' times, where not many households even have a telephone line at home.
Now with wi-fi, and gps being common utilities, we are really spoilt to the brim. Yet the communication industries are thinking of more ways to milk your $$$.
What will become of us when there come a day when such "conveniences" are taken away from us? I am sure human will adapt when the eventualities come - revert to "ancient" ways, like what we do in the army then, using communication cords or a 2-wire system to send pulses down the line, or even using smoke signals to communicate to a further destination. Like some ancient religions say, everything must go the beginning.
How some people have come to take things for "granted", as in a "must have". Interestingly, how some people are using "techno" as and when they wish, without due concerns for the people around them, be it their friends or business associates, or students in the midst of their lessons.
Oh yes, the last one is true in my experiences during the course of my work. Some of them are trying their luck to see if they can get away with it. I always caution them, not so much as to "confiscate" their phones or PSP, but to educate them in the way of the civility of proper behaviour. Imagine if they are constantly doing that in the company of their beloved - then the question will come as to how sincere one is in the relationship/companionship of their loved ones.
Much as I dislike my companions to be chatting incessantly on the phone in my presence, I do make it a point to minimise doing such inconsiderate acts. While at home with my family, I do not consciously place my HP beside me, just to preserve some of the privacy that I want with them. I guess that's my way of feeling more for them than anything else outside their lives in my free time.
Even with all the negative thoughts of technologies' "side-effects", I can only safely come to the conclusion that these "gadgets" are good for our daily undertakings but self-restraint to moderate the use should be the solution to prevent over-indulgence or over-reliant lest you will lose your humane self towards your relations.
To end the note, my life would be complete once I can revive my hobby ....
Amazingly how things had changed as I grew up, or rather, technologies had changed our lives. My army days were the time when mobile phones meant "brick" (actually bigger than a house building red brick, a normal house-sized telephone handset, with circuits that were housed in a hard-cased brief case) powered by a car battery and only the top executives can afford as the subscriptions were very pricy, not to mention the exorbitant air time charges.
As with most people, making calls outside meant that you had to prepare enough 10 cents coins or carry a phone cards. Quite often during normal civilised hours, you had to wait in queue just to use the public phone.
People wanting to contact you while you are outside meant that they will have to page you on your pager, and someone may have to devise some special codes to transfer a message. Those were the "ANCIENT TIMES", but they were much better than my parents' times, where not many households even have a telephone line at home.
Now with wi-fi, and gps being common utilities, we are really spoilt to the brim. Yet the communication industries are thinking of more ways to milk your $$$.
What will become of us when there come a day when such "conveniences" are taken away from us? I am sure human will adapt when the eventualities come - revert to "ancient" ways, like what we do in the army then, using communication cords or a 2-wire system to send pulses down the line, or even using smoke signals to communicate to a further destination. Like some ancient religions say, everything must go the beginning.
How some people have come to take things for "granted", as in a "must have". Interestingly, how some people are using "techno" as and when they wish, without due concerns for the people around them, be it their friends or business associates, or students in the midst of their lessons.
Oh yes, the last one is true in my experiences during the course of my work. Some of them are trying their luck to see if they can get away with it. I always caution them, not so much as to "confiscate" their phones or PSP, but to educate them in the way of the civility of proper behaviour. Imagine if they are constantly doing that in the company of their beloved - then the question will come as to how sincere one is in the relationship/companionship of their loved ones.
Much as I dislike my companions to be chatting incessantly on the phone in my presence, I do make it a point to minimise doing such inconsiderate acts. While at home with my family, I do not consciously place my HP beside me, just to preserve some of the privacy that I want with them. I guess that's my way of feeling more for them than anything else outside their lives in my free time.
Even with all the negative thoughts of technologies' "side-effects", I can only safely come to the conclusion that these "gadgets" are good for our daily undertakings but self-restraint to moderate the use should be the solution to prevent over-indulgence or over-reliant lest you will lose your humane self towards your relations.
To end the note, my life would be complete once I can revive my hobby ....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
