This is how my “fish paintings” was finally used as CNY decoration for SM’s class …
and haha, they are actually placed showing the “wrong” side 🙂
(the side that I painted on is shown below). And one of her teachers whom I had met recently asked her whether her dad was an artist!! (think he was puzzled because I did introduce myself as a (ex) JC math teacher during the meeting!!)
Filed under Chinese ink paintings, Random Stuff
It is good to feel the ground (grass, road, …) … every step brings a different sensation!!
walked this path back and forth this week, and then did a short run to entrance of reservoir and back
and Upper Pierce Reservoir is a great place to do so with these flowers in bloom (and managed to identify three of them from my book of “1001 Garden Plants in Singapore” 🙂 )
crossandra infundibuliformis? (须药花）
??
catharanthus cultivar? (periwinkle 长春花)
??
lanthanum camera (五色梅）
And in between the barefoot walk and run, practised with my new G Key bangdi (shorter type of dizi used in Northern style playing) when these waves suddenly crashed onto the reservoir shore …
suddenly, these waves appeared and crashed against the reservoir shoreline while I was practising dizi …
And Friday after early morning lesson for dizi, met this fella at Punggol Promenade after doing a run to Sengkang CC … (the pond has quite a number of them out suntanning at around 12 noon)
and started this random week with a talk on Monday at NTU listening to Jane Goodall in person!!! and bumping into 3 random people – ex colleague, ex student, and parent of a current tuition student!! These sentences from Wikipaedia “nicely” captures the importance of her work:
Goodall’s research at Gombe Stream is best known to the scientific community for challenging two long-standing beliefs of the day: that only humans could construct and use tools, and that chimpanzees were vegetarians. … In response to Goodall’s revolutionary findings, Louis Leakey wrote, “We must now redefine man, redefine tool, or accept chimpanzees as human!”.
Jane Goodall, NTU LT19A, 5 Feb 2015, talking about her effect …
and always find it inspiring to be around people like her!!
(END – of this post about random stuff 🙂 )
Filed under Random Stuff
SM asked me to help her class with their CNY decorations by painting “Fish” and this is what her class got (the catfish below were not colourful enough to put up as New Year decor 🙂 )
And some catfish works that we did in class last week (22 Jan)
this was done in class; not too bad for a first time if I may say so myself!! 🙂
Mr Ang helped me add in the words yesterday …
Filed under Chinese ink paintings
Did a fun “special effects” session in painting class yesterday using soya bean (unsweetened, unless you want to attract ants to the work!)! Mixing soya bean milk with the white mineral paint first and applying it to the paper created the swirls seen in the picture below.
did this when I got home!!
this was done in class, minus the colour.
In class, I used only the white paint without mixing in the soya milk (see picture above) as I did not want to use the sweetened soya milk that a classmate had brought to the class (lazy to wash the cloth, haha) and even got some classmates to try their hand at drawing the fish which is why they are all squeezed to the right side (in case spoilt, can cut it off, LOL).
As there was more than enough soya milk to be used, I did another (huge piece, like the one on top, measures 69 cm x 69 cm), making the fish go the reverse direction and with blue background:
blue background and fish in clockwise direction
Must say it was a fun thing to do to add some variety to the class yesterday and everyone liked the effects created; but as Mr Ang said, this is not something to do too much of as it gets “stale” quite quickly!
Note: Important thing to achieve the effect is to wait for each application to dry before proceeding (1. soya bean and mineral white layer 2. add the fish 3. add in the colour of the swirls).
Filed under Chinese ink paintings
Thursday 15 jan2015 painting class…starting to do subjects with Lunar New Year theme 🙂
Filed under Chinese ink paintings
“ When you fold, the ritual and the act of creation is more important than the final result. When your hands are busy your heart is serene” Akira Yoshizawa (1911-2005), Grandmaster of origami
Some hobbies just stay with you forever (since 10 years old to be exact)!! And still amazed at what can be done with just a square piece of paper (coincidentally, the Wikipaedia link shows him holding a origami peacock too!!! but a much nicer looking one).
folded over 31 Dec 2014 and 1 Jan 2015!
(peacock above uses recycled paper from a wedding gift box of “pong piah” and peanut candy, quite different from the usual “ang gu kuay” and cakes).
And I am apparently the inspiration for my young nephew to take it up too (see his creations below) 🙂
Looking back, must say that it has been one of those activities that have help me to develop (among others)
Pretty impressive for a “low cost” hobby if you ask me! 🙂
Filed under Fifty before 50, Life Lessons, Random Stuff
A fitting first entry for 2015 for my blog “while I live, I learn”!
Just started on my first Coursera course in 2o15, “Learning How to Learn“, with two more signed up further down the road! Here are three of my takeaways from watching the Week 1 lecture videos (course started on 2 Jan 2015), played at 2x speed since much of the material is “familiar” 🙂 .
1) physical exercise grows new neurons in the hippocampus – this recent research finding overturns previously held findings that the neurons we have at birth are all that we will ever have
2) spacing out practise works better (e.g. do a little bit on Mon, Tue, Thu, Sat) than doing it all at one go (e.g. 4 hours practise on a single day) and an analogy of why this is so (constructing a strong neural structure is like laying a brick wall; we need the time for the cement to dry as we build up the brick layers)
strong neural structure form when practise takes place over time
cramming – trying to do everything at one go results in weak neural structure (cement has no time to dry!)
3) two reasons for the importance of sleep in learning: first, it washes away the “toxic” stuff that forms during our awake state which helps to keep our brains healthy; second, the connections made during learning are strengthened during sleep state as the brain continues to “rehearse” the neuron firing patterns made while learning.
Other stuff in the videos discussed “diffused and focussed thinking,” “chunking”, the various types of memories, and procrastination, and “bonus” interviews with several experts on creativity and problem solving, language learning, and writing (last two yet to watch).
Filed under Random Stuff
Read this interesting article Your Lifestyle has already been designed recently, where the writer reflects on his “consumption habits, work life, and money-time relationships” upon rejoining the corporate world after spending 9 months travelling (and without an income).
Within days of “normal working life”, he notices that
“the more wholesome activities are quickly dropping out of my life: walking, exercising, reading, meditating, and extra writing.
The one conspicuous similarity between these activities is that they cost little or no money, but they take time.
Suddenly I have a lot more money and a lot less time, which means I have a lot more in common with the typical working North American than I did a few months ago.”
Summing up his insights about the 40 hour workweek as a “design” by corporations, he writes:
We’ve been led into a culture that has been engineered to leave us tired, hungry for indulgence, willing to pay a lot for convenience and entertainment, and most importantly, vaguely dissatisfied with our lives so that we continue wanting things we don’t have. We buy so much because it always seems like something is still missing.
Western economies, particularly that of the United States, have been built in a very calculated manner on gratification, addiction, and unnecessary spending. We spend to cheer ourselves up, to reward ourselves, to celebrate, to fix problems, to elevate our status, and to alleviate boredom.
While perhaps too “harsh” in the way he pins down the “real reason for the forty hour workweek” on corporations, it was most interesting to read this article just after I had finished reading “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley (available as e-book from National Library or pdf file here) which had some rather similar themes (of a future dystopian world where everyone is kept happy through “engineering” or “design” by “controllers”). And another interesting thing was how SY had already thought about some of these ideas even before starting to work!! 🙂
A good article to look back on, when we find that we have “no time” or have an urge to buy stuff!!
(thanks to Dennis Yeo for sharing the article :))
(see also my previous post On Idleness)
Filed under Life Lessons
A different view of trip!
Lol I was going to post my travel journal here but I found out that wordpress is blocked in china…… and I didn’t bring my physical journal so I ended up writing on all the random hotel paper. But now that I’m out of the great firewall I can finally blog again!
It’s funny cos I brought 1984 to read on the trip then I realised the similarities (the censorship, cctv everywhere, street lights that flash whenever a car drives past) but ok 1984’s is way more extreme and boo the ending D:<
Anyway this trip was super different from my family’s usual ones cos it was on a tour group consisting of my extended family, there were 15 of us so we went around in a big bus and had a tour guide and the itinerary was all planned already. The main point of the trip was to go…
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Filed under Travel, Uncategorized
is how I would describe my recent “extended” family holiday in Fujian, China in just a few words … seriously do not think it is possible to arrange such a trip to Fujian with the same fifteen people in future!
The “extended” family at a 土楼 （tu3 lou2) in 永定 (yong3 ding4)
The trip was planned primarily around a visit to my in-law’s 老家 (the home where their parents had lived) in 莆田 (Putien). It is unclear how long these houses would still be around due to the rapid development (i.e. building of condos) in China; everywhere, we saw high rise apartments being build, in both city and more rural areas.
mom’s side old house … (relatives are still staying around the newer buildings adjacent to this one)
dad’s side old house (more than a century old! not lived in anymore)
with visits to other major places of interest in Fujian province, namely:
Gu Lang Yu, a vehicle free island off Xiamen, was our first stop on the day of arrival
Gu Lang Yu – stroll the streets to see majestic old buildings, fly kites on the beaches, or just hang out at the shopping street …
Jinmen – for learning about recent China-Taiwan history
and the battles fought between them …
土楼-easy to see why they are so named (“earthen structures” literally)
Inside the Zhenchenglou (振成樓) (we visited this one and a “square” tu lou, which happens to be where our guide lives)
my girls visited their great grandfather’s school!
Steps to the Matzu Temple (妈祖庙）on Mei Zhou island
Buddha’s profile … taken during a 2 hr bamboo raft ride
Ganlu Rock Temple, Song Dynasty (history of more than 800 years old although it looks pretty new; perhaps rebuilt??), Taining
Wuyi Mountain 武夷山 mountain range (just 1000+ steps to reach the top on steep narrow steps) – view in photo is from 天游峰, the highest(?) point of the mountain ranges
bamboo raft ride, the most popular activity in Wuyi Shan … tip the oarsmen on stepping aboard if you want him to tell stories and entertain you during the 1 hr 30 min ride!!
It was a good thing too that we engaged a tour agency to coordinate the travel arrangements (e.g. transport, accommodation, meals, ticketing) as it would have been simply too difficult to do it on our own, when the group was so big and diverse (age range from 10 to 80+ years, repeat visits for some and first time for others). However, it would be quite possible to travel independently if it was only for 2 to 4 people.
And for the many other experiences we gained from the trip (e.g. like missing a boat, or creating an itinerary for self-organised group travel, or being better prepared for travel in winter), I would say it has been a very good trip!
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after note: for anyone who needs their daily fix of Facebook, Google, Gmail, Youtube, Instagram, Twitter, WordPress, Dropbox, … these sites are all blocked in mainland China (seen positively, it is a great way to break the habit or addiction to these sites!! 🙂 )
Filed under Fifty before 50, Travel
While I Live, I Learn 