What is the true purpose of education?

Is the end product a stimulated mind or life-long skills or values or a gain in knowledge?

What is my role as an educator?

Private or State

Will education be decentralized and not placed in the hands of the authority?

Do people have the courage to completely believe in private regulation?

Ultimately, is a state-run or private run education system the best option?

What is the role of the state when it concerns education?

Veronika decides to die (VDTD)

If I had only a week to live, what will I do? This was the question the main character faced after her attempted suicide. Veronika was told by the doctor that she had only a week and Paulo Coelho takes the reader into how she lived the rest of her remaining days. The book was written in a classic Coelho manner, prompting the reader to question life and how one should live and be individualistic and 'mad'.

Reading the book made me realise a lot of missed opportunities that I should have either grabbed or done over my four years at university. If the clock can be turned back, I will live each day with every passing minute in university to the fullest and committing silly mistakes. It was one of the few places where I could have gladly made more mistakes. However, the time is always right to make mistakes and live my life to the fullest.

I should perhaps draw a list and set about achieving the goals before I turn 26 and feel a quiet sense of satisfaction. Hmmm...

Questions that plague my mind

1. In a head on head contest, which outlet will emerge the favourite among Singaporeans: Botak Jones or Astons?

My take on this issue is that it will be a close call as Botak Jones has been in the coffee shop scene for quite sometime and is known for its American servings. Over time, the outlet had apparently downsized its servings. On the other hand, Astons is opening up more branches and serves good food. Botak Jones might seize the lead if they could downsize their prices as well.

2. Will I continue to stay in Singapore?

This issue has been on my mind for a very long time and have taken it up with a few friends. Some have remained silent and others have taken a pastoral approach to my plans to either migrate or work. I wonder where I will gather the leap of faith and jump to another country as I am myself skeptical of such a decision. I will probably go up a few notches in experience and wisdom if I embark on the journey a few years down the road. I will let time be the judge.

(To be continued when the brain is functioning better..)

Popular Bookstore

My New Year officially started on 11th January as I managed to find a organizer to my liking. It was sleek and not big and heavy. I felt sparks and chemistry when I saw the organizer(although there were quite a number of the same type) To accompany my organizer, I thought a 0.7 pen will be appropriate which was out of stock. I had to eventually settle for the o.5 pens and felt happy with my purchase.

I can finally put my plans, actions and goals into this organizer and make each day seem worthwhile and most importantly, not miss any deadlines. A sleek organizer and appropriate pens can indeed make or start a year.

While I was standing in the long queue, I occupied my mind with the books on the shelf and a get-rich idea occurred to me. I should write a motivational book titled 365 days where I will pen either a random/crazy/deep/motivational act or thought everyday and collate it over the next 350 something days.

There are too many motivational books in the market and most of them are meaningless in my opinion. Perhaps, my motivational book will address some fundamental issues about human's existence over a year and provide answers to a few lost souls on how to take charge of their lives and commit foolish acts before they age another year. I welcome donations in the event my manuscript is rejected and I will have to do it solo to get the message across to the human race.

A wave of inspiration came over me and it led me to blogger. Perhaps not writing for sometime might have led to a sudden burst of inspiration. It could also be due to my head almost on the verge of explosion due to an accumulation of ideas over the past few weeks. One thing is certain. Prince is back.

Deciphering Songs

A friend of mine told me that it is best the listener deciphers the song on his own rather than reading books and visiting websites to listen to people's interpretation of the song. The people's interpretation might/will greatly differ from the writer's intepretation at the time the song was conceived. It is best left to the imagination of the listener to decipher the song.

Thus, I have tried to decipher all the songs I listen to. Numerous artists have troubled me with their uncomprehendable lyrics and Mr Dylan ranks at the top of these artists. The only song which I claim I could fully understand is his earlier record, "Blowing in the Wind". The problem creeps in when I listen to his other songs. The first 4 verses of "I want you" is so unrelated in my opinion and yet in tune with the music and makes me wonder why will a undertaker, organ grinder and saxophonist have anything to do with the song.

The same confusing theme runs in almost all of his poetic songs where there seems to be some connection between all the verses and a novice listener like myself have trouble deciphering. He was either playing with peoples' mind by adding in random phrases and gaining satisfaction in confusing people. Or he feels a real strong sense of connection and conviction when he writes the song. Till then, I will continue to submit to Dylan's uncomprehendable, poetic torture.

Paul Simon

The curiousity of Dylan led me to a google search of the best song writers of all time and in all of the links I visited, Dylan came out tops but the person to occupy second spot on certain websites shocked me. Paul Simon the half of Simon and Garfunkel duo is supposedly the second best songwriter beating John Lenon and Paul McCartney. I chanced upon the Paul Simon Companion book containing selected interviews of the artist.

The book brought a fresh perspective to how I view music. I began to listen to the rhythm, melody, the different instruments, the lyrics and how these various elements interact to produce a song. All these parts have to be tuned and tweaked to produce a song and arranging a song could take hours and Simon put in a lot of energy into ensuring that no detail is left hanging.

Song writing is indeed tough and I tried my hand at writing but I constantly suffer the common writer's block. Simon discusses about writers block in the book and how he used to suffer from it and what he did to overcome it. He goes on to explain that he employs many different approaches to song writing and does not stick to one. After reading the book, my respect for musicians had risen and made me realise that music is indeed a mixture of science and art.

The Dark Knight

I created a lengthy post discussing about the merits of the Dark Knight and found that I was not going anywhere with the post. To sum it up in a paragraph, Heath Ledger did a fantastic job as the Joker. Christopher Nolan is one of the best directors of our time and a pity that he did not win the best director award. The screenplay is in a class of its own. In short, the Dark Knight is one of the top ten movies of my all time favourite list. The change in opinion from a over hyped commercial film to an amazing movie is down to the second watch and understanding the complex and brilliant plot and making sense of the story and concept.

I managed to catch the production scenes on the DVD and was blown away by the elaborate set-up and the attempt to make every scene as realistic as possible. It is a shame that Dark Knight did not get as much attention as the other "Oscar worthy" movies but then again, such movies are not meant to be popular.

Bombay

I caught Bombay after my first exam. It has been an exam ritual of mine to watch a movie after an exam and these exams are no exception as my next paper is in ten days. The movie was exceptional. The director had a lot of courage and balls to make such a movie. The movie was about a couple from 2 different religions who eloped to Bombay and married despite their parents objections. The riots and the aftermath were almost lifelike and it made me almost sick. A.R. Rahman's score is excellent and went well with the movie. Watching the movie with the theme music is a hair standing experience. It is a movie which made me further appreciate the importance of religious and racial harmony.

One can just stare at this for hours and admire the beauty of this piece of art. Lennon is shown to be a colorful and yet serious in his long haired, spectacle wearing pose. The artist deserves the full credit for transforming this portrait into an amazing artwork.