Karma by Edwin Arlington Robinson
As much as I love and enjoy literature, poetry is one of the most challenging aspect of literature to me. Many a times it isn’t easy to decode what the poet is trying to say due to its obscure meanings and hidden symbolisms. It is confusing. In the end, I try to avoid them altogether.
But on the insistence of Mr Chandran, our literature teacher, I forced myself to sit still and read the piece Karma, by Edwin Arlington Robinson :
Christmas was in the air and all was well
With him, but for a few confusing flaws
In divers of God’s images. Because
A friend of his would neither buy nor sell,
Was he to answer for the axe that fell?
He pondered; and the reason for it was,
Partly, a slowly freezing Santa Claus
Upon the corner, with his beard and bell.
Acknowledging an improvident surprise,
He magnified a fancy that he wished
The friend whom he had wrecked were here again.
Not sure of that, he found a compromise;
And from the fulness of his heart he fished
A dime for Jesus who had died for men.
At first read, I could not make it out. Who was the protagonist in this poem? And who is this friend? And why do I feel depressed after I was done reading it?
It was only later that I finally understood.
It was a story of a stockbroker, who betrayed his friend and made him bankrupt. He feels guilty about it. Due to the Christmas holidays, he tries to make himself feel better about it by donating to the charity. But his act of donating just ten cents makes the entire gesture farce.
The more I read it, the more I appreciated this piece of poetry. I can’t believe I actually decoded that one.
Mr Chandran says that a good piece of poetry retells a story in a very subtle manner. And suddenly I feel so enlightened.
Virtual child pornography. Is it right?
This is probably old news.
But I can’t help photoshopping this out.
In a more sombre note, a link from the Secondlife blog, bothered me. In the report, Secondlife has banned two avatars – one whom resembled an adult male and the other whom resembled a child engaged in a sexual conduct.
Without a doubt, child pornography is sick and very wrong. But what bothered me about the report is that both of the parties involved are aged 54 and 27 respectively. They are both adults. Not children.
How is it wrong that two conscentual adults, role play in the privacy of their own area? Granted, the very idea of pedophilia is sick. But in this instance, no children are involved. Secondlife is an above 18 only website, it is silly to have an age verification and yet have two adults charged and banned.
There are a number of people who uses the metaverse as a form of escapism. Some become furries, some become goths. Would they be charged too for role playing as such? We need to distinguish between virtual contents and real life. A lot of people are being too over-sensitive of that.
In the Ashcroft vs. The Free Speech Coalition in 2002, all four of the government’s arguments were unsuccessful and the Supreme Court held that the CPPA was unconstitutionally overboard. No matter what angle used, the fact is, no real children was involved. It would be different between someone exploiting a real, living, breathing child for their own perverted desires.
As long as no one is really hurt, and the parties involved are truly consensual and of age, what business is it of yours?
Disclaimer : I am not involved with adult-child roleplaying. However, I am very bothered by the fact that our freedom of expression is quelled in an above 18 website.
There’s something about us
We are all connected
I feel quite poignant
Lilian is right when she said that the blogosphere is very close knitted. I remember what Preetam mentioned before during the E27 unconference. He said “Most people are more inclined to read blogs that belong to their friends or aquaintances”.
I cant speak for all, but I think the statement is true. Much of my feeds are of my friends, as I like to read the updates on my friend’s life and see what they are up to. Of course at the same time, there are interesting feeds that I’ve subscribed, to whom I have no aquaintance of.
Nevertheless, the blogosphere definitely is very close knitted. We know this is so because of this simple experiment :
1. Look at your blogroll and click one at random
2. Notice that the blogroll of the person you’ve clicked on has at least 2 or more people that you know.
3. Now click their blogroll at random. Chances will be that you’ll still see at least one person that you recognize.
Eventually everyone is connected to each other in the blogosphere. We’ll be even closer to the six degree of separation.
The world has become a smaller place. Nowadays, I dont even need the rss reader to see updates on my friends. With websites such as the increasingly popular twitter, I can see what they are doing and thinking real time. Isnt that useful?
However in retrospective, somehow I think it just gives us a false sense of security. Yes, it is definitely convenient. But a million sms updates just cant compare real interaction. Besides, would anyone really care about my mundane activities and rants?
This is a typical twitter message
3:00pm – Scratching my head
3:05pm – I just sneezed
3:10pm – Swinging around on my chair
3:12pm – Eating chocolate
3:15pm – Oh I just blinked my eyes
Uh … Too much information?
But one cannot deny its usefulness. This reminds me of a report by New York Daily News in 2005 of of how the last entry of his blog, has helped police to catch his murderer. His xanga blog is still up and I was struck by how easily it is to connect to him – looking at his picture, and reading his posts, it is not hard to imagine him as our friend. He was an ordinary and real person. Just like us.
Even though we may not be able to meet up with our internet friends in real life, I believe that it is possible to have real feelings and memories towards them.
I still have memories of my online friends.
Undercore, a friendly and helpful young man whom was very helpful towards me and glonan, a sweet lady that is always very perceptive towards her friends. They are both gone too soon.
I think eventually, blogs and websites are a form of archive to remember us by. This blog too, is used for remembering past experiences and memories.
I think I am an average, ordinary person just like everybody else. We are all connected because we want to remember and to be remembered.
As a side note : There’s a blogout event coming up on the 24th May. Do come down if you can make it. This will be a great and fun way to meet and network with other bloggers 🙂
A nice day spent with friends at Far East Plaza
Far East Plaza is a nice place to hang out. As it is in the city, it tends to get quite crowded. But there are loads of things to buy and see there. I like it namely for the affordable and wide variety of apparel sold there.
I recently bought some clothes at Far East Plaza. Each of the apparel that you see in this picture here averages at about 30 dollars each. One could easily go crazy with the range of clothes here.
Yesterday, I was at Far East Plaza again. But it wasn’t for shopping. Instead, it was a day for meeting of friends.
My good friend Juli, asked for help in designing a logo and namecard. We met at Far East plaza as designated. As I turned around, she pointed to a guy who was right next to her and introduced him.
“Marina, this is Man”
Man is Juli’s boyfriend. We’ve talked about him quite a bit during our girl sessions and it was nice to finally meet him in person. Over lunch, we got to know each other and I can’t help to think of what an adorable couple they were.
Man and Juli were always teasing each other. It was so cute. They said that they planned on getting married at the end of the year, God willing. We spent the time talking to each other. Man seemed a funny and friendly guy.
After we were all happy with the final look of the logo, we waved our goodbyes and I headed to try to find the ping.sg gang. There was a buybuttonz event going on. I saw a white booth outside of Far East Plaza, but where on earth are the pingsters? I twittered in desperation.
Luckily, Tstar picked up my message and adviced me to head up to the second floor where the fair was. It was then when I saw quite a number of booths being set up. I walked to each booth trying to find a familliar face. I must have made an entire circle around the fair and that was when I finally noticed DK. Finally! A familliar face!
Me : Hi! (DK doesnt hear me)
A guy who happened to stand in the middle reciprocated instead.
Guy : Err .. hi. You are?
Me thinking : Who the heck is this person?
Guy : Hi I’m Farinelli.
Me : Alamak! Hi! I’m rinaz!
How embarassing! What a way to start to know another. Luckily for me, Farinelli was very friendly and easy to talk to. All feelings of embarassment quickly disappeared.
I quickly scanned around the booth and saw Uzyn and his girlfriend, Sek Ling, I finally got to meet Nicole and her boyfriend, Hendri. There were also arzhou, Ridz, Miccheng, Veron, Estee as well as others whom I unfortunately did not managed to catch their names.
It was so funny to see the gang acting so silly. It seemed like everyone was goofing off. I guess this pose was inspired by the picture that was made infamous by DK.
We headed off for dinner afterwards at the Ayam Penyet Ria restaurant . I’m crazy about this stuff. Ayam Penyet is an Indonesian dish that consists of a deep fried chicken with floss sprinkled on top, served with some raw vegetables and rice as well as extra hot chilli.
Unfortunately, as our group was a little too big, we were split into two groups to fit a table. Everyone at our table seemed to like the speciality ayam penyet there. Here is a quick video of our dinner
Click here to watch in youtube
Clockwise from left to right : trecillia3678, Hendri, Nicole, Ridz, Veron, Miccheng, NTT, DK, CJ, Uzyn, Sek Ling, Farinelli and me.
After dinner, we chilled out for a bit at Starbucks and had a bit of a chit chat. Just for fun I thought I’d do a quick interview of everyone there.
Click here to watch in youtube
What a lovely evening it was. Anywhere can be a lovely place, with great company 🙂
My presentation on netcasting in schools
A trip down to the Istana
Beautiful Jurong Lake Park
Is netcasting for schools a reality?
Watching Kevin’s vidcast for his COM125 class has really left me inspired. Through his video, we can observe his unique style of teaching which makes his lessons engaging and interesting.
Netcasting is where one records their own audio or video and post it online. It is a wonderful and effective way of sharing information. I think that more educators should use usethis medium.
It is effective because people contain information best through :
1. Repetition
2. Visualisation and senses
This is what makes techniques such as Tony Buzan’s Memory Pegs effective as it makes full use of one’s senses.
But while having dinner with my good friend Juli, who is a primary school teacher herself, I asked her opinion about it. She tells me that netcasting may not be readily received by teachers because of factors such as self consciousness and fear of technology.
Huh?
Here we have a simple technology that will help dispense information more easily. But people are so quick to reject it. Why should issues such as self consciousness be of a hindrance? In fact, one doesnt even have to video their own faces, but instead film how they solve a mathemetical equation on a piece of paper for example. Alternatively, they could film their students acting as parts of the bodys intestinal tract. This is a positive interaction as both teacher and student are both actively participating.
As a Multimedia Educator it is my role to help them along should they have problems or fear of technology. But I cant help them if they wont let me.
I remember back in primary school, I would look foward to watching the CDIS programme. These were educational videos that were pertaining to what I learnt in school as well as some syllabus that I havent learnt yet.
And while in secondary school, I did well in humanity subjects as our teacher gave us a plentiful of access to video tapes that makes our visualisation, stronger. I am always amazed that I can still remember word for word, songs I learnt in choir but forget random information minutes afterwards.
I guess this is constituted to the fact that I am a visual person – receptive of things using my senses. And I am pretty sure that there are many people who learn this way too.
There is a wealth of information out there – audio visuals in the library, mass media, information readily available from the internet itself. Which is why, all the more reason that we should have netcasts for educational purposes and cultivate a culture of sharing in a more personal way.
Moreover with about 80% of students carrying handphones and/or mp3 players, we should take advantage of this and give netcasting a try.
Next week, I’ll be sharing the teachers in Shuqun Secondary about the potential about netcasting for lessons. I hope it goes well.
Update : Hooray! Mr Gopal, the head of department of maths seems keen on netcasting. I believe in the law of reverbberation. Start out small and then grow bigger! 🙂
Update : My presentation during staff sharing is up for viewing here