Hey, thanks to all who visited. Considering that it is a weekday, three responses are great.
Shiyan, innumerabilis is not a derivation from innumerable. Innumerabilis is a latin word, and is the root word of innumerable and immeasurable. I first came across it in Horace’s Ode: “quod non imber edax, non aquilo impotens possit diruere aut innumerabilis annorum series et fuga tempoum”. It means “that which neither devouring rain, nor the unrestrained North Wind may be able to destroy nor the immeasurable succession of years and the flight of time.”
Jen, you visited! I’m sorry that I haven’t been to your diary frequently, but school work puts me into a brown study. Thanks for visiting, Jing feng. I promise to visit your online journal if you give me the url. =)
I tried recently to convert all my webpages to W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) standard of XHTML, or at least HTML 4.01 Strict DTD. I converted the index page, then gave up on the rest; the process was tedious, boring, and unproductive. Well, at least I learned something: Microsoft Frontpage-created pages are filled with unnecessary coding, that will increase the size of the html file by at least twice. It would be better to just start coding with notepad from scratch, rather than shifting through “Microshit’s” unsatisfactory code.
Today’s school was okay, the prospect of the consecutive four days of break was a major motivating factor the sustained me throughout the day. The earlier part of the day was generally uneventful, even physics tutorial in the Japanese LEP room. By the way, that green snake looks cute. =)
During GP, I asked Mr. Prince what does “Bob’s your uncle” mean. Haha, I have a confession to make here: I am perfectly aware that supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is a superlative coined by the author of Mary Poppins. I am equally cognizant that “Bob’s your uncle” means “and there you have it”. I encountered the latter in recent books and online forums, contrary to what he said. Perhaps the idiom has made a revival in England, during his 23 years of absence?
This brings us to a question: why did I ask it? The platonic answer would be that I was bored, that there was nothing to do, and I may as well ask for the heck of it. However, I think deep within me, there is an urge to know if Mr Prince is truly, as he said, aware of the meanings of most words, phrases and idioms. Remember his one-dollar challenge? If you can give a word that he does not know, then he will give $1 to the class fund. Well, he has certainly proved his worth, with the above two words, and “moiety”. That was a biological term, although it also has usage outside that of science, but the fact that Mr Prince knew its meaning offhand made me respect him more.
You see, it is hard to be a teacher nowadays: youngsters are constantly out to test you, to see if you are worth your salary. As tomorrow (or rather, today)’s teachers day approaches, let us pause and look back at how the education system has evolved. It is hard to be an educator nowadays, that’s for sure. My community involvement project involves tutoring primary school students every Tuesday for 2 hours, and I am starting to abhor it. The kids are hyperactive, noisy and unfocused, and there is the sense of dissatisfaction as you teach them. If a primary three student is supposed to know his times tables, but does not even know how to do long subtraction, then from which point do you start? I am filled with a sense of lost; I guess I am not cut out to be a tutor at this point in time.
I tried the hovercraft in the hall today. It was okay, but I still do not get the point. What fun is there on riding on a low air-cushion that has a wire attached to it? It is not that I want to criticise Ergo for providing such a fun activity, it is just that I don’t really see the point.
After that was rec bad, and I went for dinner at Ghim Moh. Yong he is evil, in fact, he is the devil incarnate! He rushed off with the promise of coming back for the Mars lecture, and did not appear at all. The Mars lecture was interesting, and the pictures of the expeditions made me want to go as well. However, after the lecture, the sky was cloudy and we couldn’t even see the moon, much less mars. At about 9 pm, though, part of the sky cleared, and I could see a very bright “star”. However, it didn’t look red. The astronomy club people said it was Mars, but Aaron said it was Venus.
Speaking of the skies, there was a competition organised by Citibank, in which the winner’s trip to visit the Northern Lights, a.k.a Aurora Borealis in Finland would be sponsored. The winner is chosen based on an essay of not more than 200 words on “why you think you should go”. The winning entry came from a TJC girl, and her poem really impressed me. It goes “Consecrated by the heavens above/Indeterminate colours of immesurable worth” I would be interested to view the poem in its entirety.
On the way home, I fell asleep on the bus. I woke up in time to get off two bus-stops down, but it is these scenarios that get me shirty. Neither here nor there, as the idiom goes. It is quite far to walk, but it is too near to take a bus in the reverse direction. It is the same point with me being late; Being late for one or two minutes is most annoying, which is why I am either not late, or very late. I think I have been late for 10 times already. Mr Lee is so nice and understanding, for with some teachers, I would have gotten quite a sizeable number of Warning Slips.
Speaking of Mr. Lee, I witnessed the councillors singing a teacher’s day song to him outside the staffroom. It was quite funny, for he had the “deer caught in headlights” look. Haha, t’was a most entertaining period, standing near the staffroom to watch the teachers being “caught”. I wonder if the councillors got the idea from Lockhart’s Valentine services in one of the Harry Potter book?
Well, this is already quite long, so I guess I shall end here. There is still so much more to say, to grumble, to whine, to praise, but to post more in this entry today, runs the risk of chasing my readers away.
Gute Nacht!
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