Yet another dent on the door

I can’t understand why some drivers simply don’t park their cars properly in the lot. I’ve parked all the way to the wall on the left and there was a 1m space on my right. Yet I’ve got a deep dent on my right door–with paint from the other car too. This is irritating, agonising and depressing.

I think I’m going to watch a highly rated movie that is highly depressing to make me less so: Requiem for a Dream (2000). It is about family but it is certainly not family-oriented. It is so real that I cringe while reading just the synopsis.

I seriously need some tattoos for my car to ward off evil.

http://www.tattoo-blast.com/images/japanese-04.jpg

One for each hind door.

And it was over

Like all good things, the Art Writing 1 Workshop has come to an end. The past three Tuesday afternoons have been really good ones: intellectually stimulating,  cathartic. I’m not sure how the talk with the Senior Civil Servant went, but I hope you had a good time.

The Workshop concluded an hour an a half earlier than it’s supposed to, because “the mentor” had urgent matters to tend to. That’s fine with me because I completely empathise with his situation. The thing with Arts is that it encompasses so much beyond what can be offered in a mere few hours. I’m not sure how the others felt about the premature end, or how they felt on the whole about the Workshop (some may feel that it did not justify the price tag), but I know the entire Workshop has been the best course I have attended.

It was perhaps a good thing to end early too as it gave me more opportunity to mingle with the strangers at the Workshop. Apparently I was the only one not offering Art. I still remember my request during my interview a decade ago. I had wanted to do Art and English, but I was gently reminded by the panel with a sympathetic look that I had not done Art at the O and A levels. My modest portfolio was useless back in those days (and probably useless now too as it has been a long while since I last did a serious painting, but I think the next one should come in June to commemorate a good friend’s departure–from the college!) I’m glad I have Mathematics in place of Art–English and Maths is a way-too-cool combo. But whatever we teach, we can’t run away from Politics. Politics in the sector is under-reported and it is through such chats with strangers of the same profession that things are very carefully revealed. My conclusion (premature nonetheless) is that we have a bloody lousy TV station. We have such great materials in the profession to create a mega-blockbuster 1000-part serial that gives Jewel in the Palace and Beyond the Realm of Conscience and any other Korean or Hong Kong period-drama serials a run for their money! (I just caught an episode of Conscience on DVD rented by my parents; I thought it was a passable show, but Michelle Yim is the only factor why I would catch another episode. But when I saw the politics in the palaces, I can only be reminded of work. As a palace-maid, one has to be conscious of the witch-hunts around the chambers while stitching comments onto essays among a hundred and one other things.) It can be called Joust in the Palace Beyond Consciousness.

In any case, here are just some notes from last Tuesday and today. My reflection is in square brackets. I’ll save the other ideas for the Culture, Arts, Music: Elective at the end of the semester (do note again that the elective is an elective–non-obligatory, but please let me know if you are coming for CAME via the EVIL/IVLE):

1. Rewriting [and that includes corrections] is a process to increase intelligence in “commonplace” writing; so many writings in contemporary time are mindless (eg: blogs, Facebook status) [rest assure that it takes me an average of four hours to write and rewrite each proper blog article here]

2. Students must own their own judgements and feelings

3. The movie is predictable: it has certain form and shape [which is why I love this particular movie called Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which doesn’t have a clearly defined shape and form because its narrative is highly complex yet it tugs at my heart–and of course there are characters like Frodo, Mary Jane Watson, Truman and Rose in it]

4. Personal relationship to writing–how well you write depends on how much you love writing and of course, how much you know

5. Writing as a tool to teach: the passion for writing should stem from the teacher [see (1)]

6. Co-writing is an important learning technique; the peer exchange that will occur in co-writing is what writing is about–communicating

7. Making a judgement VS having a favourite (eg: “I agree with your stand because I like it”)–the former requests the need to defend your judgement while the latter is subjective

8. Arts: direct engagement with the world–Science and Art are tied together by a sense of wonder for the world; the discovery (via either channel) is intriguing

Of Choice, Happiness & Destiny

Money buys happiness – but not forever

The Straits Times, April 1, 2010 By David Brooks TWO things happened to Sandra Bullock last month. First, she won an Academy Award for best actress. Then came the news reports claiming that her husband is an adulterous jerk. So the philosophic question of the day is: Would you take that as a deal? Would you exchange a tremendous professional triumph for a severe personal blow? Sure, an Academy Award is nothing to sneeze at. Bullock has earned the admiration of her peers in a way very few experience. She’ll make more money for years to come. She may even live longer. Research by Mr Donald A. Redelmeier and Mr Sheldon M. Singh has found that, on average, Oscar winners live nearly four years longer than nominees who don’t win. Nonetheless, if you had to take more than three seconds to think about this question, then you are absolutely crazy. Marital happiness is far more important than anything else in determining personal well-being. If you have a successful marriage, it doesn’t matter how many professional setbacks you endure, you will be reasonably happy. If you have an unsuccessful marriage, it doesn’t matter how many career triumphs you record, you will remain significantly unfulfilled. This isn’t just sermonising. This is the age of research, so there’s data to back this up. Over the past few decades, teams of researchers have been studying happiness. Their work, which seemed flimsy at first, has developed an impressive rigour, and one of the key findings is that, just as the old sages predicted, worldly success has shallow roots while interpersonal bonds permeate through and through. For example, the relationship between happiness and income is complicated, and after a point, tenuous. It is true that poor nations become happier as they become middle-class nations. But once the basic necessities have been achieved, future income is lightly connected to well-being. Growing countries are slightly less happy than countries with slower growth rates, according to Ms Carol Graham of the Brookings Institution and Mr Eduardo Lora. The United States is much richer than it was 50 years ago, but this has produced no measurable increase in overall happiness. On the other hand, it has become a much more unequal country, but this inequality doesn’t seem to have reduced national happiness. On a personal scale, winning the lottery doesn’t seem to produce lasting gains in a person’s well-being. People aren’t happiest during the years when they are winning the most promotions. Instead, people are happy in their 20s, dip in middle age and then, on average, hit peak happiness just after retirement at age 65. People get slightly happier as they climb the income scale, but this depends on how they experience growth. Does wealth inflame unrealistic expectations? Does it destabilise settled relationships? Or does it flow from a virtuous circle in which an interesting job produces hard work that in turn leads to more interesting opportunities? If the relationship between money and well-being is complicated, the correspondence between personal relationships and happiness is not. The daily activities most associated with happiness are sex, socialising after work and having dinner with others. The daily activity most injurious to happiness is commuting. According to one study, joining a group that meets even just once a month produces the same happiness gain as doubling your income. According to another, being married produces a psychic gain equivalent to more than US$100,000 (S$140,000) a year. If you want to find a good place to live, just ask people if they trust their neighbours. Levels of social trust vary enormously, but countries with high social trust have happier people, better health, more efficient government, more economic growth and less fear of crime (regardless of whether actual crime rates are increasing or decreasing). The overall impression from this research is that economic and professional success exists on the surface of life, and that they emerge out of interpersonal relationships, which are much deeper and more important. The second impression is that most of us pay attention to the wrong things. Most people vastly overestimate the extent to which more money would improve our lives. Most schools and colleges spend too much time preparing students for careers and not enough preparing them to make social decisions. Most governments release a tonne of data on economic trends but not enough on trust and other social conditions. In short, modern societies have developed vast institutions oriented around the things that are easy to count, not around the things that matter most. They have an affinity for material concerns and a primordial fear of moral and social ones. This may be changing. There is a rash of compelling books – including The Hidden Wealth Of Nations by David Halpern and The Politics Of Happiness by Derek Bok – that argue that public institutions should pay attention to well-being and not just material growth narrowly conceived. Governments keep initiating policies they think will produce prosperity, only to get sacked, time and again, from their spiritual blind side. NEW YORK TIMES

According to one study, joining a group that meets even just once a month produces the same happiness gain as doubling your income. According to another, being married produces a psychic gain equivalent to more than US$100,000 (S$140,000) a year.

CAM Elective in May 2010

This is a public announcement for anyone who is interested in knowing more about CAM. The elective will be offered in May 2010 (venue, specific date & time) will be announced at a later date. This is a must-go event for those who dislike Maslow.

In the meantime, here’s a Straits Times report on CRAP (Culture, Romance, Art, Politics):

Mar 27, 2010

Denmark’s Little Mermaid to guest-star at Shanghai Expo

SHANGHAI: For nearly 100 years, the heartbroken Little Mermaid has been sitting on a rock looking out over Copenhagen’s port in Denmark, but now the sculpture based on the famous fairytale is heading for China.

The 1913 bronze statue, created by Danish sculptor Edvard Eriksen, measures 1.65m and weighs 175kg, and is a major tourist attraction in Copenhagen.

But the Little Mermaid’s life has not always been easy. She has been beheaded twice, had her arm cut off once, was blown off her rock in 2003, and was dressed in a Muslim headscarf two years ago in a protest.

Still, she had never left her native country – until now.

On Thursday, hundreds thronged the Copenhagen harbour, dancing, singing and waving flags to bid farewell to the Little Mermaid sculpture as she was lifted from her perch by a crane and lowered into the back of a truck.

She will be the star guest in the Danish Pavilion at the World Expo in Shanghai, in eastern China, which opens on May 1 and runs until Oct 31. Details about her journey were not revealed due to security issues.

Mr Frank Jensen, Lord Mayor of the City of Copenhagen, said in a statement that the loan of The Little Mermaid was part of a cultural exchange between Denmark and China, even though the plan created a heated debate in Denmark when announced.

‘I am convinced that she will be an excellent ambassador of Denmark, particularly since the Chinese are already very fond of Hans Christian Andersen and his fairytales,’ he said in a statement.

Danish author Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, published in 1837, is a sad story about a mermaid who falls in love with a prince and gives up her life in the sea and her tail for legs.

But the prince marries someone else and she is left broken-hearted, throwing herself into the sea and dissolving into foam.

The fairytale has been adapted many times into stage shows and into a Disney movie.

Her departure from Copenhagen will not leave the harbour empty.

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has created a video installation to fill in for her. The multimedia artwork will include a live broadcast of the statue in Shanghai.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

* For a picture of the beautiful mermaid, check out the previous post!