Toy Story

Toys are part and parcel of our childhood. As we grow and develop, the ‘toys’ we play also become more intelligent too. Boardgames and cardgames are examples of ‘toys’ which requires more thinking skills to play compared to the rest. (They may be regarded as toys since they are classified under the toys section in departmental stores)

Here are some boardgames that I started off playing when I was a kid. An inconvenience of such games is that you can’t play them on your own, you have to find someone else to play with, which can be quite difficult if you stay at home often or have friends who aren’t enthusiastic in playing such games.

Generally my first boardgames were the roll-dice-and-move type. Depends a lot on luck and it may get boring after a while. Unfortunately this has become the mentality that most layman have about boardgames. Just like how cardgames equates to gambling.

Monopoly



This should be the most well-known boardgame in the world, with several editions and variations. I used to have the ‘Lion City’ edition, where street names are based on actual places in Singapore:



For your information, Geylang and Serangoon were the cheapest properties (brown) while Nassim Road and Queen Astrid Park were the most expensive properties (purple). Check the street directory if you don’t know where these places are. However at present, people would regard Marina Bay and Sentosa Cove as the most expensive properties, thanks to MacDonalds.

The flow of the game will depend very much on your die roll, which determines where you land. At the beginning, everyone would compete to finish the first round as fast as possible so that they can start buying properties on the second round. The rule of thumb is basically buy where you land on, since you’ll never know how often others will land on your property and pay you rent. If you can manage to secure all properties of the same colour set, you’re lucky. Otherwise if others manage to buy away one of them, you’ll (almost) never get a chance to complete the set anymore.

I had played the videogame version of Monopoly before, and the AI gave in too easily. I attempted to trade for a property that completes my colour set. Although the AI rejected my offer initial, it eventually accepted when I raised the agreed sum. Then I started building houses and hotels, and finally killed off the AI muhahaha.

The latest Monopoly Deal card game introduces a new dimension to how this property game can be played. Looks like the Monopoly legacy will always live on.

Scrabble



One of the most troublesome boardgames I’ve played IMO. It can be a big headache to calculate the points of every word formed, so I omitted the point system when playing in the past. Because of this, the game somehow became meaningless. Another tough part is trying to form the correct word. With limited vocabulary, we were often stuck with our letters. There were also frequent doubts on whether a certain word exists or not. Looking up the dictionary every turn was a hassle. In all, I actually disliked this game.

I think playing this game via the computer is much much easier. (eg. Playing online thru Facebook) Points are calculated automatically and you can just type the word in a box to search the dictionary.

Cluedo



A game with good theme but boring gameplay. Basically you walk around the mansion, enter rooms, find weapons and guess the murderer. The game can end pretty quickly if a lucky guess manages to strike. Moving from room to room is really uneventful and boring.

MAD Magazine



I think the illustration of that boy is really ugly.



So ugly that I used to get nightmares of him when I was small.

Anyway back to the boardgame, it has some really weird rules, basically opposite to that of Monopoly. You’re supposed to lose all your money instead. You move anticlockwise around the board instead of clockwise. Drawing chance cards can be quite punishing too. Although I only played this game twice or so, the bizarre rules (and illustrations) left an impression on me.

Super Mario Bros



I really liked this game a lot. The concept is similar to that of the videogame – destroy bricks, get coins and save the princess from the castle. Didn’t get much chance to play however, as this game belonged to my neighbor and some game pieces were lost.

Careers


Felt like an adult when playing this game haha. The aim of the game is to become successful in your career, while balancing love life and gaining fame. Sadly this is not easy to achieve in reality. This game was fun to play, but jotting down the love and fame points every now and then can be quite arduous, and it kills the pace of the game.

Trouble



The game is not as distressing as its name. Another typical roll-die-and-move kind of game, just that the die is not rolled, but popped by pressing the transparent shell in the middle. There isn’t much to this game; it can even be played on paper. Bought this as I was attracted by the commercial. Now you know why toys are so expensive.


Boardgames now have a different meaning to me, thanks to my platoon commander who introduced those non-typical boardgames (which can’t be found in departmental stores) and changed my mentality of all boardgames being roll-and-move kind that gets boring over time. Those games are generally not meant for kids and require a great deal of analytical and planning skills. The mind-stimulating factor of such boardgames is what makes them interesting and differentiates them from typical luck-dependent games where praying to the dice is often needed.

Moonday

I always wonder why are there so many different names referring to the same day. Mid Autumn Festival, Mooncake Festival, Lantern Festival, etc. This means there are several meanings attached to this day, which makes it more significant than other non-public-holiday festivals. If it's not a public holiday, I doubt most people will look forward to it right?

Ok I used to look forward to Mooncake Festival (I prefer calling it by its associated food haha) very much when I was a kid. At night, I would go to the nearby park, 'chope' a place at the playground and start lighting candles. On every MAF night, that park would be bustling with activity. It was like some huge candlelight party. This seemed to be the only day when I can play with fire without getting weird stares from people.

Other than packs of candles and matchsticks, I would also bring sparklers and paper lanterns (those traditional ones where you've to insert a candle inside). Throughout the years, I began to feel that strolling around with a lantern is just too boring, so the poor lantern became a nice target to burn. I would shake the lantern vigorously after setting it up, so that the candle inside will fall a burn the entire lantern heh heh.

The main enjoyment, however, is still forming patterns on the ground with candles. How did I dispose of the candle boxes and other resulting rubbish? Burn them! Haha. Yea I dug a deep hole in the sand pit and threw everything inside and burnt them. Then I would just cover the hole up. How convenient. =p Is that considered as littering? Anyway now that most playgrounds don't have sand, this method doesn't work anymore.

The park indeed looked spectacular on that very night, but the next day it was totally in a mess, with waxes stuck on every corner, and ashes badly littered all over the ground. I pity the cleaners who have to deal with such debris that the 'tradition' has left behind.

Now that I've grown out of this fire-playing, the thing that keeps me attached to the festival is the food of course. Yum yum! Mooncake is tasty but fattening. Well, it should be fine since it's only once a year haha. Prefer those snowskin ones, but baked ones are fine with me too. I don't mind the egg yolk, though I always find it hard and tasteless after putting it in the fridge. Durian mooncake is not bad too, though it's a luxury. Haven't really tried those special flavoured ones, but some people say they tasted terrible haha.

There seem to be so many things you can do on this day, like moon-gazing. Sadly I can't see the moon from my room now. I'm still very amazed how the moon can shine so brightly even though it doesn't emit light on its own.

There is also this 猜灯谜 thingy, but it often ends up telling lame riddles. Those authentic riddles can be really hard to solve.

Occasionally Mooncake festival will coincide with my birthday haha (once in every n years, where n is a number more than 10 perhaps). This is especially a big affair in China where every citizen will celebrate my birthday in conjunction with the festival. =p

From Tutee to Tutor

There is a recent controversy about the knowledge 'gap' between school textbooks and exams. As what many teachers would explain, the 'gap' is present so as to encourage students to read beyond the textbooks and do their own supplementary revision. However most parents interpret it as a need to engage tuition for their children.

To put it bluntly, the children are lazy and unwilling to study extra, that is why tuition is there to 'force' it upon them. But anyway which kid is so hardworking to spend his/her precious childhood mugging away? It's natural for children to seek enjoyment in things like games, toys and TV, which adults often see as 'trivial', 'waste of time and money'. This is especially so when children still cannot see how studying may affect their lives in the future.

In university, lecturers would say that including every piece of information in the notes would equate to 'spoonfeeding'. This word is so popular in the university context, as it can act as an ultimate defense against various complaints on badly organized lecture notes, boring lecturers and killer exams.

I used to have home tuition during my primary school days. That was my laziest period, spending tons of time on TV and being most reluctant to complete my homework. So my mum decided to hire a tutor for both my bro and me. It was twice a week and I remember we would dread those particular two afternoons (or evenings). The tuition was seen to spoil our fun and we always wished the tutor was sick, couldn't make it or something.

Along the years we changed several tutors. Most were young working adults around mid 20s. Fresh A-level graduates or NSFs seemed to be quite rare those days. My bro and I were quite a playful and mischievous bunch, so probably some tutors didn't want to 'babysit' us further. I remember making one tutor very angry and she quitted soon after. She was lousy anyway - she claimed that the past tense of 'put' is 'putted'. She must have played too much golf already. But anyway that was not the reason why I made her angry.

Then there was another tutor who looked like some mamasan, from the way she dressed. (I realised kids tend to look at adults older than they actually are.) Her perfume smell was terribly strong. Thankfully she didn't last long.

Until a point of time, we finally found a tutor that can tolerate us, and was someone we felt comfortable with. She lasted for quite a few years I think. She works at Singapore Science Centre and often introduced interesting exhibitions to us. Hope to meet her again but I've totally forgotten her full name, since we usually called her by surname only.

Despite having many years of tuition, I felt that I didn't really benefit much from it. I used the tuition time to complete my school homework, and often neglected homework that the tutor gave from assessment books. Moreover I tend to take tuition homework less seriously and did not make much effort in attempting the questions. Some tuition sessions became very unproductive as the tutor just sat there while waiting for us to finish our schoolwork. I guess the tutor didn't mind since she was getting paid after all. $180 for 8 sessions of 2 hours each. Sounds very cheap compared to now hor?

As we get more familiar with the tutor, we started to chit chat on various things, like simple social issues and scientific theories. I remember she took a whole session explaining how we can look into the past if we were to travel at the speed of light. When my mum noticed how the tuition session turned into a chit chat session, she became quite unhappy about it and eventually our tuition ceased ever since.

Tuition does not guarantee results yet many are willing to invest a lot on it. That's why it's a such a lucrative job for university students, with one of the highest hourly rates.

Hopefully MOE will not implement strict measures to control the tuition industry so that people like us can continue to earn a keep for ourselves.

Idiot Box III

Who doesn’t grow up watching cartoons at some point or another? I used to watch VCDs of ‘Tom & Jerry’, ‘Droopy Doo’ (not Scooby Doo) and ‘Pokemon’ over and over again without being bored. Either I’ve grown out of cartoons now, or the cartoons nowadays aren’t that appealing anymore. Whenever my sis tunes in to Okto, I quickly lost the interest to stay on and watch. Nevertheless the cartoons I used to watch in the past still bring back lots of childhood memories as I look at the videos.

Here’s Tiny Toon, the miniature version of Looney Tunes. (Just like between Tom & Jerry and Tom & Jerry Kids)



Meet the crazy mice duo that attempts to take over the world.



My cousins and I used to play the “I be this one, you be that one” game on this cartoon. Guess which of the trio I was?



Only Warner Brother's cartoons? Let's go for a change...

One of the best educational cartoons in my opinion. I like how the school bus shrinks and enters various objects, for instance the human body, to explore the science behind the working mechanism.



There wasn’t any dedicated kids channel in the 1990s, so Channel 5 became the main source of cartoons. They were usually aired in the morning and evening for students in the afternoon and morning session respectively. I rarely watched those Chinese cartoons in Channel 8, with the exception of 十万个为什么. The scientific terms in Chinese can be a little difficult to understand though.



Sorry I can't find the opening video anywhere. Maybe it's strictly copyrighted.

These two should be my first few Japanese anime I’ve watched. (didn’t watch Doraemon by the way) Their theme songs are still so pleasant to listen to until today.

Ninja wear specs?!



Watch how the Little Red Riding Hood transforms into Sailor Moon.



This is a more recent one which most of you will remember. It was a hit at that time, along with its corresponding Gameboy games. The whole class was practically into Pokemon, including me who, not surprisingly, became addicted to the game. I also enjoyed the cartoon so much that I went to buy more than 10 VCDs of the series, despite having watched the episodes already on TV. As I stopped playing the game, my enthusiasm in the cartoon died down too.



Technically I wouldn’t call this a cartoon, but it’s still worth mentioning as one of the most successful kids’ TV series in our times. Didn’t watch beyond the first season though. I applaud the actors for their courage in acting in such silly plots. Anyway, notice how appropriate the colour designation is.



Cartoons like Powerpuff Girls and Teletubbies had already passed my era haha.

Other cartoons I used to watch:

















Last but not least,

Sparkling August

Fireworks cost a bomb, bought using our taxpayer's money. Wouldn't it be a waste not to watch the free display?

The YOG closing ceremony marked the end to the fireworks galore this month. Which other month of the year can you see so much fireworks?

Since NDP and YOG are important national events, their fireworks display should be more extravagant and spectacular, compared to CNY and year-end countdown.

With the absence of Fireworks Festival since last year (usually held after National Day), I had been itching to watch decent fireworks again. Couldn't resist the temptation and went to watch the three consecutive major fireworks display this month. Indeed it didn't disappoint, as the displays were definitely up to standard.

IMO Esplanade Waterfront is the best spot to view fireworks at Marina Bay, especially when the main event is held at the floating platform.

Here's my take on the fireworks displays I had watched.


NDP (from Raffles Place)

Yay:
- Longer continuous display
- Known/predictable timing

Nay:
- Poor angle/location, sky partially blocked
- Far too crowded everywhere
- Too smoky (as seen from the lump of red luminescence on TV)
- Less variety

Grade: B-


YOG Opening (from Waterfront)

Yay:
- More colourful/variety
- Perfect view & proximity
- Laser beam & fireworks fired from skyscrapers clearly visible
- Great impact
- Not very crowded

Nay:
- Sporadic (discontinuous display spread over the 2-hour show)
- Undefined timing (have to standby throughout)

Grade: A


YOG Closing (from Waterfront)

Yay:
- Beams from buildings filled the entire nightsky
- Very colourful, more variety (I like the super-loud & blinding-bright ones)
- Even less crowded
- Closer to floating platform, more aware of what is going on at the ceremony

Nay:
- Unknown timing (just have to be at the right place at the right time)

*Note - The final burst of fireworks (after the disco party) was not shown on TV*

Grade: A+


Didn't regret spending time staying put at the location and waiting for fireworks. Although the extent of fireworks used cannot be compared to that of other wealthier countries, I think it was still splendidly choreographed. Looking forward to the fireworks next year!

School Nostalgia V

Do you remember what kind of mass exercises were there during primary school? The first thing that comes to your mind is probably this one:

The Great Singapore Workout

Somehow it evolved into ‘ACES’ Workout along the way. I’ve forgotten what it stands for, but I still remember that it was held yearly in conjunction with Teachers’ Day celebrations. Not sure if schools are still doing this workout till today.

Bits and pieces of the music still ring in my mind. I didn’t bother to memorize the steps since there were always a few teachers on the front elevated platform whose actions we could just follow. Sometimes the music was accompanied by instructions but it was too muffled to be heard, and most of us weren’t serious in doing the workout anyway.

Many took the chance to play a fool with our fellow classmates, and tried to irritate the surrounding people with every step and action. There was a part where we were supposed to kick left and right with our arms pointing in the opposite direction. (Unfortunately this workout revealed those who had poor hand-leg motor coordination haha.) Then we would instead kick our friends’ bags, which were placed on the ground. There was also this iconic workout - stretch both arms upwards, clap once, then press 4 times forward with palms facing outwards. The mischievous us would push the person in front during the pressing action haha. Not to forget the chaos when we had to move forward and backward (or left and right) a few steps. Sounds silly but fun =p.

We were also given a ACES cap each. Everyone would sign onto each other’s caps for some reason. At the end of the exercise, we were supposed to throw the caps up in the air. This was when the signatures became useful as a means of identification for our own caps. There was once I threw really high and couldn’t find it back again. Took someone else’s cap instead but didn’t dare to wear it, so it was thrown away right after that. Apparently most didn’t care whether they could get theirs back or not, and threw as far away as possible. What a legitimate way of littering openly. In the end there were many caps strewn on the ground and somebody had to pick them all up haha.

Can’t find any videos that resemble the ACES workout I did many years ago. Either the background music has changed, or the steps have been modified so significantly now that I don’t recognize it anymore. =(

Luckily traces of the old Great Singapore Workout can still be found:





The music is so ever nostalgic!


Eye Exercise

It was done regularly for a period of time, before it stopped and was forgotten completely. Perhaps it wasn’t very effective, at least for me, whose eyesight still rose by 100 degrees per year at that time.

Due to the increasing cases of myopia among children, schools decided to implement this eye relaxation exercise. For my school, it was conducted after silent reading just before singing the national anthem. The relaxation exercise made my eyes really sleepy haha. As you might expect, some students took the opportunity to doze off.

This is the closest video I’ve found:




Physical Fitness Test

This is what it was called before the name NAPFA came about. It was feared by those who didn’t exercise regularly, whereas sporty kids would take the test casually and pass it with a breeze. Sad to say I belonged to the former.

Doing sit-ups wasn’t a problem for most students. I didn’t find it difficult until upper primary when I find myself having diaphragm cramps easily when doing sit-ups. Was barely able to meet the passing mark.

During a shuttle run practice, I accelerated too fast after turning my body, hence losing my balance and falling down. Because of this, till now I still have a slight phobia of running too fast for shuttle run.

Most of us will agree that sit-and-reach is the easiest station. So easy that it was taken out from IPPT haha. Just bear with the pain and stretch as far as possible. Having long legs (with relatively short arms) is a disadvantage for this one.

Standing broad jump didn’t feel as difficult to pass during primary school. It used to be one of the sure-pass stations. I could pass as long as I try to jump as far as possible. I don’t remember putting so much effort into it compared to now.

Inclined flex-arm hang was probably most feared among the girls. Some couldn’t even hold for more than a second. The passing time was only about 3 seconds (for girls) I think. Thankfully my arms were strong enough to overcome this station until…

1.6 km feels so short now, although it felt like eternity to me at that time. Nothing much to comment about this since it’s just a test of speed and endurance.


In this age when technology is so prevalent, most children are opting to fiddle with their gadgets rather than to exercise outdoors. I wonder if the level of physical fitness in kids these days is dropping.

YOG again

With so many YOG-related reports these few days, I can't help but to talk about it too.

To begin, I would like to congratulate the three young sportsmen (including one sportswoman) for clinching two bronze medals and one silver medal for Singapore. This should create less controversy than China-born athletes winning a medal for Singapore...

Slip-ups and letdowns are still present here and there though. Such as the food poisoning incident, poor media coverage of YOG in other countries, collapse of tent under heavy rain, barring of water bottles that bear Nike or Adidas logos, parents not able to watch their son win a medal as they could not get the tickets while seats were only half-occupied, etc.

There were also saddening pictures, uploaded by someone in Facebook, which showed the extremely poor turnout of the YOG carnival held at Marina Bay. Even on a Sunday afternoon, the whole place was quite deserted, dotted with mostly volunteers. Musicians performed in front of a sea of vacant seats.

Ticket sales for the matches are said to be 'encouraging', but most tickets are actually snapped by MOE, who distributes them to schools, that in turn send their students to watch the games. While some schools did not turn up or were reluctant to attend due to examinations, resulting in many vacant seats at the venues, some schools took a harsher approach to impose a penalty of $5 should anyone fail to turn up.

This reminds me of my secondary school days when we were 'forced' to attend the track and field finals and support our school team. But most of us were reluctant to attend, and attempted to find ways to skip the event haha. Generally we are not interested in watching matches unless our friends are participating.

Sports culture in Singapore is still pretty weak, especially when the society is so economically driven.

Let's look at the more pleasant stuffs. Those who watched the YOG opening ceremony last Saturday would have noticed how spectacular the cauldron-igniting finale was. I wonder how they created the flame vortex, which looked really impressive.

Here are some nice pictures on YOG in the following news website. Most of them are beautifully taken, especially the first one. =)

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/08/singapore_2010_youth_olympics.html


And wait, what's this???

http://www.singapore2010odyssey.sg/

Wow... Anyone wants to try? Lol.