随心笔:《明日歌》二读

明日复明日，明日何其多
我生待明日，万事成蹉跎

通常用在奋力向上，
其实用在忘了和亲人在一起，
也一样贴切。

随心笔：简单的人生

简单的人生，
就是去做应该做的事，
然后不去想其他的。

因为做该做的事，
够你想很多了。

接受了，就无需再想。

看你是想要多想，然后才接受，
还是就傻傻的，
像白痴一样接受后，然后不想。

Random thoughts: A night stay at the hospital

My dad claims he is seeing things at the hospital, so I decided to stay overnight to accompany him.

It's at B2 ward, so it's packed with another 4 patients. It can be very noisy even late at night with nurses checking on the patients and the patient beside my dad coughing and clearing his phelgm.

The next day, my dad said he is scare of the person beside him passing away, and that he has big eyes,and look rather scary.

My wife told me that during meal time, that patient beside my dad do look at my dad, because he is being fed through a tube, and while my dad might comment that the daily  non changing diet of porridge is getting bland and boring, it never dawn on me that it is considered a luxury for the patient beside him.

Hence that look.

Not sure why I am quite affected by my wife observation. Make me realise the things we take for granted, like eating.

I am also thinking to myself that night that the man beside my dad is really quite noisy, how do my dad get a proper sleep. There is no sense of empathy at all.

His wife is always accompanying him when I visit, and after seeing me for a few days, gave me a smile.

How will I go next time, I just hope my mind is still strong, if I cannot control which organ or cells to fail.

Random thoughts: Insights gain when teaching pupils memory techniques

Felt like ages since I last blogged.

The techniques here refer to the journey method by Dominic. It has worked amazingly well for me, but I am not sure if I can say the same for my pupils, so for the last 2 weeks, I have been trying it out. This is what I discovered:

1) It is not the fastest way to remember things, but if u do it properly, it has high retention rate. My weakest pupils, if I have ascertain they are doing it correctly, has retention rate of 80-100% after 24-48 hours

2) During the association and visualization phase, if they use English meaning to visualize, they will recall the English meaning and not the Chinese word. For example, those who visualize a leaf for 改过自新will recall "turn over a new leaf" and not the Chinese pronounciation, so the way forward is to use the shape of the character or the Chinese pronounciation to visualization.

3) For my weaker pupils, it work best with sound, the meaning Part should be left during linking and imagination phase. For example, 鼻子一酸，my girl thought of and drew a picture of a swan. So cute

4) It cannot be transferred. The association and imagination must be done by the pupils themselves. I demonstrate how it is done, those who copied my journey has low retention rate and took longer to remember.

5) imagination is the toughest part, most of the time, I supplied the storyline to link all the pictures to the place in their journey. They laughed and remember. But few can do this phase without help.

6) move backwards before moving forward is important. Even I dun have a good memory, a pupil in a top class that I relief can remember all the words in the white board in matters of minutes. When I ask how he do it, he told me he just remember. Upon prompting, he told me he can visualize the whole white board with the words on it, talk about photographic memory!

7) To remember sentences, the sequence of appearance during the linking and imagination phase is very important. Otherwise the sentence gets disjointed easily.

8) Memory is not low level cognitive process like what some of my colleagues remarked. It encourage my weakest pupils to do self-directed learning since I have prove to them it only works well when u own the visualization process. There is no handout to be given, they create their own picture notes.

9) The techniques don't work well with pupils with good memory. Because they skip the steps because they can remember easily. But my son forgets very quickly too. There are others like that boy, who need no such memory aid.

I am going to try paragraphs soon, to be combined with concept of hook, preset system and peer check and repetition. Memory may or may not be low level, but I think it has given my weakest a sense of achievement, they can remember things now. I saw some.joy of learning in them now. It gives me much joy too

Thank you reading.

Random thoughts: New Year New Gadgets

I started with 2018 being quite loose with money. I use money to improve productivity. I seldom pay to use online tools, but I sign up Pro acc for Purple Culture Chinese tools, so that I can create word puzzle, Bingo Sheets, and Flash cards faster. I also went for a paid version for PDF converter, I know there are many free versions, and using Word Documents can convert PDF file too. But they usually get converted in a messy manner, but not the paid version when I use the trial.

I have also finally make the switch from Iphone to Xiaomi, and I love it. I am quite turned off by the high price tag and I remembered LP raving about Xiaomi, so I bought I Mi Mix 2 and I love it. The screen size is big, exactly what I wanted because I do a lot of reading online, and frequently blogged using my Phone too. The transition from IOS to Android took only 1 day of pain and I am used to the interface already.

I gotten my phone at 30% of the price of a iphone 8 plus which I am considering too, I considered it value for money and I like the light-weight of Mi Mix. Also, backing up is now easier since I already use Google Drive. The paid storage of iCloud and Google Drive is also hell lots of difference.

The fingerprint unlock system works really well, and I like the daily changing screen saver wall paper. It is beautiful and makes me relaxed and happy. (Yeah, I am not a tech gig, I like these small touches more than anything else) Reviews speak of poor night camera functions and that it is fragile if you dropped it. Thats why I am extra careful with it. As for photos, I am not a artist, I just need to keep the memory of what has happened, the effects of it, I can forgo...


 (Beautiful, isn't it? I like surprises, yesterday it was an Icy world)

I used to love apple interface, it is intuitive, but I believed those who convert from Apple will hardly miss iOS, given the price and will most probably not returned anymore. Those who used iMAC might have a tougher time switching.

I am so happy with the price that my wife also wanted a Mi Max 2, an older version but with bigger screen and lasting battery. It costs only $275, and comes with external storage option. We went Challenger to try out the phone. No one is playing with iPhone anymore. I am not sure if I am biased after the conversion or if it is a conincident. But the adults and kids are all trying Samsung and various phones.  

I also signed up for a FSM account and enjoyed reading some of the articles and finding up more about the performance of ETFs and funds. I have decide to expand my radar beyond local equities.  while I have no prior experience and will most probably have to pay some school fees as I learn how to invest overseas, I thought it is important that I diversified reasonably.

New toys, old love.

Happy New Year to all.