Category: Links

The Miseducation of the Doodle

Sunni Brown on doodling at [A List Apart](https://alistapart.com/article/the-miseducation-of-the-doodle):

Doodling may be better described as ‘markings to help a person think.’ Most people believe that doodling requires the intellectual mind to shutdown, but this is one misrepresentation that needs correcting. There is no such thing as a mindless doodle. The act of doodling is the mind’s attempt to engage before succumbing to mindlessness.

She goes on to explain why one should engage in “strategic doodling” at work, and introduces a basic doodle vocabulary for people who think they can’t draw. Excellent stuff.

Pls Revert, Tks

1.     This submission seeks to highlight for readers’ amusement the weblog “PLS REVERT, TKS” (PRT).

2.     Background. PRT is an anthology of civil service lingo, and is suitable for enjoyment by civil servants and other Singaporeans who may have had the misfortune of encountering civil service “writing”.

3.     Assessment. While the site is freaking awesome, it has one critical flaw in that there are not many entries to date. This will doubtlessly be addressed over time. On balance, the site is freaking awesome.

4.     For readers’ consideration pls. Tks.

Apparently Wireless@SG login pages are my “Top Sites”

Well done to Wireless@SG for successfully messing up my Safari Top Sites:

Screen shot 2010-02-15 at PM 06.50.46.PNG

The new Wireless@SGx (dubbed “SSA”, which stands for “Seamless and Secure Access”, or “Senseless and Stupid Acronym”) 802.1X-enabled hotspot service is nice though, and really does help to solve this problem – after you set it up, you don’t have to go through the above login page. Thoroughly recommended for iPhone users especially. Search for one of the three mysteriously-differently-branded-but-functionally-identical Wireless@SG on the App Store and follow the instructions to download and configure the necessary security certificates.

Useless book suggestions

My friend Andrew asked on Facebook:

Anyone keen on writing a “The Student’s Guide to…” book? Let me know.

So, who had useless suggestions for Andrew? ME ME ME OOH YES CHOOSE ME PLEASE! The Students’ Guide to:

  • Creating senseless online comics in under 2 hours a week (bonus: How not to feel guilty about neglecting the site for weeks at a go!)
  • Making actually-light-hearted-but-which-may-come-across-as-sarcastic Facebook comments (sorry)
  • Making PDF selling websites that you don’t have time to develop further and which don’t net your only client any sales. At all. (Sorry)
  • Apologising through Facebook comments
  • Making lists
  • Extending lists
  • Overdoing a joke

I’m actually really happy for Andrew and his two wonderful books on “The Student’s Guide to Life” and “The Student’s Guide to Exam Success” (buyable from Aktive Learning or the aforementioned neglected PDF-selling website experiment). Back in 2008, he’d given me copies to give away to my graduating form class, which covered for my thorough lack of imagination in graduation gifts. I’m happy to see it’s doing well on the Popular Bookstore charts.

Recently, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Andrew is publishing “Diary of a Taxi Driver” by Dr. Cai Mingjie, Singapore’s most educated taxi driver and blogger. Good stuff. I hope Dr. Cai’s writing finds the audience it deserves – his poignant memoirs are always among the first articles I consume from my Instapaper reading list.

Once Upon A School

Dave Eggers, TED Prize 2008 winner, on making a difference in the classroom. Very inspirational.

You can do and use the skills that you have. The schools need you. The teachers need you. Students and parents need you. They need your actual person. Your physical personhood and your open minds and open ears and boundless compassion. Sitting next to them, listening and nodding and asking questions for hours at a time. Some of these kids just don’t plain know how good they are. How smart and how much they have to say. You can tell them. You can shine that light on them one human interaction at a time.

I’m moving on to a new posting in January, and I have strong suspicions these next few months will be my final times as a professional teacher. Even so, I’m not quite sure I’m done teaching yet, so I’m just making a mental note here to revisit this video a year down the road.

Once Upon A School, Mr. Egger’s challenge for adults to support their local schools, is here.

Fame and Fortune with Bond Counter

About half a year ago, to celebrate the halfway point of my scholarship bond, I wrote a simple Facebook application called Bond Counter. The program simply plonks a countdown on one’s profile page that describes how long more one has left in indentured servitude, probably to some Singaporean government body (and, optionally, how much money is left in that bond).

An excerpt from an article (PDF) talking about scholarship bonds from today’s edition of “My Paper”, a local daily publication:

There’s even an application on Facebook which tracks the number of days one has left to serve out.

Yes! Fame and fortune! Someone buy out my app, with all its 500 users!