When I am without my laptop and internet for a few days, I feel lost. If I have both, but they are not functioning up to expectations, I feel like I want to throw the laptop away, and make a formal complaint to the broadband service provider. I guess if I pay good money for things like that, I expect the quality to be up to standard. Speaking of broadband, someone renamed streamyx as screamyx due to its lack of speed. If you have time, go to youtube and search for Hitler and Streamyx and you get to watch how some people are just too angry with Streamyx. Have a good laugh.
I have never really baked a cake from scratch. I depend on premixes. I have never cooked pasta sauce from scratch. I use a lot of short cuts. I have never slaughtered a chicken to cook. I have never really cleaned up a fish just caught. I am sure many of you are like me in that.
Recently I have taken to watching a Chinese series made by Mediacorp, Singapore. It is about the lives of some nyonyas. I admire how the nyonyas of old used to make and cook everything from scratch. Not only that, they do it in less than desirable conditions (imagine stoves that use burning wood) and wearing their nyonya kebayas. I see them pounding chillies and what-nots, drawing water from wells, doing embroidery, making lots of kuihs and doing numerous other things, all from scratch, the hard way.
I guess I take for granted a lot of things that have only existed the last few decades. Perhaps it will be good to go back to basics once in a while if possible. Maybe in December, when I have finished some assigned work, I will try to not turn on the laptop for a week or so. I will try to bake a cake from scratch, even if it is just a simple butter cake. Let's see if I can do it.
1 comment:
I am very much like you in my dependency on technology. In this 'age of technology', even the Ministry of Education is encouraging teachers to fully utilize technology in the classroom. Thus more teachers nowadays would prefer Powerpoint slides to 'old-fashioned' flash cards made from manila cards. I miss my teaching practicum years when my friends and I would stay up all night to produce our 'masterpieces' - attractive teaching aids from 'scratches'.
Nowadays, after years of teaching, once in a blue moon I would try to come up with materials for my classes that I made with my own 'bare hands', no high-tech involved, only pure, basic manila cards and some coloured markers. My efforts would always be welcomed with enthusiastic responses from my young students. Apparently from my observation my students prefer something 'real', something that they can touch and feel with their own hands. I guess children nowadays are so used to high-tech that we can no longer make them 'struck with awe' with our 'sophisticated' slide show. At an age where children are exposed to 'state-of-the-art' technology in computer games with impressive graphics and effects, how interesting can a humble Powerpoint slide show or even the Ministry's Teaching Courseware CDroms be?
My 2010 resolution: to get back to basic. Teachers are creative people by nature, I should let technology be an aid to my creativity, not a hindrance.
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