My brother, Aung a.k.a Zatlite, has started blogging yesterday after a few years of persuasion from me. He started off with twittering ,which was also the result of my persistent persuasion, and has been a good regular twitterer to date. Yesterday, he suddenly made himself a blog and now he’s crazy about it.

His very first blog, “The private life of a badminton maniac“, talks about all his passion on racquet sports, especially badminton and racquet breaking hobbies. I’ve posted some of his actions on the past Badminton games in this post and; photos and videos of his squash tournament here. (more…)

Yesterday, I went to see my brother’s squash game at Defence Club. There is this Fiji Bitter Squash Tournament going on here at Suva for this whole week – every evening after 5pm. My bro’s game was supposed to be on Monday but his opponent didn’t turn up so they postponed the game to Tuesday (yesterday). He played against one Indian man around 40+ (hmm I forgot his name) and was thrashed badly.

It was the very first squash tournament for my brother since he started playing squash a few months back. We use to play Badminton only and this year my bro started playing squash with some of his friends so he still has a lot to learn before he can compete in the tournament. Nevertheless, he signed himself up in B Grade thinking C Grade is for kids and he would do fine in B. Well the result was he got knocked down pretty badly; he wasn’t really in his best form also and the opponent was quite experienced player who knows how to make him run around in court. So he lost his game and went into Plate pool and will be playing again today at Victoria Park. I guess I’ll go watch again this evening.

Aung’s very first squash game

One of the Ministers, Mr. Kenneth Zinck (and a few other big faces I sometimes see on TV), came to play as well, I’m not sure he came just to play for fun or was in the competitions as I couldn’t stay long to watch his game. He was cheering his buddy’s game quite loudly/actively. I was taking a few videos of the game and itching to take him as well but that would be awkward to directly shoot at him so I was waiting for his game but I left early and missed the game. I think he wanted his picture taken as well cos’ he kept smiling at my way while cheering for his buddy (Ok may be just my thought) .

I know him as one of the most active sport lovers among Fiji Government Ministers especially on Rugby games. We are sure to see him cheering from the front row in almost every Rugby games, yelling and waving his things (the flag/the banners I mean) at the camera. LOL. So we normally search for him everytime there is a Rugby 7 game on TV. Quite a celebrity he is. I also remember him very well after seeing him wear Tweety Bird necktie on one of the interview sessions on TV. Quite a fashion for him. It was so funny to see a Minister wearing some childish necktie with big Tweety bird at the bottom. I guess it must have been a gift from his kids or something. But that was one of the unforgettable sights about him.

There were some players from Nadi and other towns participating in the tournament as well. I met 4 young guys from Nadi; their coach was pretty nice man who encouraging us to join their club and telling us about his 4 players. His son plays in A Grade and other 3 guys play in Bs. He was also coaching a Korean girl who lost in ladies game against a Fijian girl. He said he also will be playing in the competition but I missed his game.

Coaching a Korean Girl

The Game with a guy from Nadi

Well you see, I had some ulterior motives, it’s not just watching my brother’s game but I went there to check out some good looking players but turn out only the old men were there. The Nadi guys are quite cute but they’re just too young, under 19. hehe Oh but there is this handsome organizer, I heard he’s very good player and former Fiji representative or something. Aww but it’s a pity he got ring on his finger haha. Nah I’m kidding, I just went there to cheer for my brother’s first game and also getting some material for my blog (Ok there’s still a motive behind but good motive).

Here are some more short videos I took: Two Games Mix + Score Sheet | Another Mix Game | Practice Games | Game Sheets

I’m going to watch the games today also at Victoria Park. One of our colleagues is playing in C grade and I’m sure more games to see today. They are having this tournament in 3 different places, Victoria Park, Merchant Club and Defence Club due to limited availability of courts in each club. Anyways, I hope I can watch some nice games this evening and hope that my brother and our colleague play well in their game also.

I read this news, Going to school ‘not compulsory’, on BBC other day and am thinking about it since.

Parents in England are being reminded that they have the right to educate their children at home if they wish.

My school years were filled with memories and remembrances that would sink in for the rest of my life. I enjoyed everything about my school life. You can appreciate more once you finish school and getting away from school environment. People tend to say they hate schooling or studying and just want to get over with it but in reality every single one of us misses our school lives later in our life. My high school and Uni years are nothing extraordinary yet they are one of my treasured memories. I’ve never think of home schooling as any normal person’s choice and I only understand those who home-school are to be:

• people with redundant amount of cash (filthy rich who can afford private tutors/governors)
• popular/famous people, where their fame gets in the way of public study (such as high-classed families, celebrities)
• handicaps and disabled people who need special treatment and
• those with unfortunate circumstance that they cannot do regular schooling (eg. traveling families)

Apart from those people, the average normal family should send their children to school and make the schooling (study at school) compulsory. After reading the article, I got some thoughts of my owe. What would I do in this case? What if I am a parent and am given a choice to either home feed the kid or send them to school? My answers are quite obvious and simple. If it’s in any normal situations, I’ll send my kids to school and never let them stay at home. If they don’t want to go, I’ll make them go. For the age of 1 – 18 they are in my control and for that they must act as I say. So go to school or ELSE!!!
These are some of the reasons they gave for home schooling.

SOME REASONS FOR CHOOSING HOME EDUCATING

1. Distance or access to school
2. Religious, cultural or philosophical beliefs
3. Dissatisfaction with the system
4. Bullying
5. Short-term particular reason
6. Child’s unwillingness or inability to go to school
7. Special educational needs
8. Parents’ desire for closer relationship with children

The article mentioned the pros only. What about the cons? My response to the above given pros would be :

1. The first point is understandable and can be added to those exceptional cases.
2. The second point is unreasonable. I would think whichever religion or culture that would restrict a child from going to school and oppose social interaction to be a lame culture.
3. The third point itself is lame so no farther expression to add on it.
4. Dealing with Bullies, gang fights and normal peer pressures are necessary to thicken your skin. You will encounter numerous bullies and abuses in life. School is the best place to get your first experience of the first step to enter the real life.
5. Goes into those exceptional cases as well so it’s fine.
6. If you give yourself in to your child’s will, you child will be spoil little brat. It is a parent’s responsibility to guide them through inspite of their unwillingness. If you fail to do so, you are also a spoil little brat’s Mom and Pa – the bigger brats. Ok for the second part of “inability to go to sch” will go to special cases of disable and handicaps who need special cares so it’s alright for them to home school.
7. If your child is a genius or the other-way-round then he obviously needs to get special classes of his own. So I agree that home school in this case is the best for him.
8. I have nothing to say except that they are the biggest idiots of all.

Here are more of my thoughts on some quotes in the article.

It is the legal right of parents to educate their children at home if they so wish and the Department for Education and Skills supports the right of parents to make this choice for their children.

It’s unspoken yet always there as one of the parents’ rights. There is no need to emphasize that it is a legal right. But since it has been legalized, it is better for those who needs an acknowledgement.

It really is so heart-warming to families to have their choices recognized in this way.

Sometimes having too many choices make you go stray. You get confused what to choose. Sometimes I wonder why can’t we all be given one best choice and just follow that? I always have a great difficulty making decisions. What if the one you choose is the wrong choice for you? You’ll be regretted for the rest of your life. Too many choices make me go nuts!

But the authorities have no right to enter people’s homes or make routine checks on children’s progress.

Again, too much freedom can be very dangerous if it is being misused. In this case, how can one monitor the progress of a child?

“Children learn in different ways and at different times and speeds.”

That is true, but IMHO they learn more in the presence of competitions and social interactions. They speed up their abilities in the presence of friendship and team work, provided that they are with a good peer group. Competition is a catalyst for personal improvement. Depending on how a person handles it, competition can either boost your goals or put you in misery and self depression. But for me, every competition is a good competition whether you win or lose. If you have the ability and strength to stand up for the competition then you are already a winner.

Home-schooled kid is like a little bug in a cocoon where he thinks the cocoon is the only world he know of and he exists around his little world.
# It restricts the social and mental development of your child. For eg. They might not know how to communicate with their peer group, how to handle different mind-sets.
# They lack social experiences such as school trips, parties, sports events etc.
# They most probably become a mommy/daddy boy, who don’t know how to grow up and always sticking to the parents.
# Time management problems. No good concentration at home, you can never do something properly at home in one sitting cos’ there is always too much distractions around.

Also there are some points that the article didn’t explained on which I wonder over.

# What about the home-school course work compare to proper school curriculum?
# What would they do for the tests and exams?
# Who would decide whether those home-school kids are qualify for the level?
# Which grades or reports they show to enter universities? (what are the prove of their qualifications?)
# Who would design/decide on those grade reports ie. which grade to give them? (since the educators are the parents themselves and no interference from outside is allowed)
# Will the employers accept those home-feed kids as qualify people for the job?
and so on……….So, if you are given that kind of option to either send your kids to sch or home-sch, what would you do/choose? Now it’s your turn. Let’s think it through and share with me.

Link: Going to school ‘not compulsory’

Scenario: My mom checking out what I’m doing and curious about who my friends are.

Me: tap tap tap….
Mom: what are to doing?
Me: Chatting with Missy.
Mom: Are they your friends? (Looking at my gtalk friend list icons)
Me: yah
Mom: who is the one called D-A-D?
Me: huh? Who?
Mom: D-A-D
Me: LOL it’s Dad!! Faygyi lay.
Mom: Oh, you chat with your father across the room too.
Me: You don’t know who the person is in the photo?
Mom: well I can’t see the photo properly.
Me: Yah yah that’s Dad.

For some reason, I chat with my dad and brother on gtalk at home instead of go talk to them in person. Last time, I was asking something to my brother over gtalk then he started yelling from his room, why am I chatting him on gtalk instead of just ask him outside. My mom is the only one who doesn’t use computer at home so I do the proper talking with her the most. At work too, all of us talk each other over gtalk even that person is sitting a few feet away from you. I guess I’ve been communicating with my laptop too much that I hardly ever need to do the real talking. These days I’m excessively using gtalk or emails for my communication purposes. Oh geez, what if I forget how to talk. haha that’ll be interesting.

Scenario: It’s April the first and I’m cracking my head to think up some prank ideas to play on my friends. I asked for some help from my genius brother.

Me: “Phothar (his home name), we do some April fools. You got any idea?”
Bro: “You are the fool and it’s April. Good idea huh?”
Me: (…..)

Lesson: Never to ask for help from a smart arse or you’ll get yourself fooled.

Have fun fooling around.

I’ve decided not to let Dad drive me to work when I’m late. Not that he drops me everyday. Most of the time I’m late for work so he goes off early himself and I take taxi every morning. He picks me up after work everyday though. Today Dad’s on leave and offers to drive me to work. It’s already 9am and I’m way late. He drives with 25km/hr on clear road and 20-15km/hr on junctions and a bit crowded road. 10min drive by taxi took about 20min with my dad. I can even take another nap on the way. He’s just way over careful. If Dad drives on rainy days, the car would hardly move. hmm…I can’t complaint too. I’m just being lazy arse waking up late all the time so just have to let it slide.

This is one of the reasons I still don’t have my driving license. I got learners permit and started driving while I was in uni. I don’t drive too fast but I’m fast on my Dad’s radar. Also sometimes I’m a bit careless and don’t look much, (hey I’m not that dangerous driver) so he would always yell at me whenever I’m driving for not looking, not signaling, fast driving and too jerky at turning points. It’s just too noisy driving with him. So we had a bit of fight over my driving issues and I’ve decided not to drive anymore and only to drive when I get my own car. That would be ages for me to wait as I’m in no position to buy my own wheel.

But then Dad gets relax over my Bro and Sis driving. Come to think of, they are worse than me on driving but he doesn’t complain much. I think the eldest are always to suffer the most as they are the first to get tested while parents adjusting themselves with new changes. Man that just sux being the eldest. Anyways…I’m still not driving and still waiting for the day to get my own wheel. sob sob*

A conversation between me(May) and my bossy sis (Win). This time, we were on about sentence structure but the subject was twisted into – the Earthophic Foot.

May: hey, fix this sentence for me
I want to say, it touches me
how to say that in proper sentence?

“There is only once in my life I have a personal contact with them; ie. when I tried to plant some vegetable plants and dug up a few earthworms.”

personal contact?? it sounded wrong.

Win: the 1st sentence-
“the one and only time I encoutered an earthworm was while digging soil for a vege plant.
It was my 1st and last association with an earthworm, as well as gardening”.

May: The once and only time I encountered an earthworm was while I was digging soil for a vegetable plant. I cut them half in the process. The cut parts got twisted and jumped up on my foot; I run like hell and never dig the moist soil again. It was my 1st and last association with an earthworm as well as helping mom garden.

there that’s good enough

Win: no!

May: thanks. no that’s good

Win: “the one and only time I encoutered an earthworm was while digging soil for a vege plant. I managed to mame them with my spade. Their cut pieces twisted and turned, and ewwwwwww, came in contact with my delicate foot which reflexively carried me far away, really fast.
It was my 1st and last association with an earthworm, as well as gardening.”

there.

May: full of shit!
delicate foot! my arse LOL

Win: hey, much better than urs
ur delicate foot

May: ppl will laugh n think i’m stupid
delicate foot!!! LOL

Win: fine, just write nonearth-loving foot

May: sound stupid

Win: foot

May: yah foot is enough

Win: nono- earthophobic foot

May: LOL