Rainbow

I saw dispersion of light

in the evening sky

on a hot day

after a long day

I spotted half a bow

while riding on my bike

and began searching the other half

but failed

Well, half is better than none

That beam of light

my left to right

an ascending gradient in the sky

Seeing it my heart lifted

so to home I rushed for a reason- a camera

the beam faded

before the moment mine to capture

I stood still and watched

till it fully disappeared

© Joel Yap

Students and Teachers

"Students come to school to torture teachers"

What a true statement and a sad one.

Chambers Dictionary:
torture
   n the infliction of severe pain esp as a means of punishment or persuasion; extreme physical or mental pain; a cause of this; anguish.

This blog post is inspired by this blog post by Mr. Woon, a teacher blogger, knew him from church since I was a boy.



I really admire teachers who are serious about their vocation, they are contributing to society by bringing up a younger generation to contribute to society. It is, I am convinced, a tough job being a teacher. Teaching is not easy, what more educating? Moreover young people nowadays are becoming so difficult to teach, we as students are more rebellious, resourceful, stubborn, and less hardworking compared to our parents when they were studying. To a certain extent I would say that some of us are even rascals in school, always giving teachers a hard time.

By defying school rules, we give teachers a headache because they usually get it from the principal first before we get the scolding. So teachers are often put in difficult positions, being held responsible for their students' faults sometimes.
By doing badly in monthly tests and examinations, we students again give our teachers a hard time because their ability in teaching may be questioned although the cause of our low grades might solely be due to our own lack of discipline and time management.
So, students torture teachers.

Besides the apparent "sufferings" that teachers go through because of their students, I can see a whole new level of torturous experiences which the type of teachers I admire, face. See, when you care for a person, you rejoice when the person is happy; and you feel down when he or she is sad. Teachers who genuinely care for their students are filled with empathy for them, I believe. So when students are fooling around in school, they torture the teachers who love them, just as disobedient children hurt their parents. This is one bad thing about being a teacher, and one bad thing about love: The people you love are the ones who hurt and torture you the most.

However things are different for teachers who are not serious in teaching. I detest such people, for going into the teaching ministry for reasons other than educating and equipping the leaders of tomorrow. They are an eyesore to me, wasting the government's(the people's)(the nation's) resources! Worse still, raising a generation of people in the wrong way, thus acting like a stumbling stone towards the development of the country.
No heart for teaching yet become teachers for personal gains, no shame.

Well, teachers who do not care much for their students suffer less.
Which kind of teacher do you want to be if you want to be a teacher?

"Bad students go to school to torture teachers,

bad teachers go to school to torture the nation"

Loss - Joel Yap

You who knew my every sin

you, in whom I trusted in

understanding inside out

So dear, the apple of my eye

and perhaps you still are

Alas! You grew frightened by my affection

and now fear me worse than men

I lost what I found most precious

and found myself lost

© Joel Yap

Breakfast with Dad

Nutrition for the body in the morning, some say the most important meal of the day. My dad and I, after sending my sister, Elaine to school, had quite a little adventure looking for food to eat before I board a bus to the City of the Lions.

We bought the bus ticket, left the car at the station and decided that walking(side note: Global warming and climate changes are getting a little out of hand so please try not to use fuel whenever posible) to McDonald's for breakfast would be good. So dad travelled with me on foot for a bit shy of one-tenth of a mile, to find out that coffee was not available and they only had tea, not even Milo! We simultaneously turned our heads away from the counter and looked at each other, eye-to-eye. At that moment dad and I both shared a mutual understanding, that having breakfast at McDonald's today was a no-no.

So, I had a brilliant idea of walking further to Tan Li Seng, a rather traditional coffee shop in the central of town, besides the setting and the food, the prices are good too. However dad and I were a little bit too early, we could not eat even though dad knew(knows) the owner because the water had not started boiling. Second attempt to sitting down for a good breakfast failed!

In the end we walked to the railway station for their famous breakfast. Kluang Railway Coffee, one of the things that the people of this town are proud of. The Milo was a bit too hot for me but I had time to let it cool as I ate my half-boiled eggs and toasted bread. I am not sure, but dad probably enjoyed his coffee.
We spend some time chatting and he told stories about our family when he was younger, which I love to hear. Today he said that one of my aunts with her kids once took a train to Renggam, and grandpa drove to the same place at around the same time. Why? Because her children wanted to experience train ride. Haha... My aunt and her children got off the train at Renggam and came back home with grandpa in his car, how cute is that.

Anyway, had a great time with dad walking all around in town. Did not know having breakfast can sometimes require so much walking!

Foto Friday

Children...

so adorable, but can also be so horrible

The hearts of parents broken

when children let astray

To prevent that 

children must be directed

in the right paths...

How noble are those

who lead and teach the young

Effort and Results

Ever put in efforts in doing something? Ever gotten good results out of those efforts?

Is it fair that a person achieve results according to the amount of effort put in?
But what are the constants that affect the equation between effort and results?


Is not not unfair whenever people give up so much, commit so much time and spend so much attention on getting something done, but do not get the desired outcome? Yet it always happens.
Life is not fair, on Earth. Welcome to the planet!

Yet I would say that life is not too unfair since it is just as unfair to everyone on Earth. So, life is fairly unfair. Hahaha...

What is the relationship between effort and results? May I use the illustration of driving in a car.

Sometimes you step hard on the accelerator but the gear is not right, thus causing difficulty to move the car as desired.

Here stepping on the accelerator is a metaphor of putting in effort; the gear may represent ways and methods in which a particular task is done. So, much effort with the wrong methods may result in the wrong results.

Sometimes your car moves without you having to do anything because it is moving down a slope; sometimes it becomes so difficult to move it up a hill when the gradient is too steep.

Many times the stuff we want to do are dependent on situations and circumstances.


Cheers to life! Life on Earth- a test to all mankind.