My blog lives! or at least, for now... I think this thing goes off and on intermittently. But before anything else happens, I'll post.

I have been having such conflicting thoughts these past two days. Sometimes I feel like Mary Tyrone... I think the words, "Judge not, lest you be judged" have taken on a new meaning for me, although I always knew this was happening. And yet, I have to help him, but I don't know how, and in any case, I cannot approach him without feeling so much like a hypocrite myself.

And just this morning, I had a dream that was touching and in some way an echo of my inner thoughts. That's what dreams are aren't they? I woke up crying. Maybe this will be a good turning point for me. It's fading away already.

In other news, the entire section below are my thoughts on the recent Bridging Minds debates, which I intended to post on Thursday, but then realised I couldn't access the "new post" page. Keep in mind that whenever I say "yesterday" or "last night" I'm actually referring to Wednesday night.

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The motion before the house today is This House Would Sit for Exams. We now invite the second speaker of the proposition to give his views.

"A very good evening, members of this house. Before I move into my case proper, I have three main points of contention with the opposition. The first is his point on the equality of benefits that coursework gives in relation to exams. My second point of contention deals with the opposition's outdated view of the examination system. Finally my third point is on the opposition's much harped on 'paradigm shift'.

Onto my first point of contention, that on the equality of benefits. Ladies and gentlemen, the first speaker of the opposition has just conceded his team's case to us by stating that coursework provides the same benefits as exams. Today's motion is The House would sit for Exams. Therefore, in order to win today's debate, the opposition must show us why exams are so bad, and why coursework is better than exams. If coursework then, as stated by the opposition, provides the same benefits as exams, then why is there a necessity to sit for coursework over exams? Clearly we should sit for exams, as the motion proposes.

In fact, we submit to you today that exams provide the same benefits and more, as compared to coursework. This is my second point of contention. The backbone of the opposition's case rests on the twin assumptions that coursework teaches students the critical skills of analysis, evaluation and application of content, and that the examination system teaches students nothing more than mere regurgitation of content. And since the Knowledge-Based Economy demands analysis, evaluation and application, we should all take coursework.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, allow me to break the opposition's case down point by point. Firstly, the opposition's views on the exam system are clearly still stuck in the Victorian era (sorry, debaters' insider joke here). Exams nowadays do not just test students on their ability to regurgitate facts. In tandem with the move towards a Knowledge-Based Economy, the Cambridge examination system has been revising exam requirements to include analysis, evaluation and application.

Let us take one paper from the whole spectrum of the Cambridge A Level exams as an example. A standard Economics essay question is worth 25 marks. And out of these 25 marks, around half, about 12 to 13 marks, are allocated to the student if he is able to write out the content needed to answer the question. That is to say, a student can only pass if he regurgitates content. To get a B or A grade, the student must provide analysis and evaluation of the content he has just written out. So it is therefore ridiculous to say that the examination system tests students only on regurgitation and memorization. In fact, exams test students on all the critical skills that coursework promises, and on top of this, tests students on content. What we get, therefore, is the best of both worlds. And thus, it can be concluded that this house will sit for exams.

Onto my final point of contention..."

There are few things that get me more worked up than debating. And watching the Bridging Minds debates last night made me feel I still had that old fire going. I felt SO INSULTED!!! I have no idea how they pick people to represent Singapore on the Bridging Minds team, but clearly the quality of the debaters is not one of their chief considerations. The only people worth watching last night were ______ and ____! And even then they weren't particularly fantastic (this is a gross understatement, but I must remain politically correct on the public domain). Let's just say I'm glad certain people didn't make it to the National Team, 'cos if they did, Singapore debating is in for a hard time...

Oh my goodness, you can't begin to imagine the agony that was going through me. It's a shame, truly a shame, to see former rivals fall to such an extent. Well, I guess everyone's going off-form since the Nationals ended. Myself included. I've gone and become nothing more than target practice for people to suan me in class... How sad... But then again, I've always been easy to suan. So maybe I've still got it.

And boy have I got it. The above excerpt of a speech is what I would have given last night had I been on the proposition. I realised, as I wrote and spoke out those words, that I was giving release to a long suppressed urge to debate. It's been too long since I last debated. Owen, if you're reading this, we gotta get a meeting together as soon as the promos are over. I hear the Red Cross debates beckoning.

Ahhhh... Stress relief...

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That was then. For now, thanks to everyone for tagging. I see my last few posts got people talking. Oh well, love is not for me right now. At the moment my heart rests in the Divine heart.

Oh, and Adrienne left last night for London. So goodbye! Whatever I'm supposed to say to you via email, I still don't know, but you can read my message. haha.

And Vicks, stop trying to increase your value in my eyes. It's good enough if I say you make life bearable. I'm sorry, but I don't exactly wake up each morning thinking, "oh my goodness it's a new day and vicki's gonna be around. yay!" That sounds positively lovesick, which I'm not, although liz sounds rather despo. Maybe the two of you should go hook up sometime soon. hahahaha...

This has been such a long post...