Garmin eTrex GPS Receiver / Celestia Addon

I got myself a 2005 edition of the Garmin eTrex GPS receiver a week ago (available at Sim Lim Square and Sim Lim Tower for less than S$200). This is like a high frequency radio receiver (tuned to a frequency of 1575.72 MHz) detecting signals sent by 29 satellites hovering overhead at an altitude of 20,200 km. If you are able to get the signal from four satellites, the GPS unit can tell you where you are, anywhere on Earth, with an accuracy of less than 15m. It's pretty remarkable.

My first encounter with a Garmin GPS was in a computer game simulation. The GPS wasn't simulated in its entirety, but it was good enough to illustrate how the thing works and its usefulness in navigation.

A basic GPS handheld with no mapping functionality, the 'yellow' eTrex is a solid product. Here's a picture I took on 11 Feb, 2006 at 9:17 (GMT 01:17).

Here's a wonderful GPS tracking software called... uh... GPS. It shows the movement of the various satellites at any date and time. You can see that the satellite numbers correspond with that seen in real life!

I wanted to install the orbital information of the GPS satellite constellation in the Celestia space simulator, but there wasn't any on the Motherload, so I decided to make an addon myself. You can now download it here.

No. 27 satellite (model not mine) beaming information to me.So essentially, the receiver is a navigation device. You can set a waypoint, and return to that point easily. As long as the sky isn't obstructed by buildings or lots of trees, you won't get lost. It can also be used for tracking running routes; Garmin has a few models of these sorts of GPS 'watches' like the Forerunner 205. Anyway, last night I went jogging , and here's my route.

Nice stuff! And to think it was initially designed (and is still used) for the military in the 1970s. The 1983 horrific downing of Korean Air Flight 007 by Soviet fighters prompted President Reagan to open up the technology (costing US taxpayers USD 15 billion by last count) to civilian users worldwide, free of charge.

Here's a cute animation of the startup screen, courtesy of the US Patent Office.

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God Of Weath II

Last year I saw the God of Wealth (Fortune) going into a car. This year, he's smiling upon me. May you be successful in ten thousand things! LOL

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Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness In A Sex Ed Class

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
~Deuteronomy 5:20, The Nineth Commandment

I last wrote about the separation of Church and State eight months ago, and I wondered then whether Singapore would see a similar 'intrusion' of faith into the public space as what's happening in the States and to a less extent Australia. It now looks like this might indeed happening, but probably few people are aware of it.

So it started with this person who posted a thread at the SPUG forums on what he experienced at a 'brain-washing' sex education workshop in school. I thought at first it's just one of those interesting ad-hoc workshops that are organised for students in junior college and secondary schools. But as I continued reading, I was quite shocked to find that these types of workshops were organised by religious groups such as a local affiliation of James Dobson's Focus On The Family. Did the Ministry know about the background of these groups? Maybe not. There's not one mention of religious affiliation at Focus' local website. It's not unreasonable for the folks at the Ministry of Education to not know what their activities are if they don't follow US politics.

But there's more; it became apparent that some of the ideas presented at the workshops such as those conducted by the Catholic group Family Life Society, were quite disturbing. Among other things, students learnt that condoms are not effective in preventing sexually transmitted diseases because the size of the virus is smaller than the holes in the material used to manufacture condoms.

It took me 10 seconds to go to Columbia Uni's Ask Alice service to verify this claim. The thing they taught in the workshop was absolute hogwash. I was furious to later find that this sort of misinformation had been around since 2003 when the Vatican said basically the same thing, which was later condemned by UNAids. The FDA has more information about condoms.

Was this an honest mistake? How could they lie to people about such things? I couldn't believe it! But then I remembered, if it's possible to adopt and market the same 'faith-based' community way of thinking that the political right wingers have so successfully done in the US, it's not that unreasonable for this fiasco to have occurred in Singapore! If you have one (inaccurate) research paper that talks about the size of virus molecules, it can easily be used to justify the argument despite the objections of health-care professionals. I'm thinking the rationale might work like this: Hey, we have this paper that tell us that condoms don't work in preventing STDs. We know that some doctors oppose this, but I think we should go ahead and promote this idea because we don't allow the use of condoms anyway. Yes, we might be misleading people, but it's all in the name of doing God's good work. And ultimately, we're saving lives if we scare people enough.

Now, if this is indeed the rationale for gross misinformation to appear in the workshop, we really have an urgent and serious problem on our hands. The issue is far bigger than the original objection of faith-based groups teaching secular topics in public schools because it's become a matter of life and death. Why? Because this issue is really about trust.

Who should young people turn to for accurate information on sexuality? We hope their teachers and folks who conduct sex ed workshops are their first source of information. Here's the rub: what happens when these young people later learn they have been misled and lied to, and have not been given objective information? You would lose their trust, probably immediately. Young people are not stupid. They'll eventually know whether their mentors are honest with them or not.

I can easily imagine the following scenario. A young woman drops her blouse before a young, keen, male person. He's considering whether to take the next step. He remembers what his sex ed educator told him, and how some parts of the lesson are just not true. He says to himself, 'If his information about the virus molecule size is not correct, maybe other things he told us isn't really true too. He did tell us that the only 100% way of preventing STD is abstinence. Oh what the heck, I think he's just exaggerating, these guys always have a religious agenda, I don't trust him at all. What are the chances of getting infected after just one time? Screw it...'

This guy gets infected with the HIV virus as a result. Too bad the misleading person who did the workshop happened to be right about the abstinence thing. Anyway, I'd present the lesson this way: condoms are effective against STDs (except for use during anal sex). However, there are such things as failure rates due to operator and manufacturing error. Therefore, to be 100% safe, practise abstinence. If that's not an appropriate choice, know the risks of condom use; the risks can be very high if they aren't used properly...

More from Tomorrow.sg, and Han who has scanned pages from the materials used at the workshop. It's quite unbelievable...

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Seeing Stars With Stellarium

I think one way to be less stressed is to look at the skies and the stars. However in big cities, that's usually not very feasible due to the light pollution. So, an alternative thing to do is to look at your computer screens.

I've a couple of astronomy simulators like the excellent Celestia and OrbitSim, but what I need is something that simulates what the scenery outside the window will be at any location on Earth. The traditional 'star charts' programs are usually just computer versions of the standard charts one finds in astronomy books; these are quite 'boring' and not like the 'wow!' feeling one gets with Celetia...

So it's been a long time since I tried to find something like that on the web, and I just found this free new software called Stellarium. And my goodness, it's just stunning, and really classy...

The wonderful thing is that you can accelerate the time, and see how the celestial bodies move. And the zodiac representations are so beautiful. In the morning, the sun rises and the scenery changes. It's magical... This seems to be the perfect starcharts program...

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Yes, Singapore Is An Open Society, But You Can't All Wear The Same T-Shirts

A few days ago, George Soros was in town for an open dialogue about 'democracy, open society and Singapore'. Gabriel and HuiChieh have the details. In responding to someone's question about whether Singapore can be considered an 'open society', Soros replied, 'Obviously, Singapore does not qualify as an open society...The use of libel and financial penalties can be a tremendous hindrance to freedom of speech and freedom of expression... Singapore is a prosperous society, and prosperity and openness go together...I hope Singapore will become an open society.'

Now, I don't profess to be an expert on what an 'open society' really is or should be. Is it about openness in the sense that you can stand of elections without being sued or feeling afraid? Is it about the freedom to speak your mind without someone coming along in the middle of the night and dragging you away? Is it about a fairly independent media that isn't afraid to not toe the party line? I'm really not too sure. But one thing I definitely know is that in an open society, everyone should be able to wear any T-shirt that they desire, especially if the T-shirt promotes an Asian, endangered mammal, say, maybe, the great elephant. So in that regard, yes, I'd agree that Singapore is an open society, simply because people can wear whatever T-shirt they wanted, unlike some other less open societies.

But today, I realise to my horror, that Soros might be right, that Singapore really might not be an open society after all! It turns out that folks aren't allowed to wear T-shirts with elephants printed on them. The following is my amateurish translation of the article from today's Chinese Zaobao newspaper; for some reason, the English newspaper Straits Times is totally silent on this. [Ed.: This was reported in the Today newspaper yesterday. Tip hat: Wayne Soon]

This T-shirt Can't Be Worn At Buangkok MRT Station Today!
by Pan Xing Hua

Do you have this T-shirt? If you're planning to wear this to Buangkok MRT Station, or to participate in this morning's festivities, please be careful because you might just find yourself in trouble!

The organising committee of this morning's Buangkok MRT Station opening ceremony celebrations (Punggol South grassroots leadership) has been warned by police that if people turn up for the festivities wearing T-shirts printed with 'white elephants', they might cause misunderstanding to others, and even contravene the Miscellaneous Offences (Public Order and Nuisance) Act.

A police spokesperson said, 'When the police receives any calls or complaints from the public, we will investigate as we've always done.'

So, if you happen to have this T-shirt, should you wear it today, or not? Please think thrice.

Applying for a fund-raising permit
This 'white elephant' T-shirt was designed by 27 Secondary Four Raffles Girls School students last October. They told reporters then that they hoped that young people might be encouraged to legally express their views, and also to promote active citizenship. All profits that they received from the sale of the T-shirts would be donated to Youth Guidance ["a charity organization which works with the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Police in mentoring and reaching out to youths at risk"].

The organisers of the MRT Station's opening ceremony festivities have invited the girls to set up a stall and sell their T-shirts.

Charles Chong, Member of Parliament for Pasir Ris-Pungol GRC [the constituency in which the Buangkok MRT Station is located at] confirmed that yesterday, the organisers received a directive from the police requesting the girls to apply for a fund-raising permit. Also, the police mentioned that if more than five people wear this T-shirt, the police would carry out investigations if they received any complaints.

MP Chong said that it normally took three days to apply for the permit, but due to the cooperation of the police, the girls were able to get it in less than a day.

An ex-RGS girl who's now in Raffles Junior College, Ms Chang said yesterday, 'We applied for the permit last night, and were given the permit this morning. So we can legally sell the T-shirts tomorrow.'

Due to the fact that the police have advised the organising committee not to collectively wear the T-shirts so as not to break the law, Chang said, 'Tomorrow we'll have 20 students selling the T-shirts. We have all decided not to wear the T-shirts, so as to avoid unnecessary trouble.'

RGS Girls 'home-made' T-shirt project
This creative 'white elephant' T-shirt designed by RGS students costs $12. At that time, they printed 300, and they are still left with 60, which will be sold today at Buangkok MRT Station.

Speaking of those who've bought the T-shirts, will they collectively wear the shirts to the celebrations today, and inadvertently break the law? Chang said, 'We don't have their contact numbers, and so we're unable to contact them.'

MP Chong said, 'Today, 3000 people will wear a T-shirt that's designed by the organising committee. This purple T-shirt will not have any images of animals. We hope no one will make a complaint to the police.'

A ticket for the opening ceremony festivities costs $3; 5000 people have already bought tickets. The event starts at 8.30am. A 240m long red sash surrounds the MRT Station; it's decorated to resemble a gift for the Buangkok residents. MP Teo Chee Hean will cut the ribbon with 400 residents at 10.45am. The station opens at 1pm.

Seriously, I don't know what to think. Would someone make a complaint about the purple 'endorsed' T-shirts that 3000 people are going to wear? So what if someone does indeed make a complaint?

A little background (as far as I've understood it) about this weird issue. Buangkok MRT Station is along the new MRT north-east route. The stations before and after it have all been opened, but I think the national train operator doesn't want to open Buangkok at the same time as the other stations because they felt there weren't enough passengers living around Buangkok station. So the station was built, and it just stood there, doing nothing.

So one day, someone printed these very cute 'white elephant' pictures on boards and displayed it around the station. Now, this might be so trivial in any other place, but in Singapore, it created an uproar! Normally, people would not think of 'dissenting' but here is someone putting up 'protest signs' in the middle of night, and the message was unmistakable: the train station was a 'white elephant'. Some members of the public allegedlly complained to the police (because it was probably horrifying for that person that folks were protesting to the authorities), and the police promised a full investigation. I think (though I've forgotten the details) it was later found that the sign was designed by the constituency's own grassroots personnel, so the police just gave them a warning. Until now, I don't understand how those elephant signs had even a remote chance to break the law.

So, what is there left to do? I'll congratulate the RGS girls for their bravery and ingenuity, to MP Chong for being behind the girls and his constituents , and the Singapore Zoo, for building the new Elephants of Asia exhibit a few years ago. It's really quite wonderful!

More background reading: SingaporeAngle, SingaporeInk, Yawning Bread, Wikipedia entry on Buangkok MRT Station.

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Sony BRAVIA Colourful Bouncing Balls Advertisement

I am not really a fan of the advertising industry. Part of my discriminatory feelings may have come from something that physicist Richard Feynman talked about in his Caltech commencement address, Cargo Cult Science. There seems to be a lack of 'intellectual honesty' in the world of marketing and advertising.

"The easiest way to explain this idea [of intellectual honesty] is to contrast it, for example, with advertising. Last night I heard that Wesson oil doesn't soak through food. Well, that's true. It's not dishonest; but the thing I'm talking about is not just a matter of not being dishonest; it's a matter of scientific integrity, which is another level.

The fact that should be added to that advertising statement is that no oils soak through food, if operated at a certain temperature. If operated at another temperature, they all will--including Wesson oil. So it's the implication which has been conveyed, not the fact, which is true, and the difference is what we have to deal with..."

Here's another example.

When I first saw this, I thought to myself, 'This is technically impossible and just ridiculous! In the first place, what family would bring a printer to the beach? In the second place, is there a power socket in the sand?!' Don't laugh now. There are other fundamentalists when it comes to interpreting advertisements literally.

I was selling Palms for a few days at Millenium Walk some years ago, and this guy came by and bought an m505. The following day, he came back, and demanded a refund. 'Take a look at the screen!', he screamed at me. 'See how dim the display is?! It's unlike anything shown in the brochure!"

I love dealing with folks like him, so I smiled at him as he kept on screaming, and explained, 'Yes sir, it's dim all right, but I think you'll get used to it soon enough.' The m505 was Palm's first audacious attempt to squeeze colour into a Palm Vx form factor, so I knew sacrifices would need to be made somewhere. I told the angry man that his expectations were unintentionally raised due to the brilliant colour screen seen in the brochure. I pointed out the asterix beside the picture, and if he was able to find the fine print with an *, he would have seen that the colour screen was just a 'simulated picture'. I also said, because I believed it myself, that he couldn't go wrong with a Palm, so he might like to try to get as much out of it as possible.

From a certain perspective, the whole idea of marketing is to spin things, to make things appear better than they actually are. But if we take away the possible lack of honesty in ads, there's something I like about advertisements. It's the beauty of the advertisements themselves, that doesn't have anything to do with the products being sold. 30s of television poetry for its own sake.

The latest advertisement I've found (hat tip: SPUG forums) that falls into this category is the new Sony BRAVIA LCD television ad. There's even an official website dedicated to it. that contains behind-the-scenes videos and other downloads. Essentially, they threw 250,000 bouncing balls of various sizes and colours down the slippery slopes of SF, and just filmed it. The end result, with the exquisite cover version of Heartbeats done by Jose Gonzalez, is just gorgeous. I don't really think I'd care too much about the BRAVIA after watching the ad numerous times, which is what makes the whole thing so wonderful. An ad that has transcended its usual objective: to sell things. If a lot of people are like me, and don't necessarily buy the BRAVIAs after watching the ad, the bean counters would probably pronounce the ad to be an expensive failure. Too bad they don't realise it's the best ad I've seen in a long time...

More from sfist, Noe Valley Voice, shots.net. Amateur video, making-of video.

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I'm Lovin' McDonald's Nutrition Labels

From the Strait Times two days ago:

McDonald's takes healthy bite with nutrition labels

All its food to carry such labels by mid-2006; also more balanced choices coming
By Krist Boo

BIG Macs - and all other McDonald's food sold here - will carry labels detailing their nutritional value by the middle of next year. The move by the fast-food giant in Singapore is part of a healthy-image makeover the Golden Arches is undergoing globally.

The burger chain said last month that by the end of next year, two-thirds of its 30,000 restaurants worldwide would label the fat, salt, calorie and carbohydrate content of its food. McDonald's revealed its Singapore labelling deadline as it launched two new offerings - Asian-style chicken and beef rice burgers...

The Health Promotion Board (HPB), which is working with the fast-food chain on providing nutritional education, hopes McDonald's will not only indicate nutritional values but that it would also help consumers make sense of it. A label that indicates an item has 400 calories, for instance, is helpful only if it explains that 400 calories make up almost half a day's calorie needs, it said...

The interesting thing about the title is that nutrition labels, per se, don't make the food any more, or less, healthy. Second thing is that since I like Big Mac meals, I've decided to read up on what the numbers mean.

Here's what you'll find on the tray.


The first column shows kcal, or calories. This is the amount of energy that's released when foods are digested.

When the supply of energy—that is, the number of calories consumed in foods—exceeds the body's immediate needs, the body stores the excess energy. Most excess energy is stored as fat. Some is stored as carbohydrates, usually in the liver and muscles. As a result, weight is gained. An excess of only 200 calories per day for 10 days is likely to result in a weight gain of nearly ½ pound, mostly as fat. Source.

Health Promotion Board has a list containing some estimates of daily allowances. I probably need around 2800 cal?

The second column shows total fat.

These complex molecules are composed of fatty acids and glycerol. Fats are the slowest source of energy but the most energy-efficient form of food. Each gram of fat supplies the body with about 9 calories, more than twice that supplied by proteins or carbohydrates. Because fats are such an efficient form of energy, the body stores any excess energy as fat. The body deposits excess fat in the abdomen (omental fat) and under the skin (subcutaneous fat) to use when it needs more energy. The body also stores excess fat in blood vessels and within organs, where it blocks blood flow and damages the organs, often with devastating results...

Authorities generally recommend that fat be limited to less than 30% of daily total calories, or fewer than 90 grams per day, and that the amount of saturated fat, trans fatty acids, and cholesterol in the diet be reduced. However, people with high cholesterol levels may need to reduce their fat intake even more. When fat intake is reduced to 10% or less of daily total calories, cholesterol levels tend to decrease dramatically. Source.

So how should we make sense of this number? Let's choose my favourite Big Mac. Two all-beef-patties-special-sauce-lettuce-cheese, pickles-onion-on-a-sesame-seed-bun contains 28g of fat. 28 multipled by 9 is 252; the Big Mac has 252 calories of energy in the form of fats. So this constitues how many percent of my daily allowance? 252 divided by 2800 is 9%. Phew, I'm well below the recommended 30%.

But wait, there's more! I'm assuming an allowance of 2800 calories because this is the figure given by the HPB. In reality, I may have only consumed a much lower amount of calories. For example, I missed my lunch yesterday. Assuming I only had 1400 calories, the calories-from-fat number would be 252/1200 = 20% of my daily intake! But wait again, there's more yet! I'm only calculating for a single Big Mac. I always have the Big Mac meal (no upsize, thank you) that has 44g of fat, so if I take that into account, the figure will be 14% (for 2800-cal diet) to 20% (for 2000-cal diet) . Essentially, I'm not supposed to consume not much more fat for the rest of the day. (On McDonald's US website, the numbers are more conservative. They assume the typical person takes in 2000 calories per day.)

You can find a fun-to-use nutrition calculator from McDonalds Singapore. However, ignore the pie chart at the bottom of the numbers. There seems to be an error in the programming script; the resulting chart is almost certainly wrong. Maybe they'll correct it when they next revise the page.

I'm not exactly sure what to do with the Cholesterol number. From this FDA website, it seems that the daily allowance for Cholesterol (and I'm not sure whether this is refering to the good or bad kind) is 300mg.

For the sodium (I think it's found in salt), according to Merck, the daily limit is 1000mg. Just look at the Sausage McMuffin with Egg, my favourite. It has 1147mg of sodium!

The last number is fibre. The Big Mac has 3g of fibre.

Authorities generally recommend that about 30 grams of fiber be consumed daily. In the United States, the average amount of fiber consumed daily is about 25 grams. An average serving of fruit, a vegetable, or cereal contains 2 to 4 grams of fiber. Source.

So these are some superficial things I've learnt from the nutritional labels. Your mileage will vary. Note that I'm not a trained nutritionist (obviously!), so please take things with a pinch of sodium.

And have a great and nutritious New Year!

Update (!): Heavenly Sword has more nutritious things to say!

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What Football Team Should I Support?

I haven't been following the UK football scene for a long while now, and now that I think about it, why support any team that is situated 11,000km from where I live? However, the weekend fixture between Arsenal and Chelsea intrigued me. I thought to myself, 'What is Chelsea, and why is it at the top of Division 1?!'

I think they call it the Premier League nowadays. I used to support Liverpool many years ago, and stopped when these three players vanished from the scene: John Barnes, Ian Rush, and Peter Beardsley, who had a really bad haircut but could play football rather well.

I also miss Peter Shilton, who was once England's goalkeeper, and whose home team was Derby County. It was listening to the BBC sports reports that I first knew how to pronounce Derby (DAHbi), so that's nice. I know the Americans pronounce this as DERbi, but my allegiance is to the British Empire (despite the fact that Britan is located 11,000km from where I live), so I shall stick to the former.

Anyway, lots of people gain seemingly easy satisfaction from supporting a top team. Fans don't need to do anything remotely resembling the actual physical activity called football to feel they belong to the team, and to feel wonderful and great especially when the team wins. Probably the closest thing folks ever do is scream at the TV and gesture dramatically, pretty much like what a real manager does. So, they are actually getting quite a good deal out of all this investment. No work and all gain.

So, I feel I need to take advantage of that. I need to choose a team to support, which is a rather lame excuse of saying, 'You guys really work so hard every time there's a game, and I would like to imagine I am the one doing the running and dribbling, and feel great when you guys win! I would like to use the phrase "we won!" when in fact it's you guys who actually did all the hard work. But I know you won't mind!'

Where do I start? Let's start with the current League leader Chelsea. I don't really like Chelsea; I'm not in favour of their blue uniforms. And isn't Chelsea a girl's name?! Chelsea Clinton! Nope, I don't think I'll support Chelsea.

Manchester United? I like their uniforms, there's this big O on the front of their jerseys. (Actually, I just discovered it's Vodafone's logo.) And there's even a Man U shop in town so buying merchandise will be quite convenient. But Fergie seems to be quite a bad coach, throwing things at David Beckham or something like that, I heard once. So I don't think I'll support Man U.

How about Arsenal? Well, I think the coach Wenger seems cute. But the thing I don't like about Arsenal is that firstly, it reminds me of war. Like bombs and stuff. Their nickname is The Gunners. So I don't think I like them too much.

That leaves me with only one option, given the fact that I should choose one of the top three teams currently on the charts. Liverpool!! Wikipedia describes Liverpool as 'the most successful English football team'. Now we're talking, where do I sign up?! I only wish Beardsley were still playing, sigh. I do hope they top the league though, or else I'd have wasted my emotional and physical investment, especially the constant waving at the TV when my players don't know what the heck they're doing!

Merry Christmas to everyone reading, especially to Liverpool F.C., of which I'm the greatest fan. May you top the league and beat Chelsea!

PS. What's Chelsea, again?

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Konfabulator Becomes YAHOO! Widget Engine

Some months ago, YAHOO! acquired Konfabulator. They've just changed its name to Widget Engine. Get it now!


Chrome Clock

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My First Voting Experience

And I voted for Xiaxue, since she is my hero. She has the sort of editorial integrity I wish I could match. (Sorry mrbrown, it's not that you're not my hero, it's just that you're not a woman.)

It's funny how a lot of Singaporeans don't get to vote. My dad, who's lived in Singapore for more than 30 years, hasn't had the chance to vote in any election. Now, this is not the fault of anybody, since no one is technically prevented from running for office, provided you meet the criteria. It's just that none of the residents in my area want to run for office, for reasons known only to themselves!

So I was very excited to take part this important election, to vote for someone to the high office of Best Asian Blog at The Weblog Awards. The interesting thing is the toing and froing between the two contenders Xiaxue and mrbrown. Xiaxue had a huge lead in the beginning, threatening a landslide. But she and her fans shouldn't have underestimated the political acumen of mrbrown, who crawled back yesterday to take the lead. I thought that was very remarkable achievement. And now Xiaxue is back in the lead, and she is urging her voters not to cheat. She has some political skills herself! And to see her actually beating America's most popular liberal political blog DailyKos in the initial stages just seems so surreal...

Now, let's see if we have this much excitement in a real General Election. Someone in my area, please stand for election!

Update (!): I just voted for DKos in the Best Blog category, and DailyKos has a huge lead there. However, it's still far behind XX and mrbrown. Oh my goodness, if the voting patterns continue, Xiaxue is going to be the best blogger in the world! How weird is that?! LOL

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CELTA at ECC, Bangkok

So this is the place where I took my CELTA (previous post here). Like I said before, it's a very intensive course, but it's also the most enjoyable thing I've done in years. So if you're interested in taking the course and don't know which centre to go to, the centre at Thailand is quite a good choice. One reason is its relatively low course fee. Another is that it's in Thailand! And yes, the Thais are really wonderful people. I think there are some things that could be improved such as the limited number of computers available (so bring your own laptop!), but overall, it was a very good experience. Your mileage will vary of course as the teacher trainers aren't always the same. But I think all of them have valuable insights to offer, even if they don't always tell you the same things. If you're thinking of doing a part-time course, don't. Do the full-on, full-time version instead.

Also, how much you get out of the course also depends on the classmates you get. I was lucky that the trainees in this batch were 'above and beyond the call of duty' helpful, gracious, and classy, so I got the chance to learn heaps from them. (Congrats to Alice, Bianca, and Lenore for getting As!) Remember to help one another as much as possible since everyone is in this together. In case you're stressing out so much by the third week that you're about to burst into tears, read Barry's words of wisdom and try to get some perspective...

I think the key to a good time doing the CELTA is to have an open mind, a quick adaptability to new ideas and methodologies that might initially seem so psychobable-esque (I still have my doubts on misguided discovery, arghhh!), an eagerness to critique the good, the bad, and the ugly aspects of your lessons, and accepting that it's one month of intensive work, with little time to rest, perhaps only a few hours on Saturday afternoon and night, but that's about it. Of course, those who work faster or more effectively will have much more free time than that.

Also, there should be no distractions, which is why it's probably a good thing to leave your country/ family/friends/spouse behind and do this course in an overseas country. Under no circumstances should you attempt a CELTA romance, please! (How did that happen?!) If you already have some teaching experience under your belt, that's great. If you don't, the course is still very much doable, but before you start the course, you may want to get yourself the Parrot and Harmer books and study them to get the basics first. (They are available at the library at ECC too.) I thought I knew my grammar, but during the course, I realised how little I understood the nuances and subtleties of supposedly 'simple' language points.

So, if you're thinking of doing this course, all the best! But first, you need to get through the pre-interview (chat) task. I took two weeks slowly doing that. You might have an easier time than me. Click the pictures below and you'll get larger ones...


Richard welcomes you to ECC!

The nice view from ECC




My group mates Richard, Lenore, Alice, and Jas.





Intermediate class


Elementary class


Pre-Intermediate class

On the last day, the school held a party for the students. They're really cool... Here's Kathleen, Jas and Andrew.

Bianca in the middle

Gary, Ashleigh, Kirsten


Steven's mobbed by enthusiatic learners of English.

Sylvie and Steven

Jerome





Laurence, Bianca, Alice


Barry, Lalita, Jas and Dan




Accommodation
This is the A-One Inn, a nice place that costs about 13,000 baht per month for a single bed room. The double bed rooms cost the same amount, but I was too lazy to move. WIFI in the room is available at 100 baht per day.





The view from my window. From right to left, Pisces, Reno Hotel, and the National Stadium BTS station.
This is Soi Kasem San 1, quite a few guesthouses can be found on this Soi. I'll probably still stay at the A-One if I return here in the future.

What I find remarkable about this place is that one usually thinks that Bangkok is a very crowded place, and yet, it feels so quiet in places like Pisces and Sorn's where Lenore and I sometimes had breakfast or dinner. This is Pisces, a nice, quaint place just across the soi from A-One.


Sorn's is 10m away from Pisces. They serve Western breakfast and excellent fried rice and curry. The menu has cute chilli icons that grade the spiciness of things, with one icon meaning 'not for the fainted heart [sic]', and five icons representing 'for the adventurous' or something...



My last breakfast there, this cost 75 baht (SGD3, USD1.8)


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Update (!): Here's someone who's just done the CELTA in Vietnam. Fred Shannon talks about his ECC experience last year. Another blog has an upcoming series 'one month of CELTA at International House, London'. Mel did the CELTA in Beijing. More background information from Dave's ESL Cafe: here, here, and here.

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