Yeowww!!
[link: Perez Hilton]
Monthly Archive for February, 2008
Her website is finally up! Go check out her works. Keep her in mind for your next family portrait. In need of a wedding photographer? She’s the woman!
[link: pixelatedtheory by norzamaria]
What a fun day Ajab had during his school field trip to Pasir Ris Park on Friday. We were given a choice of either taking the bus from school or making our own way there. Naturally, I chose the latter. After dropping Ayeed and Maya off at the in-laws and Trin at the train station, Ajab and I headed for Pasir Ris Park. As always Tampines Expressway towards the airport was jammed packed with traffic. What would have been a 10 minute drive to Pasir Ris, took us double that time, but we still managed to reach the park at 8.
I just love the park this early in the morning. Believe me, this park and its beach is a hive of activity, especially on weekends - full of joggers and cyclists and countless domestic refugees (mostly Malays) camping out.
Ajab had a full hour before his classmates and the other kids from other classes came at 9.15. He really enjoyed himself, exploring the beach and playing near the water, shoes on, of course. I doubt Ajab would have such a great time if he had been barefoot, knowing his dislike with the feel of sand and grass on his feet, a sensory overload experienced by most autistic kids that would upset them to the point of tears.
The cost of wearing his shoes at the beach is, of course, sandy shoes and dirty socks.
And what fun he had with a couple of cats roaming the park, even using the tail of one to fondle his nose with, just like he does with his beloved pillowcase strings on his Smillow (see the video). Notice too how, when he lost his balance while squatting and sat down on the grass, Ajab was very careful not to touch the grass with his hands as he tried to get up again.
When the rest of the kids came, the teachers organised some structured activities for the kids - playing with sand, and sang songs while the kids stood around in a circle holding a parachute-like thing. The kids were also free to explore the playground equipment themselves, much to their delight. And we all know how excitable kids can be at the playground.
I left Ajab to do his own thing and just followed him around just in case he needed help with the playground equipment. Tried to make him sit on the swing, but he’s still not confident of his own abilities to stay on the swing and not fall off and kept crying out to me to let him down.
I believe we as parents shouldn’t be too worried about what our kids do at the playground and let them explore on their own while we keep an eye on them. One incident came to mind when Ajab’s classmate was climbing up to this slide which was rather high (about 3 metres up), but still safe enough for a toddler to negotiate. Ajab’s classmate’s mother didn’t think so and she was frantically squeezing her way past the other kids up the steps while shouting to her kid to “be careful!” or “it’s too high!!”. Comically, before she could reach her kid, he had already slid down happily by himself, much to her dismay. Me? I was like 20 metres away near a tree having a smoke, watching Ajab go down the same slide for the 1,464,137th time and enjoying the spectacle the woman had created.
Well, as fussy as she was with her kid, she did agree to bring him to the park and join the field trip, unlike one of Ajab’s other classmate, whose parents refused to let him go, claiming that he was “uncontrollable” outdoors, which is a shame, really. I mean, how are the kids going to learn to behave and socialize if they’re not allowed to participate in these activities? Judging from the sweat and the tired but happy look on Ajab as he munched on chips during their snack break, he really enjoyed the day.
I’ve never liked the circus. For all the excitement of the acrobats and the trapeze acts (which I do enjoy), I think it’s just sick the way the animals are made to perform for our amusement no matter how ‘humane’ they are treated.
I’ve been to a couple of circuses and I’ve always cringed when it comes to the animal performances.
Well, this article affirms my dislike for circus performing animals.
A lion being made to balance on a horse’s back while it’s running around the enclosure? That’s just ridiculous. How would you like it if a crazed lunatic jumps on your back and orders you to run around, otherwise he’ll slit your throat?
I can just imagine how terrified the horse must feel having two huge carnivourous animals on it’s back - sharp teeth, claws and all.
[link: the Daily Mail]
Due to the increased usage of the US Presidential candidate’s name as a root for many words like ‘Obamafy’ and ‘obamamentum’, ‘Obama’ has been added to the list of words in the English language by the language tracking organization, Global Language Monitor.
To enter the English language, a word has to meet certain criteria, including: frequency of appearance in the written and spoken language, in the media, have a large geographic footprint, and to stand the test of time.
[link: Telegraph]
This must surely be a real stab in the heart of the money-grabbing ex-wife of Paul McCartney.
Heather Mills not only could not get tickets for the Brit Awards where McCartney was honoured with a lifetime achievement award, she was snubbed through and through when he paid an emotional tribute to his late wife, Linda McCartney as he sang a medly of "Hey Jude", "Get Back" and "Live and Let Die".
[link: Page Six.com]
Ajab’s depiction of a human face. Kind of looks like me sometimes! I didn’t realise the extent of his doodling on my notepad when he was here in the office with me last week.
Until today.
Pages and pages of nothing but circles. We’re supposed to teach him how to do straight lines to improve his handwriting skills. Soon ….
Developments in temporary contraceptive jabs that will effectively sterilize a girl for up to five years has led one minister in the UK to propose that all teenage girls be sterilized. UK has the highest rate of teenage pregnancies in Europe.
No doubt that statistic isn’t something to be proud of, but to take away a girl’s right to her own body and forcing her to be sterilized? I don’t know if I like the sound of that.
What do you think?
[link: the Daily Mail]
Parents of young children know this situation all too well. 
Doodle by Lee. The code for this doodle and other doodles you can use on your blog can be found at Doodles.
Super-yummy looking car. Volvo dubs the XC60 as the "safest and most sensual Volvo ever". Very nice!
[link: Autoblog]
The Saturn Awards, now in its 34th year, is like a geekier version of the Academy Awards. Given out by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, the Saturn Awards, although more low-budget and less glamourous than the Oscars, has quite a few ‘big-name’ directors and actors receiving the award. Among them are Ron Mayer, Brian Grazer, Bill Paxton and Sam Raimi.
This year 300 leads the way with nominations in the categories of Best Adventure Thriller Film, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Actress, Best Direction, Writing, Music, Costume, Make-up and Special Effects.
[link: The Academy of Science Fiction Fantasy & Horror Films]
It looks like a mobile phone headset and has a light which would enable the user to uhm …. see what he or she is doing.
You don’t really need your eyes during oral sex, even though you’d sometimes need a lighthouse to locate the G-spot. 
[link: Inventor Spot]
Angry residents turned the tables on a couple of men who had come to enforce a parking rule. They blocked their car and clamped it for three hours, forcing them to unclamp the resident’s cars before letting them go.
The problem appears to have started when Ringley, the flats’ managing agents, sent out letters to the residents’ old addresses, who were then unaware when the scheme would begin.
[link: peculiarosities.com]
Well, that didn’t go too well. Yesterday we tried out the picture recognition method to very little success. When I stopped the car at the car park at Ajab’s school, he immediately knew what was going on and refused to kiss me goodbye. His protests turned into crying and then screaming, kicking the already foot-printed dashboard of my car.
Trin had to drag him out of the car and that’s when the trashing and rolling about started. Attempts at calming him down by holding him still worked for two seconds because as soon as I let him go and got up from his eye level, he started his tantrums again.
It was a choice of staying put and letting him calm down which would have taken an eternity (we were already late for class) or firmly telling him to stop his tantrum, hold his hand and lead him to class immediately, which Trin did. All along the corridor he was screaming and kept looking back at me.
We don’t really know whether it’s me or the car he’s more attached to. I suppose it’s the car because previously when Trin accompanied him by taxi, he didn’t behave as badly. So tomorrow when it’s Trin’s turn to take him to class again, the teacher will be at the porch to observe his tantrums and hopefully offer a more effective solution. She suggested I turn off the ignition when I stop the car as a cue to him that driving time is over and that he has to get out of the car. I think that shouldn’t be a problem. I’m predicting he’ll start his tantrums as soon as I turn to leave.
We’ll see what happens tomorrow.
We’ve been having this problem for some time now. As you know, because of our work schedules, Trin and I have to alternate the task of accompanying Ajab to school each morning. When it’s my turn, it’s pretty straight forward. Ajab has no problems, no tantrums. It’s only when it’s Trin’s turn, the trouble begins and Ajab would throw an almighty tantrum right there at the passenger drop off point because he wants to stay in the car with me.
His teacher then suggested that since his language and understanding is still lacking, perhaps pictures would help. Thus we took her advice and created this:
Who is that fella in the picture? ZOMG!!
We’re gonna start this method today, since it’s Trin’s turn to accompany him. What we’ll do is show him the board once at home before we leave. We’ll show him the picture of whom he’s going to school with and ask him to take the picture and paste it on the board, after which we’ll bring the board in the car and after dropping off Ayeed and Maya at their grandparents’ place, before driving off to Ajab’s school, we’re going to show him again whom he’s going to school with, just to reinforce the point.
Hopefully this will, to some extent, prepare him for the morning in school and alleviate the tantrums, thus making Trin’s and Ajab’s atuk’s job (when it’s his turn to accompany Ajab next week) a little easier. Believe me, a toddler trashing about on the hard road surface of a car park, sometimes even hitting his head on the ground, is horribly difficult to handle. We have to be firm and use of strength to hold him so that he won’t hurt himself and that’s when it gets exhausting. It’s even more so when he still would not listen to us or calm down and continues to trash about. That’s usually when I would use brute force and haul him off the floor and really set him straight. Mr Deranged would most likely appear at this time, much to his horror. It works and he’ll calm down rather quickly.
“Sayang, sayang” will not work with Ajab. Speak to him gently and kindly? You can try till the cows come home and you’d still not get him to move off the floor.
So, we’re keeping our fingers crossed that this method will help him understand the situation better.
This camera is not only cute, it’s tough. You know how terrible kids can be with their toys. You buy it one day and before the day is out, it’s broken into a million pieces.
It has a 1.3MP sensor (which is better than some cameraphones) and a 64MB storage space.
[link: Gizmodo]
After the now-famous ‘freeze’ in Grand Central Station in New York, Improv Everywhere Global organized one in Trafalgar Square in London. Still waiting for someone to organize one in Singapore.
